Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	great_a	king_n	majesty_n	3,331	5	6.0086	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34709	Cottoni posthuma divers choice pieces of that renowned antiquary, Sir Robert Cotton, Knight and Baronet, preserved from the injury of time, and exposed to publick light, for the benefit of posterity / by J.H., Esq.; Selections. 1672	Cotton, Robert, Sir, 1571-1631.; Howell, James, 1594?-1666.	1672 (1672)	Wing C6486; ESTC R2628	147,712	358

auctoritate Parliamenti A SPEECH Delivered in the Lower House of PARLIAMENT Assembled at OXFORD In the first year of the Reign of KING CHARLES I. By Sir ROBERT COTTON Knight and Barronet LONDON Printed in the Year 1672. A SPEECH Delivered in the Lower House of PARLIAMENT Assembled at OXFORD In the first year of the Reign of King CHARLES Mr. SPEAKER ALthough the constant VVisdome of this House of Commons did well and worthily appear in censuring that ill advised Member the last day for trenching so far into their antient Liberties and might encourage each worthy Servant of the publique here to offer freely up his Council and opinion Yet since these VValls cannot conceal from the Ears of captious guilty and revengful men withou● the Councel and debates within I will endeavour as my clear mind is free from any personal distaste of any one so to express the honest thoughts of my Heart and discharge the best care of my trust as no person shall justly taxe my innocent and publick mind except his Conscience shall make him guilty of such Crimes as worthily have in Parliament impeached others in elder times I will therefore with asmuch brevity as I can set down how these disorders have by degrees sprung up in our own memories how the Wisdom of the best and wisest Ager did of old redress the like And lastly what modest and dutiful course I would wish to be followed by our selves in this so happy Spring of our hopeful Master For Mr. Speaker we are not to judge but to present The redress is above ad Querimoniam Vulgi Now Mr. Speaker so long as those attended about our late Soveraign Master now with God as had served the late Queen of happy memory debts of the Crown were not so great Commissions and G●ants not so often complained of in Parliaments Trade flourished Pensions not so many though more then in the late Queens time for they exceeded not 18000. l. now near 120000. l. All things of moment were carryed by publick debate at the Council-Table No honour set to sale nor places of Judicature Lawes against Priests and Recusants were executed Resort of Papists to Ambassadors houses barred and punished His Majesty by daily direction to all his Ministers and by his own Pen declaring his dislike of that Profession No wastful expences in fruitless Ambassages nor any transcendent power in any one Minister For matters of State the Council-Table held up the fit and antient dignity So long as my Lord of Somerset stood in state of grace and had by his Majesty's favour the trust of the Signet Seale he oft would glory justly there passed neither to himself or his Friends any long Grants of his Highness Lands or Pensions For that which himself had he paid 20000. l. towards the Marriage-Portion of the King's Daughter His care was to pass no Monopoly or illegal Grant and that some Members of this House can witness by his charge unto them No giving way to the sale of Honours as a breach upon the Nobility for such were his own words refusing Sir John Roper's Office then tendred to procure him to be made a Baron The match with Spain then offered and with condition to require no further toleration in Religion then Ambassadours here are allowed discovering the double dealing and the dangers he disswaded his Majesty from and left him so far in distrust of the Faith of that King and his great Instrument Gondomar then here residing that his Majesty did term him long time after a Jugling Jack Thus stood th' effect of his power with his Majesty when the Clouds of his misfortune fell upon him VVhat the future advices led in we may well remember The marriage with Spain was again renewed Gondomar declared an honest man Poperie heartened by admission of those unsure before conditions of Conveniencie The forces of his Majestie in the Palatinate withdrawn upon Spanish faith improved here and beleived by which his Highness Children have lost their Patrimony and more money been spent in fruitless Ambassages then would have maintained an Army fit to have recovered that Countrey Our old and fast Allies disheartened by that tedious and dangerous Treaty And the King our now Master exposed to so great a peril as no wise and faithful Councel would ever have advised Errors in Government more in misfortune by weak Councels then in Princes The loss of the County of Poyntiffe in France was laid to Bishop Wickham's charge in the first of Richard the 2. for perswading the King to forbear sending aid when it was required a Capital crime in Parliament The loss of the Dutchie of Maine was laid to Dela Poole Duke of Suffolk 28. Henry 6. in single and unwisely treating of a Marriage in France A Spanish Treaty lost the Palatinate VVhose Councel hath pronounced so great power to the Spanish Agent as never before to effect freedome to so many Priests as have been of late and to become a Sollicitor almost in every Tribunal or the ill-affected Subjects of the State is worth the enquiry VVhat Grants of Impositions before crossed have lately been complained of in Parliaments As that of Ale-houses Gold-Thred Pretermitted Customes and many more the least of which would have 50. Edward 3. adjudged in Parliament an heinous crime aswel as those of Lyons and Latymer The Duke of Suffolk in Henry 6. time in procuring such another Grant in derogation of the Common Law was adjudged in Parliament The gift of Honours kept as the most sacred Treasure of the State now set to saile Parliaments have been Suitors to the King to bestow those Graces as in the time of Edward 3. Henry 4. and Henry 6. More now led in by that way onely then all the merits of the best deservers huve got these last 500. years So tender was the care of elder times that it is an Article 28. Henry 6. in Parliament against the Duke of Suffolk that he had procured for himself and some few others such Titles of Honour and those so irregular that he was the first that ever was Earl Marquess and Duke of the self same place Edward the first restrained the number in pollicie that would have challenged a Writ by Tenure and how this proportion may suit with profit of the State we cannot tell Great deserts have now no other recompence then costly Rewards from the King For we now are at a vile Price of that which was once inestimable If worthy Persons have been advanced freely to places of greatest trust I shall be glad Spencer was condemned in the 15. of Edward 3. for displacing good Servants about the King and putting in his Friends and followers not leaving either in the Church or Common-Wealth a place to any before a Fine was paid unto him for his dependance The like in part was laid by Parliament on De la Poole It cannot but be a sad hearing unto us all what my Lord Treasurer the last day told us of his Majesties

expedient to suppres Popish Practises against the due Allegiance to his Majesty by the strict Execution touching Jesuit● and Seminary Priests Or to restrain them to close Prisons during life if no Reformation follow In favour of the first Division I. There are not few who grounding themselves on an Antient Proverb A dead man bites not affirm that such are dangerous to be preserved alive who being guilty condemned and full of fear are likely for purchase of Life and Liberty to inlarge their uttermost in desperate adventures against their King and Countrey II. No less is it to be feared that while the sword of Justice is remiss in cutting off heinous offendors against the Dignity of the Crown the mis-led Papall multitude in the interim may enter into a jealous suspence Whether that forbearance proceed from fear of exasperating their desperate humours or that it is now become questionable Whether the execution of their Priests be simply for matter of State or pretended quarrel for Religon III. And whereas in a remediless inconvenience it is lawful to use the extremity of Laws against some few that many by the terrour of the example may be reformed what hope can there be that Clemency may tame their hearts who interpret His Majesties grace in transporting their Priests out of His Realm to be a meer shift to rid the Prisons of those whom Conscience could not condemn of any capital crime IV. Neither are their vaunting whisperings to be neglected by which they seek to confirm the fearful souls of their party and to inveigle the ignorant doubtful or discontented persons for if the glorious extolling of their powerful friends and the expectance of a golden day be suffered to win credit with the meaner fort the relapse cannot be small or the means easie to reform the error without a general combustion of the State V. Let experience speak somewhat in this behalf which hath evidently descryed within the Current of few years that the forbearance of severity hath multiplied their Roll in such manner that it remains as a Corrosive to thousands of his Majesties well-affected Subjects VI. To what purpose serves it to muster the names of the Protestants or to vaunt them to be ten for one of the Roman Faction as if bare figures of numeration could prevail against an united party resolved and advised before hand how to turn their faces with assurance unto all dangers while in the mean time the Protestants neastling in vain security suffer the weed to grow up that threatneth their hane and merciless ruine VII Sometime the Oath of Supremacy choaked their presumptuous imaginations and yet could not that infernal smoke be smothered nor the Locusts issuing thereout be wholly cleansed from the face of this Land Now that the temporal power of the King conteined in the Oath of Allegiance is by the Papall See and many of the Adorers thereof impudently avowed to be unlawful shall the broachers of such Doctrine be suffered to live yea and to live and be relieved of us for whose destruction they groan daily VIII To be a right Popish-Priest in true English sense is to bear the Character of a disloyal Renegado of his natural obedience to his Soveraign whom if by connivency he shall let slip or chastise with a light hand what immunity may not traiterous Delinquents in lesser degrees expect or challenge after a sort in equity and justice IX If there were no Receivers there would be no Theeves Likewise if there were no harbourers of the Jesuits it is to be presumed that they would not trouble this Isle with their presence therefore rigor must be extended against the Receiver that the Jesuits may be kept out of dores were it then indifferent justice to hang up the Accessary and let the Principal go free namely to suffer the Priest to draw his breath at length whiles the Entertainer of him under his Roof submits his body to the Executioners hands without doubt if it be fit to forbear the chief it will be necessary to receive the second offender in to protection wherewith a mischief must ensue of continual expence and scandalous restraint of so great a number X. Reputation is one of the principal Arteries of the Common-wealth which Maxime is so well known to the Secretaries of the Papacy that by private Forgeries and publique impressions of Calumniations they endeavour to wound us in that vital part howsoever therefore some few of that stamp being better tempered then their fellows in defence of this present Government have not spared to affirm that Tyranny is unjustly ascribed thereunto for so much as freedome of Conscience after a sort may be redeemed for money notwithstanding there want not many Pamphleters of their side who approbriously cast in our teeths the converting of the penalty inflicted on Recusants and refusers of the Oath of Allegiance from the Kings Exchequor to a particular Purse sure we cannot presume that those Libellers may be diswaded from spitting out their venome maliciously against us when they shall see their Priests mewed up without further process of Law for either they will attribute this calm dealing to the justice of their cause the strength of their party or patience or that tract of time hath discovered out Laws importing over much sharpness in good pollicy to be thought fitter for abrogation by Non-usance than repealed by a publique decree XI Moreover it is fore-thought by some tht if these Seminaries be only restrained they may prove hereafter like a Snake kept in the bosome such as Bonner Gardiner and others of the same Livery shewed themselves to be after Liberty obtained in Queen Maries time and if the loss of those Ghostly fathers aggrieve them it is probable that they will take arms sooner and with more courage to free the living then to set up a Trophy to the dead XII Howsoever the Jesuits band is known in their native soyl to be defective in many respects which makes them underlings to the Protestants as in Authority Arms and the protection of the Laws which is all in all Nevertheless they insinuate themselves to forraign Princes favouring their party with promises of strong assistance at home if they may be well backed from abroad To which purpose they have divided the inhabitants of this realm into four sects whereof ranking their troupes in the first place as due to the pretended Catholiques they assumed a full fourth part to their property and of that part again they made a subdivision into two portions namely of those that openly renounced the estabilished Church of England and others whose certain number could not be assigned because they frequented our srevice our sacraments reserving their hearts to the Lord God the Pope The second party they alot to the Protestants who retain yet as they say some reliques of their Church The third rank and largest was left unto the Puritans

whom they hate deadly in respect they will hold no indifferent quarter with Papistry The fourth and last maniple they assign to the politicians huomoni say they senza dio senza anima men without fear of God or regard of their Souls who busying themselves only in matter of State retain no sense of Religion Without doubt if the Authors of this partition have cast their accompt aright we must confess that the latter brood is to be ascribed properly unto them for if the undermyning of the Parliament house the scandalizing of the King in print who is Gods anointed and the refusal of natural obedience be marks of those that neither stand in awe of God or conscience well may the Papists boast that they are assured of the first number and may presume likewise of the last friendship when occasion shall be offered for the preventing of which combination it is a sure way to cut off the heads that should tie the knot or at least to brand them with a mark in the forehead before they be dismissed or after the opinion of others to make them unwelcome to the feminine sex which now with great fervency imbraceth them These are for the most part Arguments vented in ordinary Discourse by many who suppose a Priests breath to be contagious in our English air Others there are who maintain the second part of the Question with reasons not unworthy of observance In favour of the second Division I. DEath is the end of temporal woes but it may in no wise be accounted the Grave of memory therefore howsoever it is in the power of Justice to suppress the Person of a man the opinion for which he suffered conceived truly or untruly in the hearts of a multitude is not subject to the edge of any sword how sharp or keen soever I confess that the teeth are soon blunted that bite only out of the malice of a singular faction but where Poyson is diffused through the Veins of a Common-wealth with inermixture of bloud good and bad separation is to be made rather by patient evacuation than by present incision the greatest biter of a State is Envy joyned with the thirst of Revenge which seldome declares it self in plain colours until a jealousie conceived of personal dangers breaketh out into desperate resolutions hence comes it to pass that when one male-contented member is grieved the rest of the body is sensible thereof neither can a Priest or Jesuit be cut off without a general murmur of their Secretaries which being confident in their number secretly Arm for opposition or confirmed with their Martyrs Bloud as they are perswaded resolve by patience and sufferance to glorifie their cause and merit Heaven Do we not daily see that it is easier to confront a private enemy than a Society or Corporation and that the hatred of a State is more immortal than the Spleen of a Monarchy therefore except it be demonstrated that the whole Roman City which consists not of one brood may be cut off at the first stroke as one entire head I see no cause to think our State secured by setting on the skirts of some few Seminaries leaving in the mean time a multitude of Snarlers abroad who already shew their Teeth and only wait opportunity to bite fiercely I will not deny that what we fear we commonly hate provided alwayes that no merit hath interceded a reconciliation for there is great difference between hatred conceived against him that will take away the life and him that may justly do it and yet in clemency forbears to put it in effect for the latter breedeth reverend aw whereas the former subjecteth to servile fear alwayes accompanied with desire of innovations and although it hath been affirmed of the Church of Rome Quod Pontificium genus semper crudele nevertheless out of Charity let us hope that all devils are not so black as they are painted some or perhaps many of them there are whom conscience or in default thereof pure shame of the world will constrain to confess that his Majesty most graciously distinguisheth the Theory of Popery from the Active part thereof as being naturally inclined Parvis peccatis veniam magnis Severitatem commodare nec poena semper sed saepius poenitentia contentus esse II. Mistaking of punishments Legally inflicted commonly proceeds from fond pitty or the interest which we have in the same cause both which beget blind partiality admit then that the Papall side affecting merit by compassion may be nearly touched with the restraint of their Seminaries it cannot be denyed I hope except they had the hearts of Tygers that in humanity they will prefer their ease of durance before the rigor of death and albeit that Parsons Bellarmin and the Pope himself constrain their spiritual Children to thrust their fingers into the fire by refusing the Oath of Allegiance notwithstanding we have many testimonies in judicial Courts and printed Books that the greater part of them are of that Theban hunters mind who would rather have seen his Dogs cruel acts then have felt them to his own cost Garnett himself also in one of his secret Letters that after his death he should not be inrolled amongst the Martyrs because that no matter of Religion was objected against him yet it plainly appeared in his demeanour that he would gladly have survived the possibility of that glory if any such hopes had remained Neither is it to be presumed that being in Prison he would ever have conceived that we durst not touch his Reverence or that the Law was remiss which had justly condemned him and left his life to the Kings mercy It was the distance of the place and not Parsons that interpreted the sending over-seas of the Priests to be a greater argument of their innocency than of his Majesties forbearance For had Father Parsons himself been Coram nobis his Song would rather have been of mercy then justice It is truly said that we are all instructed better by examples then precepts therefore if the Laws printed and Indictments recorded cannot controul the Calumniations of those that wilfully will mistake Treason for Religion By the execution of two or three of that back-biting number I doubt not but the question may readily be decided Namque immedicabile vulnus Ense recidendum est Ne pars sincera trahatur III. To dally with pragmatical Papists especially with those that by their example and Counsel pvevert his Majesties Subjects I hold it a point of meer injustice For what comfort may the good expect when the bad are by connivency free to speak and imboldened to put their disloyal thoughts into execution For explaning therefore of my meaning it is necessary to have a regard unto the nature of the Kings Liege-People that are to be reformed by example of justice and others Forraigners who will we nill we must be censurers of our actions It

not a cord about their necks ready for vengeance if it were found unprofitable but let such Stoicks know that there is great difference between the penning of a Law and advice giving for the manner of executing it neither by their leaves are all innovations to be rejected for divine Plato teacheth us that in all Common-wealths upon just grounds there ought to be some changes and that States men therein must behave themselves like skilfull musicians Qui artem musices non mutant sed musices modum V. That an evil weed groweth fast by the example of the new Catholique increase is clearly convinced but he that will ascribe this generation simply to his Majesties heroicall vertue of Clemency argueth out of fallacy which is called Ignoratio Elenchi was not the zeal of many cooled towards the last end of Queen Elizabeths Raign hath not the impertinent heat of some of our own side bereft us of part of our strength and the Papacy with tract of time gotten a hard skin on their Consciences Parva metus primo mox sese attollit in altum But if we will with a better insight behold how this great quantity of spaun is multiplied we must especially ascribe the cause thereof to their Priests who by their deaths prepare and assure more to their sect than by their lives they could ever perswade It were incivility to distrust a Friend or one that hath the shew of an honest man if he will frankly give his word or confirm it with an Oath but when a Protestation is made upon the last gasp of life it is of great effect to those that cannot gainesay it upon their owne knowledge The number of Priests which now adayes come to make a Tragicall conclusion is not great yet as with one Seal many Patents are sealed so with the loss of few lives numbers of wavering spirits may be gained Sanguis Martyrum Semen Ecclesieae And though those Priests having a disadvantagious cause are in very deed but counterfeit shadowes of Martyrs unto a true understanding yet will they be reputed for such by those that lay their Souls in pawn unto their Doctrine with whom if we list to contend by multitude of voices vve shall be cried down vvithout all peradventure for the gate of their Church is vvide and many there are that enter thereinto VI. By divers means it is possible to come to one and the self same end seeing then that the summe of our vvell-vvishing is all one namely that Popish Priests may have no power to do harm it is not impertinent to try sundry paths vvhich may lead us to the perfecting of our desires Politicians distinguish inter rempublicam constitutam rempublicam constituendam according to the severall natures vvhereof Statists art to dispose of their Counsells and Ordinances vvere now the Rhemists and Romulists new hatched out of the shell the former course of severity might soon bury their opinions with their persons but since the disease is inveterate variety of medicines is judicially to be applyed The Romans did not punish all crimes of one and the selfsame nature vvith extremity of death for some they condemned to perpetuall prison and others they banished into an Island or some remote Countrey even in the case of Religion they vvere very tender to dip their fingers in bloud for vvhen Cato vvas Consull and it seemed good unto the Senate to suppress with violence the disordered Ceremony of the Bacchanalls brought by a strange Priest into the City he vvithstood that sentence alledging that there vvas nothing so apt to deceive men as Religion vvhich alwayes pretends a shew of divinity and for that cause it behoved to be very vvary in chastising the professors thereof lest any indignation should enter into the peoples minds that some-what vvas derogated from the Majesty of God Others more freely have not spared to place Relgion I mean that Religion vvhich is ignorantly zealous amongst the kinds of Frenzie vvhich is not to be cured otherwise than by time given to divert or qualifie the fury of the conceipt Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum VII Howsoever in valuing the power of a City or strength of arguments quality and vvorth is to be preferred before number nevertheless vvhere the uttermost of our force is not known it imports much to have it conceived That the multitude stands for us for doubts and suspicions cast in an enemies vvay evermore makes things seem greater and more difficult than they are indeed vve have by Gods mercy the Sword of justice drawn in our behalf which upon short warning is able to disunite the secret underminers of our quiet we have a King zealous for the house of the Lord who needeth not to feare less success in shutting up of Priests than our late Queen had in restraining them in Wisbich Castle where lest their factious Spirits should grow rusty they converted their Cancer to fret upon themselves and vomitting out Gall in Quod-libets shewed that their disease was chiefly predominant in the spleen what tempests they have raised in their College at Rome their own books and many travellers can witness the storm whereof was such that Sixtus Quintus complained seriously of the vexation which he received oftner from the English Scholars then all the Vassals of the Triple Crown and untruly is the Magistrate noted of negligence or overmuch security that layeth wait to catch the Foxes and the little Foxes which spoyl the Vineyard though afterwards without further punishment he reserve them to the day wherein God will take accompt of their Stewardship for if Aristotles City defined to be a society of men assembled to live well be the same which in our Law hath reference to the maintaining of the people in Peace so long as we taste of the sweet of a peaceable Government we cannot say but that we live well and that the City consisting of men and not of walls is happily guided VIII An Oath is a weak bond to contain him that will for pretended conscience sake hold not faith with heretiques or by absolution from a Priest thinketh himself at liberty to fly from any promise or protestation whatsoever therefore when I remember that Watson the Priest notwithstanding his invectives against the Jesuits gained liberty to forge his traiterous inventions and had others of his society in the complot I judge if safer to make recluses of them than to suffer such to dally with us by books and some idle intelligences cast abroad onely as a mist to bleare our eyes But how shall we finde the meanes to apprehend those disguised Romanists that borrow the shape of Captaines Merchants Gentlemen Citizens and all sorts of people and by equivocation may deny themselves to be themselves In answer to this question I will first shew the reason why they are not pursued and taken and hereafter make an overture how they may be bolted out of their hutches