pag. 76. prime Leaders as he styles them of the Reformation Luther Calvin Zuinglius Bezâ— c. have in express terms held that Princes might be Depos'd upon the account of Religion But he has not quoted any of their Books to direct us where this scandalous Tenet which he fixes upon them might be found but leaves us to hunt after it at large among the Voluminous Writings of those Authors I do not therefore think my self oblig'd to take any more notice of this Slander of his than if he had never vented it What does he expect to be believ'd upon his bare word sic notus Ulvxes Does he think we know them no better than to trust them But we will not use all the Advantages that we have against so bad a Cause and so weak an Adversary Let us suppose then for once that Luther Calvin and as many more as he has a mind to take into his c. have held That Princes may be depos'd upon the Account of Religion By what new Logick can he make this pertinent to the present Discourse Does he think it the same thing to hold indefinitely That Princes may be depos'd upon the Account of Religion and to hold That the Church has a Right to depose them upon that account to hold that they may be depos'd by an Authority Civil and to hold that they may be depos'd by an Authority Ecclesiastical Let him now speak his Conscience without a Dispensation Does he in good earnest think these two Propositions equivalent or at least equivalent as to the point in controversie between him and the Bishop of Lincoln and that they equally disgrace the profess'd Religion of him who affirms them He cannot fare be so void of the ordinary reason of a Man though he has swallow'd down never so many Roman Catholick Doctrines as not to perceive as palpable difference between them 'T is not but that the former of these Position is a very bad Principle dangerous to Princes and destructive to the Peace and Settlement of a Nation though not so much as the later because it wants the Enforcements of Conscience and Religion to fix it in the Mind and thrust it out upon occasion into Action with that violence which usually accompanies a pretended Zeal for the Honour of God But how bad soever it may be still 't is a Civil not a Religious Principle and though it may be Sedition in the highest degree it can never be Heresie a mans Life and Estate who maintains it is answerable for it not his Religion To make this a little clearer I say 'T is one thing to hold that Princes may be depos'd by the State though upon the account of Religion i. e for being of a Religion different from the establish'd grounding this Opinion upon the Laws and Customs of some particular Civil Constitutions or upon the ends of Government in general and quite another thing to hold that they may be depos'd by the Church grounding this Opinion upon the Laws of Religion and a Power suppos'd to be delegated to her by Christ This last is the Principle we charge and the Bishop of Lincoln has prov'd upon the Church of Rome which makes her Religion it self dangerous to Princes On the other side though Luther Calvin or any other Protestant Divines should hold the first though it be a false and a bad yet as I said before 't is a Civil Principle and their holding it could no more reflect on the Protestant Religion than an Error they might be guilty of in History or Mathematicks The Protestant Religion therefore remains clear from any suspicion of allowing the Doctrine of Deposing Princes the point I undertook to make good though it should be granted the Compendionist that Luther and Calvin c. have had ill Principles in relation to Civil Governments If he could prove indeed that Luther and Calvin or any other Protestant Divines have held The Lawfulness of Deposing Princes as a Principle of their Religion and plac'd the power of doing it in the Church he would say something that were to the purpose and parallel to what we accuse the Church of Rome of but in the Method he has taken he does but beat the Air and fight with Shadows I shall explain this Distinction a little further by some famous Examples in order to meet with the other Cavils of this idle Wrangler and make the Inconsequence of his Arguings if it be possible yet more apparent He may remember then that here in England Edward II. and Richard II. were actually depos'd in times of Popery and by Papists yet did our Writers never charge the Church of Rome though she held then the same Doctrines and had the same pride to trample on Princes that now she has with those two disloyal and unjust Usurpations upon the Sovereignty of the Kings of England And for what imaginable reason but this onely viz. because they were both Acts of the Civil Power and carried on by mon who grounded what they did upon Principles though grosly false and mistaken drawn from the Constitution of the English Government and the Rights of the two Houses of Parliament and the Church of Rome contrary to her Custom upon such occasions was onely a bare Spectator neither her Authority nor her Principles being made use of to further or justifie those Proceedings I would now ask this Collector of Impertinencies this tedious Compendionist whether he thinks this a good reason to clear the Church of Rome from being concern'd in the deposing these two unfortunate Princes If he says 't is as no doubt he will with what face can he pretend to charge the Church of England as he would be understood to do pag 76. lin 38. with the Endeavours that were us'd to keep Queen Mary from the Crown the Death of the Queen of Scots and the Bâ—ll of the late House of Commons against the Duke of York's Successiâ—n since the Cases are directly parallell I mean parallell in all that concerns the present question Were they not every one of them Acts of the Civil Power and carried on by men who grounded what they did on Civil not Religious Principles Was not the setting up of the Lady Jane Grey and the raising an Army to oppose Queen Mary an Act of the Privy Council in pursuance of King Edward's Will and a Law made in the Reign of Henry VIII for the illegitimating of this Princess as the Lords of the Council themselves declare in their Answer to her Letter writ from * Baker's Chron. â—ramingham Castle Was not the Death of the Queen of Scots most notoriously an Act of the State justified by the Laws of the Land Was she not indicted for Treason and known to pretend a better Title to the Crown than Queen Elizabeth Lastly was not the Bill against the Duke of York grounded on a suppos'd Legal Power in the King and the two Houses to alter the course of the Succession when they think
fit Have not all the Pamphlets that have been writ in Vindi … tion of that Bill argued the Lawfulness of it from the Constitution of the Civil Government and wholly disclaim'd the interesting of Religion at all in the business as to the justifying of it in the least degree endeavouring with great pains to prove that true Religion does not meddle with the Civil Rights of Princes but leaves them to be determin'd by the Laws and Customs of particular Countries By what strange consequence they can he entitle the Church of England or the Protestant Religion to things that are so perfectly of a Civil nature unless he will make them answerable for all the Actions of Protestants of what kind soever and resolve to maintain that childish Sophism I first took notice of as the chief ground of all his extravagant Raving against the Bishop's Book viz. The concluding the Principles of a Religion from the practises of her Professors Which is the very Dregs of Folly the last Running of Impertinence 'T is true the Protestant Religion i.e. the care of preserving it was no doubt the great Motive of doing what was done in every one of these three Cases but that is not here to the purpose for 't is not the Reason for which but the Authority by which a Prince is depos'd and the kind of Principle i. e. whether Civil or Religious 't is justified upon that must condemn or acquit a Church of the Guilt of it though this man endeavour all along to insinuate the contrary by such a fallacious way of representing the Position charg'd on the Church of Rome as makes that seem to be the chief Point in the Controversie between her and the Bishop of Lincoln which is in truth no part of it viz. the Motive or end of deposing Princes But 't is not the Business of this little Pamphlet … to state things fairly and reason clearly but to amuse the Reader◠and puzzle the Question a close way of arguing will not suit either with his Cause or his Understanding a good proof of which he gives us at the very first in these words * See the Compend pag. 76. If on the other-side says he the Bishop means that there have been Popish Doctors of the opinion that Princes might be Depos'd upon the account of Religion what Advantage I would fain know can that be to his Lordship or his Treatise since not only all the prime Leaders of the Reformation c Is it to be imagin'd now that a man should get so far out of his way unless he purposely design'd to ramble or write things so grosly impertinent to the matter he was treating of unless he studied to confound it and render it as little intelligible as was possible Never did any man take more true pains to understand a Discourse difficult in it self than he has done to misunderstand the Bishop's which was plain and easie or a least to make his Reader do so for he cannot be so dull himself in this Point as he would seem 'T is not possible that he or any man who has read the Bishop's Book should think it was the Bishop's meaning only to charge the Popish Doctors with holding indefinitely that Princes might be Depos'd upon the account of Religion when 't is so palpably evident in a hundred places of his Book that he only brings their Opinions as a collateral proof of his Charge of their Church and Religion and that with a quite different Tenet as I have already shew'd And as 't is the Roman Church and not the Doctors only or chiefly which the Bishop charges with holding that Princes may be Depos'd by her Authority not with holding indefinitely that they may be Depos'd upon the account of Religion So 't is the present Popish canon-Canon-Law the Bulls the Decretals of Popes and the Canons of General Councils which are the Testimonies he relies upon for the making good of his Charge and not the private Opinions of Popish Doctors though being cited out of Books licens'd and approv'd by that Church they are of considerable weight in the Argument Now what says the Compendionist to these strong and most convincing Proofs Why in fine as Mr. Bayes says upon another occasion he wont tell us He has not one word not one syllable of Answer to them but passes them over with as deep a silence and as good a grace as if they were like most of his own not at all to the purpose This discreet and necessary Resolution being taken he bends all his little Wit and with a great deal of chearfulness goes about to invalidate what the Bishop urges from the Writings of the Popish Doctors which yet the poor impotent Scribler is by no means able to do as I have made appear in my Answer to his Charge of Luther and Calvin The Attempt however was just as wise and as likely to satisfie reasonable men as if a General who had a great and well disciplin'd Army to fight with should neglect the Main Body and with his whole Strength set upon the Forlorn Hope For his Objections of the Protestant Rebellion in Hungary the late Rising in Scotland the Murther of the Archbishop of S. Andrews and that Home-Blow of his the Gazet Advertisement of The Tryals of Twenty nine Protestant Regicides they are of the same nature and grounded on the same pitiful Falacy with those I have already answer'd and when he can shew us any Principle of the Protestant Religion that justifies Rebellion or Murder especially that of Princes or does but in the remotest degree encourage men to commit these detestable Crimes I shall again consider them In the mean time let him not wast his Paper and tire his Reader with the Repetition of such fulsom Sophistry But perhaps it may not be amiss to give a more particular Answer to his Home-Blow because he has such an opinion of its force and does so triumph with the conceit of his Victory I shall endeavour therefore to take him down in the height of his Rapture and shew his ignorant malice The Reader will remember the Point he should prove is That Protestant Principles are destructive to Kings for those are the very words of the Introduction to his terrible Argument of Instances of Fact Now did the Twenty nine Protestant Regicides ever pretend to justifie their abominable Villany by any Principle of their Religion Nay did they not pretend the quite contrary and ground it wholly upon a Civil Authority Did they not argue the lawfulness and justice of it from a Power they fancied in the People to call the King to an Account for his Actions Though in this they were as absurd Logicians as the Compendionist has all along shew'd himself and reason'd not only against the very first Principle of Civil Policy but point blank contrary to the most fundamental Maxims of the Law of England which says That the King can do no wrong and therefore makes his
A MEMENTO FOR English Protestants Containing the following Particulars viz. An Epitome of the Massacre in Piedmont An Epitome of the French Massacre An Epitome of the Irish Massacre A Speech of Pope Sixtus Quintus A Collection of the most Remarkable Passages of Queen Maries Reign Together with A PREFACE by way of Answer to that part of the Compendium which reflects on the Bishop of Lincoln's late Book Rev. 6.9 10 11. I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God c. And they cried with a loud voice saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our bloud c. And it was said unto them That they should rest yet for a little season untill their fellow servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled LONDON Printed for Jacob Sampson next to the Wonder Tavern within Ludgate 1680. THE PREFACE THE Papists have of late given us such fresh Occasions by their horrid and damnable Conspiracies against the Person of our King our Government and our Religion to renounce and detest the Communion of that Church which does not onely allow men but teaches them to be Murderers and Traytors And we have yet so great reason to apprehend the dismal Consequences of their secret and hellish Machinations that I am confident no Discourse which tends to heighten and improve the just Prejudices of Englishmen against that impious and absurd Religion will be thought at this time unnecessary by any good Protestant I shall not therefore make any Apology for the Collecting and Printing this Epitome of the three grand Massacres in Piedmont France and Ireland which is intended chiefly for the Instruction of ignorant and unlearned People for we fear not that Scholars and men of Sence should be made Papists except such whose Morals are so wretchedly debauch'd that they are ready at all times to sacrifice their Consciences to their Civil Interests and I hope there are not so many of those desperate Prostitutes as the Papists are apt to imagine and as the Manners of the Age we live in may I confess give us just cause to apprehend No 't is the ordinary Rank of men who have not had the advantage of Learning and a generous Education to defend themselves against the studied Fallacies and specious Pretences of the Romish Agents who commonly become the prey of those Wolves in Sheeps clothing To provide therefore for their Security that they may not fall into the snares that are laid for them ought to be our chiefest care since as 't is more charity to strengthen the hands of the weak than to add force to the strong so in this case 't is more prudent too in order to the support of the common cause of Protestant Religion the ignorant being by far the greater number Nor is this to be done a better way than by furnishing them with such plain Arguments as they are able to apprehend and manage themselves to the confusion of the common Enemy And these can be no other than such as are drawn from matters of fact they being easiest to be understood and hardest to be answer'd For this reason it was that this short Narrative of the bloudy Butcheries and inhuman Murders heretofore committed upon the persons of Protestants by Italian French and Irish Papists in cold bloud and by the instigation of their Church was prepared for the Press at the desire of a worthy Gentleman whose Zeal for the Interest of his Country and the Protestant Religion deserves a publick mention would his Modesty permit it in order to the being by him bestowed among his Country Neighbours who some of them perhaps have never heard of and others may have forgot the story of these holy Popish Cruelties these Religious Villanies the design being to let such sort of people see what a horrid thing Popery is when her Varnish is taken off what a deform'd and frightful Face this gawdy painted Whore * Rev. 17.2 9 6. With whom the Kings of the earth have committed fornication this mother of abominations made drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus I say what a deform'd and frightful Face she has when her Paint is laid by and she appears by true Lights in her proper Colours what monstrous and abominable Actions Papists are capable of when the Interest of that Idol of theirs their Church requires them By which as well as by their late Plots here in England 't is not hard for men of the meanest Capacities to perceive that their Religion cannot be the Religion of Christ while it justifies them in the grossest Immoralities and engages them in the most unchristian practices That those detestable Doctrines of Deposing and Killing Kings and extirpating Hereticks which have been so often objected to the Church of Rome by Protestant Divines are not Speculative Notions and Propositions Problematical as some of the Popish Writers and particularly the Author of that Lying Libel called * Compend pag. 77. The Compendium would make us believe but such settled Maxims of their barbarous Ecclesiastical Policy as too often have been and again will be put in practice whenever that proud uncharitable Church has a safe occasion to do it though at other times they must be disown'd with the usual Popish Impudence especially to such Protestants as have so little wit to take what they say on trust or so little reading not to be able to disprove them I hope no man will understand me here as if from the bare Actions of Papists and nothing else I argued to the Principles of Popery and concluded the one from the other this were bad Charity and worse Logick and one of their own constant Topicks in their Writings against Protestants 't were to say the worst that can be of it to fall directly into the ridiculous way of reasoning used by the Compendionist when he pretends to answer the Bishop of Lincoln's Book that admirable and learned Discourse a Discourse of so great use at this time and which does with such undeniable Evidence convince the Religion of Papists to be guilty of all their traitorous and bloudy Designs against Kings and Protestants that I cannot but take this occasion to correct that troublesom Impertinent who has made such a sensless Buzze and rais'd such a dust about it with design to puzzle and darken those Truths which the Bishop has there made so plain and clear especially since the Bishop himself has not thought him as indeed he is not worthy of his notice and no body else that I know of has yet expos'd that part of his impudent Pamphlet which concerns this truly Venerable and Excellent Person First then what a foolish Flourish does he make against the Bishop endeavouring to throw that wicked Principle of Deposing Kings upon Protestants with this gross Fallacy of Arguing from mens Practices to the Principles of
Ministers questionable for the Miscarriages in Government because he himself is in his own Person inviolable and sacred but this concerns not the present Business These men I say as bad as they were had not the Impudence to Interest the Protestant Religion or any Protestant Church whatever in the guilt of their impious Treason by pretending to derive any Warrant or Encouragement for it from them or if they had it would have signified nothing to the Compendionist's purpose since there is no King-deposing or King-killing Principle to be found in any Protestant Confessions of Faith or Articles of Communion which are the only proper Evidences to convince a Protestant Church of any Principle or Doctrine that is laid to her charge and so it would have amounted to no more than their particular mistaking or perverting the Principles of their Religion as grosly and as wilfully as they did the Laws of their Country But this is not the case for they did not so much as pretend any Warrant from the Protestant Religion for what they did How then can He charge Protestant Principles with the Personal Crimes of these men Or what does this Home-Blow and all his other Instances prove except this only viz. That several Protestants have been Rogues very great Rogues Murderers Rebels Traytors c. Does He not know that they are all mortal men too and subject to many other Vices which he might very clearly have prov'd upon them if he had pleas'd by undeniable Examples There 's not a Sin the Pope pardons of what Price soever but 't is too sadly true that Protestants have been guilty of it at some time or other if that will do him any service But now in the name of a little common sense Who or what does this Raver oppose in this strenuous Argument Did ever any of our Writers assert that all the Protestants in the world were good Men and pious Christians Or is there any sort of people among us besides Quakers i. e. mad men who hold a state of Absolute Perfection in this Life He has put himself into an extraordinary Heat and made strange violent Assaults and yet no Enemy appears near him What ayles the man he has sure been combating some Giant in imagination like Don Quixote when he hack'd down the Walls of his Chamber Well who ever he be though it were Malambruno himself I 'll warrant him he 's kill'd outright this La Mancha has so laid about him with Home-Blows Another great quarrel he has to the Bishop is that he does not answer four Books nam'd in the Compendium's margin writ it seems by the Catholicks of England since the King's Restoration about the Deposing Power of the Church * Compend pag. 78. His Lordship says he is so far from answering these Authors that he never so much as cites them to this purpose a great fault indeed so that we must conclude them unanswerable Well argued o' my word I see he deals in nothing but Home-Blows Mr. Bayes and this Compendionist would have made a couple of rare Disputants if they had not been spoil'd by their Tutors and ill grounded at first they have both an admirable natural talent at Reasoning all the difference between them is Bayes lov'd it in Rhime and this man 's altogether for it in Prose But without Raillery does he believe the Bishop of Lincoln oblig'd to take particular notice of every idle Pamphlet of theirs that keeps a Pudder about the deposing Power of the Church with design to make the business intricate and dark and to think them as considerable as his Party always do their own Books No doubt he takes it monstrous ill too that the Bishop has not thought him worth his Answering and perhaps concludes himself unanswerable But I hope I shall hinder him from falling into that mistake and make him sensible what an Impar Congressus Achilli what a poor contemptible thing he is when he appears in the Lists against so great a Scholar as the Bishop of Lincoln For the Pamphlets he mentions they are more than answer'd in the Bishop's Book though it does not particularly name them and when he or any other Factor for Popery gives a tolerable Answer to those clear Testimonies I told him of before and which he never so much as cites to this purpose by which the Bishop does so plainly prove the Doctrine of Deposing Kings upon the Church of Rome I here engage my word to him these Pamphlets shall be made ridiculous by name and their Authors shew'd to the people in the Fools Coats they deserve In the next place be tells us * Compend pag. 78. That the Venetians have openly in their very writings denied this Deposing Power of the Church without Censure And That several Authors have been censur'd in France and elsewhere for writing for it In answer to which First we know very well that the Church of Rome does always accommodate her Allowing and Condemning of Books to the circumstances of her present condition and as Princes are sometimes forc'd by the necessity of their Affairs to disavow the Actions of their Ministers though done by their most express command so is this interested Church frequently reduc'd to connive at Books which she does by no means like and to Censure others which she does not onely approve but underhand directs A good Instance of this we have in the case of Sanctarellus's Book one of those he mentions which though at first printed by the Approbation and special Licence of * See Sanctarellus himself Mutius Vittellescus then General of the Jesuits and by the Order of the Master of the Pope's Palace yet when the Pope found it would not be endur'd in France but that both the Sorbonne had condemn'd it and the Parliament of Paris had order'd it to be burnt he thought fit after it had been out so long that the Copies were almost all bought up to forbid the Sale of it at Rome but without any manner of Censure either upon the Author or Doctrine * See more of this in the Preface to the Jesuits Loyalty which is generally their way of condemning those kind of Books when Civil Considerations at last oblige them to it viz. a bare Prohibition of them after every body has read them that cares for them Such a Condemnation as this did Mariana meet with in Spain and of this gentle nature was Becanus's Correction at Rome not for the Doctrines he maintain'd but for Overlashing as Bishop Montague expresses it in his Preface to King James's Works i. e. for speaking the mind of their Churchmore plainly than was at that time convenient For Secondly we know well enough that these Principles of Deposing and Killing Kings and Extirpating Hereticks are thought too precious Truths and too high Points to be ordinarily expoâ—'d to the â—ulgar and pross'd upon all occasions they are the Arâ—â—na Imperii of their Kingdom of Darkness and kept like Warrants Dormant among
the rest of the Beneficed Clergy throughout the Kingdom that were either married or refused to turn Papists 2. On the twenty seventh of the same Moneth the Service began to be sung in Latin in S. Pauls Church 3. The same Year the Pope's Authority was restored in England and the Mass commanded to be used in all Churches 4. The same Year she caused a Synod to assemble which restored the Romish Religion and ordained Mass to be celebrated after the Romish Fashion 5. The fourth of February Mr. John Rogers the first Martyr of those times was burnt at London 6. Presently after her Coronation she pretended to shew Mercy by granting a general Pardon but it was so interlaced as an Author saith with Exceptions of Matters and Persons that very few received benefit by but many were trepann'd by it 7. In October 1554 she caused Ridley Bishop of London and Latimer Bishop of Winchester to be sent from the Tower of London where they were Prisoners to Oxford upon pretence that they were to dispute with the Papists about the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament but when they were brought thither instead of being disputed with they were both burnt 8. The next thing she did was to set up again the Pope's Supremacy in England and to this purpose she sent for Cardinal Pool from Rome who being arrived with the Pope's Authority as Legatus à latere made a Speech to the Parliament exhorting them to return to the Bosom of the Church for he was come as he said to reconcile the People to the Church of Rome And in order to a Reconciliation he required them presently to repeal all Laws that had been made in derogation of the Catholick Religion When the Speech was ended the Parliament begg'd Pardon for their former Errors and told the Queen they would repeal all such Laws whereupon the Cardinal accordingly gave them Absolution And so was all England in one day subjected again to the Romish Yoke by this Popish Queen 9. On the twelveth of March 1555 she restored all the Lands formerly belonging to Abbies and Monasteries that had been invested in the Crown and did leave them to be disposed of as the Pope should think fit 10. It 's thought that she had once resolved to put her Sister Flizabeth to death for divers of the Privy Council had signed a Warrant to that purpose yet when the Lieutenant of the Tower had received the said Warrant he went to the Queen and sollicited her for her Sisters Life she protested she knew nothing of such a Warrant However it 's believed that she would have consented to her Sisters Death had her own Life been continued a little longer 11. In her fourth Year Monasteries began to be rebuilt and restored and no doubt she had in a short time caused all the Abbey Lands in England to be restored had not Death prevented her design 12. To summe up all it is recorded That in less than 4 Years of this Queens Reign 277 Protestants were put to death for their Religion without any regard had to Age Sex or Condition viz. 5 Bishops 21 Divines 8 Gentlemen 84 Artificers 100 Husbandmen Servants and Labourers 26 Wives 20 Widows 19 Virgins 2 Boys and 2 Infants also near as many died in Prisons through Hunger and other Hardships So that Dr. Heylin saith that though many Persecutions lasted longer than this yet none since Dioclesians time raged so terribly You have seen the horrid Actions committed by Charles IX of France and Mary Queen of England and yet History tells us negatively that he was not of a bloudy or cruel disposition and positively that she was of a mild and gentle temper so that we must necessarily conclude that the Doctrines of the Romish Religion do infallibly debauch both the Consciences and Morals of all such as believe them From what hath been said I infer 1. That English Protestants of the meanest capacities may without the help of Prophecy be able to foretell what will become of them if which God forbid Popery should again prevail and be re-establish'd amongst us 2. That it is no less the Interest than the Duty of all true English Protestants to pray for the long and prosperous Reign of our present Protestant Prince in whose Life next under God are bound up our Lives Religion Laws Government Liberties and Properties Lastly That it is our Duty for the good and welfare of Posterity to pray That all His Majesty's Successors in the Government may be Protestants to the end of the World Amen FINIS