cause which persons do also preach divers matters of Slander to engender Discord and Dissention betwixt divers Estatés of the said Realm as well Spiritual as Temporal in exciting of the people to the great peril of the Realm Which Preachers cited or summoned before the Ordinaries of the places there to answer of that whereof they be impeached will not obey to their Summons and Commandments nor care for their Monitions nor Censures of the Holy Church but expresly despise them And moreover by their subtle and ingenious words do draw the people to hear their Sermons and do maintain them in their Errors by strong Hand and great Routs It is ordained and assented in this present Parliament That the King's Edmmissions be made and directed to the Sheriffs and other Miuisters of our Soveraign Lord the King or other sufficient persons Learned and according to the Certifications of the Prelates thereof to be made in Chancery from time to time to arrest all such Preachers and also their Faitors Maintainers and Abettors and to hold them in Arrest and strong Prison 'till they will justifie them according to the Law and Reason of Holy Church And the King wills and commandeth That the Chancellor make such Commissions at all times that he by the Prelates or any of them shall be certified and thereof required as is aforesaid This was the first pretended Statute that ever was in England for imprisoning Christians for Religious opinions and by colour thereof the Bishops committed great Cruelties I call it pretended Statute for tho it be enter'd in the Parliament Rolls yet it was no Legal Act for it never pass'd the Commons And therefore at the next Parliament in Michaelmas Term following the Commons preferr'd a Bill â—eciting the same and constantly affirmed That they never assented thereunto and therefore desired that the said supposed Statute be annull'd and made void for they protested That it was never their intent that either themselves or such as shall succeed them should be farther subject or bound to the Prelates than were their Ancestors in former times And to this the King gave his Royal Assent in these words Il plaist au Roy The King is pleas'd that it be so Cook 3 Instit fo 40. Foxes Acts and Monuments fo 406. But that you may more fully understand the fraud and subtlety of their Reverences in this Affair you must understand That before the invention of Printing the usual way of publishing Acts of Parliament was to engross them in Parchment and send them with the King 's Writ into every County commanding the Sheriff to proclaim them Now John Braibrook Bishop of London being then Lord Chancellor of England he by a Writ dated 26 May Anno Regni Regis R. 2. quinto sent down the before recited Ordinance of the King and Prelates amongst the Statutes that were then lately pass'd But no less knavishly left out in the next Parliamentary Proclamation the said Act of Revocation whereby the said supposed Statute was made void by which means afterwards the other still pass'd as an Act and was printed continually as such but the Act that disannull'd it was by the Interest of the Prelates from time to time kept out of the Prints the better to give colour to their imprisoning of the Laity at their pleasure And farther to make sure work Henry the Fourth having usurp'd the Crown to gratifie the Clergy who had chiefly assisted him therein in the second year of his Raign he at their Instigation procured the following cruel and wicked Law to be Enacted commonly call'd The Statute Ex Officio which that the Reader may the better observe the Spirit of Popery and Persecution and compare the Times and Actings of Men in past and more modern Times I hope it shall neither be thought tedious nor unuseful to recite the same at large Verbatim it not being now extant in Kceble or any of our Common Statute Books ITem Whereas it is shewed to our Soveraign Lord the King on the behalf of the Prelates and Clergy of this Realm of England in this present Parliament That altho the Catholick Faith builded upon Christ and by his Apostles and the holy Church sufficiently determined declared and approved hath been hitherto by good and holy and most noble Progeniâ—ors of our Soveraign Lord the King in the said Realm amongst all the Realms of the World most devoutly observ'd and the Church of England by his said most noble Progenitors and Ancestors to the honour of God and of the whole Realm aforesaid landably endow'd and in her Rights and Liberties sustain'd without that that the same Faith or the said Church was hurt or grievously oppressed or else perturbed by any perverse Doctrine or Wicked Heretical or Erronious Opinions Yet nevertheless divers false and perverse people of a certain new Sect of the Faith of the Sacraments of the Church and the Authority of the same damnably thinking and against the Law of God and of the Church usurping the Office of Preaching do perversly and maliciously in divers places within the said Realm under the colour of dissembled Holiness preach and teach these days openly and privily divers nâ—w Doctrines and wicked Heretical and Erronious Opinions contrary to the same Faith and blessed Determinations of the holy Church And of such Sect and wicked Doctrine and Opinions they make unlawful Conventicles and Confederacies they hold and exercise Schools they make and write Books they do wickedâ—y instruct and inform people and as much as they may excite and stir them to Sedition and Insurrection and maketh great strife and division among the people and other Enormities horribly to be heard daily do perpetrate and commit in subversion of the Catholick Faith and Doctrine of the holy Church in diminution of God's honour and also in destruction of the Estate Rights and Liberties of the said Church of England by which Sect and wicked and false Preachings Doctrine and Opinions of the said false and perverse people not only most great peril of the Souls but also many more other hurts slanders and perils which God prohibit might come to this Realm unless it be the more plentifully and speedily holpen by the King's Majesty in this behalf namely whereas the Diocesans of the said Realm cannot by their Jurisdiction Spiritual without Aid of the said Royal Majesty sufficiently correct the said false and perverse people nor refrain their Malice because the said false and perverse people do go from Diocess to Diocess and will not appear before the said Diocesan but the same Diocesans and their Jurisdiction Spiritual and the Keys of the Church with the Censures of the same do utterly contemn and despise and so their wicked Preachings and Doctrines doth from day to day continue and exercise to the hatred of Right and Reason and utter destruction of Order and good Rule Vpon which Novelties and Excesses above rehearsed the Prelates and Clergy aforesaid and also the Commons of the said Realm being in
the same Parliament praying our Soveraign Lord the King That his Royal Highness would vouchsafe in the said Parliament to provide a convenient Remedy the same our Soveraign Lord the King graciously considering the premises and also the laudable steps of his most noble Progenitors and Ancestors for the Conservation of the said Catholick Faith and sustentation of God's Honour and also the safeguard of the Estate Rights and Liberties of the said Church of England to the land of God and merit of our said Soveraign Lord the King and prosperity and honour of all his said Realm and for the eschewing of such Dissentions Divisions Hurts Slanders and Perils in time to come and that this wicked Sect Preachings Doctrines and Opinions should from henceforth cease to be utterly destroyed by the Assent of the States and other discreet Men of the Realm being in the said Parliament hath granted stablished and ordained from henceforth firmly to be observed that none within the said Realm or any other Dominions subject to his Royal Majesty presume to preach openly or privily without the License of the Diocesan of the same place first required and obtained Curates in their own Churches and persons hitherto priviledged and other of the Canon granted only except Nor that none from henceforth any thing preach hold teach or instruct openly or privily or make or write any Book contrary to the Catholick faith or determination of the holy Church nor of such Sect and wicked Doctrines and Opinions shall make any Câ—nvenâ—â—cles or in any wise hold or exercise Schools And also that none from henceforth in any wise favour such Preacher or maker of any such or like Conventicles or holding or exercising Schools or making or writing such Books or so teaching informing or exciting the people nor any of them maintain or any wise sustain and that all and singular having such Books or any Writings of such wicked Doctrine and Opinions shall really with effect deliver or cause to be delivered all such Books and Writings to the Diocesan of the same place within 40 days from the time of the Proclamation of this Ordinance and Statute And if any person or persons of whatsoever kind estate or condition that he or they be from henceforth do or attempt against the Royal Ordinance and Statute aforesaid in the premisses or in any any of them or such Books in the form aforesaid do not deliver then the Diocesan in the same place in his Diocess such person or persons in this behalf defamed or evidently suspected and every of them may by the authority of the said Ordinance and Statute cause to be arrested and under safe custody in his Prisons to be detained 'till he or they of the Articles laid to him or them in this behalf do Canonically purge him or themselves or else such wicked Sect Preachings Doctrines and heretical and erronious Opinions do objure according as the Laws of the Church do require so that the said Diocesan by himself or his Commissaries do openly and judicially proceed against such persons so arrested and remaining under safe custody to all effect of the Law and determine that same business according to the Canonical Decrees within three months after the said Arrest any lawful Impediment ceasing And if any person in any case above expressed be before the Diocesan of the place or his Commissaries canonically Convict then the same Diocesan may do to be kept in his Prison the said person so Convict for the manner of his default and after the quality of the Offence according aud as long as to his discretion shall seem expedient and moreover to put the same person to the Secular Court except in cases where he according to the Canonical Decree ought to be left to pay to our Soveraign Lord the King his peculiar Fine according as the same Fine shall seem competent to the Diocesan for the manner and quality of the Offence in which case the same Diocesan shall be bound to certifie the King of the same Fine in his Exchequer by his Letters Patents sealed with his Seal to the effect that such Fine by the King's Authority may be required and levied to his use of the Goods of the same person so convict And if any person within the said Realm and Dominions upon the said wicked Preachings Doctrines Opinions Schools heretical and erroneous Informations or any of them be before the Diocesan of the same place or his Commissaries after the Abjuration made by the same person pronounced fall into Relapse so that according to the holy Canons be ought to be left to the Secular Court whereupon Credence shall be given to the Diocesan of the same place or to his Commissaries in this behalf then the Sheriff of the County of the same place and Mayor and Sheriffs or Sheriff or Mayor and Bayliffs of the City Town or Borough of the same County next to the same Diocesan or the said Commissaries shall be personally present in preferring of such sentences when they by the same Diocesan or his Commissaries shall be required And they the same persons and every of them after such sentence promulgate shall receive and them before the people in an high place do to be burnt that such punishment may strike in fear to the minds of others whereby no such wicked Doctrine and heretical and erroneous Opinions nor their Authors and Fautours in the said Realm and Dominions against the Catholick Faith Christian Law and determination of the holy Church which God prohibit be sustained or in any wise suffered in which all and singular the premises concerning the said Ordinance and Statnte the Sheriffs Mayors and Bayliffs of the said Counties Cities Boroughs and Towns shall be attending aiding and supporting to the said Diocesans and their Commissaries The COURANT. Tory. I Have read that passage we talkt of t'other day in Mr. L'Estranges Memento by the same token in the same page he gives an account of Addresses in these words And now from all parts are to be procur'd Addresses Sweet London leads the way The Commission Officers of the Militia in Suffolk Leicester Sussex and my Country-men of Norwich c. These numerous and pretending Applications were but false Glosses upon his Power and Cromwell was too wise to think them other gain'd by Contrivement Force or at least Importunity half a score pitiful wretches call themselves the people of such or such a County and here 's the Total of the Reckoning Thus far L'Estrange Momentop 30. Truem. I marry and he talks like a South-sayer But hang 't let 's prorogue the Discourse of him and his Atchievements Have you seen Father Dowdal's just and sober Vindication Tory. No what 's he Truem. Even a worshipful Roman Catholick Priest very lately if not still a Prisoner in the Gate-house for Religion forsooth 'T is a small Treatise of five or six sheets bound printed 1681. and to be sold by William Downing in Bartholomew Close The design on 't is
Hundred Authors as any unbiass'd Learned Reader cannot but observâ— Thirdly He notes several Passages in the Two last Pacquets that are in Foxe 'T is very true What then Do not I there Cite Foxe for them where is the Plagiarism I Write to the Common People and Publish it thus in Successive sheets that so it may fall into the more Hands I pretend not to Instruct the Learned but to give the Vulgar such as perhaps never read Foxe and know nothing of the Magdeburgh Centuries a general Prospect of Popery that they may know and Abhor it Those things which in Foxe are tediously told I abridge what is less material I omit Remarkables I Transcribe and fairly tell the Reader where I have them and what Felony and Treason is there in all this Fourthly Why may not I furnish my Matter from Foxe and the Centuriators I doubt the Observator has some particular spite at them The first continues the Memory of many Glorious English Martyrs barbarously Butcher'd even since the Reformation under a Popish Princses of excellent Vertues setting aside her Blind Bloody Zeal which perhaps the Observator would have had forgot And the Second's Learned Labours and Industrious Researches into Antiquity have wrested one of the Church of Romes boasted Weapons out of her hands and taught us to distinguish the real Testimonies of the Fathers from Spurious Suborn'd Knights of the Post though in Gray Perriwiggs and Venerable Names I wonder what Authors the Gentleman would Advise us to perhaps his friend Father Cressy's Church History or the Golden Legend But he that regards every bark of Cerberuâ— may quickly be Deaf Let us proceed in our intended Work and let Mr. Observator be never so angry at it we will again make use of Mr. Foxe and from thence observe to the Reader That though the Church was already over-burthen'd and almost suffocated with a vast Mass of vain Superstitious Ceremonies yet Tho. Arundel Bishop of Canterbury in the days of King Henry the 4 th about the Year 1410. took upon him to encrease them by Commanding That in all Monasteries and Collegiate Churches there should every Morning be Bells Rung in Honour of the Virgin Mary which commonly was call'd Toling of Aves For the promoting of which he sent his Mandate stuft full of Wicked and Blasphemous Expressions to the Bishop of London and towards the Close thereof used these Words We therefore desiring more earnestly to stir up the Minds of all Faithful People to so devoâ—â— an Exercise c. do grant to all and every Person that shall say his Pater Noster and the Angels Salutation Five times at the Morning Peal with a Devout Mind as oft as he shall do it for each time forty days of Pardon by these Presents Given under our Seals in our Manner of Lambeth the 10th of February in the 9th Year of our Translation Now we appeal to the Reader if this were not a Lumping Pennyworth to have Forty days Pardon of all Sin whatsoever Villany a man should in that time Commit meerly for Muttering over Five Pater Nosters and Five Aves what a kind good humour'd pleasant delicate inviting Religion is Popery Yet now I think on 't my Country-men of Wengham did not find it so under his Predecessor William Courtney Archbishop of the same Province when they were forc'd to do a scurvy scandalous Pennance for the horrid Sin of not bringing Litter for his Graces Horses decently and in order The Sentence against whom being very notable I shall here Recite it and to spight the Observator it shall be out of Fox too Erroris Mater Ignorantia c. Ignorance the Mother of Error hath so blinded certain Tenants of the Lord of Wengham viz. Hugh Penny John Forestall John Boy John Wanderton William Hayward and John White That at the coming of the Lord Archbishop to his Pallace at Canterbury on Palm-Sunday-Eve in the Year 1390. being warn'd by the Bailiff to carry Hay Straw and Littor Foenum Stramen sive Literam 't is in the Original which may be noted from an Archi-episcopal Elegancy to the aforesaid Pallace as by the Tenure of their Lands which they hold of the See of Canterbury they are bound refusing and disdaining to do their due Service as they were accustomed brought their Straw not in Waines and Carts publickly and in sufficient quantity but sneakingly in Sacks and hugger-mugger to the undervaluing of the Lord Arch-bishop and derogation of the Rights of his See of Canterbury For which being call'd and personally appearing before the said Lord Arch-bishop on Thursday in Easter week sitting on his Tribunal in his Castle of Statewode they did humbly submit themselves to his Judgment devoutly craving Pardon and Mercy for those Crimes which they had committed in this behalf And then having sworn them to stand to the Commands of Holy Church and to perform the Pennance that should be Enjoyn'd them his Grace did Absolve them imposing on them and each of them a wholsom Pennance after the manner of the Fault viz. That on the Sunday next the said Penitent should leisurely go bare-footed and bare-headed in an Humble and Devout Manner a Procession to the Collegiate Church of Wengham each of them bearing on their shoulders openly a Sack full of Hay and Straw with the mouthes of the Sacks open so as the Hay and Straw may appear hanging out And to perpetuate the Memory of this Foolery the Pictures of these poor men doing this Ridiculous Pennance were entred in his Graces Register a Copy of which taken from the Original you have in Foxe with this Superscription being as 't is probable the Words they were to say in their Procession This Bagful of Straw I bear on my Back Because my Lord's Horse his Litter did Lack If you be not good to my Lord Grace's Horse You are like to go Bare-foot before the Cross In the 11 th Year of King Henry the 4 th The Commons of England in Parliament perceiving how abominably the Clergy Monks Fryars c. abused those vast Revenues which they Enjoyed to all kind of Pride and Licentiousness Preferr'd a Bill to the King to take away their Temporal Lands and to Imploy the same to the better Advantage and Safety of the Kingdom Alledging that the Temporailties then in the Possession of Spiritual Men amounted to Three hundred and twenty three thousand Marks by the Year But as the Clergy had mainly Assisted that Prince to Usurp the Crown so he did not think it safe to disoblige them at that juncture and therefore put off this Bill with a Le Roy S'avisera And about Two Years after the said King Henry dyed viz. the 2 d. of March 1413. in the 46 th Year of his Age to whom succeeded his Son then near 30 years of Age by the name of Henry the Fifth By the Preaching of Wickliff and his Followers the Eyes of great numbers of the People were in some measure enlightned to see the Errors
meaning Nomen non facit Episcopum sed vita c. It is not the Name but the Life that makes a Bishop If a Man have the Name of a Prelate and does not answer the reason thereof in sincerity of Doctrine and integrity of Life but live scandalously in open Sin he is but a Nomine-tenus Sacerdos A Bishop or Priest in Name not in Truth Yet still Wickliff did not deny but that such an ones Ministerial Acts were valid for so in the same Treatise p. 138. he saith Unless the Christian Priest be united unto Christ by Grace Christ cannot be his Saviour Nec sine falsitate dicit verba Sacramentalia Nor can he pronounce the Sacramental words without Lying Licet prosint Capacibus The notwithstanding they are available so far that the worthy Receiver is thereby nothing hinder'd from partaking of the Grace signified Obj. 3. They pretend that Wickliff maintain'd That it was not lawful for any Ecclesiastical persons to have any Temporal Possessions or property in any thing Answ This is falsly imputed to him he only tax'd the Abuses of the Revenues given to so many Abbies Priories and Monasteries tending only to Superstition and the keeping so many Drones in idleness And therefore he was of opinion That our Kings might dispossess them thereof and give them Genti facienti Justitiam to good and godly Uses The Poverty he exhorted to was no other than that which St. Paul recommends viz. Having Food and Rayment therewith to be content He did not debar Ministers from actual having but from Covetous affecting the things of this World which are to be Renounc'd saith he Per Cogitationem Affectum in the Mind and the Affections Obj. 4. They charge him with asserting That God ought to obey the Devil Answ This is so senseless and improbable a Slander that no Man in his Wits can believe it And on the quite contrary Wickliff in his Commentary on Psal 112. Expresly affirms That the Devil can do nothing without God's permission Obj. 5. Well but if they cannot fix Blasphemy upon him they will charge him with Treason This is a frequent Stratagem of the Devils and his Instruments If thou suffer this Man thou art not Cesar ' s Friend said the Jews of old not that they cared for Cesar but only to gratifie their own Revenge Thus the Papists charge Wickliff as a Teacher of Sedition and an opposer of Magistrates and that if a Civil Magistrate be in a mortal Sin he is no longer to be obey'd Answ There is much craft and malice but very little truth and no reason for this Slander Wickliff indeed in several of his Works admonisheth the King and all other inferiour Officers and Magistrates that he beareth not the Sword in vain nor hath his Office for nought but to discharge well and truly the part and Office of a King by seeing wholsom Laws duly executed and Justice impartially administer'd And tells him That if he be defective in such his Duty by suffering the Sword of Justice to rust in its Scabard and his People to perish for want of good Governance then he is not properly and truly a King that is in effect and operation for so the words must necessarily be understood being spoken by way of Exhortation But otherwise so far was Wickliff from mutinying himself or persuading others to any act that was Rebellious that never any Man in those times did so stoutly assert the King's Supremacy in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil against all usurped foreign Jurisdiction for which amongst many others he gives this reason That otherwise our Soveraign should not be King over all England but Regulus parvae partis a petty Governour of some small parts of the Realm Nor does any thing tending to countenance Rebellion appear in any of his Works that are extant But the Friars and proud Clergy having an inveterate spleen against Wickliff and there happening to fall out about the same time a grievous Insurrection of the Commons under Wat Tyler occasioned chiefly upon a civil score about Taxes Commons and Servitude but much augmented by one John Ball a Priest and one of Baal's Priests too for ought I know for he does not at all appear to be any of Wickliff's Followers therefore in spight to Wickliff they cast the odium of that Frantic Tumult upon him and his Doctrine But indeed as Wickliff was a person of extraordinary Learning and Piety so that in substance he held and taught the very same Doctrines as are at this day maintained by the Church of England is demonstrated by the Learned Dr. James Oxford Library-keeper in his Book Intituled An Apology for John Wickliff shewing his Conformity with the now Church of England c. Printed Anno 1608. However to the end the vulgar Reader may better judge of this reverend man and his Works I shall here produce some few passages out of two of his Books Printed by the said James from the Original Manuscripts remaining one in Bennet Colledge Cambridge the other in the Publick Library at Oxford The English being excusable considering 't was wrote above 300 years agoe in his complaint to King Richard the Second and his Parliament Article 2. He hath these words Nothing ought to be damned as errour and false but if it favour errour or unrightewiseness against Gods Law And Article 4. He prays That Christ's teaching O beleave of the Sacrament of his own Body that is plainly tawght by Christ and his Apostles in Gospels and Pistles mayen be tawght openlie in Churches of Christen People and the contrary teaching and false beleave is brought up by cursed Hypocrits and worldlie Priests unkunning in Gods Law which say they are Apostles of Christ but are Fools And he concludes that Article with these words As Christ saved the wordle by writing and teaching of foure Evangelists so the Fiend casteth to Damme the wordle and Priests for letting to Preach the Gospel by these four by fayned Contemplation by Songs by Salisbury use and by worldly business of Priests And in his Treatise against the Orders of Friars Ca. 4. runs thus Friars sayen that if a man be once professed to their Religion he may never leave it and be saved though he be never so unable thereto for al time of his life and they wil nede him to live in such a state ever more to which God makes him ever unable and so nede him to be damned Alas out on such heresie that Mans Ordinance is holden stronger than is the Ordinance of God For if a man enter into the newe Religion against mans ordinance he maie lawfully forsake it but if he enter against Gods Ordinance when God makes him unable thereto he shall not be suffered by Antichrist's power to leave it And if this reason were wel declared sith no man wote which man is able to this new Religion by Gods dome and which is not able no man should be constrained to
which in hast was left or forgotten running with it to carry it to the rest in the Bonefire brake his Leg. Here was Lex Talionis Bone for Bone And to this day for a perpetual Monument in the very place where they burnt his Bones tho the Townsmen for their own profit have often essayed to bring the Water that way it never holds but still makes a Bank Thus far the Doctor I shall conclude this Weeks Task with a Copy of John Wickliff's Answer or Resolution to King Richard touching the Right and Title of the King and Pope which was as follows It being demanded whether the Kingdom of England may lawfully in case of necessity for its own defence detain and keep back the Treasure of the Kingdom that it be not carried away to foreign and strange Nations the Pope himself demanding and requiring the same under pain of Censure and by vertue of Obedience To which Wickliff return'd this Answer Setting apart the Minds of Learned Men what might be said in the matter either by the Canon Law or by the Law of England or the Civil Law It resteth saith he not only to persuade and prove the Affirmative part of this Doubt but the Principles of Christ's Law And first I prove it thus Every natural Body hath Power given it of God to resist against his Contrary and to preserve it self in due Estate as Philosophers know very well in so much that Bodies without Life are endu'd with such a kind of Power as it is evident unto whom hardness is given to resist those things that would break it and Coldness to withstand the Heat that dissolveth it For so much then as the Kingdom of England after the manner and phrase of the Scriptures ought to be one Body and the Clergy with the Commonalty the Members thereof it seemeth that the same Kingdom hath such Power given it of God and so much the more apparent but how much the same Body is more precious unto God adorned with Vertue and Knowledge For so much then as there is no Power given of God unto any Creature for any end or purpose but that he may lawfully use the same to that end and purpose it followeth that our Kingdom may lawfully keep back and detain their Treasure for the defence of it self in what case soever necessity do require the same Secondarily the same is proved by the Law of the Gospel for the Pope cannot challenge the Treasure of this Kingdom but under the Title of Alms and consequently under the pretence of the Works of Mercy according to the Rule of Charity But in the Case aforesaid the Titel of Alms ought utterly to cease Ergo the Right and Title of challenging the Treasure of our Realm shall cease also in the presupposed necessity For so much as all Charity hath his beginning of himself it were no work of Charity but of meer madness to send away the Treasures of the Realm unto Foreign Nations whereby the Realm it self may fall into Ruine under the pretence of such Charity It appeareth also by this that Christ the Head of the Church whom all Christian Priests ought to follow lived by the Alms of Devout Women Luke 7. 8. He hungred and thirsted he was a Stranger and many other Miseries he sustained not only in his Members but also in his own Body as the Apostle witnesseth 1 Cor. 8. He was made poor for your sakes that through his Poverty you might be made rich whereby in the first endowing of the Church whatsoever he were of the Clergy that had any Temporal Possessions he had the same by form of a perpetual Alms as both Writings and Chronicles do witness Whereupon St. Bernard in his second Book to Eugenius that he could not challenge any Secular Dominion by Right of Succession as being the Vicar of St. Peter writeth thus That if St. John should speak unto the Pope himself as Bernard doth unto Eugenius were it to be thought that he would take it patiently But let it be so that you do challenge it unto you by some other way or means but truly by any Right or Title Apostolical you cannot so do For how could he give unto you that which he had not himself That which he had he gave you that is to say Care over the Church but did he give you any Lordship or Rule Haâ—k what he saith Not bearing Rule saith he as the Lords in the Clergy but behaving your selves as Examples to the Flock And because thou shalt not think it to be spoken only in Humility and not in Verity mark the Word of the Lord himself in the Gospel The Kings of the Gentiles rule over them but thou shalt not do so Here Lordship and Dominion is plainly forbidden to the Apostles and darest thou then usurp the same If thou wilt be a Lord thou shalt lose thine Apostleship or if thou wilt be an Apostle thou shalt lose thy Lordship for truly thou shalt depart from the one of them If thou wilt have both thou shalt lose both or else think thy self to be of that number of whom God doth so greatly complain saying They have Reign'd but not through me they are become Princes and I have not known it Now if it do suffice to Rule with the Lord thou hast thy Glory but not with God but if we will keep that which is forbidden let us hear what is said He that is the Greatest among you saith Christ shall be made as the least and he which is Highest shall be as the Minister and for Example set a Child in the midst of them so this then is the true form and institution of the Apostle's Trade Lordship and Rule is forbidden Ministration and Services commanded Thus far St. Bernard as cited by Wickliff upon this occasion THE COURANT. Tory. NAY now all 's out I thought this 't would come to at last for D me if I did not always suspect as much I ever lookt upon Catholics as fine civil Gentlemen and for their Church I have a great Veneration because she is a true Church and a Mother Church and their Worship is very glorious and decent What an absurd thing 't is to imagine that ever such Holy Loyal Men as their Priests are should be guilty of Treason Yet I did but say a Twelve-month ago there was no Popish Plot and a Whiggish Son of a Whore gave me a slap i' th' Face and threaten'd me with Newgate for presuming to give the King and Three Parliaments the Lye But it should seem Tempora mutantur I hope e're long a Man may say and swear too That there never was any such Plot at all with Impunity and without Controul Truem. Prethee what makes you so merry about the Gills this Morning Hast thou been at Breakfast with the Painter at Aldersgate on his Whig-Pye whose Crust was made of Gammer Celier's Meal and baked in the red hot Oven of Dr. Tantivy's Skull Tory. No no but on a better
cases of Clergy-cheats were the Gloss yet Interest was the Text for Polydere Virgil one of the Pope's own Publicans or Peter-pence Collectors is not shy to insinuate l. 8. c. 2. tho he refers them to a more ancient Original That the first Rise of them was for the maintenance of the Pope's Grandeur and that this Income was one of the fairest Flowers in the Triple Crown But when once the payment of them had continued some competent time it was politickly done upon any questioning of the Right to refer them to a Divine Original which was sure to satisfie such as used in those times to take the Pope's bare word for far greater matters Yet the payment of these with others so much impoverisht the Kingdom of England for we are willing to sum up all here that we have to say occasionally on this matter that notwithstanding such Allegation of Divine Right the ancient Kings of England made no scruple sometimes to forbid the payment of them as King Edward the Third once discharg'd the Pope's Nuncio from Collecting the first Fruits c. and many Prohibitions were granted against the Pope's Collectors on Complaints made by the aggriev'd Commons in Parliament as appears in my Lord Coke's Jurisdiction of Courts c. 14. and several Statutes where it is termed once an horrible Mischief and damnable Custom and another time 't is call'd a very Novelty see the Acts 2. H. 4. c. 1. and 1. R. 2. But so subtle was the Court of Rome that when sometimes the Kingdom complain'd of these Burthens and withall the Kings in Exigencies press'd for aids from their Subjects they would in a frolic of Bounty yield or assign the First-Fruits c. for a certain time a year or more to the King whereby they both inur'd the People to the payment and the Prince to the continuance of it But in the 26 th of Henry the Eighth they were given to the King and his Heirs and Successors for ever and in the 32 d of his Raign a particular Court was erected for recovering them which being dissolv'd in the first of Queen Mary the thing was reviv'd again by 1. Eliz. c. 4. but the Court not restored only the First-Fruits were order'd to be within the Rule and Adjustment of the Exchequer and a new Officer viz. A Remembrancer erected of the First-Fruits and Tenths of the Clergy who both taketh all Compositions for them and maketh out Process against such as make default in payment So that every Spiritual person must pay or secure by Bond his First-Fruits before his actual possession of his Benefices which Bond is of like force with a Statute-Staple The mode of Composition now is for the Parson with Sureties to enter into four Bonds each condition'd for payment of the fourth part of the First Fruits according to the rate of his Living as it was Taxed anno 26. H. 8. for that 's the Standard which is call'd being so much in the King's Books but yet with a deduction of Tenths the first Bond payable at half a years end the second at a Twelve months end the third at a year and half 's end and the last at the expiration of two years This we thought fit to add out of the Respect we have to the young Clergy that are hankering after Benefices to whom this Discourse at least whatever our other Writings through sinister Informations may be will probably prove not unacceptable The COURANT. Trueman Solus NOw shan't I see my old Correspondent Tory for he was drunk last night at the Queens Head with toping Confusions to the City Charter But no matter here 's Ben. Tooks Goblin Heraclitus will do as well He dashes through thick and thin and flings durt on as good Scarlet as any i' th City Alas poor fool Their Reputations Crystal none of the filth will stick but Reverts to your own face and will one day infallibly sink the pittifull and already Crazy Shipp 't is squirted from However by this the World may take notice what respect the Tories pay to Authority if their Magistrates don't humour them presently they 'l affront them to their faces Hiss Revile slander and Libel them Having been thus sawcy to his Superiors 't is no news if he snarl at the Courantier who he says is much unacquainted with Guinnies poor heart I 'm sorry for 't but the truth is he has no Faction nor party to Bribe or Encourage him nothing but God and the King Truth and a good Conscience to protect and support him and so long he sings as to the Guinnies Nec habeo nec Careo Nec Curo let Pimps and flatterers and L'Estranges boast their hundreds of Guinnies sent 'um from the Divel knows who He has enough in being Honest Yet sure the Milk and Butter and Cheese was the conceit of some Hunger-starv'd Curate of the Club that lives on small Tyths and is fain to make shift with such Commons when every Monday morning he Trudges from near Dartford to London Popish Nat still drudges on but of late more bare fac'd what abundance of little Tricks have his managers been trying to raise some pretence of slâ—r in Dr. Oatses Evidence but I know not whether with more malice or folly Is not yesterdays Sham a rare one Mr. Oats swore He was Informed Parson Elliot was Circumcised yet upon a Commssion of Inspection a nice business I le promise ye It appears Nat says that the man's twigg of Life has all its apurtenances well but does it follow that the Doctor might not be Informed otherwise Away you ridiculous Scoundrels I' th' next place Godfry's Murder O that 's a bone in some peoples throats must be represented uncertain prethee dear Nat tell us if thou darest in thy next the inquisitive Gentleman of Sarum's true name I 'le warrant he 's as good a Protestant as thy self And now Enter Observator who fiddles to the old Tune For in earnest the fellow has not Compos'd above one sheet bating his Translations these 20 years tho he has blurr'd ten thousand Ream of Paper He 's much troubled that Mrs. Joan should be questioned and to bring in the Chat tells two or three notorious Lies in a breath viz. That Care was Cited as he call it to Guild-Hall that Janeway desired Joan might be sent for c. which is all utterly false But above all where is Rogers Wit or Modesty to Revive a sluttish story little to the Credit of the Parties Concern'd But since you now twice together have Rak'd it up I tell thee Roger once for all that the debauch in the Church you mention was favourably told in Janeway's Mercury and there are better men than you or I that are or may be satisfied of the Truth on 't Nor was it first Publisht for any such base end as you maliciously suggest but only to the Intent that the Actors might be brought to just Punishment For not a few good Churchmen think those Swine deserv'd to
The said Alexander died when he had held the Chair 8 or 9 Months and Baptista Panaetius of Ferrara a Cardinal in his 56 th Sermon tells us That the said Balthazar caus'd him to be poison'd by Marsilius de Parma his Physician brib'd thereunto with a vast sum of Money on purpose that he himself might follow him in his Papacy And how the said Balthazar got it at last as to the manner is very pleasant for as soon as Alexander was dead being at Bononia and having by his former Administration got the chief Power into his hands he commanded the Cardinals to Elect a Pope such as he might approve of and they offer'd several to him of whom he thought none fit enough At last they requested plainly to shew who he was for Give me then saith he the Cloak of St. Peter a Garment which they fling upon the new elected Pope and I will give it to him that shall be Pope Which being done he put it on his own shoulders and said Papa ego sum It is I am Pope and was as good as his word For tho several of the Cardinals mutter'd and grumbled yet none durst oppose him This Prank of his is credibly related by Johannes Stella in his Book De Pontificibus To fix himself firm in his Seat he courts Sigismund King of Hungary and gets him elected Emperour and summons a Council at Rome where a very odd accident fell out which Nicholas Clemangis Archdeacon of Bayeux a Man famous in those times delivers as follows At the first meeting of the Council Mass being said after the accustomed manner to invocate the Holy Ghost no sooner was the Council sat and Balthazar himself in a Chair provided for him higher than the rest but boâ—eld a dreadful ill-favour'd Screechowl the presage they say of Calamity with an horrible voice flew over their heads and seated her self upon the middle Beam of the Church with her Eyes directly fixt upon the Pope Behold said some of the lewd Italian wits the Spirit in the form of an Owl Balthazar the Pope himself seeing how she glar'd at him at first blusht for shame then began to sweat and by and by in confusion broke up the Council And at the second Session she was there again in the same manner and the Pope would have drove her away by noise and clamours but she would not stir 'till assaulting her with Pikes and Staves having receiv'd several blows she fell down dead before them all THE COURANT. Tory. BUT do'nt you perceive by the last Observator that old Roger has a Months mind to stand next Election one of the Candidates for his n'own Country of Norfolk when it shall please God and the King to bless us with a Parliament Truem. No truly for tho the doting fellow talks a little freakishly yet we understand true English Norfolk Dumplings as well as himself and are satisfied That the generality of Free-holders not only there but throughout the Nation too are to use his own phrase more clarified in their Vnderstandings than to chuse either Knaves or Beggars Besides that Gentleman has the same Antipathy to Parliaments as some folks have to Cats he sweats and swouns and is ready to run away at the sight or very smell on 't Nor has he any reason to ambition a place in an Assembly which he has so grosly and impudently abus'd That when ever They meet he knows his Ears will not be able to make Atonement for the petulancy of his Tongue and the French Itch of his Fingers 'T is true he has already dubb'd himself a Body Politic sometimes his own silly self is forsooth the Government sometimes the Church and in his own conceit makes as great a Figure in the World for Loyalty as Mother Celliers or her younger Sister Mrs. Elianor James with her Sham-Papeâ—s of Adviso's Alas Man he has places enow already is he not Mouth Extraordinary of Faction Principal Forger of Flams and Shams Grand Engineer for Bedaubing all Evidence of the Popish Plot The mighty Artist at Blanching of Blackamoors Supream Scavenger of the Town into whose Cart all the Popish Kennel-rakers that cannot find Stowage in Took and Thompson empty their Durt which he most industriously two or three times a week subtlely unloads at Protestants Doors And then For the whole Gang we hair-brain'd Tories call He 's Knight o' th' Shire and represents you All. Tory. Well! But he tells you the French King does not make all these Advances into Flanders meerly to pick up Cockle-shells or catch Whitings Truem. No I 'le warrant him nor does he contrive the mighty Haven at Dunkirk and expensive Fortifications there to make a Retreat for Herring-Busses But that wise and haughty Monarch has no doubt an Eye on enlarging his Empire and in subserviency thereunto prosecutes the poor Dissenters alià s Huguenots or Protestants within his Dominions that he may the more plausibly engage the Pope to favour his Enterprizes and lull Princes of that Communion asleep Nor is it my business to enquire why the Progress of his Arms were not stopt long since when means however diverted were not wanting or to look over old printed Letters to find who it was talk'd of Interests inseparable This I will only say That whether in other Parts of a different Religion and Interest where a Popish and French Plot is apparently discover'd to be working in their very Bowels it may be of use towards obviating his Designs to divide Protestants and worry one another to the undoing of many thousands nay hundreds of thousands of Families damping of Trade consequently lesseâ—ing the Revenue and embroiling Affairs and all this for a parcel of acknowledg'd Trifles or imaginary Stories forg'd by a knot of ill Men who have no other means to screen themselves from the Justice they apprehend out of conscious Guilt may still be a Question Tory. Pish you are harping on the Popish Plot but the same Author frankly tells you 'T is nothing but a Vision of Dragons in the Moon Truem. Right he 's indeed pleas'd to call it so but I humbly conceive The King the Nation and especially as 't is worded the City has little reason to thank him for that Complement Printed for Langley Curtis 1681-2 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY Feb. 10. 1681-2 Quem mihi dabis de numero Praelatorum qui non magis invigilet subditorum evacuandis Marsupiis quam extirpandis vitiis Bernard ad Eugen. The calling of the Council of Constance The horrible villainies there prov'd against Pope John he is Deposed A Council is above the Pope The two other Popes likewise casheir'd c. VVE are Remarking on the life of Pope John the 23 d. or 24 th as others call him for the business of Pope Joan has made such a confusion amongst the Johns that the best Historians disagree in their reckoning how he wheadled himself into the Popedom you have heard
by the Clergy or some of their Agents during the Kings Absence in France at which time the Notion of setting up for a Regent might be probable But when this supposed Insurrection happened the King was not gone but lay at Eltham 2. The number of the Rebels are said to be Twenty Thousand and Array'd in Warlike manner now 't is very strange and improbable how so great a Number could get together and more strange that they should all be routed and disperst meerly by the Kings coming to them into the Thickets for we do not read of any Army leavied by the King to oppose them Nor do we hear of one person kill'd nor so much as a Broken Pate or a Bloody Nose in all this terrible Insurrection had there been such a Forces their designs so horrid against the Kings Life he would have hardly ventur'd himself amongst them so ill provided 3. It would seem by this Indictment that these Twenty Thousand Rebells were all Horse men for it saith proditoriè modo Insurrectionis contra Ligeanceas suas Equitavêrunt they Treasonably after the manner of an Insurrection came Riding c. Now this increases the Miracle for 't was a work of great time and vast Expence to raise an Army of Twenty Thousand Horse But besides if they were Horse what did they do in St. Gileses Thickets Sure that was none of the best places to Randevouz in again if they came Riding thus in Battel Array Twenty Thousand strong how does the other part of the Indictment hold water where 't is said Privatim Insurgentes Privately Rising a Clause which shrewdly intimates that some of the Clergy have been tampering with this Indictment and that it was not drawn with much Advice of the Kings Learned Council at Law for they would never have thus contradicted themselves or inserted such impertinent words as Privatim Insurgentes 4. Nor is it less pleasant to consider that there should be Twenty Thousand Horse levyed in open Rebellion to perpetrate the most horrid Treason that could be Imagined and these should be all discomfited and such vast Numbers of them taken that our Monkish Historians talk of all the Prisons about London being fill'd with them and yet none of all their names known but Sir John Oldcastle whâ—â—at the same time by the general Current of History seems too to have been at the same time in Wales Sir R. Actoâ— Mr. Brown and Beverly the preacher for so the Indictment sayes Quam pluribus Rebellibus Ignotis c. 5. A most material exception to this pretended Indictment is that therein the Kings Brothers are stiled John of Lancaster and Humphrey of Lancaster whereas in truth they then were and ever since the 13 th year of their Father Henry the 4 th had been Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester as you may read in Caxtons Chronicle now can any wise man imagine that the Kings Council if they had drawn this Indictment upon so great an Important an occasion would have been so negligent aâ— sto omit those Princes Titles and only with an unpardonable Rudeness call them John and Humphrey Credat Judaeus Apella 6. If the matter had been Treason why were not the offenders executed in such manner as in cases of Treason the Law requires but we do not find that they were Hang'd drawn and quarter'd but only Hang'd which is not the Judgment in Treason 7. As for Sir John Oldcastle himself after he was taken and brought upout of Wales which was about the year 1417. There being then a Parliament sitting the Records thereof do give this following account viz. That Sir John Oldcastle of Cowling in the County of Kent Knight being Out-lawd in the Kings-bench and being Excommunicated before by the Arch-Bishop for Haeresy was brought before the Lords and having heard his Convictions It seems the Haeresy was charg'd upon him there as well as the Outlawry answered not thereunto for his Excuse upon which it was Adjudged that he should be taken as a Traytor to the King and the Realm and carried to the Tower of London and from thence drawn through the City unto the New Gallows in St. Gileses without the old Temple Barr and there to be Hanged and burned Hanging In which Proceedings we may note 1. That he was never try'd by his Peers that is by any Jury for he was but a Commoner not a Peer of the Realm and suffered upon the Outlawry and Excomunication and therefore when we said in our last p. 123. That without any farther Tryal or Judgment he was Hang'd and Burnt we desire to be understood intended of any Legal common or ordinary Trial or Judgment according to the Course of the Laws For 2. If he were duly Out-law'd for Treason upon his being taken there was no need for carrying him before the Lords in Parliament For by the very Out-lawry he would have been Attainted and without more ado should have had Judgment in the Kings Bench as a Traytor But it may justly be suspected that the Judges of that Court perceiving what kind of practises there had been in this case declined to be so far concern'd therein and therefore Certified the Record into the Parliament which they did together with the Bishops Sentence of Excommunication filed to the Record A method very strange and unpresidented 3. 'T is observable that after all this the Lords did pass such Judgment on him as was not due to a Traitor and though it be true the Parliament might by Act have Attainted him and thereupon Ordained a special Judgment as they should have thought good yet since they did not so proceed since he was before Attainted by the Out-lawry and thereupon or else without any Colour of Law suffered I conceive their Lordships could not lawfully vary from the common Judgment of Treason 4. It is further to be noted that in the Records of the said Parliament it is added that a motion was made that the Lord Powis one of the Ancestors no doubt of that Popish Lord now in the Tower for High Treason might be thanked and Rewarded according to the Proclamation for his great pains of taking of Sir John Oldcastle Knight Haeretick But the Roll there does not mention Traitor so that it seems pretended Haeresy was his greatest indeed for ought we can perceive main and probably Except breaking Prison his only Crime Yet we are not ignorant that the Old Monks and the Modern Jesuite Parsons bring several other most false Accusations against him as that he was an Anabaptist and would have had all things in common but this Calumny seems to have no other grounds than his complaining of the superfluity of the Clergy in those timer and wishing that their abundance had been distributed to better uses nay they blush not to write Tantâ praeditur fuit dementiâ ut putaret se post tridâ—um à morte Resurrecturus He was so madd that he perswaded himself that he should Rise again the Third day as another
mystery Roger has more than once been tampering with this Mr. Tongue and at Christmas last renew'd his Intrigue with him much about the same time Fairwell and Pain began privately to broach their Sham now if Godfrey's Murder could have been turn'd off and people been made believe that Dr. Tongue and Dr. Oats contriv'd and invented the whole Scheme of the Plot so Artificially that it deceived the King and four Parliaments and all the Judges c. Then how innocent would the poor Roman Catholicks appear and what glorious Martyrs Whitebread Coleman and the rest But this trinkling with young Tongue taking wind Roger cries Whore first and fills the World with Exclamations that Mr. Tongue forsooth had a Plot upon But Roger Roger for all your Lapwinging there is more of this matter known than you are aware of and there will come a day of Reckoning Printed for Langley Curtis 1682. The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The fourth Volume FRIDAY May 26. 1682. Quocunque aspicies nihil est nisi Terror Orcus That the present Faith of the Church of Rome is to be refused upon pain of Damnation The Woes threatned to them that abide in her Communion Greater the Sin and more sore the punishment of such as revolt unto her The Judgment of the ancient Divines of the Church of England in the Case TO reinforce and corroborate what we offer'd in our last of the extream hazard all that continue in the Romish Church at this day do run in Relation to their Eternal State We shall now advance and endeavour to Demonstrate the following Proposition viz. That the Faith of the Church of Rome is to be refused upon pain of Damnation And First For Explanation of the Terms By the Faith of the Church of Rome is understood the Doctrine of the said Church delivered to be believed of all men that 〈◊〉 to be saved as matters revealed by God to that end And this is â—â—â—sidered as one individual or singular thing for though indeed it be divided into several Articles of which it consists yet it is conceived by themselves as one intire Body because they are all knit together by the same Bond namely by being assented to and believed upon one and the same reason and all to be received on pain of the same Anathema Thus Fisher the Jesuite under the Mask of A. D. in his Treatise of Faith Ca. 4. Faith must be intire whole and sound in all points and it is not sufficient stedfastly to believe some points mis-believing or not believing other some or any one For not to believe any one Point whatsoever which God by revealing it doth testify to be true and which by his Church he hath commanded us to believe must needs be damnable as being a notable Injury to Gods Verity and a great disobedience to his Will And that Chamaelion the Arch-bishop of Spalatto when he was return'd to his Vomit in his Consilium Reditûs p. 20. asserts the same All Articles saith he of Faith determined by the Church are fundamental none of them may be deny'd without Heresie Thus every Member of the Church of Rome must as stedfastly and absolutely believe the least point of Reliques Images Purgatory c. delivered by the Council of Trent as the greatest mysteries of the Godhead Trinity Incarnation c. And if he deny any of the former he is no less an Heretick than if he deny'd any of the latter Yea though he believe all that they propound to be believed save some one he is for want of believing that one if he know that the Church propounds it to be believed a Miscreant or Mis-believer The reason of which is this that if the Church may err in one thing it may err in another and so can be no sure foundation of Faith Now to refuse the Faith of the Church of Rome is nothing else but not to acknowledge the Doctrin by her delivered to be true but to abhor it as false not of every particular point but of all joyntly together For we freely acknowledge that the Papists do hold several great mysteries of Divinity truly and soundly wherein we also agree with them but yet we may not receive their Faith for true as it is by them delivered for one Intire body of Divinity revealed by God to be believed by all men that will â—e saved So that to refuse the Faith of the Church of Rome is not to believe that it is true or to believe that it is false and this we say is required by every man upon pain of Damnation Which words Vpon pain of Damnation are not so to be understood as if we presumed to pronounce sentence of Condemnation against all that continue in the Church of Rome we have disclaim'd such Temerity but thereby is meant that the believing that Doctrin as a matter of Faith is a thing in it self damnable that is such as maketh a man liable to damnation How it shall fall out with particular men in the event we neither know nor take upon us to inquire only we say that their mis-belief is such a sin as setteth them in a state of Damnation To prove this we must consider That there are Two ways by which sin leadeth a man into the state of damnation The one is the desert or fitness it hath to procure damnation The other is the actual meriting or deserving of Salvation Into the former sin casteth a man off it self Into the latter he falleth as by sin so by the Ordinance or Decree of God who hath laid the penalty of Damnation upon it Hence ariseth this Argument against receiving the Faith of the Romish Church That which maketh a man unclean in Gods sight hath a fitness to procure Damnation For unclean things are unmeet for the presence of God and consequently meet for Damnation But the Faith of the Church of Rome maketh a man unclean in the sight of God For it is erroneous in so high a nature as we have proved that it makes a man guilty of High Treason against God by Installing the Pope in the Throne of God giving him Power and Authority to determine as a Judge what is matter of Faith and what not without any Commission or Warrant from God Nor do they only give him authority to Interpret the Scripures but also allow him to set up a Forge of Tradition where he Hammers what he listeth and Vends it to be received upon pain of Damnation for the word of the ever living God What is it to fulfill that of the Apostle 2 Thes 2. 4. To sit in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God if this be not And must not all they needs be accessaries to this High Treason that acknowledge such his Usurp'd Authority and yield obedience to it Or how can it be reasonably denied that there is a worthiness and fitness in the Faith of the Church of Rome to procure Damnation Therefore