parts though they have deserted our Church can content themselves to be Strangers and not Enemies and will prove it by declaring against all the Popes Usurpations which will be a certain bar to their preferment and therefore may be a good proof of their sincerity in this case I do not see but we may live quietly with them and perhaps the more safely by their means What Laws are now in force against them that shall be reconcil'd or that shall reconcile others to the Church of Rome were intended to keep men from being poyson'd with Popery against which those Laws were severe enough and yet not more than there was cause And yet according to the wording of those Laws he is equally to suffer the penalty of them that draws others or that is drawn himself into the Roman Communion though not into Popery as we have defin'd it I do not know that those penalties have been inflicted on any one Offender these many years nor has it been considered what the Principles were either of them that were seduced or of them that seduced them and 't were hard that the impunity of them who have directly transgress'd the intent of those Laws should be a snare to them that have only transgress'd the letter of them Therefore I humbly conceive that whatsoever Retrospection is made it ought to be with some kind of Discrimination And it were to be wish'd for the future that the old Laws may be put in ure against them that seduce others or are seduced into Popery and that some gentler Laws may be made against them that shall enter into that Communion though they do acquit themselves of those dangerous Principles But how this may be done I humbly leave to the wisdom of the State to consider The third Reason which I mention'd against an undistinguishing Severity was this That it would be against the interest of the Church and State of England Both those great Interests are united together in the preservation of the Monarchy For Monarchy is essential to the State as is visible in the Constitution of it And for the Church of England as she is the best support of the Monarchy so she is supported by it and must either fall with it or be brought into a very low condition as we have seen by the experience of late years Now of all sorts and parties among us that dissent from the Church of England there is none but has Principles which seem to look ill upon Monarchy nor is there any that has not explain'd the meaning of them by their practices at one time or other within our memory To specifie this in Instances of all would be needless for I know no sort of Dissenters that go about to justifie themselves wholly in this matter except only Roman Catholicks Among them some late Writers would bear us down that they are and have been always faithful to the Monarchy It were better said by others of that Church than by some of them that have written this But the truth is they are a mixt Communion whereof the governing part of the Clergy are thorough-Papists and therefore neither they nor any of their Faction can be right Friends to such a Monarchy as we speak of whatsoever they pretend Many of the inferior Clergy and of the Laiety of that Communion are no Papists as I have shewn in this Paper and they have shewn it themselves in adhering to Monarchy against the Pope himself Of both these sorts of Roman Catholicks we have lately seen the tryal in Ireland where for some years they agreed in nothing but that some times they went to Church together Their Bishops and the rest of the chief of their Clergy were indeed the Pope's Creatures and Subjects For they had sworn Allegiance to him and received a Right from him as well to the Temporalties as to the Spiritualties of their titular Preferments What the Pope's meaning was in preferring them we may guess by what follow'd For as soon as they saw an opportunity for it they formed a Rebellion in that Kingdom against the King And when the Pope sent his Nuncio to head it they joyn'd with him and drove the King's Lieutenant out of the Kingdom Which accursed Rebellion of theirs lost the King not only that Kingdom but the other two Kingdoms and his life in the end And yet they of that Faction in Ireland are so far from acknowledging that they did any ill in all this that within these ten years the General-Assembly of the Clergy of that Nation in plain terms refus'd to ask His Majesties pardon for any thing that had been done in the late War by any of the Clergy of that Kingdom This was a sufficient Demonstration of the Prevalence of those Popish Principles among them and of the ill Influence they have upon Monarchy Yet there was even then as plain a Demonstration of better Principles in others of that Communion For some there were though much fewer in number who kept their Allegiance to the King throughout that whole Rebellion and fought for him against the Pope himself in the person of his Nuncio and having one while got a great part of the Laity to joyn with them they prevail'd so far as to drive him out of the Kingdom But they and all the rest that serv'd the King in that Nation were excommunicated for it by the Nuncio and his Clergy in Ireland And that Sentence being judicially ratified at Rome I am assured that many of them do continue under it to this day In England it is to be observ'd in all our Histories That even in Popish times there were those that stood up for the Rights of the Crown against the Pope's Usurpations and that they which did so were the generality of the People of this Nation How else came those Laws of Provisors c. to pass in Parliament though the Spiritual Lords oppos'd them with all their might and protested against them as oft as such Laws came before them How came King Henry VIII to pass his Law against the Papal Supremacy which in effect contain'd no more than those former Laws did And yet the Bishops at that time not only voted for it but set their hands to a Book that was writ in defence of it and some of the most Learned among them writ besides on that subject as good Discourses as were written in that Age. And how came the whole Kingdom to stand by him as they did both before and after the Dissolution of Monasteries against the Pope's Bull of Excommunication and Deprivation which Bull I conceive was that which first made the Schism Though this Breach was made up again by Queen Mary who restor'd the Pope's Authority to strengthen her own Right to the Crown which otherwise had hung by the single thred of an Act of Parliament yet by what pass'd before it sufficiently appears to have been the judgment of our Forefathers in former Ages that Popery is no
diligence in our intestine Divisions and in the growth of Atheism which we cannot but be sadly sensible are both much increased since the late Toleration In these and the like practises they plainly declare that rather then not bring in Popery they would drive out Christianity before them and not leave the name of Christ to the people that will not receive the Pope as his Vicar How those Churches where he is so received and bears rule as he would do among us are blessed in it we may partly guess by the means that he employs to get us under him For it is seldom known that they who are so greedy of power use it well when they have it But not to go by guess when we have a Map before us We may see the condition of his Subjects describ'd by some of themselves that writ in those times when men durst write of such things when there was no Inquisition for them nor no Index Expurgatorius for their Writings I believe a more cruel Bondage a more miserable Thraldom and Yoke then they describe never was among the barbarous Nations I believe also the Inquisition where it is introduc'd hath not made their condition easier since And that it is not introduc'd in some Countreys as namely in France and Flanders they may thank the poor Protestants for it Where such are the Pope will have a care not to make too much noise for fear of frighting away the Birds that he would take And yet in France where there is no Inquisition he found other ways not long since to make the Iansenists feel the weight of his hand and that severely for no other reason but because in certain School-points they presum'd to oppose another party that were more firm to his Interests If this be his way of keeping Unity for which they so much cry up his Government though men do not speak so well of the Russian which keeps Unity better I see no reason why we should not be content and endure our dissentions or rather find some other way to compose them than by putting our necks into a yoke which being once fastned it will be too late for us to complain afterward We must either draw as he would have us or else go to the Shambles For the Temporal State how it hath been turmoild with this Papal Usurpation would ask a large Book to describe as the matter deserves I shall only say this that ever since it began it hath hung like a Comet over Kingdoms and Nations and shed forth direful Influences on all that have been any way obnoxious to it But it came not to its height till Pope Hildebrand's days whom their heavenly Muster-Roll calleth St. Gregory VII A Saint no doubt worthy of Red Letters for he caused the shedding of more Christian Blood than Mahomet himself and as Mahomet did he taught his Sect to do the same and merit Heaven by it His Dictates are commonly known being publish'd both in his Books and in the Councils I appeal to any one that hath read them whether Antichrist at his coming if he be yet to come can speak greater things Sure I am nothing can be more contrary to the humble and meek spirit of Christ. Among these there is one Doctrine briefly expressed but more amply declared in his Bulls and in his actions pursuant to them It is concerning a power that he assumes to himself to depose Kings and to dispose of their Kingdoms Which Arrogant Claim such as none but the Devil ever made before him hath ever since been continued by his Successors and yet is as often as they see occasion both declared and manifested by the like Bulls and actions The woful effects of it throughout this Western part of Europe are notoriously known to all that read History having torn the Bowels of this part of Christendom like an Earthquake for these last six hundred years having shaken the Foundations of all Empires Kingdoms and States involving all of them at one time or other in bloody and cruel Wars accursed and unnatural Rebellions and all other consequent Calamities In Germany particularly where it first began to operate The two next Emperours were fain to fight no less than sixty Field-battels to keep their Crowns upon their Heads In France it hath wrought proportionably Other Countreys have suffered their share But none more than England in King Iohn's miserable days And that had been forgotten in 88. if the design had taken which God only could and did defeat when otherwise this Doctrine in all probability had destroyed the English Kingdom and Nation we had been gone and our name had scarce remained upon the face of the Earth The sad experience of the manifold mischiefs and dangers both to Church and State from this pretended Authority taught our Fore-fathers at sundry times to provide against it by Laws with such Penalties annex'd to them as they found needful to prevent the like mischiefs and dangers for the future It appears that the ancientest Laws of this kind were made by them that lived and died in the Roman Communion I mean the Laws of Provisors and Praemunire enacted some hundreds of years since by Roman Catholick Kings and their Parliaments who could have no design against any other of those things we call Popery for they held the same erronious Opinions which our now-Papists do though they held them not as Articles of Faith But they endeavoured by those Laws to secure themselves against the daily Encroachment of the Pope and his Faction in the Roman Church When those Banks were found insufficient to restrain the growing Torrent within its bounds they found it needful to stop the Channel to exclude the Papacy it self and turn it out of the Kingdom This was done by King Henry VIII upon such a Provocation as perhaps would have moved a much gentler Prince to do the same For he was made to dance Attendance upon the Court of Rome five or six years for Sentence in a Cause which he commenced not of himself but by advice of the Popes Legat and his Confessor A Cause which the Pope himself at first had encouraged in which he had the judgment of the whole Church of England and divers Foreign Universities of his side His exclusion of the Papal Authority was by Acts both of Parliament and of Convocation almost no man dissenting They both form'd the Oath of Supremacy and took it themselves and joyn'd with him in imposing it in direct opposition to this grand point And yet this King himself and all the Members of those Bodies were firm to all things else that we call Popery It was otherwise in the time of Queen Elizabeth of blessed Memory who at the entrance of her Reign not only repair'd her Father's Fence against the Papal Authority but also purged the Church of all those Errours and Corruptions which are yet retain'd and own'd by all them of the Roman Communion And yet she
that matter as well in Foro Ecclesiae having the Canonical right of an Appeal against them as in Foro Conscientiae because what she did was to keep her Faith pure from their undue Impositions Whether she can be cleared as well on the account of her Government in Ecclesiastical matters this we ought to consider as a thing that more immediately concerns us For we date the Reformation of our Church from the beginning of her Reign And though we have a Prescription since of above a hundred years which is enough to secure us against the Claims of the Papacy in the Judgment of them that hold it to be only of Humane Right as all men ought to do upon those grounds above mentioned yet to them of the Roman Communion it will perhaps be more satisfactory if it appear that beside the Right that we have now from Prescription there was also an Original Right in our Reformers to do what they did in the beginning of the Reformation The first thing they did was to assert the Queens Supremacy from whence they proceeded to settle the Church Government and ended with the Reformation of Worship and Doctrine 1. First of what she did in assuming the Supremacy more needs not be said than to make it be understood And we cannot understand her meaning in it better than by her own declaration and practice She declared that she took no other power to her self than what Anciently belonged to the Crown of England that is immediately under God to govern her people of all sorts as well the Clergy as the Laity And she exercised no other Power or Jurisdiction over the Church than what was meerly External as appears by her Injunctions and other Acts. Though if she had exercised any other power than what she claimed it had been only an Act of Misgovernment in her for which she was accountable to God and the Church had not therefore been guilty of Schism since it gave her no other power nor owned her in the exercise of any other than what is above-mentioned And that power is so inherent in every Supreme Magistrate and so necessary for the well-being of the People that we cannot deny the right of it in them to whom we grant the Supreme Magistracy it self Wheresoever any Prince or State have seemed to think so ill of themselves as if they were not so fit as a Foreiner was to be trusted with this Power over their own People or rather where they have been so obsequious to the Pope as to take this Flower out of their own Crown and put it into the Triple It may be every where observed that either they or their Successors have found occasion at some time or other to call for it home again or to use it as if they had notgiven it from themselves We may see examples of this in Germany in Ockham's days in Spain under the Emperour Charles V and in Venice at the time of the Interdict But especially in France where the Gallican Church is obliged to justifie this Right of Princes unless she will grant that her most Christian Kings have been in Schism more than once and especially while they stood to the pragmatic Sanction But we need not go abroad for examples having so many at home and such as are very full to our purpose He that will may see them elsewhere gathered to his hand And I have mentioned enough to shew that even in Popish times our Princes were not ignorant of their Right and that between whiles they were fain to assert it in such terms as did import though they did not name a Supremacy But as their Laws did not expresly mention the word so neither did they always stand by their Laws When they had made them the Pope still found some device or other to make them ineffectual Till King Henry VIII having thrown out the Pope for those reasons above mentioned did by advice of his Council and Bishops take both the Power and the Title on himself whether he took more than his due let others judge As I am not engaged to defend all that he assumed so I need not for so much as Queen Mary exercised of it For it is agreed and there was great reason for it that she was always for the Popes Supremacy in her heart though for fear of her life she renounced it when time was And yet she no sooner came to the Crown but she exercised the Supremacy her self in changing most of the Bishops and Reforming what she held to be Abuses in the Church Afterward when she had surrendred it to the Pope yet she did not so wholly put it out of her self but that when He displeased her she could shut his Legate out of her Kingdom So that to adjust the matter between the two Sisters in this point of Supremacy they seem to have differed only thus One adjudged it to the Pope and yet took it from him when she pleased the other thought it belonged to the Crown and therefore kept it wholly to her self 2. What Queen Elizabeth did in setling Church matters was founded on her Right in the Supremacy By vertue whereof she took upon her to Reform abuses in the Church as her Sister Queen Mary had done And I believe that whosoever compares their proceedings will find that she took more leisure and advice than Queen Mary in doing it For before a Parliament sate she had gone only thus far that she allowed her people some of the Church Offices in a Language which they all understood Afterward by advice of her Parliament she restored King Edwards Laws and repealed those which had been made by Queen Mary for Ecclesiastical matters And by those Laws she abolished the Popish Mass and restored the whole Communion to the Laity whereas her Sister had done the contrary without Law by her mere Right of Supremacy Which Right she having afterwards given away by Act of Parliament though still she used it when she saw cause Queen Elizabeth thought fit to have it restored by Act of Parliament or rather Redeclared for the Act was not Operative but Declarative And whereas by this Act it was required that all Bishops and others that held any Church-living in this Kingdom should take an Oath of Supremacy as we call it or else should be uncapable of holding any such Church preferment on refusal of this Oath there were turned out thirteen Bishops I note the number the rather because there had been just so many of the Protestant Bishops turned out by Queen Mary There appears to have been some difference between the turning out of these by Law and of those without any Law then in force But there was more in the cause of their fuffering those being outed for matters purely Religious and these for a Civil cause for refusing an Oath lawfully imposed Which Oath did not truly concern their
or more Popes since And yet many of their Church took that Oath and some of them defended it in writing and 't is taken and defended in like manner to this day By many others it is and hath been refused Whether as being contrary to the Principles of their Sect or whether in Reverence to the Popes Prohibition and possibly some may have refused to take the Oath upon some scruple which they have conceived against the wording of it But whatsoever the cause of their refusal may be the State hath no way left to distinguish and therefore being assured of the lawfulness of the Oath in these Terms and being aware of the wicked design with which it is forbidden hath just cause to secure it self by their peril It hath surely no cause to look on them as Friends that prefer their own scruples to its safety much less that break its just Commands to serve or to please its open Enemy And for this cause that wise and gracious Prince suffered some of their Clergy that were obnoxious otherwise to fall under the edge of the Law But never in his nor his Sons days did any one of that Communion suffer death for any Crime against the State that would clear himself of it by taking the Oath of Allegiance From what I have said it sufficiently appears that the asserting an undue Authority in the Pope or Bishop of Rome is properly to be called Popery 't is the chief thing and the only thing in the Popes esteem 't is most hurtful and dangerous and the worst thing in the Construction of the Law From whence I shall infer that among Roman Catholicks some are properly Papists and some are improperly called so And however they are both of one Communion and meet together in the same Offices of Worship and therefore cannot easily be distinguished unless they please to distinguish themselves yet there is a great difference between them As great a difference in relation to the State as there is between Wens and useful Members in the Body They that wholly deny the Popes Supremacy cannot properly be called Papists but Vnreformed Catholicks as men generally were here in England in the later part of King Henry VIII's days And they as I believe were the first that used the word Papists to denote the Assertors of that outed Supremacy Nor can they properly be called so in France or other Countreys who deny the Pope to have any Authority over them by Divine Right but grant it only by such Canons and Laws as being made upon good Considerations may on better be abrogated and repealed I know there are some of this mind in England and do believe there would appear to be many if they found sufficient cause to declare it Now though such men believe the same erroneous Tenets and use the same Superstitious and Idolatrous Rites that Papists do namely such as the Pope himself has made the Terms of his Communion and therefore they are properly in Communion with him yet those Tenets and Rites are not properly Popery Though they are bad enough otherwise yet if they keep them to themselves they are not hurtful to Humane Society As being consistent with the safety of the Kingdom and with obedience to Government and with Justice of Contracts and love of Neighbours with all which at least collectively taken Popery in the proper Notion of it is inconsistent and generally held so not only by all other Christians but by a very great and considerable part of the Roman Catholicks themselves They are properly Papists that hold the Pope as Vicar of Christ by Divine Right to have a Power and Authority over all Christians And yet if they give him this power in Spirituals only and not also in Temporals they are but half-Papists And so they will find the Pope accounts them if they have occasion to make use of him They only are thorough-Papists that acknowledge his Authority in both First directly in Spiritual things and then in Temporals also whether directly or whether indirectly in order to Spirituals it matters not Let him have the Power and he will trust himself with the use of it Now this thorough-Papist being a man after the Popes own heart I shall from him take the perfect measures of Popery He is one that asserts and maintains or at least practically submits to the Popes pretended Power and Usurpation over all Kings and People in their Temporals and over all Bishops and Churches in their Spirituals and in all things over all persons on earth not only separately but collectively in their Parliaments or Councils and consequently over all their Canons Laws and Definitions In few words that owns him to be the Infallible Oracle and Universal Vicar of God a kind of God upon Earth who has no limits to his Commission or to the execution of it but his own will and pleasure This most excellent Systeme it is that only passes at Rome for the Catholick Doctrine This is authorized by the Pope this is taught in his own Church at Rome and elsewhere by his Stipendiaries or other Dependants And this is properly Popish for it belongs not to any other Christians of whatsoever Church Sect or Denomination Nor is it owned by the far greater number of them that are or call themselves Roman Catholicks I have given my own private Opinion as well of the true as of the false Notion of Popery and have intimated withal though but occasionally what my Opinion is as well of the great Concernment of the Christian World if not of all Mankind to suppress Popery truly such as of the little occasion there is for any great severity to be used against that for Name-sake which in truth is not Popery nor has any essential or necessary conjunction with it Now to enter upon the main design of this Paper which according to the title is a Consideration or Search for the true way of suppressing of Popery I declare my design to be against Popery in its proper Notion And whereas I have shewn a lower degree of it to consist in owning the Popes power in Spirituals only by suppressing of this I intend at least such a restraint upon it as may suffice to keep it from being hurtful or troublesom For the other degree which cannot but be hurtful wheresoever it is in being I declare my design to be no less than the extinguishing of it at least out of England and if it were possible from the face of the Earth Of this matter to deliver my thoughts with all freedom I confess it seems to me that undistinguishing Severity whether of Laws or of the execution of them against all Roman Catholicks in general cannot be the true way to suppress Popery much less to rid it out of this Kingdom or any other of his Majesties Dominions The general Motives which induce me to think so are these three 1. That such
And if they have no Dispensation before hand they can have a Pardon for it afterward For they know where those things are to be had which any honest man though of that Religion abhors either to ask or need And if a Jesuite should have so over-slept himself that he is taken napping with other Catholicks he is sure to have Friends to bring him off If none in England can do it he has them abroad to help If he be put to fly his Country he knows whither to go If he step short and fall into a Prison there at least he is sure not to want either relief or means for his deliverance While the man of Loyal principles if he fall into any of those Circumstances is stuck and knows not which way to look for help For from whence should he have it At home he has no Friend that dares know him abroad he has no manner of interest For all there depend upon the Pope who is so far from concerning himself for any whom he knows to be no Papists that he does not own them for Catholicks And especially if any such be men of parts whom he hears to be in Prison or the like he only wishes them hanged out of the way that he may have the rest the more intirely at his Devotion Much more might be said on this head but what I have said may suffice And therefore to insist no longer on that Question Whether undistinguishing Severity would be effectual or no I come now to shew that if it should prove effectual yet it would be very far from seeming just or equitable to indifferent men And of this I am strongly assured first by all the judgment I can make of the Intention of our Laws secondly by Arguments from the rule of right Reason and the Ancient Practise of Christianity I begin with the former and observe That although the Severity of our Penal Statutes according to the bare letter of them generally not distinguishing between Papists and Roman Catholicks falls indifferently on both yet by the wording of them in several places and by other Circumstances it appears that they were intended against the Abettors of undue Authority in the Pope and against no other For what appears in the wording of the Statutes I shall instance only two viz. 23 Eliz. and 3 Iacobi Whereof the former namely that of Queen Elizabeth expresses the crime to be punished by the Statute in these terms An intent to withdraw Subjects from their natural Obedience The other namely that of King Iames which was very severe as it ought to be on so great an occasion mentions this as the crime to be punished by it The withdrawing Subjects from their natural Obedience and moving them to promise Obedience to the pretended Authority of the See of ROME That the Sanguinary Laws were intended against Popery in this sense and no other it may further appear by the Account I have given before where I briefly set forth on what occasions they were made and in what manner they were executed It is evident that none ever suffer'd Death as a Papist who could be brought to take the Oath of Supremacy or Allegiance Now it is certain that those Oaths were primarily designed to be a suffient Test to distinguish Papists from others And yet in either of them there is no mention made of any Doctrines but only those which concern Government that is the external Government both of Church and State It is indeed objected by Papists against the Oath of Supremacy and it sticks with some of those Roman Catholicks who are not Papists that by the Oath of Supremacy the King is made a spiritual Head of the Church But he that reads the Oath will find no such thing in it and it is expresly declar'd by the Church of England in her Articles That she ascribes to the King no other Jurisdiction over the Church than what is meerly external even the same that was exercised by the Kings of Iudah and the Christian Emperours over the Church in their Kingdoms and Empires To this I may add the constant Profession and Answer of all Protestant Writers Whensoever any Complaint has been made of the severity used to Roman Catholicks it has been always said that they suffered not for Religion but Treason And this is a very plain and satisfactory Answer while those only suffer who do those things or hold those Tenets which involve Treason in them But if they who do no such thing and who renounce all such Tenets are yet made to suffer in like manner though they suffer for that which the Law declares to be Treason it will bear some dispute whether Law-makers may not miscall things However it shews the general sense of the Church and State of England I mean for what concerns the design or intention of those Penal Laws And here by the way it may be observed how very different our dealing with the Roman-Catholicks is from their dealing with Protestants in Q. Mary's days That then all profest Protestants were handled severely and that many of them were put to death I think none will deny But to avoid the Odium of this some of that Communion in our Age would persuade us that their suffering was not upon the Account of Religion And to colour this Evasion they endeavour to show that Cranmer and two or three more had deserved death for Treason which is more than they are able to prove But admit this were true that these men had deserved it yet they did not suffer death for Treason but Religion as they would have it believed that made them dye For they declared this throughout the whole course of their Criminal Proceedings And it concerned them so to do For otherwise by the Laws then in force they had murthered as many as they burnt there being no Law to Burn men for Treason but for Heresie And so far they were from using any Moderation that they rather extended the Letter of the Law by inflicting it on many poor Creatures who had nothing to provoke any Jealousie against them but enough to move pity if there had been any in their Adversaries It has been the glory of our Church that we have not been like them in this nor can be without altering the Design of them that made all our Laws against Popery The intention of our Laws appearing so manifestly as I conceive against Papists only and not against any other Roman Catholicks it seems not reasonable that any other butPapists should suffer by the Letter of those Laws For it is a Maxim That not the bare Letter of any one or more Clause or Clauses but the Intention of the whole Law is the Life and Soul of it I mean it is that which gives signification to words w ch ought where itis evident to interpret theLaw It is also a Maxim That all Penal Laws should be interpreted favourably and therefore more should not
the King in such manner as the Laws of the Land do or shall prescribe and who are firmly perswaded that the contrary Positions of Popery are as bad as they are declared to be in the Oath of Allegiance And some of them have declared this very honestly and publickly in their Writings both heretofore and of late days I think I should do them no service in naming them For as things now are it would only provoke and enable those of the former sort to do them mischief Which we see they are prone enough to do by their traducing them publickly though Priests of the same Church and branding them with the Characters of Schism Heresie Apostacy c. and thereby setting the people of their Communion against them But whereas those honest men of that Communion tell us that there are many more of their Principles among the Secular Clergy and also among the Regulars of inferior rank and condition I cannot but say that if they are not mistaken there is a great fault among them on the other hand Those many good men of whom they tell us are much to blame that they do not declare against the Pope's Usurpation but rather strengthen it by their sinful compliance and silence Either they do not think it so bad as they pretend or else what Wretches are they to juggle with the Consciences of their People How can they answer it to God from whom they pretend to have these Souls given them in charge that they do not warn them of so dangerous a sin that has slain its thousands and ten thousands in our streets Why do they suffer so great a scandal to lye upon their Church and such a danger to hang over the Civil State while they that are the Spiritual Watchmen see it and yet hold their peace Nay worse than so the Dog fawns upon the Wolf These honest men if they may yet be so called hold very good quarter and fellowship with those whom they know to be Zealots for Popery They make their Court to them of whom they cannot be ignorant that both their Principles and their Interest lead them to it that is in effect they are so officious to stand by and hold the horses of them that are committing a Robbery or worse employ'd in doing all those evils above-mentioned I cannot see how they can excuse this any otherwise than by alledging That all their Compliance is for fear of being ruin'd and imprison'd and starv'd as some of their Brethren have been for doing their duty and more are like to be if some course be not taken to protect them against the rage of their implacable Enemies Not to judge of the sufficiency of this excuse I confess there is reason for what they say For 't is visible what became of those Church-men of their Communion who have given the highest Test of their Loyalty who have scorn'd all those servile Compliances and who have declared against Popery by their Actions and Writings 'T is the easier to observe this because there have been so few of them I think not above two or three in an Age. They have been fain to stand the mark of a violent endless Persecution both from the Court of Rome and from all its Faction in England And however it came to pass they did not find that countenance which they might have expected from the State in defence of whose Rights they drew all that wrath upon themselves We have a great example of this in Preston who having both taken the Oath of Allegiance himself and maintain'd it against all the great Champions of Popery was fain to take Sanctuary in the Clink and glad to hide his head there for many years before he died Another Learned man Dr. Barnes the famous Author of Romano-Catholicus Pacificus had not leave to choose a Prison to dye in For he was spirited by the Pope's Emissaries and carried away to Rome and thrown into the Inquisition there What became of him since we shall know at the day of Judgment If these be their ways to maintain and to propagate Popery we cannot be to seek for our way to suppress it For it is manifest that this cannot be more effectually done than by such a Discrimination as has been propounded On the one hand it would be a means to preserve those few men of that Communion among us who have already declared against the Popes Vsurpations And the same course that should be taken to keep them out of danger would also be a means to free all other men of their Principles from the fear under which they have been kept so many years Whether at this present they have more or less cause to apprehend the Popish Faction they will be the better able to judg when they see what is done in Monsieur Luzance's case For as there is no reason to doubt that those Gentlemen if they find they may do what they please will do no less to those of their own Communion that oppose their grand design than they attempted on him that had deserted their Communion So if the State shall think fit to check their audacious Insolence in this case by some exemplary punishment though I doubt they will not forsake the Land upon it yet it is to be hoped that they will upon some other Act of State to which this may be a very good Introduction Sure enough if the Laws were duly executed on all those that will not give sufficient Security to the State we should soon be rid of all or most part of their Company And then it would be a time for better men to shew themselves Those that did give Security would be obliged in their own defence if no otherwise to own the Principles by which they were warranted to give it Besides it would be as well their interest as their duty to disabuse that great part of the Laity whom those Hildebrandists had fed with lies these fourscore years It would concern them to possess themselves as well of their Consciences as of their Chappels and therefore to make them see how vast a distance there is between that Faith which had been chiefly inculcated into them I mean the properly Popish Faith and the Primitive Christian and to convince them what a cursed Immorality they have been taught all this while under the name of Obedience to the Church and to shew them that the way which their former Guides have conspired to miscal by the glorious name of Holy Martyrdom is the down-right way to Hell Having thus declar'd that most necessary Truth to which both their Interest and Conscience led them the same Reasons would oblige them to love home and to study the Peace of their Country They would have little business at Rome and that would be so ill done there that they would not be encourag'd to send thither again On the other hand of the Pope's Faction in England if the Laws were so executed as I have said none
to shew the King and to assure him he was in earnest because things could not be done presently in form of Law he gave him secret advice to marry while the cause was depending The King having been two years without a Wife and not only holding himself free in his conscience but expecting to be shortly declared so and having now some kind of leave to chuse another cast his eye on Anne Bolen one whose Person and Birth might have deserved the best of his subjects and who being then a stranger in England could not have that part which Sanders gives her in displacing Queen Katharine nor could have preserved her any otherwise than by submitting to the King's lust the refusal whereof made her worthy of a nobler application But this Lady had been brought up in France among Protestants and was suspected to have some inclination that way which suspicion was enough not only to blacken her but to dash the King's suit much the sooner if not only for her sake It moved but slowly before for the Pope being engaged by the Emperour had sent instructions after his Legates requiring them to use all possible delays either to conceal his Bulls or to burn them and leave him free to do as he should see occasion Thus far he seems to have gone before he heard what choice the King had made But when that was discovered and whether for that cause or because he had made a new Alliance with the Emperour which tended to make the Popes Nephew Duke of Florence and the Queen being the Emperour's Aunt ought in reason to have some benefit of it whatsoever moved him to it the Pope after this would trust her cause no longer in England but having voided that Commission to his Legates called it home to his own Determination The King not knowing what to do next and taking time to consider in his Progress had Cranmer brought to him by some that chanced to hear him say what they thought was material in the Case He was a stranger to all that had passed hitherto which I mention because some would make him a chief man in it But from what he had heard and especially from their discourse he judged that the King had taken a wrong way in courting the Pope to retract his Predecessour's dispensation whereas in truth as most learned men thought the Matter it self was Indispensable And because it was not reasonable to expect that the Pope would judge it so for that had been to cut off a main limb of the Papacy he therefore wish'd that instead of dancing attendance at Rome the King would send to the Universities as being most able and unconcerned and get them to declare their Judgments in the case Hereupon the King sent learned men with his case and got the judgments of the Universities upon it To send to those in the Emperours dominions had been to no purpose But he had ours in England and those in France of his side and the two chief in Italy though not only the Emperour opposed but the Pope who had Bologna in his Territory And whereas it is said the King bought them which his Agents deny they say that the Emperour bought hands on the contrary and that he offered largely to get those who had given their judgments for the King to retract it but they would not take his Money though they might much more safely than the other The King being thus strengthened in his cause had reason to be the less in fear of the Pope and yet it appears he was not the more willing to break with him For after this he made fresh application to him by his Orators and Letters which were seconded with a Petition under the hands and seals of both the Archbishops and others the chief men of the three States of this Kingdom They represented their own and others judgments of the case they passionately besought him to do the King and them right in it they declared that if he did not they should think he had left them to themselves All this came out of time for the Pope was not then to be perswaded to break his Alliance while he was gathering the fruits of it This the King understood by his Answer And therefore knowing what he was to expect from abroad he was the more careful to secure himself at home Where to satisfie the minds of the people he declared what had passed to all his Subjects in Parliament he shewed them the Judgments of the Universities and the books of above one hundred Doctors against the lawfulness of his Marriage He also caused the same to be shewn to Queen Katharine by some Lords of his Council who would have perswaded her to withdraw her Appeal that she had made to the Pope and to refer her cause to the Judgment of others She refused it and thereupon was removed from the Court and had her choice given her of the Kings houses in the Country The Queen prosecuting her Appeal the Pope by Letters exhorted the King to receive her Which he refused as being unlawful for him to do and offered the Pope to send Doctors to dispute it before him He also got the King of France to mediate for him who did it as being assured of the Justice of his Cause But all this did not hinder the Pope from committing it to the Dean of the Rota who cited the King to appear before him This being done once and again the King entred his Protest against all proceedings in that Court. And the same day he privately married Anne Bolen in which if he was too hasty it was because he had not been quite seven years to consider Not long after this he had the Nullity of his former Marriage judg'd and declared in his own Kingdom which being done he owned her publickly as his Queen and gave her the solemnity of a Coronation This was no sooner heard of at Rome but the Pope who as long as the King was Plaintiff had used all possible delay and dissimulation now the Scales being turned without delay declared this Marriage a Nullity and gave Sentence of Excommunication against the King unless he put away Anne and restored Katharine before the end of September next The mean while the Pope made sure of the French King by a Treaty then afoot which produced an Interview between them at Marseilles and a Marriage between their two nearest Relations Our King in hope this new Allyance would have given good effect to the French King's Mediation in his behalf sent his Embassadours thither They waited there for a while but found nothing but delays And the Pope was now returning to Rome where he resolved to proceed in the Cause Therefore at an Audience before him they declared the King's Appeal
influenced by a Priest as to do that for his sake which they would not do in obedience to the Church But if yet it be farther suspected that their Priests may be enabled to work such a change in their Penitents by their Intimacy and Assiduity with them and by that Reverence that is usually born to their Persons which being alway present with them may perhaps prevail more than the dumb Definitions of the Church Yet this danger the State may very easily remedy and will do it by the making of a just and prudent discrimination For that being to be made by such a Test as the State shall require no other Priests will be allowed but only such as have taken it And the Test being made with such a Clause as hath been proposed the Priests that take it will be upon the same terms with their Laity and will be equally obliged in behalf of the State to oppose any pretence that can be brought by any person or power whatsoever to draw them from their Allegiance And if there be any fear of Practices against the State by them that having taken the Test have been secretly changed by some means against which no provision is made the danger of this also may be prevented as far as any thing may be done by Obligations of Conscience Not to say that their Interest will oblige them likewise in great measure It may be done by a frequent Repetition of this Test which may discover any change in some short time after it is made and so may give an early stop to any practices which might follow upon it The Priests also may be obliged by their Oath to declare the Independent Right of Kings in their Sermons as expresly and as oft as the State shall prescribe And it may be so ordained that they shall continue in their charge no longer than while they can bring sufficient Testimony that they have done it These expedients will suffice in all likelihood to prevent the defection of them who have given security to the State or at least will secure it in time from receiving any dangerous hurt by their defection CONCLVSION TO conclude all with a brief Summary of what I conceive advisable in this whole affair I think it is not so proper to make the distinction between Regulars and Seculars Because many Seculars are more addicted to these Principles than many of the Regulars and some of the Regulars have declared against these Principles and suffered for it more than any Seculars in our age Besides that it may seem very partial to prejudge men by their Ranks when they may distinguish themselves sufficiently otherwise Yet withal whereas there are divers of those Regular Orders that were never received in England even by the Romanists themselves and who have here intruded themselves as well against their own Canons as against the known Laws of the Land it is but reasonable that we should take that Advantage against them which not only our Laws but even their own Canons will allow Especially where we have Reason in other regards to suspect them above others of being active and industrious in driving on dangerous defigns And this Advantage may be taken against three eminent Orders among them which have been founded since the Reformation and were never Canonically received here in England and yet are as Active as any other in designs for the advancing of Popery For the rest who are not thought fit to be totally excluded the most equal way for them and as secure a way for us to distinguish them is to do it by such a Test as has been more than once before mentioned That this is a safe way may appear from what hath been already shewn that even the high Papalins themselves cannot prevaricate in renouncing Prevarication and therefore may be capable of giving assurance to the State by submission to Tests if they are known to be consciencious otherwise But antecedently to any Test for some of them it would be requisite that they should first renounce their former Oaths and Obligations or explain them so as to secure us that they will not be induced by them to any dangerous practice against the State Those of them as their Bishops and others who have taken Oaths to the Pope as they are prescribed by their Pontifical either to explain them if they can possibly do it so that we may be satisfied of their Innocency or to retract them where they will not admit of such an Explication And here also it ought to be considered what Oaths are taken by those Proselytes whom they gain into the Roman Communion When this is done and not till then they may be capable of being admitted to take the Test. Which ought in reason to contain all that which the Law hath already prescribed as being that which the wisdom of our Law-makers have judged fit and sutable to their condition It is not reasonable for them to expect that any of those trials should be waved which have been made even since the Reformation as long as the same Reason continues which prevailed with our Legislators to prescribe them But if they were to make a Test for themselves I do not see how they can with any confidence decline those professions which were made by their Ancestors before the Reformation They have so frequently boasted of them and alledge them as Arguments of the Consistence of their Religion with their Loyalty And therefore it were fit that the Test should take in all those Doctrines concerning the Rights of Kings which are contained or supposed in the Ancient Laws Especially in those which themselves have produced for the honour of their Communion as namely the Assize of Clarendon the Statutes of Provisors and Premunire These they cannot with any confidence refuse if they will but pretend to deal ingenuously and to let us see that they have been in earnest in those Elogies which they have given their Predecessors for making them Beside the forementioned particulars it were also needful for our satisfaction that they would profess themselves so far convinced in Conscience of their Obligation to their Prince and Country that no Ecclesiastical Judge or Judicatory whatsoever shall be able to draw them either from the belief or from the practice of their Duty This will fully secure us of their Loyalty if they deal sincerely in it And for satisfying us of their sincerity it hath already been advised to renounce all their pretences to Dissimulation And great care should be taken that no Doctrine be left out of this Test which would leave them any liberty of this kind in the Judgment of any celebrated or uncensured Casuist in their Church This will be not only a sufficient but also a just ground to distinguish between them For when a Test being thus contrived shall be prescribed by Authority it will then appear that none are like to suffer the severity of the Laws but they who either are
taking it for proved that a general Council is superiour to the Pope it must necessarily follow that there lies an Appeal from the Pope to such a Council And that his hands are tied up by such an Appeal so that he cannot proceed at least to Censure the Appellant for this were not only a private Injury to the Person but an Invasion of the Rights of the Supreme Court of Judicature among Christians Therefore if the Pope should do so Uncanonical a thing he may be Canonically disobeyed and resisted Yea he ought to be so for it were a betraying the Churches right to do otherwise till there is such a Court or Council to which the Appeal was made And such a Council there would be at least once in ten years if the Pope did not hinder it For having taken upon-himself the power of Calling and Presiding in Councils it is his pleasure to have none And no doubt he hath reason for it though there is Law to the contrary as good Law for a Council every ten years as can be made by any Authority in the Western Church Such Appeals from the Pope to a General Council have been made by divers Persons and Societies in the Roman Communion as namely by Auxilius in the name of the Clergy of all Italy By Michael of Caesena in the name of the whole Franciscan Order By seven Cardinals who were at that time the major part of their Colledge By divers Emperours of Germany against divers Popes some of whom they deposed and made other Popes in their Councils By divers Kings of France some of whom have forbid all Communication with Rome till they had right done them in their Controversies That some of these had cause enough for what they did and that they had just Authority to do it will be granted by most of them of the Roman Church But they will not grant the like of our King Henry VIII whom they make Author of the Protestant Schism as they call it And yet setting aside Popular Opinions and Prejudices I do not see what there was really in his Case which might not be cleared from Schism by those Rules and Examples I speak only of his casting off the Popes Authority as being that which no doubt was a means to bring on the Reformation As for those other things with which he is charged they are extrinsick to our Cause and we are no way accountable for them Namely for his dissolving of Monasteries It was one whom Wolsey had bred to it that taught him the way and they whom he employed would have burnt us if we had lived in those days For his being Head of the Church whosoever is offended at it let him blame the Six-Article men who brought up that Title and who both Preached and Writ for it and not the Q. Elizabeth Protestants who cast it forth Much more for his Personal excesses whatsoever they were if they concern any Religion it must be theirs and not ours For as to his Conscience they tell us he always continued a Roman Catholic These things being set apart or charged where they ought to be there will remain on our account only this to be considered Whether that Prince were guilty of Schism in casting the Popes Authority out of this Kingdom Or whether he did no more in that matter than he might lawfully do according to the Principles of his own that is the Roman Communion If he had Right to Appeal from the Pope to a Council and was hindred by him from prosecuting that right and was thereby forced to disobey and oppose him in this Case it has been shewn that Disobedience and Resistance was Lawful Whether that were his Case will appear by searching into matter of Fact And to be rightly informed of this one must not take all for true that Sanders says though having the luck to be contemned at the first by them that should have confuted him he has carried the World before him ever since being not only transcribed by the Writers of his side but also followed by many others that seem not to know whence they have their Stories We that live in a more inquisitive Age have seen many things of which he is the Author acknowledged by his Friends to be very improbable and some things proved by others to have been altogether impossible Yet in those things which he says without evident partiality Protestants are not unwilling he should be heard and Roman Catholics may be content to hear others with him who though Protestants yet are not liable to the like imputation In the Caufe of that King's Appeal many things are to be considered elsewhere which are not proper for this occasion It suffices to know that in his Minority he was betrothed to Katharine of Spain his Brothers Widow That the Contract was made by his Father for reasons of State against the judgment and advice of Archbishop Warham who then told him that he thought it neither honourable nor well-pleasing to God That the People at that time murmured against it and soon after the Prince himself as Warham advised made a formal Protestation that he would never marry her And yet after his Fathers death he was perswaded to it and did marry her with the Popes Dispensation When he had lived with her near seventeen years and as Sanders says was weary of her whether he was or no is not material the Popes Legate Cardinal Wolsey pretended to have found a Nullity in the Marriage and in care for the King's Salvation as he said acquainted Bishop Longland the Kings Confessor with it They both declared this to the King whose ancient doubt being now revived he spent almost a whole year in Study and Consultation concerning it I enter not into the merit of the Cause being indifferent at this time whether the Marriage was Lawful or no. For it appears which is enough that he had reason to doubt and that he took the best way for satisfaction according to their Principles When he had satisfied his own Judgment as himself says though Sanders say otherwise And had the Judgments not only of those Men before-mentioned but of all the Clergy of England save two that his Marriage was Null And he had reason to believe that most Learned Men abroad were of the same Opinion there wanted only this more to have the Popes Declaration of the Nullity This at present could not be had for he was the Emperour's prisoner But as soon as he was at liberty being desired by the King who had obliged him above all men and whom as yet he had occasion to use it seemed at first that there would be no difficulty that way For the Pope granted all his requests gave the King what Commissioners he had named impower'd them to hear the matter in England gave them Bulls
from the Pope to the next lawful General Council Which Appeal the Pope rejected as being unlawful and against the constitution of one of his Predecessours He also declared that there should be a General Council but that the calling of it belonged not to the King but to himself And soon after the term that he had set for the restoring of Queen Katharine being now expired he caused his Sentence against the King to be openly set up at Dunkirk which was then in the Emperours Dominions This was only a declarative Sentence in the case of Attentates as they term it but this being passed there was no doubt but soon after he would proceed to a Definitive Sentence in the cause The King was now concerned to look about him and to provide for the worst that could happen Therefore first with the advice of his Council he acquainted his Subjects with his Appeal which he caused to be set up on every Church door throughout his Kingdom And that his people might understand the validity of it he commanded that they should be taught that a General Council is above the Pope and that by Gods Law the Pope has no more to do in England than any other Forein Bishop Next he sent to engage as many Forein Princes as he could into a stricter Allyance with him And yet lastly to shew that he sought not these ways but was driven to them he desired the Bishop of Paris who was then Embassadour in England to get his Prince to deal effectually with the Pope and to promise in his name that if the Pope would forbear to pass any definitive Sentence till the cause might be heard before indifferent Judges he would also forbear what he had otherwise purposed to do that is to withdraw his obedience from the See of Rome The Bishop gladly took the office of Mediation upon himself and though it was now the dead of Winter yet he went post to Rome to discharge it There in Consistory he delivered his Message to the Pope and so far prevailed that at his earnest request there was a present stop of proceedings on condition that the King should send a Ratification of his promise precisely by such a day In prefixing the day they seemed not to have considered the time of the year For though the Messenger whom the Bishop sent into England found a present dispatch there yet being hindered by weather he did not return within his day The Pope as if he had watcht for that advantage resolved immediately to proceed to a definitive Sentence There being a Consistory called for that purpose the Bishop once more came in and pressed for a longer time He begg'd no more but six days which as he said might be granted to a King that had waited on them with patience for six years It was put to the vote where through the eagerness of the Imperial Cardinals not only that small request was denied but such precipitation was used that as much was done at once in that Consistory as would have askt no less than thrice according to their usual forms Such hast they were in to cut off and to destroy him whom three Popes successively had entitled their Defender and Deliverer When they had done their will within less than fix days that is the second day after this rash and hasty Sentence the Post returned from the King with a Ratification of all that had been promised in his name And he brought this further offer from the King that he would submit to the Judgment of that Court on condition that the Imperial Cardinals who had made themselves Parties against him should be none of his Judges There was an Authority sent for Proctors to appear for him on that condition At which great submission of the King compared with their precipitation the wiser Cardinals were astonished and petitioned the Pope for an arrest of Judgment Which could not well be denied him in those Circumstances And yet it was as if it had not been granted for they that got the Sentence passed by majority of Votes had the same will and power to get it confirmed And confirmed it was with this advantage that the Execution of the Sentence was committed to the Emperour who would be sure to see it done thoroughly as well to enrich himself with the Spoyls as to take his revenge in the ruine of a Prince that had provoked him no way more than in his zeal for the deliverance of this Pope out of his hands In this series of things I cannot but observe the hand of God and adore that unsearchable wisdom by which he made way to bring in the Reformation of this Church There was no King in that Age so zealous for Popery as he had been that came now to throw it out of his Kingdom Whosoever considers him from first to last in this business cannot but see he had no intention to do this He did all things to avoid it that could be done by one who was perswaded of the Justice of his cause And those Princes and Prelates who were perswaded as he was did their parts to hinder things from coming to this extremity None desired it but the Spanish and Imperial Faction unless perhaps the Pope himself could desire to lessen the Papacy by cutting off a whole Kingdom from the Church but he seemed to mind nothing but the raising of his Family and in order to that let the Imperialists do what they would with him Perhaps he might think when his own turns were served to give the King satisfaction afterwards as it may seem by what one says that when the Sentence was past he suspended the Execution of it till the end of September next But he died before that time and so his Sentence continued in force The next Pope that came after him did not approve what he had done for to use his own words he had urged him to right the King in his Divorce and would have perswaded the Emperour to have born it patiently But as then he could not prevail on that side so now he came too late to be heard on the other For on the day of his Coronation at Rome the Parliament met here in England that made the Act of Supremacy The edge of which Law falling severely on the Friends of the Papacy even while the Pope was offering at a reconciliation he was thereby provoked to curse the King afresh by a Bull which yet was not published till some years after When the King having presumed to Un-saint Thomas Becket the Pope thereupon pronounced him no King which made the breach quite unreconcileable I have given so large account of this matter because it is brought into common discourse and as it is told serves to blacken many other beside the King who was only or chiefly concerned in it Otherwise it would serve for our
present occasion to show which I think I have sufficiently done that he had cause to Appeal from the Pope to a Council that he did Appeal in due form of Law and prosecuted it with great Moderation which was enough to acquit him from Schism as far as we are concerned in it That on the other hand the Pope rejected his Appeal to the affront of that Supreme Tribunal among Christians and not only proceeded against the Appellant in which case the Appellant might and ought to resist him but he also took a course that the case should never be otherwise For whereas the Pope assumes to himself the only power to call Councils and whereas there had been none in Ten years to say no more and therefore a Council ought to have been then according to the Canons yet the Pope would have no Council then nor afterwards till he had tried all other ways to destroy both the King and his Kingdom When at last after many years talk and deliberation a Council was called that at Trent which pretends to be a General Council it was such as the King could not think himself bound to acknowledge nay he was bound to oppose it as well for his own preservation as to maintain the Common Right of Christians according to the Principles then received in the Western Church By his Appeal he was not bound to submit to any other than he expressed in it that is a Lawful General Council Such the Councils of Constance and Basil were then generally acknowledged to have been And it was the cry of the Western Church as well in this as the foregoing Ages for such a Council as those were to reform abuses as well in the Head as in the Members But the Head was as it would be and therefore being to chuse would take no Physick to cure it self This was visible in the Popes extreme averseness to a Council till he saw that without it the Nations were likely to Reform themselves Then he began to think it needful to call one himself But at first he named no time or place Then he named first one Town and then another When men began to think he was in earnest for they had been often fooled with reports the King declared he would not own a Council called by the Popes single Authority It was the Judgment of the Church of England that he ought not to own it for so their Synod declared that neither the Bishop of Rome nor any one Prince whatsoever may by his own Authority call a General Council without the express consent of the residue of Christian Princes When afterwards it appeared that the Pope was intent upon it the King on the same grounds made his publick Protestation shewing that the Indiction of a Council belonged not to the Bishop of Rome but to the Emperour and Princes which should send or come thither The like Protestation he sent abroad into all forein Countries And he afterward made it good by not sending one Bishop to the Council when it met though one of his Subjects was there whom the Pope was pleased to make a Bishop with a Title in this Kingdom Having thus no obligation to own this for a General Council he was therefore obliged to oppose it as being the Mockery and Abuse of that Supreme Judicatory joyned with the defrauding all Christians of their right in it and particularly himself of the benefit of his Appeal to it Which things he ought to have considered had it been held in the most innocent manner But much more being held as it was with most apparent design to establish those abuses which all Christendome cried out to have reformed to deprive the diffusive Church of that which was the only remedy for them to bring it to pass that there should be no more General Council as now we see there is like to be none while the world stands particularly as to himself he had cause to oppose the Trent Council as far as he was able For it was originally designed to please the Emperour and thereby to oblige him to head the Party of Christian Princes whom the Pope was then uniting to make War against England And as that Council was framed in all its circumstances the King could consider it no otherwise than he did the Pope himself who was his open and implacable Enemy For as the Pope called it by his single Authority so he always presided in it by his Legates He had it filled with his Creatures Italians and others who were sure to carry every thing by their Number And yet for fear they should forget themselves every thing must be examined at Rome before it could pass through their hands And being past yet it was of no force till it had the Pope's Approbation By which means he made himself so far Lord of this Council that though perhaps he could not pass whatsoever he pleased yet nothing could pass that should displease him in it And least by taking all this care the Pope might seem to intend no more but only to secure himself without doing the King a farther injury there was one thing which made it appear that he had as great a mind to plague the King as to provide for his own preservation For among all his number of Cardinals he could find none fitter to preside in the Council and there to judge the King's cause if he were so unwise as to send it thither than one that was the King's Enemy more than the Pope himself if it were possible That was Cardinal Pool the King 's unnatural Subject and Kinsman who being brought up by him and sent to travel for his farther improvement and while he was abroad being intrusted by him in his cause forsook it and joined himself to the Imperial party In which though he might pretend that he followed his Conscience yet nothing could excuse him for practising against his King and his Country He was the man employed to write against the King's Divorce and out-did other Writers in this that he stirred up the Emperour to revenge his Aunts injury for fear he should forget it and not only so but went about from Prince to Prince and from Country to Country to stir them up to War against this Realm For which so unworthy and so officious a disloyalty he was declared Traitor at home by Act of Parliament and had a price set upon his Head not to mention other instances of the King 's extreme displeasure against him When this had so far endeared him to the Pope that being not content to have made him one of his Cardinals he must also have this man to preside in his Council the English had so much the more cause to be jealous and to stand upon their guard as well against his Council as himself A General Council they could not hold it to be for their Church was not allowed to