its greatest height and most part of the English Protestant Doctors being of no Religion at all it was time for Gods vengeance to fall upon their Church which in King Charles his reigne was but a fancy of Christianity indifferent for all heresies and in that sense onely Catholick or universall it was an â—lla podrida of all errours a politick corporation of University men that pretended a neutrality of Religion by applying absurdly their distinction of fundamentall and not fundamentall articles of Faith Finally it was a phantasma or Ghost of Reformation that a distance seemed nothing but when men drew neare and examined its principles it was found to be nothing but weake policy and obstinate heresy almost degenerated into manifest Atheisme SECT IX Of the Kirk of Scotland 1 OF all Princes none ought to be more lamented for the heresy they have fallen into then the Kings of Scotland others perverted their Subjects by policy persecution and ill example but the Subjects of Scotland persecuted their Soveraignes for Catholick Religion and made their young King sweare to maintaine heresy before he had discretion to know what they imposed upon him and his posterity King Iames the V. of Scotland was so zealous a Catholick that in the yeare 1527. he commanded a kinsman of his owne Pathrick Hamilton by name to be burnt in Saint Andrews for his obstinacy and heresy And in the yeare 1533. called a Parliament Leslaus lib. 9. wherein he declared his resolution to live and dye in the Roman Catholick Faith and obedience to the Sea Apostolick as all his Ancestours had done since Christianity was professed in that Kingdome The three States or Scotland swore the same Acts of Parliament were made against all novelties in Religion and to prevent them it was commanded that none of the ignorant and vulgar sort should read the Scripture falsely translated into English but that all should be contented to heare the Word of God from the mouth of their Doctors and Pastors according to the institution of Christ and the continuall practise of his Church 2 In the yeare 1539. a Canon regular two Dominicans one Franciscan and some seculars were burnt for obstinate Hereticks some recanted their errours others were banished But George Buchanan a Franciscan Apostata Buchan lib. 14. escaped out of prison as himselfe relates though he conceales the cause of his imprisonment which was not onely for heresy but for Iudaisme and celebrating the Jewish ceremony of eating a Paschall Lambe with great devotion in Lent This is that mercenary knave who being bribed by Iames Steward the bastard writ so basely and falsely of that incomparable Queene Mary Steward and recounts so many fables and palpable lyes in the history of his owne Nation that the very truths are not believed Beza epist Theol. 78. Beza the Heretick calls him an excellent and most worthy man and Genebrardus graceth him with the title of an Atheisticall Poet and a drunken Buffon Basil Dorc. lib. 2. King Iames had so good an opinion of him that in his instructions to Prince Henry he forbid him the perusall of Buchanan and Knoxes writings 3 Henry the VIII of England jealous to see his Nephew Iames the V. so addicted to France that after the death of Magdalen eldest daughter to Francis King of France his first wife he tooke for his second the Duke of Guises sister desired the said Iames King of Scots to give him a meeting at York The Nobility and Clergy of Scotland opposed this conference as dangerous both to the State and Religion bringing to their Kings memory how Iames the I. his Ancestour had beene kept prisoner in England upon such an other occasion as also how Henry the VIII who had beene perfidious to God and the Church was not to be trusted Hereupon Henry declares warre against Scotland and Iames the V. raises an Army to oppose and prevent Henry by making England the Seate of the warre But because he named a Favorite of his owne to command the Army under himselfe that was not gratefull to the Nobility and people they would not obey nor concurre with their Soveraigne according to their duty This put the King into a feaver whereof he dyed the 13. of December 1542. in the 32. yeare of his age a most gallant and active Prince whole greatest fault and ruine was not to distinguish betweene the duty and the humour of his Subjects a wise Prince must so contrive things that the one be seconded by the other for if they encounter it s twenty to one but the humour of a multitude will prevaile against the duty they owe to their Soveraigne who must humour his people if he will be obeyed and goe their pace if he will be served his owne way but let him endeavour to make it appeare that he hath away of his owne and that he is not at the command of others who are hated or not regarded by those that must doe his businesse when Subjects imagine that they are not governed by their Prince but by his Favorites they often breake out into open rebellion especially if the Favorites seeme to be too imperious and uncivill It were to be wished that the people did accommodate themselves to the humour or their Prince and his Councellours and not impossible if the Prince will choose persons of honour and integrity to assist him that confound not their Masters interest with their owne ambition and passions Whether the King of Scots his Favorite was guilty of any such crime I knowe not but his case hath demonstrated to posterity that nothing can be more fatall to a Prince then to strive against the humour of his Subjects for a Favorite whose fidelities they suspect or contemne his person and abilities And if Kings will thinke it concerns their honour not to part with hated or contemned Favorits because thereby they seeme to condemne their owne choice and judgements let them consider whether it be more for their purpose to be deprived of their Kingdomes or to acknowledge that they are men and may be mistaken in choosing Councellors and Privados Yet if the Councellors grew odious since they sate at the helme the case is altered and the Prince his choice or judgement cannot be censured for removing from the management of affaires persons whose incapacity was not knowne to him before he applyed them to the government of the Commonwealth 4 But in case the unfitnesse of a Favorite for governing great affaires should be so evident that the ill successe must be attributed rather to his want of wisdome and conduct then to fortune if the Prince be obstinate in his resolution of not parting with him he must runne the hazard of being censured not onely void of judgement in his choice but also incorrigible in his errours his first choice may be excused by affection to the person or want of experience his persisting in that choice notwithstanding the continuall miscarriage of businesses must be
attributed to an incapacity of learning even by experience the art of governing Therefore it concerns not onely the state but also the honour of Princes to condemne sometimes their owne first choice and judgements by second thoughts and reflections least the world should thinke that they are more wilfull then understanding more besotted upon an unhappy Favorite then attentive to the common good their owne interest and reputation This lesson was inculcated to the late King Charles by his Father when he charged him to beware of Master Laud whom King Iames did foresee to be as unfit for government as afterwards he proved by treating the English Nobility and Gentry with such scorne as if they were borne to be no lesse under his command then de facto they were at his disposall by reason of the Kings favour and commission Had his late Majesty beene as fortunate in taking his Fathers advice as his Father was prudent in giving it their posterity and the poore Cavalleers had beene in a better condition Princes are not so frequently ruined by their owne faults as by their Favorits unlesse you will reckon amongst their owne whatsoever is owned by them to excuse their Ministers Yet politick Princes are more apt to father their owne oversights upon others then adopt those of others to themselves and are seldome so constant in their affection to Favorits as for their sakes to bring their owne judgements in question either by owning their defects or defending their misgovernment 5 Heresy that could not get footing in Scotland during Iames the V. his reigne assaulted the same Kingdome in his daughter Queene Mary Stewards infancy borne but 8. dayes before her Father departed this world Iames Hamilton Earle of Aran taking upon him the government was solicited by Henry the VIII to send the young Queene into England that she might be married to his Sonne Edward Aran condescended but the Queene Mother and Cardinal Beton Chancellor of Scotland opposed Henry the VIII designe as destructive to Catholick Religion and by consent of the three States of the Realme sent the yong Queene to France to be espoused to the Delphin But before her departure Henry the VIII had gained some of the Nobility of Scotland to himselfe who preferring their private interests before Religion encouraged one Friar Williams a Dominican to preach against the Popes supremacy and to exhort all people to read the English Bible not doubting by these meanes to embroyle the Kingdome in such a manner that Henry the VIII sending an Army might not onely have the yong Queene but the whole Kingdome at his command Though the Queene escaped her Kingdome was all wasted with warre Paul the III. Bishop of Rome sent the Patriarch of Venice to comfort the Scots in their affliction exhorting them to be constant in that Faith which they had inherited from their Ancestours 6 By the sermons of Friar William and the liberty of reading the Bible many of the vulgar sort and also of the Nobility were perverted and because Cardinal Beton being Archbishop of Saint Andrews and Chancellor of Scotland was an obstacle to their intended rebellion and destruction of the Catholick Religion they did assassinate him in his owne chamber and hanged his body out at the window in his Cardinals robes It s certaine that his bloud could not be washed of from the stone of the window though great diligence was used to that purpose This murther was revenged by the King of France whose forces tooke the Castle to which the Hereticks retired punished them and suppressed their novelties But in the yeare 1558. when the Queene of Scots married the Delphin of France the Hereticks raised another rebellion The Ringleaders were Paul Meffinus a baker Harlaus a taylor and Iohn Duglas alias Grant who had beene a Carmelite Friar On the first of September the feast of Saint Giles had beene alwayes celebrated very solemnly in Edinburg as being Patron of that City The Saints Image being carried in procession according to the ancient and Catholick manner the Hereticks snatcht it away and committed many other abuses and sacrileges and spared not to exhort all sorts of people to rebell against the present government 7 Iohn Knox an Apostata Religious Priest being accused formerly of too much familiarity with his mother in law of witchcraft and of many other crimes was fled from Scotland into England and from thence to Geneva where he learnt Calvins doctrine and discipline This wicked man having by his Letters and Emissaries perturbed all in Scotland came in person in the yeare 1559. to compleat the worke he rallied all the dispersed Hereticks persuaded them to profane all Churches and Altars pull downe Monasteries banish all Bishops Priests and Religious deny obedience to the Queene Regent to whom Knox gave the lye divers times and to choose a new Councell whereof the chiefe was Iames Steward base sonne to Iames the V. who afterwards was Earle of Murray and liked well to see this confusion not doubting that his ambition might fish in the troubled water Calvin ep 285. Calvin writ to Knox congratulating with him the good successe and progresse of the Ghospel exhorting him to carry on the worke of the Lord like a valiant labourer in Christs Church But by succours from France the rebells were quieted and by the endeavours of Nicholas Pellevins the Popes Nuntius afterwards a Cardinal and of three Sorbon Doctors their heresie did not spread over the whole Nation though every day their number encreased Knox never omitted any opportunity afterwards to plant his Genevian Ghospel in his Countrey which at length by the helpe of the Devill and Iames Steward and other Polititians he perfected When King Iames came first into England being at dinner in a noble mans house he said Knot in his Protestancy condemned fol. 166. edit 1654. at Doway that God thought fit to set a visible mark of reprobation upon Knox even in this life before he went to the Devill which was that being sick in his bed with a good fire of coales by him and a candle light upon the table a woman or maid of his sitting by him he told her that he was extreamly thirsty and therefore willed her to fetch him some drinke She went and returned quickly but found the room all in darknesse for not onely the candle but the cole fire also was utterly extinct and she by that light which her selfe brought in immediatly after saw the body of Knox lying dead in the middle of the floor and with a most gastly and horrid countenance as if his body were to shew the condition of his soule Let Polititians reflect upon this horrid spectacle and consider whether they can invent a plot whereby Gods just judgement may be deluded What did it availe Knox in his last houre to have beene as powerfull in Scotland as Calvin was in Geneva and what will it availe any Polititian or Courtiour to have embroyled Kingdomes and made factions in this
in a Taverne with their Camerades With much adoe we have brought them to confesse that the Pope is not Antichrist yet you may be sure they will easily bring themselves to comply both in words and deeds better with Antichrist himselfe if he chance to come in their time then they have hitherto done with the Vicar of Christ they will sooner goe in pilgrimage to Babylon to receive there the caracter of Antichrist then repaire to Rome for the supply of that other which they undoubtedly want by the manifold and manifest defects of their fond and feigned Ordination at Lambeth I will detaine thee no longer in the entry of this worke but wish thee as desirous to see the truth as I have beene solicitous to set it downe without any disguise or designe of any thing but truth it selfe knowing full well that the God of truth is not served his owne way not onely by maintaining falshood but even by pretending to maintaine truth by forged arguments or false histories neither can I hope that God should concurre with such meanes without whose concurrence all my endeavours are of no effect neither can I neede for the proofe of things so manifestly and visibly true to suborne false witnesses and I should most absurdly contradict my owne principles if I should â—old it the duty of a Christian to support by falshood true Christianity whereas I teach a Polititian that it is against the very rules of meere humane policy to goe about the compassing his ends by untruths and impostures Lastly I should too fondly forget my selfe by laying that imputation of false dealing upon the defence of Catholick Religion whereof I so frequently condemne the Authors and Abettors of hereticall innovation against whom I inveigh not through any bitternesse of passion towards their persons but through a tender compassion of others misled by their lyes and deceits to their eternall perdition THE INDEX OF THE CHAPTERS Chap. 1. HOw men come to be Atheists and whether it may be demonstrated by reason that there is a God Providence and another life Chap. 2. VVhether it be a manifest foppery not to believe that there is a God though his existence were not demonstrated and whether Atheisme alone without any other sinne be a reasonable and sufficient cause of damnation Chap. 3. VVhether God ought to be served his owne way and in what manner Chap. 4. That to believe God and consequently to serve him his owne way its necessary to repaire to an infallible guide which is no other but the Roman Catholick Church Chap. 5. That all Religions pretending to reforme the Roman Catholick are but humane inventions grounded upon weake policy strong fancy and sensuall pleasures Sect. 1. Of Lutheranisme Sect. 2. Of Anabaptisme Sect. 3. Of Zwinglianisme Sect 4. Of Calvinisme Sect. 5. Of the Reformation in Holland and the united Provinces Sect. 6. Of the Protestant Church of England in King Edward the VI. his time Sect. 7. Of the English Protestant Church in Queene Elizabeths reigne Sect. 8. Of the English Protestant Church in King Iames and his Sonnes reigne Sect. 9. Of the Kirk of Scotland Chap. 6. That no Policy could heretofore or can for the future give any supernaturall appearance to the reformed Churches whereby any rationall persons may be mistaken in their way to heaven by confounding them with the true Catholick Church Chap. 7. That Policy hath destroyed it selfe by courting Protestancy as being neare allyed to Atheisme the greatest enemy of civill government Chap. 8. That Protestancy inclines the Prince to Tyranny and the Subjects to Rebellion Chap. 9. That the Popes spirituall jurisdiction is nothing dangerous to Soveraignes but raâ—her that the ground of fidelity and obedience due to them is utterly destroyed by denying the Popes supremacy and that it is a greater foppery in Protestants then in Catholicks to deny his infallibility Chap. 10. That the foundation of Iustice and forme of Iudicature is wholy destroyed by penall Lawes and oathes against any point of the Roman Catholick Religion Chap. 11. That it is impossible to be a wise Statesman and effect businesses without morall honesty and that it is most dangerous for a Prince to have Counsellours that are dishonest men Chap. 12. That it is impossible for a Polititian to compasse his designes by untruths and impostures and that nothing is more contrary to Policy then vanity Chap. 13. How necessary it is for a Statesman to be a man of honour and of his word and how great a difference there is betweene Policy and Craft Chap 14. That nothing is more dangerous to a Prince or contrary to Policy then to make use of Ministers of State odious to his owne Subjects either for their vices or misfortunes Chap. 15. That it is great wisdome and policy in Princes to make use of Clergy-men in State affaires THE POLITITIANS CATHECHISME CHAP. I. How men come to be Atheists and whether it may be demonstrated by reason that there is a God Providence and another life 1 THERE is a generation of men half witted and not so much as half learned but wholy vicious who persuade themselves that the soule is a blast of wind the other life an imaginary Vtopia God a Chimaera which onely hath a being in the weake braines of ignorant people Heaven and Hell old wives tales invented by States men to keepe the Subjects in awe and pliable to the Prince his will and pleasure by the dreadfull notion of Eternity The multitude say they must be cheated into its owne good and consequently into peace and subjection and no cheate is more plausible or lesse suspected then that which men call Religion provided that such as have least and governe the Commonwealth counterfeit most and seeme to be more zealous for the establishment of the Church then solicitous for themselves or their posterity 2 Men are not borne Atheists neither are their mindes possessed of these extravagant fancies on a suddaine they fall by degrees first from the love of God and then from his knowledge From the love of God they fall by every mortall sinne but from his knowledge by a custome and excesse of sinning and by drowning themselves in sensuall pleasures which divert their thoughts from the consideration of spirituall things and even from the best part of themselves the soule Notwithstanding this distraction and their being so bewitched and besotted with sense now and then they feele a certaine remorse and guilt of conscience which remorse and guilt of conscience strikes them into a terrour or feare of divine justice this feare degenerates into despaire of mercy feare of justice and despaire of mercy doe so trouble their soules and understandings that they recurre to the will to be eased which endeavoureth to helpe them with a fond wish or desire that no such thing there were as God Providence and another world this desire creates a fancy like unto it selfe and that without any difficulty because men are apt to soothe
as naturally and vehemently inclined to their Religion as we are to our owne liberties and pleasures what greater miracle then that sober and learned men should be perswaded that their senses are deceived in the Sacrament of the Altar and that they should suffer death for the mystery of Transubstantiation These must be effects of supernaturall grace and Not of ignorance or obstinacy which cannot be laid to our charge seeing we submit our judgements to every definition of the Roman Church and our very adversaries knowe we are learned 6 Sanctity of life is a supernaturall signe and effect of grace and of the true Church This sanctity is evident in the Roman Church Not to speake of Antomes Hilarions or Stilluas lets drawe nearer our times and consider the lives of Saint Bernard Saint Dominike Saint Francis Saint Vincent Ferrer Saint Francis of Paula Saint Charles Borromeus Saint Teresa Saint Francis Xaverius and many more who were knowne Roman Catholicks professing the same Tenets and obedience to the Pope which we now maintaine against pretended Reformation And not to speake onely of the dead let any indifferent person consider how in all vocations of both Clergy and Layty we have many persons eminent in vertue farre above that degree of morality to which some Protestants may attaine as well as some Pagans and Philosophers who were farre from Christian perfection called sanctity of life Let our English Protestant be pleased to weigh with himselfe whether yong Ladies of as great quality fortunes and gifts of nature as England doth afford could forsake their native Countrey kindred and friends contemne all pleasures of the world and themselves by embracing a religious poore and penitent life in perpetuall end sure submitting their wills to the obedience and humour of a woman could this I say be performed by so many so continually and with so great alacrity and content of minde without a miraculous and supernaturall grace of the Almighty In my judgement it s a greater miracle that such persons should resolve by a voluntary banishiment to dye to their Countrey and friends and to the whole world by a religious profession and to bury themselves alive in a Cloyster then if they had restored life to others and banisht death from graves and monuments 7 Now after that our Protestant Gentleman hath considered our Catholick Monasteries let him examine whether in his owne Church there hath beene or now is any thing resembling so much Religion and supernaturall vertue as that which amongst us is not admired though admirable because so ordinary This kinde of life is as farre from Protestants practise and Doctrine as it is from naturall inclination Yet I have heard that Master Laud of Canterbury was once inclined to erect some Protestant Nunneries in England I believe it would occasion as great stirres as his Reformation did in Scotland because no thing is more opposite to the Tenets of the reformed Ghospel and first Reformers then to make vowes of poverty chastity and obedience Protestancy begunne and is founded upon the dissolving of Monasteries and religions vowes and is not compatible with their observance if things must be carried on by the same meanes that acquired them a being It s very true that Cranmer of Canterbury the first Patriarch of Protestancy in England caused an enclosure of wood to be made I meane a Chest wherein he shut up his woman and carryed her along with himselfe wheresoever he travailed whereof ensued an odde accident at Gravesend where the Chest being much rccomended to those that carryed it to the Inne as containing pretious stuffe belonging to my Lords grace they severed it from the rest and put it up end-long against the wall in my Lords chamber with the womans head downward which putting her in jeopardy to breake her necke she was forced at length to cry out and so the Chamberlins helpt her out of her enclosure This is amost certaine story saith my Author in his Examen of Fox his Calendar cap. 7. n. 27. and testified at this day by Cranmers sons widdowe yet living The Prelates of the Catholick Church carry portable Altars but the first Protestant Prelate and reformed Apostle of England could not travaile without his portable Monastery farre more agreable to the Religion he planted then Matter Lauds intended plantation of religious and chast Nunneries 8. The conversion of Nations to Christianity is not onely a signe of the true Church but also the end of its institution This is so proper to the Roman Catholick even at this present that none who heard the names of America Angola China Monomotappa India or Iaponia can be ignorant of our pious endeavours and miraculous successe in preaching the Ghospel to so remote Nations where nothing that is coveted in this world could be aymed at or expected by our Apostolicall Preachers I will not say any more concerning the signes of the true Church these being susficient to convince any person that desires to be saved that out or the Roman Church there is no salvation seeing it alone hath supernaturall and visible signes whereby God doth declare sufficiently that it is an infallible guide to informe men of his mysteries and direct them in the way he hath prescribed for his Divine service commanding all mortalls to heare and obey it as they would heare and obey himselfe Whosoever doth the contrary injures God and calleth his Divine veracity in question 9 God is as much injured by Protestants and all others who deny or doubt of what the Roman Catholick Church proposeth in his name as any man can be injured by not being believed when he speakes The injury done to men when they are not believed consists in not trusting them or in not taking their word for the truth though the truth doth not appeare If we doe not trust God and take his Word as it is uttered by the Roman Catholick Church for truth we are resolved not to trust him at all because when any truth is evident to us we cannot receive it by trust from another and if God should speake immediatly to us and declare that himselfe speaketh the truth of his words is as evident to us as it is that he cannot lye and by consequence there is no roome left for trust Therefore either we must trust him and take his Word for truth when he speakes by that Church which hath supernatural signes or not at all and that Church is onely the Roman Catholick That God doth not speake to us immediatly by himselfe as men doe but by the Church doth not diminish the injury but makes it possible It doth not diminish the injury clone to God because it doth appeare as clearly and suffiently by the testimony and supernaturall signes of the Roman Catholick Church that what is by it proposed is Gods Word as it doth appeare by any mans owne testimony and signes of integrity and sincerity that he speaketh truth To be solicitous to knowe evidently who is the Author
out of the Netherlands The prudent King not doubting that to grant this was to betray himselfe and his posterity and bestowe his inheritance upon rebells declared that he would give as little encouragement to new Religions as Charles the V. his Father Whereupon Henry Bredenrod Lewis of Nassau Orange his brother and others of the Nobility headed the Hereticks who profaned Churches sackt Monasteries abused the Clergy and Religious and trampled under their feet the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar Lind. de fug idol Neare Ruremond they were cutting in pieces Saint Authonies image and going to burne it on a suddaine all were toucht with wild fire and dyed the next day They tooke Antwerpe then Orange declared himselfe for them and with all Governour of that famous and rich City 2 Before the Hereticks had committed these outrages they made a procession in Brussells wherein every one carried a medall hanging upon his brest with King Philips image on the one side and on the other two hands joyned with a beggars wallet with this motto Fidi Regi usque ad bisaccium In this manner they presented themselves to Margaret of Parma that then governed the Low Countries for her Brother Surius in Comment Schardius in reb gest sub Maximil Belear lib. 30. alij at which sight when her Highnesse seemed to be frighted the Earle of Barlamont a zealous Catholick told her that nothing was to be feared from such Geuses which is a word of contempt in Walloun and signifies Vagabond Beggars This was the occasion whereby the Hereticks of the Netherlands came to have so honourable a denomination as their brethren the Hugonots in France The Catholicks to be discerned from Hereticks or Geuses wore also medalls about their necks or tyed to their beads with the Image of Christ our Saviour on the one side and on the other his blessed Mother If Hereticks thought it was a profession of fidelity and devotion in themselves to their King to weare and worship his image I see no reason why they should finde fault with Catholicks for wearing medalls or worshipping the images of Christ his Mother and Saints I am sure we meane better to God in doing it then they did to their King when they were called Geuses The King of Spaine was not jealous that they would rebell with his image or make it King there was no danger of such a foppery It s a foppery and madnesse in Hereticks to imagine that God is jealous of Catholicks worshipping his owne or his servants images and as for the pretended danger of Idolatry it is no greater then that which the Geuses did incurre of setting up their medalls for their King or Earle of Flanders The difference betweene our medalls and theirs is that ours is a profession of love respect and devotion which we beare to God and his Saints because they are his servants theirs was a pretext of treachery and rebellion against their Soveraigne who was as farre from their hearts and effections as his image was neare their brests 3 There was never any Prince that did more to humour his Subjects then Philip the Second did for his in the Low Countries First he removed from thence the Duke of Alba because he was thought to be over severe and sent in his place Requesens one of a mild disposition After whose death he was content to confirme the Governours themselves had chosen untill he was advertised that the first act of their government was a league made against the Spaniards at the instance of Orange whose ambition could be satisfied with nothing but the whole Countrey at his owne disposall to which end he caused himselfe to be named Admiral of the Sea turned Don Iohn of Austria out of the Countrey had Brabant joyned to his government of Holland and Zealand imprisoned the Duke of Arschor and two Bishops because they sent for Mathias the Archduke who being arrived was but a cifer Orange being named his Vicar did governe all and obtained liberty of conscience for the Hereticks in all the 17. Provinces that thereby his friends and faction might encrease after Mathias his departure he sends for the Duke of Anjou a cifer also but thinking by his meanes to engage France in the quarrell was content to let him have the title of Governour and Master keeping all the power in his owne hands 4 All those things were done by Orange with that ordinary and specious pretext of rebellion the liberty of the Subject and of conscience whereby many Catholicks were deceived and joyned with him and his Hereticks But they perceiving at lengthy that nothing would satisfy Orange and that he aymed at making himselfe Master of his Confederats and to that end promoted heresy thereby to engage the people more against their Catholick King endeare them to himselfe and that many insolences were committed by the Geuses and countenanced by their Protector Orange Hannonia Artois and some other Provinces declared against him and his ambitious hereticall proceedings The King also seeing that Orange would be contented with no lesse then the propriety and dominion of all the Low Countries promised great rewards by proclamation to any person that would kill him Whereupon in the yeare 1584. this Rebell was sent to the other world by one Gerard a Burgundian If he had lived longer perhaps the United Provinces had beene a Kingdome not a Commonwealth for its certaine his designe and desire was not to make them a free State though he freed them from their obedience to the King of Spaine And albeit by his policy he made them cast of one yoke he oppressed them with another farre more intolerable that is with heresy whereby they became slaves to the Devill and rebells against God and the Church Thus we see how the multitude hath beene misled by one politick head that concealed his ambition with the zeale of a new Religion and the ancient liberties of his Nation SECT VI. Of the Protestant Church of England in King Edward the VI. his time 1 IT s now time to drawe homeward and examine whether the Protestant Church of England be also a branch of Policy That luxury and covetcousnesse was the occasion of denying the Popes jurisdiction and supremacy is evident by our Chronicles in the life of Henry the VIII who being weary of Queene Catharine of Spaine and despairing or issue male by her as also enamoured of Anne Bullen desired the Pope to declare null a marriage that no person living called in question for the space of 20. yeares but now forsooth it was against Seripture because Saint Iohn Baptist told Herod that it was not lawfull for him to keepe his brothers wife in the lifetime of his brother and himselfe being also married If Prince Arthur were living the text had made as much for Henry the VIII as for Herods brother Yet King Henryes tender conscience could not be quiet untill Anne Bullen were Queene of England therefore he bribed Universities abroad and
threatned those of his owne Kingdome to the end they might subscribe to his wicked passion Act of Parl. an 1. Mariae c. 1. and because the Pope refused to doe the same Henry declared himselfe Pope in his owne Dominions and all others to be Traitors that refused to sweare his supremacy And because many refused to damne their soules by knowne perjury he tooke away their lives amongst others that suffered death for refusing the oath were two Cardinals three Bishops thirteen Abbots Priors David Camer Scot. lib. 4. c. 1. Monkes and Priests five hundred Archdeacons fourteen Canons threesoore Doctors fifty Dukes Marqueses and Earles with their children twelve Barons and Knights twenty nine Gentlemen three hundred thirty six Citizens a hundred thirty foure Women of quality a hundred and ten In this Ocean of innocent and noble bloud was laid the first stone and fundation of the English Protestant Church it s no mervaile that it thrived no better 2 Notwithstanding Henry the VIII wickednesse he never permitted any new Sects to be professed in England during his reigne though many crept in by Cranmers negligence and connivance In the latter end of his reigne he felt the remorse of his guilty conscience and did often resolve with himselfe to be reconciled to the Church of Rome but know not how it might be done with his honour which he preferred before that of God and the salvation of his soule even in his last sicknesse for sending to Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Wâ—…ester who was the onely man that durst speake truth to the King for his advice he exhortâ—d him to declare and recant his errour in Parliament if God would give him life if not to testifie repentance with his hand and seale assuring him that God would accept his good will if time were wanting to performe what he desired This was resolved upon but as soone as Gardiner departed he fell of from his pious resolution and within a short time dyed despairing of Gods mercy because quoth he I never spared man in my wrath nor woman in my lust His last words were All is lost The greatest Policy and Majesty upon earth comes at length to be nothing and repentance differed doth commonly end in despaire and damnation 3 To King Henry the VIII succeeded in his Kingdome and Headship of the Church his sonne Edward the VI. a child of 9. yeares old His tender age was a faire oportunity for heresy and policy to conspire against Catholick Religion which had never beene suppressed in England untill that time His Uncle and Protector Seamor declared himselfe a Zwinglian and established that Sect in England by Act of Parliament but could not exclude the name of Bishops that had beene so much reverenced in the Nation since it was converted to Christianity though they looked upon the Ordination both of Priests and Bishops as upon a superstition of Rome and badge of Antichrist Witnesse their translating in the Bible Ordination by imposition of hands as Saint Hierome D. Greg. Martin in his Discovery of the corruptions of holy Scriptures by English Sectaries chap. 6. and all the Fathers doe the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ordination by election and for the word Priest they alwayes translated Elder for Priesthood Eldership Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury who ought to have opposed these wicked practises did accommodate himselfe to the times and prevailing party in King Henryes time he writ a booke in defence of the reall presence and now in King Edwards time he writ another against it both which bookes Bishop Bonner of London produced to his face Fox pag. 1200. col 1. num 2. Persons cap. 7. num 32. when Cranmer and Ridley were sitting in judgement against him to deprive him of his Bishoprick 4 After that the Zwinglian Clergy of England had corrupted Scripture and wrested both words and sense to their owne hereticall and mad fancies they composed their book of Common prayer and instituted a new forme of making Priest and Bishops which was rather a declaration and protestation against holy Orders then a manifestation or the Ordainers power and intention or of the effects of that Sacrament It s a received principle amongst all men who knowe any thing that a Bishop or Priest cannot be validly consecrated without words involving the name or at least the particular power and authority of a Bishop or Priest in the English forme of Ordination the names are not mentioned and the power or authority is not so much as insinuated The power and authority of a Priest must involve power to make Christs Body and Blond really present as our English Protestant Doctors now confesse whether with or without Transubstantiation is not the controversy let them examine whether any such power be mentioned in their forme which is this Receive the holy Ghost English Rituall printed at London 1607. whofe sinnes thou doest forgive they are forgiven and whofe sinnes thou doest retaine they are retained and be thou a faithfull Dispenser of the Word of God and his holy Sacraments in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost To dispense ot minister â—he Sacraments come farre short of declaring power to consecrate the elements or make present Christs Body Deacons did minister and dispense the Body of Christ to the people in ancient times but were never thought to have power to consecrate or make present Christs Body and Bloud They have no reason to cite Santa Clara in their behalf Franc. à S. Clara in exposit paraphr Confess Anglic. artic 36. I knowe not his intention but I am sure his words favour not their Ordination and much lesse these of Innocent the IV. Sussiceret Ordinatori dicere sis Sacerdos vel alia aequipollentia Be thou a Priest or some words equivalent but they who blotted the word Priest out of Scripture never thought to make use of it in the forme of their Ordination and they who denyed the reall presence were farre from expressing in their forme of making Priests any power to consecrate or make present Christs Body and Bloud in the Sacrament and Sacrifice of the Altar 5 Their forme of making Bishops is no lesse deficient then the former The words are Take the holy Ghost and remember that thou stirre up the grace of God which is in thee by imposition of hands for God hath not given us the spirit of feare but of power love and sobernesse This advertisement of Saint Paul to Timothy after he had made him Bishop doth suppose 2. ad Tim. 1. and not give the Order of Episcopacy it is an admonition to exercise the function and not the ordination it selfe because it doth not declare in particular the name or authority of a Bishop Take the holy Ghost is said to Priests as well as to Bishops and the spirit of love power and sobernesse is communicated also by Priesthood Here is nothing peculiar to Episcopall Ordination But the truth is
in the pulpit on a suddaine he became speechlesse carried out of the Church he recovered strength the use of his toungue but returning to the pulpit his speech failed him the second time returning the third time to preach he never spoke word more and was carried into a Catholick Gentlemans house his great friend and old acquaintance who perceiving that Iewell had not lost his senses with his speech sent for pen inke and paper put the dying man in minde of Gods mercy desired him not to despaire of it and to recant his heresy and his seducing of the simple people contrary to his owne conscience Iewell tooke the pen and he writ these words I am sorry for the many falsifications I have made both of Scripture and Fathers with that the pen fell out of his hand and he expired These are our Protestant Euangelists and Bishops 8 As for their inferiour Clergy I will give you a briefe Catalogue made by that famous Doctor Stapleton Counterblast lib 4. num 481. printed an 1567. who lived in those times And wherein I pray you saith he resteth a great part of your new Clergy but in butchers cookes catchpoules and coblers diers and dawbers fellons carrying their marke in their hand instead of a shaven crowne fishermen gunners harpers in keepers merchants and mariners netmakers potters potycaries and porters of Belingsgate pinners pedlers ruffling ruffins sadlers sheermen and sheaperds tanners tilers tinkers trumpeters weavers Whenrymen c. This rable rout of meane and infamous persons did cast so foule an aspersion upon our Protestant Clergy that even to this day the most ordinary Citizens thinke their family disgraced when any of their nearest kindred become Ministers though they be in a most certaine way to the best preferments an evident argument that either their function is but a meere mockery or that their layty hath no Religion I attibute this contempt to a malediction of God that hangs over the heads of false Preachers unsent uncalled unconsecrated as on the other side it must be a blessing of God that in the Roman Catholick Church Priests and Religious are more esteemed for their function and profession then for their abilities and quality be they never so great notwithstanding that in all Countreys many of the best Nobility and Gentry consecrate themselves to God in a religious and ecclesiasticall state of life a thing so rare amongst Hereticks that when they come to Catholick Kingdomes they are apt to mistake and talke of Priests and Friers as they did at home of their owne Nags-head Ministers but I hope they will learne good manners how obstinate soever they remaine in their errours 9 The triumphant Protestant Church doth not a little resemble their militant described by Stapleton Whosoever will peruse Fox his Acts Monuments and Calendar with Persons his Annotations may easily discerne what great difference there is betweene Protestant and Catholick Saints their miracles and ours The Protestant Legend and Martyrologe is stuffed onely with tinkers coblers butchers taylors and their pratling wives put to death in Queene Maries reigne by vertue of the ancient Lawes of Christian Emperours and Kings of England such as are yet in force against the Jewes but Queene Elizabeth made new Lawes against Catholicks and put them to death for not embracing a new heresy for which her selfe would have beene burnt in any Christian Countrey few yeares before if she had professed the same doctrine that now she imposed upon others That you may guesse at their Saints by their miracles I will give you a sight of Two propheticall and miraculous visions described by honest Iohn Fox in this manner Fox pag. 1843. See Persons his third part of the three Conversions of England cap. 7. n. 62. The Friday night before Master Rough Minister of the Congregation in London who was a Dominican Friar in Scotland was taken being in his bed he dreamed that he saw two of the guard leading to prison Cuthbert Simpson Deacon of the said Congregation Whereupon being sore troubled he awaked and called his wife saying Kate strike light for I am much troubled with my brother Cuthbert this night When she had so done he gave himselfe to read on his booke And then feeling sleepe to come upon him he put out the candle and so gave himselfe to rest againe but being a sleepe he dreamed the like dreame and awaking therewith said 0 Kate my brother Cuthbert is gone And so they lighted a candle and rose This is one miracle which Fox recounteth 10 Now shall you heare another miracle of Simpson himselfe set downe also in Fox his owne words Fox pag. 1844. The day before Simpson was condemned saith he Cloney the keeper of his prison being gone forth about eleven of the clock towards midnight Cuthbert Simpson whether in a slumber or being awaked I cannot say heard one coming in first opening the outward dore then the second after the third and so looking in to the said Cuthbert having no candle nor toarch that he could see but giving a brightnesse and light most comfortable and joyfull to his heart saying Ha unto him and so departed againe Who it was he could not tell neither dare I define saith Fox But I dare say it was Cloney the keeper that came to watch his prisoner with a light in his hand or perhaps the Protestant Deacon dreamed or fancied in the darke that one came in and said Ha unto him which may passe for a Protestant supernaturall vision and miracle Fox maketh a long discourse why the dreame of a married Friar and the imagination of Simpson the Deacon ought to be looked upon and believed as miraculous and would have all Catholick visions mistrusted and rejected though never so authentically related or recorded 11 But the greatest miracle of the English Protestant Church was Queene Elizabeth her selfe that embrued her cruell hands in the royall bloud of Mary Steward lawfull heire to the Crowne of England this English Iezabel not content to usurpe The Kingdome deprived her also of her life and put to death many noble persons that by their innocent bloud she might colour her supremacy and bastardy I will not relate what others write of her life and manners for honour of the English Nation her miracles were to have raised upstarts and hereticks from nothing and annihilated the ancient Nobility and Gentry that continued Catholicks contrary to her penall Lawes and Statutes In the beginning of her reigne was celebrated that venerable Synod or Nags-head Ministers and reverend coblers tinkers c. wherein the Protestant Creed of 39. articles was coyned the greatest part whereof consists in not believing and declaring against the Catholick Religion As her Majesty lived betweene Maid and Wife so did her Protestant Church florish betweene hauke and buzard betweene Calvin and Luthers Reformation It s strange to see how even to this day Protestant Ministers doe extoll this Queene as if she were the patterne of Religion and
chastity They are beholding to her for their Ordination which she made good and valid by her supreme authority notwithstanding any matter or nullity of forme to the contrary as you may see by an Act of Parliament Act of Parliam 8. Eliz 1. in the 8. yeare of her reigne which relates to the Records of her Letters Patents but not to any of her Bishops consecration at Lambeth as our Nags-head Ministers would faine make poore seduced soules believe and cite for a witnesse of the solemne Ordination of Parker at Lambeth so honourable a person as Charles Howard Earle of Nottingham and Lord Admiral of England but they durst not name him in Masons first edition because he was then living and would have contradicted so notorious an untruth eight or nine yeares after in the second edition they name this noble person When he was dead and yet not as an eye witnesse of the imaginary Ordination but as a guest at the banket I doubt not but Master Parker might invite the Earle of Nottingham to dine with him at Lambeth many times especially if he was his kinsman as Masons pretends but its evident he never assisted at his consecration if his Lorship was not at the Nags-head in Cheapside when Scory made him a Bishop with a knock of his Protestant Bible bidding him to take authority to preach the Word of God sincearly SECT VIII Of the English Protestant Church in King Iames and his Sonnes reigne 1 KIng Iames had too much wit to be of Calvins Religion though his education was committed to Calvinists he did perceive that it was not invented for the good of Princes but rather for their ruine and that petty Ministers and poore Elders might beare the sway in Christian Commonwealths Being called by the English Councell and Nobility to the possession of that Crown which descended to him by the evident right of his mother Mary Steward his first thoughts in England were bent against the Puritanicall discipline as one who had beene sufficiently disciplined by the Kirk of Scotland Therefore he commanded a Synod to be celebrated in London wherein himselfe was declared spirituall Head of the Church and 141. Canons made for the suppression of Puritanisme the Bible was corrected in such places onely as seemed to condemne the Puritanicall discipline and doctrine Traditiones was translated Tradition and not Ordinances or Documents as in Queene Elizabeths dayes Idols were not translated Images nor their worshippers Idolaters as formerly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was not interpreted now Ordination by election but by imposition of hands because all this was necessary to confute Puritans Yet all other corruptions that seemed to condemne Catholick Relâ—gion were applauded as much as before in Queene Elizabeths reigne Though Hell was not translated grave nor soule carcasse yet other devices were found to divert mens thoughts from a third place betweene heaven and hell and therefore Saint Peters words wherein he declares that Christs soule did descend to Limbus Patrum 1. Pet. 3. v. 18.19 were translated thus Quickened by the spirits by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison c. whereas the true translation is Quickened or alive in his spirit or soule in which spirit or soule he coming preached to them also that were in prison 2 The new translation which King Iames caused to be made Knot in his Protestancy condemned pag. 89. was overseene corrected and altered by Doctor Abbats of Canterbury and Smith of Glocester as Sir Henry Savill told Master Richard Montague afterwards pretended Bishop of Chichester and of Norwich For Master Montague wondring that Sir Henry to whose care was committed the translating of Saint Peters Epistles would pervert the sense of the Apostle about Christs descent into hell Sir Henry answered that the forenamed Bishops corrupted and altered the said Translation made by King Iames his order This was to transforme the very Scripture into Policy and slight both conscience and Religion Let any sober person judge how scrupulous would Master Abbots be and the other pretended Bishops in his time to forge and falsify Masons Records to the end they might make good imposition of hands at Lambeth when so impudently and wickedly they corrupted Gods Word fearing that by force of the text they should be forced to admit of Limbus Patrum and from thence be lead into Purgatory but none who dyes in the Protestant Religion needs feare going thither In the same Translation they have translated Gal. 5.17 The flesh lusteth against the spirit so that ye cannot doe the things ye would whereas the Greeke and Latin is Ye doe not de facto the things ye would And to prove their heresy averring a necessity and Divine precept for all persons to receive both kindes 1. Cor. 11. v. 27. They falsely translate thus Whosoever shall eate this bread and drinke this cup of the Lord unworthily c. Whereas both in the Latin and Greeke it is Whosoever shall eate this bread or drinke this chalice c. which disjunctive or cannot inferre the necessity of both kindes as the conjunctive and might seeme to doe both here and in other places if by this they were not so clearly interpreted And because the Protestant Clergy even in King Iames and his Sonnes reigne were loath to depart with their wives though they pretended to be as true Priests as the Apostles they did not correct the false translation of 1. Cor. 1. Have not we power to lead about a wife as if Saint Paul had one and the rest of the Apostles they notwithstanding put in King Iames his Translation woman in the margen but wife remained in the text They did not correct the corrupting of 2. Pet. 1. Labour that by good workes you make sure your vocation and election they leave out good workes as they have done also in Queene Elizabeths translations though it be in all the Latin and in the most authentike Greeke copies 3 It were tedious to mention all the falsifications of the English translations of Scripture and these I hope are sufficient to prove that in King Iames and King Charles reigne there was as little Religion in the Church of England as in Queene Elizabeths Scripture was made speake whatsoever Courtiors and Polititians fancied and desired It was ridiculous to see how the Church did on a suddaine accommodate it selfe to the Court and how Bancroft pretended Bishop of London after of Canterbury did write and preach for Episcopacy as a distinct order of Priesthood in King Iames his reigne whereas a little before he answered Master William Alabuster when he objected that no Bishop laid hands Holiwood lib. de investig Christi Ecclesia cap. 4. or ordained Parker and his Camerades that a single Priest might ordaine Bishops in case of necessity Truly he was put to a necessity of giving this answer because the Nags-head Ordination could not be contradicted nor Masons forged Records produced 4 Before King Iames was in
world if in the other he must for all eternity be but a coale to keepe in and inflame hell fire 8 In the yeare 1564. Queene Mary Steward after her returne from France married the Lord Henry Steward a Prince of the bloud royall both of Scotland and England and though Murray the Queenes base brother advised her to marry this same Prince he joyned in rebellion with the Hereticks and other seditious men against her Majesty for marrying but they were soone quasht and the heads of the faction retired into England where with Queene Elizabeth they brewed a new rebellion and to give it a better colour and successe then the former had it was thought expedient to sowe sedition and jealousies betweene the Queene and her husband who having but 22. yeares of age and being high minded had not from her Majesty that unlimited power which he desired This restriction of the yong Prince his authority was thought to proceed from the advice of David Rizius the Queenes Secretary a grave and understanding man and a severe observer of hereticall designes The Lord Henry Steward being persuaded by the Hereticks that this old man was the onely obstacle of not having all the government in his owne hands resolved to dispatch him out of the way and to that end leads a company of armed Hereticks into the Queenes chamber she being at supper and great with child of King Iames at her feete whither he repaired for protection was the poore Secretary murthered and the Queene so barbarously dealt withall that it was strange she did not dye in the place or miscarry which was all that the Hereticks aymed at But her husband reflecting upon his passion and folly being also advertised by some of the company that the Hereticks made him but an instrument of his owne ruine he entered to the Queenes chamber with pretext of causing her to signe a paper in favour of the murtherers and there acknowledging his fault both got away privatly to the Castle of Dumbar raised forces dissipated the Army of their Enemies some whereof were executed but Murray the bastard that plotted all the mischiefe was pardoned at the instance of Queen Elizabeth who was resolved by this Hereticks meanes to destroy his Sister the innocent Queene of Scots as afterwards happened 9 Prince Henry Steward considering that Queene Elizabeths kindnesse to the bastard Murray was grounded upon her hatred to his Queen and himselfe was resolved to prevent his owne death by permitting Justice have its right against a man who employed all his thoughts in rebellious designes he communicated his resolution with the Queene but she being of a more mercifull and mild disposition then the times and troubles required disswaded her husband from putting him to death though even after his last pardon there was proofe enough of treason He perceiving that the Prince looked upon him as a Traitor dealt with his confederats about murthering the Prince and promised to Iames Heburne Earle of Bothuel that he should be married to the Queene if he would kill her husband the rest of his hereticall Cabale put their hands to this engagement whereupon Bothuel murthered Henry Steward in his bed not farre from Edinburg at a Countrey house whether he had gone for his recreation and afterwards tooke the Queene prisoner as she was returning from visiting her child King Iames who was nursed at Sterling Bothuel forced his prisoner to be his wife assuring her no other hopes were left for her selfe other sonne to survive Prince Henry but his protection who was of great power amongst the hereticks as then he imagined but the contrary was soone discovered for the very same hereticks that set him upon killing the Prince and marrying the Queene raised an Army to ruine him and professed to the Queene they had no other dâ—signe in raising forces but to revenge the death of her husband whereof they knew Bothuel to be the Author and humbly desired her Majesty would be pleased to deliver him up to Justice and receive them into her grace protesting to live and dye in her obedience Bothuel was delivered to their hands whom they let escape but the poore Queene contrary to their oath and engagement was not onely made prisoner but reviled and afronted in the highest degree laying to her charge that she had murthered her husband and to make her odious and infamous to the whole Kingdome and Christian world they carried before her all the way to Edinburg the picture of her husband dead with many wounds and her little sonne painted by his fathers corps praying to God for justice against his mother This is the faith and fruit of heresy and policy When Polititians heads direct Hereticks hands we may expect nothing but such tragicall stories as this is Queene Elizabeth by destroying this poore Lady aymed at the establishment of her owne usurpation and security Murray by her death had hopes to governe Scotland Knox Buchanan and the rest of the hereticall crue looked upon the setling of Calvins Reformation and Discipline and to that end advised that the innocent Queene should be put to death of the same opinion was her good brother the bastard Murray but that glory was reserved for our Virgin Queene of England whose malice could not be satiated with afronts afflictions and many yeares imprisonment untill at length upon a publike stage the most vertuous and renowned Queene of Scots lost her head against the Law of Nature and Nations by the command of a Iezabel that cruell head heart and darling of the venerable Protestant Church of England 10 Before it was resolved by the Assembly of Hereticks whether the Queene should dye it was decreed the government of the Kingdome should be resigned to her sonne and in his minority being then but 13. moneths old to Murray and his Camerades Hereupon the Infant was declared King and in stead of the Masse honest Iohn Knox made a sermon against that holy Sacrifice and all Catholick Tenets and ceremonies recommending much to the people the observance of his Calvinian Discipline Morton and Humes swore in the young Kings name to set up the new Religion and pull downe the old which was already brought so lowe that the Queene could scarce finde one Catholick Priest to baptize her sonne the same did celebrate her husbands funerall whom she commanded to be buried in her fathers Tombe wherewith these two Catholick Princes King Iames the V. and Prince Henry Steward lyeth also enterred the Catholick Religion that for so many ages had florished in Scotland Duke Hamilton and his brother Iohn Archbishop of Saint Andrews the Earles of Huntley and Argile with many others of the Nobility protested against the oath that was taken in the Kings name of destroying that Faith which his Majesty and themselves had inherited from their noble Progenitors yet the Queene of Scots being made prisoner by Queene Elizabeth and most of the Catholick Nobility being killed in her quarrell Murray Knox and other Hereticks
have evidence that his Law or Statute doth not contradict the Law of God his legislative power must be subordinate to Christian Religion Henry the VIII Edward the VI. and Queene Elizabeths penall Statutes are evidently against the Law of God and Christian Religion if we may credit antiquity and stick to the Faith and practise of the Church and Catholick Princes that went before them not onely in England but in all other Christian Kingdomes No persons living have any other evidence for the Law of God and Catholick Religion but the test mony of the immediatly precedent age confirmed with supernaturall signes all former ages speake to us by the mouth of the last with which we conversed we must cake their word for all the rest and for the sense as well as for the letter of Scripture The 14. age delivered to the 15. the Roman Catholick Faith which we now professe assuring that it was the true sense of Scripture which they had learned from the 13. age and so forth to the Apostles What evidence had Henry the VIII or his daughter Queen Elizabeth to oppose against the testimony of all former ages confirmed with so many miracles and to make Statutes against the knowne and practised Law of God and Christianity His luxury and his daughters bastardy are the onely evidence which Protestants can produce for the ground of penall Lawes against the Popes supremacy and other points of the Roman Catholick Religion an excellent foundation of Protestant Lawes Justice and Judicature 3 To pronounce sentence of death losse of goods or banishment against persons without any proose is rather tyranny then injustice The greatest crimes even that of treason require at least one lawfull witnesse let Protestant produce but one lawfull witnesse against the Religion of Catholicks and their sense of Scripture and we will not murmure against their penall Lawes and rigourous proceedings Antiquity affords them none because though in divers ages some odde men did testify sometimes one errour of theirs sometimes another they were in those very times contradicted by the whole Catholick Church and declared infamous Impostours and Hereticks In this present age no Protestants can be lawfull witnesses for their owne Religion or against ours because their testimony cannot be valid against so constant and universall a tradition as we Catholicks have for our Doctrine and sense of Scripture It s as ridiculous and unjust in a Judge to pronounce sentence against Roman Catholicks for their Religion upon the evidence and testimony of Protestancy as if he had in open Court condemned men to forfeit their estates and ancient inheritance upon the word of a mad fellow that produceth no other evidence to confirme his claime but interiour motions of the spirit of coveteousnesse and ambition or some obscure text of the Law appliable to all cases and subjects for all the Protestant evidence is reduced to the private spirit and the pretended clearnesse of Scripture If this be not to destroy the foundation of Justice and the forme of Judicature Protestants have a different way of proceeding from all other Nations and have altered the stile of naturall reason humane nature and the practice of all antiquity 4 They cannot excuse their persecution against Catholicks with the example of Christian Emperours and Kings that both for zeale of Religion and humane Policy to avoid the danger of rebellion made Lawes and Statutes against Hereticks and Innovatours of the ancient Faith and sense of Scripture which descended to them by tradition from the Apostles Protestants take the quite contrary way they make Lawes and Statutes against the ancient Religion and knowne sense of Gods Word and persecute Catholicks for professing it whereas their Predecessours Emperours and Kings punished new Religions and Novelists This last was lawfull in secular Princes but the practise of Protestants is unjust and wicked because it destroyes Justice and the true Religion confirmed by the publike testimony and practise of the Christian world since the Apostles time to this present If the Roman Catholick Religion were not the true Apostolicall Faith but as new as Protestants pretend how is it possible that in history there should be no mention made of any person that suffered as an Heretick for broaching or maintaining any one point which we now professe If any Doctrine of ours were judged an heresy or a novelty by antiquity without doubt we had not all escaped the rigour of penall Lawes made against Hereticks and Novelists I am sure Protestants cannot brag nor say so much for their owne Doctrine many if not all the points whereof have beene condemned as heresy by the Church in ancient times and punished as novelties by Christian Kings and Emperours which was the onely reason that moved the first English Protestants to cause the young child Edward the VI. when he knew not what he did to repeale all the Lawes and Statutes that any Christian King of England and the Kingdome had made against Hereticks being convinced that themselves and not Catholicks were comprehended in that number All who suffered persecution or death for any point of the Roman Religion were looked upon by the Catholick Church in all ages as glorious Confessours and renowned Martyrs Amongst the most pretious jewells of the Easterne Church were accompted such as were put to death for defending the worship of Images against the Iconuclasts Baron an 723. Conc. Nicaen 2. Act. 5. who were the first that persecuted Christians for that Doctrine at the instance of one Serantapicus a Magician and a Jew that promised to Gizedo Prince of the Saracens he should live 30. yeares if he would command all Images to be taken away and not worshipped in his Dominions by the Catholicks But Gizedo dying within a yeare and a halfe his sonne Vlidus condemned the Jew to death as a perfidious lmpostour and the Images were worshipt as formerly untill three yeares afterwards Leo Isaurus the heretick Emperour at the instance also of Jewes Concil Nicaen 2. Baron an 726. raised that most terrible persecution against the Catholick Church for practising so pious a custome which had continued amongst Christians without the least danger of idolatry since the time of the Apostles to that present and t will not be interrupted untill the day of judgement notâ—ithstanding the clamours endeavours and vaine pretended feares of Protestant zealots in behalfe of Serantapicus their Patriarch and his Hebrew tribe their loving brethren 5 Their persecution against Catholicks can be no more excused by the proceedings of the Spanish and Italian Inquisition Of the Inquisition then their penall Statutes have beene by the Lawes of ancient Kings and Emperours against Hereticks 1. Because the Inquisition proceeds according to the rules and forme of Justice none is declared an Heretick or guilty by a new Law or oath made onely to the end that by them men may be intrapped both in soule body and estate it was no crime in England to be a Catholick before
his Prince for not punishing or banishing his evill Councellours and these who looke more upon their owne preservation then the Prince his safety or honour engage him more and more in their quarell by perswading him that to Rebells nothing must be granted who at length get all by force with the ruine of their Soveraigne and his posterity All this you may see verified in the life of Edward the Second King of England 3 But in case the quite contrary way be taken and that the Subjects to comply with perverse inclinations and those who are in power strive who shall be most wicked from thence must greater danger arise to the Prince then from any other emulation or discontent Vertuous men are few and consequently the Prince may without great difficulty finde them employments but if vice be rewarded he will not finde in his Kingdome wherewith to content half the number of dishonest pretenders and to satisfie some few of them is to disgust all the rest who being men of as little honour as conscience will make use of their number and power to obtaine what they could not by favour and will clime up to the height of their ambition by force and wicked devices This is the reason why Princes ought to esteeme and reward vertue and discountenance vice and why none ought to be of his Councell whose integrity is not notorious to his Subjects for how can a Prince discountenance vice if his Favourits be vicious and dishonest persons Their ill example may be his ruine because all men who desire to be preferred will prostitute their consciences to the Favourits will and pleasure and neglect his Master and when the Favourit hath gained the greatest part of the Subjects to his owne devotion perhaps he will plot something against the Soveraignes person and promote to the royall Throne some of his owne relations A Prince cannot be too suspicious and jealous of dishonest Councellours the greatest tye of fidelity being conscience they who have none must prove disloyall whensoever it stands with their conveniency Therefore it s most dangerous and want of true Policy in Princes to trust themselves or their affaires in the hands of such men for though it be their interest this day to be faithfull to their King it may be the contrary to morrowe I am sure it can never be his interest to stick to them or owne their dishonest proceedings The interest of Kings lyeth in the affection of his Subjects and its impossible they should affect a King who not onely protects but ownes manifest injustices Subjects are men and as apt to resent and revenge injuries as the Soveraigne He must handle them very gently and not expose them to the contempt or tyranny of wicked Ministers for though they may have patience for a time at length they may growe furious and he will finde himselfe mistaken in their temper when it is too late to dismisse or punish those who occasioned their distempers 4 Amongst all Princes ruined by the wickednesse of Ministers none is more to be pittied then Edward the VI. of England because he could as little depose as choose his Counsellours being alwayes in his minority It is the opinion of most Writers that Dudley Duque of Northumberland after beheading Seamour the Protectour did poyson the King to the end his sonne Guilford who married the Lady Iane Gray might in her right be King and himselfe in the right and reigne of his sonne governe England excluding Queene Mary and the Queene of Scots I doe not thinke that any history can give testimony of more dishonest Counsellours in one time and in one Kingdome then we read of in this poore childs reigne Seamour himselfe violated his oath and promise given to Henry the VIII that no new Religion should be brought into England during the Kings minority Afterwards he caused his owne brother to be beheaded The Duque of Northumberland plotted the Kings death dissembled his Faith which at length upon the scaffold he professed dying a Roman Catholick and exhorting the Nation to sticke to that Religion But what I desire Princes should reflect upon is how dangerous it is for them to have Counsellours void of all Religion and conscience A man would thinke that Dudley could have no other interest but that of King Edward whom he ruled together with the Kingdome and yet we see how farre he went to fetch a contrary interest and by what wicked and dishonest wayes There is no interest remote or too farre from one of a large conscience if he be perswaded its more for his purpose then the present which he manageth Let Princes therefore countenance vertue and banish vice from their Courts and Counsells if they have any care of their owne interest and security But now let us see CHAP. XIII How necessary it is for a Statesman to be a man of honour and of his word and how great a difference there is betweene Policy and Craft 1 ALl Statesmen must be Gentlemen in their actions They must shunne as much meane wayes in themselves as they must seeme not to dislike of them in other meane persons whom they employe or entertaine as necessary and base instruments They must countenance spyes but scorne to be spyes themselves The maxime of a Statesman must be not to betray any man that confides in him for the food of Policy is information and knowledge of businesses which none will give that is afraid of being betrayed A man may be faithfull to his Prince without being a Traitour to his Subjects or any other and the favour of a Minister with his Prince must not be grounded upon information of other mens defects but upon his owne services strength of judgement and dexterity of managing affaires He who creeps into favour by telling tales and such meane wayes is rather a petty spy and informer then a wise Statesman I have knowne a great Minister of State who told a Gentleman that desired to be advised by him he would helpe him in what he could but warned him before hand that he would make use of any thing he heard for his Masters service and therefore bid him consider whether it was for his purpose to communicate unto him any secrecy This was honourable and plaine dealing he would serve his King and not betray others and yet this Minister of State is knowne to be as faithfull to his Master as ever Subject was to Prince having lost for his service as great an estate as any Subject in our parts of Christendome doth possesse 2 There are some persons that place the essence of a Polititian in being a Favourite of that faction which actually beareth sway they thinke it wisdome though not worth to change their friends as often as these doe their fortune and which is worse to become enemies or those who raised them from nothing because it s so necessary to humour the present power Such cut-purses and cut-throates are the infamy of Courts and the