prophane nouelties of heresies Had they knowne of this infallible Iudge should wee not haue heard of him in this so proper a place and as it were in a cause belonging to his owne Court Nay doth not the writing it selfe of such bookes shew that this mattter was wholly vnknowne to Antiquitie For had the Church beene in possession of so easie and sure a Court to discouer and discard heresies they should not haue needed to taske themselues to finde out any other But the truth is infallibilitie is and euer hath beene accounted proper to Christs iudgement And as hath beene said all necessarie Truth to saluation hee hath deliuered vs in his Word That Word himselfe tells vs shall iudge at the last day Yea in all true decisions of Faith that Word euen now iudgeth Christ iudgeth the Apostle sits Iudge Christ speakes in the Apostle Thus Antiquitie Neither are they moued a whit with that obiection That the Scriptures are often the matter of Controuersies For in that case the remedie was easie which Saint Augustine shewes to haue recourse to the plaine places and manifest such as should need no interpreter for such there bee by which the other may bee cleered The same may be said if sometimes it be questioned which bee Scriptures which not I thinke it was neuer heard of in the Church that there was an externall infallible Iudge who could determine that question Arguments may be brought from the consent or dissent with other Scriptures from the attestation of Antiquitie and inherent signes of diuine authoritie or humane infirmitie but if the Auditor or Aduersarie yeeld not to these such parts of necessitie must needes be laid aside If all Scripture be denied which is as it were exceptio in iudicem ante litis contestationem Faith hath no place onely Reason remaines To which I thinke it will scarce seeme reasonable if you should say though all men are liers yet this Iudge is infallible and to him thou oughtest in conscience to obey and yeeld thy vnderstanding in all his detâ—rminations for hee cannot erre No not if all men in the world should say it Vnlesse you first set downe there is a God and stablish the authoritie of the bookes of holy Scripture as his voyce and thence shew if you can the warrant of this priuiledge Where you offiâ—me the Scriptures to be the law and the rule but alone of themselues cannot bee Iudges if you meane without being produced applied and heard yee say truth Yet Nicodemus spake not aâ—isse when hee demanded Doth our law iudge any man vnlesse it heare him first hee meant the same which Saint Paul when hee said of the high Priest thou sittest to iudge me according to the law and so doe we when wee say the same Neither doe wee send you to Angels or God himselfe immediately but speaking by his spirit in the Scriptures and as I haue right now said alledged and by discourse applied to the matters in question As for Princes since it pleased you to make an excursion to them if wee should make them infallible Iudge or giue them authoritie to decree in religion as they list as Gardiner did to King Henry the eight it might well bee condemned for monstrous as it was by Caluin As for the purpose Licere Regi interdicere populo vsum calicis in Coena Quarè Potestas 〈◊〉 summa est penes Regem quoth Gardiner This was to make the King as absolute a Tyrant in the Church as the Pope claimed to bee But that Princes which obey the truth haue commandement from God to command good things and forbid euill not onely in matters pertaining to humane societie but also the religion of God this is no new strange doctrine but Calums and ours and S. Augustines is so many words And this is all the Head-ship of the Church wee giue to Kings Whereof a Queene is as well capable as a King since it is an Act of authoritie not Ecclesiasticall Ministery proceeding from eminencie of power not of knowledge or holinesse Wherein not onely a learned King as ours is but a good old woman as Queene Elizabeth besides her Princely dignitie was may excell as your selues confesse your infallible Iudge himselfe But in power hee saith hee is aboue all which not to examine for the present in this power Princes are aboue all their subiects I trow and Saint Augustine saith plainly to command and forbid euen in the religion of God still according to Gods Word which is the touchstone of good and euill Neither was King Henry the eight the first Prince that exercised this power witnesse Dauid and Salomon and the rest of the Kings of Iudah before Christ And since that Kings were Christians the affaires of the Church haue depended vpon them and the greatest Synodes haue beene by their Decree as Socrates expresly saith Nor did King Henry claime any new thing in this Land but restored to the Crowne the ancient right thereof which sundry his predecessors had exercised as our Historians and Lawyers with one consent affirme The rest of your induction of Archbishops Bishops and whole Clergie in their Conuocation house and a Councell of all Lutherans Caluinists Protestants c. is but a needlesse pompe of words striuing to win by a forme of discourse that which gladly shall bee yeelded at the first demand They might all erre if they were as many as the sand on the sea shoare if they did not rightly apply the rule of holy Scriptures by which as you acknowledge the externall Iudge which you seeke must proceed As to your demand therefore how you should be sure when and wherein they did and did not erre where you should haue fixed your foot to forbeare to skirmish with your confirmation That though à posse ad esse non valet semper consequentia yet aliquando valet frustra dicitur potentia quae nunquam dueitur in actum To the former whereof I might tell you that without question nunquam valet and to the second that I can verie well allow that errandi potentia among Protestants be euer frustra This I say freely that if you come with this resolution to learne nothing by discourse or euidence of Scripture but only by the meere pronouncing of a humane externall Iudges mouth to whom you would yeeld your vnderstanding in all his determinations if as the Iesuites teach their Schollers you will wholly deny your owne iudgement and resolue that if this Iudge shall say that is blacke which appeares to your eyes white you will say it is blacke too you haue posed all the Protestants they cannot tell how to teach you infallibly Withall I must tell you thus much that this preparation of minde in a Scholler as you are in a Minister yea in a Christian that had but learned his Creed much more that had from a childe knowne the holy Scriptures that are able to make vs wise to saluation
why wee did support them It seemes to some that his Catholike Maiestie doth absolue them in the treatie of the Truce An. 1608. of all imputation of rebellion And if they were Rebels especially for heresie why did the most Christian King support them As for Queene Elizabeth if shee were aliue shee would answer your question with another Why did Spaine concurre in practice and promise aide to that detestable conspiracie that was plotted against her by Pius V. as you may see at large in his life written by Girolamo Catena It is you say an easie matter to pretend priuiledges But it is no hard matter to discerne pretended priuiledges from true and Treason from Reason of State and old corruptions from old Religion But to take armes to change the Lawes by the whole Estate established is treason whatsoeuer the cause or colour be and therefore is was treason in the Rebels of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire in King Henries dayes and in the Earles of the North in Queene Elizabeths though they pretended their old Religion and the same must bee said of all Assasinates attempted against the persons of Princes as Parryes Someruilles Squires against Queene Elizabâ—th and the late powder-plot the eternall shame of Poperie against King Iames. To your Argument therefore in forme admitting that it is no true Church which is founded and begun in malice disobedience passion bloud and rebellion no nor yet a true reformation of a Church for in truth the Protestants pretend not to haue founded any The Assumption is denyed in euery part of it And here I must needes say you haue not done vnwisely to leaue out the Church of England as against which you had no pretence all things hauing been carried orderly and by publike counsell But you haue wronged those which you name and either lightly beleeued or vnjustly surmised your selfe touching Luther Caluin Knox the French and the Hollanders when you make them the raysers of rebellion and shedders of bloud Whose bloud hath beene shed like water in al parts of those countries against all Lawes of God and Man against the Edicts and publike Faith till necessitie enforced them to stand for their liues Yet you presume that all this is euident to the world whereas it is so false and improbable yea in some parts impossible as I wonder how your heart could assure your hand to write it Giue me here leaue to set down by occasion of this your motiue that which I professe next to the euidence of those corruptions which the Court and faction of Rome maintaynes hath long moued my selfe And thus I would enlarge your Proposition That Monarchie as now without lisping it cals it selfe which was founded supported enlarged and is yet maintayned by pride ambition rebellion treason murthering of Princes warres dispensing with perjurie and incestuous marriages spoiles and robberie of Churches and Kingdomes worldly policie force and falshood forgerie lying and hypocrisie is not the Church of Christ and his Kingdome but the tyrannie of Antichrist The Papacie falsely calling it selfe the Church of Rome is such Ergâ— The Assumption shall bee proued in euery part of it and in truth is alreadie by the learned and truly noble Lord of Plessis in his Mysterium iniquit at is But his booke I suppose you cannot view and it would require a iust volume to shew it though but shortly It shall bee therefore if you will the taske of another time And yet because I doe not loue to leaue things wholly at randon consider a few instances in some of these Pope Bâ—niface III. obtayned that proud and ambitious title of Oecumenicall so much detested by Saint Gregorie Pope Constantine and Gregorie the second reuolted Italie from the Greeke Emperours obedience forbidding to pay tribute or obey them Pope Zacharie animated Pipine high Steward of France to depose Chilperick his Lord and dispensed with the oathes of his subiects Pope Stephen II. most treacherously and vniustly perswaded the same Pipine not to restore the Exarchate of Ranenna to the Emperour after he had recouered it from Astulfus King of Lombards but to giue it to him Pope Nicholas II. and Grâ—gorie VII parted the prey with the Normans in Calabria and Apulia creating them Dukes thereof to hold the Emperour of Constantinoples countrie in vassallage of them This latter also was the first as all Historians accord that euer attempted to depose the Emperour against whom hee most impiously stirred vp his owne children which most lamentably brought him to his end Pope Paschal II. would not suffer for the full accomplishment of this Tragedie his sonne to burie him Pope Adrian IV. demanded homage of the Emperor Frederick Alexander III. trode on his neck Celestine III. crowned Henrie VI. with his feet Innocent IV. stirred vp Fredericke the seconds owne seruants to poison him practised with the Sultan of Aegypt to breake with him This is that Innocent of whose extortions Matthew Paris relates so much in our storie whom the learned zealous and holy Bishop of Lincolne on his death-bed proued to be Antichrist and in a vision strooke so with his Crosier-staffe that hee died Boniface VIII challenged both swords pretended to be superiour to the King of France in temporall things also Clement V. would in the vacancie of the Empire that all the Cities and Countries thereof should be vnder his disposition made the Duke of Venice Dandalus couch vnder his Table with a chaine on his neck like a dogge ere he would grant peace to the Venetians This Clement the V. commanded the Angels to carrie their soules to heauen that should take the Crosse to fight for the holy Land What shall I say more I am wearie with writing thus much and yet in all this I doe not insist vpon priuate and personall faults blasphemies perjuries necromancies murthers barbarous cruelties euen vpon one another aliue and dead nor on whoredomes incests sodomies open pillages besides the perpetuall abuse of the censures of the Church I insist not vpon these more then you did vpon King Henries passions I tell you not of him that called the Gospell a fable or another that instituted his Agnus Deis to strangle sinne like Christs bloud Of him that dispensed with one to marrie his owne sister for the vncle to marrie with the neece or a woman to marrie two brothers a man two sisters by dispensation is no rare thing at this day The facultie to vse Sodomie the storie of Pope Ioane are almost incredible and yet they haue Authors of better credit then Bolseck It may bee said that Iohn the two and twentieth called a deuill incarnate that Alexander VI. the poisoner of his Cardinals the adulterer of his sonne in lawes bed incestuous defiler of his owne daughter and riuall in that villanie to his sonne sinned as men which empeacheth not the credit of their office That Pauluâ— V. Vice-deus takes too much vpon him when hee will bee Pope-almightie but the chaire is without error Wherein not to
Protestants Church not the true Church Againe by that saying Haereses ad originem reuocasse est refutasse and so considering Luthers first rancour against the Dominicans his disobedience and contempt of his former Superiours his vowe breaking and violent courses euen causing rebellion against the Emperour whom he reuiles and other Princes most shamefully surely such arrogant disobedience scisme and rebellions had no warrant nor vocation of God to plant his Church but of the Deuill to begin a scisme and a sect So likewise for Caluin to say nothing of all that D. Bolsecus brings against him I doe vrge onely what Master Hooker Doctor Bancroft and Sarauia doe proue against him for his vnquietnesse and ambition reuoluing the Common-wealth and so vniuâ—tly expelling and depriuing the Bishop of Geneua and other temporall Lords of their due obedience and ancient inheritance Moreouer I referre you to the stirres broiles sedition and murders which Knoxe and the Geneua Gospellers caused in Scotland against their lawfull Gouernours against their Queene and against our King euen in his Mothers belly Nor will I insist vpon the passions which first moued King Henrie violently to diuorce himselfe from his lawfull wife to fall out with the Pope his friend to marrie the Lady Anne Bullen and soone after to behead her to disinherite Queene Mary and enable Queene Elizabeth and presently to diâ—inherit Queene Elizabeth and to restore Queene Mary to hang Catholiques for traitors and to burne Protestants for heretiques to destroy Monasteries and to pill Churches were these fit beginnings for the Gospell of Christ I pray was this man a good head of Gods Church for my part I beseech our Lord blesse me from being a member of such a head or such a Church I come to France and Holland where you know by the Hugenots and Geuses all Caluinistes what ciuill wars they haue raised how much bloud they haue shed what rebellion rapine and desolations they haue occasioned principally for their new Religion founded in bloud like Draecos lawes But I would gladly know whether you can approue such bloudy broiles for Religion or no I know Protestants de facto doe iustifie the ciuill warres of France and Holland for good against their Kings but I could neuer vnderstand of them quo lure if the Hollanders be Rebels as they are why did we support themâ— if they be no rebels because they fight for the pretended liberty of their ancient priuiledges and for their new Religion we see it is an easie matter to pretend liberties and also why may not others as as well reuolt for their old Religion Or I beseech you why is that accounted treason against the State in Catholiques which is called reason of State in Protestants I reduce this argument to few words That Church which is founded and begun in maâ—ice disobedience passion bloud and rebellion cannot be the true Church but it is euident to the world that the Protestant Churches in Germanie Francâ— Holland Geneua c. were so founded and in Geneua and Holland are still continued in rebellion ergo they are not true Churches Furthermore where is not Succession both of true Pastors and of true Doctrine there is no true Church But among Protestants is no succession of true Pastors for I omit here to treate of Doctrine ergo no true Church I prooue the minor where is no consecration nor ordination of Bishops and Priests according to the due forme and right intention required necessarily by the Church and ancient Councels there is no succession of true Pastors but among Protestants the said due forme and right intention are not obserued ergo no succession of true Pastors The said due forme and right intention are not obserued among Protestants in France Holland nor Germanie where they haue no Bishops and where Lay men doe intermeddle in the making of their Ministers And for England whereas the Councels require the ordines minores of Subdeacon and the rest to goe before Priesthood your Ministers are made per saltum without euer being Subdeacons And whereas the Councels require three Bishops to assist at the consecration of a Bishop it is certaine that at the Nags-head in Cheap-side where consecration of your first Bishops was attempted but not effected whereabout I remember the controuersie you had with one there was but one Bishop and I am sure there was such a matter and although I know and haue seene the Records themselues that afterward there was a consecration of Doctor Parker at Lambeth and three Bishops named viz. Miles Couerdall of Exceter one Hodgeskin Suffragan of Bedford and another whose name I haue forgotten yet it is very doubtfull that Couerdall being made Bishop of Exceter in King Edwards time when all Councels and Church Canons were little obserued he was neuer himselfe Canonically consecrated and so if he were no Canonicall Bishop he could not make another Canonicall and the third vnnamed as I remember but am not sure was onely a Bishop Elect and not consecrated and so was not sufficient But hereof I am sure that they did consecrate Parker by vertue of a Breue from the Queene as Head of the Church who indeed being no true Head and a Woman I cannot see how they could make a true consecration grounded on her authoritie Furthermore making your Ministers you keepe not the right intention for neither doe the Orderer nor the Ordered giue nor receiue the Orders as a Sacrament nor with any intention of Sacrificing Also they want the matter and forme with which according to the Councels and Canons of the Church holy Orders should be giuen namely for the matter Priesthood is giuen by the deliuerie of the Patena with bread and of the Chalice with wine Deaconship by the deliuerie of the booke of the Gospels and Subdeaconship by the deliuerie of the Patena alone and of the Chaliâ—e emptie And in the substantiall forme of Priesthood you doe faile most of all which forme consists in these wordes Accipe potestatem offerendi sacrificium in Ecclesia pro viuis mortuis which are neither said noâ— done by you and therefore well may you bee called Ministers as also Lay men are but you are no Priests Wherefore I conclude wanting Subdeaconship wanting vndoubted Canonicall Bishops wanting right intention wanting matter and due forme and deriuing euen that you seeme to haue from a Woman the Head of your Church therefore you haue no true Pastors and consequently no true Church And so to conclude and not to wearie my selfe and you too much being resolued in my vnderstanding by these and many other Arguments that the Church of England was not the true Church but that the Church of Rome was and is the onely true Church because it alone is Ancient Catholique and Apostolique hauing Succession Vnitie and Visibilitie in all ages and places yet what agonies I passed with my will here I will ouer-passe Onely I cannot pretermit to tell you that at last hauing also mastered and
the present state of Geneua did then require But bee it and for my part I thinke no lesse that herein hee was mistaken to account this to bee the true forme of Church policie by which all other Churches and at all times ought to bee gouerned let his error rest with him yea let him answere it vnto his Iudge but to accuse him of ambition and sedition and that falsly and from thence to set that brand vpon the reformation whereof he was a worthy instrument though not the first either there or any where else as if it could not bee from God being so founded for my part I am afraide you can neuer bee able to answere it at the same Barre no nor euen that of your owne conscience or of reasonable and equall men For the stirres broiles seditions and murthers in Scotland which you impute to Knox and and the Geneua Gospellers they might be occasioned perhaps by the reformers there as the broiles which our Loâ—d Iesus Christ saith he came to set in the world by the Gospell Possible also that good men out of incoÌ„siderate zeale should do some things rashly And like enough the multitude which followed them as being foreprepared with a iusthatred of the tyrannie of their Prelates and prouoked by the opposition of the aduerse faction emboldned by successâ— ran a great deale further then either wise men could foresee or tell how to restraine them Which was applauded and fomented by some politicke men who tooke aduantage of those motions to their owne ends And as it happens in naturall bodies that all ill humors runne to the part affected so in ciuill all discontented people when there is any sorance runne to one or other side and vnder the shew of common griefes pursue their owne Of all which distempers there is no reason to lay the blame vpon the seekers of reformation more then vpon the Phisitians of such accidents as happen to the corrupted bodies which they haue in cure The particulars of those affaires are as I beleeue alike vnknown to vs both and since you name none I can answere to none For as for the pursuing our King euen before his birth that which his Maiestie speakes of some Puritans is ouer-boldly by you referred to Master Knox and the Ministers that were authors of Reformation in Scotland Briefely consider and suruey your owne thoughts and see if you haue not come by these degreesâ— First from the inconsiderate courses of some to plant the pretended Discipline in Scotland to conceiue amisse of the Doctrine also Then to draw to the encreasing of your ill conceit thereof what you finde reported of any of the Puritans a faction no lesse opposed by his Maiesty in Scotland then with vs in England So when we speake of religion though that indeede be all one yee diuide vs into Lutherans Zwinglians Caluinists Protestants Brownists Puritans Cartwrightists whensoeuer any disorder of all this number can be accused then loe are we all one and the faulâ— of any faction is the slander of all yea of the Gospell it selfe and of reformation Iudge now vprightly if this be indifferent dealing From Scotland you come to England Where because you could finde nothing done by popular tumult nothing but by the whole state in Parliament and Clergie in Conuocation you fall vpon King Henries passions you will not insist vpon them you say and yet you doe as long as vpon any one member of your induction though it matters little whether you doe or no since F. Parsons will needes auerre that hee liued and died of your religion Here first you mention his violent diuorcing himselfe from his lawfull wife Wee will not now debate the question how his Brothers wife could bee his lawfull wife you must now say so Whatsoeuer the Scriptures Councels almost all Vniuersities of Christendome determined Yet mee thinkes it should moue you that Pope Clement himselfe had consigned to Cardinal Campegius a Breue formed to sentence for the King in as ample manner as could be howsoeuer vpon the successe of the Emperours affaires in Italie and his own occasions he sent a special messenger to him to burn it But what violence was this that you speake of The matter was orderlie and iudiciouslie by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury with the assistance of the learnedest of the Clergie according to the ancient Canons of the Church and lawes of the Realme heard and determined That indeede is more to be maruelled at what moued him to fall out with the Pope his friend in whose quarrell he had so far engaged himselfe as to write against Luther of whom also he was so rudelie handled as you mention before hauing receiued also for some part of recompence the title of the Defender of the Faith hauing beene so chargeablie thankefull to the Pope for it All these things considered it must be said this vnkindnesse and slipperie dealing of Clement with him was from the Lord that hee might haue an occasion against the Pope and that it might appeare that it was not humane counsell but diuine prouidence that brought about the banishment of the Popes tyrannie from among vs. His marriage with the Ladie Anne Bullen her death and the rest which you mention of the abling or disabling her issue to inherit the Crown I see not what it makes to our purpose The suppression of the Monasteries was not his sole Act but of the whole State with the consent also of the Clergie and taken out of Cardinall Wolsey his example yea founded vpon the Popes authoritie granted to him to dissolue the smaller houses of religion on pretence to defray the charges of his sumptuous buildings at Oxford and lâ—swich wherein if it pittie you as I confesse it hath sometimes mee that such goodly buildings are defaced and ruined wee must remember what God did to Shâ—loh yea to Ierusalem it selfe and his Temple there And that Oracle Euery tree that beareth not good fruit shall be cut downe and cast into the fire You demand If this man King Henry were a good head of Gods Church What if I should demand the same touching Alexander the Sixth Iulius the Second Leo the Tenth or twentie more of the Catalogue of Popes in respect of whom King Henry might bee canonized for a Saint But there is a storie in Tullies Offices of one Lutatius that laid a wager that he was bonus vir a good man and would bee iudged by one Fimbria a man of Consular dignitie Hee when he vnderstood the case said Hee would neuer iudge that matter least either hee should diminish the reputation of a man well esteemed of or set downe that any man was a good man which hee accounted to consist in an innumerable sort of excellencies and praises That which hee said of a good man with much more reason may I sâ—y of a good King one of whose highest excellencies is to bee a good head of the Church And therefore it is a
question which I will neuer take vpon mee to answere whether King Henry were such or no vnlesse you will before hand interpret this word as fauourably as Guicciardine doth tell vs men are wont to doe in the censuring your heads of the Church For Popes he saith now adayes are praised for their goodnesse when they exceed not the wickednesse of other men After this description of a good head of the Church or if yee will that of Cominaeus which saith hee is to bee counted a good King whose vertues exceeds his vices I wil not doubt to say King Henry may be enrolled among the number of good Kings In speciall for his executing that highest dutie of a good King the imploying his authoritie in his Kingdome to command good things and forbid euill not onely concerning the ciuill estate of men but the religion also of God Witnesse his authorizing the Scriptures â—o be had and read in Churches in our Vulgar tongue enioyning the Lords Prayer the Creed and ten Commandements to bee taught the people in English abolishing superfluous Holy-dayes pulling downe those iugling Idols whereby the people were seduced namely the Rood of Grace whose eyes and lips were moued with wires openly shewed at Pauls Crosse and pulled asunder by the people Aboue all the abolishing of the Popes tyranny and merchandise of Indulgences such like chafer out of England Which Acts of his whosoeuer shall vnpartially consider of may well esteeme him a better head to the Churâ—h of England then any Pope these thousand yeeres In the last place you come to the Hugenots and Geuses of France and Holland You lay to their charge the raising of ciuill warres shedding of bloud occasioning rebellion rapine desolations principally for their new religion In the latter part you write I confesse somewhat reseruedly when you say occasioning not causing and principally not onely and wholly for religion But the words going before and the exigence of your argument require that your meaning should be they were the causers of these disorders You bring to my minde a story whether of the same Fimbria that I mentioned before or another which hauing caused Quintus Scaeuola to bee stab'd as F. Paulo was while I was at Venice after he vnderstood that he escaped with his life brought his action against him for not hauing receiued the weapon wholly into his body These poore people hauing endured such barbarous cruelties massacres and martyrdomes as scarce the like can be shewed in all stories are now accused by you as the Authors of all they suffered No no Master Wadesworth they bee the Lawes of the Romane religion that are written in bloud It is the bloudy Inquisition and the perfidious violating of the Edicts of Pacification that haue set France and Flanders in combustion An euident argument whereof may bâ—e for Flanders that those Geuses that you mention were not all Caluinists as you are mis-informed the chiefe of them were Romane Catholikes as namely Count Egmond and Horne who lost their heads for standing and yet onely by petition against the new impositions and the Inquisition which was sought to bee brought in vpon those Countries The which when the Vice-roy of Naples D. Petro de Toledo would haue once brought in there also the people would by no meanes abide but rose vp in Armes to the number of 50000. which sedition could not bee appeased but by deliuering them of that feare The like resistance though more quietly carried was made when the same Inquisition should haue beene put vpon Millaine sixteene yeeres after Yet these people were neither Geuses nor Caluinists Another great meanes to alienate the mindes of the people of the Low-countries from the obedience of the Catholike Maiestie hath beene the seueritie of his Deputies there one of which leauing the gouernment after hee had in a few yeeres put to death 8000. persons it is reported to haue been said the Countrie was lost with too much lenitie This speech Meursius concludes his Belgick history with all And as for France the first broiles there were not for religion but for the preferring the house of Guisâ— and disgracing the Princes of the bloud True it is that each side aduantaged themselues by the colour of religion and vnder pretence of zeale to the Romane the Guisians murthered the Protestants being in the exercise of their religion assembled together against the Kings Edict against all Lawes and common humanitie And tell â—ee in good sooth Master Wadesworth doe you approue such barbarous crueltie Doe you allow the butchery at Paris Doe you thinke subiects are bound to giue their throates to bee cut by their fellow subiects or to their Princes at their meere wills against their owne Lawes and Edicts You would know quo iure the Protestants warres in France and Holland are iustified First the Law of Nature which not onely alloweth but inclineth and inforceth euery liuing thing to defend it selfe from violence Secondly that of Nations which permitteth those that are in the protection of others to whom they owe no more but an honourable acknowledgement in case they goe about to make themselues absolute Souereignes and vsurpe their libertie to resist and stand for the same And if a lawfull Prince which is not yet Lord of his Subiects liues and goods shall attempt to despoile them of the same vnder colour of redâ—cing them to his owne religion after all humble remonstrances they may stand vpon their owne guard and being assailed repell force with force as did the Macchabees vnder Antiochus In which case notwithanding the person of the Prince himselfe ought alwaies to be sacred and inuiolable as was Sauls to Dauid Lastly if the inraged Minister of a lawfull Prince will abuse his authoritie against the fundamentall Lawes of the Countrie it is no rebellion to defend themselues against force reseruing still their obedience to their Souereigne inuiolate These are the Rules of which the Protestants that haue borne Armes in France and Flanders and the Papists also both there and elsewhere as in Naples that haue stood for the defence of their liberties haue serued themselues How truely I esteeme it hard for you and mee to determine vnlesse we were more throughly acquainted with the Lawes and Customes of those Countries then I for my part am Once for the Low-Countries the world knowes that the Dukes of Burgundy were not Kings or absolute Lords of them which are holden partly of the Crowne of France and partly of the Empire And of Holland in particular they were but Earles And whether that title carries with it such a Souereigntie as to bee able to giue new Lawes without their consents to impose tributes to bring in garisons of strangers to build Forts to assubjects their honors and liues to the dangerous triall of a new Court proceeding without forme or figure of iustice any reasonable man may well doubt themselues doe vtterly denie it Yet you say boldly they are Rebels and aske