and charitie abstracted from all gaule guile or state affaires as men most willing to communicate Gods blessings and graces to others fructifying maruellously in our countrie by them and accepting as coadiutors with them in this their haruest on Gods behalfe all and euery religious person of any Order that would hazard themselues as they did had our language and should come with like Apostolicall commission and authoritie wherewith they came none otherwise then as Saint Augustine our Apostle first entred this land Of all the rest of religious Orders that vndertooke with the Seminaries this speciall conflict the fathers of the societie of Iesus were the most in number who presently forgetting the Apostolicall worke of Seminarie Priests alreadie taken in hand began foortwith to take a new preposterous and neuer heard of Apostolicall course for conuersion of countries to wit by tampering temporizing and statizing like martiall men or common souldiers in the field of warre in all temporall mundane and stratagemicall affaires The Seminaries innocently iudging the best of their bad meanings as charitie they thought did bind them were willing at the first to colour hide and conceale all making the Iesuites cause attempts intents practises and proceedings their owne in euery thing and yeelding to them the preheminence fame honour and renowne in euery action acted by them vntill at last they were intangled by penall lawes iustly made against them equally as against the Iesuits whose plots and practises they seemed at first to defend or at least to winke at and withall perceiued that the Ies religious pietie being turned into meere secular or rather temporall and laicall pollicie did occasionate in them an aspire to soueraigntie and that taking an elle vpon an inch giuen them did tempt them with an ambitious hope of domineering ouer them and thereby ouer the whole Cleargie and state Ecclesiasticall hand then the said Priests for their owne indempnitie were driuen to prouide and looke to themselues Et hinc illae lachrymae of all the euils that since haue ensued aswell respecting the persecutions inflicted vpon vs all for their owne peculiar and priuate practises as also in regard of the hartburnings and contentions that since haue bene and are at this present betwixt them and the Seminarie Priests which heauie accident and of all other most straunge manner of proceeding in the Iesuits hath caused many to bath their sighes in bloud and me to theame my speech in teares to thinke how that their insolencie hath past so farre beyond the bounds of charity iustice and all humanity as I must be forced to open to all the world what grosse errors they do maintaine how maruellously the people are blinded and seduced by them and how dangerous a race they runne to their owne and all others destruction that will be currents of that fatall course begun by them with contempt of Priesthood and all Ecclesiasticall order with contempt of sacred Maiestie and all magisteriall gouernment and with most turbulent seditious and trecherous innouations supplantations defamations and slaunders of all that rubbe not on their loftie banke rebellions and conspiracies against both Pope and Prince Church Commonwealth and all estates therein And because that as I haue shewed there is nothing permanent or certaine here on earth saue onely the power of Priesthood for administring of the Sacraments that sentence propheticall standing irrepealable for euer tu es sacerdos in aeternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech and that irremoueable ground of truth graunted only and wholly to the same priestly power to remaine without all possibilitie of errour in Saint Peters chaire to the worlds end all other foundations assurances priuiledges and prerogatiues fayling saue this alone no Monarch in the world being sure of his estate no religious Order being certaine of their stand nor person of most perfection being freed from chance and change from better to worse and to haue a hideous downefall this night before to morrow hereupon as in our case in hand we haue experience there rising many thousands of absurdities whispered into gadding heads and itching eares by so many intricate politicall plots and deuises as for to set them downe in a positiue discourse Rhetoricall stile or historicall method were but oleum operam perdere the ignorant multitude to whom the matter most belongs for their better instruction especially whom the Iesuits vse most as women gospellers trumpetters of their prayses being not possibly able to conceiue much lesse to carry away so many particular points as are in question betwixt vs and the Iesuits and as which if either they acknowledge an obedience to Gods Church to the Popes Holinesse and to all or anie Priest or a due loyaltie to their Prince and Soueraigne or a dutifull respect to the common wealth of their natiue land or any loue or affection to their flesh bloud kindred friends and generally to all noble generous and humane English hearts or lastly any care of their owne soules good name and fame before God and man they must heare of conceiue of haue beaten into their heads and hearts and carry about with them for their better information resolution conceit of things like Catholiks indeed where euer they go or happen into company prurientes auribus à veritate auditum auertentes which is a common case amongst silly women more deuout then discreet as alwayes in extreames either Saints or Diuels I haue therefore thought vpon the easiest readiest briefest plainest and exactest of any other course or methode that I thinke could possibly be found out aswell to satisfie all parties that desire to be resolued of all or any point in question amongst vs or that will not wilfully and malitiously as God forbid any Catholike or well minded Schismaticke should be caried away with popular applause into manifest errours as also to deliuer the truth and state of the matter by such interrogatorie questions Articles or Quodlibets as shall both touch to the quicke whatsoeuer is offered proposed or comes to be examined qustioned withall or reasoned vpon amongst the learned or ignorant on any side and yet withall allay the passions of the contrarie affected Reader and abate the heate of the haughtie heart in all or any that find themselues touched or grieued therewith So as by this kind of Methode they shall haue neither cause iustly to complaine of iniurie or wrong done or offered vnto them neither any euasion or means to escape from detecting and making known what is in their very harts who are wronged and who are not what euery one is bound for his own securitie to speake write beleeue and practise in these things and how farre he may go therin For if that by way of a Quodlibet or Thesis proposed a man may without blasphemie sinne scandall or any offence in the world aske whether God or the Diuell be to be honoured whether our Sauiour Christ could sinne or no whether our blessed Lady were an adultresse or common
regard or esteeme to be had of him aboue a Seminarie or secular Priest or no. Thirdly the authoritie of the See Apostolike is here made doubt of sci whether the Priests might lawfully appeale from this mock-powerable audacious blind authority of the Ies Archpriest or no. Fourthly the inextinguible inexpugnable indelible vertue of the sacraments of Christs church is here weakned and made scruple of scil whether it be of equall force and validity in a secular Priest as in a Iesuit c. Fiftly the temporall state and common-wealth of this land especially all Catholike subiects vnder her Maiesty are indangered by running of the Iesuits fatall course as hereafter shall be proued Sixtly the innocent laitie of the simpler but well meaning harts are already seduced by the Iesuits factioÌ„ moe will be nay vtterly ouerthrown and led away in errour aswell against the Catholike church as their natiue countrie and common wealth if the seculars let the play fall and now sleep in silence Seuenthly the life maners good name all that is in priesthood in religion in conscience to be respected stands now vpon to be tried betwixt the Iesuits and the seculars Therefore I say that for these and many other waighty reasons they ought in bounden dutie to prosecute so laudable memorable and spiritually heroicall an act begun to the vttermost and nothing to doubt of aiders throughout all parts of Christendom to assist theÌ„ to the pulling downe of these seditious Templarian Iesuiticall sectaries THE VIII ARTICLE VVHether then is not the former charity zeale feruor of Catholikes on all sides much hindred by these vnsauorie contentions or no how it comes and whether the like haue euer bene before amongst Catholike Priests THE ANSWERE FIrst whosoeuer was Catholike a 20. yeares or but 16. yeares agone about which time there was a muttering of this Allobrogical gouernmeÌ„t of Fa. Westons my selfe being one though minimus fratrum meorum of 22. Seminarie Priests and so many moe of the Catholike laitie of honorable worshipfull and meaner calling all prisoners together in the Marshalseas he should there haue seene so palpable a difference betwixt the loose Catholikes that were then the strictest that are now as the first might haue bene patterns of pietie to the second for all religious charitable and Catholike actions Secondly no question there is in it but that the like contentioÌ„s haue bene in Gods church heretofore and will be to the worlds end otherwise could not the church Catholike be called militant here on earth nor be fitly coÌ„pared to a ship tossed vpon the sea one while in danger of sinking another while of splitting and then again of running vpon some rock or on ground and still interchangeably fleeting betwixt stormes and calmes nor yet parabolized with a net cast into the sea gathering containing in it all kinds of fish and frie or with new sowne seed which growing vp is intermixed with weeds Thirdly although it be rather to be accounted of as a miracle that all this while there hath not then to hold it as a scandale that now there hath fallen out such coÌ„tentions amongst Gods seruants Priests seeing that in heauen and that in a second instant of time or third of angelicall existence there was high ambition in paradise and that as some learned Diuines do hold within 3. houres space there was too much curiositie in the Apostles schoole and that within 3. yeres space there was too deep emulation contention auarice and treason wrought against the supreame Maiestie What should I say more if in the Catholike Roman church and Apostolicall chaire of Peter there haue bene already 23. schismes past although then no wonder to heare see the like contentions to these of ours yet that the first brochers of any such went away scotfree it was neuer yet heard of without a curse as Lucifer as the serpent as Iudas or else that they were the beginners of some new heresie or other in the end as Nicholas as Arius as Donatus as Nouatus all as rare men as great shew of zeale in theÌ„ as Catholikly bent and as many deuout graue and learned men to side with them at the first as either Fa. Parsons or Maist Blackwel hath Fourthly it is cleare that the Iesuits contempt of priesthood and irreligious doctrine was and is the originall cause before God and man of the decay of charitie piety and deuotion And therefore wo to the first brochers of these mischiefes Sed nunquid in aeternum irascetur Deus no God forbid THE IX ARTICLE VVHether then all religious zeale being turned into temporized platformes to cast omnia pro tempore nihil pro veritate all Christian charitie counterfetted all iustice violated all pietie decayed and gone and that spirit of humilitie innocencie and simplicitie of heart which earst was in the late Primitiues of English Catholikes being lost expelled and almost quite extinct amongst vs. Is it not the cause of withholding others that would come into Gods church or is it no let at all and if it be then by whose meanes THE ANSWERE IT is questionlesse the hinderance to some and rock of scandale to many that otherwise wold be members visibly of the Catholike church militaÌ„t on earth though not one soule is nor can be kept out thereby that is of God chosen though to vs vnknowne to be of the same church triumphant in excelsis and all this by the slie deuises and Machiuilean practises of the Iesuits as is manifest First for that sundrie Schismatickes and well willers to the Catholike church and religion standing out hitherto vpon worldly respects as being more prudent in their mundane muddy generations said our Sauiour then the children of light and feares of losses troubles and the like are now brought into a fooles paradise of conceit that they are in a better state or at least more secure for the time then those that are alreadie catholike Recusants by reason of these daungerous contentions they heare of to be betwixt the secular cleargie and this should be Monasticall now mock-religious whilst the Catholike laitie following the parts of this and that faction contend with Ego sum Pauli ego Apollo for a supremacie And thus thinke worldlings to haue a good excuse to hold out and so be of neither side but be as neuters or impersonals in terra Secondly amongst many Atheall Paradoxes taught in the Iesuits conclaue or close conuenticles I remember an honorable person and Lord of high degree It was a flat Atheall doctrine secretly taught in Scotland where these three things are common to eate flesh as company occasioneth to reade al kind of bookes indifferently and to go to the masse in the forenoone and to a Puritans serâ—on the afternoone All 3. acts indispensable of the Pope himselfe respecting persons time and place once obiecting vnto me that the Seminary Priests were too scrupulous nice and precise in state cases of conscience said that herein the Iesuits
if either by our aduersaries alone this speech and slaunder as the Iesuites tearme it but yet a slaunder of truth had risen vppon these seditious and factious persons or else that the secular Priests and some Catholikes in Enngland their fauorits had raised it or France only bin the Heraults of that blazon against them or any one peculiar order of religion as Dominicans Benedictines c. had onely impugned them it might haue caried some sense to haue bene but spoken of malice priuate grudge or reuengefull mind at the first so blowne abroad by misinformation detraction and slander augmented like Scoggins wiues crowe from one to twenty But now when Popes Cardinals Bishops and secular Priests when Kings Princes Lords Ladies and Nobles when Gentles Franklins Farmors and artificers when Generals Prouincials Priors Monkes Nunnes and Friers when Catholikes Schismatikes Protestants Puritanes and all other professions sects and opinions holden by any are controld by them and do impugne dislike and cry out of them and euery one of them vpon a seuerall ground independent vpon any relation made from one to another to build vpon that then and in that case all should be false that is reported of them that therefore all their doings are iustifiable their quarrell good and their cause right because impugned on all sides that this should be any testimony of errour heresie Apostacy or Atheisme for any Catholike to dislike of them or write against them because an Apostata Bell did so or because such such heretikes that are fallē out of their society Gods Church withall haue done so or for that the Protestants and present state in England do generally hate them that hereupon they should inferre by necessary sequell scil because such and such schismatikes and heretikes c. write against vs ergo all secular Priests or other Catholikes that do so are schismatikes and heretikes This I say is so grosse a consequent as if it were true they might by induction inferre and proue it that the Pope Cardinals Bishops Prelates and all the whole Cleargy were schismatikes and heretikes saue onely such as sided with the Iesuits and then vpon that inferre againe that the Church were no where but amongst the Iesuits to be found Et sic vno absurdo dato plura sequuntur No heresie euer yet was but it began vpon these very principles or the like grounds whereof and for to giue you more light in this matter reade Vinc. Lirinensis and then tell me what you thinke these Iesuiticall assertions are like to come vnto THE IX ARTICLE WHether any order or profession haue greater better or more signes of assurances that God fights for them then the Iesuits haue or no THE ANSWERE THey are so farre from all signes or tokens that God fighteth for them that on the contrary they haue all the markes and impressions of his heauy wrath and a hideous destruction to fall vpon them hanging eminent ouer their heads For who that is a sound Catholike but knowes that these propositions are manifest signes of reprobation to those that presumptuously build vpon thē as the Iesuits do scil First I am not like to other men i. so grosse a sinner Secondly I am of a society that cannot do amisse i. neither erre in faith nor manners nor gouernement Thirdly I am in a state of perfectiō that cannot be bettered on earth i. perfect in all things Fourthly I am more neere familiar with God then any other i. illuminated with his diuine presence Fiftly I am most certaine and fully assured that I do nothing but in ordine ad Deum i. predestinate and cannot be damned Sixtly I am most certaine that all that fight against me fight against Christ i. fully assured that God fights for me Seuenthly I am out of doubt that all those that dye in and of our society receiue a plenary indulgence or else a generall pardon of all their sins ergo a Iesuite cannot be damned c. A thousand such like positions the Iesuits haue which now I cannot stand vpō but leaue them as they are a most dangerous company for any man or woman that hath care of their owne soule to match or deale withall And sure if the Scriptures had not said that the diuell can transforme himselfe into an Anof light I shold hardly haue thought it possible for any euer to haue bin deceiued as I said many are by the Iesuits plausible doctrine carying poyson in their tongues vnseene and infecting all vnknowne that gaze and admire at them Sed haec est potestas tenebrarum THE X. ARTICLE VVHether then the premises considered in these nine precedent Articles the Iesuitical labor to enrich themselues be according to their rules of good life to do all things gratis And if it be whether their deuises to that end be lawfull and especially their maner of giuing the exercise both to men and women what their intent and meaning is or can be iudged to be therin THE ANSWERE HEre a true compassionate hart might take the Prophets words out of his mouth on our deare countreymen and womens behalfe the neuer inough to be bewailed Catholikes of this age and say quis dabit captii meo aquam aut oculis meis fontem lachrymarum to deplore day night the Church Catholikes present calamities My hart doth bleed to thinke what here I must write of for an vpshot to these Quodlibets of same and report by ruminating with my selfe how infamous the Iesuits will remaine to all posterity that shall reade or heare of what for discharge of mine owne conscience for the ease of many a languishing hart and for a caueat to all men and women If great S. Gregory being a stranger to our nation did be waile the wretched state wherein he saw our ancestors forefathers liue in time of paganitine in so much as he could take no rest vntill first by voluntary intrusion and offer of himselfe to the hazard and after being preuented of his zealous intent vrging of S. Augustine to giue the attempt for conuersion of this land not by the sword or hostile inuasion but by offernig of sacrifice by preaching teaching by going a procession in singing the Letanie by continuall prayer neuer giuing it ouer vntill he had won all those sweet soules vnto Christ of whom he was wōt to say O what a griese it is to see such angellike lookes to haue so loathsome foule spirits within them and if Saint Ambrose in hearing of confessions would of en burst out into such vollees of sighes and flouds of teares as would haue moued a hart of flint to repentance then wonder not if any Catholike Priest that hath any hart at all cannot but be moued with pitty and prickt with pangs of inconsolable griefes to see that state wherein Catholike soules now stand by these mischeiuous mens sedition incensing thē against secular Priests and on the other side to remember the happy ioyfull and
sense with it that poore that simple that meane that ignorant men and women go sooner to heauen then rich then noble then learned then such wise wisards as you Iesuites are The reason whereof can be none other then this For that these three vertues faith hope and charity being the gifts of God and not to be gotten by Aristotles wit nor Caesars might nor Cresus his wealth the simple meaner and poorer sort suffer God Almighty ordinarily to worke more freely firmely sweetly in their harts vtpote suauiter disponens omnia abundantly supplying their other defects then in theirs who thinking themselues to be iolly fellowes will contend by reason or otherwise with the giuer of all things and so striue to giue God checke mate or to be halfe with him in their proud Nemrodian aspires Which is the cause that they often suffer a Luciferian fall which other that seeke not to clime so high are free from And for this cause it is and hath euer bene in vse saue amongst you Iesuits that those who did take themselues to a religious course of life did it in simplicitate cordis voiding their thoughts of all promotions popular applause or other gaine to accrue vnto them thereby Therefore do I conclude that by all probable coniecture there is not one amongst a hundreth that goes to be a Iesuit that hath any true religious intent in him but a proud ambicious vaine glorious aspiring mind For what hath pouerty to do with riches what contempt of the world with worldly honours what an abiect life with birth and parentage what originall innocency with sinfull policy what solitarinesse with panigeries of praises what mortification with popular applauses what religious renunciation with fame and renowne what perfect humility with vaunting arrogancy what Cels and Cloisters with Courts and Pallaces what true obedience with controlement of Princes what Monasticall exercise with Ecclesiasticall nay with temporall mechanicall mundane affaires Is this your profession of so high perfection O that all states in Christendome would follow Cardinall Boroneus his example either in banishing of you quite out of Europe or at least in pulling in your hornes vntill you were brought into some better order moderation knowledge of your selues For my part I confesse vnto you that as I haue hitherto alwayes prayed and enioyned others to do the like for peace vnity and concord betwixt you and the seculars so shall it be my continuall prayer hereafter that howsoeuer other states do it may please God of his mercy to looke vpon our afflicted countrey and to moue the hart of his Holinesse to call you out from amongst vs here vntill your insolency be abated and withall to remoue all Iesuites for euer out of the English Colledge at Rome where there are other manner of practises then were euer attempted by any Iesuit in the territories of Millan nay or I thinke in the Christian world besides many reuerend vertuous secular Priests being sent home into England loaden till their backes crackt with the Iesuits calumniations and slanders and none but such as will be Iesuiticall wholly and not perfunctory may find any fauour there Therefore cursed be the houre that euer they got entrance in that Colledge and cursed be the time that euer they set foote on English ground and a triple curse vnto them all that to maintaine their ambition pride and seditious factions haue scandalized the whole world brought our nation into reproch and obloquie and heaped the hote coales of furious burning nay consuming flames of fire famine and sword vpon afflicted Catholikes with their owne and their natiue countries ruine destruction and desolation so much as in them lyeth And sure he or she hereafter that shall send their children or go themselues to become students at Rome or elsewhere vnder their gouernement do either by cōsequent cast themselues into a voluntary slauery as bad as if vnder the great Turke or else must they change the true nature of an English heart and become traytors or sautors of conspiracies against their Prince countrey and dearest friends THE II. ARTICLE VVHether then seeing the Iesuites are so infest enemies to all that are not Iesuited and that it is a destruction to our English youth to be brought vp vnder them as farre more fitting to haue secular Priests to be gouernours ouer them at Rome and other places do they intend if they preuaile in England to aduance any secular or other English Priest to Ecclesiasticall dignity or else some seculars of other nations or none at all THE ANSWER I Told you before if you remember that they haue made a Puritanian diuision of the Ecclesiasticall state in their high Councell of Reformation for England wherein amongst other things a statute is made for abrogation of all Episcopall dignity and that iust like to the Puritanian or the Cartwrightian or the Brownistian or the Geneuian or the Gehenian platforme there shall a new order or gouernement be brought into the Church whose gouernors shall consist of sixe seniors or elders in the congregation of Bedlems or Dutch Peeres or what you will call them whereof the seculars shall be as it were Chaplins to the Iesuits as Pater Rector and Pater minister that is father Parsons and his minister So as cleare it is that the Iesuites will alwayes haue some seculars amongst them either to vse as asses to lay their load vpon if any thing happen amisse amongst them or else as Iebusees in this land of promise made vnto them by the king of Spaine as they report left for these choice people of God to worke vpon But howsoeuer it happen I find no mention made in that statute whether the seculars must be aliens and strangers or of a natiue brood that shall be put to these meane offices For it were an indecent thing that the great fathers should desist from preaching dealing with Princes and high affaires ministrare mensis No fie God forbid their honours should so basely be stained and the matter I thinke is disputable whether they shall be all Spaniards or all English or of a mixt hotch potch of all or so many sundry nations But I thinke sure the last for it were no pollicy to haue them all of one nation but rather like the Turkes Bassaes and Ianissaries of omnium gatherum So that if any of the English Priests be admitted to that seruile dignitie it is very like to be the Archpriest were it not that more probable it is that father Parsons will haue about with him for old done deedes or Doctor Worthington or Doctor Turner or some hote spurre of the assistants or such one or other as may be fittest to serue their turne for the time Mary for any of our nation to be in the highest roomes saue onely Iesuites that is not a thing to be looked for as too arrogant a part for any to thinke of it Yea Doctor Allane troubled them much with thought and care where to haue
or otherwise left in the Church dictante spiritu sancto therefore called the Law diuine bicause it is of diuine institutioÌ„ Though in very deed the law primary of reason depending vpon synderisis the Law diuine or of God relatione ad creaturas and also the Law of nature be often taken for all one vpon which coniunctions diuisions and distinctions I haue treated at large in the answere to the first part of Parsons Doleman and therefore thereupon we will not now stand Onely this is inough to know for the present that all humane lawes are subordinate to natures Lawe and natures Lawes to the Lawe Primary of God himselfe which we call Diuina voluntas or the aeternall Lawe and by consequent the legifers of the same lawes are so subordinate one vnder an other as when a case comes once to the highest Legifer on earth there is thence no further appeale to be made but all wholy left to Gods iust iudgements Primam enim sedem nemo iudicare potest Out of these grounds then I gather these corolaries First that the Popes excommunication c. for any matters vnder his Pontificall iurisdiction and power although vniustly inflicted were to be obeied in not ministring nor receiuing of any Sacrament vntill the party were absolued c. Secondly that no excommunication can stoppe any man from seeking of iustice Thirdly that no excommunication of his for disobedience to his holinesse selfe in things commanded by him contra ius diuinum vel naturae doth or can take place either in foro conscientiae vel ecclesiae bicause these lawes and legifers are aboue him and his law Fourthly that master Blackwell and his Iesuits with all those of their faction are ipso facto thought to be excommunicated for vsurping the Popes authoritie c. Fiftly that he can debarre no man froÌ„ appealing to the Sea apostolike for any cause whatsoeuer the worst being the appellants if the cause be naught as thereby incurring sometimes an excommunication suspencion c. Sixtly that it is meere calumniation falshood and slander for that seditious faction to giue out that any one of the Catholikes are excommunicated Seuenthly that neither he nor any Iesuite in England dare for their liues stande to it to affirme that all or any of the appellants are excommunicated for that action Eightly that he is a flat antipope in presuming to command any not to seeke for iustice against him to the Sea apostolike and the like is for his and his Iesuiticall faction in their extreame arrogancy in blazing it abroad that it is an act of disobedience contempt c. Ninthly that no such authority can be giuen him as to command any to obey him in all things Tenthly that not the Pope himselfe can command any in and by such generall termes of obedience in all things Eleuenthly that if the seculars had beene iustly excommunicated for any matter depending vpon the appeale it had and ought to haue holden still hanging the same appeale bicause no dispensation can be granted where the partie is bent to continue in that state for the prosecuting whereof the excommunication suspencion c. past against him Twelfthly that if the seculars had beene excommunicated for any other matter independent vpon the appeale there is not a priest in England almost but hath authority to absolue him and so doth it shew the malice of the Iesuits to be so much greater seeing no such thing but that if it were yet an absolution did free them againe they notwithstanding doe driue conceits into the peoples harts as though they remained still in a damnable state which is as much to say as they cannot be absolued the grossest absurdity and greatest impiety that euer was heard of euery one seeing and knowing that the greatest heretike that is may be absolued and restored to his former state againe And therefore they denying this benefite to a Catholike priest shew themselues flat vsurpers as before and a woorse thing besides 13. That there is no question to be made of it but if it be possible the Iesuits will procure an excommunication against the seculars to confirme their former false reports and slanders that they were excommunicated c. before 14. That no excommunication on the inuadors behalfe doth bind any man to take his part against his prince and countrey 15. That to this day was there neuer any excommunication suspencion interdiction c. gotten from the Sea of Rome and denounced against any Prince person common-weath or other state on the behalfe of any one ceteris paribus like to this procured already by the Iesuiticall faction against their Prince and countrey on the behalfe of Spainiards 16. That as the prudent Greeke appealed from Alexander furious to Alexander sober and bishop Crostate from Pope Adrian priuate to Pope Adrian publike and as Summus pontifex in cathedra Petri so may the seculars notwithstanding any decree set downe by his holinesse to the contrary by wrong information giuen appeale euen from the Pope as Clement vnto his holinesse as Peter on their owne and their Prince and countries behalfe THE ARGVMENT OF THE SEVENTH GENERAL QVODLIBET THe reasons alledged in the last Quodlibet against the mischieuous plots and practises aswell in esse as intended by the Iesuiticall intruded authoritie of Blackwels vsurpate Archpresbytery ministreth occasion to speake in this place of matters concerning aswell the seculars as the Iesuits proceedings with and on the behalfe of the catholike Church and common-welth Of which subiect there are two distinct Quodlibets occurring fitly to our purpose to be discussed and reasoned of and both of them tend to one end but by a diuersitie of plots casting in the way and manner of progresse to the thing they ayme at on both sides And therefore shall the first be a Quodlibet of plots by religion that is in what sort and how farre both seculars and Iesuits do and may deale on the behalfe of Gods church for conuersion of their countrey and re-establishing of the catholike faith and religion The other generall Quodlibet shall be of State affaires as how they either do or may meddle therein on the behalfe of their countrey pretending religion as the ground of all the controuersie THE SEVENTH GENERALL QVODLIBET OF PLOTS by Religion THE I. ARTICLE VVHether the seculars or Iesuits seeke more soundly the conuersion of their countrey from all schisme and heresie THE ANSWERE IT is without all question the seculars seeke it more soundly sincerely religiously and Apostlelikely pêª for that the seculars take the very direct course that our Sauior Christ left for and to all his apostles to imitate scil First to seeke the conuersion of soules by preaching and teaching and good example giuing by word and action Secondly by doing all things gratis taking onely things necessary for their maintenance and relieuing of their present wants Thirdly not fishing after vnlawfull gaines to inrich themselues by couine and hypocrisie or other meanes Fourthly
others or else deny it so you shal see in time that although our worshipfull Archpriest hath done nothing but by fahaer Garnets direction yet when his ridiculous vniust vncharitable dâ—ttyrannous proceedings shall come to the scanning father Garnet will doe the best he can to pull his necke out of the coller and master Blackwell shall be the Asse that must beare all the burden So father Parsons that holy man by his practise doth giue father Garnet a pregnant example In the most of those seditious bookes which he the said father Parsons hath published he hath either concealed his name or giuen them such names as it hath pleased him to deuise And one of his said bookes being set out by him vnder the name of master Dolman now that many exceptions are taken vnto it he good man was not the author of it his name is not Dolman and gladly he would shift and wash his hands of it but all the water betwixt this and Rome will not serue his turne so to do although by the common principle of the Iesuits he may by lying and equiuocating make a faire shew But of this enough is said before As concerning the second point I will now make it plaine vnto you that the Iesuits being charged as in the former question is set downe are not therein slaundered any way vniustly For First it is plaine that father Parsons and his company diuide it amongst them how they list haue laide a plot as being most consonant and fitting to their other designments that the common lawes of the Realme of England must be forsooth either abolished vtterly or else beare no greater sway in the Realme then now the ciuill lawe doth And the chiefe reason is for that the state of the crowne and kingdome by the common lawes is so strongly setled as whilest they continue the Iesuits see not how they can worke their wils And on the other side in the ciuill lawes they thinke they haue some shreds whereby they may patch a cloake together to couer a bloodly shew of their treasons for the present from the eies of the vulgar sort And certainly I could not choose but smile when I read this point in father Parsons booke to see how prettily this fine fingred figgeboy conueigheth his matter how the common lawyers must waite vpon the Ciuilians to beare their bookes after them and how they are to applaud to all that the doctors will auerre to be lawe vpon their bare words vnto them Secondly the said good father deeming of all men it seemeth by himselfe hath set downe a course how euery man may shake off all authoritie at their pleasures as if he woulde become a newe Anabaptist or king Iohn of Leyden to draw all the world into a mutinie rebellion or combustion And this stratageme is how the common people may be inueigled and seduced to conceit to themselues such a libertie and prerogatiue as that it may be lawfull for them when they thinke meete to place and displace kings and princes as men may doe their tenants at will hirelings or ordinarie seruants Which Anabaptisticall and abhominable doctrine proceeding from a turbulent tribe of traiterous Puritanes other heretikes this treacherous Iesuite would now foist into the catholike church as a ground of his corrupt diuinitie And sure it is strange to consider how the caitiffe handleth this point giuing aduantage thereby to all nations to reuolt from the See apostolike if any catholike prince would take holde or build vpon this absurd fellowes word or authoritie For that amongst other arguments he insisteth vpon certaine rebellious most traiterous examples how some kings in this Island haue beene dealt with As if a man should take vpon him to prooue murther lawfull bicause many examples of murther may be produced or as if this were a good argument England Scotland Ireland Denmarke Swethia many states in Germany many men in France and else where haue reiected the authoritie of the Pope his holines the See of Rome therefore Italy France Spaine other catholike countries may do the like Fourthly the said good fathers with their ringleader and muster-master father Parsons do take vpon them in the saide booke and in other treatises to deale with matters of succession and titles of the crowne as if their bare words were of higher authoritie then either Court Parliamentall Prince or Pope and bicause as it seemeth their said ringleader is a bastard himselfe it is woonderfull to see what very small account he maketh of succession by inheritance title of descent birthright or bloud Now tell me in this case A gentleman or substantiall yeoman hauing one heire and many seruants dieth were he not an asse that would affirme that the right of the saide heire should depend vpon the pleasure of his fathers seruants If they thought meet he should haue his fathers lands or otherwise they would bestow them as they thought good I am sure you would account it vniust vnnaturall indecent and ridiculous And all that this traitorous Iesuite writeth of this point is grounded vpon the like folly whilest he laboureth so giantlike in opposing himselfe against succession by inheritance to fight most impudently with all lawes nay with nature and with God himselfe Hereunto it also appertaineth how after he hath contriued the meanes as he thinketh how to depriue kings and heires from their inheritance he then taketh vpon him to appoint how others may and are to succeede in their roomes and possesse their ancient right And he proceedeth herein as grauely and substantially as he hath done in the premisses For except this may carrie a shew of a good argument fiue hundred or a thousand yeeres since the ancestors of the king of Spaine the king of Fraunce and of diuers other kings had no interest to the kingdomes which now they enioy therefore some others must be found out to be preferred to those kingdomes the good father saith nothing There is one who hath written a booke of the Bathes in England and as I remember for it is long since I saw the booke the author of it the rather to extol the first finder out of the said Bathes that therby he might prooue him to be an ancient gentleman doth set downe his petigree and neuer leaueth it I assure you vntill he come to these words which was the sonne of Seth which was the sonne of Adam It were not amisse in my poore opinion that Master Parsons should carefully seeke out for this maÌ„s kinred It is not vnlikely but that by his skil he might intitle them to very many kingdomes distributing this to one and that to another as in his omnipotentencie he should hold it most conuenient The man if he liue long will prooue mad in the end without question except you can imagine that these and such like vanities are sober conceits And yet that which he saith against the blood royall of England to aduance a pretended interest to the Infanta
raigne rule and authoritie as containing in it all three sorts of gouernment scil Monarchicall Aristocraticall Democraticall in matters of counsell and managing of common wealths causes but not in points of regaltie honor inheritance For there shal be neither title nor name nor honor giuen taken or done to any Prince Duke Marquesse Earle Vicount Lord Baron or the like all the Iesuiticall gouernors being puritan like seniours elders prouincials rectors ministers c. neither shall there be any succession by birth or blood to any honor office or magistracy from the monarch Pater Generall to the minor Pater minister but all shall goe by election and choice neither shall any title clayme or right of inheritance be made chalenged pretended intended or diuolued from the father to to sonne but all shall rest in this Presbyter Iohn or Pope-Monarchiall-Generals gift No noble knight Esquier or swayne possessing more then the monarch shall bestow vpon him as tenant at will for the time nor for terme of life iust like to the Turkes distribution of lands and honors And if any thinke that this is but a surmise let them reperuse what here passantly is written in these Quodlibets and confer if possibly they can get them Fa. Parsons bookes of titles together with his high counsell of Reformation and other passages in manuscripts and then doubtlesse they will be of my minde THE X. ARTICLE VVHether then seeing their intended gouernment is most Antichristian Tartarian Turcicall and Tyrannicall do they maintaine this their paradoxall pragmaticall and stratagemicall doctrine by any law reuelation or other authority saue onely their owne bare word will and commaund to haue it so or what is the ground of all these their strange courses THE ANSWERE STabat pro ratione voluntas was the chiefe ground of the disciplinary lawe why poore Todde was beaten in Rome vntill his bones aked knowing no cause in the world for the Iesuits to haue vsed him so And if any seeme so peremptory as to aske a Iesuite what authoritie he hath either concerning these or any other exorbitant extrauagant exlegall and extra ordinarie lawes rules customes or orders set downe obserued and kept amongst them let him looke for none other but a thunderbolt of excommunication or sharpe censure irremissibly to bee throwne against him they being such Lords lawlesse Sirs and legifers as cannot erre in any act word or thought of a matter of fact to be formed framed and fashioned by them and therefore high blasphemy to contradict these Demigods in any thing But if you aske them why such a law doctrine or order is set downe by way of submission admiration or humble acknowledgement of their powerable dignitie and woorthines aboue all other persons liuing on earth then to breede a greater reuerence dutifull regard and respectiue feare in you towards them they may happily tell you that they haue it by reuelation that as by speciall commandement from God their order or societie was miraculously instituted for this end so father Parsons was and is the prophet appointed to prophecie vnto vs a dismall change that the time is come wherein all lawes customes and orders must be altered and all things turned vpside downe and that they being the onely men that haue the name office and authoritie of Iesus by them it is that this maruellous change and alteration shall be wrought in such sort as from the beginning of the world was the like neuer heard of before to this present of the Iesuits precedencie Mary yet if you aske other men dispassionate vnpartiall and not speaking of affection by what law or authoritie they doe attempt and teach these things they will tell you they haue neither law diuine nor humane so to doe but a law irregular made by an exlegall legifer father Parsons by name who hath preiudiced iniuried and wronged by his infamous libels all lawes and lawyers customes states and orders For first he hath preiudiced the lawes common pontifical of nations of nature of God himselfe as in the premisses of sundry precedent Quodlibets may appeere Then he hath preiudiced the lawes municipiall of this noble Isle laboring to foist in to outward shew the lawes ciuill Romane of Caesar abolished aboue a thousand yeeres agoe by authoritie of the See apostolike at the instant sute of king Lucius with the general consent of all his noble Lords the woorthy Britaines then peeres of these two realmes He hath abused the law custome and order obserued in humanitie in fawning vpon the Austrian line vnder pretence to bring in the imperiall lawes of Caesar into this land but intending in very deede to thrust a law vpon vs neuer heard of before throughout the vniuersall world nor I think euer shall be put in execution vntill the comming of Antichrist that all run vpon wheeles with alteration and change He hath preiudiced the lawe of propertie in instituting gouernment gouernors and hereditarie princes to be ad beneplacitum populi and all other priuate possessiants ad beneplacitum suum He hath preiudiced the lawes ciuill and imperiall of Caesar bringing them in falsly alleged and one thing for another as a comment for a corps a code for a digest a glosse for a text a memoriall for a principle and a note of some allegation vpon a sute past on the behalfe of a client for a maxime in the lawes either vnauthentically defined or remaining litigious pliable to any opinion or else interpreted as father Parsons pleaseth to the most disgrace he can deuise to all Ciuilians applied by him against proximitie of blood to breede a diuorce of friendship and kinred by disturbing the lawfull course of succession by birth and consanguinitie prouided by lawes for passage of lands and inheritance after the law of propertie began in all nations Which violent intrusion of Caesars lawes thus abused and bolsterd out to the vtter ruine of many noble families irreuocably he hath no shift to ratifie and get it allowed of but to delude simple people to confirme it by sundry examples of banckrupt common wealths or rather disordered multitudes He hath abused and preiudiced all states common wealths nobles and gentiles of this and all other Christian nations by a temporized popularitie thrust in vpon them accomodating himselfe as he saith to the conditions manners and minds of the common people which euer do delight in noueltie and change Otherwise as he seriously noted had the Iesuites neuer bene so admired at in England as they are at this day But omnia rara sunt preclara amongst the mobile vulgus who seising quickly vpon this popular doctrine it presently imprinted a fauourable opinion and liking both of the man and the matter in their wauering harts as all the world seeth it and perceiuing they might by this popular doctrine of father Parsons controul disthronize and ouerthrow their soueraigne the state their landlords and all other nobles and gentiles as they listed and liked best hereupon then they inferd
very peremptorily that when they list they might pick a quarrel at their lawfull king cast him downe out of his throne and call for an election of a new king againe Bicause forsooth this good father hath authorized them so to doe and tels them that as his so their pleasure must stand for a law and vox populi vox Dei And for any other law warrant or authoritie the Iesuites haue none to take vpon them as they do in these state cases and succession to princes crownes THE GENERALL ARGVMENT OF THE TENTH AND LAST QVODLIBET IN the argument of the ninth generall Quodlibet we noted vnto you how that the same together with this had their dependency vpon the seuenth and eight precedent and so one depending vpon an other in this disputatiue pursuite hauing reuersed retriued and firrited these religious statesmen out of all catholike Christian morall honest mens good conceites by demonstrating to the world how all their religious pietie in shew is but a rainebow cloude of atheall policie in action drawne vp in vaporous dewes of cold congealed deuotions interchangeably mixt with exhalated smokes of sparkling hote inflamed dispersed sublimed aspires It resteth onely in this tenth and last Quodlibet of the Iesuites variable plots deuises to shew vnto you what their hope is or rather what the grounds are of that broken hope they haue of attaining at length vnto an absolute monarchy ouer all the world And this being the great marke they shoote at Vt ad causam finalem vel effectum As to the primary principall and finall effect whereunto caetera agentia all their acts intents drifts and deuises are directed to produce by actuall forme the gouernment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aforesaid Now the hopes causes or motiues mouing them to these desperate attemps strange courses and rarest practises premised that in a world can be found or euer hitherto was heard of amongst mortall men are built vpon presages prophecies and prediction of things to come And therefore shall this last be termed a Quodlibet of plots by presages contayning ten articles as the rest haue a peece But for as much as it is a discourse of great dangerous and waighty consequent as a discouery of many mysteries yet to the vtter disgrace of the Iesuites and Spanish faction for euer as also for that the time place and other occasions doe hasten me to make an end I will therefore craue pardon at this time from proceeding any further therein as minded God willing to set out a whole Booke of this last Quodlibet a second part by it selfe at time conuenient In steede whereof I haue thought good to exhibite vnto you this Appendix following AN APPENDIX TO THE QVODLIBETS AFter I had compiled this Quodlibeticall discourse into a briefe method before it came to the presse I was informed of the variable opinion had of my writings by occasion of an Epistle to a little pamphlet intituled Important considerations c. Which bicause I owne it as mine owne and for that the Iesuites and their fautors according to their common custome and practise in the Art of Calumniation haue driuen sundry weake but otherwise deuout men and women into a quotidian feuer or shaking palsie in assaulting them with an erronious misconceite of that subiect I must therefore in all humble wise as an obedient child of the catholike Romane Church and in all charitable manner as wishing no worse to any then to mine owne soule craue patience of the catholike Reader in this peruse First then deare catholikes be pleased to heare thus much from me Note by this insinuation a notable tricke of a Machiauilian which is this that if an act or actor of any action by deed word or writing be for a Iesuits purpose then before euer the person book or other practise by him be discouered or knowen abroad in the world there shal a speach goe in secret as thus do you not heare of such a man or book or attempts c. ô the worthiest man the rarest booke c. and so extolling of euery thing to the skies though vnworthy the naming this speach passing currant ouer all the next that followes when the men or matters are tried and found ridiculous with the wiser sort shall neuer possibly be able to ouertake this passage or to perswade the mobile vulgus to the contrary And againe if the said persons or booke be opposite to the Iesuits then they knowing thereof by their spials ere euer it be knowen abroad a speech caried ouer all by fame of a most infamous person booke c. is past ouertaking with a true reâ—ort when the trueth is knowen And euen so iust is the case concerning the late bookes so mightily but most falsely disgraced by the Iesuits ere euer they came to open viewe that euen the innocent haue beene in danger to applaude vnto their guilty feares and many ignorantly refused at all to reade them as too too credulous and not considering the Iesuits drift therein A notable policy of the Iesuits to get some Neuters to spread abroad a detraction or what they would haue odious knowing that fame is irreuocable and a word once spoken can not be recalled that I expected no lesse before euer I set pen to paper then to heare the matter to be made seeme so odious by a tricke of Machiauell as now it is come to passe Yea they that knew how some of my brethren of a tender soft mild nature did feare before hand I would be too sharp if once the Northerne blood were vp they the Iesuits had neuer been worthy the name of Matchiauelians Polititians or masters of their crafty sly deceitfull occupation if they would not haue fished so far before the net knowing by their spials that the said booke was come out I promise you ere euer I knew it my selfe as to preoccupate by anticipation deuout minds of men and women with a conceite of monsters of prodigies of wonders in a sense detestable to be contained in that pamphlet aswell bicause by W. W. it seemed to be mine and therefore conceited straight to be bitter as gall as also for that the title of milde and mercifull by a wrangling sophisticall Iesuites interpretation imported a condemnation of all catholikes in generall and these with other perticulars applyed in very deed and meant onely wholy and absolutely of the Iesuites and their followers of the Spaniardes faction but wrested by them to the secular and seminary priests together with all other catholikes in generall gaue such light to that watchfull crewe how to frame a cogging argument to make both the worke and Author seeme odious as the simpler sort yea some in other respects wise ynough though they dearely affected the seculars and their cause and deeply detested the Iesuites and their faction yet were they amazed appald and greatly affrighted with the sudden feare these Polypragmons had put into their heads by a company of neuters or