King he would not meddle between them I leave that Question saith he to be decided by the two Supream Powers the Pope and the King when occasion shall be for it My Lords and Gentlemen had this been a new Sect not known before something perchance might have been doubted but to lay this at their doors that have govern'd the civilliz'd world is the miracle of miracles to us Sir we know not how to cure your wonder but by shewing you 't is unreasonable For you can it a Miracle that men judge according to good Evidence Who doubts less of the dangerousness of your Principles and Practices than they that have Read most and had most Experience of them We can give you no greater instance than in King James of blessed Memory who was no stranger to you either way and this is his judgment of you That as on the one part many honest â—en sâ—dâ—ced with some Errors of Poâ—ery may yet remain goâ—d and faitâ—ful Subjects So on the other part none of those that truly know and believe â—he whole grounds and School-conclusions of â—heir Doctrines can ever prove either goâ—d Christians or good Subjects But pray Sir when was it that you govern'd the civiliz'd World For the Eastern and Southern Churches never own'd your Government nor yet the Western while Learning flourished But when Barbarity had over-run it then Popery grew up by degrees and made it more Barbarous both in Ignorance and in Cruelty Then came in those Doctrines of Transubstantiation c. Then came in those Papal Usurpations c. which the Woâ—ld being again Civiliz'd hath partly thrown off and partly reduced into more tolerable terms Did Richard the First or Edward Long-shanks suspect his Catholicks that served in Palestine and make our Countryes Fame big in the Chronicle of all Ages or did they mistrust in their dangerous absence their Subjects at home because they were of the same profession could Edward the Third imagine those to be traiterous in their Doctrine that had that care and duty for their Prince as to make them by Statute guilty of Death in the highest Degree that had the least thought of ill against the King be pleased that Henry the Fifth be remembred also who did those Wonders of which the whole World does yet resound and certainly all History will agree in this that 't was Oldcastle he feared and not those that believed the Bishop of Rome to be Head of the Church The Reigns of those Kings whom you speak of were in those dark times when all Goodness declin'd and Corruptions were daily growing upon us Richard the First being told he had three wicked Daughters Pride Covetousness and Leachery said he could not Match them better than among your Templers Fathers and Friars Edward the First out-law'd the whole Clergy of this Realm for refusing to pay the King any Taxes because the Pope had forbidden them to do it And both those other Princes whom you mention made Laws against his Usurpations Edward the Third made a notable one of this kind by advice of that very Parliament in which he enacted his Laws against Treason And certainly Henry the Second was more vex'd with Becket than ever Henry V. feared Oldcastle We doubt not those Kings had many good Subjects and our King hath some better than you seem to be But they differed not in Religion as you do from ours And yet then your Faction was always encroaching where it was suffered and dangerous where it was opposed Did not your Pope force King John to do him homage for England Did he not wrestle with Edward I. for the Sovereignty of Scotland Hath he not often laid claim to the Kingdom of Ireland If the old Gentleman in a pet should go to turn out his Tenant what would our King have left when these are disposed of We will no longer trouble you with putting you in mind of any more of our mighty Kings who have been feared abroad and as safe at home as any since the Reformation of Religion We shall only add this That if Popery be the enslaving of Princes France still believes it self as absolute as Denmark or Sweden The French King will believe what he pleases but not all that you say of him For he cannot but know that the Pope gave away that Kingdom from some of his Predecessors and maintained War in it against his Grandfather till he brought him to his terms And why hath not His Holiness dealt so with him that now is partly for the sake of his Religion but chiefly for fear of a Storm lest his Coin should do that which Lewis the Twelfth's only threatned in the Inscription of it PERDAM BABYLONIS NOMEN Nor will ever the House of Austria abjure the Pope to secure themselves of the fidelity of their Subjects For the Austrian Princes that are so link'd to the Pope and whose Subjects are all Papists you suggest a mad way to secure themselves by firing their Countrey about their ears But what is this to England where since the exclusion of that trash which you call the Catholick Faith the King and the greatest part of his People are no Papists and have had so much trouble and danger for it from them that are May not Reason and Experience teach us to fear that having to do with the same kind of Adversaries we may still have some troublesome and dangerous Enemies No we have none to fear but our selves if we may believe you For say you We shall always acknowledge to the whole world that there have been as many brave English in this last Century as in any other place whatsoever yet since the exclusion of the Catholick Faith there hath been that committed by those who would fain be called Protestants that the wickedest Papist at no time dreamt of Pray Sir what may that be For you have murthered Kings and them of your own Religion four or five in this Realm since the Conquest not to speak of those Numbers elsewhere But that was in the growing Age of Popery In latter times have you so soon forgot our Kings Grand-Father Henry IV. murthered by Ravilliac or his Predecesfor Henry III. murthered by Fryar Clement and the People you have kill'd up by whole Families and Townships Witness England Ireland France Piedmont which you may hear of elsewhere These things have been done by Papists broad awake and what must that be which the wickedst of them never dreamt of 'T was never heard of before that an absolute Queen was condemned by Subjects and those styled her Peers or that a King was publickly Tryed and Executed by his own People and Servants First you tell us of the Queen of Scots being put to Death in Queen Elizabeths Reign It was by the same colour of right we suppose that Wallis suffered in Edward the First 's Reign namely of that Sovereignty that our Princes challenged over Scotland But Edward I. was
ere while a laudable Papist and Queen Elizabeth for all this might be a very good Pâ—otestant Sure we are that King James and King Charles who were nearest concerned in this matter never imputed the Fault of it to her Religion Your other instance is of that most execrable Murther committed on the best of Kings by his own Subjects and by such as you say would fain be called Proâ—estants Sir we would fain be called Christians and Members of the Catholick Church would you take it well of a Turk that should therefore charge our faults upon you but you do worse than a Turk in charging these mens faults upon us They were neither then nor since of our Communion but that blessed Prince was whom they murther'd He declared upon the Scaffold I dye a Christian according to the profession of the Church of England as I found it left me by my Father He charged the Princess Elizabeth not to grieve and torment her self for him for that would be a gloâ—ious Death which he should dye it being for the Laws and Liberties of this Land and for maintaining the true Protestant Religion He died with some Care not to leave you this advantage by his Death as it appears by these words of his last Letter to His Majesty that now is The scandal of the late Troubles which some may object and urge to you against the Protestant Religion established in England is easily answered to them or your own thoughts in this that scarce any one who hath been a beginner or an active prosecutor of this late War against the Church the Laws and Mee either was or is a true lover embracer or practicer of the Protestant Religion established in England which neither gives such Rules nor ever before set such Examples My Lords and Gentlemen we know who were the Authors of this last abomination how generously you strove against the raging Torrent nor have we any other ends to remember you of it but to shew that all Religions may have a corrupted spawn and that God hath been pleased to permit such a Rebellion which our Progenitors never saw to convince you perchance whom for ever may he prosper that popery is not the only source of treason But do you indeed know who were the Authors of this last abomination Pray Sir be plain with us for in these doubtful words there seems to be more truth than every man is aware of The Rebellion that led to it began we know in Scotland where the design of it was first laid by Cardinal Richelien His Majesties irreconcileable Enemy Then it broke out in Ireland where it was blest with His Holiness's Letters and assisted by his Nuntio whom he sent purposely to attend the Fire there Lastly here in England you did your parts to unsettle the People and gave them needless occasions of jealousie which the vigilant Phanaticks made use of to bring us all into War and Confusion Both in England and Scotland the special Tools that they wrought with were borrowed out of your Shops It was His Majesties own Observat on by which you may guess whose spawn they were Their Maxims saith he were the same with the Jesuites their Preachers Sermons were delivered in the very phrase of Becanus Scioppius and Eudaemon Johannes their poor Arguments which they delivered in their seditious Pamphlets printed or written were taken almost verbatim out of Bellarmin and Suarez In Ireland where you durst do it you imploy'd Iron and Steel against him with which you might as well have preserved him if you had pleased but you denyed to do that as he tell us only upon account of Religion Then followed the accursed Fact it self agreed to in the Councils of your Clergy contriv'd and executed by the Phanaticks In vain did the poor Royallist strive against it for what could he do when two such streams met against him of which the deepest was that which came from Rome where the false Fisherman open'd all his Flood-gates to overwhelm us with those troubles which for the advantage of his trade he had often before endeavoured but could never prevail till now to send them pouring in upon us Little we think when your Prayers and ours were offer'd up to beg a blessing on the Kings Affairs ever to see that day in which Carlos Gifford Whitgrave the Pendrels should he punish'd by your desires for that Religion which obliged them to save their forlorn prince a stigmatized man for his Offences against King Church a chief promoter of it Nay less did we imagine that by your Votes Huddleston might be hang'd who again secured our Sovereign and others free in their fast Possessions that sate as Judges and sealed the Execution of that great Prince of happy Memory That many Gentlemen of your Church were not of your Party we do willingly acknowledge and that some of them in that critical day of Danger did the King very eminent Service But so did Protestants too therefore you cannot ascribe this to Your Religion Nor does it seem reasonable that to requite particular persons for their service we should abandon those Laws which may secure the publick against as great a danger To question his Life that had freely exposed it for our Sovereigns were too great a Barbarity for any Christians but of your Sect or any Age but Queen Maries dayes for then Sir Nicholas Throgmorton was indeed so dealt with but we do not more detest those times than such examples And we know that His Majesty without any trespass on his Laws may protect and reward those persons whom he judgeth deserving it as well as his Royal Predecessors did in whose Reigns the penal Laws were made Pray be you as favourable to the stigmatized Man whom sure you are not angry with for his Offence against King and Church whatsoever you say and if he be now a promoter of any thing that displeaseth you bear with him as His Majesty doth for whom he lately did his utmost against Phanaticks toward the bringing of him in and he would not willingly live to see the Pope turn him out again For the Regicides be as severe with them as you please only beware how you tax His Majesty's Mercy for fear you may have need of it We confess we are unfortunate and you just Judges whom with our lives we will ever maintain to be so nor are we ignorant the necessity of Affairs made both the King and you do things which formerly you could not so much as fancy Yet give us leave to say we are still loyal nay to desire you to believe so and to remember how Synonymous under the late Rebellion was the word Papist and Cavalier for there was never no Papist that was not deemed a Cavalier nor no Cavalier that was not called a Papist or at least judged to be popishly affected Your fawning upon the Parliament and commending of your selves we pass over as things
The Late APOLOGY In behalf of the PAPISTS Reprinted and Answered In behalf of the ROYALLISTS LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in S. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXIII TO THE AUTHOR OF THE Apology SIR ABout fourscore Years ago in a time when there were such Apprehensions of the Papists as now there are and howsoever they are now surely then they were not without cause some of your Predecessors to palliate the matter and to make their Governors more secure of them writ a Book to this effect that Catholicks are to imploy no other Arms against their Prince but the Arms of Christians viz. Tears and Spiritual Means daily Prayers and Watchings and Fastings So you begin My Lords and Gentlemen The Arms which Christians can use against lawful Powers in their severity are only Prayers and Tears We cannot say that you writ your Book for the same End as they did But we do not like it that you jump so together in the same Beginning Now since nothing can equal the infinity of those we have shed but the cause viz. to see our dearest Friends forsake us we hope it will not offend you if after we have a little wip'd our eyes we sigh out our Complaints to you Of the Cause of your Tears we shall say more anon Of the Quantity of them you say very extravagantly Nothing can equal the infinity of those we have shed For you might have excepted those of the Protestants in Queen Maries dayes or of them that suffered in the late Irish Rebellion You ought to have excepted the Fears of your Fabulous Purgatory and yet those are said to be short of Infinity But you Jesuites love to be Hyperbolical whether ranting or whining as if that Religion which obliges you to damn all other Christians had likewise forbidden you to speak like other Men. We had spoke much sooner had we not been silent through Consternation to see you inflamed whom with reverence we honor and also to shew our submissive patience which used no slights nor tricks to divert the Debates of Parliament for no body can imagine where so many of the great Nobility and Gentry are concerned but something might have been done when as in all Ages we see things of publick advantage by the managers dexterity nipt in the bud even in the very Houses them selves Far be it from Catholicks to perplex Parliaments who have been the Founders of their I riviledges and all Antient Laws Nay Magna Charta it self had its rise from us which we do the less boast of since it was not at first obtained in so submiss and humble a manner In the same Roman Style you commend your owne silence and patience You boast that you have been the Founders of the Parliaments Priviledges and all Antient Laws Of the first let every man believe as he sees cause But the second we cannot allow in either sense whether you mean it of your selves or of your Predecessors For as now in your Church men are of two sorts even so they were heretofore in this Realm There were some that wholly minded the common interests of Christian Religion and Civil Government Others were Papalini asserters and promoters of the Popes usurpations They which acted in those first capacities were not more your Predecessors than Ours They which acted in the other were truly and only Yours You say We sung our Nunc Dimittis when we saw our Master in his Throne and you in your deserved Authority and Rule 'T is very well And yet some of you sung your Venite Exultemus when you saw his Blessed Father upon the Scaffold But what of that since the Son is King who is not glad that he is King or whom would it not grieve to have his Loyalty called in Question Nor could any thing have ever grieved us more but to have our Loyalty called into question by you even at the instigation of our greatest Adversaries If we must suffer let it be by you alone for that 's a double Death to men of Honor to have their Enemies not only accusers but for their insulting Judges also Sir he that is Loyal and a man of Honor has no cause to fear Death double or single For our Kings have alwayes Declared that they put no man to death for Religion Therefore if you Truly fear Death it is for Treason If you only pretend this it is a Calumny Either way you are no friend to the Government for all your pretences to Honor and Loyalty These are they that by beginning with us murthered their Prince and wounded you and shall the same method continue by your Approbation We are sure you mean well though their design be wicked but never let it be recorded in story that you forgot your often Vows to us in joyning with them that have been the cause of so great Calamity to the Nation How far it is true that the Kings Murtherers began with you we shall consider anon But it seems you take the Liberty of bestowing that Character upon whom you please that no man hereafter may dare move for the Execution of any Law against you for fear of being said to continue the Method of the Kings Murtherers As for any Vows that we have made to you whatsoever they are you are more sure of them than we can be of any that you make to us for we have no Pope to dispense with them Neither is it recorded in Story that English Protestants ever joyn'd with the Enemies of their Nation Of all Calumnies against Catholicks we have admired at none so much as that their Principles are said to be inconsistent with Government and they themselves thought ever proue to Rebellion 'T is a Calumny of yours to call those things Calumnies which are true and which you cannot Deny without such a Presumption as we should much admire in you if it were not so very Ordinary Concerning your Principles where should we look for them but in your Councils your Decretals and the Books of your Divines In each of these we are taught that the Pope has a Power to depose Kings and to discharge Subjects from their Allegiance which Doctrines are utterly inconsistent with Government for whosoever believes them no Prince can be secure of him But whosoever is a Papist is bound to believe them And he that has imbib'd this Faith may well be thought ever prone to Rebellion The Council of Lateran under Pope Innocent III. expresly Ordains that in case any Prince be a favourer of Hereticks after admonition given The Pope shall discharge his Subjects from their Allegiance and shall give away his Kingdom to some Catholick that may root out those Hereticks and possess his Kingdom without contradiction 'T is observable that this Pope was himself a deposer of Kings namely of John King of England and of Otho IV. the Emperor and also that this Council which made Rebellion a Duty was the first that made Transubstantiation
an Article of Faith Next for the Bulls and Decrees of your Popes which according to Bellarmine are sufficient to make that to be sin which is not sin or not to be sin which is sin it would be tedious to instance in all that could be produc'd to this purpose From Gregory VII downward such a Trade was driven of deposing Kings that no weak Prince could wear his Crown but at the Pope's Courtesie And that it might never be otherwise Pope Boniface VIII declares it for Law in these words We say and Define and Pronounce that it is absolutely Necessary to salvation for every humane Creature to be subject to the Bishop of Rome Which Oracle is thus interpreted by Bertrand Every humane Creature i. e. Every Magistrate Must be subject c. i. e. Must submit himself to be deposed when the Pope thinks fit And that the Gloss doth not injure the Text it appears by the Tenor of the Decree especially by those words about the middle of it that the Spiritual Power is to order the Worldly Power and to Judge it if it be not as it ought according to that in Jeremy I have set thee over Nations and over Kingdoms c. In which suppletive c. these words are wound up To root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down to build and to plant All which powers this Law-giver of yours endeavoured himself to exercise He endeavour'd saith Platina to give and take away Kingdoms to expell men and to restore them at his pleasure Agreeably to this doctrine and practice your great Canonist Lancelottus teaches you That the Pope may depose Kings and Emperors and transfer their Kingdoms and Empires from one Line to another Which wholsome Doctrine no doubt as well as the rest of his Book Pope Pius IV. has made Authentick by his unerring Approbation Lastly for your Divines They have generally own'd it and many of them have written large Books in defence of it We do not tell you this as news for your Clergy-men know it already but that your Laity may not be ignorant of it we shall quote them some few of the greatest Doctors of your Church in this Age. And we shall leave it upon you to shew them when and where they were condemned what Justice has been executed on the Persons what Index Expurgatorius has censur'd the Writings of these Authors Nay if you deal honestly you cannot but confess that their Works are generally approved and that their Persons are had in admiration among you that are the guides of the Lay-mens Consciences We pass over the gross things of Mariana's Book because they which once licens'd it for love of the Doctrine have since condemned it for fear of their King 's heavy Displeasure But pray Sir who condemned your Cardinals Bellarmine and Baronius who teach you that the Pope may do with any King as Jehoiada did with Athalia that is he may deprive him first of his Kingdom and then of his Life Bellarmine indeed elsewhere expresses it more like a Jesuite and a man of distinctions in these words The Pope does not allow you not to obey your King but he makes him that was your King to be not your King as who should say when the Pope has done His part then you are free to do Yours Again who condemn'd your great School-Men Suarez and Valentia of whom the one writes against his Majesties Grand-Father that a King Canonically Excommunicated may be deposed or killed by any man whatsoever the other says that an Heretical Prince may by the Pope's sentence be depriv'd of his life much more of his Estate and of all Superiority over others Nay who has condemned our Country-man Parsons or Cresswel for the high-fliers of Popery have been those of our own Nation by whom this is laid down as a Conclusion of the whole School of Divines and Canonists and declar'd to be Certain and of Faith that any Christian Prince whatsoever that shall manifestly swerve from the Catholick Religion and endeavour to draw off others does immediately fall from all Power and Dignity c. and that even before any Sentence of the Pope is pronounced against him and that all his Subjects whatsoever are free from all obligation of any Oath of Obedience which they have made to him as their lawful Prince and that they may and ought if they be strong enough to eject such a one from the Government of Christians as an Apostate an Heretick a deserter of Christ and an enemy of his Common-wealth c. Cardinal Perron went not altogether so high but yet he held to the Roman Catholick Principle that Kings may be deposed by the Pope when he sees cause He seemed to be of another opinion while Henry IV. was alive but when He was dead and a Child was in the Throne then he ventur'd to declare this publickly in his Oration on behalf of the whole Clergy of France He maintained that this was the current Doctrine in France till the time of Calvin and for the contrary Doctrine viz That Kings are not deposable by the Pope Rossaeus calls it the Paradox of the Lutherans Perron calls it a Doctrine that breeds Schisms a gate that leads into all Heresie and to be held in so high a degree of detestation that rather then yield to it he and his fellow-Bishops would chuse to burn at a Stake But how has this Doctrine taken among the Papists in our Kings Dominions it has not taken with some of them either because you have not thought it seasonable for you to instruct them in it for Doctrines of this sort are then only proper to be Inculcated when they may do Execution or else because your Instruction has been over rul'd by some better Principle as we doubt not there have always been some of your Church in whose generous breasts the English man has been too strong for the Papist But yet this Doctrine has taken with others and many of them have practised according to it as we shall shew you hereafter and many more would have been practising if there had not been something to hinder them or deterr them For 't is allowed by your Divines as a very good Reason for Catholicks to omit the Duty of Rebellion if they are not strong â—nough to go through with it So Bannez excuses our English Catholicks and so Bellarmin does the Primitive Christians Nay your Casuists say If there be any notable danger of Death or Ruin without which you cannot perform it that then you are not bound to endeavour it Long may these Good Reasons continue for if these were remov'd we know not how far we may trust you For one of your Brethren another poisoner of the people has been so forward already since His Majesties Restauration as to declare in Print that in case your Pope should take upon him to Deprive our
of course And we equally believe you now as you did the Phanaticks heretofore when they called us Papists or as we did you e'rewhile when you called them Protestants For pray Sir what did they to be called Protestants or what did we to be judged Popishly Affected And if all Papists as you say were deemed Cavaliers we hope some of them have had the grace to be ashamed of it In Ireland there were whole Armies of Irish and English that fought against His Majesty solely upon the account of your Religion In England it is true some came in voluntarily to assist him but many more of you were hunted into his Garrisons by them that knew you would bring him little help and much hatred And of those that fought for him as long as his Fortune stood when that once declined a great part even of them fell from him From that time forward you that were always all deemed Cavaliers where were you In all those weak Efforts of gasping Loyalty what did you You complied and flattered and gave sugar'd words to the Rebels then as you do to the Royallists now You addrest your Petitions to the Supream Authority of this Nation the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England You affirmed that you had generally taken and punctually kept the Ingagement You promised that if you might but enjoy your Religion you would be the most quiet and useful Subjects in England You prov'd it in these words The Papists of England would be bound by their own Interest the strongest obligation amongst wise men to live peaceably and thankfully in the private exercise of their Consciences and becoming gainers by such compassions they could not so reasonably be distrusted as the Prelatick Party that were losers You prov'd it more amply by real Testimonies which we have no pleasure in remembring and you would have less in hearing of them These things were too lately done to be talk't of If after all this said and done for your own Vindication you were still deemed Cavaliers the more was your wrong But who could help it all the right we can do you is Not to believe it We know though we differ something in Religion the truth of which let the last day judge yet none can agree with your Inclinations or are fitter for your Converse than we for as we have as much Birth among us as England can boast of so our Breeding leans your way both in Court and Camp and therefore had not our late sufferings united us in that firm tye yet our like humors must needs have joyned our hearts If we err pitty our condition and remember what your great Ancestors were and make some difference between us that have twice converted England from Paganism and those other Sects that can challenge nothing but intrusion for their imposed Authority As for Religion we agree with you in all that is truly Catholick We differ from you only in not admitting your Innovations And whether justly we say also let the last day Judge Your Converse Breeding c. we heartily respect as far as 't is English But we suspect every thing that Leans toward a Forreign Jurisdiction And we would be loth by our kindness to those things wherein we agree with you to be drawn into the danger of those things in which we differ from you By that flam of your having twice converted England from Paganism sure you mean that we in this Land have been twice converted by persons sent to us from Rome Which you will never perswade any one to believe that dares trust himself to taste of Church-History without one of your Fathers chewing it for him But supposing this to be true pray what would you infer from it that because we received good from the Primitive Christians of that place therefore we should lay our selves open to receive any evil that may happen to us from their degenerous Successors But 't is generally said that Papists cannot live without persecuting all other Religions within their reach We confess where the name of Protestant is unknown the Catholick Magistrates beliveing it erroneous do use all care to keep it out Yet in those Countries where liberty is given they have far more priviledges than we under any reformed Government what soever To be short we will only instance France for all wher they have publick churches wher they can make what Proselytes they please and where it 's not against Law to be in any charge or employment Now Holland which permits every thing gives us 't is true our Lives and Estates but takes away all trust in Rule and leaves us also in danger of the Scout whensoever he pleaseth to disturb our Meetings What is generally said of the Popish Persecutions is also generally believed But Sir you answer it deceitfully For you tell us of the manner first of those Countries where the Name of Protestant is unknown and next of those Countries where liberty is given but you slip over a third sort namely of those where the Name of Protestant is well known and yet no Liberty is given Pray what Liberty have the Protestants in Flanders we are told they have none and yet the Name of them is very well known there The like may be said of divers other Countries Nay in England while it was Yours did you give any Liberty at all yet the Name of Protestant was very well known here and was sufficient for the burning of any one that was known by it But you say you will only instance France for all Very wisely resolved for it would not have been for your credit to instance any other In France then whatsoever Liberty the Protestants enjoy it is by vertue of their Edicts which how they were obtained we shall have occasion to mind you and how they are observed let the poor Hugonots tell you But if they were observed to the full should we therefore grant You that Liberty which is against Law because they are allow'd that which you say is not against Law In Holland the Papists may have some reason to complain if their Masters allow them no more Liberty than you speak of For it was chiefly by their hands that the Spanish yoak was thrown off which on the contrary our Papists were so fond of that for divers years together we had much ado to keep them from pulling it on upon our necks Because we have named France the Massacre will perchance be urged against us but the world must know that was a Cabinet-Plot condemned as wicked by Catholick Writers there and of other Countries also besides it cannot be thought they were murthered for being Protestants since 't was their powerful Rebellion let their Faith have been what it would that drew them into that ill machinated Destruction The French Massacre which you next speak of was a thing of so horrid a Cruelty that as Thuanus tells us Considering-men having turn'd over the Annals
of the Nations could find no example of the like in all Antiquity It was cloak'd over with shews of the greatest Amity in the world namely of a Marriage between the Houses of Valois and Bourbon to which all the chief of the Protestants were most lovingly invited There after the Jollity of Mirth and caresles of Entertainment in the dead-time of the night the whole City was in Arms about them they fell upon all the Protestants Houses and Lodgings they butchered them without distinction Men Women and Children till the Channels ran down with Blood into the River And scarce a Protestant was left alive except the Bridegroom and the Prince of Conde who turned Papists to escape their hands and yet they could not escape them the one being poisoned and the other stabb'd by men of your Religion This hellish Stratagem you say was condemned as wicked by Catholick Writers It was likewise extoll'd as glorious by Catholick Writers But pray Sir what think you of it you are bashful in company but one may guess at your meaning First you say it was a Cabinet-Plot a fine soft word for the butchering of 30000 persons Next in answer to them that call it murther you seem to blame it as a thing done to Halves for what else can you mean by calling it an ill-machinated Destruction Lastly whatsoever it was that which drew it upon them you say was their Rebellion let their Faith have been what it would Nay Sir it was their Faith let their Obedience have been what it would For neither had that King better Subjects than those which were Massacred nor had his Successor erranter Rebels than those that did Massacre them Brave Coligni was the first murthered and his Head was sent to Rome while his Body according to his own ominous wish was mangled and dragged about the Streets of Paris The Duke of Guise was chief of the murtherers whose factious Authority as you sweetly style it was as black a Rebellion as ever that Kingdom saw But to end this Question whether these men were massacred for Protestant Religion or for Rebellion let us take judges between us for possibly We may be partial for the one and You for the other First of Rebellion a King should be the most competent Judge hear therefore what King James saith who lived in the fresh memory of those dayes I could never yet learn saith he by any good and true Intelligence that in France those of the Religion took Arms against their King In the first Civil Wars they stood only upon their Guard they stood only to their lawful Wards and Locks of Defence They armed not nor took the Field before they were pursued with Fire Sword burnt up and slaughtered Besides Religion was neither the root nor the rinde of those intestine Troubles The true ground of the Quarrel was this during the Minority of King Francis II. the Protestants of France were a refuge and succor to the Princes of the Blood when they were kept from the King's Presence and by the Power of their Enemies were no better than plainly driven and chased from the Court I mean the Grandfathers of the King now Reigning and of the Prince of Conde when they had no place of safe Retreat In regard of which worthy and honorable Service it may seem the French King hath reason to have the Protestants in his gracious remembrance With other Commotion or Insurrection the Protestants are not justly to be charged Certain it is that King Henry III c. by their good Service was delivered from a most extream eminent peril of his Life c. they never abandoned that Henry III. nor IV. in all the heat of Revolts and Rebellions raised by the Pope and the more part of the Clergy c. Then of Religion since you will allow none but the Pope to be Judge let us hear his Judgment from Thuanus who was a Roman Catholick and a most authentick Historian He tells us the Pope had an account of the Massacre from his Legate at Paris that he read his Letter in the Consistory of Cardinals that there it was decreed that they should go directly to St. Marks and there solemnly give thanks to Almighty God for so great a blessing conferred upon the Roman See and the Christian World That soon after a Jubilee should be publisht through the whole Christian World and these causes were exprest for it To give thanks to God for destroying in France the Enemies of the Truth and of the Church c. In the Evening the Guns were fired at St. Angelo and Bonefires were made and nothing was omitted of all those things that use to be performed in the greatest Victories of the Church Some dayes after there was a Procession to St. Lewis with the greatest resort of Nobility and People First went the Bishops and Cardinals then the Switzers then the Ambassadors of Kings and Princes then under a Canopy went His Holiness Himself with the Emperor's Ambassador bearing up his Train for him c. Over the Church-Door was an Inscription set up in which the Cardinal of Lorain in the name of the King of France congratulated his Holiness and the Colledge of Cardinals c. for the plainly stupendious effects and altogether incredible events of their Councils given him and of their Assistances sent him and of their twelve Years Wishes and Prayers Soon after the Pope sent Cardinal Ursin in his name to congratulate the King of France who in his Journey through the Cities highly commended the Faith of those Citizens that had to do in the Massacre and distributed his Holiness's blessings amongst them And at Paris being to perswade the reception of the Council of Trent he endeavoured it with this Argument That the memory of the late Action to be magnified in all ages as conducing to the Glory of God and the Dignity of the Holy Roman Church might be as it were sealed by the Approbation of the Holy Synod for that so it would be manifest to all men that now are or hereafter shall be that the King consented to the destruction of so many lives not out of hatred or revenge or sense of any injury of his own but out of an ardent desire to propagate the Glory of God That what could not be expected whilst the Faction of Protestants stood now since they were taken away the Catholick Apostolick Roman Religion which by the Synod of Trent is cleared from the venom of the Sectaries might be established without Controversie and without Exception through all the Provinces of the French Dominion Well spoken worthy Head of the Church we will take thy Judgment about cutting of throats at any time thou dost not mince the matter as this English limb of thee doth who yet is thus far to be commended that since he durst not say of it as he desir'd for fear of provoking us yet he would not call it as it deserved for
fear of too much contradicting thee May it not be as well said in the next Catholick Kings Reign that the Duke of Guise and Cardinal Heads of the League were killed for their Religion also Now no body is ignorant but 't was their Factious Authority which made that jealous Prince design their Deaths though by unwarrantable means The Duke of Guise and his Brother were not killed for their Religion for they were killed by one of the same Religion and one that was bent against the Protestants as much as they Only because he spared the blood of the Protestants your Zealots hated him and so much the more because a Protestant being his Heir he would not declare him uncapable of the Succession For these causes by the Popes consent these Guises whom he called the Maccabes of the Church entred into an Holy League against their King and called in the Succors of Spain and Savoy which they paid for with the Rights of the Crown they maintained a sharp War against him and did all that was in their power to deprive him of his Kingdom and Life Whereupon that jealous Prince as you favourably call him for his own preservation was urged to deal with them as they had dealt with the Protestants from whose case this of the Guises is so vastly different that one would wonder why you should mention it But since you have led us thus far out of the way let us invite you a little farther The Pope Excommunicated the King for this Action and granted 9 Years of true Indulgence to any of his Subjects that would bear Arms against him and foretold as a Pope might do without Astrology that e're long he should come to a fearful Death The Subjects took Arms and earned the Indulgence A Friar took his Knife and fulfilled the Prediction by ripping up those Bowels that were always most tenderly affected with kindness to the Monkish Orders But what joy was there at Rome for this as if the news of another Massacre had come to Town one would think so by the Popes Oration to his Cardinals in which he sets forth this work of God the Kings Murther for its wonderfulness to be compared with Christs Incarnation and Resurrection And the Friars Vertue and Courage and fervent Love of God he prefers before that of Eleazar in the Maccabees or of Judith killing Holofernes and the murthered King who had profest himself to dye in the Faith of the Roman Catholick Apostolick Church he declared to have died in the Sin against the Holy Ghost Pray Sir may it not well be said that Papists cannot live without persecuting Protestants when we see a Popish King stabb'd and damned for not persecuting them enough or for doing the work of the Lord negligently If it were for Doctrine that Hugonots suffered in France this Haughty Monarch would soon destroy them now having neither Force nor Town to resist his Might and Puissance They yet live free enough being even Members of Parliament and may convert the Kings Brother too if he think fit to be so Thus you see how well Protestants may live in a Popish Country under a Popish King nor was Charlemain more Catholick than this for though he contends something with the Pope 't is not of Faith but about Gallicane Priviledges which perchance he may very lawfully do Iudge then worthy Tatriots who are the best used and consider our hardship here in England where it is not only a Fine for hearing Mass but death to the Master for having a Priest in his House and so far we are from preserment That by Law we cannot come within 10 miles of London all which we know your great mercy will never permit you to exact You say if this were true then this Hanghty Monarch would soon destroy his Hugonots now No such consequence Sir for he may persecute them and not destroy them he may destroy them but not so soon Princes use to go their own pace whilst they are upon their legs but if any misfortune throws them upon all four then the Pope gets up and rides them what pace he pleaseth Nor is this Monarch yet so Catholick as Charlemain was if he were he would do as Charlemain did He would be Patron of all the Bishopricks in his Empire even of Rome it self if it were there He would make the Pope himself know the distance between a Prelate and an Emperor He would maintain the Rights of his Crown and not chop Logick about Gallicane Priviledges which you say like a sly Jesuite that perchance he may lawfully do He would call a Council when he pleased to separate Errors from the Faith as Charlemain himself called a Council against Image-Worship which was then creeping into the Church This were a good way of destroying the Hugonots by taking away all causes of strife amongst Christians By any other way than this he cannot destroy them without the violation of his Laws which as they are the only Forces and Towers whereby Subjects ought to be secured against their King so since he is pleased to allow them no other these Laws backt with his puissance are forces enough to secure them against their fellow-Subjects We cannot pass this Paragraph without observing your Jesuitical ingenuity how you slight those favours that you have how you complain of those hardships that you have not and how you insult over the poor Hugonots by comparing with them who generally would mend their condition by changing with you Pray Sir do not Popish-Peers sit in our English Parliaments as well as Protestants in the French or have you not as free access to our Kings Brother as they have to theirs or would you have his Highness to Catechise as the Abbot had the Duke of Glocester perhaps that you would have Otherwise we know nothing but His Highness's Wisdom and care of his Conscience that guards him from you Of the Laws you complain hideously Worthy Patriots consider our hardship And yet those very Laws you complain of you never knew executed in your life and you tell us soon after that you know they never will be For what cause then were they enacted Plainly for this cause to guard the lives of our Princes against your traiterous practices It hath often been urged that our Misdemeanors in Queen Elizabeth's days and King James's time was the cause of our Panishment Your Misdemeanors We cry you mercy if they were no more but that comes next to be argued Whether they were Misdemeanors or Treasons We earnestly wish that the Party had more patience under that Princess But pray consider though we excuse not their faults whether it was not a question harder than that of York and Lancaster the cause of a War of such length and death of so many Princes who had most right Q Elizabeth or Mary Stuart for since the whole Kingdom had crowned and sworn Allegiance to Q. Mary they had owned her
after they had vastly paid for their security and quiet We have answer'd your Instances of the French Protestants and the Dutch Papists and your unjust upbraiding us with the greatness of your Duty and with our want of compassion and pity And yet as if all these were Unanswerable you come over with them again and again These barbarous people you say sequester none for their Faith but pray what did you when you govern'd the Civiliz'd World you hang'd and burn'd men for no other cause but their Faith and this you did with abundance of Civility so it seems we may be worse than Barbarous and yet much better than you But that were little for our credit unless we had this to say more that not the worst of you suffers any otherwise than by known Laws or any more than is of pure Necessity For we hold it Necessary to maintain the Authority of the King and the Peace of the Nation If you call any thing Religion that is contrary to these must we therefore alter our Laws or ought you to mend your Religion You put the Effigies of Cromwel upon any thing that you would render odious as your Inquisition bedresses one with Pictures of Devils whom they are about to burn for his Religion For such Disguizes are apt to work much upon the weak judgements of the multitude But he must be very weak indeed that cannot perceive the wide Difference between the Edicts of Cromwel that were design'd to Ruine men for their Loyalty and those Laws that our Princes have made to Restrain them from Treason and Rebellion We have no other study but the glory of our Sovereign and just liberty of the Subjects Sir if we may judge by your Works there is nothing less studied in your Colledge Nor was it a mean Argument of our Duty when every Catholick Lord gave his voice for the Restauration of Bishops by which we could pretend no other advantage but that 26 Votes subsisting wholly by the Crown were added to the defence of Kingship and consequently a check to all Anarchy and Confusion This is no Argument of Your Duty for sure You are no Lord. Nor is it likely that these Lords follow'd Your direction in the doing of this Duty 'T is morally impossible but that we who approve of Monarchy in the Church must ever be fond of it in the State also If you mean this of Papists in General that which you call morally impossible is Experimentally True For in Venice Genoa Lucca and the Popish Cantons of Switzerland where they very well approve of Monarchy in the Church yet they are not fond of it in the State also But if you mean this of the Jesuitical Party then it may be true in this sense that you would have the Pope to be sole Monarch both in Spirituals and Temporals Yet this is a misfortune we now plainly feel that the longer the late Transgressors live the more forgotten are their Crimes whiles distance in time calls the faults of our Fathers to remembrance and buries our own Allegiance in eternal oblivion and forgetfulness We can now allow you to complain and commend your selves without Measure having prov'd already that you do it without cause My Lords and Gentlemen consider we beseech you the sad condition of the Irish Soldiers now in England the worst of which Nation could be but intentionally so wicked as the acted Villany of many English whom your admired Clemency pardoned Remember how they left the Spanish Service when they heard their King was in France and how they forsook the Employment of that unnatural Prince after he had committed the never to be forgotten Act of banishing his distressed Kinsman out of his Dominions These poor men left all again to bring their Monarch to his home and shall they then be forgotten by you or shall my Lord Douglas and his brave Scots be left to their shifts who scorned to receive wages of those who have declared War against England To swell up the Bill of the Merits of your Party you take in the Services of the Irish and Scottish Soldiers as if they were a part of the English Catholicks whom you profess to plead for in the Title of your Apology And that you may seem to have done this in kindness to Them and not to your Selves you exhort us to Consider them in such terms as if You were the first that had ever thought of them God forbid but they should be consider'd as they deserve and he is neither good Christian nor good Subject that would grudge to contribute his proportion toward it But you seem to have a farther drift in the mentioning of these Loyal Irish. For you immediately mingle them with the worst of that Nation namely with those infamous Butchers that in times of as great Peace and Liberty as ever that Nation enjoyed and in the Name of that gracious King under whom they enjoyed these cut the throats of above an hundred thousand of his Protestant Subjects of all Sexes and Ages It was so black a Villany that You the Apologist of such Actions knew not how to mention in its proper place viz. after the French Massacre because you had not wherewith to colour it And yet being conscious to your self that this lay as a blot upon your Cause you thought fit to place it among these brave Men as if their Names would mend the hue of an Action that will make the Names of all that had to do in it look black and detestable to Mankind throughout all Generations Nor do you deal much better with our Royallists themselves of whom you do not stick to affirm that in their admired Clemency and if this were true who would not admire it they pardon'd Many English whose Acted Villanies were so wicked that the worst of the Irish Nation could be but Intentionally so wicked in their Villanies How commonly is it said that the Oath of Renouncing their Religion is intended for these which will needs bring this loss to the King and you that either you will force all of our Faith to lay down their Arms though by experience of great Integrity and Worth or else if some few you retain they are such whom necessity hath made to swear against Conscience and who therefore will certainly betray you when a greater advantage shall be offered By this Test then you can have none but whom with Caution you ought to shun And thus must you drive away those who truly would serve you for had they the least thought of being false they would gladly take the advantage of gain and pay to deceive you You proceed concerning the Irish and Scottish Soldiers in these words How commonly is it said that the Oath of Renouncing their Religion is intended for them Pray Sir can you tell who are said to intend this For if they are such as have no Authority it is frivilous If they are such as have Authority it is false And