and heresies haue been stirring amongst them and as before their hearts were without any honesty so here the Head of the Church may be found to want wit or braine to discerne betwixt truth and falshood the right faith and false heresies The Councell of Basill hath made a muster of their secessions Schismes and departures from the true faith which thing I find carefully set downe in one or two choyce Manuscripts in Magdalen Colledge in Oxford To come therefore to particulars Liberius was an hereticke his heresie was no lesse then the worst of all others that of the Arrians Leo succeeded him both in his Papall Sea and Arrian heresie Who is so little versed in the Stories of the Church but knoweth that Iohn the 22. his error de visione faciali was condemned by the Sorbons and blowne abroad by the sound of a Trumpet throughout all Paris But I will dwell no longer vpon this incongruous and vnpleasant subiect of banishing all forraine Iurisdiction of Popes out of this Kingdome and territories Wee say that his Maiestie may restraine with the Ciuill Sword the stubborne and euill doers which is my fourth and last proposition in this Article and commeth now to bee explained by the more temperate and moderate sort of Papists In the Chapter preceding we haue forced the Temporall Sword out of the Popes hands and that it may bee drawne forth against the stubborne and euill doers none but the franticke Anabaptist will dare to denie With them and their fantasticall propositions and delirations we will haue nothing to doe at this present wee will inquire only how farre forth this Sword is to bee drawne according vnto the Papists Tenet and the practise of these Kingdoms They make two sorts of hereticks some that erre of malice and trouble the State some that erre the errors of their Fathers and stand stiffe in that Religion which hath been taught them because they know no better these are to be reclaimed and informed by good and gentle meanes according to the example of the primitiue times when the ` Doctors and Pastors were readier to lay downe their liues then to take them away from illiterate and simple men and women they knew no other Sword then the Word no other fire then the Spirit Touching those that erre of malice they are to be dealt withall in sharper sort especially if their malice breake forth vnto the disturbance of the State either Ecclesiasticall or Ciuill and yet these are to be reclaimed also and purged of their malice if it may bee as well as of their errors or else preuented in time by the stroke of Iustice according to their demerits without effusion of blood but for blasphemous hereticks that impugne the Trinitie or wilfully trouble the vnitie and peace of this Kingdome bee they Schismaticks or Hereticks it now groweth to bee a matter of State rather then Religion I leaue them to those that know well how to rule them thinking no punishment too sharpe for them But for your sanguinarie punishments and bloody Inquisitions as our State vseth them not nor our Religion doth warrant them so your owne Writers doe inueighing against them as eagerly as we can or do supposing that the Church of Rome hath profited little since it first vsed these vnwonted and vnwarranted courses to turne all into fire and sword vpon small occasions God he knoweth for denying the Popes power in deliuering soules out of Purgatory for speaking against the Canons of the Church the opinions of their Schooles sometimes for crossing their positions though it bee but in Grammar notantur Articuli parantur fascculi away with them to the fire they may no longer liue one or two of their illiterate Friars shall accuse them some others shall beare witnesse the spirituall Magistrate shall condemne them the Temporall shall execute the sentence to the vtter destruction both of soule and body as you are perswaded If your men were as ready to teach as to burne and dealt by Colloquies and not by the Sword by the Gospell and not by Armes we would thinke that your Religion had some shew of truth and the Christian World some likelihood of Peace to the which in Christ I commend the cause of Gods Church and it a period to this long Article much the longer because it treateth of two the greatest powers vpon Earth the one lawfully challenged by his Maiestie the other vnlawfully pretended and vsurped by his Holinesse such as it is as I haue shewed heretofore Of the 22. Article Of Purgatorie THE Romish doctrine concerning Purgatorie Prayers worshipping and adoration as well of Images as of Reliques and also inuocation of Saints is a fond thing vainely inuented and grounded vpon no warrant of Scripture but rather repugnant to the Word of God This 22. Article explained and maintained by Papists HEre we are to runne through Purgatorie or rather through a Hell of deuilish inuentions but I will contract my selfe and it The Church of England giues no definition of it in this Article neither can it be defined because non entis nullae sunt qualitates but out of the writings of moderate Papists it may be described briefly thus Purgatory is a prety slight to picke mens purses Largely thus PVrgatorie is an excellent inuention of fiction of some Cacologus Schoolemen or Legendaries founded vpon dreames and reuelations to certaine politick ends partly vnknowne partly knowne to picke mens purses and fill the Popes cofers to defeate men of their lands and rob their soules of true comfort leauing nothing in mens consciences but scruples and terrors to thinke when it began what it is how long it shall continue for yeares dayes moneths or till the day of iudgement This awing the people by it more then by any thing and causing them to reuerence their persons more then any men that can by their Prayers mages Inuocations and Reliques of Saints Indulgences Funerals and Diriges being well hired vnto the same quench this fire deliuer these soules out of Purgatori and free them a poena and send them straight into Paradise to their endlesse ioy and comfort as they thinke and are perswaded by their ignorant guides To course ouer the parts of this description It is a meere fiction not of their Theologus but of their Cacologus founded vpon dreames and reuelations of men that appeared to them from the dead Habent Moysen Prophetas could not content them pickes mens purses and robs men of their lands to inrich the Popâ—s cofers What scruples it leaueth in the conscience I leaue to your considerations when you shall perfectly vnderstand that either there was no mention of it in the primitiue times or very little that the Graecians beleeue it not neither are the learnedst of the Papists able to define the place qualitie duration and extention of it vnto this
the Emperours soueraigntie aswell ouer the Priests that fight Gods battels as ouer the souldiers that warred vnder his conduct Regist lib. 2. Ep. 64. And after Gregorie and Chrysostome Bernard a late Writer in his to Henrie Archbishop of Senes Ep. 41. argueth after this manner out of the words Euery soule If euery soule then yours he that would haue you conceiue otherwise of these words doth but deceiue you follow not their counsels Espenc ep ad Titum cap. 3 pag. 513. And not long after If Princes haue nothing to do with Religion and sacred businesses what makes so many Imperiall lawes and constitutions for Religion in the Code Nouels and Authentikes And to what purpose doe wee reade of so many Royall Edicts and Parliaments in the Annals of all Christian Princes for the settling and establishing of Religion As I heare when those horrible fires were lighted throughout all the kingdome of France for the burning of men and women aliue Oh that was a matter of the Church appertaining to Religion But when there was speech of reforming the Clergie conforming Monkes to their primitiue orders and sending Non-residents home to their Cures to care for their flocks that matter was not to be spoken of by the temporall Magistrate it was to be treated of in a Councell or before the Popes Holinesse for so I haue heard and doe well remember that our Bishops were wont to distinguish after this manner as if Princes were not to be zealous and carefull in point of Religion but to commit the care thereof not only to men very indiscreet but altogether ignorant and so to become meere executioners of their cruell designes as if they were not sonnes of our Mother the Church and chiefe propugnators propagators and defenders of the same Wee haue heard what Espencaeus iudgement is of Princes intermedling in Ecclesiasticall affaires heare wee now a man nothing inferiour to him for learning Andreas Masius writing vpon Iosua what saith he If it should chance that the Priests forgetting their duties doe against the Lawes of God Customes of the Church or approoued Ceremonies and Rites of Gods worship and doe performe the seruices of God either negligently and disorderly or do violate and breake them or by their lewd liues and wicked actions doe trouble and disquiet the settled state of the Common-wealth we may not say that it belongeth not to the office of a Lay Prince to put them in mind of their duties and to admonish them and if this will not serue to bridle their audacious actions by his Princely authoritie and this doctrine I take to be well warranted by the letter and examples of the Scripture If out of the mouthes of these two witnesses this doctrine be not sufficiently concluded we will indeauour to euince the same out of the Pragmaticks of France and Courts of Iustice here in England and first of France The Vestall Virgins are not free from the punishment of the Temporall Magistrate and who more sacred And as learned Budaeus saith there was a French King that made their Cardinals and Bishops quake and who so great But optima prima his gouernment was too good to last long he was soone sent packing with a figge in his mouth or a peare or some such thing as the Deuill would haue it Boniface the eighth brought an error into the Church which was greatly preiudiciall to the Pragmattick of France one Tanquerel openly in Paris tooke vpon him to defend the same but a good paire of legges were his owne best defence he ran away and one P. Gustus in his steed before fiftie Doctors of Diuinity and Sorbonists in their Schoole stood bare a prettie while and then shamefully acknowledged his errour and not onely his but Boniface the eighths and forthwith their chiefe Diuines offered themselues prompt and ready to take the Oath of Alleageance or to giue any satisfaction to the King or Courts of Iustice But why dwell wee so long in France when domesticis exemplis abundamus England is sufficiently prouided to furnish vs with examples out of Westminster or the Tower as may appeare by the diligent hand of a most knowing Lawyer who hath collected them together sending them to a reuerend friend of mine who coppied them out and imparted the Transcript vnto mee whence I gather that it was a familiar matter in old time when the State stood Popish and the Iudges stood too much affected with that which they now call the Romane Religion to sue fine and imprison Archbishops Bishops Deanes and Clergie men for beating wounding burning houses killing of men cutting of lippes and not so onely but about Prohibitions in Prouisions out of the Realme Appeales to and Buls from Rome and it would not serue a Bishops turne so carefull were the Iudges of keeping and preseruing the ancient liberties and customes and the King his Crowne and dignitie that though they reuerenced the Church according to their blind deuotion yet a Bishop comming before a Lay-Iudge pleading that hee was an anoynted Bishop Brother to the Pope and an Ecclesiasticall person that he was a Clerke neither of both could be heard but in the Tower Marshalsey Kings-Bench c. or fined and ransomed brought they Letters Prohibitions and Buls from Rome the very bringing whereof was no lesse danger then a Praemunire I know you expect proofes and not words Records and no other proofes and therefore I proceed and shew out of the Records that For Archbishops and Bishops Anno 27. R. Henrici filij Iâ—nioris there came a precept to the Iudges of the Kings-Bench to proceed against Robert Bishop of Worcester and others in a cause of Prohibition as being against the Kings Crowne and Dignitie The Bishop of Exeter lost his Temporals for not admitting the Kings Clerke to the Church of Southwell The Bishop of Ely for being accessary to the burning of Blanch Wakes house and murdering of Will Holme which was killed in a Wood by his seruants and intertained by him after the fact was done was put vpon his twelue Godfathers Walter Bishop of Exceter for appealing to the Court of Rome to the Kings great preiudice finds sureties to answer the matter before the King Anno 6. Edw. 1. Semblably Ralph Bishop of Bath and Welles was proceeded against for summoning men to Rome Anno 19. Edw 3. William Bishop of Norwich had his Temporals seazed on for excommunicating one Richard that brought the Kings Prohibition Anno 20. Edw. 3. Adam Hereford for partaking with Roger Mortimer is tainted in Parliament notwithstanding the Archbishops challenge Anno Edw 17 Rob. Archbishop of Canterburies body was to bee taken for excommunicating the Sherifes when he came to serue the Kings Warrant Anno 32. Edw. 1. And to see how small a matter would incense the King and how sharpe his punishments would be against the Clergie there was a warrant sent downe to the Sherife of Worcester to serue vpon him for hunting only in
Idolatry by worshipping of Idols or images Wee Christians should incurre the same crime and endure the like censure Worshipping of images hath beene occasion of much mischiefe in the Christian Churches and therefore to bee left Doe not you your selfe thinke there is much knauerie in some to make the images to weepe or swette What a iest is it to beleeue or to make the simple people beleeue that the diuell cannot abide the image of Saint Michael or the signe of the Crosse I am halfe ashamed to see the indeuotion and superstition of your vulgar people how they post vnto your images and happy is hee that can come soonest to hang some piece of gold or siluer about the images necke or to cloth it with some rich garment or other or leaue it in some place of the Church where it may be seene What say you to apparrell of cloth of siluer or of gold The images haue no sence in them and is God delighted with gold or precious stones Diamond Saphirs or Smaragds Thus doe the rich giue and ouer-giue and study or vie who shall giue most when the tradesman offers but a candle or the country peazant but an egge or two and if it be to shew that he is no Hugaenot or Lutheran What say the Papists to the worshipping of bawdie and beastly images or prodigious and vgly ones Wicelius complanineth of the one and Gregorius Gyraldus of the other I now come to the last Proposition of all The sixth Proposition It is very much impugned by the Papists themselues of the better sort PApists of the better sort are against the adoration of Images I will reckon them vp ordine regrado reâ—rogrado as they come promiscuously First Ant. de Dominis Secondly Polyd. Virgil Thirdly Vatablus and Rob. Stephanus Fourthly Desid Heraldus Fifthly Papyrius Massonius and sundry others if I list either to be tedious or vaine-glorious but I conclude with Saint Iohns exhortation My little children beware of Idols Against the Inuocation of Saints THis controuersie of the Inuocation of Saints to goe at large may be reduced vnto two propositions wherunto the best of the Papists haue willingly subscribed The Propositions are these First God alone is to be worshipped adored inuocated Secondly The Saints neither may can nor will be inuocated of vs but with impietie and no profit The first Proposition God alone is and ought to be worshipped adored and called vpon GOd alone is to bee worshipped inuocated trusted vnto hoped in all our trust and confidence must bee placed in him we must pray vnto none but to him serue none but him no creature is venerable but the increated nature What dependance vpon any other What profit I conclude therefore with Erasmus It is the safest course for all men vpon all their incident occasions to go streight vnto him others perhaps would but cannot God is both able and willing And thus this first Proposition standeth like a Rocke immoueable against all the assaults and batteries of our Aduersaries The second Proposition Saints neither will nor can be inuocated of vs. FIrst it may bee doubted who are Saints not all that are called or catalogued or canonized for Saints many whose seules frie in Hell there is no certaintie of their cononizations But imagine there be some true Saints and true Miracles whereby they are discouered to bee true Saints yet sith Almighty God is the beginning and fountaine of good and Saints at the most but a kind of conduits or pipes to conueigh the same vnto vs Oh let vs not be so pious to Men or Angels that we prooue impious towards God worship the Lord and him onely serue is the common voyce both of Men and Angels Will a man that is wise beg and sue to the seruant when he may haue free accesse to the Master of the house Such preposterous worshipping of Saints such confiding and trusting to any deriuatitious sanctitie is not able to open vnto vs when we knocke at Heauen gates The wisest and sobrest amongst the Papists leaue it as one of Gods secrets either our knowledge of the Saints or the Saints knowledge of vs and expectnothing more then the pious imitation of their vertuous deeds which all of them commend vnto vs as the most acceptable seruice both vnto them and to God they would not haue vs to confide or repose our trusts either in Christs Humanitie or his Mothers Virginitie nor in any hee or shee-Saint in Heauen It was a hard constitution that was obtruded vnto them by the Church against a plaine Text of Scripture Cursed bee he that putteth his trust in Man and the Christian Religion had thriued farre better amongst vs if wee had not giuen so much vnto inuocation of Saints and so little vnto the seruice of God The 25. Article Penance is no Sacrament PEnance is one of the seuen Sacraments say the Papists it is no Sacrament saith the Church of England It is easier to say what it is not then what it is But I will not greatly stand with them for a Sacrament vpon hope of better agreement in other matters of greater consequence take it strictly it is no Sacrament they haue better eyes then I if they can see more Sacraments then two in the Gospell take it largely it may passe well enough for a Sacrament such a one as it is and to gratifie the Papists if the number of seuen be so gratefull vnto them I will helpe them vnto seuen times seuen Sacraments vpon reasonable conditions out of Saint Austen It is called metanoea or resipiscentia in Latin and as I take it repentance in English but this word repentance or resipiscentia is so dreadfull a word to the Church of Rome that there is Hue and Cry made after it and hauing apprehended it they haue condemned it to perpetuall silence it must neuer be mentioned againe they haue purged it out of their bookes I would to God they were as well purged out of this Kingdome I will quote a few Authors and places that you may measure the rest by these few quotations They diuide it into three parts into Confession Contrition and Satisfaction how wisely we shall see hereafter Their penance consisteth in outward affliction of the body and maceration of the flesh our repentance is inward and spirituall in the grace and faith of Christ Wee know but one Name that can saue vs their penances may be commuted or redeemed with money ours onely by the blood of Christ To conclude it consisteth not in payning the body or afflicting the soule A man may weare haire-cloth and be neuer a whit the more either attrite or contrite for I haue learned to make no diuision of these two termes your Schooles doe
to their office and functions to assist the Pope in doing good and preaching the Gospell or visiting the sick or suruaying their Diocesses Lastly 〈…〉 Pope to whom he poore Wicelius deceiued by a counterfcite Epistle of Anaclâ—tus erring the errour of the Pontifician by misinterpreting the words of our â—uiour Thou art Peter giueth a kind of Supremacie but not in that latitude that now it is taken hee summoneth to appeare before the Tribunall Seate of God if he did not his best to reforme the corruptions of the Clergy in generall not exempting his Holines as some flatterers and pick-thankes did and the foule abuses of the Court of Rome which were spread abroad throughout all the World in bookes printed to the shame of that See and iust reproofe of his Holinesse and hee did verily thinke in his conscience that if they did not the sooner begin to reforme the Sectaries by Colloquies or Councels not by fire and sword ere long be they would loose all Germanie that began then to dance after Martins Luthers Pipe and greedily to imbrace his doctrine for the very filthinesse and abominable or innominable sinnes of their Clergie 14. Lastly what shall I speake of their Holy water qua nihil immundius that was vnholy their Thurification that was to be reiected because the sent thereof was not pleasing in Gods nostrils abuse of Confession Baptisme Excommunication which were too too much abused You see our Wicelius was a true reformer of the Church a moderate Papist at the least and no dissembler of the faults of his age of the Church doubtles in time he might if he had not bin too much awed by their great ones to whom as became a peaceable man he shewed all manner of outward obedience I say he might haue prooued an other Martin Luther though moued with a cleane coÌ„trary spirit so powerful is the Spirit of God to change our purposes and alter our nature when and as it pleaseth the Diuine prouidence Concerning Ant. de Dom I know not well what to say but to cry out Digitus Dei God had a finger in disposing of his comming ouer and suffering him to fall that other might rise and to write so directly against the Church of Rome as to my seeming for the most points no man hath done better though himselfe were neuer in the right hauing a good head but a corrupt and equluocating heart from the beginning which well became him that was tutored by and brought vp vnder the Iesuites Now albeit his conuersion were most fained and his Apostacie most certaine and true whatsoeuer he proposed to himselfe the heart is a Closet wherein none may enter but God God so disposed of both for his glorie that his person should relapse from our Religion and himselfe returne with the Dog to his old vomit and his elegant and substantiall bookes though they be mute should speake and proclaime to all the World the vnauoideable truth of our Religion now publikely professed and established in the Church of England Thus doth the diuine prouidence bring light out of darknesse and make good effects spring from the roote of euill causes as better shall appeare when we come to giue you my obseruations about the bookes that are purged I will onely touch vpon the Author of the Historie of the Councell of Trent whom because Ant. de Dominis whom I cannot call Ant. de Dommo because hee serued more Masters called Pietro Soare I will also call him by that name doth so farre shew to euery one-eyed Reader that the Councell of Trent though it were called against and condemned Martin Luther and his Religion yet if the Councell had been free and their voyces decisiue without the Pope though the Italian Bishops were three to one in number and there had been no foule play in calculating the voyces still I say leauing the Clokebag behind the Councell of Trent might haue turned Lutheran and sate at Witenberge aswell as there for their propositions and reasons which as D. Stapleton saith may be fallible and deceitfull but the conclusion is that which they did and we must look after if we will suffer our selues to be hoodwinckt and as very fooles as they I am not ignorant that there be some in the world moderate Papists that haue taken as iust and as great exception as we doe or can vnto the Councell of Trent and I would not haue the Christian Reader ignorant of this that I haue intreated of this largely in another set Treatise which if it shall be thought worthy by the Church of England to whom I doe yeeld and owe all submission may haue the happinesse with some other Treatises of mine to see the light Of the bookes printed vnpurged so much by way of caueat for the printed purge Copies take gentle Reader these few notes into thy Christian consideration 1. That I propose not to my selfe any exact handling of the Controuersies questioned betweene vs and the Papists per viam Thomae as they say by way of opposition or obiections and answeres out of Scripture Councels Fathers midled aged first aged and all aged Writers before Martin Luther my weake and wearied legges at this time will not suffer me to expatiate so farre yet my studies I confesse and naturall disposition to rip vp and vnfold the controuersies and vnriuit them out of the secrets of true Antiquitie driue that way my purpose is if God will to giue you a taste onely of that fruit which may be expected out of their sundry Indices Expurgatorij if they be well and narrowly sought after and looked into I haue but seuen or eight of them some that fell into my hands by casualty at the surprizall of the Towne of Cadiz others by the prouidence of God and great care and industrie of the Founder of our great Librarie Sir Thom. Bodley the Pâ—olomey of our â—ges and wonderfull preseruer of bookes I haue by my selfe and my friends amassed and shouelled together some thirtie Quire of Paper of Catholike restitutions and restored some one or two hundred seuerall Authors and out of them I haue gathered this small Introduction or Manuduction vnto Diuinitie sorted according vnto the especiall Articles of Religion controuerted at this day betweene vs and the Papists deliuered in as plaine and familiar manner as I could possibly deuise for the capacitie of the vulgar Protestant or Papist 2. I haue not taken all that may be taken or gathered out of the Articles that the booke might not rise to too great a bulke I haue neither collected all that is contained in the seuerall Indices but a third or fourth part only nor all that is contained in my said collections but the most pertinent and proper places 3. Neither is it to be vnderstood that all that are recorded by them for Papists are indeed Papists but supposed ones as Laeuinus Lemnius Io. Spondanus c. whose testimonies are sparingly miscited by mee in following the common errour
may bee quoth he the Archbishop may goe to Heauen but I feare much the Duke will neuer goe thither So giue me leaue to say to these Clergie-Souldiers that are as Ant. de Dominis complaineth though they put not on Saint Pauls compleate armour yet are both galeatâ— lorâ—ati harnessea from top to toe if they be not commanded to the Waires by the State as who knoweth not but our profound Bradwardine serued as a Chaplaine in the Camâ—e but run idly from their Cures that well they may goe to Heauen as they are Clergie-men which I â—oe not easily beleeue but as Souldiers they will neuer come thither This vice was touched to the quicke by Desid Erasmus but hee was neuer a whit thought of the better of the Church of Rome Hee was wholly for the maintaining of the Canons of the Church and nothing for these Powder-Canons and Field-pieces Thus much bee spoken of their fighting Ministers must not be fighters 11. They are cunning Merchants They trade not with the Word in this spirituall merchandize of soules but with money like temporall Merchants and Tradesmen neglectis studijs 12. They are for the most part ignorant Dolts ignari stulti stipites candaces idle sluggards fooles stockes and stones that haue as one said in the Councell of Basil nec scientiam nec conscientiam nec entiam nor science nor conscience nor any entitie of goodnesse in them so that a man may well conclude of them as Io. Neuizanus did long before I was borne peraduenture de Clerico ad asinum valet argumentum vnlesse you would haue me tell you out of Polydor Virgil that their Masse-Priests were so ignorant as not to know whether Cle in Paracletus were long or short But for auoiding this difficultie and helping their ignorant Shauelings you haue lately found out an excellent deuice to accent all the Trissyllables or longer words in your Missals and yet I doe not remember that Io. de Lapide as very a stone as euer wrote hath this amongst his centum dubia occurrentia circa missam printed and reprinted with shame enough Thus endeth their first dozen of faults of their Priests vnlesse you will haue a Bakers dozen I will bee loath for for so was mine Author Gyraldus to touch vpon this soare it was not Syluester Gyraldus and yet he was a plaine downe right Author it is Lilius Greg. Cyraldus the fault was this which I doe not score vp because I giue it you to boote That diuers men in his time or of his knowledge were chosen Priests for some excellent qualitie belike because they were excellent Stage-players and yet when I bethinke my selfe the better this may fall out to be no fault or a small one when wee consider that it is the manner in Spaine and some Countries to haue long Pulpits and the first worke the Priest doth when he ascends the Pulpet is to set vp his Crucifixe and then to play his parts so as neuer an Actor of them all shall goe beyond him But I haue done Of Popish Monkes and Friars I Purpose in this last place to insist a while vpon their Monkes and Friars not diuiding them into their seuerall Orders Sects or Sodalities wherewith the whole World did and yet doth swarme they are commended vnto vs vnder the title of Religion vsurping religious mens names and titles but are not truly religious but very sacrilegious persons false Monkes against whom Saint Hierome and others haue iustly and sharpely inueighed Some deriue their originals from the Apostles and make them de Iure diuino but that cannot be prooued yet are they ancient compare the old Monkes with the new and there is great difference and disparitie Those were Schooles of Learning rather then Colleges of Monkes or rather Cages of vncleane birds the heate of persecution made them retire into holes and vales caues and dennes where they studied amendment of life and when they came forth out of their Cel and Monasteries being found by the like persecution they brought others vnto the studie of godlinesse by their exemplarie liues they knew no Vowes were not intised by flatterie or forced by vndue meanes to take vpon them that state of life all was arbitrarie they sought God with their hearts and their liuings with their hands were not distinguished with set formes of apparrell they were not luxurious in their liues riotous in their fare couetous in their seeming pouertie leauing the World to take it vp againe with aduantage false Hypocrites wandring Planets ignorant Asses proud Cockscomes sloathfull Bellies Court-slaues Man-quellers King-killers greedy Worldlings vnnaturall to Parents they followed Christ and the people followed them but our later Monkes of yesterdayes breeding in comparison of Antiquitie that sprang vp like Toadestooles or Mushrumps are cleane contrary to these I will not write their sinnes in generall as some of your owne Writers haue done reasonably well I must needs say in this kind as Polydor Virgil and especially one Hugo de Polio that hath written a whole Treatise de 12. Abusionibus Claustri we intend not whole bookes of declamations against their filthy crying sinnes but we will as briefely as we may deliuer them vnto you as we haue receiued them of your owne good Writers that were compelled by the euidence of truth or rather by the prouidence of God to lay open their abominations though you haue cast a cloake or garment vpon them such as it is but it will not serue neither your nor their turnes there are that haue blabbed them abroad and these they are 1. The first accusation brought against them is their Idolatrie being nothing inferiour herein to the idolatrous Priests in Elias time 2. Their Regicides or killing of Kings Was it not a Dominican that porsoned Henrie the seuenth at the Eucharist What can bee added to this Villanie To make the fact seeme more ougly the murderer was a Religious person specie tenus or verâ—â—â—e tenus the murdered a sacred person an Emperour the pretence pietie and the act seeming most religious of all others the place holy the Temple the Chalice holy for it was consecrated Wonder it is that hee is not consecrated and registred amongst your Saints aswell as Garnet and others that they may be put downe in the Calendars and Martyrologies in rea letters that their faces may be died red with shame and confusion and their bloody facts recorded to posteritie and read of all men 3. Their Hypocrisie Their Religion consisteth chiefely in their shauen Crownes and diuersitie of habits they are onely titular Monkes they professe Religion in shew and with Demas imbrace the World they are a kind of Pharises yea the Pharises being compared to them are nothing they are fained institutions and houses of hypocrisie 4. Their Luxurie and incontinencie What should I speake of
their sundry lusts in sundry kinds They promise and vow continencie but there be that vow the contrary I will not reckon vp their lothsome and filthy diseases which they get out of Amatus Lusitanus or any other for very shame let this suffice for the present 5. Their Riots and excesse in fare You may reade of their Epicureisme and delicacie in fare in Hugo de Folio he hath a set Chapter for it of their stately and sumptuous banquets in Erasmus and therefore we may iudge whether men had not reason to caâ— them Hogges fat Hogges as it were out of the stie that swinishly cared for nothing but for their bellies and their tailes with reuerence of the Reader be this spoken 6. Their Sloth and Idlenesse They leade a pretty kind of idle life that slept or idled out their times it was no maruell that so many men and women went thick and threefold to their Monasteries and Nunneries Io. de Puente he that lately intituled the King of Spaine his Master to the Seigneurie of the whole world thinkes no man worthy to write a lying Storie such as his is vnlesse he come out of a Monasterie or a Cell True for if they onely should write which are the only or especiall liers of the world should we not haue goodly Stories out of their Forge But some are of the contrary mind that they and only they haue been the cause that we haue lost so many good pieces of Antiquitie so many famous Histories by their meere negligence and indiligence 7. Their Discord and dissentions They are called Fratres that is Friars but Fratrum quoque gratia rara est they agree like Cat and Dogge either amongst themselues or towards others I would to God this were not too true and that there were any Monasterie free from this infection Peace as Ariosto saith may be written and painted in their Cloysters and Walles but doubtlesse it is not practized in their liues and conuersations 8. Their Pride is somewhat Lucifer-like it cannot well goe higher they are called Minorites some of them but they may be all called Maiorites 9. Their Wandring vp and downe They can neither truly containe for as I shewed you their Cloysters are but so many baudy houses nor are their Cloysters able to containe them they must be running vp and downe with little Pictures or Tablets of the Apostles which the simple people are made to kisse and giue them money Polydor Virgil in the place quoted in the Margent hath so liuely represented this fault vnto our considerations that I am in a manner constrained to referre you to his learned Writings that desire to be better informed hereabouts 10. Their begging They begge that are fitter to giue and liue idly that are fitter to be set aworke Doth any man deny this It shall be prooued Monkes aswell as other men must liue by the sweat of their browes and labour of their hands Not to worke if a man can and haue an able body is to steale But you will say perhaps this precept is not generall it concernes not Monkes Yes Monkes aswell as other men Guil. de S. Amore hath inferred this doctrine throughout all his booke against the begging Friers but his booke against beggers must be enforced it selfe to begge or else it is neuer like to see light for ought that I know I reade of many Monkes that were Fishers and relieued themselues and others by that honest Trade and I can tell you also of one that was a Smith and exercised the Trade in his Monasterie belike it was hee that made the Tongs that Saint Dunstane vsed when he tooke the Deuill by the nose the Storie is worth the reading in our old Chronicles if a man haue so much faith as to beleeue it But to returne to our begging Friers which take the habite of poore Monkes vpon them for riches sake and so as one notes very well by professing themselues poore they make themselues rich they haue stately houses and are called beggers Vtinam hoc esset mendicare He that should begge with them should not loose by them but of this enough 11. Their pride in Apparrell is one of the twelue abuses noted by Hugo de Folio and he setteth it downe in Folio yee may beleeue him for he knew it too well 12. Their Courting is noted by the same Author who hath taken much paines to reforme them if it were possible and to reduce them to their prime-order It was wont to be said A Monke out of his Cell was like a Fish out of the water But in his time and in all times a man may find some of these Frogges not only at Pharaohs Court that is in the Palaces of Kings and Princes but in the Court of Rome trading with his Holinesse about making and marring of Marriages about vnlawfull Diuorces and Dispensations and I know not what I will not speake of their vnnaturalnesse to Parents which they practise if they doe not teach nor of their children which they doe steale I haue shewed you an expresse Statute of our Vniuersitie of Oxford against it these bee supernumerarious faults but to conclude there is no sinne but they haue a tincture of it and yet like counterfeits they would be like God without sinne as he is know all things as he doth are in all places they are P. Rebuffus words some of them too sharpe to be Englished and ioyned with a little prophanenesse to my seeming which may well become a Popish Writer Of Miracles I Had here thought to haue concluded but that a fit and iust occasion is giuen me by a late accident that fell out here in Oxford to speake somewhat although not much of this point of Miracles the patration of them is made a speciall note of their Church in diuers bookes that were lately scattered in the night about our Colledges and Halles and in the Cities and fields bookes that we haue heard of long since whereof some of them are throughly refuted because I say the euill one that hath sowed these Tares amongst our good Wheate while the good Householder slept as his manner is confides belikes in his cause and triumphs vpon this point more then any other I will therefore take so much paines as to insist vpon this point a little I will not take vpon mee to answer all it needeth not let one or two serue for all the rest The Author of my Lord of Londons supposed Legacie makes this his sixth motiue That true Miracles haue been wrought for proofe of the Catholike religion but not any for Protestancy and hee reckons vp diuers most stupendious Miracles in the primitiue Age and later times in this World and the New I meane both the Indies and he concludeth with this Epiphonema O misery and feeblenes of Nouelisme in doctrine which is