points and Doctrines which I leave to the more learned to discuss That which I shall insist upon here shall be according to my principal purpose to deliver their seditious Paradoxes and shew unto the World how much their new refined doctrine doth derogate from Royalty and that sovereign Authority which belongeth unto aâ—l Kings Princes and States rightly constituted and how much it favoreth the worst of Governments that is Pure Democraty or Popularity And I shall begin with Calvin who goeth more slily and cunningly to work nothing so rudely and bluntly as Luther First therefore for the reputation of his Consistory or Sanhedrim at Genevah he labors to dâ—base Monarchy and to prefer Aristocracy before it Non id quidem per se Instit lib. 4. c. 20. sect 10. Not in it self forsooth as if he had been very tender of the Rights of Kings but by reason of mens natural corruption Quia rarissime contingit Because it is seldom seen saith he that Princes can govern their Passions so well or are so wise and prudent as thâ—y ought to be to uphold good Government So he makes it a rare thing to finde a wise and moderate King and so concludes from a general defect which he supposeth in Kings that it is best fâ—r many joyntly and not one alone absolutely to command For saith he where many govern one supplyâ—th the dâ—fects of another both in point of Counsel and Justice This was his way politick and plausible enough to prepare the hearts of his people at Genevah to the Discipline which he intended for thâ—m For you must know the Genevians had now ejected their Bishop who was also their Sovereign Prince and had been so ever since the time of Frederick the First Bodin de Rep. So that their Monarchy was newly changed into a popular State yet governed Aristocratically which Calvin therefore smooths unto the people by such Reasons as it concerned him to do this change being as the First-fruits of his new Gospel in that City So having given this first blow to Monarchy though therein he seems to forget that himself was born at Noyon and finding himself safe at Genevah he proceeds and to prevent your objection in behalf of Monarchy That Kings have always grave and wise Counsellors to advise them and to supply their defects in case themselves be weak he gives his resolution elsewhere Kings saith he Comment in Dan. 11.26 make choice of such men for their Counsellors as can best fit their humors and accommodate themselves to their appetites in the ways of cruelty and deceit So he makes them little better by having Counsellors and stains the reputation of Counsellors themselves with a scandal intolerable Daniel But Chap. 2. v. 39. he is yet more passionate They are saith he out of their wits quite void of sense and understanding who desire to live under Sovereign Monarchies for it cannot be but order and policy must decay where one man holds such an extent of Government Yea Chap. 5. v. 25. Kings saith he oftentimes forget they are men aâ—d of the same mould with others They are stiled Dei Gratia but to what sense or purpose save onely to shew they acknowledge no Superior oâ— Earth yet under colour of this they will trample upon God with their feet so that it is but an abuse and fallacy when they are so stiled Which is a pretty descant is it not upon Dei Gratiâ and therefore Voila saith he See what the rage and madness of all Kings is with whom it is an ordinary and common thing to exclude God from the Government of the Wâ—rld And this he writ not in quality of a Statesman but of a Divine in that master-peice of his his Institutions and in his Commentaries upon Scripture he delivereth these dangerous Positions as matters of Doctrine and of Discipline to be generally received by all and makes a Nebuchadnezzar of all Kings But rather out of his own spleen then out of his Text by his good leave For to what purpose can such expressions tend but to disgrace Scepters and to scandalize all Governments that are not framed according to his own mould And therefore Chap. 6. v. 25. in Daniel hâ— chargeth them directly Darius saith he will condemn by his example all those that profess themselves at this day Catholike Kings Christian Kings and Defenders of the Faith and yet do not onely deface and bury all true Piety and Religion but corrupt and deprave the whole worship of God This indeed is work for the Cooper not by a Mar-Prelate but a Mar-Prince The most Christian King must be new Catechised he that is Catholike must be taught a new by an Uncatholike that is a private spirit and the Defender of the Faith must have a new Faith given him to defend by this great Prophet Calvin And so by a new Model all the old Religion of the Church and all the Laws of State concerning it must be abolished Thus doth Calvin presume to reform Kings and Government and pretends to build an Ark but it is of his own head to save the World having dreamt that otherwise it must perish by a deluge of Ignorance Impiety and Superstition of whom it may be truly said Plusquam regnare videtur He must be much more then a Prince himself who thus presumes to play the Aristarchus and censurer of Princes And that he may not seem to come short of Luther his Predecessor in any degree of immodesty Les Rois Chap. 6. v. 3 4. sont presque tous These Kings saith he are in a maner all of them a company of Block-heads and brutish persons as wilde and ungoverned as their Horses preferring their Bawds and their Vices above all things whatsoever Yet did he write this in an age when to say but truth the Princes of Christendom were not so extreamly debauched Lewis the Twelfth Francis the First and Henry the Second of France have left a better fame of themselves to Posterities then this So have Maximilian the First and Charls the Fifth Emperors in Germany Henry â—he Eighth of England degenerated onely in his latter times and not till he was corrupted by some principles of this Reforming Liberty In his children Edward the Sixth there was much hope at least and in Queen Mary much vertue In Scotland reigned James the Fifth and two Maries that might be canonized for their merits And for Castile and Portugal their Kings never flourished more for Government Greatness encrease of State Plenty Peace then in those times What could his meaning then be to censure them all so much for stupidity and vice but to breed a contempt of Kings and to induce people that live under Free States to despise and hate them and their own people to cast of their Government and procure their Liberties at all adventures especially under the cloak of Religion for at this he driveth altogether as knowing well That in popular and tumultuary States he
best assistance to the support of the Estate Royal and of the Kingdom wherein they lived It is true through the malice of the Devil and Instigation of some Enemies of the Church some of them for the asserting of their legal Immunities and to preserve the Liberty of their spiritual Jurisdiction entirely Free as it ought they were dirven now and then yet very seldom in comparison of such a long tract of time as we instance in unto some vehement and earnest contestation with their Princes and though much further then was pleasing to them yet I suppose not beyond terms of due respect and the Authority of their Function much less did they endeavor to stir up rebellion or instigate the people to sedition and commotions against their Princes nor did they ever upon their own account solely concur in any thing of that nature The first King that ever gave cause in this Kingdom effectually and in the face of the world to trie the admirable patience obedience and loyalty of Catholikcs was King Henry the Eighth Flagellum Dei that scourge of God to the Church of England and all good Catholikes therein yet outwardly professing the same Religion in most things with Catholikes This he did first by a pretended Accusation of the Clergy to be fallen in a Praemunire because Scil they did that which all their predecessors the Bishops and Clergy of England for many Hundreds of years confessedly had done without any exception taken viz. for acknowledging the power Legantine of Cardinal Wâ—lsey which yet the King himself for his own ends and in his own case had first of all procured 2. upon the Statute of supremacy And 3. by suppression of the Abbies These were his Three first breaches by which the Foundation strength and glory of the Catholike Church in England became afterwards utterly ruinated By the first his way was levelled to the Second and the Second obtained gave him power and authority to compass the Third By the First indeed onely the Clergy smarted in a fine of an Hundred thousand pound The second lay heavy upon the Clergy and Temporalty both But by the Third viz. the suppression of the Abbies and Religious houses if we consider the infinite prejudice which the poor Commonalty suffered thereby both in point of spiritual and temporal interest the whole Kingdom might be said to be worse then conquered by him that is Robbed Spoiled Enslaved to the exorbitancy of his sole Will Prodigality Lust and Tyranny And all this done to be revenged on the Pope who condescended not to humor him in the business of his marriage Therefore and to advance his own power and greatness That Authority and Jurisdiction which had alway been acknowledged as sacred by the English ever since the English were Christians must in a moment be abandoned disclaimed abjured himself by an unheard of and fatal Ambition instead thereof made Head of the Church and all persons who out of scruple of Conscience refused to conform to such grand sudden and sacrilegious Innovations and to swear they knew not what were cut shorter by the head executed at Tyborn imprisoned banished and put into such condition as he was sure they should not oppose him The ground of the Praemunire was at first onely a quarrel which he pick't against the Cardinal Wolsey but afterwards stretched it upon the Tenters and made it reach the whole Clergy who being thereupon Summoned into the Kings Bench the business was so aggravated there by the Lawyers The Kings Learned Counsel that in the Convocation house they presently concluded to submit themselves to the King and offer him no less sum then One hundred thousand pound for their pardon This was look't upon by the Christian world as a Prodigy That so many Shepherds should be afraid of one Wolfe And though it becomes us not hear to censure whether they did as they ought yet certainly this weakness of the Pastors boded no good to the Flock and it is observed that neither themselves nor the Church nor Religion ever prospered in England afterwards However the King accepts of thâ—ir offâ—r and signs their Pardon but with a fetch far worse then the first For undâ—r a prâ—â—eâ—ce of procuring this Pardon to be confirmed to them in Parliament he draws thâ—m in there how willingly or unwillingly let the world judge to acknowledge him Supream Head of the Church It was a course even at that time not thought agreeable to Justice or Honor. For as we said the Cardinal Wolsey had the Kings License for the exercise of his Legantine power both under the Kings hand and the Great Seal of England and was employed by the Kings particular Mandate and pleasure in the quality of Legat to sit with the other Legat Cardinal Campegius and examine the business of his marriage And could the Divorce have been granted according to the Kings minde it is easily conjectured the Cardinal had never been questioned for his Legat-ship Touching the Second of Supremacy All the Subjects of England ever acknowledged that the Crown and State of England quoad Temporalia in Temporal affairs and matters is independent of any other power but of that Transcendent Majestie which saith Per me reges regnant and this to the intent that Kings and all Governors considering who will one day take their Audit may be more careful to rule with Justice and common equity without partiality passion prejudice against any mans person further then his crimes against Publike Order Common Right and the Peace of the State shall make him obnoxious and by so doing may keep their accounts streight against the day of Account And on the other side that Subjects remembring their duty and who it is that layeth this jugum suave the sweet Yoke of good Government upon their Shoulders might be induced to obey with more fidelity and prompt affection But the Question which King Henry the first of all Kings Princes or States of Christendom propounded to his Clergy and People in Parliament concerned matters purely Spiritual and wherein not himself onely and his Subjects at home but all Christian Kings Princes States and people in the world were concerned And therefore required far greater deliberation I say not then was used for in truth that was little or none at all the Kings pleasure and resolution was known and that as the world went then was sufficient but I say then could possâ—bly be used in England which was then but one single Kingdom and a small Province of Christendom And for the suppression of the Abbeys and Religious houses by that Act and this other of Supremacy together the Clergy of England were brought absolutely into Captivity and stood meerly as they have done ever since at the pleasure of the King and of the State Their Possessions the greatest part of them were seized their Goods forfeited their Churches profaned and sacked and upon the spoils thereof together with the sale of the Vestments Chalices Bells and other
the Instruction and training up of yong Scholars viz. of the Catholike Nobility Gentry and others of our Nation in the studies of Learning Vertue and all kinde of honest and christian Education which as the case stood they could not possibly have in their own Country without Ship-wracking of their consciences and great peril of their souls This I say was the first and onely design of the Seminaries viz. to be a Nursery of young and tender plants as should be committed to them to be fitted for the Service of God and the leading of a true Christian Vertuous life afterward and not to be Seedplots or Forges of Treason and seditious practises against their Country as their Adversaries cease not to accuse them That 's a calumny black and palpable as shall appear more hereafter At present I shall onely take notice of what that great Protonotary of England brings in charge against them in his Book called Justitia Britannica which are three things First That they are a company of base fugitive persons Secondly that they corrupt the Land with false Doctrine and Thirdly That they practise with forreign States to disturb the Kingdom raise rebellion and withdraw Subjects from their obedience As touching the First I am very well assured that there be Gentlemen of our Nation at Doway both in the Colledge and Monasteries of as good Families as well Bred and as Eminent Scholars as any I have known of all these sorts in the Universities of England wherein I am not altogether a stranger I will not make Comparisons for that were but to make them more odious neither am I willing to detract any thing from the honor of our English Academies which I am bound to maintain It must be confessed there be many excellent wits and men of great learning bred in them yet this I may truly say That those beyond Sea are of no base quality neither is their education in those places such as should render them liable to that Character in time to come Yea rather they are so orderly governed and their times of study devotion exercise both Scholastical and Spiritual recreation yea even of their most necessary repast and rest are all so exactly measured out to them all occasions of idleness excess and ill company so prudently and carefully prevented that it is indeed no wonder they appear so civil so devout so religious temperate sober and well governed in all outward deportment as through the grace of God they do They are as I said by their Superiors strictly kept to their tasks yet rather won then forced unto good They are bridled with a hard bit but it is carried with such a gentle hand as it doth not pinch but guide them So that as their studies blessed be God are not altogether unhappy so neither is their life unpleasant but sweet agreable to vertuous mindes and full of the Noblest contents And that they should be counted Fugitives is most injurious For do they live there as Outlaws in a forreign Province have they fled for any crime doth Justice enquire after them or wait for them in their own Country what Felonies what Treasons have driven them thence but such as a very few years before were not onely in the same place where they are now so hardly censured but in all places of Christendom and by all people of sound judgement counted the greatest vertues Again they live not there out of any factiousness of spirit or ill affection towards his Majestie or the State of England but for conscience sake onely and to avoid the severity of Laws enacted here against Catholikes and the profession of Catholike Religion It is necessity that compels them to take this course In England Catholikes have no Churches wherein to serve God publickly nor liberty to serve him privately any where else The Sacraments are never or but very seldom Administred to them in comparison of what they should be They can have no priviledge or benefit of the Universities for education and study without Oaths going to Church and hearing and doing many other things contrary to a good conscience Beside all this did not Barty Knolls and Hales did not Jewel Horn Cox Pilkington Poynet and many others in Queen Maries time take the same course for conscience as they pretended They would not willingly have been called Fugitives when they were abroad Why then should those Gentlemen at Doway Saint Omars and elsewhere Exil'd as it were at present from their native Country upon the same common pretence and reason viz. reason of conscience be called Fugitives or stigmatized with any such Characters of ignominy Let those Laws be repealed first which threaten present death to them upon their return and which were all procured against them unduly and by misprizion viz. of their supposed practisings against the State which as they complain were never proved nor are true Let it be permitted to them to enjoy Liberty of Conscience and to serve God as all good Catholikes and Christians ought to do without molestation and danger to their persons prejudice to their estates further then they shall give just offence to the State and the world would quickly see where their truest affections lay Neither Doway nor St. Omars nor Rhemes nor Rome it self would hold them from returning with all thankfulness and speed to express their humblest obedience to his Majestie and fidelity to their native Country And as for their Parents Kinsfolks and Friends from whom they are now unhappily separated and from many of them perhaps against their wills they should plainly finde that natural affection was not extinguished in them neither would kindness creep where it might safely go The Second objection is They corrupt the Land with false Doctrine This objection supposeth that Calvinism and the present Religion by Law established in England is the true which England it self denied but a few years since and the whole Christian world doth at this day I do not except the Protesttants themselves For there is not any one of their pretended Churches abroad that agreeth with this present Church of England in all points of Doctrine and Discipline established But to wave that quâ—stion at present as no part of my undertaking it must be considered there are learned and vertuous men on both sides one whereof will not it seems vaile Bonnet to the other in point of understanding the Scriptures How then should the diffâ—râ—nce be decided even in reason but by some Authority distinct from them both yet indifferent and superior to both which can be no other but the judgement and tradition of the Catholike Church precedent unto both Besides this the Bishops in the first Parliament offered to defend their Religion by disputation which the Protestants would not accept but upon an unequal condition that is as Master Camden himself reporteth Nisi Baconus in studiis Theologicis parùm Versatus c. Vnless Sir Nicholas Bacon might be President and Moderator of the business
to breed some dislike of Monarchs in the mindes of people and to shew how inconvenient it is for such an infinite multitude and variety of people to depend upon the Edicts of one man This being done they know it is then easie and they may much better advance the authority of inferior Magistrates and by them emboldned by such degrees to contest at last and jar with their Superiors under a pretence of Reforming abuses and pulling down Idolatry they become able to pull down Kings themselves and to level the Creators that is to say the cheif Authors and origin of all lawful Power exercised in their respective Kingdoms with the most inferior Creatures themselves upon whom it should be exercised And after this they are sure their Consistories and Elders must rule all be Judges both of Clergy and Law Councel and King They must be henceforward the onely Rabbies and from their onely Sanbedrim or Genevian Consistory must the Oracles of all Government be fetcht both for Church and Kingdom Neither can I forget how irreverently Eusebius Philadelphus viz. Master Theodore Beza disguised used his Sovereign King Charls in his other Book of Reveille Matin where usually he calls the King Tyrant and of his name Charls Valois makes this Anagram Chasseur Desloyal that is neither more nor less Perfidious Hunter or Persecutor chuse you whether Read his rimes and scandalous reproaches of the Queen-Mother himself being a fugitive for more crimes then one deservedly most infamous Peruse the Forty Articles recorded in that Book for the better advancing of seditious Government For example Art 25. All Generals and Commanders in cheif must observe the Ecclesiastical Discipline ordained by their Synods Art 40. They are bound never to disarm so long as their Religion is persecuted as they call it by the King This is the patience of those Saints But what is become of their Preces lachrymae in the mean time That pretending to reform the World are so little masters of their own Passions But in Article fourteen and fifteen their spirits and designs appear in their bravery aiming at no less then the utter overthrow of the King and extirpation of the whole family of Valois as any man may perceive that reads them These were those Holy Articles of Bearn Anno 1574. so much talked of over all France coyned with Beza's own stamp and at Melion dispersed and communicated to their inferior Moschees all the Kingdom over to the intent as they expresly avowed That they might make war more strongly against their Enemies who were no other but the King and whole State of France and â—ill it should please God say they to turn the heart of the Tyrant that is of the French King their Natural and Lawful Sovereign About the same time also was framed and published by their Emissaries that libellous life of Catharine de Medices Queen-Mother Franco-Gallia the Tocsan of Massacreurs together with that fine-piece mentioned bâ—fore called the Legend of Lorrain For this is very observable and it is an honor which the House of Guise hath had a long time that no man ever professed himself an Enemy to the Church of God in France but he was likewise at deadly feud with them All which proceedings were so notorious and unexcusable in those times that even their fellow Protestants here in England those I mean of better note and more moderated judgement do acknowledge them with dislike The Protestants of the French Church saith Doctor Sutcliff Answ to a Lib. suppl for thirty years together taught violent Reformation by the Nobility people and private persons And again Beza saith he in his Book De jure Magistratus doth arm the Subject against the Prince and in effect overthroweth the Authority of Christian Kings and Magistrates And the Book Vindiciae contra Tyrannos gives power saith he not onely to resist but to kill the King if he impugn Gods true Religion The same also is affirmed by the late Archbishop of Canterbury Doctor Bancroft in the Survey of Discipline but most copiously and at large in the Book of Dangerous Positions especially about Pag. 192. seq To these I may adde Francis Baldwin a famous Lawyer of France who lived a long time with Calvin at Genevah and knew all their proceedings very well Mirabar saith he Respons ultim ad Jo. Calvin I wondred a long while whether your fiery Apostle viz. Theodore Beza would tend who in his Sermons here so much extolled that fact of the Levites running up and down the Tents of Israel Exod. 32. and slaying every man his Brother that had committed Idolatry But I hear now that your self are not much satisfied with such Ministers And again Pag. 128. Leviora sunt isia All this is nothing saith he in comparison of that which follows For now men make war even upon the dead The Statues the Sepulchres the very bones and bodies of Martyrs Princes c. scape not their barbarous hands Cities are sacked Churches robbed and spoiled c. Which Beza is so far from excusing that he justifieth them rather and professeth to his Friend Christopher Thretâ—â—s Epist 40. That for his part he hath no thoughts of peace that is that if such outrages and villanies should cease Nisi de ellatis hostâ—bus until the â—nemies so he calls the Kings Army and all the Catholikes of France with them be totally subdued But we ought not to wonder at it It is Morbus innatus to all Sacramentaries a disease bred in their bones that is in the very vitals and entrails of their cause to be seditious and dangerous to their Princes Zuinglius their Patriarch first taught them the Lesson who Tom. 1. of his works Art 2. delivers this for an Oracle viz. That Reges quandò perfidè extra regulam Christi egerint c. When Kings break Faith with their people and do otherwise then the rule of Christ directs them which rule themselves will onely interpret Possunt cum Deo deponi They may be deposed with right good Conscience Doctor Bilson is here again entangled and troubles himself and his Reader not a little to finde som Apology for this Paradox I undertake not saith he first To defend each mans several opinion Wisely spoken Secondly They may be deposed saith he when they advance ungodliness as Saul was May they so where is the Samuel the Prophet extraordinarily and on purpose sent from God that shall do it may the people do it No saith he blushing or afraid to affirm that and therefore seems to leave it as a priviledge or a matter reserved to the judgement of the Elders But Zuinglius himself deals more plainly and tells you Art 42. and 43. who shall do it Cum suffragiis consensu totius aut majoris c. When saith he such a Tyrant is deposed by consent of all or the major part of the people it is well done and as God would have it Therefore in his
the Kings of Spain France Poland the Princes of Italy Germany c. And yet this is but the first peale which he rang as a Toxsan or Alarum-bell to Bohemia For he addeth another Article which if they look not well to it may touch Reformers Freehold as well as other Princes It is Quando sub praeâ—extu Religionis c When under colour of Religion they look after their own advantages or profit This had not been a Lecture to be read to Henry the Eighth and the Courtiers of his time And surely if a man should ask Murray and Morton those two pillars of Reformation in Scotland Orange and Horn in the Netherlands Conde and the Admiral in France the Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland in England Saxony Sweden Denmark and the rest of the Lutheran Princes in Germany whether they had not some by-ends of Avarice Ambition and other sinister and worldly nature when they seemed to be most hot and zealously transported it might trouble them all perhaps what to answer Last of all he assigneth another cause of deposition viz. When they oppress their Subjects in matter of Conscience Which indeed is the strangest of all for who ever knew a Calvinist permit Liberty of Conscience to another man whom he could compel to his own and yet in this point he is so earnest that unless the people do this viz. Resist the Superior Magistrate in the defence of themselves and true Religion he tells them in conscientiis incolumes esse nequeunt They cannot have true peace of Conscience They should offend God by not doing it And in his Commentary upon Judges he speaketh yet more absurdly and dangerously Magistratus Minor potest occidere majorem The Inferior Magistrate in this case may kill the Superior Baylâ—ffs Sheriffs Constables their King and Sovereign or if they think fit one another upon the quarrel of Religion because saith he Domestick Tyrants are more to be suppressed or opposed then Forreigners or such as are without us Neither was Paraeus the onely Master of Paradoxes in that Country although it must be confessed his Doctrine so corrupted the Palatinate that in England to prevent the like evill his Books were purged by fire Gracerus his Pew-fellow teacheth that the Malice of Antichrist that is in his sense the actings or zeal of any Catholike Prince for the true Religion established coercenda est gladio must be resisted saith he or restrained by the Sword And Aretius himself sufficiently shews his affections to the Emperor Christian Empire when he teacheth that the Dragon in the Apocalyps that is the Devil Dedisse Imperio potestatem suam c. gave to the Empire its power and greatness and that plenitudinem Diabolismi the Fulness of Diabolical malice and hatred against Christ dwelleth in the Empire Nor are we to think that this Doctrine was onely Speculative among them it was the practise also of that pretended Church ab origine Yea their own Neighbors and Elder Brethren have felt the effects of it in much inhumane and uncivil usage from them Ask Gieskenius who was a man of Learning and no small account among the Lutherans and he will tell you one pretty exploit of theirs Emdenses Illustrem Dominum suum motâ seditione c. They of Emden saith he had by this time almost driven their Leige Lord out of all his dominions by their seditious proceedings And that they rested not till they had obtained these Articles of him who was himself a Lutheran Ne Illustrissimus Comes c. That his Excellency should not have power to grant unto his Subjects of Emden the exercise of any Religon but Calvinism 2. That himself onely at Court may have a Preacher of the Auspurgh-Confession So it was matter of favor to him that Subjects should tolerate their Princes Religion but for themselves it must be framed entirely according to their own Mode They must direct and their Prince obey If you object that this was but a private tumult and that the Church of the Palatinate did not approve of such proceedings against their Brethren it is cleerly answered by this That in the year 1602. there were twenty points established in that Church The first whereof was this Schulting Hierarch Anaâ—res Totus Lutheranismus omnes libri eorum c. That the whole Doctrine of Luther opposite to Calvinism and all the Lutherans Books be for ever taken away and prohibited Neither are they permitted in any part of the Palatinate the Marquisate of Brandenburgh or the Territory of Emden 'T is true The Lutherans where they command do as wisely provide against them They have as little footing in all the Duke of Saxonies Countries Hamborough or the Hans Towns That great Synod of Torgaw convented by the means and procurement of those Protestant Princes do testifie that the Calvinists had troubled and brought to ruin omnes Christianas Ecclesias All Christian Churches Vniversities Kingdoms and States where ever they were admitted And hence it is that they are not included under the peace and protection of the Empire the Religions Vried is no way permitted unto them as appeareth by the Edict of Charls the Fifth De composit pacis c. Anno 1532. Nor are they comprehended in his Sentence De confess Suevicâ 1530. Nor in the Interim 1548. Nor in the Constitution De pace publicâ And for the Acts made at Passau 1552. by the Emperor Ferdinand the very words exclude them from all benefit So also in his Declaration at Auspurgh 1555. And in the conclusion or agreement of the Princes of the Augustan Confession with the three Electors and other Princes and Cities in the year 1557. it was declared that the Sacramentaries Anabaptists Osiandrians c. were all excluded from the Articles of peace and that there should be Edicts published against them by common consent and for their utter extirpation This was enacted in the year 1557. and in the year 1566. Caesar and the Princes of the Dyet decreto publico scripserunt c. published a general decree concerning Frederick the Elector Palatine of the Rhine that he should desert the opinions of Calvin and not suffer them to be taught in any of the Churches or Schools of his Country And this Decree of the Dyet was intimated to him in the presence of the Bishops of Mentz Triers and Colen of the Elector of Saxony and of the Embassadors also of the Marquis of Brandenburgh and after his death by his Son Lewis it was obeyed In the same year the Princes declare in their reply to the Emperor permittere se nolle that they will not permit that any Sects whatsoever shall be harbored in their Dominions and that they count the Zuinglians and Calvinists for such which was also long before declared viz. in the Recess of the Empire in the year 1555. Calvinism then being so long before not counted tolerable in Germany the Bohemians of late have made it much more odious and intolerable by
more honorable with them and more becomming good Christians then the Sword and Fortune of a Conqueror in comanding In which most Christian posture I leave them to proceed Titulus Tertius THe last and greatest tempest against poor English Catholikes was raised by Queen Elizabeth This not onely shook the foundations of the Church which had been so lately repaired by the most Catholike Princess Queen Mary but proceeded so far as humane policy and power could to extirpate the very name and memory of Catholike Religion in England Camd. in Elizab. And this as it were in an instant and without noise For as her own Historian Camdeu reporteth it was done Sine sanguine sudore No man unless perhaps it were Master Secretary Cecil did so much as sweat in the bringing in of New Religion nor was any mans blood I mean at the first beginning drawn about it The Christian world stood amazed at the first news of such a sudden alteration Both because Religion had been so lately and so solemnly restored by Parliament as also because the Queen her self that now was always professed her self so much Catholike during the Reign of her Sister She constantly every day heared Mass saith the same Camden and beside that ad Romanae Religionis normam soepius confiteretur went often to Confession as other Roman Catholikes did Yea saith Sir Francis Ingleseild when she was upon other matters sometimes examined by Commissioners from the Queen she would her self take occasion to complain that the Queen her Sister should see me to have any doubt of her Religion and would thereupon make Protestation and Swear that she was a Catholike The Duke of Feria's Letter to King Philip is yet extant to be seen wherein is certified that the Queen had given him such assurance of her beleefe and in particular concerning the point of Real Presence that for his part he could not beleeve she intended any great Alteration in Religion The same profession also she made to Monsieur Lansack as many Honorable Persons have testified and at her Coronation she was Consecrated in all points according to the Catholike maner and anointed at Mass by the Bishop of Carlile taking the same Oath to maintain Catholike Religion the Church and Liberties thereof as all other her Catholike Predecessors Kings and Queens of England had ever done Concerning the grounds which moved her to make this Alteration so much contrary to the expectation and judgement of Christendom we shall speak in due place This was manifest that the long sickness of Queen Mary gave her great advantage time both to deliberate and draw all platforms into debate to prepare instruments in readiness for all designs and to make choise of the fittest and surest Counsellors such as were most likely to advance her ends Neither did she seem to value her Honor overmuch in order to the bringing about of her chief design For in open Parliament after her intentions for a change began to be discovered she protested that no trouble should arise to the Roman Catholikes Horas Preface of Queen Elizab. for any difference in Religion Which did much abate the opposition which otherwise might probably have been made by the Catholike party and put the Clergy themselves in some hopes of Fair quarter under her Government She knew full well that a Prince alone how Sovereign soever could not establish a new Religions in his Kingdom but that it must be the work of a Parliament to give Authority and Countenance to a business of that nature Therefore to win the Bishops and the rest of the Catholikes in Parliament to silence at least she was content to use policy with them and promise them fair as Monsieur Mauvissieir hath well observed Les memoir de Mons. Mich. Castelnau who was a long time Embassador heer from the French King and curiously noted the passages of those times Add hereunto That when the Act for Supremacy was revived which was always the great Wheel of these Motions whereas by King Henry's Law both Bishops and Barons stood in danger thereof as the examples of Sir Thomas Moor Lord Chancellor of England and Doctor Fisher Bishop of Rochester had shewen in this Parliament the Queen was content to exempt the Lords and Barons absolutely from the Oath as they in King Edward the Sixths time had exempted themselves and to leave the Rigor of it onely upon the Clergy and Commons She also thought good to qualifie the Stile somewhat viz. from Supream Head changing it into Supream Governor which though it altered not the sence yet it abused some into a beleef that the Queen pretended not unto so much in matters Ecclesiastical as the King her Father had done Beside we are to remember that King Henry by pulling he Abbyes had much weakned the power of the Clergy in Parliament having deprived them of the Votes of no less then Five and twenty Abbots who constantly sat in Parliament in the quality of Barons And lastly it is well known The Lower House of Parliament it self as they call it was so calmly spirited in those times that they used not much to oppose what their good Lords of the upper House liked All which things considered and that too many of the Catholikes both Lords and others thinking it better wisdom to purchase their future security by present silence then to expose themselves to trouble and vexation afterward by opposing that which they feared they should not be able to hinder therefore either but faintly resist or quietly absent themselves who can wonder if the whole business were carried with ease upon such promises of the Queen and by the industry and craft of Sinon alias Secretary Cecil who had the chief Management of it in his hands By his advise it was thought fitting that the Noble Earl of Arundel should for a time be abused with some hopes of marrying the Queen who thereupon by the interest which he had in the house of Peers ingrosed into his own hands the Proxies or voices of so many of them who thought good to be absent as when time came served the Queens turn exceedingly well The duke of Norfolk Son in law to Arundel but now a Widower was already exasperated against the Pope because he might not have dispensation to marry his Kins-woman and therefore it was no hard matter to joyn him with Arundel The Queen had also against this time either made or advanced in dignity and consequently in interest certain new Lords whom she knew to be favorers of her design viz. William Lord Parr was made Marquis of Northampton a good Speaker and a Politick man Edward Seymour Son to the late Duke of Sommerset was made Viscount Beauchamp and Earl of Hartford Sir Thomas Howard was made Viscount Bindon Sir Oliver Saint John Lord St. John of Bletso Sir Henry Cary Lord Hunsdon She had also as much weakened the Catholikes party by discharging from the Counsel-Table many of the old Counsellors
proceedings she was not onely left destitute of all her Allies and Confederates and driven as it were to stand solely upon her own guard against France who was already an Enemy and against Spain who was a friend not very well satisfied But she was forced even at first and at the entrance of her Reign to run upon a Rock which might have Shipwrackt her whole State which was to assist the Rebells in Scotland against their lawful Sovereign under a pretence of expelling the French who were brought in thither by Authority of the Queen onely to maintain the Government established This might have taught her own people a bad lesson at home a man would think though it did not as it proved And being thus engaged in Scotland she was obliged in pursuance of her design to succor the Admiral and those Rebellious Hugonots of France by whose perswasion she invaded Normandy took possession of the Towns of Newhaven Diep and some other places delivered to her by the Vidame of Charteres But the disgrace in ill-defending and loosing of them especially of Newhaven was one of the greatest blemishes that ever the English before that time received upon French ground and far greater then it was Honor to have them delivered upon such occasion into the Queens possession For certainly had either the cause been just or prudently managed they might upon that advantage have easily brought home Calice again or lockt up the Gates of Roan and Paris But they did neither nor brought home any thing but a great Plague after them in most mens judgement a scourge to the Realm for that offence After this upon the like necessity of self-preservation and upon the Reason of State which Polybius prescribeth Vicini nimâ—ùm crescentiâ— potentia quâcunque ex causâ deprimenda By all meanes keep thy Neighbor from growing too great she made no scruple to impede and give obstruction to the affairs of King Philip in the Netherlands who was her Neighbor her Ally her Confederate yea upon more occasions then one and in matters of no small exigence the best friend which she had in the world Yet by reason of those pernicious Counsels concerning Religioâ— which she was fallen upon she was as it were compelled to disown his just interest and profess her self Ungrateful in the face of the world Thereupon Orange and the States are assisted against their lawful Sovereign King Philip. I must not deny but even in doing this she pretended respect unto the Kings interest professing in her Declaration concerning that business Stow. That what she did was to preserve the Ancient Amity and Leagues betwixt the Crown of England and the House of Burgundy and to prevent the loss and utter revolt of those Countries from the Kings obedience which she knew otherwise the States and Orange would deliver up to some other Prince more professedly his Enemy So true it is that which Machiavel observed I suppose much about those times viz. That wise Princes seldom or never want pretences for their Actions What a fair colour is here given to a foul Cause But where is Conscience Christianity and Truth in the mean time The world could see well enough through the Vizard and knew at what mark both the Queen and the States aimed But most Sage sure and worthy of so great a Commander and wise man as himself was is that of Thucydides Nullus Princeps a suis subditis justè puniendis arcendus est c No Prince saith he ought to be hindred from punishing his Subjects according to the Laws and whosoever goeth about to do so by his evil example parem in se legem Statuit c. he makes a Law against himself and inables his own Subjects in like case to seek forreign protection against his jusâ—ice And this the Queen with the whole Nation might have found true by sad experience if that either Henry the Second or Francis the Second Kings of France had lived or that her own Subjects I mean those whom she had not a little injured and alienated by her Misgovernment had not been more loyally respective of her dignity and more inclined to obedience and sufferance for a good cause then many other people in the world were But Divine Providence having decreed for our much unworthiness and many sins to remove the Candlestick of this Nation that is to deprive us of the Light of the true saving Faith and of all publike and free exercise of true Christian Religion and to deliver us up to the darkness and many old delusions of Heresie and to follow our own ways in those things wherein it most of all concerned us to have been ruled by good Authority which is the greatest judgement that can befall a Nation or any people in this woâ—ld all things cooperated to the accomplishment of his just displeasure against us And the Queen with heâ— party were permâ—tted to go on with their work without any interruption Even before her Coronation or that any debate or resolution had been taken in Parliament de novo concerning Religion she being her self but a Sheep of the Flock as Constantine Thedosius and many others her Christian Predecessors in Princely Dignity have not blushed to acknowledge yet presumed to put all the Shepheards of the Kingdom to silence commanding that none of the Bishops or other Prelates should preach till her pleasure was further known And after the Parliament all of them that refused the new revived Oath of Supremacy were deprived of all Honors Dignities and Employments which they had in Church or Common-wealth and committed to several Prisons Of this sort there are reckoned no less then Fourteen Bishops of England all Vertuous and Learned Prelates that were instantly deposed and Ten of Ireland Twelve Deans Fifteen Heads or Masters of Colledges Six Abbots besides inferior dignitaries of the clergy viz. Arch-Deacons and other Priests without number together with Master Shelley Prior of Saint Johns of Jerusalem All these as to their demeanor towards the Queen were blameless there was not the least exception taken against them in that respect The Bishops themselves were all sitting in Parliament at the time of Queen Maries death and acknowledged by diverse Proclamations Queen Elizabeths Right and Title to the Crown The Arch-Bishop of York Doctor Heath was then Chancellor of England and labored by all means possible to do her Majestie service and to settle the Hearts of her people in obedience and loyalty towards her as to their natural and lawful Sovereign especially in that grave Oration which he made to the Nobility and Commons of Parliament upon the first report of Queen Maries death The Bishops joyntly did their Homage and Fealty to her in all dutiful maner and though they were not without some suspicion that she intended to change Religion yet did they practise neither Scotizing nor Genevating towards her Never did they incense the people against her though they were generally Catholik and they might probably have
who was a man neither of competent Dignity to preside in such an action thoâ—gh he were newly put into an high office nor yet of sufficiâ—nt abilities to judge of such matters being a man of the other Robe but a Serjeant at law a few days before and beside all this a Partialist and open favorer of the Adversaries of the Church Therefore the Bishops refused him as an incompetent person as well they might Though for doing so they endured a great deal of calumny But indifferent men will judge best And certainly had the Queen at all desired the Disputation as some pretend or that it should have had any just and fair issue she would have provided Judges as easily she might more agreeable to the Dignity of the action and the Qualities of the Disputants both for Ability Indifferency and Honor Since their time F. Robte Parsons Campian and diverse others have made the same request to the State being desirous to bring truth to the Tryal and Touchstone in some publike maner which cannot but be some argument that at least they do beleeve in sincerity and good conscience that themselves are in the right and therefore shâ—uld not be so hastily condemnâ—d or prejudgâ—d of their cause If it be said that such demands as these have been answered disputations have been permittâ—d as for example that of Doctor Reinolds with Master Hart that of Doctor Goad with F. Campian and that in both these and some other truth hath appeared so manifestly on the Protâ—stants side that both Catholikes and Priests ought to be convinced I reply There was not faire play used in those actions it was iniquissima conditio the most unequal dealing that ever was used for a man armed to set upon a Captive a man at Liberty upon one in Fetters dâ—stitute of Books having no warning nor liberty given him to prepare him self but which is woâ—st of all and the greatest inhumanity that ever was heard of in the sight and view of the rack whereon he had a very little while before been posed with most cruel questions which was the case of that excellent and blessed man F. Edmund Campian afterwards Martyr And as for Doctor Reinolds although he pretends something to the contrary yet it is certain he framed that Combat which he published between himself and Master Hart at his own pleasure Lastly the Clergy and other Priests of the Catholike Church in England do pretend and have not seldom offered to prove that the chief Basis of Protestant Doctrine in general is either Fallacy or Forgery and that the chief builders of this Babel by name Bp. Jewel the grand Apologist of the English Church Luther himself Calvin Melancthon Du Plessis the Hugonots Saint Augustine in France Doctor Morton their Achilles in England both the Whites not excepting Laud himself the late Patriarke of English Protestants nor Andrewes nor Mountague but generally all other Proctors of that cause do defend thâ—mselâ—â—â— and endeavor to bear down Catholikes not with sincere and plain dealing becoming Christians but with calumny and falâ—hood that is to say by false Quotations Corruptions Falsifying and misreciting of Authors untrue reporting of Doctrines false and unjust criminations of mâ—ns persons and of whole Orders of men and by many other indirect ways unseemly and unworthy of the cause of truth They humbly therefore implore and hope from the justice of his Majâ—stie and the State that they shall not be condemned without hearing But as the charges which they bring against their Adversaries are of a foul nature tending much to the dishonor of God and disparagement of Christian faith which God will not have to be upheld by ungodly and evil mâ—ans so they shall before sentence be permitted to plead foâ— themselves and to prove the charge against their Adversaries for whom it is not to purpose to recriminate in the business and say that Catholikes are guilty of the same faults For we maintain the contrary And desire to know what one Doctrine it is that we charge them with as odious and offensive to Christian eares but the Reader if he please may finde it expressly and undeniably verified upon them by our Authors and perticularly in that exact Treatise of the Bishop of Chalcedon called Collatio doctrinae Protestantium c. extant both in Latine and English what crime do we lay to their charge but we prove it by Authors and Testimonies of good credit and most commonly from among themselves What do we bring out of Antiquity in behalf of Catholike Religion or against them which they themselves confess not upon some other occasion The Protestants Apology is a Magazine of Evidences in this kinde And as concerning the Index Expurgatorius whereby they pretend that we Corrupt Authors it is onely a specious calumny to catch those who are willing to be deceived For first the very maner of proceeding doth exempt it from all imputation and suspicion of Fraud with indifferent men it being ab origine a thing intended and made for publike view and to be openly exposed and avowed to the world as it was which matters of Fraud Forgery and false play use not to be Secondly the Expurgators appointed to the oversight of that business meant not to corrupt Authors but to correct former and less perfect Editions by better Copies and more exactly compared especially such Editions as they found corruptly and partially published by Hereticks And where they observed that any late writer had been bold by way of Annotations or otherwise to deliver any thing out of his private judgement less consonant unto Catholike Doctrin or Truth then was requisite they spared not to admonish the Reader of it by their censure In all which doing what is there we pray that can be blamed Yea suppose it should happen that the reasons which moved them to Correct in this or that place and to vary from some other reading were not sufficient and that they inserted their Deleaâ—ur and other censures where they ought not yet I say the Index of their Expurgations being faithfully published to the world and so easily procureable by all men it was impossible that any prejudice should arise to truth by it every man being left free either to follow or refuse the said corrected Reading as he judged best Beside when we say Catholikes are not guilty of misalledging Authors or of any other abuse of that nature we would be understood to speak not onely of wilful and culpable misalledging of which onely we accuse our Adversaries but also of such writers especially as being themselves publikly Authorized to handle the controversies of Religion in the Schools Their works are afterward upon mature examination published to the view and judgement of the world or else of such Prelates and Persons of Dignity in the Church as have had leisure and set themselves to combat the Heresies of the time For otherwise as we do not charge them here with any mistakes of Amès Bucanus
Doctrine a condemned Doctrine a Doctrine so far as Doctrin can barely be not only of dangerous but of damnable malignity being contrary to the Doctrine and Institutions of true Christian Religion which our Saviour by his Apostles left unto the Church to be professâ—d and observed for ever and therfore in it self of such nature that it ought to be deposed by all men who desire to be saved and in profession whereof no man living may securely rest This we say of their Doctrine But as to the persons of Protestants themâ—elves viz. how far their personal errour in the profession thereof is voluntary and affectate what means of better information they do neglect against how much light that is inward knowledge and perswasion of minde that Catholike Religion is true they doe sin or what secret doubtings they have that it may be true what inward stirrings and checks of conscience they doe stifle in themselves and persist in a way which their own hearts suspect meerly for temporal ends and because it stands better with their designs of this world that is the present interests of their honouâ—s reputation ease pleasure profit c. or lastly how far their ignorance of the truth may be perhaps invinc ble which where it is so excuseth much of all this we say nothing God onely knoweth how things are with them in these respects not man no not the men themselves and therefore as concerning their persons to his judgemâ—nt onely we must leave them This business therefore viz. of Protestants being counted Heretikes by us is but a Bug-bear a Scar-crow set up on purpose by those our Adversaries who would have the difference and aversions which they have bred betwixt us to be immortal Rather it were to be wished by all honest men of what perswasion soever that a just and equitable liberty in matters of conscience were granted unto all if but for this onely respect viz. That so by a free confident and friendly conversing one with another void of suspition void of jealousie fear danger to one party or other and by amicable discourse and debating of things truth might come to be more cleerly discoverded and we might be able through Gods grace mutually to give and receive good one of another But this is a work which hath so much of God and goodness in it that we cannot but expect many adversaries should appear against it However those Doctors Boutefeux should doe well to remember if they pleas'd that even by the Law of Seniority Catholikes might expect some little favour For we beseech them to tell us upon what Patrimony doe themselves and families now live but that which the right Heirs of the Church dis-inherited indeed or disseized by the power of the State have left them What Priviledges Immunities Honours have they but what the old Church gave them What Churches have they either Cathedral Collegiate or Parochial which She built not What Colledges which She founded or endowed not Nay whence have they their Bible the Creed the Ceremonies or any thing else that is good and commendable among them but from Her If She had not preserved them faithfully to their hands they had never found them Shall Charity then be for ever so buried in England that the posterity of those from whom they must confess to have received these great advantages shall never be remembred by them never be used with equity and common justice It were too great a shame surely to lye long upon such a Nation as this and a defect of Government which all Nâ—tions about us would observe Beside let our Adversaries remember what the French commonly say Chacum á son tour and we in England A dog hath a day Religion here with us since King Henry the Eighth wore the Crown hath had many changes and exchanges as the world knoweth and the principles on which it now standeth are not thought to be so fixed and unmoveable but that it may take one turn more All things are in the hands of God and whatsoever he hath determined in the Counsel of his Divine wisdom must stand and take effect in its appointed due time say we or do we to the contrary what we can And therefore let our hot Brethren the Calvinists who can themselves so little endure the severity of Bishops let them not further promote nor hold up persecution against any body else least in an howre when they think lest of it the mischief which they wish to others fall upon their own heads and that they finde themselves not onely out of the Saddle where they would be but in the Mire under the Horse belly and so obnoxious as they may have need of favor themselves They desire nothing more then Liberty of Conscience in their own way fulness of liberty to themselves let them be perswaded also to grant the same unto others That this is but equal reason it self will tell us And that persecution for matter of Religion is not always the best means to advance religion is the judgement of as wise and learned men even of their own profession as any they can shew for the contrary What Luthers opinion was in the point I value no much because the world did not take him for a man very learned or very wise although by Gods permission he did much mischief in it for his time as a simple Conjurer though he be neither Mathematician nor Philosopher himself yet by the help of the Devil may raise a storm able to confound all the Sciences Nevertheless what he thought appears in his Assertions Art 33. de non comburendis Haereticis Vrbanus Rhegius Wolfgangus Musculus famous men and Protestants both of them in their Common places are much against persecution for Religion So is Osiander Epitom Centur. 7. Chytraeus in Chron. 1593. Castalio and others But above all Acontius in his Book de Stratagemat Satan is most earnest Dominus non permittit haereticorum supplicium imò definitè declaravit interdixit c. God saith he doth not permit nor allow that Hereticks should be thus punished yea he hath expresly declared his minde to the contrary and forbidden the Magistrate to exercise any such Authority upon them Calvin once that is till he had setled himself in power at Genevah held the same opinion and was much for Liberty of Conscience Hen. 2. when Annas Burges died for Heresie in France Of the same judgement also is Monsieur Lanou in his Discourses Sturmius in his Epistles Bâ—lloy Melancthon and many other professed and earnest Protestants Not to mention Erasmus Cassander Grotius or any other of that middle temper And as for matter of example or practise do not the Cantons in Switzerland agree well enough in Temporal things notwithstanding their difference in Religion is mutual Toleration of one another in their several judgements that way any prejudice to the publike peace Are there any people under Heaven more happy and free then they or more likely to
with Cardinal Wolsey he had extreamly flattered and bedaubed with praises But now finding by some tartness in the Kings answer That it was but to build castles in the air to expect any favor or countenance from him the poor Frier runs presently mad with rage and fowl language The King is no longer now a King with him Lib. cont Reg. Angliae but an evious mad fool full of bastardy and baseness he hath not a vein of Princely blood in all his body he is a Basilisk to whom this impudent Apostata denounceth damnation A glorious King indeed that lyeth most stoutly and like a King Nay He is a lying Felâ—ow covered with the title of a King not a King but a Sacrilegious theif Lastly which is the height of all imaginable scurrility and rudeness Jus mihi erit Majestatem tuam stercore câ—nspergere If I were neer you saith he I should make bold to dress such a Majesty as it deserves The passage is so extreamly fowl that to render it otherwise would both offend the Reader and defile the Paper I omit infinite more of the same stamp and stain which the Reader if he please to be further curious upon such a subject may finde gathered together by no less honorable a person then Sir Thomas Moor Lord Châ—ncellor of England in those times and published by him in a Latin work of his against Luther Printed at Lovain in the Year 1566. Nor was his behavior towards the Emperor himself and Princes of Germany much better He not onely wrote a Book expresly with this title Surius ad annum 1521. Against the Two Edicts of Caesar which we must also know were Edicts legally published and with consent of the other States and Princes of the Empire but therein he openly chargeth the Emperor himself and the other Princes with false play Turpe est Caesarem ac Principes manifestis agere mendaciis What a shame is it saith he that an Emperor and Princes should lie thus palpably And in the same Book of the same persons speaking Deus mihi dedit negotium It is Gods will saith he that in this business I should not have to do with reasonable men but I see these wilde Beasts of Germany will murder me if they can And therefore more bitterly maliciously and traiterously afterwards Oro cuncios pios Christianos I beseech saith he all godly Christians that they would onely pray for these blinde Princes by whom God afflicteth them in his great wrath but saith he let us not follow them by any means let us not serve them in their Wars nor give them any Contribution against the Turk For that was a thing either then in debate or but lately consented to by the States of the Empire For the Turk saith he is a Prince ten times wiser and more honest then they And what good I pray can such fools expect against the Turk who do themselves so horribly blaspheme and offend God Will any man think this tolerable but he proceeds Art 367. In his Book against the Five hundred Articles Quid ergo boni in rebus Divinis What good think we saith he can such impious and wicked Tyrants appoint in matter of Religion Before they were fools now they are Tyrants And still he goeth on from worse to worse that is higher and higher as it were by degrees in his impudence For in his Book De Saeculari potestate concerning the Civil Magistrate or the Powers of the World He delivers his opinion of all Kings and Princes in general and how he would have them esteemed in these words Scire debes c. You must know saith he that from the beginning of the world to this day it hath ever been a rare thing to finde a wise Prince but more rare to finde one that was honest For commonly they are the veriest fools and knaves in the world And again Quis nescit c. Who knows not saith he that Princes are like Venison in Heaven very dainty and rare it seems scarse one of a thousand perhaps saved This was the charity of the man towards Christian Princes in general as for the Emperor himself in his Book De bello contra Turcas he expresly denieth him to be the head of Christendom or so much as a difender of the Faith and least this might be capable of some tolerable sense he explicates his meaning plainly in the reason which he giveth Eos namque esse pessimos hostes For saith he Emperors and Princes are commonly the greaâ—est enemies which Christianity and the Faith have Yea in his Book Contrae Rusticos against the Boors which was an occasion and subject where if ever he meant to do it a man would think he was obliged to favor Magistracy and Civil Dignities yet even there his Language is the same or worse Sciatâ—â— boni domini Deum sâ—c procurare quod subditi nec possunt nec debent c. You must know my good Lords saith he That Gâ—d will have it so that your Subjects neither can nor will nor ought any longer to endure your Tyrannical G vernments Mark well that debent they ought not it was not put in for nothing I warrant you Those good men the Boors were not altogether or too much to be discouraged by that Book of his though titled against them it having been from his Sermons and Doctrines commonly divulged that they took the cheif grounds of their Insurrection Did ever man before him vent such seditious Paradoxes with impunity Can such assertions as these come from the Spirit of God Did ever any of the Prophets Apostles Martyrs use such barbarous liberty of speech against the worst of Neroes Dioclesians Julians that ever persecuted the Church Did Elias speak thus to Ahab and Jezabel and yet his flatterers commonly call him the Elias of Germany St. Paul if he had pleased to regard him gave him a far better example Acts 26.25 using Festus the Roman Governor with much more reverence And without all doubt no true Christian zeal can be so irregular so rude so intemperately passionate and scurrilous To revile and speak evil of dignities is the property of another spirit then the Spirit of God Jude 8.9 or else Saint Jude deceives us To give Caesar his Sovereign and all the Princes of Germany the lie although it were very insufferable yet it may seem but a personal or particular contempt but to proclaim them all Savages Fools Knaves Tyrants and to say that the Turk was a wiser and honester man then any of them in whose Government as all the World knows the Sacred Law of Christ our Saviour is wholly abrogated and the blasphemous Dreams of a wretched Impostor set up and maintained by force in stead thereof and the Moral Law of God publikely and daily by a contrary law of Mahomet in many respects violated and broken to the great dishonor of God indeed and shame of Christendom is a Language so absurdly
thousand Duckats and the Imperial Towns partly with Money and partly upon their humble Petitions and Submission made their peace at last with the Emperor And thus by the good Providence of God and happy conduct of Caesar was the Empire preserved in Statu quo prius the Electors Ecclesiastical and other Prelates continued and their Dignities maintained whereas in all probability had the Princes prevailed as they had already by the instigation of Luther and such Preachers swallowed the Revenues extinguished yea wholly buried the Title State and Authority of Bishops in their own Provinces so would they have done all the Empire over Now as Greatness and Innovation seldom want Patrons nor wit to colour their faults so it must be confessed there are some who endeavor to excuse Luther and Lutheranism of the odiousness of this Action yea and the Action it self from the imputation of Rebellion First of all Doctor Bilson affirmeth Differences of Christian Subjects c. That the Lawyers of Germany do in some cases permit resistance to be made against Caesar but he names not one Then he saith The States of Germany are not absolutely subject to the Emperor but onely upon some conditions Secondly Centur. 16. the Divines of Magdeburgh plead That if the Magistrate pass the bounds of his Authority and command things wicked and unlawful he may well be resisted and must not be obeyed Thirdly Sleydan saith Lib. 19. fol. 263. We may resist Caesar with good Conscience when he intends the destruction of Religion and Liberty Lastly Consil Evangel Part. 1. p. 314 Philip Melancthon with great confidence gives Authority to the Inferior Magistrate to alter Religion and overthrow Idolatry So they all conclude the War lawful both by Gods Law and Mans And this indeed is the substance of the Reasons alledged by the Duke and the Landsgrave both when the League was first made at Smalcald and when they first proclaimed War against the Emperor But as it is easie to perceive these Doctors Assertions do all of them suppose certain things which ought first to be proved as for example 1. That Caesar passed the bounds of his Authority for if he did not it is clear they passed theirs 2. That he commanded things wicked and unlawful 3. That he went about to destroy true Religion and their Liberty All these must be proved before it be lawful to take Arms and resist him by their own confession I demand therefore of them this Question When Caesar or the Supream Magistrate commandeth any thing to be done which is not apparently contrary to the Laws of the Empire then in force who shall be Censor who shall Judge whether Caesar passeth the bounds of his Authority and whether the things which he commandeth be impious or no They answer he absolutely sought to destroy their Religion and Liberties But I reply it hath been an old and usual stratagem of Satan to oppose Religion against Religion thereby to bring in Atheism and leave us no Religion Beside making Lutheranism to be the onely true Religion and their Liberties to consist in the free profession of that they take that for granted which Caesar both at Worms and Auspurgh made the greatest Question So they argue not well because they do not proceed ex concessis yea it is manifest that when they did presume to set up a new Religion they passed themselves the bounds of their Authority and the World might judge Caesar a very simple Prince if he should either change his own Religion or tolerate theirs upon the bare credit of Luthers private opinion and spirit or upon the bare Protestation of the Confederates For were they competent Judges against the whole World or can Religion be lawfully and orderly changed by Civil Magistrates onely and when neither a General Councel nor National Councel hath decreed it nor any Imperial Dyet established it may every Elector or Prince frame a new Religion for his own Province by Law without consent of the Emperor and States Give me an Instance shew me a President when any such Innovation was ever made in the Empire without an Imperial Dyet Shew me a Law or some colour of Law by which it might be done or else confess That the Princes taking up Arms against the Emperor was without Justice and their quarrel without lawful ground Beside was it lawful for the Confederates to coyn a new Religion and maintain it by Arms and was it not more lawful for the Emperor to defend the old which was already received and to reform them The Boors took Arms upon the self-same pretences viz. For Religion and Liberty yet the Princes with their own forces and with no less Justice and Honor subdued them Why might not therefore Caesar compel the Confederates unto the same terms as they did the Boors viz. To exercise that Religion which was established at least with à quousque until a legal Reformation could be had and to obey the Laws in force and to keep the Peace of the Commonwealth Doth the degree or dignity of the persons make the cause so different I trow not And for any designs of Caesar upon them under colour of Religion it cannot be made good They were first in the Field the Emperor had not any forces ready a long time after yea they pursued him with their Army and compelled him to fortifie himself P. Avila de bello Germanico So that if mens Councels may be guessed at by their actings it is clear they had rather designs upon him And his favorable dealings with all of them after the Victory do more then refute such a calumny But saith Dr. Bilson The Emperor is not absolutely to be obeyed by the States It is no matter He is to be obeyed in seeing the Laws and Constitutions of the Empire observed and that is enough to justifie his proceedings in the case How far he is absolute and how far the Princes do ow fealty and homage to him and obedience to the Publike Constitutions of the Empire their several Oaths taken at the Coronation of the one and Investitures or Instalments of the other do best shew But I will leave skirmishing and come to the main point It is most certain That Caesar did observe the Law and that the Confederate Princes did violate both the Laws and Liberties of Germany For what Prince soever stands Rectus in Curiâ having the ancient and known Laws of the Kingdom on his side must always be judged to hold a better plea then Subjects who arm themselves against him illegally disorderly and by authority of their own private opinions onely At that time Caesar was bound by Law to extirpate Lutheranism and to maintain the Popes authority in Germany as it was acknowledged in the other parts of Christendom he was bound to maintain Catholike Religion and the Immunities or Rights of the Church so manifestly that even their own Goldastus doth acknowledge it to be the Emperors Oath so to do
though the way of Execution was very extraordinary indeed and hath no excuse but necessity But perhaps you are ready to say This age hath reformed those errors such violencies as were formerly used are now ceased and that at present more charitable mild and civil proceedings are held by the Hugonots It is not so They have the same principles and the same spirits still which upon occasion they are not slow to manifest And to make this more plain I shall give you a relation of the true state and condition of those reformed Churches as they call themselves in France at this very time viz. Anno 1621. wherein not to trouble you with any thing concerning the infinite troubles great charges which they forced their Sovereign Lewis 13. to be at and endure all the last Summer and Winter nor concerning their Garboils at Tours nor the practises of the Rochellers to have put a Garrison of Six thousand men into Saumur on purpose to have given work to the Kings Army thereabouts and to hinder their March to Montauban nor concerning their revolt and disloyal practises at Gergeau standing out against the Count St. Paul Governour of the Province of Orleance and at Sancer against the Prince of Conde not to exaggerate the Treacheries and Conspiracies of Vattevile in Normandy which yet were so plainly proved by his own Papers and Instructions intercepted that the Duke of Longueville was compelled thereupon to disarm those of Deep Roan and Caen to prevent danger and fearing least they should joyn with Vattevile I say omitting all these which yet were actions and passages wherein much malignity and undutifulness to their Sovereign was apparent I shall begin onely with the business of St. Jean d' Angely which held out a long time and refused submission Notwithstanding the King in person demanded it of them and that Monsieur Soubize Commander of the place for the Hugonots were Summoned to render the Town or to stand to the Peril and Attaynt of Treason yet they contemned all and held it out to the very last point that they had any hopes of help left them At Montauban how was his Majestie defied and despited as it were to His Face continuing in person at the Siedge thereof for a long time together with an Army of Noble and most Expert Soldiers many of whom men of Eminent Desert and Dignity were lost in that service especially the two Brothers the Duke of Mayenne and the Marquis of Villars who were generally lamented And to draw the Kings eyes the more upon them it is said by some They had set upon their Gates this insolent Motto viz. Roy sans foy Ville sans peur importing that the King had no Faith nor the Towns no fear Yea so obstinate were they in their resolution of disobedience that for the present they forced His Majestie upon advice to defer their merited punishment and to raise the Siedge Whereupon the Insolent Burgers after the Kings Army was departed lead the whole Clergy of the Town as it were in Triumph using them with many scornful indignities for which they smarted not undeservedly the year following In Montpellier and Languedoc the Hugonots deprived Monsieur Chastillon of all his Governments by a pretended Sentence of their Consistory which is very observable and razed at the least Six and thirty Parish Churches and Chappels there Nor do they usurp onely upon the Royalties of the King though that be too much they are as bold where they prevail with the Inheritances and Estates of Private persons At Privas they would not suffer the Viscount l' Estrainge to enjoy his Lordship of that place onely because he was a Catholike They put him out of his own Castle at Lake whereof the Marshal Momorency had but lately given him possession and give it to Brison one of their own fraternity upon a pretence that it belonged to him yet was it none of the Towns of assurance nor comprized in the list at Brewet in the year 1598. neither would they permit the Kings Justices delegated thither to compound controversies so much as to hear Mass though private or to have any exercise of their Religion What Society or Common-wealth can stand if upon pretence of Religion such petulant usurpers as these may disseize Right-owners of their Estate at pleasure and hold whatsoever they get upon a pretence that it is for the use and security of some Confederate Gospellers But what cause have they to ryot thus upon their Neighbors and Fellow-subjects The King is content they should quietly enjoy what is theirs yea and securly use the liberty of their Religion Will not this content them Should not Catholikes in all reason and equity enjoy the same Yet will they not live peaceably themselves Notwithstanding such royal Favor nor Converse peaceably with Catholikes They obey not the Kings Laws for all this not I mean in Temporal Affairs wherein he onely pretends to command them At Saint Jean d' Angely the King assured them he would protect all those of the reformed Religion in France that would obey him and obseâ—ve his Edicts He promised and performed nâ— less to Mallâ—ret who was sent to him as Deputy from the Assembly of Lower Guienne He did the like to the Duke of â—removille Son in Law to Monsieur Bâ—vâ—llâ—n who came to that seidge tendring his service and protesting obedience to His Majestie was not the Government of Saumur that so famous and considerable a place given by His Majestie to the Count de Sault Grandchilde of the Duke Desdiguieres though he were known to be of the Reformed Religion Did he not long before viz. in the year 1615. answer the Petition of the Hugonots That he meant not by his Oath at Consecration which was for the Repressing of Heresies to comprehend therein Those His Subjects of the Reformed Religion who would live obediently under his Laws and Authority And how graciously the King dealt with Rochel all the world knoweth how willing was he rather to regain and reduce it then to destroy it How much and often did His Majestie employ Monsieur the Duke Desdiguieres to perswade them to conformity and obedience How much and often did he the said Duke solicite them accordingly by Letters to return to their duty proposing them Articles which all the world but themselves would have thought reasonable Yet the Deputies Chalas and Favas obstinately refused them till it was too late What can a King do more then seek the winning of his Subjects so far as 't is possible by fair and gracious means Yet see the recompence which His Majestie found from such Spirits It was no other then a long and frivolous Declaration published against his proceedings wherein instead of acknowledging their own Crimes they tax His Majestie of much injustice persecution and I know not what other designs which they charge him to prosecute by the counsel and inducement of certain persons that were Fnemies of the State as they said and
upon and oppress those poor Catholikes which live under their power And must the King of Spain onely be content to sit still and let Sectaries play what pranks they please and commit all outrages in his Dominions without check or controule Who can be so absurd as to judge it a thing reasonable Deos peregrinos ne colunto It was a Law of Romulus against the introducing of new and strange gods Numa Pompilius Socrates and all the wise States-men of the world Heathen no less then Christian have been always careful to provide against Innovation change and corrupting of Religion And shall his Catholike Majestie do nothing for the preserving of Religion sound and entire who both by his own piety and the dignity of his Title is obliged to do so much Shall it be necessary for the peace of their new State to use severity and shall it not be both necessary and just for the preservation of his which is so Ancient so Old For their conscience sake they will bar out Catholikes Shall he not for conscience sake take the same course with Calvinists How strangly do their beginnings and proceedings differ They take up arms against their Sovereign for Liberty of Conscience and yet by those Arms they forbid Liberty of Conscience to their Sovereign For as much as they forbid it to his people their Fellow-subjects they forbid it to Him who pretends to no more in that respect then what every subject he hath ought to enjoy And that his person together with some other of his Subjects is free is not because these men would not but because they cannot bring them in Bondage These States in their Letters to the Emperor 1608. pretend that the Spaniards made use of the Treaty at Colen rather to oppress the Country of the Netherlands then to ease them and therefore to avoid utter ruin Pleraeque Belgicae Provinciae quae in Vnione perstiterant c. Several of the Provinces say they which stood firme to the Vnion did at last renounce or abjure the King and established unto themselves a certain form of Government in the nature of a Free State and have been so acknowledged by other Christian Princes for Thirty years together and more The ground of this Plea is Tyranny exercised after the Treaty at Colen but this Union was made before how then doth it cohere to justifie their doings They say also that the King of Spain and Arch Duke acknowledge them as Free Provinces in quâ—s ipsi nihil juris pretendunt upâ—n whom they pretend to have no Title This is a new Plea I confess But the Reader will observe as it can onely justifie their possession and title for the future so doth it manifestly suppose that their actings before that Declaration was made and by which it was forcibly drawn from their Prince were Illegal Disloyal Rebellious Which the States may do well to remember so often as they use that Plea Nevertheless because by an imperfect disquisition of the matter I would not do harm where I intend onely good I leave this wholly to the Consideration of the Honorable and Learned Chancellor Peckins who can best in a convenient time satisfie the world that this is but a Scar-Crow a Fig-leaf-pretence and a Thunder without a Bolt So that their whole Plea at lest for their past actions resting only upon the stilts of pretended Tyranny Exaction and abrogation of priviledges which have been so often and so manifestly disproved what remains but their condemnation And that we abhor the principles which have lead them into this predicament of disloyalty and sin And yet to leave nothing untouched that can be easily thought on let us once again suppose all their charges viz. Tyranny Exaction breach of Oath c to be true yet must we tell them The Tyranny of a King shall never warrant their usurpation and greater Tyranny Yea suppose he hath lost his right by what Law Order or Priviledge acknowledged do they pretend to have found it Nay what Law of equity or reason have they to Act those things which they confess to be Illegal Unwarrantable yea Tyrannical in him Is it so great an offence for the King to abrogate their priviledges and is it not as great or greater offence for Subjects to usurp his nay to usurp greater then they will acknowledge he ever had May they onely be Parties and Judges in their own case and to the prejudice yea punishment of no less Person then their Prince never was such iniquity heard of Posterity will not beleeve it The Switâ— ers The Amphiâ— yon 's those Cantons of Grecia never heard of such Liberty what is if this be not to confess plainly Regnâ— occupantium esse that Kingdoms go onely by conquâ—st that possession and power are sufficient titles to any Government 'T is true a man may make himself Civis alienae reiâ—ublicae a Subject to another State then that whereof he is native perhaps more ways then one But he can never unmake himself Subject of that Country where he is native do what he can especially staying there and much less of a Subject make himself Sovereign For let him Rebel as who doubts but the Hollanders did yet he remains a Subject still de jure and of right Adde hereunto if the King should forfeit his Earldom of Holland it were not to them he should forfeit it but unto the Emperor to whom it escheates as is cleer both by the Imperial and Municipal Laws Forfeitures do not use to fall to the Tenants but to the Lord of the Fee And 't is evident that Holland was erected into an Earldom not by the Grandsires of Orange nor of any of the Burgers of Amsterdam Delft Dâ—rt c. but by the Emperor Carolus Calvus in the year 863. Qui cum audivit c. Who hearing saith the * Berland Meyer Historian that the County of Hoâ—and being a part of the Emperors demesnes was much infested and spoyled by the Danes at the instant reâ—uest of Pope John principatum ejus c. bestowed the principality thereof upon Theodorick or Thierry If then the Earldom of Holland c. be not in the King of Spain to whom it descended lineally from Theodorick The Emperor may give a second Investiture thereof to whom he please as of a Fief Imperial For to say it should be lapsed into the right of the Province as perhaps particular Estates may do is vain The Emperor takes no notice of their private customes neither can they be prejudicial to a third Person who is so much superior to them and upon whom their very customes do originally depend Beside the Earldom was never vacant there was always an Heir notoriously known either in possession or plea for it They hold it therefore by the sword onely but that is the worst title of all and fitter for those Hoords of Tartarians then for a Common-wealth of Christians Neither Littleton nor Somme rural nor Jus feudale know any such
Tenure A certain Hollander in a third defence which he hath written of the united Provinces calls the King Raptorem Hereticum notorium Spoyler and Notorious Heretick and therefore to be set upon and driven out of his Kingdom by a general League and Vnion of all the forces of all Protestant Princes and States of Christendom But hoc tantum defuit this onely was wanting to advance their Calumnies against His Majestie to the height of impudence Never was the King of Spain called Heretick by man since he deserved the title of Catholike and it could not be done now but by one whose Malice and Heresie together had corrupted his judgement unto madness Nor is it to much better purpose that which they say concerning other Princes and States viz. That they have been acknowledged and treated by forreign Princes as Free States above thirty years That time will not serve for Prescription and if it would Prescription always pleadeth some other Title and possession bonâ fide beside neither of which can they pretend without blushing Neither can the opinion of forreign Princes make their bad claym better it may give some reputation indeed to an usurper but not any Title of right And as in a bad quarrel bravely defended not the cause but the success gains the credit so it is their prosperity and not the justice of their cause which doth them honor Beside it is not true that Princes have so reputed them To Negotiate with them under a quality which they will assume is one thing and really to adjudge that quality as due to them is another They offered the Sovereignty of these Provinces to Queen Elizabeth but she refused them The world doth not think it was out of any Favor to King Philip that she did so but because she knew they offered something more then their own and she was not willing to give her own people such a bad President against her self And when for private ends and some reasons of State she was content for a while to take upon her the charge and title of Protectress of the poor distressed States c. it was observed the business was most earnestly promoted by them who were now as willing to be rid of the * E. Leicester Son as when time was the Marquis of Winchester had been to be rid of the * Duke of Northumberland Camden Father This is upon record that Aversata est Regina the Queen could never endure the offer of the Sovereignty of those Provinces Neither was Sir Noel Caron in her time ever acknowledged Embassador but Agent But to joyn issue with them more neerly let us here what Damhouderius Praxis Crimin c. 132. a famous Lawyer and their own Countryman saith Seditiosi sunt qui moliuntur conspirationem c. Seditious persons saith he are such as hatch or foment Conspiracies against the Governors and Lievtenants of the Provinces that procure unlawful meetings or assemblies of the people or cause any Tumults in the Towns What is this but an Endictment drawn against the States considering their practises not onely against the Person of D' Alva but of Don John himself the Duke of Parma c. their many and tumultuous meetings at Breda Osterweal Saint Trudens their encouraging yea incensing the Genses throughout all the Provinces lastly with their defence and holding of Harlem Alemar Leyden and other places by force of Arms Again Chap. 82. he teacheth that to make a War just there must be first a just cause Second honest intention Third Authority of the Prince or Supream Magistrate Sine quâ without which saith he 't is Treason to make War That same Sine quâ of his might make the States tremble if they reflect upon it For in all their Wars they neither had good cause nor good colour Their Religion and Liberties were all secured to them by the pacification at Gaunt by the perpetual Edict by the Articles of the Treaty of Colen which were all quietly enjoyed without disturbance by such of the Provinces as would conform to them Their Sovereign was known to be His Catholike Majestie and for their good intention as no man could judge of it but by their actions so it appeared cleerly to be onely to sow dissention among the people and through factions and discord to arm them by degrees against the supream Magistrate under colour of Religion And the Prince of Orange most disloyal of all other because being a person of Honor and so highly entrusted by the King he betrayed that great trust reposed in him and made a War by his own Authority and that of his faction against the King Although he had neither Office nor any kinde of Command in the Low-Countries but what he had under the Wings of the Eagle and the Authority of the Lyon All his Belgick Lands he held in Fee of the Duke of Burgundy as his Leige-Lord he did Homage and Fealty for them and knew that a Sovereign gives Law as well as offices to his Subjects Besides Claudius le Brun Process Crimin another famous Lawyer addeth this viz. That whosoever surprizeth Towns Castles Forts without order of his Sovereign as the Prince caused Lumay to do in Holland and as Voorst and Barland did Flushing by which the peace of the Country is broken or who attempteth against the life of his Sovereigns Lievtenant it is Treason And these are judgements which all Europe do consent in decrees of reason and principles of Government which must not be called in question if the States of Holland themselves do permitt them to be disputed they must never expect Peace Order or any setled obedience in their Country So that by Law 't is cleer in what case the States do stand for thus breaking the peace of Christendom in those times and being cause of the effusion of so much Christian blood as hath been shed in that quarrel Now concerning any liberty which the Gospel Holy Scriptures or any principles of true Religion may be supposed to give them to use such proceedings against the Sovereign Prince I shall not enter into any Theological dispute with them as being beside my purpose which is onely to shew matter of opinion and matter of Fact in this controversie of obedience due to the Supream Civil Magistrate And therefore because I write onely to English men I shall content my self onely with the judgement of Doctor Bilson against them He was a great Divine and a great Prelate of the Church of England and chosen on purpose to write on this Argument by the greatest Statesman of that time and he wrote cum privilegio of the State and with the general approbation of the English Church Shall a King Christian Subject c. saith he be deposed if he break his promise and Oath at Coronation in any of the Covenants and Points which he promiseth He answers in the Margin No. The breach of Covenants is not deprivation and gives this reason
what spirit reigned in them when they were in a storm or that the State seemed to frown upon them you will finde them much differing from themselves and that they were not always such peaceable men and so calmly spirited towards Authority as now they seem For if Master Fox doth Register his Martyrs aright and that Wicliff and his followers were Protestants as Protestants will have them to be there is cause of exception against them not a little For first their opinion was That no Magistrate in the state of sin had any Authority Which Position alone openeth as wide a gap to Rebellion and Resistance against the Civil Magistrate as Hell it self can desire And that we do not bely them herein Comment in Arist Politic Melancthon himself confesseth Wicleff saith he was the cause of much tumult and trouble in England Qui contendit eos qui non habent Spiritum sanctum amittere Dominium c. Holding that such persons as have not the Holy Spirit dwelling in them or are not in state of Grace do loose all Dominion and Authority De Jure Magist And elswhere Wicleff saith he was so mad as to hold That wicked persons are uncapable of Dominion Cent. 9. Osiander witnesseth the same And therefore though the same Master Fox calleth him Stellam matutinam in medio nebulae The Morning Star in the midst of a Fog and the Full Moon of those times yet surely the mans judgement in this point was it self much befogged and the Moon of his understanding suffered a great Eclipse Secondly It can as little be denied but that in pursuance of this Doctrine and for defence of his person and some other Heterodox opinions which Wicleff taught Sir John Oldcasâ—le alias Lord Cobham Sir Roger Acton and other his followers Stow. levied an Army of Five and twenty thousand men with intention as our own Chronicles relate to suppress the Monasteries of Westminster Pauls St. Albans and to destroy all the Frieries in and about London Which they had also effected but that it hapned the religious and valiant Prince Henry the Fift was at that time in the state of Grace and exercised his Royal Authorâ—ty so happily upon them in Saint Giles his Fields where their Rendevouz was that they were all either killed or scattered and about Seven and thirty of the principal of them executed Sir John Oldcastle and Acton fled but were afterward both of them apprehended and attainted of High Treason for which and for Heresie they suffered according to their merits Master Fox laboreth much to excuse or extenuate these things but to no purpose they being so palpably and undeniably true That our English Chroniclers themselves Stow. Harpsfield Histor Wicliff and other worthy Authors of our Country do expresly avouch them And certain it is that in the first year of Henry the Fifth Schedules were set on Pauls Church door boasting seditiously of no less numbers then One hundred thousand men ready to rise against such as were enemies to their Sect. Sir John Oldcastle being first committed to the Tower for certain points of opinion concerning the Sacraments which the Synod of London had condemned brake out from thence and was harbored by one Bennet who for that fact and for dispersing Seditious Libels against the King was himself executed And Sir John Oldcastle being the second time apprehended was indicted in open Parliament as an enemy to the State but answered most contemptuously and according to the Principles of his Sect That it was a trifle to him to be judged by them and that he had no judge among them c. At his death he spake more like a mad man then otherwise desiring Sir Thomas Arpingham that in case he saw him rise again within three days he would be good to those of his Sect. Yet as it commonly happens that Preachers of Novelty and Sedition do seldom want some Princes or other of the Temporalty and great Personages to countenance them so was it here Wicliff beside some few of both the Universities Oxford especially whom his Doctrines had caught and corrupted found no mean Friends and Patrons even at Court John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster openly favored him so did Sir Henry Peircy Marshal of England insomuch that Wicliff being upon a time summoned to appear before the Bishop of London both those Personages the Duke and Marshal with divers others of the Court bore him company to Pauls on purpose to discountenance the Bishop and to animate Wicleff and his followers in their courses It is confessed the Duke and Wicleff had several ends The first aimed to destroy the Liberties of the Church and the Charter of London both which he found to be great blocks and obstacles in the way of his ambitious designs the other simply to satisfie an envious Malignant humor which possessed him against the Clergy desiring if he could to make himself famous by their infamy But it is observable the designs both of the one and of the other failed them For Wicleff as great a Protestant as they would have him died a simple Parish-Priest at Lutterworth in Leicestershire Doctor Harpsfields History where he said Mass to his death and was never able to obtain the preferment which he desired And John of Gaunt lived to be accused publikely of many evil practises prejudicial to Religion and to the Nation and in particular of aspiring to the Crown but his cheif Accuser viz. John Latimor an Irish Frier was through the power of the Duke committed to the custody of Sir John Holland as they pretended in order to his Tryal Howbeit the poor man the very night before he should come to his Answer to prevent further trouble was found strangled in his bed and that as our own Chronicles report by the same Sir John Holland and one Green But to come neerer the present age and consider how obedient and loyal this sort of men shewed themselves in Queen Maries times A time of Tryal you will say to some of them True but therefore most likely to discover their true Genius and Spirit Now it is manifest That in the short space of Her Reign which was not much above five years she had more open Rebellions and Insurrections made against her from such of her Subjects as were not well affected unto her Religion then Queen Elizabeth had from Catholikes in full Forty and five How plain and sincere her Government was how far from tricks and such strains of policy or rather iniquity as were afterward used is manifest to all the world How great a Justicer was She It will be said Somewhat too severe and it may be as truly answered That severity was necessary not onely by the judgement of Parliament which a little before had Enacted those Laws upon which she proceeded and before which she acted nothing in that kinde But also in respect of her own safety and of the State against both which that sort of men
they did by private Authority and Faction It shall suffice therefore to send this Master T. M. for his better instruction unto a great Doctor of his own Church Doctor Bilson above mentioned who as we have heard before holdeth it tantum non as an Article of Faith that Princes are not to be deposed which is also the judgement of the greatest Doctor of the English Church and hath been so for these Fifty years and upwards But we demand of them is it good Doctrine in the Reign and case of Queen Elizabeth onely and not so in the Reign and case of Queen Mary It is a position frequently defended in their own Schools Dominium non fundatur in gratiâ and the contrary Doctrine is as generally exploded in Wâ—cleff The difference then of Religion alters not the Authority and power of Jurisdiction And Wyat with his complices rising in Arms without and against royal Authority was a Rebel against Queen Mary as much as Westmorland and the rest with them whom the English Chronicles mention were Rebels in rising against Queen Elizabeth But you will say Queen Mary observed not the Laws of the Realm she abrogated the Statutes of the First of Edward the Sixth which all the Kingdom approved and 't is the profession of good Princes to observe the Laws and to govern by them I answer it is true Legibus se Subjectos esse c. it is a most Christian profession of all Kings to be subject to their own Laws but it would be understood cum grano salis soberly and to refer more to the directive part or power of them then to the corrective or punitive especially in criminal cases if any such should happen lest the remedy should prove worse then the disease the reparation of a private person turn to the ruin of the publike which is contrary to reason the end of government Beside in Princes we may consider their private Acts as I may so cal them of Government which consist in the Executive part of their Office viz. in administring or dealing justice betwixt man and man and in seeing so far as the Law or reason requireth of them that all men under them live well and according to their several duties in these Acts the Prince may be justly supposed to be bound up to the Law and that he ought not to do otherwise then the Law prescribes But who ever accused Queen Mary of breach of Law or misgovernment in this sense Happy had it been for some of her Successors and this whole Nation if they had affected arbitrary Government and Rule no more then she did Secondly we may consider in Princes their more publike Acts which concern all their people in general and consist in the Legislative part of their Office and in these they are Free they are absolute unlimited and bound to nothing but onely to proceed upon such advise as the Constitutions of their several Governments do require that is most commonly and as is best upon advise and the consent of their whole people represented and giving them Counsel in Full Parliament I say in this capacity the Prince is bound to no Law but the Law of Reason and a Good Conscience as to all other respects at liberty to enact or abrogate to make or repeal what Laws he shall think fit and most likely to procure publike good upon such advise given And did not Queen Mary so proceed Did she do any thing but by publike consent advise and supplication of her people in Parliament Beside if Queen Mary should be so subject to her Brothers Laws as not to alter them upon any reason in a legal and due manner why was not Queen Elizabeth so subject to Hers yea why was not King Edward the Sixth himself so subject to the Laws of his Father Why were they altered and that in his Minority too When he was a Childe and understood no more in things of that nature and consequence then a Childe you will say The Religion which Queen Mary brought in was corrupt and impure That of her Brother before and of Queen Elizabeth after her was pure and according to Gods word But this is your assertion onely we say still That you proceed upon a false supposition that presumption and self-conceit rules the greatest part of your rost That thing viz. Whether Queen Maries or Queen Elizabeths Religion were best is the grand question betwixt us And as it is certain that it was never yet by any general and orderly Counsel no not of Protestants determined on your side so we are sure and the world together with your selves know it hath been often legally solemnly determined for us by all sorts of Counsels Provincial National Oecumenical And we pray what reason can be given why the Judgement of Parliament restoring Catholike Religion under Queen Mary with the consent and advise of the chief and best of the whole Clergy of the Nation should not be as good as that which under Queen Elizabeth abolish'd it not onely contrary to the Queens Oath taken at her Coronation but without the advise or consent of so much as any one Bishop or spiritual Prelate of the whole Kingdom who yet in a business of that nature viz. concerning Religion were by all Laws both of * Malach. 2.7 Heb. 13.7.8 17. God and of the Nation principally to be consulted with But let us gratifie our Adversaries as much as may be Let us suppose the worst viz. that Queen Mary had indeed erred in the introduceing of some kinde of superstitions ought she therefore presently to be censured by Ministers or deposed and put down by a Wyat God forbid Solomon himself a wise and a great King did fall into grievous sins and particularly into the grosest of those kinds whereof they presume to censure Queen Mary He had many Hundreds of strange Wives contrary to the Law of Moses and by reason of them fell to Idolatry beyond measure The Queen never took but one Husband and he a Catholike Prince of the same Religion with her self and with the whole Christian world beside except onely some few Provinces which Heresie had lately corrupted Yet neither did the Priest or people take upon them to depose such a King as Solomon They left him to him who is the Supream and most proper Judge of Kings and who in the time appointed by his Divine Providence raised up Jeroboam to chastise him in his Son Yea when Julian himself of a Christian Emperor became Apostate and persecuted the Christians of his time with all maner of vexation and cruelty which either policy of malice could devise neither the people nor the Pastors of the Church though they sharply reproved and inveighed against his proceedings yet none of them took up Arms against him none went about to deprive him either of Dominion or Life And if they thought it not expedient or becoming Christians to do so against a Tyrant acting Tyrannically and onely by the
violence of his own exorbitant passions without any order or colour of Law and as no just Prince ought to govern how much less would they have thought it lawful and how little would they approve it to be done against such Princes as govern legally and do nothing concerning Religion or otherwise but according as the Laws and and publike Constitutions of their several Kingdoms do direct and inable them to do He that proclaymed the Prerogative of Kings in these terms Vos Estis Dii I have said Yee are Gods surely intended to teach the world rather a lesson of obedience then rebellion And there is no Prince or State in the world Let them countenance what Sect or Profession of Religion soever they please but shall finde it at one time or another a necessary Bulwark for them to retreat unto against the inundations of popular fury Who doth deny but that it is necessary that the governments of all Princes whatsoever should be regulated and moderated by Laws and that all persons in Authority do observe all rules whatsoever that are proper for them or prescribed to them by those to whom that power belongeth We pretend not to enhaunce the Authority of Princes so far as to exempt them from the rule of Law or to make them Arbitrary in their government but this we say Vos Esi is Dii in relation unto Princes and all Persons established in Supream Authority justly that is by the will of Divine Providence and consent of the people is a great exemption of them from any popular Cognizance For what does it intimate but that * Egodixi Allmighty God himself hath made them Gods unto the people that is to say persons of Knowledge Experience Foresight Care Providence and other abilities Intellectual which are the natural and genuine principles of government competent and sufficient for the government of people who are not otherwise generally speaking Et pro majori parte able to govern themselves in civil society and for their preservation in peace and quietness which is the end of Government We think it is most proper for God onely to say Transferam Regna de gente in gentem Revolutions of Governments and Translating of one Kingdom to another are the Extraordinary Dispensations of Divine Providence and for reasons onely known unto his supream and secret wisdom Which although they be acted that is brought to pass by the hands of men yea through their infirmities and many times blamable passions as experience often sheweth and as in the case of King Rehoboam the Son of Solomon 1 Reg. 12.16 may seem plain yet are not the common people licensed hereby to run upon any irregular designs of their own head and to renounce their Governors headily and hastily of themselves for every lght greivance and misgovernment that may seem to afflict them To remove Tyrants and oppression from a people is the work of Divine Mercy as it is of his justice to permit them to oppress and from him only must they expect deliverance abiding in the mean while with patience until his Divine hand shall appear leading them to such means as they may with justice and good order use to the procuring of their liberty The Second Part. JERUSALEM OR The Obedience Loyalty and Conformity OF CATHOLIKES unto Publike Order HItherto we have insisted onely upon the Doctrines and practises of those who call themselves Reformed Churches or Protestants in the charge of Rebellion and Tumult against the Civil Magistrate by which how tolerable and quiet they are in any Kingdom or State whose Religion is not framed according to their Mode the indifferent Reader will judge It remaineth now that we make good the contrary concerning our selves and shew that those vertues which we pretend to be the true and proper Characters of our Religion viz. Humility Devotion Obedience Order Patience c. are more generally and more constantly exercised by Catholikes in times of Tryal then by any other Sect or Sort of people whatsoever This we intend to do but not so much Theoretically or by way of any long and speculative discourse as Practically Historically and by way of instance shewing what the behavior and practise of Catholikes have been in this case upon occasions given Neither shall we range far abroad into the world because that would be less pertinent to our main purpose which is onely to justifie our selves in this point so far as reason and truth will give us leave and enlarge our discourse beyond its intended bounds But we shall content our selves onely with domestick examples and that experience which the Catholikes of this Nation have given of themselves from time to time in this kinde What kinde of people they were anciently in this Land in the time of King Lucius and the Brittons I shall not need to relate but refer you to the Ecclesiasticall Histories of those times the rather because the Centurists of Magdeburgh and Master Fox in his Acts and Monuments will have these Catholikes to be Protestants and of their Church which though it be very false yet I may not ingage for the cleering of that point now Nor shall I insist any longer upon those times of the Saxons after they were converted to Christianity to shew their vertues and singular devotion towards God and how happily by means thereof the Church and Common-wealth did grow up together unto that perfection of Spiritual and Temporal glory which they injoyed under that Blessed Prince and Saint King Edward the Confessor I shall not tell you how highly the good Prelates of the Church were then reverenced by the people nor how much their holy Counsels and Authority did conduce to the happy government of the State It sufficeth Lamb. Archaion Camden Spelm. Concil that many old Saxon Laws and other Monuments yet upon record Venerable Bede and the Stories of those times with other Modern Authors are witnesses of it beyond all exception From King Edward the Confessor downwards to King Henry the Eighth there is no man of judgement will affirm or thinketh that any other Religion was known in England but the Roman-Catholike that is the same that had been long before planted here by Saint Austin and those Good men his followers who were sent hither to convert the English Saxons by Saint Gregory the Great Bishop of Rome for which charity towards our Nation Doctor Whitaker giveth him thanks and professeth it was a great Benefit and for ever most gratefully to be remembred In all which time although the Clergy made Canons and managed all things pertaining to Religion by an Authority of their own that is to say given them by God and derived to them from an other origin then that of the State or Supream Magistrate Temporal yet never did the Kings of this Realm finde them generally otherwise then obedient unto their Government and ready to serve them in such capacity as the Laws and duties of their function permitted and to contribute their
The ones Ambition The others Avarice destroying him Yet of the two the calamity of the Protector must in all humane judgement seem most disastrous For 't is certain through his own weakness and the importune instigations of his Wife he was compelled to serve the designs of his greatest Adversary in the world by putting his own brother to death And after that living to see Bologne lost and the Crown through his Misgovernment engaged in many debts wants and trouble he last of all ended his days fatally and without any shew of repentance for those sins which brought him to that end Whereas in this respect Northumberland was far more happy For having in all humble and penitent maner acknowledged his offences to the Bishop of Worcester Doctor Heath his Ghostly Father and thereby reconciled himself to God and to the Communion of his Church at the place of Execution not out of design or hopes of life as some would malitiously asperse the action but willingly freely of his own accord and out of conscience as himself protesteth at his death he made another most Christian and publike acknowledgment of his Faults especially those which concerned Heresie Sacriledge and Treason in all which he confessed himself to be most guilty And thereupon used much and vehement exhortation to the people to beware of those Preachers of New Doctrine who had fâ— ed the Kingdom with so many false Opinions and much trouble Assuring them plainly and openly concerning himself that whatsoever he had professed or done in that kinde proceeded wholly from Covetousness Ambition and other evil Motives not worthy to be named and not from any perswasion of Judgment or Conscience which he ever had that way And therefore adminished them that they should willingly return to the Communion of Gods Church and keep themselves constant in the Catholike Faith and true Religion Which for Conscience sake saith he I onely tell you and that I may thereby in some sort acquit me of my duty and save my soul and not for any humane or temporal motive expectation or hope whatsoever And so died The Oration it self out of which this is extracted may be seen at large in Schardus Sim. Schard Memor Histor in Maximil 2. a Protestant chronicler of note in his historical collections and elsewhere I suppose without much difficulty Thus lived and thus died as we have said the two grand adversaries of Gods Church and subverters of Catholike Religion in England after so many disorders committed as God was pleased to suffer by their power and procurement and that they had sufficiently scourged and afflicted those whose sins well deserved such punishment they were both of them taken away by the hand of Justice and met with their deserts Temporally and things were restored to some better pass But what did the Catholikes all this while How did they behave themselves What Rebellions did they raise what commotions or tumults of the people did they procure I mean the more civil religious and ingenuous amongst them 'T is true some Risings there were in Devonshire and the Western parts of the rude multitude exasperated especially upon some temporal grievances oppressions and wants which followed the misgovernment of those times Religion was either not at all or least of all pretended by them They were vexed indeed to see the encroachments which the Protector and others made dayly upon the Kings and Peoples Interest They were sensible of the Scarcity and Dearth of all kinde of necessary commodities for life which came suddenly upon them and was far greater then it used to be They could not endure well to be abridged by Inclosures of some other Liberties which they pretended to In brief They were sensible of all such inconveniences in the Government of the State as concerned the Outward Man but for Religion further then it served to ease their Spleen that is to clamor to asperse and rail upon those whom they conceived the Authors of their other and more resented grievances I conceive they minded it not and that there is scarce any good ground why a man should think them in that respect more Catholikes then Protestants And if a Priest or some Ecclesiastical person were found amongst them as it were strange if there should be none considering how many there were then in the kingdom absolutely destitute and discontented yet certainly they were not many nor in any other quality considerable Whereas 't is certain that Kets camp in Norfolk a business of far greater consequence and difficulty were all of them such as were fallen with the State from the profession of Catholike Religion and become Protestants And this I would generally premise desiring the Reader to observe it that where I affirm of Catholikes that they did not conspire against their Princes nor raise any tumults in the kingdom for matter of Religion I mean such only as were Catholikes indeed and stood firm in their Holy Recusancy not complying in any sortwith those alterations which Henry the 8th Edward the 6th or Queen Elizabeth in their several times procured to be made contrary to the integrity of Christian Religion For such as complied were not to be counted Catholikes any longer but Heretikes Schismaticks Hypocrites c. And for such people having corrupted their faith to God I would not be taken to apologize in any other point of duty For 't is very possible they might still retain some notions of Catholike Religion in their minds which afterward and upon other occasions running into terms of disloyalty they might pretend as matter of complaint against their Prince though themselves were neither Catholike nor That nor any other matter purely Spiritual the true original cause of their Disorder but onely those Temporal Grievances by which they smarted as is abovesaid and which they saw well enough to procceed either wholly or in part from the several alterations made There were the like in Lincolnshire which our English Chronicles pass not over in silence But it sufficeth that for the generality of Catholikes I mean still those of more ingenuous civil and better quality notwithstanding so great and violent provocations as were used towards them their patience and submissive demeanor towards the State and civil Government was most exemplary to the World Neither Prelates nor Priests nor Lay-people making any resistance against those unworthy men who so much oppressed them under the Kings usurped Authority and Name making such havock in the Church and spoil of all things consecrate to the Service of God and exercise of their True Ancient Christian-Catholike Religion as this Nation never saw the like since it had â—he happiness to be called Christian It seemed they had been bred in a better School of Vertue then that which Calvin opened at Genevah and had learnt to bear the cross of their Saviour that is to say these temporal afflictions calamities and injuries with more Patience and that the glory of Martyrdom in sufferance was accounted far
how well he manageth that and leave matters of Preaching to the Clergy such as himself was Scilicet Tom. 2. Fol. 259. and Tom. 1. Lat. Fol. 540. he tells them plainly Non est regum aut Principum c. It belongs not to Kings and Princes to take upon them to establish Doctrine no not the true Doctrine but to be subject and obedient themselves in that case And Chemnitius in his Epistle to the Elector of Brandenburgh speaking of Queen Elizabeth after he had taxed her sufficiently in other particulars he fals at last upon her Title of Supremacy in these words Et quòd foemineo a saeculis inaudito fastu se Papissam caput Ecclesiae facit saying by a strange Womanish and unheard of kinde of Arrogance she makes her self as it were a She-Pope in her own dominions Head of the Church What the doctrin practise of those in Scotland is and hath ever bin since their pretended Reformation is too well known to be disputed Cartwright teacheth the same in all his Books but especially in his last And so do all the Presbyterians generally both here and beyond Seas They of Amsterdam in their Confess Fid. 1607. go somewhat further Pag. 50. Art 2. when they resolve That Vnicuique Ecclesiae particulari est par plenum jus c. That every particular Church hath ful and equal power with any other Church or Churches to use exercise and enjoy whatsâ—ever ordinances of Perpetuity Christ hath committed to his Church therefore it is cleer upon that supposition That no one Person is left Supream Governor over many Dr. Whitacre in his answer to Reinolds speaking upon this subject Pag. 4. hath a passage not easie to be understood The Title saith he of Supream Head of the Church hath been disliked by diverse Godly Learned men and of right it belongeth to the Son of God and therefore saith he never did our Church give that Title unto the Prince nor did the Prince ever challenge it By saying that many Godly Learned men disliked it meaning Calvin Gilby Knox Luther c. mentioned before and upon this ground viz. that of right it belongeth to the Son of God he sheweth sufficiently what his own judgement therein is But when he saith never did our Church give the Title of Supream Head of the Church to the Prince nor the Prince challenge it who can tell what he meaneth For admit that what was done by King Henry the Eighth were not rightly said to be done by their Church yet I hope they will own the Church in King Edward the Sixths time who challenged the Supremacy notoriously enough as appeareth in the first Parliament which he held wherein it was Enacted That whosoever after the Fifth of March nex ensuing should deny that the Kings Heirs and Successors were not or ought not to be Supream Head in Earth of the Church of England and Ireland immediately under God for the third assertion should be guilty of Treason And that Queen Elizabeth after him declined the Title and chose rather to be called Supream Governess mended the matter not a whit For it was not the Title onely but the power pretended unto and exercised by and under that Title at which men made scruple and that power Queen Elizabeth claimed and exercised all her Reign as much as ever King Edward her Brother had done So that the refusing of this Oath being the onely or chief matter alledged for the deprivation of the Catholike Bishops seeing Protestants themselves were no better agreed about it they might in all reason have expected if not a milder sentence yet at least a more favorable Execution thereof from the Queen whom they had so lately and so unanimously acknowledged and no less willingly then any other persons of the Realm Who always bear themselves obsequiously towards her in temporal matters never made complaint never writ Libels Invectives or Books against her as the Reformers in other parts perpetually did against their Princes and as too many of her Subjects at home that is to say Ministers of her own making and others in short time set themselves to do No Homilies of sedition were dispersed among the people No Wyat No Oldcastle appeared in the Field by their instigation notwithstanding all the Adversity Disgrace Wants which they suffered In a word such was their behavior constantly towards her even to the very last of their lives that noe indifferent man will attribute it to any thing else but to the most excellent and right Christian resolution of those worthy men to suffer perfectly for such a good cause and unto that Patience Humility Obedience Aequanimity and Resigned Temper of Spirit which as it was exemplary in them so is it indeed Innate as I may say and most natural unto all Vertuous and Religious men that are truely Catholike And such in truth though envy frown when we speak it is the general Inclination and Temper of all English Catholikes towards their Sovereign Prince both within and without the Realm as the experience of their quiet behavior for so many years together of hard times have cleerly shewen When I speak of Catholikes within the Realm I mean Recusants in general as we are called men and women of all Estates and Conditions who have had our shares and tasted of the Cup of affliction as God was pleased to administer it unto us at this present not much less then a Hundred of years When I speak of those without the Realm I mean the Seminaries of Priests Religious Persons and Students that be Catholike beyond the Seas Concerning which Seminaries we are to know that when the old Clergy of England Bishops and Priests were some languishing in Prison other in Exile many dead and all in disfavor The Secretary and such other Politick Protestants as then sate at the Stearn of Government in England did confidently imagin that in a short time both Priest and Priesthood would be worn out and extingished in this Nation And truely it was observed that about the year 1576. there were not above Thirty of the old Priests remaining in the Realm Hereupon Doctor Allen a man even raised by God to do his Country good in a time of greatest necessity together with some others of the English Clergy begun the Seminary at Doway about the year 1569. meerly out of spiritual charity towards their poor Country and a Christian Providence to prevent the utter decay of Religious Professors Priests and others who might serve in time to come to uphold true Religion in England and to preserve a Continuation of the Catholike Church there as it had ever been from the Apostles times to that present unto succeeding Generations And as by the great blessing of God we see their pious Counsels have had an happy effect unto this day notwithstanding the many oppositions adversities and difficulties which they have met with as well from England as from other places They intended also
they altogether refused by her Majesty They were also generally men of plentiful Fortunes and good Estates and are so still except such as the Lawes and hard times have impoverished Yet because for Conscience sake they refuse to hear Common-prayer and Sermons to receive the Communion according to the new order of the Church of England they stand by Law as it were marked out for destruction and branded with all the Characters of ignominy suspition and prejudice which the people of any State even for the greatest crimes actually commited Sir Edw. Cook can justly suffer It is reported by a great Lawyer of this Nation that from primo Elizab. till the Bull of Pius Quintus was published which was about half a score or a dozen years after No person in England refused to come to Church as if perchance that Bull had beâ—â— the sole occasion which Catholikes took to disobey the Queens Injunctions But it is a great error For not to speak any thing of Puritans many of whom before that time refused the Church-Service how many Bishops and Priests were there in England known and professed Recusants from the first beginning How many Noblemen and Gentlemen of account did openly and absolutely refuse to joyn with their New Church It is true and to be lamented The revolt of the English under Queen Elizabeth from the true Catholike Religion so lately restored was too general and too many there were who suffered themselves to be carried away with the stream of Authority and with the evill example of their Neighbors and especially of Great Ones But what is this but a general infirmity and weakness commonly observed in the people What Form soever of Religious Profession a State sets up it proves an Idol to them and they are apt to fall down before it yea though the Figure which they worship as it happens sometimes hath much more of the Calf then of the Man in it And for this respect it cannot but be matter of much consideration to all wise States-men and States to be well advised how far they proceed in this kinde viz. of establishing or setting up any outward form or profession of Religion whatsoever especially by any compulsory Acts or Penalties lest the bloud of Souls lye upon their account another day As most certainly it shall whensoever people are misled into any corrupt way of Religion meerly upon the Authority and Resolution of the State And yet notwithstanding there were in many places of the Kingdom not a few of worthy and constant Catholikes who never bowed theer knees unto Baal that is never consented nor made profession of Heresie one way or other as Lanhearne Ashby de la Zouch Grafton Dingley Cowdrey and many other places can witness by whose integrity the Catholike Church in England viz. that Remnant according to the election of Grace which God was pleased to preserve here from the general contagion to glorifie his name by suffering and to give Testimony unto Truth have subsisted and stood by the great mercy of God unto this day though indeed suffering grievously for their Conscience as God was pleased from time to time to exercise them by confiscation of their Estates vexations by Pursivants and Promoters restraint and imprisonment of their persons at Wisbich Ely Banbury York Ludlow Bury the Fleet Gatehouse c. Not to speak any thing of the spoil of their Woods leasing their Lands exaction of Fines nor yet of their disarming by Law because this last though it were as unjust and undeserved as the rest yet it had more of disgrace and ignominy in it then of real damage arguing onely suspition or jealousie which the State would seem to have of them and nothing more But the Twenty pounds a moneth was a burden insupportable especially to the meaner sort Although it must be confessed the rigour and extremity thereof was many times moderated by the Lord Treasurer Burleigh Now to compare these men with the Recusant Puritans in England for such we must know there are more then a good many in all Countries All Recusants are not Popish if it were not too odious it might be very necessary and the world could not but see much better and acknowledge the patience humility and obsequious deportment of Catholikes compared with the others insolency and stoutness For t is very well seen already that this growing Sect of Protestant Recusants are not men likely to bear such burdens should the State finde it necessary to impose them They discover a far different Spirit even now while they are but in their shell as we may say and without any visible power or interest within the Nation save that of their number Compare them with the Recusant Fâ—ugonots of France who are Brethren and of the same principles with â—urs in England you would think our Catholike Gentlemen here to be all Priests in respect of their sober humble and Christian carriage of themselves whensoever they fall under question for Religion Their very Ministers there you would take to be all Sword-men Captains Sons of Mars so much fury rage breaths out in every word or action of theirs which relates to the publike Catholikes here are persons of all other most unwilling to offend Recusants there most unwilling to obey These defend their Religion with their Swords and by resistance of the Civil Magistrate ours onely with their Pen and with their prayers Ours endure and à Scio cui credidi with St. Paul is all their comfort These endure nothing wil trust no body with their cause but themselves and their Cautionary towns They have their Bezas Their Marlorates Chamiers and other Boutefeux swarming thick in all parts of the Kingdom ready to incense and set on fire the distempered multitude against their lawful governors they have their Montaubans their Rochels Saumurs Montpelliers places of refuge and retreat strong and well fortified to shelter themselves when they cannot make good their designs in the field Catholikes here have none of all these They have no Preachers but Preachers of Pennance and Mortification They hear no Sermons at any time but such as teach them Obedience Patience Resignation to the will of God and to be willing to suffer whatsoever the will of God is They have no places of security but their own unarmed houses which if they change it is always for the Fleet Gatehouse Newgate or som other prison and place of restraint Much talk there is among Protestants of the Inquisition its severity cruelty partiality and what not to make it odious and terrible to the people but verily if a man do well consider it in comparison of the troubles vexation and manifold danger both for life liberty and estate whereto the Catholikes of England Priests and Religious persons especially are subject it may seem rather a Scare-crow then any thing else Charls the Fifth Emperor in the year 1521. at Worms decreed onely Exile against Luther notwithstanding his obstinacy and all the
layeth not any greater upon the Christians under him All or most of the old Catholike Bishops and Clergy of England died in prisons Antipath of Prelat as Master Prinn himself confesseth of the chiefest of them amâ—ng Rogues Murtherers and Felons in the Marshalsea The rest in Exile for Religion is this no punishment Or was there any other Crime laid to their charge but onely matter of Religion Not to speak of many others Master William Anderson in 45. Elizab. was executed upon no other charge but that he was a Priest and then found to be in England so was Master Barckworth in the year 1600. was this no punishment Anno 35. Elizab. Master Barwis a Citizen of London was executed for being reconciled to to the Church and Master Pormort attainted at least for reconciling him was this no punishment In the year 1575. as Holinshead himself recordeth it for a matter to be noted The Lady Morley the Lady Brown the Lady Guildford were committed all of them to prison onely for hearing Mass and Leases presently made of two Third parts of their Lands was this no punishment I might be infinite in examples of this kinde but it is needless The case is manifest and the sense of the whole Kingdom proclaimes the contrary to what that Author pretendeth convincing his assertion of not a little imposture and calumny To conclude then the loyalty and obedience of these Gentlemen and other people of all sorts which are commonly called Recusants towards their King and the State appears undeniably in all things not only by their humble petitions to his Majesty that now is in the year 1604. and at sundry times since but by their constant and general conformity unto the temporal Government in all Queen Elizabeths Reign by their Protestation made at Ely in the year 1588. where a great many of them were prisoners by some other offers which they made to the Lord North the Queens Lieutenant there and by their justification of them afterwards by their submâ—ssions sent up to the Lords of the Privy Councel and their profession of all due acknowledgement towards her Majesty notwithstanding the sentence of Excommunication by their readiness to serve her Majesty the State even in that Action of 88. for which they are so calumniated Lastly by the very Irish Recusants joyning their Forces with the Queens at Kinsale in the year 1600. All which Arguments do indeed shew them to be â—ubjects absolutè and not ex conditione or by leave of some other as their adversaries pretend Let the Readâ—r therâ—fore now judge if he please by what hath been said whether to be a Protestant and a loyal â—ubject or a Catholike and a loyal subject be more incompatible things This was the question propounded in the beginning to be declared and it hath been declared I suppose at large both from their doctrinal assertions and constant practises in all parts of Germany France Holland Scotland Genevah and many other Countries of Christendom what kinde of people both Lutherans Calvinist and other sectaries generally are towards their Sovereign Princes It hath bin shewn that the chief scope and end of their endeavours where they come is to set up their several professions by the Sword and violâ—nt resistance of the Civil Magistrate doing but his Office in restraining them according to Law yea with the ruin of the Church and State both that shall oppose them This I say both the Lutheran s n Germany the Hugonets of France the Gâ—uses of Hâ—lâ—and the Protestants and Puritans in all other places where they could have so apparently done or attempted to doe that there is neither colour of excuse for it nor liberty to deny it The World knoweth what was endeavored in Germany against the Emperor in France how long continued they in Armes against their Sovereign Prince viz. till they had by force not to say contrary to his Oath extorted from him such Edicts of Pacification as themselves liked And that in Holland and Scotland where they had the fortune to become Masters they renounced and deposed their Princes absolutely On the other side let us consider how far it is from being true that wherewith so many Books in England have abused the people viz. That to be a Priest or a Roman Catholike and a good Subject withall is impossible They are things inconsistent with one another For if we look back to former times we shall easily finde that from the Saxons to King Henry the Eighth it was never made so much as a quâ—stion To be a Catholike was never held any bar to Loyalty and yet the Princes had their differences somtimes with the Pope even then And in the grounds of Catholike Faith there is certainly nothing contrary unto civil obedience and duty towards the temporal Magistrate Witness the Government of the Sacred Roman Empire of the Kingdoms of Spain France Poland and many other Christian Principalities and States All which differing in their several constitutions or particular formes of Governing yet doe generally and unanimously account him the bâ—st Subject and least dangerous to the State who is most of all devoted to Catholike Religion It is not therefore malum in se simpliciter whatsoever Doctor Morton or Parson White say it is not an evil intrinsecal to Priesthood nor essentially folloâ—ing the profession of Catholike Religion to be an evil subject If it happens to prove so at any time it is ex accidente and from the voluntary wickedness of particular men if not as too often it doth from some evil constitution of State in which the profession of Catholike Religion hath been unduly subverted and is as unjustly prohibited and punished Neither can it be verified of Catholike Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or universally as sedition and troubling the Civil Government is apparently chargeable upon Calvinism and the other several professions of Protestancy Therefore surely it was an errour both uncivil and indiscreet in those Doctors to frame their proposition so general onely to make us odious and suspected with his Majestie who yet we hope understands us better then so and knows that the imputation is groundless and meerly passionate We deal not so with them We are ready to acknowledge that as to particular persons there are many especially among the Protestants of England of more calm and moderate dispositions of no such fiery zeal as works in many other of their Brethren abroad Boni viri boni cives such as we confess to be both good men and good Subjects of sociable nature obsequious not inclined to Sedition nor desirous to persecute And the like good Testimony doth even the Author of the Execution of English Justice give unto Catholikes acknowledging their obedience and loyalty towards the late Queen and that in a time when they wanted not matter of complaint for the manifold oppressions and afflictions which were heavy upon them T is true every man may be supposed to wish the advancement of his
continue such so long as they keep under some few fiery zealots that would still be blowing the coals of dissention among them Not to speak of Sweden Denmark c. doth not that famous Kingdom of Poland Tolerate diversity of Religions doth not the great Emperor of Mosko the same and is not the general Unity of their Subiects which ariseth thereupon and would certainly be otherwise if the Government were otherwise is it not a Wall of Brass to both of them against their great enemy the Turk Let Germany also be our example that vast Nation and people no less Magnanimous and Stout is not Toleration judged expedient among them could any thing else cure their troubles Let us consider how peacably and happily Catholikes and Lutherans have conversed and lived there together for no less then an Hundred years and upwards without any dissention without any trouble upon the account of Religion save onely what Ambition and the factious Spiritedness of some particular Princes have bred and brought upon the Country much against the will of the people under that pretence No man doubteth but Charls the Fifth Emperor and Ferdinand his Brother were in their times great and wise Princes yet found they no better means to redress the troubles of State then by commanding Vt utraque pars caveret c. That special care should be had on both sides to compel no man to make profession of Religion otherwise then in his own Conscience he should be perswaded was best As Dresserus a Protestant relates it rejecting with much disdain the contrary opinion of some who as he saith would have but one Religion onely professed in the Empire And for France the case and condition of affairs there is notorious to all the world Nor could that Kingdom ever be brought to quiet till the Calvinists therein were brought upon their knees that is to such pass as to be glad of and to bâ—gge for that favorable Toleration of their profession from the King which themselves in no parts of the world beside will grant to others What reason can be given by indifferent men why the policy of England should be so singular and so differing from that of all other Christian Kingdoms and Nations about her Why should our Government be more severe in this point and more Sanguinary then that of our Neighbors It may seem to reflect something upon the honor of our Nation to mention the Turk in this case Yet certainly it cannot be denied but that Christians live quietly in his Dominions and upon conditions so easie that I am perswaded the Catholikes of England would be well contented with the like If onely it be determined that we must purchase that with our money which all other our fellow-subjects the people of this Nation do enjoy freely and count it their natural right In a word therefore to conclude seeing that both in the judgement of Protestant Divines and in the practice of Protestant Princes and States Toleration of diverse Religions is held neither unlawful nor unexpedient in Government and seeing that for so long a time of afflictions persecution of our Priests and other manifold pressures upon us for matters of Conscience Catholikes have yet through the grace of God demeaned themselves so loyally and obsequiously in all points as they have not done or attempted to do upon their own account or for the interest and advancment of their own profession any thing offensive to the State or prejudicial to the publike peace seeing that nothing can be fastned upon them in that kinde with any colour of truth but onely the business of the Gun-Powder-Treason and seeing that was a devise though acted by the hands of some desperate and wicked Catholikes yet contrived rather by the Devil and some crafty Enemies which we had in the State to make us eternally odious and suspected in the Nation and to disoblige some great person of his promises in favor of us as it may be justly thought considering what kinde of States-men sate at the Helme in those times what knowing men D' Ossat Lettres liur 2. ep 43. Pryns Antip. of Prelat P. 151. strangers abroad have writ and what Protestants themselves at home have discovered since upon that subject Seeing that Catholikes always wished well to his Majesties Title and prayed for his happy succession to these Kingdoms seeing we were not of Counsel with those who sent Beal into forreign parts to promote the Titie of Suffolk nor that set Hales on work at home as he did with law and little art to make it good nor that procured Sir N. B. to make a nest for the Phaenix by such a great volum as he wrote to that purpose Seeing that we were ever Champions to his Majesties just claim Especially Sir Anthony Brown that wise and noble Author of the Book against Leicester and that Aiax of the Law whom no man ever durst encounter in this cause Master Plâ—ydon We hope so long and so try'd fidelity will by the Kings gracious favor procure us at last some liberty and refreshment and that our humble supplication shall be considered wherein casting our selves down at the feet of our Sovereign and of the State we beg onely of them in those words of the Poet. Hanc animam concede mihi Tua caetera sunto Let our souls be left free unto God and as for our Bodies or Estates take them dispose of them freely as Justice requireth and in due proportion with our Neighbors and other the good people of the Nation for the service of the Kingdom and of the publike AN APPENDIX Concerning LUTHERS Mission I Was now going out of the field but behold an Ambush appears which is laid to surprize me it pretends at one charge to rout all the forces of my arguments and to bereave me of my hopes of Victory by eluding rather then disproving of what I have said It is a reply which some men are pleased to make in behalf of Luther whose heat and irregular vehemency which I call sedition was nothing but zeal say they of Gods honor and truth which burning within his own breast happened to kindle some lively sparks also in others They say that Luther was Elias a Prophet sent immediately and extraordinarily by God to reform the errors and corruptions of the world to restore vertue and good life to detect Antichrist who had for so many ages bewitched the whole Church with his impostures and seduced her into Idolatrie and Heresie And that therefore such a Prophet was not to be tedder'd as it were and bound up to the rules of ordinary professors But if he neglected Authority despised the Laws abused and insulted upon the Majestie of Princes disturbed the peace and tranquility of their States we are not to wonder nor lay it to his charge It was no more then a Prophet might do Tune es qui conturbas Israel did not Ahab say to Elias Art not thou he which troublest Israel The
world was in a Lethargy of superstition and ignorance at that time and could not be recovered by gentle means Such an inveterate disease as that was required strong and violent purgation Thus they Plead But it is answered The foulest Face may have a fair Vizard put upon it and these pretences howsoever men may be amused at them at first hearing are but like the Apples of Sodom specious and seeming fair at the first sight but if you touch them they turn to ashes I confess Luther perceiving how apt the world was at that time to Beleeve lyes and to swallow whatsoever baits of Novelty and unsound Doctrine he offered them was not asham'd to arrogate all those things to himself that were above mentioned and to pretend an extraordinary calling from God for all that alteration and stir which he made in the Church Witness himself in one place Lib. de fals stat Ego Lutherus sum Alter Elias Currus Israel c. I am Luther saith he a second Elias and the Charriot of Israel And in another Lib. cont Reg. Angliae Tanta est dignitas mea Ministerium mihi Dioâ—nitùs datum c. This Ministry saith he which I profess and this Calling which I have from God is of that Excellency that it is in vain for Princes or any Persons on Earth to expect submission or forbearance from me They must whither they will or no acknowledge me at length for an Holy instrument chosen of God c. and yet again Certus sum c. I am sure saith he that I have my Doctrine from Heaven Ibid. and therefore why should he regard any thing objected against it on Earth Comment 1. Cor. 1. he blusheth not to glory that by him and through his means the Gospel was more cleerly and plentifully preached then it was ipsis temporibus Apostolorum even in the times of the Apostles themselves Which he avoucheth again Serm. de destruct Jerusalem Nor do his followers forbear any thing to flatter him in this humor The Collecutors at Altimbergh call him The Angel of God Elias Colloq Altegh P. 80.587 and the Last Trumpet alluding as I suppose to that of the Apocalypse Chap. 11.15 Aretius affirms expresly that he was sent by an immediate call from God to reform the world bewitched as he saith with many impious and ungodly opinions in Religion But let us pawse a while We must distinguish as I said betwixt pretenses and proofs They are not all one And they do but deceive themselves who think that men will always accept the one for the other All that these men say comes up to this That Luther was extraordinarily sent by God to preach Reformation and such other Doctrine as he did But we reply Extraordinary Mission hath always Extraordinary Signs and Arguments going along with it to evidence and make cleer the truth thereof to the people unto whom such an Extraordinary Messenger is sent Thus was it with Moses Exod. 4. who being sent upon an extraordinary Message from God to the Children of Israel viz. to bring them out of Egypt where they lived in bondage and the case being such as they might probably not beleeve him but make doubt of his calling and say unto him The Lord hath not sent thee to remedy this inconvenience and to give the Israelâ—tes reasonable assurance that he was indeed sent to them by God for that purpose The Divine wisdom doth not think it sufficient to bid Moses stand to it affirm it stoutly not to blush nor give over saying so which were all the Extraordinary Arguments that ever Luther or any of his Reforming Brethren could give of their Extraordinary Calling But what doth he say Cast thy Rod upon the ground So it becomes a Serpent Put forth thine hand and take it So it becomes a Rod again that is to say God Allmighty enabled him to do this and many other wonderful and supernatural works before them and before the King of Egypt sufficient to convince them that he came in truth upon the Lords Message and not of his own head Thus was it also with the true Elias Elizaeus Daniel and many other of the Prophets Thus was it lastly with the Apostles of Christ and all Apostolical men succeeding them in that priviledge of Extraordinary Mission Yea such and so absolutely necessary is the condition of miracles or at least of something else equivalent thereto in the way of supernatural Extraordinary assistance and testimony in all those which pretend unto Extraordinary Calling That our blessed Saviour saith even of himself John 15.24 That if he had not done among the Jews works which never any man did that is wonderful works supernatural and stupendious works They had not sinned in refusing his Doctrine And in another place If I do not the workes of my Fâ—ther Chap. 10.37 beleeve me not But this is a stone too hard for Luthers Teeth we must never expect that he or any of his followers wil answer punctually upon this subject They do many of them beside Luther pretend to Extraordinary Calling as Beza for example publikely insisted upon it or rather fled to it in the Conference at Poisey But if you demand miracles of them to evidence it to us that is such arguments as reason requires and the experience of all ages hath afforded in like cases they are instantly silent or use onely such cavelling pretences and pleas as may serve the turn of any Hereticks whatsoever as well as theirs For we entreat them to tell us what can Luther pretend for his presumption in this kinde Which Calvin and the Sacramentaries cannot And yet t is well known he counted them all for Hereticks of the deepest stain Cont. Artic. Lovan Yea to use his own words seriously and in very good earnest he counted them so and that they did not belong to the Communion of the Church De Canâ Domini And for Zuinglius himself he held him for scarce a Christian What can Calvin or his followers pretend more then the new Arians Antitrinitarians Socinians and others plead for themselves And yet t is known Calvin burnt the principal of them viz. Michael Servetus at Genevah Beside how perillous a thing is it and how many dangerous inconveniences may follow upon it if onely upon pretence of Extraordinary Calling not made out and evidenced in due maner to be such men should be permitted to seduce people into new and by-ways of Religion at their pleasure Did not Mahomet first abuse the world upon like pretences to this What other thing meaneth the Story of the Angel Gabriel so familiarly acquainted with him And of the Pigeon that so often visited him with Revelations And did not Thekel another imposture of that Sect perswade the Persian to reform Mahomets Law upon pretence that God had appeared to him and commanded it so upon the top of Anti-Taurus Doth not the Scripture tell us how far Theodas blinded
that should now prohibit it although I perswade it not And concludes generally that whatsoever the ancient Patriarks are reported to have done in this kinde is free in it self to be done and ought not to be prohibited at this day Thus did not Elias preach nor Saint John Baptist nor any of the Prophets But of all his Doctrine concerning grace and good life is most scandalous and detestable In Philip. Fol. 345. Tom. 1. lat Si vera Gratia est c. would you be sure saith he that the grace of God is true grace in you And that with him is only Remission or Pardon of sin See then that you be truly sinners sin lustily and with a witness onely trust as much and be confident in Christ For t is not sin that can divide you from him no nothing but unbeleeving though you should commit Murther Adultery or Fornication a Thousand times in a day As for his Pride it was so intolerable that even those complained of it who were his followers in most things and of his excessive scurrility even in matters most sacred Now to speak of Galvin who was little less then a professed Adversary and taxed him frequently not onely in point of Doctrine but of manners and good life Cont. Melanch nor of Tossanus and others of that side Bucer himself who was his Friend Disciple and Follower confesseth plainly That Luther was blamed of all men for an immoderate insolency and contumeliousness of Spirit which he manifested in all his writings Resp ad Luth. Oecolampadius tells him he begins and ends his work commonly with the Devil But Zuinglius and his Brethren of Zurick are hottest of all Nullum unquam Mortalium c. We beleeve saith they that never Mortal man handled the mysteries of Christian Religion more unworthily and filthily then Luther hath done not observing the bounds even of common modestie and good manners Another calls him Divelish Lyar Campanus and maintains that he never had any true Light or understanding of the Gospel in him No what then is become of Elias their Prophet the man sent so Extraordinarily they say by God to reform the world Doth such a Seer see nothing now but Phantasmes and the immaginations of his own vain heart This were very strange indeed and the poor Country of Germany in an unhappy condition to have followed a seducing Epicure so far But who can they blame but themselves It was too much confidence even in the judgement of their own Brethren For not onely Galvin is very angry Admon ultim ad Westphal that the world should have such opinion of him saying directly Qui volunt de Luthero intelâ—igi c. They that apply the Prophesies of Elias unto Luther do in my opinion very unadvisedly and commit as great a sin as those Egyptians did who adored the Body and Sepulcher of the Prophet Jeremy But to call him The last Elias is unpardonable Sacrilege temeritatis est c. It is a Sacrilegious rashnest saith he to do so as if the Lords hand were shortned and that he could not finde a better or his equal to send forth for the reforming of the Church which was much contrary to the opinion he had of himself I say not onely Calvin but many other more moderately affected more Allied in point of opinion unto Luther do yet finde fault with those Exotick Titles and pretentions of his to Elias and Extraordinary Mission Vrbanus Rhegius both for Quality and cleer confession may serve for all Admon Cap. 6. Scimus istos Magnis clamoribus regerere Lutherum esse Prophetam c. I know saith he very well what some men will reply with no little confidence That Luther was a Prophet immediately raised by God to reform the Church c. but Manifestum est illos pessimè de totâ Christi Ecclesiâ mereri c. They saith he who think so or say so deserve very little thanks of the Church of God neither do they well by such extravagant and undue Titles to exempt any man from the Censure and Judgement of the Churches much less to make his writings as it were a Rule of Faith and Beleeving unto all men And therefore as to the pretence of Extraordinary Mission a thing onely given out to amaze the ignorant world and to countenance irregular courses I suppose it will hardly stand in the judgement of indifferent and wise men there is so little evidence or argument for it Either extraordinary as was most requisite to have been shewen or ordinary that is of but vertuous and commendable Conversation Shall we consider a little the fruits of it and what good it wrought in the world Our Saviour Matth. 7.15 speaking generally of false Prophets and such Pretenders as Luther was telleth us By their fruits you shall know them And it is certain the experience of all Nations and Ages doth confirm it That when a Country hath the happiness to be converted from Heresie Infidelity or any other false and corrupt way of Worshipping God by Preachers lawfully and in truth sent unto them from God some extraordinary and singular Reformation of manners doth follow thereupon and their Conversion worketh in them a great and eminent degree of Holiness Vertue Piety Devotion and purity of Conversation answerable to the means which God useth towards them and to the Spirit which worketh in them But in the Reformation of Luther it was nothing so The change of the world which followed upon his preaching was notoriously seen not to be to the better but to the worse both in respect of the Publike Affairs of State and of the private manners of men Men grew upon it much more lewd much more vicious unchristian and godless in their conversation then they were before And this so evidently that it is not without much regret and shame acknowledged even by those who were a principal cause of it Let Luther himself speak in the first place The world Serm. in 1. Dom. Advent saith he groweth every day worse and worse it is apparent men are now much more covetous much more malicious and given to revenge much more unruly shameless and full of all vice then thâ—y were in time of Popery In vitâ ejus Aurifaber pronounceth as from Luthers own Mouth Post exortum Evangelium c. That since the appearance of this Gospel vertue seems to be utterly extinct and devotion as it were driven out of the world Smidelin confesseth of the Lutherans That the world may easily see they are no Papists and trust not to good works For saith he they do not any The greatest part of our people saith Bucer Bucer de Regn. Christi lib. 1. c. 4. seems to have imbraced the Gospel onely out of intent to shake of the Yoke of Discipline which lay upon them and the obligation of Fasting Pennance c. which they were forced to observe in the time of Popery and to live at
apparently seen at this day may it please the Divine Goodness to give us grace to lay them to heart as is meet 'T is true in their opinion and as they have confidence to say Filia devoravit Matrem The Daughter that is the Protestant Congregations have over-reached the Mother-Church in perfection of wisedome and hath been able to reform Her in some parts yet certainly they ought not to pretend Her to be so foulely apostatized as that Antichrist should govern there Institut lib. 4. c. 2. Sec. 11. where Calvin himself confesseth even in the deepest of her supposed Errours there hath ever remained inviolabile Foedus Dei The Covenant of God inviolate Beside the Apostacy of that great Antichrist must be a publike thing notorious and visible to all men not secret nor creeping on by degrees and unperceived till after some long tract of time He is Stella cadens de Calo and drawing a third part of the Stars with him so strangely as it shall astonish and amaze the world to observe it Whereas to suppose the worst that can be The departure of the Roman Church from the purity of Christian Faith and that Apostacie which should make her become of the Church of Christ the Synagogue of Antichrist was so obscure so invisible such a long time of drawing on that as the greater and better part of Christendom doe not perceive it unto this day so of them which pretend they doe there is scarce any one couple among them can agree upon the time of his Appearance Many Ages ago sayes Calvin but when he dares not speak Napier a Scot and a great Traveller in this pretended search of Antichrist is of opinion that he hath reigned ever since the time of Pope Sylvester and the year 313. and so very wisely makes all the Christian Emperors Kings Queens c. that succeeded Constantine yea and Constantine himself who dyed not till the year 340. in stead of being Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers of the Church and Defenders of the Faith of Christ as by the Prophesies of Scripture concerning them they were to be Psal 72.11 Isa 49.23 to have been the supporters of Antichrist and advancers of his Superstitions Beza assigneth Pope Leo and the year 440. Doctor Fulk Willet and Dounham seem to name Boniface and the year 607. Bullinger and some other with him are content to stay longer and expect some hundred of years more viz. untill the time of Hildebrand that is Pope Gregory the seventh the year 763. yet Doctor Whitaker sayes Pope Gregory the first was the last true Bishop of Rome and all that followed after him Antichrists Perkins thinketh Antichrist appeared about 900 years since Hospinian 1200. Danaeus about the year 574. It were infinite to relate their jarring and contradicting of one another in divers other very material circumstances touching this question as whosoever please to see may finde in such Catholike Writers as have handled this controversie but especially in cardinal Bellarmin Now seeing Lutheâ—s pretended Calling proves so unjustifiable and hard to be made good we must of necessity take some liberty to look further into the business and to examine what his True Calling was and who it was indeed that set him on work to play such odd pranks in the Church of God Of this there goeth a black Story which divers men labour to palliate and disguise as well as they can divers wayes but Luther himself telleth the plain truth viz that it was the Devil that first set him on work to write against the Mass which all men know is the Principal and most Divine Office of Christian Religion and whereunto whatsoever else is done in Religion in one way or other relateth In his Book de â—brogandâ Missâ thus he writeth Contigit me sub mediam noctem subito expergefieri ibi Satan mecum cepit hujusmodi disputationem At midnight such a time saith Luther I happened to be suddenly awaked out of sleep and presently the Devil fell a disputing with me and so he proceeds in his Narrative wherein all all those Arguments are formally producâ—d and urged by the Devil upon which Luther afterward resolved to abrogate Mass as any man may see in the Book it self above cited which is commonly extant with the rest of his Works This with Doctor Fulk Charke and some others is onely a spiritual combat in minde which they suppose Luther might have with the Devil as many other good men have had in spirit but not any real or personal conflict But we reply whether those reasons came from the Devil by bodily and outward conference or onely by way of inward suggestion it is not so material that they came from the Dâ—vil in the opinion and apprehension even of Luther himself is confessed But Secondly Luther in that Narrative describeth the very voice and accent of the Devil in the disputation which he saith was a great yet a base and hollow voice and which so affrighted him that he sweat again although as himself confesseth against the Swenkfeldians upon other occasions such encounters were not unusual with him but rather familiar Thirdly the Devil knowing his humour flatters him with Titles and calls Doctor very learned Doctor up and down the disputation Fourthly Luther affirming elsewhere that Empser and Oecâ—lampadius two Preachers of Reformation but not of his strain were strangled by the Devil confesseth here that this encounter was like theirs though he had the good hap to come off alive perhaps because he yeelded as neither Job Saint Paul nor ever any good man ever did See Hospinian also a Calvinist in his Historia Sacramentaria Fifthly Jo. Manliuâ— a great Lutheran Preacher and Luther himself Epist ad Patâ—em Tâ—n 2. Witteb fol. 269. confesseth that he was frequently haunted by Spirits and that Satan used personally to affright and molest him he maintaines that Zuingliys â—arolstadius c. had their several Expositions of the words Hoc est corpus meum from the instruction of the Devil why may it not then be as probable that they had all one Master Sixthly Baldwinus another Lutheran writes a Book purposedly upon this Subject and confesseth in plain termes That it was a real Truth no fiction or dream but a matter of fact and a true Story His onely excuse of it is this It happened saith he after Luther had abandoned the Mass and thinkes the Devils intent was onely to bring to Luthers remembrance his old errours that he had been a Priest and said Mass fifteen years together and so to drive him to despair But truly if that were all the design The Devil was but an Ass To attempt such a tried souldier as he was armed cap a pe with a confidence invincible and the Doctrin of only Faith with such a blunt and feeble weapon as despair Luther was a man out of his reach for that He that teacheth nothing can hurt a Christian but onely unbelief Supr Sec. 2. med That
Magia lib. 4. c. 1. of the Devil appearing to an Abbot and perswading him to say Mass he would conclude ad hominem that we especially ought not to hold it alwayes to be evil which the Devil tempteth a man unto nor consequently good because he disswades us from it But the case is so unlike and there are so many mistakes in the report of it that it might well have been spared had it not been that the Doctor would seem to say something more then had been said before him For first it was not an Abbot but a Monk whom the Devil tempted to say Mass Secondly That Monk was not yet Priest and so it was against the Canons yea it had been a grievous sin in him to have said Mass This was fit matter indeed for the Devil to tempt a man unto but it seemes it was not so fit for the Doctors purpose to mention this circumstance and therefore he leaves it out as he useth to do sometimes in other like cases Thirdly neither did Satan enter any disputation with the Monk either to prove or disprove Mass Fourthly nor did the party tempted consent Fifthly and lastly neither did Mass then first begin which is a thing principally to be regarded It was not in the substance of the thing a Novelty which the Devil tempted unto but an office of Religion generally acknowledged professed observed in all Christendom over That which Luther was tempted unto to say the lest of it was a Novelty and therefore ex naturâ rei necessarily and in all reason to have been suspected and which he would have suspected had he not been blinded with self-conceit and preferred his own single opinion and fancy above the sense of the whole Church which to do is an argument of most insolent Madness Epist 118. cap. 5. as Saint Austin speaketh This may suffice to have answered concerning Luthers Vocation or Calling as well that which he pretended as that which was true I should now give you his Character but that he hath done himself to the life in his writings and practises mentioned already Yet if you please for a tast of his modestie I shall adde a word or two not more out of his own writings and first concerning the Fathers Colloque Convival cap. de patrib he rejects them all Saint Hierome hath not a syllable in all his writings of faith or true Religion Chrysostom was a meer babler Basil a Monke all over and otherwise not worth a Button Tertullian was a Dunce a meer Carolstadius among the Doctors Cyprian a poor Divine Austin him self hath nothing singular concerning faith And for Saint Ambrose he wrote most drily and impertinently upon Genesis Saint Bernard indeed is the best Preacher of them all but where he disputes he is all for Free Will And so concludes at last that Melancthons Apology hath more true Divinity in it then all the Doctors of the Church Secondly in respect of the Saints Serm. de Nativit Fol. 442. Mariae We are all Equal to the Mother of God and as great Saints as she In Ep. 1. Pet. 1. When we are once regenerate saith he and made the Children and Heirs of God by Faith we are all Equal in dignity to Saint Peter Saint Paul yea unto the Blessed Virgin her self Mother of God We have the same treasure in us which they have and all the graces of God as largly bestowed upon us as they Which may seem not a little strange considering what he saith of himself elsewhere Nihil singulare in vitâ meâ eminet c. Colloq Fanckford Fol. 445. There is not any thing saith he very singular or extraordinary in the manner of my life I can jest I can play I am a merry companion with men yea to Gods glory be it spoken not seldom I love to take a lusty Cup also c. But by his leave where did the Saints of God thus Elias was no such Boon no such Jovial Companion it was not the Language much less the Exercise of Gods Prophets to Carowse and Quaff in this maner Saint Paul chastized his Body and held it in subjection by Fasting Watching and Pennance did not pamper it nor study to please his Appetite with Drink and Belly-cheer as Luthers fashion was Who both lived and died an Epicure beside all his other crimes and his too much Indulgence towards his Genius in that kind shortned his own days as may be more then probably collected from the reports of good Authors Sur. Chron. Vlember vitâ Luth. not excepting some of his own Justus Jonas Aurifaber and others I should adde here a word or two concerning the Vocation of Calvin to his Ministery but it was much the same with that of Luther For he finding France a Country too hot for him ever since the Iron was set to his Shoulder takes a Voyage first into Germany then afterward into Italy where getting entertainment in the house of the Dutchess of Ferrara a Lady inclined to new opinions in time he creates himself a preacher of the Reformation Extraordinarily too you may be sure For no man living gave him Authority but himself From thence he goeth to Genevah with intent to set up and exercise but as we have said his first attempt falled him and he was constrained to retire for a while to Strasburgh Yet his party at last prevailing at Genevah he returned and setled his Chair of Pestilence there which he held unto his death But I have not obliged my self to write the Character or life of any persons My Task was onely to shew That Catholikes in general were as good Subjects both in respect of their principles and practice as Protestants in general and better then the most And this I conceive is already done And therefore I shall trouble the Reader no further The Jesuites special Vow THe society of the Blessed name of Jesus endureth much prejudice with many men by reason of a certain Special Vow as they call it which they are said to make to his Holiness over and above the Three Common Vows of Chastity Poverty and Obedience It is generally conceived by Protestants that by vertue thereof they stand obliged upon command and at the pleasure of his said Holiness to attempt the life of Kings especially those which he hath declared to be Hereticks or Excommunicated to murther Princes to embroyl and trouble States and in a word to plot and execute any Treasonable design whatsoever that may advance the Popes Interest But that the world may see how much they are wronged herein and know both what the substance of that Special Vow is and what the Intent Matter and End of such Mission or Command from his Hâ—liness ought to be which they promise so presently to obey it is here Transcribed out of the Bull or Constitution of Pope Paul the Third by which their Order was Confirmed in the year 1540. and runnes thus ANd further we judge it expedient for our greater Devotion to the Sea Apostolik and more full Abnegation of our own wills and pleasures That the Professed of this Society beside the Common band of the Three Vows viz. of Chastity Poverty and Obedience be further tied by special Vow So as that whatsoever the Roman Bishop for the time being shall command pertaining to the Salvation of Souls and propagation of the Faith they shall be bound to execute the same without Tergiversation or Excuse whether they shall be sent unto Turks or unto Infidels yea even unto those that are commonly called the Indies or unto any other Hereticks or Schismaticks whatsoever Now what danger can arise unto Princes from such a vow as this further then the Preaching of true Christian Catholike Faith and the advancement of Religion is counted dangerous to their worldly Interest unhappily setled in opposition to it The indifferent Reader may judge FINIS Errata PAg. 7. in margin r. lib. 51. P. 8. in margin l. 2. r. lib. 120. l. 3. 4. ibid. deleatur Thuanus lib. P. 53. deleatur all that is in the margin P. 132. l. 3. r. deny P. 268. l. 18. r. condemned P. 287. l. 5. r. deserve P. 309. l. 4. r. principal 388. l. 20. r. Thirty Thousand P. 435. l. 24. r. seem P. 439. l. 9. r. pulling down P. 440. l. 3. r. did therefore ibid. l. 4. r. amuzed P. 453. l. 26. r. manifold P. 487. l. 9. r whit P. 564. l. 7. r. Catholikes P. 578. l. 24. r. Chacun P. 573. l. 8. r. we P. 606. l. 3. r. not P. 618. l. ult r. inconveniences P. 624. l. 10. r. calls him