Protestants have set it down as a decree against Catholikes and labor to imprint it as an Eternal scandal in the hearts of the people that Catholike Religion and Doctrine is dangerous to the State an Enemy to Sovereignty and therefore neither allowable nor tolerable in a well governed Monarchy Now this being a matter of so great importance as indeed it ought to be esteemed for querelam Ecclesiae quilibet Catholicus facit suam every good Catholike thinks himself injured when the Church is wronged I will endeavor to sift out the truth and shew you what is therein to be holden as matter of infallible vâ—rity as well to justifie them viz. the Catholikes as to inform my self in a point which I know hath made many good men in England to stagger much And that I may not wander in my discourse nor lead you up and down in a Labyrinth I will shew you first the true state of the Quâ—stion to be argued and the method in which it is most regularly propounded First therefore we demand Whether to be a Catholike that is one who professeth due reverence unto the Church of Rome and to be a true Subject to his Prince and Country be incompatible or no Secondly If they be incompatible whether this incompatibility or repugnancy that is betwixt them be general that is as unto all Principalities and States or particular that is to some one or to some few onely Thirdly Whether it be so originally and ever or onely casually that is at some particular time or upon some particular joyncture of affairs in State Fourthly Whether it be so simpliciter loquendo and as malum in se that is whether the being a Catholike be lookt upon as a thing evil intrinsecally and in its own nature or that it be onely accidentally such or made so by particular Statutes and Laws Lastly whether Lutheranism and Calvinism be not more incompatible with Loyalty more opposit and contradictory thereto and that ab origine To judge rightly betwixt Catholikes and Protestants in this grand charge which we have in hand it is necessary that every one of these particulars be cleerly considered and resolved and so I oblige my self to do at least to endeavor before I end my discourse But yet to pay Master Parson some thing in his own coyn I shall make bold to begin with the last Question first and in lieu of his general or rather hyperbolical accusations of our Doctrine to return him double measure both of Doctrine and Practise in each kinde from his own men That is I will examine and declare obsignatis tabulis and by evidence of fact That the Treasons Factions Seditions Tumults which have so troubled all the Kingdoms of Europe and filled Christendom with blood and calamity for these hundred years last past have sprung not so much from any opinions or practises of Catholikes as from the opinions and practises of Protestants and that the egg of this Cockatrice was not laid at Rome nor Rhemes nor Doway as the World must be made to believe but indeed and very truth at Wittemberg at Smalcald at Genevah And this I shall do not Theologically or like a Divine for I will not arrogate so much to my self but Historically sincerely plainly being one that desires to defend the Loyalty of Religions and Innocent men rather then their Opinions and Doctrines which they are best able to maintain themselves and as a faithful relator of what my self have both known and seen and learned the rest from others of whose authority and credit in this kinde no just doubt can be made Neither shall I affect any rhetorical flourishes or elegancy of stile in this discourse Integrity and Truth which I profess appear always most gracious in their own unborrowed beauties they need no paintings no art no colours Come we then by the Will of God to our intended business Titulus Primus LUTHERANISM OR The Troubles in GERMANY IN the year of our Lord 1514. the whole Church of God enjoyed Peace and her ancient Priviledges all Princes with great devotion were Nursing Fathers and Protectors of her no Storm did trouble her no Schism to break her Unity There was an harmony a good correspondence as to matters of Faith and Religion between the Church of Rome and all the Princes and States of Christendom and till then neither in England nor in any other Country of Europe had there been such a Question ever disputed viz. Whether a Catholike might not be a good Subject In the year 1517. Martin Luther an Augustine Fryer a man of a turbulent spirit learned but never counted any famous Clerk was the first that broke this long and happy Peace Surius in Chron. An. 1517. This man unhappily interposing himself in the business of Indulgences which were sent at that time by Pope Leo the Tenth into Germany although it concerned not him further then he made himself the Proctor and Advocate of his Order yet having once begun to inveigh against the injury done to his fraternity as he conceived for as much as the Preaching or publishing of those Pardons was committed unto the Dominicans and not to them viz. the Augustinians as had been usual before he fell afterwards to tax the abuses and covetousness of the Collectors and then to question even the authority of them by whom those Collectors were nominated and such a levy of money required in that nature This was a popular and plausible Introduction fit to win upon the vulgar who can never well endure the pressure of Contributions especially extraordinary and where the covetousness or scandal of Officers gives any occasion of murmur He quickly therefore found many favorers but much more when he began to exclaim against the ambition of Prelates against the ryot and disorders of Religious men taxing some for Tyranny some for Avarice some for Idleness and Ignorance all for corruption and abuses In this maner he stood in arms and as it were a challenger for some years onely against the defects of the Clergy and without much danger For divers good men at first conceived That he onely intended and sought Reformation of disorders and restoring of Ecclesiastical Discipline punishment of irregularities and amendment of life And this they did not without some cause For Saint Hildegardis had foretold a storm to the Church for their sins Savanarola a Dominican had awakned Italy with predictions of terror and Frier Thomas of Guien prophesied a Vae Vae a scourge and desolation to Bourdeaux an inundation of misery to France and the whole World All these not long before Luthers time Who finding thus Populo placere quas fecisset fabulas that the sport which he had begun did take with the people as novelty is ever welcome to the World and that his actions and designs seemed generally to be applauded that many of the best wits especially such as had been bred in Erasmus his School and were any way touched with his humor were
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
Ottoman Greatness and the whole Nation of Turks and that in a short time Ferdinand would surely be expelled out of all Germany and forced to seek his fortunes in Spain But O Monstrous O Incredible that such desperate malice and impiety should enter the hearts of any that profess themselves Christians were it not that the Records themselves be extant fide publicâ which do assure us thereof even beyond contradiction who could beleeve it O Malice implacable O Envy most perfectly diabolical And O happy house Family Name of Austria which for the interest of true Religion and Constancy to Justice deservest to be made the object of such execrable Spleen and to Combat perpetually with such odious and Antichristian Conspiracies Guicciard Lib. 20. It is no new thing But Macte istâ virtute Be faithful to God and to those principles of piety and justice descended from so many so Religious and so Renouned Ancestors and reign in spite of Hell so long as the Sun and Moon endureth The Truth is Ambition was so hungry with them that they consulted about dividing the Bears Skin before the Bear was taken They consulted how they should share among them the spoils of the German Clergy and of the house of Austria before either of them was in their power For as by their Chancery-rolls it is evident Their intent was to advance the Palatine to Bohemia Cancel Anhaltina Alsatia and some part of Austria enlarging his Dominion also with the Bishoprick of Spiers and a part of Mentz Bethlehem Gabor should be assisted to keep Hungary which afterwaâ—d this Gabor having no issue might also probably fall to the Palâ—tines lot Too many Crowns herâ—â— you will say to expect any in Heaven Onaltzbach gaped for Two fat Benefices the Bishopricks of Wâ—râ—â—burgh and Bambergh his Neighbors and therefore was it agreed that their Armies should Rendevouz in those parts The Marquis of Baden thirsted after Brisack and was willing by this occasion to continue his possession of the upper Marquisate against the more just claim of the Count Eberstein Brandenburgh expected the least of all being content onely with a part of the Bishoprick of Wirtzburgh which lay fit for him But Anhalt intended to recruit both his purse and broken fortunes with the spoils of Mentz Banbergh and other Catholike places as also with some Lands and Lordships which were like to Escheat in Bohemia If the Venetians would joyn with them they might make themselves Masters of Istria and Friuli and so Oceanum cum Adriatico as their Cancellaria speaks they might joyn Sea to Sea and Land to Land and carry all before them without controule Such were the vast but vain designs of their Ambition and Avarice But before we proceed any further it may not be amiss to examine their Plea It is manifest their design in it self was most pernicious and such as if it had taken effect which God would not suffer had been of general prejudice to the State of Christendom and not onely to the Peace of the Empire which yet every one of the Princes Confederate were bound in some relation or other to maintain beside the subversion of all Laws which apparently it carryed along with it Who doth not remember how all the Pulpits in England when time was and generally of all the Reformed Churches abroad sounded the Alarme against the League and Leaguers in France Which yet was not half so mischeivous as this but was at first set on foot quietly without any sedition or insurrection onely for defense of the Ancient Religion always received and established in France yea confirmed with the Kings personal Oath and approbation And though it were afterward continueed and more strictly prosecuted upon occasion of some horrid Actions of murther and tyranny yet Monsieur Villeroy himself who was a wise man and a great Royallist professeth that their aim was not the Extirpation of the King of Navarre but his Reformation and that if they might be assured of his Religion which he had promised he should be instantly assured of their obedience as in the conclusion it clearly appeared every person in France according as the King condiscended to give them satisfaction in that point entirely acknowledging their Allegiance to him And the mishap which befel him afterwards was not in pursuance of the League but upon a private account not to say upon some new provocation given and which no man living justified But as for this Union it runs in a far wilder strain and is for the advancement of a new Religion entirely disavowed by all the States of the Empire in all their publike Acts. How then can it be otherwise then extreamly disloyal and criminous The Duke of Saxony himself though a Protestant Prince disswaded it and advised the Palatine very prudently and like a friend to quit Bohemia and to seek for reconciliation and pardon where as yet he might possibly finde it Beside it opened the Gates of the Empire to the Turk which mischief alone had there been no other going along with it had been sufficient to condemn it But Plessen confesseth in his Letter to Anhalt That it was an Action of the same nature with Holland and what that was we have seen already In brief they took arms against a King Lawfully Elected solemnly Crowned and established in possession by consent of the States It is true when they first went about the work they nominated the Duke of Saxony as Competitor with the Palsgrave for Bohemia but that was meerly craft and a trick of maliciousness to render the Duke suspected with the Emperor They knew he had rejected their offer and Confederacy long before when their Agent the Count Slick sollicited him in their names By this means they put Austria it self the Emperors Patrimonial Country into sedition The people there through correspondence with the Turk and Gabor were so bold as to tell Ferdinand that unless he would grant them Toleration and such Liberty of Conscience as they desired they would joyn with his Enemies And they were in this point as good as their words For in the year 1620. all the upper Austria did really quit their old Lord and submitted unto a new Protector in his stead If the Catholikes of England should attempt the like how would it be censured for sedition and punished severely as it might and yet surely the cases are much Parallel and if there be any advantage it is on our side who desire the exercise of nothing but what was once publike owned for many ages together by all the people of the Nation and legally established before us But nothing makes the Action more offensive and scandalous then that Anhalt and Onoltzbach two such private and inconsiderable persons in relation to the business they dealt in should take upon them insciis Electoribus without the knowledge and consent of the Princes Electors themselves to dispose of the succession of the Empire and in order to effect this more then
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
Honor and Strength of the Nation Titulus Secundus HItherto Schisme and Sacriledge annexed to it chiefly reigned but the second plague was the utter ruin and extinction of Religion For by abuse of the name and authority of King Edward the very Church it self was entirely subverted Religion absolutely changed Heresie introduced and established in the full open and publike profession thereof And we might say the craft and malice of the Devil whose work it is to corrupt true Religion confound States herein most perfectly appeared For though indeed the way to Heresie and all publike disorder were sufficiently levelled and made plain by King Henry the Eighth who onely by reason of his greatness and imperious cruelty was fit to begin such a work yet Religion it self was suffered to stand a while longer at least in the general and more visible parts of it he knowing well that all could not be effected at once and that it was necessary for him to seduce States as he doth souls gradatìm by degrees opportunity and succession of time And being also confident that if those forts of Piety and true Christian-Catholike Devoâ—â—on that is the Religious Houses were once-razed the Church in England brought under a Lay head and by consequence the sheep made Governors of their Shepherds he should easily upon a second attempt there and by some other hand overthrow Religion it self King Henry at his death had appointed by will sixteen Executors who during the minority of his Son King Edward should be as it were his Guardians and Counsellors for the better governing of the Realm Among these one who made himself afterward Principal was the Lord Edward Seymour Earl of Hartford who being the Kings Uncle by the Mother-side procured himself in a short time to be made Protector and by that means gat as he thought a dispensation from his Joynt Executorship with the others and demeaned himself now in all things concerning the Affaires of the Realm as their Superior A thing which King Henry least of all intended rather he had provided with as much caution as was possible against the encroaching of any one upon the rest under any title or pretence soever But this was the way to bring about some furthâ—â— designes intended by that Party which advanced the Protector to that dignity and which the other and more honest part of the Councel did not either so providently foresee or so faithfully resist as they ought to have done One of the first things which the Protector set on foot after the Protectorship was secured to him was Innovation of Religion abolishing the Old Catholike and introducing a New under the title of Reformation Not so much out of any great preciseness that was ever observed in him or devotion that he was thought to have more one way then another but because he was thirsty and desired to drink to the bottom of the Cup which in King Harries time it seems he had but onely tasted There was yet some Game in his eye which he intend-to bring into Toyls viz. some few remains of Church-Lands Collegiate-Lands and Hospitals which he could not compass or draw into possession by any Engine better then that pretence of reforming Religion Cranmer that unworthy Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was his Right Hand and chief Assistant in the work although but a few months before he was of King Harries Religion yea a Patron and Prosecutor of the Six Articles To this end viz. the more to amuze the people and as they thought to give some strength and countenance to what they meant to set up a couple of strangers Religious men indeed by profession but such as were long since run from their Orders that is Peter Martyr and Bucer must be sent for as far as Germany and placed in the Divinity Chairs at Cambridge and Oxford That the world might see how contrary not onely the Pastors of the Church and Clergy but even all the learned men in both the Universities and of the whole Kingdom generally were to his proceedings By these two Apostate Friers together with Cranmer Ridley Latimer and some others was a new Liturgie framed and the old abolished together with that Religion which had been so many hundreds of years observed in this Nation with great happiness and honour The Protector though powerful of himself by abuse and pretence of the Kings name in all things which he did although the King were but a Child of nine years old was yet well seconded by the Duke of Northumberland and by the Admiral his onely Brother by the Marquis of Northampton c. all of them persons seemingly at least much inclined to Reformation and by them he overbore all the rest that opposed him or were any thing contrary to his designs As there were many both eminent and wise men and equally intrusted in the publike affairs with himself could things have been carried rightly In particular the Lord Privy Seal the Lord St. John of Basing Bishop Tonstall Sir Anthony Brown and that wise Secretary Sir William Paget but most especially the Noble Chancellor the Lord Wriothsley a man of singular experience knowledge prudence and who deserveth to be a Pattern to his Posterity far to be preferred before any new Guides But being made Earl of Southampton though it neither won him to the Faction nor contented nor secured him yet he stood thâ— more quiet and made no great opposition to their doings All things now grew to confusion there remained no face nor scarce the name of Catholike Church in England and though there were great multitudes of men well affected to the old Religion and discontented that the Church should be thus driven into the Wilderness and forced to lurk in Corners Yet did they shew loyalty obedience and love to the publike Peace notwithstanding They took up no Arms they raised no Rebellion not so much as against the shadow of a King or the usurper of his Royal name The Protector in the mean time goeth on with his work which is principally to enrich himself with the Remains of the Church having long before as 't is said tasted the sweetness of such Morsels in the Priory of Aumesbury He now seizeth two Bishops houses in the Strand and of them buildeth Sommerset house which as the world saw quickly reverted and slipt out of his hands After this he procureth an Act to be made whereby all Colledges remaining all Chantries Free Chappels and Fraternities were suppressed and given to the King And how greedily he entered into the Bishop of Bath and Wells his Houses and Manors that Church will never be able to forget Notwithstanding that Bishop Bourn afterward by his industry recovered something but nothing to the spoiles and wast which was made Nor was he satisfied with this For shortly after contrary to all Law to King Henries will and against his own Covenants those I mean which he entred to his Advancers when they made him Protector He committed the Lord Chancellor
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
onely the Popes Indulgences Bulls and such like but even all the Canon Law it self that he could but get into his hands If you ask by what warrant He gives you none but his own Authority his private spirit was Commi â—â—on and pretence of the Gospel as he called it all the Apology he could make for such pranks An insufficient pretence certainly For although it be true That the Canon Law for the most part of it be originally nothing but the Constitutions of Popes at several times and occasions published yet much of it is also the decrees of Councels Provincial National and Oecumenical and all of it ratified by prescription which is Common Law by general approbation and use of the Country and by the Imperial Laws themselves and therefore his audaciousness was intolerable in giving so publike an affront to the Government of Germany as well Civil as Ecclâ—siastick And the Laws themselves how needless or inconvenient soever this vain man could imagine them yet could not be lawfully and orderly suppressed in the Empire but by the Authority of the Empire it self But as he did thus presumptuously and of his own head abrogate so far as he could the Canon Laws so did he vilifie and despise the Civil Laws also as shall be shewn hereafter in due place for as yet we must trace him in his extravagancies and furies against the Church Having lost his own senses through pride and overmuch confidence of himself he was willing that all the World should be blinde therefore he endeavors to introduce Barbarism and to put out the eyes of his Almayns that in such state they might not be able to see either his errors or their own folly to be so much abused and bewitched by a Sot Universities must down which because Cambridge and Oxford will not perhaps believe I shall produce his own words in his Book against Ambrosius Catharinus Ad Evangelium funditùs evertendum nec astutius nec efficacius commentum c. The Devil saith he never invented a more cunning and more pernicious means to root up utterly the Gospel of Christ then the design of founding the Vniversities And that no man should go about to colour or excuse this Paradox by some favorâ—ble interpretation and sense he seconds it with another elsewhere full as absurd or worse Lib. de abrog Missâ For disswading the people from sending their children to be bred up in the Universities he passeth a sentence of condemnation on them in these words Academias per idolum Moâ—och figuratas puto I am of opinion saith he that the Idol Moloch in old â—ime was a Type of these Vniversities And therefore that it was as unâ—awful for the people to send their children thither for breeding as it was of old for the children of Israel to give of their sons to be consecrated unto that Idol of which we read Levit. 20.2 3 4. The reason he gives is like his assertion Ex isto enim fumo for out of the smoke saith he of these Vniversities do arise all those Locusts which at this day possess the Chairs that is the places of Dignity and Honor in the Church But why will the man have all Universities thus suppressed on the sudden Is it because Catholike Religion and School-divinity was taught in them that can hardly be thought For why did he shut up the Sâ—hoâ—l-doors at home Cochlaeus in Act. Luther at Wittemberg where he prevailed for many years together Why did he neglect the teaching and educating of youth in his own Religion and Profession Why did he forbid Aristotle Tully and other Authors to be read who meddle not with Religion Vlemberg in vitâ ejus Why did Carolstad chuse rather to go to Plough then read a Lecture Nay his own Fidus Achates Philip Melancthon in his Book called Didymus commends Witcliff for a wiseman Qui omnium primus vidit Academias â—sse Satanae Synagogas Because he forsooth was the first that discovered the Christian Vniveâ—sities to be Synagogues of Satan Well said Master Philip in whom indeed so loose an assertion was the more to be wordrâ—d at being himself otherwise so great a Scholar But thus we see what a spirit of confusion and giddiness possessed them at the beginning and how uncertain they were all what to hold or maintain But above all others Vlemberg in vitâ Philippi this was true of Melancthon who was indeed a very Academick always Sceptical inconstant and wavering so as neither himself nor his own party knew well what he was And for this opinion in particular against the Universities and Humane Learning he retracted it in his Book Ad Waldenses which Carolstad would never do and therefore died very miserable and poor in the Country You may perceive by this that at the first rising of these men and their Preaching of Reformation the spirit to which they pretendâ—d had not in many years perfectly illuminated them nor cleared their judgement from many and stupid absurdities of Error to which men of but common discretion are not usually Subject which we may not a little wonder at seeing men extraordinarily called by God and such they would be thought to be as for example the Prophets Apostles St. Paul and others were compleatly fitted for their work from the first instant of their vocation It appears also what Luthers design was viz. At three blows to have cut down three great Cedars of the Empire The Clergy the Canon Law the Vniversities For without Vniversâ—ties the Clergy could not well be educated nor without Laws could they be governed and so being necessarily chained together he could not break the Link without subverting all Neither did he as it is cleer seek a Reformation but an Extirpation of them all together And this I dare affirm That all those hundred Gravamina presented unto the Emperor Charls at Noremberg did not contain one quarter of the danger mischief and publike calamity which these three Articles would have brought upon Germany could they have been executed to his minde And yet behold a greater mischief followeth if greater be possible for I am now to lay down some few of his Positions of State by which it shall appear yet further what prodigious incivility arrogance and presumption was in the man and to how great contempt and prejudice his proceedings tended not of Ecclesiastical Prelates and persons onely whom he made it as it were matter of Conscience and a part of his Gospel to revile and slander but of the Emperor himself and the other Princes of Germany yea of all Princes States and Magistrates whatsoever that stood in his way and complied not with his strange and exorbitant courses And to dâ—scover his spirit the better you shall have a taste in the first place of his behavior with King Henry the Eighth of England a Prince at that time famous and renowned as any in the World and whom but a little before upon report of his disgust
and Cantons This Union was made by the States in the year 1578. For seeing on the one hand the fortunate Proceedings of the Duke of Parma and on the other the course of thâ— Male-Contents they enter a perpetual League which was comprized in Twenty Articles In the first whereof Holland Zealand Frize and Gelders joyn contra omnem vim quae sub praetextu c. to maintain one another against all force whatsoever that shall be made upon them in the Kings name or for matter of Religion After this viz. in the year 1579. the Prince of Orange who was the contriver and ringleader of all with those of Antwerp and Gaunt enter the League and subscribe on the Fourteenth of February and it was again confirmed at the Hague the Twentieth of July 1581. The design in all being to expel their Leige Lord the King of Spain and to deprive him of those Dominions as presently after they did publishing an Edict in the name of the States unitâ—d with this title or prescription Que le Roy a' Espague est descheu c. That the King of Spain is fallen from the Dominion of the Low-Countries and injoyning an Oath or form of Abjuration to be taken by all the people of those Countries in these words I W. N. Comme un bon vassal du ' pais Sware anew and binde my self to the Provinces united to be Loyal and Faithful to them and to Aid them against the King of Spain as a true Man of the Country Upon this they break all the Kings Seals pull down his Arms seize and enter upon his Lands Rents Customes and all Hereditaments whatsoever taking them into their own possession and as absolute Lords they Coyn Money in their own names they place and displace Officers of State Banish the Kings Counsellors seize upon Church livings suppress Catholike Religion beseidge Amsterdam and do all other acts that might import Supream and absolute Dominion And all this with so much terror and violence that as 't is reported Raald a Counsellor for Frizeland upon onely hearing of their maner of proceeding and of the new Oath against the King died suddenly therewith as of an Apoplexy The reasons they give why the King had forfeited his title and right to these Countries were these First because he labored to suppress Religion They mean their own which they had newly taken up contrary to the old and which had it not been for the opposition made against it by the Kings Governors in the Provinces had long before this time destroyed the Kings Religion which was legally established and received by the geâ—eral consent approbation and profession of the whole Country Secondly for oppressing that is governing them not according to the Law but by Tyranny Thirdly for abrogating their priviledges and holding them in a condition of bondage and servitude Such a Prince say they we are not bound to obey as a Lawful Magistrate but to â—ject as a Tyrant But this is a Presidâ—nt of vâ—ry dangerous consequâ—nâ—e doubtless For if private Subjects as 〈◊〉 that time they were without difpute may depose their Prince meerly upon general Charges and without having done any one overt Act contrary unto the Laws or the duty of his Office and may make themselves sole Judges in the cause of what is right betwixt the Prince and the People of which they were in no capacity either formal or virtual that is representative more then a Minor part Qui stat videat ne cadat there is no Prince nor State in the world can be secure The Rochellers may plead this as much as the Hollanders and so may any discontented party under a government which they like not as well as they But it shall not be amiss to enquire a little further into this business and lay open to plain view the grounds occasions and consequences thereof so compendiously as we shall be able The original primary and true cause of these troubles was the spring and growth â— heresie which by this time was like a Gangreen spread over the greatest part of Germany and not the least in these Low-Countries where under the shadow of religion especially of abetting and promoting liberty of Conscience as they called it All factions of State and discontentments of Ambitious persons shrowded themselves The peoples natural inclination to Novelty was great and set it much forward yet there wanted not the Concurrence of some Forreigners to blow the Coals of dissention both out of England and France Charls the Fifth Emperor a wise and provident Prince remembringing what a piece of work Luther had lately cut him out in Germany and with what danger difficulty and charge he overcame it intended as well for the quietness of these Provinces as for his own Interest and Honor to prevent as much as he could the Propagation of Martinests and all other Sects whatsoever And to that end finding no other means more proper and fit to be applied unto such a Malady had established the Inquisition among them about the yeer 1550. for the Execution whereof Mary Queen of Hungary then Regent of the Low-Countries procured such Explication and Mitigation of some Circumstances as was judged necessary But after this the Emperor resigning the whole government of these Provinces to his Son King Philip retired himself by a most memorable example voluntarily from the world and consâ—crated the last act of his life entirely to God and devotion King Philip at the first entrance into his government finding how much the Sects increased daily in Flanders notwithstanding the means opposed against them and considering what danger would ensue upon it to the State followed strictly his Fathers advise and in the year 1555. renewed the Commission Instructions and Articles for the said Inquisition But this as it happened through the general contagion and distemper of mindes which Heresie had bred in the people provd onely matter of further discontent to the Inhabitants of the Nether-Lands and did no good They alledge that all Strangers would thereupon be forced to depart the Country and by consequence their Trading would decay which was the Golden Mine and maintenance of those Provinces Thus they complained but indeed their inward grief was the humor of Innovation to which they were much inclined and therefore feared themselves There was another Politick Act of the Kings yet withall of very religious concernment and design which added Fewel to this Fire namely the Erecting of those new Bishopricks at Gaunt Ipres Floren. vand Haer de tumult Belgic Antwerp c. which he intended all the Provinces over And a third viz. the authority and power of the Bishop of Arras whose Cardinals Hat lately procured him by the Kings favor made him the more odious so as the greater his Obligation was to his Holiness or the King their Sovereign so much more it seemed was the malice both of the Nobility and common people incensed against him Lastly they urge their Ancient priviledges
at first was it not the Prince ex mero motu gratiâ speciali out of his meer grace and favor and to gratifie and endear the affections of good Subjects to him Do not all their Charters run in this still Speak they not all this language What ungrateful presumption is it then for people to be so ready and industrious to molest their Sovereign Princes upon the advantage of their own favors What if they be forced to break an Article or some clause of an Article upon urgent cause must it be judged a crime unpardonable what would they have said to Philip Duke of Burgundy and of the Netherlands who upon occasion resumed into his own hand Henric. Berland Histor and by his own Authority all the Priviledges and Immunities of Gaunt yea detained them all his life-time teaching them thereby to acknowledge from whose grace they held them And though the people compelled his Son Charls to restore them upon his coming to Gaunt yet it proved to their cost for they were forced to seek pardon and to cast themselves and their Charters once again at his feet and to stand to mercy The like he did at Machlin but not without great suit made to him and upon such conditions as himself thought good And it is not a little strange to be considered why this Prince of Orange who urgeth so much the Kings Oath and that it ought to be kept yet makes so little conscience to perform his own For he may remember when he was made Governor of Brabant Mich. Baius de Vnion Stat. he took his Oath to maintain Catholike Religion in that Province Hath he performed it When he retired into Holland he professed and protested publikely he would alter nothing nor dispossess the Catholike Clergie of their livings The like he did at Amsterdam and further bound himself there with a Solemn Oath yet he performed none of these but the clean contrary most perfidiously and wickedly as soon as ever he had power in his hands and could attend to do it so that to serve his own turn and for his treacherous end we see how much he could urge another man though his own sovereign to his duty but for his own Religion and bonum publicum gives him a dispensation And it is just according to Calvins Institutions Lib. 4. c. 13. Sect. 21. A man saith he once perfectly illuminated by the light of the Gospel simul omnibus vinculis obediendi legibus Ecclesâ—ae solutus est is ipso facto and at an instant discharged from all bands of obedience either to the Church or the State A blessed Lesson doubtless and wherein he could not but have many Scholars But all this while no particular charge comes in against the King no instance no example is given wherein he did break his Oath when it was poâ—â— ble for him to keep it which through their distempers and undutifulness was become not a little difficult Was it in his exactions that is answered already Was it for bringing in Spaniards upon them Time and necessity forced him to be at that great charge and trouble much against his will to defend the Church to defend the Religion of his Ancestors and of the Country against the insolencies of rude ignorant impious people connived at and countenanced by them lastly to defend the Laws and laudable Customs of the Country and to make them know he was their Prince Was it in the matter of Religion Indeed it is true there is a clause in the Vnion contra omnem vim c. That it should be against all violence whatsoever that should be offered them under pretence of the Kings Authority for matter of Religion It is to be observed at the beginning Orange Horn and Montigny joyned with the people upon pretense onely of opposing the Inquisition upon this ground onely they would seem to countenance Brederode and his complices and for this end only they seem to urge the Religions Vried yea they publish books and make liberal promises to be content if they may but enjoy their own Religion and that they will not prejudice or oppose the Catholikes and with such dissembling as this they drew a great part even of the Catholikes themselves to joyn with them yea Prelates and persons no way suspected for the matter of Religion yet deceived not a little with their pretenses of liberty and of the publike good for which reason the Arch-Duke Matthias was called in and they engaged to assist and defend him with their lives and estates Well! the Religions Vried was granted and thereby as it were a Supersedeas to the Inquisition all violence and severity for matter of Religion ceased What could they desire more All the Provinces and Holland and Zealand among the rest enjoyed what they would have Liberty Religion Et quid non But it is an observation of infallible verity Faction and Heresie are always humble till they get the Sword in their hands when they have it they change their tune as it manifestly appeared by their proceedings For in a short time they of Holland were so far from keeping the Peace of Religion which they had promised that they expel the Catholike Clergy out of all places under their power They seize upon their Lands Sequester their Benefices Imprison their Persons yea molest and prosecute all without exception whose consciences suffer them not to conform to their pretended Synods at Dort in the year 1574. at Middleborough in the year 1581. yea they drown and use many other kindes of cruelty towards men meerly for Religion not enduring so much as to heare of Toleration but onely for their own and some few Anabaptists and Semi-Arrians among them The Religions Vried so impetuously desired or rather demanded when time was for themselves is now quite forgotten and Merchants of Amsterdam Bâ—ewers of Delfâ— Staplers of Dort Seamen of Horn with some few illiterate Ministers joyned with them do now Direct Rule Govern and Judge in all things Comme bon leur semble as it is in one of the Articles touching the Vnion according as to themselves seemeth good No man must gainsay them Truly if the King had proceeded thus with them if he had taken Arms and levyed forces to introduce a new Religion upon them as they did upon the Country I should confess he had much incroached upon their liberties had broken his Oath and incurred their hatred justly The States of Holland Zealand c. have done all this and much more mischief and injurie to the people of those Provinces where they command what therefore do they desire doth not their own example and practises justifie beyond all exception the Kings proceedings Shall they presume to introduce and set up by force of Arms a Religion which before themselves no man ever owned Shall the Consistory at Genevah be so precise as not to permit any kinde of Toleration Shall the pretended Churches of France and Bearn more especially insult
The people may not break with their Princes so often as they break with God And afterward Subjects saith he cannot depose their Princes to whom they must be Suâ—ject for Conscience sake This is Doctrine we see quite contrary to the Aphorisms of Holland and to the Divinity that is now currant at Rochel Now as private subjects may not by Gods Law depose their Princes so are they forbidden to take Arms against them and the reason hereof is invincible For saith Doctor Bilson he that may fight may kill and War against the Prince and killing of the Prince are of consequence inevitable The Apostles saith he obeyed Tyrants that commanded all things against Religion And in those things which were commanded against God they did submit themselves with meekness to endure the Magistrates pleasure but not to obey his will Lastly and most of all to the purpose he concludeth if the Laws of the Land appoint the Nobles as next to the King to assist him in doing right and to withhold from doing wrong then are they Licensed by mans Laws to interpose themselves but in no case to deprive the Prince where the Scepter is inherited And because some of good judgement have been lead into that error that the Dukes of Burgundy had not full Power or Sovereignty in the Netherlands I will send them to School to all the Lawyers Records Stories and which is most infallible to the practise and Common Laws of the Country and unto Bodin Bodin derep and satisfie my self to alledge here that Ancient and Honorable Counsellor of our Nation the Lord Chancellor Egerton who in his Oration for the Postnati saith thus P. 71. The Dukes of Burgundy were absolute Princes and had Sovereign power in their Countries And King Henry the Eighth had as absolute power when his Stile was Lord of Ireland as when he was King For the difference of Stile makes not the difference of Sovereignty I conclude therefore upon the grounds of all Law Divine and Humane and as you have seen upon a full view and examination of all their pretenses complaints excuses c. that as their usurpation at first was without warrant so they continue the possession with as little conscience That all their Pleas are either Nullities or Forgeries and they have indeed no better title then what success and their Cannon gives them And that all forreign Soldiers that assist them knowing the injustice of their cause and that the War is so utterly unlawful do incur Mortal Sin and danger of damnation and may as justly be reproved as King Josaphat was for helping and assisting Ahab Look to the end for it is certainly fearful and we must know that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I write not this as an Enemy to the Country I hold it a Peerless County for the goodly Townes Wealth Traffick Strength and Fertility in so small a Circuit nor for any personal quarrels nor for any corruption or assentation in regard of the match with Spain but onely for the truth of the story which induced me together with the danger of the President and the manifold injuries that were done to Religion For though I remembred the general dislike that they have of our government their dealing with the Queens Officers and how unkindly of old they used my Lord Willoughby as his Apology testifieth and of late what complaints our Merchants Adventurers in their Books have made of their ill usage by them at Moske at the East-Indies c. what contempt they shewed when the Duty of Sixteen Herrings was demanded in his Majesties right ☜ for Fishing upon the Coast of Scotland presuming no less then to imprison him that demanded it and many such like matters yet seeing the State is not moved why should I be offended And when I say The State I mean not the people onely but especially the King to whom Holland is most obliged and more particularly for Two Singular and Royal Favors such as might in reason require some reciprocal return of thankfulness and breed in them good Blood good Affections and also good Language The first was in restoring to them the Keyes which did open and lock up their Province and this not for any reward but a restitution onely of part of his due The second for the Free permission of their Fishing upon the English Coast wherein they yearly employ above Thirty thousand persons who are set on work by it and above Four thousand Busses Doggerboats Galliots and Pinks to their exceeding great benefit and enrichment which is not a liberty they have by any Law as some men pretend but a priviledge or permission rather of royall Grace and Favor And Grotius may prove without any mans contradiction Mare Liberum in this sense as the Kings Highway is Free for every man to walk that is to go and come but he shall never be able to prove that Fishing is Free that is to say taking away the profit upon another Princes Coast without leave of the Prince first had and obtained T is true they have had the boldness to do this for a long time without leave but they may hap to finde at last the longest time they can pretend will not serve them for prescription And thus much for our new Masters and no very good Neighbors The High and Mighty States of the United Provinces of the Netherlands Titulus Quintus PALATINISM OR The Troubles in BOHEMIA AND THE PALATINATE About Religion BOhemia is the last Stage of the Scene of Forreign Tragedies or Tumults for Religion to which I am now going yet so as I must take the Palatinate in my way an unfortunate Province of late which in the space of an Hundred years hath changed Religion no less then Five times and yet as it seems never learned well that part of Religion which is not the least principle concerning Obedience But of this wee shall cease to wonder when we think of Paraeus Gracerus and some other Divines that have possessed the Chaire there and of the Schools of the new discipline which are open Paraeus in his Commentary upon the Thirteenth ad Romanos teacheth plainly Subditi possunt suos reges deponere c. That Subjects may depose their Princes for Tyranny c. Tyranny is contrary to the very end and being of Government and therefore where it is Universal and general and no other redress to be found it is capable of the less dispute onely it is not to be determined by private persons especially of his Robe which yet most commonly they do or when they compel their Subjects to Idolatry By compelling to Idolatry he means if the Prince maintains Mass Confession Priesthood and other the Service and Religion of the Catholike Church as all Catholike Princes are bound to do by their Oath or indeed with these men if they maintain any other Religion then pure Calvinism it is to compel to Idolatry This is the sentence which he pronounceth against the Emperor
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
the Moveables and Ornaments belonging to them the Augmentation Court was erected For the King seeing this extraordinary passiveness and submission of the Clergy could never think he had power sufficient till he had more then enough and therefore having already discharged his conscience from all Bonds but such onely as himself should think good to tie he took liberty to commit such outrages and violence upon Sacred things as no age before him nor since can parallel For first viz. Anno 27. of His Reign he appoints the Secretary Cromwel and Doctor Leigh as his Commissioners to visit the Abbyes and they by vertue of their said Commission first take out all the Plate cheifest Jewels and Reliques belonging to those houses and seize them to the Kings use Then they dismiss all such persons Religious as were under the age of Four and twenty years and had a desire to be at liberty in the world Anno 28. All the smaller Religious houses of the value of Two hundred pounds per annum and under were given to the King by Parliament with all their Lands and Hereditaments and of these the number was not less then Three hundred seventy and six who were able to dispend per annum to the benefit of the poor and service of the Publike not less then Three thousand two hundred pounds of old Rents of Assize bâ—side their Moveables Which bâ—ing undervalued and sold at mean rates yet amounted to above One hundred thousand pounds The Religious themselves and all people depending on them which were not a few were on a sudden outed and left unprovided even of Habitation above Ten thousand persons for no particular crimes charged or proved against them turned out of their own doors and driven to seek their fortune where they could A thing which compassionated the very common people themselves though not a little alienated in their affections at that time towards Monasticks more then they were wont to be to see so many persons compelled to Beg and live by Almes who by their bountiful and constant Hospitality had formerly releived many Anno 30. of His Reign some of the greater Abbies viz. Battle-Abby and the Abby of Lewis in Sussex Martin Abby in Surry Stratford in Essex were suppressed and all things belonging to them converted to the Kings use For indeed they were forced in some sort to proceed thus politickly in their work of desolation and to carry it on by degrees by reason of the Commonalty who though they stirred not yet they stood amazed as it were murmuring as lowd as they durst and were not a little unsatisfied at such doings But in the years 32. and 33. generally all the Monasteries of England of what value soever went to wrack and were destroyed The Lands belonging to Saint John's of Jerusalem were likewise given to the King and the Corporation of those Knights quite dissolved Though to turn out these with some kinde of contentment there was as some say certain Pensions during life distributed among them to the value of Two thousand eight hundred and seventy pounds In Anno 37. was the last sweep which King Harry made For then all the Chauntries in any part of the Kingdom which were many and numerous All Churches and places Collegiate yea the very Hospitals which were built and endowed by their several Founders onely and expresly for the relief of the poor were yet given to the King and permitted wholly to his order and disposing The value of Church Lands in England at this time amounted to above Three hundred and twenty thousand one hundred and eighty pounds per annum and of it the King took into his own possession and apropriated to the Crown to the value of One hundred sixty one thousand one hundred pounds yearly rent The rest it seems was sold or exchanged or distributed among Favourites Lastly to abuse the poor Commons perfectly and more easily to wipe them of those great and constant advantages as well Temporal as Spiritual which they received from these Religious places while they stood a proposition is made in Parliament by the Projectors and Sharers in this worke and 't is given out also to the people abroad That out of the Revenues of these Lands thus given to the King a standing Army for defence of the Kingdom and all other Military occasions of State should be maintained of no less then Forty thousand men besides Forty Earls Sixty Barons and Three thousand Knights for the Command and Conduct of this Army where need should be So that the Commons of England by this means should never heare of Tax or Subsidy any more This indeed was as pleasing a bait for the people as could be devised and it took accordingly They bit willingly at it But the Hook sticks in their jaws to this day Such a motion as this to note in a word by the way was made in that Parliament of Henry the fourth which they called the Lay-mens Parliament by those which countenanced Wicleff and loved the Lands far better then they did the Religion of the Church But their designs at that time were defeated by the Stout and Religious opposition of Thomas Arundel Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and other Prelates joyning with him Though now there were an unfortunate and unworthy Thomas found yet siting in that Seat of Canterbury ready to side with them for his own carnal ends and to countenance the Wicleffists of these times that is those Lutheran and malicious Spirits who by their Libels The supplication of Beggars well answered by Sir Thomas Moores Supplication of Souls and other wicked practises went about to destroy the Church and extripate true Religion Adde here unto the Kings natural Inclination to vain glory which was very great and begat those prodigal expences which he used towards his Favorites and Flatterers And these could not be long maintained but by extraordinary support which being not to be had in any way of Legality and Justice Avarice at last and many other vices which he was fallen to prompted him to fall upon the Church The Lords and Courtiers could not dislike the motion knowing what a rich Prey would fall to be divided among them Especially this pleased the principal Secretary of State afterward Lord Privy Seal Lord High Chamberlain of England and Earl of Essex who being a man of great experience and of a deep reach in worldly policies knew full well that such a confused Innovation as this and so full of Spoyle would be infinitely advantagious to him and a Ladder to clime at ease unto what Wealth or Honor he could wish He therefore instigates the King with all might and main to go through with the Action and to stand stoutly to his Prerogative and profit knowing his conscience was already buried in Anne Bolens Tombe To this end and the better to pave the way to his evil designs Sacriledge and Blood not seldom going along together Three of the principal Abbots of the Kingdom and Barons
Wriothsley to the Tower deposed Bishop Tonstal both from the Counsel from his Bishoprick viz. of Durham as thinking it a seignory too Stately for a man of Religion And therefore he dissolved it and brought it within the Survey of the Exchequer that is into his own power but as it was observed he never prospered after However the Act it self was most inexcusably unjust and tyrannical being so directly contrary to Law as appeared beside what hath been alledged before by 1. Ed. 3. chap. 2. where the King dâ—clareth That the Lands of Bishops ought not to be seized into the Kings hands and that what had been done in that kinde in his Fathers days was by advise of evil Counsel and hereafter should not be so But his sins now grew towards ripeness Therfore having also deprived and committed Doctor Gardiner the Bishop of Winchester dissolved the Colledge of Stoke fleeced all the Cathedral Churches in England and added unto the guilt of Sacriledge many other outrages oppressions and crimes under the Nonage of a Pupil King without any check or opposition save onely in the business of the Earldom of Oxford which he was not able to devour as he desired at last in the midst of his carriere and after he had sentenced and put to death his own and onely Brother the Lord Admiral chiefly as 't is supposed upon the instigations of an ambitious or malicious Wife he was himself arraigned for High Treason and ill governing of the Realm as may be seen by the Articles of his Attainder in Stow and thereupon condemned and executed on the twenty second day of January in the year of our Lord 1552. When the Brothers were gone viz. the Protector and Admiral Dudley Duke of Northumberland comes upon the Stage a man whose ambition and policy though unperceived had ruined both of them but especially the Protector whose chief Adversary he was and the principal contriver of the Charge against him which in brief referred unto these Heads 1. That he had subverted all Laws 2. That he had broke the orders appointed by King Henry the Eighth for his Sons good 3. That he held a Cabinet-Councel and by it transacted the publike and chief Affairs of State without the advice of his Fellow-Counsellors 4. Lastly That he observed not the Conditions upon which he was made Protector which were to do nothing in the Kings Affairs without consent of the rest of the Executors Upon these Rocks the Protector perished not without the manifest judgement of God for much injustice which he had committed in the time of his Government especially in the business of Religion and of the Church and Northumberland for a while prevailed This man though he were all otherwise in his heart yet thought fitting to seem a little more precisely religious then the Protector intending thereby to assure himself of the affections of such people as were more Zealously affected to new Religion The Protector looking onely at present proffit caâ—â—d to humor them in that point no further â—â—en might serve his own turn But Northumberland had other designs in his head which were no less then to advance his own Family to the Crown and to ruin the right Heirs And therefore to ingratiate himself more with the Common people in the year 1552. he causeth the Liturgy or book of Common prayer to be the second time Reformed and Purged of certain ceremonies and orders offensive to that sort of people which he desired to please and so to be published This project stood him in much stead among others of the Nobility it gained him the Duke of Suffolk who from henceforward seemed wholly to be at Northumberlands Devotion and to steer his course after the others compass Being a Potent man and the greatest Precisian of those times unless perhaps they dissembled both of them upon the same account But because the Lord Treasurer Paulet Marquis of Winchester was more like to cross theâ—â—â—mply with them therefore it is resolved to remove him out of the way And to that end Northumberland observing that it was the Treasurers custom sitting at the Counsel Table if at any timâ— he were suddenly called up to the King to make such hast thâ—t he commonly left his Spectacles behindâ— him he procured them once to be so sweetly anointâ—d and perfumed before his return that at his next putting them on they cost him his Nose and scaped very narrowly with his Life which yet with much adoe was saved and the Treasurer lived to make the Duke his good friend some part of requital as the event shewed Not long after this King Edward falleth sick whereupon designes growing now to maturity the Duke procures his Son Guildford Dudly to be married to the Lady Jane Grey Daughter to the Dutchess of Suffolk one who had a remote title to the Crown But they meant to advance it by their power The Lady her self being also studiously affected to the Protestant Religion and for that respect they doubted not to finde favors and assistants enough But therein their count failed them At the same time thâ— Earl of Pembrokes Son was married to the Lady Katharine another Daughter of the Duke of Suffolk And the Earl of Huntingdons Son to one of Northumberlands own Daughters All which marriages were solemnized upon one day at Durham House in the Strand And after them King Edward lived not long It is said that the Apothecary who poisoned him for the horror of the offence and disquietness of his Conscience drowned himself and that he Laundress which washed his Shirt lost the Skin of her Fingers But this is certain thâ—re are some yet living in Court who can tell how many weeping Eyes they have seen for the untimely and Treacherous loss of such a Prince See Heyward Hist Edw. 6. But the pretence and zeale of Religion which these men shewed did so overshadow all things for a time that not many could discern their impiety The Oration which Nortâ—umberland made to the Lords in the Tower when he was upon his departure for Cambridge to proclaim his Daughter in Law Lady Jane Queen doth shew what a Fox he was and how far he could both descend and dissemble to compass his ends Goodw. Annals Howbeit in his way the Justice of God met him For the people the Suffolk men especially sticking faithfully to the right Heir and their lawful Sovereign Queen Mary he was quickly deserted by all men apprehended and received at Tower-hil the due reward of his Treason and other sins with the loss of his head And so we see those two Lords of Misrule or Reformation if it must be called so that is to say the Protector Duke of Sommerset and this man Duke of Northumberland Born both of them for the Scourge and ruin of the Catholike Church in England by a just vengance of Heaven proved at last as it were Butchers and Executioners of one another undid their several Families and endangered the whole Realm
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
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
done it to her no little trouble No they never attempted any kinde or any shew of violent resistance at all either by Domestick or Forreign help but always from first to last most submissively behaved themselves towards her tendring her safety and the Peace of the Realm far above their own Lives Liberties and Estates 'T is true it was once debated among them whither they ought not to proceed to Excommunication against her both for the preservation of Catholikes and discharge of their Office Yet considering the great trouble and inconveniences that might arise thereby both to her Majestie and the State in case the people should fall into any disorders thereupon or take Arms in defence of Religion They concluded notwithstanding her case and proceedings were very much liable to censure yet for their parts to leave her to Gods Judgement and referred the whole business to his Holiness And herein also the Favor and Interest of King Philip as they had always done did stand her in no small stead For he knowing the practises of France upon this occasion and how much they labored at Rome that sentence of Excommunication might pass against Queen Elizabeth onely out of design and hoping to invest themselves of England thereupon under the Title and pretensions of Queen Mary of Scotland who was the next Heir and at that time married to their King Was the more willing to hinder it least by this means England and Ireland both together with Scotland should come to be Incorporate as it were into the Crown of France and so become an enemy too potent for him to deal with out of which respect also even in Queen Maries time more then once he had kept of proceedings against her which otherwise would have concerned her very neerly Therefore so long as there was any hope that the Queen might be capable of better Counsels he ceased not by his Ministers to do all good Offices here betwixt the Queen and the Clergy and at Rome hindered the passing of the censures for no small time notwithstanding all the indeavors and instances thereunto made by the French But the Prelates all this while as I said chose rather a Durate then Armate ever professing with their mouths and making it good no less with their examples and practises that Preces and Lachrimae indeed Prayers and Tears were the onely weapons which they had to fight against the Queen Though the world knows how little these prevailed with her whose severity towards them continued in the same extremity from first to last not relenting nor affording the least remission in any degree of Liberty or Estate unto their dying day Doctor Scot Bishop of Chester died at Lovain in Exile Goldwel of Asaph died at Rome Pate Bishop of Worcester was indeed at the Councel of Trent and subscribed there for the Clergy of England but never returned Doctor Oglethorpe Bishop of Carlile who had Crowned the Queen was yet deprived with the rest dying suddenly and very shortly after so did also Doctor Tonstal that Learned and Famous Prelate Bishop of Durham while he was Prisoner at Lambeth Yet not before he had personally given the Queen a sound and Godly Admonition concerning her strange proceedings with that liberty and freedom of zeal which became so venerable a Prelate and true Pastor of Gods Church as he was and as some have said Godfather to the Queen Bourn Bishop of Bath and Wells was prisoner to Cary Dean of the Chappel and there dyed Doctor Thirlby Bishop of Ely was first committed to the Tower afterwards He and Secretary Boxhal were sent to Lambeth and there ended their days Bishop Bonner of London Watson of Lincoln with the Abbot of Westminster Fecknam died all prisoners and as some say in the Marshalsey Prior Shelly was banished and died in Exile This was the the very Sad yet as by their Patience Submission and Sufferance appeared very Christian Catastrophe of so many grave religious and good Prelates of England chief Pastors of the Church of God in our nation Thus was a third and the most venerable State of the Realm who like the Cedars of Liâ—â—anus ever since King Etheldreds time for so many years together had stood flourishing in great Dignity and Power in this Land on a sudden cast down disgraced put in prison or banished the Realm The chief and immediate cause of which hard procedings against them was the refusing the Oath of Supremacy for no other crime no other fault could be charged upon them This indeed they refused as a thing which concerned their Conscience very much And although perhaps some of the Prelates now living had either for fear or upon surprizal in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth when it was first enacted given more consent or connivence to it then became Prelates of the Church to do yet they had now better considered themselves and resolved to be constant not onely to the Doctrine of Catholike Faith in that point but also to the judgement of the whole Kingdom which so lately in full Parliament had desired the Abrogation of that Law and acknowledged the Supremacy of Ecclesiastical Authority to be where Christ placed it viz. in the Sea Apostolike Nor did the English Prelates refusing to acknowledge the Queen Head of the Church any thing more then what the Protestants themselves at least no mean ones among them would likewise do For 't is manifest that setting aside some few English at home they do generally abroad dislike the Princes Supremacy in Ecclesiastical causes as much as any Not to mention Gilby who in his Book called Admonitio ad Anglos calls King Henry the Eighth reproachfully Monstrum Libidinosum Aprum qui Christi locum invasit c. A libidinous Monster a Wilde Bore broken into Christs Vineyard and making himself Head of the Church which belongs onely to Christ Calvin himself in his Commentary upon O see is very angry at those who attribute so much to Secular Princes as to give them such absolute power in the affairs of Religion and in plain terms confesseth Qui initio tantoperè extulerunt Henricum Regem Angliae certè fuerunt inconsiderati homines c. They saith he who first advanced the Authority of King Henry of England to such a height did not well consider what they did when they gave him that Supream Power in all Causes it was a matter which always greeved me very much saith he For indeed they did no less then blaspheme when they called him Supream Head of the Church under Christ Sir Thomas Moor Bishop Fisher Abbot Whiteing of Glastenbury and those many other Holy Abbots and Religious men of all sorts who suffeâ—ed in the case of Supremacy under Henry the Eighth never said more And Luther himself saith no less but more scurrilously as his humor was Quid ad nos Mandatum Electoris Saxoniae What hath the Prince Elector of Saxony to do to command me Let him look to his Sword and see
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
Daneus or any other of those Niblers at Bellarmine as Master Normington of Cambridge once called them in a Sermon at Saint Maries much less with the impudencies of the Minister Crashaw nor with the mistakes of Chark Fenner Beard Burton or any other Triobolary Controvertists at home either of former or present times but as you see onely with faults of their Prime Leaders Classicall men Prelates and Dignitaries of their Church so if it should happen that any private man of our own writing onely by private Authority and judgement should either through oversight or indiligence be found chargeable with some kinde of mistake we would not have it stood upon as if it were the common practise of all to write so negligently or that the defence of Catholike Religion did any wit depend upon such mistakes As we say the defence of Protestancy doth very much upon those mistakes which we are ready to bring in charge against them and without which there were not half the colour for defence of it Concerning the third point viz. That the Priests and Students in the English Seminaries beyond Sea are Practicers against the State and do stir or endeavor to stir the People to Rebellion it is indeed an odious and heavy charge which the Book called The execution of Justice c. layeth roundly upon them and is seconded therein by a Proclamation in the year 1580. which doth directly charge those Priests and others as Accessories and privy to the Counsels of Philip King of Spain the Pope and some other Catholike Princes which as 't is said had combined together about that time to invade England to depose the Queen and subdue the Nation to the Spaniard But for answer I say that jealousie is a kinde of Argus full of eyes and so she is painted but they are all purblinde which is the cause that she mistakes so oft starts at her own shadow and is always trembling and doubting the worst of every body We cannot deny but there were great States-men that governed England in those days under the Queen yet howsoever it happened with all their Opticks they seemed not to have any particular foresight of the dangers which threatned them till they were at their doors yea having by error of Government provoked and drawn them upon themselves yet they took a course more proper to kindle the flame then to quench the fire But this is not a business to be discussed now That which we are to do is to justifie the Priests and other Good men of the Seminaries that they are not Traitors are not Enemies of the State do not practise consult cooperate where they live to any thing prejudicial to their Prince and Country First if any such Confederation had been betwixt his Holiness the King of Spain and other Princes against England as is pretended but was never yet proved and 't is well known that what the Catholike King did afterward as it was upon great provocations given so was it also upon his own score onely and with no other assistance but what was his own and ordinary in such cases Yet I say suppose there had been such Confederation or League betwixt them is it probable that so great and wise Princes as they were would acquaint a few poor Contemplative men Students at Rhemes and Doway with their designs Men so inconsiderable every way in relation to such service so useless and unable in respect of their maner condition and place of living to contribute any thing to the work Is it credible they would manage such high matters and of so great importance so weakly Let no man say That Priests might serve them by preparing a party here and by their reconciling of men to the Pope For it is not the Priests work to reconcile men to the Pope but unto God and to the Communion of the true Catholike Church whereof although the Pope as successor to Saint Peter be Supream and chief Pastor yet Catholikes by returning to the Church and consequently acknowledging that Supremacy of Spiritual Authority in his Holiness are not obliged so much as to take notice of any Temporal designs that he hath no though they were perhaps for advancement of Religion much less to consent concur or cooperate with them contrary to the Law of nature their Duty of Allegience and the interest of their native Country Secondly among so many Priests as by that time there were both in England and beyond the Seas and in so long a time that this pretended Confederacy was in framing when Spies and Intelligencers were many and well paid by the State was there so much as one Priest nominated or accused to have been so corrupted or induced any way by those Princes or their Ministers to practise ought to the prejudice of their Country was there ever any one apprehended or convicted of such a treaâ—on was there ever any Subject of England called in question for entertaining Priests that were sought after upon that account In a word when the Spanish Armado was under Sail for England was there so much as one Priest or Seminary-man found or known to be in it or at any time since discovered to have been used or imployed in that service 'T is confessed the Proclamation spoken of before being framed on purpose to put people into a fright and to make honest men odious doth traduce them sufficiently as persons suborned to prepare the way and procure safe landing for the Navy But Si accusasse sufficit quis erit innocens Such general charges prove nothing but passion or some undue byassed and distempered judgement They that know such men well know it to be a business far out of their way to spie Countries to observe how Ports are garded and what Havens lie upon the Goast However it is evidence of fact and the conviction at least questioning of some one person for such crime that would be given in the case Which seeing there never was Indifferent men cannot but think such Accusations to have been very injurious and that the great fears and jealousies shewen had more of the Chimaera and fiction in them then of real danger It was otherwise with the poor English themselves in Spain not long after both Religious and others For when the English Armado in the year 1589. made an attempt upon Lisbon and invaded some parts of Portugal the King of Spain took them to be so little either his Friends or Enemies to their Prince and Country as they are traduced that he laid them all fast by the Heeles and kept them close prisoners during the whole time that the Action lasted as many of them as were found at Valâ—adolid Burgos and some other places in Spain Nor was there in those many Actual attempts of Treason supposed to be made against Queen Elizabeth so much as one Priest Monk or Friar ever attainted or impeached about them Nor in the whole Five and forty years of her Reign any more then two
mischief which he had brought upon Germany and that his Books should be burned In the year 1526. at Machlin he enacted a Penalty against Hereticks and all such as disputed the Controversies of Religion Heretically or that kept prohibited Books viz. for the first offence Forty shillings for the Second Four pound for the Third Eight pound and Banishment as the best remedy he could think of to preserve others from infection In the year 1529. if they repented not of their error he adjudged Viris ignem Mulieribus fossam That men should be burned and women buried alive which was no more then anciently the Laws prescribed nor then what Calvin himself exercised upon Servetus at Genevah In the year 1531. he confirmed these former Acts with something additional against such as pulled down Images or defaced them with any malitious intention viz. that such persons should loose their goods This is the sum of all those Laws of the Emperor Charlâ— the Fifth concerning Religion so much complained of in the Low-Countries and concerning the Execution whereof there were also many exceptions qualifications and limitations procured by the Regent in the year 1555. upon advise of Viglius President of the Counsel at Brussels and to take away all occasions that might poâ—â—â—bly hinder Traffick or be a means of oppression to innocent and quiet people And for King Philip he always professed particularly in his answer to Montigny in Spain that he intended no addition of severity to his Fathers Laws nor to create any new offences but onely to punish those which were of old censured for offences both by the Church and State Let us look then upon England and consider if the penalties upon Catholikes here be not far more in number and much more severe To acknowledge the Popes Supremacy in Spiritualibus is Treason To be reconcilâ—d is Treason To refuse the Oath upon the first offence is a Praemunire the second Treason For Priests to come over into England is Treason if any that were made Priests since Primo Elizab. shall stay Forty days in England after the Parliament 1585. 't is Treason To Harbor a Priest is Felony and Death If yong Students beyond Sea return not and abjure their Religion it is Treason To bring in an Agnus Dei Beads or Crosses is a Praemunire To bring a Bull or any Sentence of Excommunication from Rome that may concern the Queen is Treason To absolve or reconcile a man is Treason Not coming to Church was at first Twelve pence every Sunday and to be liable to further censure afterwards viz. Twenty seven Elizab. it was made Twenty pound a moneth where it could be had otherwise their bodies were to fine for it in prison To depart out of the Realm without License and not to return within Six moneths after the Proclamation is a forfeiture of all Goods and Lands during life To hear Mass is an offence fined at One hundred Marks If a mans Son or Servant not Merchant goeth beyond Sea with his consent he forfeits One hundred pounds I speak nothing of their loss of goods imprisonments reproaches chains fetters which upon many other pretended and feigned occasions they are frequently made subject unto nor of banishment which would be counted many times matter of great favor Nor yet of the rigorous and vexatious Execution of all these Laws which makes the Tower full of such Patients and new prisons to be erected for the entertainment of them nor of the hard usage which they frequently find in those prisons The sad examples of Master Tregion at Launston of Master Rigby of Master Christopher Watson who perished at Yoâ—k with Eighteen persons more in the year 1581. with the very infection of the prison do shew sufficiently what they suffer Adde hereunto the strict examination of the Justices the proceedings of the High-Commission against them that inquisition of England not altogether untruly so called the multitude of Promoters in all the Temporal Courts of the Kingdom informing against them of Pursuivants searching and rifling their houses upon every light suspicion and not seldom without any at all but onely to make them Fine and to purchase their quiet with money Lastly the Racks and Torturings which Father Campian Father Southwel with many others tasted in their times how can they be forgotten concerning whose case I mean of Father Campian and his Associates especially beside that the whole matter of their Accusation seemed upon Tryal rather to be grounded upon words and some verbal discourse then upon any Actual design or attempt really projected against the Queen or the State and beside that at the time of their Tryal as I have been credibly informed there were persons of very Honest Quality who offered to depose that sundry of the Parties accuâ—ed were at the times specified in their several charges many hundreds of miles distant from the places where their supposed Treasons and Conspiracies were said to be I say bâ—side all this the Queens unwillingness to have them dye testifiâ—d by her own Historian is argument sufficient with indifferent mâ—n what great Traytors she conceived them to be For their Arraignment and Tryal having been in November 1581. * Stow. they suffered not till the first of September 1582. and then it was aegrè consentiente Reginâ as Camden himself confâ—sseth They who sought their lives had much ado to procure the Queens consent that the Sentence of death should be executed upon them Surely there is no man so extreamly partial or purblinde but will easily observe how much greater affliction and pressures the Catholikes of England have endured by the Laws of this Realm then the Geuses of Holland ever did or could do by the inquisition among them And how much more their state and condition might be justly commiserated especially when not onely Anabaptists and those other more innocent and harmless Sects but Puritans great and stubborn enemies of the State Arians Socinians yea even Professed Atheists and men of far more violent passions and destructive principles then Catholikes can with any reason be supposed to hold are scarce searched after or punished And yet notwithstanding all this to preserve the Queens reputation for Humanity and fair dealing with her Subjects the Book called the Execution of English Justice will make the world beleeve That no man in England is punished for Religion no mans Conscience is medled withall no man is examined upon matters of Faith But is it possible that such a pretence should be sustâ—ined by man so notoriously contrary to truth so easily so manifestly disprovable even by sight and the evidence of their own dayly proceedings In the year 1581. there was a general Pardon granted by the Queen but with a strict Caution and Proviso That no person in Prison nor Recusant for Religion should have benefit thereby which Malefactors of all sorts had Was this no punishment The Recusants pay Twenty pound a moneth for their Recusancy is this no punishment The Turk himself