forelaid Council of Trent entirely and fully without Limitation or Restraint but to embrace also and to put it in ure where occasion and place is offered such other points of Reformation as tend to the perfect restitution of Ecclesiastical Discipline that were in use in the ancient Christian Church though afterward decayed for want of Spirit and not urged now again nor commanded for the Council of Trent for the causes before by me alledged for better Declaration whereof we may consider that the Council of Trent touching Reformation of Manners had to repair an old ancient House whereof many parts were sore weakened by Corruptions and some perished but yet the whole could not be changed nor built anew but necessarily the reparation must be made according to the State and Condition of the other parts that yet remained and so those good Fathers could not frame all points to their own likeing nor yet according to the Rules of perfect Ecclesiastical Architecture But now in England no doubt but that the State of things will be far otherwise whensoever the change of Religion shall happen For then it will be lawful for a good Catholick Prince that God shall send and 2 for a well affected Parliament which himself and the time will easily procure to begin of new and to build from the very foundation the external face of our Catholick Church and to follow the Model which themselves will chuse and if that will be a good and perfect Model it will endure at least for a time and be a pattern of true Christianity to the rest of the World but if it be but ordinary and of the meaner sort at the beginning it will quickly slide back to the old Corruptions wherein it was before and so the benefit of this Probation and Tribulation will soon be lost both before God and Men which Jesus forbid for that it is and will be the greatest Crown that ever England hath had since her first Conversion to the Christian Faith and according to this account must our purpose be of Reformation whensoever God shall restore us to Liberty and Peace lest we lose in Peace that which we gained in War as Eusebius Caesariensis saith that some did in antient Persecutions and it ought to be a warning to us to take heed by their Examples And this is so much as in this behalf seemeth needful to be remembred Animadversions on Chap. II. 1 THE late Council of Trent The Jesuit in the former Chapter was complaining of the coldness and imperfect Reformation of Queen Mary's Reign and here he is as severe upon the Council of Trent it self which notwithstanding its being directed and assisted by the Holy Ghost as this Jesuit as well as the rest of their Writers will have it to be when they are engaged in Controversie against the Reformed and notwithstanding the Infallible Vicar at Rome presided in it by his Legates and did from time to time influence and direct all its Consultations and Determinations yet was so base and cowardly according to our fierce Jesuit as to truckle to the humours of the Age and make a very lame and imperfect Reformation out of compliance with the lukewarmness and iniquity of that Age. But the rest of the World were not of our Jesuit's Mind but did easily see that no Temporal Prince could submit to that Council which by the bye was nothing but a meer Western Conventicle of Italian Bishops and the Pope's own Creatures who had sworn to be true and faithful to him and to preserve to him those which he and they call the Rights and Honours of S. Peter before ever they came within the Walls of that assembly without wrong to himself and to his People However our Jesuit is for having his Popish Prince in England to receive the Council of Trent entirely and fully without Limitation and Restraint though the Prince that does it makes himself feudatory to the Popes and leaves his Country to their disposal when they think fit to have it escheat to them this no body can doubt of it that will but examine what that Council at Trent hath determined about the Matter of Duels in any Princes Countries and this without Question is one of the Reasons why the Gallican Church could not then nor can be to this day perswaded to admit the Council of Trent entirely but refuse it as to the Canons about Discipline which encroach upon the Prince's Right and the Churches Authority By what I can observe from our Jesuit he is for overdoing the whole World and while he brands others with the name of Cold Catholicks would I suppose have a Council of Jesuits to reform their Church and then I am sure it will be done to purpose 2 For a well affected Parliament which himself and the time will easily procure Here is an Instance of a fatal mistake in our Jesuit's Politicks and Foresight The Papists in England by God's Permission have had a Popish Prince and a Prince governed by Jesuits too and as zealous as our Jesuit himself could either imagine or wish him to be and yet after all he was not able to get a well affected Parliament that is a Parliament that would have settled Popery effectually among us That Prince came to the Crown with greater advantages than one of his Perswasion could well have been supposed to have done he was no sooner fixt in his Throne than he had the good success to break and suppress two very dangerous Rebellions and appeared to the World to have the love of all his Subjects who gratified him in his first Parliament with every thing that they could either with Honour or Conscience give But when tempted I am afraid by the reading of this Jesuit's Memorial and by the strange success against the two Insurrections he began to pull off the Vizard and was for breaking in upon the National Protestant security by keeping up a standing Army with a great many Popish unqualified Officers and thought it would prove 〈◊〉 easie matter to bring in his Popery we see how miserably he was out in his Measures that very Parliament that had been so kind as to settle a greater Revenue upon him than ever King of England had by six hundred thousand Pounds a Year as I have been informed for some Years and to give him great Supplies and to Voâ—â— him more and that did stand by him with their Fortuneâ— and Lives were yet for standing by their Religion and their Laws and were neither so tame nor foolish as to be either complemented or hector'd out of either of them This dissolved that Parliament and shewed how graâ—â—ful a Popish Prince could be to the best and kindest Parliament And when this Parliament was dissolved and Popery made every day larger steps than before and the whole Constitution was laid to sleep in favour of Fanatiâ— and Papists did he or time procure a more kind or well affected Parliament Indeed all the care imaginable
began to be Christians and to subject themselves also to this Spiritual Government and Jurisdiction of Souls and to be Sheep of these Spiritual Pastors among the rest they were admitted without detriment or diminution of their Temporal State and Government so far forth as it concerned the Temporal good of the Commonwealth which is Peace Wealth Justice and the like but yet so as they should not meddle or challenge power in the Spiritual Jurisdiction of Souls but be subject therein and leave that Government to Clergy-men and Spiritual Governors appointed by Christ and put in authority for that purpose long before Temporal Princes came to be converted as hath been declared And therefore came the distinction of Spiritual Governors and Temporal Governors of Clergy-men and Lay-men of Christian Pastors and Christian Sheep in which number of Christian Sheep and Subjects all Princes of the World are to be accounted in respect of their Souls and in all points appertaining thereunto and in respect of their Spiritual Pastors And albeit here in this life among Flesh and Blood where matters of this World and Life present are more respected commonly being present and the object to our Senses than Spiritual matters are of the life to come which are not seen but believed only though I say the external shew power and terror of Temporal Princes be much more respected reverenced and feared than is the authority of Priesthood or Jurisdiction of Spiritual Governors yet in themselves there is no comparison as by the reasons before alledged doth evidently appear but that the authority of Priesthood is much more great high and worthy and more principal and ancient in the Church of Christ for that it was before the other many Years and is over and above the other and that so far forth as St. Paul in his first Epistle and fourth Chapter to the Corinthians hath these words If you have secular Judgments among you appoint for Judges the contemptible that be in the Church of Christ for that function which yet I speak saith he to your shame for that none of the wiser sort among you do end or take up these temporal strifes but one Christian accuseth another and that before secular Tribunals even of Infidel Princes Christ himself when he was requested to judge between two Brothers in a Temporal matter he refused the same as also fled when the People would have made him a Temporal King and finally he said his Kingdom was not of this World which was not to disallow or contemn Judgment or Temporal authority of this World or that he was not in truth most lawful King also of this World being the Judge Author and Creator thereof but all this was to shew the small account he made of all this Temporal power in respect of the power Spiritual over Souls which properly he came to exercise and to plant and settle in the Church after him unto which all Kings and Emperors that would be saved should subject themselves and their Sceptres as we read that our Great Constantine before named and first Christian Emperor of the World did and after him the most renouned of the rest as Valentinian the two Theodosius's Justinian Charles the great and others in the occasions that were offered did humble themselves unto their Pastors and Governors of Christ's Church shewing themselves thereby to be the true Nurses and Foster-Fathers of Christ's Church which Isaiah the Prophet had foretold should come and succeed in Temporal Christian Kingdoms and Monarchies And yet by this did they not lose or diminish one jot of Temporal authority height or Majesty but rather did greatly confirm and increase the same for that Spiritual Pastors and Governors of Souls do teach and command all due reverence and obedience to be done in Temporal matters to Temporal Princes and do exhibit the same also themselves and do punish the contrary by Spiritual and everlasting punishments as well as by the Temporal upon such as are wicked or rebellious therein so as both these Governments joyned together in a Christian Commonwealth and one not disdaining or emulating the other but honouring rather respecting and assisting the same all goeth well both for the Temporal and everlasting felicity of all And such as do set division betwixt these two States are very Instruments of Sathan such as are the Hereticks Politicks Atheists and other seditious People of our days And for that in no other Country of the World whilest ours flourished hath there been more union love honour and respect born betwixt these two Orders of Spiritual and Temporal Men than in England as may appear even to this day by the many Temporal Honours Prerogatives and Dignities given to our Clergy in the Parliament and other Temporal affairs and that the Emulation and breach between the same enkindled and set on by the Devil and wicked Men hath been a principal cause of the ruine both to Country and both Parts that were Catholick in times past as hath been said and seen for this cause I thought it not amiss to speak somewhat more largely of the matter in this place and by this occasion having mentioned the same in divers other places of this Memorial before as a matter of no small importance to be throughly remedied and reformed at the next change if God say Amen which remedy will be if the Clergy considering their high Vocation and Estate be not proud thereof nor ambitious but endeavour to conform their lives to so great worthiness of their Profession And if Lay-men on the other side considering the very same to wit the dignity and reverence due to such as have Jurisdiction and Government over their Souls and must open and shut the Gates of Heaven unto them do not malign and envy their Estate as miserable Chore Dathan and Abiron did but do seek rather to profit themselves thereby and willingly joyn with them to the procuring their own and other Men's Salvations And this is so much as is needful to be spoken in this place of the Laity or Temporalty in general for that afterward there will be place to speak of all particularities that shall occur in the several Chapters that shall ensue CHAP. II. Of the Prince and his Council and matters belonging to them AS the Prince in every Commonwealth is the Head and Heart from whence all life and vigour principally cometh unto the same so above all other things is it of importance that he be well affected and disposed and so much the more in England above other Countries by how much greater and eminent his authority is and power with the People more than in divers other places by which means it hath come to pass that England having had more store of holy Kings in ancient times than many other Countries together came to have Religion and Piety more abundantly settled by their means than divers Realms about them and on the contrary side her Kings and Princes of later years having
been perverted by dissolution of Life and Heresie they have brought her into more misery infamy and confusion within the compass of few years than all other Christian Kingdoms round about us together Wherefore the principal help and hope next under God which our poor afflicted Country hath or may have of her redress is by means of her good Catholick Prince that God of his Mercy shall vouchsafe to give us who also considering the great work whereunto he is called shall in no wise be able better to satisfie his Obligation and Duty to God and the Expectation of all good Men and to assure his own Possession and Estate than to make account that the security of himself his Crown and Successor dependeth principally of the assurance and good establishment of the Catholick Roman Religion within his Kingdom and whatsoever is done or permitted against this Religion is not only against Jesus Christ our Saviour and his Spouse his Catholick Church but also against every Catholick Prince as his supream Minister and much more against the King of England as things do now stand both for Religion and Estate First of all then is to be recommended with all humility and earnest suit unto his Majesty that shall be established the singular care and holy zeal of restoring perfectly the Catholick Religion in our Realm and to employ his whole endeavour and authority therein and to concur and assist with his Princely favour and special Protection all such Men as principally shall labour therein and above other the Council of Reformation the Prelates Preachers and Clergy of his Realm and by example of his own Royal Person in frequenting the Holy Sacraments and other pious Actions of Religion and Devotion to animate all other his Subjects and foreign Princes also and Countries about him to whom he will in these our times be a remarkable mirrour to imitate the same and this for his own Person But concerning his Majesty's Council both in Spiritual and Temporal affairs it will import also exceeding much that he make choice of fit and worthy persons And for the first which is in matters concerning conscience the pious custom of some Catholick Kings and namely those of Portugal in times past is greatly to be commended who besides their Temporal Council had also another of learned Spiritual Men named the Table of Conscience in taking any thing in hand and execution of the same And for this Council they were wont to make choice as I have said of some number of eminent and learned Men and also notorious for their Piety and good Consciences whether they were of Religious Orders or no and the head or chief of these commonly the King 's own Confessor who might with more security by council and assistance of these able Men direct the King's mind with safety of Conscience And whatsoever Prince shall take this course no doubt but he shall find great help light comfort security and quietness of Mind thereby And as for the World abroad it must needs be a singular great justification of all his acts intention and attempts in the eyes and tongues of all Men seeing he doth them by the direction of so irreprehensible a Consultation His Temporal Council shall be needful to be made with great choice and deliberation especially at the beginning in England for that if any one person thereof should be either infected with Heresie or justly suspected or not fervent nor forward in the Catholick Religion and in the Reformation necessary to be made for good establishment of the same it would be to the great prejudice of the cause and of his Majesty and Realm And seeing Heresie and Hereticks could be so vigilant for overthrowing of true Religion at the beginning of this Queen's Reign as they admitted no one Man to govern whom they might suspect to favour true-true-Religion how much more zealous and jealous ought our new Catholick Prince to be in excluding from his Privy Council and other places of chief charge and government not only Men known or justly feared to be favourers of Heresie and Hereticks that will never be secure to God or his Majesty but also â—old and doubtful professors of Catholick Religion until they be proved by long tract of time And seeing that his Majesty shall have so great choice at that day of approved constant Catholicks within the Realm as never was seen the like since our first Conversion who have suffered so constantly at the hands of Hereticks in these Persecutions it is to be hoped and expected that his Majesty will serve himself first and chiefly of these men above all others according to their merits and after these of such other known Catholicks as albeit God gave them not fortitude and constancy to suffer so much as the others did for Religion yet were they ever secret favourers and never Persecutors or open Enemies to the truth It is to be commended with like submission and instance to his Majesty that after he shall have taken the Crown upon him and embraced this Realm as his loving Spouse he will confirm first of all the Laws Customs Priviledges Dignities and Liberties of the same and to take away all such burdens servitudes and unjust oppressions as have been any way laid upon us in former times but since the entrance of Heresie And as this is to be done to all the Realm as to the Nobility and to the Commonalty so principally and above others it is reason that it should be performed to the Church and Clergy-men who beyond all others have been injured in these latter times so that at the least it will be just that the Church of England be restored to the same state of Priviledges Possessions Dignities and Exemptions wherein it was when King Henry the Eighth began to Reign And for that the external face and material part of our Churches hath been so much defaced spoiled and broken down by King Henry the Eighth and his Children as all the World seeth it will be one principal part of our new King's Piety and Religion to concur effectually to the rebuilding and restoring of the same again by the means touched by me before of that moderate and temperate manner of restitution whereof I have spoken largely in the First Part of this Memorial And it is to be hoped that his Majesty will be the first and most fervent fartherer of the same according to the Holy Obligation Vow and Offer that he will make to Almighty God for that Heroical enterprise to his eternal honour and infinite benefit and beautifying of our Commonwealth Which sound Foundation of Religion and Piety being once laid it may be suggested to his Majesty with like sollicitude touching the execution of Justice to all Men with indifferency which is the principal point of a true Catholick Prince's Office next after God and Religion and is so much the more necessarily to be looked to now in England after so long
THE JESUIT'S MEMORIAL FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE Church of England THE JESUIT'S MEMORIAL For the Intended Reformation of England Under their First POPISH PRINCE PUBLISHED From the Copy that was presented TO THE Late KING JAMES II. WITH An INTRODUCTION and some ANIMADVERSIONS BY EDWARD GEE Rector of St. Benedict Paul's-Wharf and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXC To the Right Reverend Father in God WILLIAM Lord Bishop of S. ASAPH Lord Almoner to Their MAJESTIES My Lord IT was a very easie thing for me to determine to whom I should present the following Discourses as it was from your Lordship's Sermon before Their Majesties the last 5th of November that I had the hint of your Lordship's having seen the Memorial that we had sought but in vain so earnestly after in the late King's Time so it was by your Lordship's Interest that I obtained not only the happiness of seeing it but the permission to publish it from the most authentick if not the only Copy in England from that which had been presented by the Jesuits to the late King James himself And since my Lord Decency requires the concealing from whose hands your Lordship received this Copy of the Memorial and the Leave for me to publish it it was necessary for me to address it to your Lordship from whose hands I received it that thereby any Objections against my Fidelity or Truth herein may be prevented as all will when my Lord Almoner's Name is seen at the Head of it Some indeed will wonder to see a Jesuit's Book dedicated by a Minister of the Church of England to a Bishop that hath been always most zealous against Popery and especially against the Jesuits Order to such persons I hope this Apology will be sufficient I am sure it will be to your Lordship that I publish this Jesuit's Memorial because I am fully perswaded that I am by it doing a greater service to the Protestant Interest against Popery than I was ever able to do by any thing I wrote against Popery during the Controversie in the late Reign In this Memorial we have naked Jesuitism and the several Projects laid down by which our Protestant Religion was not only to have been rooted out of England but the very possibility of its ever reviving here prevented and this I hope will teach some of the discontented People among us to acknowledge at least that our danger from the Jesuits Faction in the last Reign was as great as we made it and that our Deliverance by their present Majesties was a far greater blessing upon the account of our Protestant Establishment than they have hitherto been pleased to believe it I have had so much experience of your Lordship's goodness towards me that I do not in the least suspect your pardoning me the trouble of this Address Had I had no other reasons to make it the many favours I have received at your Lordship's hands would have engaged me to make this publick acknowledgment for them since I cannot but reckon it one of the greatest blessings of my Life that I have the honour to be known to your Lordship who are so eminent for your extraordinary Learning Piety Charity and Moderation I mention your Lordship's Moderation because some Men of late have been pleased to be very angry with your Lordship for it had your Lordship and those Eminent Persons that continued of your Judgment been as willing to part with Episcopacy as with the Apocrypha and as desirous to lay aside the whole Liturgy as they were to improve it I should have excused their anger against you for which I can see no other reason in the World but that your Lordship and those of your Mind could not forget so fast and so entirely as some others did their discourses their promises and intentions about accommodating matters with the Moderate Dissenters as well as giving ease to the rest of them That your Lordship may be blessed with a long continuance of health and enabled thereby to finish those excellent Designs that you have under your hands that you may long continue an Ornament to the Church of England and to Protestant Episcopacy and may be blest with success in your endeavours for the Establishment and Glory of both these is the most sincere Prayer of My Lord Your Lordship 's most obliged and most obedient Servant EDWARD GEE THE INTRODUCTION SINCE the Jesuit that was Author of the following Memorial has made so much noise in the World and was infamous for his Treasonable Practices during the Reigns he lived in and has by his seditious writings laid the Foundation of perpetual trouble to the Kingdom of England as long as there are or shall be either Papists in England or English Papists beyond Seas it will not be improper to furnish the Reader with the History of him that thereby he may be enabled to read and pass a truer Judgment upon the following Memorial for rooting out our Protestant establishment and replanting again their Popish Religion in England The World is not agreed either about his Name or Parentage for the Name of Parsons or Persons as he writes it himself they will have it to be given him upon a scandalous reason while the true name of his supposed Father was Cowback or Cubbuck He was born not at Stockersey in Somerset-Shire as the Secular Priests affirm against him but at Nether-Stowey in that County and notwithstanding the meanness of his Parentage had the advantage of a liberal Education and was fitted for the University whither he was sent and admitted into Baliol College in Oxford he was afterwards made Fellow of the same College and entered into Holy Orders and became a noted Tutor having the greatest number of Pupils in the College But notwithstanding his setting out so very well he was afterwards turned out of his Fellowship and the College with disgrace he was not expelled indeed but forced to resign with leave to keep his Chambers and Pupils a while longer but this grace was quickly crossed out the occasion of which the Writers of those times and of his own Society are very much divided about Father Morus the Jesuit and Author of the History of the Jesuits Mission into England will have it to be because he was not only suspected of inclining to Popery but as he will have it palam de Religione aliter judicaret loqueretur quam regni jura definierant c. both thought and spake openly for the Romish Religion and therefore that it was an unfit and a dangerous thing to trust such a Man with the Education of so many Youth as he generally had under his care But this cannot be the true reason since Father Persons behaved himself as a good Protestant and conversed especially with such Men Mr. Squire and Dr. Hide for example then famous Men and zealous Protestants as might instruct and confirm
him in the Protestant Religion for which he was afterwards when he was College-Bursar so very zealous that he changed a great many old Books and Manuscripts for Protestant Books and did first put Protestant Writers into their College-Library and after his disgraceful putting out of the College when an old Friend of his a Gentleman of the Inner Temple declared to him that he had doubts concerning his Religion he did not only protest to the Gentleman but offered to take his Oath upon it That he was no Papist nor did ever intend to be Others will have his turning out of his Fellowship to be occasioned by his being a turbulent and lewd Man guilty of Forgery and Knavery and such-like crimes as made him unfit for a Society and Dr. Bagshaw who had been of the same College and afterwards turned Papist also and became a Seminary Priest affirms that he was accused of falsifying his College-Accounts by Stancliffe his Brother Bursar and this is often objected to him by the Secular Priests who have treated him with severity enough though not with more than his Pranks after he became a Jesuit did deserve Others assign other reasons of his being discharged the College but to set aside at once the reasons offered by his Brethren the Jesuits and those objected by his severer Adversaries the Secular Priests the matter may be truly decided by the Testimonies of two unexceptionable Witnesses who both knew him and one of them was Fellow of the same College with Persons Archbishop Abbot and Mr. Camden the Historian the Archbishop hath written a large Letter about this very business which I shall transcribe hither out of Mr. Foulis who says he did transcribe it from the Original with the marginal Notes upon it To my worshipful loving Friend Mr. Dr. Hussye at Mr. Haiden's House who dwelleth at the Sign of the Tunn in Watlingstreet give these YOU write unto me to know what is in record any way against Mr. Parsons and I return you here inclosed word for word so much as is in the Register of Baliol College In the Resignation as you may see he had written sponte coactus but now it is sponte non coactus being blotted out and non being set over Which I am deceived if it be not altered by some body else of late in as much as I am verily perswaded that since my coming to the College I have seen it sponte coactus which although it carry a Contradiction yet intimateth that he resigned against his will The particular reasons whereof no Man can tell better than Dr. Turner now dwelling in Fetter-lane or Dr. Hide of Sarum for as I take it they were both present at his removing The causes and manner of his giving over as far as I could ever comprehend were these Bagshaw being a smart young man and one who thought his penny good Silver after that he had his Grace to be Batchelor of Arts was with some despight swindged by Parsons being Dean of the College hoc manet alta mente repostum And Bagshaw afterward coming to be Fellow was most hot in Persecution against Parsons It was the more forwarded by Dr. Squire 's displeasure who was then Master of Baliol College and thought himself to have been much bitten by vile Libels the Author whereof he conceived Parsons to be who in truth was a Man at that time wonderfully given to scoffing and that with bitterness which also was the cause that none of the company loved him Now Dr. Squire and Bagshaw being desirous of some occasion to trim him this fell out in the year 1572. Parsons had been Bursar and being joyn'd in Office with one Stancliff a very simple fellow he took the advantage of the weakness of his Colleague and falsified the Reckonings much to the damage of the College as also deeply polling the Commoners Names whereof there was store in the College and withal not sparing his own Scholars by all which means it was thought that he had purloin'd one hundred Marks His Office expired at St. Luke's Tide there were some that between that and February 1573. scanned over the Books being moved thereunto by the secret complaints of some of the Commoners their Scholars and finding it apparent as also being now certified that he was a Bastard whereas it is the first quality there required by Statute that every Fellow should be Legitimo Thoro natus they proceeded to have his Expulsion solemnly Where by the way you may add that Parsons was not of the best fame concerning Incontinency as I have heard some say who lived in Oxon at that time but whether that were then objected against him I have not heard Parsons being put to this push in the College-Chapel and ways sufficient concurring to expel him and in truth no Man standing for him maketh humble request That he might be suffered to resign which with some a-do was yielded to him and then he wrote as you have here inclosed Afterwards before the Assembly broke up he intreated that his giving over might be concealed by reason that it would be disgraceful unto him with all Men but especially with his Scholars and their Friends and for these causes humbly prayed that he might keep his Scholars Chamber c. and be reputed as a Fellow in the House the matter being concealed from all the Boys and the younger sort in the House which then in words was yielded unto and that other Decree which now you see razed was enacted for the time but afterwards was soon crossed as you may behold And soon after their coming out of the Chappel by Bagshaw's means a Peal of Bells was rung at Magdalen Parish-Church being the Parish wherein Baliol College standeth the reason of which ringing as it was imparted to some few to be to ring out Mr. Parsons so generally it was not known to the World or in the College which gave occasion to this farther Jest. When Parson 's was Expell'd he was one of the Deans of the Colledge and so by his Place was to keep Corrections in the Hall on the Saturdays The next time therefore of Corrections which was the day of Parsons his Exclusion or soon after Dr. Squire causeth Parsons to go into the Hall as Dean and to call the Book and Roll c. And then cometh Dr. Squire himself in and as if it had been in kindness to countenance him but in truth more profoundly to deride him he calleth him at every word Mr. Dean and desireth him often to have a strict care to the good government of the Youth and not only for a fit but all the time of his year that he was to continue in Office Some of the Commoners knew all this Pageant and laught the more sweetly and Parsons in the end spied how he was scorned and nothing concealed nay understanding all his Knell which was rung out for him for very shame got him away to London and there not
that there will be no difficulty Here our Jesuit was much out in his Observations which are not only contrary to the Experience of our Age but of his own as for the late Attempts to replant Popery in England I appeal to the Popish Priests employed in the Mission whether it appeared or proved to be so very easie a thing to bring Popery into the good esteem of the English Nation and for Father Parsons own Age notwithstanding the Protestant Religion had so short a time as the Reign of the Young King Edward to spread it self in yet when Queen Mary had a Mind to restore Popery she was forced upon arts much below her Station in the World to promise what she was far from performing that none of her Subjects should be forced in Conscience that she would in particular preserve to the Suffolk and Norfolk Men who had been so great instruments in her advancement to the Throne that Reformation begun in her Brother's days for which they were zealous and never make any innovation or change of the then established Reformed Religion but would content her self with the private exercise of her own Religion Such assurances do not make the Restitution of Popery even then to be so easie a thing as the Jesuit things and when the Queen broke her Faith with these Suffolk Hereticks and was for setting up Popery again with all the haste she could yet her first Parliament would not do her business for her though very dishonourable and base practices were used to make them fit for the restoring Popery effectually though in many places as an Historian of that time informs the World of the Country some were chosen by force and threats and in-other places those employed by the Court did with violence hinder the Commons from coming to chuse in others false Returns and after all some unserviceable for such violent purposes were violently turned out of the House of Commons So that that cunning Politician Gardiner was forc'd to dismiss this Parliament and by Bribes and Corruptions buy and pension another before they could get their Popery made the established Religion but with such abatements and defects in the business of Abby Lands particularly as make our Jesuit complain and be ashamed of them Did such Experience then give any grounds for our Jesuit to be so confident of the facility of bringing in Popery again This shews that a Jesuit can be very zealous both against Reason and against even his own as well as all other People's Experience God be thanked that upon a second tryal of their skill under a Popish King and managed by Jesuits too it is found that it is not only a difficult but an impossible thing to replain Popery in England e Life and Spirit by putting good and vertuous Men We should be so far from angry that we ought to thank the Jesuit for making this Reflection upon our Cathedrals and Universities Had he commended them I should have suspected them to have been such as himself was when he was turned out of his College at Oxford for Immorality Mr. Camden our famous Historian says our Jesuit was his contemporary in Oxford that he was Fellow of Baliol College and â—â—de open Profession of the Protestant Religion until he was for his loose carriage expelled with disgrace and then went over to the Papists It was great Pity therefore that when our Jesuit was in the Chapter providing that good and vertuous Men upon the re-establishment of Popery should be put into our Colleges he took no particular care for his own College Baliol that especial care might be taken there above all others that if any of those ill Men were alive then who had been so wicked as to expel out of their College the sober pious and chaste Mr. Parsons they should be removed with disgrace for an example to all other Colleges CHAP. II. What manner of Reformation is needful in England HAving spoken of a perfect Reformation if any Man would ask what manner of Reformation this is I could answer him no better to the purpose considering the present State of England under Persecution than to say That it ought to be as the Reformation or Purification of Gold is when it cometh out of the fiery Furnace to wit pure simple perfect without corruption dregs or rust for so God himself compareth his True Church and all his Elect after their probation by the Fire of Tribulation And again I may compare it to the State of a Garden which being over-grown with Weeds and Thistles the Owner thereof putteth fire to the whole and when all is consumed then beginneth he to plant chosen and sweet Herbs at his pleasure And the like is God's desire to do with this English Garden if we will cooperate with his holy designment Hereof then it followeth that the Reformation of England after this long and sharp Persecution ought to be very perfect full and compleat not respecting so much what some cold Catholicks use to do in other Countries where Spirit is decay'd and Corruption crept in as what may be done or ought to be done in England or if we will needs cast our eyes upon the Example of others let us look upon the Apostles and their Successors and upon the Primitive Church that had the force of Christ's Spirit stirring and hot in them which long continuance of time afterward did both weaken and cool and in many a one has been quite extinguished And to come to some particulars the whole World knoweth how that the 1 late Holy Council of Trent when it came to matters of Reformation of Manners it was constrained to accommodate it self in many things to the capacity of that decay'd State of Christendom which then they found and so to set down those Decrees which they might suppose would be received generally in the Church as the Physician does in tempering his Medicine according to the strong complexion and disposition of his Patient though not so effectually many times as the Disease it self in rigour would require Thâ—â— those Holy Fathers of the Council moderating many of their Decrees in this behalf of manners according to the weakness of this our Age and omitting many other points of more rigour and perfection suggested to them by divers holy and learned Men and this yet notwithstanding we set with what difficulties delays unwillingness cautels protestations restraints and exceptions this part of the Council touching Reformation has been received in divers Countries that otherwise are Catholick by reason of the general Corruption grown into Men's Lives and Customs for purging whereof even unto the quick it is supposed that God hath sent this Fire of Heresie into Christendom and is feared by many that it will never cease until all be cleansed England then having passed now this Fire ought to make Declaration by her works when time shall serve how much she hath profited by this Purgation and to receive not only the
wâ— taken all ways were tryed and some very mean ones 〈◊〉 was forc'd to be for so I cannot but in compaâ—â—â— word it Ungrateful to his best Friends to turn all the Honest Nobility and Gentry of the Nation out of all Commissions of Trust or Profit to discard his two Brothers who had been so faithful to his Interest in the worst of times and serviceable to him at all times to snatch away Charters to regulate and model them by thrusting out honest substantial Men and filling their Places with the Vilest and Off-scouring of all places for so I must look upon all those Protestants to be though they have wiped their Mouth since that would engage to chuse such Parliament men as would take off the Penal Laws and Test to undertake the mean Office himself of closetting Nobility and Gentry and yet all would not do he and our Jesuit were equally mistaken he could not get a Parliament to his Mind CHAP. III. How this Reformation may best be procured and what Disposition of Minds is needful for it in all Parties FOR that the grace and good Motion to take in hand and to go through with so great a work as is this desired Reformation must come from Heaven therefore the first sure step unto it must be by 3 the true reconciliation of the Realm unto God and to his Church and as the first of these two proceedeth so will the second and for that the first was hudled up in Queen Mary's Days I mean the Reconciliation by a certain general Absolution only without due search and consideration of what had been committed or what satisfaction was to be made to God and Man so was the other shuffled up with like negligence and only the external part was plastered without remedying the Root the renewing the Spirit which should have been the ground of all many Priests that had fallen and married in King Edward's Days were admitted presently to the Altar without other satisfaction than only to send their Concubines out of Men's sight and of some it is thought they did not so much as confess themselves before they said Mass again Others that had preached against Catholicks were admitted presently to preach for them and others that had been Visitors and Commissioners against us were made Commissioners against the Protestants and in this Queen's time were Commissioners again of the other side against ours so as the matter went as a Stage-Play where Men do change their Persons and Parts without changing their Minds or Affection many or rather all that had Abby-Lands the good Queen Mary herself and some very few others excepted remained with the same as with a prey well gotten and he that was most scrupulous would but send for a Bull of Toleration to Rome upon false Information to the end that he might not be troubled and with this he thought himself safe in Conscience and bound to no more yea he was taken for a great Catholick that would so much as ask for a Bull. And matters passing in this manner who will wonder that the Benefit of Religion remained so little a while or that the second scourge of Heresie hath been so sharp and heavy since as we have proved To amend the error the way must be that our Reconciliation and turning to Almighty God be True Sincere Hearty and as it ought to be with Sorrow and Contrition for what is past and with full purpose of amendment for the time to come and to do that satisfaction both to God and Man that shall be thought necessary and lyeth in us conveniently to perform for without this disposition the matter goeth not well This is necessary to be performed both by Clergy and Laity and the more sincerely this business is wrought the more permanent will it be It will import also greatly and is to be procured by all good means possible That these two principal Members of our Commonwealth I mean the Clergy and Temporalty do joyn and unite themselves well in this greatest Action of all others for the good and re-establishing of Religion and Piety in the Realm and so much the more carefully is this to be sought for at this time for that it is very probably presumed that one principal cause of their ruine hath been the Emulation and Disunion of these two Estates in England which ordinarily is wont to follow where Spirit and Charity waxeth cold But now both Parties having tasted the smart of this error and seen the deceit of the Devil therein they may the easier be brought to detest it and to note for wicked Men and devilish Instruments all such as any ways shall be known to favour enkindle or nourish that Division And the best means to settle this Union substantially and form the heart will be for each Party with all Indifferency to consider not only the harms that have and will ensue by this disunion to both sides but also and principally how necessary and profitable the one of these two Members is to the other as namely the Clergy to the Laity for Direction of their Souls which without them must needs perish and the Temporalty to the Ecclesiastical for their defence and maintenance so as the one without the other cannot stand and God his Holy Ordination is that both should joyn together in his Church and one part help the other to his service and to the attaining of Heaven and Eternal Salvation And for that the Frailty of Man is great and prone to fall into Emulation and Contention as brittle Vessels to use the Comparison of St. Austin that knock out one the others sides great heed is to be taken as much as may be at the very beginning of this our Reformation to remove all occasions that are wont to breed strife and breach between the Clergy and Laity as namely about Jurisdiction Possessions Revenues Duties Prerogatives Exemptions and the like all which are to be settled with consent and good liking of all Parties as near as may be and that which is said of this may be understood also of taking away all occasions of jarrs and disagreeing between Bishops and their Chapters Religious Men and Priests one Order of Religion with another and such like Persons or Communities of divers States Condition or Habit in whom the Law of Charity and True Zeal of God's Service and help of our Country ought to prevail more especially at this time than any Passion humane infirmity or particular respect whatsoever This mutual Concord and hearty good will being once well settled between the Clergy and Temporalty it will be a great Foundation for all good effects to follow especially if both parties do rectifie also their Intentions in this great Action as they ought to do to desire nothing but God's Glory and this without any evil affection towards any of Envy Malice Revenge or the like and without respect of particular interest And for that there will be two sorts of People to be dealt
withal by the better sort of Catholicks to wit 4 weaker Catholicks which are commonly known in England by the name of Schismaticks and Hereticks that have been Enemies to both these sorts there is to be used true Love Piety and Christian Charity with the Prudence and Direction that is also convenient And for the first since they are our Brethren we ought to have sincere Compassion of their weakness and fall animating them hereby to rise and stand hereafter And unto the second for that by God's Grace they may be our Brethren we must use all Charity in like manner seeking their true and sincere Conversion with that Caution notwithstanding that is expedient for theirs and the publick good of all which I shall lay down some particular Notes in the Chapter following though it must be the Direction of Almighty God and Unction of the Holy Ghost which must guide our Prince Parliament and Magistrates and namely our Bishops in this point of dealing with Hereticks which will be a point of great moment and wherein will consist much for the True Reformation which we seek and for the assurance of Religion and wherein it is thought the error of Queen Mary's time was as pernicious as in any other thing whatsoever and therefore the more carefully to be remedied now Animadversions on Chap. III. 3 THE true Reconciliation of the Realm unto God and to his Church There is not only here but in several other places an appearance of Zeal for Piety and the Honour of God in this Jesuit but that it is no more than a bare appearance without any thing of the substance of Godliness will be more plain to him that will read the Memorial throughout this is not my conjecture but of several Writers of their own Church of Rome who look upon the Jesuits generally as the greatest dissemblers and hypocrites upon the face of the Earth that the obtaining more Wealth to their Order and Gain is all the Godliness that they have and therefore when they meet with a Jesuit talking about Piety or the Glory of God they treat him with Derision as knowing that True Religion is the least part of that Society's business and that the Piety they make shew of in their Writings is only for a cover to their politick designs and like true Pharisees to devour and eat up silly Recusants Estates and to ruine others to make their Society rich and splendid Thus in Queen Elizabeth's time our Jesuit himself that talks so gravely sometimes in this Memorial of the Glory of God and Reconciliation with God was one of those that made such a pudder about restoreing their Catholick Religion and rooting Heresie out of England whereas their true business was to betray their Country to the Spaniards to plot with them as it was always this traiterous Jesuit's practice to invade our Nation and thereby to obtain as they did from the Spanish King Gifts and Benevolences to their Order and Seminaries erected and endowed for them This was the Jesuit's true aim which without some face of Zeal for God and pretence of Piety could not be so easily compassed it is that wise and great Man the Cardinal d'Ossat's Observation of Parsons in that Letter from Rome wherein he gave the King of France an account of Parsons's Book about Succession That Parsons was so passionately concerned in it for the Spanish Interest that he made no conscience of contradicting himself grossly in it nor had any regard to Truth and Reason I think this ought to be a key to us to open the Jesuit's meaning when he talks of the true Reconciliation of the Realm to God I question not but the whole Reconciliation he drives at is that we might all turn true Papists and all Papists would fairly give up their Abby-Lands to their Council of Reformation which he sets up in his VII th Chapter 4 Weaker Catholicks which are commonly known in England by the name of Schismaticks How any Catholicks should be Schismaticks is worth our time to understand to do which we must go back to the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign when the Papists notwithstanding the Alteration in Religion made by that excellent Queen and her Parliament in the beginning of it went to Church to conform themselves to put it in the words of one of their own Writers a Romish Priest to the State as they did in King Edward the Sixth's time keeping privately to themselves the exercise of their own Religion This Practice of the Roman Catholicks continued for several Years here my Lord Chief Justice Coke says upon his own knowledge for ten or a dozen Years and had I suppose continued on had not the upstart Faction of the Jesuits set themselves with all their might and their Interest to break it off They were aware that such Conformity of their Roman Catholick Friends would in a few Years have left not one Papist in England and indeed it was morally impossible that it should have happened otherways since we need not doubt but that the great Truth and the Light the Doctrine and the Liturgy of the Church of England so exactly conformable to the Word of God and to the purest times of the Primitive Church would by God's Blessing have shined into their Hearts have enlightned them and made them become true Church of England Christians by renouncing all those Reliques of Popery which they fostered privately in their breasts And therefore the Jesuits and their Friends by the Interest they had in the Council of Trent got a little Cabal of that Council a dozen of Bishops and others out of which number Pate the Bishop of Worcester the only English Popish Bishop in that Council was left out though of all Men the fittest to have been consulted in this matter favourers of their Society to 〈◊〉 up Reasons why the Catholicks of England ought not and must not under pain of Schism and Damnation go to the Protestant Churches there in which they load our Church with many calumnies our Rites are made to be most wicked and accursed all which though these Twelve Caballers knew in their own Consciences to be as false as Hell yet to affright their People from our Churches they were forc'd to paint our Church as deformed as their own Church by her Idolatrous Rites and Superstitious Practices is However all this and the Pope's Rescripts to the same purpose would not hinder many Catholicks from going to Church and their defence was that this Decree as well as the Pope's Rescripts were surreptitiously gotten that both Pope and Councel were imposed upon and therefore they would not run themselves into needless danger these are the Men whom our Jesuit here does call Schismaticks CHAP. IV. How all sorts of People to wit Catholicks Schismaticks and Hereticks may be dealt withal at the next change of Religion AFter Union and good Disposition of Mind in all and a hearty Reconciliation of Almighty God will be necessary a sweet pious and
prudent manner of dealing and proceeding as well with Catholicks as Schismaticks Protestants and Persecutors And as for known Catholicks which have been constant and born the brunt in time of Persecution though for their own parts they ought to follow the most holy and secure Council of our Saviour Cum omnia feceritis dicite quia servi inutiles sumus quod debuimus fecimus nothing presuming of themselves or vaunting over others but expecting their reward with humility at God's Hands yet it is evident that in all Reason and Justice and Law of gratitude they are to be used and employed by the Commonwealth in all Principal Charges Rooms and Offices with special confidence every Man according to his known Zeal Ability and Talent for the same and according to the measure of his suffering for God's Cause by which means both they and others shall be animated and comforted and the state of Religion much more assured than if for particular Favours Kindred Bribes Interest any be preferred or such as are not known to have any Zeal in God's Affairs as in the late Queen Mary's time in many places was seen to the grief and discouragement of many and to the infinite danger of the Realm as after well appear'd As for Schismaticks or close or weak Catholicks that have fallen denied or dissembled their Religion if they have done it of frailty and have not been Persecutors the more Compassion is to be had of their Estate and the more sweetness to be used in restoring them to the Unity of God's Church again But yet how far they are to be used in matters of the Commonwealth especially at the beginning and in rooms where their weakness and inconstance may be in danger the Law of Godly Wisdom must determine and the manner of their Reconciliation will give also great light to this Deliberation which Reconciliation as well in these Men as in all others that shall return to Catholick Union again whether they have been Hereticks or no ought to be made with great attention and deliberation as in a matter of most high moment for all their future Life and Condition For that most commonly according to this first step of reentrance with Almighty God again is the Sequel of all that ensueth good or bad so as he that maketh a good and perfect and sound Reconciliation proveth for the most part a sure and constant Christian afterwards and he that huddleth the matter up in haste without due measure of Consideration is where he was before within a few days after and perhaps far worse for contempt of so great Accommodation Wherefore to the end that this so mighty a Foundation may be laid as it ought to be the Commonwealth should take care and especially the Bishops that Men of Ability and Capacity only should be employed in receiving of these Reconciliations at the beginning and some particular form were to be prescribed how it should be done especially in great Persons and Subjects of great importance and these perhaps not to be reconciled without special faculty or knowledge of the Bishop or Prelate of the place and by some able Person by him assigned and this with giving to them space and due time of Deliberation Recollection Meditation Instruction and of any other means to help them in so great an affair And this for them that will return But as for Enemies or obstinate Hereticks whether they be of Malice or of Ignorance another course seemeth to be taken for their Reduction and Satisfaction which is to endeavour by all ways to convince them if it be possible of their Errors and this by reason and sweet means as far as may be whereof I shall touch some Particulars in this place And first of all f Perchance it would be good considering the present State of the Realm and how generally and deeply it is and has been plunged in all kind of Heresies not to press any Man's Conscience at the beginning for matters of Religion for some few Years to the end that every Man may more boldly and confidently utter his Wounds and so be cured thereof which otherwise he would cover deny or dissemble to his greater hurt and more dangerous Corruption of the whole Body but yet it may be provided joyntly that this Toleration be only with such as live quietly and are desirous to be informed of the Truth and do not teach and preach or seek to infect others and by experience it hath been seen that this kind of suffering and bearing for a time hath done great good and eased many difficulties in divers Towns rendred up in the Low Countries which being mitigated at the beginning with this entrance of Clemency never greatly cared for Heresies afterwards yet do I give notice that my meaning is not any way to perswade hereby that Liberty of Religion to live how a Man will should be permitted to any Person in any Christian Commonwealth for any cause or respect whatsoever from which I am so far off in my Judgement and Affection as I think no one thing to be so dangerous dishonourable or more offensive to Almighty God in the World than that any Prince should permit the Ark of Israel and Dagon God and the Devil to stand and be honoured together within his Realm or Country But that which I talk of is a certain Connivence or Toleration of Magistrates only for a certain time to be limited and with particular Conditions and Exceptions that no meetings assemblies preaching or perverting of others be used but that such as be quiet and modest People and have never heard perhaps the grounds of Catholick Religion may use the freedom of their Consciences to ask learn and to be instructed for the space prescribed without danger of the Law or of any inquiry to be made upon them to inform themselves of the truth And I would hope verily that by the grace of Almighty God and by charitable diligence and industry of good Men and especially of diligent Pastors and Preachers that many good effects would follow of this Toleration For first there would be taken away that slander wherewith the Enemies are wont ordinarily to charge the Catholick Church though perversly and falsly that she persecuteth before she instructeth And secondly the Wounds would be opened and cured as before hath been said that otherwise would be dissembled and more infested And thirdly there would be more liberty for Men to deal for the true Conversion of Hereticks and they with more confidence comfort and alacrity would alter their Minds and be more capable of the Truth and I think it would be the gaining of thousands of Souls that otherwise would be lost and finally by this means the Prince would come to know at the end of the time prescribed what Disposition of People he had within his Realm which otherwise would be hard to do And these are my reasons for my desires in this behalf which I do remit as all the rest that here
that other in place of this of Malta or besides this some other new Order were erected also in our Country of Religious Knights and m that their Rule might be to fight against Hereticks in whatsoever Country they should be imployed And when Heresies should fail that they then keep our Seas of England from Pirats and our Land from publick Theft binding themselves for their probation to serve in their Exercises the time that should be limited and for keeping the Land at home they might have other Companies and Confraternities under them much like to that called the Holy Hermandad in Spain which alone keepeth all these great and vast Kingdoms from Robberies And this Order of new English Knights might quickly be made a very flourishing Order being permitted also to Marry and they might take the Name and Protection of some Holy King of England or of all the Holy Kings joyntly or of St. George all which I leave to the Consideration of this Council to deal therein with the Prince and Parliament Animadversions on Chap. VII m THat their Rule might be to fight against Hereticks In this Chapter our Jesuit treats of his Council of Reformation he had great reason to avoid giving it the name of the Holy Council of Inquisition since how fond soever Portugal or Spain may be of an Inquisition it is odious to England and abominable and ought to be so to all Christians there being nothing more barbarous nor more diametrically contrary to the Religion of the Blessed Jesus than the Popish Inquisitions But this would have been very slender comfort to us in England since it seems we were to have had the Thing without the Name for the use the Jesuit would have had the young Popish Gentry of England put to in this Chapter is to have them listed into a Fraternity the business of which was to have been very honourable to them to wit to go a Dragooning about the Nation and to have hunted down the Protestants whom he here calls Hereticks like wild beasts and when they had thus Christianly rooted out all Protestants by this mild perswasive way out of this Nation then forsooth these wonderful valiant Knights were to have been sent abroad to purge the World of Heretie and after all our Seas of Pyrats and the Land of Thieve which if they had done I am sure England would have been rid of the Jesuits as well as of Protestants Nor is the Jesuit content with this for after a few years England was to have Name and Thing for when his Council of Reformation resign up their Authority he makes it necessary that they should leave some good and sound manner of Inquisition established for the Conservation of that which they have planted And indeed the Jesuit is in the right of it that a sound manner by which I know the Jesuit means a most severe and bloody manner of Inquisition is absolutely necessary either for the planting or the preserving such an absurd and ridiculous Religion as Popery is in England CHAP. VIII Of divers other Points that will belong to the Council of Reformation to deal in HItherto only hath been treated of Abby-Lands and Ecclesiastical Livings to be collected imployed and disposed by this Council and Religious Orders to be replanted but many other Points do yet remain for that the whole weight of Restitution both of the External and Internal face of our English Church and the perfect reparation both material and formal of the same will depend principally of the Authority Wisdom Zeal Magnanimity and Piety of this Council and for this purpose such principal branches as come now to my Mind I will here set down First of all it will appertain to these Men to send Commissioners abroad into the Realm and to have ordinary Correspondence in all the Shires of England thereby to advise from time to time what are the greatest wants and what first is to be remedied or provided for As for Example here Preachers here Confessors here Priests to say Mass here Seminaries here Schools here Monasteries here Colleges here Nunneries here Hospitals here building or enlarging or repairing of old Parish-Churches with their Sacristies or Revestries Tabernacles Church-Houses publick Crosses and the like whereof I shall treat more in some particular Chapters afterwards in the Second Part of this Memorial And for that the Reverence of Religion and motive of Devotion to the People doth greatly depend of these external things it must be one principal care of this Council to have them well reformed and practical Men sent about the same The like necessity will be also to augment the Livings of certain Curates and Pastors in many places and to increase in some others where one is not sufficient as commonly it will not be convenient for one only Priest to live any where alone if it may be remedied in respect of wanting a Confessor for himself or others when he should be sick except the Parish lay so near to some other as in all necessities they might give mutual help one to the other as if they lived together For singing and hearing of Mass also at the beginning order must be taken that divers Parishes repair to one upon Sundays and great Holy-days and that Priests be so distributed as they may supply the best that may be until better provision can be made and perhaps it would not be amiss to call in some stranger Priests for a time Men of Edification and Vertue such as might be procured by means of some Pious and Zealous Bishops of Foreign Countries and by Commendation and Election of some Religious Orders that keep Schools and do know the Vertue of every one and being requested by our Council of Reformation would have care to direct only such Men unto us as should be for the purpose who being divided about the Realm and convenient Stipends appointed them without appropriation of any Benefice for that would have inconvenience they would greatly ease and help our English Clergy until it be increased and grown stronger and these Strangers would serve to say Mass and administer some Sacraments in Parish-Churches and might supply also the Labour and Function of some Canons for singing in the Quire and divers Cathedral and Collegiate Churches where other Provision of our own Nation could not be so soon made And it perchance would be less hurt to pass on with these Strangers for a time who afterwards may be removed if they should not prove well than for haste and want to make up a number of unable or evil Priests of our own who would be ever after a Seed of Corruption and Disorder to the whole Realm of which point I shall say also more in the Second Part when I come to speak of Seminaries where no Priests at all could be planted at the beginning there some honest and discreet Person or Persons of the Parish or of the next to it though they be Lay-men were to be assigned to have
themselves to have no Appropriation or Obligation to any particular Benefices but ample Commission rather for all with a sufficient stipend to live upon until things be better settled I have also signified how needful it will be that Commissioners be sent abroad to visit Churches throughout the Realm and all things belonging thereunto and to enlarge the material part in many places for that the People are much increased and that the Chancel in particular be more capable decent and commodious for the Priests and the Sacristies and Revestries for the Furniture of the Altar and the rest of God's Service and that they be made much bigger and more handsome as well for service of the Priests as for principal Men sometimes to retire themselves thither for Confession and other such occasions and that the provision and furniture of Vestments and other necessaries for the Churches be such as may edifie and increase Devotion and not the contrary as at other times it hath been and discreet and able persons be chosen to have care of these things and competent maintenance allowed them for the same and not to be committed to most impotent ignorant and contemptible of the Parish as it hath been accustomed For that they will do the Office for little or nothing but yet so as it were better undone It is to be considered whether Catholick service may be said again in our old Churches before they be consecrated of new or hallowed publickly from the Profanation of Hereticks and this for more Detestation of Heresie And in like manner it may be considered whether such known Hereticks or notorious Schismaticks or Persecutors as shall return to the Union of the Catholick Religion should presently be admitted to come to our Churches or rather that some part of the old Ecclesiastical Canons should be put in ure for their restraint for a time so as though they be reconciled absolved and admitted also to the Sacraments in private yet for publick satisfaction they should not be admitted to enter our Churches but by little and little and with the Moderation Humiliation and other reverent Ceremonies appointed for that purpose which the sooner also is to be thought on thereby to shew the different proceeding between them and us they pressing us to go to their Church against our Wills and Consciences though it were with open and known Dissimulation and we do not admit them to enter our Churches out of hand though it be desired by them and that they made Profession both inwardly and outwardly of our Religion And if such care and circumspection be to be used in admitting Hereticks to our material Churches as in truth there ought to be then much more must be had in admitting them to be Priests and Ministers of the same except it be upon great and long probation and satisfaction given and in some rare case as all the World may see and confess And whether it shall be fit at that day to disable some great and able Hereticks and their Posterity especially if they have been principal Authors in the overthrowing of the Catholick Religion or known Persecutors of the same not only from Priesthood and Ecclesiastical Dignities but also from other honours and Preferments temporal of the Commonwealth for warning and deterring of others and for more security of the said Weal Publick the wiser sort of that time may put in Consideration As for the good Life of Priests and Clergy-men whereof all dependeth that great Servant of God Mr. John Avila layeth a very prudent Consideration before the Council of Trent saying That it is not enough for making of good Priests to multiply good Laws and appoint punishments to the Transgressors as many Prelates do for that it costeth them little and the reason is for that it being a painful thing to punish often as well for him that punisheth as for him that is punished it wearied out the one and the other and oftentimes sooner the Punisher than him that is punished if he be perverse and so no good ensueth thereof at all Wherefore he saith the true remedy is to procure that Men be induced to love good Laws and observe them without punishment and then good Laws will profit them And such are they who are virtuously brought up and trained in godly Discipline from their youths and for that this doth ask both care and labour and cost few Prelates will take it upon them But ours of England ought to do otherwise and to take the Water from her Fountain which is to train up the youth of their Diocess from their tender years in Schools Seminaries and Colleges of Piety and Learning And this godly Man would have no Priests made at all but only out of these Seminaries and Colleges and if any did offer themselves that had not been brought up in them he would have them put into some other Colleges or Seminaries to be errected for this purpose there to live and be tryed for a time upon their own charges to make proof not only of their ability in learning but also and much more of their humility patience obedience conformity of manners and other like vertues fit for Clergy-men Moreover his Opinion is that the best Ecclesiastical Livings and Church-Dignities should be laid upon these Men that are taken out of Colleges and Seminaries and that in all things caeteris paribus they should be preferred and this according to the Testimony of their Superiors concerning their vertue which ever he would have more to be respected than their learning and if any should behave themselves evil in the Seminaries or be expulsed for their Demerits he would have them incapable of Holy Orders thereby if already they be not in Holy Orders and if they be then to be incapable of any Ecclesiastical Promotion until they have given large and substantial satisfaction of their change and amendment And finally he saith That he would have the life of Clergy-men to be so full of labour as idle People should not desire it and so full of vertue as Crewes would not come to live among them For which cause perhaps it would not be amiss that some particular Instructions should be given by the Bishop of the Diocess or by the Archdeacon of that Circuit or by some other Superiour to all the Priests within his charge what they should do how to proceed and behave themselves in all occasions how to distribute and divide the time and wherein most to labour and most to avoid and other like particularities for their help and direction And to be bound to yield an account of all these points at the Bishop's Archdeacon's or Official's Visitation or at the ordinary times of their meeting together I mean the Priests of each Circuit among themselves which days of meeting ought to be somewhat often and frequent at least at the beginning as namely every second and third Month or as often as shall be appointed and thought convenient for
and Physicians were also before in other Colleges whence they are removed And more than this also there may be some certain number of Priests and Chaplains established in these Colleges now occupied by Lawyers and Physicians to say Mass daily for the Founders which with Dispensation of the See Apostolick seemeth would be a reasonable and sufficient Compensation And this is so much as for the present occurreth to my mind to be suggested about the reforming and perfecting of our English Universities whereof would follow no doubt great honour and profit to our Commonwealth if it might be done as it should be and if besides all this a third University might be added to the two which we have already and be placed in the North Parts of England about Durham New-Castle or Richmond as before hath been mentioned in the Chapter appertaining to the Council of Reformation where reasons also were alledged for the same The utility no doubt and honour thereof would greatly import the benefit of our Weal publick and principally the parts near about where it should be placed which I leave to the wisdom of them who shall have authority to dispose thereof at the wished day that we expect and pray for CHAP. VII Of Religious Men and Women and matters appertaining unto them IN divers former Chapters there hath been mention made of Religious Orders both Men and Women which being the third principal part or member of the Clergy as before hath been signified should have in this place some peculiar Treatise also but that there has been so much spoken thereof already upon different occasions as little remaineth to be added here The principal point that seemeth needful to be remembred is That this part of the Clergy I mean Religious People is or ought to be the ornament of all the rest and that by the height of their Vocation they should participate in a more ample and eminent sort of those excellent names of Lights of the World and Salt of the Earth which our Saviour vouchsafed to attribute to all his Portion and Clergy but yet are they more due unto the State of Religious Persons which bind themselves by Vow to a life of greater perfection than the rest and consequently ought to be clearer Lights and more excellent Salt than any other And he that would consider of Religious Orders as he should seeing them intermixed among other People in a Catholick Commonwealth he should imagine them as Veins and Arteries spread throughout Man's Body to give Blood and Spirit to the fleshy parts that lye about them And again as Wells Springs Brooks and Rivers divided all over the Earth to minister moisture and life to the Fields and pasturages adjoyning unto them and so consequently as when the Rivers of any Country or Veins or Arteries do wax dry or are corrupted or give evil moisture nourishment or infection all the rest must needs perish and putrifie so when Religious People themselves be corrupted and do infect or scandalize others by their evil example or do dry up and fade away all the rest must needs come to desolation This hath been tryed in no Country more for times past than in ours and for that cause is the greater care and desire of good Men to have it well remedied at the next change and that as on the one side it is desired as before hath been noted that all the approved Religious of God's Church should be admitted again into England for more honourable satisfaction of impieties committed against them in times past so on the other side is there no less desire of good Men that none should be admitted but called for and chosen and such as will promise the perfect observation of their first Institution and Rule so as they may be true Lights and Salt indeed The Edict or Proclamation whereof I spoke before to be made at the very first beginning against the entrance of any Religious People but only upon Licence and Approbation of the Council of Reformation will help greatly to this effect if it be observed as it ought to be with exactness For otherwise all idle and wandring People and such as best may be spared in other places will flock to us All Emulation and Contention among Religious Orders must be carefully avoided at that day whereunto it seemeth that two things will greatly help first That no Religious be admitted but reformed as hath been said for that between good and perfect Men there is never Emulation or Contention both Parties being united in Christ Qui fecit utraque unum as the Apostle saith non est exceptor personarum and so the nearer that each part is united to Christ in Holiness and Perfection the nearer are they united with others also then can there be no difference between them according to the Rule most certain of Euclides that such things as are united in a third are united also between themselves so as wheresoever there is Contention or Emulation between Religions that profess both of them to serve Christ the off-spring is Imperfection in one or both parts and the more Contentious is ever the more imperfect and this is the first point The second help or remedy may be That the Council of Reformation with Faculty of his Holiness do take upon them the Distribution of all Ecclesiastical Livings and Lands which shall be restored according to the present necessity conveniency and utility of the time present without respect of former Possessors Great and special care must be had of erecting Monasteries for Women which are like to be far more in number than Men that will enter into Religion at the beginning having been violently debarred thereof all the Reign of this Queen And no one Impiety of our Hereticks perhaps hath been greater or more barbarous than the forcing of Virgins to break their holy purposes or not permitting to execute the same by entering into Religion And for that the scarcity of able Men will be such at that time and so many other things wherein to employ them as they shall be hardly able to attend to the Government of the Nunneries for a time which yet cannot well go forward without the Direction and oversight of some such grave vertuous and discreet Men. For this cause it behoveth to consider well what Orders of Religious Women are to be admitted at the first and how they may best be governed to the end that such strifes may be avoided as oftentimes in Catholick Countries about these and the like affairs do fall out In divers Parts and Provinces of Christendom there are some Religious Orders in these our days more reformed than others and of these ought our Council of Reformation to call before the rest For as the first Foundation shall be laid in England so will the rest follow and go suitable to that and as the Clock is first set with us so will the wheels walk afterwards and the hours follow accordingly And for that all
a storm of injustice and iniquity by how much the more all parts and joints of equity both towards God and Man have been wrested and wronged therein by Hereticks and Atheists And first of all are to be redressed the open wrongs which have been done to our Catholicks for their Faith and Religion whether it were by shew or colour of Laws or by manifest Tyranny And secondly are to be remedied the known publick oppression of the common People by some that have been in authority as namely incroachments upon their Lands Tenements or the like as also the corrupt manner of proceeding of certain Quests and Juries both in matters of Life and Lands that in later days by the infection of Heresie have been accustomed to apply themselves to the favour of Magistrates in authority without regard of Right or Conscience One thing also in particular for very honour of our Realm and saving the Lives and Souls of infinite Men is greatly wished might be recommended to his Majesty and effectually redressed which is the multitude of Thieves that rob and steal upon the High-ways in England more than likely in any other Country of the World they being also oftentimes of no base Condition or Quality that do it but rather Gentlemen or wealthy Men's Sons moved thereunto not so much of poverty and necessity as of light estimation of the fault and hope of Pardon from the Prince whereby it cometh to pass that albeit the English Nation as by experience is found he not so much inclined to steal in secret as some other Nations are and that more are put to Death in England for punishment of that Fact than in many other Nations together yet is this enormity of robbing upon the High-ways much more frequent and notorious in England than any where else in Christendom which is a great infamy to our Government and hurt to the Common-wealth For remedy though divers means may be suggested whereof I shall have occasion to speak in the two Chapters following yet one principle is thought to be if it were once known that the Prince would hardly or never dispense or give pardon in that offence but upon great rare and extraordinary occasion For albeit many obtain not this pardon yet the very hope thereof encourageth others to attempt the Fact And we see that in some Countries and especially in Spain above all other that I have seen though the Realm be much bigger and have many more fit places to commit such offences than ours yet very rarely it is heard that publick robberies are committed upon the High-ways though in private and secretly is no Country perhaps more which principally is attributed unto the certain and constant publick Justice that is done upon them without remission that commit the Fact if they be found and to the great diligence used for finding them out by the particular pursuit of a certain Company and Confraternity of Men appointed for the purpose and peculiarly dedicated to this work named the Holy Brotherhood which is endued with many priviledges and sufficient authority for the same The which thing is wished also might be brought into England and made subordinate to the new Religious Order of Knights to be instituted both for the defence of Sea and Land which I have spoken of in the First Part of this Memorial And albeit the strictness of the Prince be necessary in giving Pardons for cutting off all hopes to the Malefactors yet were it to be wished that the rigour of our Temporal Laws for putting Men to death for theft of so small quantity or value as is accustomed in England were much moderated and some lesser bodily punishments invented for that purpose as also that some means of moderation wherein the manner of quick dispatch of Men's lives by Juries impanelled in haste and forced to give Verdict of Life and Death upon the suddain without allowing space either for them to inform themselves or for the accused to think duly upon his defence or to help himself by any Proctor Attorney contrary witness or other such aides as both reason and other Country Laws and equity it self seemeth to allow whereof I shall speak more when I shall come to speak of our Common-Laws of England in the Fourth Chapter of this Part. And for that it will not be enough to plant only Religion Justice and other such parts of a true Christian Commonwealth but also it will be needful to uphold maintain and defend the same It must appertain also unto a Catholick Prince whom God shall bless with the Crown of England to shew himself a continual Watch-man over the same and with his vigilance provide for the perpetuation thereof and first of all to assure the Succession of the Crown by good provision of Laws which Hereticks of later years have so much confounded and made so uncertain and in such manner must be link the state of Catholick Religion and Succession together as the one may depend and be the assurance of the other Moreover his Majesty must see due execution from time to time done of such good Laws and Ordinances as to these and like purposes by himself and the Realm shall be at the beginning determined and set down for which effect it seemeth that the custom of some other wise Catholick Princes of foreign Countries is much to be commended who do use both ordinarily and at other times unexpected to send Visitors to divers parts of their Realms as namely to Universities and to all Courts of Law and Justice and other places where any great abuse and excess may be committed touching the Prince's Service or other State of the Commonwealth which Visitors being Men of great integrity skill and wisdom and furnished with sufficient Authority and Commission to fear no Man do return back true Information of that which is well or amiss to the Prince and his Council who after diligent view and deliberation do cause the same to be published and all Parties to be punished or rewarded according to their merits which is a great Bridle to hold things in order Furthermore for that it is of great moment for the Prince to know and be truly informed of the quality and merit of such of his Subjects as he is to prefer to Offices and charge in the Common-wealth either Spiritual or Temporal it were necessary his Majesty from time to time as for Example from three years to three years or the like according as some other godly Princes also use should cause certain Lists and Catalogues to be given him of Men's names by divers secret ways and by Persons of credit discretion and good Consciences touching all such Subjects in every Country Province Universities Cathedral Churches Houses of Law and particular Colleges as for their learning wisdom and other good qualities were fittest to be imployed and preferred by his Majesty and that these Lists and Memoires should be often viewed by the Prince himself and by his Council
in particular by yielding and agreeing willingly to the order that shall be taken for the moderate restitution of Ecclesiastical Lands before mentioned And this for Religion But for the other points of Chivalry and acts of Arms our Nobility is by all means to be incouraged to exercise themselves and their Children therein according to the laudable example of their Ancestors who for the same were renowned both at home and abroad And in particular it were to be wished That they should shew their valour against hereticks and Enemies of God and his Church of these our days seeing they are so many and so pernicious as well at home among us as also in divers Kingdoms round about us whereas their Ancestors to fight against Infidels less dangerous and odious to God than these Hereticks undertook long costly and perillous journeys into Asia and other Countries And for better performance hereof I mean of fighting against Hereticks it may be considered as before I have noted whether it shall not be more convenient for the exercise of our Nobility and for the better provision for their younger Sons that some new kind of Religious order of Knights were appointed in England instead of the other of St. John of Malta whose Seat and Residence is very far from England and the observance of the Rule much fallen from the first perfection and hard to be reduced or kept by younger Gentlemen that live at liberty abroad especially touching the Vow of Chastity as hath been before declared As for other private Exercises and Customs ordinarily used by the Nobility and Gentry of England wherein they do exceed much the custom of other Countries as namely in the much use of Hawking Hunting keeping of great Houses many Servants much Hospitality and the like it is to be noted that as in it self they are things honourable and fit for Nobility being used with moderation that is convenient so for many reasons they being old customs of their Ancestors are not to be disswaded nor left off but rather continued for avoiding of greater inconveniences though with such Reformation as is needful for taking away or lessening of such excesses as sometime creep in As for example that those exercises before-mentioned of Noblemen's pass-times be not hurtful either to poor Men their Neighbours or to their own Devotion and acts of Religion whereunto they are bound as of hearing of Mass Sermons and the like and that their Housekeeping be moderated from gluttony dissolution and excess of drinking and that their keeping of many Servants be limited with these Conditions first That no Man keep any more than he can well maintain of himself and that wholly giving them sufficient whereon to live without necessity to attempt any other unlawful shifts or means for their maintenance as often doth happen in such Servants as being otherwise poor do take only Livery-Coats of their Lords and Masters for to shift thereby under their countenances and authority The second Condition is That these Servants be kept from idleness with some honest exercise either of labour or recreation and that they be taught the necessary points of Catholick Religion and Christian Doctrine and that some good Books be provided for them in places where they wait wherewith to entertain themselves and be moved to vertue and diverted from sin and that some peculiar account be taken of their Christian demeanour and of their going to Confession and the like for unto all this and more too is a good Catholick Lord and Master bound concerning his Servants A third Condition of keeping Servants or rather an advice to good Lords and Masters may be that they have care to provide for their Servants according to their merit not only for the time of their present service but some stay of certain living afterwards to the end that having spent their youth in their Lord's and Master's service they fall not afterwards into misery and being forced to seek their living by unlawful and dishonest means to dishonour both their Masters and themselves wherein also may be considered that if their Lords and Masters should die without providing for them at all or recompensing their service whether it were not convenient they should have Actions by our Law against his Heirs for some honourable satisfaction as the Civil Law and Statutes of other Countries do allow And thus much for Servants For Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Children it were greatly to be wished that such care were taken for their Education first in Piety and then in learning and other qualities fit for their Estate that their Prince and Commonwealth might afterwards imploy them worthily in occasions and affairs that shall be offered and not be forced to prefer other of far meaner birth for the defects and insufficiency of the Nobility And first of all to speak in order though it be not necessary for Heirs and Elder Brothers to study so much as the Younger for that they are to live on their Lands yet for sustaining the place wherein they are to live some learning is necessary but much more that they be brought up in Order and Discipline and that they be taught to know God and themselves seemeth may best be done either in the Seminaries and Convictories whereof I have spoken before or in some Colleges of the Universities when they shall be reformed and brought in order again and some part of this also may be taught at home by private Masters if their Parents be discreet and careful though this be somewhat hard and seldom taketh great effect by the overmuch indulgence of the said Parents as also by the flattery of Servants that ordinarily are wont to instil nothing but pride and vanity into their young Masters that are brought up among them so as the Education of Nobility and Gentry is much more effectual abroad than at home As for the manner of their Wardships begun in England with very good intention though different from all other Nations and of late years perverted by Heretical Governors against all equity to the Wards and Pupils both in their Livings and Educations and Match of Marriage that some good remedy and moderation may be had in this matter by dealing with the Catholick Prince which shall be as the Deputies of the Parliament shall best devise and suggest About the younger Sons of Noblemen and Gentlemen it is to be considered That the Common-Laws of England are much less favourable and beneficial unto them The Civil and Imperial observed in other Countries are such as do allow them equal Portions with their eldest Brethren of all the Goods Chattels and Lands of their Fathers which be not intailed as of all that also which has accrued or been augmented by means of the said intailed Lands or otherwise whereas the Laws commonly of England leave all to the elder Brother's disposition and pleasure if the Father chance to dye without taking particular order in the same himself whereby many younger Brethren of
good birth are driven oftentimes to great extremities and to undecent shifts for their maintenance to no small inconvenience to the whole Commonwealth Wherefore it may be thought upon whether some moderation in this point were not convenient to be put whereby younger Children might have some occasion to a reasonable Portion at least of their Parents Substance whereby to maintain themselves somewhat conformable to their Birth State and Condition In foreign Catholick Countries the younger Children of Nobility and Gentry are greatly helped and advanced by the Church wherein they are preferred before others in authority and dignity if their merits of learning and vertue be equal whereby it cometh to pass that these younger Brethren giving themselves to study upon hope of these preferments do come in time to be excellent Men and of more authority and living than their Elder Brothers which is a great stay for the Nobility and no less for the defence of Catholick Religion by the union of these Noblemen of the Clergy with others of their Lineage Kindred Acquaintance and Friendship of the Temporalty and consequently the custom is to be brought into England if Noblemen's Sons would make themselves fit Wherein there will be much less difficulty than in times past when that sweet and clear manner of teaching the Latin Tongue and other Sciences shall be brought into England which is used in other places and that other hard dark and base custom of so much beating of youth be removed and taken away About Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Daughters it is also to be considered that as many of them by all likelihood when Catholick Religion shall be restored will betake themselves to Religious and Monastical Life as in other Countries we see so shall their Parents be much eased thereby and the better able to provide for the Marriage of their other Daughters remaining in the World in which point notwithstanding seeing that the excesses of our times in giving great Dowries is grown to be at such a height that it impoverisheth oftentimes the Parents it seemeth a point worthy the consideration whether it were not expedient that the Parliament should limit the quantity of Dowries according to the State and Condition of every Man which no doubt would greatly ease the Nobility and Gentry of England and be profitable for many respects And touching the assurance of these Dowries as also for the Jointures of Lands the Laws of other Countries and ours are far different and good it were for us to take the best of them both And first for Dowries in other Countries they are more assured unto the Wife than in ours for that there the said Dowry never entreth into the Husband's Possession in propriety but only is put out to Rent and assurance given for it of which Rent only the Husband may dispose during his Wive's Life but no ways spend or diminish or impawn the Principle which seemeth a better order and more sure for the Wife than to leave all free to the Husband's Disposition as in our Country where oftentimes an unthrift matches with a rich Woman spendeth all she hath without remedy or redress The Wife also in other Countries if she has no Children may dispose of all her Dowry to good works or to any other uses that she will by her Testament in secret and sealed and not to be opened before she be dead And this may she do without obligation to leave any part to her Husband except she list which is some motive also for her Husband to use her well while she liveth upon hopes to be her Heir or Executor and if she hath Children then may she dispose only of the fifth part to good works whereof nothing is allowed by our Laws of England and it seemeth a great defect and may be considered whether it be not to be amended But on the other side touching Jointures the Condition of Women is better in England than in other places for that whether they bring Dowries or not by our Laws of England they may claim a Third of their Husband's Lands which in other Countries is not so where if they bring no Dowry they can claim no Jointure at all neither any part of their Husband's Goods except he please of his free-will to leave them any thing and if they bring Dowry then shall they have their whole Dowry again at their Husband's Death and more than this the half of all such Goods and Moveables as were gained since their Marriage by reason of the said Dowry or otherwise which is less prejudicial to the Son and Heir than the other of England but yet which of them be absolutely better may be a matter perhaps disputable And thus much for Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Children It shall not be amiss to pass to their Servants whom also they ought to have in place of Children and to comfort defend and cherish the desiring to see them wealthy and well able to live according to the ancient Love and Charity of English Land-Lords towards Vassals Subjects and Tenants which Love and tender care having been greatly broken and diminished in these later years by the impiety avarice riotousness and other disorders brought in by Heresie is to be restored again by Catholick Religion and Land-lords are to be taught to make such account of their Tenants as of them by whom they live and also by the Sweat of their Brows do suck and draw out of the Earth Commodities whereby Noblemen and Gentlemen are maintained at ease And for that many Landlords of these times have begun to raise their Rents and to impeach that old and most laudable tenure of England of old Rent of Assize it is to be understood that no one thing among the Customs of England seemeth to divers Men that have seen also other Countries of more importance to be kept observed and to be brought back again to the old use than this manner of letting and setting Lands for term of Life after the rates of the old Rents and that no one thing in times past hath been a greater ground of abundance and felicity in our Commonwealth both to Nobility and Commonalty than this honourable custom of Leasing their Lands for that it is generally profitable both to the Landlord and Tenant and Commonwealth in particular to the Landlord for that he setting down his Houshold and framing his Expences according to the rate of his old Rent which is certain may easily still be before hand and hold himself in abundance with the extraordinary incomes that shall enter by Leases Fines and other such casualties and in like manner the charges of Subsidies Tenths Loanes and other publick Impositions laid upon him by Parliament or other means they are ever according to his Rents in the Queen's Book which are far less and more easie than if he were charged according to the Portion of rack Rents To the Tenant also this way of taking Leases after the rate of old Rent is very