were I of their counsell I would wish them to spare to see how far the Iesuiticall presumption would wage against the Sea-Apostolicke and wrangle with it As for the point of Schisme discided you may see by it how erroneous a societie these Loyolians are and how no assurance it hath at all of the holy Ghost wherein it vaunts it selfe so equal with the Pope and a general Councell seeing the holy Ghost hath herin so iudicially condemned it Also you may see by this how corrupt a man the Archpriest is who in so grosse an errour bringing schisme with it could let himselfe be so instrumentally led by those fathers against his owne deare brethren of the Seminaries and the famous vniuersitie of Paris all for a litle fopperie of Prelature and how in this respect he is most vnworthy of the same Lastly you may see herby that Brag is not alwayes a good dogge nor yet the inquisition nor the gallies of force against innocence as the Iesuits presumed especially where the holy Ghost sits in iudgement Be this good Cosin all our comfort till we see farther of the Appeale toward which take ye this peece of a letter from a gentleman in Rome as a handsil or in part of good speed in the meane time against the still flying falsheads of the Iesuiticall in the earth in the sea in the ayre A peece of a Letter of an English Gentleman in Rome to a friend of his in France of the same Date FVrthermore whereas the Priests in consideration that father Parsons had spred so many foule speeches of them abroad demaunded of his Holinesse that the said father Parsons should set downe in writing all he had to say against them to the end they might in like sort answer and cleare themselues and that in thirtie dayes respite he had giuē vp what he could say the Pope vnderstāding all said that he was already satisfied touching al those points by that which he had heard before and so not suffering these accusations to come vnto the Priests hands imposed there an end of such calumnies By this you may see the Priests matter goes forward with honour and iust reputation and I hope shall haue no worse end their demaunds being reasonable the Cardinals iust and the Ambassadours countenance and fauour so singular that they feare no oppression nor doubt but that iustice will preuaile c. M. Bluet is expected shortly at Paris with his Holinesse Breue aforesaid for England and M. Doctor Bagshaw goes to Rome in his place where I feare me he shall not find father Cowbucke forthcomming he being as it is credibly reported imbezelled away from thence by his Generall or rather flat run away vpon a notable check lately giuen him by his Holinesse The Apollogie is answered in Lorraine by M. Doctor Elie and there are some of the bookes readie bound and prest for England by the next Post. To conclude all our newes being hitherto so good and so autenticke verities as they are and the rest that follow after like to proue no lesse let vs beleeue and applaud them and as for those that will not as being Bettle-blinded with the Iesuiticall and Archipresbyteriall-mist away with them Cosin to the next market God saue the Catholicke Church the Queene and her Estates and graunt vs his peace Amen A THIRD LETTER OF Mr. A. C. Appologeticall for himselfe against the calumnies contained against him in a certaine Iesuiticall libell intituled A manifestation of follie and bad spirit c. MY very good Cosin I euer thought that your diuulging my former Letter to you in print would bring me into the spheare of Iesuitical obloquie insomuch as I haue hourely since the edition thereof looked and listened for their contumelies against me which now at last they haue from a full gorge discharged but withall against so full innocence and secure a conscience I thanke God as the shame shall returne vnto themselues Not that I rest cleare neuerthelesse from condemnation in the eye of God and mine owne conscience for a misdemeaned and sinfull life otherwise then whereof this Iesuit impeacheth me for which I may iustly say with the royall Prophet Peccatum meum contra me est semper Ecce enim in iniquitatibus conceptus sum c. And againe Delicta iuuentutis meae ne memineris Domine Yet as touching these his imputations I boldly may and do giue him the lie to the honour of God and your satisfaction and that by protestation except what shall be excepted being exceeding glad and that as I hope in the holy Ghost to be thus onerated and consequently honored with Iesuiticall slaunder with and for so many holy Seminaries and Saints as they haue so serued and daily do nay with and for my most holy mother the Catholike Church whose sacred Hierarchie they no lesse contumeliously impugne Oh Cosin how highly am I bound to God who hath thus respected and exalted the indignitie of these my yonger yeares and lay vocation to deserue ill at the hands of so inward enemies to his eternall spouse and her best members Why may I not hope in this respect that were I as I am the vilest sinner in the world much amends is made therefore vnto my heauenly father And so I take it knowing them to be for the most part at leastwise here in our Church flat schismatickes and seducers and for such alreadie partly condemned by the holy Ghost as by my last to you you vnderstood and also expresse Spanish enemies to our Princesse and Country in regard whereof how litle credit they deserue to haue in any matter especially matter of reproch which is the subiect whereupon they are reprooued at Rome on the behalfe of our Appellants I leaue to your consideration Which aduantage notwithstanding I for my part will not take against them in this my Appollogie to you hauing innocence inough on my side which hath notably layd them open to my reproofe and execution otherwise as now ensuingly you may reade and perceiue Thus then he begins There followeth in the number of these libels one set forth by A. C. intituled An answer to a letter of a Iesuited Gentleman c. See you not Cosin how this fellow euen in the front of his reproches contradicts himselfe in affirming me for a Libeller notwithstanding that he acknowledgeth my name to the booke vz. A. C. which two letters was inough for a Catholicke writing vpon an argument so litle pleasing to the present state and time whereby to be exempt from the note of a Libeller vnlesse I would by setting downe my name at large haue wilfully braued the ciuil-power and penall laws and said thereto as it were Loe I the man come attach me and do the worst ye can It sufficeth that in my originall to you my name was at large as you and it yet extant I suppose in your hands can both witnesse so as your doing it as you haue done 〈◊〉 in the printed
my part who so Catholickly reuerberated Luthers grosse termes against the annointed person of King Henrie vpon the Apostata himselfe howbeit an office he tooke no pleasure in and much more no doubt would he haue bene rough with the outrager of a Priest And why not I the same who I thanke God auow my selfe no lesse Catholicke though nothing neare so good a Catholike as that good Knight why I say should not I by his example haue also a pen to employ in a Priests defence aswell as he Why how sirha Versteghen or Rowland or as thou darest to terme an annointed Priest thou notorious lying knaue whether hath Iesuitisme thus caried thee against thy true spirituall father a secular Priest whether from Catholike dutie yea and all humanitie Are not these termes of thine Percussio Cleri in the highest degree for which thou hast deserued the ceÌ„sure of the Canon a great deale worse to be inflicted vpon thee Hast thou thou base and obscure creature forgotten our Sauiors saying that wherin thou misdoest to any one of these thou mis-doest to me and that who saith to his brother Racha is reâ—… gâ—…ennae ignis much more who saith it to his father Wouldst thou thy selfe wert thou an Apostata a bussard a dissard a lier a base companion an out-cast of the world hatefull to God and man a notorius lying knaue a Iudas yea a dog and no wayes to be ballanced for worthinesse and credite to father Parsons c. be patient to be thus called thou being much part of all these and but a lay mechanical Gana-pan which is a Spanish Epithet that full well thou vnderstandest and in English an earne-bread or bread-earner and yet darest thou to giue a sacred Priest such atributes Art thou not ashamed thou out-cast of the world and no wayes to be ballanced c. after hauing thus wounded thy father to vaunt thy géntrie in the end and blazon thy coate-armour who hadst thou bene a gentleman aforetime hast herein forfaited not onely all that vaine honour but euen the name and honour of a Catholicke and deseruest to be hissed and exploded both out of all ciuill companie and the Catholike Church How is it that holy Church hath not incharged the Ostiarius to whip out of it so impious a vermin as thou against Priesthood aswell as the Iew the vsurer and the dogge How is it that by this thy foule president all Catholickes may not iudge thee for a man that wilt as litle sticke to defloure thine owne sister murther thy mother prostitute thy daughter or do and be worse if worse may be How is it that the Iesuites themselues whose impe and instrument thou art thus to massacre thy true spirituall father do not for their credits sake at least in shew to the Catholicke Church teare thee in peeces Wretch that thou art so farre forth to forget thy selfe and the Catholicke Church thy mother as to contemne thy father Wretch that thou art whom God almighties curse vpon Chams issue for deriding his fathers frailtie could not terrifie from thus doing the like Wretch that thou art whose heart whose head whose hand could be so wicked Wretched goldsmith that thou art neuer hereafter graue thou any holy figure hauing bene herein so highly vnholy Wretched Painter neuer paint thou but Owles and Asses after hauing bene so scurrilous Wretched Coopers sonne as Versteghen or perhaps a Tinkars as Rowland neuer assist thou more at holy altar nor to be partaker of any Sacrament at a Priests hand hauing set Priesthood so at naught Wretch that thou art shun thou henceforward the Communion of Saints hauing thus spet on a Challice which is the cup of life Are these the tyâ—…es thou payest vnto the altar Is this thy kisse vnto the spouse of Christ or weenest thou haply that Honora patrem matrem is not meant spiritually by a Priest and the church but onely carnally by the Cooper thy father and his wife or rather art thou haply ashamed of thy Baptisme and of all the absolutions and holy Ostes that thou euer receiuedst at a Priests hands why thus thou shouldst abuse a Priest like one that were turned worse then Turke Fie on thee wretched Catholicke wretched Gentleman wretched Englishman wretched Painter wretched Coopers sonne and all for being so Iesuiticall Thinkest thou not thou vile and venomous companion that aswell as I and with me all good Catholickes here on earth the very Angels of heauen do not crie shame and vengeance to light on thee Fearest thou not that either thunderboltes from heauen should pash thee or stones in the earth rise vp against thee Fearest thou not that thy name whether of the two or what other I wot not is alreadie written in hell and a place there prepared for thee for hauing thus scandalized all the Catholike Church on earth and the Court of heauen vnlesse thou repent and notably satisfie them both Which how canst thou lesse do or better then like the Scorpion whose bloud rubbed vpon the bodie it hath stung cures the wound so thou with the pen wherewith thou hast transgressed against holy Priesthood make the eternal Priest of the order of Melchizedecke who is to iudge thee another day and Master Watson the same vnder him present amends Else be thou still as thou art a contemptible detestable abhorrible fellow and one euery way to be ballanced for vnworthinesse and discredit to any worse then father Parsons especially to him for base birth binominisme And ouer and aboue all this omitting what plague hangs ouer thy head in heauen and is at thy foote in hell receiue in steed of the coate thou boastest of this other from me more fitly I wisse agreeing to thy bellowes and painting stuffe and to thy fathers tubs and hoops though he good man neuer dreamed I dare sweare of any gold-barres in a scutchion in all his life but rather of halfe-penie siluer in his purse Versteghen alias Rowland c. his Coate HE beares a dunghill fumant proper of two partes on the first a Tub-hoope poudered-scabs nittie on the second a Pensill betweene two Kearne crickets rampant mordant the first Capitall the latter Pectorall proper Vpon a Tub on a Torce of his colours a dasie-Picker crouchant lowsant and coughing backward through his posteriour ragges vpon a Gyrisole This Gyrisole is a Plant that still waites on the Sun And this in liew that I was not at thine elbow when thou wrotest that impious libell whereby I might haue rasht the pen out of thy fist and prickt out thine eyes therwith be mine and with me all good Catholickes easie censure vnto thee till thou crie Peccaui which we will expect Indge ye cosin what shame we can do him lesse who hath done so high scorne to our father howbeit I assure ye it is shame pretie competent to the fellow considering his vaine glorious humour and the gentilitiall Puntoes he stands on being but a Coopers sonne and likewise for
lies blowne not only vpon me being a lay man in this said Libell but also vpon sundrie good Seminaries who haue likewise hunted their foxe-ship and yet do with their sedule pen. It was other with these foxes in the beginning of the day when being fresh a foote and the hunt but scarse vp they had manie a wittie wile manie a pretie frisk and many a slie subterfuge as mental euasions equiuocations tergiuersations hypocrisie and the like wherewith to deceiue the hound and saue themselues whereas now they are come to their pissing-shifts of lie libell as is said Corage good Cosin think their death that is their finall check shame for all their schisme and sins at the Apostolike Pastors hands now at hand seeing that to so grosse and beastly shifts they are fallen as expresse lying against their pursuers It was my chance this other day riding vpon the way to ouertake a Iesuiticall ally of mine a gentleman wel descended and who had suffered much for the Catholike cause at the hands of our common aduersarie first in sundrie prisons and lastly at the Barre and falling into communication with him vpon these matters of the Appeale I found him the man who in litle more then two miles riding did blunder out and that most ass◅uerently seuen as grosse lies as grosse might be and that to my certaine knowledge whom they all concerned Now because for many respects I loue the Gentleman I heartily wish him dis-lesuited for altogether but especially of this veine which is too grosse and so likewise his fat sister I wish she would hang her picture of the Iesuit in the gray gowne now another while in the garret seeing that the presence and sight therof hath heretofore giuen her leaue to Asse and befoole too manie Seminaries Priests farre more reuerend and good men I wisse then he who though they were bad yet better termes might beseeme a modest Catholike gentlewoman on men of their coate Thus much to her because I likewise loue and wish her well and in particular to be rid of her old corne wheresoeuer she be for it is a shreud paine and makes the foote go much awrie By this you may see what a proper Cato this Manifester is to be either taskt by his superiour Iesuit or to take vpon himselfe to censure others who is himselfe so censurable a companion aswel for the inormities of his censure as of the whole course of his life In effect you see that the summe of his said censure is a manifestation of his owne and his societies folly and bad spirite most immense vpon the subiect of detraction and defamation which is the grossest and drossiest argument that my pen can handle and most properly and essentially libellious whereby it appeares that a Iesuit at this day is not only digressed from the finenesse of his institution and primitiall honors as religious Ignatians but also from fine and vertue-like vices wherewith they first of all began to be naught to too too course and scandalous which ere long will bring them to as grosse contempt Not but that this Manifester seemes for his part to continue euen as he first began that is no better nor no worse you hauing heard afore somewhat of his foule birth and life and now seene somewhat of his libell at least if as in the beginning I said he be the man I was once almost of opinion and so were others with me that this Libeller had bene one Garnet the prouincial-father ouer these schismatikes here in England for that I sometimes knew him by the name of Patre Robert◅ a great chalker vpon a wall in the Gregorian-Colledge at Rome and consequently being a Iesuit was likely I thought to be the man thus libelliously to score vp other mēs vices or rather their vertues for vices and not his owne which mostly euerie religious man ought But by reason that his charactering was alwaies with chalk and this authors seemes to be with a cole therfore I quit him of this scādal though not of many others as grosse which gladly also I would for my cosin R. S. his sake somtime his fellow-father in earth with whom he came ouer into England if I mistake not and which kinsman of mine I presume is by this time a Saint in heauen notwithstanding some soule faults of his as from his Iesuitisme All the finenesse that may be so called in this libellious Manifestation is that the author thereof being a meere Iesuit would haue it thought by his wees to be of some secular Priests doing and consequently of Seminarie against Seminarie or at least waies by this sleight to worke it so or if not yet thereby to inuolue the Seminaries in their blames and scandals in the opinion of the vulgar which forasmuch as Stultorum plena sunt omnia they hold for the better boote because the greater But as they haue their forged wees wherewith thus to gull the world so assure your selfe there will not want true wees on the Appellant-side to detect from time to time such their gulleries to their shame which to do is so farre from being Chams manner of fault toward his father Noe they being no waies such good fathers as that those wees neede not to feare Gods like curse vpon them therefore much lesse those fathers owne curses yea not to discouer them I hold rather a matter of irreligion and to deserue Gods anger whom of his great goodnesse we are to beseech rather he to frustrate such their sleights then we to discouer them the notice whereof can no whit edifie our common aduersaries Also we are to beeseech God in the behalfe of such Iesuiticall wees and the like sleights to the disunion of our brethren farther then alreadie they are he to inspire the Seminaries animam vna◅ cor vnū against their common foe as alreadie we plentifully and gladly may see it considering quam bonum quam i◅cundunt est habitare fratres in vnum Well you may see by this as I was a saying how all honest supports begin to faile the Iesuits in their schisme and they forced to trust now daily to lies Mammon and fooles Blessed be God for it sweet Cosin and a faire incouragement may it be to vs to expect hereupon their farther foile then what they haue alreadie receiued at our fathers hands and the holy Ghosts as touching the decided point of schisme namely all their other aggriefes against them being now as we heare committed by his Holinesse to his high court of Inquisition to be examined according to the humble sure of the Appellants by their two Latin bookes the one to his Holinesse the other to that Court it selfe both which I suppose you haue seene This commitment of the cause by his Holinesse the Iesuit-partie here swaggers vpon mightily at this present as vpon a point in the Appellants disgrace and to their glorie which God knowes is but with a weeping inward considering that our
are against these good men Or rather is it not euer seene that the man of guilt drawes backe and dies to thinke of holding vp his hand still holding downe his head before a Iudge In few what greater testimonie of a secure soule and innocence can the Appellants giue vnto the world then their present Appeale and personall proceeding therein yea how much honorable is it in them ouer and aboue such their innocence from schisme which no doubt they will make good they to be withall in this businesse of the Appeale Muri pro domo Domini and also for their countrey against those fierie fathers In respect whereof though as touching the first viz. the point of Schisme his Holinesse haply should inhibit and interdict all pens and tongues in fauour of the Iesuites and Archpriest it seeming to be a meere ecclesiasticall matter and so within the spheare of his Apostolicke actiuitie and office to be seene and obeyed in yet for the other of our countrey such his charge were not of force other then of courtesie forasmuch as it is a meere Secular cause and of State and it an expresse charge of Christ to all subiects Reddere quae sunt Caesaris Caesari aswell as Quae sunt Dei Deo as also the ingenerate law of nature for all men to be loyall to their countrey So as in this case there is no law either of grace nature or moralitie that can tie vs from opposition both with pen and tongue and howsoeuer against these fathers as touching this point whom we know to be no lesse infest foes against our Princesse and countrey then Spaine it selfe is at this day and such as labour nothing more then to betray that sweete portion this sweete plot our countrey to Spaine a meere forreine and Morisco nation Nay more it is a point wherein haply his Holinesse and his predecessors haue bene I will not say too blame but ouerseene inasmuch as what miserie hath this latter age befallen our Church and countrey through new opinions in Religion nor he nor they haue yet duely seene to forestall it as still mistaking the course for it that is not by lenitie and â—…yle toward our Princesse which by all likelihood would more haue preuailed especially at the first yea or yet but by the cleane contrary as by Buls and censures of excommunication and depriuation against her Maiestie through the instigation no doubt of Spaine and lesuits Great pitie it is that so litle politike that holy Sea hath bene and is in ciuill causes namely betwixt these two nations as also betweene others heretofore in the like iarres as ye may copiously reade in histories through her partialitic in affection and yet no maruell neither considering that well we wote his Holinesse-infallibilitie is onely peremptorie through the holy Ghost in matters meerely of faith not of fact So as in the cariage of a matter ofstate more easily may he erre by being a Priest in function rather then a Secular Prince whose kingdome is of this world Very prudently we graunt did his Holinesse interceed betwixt France and Spaine these last yeeres to the happie passe of peace that is as yet betweene those two nations and why might not his Holinesse haue the like happie hand betweene England and Spaine vsing the like indifferencie and zeale to the same effect Which with great reason me thinkes his Holinesse is to do considering that it is as equall good for the honour of England I speake it to gaine the Queene of Englands fauour by his loue and kindnesse if so it please God as to retaine 〈◊〉 the King of Spaine and the house of Austrich by so doing firme 〈◊〉 it What though her Highnesse be a woman is she therefore the lesse worthy to be faire spoken by the Apostolicke Pastor whose pipe ought to be all melodie if it might winne her or rather not the worthier for that Much more then for being so eminent a monarch as Englands Queene and descended of Progenitors soâ—… singular Catholicke and well deseruing of that Sea by their extraordinarie beneuolence and bountie to it in former ages At least wise her commaunding a nation and a nauie so mightie as Englands whereby she hath hitherto made good her disgust and opposition to that sacred Sea to the notable preiudice thereof aswell throughout most parts of Christendome as here at home in her Highnesse owne dominions may in all policie enforce so kind complement at his Holinesse hands toward her Maiestie This latter consideration although it haue not so well preuailed with their Holinesses toward her Highnesse yet well we see that the example of a Princesse and her soueraigne Father afore her so by it disgusted and consequently their detriments done to that Sea hath inclined his Holinesse that now is being withall of himselfe Clement both by name and nature in octauo to somewhat more then ordinary and meete indulgence toward other Princes as for example his and his predecessors continuall dispensations to the Princes of the house of Austrich to match so very neare in bloud as cosin germaines scarse once remoued and also this other day his Holinesse dispensing the French King to marrie with his Florentine now his corregnant his former wife yet liuing and the like whereby in so yeelding to their fraile affections we see how some he gaines and other some he retaines together with their seigniories and estates in good termes and temper to the Catholike Church Whereas the cleane contrarie and rough hand hauing bene and yet being holden by their Holinesses ouer her Maiestie and her worthy Father we see and rue to this day what holy Church hath lost by it which otherwise in the one it might haue preserued and gained in the other Do not we the Catholicke subiects of this Realme endure at this houre vnder her Highnesses displeasure with that Sea through her corasiues in liew of lenitiues vnto her her very heauie hand both ouer our liuelihoods and our liues whereby we are driuen to great patience as by our alleageance aswell to her as by our Religion to God we are bound This is all we haue gotten these foure and fortie yeares by the seueirtie of the supreme-Pastors to our Soueraigne and this it he loseth No no cosin these are not the dayes as heretofore when Princes were willing as well in secular as in spirituall causes to be for the most part S. Peters leegemen This is the age of discession from S. Peters chaire an age of obdurance and if euer Antichrists Antelope Wherefore it behoues his Holinesse in all modestie and vnder correction I 〈◊〉 speake it now another while to shift the raines into his left hand and benignely though somewhat sinisterly to retaine Christian Princes in the right Catholike way and in particular so to win our Soueraigne if it please God and not to suffer himselfe to be miscaried by Spaine and Spaines implements the Iesuites against her At leastwise I could wish and I pray God
house my Aunt aforesaid had procured me a pension of ten duckats a moneth of his Holinesse if I would come and liue in Italy and to this effect were both his letters the one to my father the other to me To be short my father leauing the election of these two concurring courses to my owne will commending vnto me both the one and the other with proffer if I chose the latter to make his Holinesse ten duckets a moneth fifteene of his owne exhibition I stood not long vpon the choise but for hauing already seene inough of the Dukes Court being curious to see renowned Rome the Popes holinesse and generally braue Italy easily made that my choise Whereupon my father by the way of Rhemes from whence there was then a mission readie for Rome and I to haue that good companie sent me away toward Rome with crownes in my purse whether I arriued vpon a horse which I bought of father Cowbuckes brother To Rome then when I came Rome I saw and Romes holy things two Popes the one dead the other aliue and whatsoeuer else sacred or prophane was to be seene in that vaste citie of all which I giue God thankes I made me that Catholicke edification which I could being but sixteene yeares old and but a yeare and a halfe Catholicke still vrging my aforesaid Cosin when I should see Naples and the rest of Italy and enioy my pension But neither Naples nor any rest of Italy might I see nor yet S. Peters pennie which the fathers vnderstanding that my father was then dead in the Duke of Parmaes campe before Antwerpe put into their owne purse forcing me to continue a scholler in the English Colledge which I did the space of a yeare and a halfe or thereabouts till I got away as ye shall heare And this was hitherto all the Iesuits fauours vnto me hauing both put me besides my Page-ship to the Duke of Parma which was a preferment for the best subiects son in Flanders and none had it but such and also cosined me and the Pope both of his pension Iudge ye then how truly he faith that the Iesuits were his best friends for many yeares beyond the seas where he needed their friendship and neuer wanted it For some of vs knew him first a litle wanton idle-headed boy in the English Romaine Colledge so light-witted as once if we remember well he went vp into the pulpit with a rose in his mouth to make the tones as there they call them before all the Colledge A litle wanton idle headed boy and light witted as he remembers I promise ye Cosin an important point to be remembred which surely had not this charitable Iesuite and his wees remembred for me I my selfe do and do acknowledge it beshrewing the age of sixteene yeares that I was no stayeder and not him for being so very a foole at sixe and fortie or vpward as to vpbrayde me of so veniall imperfections who himselfe at but a yeare older to wit at seuenteene was so much a more wanton and idler headed then I as to get his sister with child as afore is shewne wherein he seemes to be of that fathers spirit who being himselfe a monstous blasphemer derided and checked his litle sonne for swearing by Gods nigs If to go vp into the pulpit to make the tones with a rose in my mouth were such a fault what I pray had it bene if I had gone vp with a thistle especially the businesse I went about being so very very important After that he fell to such deuotion as he not onely tooke the oath of the Colledge to be a Priest My falling to deuotion especially in Rome and in the English Colledge was such a fault I trust as might easily deserue pardon at Gods hands and partly satisfie for my former wanton idle head howsoeuer this father reprocheth it and as for my taking the oath of the Colledge to be a Priest that Cosin is a lie as broade as an acre of land For neither was I an Alumnus of the Colledge being the Popes pensioner as ye haue heard why I should be put to any such oath neither yet my yeares and inclination then suting to so high and holy a vocation being by the libellers owne saying but a litle wanton idle headed boy and light witted which their fatherhoods perceiuing me to be as also how still earnest I was to come away is it likely that they in their holy-ghostly wisedom would administer such an oath vnto me without saying twise at least Vtquid perditio haec By this you may see that were there any such oath tendred vnto me at those yeares what discreete father 's the Iesuits are and how sleightly they set by holy priesthood which is the greatest dignitie on earth as to impose it vpon boyes I had bene a child of the Church not passing two yeares before this supposed oath and litle account was I able to make God wot of my faith or to iudge of an oath and yet forsooth did take the oath to be a Priest But the truth is this is a flat lie inasmuch as I perfectly well remember that whē that oath was proposed to others being all of good yeares and all Alumni of the Colledge my Cosin R. S. aforesaid tooke me with him out of the Church and only tendred me the ordinarie oath of the inquisition that is to continue Catholike and in subiection to holy Church and the sea Apostolike which oath I tooke do maintaine wil by Gods holy grace vnto my death For as touching the other oath my Cosin knew very well by my continuall discontent how ill I brooked the paines of the Colledge how hourely I laid at him for my pension to liue at large for which he was the man that neuer moued me any such question as to be a Priest But also pretended to be an Augustine Frier The former and this are two lies with one breath but on he is a Iesuite All the shift he hath to saue his credit in this latter is his saying that he hath a fearefull conscience to auouch things he knowes not for certaine The man is willing enough yea faine he would haue this reproch to passe vpon me though to be a Frier I hold it an honor and my selfe vnworthy thereof and to that end hath penned it downe and yet forsooth he hath a timorous conscience like the clowne who was not ashamed to fill his paunch with pease-pottage so full that it almost crackt againe and yet made daintie to cough downeward for feare to shew what windie stuffe he had eaten Now as touching his said supposall of my becomming an Augustine a very foole may discerne therein his too manifest folly and bad spirit for is it likely that hauing first taken the oath of the Colledge I would so soone that is in one halfe yeares space haue bene forsworne as to become a Frier the whole time of my continuance in Rome