best assistance to the support of the Estate Royal and of the Kingdom wherein they lived It is true through the malice of the Devil and Instigation of some Enemies of the Church some of them for the asserting of their legal Immunities and to preserve the Liberty of their spiritual Jurisdiction entirely Free as it ought they were dirven now and then yet very seldom in comparison of such a long tract of time as we instance in unto some vehement and earnest contestation with their Princes and though much further then was pleasing to them yet I suppose not beyond terms of due respect and the Authority of their Function much less did they endeavor to stir up rebellion or instigate the people to sedition and commotions against their Princes nor did they ever upon their own account solely concur in any thing of that nature The first King that ever gave cause in this Kingdom effectually and in the face of the world to trie the admirable patience obedience and loyalty of Catholikcs was King Henry the Eighth Flagellum Dei that scourge of God to the Church of England and all good Catholikes therein yet outwardly professing the same Religion in most things with Catholikes This he did first by a pretended Accusation of the Clergy to be fallen in a Praemunire because Scil they did that which all their predecessors the Bishops and Clergy of England for many Hundreds of years confessedly had done without any exception taken viz. for acknowledging the power Legantine of Cardinal Wâ—lsey which yet the King himself for his own ends and in his own case had first of all procured 2. upon the Statute of supremacy And 3. by suppression of the Abbies These were his Three first breaches by which the Foundation strength and glory of the Catholike Church in England became afterwards utterly ruinated By the first his way was levelled to the Second and the Second obtained gave him power and authority to compass the Third By the First indeed onely the Clergy smarted in a fine of an Hundred thousand pound The second lay heavy upon the Clergy and Temporalty both But by the Third viz. the suppression of the Abbies and Religious houses if we consider the infinite prejudice which the poor Commonalty suffered thereby both in point of spiritual and temporal interest the whole Kingdom might be said to be worse then conquered by him that is Robbed Spoiled Enslaved to the exorbitancy of his sole Will Prodigality Lust and Tyranny And all this done to be revenged on the Pope who condescended not to humor him in the business of his marriage Therefore and to advance his own power and greatness That Authority and Jurisdiction which had alway been acknowledged as sacred by the English ever since the English were Christians must in a moment be abandoned disclaimed abjured himself by an unheard of and fatal Ambition instead thereof made Head of the Church and all persons who out of scruple of Conscience refused to conform to such grand sudden and sacrilegious Innovations and to swear they knew not what were cut shorter by the head executed at Tyborn imprisoned banished and put into such condition as he was sure they should not oppose him The ground of the Praemunire was at first onely a quarrel which he pick't against the Cardinal Wolsey but afterwards stretched it upon the Tenters and made it reach the whole Clergy who being thereupon Summoned into the Kings Bench the business was so aggravated there by the Lawyers The Kings Learned Counsel that in the Convocation house they presently concluded to submit themselves to the King and offer him no less sum then One hundred thousand pound for their pardon This was look't upon by the Christian world as a Prodigy That so many Shepherds should be afraid of one Wolfe And though it becomes us not hear to censure whether they did as they ought yet certainly this weakness of the Pastors boded no good to the Flock and it is observed that neither themselves nor the Church nor Religion ever prospered in England afterwards However the King accepts of thâ—ir offâ—r and signs their Pardon but with a fetch far worse then the first For undâ—r a prâ—â—eâ—ce of procuring this Pardon to be confirmed to them in Parliament he draws thâ—m in there how willingly or unwillingly let the world judge to acknowledge him Supream Head of the Church It was a course even at that time not thought agreeable to Justice or Honor. For as we said the Cardinal Wolsey had the Kings License for the exercise of his Legantine power both under the Kings hand and the Great Seal of England and was employed by the Kings particular Mandate and pleasure in the quality of Legat to sit with the other Legat Cardinal Campegius and examine the business of his marriage And could the Divorce have been granted according to the Kings minde it is easily conjectured the Cardinal had never been questioned for his Legat-ship Touching the Second of Supremacy All the Subjects of England ever acknowledged that the Crown and State of England quoad Temporalia in Temporal affairs and matters is independent of any other power but of that Transcendent Majestie which saith Per me reges regnant and this to the intent that Kings and all Governors considering who will one day take their Audit may be more careful to rule with Justice and common equity without partiality passion prejudice against any mans person further then his crimes against Publike Order Common Right and the Peace of the State shall make him obnoxious and by so doing may keep their accounts streight against the day of Account And on the other side that Subjects remembring their duty and who it is that layeth this jugum suave the sweet Yoke of good Government upon their Shoulders might be induced to obey with more fidelity and prompt affection But the Question which King Henry the first of all Kings Princes or States of Christendom propounded to his Clergy and People in Parliament concerned matters purely Spiritual and wherein not himself onely and his Subjects at home but all Christian Kings Princes States and people in the world were concerned And therefore required far greater deliberation I say not then was used for in truth that was little or none at all the Kings pleasure and resolution was known and that as the world went then was sufficient but I say then could possâ—bly be used in England which was then but one single Kingdom and a small Province of Christendom And for the suppression of the Abbeys and Religious houses by that Act and this other of Supremacy together the Clergy of England were brought absolutely into Captivity and stood meerly as they have done ever since at the pleasure of the King and of the State Their Possessions the greatest part of them were seized their Goods forfeited their Churches profaned and sacked and upon the spoils thereof together with the sale of the Vestments Chalices Bells and other
how well he manageth that and leave matters of Preaching to the Clergy such as himself was Scilicet Tom. 2. Fol. 259. and Tom. 1. Lat. Fol. 540. he tells them plainly Non est regum aut Principum c. It belongs not to Kings and Princes to take upon them to establish Doctrine no not the true Doctrine but to be subject and obedient themselves in that case And Chemnitius in his Epistle to the Elector of Brandenburgh speaking of Queen Elizabeth after he had taxed her sufficiently in other particulars he fals at last upon her Title of Supremacy in these words Et quòd foemineo a saeculis inaudito fastu se Papissam caput Ecclesiae facit saying by a strange Womanish and unheard of kinde of Arrogance she makes her self as it were a She-Pope in her own dominions Head of the Church What the doctrin practise of those in Scotland is and hath ever bin since their pretended Reformation is too well known to be disputed Cartwright teacheth the same in all his Books but especially in his last And so do all the Presbyterians generally both here and beyond Seas They of Amsterdam in their Confess Fid. 1607. go somewhat further Pag. 50. Art 2. when they resolve That Vnicuique Ecclesiae particulari est par plenum jus c. That every particular Church hath ful and equal power with any other Church or Churches to use exercise and enjoy whatsâ—ever ordinances of Perpetuity Christ hath committed to his Church therefore it is cleer upon that supposition That no one Person is left Supream Governor over many Dr. Whitacre in his answer to Reinolds speaking upon this subject Pag. 4. hath a passage not easie to be understood The Title saith he of Supream Head of the Church hath been disliked by diverse Godly Learned men and of right it belongeth to the Son of God and therefore saith he never did our Church give that Title unto the Prince nor did the Prince ever challenge it By saying that many Godly Learned men disliked it meaning Calvin Gilby Knox Luther c. mentioned before and upon this ground viz. that of right it belongeth to the Son of God he sheweth sufficiently what his own judgement therein is But when he saith never did our Church give the Title of Supream Head of the Church to the Prince nor the Prince challenge it who can tell what he meaneth For admit that what was done by King Henry the Eighth were not rightly said to be done by their Church yet I hope they will own the Church in King Edward the Sixths time who challenged the Supremacy notoriously enough as appeareth in the first Parliament which he held wherein it was Enacted That whosoever after the Fifth of March nex ensuing should deny that the Kings Heirs and Successors were not or ought not to be Supream Head in Earth of the Church of England and Ireland immediately under God for the third assertion should be guilty of Treason And that Queen Elizabeth after him declined the Title and chose rather to be called Supream Governess mended the matter not a whit For it was not the Title onely but the power pretended unto and exercised by and under that Title at which men made scruple and that power Queen Elizabeth claimed and exercised all her Reign as much as ever King Edward her Brother had done So that the refusing of this Oath being the onely or chief matter alledged for the deprivation of the Catholike Bishops seeing Protestants themselves were no better agreed about it they might in all reason have expected if not a milder sentence yet at least a more favorable Execution thereof from the Queen whom they had so lately and so unanimously acknowledged and no less willingly then any other persons of the Realm Who always bear themselves obsequiously towards her in temporal matters never made complaint never writ Libels Invectives or Books against her as the Reformers in other parts perpetually did against their Princes and as too many of her Subjects at home that is to say Ministers of her own making and others in short time set themselves to do No Homilies of sedition were dispersed among the people No Wyat No Oldcastle appeared in the Field by their instigation notwithstanding all the Adversity Disgrace Wants which they suffered In a word such was their behavior constantly towards her even to the very last of their lives that noe indifferent man will attribute it to any thing else but to the most excellent and right Christian resolution of those worthy men to suffer perfectly for such a good cause and unto that Patience Humility Obedience Aequanimity and Resigned Temper of Spirit which as it was exemplary in them so is it indeed Innate as I may say and most natural unto all Vertuous and Religious men that are truely Catholike And such in truth though envy frown when we speak it is the general Inclination and Temper of all English Catholikes towards their Sovereign Prince both within and without the Realm as the experience of their quiet behavior for so many years together of hard times have cleerly shewen When I speak of Catholikes within the Realm I mean Recusants in general as we are called men and women of all Estates and Conditions who have had our shares and tasted of the Cup of affliction as God was pleased to administer it unto us at this present not much less then a Hundred of years When I speak of those without the Realm I mean the Seminaries of Priests Religious Persons and Students that be Catholike beyond the Seas Concerning which Seminaries we are to know that when the old Clergy of England Bishops and Priests were some languishing in Prison other in Exile many dead and all in disfavor The Secretary and such other Politick Protestants as then sate at the Stearn of Government in England did confidently imagin that in a short time both Priest and Priesthood would be worn out and extingished in this Nation And truely it was observed that about the year 1576. there were not above Thirty of the old Priests remaining in the Realm Hereupon Doctor Allen a man even raised by God to do his Country good in a time of greatest necessity together with some others of the English Clergy begun the Seminary at Doway about the year 1569. meerly out of spiritual charity towards their poor Country and a Christian Providence to prevent the utter decay of Religious Professors Priests and others who might serve in time to come to uphold true Religion in England and to preserve a Continuation of the Catholike Church there as it had ever been from the Apostles times to that present unto succeeding Generations And as by the great blessing of God we see their pious Counsels have had an happy effect unto this day notwithstanding the many oppositions adversities and difficulties which they have met with as well from England as from other places They intended also
been dedicated to it died himself not long after of a Carbuncle Sigon de regn Italiae Lib. 1. So Gondericus King of the Vandals when he took Sivill took also the spoils of the Churches and seized upon all their riches but to revenge it the Devil seized and possessed him Tarapha in Honorio What need I alledge more Julian the Apostate was also a Church-robber Tripart Histor lib. 6. c. 31. most tyrannical and notorious but his end is well known And so it is what misery befell Heliodorus the Treasurer of King Selencus for the like crimes though but attempted against the Sanctuary at Hierusalem 2 Maccab. chap. 3. Nicephorus Phocas the Emperor was the neerest parallel to King Henry that we meet with in all the Ecclesiastical Story For he resumed all donations that had been made unto Monasteries and Churches in his time but such afflictions and furies haunted him for it ever after that his Successor Basilius though himself none of the best Emperors that have reigned was yet careful to abrogate those Lawes of Phocas among the first Acts which he did and as the root of all publike calamities of those times Nor did indeed King Henry himself finde any better success to attend his impieties Did he not like that sacrilegious Herod mentioned before live jealous of his Wives and not confident even of those his Friends which he had so much enriched with the spoils of the Church His exorbitant lusts which were the original cause of all the mischief became at last his torments For after his Divorce from his first and lawful Queen Katharine no wife could please him long few of them could get protection for their heads and none of them all live long either secure or joyful Beside did his Exchequer thrive any better for the Augmentations Was his Treasury any whit better furnisht then his Predecessors before him Catholike Princes and Favorers of the Church Nay was there ever King of England more necessitated then he was in point of Treasure and that immediatly as it were and in very few years after those great spoils Did ever King of England before him lye more heavy upon his subjects in matter of Taxes Subsidies Loanes then he did after that Did ever any of them use more ignoble and unprincely wayes to raise money then he Our own Chronicles and the much base money which he coined doe sufficiently shew how things went with him in that regard But that which may seem most of all to be noted as an argument of Gods displeasure against him was the frustrating of that which was pretended to be his chief project and design in all those frequent marryings and unmarryings viz. Succession and Issue All his hopefull Stem and Branches have been taken away one after another without Issue and some of them but unhappily too And his Crown and Scepter translated much contrary to his intentions unto another Name and Nation God suffering him as a blinde man to erre in his ends and wander in all his courses Yea all that great Treasure which he raked together upon the ruins of the Church how was it employed How spent but in the excess of vanity and evil Neither to any honour of the Realm nor to the ease of his subjects nor to the maintenance of souldiers nor to the relief of the poor all which were pretended mainly when the business was to be done but in Tiltings Triumphs Mummeries Masquings in pleasing and enriching his Mistresses and to satisfie the greedy appetites and expectations of those sollicitors of his Lusts In a word Bolen and Prodigality consumed all And touching those who were thought to be the occasion and chief instruments of these disorders that is to say Cardinal Wolsey and the Lord Gromwel when they had served his turn sufficiently and were grown rich they were themselves upon pretended and but light occasions taken with disgrace and misfortune turned out of the World leaving their Estates at his mercy And for himself when he had wearied his subjects with a long chargeable and ingloricus Reign and that he found his soul as much oppressed with the guilt of innumerable heinous sins as his body was become unweildy and troublesome to others through his excessive intemperance he died as some good Authors say Thuan. desirous to repent and to be reconciled to the Church but what effect his desires had which we wish might be to the saving of his soul is only known to God But what course think we would the Lutherans of Germany the Câ—nsâ—storians of Genevah and France the Brethren of Scotland have taken in this case What would they have done should they have found themselves at any time oppressed abused robbed of their Rights and Interests and harrassed with injuries as the Catholikes of England were by such a Tyrant as this Yet the Catholikes took all patiently made no mutinies raised no tumults no insurrections that were considerable or generally owned It is acknowledged even by our adversaries that these Abbyes and their Dependants were almost the third part of the Realm men of understanding power and interest their Revenues great their Tenants many and rich They were not a little favored also by the people for their constant Hospitalities and good House-keeping among them well esteemed likewise generally amongst the Nobility and Gentry Besides the Knights of St. Johns of Jerusalem who found themselves in the same predicament with the rest by their Fraternities and Interests abroad might have procured great troubles to the King especially by the Pope and Emperors assistance yet to shew the world what they were to give an example of the patience of true Israelites and due obedience of good Subjects yea to imitate in some sort the Divine pattern of their Masters meekness they resolved rather to endure Gods just punishment upon them in the Kings great injustice then to Arm themselves into the Field like so many Lutherans Calvinists or Geuses against their lawful Sovereign having no lawful order or authority so to do The Arms they took up were not Zuinglius his Sword nor Beza's Pistols but the ancient and most proper Arms of true Christians Prayers and Tears Submission Resignation Patience under the rod of God and of a wicked King I shall add this onely Argument more of the inconveniences which followed upon these proceedings of the King and of the provocation which Catholike people had under him if it had been possible to be put into disorder viz. That although the number of Gentry were somewhat encreased by the suppression of Abbyes and alienation of Church Lands yet the Rents of Lands were presently and very much enhaunced thereupon Inclosures were set on foot Depopulations generally made the price of all things raised to the extreme detriment of the poorer sort of people ever since as the Protestants themselves complained Ascham Epist ad Protect and the Yeomanry infinitely decayed who before this were accounted and found to be upon all occasions the
Wriothsley to the Tower deposed Bishop Tonstal both from the Counsel from his Bishoprick viz. of Durham as thinking it a seignory too Stately for a man of Religion And therefore he dissolved it and brought it within the Survey of the Exchequer that is into his own power but as it was observed he never prospered after However the Act it self was most inexcusably unjust and tyrannical being so directly contrary to Law as appeared beside what hath been alledged before by 1. Ed. 3. chap. 2. where the King dâ—clareth That the Lands of Bishops ought not to be seized into the Kings hands and that what had been done in that kinde in his Fathers days was by advise of evil Counsel and hereafter should not be so But his sins now grew towards ripeness Therfore having also deprived and committed Doctor Gardiner the Bishop of Winchester dissolved the Colledge of Stoke fleeced all the Cathedral Churches in England and added unto the guilt of Sacriledge many other outrages oppressions and crimes under the Nonage of a Pupil King without any check or opposition save onely in the business of the Earldom of Oxford which he was not able to devour as he desired at last in the midst of his carriere and after he had sentenced and put to death his own and onely Brother the Lord Admiral chiefly as 't is supposed upon the instigations of an ambitious or malicious Wife he was himself arraigned for High Treason and ill governing of the Realm as may be seen by the Articles of his Attainder in Stow and thereupon condemned and executed on the twenty second day of January in the year of our Lord 1552. When the Brothers were gone viz. the Protector and Admiral Dudley Duke of Northumberland comes upon the Stage a man whose ambition and policy though unperceived had ruined both of them but especially the Protector whose chief Adversary he was and the principal contriver of the Charge against him which in brief referred unto these Heads 1. That he had subverted all Laws 2. That he had broke the orders appointed by King Henry the Eighth for his Sons good 3. That he held a Cabinet-Councel and by it transacted the publike and chief Affairs of State without the advice of his Fellow-Counsellors 4. Lastly That he observed not the Conditions upon which he was made Protector which were to do nothing in the Kings Affairs without consent of the rest of the Executors Upon these Rocks the Protector perished not without the manifest judgement of God for much injustice which he had committed in the time of his Government especially in the business of Religion and of the Church and Northumberland for a while prevailed This man though he were all otherwise in his heart yet thought fitting to seem a little more precisely religious then the Protector intending thereby to assure himself of the affections of such people as were more Zealously affected to new Religion The Protector looking onely at present proffit caâ—â—d to humor them in that point no further â—â—en might serve his own turn But Northumberland had other designs in his head which were no less then to advance his own Family to the Crown and to ruin the right Heirs And therefore to ingratiate himself more with the Common people in the year 1552. he causeth the Liturgy or book of Common prayer to be the second time Reformed and Purged of certain ceremonies and orders offensive to that sort of people which he desired to please and so to be published This project stood him in much stead among others of the Nobility it gained him the Duke of Suffolk who from henceforward seemed wholly to be at Northumberlands Devotion and to steer his course after the others compass Being a Potent man and the greatest Precisian of those times unless perhaps they dissembled both of them upon the same account But because the Lord Treasurer Paulet Marquis of Winchester was more like to cross theâ—â—â—mply with them therefore it is resolved to remove him out of the way And to that end Northumberland observing that it was the Treasurers custom sitting at the Counsel Table if at any timâ— he were suddenly called up to the King to make such hast thâ—t he commonly left his Spectacles behindâ— him he procured them once to be so sweetly anointâ—d and perfumed before his return that at his next putting them on they cost him his Nose and scaped very narrowly with his Life which yet with much adoe was saved and the Treasurer lived to make the Duke his good friend some part of requital as the event shewed Not long after this King Edward falleth sick whereupon designes growing now to maturity the Duke procures his Son Guildford Dudly to be married to the Lady Jane Grey Daughter to the Dutchess of Suffolk one who had a remote title to the Crown But they meant to advance it by their power The Lady her self being also studiously affected to the Protestant Religion and for that respect they doubted not to finde favors and assistants enough But therein their count failed them At the same time thâ— Earl of Pembrokes Son was married to the Lady Katharine another Daughter of the Duke of Suffolk And the Earl of Huntingdons Son to one of Northumberlands own Daughters All which marriages were solemnized upon one day at Durham House in the Strand And after them King Edward lived not long It is said that the Apothecary who poisoned him for the horror of the offence and disquietness of his Conscience drowned himself and that he Laundress which washed his Shirt lost the Skin of her Fingers But this is certain thâ—re are some yet living in Court who can tell how many weeping Eyes they have seen for the untimely and Treacherous loss of such a Prince See Heyward Hist Edw. 6. But the pretence and zeale of Religion which these men shewed did so overshadow all things for a time that not many could discern their impiety The Oration which Nortâ—umberland made to the Lords in the Tower when he was upon his departure for Cambridge to proclaim his Daughter in Law Lady Jane Queen doth shew what a Fox he was and how far he could both descend and dissemble to compass his ends Goodw. Annals Howbeit in his way the Justice of God met him For the people the Suffolk men especially sticking faithfully to the right Heir and their lawful Sovereign Queen Mary he was quickly deserted by all men apprehended and received at Tower-hil the due reward of his Treason and other sins with the loss of his head And so we see those two Lords of Misrule or Reformation if it must be called so that is to say the Protector Duke of Sommerset and this man Duke of Northumberland Born both of them for the Scourge and ruin of the Catholike Church in England by a just vengance of Heaven proved at last as it were Butchers and Executioners of one another undid their several Families and endangered the whole Realm
done it to her no little trouble No they never attempted any kinde or any shew of violent resistance at all either by Domestick or Forreign help but always from first to last most submissively behaved themselves towards her tendring her safety and the Peace of the Realm far above their own Lives Liberties and Estates 'T is true it was once debated among them whither they ought not to proceed to Excommunication against her both for the preservation of Catholikes and discharge of their Office Yet considering the great trouble and inconveniences that might arise thereby both to her Majestie and the State in case the people should fall into any disorders thereupon or take Arms in defence of Religion They concluded notwithstanding her case and proceedings were very much liable to censure yet for their parts to leave her to Gods Judgement and referred the whole business to his Holiness And herein also the Favor and Interest of King Philip as they had always done did stand her in no small stead For he knowing the practises of France upon this occasion and how much they labored at Rome that sentence of Excommunication might pass against Queen Elizabeth onely out of design and hoping to invest themselves of England thereupon under the Title and pretensions of Queen Mary of Scotland who was the next Heir and at that time married to their King Was the more willing to hinder it least by this means England and Ireland both together with Scotland should come to be Incorporate as it were into the Crown of France and so become an enemy too potent for him to deal with out of which respect also even in Queen Maries time more then once he had kept of proceedings against her which otherwise would have concerned her very neerly Therefore so long as there was any hope that the Queen might be capable of better Counsels he ceased not by his Ministers to do all good Offices here betwixt the Queen and the Clergy and at Rome hindered the passing of the censures for no small time notwithstanding all the indeavors and instances thereunto made by the French But the Prelates all this while as I said chose rather a Durate then Armate ever professing with their mouths and making it good no less with their examples and practises that Preces and Lachrimae indeed Prayers and Tears were the onely weapons which they had to fight against the Queen Though the world knows how little these prevailed with her whose severity towards them continued in the same extremity from first to last not relenting nor affording the least remission in any degree of Liberty or Estate unto their dying day Doctor Scot Bishop of Chester died at Lovain in Exile Goldwel of Asaph died at Rome Pate Bishop of Worcester was indeed at the Councel of Trent and subscribed there for the Clergy of England but never returned Doctor Oglethorpe Bishop of Carlile who had Crowned the Queen was yet deprived with the rest dying suddenly and very shortly after so did also Doctor Tonstal that Learned and Famous Prelate Bishop of Durham while he was Prisoner at Lambeth Yet not before he had personally given the Queen a sound and Godly Admonition concerning her strange proceedings with that liberty and freedom of zeal which became so venerable a Prelate and true Pastor of Gods Church as he was and as some have said Godfather to the Queen Bourn Bishop of Bath and Wells was prisoner to Cary Dean of the Chappel and there dyed Doctor Thirlby Bishop of Ely was first committed to the Tower afterwards He and Secretary Boxhal were sent to Lambeth and there ended their days Bishop Bonner of London Watson of Lincoln with the Abbot of Westminster Fecknam died all prisoners and as some say in the Marshalsey Prior Shelly was banished and died in Exile This was the the very Sad yet as by their Patience Submission and Sufferance appeared very Christian Catastrophe of so many grave religious and good Prelates of England chief Pastors of the Church of God in our nation Thus was a third and the most venerable State of the Realm who like the Cedars of Liâ—â—anus ever since King Etheldreds time for so many years together had stood flourishing in great Dignity and Power in this Land on a sudden cast down disgraced put in prison or banished the Realm The chief and immediate cause of which hard procedings against them was the refusing the Oath of Supremacy for no other crime no other fault could be charged upon them This indeed they refused as a thing which concerned their Conscience very much And although perhaps some of the Prelates now living had either for fear or upon surprizal in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth when it was first enacted given more consent or connivence to it then became Prelates of the Church to do yet they had now better considered themselves and resolved to be constant not onely to the Doctrine of Catholike Faith in that point but also to the judgement of the whole Kingdom which so lately in full Parliament had desired the Abrogation of that Law and acknowledged the Supremacy of Ecclesiastical Authority to be where Christ placed it viz. in the Sea Apostolike Nor did the English Prelates refusing to acknowledge the Queen Head of the Church any thing more then what the Protestants themselves at least no mean ones among them would likewise do For 't is manifest that setting aside some few English at home they do generally abroad dislike the Princes Supremacy in Ecclesiastical causes as much as any Not to mention Gilby who in his Book called Admonitio ad Anglos calls King Henry the Eighth reproachfully Monstrum Libidinosum Aprum qui Christi locum invasit c. A libidinous Monster a Wilde Bore broken into Christs Vineyard and making himself Head of the Church which belongs onely to Christ Calvin himself in his Commentary upon O see is very angry at those who attribute so much to Secular Princes as to give them such absolute power in the affairs of Religion and in plain terms confesseth Qui initio tantoperè extulerunt Henricum Regem Angliae certè fuerunt inconsiderati homines c. They saith he who first advanced the Authority of King Henry of England to such a height did not well consider what they did when they gave him that Supream Power in all Causes it was a matter which always greeved me very much saith he For indeed they did no less then blaspheme when they called him Supream Head of the Church under Christ Sir Thomas Moor Bishop Fisher Abbot Whiteing of Glastenbury and those many other Holy Abbots and Religious men of all sorts who suffeâ—ed in the case of Supremacy under Henry the Eighth never said more And Luther himself saith no less but more scurrilously as his humor was Quid ad nos Mandatum Electoris Saxoniae What hath the Prince Elector of Saxony to do to command me Let him look to his Sword and see
we see well enough it had been in other cases of this Nature Neither in King Edward the Sixths time nor against the Kings of Scotland Denmark Sweden Duke of Saxony Marquis of Brandenburgh or any other Protestant Prince was there ever any such sentence issued to this day Whereupon Father Pâ—rsons and Father Campian procured some kinde of mitigation concerning it presently after the publishing and Pope Gregory following declared That the Subjects of England ought to perform all duties to Queen Elizabeth notwithstanding the censures So little reason is there in truth that Protestants should clamour so loud as they do and cry out nothing but Treason Treason against religious and good men who as they have no other business so come they hither for no other end but to do them good and so far as lieth in their power and office to save their souls They tell the world that no less then two hundred Priests have been executed in England for Treason since the times of Reformation which is certainly a very heavy report and sufficient to make them odious to all the world if it were true or that there were any thing in it but fallacie and aequivocation of words whiles they call that Treason in England which in all parts of Christendome besides is both called and counted Religion and the highest Vertue For we beseech them to tell us of what Treason do they convict us at any time but the Treason of being a Priest the Treason to say Mass the Treason to refuse the Oath the Treason to absolve Penitents confessing their sins the Treason to restore men to the Communion of the Church the Treason to Preach and Administer Christs Sacraments the Treason to be bred up in the Seminaries that is in such places where onely as things now stand in England thâ—y can be Catholikely bred and fitted for such Christian imployment What actual and real Treason is in England according to the true sâ—nse and notion of that crime â—dious both to God and man the Statute of 25 Edw. 3. will inform us better then any other being enacted when the whole Kingdom was of one mind and of one judgement as all Christian Kingdoms and Societies ought to be not rent nor overborn by factions and parties undermining and supplanting one another by indirect and undue meanes as it was when these new Statutes of Treason were made By that Statute and by the opinions of the most learned Judges in England Ploydon Stamford c. Treason must alwayes be some Action or Intention actually discovered not an opinion onely or a profession of Religion And this is the reason why Sir John Oldcastle Stow. one of Mr. Fox his Martyrs in the Reign of Henry the Fifth mentioned before though he were both Traytor and Heretike yet for his Treason he was condemned in one Court and for his Heresie in another as also were Cranmer and Ridley in Queen Maries time Secondly it must be some Act or Intention discovered of a subject prejudicial to his Sovereign or to the State where he lives But what hurt had ever I say not Queen Mary Henry the Eighth while he stood right Henry the Seventh or any other Catholike Prince but even Queen Elizabeth her self King James or any other Protestant Prince by a Priests saying Mass absolving of Penitents preaching of sound Doctrine to them and particularly of all due and just obedience to Civil Magistrates as they have ever constantly done Therefore by the common Laws of England and in it self it is not it cannot be Treason or criminous to be a Priest to say Mass Absolve c. But onely by Statute Laws it is made so upon temporary and present occasions and for certain politick ends which men have projected of themselves and which they are resolved to follow And therefore also it is by the very Statutes themselves provided 22. and 27. Elizab. That if a Priest conforms be content to go to Church to renounce the Pope or his Orders c. he becomes ipso facto without more ado Rectus in Curia and is actually discharged of all imputation of Treason no further proceedings lie against him Yea even at the very place of Execution and when the instruments of death are upon him yet still 't is in his own power if he please in three words to pardon himself and frustrate the expectation of so many eyes as are commonly waiting to see his last Exit Let him but say I will conform or I will swear c. Ther 's no man living dares meddle with him further Which is far otherwise where the offence is judged to be Treâ—son indeed and really prejudicial to the Prince or State But the fatal resolution being taken to change Religâ—on upon a principle or pretended reason of State as false as the Counsel it self was evil viâ— That otherwise the Queen could not be secure either of her Kingdom or Life it was necessary to take a severe course with those men whose Function obliged them to maintain True Religion and to endeavour to reduce things again into the old State From this root also sprang their extream jealousie and hatred of the Queen of Scots For she being Heir Apparent to the Crown after Queen Elizabeth and a Princess zealously affected unto Catholike Religion and so strongly Allied in France Those Statesmen who had contrived and wrought all the alterations here could never think themselves secure so long as her head stood upon her shoulders Therefore was she first invited into England upon pretence of Friendship and for Safety But when she was here used with so much unkindness and kept under restraint for little less then twenty years together that at last in order to procure her Liberty she was indeed provoked to doe something which it was easie for them who loved her not to interpret to be Treason and so they cut off her head From hence also sprung those continual injuries and practises of much ingratitude against the King of Spain The intercepting of his Treasure The holding of his Towns The ayding of Orange and the States as hath been said Lastly from this onely Source and Fountain of unjust Policie sprung all those laws of severity and bloud against Recusants as we are commonly called viz. of Twenty pound a moneth of Two third parts of Estate against Hearing Mass against Harbouring a Priest against Being reconciled c. It is well known the Recusants of England against whom those Laws were made were generally persons in all degrees of the Noblest quality in this Nation Vertuous Grave Wise Charitable Just and Good men of fair and friendly Conversation towards all I shall not say Loyal to their Prince because the contrary is so commonly beleeved Stow. yet our own Chronicles will not altogether deny them right in that regard while they testifiâ— how diligent and forward they were to offer their service to the Queen and State even in that great Action of Eighty eight Neither were
own Religion as beleeving it to be right or the best neither are Catholikes to be excepted in that point They must be permitted to desire at least and wish for the restoring of Catholike Religion as it ought to be But surely as to the means whereby they procure it and the course and manner of their proceeding that seek and endeavor it This treatise hath already shewen what great odds and difference there is betwixt the proceedings of Catholikes and that of Protestants And that what the one viz. Catholikes seek â—â—ely by way of Petition Supplication Prayer and humble Remonstrating of their Sufferances The other viz. Protestants seek chiefly by fire and Sword and Cannon Bullet and by Thundring of Ordnances rather then Apologies in their Princes ears Beside to proceed a little further in this Parallel the Catholikes generally and for a long time both in Germany and France were Passive as in England they are still to this day The Protestants were Aâ—tive and the offendors Catholikes onely defend their own maintain the possession of that which they have quietly held out of all memory of Men and Ages Protestants invade and usurp by force Priests desire onely to keep that which they once de jure had Ministers seek to get that which they had not Catholikes obey ex conscientiâ out of an inflexible principle of Conscience and absolutely submit unto all lawful and established Government Protestants generally speaking but upon condition and with such limitations and restrictions of their obedience as they themselves think good to prescribe Priests are punished not for any formal wickedness or that which is a crime in its own nature but for something that is so onely by interpretation or in the judgement of the present State which perhaps a few days agoe did not judge so but the quite contrary Calvinists when they suffer suffer for real and foule crimes for Sedition Rebellion Murther Treason not imputative onely fictitious or made such of late by the prevailing of some particular faction in the State but truly and properly so and adjudged for such by all Laws Divine and Humane of their own Countries and of all Christendom beside long before they or their Grandsires were born Witness the examples of this last year in France of Lescun President of the Assemblies at Rochel Haute-Fountain Chamier P. Gomboult and some others who all suffered for real and actual Treasons and by vertue of such Laws not as the Parliament at Paris or some party there had procured to be enacted a few years or a few moneths before on purpose to entrap them but by the ancâ—â—nt known Lawâ— of â—rancâ— b wh ch they themselves knew the Kingdom was governed and had been ever governed time out of minde and therefore could not in any reason but expect the execution of them upon themselves in case they would persist to offend Witness the Treasons of their Brother Bischarcy in Poland who attempted to kill the King and did indeed wound him very dangerously as he was going to Church They object to us the positions of some private and disavowed persons and words onely We object to them the resolutions of whole general Assemblies held by them and those rebellions which have followed thereupon not in word onely but in deed and in act their real and actual Conspiracies their many Battles really and actually fought in the Field without lawful Authority or any publike Call against their Sovereign Princes with other manifold iniuries and insolencies committed Lastly Protestants reform commonly per populum and by Tumults Catholikes do nothing of this kinde but by Law Order and their proper Superiors So that the difference betwixt them is manifâ—st and the integrity of the professions of Catholike in point of obedience and loyalty towards their Prince beyond that of Calvinists or Protestants generally speaking is visible to every eye Why may they not then under the Favor of the State enjoy like Liberty of Conscience Person and Estates with other good Subjects notwithstanding that they differ in Judgement from the profession of the State Why may not a Catholike be tolerated to live and injoy without molestation that which God Nature and the Laws of the Land do give him as well as a Calvinist Why should the Laws of England be fettered with so many Shacles of Interpretative and Temporary Treason to the prejudice of many innocent persons and to the scandal of the Government Admit that for some worldly respect they were indeed nâ—cessary in State-policy for the times wherein they were enacted yet the times changing so much as thâ—y have done and those causes entirely ceasing which made them seem necessary then it may be thought now not onely safe as undoubtedly it is but honorable and just to repeal them May it not with great reason be wondered at that a Nation so Just so Honorable so Wise as this of England hath ever been acknowledged by the Nations abroad and settled by Extraordinary Dispensations of Divine Providâ—nce upon such Equitable fair and just principles of government as be constantly held forth by the Supream Authority of the Nation should permit any thing to be counted Treason by an Act of Parliament which is so generally over all Christendom at this day and hath been so anciently and even till of late times in this our own Nation so much honored maintained and reverenced by all men especially I say when there is no cause of suspicion remaining when there is no cause nor colour of jealousie from any persons that desire this liberty at least none but what may be easily removed by the wisdom of the State and plenary satisfaction given in that behalf both to themselves and to all the good people of the Nation How much Religious men and persons Ecclesiastical now called Traytors by the Law were wont to be esteemed in this Nation is not necessary now to speak our own Chronicles and the Constitutions of our very Laws themselves do abundantly declare it If a bondman entred a Cloysture he could not be commanded out by any power whatsoever The Law it self anciently holding it more reasonable that even the King should loose his interest in such a body then that he should be taken out from the Order which he had chosen The like was judged if the Kings Wards entred Religion An Alien by Law can hold no Lands in England yet if he be a Priest he may by Law be a Bishop here and enjoy his Temporalties as Lanfranck Anselme and some others did who were never Denizens It is well known The Six Clearks of the Chancery were anciently Clearks of the Church The Master of the Rolls Master of Requests Lord Privy Seal yea the Lord Chancellors and Treasurers of the Realm not onely commonly but in a manner constantly till of late times were Bishops Clergy-men How strange therefore may it seem that the Laws of England should make a Function so ancient and honorable in England to be Treason which