Reflections UPON THE NEW TEST AND The REPLY Thereto WITH A LETTER OF Sir FRANCIS WALSINGHAM's Concerning the PENAL LAWS Made in the REIGN of Queen ELIZABETH LONDON Printed in the Year MDCLXXXVII REFLECTIONS UPON THE New Test AND The REPLY thereto THE design of the Test is to attack the Church of England's Loyalty and the substance of it is That she owns the King Supream Head in Ecclesiastical Affairs that she began under Ed. 6. and at his Death indeavour'd to set up a Brat of her own and exclude Queen Mary the only Legitimate because she was a Catholick after her Death Queen Elizabeth a known Bastard rais'd this Church again to support the weakness of her Title and no sooner was this Church under her re-establish'd than those Cannibal Laws were Enacted of Hanging the Priests of the living God together with other penal Laws that she Murder'd the Queen of Scots who was the undoubted Heir to the Crown that to Charles I. this Church was faithful but on the other hand to force an Universal Uniformity to her Liturgy c. was the occasion of that War and she now refuses to repeal the Test and penal Laws that the King will no longer trust her and that she should learn obedience from her Catholick Neighbours Thus far the Test To this is reply'd That the Church of England does own the Kings Supremacy and therefore thinks her self more Loyal than the Romanists who rob the King of that part of his Prerogative that after Ed. 6. Death the Kingdom was divided about the Title to the Crown some for Queen Mary some for Lady Jane and Protestants on both sides and while the Title was to them dubious neither party could be charged with Disloyalty That if Queen Eliz. was a known Bastard the Romanists were the disloyal Party in setting her upon the Throne and excluding the lawful Heir which they did by a Popish Parliament sitting at Queen Mary's Death so that it appeared by their own Parliament that Mary Queen of Scots was not lawful Heir and therefore it could be no disloyalty in Executing her for Treason That 't was not the Church of Englands Ambition from whence that War in Charles I. time ensued but from the division the Romanists had wickedly made amongst Protestants by one call'd Faithful Commin and others of the Fraternity then the Author recriminates shews it to be the declared opinion of the Church of Rome that she has power to Depose Princes and gives several instances where very often they have put that opinion into practice Thus far the Replyer The Replyer though he has sufficiently answer'd the Pamphlet yet since Loyalty is almost the onely thing which at this time recommends us to our Princes's Favour he might and ought to have given a more ample account of our Fidelity to Princes I shall now therefore take both the Test and the Reply into particular Examination and shew the defects of both But first I would willingly know what prospect the Author of the Test could have by publishing such a Pamphlet Was it to oblige his Party by drawing us out to expose both their Principles and Practices in point of Civil Obedience which may be with as great ease justly done as we can thrô off that malitious and false charge of his or was it to oblige the King by blowing up these Fears and Jealousies which his Majesty a gracious Father of his Country has us'd means to allay His Majesty tells us we are Loyal and assures us of his Protection the Test tells us we are Snakes in his Bosom and the King will not protect us for my part let this Fellow stare and brazen as he pleases I shall believe the King whatever he would have us think of him When so heavy a charge was laid upon our Church me thinks in reason the Author should have shew'd the World what Convocation or at least what private Doctor of our Communion ever acknowledg'd it as a Principle of our Church that disobedience to the supream Magistrate was upon any score whatsoever allowable that is that we might refuse both active and passive obedience for else admit he could instance that some of our Communion have acted Disloyally it proves no more than that some who have in outward appearance profess'd themselves to be with us were not really so nor did keep up to the Principles of our Church What 's more common than to see a Romanist drunk upon a Fasting Day but unless I hear them justifie the thing as allowable shall I reason from their bare practice that their Church allows Debauchery upon those dayes she has pointed out for Mortification Wherefore the Tests absolute silence herein demonstrates either that he is a great Dunce at Argument or that there is no such thing to be found in our Principles no not from the Testimony of any single Doctor And of this defect the Replyer takes no notice The Members of the Church of England says the Test were faithful to Charles I. but on the other hand their ambition to force Uniformity c. was cause of the ensuing War. He means if to the purpose That an ambition to force an Uniformity in Religion is Disloyalty which is a most admirable Discovery especially since the Church of Rome can so easily clear her self from the guilt of that Ambition If what he alledgeth were true his Reprehension is just like an old Drunkard in a drunken Fit railing against Drunkenness But the Replyer has shew'd him a more probable and natural cause of that War and has well referr'd to that Book of Foxes and Fire-brands which will give a reasonable Enquirer full satisfaction and further from thence well observes what excellent Subjects Romanists make to Protestant Kings We are not now to be surpriz'd with their Tests and such-like Pamphlets we are sensible the glorious Lustre of the Church of England does so offend and dazle their weak Eyes that it must be darken'd though the Fog be rais'd from Hell and therefore thus goes on the Test After Edward the Sixth's death Protestants endeavour'd to set up a Brat of their own to exclude Queen Mary because she was a Catholick at whose death Queen Elizabeth raised this Church to support the weakness of her Title and then they Murther'd the Queen of Scots who was the undoubted Heir to the Crown A Brat to exclude Queen Mary because a Catholick Nay we were more wicked than this for we set this Brat up too to exclude Queen Elizabeth because she was a Protestant for in excluding one we excluded both And if we thought we had power to pull down and put up as the Popes assume why did we not as well put up Elizabeth as Lady Jane The Index Expurgatorius has not yet done the honour of a Visit to our Modern Histories and therefore in them we find that by a Cabal onely of some of King Edward ' s Council he was prevail'd upon by his last Will and Letters-Patents to
his Oath to agree to But the King being now a good Child of the Church is discharged by the Pope from these condescentions to the Barons the whole compact is declared Null the King's Oath Dispenc'd with and the Barons Excommunicated till they submitted to the Sentence This is something like to whip and stroke them by turns Thus the Heaven Door is open'd and shut in a breath that no man alive can be sure whether he shall go in or out When Queen Elizabeth came to this Crown Sir Edward Karn was by her direction to inform the Pope thereof who made this humble and obliging return That England was held in fee of the Apostolick See that she could not succeed being illegitimate nor could be contradict the Declarations made in that matter by his Predecessors Clement the Seventh and Paul the Third He said it was great boldness in her to assume to the Crown without his consent or which in Reason she deserv'd no favour at his hands yet if she would renounce her Pretensions and refer her self wholly to him he would shew a fatherly affection to her and do every thing for her that could consist with the Dignity of Apostolick See so far the Servus Servorum In this haughty speech 't is not so much the Queens illegitimation is complain'd on as her great boldness to assume the Crown without consent of his Holiness for if she will at last submit here 's great hopes for her notwithstanding her Illegitimation But his Successor Pius IV. leaves her in no manner of doubt He sent one Parpalia to her to promise that if she would join her self to the See of Rome he would disannul the Sentence against her Mother's Marriage c. Hence I observe that the Popes what e're they said did not believe Q. Eliz. Illegitimate or else what 's worse they declare that for their Temporal Interest they would make that lawful which the Law of God had made unlawful for if Q. Eliz. was a Bastard she was so because Hen. the 8's Marriage with his first Wife was lawful who was living when Eliz. was born of another woman if so nothing is plainer than that this second Marriage was against the Law of God. But 't is all nothing there had been no harm done no rightful heir disseiz'd no title of a Bastard set up had Eliz. made her acknowledgments that England was held in fee of the Apostolick See. So speaks the Shepherd and the sheep know his voice In fine the King deposing Doctrine is not only practised by one or two wicked Infallible Heads but 't is the setled Doctrine of their Church 't is that their Lateran Council and a long Succession of Popes have declared and that which their best men have imploy'd their Pens to maintain for which see the Bishop of Lincoln's Brutum Fulmen Whether the Test or Penal Laws ought to be abolished is a subject more proper for the King and Parliament than us But when you call us Cannibals for making them you speak like a man of sense and ought to be considered tho the Replier has taken but little notice of it their words are these And they meaning the Church of England no sooner found themselves re-establisht then they Enacted those bloody Cannibal Laws to hang draw and quarter the Priests of the living God Imprisonment Banishments and Confiscation of Goods were the moderate Church of England's Laws c. No sooner he says were they reestablisht c. Now one would think by this representation that this Law he so abhors was made the next hour after the Queen was proclaim'd and yet in truth 't was the 27 year of the Queens Reign before this Law had birth Well but if Cannibals they must be who Enact Sanguinary Laws against those that purely dissent in matters of Religion I know no Church deserves the honour of that title but yours your lenity towards Hereticks and all are Hereticks with you that are not of your faith is so universally known that 't is in vain to trouble the world with particular instances however if you please you may look in Qu. Mary's days look into the Bishop of Lincoln's Book and when you are looking look into France But why do I cry look here or look there when 't is impossible to look amiss However since to recriminate is no justification and since we hear that you pride your selves to talk of our Penal Laws endeavouring to render us extreamly cruel I should apply my self particularly to shew the reasons and steps of those Laws did I not find it incomparably well done to my hands by a Letter which 't is great pity the whole Kingdom has not read and tho it be long yet there being not a sentence in it not full of weight I will for the publick good transcribe the whole which fully vindicates us in this point Sir Fr. Walsingham's Letter to Monsieur Critoy concerning the Queens proceedings against both Papists and Puritans SIR WHereas you desire to be advertiz'd touching the proceedings here in Ecclesiastical Causes because you seem to note in them some Inconstancy and Variation as if we inclin'd sometimes to one side and sometimes to another and as if that Clemency and Lenity were not us'd of late that was us'd in the beginning All which you imputed to your own superficial Vnderstanding of the Affairs of this State having notwithstanding Her Majesty's doing in singular Reverence as the real Pledges which She hath given unto the World of her Sincerity in Religion and of the Wisdom in Government well meriteth I am glad of this occasion to import that little I know in that Matter unto you both for your own Satisfaction and to the end you may make use thereof towards any that shall not be so modestly and reasonably minded as you are I find Her Majesties Proceedings to have been grounded upon two Principles The one that Consciences are not to be forced but to be won and reduced by force of Truth with aid of time and use of good means of Instructions and Perswasion The other That Causes of Consciences when they exceed their bounds and grow to be matter of Faction lose their Nature and that Sovereign Princes ought distinctly to punish their Practices and Contempt tho coloured with the Pretences of Conscience and Religion According to these Principles Her Majesty coming to the Crown utterly disliking the Tyranny of Rome which had used by Terror and Rigour to settle Commandments of mens Faith and Consciences Tho as a Princess of great Wisdom and Magnanimity She suffered but the Exercise of one Religion yet her Proceedings towards the Papist was with great Lenity expecting the good Effects which time might work in them and therefore Her Majesty revived not the Laws made in the 28th and 35th of her Fathers Reign whereby the Oath of Supremacy might have been offered at the Kings pleasure to any Subject so he kept his Conscience neâ—er so modestly to himself and the
refusal to take the same Oath without further Circumstances was made Treason But contrariwise Her Majesty not liking to make Windows into Mens hearts and secret thoughts except the abundance of them did over flow into overt and express Acts or Affirmations tempered Her Law so as it restraineth every manifest Disobedience in impugning and impeaching advisedly and maliciously Her Majesties Supream Power maintaining and entolling a Forreign Jurisdiction And as for the Oath it was altered by Her Majesty into a more grateful Form the hardness of the name and Appestation of Supream Head was removed and the Penalty of the refusal thereof turned only to disablement to take any Promotion or to exercise any charge and yet of Liberty to be reinvested therein if any man should accept thereof during his Life But after when Pius Quintus Excommunicated Her Majesty and the Bulls of Excommunication were published in London whereby Her Majesty was in a sort prescribed and that thereupon as upon a principal motive or preparative followed the Rebellion in the North yet because the ill humours of the Realm were by that Rebellion partly purged and that she feared at that time no forreign Invasion and much less the attempt of any within the Realm not back'd by some potent power and succour from without she contented her self to make a Law against that special Case of bringing in and publishing any Bulls or the like Instruments whereunto was added a Prohibition upon pain not of Treason but of an inferiour degree of punishment against the bringing of the Agnus Dei's and such other Merchandise of Rome as are all known not to be any essential part of the Romanists Religion but only to be used in practice as Love tokens to inchant and bewitch the peoples affections from their Allegiance to their natural Soveraign In all other points her Majesty continued her former Lenity But when about the Twentieth year of her Reign she had discover'd in the King of Spain an intention to invade her Dominions and that a principal part of the Plot was to prepare a Party within the Realm that might adhere to the Forreigner and that the Seminaries began to blossom and to send forth dayly Priests and Professed men who should by Vow taken at Shrift reconcile her Subjects from their Obedience yea and hind many of them to attempt against her Majesties Sacred Person and that by the Poison which they spread the humours of most Papists were altered and that they were no more Papist in Conscience and of Softness but Papist in Pactiou Then were there new Laws made for the punishment of such as should submit themselves to such reconcilements or renunciation of Obedience And because it was a Treason carried in the Clouds and in wonderful secrecy and come seldom to light and that there was no presuspicion thereof so great as the Recusancy to come to Divine Service because it was set down by their Decrees that to come to Church before Reconciliation was to live in Schism but to come to Church after reconcilement was absolutely heretical and damnable Therefore there were added Laws containing punishment Pecuniary viz. such as might not enforce Consciences but to infeeble and impoverish the means of those about whom it resteth indifferent and ambiguous whether they were reconciled or not And when notwithstanding all this provision the Poison was dispersed so secretly as that there was no means to stay it I ut by restraining the Merchants that brought it in Then Lastly there was added a Law whereby such seditious Priests of new Erection were exiled and those that were at that time within the Land shipped over and so commanded to keep hence upon pain of Treason This hath been the proceeding tho intermingled not only with sundry Examples of her Majesties Grace towards such as in her wisdom she knew to be Papist in Conscience and not Faction and Singularity but also with extraordinary mitigation towards the offenders in the highest Degree committed by Law if they would but protest that if in Case this Realm should be invaded with a Forreign Army by the Popes's authority for the Catholick Cause as they term it they would take part with her Majesty and not adhere to her Enemies For the other Party which have been offensive to the State though in another Degree which named themselves Reformers and we commonly call Puritans this hath been the proceeding towards them A great while when they inveighed against such abuses in the Church as Pluralities Non-residence and the like their Zeal was not Condemned only their Violence was sometimes Censured When they refused the use of some Ceremonies and Rites as Superstitions they were tollerated with much Connivency and Gentleness yea when thy called in Question the Superiority of Bishops and pretended to a Democracy in the Church yet their Propositious were here considered and by contrary Writings debated and discussed yet all this while it was perceived that their Course was dangerous and very popular As because Papistry was odious therefore it was ever in their Mouths that they sought to Purge the Church from the Reliques of Papistry a thing acceptable to the People who love ever to run from one extream to another Because multitudes of Rogues and Poverty was an Eye-sore and a dislike to every man therefore they put into the Peoples head that if Discipline were planted there should be no Vagabonds nor Beggars a thing very plausible And in like manner they promised the People many of the impossible wonders of their Discipline besides they opened to the People a way to Government by their Consistory and Presbytery a thing though in consequence no less prejudicial to the Liberties of private men than to the Soveraignty of Princes yet in first shew very Popular Nevertheless this except it were some few that entred into extream contempt was born with because they pretended in Dutiful manner to make Propositions and to leave it to the Providence of God and the Authority of the Magistrate But now of late years when there issued from them that affirmed the consent of the Magistrate was not to be attended when under pretence of a Confession to avoid Slander and Imputations they combined themselves by Classes and Subscriptions when they descended into that vile and base means of defacing the Government of the Church by ridiculous Pasquils when they began to make many Subjects in doubt to take Oaths which is one of the Fundamental parts of Justice in this Land and in all places when they began both to vaunt of their strength and number of their Partizans and Followers and to use Comminations that their Cause would prevail tho uproar and Violence then it appeared to be no more Zeal no more Conscience but meer Faction and Division and therefore though the State were compelled to hold somewhat a harder hand to restrain them than before yet was it with as great moderation as the Peace of the State or Church could permit And therefore Sir to conclude consider uprightly of these matters and you shall see Her Majesty is no more a Temporizer in Religion It is not the success Abroad nor the Change of Servants here at home can alter her only as the things themselves alter She applyed her Religious Wisdom to Methods correspondent unto them still retaining the Two Rules before mentioned in dealing tenderly with Consciences and yet in discovering Faction from Conscience and Softness from Singularity Farewell Your loving Friend F. Walsingham FINIS