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A17013 English protestants plea, and petition, for English preists [sic] and papists to the present court of Parlament, and all persecutors of them: diuided into two parts. In the first is proued by the learned protestants of England, that these preists and Catholicks, haue hitherto been vniustly persecuted, though they haue often and publickly offered soe much, as any Christians in conscience might doe. In the second part, is proued by the same protestants, that the same preistly sacrificinge function, acknowledgeing and practize of the same supreame spirituall iurisdiction of the apostolick see of Rome, and other Catholick doctrines, in the same sence wee now defend them, and for which wee ar at this present persecuted, continued and were practized in this Iland without interruption in al ages, from S. Peter the Apostle, to these our tymes. Broughton, Richard. 1621 (1621) STC 3895.5; ESTC S114391 56,926 128

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Iane Seymor and then declared the Ladie Elizabeth to be illegitimate Thus word by word this Protestant historian Then by this such like proceedings as first bringing the cleargie into danger of Premunire threats importunities and such practises as these Protestants tel vs Parker Stow Hollinshed Theater vt supr procuring the title of Supremacie to himselfe in matters ecclesiasticall This Protestant antiquarie thus proceedeth in this Kings proceedings The king obtained the Ecclesiasticall supremacie into his particular possession and therewithal had power giuen him by parlament to suruey reforme the abuses of al Religious houses parsons But the King because he would go the next way to worke ouerthrew them and razed them Whereat many the Peeres and common people murmured because they expected that the abuses should haue bene onely reformed and the rest haue still remained The general plausible proiect which caused the Parlaments consent vnto the reformation or alteration of the Monasteries was that the Kings exchequer should for euer be enriched the Kingdome and nobilitie strengthened and encreased and the common subiectes acquitted and freed from all former seruices and taxes to witte that the Abbots Monkes Friers and Nunnes being suppressed that then in their places should be created fourty Earles threescore Barons and three thousand Knights and fourtie thousand souldiers with skilfull captaines and competent maintenance for them for euer out of the antient church-reuenewes so as in so doing the King and his successors should neuer want of treasure of their owne nor haue cause to be beholding to the common subiect neither should the people be any more charged with loanes subsidies and fifteenes since which time there haue bene more statute laws subsidies and fifteenes then in fiue hundred yeares before and not long after that the King had subsidies granted and borrowed great sommes of money and dyed in debt and the forenamed religious houses were vtterly ruinate whereat the cleargy peeres and cōmon people were all sore grieued but could not helpe it He also supprest the knights of the Rhodes and many faire hospitals This was done after the king was diuorced from Catherine of Spaine his first wife He began his raigne prodigally reigned rigorously liued proudly and dyed distemperatly Through feare and terrour he obtained an acte of Parlament to dispose of the right of successiō in the Crowne and then by his last will and testament contrary to the law of God and nature conueyes it from the lawful heyres of his eldest Sister marryed to the king of Scotland vnto the heires of Charles Brandon and others thereby to haue defeated preuented and suppressed the vnquestionable and immediate right from God of our gratious Soueraigne king Iames. At his death he was much perplexed and spake many things to great purpose but being inconstant in his life none durst trust him at his death Thus your Protestant historian hath described this first protestant supreame head of the church in England They that desire more knowledge of him may resort to his owne statutes the Protestant Theater of Britanie Sir Walter Raleigh his preface to his historie of the world and a booke of the tyrants of the world published by the Protestants of Basile where they may find him a supreame head among them statut Henr. 8. ab an Regni 21. Theater of Brit. in Henr. 8. Walter Ral. histor of the world praef lib. of Tyran Basil And his ghostly father Cranmer his chiefe instrumēt in those moste execrable sinnes for a Cleargie man was not inferiour vnto him Hee was as your first protestantly ordained Archbishoppe Parker in his life with others witnesseth both the mooued and moouing instrument of this king in this and many other his wicked designements Hee was of all the Religions of King Henry the 8. Edward the 6. He diuers times swore to the Pope and was forsworne Hee swore to King Henry the 8. and was forsworne when he swore otherwise to king Edward his sonne and was publickly prooued a periured man he was a chiefe executor of king Henrie the 8. his will and within 24. houres of his death a chiefe breaker thereof He was a continued felon vnto him in his life married against his lawes making it felony in such men hee was for chastitie to my reading the first last and onely trigamus a Bishoppe husband of three wiues in the world He counterfeited the hands and seales of 50. conuocation men and among the rest of the blessed martyr Bishop Fisher He gaue chiefe consent and swore that Edwarde the 6. a childe of nine yeares old was supreame head of the Church had al iurisdiction spiritual in himselfe Parker antiq Britan. in Cranmer Foxe tom 2. in Cranmer Stow histor in Har. 8. Holinsh. Hist of Engl. ibid. Theater of great Britanie in K. Henr. Godwyne Catalogue of Bishops in Canterburie in Tho. Cranmer Stow Holinsh Theater Foxe and others in Q. Marie and Edw. the 6. Harpesfield in the life of B. Fisher and all that Cranmar had he receaued from him yea your Protestants witnesse by the Protestant Confessions themselues of Heluetia Bohemia Belgia Augusta Wittenberge and Swe that boyes could not take or giue such power Th. Rogers pag. 140. artic 23. Confess Heluet Bohem. Belg. August Wittenb c. If any thing now controuersied defended sworne vnto can make a man an heretike Crāmar professing and swearing vnto them all was an hereticke and traytor to God If conspiracie open hostilitie and rebellion to his true and lawfull prince Queene Marie doth make a man a traytor to his Soueraigne If to be hissed in the publicke schooles of Oxford in publike disputation after all these changes doth conuince a man vndertaking so many matters to be a man vnworthie and ignorant If to recant heresie fall to it againe putteth a man in case of relapse of heresie all these thinges be written of this Archbishop Archactor Architector Arch-hereticke Arch-traytor Arch-periured prophane wretch of your Religion by your owne writers here cited and were publickly to the eternal infamie of that vnhappie and gracelesse man and his followers therein prooued against him Therefore although King Henry the eight did rather differ from the Church of Rome in matter of Iurisdiction spiritual by his claymed Supremacie as your protestants testifie and his lawes are witnesses Stow histor in Henr. 8. Holinsh and Theator ibid. statut of K. Henrie 8. c. thē any way in matter of doctrine Catholiks cannot in conscience by your Protestants ioyne either with him or you therein beeing the first as they haue assured vs that euer claymed it in this kingdome and procuring it in so vile vnlawful maner as your historians haue declared and practizing it to his wanton and ambitious ende against his owne conscience For al the foundatiōs of our Religious houses being pro remedio animarū to say Masse pray for their posteritie for euer For the honor of God the most blessed Virgin and other Saints as all our
antiquities giue warrant to write he in all his life time cōtinued in these doctrines and at his death in his last will and testament protested himselfe to continue in that opinion Bed Henric. Hunt Guliel Malmesb. Roger. Houeden Matth. West Flor. Wigor Camb. Stow. Holinsq Theator c. And for the supremacie it selfe as hath bene prooued in the time of Queene Elizabeth and your protestant historian hath sufficiently insinuated he recanted it Booke intituled Lesters common wealth your Protestants wordes of him these be At his death he was much perplexed spake many things to great purpose but being vnconstant in his life none durst trust him at his death Howes super hist. preface in Henry 8. which relation from a protestant writer can carrie no other construction And I take God to witnesse I haue heard my father then liuing in Courte often make relation that this king Henry the 8. at his death was sorie for his taking that title of supremacie vppon him was willing to relinquish it and laboured to be reconciled to the Church of Rome promising if he liued so far as he could to make restitution But being demanded of him presently to take order therein he was preuented by death and dyed with such burthen and horror of cōscience as chanceth in such cases which this Protestant before aymeth at when he saith he was much perplexed and spake many thinges to great purpose Therefore the Catholikes of England are rather confirmed by this king then weakned by him in profession of their holie faith And though in his life he persecuted and put to death many renowned Catholikes for deniall of his supremacie and sacramentary Protestants such as those in England now are for heretikes yet he neuer recalled this second as he did the first neither made any new lawe by which they were put to death but left their triall to the auntient Canons of the Catholike Church yet put those Catholikes to death only by pretence of his new inacted Edict of his supremacie neuer heard of in England before as Protestant antiquaries haue tolde vs. Therefore this first supreame head of religion in England in all things confirmeth the religion of Catholikes and condemneth that of Protestants and this the more if we adde from your Protestant historians how fraudulently or rather forcebly he obtained his first colourable tytle to that his spirituall supremacie by which he kept such turbulēt sturres in this kingdome A Protestant historian and an Esquire by state as he stileth himselfe thus relateth it William Martine Esq in histor of Henr. 8. pag. 388.389 Cardinal Wolsey being dead the King by his Councel was informed that all the cleargie of England was guiltie of premunire because in al things they supported and maintained the authoritie and power legatine of the Cardinal wherefore to preuent mischiefe before it fell vpon them they gaue to the King for their redemption and for their pardon the somme of one hundreth thousand pounds and by a publicke instrument in writing subscribed and sealed by the Bishops and fathers of the Church they acknowledged the King within his owne kingdomes and dominions to be supreame head of the Church Thus vniustly he procured that vnlawful prerogatiue more vniustly as before made his wicked vse therof I neede proceede no further in his proceedings for they ar dead with him the present protestant state as his owne childrē before by lawes and Parlaments condemne them all Protestants in the worlde reiect them and hee himselfe before his death by the most manerly fashion he could refused his title of supremacie in which he most differed from the church of Rome as I haue brought Protestant witnesses before therefore Catholiks are rather confirmed then weakned in their religion by the proceedings of this King That English catholikes cannot be perswaded vnto but much disswaded from Protestant Religion by the Protestant proceedings in the time of King Edward the 6. NOW let vs come to the next temporall rule that claymed supremacie in spiritual matters in England King Edward the 6. he was but 9. yeares olde when this charge was layed vpon him yet he was elleuen yeares olde whē your religion was first borne in this nation in the second or third yeare of his raigne as all lawes and histories of that time giue recorde Parl. 2. 3. Edw. 6. Stow hist in Edw. 6. Holinsh. Theater and others ibid. So this childe begot it and his sister Q Elizabeth nursed it We knowe for shame you will not tye vs to the censure of an infant king then you must appeale to those that instructed and directed him in so great a businesse These were temporall and spirituall and chiefly those that were of councell and had sworne otherwise to King Henry the 8. during his life liued in his Religion and after his death continued the same vnder this yong king in his beginning and first Parlament Parl. 1. of Edw. 6. Stow. Holinsh. in k. Edw. 6. were executors of the last will and testament of king Henry the eight in which concerning matters of trust in religion they truely executed nothing at all but in the exheredation of his Maiesties holy Mother and himselfe as much as they could they executed it Howe 's historial preface supr Stow Holinsh. Theater in Q. Marie Edward 6. The chiefest of these for spiritual men was Cranmer their Archbishop and the rest of the Bishops of that time that were not Catholikes of which we finde but two onely Hooper and Ferrar put to death for their Religiō by Queene Marie For Cranmer Ridlie and Latimer were condemned for treason Foxe tome 2. Monumen in Q. Marie Godwyne Catalogue of Bishops of K. Edwards time and what can we accompt of the religion of these two changing their profession so often with king Henry and K. Edward and Ferrar to vse your Bishops wordes was thrust out of the Bishoppricke in the beginning of Queene Marie for being married and ended his life in the fyer more for being desperate how to liue then for loue of Religion so far as we can gather Godwyn in S. Daudis 79. Robert Ferrar The other Hooper Godwyn in Worcester 75. Glocester 2. Iohn Hooper a man of such conscience as your Bishop writeth that being made Bishop by the childe king anno 1550. Bishop of Glocester held also the Bishopricke of Worcester in commendam by licence of King Edward the sixt this is his commendation The rest that fled not the Realme for treason which were not of your Protestant religion but Puritanes in forraine countries were depriued in England for being married which by no Religion Bishops might doe such were Bush of Bristow Harley of Hereford Holgate of Yorke and others that became Catholikes Godwyn in Brist Heref. Yorke c. Couerdale was set at libertie by Q. Marie and of so small esteeme with you in the beginning of Q. Elizabeth her raigne that no Bishopricke was allowed him Now let vs come to your chiefe
ENGLISH PROTESTANTS PLEA AND PETITION FOR ENGLISH PREISTS AND PAPISTS TO THE present Court of Parlament and all persecutors of them diuided into two parts IN THE FIRST IS PROVED by the learned protestants of England that these Preists and Catholicks haue hitherto been vniustly persecuted though they haue often and publickly offered soe much as any Christians in conscience might doe IN THE SECOND PART IS PROVED by the same protestants that the same preistly sacrificinge function acknowledgeing and practize of the same supreame spirituall Iurisdiction of the Apostolick See of Rome and other Catholick doctrines in the same sence wee now defend them and for which wee ar at this present persecuted continued and were practized in this Iland without interruption in al ages from S. Peter the Apostle to these our tymes Odio habuerunt me gratis They haue hated me without cause With permission Anno 1621. THE PREFACE TO AL INDIFFERENT AND EQVALL READERS RIght honorable and the rest my dearest and moste beloued contrymen kinred and frends I haue by the greate prouidence protection and mercy of God liued now amongst you a preist in persecution little lesse then halfe the life of an aged man That which remayneth is cheife my debt by nature to dye and make accompt to my highest Kinge and Iudge as of late our moste reuerend Arch-preist within these few weekes hath done whoe as I interprete his letters bequeathed as a legacie to mee vnworthie this chardge To write and publish to the world this ensueing treatise which I name The protestants Plea and petition to the parlament for preists and papists soe many protestants please to stile Catholicks If this chardge had not beene committed vnto mee by my soe honored and reuerend frend yett hauinge beene soe longe a partaker of the miseries which english catholicks haue in these tymes endured and beeing well acquainted with the proceedings of bothe sides and knowing by certaine experience that besides their sufferings to their immortall honor their published bookes by diuers our learned preists haue soe conuinced the vnderstandings of our greatest aduersaries in all cheife questioned things That noe protestant Bishop or other writer hath now after diuers yeares made any answeare at all vnto them and of many former moste humble petitions of our learned preists and catholicks both to our protestant princes and parlaments to haue audience in disputation with their best learned protestant Bishops doctors whether to thy could conuince vs as guiltie and worthie to bee persecuted as we haue beene which hither they would neuer graunt but haue soe longe and greuously without any triall or condemnation executed and persecuted vs in soe straunge a maner and the present protestant rather puritane parlament stormeth now more against vs then the wisest of vs can see reasons to warrāt them I therefore for the honor of God and reputation of his holy church and Religion the loue of my country and to performe my frends request doe puplish this remembred worke to bee diuided into two parts and eyther of them to bee inuincibly proued by the learned protestants of this kingdome In the first because the holy scripture soe describeth the dutie of well lyuing men Declina à malo fac bonum declyne from euill and to good I am to proue by these remembred protestants that the catholicks of England doe moste religiously decline from your Religion and all participating therein and their offers considered the protestant state doth moste vniustly persecute them In the second to iustifie that fac bonum wee doe well and therein performe the holy commande of God in professing the catholicke Religion the same with the church of Rome shall bee demonstratiuely proued by these protestants and the best Antiquities and monuments they haue of our first true Apostolick Religion in these kingdomes of our present most honored soueraigne kinge Iames that not onely those cheifest questions for which wee ar soe persecuted as namely holy preisthood now treason the sacrifice of the masse so punished and the spirituall power and iurisdiction of the see Apostolicke here nowe soe penall and contemptible but if need require all other controuersies betweene vs of substance haue euer from the tyme of S. Peter the Apostle in euery age and hundred yeares vntill these dayes beene practised and continued here without interruption in such sence maner meaneinge as wee catholicks of this kingdome with the church of Rome now doe professe And here I entreate noe Religious order to take my Title plea and petition for preists and papists as any excluding of their holy labours and deserts which I embrace and reuerence for although I will maintaine for them that monasticall life in England is soe auntient as the dayes of S. Ioseph of Aramathia whoe brought it hither and dyed here with his holy company in that profession yett I finde wee had both preists and Bishops here in and of this nation longe before that tyme and many Catholick Christians of the same Religion wee now professe and soe continued vntill this tyme without the least discontinuance or totall interruption which I dare not to affirme of our Religious men ceasing for an hundred yeares after S. Iosephs death and in the beginninge of Queene Elizabeths tyme for twenty yeares allmost together fayled here when many holy preists were laboureing here in this holy worke and after some Religious men of the societie had come hither they went and left vs alone for diuers yeares Therfore to speake consequently which I must performe I must giue this happie prerogatiue to our reuerend preists whoe neuer fayled or fainted in this cause and contry They were the first conuerted this kingdome and did neuer cease They first tooke this quarrell in hand in the tyme of Q. Elizabeth and onely were they that neuer gaue it ouer They are principally they whoe in the catalogues of our holy writers of this tyme ar stiled with that honor They ar the spirituall fathers and in Christ Iesus haue begotten both the present Religious and other catholicks of this kingdome They whoe with their holy doctrine and effusion of their sacred blood for this moste glorious cause haue aboue all others eight or more to one beene the continuall preachers and propugners of this true faith with vs. They whoe both in the presence and absence of all religious haue often offered and humbly sought publick defence thereof by disputation against the best learned and selected protestant Bishops and Doctors of this nation Therefore leauinge these peculiar honors vnto the Reuerend preists of England I will with such inequallitie as I haue before proposed maintaine for all preists Religious and all catholicks that our holy preisthood sacrifice of Masse spirituall Romane iurisdiction and the like were vsed and continued ●ere without chaunge or intermission in the same ●enure wherein Catholicks now professe them from S. Peter to these dayes by our protestant warrants and Antiquities And soe I rest Your most loueinge and
of her cause was such and the learning and conuersation of life of those her Protestant ministers whom she must imploy in this busines so vnequall and inferiour to the Catholike Bishops and Cleargie of England that no hope of such succe●e as they sought could bee except these holie and worthie men were depriued imprisoned banished or vtterly one way or other put to silence in such maner that after their deathes our most sacred order of Priesthood which had continued in this nation here in honor and glorie from S. Peter the Prince of the Apostles as we haue made demonstrance in other places might vtterly and for euer be abolished and extinguished as these fewe secrete friends of those designements open Antipriests or Antichristians for the Religion of Christ cannot be without the Priests of Christs plotted and hoped to effect Your principall protetestant Antiquarie thus relateth that cruel Tragedie Camden in Annalib pag. 36. Parlamento dimisso ex eiusdem authoritate Episcopis pontificijs alijs ecclesiasticae professionis iuramentum suprematus proponitur Quotquot iurare abnuerunt beneficijs dignitatibus exuuntur 80. rectores ecclesiarum 50. prebendarij 15. praesides Collegiorum Archidiaconi 12. totidem decani 6. Abbates Abbatissae episcopi 14. Omnes qui tunc sederunt praeter vnum Antonium Landauensem sedis suae calamitatem The Parlament being ended by the authoritie therof the oath of the Queenes supreamacie was proposed to the popish Bishops and all Ecclesiasticall persons as many as refused to sweare were depriued of their benefices dignities and Bishoprickes 80. Rulers of Churches 50. Prebendaries 15. Masters of Colledges 12. Archdeacons 12. Deanes 6. Abbots and Abbases and 14. Bishops all that then remained except one Anthony Bishop of Landaffe the calamitie of his See These Bishops inferiour in vertue and learning to none in Europe as your Protestants acknowledge Mason lib. 3. consecrat c. 1. pag. 100. Cambd. in Annal. sup Stowe histor an 1. Eliz. Holinsh. hist of Engl. 16. thus deposed and imprisoned and there to languish to death they thought none could suruyue to consecrate anie more priestes for England and all rulers of our Colledges in our then renowned Vniuersities thus expelled that would not forsweare themselues in such a sacrilidgeous manner they thought themselues assured we could haue no succession of Catholike students here to enter into that holy priestly order But non est consilium contra Dominum there is no counsayle against our Lord. The prophane craft and wylinesse of a few wicked men ioyned with a womans spiritual supreamacie was too weake to oppose and battaile against the heauenly wisdome and will of God For a very small number and those of the meanest then of our glorious Cleargie transporting themselues to Catholike nations and by such poore meanes as they could procure liueing in collegiall discipline and order at Doway in Flaunders where our common happie and spirituall Nurse and Mother is haue so wounderfull and far beyond the reach of your protestant polycies and strategems to the honour of God and his holy cause against you multiplied and encreased that the number and glory of our renowned publikely stiled writers which in this time haue come from thence giueth not place to anye age since our firste conuersion to Christe Pits de virg illustrib Brit. aetate 16.17 our holye Martirs violently put to death by your Edictes and proceedings Stowe histor in Henric. 8. Elizabeth Iacob Catalog martyr sub Henric. 8. Elizab. Iacob 1.5 exceede the number are not exceeded in glorie by any that histories amonge vs remember or whose memories by iniquitie of times are not remaining except the nouenius persecution duringe but nine yeares Gyldas de excid ours ninetimes as longe vnder Dioclesian the tyrant The Religious men of our Nation all the spirituall Children of that Mother are nowe possessours of manye Religious Colledges and Monasteries vnder Catholike princes and some of them in England with so many of ours are enrolled in the Catologue of glorious martyrs and a great number here stil working in this holy labour with vs. And if to enter into scholes with your best learned wee needed their assistance wee doubt not but diuers of them are both wel able and also readie to assist vs. But wee haue euer bene so far from either needing or requiring it of them that when you gaue vs the greatest hopes of disputation wee neuer sent for any of our owne re-●enowned professors lyuing in forraine nations But as true Priests of England are the successors of Saint Peter the glorious Apostle and his holie Disciples in this Nation by a continued and neuer yett interrupted Hierarchicall succession to this daye as we will iustifie against your best antiquaries and diuines and firste after our Bishops by you depriued imprisoned and persecuted vndertooke this quarrell of God in hande against you and gayned many soules to Christ and for no crueltie or persecutions you raysed or exagerated against them coulde at any time be forced to forsake that holie combate they had vndertaken But as true Pastors they aduentured and gaue their liues for the sheepe of our highest shepheard and redeemer so to the hazard of the honour of Catholike Religion if Protestants could haue put them to foyle in all these miseries and afflictions destitute of bookes conference and harbour oftentimes to hide their heades they were euer readie to offer and entreate for tryall with vnequall conditions and so vnequall and preiudiciall to the disputante Priestes and Catholickes of Englande that except they had beene so confidente in their cause that they could not be ouercome and the Protestant Bishops and Doctors compleately furnished and prouided of all thinges requisite to such a conflicte if their quarrell were iust had not bene desperatly diffident in these matters neither might the Catholikes in conscience haue made those suits and offers or these protestants without damnable shame haue refused them as the petitions themselues will be euerlasting witnesse to the world And when the protestant state of England had in aboue twenty of the first yeares of Q. Elizabeth afflicted vs with many miseries and had put many of our renowned and best learned priests M. Sherwine Foord and others to whom they durst not graunt priuate disputation in the Tower itselfe though neuer so secret vniustly to cruell death and had vsed M. Campion the glorie of that Societie in England in such measure neuer allowing him to defende his owne written booke though neuer so priuatly vntill by tortures and rackes they had al-most depriued him of his life and after with many of our learned and holy priests did depriue him thereof had banished M. Heywood and M. Parsons had forsaken England the three prime English Iesuits of that time And no other religious man either of that or any other order but onely priests being here and of them aboue thirtie in prisō in the Tower Marshalsea Kings-bench and other places About which time the 27.
of conscience King Iames in Parlament therefore of himselfe he did not thinke vs worthie to be persecuted or inthralled but rather lightned of those miseries as his next wordes a warrant I was so far from encreasing their burdens with Roboam as I haue so much as either time occasion or lawe could permit lightned them And in his censure against Conradus Vorstius the Dutch heretike recounting the differences betweene protestants and vs hee findeth not one for which we may be persecuted but the contrary At his comming in he set the Catholikes and Priestes at libertie gaue free pardons vnto all of them both priests and others that would sue them foorth and paye foure or fiue Nobles at the moste for them to the Lorde Chancellour In those pardons hee remitted both the guilt and danger from priesthood and much more then any of vs had transgressed in he stiled vs as our dignities discentes or callings were gentlemen priestes or of what degree dignitie or preeminence soeuer he were his belooued subiects which wordes and state are incompatible wtth the name of Treason in those pardons hee pardoned whatsoeuer could be in any rigour interpreted to be within the daunger of that Lawe both our comming into England and abyding and remayninge heere so that by pardon being dead they cannot possiblie be reuiued because the graunt is irreuocable Our comming in was but one indiuiall acte and offence in Lawe and so remitted cannot be offence our continuance and remayning so long as we doe not reiterate it againe by going foorth and comming in the second time is also but one particular singular and indiuidual action without discontinuance one ens fluens as all such not interrupted be an hower a daye a weeke a moneth a yeare a life an age and the like This all philosophie common reason whereon our common law is and must be founded teacheth vs. Thus diuers protestāt good lawyers haue answered thus his Maiestie esteemed when hearing of a priest named M. Freeman put to death for his priesthood by the Iudges of Warwicke soone after his Maiesties comming hither with signe of sorrow answered Alas poore man had he not foure nobles to buye his pardon by which he concluded that a priest being pardoned for his priesthood could not after for being a priest be put to death or tearmed a traytour or indanger his friends and receauers but was a free and lawfull true subiect from that imputation His Maiestie also allowed the times of Constantine for times of true Religion and the Roman Church then and after to be the true our mother Church and not to be departed from Then wee may not so vnder-value the learning and iudgement of our learned and Soueraigne in diuinitie and histories but he well knoweth which no learned man is ignorant of that in the time of Constantine the Church of Rome had the same holy sacrifice of Masse and the same holy sacrifycing priesthood which now it hath which I will hereafter demonstrate by the best learned protestant antiquaries of this nation as also that the Church of Rome at the reuolt of King Henry the 8. was the same in all essential things which it was in that prefixed time of Constantine And to be liberal to my needy protestant contrymen in this case I say that the Church of Rome the Religion of the Priests of England their priesthood and sacrifice of the Masse is the same which were in Rome and in this Iland also in S. Peters time in euery age without interruption since then vnto these dayes of Protestants And if we may beleeue Isaac Casaubon the stipendarie champion for the Protestants of England who saith ab ore regis accepi and haec est Religio Regis Angliae c. Isaac Casaubon contra Cardinal Peron Pag. 50.51.52 I haue it from the Kings mouth this is the Religion of the King this is the Religion of the Church of England The fathers of the Primatiue church did acknowledge one sacrifice in christian Religion that succeeded in the place of the sacrifice of Moses The sacrifice offered by Priests is Christs bodie and the same obiect and thing which the Romane Church beleeueth These and such things troubled the heads of some great Protestant persecutors in England their consciences being guiltie of some-what not good that they coulde not enduer the least clemency of his Maiestie towards his loyall and truest catholike subiects but olde stratagems and tragedies of Queene Elizabeths time must needes be renewed and playde againe to bring not only the Catholikes of England but their holy religion if possiblie it could be done into obloquie especiallie with his gratious Maiestie and thereupon an execrable and most damnable treacherie by gunpowder was to be inuented for a few wicked desperatly minded men to doe whom many protestants tearmed papists although the true Priests and Catholikes of England knew them not to bee such nor can any protestant truely say that any one of them was such a one as their lawes and proceedings against vs name Papists Popish recusants or the like What he was papist or protestant rich or poore noble or vnnoble of Courte or countrey that was inuentor of this horrible deuise I will not discusse but referre all indifferently minded men and of iudgement able to discerne the probable trueth in such a cause to the historie and circumstances thereof as they are set downe by the Protestant historian M. Ed. How 's histor of Engl. in King Iames. But to graunt to our Protestant persecutors for arguments sake that which I may not and they will as hardly proue that this wicked interprise was first inuented by Catesby and some of his consorts and that diuers of them were papists and had acquaintance with the chiefe Iesuite then in England who at least in confession knew of this conspiracie did not reueale it that there were foure of this cōpanie arraigned for the conspiracie three gentlemē though two of these Fauxe and Keyes were but seruing men as the fourth Thomas Bates styled yeomā that one Knight and three Esquires concealed it of which the Knight was so ignorant that as the Protestant relator of this matter saith at his death he spake these wordes Howes supr in Sir Edward Digby If he had knowne it first to haue bene so fowle a treason he would not haue concealed it to haue gayned a world Which he could not haue truely said if he had knowne it in particular in it selfe a most horrible damnable thing and the rest as this author writeth dyed penitent and besought all Catholikes neuer to attempt such a bloodie acte being a course which God did neuer fauour nor prosper Those that were vp in tumult with Catesby were as the Protestants relateth Howes supr neuer full fourscore strong besides many of their houshold seruants no doubt papists if their maisters were so forsooke them how erlie yet they diuulged many detestable vntruths against the king state
power Ormerod protest Assert an 1604. pag. 218. Then much lesse of that supreame power And if shee had been a man yett in that case your protestant historians before haue told vs made illegitimate by publicke parlament the Kinge Lords spirituall and temporall with the rest there must haue beene as greate a power to recall yt which was not in that her first parlament for the Lords spirituall whoe onely haue power in such cases did vtterly dissent to yeeld her any such priuiledge soe that noe man or company that had power of dispensations in such things dispensed with her but contrary Againe it is a maxime in the Lawes as you Lord Cooke writeth l. 4. fol 23. nemo potest plus iuris in alium transferre qnàm ipse habet None can giue more power to an other then they haue to giue and the contrarie is vnpossible Therefore seeing no Parlament that euer was in England when all the Bishops and Abbots and chiefe spirituall men it euer had were assembled had at any time either for themselues or to giue vnto any other that supreame spirituall power but as your Bishops haue told vs before it was wholly in the Pope of Rome euer from our conuersion and so could neuer be deriued to King Henry the eight or Edward the six Parker antiquit Britan. in Cranmer Polydor. Virg. in Henr. 8. l. vlt. histor c. it is much more stronge against Q. Elizabeth both for her sexe and the other incapabilitie as Protestants assure vs. And for her or any to clayme it by that Parlament wherein shee tooke it vpon her is a thing more then to be wondred at for all men of that Parlament which had any spiritual iurisdiction as the Catholike Bishops did by all meanes resist and contradict it and the words of the statute as your Protestants haue published it by which shee tooke vpon her to exercise it and persecute Catholikes onely by pretence of this power there giuen vnto her are these Most humbly beseech your most excellent Maiestie your faithful and obedient subiects the Lordes Spiritual and Temporal and the vvhole commons in this your present Parlament assembled That the supreame power spirituall should be in that Queene when it is euident by all our Protestāt histories that not one Lord Spirituall either desired it or consented vnto it but all repugned and gaine-said it and for that cause were committed to prison or otherwise most grieuously afflicted Stow histor an 1. Elizab. Holinsh. Theater an 1. Eliz. Cambd. annal rerum Anglic. in 1. Elizab. c. And yet there was not any man in that Parlament that could giue vnto her if she had bene capable as she was not the least spiritual iurisdiction ouer the least parish in England And if she had not insisted in her fathers steppes of flatterie terrors dissimulatiō promises of great matters without performāce in some degrees by the cunning of some about her without conscience exceeded him shee might haue founde as little applause and consent in the Lords temporall and others For vsing all meanes she could to further her strange proceedings partly to be hereafter from her Protestant writers remembred yet shee found such and so manifest reasons opposed against her that the scarres of those wounds then giuen to your religion will neuer be recouered A principall antiquarie among you writeth Cambden Annal. in Eliz. pag. 26. that the Lord Vicount Mountague which a little before had bene Ambassadour at Rome with Bishop Thursby of Ely for the reconciling of England to the Church of Rome in Queene Maries time publickly in parlament these opposed Hic ex Religionis ardore honoris ratione acriter instabat magno Angliae dedecori esse si ab Apostolica sede cui nuper se submisse reconciliarat mox deficeret Hee out of loue of religion and care of honour did earnestly vrge how great a shame it would be to England if it should so soone reuoult from the Sea Apostolike to which it had lately submissiuelie reconciled it selfe and would turne to greater danger if excommunicated it by such defection be exposed to the rage of neighboring enemies Hee in the name of the nobilitie and all degrees in England in their name had done obedience to the Pope of Rome and must needes performe it Therefore he vrgently besought them that they would not depart from the Romane Sea to which they were indebted both for first receauing the faith from thence and from thence hauing it continually preserued This was sufficiently prooued at that time of the reconciliation of England to the Church of Rome in open Parlament also by Cardinall Pole as your first protestantly ordeyned Archbish in these wordes affirmeth Parkerant Brit. in Reginald Polo Hāc in sulae nobilitatem atque gloriam Dei prouidentiae atque beneficientiae soli accepta ferendam sed tamen viam ipsam atque rationem qua hac nobilitas atque gloria parta est sede Romana nobis prima semperque monstratam patefactam fuisse In Romana exinde fidei vnitate nos semper perseuerasse fuisseque nostram antiquissimam Romanae ecclesiae subiectionem The noblenes of this Iland for being the first of all the Prouinces of the worlde that receaued the Christian faith and the glorie thereof is to be acknowledged to haue proceeded from the prouidence and goodnesse of God yet the way it selfe and meanes by which this nobilitie glory was wonne vnto it was first alwaies shewed and layde open vnto vs from the Sea of Rome wee haue alwaies from that time perseuered in the vnity of the Romane faith and our subiection to the Romane Church is most auntient And this reconciling of England then to the Romane Church was so ioyful and honorable a thing to this natiō that to vse your Protestant Archbishops wordes Parker antiquit Britan. in Polo In Synodo decretum est vt dies ille quo pontifici Romano authoritas restituta fuerit quotannis festus dies celebraretur atque Anglicanae ecclesiae reconciliatio diceretur It was decreede in a Synode that the daye on which authoritie was restored to the Pope of Rome should yeerely be kept holie daie and called the Reconciliation of the Church of England Abbot Fecknham in Parlm Elizab. in his oration to that Parlament of Q. Elizabeth hath thus Damianus and Fugatianus as Ambassadours from the Sea Apostolike of Rome did bring into this Realme 1400. yeares past the very same religion whereof wee are now in possession and that in the latine tongue as the auntient historiographer Dominus Gylduas witnesseth in the prologue and beginning of his booke of the Britaine histories which he would not haue dared to vtter in that time and place but that then he could produce that antiquitie to be his warrant which with many others condemning the new religion of Protestants are by them suppressed All the Bishops of whom more hereafter and whom tearmeth your Protestant glorious renowned men obfirmate