Judicature in abetting any contrivance or disturbance to common peace or civility Proceeding on the premises the title of the first Chapter will be CAP. I. Persecution on the score of Religion is utterly Condemned and unlawful IMposition Violence and Persecution for matters meerly relating to Conscience directly invades the divine prerogative for God alone is Lord over the Conscience it is his just Claim and priviledg for as Solomon saith no man hath power over Conscience Luther Eccles in the Book of Civil Magistrates saith the Law of them extends no farther then Body and Goods for over Conscience God alone ruleth in the same Book in the building of the Temple saith he there was no sound of Iron heard to signifie that Christ will have in his Church a free and willing people not compelled by human Laws and Statutes God hath exempted the soul out of your Commission c. The Cause and reason why Judicatures of men are appointed and set up are that Magistrates should be Ministers of protection and praise to them that do good and of terror and revenge of those that do Evil in matters to outward practise but to exceed these limits imposing nice and doubtful oaths not having the Conditions required in Scriptures on the Consciences of men and other pressure and penalties concerning their souls only of which Christ alone Challengeth the propriety is neither lawful nor warrantable it is Gods prerogative to punish for Conscience who hath only propriety in the Soul unto whom all must give account in spiritual things For Religion is a virtue hath God for its immediate object when according to all Divines it is not within the vierge of humane Cognizance because the Soul is not liable to our tribunal Keckerman a learned Writer saith that the Bond between the Magistrate and Subject is essentially Civil The saying of King Stephen the wise King of Poland is Observable that he was King of men not of Consciences Commander of Bodies not of Souls The practise of persecution meerly for conscience hath been disavowed and condemned by divine authority and holy writ by the Primitive Fathers by many of the most famous Princes in the world by our own principles and concessions by the wisest greatest and Best States in ancient and modern times as the Jews Romans Egyptians Germany Holland nay the Turks and Persians Polish and Bohemian Kings Marcus Aurelius a Pagan permitted tolleration to Christians Antâ—niâ—â— Pius Emperor so called for his great piety whose Empire God blessed with greater peace and felicity then any Pagan Empeperor had before or after him for the favour he shewed to Christians in taking of the many and Cruel persecutions suffered under his Predecessors Forbad no man should be accused for their Religion affirmed that the great Earthquakes and other Calamities wherewith the Empire was afflicted proceeded of the justice of God for the injuries done to the Christians as it is manifested by a Copy of the edict related by Eutrop. l. 10. Gratian Jovianus Caesar Emperors permitted various Religions the old Romans offered the Jews Liberty on condition they would be faithful Theodosius and Gratian most Christian Emperors were contented to tollerate the Arrians At Hierusalem in Christ time were two Sects living sociable the Pharisees and Sadduces in Germany these hundred years Papists and Lutherans live together in France Calvenists are permitted How oft the French King gave Edicts of pacification is set down in Laval l. 3. Solomon permitted the Hittites Hivites Perizites and Jebuzites to live quietly under his Reign as Grotius observeth on the 1 of Kings 19. 20. The Novatians saith Baxter were tollerated and loved by the sober Catholick Emperors because they had tollerable principles when many others were otherwise dealt withal and S. Martin and Sulpitius Severus refused to be of their Councel for inciting the Emperor to the way of blood corporal violence The Turk permitteth Christians Persians and Aethiopians in his Dominions Venetians suffereth Jews amongst them as the King of Spain did the Moors till necessity forced him to expel them by the Inquisition It s a false proposition proceeding from Gall and Spleen only to breed an exulceration in the hearts of the people that Catholicks Protestants c. may not be tollerated in a well governed wealth the wiser sort will not endure so gross a paradox dayly proved false before their eyes It was a notable observation of a wise Father that those that perswaded pressure of Conscience were commonly therein interressed themselves for their own end And most that now plead against tolleration would plead as much for it if they were once under the hatches and their Religion discountenanced By Power and we that once thought the imposition of a directory unreasonable a restraint from our way of worship Vnchristian do not the same reasons remain in vindication of indulgence to others if you will have liberty to maintain your own opinions why should not reason tell you others will exspect the like for themselves Protestants Calvinist Presbiterians c. living in popish Countries will plead for tolleration Our first reformers were great Champions for liberty of Conscience as Wicliffe in his remonstration to the Parliament the Albigensis to Lewis the eleventh and twelfth of France Calvin to Francis the First Luther to the several Dyets under Frederick and Charls the Fifth our ancient Protestant Divines Musculus Osiander Sâ—ermius The Protestants in Swetia desired tolleration as Chytraeus sheweth in his Chronicle 1595. and Belloy in Apol. saith that Melanchton consented Erasmus laboured to prove the necessity of it While Popery was prevalent in England the Pope being then reputed Vicar of Christ in spiritual things yet notwithstanding so much liberty was given that no man suffered death for opposing his dictates in Religion and then in the 2. of Henry the fourth a Statute being made against the Lollards the Commons petitioned the King it might be repealed and by complaint of the Commons it was then in part repealed in Stat. Hen. 8. A wise Emperor told Henry the third King of France there was no greater sin then to force mens consciences for such as think to Command them supposing to win heaven do often loose what they possess on earth King James in his speech to the Parliment saith that it is a sure Rule in Divinity that God never planted the Church by violence or Bloodshed Much less saith the wise Sir Francis Bacon ought the Sword to be put in the peoples hands to persecute nourish sedition authorize conspiracies c. for that is but to dash the first table against the second and to Consider men as Christians as we forget they are men The wise Romans in Case of Religion were very tender and Cautious for when Cato was Consul and it seemed necessary to the Senate to suppress with violence the disordered Ceremonies of the Bacchinals brought in by a strange Priest into the City he withstood that sentence alleging there was nothing
the stile Here is nothing proposed to be believed no Anathema fulminated no signification that the contrary is against the Scripture c. therefore at most it is a meer ecclesiastical ordinance touching external discipline and as such what is more ordinary and permitted than for Princes to refuse admittance therein we see some Churches of France reject the decrees of reformation made in the Council of Trent and also practised in England 8. Suppose it be an ordinance yet supream Princes and Kings are not named but excluded and only their Officers and Substitutes c. 9. No example can be produced in the Empire or other Catholick State that such an Oath in succeeding times was imposed or threatned But on the contrary we know Charls the fifth by a Law of the Empire publickly permitted Lutherans in several Provinces and all the Kings of France sinâ—e Hen. 3. permitted the Calvinists yet the Pope never threatned deposition or they feared it Therefore this doctrinal point of Faith is shamefully pretended to be involved on that or the like Decrees viz. the Popes power of deposing c. What State Kingdome or City received or taught the People this even as a probable Opinion It is well known in practice and doctrine other Sects and their accusers have been more faulty in this point then they as History and experience testifie of Princes actually deposed in Scotland Denmark Sweden Geneva c. and absolute rebellion following their doctrine in Poland Bohemia England France Hungary Germany c. Obj. Innocent the third who presided in this Council actually deposed King John and Otho the Emperour Resp Popes as private Doctors may err in matters of fact their Decrees and Bulls are not always held as infallible and may be opposed as often they have been by Papists nor will they scruple to do it especially about temporal affairs We do not approve whatsoever Popeâ— do in fact in deposing c. If some Popes have been exorbitant have not Papist themselves defended their Princes against all pretended illegal impositions of Rome If some Popes have transgressed and been passionate men it doth not follow all have as some Princes have been Tyrants not all This King John Protestant Histories conclude passing by his youthful Rebellion murthering his Nephew his Atheism c. they record he lost our whole interest in France discontenting all his people not defending their Rites and Priviledges c. So Heylin Daniel Martin Sir Robert Cotton Hist And Stow in his Chronicle 170. relates it thus King John being dissolute and perfidious and would not grant the Laws or Liberties of the Charter had as many enemies as Nobles Clergy and Layty petitioned against him for the Pope to depose him an opinion then in practice the Pope would not but sent Paendulph his Legate who comes over to Dover to King John to counsel the King's peace and reconcile him to God and the Church The King living then in great jeopardy to loose his Kingdome The King of France being invited by the Nobles and Clergy to invade the Kingdome saved the Kingdome by it after this the Clergy came over and all was in peace The Pope after this excommunicates the Barons for the disobeying the King and calling in the French King Lewis into the Realm And Gaule the Legate was sent from the Pope to forbid Lewis to go into or invade England to excommunicate him if he did But Lewis of France arrived in England whom the Barons assisted against King John John soon after died his eldest son Hen. 3. at nine years old was crowned King by the Bishops of Winchester and Bath c. and the Government of the King was committed to the Popes Legate the Bishop of Winchester and Earl of Pembroke The Legate maintained the King's part admonished prayed and commanded the disobedient to do as he did called a Council at Bristol caused the Bishops to incline to the King's part notwithstanding Lewis did what he could to the contrary Seeing Lewis and his complices were excommunicated every Sunday by the Legate though they had London and all the East parts of England Lewis had notice from Rome except he went out of England the sentence of excommunication of the Legate should be confirmed by the Pope For this cause saith Stow 175. a truce was taken between Lewis and King Henry Philip of France called his son Lewis to return he being passed over the Earl of Salisbury Earl Warren c. revolted to the Kings side and this by industry and virtue of the Pope's Legate Lewis being absolved from the excommunication went into France but his complices were by the Legate deprived of all benefit by their disobedience See Stow 170. Thus we see how for want of knowledge things are carried on and reported very frequently in the worst sense and construction it may be easily collected out of our own Authors and Chronicles that Popes have been great friends to our Princes and this Nation Take in short out of Stow 883. that Pope Adrian the fourth an Englishman invested Hen. 2. with the Dominion of Ireland and had it confirmed with an Assembly at Waterford Pope Vrbane who sent a Legate the Bishop Sabrine into England with sentence of excommunication against the City of London and Cinque-Ports and all those that troubled the King's peace King Richard of England being taken Prisoner unjustly by Leopold Duke of Austria in return from the Wars with the Saladine demanding a great ransome and misusing him The Pope excommunicated the Duke of Austrich and injoyned him to release the Covenants that he constrained our King to make and send home the Pledges The Duke refusing this Order shortly after broke his Leg and in great anguish ended his life and was kept unburied till his Son released the English Pledges Thus were the Pledges restored and the money behind released How oft did the Pope grant to the King of England the Tenth of all Ecclesiastical Goods as to Edward the first and second Sent the Abbot of Saint Denis Legat to request Edward the second to remove from him Pierce Gaveston without which the Kingdom could not be in peace nor the Queen injoy the Kings true love Vide Stow 213. Edw. 2. The Pope sent Ganelinus and Lucius de Flisco by the Kings request to make peace between England and Scotland and reconcile to the King Thomas Earl of Lancaster who brought Bulls from the Pope to excommunicate the Scots except they returned to peace with the King of England William Longshamp Bishop of Ely and Legate to the Pope and Chancellour of England was made Governour of the Realm by Richard the first Afterward the Archbishop of Roan was made Regent of England then being made Archbishop of Canterbury Then you see there was no jealousie of the Pope or his Clergy but on the contrary for many hundred years our Princes and Nation reposed as with just reason they might the greatest trust and confidence in their loyalty faith and
without horror observe is the not allowing of a due and regular Liberty of Conscience hath instead of advancing the Cause of Religion propagated Atheism in this Nation It hath been an old Stratagem of Satan to oppose Religion against Religion to leave us none at all It hath been likewise observed as a shuffling hypocritical distinction of Lawyers invented to deceive the innocent pretending none are executed or suffer for Religion or Conscience but for Treason or offending the Laws Who doth not see but by this rule those Bloody Tyrants Nero Dioclesian Maximine c. must be conscientious because they judged according to the Law and those glorious Martyrs must be counted Traitors nay even the cursed Jews who crucified Christ alledged the self-same reason we have a Law and by our Law he ought to die John 19. 7. Treason must alwaies be some action or intention discovered prejudicial to the Soveraign or State not an Opinion or Profession of Religion For this reason Sir John Old-Castle in the Reign of Henry the fifth for his Treason was condemned in one Court and for his Heresie in another So were Cranmer and Ridley in Queen Maries time And therefore also it is by the statute provided 22 and 27 Eliz. that if a Priest conforms he is actually discharged of all imputation of treason no further proceeding can lye against him If Priest-hood be no treason a Priest in that he is a Priest can be no Traytor unless we will account Apostles and all ancient Priests both of England all Countries whom Kings and Emperors have honoured and loved as their faithful friends and subjects So far thought them from being enemies to their Crown that from their hands all Princes received their Crowns Consecrations and Scepters CAP. III. Liberty or Toleration Rightly understood is equitable just or necessary to several Religions I Have viewed most of the Tracts concerning Toleration pro and con Some I find over strict and nice austere and rigid others profane and loose arbitrary and remiss and betwixt them both toleration ever scrapes the imputation of calumnie either of too much restriction or profane relaxation neither of them will know that true liberty is a middle kind of equity indulgency benignity betwixt both extreams not curst and cruel but tender and compassionate hath her commendation for moderative rather than vindicative minding rather to amend than confound not rash and arbitrary dispensing with the Law as if it were but a leaden rule but circumspectly and benignly interpreting it that it might not prove an Iron-Rod We plead then only for such a Liberty of Conscience as preserves the Nation in Trade Peace and Commerce which preserves a fair entercourse and correspondency one with another and with their respective members and would not exempt any man or party of men from not keeping those excellent Laws that tend to sober just and industrious living in a due Christian regulation consistent with the evident Laws of God and quiet Government and that indulging Dissenters in the sense defended is not only most Christian and rational but prudent also and conformable to his Majesties Gracious Declaration It appears of neither pace to drive on furiously with Jehu in matters of Policy nor that he go softly with Ahab in matters of Piety In matters of Scruple or Controversie it likes well of nothing but walking with a Right Conscience Gal. 2. 24. and that also of free choice like the Israelites among the Edomites Numâ— 22. 26. above all it hates to remove the ancient Land-Marks whether of Law or Religion Deut. 19. 14. not thirsting one anothers Blood nor invading anothers rights as Wolves and Tygers but as the Apostle saith sobrie juste pie It being an apt Mediety or mediocrity betwixt the Rigid contention of a furious Zeal or emulation and the Luke-warm disposition of a reachless indifferency or neutrality and though it be tender and compassionate as a mother yet she is far from being over remiss Licentious or irregular whence some wise men take it for a Master-piece of prudence wisely discerning 'twixt what is just and fit and so giving sentence rather congruously then severely School-men and Moralists make it to be a potential part of justice bringing not severely the Fact home to the Law but rather in equity the Law down to the Fact regulating the strict words and rigour for the common good and particular relief of pesons in certain facts times contingencies and circumstances 'T is a part of temperance amiable and amicable 'T is severally translated and hath many Epithets in holy Scripture Modesty equity 2 Cor. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 10. Phil. 4. 5. 2 Tim. 2. humanity gentleness clemency courtesie patience of Spirit 'T is the blessing and comfort of peace and unity in the Church of plenty and tranquillity in the Common-wealth of plain satisfaction to the Conscience and of plenary contentation to all sorts and conditions of rational men Nothing can be easie sweet and safe in our lives Religion Consciences or liberties to God or man without it without it we be tedious to our selves and troublesome one to another This virtue is not a little illustrated by its contrary opposit Persecution immoderation austerity rigidness inexorableness compulsion imposition c. which is an extream vitiousness in persons in their judgments opinions passions affections pretences actions and designs of which we have been more pathetically sensible in the effects than in the qualities This medium therefore or middle kind of equity indulgency or liberty betwixt both extremities aforesaid is the most just and reasonable unto which all Christians have a right and title too by virtue and purchase of Christ's Blood Death and Resurrection who is become sole Lord over the Soul unto whom we are to give account only as our proper Judg in matters purely internal and Spiritual for in this the Judicatures of men are not capable to make a clear judgment or declare certainly who are in the right or wrong This Freedome of Conscience is of so high concern to all and not only to be enjoyed by the strongest party as well for the Magistrates sake as the Peoples common good and it consists in the Magistrates forbearing to impose pressures and penalties in matters of Faith and Conscience lest they intrude into the Office of Christ to whose decision such actions are only liable The ancient original Fundamental Laws by which other Laws of less extent are to be regulated were intended as a Defence and Protection to all providing one injure not another and that Common Peace and Safety be secured no other subsequent inferiour Law can therefore debar any peaceable Christian that answers the necessities of Church and State Civil Spiritual and Political in equal justice and in foro Conscientiae from this priviledge originally due to all For they that are contributaries to the peace and maintenance of Government are intitled to a protection from it according to the just nature of government which consists
and dust as every one hath received a several external figure of Face and every one a diverse internal form of mind every one a Cogitation and fancy distant from whence it cometh that there is so great diversity of Opinions so strange a contrariety of inclinations so different affections and passions in mortal men that no ordinary means is forcible enough to perswade them to any thing to which their private Spirits or imaginations are not inclined Hence so many Scripture interpretations so many quarrels and divisions in Religion even to Massacres Evils unknown to the very Heathens Hence we have often seen good by false representations may pass for abominable in the sight of sober men Hence the inconsiderate multitude prejudiced by education passion interest or false Teachers representing the Roman Church to them as a Monster composed of all sort of abomination having their Ears perpetually beaten with seven Hills Antichrist Idolatry Superstition by many unchristian aspersions false pretences by private forgeries and publick impressions wounding most Christian and innocent men How can they otherwise but hate them they know no better and even suck from their first Milk such an ill Opinion or odium of them as if they were Turks or Jews and had principles destructive to common Society Peace and Concord What a Wonder and what a Lamentation is it that those men who cry out so much for forbearance to Magistrates should themselves be so rigid and can less forbear dissenters or see the same sin in themselves So justifie all their Cruelties and think persecution to be their Duty Whence is persecution but from thinking ill of others abhorring and not loving them condemning them without hearing bearing them down not with sincere and plain dealing becoming Christians with inveterate malice filling Books with trivial Stories and Fables pickt up out of Authors without discretion make it their business to seek calumnies and reproaches in the Sepulchres and Common-shores of Schismaticks with untrue reporting of Doctrins false and unjust Criminations and other indirect wayes unseemly and unworthy the Cause of Truth to the dishonour of God and disparagement of Christian Religion Reading a Treatise lately Printed against Toleration by an university Schollar Had this Dilemma if Liberty or Toleration may be granted either an universal Toleration or particular not an universal for then saith he Papists may be tolerated which is against all As if all the Monsters of Aegypt may be admitted so the Papists be excluded Yet we must know if there had been no Papists in the World no other Sect among us had ever heard of Christianity If we knew all the Evils may ensue we should then be forced to Check the People from railing and let them feel our anger who would deceive us with Lies Nor can we look on those men as either of wit or honesty who are ever promoting the harassing of a faithful party needlesly to disoblige their fellow Subjects and Sufferers Wherefore to undeceive the so long abused and deluded multitude I will endeavour in the ensuing discourse to wipe of the Paint and Fucus that so things may appear in their true complexion unadulterated with the slights and subtilties of deluders I have chosen rather to expose these lines to Censure than to forbear to speak or be silent in the Cause and Defence of the Innocent Silui a bonis saith the Prophet dolor meus renovatus est in the following lines shall be shewed that the Law of God Christian Religion nature reason and our own principles doth oblige us to more charitable censures of the Roman Religion And that they are as highly if not more entitled to the true Christian Liberty of Conscience than any other Sect or Religion whatsoever all objections to the contrary cleared and evinced to any rational or impartial Reader If it remains as a Probatum est that no Christian ought to be compelled in matters of Faith or Religion provided it broacheth forth no new Sects or Schisms or that it be not in Case of Scandal or open blasphemy And if the Fundamental Laws and Government were established as a Defence and Protection to all sober peaceable Christians that immunity and freedom of Conscience ought to be indulged to Dissenters in this sense it being their due right and not only granted in policy to some persons or to oblige a party or to be enjoyed by the strongest and subtilest only to curb and subiect the rest as is shewed before there can be no ground able to convince any rational man why Papists should be excluded this priviledge unless we infringe the Laws and Government by not distributing equal and impartial justice nay the truth of this assertion is more evident and convincing for them then any Primo It is against reason and all examples of antiquity for men to be punished for adhering to the Religion of their Fore-fathers Now the Roman-Catholick Religion was the first Christian Religion planted in our native Country from whom we had and have our very Christianity the first universally spread and preached by Government permitted and encouraged by Counsels and Parliaments confirmed and approved a thousand years there continued even by our deceased kindred and parents not long since professed by our Universities established and defended against all Adversaries From whence we derive even the Scripture â—t self our ordinations most of our material Churches Colledges Inns of Court Hospitals c. and shall Charity ever be so buried in Oblivion in England that the Posterity of those from whom we must confess to have received these and other great advantages never be remembred and used with equity and common Justice They are linked in Religion to all Catholick Princes and Countries about us who will be more loving Neighbours if they see their Brethren find favour from us To persecute this Religion is to War against our Progenitors It is this Church in which so many Martyrs have dyed so many Doctors have taught and preached so many Virgins have lived in flesh like Angels so many Saints wrought wonders and miracles so many Councils called so many Ecclesiastical Laws enacted so many Nations converted so many Kings and Emperors lived and died and hope to be saved against which so many persecutors Machiavels and Tyrants in vain have used torments and contrived all imaginable force wicked policy or cruelty could invent This Faith hath the best evidence as taught and instituted by Christ his Apostles and Successors in an uninterrupted series and delivery down to us Set before your eyes those glorious Champions of Christs Church Constantines Theodos Pepines Charles all sirnamed Great more Glorious for Victories over Heresies and Idolatries than for conquests of Countries more renowned for propagating Catholick Religion than enlarging their Dominions See the Catologue of noble Kings of England Lucius Ethelbert Egbert Oswald Oswine Alfred Edgar before the conquest William the Conqueror and so many Henries Edwards Richards after the Conquest mighty of force rich of
present Age no Sectaries can be lawful Witnesses for their own lately modelled Religion or against the ancient Catholick because their testimonies cannot be valid against so constant an universal Tradition and practice Secundo It s ridiculous and unjust in a Judge to pronounce sentence against Roman Catholick upon the evidence and testimony of Calvin Luther c. as in open Court to condemn men to forfeit their Estates and ancient inheritances upon the word of a mad fellow that produceth no other evidence to confirm his claim but interior motions of the Spirit or some obscure Text of Law appliable to all Cases and Subjects for all the Protestant evidence is reduced to the private Spirit and the pretended clearness of Scripture Tertio The Legislative power ought to be subordinate to Christian Religion but Statutes against Catholicks are evidently against the Law of God and Christian Religion if we may credit Antiquity and stick to the Faith and practice of the Church and Princes that went before us not only in England but all other Christian Kingdomes This way therefore of proceeding is different from all other Nations and altereth the Stile of natural reason humane nature and the practice of all Antiquity and consequently destroyes the foundation of justice and form of Judicature Quarto The common temporal Municipal Laws which Science above all others next to Divinity doth confirm and evince unto the understanding of an Englishman the Truth of Catholick Religion Forasmuch as from our first Christian Kings and Queens which must needs be the origin and beginning of all Christian Common Laws in England unto the reign of Henry the eight all our Princes and People being of one and the same Catholick Religion their Laws must needs be presumed to have been conformed to their sense and judgment in that behalf and our Lawyers to our Laws So as now to see an English temporal Lawyer to impugn the said Catholick Religion by the antiquity of the common Laws throughout the times and reigns of the said Kings and Queens to favour and countenance Luther Calvin c. or any new Opinions not known before is as great an absurdity novelty and wonder as to see a Philosopher brought up in Aristotles School to impugn Aristotle by Aristotles learning in favour of Petrus Ramus Descartes or some other new Adversary Catholick Religion never prejudiced any Nation or State where it had free passage in the least degree but hath ever been their safety happiness and honour No People or Church in the World so great a friend to loyalty and obedience they have the repute of honest men patient and charitable carry themselves civilly and religiously nothing is heard from their mouths of Blasphemy or Atheism or that may have ground of not believing or adoring God alone or of not hoping to be saved by the merits of Jesus Christ They have lived without just complaint sociable and amicable If they meet you not at Church they meet you at Market Do they not buy and sell with you Are ready to perform all Offices of good neighbourhood and civility Do they refuse any kind of temporal duties or payments Do ye not find them at home and abroad as strict to their promises as any others you converse withall They cannot be persecuted by any Government that understands its own interest unless first abused by false Teachers nor can we deny them what ancient and good Laws have ever allowed theâ— being no innovators but Professors of the same Religion which made this Nation Christian If there were no other Apology for peaceable men but only those Pleas of Conscience tendered to publick view those ought not to be unconsidered by such as profess Christianity Never any Acts of Vniformity could expel Papists out of heretical Countries Do ye know what you ask when you are still urging the execution of pressures against Catholicks even their blood life and fortunes can any Christian zeal be so irregular Can this come from the Spirit of the Gospel Is this wisdome from above Whence comes all this anger What evil have they done What maximes have they so rough and unreasonable that they must be taken away by the Sword Why should we be so bloody in our Tenets How can our passions be so intemperate Our mercies so cruel To them whose Faith was established by our Fundamental Laws and maintenance of it sworn to at least by twenty of our Monarchs even by Queen Elizabeth her self Why must the Papists be thus singled out from all the rest and forced to forfeit all advantages or forsake his Conscience They only exposed to publick hatred and rigour though they only least deserve it Shall we extinguish all considerations of equity and charity towards them of whose honesty we are assured by their Long and Patient Sufferings rather than they would renounce their Conscience towards God who are ready to abjure what is or may be objected as only dangerous in their Religion who have given evidences already they will perform those Oaths and that they cannot be absolved from them If we apprehend their principles and doctrines are inconsistent with the Gospel or Civil Government grant them a free Conference about the points in question which are those Tenets carry an opposition to either and if upon impartial enquiry they are found so Heterodox as represented then inflict penalties If their Ecclesiasticks are not able to justisie both their Religion and Principles let them renounce all mercy This offer is very fair and equal a Vindication of Justice and a legal proceeding against the Criminal And the contrary how plausible soever represented pretending thereby to do God good service is most injurious to the Peace Christian meekness Reason Religion or Charity and destructive to that prudential Ballance the wisest and best States have ever carefully observ'd Who always after questions of Religion freely discussed relieved the distresses of tender and innocent Consciences We must not judge of them or any other by the private and perhaps misinterpretable assertions of some particular Doctors but by the avowed principles of their belief This is the basis on which they build the rule by which they walk in point of obedience to God and man or if you would judg of them by their proceedings and addresses their frequent petitions professions protestations of all just obedience will sufficiently clear them If by their practice and manner of lives their quiet deportment and manner of living and conversing with all men yea even their prayers and wishes which they dayly make unto Almighty God in behalf of their Prince and Country do shew how innocent they are and how little they deserve those black aspersions and calumnies some rash Satyrists are so diligent to cast upon them In charity we are bound to believe the best of others and also to think they speak true when we cannot prove the contrary Some destine them to destruction and extirpation as Agapete did the Jews Are so eager declaimers
it not lawful to attempt the life of a Prince although he never so much abuse his Power And that it is flat Heresie to maintain the contrary So Greg. de Valent. part 2. Bellar. l. 3. of his Apology Learned Lessius lib. de Scientia jure Serarius in cap. 3. Azor. in his Instit Becanus in his answer to the 9. Aphor. Gretzer in his Vespertilio Heretico confutes all Mariana's grounds Saint Thomas tells expresly Tyrannus non potest a quopiam privatâ Authoritate occidi The Canon Law and Decrees Decret 2. part 10. de Episcopis ac clericis quod nec sua authoritate nec authoritate summi Pontificis arma valeant accipere c. And the Canon Law of England explains it more fully in the Council held at Oxford by Stephen of Canterbury 1228. and anno Hen. 3. where Excommunication is decreed against those who perturb the peace and tranquillity of our Lord the King and Kingdome Bellarmine himself maintains the Laws of Magistrates bind even the Consciences of Christians Lib. de Laicis So the Rhemenses in this Annotat. in 1 Pet. c. 2. Condemn treason and disobedience and say Subjects are bound in temporal things to obey the Heathens being lawful Kings and even for Conscience sake to keep their temporal Laws pay tribute pray for them and other natural duties And Doctor Kellison in his Learned Survey gives a good reason for it because saith he Faith is not necessarily required to jurisdiction nor is authority lost by the loss of Faith The Bishop of Armagh confesseth the English Papists in Ireland were faithful in all the Invasion of Spain or Pope Sand. K. C. p. 88. Calvin himself their greatest enemy on the first of Hosea and ninth of Amos saith quam multi sunt in Papatu qui regibus accumulant quicquid possint juris potestatis Whence King James in his Basilicon doron Epist to the Reader saith Puritans had put out many Libels against all Christian Princes and that no body answered them but the Papists that they were their only Vindicators And the late King himself in his excellent Book of Meditations saith I am sorry Papists should have a greater sense of their allegiance than many Protestants The Loyalty and Obedience of Catholicks towards Princes appears undeniable in all things by their constant and general conformity unto temporal Government Have shewed all the duty that men can fancy to own Where shall we find better Subjects How much they are faulty and how much others have been let the world judg They may lay to our charge ten Seditious Authors for one and that more Villanies have been perpetrated since the Reformation than in nine hundred years before I must provoke both Angels and men saith a Divine of the English Church to consider their wrong How we load them with Crimes of which they are innocent I might wonder how so wild calumnies could be laid to their charge When their constant Doctrine teacheth and their own persons have shewed all duty imaginable Experience hath proved their great integrity that no advantages offered can betray their fidelity to their King or Country what wrong have done what peace have they broken what plots have they fomented to the prejudice of the present Government or occasions given to hatch new jealousies treason is now left out of their charge What discoveries were made against them either in the Rump or Olivers time when the Press was free were they not still owned as the most loyal and constant Royalists and none of them could ever be suspected for the least defection from our Soveraign And yet these are the men that are traduced as inconsistent with civil polity and regality Yet none more inoffensive then they Judg then whether it be not a superlative injustice to incense the world against them As if they delighted in blood and persecuting of men were a part of their doctrine Now because the contrary opinion hath possessed the imaginations of so many by a self-deceiving wilfulness predominant passion or partiality I shall clear and lay open the truth of this assertion in the sequent Chapter So plainly and Orthodoxally that none but who can lay aside all reason charity honesty and morality may contradict and oppose CAP. IX Principles and Doctrines of Roman Catholicks are consistent with Peace and Government wherein a different Religion is established by Law LEt Politicians say what they will there is no greater support to Monarchy than Catholick Religion whence one of our own Doctors saith The Fanaticks did conjecture and were tenacious of opinion that the late Acts put out a-against Papists and Priests were but to bring others more easily into the snare So good and deserving opinion they know Papists merited from those times that no security need to tye them deeper How all the Catholicks of England have comported themselves at least these sixty years last past needs no further vindication those that have been witnesses of their actions can testifie I shall only intimate that I have heard them profess that if at any time they have exposed their lives and fortunes in defence of their Soveraign and Countrey they did but do that duty which they shall be ready to do again notwithstanding any disincouragement can be put upon them Now in this Chapter I adventure to fight against a popular prejudice and the obstinacy of long verted opinions considering the number of my Adversaries who so loudly and resolutely charge them with destructive Doctrines and Principles to the publick good and safety that they seem to make it an Article of their Creed objecting Positions of some private and disavowed persons and words only when others rebelled indeed and their Battels were real but every mans work will bear a better testimony of him than other mens words do against him I know great difficulties may be overcome by truth and time And vulgar and very general errors have oft been easily detected by prudent and unbiasled men Whence to overthrow from the very foundation all such aspersions let all impartial men consider first these calumnies proceed originally from enemies Secondly they are untruths forged against them and taken upon trust what their Antagonists teach you For it hath been a course often practised against them by many of their opponents First to frame Articles of their belief according to their own fancy or out of private and unapproved Authors as if they were the true and real Articles of their Faith Who being oft pressed to justifie the accusations could never do it or durst not shew their faces in a free or publick conference about the points in question This way of proceeding is against all Law and Equity to condemn them before you hear them No Judg sends men to be hanged before they speak for themselves and Sentence given Secondly According to the rule of reason they themselves should make the Confession and Profession of their own Faith and that of others especially their adversaries should
miles removed than in many thousand within his own Kingdom not all of them Angels The King of France esteems it a priviledg granted him in a Concordate by the Pope that no particular Bishop should have power in any case to excommunicate him Never was there greater supporters to the Crown than English Catholicks have been ever against the least encroachment offered by the Bishop of Rome himself as it is to be seen in the Statâ—t Laws of King Richard the Second wherein you find in many businesses the Pope was interessed the Roman Catholicks flatly denying the Crown of England to be subject to any immediately but to God yet acknowledged in the very same Parliament the Bishop of Rome's spiritual Jurisdiction And Bishop Bilson in his Defence between Christ and Antichrist brings in the Parliament consisting then altogether of Roman Catholicks expressing their loyalty to their Soveraign Prince in these words we will with our said Soveraign the King and his said Crown and Regality in cases aforesaid and in all other cases attempted against Him his Crown or Dignity in all points live and dye p. 3. p. 243. And in Holinshed 2. Volume of the last Edition p. 309. we find in the Reign of King Edward the First all the Catholick Lords assembled in Lincolne in Parliament in the name of all estates did answer the Popes right to judg c. that they would not consent their King should do any thing tending to the disinheriting of the Crown or right of England And that it was never known and consequently never practised that the King of this Land had answered or ought to answer for their rights in the said Realm before any Judg ecclesiastical or secular Yet at the same time they stiled Pope Boniface the high Bishop of the Roman universal Church and themselves his devout sons c. Therefore Catholick Religion hath no headship prejudicial to temporal Supremacy If this were a Check to the Glory of Kings why do the Kings of France Spain Poland Portugal the Emperour and other great Princes in Germany uphold it and glory in it the Duke of Savoy with the Florentine and the rest of Italian Princes living under the Popes Nose absolute and arbitrary in their Dominions dispute with Sword in their hand for their Temporalities And for the Catholick Church in England in Catholick times Stat. 25. Edward 3. Statut. 16. Richard did not admit the Pope's deposing power in temporals made it a preeminence to appeal to Rome or to submit to a Legates jurisdiction without the Kings License or on the Popes summons to go out of the Kingdom or receive any mandates or brief from Rome or purchase Bulls for Preserments to Churches c. and the reason was given because the Crown of England is free from earthly subjection and immediately subject to God Our Catholick Lords of England have in the name of the whole Body made oft protestations of eternal fidelity to the King and renouncing all dependance of any forreign power that can any way be prejudicial to him Many Protestations Professions Declarations have been printed by several Catholicks that no authority on earth can absolve them from their necessary and natural Allegiance and that his fidelity was a duty of their Religion have made and will be ready to give all security of peaceable obedience and sincere integrity that any words or actions can confirm But you will object and say they allow a power in the Pope to excommunicate Princes and thence follows a train of pernicious consequences of deposing raising his Subjects against him c. Resp That the power of Excommunication is indeed necessarily annexed to the pastoral Function and therefore to be allowed in the cheife Bishop over his Flock But they deny and renounce any further extent of that power unto those things which appertain to Caesar 5 and therefore they declare as firmly that notwithstanding any such excommunication they will bear true faith to our Prince and him maintain and defend against all opposers whatsoever You may again object the Council of Lateran decreed Princes that savoured Hereticks after admonition given the Pope might discharge the Subjects from allegiance and give away the Kingdom to some Catholick to root out Heresie Resp 1. Councils are not infallible in every point even in matter of fact and other Constitutions not concerning faith or doctrine being but human Laws are changeable and oft admit exceptions 2. Council's Ordinations are to be taken according to the prudent meaning of the Legislators which bear another sense than the words taken lye In this case suppose the Emperours of the East and West Kings of England France Hungary Hierusalem Cyprus Arragon c. agree together to purge their Kingdoms of Heresies and upon forfeiture the Church should give their Dominions to another that will perform their Compact these Princes being present by their Embassadors at the Councils and what was there done was done by their consent The Albigensian Heresie beginning to be so numerous and even dangerous those Monarches thought themselves in no worse a condition for that decree nor did any Catholick King since complain or protest against this Council for it 3. Note the Decrees of some Councils not received or acknowledged universally by the Catholick Church are not obligatory but that which is principally to be considered is that in the Decree of this Lateran under Innocent the Third it is ordained not Supream Princes but temporales potestates dominos which bear Offices in States and Kingdoms to take Oaths to root out all Hereticks under the penalty of being denounced to be deprived of their Estates c. yet reserving the right of the supream Lord. 4. This pretended Article of Faith hath been disclaimed by a world of unquestionable Catholicks and all allegations confuted by learned Authors of our Nation Doctor Bistop writ a Book purposely against it 5. No proof can be given that it was ever received or executed by any Catholick Kingdom out of Italy The reason is because those decrees were never published by Pope Innocent nor a Copy of them extant either in the body of the Councils or Vatican Library or elsewhere till a certain German three hundred years after said he found them in a Manuscript compiled he knows not by whom 6. By testimony of all Historians at that time Pope Innocent suffered in Reputation having convoked so many Prelates to no purpose 60 Capitula were recited in the Assembly and many penned in a stile as if they had been concluded but nothing at all could plainly be decreed no Conciliary determinations made but one or two viz. about the recovery of the holy Land and subjection of the Greek Church to the Roman for a War began then between them of Pisa and Genua which called the Pope from the Council 7. Be it granted a conciliary decree it is so far from looking like an Article of Faith which saith Bellarmine and Canus may easily be discovered by
honesty It would fill a volume it self to recount all the benefits priviledges honours and advantages this Nation hath received from the Popes and See of Rome See Bishop Smith in his Epist Histor ad regem Jacobum of the Pope's favours to England Hence our first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury Parker in Eliz. lib. antiq Britan. ait hanc insulae nobilitatem atque gloriam Dei providentiae atque beneficentiae c. The nobleness of this Island for being the first of all Provinces of the World that received the Christian Faith and the glory thereof is to be acknowledged to have proceeded from the providence and goodness of God yet the way it self and means by which this nobility and glory was won unto it it was first and always laid open unto us from the See of Rome we have always from that time persevered in the unity of the Roman Faith and our subjection to the Roman Church is most ancient Haec ille Abbot Fecknam in his Oration to the Parliament of the first of Eliz. saith thus Damianus and Fugatianus as Embassadours from the See of Rome did bring into this Realm a thousand four hundred years past the very same Apostolical Religion we are now in possession of For then the Roman Religion was not voted down he would not have dared to have uttered in that time and place but that he could produce good witness and antiquity to his warrant Let not now their Adversaries be so unreasonable as to quote Mariana Suarez or Bellar. or any other private Author that may have enlarged the jurisdiction of Popes to the prejudice of Kings and then lay their particular Opinions to the charge of all For were this a just and fair way of dealing they could with as much ease requite them with Text for Text out of Luther Calvin Knox Buchanan and many more whose Opinions are at least as dangerous to the safety of Monarchy The difference betwixt them being only this whereas the former lodge the deposing power in the Pope only whose person is at a safe and sufficient distance at least from us the latter bring the danger home to the doors of Princes and place it in the people whom they make both judges and parties in the case Secondly Mariana's personal fault and his opinion were condemned by a Provincial Council of the same Society held at Paris 15 16. and that confirmation ratified by Claudius Aquaviva the General of the Order and the Doctors of Sorbon in the same year declared it an ungodly position Thirdly Mariana was not resolute in that opinion neither but handled it problematically Fourthly It was not for deposing of Kings but Tyrants which alters the case In France 1614. a Book written by Suarez against the Oaths in which the deposing power was asserted was by Decree of the Parliament of Paris condemned to be burnt by the publick Executioner as containing scandalous seditious positions c. and Armandus Cotton Front and Symond four chief Jesuits were to take order their General should renew a prohibition to teach like Doctrines and the whole Order after disavowed them Eight Universities viz. Paris Valentia Tholouse Poicteirs Burdeaux Burges Reims and Caen did of their own accord not expecting a command from the Court 1626. brand this Doctrine of Pope's deposing power with titles of impious seditious infamous c. And Fossart of the Society in a publick Act advancing the proposition although it was interpreted to extend only to Tyrants by decree of the whole University of Caen the Proposition and Expositions were censured impious and condemned Fossart imprisoned and sentenced bareheaded to acknowledg the said positions false and contrary to the decrees of Councils c. But to silence all impertinent objections in this nature or in any other matter they declare to the whole world that no private authors but only the Decisions of lawful general Councils have any influence upon their Faith or Doctrin in any point whatsoever Therefore if their adversaries will conclude any thing against them from their own Principles they must do it from their own proper uncontradicted confession or from the Decrees of General Councils from which they only take the Rule of their Faith The Project of the Gunpowder Treason undertaken only by a few male-contents in justice might rather be burned in oblivion with the offenders than objected perpetually to innocent men who abhor the fact and were publickly acquitted thereof by the King himself in the Parliament following See the Kings Speeches That the Catholick Body had no hand in this Treason appears by the quality of the actors and number of them being but four Gentlemen The Catholick Noblemen then were the most considerable of the Nation their first Marquess viz. Winchester The first Earl viz. Arundel Their first Vicount viz. Mountague Their first Baron viz. Abergaveny c. Now none of these or any chief of the party had any intrigue in the design though all imaginable industry was used by the Commons Lords and Privy Council and by Cecil their plotting enemy to bring them in Therefore to call this an universal Popish plot is in it self a contradiction because no plot can be looked on as geneneral when no number of the chiefest part are intrigued in the design If then some four necessitous or loose persons have been of the Gun-powder Treason to infer thence all other of the same profession are of the same stamp Do not all rational men see this inference is irrational That it may be retorted against any other profession in England in other things Is it not unreasonable and uncharitable to infer from thence an imputation upon all others Can any one in his right senses accuse the whole Church of England for incestuous or drunkards because some of them have been guilty of those crimes Stow Chron. p. 882. noteth by many factious people it was given out this Treason was attempted by consent of the King of Spain French King and Archduke Catesby at his Death said the plot and practice of this Treason was only his and that others were but his assistants saith Stow. And the Council perceived it was practiced by some discontented Papist Staw 879. many untruths were divulged hoping to have drawn into their rebellion those of their Religion and other malecontents In all their examinations none else were discovered though they revealed several secret particulars as is seen in their printed confessions they would not have spared others seeing they accused their Confessour Garnet saith Stow Provincial of the Jesuits for concealing it in confession only was executed Acknowledged to God his offence was heartily sorry asked God and the King forgiveness and beseeched God to bless the King and his issue exhorted all Catholicks not to attempt any Rebellion or Treason c. for all such courses said he are utterly against Catholick Faith and Religion Vide Stow. To find out the depth of the plot they left no stone unrolled to shew how nice they
were Sturton and Mordent two Catholick Lords were fined because they were absent from Parliament that day their circumspection was so great that the Lord of Northumberland a Protestant was imprisoned for many years because being Captain he admitted Piercy into the Bond of Pensioners Thus any indifferent Reader may see how improbable or rather impossible it was the Catholick party to be involved therein Concerning Plots we know it was counted a piece of wit in Queen Elizabeths time to draw men into such devices and none more excellent than Burleigh and Walsingham the first of which Cecil was son to and successor to the others secretariship and fomenting of plots then in fashion Who hath forgot the plots of Cromwel framed in his Closet not only to destroy many faithful Cavaliers but also to put a lustre upon his intelligence This Gun-powder Treason was a meer device though acted by the hand of some desperate persons as King James saith in his second Proclamation whereas Thomas Piercy some other confederates being of lâ—wd life insolent dispositions and for the most part of desperate Estates c. Yet contrived invented by a crafty States-man who every one knew hated their profession to make them odious suspected in that Nation and to disoblige his Majesty of his promises in favour of them and this his jealousie increased seeing the King received in his Council Henry Earl Wil. Hist in King James p. 3. p. 190. of Northampton an eminent Papist and no friend to the Statesmen And his Majesties speech then to the two Houses against persecution of Catholicks as Wilson noteth as it may be justly thought considering what Polititian sate at the helm then Nor was it hard for a Secretary to know turbulent and malitious Spirits as Stow calleth Catesby a malecontent in Queen Elizabeth's days and when King James came to the Crown no favourable Article concerning Indulgency to English Catholicks And that the King of Spain and Archduke minded only their own interest c. Vide Stow 880. 'T is argument enough to assert this that if a Statesman professed in tricks hating and envying Roman Catholicks contrived the material part contrived also the rest and certainly the miraculous letter which discovered the Gun-powder Treason will discover our Statesmen to be the author of it The Letter is this to the Lord Mounteagle a Roman Catholick MY LORD OVt of the Love I bear some of your Friends I have care of your preservation therefore I would wish you as you tender your life to forbear the attendance at this Parliament for God and man have concurred to punish the wickedness of the time Think not sleightly of the advertisement for though there be no appearance of any stir yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow this Parliament and yet they shall not see who hurt them This Counsel is not to be contemned because it may do you good and can do you no harm for the danger is past as soon as you have burnt the Letter and I hope you will make good use of it Now this Letter could not be written by Piercy as reputed because first there was little intimacy between the Lord Mounteagle and Piercy as Wilson saith Secondly the Earl of Northumberland Percy 's Patron and only support he was to be sacrificed and all Catholick Lords of his Religion therefore no Plotter writ this for here a hundred suspicious things in the opinion of any fool would endanger the discovery Thirdly Notice also given so long before the execution for the Letter was sent to Mounteagle ten days before the 5. of November as Saunderson p. 383. Hist saith the long warning being opposite to the designe of a Conspirator Fourthly in their examinations they never confessed it as they did things of higher secrecy Now the interval was beneficial to a Machivilian it would be more grateful to the Council to have time to consider the difficulties to ruine his enemies and make his vigilance appear And Cecil did not miss of his aim for as Saunderson says he was made Earl for his Service For the Letter came by his contrivance being as Osborn Prot. Hist confesseth a neat device of the Treasurers Nor was he ignorant from time to time of their actions Osborne Mem. K. Jam. p. 360. For Tresham and another who were Cecil's instruments had access to him at midnight and last he should discover it he was never brought to a publick trial were sent to the Tower and never seen afterward lest they should tell tales And Piercy and Catesby might have been taken alive but Cecil feared these two would have related the Story less to his advantage Whence they were not made Prisoners though they had no weapons but their Swords Besides many knowing men Strangers abroad have writ And Protestants themselves at home have discovered since this to be a purposed contrivance So Ossate Letters Livr 2. Epist 43. Prins Antip. of Prelat p. 151. His Majesty also well knew some had learned this art in their old Mistress's time Whence he oft said the fifth of November was Cecils holiday as the Lord Cobham and others have protested to have heard from his own mouth Therefore the Roman party had no hand in the Treason being but thirteen Laymen and all those drawn in by their mortal enemy This desperate attempt seemed rather of a private Kindred or Acquaintance than of any Religion Catesby and Tresham were Sisters Children the two Graunts two Brethren and the elder intermarried with Winters Sister Faux and Keys were but Servingmen the two Wrights long time dependers on Catesby and their Sister married to Piercy If any of these were Papists or so died they were not so long before for the true Priests and Catholicks in England knew them not to be such they being never frequenters of Catholick Sacraments and none of them convicted and known recusants before as our Courts witness Papists and Priests know Catholicks by using Sacraments These they renounced by publick Writings and condemned their Enterprise for impious malefactors of this hellish Conspiracy The Lord Mounteagle with his Lady and Children who disclosed it indeed were known Catholicks No Priest or known Catholick after many strict examinations searches and scrutinies was either proved or probably suspected of it but so far freed that the Lords of the Council requested that a Priest should be appointed to perswade and assure Faux an agent in it that he was bound in conscience to utter what he could of that Conspiracy And Master Thomas Wright a learned Priest did hereupon come to the Council and offer his best Service therein and had a Warrant to that purpose subsigned with twelve Privy Counsellors hands but Faux had confessed all they could wish before he could come to him So that no man of Conscience can think but Recusants rather deserved favour for their loyalty Seeing the Arch-Priest condemned it all Catholicks detested and abhorred it as appears by their Petitions to the King
affect Whence Master Howes in his Hist makes relation A great Protestant had more or not much inferiour knowledg of it than some that were put to death for concealing it Thus the crimes of a few miserable wretches necessitous and loose persons are perpetually objected to the innocent and made their guilt though by none more detested than themselves but how unreasonable and how great a solecism it is in Christianity to conclude all guilty of every horrid crime which some few are known to have perpetrated none but injudicious furies and such as in some measure may deserve to be ranged in the categories of fools or mad-men but must needs acknowledg And unless we will renounce all charity justice and humanity we must not impute particular mens actions either of this or other matters to Catholick Religion and for their faults expose them to common hatred and violence For in common sense if Catholicks refuse to go to Church in respect of Conscience they will far more refuse Treason to attempt or consent to any desperate act against our Countrey or State or commit such sins as hazard both body and soul O but bloody Queen Mary O what cries against the days of Queen Mary as if her cruelty were unparallell'd when it plainly appears to any impartial inquirer that more Catholicks have died by Protestants than of them by Papists and that since the exclusion of the Pope there hath been a greater quantity of blood judicially spilt among us on the score of Religion than from the Conversion of England to Hen. 8. Why do we then cry out like men in the fit of fury of the bloody Papists It s suspition some radicated hatred obfuscates our intellect as the Poet saith Impedit ira animum nec potest cernere verm Queen Mary put none to death but by the known Laws established many hundred years before the malefactors were born and which are still used to this day by Protestants against Hereticks None were then put to death but by virtue of antient Laws of Christian Emperours and Kings of England therefore not the Queen nor Bishops but the Law was cruel yet the said Laws are still in force still continue and were made use of since the Reformation by Elizabeth and King James to burn Hereticks in their time as Stow and Baker note Why did King James put Legat and Wightman to death but because he religiously thought it unfit they should live any longer to blaspheme why did Queen Elizabeth 1587. hang Coppinger and Thacker at Saint Edmundsbury for publishing Brown's Book saith Cambden which saith Stow p. 1174. was written against the Common Prayer I will not apologize for any extravagancies done by our predecessors in the beginning of Reformation He that will judg let him lay his hand on his own breast and examine what he would do in this condition Suppose he were of a Religion he thought the whole visible Church from age to age delivered to his ancestors and saw Profess'd in all Kingdoms Suppose then the preaching of two or three men base in rank and taxt in moralities broaching forth new and dangerous opinions to Church and State obstinately and would not be silenced by any satisfactory means would he think it then cruelty to put Laws in execution against such novelties the consequences whereof proved seditious and rebellious as is seen in History There died of the Reformists in the the whole but two hundred seventy seven as Baker in Queen Mary p. 467. and Speed in Queen Mary p. 833. and other Protestant Writers record And were there two hundred of those now living they would suffer for extravagancies and perpetrated villanies as most of those did in the voluminous Legend of Fox stuffed with Wicliffians and Waldenses whom Philip Melancton and other Protestants disown with Tinkers Coblers Butchers Taylors and prating Wives very few of them put to death on the score of Religion as the Records testifie Cranmer and Ridley so much spoken of were attainted of Treason defending the Title to the Lady Jane Cranmer being a Counsellor in the business and Ridley Bishop of London preaching a Sermon for it at St. Pauls Cross the Sunday after King Edward died So Cranmer was condemned of Treason and arraigned with the Lady Jane He was also an Instrument of divorce to bring Anna Bullein to the Kings appetite and afterward he and Cromwel the chief actors for her death as p. 3. Statut. 28. Hen. 8. c. 1. where Cranmers Sentence is recorded judicially as of his own knowledg convincing her of the foul fact Or if there were some at that time put to death for their conscience only which can hardly be proved and that there was no faction exteriour disobedience or innovation in the case yet they could not be properly Protestant Martyrs because they suffered before the thirty nine Articles or Church of England was established Reformed Historians viz. Bishop Goodman Baker Speed c. do agree Queen Mary was a marvellous good Woman had many troubles Cranmer and Ridley with a thousand more set up as busie as Bees against her when she was to be invested in her Rights Reformists would not receive her as their Queen but upon condition as Suffolke people nor assist her without Indentures Stow annal p. 1064. nor acknowledg her but upon such and such terms yet her Right was indubitable How Wars were waged against her by the Dukes of Northumberland and Suffolke Bills spread abroad and several treacherous practices contrived against her and her Dignity by Archbishop Cranmer see Stow Annal. printed 1592. p. 1039 1042 c. What great commotions and insurrections were made against her by Wiat on the score of Religion How Towns and Castles were taken and held out against her by Stafford p. 1047. ibid. How Daggers were throâ—n and Guns shot off at Priests of her Religion whiles they were preaching at Pauls Cross viz. Doctor Pendleton and Master Bourne How many treasonable Books writ against her after she came to the Crown by Goodman insomuch that more open rebellion and insurrection was in five years of her short Government from such as were not affected to her Religion than Queen Elizabeth had from Catholicks in forty years vide Stow 1039 1058. How plain and sincere her Government was how free from tricks and such strains of Policy as were afterward used is manifest to all the world How just was she if severe for a time that severity was necessary not only by the judgment of Parliament which a little before had enacted the Laws on which she proceeded and before which she acted nothing in that kind but also in respect of her own safety and of the State And to vindicate their Clergy let all the Canons of the Church be examined and searched if there be one to be found that justifies the shedding of blood simply on the account of Religion That She was withal a merciful Princess is evidenc'd by the compassion shew'd to such as deserved not
Laws nor made by the principles of Catholick Doctrine The Arrians were the first introducers of persecution they were not I say enacted by Ecclesiasticks but by civil Governours only We know that by the Canons of the Church ever in force their Clergy under the penalty of irregularity are forbidden to have any hand in blood And whatsoever civil Laws have been made by Catholick civil Governours were but as prudent means to prevent Sedition or Rebellions justly apprehended And though for some later ages civil Magistrates in some Countries exercise greater severities than anciently were used must England imitate the rigidest of other Countries Neither can our hatred or persecution against Catholicks be any more excused by the proceedings of the Spanish or Italian Inquisitions than our penal Statutes have been by the Laws of ancient Kings and Emperours against Hereticks First Because the Inquisition proceeds according to the rules and forms of justice none is declared an Heretick or guilty by any new Law or Oath made only to the end that by them men may be entrapped both in Soul in Body and Estate It was no crime in England to be a Roman Catholick before the penal Laws were enacted but it was a crime to be an Heretick or an Apostate or broacher of new Doctrines before the ancient Emperors and Kings made penal Laws against Heresie The Law supposed and did not make the crime As penal Statutes do in England making a crime of Christian Religion Secondly Hereticks are never condemned by the Inquisition without the testimony of many lawful witnesses both living and dead All the ancient Fathers Councils and the Christian Church of former ages testifie their errors are new and contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles No Rebel was ever more evidently convicted of Rebellion against his Prince then Hereticks are by the Inquisition of Heresie against God and the old Apostolical Church Catholicks cannot obtain so fair a Plea they are condemned by a new Law because they are not Hereticks and separate from the ancient Faith Thirdly The Inquisition practiceth all imaginary means towards the accused to reduce his judgment Fourthly The Inquisition it self is permitted in no Kingdome where Heresie is numerous nor can it be in justice they strive to keep out Sects and new Opinions in Countries totally of one Belief We do not morally blame the very Moors in Africa being of one profession for keeping out the Gospel it self In England where all fell not from the Papacy there is not the same just motive for severity as if it brought an upstart Religion never heard of or spread over the Nation Fifthly The Inquisition medleth not with those who never were Catholicks but the penal Statutes comprehend them who never were of their Church or Communion Sixthly The Inquisition condemns no Hereticks to death but only declares their heresie to the end the faithful may avoid their conversation its true the Secular power executes the sentence of death against them notwithstanding the Inquisition doth protest against the rigour and desireth that Hereticks may not be punished with death Seventhly Though the Inquisition were rigorous and unjust as adversaries pretend it is not a blemish to Catholick Religion because it is not an universal practice but limited to Spain and Italy at the instance of secular Princes looked upon as a necessary means to keep their Subjects in awe of their 〈◊〉 Eighthly The Inquisition â—oth seriously wish and endeavour the conâ—ersion and amendment of Hereticks imploâ—ing learned Divines to convince them and by fair ways and reason to win them Neither can the Muthers or Massacres in Ireland so much and so often exaggerated in Protestant Pamphlets and Pulpits be any pretext of rigour or austerity to English Catholicks What hath an English Catholick to do with an Irish Massacre Can we our selves excuse all the extravagancies by some of our natives and party Doth Catholick Religion either incline him to or teach murther or rebellion Have they not a setled sense of Scripture for loyalty and obedience Which none can alter without breach of his Catholick Faith And they are not their own interpreters and and judges in points controverted that 's the priviledge of others I only say and wish from my soul that some indiscreet Zealots had not a greater hand in them than Catholick Religion whose tenets are contrary to cruelty and murther on any pretence whatsoever Is it not notorious that the Reformed Zealots in Ireland signed a bloody Petition offered to the Parliament in England that all Irish that would not go to Church might be extirpated or banished This was done before the Irish Catholicks did stir Suppose that in Vlster some of the rascality or Kerns being exasperated by so many and continual injuries had murthered some persons must that reflect upon the English Catholicks and all the Irish Nation or what is the Irish Râ—â—ellion to English Catholicks who detest it more than the Amboyna to Reformists it is too much ascertained that the Murthers and Massacres done in Ireland by Reformists furious zeal against Catholicks exceeded those committed by Catholicks witness their murthers about Dublin the County of Wicko and Fingcole by the transplantation of them into Canaught and by the transporting them into the Plantations of America forcing them to the Oath of Abjuration and almost starving them in those places contrary to the Publick Faith given them by printed Declarations in the Name of the English Parliament to Irish Catholicks Anno 1649. 1652. that the Oath of Abjuration shall not be administred to any in Ireland Baxter in his Cure of Church-Division confesseth and saith they put the Irish to death that went to defend themselves and stand for the King and Country yet they who seemed so godly themselves Massacred millions of their own Country that were for the Country and King and gave God many humiliation days and thanks for their success killing after so many Scots in cold blood after they were taken at Worcester Fight See Baxter But whosoever desires to be better satisfied in this of Ireland let him read the printed Remonstrance of the Irish Confederate Catholicks delivered by their Commissioners the Lord Vicount Preston and Sir Robert Talbot the seventeenth of March 1642. to his Majesties Commissioners at Trim. There he will see how the Irish desired the murthers on both sides might be punished and how they were forced to take up arms by the wicked practices of Sir William Persons Sir Charls Coot and other fiery Protestants who governed the Kingdom Therefore whatsoever may be said in passion of the Irish war its evident that the Calvinistical Zealot had great influence upon their injurious provocations murthering seven or eight hundred women children Ploughmen and labourers in a day in the Kings Land whensoever the Army went abroad the poor Country-people did betake themselves to the Firrs where the Parliament Officers did besiege them and set the Fâ—rrs on fire and such as escaped that element were