fellows in Germany For were the Government of that Country united an not so rent into factions with diversities of Religions as Sir Edwin Sandys observes breeding endless jealousies heart-burnings and hatred it needed no other help to affront the Great Turk and to repulse all his forces to the security of Christendom This therefore was one of the advantages which the Reformation brought Certainly I spoke plain enough and that without deceit viz. Where the name of Protestant is unknown that is where it has not been yet planted the Catholike Magistrates take care to keep it out But where their number or rebellion has moued their natural Prince to grant them terms in those places I say they live with more liberty then Catholikes under any Protestant Government Flanders was never compelled to let the Reformed have extraordinary priviledges Neverthelesse there are many Protestants in that Province and particularly in the Wallon Countries nor have they their Ministers hanged though these places are under the obedience of the most Catholike King What reason has the Minister to say I could name no other Country But France where Protestants have open Churches has he forgot Poland even Crakaw it self where theire Orthodox Socinian Cathechism was made Let him also think on Hungary both which are Popish Kingdoms under Popish Kings Nay in Piedmont it self they have open Churches yet a man may legally be hanged in England if he have but a private Chappel Besides this Reader there is much difference between Papists and Protestants because all Countries were possest by us and the Reformed had no pretence to Government except in England and in a small Province or two in Germany but what they got by Rebellion Therefore as a man that is turned out of his house by a stranger may expect more then the stranger being dispossest can do from the right oâ—ner so Papists may justly expect more liberty from Protestants then they can upon any pretence from Papists yet Protestants live to this day freer in Catholique Kingdoms then we do under them For Protestants may have employment in Poppish Countreys but Papists are debarred from Offices in all Countries I except none that are of the Reformed Faith I know not what the Minister would be at that the Low-Country Papists were the chief cause why the Spanish yoak was thrown off 'T is true there were many factious Catholikes there at that time stirr'd up by the insinuation of the Reformed as Saints enflame honest men now adays Yet for all this not only the first insurrections tumults were according to Strada acted by the Calvinists at Tournay Lisle and Valencien but also in the year 1581 as the Protestant Author of Europae Modernae Speculum will tell you by a publick Instrument they declared their King Philip to have rightfully fallen from the Dominion of those Provinces then united under the profession of the Reformed Religion neither would they ever afterwards suffer the Papists to have any share in the Government for fear they should bring all things back again to their true Lord an Master But now suppose Reader I had not proved the Dutch villany by the testimony of a Writer of the Protestant Religion I hope 't is no excuse to their Rebellion though some Papists did by accident facilitate their work For if so then the Murther of Charles the First by the Independents and their erecting a Government without King or Lords were not Rebellion because the whole body of the Presbyterians began the play which afterwards but 't was too late they seemed to detest and openly to exclaim against How the Edicts of France were obtained you shall hear in this next Section SECT XVIII APOLOGY Because we have named France the Massacre will perchance be urged against us But the World must know that was a Cabinet-Plot condemned as wicked by Catholick Writhers there and of other Countries also Besides it cannot be thought they were murthered for being Protestants since 't was their powerful Rebellion let their Faith have been what it would that drew them in to that ill-machinated destruction ANSWER XVIII Here he says the French Massacre was so horrid a cruelty that Thuanus tells us That considering men and having turned over the Annals of Nations he could find no example for it in Antiquity that it was cloakt with shews of Amity and a Marriage between the Houses of Valois and Burbon to which the chief Protestants being invited were after their jollity of mirth in the dead of night butchered in their Houses without distinction of Sex or Age till the channels ran with blood none escaping but the Bridegroom and the Prince of Conde who were afterwards the one poysoned the other stab'd by men of our Religion He proceeds that this which I say was condemned by Catholick Writers was also extolled as glorious by others of them and that one may guess at my meaning and that I am of their sentiment since first I call it a Cabinet-Plot a fine soft word for the Butchery of 30000. persons Secondly in answer to them that call it murther I seem to blame it as done by halves in terming it an ill-machinated destruction Lastly in saying that it was their Rebellion drew it on them let their Faith have been what it would when indeed it was their Faith let their Obedience have been what id would for the King never had better Subjects then those that were Massacred noâ— worse Rebels then the Massacrers Then he tells us that the brave Coligni was the first killed and his head was sent to Rome and his Body dragged about Paris and besides he says that the Duke of Guises factious Authority as I sweetly stile it was a black Rebellion and to decide whether they were massacred for Protestant Religion or Rebellion because both himself and I may be partial he desires to take judges between us To make it appear it was not for Rebellion they were massacred he cites K. James who says I could never learn by any good and true intelligence that in France those of the Religion took Arms against their King In the first Civil War they stood only upon their Guard c. To prove that they were massacred for their Religion since I will admit no judge but the Pope he undertakes to shew us that it was his judgment from Thuanus a Catholick Writer who tells us The Pope having an account of the Massacre read the Letter in the Consistory there decreed to go directly to St. Marks and solemnly give thanks for so great a blessing conferred on the Roman Sea and the Christian World That soon after a Jubilee should be publisht throughout the whole Christian World and these causes were exprest for at viz. To give thanks to God for destroying in France the Enemies of the Truth and of the Church That in the evening the Guns were fired at St. Angelo Bonfires made and all things performed usual in the greatest Victories of the Church
run counter to his Royal inclinations when he punishes the weak and harmless ANSWER XXXVI He says he desires only to be safe and against our dangerous Principles neither our affability nor hospitality can defend them for the Irish never treated Protestants better then the year a fore they cut their Throats The best means of security is the execution of the Laws by which those that renounce their disloyal Principles will be distinguisht and the disloyal and seditious only kept weak REPLY XXXVI I have sufficiently treated the Irish Rebellion in the first Reply neither have I bin wanting to shew you that a Protestāt Author viz. Heath lays the cause of it on the English Long-Parliament which occasioned so many mischeifes by their wicked beginings against that good Prince encouraged the designes of the rest of his seditious subjects Nor had the Scots themselves bin then wanting by their actuall levying warr against their King corresponding with his forrain Enemies to prick forward seeing they were successefull all those who studied commotions disorders Judge then whither they were the Papists of England or the Reformed in both Kingdomes of Great Brittain that farthered the Irish Rebellion But now that the Irish never treated Protestants better then the yeare before they curt theire throats is a foolish invention of this shamelesse Minister nonsense in it selfe Nor was it practicable unlesse the English had like the Israelites in Egypt bin sojournours at will had nothing to doe with the Government For would it not be a mad expression to say that the Hugonots of France better treated this yeare the Papists there then they had done before or that the Round-heads treated the Cavaliers more kindly then they had done since the Kings Restauration But this is un Coup d'esprit a peice of witt of the Worthy Minister truely so great a one that I admire it should doe it much more were it not soe common SECT XXXVII APOLOGY Why may not we Noble Country-men hope for favour from you as well as the French Protestants find from theirs A greater duty then ours none could express we are sure Or why should the United Provinces and other Magistrates that are harsh both in mind and manners refrain from violence against our Religion and your tender breasts seem not to harbour the least compassion or pity These neighboring people sequester none for their Faith but for transgression against the State Nor is the whole party involved in the crime of a few but every man suffers for his own and proper fault Do you then the like and he that offends let him die without mercy And think always we beseech you of Cromwels injustice who for the actions of some against his pretended Laws drew thousands into Decimation even ignorant of the thing after they had vastlie paid for their securitie and quiet ANSWER XXXVII He says he has answered our instances of French Protestants and Dutch Papists When we governed the civilized World he says we hanged and burnt men for no cause but Faith which proves Protestant Barbarity better then Popish civility yet these were little for their credit unless they could say that none of us suffered but by the known and necessary Laws of the Kingdom 'T is necessary to maintain the Kings Authority and Peace of the Nation and if we call Religion any thing contrary to these whether ought they to alter their Laws or we our Religion He says as Inquisitors bedress one with Pictures of Devils that is to be burnt for an Heretick so I put Cromwel on any thing I would render odious but they are weak that see not the difference betwen Cromwels Edicts that ruined men for Loyalty and Laws that restrained them from Treason and Rebellion REPLY XXXVII How childishly rediculous is this Ministers Allegation That none of us suffered but by known Laws What does he mean Did we ever when we governed England put any to death but by the known Laws established many hundred years before the Malefactors were born and which are still on foot and used to this day by Protestants against Hereticks But fully to reply to this Answer I cannot better do it then by beseeching you to read over this short Section of the Apology again and then tell me whether any request can be more reasonable and Christian or whether this way of involving the whole in the crimes of a few be not exactly the Procedure of Cromwel SECT XXXVIII APOLOGY We have no studie but the Glory of our Soveraingn and just libertie of the Subjects ANSWER XXXVIII Sir If we may judge by your works there is nothing less studied in your Colledge SECT XXXVIIII APOLOGY Nor was it a mean argument of our dutie when every Catholique Lord gave his voice for the Restauration of Bishops by which we could pretend no other advantage but that 26. Votes subsisting wholly by the Crown were added to the defence of Kingship and consequently a check to Anarchy and confusion ANSWER XXXVIIII This is no argument of your Duty for sure you are it no Lord. Nor is it likely that these Lords followed your direction in the doing of this Duty REPLY to ANS XXXIX Good Mr. Parson 't is more then you know but that I am a Lord yet whether I am or no the Catholick Lords and I are of the same Loyal Principles and what they did any other Catholick would have done had he been Member of their House SECT XL. APOLOGY 'T is morally impossible but that we who approve of Monarchy in the Church must ever be fond of it in the State also ANSWER XL. If you mean this of Papists in general that which you mean morally impossible is experimentally true For in Venice Genoa Lucca and other Popish Cantons of Switzerland they very well approve of Monarchy in the Church yet they are not fond of it in State also But if you mean this of the Jesuitical Party then it may be true in this sence that you would have the Pope to be sole Monarch both in Spirituals and Temporals REP. to ANSW XL. I think I have been as lately at Lucca Genoa and Venice and know the places as well as the Minister 'T was not therefore my meaning that there were no Popish States but that generally Popery tends to Monarchy and on the contraty Calvinism from which the Church of England differs only in Bishops leans altogether to a Democratical Government Heretofore in the Civil Wars of our Country there was never the least mention of a Commonwealth but still the Rebels would have a King and rather then fail one of another Kingdom I beseech God that the present Principles have no other tendency but to Monarchy for Reader you must know that Principles may blindly lead men to a thing which not only their judgments but their inclinations loath as for example the Reformed both in judgment and inclination desire unitie but their Principles in spite of all endeavours will
bold as Hectors in their denials that has affirmed the Church of Rome never governed the civilized World But since this Minister mentions here Popish ignorance I must desire the Reader if he knows any of our Profession in the Country to tell me whether generally speaking they are not esteemed more learned then their Neighbours of the same rank and degree I am sure they that live at London are thought by their Protestant Acquaintance as well bred and as greate scholars as any of their condition with whom they usually converse Concerning our Priests consult their Books and tell me then whether they have been out done or no and if any English man would know how they are abroad let them go but to his next Neighbours the French and there in every Diocess he shall find a Clergy not only learned to admiration but so far outgoing the Hugonot-Ministers that one would think they lived not in the same Clime or Region Nay what is yet more there is neither private nor publick Library in this very Island but seven of ten of the choice Books in all Sciences were writ by Catholicks Is not this Good Reader strange ignorance for Protestants to be thus deceived and implicitly led on by their Pastors contrary to what they hear and see This I must say is incredible blindness and exceeds that of the silliest Papists who if they are cozened it must be in things beyond their capacity or by distance far remote from them But now in England nothing is more common then to have wise Protestants run into this and the like fond fancies and at last when they can say no more they are fain to shift it off with this Phanatical evasion That it is true Papists are carnally but not spiritually learned SECT V. APOLOGY Did Richard the first or Edward Longshanks suspect his Catholicks that served in Palestine and made our Countries Fame big in the Chronicles of all ages or did they mistrust in their dangerous absence their Subjects at home because they were of this Profession Could Edward the third imagine those to be Trayterous in their Doctrine that had that care and duty for their Prince as to make them by Statute guilty of death in the highest degree that had the least thought of ill against the King Be pleased that Henry the fifth be remembred also who did those Wonders of which the whole World does still resound and certainly all History will agree in this that 't was Old-Castle he feared and not those that believed the Bishop of Rome to be Head of the Church ANSWER VIII To this he says the Reigns of these Kings were in the dark times of corruption yet that Richard I. bequeathed his Pride and Lechery to the Clergy and Monks That Edward I. outlawed the Clergy for obeying the Pope in not paying Taxes That Edward III and Hen. V. made good Laws against the Popes usurpation and Becket vext Hen. II more then Hen. V feared Oldcastle Moreover that all these Kings did not differ so much from Protestants as the Papists now do and to conclude he asks did not the Pope force K. Iohn to do homage for England wrestle with Edward the first for Scotland and often lay claim to Ireland REPLY 8. Certainly Reader the Minister is besides himself since he can say the English differed not so much from the Protestants then as we do now Has the man railed all this while against the Tyranny of Popes and urged those times as the height of their Authority and then comes to this evasion I would fain know if the Clergy and Religious were since ever more in power then in those days was there ever more of Pilgrimages and all sorts of Devotion which Protestants call Superstitious were not Schoolmen then most in their splendor And lastly could any Publican Lollard Wickliffian or new Sect stir but the whole Kingdom presently detested them Who then will ever believe a word more he says when he is so strangely impudent to no purpose But these are the worthy tricks used to keep the poor people in ignorance and just with as much truth are the Fathers called defenders of the Protestant Religion for the Fathers stiled them always Hereticks that ran out of the visible Church For the Laws that have been made by any of our Kings if they made any against Ecclesiastical usurpations God reward them and to this all Catholicks will say Amen Concerning K. John we have already spoke enough And for the Popes claim to Scotland judge Reader whether any man can be fuller of falsity and malice then this Minister my Adversary For here he would have the World think by his placing this Accusation after King Johns business and by calling it the Popes wrestling with Edward I. for the Soveraignty of Scotland there was some notorious injustice done by the Sea of Rome In short the business was only this as you may find in Hollingshead the most violent English Historian against Papists that ever yet writ The Scots having always an animosity against the English and not knowing how to resist the Victorious Arms of Edward who was again coming with a great Army against them surrendred the Kingdom or so pretended to Boniface 8. He thereupon sent to the King to desist because the Crown belonged to the Church Edward immediately returned an Answer and so did all the Barons of England to manifest the Kings right and the invalidity of the new pretence The Pope says Hollingshead when he deliberately pondered the Kings Answer with the Letter from the English Barons waxt cold in the matter and followed it no farther Thus Reader you see how the case stood and how Catholiques are wronged by ill men nor is there any difference between a false aggravation and a downright lye In the same manner are we used in this Accusation of Ireland for the Pope never medled with Ireland but since the Reformation and so invaded it in the time of Queen Elizabeth of which you shall see farther in the Section of Popish misdemeanors in her Reign The parity between S. Th. Becket and Oldcastle is doubtless very odd the last being a Rebel with Complices in arms against Henry the fifth the other disputing only about Priviledges which he said were grāted to Priests Just as if our Peers should stād upon the freedome of their Persons were there a design to have them imprisoned as other Subjects or tried by a common Jury Besides all Princes of Christendome then owned Becket for a Saint when as no body unless such a man as Fox thought Oldcastle deserved any thing but the Gallows SECT IX APOLOGY We will no longer trouble you with putting you in mind of any more of our mighty Kings who have been feared abroad and as safe at home as any since the Reformation of Religion We shall only add this that if Popery be the enslaving of Princes France still believes it self as absolute as Denmarck or Sweden ANSWER IX He
followed the method of his Predecessors and would have continued it had not the barbarous usage of the Queen of Scots provok'd him to an Excommunication and all hostile endeavours His Bull I know speaks not of Bastardy in plain terms yet with our Ministers good leave the Pope in that very Bull calls our late Queen Mary Legitimate which saying was as much against Q. Elizabeth as if he had spoken in a bolder phrase For as I urged before my Lord Bacon says That the Legitimations of Q. Mary and Queen Elizabeth were incompatible In this manner the Popes acknowledged her and for the Marriages which were offered her to very much purpose forsooth urged by the Minister from forreign Monarchs it proves no more right then that Mrs. Cleypole had been truly our Queen if France Spain or the Emperor had made love to her and I believe no body doubts but Suiters would have flockt had she been unmarried and sole Heir to her Father Though Gregory XIII sent to invade Ireland and Sixtus V. gave England to the Spaniards yet I do not see that this can touch us Catholicks in the least though the Minister thinks it a mighty Argument For if the French King may invade St. Christophers or any part of our Dominions without drawing the Name of Villain on him or his people Why may not the Pope being a Temporal Prince send forces to subdue what Country he pleases The Bishop of Munster for his smart endeavours against the Hollanders was never blamed but on the contrary commended by us and certainly the Pope is as absolute and as good a man as he Kings you see may fall upon their Neigbours themselves and without breach of Morality incite others to do the like and while Popes are free Princes they cannot be reproach'd for using that liberty without great partiality and malice This Minister foolishly handles all things and you may see his intent is only to make a noise for 't is no advantage in our present Dispute to him to shew what Kingdoms Popes over-run or give away That which he ought to prove was That it is Article of Faith amongst us to assist the Pope in every such invasion or Gift That this is not so you may plainly see for one fifth of the Turks Army are of his Christian Subjects and yet none of them are ever blamed as heritiques for defending the grād Seigniors Territories In the next place whē was it heard that any English Catholick was fain to do pennance like an accurst persō for assisting the Queen against the Spanish Invasion for there was no◠Papist then in England for the Spaniard Or who in Ireland in her Reign thought himself given to the Divel for fighting against San Joseph who came for the Kingdom upon his Holiness account For the Bishop of Armath confesses The English Papists in Ireland were faithfull in all the invasions by Spaine or Pope Now whether Pope or Spaniard intended after Conquest to restore the Kingdom to the Queen of Scots or her Heirs I know not but this I am sure of that 't was as probable as that the Hollanders who were assisted by the Arms of some Caualiers and the good wishes of us all would have given King Charles the Second possession of England had they got it from the Rump If Clement the Eighth earnestly strove that Queen Elizabeths Successours should be Catholiques I suppose no body can blame him for it but I would fain have it shewed me that King James's admission to the Crown a Protestant from his Childhood was opposed by the Catholiks of this Kingdom If they stickled not after his Mothers death for him as they did for her this answer is sufficient That he was not used like her nor did he for fear of prejudicing his future admittance ever desire any body to stir in his behalf I suppose Reader you wonder why I should challenge any man to shew me how the English Catholicks opposed King James his Succession when as this Minister tells us out of Cambden That the Papists negotiated the Spanish Invasion That afterwards they perswaded the Earl of Darby to pretend to the Crown That Doleman alias Parsons writ in the behalf of the Infanta's Title and to conclude his Accusation de declares That the Catholicks of Scotland Huntly and others raised a powerful Rebellion against this Prince First Concerning the Invasion the Minister says more then the Author himself whom he quotes for Cambden only says that some English Fugitives did promote it and who knows not that Fugitives in all ages and in all Religions machinate against those whom they call their Oppressors and on the other side who is ignorant that many Papists more considerable far then a few fugitive Priests for most of the chiefest were so assisted the Kingdom in that War and in all its other contests abroad Secondly If some of these Fugitives did perswade my Lord of Darby it was I say again done like Fugitives nor had they ever the consent of the Catholiques for it It was certainly a very rediculous Plot in them to make a Protestant Nobleman that had so poor a Title their Soveraign and if it were really designed It must I am sure have been performed by the Protestants themselves for the Papists had no power not being able so much as to set up the Qu. of Scots who had so plausible a right though they wanted not the assistance of the Pope Spaniard and all the Guisard Faction And by the way this Earle was not poison'd as the Minister would have it for Stow has a Diary and the Particulars of his sicknesse and say's The causes of all his deseases were thought by Phisitians partly a surfet and partly distempering himselfe with vehement excercise 4. days togeather in Easter weeke Thirdly For Dolemans Book who writ it God knows Parsons denied it at his death and I believe he was not the Authour because in some of his works he speaks so much to the advantage of K. James Moreover he was a man of far more wit then to write so foolish a thing for was not that man strangely simple that would dedicate his Book to my L. of Essex as the Minister would have it to prick forward an ambitious man and yet the whole matter of the Treatise is to prefer the Infanta's Title before all persons whatsoever But Reader if this kind of arguing be lawful that the errours of some unknown men must be laid to a whole Party how miserable would the Protestants themselves be when we come to try them by the same Touchstone I will not stoop to so mean and insignificant a Topick but tell you what Protestants still alive can testifie viz That in the latter end of the Queens Reing My Lord of Hertfords Title was often cried up to Tumult in the streets Nor had that a slight impression he being esteemed next to the Stuarts in blood on many a wellmeaning man
and that Catholicks were never put to death in England for Religion but for Treason REPLY IV. Is not this pretty that no body died in England for Religion but for Treason and yet many hundred of Priests have been executed for no other crime but being Priests Nay Lay-men have been hanged for being converted and others for letting a Priest say Mass in their houses when as to hear Mass on Festivals every Catholique is in Conscience obliged if he can Besides have not many Catholiques also suffered for believing the Pope to be Head of the Church By this Argument then if the Parliament should make it Treason as who knows but they may to hold Episcopal Ordination only valid or that the King cannot give Orders it might then be as well said that they that are executed in pursuance of that Law died for Treason and not for their Religion But lest the Minister that has the boldness in almost every Paragraph to deny apparently known things might to deceive his Acquaintance still say I have not proved what I assert Not to trouble my Reader with many citations take this one example out of John Stow that downright plain Historian He tells us That fourteen Papists were at a clap executed six only for being made Priests beyond Sea and remaining here four Lay-men only for being reconciled and four more only for abetting or relieving the others Now if that be sufficient for the justice of the procedure to say there are Laws to this purpose enacted then most certain it is that the Primitive Christians were all Traytors being banisht by the lawful Magistrate from several places where they taught and knowing also many particular Injunctions against their Preaching and seducing the Emperors Subjects as the Ethnicks were pleased to call it Nay the Great St. Alban our famous Proto-Martyr was executed as may be seen in the Martyrology for being contrary to Dioclesians Laws converted to the Faith and abetting or entertaining in his House the Priest Amphibalus which Priest was his Spiritual Instructor according to Mr. Cambden in his famous Treatise of Brittain SECT IV. APOLOGY These are they that by beginning with us Murthered their Prince and wounded you And shall the same method continue by your approbation We are sure you mean well though their Design be wicked But let it never be recorded in Story that you forgot your often Vows to us in joyning with them that have been the cause of so great calamity to the Nation ANSWER V. He urges that by saying the Kings Murtherers began with us Catholicks we take liberty of bestowing Characters on whom we please so that no body must act against us lest they be thought to continue the Method of the Kings Murtherers For Vows he says we Catholicks are more sure of those of Protestants to us then they of ours to them because they want a Pope to dispence with them REPLY V. Pray Reader upon mature consideration tell me now whether they were not the Kings Murtherers that pursued Papists in the beginning of the War Their design afterward I am sure plainly appeared and pray God those were not of the same Tribe who first promoted our late troubles Let me ask also whether you find not us at home and abroad as strict to our promises as any other you converse with But since this Minister upbraids us with our dispensing with Vows be pleased to consider who has been most busy the Romish or Protestant Pope herein The Papists have from the beninning refused the Oath of Allegeance as 't is now worded but the Reformed took it in all the degrees of preferment viz. when graduated in the Universities when admitted into Orders when Justices of Peace when Parlimament-men and in short when any Dignity either in Church or State is conferred Yet for all the often repetition of it half the Kingdom were in Rebellion against the King even directly contrary to what they had sworn Now on the other side there was no Papist that declared not for the King though all the Party as I said refused the Oath and for this refusal severely suffered both in their Estates and Persons Besides if it were a Doctrine amongst us as the Protestants state it that the Pope can when he pleases absolve us from our Oaths why should we then do you think refuse the taking of this Doubtless a Dispensation if it could be granted might be procured at less charge then two thirds of our Estates omitting all corporal punishments Oaths by our Tenets are not in themselves unlawful nor can it be out of want of zeal for our Prince that we refuse them since 't is plain that we all like one man stood by him in his great affliction and misery You must know Reader this Oath was framed by one Perkins an Apostate Jesuite who knowing what we could take and what not purposely mingled certain truths with uncertain speculative points to make us fall within the Law of refusal T would be tedious to shew all the real exceptions we have to it nor do any of them truly relate to our obedience to the King for as to the Allegeance I would be bound to word an Oath which no Papist shall scruple at and yet it shall be more strong then this But Reader to give you my opinion of Oaths though nevertheless I am not for taking away that laudable Custome of swearing Subjects I think them really useless where without them as in Allegeance we are naturally bound for honest men will be punctual in duty though they never swore when as the wicked can at no time be obliged let the Bond be never so Sacred SECT 6. APOLOGY Of all Calumnies against Catholicks we have admired at none so much as that their Principles are said to be inconsistent with Government and they themselves thought ever prone to Rebellion ANSWER VI. On this short Paragraph he makes a wonderful long Discourse saying That 't is a calumny of ours to call that a calumny which is true for first our Councels secondly our Decretals thirdly our Divines teach that the Pope has Power to depose Kings and to discharge Subjects of their Allegeance which Doctrines are inconsistent with Government But every Papist is bound to beleive their Councels Decretals and Divines Ergo we may well be thought prone to Rebellion REPLY 6. To answer to these things perspicuously I shall treat of them singly Object 1. That our General Councels decree this he proves by the Lateran Councel under Innocent the III. which expresly ordains he says That in case any Prince be a favourer of Hereticks after admonition given the Pope shall discharge his Subjects from their Allegeance and shall give away the Kingdome to some Catholique that may root out these Heretiques I grant that the sense of the words is in the Councel and that in determinations of Faith Councels are infallible But as for other matters we say not that Councels are infallible in every point
Neighbours This Prince Protestant Historians conclude to be the least deserving of all our Governours for passing by his youthful Rebellion the Murthering of his Nephew his Atheism c. which they record 't is he that lost our whole interest either by Conquest or Matches in France and discontenting all his People never obliged any body that I heard of unless the Mayor and Corporation of Lynne This yet is no excuse to the Pope but shews only the unhappiness of the Nation that it had not a more generous Prince for Sr. Rob Cotton call's him a licentious soueraigne to defend our Rights and Priviledges Now for Transubstantiation it is true that in this Councel the word was first made Authoritatively use of as in the Councel of Nice the word Trinity but the sence and meaning of both Trinity and Transubstantiation was in the Scripture and held from age to age Nay the word Transubstantiation it self was used by grave Authors in Writings before Object 2. Concerning the Decrees and Bulls of Popes he says that from Gregory VII they made such a trade of deposing Kings that no weak King could wear his Crown but at the Popes curtesie and that Boniface VIII declares in these words We say and define and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary to salvation for every creature to be subject to the Bishop of Rome To this I answer that in the next Century or a little more after K. John there were more weak Kings in England then eiher before or since viz. Hen. 3. Edw. 2. Ric. and yet the Popes did not offer to take away their Crowns or ever stirred to perplex them though their wicked Subjects gave the Pope opportunity enough Nay though Hen. 3. denied any acknowledgment upon the gift of King John yet the Pope assisted him against the Rebellious Barons And for the composition of Edward the Seconds troubles his Holiness sent him two Cardinals but the Rebels would not accept of their Mediation as knowing them too much of the Kings Party Besides I told you again and again that the Popes Decrees and Bulls are not alwayes held infallible and may be opposed as they often have been by stiff and Religious Papists nor will good Catholiques scruple to do it especially about Temporal affairs And if Popes should speak in such a Dialect as the Minister urges they mean subjection in Spiritual matters 3. Object Among the Divines that agree to the deposing of Kings he mentions some Jesuites as Bellarmine Suarez Valentia Parsons or Creswel Mariana also he names though he confesses him cōdemned Out of these he cites several places to this purpose viz. As Jehojada deposed Athaliah so may Popes deal with Kings To this I say Let the Jesuites answer for their own Doctrine for I am sure they are of age and able also neither did they ever tell me otherwise but that I might reject such and the like opinions they being only the private fancies of some of their Order It has never been my study to pore upon Schoolmen nor is it worth my pains now to search Libraries whether they have said so or no which truly I do very much doubt of For my part I cannot think Jesuites such King-haters because Kings would then hate them when as on the contrary we see all Princes caress them and make them their Confessors At this time the Jesuites are in this Office to the Emperor the Queen of England the King of France the Queen Regent of Spain the King of Poland and as I take it to the now King of Portugal for they belonged thus to the late old King and Queen of that Kingdom the Dukes of Bavary Newburgh and many other great Princes of Germany are also their Penitents all which considered I must look upon Jesuites in general to be faithfuller Subjects then Protestants imagine for Kings though Papists are not always fools But suppose Jesuites were Villains what is that to the Catholick Faith must Cambridge be Babylon and the English Religion false because the Mēbers of one Colledge suppose Emanuel were thought knaves and hypocrites The other Divines and Canonists whom the Minister urges are Baronius Bertrand Lancelotus Peron Rossaeus who say according to his citations things to the same purpose about deposing of Kings All this put together Reader is the force of his Argument The Objection about Councels and Bulls you see is nothing about Divines I have already given you a touch but now I will handle it a little fuller You must know the Soul of man being so sublime and towring there is no profession in the world but that the wits of it aim to resolve all difficulties that can be proposed in the Science This makes Philosophers Metaphysicians and Schoolmen run into those seeming odd subtleties with which their writings are cram'd In the like manner Casuists thinking it a disgrace not to be able to answer something to whatever can be proposed treat in their Books about all Cases which their nimble fancies can start Among many impertinent niceties and curious Questions this of deposing Apostatizing Princes comes to be handled some perchance are for it others in may be against it Now because some have adjudged That upon a notorious falling away the Church may give to the sound the Dominions of the infected sheep lest the whole slock might be tainted immediately the Minister and other Protestants declare that the dethroning of Kings is the Catholique Doctrine I am sure this was not so absolutely agreed to by the English Protestāts themselves at least in discourse that there could be none found among them who have favoured the opinion which we are said to hold how many well-meaning men fought against Charles the I only because they falsely thought him a Papist and I my self have heard those of condition say when the King was abroad that should the Pope and his crew peruert him they would oppose his return There was no danger of this because his Majesty like his Father and Grādfather has so great a veneration for Protestantism but yet this that I urge was frequently spoke of and no body that reads this but has heard such discourses often What has been done about Religion in this our Country I shall tell you hereafter and at present I shall shew you that we Papists are not the only Rebel-teachers but that there are Reformists that profess this Divinity also Luther says You complain that by our Gospel the World is become tumultous I answer God be thanked these things I would have be and wo me miserable if they were not Zwinglius If the Roman Empire or what other Soveraignty soever should oppress the sincere Religion and we negligently suffer the same we shall be charged with contempt no less then the oppressors themselves whereof we have an example in 15. Jer. where the destruction of the people is Prophesied because they suffered their K. Manasses being ungodly to be unpunisht
all was done in the dark nor would they ever own otherwise then that they dyed without violence For t was given out that the death of the first of these Princes came by extreame Griefe That the other Starved himselfe and that the last died of a Naturall sicknesse But the execution of the Queen of Scots was bare-fac'd in the sight of the World and which was more under the cloak of Law My Lord of Leicester was sensible of the dishonour that would accrew to the Nation and therefore sent Walsinhham a godly Divine to satisfie his conscience that it was lawful to poyson her but the Minister could no more convince his penitent then the Saints could Harrison about the clandestine Murther of the Grandchild And doubtless the whole intrigue against Q. Mary gave precedent and boldness to our execrable Parricides openly to do their detestable villany in a formal method and manner This procedure against the Queen contrary as 't was imagined to the Law of Nations she being both a Guest and an absolute Princess drew an universal odium upon the Kingdom for the Reproach was entailed on the whole nation by the apparition of a mimicall and Counterfeit justice as Osborne call's it nor did any Englishman either Papist or Protestant ever misse to be upbraided with it abroad till the greatness of the abomination against King Charles made them leave off a little speaking of the first to remember us more piquantly of the last Is it to excuse the two unheard of 〈◊〉 that he tell me of four or five Kings since the Conquest made away by Papists It may be it is that I should again retort that since Hen. 8. Reign there were but b four Protestestant Monarchs and three of them were said to come to violent deaths But what is Ravillac's murther of Hen. 4. to us in England more then to Saxony the poysoning of Edw. 6. by the Lord Robert Dudly for so Sir Richard Baker conceives he hid I know Clement the Frier destroyed Hen 3. so did Judas his Master and yet neither the Disciples nor Christian Religion were ever thought the worse for it For the Murther of the Protestants in IrelaÌ„d I shew'd you in the beginning how we detested it CoÌ„cerning the Blood spilt in FraÌ„ce I shall speak at large in the Paragraph about that Massacre But I wonder the PiemoÌ„thusiness should be unged by Royallist for I remeÌ„ber when CroÌ„wel made a CollectioÌ„ for theÌ„ in pretence but for himself in reality the Cavaliers ever stiled them Rebels and said the Duke of Savoy was necessitated for his quiet to subdue them thus by Arms. Yet for all their hard usage I wish we had as much freedome as they Now for Queen Maries Reign which this man so often calls the Bloody days I will here speak a little eternally to stop his mouth hereafter First Reformed Historians agree that the Queen her self was a marveillous good woman therefore it was not she but her Bishops that were cruel Again every Englishman knows that no man can be put to death amongst us without Law therefore they were not the Bishops but the Laws that were cruel which Laws still continue and have been made use of since the Reformation by Q. Elez. K. â—ames to burne Hereticks Yet for all these Laws there died of Protestants in the whole but 277. as Baker and other Protestant Writers record Besides were these 277. now alive 200. at least in stead of pity would be thrown into prison and there rot for Non-conformists but all things were called Saints in the dawning of the light even so much as Collins and his dog for Fox in his Act 's and Monuments say's that Collins beeing mad and seeing a Priest hold up the Host to the people tooke a dog and held it up as the Priest did the Host for wch he and the dog were burnt Yet though this Collins be own'd by Fox to be mad never the less he places him as a Martyr on the 10. of Octob. as may be seen in his Calendar In the next place let me know whether a man may be executed for this Tenets in Religion or no If it be lawful why might not Papists put to death men who they thought deserved it as well as Protestants If no man ought to suffer for his Conscience why did Edward 6. and Q. Eliz. condemn so many Hereticks in their time all which were executed but some few that recanted and so saved their lives Or why did K. James put to death Legat and Wightman but because he religiously thought it was unfit they should longer live to blaspheme Over and above these that died for a Religion of their own making I saw a Roll at Doway wherein to the year 1632. there suffered out of that one House 105. Priests since which there died many out of the same Colledge Add to these many out of the Portugal Spanish and Roman Seminaries many of other Orders and many Laymen also who have been executed for owning the Pope in Spirituals or for having a Priest say Mass in their Houses according to the obligation of their Consciences If these were then all numbred I am sure there suffered many more Catholicks omitting the innumerable Confiscations by the Protestant Government then ever there did Protestants by the Catholick Nay if together with Catholicks I should reckon all sorts of people that died for their Conscience though enemyes to Popery which may be found in Fox Stow and others in the Reignes of Hen. 8. Ed. 6. and Queen Elizabeth it is evident there has been more Blood spilt on a Religious account under our Princes that disowned the Pope then by the Papists from St. Augustins Conversion to Luthers time Iudge then if Catholicks be so bloody as they are reported and thought SECT XII APOLOGY 'T was never heard of before that an absolute Queen was condemned by Subjects and those stiled her Peers or that a King was publiquely tried and executed by his own people and servants ANSWER XII Here he says That the Q. of Scots was beheaded under Elizabeth by the same colour of right that Wallis suffered under Edw. 1. whom I call he says a brave Prince namely that of Soveraignty which our Princes challenged over Scotland but that King James and King Charles never imputed this to Q. Elizabeths Religion Concerning King Charles's Murther he says that I would take it ill a Turk should charge the Ministers faults and his Parties upon me but I do worse then a Turk in charging these mens faults upon the Protestants for the Murtherers were neither then nor since of the Ministers Communion He sayes King Charles declared he died for the Protestant Religion and Laws of the Land that also in his Letter to the Prince he says none of the Rebels were Professors or Practicers of the Church of England which gives no such Rules REPLY XII Nay now I have
not their powerful Rebellion let their Religion have been what it would that drew them into this ill-machinated destruction And by the way see how simple the cavil of this Minister is who says I call it ill-machinated because it was done by halves The action was wicked and a Cabinet-Plot or else there is no such thing in Nature neither did it want condemning by several famous Catholiques themselves who would doubtless have been silent had the Pope so publickly rejoyced at the news as the Minister would fain have us believe The King in Vindication of the cruelty laid to his charge gives these Reasons to the World That though every body saw how horribly the Rebels had used him yet it was not his design to Massacre so many Hugonots but only to cut off some Heads of the Party who so highly fomented the Sedition this made him cause Coligni to be shot the chief Rebel of thē all but the bullet only breaking his arm his Partizans grew to such a rage that they threatned a present War and destruction to him and his therefore he was necessitated to what he did viz. immediately to destroy those that had vowed his ruine Now to demonstrate that is was not his intention the Kings friends farther said That had he intended a general Massacre from the beginning it had been folly to shoot the Admiral so many days before the total execution because this would have alarmed the Party and given occasion to many to get away as in truth not a few did the day before the bloody night Reader I know not whether this Declaration of the King be true or not but this I am sure the action was unchristian though there were never greater Rebels then these Hugonots for they not only fought many Battles with their Prince and fortified many of his Towns against him but besides all this brought forreign Forces into France as Ruyters from Germany and English from us and because all things are lawful to the Saints they delivered up Havre de Grace to Queen Elizabeth by which we had a new footing in France even we the profest enemies of the Nation Nay they began first to Massacre Catholiques in Paris and also Coligni and Beza got Poltrot to murther the Duke of Guise father to him that was Killed at Blois This the Assassine openly confest at his death being after executed for the fact By force then and such tricks tyring out their Kings they got several Priviledges and Edicts but God send me and my Relations to live for ever in servitude rather then to obtain liberty by such strange and dissalowable courses And truly I doubt not since this Minister can justifie these Agreements but he would if the Four Bills had passed at the Isle of Wight vindicate the proceedinghs and cite those Acts with as much confidence as if they had been obtained without Force in time of Peace and quiet Had King James lived in our days and seen how the same pretences with those of the Hugonots viz. Conscience and the Liberty of the Subject had like to have ruined his Family I do believe they would have found small comfort from any Vindication of his I do therefore openly affirm that if any Englishman who has considered the villany of our times does still justifie Brave Coligni and his Hugonots he has either been an apparent Rebel or is so in his heart and will shew his Teeth upon the first advantage that shall be offered SECT 19. APOLOGY May it not as well be said in the next Catholick Kings Reign that the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal Heads of the League were killed for their Religion also Now no body is ignorant that 't was their factious Authority which made the jealous Prince design their deaths though by unwarrantable means ANSWER XIX He says the Guises were not killed for their Religion for they were killed by one of their own Religion as much bent against Protestants as they That Papists hated Hen. 3. only for sparing the Blood of Protestants and not declaring his Protestant Heir uncapable of Succession That for these causes the Guises by the Popes consent who calls them the Macchabees of the Church entred into the Holy League and called in the Spaniards and Savoyards to maintain War against him and deprive him of his Kingdom and Life Whereupon the jealous Prince as I favourably call him dealt with them as they had done with the Protestants But their case he says was so different from the Protestants that he wonders I should mention it Then he tells us the Pope excommunicated the King for this action and gave nine years Indulgence to his Subiects to fight against him foretelling as a Pope might do without Astrology that ere long he should come to a fearful end and this he says hapned for the Subjects earned the Indulgence and a Frier fulfilled the Prophesie This action the Pope in a Speech called the work of God and for its wonderfulness compared it with the Incarnation or Resurrection preferring his courage before Eleazars or Iudiths and declaring the King who profest he died in the Faith of the Roman Catholick Church to have died in the sin against the Holy Ghost Lastly He asks whether it may not be said Papists cannot live without persecuting Protestāts whē a Popish King is stab'd and damned for not persecuting them enough REPLY 19. Here is a great deal of cry and little wool for I have often said the Pope may have his frailties as well as other men and does not the Minister know he is a Temporal Prince also and in that capacity may have intrigues with his Neighbours What is this to our Religion more then if the King of Spain should make use of the Politicks too far Again if the Pope as our Archbishop all Countries being in his Province should commit humane indiscretions Why were we to be more blamed for it then Durham Chester and Carlisle ought to be for their Religion because their Metropolitan Williams joyned with the Rebels against King Charles of happy Memory I never approved the procedure of the Guises in their League and have always said they were most insolent Ministers of State to Hen. 3. but when the Duke and Cardinal were murthered at Blois by the King their Successors learnt of the Hugonots to run into a formal and open War And truly my inference I conceive was pertinent concerning the Massacre of the one and murther of the other though the Parson thinks it something strange For in this Example the Outers and the Outees the Hugonots and Guises were killed by their Kings Now since both Parties were prodigious in power able to cope with the Prince 't would be as ridiculous to say that because the Hugonots were destroyed they suffered for their Faith as that the Heads of the League were killed for their Religion Davila tells us That the Pope only refused to absolve Henry the Third saying that he could not be
opposite to all the designs of a Conspirator for 't was certain either it would make my Lord carelesly contemn the admonition since it came from an idle fellow in the street or else if he were apprehensive he would necessarily shew it to friends by which as I said there might be no little hazard to have all found out Now on the other side this interval was benecifial to a Machivilian because he knew 't would not only be more grateful to the Privy-Councel to have time to consider on difficulties but also foresaw if the King and Lords through surprize or otherwise should not hit on the Plot he must be forc'd to start hints the execution being so neer at hand which might easily have made him suspected for contriver and how ungrateful sulch a wickedness would have been to an upright Prince he him self could not but well imagine Thus Reader you see the intention of the Letter was to have the thing discover'd and thus could he ruine his Enemies and make his own vigilance appear for without such and the like remembrances the wit of great Ministers is soon forgotten both by their Prince and People Nor did Cecil miss of another reward also for as Sanderson says he was made Earl for his service in this business That which I assert here does not lessen the quickness of the Kings judgment for his insight as much appears whether the Letter were writ by a Statesman or a Conspirator Neither does this strike at the Festival enacted because the Parliamēt finding by the prisoners taken there was such a Plot could not but thank God that theyr trayterous intention was discovered And truly if a score of wicked Christians had conspired against Nero himself I would not gain say the remembrance of the delivery in what Countrey soever it were observed All that I here shew is that the Catholique Party had no hand in the Treason there being but thirteen Laymen in all as you see plainly proved and these very thirteen were doubtless drawn in by their mortal Enemy for the Letter came by his contrivance beeing as Osborn b confesses a neate devise of the Treasurer's nor was he ignorant from time to time of all their actions He that lived in our times has seen the Reign-of Queen Elizabeth reacted For in those twelve years from 1646. to 1658. you may remembrer the establisht Religion of the Nation altered an absolute Soveraign executed with formalities and pretences of Law The French fond of our amity the Spaniard beaten and lastly the zealous youth drawn into Plots with all ease imaginable His Majesty had those about him that had learnt this Art in their old Mistress's Service and this the all-knowing King at last found out for 't was impossible that ever he would have been favourable to the Catholikes again had he not in length of time been assured thad they were innocent of all machinations against him Reader he was a constant Protestant and yet so kind to us the last half of his Reign of which Wilson complains that neither the Spanish Match nor any other worldly hopes could have obtained this had he not been convinc'd we never had a design of destroying him and His. Nay the King in his own Declaration about it says That the generality of his Catholique Subjects did abhor such a detestable Conspiracy no less then him self Having thus replied to his Answer in the four last Paragraphs there rests now a little to be said to some short jerks of his which he loocks upon as witty and home First he is troubled that I call the Powder-Treason Misdemeanor Fifth of November Conjuration all of them being soft words To this I say I am very sorry I have offended him and in my next Apology if that will content him I 'll speak in the longest sentence of the Cōmon Prayer about the matter but my past errour grew from this because significant brevity is aimed at by most and therefore when we speak of or to the King we say Sir or your Majesty and not at every word Charles the Second by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France Ireland Defender of the Faith c. so in handling this affair I use those short words that express the whole matter to the full for I think Treason is a Misdemeanor when more then one are in it 't is a Conjuration and the Fifth of November is the common phrase of the Kingdom 2. ly He says that K Iames's Male-Line were to have been all destroyed Now Baker says That the late King then D. of York was only to have been suprized by Percy But the matter is not material and I cite these Protestant Authors only to shew that the malice of the Minister will make him erre in every thing Thirdly He thinks that my comparing of Cromwels drawing in the Cavaliers with this of Cecils is very odd and unequal For the Cavaliers he sayes were cheated into a lawful Action but the Powder-Traytors were out-witted into Treason To this I say that my comparison was never intended as you may see if you look into the Apology to make an equality of Justice or Honour in their sufferings but to remember you how easie it is for Trapanners to draw people into Plots and from thence to the Gallows Fourthly Concerning his desire to know who was Cecils setter to decoy in the rest I answer I cannot tell Nor should we ever have known who was Cromwels Instrument had not Sir S. Morland most Loyally discovered him There were three or four the Minister names discovered by the Conspirators who knew of the Plot and afterwards died obscurely abroad Even so died Gifford the Priest Walsingham's setter never visibly rewarded who corrupted the Brewer and so drew the Queen of Scots into the trap that ruined her as has been already mentioned Fifthly Because he is angry with the word Desperadoes I have altered it in this Edition and put in lieu Ambitious men I am sure the word in it self is proper enough for most were poor and King James in his Proclamation against Percy call's them men for the most part of desperate estates But had they been never so rich or in esteem it would well have fitted with them also for my Lord of Essex and Marshal Byron were really Desperadoes and yet wanted nothing had they known their own happiness Lastly He says few knew the manner but most knew there was a design on foot and prayed for the success of it Suppose Reader this were true that a design was recommended to the prayers of the Catholicks what were they guilty of by it for at that time the Chief of them were solliciting at Court to get some little ease after their long misery and therefore the rest might well think their prayers were fit to be desired But all this is a fiction Thus Reader I have now left nothing unanswered that he has urged and thus you see the Reasons I