Regem non est Crimen loesae Maiestatis quia non est subditus Regis The Rebellion of a Clergie man against the king is no Treason because he is not the kings subiect And so likewise saith Bellarmine Non sunt amplius Reges Clericorum Superiores Kings be no longer Soveraignes or superiors to Clergie men Doe not these appeare to bee most grosse disloyall and detestable opinions But thus a New King is raised over the Popes Clergie that the Scripture might be fulfilled which saith They have a King over them vvhich is the Angel of the bottomlesse pit who in Hebrew is called Abaddon and in Greeke Apollyon that is in English a Destroyer namely the degenerate Bishop of Rome that grand 〈◊〉 as 〈…〉 proved who hath thus bereaved and robbed Kingâ— of 〈◊〉 naturall borne subiects and of their ancient Supremacie and most rightful authoritie over them 2 That the King is a Governour within his owne kingdomes and dominions is a matter so evident as that it needeth no proofe for he is called Rex à Regendo â— King in respect of his rule and governement And S. Peter agreeing hereunto teacheth that not onely the King but even other Magistrates also that be under the King be Governours and instituted for the punishment of evill doers for the praise of them that doe well S. Paul also speaketh the like of Princes or Governours that beare the sword that They are not to be feared for good vvorkes but for evill vvilt thou then be vvithout feare of the power Doe vvell saith hee so shalt thou have praise of the same for he is the minister of God for thy good But if thou doe evill then feare for he beareth not the sword in vaine for he is the minister of God to take vengeance on him that doth evill You here then cleerely perceive that Kings and Princes bee Governors and 〈…〉 before that they be supreme which being put together necessarily concludeth them to be under God the supreme Governors within their owne Dominions Now that their governement and authoritie extendeth to causes Ecclesiasticall as well as 〈…〉 is a thing likewise verie manifest for as there is here no exception of anie person so is there also no exception or difference put of anie cause but whosoever transgresseth or offendeth or doth evill be it in what kinde of cause soever hee is here made subiect to this sword power and authoritie of Kings and Princes and punishable by it And doth not verie reason it selfe also perswade this For even in Christian States it is possible for Bishopâ— and other Ecclesiasticall ministers to transgresse and offend as touching the execution and administration of their Ecclesiasticall offices and functions as well as other men may in their offices and places As for example If they or anie of them would not suffer a childe or anie other to bee baptized which were not to be denied baptisme or if they should excommunicate anie upon meere spleen and malice without anie iust cause or if after a iust excommunication the person excommunicate should afterward publiquely testifie his repentance and thereupon desire to be reconciled and received againe into the Church and yet for all that should most uniustly be held out and be denied absolution or reconciliation Do not these and such like offences though committed by Ecclesiasticall persons and in causes Ecclesiasticall deserve punishment by the Civill Sword and authoritie of a Christian King If you say That such an offendor may be censured by such as be Clergie men and have Ecclesiasticall authoritie over him That hindreth not but that a King may neverthelesse punish him also civilly especially where the Lawes of the kingdome do so permit or appoint For in such cases without anie wrong or iniurie may one and the selfe same offence be punished both wayes viz. both Civilly and Ecclesiastically Your selves doe know that Bishops and Clergie men cannot by vertue of that their Ecclesiasticall office and authoritie punish anie offendors civilly but onely Ecclesiastically as namely by deprivation or excommunication or such like censures of the Church But Kings and Princes punish offendors in ecclesiasticall causes after another sort namely not ecclesiastically as Bishops doe but Civilly as by corporall imprisonment pecuniarie punishment and such like temporall paines belonging to their authoritie So that both Civill and Ecclesiasticall authoritie doe and may well stand together without doing anie wrong yea as friends and helpers the one to the other But to illustrate this matter yet further Admit Clergie men have excommunicated a man or sentenced him to be deprived or pronounced him to be an Hereticke or done all they can against him by the power of the keyes and of the Church censures and that neverthelesse he still and evermore persisteth a scorner and contemner of all that they can doe against him Is it not meete and requisite thinke you that such a one should be punished civilly and by the Kings authoritie For what other remedie is there left in such a case You see then how expedient and necessarie the governement and authoritie of a Christian King is even in respect of the Church and Church affaires as well as of the Common-weale and Common-weale causes and that in respect of offendâ—rs in Ecclesiasticall causes that be unruly wilfull obstinate and contemptuous the Church hath as much neede of him as the Common-weale Whilest therefore the king punisheth offendors in Ecclesiasticall causes not ecclesiastically and by Church censures as Clergie men doe but civilly and by a regall power and authoritie it is such a cleere evident a right as none can with anie colour of reason gainsay or disallow Yea even Heathen and Pagan Kings have this power and authoritie to make lawes and proclamations for the worship and service of the true GOD and to inflict punishment upon the breakers violaters of those their lawes and proclamations although they doe not alwayes put that their power and authoritie in execution for God as they ought but most commonly abuse it against him And yet sometime we see they doe extend it and put it in execution for God as it is evident in the examples of Artashast King of Persia Nebuchadnezar King of Babell and Darius King of the Mâ—des as also by some other Heathen Emperors mentioned in Eusebius If then as is manifest Heathen and Pagan kings have this power and authoritie albeit they doe noâ— alwaies extend it and put it in execution for God by what right or reason can it be denied to Christian Kings and Princes so to doe Yea by Gods owne most gracious providence Christian Kings and Queenes are to be nursing fathers and nursing mothers to his Church and Religion for so the Prophet Esay directly witnesseth And therefore is it that they not onely may make Lawes for Christ for so S. Augustine likewise saith that Serviunt reges Christo leges ferendo pro Christo Kings serve Christ
good ends and purposes and not to satisfie the severity of his Iustice by that meanes for their sinnes and the punishment thereto belonging p. 125. c There is no iust cause to be shewed vvhy the pretended Catholicks should refuse to take the oath of Supremacy or refuse to come to our Churches Their obiections and reasons answered p. 1 2 c p. 407 c. See also throughout the vvhole booke for this purpose Concerning auricular Confession and to vvhom confession of sinnes is to be made and that it ought to be free and voluntarie and not forced or compelled pag. 302 303 c. pag. 253 254 D FOr vvhom Christ Dyed and to vvhom hee is a Redeemer pag. 187 188 189 c Every sinne Deadly in his owne nature although all sinnes be also veniall and remissible in respect of Gods mercie grace and bounty except the sinne against the holy Ghost pag. 114 115 E THe Emperor in ancient time had the Supremacy and not the Pope pag. 30 The Emperor in times past had power to place and displace Popes pag. 27 The Emperor in ancient time banished imprisoned and otherwise punished aswell Bishops of Rome as other Bishops pag. 22 Hee did make Lawes concerning Ecclesiasticall causes and religion pag. 24 As also Commissioners in an Ecclesiasticall cause and the B. of Rome himselfe vvas one of those Commissioners pag. ibid. An appeale to the Emperor in an Ecclesiasticall cause pag 24 Generall Councils in ancient times called by the Emperor and his Authoritie pag. 24 The Christian Emperor did and vvas to meddle in matters of the Church and concerning Religion pag. 25 The Christian Emperor in ancient time did nominate and appoint Bishops of Diocesses and Provinces and even the Bishop of Rome himselfe pag. 25 Emperors in ancient time did ratifie the decrees of Councils before they vvere put in execution pag 28 Miltiades Leo and Gregory all Bishops of Rome in their severall times subiect to the Emperor and at his command pag 24.26 Ancient Fathers Popes of Rome and Councils aswell generall as provinciall may erre even in matter of faith aswell as in matter of fact pag. 49 50 51 52. c See also the Preface for this point The Romane Empire dissolved ever since the Emperors have ceased to have the soveraigne command and rule of Rome and that the Popes have gotten to be the heads and supreme Rulers of that City and to be above the Emperors pa. 331.332 and pag. 391.392.393 The Pope of Rome hath no power or authoritie from Christ to Excommunicate any pag. 299 c Excommunications be they never so iust and lawfull be by Gods law and appointment of no force to depose from Earthly kingdomes or to dissolve the dutie and allegeance of subiects pag. 299 300 301 c F OVr Forefathers and ancestors not to be followed in any vices or errors they held pag 34 35 Foretold in the Booke of God that an apostacie from the right faith and a mysterie of iniquitie otherwise called an Antichristianisme should come upon the Church and that so the Church by degrees should grow corrupted and deformed pag. 35 36 280 Foretold also how long the Church should lye in those her corruptions and errors and vvhen she should begin to be clensed and reformed pag. 35 36 VVhat is to be thought of our Forefathers that lived and dyed in the time of Popery pag 39.40 41 42 Foretold that a strong delusion to beleeve lyes shouâ—d possesse them of the Antichristian Church because they received not the love of the truth extant in the divine Scriptures pag. 307 308 Men are iustified in Gods sight and before his tribunall by Faith only and good vvorkes be the fruits and declarations of that faith pag. 99 100 101 c. to the end of that chapter and pag. 116 117 118 c. to the end also of that chapter G God is not the author of sinne pag. 168 169 c. H NOt Protestants but Papists be the Heretickes pag. 72. and Schismaticks pag. 37 38. pag. 413.414 c Not the Pope but Christ onely is the Head of the universall militant Church as well as of the triumphant pag 94 95 96 97 98 I VVHo is to be the infallible Iudge of controversies in religion or vvhich commeth all to one effect in the conclusion vvhat is the infallible Rule vvhereby men must iudge and be directed for the finding out of truth in those controversies pag. 49 50 51 c. See also the Preface for this matter The Implicita fides of Papists reproved pag 78 79 80 K KIngs have the Supremacie over all maner of persons aswell Ecclesiasticall as Civill vvithin their own Dominions pa. 1. to p. 5 Their Supremacie in all kinde of causes aswell Ecclesiasticall as Civill pag. 5 c Kings and Princes although they have the Supremacie yet thereby claime not nor can claime to preach to minister the Sacraments to excommunicate absolve or to consecrate Bishops or to doe any other act proper to the function of the Ecclesiasticall ministers pag. 32 c Kings and Princes be notwithstanding their Supremacies under God and subiect to him and his vvord pag. 33 Even heathen Kings may command and make Edicts and Proclamations for God and his service pag. 7. c Christian Kings and Queenes are by Gods appointment to be nursing fathers and nursing mothers to his Church and Religion p. 7. The authoritie of a Christian King in respect of contemptuous disorderly and unruly persons requisite and necessary in the Church as vvell as in the Common-weale pag. 6 c Kings and Princes may command and compell their subiects to externall obedience for God pag. 6 7 8 9 10 Christian Kings may make lawes about matters Ecclesiast p. 7 8.24 Hee may make Commissioners in Ecclesiasticall causes pag. 24 He may have Appeales made unto him in a cause Ecclesiastical ib. He may nominate and appoint Bishops of Diocesses and Provinces pag. 27. Councels and Convocations to be assembled by his authoritie and the decrees thereof by him to be ratified and confirmed before they be put in execution pag. 26 27 28 Christian Kings doe punish offendors in Ecclesiasticall causes not Ecclesiastically but Civilly pag. 6 7.32 Subiects ought not to rebell against their Kings and Princes though they be adversaries to the Christian Religion and though subiects have power force enough to do it pa. 20 21 22.299 300 Kings of Rome did sometimes send the Bishops of Rome as their Ambassadors pag. 22 How thankefull subiects ought to be unto God for Christian Kings and Princes pag. 33 The power of the Keyes most grossely abused by the B of Rome to vvorke his owne exaltation above Kings and Princes pag 299 300 301 c The Keyes of the kingdome of heaven no more given to S. Peter then to the rest of the Apostles pag. 292 293 294 295 L NO Licentiousnesse or impiety in the doctrine of Iustification by faith or in the doctrine of predestination or
and yet having his sinnes forgiven him and therefore being bound to love Christ more then the rest because more was forgiven him Christ thrice requireth of him to manifest and declare that his greater love by so much the more diligenter feeding of his Sheeepe for this is the verie drift true scope and meaning of Christ in that place As S. Cyrill doth also declare in these wordes Because Peter saith he being enobled from Christ himselfe with the name of the Apostleship with others did thrice deny Christ in the time of his passion now by right is required of him three confessions of his love that three denials might be countervayled and recompensed vvith an equal number of confessings c. Christ asked of him vvhether he loved him more then the rest did for he that had experience of the greater clemency of the Lord towards him ought of right to be affected with greater love for although generally all the Disciples were stricken vvith great feare vvhen the Lord vvas betrayed yet the fault of Peter vvas greater then of the rest vvho so denyed Christ in so short a time Because therefore hee obteyned remission of sinnes by greater clemency of the Saviour greater love of right is required of him for he to vvhom more is forgiven ought more to love S. Augustine also upon this Text likewise inferreth saying Let the duty of love be to feed the Lords flocke And Chrysostome likewise saith Ter interrogat c. Christ asketh thrice and he alwayes commandeth the same thing that hee might shew how great care he hath of his sheepe and that the feeding of them is the greatest argument of love To the like effect speake other also of the ancient Fathers declaring that the speech of Christ to Peter touching the feeding of his sheepe belongeth not onely to Peter but to all Bishops Pastors and Ministers of the word also Wherefore S. Basil saith thus Christ said unto Peter Lovest thou mee Feede my sheepe And in like sort unto all Pastors and Doctors hee gave the same power a Token vvhereof is this that they doe All equally binde and loose aswell as Peter In like sort speaketh againe S. Augustine saying The vvords of Christ Lovest thou mee and Feed my sheepe vvhen they are spoken unto Peter they are spoken unto all And so witnesseth S. Ambrose also saying Our Lord said unto Peter Feede my sheepe vvhich sheepe and flocke not only Peter then received but he receiveth the same together vvith us and all vvee have received the same together with him So that Peter neither in respect of feeding the flocke of Christ nor in anie other respect can be shewed to have or to have exercised anie imperious or Princely primacie or Monarchical superioritie over the rest of the Apostles but was in respect of rule power and authoritie equal with the rest the rest with him And this also further appeareth by the verie Commission it selfe if you look upon it which was given to them when they were sent out into all the world for therein is no more principalitie power or authority given or appointed to the one then to the other But now here lastly observe withall that they be the Keyes of the Kingdome of heaven and not of Earthly kingdomes which Christ hath committed to his Ministers So that neither Excommunication nor anie other power of the Keyes be it never so lawfully or iustly administred or executed is of force to depose anie man from an earthly kingdome though it be of force being rightly used to seclude a man from the kingdom of God if he repent not And therfore here I must crave leave to tell you that most wickedly intolerably hath the Pope of Rome abused excommunication and the power of the Keyes whilst he hath used them for the pulling down of Kings and Princes from their Thrones and thereupon hath moved subiects to revolt from their Soveraignes to rebell against them Is not this sweet doctrine and an holy religion that upon no warrant at all yea contrarie to the rule commandement of God shall presume to perswade subiects to rebell against their lawfull Soveraignes because forsooth the Pope hath excommunicated them For consider well the matter First it appeareth that the Pope is no Minister at all of Christ but the verie Grand Antichrist as this Booke cleerely manifesteth and hath therefore no authoritie from Christ to excommunicate anie Christians at all much lesse to excommunicate Christian Kings and Princes But secondly if he had that authority that Princes were excommunicated by him yet is excommunication of no force be it never so rightly done or used to dissolve the duetie and allegeance of anie subiects or to depose from earthly kingdomes inasmuch as excommunication and the whole power of the Keyes as is here apparant stretcheth onlie to the Kingdome of Heaven and not to earthly Kingdomes I know they alledge that we are to account an excommunicate person as a Publican or Heathen What of this Admit if you will that hee were thereby become actually and in all respects a very Heathen yet I pray tell mee be not Heathen Kings Kings aswell as those that be Christian Yea were they not manifestly Heathen Kings and Princes whom neverthelesse S. Paul and S. Peter also commanded obedience and subiection to be yeelded unto Were not all those Heathen Emperors likewise to whom the first Christians that lived under their persecutions were neverthelesse obedient You see then that if it were so that excommunication did as it doth not make a christian King to become a verie heathen King in all points and respects yet still neverthelesse hee remaineth a King and consequently is still to be honoured and obeyed as a King of all his subiects They alledge secondly that the familiars and wonted companions of a man excommunicated are to withdraw their companie from him to the end hee may be ashamed of his sinne and so be brought to repentance but doth this inferre that therefore subiects may or ought to withdraw their obedience and allegeance from their King No such matter For subiects cannot be termed or held for familiars or companions to those Kings and Princes under whom they be but the Kings and Princes of other Nations and such as be forreiners if anie If the Father be excommunicated though others withdraw their companie from him to the end hee may be ashamed of his sinne committed yet may not his sonne that oweth special dutie to him as to his father therefore withdraw his duetie and obedience For though excommunication make him as an Heathen and a Publican yet it maketh him not no father but hee still remaineth a father as he was before and therefore of all his children is to be reverenced honoured and obeyed as a father So likewise if the Husband be excommunicate and that others therefore are to withdraw themselves from him yet neverthelesse hee still
ever since the Emperor ceased to have any Soveraigne command in that Citie and that the Pope hath gotten the soveraigne rule and command there is apparantly become the seventh so the last Head of Rome How can it bee avoided but that Antichrist must needs be come long sithence and that the Pope of Rome undoubtedly is hee and that there is none other to bee expected Obiect 10. Antichrist is to be an open oppugner of Christ and a direct and professed enemie to all manner of Christianitie Ans. You are mightilie deceived if you thinke so For first the Scripture telleth us of manie Antichrists of one grand Antichrist above the rest According whereunto Origen saith Generaliter unus est Antichristus species illius multae c. Generally there is one Antichrist but there bee manie sorts of him c. For as all the true Prophets had relation to Christ By whose spirit they spake as S. Peter sheweth so have all the false teachers and false prophets in the Church relation to Antichrist by whose spirit they speake as S. Iohn affirmeth in the Church relation to Antichrist by whose spirit they speake as S. Iohn affirmeth For which cause S. Cyprian saith that Novatianus the Schismatick is to be reckoned amongst the Antichrists And so saith S. Hierome that all Arch Hereticks be Antichrists and againe there bee so manie Antichristâ— saith hee as there be teachers of false doctrine in the Church Yea this they might learne of S. Iohn himselfe in his Epistles who likewise calleth those that were hereticks and false Teachers in the Church so manie Antichrists And this also Saint Augustine teacheth saying Hide quibus Iohannes Epist. 1 Antichristi sunt ad illum novissimum pertinentes c. These Antichrists of vvhich Saint Iohn speaketh in his first Epistle be belonging to that last the grand Antichrist Againe Quisquis Christum qualis est ab Apostolis praedicatus negat Antichristus est VVhosoever saith Saint Hillary denyeth Christ to be such a one as he vvas preached to be by the Apostles is an Antichrist Irenaeus affirmeth that Valentinus Basilides and Câ—rinthus vvere Antichrists Antichrist saith Origen hath nothing but the name of Christ for hee neyther doth the vvorkes of Christ nor teacheth his doctrine Christ is the very Truth and Antichrist is the disguiser or counterfeyter of Truth The mysterie of that Antichristian Iniquitie wrought even in S. Pauls time as hee himselfe affirmeth He vvell calleth it saith S. Chrysostome a mysterie of Iniquitie because he shall not come like a Nero by open force and vvithout all maner of shame c but entisingly and underhand This Mysterie saith Theodoret signifieth the heresies by vvhich the Divell maketh vvay for Antichrist S. Gregory saith that Antichrist seduceth the people by his Preachers the ministers of lying He hath two hornes like to those of the Lamb Rev. 13.11 that is saith S. Augustine hee hath the two Testaments like to those of the Lamb inasmuch as under the name of Christ he doth covertly infuse the venome of the Dragon And for this cause is he called the false-Prophet diverse times in the Revelation by reason of the false Religion and false doctrines he teacheth in the world under the name of Christ and Christian verities Yea this Antichrist must sit in the Temple of God amongst Christians within Christendome and not without it amongst Turkes Iewes and such like Infidels of the world for he must pretend himselfe to be a chiefe Christian as S. Hierome also sheweth which none of those so much as pretend themselves to be yea they utterly disclaime to be anie Christians at all so that those be rightly and properly to be termed unchristian but not Antichristian people Within Christendome then and no where else is Antichrist to be sought and found Now then within Christendome where shall we finde him Can Protestants be hee No for they professe not to confirme their doctrine and religion nor any point thereof with miracles signes and wonders done by them as this Antichrist and his complices doe neither doe anie of their Bishops or Pastors exalt themselves against or above all Kings Princes Emperors Magistrates of the earth which be called gods in the Scripture as this Antichrist also doth neither doe they teach that doctrine of Divels as S. Paul calleth it which consisteth in prohibiting of Meates and Marriages for conscience and religion sake as this Antichristian and Apostaticall Church likewise doth Protestants then verie cleerely appeare to be such as belong not to this Antichristian crew or companie Who then within Christendome or outwardly professing Christianitie is more likely or so likely to be or possibly can be this grand Antichrist but he onely that exalteth himselfe not onely against but above all Kings Princes Emperors and Potentates of the world and that obtrudeth vaunteth and boasteth of so manie miracles signes and wonders done in his Church and by him and his Clergie and people for confirmation of his religion and that teacheth also that doctrine of Divels aforesaid consisting in prohibition of Meates and Marriage that is to say the Pope of Rome For there is no other within Christendome to be named to whom these things doe thus fitly agree Yea Hee and onely hee in all the world hath all the markes of the grand Antichrist upon him And therefore he and onely he and no other is to be held of all for the undoubted grand Antichrist Obiect 11. The grand Antichrist is The man of sinne the sonne of perdition 2. Thess. 2.3 But shall anie be so bold to affirme these things of the Pope of Rome especially doth it not seeme to be a rash and uncharitable thing to affirme of him that he is the sonne of perdition Answ. It is never anie rashnesse or uncharitablenesse to affirme what God in his word affirmeth It were rather incredulitie not to beleeve it and impietie not to affirme it For if the Pope of Rome be that grand Antichrist and the man of sinne doth it not well agree unto him that he should also be the sonne of perdition as well as Iudas Iscariot who likewise pretending to be a friend to Christ did neverthelesse betray him He that under the like pretence of being a special friend to Christ and under colour of Christianitie destroieth himselfe and others and that without check of conscience remorse or repentance at anie time shewed is he not worthily and iustly called the sonne of perdition Yea doth not the Scripture directly say of him that hee is in Hebrew Abaddon and in Greeke Apollyon that is in English a destroyer And must not hee needs be deemed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sonne of Perdition who together with himselfe thus destroyeth others For all those that be led by him and maugre all admonitions will neverthelesse irremoveably adhere unto him and follow him be answerably
Christ slept a long time For from the yeare 870 to the yeare 1050 whom doe you see but Necromancers but Adulterers and Murtherers and Infamous persons prâ—ferred to the Papacie Platius in the life of Benedict the fourth speaketh the like and giveth the reason of all this saying thus This libertie of sinning saith hee hath begotten us these Monsters and Prodigies vvho by ambition and corruption have rather usurpt then possest the holy chaire of Peter there being no Prince to represse the vvickednesse of these men Yea Platina though the Popes Servant and Secretarie yet well knowing their vices and the vices of the people under his government doth in a manner speake as if himselfe despaired of their salvation for thus bee his words Our vices saith hee bee grovvne to thaâ— height that they vvill hardly ever finde mercie in the sight of God But observe yet further how horrible and wicked their reproachings slanderings and defamings heretofore have beene and yet still bee of Gods church people their religion calling them usually Heretickes Schismatickes and by such other odious names laying sometimes most notorious slanders and most impious false accusations to their charge perswading as if our religion were a religion allowing licentiousnesse a condemner and disallower of all good works and as though wee approoved of all dissolutenesse and were enemies to the Virgin Marie to all Saints as though we made God the Author of sinne and evill other such like things which we utterly detest dislike and abhorre and which hee cleane contrary to our opinion and to the doctrine of our Religion Yea they not onely thus dishonour wrong the true Church and people of God upon earth but even the Church triumphant and Saints also in heaven For is it not a great wrong and dishonour to the glorified Saints in heaven to turne them into Idols or to make them instruments of Idolatry or of dishonouring God by invocating praying unto them when as Praier and Invocation is a service worship and honour properly and onely belonging to God Againe do they not much dishonour the Saints when they imploy them about base offices commending the keeping of their Hogs to one of their horses to another the curing of the Scurffe to a third c. Yea even concerning that most chast blessed glorious Virgin Mary Doe they not extreamely dishonour her when they make her to favour Immodestie uncleanenesse For there is an Italian book entituled Miracoli dâ—ella gloriosâ— Virgine Maria printed at Millan in the yere 1547 which saith that a certaine Abbesse being with Child the holy Virgin being willing to cover her crime did in her stead present her selfe before the Bishops in forme of the Abbesse and shewed him by an ocular demonstration that shee was not with Child Caesarius also in his seventh Booke Chapt. 35 reports that the Virgin Marie for twelve whole yeares did supplie the place of a certaine Nunâ—â— called Beatrice whilst shee lay in the Sâ—ewes till at last she came backe again to take her place and freed the Virgin from being in her roome any longer But consider yet further the most terrible cruell barbarous and bloodie persecutions of Gods Church and people committed by Papists About 400 yeares since Pope Innocent the third within the space of a few monthes made more then 200000 of the faithfull to bee slaine whom they called Albigenses In S. Bartholomewes Massacre in the yeare 1572 more then 80000 men were slaine in cold blood In a Massacre in France within a few dayes were murthered 70000 persons And how execrable beyond all measure abhominable and damnable was that their late Plot of Gunpowder-Treason for the overthrow of the whole State of England in Parliament at a blow and God knoweth of how many States and Kingdomes beside Yea what meaneth their Holy League as they call it not long since made for the extirpation and rooting out of all Protestancie Doe they not by all these shew themselves to bee utter enemies and that in the worst sort that can bee to all Civill States Kings and Kingdomes which reiect the Popes usurped Supremacie and his depraved and Antichristian Religion Why else also have they decreed that Faith is not to be kept with Heretickes And why else doe they hold that before Hereticall Iudges and Magistrates as they call them it is lawfull for them to sweare with Equivocations and Mental reservations and in a false deluding and deceitfull manner And why else doe they dislike and disallow Subjects not onely to take the Oath of Supremacie but the Oath also of Allegeance when in very deede and of right neither of both ought to bee refused What also meaneth the resort and comming of Popish Priests and Iesuits into Protestant Kingdomes under colour and pretence of Religion Is it not to make a partie for the Pope or some of his confederates against a fit time And doth it not also tend to sedition and treason in a Common-weale What doth the Popes claime to depose Kings and to give away their Kingdomes when and to whom hee list tend unto but to the setting of Princes together by the Eares aswell as Subiects to rebell against their lawfull Soveraignes Doe not all these things tend to the overthrow aswell of civill States and civill Iustice as of Religion and of Kingdomes and Common-weales aswel as of Gods Church and which maketh the matter yet more and indeede most odious all this they doe under pretence of Christianitie and of a Catholicke cause when it is nothing so but cleane contrarywise extreamely divelish and Antichristian Let then everie equal person now judge whether the Pope of Rome that thus wrongeth God his Church and Religion and not onely Bishops but all Kings Princes and Emperors also their People Kingdomes and Common-wealths and that thus intolerably abuseth the whole Christian world and yet for all that inflexibly persisteth therein without anie remorse or repentance shewed yea which with all his power and strength iustifieth upholdeth defendeth all those his wrongs errors abuses and impieties boasting glorying and delighting in them bee not rightly affirmed to be The Man of sin the Sonne of perdition and the verie undoubted Grand Antichrist in all respects THE CONCLVSION to the same pretended CATHOLIKES NOw then it appearing verie cleerely by the premisses that the Pope of Rome whom his blinded followers so much adore and reverence is the verie grand Antichrist and that the Popish Citie of Rome whereof he is the Head and Ruler is undoubtedly the VVhore of Babylon mentioned in the Revelation of S. Iohn What scruple or doubt should you or anie of you conceive to make all the good hast yee may to forsake that grand Antichrist that his Concubine the whore of Babylon and all his Priests Iesuites Bishops Monks Friars Nunns and the rest of that his Antichristian rabble and to betake and apply your selves with us to the embracing and following of Christ and
of his most holy and most pure Religion and ordinances delivered in the sacred and canonical Scriptures the Infallible rule of Truth For doe you thinke that ever Christ and Antichrist will agree together VVhat hath the chaffe to doe vvith the vvheate saith the Lord. Or VVhat fellowship as S. Paul speaketh hath righteousnesse vvith unrighteousnesse vvhat communion hath light vvith darkenesse vvhat concord hath Christ vvith Belial vvhat part hath the Beleever vvith the Infidel vvhat agreement hath the Temple of God vvith Idols In some things I grant the Popish Church holdeth rightly and in all things such is the mysterie of Iniquitie maketh a semblance and pretence of pietie and Christianitie But take heed and be not here with deceived for beside that it is the nature and maner of Hypocrisie so to doe you now I hope doe sufficiently understand that neither the Pope of Rome could be Antichrist nor his Church be the Antichristian vnlesse they did make this semblance of pietie outward shâ—w and pretence of Christianitie yea cleerely they should be altogether Vnchristian and not Antichristian people if they made no semblance or profession at all of Christ. But all is not gold that glistereth nor that ever right and true Christianitie that seemeth to be so The Divell himselfe will hold some things rightly and will sometimes utter and tell some truths but it is to the end to gaine credite and beleefe to himselfe at other times and in other things when and wherein he speaketh lies And this craft and subtiltie have all Antichristian and false teachers learned and do practise being as S. Paul calleth them False-Apostles deceiptfull vvorkmen transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ And no marvaile saith he for Satan also himselfe is transformed into an Angel of light Therefore it is no great thing though his ministers transforme themselves as though they vvere the Ministers of righteousnesse vvhose end shall be according to their vvorkes Now then concerning the Kings Supremacy and his Authoritie in all kinde of causes and over all sorts of people aswell Ecclesiasticall as Civill you see what it is and you understand I trust the cleere lawfulnesse of it within his owne Dominions For a time there was as before is shewed when the Bishop of Rome was limited his precincts and bounds aswell as other Bishops and had no more Supremacy or Authoritie over other Bishops then they had over him Yea a time there was when Bishops in a Councell assembled had authoritie over the Pope of Rome and might and actually did depose him and when also the Bishops of Rome were subiect to the Emperor and at his command as is likewise before declared So that the best title which the Bishop of Rome at anie time had to his Supremacie within anie Kingdome appeareth to be not by anie institution or law of God but by an humane constitution onely and a positive law And seeing that this his Supremacie was afterward put downe againe dissolved and abolished within this Kingdome as also in all the rest of his Maiesties Dominions by as high and as good authoritie as at anie time it was erected and established in the same namely by Act of Parliament made within those Realmes Everie subiect to his Maiestie now standeth tied and bound in duetie utterly to renounce and forsake it If yet yee alledge as ye sometimes doe that for the space of divers hundreth yeares in the later times the Kings and Princes in Christendome submitted themselves to this Supremacie of the Pope I answer first that it is apparant that Non fuit sic ab initio it vvas not so from the beginning and that the most ancient Precedents be to the contrarie Secondly that this was to fulfil a prophecie in the Scripture which foretold that so it should come to passe namely that these Kings should vvith one consent submit or give their Kingdome unto the Beast untill the vvords of God vvere fulfilled Yea these Kings not onely submitted themselves and their Kingdomes to this Supremacie of the Pope but to the adulterated Religion likewise of that Whore of Babylon the Papal Citie of Rome to fulfill the like Prophecie which saith that vvith her have committed fornication the Kings of the earth and the Inhabitants of the earth have beene made drunken vvith the vvine of her fornication Inasmuch then as these things be thus foretold in holy Scripture to come to passe what marvell should it now be to anie to see and know them to have beene accomplished accorcordingly But yet thirdly observe that although these kings did for so long time yeeld and submit themselves and the people of their kingdomes to this Beast vvhore of Babylon yet the later part of this Prophecie remaineth to be fulfilled which is this that Tenne of these Kings that were so long enchanted and bewitched with this Whore and seduced and abused by her shall afterward discerne and espie her fraudes and wickednesse and thereupon shall detest and hate her make her desolate and naked eate her flesh and shall burne her vvith fire Which Prophecie as it is alreadie begun to be performed in some of these Kings which have fallen from her hating and detesting both her authoritie and her adulterated religion so shall it in all the parts and points of it in the due time appointed of God be fully and actually performed and accomplished The long continuance then of Pope and Poperie in the world is no argument or proofe of the lawfulnesse or allowablenesse of them for beside that it was foretold to be of that long continuance Mahometisme Paganisme heresie and error drunkennesse adulterie and sundrie other sinnes and vices be also verie ancient and of long continuance in the world yet doth not that make them therefore to be ever the more lawfull or allowable Yea the longer the Popes Supremacie and his adulterated Religion have continued the greater wrong and iniurie hath been done all that while not onely to all other Bishops in the world and to all Emperors Kings and Princes likewise but also to the whole Church and religion of God and even to God himselfe And therefore this maketh not for the upholding or confirmation but for the further and greater detestation and condemnation of them both 2 So that no sufficient cause or reason can anie of you shew why ye should refuse to be of our Religion or why yee should not all come to our Churches assemblies and ioine with us in the right and true service of God For first where yee suppose Ours the Protestant Religion as it is called to be false and heretical and yours the Popish to be the onely Catholike right it hath before bni made verie manifest unto you cleane contrariwise that Ours is the right Apostolike Catholike most ancient religion that yours comming in afterward is the new adulterate heretical false Antichristian and that those be not the children of the right and
true Church but of the whore of Babylon which submit themselves and yeeld their obedience to the Pope and Popish Rome And whereas secondly ye obiect that it would move scandal and offence to others if yee came to our Churches What need yee care that others without cause be offended so long as God is well pleased For in such a case it is an offence not given but taken And when there is no iust cause given why anie should be offended the fault is theirs that be so causelesly offended and not yours A man must never forsake God and Gods religion nor absent himselfe from the true Church of God because some seduced or ill-disposed people will finde fault with it Thirdly yee obiect that it were but a point of dissembling to come if your mind stand against it But this allegation is soone answered if yee please to come as ye may and ought that is with sincere hearts and unfained affections and without anie such wicked Hypocrisie and Dissembling For indeed all halting dissembling and counterfeyting especially in matters of Gods service and religion is ever to be eschued and detested Fourthly ye obiect that the Translation of the holy Scriptures amongst us is not right But it hath before beene shewed unto you that our Translations being according to the originals of the Hebrew and Greek must needs be right whereas contrariwise your Translations not being according to those originals be and must needes be untrue in all those sundrie and manie places detected and discovered at large by the Protestants wherein they differ from those originalls Fiftly yee say that our Church-Service and Liturgie is disallowable for that it wanteth your Popish Masse and sacrificing Priesthood But to that we answer that our Church-Service is so much the better and the more to be liked for that it hath abolished as it ought that Idolatrous Popish Masse and that abominable Priesthood thereto belonging which fearelesly and impiously presumeth to offer up and that in a bodily manner as they say Christ Iesus againe and againe and often and that also as a Sacrifice propitiatorie for the taking away of mens sinnes whereas all true Christians doe knowe contrariwise that Christ Iesus was in a Bodily manner to bee offered up in sacrifice to his Father but once and that was upon the Crosse and that himselfe was the onely Priest allowed and appointed of God to make that Bodily oblation and no other and that this Bodily oblation and sacrifice by himselfe performed upon the Crosse is the onely propitiatorie Sacrifice and onely availeable and effectual to clense and take away the sinnes of men So that our Church and Church-Service were indeed iustly worthie to be abhorred detested and condemned as now yours is for the same cause if such blasphemous and intolerable monstrous abominations were suffered or allowed in it And wee are highly and everlastingly to thankâ— God that they be removed and abolished Sixtly yee alledge that in a Psalme or Hymne which wee sometimes sing in our Churches wee pray unto God to keepe and defend us from the Pope and Turke and why should we not doe so It is plainly and cleerely proved before that the Pope is the grand Antichrist and that hee not openly and professedly as the Turke doth but closely and covertly and therefore in a more subtill and more dangerous manner oppugneth Christ and his religion and ordinances deceiving under the name of Catholikes and of the Catholike Church and pretence of the Holy Ghost ruling that Church of his so that it cannot erre as hee suggesteth to his credulous and blinded followers whereunto he hath also added all maner of impostures and deceiveable and lying signes and wonders to enchant and seduce the people and to allure them to himselfe and to confirme them in their misbeleefe and errors Wherefore not without good cause doe wee pray God to keepe and defend us from him especially now in this later age of the world wherein he useth not only secret sleights and fraudes but open warres also and rebellions when he seeth fit time for them and murthers and massacres of Protestant Princes and people Gunpowder villanies and such like hellish abominations Who then can iustly blame us for praying against him that doth thus abound with these his wicked and mischievous plots fraudes forces treacheries and conspiracies Lastly yee alledge it to bee against your conscience to come to our Churches But herein I desire you to consider better and more seriously whether this will stand or bee allowed for a good excuse or plea for you in the day of Iudgement For may not Turks Iewes Pagans hereticks schismaticks or whatsoever other erroneous deceived and misbeleeving persons make the like excuse and pleade the same plea and say that it is against their conscience to become Christians or to come to their assemblies or to be Orthodox and right-beleeving people Or if they make that plea doe you thinke it will passe for good and allowable before Gods Iudgement seate in the last day But yee I pray shew some cause or reason if yee can why your â—â—â—science wil not give you leave to come to our Churches Is there anie thing in our Church-Service that may iustly offend anie of you â—f there be declare it But you were 〈◊〉 yet able to shew it and I assure my selfe you never will be able If then your Conscience be as in this case it appeareth to be not a right but a wrong and an erring and missed conscience you must endevour to rectifie and reforme this kinde of conscience and not be guided or carried anie longer by it For so also â—tacheth Siâ—â—â—â—â—â— Priâ—rias inâ—â—â—â—â—â—â—scientia that a man is bound to forsake his erroneous conscience and not to follow it 3 But consider yet further how manie Martyrs also there have bin that have died for in defence of several points of our religion and how few or rather none at all there be that have bin put to death for in defence of anie one particular point of Popish religion against Protestantie unless you wil account denying the Kings Supremacie and such like points of treason disloyaltie and contempt against Princes theâ—â— Commonâ—weales and Kingdomes to be points of that Religion For example that I may be the better understood What man amongst them was ever put to death for that their Article of Transubstantiation or for their opinion of Purgatorie or for their opinion of praying to Saints and Angels or for their opinion of meâ—â— meriâ—â— or for anie other such like point of their religion for of such it is that I speake and meane Can ye name or produce anie one man that ever since the world began died for anie of these articles If you say 〈◊〉 some amongst you have beene bold to say that there neither was nor is anie Law amongst us to put Papists to death for anie point of their religion are you not therein much deceived For may not Hereticks by the
that grant and confirmation of Pope Alexander And to make the matter yet more sure in the year MCLXXXVI he obtained a new licence from Pope Vrban the third that one of his sonnes whom he himselfe would should be crowned for the KINGDOME of Ireland And this the Pope did not only confirme by his Bull but also the yeare following purposely sent over Cardinall Octavian and Hugo de Nunant or Novant his legates into Ireland to crowne Iohn the Kings sonne there By all this we may see how farre King Henry the second proceeded in this businesse which I doe not so much note to convince the stoliditie of Osullevan who would faine perswade fooles that he was preferred only to be collector of the Popes Peter-pâ—nce as to shew that Ireland at that time was esteemed a Kingdome and the Kings of England accounted no lesse then Kings thereof And therefore Paul the fourth needed not make all that noyse and trouble the vvhole Court of heaven with the matter when in the yeare MDLV hee took upon him by his Apostolicall authoritie such I am sure as none of the Apostles of Christ did ever assume unto themselves to erect Ireland unto the title and dignity of a Kingdome Whereas he might have found even in his own Romane Provinciall that Ireland was reckoned among the Kingdomes of Christendome before hee was borne Insomuch that in the yeare MCCCCXVII when the legates of the King of England and the French Kings ambassadours fell at variance in the Councell of Constance for precedencie the English Orators among other arguments alledged this also for themselves It is well knowne that according to Albertus Magnus and Bartholomaeus in his booke de proprietatibus rerum the whole world being divided into three parts to witt Asia Africk and Europe Europe is divided into foure Kingdomes namely the Romane for the first the Constantinopolitane for the second the third the kingdome of Ireland which is now translated unto the English and the fourth the kingdome of Spaine Whereby it appeareth that the king of England and his kingdome are of the more eminent ancient Kings and Kingdomes of all Europe which prerogative the kingdome of France is not said to obtaine And this have I here inserted the more willingly because it maketh something for the honour of my country to which I confesse I am verie much devoted and in the printed Actes of the Councell it is not commonly to be had But now commeth forth Osullevan againe and like a little furie flyeth upon the English-Irish Priests of his owne religion which in the late rebellion of the Earle of Tirone did not deny that Hellish doctrine fetcht out of Hell for the destruction of Catholicks that it is lawfull for Catholicks to beare armes and fight for Heretickes against Catholickes and their country or rather if you will have it in plainer termes that it is lawfull for them of the Romish religion to beare armes and fight for their Soveraigne and fellow subjects that are of another profession against those of their owne religion that trayterously rebell against their Prince and countrey and to shew how madde and how venemous a doctrine they did bring these be the caitiffes own termes that exhorted the laity to follow the Queens side he setteth down the Censure of the Doctors of the Universitie of Salamanca and Vallodilid published in the yeare MDCIII for the justification of that Rebellion and the declaration of Pope Clement the eights letters touching the same wherin he signifieth that the English ought to be set upon no lesse then the Turkes and imparteth the same favours unto such as set upon them that he doth unto such as fight against the Turks Such wholsome directions doth the Bishop of Rome give unto those that wil be ruled by him farre different I wisse from that holy doctrine wherewith the Church of Rome was at first seasoned by the Apostles Let every soule be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God was the lesson that S. Paul taught to the ancient Romanes Where if it be demanded whether that power also vvhich persecuteth the servants of God impugneth the faith and subverteth religion be of God our countreyman Sedulius will teach us to answer with Origen that even such a power as that is given of God for the revenge of the evill and the prayse of the good although he were as wicked as eyther Nero among the Romanes or Herod among the Iewes the one whereof most cruelly persecuted the Christians the other Christ himselfe And yet when the one of them swayed the scepter S. Paul told the Christian Romanes that they must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake and of the causelesse feare of the other these verses of Sedulius are solemnely song in the Church of Rome even unto this day Herodes hostis impie Christum venire quid times Non abripit mortalia Qui regna dat coelestia Why wicked Herod dost thou feare And at Christs comming frowne The mortall he takes not away That gives the heavenly crowne a better paraphrase whereof you caâ—not have then this which Claudius hath inserted into his Collections upon S. Matthew That King which is borne doth not come to overcome Kings by fighting but to subdue them after a wonderfull maner by dying neyther is he borne to the end that he may succeed thee but that the world may faithfully beleeve in him For he is come not that he may fight being alive but that he may triumph being slayne nor that he may with gold get an army unto himselfe out of other nations but that he may shed his precious blood for the saving of the nations Vainly didst thou by envying feare him to be thy successor whom by beleeving thou oughtest to seeke as thy Saviour because if thou diddest beleeve in him thou shouldest raigne with him and as thou hast received a temporall kingdome from him thou shouldest also receive from him an everlasting For the kingdome of this Childe is not of this world but by him it is that men doe raigne in this world He is the Wisedome of God which saith in the Proverbes By me Kings raigne This Childe is the Word of God this Childe is the Power and Wisedome of God If thou canst thinke against the Wisedome of God thou workest thine owne destruction and dost not know it For thou by no meanes shouldest have had thy kingdome unlesse thou hadst received it from that Childe which now is borne As for the Censure of the Doctors of Salamanca and Vallodilid our Nobility and Gentry by the faithfull service which at that time they performed unto the Crowne of England did make a reall confutation of it Of whose fidelitie in this kinde I am so well perswaded that I doe assure my selfe that neyther the names of Franciscus Zumel and Alphonsus Curiel how great Schoole-men soever
Secondly I must crave leave to say that I find not Popery how subtill or sophisticall soever it be to be of anie such puissance but that a man of meane learning armed with the strength of the divine Scriptures may easily ruinate and overturne it Thirdly those that oppugne the Religion His Majesties Supremacie what doe they else but oppugne therewithall as they must needs at least inclusively the Lawes and Statutes of the Kingdome whereby they are both established And what reason then can bee shewed why hee that is a Lawyer by profession may not defend and maintaine the Lawes and Statutes of the Realme in those two great points especially wherein they be so unjustly and causelessely oppugned But when I consider my selfe further to be a servant though unworthy to his most excellent Majestie and that in so high and eminent a Court as His Maiesties Bench is beside my profession the duetie of my place also tyeth mee to defend his Maiesties Supremacie as being a thing properly appâ—rtayning to his verie Crowne and Regall dignitie And doth not moreover the Oath of Supremacy to His Majestie which I have taken necessarily binde mee hereunto Yea even for this verie cause that I am a subiect to his Maiestie though there were no other reason doe I hold my selfe in duetie tyed to my power to uphold and maintain that his Regall Supremacie For if everie good childe will maintaine the right and Authoritie of his Father and everie good servant the right and Authoritie of his Lord and Master ought not everie good subiect to maintaine the right and Authoritie of his Soveraigne Lord and King And as touching the Religion if there were no other reason but this that I am a Christian by profession though no professed Divine doe I hold it for that verie cause not onely well beseeming mee but my duetie likewise according to such measure of knowledge and abilitie as God hath given mee to defend and maintaine the true and Christian Religion I professe against that which is untruly called the Christian and Catholike and is indeed the false erroneous and Antichristian For whereas some have a conceit that not Lay men at all but Clergie men only and such as be of the Ecclesiastical Ministerie should meddle with the Scriptures and matters of Religion it appeareth to be a verie vaine conceit and an untrue opinion because S. Paul directly requireth even of Lay Christians as well as of others that the Word of Christ should Dwell in them and that not poorely or in a small or slender measure but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is richly plentifully or abundantly Whereupon Primasius saith that Hence wee learne that the Lay people ought to have the knowledge of the Scriptures and to teach one another not onely sufficiently but also abundantly And therefore are they further expressely charged to admonish exhort and edifie one another yea to contend and not onely to contend but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earnestly to contend for that faith which was once given unto the Saints And doth not God himselfe also command thus Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart but Thou shalt in anie wise rebuke thy neighbour and not suffer sinne to be upon him Agreeably wherunto would not S. Iames likewise have all Christians to labour the conversion of such as be in error and goe astray telling them for their better encouragement in this matter that if any doe erre from the truth and another convert him let such a one know that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soule from death and cover a multitude of sinnes You see then what duties in respect of the good of others as well as of himselfe be required even of a lay person in matters concerning God and his religion And indeede verie strange it were if lay Christians should be tyed in charitie to take care of mens bodies and yet should in no sort be permitted to have anie care or to shew anie Christian charitie or affection in respect of their soules and the good and safetie of them It is true that no man may take upon him the office and function of Bishops Pastors or other Ministers of the Word without a lawfull calling or ordination first had and obtayned but although a lay man may not therfore preach minister the sacraments nor do anie such acts as be proper and peculiar to those that be Ecclesiasticall Ministers yet in such things as be not proper and peculiar unto them but be acts and duties common with them to other Christians a Lay man may lawfully intermeddle It is likewise true that the knowledge of Gods Word and consequently of Divinitie doth in a more exact and more plentiful and fuller maner and measure and chiefly belong to those that be professed Divines and of the Ecclesiasticall Ministery but thereupon it followeth not that therefore it belongeth onely to them As also although those of the Ecclesiasticall Ministery are to teach and instruct the Lay people out of the Scriptures and that the Lay people are to learne what they rightly teach from thence yet neither doth it thereupon follow nor is that anie argument or impediment but that the Lay people may neverthelesse reade and get knowledge in the Scriptures and thereout learne what good they can also even by their owne industry diligence and endevour We reade of Aquila and Priscilla his wife that they were by their Trade Tentmakers and that Apollos was a man eloquent and mightie in the Scriptureâ— yet so skilfull learned expert were those two nameâ—ly not onely Aquila but Priscilla also his wife in the Word of God as that they tooke unto them the same Apollos and expounded unto him The Way of God more perfectly All men know that Kings Princes and such like civill Magistrates be none of that Order of the Ecclesiasticall Ministery and yet of them it is specially required that they reade the Scriptures Book of God and that they be verie diligent and conversant in it For God expressely requireth of a King that When hee shall sit upon the Throne of his Kingdome He get him the Book of his Law and chargeth him to reade therein all the Dayes of his Life that he may learne to feare the Lord his God and to Keepe All his Words and ordinances not turning from them eyther to the right hand or to the left That so he may prolong his Dayes in his Kingdome Hee and his Sonnes after him And to Iosuah a civill Magiâ—â—â—ate hee likewise giveth this charge and commandement saying Let not This Booke of the Law depart out of thy mouth but Meditate therein Day and Night that thou maist Observe and Doe according to All that is written therein for then shalt thou make thy Way prosperous and then shalt thou have good successe Was not the Treasurer to Candace Queene of the Ethiopians also a Lay man and not
some have done that the King is therein called Supreme head of the Church they are deceived The words of the Oath at this day to take away all offence that any might conceive in that point being not supreme HEAD but supreme GOVERNOR And as touching this Title of Governor within his owne Dominions none can with anie reason gainesay it inasmuch as beside that which is before spoken King Alfred reigning long sithence was likewise called Omnium Britanniae Insulae Christianorum Rector The Governor of all the Christians vvithin the Isle of Britanny The Councell also held at Mentz in Germanie the yeare 814 in the time of the Emperor Charles the great and Pope Leo the third calleth likewise the Christian Emperor Carolus Augustus Governor of the True Religion and Defendor of the holy Church of God c. And a little after they say thus VVee give thankes to God the Father almighty because he hath granted unto his holy Church a Governor so godly c. In the yeare 847. there was also held another Councel at Mentz in the time of Leo the fourth and Lotharius the Emperor where they againe call the Emperor Verae Religionis strenuissimum rectorem a most puissant Governor of the true Religion The like was ascribed to King Reccesumthius in a Councell held at Emerita in Portugale about the yeare 705 in these words VVhose vigilancie doth governe both secular things vvith very great piety and ecclesiasticall by his vvisedome plentifully given him of God Where you see it expressely acknowledged that the King is a Governor both in causes secular and ecclesiasticall And this Councell of Emerita had also good allowance of Pope Innocent the third in his Epistle to Peter Archbishop of Compostella as Garsias witnesseth So that the Title of Governor even as touching matters ecclesiasticall as well as civill or secular attributed to the King he governing in them after a Regall manner and not in that Ecclesiasticall manner which Bishops and Clergie men use can no way justly be misliked but must in all reason be well approved and allowed Howbeit I grant that King Henry the eight and King Edward the sixt had that Title of Head in their times given unto them but not of the universal Church upon earth as the Pope hath but of the Church onely within their owne Dominions and not within their owne Dominions neither in such sort and sense as the Pope taketh upon him to be Head over all the Churches in the world that is to rule and governe them at his own pleasure and as he lift himselfe Indeed Stephen Gardner Bishop of Winchester when he was in Germanie upon the Kings affaires was there a very ill Interpretor of that Title Supreme head of the Church vvithin his owne Dominions given to King Henry the eight reporting that the King might thereby prescribe and appoint new ordinances in the Church concerning faith and doctrine as namely forbid the marriage of Priests and take away the use of the Cup in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and in things concerning Religion might do what he listed This manner of declaring the Kings power and authoritie under that Title did so much offend the reformed Churches that Calvin and the writers of the Centuries did complaine of it and that iustly and worthily bearing that sense but in no other sort or sense did they dislike it Yea even that Title of Supreme head being rightly understood needed not to have offended anie for they had iâ— in no other sort or sense then the King of Israel likewise had the title of Head of the Tribes of Israel of which Tribes the Leviticall Tribe was one Or then Theodosius that Christian Emperor had the like within his Empire of whom Saint Chrysostome saith that non habet parem super terram He hath no peere or equall upon earth and affirmeth moreover of him that hee was summitas Caput omnium super terram hominum the Head and one that had the Supremacy over all men upon earth Yea by the Title of supreme Head attributed to King Henry the eight and King Edward the sixt was no more meant but the verie same that was afterward meant to the late Queene Elizabeth of blessed memorie or to King Iames our now Soveraigne Lord under the title of Supreme Governor for that they are both to be taken intended in one the selfe same sense is verie manifest even by a direct clause in an Act of Parliament viz. the Statute of 5. Eliz. cap. 1. in which also is declared how the Oath of Supremacie is to be expounded And the words of that Statute be these Provided also that the Oath viz of Supremacie expressed in the said Act made in the said first yeare of her raigne shall be taken and expounded in such forme as is set forth in an Admonition annexed to the Queenes Maiesties Iniunctions published in the same first yeare of her Maiesties raigne that is to say to confesse and acknowledge in her Maiestie her heyres and successors none other authoritie then that vvhich vvas challenged and lately used by the noble king Henry the eight and king Edward the sixt as in the said Admonition more plainly may appeare Where first you may observe the Authoritie attributed to King Henry the eight and to King Edward the sixt and to Queene Elizabeth as touching this point intended and declared to be all one And secondly you see it enacted how the Oath of Supremacy is to bee expounded namely that it is to be taken expounded in such forme as is set forth in an Admonition annexed to the Queens Majesties Iniunctions published in the same first yeare of her Raigne The words of which Admonition therefore as more amply conteyning the explanation of the same Oath I have here thought good to adde for your better and most full satisfaction in this matter The Title whereof is this An Admonition to simple men deceived by the malicious HEr Maiesty forbiddeth all her subiects to give eare or credite to such perverse and malicious persons vvhich most sinisterly and maliciously labour to notifie to her loving subiects how by the vvordes of the Oath of Supremacy it may be collected that the Kings or Queenes of this Realme possessioners of the Crowne may challenge authoritie and power of Ministery of Divine offices in the Church vvherein her said subiects be much abused by such evill disposed persons for certainly her Maiestie neyther doth nor ever vvill challenge any other authority then that vvhich vvas of ancient time due to the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme that is to say under God to have the Soveraignety and rule over all maner of Persons borne vvithin these her Maiesties Dominions and Countries of vvhat estate eyther Ecclesiasticall or Temporall soever they be So as no forraine Power shall or ought to have any superioritie over them And if any person that hath conceived any other sense of the
forme of the said Oath shall accept of the same Oath vvith this interpretation sense or meaning her Maiestie is vvell pleased to accept every such in that behalfe as her good and obedient subiects and shall acquite them of all maner penalties contayned in the said All against such as shall peremptorily or obstinately refuse to take the same Oath The words of that Admonition being thus set downe I shall need to say no more For hereby you see I trust verie fully the true certaine and undoubted sense scope meaning and interpretation of the Oath Why therefore should anie be so contentious or malicious as to wrest or wring it to a contrarie meaning or such as it never intended For hereby appeareth that although the king be supreme Governor within his owne Dominions yet it is explained That he is supreme Governor under God so that by reason thereof the King neither doth nor can take upon him anie authoritie over Gods word or ordinances to devise alter or frame religion as he list as some verie odiously and no lesse strangely have inferred Such thoughts be farre from his godly minde Neither when it is said at anie time That the King hath Authoritie or Iurisdiction ecclesiasticall is anie other thing meant thereby but his Iurisdiction or Authoritie in Ecclesiasticall causes and over ecclesiasticall persons and thereby is not meant or intended as some againe verie absurdly and malignantly have imagined That the King hath anie such authoritie as is meerely Ecclesiasticall and proper to Bishops Pastors and such like Ministers of the Church as namely to preach to minister the Sacraments to excommunicate to absolve to consecrate Bishops or such like for the exposition of the Oath which is before delivered in the Admonition and ratified by an expresse Act of Parliament directly declareth the contrarie to that conceit And therefore his Majesties authoritie in Ecclesiasticall causes must not be conceived to be anie such as is properly Sacerdotall or Episcopall but such as is rightly and properly Regall and Imperiall Which Regall and Imperiall Authoritie ought no more to be denied unto him then that which is meerely and properly Sacerdotal or Episcopal may be denied to Priests or Bishops What should hinder then but that yee all may as ye ought utterly renounce and forsake for ever the Papall and all forraine Iurisdictions whatsoever and further also promise according to the tenor of the Oath to your power to assist and defend all jurisdictions priviledges preeminences and authorities granted or belonging to the King his heires and successors or united and annexed to the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme considering that there is no Authoritie in these matters ecclesiasticall granted or belonging to the King or united or annexed to his Crown but such as appeareth to be lawfull and is rightly Regall and Imperiall and which withall in no sort wrongeth the authoritie of anie other Church governors of Gods institution whosoever Yea the King is so farre from encroching or intruding upon or impugning or hindering anie of the offices or authorities granted or belonging unto them from God that contrariwise he leaveth all those rights and authorities wholly and entirely unto them to be executed and which is more such is his most godly and Christian disposition that to that their divine Calling Ambasâ—age and Ministerie enioyned them from God and by them sincerely and faithfully administred himselfe in his owâ—â— person most readily and willingly yeeldeth both reverence and obedience as wel knowing that in respect of God whose Ambassadors and Ministers they be and whose word and will onely they are to teach and deliver the greatest King is but a subiect Howbeit neverthelesse otherwise and in respect of their owne persons it must be confessed that they be subiect unto him and owe him obedience and are in all dutie and humilitie to performe the same unto him So that I hope you now sufficiently perceive that his Maiesties Supremacie under God his government and authoritie as touching causes persons ecclesiasticall being such as is only Regal and Imperial and no way derogatorie preiudiciall or iniurious to anie Bishops Pastors or Ministers that be of divine Institution or to their offices and functions but rather verie much helpfull to them in their places is so farre from being to be disliked that contrariwise being rightly understood it is ever to be allowed and that with much praise thanks unto God for the same whose gracious ordinance it is for the further good greater comfort and benefit of his Church and Religion CAP. II. Wherein is shewed That our Church was in the Apostles dayes and in all times and ages since howsoever that which we call Popery did as an Infection or Corruption grow unto it whereof it was againe to be purged and so to become as we call it a reformed Church and that all these things came thus to passe in the Church according to the Prophecies thereof formerly delivered in Gods owne Booke AND What is to be thought of those forefathers of ours that lived and dyed in the time of Poperie AS ALSO That long before the Dayes of King HENRY the eight and long before LUTHER or CALVIN were borne the Pope of Rome was complayned of and exclaymed against and affirmed and published to be Antichrist as also Popish Rome affirmed to be the whore of Babylon mentioned in the Revelation of S. Iohn BEfore I enter to speake of the other particular points hereafter mentioned it will not be amisse here to speake something in a generall sort concerning Gods Church and his Religion For how confident and resolute soever some take upon them to be in that Popish Religion they hold and professe yet is that no proofe that therefore they be right for not only those of a right Religion but those also of a wrong be verie resolute and confident as appeareth by all Sectaries Heretickes and Schismatickes who be verie pertinacious and resolute for the maintenance of their severall errors and opinions Neither is it a reason sufficient for them to say they follow the waies of their forefathers and ancestors except they be sure that they went the right way for we are not to follow our forefathers and ancestors in anie vices or errours they held be they otherwise never so deare unto us VValke not yee saith God in the ordinances of your fathers nor observe yee their maners nor defile your selves vvith their Idols I am the Lord your God vvalke yee in my statutes and keepe my Iudgements and doe them Yea ye may remember that it is written thus of some people who are therefore much reproved So did their children and their childrens children As did their fathers so doe they unto this day Where further it is said that notwithstanding this following of their forefathers and doing after their old custome yet they obeyed not God Nor is it sufficient for them to say they follow the doctrine or direction of their
he changeth the good lawes and establisheth his owne he prophaneth he raveneth he spoyleth he defraudeth he massacreth even that man of perdition doth this vvhom they are wont to call Antichrist in vvhose forehead this name of blasphemy is written I am a God I cannot erre He sitteth in the Temple of God and Ruleth farre and wide c. Petrus Blessensis likewise verie earnestly adviseth all good men to depart from Rome as from the midst of Babylon And Sigebertus also witnesseth that for the most part all that were good just open hearted ingenuous and plaine-dealing men held That the kingdome of Antichrist vvas then and in those dayes About which time also the VValdenses and Albigenses in France did openly sequester themselves from the Romish Church holding and maintayning amongst other articles as the bookes of their adversaries themselves doe witnesse That Popish Rome is the Babylon mentioned in the Revelation and that the Pope is the very Antichrist foretold in the Scriptures And about the yeare 1230 one VVilliam Bishop of Paris likewise feared not to call Rome Babylon Egypt Sodome and her Prelates Profaners and spoylers of the True Spouse of Christ that established Lucifer againe in the heaven of Christs Church Robert Grosthead Bishop of Lincolne Sebaldus Archbishop of Yorke and Probus Bishop of Thoul did in their times also mightily inveigh against the Pope One Haiabalus a Franciscan preached openly in Avinian That the Pope and his Cardinals were Antichrist and that the Popish Church was the VVhore of Babylon mentioned in the Revelation And being sent for by Pope Clement the sixt he affirmed that he was commanded from God to publish it and that hee could not otherwise doe Francis Petrarch Archdeacon of Parma and a Chanon of Padua who lived about the yeare 1350 and who for all kinde of learning might be called the light of his age not onely in his Sonnets but even in his Epistles also exclaimeth against the Pope his Court and Church saying That the Popes Chayre is the Chayre of lying that it is a Defection a Revolt an Apostasie of a people that under the Standard of Christ rebell against Christ and fight for Sathan That the Papacy and no other is the Babylon the mother of all the vvhoredomes of the earth c. Nicholaus Oresmus also who lived about the yeare 1364. feared not to say before Pope Vrban the fift That the Church of Rome vvas vvorse then vvhilom vvas the Iewish Synagogue That the Time of Antichrist spoken of in 2. Thess. 2 vvas come seeing the Romane Empire vvas desolated and that betweene the desolation thereof and the comming of Antichrist there vvas no middle time thereby signifying plainely enough that Antichrist then was in being and had his seate in Rome Which thing also Iohannes de Rupe scissa a Franciscan Frier was bold to affirme before Pope Vrban the sixt for which hee was prisoner a long time in Avinion These to pretermit sundrie other Authorities and Testimonies which might be further cited if need were sufficiently declare that manie hundreth yeares before King HENRY the Eight or LUTHER or CALVIN were borne the Pope of Rome was held published to be Antichrist and the Beast spoken of in the Revelation and that Popish Rome was the Whore of Babylon as also they shew where our Church was all that while untill they made an actuall separation from the Pope and Poperie And where it hath been ever since is a thing so well knowne and apparant that it needeth not to be shewed And thus much may suffice to have spoken generally Now let us proceede to other matters FINIS LIBRI PRIMI THE SECOND PART of the BOOKE CHAP. I. Wherein that point concerning the infallible Iudge of these controversies is amplified and further debated and declared And what Scriptures be Canonical and what not Of the perfection and sufficiencie of the Scriptures without Traditions That the Church is to be tryed and decided by the Scriptures And who be the right Catholikes That the Scriptures in their originals be incorrupt and to be preferred before that which is called S. Hieromes Translation and before all other Translations whatsoever That the publique Service should be in such a Tongue as the people may understand That Lay-people may and ought to reade the Scriptures And whence all right exposition of them is to be had AS wee are all under one God and under one King and the same a most worthie learned vertuous and Christian King so were it very consonant and convenient if by anie good meanes it might be brought to passe that we did all hold and professe one and the selfe same true faith Christian Religion For indeed not anie unitie or agreement in falshood or errors but an unitie or agreement in the truth and true Religion is the thing that ought of all to be sought after and desired But now which is that one true Christian Religion which all ought to embrace is that which is made the great Question namely whether it be Protestancy or Papistry inasmuch as both these lay claime unto it Wherein if God speaking in his owne sacred and Canonicall Scriptures may be as is most fit he should be allowed to bee the Iudge then is this which is made so great a question soone decided and at an end it being by him there cleerely resolved that not that which is called Papistry but that which is called Protestancy is the right and true Christian Religion For what be Protestants as they be in this Controversie distinguished against Papists but such as professe to build their Faith and Religion wholly and altogether upon that undoubted word of God the sacred and Canonical Scriptures And what is Papistry on the other side but a profession of such a Faith and Religion as is not so grounded but relieth partly upon unwritten Traditions partly upon the determination of the Popes partly upon the Decrees of their Councels and voice of their owne Church and Teachers and upon such like strengthes and staies as whereby they may easily be deceived Howbeit what cause is there why the pretended Catholicks should not allow God speaking in his divine and Canonical Scriptures to be the Iudge in these Controversies For is there or can there be anie higher better juster or surer Iudge to trust unto then hee or is there anie equall to him or comparable with him What meane they herein Would they have their owne Church Clergie Councels and Pope to be the Iudge That were not fit nor equall yee know that such as be parties should also be the Iudges in their owne cause Yea if their Councell of Constance and Councell of Trent or anie other of their Councels were much better then they be as they be indeed none of the best sort yet were they not to be held for sure or infallible Iudges in this case for anie to build his faith upon or to trust unto them
the sacred and canonicall Scriptures this is not as Papists affirme to make a private spirit or anie private man but a Divine spirit even God himselfe speaking in those his sacred and canonicall Scriptures to be the Iudge in the matter To whose voice and judgement all Churches Men Angels and all creatures must stoope and obey And therefore as I said before all the insolencie and most intollerable pride and arrogancie that is in this case is not in those who for their owne safetie and securitie make search and examination but in such Bishops Pastors and Teachers as will not endure this triall and examination of their doctrines by those Scriptures Pure and uncounterfeit gold will endure the Touch-stone but no marvaile though the drossie corrupt and unsound doctrine of Poperie will not admit of such a course 2 But you say the Church cannot erre that therefore you may boldly and confidently relie and build thereupon without anie further search or examination Howbeit you should first find out and know which is the Church that cannot erre before you relie so confidently upon it For you will easily and readily grant that the false Church may erre And indeed the Text that you alledge where S. Paul calleth the Church Columnam firmamentum veritatis the Pillar and ground of Truth sheweth that he speaketh not of anie false but of the True Church namely as himselfe expresseth of that which is the Church of the living God His words put all together be thus These things I vvrite unto thee saith hee to Timothy trusting to come shortly unto thee But if I tarry long that thou mayest yet know how thou oughtest to behave thy selfe in the house of God vvhich is the Church of the living God the pillar and ground of Truth In these words thus rehearsed by mee that ye might the better observe them consider that Timothy who was the Teacher and overseer of this Church at Ephesus had his direction and instruction from the writings of S. Paul the Apostle for so he saith These things I vvrite unto thee c. The Church then which is the ground and Pillar of Truth appeareth even by this verie Text to be such a one as receiveth her instructions and directions from the sacred and canonicall Scriptures whereof those Apostolicall writings of S. Paul to Timothy be a part From whence therefore you may rightly conclude this which we hold namely that so long as anie Church followeth and is guided by these holy and canonicall Scriptures it is the pillar and ground of Truth and doth not erre or goe astray but if it decline from them and goe another way it doth and must then needs fall into error Howbeit if when you say The Church cannot erre you meane it of the whole universall Church of Christ that is of all and everie one of the faithfull members thereof it is true that cannot erre totally nor fundamentally that is to say All and everie one of those faithful members of Christ as Panormitan and the Glosse also upon the Canon Law have before told us cannot erre in such points as be necessarily required to salvation for Gods Church shall never utterly perish or be extinguished but that in some or other it shall continue to the worlds end and consequently so must the saving faith thereto belonging But if you meane it of anie visible particular Church such as is the church of Rome the Church of Ephesus the Church of Corinth or anie such like it is as cleere that may erre and goe astray yea and fall from God to Idolatry and false worship Were not the people of Israel in times past the true Church of God and yet did even that Church erre fal verie grievously even unto Idolatrie and false worship when they and Aaron also the high Priest with them made the Golden Calfe and did worship before it And manie sâ—ch declinings and falls from God to Idolatrie and false worship in that people are sundrie other times likewise to be found in the old Testament But besides what is now become of the seven Churches in Asia mentioned in the Revelation of S. Iohn which were once the true Churches of Christ Hath not Turcisme and Paganisme overflowed and drowned manie that in former times were famous Christian Churches Yea did not God himselfe also sometime complaine even of that Church and Citie of Ierusalem saying thus How is the faithfull Citie become an Harlot No marvaile then is it though Rome which was once a faithfull Citie and a true spouse of Christ be now long since fallen away and become an Harlot even the vvhore of Babylon as was long agon prophesied and foretold of her that she should be For neither was it anie more impossible for her to degenerate into Antichristianisme then it was for sundrie other Christian Churches and cities to degenerate and to be turned into Turcisme or Paganisme Yea S. Paul also hath long since prophesied and foretold of this great Apostasie or departure from the right faith and religion which hath now of a long time so amply prevailed in the world under the head of that Apostaticall and Antichristian kingdome the Pope of Rome and therefore this ought not now to seeme anie new or strange thing unto anie Christian. 3 Howbeit ye usually alledge these namely universalitie antiquitie perpetuitie unitie succession of Bishops and doing of Miracles or vvonders amongst you to bee markes of the true Church But first if by universalitie ye meane that faith doctrine and religion which was taught universally in the world by the Apostles of Christ and at his appointment Wee tell you that yee are farre from that universalitie For that faith doctrine and religion which was taught universally in the world by the Apostles is comprised in the sacred and canonicall Scriptures and is the same that wee hold and not you as appeareth by conferring and comparing both the religions with those Scriptures But moreover remember that the great Whore of Babilon as shee is called sate upon many waters that is ruled over manie people and multitudes and nations and tongues as the text it selfe expoundeth it And it is further said that with that VVhore the Kings of the earth have committed fornication that the Inhabitants of the earth were drunken with the wine of her fornication Yea it is again said That all Nations have drunke of the vvine of the vvrath of her fornication the Kings of the earth have committed fornication vvith her Behold here the universalitie belonging to your Church which being thus foretold the event being correspondent none should with such universality be any longer deluded As for Antiquitie unlesse truth and true religion be ioyned with it which is not in the Popish Church it is but Vetustas erroris Antiquitie of errors as S Cyprian rightly calleth it Yea Antiquity of the ancientest date our religion hath and not yours for
yee cannot so much as shew the points of your religion wherein yee differ from us by the testimonie of the sacred and Canonicall Scriptures to have beene in the Apostles times and taught or approved by them as wee can doe ours And as touching Perpetuitie your Church hath it not but ours verie clearely hath it as having beene not onely in the times of the Apostles but in all succeeding ages also and posterities as is before sufficiently and plainely declared in the first part of this booke Chap. 2. For the true Church is builded upon so strong and invincible a Rocke namely upon Christ Iesus himselfe whom Peter confessed as that the gates of hell shall not prevaile against it If all the power of hell and divels as is here manifest cannot prevaile against the Church of God that is the companie of Gods Elect and the number of his true and right Worshippers It is evident that this Church that is a companie of right and true worshippers of him must be granted to be perpetuall and to have continued throughout all ages and generations especially considering what God himselfe further speaketh saying thus I will makâ— this my covenant with them my spirit that is vpon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seede nor out of the mouth of thy Seedes seede saith the Lord from henceforth even for ever Yea that our Church was in Esse and had continuance even during the hottest rage of the raigne of that Romish Antichrist besides all other arguments this is a manifest one namely because the Popish Church still molested pursued and persecuted our Church under the names of Berengarians VValdenses Albigenses VVickâ—evists Lutherans Calvinists Lollards Heretickes Scismatickes and such like And yet very true it is that such may be sometime in some place the state of the Church by reason of rageing persecution against it as that even a right godly man and true worshipper of God may thinke himselfe to bee left alone without anie followers or copartners with him there in the right service of God As for example Elias complained in his time and of that place where he then lived that hee was left alone and That they sought to take avvay his life also And yet for all that was not Elias left alone although he so supposed and spake for God told him that he had even there namely in Israell where Elias then was reserved unto himselfe Seven thousand right worshippers of him which had not bowed their knee to Baal If the Companie of Gods chosen Church and elect people and right Worshippers of him be as is here evident sometime in some place unknowne even to a right godly man and Prophet of God no marvell is it though they sometimes lye hid and be unknowne to their enemies and persecutors to whose devowring pawes and bloodie hands without urgent cause they had no reason to shew themselves It is therfore no good argument which Papists make when they say that at some times during the raigne of Poperie they neither saw nor knew nor could heare of anie Protestants for if it were so as they say that they could finde none nor knew of anie at sometimes yet even then might there bee and were there also some such true and right worshippers of God albeit they lay hid from them and kept themselves as they had reason from their knowledge and mercilesse crueltie The reason then which they make against the continuance and perpetuitie of our Church because it was not as they say at all times seene of the world nor had their exercises of Religion at all and singular times publikely knowne to the world appeareth to be verie idle and of no force As for the answer which the Rhemists make to the former complaint of Eâ—ias that the faithful in his time were forced to keep close by reason of the persecution of Achab Iesabel which was onely in the Kingdome of the ten Tribes that is in Israell and yet neverthelesse that at the verie same time in Ierusalem and in all the Kingdome of Iudah the externall worship and profession of faith was openly observed well known even to Elias himselfe Admit all this were true which is not proved yet what will they then say to this that the Church at other times hath beene so hidden that there was no open or publike exercise of Religion to be sâ—ene no not in Iuda or Ierusalem it selfe no more then in those ten Tribes of Israell as namely in the daies of Ahas the sonne of Iotham King â—f Iuda of whom it is said that hee walked in the way of the Kings of Israâ—ll yea and made his Sonne to goe through the fire after the abhominations of the Heathen and in whose time the Altar of God was removed and an Idolatrous altar by the high Priests consent 〈…〉 Yea in the daies also of Hoseah King of Israell it is testified that not onely Israell but Iuda also kept not the Commandements of the Lord their God but walked according to the fashion of Israel vvhich they vsed How was the Church then visible in that sort and sense that wee speake of that is to say was it such a Church as had publike exercises of Gods religion splendently seene and openly apparant to the world Againe in the daies of Manasseth King of Iuda when Hee did evill in the sight of the Lord after the abhomination of the Heathen and erected altars for Baall and worshipped all the hoast of heaven and served them and when hee also built Idolatrous altars in the house of the Lord yea when it was recorded that this King Manasseh led the people out of the way to doe more wickedly then did the heathen and made Iuda also sinne vvith his Idols I say when Iuda became thus corrupted and Idolatrous aswell as Israell Had then the Church her outward practise of Religion according to Gods commandement and appointment to bee openly seene of the world And was it not so likewise in the daies of Amon King of Iuda Sonne and successor to Manasseh vvho did evill in the sight of the Lord as his father Manasseh did for he walked in all the waies his father walked in and served the Idols that his father served and worshipped them Thus you see that the Church of God was sometimes not openly seene but lay hidden and that as well in Iuda and Ierusalem as in the ten Tribes But perceiving this Church of Iuda and Israell to make against them then they flie to another devise and say that the Christian Church hath better promises then the Church of the Iewes Howbeit they can shew none as touching this point better for the one then for the other Yea for the Church of the Ievves to continue untill the first comming of Christ there be as strong as good promises to be seene as for
a peremptory power in religion it selfe VVhat more remaineth wherein ye migh further encroach except yee will go about to bring the very Angels also under your subiection c. Now how should all this pomp pride in the Pope and Popish Clergie so much licentiousnes withall permitted to the people of their Church be maintained and upheld without this covetous and greedie kinde of merchandizing Who then doth not see that this Rome mentioned in the Revelation to be such a one as did merchandize the soules of Men must needs be intended of Popish Rome and not of Heathen Rome For all men know that the Heathen Rome never used this kinde of Trade namely of merchandizing mens soules Seventhly the Rome there mentioned is shewed to be such a one as caused or made the Kings and inhabitants of the earth to drinke of the vvine of her fornication that is of the pleasant seeming but indeed filthie and poysoned Religion and so to take upon them the Marke of the Beast But the Heathenish Rome where she conquered and prevailed and brought people in subiection under her urged not nor enforced her religion upon those nations or people which shee subdued but gave leave unto them still to retaine and hold that religion of their owne which formerly they had as even Leo Bishop of Rome himselfe declareth and as is apparant by the countrey of the Iewes and by other countries also which shee brought into subiection Whereupon followeth that not the Heathenish Rome which allowed the religion of other countries beside her owne but the Papal Rome which alloweth no other religion but her owne is must needs be there intended Eightly the Babylon that is the Rome there mentioned is such a Rome that shall be so desolated and destroyed as that it shall never be builded againe or inhabited anie more as is verie fully evident by the 18. chapter of the Revelation And this is so cleere that Suarez himselfe confesseth and teacheth it But the Heathenish Rome governed by Heathen Emperors was never yet so destroyed yea after that the citie of Rome was destroied by the Gothes and Vandals and others yet it was rebuilded againe and reinhabited and as yet it continueth a citie builded and inhabited to this day The Rome therefore that is here described and shewed to be such a Rome as shall be so desolated and destroied as that it shall never be inhabited anie more by men cannot possibly be imagined to be Heathen Rome but contrariwise must needs be supposed that which is now the Papal or Popish Rome for there is no Heathen Rome remaining so to bee destroyed I hope therefore by this time ye fully perceive that it is not the Heathen Rome as Bellarmine and some other of your Teachers would blindfold the world but the Papal or Popish Rome which in that place of the Revelation of S. Iohn is intended and described Yea further if yee would have Heathen Rome to be there described then must ye make Antichrist to bee come in the daies and times of the Heathen Emperors which is contrarie to your owne positions and opinions who say and hold though most untruly that hee is not yet come Lastly remember that these things which be mentioned concerning the Whore of Babylon be brought in and mentioned after that the seventh Angel had blowne his Trumpet and therefore also were long after the time of the Heathen Emperors An Appendix to the former Chapter NOw because Popish Rome is so directly affirmed to be an VVhore and a great VVhore and the mother of whoredomes and abominations of the earth not to speake anie more of her grosse bodily whoredomes filthinesses wherein she doth excell give me leave here to speake a few words of some of her spiritual whoredomes and adulteries that is to say of some of her Idolatries that so the truth of this matter may the better appeare First then as touching her most detestable Idolatry committed in adoring and worshipping of a peece of bread I meane their consecrated bread in stead of the true God that made heaven and earth I have before spoken and I doe here only put you in remembrance of it againe that yee may for ever hereafter tremble and feare to commit it For whereas ye say that yee take it not for bread anie longer after consecration but for Iesus Christ his verie natural bodie by way of Transubstantiation consider that that will not be sufficient to cleere you yea it is before shewed unto you that in so taking it yee doe utterly and most grossely mistake contrarie not onely to all sense and reason but contrarie to all right faith and true religion also And therefore your sinne of a most abominable Idolatry cannot be so execused but is rather so much the more aggravated by such an untrue and a most ungodly construction and supposition Ea demum est miserabilis animae servitus signa pro rebus accipere That is saith S. Augustine a miserable servitude of the soule to take the signes for the things signified by them 2 A second Idolatrous point in the Popish Church is the making of Images or visible formes of God For what Is not God a spirit How then can anie fashion him by anie bodily shape or visible likenesse Is hee not also an eternal and invisible Spirit What man then can make an Image and visible similitude of him that is eternal and whom he never saw Againe is not God incomprehensible and infinite Doe not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord And doth not King Solomon say That the heaven of heavens are not able to conteyne him And yet will silly men in the vanitie of their foolish thoughts presume to comprehend so almightie and incomprehensible a Maiestie within the narrow compasse of an Image made by themselves S. Paul sheweth it to be the error of the Heathen to take upon them to make Images of God and calleth them fooles for their labour VVhen they professed themselves to be wise they became fooles saith hee for they turned the glory of the incorruptible God to the similitude of an Image of a corruptible man and of birds and of foure footed beasts and of creeping things If the Heathens were counted and called Fooles as yee see they were for taking upon them to make Images or visible similitudes of the invisible and incorruptible God and iustly did deserve to be so called and reputed for that high indignitie and dishonour offered to so great and incomparable a Maiestie what ought Papists to thinke of themselves in this case Notwithstanding they say they doe it for a remembrance and to put them in minde of God and notwithstanding whatsoever devotion or good intent or meaning they pretend For no doubt even those Heathens likewise pretended a devotion and a good intent and meaning in this matter aswell as Papists otherwise they would never have done it But yet further
respect of his Episcopal or Spiritual And for this cause also the one is said to arise out of the Sea and the other out of the Earth Rev. 13.1.11 for in respect of his Episcopal supremacie and Pseudoprophetical demeanour hee arose from the Earth it receiving his original from below and from the Earth and not from Heaven and in respect of his Imperial dominion hee arose out of the Sea because the Ruines of the Empire by meanes whereof hee arose to that his Imperial Greatnesse were not otherwise wrought but by the wavering and disquiet turbulencies that were in the World in those daies So that howsoever it is called the first Beast and the second Beast in distinct considerations yet upon the matter they both make but one Antichrist And therefore in Rev. 17. is there mention made but of One Beast only which supported the Whore of Babylon Yea Fatentur omnes pertinere omnino ad Antichristum verba illa Iohannis c. All men confesse saith Bellarmine himselfe that those vvords of Iohn in Rev. 13.11 c. doe undoubtedly belong to Antichrist Now then let us examine and see if they be not all verified in the Pope and Papacy First it is said that this second Beast had two hornes like a Lamb but he spake like the Dragon Duo Cornua similia Agni scilicet Christi cuius duo Cornua sunt duo Testamenta He shal have two Hornes like to those of the Lambe that is like to those of Christ vvhose two Hornes be the two Testaments as Lyranus Primasius and Augustine also expound them Whereby appeareth that Antichrist shall outwardly pretend great sanctitie sinceritie humilitie and simplicitie and as if hee did all things by good authoritie and strength of the holy Scriptures the two Testaments the Old and the New and yet in verie deed his voice and speech that is his doctrines decrees lawes canons and constitutions should bewray and discover him to be but a Wolfe in Sheepes clothing and no lesse cruell and malignant against the true Church of God then the verie Dragon Doth not everie man perceive that these things doe rightly fit the Pope For who maketh a greater outward shew of sanctitie pietie and Christianitie then he and what doth he else but pretend the strength and authoritie of the two Testaments namely of the holy Scriptures for warrant and maintenance of the false doctrines errors heresies hee teacheth and holdeth Can anie man outwardly pretend greater humi litie then he when he entitleth himselfe Servus servorum Dei a servant of Gods servants and yet for all that he taketh upon him by his claimes and actions to be Rex Regum Dominus Dominantium the King of Kings and Lord of Lords So that howsoever hee pretendeth humilitie yet wee see hee is farre from it And howsoever hee pretendeth the authoritie of the holy Scriptures viz the two Testaments for the strengthning and confirmation of his religion doctrine and doings alledging them to be shadowed out and figured in the two Hornes of his Myter yet partly by reason of the unsound and false translations of those Scriptures which he defendeth and authorizeth against the truth of the Originals and partly whilest he perverteth and misinterpreteth the true Scriptures themselves and equalleth also his Traditions unto them and moreover dispenseth with them at his pleasure and preferreth his owne authoritie and the authoritie of his Church above them and so maketh them to speake in another sense and otherwise then ever they meant it is apparant that being thus used and abused they be at the most but like the two Hornes of the Lambe as this Text speaketh and be not the verie two hornes themselves that is they be not the pure incorrupt and undoubtedly true Scriptures themselves but corrupted differing from them Pope and Popery then appeareth to consist all in shewes semblances and likenesses of veritie sanctitie and pietie and have it not in verie deed and substance And therefore not without good cause did diverse Bishops make their complaint long sithence in their Epistle to Pope Nicholas recorded in Aventine saying in this sort unto him Thou bearest the person of a Bishop but thou playest the Tyrant under the habite and attyre of a Pastor vvee feele a VVolfe It is a lying Title that calleth thee Father thou in thy deeds shewest thy selfe to be another Iupiter being the servant of servants thou strivest to be the Lord of Lords c. But moreover doth not the Pope speake like the Dragon that is like the Divell for by the Dragon in the Revelation is the Divell understood when he saith that the Kingdomes of the world be his and that he hath power to dispose and give them to whomsoever hee will For did not the Divell speake the verie same to Christ in the Gospel Yea the Pope is as they write Totius orbis Dominus The Lord of the vvhole vvorld and hath Coelestis terrestris potestatis Monarchiam The Monarchy or soveraignetie both of the heavenly and earthly power and to him forsooth they apply that Prophecie Dominabitur à mari ad mare à flumine usque ad terminos orbis He shall rule from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the vvorld Yea they attribute that unto him which Iesus Christ spake of himselfe saying that All power is given unto him both in heaven and earth Matth. 28.18 Be not these most abominable blasphemous and divelish speeches being attributed to the Pope But yet further what doth hee else but speake like the Dragon that is like the Divell whilest he teacheth that doctrine of Divells mentioned in the Epistle to Timothy as shal afterward appeare and whilest he maintaineth a wrong worship of God a false faith and an Apostatical and Antichristian religion against the right most pure and onely true religion of Christ extant in the booke of God the holy and canonical Scriptures 3 Againe it is said that this second Beast did exercise all the power of the first Beast and that before him And who is so ignorant but hee knoweth that the Pope exerciseth all the power of the first Beast that is of the Latine or Romane State and that before him or before his face that is to say even at Rome and in the presence of the Romane State For hath not the Pope gotten that which was the seate of the Emperor namely Rome and made it his seate And is not the Emperor put downe from having anie Headship or Soveraigne Authoritie there Yea doth not the Pope there take upon him to exercise all the Imperial power authoritie tamen sine nomine Romani Imperatoris yet vvithout the name of the Emperor of Rome as Bellar. himself also saith that Antichrist must doe For this Imperial Authoritie aswell as his Ecclesiastical that is to say both his supremacies as before is shewed hee claimeth and holdeth under the name and title
Law of the Realme bee put to death or was there a Law in former times when Poperie raigned to put Protestants to death under the 〈◊〉 of Heretickes which were in verie died no Heretickes but of the most ancient religion and the Orthodox and right beleeving Christians and is there not a Law now when Protestancie reigneth to put Papists to death for heresie who be Hereticks reveâ—â— and in verse deed For you must 〈…〉 it is not the Determination of a Councell without appâ—â—bation of Gods word that is sufficient to prove a man an Hereticke because then should that renowned famous godly Bishop Athanasius who was condemned in the Councels of Tire and Antioch bee held and concluded to bee an Hereticke Which God forbid Yea if as is evident the determination of Councells bee not sufficient to convince or proove Athanasius Iohn Chrysostome and other Orthodox Bishops in that time to bee Heretickes much lesse is the determination of the Bishop of Rome and of his Councells in these latter times when both hee and they bee so farre revolted and degenerate able to convince the Orthodox Protestants of Heresie The strength force and authoritie of the holy Canonical Scriptures must be produced to convince a man to be an Hereticke For an Hereticke is hee that stifly and obstinately holdeth maintaineth an error in matter of Faith against the manifest authoritie of the Canonical Scriptures So that not what men hold but what God holdeth to be error heresie is so to be reputed And by this rule namely by sufficient evidence and warrant of the Canonical Scriptures it was that the Bishops their Councels in ancient time convinced the Arrianâ— Nestorianâ— Eâ—tâ—chians the other Heretickes of their dayes Which rule of iudging and convincing Hereticks by the Canonical Scriptures if it had beene held as evermore it ought it is thereby evident that Protestants never were nor ever rightly could have beene concluded to bee Hereticks Yea by this rule Papists cleerely are to bee iudged the Hereticks as appeareth by examining and trying their severall and particular Doctrines and Opinions wherein they differ from us and wherein they bee so wilfull and pertinacious by the same Canonical Scriptures And how should it or can it be otherwise For must not the doctrin of the gâ—and Antichrist of his Concubine the Whore of Babylon bring adulterate erroneous and Antichristian needs be concluded if it be wilfullie and obstinately persisted in to be cleere Heresie If then our Bishops should as they might if they were so disposed and that His Maiestie would give â—â—ave thereunto censure some points of Poperie to be heresie being 〈…〉 and obstinately persisted in and thereupon should cyte some Papists to come before them to answer as for heresie and did upon hearing and examining of the cause by sentence defiâ—â—tive declare and pronounce them to bee Hereticks What should or can hinder but that the Kings Writ de Haereticâ— Comburendo after all due circumstances observed might issue and be awarded for the putting of them to death Doth not the Law of the Realme apparantly warrant this For the Lawyers of your owne Religion can tell you that even by course of Common Law those that bee convicted and condemned of heresie may bee put to death And this it further evident even by those verie Statutes themselves viz. of 2. H. 4. cap. 1.5 and 2. H. 5. cap. 7. and 25. H. 8 cap. 14. which although they were afterward repealed in England yet do they sufficiently shew declare both what was yet stil is the Common-law in that case namely that Bishops in their several Diocesses and Provinces aswell as in their Convocations might and therfore still may even by course of Common-law notwithstanding the repeale of those Statutes by their Iurisdiction ordinarie cite Heretickes censure and sentence them and so leave them to the Lay power to bee executed And this also is learned and judicious Writer in his Apologie of certaine proceedings by Iurisdiction Ecclesiasticall doth tell you and testifieth against Fitzherberts opinion who seemeth to put a difference in this point betweene the Bishop of a Diocesse and the Convocation that hee hath heard the two Chiefe Iustices the Lord chiefe Bar◠〈◊〉 some other Iudges and the Queenes learned Councell resolve against that difference in a speciall consultation held about the matter of Heresie viz that Every Bishop within his owne Diocesseâ— as well as the Convocation might at the Common-law and still may â—â—â— demne an Hereticks Yea hee hath made a whole Chapter affirming this verie point viz. that Iudgement of Heresie still reâ—aineth at the Common-law in Iudges Ecclesiastical and that the Provise in the Statute of 1 Fliz. cap. 1 which is in Ireland 2 Eliz. cap. 1. touching Heresie is onely spoken of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and such as bee authorized by that Statute So that the authoritie and Iurisdiction of Bishops in their severall Diocesses Provinces as also in their Convocations notwithstanding that or anie other Stat. still remaineth such as it was at the Common-law namely of force sufficient for the citing censuring sentencing of Heretickes whereupon Execution of death by burning may ensue All which neverthelesse I speake not to anie such end as to incense or exasperate anie in authoritie so farre against papists but only to answer and disanull their untrue conceits and so to represse and remove the insolencie of some of them and to shew them that if our Protestant princes pleased and were so disposed they might have found as still also they may a way and meane and law sufficient to put Papists to death for Heresie Wherefore it is no defect of matter of Heresie in Poperie wherewith it doth abound nor anie defect of law which sufficiently warranteth the putting of Heretickes to death but it is the meere mercie and clemencie of His Maiesty and of other Protestant Princes his Predecessors that doth thus spare and forbeare them Whereby as they may all learne to be highly thankfull unto God for such mercifull gratious Princes to whom they are so much beholding for not executing the severitie of their lawes upon them in this case so is it their parts to give no occasion further to incense or anie way to provoke them thereunto Where also you may observe to put a difference betweene the two Religions viz. of Protestancie and Poperie considering how milde gentle and mercifull the one is namely Protestancie in comparison 〈◊〉 the other which is and ever hath beene where it is predominant and beareth rule against Protestants most terrible cruel inhumane and extreamely Bloodie and so bee mooved to affect and imbrace the one and to abhorre and detest the other as it deserveth But as touching these points I shall not neede to use manie words to men of understanding learning and iudgement especiallie when the thing desired of you tendeth to your owne good not onely in respect of this world but
chiefly in respect of the world to come For it hath as you see Gods owne expresse commandement bidding all his people to depart from that mysticall Babylon Popish Rome When therefore God himselfe thus speaketh and would have none that bee his people to adhere to such a Mother as the Whore of Babylon is but cleane contrariwise would have them to depart from her and utterly to renounce abhorre and detest her as being indeed the Mother of VVhoredomes and abhominations of the Earth as she is intitled is it not good reason and your bounden dutie to give eare unto him and to obey his voyce herein as you tender your owne salvations and desire to be His People It appeareth that ye have been of a long time mistaken as touching the right Mother-Church For not Popish Rome but Hierusalem which is from above is the Mother of us all as S. Paul expressely witnesseth Yea what maner of Mother Popish Rome is I trust yee now sufficiently perceive Bee no longer therefore so much abused or so extreamely deluded as to take the wrong Mother for the right and him that is the grand Antichrist to bee Christs Vicar the head of his Church S. Peters successor and the Bishop that cannot erre in matter of Faith For what christian charitable and good minde doth not grieve to see so manie honourable and honest-hearted men to bee so farre carried away and misled to their owne perdition Howbeit if anie amongst you rest not satisfied herewith but thinketh that hee can answer this Booke and will take upon him so to doe I desire him first that hee will doe it not by parts or peece-meales but wholly and entirely from the beginning of it to the end Secondly I desire him to doe it not superficially or sophistically but substantially soundly and satisfactorilie if hee can Thirdly as I would haue him to doe it in love and charity and with an affection onely to follow Gods truth so doe I also desire him to set his name unto it as I have done here to this But if none amongst you can make anie solid sound sufficient and satisfactorie Answere unto it as I rest assured before hand none can or will bee able For who was or ever will be able to Answer or confute that Word of God whereupon the Protestants Doctrine Religion is apparantly grounded then is there so much the more reason for you all to yeeld to that which you see to bee evident unanswerable and irrefutable God Almightie if it bee his will open all your eies to see his splendent and invincible truth in his sacred Canonical Scriptures conteined and grant both to you and to us that wee may all acknowledge professe and observe it to his glorie the discharge of our duties and our owne everlasting comforts and salvation through Iesus Christ. Amen VVisdome is iustified of all her Children Luk. 7.35 Vnto the King everlasting Immortal Invisible unto GOD onely wise be honor and glorie for ever and ever AMEN 1. Tim. 1.17 FINIS AN EPISTLE VVRITTEN BY THE REVEREND FAther in God James Vssher Bishop of Meath concerning the religion anciently professed by the IRISH and SCOTTISH Shewing it to be for substance the same with that which at this day is by publick authoritie established in the Church of ENGLAND WORTHY SIR I Confesse I somewhat incline to be of your minde that if unto the authorities drawen out of Scriptures and Fathers which are common to us with others a true discoverie were added of that religion which anciently was professed in this kingdome it might prove a speciall motive to induce my poore countrey-men to consider a little better of the old and true way from whence they have hitherto beene misledd Yet on the one side that saying in the Gospell runneth much in my minde If they heare not Moses and the Prophets neyther will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead and on the other that heavie judgement mentioned by the Apostle because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved God shall send them strong delusion that they should beleeve lyes The wofull experience whereof wee may see daily before our eyes in this poore nation where such as are slow of heart to beleeve the saving truth of God delivered by the Prophets and Apostles doe with all greedinesse imbrace with a most strange kinde of credulitie intertaine those lying Legends wherwith their Monks Friars in these latter dayes have polluted the religion and lives of our ancient Saints I doe not denie but that in this countrey as well as in others corruptions did creepe in by little and little before the Divell was let loose to procure that seduction which prevayled so generally in these last times but as farre as I can collect by such records of the former ages as have come unto my hands eyther manuscript or printed the religion professed by the ancient Bishops Priests Monkes and other Christians in this land was for substance the verie same with that which now by publick authoritie is maintayned therein against the forraine doctrine brought in thither in later times by the Bishop of Romes followers I speake of the more substantiall points of doctrine that are in controversie betwixt the Church of Rome and us at this day by which only wee must judge whether of both sides hath departed from the religion of our ancestours not of matters of inferior note much lesse of ceremonies and such other things as appertaine to the discipline rather than to the doctrine of the Church And whereas it is knowne unto the learned that the name of Scoti in those elder times whereof we treate was common to the inhabitants of the greater and the lesser Scotland for so heretofore they have beene distinguished that is to say of Ireland and the famous colonie deduced from thence into Albania I will not follow the evill example of those that have of late laboured to make dissension betwixt the daughter and the mother but accompt of them both as of the same people Tros Rutulúsve fuat nullo discrimine habebo That wee may therefore fall upon the matter in hand without further preambles two excellent rules doth S. Paul prescribe unto Christians for their direction in the wayes of God the one that they be not unwise but understanding what the will of God is the other that they be not more wise then behoveth to be wise but be wise unto sobriety and that wee might know the limits within which this wisedome and sobrietie should be bounded hee elsewhere declareth that not to be more wise then is fitting is not to bee wise above that which is written Hereupon Sedulius one of the most ancient writers that remaineth of this countrey birth delivereth this for the meaning of the former rule Search the Law in which the will of God is contayned and this for the later He would be more wise then
dissented from the Church of Rome in the celebration of Easter and manie other things made no scruple to prefixe this loving respectfull superscription to their letters To our Lords and most deare brethren the Bishops or Abbots throughout all Scotland Laurentius Mellitus and Iustus Bishops the servants of the servants of God For howsoever Ireland at that time received not the same lawes wherewith other nations were governed yet it so flourished in the vigour of Christian doctrine as Abbot Ionas testifieth that it exceeded the faith of all the neighbour nations in that respect was generally had in honour by them It now remaineth that in the last place we should consider the Popes power in disposing the temporall state of this kingdome which either directly or indirectly by hook or by crook this graund Usurper would draw unto himselfe First therefore Cardinall Allen would have us to know that the Sea Apostolick hath an old claime unto the soverainty of the countrey of Ireland and that before the covenants passed betweene king Iohn and the same Sea Which challenges saith hee Princes commonly yeeld not up by what ground so ever they come What Princes use to yeeld or not yeeld I leave to the skanning of those unto whom Princes matters doe belong for the Cardinalls Prince I dare be bold to say that if it be not his use to play fast and loose with other Princes the matter is not now to do whatsoever right he could pretend to the temporall state of Ireland he hath transferred it more then once unto the Kings of England and when the ground of his clayme shall be looked into it will be found so frivolous and so ridiculous that wee need not care three chippes whether he yeeld it up or keep it to himselfe For whatsoever become of his idle challenges the Crowne of England hath otherwise obtained an undoubted right unto the soveraintie of this countrey partly by Conquest prosecuted at first upon occasion of a Sociall warre parâ—ly by the severall submissions of the chieftaines of the land made afterwards For whereas it is free for all men although they have beene formerly quitt from all subjection to renounce their owne right yet now in these our dayes saith Giraldus Cambrensis in his historie of the Conquest of Ireland all the Princes of Ireland did voluntarily submitt and binde themselves with firme bonds of faith and oath unto Henry the second King of England The like might be said of the generall submissions made in the dayes of King Richard the second and King Henry the eighth to speake nothing of the prescription of diverse hundreds of yeares possession which was the plea that Iephte used to the Ammonites and is indeed the best evidence that the Bishop of Romes owne proctors doe produce for their Masters right to Rome it selfe For the Popes direct dominion over Ireland two titles are brought forth beside those covenants of King Iohn mentioned by Allen which hee that hath anie understanding in our state knoweth to be clearly void and worth nothing The one is taken from a speciall grant supposed to be made by the inhabitants of the countrey at the time of their first conversion unto Christianity the other from a right which the Pope challengeth unto himselfe over all Ilands in generall The former of these was devised of late by an Italian in the raigne of King Henry the eighth the later was found out in the dayes of King Henry the second before whose time not one footsteppe doth appeare in all antiquitie of anie clayme that the Bishop of Rome should make to the dominion of Ireland no not in the Popes owne records which have beene curiously searched by Nicolaus Arragonius and other ministers of his who have purposely written of the particulars of his temporall estate The Italian of whom I spake is Polydore Vergil he that composed the booke De inventoribus rerum of the first Inventers of things among whom he himselfe may challenge a place for this invention if the Inventers of lyes be admitted to have anie roome in that companie This man being sent over by the Pope into England for the collecting of his Peter-pence undertook the writing of the Historie of that nation wherein he forgatt not by the way to doe the best service hee could to his Lord that had imployed him thither There he telleth an idle tale how the Irish being moved to accept Henry the second for their King did deny that this could be done otherwise then by the Bishop of Romes authority because forsooth that from the very beginning after they had accepted Christian religion they had yeelded themselves and all that they had into his power and they did constantly affirme saith this fabler that they had no other Lord beside the Pope of which also they yet do bragge The Italian is followed herein by two Englishmen that wished the Popes advancement as much as he Edmund Campian and Nicholas Sanders the one whereof writeth that immediatly after Christianitie planted here the whole Iland with one consent gave themselves noâ— only into the spirituall but also into the temporall Iurisdiction of the See of Rome the other in Polydores own words though he name him not that the Irish from the beginning presently after they had received Christian religion gave up themselves and all that they had into the power of the Bishop of Rome and that untill the time of King Henry the second they did acknowledge no other supreme Prince of Ireland beside the Bishop of Rome alone For confutation of which dreame we need not have recourse to our owne Chronicles the Bull of Adrian the fourth wherein he giveth libertie to King Henry the second to enter upon Ireland sufficiently discovereth the vanitie thereof For hee there shewing what right the Church of Rome pretended unto Ireland maketh no mention at all of this which had beene the fairest and clearest title that could be alledged if anie such had beene then existent in rerum natura but is faine to flie unto a farre fetcht interest which he saith the Church of Rome hath unto all Christian Ilands Truly saith he to the King there is no doubt but that all Ilands unto which Christ the Sunne of righteousnesse hath shined and which have received the instructions of the Christian faith doe pertaine to the right of Sainct Peter and the holy Church of Rome which your Noblenesse also doth acknowledge If you would further understand the ground of this strange clayme whereby all Christian Ilands at a clap are challenged to be parcell of S. Peters patrimonie you shall have it from Iohannes Sarisburiensis who was most inward with Pope Adrian and obtayned from him this verie grant whereof now wee are speaking At my request saith he he granted Ireland to the illustrious King of England Henry the second and gave it to be possessed by right of inheritance as his owne