should prevail more then where men of wisdom and discerning judgements sit at the Helm And as Zuinglius before him had found That he could not induce Francis the First to favor him so Calvin well perceived that Kings and Dei gratâ—á would be always blocks in his way Therefore he is willing to remove them so far as he can out of the way that they may not impeach the current of his Prâ—achings and to that end tells them in plain terms Dan. 6.22 Abdicant se potestate Princes deprive themselves of aâ—â— power when they oppose God and it is better in such case to spit â—n theâ—r faces then to obey them Which irreverence yet he never learned from the example of any Apostle or Prophet There is a respect due to the persons of Princes even when they forget their office if we be not much mistaken Doctor Bilson labors much to save Calvins credit in this business with Princes and to expound the words in some tolerable sense Christians subject to Antichrists Rebellion He says Calvin speaketh not a word of depriving Princes or resisting him with Arms. That by Abdicant se he means not they loose their Crowns but their power to command unlawful things a fine gloss they loose a power which they never had but in lawful things they retain their power still The phrase Conspuere he confesseth to be harsh and that the comparison was urged by him in vehemâ—nt words yet is willing to excuse them But as to the first plea it is wholly impertinent For what though he use not the words of deprivation and resâ—stance are therefore the words he useth excusable to speak too plainly had been to erre too palpably which stood not with Calvins craftiness Beside what was Daniels defence which he urgeth it was onely in Humility Patience and Prayer It was not after the violent fashion of Genevah he did not spit in Nebuchadonozors face nor tell him he was unworthy to live And for the second Abdicant se what means he that Kings do loose not their Crowns but onely their Power to Command Speak plain English and be clear You confess the King looseth his Power to Command but you adde obscurely in these things meaning in matters of Religion for so it must be understood though you cast a cloak over the words and cover the matter But I dâ—sire to know what is a Kings Crown without power to command He that teacheth they loose their Royal Power doth he not say as much as that they forfeit it and if they forfeit it who may challenge and take the forfeiture of such a Crown But by such Lectures and Doctrines as these doth not Calvin plainly enough arm the Subjects against the Prince when they revolt for Religion And is not this the very ground of all the Combustion and Civil Wars in France Yea but in other things lawful Princes retain their power First these are not Calvins words but Doctor Bilsons who writes and lives under a Monarchy Calvins words are indifinite Abdicant se potestate They deprive themselves of the power they have without exception or limitation absolutely not after a sort in all things not in some particular for altogether not for some time onely and then to be restored For Princes once dispossessed seldom recover their hold again Secondly what Court or Magistrates shall take cognizance and determine wherein Kings loose their power and wherein not who shall judge and decide the difference between the matters lawful and unlawful that you speak of Though as I say Calvins own words import no such restriction at all which doth plainly appear by his harsh phrase as you call it of spitting in his face that is to defie them openly and to contemn them and their acts according to your own interpretation But this you say is far from Rebellion true but not from Treason And therefore though he teach not the one yet he may teach the other Extenuate the words as much as you can yet they will be really heinous and seditious For he that holdeth a King is not worthy to be or to live among men doth he not sufficiently excommunicate him from his Government As for your Insurgunt contra Deum it is a stale and Arbitrary pretext and serves onely to make them odious under a feigned charge of impiety it convinceth nothing but much impudence and malice in the objectors who should first learn to be vertuous themselves before they charge vice so freely upon others especially Princes A thing which they never yet were in any kinde that the World knoweth To conclude this you grant in effect That if the King of Babylon threatens Daniel with punishment in case he will not worship his Idol or the King of France commands his Subjects to obey the Laws and communicate at the Altar of the Church in both cases alike abdicant se potestate the Kings loose their power and Subjects ought not to obey them but rather to spit in their faces And this was the reason why Doctor Alâ—â— objeâ—ted it to Calvin as seditious Doctrine and Doctor Bilson well knoweth that seditious Doctrines are not so dainty at Genevah For there it was that in hatred of thâ—ee Queen Maries of England and Scotland that Calvin first set a broach that more then seditious Paradox against Gynocraty or the Government of Women and by instruction and example from him Knox and Goodman afterward published their several Books of that subject Look but upon the History of Scotland Printed by Wautroller Page 213. and you will finde that Knox Apologized for all his practises from the authority and judgement of Calvin viz. That it was lawful for Subjects to reform Religion when Princes will not And that Calvins opinion in the point may be yet more manifested the practises of his darling and Scholar Master Theodore Beza must be considered who perfectly understood his Doctrine and did no less bravely put it in execution In the Preface to his Translation of the New Testament which he maketh to Queen Elizabeth he writeth thus Quo die Scil. 19. Decemb. Vpon which day Anno 1564. saith he two years sâ—nce the Nobility and Gentlemen of France under the command of his Excellency the Prince of Conde being assisted with Your Majesties Auxiliaries and some others from the Princes of Germany laid the first foundation of the true Reformed Religiâ—n in France with their own blood This I hope Master Bilson himself will confess to be Rebellion yet Beza justifieth it openly yea glorieth that himself was not an accessory but a principal in the business For after he had commended some other good services of this nature which the Reforming Parties had done at Meaulx Orleans c. He concludes Id quod eò libentiùs testor Which I speak saith he the more freely because I my self as it pleased God was present at most of those Counsels and Actions It is true there be some that would excuse even this Action
of Parliament viz. the Abbots of Glastenbury Reading and Bury Stout Vertuous and Religious men and likeliest to oppose such practises were taken away before hand being condemned and executed upon the Statute of Supremacy as well to prevent the Bishops mediating for them as to terrifie the other Religâ—ous of the Kingdom from opposing the Kings designs But may we ask quo jure quo titulo by what colour of Law or Right was this suppression of the Abbies made and done I cannot tell what it may do now but certainly to have mov'd such a question then it would have cost a man his head It is certain these Abbies held their Lands in Frank Almoigne and in Fee They were quietly possessed of them by the Donations and Guifts of many Saxon English Norman Kings Princes and other Subjects who were their Founders continued legally by prescription in them admitted acknowledged and established by all Laws beside the accessory Charters of many succeeding Princes who confirmed them and most commonly added to them They held all their Lands Immunities and Estates by the same Laws Authority and Right by which the Temporal Lords held their Baronies as Magna Charta 9. of Hen. 3. and the confirmation thereof 28. Ed. 1. do abundantly testifie where it is granted that the Church of England shall be Free and have all her Liberties preserved to her inviolable Chap. 2. any Judgement given against them is declared to be Null and Void And chap. 4. The Bishops are ordered to Excomunicate all such as shall seek to infring those Charters as also they did 30. Ed. 1. including all those that should either make or procure to be made any Statutes contrary to those Liberties Whence we may note Two things The First that as Excommunication is the highest punishment which can be inflicted upon a man Spiritually so the State cannot declare its detestation and dislike of any crime more then by requiring or ordering such a punishment for it The Second That as by one and the same Charter both the Church and the Temporalty held their Liberties so that which gave or pretended to give the King power to abrogate and destroy the one could not in point of reason or justice but make the other obnoxious In the Leidger-book of Peterborrough are to be seen all King Johns Grants and Confirmations more fully and at large then they are set forth in any Printed Book Let any man but read them seriously and with attention and he will wonder at the proceedings of later times What need I remember that same Law called Sententia lata super confirmatione Chartarum by Ed. 1. or thâ— 42. of Ed. 3. chap. 8. where it is declared that any Statute whatsoever made contrary to Magna Charta shall be void or the confirmation of all these in 1 6 7 8. of Rich. 2. and in 4. of Hen. 4. All which good Laws were intended surely to prevent Sacriledge and Tyranny in succeeding times and to secure both Church and people from the encroachments of injustice The King knew very well he had no Title to any of these things but by colour and concession of Parliament and how far a Parliament hath power to give away the Lands or Interests of a Third Person neither heard nor convicted orderly of any offence that should deserve such sentence is a thing to be considered Surely is it not Therefore to make his Title appear stronger in the eye of the World Anno 31. of his Reign he procureth an Act to be made in Parliament exprâ—ssing how that since the Act of Anno 27. the Religious Houses themselves had voluntarity and of their own good wills without constraint in due course of Law and by writings of Record under their Covent-Seals givâ—n and confirmed to the King their Lands Houses Rents Revenues and all Rights whatsoever yea to this Statute they are said to consent as to an Act of their own seeking and suit and you may see among the Records of the Augmentation Court a great Chest full of particular Surrenders made by the Abbots and Covents under their hands seals to this purpose But is it not a likely tale that out of their bounty and good will they would renounce their Livings and become beggars Indeed unto so gracious a Prince as he was become towards them at that time it was â—he less marvail I my self did once deliver my purse upon Salisbury-plains and though I could not commend the honesty of those that took it yet was I fain for a while to complement their humanity towards me that they used me no worse You will say how then came it to be done why would the Abbots and other Religious give away their Lands if they were not willing I answer because they could hold them no longer They saw themselves generally deserted and forsaken by the Commons and knew very well what the King was resolved to do by that which he had done already And therefore to make some petty accommodations for themselves perhaps by granting or renewing of Leases or otherwise wâ—â—ch the King for his own ends viz. 〈…〉 the work more plausible and 〈◊〉 was content to connive at and which we may be sure came not to much they thought best to give that which they were otherwise sure to lose And by doing so rather then by using any kinde of contestation they shewed the simplicity of their obedience to be such as became their Holy Profession and the King shewed how little he feared God or regarded his Honour in the censure of the World Whosoever therefore considers the business impartially shall finde this great conquest of Religious Persons to deserve little Triumph and that the augmentation of Revenue and Treasure by it being so palpably Sacrilegious and contrary to all acknowledged Law Divine and Humane proved to be Aurum Tholosanum a curse to him that took it and upon which the judgement of God hath visibly attended ever since Nor is it strange that it should for first what saith the Scripture Is it not a curse to him that devoureth sacred things Prov. 20.25 and after vows to make enquiry And what saith History and the experience of all Ages Did ever Sacrilege go unpunished Marcus Crassus robbed the Temple at Hierusalem but is not his sad and disastrous end noted by Josephus Lib. 18. C. 8. Herod likewise opened the Sepulcher of King David and took thence much spoil but into what great miseries and misfortunes he fell afterwards Lib. 16. C. 11. the same Josephus relateth Vrraca a Gothish King going to rob but one Chappel of St. Isidore in Spain and that in a case of necessity too as might be pretended viz. to defray the charge of war and to pay his Army yet his very guts burst out of his belly in the Church-porch Histor gen of Spain as the History saith Leo the Fourth Emperor taking a precious Gem out of the Coronet of St. Sophia at Constantinople which had
of their Religion the Cankerworm of it To discover and disprove the vanity of which pretences I shal search ab origine and deliver you the true causes of the Kings proceedings against these Male-contents and how great reason or necessity rather he had by Arms to maintain his Royal Authority which they by Arms sought either to contemn or usurp that is wherefore he was constrained at Myort to proclaim Rochel and all their Adherents Rebels against him and guilty of treason First it appears by the Edict of Nantes Art 77. That King Henry the Fourth had discharged the Protestants from holding any Assemblies General or Provincial likewise from all Unions and Leagues and from holding of any Counsel or Decreeing and Establishing any Acts by them Likewise Art 82. from holding any Correspondencies or Intelligences without the Realm Yea Art 32. They might not hold any Synods Provincial without the Kings License All which Articles they also promised to observe but as all France and the world knoweth have broken them every one And not onely so but they have intruded upon the State it self taking and fortifying places of assurance without any Warrant from the King and contrary to an express order set down in August in the year 1612. whereby it evidently appeareth to be of the Kings Royal favor and goodness to assign them places of surety and not for them to chuse or usurp where they please Adde to this their notable presumption and disobedience shewen in laboring so much to introduce the reformed Churches of Bearne and to annex them to those of France by an Act of Vnion as they call'd it both Spiritual and Temporal passed at Rochel in the year 1617. In which business they were so confident That they did not onely justifie their pretended act by Apology but promised all possible assistance to Bearn yea and bound themselves by Oath First To observe and execute whatsoevâ—r was determined in that Assembly Secondly To venture their Lives and Estates in maintenance thereof and thirdly Not to reveal or make known any Propositions Advices or Resolutions taken or made in that Assembly unto any person whatsoever no not to the King himself All which was done by them not onely irregularly and without Law but most contemptuously also in as much as they well know that the King of France had sent to all the Provinces and expresly forbad that Vnion yea and had made a Decree of his Councel to the contrary Besides how they used Regnard whom the King had sent into Bearn as his Commissioner about the Church Goods and what disorders they committed at Paw against him is scarce credible Not to speak any thing of their Assembly holden at Loudun with most obstinate disobedience to the Kings command At Grenoble the King was content and gave them leave to hold an Assembly but that all the World might see what a factious and froward spirit governed them they refuse the place and by their own authority assemble at Nâ—smes At Chastelrault and Saumur the King suffered them to Assemble onely to chuse two Deputies who were to remain at Court and receive the Kings Orders concerning them and to exhibite from time to time their own Plaints and Grievances as occasion should be Contrary to this they make an Act of Vnion there also and take the same Oath which the Confederate Catholikes then in Arms had not long before taken yet with this difference That whereas the Catholikes protest their service to His Majesty so long as he continued Catholike which was to oblige him to no more then his Oath and the Interest of His Royal Office required of him so long as he lived These Hugonots protest theirs onely on this condition viz. Le Sovereign Empire de Dieu demeurant tousiours en son entier that is to say in effâ—ct So far as may stand with their duty to God Which whosoever knows what a Hugonot thinks is his duty to God will confess to be a restriction of an equivocal and perillous signification to a King of France And so they did plainly shew sending presently after to the Camp at Sansay and offering to joyn with those Frenchmen who had taken arms to oppose the Kings marriage And not onely this but they established in each Province of France a Councel of their own to hear Affairs and to take notice what the Order and Government of the Country was yea and importunately urged to have Counsellors in the Parliament at Paris Lastly to shew in one Act as in a Mirror the height of their Presumption and Treason in the year 1621. at Rochel out of their own onely authority and arrogance they divide the Provinces of France into Seven Synods which they call Circles adding Bearn for the Eighth And having formerly resolved to have War with the King and to make good their actings by force of Arms in this Assembly now they make Orders for the Government of their Army they chuse a General and Officers for every Circle which what other thing was it but to Cantonize France Art 35. They Decree That no Treaty nor Truce should be made without this Assembly They Order That this pretended General Assembly of theirs in respect of the great charge which they must necessarily undergo should arrest all the Kings Rents and Money due for Tails Ayds Gabels c. They appoint Officers for collecting the same Art 36. They order the seizing and letting to Farm of all Goods Ecclesiastical and profits of Churches Revenues of Parsonages c. Art 41. They take the same order for all the profits of the Admiralty And when all was done the Articles are every one of them signed by their President Combart very solemnly yea as foul as their fault was and beyond all colour of excuse yet there is nothing pretended in the business but Justice and Loyalty and His Majesties service All is covered with that false mantle of Religion and Publike good But wisely and truly was it long since observed by the Orator Tully Totius injustitiae nulla capitalior c. Of all injustice saith he none is more odious and abominable then where men act their villanies under a vizard and pretence of good I for my part shall not insist much here upon the opinion of the Civilians what a Sect is what meetings of people are justly called Conventicles and declared to be against the Prince and the ancient Laws nor how Faction and Conspiracy are defined by the Lawyers and when they fall within the compass of Treason as conceiving it matter though not altogether impertinent to my subject yet something more then I have undertaken For this therefore I refer you to Farinaâ—ius Part. 4. to Decius Lib. 7. c. 7 20. to Bossius to Gigas and others who can with greater authority resolve you I shall onely alledge the Municipal and Common Laws of France in such cases which heretofore have used to be a rule and bridle of Justice and to be able to
The people may not break with their Princes so often as they break with God And afterward Subjects saith he cannot depose their Princes to whom they must be Suâ—ject for Conscience sake This is Doctrine we see quite contrary to the Aphorisms of Holland and to the Divinity that is now currant at Rochel Now as private subjects may not by Gods Law depose their Princes so are they forbidden to take Arms against them and the reason hereof is invincible For saith Doctor Bilson he that may fight may kill and War against the Prince and killing of the Prince are of consequence inevitable The Apostles saith he obeyed Tyrants that commanded all things against Religion And in those things which were commanded against God they did submit themselves with meekness to endure the Magistrates pleasure but not to obey his will Lastly and most of all to the purpose he concludeth if the Laws of the Land appoint the Nobles as next to the King to assist him in doing right and to withhold from doing wrong then are they Licensed by mans Laws to interpose themselves but in no case to deprive the Prince where the Scepter is inherited And because some of good judgement have been lead into that error that the Dukes of Burgundy had not full Power or Sovereignty in the Netherlands I will send them to School to all the Lawyers Records Stories and which is most infallible to the practise and Common Laws of the Country and unto Bodin Bodin derep and satisfie my self to alledge here that Ancient and Honorable Counsellor of our Nation the Lord Chancellor Egerton who in his Oration for the Postnati saith thus P. 71. The Dukes of Burgundy were absolute Princes and had Sovereign power in their Countries And King Henry the Eighth had as absolute power when his Stile was Lord of Ireland as when he was King For the difference of Stile makes not the difference of Sovereignty I conclude therefore upon the grounds of all Law Divine and Humane and as you have seen upon a full view and examination of all their pretenses complaints excuses c. that as their usurpation at first was without warrant so they continue the possession with as little conscience That all their Pleas are either Nullities or Forgeries and they have indeed no better title then what success and their Cannon gives them And that all forreign Soldiers that assist them knowing the injustice of their cause and that the War is so utterly unlawful do incur Mortal Sin and danger of damnation and may as justly be reproved as King Josaphat was for helping and assisting Ahab Look to the end for it is certainly fearful and we must know that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I write not this as an Enemy to the Country I hold it a Peerless County for the goodly Townes Wealth Traffick Strength and Fertility in so small a Circuit nor for any personal quarrels nor for any corruption or assentation in regard of the match with Spain but onely for the truth of the story which induced me together with the danger of the President and the manifold injuries that were done to Religion For though I remembred the general dislike that they have of our government their dealing with the Queens Officers and how unkindly of old they used my Lord Willoughby as his Apology testifieth and of late what complaints our Merchants Adventurers in their Books have made of their ill usage by them at Moske at the East-Indies c. what contempt they shewed when the Duty of Sixteen Herrings was demanded in his Majesties right ☜ for Fishing upon the Coast of Scotland presuming no less then to imprison him that demanded it and many such like matters yet seeing the State is not moved why should I be offended And when I say The State I mean not the people onely but especially the King to whom Holland is most obliged and more particularly for Two Singular and Royal Favors such as might in reason require some reciprocal return of thankfulness and breed in them good Blood good Affections and also good Language The first was in restoring to them the Keyes which did open and lock up their Province and this not for any reward but a restitution onely of part of his due The second for the Free permission of their Fishing upon the English Coast wherein they yearly employ above Thirty thousand persons who are set on work by it and above Four thousand Busses Doggerboats Galliots and Pinks to their exceeding great benefit and enrichment which is not a liberty they have by any Law as some men pretend but a priviledge or permission rather of royall Grace and Favor And Grotius may prove without any mans contradiction Mare Liberum in this sense as the Kings Highway is Free for every man to walk that is to go and come but he shall never be able to prove that Fishing is Free that is to say taking away the profit upon another Princes Coast without leave of the Prince first had and obtained T is true they have had the boldness to do this for a long time without leave but they may hap to finde at last the longest time they can pretend will not serve them for prescription And thus much for our new Masters and no very good Neighbors The High and Mighty States of the United Provinces of the Netherlands Titulus Quintus PALATINISM OR The Troubles in BOHEMIA AND THE PALATINATE About Religion BOhemia is the last Stage of the Scene of Forreign Tragedies or Tumults for Religion to which I am now going yet so as I must take the Palatinate in my way an unfortunate Province of late which in the space of an Hundred years hath changed Religion no less then Five times and yet as it seems never learned well that part of Religion which is not the least principle concerning Obedience But of this wee shall cease to wonder when we think of Paraeus Gracerus and some other Divines that have possessed the Chaire there and of the Schools of the new discipline which are open Paraeus in his Commentary upon the Thirteenth ad Romanos teacheth plainly Subditi possunt suos reges deponere c. That Subjects may depose their Princes for Tyranny c. Tyranny is contrary to the very end and being of Government and therefore where it is Universal and general and no other redress to be found it is capable of the less dispute onely it is not to be determined by private persons especially of his Robe which yet most commonly they do or when they compel their Subjects to Idolatry By compelling to Idolatry he means if the Prince maintains Mass Confession Priesthood and other the Service and Religion of the Catholike Church as all Catholike Princes are bound to do by their Oath or indeed with these men if they maintain any other Religion then pure Calvinism it is to compel to Idolatry This is the sentence which he pronounceth against the Emperor
they did by private Authority and Faction It shall suffice therefore to send this Master T. M. for his better instruction unto a great Doctor of his own Church Doctor Bilson above mentioned who as we have heard before holdeth it tantum non as an Article of Faith that Princes are not to be deposed which is also the judgement of the greatest Doctor of the English Church and hath been so for these Fifty years and upwards But we demand of them is it good Doctrine in the Reign and case of Queen Elizabeth onely and not so in the Reign and case of Queen Mary It is a position frequently defended in their own Schools Dominium non fundatur in gratiâ and the contrary Doctrine is as generally exploded in Wâ—cleff The difference then of Religion alters not the Authority and power of Jurisdiction And Wyat with his complices rising in Arms without and against royal Authority was a Rebel against Queen Mary as much as Westmorland and the rest with them whom the English Chronicles mention were Rebels in rising against Queen Elizabeth But you will say Queen Mary observed not the Laws of the Realm she abrogated the Statutes of the First of Edward the Sixth which all the Kingdom approved and 't is the profession of good Princes to observe the Laws and to govern by them I answer it is true Legibus se Subjectos esse c. it is a most Christian profession of all Kings to be subject to their own Laws but it would be understood cum grano salis soberly and to refer more to the directive part or power of them then to the corrective or punitive especially in criminal cases if any such should happen lest the remedy should prove worse then the disease the reparation of a private person turn to the ruin of the publike which is contrary to reason the end of government Beside in Princes we may consider their private Acts as I may so cal them of Government which consist in the Executive part of their Office viz. in administring or dealing justice betwixt man and man and in seeing so far as the Law or reason requireth of them that all men under them live well and according to their several duties in these Acts the Prince may be justly supposed to be bound up to the Law and that he ought not to do otherwise then the Law prescribes But who ever accused Queen Mary of breach of Law or misgovernment in this sense Happy had it been for some of her Successors and this whole Nation if they had affected arbitrary Government and Rule no more then she did Secondly we may consider in Princes their more publike Acts which concern all their people in general and consist in the Legislative part of their Office and in these they are Free they are absolute unlimited and bound to nothing but onely to proceed upon such advise as the Constitutions of their several Governments do require that is most commonly and as is best upon advise and the consent of their whole people represented and giving them Counsel in Full Parliament I say in this capacity the Prince is bound to no Law but the Law of Reason and a Good Conscience as to all other respects at liberty to enact or abrogate to make or repeal what Laws he shall think fit and most likely to procure publike good upon such advise given And did not Queen Mary so proceed Did she do any thing but by publike consent advise and supplication of her people in Parliament Beside if Queen Mary should be so subject to her Brothers Laws as not to alter them upon any reason in a legal and due manner why was not Queen Elizabeth so subject to Hers yea why was not King Edward the Sixth himself so subject to the Laws of his Father Why were they altered and that in his Minority too When he was a Childe and understood no more in things of that nature and consequence then a Childe you will say The Religion which Queen Mary brought in was corrupt and impure That of her Brother before and of Queen Elizabeth after her was pure and according to Gods word But this is your assertion onely we say still That you proceed upon a false supposition that presumption and self-conceit rules the greatest part of your rost That thing viz. Whether Queen Maries or Queen Elizabeths Religion were best is the grand question betwixt us And as it is certain that it was never yet by any general and orderly Counsel no not of Protestants determined on your side so we are sure and the world together with your selves know it hath been often legally solemnly determined for us by all sorts of Counsels Provincial National Oecumenical And we pray what reason can be given why the Judgement of Parliament restoring Catholike Religion under Queen Mary with the consent and advise of the chief and best of the whole Clergy of the Nation should not be as good as that which under Queen Elizabeth abolish'd it not onely contrary to the Queens Oath taken at her Coronation but without the advise or consent of so much as any one Bishop or spiritual Prelate of the whole Kingdom who yet in a business of that nature viz. concerning Religion were by all Laws both of * Malach. 2.7 Heb. 13.7.8 17. God and of the Nation principally to be consulted with But let us gratifie our Adversaries as much as may be Let us suppose the worst viz. that Queen Mary had indeed erred in the introduceing of some kinde of superstitions ought she therefore presently to be censured by Ministers or deposed and put down by a Wyat God forbid Solomon himself a wise and a great King did fall into grievous sins and particularly into the grosest of those kinds whereof they presume to censure Queen Mary He had many Hundreds of strange Wives contrary to the Law of Moses and by reason of them fell to Idolatry beyond measure The Queen never took but one Husband and he a Catholike Prince of the same Religion with her self and with the whole Christian world beside except onely some few Provinces which Heresie had lately corrupted Yet neither did the Priest or people take upon them to depose such a King as Solomon They left him to him who is the Supream and most proper Judge of Kings and who in the time appointed by his Divine Providence raised up Jeroboam to chastise him in his Son Yea when Julian himself of a Christian Emperor became Apostate and persecuted the Christians of his time with all maner of vexation and cruelty which either policy of malice could devise neither the people nor the Pastors of the Church though they sharply reproved and inveighed against his proceedings yet none of them took up Arms against him none went about to deprive him either of Dominion or Life And if they thought it not expedient or becoming Christians to do so against a Tyrant acting Tyrannically and onely by the
violence of his own exorbitant passions without any order or colour of Law and as no just Prince ought to govern how much less would they have thought it lawful and how little would they approve it to be done against such Princes as govern legally and do nothing concerning Religion or otherwise but according as the Laws and and publike Constitutions of their several Kingdoms do direct and inable them to do He that proclaymed the Prerogative of Kings in these terms Vos Estis Dii I have said Yee are Gods surely intended to teach the world rather a lesson of obedience then rebellion And there is no Prince or State in the world Let them countenance what Sect or Profession of Religion soever they please but shall finde it at one time or another a necessary Bulwark for them to retreat unto against the inundations of popular fury Who doth deny but that it is necessary that the governments of all Princes whatsoever should be regulated and moderated by Laws and that all persons in Authority do observe all rules whatsoever that are proper for them or prescribed to them by those to whom that power belongeth We pretend not to enhaunce the Authority of Princes so far as to exempt them from the rule of Law or to make them Arbitrary in their government but this we say Vos Esi is Dii in relation unto Princes and all Persons established in Supream Authority justly that is by the will of Divine Providence and consent of the people is a great exemption of them from any popular Cognizance For what does it intimate but that * Egodixi Allmighty God himself hath made them Gods unto the people that is to say persons of Knowledge Experience Foresight Care Providence and other abilities Intellectual which are the natural and genuine principles of government competent and sufficient for the government of people who are not otherwise generally speaking Et pro majori parte able to govern themselves in civil society and for their preservation in peace and quietness which is the end of Government We think it is most proper for God onely to say Transferam Regna de gente in gentem Revolutions of Governments and Translating of one Kingdom to another are the Extraordinary Dispensations of Divine Providence and for reasons onely known unto his supream and secret wisdom Which although they be acted that is brought to pass by the hands of men yea through their infirmities and many times blamable passions as experience often sheweth and as in the case of King Rehoboam the Son of Solomon 1 Reg. 12.16 may seem plain yet are not the common people licensed hereby to run upon any irregular designs of their own head and to renounce their Governors headily and hastily of themselves for every lght greivance and misgovernment that may seem to afflict them To remove Tyrants and oppression from a people is the work of Divine Mercy as it is of his justice to permit them to oppress and from him only must they expect deliverance abiding in the mean while with patience until his Divine hand shall appear leading them to such means as they may with justice and good order use to the procuring of their liberty The Second Part. JERUSALEM OR The Obedience Loyalty and Conformity OF CATHOLIKES unto Publike Order HItherto we have insisted onely upon the Doctrines and practises of those who call themselves Reformed Churches or Protestants in the charge of Rebellion and Tumult against the Civil Magistrate by which how tolerable and quiet they are in any Kingdom or State whose Religion is not framed according to their Mode the indifferent Reader will judge It remaineth now that we make good the contrary concerning our selves and shew that those vertues which we pretend to be the true and proper Characters of our Religion viz. Humility Devotion Obedience Order Patience c. are more generally and more constantly exercised by Catholikes in times of Tryal then by any other Sect or Sort of people whatsoever This we intend to do but not so much Theoretically or by way of any long and speculative discourse as Practically Historically and by way of instance shewing what the behavior and practise of Catholikes have been in this case upon occasions given Neither shall we range far abroad into the world because that would be less pertinent to our main purpose which is onely to justifie our selves in this point so far as reason and truth will give us leave and enlarge our discourse beyond its intended bounds But we shall content our selves onely with domestick examples and that experience which the Catholikes of this Nation have given of themselves from time to time in this kinde What kinde of people they were anciently in this Land in the time of King Lucius and the Brittons I shall not need to relate but refer you to the Ecclesiasticall Histories of those times the rather because the Centurists of Magdeburgh and Master Fox in his Acts and Monuments will have these Catholikes to be Protestants and of their Church which though it be very false yet I may not ingage for the cleering of that point now Nor shall I insist any longer upon those times of the Saxons after they were converted to Christianity to shew their vertues and singular devotion towards God and how happily by means thereof the Church and Common-wealth did grow up together unto that perfection of Spiritual and Temporal glory which they injoyed under that Blessed Prince and Saint King Edward the Confessor I shall not tell you how highly the good Prelates of the Church were then reverenced by the people nor how much their holy Counsels and Authority did conduce to the happy government of the State It sufficeth Lamb. Archaion Camden Spelm. Concil that many old Saxon Laws and other Monuments yet upon record Venerable Bede and the Stories of those times with other Modern Authors are witnesses of it beyond all exception From King Edward the Confessor downwards to King Henry the Eighth there is no man of judgement will affirm or thinketh that any other Religion was known in England but the Roman-Catholike that is the same that had been long before planted here by Saint Austin and those Good men his followers who were sent hither to convert the English Saxons by Saint Gregory the Great Bishop of Rome for which charity towards our Nation Doctor Whitaker giveth him thanks and professeth it was a great Benefit and for ever most gratefully to be remembred In all which time although the Clergy made Canons and managed all things pertaining to Religion by an Authority of their own that is to say given them by God and derived to them from an other origin then that of the State or Supream Magistrate Temporal yet never did the Kings of this Realm finde them generally otherwise then obedient unto their Government and ready to serve them in such capacity as the Laws and duties of their function permitted and to contribute their
secular Priests attainted or convinced of Actual Treason against her Majestie viz. Ballard for knowing and yet concealing the attempts of Babington in the business of the Queen of Scots and old Parson Plomtree of the North who said Mass once at a rising in those parts And yet how greevously are they charged with such crimes all along the Queens Reign And how much was the people incensed against them upon that perswasion What Sermons Proclamations Lawes were made in Thunder and Lightening and Blood against these poor men Souldiers of our Saviour Christ and fighting onely with Spiritual Arms under his Banner The Cross in that part of the Catholike Church which is Militant in England What calamities afflictions miseries have they not endured by persecution hereupon The onely Colledges of Rhemes and Doway beside other Religious Orders from other places have sent out into our Lords Harvest no less then One hundred persons who have all suffered for Things purely Spiritual that is either for being Priests or for doing the Office of Priesthood viz. Saying Mass Reconciling of Sinners unto God c. In the year 25. of Queen Elizabeth it was made Felony to harbor a Priest and to be a Priest Treason And the Act looked so cruelly back to primo Elizab. that whosoever was made Priest since that time might very easily be drawn within compass of the charge The Law was made upon occasion of those Treasons of Parry Francis Throgmorton Anthony Babington and his complices as also upon occasion of F. Campian and those Priests arraigned with him For a general apprehension was taken that these had combined with some forreign Princes and other persons of power within England to restore Religion and deliver the Queen of Scots out of prison which was a business then fresh in memory Hereupon the Priests in England frame a supplication by common consent and finde means to present the same to the Queen at Greenwich by the hands of Master Shelley Wherein after they have first condemned and renounced the practises of Parry c. They profess and declare their own judgement in these words First we utterly deny that the Pope hath power to command or give License to any man to consent unto Mortal sin or to commit or intend to commit any thing contrary to the Law of God Secondly whatsoever person he be that maintaineth such opinion we renounce him and his opinion as devilish and abominable Thirdly we protest before God That all Priests who ever conversed with us have acknowledged your Majestie their lawful Queen tam de jure quam de facto as well of right as for your actual possession of the Crown that they pray for you and exhort your Subjects to obey you Fourthly and lastly they profess that it is heresie and contrary to Cotholike faith to think that any man may lift up his hand against Gods Anointed T is true the Petition had no other success with her Majestie then this viz. that Master Shelley who presumed to commit such a Treason as to present it was suffered to be sent to the Marshalsea by order of Secretary Walsingham and there to be kept prisoner to his dying day onely upon this pretence Scilicet because the Councel had not been first acquainted with the business Howbeit by this supplication the world may cleerly see They answer the Six Articles which in those times used to be so commonly and captiously propounded to such men framed by Doctor Hammon viz. Whither the Queen were lawful Queen notwithstanding the sentence Decleratory of Pope Pius Quintus against her whither that sentence were to be obeyed in althings Whither the Pope by such sentence could give her Subjects any lawful Authority to rebel or depose her c. For if she be their lawful Sovereign notwithstanding that sentence and that obedience and loyalty be due unto all lawful Princes by the Law of God and of nature it is easie to see what must be said to such questions According also as Bishop Watson Abbot Fecknam Doctor John Harpsfeild Doctor Nicholas Harpsfeild with others who were very often and rigidly examined upon them yet professed perpetually obedience to her Majestie tanquam verae Reginae as unto their true and lawful Sovereign Yea saith Doctor Nicholas Harpsfeild reported by Goldastus a Protestant Ego regalem ejus Authoritatem Goldast de Monar Sac. Imp. Rom. c. I do acknowledge saith he her Royal Authority in all Temporal and Civil affair without exception They presented the like humble supplication to his Majestie that now reigneth some while after the discovery of that wicked and desperate Plot of the Gun-powder-treason another to the Parliament then sitting and another to the Earl of Salisbury in all of them professing the same things And though it hindred not the passing of some severe Acts against Catholikes in that Parliament occasioned as I suppose by that foul and horrid attempt yet the King himself in his Proclamation published upon that subject gratiously professeth his opinion of the generality of his Catholike Subjects viz. That they did abhor such a detestable Conspiracy no less then himself True it is F. Garnet suffered for concealing that Treason and Sir Everard Digby for contributing in some sort to the security or rather flight of some of the Conspirators But as the one viz. Sir Everard Digby much lamented his ill fortune that he should leave behinde him the memory of so great a stain protesting always that he was never made privy to their design and drift So the other viz. F. Garnet knowing it onely as he did in the way of confession and the Seal of that Sacrament which is Secrecy being by the Doctrine of Catholike Religion and that not without most just and necessary cause esteemed so inviolable it may abate something even in the judgement of man of that Heynousness of guilt and blame whereof all good Christians otherwise must necessarily condemn him In a word how much Catholikes in general and especially Priests do detest rebellion and Treason even in times of greatest affliction and pressure and what Religious observers they are of all just loyalty and obedience to their lawful Princes appears cleerly not onely by a book written in those times by the learned Bishop of Chichester Doctor Christopherson against rebellion but also by the Annotations of the Divines at Rhemes upon the New Testament where Pag. 301. we read thus Subjects saie they are bound in Temporal things to obey even the Heathen being their lawful Kings and to be subject to them for Conscience to observe their Temporal Laws to pay them Tribute to pray for them and to perform all other duties of Natural Allegiance Doctor Kellison in his Survey goeth further giving the reason of this Because saith he Faith is not necessarily required to jurisdiction neither is any Authority lost by the loss of Faith Which is also the Doctrine of Saint Thomas who in his Book Cap. 6. de Regim Princip denieth utterly
own Religion as beleeving it to be right or the best neither are Catholikes to be excepted in that point They must be permitted to desire at least and wish for the restoring of Catholike Religion as it ought to be But surely as to the means whereby they procure it and the course and manner of their proceeding that seek and endeavor it This treatise hath already shewen what great odds and difference there is betwixt the proceedings of Catholikes and that of Protestants And that what the one viz. Catholikes seek â—â—ely by way of Petition Supplication Prayer and humble Remonstrating of their Sufferances The other viz. Protestants seek chiefly by fire and Sword and Cannon Bullet and by Thundring of Ordnances rather then Apologies in their Princes ears Beside to proceed a little further in this Parallel the Catholikes generally and for a long time both in Germany and France were Passive as in England they are still to this day The Protestants were Aâ—tive and the offendors Catholikes onely defend their own maintain the possession of that which they have quietly held out of all memory of Men and Ages Protestants invade and usurp by force Priests desire onely to keep that which they once de jure had Ministers seek to get that which they had not Catholikes obey ex conscientiâ out of an inflexible principle of Conscience and absolutely submit unto all lawful and established Government Protestants generally speaking but upon condition and with such limitations and restrictions of their obedience as they themselves think good to prescribe Priests are punished not for any formal wickedness or that which is a crime in its own nature but for something that is so onely by interpretation or in the judgement of the present State which perhaps a few days agoe did not judge so but the quite contrary Calvinists when they suffer suffer for real and foule crimes for Sedition Rebellion Murther Treason not imputative onely fictitious or made such of late by the prevailing of some particular faction in the State but truly and properly so and adjudged for such by all Laws Divine and Humane of their own Countries and of all Christendom beside long before they or their Grandsires were born Witness the examples of this last year in France of Lescun President of the Assemblies at Rochel Haute-Fountain Chamier P. Gomboult and some others who all suffered for real and actual Treasons and by vertue of such Laws not as the Parliament at Paris or some party there had procured to be enacted a few years or a few moneths before on purpose to entrap them but by the ancâ—â—nt known Lawâ— of â—rancâ— b wh ch they themselves knew the Kingdom was governed and had been ever governed time out of minde and therefore could not in any reason but expect the execution of them upon themselves in case they would persist to offend Witness the Treasons of their Brother Bischarcy in Poland who attempted to kill the King and did indeed wound him very dangerously as he was going to Church They object to us the positions of some private and disavowed persons and words onely We object to them the resolutions of whole general Assemblies held by them and those rebellions which have followed thereupon not in word onely but in deed and in act their real and actual Conspiracies their many Battles really and actually fought in the Field without lawful Authority or any publike Call against their Sovereign Princes with other manifold iniuries and insolencies committed Lastly Protestants reform commonly per populum and by Tumults Catholikes do nothing of this kinde but by Law Order and their proper Superiors So that the difference betwixt them is manifâ—st and the integrity of the professions of Catholike in point of obedience and loyalty towards their Prince beyond that of Calvinists or Protestants generally speaking is visible to every eye Why may they not then under the Favor of the State enjoy like Liberty of Conscience Person and Estates with other good Subjects notwithstanding that they differ in Judgement from the profession of the State Why may not a Catholike be tolerated to live and injoy without molestation that which God Nature and the Laws of the Land do give him as well as a Calvinist Why should the Laws of England be fettered with so many Shacles of Interpretative and Temporary Treason to the prejudice of many innocent persons and to the scandal of the Government Admit that for some worldly respect they were indeed nâ—cessary in State-policy for the times wherein they were enacted yet the times changing so much as thâ—y have done and those causes entirely ceasing which made them seem necessary then it may be thought now not onely safe as undoubtedly it is but honorable and just to repeal them May it not with great reason be wondered at that a Nation so Just so Honorable so Wise as this of England hath ever been acknowledged by the Nations abroad and settled by Extraordinary Dispensations of Divine Providâ—nce upon such Equitable fair and just principles of government as be constantly held forth by the Supream Authority of the Nation should permit any thing to be counted Treason by an Act of Parliament which is so generally over all Christendom at this day and hath been so anciently and even till of late times in this our own Nation so much honored maintained and reverenced by all men especially I say when there is no cause of suspicion remaining when there is no cause nor colour of jealousie from any persons that desire this liberty at least none but what may be easily removed by the wisdom of the State and plenary satisfaction given in that behalf both to themselves and to all the good people of the Nation How much Religious men and persons Ecclesiastical now called Traytors by the Law were wont to be esteemed in this Nation is not necessary now to speak our own Chronicles and the Constitutions of our very Laws themselves do abundantly declare it If a bondman entred a Cloysture he could not be commanded out by any power whatsoever The Law it self anciently holding it more reasonable that even the King should loose his interest in such a body then that he should be taken out from the Order which he had chosen The like was judged if the Kings Wards entred Religion An Alien by Law can hold no Lands in England yet if he be a Priest he may by Law be a Bishop here and enjoy his Temporalties as Lanfranck Anselme and some others did who were never Denizens It is well known The Six Clearks of the Chancery were anciently Clearks of the Church The Master of the Rolls Master of Requests Lord Privy Seal yea the Lord Chancellors and Treasurers of the Realm not onely commonly but in a manner constantly till of late times were Bishops Clergy-men How strange therefore may it seem that the Laws of England should make a Function so ancient and honorable in England to be Treason which
pleasure enjoying the full swinge of their Lust and Lawless Appetites without controule Lastly Erasmus who was a man of intimate acquaintance with them and knew their ways as well as themselves and beside one that never writ partially in favor of Catholikes as the world well knoweth what a Testimony gives he of them in his Spongia advers Hutten Lutheranos video multos c. I meet saith he with many Lutherans abroad but with such as live according to the rule which they pretend very few or none Consider well saith he all this sort of people which call themselves Gospellers and tell me if you can where in the world is there more Luxury Prodigality and Excess used where Lust and Debauchery on the one side or Covetousness on the other rageth more Are those people meaning the Catholikes whom yee have forsaken and seem to detest so much in any respect so blamable as they Give me one example if you can of any one man whom this Doctrine of the Gospel as you call it hath at all bettered in his manners hath made of a drunkard or intemperate person sober and well governed of shameless or licentious modest and chast I can give you many saith he who by turning Lutherans are become Ten times worse then they were What man living ever saw a Lutheran shed a Tear out of any sense or dislike of sin or so much as to breath out a sigh or knock his brest in sign of sorrow and detestation of himself that he had offended God No verily Contrition is not any necessary part of their Pennance it is a thing altogether unknown among them I mean as to the practice and true exercise of it Their opinion or principle of onely Faith viz. That Christ hath done all for them and that they have nothing to do in order to Salvation but to beleeve this is a sufficient Antidote against all such kinde of sadness with which they like not to be troubled Yea it is most lamentable to consider how generally men live and dye without any other sense or feeling of their sins at all save what the shame prejudce or some other Temporal inconvenience which commonly attendeth the doing of evil may perhaps cause in them in relation to God they perswade themselves that nothing is required of them but onely to believe that all is forgiven That Christ hath done all that is to be done by them and suffered all that is necessary to be suffered so they take no further care but dye accordingly that is in a most unhappy security For as concerning that other pretence viz. that Luther should be sent thus Extraordinarily as they say to detect Antichrist unless they mean by giving some example or pattern of him in his own person and practises which in many respects were indeed very Antichristian I know not how it can be understood For if they mean he should discover the Pâ—pe to be Antichrist it is a stale I had almost said an exploded pretence no less vain then any of the rest discovering more inconsideration and spleen in the pretenders then any thing else The Characters which Holy Scripture doth give of that great Antichrist who is to come and make War upon the Church towards the latter end of the world are many and cleer yet so little applyable to the Pope as not any thing can be less The sum of them all is expressed in those Titles which Saint Paul giveth him 2 Thess 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which is understood That Antichrist must be a professed and open Enemy of our Saviour Christ holding and maintaining all things diametrically contrary and in opposition to him He must be the head of a people openly and expresly at defiance with the Kingdom of Christ which is the Church and not onely supposed to be so in the opinion of some few men by interpreâ—ation and some strained consequence of misgovernment in that society which is professedly Christs own Kingdom No the people and followers of Antichrists Kingdom must oppose and persecute the people and followers of Christ to the death He must be an Enemy in all points unto Christs law to Christs Testament to Christs Priesthood All which he must for some short time Universally abolish and put down It is not vice alone nor some supposed superstition nor error in opinion onely which shall erect and constitute that accursed State but it must be a general Apostacy and departure from the Law of Christ as both Melancthon in his Common places Basil 1562. Pag. 34. Tom. 7. P. 875. and Zanchius a famous Protestant in his answer to the Arians do acknowledge it must be an opposition publike and professed to the same Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they say and a persecution of the Professors thereof general all the world over But doth Saint Peters Successor thus are these things applyable to the State of the Church under his government What face of Brass can maintain it without blushing Doth he persecute any man for professing Christ Or doth he punish or censure any but according to his office and as the Canons of the universal Church enacted acknowledged and exercised by all Christian Princes and good Prelates before him do prescribe Doth not Luther himself confess Contra. Anabap. that in the Papacy true Christianity is still retained Doth he not confess that the Popes Church as he calls it is the Church of God That there is true Baptism true Absolution or Remiâ—sion of sins among them the true office of Preaching yea the true Catechism that is the Summary of all Doctrines necessary to be preached Are these things to be maintained by Antichrist Or to be found and professed in that rabble of Miscreants which shall follow him Doth not Whitacre Junius Saravia Zanchius and almost all Protestants generally acknowledge as much that we hold at least the principal Articles of faith That we agree in Fundamentals That the Roman Church is a true Church of God yea our Mother Church in whom is yet remaining and from whom English Protestants at least pretend to have received True Ordination True Calling and Authority to preach Lastly is there any Prince or Person on Earth that professeth greater reverence and observance to the Law of Christ then the Pope doth How then can he be Antichrist is there any Power or Authority known in the world more vigilant active zealous and continually attent to preserve this Law in its full Honor Estimation and Integrity with all men then the Sea Apostolike hath always been and is Nay to speak ingenuously and seriously in what condition think we had Christianity been at this day if that Authority had not been established and acknowledged in the world but that all things had been left to those Arbitrary and dividing Principles on which Protestancy pretendeth to build viz. Sole Scripture and every mans private Interpretation or Reasoning The destructive inconvenience whereof are
in England might not marry Queen Mary of Scotland a Papist as all the World knew yet the Protector made it no scruple of Conscience to pursue that business to the utmost hazzard Calvinism and Lutheranism are themselves as opposite as the Antipodes yet they enter-marry frequently and their issué bear witness thereof Was it then tolerable in the Reformed Churches and is it now intolerable with Spain Or is there any particular cause of scrupulosity and fear in this overture more then in those other doth the State of the Kingdom and fear of alterations trouble them that fear is vain The Husband is head of the Wife and though the Infanta be born in Familiâ Imperatrice yet there is no Soveraignty invested in her she can make no mutation of State least of all without consent of the State and we have little cause to distrust her having had such a president before of King Philip who being king of England yet neither did nor could attempt of himself any alteration And if the English be sure to hold their Religion it were neither Justice nor Humanity if she should be denied hers There is no man of Honor would offend a Lady of her Dignity for a difference that concerns her Soul her Faith her Devotion towards God What then is the reason why this Match seems so distasteful Is the name are the qualities of a Spaniard become so odious amongst us Surely ab initio non fuit sic of old it was not so it is neither an ancient quarrel nor a natural impression in the English In the time of Edward the Third there was a firm and fixed amity between England and Portugal and from that Lancaster of England the Kings of Portugal are descended As for Castile John of Gaunt married Constance the Daughter of King Peter by right of whom the Crown of Castile appertained unto him and his Daughter Katherine was married afterward to Henry the Third King of Castile upon which Match as appears yet in the Records of the Savoy John of Gaunt resigning that Crown the controversie ended and the Kings of Spain as flourishing Branches of the Tree and Stock of Lancaster have ever since quietly possessed that Kingdom So that Prince Charls by this Match is likely to warm his Bed again with some of his own Blood I might adde further that King Henry the Seventh married his Son to King Ferdinands Daughter on purpose to continue the Successon of that amity I might remember the Treaties of 1505. between King Henry the Seventh and Philip of Austria Son in Law to King Ferdinand for the preservation and strengthning of that League And how much the amity of England was esteemed and how readily embraced by Charls the Fifth Emperor and Grand-childe of Ferdinand appeareth very well by the Treaty Arctioris Amicitiae in the year 1514. And by that renowned Treaty of Calice the greatest Honor perhaps that ever was done to the English Crown and by the Treaty 1517. between Maximilian the Emperor Charls King of Spain and King Henry the Eighth not to speak of the Treaties for entercourse in the years 1515. and 1520 nor of the Treaty at Cambray 1529. nor lastly of that famous one 1542. Let it suffice that by them all it is manifest with what mutual constant and warm affections both Crowns and both Kingdoms entertained the strictest correspondence that could be till the Schism of Henry the Eighth and disgrace done to Queen Katherine by that unhappy Divorce and the Kings confederating with France made the first breach So as in those days we see there was no such unkindness no such hatred no such Antipathy betwixt the two Nations The first spark of difference between them brake out in Queen Maries time about the matter of Religion no other pretext could be found to make that breach which Wyat desired Yet neither is this the true nor the sole motive of the grudge which is now taken There is an other impostume which will not be cured without lancing The remembrance the hatred ever since Eighty Eight Manet altâ mente repostum Sticks still in our Stomacks and it is most true Hinc illae lachrymae from hence springs all our pain Well but let us be as indifferent as we can let us consider not onely their attempts upon us but the provocations that is the wrongs which we first did unto them Strad de bell Belgic Let us remember the Money intercepted which the King was sending unto D'Alva the want whereof at that time hazarded well nigh the loss of all the Netherland Provinces so lately reduced Camd. in Elizab. the assistance given to the Prince of Orange by Gilbert Morgan and others the first voyage of Sir Francis Drake the sacking of Saint Domingo the Protection of Holland by Leicester the infinite Depredations Letters of Mart executed to the infinite damage of the Spaniards beside the Philippicks the invectives which were in every Pulpit the Ballads and Libels in every Press were provocations such as Flesh and Blood would not endure in the meanest persons I speak nothing at all of the Portugal voyage nor of the surprize of Cales nor of the Island voyage but can any wise man think That the King of Spain should not be sensible of such indignities Was it not probable nay was it not equal that he should send a fury to Kingsale to revenge these wrongs And yet notwithstanding this Hostility when His Majesty came to the Crown how friendly yea how quickly did the King of Spain alter his course and send the Constable of Castile as the Dove out of the Ark to see if the Flouds of Enmity were any whit faln and to seek Peace with an Olive branch in his hand to establish a general Amnestia or Perpetual Oblivion of all unkindness past to bury all quarrels and reconcile the two Crowns and Kingdoms into an everlasting Friendship And surely cursed will he be that seeks to violate this Peace and under colour of Religion to extirpate Charity and publike concord And I pray what would be thought of the loyalty of that man who should now set himself to trouble and exasperate mens mindes with the old feuds and quarrels which this Nation hath had with Scotland But stay here my Pen must intrude no further without warrant into the Labyrinth of this secret Councel I know not whether it be agreeable to the Kings pleasure or no or fit matter for private Subjects to discourse upon I know very well how unsearchable the secrets of Princes are in what an abyss they lie and how much too deep to be sounded by every shallow discourser I remember also what Praying and Preaching here was against the Match of Queen Elizabeth with Mounsieur a business of very like nature with this in hand and declaimed against upon the same pretended peril of Religion alteration of Government and what not Yet it is very well known That those of the Councel who did most oppose it
the Boors who made such havock for a while in Germany by their conspiracies and especially against the Clergy did not onely pretend the Gospel and the Liberty of the Gospel for their doings but did even appeal therein to Luther himself Ad Lutheri judicium prâ—vocaverant They appealed saith he to Luthers judgement Not to urge what Erasmus hath to this effect Hyperaspist advers Lutherum nor what Menno Simonius an Anabaptist acknowledgeth in his Book De cruce Christi Quà m sanguinolentas seditiones Lutherani c. What bloody Riots and Murthers the Lutherans have committed for some years past to maintain theâ—r Doctrine And as to that part of the Objection that Luther did reprove yea write against the Boors it is the poorest fallacy of all He did it but how With such calumniating and taxing of the Princes themselves as they could be little secured by his writing and the Boors as little discouraged He did it but when When it was too late when he could forbear no longer when he found himself generally censured and murmured at by the Nobility and better sort of people as an occasion at least if not an Instrument and Fautor of those mischeifs Lastly He did it but when When he saw the Boors go down that they were not likely to maintain their quarrel nor to go through with their work then indeed he left them in the Bryers wisely enough though they appealed to him though they used yea alledged his own Homilies and Sermons for what they did though they were all for Reformation all for Liberty all against the Church of Rome and against Bishops yea and that their very word in the Field was Vivat Evangelium Let the Gospel flourish Hitherto we have discoursed cheifly of Luthers doctrinal extravagancies and touched upon the evil practises or fruits thereof onely in such men as either for the privateness and meanness of their condition being all of them Boors Peasants and rude Country people or for the unsuccessfulness of their designs are generally disclaimed Such as neither Luther nor any of his followers will readily own I come now to give a further instance of the mischief which the doctrine and doings of this man brought upon Germany in a business which was publikely owned not by Luther onely but by many of the Princes themselves who for the defence of his new Doctrine and protection of his wretched person bandied themselves against the Emperor their Sovereign Lord and against the general body of the Empire of which they were both Members and Subjects and by the Publike Laws whereof themselves in that relation ought to have been governed The beginning proceedings and issue of which confederacy was briefly thus Old John Frederick Elector and Duke of Saxony the Landsgrave of Hessen with some others already caught with the Liberty and other advantages which they made of Luthers new doctrine besides an old and inveterate emulation in most of them against the House of Austria which then was and still is Imperial first enter a League at Smalcald which is a Town of Hessia upon the Frontiers of Saxony onely as they pretended for their own defence and to maintain their Religion and Liberties against such men as would invade or persecute them We must observe here first That the Religion spoken of was a Religion but then newly and privately taken up of themselves contrary to that which was publikely received and acknowledged in the Empire and by vertue or rather pretext whereof they were obliged to do and suffer to be done many things which were expresly contrary to the Constitutions of the Empire which Constitutions the Emperor together with themselves were by oath solemnly bound to observe and see observed In this League were also comprehended the Duke of Wittemberg and some of the Imperial Towns They renewed it again at Franckfort and after that again at Auspurgh confirming it with a general and solemn Protestation of what their opinions were in matter of Religion which Protestation being then exhibited unto the Emperor in their names the Title or Sirname of Protestants became thenceforward appropriate to that party After this viz. Anno 1536. Suspecting some opposition would be made against them by the Emperor and other States of Germany for such proceedings and not willing to be taken at unawares by him they bring viz. themselves first of all an huge Army into the Field commanded by the yong Duke of Saxony John Frederick his Father being dead and the Landsgrave of Hessen with resolution by force of Arms to finde or make themselves right as they called it The Duke of Wittemberg the Imperial Towns Auspurgh Vlm Strasburgh and Franckfort sent them aid The Count Palaâ—ine of the Rhine had levyed Two hundred horse for them but upon better thoughts revoked them when they were upon their march The Duke of Brunswick and his sons the Duke of Luneburgh the yong Marquess of Baden the Prince of Anhalt the Counts of Furstenburgh and Mansfield joyned with them either in person or power Surius in Chron. Their Army consisted of about Seventy thousand fighting men and among them Seven thousand and seven hundred at least were Horse they had an hundred and twelve Cannon and Field pieces with such an infinite quantity of all sorts of Provisions as gave them an assured hope and confidence of Victory The eyes of all Princes were upon this action and Germany it self trembled in expectation of the event and success of such an Army prepared as they saw to swallow up the Emperor if they could and to subvert the whole Government and Religion of the Empire I mean that Religion and Government which was then established and had stood so established many hundred years before the Fathers or Grand-fathers of any of those Princes now in Arms to destroy it were born The Emperor had onely God and a just cause on his side for his friends those I mean who openly and avowedly appeared for him were few viz. The King of the Romans his Brother the Duke of Bavaria and the Duke of Cleve For though Duke Maurice of Saxony followed him yet in regard of his affinity with the Landsgrave whose Son in law he was as also for his Religion being a Lutheran he could not but be suspected However it pleased God notwithstanding this huge Army of the Princes that the Emperor became Master of the Field with a most compleat and signal Victory yea which was an accident more rare the two Generals Saxony and Hessen both of them became prisoners and their whole Army was defeated The yong Duke of Saxony a person much honored and pittied had his life given him with some connivence for his Religion yet his impregnable Fort at Gotha was demolished and the Electorate with all the Lands thereunto belonging were bestowed by the Emperor upon Duke Maurice The like mercy for life was shewed the Landsgrave who after some time obtained his liberty also The Duke of Wittemberg for Two hundred
of the Leaguers That if they obeyed not they should repent it And yet again at Spires he labored to have prevailed with them by fair means but thither the Duke being grown more jealous and fearful of Caesar would not come However by this course which the Emperor constantly held towards them you may see how unwilling he was to disturb the Peace or to begin the War and how inexcusable they were that rejected so often the offers of accommodation But beside this if I should relate the malice and contempt they used to him you might well think they ought not to have expected the least degree of mercy from him in case they should fall into his hands as it hapned they did For in all their publike Letters they vouchsafed him no other Title then Charls of Gaunt Surius in Chron. usurping the name of Emperor whereby they renounced all obedience to him and so far as in them lay deposed him Which was an indignity the meanest Prince of them all would not have accounted sufferable in his own person I must not forget that the Landsgrave did usually both by Letters and Messages with no little bravery and confidence assure the Princes and Towns of the League that within three moneths they would force Charls to flie out of Germany and leave the Empire to them But how then did their pretences hang together that this League was made onely se defendendo and for their Lawful Protection Surely they aimed at some thing more when they talked of expelling the Emperor out of Germany As they also did when they solicited the Kings of France England Denmark the Hans Towns and Swisses to joyn with them and dishonorably abused him by many foul and infamous aspersions It is true France indeed though his enemy at that time nobly denied them Denmark lingred expecting the success neither was King Herry forward though his great Counsellor and Favorite Cromwel sollicited their business diligently and was so forward as to promise an hundred thousand Crowns for their aid At which time Doctor Thirlby Bishop of Westminster and Sir Philip Hobby were the Kings Ambassadors with the Emperor and by that occasion witnesses of the whole Tragedy And yet a little further to disprove their proceedings by Law Let us remember first the Decree at Worms above mentioned which as Gail the Lawyer hath told us in the case of publike Peace obligeth all persons alike Let us remember the Decree of Maximilian the First Emperor about the year 1500. in these words Consentientibus Statuum Ordinum votis c. By the general consent of the Princes and States of the Empire an Edict or Constitution was published necessary for publike Peace called in the Language of the Empire Landtfrieden By which Constitution Proscription or Banishment was adjudged to all such as disturbed the publike Peace by force of Arms Gailius de Pace lib. 1. c. 14. which Gail further explains to this sense Omnia Bella c. All War saith he made without consent of the Prince and Commission from him upon private revenge or quarrel onely is adjudged unlawful And Cap. 5. In crimen laesae Majestatis incurrit c. He commits high Treason saith he whosoever within the Empire raiseth Arms but by the Emperors Authority and Commission because he usurps to himself that which is the proper Prerogative Imperial Yea Lib. 1. tit 190. their own Goldastus confesseth it to be ancient Law Nemo intra Imperii fines c. That no man presume to gather Soldiers within the bounds of the Empire but by consent of the Prince of that respective Circle where he is and that he give sufficient Caution to the State that he intends not to attempt any thing against the Emperor or against any of the States of the Empire Tom. 2. And in another place he alledgeth a Decree of Ludovicus Pius against the King of the Romans and his Confederates as guilty of High Treason for attempting against the Emperor The like also of Henry the First against Arnulphus Duke of Baviere who rebelled against him and of Otho the First against Ludolphus King of the Romans and lastly of Maximilian the First against Emicho Earl of Lingen whom he proclaimed Traytor confiscated his Lands and Estate and gave them to other Princes of the Empire onely for going to serve the French King in his Wars though out of the Empire contrary to his Proclamation And as for the Imperial Towns which confederated with these Princes there is as little to be said for them For it is a Maxim of Law recorded by Gail Vbi supra that Civitatum Imperialium solus Imperator est dominus That the Emperor onely is Lord of the Imperial Cities and not their several Magistrates And that they pretended their Liberties in this case against the Emperor to no purpose And for Luther who was the primum mobile and cheif wheel of all these motions or rather the malus Genius that Fury which agitated the people and stirred them up to all these disorders if the Princes and Towns were thus guilty he could not be innocent If the Flock did erre the Shepherd which led them was to blame I shall not here charge him again with any small faults I will not accuse him of belying Caesar most impudently when he wrote to his friend thus Wormatiam ingressus sum In Epist I entred Worms saith he at a time when I knew that Caesar would not keep Faith with me Nor of his traducing or vilifying that most Fundamental Constitution of the Empire in Aureâ Bullâ making it one of the cheif miracles which Antichrist was to work viz. The translating of the Empire from the Greeks to the French in the person of Carolus Magnus Turesel Epitom lib. 6. p. 204. which was done by Pope Leo the Third Nor of his usurping upon the Emperor and Temporal Governmâ—nt in those pretended Laws of his which he published concerning the Publike Exchequer and how he would have Church-Lands and Abby-Lands to be disposed when he and the Princes should be Masters of all It shall be enough that I say He first counselled the Princes to take Arms and oppose Caesar in his quarrel and this Sleydan himself acknowledgeth And that all his Preaching and all his endeavors were to overthrow the Ecclesiastical Electors whose Dignities and Estates being established by the Aureâ Bullâ it was Treason or Sedition in the highest degree so to do The three Ecclesiastical Electors are three Chancelors of the Empire and in respect of their Regalities immediately subject to the Emperor so as there lieth no appeal from them to the Pope but to the Emperor and Chamber at Spires Luther therefore contriving their ruine attempted treacherously to pull the fairest Flowers out of the Imperial Crown Neither could he effect the suppression of them but he must undermine and endanger the State of the Temporal Electors also who as links of the same chain must necessarily
of Conde and the Hugonots pretending it was not against the King but against an evil Counseller and to deliver themselves from the oppression of one who abused the Kings youth That same one was the Duke of Guise who being himself a stranger say they and hating the Nobility of France on purpose to oppress them of the Reformed Religion and to set the Crown on his own head in case the King should die armed himself into the Field c. That thereupon the Nâ—bles of France perceiving his malicious designs viz. To murder and destroy so many innocents took up Arms to defend themselves against such a Tyrant That for the Kings consent it was not to be expected nor as the case stood much to be regarded seeing he was in the hands of the Guises and had neither age to discern nor freedom to deny nor power to execute the Law Lastly say some Beza teacheth obedience to Magistrates in his Book De confess fid very largely Cap. 5. Sect. 45. and prescribeth no other remedy to private persons oppressed by a Tyrant but prayers and tears to amend their lives Touching the first point the Apologists will seem confident that this Battle of Dâ—eux was neither against Law nor the King and yet afterward confess that they understand not the Law of France nor the Circumstances of the War So they pretend certainty in a matter wherein they have not Science which is to beat themselves with their own weapon But was indeed that War neither against the King nor the Law Assuredly against them both as will appear by the Laws of Charls the Eighth 1487. of Francis the First 1532. of Francis the Second 1560. at Fountain Bleau which I shall cite hereafter in the case of Rochel and Montauban Secondly it is certain that Battle was not in King Francis his time but in the Reign of Charls the Ninth And after the death of King Francis all men not unacquainted with the proceedings of that time know full well that the House of Guise did bear no sway at Court the Duke was made as it were a stranger to the State the Queen-Mother the King of Navar and the Constable sate at the stern and ruled all Therefore it is not true that the King was in captivity under the faction of Guise nor true that the Duke armed himself into the Field for the Constable commanded in cheif he and the Marshal of Saint Andrews were the Kings Lieutenants and had the Kings Commissions to warrant what they did The Duke of Guise lead onely the Rear of the Army Mons Lanow's discourses Mons Mauvissier Comment and though it were his fortune to stand master of the Field and to win the day yet he had not any charge in the Battle but onely of his own Companies Thirdly Neither did the Princes of Bourbon take arms onely to deliver themselves from the oppre sion of Guise For if it were so why did they not lay down when they saw not the Duke of Guise but the Constable Montmorency coming against them armed no less with the Kings Authority then with his Forces to chastize them as Rebels The Constable was a man against whom they could pretend nothing he was the Honor of the Admirals House the Admirals Kinsman and his great friend especially when he was prisoner at Melun by commandment of Henry the Second He was now the Kings Vicegerent in the Field why did they not reverence him yea why did they themselves begin the fight why did they first affront and assail the Kings Army This therefore is but matter of meer pretext for Beza himself confesseth plainly This Field was fought to restore or establish their pretended Religion Vbi supra Fourthly Neither is it true that the Duke of Guise is a stranger in France Is he a stranger in France who is descended clearly from the Stock and Line of Charlemaign who is no stranger in France I wis Is he a stranger in France who is a Peer of France and Cosin-German to the Prince of Conde their Protector whose own Mother was Antonietta Princess of Bourbon whose Ancestors have enjoyed the greatest Offices and Honors in the Court of France Neither may we forget the great services they have done for the Crown of France at Rome at Metz Verdun Theonville and at Calice especially in a time when all Franâ—e was in mourning and distress too for the loss which Monsieur the Admiral had received at St. Quintins Lastly that dream viz. That the Duke should aspire to the Crown is the pitifullest of all a meer fable taken out of the Legend of Lorrain and other Libels of that time For how many Walls of Brass were betwixt him and it The King himself yong his Brothers yonger their Mother living the King of Navar their trusty and Noble Friend with the whole Nobility of France as they themselves acknowledge Was it not then a likely object for such a Strangers pretensions It being then apparently false That the King was in the hands that is under the power of Guise let us consider the last Proposition viz. That the Kings Commission which the Constable had and the Prince wanted and fought against at the Battle of Dreux was not much to be regarded because at that time the King had neither age to discern nor liberty to deny c. As for Liberty it is answered already And for age what if the King wanted age naturally in his politick capacity he did not We are to know a King hath two bodies or his person may be considered under a double capacity that of Nature and that of Policy His Body politick as it never dieth so it is never defective of Authority or Direction The acts of the Body politick be not abated by the Natural bodies access The Body politick is not disabled to govern by the non-age of the natural See 26. Lib. Assis Placit 24. where by Justice Thorps judgement the gift of a King is not defeated by his non-age In the Book of Assis tit droit placit 24. Anno 6. Ed. 3. for a Writ of Right brought by Edward the Third of a Manor as Heir to Richard the First the exception of non-age against the King was not admitted For though the Natural body dieth yet the Body politick which magnifieth and advanceth the quality of the Natural is not said to die So 4. Eliz The Leases of the Dutchy made by Edward the Sixth were resolved by all the Judges to be good though made in the Kings minority So though the Kings Body natural cannot discern or judge yet that disableth not the King that the acts of his Minority ordered by his Counsel and the Regent should be of no validity which their own Hottoman in his France-Gallia might have taught them And let them resolve us whether the Counsel and State of England would take it well if a Catholike should affirm as he might do much more truly that the change of Religion made
by Edward the Sixth was not warrantable being done in his Minority and when he had neither age to discern what he did nor liberty to discern any thing to the Protector and Northumberland in whose hands he was If you approve not this Argument why do you disallow the same plea for the Authority of the King of France was the age of the one a Bar in Law and not in the other or was the one an absolute King and not the other was King Edwards consent sufficient to authorize his Uncles doings and was King Charls his consent insufficient and nothing worth to authorize the Constable with his Army to pursue and punish their Army of Rebels Beza's opinion therefore In câ—nfess fid is much contrary to what he alloweth and commendeth here For if there be no other remedy but preces and lachrymae for private persons against the oppressions of a Tyrant he betrayed the Admiral and the Prince very foully to bring them into the fields of Dreux to fight against the King for Religion Doctor Bilson hath taken up somewhere one notable singularity to excuse the Prince of Conde viz. That he was not an absolute Subject of France ought not simple subjection to the Crown Ergo might lawfully do something more then others But it argueth such a gross ignorance in the Laws of France and in the state of that Prince that it deserveth more to be pitied then answered Neither could it help the Admiral who had no other Protection then that of his Sword nor Priviledge but from his new Religion But because that smooth profession of Beza above mentioned is so much insisted on and cunningly used as it were to cast a mist before the eyes of an unwary Reader it will be necessary to clear that business a little further by letting you see the man himself in more proper colours as in relation to this point First therefore read his Positions and Catechism of Seditions viz. That Book of his called Vindiciae contra Tyrannos There acting the part of Junius Brutus a Noble Roman indeed but great enemy of Kings he propounds in the first place this Question Whether Subjects be bound to obey their Kings when they command contrary unto Gods Law and resolveth presently Pag. 22. We must obey Kings for Gods sake when they obey God But otherwise Pag. 24. we are absolved For as the Vassal saith he looseth his Fief or Lordship if he commit Felony so doth the King loose his Right and his Realm also viz. By commanding contrary unto Gods Law Which considering that Gods Law is onely as they themselves shall think good to interpret it is dangâ—rous enough But Pag. 65. he is more notable Conspiracy saith he is goâ—d or ill according as the end is at which it aimeth Which is a most pernicious Maxim and a Doctrine fit for nothing but to encourage Ruvillac Poltrot or some such villanous assassinate to his desperate work or to be a buckler to the Conspirators at Ambois So Pag. 66. The Magistrates saith he or any one part of the Realm may resist the King being an Idolater as Lobna revolted from Joram when he forsook God And Pag. 132. The Government of the Kingdom is not given to the King alone but also to the Officers of the Realm And again Pag. 103. The Kings of France saith he Spain and England are crowned and put as it were into pâ—ssession of their charge by the States Peers and Lords which represent the people And Pag. 199. There is a stipulation in all Kingdoms Hereditary As in France when the King is crowned the Bishops of Beauvois and Loan ask the people if they desire and command This man shall be King What if they do it is no argument that the people do therefore chuse him to be King for his Kingdom is confessed already to be Hereditary and so the Succession determined by Law much less that they make him such It is an acceptation onely not an election a declaration of their willing Subjection Obedience and Fidelity towards him and nothing else as you may be well informed out of Francis Rosselets Ceremonies at the Consecration or Inauguration of the Kings of France Was there ever an Assembly of Estates held to consecrate or elect a King of France or do the Kings of France count the time of their Reign from their Inauguration onely and not from their entrance was not Charls the Seventh full Eight years King of France before he was crowned as the French Historians themselves report Gaguin Giles or think you that the Peers are Ephori No they are Pares inter se but not Companions to the King They are not States as in Holland to rule and direct all Affairs For in France and England all the Authority depends upon the Kings and what is the State but the Authority of the Prince Who onely by his Letters Patents createth Peers disposeth all Offices giveth all Honors receiveth all Homages in cheif as being the sole Fountain from whence springeth both Nobility and Authority And he that would either restrain this Sovereignty within any narrower bounds or communicate it to others makes no difference between the Crown of a King and the Berrette of a Duke of Venice Many other Maxims and Rules he hath of this nature fit for nothing but to introduce Anarchy and confusion in the World most of them false all of them dangerous Vails onely to cover the ugly faces of Sedition and Treason because in their proper shapes no man living can abide to see them I might here travel and weary you further with as much good stuff out of his Book De Jure Magistratus for his it is as most men think or else Hottomans who was his Comrade But I shall leave them both for indeed they touch the string of Sovereignty with too rough a hand yea rather they strain to break it if they could by such gross and misinterpretable Paradoxes as when they say The States are above the King that is the Body above the Head As if any man could seriously make it a question whether people should be commanded by the Master or by some of their fellow-servants by the Subject or by the Sovereign by the Prince of Conde and the Admiral or by their Lawful King and Sovereign King Charls And therefore had King Philip good reason to cut off the head of that Justice of Arragon upon a just occasion and to teach the people by example what the true meaning was of Nos qui podemos tanto come vos All which Paradoxes it were easie to refel but that I have undertaken onely to discover and not to combate And because they are both learnedly and piously confuted already by Barclay Baurican and Blackwood Onely by the way I shall desire you to observe how politickly they go to work They profess not openly and absolutely any desire to change the State or to depose Kings But this they do They labor by insinuation first
the Sword in their hands to compel the King to grant them what Liberty and Terms of Pacification they liked we are first to call again to minde that so famous and indeed furious Battle upon the Plains of Dreux of which Beza formerly boasted That the foundations of Reformed Religion in France were first laid and as it were consecrated therein Let us remember also the Battle of Saint Dennis the Battle of Jarnac the Battle of Coutras the Battle of Moncontour together with the besiedging of Roan and how much and Noble Blood was spilt in all these Actions At Roan the King of Navar lost his life at Saint Dennis the Constable was slain at Jarnaec the Prince of Conde and at Contras the Noble Duke of Joyeuse ended his days Tho Fields are yet stained France was let-blood too prodigally and strangers brought in as Surgeons to launce her wounds who have left behinde them greater cause of Lamentation then Remembrance At Moncentour where the Admiral stood alone as the sole Champion of the Reformed Churches The Missa-pulta testified what their quarrel was which by Beza's devise was advanced as a Basilisk to beat down the Royal Standard of France and the Labarum or Cross of Constantine Now as concerning the outrages assassinations and other mischeifs done and committed by these spirits of Reformation yet pretending nevertheless to be altogether innocent of Blood and Murther Polâ—rot in this Kalender must have the first place for killing the Duke of Guise who was the Kings Lieutenant General at that time so basely and treacherously as he did confessing it afterward before the Queen-Mother and avouching that Beza had both counselled and encouraged him to the Action After him we may remember how the Protestants in Valentia used Signeut de la Motte Gondrin the Kings Lieutenant in Daulphin who had assured them in case they would live peaceably and quietly with the Catholikes he would bring none of the Kings Soldiers upon them yet notwithstanding this they assembled forces of their own privately surprized La Motte and hung him up instantly in cold blood without any provocation save onely of their own malice to shew their contempt of the King and scorn of his Officers among them Which was a villany not sufferable in any Commonwealth especially where such favor and connivence had been offered but immediately before We may remember the Conspiracy of Simon May a man induced by the same spirit and instructed out of the same School to kill the Queen-Mother and Henry the Third But his purpose being discovered he was apprehended and had his desert Neither can the business be excused or shifted off with any colors himself confessed it and accused Seigneur de la Tour and Monsieur d' Avantigny two Gentlemen of good parentage yet birds of a Feather to have been hiâ— Counsellors and Abettors in the Plot Whereupon they were both of them apprehended but afterward released by His Majesty for private reasons not being willing as some thought at that time to search too deep into the wound either for the men engaged in it or the matter it self yet this was not all They proceed much further and seize upon the Kings own Rents and Râ—venues they coyn money and surprize either by fraud or force of Arms the cheif Cities of the Realm Orleans Troyes Poictiers Tours c. putting in Garrisons and Governors of their own party and for their own ends They deliver one of the Keys of France into the custody and command of Forreigners All which were attempts of the Highest Treason that could be and usurpations of the Prerogative Royal being done without colour of Commission or Warrant from the King and contrary to his express Will and the Law Lib. des Financ de France Nicholas Froumenteau a Minister of the new Edition confesseth That in Daulphin onely the Army of the Hugâ—nots killed Two hundred fifty and six Priests and One hundred and twelve Monks and Friers burnt Nine hundred Towns and Villages And yet what a pitiful tale do the Calvinists and others tell of a Massacre at Vassy by the Duke of Guise as if no cruelty had been comparable to that Which yet indeed was nothing at all in comparison of these and was done without the Dukes consent as not onely Monsieur Chasteauneuf in his Commentaries but also Thuanus Thuan. Historian lib. 29. who was a man never suspected to be of the Guisian Faction do expresly avouch Yea the blood that was drawn from the Duke himself laboring to have appeased the fray at the beginning was the cause that some quantity more was drawn from those Hugonots by the Dukes servants then otherwise there needed to have been No it was a toy and a trifle in respect of those outragious excessive carnages of Montbrison of Mornas and many other places acted by the Hugonots But such was the calamity of those times They which most justly deserved and unjustly complained against persecution did persecute their Neighbors most unjustly and tyrannically Let the world and all indifferent men judge by this In these Civil Wars there were no less then Twenty thousand Churches destroyed by Protestants and yet these men were born as they say to edifie the Church Is it not likely Could Mahomet himself edifie better or was his Alchoran and Turkish Superstition set up any other way then by the power of a Tyrants Sword and pulling down of Christian Churches I shall not commend any Act of Cruelty in whomsoever yet let men that are impartial consider how they can justly blame Charls the Ninth King of France for his proceedings against this sort of people at Paris and some other places in the year 1572. The Admiral being the principal Instrument and mover of all those Seditions and Troubles which for a long time had disquieted France and indangered so much the very life and person of the King the Queen Mother and other of the Princes who can wonder if his Majestie at last were compelled to use a mean extraordinary and somewhat rough for the cutting off such a Pestilent Member with his Complices who did nothing but Gangren-like perpetually corrupt and indanger the whole body of his State yea and often threatned the Head it self 'T is well known he was come to such height at this time that he Reigned in France as it were some Petty King in a Common-wealth meerly through the assistance of such people as had by his Means and Sollicitation chiefly revolted from their Lawful and Natural Sovereign he maintained in France an open War against the King and Crown of France he Sollicited and called in strangers to his aid levied Contributions exacted Tributes coyned Mony seized the Kings Revenues invaded his Towns contemned all his Laws yea what actions of Sovereignity did he not usurp exercise in contempt of his Sovereign For which having been first proclaimed Traytor in the year 1569. he afterward met with the punishment which both he and his had most justly deserved
though the way of Execution was very extraordinary indeed and hath no excuse but necessity But perhaps you are ready to say This age hath reformed those errors such violencies as were formerly used are now ceased and that at present more charitable mild and civil proceedings are held by the Hugonots It is not so They have the same principles and the same spirits still which upon occasion they are not slow to manifest And to make this more plain I shall give you a relation of the true state and condition of those reformed Churches as they call themselves in France at this very time viz. Anno 1621. wherein not to trouble you with any thing concerning the infinite troubles great charges which they forced their Sovereign Lewis 13. to be at and endure all the last Summer and Winter nor concerning their Garboils at Tours nor the practises of the Rochellers to have put a Garrison of Six thousand men into Saumur on purpose to have given work to the Kings Army thereabouts and to hinder their March to Montauban nor concerning their revolt and disloyal practises at Gergeau standing out against the Count St. Paul Governour of the Province of Orleance and at Sancer against the Prince of Conde not to exaggerate the Treacheries and Conspiracies of Vattevile in Normandy which yet were so plainly proved by his own Papers and Instructions intercepted that the Duke of Longueville was compelled thereupon to disarm those of Deep Roan and Caen to prevent danger and fearing least they should joyn with Vattevile I say omitting all these which yet were actions and passages wherein much malignity and undutifulness to their Sovereign was apparent I shall begin onely with the business of St. Jean d' Angely which held out a long time and refused submission Notwithstanding the King in person demanded it of them and that Monsieur Soubize Commander of the place for the Hugonots were Summoned to render the Town or to stand to the Peril and Attaynt of Treason yet they contemned all and held it out to the very last point that they had any hopes of help left them At Montauban how was his Majestie defied and despited as it were to His Face continuing in person at the Siedge thereof for a long time together with an Army of Noble and most Expert Soldiers many of whom men of Eminent Desert and Dignity were lost in that service especially the two Brothers the Duke of Mayenne and the Marquis of Villars who were generally lamented And to draw the Kings eyes the more upon them it is said by some They had set upon their Gates this insolent Motto viz. Roy sans foy Ville sans peur importing that the King had no Faith nor the Towns no fear Yea so obstinate were they in their resolution of disobedience that for the present they forced His Majestie upon advice to defer their merited punishment and to raise the Siedge Whereupon the Insolent Burgers after the Kings Army was departed lead the whole Clergy of the Town as it were in Triumph using them with many scornful indignities for which they smarted not undeservedly the year following In Montpellier and Languedoc the Hugonots deprived Monsieur Chastillon of all his Governments by a pretended Sentence of their Consistory which is very observable and razed at the least Six and thirty Parish Churches and Chappels there Nor do they usurp onely upon the Royalties of the King though that be too much they are as bold where they prevail with the Inheritances and Estates of Private persons At Privas they would not suffer the Viscount l' Estrainge to enjoy his Lordship of that place onely because he was a Catholike They put him out of his own Castle at Lake whereof the Marshal Momorency had but lately given him possession and give it to Brison one of their own fraternity upon a pretence that it belonged to him yet was it none of the Towns of assurance nor comprized in the list at Brewet in the year 1598. neither would they permit the Kings Justices delegated thither to compound controversies so much as to hear Mass though private or to have any exercise of their Religion What Society or Common-wealth can stand if upon pretence of Religion such petulant usurpers as these may disseize Right-owners of their Estate at pleasure and hold whatsoever they get upon a pretence that it is for the use and security of some Confederate Gospellers But what cause have they to ryot thus upon their Neighbors and Fellow-subjects The King is content they should quietly enjoy what is theirs yea and securly use the liberty of their Religion Will not this content them Should not Catholikes in all reason and equity enjoy the same Yet will they not live peaceably themselves Notwithstanding such royal Favor nor Converse peaceably with Catholikes They obey not the Kings Laws for all this not I mean in Temporal Affairs wherein he onely pretends to command them At Saint Jean d' Angely the King assured them he would protect all those of the reformed Religion in France that would obey him and obseâ—ve his Edicts He promised and performed nâ— less to Mallâ—ret who was sent to him as Deputy from the Assembly of Lower Guienne He did the like to the Duke of â—removille Son in Law to Monsieur Bâ—vâ—llâ—n who came to that seidge tendring his service and protesting obedience to His Majestie was not the Government of Saumur that so famous and considerable a place given by His Majestie to the Count de Sault Grandchilde of the Duke Desdiguieres though he were known to be of the Reformed Religion Did he not long before viz. in the year 1615. answer the Petition of the Hugonots That he meant not by his Oath at Consecration which was for the Repressing of Heresies to comprehend therein Those His Subjects of the Reformed Religion who would live obediently under his Laws and Authority And how graciously the King dealt with Rochel all the world knoweth how willing was he rather to regain and reduce it then to destroy it How much and often did His Majestie employ Monsieur the Duke Desdiguieres to perswade them to conformity and obedience How much and often did he the said Duke solicite them accordingly by Letters to return to their duty proposing them Articles which all the world but themselves would have thought reasonable Yet the Deputies Chalas and Favas obstinately refused them till it was too late What can a King do more then seek the winning of his Subjects so far as 't is possible by fair and gracious means Yet see the recompence which His Majestie found from such Spirits It was no other then a long and frivolous Declaration published against his proceedings wherein instead of acknowledging their own Crimes they tax His Majestie of much injustice persecution and I know not what other designs which they charge him to prosecute by the counsel and inducement of certain persons that were Fnemies of the State as they said and
keep men in aw In the year therefore 1477. this Decree or Law was made by Lewis the Eleventh King of France viz. All Treaties against the Kings Person or his Estate or against the Realm are declared to be Treason Which was revived or a new Law enacted to the same purpose and effect by Charls the Eighth in the year 1487. and in the year 1532. by Francis the First in the year 1560. by Francis the Second at Fontainbleau and by Henry the Second in the year 1556. All men were forbidden to bear Arms or to hold any particular Intelligences Councels or Assemblies for Conference but in Town houses or publike places By Henry the Third at Bloys in the year 1579. prohibition was made against the assembling or gathering of any Troops upon occasion or pretence of private quarrels or to enter into any such kinde of Association It was also Enacted That to hold intelligence to make Leagues offensive or to have participation with such either within or without France to levy Soldiers without the Kings License should be judged and deemed High Treason and offenders herein to be holden as disturbers of the State All which Laws are set down in the Code of Henry the Third Printed at Paris 1597. And all the Lawyers of France affirm the same viz. Francis Rogueau des droicts Royaux Bodin de Repub. Le grand Coustumier and others And surely with great reason For as without Order there can be no Peace so without Justice no Society And Calvinists in this respect differ not at all from the worst of Anabaptists if they refuse submission to the Superior Magistrate and to the Law Magistrates as King Josaphat saith 2. Paralip 19. Non hominis sed Dei exercent judicium Do execute the judgement not of man but of God And verily it cannot be denied but that this seditious Sect and Doctrine of Calvinism hath cast the State of France into a very desperate disease under which it laboreth at present and such as may seem to require more then an Aesculapius to give it perfect cure For as much as neither the Majesty of their King nor the Forces of his Armies nor the Wisdom of his Councel and Parliaments nor the Authority of the Estates so often assembled nor the Obedience due to Justice nor their own Peace and Safety together with that of the whole Kingdom can move a few desperate Out-Laws sheltring in Montauban and Rochel to yeild up themselves and their Arms to the King and to seek from His Royal Grace and Favor that Peace which all other his dutiful Subjects even of their own Tribe and Profession elswhere do securely enjoy Titulus Tertius KNOXISM OR The Troubles in SCOTLAND BUt perhaps this Fiery Zeal of the Rabbins of Genevah if it were transplanted into some colder Climate as for example into Scotland it would cool somewhat and be found of a better temper Not one jot better Calum non animum mutant It is to change air onely not complexion Their spirits that come from thence are too much fixed upon mischeif to be easily dispersed much less to be sublimated unto true goodness and vertue As experience hath shewn in the example of an infamous Empirick sent from Genevah thither whose practices have inflamed the whole Body of that Kingdom and filled it with so much irregular Zeal and abundance of ill Humors as thereby hath grown a Pleurisie of Troubles in that State which hath cost much blood and is not perfectly cured to this day The Authors of the Tumults and Alterations in Scotland with the Actors also were as violent as Whirlwinds they blew down all that stood in their way even Royalty and the Crown it self John Knox Goodman Gilby and Buchanan were the principal Instruments of the Work and emissaries of Master Calvin yet bravely seconded by Master David Fergersson a Learned Shoemaker but Minister at Dundee by Master Coverdale Willox Rous Harriot and Montgomery Victrix Legio a man may well say Et Novatores strenui Men of invincible obstinacy in their way and as perfect Innovators as could be desired All of them Ministers and of such Salt-peter Spirits as were fit to blow up and put into Combustion any Nation in the World By these was the Church of Scotland Reformed according to the Standard of Genevah and the Platform of those Elders Knox was their Nehemia's but far unlike him both in proceedings and qualities yet he pretended to act his part How properly and piously his Countryman will best inform you Langius vitâ Joh. Knoxi who wrote of his vertues Buchanan was ever a rude and slovenly Swiss of a presumptuous audacity and by nature factious He was one of them that in the time of James the Fifth at Edinburgh did solemnly in Lent eat the Paschal Lamb and being convicted of that Judaism a business which the King himself examined his Companions were condemned and burnt for the Heresie but he himself escaped and fled over into other Countreys as a man reserved to be a scourge to his own But to discern their spirits cleerly and to judge of their peaceableness patience sanctity c. which yet they so much pretended we must first read their Theorems and by the Maxims of their Doctrine we shall finde them Doctors extraordinary indeed and such as were scarce to be matched again in the whole World for the business which they came about I shall begin with Knox first who in his Book to the Nobility and people of Scotland instructs them thus in the point we treat of viz. Of obedience to Princes and Loyalty Neque promissum neque juramentum obligare potest c. Neither promise saith he nor oath can oblige any man to obey or give assistance unto Tyrants against God It is true no man saith that they can when the Tyrant expresly commandeth that which God exprâ—sly forbiddeth but that is not the case All the World knoweth in the sence of Knox and Genevah there is much pretended to be against God which is not at all forbidden by God And when a Christian Prince commands nothing but what his Office and the Laws of his Kingdom do require him to command certainly we may not so hastily presume it to be against God some better Authority must declare it to be so then the bare opinion of a Knox or a Buchanan So in his History of Scotland Princes saith he may be deposed by the people if they be Tyrants against God and his Truth and their Subjects are free from their Oaths and Obedience Secondly Goodman his Companion and Fellow Boutefeu sings to the same tune out of Exodus Goodm de obedientiâ in a Book which teacheth any thing more then what the title promiseth Toti populo hoc onus incumbit c. This is a duty saith he which lieth upon all the people in general to see that Idolaters be punished whosoever or how great soever they be none must be excepted neither King nor Queen
nor the Emperor himself This is his Homily If Governors fall from God and still we must remember what it is to fall from God in his sense ad furcas abripiant away with them God requires it of the people that they fall upon them and Hang them up instantly Most excellent Consistorian Doctrine verily such Spirits and such Preachers deserve the countenance of the State Neither is Buchanan much behinde in such grave and wholesome Counsels Buchan de jure regn apud Scotos p. 61. For first he tels you that the people is above the King and of greater Authority then he If he means this of the people Collectively taken and Legally represented albeit it were true yet is it not any way pertinent to his purpose for never did he nor any of his reforming brethren beyond the Seas act any thing by the Authority of the people in that sense if he means as he must do of the people dispersedly and rising in tumults heer and there of their own heads it is apparently seditious and destructive of all Governments whatsoever After he hath said this and that the people may bestow the Crown at their pleasure notwithstanding that the Law ordereth the descent thereof in a particular and certain succession he falls at last into a Dialogue worth your observing They hold saith he meaning Royallists that Kings must be obeyed good or bad It is blasphemy to affirm that saith Buchanan But God placeth often times evil Kings say the Royallists So doth he oft private men to kill them saies Buchanan But in 1 Tim. we are commanded to pray for Princes say they So are we commanded to pray for Theeves saith he But say the Royallists S. Paul commands obedience to Princes Saint Paul wrote so saith Buchanan in the infancy of the Church if he lived now he would write otherwise It hath been said that nullum magnum ingenium sine aliquâ mixturâ insaniae These great high-soaring wits have commonly some tincture of frenzy following them Buchanan in his time was counted for such a great wit but questionless had he been perfectly sound he could never have let slip such a Hysteron-proteron as this is from his Pen he would never have set the Cart thus before the Horse the people above the King arming them to kill their Princes under any undeclared unjudged pretense of Tyranny For when such a thing is done without justice and publick order what can be more impious and abominable yet Knâ—x not onely justyfieth it but could be content there were publike rewards appointed for such Assassinates Histor of Scotland p. 372. and Murderers of Tyrants as he calls them which there are for such as kill Wolves So far doth the zeal and light of their new Gospel carry them The sword of Gideon is now in their hands and all are Midianites Moabites and Enemies of God that stand in their way But I pray thee good Reader what is Anarchy Sedition Treason if this be order or good government I shall not need to trouble you further with instances of Doctrine The book of Dangerous positions c. gives a general Sentence that such Divinity as this is not holden by Knox and Buchanan alone but generally saith he for ought I can perceive by the chief Consistorians beyond the Seas He means the Presbyterian Divines Calvin Beza and the rest of their Gang whose opinions have been but too much reverenced here in England since the year 1570. and it would be very unhappy that such shops of sedition as their Consistories be should be ever set up or opened here Whittingham in his Preface to Goodmans Book of Obedience testifieth from Genevah that it had been allowed and much commended by the chief Divines of that place Calvin himself Epist 105. to Knox doth applaud his practices and encourage him to proceed Buchanans works pass'd for a long time as currant in Scotland as if they had been Printed Cum privilegio till the King at last found it necessary to prohibite them So we see it was not Goodman alone nor Knox alone but the whole Congregation of Presbyterians that defended such dangerous Paradoxes and not in one Country but generally where they were admitted not lately or newly but originally and from the beginning of their sect Yea their Genevah Bibles pretend to prove it from 2 Chron. 15.16 where they allow the deposing of Queen Maacha by her son King Asa for Idolatry But it is an example which by no violence they can use will be fitted to their purpose For first it was done not by private persons Mark that but by Asa the King Secondly not by the King alone but with the full consent yea Covenant of all the people V. 13. and not contrary but according to the express Law Deut. 13.9 What is this to private persons or the people tumultuously runing together against their Princes and killing them not only without any publike order or authority acknowledged but even contrary to the Laws established and while the Princes themselves are doing nothing but what the Laws established and their Office oblige them to do Such practises as these are not allowed at Doway nor are there any such notes to be found in the Rhemists Testament Leslaeus Hist lib. 10. The Biâ—hop of Ross chargeth them but Knox especially that in his Sermons he bitterly inveighed against â—he Nobility Quod Jesabelem illam â—x medio non sustâ—lerunt c. because â—hey were slow in removing that Jezabel so he calls the Queen Regent of Scotland either from the Goâ—rnment or out of the World For â—t is not certain which he meaneth â—nd the phrase as his Spirit inâ—lines to the worse And therefore because the Nobility as it seems would make no more haste they â—egin the Reformation themselves â—iz He and thirty more of his â—ompany first of all by surprizing â—he Castle of Saint Andrews and â—urdering of the Cardinal Betun This was in the year 1546. The Queen hereupon summoning him â—o appear and answer for such outâ—ages he refused she proclaims â—im Traytor he contemns her Proâ—lamation and having secured â—imself at Saint Johnstons from any danger of apprehension by the Queens Officers who sought him he was so far from relenting or shewing any respect to the Queen Regent that at the same time he perswades the Burgesses of the place viz. Saint Johnstons and of Dundee to suppress the Frieries to pull down Images in the Churches and overthrow the Abbeys of Stone and Saint Andrews Which they did keeping Forces in the Field two moneths together taking the Coyning Irons into their custody and proceeded so uncontroulably and without resistance in their disordrous courses that it even brake the heart of that Noble and Religious Queen Regent to see it After whose death in the year 1560. the Queen being then in France by the instigation and procurement of Knox it was enacted as a Law perpetual and fundamental in the State That Catholike Religion
and Cantons This Union was made by the States in the year 1578. For seeing on the one hand the fortunate Proceedings of the Duke of Parma and on the other the course of thâ— Male-Contents they enter a perpetual League which was comprized in Twenty Articles In the first whereof Holland Zealand Frize and Gelders joyn contra omnem vim quae sub praetextu c. to maintain one another against all force whatsoever that shall be made upon them in the Kings name or for matter of Religion After this viz. in the year 1579. the Prince of Orange who was the contriver and ringleader of all with those of Antwerp and Gaunt enter the League and subscribe on the Fourteenth of February and it was again confirmed at the Hague the Twentieth of July 1581. The design in all being to expel their Leige Lord the King of Spain and to deprive him of those Dominions as presently after they did publishing an Edict in the name of the States unitâ—d with this title or prescription Que le Roy a' Espague est descheu c. That the King of Spain is fallen from the Dominion of the Low-Countries and injoyning an Oath or form of Abjuration to be taken by all the people of those Countries in these words I W. N. Comme un bon vassal du ' pais Sware anew and binde my self to the Provinces united to be Loyal and Faithful to them and to Aid them against the King of Spain as a true Man of the Country Upon this they break all the Kings Seals pull down his Arms seize and enter upon his Lands Rents Customes and all Hereditaments whatsoever taking them into their own possession and as absolute Lords they Coyn Money in their own names they place and displace Officers of State Banish the Kings Counsellors seize upon Church livings suppress Catholike Religion beseidge Amsterdam and do all other acts that might import Supream and absolute Dominion And all this with so much terror and violence that as 't is reported Raald a Counsellor for Frizeland upon onely hearing of their maner of proceeding and of the new Oath against the King died suddenly therewith as of an Apoplexy The reasons they give why the King had forfeited his title and right to these Countries were these First because he labored to suppress Religion They mean their own which they had newly taken up contrary to the old and which had it not been for the opposition made against it by the Kings Governors in the Provinces had long before this time destroyed the Kings Religion which was legally established and received by the geâ—eral consent approbation and profession of the whole Country Secondly for oppressing that is governing them not according to the Law but by Tyranny Thirdly for abrogating their priviledges and holding them in a condition of bondage and servitude Such a Prince say they we are not bound to obey as a Lawful Magistrate but to â—ject as a Tyrant But this is a Presidâ—nt of vâ—ry dangerous consequâ—nâ—e doubtless For if private Subjects as 〈◊〉 that time they were without difpute may depose their Prince meerly upon general Charges and without having done any one overt Act contrary unto the Laws or the duty of his Office and may make themselves sole Judges in the cause of what is right betwixt the Prince and the People of which they were in no capacity either formal or virtual that is representative more then a Minor part Qui stat videat ne cadat there is no Prince nor State in the world can be secure The Rochellers may plead this as much as the Hollanders and so may any discontented party under a government which they like not as well as they But it shall not be amiss to enquire a little further into this business and lay open to plain view the grounds occasions and consequences thereof so compendiously as we shall be able The original primary and true cause of these troubles was the spring and growth â— heresie which by this time was like a Gangreen spread over the greatest part of Germany and not the least in these Low-Countries where under the shadow of religion especially of abetting and promoting liberty of Conscience as they called it All factions of State and discontentments of Ambitious persons shrowded themselves The peoples natural inclination to Novelty was great and set it much forward yet there wanted not the Concurrence of some Forreigners to blow the Coals of dissention both out of England and France Charls the Fifth Emperor a wise and provident Prince remembringing what a piece of work Luther had lately cut him out in Germany and with what danger difficulty and charge he overcame it intended as well for the quietness of these Provinces as for his own Interest and Honor to prevent as much as he could the Propagation of Martinests and all other Sects whatsoever And to that end finding no other means more proper and fit to be applied unto such a Malady had established the Inquisition among them about the yeer 1550. for the Execution whereof Mary Queen of Hungary then Regent of the Low-Countries procured such Explication and Mitigation of some Circumstances as was judged necessary But after this the Emperor resigning the whole government of these Provinces to his Son King Philip retired himself by a most memorable example voluntarily from the world and consâ—crated the last act of his life entirely to God and devotion King Philip at the first entrance into his government finding how much the Sects increased daily in Flanders notwithstanding the means opposed against them and considering what danger would ensue upon it to the State followed strictly his Fathers advise and in the year 1555. renewed the Commission Instructions and Articles for the said Inquisition But this as it happened through the general contagion and distemper of mindes which Heresie had bred in the people provd onely matter of further discontent to the Inhabitants of the Nether-Lands and did no good They alledge that all Strangers would thereupon be forced to depart the Country and by consequence their Trading would decay which was the Golden Mine and maintenance of those Provinces Thus they complained but indeed their inward grief was the humor of Innovation to which they were much inclined and therefore feared themselves There was another Politick Act of the Kings yet withall of very religious concernment and design which added Fewel to this Fire namely the Erecting of those new Bishopricks at Gaunt Ipres Floren. vand Haer de tumult Belgic Antwerp c. which he intended all the Provinces over And a third viz. the authority and power of the Bishop of Arras whose Cardinals Hat lately procured him by the Kings favor made him the more odious so as the greater his Obligation was to his Holiness or the King their Sovereign so much more it seemed was the malice both of the Nobility and common people incensed against him Lastly they urge their Ancient priviledges
in such sort that never any Common-wealth in Christendome groaned under the like burthens T is certain The Gentle Father of the people as they once called that Fox the Prince of Orange did propound and endeavor to wrest from them not the Tenth but the Sixth Penny towards his charge and maintenance in the year 1584 Mich. ab Isselt de bell Belgic after he had made them a Free State This you will say was a Note above Ela. And though the people denied it and murmured grievously at the motion yet is he still in Holland Pater Patriae so well and cunningly doth he both shuffle his Cards and play his Game Barnevelt in his Apologie confesseth that in the year 1586. he found the order of Government out of all good frame many Protestant Preachers would not acknowledge the States because they had not that command and discipline after the French fashion which they desired The Common people all contrary-minded one to another and the Towns wishing for Peace The Expences of the State exceeded all incomes by Twenty six Millions and that which I cannot but wish the Reader to observe West-Frizeland which in the beginning of the troubles did contribute onely Eighteen hundred thousand Florens was now charged to pay Quadragies centena millia librarum duos Milliones I have put it down in the Authors own words because I would not have the Reader poâ—â— bly mistaken Who is now the Tyrant and Exactor It seems though the people have changed their Lord they have not laid down their burthen D'Alva may be said to have beat them with Whips but the States with Scorpions Do but consider their Excises and Impositions upon all sorts of Commodities even the most necessary for humane life and subsistance viz. Meat Drink Fewel yea men-servants Wages and what not Besides Loans and Benevolences which are both commonly required and heavy Cnickius directly chargeth them that they exact one way or other the Fourth part of the peoples Revenues that are Hollanders and live out of the Country But saith he Si in Provinciis nostris c. if they live in any of our Provinces by leave Semissem jubent solvere c. they require them to pay the one half and in case they refuse or neglect They take all As for the cruelty of D' Alva which was objected so much to little purpose in the Treaty at Colen and hath been since Rhetorically aggravated by their Doctor Baudius let us call to minde See Baudii orat what provocations were at first given him by the oppositions and malice of the Nassovians by the War at Montz by the practises used to impead his entrance into Brabant and by so often contriving his death yet were these venial sins But when he found the Nobility so far engaged with the Geuses as they were that the Kings Authority was slighted Catholike Religion generally deserted and profaned the chief solemnities thereof in some places most impiously and contumeliously abused in the face of Heaven and of the Catholike Army when he saw the Towns in Holland and Zealand revolt Harlem Alcmar and others refusing the Kings Authority what indifferent man can wonder if severity were used at first to such of them as fell under his power Who would not think that Cauterizing was necessary when there appeared so much proud flesh in the wound and that purgations must be somewhat violent when the body is so much and so generally distempered Nor could the peaceable nature of the Commendador Ludovicus Requesens who succeeded D'Alva do any good upon such rough and irreconcileable spirits How often was he heard to cry out Dios nos libera de estos estados God deliver me from these States once Insomuch that Sir Roger Williams a Gentleman of our own Country and Soldier of good note who had served on both sides and knew the nature of the people very well condemns the revocation of D'Alva as an error of State Because saith he See his History nothing but rigor could reduce such violent Spirits unto order and nothing but a Sword in hand keep them in obedience As for the Kings Oath which they say he hath broken in the matter of priviledges if they would decide the matter by justice they must make it plain and evident by what Fact in what case instance example he hath broke it and ought not to presume so much as they do viz. to be Themselves both Plaintiffs Accusers and Judges Again supposing that the King had broken his Oath may not many things happen after his Oath-taking to excuse him from perjury By Law every Oath or promise how absolute soever yet hath always this necessary condition tacitly implyed in it viz rebus sic stantibus that things remain so as they were when the Oath was taken But if such difficulties or alterations happen as render the promise either impossible or unlawful to be performed a man doth not then commit perjury nor any other kinde of injustice by not performing his promise What if that which the King at his Inauguration promised for the good of the Province cannot be observed now but with the great dammage of the Province and of all Europe and this occasioned by the distemper and change of the people themselves of the Province of necessity if the case that is to say the condition and state of affairs be so far changed resolutions and proceedings upon them must also change Again supposing he had broken his Oath suâ culpâ and blameably yet were not the States thereby inabled or authorized to depose him and chuse a new Prince For in the Articles of the Joyful Entry this is a Clause Vt si in omnibus aut in vno quopiam Articulo pacta ista Dux Brabantiae violasset c. That if it shall happen that the said Dake of Brabant doth violate or break either all or any one of these Articles it shall be lawful for his Subjects to deny him the accustomed services until the thing in Controversie be either revoked or amended So long they might but after the grievances complained of should be redressed they were to return again to their duty and to rest in statu quo prius of obedient Subjects And the world knows how oft the King offered unto the Emperor to other Forreign Princes and to the States themselves to revoke and amend whatsoever could be proved amiss Beside the States and Courts of Brabant are more proper to decide this question then the States of Holland who have no such priviledges Originally but onely by Participation and Vnion And they that is Brabant Flanders Artois Henault and the rest have conformed themselves and are returned to their due Allegiance being obedient to the King his Laws and Government And if Holland would but follow their example the business were at an end To draw therefore to some conclusion in this matter of Priviledges and of the Kings Oath it would be demanded who granted these Priviledges
upon and oppress those poor Catholikes which live under their power And must the King of Spain onely be content to sit still and let Sectaries play what pranks they please and commit all outrages in his Dominions without check or controule Who can be so absurd as to judge it a thing reasonable Deos peregrinos ne colunto It was a Law of Romulus against the introducing of new and strange gods Numa Pompilius Socrates and all the wise States-men of the world Heathen no less then Christian have been always careful to provide against Innovation change and corrupting of Religion And shall his Catholike Majestie do nothing for the preserving of Religion sound and entire who both by his own piety and the dignity of his Title is obliged to do so much Shall it be necessary for the peace of their new State to use severity and shall it not be both necessary and just for the preservation of his which is so Ancient so Old For their conscience sake they will bar out Catholikes Shall he not for conscience sake take the same course with Calvinists How strangly do their beginnings and proceedings differ They take up arms against their Sovereign for Liberty of Conscience and yet by those Arms they forbid Liberty of Conscience to their Sovereign For as much as they forbid it to his people their Fellow-subjects they forbid it to Him who pretends to no more in that respect then what every subject he hath ought to enjoy And that his person together with some other of his Subjects is free is not because these men would not but because they cannot bring them in Bondage These States in their Letters to the Emperor 1608. pretend that the Spaniards made use of the Treaty at Colen rather to oppress the Country of the Netherlands then to ease them and therefore to avoid utter ruin Pleraeque Belgicae Provinciae quae in Vnione perstiterant c. Several of the Provinces say they which stood firme to the Vnion did at last renounce or abjure the King and established unto themselves a certain form of Government in the nature of a Free State and have been so acknowledged by other Christian Princes for Thirty years together and more The ground of this Plea is Tyranny exercised after the Treaty at Colen but this Union was made before how then doth it cohere to justifie their doings They say also that the King of Spain and Arch Duke acknowledge them as Free Provinces in quâ—s ipsi nihil juris pretendunt upâ—n whom they pretend to have no Title This is a new Plea I confess But the Reader will observe as it can onely justifie their possession and title for the future so doth it manifestly suppose that their actings before that Declaration was made and by which it was forcibly drawn from their Prince were Illegal Disloyal Rebellious Which the States may do well to remember so often as they use that Plea Nevertheless because by an imperfect disquisition of the matter I would not do harm where I intend onely good I leave this wholly to the Consideration of the Honorable and Learned Chancellor Peckins who can best in a convenient time satisfie the world that this is but a Scar-Crow a Fig-leaf-pretence and a Thunder without a Bolt So that their whole Plea at lest for their past actions resting only upon the stilts of pretended Tyranny Exaction and abrogation of priviledges which have been so often and so manifestly disproved what remains but their condemnation And that we abhor the principles which have lead them into this predicament of disloyalty and sin And yet to leave nothing untouched that can be easily thought on let us once again suppose all their charges viz. Tyranny Exaction breach of Oath c to be true yet must we tell them The Tyranny of a King shall never warrant their usurpation and greater Tyranny Yea suppose he hath lost his right by what Law Order or Priviledge acknowledged do they pretend to have found it Nay what Law of equity or reason have they to Act those things which they confess to be Illegal Unwarrantable yea Tyrannical in him Is it so great an offence for the King to abrogate their priviledges and is it not as great or greater offence for Subjects to usurp his nay to usurp greater then they will acknowledge he ever had May they onely be Parties and Judges in their own case and to the prejudice yea punishment of no less Person then their Prince never was such iniquity heard of Posterity will not beleeve it The Switâ— ers The Amphiâ— yon 's those Cantons of Grecia never heard of such Liberty what is if this be not to confess plainly Regnâ— occupantium esse that Kingdoms go onely by conquâ—st that possession and power are sufficient titles to any Government 'T is true a man may make himself Civis alienae reiâ—ublicae a Subject to another State then that whereof he is native perhaps more ways then one But he can never unmake himself Subject of that Country where he is native do what he can especially staying there and much less of a Subject make himself Sovereign For let him Rebel as who doubts but the Hollanders did yet he remains a Subject still de jure and of right Adde hereunto if the King should forfeit his Earldom of Holland it were not to them he should forfeit it but unto the Emperor to whom it escheates as is cleer both by the Imperial and Municipal Laws Forfeitures do not use to fall to the Tenants but to the Lord of the Fee And 't is evident that Holland was erected into an Earldom not by the Grandsires of Orange nor of any of the Burgers of Amsterdam Delft Dâ—rt c. but by the Emperor Carolus Calvus in the year 863. Qui cum audivit c. Who hearing saith the * Berland Meyer Historian that the County of Hoâ—and being a part of the Emperors demesnes was much infested and spoyled by the Danes at the instant reâ—uest of Pope John principatum ejus c. bestowed the principality thereof upon Theodorick or Thierry If then the Earldom of Holland c. be not in the King of Spain to whom it descended lineally from Theodorick The Emperor may give a second Investiture thereof to whom he please as of a Fief Imperial For to say it should be lapsed into the right of the Province as perhaps particular Estates may do is vain The Emperor takes no notice of their private customes neither can they be prejudicial to a third Person who is so much superior to them and upon whom their very customes do originally depend Beside the Earldom was never vacant there was always an Heir notoriously known either in possession or plea for it They hold it therefore by the sword onely but that is the worst title of all and fitter for those Hoords of Tartarians then for a Common-wealth of Christians Neither Littleton nor Somme rural nor Jus feudale know any such
more honorable with them and more becomming good Christians then the Sword and Fortune of a Conqueror in comanding In which most Christian posture I leave them to proceed Titulus Tertius THe last and greatest tempest against poor English Catholikes was raised by Queen Elizabeth This not onely shook the foundations of the Church which had been so lately repaired by the most Catholike Princess Queen Mary but proceeded so far as humane policy and power could to extirpate the very name and memory of Catholike Religion in England Camd. in Elizab. And this as it were in an instant and without noise For as her own Historian Camdeu reporteth it was done Sine sanguine sudore No man unless perhaps it were Master Secretary Cecil did so much as sweat in the bringing in of New Religion nor was any mans blood I mean at the first beginning drawn about it The Christian world stood amazed at the first news of such a sudden alteration Both because Religion had been so lately and so solemnly restored by Parliament as also because the Queen her self that now was always professed her self so much Catholike during the Reign of her Sister She constantly every day heared Mass saith the same Camden and beside that ad Romanae Religionis normam soepius confiteretur went often to Confession as other Roman Catholikes did Yea saith Sir Francis Ingleseild when she was upon other matters sometimes examined by Commissioners from the Queen she would her self take occasion to complain that the Queen her Sister should see me to have any doubt of her Religion and would thereupon make Protestation and Swear that she was a Catholike The Duke of Feria's Letter to King Philip is yet extant to be seen wherein is certified that the Queen had given him such assurance of her beleefe and in particular concerning the point of Real Presence that for his part he could not beleeve she intended any great Alteration in Religion The same profession also she made to Monsieur Lansack as many Honorable Persons have testified and at her Coronation she was Consecrated in all points according to the Catholike maner and anointed at Mass by the Bishop of Carlile taking the same Oath to maintain Catholike Religion the Church and Liberties thereof as all other her Catholike Predecessors Kings and Queens of England had ever done Concerning the grounds which moved her to make this Alteration so much contrary to the expectation and judgement of Christendom we shall speak in due place This was manifest that the long sickness of Queen Mary gave her great advantage time both to deliberate and draw all platforms into debate to prepare instruments in readiness for all designs and to make choise of the fittest and surest Counsellors such as were most likely to advance her ends Neither did she seem to value her Honor overmuch in order to the bringing about of her chief design For in open Parliament after her intentions for a change began to be discovered she protested that no trouble should arise to the Roman Catholikes Horas Preface of Queen Elizab. for any difference in Religion Which did much abate the opposition which otherwise might probably have been made by the Catholike party and put the Clergy themselves in some hopes of Fair quarter under her Government She knew full well that a Prince alone how Sovereign soever could not establish a new Religions in his Kingdom but that it must be the work of a Parliament to give Authority and Countenance to a business of that nature Therefore to win the Bishops and the rest of the Catholikes in Parliament to silence at least she was content to use policy with them and promise them fair as Monsieur Mauvissieir hath well observed Les memoir de Mons. Mich. Castelnau who was a long time Embassador heer from the French King and curiously noted the passages of those times Add hereunto That when the Act for Supremacy was revived which was always the great Wheel of these Motions whereas by King Henry's Law both Bishops and Barons stood in danger thereof as the examples of Sir Thomas Moor Lord Chancellor of England and Doctor Fisher Bishop of Rochester had shewen in this Parliament the Queen was content to exempt the Lords and Barons absolutely from the Oath as they in King Edward the Sixths time had exempted themselves and to leave the Rigor of it onely upon the Clergy and Commons She also thought good to qualifie the Stile somewhat viz. from Supream Head changing it into Supream Governor which though it altered not the sence yet it abused some into a beleef that the Queen pretended not unto so much in matters Ecclesiastical as the King her Father had done Beside we are to remember that King Henry by pulling he Abbyes had much weakned the power of the Clergy in Parliament having deprived them of the Votes of no less then Five and twenty Abbots who constantly sat in Parliament in the quality of Barons And lastly it is well known The Lower House of Parliament it self as they call it was so calmly spirited in those times that they used not much to oppose what their good Lords of the upper House liked All which things considered and that too many of the Catholikes both Lords and others thinking it better wisdom to purchase their future security by present silence then to expose themselves to trouble and vexation afterward by opposing that which they feared they should not be able to hinder therefore either but faintly resist or quietly absent themselves who can wonder if the whole business were carried with ease upon such promises of the Queen and by the industry and craft of Sinon alias Secretary Cecil who had the chief Management of it in his hands By his advise it was thought fitting that the Noble Earl of Arundel should for a time be abused with some hopes of marrying the Queen who thereupon by the interest which he had in the house of Peers ingrosed into his own hands the Proxies or voices of so many of them who thought good to be absent as when time came served the Queens turn exceedingly well The duke of Norfolk Son in law to Arundel but now a Widower was already exasperated against the Pope because he might not have dispensation to marry his Kins-woman and therefore it was no hard matter to joyn him with Arundel The Queen had also against this time either made or advanced in dignity and consequently in interest certain new Lords whom she knew to be favorers of her design viz. William Lord Parr was made Marquis of Northampton a good Speaker and a Politick man Edward Seymour Son to the late Duke of Sommerset was made Viscount Beauchamp and Earl of Hartford Sir Thomas Howard was made Viscount Bindon Sir Oliver Saint John Lord St. John of Bletso Sir Henry Cary Lord Hunsdon She had also as much weakened the Catholikes party by discharging from the Counsel-Table many of the old Counsellors
least and necessarily to be understood viz. we shall obey so long as you gâ—vern lawfully and not longer And hence it was that the Prince of Conde protested Anno 1577. that the oath which some Hugonâ—ts had taken not to bear arms or fight against their King anymore c. was factum contra Deum bonos more 's Poplonneir lib. 41. contrary to the law of God and their duty and therefore could not oblige any He had it from Calvin who Lib. 4. Institut c. 13. Sect. 21. teacheth Quibuscunque hujus Evangeliis lux affulget c. When men come once to be Illuminated with the light of his Gospel they are presently absolved from all former Snares and Oaths whatsoever that should entangle their Conscience that is oblige them to the performance of any good work or duty more then they have a minde to Sic dixit Calvinus But I confess there are some few particular or rather personal objections made from some pretended matter of fact against that which hath been said of Catholikes Loyalty wherein t is necessary that the Reader should have some reasonable satisfaction This done the conclusion will be cleer which at first I undertook to declare viz. That there is nothing in Catholike Religion inconsistent with Loyalty and that Catholikes are de facto in the truth of their practice better Subjects generally speaking then Protestants have shewen themselves to be or indeed can well be standing to their principles These objections are but few and therefore I shall dispatch them breifly The first is brought against Doctor Allen for teaching to murther Princes in a certain Apology which he wrote of the Seminaries citing Num. 25. to that purpose I answer The mistake is very great it was not Doctor Allen but Doctor Goodman if we may call him so that citeth that Text of Numbers to that purpose Goodm Obedien His words are these Factum illud quod memoratur Num. 25. perpetuumest exemplum in omnem aeternitatem c. That which is reported saith he in Num. 25. viz. of taking the Heads of the people that had committed Idolatry and hanging them up before the Lord is an example upon record to all posterity and a duty for ever lying upon the people that in the like case they deal with their Governors in like maner that is that they take them and Hang them up against the Sun when they withdraw the people from the true worship of God And although saith he it may seem a great disorder that Common people should take so much Authority upon them yet when the inferior Magistrate neglecteth his office the Common people must be lookt upon as having no Magistrate at all to direct them and in such case God puts the Sword immediately into their handâ— and is their Captain and guide in the work This I say is all Goodmans Doctrine and not Doctor Allens into whâ—se thoughts it never came to conceive much less to publish such Paradoxes of sedition All that he teacheth tends rather to the contrary viz. to keep people in their due bounds and to exhort them not to be transported by any unadvised or evil passions against their governors under a pretence of zeal He confesseth indeed 't is a thing commendable when men are zealous for true Religion but he adviseth that they act modo Tempore in due manner that is no otherwise then lawfully they may and with regard unto all other acknowledged rules of a good conscience and in due season that is not untill they be called thereto by lawful Authority as in the case of the Idolatrous Israelites Num. 25.45 and the place alledged is plain The people acted nothing but by command of Moses who was Supream Magistrate Neither did he command any thing to be done but from the mouth of God and according to the express Law Deut. 13. This is not to put the Sword into the peoples hand and to permit them to execute their fiery zeal upon whom they please under a pretence of punishing Idolatry and rooting out Superstition especially such as no man judgeth to be so but themselves The Second objection is made by Doctor Sutcliff in his Turcopapismus against Father Parsons viz. that he suborned or hired Roderick Lopez a Portughess and some others to kill the Queen Which Treason saith he was discovered by the Earl of Essex I answer it is like the Tale of Peter Panny that was reported to be hired by Mavaraeus a Doctor of Doway and Provincial of the Jesuites to kill Count Maurice which upon examination proved but a Fable and so will this For first was there any person named in that Action but Lopez and his Countrimen that is some Portughesses and Spaniards I have seen and read all the Examinations taken in that business wherein all the circumstances thereof are declared The Ayders Movers Actors all nominated There is not the least mention of Father Parsons in the whole business from first to last Secondly when Master Egerton at Guild-hall so largely and eloquently urged all he could did he so much as once name Father Parsons Or was he a man likely to forget him if he had found or thought him any way Accessory Beside all this F. Parsons himself was known to be a man not of that weakness whatsoever men will think of his honesty as to venture his reputation life interest and all so unadvisedly in a forreign bottom and subject to so many leaks as that was This therefore may pass for a scandalous Fiction and Hear-say but no more A Third objection is made against Parry and sounded aloud in all mens eares as a reproach and stain indelible to Catholike Religion The sum of the charge is that Parry was incited by the Popes Letters to kill the Queen I answer The Acts or process it self of his Examination and Tryal do shew that having conference with Master Wats a Seminary Priest about this business the said Master Wats disliked both his motion and attempt and told him that it was a thing unlawful that he went about As likewise did some other Priests also when they understood the business Secondly at Lyons coming to F. Creighton a Jesuite and after Confession discovering his intention to him out of some Confidence it seems that the good man would bite at such a bait he found himself as much mistaken here as before For the Father resolves him That it was utterly unlawful and useth diverse reasons to diswade him from any further proceeding as Parry himself confesseth to the Queen and Holinshead in his Chronicle doth acknowledge So that already both the Priest and Jesuites are acquitted There remains onely the Letter of Cardinal Como to be considered Touching which we are to know this Parry had lived in Italy as a Spy a long time and being upon his return was desirous to furnish himself with a project that might serve his turn in England both ways that is both to abuse Catholikes as
we see well enough it had been in other cases of this Nature Neither in King Edward the Sixths time nor against the Kings of Scotland Denmark Sweden Duke of Saxony Marquis of Brandenburgh or any other Protestant Prince was there ever any such sentence issued to this day Whereupon Father Pâ—rsons and Father Campian procured some kinde of mitigation concerning it presently after the publishing and Pope Gregory following declared That the Subjects of England ought to perform all duties to Queen Elizabeth notwithstanding the censures So little reason is there in truth that Protestants should clamour so loud as they do and cry out nothing but Treason Treason against religious and good men who as they have no other business so come they hither for no other end but to do them good and so far as lieth in their power and office to save their souls They tell the world that no less then two hundred Priests have been executed in England for Treason since the times of Reformation which is certainly a very heavy report and sufficient to make them odious to all the world if it were true or that there were any thing in it but fallacie and aequivocation of words whiles they call that Treason in England which in all parts of Christendome besides is both called and counted Religion and the highest Vertue For we beseech them to tell us of what Treason do they convict us at any time but the Treason of being a Priest the Treason to say Mass the Treason to refuse the Oath the Treason to absolve Penitents confessing their sins the Treason to restore men to the Communion of the Church the Treason to Preach and Administer Christs Sacraments the Treason to be bred up in the Seminaries that is in such places where onely as things now stand in England thâ—y can be Catholikely bred and fitted for such Christian imployment What actual and real Treason is in England according to the true sâ—nse and notion of that crime â—dious both to God and man the Statute of 25 Edw. 3. will inform us better then any other being enacted when the whole Kingdom was of one mind and of one judgement as all Christian Kingdoms and Societies ought to be not rent nor overborn by factions and parties undermining and supplanting one another by indirect and undue meanes as it was when these new Statutes of Treason were made By that Statute and by the opinions of the most learned Judges in England Ploydon Stamford c. Treason must alwayes be some Action or Intention actually discovered not an opinion onely or a profession of Religion And this is the reason why Sir John Oldcastle Stow. one of Mr. Fox his Martyrs in the Reign of Henry the Fifth mentioned before though he were both Traytor and Heretike yet for his Treason he was condemned in one Court and for his Heresie in another as also were Cranmer and Ridley in Queen Maries time Secondly it must be some Act or Intention discovered of a subject prejudicial to his Sovereign or to the State where he lives But what hurt had ever I say not Queen Mary Henry the Eighth while he stood right Henry the Seventh or any other Catholike Prince but even Queen Elizabeth her self King James or any other Protestant Prince by a Priests saying Mass absolving of Penitents preaching of sound Doctrine to them and particularly of all due and just obedience to Civil Magistrates as they have ever constantly done Therefore by the common Laws of England and in it self it is not it cannot be Treason or criminous to be a Priest to say Mass Absolve c. But onely by Statute Laws it is made so upon temporary and present occasions and for certain politick ends which men have projected of themselves and which they are resolved to follow And therefore also it is by the very Statutes themselves provided 22. and 27. Elizab. That if a Priest conforms be content to go to Church to renounce the Pope or his Orders c. he becomes ipso facto without more ado Rectus in Curia and is actually discharged of all imputation of Treason no further proceedings lie against him Yea even at the very place of Execution and when the instruments of death are upon him yet still 't is in his own power if he please in three words to pardon himself and frustrate the expectation of so many eyes as are commonly waiting to see his last Exit Let him but say I will conform or I will swear c. Ther 's no man living dares meddle with him further Which is far otherwise where the offence is judged to be Treâ—son indeed and really prejudicial to the Prince or State But the fatal resolution being taken to change Religâ—on upon a principle or pretended reason of State as false as the Counsel it self was evil viâ— That otherwise the Queen could not be secure either of her Kingdom or Life it was necessary to take a severe course with those men whose Function obliged them to maintain True Religion and to endeavour to reduce things again into the old State From this root also sprang their extream jealousie and hatred of the Queen of Scots For she being Heir Apparent to the Crown after Queen Elizabeth and a Princess zealously affected unto Catholike Religion and so strongly Allied in France Those Statesmen who had contrived and wrought all the alterations here could never think themselves secure so long as her head stood upon her shoulders Therefore was she first invited into England upon pretence of Friendship and for Safety But when she was here used with so much unkindness and kept under restraint for little less then twenty years together that at last in order to procure her Liberty she was indeed provoked to doe something which it was easie for them who loved her not to interpret to be Treason and so they cut off her head From hence also sprung those continual injuries and practises of much ingratitude against the King of Spain The intercepting of his Treasure The holding of his Towns The ayding of Orange and the States as hath been said Lastly from this onely Source and Fountain of unjust Policie sprung all those laws of severity and bloud against Recusants as we are commonly called viz. of Twenty pound a moneth of Two third parts of Estate against Hearing Mass against Harbouring a Priest against Being reconciled c. It is well known the Recusants of England against whom those Laws were made were generally persons in all degrees of the Noblest quality in this Nation Vertuous Grave Wise Charitable Just and Good men of fair and friendly Conversation towards all I shall not say Loyal to their Prince because the contrary is so commonly beleeved Stow. yet our own Chronicles will not altogether deny them right in that regard while they testifiâ— how diligent and forward they were to offer their service to the Queen and State even in that great Action of Eighty eight Neither were
mischief which he had brought upon Germany and that his Books should be burned In the year 1526. at Machlin he enacted a Penalty against Hereticks and all such as disputed the Controversies of Religion Heretically or that kept prohibited Books viz. for the first offence Forty shillings for the Second Four pound for the Third Eight pound and Banishment as the best remedy he could think of to preserve others from infection In the year 1529. if they repented not of their error he adjudged Viris ignem Mulieribus fossam That men should be burned and women buried alive which was no more then anciently the Laws prescribed nor then what Calvin himself exercised upon Servetus at Genevah In the year 1531. he confirmed these former Acts with something additional against such as pulled down Images or defaced them with any malitious intention viz. that such persons should loose their goods This is the sum of all those Laws of the Emperor Charlâ— the Fifth concerning Religion so much complained of in the Low-Countries and concerning the Execution whereof there were also many exceptions qualifications and limitations procured by the Regent in the year 1555. upon advise of Viglius President of the Counsel at Brussels and to take away all occasions that might poâ—â—â—bly hinder Traffick or be a means of oppression to innocent and quiet people And for King Philip he always professed particularly in his answer to Montigny in Spain that he intended no addition of severity to his Fathers Laws nor to create any new offences but onely to punish those which were of old censured for offences both by the Church and State Let us look then upon England and consider if the penalties upon Catholikes here be not far more in number and much more severe To acknowledge the Popes Supremacy in Spiritualibus is Treason To be reconcilâ—d is Treason To refuse the Oath upon the first offence is a Praemunire the second Treason For Priests to come over into England is Treason if any that were made Priests since Primo Elizab. shall stay Forty days in England after the Parliament 1585. 't is Treason To Harbor a Priest is Felony and Death If yong Students beyond Sea return not and abjure their Religion it is Treason To bring in an Agnus Dei Beads or Crosses is a Praemunire To bring a Bull or any Sentence of Excommunication from Rome that may concern the Queen is Treason To absolve or reconcile a man is Treason Not coming to Church was at first Twelve pence every Sunday and to be liable to further censure afterwards viz. Twenty seven Elizab. it was made Twenty pound a moneth where it could be had otherwise their bodies were to fine for it in prison To depart out of the Realm without License and not to return within Six moneths after the Proclamation is a forfeiture of all Goods and Lands during life To hear Mass is an offence fined at One hundred Marks If a mans Son or Servant not Merchant goeth beyond Sea with his consent he forfeits One hundred pounds I speak nothing of their loss of goods imprisonments reproaches chains fetters which upon many other pretended and feigned occasions they are frequently made subject unto nor of banishment which would be counted many times matter of great favor Nor yet of the rigorous and vexatious Execution of all these Laws which makes the Tower full of such Patients and new prisons to be erected for the entertainment of them nor of the hard usage which they frequently find in those prisons The sad examples of Master Tregion at Launston of Master Rigby of Master Christopher Watson who perished at Yoâ—k with Eighteen persons more in the year 1581. with the very infection of the prison do shew sufficiently what they suffer Adde hereunto the strict examination of the Justices the proceedings of the High-Commission against them that inquisition of England not altogether untruly so called the multitude of Promoters in all the Temporal Courts of the Kingdom informing against them of Pursuivants searching and rifling their houses upon every light suspicion and not seldom without any at all but onely to make them Fine and to purchase their quiet with money Lastly the Racks and Torturings which Father Campian Father Southwel with many others tasted in their times how can they be forgotten concerning whose case I mean of Father Campian and his Associates especially beside that the whole matter of their Accusation seemed upon Tryal rather to be grounded upon words and some verbal discourse then upon any Actual design or attempt really projected against the Queen or the State and beside that at the time of their Tryal as I have been credibly informed there were persons of very Honest Quality who offered to depose that sundry of the Parties accuâ—ed were at the times specified in their several charges many hundreds of miles distant from the places where their supposed Treasons and Conspiracies were said to be I say bâ—side all this the Queens unwillingness to have them dye testifiâ—d by her own Historian is argument sufficient with indifferent mâ—n what great Traytors she conceived them to be For their Arraignment and Tryal having been in November 1581. * Stow. they suffered not till the first of September 1582. and then it was aegrè consentiente Reginâ as Camden himself confâ—sseth They who sought their lives had much ado to procure the Queens consent that the Sentence of death should be executed upon them Surely there is no man so extreamly partial or purblinde but will easily observe how much greater affliction and pressures the Catholikes of England have endured by the Laws of this Realm then the Geuses of Holland ever did or could do by the inquisition among them And how much more their state and condition might be justly commiserated especially when not onely Anabaptists and those other more innocent and harmless Sects but Puritans great and stubborn enemies of the State Arians Socinians yea even Professed Atheists and men of far more violent passions and destructive principles then Catholikes can with any reason be supposed to hold are scarce searched after or punished And yet notwithstanding all this to preserve the Queens reputation for Humanity and fair dealing with her Subjects the Book called the Execution of English Justice will make the world beleeve That no man in England is punished for Religion no mans Conscience is medled withall no man is examined upon matters of Faith But is it possible that such a pretence should be sustâ—ined by man so notoriously contrary to truth so easily so manifestly disprovable even by sight and the evidence of their own dayly proceedings In the year 1581. there was a general Pardon granted by the Queen but with a strict Caution and Proviso That no person in Prison nor Recusant for Religion should have benefit thereby which Malefactors of all sorts had Was this no punishment The Recusants pay Twenty pound a moneth for their Recusancy is this no punishment The Turk himself
Doctrine a condemned Doctrine a Doctrine so far as Doctrin can barely be not only of dangerous but of damnable malignity being contrary to the Doctrine and Institutions of true Christian Religion which our Saviour by his Apostles left unto the Church to be professâ—d and observed for ever and therfore in it self of such nature that it ought to be deposed by all men who desire to be saved and in profession whereof no man living may securely rest This we say of their Doctrine But as to the persons of Protestants themâ—elves viz. how far their personal errour in the profession thereof is voluntary and affectate what means of better information they do neglect against how much light that is inward knowledge and perswasion of minde that Catholike Religion is true they doe sin or what secret doubtings they have that it may be true what inward stirrings and checks of conscience they doe stifle in themselves and persist in a way which their own hearts suspect meerly for temporal ends and because it stands better with their designs of this world that is the present interests of their honouâ—s reputation ease pleasure profit c. or lastly how far their ignorance of the truth may be perhaps invinc ble which where it is so excuseth much of all this we say nothing God onely knoweth how things are with them in these respects not man no not the men themselves and therefore as concerning their persons to his judgemâ—nt onely we must leave them This business therefore viz. of Protestants being counted Heretikes by us is but a Bug-bear a Scar-crow set up on purpose by those our Adversaries who would have the difference and aversions which they have bred betwixt us to be immortal Rather it were to be wished by all honest men of what perswasion soever that a just and equitable liberty in matters of conscience were granted unto all if but for this onely respect viz. That so by a free confident and friendly conversing one with another void of suspition void of jealousie fear danger to one party or other and by amicable discourse and debating of things truth might come to be more cleerly discoverded and we might be able through Gods grace mutually to give and receive good one of another But this is a work which hath so much of God and goodness in it that we cannot but expect many adversaries should appear against it However those Doctors Boutefeux should doe well to remember if they pleas'd that even by the Law of Seniority Catholikes might expect some little favour For we beseech them to tell us upon what Patrimony doe themselves and families now live but that which the right Heirs of the Church dis-inherited indeed or disseized by the power of the State have left them What Priviledges Immunities Honours have they but what the old Church gave them What Churches have they either Cathedral Collegiate or Parochial which She built not What Colledges which She founded or endowed not Nay whence have they their Bible the Creed the Ceremonies or any thing else that is good and commendable among them but from Her If She had not preserved them faithfully to their hands they had never found them Shall Charity then be for ever so buried in England that the posterity of those from whom they must confess to have received these great advantages shall never be remembred by them never be used with equity and common justice It were too great a shame surely to lye long upon such a Nation as this and a defect of Government which all Nâ—tions about us would observe Beside let our Adversaries remember what the French commonly say Chacum á son tour and we in England A dog hath a day Religion here with us since King Henry the Eighth wore the Crown hath had many changes and exchanges as the world knoweth and the principles on which it now standeth are not thought to be so fixed and unmoveable but that it may take one turn more All things are in the hands of God and whatsoever he hath determined in the Counsel of his Divine wisdom must stand and take effect in its appointed due time say we or do we to the contrary what we can And therefore let our hot Brethren the Calvinists who can themselves so little endure the severity of Bishops let them not further promote nor hold up persecution against any body else least in an howre when they think lest of it the mischief which they wish to others fall upon their own heads and that they finde themselves not onely out of the Saddle where they would be but in the Mire under the Horse belly and so obnoxious as they may have need of favor themselves They desire nothing more then Liberty of Conscience in their own way fulness of liberty to themselves let them be perswaded also to grant the same unto others That this is but equal reason it self will tell us And that persecution for matter of Religion is not always the best means to advance religion is the judgement of as wise and learned men even of their own profession as any they can shew for the contrary What Luthers opinion was in the point I value no much because the world did not take him for a man very learned or very wise although by Gods permission he did much mischief in it for his time as a simple Conjurer though he be neither Mathematician nor Philosopher himself yet by the help of the Devil may raise a storm able to confound all the Sciences Nevertheless what he thought appears in his Assertions Art 33. de non comburendis Haereticis Vrbanus Rhegius Wolfgangus Musculus famous men and Protestants both of them in their Common places are much against persecution for Religion So is Osiander Epitom Centur. 7. Chytraeus in Chron. 1593. Castalio and others But above all Acontius in his Book de Stratagemat Satan is most earnest Dominus non permittit haereticorum supplicium imò definitè declaravit interdixit c. God saith he doth not permit nor allow that Hereticks should be thus punished yea he hath expresly declared his minde to the contrary and forbidden the Magistrate to exercise any such Authority upon them Calvin once that is till he had setled himself in power at Genevah held the same opinion and was much for Liberty of Conscience Hen. 2. when Annas Burges died for Heresie in France Of the same judgement also is Monsieur Lanou in his Discourses Sturmius in his Epistles Bâ—lloy Melancthon and many other professed and earnest Protestants Not to mention Erasmus Cassander Grotius or any other of that middle temper And as for matter of example or practise do not the Cantons in Switzerland agree well enough in Temporal things notwithstanding their difference in Religion is mutual Toleration of one another in their several judgements that way any prejudice to the publike peace Are there any people under Heaven more happy and free then they or more likely to