neuer stand in neede of their seruice deuoted seruants the Catholikes of England partly to preuent sinister informations which happily may possesse your sacred eares before our answere bee heard partly almost as men ouerwhelmed with If they be perse cuted themselues are the cause thereof for they are neuer well but when their heads are hatching of rebellion persecutions for our consciences we are enforced to haue speedie recourse in hope of present redresse from your Highnesse and to present these humblelines vnto your royall person to pleade for vs some As you deserue so I pray God you may haue commiseration and fauour 3. What Nay what desperate and vnnaturall designements will they not to their power at the Popes cōmandement attempt against thē for they hold it a matter of great merit at the Popes cōmandemēt to kill and murder their lawfull Princes See Parry his Treasons Squire his treasons Likewise Peter Barricre and Iohn Chastell their desperate attemptes againsts the French King Iesuites Catechisme 3. booke page 148. 155. allegeance or dutie can any temporall Prince desire or exped at his vassalls hands which we are not addressed to performe How many Noble-men and worthy Gentlemen most zealous in the Catholike Religion haue endured some losse of lands and liuings some exile others imprisonment some the effusion of bloud life for the Busie fellowes that would take in hand such treasonable actions before they had acquainted the partie for whom they vndertooke them therewith Iesuites Catechisme 3. booke page 138. aduancement of your blessed Mothers right vnto the scepter of Albion Nay whose singer did euer ake but Catholikes for your Maiesties present title dominions How many Happie is that countrie that is rid of them for it is better haue their roome then their compaine fled to your Court offering themselues as hostages for their friends to liue die in your Graces His Maiestie in publique Print acknowledgeth and euer did that Queene ELIZABETH was lawfull Queene and therefore must those that so offered themselues by the Kings owne testumonie be traytors quarrell if euer Aduersary had opposed himself against the equitie of your cause If this they attempted with their Princes disgrace to obtaine your Maiesties grace what will they do nay what wil they not doe to liue without disgrace in your Graces fauour 4. The maine of this Realme if we respect Religion setting petty sects aside consisteth vpon foure parts Protestants who haue dominiered all the former Queenes dayes Puritanes who haue crept vp apace among them Atheists or Politititans who were bred vpon their brawles and contentions in matters of faith And Catholikes who as they are opposite to all so are they detested of all because Errour was euer an enemie to Truth Hardly all or any of the No thankes to them for if their deseignes could haue beene effected all protestants throates had beene cut long agone call to minde they yeare 1588 and then iudge whether it be so or not first two three can be suppressed and therefore we beseech your Maiestie to yeeld vs as much fauour as others of contrarie religion to that which shall he publikely professed in England shall obtaine at your hands For if our fault be like or lesse or none at all in They pleade miustice against the Kings Maiestie if they may not be permitted freely to vse their Idolatrous religion equitie our punishment ought to bee like or lesse or none at all The Gates Arches and Pyramides of France proclaimed the present King Pater patriae pacis restitutor because that kingdome being well nigh torne in pieces with ciuil warres and made a pray to forraine foes was by his prouident wise dome and valour acquired in it selfe and hostile strangers expelled the which he principally effected by condescending to Hath he beene since that time freed from the danger of Papists search the French Chronicles and you shall finde the contrarie tollerate them of an aduerse religion to that was openly professed Questionlesse dread Soueraigne the kingdome of England by cruell persecution of Catholikes hath bin almost odious to all Christian Nations Trade and traffique is decayed wars and bloud hath seldome ceased Subsidies and taxes neuer so many None or very few discontented but Papists whose heads do alwayes ake but when they are working of treasons and drawing of others into the same state of discontentment with them discontented minds innumerable all which your Maiesties princely conniuencie to your humble Suppliants the afflicted Catholikes will easily redresse especially at your Highnesse ingresse Si loquaris ad eos verba lenia erunt tibi serui cunctis diebus said the sage Counsellors of Salomon to Rehoboham For enlargement after affliction resembleth a pleasant gale after a vehement The Papists haue caused more stormes tempests to arise in this land then all other Sects besides that they can inuent names for Who but Papistes sought meanes induce the late Earle of Essex if he would haue beene atraytour to his Prince to be a Pencioner for the King of Spaine Earle of Essex his owne Apologie Yet had they vnder-hand acquainted therewith the late Lord Treasurer Sir VVilliam Cecill insomuch that if the Earle had consented vnto them presently had he beene entrapped VVatson the Priestin his booke of Quod libetts tempest and a benefit in distresse doubleth the value thereof 5. How gratefull will it be to all Catholike Princes abroad and honourable to your Maiesty to vnderstand how Queene Elizabeths A manifest slander of his Maiestie for she was farre more merciful vnto them then euer they deserued Nay the Priests themselues in their own bookes acknowledge the iustice of his Maiesties lawes against them seuerity is changed into your royall clemencie and that the lenitie of a man reedified that which the misinformed anger of a woman destroyed That the Lion rampant is passant whereas the passant had beene rampant How acceptable shall all your subiects be to all Catholike countries who are now almost abhorred of all when they shall perceiue your Highnesse prepared not and pikes and prisons for the professours of their faith but permitted them Temples and To offer sacrifice vpon vnto their Popish Idols Altars for the vse of their Religion Then shall we see with our eyes and touch with our fingers that happy benediction or Esay in this land that swords are changed into ploughs and launces into sithes And all Nations admiring vs will say Hi sunt semen cui benedixit Dominus Wee request no more fauour at your Graces hands then that wee may securely professe that Catholike religion which al your happy Predecessours professed from Donaldus the first conuerted vnto your Maiesties peerelesse Mother last martyred 6. A Religion venerable for D. Sutcliffe in his challenge vnto N.D. hath prooued the contrary chap. the 2. page 27. antiquity maiesticall for amplitude constant for continuance irreprehensible for doctrine inducing to all kinde of vertue and piety disswading from all sinne and wickednesse A Religion beloued by all primitiue Pastours established by all Occumenicall Councels vpheld by all ancient Doctors maintained by the first and most Christian Emperours recorded almost alone in all Ecclesiasticall Histories sealed with the bloud of millions of Martyrs adorned with the vertues of so many Confessors beautified with the purity of thousands of Virgines so conformable to Therein I thinke they speake more truly then they are aware of natural sence and reafon and finally so agreeable to the sacred text of Gods word and Gospell The free vse of this Religion we request if not in publike Churches at least in priuate houses if not with approbation yet with toleration without molestation 7. Assure your Grace that howsoeuer some Protestants or Puritanes incited by morall honesty of life or innated instinct of nature or for feare of some temporall punishment pretend obedience vnto your Highnesse lawes yet certainely the onely Are the chiefest stirrers vnto rebellion in all Christian common-wealths Catholikes for conscience sake obserue them For they defending that A meere vntrueth for no Protestants maintaine any such position Princes precepts and statutes oblige no subiect vnder the penalty of sinne will little care in conscience to transgresse them which principally are tormented with the guilt of finne But Catholikes confessing merite in obeying and demerit in transgressing cannot but in soule be grieuously tortured at the least preuarication thereof Wherefore most mercifull Soueraigne wee your long afflicted subiects in all dutifull submission protest before the Maiesty of God and all his holy Angels as loyall obedience and as immaculate allegeance vnto your Grace as euer did faithfull subiects in England or Scotland vnto you Highnesse Progenitours and intend as sincerely with our goods and liues to As long as your Maiestie will serue their purposes but no longer Let them all oh Lord if it be thy will be conuerted and agree with vs in one truth Amen serue you as euer did the loyallest Isralites King Dauid or the trusty legions the Romane Emperours And thus expecting your Maiesties customarie fauour and gracious bounty we rest your deuoted Suppliants to him whose hands do manage the harts of Kings and with reciprocate mercie will requite the mercifull Your sacred Maiesties most deuoted Seruants The Catholikes of England
AN ANSVVER VNTO THE CATHOLIQVES SVPPLICATION PRESENTED VNto the Kings Maiestie for a tolleration of Popish religion in England WHEREIN IS CONTAINED A confutation of their vnreasonable petitions and slaunderous lyes against our late Soueraigne Queene Elizabeth whose happy and gratious gouernement the Papists in their said Supplication doe so peremptorilie traduce Together with an information vnto his Maiestie of diuers their wicked and treasonable practises attempted in the life time of our late Queene his worthy predecessor whose life they alwayes sought meanes to extinguish Wherevnto is annexed the Supplication of the Papists word for word as it was presented vnto the Kings Maiestie With some necessarie annotations thereupon Newlie corrected and augmented Written by Christopher Muriell the elder Imprinted at London by R. R. for Francis Burton and are to be solde in Paules Church-yard at the figne of the White-Lyon 1603. TO THE MOST GRAcious renowmed Christian King IAMES by the grace of God of England Scotland France and Ireland King defender of the true Catholique and Apostolique faith All diuine and celestiall graces mercies and blessings be multiplyed from generation to generation for euermore Amen MOst Gratious and renowmed Christian King whereas the Papists who vsurpe the name of Catholiques hauing posted vnto your Maiestie to exhibite vnto your royall person a Supplication full of vntrueths I one of the meanest of your Maiesties most humble and loyall subiects mooued with zeale of the holy and vndoubted true religion now professed in England haue thought it not inconuenient with your Graces fauour which I humbly craue to answer the chiefe and most materiall points of the saide supplication because it tendeth to the greeuous slaunder of our late deceased Soueraigne Queene Elizabeth and also of the noble and worshipfull personages of this your Graces Realme of England and the rather because I heare that some fauorites of the Romane religion doe so highly extoll and aduance the learned and eloquent penning of the same and the imaginary validity and force thereof that they vaunt that it cannot be contradicted yet doubt I not but that the plaine verity of this short aunswer will be of sufficient force to daunt their expectations and to bewray their vntruthes to their deserued discredit The saide Supplication consisteth of feauen seuerall partes as by perusall thereof may appeare 1. The first part is their exordium wherein they pretend faith and dutifull obedience and loyaltie vnto your Maiestie the which protestation I pray God they may effect in verity in as effectuall and ample manner as they haue in flourishing and glosing shew of words professed the same But I commit that to God who searcheth the harts and reynes time trieth all things nil fictum diuturnum essepotest 2. In the second part they doe complaine that they were ouer-whelmed with greeuom persecutions by the seuerity of our late deceased Queene We doe not a little maruell that they blushed not to informe your Grace with so manifest vntruthes if they supposed as they in wordes pretend that God hath blessed you with a wise and vnderstanding hart rightly to discerne betweene truth and fashood For I dare boldly affirme that they cannot prooue that any one receiued the sentence of death onely for professing the Romish religion except treason were thereunto also annexed And if it may please your most Gracious Maiestie to waigh in equall ballance the persecutions to vse their owne wordes they suffered either by imprisonment or fining by the purse wherewith verye fewe in comparison were touched your highnesse shall vnderstand that their owne wilfull obstinacie and not the Queenes Maiesties feueritie vrged the same for whensoeuer it pleased them to resort to their parish churches vnto diuine prayers they had present releasement both of their imprisonment and also of their fines and fees But seeing that their vniust exclamations inforce me to call to fresh remembrance the most sauage and brutish dealings of the Papists in Queene Maryes dayes how they then dominered your highnesse cannot be ignorant how vnmercifully did they torment vnto death the faithfull seruants and Saints of God for professing the glorious Gospell of our redeemer Christ Iesus Some they tormented with most sharpe and long imprisonment some they whipped with roddes some they secretly murthered in prison but the greatest and generall number were sacryficed in the fire in which kinde of torment they spared none no not any degrees of persons not so much as women great with childe but tormented them to death euen when the children did fall out of the mothers wombes into the fire in the view of the Papists who being past shame and grace nothing regarded it Yea such was their raging madnesse that they digged vp the dead bones of those two godly and learned fathers Martin Bucer and Paulus Phagius and burned them in Cambridge It is manifest vnto the world that the Papists tortured to death as graue as wise as vertuous and as learned and Catholike fathers as Europe affordeth Acts and Monuments The records of these things are so manifest so true and so fresh in memorie of many yet liuing that they cannot bee contradicted But to returne to our late deceased Queene wheras the Papists doe vniustly charge her that she was A grieuous persecutor of them their assertion consisteth of contrarieties for after the death of her brother King Edward they vndelayedly persecuted her Grace in the dayes of Queene Mary they tossed her from prison to prison threatning her with continuall death so that she dayly expected the Axe to seuer her sacred head from her Princely shoulders a D. Sutcliffe in his reply to the Apo. pa. 84. and once a precept was giuen for the executing thereof to the Lieutenant of the Towre by the treacherous dealing of one of the Popes b Gardiner Bishop of Winchester minions the bearing great sway in England in so much that if the Lieutenant of the Tower had not himselfe presently posted vnto the Court vnto the Queene her sister to vnderstand certainly her pleasure therein she had dyed before the Queene had beene acquainted therewith But in processe of time she by Gods prouidence beeing freed from that danger and her selfe enioying the royall Crowne Scepter and dignitie of the Realme did not the Pope deale with her as his predecessour did in former time deale with King Iohn By his cursed Bul he cursed and excommunicated the aforesaid King interdicted the whole realme So that for diuers yeares none were suffered to be Christianly buried he charged all his subiects that none of them should releeue helpe or succour him by any meanes eyther directly or indirectly vpon paine of his curse so that the rebellion of his nobles was so great that of force to procure his peace he was constrained to c Stovves Chro in the life of K. John Page 255. and 256. resigne both the kingdomes of England and Ireland into the Popes hands and did take it again of the Pope by fee
counsels hath there not beene two Popes at once and sometimes three and euery one hath cursed other and excommunicated others and fought bloudy battelles one against another to the disturbance of all Christendome and the shedding of the bloud of many thousand Christians And he that was the valiantest tyrant was the most religious Pope But to let them passe let vs remember Constantine the Emperour who first endowed the Pope with stately reuenewes But in his dayes where was their holy Bread and holy Water where were their pardons of free remission of sinnes both veniall and deadly soulde now for money throughout Christendome to redeeme soules out of purgatory where was their Ladies Chappell their Ladyes Masses their pilgrimages to Saint Iames of Compostella c Where was their praying to Saintes Where was their diabollicall authority to depriue Kings and Emperours of their Kingdomes and to dispose of them at their free will and pleasure Where was the supremacie of the Pope vniuersally ouer all Realmes Kings and Emperours and ouer all degrees of persons spirituall and temporall but it hath beene since great honour for an Emperour to leade the Popes horse by the bridle and for a King to hould his stirrope yea for an Emperour to be a foote-stoole to the Pope to treade on when hee went vpon his horse This Luciferian pride was not heard off in Constantines time nor long since and as for the religion that was professed in those dayes and long before Constantines time it was the same religion that we in England doe now professe And it is for certaine that the Heathenish and Infidell Emperours both long before Constantines dayes and long since did persecute the now professed religion in England and that it was sealed with the bloud of many Martyrs adorned with the vertues of many thousand confessors beautified with the bloud of the pure and Immaculate virgins neither were the Bishops of Rome in those dayes freed from the said persecutions But when Infidell Emperours by Gods diuine prouidence ceased their tyranny Then the Luciferian Popes by degrees and steps climing the highest staffe of the ladder of pride did so farre exceed in haughtinesse of hart insolencie and tyranny that they first did shake off the lawfull authoritie of Emperours in the electing and admitting the Pope and then presently after they did domineere and tyrannise ouer Emperours Kings and all degrees of persons spirituall and temporall so that it is to be doubted whether the heathenish Emperours in their time or the irreligious Popes in their time haue persecuted and tormented to death the greater number of faithfull Christians and the Saints of God It is superfluous to rehearse the stories of these things seeing they be recorded in all Ecclesiasticall Histories and in the Chronicles of all kingdomes And wee are perswaded that your grace hath both seene and read the Historie of these bloudy tragedies But of late time the Pope hath beene well plumed tof his borrowed fethers and his Luciferian pride somewhat depressed Yet if the Papists will so be content we will ioyne with them to procure that a Generall and free Counsell may be held in Christendome wherevnto both Papists and Protestantes may freelie repaire that thereby the Church of Christ may haue peace and the ignorant may be confirmed in the true faith and to this purpose hath one of our learned Diuines offered himselfe to dispute with any Papists whosoeuer and many other will doe the like so that his person may be secured red from perrill D Sutcliffe in the reply to The vvoord pag. 43. This I pray God that it may be effected and that he that is the true God may be worshipped of all and that Baall may be vtterly forgotten that all Christian kingdomes agreeing in true doctrine and sinceere truth may ioyntlie acknowledge one veritie one faith one baptisme one religion and one onely God in Trinity and Trinitie in Vnity the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost Amen 7. In the seuenth and last part they make a sollemne profession before God and his holy Angels of as loyall as obedient and immaculate allegiance to your Grace at euer did faithfull subiects in Scotland or England vnto your progenitors and intend sincerely and truely with goods and liues to serue your Grace for confirmation wherof they confesse merite in obeying and demerite in disobeying and therfore cannot but in soule be greeuously tormented for the least preuarication This protestation is indeed with a flourishing shew of good words let the fruites of their obediences trie the veritie thereof where was the fruites of their obediences in the dayes of their annointed Queene now deceased that they may haue merite for it These Romanists haue sugered wordes but their harts be full of deadly poyson for although they be a generation of vypers yet they can change their shape into an Angel of light to deceiue the very elect if it were possible The world cā testifie that the manifoulde treasons and conspiracies of the Papists were sufficient testimonies of their demerit And if they must needes be tormented in soule and conscience for their least preuarication needs must thousāds of their soules and consciences be tormented for their many treasons conspiracies against their late annointed Queene now deceased But whatsoeuer they professe in wordes it is impossible so long as they professe the Romish religion to bee faithful subiects vnto your grace for this is a maxime in the minds of most papists fides non est seruāda cum hereticis we are sure that the Pope hath censured al Protestant Princes for heretickes and their religion for heresie Therefore whatsoeuer they professe in wordes they cannot serue God and the deuill neither can they truely serue and obaye you and the Pope Two so great contrarieties cannot concur in one subiect And thus I conclude praying to God as our bounden dutie requireth that of his great goodnesse he will vouchsafe to blesse preserue and defend your royall maiestie our noble Queene and all your Princely Children from all your enemies both forraine and domesticall spirituall and temporall and from the treasons and conspiracies of all Romanists That your sacred Maiestie and your posterity may liue and raigne ouer vs in the feare of God and to his honour and glory in regall dignity happy prosperitie godly peace and vnity and that after this life you may haue celestiall felicitie in the life to come for euermore Amen Your Maiesties most humble and dutifull subiect CHRISTOPHER MVRIEL Senior THE CATHOLIKES SVPPLICATION Most puissant Prince and orient Monarch SVch are the rare perfections and admirable gifts of wisedome prudence valour and iustice wherewith the bountifull hand of Gods diuine Maiestie hath endued your Maiestie as in the depth of your prouident iudgement we doubt not but you foresee what concerneth both the spirituall and temporall gouernement of all your kingdoms dominions 2. Notwithstanding your Graces most afflicted subiects and I pray God that your Maiestie