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
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
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
not to be turned presently at the first to any particular Owner that would challenge or lay claim to the same but rather by Petition of the Prince and whole Realm and approbation of the See Apostolick were to be assigned to some common Purses and Treasury and this to be committed to some certain Council of principal Bishops and Prelates and others most fit for the purpose for certain Years to be limited to gather up and dispose of all these Rents Revenues and Ecclesiastical Livings during the time to them assigned for the greatest benefit of the English Church and Realm and that at the end of the term allotted which might be some four five or six Years more or less as shall be thought best they might be bound to give an account to the Persons that should be assigned by the Prince Parliament and Pope's Holiness for this effect how they have disposed of this Treasury committed to their charge and this Council might be called the Council of Reformation as after shall be more particularly declared And the reason why it were not convenient to return these Lands and Livings again to the same Orders of Religion that had them before is evident to all Men to wit for that the Times and State of England are far other and different from that they were when these Lands were given and consequently do require different provision and disposition of things conformed to the present necessity and utility of the Realm as for example the World knoweth that the most part of all Abby-Lands appertained in the old time to the Religion of St. Bennet of which Order at this time there are very few of the English Nation to occupy or possess the same and to bestow them upon Strangers of that Religion England having so many other necessities were very inconvenient and besides this it may be so that many Houses and Families of that Order of St. Bennet or of St. Bernard or of the Monastical Profession though in it self most Holy will neither be possible nor necessary in England presently upon the first Reformation but rather in place of many of them good Colleges Universities Seminaries Schools for increasing of our Clergy as also of divers Houses of other Orders that do deal more in preaching and helping of Souls and for that respect will be more necessary to the Clergy of England in this great work at the beginning and for many Years after though of the other also are not to be omitted to be planted and well provided for according as it shall seem most expedient for God's glory the Universal good of the Realm to this Council of Reformation by whose hands their Lands Rents and Revenues may far more profitably be divided and imployed and with much more peace and quietness than if they should be returned to every particular Religion again Animadversions on Chap. V. k THat every one should have a special care and fervent desire to clear his Conscience well and sufficiently about Abby-Lands In this Chapter our Jesuit does very warmly press the Restitution of Abby-Lands and I could heartily have wished that those that furnished Dr. Johnston with his Materials for writing his little Book about the Assurance of Abby-Lands to the Possessors here in England had accommodated him also as they might with this Jesuits Memorial I am confident it would have saved the Doctor something else besides his Pains How ridiculous his Attempts were then was shewed by an Ingenious hand in a single Sheet of Paper entituled Abby and other Church-Lands not yet assured to such Possessors as are Roman Catholicks And indeed our Jesuit has knockt their great Argument from the Pope's Confirmation in Q. Mary's days on the head when he declares That it is not sufficient for the security of any careful Man's Conscience to say That the See Apostolick hath tolerated the Jesuit will not use the word Confirmed with these things in Queen Mary ' s time for that says he it is well known how times and matters went then And how the See Apostolick was content to take of her Children what she could get rather than to lose all so that the Toleration then used was upon constraint and fear of farther Inconveniencies to follow As that Attempt to assure Abby-Lands was ridiculous so I am afraid it was not the sincerest whosoever has read this Jesuit's Memorial and has any value for him cannot but suspect the same with me One thing is a little peculiar in this Chapter the Jesuit is for compromizing the business with the Possessors of Abby-Lands and yet his Arguments for a Restitution of those Lands if they prove any thing at all prove that the Restitutions ought to be absolute but let his Arguments be what they will the Jesuit is for having half a Loaf rather than none at all l That as well these Lands intirely restored as the other old Rents were not to be turned presently at the first to any particular Owner After the Jesuit has contended so earnestly in the first part of this Chapter for Restitution of Abby-Lands upon reasons of Conscience one cannot but wonder that he should not be for restoring them to their Primitive Owners which I am sure Conscience and Justice do as much exact as the Restitution of them at all The plain and true Reason of it is this The Jesuits being an upstart Order since the Suppression of Monasteries by King Henry the Eighth none of those Abby-Lands did belong to them nor could be restored to them and to have 'em all given up to the Benedictines and the other old Orders is what a Jesuit could never bear and therefore he is for having them all sequestred into a common stock for six and seven years in which time no question need be made but that the Jesuits would have run down all the old Orders as useless to England and would have swallowed the whole Morsel of Abby-Lands themselves CHAP. VI. Of the many great and singular Benefits that would ensue to the Church and Realm of England by this Restitution and Disposition of Abby-Lands FIrst of all would ensue the thing that we have most need of and it importeth us of all other Points which is that Almighty God's wrath would be pacified towards us and towards the Realm which may be presumed his Justice hath scourged and afflicted so grievously as all the World seeth and wondereth at for that infamous Sacriledge and Monstrous Rapine of King Henry the Eighth whereby at once he destroyed and pluckt from God and his Church and from all Saints and Souls deceased all the pious Acts and Memories of Religion that in more than a Thousand Years before him his Ancestors had bestowed that way and for that all or the most part of the Realm had their part and interest either of that Sacrilege at that time or of the Temporal gain afterward and no convenient satisfaction hitherto has been made no marvel if the hand of Almighty God has been
and Cities only And for that in this House as well as in the Upper matters are handled that belong to the Realm in general whether some mixture of Ecclesiastical and Religious were not to be admitted as well as in the higher House as namely of some Deans or Archdeacons or of some heads of Colleges or Universities and some Provincials or Visitors or special Men to be chosen of some Religious Orders to be intermixt amongst the Burgesses and Knights of the Shires as Bishops and Abbots were amongst the Temporal Nobility of the higher House seeing that these Men both for Piety Prudence and Learning and for their experience in the Commonweal and practice abroad especially some of them that might be pickt out for the purpose may be presumed to be able to give as good advice in all points belonging to the good Laws and Ordinations for Manners and Government as Burgesses and Knights of the Shire that ordinarily are gathered for furnishing of this House and in particular they would have a special eye to the assurance and preservation of Catholick Religion which is a principal consideration For chusing of Knights of the Shires as also Burgesses a more perfect and exact Order were to be set down and less subject to partiality and corruption and Information were to be taken of their names and Religion And for Knights of the Shire perhaps it would not be amiss to give some hand in the matter at leastwise for a time to the Bishop of the Diocess to judge of their vertue and forwardness in Religion and to confirm their Election or to have a negative Unice when cause should be offered and that they made publick Profession of their Faith before their Election could be admitted or they take their way towards the Parliament At the first meeting the first consideration ought to be whether it be a full and lawful Parliament or no and that in both Houses and whether all Parties be there and whether any present have any impediment to be laid against him why he should be removed or not have Voice or whether such or such as be absent and may come shall have Voice when they come and such other like circumstances and all to be set down in writing by the Notaries or Secretaries of Parliament Men may be appointed to examine with what Authority old Priviledges or Pre-eminences have been taken from the Parliament in these latter Years especially since the entrance of Heresie to the end the Catholick Prince that God shall give us may be dealt withal to restore the same seeing it is for the good and service of the Realm After the first Decree whether it be a lawful Parliament or no the second should be n That every Man be sworn to defend the Catholick Roman Faith and moreover That it be made Treason for ever for any Man to propose any thing for change thereof or for the Introduction of Heresie And for more Peace Concord and Liberty of Voices it were good perhaps to use the custom of Venice and other Countries where Suffrages are given in secret by little Balls of different colours signifying Yea or No to the matters that are proposed It hath seemed to some Men that a good manner of proposing matters in the Parliament might be first to appoint four or five Commissioners together with the Speaker to view and examine the Bills that are to be exhibited and to reject such as be impertinent and for the other to propose so many in one day as time permitteth to open and lay down the reasons on the one side and on the other and if the matter be of doubt or of great importance then may the House award That the next day two Persons may speak upon the Proposition exhibited the one in favour the other against it to the end that upon the Third Day Men may give their Voices with more light and deliberation and if the thing be of small importance and easie it may be concluded the second Day upon the first Days Discussion only but not sooner And the days and matters appointed to be discussed should be registred and read publickly in the Parliament-House by the Secretary to the end that every Man might know what he were to deliberate or determine of the day following And thus much for the Order of proceeding But now for making of new Laws and Decrees in our Catholick Parliament these Notes following may be remembred among other To abrogate and revoke all Laws whatsoever have been made at any time or by any Prince or Parliament directly or indirectly in prejudice of the Catholick Roman Religion and to restore and put in full authority again all old Laws at ever were in use in England in favour of the same and against Heresies and Hereticks The Law of Mortmain whereby Men are forbidden to imploy their Goods upon pious works that be perpetual without particular Licence of the Prince is not in any other Kingdom where yet no such inconvenience is seen to ensue of overmuch to be given as is pretended by the motive of that Law And therefore seeing all pious works must begin again in England it were necessary perhaps that this restraint should be removed for a time at leastwise and Men rather animated than prohibited to give that way It may be examined by the Parliament whether Lady Elizabeth entered by good right or no to the Crown or at leastwise whether she were true and lawful Queen since the Declarations and Depositions published by Pius Quintus and if not then albeit for quietness sake and security of the Commonwealth it may be Decreed That all matters past by order of common Justice shall be ratified except only such open acts of manifest injustice as are notorious to all the World to have been done against Religion by manifest wrong as the injurious Condemnations of divers Catholicks and evident oppressions of some other Persons yet that all other Acts of Grace and matters of Gifts and Donations of Livings Titles Honours Offices and the like which she did as true Queen be ipso facto void and of no effect where notwithstanding may be a Proviso That whatsoever such benefit or grace she bestowed upon any known Catholick or Man of publick merit shall be holden for good in favour of the Catholick Religion so much persecuted under her Government And for all other her said gifts or graces to be either void or at leastwise suspended until they be confirmed again by the next Prince to ensue and some such Distinction and Declaration to be made seemeth necessary for many reasons Again it may be considered whether the first Parliament holden in this Queens days were a good and lawful Parliament or no by reason of the want of Bishops and of the open violence used unto them by the Laity And if it were not lawful that then all other Parliaments since that time depending thereon and wanting true Bishops may be
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-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
may be proved against them and other such-like points all which being returned by the said Visitors and reviewed by such as the Prince and his Council shall appoint to be Overseers of the said Visitation sentence may be given and published for the honour of the good and punishment of the wicked And the punishment which is used in Spain among other things seemeth very good to wit that he that shall be found to have done evil in a higher Court or Tribunal be for penance put back to a Lower Court again as for example from London to York or the like And contrariwise he that hath done well in a Lower Court be preferred to be a Judge Councellor or of a Degree in a higher Tribunal and that ordinarily may be not promoted to a higher Court without having first passed by a lower And as for the Common Laws of England themselves though most Men I believe will be of Opinion That being settled now and having endured more than five hundred years in our Realm it were troublesome and dangerous and no way convenient to have the whole course thereof changed and no doubt but in divers points especially for brevity they may be preferred before the Civil and Imperial Laws which give more space to Suits yet can it not be denied but that it was a form of Law brought in in haste and by a Conqueror of a foreign Nation with especial eye to keep down afflict and extirpate the English People And the Normans themselves that laid these Laws upon us have long ago in their own Country forsaken them and betaken themselves to the Government of the Civil Law tempered with National Statutes whereby the residue of the Countries of France are governed And for England it is evident that divers points of our Common Law brought in by the Normans touching Life and Death which is the dearest treasure that Man hath in this World do favour much of Tyranny and seem to be against not only all Laws of other Countries but also against very Reason and Justice it self and against all Law of Nature also which Law of Nature doth permit to every Man a just and reasonable defence of Life and Innocency Neither can any Prince Country or humane power take away that defence albeit they may determine the particular manner how to make the tryal But in England it seemeth that the defence it self is taken away or at least the true liberty means and possibility thereof For how is it possible for example sake that a Man standing at the Bar for his Tryal upon Life and Death feared on the one side with terrour of that may happen unto him and on the other side astonished with the sight of such a Court and Company set against him and with the many Accusations Exaggerations and Amplifications of the Prince's Attorneys and other Officers that plead against him how is it possible I say that such a Man especially if he be bashful and unlearned in so short a time as there is allotted him for answering for his Life without help of a Lawyer Proctor or other Man that may direct counsel or assist him in such an agony how can he see all the parts or points that may be alledged for his defence being never so Innocent The Imperial Laws confirmed by Justinian and other Emperors after many hundred years of proof and received since by all Christian Nations saving ours do allow to every Man that is accused for his Life all lawful and reasonable means of defence with sufficient time and deliberation for the same and no marvel for if it be reason to give freedom of defence for any parcel of a Man's Goods and Lands impugned by another how much more reason is it the same should be given for the defence of a Man's Blood wherein goeth Goods Lands Life Honour Children Kindred and all the rest all which in England is shuffled up in haste put upon the verdict malice ignorance or little Conscience or care of twelve silly Men who presently also are forced to give verdict without time or means to inform themselves further than that which they have heard there at Bar which oftentimes is nothing but Confusion Partiality and Rhetorical amplification on the King's behalf by his Lawyers that talk for their Fees that accuse and no Man is suffered to defend instruct or speak for the accused which is the greatest injustice that can be devised and no doubt but infinite innocent Blood is shed by this means and lyeth upon the heads of our Judges Juries and Quests and upon all the Commonwealth besides Whereby for remedy of so great inconveniences both before God and Man for that all foreign Nations do cry out of this our manner of Judgment it should be good at least that before the Assizes or Arraignment be made upon Life and Death the Prisoner's Process should be made by some Men of Conscience and learning appointed for that purpose in every place where the common Gaols be and that sufficient time be allotted them to examine the matter throughly first what the Accusers and Witnesses do say and to give a Copy thereof to the Prisoner with a Lawyer or Proctor to help him and to see what he can truely answer to the same and what Exceptions he hath against the Parties his Adversaries And if his poverty be such that he cannot pay the Fees of a Lawyer or Attorney to answer for him there should be a publick Attorney appointed unto him upon the Prince his Charges as in all other Catholick Countries is used not only in matters of Life and Death but also in all other suits concerning Justice wherein all such as do give Petitions that they are poor and cannot pay Lawyer 's Fees and do prove the same they have presently both Lawyers and Attorneys appointed unto them at the King 's cost and all writing and other helps given them free from all charges for prosecuting their Justice which is no doubt a notable pious Order and ought to be brought into our Country with restoring true Religion And as on the one side Christian Charity moveth to wish that to Men accused for their lives all lawful and reasonable liberty of defence and Tryal should be given so on the other side the same charity requireth that those that shall be found culpable should without remission or hope of pardon be punished for the example of others and for avoiding the great Infamy of our Nation whereof I spoke before in the Second Chapter of this Part touching robbing upon High-ways Perhaps it would not be amiss for this purpose that some distinction of punishments should be made for that crime from some other common theft and of less offence and hurt to the Commonwealth and albeit the kind of Death upon the Wheel in France and Flanders for Murders and Thefts upon the Way do seem over rigorous and horrible and no ways to be brought into our Country yet some other less