betake themselues to Monâ—sticall liuâ—s they doe now apply themselues to the study of the Law Secondly for that the possessions of the Monasteries being then in Mortmaine could not be aliened whereas now being in the hands of Lay-men they are daily bâ—ught and solde which settetâ— the Lawyer doubly aworke first in 〈◊〉 coâ—ueyances for them and then in alterâ—tion about them Thirdly the Abbots and Priors foreseeing their ruine Set many leases vnder hand which could not but breed a great intanglement in their possessions Fourthly and lastly the dispersing of them into the hands of so many particular men resting before in the possessions of Corporations cannot but proue the cause of much strife and consequently of many suites and controuersies no marueile then if by our increase of people other trades and professions increasing Lawyers should doe the like But if the Canons of the Church and the Courts of Confession were you say in request the Lawyers market would soone bee marred what say you then to those Countreys where both these are in request and yet doe their Lawyers both encrease and flourish more then ours And when both these were in request among vs their number as I shewed before was little lesse if not as great or more then now it is if â— vnderstand the words of that reuerend Iudge aright And if most of our Lawyers bee in this point Puritans that is in refusing the rescripts of the Popes as the Canons of the Church and your seale of Confession as a diuine ordinance for my part I blame them not but for the Canons of our owne Church collected by William Linwood in the reigne of King Henry the 5th and afterwards by 32. selected persons Bishops inferiour Diuines and Cannonists deputed to that worke by King Henry the eight after his death by his Sonne King Edward the sixth as also our present Canons now in force I haue knowen some of our Lawyers much esteeme But if they furnish the Parliament with vniust and vnnecessarie grieuances I defend them not but leaue them to make their owne apologie only thus much I say that the whole body of a profession is not to bee charged with the fault of some fewe specially being imputed by those who desire most to fish in our troubled waters to warme their handes at the fire of our contentions and to rippe vp our woundes if we haue any with smiling countenances Hoc Ithacus velit magno mercentur Atridae Now if the one incroach vpon the other farther then their proper and limited bounds permit I excuse them not but leaue them to the censure of his wisedome and restraint by his power vpon whom they depend both and from whom they both receiue their limits and being Lastly whereas you make him a Petty-fogging Lawyer that would fetch the antiquity of the Lawe from the Saxons that were before King Ethelbert herein you make that famous Iudge before named whom in his time they esteemed a Father of the Law and a learned antiquarie a Petty-fogging Lawyer in as much as in his Book aboue mentioned he thus speaketh The realme of England was first inhabited by the Britanes next after them the Romanes had the rule of the land and then againe the Britanes possessed it after whom the Saxons inuaded it and changing the name thereof did for Britaine call it England after them for a certaine time the Danes had the dominion of the realme and then the Saxons againe but last of all the Normans subdued it whose descent continueth in the gouernment of the Kingdome at this present and in all the times of these seueral Nations and of their Kings this realme was still ruled with the selfe same customes that now it is which if they had not bene right good some of those Kings mooued either with pride or with reason or affection would haue changed them or altogether abolished them and specially the Romans who did iudge all the rest of the world by their owne Lawes likewise would other of the foresayed Kings haue done who by the sword only possessing the realme of England might with the same power haue extinguished the Lawes thereof and touching the antiquitie of thesame neither are the Romane ciuil Lawes by so long continuance of ancient times confirmed nor yet the Lawes of the Venetians which aboue all other are reported to be of most antiquitie for as much as there Iland in the beginning of the Britanes was not then inhabited as Rome it selfe was then also vnbuilded neither are the Lawes of any which worshipped God so ancient wherefore the contrary is not to bee sayd nor thought but that the English Customes are very good yea of all other the very best neither can I conceiue any other reason Mr. Doctor hath thus bitterly to enuie against our Lawes as if they came from the Court infidel and were a burthen to the Common wealth but because some of them are bent against the Popes vsurpation and the admission on of his emissaries from Rome and as the Canon Law carries vp the Arke of the Church that is the Pope fifteene cubits aboue the highest mountaineâ— of Soueraigntie so is the Common Law so fauourable and aduantageous in extending the Prerogatiue of the King as his Maiestie professeth For a King of England to despise the Common lawe is to neglect his owne Crowne and a little after protesteth that if it were in his hand to chuse a new law for this Kingdome hee would not onely preferre it before any other nationall lawe but euen before the very iudiciall law of Moyses So that whether wee expect Spirituall instruction and comfort or the semporall wealth and libertie of the Commons of England if the Iesuite and Seminarie Priest who both seeke the ouerthrow of our Church and deceiue and consume the people would let them alone there would quickly appeare no reason of State at all why they should desire reconciliation to Rome which with sugred speaches and counterfeit faces doth so much abuse them or loathe the reformation which is euery way so comfortable and beneficiall vnto them B. C. 44. I am therefore in very assured hope that by my comming to the Catholike Church beside the satisfying and sauing of mine owne soule I shall doe no ill seruice to your Maiestie neither in respect of your selfe nor your children nor in respect of your Lords and Commons and that there is no reason concerning the state of any of these that is sufficient to disswade vnitie There is onely the Clergie left which if Caluinisme may goe on and preuaile as it doth shall not in the next age bee left to bee satisfied and there is little reason that any man that loues the Clergie shall desire to satisfie such Clergie-men as do vnder-hand fauour Caluinists and maintaine such points of doctrine as if your Maiesties fauour were not would out of hand ouerthrow the Clergie and in stead of them set vp a few stipendary Preachers
her singular vertues and excellencies erected to her euerlasting memorie a princely Monument in the magnificent Chappell of her grandfather Henry the seuenth inscribed with this ensuing Epitaph of her greatnesse Sacred vnto memorie Religion to its primitiue syncerity restored Peace throughly setled Coine to the true value refined Rebellion at home extinguished France neere ruine by intestine mischiefes relieued Netherland supported Spaines Armado vanquished Ireland with Spaniards expulsion and traitors coercion quieted both Vniuersities Reuenues by a law of prouision exceedingly augmented finally all England enriched and xlv yeeres most prudently gouerned ELIZABETH a Queene a Conqueresse a Triumpher the most deuoted to pietie the most happie after lxx yeeres of her life quietly by death departing hath left here in this most famous Collegiate Church which by her was established and refounded these remaines of her mortality vntil at Christs call they shall againe rise immortall Shee died the xxiiij of March the yeere of Saluation MDCII of her reigne xlv of her age lxx For an eternall memoriall Vnto ELIZABETH Queene of England France and Ireland daughter of King Henrie the VIII grandchild to K. Hen. the VII great grandchild to K. Ed. the IIII the mother of this her Countrey the Nurse of Religion and Learning for perfect skill of very many languages for glorious endowments as well of minde as body and for regall vertues beyond her Sex A Prince incomparable IAMES of Great Britaine France and Ireland King inheritor both of her Vertues and Kingdomes to her so well deseruing piously hath this erected Which I haue the rather set downe at large aswel for the reuerence I bare her memorie in whose reigne it is not the least part of my comfort that I was borne and baptized as to commend to posteritie his Maiesties Royall disposition in giuing her right so farre as were it not authorized by his princely testimonie future ages would thinke it fabulous but specially to shew that hee ascribeth all her honour and prosperitie not to the Church of Rome as Mr. Doctor doth or to the religion by him called Catholike but to her deuotion and pietie and the restoring of religion to its primitiue syncerity For with it as shee made the entrance of her reigne so doth hee of her Epitaph both esteeming it as the head spring from whence all that ensuing happinesse did flow and was deriued neither can it in mine vnderstanding bee otherwise ascribed to Rome then in granting that the reputation and renowne which shee wanne was in part gained and much increased by escaping through Gods especiall prouidence euer watchfull ouer her the manifold treasons and frustrating the barbarous attempts that were hatched at Rome and to bee acted by Romish vassals aswell against her person as estate which made her greatest enemies confesse the finger of God is heere and surely had not Rome endeauoured by might and maine to quench and eclipsâ— her light witnesse the Bull of Clement the 7th while shee was yet in her mothers wombe and afterward of Pius and Sixtus and Cardinall Comoes letter to Parrie and Cardinall Allens booke to the Nobilitie of England in the yeere 1588. I am clearely of opinion the beames of her honour had not shined so clearely and gloriously to the world as they did Lastly those singularities which you bring of being a woman a maiden Queene and the last of her Race they were indeed aduantages of admiration but such in my iudgement as rather shew that shee was blessed from heauen then by any earthly meanes in as much as liuing and dying both without the helpe of an husband and hope of an heire from her owne body she notwithstanding proiected and effected so great matters and so much good to the State she gouerned B. C. 5. As for the honour and greatnesse of the Turke and other Infidels as it reacheth no farther then this life so it hath no beginning from aboue this world And if we may beleeue S. Ambrose in Luc. 4. alibâ— those honours are conferred rather by Gods permission then his donation being indeed ordained and ordered by his prouidence but for the sinnes of the people conferred by the Prince that ruleth in the ayre It is true that the Turkish Empire hath now continued a long time but they haue other principles of State to stand vpon the continuall guarde of an hundreth thousand Souldiers whereof most of them know none other Parents but the Emperour the tenure of all his Subiects who holde all in Capite ad voluntatem Domini by the seruice of the Sword their enioyned silence and reuerence in matters of Religion and their facility in admitting other Religions aswell as their own to the hope of saluation and to tolerate them so that they be good Subiects These and such like are principles of great importance to increase an Empire and to maintaine a temporall State But there is no State in Christendome that may endure these Principles vnlesse they meane to turne Turkes also which although some be willing to doe yet they will neither hold in Capite nor hold their peace in Religion nor suffer their King to haue such a guard about him nor admit of Catholike Religion so much as the Turke doeth G. H. 5. You might with the Turke aswell haue ioyned the King of China the Sophie of Persia the Chame of Tartarie the great Magore Presbiter Iohn the like whose estates few Christian Princes exceede or can match in riches and greatnes But that they should haue their estates Conferred on them by the Prince that ruleth in the aire neither Ambrose affirmes it nor is it in it selfe true Saint Ambrose his words are these A Deo potestatum ordinatio amalo ambitio potestatis The ordaining of the power is from God but the ambitious desire not the conferring of it from the diuell Indeed it is his challenge in that chapter To whomsoeuer I will I giue it speaking of the power and glory of earthly Kingdomes but it is the voice of God speaking in the person of wisedome in the 8 th of the Prouerbs By mee Kings raigne and Saint Paul teacheth vs There is no power such as himselfe liued vnder but of God to which purpose it is well sayd of S. Augustine whom M. Doctor pretendeth to follow most among the ancients Qui dedit Mario ipse Cesari Qui Augusto ipse Neroni Qui Vespasiano vel patri vel filio suauissimis imperatoribus ipse Domitiano crudelissimo ne per singulos ire necesse sit Qui Constantino Christiano ipse apostatae Iuliano Hee that gaue it to Marius gaue it to Caesar He that gaue it to Augustus gaue it to Nero He that gaue it to Vespasian the father or his sonne most sweet Emperours gaue it also to Domitian the most cruell and that I should not need to reckon vp the rest in particular He that gaue it to Constantine the Christian gaue it to Iulian the
one example for all may be that lewd libeller who in the very entrance of his libell exclaimeth That the Protestants haue no Faith no Hope no Charitie no Repentance no Iustification no Church no Altar no Sacrifice no Priest no Religion no Christ. What shall we say to these intemperate Spirits if they speake of malice then I say with Michael the Archangel The Lord rebuke them But if they speake of ignorance then I say with the holy Martyr S. Steuen Lord lay not this sinne to their charge or with our blessed SAVIOVR Father forgiue them they wote not what they doe Now for our slandring the doctrine of the Church of Rome when you or any other shall produce the like Assertions out of any Writer amongst vs of note and credite I shall be content to yeelde farther credite to your Assertion then as yet I finde reason I should for the residue of this Section I referre the Reader to my marginall notes as deseruing in my iudgement no better or other answere B. C. 30. But perhaps there is so great opposition in matter of State that although the doctrine might bee compounded yet it is impossible to heare of agreement and if there bee the same reason of State which there was in beginning and continued all Queene Elizabeths dayes there is as little hope now that your Maiestie should hearken vnto Reconciliation as then was that King Henry the VIII or Queene Elizabeth would but when I doe with the greatest respect I can consider the State of your Maiestie your Lords your Commons and your Clergie I do see as little cause in holding out in reason of State as I doe in trueth of doctrine G. H. 30. From the matter of doctrine you passe to thereason of State in which if your reasons be of no greater waight or truth then in the former his Maiestie his Lords his Commons his Clergie haue no more reason to hearken to reconciliation with Rome then King Henry or Queene Elizabeth or the Subiects in their times had which hee that lookes not through the spectacles of a preiudicate opinion will as easily discouer as you confidently affirme the contrary B. C. 31. King Henry the VIII although hee had written that Booke against the Schisme of Luther in defence of the Sea Apostolike for which he deserned the title of Defensor fidei yet when he gaue way to the lust of Anne Bullen and the flattery of his fauorites and saw hee could not otherwise haue his will he excluded the Pope and made himselfe Supreame head of the Church that so hee might not onely dispence with himselfe for his Lust but also supplie his excesse with the spoyle of the Church which was then very rich But when hee saw God blessed him not neither in his wiuing nor in his thriuing hee was weary of his Supremacie before he died and wished himselfe in the Church againe but hee died in the curse of his father whose foundations he ouerthrew and hath neither childe to honour him nor so much as a Tombe vpon his graue to remember him which some men take to bee a token of the Curse of God G. H. 31. King Henry the VIII wrote a Booke indeed or at least a Booke was in his name written in defence of the seuen Sacraments against Luther as Mr. Doctor might haue learned if no where else yet out of Cardinall Bellarmins Apologie But in defence of the See of Rome which hee cals Apostolike I haue not mette with any and it should seeme by his mistake of the subiect handled in that booke himselfe neuer mette with it as for the Title which King Henry receiued the world is not ignorant how liberall his Holinesse is in bestowing Titles where hee expects some greater aduantage sticking down a feather that hee may quietly carrie away the goose Thus did hee giue Charles the Emperour neere about the same time the Title of Defensor Ecclesiae for directing a Writ of Outlawrie against Luther whereupon at the Emperours beeing here in England those verses were set vp in the Guildhall in London ouer the doore of their Councell Chamber where they yet remaine Carolus Henricus viuant defensor vterque Henricus fidei Carolus Ecclesiae And in the Bull by which Leo the tenth confirmed this Title to the King subscribed with his owne name and the names of fiue and twentie Cardinals and Bishops it appeares that their chiefe scope of honouring him with this Title was to tye him and his posteritie faster to that See But as a learned and graue Prelate of our owne hath well obserued being the high Priest for that yeere not so in the next he foretold by way of prophecie what the King of England should bee which we find to the honour of CHRIST and the glory of our kingdome most truely and happily accomplished in our Gracious Souereigne now reigning who hath to the vtmost defēded the truly Christian and Catholike faith by his Pen and will no doubt bee as ready to doe it when occasion shal serue with his sword and yet were it not for feare of crossing your imaginarie reconciliation you would with Bellarmine tell vs that his Maiestie in present as vndeseruedly retaines that Title as King Henry receiued it deseruedly who afterward notwithstanding as deepely incurred his Holinesse disfauour aswell by calling into question that Title which the Bishops of Rome had assumed to themselues of Pastours vniuersall S. Peters successours and Christs Vicars as by resuming to himselfe that Title which some of the Popes had yeelded his predecessours as may appeare in the Letter of Eleutherius Bishop of Rome to Lucius King of Great Britaine in which Eleutherius attributeth to the King the Title of Gods Vicar within his kingdome which letter howsoeuer the Authour of the Threefold conuersion labour to staine with the blemish of forgery yet is it to be found inrolled in the Copie of King Edward the Confessors Lawes Neither is it true that Henry tooke this Title to himselfe it was giuen him by the Parliament of his Lords and Commons and Conuocation of his Clergie not as a new thing but as renewed And if he were desirous to change his bedfellow in hope of heires male as you tell vs before it was not to giue way to the lust of Anne Bulleine as here you affirme and if hee might haue had his will in being dispensed with by yeelding to the Popes will in ioyning with Francis the French King against the Emperour Charles as before it is proued then did he not exclude the Pope take that Title to dispence with himselfe especially being mooued with the approbation of so many Vniuersities and learned men But if thereby he made himselfe a way for the supply of his excesse with the spoyle of the Church wee haue not wherein so iustly to excuse him howbeit hee conuerted much of it to good vses namely to the erecting of sixe Bishoprickes
one of the Heralds at Armes the title whereof was this The maner of the Tombe to be made for the Kings Grace at Windsor So that I cannot but woonder how either our Historiographer and our Herauld should be so much mistaken or which I rather thinke how Mr. Doctor so great a Polititian should be so sowly deceiued and so confidently leade others into the same errour I will conclude this Section with the conclusion of ourfamous Annalist touching this Prince Princeps Magnanimus in cuius maximo ingenio inerant confuso quodam temperamento virtutes magnae vitia non minora A stout and gallant Prince he was in whose braue spirit a man might obserue blended and tempered together by a rare kinde of mixture great vertues and no lessevices But had he honoured the See Apostolike as much at last as hee did at first his vices had beene buried in silence and his vertues highly extolled whereas now by opposing himselfe against it his vertues are suppressed and his vices racked vpon tenterhookes and set vpon the Stage which course were enough to make the best Princes nay the best men to appeare monsters to the world B. C. 32. Queene ELIZABETH although she were the daughter of Schisme yet at her first comming to the Crowne shee would haue the Common Prayer Booke and Catechisme so set downe that shee might both by English Seruice satisfie the Commons who were greedie of alteration and by Catholike opinions gaue hope to her neighbour Princes that she would her selfe continue Catholike and all her life long she caried herselfe so betwixt the Catholikes and the Caluinists as shee kept them both still in hope But yet being the daughter of the breach-maker and hauing both her Crowne and her life from the Schisme it was both dishonourable and dangerous for her to hearken to Reconcilement And therefore after she was prouoked by the Excommunication of Pius Quintus shee did suffer such Lawes to be made by her Parliaments as might cry quittance with the Pope and Church of Rome This course seemed in policie necessary for her who was the daughter of King Henrie the VIII by Anne Bulleine borne with the contempt of Rome the disgrace of Spaine and the preiudice of Scotland G. H. 32. From Henry the father you descend to Elizabeth the daughter as you call her of Schisme howbeit she were indeed the Nursing mother of the Church And for the Common prayer Booke which she allowed it was the same with very litle alteration which was current by publike authority during the reigne of her brother King Edward So that it was no inuention of hers to satisfie the Commons as you falfly suggest but an imitation of her renowned brother for the satisfying of her owne conscience and the furtherance of the seruice of God in a knowen language You adde that by Catholike opinions she gaue hope to her neighbour Princes that she would continue a Catholike wheras the world knowes that her mother was otherwise affected being brought vp in France vnder the Lady Margret Alençon a principal fauouresse of the Protestant religion there after shee had a while waited vpon Q. Mary yonger sister of king Henry the VIII and wife to Lewes the XIII the French king and as long vpon Claudia sister to the Guise and wife to Francis the first and in regard she was this way affected the holy maide of Kent was by Clergie men suborned to prophecie against her and as one writes it seemeth very plaine that the crimes supposed against her were matters contriued by the Pope and his instruments her chiefest enemies none of them all that were accused in the same treason confessing the acte euen vnto death but haue left direct testimonies in writing to the contrary one meane groome excepted namely Marke Smeton who made confession vpon some promise of life belike but was executed before he was aware or had time to recall what he had said Now the mother being thus affected and that before king Henry cast his affection towards her or disaffected Rome in likelyhood the daughter had beene that way also affected whether the breach with Rome by her mothers mariage had bene made or no. It was S. Pauls argument to Timothie that the faith first dwelt in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice and therefore he was well perswaded of him also He argues not from his father and his grandfather but from his mother and his grandmother so may we by the same reason from the faith which dwelt in the mother of Queene Elizabeth make some coniecture of her faith that it was not different from her mothers But her education vnder Roger Ascham who was himselfe that way affected to cōtinue her so read vnto her among other authors for her diuinity exercise Melancthons common places will yet farther cleare this matter but the suspition cast vpon her though most vniustly as hauing a finger in Wyats conspiracy and Stories damnable aduise to leaue lopping at the branches and strike at the roote will put it out of doubt and doubtlesse as in that regard shee suffered much hardenesse during the raigne of her sister so had shee not suruiued to haue worne the Crowne had not God in his prouidence mooued the heart of the Spaniard to preserue her aliue not so much out of any loue of her person or pittie of her ruefull estate as out of reason of state lest she being taken out of the way and her sister dying as she did without issue the Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland might in time be vnited and annexed to the Crowne of France by meanes of the Lady Mary Queene of Scotland next heire in right after Queene Elizabeth then affianced to Francis Dolphin of France and heire apparent to Henry the second the French King then which the Spaniards thought nothing could happen more disasterous to their affectation of greatnesse Besides all this being as she was the miracle of her sexe and ranke for wit and learning it is not improbable that as the knowledge of the Arts and Languages and the light of the Gospell brake forth both together so in her person the one might haue prepared and as it were beaten out a way for the entrance of the other though neither her Mother had beene that way affected nor her Father made any breach as wee see his Maiestie that now is to the glory of God and our great comfort though his Father were slaine before his birth and his Mother liued and died in that Religion in which shee was brought vp yet by the excellencie of his naturall parts and learning but especially by the working of Gods holy spirit hath attained to such a light of Religion that he hath not only discouered the trueth but chosen and professed it being discouered and with his Penne maintained and defended that which he professeth True indeede it is that Queene Elizabeth during the raigne of her sister tender both by sexe
the euents are so cleane contrary to the Prefaces and pretences of them as if God of purpose would laugh them to scorne G. H. 35. If the Crowne haue more Pence paid in now then in former times it must needes follow that were it not by default of officers the meanes might bee greater to doe great workes both in peace and in warre whereas you vpbraid his Maiestie that his are but yet hoped for hee hath had other occasions as the world well knoweth of expence then his ancestors had and those occasions that they had hee hath not whether in building at home or in warring abroad theirs it may be were more conspicuous but his more necessary and yet I doubt not but vpon iust occasion his Maiestie would bee able to maintaine as great and as powerfull an armie as any of his predecessors to the terror of Rome and the Romanists who are so farre from complaining of his Maiesties wants as they would rather triumph most in this that hee were not rich Gretser in your account I am sure a good Catholike complaines not butscoffes at his Maiesties neede of money in his answere to Monsieur Plessis his Epistle Dedicatory to his Maiesty prefixed to his Mysteriū iniquitatis in which his Maiestie being incouraged by that noble Lord to lay by his Pen and take his sword in hand though it were to the passing of the Alps and the sacking of Rome Gretser in his replie makes it the burden of his song in diuers periods Sed deest pecunia But the onely sure way you say for his Maiestie to inrich himselfe is to turne Romane Catholike as if it were not fresh in memorie what infinite masses of treasure the pretence of that Religion carried out of the land to the triple Crowne of Rome and other forreiners well neere as much as was brought to the Crowne of England it selfe as appeares in Bonners Preface to Gardiners oration of true obedience In the reigne of King Henry the third it amounted by iust computation to the summe of 60000. markes which amounts to an incredible masse at this day and was more then the standing reuenues of the Crowne at that time as the Author of the British antiquities reports it out of Matthew Paris in the life of Boniface Archbishop of Canterburie in which relation are also set downe the grieuances which the Bishops the Abbots the Barons and the king himselfe exhibited in their seuerall Letters to his Holinesse touching the grieuousnesse of his exactions the effect whereof was as followeth That the Pope being not content with that aide which is called Peter-pence hee made money here in England by a thousand cunning sleights and trickes without the consent of the King against the ancient Right and Liberties of the Kingdome and against the Appeales put in by the Kings Ambassadours and Proctors in the Council of Lions That the Benefices and Prebendaries in England were by him conferred vpon Italians and Romanes not able to speake or so much as to vnderstand our language and that many times one Italian succeeded another as in lawfull inheritance the Church reuenues being by this meanes wasted and caried out of the kingdome the word of God not preached Ecclesiasticall dueties not obserued hospitality almes and Diuine Seruice neglected and lastly the walles and roofe of Chancels and Parsonage houses suffered to drop downe to the indangering of many soules and the vtter desolation of the Church That of those Churches into which hee thrust not strangers he exacted Pensions against his owne promise by letter That the natiue English were vpon all occasions drawen by Citations to the Court of Rome against the Customes and Common Law of the Kingdome and against the Popes owne priuiledges formerly granted To like purpose is that which I finde in a Manuscript of Mr. Hales a man renowned in his time aswell for his learning as his honestie his words are these speaking of the cunning fetches of the Bishops of Rome for the enriching of themselues and their Clergie to the impouerishing of the King and the State First saith hee they exempted the Clergy aswell the Secular as the regular from the authoritie of the Kings of England whereby they neither would obey the Prince but when and wherin it pleased them nor albeit they had the greater part of the possessions and profits of the Realme they would be contributory to the charges of the defence thereof but when it listed them Secondly they reserued to themselues the collations generally specially of all Archbishopricks Bishopricks Abbies Priories all other dignities and benefices in England which many times they gaue to aliants that neuer dwelt in England nor euer came into England So the reuenues thereof were not spent in the Realme but caried out of the same when they gaue them to any of the Realme they made them pay exceeding summes of money for Palls Annats First fruits Tenths and such like whereby the Realme from time to time was very much impouerished Thirdly they vsed to dispence not onely with their owne Lawes and Canons but also many times with Gods word in matters of Matrimony and otherwise whereby they sucked no litle treasure out of the Realme Fourthly in causes testamentary in causes of Matrimony and diuorces right of tithes oblations and obuentions they had decreed that men might appeale from any Court within this Realme to the Court of Rome whereby the people of this nation was very much troubled by reason it was so farre distant from this Realme and when they came thither they could not in long time haue redresse but with long delayes were constrained to spend whatsoeuer they had Fiftly with dispensations for eating flesh and white meates for pardons and redemption of soules out of Purgatory for dispensations with vowes and such like beggery they scraped together infinite summes of money and because no fish should escape for lacke of bait they had their Dataries and Collectours continually gaping for the prey resident here in England Lastly the Clergie of this Realme being animated by the authority of the Bishop of Rome the Arch-bishops Bishops and such as had Spirituall Iurisdiction within this Realme not onely vnreasonably troubled and vexed the people of this realme in their Courts but also exceedingly pilled polled and robbed them vnder colour of Fees and duties The Parsons and Vicars were not content with the moderate Mortuaries and Corse-presents but also daily increased the same and would haue what it pleased them without any consideration of the misery and pouerty of the widow and children liuing yea and many times where the dead had but a bare vse and no property in the goods and chattels they were found in his possession and in many places they would neither baptize nor marry nor bury but they would haue some extraordinary reward the common sort of Priests would not depart with any their Masses or praiers vnlesse they were sure to haue money Of these and the
bed Thus farre out of Thuanus To these may be added the miserable end of Philip the II. King of Spaine who though he had bene a chiefe pillar of the Romish Church and a great enemy of the Protestants and their religion yet died hee of the same disease which the Doctour out of Bellarmin and Bellarmine out of Cochaeus imputes to Caluin As also the vnhappy endes of all those who were the chiefe plotters in the Massacre of France Charles the IX then King the Queene Mother Henry the third then Duke of Aniou the Kings brother and the Duke of Guise of which Charles died wallowing in his owne blood issuing out of all the conduits of his body the Duke of Guise was suddenly slaine at Blois by Henries command for griefe whereof the Queene Mother died within a few dayes and in reuenge of the Guises death not long after Henry himselfe was murdered by a Frier Lastly to crie quittance also with the Dr. in regard of the ends of Luther Zuinglius Oecolampadius and Caluin whom he counteth Arch-heretikes and termeth Monsters it may please him to remember that sundry of the Bishops of Rome who haue bene very Antichrists and by his owne Platina and Genebrard are called Monsters of men haue had most fearefull and wretched ends For some haue beene poisoned some murdered by Anti-Popes some haue died in prison Iohn the XII euen in the very act of adultery was suddenly striken by the deuill saith Turrecremata and died without repentance others that haue compacted with the deuill haue bene caried away by him and not to reckon vp all that thus haue perished seeing it would bee too tedious fiftie Popes arow being rather Apostatical then Apostolicall and monsters of men It is no marueile saith Genebrard if they were so many in few yeeres and died quickly His last argument is the temporall prosperity of them which haue defended the Church His examples are likewise a meere translation of Bellarmines 18th Chapter of the notes of the Church So that for answere thereunto I might iustly referre the Reader to them who haue answered him as also to my Replie to the fourth Section of M. Doctors second chapter of his Letter to his Maiesty But I chuse rather to close vp the whole with his Maiesties words in the latter end of his answer to Cardinall Perrons oration History saith his Maiesty and experience teach vs that disunion with the Pope hath no whit impeached the prosperitie of kingdomes Philip the faire reigned in peace and prosperity notwithstanding his attempts vpon the Papall Sea King Lewis the twelfth defeated in battell the troupes of Pope Iuly the second and his alies declared him falne from the Papacie and caused Crowns to be stamped wherin Rome is called Babylon yet neuerthelesse was loued and honoured of his subiects who gaue him the title of Father of the people Neuer did Great Britaine euer receiue so great blessings of God nor enioyed so much peace and plentie as since the time that Popes haue no more but the looking on and sent no more their Legats to gather the tribute of S. Peter and that the Kings of England doe no longer homage vnto the Pope for their Crowne and are no more lashed by Monkes What was Holland Zeland and Frizeland before that God lighted among them the torch of the Gospell in comparison of the riches and prosperitie wherein God hath aduanced them The Common wealth of Venice doeth it enioy lesse peace and prosperity then before since they haue taken from the Pope one of his swords and haue shaken off his temporall power On the contrary side the Kings of France after they had giuen vnto the Popes all what they held in Italy and the Countie of Auinion haue againe receiued of them but course entertainmeÌ„t Popes haue forged a donation of Constantine to the end to deface the memory of the donation of Pepin and Charlemaine They haue troubled the State banding themselues for the sons of Lewis the Courteous against their owne father whose life was an example of innocence They haue skimmed the Realme of Money by infinite pillages wherewith the Kings of France haue endeuoured to meete by their pragmaticall sanction They haue oftentimes interdicted the Realme degraded their Kings sollicited their neighbours to inuade the kingdome stirred vp the people against the King whence many troubles and parricides haue ensued Rauilliac rendred this reason of his attempt because said hee the King would make warre against God inasmuch as hee would make warre against the Pope and that the Pope was God Which maketh mee to maruell how the Cardinall could alleage for example the late trouâ—lâ—s during which France fell foule with the Pope seeing that the Pope himselfe raised vp those troubles If the Kings or people of France hauing offended the Pope God had otherwayes sent among them somâ— pestilence or famine this might with some probabilitie haue been taken for a reuenge of the iniurie done vnto his Vicar but seeing the Pope himselfe hath caused these euils it is not God who punisheth the iniuries done vnto the Pope but the Pope who reuengeth himselfe and which is worse without receiuing any wrong Whence it appâ—areth that to exhort the Kingdome to maintaine vnion with the Pope by the remembrance of the calamities past is not to exhort them to loue the Pope but to call to minde the euils which he hath caused and to tremble at his thundrings and conspiracies which hurt those onely that feare them and which haue drawen vpon my kingdome many blessings Now if France haue had any prosperitie during the time that it well accorded with the Pope this hath been because the Pope seeketh the amitie of those Princes that are in prosperitie and which haue meanes to annoy him Kings are not therefore in prosperitie because the Pope is vnited with them but the Pope is vnited with them because they are in prosperitie Euen as swallowes arriue in the spring but make not the spring so the Pope ioyneth himselfe to the prosperitie of kingdomes but maketh not their prosperitie But if there happen any disaster in a Kingdome or any ciuill warre which putteth an Estate in danger the Pope vnder a shadow of hauing care of the saluation of soules thrusteth himselfe into the quarrell and runneth vnto the wracke to reape his profit thereby And if a State change its Master hee will that the new possessour vnto whom hee hath giuen aide hold the kingdome of his liberalitie but if the ancient possessour conquer his enemies notwithstanding the Popes thundrings then his Holinesse offers him all sorts of Indulgences and out of his compassion receiueth him againe whom hee was not able to destroy Hitherto his Maiestie then which nothing can bee spoken more fully and effectually to this purpose For surely not to speake of the prosperitie of forraine countries who haue broken off communion with the Roman Synagogue he is more then blind that cannot see and too
his Arguments sometimes beyond the extent of the Letter such extrauagant matters as he drawes in vpon the bye I thought it sufficient to reply vnto in my marginall notes so that in one of the two nothing I thinke worth the answering hath escaped vnanswered and I shall craue that curtesie of the Reader if he receiue not satisfaction in the one to haue recourse to the other and this I take to bee faire and iust dealing without exception once I am sure I haue dealt with him as my selfe in like case should desire to be dealt withall which I take to bee the safest rule of iust dealing Surely a matter it is of little labour and credite but lesse honestie to deale as Fitz-Simon hath done with Mr. Mason whose learned and painfull booke of the lawfull Consecration of our Bishops he pretends he read ouer and confuted in 15. dayes but his chiefe confutation as may eaâ—ily appeare to the Reader stands in denying acts vouched out of the publike Register or as Eudaemon the common packehorse of Rome hath lately dealt with my Lord of Salisburie answering his Antilogie a booke of about 60. sheetes full of varietie of learning and â—uident proofe with a Libel of some three or foure sheets at most which he hath also rather stained with rayling at persons and catching at words then made offer to answere so much as one materiall point and to speake a trueth I haue good reason to thinke he rather wrote it that the title might be seenâ— in the common Catalogue then that the Booke it selfe might commonly bee read in regarde that the worke is so slender and the copies so few that as it is scarce to be had so is it scarce worth the reading being had himselfe professeth that he wrote it Ne magni aliquid latere in â—o libro putarent queÌ„ nemo confutasset Lest men should thinke some great matter lay hidden in that booke which no man had confuted but hee that shall compare both may well say notwithstanding his answere that no man hath yet confuted it Somewhat more wisely and warily hath he dealt with Casaubons Exercitations answering onely the fourth chapter of his first Exercitation and promising a whole volume to follow after against the rest in imitation belike of Richard Stanihurst who hath published his flourish to a future combate with his Nephew Mr. Dr. VSher but I thinke wee shall see the full encounters both of the one and the other by leasure Pollicitis diues quilibet esse potest but Tarda solet magnis rebus inesse fides An easie matter it is to promise great matters but not so easie to performe them being promised For mine owne part I must confesse I haue made a larger answere then either the treatise answered deserued or the state of my bodie and my leisure being to make so often returnes from a remote part of the Kingdome to mine attendance in Court could well permit or indeed my selfe at first proiected but I haue now found it true in mine owne experience which I haue often heard obserued by others to fall out many times in writing as it doth in building many alterations and additions present themselues besides and beyond the first designe It was written of Fame but it may as truely be said of this kind of writing Vires acquirit â—undo It gathers strength in going as in eating a man sometimes gets a stomack which was the reason together with an expectation that either some more able pen would haue vndertaken this encounter or some matter of greater importance promised by the Author himselfe and Pelitier would ere this haue beene published to the world that mine answere hath beene differred till now but if it be well enough it is soone enough how well it is let the reader iudge whom notwithstanding I shall desire to suspend his iudgement till hee haue heard both parties speake which request mee thinkes is but reasonable considering I haue dealt so fauourably with the aduerse party as to set downe all at full that hee could say for himselfe With whom if I deale in mine answering as if hee were still aliue it is to bee ascribed to himselfe who in the conclusion of his Letter professeth hee sent his soule therein neither is that I haue done herein without example of those by whose greatnesse if need were small faults might be countenanced it is I hope sufficient that I neither intend thereby to wrong the dead or deceiue the liuing Neither let it bee thought blameable that being by profession a diuine I haue medled so much in matters of state it was rather out of the necessitie of the arguments to bee replied vnto then any desire or disposition of mine owne farther then to make it appeare to the world that the Religion by vs professed is more sutable to the preseruation of the ciuill power and in speciall the forme of policie established among vs then that religion which dares accuse ours of the contrary of which I may truely say that in the termes it now stands it doth not so much vphold temporall policie as it is vpheld by it and yet like the iuie which riseth by clasping the oake hath it at length ouertopt the oake of Soueraignetiâ— it selfe whereas on the other side ours hath hitherto had none other supports but the meere euidence of trueth and diuine assistance and so according to that receiued principle of nature being still nourished by the same meanes as it was first bredde it makes vs confident that it will both grow the better and last the longer Thus commending thee to Gods grace the worke to thy charitable censure and my selfe to thy Christian prayers I rest Thine in our Common SAVIOVR George Hakewil ⧠The Publishers Preface to the Reader before Dr. CARIERS Booke HAuing exactly perused good Reader this Treatise here presented to thy view and finding it both in stuffe and stile to be learnedly and eloquently contriued I tooke my selfe in some sort obliged in Christian duty to divulge it in print to the world vnwittingly I confesse to the Author howbeit encroaching vpon his charitable consent who I am well assured is most forward to defray his talent in ought wherein the Catholike Romane religion may be aduanced Of this firme and full resolution he hath made effectiue proofe not onely in words but also in workes The Author as it is notoriously knowen hath gained name and fame among the Protestants hauing beene a Teacher in their Colledges a Preacher in their Pulpits a Doctor in their Schooles a Canon in their Churches Chaplaine to the King his most excellent Maiestie flowing in wealth supported with the credit of the Court most likely in short time to aspire to higher Ecclesiasticall preferments had hee persisted in the course of his former profession Yet notwithstanding all these worldly allurements which are in good sooth wondrous inticing baites to hooke and to hold an vnstayed soule Mr. Doctor
minde and either vtterly damne mine owne soule and greatly indanger not onely my liuing and credit but my life it selfe also by reason of your Maiesties displeasure and the seueritie of the Statutes made and in force against Catholikes and Catholike Religion G. H. 16. The better counsell which you expected and held you in suspense was in all likelihood soâ—â—â—â—ewes of a Bishopricke or a Deanry for the quieting of your perplexed thoughts and therefore it may be thought you resolued to goe to Heidelberge to doe your duetie there that so you might procure letters of recommendation for otherwise I cannot imagine what errand you should haue thither being scarcely knowen for any thing I can learne to the Prince Palatine or the Princesse except it were out of the like gadding humor as you had of going into Scotland as being publikely imployed though it had been vpon your owne priuate charge What his Maiesties disposition in the affaires of religion might well bee presumed to bee at his first entrance if we should iudge by reason not by affection I haue already touched in the 9. Section of this chapter so far as I presumed it might suffice to content any reasonable man yet for further satisfaction because you harpe still vpoÌ„ the same string and presse the same point afresh I will relate his Maiesties own words touching that businesse as hee vttered them in Parliament the first day of the first ParliameÌ„t of his Maiesties reigne â—As for mine owne profession saith he you haue me your head now amongst you of the same Religion that the bodie is of as I am no stranger to you in Blood no more am I a stranger to you in Faith or in the matters concerning the house of God and although this my profession bee according to my education wherein I thanke God I sucked the milke of Gods trueth with the milke of my nurse yet doe I here protest vnto you that I would neuer for such a conceite of constancie or other preiudicate opinion haue so firmely kept my first profession if I had not found it agreeable to all reason and to the rule of my conscience and againe in the next leafe for the part of the Clerickes I must directly say and affirme that as long as they maintaine one speciall point of their doctrine and another point of their practise they are no way sufferable to remaine in this Kingdome Their point of Doctrine is that arrogant and ambitious Supremacie of their heâ—â— the Pope wherby he not only claimes to be spirituall head of all Christians but also to haue an Imperiall ciuill power ouer all Kings and Emperours dethroning and decrowning Princes with his foot as pleaseth him and dispensing and disposing of all Kingdomes and Empires at his appetite The other point which they obserue in continuall practise is the Assassinates and Murders of Kings thinking it no sinne but rather a matter of saluation to doe all actions of rebellion and hostilitie against their Soueraigne Lord if he be once our sed his Subiects discharged of their fidelitie and his Kingdome giuen a prey by that three Crowned Monarch or rather Monster their head and a litle after hauing wished it would please God to make him one of the instruments for effecting a generall Christian Vnion in Religion if they would leaue and be ashamed of such new and grosse corruptions of theirs as themselues cannot maintaine nor denie to be worthy of reformation he turneth his speach againe to the Papists vnder his dominions willing them to bee admonished that they presume not too farre vpon his lenitie because saith hee I would be lothe to bee thought a Persecutor as thereupon to thinke it lawfull for them daily to increase their number and strength in this Kingdome whereby if not in my time at least in time of my posteritie they might bee in hope to erect their Religion againe No let them assure themselues that as I am a friend to their persons if they bee good Subiects so am I a vowed enemie and doe denounce moâ—tall warres to their errours and that as I would bee sorie to bee driuen by their ill behauiour from the protection and conseruation of their bodies and liues so I will neuer cease as farre as I can to tread downe their errours and wrong opinions for I could not permit the increase and growing of their Religion without first betraying of my selfe and mine owne Conscience secondly this whole Isle aswell the part I am come from as the part I remaine in in betraying their liberties and reducing them to the former slauish yoke which both had casten off before I came amongst them and thirdly the libertie of the Crowne in my posteritie which I should leaue againe vnder a new slauerie hauing found it left free to mee by my Predecessours and therefore would I wish all good Subiects that are deceiued with that corruption First if they find any beginning of instinction in themselues of knowledge and loue to the Trueth to foster the same by all lawfull meanes and to beware of quenching the spirit that worketh within them and if they can find as yet no motion tending that way to bee studious to reade and conferre with learned men and to vse al such meanes as may further their resolution assuring themselues which by the way is worth our obseruation that as long as they are disconformable in Religion from vs they cannot be but halfe my Subiects nor be able to do but halfe seruice and I to want the best halfe of them which is their soules And here I haue occasion to speake to you my Lords the Bishops for as you my Lord of Durham said very learnedly to day in your Sermon Correction without instruction is but a tyrannie so ought you and all the Clergie vnder you to be more carefull vigilant and diligent then you haue beene to winne soules to God aswell by your exemplarie life as doctrine And since you see how carefull they are sparing neither labour paines nor extreme perill of their persons to diuert the deuill is so busie a Bishop you should be the more carefull and wakefull in your charges Follow the rule prescribed by Saint Paul Bee carefull to instruct and to exhort in season and out of season and where you haue beene any way sluggish before now waken your selues vp with a new diligence in this point remitting the successe to God who calling them at the second third tenth or twelfth houre as they are alike welcome to him so shall they be to me his lieutenant here â— Hitherto his Maiestie Now would any man of common vnderstanding Mr. Dr. excepted from hence gather or thinke it gatherable that his Maiestie had a disposition at his entrance to become a Papist or to tolerate the exercise of Poperie or to be reconciled to Rome or to submit himselfe and his Realmes to the yoke of the Bishop thereof if these or the like inferences may from so many and plaine
not some reason here to sweare that Garnet was not put to death for Religion but for Treason The like might bee verified of Campian who in the yeere 1580. came couertly into England in the company of Robert Parsons with a Facultie obtained of Gregorie the XIII conceiued in these very words Petatur à summo Domino nostro explicatio Bullae declaratoriae per Pium Quintum contra ELIZABETHAM ei adhaerentes Quam Catholici cupiunt intelligi hoc modo vt obliget semper illam haereticos Catholicos verò nullo modo rebus sic staÌ„cibus sed tum demum quando publica eiusdem Bullae executio fieri poterit Has praedictas Gratias concessit summus PoÌ„tifex Patri Roberto Parsonio Edmundo Campiano in Angliam profectur is die 14. Aprilis 1580. praesente Patre Oliuerio Manacro Assistente Let Petition bee made to our highest Lord that some explication be made of the declaratorie Bull of Pius Quintus against ELIZABETH and her adherents which the Catholikes desire so to be vnderstood that it may bind her and heretikes but Catholikes by no meanes as the case now stands but then onely when the said Bull may publikely be put in execution These Faculties the Highest Bishop granted to Robert Parsons and Edmund Campian being bound for England the 14. of April 1580 in the presence of Oliuer Manacar Assistant Here againe I would demaund of Mr. Dr how many of the Romish profession are ready to sweare solemnely as the olde Romans did in the Deifying of their Emperours that hee is now a Saint and that hee died a glorious Martyr not for treason but for religion But were not Harte and Horton Rishton and Bosgraue of the same religion Priests by their order and some of the same societie and yet died not for it Are there not at this present diuers Seminary Priests at Wisbich and Baldwin the famous Iesuite in the Tower Certainely if there bee any fault in their vsage it is that they find too much mercie their mercilesse disposition toward vs hauing so lately so fully and so often been tried I will conclude this point with a case of conscience wherwith your Romish Priests were to arme themselues their disciples in the reigne of Q. ELIZABETH in case they should be apprehended and examined to the 55. Article when thâ— question is demaunded Whether notwithstanding the Bull of Pius the 5th that was giuen out or any Bull that the Bishop of Rome can hereafter giue foorth all Catholikes bee bound to yeeld obedience faith and loyaltie to Queene ELIZABETH as to their lawfull Prince and Soueraigne this resolution is framed Qui hoc modo interrogat illud quaerit Anid potuerit S. Pontifex facere cui quaestioni quid debeat Catholicus respondere clarius est quà m vt à me hâ—c explicetur sirogatur ergo Catholicus Credis Romanum pontificem ELIZABETHAM potuisse exauthor are respondebit non obstant e quouis metu mortis credo questio enim haec ad fidem spectat exigit confessionem fidei Hee that demandeth this question asketh in effect Whether the Pope might doe it or no to the which demaund what a Catholike ought to answere it is plainer then neede here be further expressed if therefore a Catholike bee asked Doe you beleeue the Bishop of Rome may depriue Queene ELIZABETH of her Crowne hee must answere not regarding any danger of death I beleeue hee may for this question is a point of faith and requireth the profession of our faith If any such Cabale onely the names changed runne yet as current among such as bee reconciled to the Church of Rome at this day as I know nothing to the contrary but it may if Mr. Dr. had returned vpon his returne endeuoured to haue framed his Proselites to those or the like conditions he might iustly haue suffred for it without any aspersion either of persecution vpon his Maiesties gouernement or cruelty vpon his Lawes howsoeuer it hath been discouered by the Missiues of of some such reconcilers sent to their Generall that for so many as they haue reconciled they dare sweare vpon what occasion soeuer may fall out they will bee ready to side with them and for such for mine owne part I dare not sweare being conuicted and sentenced that they die for religion But yet I commend Mr. Doctors witte aboue the zeale hee boasteth of that hee thought it fitter to stay there and dispute the matter with his pen then by comming ouer and practising put his person in hazzard And herein as through his whole discourse hee playes the Polititian chusing rather to sleepe in a whole skin then to resist vnto blood and to indanger his body for the gaining of soules CHAP. II. The hopes I haue to doe your MAIESTIE no ill seruice in being Catholike B. C. 1. MY first hope is that your Maiesty will accept of that for the best A seruice I can doe you which doth most further the glory of our blessed Sauiour and mine owne saluation B Indeed there are kingdomes in the world where the chiefe care of the gouernour is non quà m bonis praesit sed quà m subditis Such were the heathen kingdomes which S. Augustine describes in 2. de Ciuitate Dei Cap. 20. In such Common wealths the way to be a good Subiect is not to be a good man but to serue the times and turnes of them that beare the sway whatsoeuer they are C But if it be true that as some holy and learned Fathers teach in a well ordered gouernment there is eadem foelicitas vnius hominis ac totius ciuitatis then I am sure it must needes follow that in a Common-wealth truely Christian there is â—adem virtus boni viri ac boni ciuis And therefore being a Minister and Preacher of England if I will rather serue your Maiesty then my selfe and rather procure the good of your kingdome then mine owne prefâ—rment I am bound in duety to respect and seeke for those things aboue all other that may aduance the honour of God and the saluation of my owne soule and the soules of those which do any way belong to my charge And being sufficiently resolued that nothing can more aduance the honour of our Sauiour and the common saluation then to be in the vnity of his Church I haue done you the best seruice I could at home by preaching peace and reconciliation and being not able for the malice of the times to stand any longer in the breach at home I thinke it safest in this last cast to looke to mine owne game by my dayly prayers and dying to do your Maiesty the same seruice in the vnity of the Church which by my dayly preaching and liuing I endeuoured to doe in the midst of schisme G. H. 1. A In furthering the glory of God you shall doe others as much and in sauing your owne soule your selfe more seruice then his Maiesty but
if you pretend both and in the end performe neither it is the worst piece of seruice you can doe B I suppose there is no gouernour in the world who deserues that name but that a chiefe part of his care is to make his subiects at leastwise morally good that so he may find them the more obedient and some of those very heathen kingdoms which S. Augustine describes in his bookes of the city of God specially that of the Romanes yeelded more rare examples of morall goodnesse namely of iustice and temperance then it doth at this day though it professe Christ. And for the seruing of the times and turnes of those that beare the sway I doubt not but as many may be found in those kingdomes which you call Catholike who are as able and willing to doe it for their owne aduantage as amongst the heathen themselues C It is true that the happinesse of the whole State extends to euery particular member of the same in as much as they all belong to the same body but that the happinesse of euery particular member should reach to the whole body of the State is not alike certaine But to grant both I must confesse my dulnesse I conceiue not how from thence it followes that the vertue of a good man and a good citizen is alwayes and necessarily the same Once I am sure that Aristotle who defends the one denies the other Bodin both a Christian a Catholike of your owne in my iudgement truely obserues that the best men for the most part are the worst Statesmen in as much as being caried vp to heauen by contemplation they shunne societie and seeke out deserts and solitary places for their abode And I would faine know of your Monkes and Friers and Hermites and Anchorites who presume by their vertue and goodnesse not onely to merite for themselues but to supererogate for others what good they doe as members for the Common wealth but onely by meanes of that imaginary Supererogation which is no lesse hard for a wise man to beleeue then for a good to performe But to let passe the examination of the trueth of both those positions and the dependance of the later vpon the former your inference therupon to iustifie your selfe and your owne proceedings is both in it selfe more vntrue and in regard of the premises more loose and inconsequent in as much as by leauing your station and betaking your selfe vnto and consulting with the enemies of his Maiesty and the State for the ruine and destruction of both which you maske vnder the glorious titles of honour of our Sauiour common saluation vnity peace reconciliation seruice to his Maiesty good of his kingdome you neither performe the part of a good Common wealths man not yet of an honest man consequently indanger as farre as in you lieth not onely the happinesse of the State in which you liued Church in which you were baptized but of your owne together with them but aboue all a marueile it is that acknowledging your selfe a member of the Church of Rome you notwithstanding still professe your selfe a Minister of the Church of England since your common opinion of vs is that amongst vs there is no lawfull calling to the Ministery no sucâ—ession or conferring of holy Orders no Ephod no Teraphim but that our Ministers are in the state of Lay-men and none other Of this cunning dealing I can conceiue none other reason but that you may with more ease and least suspition conuey your poyson into the readers minde B. C. 2. And although it be sufficient for a man of my profession to respect onely matters of heauen and of another world yet because this world was made for that other I haue not regarded mine owne estate that I might respect your Maiesties therein And after long and serious meditation what religion might most honour your Maiestie euen in this world I haue conceiued vndoubted hope that there is no other Religion that can procure true honour and securitie to your Maiestie and your posteritie in this world but the true Catholike Roman Religion which was the very same whereby all your glorious Predecessours haue beene aduanced and protected on earth and are â—uerlastingly blessed in heauen G. H. 2. The deuill howbeit he be rather a Polititian then of any other profession yet when he came to tempt our LORD tooke vpon him the habite of a Diuine but you in tempting the LORDS annointed lay aside the habite of a Diuine and wholy take vpon you the person of a Polititian But herein if I should tell you you played Phormioes part before Hannibal you would thinke your deepe Policie much impeached Now as you differ from the Deuill in that he turned himselfe in appearance into an Angel of light being indeede a Spirit of darkenesse but you being an Angel in profession turne your selfe into a tempter so in this you both agree as if you had learned your methode from him and proposed him as your patterne that as hee being beaten from Scripture betooke himselfe as being his last refuge to the shewing of the kingdomes of the world and the glorie of them to our Sauiour promising him all if hee would but fall downe and worship so you perceiuing belike all other arguments to bee spent in vaine at length you purpose to try what vse may bee made of the deuils last motiue by promising his Maiestie all worldly honor and securitie for himselfe and his posteritie if he would but fall downe and worship your Lord the Pope but as the deuil promised that which was none of his to giue so doth your Lord too in the disposing of those kingdoms and the glory of them which no way belong vnto him except it bee by the title of being heire apparent to the god of this world and the prince that ruleth in the aire but were it not for feare of interrupting of your deepe and serious meditations I should make bold to put you to the question whether these were the baits that Saint Peter angled with to catch soules or the weapons that Saint Paul fought with when he professed that they were not carnall but mightie through God to cast downe holdes they proposed not honour and securitie to the disciples of CHRIST but hazard and basenesse I insist the longer vpon this argument because the whole following discourse is stuffed with nothing else but reasons of this nature as if in the profession of Religion not the sinceritie and trueth of it were so much to be regarded as those secular and temporall commodities which sometimes attend it as the shadow doth the bodie His Maiesties owne words to his sonne of fresh blessed memorie touching this point are most remarkeable worthy to be written in letters of gold and to be ingrauen in a pillar of brasse or marble If sayeth he my conscience had not resolued mee that all my Religion presently professed by mee and
my Kingdomes was grounded vpon the plaine words of the Scripture without the which all points of Religion are superfluous as any thing contray to the same is abomination I had neuer outwardly auowed it for pleasure or awe of any flesh I take his meaning to be either for loue or feare of any mortall man or rather for any worldly and fleshly consideration whether it were to gaine and make aduantage by entertaining and embracing it or to loose and suffer disaduantage by reiecting and opposing the contrary I speake not this as if by Gods grace as much and more both honour and securitie did not waite vpon our Religion as vpon the Romish but onely to shew that these are no sufficient inducements to draw so much as a priuate man much lesse to mooue the diuine and noble spirit of a Christian prince specially such a prince as hath often shewed himselfe able to iudge of reasons of a higher straine to the accepting of a new beliefe and another forme in the seruice of God but only the plaine demonstration and cleare euidence of the truth of that beliefe and necessitie of that forme B. C. 3. The first reason of my hope is the promise of God himselfe to blesse and honour those that blesse his Church and honour him and to curse and confound those that curse his Church and dishonor him which hee hath made good in all ages There was neuer any man or Citie or State or Empire so preserued and aduanced as they that haue preserued the vnitie and aduanced the prosperitie of the Church of Christ nor any been made more miserable and inglorious then they that haue dishonoured Christ and make hauocke of his Church by Schisme and heresie G. H. 3. To grant that which you assume that the Church of Rome is the onely true Church this argument drawen from temporall blessings is sometimes false vncertaine alwayes and your assertion that neuer any man or Citie or State was preserued aduanced as they that haue presâ—rued the vnitie and aduanced the prosperitie of the Church of Christ is very broad and too large considering it extends euen to Solomon himselfe who though hee aduanced the Church yet can it not properly bee said that hee aduanced the Church of Christ nay out of the Church who were euer more prosperous succesfull in their affaires then Augustus and Traian Of the former of whom it is said that he found Rome of Bricke and left it of Marble of the later that hee raised the Romane Empire to the highest pitch of glory and spread the power of their Command vnto the farthest borders and largest circuit that euer before or since hath by them been possessed for the kingdome of Dacia hee subdued Armenia Parthia and Mesopotamia made subiect Assyria Persia and Babylon conquered passed Tygris and stretched the confines of the Romane Empire vnto the remotest dominions of the Indies which neuer before that time had seene the Romane Banners or so much as heard of their name besides his morall vertues were such that in the choyce of a new Emperour they euer wished for one more happie then Augustus better then Traian and yet this man with whom for outward prosperitie no Christian Emperour can bee balanced was not only out of the Church but an enemie to it raised against it the third and one of the hotest persecutions of the tenne For further proofe hereof I referre the reader for this point to S. Augustines first 10. bookes of the Citie of God and surely he that shal duely consider the flourishing greatnesse of the Assy rian and Grecian but especially the Romane Monarchy will easily discouer the lightnesse of this reason and the vanitie of the assertion I speake not to detract from the Christian and truely Catholike religion euen in regard of outward blessings but onely to proue that God bestowes them sometimes vpon the good thereby to shew that absolutely and in themselues they are not bad sometimes againe vpon the bad to shew that in themselues they are not good and takes them sometimes from both to shew that in their owne nature they are indifferent B. C. 4. If I had leasure and bookes it were easie for mee to enlarge this point with a long enumeration of particulars but I thinke it needlesse because I cannot call to mind any example to the contrarie except it be the State of Queene Elizabeth or some one or two others lately fallen from the vnitie of the Catholike Church or the State of the great Turke that doth still persecute the Church of Christ and yet continues in great glory in this world but when I consider of Queene Elizabeth I find in her many singularities she was a woman and a mayden Queene which gaue her many aduantages of admiration she was the last of her Race and needed not care what became of the world after her dayes were ended she came vpon the remainders of deuotion and Catholike religion which like a Bowle in his course or an Arrow in his flight would goe on for a while by the force of the first moouer and shee had a practise of maintaining warres among her neighbours which became a woman well that she might be quiet at home and whatsoeuer prosperitie or honour there was in her dayes or is yet remaining in England I can not but ascribe it to the Church of Rome and to Catholike religion which was for many hundred yeeres together the first mouer of that gouernment and it is still in euery setled kingdome and hath left the steppes and shadow thereof behinde it which in all likelihood cannot continue many yeeres without a new supplie from the fountaine G. H. 4. Why you should ioyne Queene Elizabeth with the great Turke I see no reason but onely for the iustifying of Rainolds his booke of Caluino Turcisme Otherwise a marueile it is that you would instance in her happinesse whom the Pope in his Briefe declared amiserable woman and yet her gouernement was not more happie then her sisters who notwithstanding shee submitted her necke to the Romane yoke was vnfortunate howbeit in her owne disposition she is reported to haue been a gracious and vertuous Lady instance may bee brought in the bringing in of a forreiner the frustrating of the great hope of her conception her short and bloody reigne extraordinary dearths and hurts by thunder and fire and lastly the losse of Calis the last footing wee had in France being held by her predecessors the space of about 250 yeeres whereas Queene Elizabeth oppugned and accursed from her very Cradle by the Church of Rome their thunderbolts returned vpon their owne heads and her selfe like a tender plant after a thunder shower prospered the more and being no lesse full of honour then dayes she was gathered to her fathers as a ripe sheafe of corne that is carried into the barne in so much that her Successour our most renowned SOVERAIGNE in admiration of
heauen and surely mine opinion is God forgiue me if I thinke amisse that a great part of those who professe his naturall body to be here doubt much of his being there And for the grace of his humanitie as you call it thus much no Christian man will denie that when Christ sanctified his owne flesh giuing as God and taking as man the holy Ghost he did not this for himselfe onely but for our sakes that the grace of sanctification and life which was first receiued in him might passe from him to his whole race as malediction came from Adam vnto all mankinde That which quickeneth vs is the spirit of the second Adam and his flesh that wherewith hee quickneth our corruptible bodies could neuer liue the life they shall liue were it not that here they are ioyned with his body which is incorruptible and that his is in ours as a cause of immortality and as little doubt there is but that this vitall and sauing grace which flowes from the humanitie of Christ is imparted vnto vs by meanes of the Sacraments they being sensible instruments for the conueying of those blessings to our soules which are in themselues incomprehensible And for that Sacrament which is most properly said to impart life vnto the receauer as the other doth food and sustenance it is acknowledged by those very men who are otherwise most bitter and vncharitable towards vs that children baptized with vs are thereby made capable of eternall saluation as far forth as if they had receiued that Sacrament in that Church after that forme which they cal Catholike coÌ„sequently you are inforced out of the streÌ„gth of your own principles to grant howbeit out of malice you labour to denie it that the grace of Christs humanity is not onely present with vs in corners and prisons among your complices but in our publique congregations in a more speciall manner then by the power of his dietie by which he is as wel present among the diuels in hell as among the Pope Cardinals assembled in consistory for the subuersion of states and ruine of kingdoms yet to affirme that he is none otherwise present in that Church except in corners and prisons and places of persecution but onely by the power of his dietie and not at all by the grace of his humanity I will neither be so vnaduised as to deliuer nor so vncharitable as to conceiue howbeit I haue good reason both to conceiue and to deliuer thus much that the honour which you pretend you doe him in your will-worship cannot but redound to his great dishonour nay our assurance is that being successours of his Apostles and Disciples in doctrine as you are of the Pharises in traditions the promise of his presence to the worlds end as well by the sanctification as the direction of his holy Spirit is rather made to vs then you B. C. 8. And for his mysticall body which is his Church and Kingdome there can bee no greater dishonour done to Christ then to maintaine Schisme and discention therein What would your Maiestie thinke of any subiects of yours that should goe about to raise ciuill dissention or warres in your Kingdome and of those that should foster and adhere vnto such men It is the fashion of all rebels when they are in armes to pretend the safety of the king and the good of the countrey but pretend what they will you cannot account such men any better then traitours and shall we beleeue that our blessed Sauiour the King of kings doth sit in heauen and either not see the practises of those that vnder colour of seruing him by reformation doe nothing els but serue their owne turnes and distract his Church that is his kingdome on earth by sedition or shall wee thinke that hee will not in time reuenge this wrong verely hee seeth it and doth regard it and will in time reuenge it G. H. 8. Wee as willingly grant as you are ready to prooue that a great dishonour is done to Christ by maintaining Schisme and dissention in his Church which ought to bee without seame as his coat But we demand who were the authours of this Schisme they which departed not froÌ„ the Church it selfe but from the corruptions thereof or they who stiffely maintaining those corruptions inforced this departure when Iacob was driuen to depart from Laban by his ill vsage was the breach in Iacob or in Laban when God commaundeth his people to goe out of Babylon lest they should partake of her sinnes and plagues doeth the going out of the people make a Schisme or the sinnes of Babylon It is true that wee haue forsaken that society which wee held with Rome but no farther then Rome it selâ—â—â—ath forsaken Christ and howsoeuer shee pretend the honâ—â—â— of Christ as rebels doe the name of the King and State yet in trueth she is Antichristian in persecuting the members of Christ and as in many other things so chiefly in challenging that vniuersality of power and infallibility of iudgement to her selfe which is onely due to our Sauiour And shall we thinke that he will not in time reuenge this wrong It cannot be but that her sinnes are come vp to heauen and God hath remembred her iniquities and in due time that command will take place Reward her as she hath rewarded you and giue her double according to her workes and in the cup that shee hath filled to you fill her the double in so much as she glorified her selfe and liued in pleasure so much giue ye to her of torment and sorrow for shee saith in her heart I sit being a Queene and am no widow and shall see no mourning Therefore shall her plagues come at one day death and sorrow and famine and shee shall bee burnt with fire for strong is the Lord God which will condemne her And thus our assurance is that your threats shall returne vpon your selues verily hee seeth it and doth regard and will in time reuenge it B. C. 9. But I hope and pray that hee will not reuenge it vpon you nor yours but rather that he will shew that your desire to honour him is accepted of him and therefore will mooue you to honour your selfe and your posterity with bestowing the same your fauour vpon his Church in the vnity thereof which you doe now bestow in the Schisme and that hee will reward both you and yours for the same according to his promise not onely with euerlasting glory in heauen but also with long continued temporall honour and security in this world and this is the first reason of my hope grounded vpon the promise of God G. H. 9. You are herein somewhat more manerly in words though litle lesse malicious in heart then Dr. Bishop a bird of the same feather who in an Epistle directed in like manner to his MAIESTIE as yours is spares not to speake out but tels him plainely when they see no hope of remedie the
and Alexander the VI. who lying vpon his death-bed the very night of his departure making a lamentable and bitter complaint to the Priests and Monkes that stood about him of the miserable estate of the Church and laying the burthen of so great a mischiefe vpon the Popes shoulders whom therefore he called Heretike and Antichrist at length hee yeelded vp his soule vnto God with these words in his mouth Non liberabitur Ecclesâ—a ab Egiptiaca seruitute nisi in ore gladij cruentandi The Church will neuer bee freed from this Egyptian slauery but by the point of a bloodie sword Thus did this holy man foresee and foretel as it were by a Prophetical Spirit that which we see accoÌ„plished So that Henrie the VIII serued onely as a midwife to bring to the world that birth wherewith our countrey had bene in trauell many yeres before and had not he bene borne some other meanes would haue beene found out for the doing of that which he did and what we see already done in England will also vndoubtedly be brought to passe in other Nations when their measure is full and God will In the meane time that the trueth of this assertion may the better appeare I will adde to those examples and instances brought to this purpose by his Maiestie in his Premonition two others in my iudgment very obserâ—able the one of William surnamed the Conquerour the other of Henrie for his learning surnamed Beauclerke his third sonne and second Successor in the Kingdome both out of the Manuscripts of that noble Antiquarie Sr Robert Cotton knight Barronnet The father thus writes to Gregory the VII commonly knowen by the name of Hildebrand vpon notice giuen him from his Legate Hubert that he was to doe him fealtie and â—o pay him money as his ancestors had done Hubertus Legatus tuus Religiose Pater ad me veniens ex tua parte me admonuit quatenus tibi successoribus tuis fidelitatem facerem de pecunia quam antecessores mei ad Romanam Ecclesiam mittere solebant melius cogitarem vnum admisi alterum non admisi fidelitatem facere nolui nec volo quia nec ego promisi nec antecessores meos antecessoribus tuis id fecisse comperio Hubert your Legate Religious Father comming vnto me aduertised me as from you that I was to doe fealtie to you and your Successors and that I should bethinke my selfe better of the money which my Predecessors were wont to send to the Church of Rome the one I admitted the other I admitted not The fealtie I would not performe neither will I because neither my selfe promised it nor doe I find that my Predecessors performed it to yours Vpon which occasion as it may well be supposed the Pope returned this answer to his Legate Hubert after signification how little he esteemed money without honour giuen him hee comes to the person of the King in these termes Multa sunt vnde Sancta Romana Ecclesia aduersus eum queri potest nemo enim omnium Regum etiam Paganorum contra Apostolicam sedem hoc praesumpsit tentare quod is non erubuit facere There are many things whereof the holy Roman Church may complaine of against him in as much as none of the Pagan kings haue attempted that against the Sea Apostolike which hee hath not blushed to put in execution Now for Henry the sonne who in this regarde swarued not from his fathers steppes part of Pope Paschals letter vnto him runnes thus Paschalis seruus seruorum Dei dilecto filio Henrico illustri Anglorum Regi Salutem Apostolicam benedictionem Cum de manu Domini largiùs honorem diuitias pacemque susceperis mir amur vehementius grauamur quod in Regno potestateque tua beatus Petrus in beato Petro Dominus honorem suum iustitiamque perdiderit Sedis enim Apostolicae nuncij vel literae praeter iussum Regiae Maiestatis nullam in potestate tua susceptioneÌ„ vel aditum promerentur nullus inde clamor nullum inde iudicium ad sedem Apostolicam destinatur Paschal the seruant of the seruants of God to our beloued sonne Henry the most renowned King of England health and Apostolicall benediction Sythence you haue plentifully receiued honour riches and peace from the hand of the Lord We exceedingly woonder and take it in ill part that in your Kingdome and vnder your Gouernment S. Peter and in S. Peter the Lord hath lost his honour and right in as much as the Nuntioes and Breues of the Sea Apostolike are not thought worthy entertainement or admittance in any part of your Dominions without your Maiesties warrant No complaint now no appeale comes from thence to the Sea Apostolike To which the King after termes of complement replies in in this manner Eos honores eam obedientiam quam tempore Patris mei antecessores vestri in Regno Angliae habuerunt tempore meo vt habeatis volo eo videlicet tenore vt dignitates vsus consuetudines quas pater meus tempore antecessorum vestrorum in regno Angliae habuit ego tempore vestro in eodem regno meo integrè obtineam Notumque habeat Sanctitas vestra quod me viuente Deo auxiliante dignitates vsus regni Angliae non minuentur Et si ego quod absit in tanta me deiectione ponerem Optimates mei imo totius Angliae populus id nullo modo pateretur Habita igitur Charissime Pater vtiliori deliberatione ita se erga nos moderetur benignitas vestra ne quod inuitùs faciam à vestra me cogatis recedere obedientia That honour and obedience which your predecessors had in the Kingdome of England during the Reigne of my father my will is you should haue in my time with this condition that my selfe fully and wholly enioy all the Dignities Prerogatiues and Customes which my father enioyed in the sayd Kingdome in the time of your predecessors and I would your Holinesse should vnderstand that during my life the digninities and prerogatiues of the Crowne of England by Gods grace shall not bee minished and if I should so farre abase my selfe which God forbid my Lords and Commons would by no meanes endure it wherfore most deare Father vpon better aduice let your gentlenesse be so tempered toward vs that I bee not enforced which I shall vnwillingly doe to withdraw my selfe from your obedience Whereby it appeares that Henry the first began to hammer and beate vpon that which Henry the last by Gods appointment in the fulnesse of time brought to perfection and though these two Kings the Father and the Sonne gaue way to some part of the Popes iurisdiction as I shewed before Yet hereby it appeares it was a burthen vnto them B. C. 23. Therefore to the Lords and fauorites of the Court was giuen the lands and inheritance of the Abbies and religious houses that hauing once as it were washed their hands in the bowels and bloud of the Church
hee concluded a match betwixt his sonne Prince Edward and Queene Mary of Scotland that as his father had vnited the white and the redde Roses in the royall branches of Yorke and Lancaster so his sonne might vnite the Lions passant and rampant in the armes of England and Scotland but it so pleased God that that match vpon occasion fell asunder and that happy vnion was reserued to our times Now for Queene Elizabeths feare those of her Sexe indeed by their nature are fearefull and great Princes by reason of the place they stand in are â—ealous specially of the heire apparent if hee be potent if neere at hand if remote in blood if in Religion different yet all the feare she conceaued from his Masties Mother arose partly from the practises of the French with whose King she matched and partly of the Seminarie Priests and Iesuites and pretended Catholikes euer making her the highest marke and pitch of their ambition till they had brought her to the lowest ebbe of her misfortune which was also hastned through her Subiects feare rather then their own as appeares by her seuerall answeres and replies to the demands of the Parliament and propositions of her counsel touching that point as also in that as soone as the newes of it was brought to her not thinking on any such matter she receiued it with indignation her countenance her speech shewed it with excessiue griefe for a while she stood as it were astonished and afterwards betook her selfe in priuate to mourning and weeping shee sharpely entertained her counsellers remooued them from her presence and commanded Dauison her Secretarie whom shee accused of being more foreward and officious in that businesse then she either desired or expected to be brought to his triall in the Starre Chamber where he was deepely censured in a mulcte of ten thousand pound and imprisonment at the Queenes pleasure but her displeasure was so heauy against him that hee continued there long and assoone as the excesse of her griefe gaue her leaue she thus briefly wrote with her owne hande to the King of Scotland now our gracious Soueraigne Most deare Brother I Wish you vnderstood but felt not with what vnmatchable griefe my minde is perplexed by reason of that wofull accident executed against my meaning which my pen trembling to mention you shall vnderstand by this my cousin I shall request you that as God and many others can testifie mine innocencie herein so you would rest assured that had I commanded it I would neuer haue denyed it I am not of so base a minde as either to feare to doe that which is iust or to denie it being done I am not so degenerate or of a Spirit so ignoble but as it is no Princely part to couer the inward intention of the minde with the outward speech so will I neuer dissemble mine actions but labour rather that they may appeare to the world in their proper colours Be you therefore fully resolued as the trueth is that had I intended such a matter I would neuer haue cast it vpon others neither haue I reason to charge my selfe with that which I intended not For other matters this Bearer will impart them to you and for my selfe beleeue it there is none liuing that loues you better and more intirely or is more carefully prouident for you and your good and if any happen to suggest any thing to the contrary perswade your selfe that such thereby aime at their owne aduantage rather then yours God keepe you long and long in safetie Yet out of the blacke cloud of this sad accident did the disposition of diuine prouidence as some wise men haue obserued most clearely shine in as much as those things which both Q. Elizabeth of England Q. Mary of Scotland chiefly desired and shot at in all their consultations were by this meanes effected The latter as at her death she witnessed wished nothing more earnestly then that the two diuided Realmes of England and Scotland might bee vnited in the person of her dearest sonne The former that true Religion together with the safetie and securitie of the Kingdome might bee preserued entire and that God was pleased to grant both their wishes to our comfort wee feele and can not but most willingly acknowledge And for his Maiestie he both signified to Queene Elizabeth by Sir Francis Walsinghame in the yeere 1583. almost foure yeeres before his mothers death that he would most constantly maintaine the same Religion which was then publikely receiued and againe sent her the same message by Sir Robert Sidney about two yeeres after So that she needed not to feare his right in that regarde and for his affection otherwise hee both testified it before her death in the Preface to his Basilicon Doron where he thus speakes In England reignes a lawfull Queene who hath so long with so great wisedome and felicitie gouerned her kingdomes as I must in true sinceritie confesse that the like hath not beene read or heard of either in our time or since the dayes of the Roman Emperour Augustus And since her death hee hath yeelded the like testimonies of her aswell in his Apologie as also in his Premonition where he remembers that being chosen to be his Godmother shee sent into Scotland the Font wherein he was baptized So that if by outward actions and speeches we may make coniecture of the inward thoughts and Passions of the minde shee was so farre from fearing his Maiesties right to the Crowne as she endeuoured rather by all conuenient meanes to aduance it neither doe I find it recorded by her friends or obiected by her enemies that during all her reigne vpon any occasion shee euer conceiued a thought or cast out a word toward the setting vp of any other Successour or the preiudicing of his right Nay in the yeere 1587. she sent the Lord Hunsdon gouernour of Berwike into Scotland to giue him notice that the Iesuiticall faction euen while his mother liued proiected how they both might be put by their right and the Spaniard brought in and withall was presented him an instrument subscribed by the Iudges of England assuring him that the sentence passed vpon his mother could no way bee preiudiciall in law to the right of his title But it will be sayd shee discouered her feare in stopping any declaration of the heire apparent specially being vrged thereunto by the three estates assembled in Parliament in the yeere 1566. whereas in trueth she in reading might haue obserued that few or no Successors in collaterall line had beene declared aâ— Lewis Duke of Orleans was not declared heire to Charles the eight yet succeded peaceably that it hath oâ—ten prooued dangerous to name a successour not only to the possessours but sometimes to the Successours themselues as it did to Roger Mortimer Earle of March designed heire to the Crowne by Richard the second his sonne Edmund being helde in prison and there pining away vpon none other
how hath their multitude intangled the Christian world yet must no man dare open his mouth to complaine of that We reade of Luther that when he heard his books by publike order were burnt in Rome he as solemnely burnt the Canon law at Wittenberge We haue not proceeded neither thinke wee it fit to proceed so farre but haue rather chosen out of that dunghill to seeke for a pearle which hauing found we are content to keepe and as occasion serues to make vse of We haue not wholly abrogated the Canon law but wee retaine it in part though not as receiuing strength from the Popes authoritie who for any thing I know hath no more right of making lawes for vs then wee haue for him but from the gouernours of our owne Church Neither did the Kings of France in the erection of their Vniuersities receiue it any otherwise then to vse at their own discretioÌ„ not to oblige them as a law or if it did the power of it was deriued from their owne approbation not from Romes imposition and therefore haue they expresly and by name forbidden the 6th Booke of the Decretals to bee read in their Vniuersities as lawe as being expresly against the lawes and liberties of the Gallican Church Now if they refuse one part they might in my iudgement by the same reason if they found it inconuenient or disagreeable reiect the whole and I thinke they would not stand much if occasion serued vpon the casting off of the Canon lawe who could by no meanes yet bee induced to the receiuing of the Canons of the Council of Trent A notable instance hereof wee haue euen in the depth of Popery in our owne Countrey At the Parliament of Merton it was proposed that children borne before marriage might bee adiudged legitimate according to the rule and practise of the Canon law They all made answere with one voice Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari we wil not yeeld to the change of the lawes of England by which it appeares that they receiued not in those very times all the Popes Canons as lawes and those which they receiued they had not the force of lawes because the Pope imposed theÌ„ but because themselues entertained them in that nature and to that purpose ratified them Mr. Doctor need not marueile then if our Parliament now make lawes to the same purpose and by the same authority as they ratified those The Summons of Parliament euer since the time of King Henry the V. and how long before I know not haue in one constant forme and tenour made mention that the Parliament is summoned to consult de negotijs statum defensionem Regni Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae contigentibus of businesses concerning the State and defence of the Realme and Church of England Among other Kings S. Edward begins his lawes with this protestation that it was his Princely care Vt populum Dei super omnia Sanctam Ecclesiam regat gubernet To rule and gouerne Gods people and aboue all the Church of God And before him Ina kâ—ng of the West Saxons professeth that hee called a Councill of his Bishops and Senators that they might consult of matters De salute animarum Statu regni touching the saluation of their soules and the State of the kingdome And therefore doeth our chiefe Antiquarie rightly distinguish our Courts into Ecclesiasticall Ciuill and mixt which hee makes the Parliament as beeing compounded of both and consequently capable to determine of matters of both natures though I must needes say the case is somewhat altered from â—ormer times when not onely the Arch-bishâ—ps the Bishops the Abbots and Priors whose number was double to thâ—t which now it is and litle inferiour to the â—eâ—porall Lords sate in thhe igher House of Paâ—liament and had conâ—luding voâ—ces but the bodie of the Clergie and Cathedrall â—hurches had their Proctours amongst the Commons as may be câ—llected by diuers of our Statutes in print but noâ— that the number of the Lords Spirituall in the higher House is â—essened and the others are cleane excluded the lower House mee thinkes it should stand with reason and equitie that thâ— liâ—ertie of making of lawes or Canons in Church-matters should bee referred and reserued by his Maiesties gracious fauour and with his Royall assent to Church-men assembled in their Conuocation who are presumed to be most able and willing to establish good and wholesome Constitutions and to reforme what is amisse Thus in the yeere 1603 at his Maiesties first entrance into this kingdome by vertue of hiâ— Prerogatiue Royall and Supreame authority in causes Ecclesiasticall did hee graunt licâ—nce and free power vnto them to treate and agree vpon such Ordinances as they should thinke necessary and conuenient for the honour and seruice of Almighty God and the good and quiet of the Church and afterward being by them agreed vpon and throughly considered by his Maâ—estie out of his princely inclination to maintaine the present estate and gouernment of the Church of England hee not onely coâ—firmed them by his Royall Assent but by the same authoritie commaunded the entertainement and execution of them through the Realme Another matter you fling at is the multitude of Lawyers at this day as iâ— they were exceedingly increased but if you had read and well obseâ—ued Foretescues obseruation in this behalfe who wrote about 200. yeeres since being then Chiefe Iustice of England and had compared this time to that you would haue found that the number of that Proâ—ession in those dayes was litle lesse then at this day certainely their colledges were then more then now His words are Sunt namque in eo decem hospitia minora et quandâ—que verò plura quae nominantur hospitia Cancellariae ad quorum quodlibet pertinent centum studentes ad minus et ad aliqua eorum maior in multo numerus licet non omnes in eis semper conueniant MaioruÌ„ quatuor sunt ad minimuÌ„ eorum pertinent in forma praenot at a ducenti studentes aut propè They haue ten lesser houses which they call Innes of Chancerie to euery of which belong one hundred students at least and to some many more though they be not all continually resident in them of the bigger houses they haue â—oure and to each of them in like manner belong two hundred students or thereabout Whereras at this present in some of the Innes of Court there are not 260. and in the greatest little aboue 300. in commons at one time and for the â—nnes of Chancerie they are but eight in number and in most of them not aboue 50. in commons together But if they are increased it may well be imputed not so much to our multitude of statuts as to our long peace the nurse of homebred quarrels or to the dissolution of our Monestaries and that as I conceiue for foure reasons First for that whereas in those dayes when the Monasteries stood many yonger brothers did
afford as many sufficient and learned Preachers and that in a more substantiall and conscionable fashion then the Popes Hierarchie and that London alone affords more then Rome it selfe and their readinesse to supply Sermons is not so much out of any good will they beare that exercise as out of ill will they beare vs. Iohn Aduenâ— lib. 30. Anal. Boio 1 So that in Mr. Doctors Logick an honest Protestant may thus be defined One that can endure the State of England as it is and could be content it were as it was that he might receiue more benefit 2 You tel vs before that all false religions in the world are but humane policies and we as truely returne it vpon you that this humane policie fauours of a false religion 3 Many of them though they professed themselues dead to the world yet were they aliue to the flesh Renulfus Câ—str lib. 7. 1 Indeede by the forme of words yet extant in the masse booke and vsed by the Priest it is supposed that a number should Communicate daily with him but it seldome is so 2 If wee had no vse of confessours yet might and ought inferiors be kept in awe of hell fire by their Preachers and superiours be tolde of their errours in state by their Counsellers but you seeme to assure his Maiestie that if hee will not be told of his errours in confession he shall in rebellion * 2. Cor. 5. 18. 1 Bell de peâ—â—t lib. 3. Cap. 2. 2 Epist ad Front pag. 129. 3 Premon 125 4 See nouell doct in the ende of the Premon the 3. 5 Epist. ad Front pâ—g 140. 6 Pag. 326. 7 That is they doe not binde him to present the party confessing as appeares both in the body and title of the Canon * Gal. 5. 1. 1 If in those middle times when all things ranne in a current course there were not so many Statutes made in Church matters it must be imputed rather to the want of occasion then of power the plantation or reformation of the Church chiefly giuing occasion to the making of lawes in Church matters 2 When the name of a Parliament began in England is vncertaine See my L. Coke in his Preface to the ninth part of his reports 3 I take the raising of new houses to be no hinderance to the Common-weâ—lth the Lawyers themselues being a part of the Commons 4 As 〈◊〉 the Ciuill Law came not from the Roman Infidels â—hich notwithstandâ—ng stand well enough with the authoritie of the Ecclesiasticall Courts 5 What you call Catholike I know not but sure I am that since King Eth. time many Statutes haue been made for the restraâ—ning of the Bâ—shop of Romes vniuâ—t vsurpation neither doâ— finde that hee â—â—â—tered any thing in the lawes of the kingdome saue onely by commaâ—ding them to be turned into his mother tongue 6 Iâ— by better times you meane the restitution of the Romish Religion or the recoÌ„ciliation of our Church to Rome you had certainly very little reason to expect them from the learning wisedome and moderation of those that are now the chiefest in that profession the chiefest of all hauing both fâ—equently and fullâ— declared himselfe to the contrary and suffred for it by the slanderous tongues and pennes of malicious Romanists and namely Eudaemon and Parsons 1 Bod in lib. 1. de â—epub cap. 8. 2 See Monsâ—ir Seruius the Kings Attourney generals speach in the end of the reformation of the Vniueâ—sitie of Paris 3 Spâ—culum Iust. anno 712. 4 Statut. 21. Râ—â— 2. cap. 11. 5 Comment cap. 49. 6 A God containes the Sea within his owne bounds and marches so is it my office to make euery Court containe it selfe within its owne limits see his Maâ—â—sties Speech in Parliament 1609. 7 Cap. 17. 1 What thoâ—â— Clergie men are wee desire to know and who in your sense are Caluinists 2 What those points of doctrine are wee shall see in the next Section 3 That his Maiesties fauour to the Clergie is such as not to giue way to their ouerthrow and in stead of them to set vp a few stipendary Preachers we haue had good triall and are bound to blesse God for it but sore against the will of all Romane Catholikes it is that his Maiestie should fauour them so much 1 How Caluin himselfe though he were a stipendary Minister pleased Master Maior and his brethren let his banishment more then once for his free preaching testifie 2 We are assured that both his Maiesty and his heire apparent are so well resolued in this point as they wil neuer put it to the question 3 Our Sermons are not so cheape as your Masses which notwithstanding are in a manner the very life and soule of your Priesthood 4 The vntrueth of this assertion appeares in mine answere 5 As if all those who are called Lords and goe in Rochets were not by their place conformable to the discipline had often before they come to that place subscribed to the doctrine established by Law 6 They may more easily turne Lay with you where Lay men are admitted to the administration of the Sacrament 7 These kinde of Clergie men desire no satisfaction from you but wish you had bin as carefull to maintaine that trueth which once you professed as to confute their pretended errours which confutation notwithstanding you speake much of but no where performe nor so much as vndertake 8 You may rather call them temporizing then temperate 9 It were well that others knew them too if any such there bee who in iudgmeÌ„t approoue the trueth of that religion which you call Cath. and yet proâ—â—sse themselues not onely members but Ministers of our Church but our hope is that their number is not such as you vaunt of it being vnpossible that honest men and good Schollers should take the oath of Supremacie and subscribe to our articles of religion and yet in iudgement approue the authority of the B. of Rome which is in a maner the substance of that religion 10 Had ours had the like temperate course held with them or the like liberty afforded in Queene Maries dayes they would haue thought themselues happy 11 Their wiues and children are bound to pray for you in regard of your fatherly care of them 12 It is well that you account your selfe one of the honest men and good Schollers but they are so farre I hope from accounting you one of them as they vtterly condemne and mislike your courses 13 But it pleased God you should die among strangers and not liue to see that toleration you desired neither shall any of them we hope that yet liue and desire to see it 14 As if the whole fortune of Greece depended vpon your submission to that Church 15 What assurance can there bee on our parts from them who hold yâ— faith is not to be held with heretikes but you forgot your promise made to my Lords Grace of