at length retired to Sublâ—cum a towne distant forty miles from Rome whither many people by reason of the great fame of his integrity and holinesse of life resorted vnto him but within a while he departed thence and repaired to Cassinum an ancient City in that Region where he built a Monasterie and in a very short time gathered together all such Monks as then wandred here and there in the Woods and Desarts of Italy and gaue them certaine rules and statutes to obserue and keepe And withall bound them to three seuerall Vowes the which were neuer heard of before that S. Basil had ordained them in the East Country to his Monks which was about the yeere 383. for Basil was the first that gaue Rules or Orders vnto Monks Among other Lawes and Statutes hee ordained that after that a Monk had remained the space of one whole yeere in his Abbey if so be that he was willing to continue there still hee should make three seuerall solemne Vowes first to liue chastly but with this Prouiso Si non castè tamen cautè that is to say if he could not liue chastly he should goe about his bunesse warily Secondarily to possesse nothing And thirdly to obey his Superiours in what thing soeuer they should command him Which decree of Benet or rather of Basil but receiued and allowed of by Benet was ratified by the Church of Rome for an Euangelicall Law or Decree Againe Benet gaue his Monklings a new kinde of foolish habit appointing them also a certaine forme of praying allowing them but meane Commons and withall a new manner of Abstinence that was likewise neuer heard of before But now the world is altered with them for whosoeuer will suruay or view them well shall see that they liue like Princes and farre more like Epicures than Religious men as all those that are or haue beene acquainted with them can testifie This Congregation of Saint Benet grew by little and little to be so great that it is almost incredible Yet in the end there hapned such a Schisme among them that it was and still is diuided into many families as Cluniacenses Camalduenses Vallisumbrenses Montoliuetenses Grandimontenses Cistercienses Syluestrenses Coelestini and diuers others who are now adaies either vnited with other Orders or else quite extirpated and abolished All these seuerall Sects of Monks who apply their minds to nothing else but to sloth idlenesse gluttony idolatry whordome fornication and the like impietie vnlesse it be to inuent and bring in daily more new Sects of Monks and Friers are reported to haue proceeded from the first Family of Saint Benet Those that were first instituted by this Saint as they themselues confesse are those that now adaies weare a blacke loose Coat of stuffe reaching downe to their heeles with a Cowle or hood to couer their bald Pates which hangs downe to their shoulders and their Scapular shorter than any other of these Monks and vnder that Coat another white Habit as large as the former made of Stuffe or white Flannen They shaue the haires of their heads except one little round circle which they leaue round about their heads which they call Corona their Crowne forsooth because they would bee honoured as Kings and Princes By the rule that their Patron gaue them they are bound to abstaine perpetually from flesh vnlesse when they are sicke And therfore these immodest moderne Monks who doe eat Flesh daily except the time of Lent and other fish daies must of necessity be alwaies sicke vnlesse they will impudently confesse as indeed they cannot deny but that they obserue not the Lawes and Statutes of their Patron Saint Benet and therein haue infringed and falsified one of their vnlawfull Vowes Where you may obserue that this Monasticall Institution being but humane and not grounded or warranted by the Word of God did not continue long inuiolated the nature of men being inclined yea in the best things to wax daily rather worse than better And therefore the Benedictin Monks haue contaminated their former Piety and Deuotions with the Mammon of this world as Promotions Sloth Gluttony and all manner of Luxury which was the cause that this one Family was so rent and diuided into so many Sects and Schismes as daily experience teacheth vs. How religiously they haue liued heretofore and still liue those that are conuersant in their owne Histories and haue trauelled in forraigne Countries can best tell to their perpetuall shame although our new vpstart English Benedictin Monks would haue the world beleeue that their Order first planted the Christian Religion in this Land and that the Monks of their Order were euer godly and religious men and therefore not to be ranked with the Iesuites who are great Statesmen for they good Monks meddle not with matters of State or with Kings affaires but for all their counterfeit holinesse let me tell them in their eares that an English Benedictin of Swinsteed Abbey poisoned King Iohn for the which fact he was and still is highly honoured by all Papists in generall And one saith of him thus Iohannes Maior de gestis Scotorum lib. 4. c. 3. Cluniacenses Regem perimere meritorium ratus est he thought it a meritorious deed to kill the King The Monks that are called Cluniacenses being formerly of the Congregation of Benet were first instituted in Burgundie by one Otho an Abbot of that Congregation vnto whom William surnamed the Godly Duke of Aquitaine gaue a certaine Village called Mastick and other lands towards their maintenance which was about the yeare of our Lord DCCCCXVI Camalduenses Not long after the Camalduenses Monks started vp the Author of it was one Romoaldus who had beene formerly a Monk of Benets Order in a Cloister neare Rauenna in Italy from whence he made an escape to the Prouince of Hetruria which is now the Duke of Florence his Dominion where hauing obtained a coÌ„uenient place of one Modulus he built a Monastery on the top of the Appenine hills and there erected another new Family These Monks weare a white habite and professe to lead a very austere kinde of life but to say the truth all is but meere hypocrisie Vallis-vmbresenses In the other side of those former hilles at a place called Vallis-Vmbrosa in the yeare of our Lord 1060. one Iohn Gualbertus a Florentine instituted another new Family of Monks who did weare a purple habite Monteliuetenses The Monteliuetenses began to peepe out about the yeare 1047. at the same time when there were three seuerall Popes liuing who troubled all Christendome for the Papacie The Institutor of this Family of Monks was one Bernardus Ptolomeus they liued at the first at Sienna a Citie in Tuscan in Italy but afterwards hauing gathered their crummes together they built an Abbey on the top of an high hill not farre from thence they weare a white habite this Family was approued by Pope Gregory the twelfth Grandimontenses The Author or
started vp in England that the Common-wealth was so oppressed and exhausted by them that it was not able to releeue them or to say the truth to satisfie their exorbitant and greedy desires Idem ibidem The Robertin Friers WE reade that one Robert who had for a certaine time beene an Heremite forsooke that kind of life and erected an Order of Monks at Guaresburg or Waresburg in Yorke-shire about the yeare of our Lord 1137. Capgrauus Balaeus Centur. 2. cap. 63. de Script Brit. in Apendice The Heremits of Saint Paul THis Order of Heremits began in Hungary vnder the Rule of S. Austen about the yeare 1215. their first Institutor was as they say one Eusebius Strigonensis Panuinus in Chronich It was confirmed in the yeare 1308. by Cardinall Gentilis Legate to Pope Clement the fifth Idem ibidem The Canon Regulars of Saint Marke began at Mantua in Italy 1230. Of Ieromite Monks IEROME the sonne of Eusebius borne in the Towne of Stidonium in the Prouince of Dalmatia after such time that he had spent many yeares at Rome in study repaired to the Prouince of Iudea and there built him a Cottage neare Bethlem where hee liued many yeares in fasting praying and writing whose diuine workes are still extant Whereupon many other men afterwards by imitation indeuouring to lead that kinde of solitary life called themselues Hieronymiani or Ieronymiti but alas they were farre contrary to him ether in life discipline or doctrine From Saint Ierome or to say the truth from these Hieronymiani the Ieromite Monks doe borrow or vsurpe their first origine or beginning and doe pretend though most falsly that this great Doctor was the only man that first erected their Order and gaue them their Rule They weare a kinde of a sandy coloured habite downe to their heeles and a cloke of the same colour likewise to the ground some of them weare shooes and stockins and others that are more hypocriticall weare sandales They haue great Abbeyes and large possessions and abound in wealth wheresoeuer they liue And their chiefest dwelling is in Italy and Spaine for in other Countries they haue but a few or no Monasteries at all The truth is one Carolus Granellus a Florentine was the first Author of this Sect who liued many yeares after Saint Ierome and he was the first that built an Abbey for them in the hilles of Fessulana in Italy howbeit there are others that attribute this Institution to Redo Earle of Montegranello and that they obserued at the first the Rule or Order of Saint Austen of Fesula and that Pope Gregory the twelfth ratified and confirmed their Order There are others of them that brag that Saint Ierome instituted this Order when he liued in the wildernesse of Iudea and that Eusebius Cremonensis did increase and augment this family To conclude they themselues cannot tell who was their Institutor They are now diuided into two Sects that is to say Hieronymiani Eremitae and Hieronymiani Simpliciter England God be praised is not troubled with these Ieromite Monks and therefore I will proceed to suruey the rest of these disordered Orders making as much speed as I can to come to speake of the Mendicant or begging Friers with whom I am afraid I shall be more troubled than with these rich Monks and Friers Of the Canon Regulars of the Order of Saint Augustine THere are diuers opinions among the Papists concerning the first originall or beginning of these Canon Regulars and the Mendicant or begging Augustine Friers and therefore the question is not as yet decided for there are very many learned men which hold that Saint Augustine was neuer the Author or Founder of either of these two Sects or of any other Order of Friers Neuerthelesse these Canon Regulars doe not only affirme that Saint Augustine when he was Bishop of Hippo in Africa did reduce all the Canons of that Church to this order and discipline that they now professe to obserue But also some of them doe very impudently bragge that their Order was instituted by the Apostles before Saint Augustines time and that this holy man did but renew it and did neuer institute any other Religious Order besides theirs The Mendican Augustine Friers doe stoutly deny it and say that their Order and none other was instituted by this great Doctor as hereafter shall be declared These Canon Regulars doe weare long white cloth coats open before downe to their heeles vnderneath they weare doublets breeches shirts and white stockins shooes or slippers Ouer this coat which is bound with a girdle they doe weare a short surplice to their knees and ouer that a little short blacke cloake to their elbowes like a womans riding cloake with a little cowle or hood fastened to it and a blacke corner-cap or a broad hat when they walke or goe abroad and their crownes shauen like other Friers They haue great Monasteries like Princes Courts and great lands and reuenues and are very rich And haue many Cloisters in Italy Germany and Netherland but in France Spaine and other Catholike Countries they haue not so many Moreouer they are diuided into many Families as Canonici Saluatoris and Scopetini whose Authors were Iacobus and Stephanus Senenses This Order did Pope Gregory the eleuenth approue and confirme about the yeare 1408. Some report that one Franciscus Bononiensis was the first Institutor of this Sect in the time of Pope Vrban the fifth in the yeare 1366. and the other two did but renue it being almost abolished There is another Family of these Friers called Frisonaria neere the City of Luca in Italy which was erected and augmented by Pope Eugenius the fourth who gaue them many Priuileges Indulgences and Pardons they are called of some Lateranenses And withall there is another Family at Venice and another at or neere Cambray in the Low-Countries instituted by one Laurentius Instinianus Patriarch of Venice in the yeere 1407. and confirmed by Pope Iohn the two and twentieth these weare a purple Habit and a blacke Cloke ouer it These Canon Regulars had heretofore many Cloisters here in England whereof one was in that place which is now called Saint Mary Spittle But I neuer knew or heard of more than two English men of this Order that are now liuing and I thinke they are too many by two but howsoeuer there is neither of them guilty of much learning To conclude there were and still are diuers other Friers and Nuns that did and doe professe to liue vnder the Rule as they say of Saint Augustine as the 1. Dominicani 2 Serui Beata Maria Virginis 3 Brigidiani 4 Iesuati 5 Canonici Regularis Sancti Georgij 6. Montoliuenteses 7 Hieronymiani Eremitae 8 Hieronymiani Simpliciter 9 Cruciferi 10 Scopetini 11 Antoniani seu Hospitalarij Sancti Antoni 12 Trinitarij 13 Seruitae 14. Feruerij 15 Fratres B. Ioannis Hierosolymitani 16 Crucifericum stella 17 Fratres Sancti Petri Confessoris de Magella 18
another Quire below the other by themselues Of all other Orders of Monks and Friers these doe lead the solitariest life and are lesse troublesome or burthenous to that Common-wealth where they liue And withall I finde but few or none of them to haue beene Canonized Saints by the Popes for they are none of these Miracle-mongers I meane these Carthusian Friers do neuer as they themselues confesse neither aliue or dead worke any miracles And the reason is as they say because heretofore about the yeare of our Lord 1175. A lowd lye a certaine Monk of this Order being dead wrought many miracles at his tombe or sepulcher and therefore many people resorted thither The Prior perceiuing that the concourse of the multitude did much trouble and disturbe the Monks quietnesse and deuotion or rather that much wickednesse was daily committed as well by those people as also by the Monks and withall of the concourse of many beggers that resorted thither to preuent this mischiefe hee came to the place where the dead Monk lay and commanded him vpon paine of disobedience to obey him now being dead as he had formerly done in his life-time Bonifacius Ferrarius Antoninus Tit. 15. cap. 22. And withall afterwards not to worke any more miracles the which the dead Monk straight way obeyed And neuer since the Carthusian Friers wrought not any miracles either liuing or dead They haue a Chapter generall yearely in the moneth of May at Carthusia where the first institution of their Order was and where their first Cloister was built which is by report a famous thing To this Chapter doe two Monks out of euery Cloister that is of their Order in all the world repaire where they doe consult about the affaires and propagation of their Order and Family and after that they haue continued there some fortnight as I haue heard they returne home euery man to his owne Cloister There is a Couent of English Friers of this Order at Mechlin neare Bruxels they are very rich and were in great hope when his Maiestie was in Spaine to haue recouered their Cloisters and Reuenues in England But now of late I heare say the more is the pitie that they as well as others of our English Monks Friers and Iesuites yea the holy Nuns are fallen into a consumption or rather desperation if it be true I would aduise them to send for Don Diego Sarmientes Conde de Gondomar to administer physicke vnto them for he is if I am not much deceiued the best Doctor to touch their pulse and to purge their ill humors as for their purses he hath done it alreadie and to say the truth he is the man that is best acquainted with their diseases All these former Orders or Sects of Monks and Friers doe abound in riches and doe more resemble Princes than Religious men Their Monasteries are most sumptuously built and situated in the fattest ground and the most plentifull fields of the Countrey neare some pleasant Riuer Haue they not all the pleasures that the Country can afford Doe they not feed on the choisest meat and drink yea carouse of the purest wine in bowles and goblets of gold and siluer that can be got for money Haue they not their Orchards stored with the delicatest fruits that can be had Oh how are their Gardens contriued with pleasant walkes and furnished with infinite varietie of sweet and medicinable herbes and roots and with most curious and costly fountaines springs statues groues and thickets Doe they not rest vpon beds of downe and pure sweet linnen How are their Celles hanged with cloth of Arras and other curious and costly tapistrie Haue they not their white Island-dogges munkies parots and other prating birds to sport and recreate themselues withall With what statelinesse doe they ride abroad in their Caroches or vpon their great horses or mules in their foot-cloathes What reuerence doe they exact or at least-wise expect from all sorts of people Haue they not their Monasteries Orchards Gardens walkes groues fountaines and fish-ponds compassed about with a high thicke stone or bricke wall to the end that none may discouer their secret knaueries or participate of their pleasant walkes Are not their gates alwaies locked that none can come in except it be their speciall friends Haue they not whole Manors Farmes Granges Vineyards Dayries and great flockes of sheepe herds of cattell hogs and goats yea all kinde of poultries corne pastures and other prouision of their owne farre more than will serue their turne How costly are their Chalices Corporas Copes Vestiments and other Church-furniture In what pompe doth an Abbot sing Masse and his Monks assist and serue him To conclude wheresoeuer there is any Abbey or Priorie there doe Whores and Bawds dwell and resort by whole hundreds And that this is true all honest Trauellers that know Italy Spaine France Germany Netherland and other Catholike Countries can beare me record And is this iudge you to forsake the world to mortifie the flesh and to spend the time in holy meditations and prayers Or is it not to carry the world and all the pompe pleasures and concupiscences thereof with them into their Cloisters and Monasteries As their holy Father the Pope would haue Orbem in Vrbe Rome to containe all the World Hauing treated though briefly of the rich Monks and Friers it remains now for me to speake of the Mendicant or begging Friers and lastly of the Iesuites whom in regard they are such eminent men in the Church of Rome withall good souldiers and singular good miners well experienced in powder plots and fire-workes I will place in the reareward of this Regiment of Monks and Friers and in the latter end of this Discourse I will therefore according to their antiquitie begin with the Augustine Mendicant Friers because they challenge the first ranke or place among the Begging Friers wherein I shall not as I hope doe the other Friers any wrong seeing that they haue the first place of all these kinde of Friers in all Processions Burialls and other Assemblies whatsoeuer Of the Augustin Mendicant Friers THese Mendicant Friers doe challenge to be the first Order of Religious men that S. Augustine did erect or institute which was say they when he liued in the wildernesse and therefore are called Augustiniani Eremitani or Heremite Augustine Friers The Canon Regulars doe vtterly deny it in so much that the most part of their owne learned men do suspect that neither the one or other was euer instituted by that learned man S. Augustine as I told you before as appeares by these ensuing verses which were written many yeares agoe Mendici fratres induti vestibus atris Augustinus ego nomen habere nego These begging Friers that in blacke are clad Nor name nor habite from Saint Austen had Balaeus Cent. 7. cap. 89. in Appendice c. They came into England from Italy about the yeare 1252. At which time there began such a
by the Heretikes this holy Relique was miraculously preserued and conueighed to this Cloister at Louain where it hath beene euer since worshipped with no lesse adoration than the Sacrament of the Eucharist O admirable hoggish Relique a peece of Bacon worshipped for the Body of Christ Nay they haue not beene ashamed to print a little Treatise of the miracles it hath wrought From thence Frier Thomas brought this Gentleman to a Chamber in that Cloister where they did vse to entertaine strangers and puts a Fagot on the fire for it was in the winter time and then began to taste of the Tobacco but for feare that the other Friers should smell it his Fatherhood stood vpon a stoole in the Chimney to blow vp the smoke which came out of his Nosthrils like the smoke of a Brew-house Within a while the Gentleman departed and not long after Frier Thomas was found tardy taking of a Pipe of smoke and for feare of being put to some extraordinary penance his Fatherhood made such an eloquent Oration in commendation of this Indian herbe that he perswaded the Prior and the rest of the Friers to take a Pipe of Tobacco which they did and liked so well of it that they haue vsed it euer since and I make no question but Father Thomas will be had in a perpetuall memory in their Bookes for that his good instruction There is another famous English Father of this Order his name is Father Baldwin a man likewise guilty of no great learning This good Father was sometimes an Apprentise to a Goldsmith in London afterwards in the City of Antwerpe he became an Augustin Mendicant Frier I saw him there trauersing the street with another Frier but I did not speake with him for I was going in haste a Ship-boord towards Holland for it was the last day of the late Truce that was betweene the King of Spaine and the States of the Vnited Prouinces I was told that he is now in England and it may well be for I thinke the Friers of Antwerpe had rather haue his roome than his company At Grenoble a City in France there was a Frier of this Order who in his talke and gesture seemed to all men to be a very religious godly man But alas his fortune was bad for as he Sodomitically medled with one of his owne brethren a Frier of the selfe same Order he was taken doing the deed but this horrible fact being forgiuen him vpon his deniall he was at another time apprehended imprisoned and punished for being vnder a Rocke nigh the foresaid City of Gronoble too familiar with a queane Another Augustine Frier and a Confessor hauing heard the confession of a Flemming inioyned him in his penance to goe on Pilgrimage to the Idoll of Loretto to offer his gifts at her Altar and craue her intercession to her Son Christ Iesus and in the meane time this holy Father slept with his Wife and being taken naked in bed by the Officers of the City they let him goe to his Monastery without any further trouble or punishment because hee was a graue Father and an eloquent Preacher I haue read that a Frier of this Order was imprisoned in Rome in the yeere 1580. for the wilfull murdering of three seuerall persons at seuerall times and yet was neuer executed for he was a famous Preacher and a great Whoremonger These Augustine Friers haue a woodden Crucifix in their Monasterie neere Burgos in Spaine that yeelds them no lesse than six or seuen thousand Crownes yeerely This Crucifix as they themselues report was made by one of the Apostles and was afterwards found vpon the Seas neere the Coast of Spaine together with a Scrowle or Schedule written in good strong Parchment signifying the vertue and holinesse of this woodden Christ And from thence it was with great ioy and deuotion brought to this Cloister where it is set vp in a little Chappell and had in great honour See the iugling of these Friers and hath wrought as they say many strange Miracles and is much frequented by the Country people who offer very largely vnto it This Crucifix is as big as any reasonable man and most artificially carued and painted it hath a false Beard and a Periwig of a Chestnut colour haire and artificiall nailes set on both hands and feet They make the ignorant people beleeue that those artificiall haire and nailes of the Crucifix doe grow and that it doth sweat Water and Bloud euery Friday which drop downe into a great siluer Bason that is alwaies vnder the feet of the Crucifix Moreouer they set Wheat in their Garden which is a bigger graine than any other ordinary Wheat of this Wheat they report a wonderfull story For they say that when Adam was driuen out of Paradise he tooke a whole handfull of the Eares of the Wheat that did grow there and carried it away with him into the world and of this kinde of seed is there Wheat which they grind in a little Mill made for that purpose and of the Meale and the Water and Bloud that the holy Crucifix doth sweat they make little Cakes as big as a dry Fig which they sell for a quartillo a peece which is as much as three halfe pence in English money They haue the length of the Crucifix in blue silke Ribands with these words painted in siluer letters La Medida del Santo Crucifixo de Burgos that is to say The measure of the holy Crucifix of Burgos These Ribands they sell for twelue pence a peece for they say that they haue many vertues and are good for a hundred diseases and aboue all the rest they are a present remedy for the head-ach and for weomen that are in labour of child-birth Nay if all be true that these Friers report there is neuer a Quack-saluer in Christendome with all his Oile Salues and Waters that doth cure so many diseases as these Ribands doe And as for their little Cakes which they call Pañcillos they are precious things for all interiour Diseases and rare Antidots against all manner of poison and withall as long as any one doth carry one of them about his neck either in a clout or a siluer case the Deuill can haue no power ouer him The Chappell where this Crucifix is will scarce containe twenty persons and is made like a Chamber seeled ouer without any windowes at all and the Crucifix is made fast to a wall ouer the Altar hauing the head close to the feeling there hang three silke Curtaines before it of three seuerall colours viz. blue red and white They doe vse when they doe shew this woodden Christ great reuerence for they kneele all downe with great deuotion and silence and then one of the Friers very softly drawes the first Curtaine and afterwards saith a Pater and an Aue and in like manner the second but when he comes to the last and that El Santo Christo de Burgos The holy Christ of Burgos for so
the common people doe call it begins to appeare they lift vp their hands and cry like Baals Priests Señor Dios mio ayuda me O my Lord God helpe me This cry which endures about halfe a quarter of an houre being ended then they kisse the ground three times and deliuer their Beads vnto the Friers who haue forked sticks in their hands on which they put their Beads and rub them against some part of the Crucifix and afterwards put them to the mouth of it to the end that some vertue may be transferred from the Image vnto these Beads This being done one of the Friers doth cast some holy Water vpon the Beads and the People and then they cast the Beads vpon the Altar that euery one may take his owne in the meane time a holy Friers stands with a siluer Bason in his hands to receiue the offertories of these fools in the Porch as they goe forth there sits two rewes of Friers with Tables before them on either hand a Table one of them sels those Ribands another those little Cakes some begs Money to say Masse before the holy Crucifix another to buy Oile and Wax Candles to burne before it to conclude they beg for to light our Lady and the holy Sacrament and for twenty such like vses This Chappell is alwaies locked sauing at such time as they say Masse and they neuer say any Masse there but when some foole paies for it neither doe they shew the Crucifix but at Massetime But if one brings a good Offering they will let him see the holy Crucifix at any time I came there vpon a time in company of one Master Daniel Powel to see this woodden God but the Chappell was so full that with much adoe wee stood without the doore where we saw all their Ceremonies and had much adoe to refraine from laughter to see their howling crying and apish behauiour But when we went forth the Friers looked strangely vpon vs because wee would giue them no Money They haue not beene ashamed to set out a booke in Spanish of the History and miracles of this Crucifix which I haue both seene and read and is still extant Of the Carmelite Friers THese Carmelite or cormorant Friers pretend to haue their first institution at Mount Carmel in Syria where Elias and other Prophets heretofore liued solitarily But God knowes there is great difference betweene the Carmelite Friers and Elias and those old Prophets In this Mount say they liued a few Hermites scattered here and there who were afterwards gathered together by Almericus Bishop of Antioch who built them a Monastery in that Mount neere vnto a Fountaine in which place they say the blessed Virgin Mary gaue them their Rule and Order from whence they borrow or rather vsurpe the name or title of Fratres ordinis beatae Mariae Virginis de monte Carmelo that is Friers forsooth of the Order of the blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel This their first apparition into the world was about the yeere 1170. in the time of Pope Alexander the third But because these Friers had not then any setled Order or Institution for Discipline Manners and Ceremonies which is a thing of no small moment among the Papists it was of most men held and reputed as abortiue and illegitimate And therefore most of their owne Writers are of opinion that about some certain yeeres afterwards in the time of Pope Innocentius the fourth one Albertus then Patriarch of Ierusalem gaue vnto these men who then liued in the wildernesse certain Rules or Orders which he had taken patched out of the Rule of the Monks of the Order of S. Basil withall ordained that they should weare a party-coloured habit that is to say white and red made in the forme of a Mantle which they then dreamed to be like vnto that which Elias did vse to weare But afterwards Pope Honorius the third interdicted them to weare that Habit as being not well befitting their profession and therefore a black long habit and a cowle was giuen them ouer that a long white robe or cloke as best agreeing with Virginity which is without any spot or blemish but marke I pray you their hypocrisie Afterwards they transported themselues out of Asia into Europe where they haue euer since laboured by all meanes possible to magnifie and aduance their owne Order and the Kingdome of Antichrist And to that end one Cyrillus a Grecian the third generall Prelate of this Order by the Popes setting on and aduice did affirme to haue receiued a new Gospell a new Reuelation from Heauen written with Gods owne finger in siluer tables in the Greek tongue wherein among other blasphemous and damnable Doctrine was written That God the Father had reigned during the time of the Law and God the Sonne in the time of Grace but after the comming of the foure Orders of Mendicant Friers to wit the Augustins Carmelites Dominicans and Franciscans the holy Ghost began to reigne and should reigne vntill the end of the world and that all such as would beleeue this new Gospell should be saued So that if it had not beene for Valdensis and other good men that God in his great mercy did stirre vp in those daies to resist such a palpable impiety Note well the drift of Antichrist there had beene now no mention of Iesus Christ in the world for his purpose was to abolish the new Testament and to aduance his deuillish doctrine This is the second Order of Mendicant Friers which is in such credit and reputation among women that they are by their Offerings growne very rich for they brag although most falsly that the Virgin Mary is their Patronesse and therefore women doe dote vpon them for the blessed Virgins sake who is the honour of their Sex and by this meanes they were before the Reformation setled in most of the chiefest Cities of Christendome and still are in all popish Countries If one doe discourse with any of them about their antiquity oh then they will brag that they are ancienter than any other Order of Monks or Friers for say they our Order hath beene euer since the time of Elias and the blessed Virgin did renue it and gather vs together into Cloisters They haue many Pardons and Indulgences granted vnto them from many Popes whereof one is that none of their Order or fraternity shall lie in the Popes Kitchin I would haue said Purgatory no longer than the next Saturday following their death as appeares by their Theses or Theologicall questions printed at Paris in the yeere 1601. which are cited by Master Moulins in his Defence of the Catholike Faith which Theses I likewise read in Tours Wee haue some Englishmen of this holy Order and partakers of those diuine Graces and Indulgences I neuer knew any but Father Symons and Father Richard Studder This Father Studder was made Priest at Collen in Germany he tooke the Habit albeit he vnderstands not the Masse
London grew so farre into his Land-ladies fauour who was then a young wanton gossip that he perswaded her to breake her vow of wedlocke and to forsake her wedded husband and that which is worst to yeeld to his carnall desires and in summe to forsake all her friends and kinsfolkes and to follow him Whereupon she by his perswasions very foolishly conueyed certaine plate and other goods in trunckes and chests priuately away out of her husbands house according to this Friers counsell and direction purposing to depart priuately away with this holy Frier vnknowne to her husband vnto whom she had formerly vowed both faith and loyalty But see the spight a Pursuyuant that had intelligence of this Father Grayes facultie though not of his knauery came and tooke him and his sweet Land-lady as they were priuately consulting about their iourney and brought him albeit he spared her for her husband or rather for her friends sake to Newgate and hauing well perused all his letters and notes he vnderstood all their knauery But yet for all this the honest woman would not forsake Mr. Gray neither beleeue that he was a poore begging Frier but a Knights brother of Northfolke whom for honour sake I will not name because he is none of their sect and one whom I honour and yet this good Frier afterwards confessed that he neuer knew that Knight or was any way allied vnto him but it was true that he told his Land-lady that he had fiue hundred pounds yearely in good lands in Northfolke and yet he confessed afterwards that he was neuer there but was borne in Duram Oh the chastitie and honestie of Monks and Friers All this I know to be true for I was an ocular witnesse of all this that I deliuered vnto you Another Franciscan Frier of Perigot in France hid himselfe in a Brides chamber and found the meanes to lye with the Bride before her husband came to her and yet escaped for all that the houshold could do when they heard of it and are not these holy and chaste Religious men iudge you Another holy Frier of this Order neare Lyons in France married his brother Frier in the habite of a Scholler to a rich widowes daughter making them beleeue he was an heire to great reuenues and sent to Lyons as it were vnder his tutelage but within a while after the mother and the daughter discouered his shauen crowne and so he was apprehended and sent to the Magistrates to be punished In the yeare 1607. at Madrid in Spaine it was my fortune to fall out with an Irish-man whose name was Master Iames Field This man in his anger hired two Picaros or Rogues to murder me And as I was going thorow a certaine street home to my lodging I met with another Irish Gentleman that loued me who told me that a friend of Mr. Fields one of those Picaros were pursuing after me that he and the other Picaro stayed at the vpper end of the street to murder me and therefore wished me to looke to my selfe or else I should hardly escape Whereupon giuing him many thankes for his friendly loue and warning I stept into a little Church that was belonging to a certaine Couent of Nuns of the Order of Saint Clare who weare the habite of S. Francis and sate downe in a darke corner of the Church for it was late and almost night thinking with my selfe that these my enemies would within a while be gone for they knew not as I supposed that I was there But within halfe an houre after there came into the same Church two Recollect Friers which in Spaine they call Frayles descalcios de San Francisco that is bare-foot Franciscan Friers and hauing said a Pater noster or an Aue Maria one of them rose vp and went vnto an Iron-grate that was in the lower end of the Church and there rang a little bell by and by there came a Nun vnto him and after two or three words of complements as the fashion is in those countries he sent this Nun to call another Nun who came presently who being no sooner come but this Religious Father began to hugge or embrace her thorow the grate and vpon a sudden the Church doore was with a pully which went thorow the wall into the Couent locked fast When I saw how the matter went and fearing hauing escaped one danger lest I should be discouered and so fall into a worse and be murdered by these Nuns and Friers or at least-wise accused of Sacrilege I threw my cloake ouer my head for feare they should perceiue my band and sate as quiet and as mute as a fish making as though I slept In the meane time both the Friers got into the Couent but which way I know not for there was neuer a doore for them to enter and besides my cloake was ouer my eyes that I could not see but this I am sure that I saw them both within the grate and foure or fiue Nuns whispering together for I could not heare their discourse From thence they went to some other place and what they did I know not but leaue it vnto others to consider For my part I was constrained for mine owne safetie to stay there vntill the next morning and as soone as the doore was open I departed and was neuer discouered In the moneth of August 1613. I was comming from Venice towards Netherland and at Padua I met with a young man named Cornelius Vander Brugg borne as he said neare Berg Saint Wenego in Flanders This man was trauelling the selfe-same way as I was and was very glad of my company and my selfe likewise of his and so trauelling on our iourney we came within foure or fiue miles of Trent and by reason the heat was so great that wee could not trauell any further vntill the coolenesse of the euening wee slept a little out of the way into a thicket of bushes to refresh our selues in the shade vntil the heat of the day was past where we had not bin very long but we fell both asleepe About two houres after I heard some people hard by in the same thicket quarrelling and railing as if they had beene so many Tankard-bearers at Holborne-conduit I wondered who they were and was halfe afraid they were Banditi or Robbers by the high way yet creeping vpon my hands and knees softly thorow the thicket I espied there six Capuchin Friers sitting downe vpon the ground with good meat before them and each of them with a great wine-bottle by him two of them were Germaines and the rest Italians The quarrell was about a bottle of sweet wine that was drunke vp by some of them while the others slept The Italians accused the Germaines and they stood vpon their Innocencie one of them a lustie tall Frier swore in the Dutch tongue by an hundred thousand Sacraments that he would beat two of the other Friers as soone as they came into Dutch-land for they were going
men of the Towne where they built the goodliest houses in all the Citie because forsooth they would be neare these holy Fathers to haue their spirituall comfort and consolation in time of need The Iesuits being thus seated and setled like Princes the first thing was that they did to requite the Citizens great loue and extraordinary charges They procured vnto themselues from the King of Spaine the Archduke the Archduchesse Letters Patents that they should haue for euery barrell of beere that is drawn within that Town two shillings nine pence farthing which is for euery quart pot two Liards or halfe a Stiuer which is about an halfe-peny halfe farthing English and doth amount to a great summe of mony yearly considering the greatnesse of the Towne and the multitude of the people that are the Inhabitants thereof Albeit the Assise which they were constrained to pay before that time for their beere was as much in equall portion to the King and the Archduke as they did pay to the Brewer from which the poore begger was not free but if he did drinke he paid so much vnto the King as he did to the Victualer And yet these vnconscionable and couetous Iesuites did for their benefit and better maintenance procure this other imposition to be laid vpon the Inhabitants notwithstanding the former extraordinary loue and kindnesse which they receiued from them Both which assise of the beere the poore inhabitants haue beene constrained to pay euer since as well to the King as to the Iesuites by means whereof and other their politike cheating and cosenage they are become not only exceeding rich but also odious to all the Townes and Countrey there adioyning And besides whereas the inhabitants of this Towne had been for many hundred yeares free and exempt from all forfeiture or confiscation of their lands and goods to the King if any of them had committed any felony murder treason or the like their bodies being only liable to the Law and not their lands or goods Now these Iesuites perceiuing that the State-house the Towne Charter and all the ancient Records of the Towne had beene some certaine yeares before burnt by occasion of fire procured vnder-hand a Patent to be granted to their College of all forfeitures and confiscations whatsoeuer that should happen to fall due to the King within that Towne and the liberties thereof and hauing so done they began to seize vpon the land and goods of all such as were conuicted for any of these or the like crimes or offences The Magistrates of the Towne and all the rest of the inhabitants with one consent did oppose the Iesuites as intruders vsurpers and common perturbers of their Priuileges and Liberties whereupon the Iesuites commenced their sute against the Magistrates and all the inhabitants of the Towne in the higher Courts wherein the Iesuites would haue surely preuailed if that a certaine Religious man as I thinke a Canon Regular of the Order of S. Augustine that liued in an Abbey about six miles from the Towne and yet in the territories of the same had not found out in the Library there an old booke of Histories or Antiquities in Manuscript written many hundred yeares since wherein was contained among other things a Copie of the Charter of this Towne of Lysle which being shewed vnto the Councell of State the Iesuits with much shame disgrace had a definitiue sentence giuen against them neuer afterwards to intermedle with the Priuileges and Statutes of the Towne and to pay cost and charges besides Oh the honestie of these holy men of the society of Iesus Iohn Chastell was taught and perswaded by the Iesuites to murder Henry the fourth of France and yet some Papists would deny it if they could because they are loth to make the Iesuites odious and yet others did helpe to erect a pillar of stone neare to the Kings Palace in Paris whereby so much was signified But the Iesuits when they were recalled againe into France from their banishment got leaue of the King vpon the Queenes request to deface it some few yeares before the King was murdered by Rauillacke In the yeare 1607. The Iesuites procured the Emperour Rodulphus to prescribe that ancient Imperiall City Donawert in high Germany and to giue it in prey vnto the Duke of Bauaria who came priuately with foure or fiue thousand men and tooke it and ransacked it and afterwards put a strong garrison therein altering their Lawes and Customes and debarring them of all their former Priuileges whatsoeuer in so much that the chiefest men in the Citie were constrained to abandon both house and home and to seeke after another place to inhabite I came thorow this Citie within three moneths after that the Duke of Bauaria had taken it and it grieued my heart to see into what miserable bondage the poore Citizens were brought and all through the deuillish practise of these irreligious Machiauills who then did tyrannize ouer them like so many Turks or Infidels for they managed the whole affaires of the Citie the Gouernour which the Duke had placed there ouer the souldiers stood but for a cipher for he durst doe nothing without the consent of the Iesuits The Magistrates were all put out of their charge offices other base poore mechanicall fellowes appointed in their places farre vnworthy the high dignitie of Consuls or Burghemasters in such an ancient free and noble City as that is The souldiers were billeted in all the Protestants houses and not in any Papists house where they dominierd like so many deuills making hauock of all that they could come by and yet the Protestants were constrained to pay them their wages besides What shall I say The Iesuites in effect did command and controll the whole Citie as they pleased They banished their Ministers and compelled the inhabitants either to goe to heare Masse contrary to their consciences or else forsake the Citie and liue in exile And yet this is nothing in comparison to that the Protestants of Aquisgranum haue endured and yet doe suffer The Emperour Charles surnamed the Great hunting vpon a time in the Forest of Arden found out certaine Bathes or hot waters in which place he built a very faire Citie and called it Aquisgranum and gaue it many priuileges and great freedome among other things he ordained that all other Emperours his Successours should be crowned there and that the Imperiall Diadem which is now kept at Franckfurt vpon Main should be kept in this Citie Here likewise hee built among other Churches a very faire Collegiat Church endowing it with great reuenues within a Chappell of this Church the craftie Clergie men obseruing the ignorance of the people in those daies set vp an Image of the blessed Virgin Mary which they affirmed to worke great miracles by meanes whereof and of the hot Bathes this Citie came to be very famous and haunted by many people for many that were visited with sicknesse and diseases came from farre
the King of Spaine who leaue nothing vndone that they make themselues plausible vnto you and your fauourers Now these traiterous Iesuites Monks Friers and Seminary Priests who aime at nothing else than to corrupt the fidelity of England and to withdraw the hearts of his Maiesties subiects from their obedience to their Soueraigne yea finally to plucke England Scotland and Ireland from due subiection to his Maiesty and to present them to this ambitious Philip of Spaine gained first of all secretly those whom they knew to be best affected to the Spaniards as some of the Priuy Councell Nobility Gentry and of his Maiesties Officers at Court and elsewhere and withall not few of our collapsed Ladies in whose laps these holy Fathers doe often lay downe their heads to take a nap nay which is worse they suborned and peruerted many of the Clergy and Students of either Vniuersitie to ioyne with them who O horrible shame make no conscience to sell for ready money their Eloquence and Knowledge which they ought to haue imploied in preaching the Gospell and instructing the simple people in the feare of God and obedience to their King to corrupt the constancy and fidelity of England but Quid non mortalia pectora cogit aurisacra fames What is it that gold will not doe These cunning Iebusites or if you will Iudaists are the King of Spaines trading Factors and Dispensers to distribute and pay his gold to his Pentioners that lurke about the Court of England so that by this meanes he hath still notice and intelligence of the estate of the Realme and withall they seduce the subiects as Cambyses heretofore espied and deceiued the Ethiopians These I say by meanes of their mercenary tongues omit no art that may serue their purpose to suborne England but vse all meanes possible to make his Maiesty odious vnto her and him vnto his subiects in altering as much as in them lieth by their flattering discourses the sincere amity and faithfull loyalty which English men haue alwaies intirely borne towards his Maiesty and his Ancestors either aggrauating euery seeming petty imperfection aboue his great perfection blaming and accusing his gouernment or else in attributing vnto the King of Spaine the glory onely due vnto our Royall Soueraigne and withall in all their Discourses magnifying the greatnesse and vertues of this ambitious Spaniard whom they paint out accomplished with all the perfections that may be imagined and briefly they forget nothing whereby they may withdraw England if they could from her King and withall gull you of your money to enrich themselues and their Colleges Cloisters and Seminaries in those forraigne parts But some Iesuite or one of that faction perchance may obiect that nothing moueth the King of Spaine to be at such great charges to maintaine so many English Seminaries Colleges and Cloisters in those forraigne parts and to transport from thence so many Monks Friers and other religious men into the King of Englands Dominions but onely to conserue among you the Catholike Religion Ah poore senselesse soules for Gods sake giue eare to what I shall briefly recount touching him and his Predecessors actions in this point and then you shall plainly perceiue whether the zeale that he beareth towards your Religion solliciteth him to be so charitable you vnto as you imagine Hath this great King or his Father or Grandfather spent their treasures or hazzarded the liues of their subiects onely for the aduancement of the Christian Faith against vnchristian Princes nothing lesse To verifie this to be true I will produce you these two examples Pope Gregory the 13. proposing himselfe to the aid of certaine Christian Princes to make an enterprise vpon the Persian for the augmentation of the Church of Rome requested that ambitious Philip King of Spaine this Kings Grand-father to giue him some succour which he not only flatly denied but which is more would not lend any of his Gallies albeit the holy Sea of Rome offered to charge them at her owne charges Moreouer how dealt he with the late King of Portugall Don Sebastian whose death all Christendome had sufficient cause to bewaile who desiring to assist Mulei Mahumet King of Fez and Morocco against Mulei Maluco his brother who had expulsed him his Realme a worke surely worthy of so noble a Prince and aduantagious besides to the Church of Rome for the good conditions he had compounded with the stranger required Philip his Vnkle to succour him in that expedition who accorded that hee should haue fifty Gallies equipped and foure thousand fighting men which Mulei Maluco the other brother perceiuing incontinently offered Philip certaine Townes on the Sea side to desist from his promise which he speedily accepted not shaming to breake his oath sworne to his Nephew to contract alliance with a barbarous Infidell so much did auarice raigne ouer him as to cause him to violate the Lawes of God and men but he was paid with the same mony that he lent for sending his Ambassadour Vanegas to take possession of the Towne of Rarach and others promised vnto him the Barbarians mocking at his treachery and perfidiousnesse constrained the Ambassadour by force of the Cannon to retire sooner than he was willing But it may be you will say he bare himselfe politikely in these two actions to conserue and maintaine his owne estate as if humane policy were to be preferred before the Law and honour of God I but for all this he hath shewed himselfe a very zealous Catholike and hath carried a particular respect towards thoâ—e that make a strict profession of his owne Religion well but let vs see if that be true After that he had inuaded the Kingdome of Portugall and that among infinite other Ladies he had banished into Castile the wife of the Agent of Don Antonio the lawfull King thereof his children and Mother in Law he drew three of his sisters chaste and religious Nunnes out of the Monastery of Saint Clare at Lisbone and confined them likewise into Castile But he hath dealt maruellous mercifully with them in sauing their liues albeit seruile and miserable Yea but sith the women are thus dealt with the men must be handled a little more rigorously and surely herein he hath thorowly acquitted himselfe witnesse a religious Frier named Iohn of the Order of Saint Dominick who for embracing the liberty of his Country was hanged in the I le of Madera Another Frier Hector Pintus of the Order of Saint Hierome was committed to the hands of certaine souldiers in Castile where he was afterwards impoisoned Frier Iames de Noronba another Dominican Frier and brother to the Earle of Mira was so cruelly beaten by the souldiers that were of his guard that he died A Doctor named Frier Augustine of the Order of Saint Augustine and one Frier Emanuel Margues a Franciscan Frier were both chained together with Rouers and Theeues in a Galley which was afterwards taken by the Turks vnder whose crueltie I leaue it to