treason had been a most honourable and meritorious acte 2 It was the deuil indeed that wrought it it being beyond all humane inuention yet you canot denie though you are vnwilling to grant it that hee vsed none but pretended Catholikes for his instruments in that businesse 3 The latter we easily beleeue but leaue you to proue the former 4 It may be by God you vnderstand him who exalts himselfe aboue all that is called God and by lawfull obedience as much and as farre as he shall thinke fit 5 Whether our religion or yours bind subiects more to the performance of their duty let my answere to your 12. section make proofe 6 Indeed the fresh examples of the death of the 2. last Henr. of France and the infinite trâ—â—â—sons against Q. Elizabeth and our present Soueraigne cannot be but odious to all good Christians 7 Perpetuity of kingdomes is onely from God but yet may his Maiesty more iustly expect perpetuity froÌ„ his subiects who acknowledge none other Soueraigne then those Princes from theirs who acknowledge them deposeable by a forreine power 8 Their religion being grounded onely vpon the liuely oracles of God cannot but tye them more effectually to it selfe then your humane traditions 9 We assume no liberty of expounding articles of faith at our pleasure as his Maiesty hath declared it in his booke against Vorst but a freedome by Christ from the rigour of the Law from the guilt and punishment of sinne and from obseruing humane traditions as religiously as diuine ordinances 1 Garnet by Eudaemon 2 Greenwell and Gerrard 1 It was the speech of Christopherus Thuaâ—â—â—s reported by Iacobus Aug. his sonne * Eccles. 49. 1. 1 You seeme to meane the ancient Romanes who made more conscience of an Oath in which particular act of Religion you afterward insist then the Romish Catholikes at this day * Ebr. 6. 16. * Iere. 4. 2. * Gen. 21. * Gen. 31. 1 Is not this Romish opinion which holds it sufficient to beleeue as yâ— Church beleeues so that they liue morally well but for our selues we haue had experience yâ— where our religion most preuaileth and men are brought to the knowledge of the trueth there barbarisme inciuility are the more banished 2 The words of the Poet are nemo repente fuit turpissimus 3 In stead of the arseâ—all you should haue said the Capitole Seâ—â—c frag * 1. Cor. 13. 12. 1 By this it appeares you intended the publishing of your letter at the writing of it 2 M. Doctour himselfe in the 8. Section of his 1. Chapter confesseth that hee knoweth diuers very honest men of these Preachers 3 Hauing made them before the Seeds-men of Sedition and Authours of all errour in doctrine and corruption in manners it is then good time of day to tell vs you will not accuse them 4 Sir Francis Bacon is more beholding to you for quoting his Essayes then S. Matth for alledging his Gospel or S. Paul for his Epistles but I am sure he is too noble a Gentleman to hold it any commendation to be quoted or commended by such as your selfe 5 If they vtterly faile in the Precepts of the first Table they may well be called Heretikes rather then Schismatikes 6 Since the first reformation aboue a generation hath passed and yet by your owne acknowledgement there remaine diuers very honest men euen among those whome you labour most to disgrace 7 In your construction a Puritan and a Caluinist are reciprocall and you make all the reformed Netherlanders the Heluetians the French and the greatest part of the English to be Caluinists so that the greatest part of all their sonnes must proue Papists or Atheists or else your obseruation failes 8 Reformers you tell â—s before commonly degenerate in the next generation and here you shew vs how by turning Papists or Atheists as if Papiâ—me and Atheisme were so neere of kinne or â—o resembling in condition that the one might easily be mistaken for the other or thâ— one prepared away to the other * 1. Cor. 14. 1 The same conceit hath Charron in his booke de trois vâ—râ—te lib. 3. c. 12. 2 I haue since found words to that purpose in his Meditationâ—s sacrae but not as M. Doctor quoteth them 1 You tell vs before of sure rules in policie and mutinous Souldiers and here you shewe your skill in Cowhâ—rdship that wee may know you are aliquid in quolibet though nihil in toto 2 Notwithstanding those charmes your Romish Catholiks cannot be kept within their bounds charme the charmer neuer so wisely 3 Mutato nomine de tuis â—abula narratur 1 D. Hall in his Roma irreconciliâ—â—ilâ—â— 1 If others might be good Subiects your selfe could not be so in as much as in the last Sect. of the 1. cha you confesse that liuing in England you could not choose but bee guilty of the breach of many of our Statutes Lib. 5 de Iustiâ— cap. 7. 1 Of this ranke was M. Doctour as appeareth in the 19. Sect. of his first Chap. where he promiseth to iustifie all the present doctrine of the Church of Rome from point to point 1 Here your rules of policy failed you in as much as violence of affection is rather by time to be qualified then withstood by force 2 Who they are that blow the coales for the burning of others and warming of themselues if I were silent the stones of the ParliameÌ„t house would speake 3 You might haue done well to haue perswaded the Pope or the King of Spaine to haue held such a conference in their dominions 4 How simply and euidently your Postillers and Friers vse to deliuer the trueth in their Sermons we are not ignorant but whom you should mean by your honest men but your selfe and your companions we know not 5 Who they are that dazell mens eyes and robbe their purses your glorious outside in Gods worship and your infinite trickes to get money sufficiently testifie 6 How reconciliable the differences betweene vs are I haue declared in mine answere to the 18. Sect. of this chap. 1 Lib. 4. de mili Eccles. cap. 5. 2 De salute Indorum lib. 2. c. 18. 3 Lib. 4. epist. 1. 4 Lib. 5. epist. 30. See Lipsius in the conclusion of his booke de Mag. Rom. * 1. Tim. 6. 20. * Psal. 119. 105. * 2 Pet. 1. 19. * Luke 1. 79. * Iohn 1. 9. * Rom. 1. 18. 1 A most notorious vntruth if by Caluinismâ— you vnderstand Caluins doctrine 2 How Caluins doctrine ouerthrowes al these or any of these let his bookes testifie 3 Will the Turke beleeue Christ to haue beene the Sonne of God by eternall generation or to haue beene conceiued by the holy Ghost or to haue risen from the graue by his owne power the third day after his buriall or visibly to haue ascended into heauen or that from thence hee shall returne againe to iudge the quicke and the dead
and that in as honourable and publike a forme of triall as euer was vsed in this kingdome and although as his Maiesty himselfe hath well obserued the onely reason they gaue for plotting so hainous an attempt was the zeale they caried to the Romish Religion yet were neuer any other of that profession the worse vsed for that cause as by his Maiesties gracious Proclamation immediately after the discouery of the said fact doth plainely appeare onely at the next sitting down againe of the Parliament were there Lawes made enacting some such orders as were thought fit for the preuenting the like mischiefe in time to come amongst which a forme of oath was framed to bee taken by his subiects whereby they should make a cleare profession of their resolution faithfully to persist in their obedience according to their naturall allegeance to the end a separation might bee made betweene so many of his Maiesties Subiects who although they were otherwise Popishly affected yet retained in their hearts the print of their naturall Allegeance to their Soueraigne and those who being caried away with the like fanaticall zeale that the Powder-traitours were could not containe themselues within the bounds of their naturall Allegeance but thought diuersitie of Religion a safe pretext for all kinde of Treasons and Rebellions against their Soueraigne Which godly and wise intent God blessed with successe accordingly for very many Subiects that were Popishly affected aswell Priests as Laickes did freely take the same oath whereby they both gaue his Maiestie occasion to thinke the better of their fidelitie and likewise freed themselues of that heauie slaunder that although they were Fellow-professours of one Religion with the Powder-traitors yet were they not ioyned with them in treasonaâ—le courses against their Soueraigne whereby all quietly minded Papists were put out of despaire and his Maiestie gaue good proofe that hee intended no persecution against them for conscience sake but onely desired to be secured of them for ciuill obedience which for conscience sake they were bound to performe I vse his Maiesties very words because he is best able to expresse himselfe and I know not how to expresse my selfe better nor by many degrees so well These were the greatest effects of his Maiesties anger vpon occasion of the Powder-treason which notwithstanding to shew your Rhetorike you compare to a storme vpon the Sea raising vp the billowes to the height making him inexorable impatient of any equall hearing chiding and punishing vntill he were weary wheras if his Maiâ—stie had but giuen way to the fury of the multitude the chiefe offenders no doubt had beene torne in pieces before they could haue come to the place of execution or of triall and if the like monstrous and neuer heard of offence had beene committed by Protestants for their Religions sake in other countries the body of that profession had suffered for it Indeed his Maiestie had sufficient occasion giuen that his wrath should haue beene as the roaring of a Lyon which is the Herauld of death but bearing the Image of God and being the Vicegerent of God on earth nay stiled God by God himselfe his mercy so triâ—mphed against his iustice that he seemed not to be mooued as the hainousnes of so horrible a fact required vntill his Holinesse by his two Breues and Cardinall Bellarmine by his Letter to the Arch-priest throughly awakened him they thereby disswading his Subiects from taking that most reasonable Oath of Allegeance and checking the Arch-priest for taking it to these his Maiestie in his booke Intituled Triplici nodo triplex cuneus or an Apologie for the oth of Allegeance vouchsafed with his owne Penne to frame a full and quicke answere aswell for the satisfaction of scrupulous consciences as for the iustifying of his owne proceedings to which the Cardinal vnder the name of Tortus makes his reply and hauing on his visarde dealt with his Maiestie at his pleasure in such termes as neither became a Churchman to giue nor a Prince to take whereupon his Maiestie being nowe somewhat warmed once againe tooke his quill in hand and wrote that excellent Premonition to the Monarchs and free States of Christendome as the Prince of Aurange did his Apologie to the States of the Netherlands hauing his head proscribed by Phillip the second King of Spaine for the summe of 25000. Crownes wherein hee not onely refutes Bellarmines reply but by a large Confession of his Faith cleareth himselfe from all imputation of Heresie and with all most iudiciously setteth downe the reasons of his opinion why he cannot but conceaue the Bishop of Rome to be Antichrist To this the Cardinall againe reioyneth somewhat more manerly in shew but indeed no whit lesse saucily then in his former discourse and how many Hell-hounds haue followed vpon the same sent the world to well knoweth besides it is not vnknowen how some of the plotters or at leastwise abettors in that intended Tragedy haue their Apologies published from Rome and others their protection in Rome nay the doctrine which gaue life to that and giues way to the like attempt is as violently maintained by the Romish Doctors as euer beside infinite other writers witnes Beaumanoirs expostulatory defence of Suarez against Seruius expository coÌ„plaint as also Cardinal Perrons and his fellow Prelates late proceedings in France together with his Holinesse benedictioÌ„ for that speciall peece of seruice both the Cardinal in his oration the Pope in his Letter labouring to disgace our Church State with what assurance then can this Maiesty ioyne hands with Rome since though the Powder be remoued froÌ„ vnder the Parliament house yet they still prepare new matter for the like Blow and no doubt but Paulus V. would be as ready to make his Oration in Conclaue in commendation of it being once acted as Sixtus Quintus was in commending that mortall blow giuen Henry the thirde of France by a Friar Iacobin which that it may the rather appeare I will hereunto annexe the Translation of his Letter to Cardinall Perron and the other French Prelates assembled in Parliament the Originall it selfe is but a barbarous Papall stile and therefore it cannot be expected but the Translation should be sutable the Letter was written vpon occasion of a Bill passed in the Lower-house crossing the Popes pretended Power in Deposing and Murthering Princes and crossed by the Clergie Pope Paul the fifth VEnerable Brother our beloued Son and likewise Venerable Brethren and beloued Sonnes greeting and Apostolicall benediction The excesse of boldnesse wherby some as we haue heard in the generall assembly there held in the 2. of Ian. haue endeuoured to violate the sacred authority of the Apostolike See hath so troubled our minde that were we not comforted by the firme confidence wee haue in the singular pietie and prudence of our dearest children King Lewis and Queene Mary his mother whom we vnderstand to haue been carefull to represse so vnaduised an attempt and in the admirable zeale
AN ANSWER TO A TREATISE WRITTEN BY Dr. CARIER By way of Letter to his MAIESTIE WHEREIN HE LAYETH DOWNE SVNDRY POLITIKE CONSIDERATIONS By which hee pretendeth himselfe was moued And endeuoureth to moue others to be reconciled to the Church of ROME and imbrace that Religion which he calleth CATHOLIKE By GEORGE HAKEWIL Doctour of Diuinity And Chapleine to the PRINCE his Highnesse B. C. Mine heart will vtter foorth a good matter I will intreat in my workes of the King G. H. Giue thy iudgements to the King O God and thy righteousnesse to the Kings sonne IMPRINTED AT LONDON by IOHN BILL 1616. Cum Priuilegio TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAIESTIE DREAD SOVERAIGNE HAD this Letter of Dr. Carier beene imparted or the drift of it onely reached to your Maiestie it would haue deserued none other answere then your Maiesties priuate censure and might well haue beene buried in silence with the Author of it But now that it not only aymes in particular at all the members of the bodie Politike First the Nobles then the Commons and lastly the Clergie but withall is published to the view of the World and spread through all the quarters of your Land for the better effecting of that it aymes vnto and is not a little magnified by the Romish faction It must needs argue in vs either want of wisedome in preuenting a mischiefe or of power in prouiding for our owne safetie or of zeale and sinceritie in our loue to the Trueth if it should passe without some discouery aswell of the malicious scope to which it tends as the weakenesse of the arguments by which it endeuours to perswade The maine end which it driues at is either a totall reconcilement to the Church of Rome or if that cannot be a partiall toleration of the Romish Religion The generall meanes by which it striues to compasse this end are first by working a destraction euen amongst those your Subiects who euery way conforme themselues aswell to the doctrine as the discipline of the Church of England established by publike allowance in making some Puritanes and some Protestants who in his language can endure the state of the Church of England as it is but could be content it were as it was implying thereby the rest to be Puritanes some Caluinists and some temperate men who cannot but in iudgment approue the trueth of that Religion which he calles Catholike thereby implying the rest to bee Caluinists the one he termes the greatest enemies of the Clergie the other his honest and louing brethren wherof he professeth he knew many and himselfe to be one whereas in trueth if any such there be the difference should rather haue beene made betwixt Protestants and Papists English and Romish Catholikes since they who could be content the Church of England were as it was before the Reformation can in my iudgement bee none other then Papists and those that in their iudgement approue the doctrine of the pretended Catholike Religion can as farre as I apprehend it been none other then Romish Catholikes Thus those whom we call Papists he calles Temperate Protestants and those whom we call Protestants he calles State Puritanes The second generall meanes for the compassing of his desired end is an indeuour to worke an vtter seperation betwixt our Church and other reformed Churches specially those of France and the Netherlands whom therefore in contempt hee calls Hugonots and Geux and their doctrine Caluinisme intending thereby as I conceiue either to weaken our strength by leauing vs to stand single or which is worse to inforce vs at length to relapse vpon Rome And to this purpose is hee bold to affirme that their doctrine makes as much against the Religion of England as that of Rome whereas the writings of the most learned men aswell on their as on our side our harmonies of Confessions the testimonie of our aduersaries nay the Pope himselfe in his Bull against Queene ELIZABETH your Maiesties Bookes and practise in the matching of that Noble Ladie your daughter and in permitting those Churches the free exercise of their Religion within your dominions so plainely euince the contrarie that I wonder hauing let fall so foule a blot from his pen he durst present it to your Maiesties view and yet I neede not wonder considering hee was not ashamed to tell your Maiesty that for any thing you haue written in your Apologie or Premonition you may when you please admitte the Popes Supremacie in spirituals which must needes argue either that he was meerely ignorant what your Maiesty had written or cared not at all what himselfe wrote regarding rather the euennesse of his Stile and the cadencie of his sentences then the trueth of his assertions like false windowes bearing proportion with the rest of the building but without light By the trueth of these assertions your Maiestie may make an estimate of the whole piece in which if I can iudge any thing I haue not met within the narrow compasse of so short a treatise so formally pend and carrying so faire an outside so many weake arguments so many grosse mistakes so many notorious falshoods so many irreconciliable contradictions so many sandie and disioynted consequences howsoeuer were his proofes neuer so strong so sure so true so consonant so coherent yet was hee a man most vnfit to intermeddle in a businesse of vnion and pacification who was so farre ingaged to one partie as by his owne acknowledgement hee was perswaded that all the Religion at this day prescribed and practised by the Church of Rome is the true Catholike Religion and promiseth particularly to iustifie it from point to point when time and opportunitie should serue and your Maiestie together with vs of the same profession he rangeth among Iewes and Infidels and heretiques for refusing to ioine with them in the worship of Christ in the Sacrament But God blessed not his vaine proiect Mr. Henrie Constable dying within fortnight after he came from Paris by Cardinall Perrons appointment to Leidge to conferre with him and himselfe a while after in Paris within a moneth of his comming thither to conferre with the Cardinall yet as the Apostle speakes of Abel being dead he yet speaketh though in a different manner and the speach of dead men commonly prooues more effectuall more profitable or more dangerous then that of the liuing For your Maiesty there is God be thanked no feare at all the obligations by which you haue tied your selfe to the Religion established amongst vs being so many and so strong and withall his motiues for inducement to the contrary so weake dealing with your Maiesty as the deuill did with our Sauiour who being beaten from Scripture fell to the promising of the glory of kingdomes which notwithstanding was not in his power to performe onely for their sakes some Replie seemed not vnnecessary of whom it may truely be sayd which hee falsly affirmes of your Maiesty that they imbrace shadowes
instead of substances which as a matter of high commendation he solemnely protests he gladly wrote and so gaue it out with all the honour hee could of your Maiesty But such kinde of commendation as your Maiesty truely telleth Cardinall Perron is none other then if a man should commend a souldier for his faire haire and call him coward to his face Now because the Letter though not without some marke of presumption is by the Author not onely dedicated but throughout directed to your Maiesty as if he meant to fight neither with small nor great saue onely against the King I was imboldned humbly to submit this my defence of trueth to the Royall arbitrement of the same sacred and vnpartiall vmpire hoping to find the censure somewhat more fauourable in as much as I haue made bold to borrow the greatest part of my weapons both offensiue and defensiue from the rich armourie of your Maiesties writings wherin already though seuered as in the tower of DAVID built for defence hang a thousand shields and all the targets of the strong men but being ranged into one volume as vnited forces they would doubtlesse haue more strength aswell to assault as to resist both the tongues and pens of men and the teeth of time Hauing lighted my candle then at your Maiesties torch I thought my selfe in duety bound to offer it vpon the same altar againe Hee was your Maiesties seruant and so am I both vnworthy though in a different respect hee sworne to serue your Maiestie which how he performed at last this Letter can best speake and your Maiestie best iudge my selfe sworne to your Maiestie for the seruice of your most Noble Sonne the Prince my most sweete and gracious Master whose quickenesse of Spirit loue of Vertue and sense of true Religion though I haue now by a good space obserued sensibly to grow faster then his yeeres yet being but tender in age and consequently not fully ripened in iudgment I thoâ—ght I might herein doe him some seruice for his better information to marke out vnto him such passages in your Maiesties writings as serue for a satisfaction to such passages of the letter as may concerne him hoping thereby hee may somewhat the rather bee moued to goe on as hee hath happily begunne till hee arriue to that perfection which Plinie commends to Traian Facere scribenda scribere legenda I conclude with that repetition of the prayer of Dauid for you both Giue thy iudgements to the King O God and thy righteousnesse to the Kings sonne that your dayes may bee vpon earth as the dayes of heauen both for glory and lasting and for your Maiesty with that acclamation of the Romans to their Emperours De nostris annis tibi Iupiter augeat annos Your MAIESTIES most humbly deuoted subiect and seruant GEORGE HAKEVVIL THE AVTHOR to the Reader WHAT Dr. Carier was for his ranke the degrees and places of charge hee held and passed through expressed at large in the Printers Epistle prefixed to his Letter will speake sufficiently though I were silent what for his learning this Letter will partly testifie and for his other qualities such informations as were offered mee though by men of credite and I could haue gathered out of diuers of his Letters and Papers which I haue in mine hands I chose rather to suppresse in silence then to publish His immoderate Ambition alone which himselfe so freely acknowledgeth in diuers places was doubtlesse sufficient to corrupt a stronger iudgement then his in matter of Religion specially being crossed in his designes That was it which cast the Angels out of heauen and Adam out of Paradise and still casteth most Apostates out of the Church Ambition sayeth one whom Master Doctor in his Letter deseruedly commendeth for a worthy Gentleman is like choler which is an humour that maketh men actiue earnest full of alacritie and stirring if it be not stopped but if it be stopped and can not haue his way it becommeth adust and thereby maligne and venemous so ambitious men if they find the way open for their rising and still get forward they are busie rather then dangerous but if they be checked in their desires they become secretly discontent and looke vpon men and matters with an euill eye and if they rise not with their seruice they will take order to make their seruice fall with them Now what opinion was helde of him abroad by Romish Catholikes after his departure from vs and our Church let Pelitier and Fitz-Simon testifie the one in French the other in Latine La memoire de cest homme de bien sayeth Pelitier estant grandement recommendable pour l' innocence probité de ses maeures qu' ausi pour le graund zeale qu'il a eu de chercher son salut Car estant personage de singuliere erudition et fort versé en la lecture des Saincts Peres il recogneut en fin dans leurs escrits Comme dans vne glace luisante la viue image de l' Eglise Catholique tant aux points essentielles de la Religion qu' en la police et gouernment d'icelle Hitherto Pelitier but Fitz-Simon goes further Inter quos sayeth hee nouum sidus Catholicorum omnium gaudio refulgens vt laudum suarum insistant vestigijs vtque mentem ac linguam sceleri seruent iniuratam praelucet Cum igiur Ibernis alijsque omnibus facem praeferat Reformatorumque à quibus salutari palinodia defecit causam gregemque sua fuga condemnet Caeteris obiter à me superius recensitis accedat optimoqueiure praecedat Illustrissimus inter Theologos Doctores Cantabrigienses Beniaminus Carerius Concionator ac sacellanus regius Qui talis Abdemelech seu Regis seruus esse voluit vt simul esset Abdenago seruâ—s Dei Verus Beniaminus vtpote mane praua educatione Lupus rapax Christi praedam comedens vespere verò haeresis eiuratae spolia detrahens diuidensque salutari â—alinodia dextrae filium se constituens Verus Barsabas verâ ad fidem conuersione eiusque causa demittens multa quia dilexit multum Verum animal quartum simile aquilae volanti sigillo quarto aperto singulis reformatorum clamitans Veni vide faelix omnino conuersio Tarda sera nimis sed fama laude perenni So that it seemed needfull some answere should bee made to his treatise if for none other reason yet in regard of so great an opinion conceiued of his worth and sufficiencie But sure I am of opinion that had he beene a man of that moderation in matter of Religion as through this Treatise hee would beare his Maiestie and the world in hand hee had neither died among the Iesuits as Pelitier testifies in the conclusion of his pamphlet nor receiued such a testimonie from Fitz-Simon by nation an Irishman a Iesuit by profession Howsoeuer sure I am that talking of Vnitie and Peace the pretended scope of Mr. Drs letter as termes now
stand betweene vs sauours not of a Iesuits spirit We for our parts freely professe as Mr Casaubon doth in his Maiesties name Let them in whose power it is to performe it offer vs such a peace of which it may bee sayd Peace trueth haue kissed each other and the controuersie is at an end Let them seuer humane ordinances from diuine superstitious from godly new from ancient needlesse from necessary I say againe saith he and with as loude a crie and much earnestnesse as may be I proclaime it that all men may heare me for as much as concernes his Maiesty and the Church of England the controuersie is at an end His Maiesties intent and full resolution is that they in vaine talke or thinke of Peace who sunder that heauenly yoke of vnitie and verity but saith hee in conclusion speaking to the Romanists their purpose is constantly to maintaine all they hold not to reconcile the minds of well disposed persons by the reformation of that which is amisse in which purpose as long as they shall persist his Maiestie professeth once for all that he will entertaine no societie no Communion at all with the Church of Rome And in this case we sticke not to professe with Nazianzene that there is a kind of holy warre in which who so dies shal vndoubtedly obtaine of the chiefe Bishop of our soules a Plenary Indulgence for his sinnes and â—ith Hillary Amiable is the name of peace and louely the opinion of vnity but who doubts that to bee the onely Peace of the Church which is the Peace of Christ and lastly with Cyprian He is not reconciled to the Church who is separated from the Gospel Now because M. Doctour would perswade the â—orld and his Maiestie himselfe that at his first entrance into this kingdome hee was more inclineable to reconcilement and laboureth by promising honour and riches and security to reduce him againe to the same pretended inclination it shall not be amisse beside that which I haue spoken to this point in diuerse parts of mine answere to acquaint the Reader with his Maiesties protestation euen while matters were yet in a mammering made to Watson as himselfe confessed to the late Earle of Northampton That all the Crownes and kingdomes in this world should not induce him to change any iot of his profession which was the pasture of his soule earnest of his eternal inheritance and as he thus protested at his first entrance so in the conclusion of one of his last speeches to the Parliament he sheweth himselfe in this point euer like himselfe I am now out of conscience and for security saith he not to forget religion I spake to you last as a Prophet that t was likely the Papists had some new plot in hand now you see it is come to passe and I will let you know this much their ayme was not at him alone but at other Princes to whereof I assure you I was one looke that these weedes doe not ouergrow the corne that Papiâ—try be not increased by one thing too much vsed among them They send out their kinsemen children and seruants to Doway and such like places these after they haue bene there nourished come daily ouer and with their poison infect others This one day will make you smart if it be not preuented And I pray God his Maiestie doe not proue as true a Prophet in this latter as the successe shewed him in the former how soeuer it sufficeth to shew his Maiesties auersenes from all maner of reconcilement things standing in the termes they doe Nay M. Doctour himselfe in his Epistle to Casaubon written since his going ouer professeth that except it were expected from his Maiestie that he should in a maner proclaime to the world that he was forced to that religion he saw not how in so great danger and iust anger he could possibly draw neerer to them who well deserâ—ed the anger by procuring the danger M. Doctour then might well haue spared his paines of writing to his Maiestie to that purpose considering withall he had by his owne acknowledgement receiued full answere from M Casuabon that his Maiestiâ—s setled determination was as he had before signified to Cardinall Perron not at all to shake hands with Rome whiles her whordomes and withcrafts yet remaine in such abundance My wish and hearty prayer to God is and I think not mine alone but of all good men neither would I account my life deare to be spent in the furtherance of it that the miserable rent and wide woundes which at this day wee see in the Christian world in matter of Religion might by some good meanes be closed vp for the sparing of the effusion of so much Christian blood the securing of the Crownes of Christian Princes the setling of so great distraction in Christian mindes the wiping away of the scandall of diuision from the Christian profession and lastly resisting with vnited forces the common enemie of the blessed and glorious name of Iesus Christ But as long as the Bishop of Rome shal hang the faith of his followers on this Principle I and my Church cannot possibly erre and with the same stoppe the mouths of all his opposites bee the force and euidence of their arguments neuer so cleare and stronge I cannot conceiue otherwise of such a wish then of an honest desire but without any apparent hope of successe For if diuine authoritie doe concurre with them in all their ordinances if Gods Spirit infallibly assist them in all their decisions what remaines there but only that they teach wee beleeue they command and the world obey Indeed in humane gouernments where reason is shut out there tyrannie is thrust in but where God commandeth to aske a reason is presumption to disobey rebellion to this miserable necessitie haue their assertions tied them which they haue laid for their eternall foundation miserable to themselues and miserable to the whole world nay in so many conferences as haue beene held in this age for pacification it hath beene truely obserued that ere they parted they plainely discouered they came not with any such intent as to yeeld any thing for Peace much lesse for Trueths sake but onely to assay either by perswasion to reduce or otherwise by cunning to intrap and disgrace their aduersaries and if some one of them haue shewed himselfe more moderate at any time it hath beene his vtter disgrace with his owne partie for euer after Now for the manner of mine answering I haue set downe his text at large in his owne words without altering or adding so much as a sillable except it were to make sense where I found none imputing the errour thereof to the Printer rather then the Author I haue followed the Methode of his owne diuision for the most part both in the Chapters Sect. The maine scope of euery Sect. I haue answered in the bodie of my Reply stretching the force of
the 11. and 19. of Iames being put for the 1. and the 17. the 15. to the Heb. for the 11. and Psalm 83. 12. for 84. 11. But herein it may be hee followed the diuision of the vulgar edition and the rest I am content to impute to the Printer Hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim Dr. CARIERS PREFACE TO HIS LETTER Most Excellent and Renowned Soueraigne IT is not vnknowne to all those that knowe me in England that for these many yeeres I had my health very ill and therefore hauing from time to time vsed all the meanes and medicines that England could afford Last of all by the aduice of my Phisitians I made mine humble suite vnto your Maiestie that I might trauell vnto the Spaw for the vse of those waters purposing with my selfe that if I could be well I would goe from thence to Heydelberge and spend this winter there But when I was gone from the Spaw to Aquisgrane and so to Colin I found my selfe rather worse then better then I was before and therefore I resolued with my selfe that it was high time for me to settle my thoughts vpon another world And seeing I was out of hope to enioy the health of my body at the least to looke to the health of my soule from whence both art and experience teacheth me that all my bodily infirmities haue their beginning for if I could by any study haue prooued Catholike Religion to bee false or by any meanes haue professed it to bee true in England I doubt not but the contentment of my soule would haue much helped the health of my bodie But the more I studied the Scriptures and most ancient Fathers to confute it the more I was compelled to see the trueth thereof and the more I laboured to reconcile the religion of England thereunto the more I was disliked suspected and condemned as a common enemie And if I would haue been either ignorant or silent I might perhaps with the pleasures and commodities of my preferments haue in time cast off the care of Religion But seeing my studie forced mee to knowe and my place compelled me to preach I had no way to auoid my griefe nor meanes to endure it I haue therfore apprehended the opportunitie of my Licence to traâ—ell that I may withdraw my selfe for a while from the sight and offence of those in England which hate Catholike Religion and freely and fully enioy the presence of our blessed Sauiour in the vnitie of his Catholike Church wherein I will neuer forget at the dayly oblation of his most blessed bodie and blood to lift vp my heart vnto him and to pray for the admission of your Maiesty thereinto And in the meane time I haue thought it my duety to write this short treatise with mine owne hand wherein before I publish my selfe vnto the world I desire to shew to your Maiesty these two things 1 The meanes of my conuersion vnto Cath. Religion 2 The hopes I haue to doe your Maiesty no ill sâ—ruice therein I humbly craue your Maiesties pardon and will rest euer Your Maiâ—sties faithfull and truely deuoted seruant B. Carier GEORGE HAKEVVIL IT is likewise knowen to all them that knew you that for these many yeres you haue beene more sicke in minde then in body which hath appeared not onely publikely in your Sermons and writings but priuately in your Conferences and Letters where of my selfe am in part a witnesse but they with whom you were longer and more familiarly conuersant can more fully testifie it and though you vsed many medicines yet one was wanting to wit a meeke and quiet spirit a thing before God much set by it being as Dauids musicke which stilled Sauls rage and this I am perswaded would haue done you more good aswell in regard of the diseases of your body as your minde then any of your other medicines or all of them put together among which your last was the Spaw waters which I graunt you might vse by aduice of Physitians but I haue withall reason to thinke the voyage out of his Maiesties dominions into those parts was by you intended rather for the fuller safer discouering of the sickenes of your mind then the recouering of that of your body which your selfe in this very Preface confesse vpon the matter in as much as being you say suspected condemned as a common enemy and hauing no way to auoid your griefe nor meanes to endure it you desired to withdraw your selfe from the sight and offence of those who hated Catholike Religion whereby I presume you meane such as opposed your turbulent courses labouring vnder pretence of Catholike Religion and olde English diuinitie to bring in and set vp the new Romish and considering you stood so affected it seemeth to me strange you should purpose a iourney to Heydelberge and the spending of a winter there being so profested an enemy to all Caluinists except you hoped to conuert Abraham Scultet Or Dauid Parrey My selfe passed one whole winter amongst them and vnlesse their opinions be since altered or you had altered yours before your comming thither or at least concealed them at your being there you would doubtlesse before the winter had passed growen more weary of them then of vs But being you say vpon the way at Colin you found your selfe worse and thereupon resolued it was high time to settle your thoughts vpon another world and being out of hope to enioy the health of your bodie at least to looke to the health of your soule So that by your owne confession you made a vertue of necessitie then resoluing to settle your selfe when you expected not long after the dissolution of your body then to fixe your thoughts vpon God when you perceiued you could not long remaine in the world which as it is lesse acceptable to God then for a man to consecrate the flowre and strength of his age to him so is it in the doctrine of the Church of Rome lesse meritorious in it selfe and in reason not so exemplar to draw others Had you determined to forsake a falshod and imbrace a trueth for the meere loue of truth without worldly respects men would rather haue inclined to thinke that true which you had imbraced had you hoped to rise higher and liue longer and yet not held your life or hope of honor deare in regard of that future life and glory which you hoped for by the change of your Religion you might sooner haue induced others to follow your steps but for a man so ambitious as your selfe by your owne acknowledgement who by striuing against the streame had put himselfe not onely out of hope of rising higher but almost out of breath to and all hope of liuing much longer to seeke that name and fame in dying abroad which he saw could not bee gotten by liuing at home it may perhaps worke somewhat with those
who iudge of matters onely by euents as Geometricians measure the height of towres by their shadowes and are ready to turne euery accident to an argument for their owne purposes but such as iudge of euents by looking into their causes which not many loue much to busie their braines about nor are indeed capable of and frame not arguments to their opinions but contrariwise submit their opinions to the soundnesse and force of argument such I â—ay I am sure it cannot much moue AN ANSWERE TO D. CARIERS LETTER TO THE Kings Maiestie CHAP. I. The meanes of my conuersion to Catholike Religion BENIAMIN CARIER 1. I Must confesse to Gods honour and my owne shame A that if it had bene in my power to choose I would neuer haue bene a Catholike I was borne and brought vp in schisme and was taught to B abhorre a Papist as much as any Puritane in England doth I had euer a great desire to iustifie the religion of the state and had great C hope to aduance my selfe thereby neither was my hope euer so great as by your Maiesties fauour it was D at the very instant of my resolution for Catholike Religion and the preferment I had together with the honour of your Maiesties seruice was greater by much then without your Maiesties fauour I looke for in this world But although I was aâ— ambitious of your Maiesties fauor and as desirous of the honours and pleasures of my Countrey as any man that is therein yet seeing that I was not like any long while to enioy them and if I should for my priuate commodity speake or write or doe any thing against the honour of Christ his Church and against the euidence of mine owne conscience I must shortly appeare before the presence of the same Christ in the presence of the same his Church to giue an account thereof Therefore I neither durst any further to pursue my owne desire of honour nor to hazard my soule any farther in the iustifications of that religion which I saw was E impossible to bee iustified by any such reason as at the day of iudgement would goe for payment and that it may appeare that I haue not respected any thing so much in this world as my duetie to your Maiesty and my loue to my friends Countrey I humbly beseech you giue me leaue as briefly as I can to recount vnto you the whole course of my studies and indeuors in this kind euen from the beginning of my life vntill this present GEORGE HAKEWIL 1. A In saying you would neuer haue bene a Catholike if it had bene in your power to choose you seeme to fall vpon that opinion which is wrongfully thrust vpon Caluin that wee are conuerted as it were by constraint whether we will or no and consequently you ouerthrow both the freedome of will and the merit of worke B It seemes then your father who brought you vp did much abhorre a Papist and yet you confesse in the next Section that he was a learned and deuout man and that he seasoned you with the principles of piety and deuotion C Your great hopes were indeed alwayes beyond your iust deâ—â—rts yet his Maiestie might be drawen to fauour you the raâ—her for that hypocriticall sermon which you made last before him in his â—happell at White-hall D So it seemes you resolued for the pretended Catholike religion before your parting from hence howbeit before you beare vs in hand that you got licence to trauell to the Spaw onely for your health and afterward you tell vs that you went hence hoping to finde some greater offence in the seruice of the Church of Rome then you had done in their bookes that so you might returne better contented to persecute and abhorre the Catholikes at your pleasure Thus for your aduantage you turne your tale as Mariners doe their sailes E No reason at the day of Iudgement in all likelâ—hood shall better goe for payment then that which the Iudge as a rule to be iudged by himselfe hath left vs and of which we may say if we be deceiued thou Peter thou Paul or thou Christ hast deceiued vs. But whether on the other side your humane inuentions or as the Apostle cals them voluntary religion and will-worship will then passe for currant pay a iuster doubt may be made of which hee might iustly say as he doth to his people by his Prophet Who hath required these things at your hands B. C. 2. I was borne in the yeere 1566. being the sonne of Anthonie Carier a learned and deuout man who although hee were a Protestant and a Preacher yet did so season me with the principles of pietie and deuotion as I could not choose but euer since bee verie F zealous in matters of religion Of him I learned that all G false religions in the world were but policies inuented for the temporall seruice of Princes and States and therefore that they were diuers and alwayes changeable according to the diuers reasons and occasions of State H But true Chrâ—â—â—ian Religion was a trueth reuealed of God for the eternall saluation of soules and therefore was like to God alwayes one and the same So that all Princes and States in the world neuer haue beene nor shall be able to ouerthrow that Religion This to me seemed an excellent ground for the finding out of that Religion wherein a man might find rest vnto his soule which cannot be satisfied with any thing but eternall trueth G. H. 2. F A zealous man indeed your selfe confessing in your Preface that you then began to looke to the health of your soule when you were out of hope to enioy the health of your bodie And in the very Section going before that you were as ambitious of his Maiesties fauour and as desirous of the honours and pleasures of your Countrey as any man that is therein But it seemes you dwelt by bad neighbours who are thus inforced to commend your owne Zeale or else they hold it of none other kind then that of which the Apostle speakes hauing strife for her companion and sedition for her daughter and if wee should graunt that you had Zeale though not according to knowledge I rest well assured that this Epistle in the iudgement of the wisest would not euince the contrary G Your father being as you say a Protestant and a Preacher in all likelyhood by False Religion vnderstood the Romish being indeede the deepest policie inuented by men for their own purposes that euer was in the world the children of darkenesse being in their generation wiser then the children of light and is in that regard rightly termed by Saint Paul the mysterie of iniquitie which began to worke in his dayes but since hath fullie weaued those threeds which were then begunne to be spunne the Cockatrice is now hatched which was then onely in the egge And surely I thinke not without great
vpon due search I found to be most true for I found the Common prayer booke and the Catechisme therin contained to hold no point of doctrine expresly contrary to Antiquitie but onely that it was very defectiue and contained not enough and for the doctrine of I Predestination Sacraments Grace Freewill Sinne the new Catechisme and Sermons of those Preachers did run wholly against the Common prayer booke and Catechisme therein and did make as little account of the doctrine established by law as they did of the discipline but in the one they found opposition by those that had priuate interest in the other they said what they list because no man thought himselfe K hurt G. H. 7 If our Common prayer Booke and Catechisme therin contained holde no point of Doctrine contrarie to Antiquitie as you affirme Surely the Church of Rome must needs be contrary to Antiquitie in as much as it holds diuers points contrarie to it If we should beginne with the Preface which is confirmed by equall authoritie of State as the bodie of the booke it tels vs in the verie entrance there was neuer any thing by the wit of man so well deuised or so sure established which in continuance of time hath not beene corrupted as among other things it may plainly appeare by the Common praiers in the Church commonly called Diuine Seruice the reason is added a little after in as much as the godly and decent orders of the Fathers were altered and neglected by planting in vncertaine Stories Legends Responds Verses vaine repetitions Commemorations Synodals that commonly when any Booke of the Bible was begunne before three or foure Chapters were read out all the rest were vnread Another reason is there annexed that whereas S. Paul would haue none other language spoken to the people in the Church then they vnderstand and haue profite by hearing of the same the Seruice in this Church of England these many yeeres hath beene read in Latine to the people which they vnderstand not so that they haue heard with their â—ares onely but their minde hath noâ— beene edified thereby Now for the bodie of the Common prayer Booke I will first beginne with the diuision of the Commandements The Church oâ— Rome ioyneth the two first in one the better thereby to cloke their Idolatrie in the worship of Images But the Common prayer Booke of the Church of England diuideth them into two therein following two of the Fathers at most excepted all Antiquitie The Church of Rome in the doctrine of the Sacrament of the Eucharist teacheth that we eate and drinke the Body and Blood of Christ carnally The Common prayer of the Church of England in the forme of administring that Sacrament that wee doe both Spiritually and by Faith feed on him in our hearts eating and drinking in remembrance that C H R I S T dyed and shed his Blood for vs. The Church of Rome holdeth that the Oblation of the Bodie of C H R I S T is to be iterated The Common prayer Booke of the Church of England that being by himselfe once offered hee is a full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice for the â—innes of the whole world which also meeteth with the Romish satisfaction for Veniall sinnes as they call them and temporall punishment dew to Mortall The Church of Rome teacheth that the outward Sacrament of Water sufficeth to saue Infants The Common prayer Booke of the Church of England in the administration of publike Baptisme that the working of the holy Ghost is to be ioyned thereunto The Church of Rome teacheth that Laijks and Women may in some cases lawfully Baptise The Common prayer Booke of the Church of England in the administration of priuate Baptisme that none may doe it lawfully but the lawfull Minister The Church of Rome teacheth that children may bee confirmed before they come to yeres of discretion and are able to yeeld an account of their Faith The Common prayer Booke of the Church of England in the order set downe for Confirmation teacheth and commandeth the contrarie More might bee sayed to this point but this shall suffice to shew that if the Common prayer Booke of the Church of England be in no point of doctrine contrarie to Antiquitie as M â— Doctor affirmeth then must Antiquitie needs bee contrarie to the doctrine of the Church of Rome in as much as the doctrine thereof and our Common prayer Booke are contrarie each to other But you further adde that though it containe no point contrarie to Antiquitie yet is it verie defectiue and containeth not enough Indeed we confesse yâ— we goe not so far as the Church of Rome but so far as we haue warrant We pray to God in the Name of CHRIST they to God to Saints We pray for the liuing they for the liuing and the dead We acknowledge 2. Sacraments they to those two adde fiue more We make the Communion of the Eucharist properly a Sacrament they a Sacrament and a sacrifice and that propitiatorie We hope to be saued by the merits of Christ they by his merits and their owne the principall ground of all these additions is that we make Scripture the onely rule of faith they both Scripture and traditions and by mingling the water of their owne inuentions with the wine of the Gospel they haue made the Law of Christ of none effect And surely if defect may iustly bee imputed to vs excesse may much rather to them who in their Pontificall spend seuen leaues in the largest fol. onely about the benediction of bels which is indeed little different from Baptisme and many hundreds about such â—opperies and trifles as wise men among themselues cannot but laugh at and yet dare not speake against and good men pitie though they cannot remedy I I marueile what doctrine of predestination grace free-will or sinne you finde in the Common Prayer booke or Catechisme therein the end of the one being not to set downe doctrinall positions but the exercise of religious actes and of the other as briefly as may bee to instruct children in the principles of Christian religion not men of riper age in the controuersies K It is to me strange that you dare write thus to his Maiestie who made it knowen to the world by his pen when other Christian Princes and Churches were silent that hee thought himselfe hurt by the pestilent subtilties of Vorstius howbeit he were not vnder his dominions by Legate his own subiect who was burnt at London for Arianisme some few yeeres since But surely I am clearely of opinion that his Holinesse would take it much more to heart and thinke himselfe more hurt if a Frier should preach against his power in deposing Kings and disposing of kingdomes then if he denied the eternall generation of the second person in Trinitie from the first or the procession of the third from the other two B. C. 8. This truely was an increase of my griefe for knowing diuerse of those Preachers to be
very honest men and such as I did loue with all my heart I was very loth to dissent from them in priuate much more loth to oppose them in publike and yet seeing I must needes preach I was lothest of all to oppugne mine owne conscience together with the faith wherein I was baptized and the soules of those to whome I preached neuerthelesse hauing gotten this ground to worke vpon I began to comfort my selfe with hope to proue that the religion established in England was the same at the least in part L which now was and euer had beene held in the Catholique Church the defects whereof might be supplied whensoeuer it should please God to moue your Maiestie thereunto without abrogating that which was alrâ—ady by Law established which I still pray for and am not altogether out of M hope to see and therfore I thought it my duety as farre as I durst rather by N charitable constructions to reconcile things that seemed different that so our soules might bee for euer saâ—ed in vnity then by malitious calumniations to maintaine quarrels that so mens turnes might for a time bee serued in dissention G. H. 8. L How then can we bee esteemed heretiques who broach their owne fantasies since holding as the Church of England doth we hold the same that the Catholike Church hath euer held M Truely you had little reason to hope to liue to see thosâ— vnwarrantable Supplies you speake of by his Maiesties command aswell in regard of your owne infirmities of body as his MAIESTIES strong resolution of minde to the contrarie but it may bee your intelligence deceiued you sure wee are your hope failed you N Touching your opinion of Reconciliation whether it may be thought to proceede of charitie or arrogancie as also whether it be probable or in a maner possible as the case now stands I shall haue fitter opportunitie to discusse hereafter then in this place Yet giue mee leaue by the way to tell you that in my iudgement you call that Vnitie which is indeed distraction it tending to nothing els but a rent and a drawing of vs further from other reformed Churches and neâ—rer to the Church of Rome for if this were not your meaning the same charitable constructions would haue serued to recoÌ„cile things that to you looking through the false spectacles of preiudice passion seemed verie different betwixt vs other reformed Churches abroad much better easier then for the reconciling of those maine broad differences which are indeed betwixt vs and the Church of Rome Of which I feare I may too truly say as Abraham doth to the rich glutton in hel between you and vs there is a great gulfe set so that they which would goe from hence to you can not neither can they come from thence to vs. I speake in regard of Reconciliation in differences of Religion for otherwise but too manie are suffered to goe from hence thither and hauing sucked their poison to returne againe at their pleasures for the vomitting of it out amongst vs notwithstanding the sharpe penalties and great gulfe set betweene vs. B. C. 9. In this course although I did neuer proceed any farther then law would giue me leaue yet I found the Puritans and Caluinists and all the creatures of Schisme to be my vtter enemies who were also like the sonnes of Zeruiah too strong for Dauiâ— himselfe 2. Sam 3. 39. but I well perceiued that all temperate and vnderstanding men who had no interest in the Schisme were glad to heare the trueth honestly and plainely preached vnto them and my hope was by patience and continuance I should in the ende vnmaske hypocrisie and gaine credite to the comfortable doctrine of Antiquitie euen amongst those also who out of misinformation and preiudice did as yet most mislike it And considering with my selfe that your right to the Crowne came onely by O Catholikes and was ancienter then the Schisme which would very faine haue vtterly extinguished it and that both your P disposition by nature your amitie with Catholike Princes your speeches and your proclamations did at the beginning all tend to peace and vnitie I hoped that this endeuour of mine to enforce Catholike Religion at the least as farre as the Common prayer Booke and Catechisme would giue leaue should be well accepted of your MAIESTIE and bee as an introduction vnto farther peace and vnitie with the Church of Rome G. H. 9. O His MAIESTIES right to the Crowne is double the one from his mother lineally descending of the first match of the Ladie Margaret daughter to Henrie the VII and sister to Henrie the VIII Kings of England with Iames the fourth King of Scotland his MAIESTIES great Grandfather who though she imbraced that Religion in which shee was brought vp being neuer acquainted with any other yet as his Maiesty obserueth in his Monitorie Preface to the Christian Princes shee disliked some of the superstious Ceremonies and abhorred those new opinions which the Iesuits call Catholike His second right aboue any other preâ—endor was from his father descended of the second match of the sayd Ladie Margaret with Archibald Douglas Earle of Angush being brought vp in Q. Elizabeths Court whose father the Duke of Lenox professing the reformed religion as well appeared by his practise in his life in receiuing the Sacrament after the manner of the reformed Churches and by the confession of his faith in the hearing of many ministers at his death in all likelihood his Maiesties father himselfe should be that way affected though Cardinall Bellarmine vpon the relation of I know not whom would faine haue it otherwise And whereas you say that schisme would faine haue extinguished his Maiesties right it is well knowen that those whom you call schismatikes were the chiefe instruments vnder God to preserue his Maiesties not onely right but life against the fury of some whom you call Catholikes both before his mothers death and since P From his Maiesties progenitors you come to his owne disposition by nature his amity with Catholike Princes his speaches his Proclamations which all tended at the beginning you say to peace and vnitie True indeed it is that his Maiestie by nature is disposed to mercy his amitie with Christian Princes argues his charitie and heroical ingenuitie voide of ielousie suspition euen where occasioÌ„ may seem to be giuen his speaches and Proclamations were not bloody yet all this could not serue your turne as a sufficieÌ„t warrant to endeauor a peace with the Church of Rome in matters of religion no more then a league with the great Turke for traffike should giue occasion of ioyning with him in Mahometisme but had you withall with the other eye reflected a little backe vpon his Maiesties education from his very Cradle the choice of his aliance in mariage his counsel to his sonne touching the matter of religion in the first booke of his Basilicon Doron his
minde and either vtterly damne mine owne soule and greatly indanger not onely my liuing and credit but my life it selfe also by reason of your Maiesties displeasure and the seueritie of the Statutes made and in force against Catholikes and Catholike Religion G. H. 16. The better counsell which you expected and held you in suspense was in all likelihood soâ—â—â—â—ewes of a Bishopricke or a Deanry for the quieting of your perplexed thoughts and therefore it may be thought you resolued to goe to Heidelberge to doe your duetie there that so you might procure letters of recommendation for otherwise I cannot imagine what errand you should haue thither being scarcely knowen for any thing I can learne to the Prince Palatine or the Princesse except it were out of the like gadding humor as you had of going into Scotland as being publikely imployed though it had been vpon your owne priuate charge What his Maiesties disposition in the affaires of religion might well bee presumed to bee at his first entrance if we should iudge by reason not by affection I haue already touched in the 9. Section of this chapter so far as I presumed it might suffice to content any reasonable man yet for further satisfaction because you harpe still vpoÌ„ the same string and presse the same point afresh I will relate his Maiesties own words touching that businesse as hee vttered them in Parliament the first day of the first ParliameÌ„t of his Maiesties reigne â—As for mine owne profession saith he you haue me your head now amongst you of the same Religion that the bodie is of as I am no stranger to you in Blood no more am I a stranger to you in Faith or in the matters concerning the house of God and although this my profession bee according to my education wherein I thanke God I sucked the milke of Gods trueth with the milke of my nurse yet doe I here protest vnto you that I would neuer for such a conceite of constancie or other preiudicate opinion haue so firmely kept my first profession if I had not found it agreeable to all reason and to the rule of my conscience and againe in the next leafe for the part of the Clerickes I must directly say and affirme that as long as they maintaine one speciall point of their doctrine and another point of their practise they are no way sufferable to remaine in this Kingdome Their point of Doctrine is that arrogant and ambitious Supremacie of their heâ—â— the Pope wherby he not only claimes to be spirituall head of all Christians but also to haue an Imperiall ciuill power ouer all Kings and Emperours dethroning and decrowning Princes with his foot as pleaseth him and dispensing and disposing of all Kingdomes and Empires at his appetite The other point which they obserue in continuall practise is the Assassinates and Murders of Kings thinking it no sinne but rather a matter of saluation to doe all actions of rebellion and hostilitie against their Soueraigne Lord if he be once our sed his Subiects discharged of their fidelitie and his Kingdome giuen a prey by that three Crowned Monarch or rather Monster their head and a litle after hauing wished it would please God to make him one of the instruments for effecting a generall Christian Vnion in Religion if they would leaue and be ashamed of such new and grosse corruptions of theirs as themselues cannot maintaine nor denie to be worthy of reformation he turneth his speach againe to the Papists vnder his dominions willing them to bee admonished that they presume not too farre vpon his lenitie because saith hee I would be lothe to bee thought a Persecutor as thereupon to thinke it lawfull for them daily to increase their number and strength in this Kingdome whereby if not in my time at least in time of my posteritie they might bee in hope to erect their Religion againe No let them assure themselues that as I am a friend to their persons if they bee good Subiects so am I a vowed enemie and doe denounce moâ—tall warres to their errours and that as I would bee sorie to bee driuen by their ill behauiour from the protection and conseruation of their bodies and liues so I will neuer cease as farre as I can to tread downe their errours and wrong opinions for I could not permit the increase and growing of their Religion without first betraying of my selfe and mine owne Conscience secondly this whole Isle aswell the part I am come from as the part I remaine in in betraying their liberties and reducing them to the former slauish yoke which both had casten off before I came amongst them and thirdly the libertie of the Crowne in my posteritie which I should leaue againe vnder a new slauerie hauing found it left free to mee by my Predecessours and therefore would I wish all good Subiects that are deceiued with that corruption First if they find any beginning of instinction in themselues of knowledge and loue to the Trueth to foster the same by all lawfull meanes and to beware of quenching the spirit that worketh within them and if they can find as yet no motion tending that way to bee studious to reade and conferre with learned men and to vse al such meanes as may further their resolution assuring themselues which by the way is worth our obseruation that as long as they are disconformable in Religion from vs they cannot be but halfe my Subiects nor be able to do but halfe seruice and I to want the best halfe of them which is their soules And here I haue occasion to speake to you my Lords the Bishops for as you my Lord of Durham said very learnedly to day in your Sermon Correction without instruction is but a tyrannie so ought you and all the Clergie vnder you to be more carefull vigilant and diligent then you haue beene to winne soules to God aswell by your exemplarie life as doctrine And since you see how carefull they are sparing neither labour paines nor extreme perill of their persons to diuert the deuill is so busie a Bishop you should be the more carefull and wakefull in your charges Follow the rule prescribed by Saint Paul Bee carefull to instruct and to exhort in season and out of season and where you haue beene any way sluggish before now waken your selues vp with a new diligence in this point remitting the successe to God who calling them at the second third tenth or twelfth houre as they are alike welcome to him so shall they be to me his lieutenant here â— Hitherto his Maiestie Now would any man of common vnderstanding Mr. Dr. excepted from hence gather or thinke it gatherable that his Maiestie had a disposition at his entrance to become a Papist or to tolerate the exercise of Poperie or to be reconciled to Rome or to submit himselfe and his Realmes to the yoke of the Bishop thereof if these or the like inferences may from so many and plaine
words so many and forcible arguments to the contrarie be deduced I must confesse I know not what belongs to Logike and for other passages in the same speech which seeme to fauour your cause you must either iniuriously wrest them from the authors meaning or make them by reasonable construction sutable to these Howsoeuer your selfe being a Churchman and one of those whom he sharpely taxeth for changing their coats through curiositie affectation of noueltie or discontentment in their priuate humours cannot possibly be ranked amongst them to whom as to minds only retaining the liquor they first dranke in out of his speciall clemencie he proposeth more fauourable conditions and yet among these too he hath since discouered an vnnaturall disposition whom he hoped to find by moderate gentle vsage in the matter of naturall subiection quiet and well minded men and therefore no marueile if his Maiestie be since more exasperated and farther off from any reconciliation with that Religion then before But Mr. Casaubon you say tolde you that his errand hither was nothing else but to mediate peace betweene the Church of Rome and the Church of England It is certainely false that Mr. Casaubons errand was by his Maiestie intended to bâ— such and most vnlikely to be true that it was by Mr Casaubon so reported to you considering his direct and expresse writings both before his comming ouer and since against the chiefe Patrons and controuersed points of the Church of Rome and among the rest in the conclusion of his Epistle to Cardinall Perron where hee assures him from his Maiesties mouth and in his name that his constant purpose and full resolution was as long as the Church of Rome yeelded not to antiquity and trueth to entertaine no society with her at all which you might haue read before your departure and spared the paines of writing to M. Casaubon whome that I may yet more fully cleare from this imputation being not able now to speake for himselfe I will here set downe his Letter written with his owne hand to my Lords Grace of Canterbury vpon this very occasion in which hee termes the report no better then the slander of a wicked Apostate Illustrissimo Reuerendissimo Praesuli Domino Cantuariensi totius Angliae Primati Domino meo summa obseruantia colendo Illustrissime Reuerendissime Domine HEri quum essem in Aula ostendit mibi Regia Maiestas librum à Carerio sibi missum in quo mira quaedam de me narrantur puto Serenissimum Regem tuae Reuerentiae illa ostendisse Ego Dei gratia puto me sic vixisse priusquam in hoc regnum venirem postquaÌ„ veni in Angliam vt curare non debeam quid perditus apostata deâ—me garriat aut scribat apparet ipsum grauissimâ— iratum esse mihi propter Epistolam quam illi scripsi vt ab hoc insano consilio eum reuocarem propterea id agit vt meum nomen apud Regiam Maiestatem tuam Reuerentiam infamet Sedspero meliora de Regesapientissimo de te Illustrissime Presul apud quem si mihi opus esse apologia crederem omnia omisissem vt tuae Reuerentiae praesens me purgarem Sed non puto adeo infoeliciter mecum agi vt inâ—andi apostatae calumniae aliquid apud te contra existimationem meam valeant Si iusseris statim adero et ad omnia tuae Reuerentiae satisfaciam Interim quam sim occupatus in colophone imponendo operimeo narrabit tuae Reuerentiae Vederburnus noster verè pius iuuenis tua beneuolentia Presul Illustriss non indignus Deus immortalis te seruet Ecclesiae suae In Musaeo XIV Kal. Ian. MDCXIII Tuae Illustriss Reuerentiae obseruantissimus cultor ISA. CASAVBONVS Right Reuerend my Gracious Lord YEsterday being at Court the KINGS MAIESTIE shewed mee a booke sent him from Carier wherein certaine strange things are reported of me I thinke his MAIESTIE hath shewed them vnto your Grace I hope I haue by the grace of GOD so liued both before I came into this Kingdome and since I came into England that I ought not to care what a forlorne Apostate pratleth or writeth of me It appeares he is very angry with me for a letter I wrote him to reclaime him from that mad course thereupon he goes about to traduce me to the KINGS MAIESTY and your Grace But I hope better both of that most wise KING and of you most renowned Prelate Vnto whom if I thought there were need of Apologie I would laying all other things aside in person purge my selfe vnto your Grace But my case I trust is not so vnhappy that the slanders of a lewd Apostate should be of any force with you against my reputation If you command I will forthwith repaire vnto you and satisfie your Grace vnto the full In the meane time how busily I am occupied about the conclusion of my worke my friend Vederburne a very religious yong man and not vnworthy of your Graces fauor can shew your Grace God Immortall preserue you vnto his Church From my study Decemb. 19. 1613. Your Graces most respectiue Obseruer ISA. CASAVBON And that it may appeare how auerse hee was from vnion with that Church I will hereunto adde a former Letter written likewise to my L. Grace of Canterbury touching the same businesse before he was thus prouoked by D. Carier vpon occasion of a Letter written to the same effect from the Doctor to him Illustrissime Reuerendissime Domine MItto Reuerentiae Epistolam de quâ inaudiuisti Ego acceptam Epistolam vt Regi communicaretur putaui premendam neque ostendendam cuiquam mortalium Non enim possum probare consilium viri illius eruditi qui epistolam scripsit Quare respondi illi statim multis cum illo egi vt ab eo proposito desisteret Multas rationes ei attuli cur certò crederem amentiam esse aut potiâ—s furorem boni aliquid sperare à Romano Phalari nam hoc verbo vsus sum qui nostra mala si quae sunt inter nos ridet Proposui ei ob oculos quà m essent alieni proceres Romanae Ecclesiae ab omni aequitate imprimis Bellarminus de cuius impietate plura ad eum scripsi Posui illi ante oculos quanto cum suo periculo patronum Papae videretur agere Attuli testimonia Matthaei Paris de summâ Angliae infoelicitate quando Papae Ro. paruit Addidi exemplum illius Narbonensis qui nuper ad Ser. Regem similis argumenti librum miserat me iussum à Rege loqui eum librum detestatum esse D. Regem voluisse in latere libri animaduertere Posthaec quid factum sit Carerio nescio Hoc ego volui Reuerentiae tuae significatum Sed expectabam donec ad vrbem redijsses nam me libri mei editio domi tenet Sunt alia quaedam grauia de quibus acturus sum cum tuâ Reuerentiâ post vnum aut
his Angels charge ouer thee but suppressed that which made against him to keepe thee in all thy wayes now if any man farther desire his Maiesties meaning in calling Rome the Mother Church hee hath fully expressed himselfe in his Premonition Patriarchs saith he I know were in the time of the Primitiue Church and I likewise reuerence that institution for orders sake and amongst them was a contention for the first place And for my selfe if that were yet the question I would with all mine heart giue my consent that the Bishop of Rome should haue the first seat I being a Westerne King would goe with the Patriarch of the West whereby it is cleare that his Maiesties meaning was and is to yeeld the Bishop of Rome ouer other Westerne Bishops in case they should meet iâ— Councell a prioritie in sitting not a superiority in commanding a primacy or precedency in order not a supremacie in power and iurisdiction it beeing the marke which Mr. Doctour driues at and from thence labours cunningly but malitiously to inferre contrary to his Maiesties both minde and words I conclude this point with a Reuerend Prelate His Vicarship to Christ must be proued by stronger and plainer euidence then you haue yet shewed before wee may grant it and for his Patriarkeship saith he which you now take hold of by Gods law he hath nne in this Realme for â—ixe hundred yeeres after Christ he had none for the last sixe hundred as looking to greater matters hee would haue none aboue and against the swâ—rd which God hath ordained he can haue none to the subuersion of the faith and oppression of his brethren in right reason and equity he should haue none you must seeke farther for subiection to his tribunall this land oweth him none B. C. 18. There is another statute in England made by Queene Elizabeth and confirmed by your Maiesty that it is death for any English man to bee in England being made a Priest by authority deriued or pretended to bee deriued from the Bishop of Rome I cannot beleeue that I am a Priest at all vnlesse I be deriued by authority from Gregory the great from whence all the Bishops in England haue their being if they haue any being at all G. H. 18. The Statute intended is the 27. of Eliz. Cap. 2. which indeed in the body thereof hath words sounding to that purpose but the sense is malitiously peruerted and the inference thereupon for he that shall reade through that Statute and consider all the parts shall clearely perceiue that therby none other Priests are intended then Popish Priests made and ordeined by Popish Bishops and not such as Mr. Doctour was made in England by any of our Bishops here Though perhaps it were true that our Bishops did deriue their first authority from Gregory which we do not yeeld vnto considering that Augustine from whom they are pretended to deriue it was not consecrated by him but by Aetherius Archbishop of Arles if wee may beleeue our own Venerable Bede for the title of the Statute is An Acte against Iesuites Seminary Priests and such other like disobedient persons and the preamble of the acte hath these words Whereas diuers persons called or professed Iesuites Seminary Priests and other Priests which haue beene and froâ— time to time are made in the parts beyond the Seas by or according to the order and rites of the Romish Church haue of late yeeres commen and bene sent into England c. So that if according to the rule Praefatio est clauis Statuti we shall interprete the body by the title or preamble howsoeuer the wordes in the body of the acte bee somewhat generall yet what Priests are intended by the Law-makers is euident enough and except M. Doctour were a Priest according to the Order and Rites of the Romish Church by shauing anoynting and imposition of hands by a Popish Bishop and that since the first yeere of Queene Elizabeth he needed not to haue feared the danger of the Law B. C. 19. There is another Statute in like maner made and confirmed that it is death to bee reconciled by a Catholike Priest to the Church of Rome I am perswaded that the Church of Rome is our mother Church and that no man in England can be saued that continues wilfully out of the visible vnitie of that Church and therefore I can not chuse but perswade the people to be reconciled thereunto if possibly they may G. H. 19. This Statute also is either purposely or ignorantly mistaken and is not distinct from that following but are both one namely 23. Eliz. cap. 1. The title of it is An Acte to retaine the Queenes Maiesties Subiects in due obedience and the preamble recites that whereas diuers ill affected persons haue practised to withdraw the Queenes Subiects from their naturall allegeance the purueiw of the Acte followeth that all persons which shall put in practise to â—bsolue perswade or withdrawe any of the Queenes subiects from their naturall obedience to her Maiestie or to withdraw them for that intent from the religion established and so foorth shall be traitours and the person willingly absolued or withdrawen as aforesayd to be likewise a traitour so that the withdrawing of the Subiect from their naturall obedience or for that intent from the religion established is the offence made treason and not simple exhorting to the Romish religion as is alleadged And yet to speake a trueth I see not how any exhortation to an absolute submission of the vnderstanding and the will to the Bishop of Romes Iurisdiction which now is made the onely essentiall forme of that religion can well be seuered from such an intent But Rome you say is the mother Church and no man in England can bee saued that continues wilfully out of the visible vnitie of that Church Where if you terme it the mother Church in that sense that his MAIESTIE doeth wee imbrace it but if your meaning bee that shee is our mother either in regard that wee receiued the first life or still should receiue the nourishment of religion from her wee denie it our nation being first conuerted to the Christian faith by Ioseph of Arimathea who intombed the Corps of our Sauiour and lieth himselfe interred at Glastenbury together with twelue disciples his assistants where they first preached the Gospel as Gildas affirmeth in the life of Aurelius Ambrosius and Malmesbury in the Booke intituled The Antiquitie of Glastenbury written to Henry of Bloys brother to King Steuen and Abbot of the same place and it is consented vnto by the learned Antiquaries of later times as namely Mr. Cambden Iohn Bale Matthew Parker Polydore Virgil and others grounding themselues vpon the authoritie of the best approued and most ancient writers and withall considering our keeping of Easter and other Ceremonies were after the fashion of the Easterne Church and not of the Westerne at the comming of Austin I may very well coniecture that our
first conuersion to Christian religion was from the Iewes or Grecians and not from the Romanes so that if Rome bee rightly â—ermed oâ—r mother Church it must be in regard of later supplies from Eleutherius and Gregory not of our first Conuersion howsoeuer the holy Citie being now become an harlot wee haue no more reason to reuerence her as a mother but as a strumpet till she repent and amend to shunâ—e all vnion with her S. Paul writing to the whole Church of Rome and giuing them their due praise for their deuotion and zeale and entring at last into the reiectioÌ„ of the Iewes for their vnbeliefe he warneth expresly the Romans in these words Boast not thy selfe against the branches and if thou boast thy selfe thou bearest not the roote but the roote thee Thou wilt say the branches were broken off that I might be graft in well through infidelity they are broken off and thou standest by faith be not high minded but feare For if God spared not the naturall branches take heed lest he spare not thee Behold therefore the goodnesse and seuerity of God toward them which haue fallen seueritie but towards thee goodnesse if thou continue in his goodnesse otherwise thou also shalt bee cut off Now whether the Apostle spake generally to the Gentiles and inclusiuely to the Romanes or namely to the Romanes and proportionably to the rest it is all one to vs one of the twaine he must needs Origen saith vpon these words of Paul I say to you Gentiles Now hee plainely turneth his speach to the Gentiles but chiefly to those of the citie of Rome that beleeued S. Paul speaking then to the Romanes no man may except the Romans and they being included his admonition to them if there could bee no danger in them of swaruing from the faith was vtterly superfluous and the condition implied ridicâ—lous and the commination odious and the reason friuolous Now that which S. Paul there threatned we find come to passe so that we cannot we dare not ioyne hands with her nay wee are so farre from beleeuing that none can bee saued that continues out of the visible vnitie of that Church that on the other side we coÌ„stantly beleeue that the means to be saued is to separate our selues from the vnity of that Church till she separate her selfe from her errors specially since in your vnderstanding the continuing in the visible vnity of that Church is in a manner nothing else but the acknowledging of the Bishop of Rome to bee the visible head of it and if none can bee saued without that what shall become of your honest brethren of the English Clergie whom you professe you are so farre from condemning as you doe account your selfe one of them what of so many millions of soules in the Easterne and Westerne Christian Churches more in number by many degrees then those that yet continue in that visible vnitie and better both in life and beliefe then those who acknowledge it or the visible head himselfe of it B. C. 20. There is another Statute in like manner made and confirmed that it is death to exhort the people of England to Catholike religion I am perswaded that the religion prescribed and practised by the Church of Rome is the true Catholike religion which I will particularly iustifie from point to point if God giue time and opportunitie and therefore I can not choose but perswade the people thereunto G. H. 20. For the Statute here pretended I haue already answered that it is none other then a branch of the former And for your promise of iustifying from point to point the religion prescribed and practised by the Church of Rome if it be performed when wee shall see it published I doubt not but a Confutation will be found as particular and plaine and more true then your Iustification but in the meane time I cannot but wonder what you can say more herein then hath often been sayd by as earnest and more learned Proctors of that Church then your selfe Besides how comes it to passe you should be suddenly expert and so peremptorily confident in all the controuersed points except you were resolued in most of them before your parting hence I remember Duke Humfrey discouered a notable piece of knauery in a beggar who pretending blindnesse from his birth vndertooke to iudge of colours instantly vpon the recouery of his sight this your vaine offer to iustifie all points in controuersie presently vpon your breathing of outlandish ayre cannot but giue vs iust occasioÌ„ to suspect the like hyopocrisie Lastly if the religion prescribed and practised by the Church of Rome be in all points the only true religion why would his holinesse permit the exercise of ours with little or no alteration as afterward you beare vs in hand vpon conditions his MAIESTIE on the other side would admit of his supremacie and the Masse B. C. 21. It may bee these are not all seuerall Statutes some of them may bee members of the same for I haue not my bookes about mee to search but I am sure all of them doe make such felonies and treasons as were the greatest vertues in the Primitiue Church and such as I must confesse my selfe I cannot choose if I liue in England but endeuour to bee guilty of and then it were easie to finde Puritanes enough to make a iury against me and there would not want a Iustice of peace to giue sentence and when they had done that which is worse then the persecution it selfe they would all sweare solemnly that D. Carier was not put to death for Catholike Religion but for felony and treason I haue no hope of protection against the cruelty of those lawes if your Maiesty be resolued vpon no conditions whatsoeuer to haue society at all nor no Communion at all with the Church of Rome and therefore while the case so stands I dare not returne home againe But I cannot be altogether out of hope of better newes before I die as long as I doe beleeue that the Saints in heauen doe reioyce at the conuersion of a sinner to Christ and doe know that your Maiesty by youâ— birth hath so great an interest in the Saints in heauen as you shall neuer cease to haue vntill you cease to be the sonne of such a mother as would reioyce more then all the rest for your conuersion and therefore I assure my selfe that shee with all the rest doe pray that your Maiesty before you die may bee militant in the Communion of that Church wherein they are triumphant And in this hope I am gone before to ioyne my prayers with theirs in the vnity of the Catholike Church and doe humbly pray your Maiesty to pardon me for doing that which was not in my power to auoide and to giue me leaue to liue where I hope shortly to die vnlesse I may hope to do your Maiestie seruice and without the
preiudice of any honest man in England to see some vnity betwixt the Church of England and her mother the Church of Rome And now hauing declared the meanes of my couersion to Catholike religion I will briefly also shew vnto you the hopes I haue to doe your Maiesty no ill seruice therein G. H. 21. It is true indeed that those Statutes which you alledge are not seuerall in themselues but members of the same And it appeares well though you had not professed it that at the writing hereof you had not your bookes about you you affirme things vncertaine so confidently and things certaine so falsly But you are sure you say they make such fellonies and treasons as were the greatest vertues of the Primitiue Church whereas wee are more sure that the greatest vertues and fattest sacrifices and shortest cut to heauen as they are now esteemed in the Church of Rome were in the Primitiâ—e Church held none other but murders and parricides and felonies and treasons Thou doest promise saith Augustine to Patilian that thou wilt reckon many of the Emperours and iudges which by persecuting you perished and concealing the Emperours thou mâ—anest two iudges or deputies why didst thou not name the Emperors of thy Communion wert thou afraid to bee accused as guilâ—y of treason where is your courage which feare not to kill your selues To say the Emperours perished for persecuting was treason in his time in our age you thinke it much that reproching of Princes as tyrants and heretiques and aiding the Pope with your perswasions absolutions and rebellions to take their Crownes from them should be punished or adiudged treason how beit a certaine trueth it is that there is no conspiracie so pernitious and dangerous to the state as that which is whispered into mens eares and conueyed into their hearts vpon a sense of deuotion and outwardly couered with a shew of religion notwithstanding as true it is that in England none are put to death for Caâ—holâ—ke religion no nor for the Romish which you call Catholike as hath beene at large iustified in a booke written by a Peere of the Realme intiâ—uled the defence of the iustice of England and is verified by his Maiesty in his Apologie for the Oath of Allegiance in the very entrance of his answere to the Popes first Breue where he not onely cleareth himselfe at large from this imputation but the late Queene that blessed defunct Lady as he there calleth her in whose proceedings saith he who list to compare with an indifferent eye the manifold intended iâ—uasions against her whole kingdome the forreine practises the internall publike rebellions the priuate plots and machinations poysonings murthers and all sorts of deuises dayly set abroach and all these wares continually fostered and fomented from Rome together with the continuall corrupting of her Subiects aswell by temporall bribes as by faire and spaciâ—us promises of eternall felicitie and nothing but booke vpon booke publikely set foorth by her fugitiues for approbation of so holy dâ—signes who list I say with an indifferent eye to looke on the one part vpon these infinite and intollerable temptations and on the other part vpon the iust yet moderate punishmeÌ„t of a part of these hainous offenders shal easily see that that blessed defunct Lady was as free from persecution as thâ—y shall free these hellish instruments from the honour of Martyrdome And againâ— his Maiestie maintaineth the same in his Premonition to Christian Princes not farre from the conclusion As for the cause of their punishment sayth he speaking of Romish Catholikes I doe constantly maintaine that which I haue sayd in my Apologie that no man either in my time or the late Queenes euer dyed here for his Conscience for let him be neuer so deuout a Papist nay though he professe the same neuer so constantly his life is in no danger by the Law if he breake not out into some outward act expressely against the words of the Law or plot some vnlawfull or dangerous practise or attempt Priests and Popish Churchmen onely excepted that receiue orders beyond the Seas who for the manifold treasonable practises that they haue kindled and plotted in this countrey are discharged to come home againe vnder paine of Treason after their receauing of the sayd orders abroad and yet without some other guilt in them then their bare home comming haue none of them beene euer put to death Hitherto his Maiestie Whereas on the otherside wee iustly complaine that they execute our professours though strangers for Religion and only for Religion and in that most bloodie and barbarous manner specially where the Inquisition is in force that whore of Babylon being drunke and yet not filled with the blood of the Saints And whereas you impute crâ—elty to our Lawes what tragicall cruelties were exercisâ—d in Queene Maries dayes euen vpon women and children nay which is most odious and vnnaturall vpon women great with childe I pray God as well forget as some yet aliue well remember Now as you holde and handle our Martyrs worse then Traytors So your most notorious Traâ—tors must stand registred in the Calender of Martyrs Not many dayes before Garnet suffered there came to visite him at his lodging in the Tower certaine choise Diuines amongst whome the chiefe were My Lordes the Bishops of Bath and Wells of Lincolne and Leichfield as now they are among other questions one of them proposed this Whether if the Church of Rome afâ—er his execution should declare him a Martyr hee did approoue thereof hee deepely sighing and shrinking vp his shoulders made this answere Me a Martyr O what a Martyr but the Church will nâ—uer doe it and I pray God it be neuer so much as thought vpon Indeed if I had dyed for the Catholike Religion and vnhappie man had beene acquainted with nothing else but that which was reuealed mee in Confession I might perhaps seeme not vnworthy the honor of Martyrdome and merite the iudgement of the Church but now as the case stands I must acknowledge my fault and confesse the sentence of death pronounced against me most iust Then againe doubling and trebling his sighes and shewing tokens of vnfained sorrow I would to God sayeth he what is done might be vndone I could wish that any other chance had befallen me rather then my name should thus be stained with the blot of Treason which offence though most grieuous yet I distrust not but it may be washed away with the teares of repentance and that Christ will haue mercie on me Sure I am that if I had all the world in my power to bestow I would willingly giue all that I might be freed from the guilt and imputation of treason which lies heauie vpon my conscience shall stand recorded in the sentence of my condemnation Notwithstanding all this is hee recorded a Martyr apologized by Eudemon and by Delrio paralelled with Denis the Areopagite What would Mr. Doctour say to this now had wee
if you pretend both and in the end performe neither it is the worst piece of seruice you can doe B I suppose there is no gouernour in the world who deserues that name but that a chiefe part of his care is to make his subiects at leastwise morally good that so he may find them the more obedient and some of those very heathen kingdoms which S. Augustine describes in his bookes of the city of God specially that of the Romanes yeelded more rare examples of morall goodnesse namely of iustice and temperance then it doth at this day though it professe Christ. And for the seruing of the times and turnes of those that beare the sway I doubt not but as many may be found in those kingdomes which you call Catholike who are as able and willing to doe it for their owne aduantage as amongst the heathen themselues C It is true that the happinesse of the whole State extends to euery particular member of the same in as much as they all belong to the same body but that the happinesse of euery particular member should reach to the whole body of the State is not alike certaine But to grant both I must confesse my dulnesse I conceiue not how from thence it followes that the vertue of a good man and a good citizen is alwayes and necessarily the same Once I am sure that Aristotle who defends the one denies the other Bodin both a Christian a Catholike of your owne in my iudgement truely obserues that the best men for the most part are the worst Statesmen in as much as being caried vp to heauen by contemplation they shunne societie and seeke out deserts and solitary places for their abode And I would faine know of your Monkes and Friers and Hermites and Anchorites who presume by their vertue and goodnesse not onely to merite for themselues but to supererogate for others what good they doe as members for the Common wealth but onely by meanes of that imaginary Supererogation which is no lesse hard for a wise man to beleeue then for a good to performe But to let passe the examination of the trueth of both those positions and the dependance of the later vpon the former your inference therupon to iustifie your selfe and your owne proceedings is both in it selfe more vntrue and in regard of the premises more loose and inconsequent in as much as by leauing your station and betaking your selfe vnto and consulting with the enemies of his Maiesty and the State for the ruine and destruction of both which you maske vnder the glorious titles of honour of our Sauiour common saluation vnity peace reconciliation seruice to his Maiesty good of his kingdome you neither performe the part of a good Common wealths man not yet of an honest man consequently indanger as farre as in you lieth not onely the happinesse of the State in which you liued Church in which you were baptized but of your owne together with them but aboue all a marueile it is that acknowledging your selfe a member of the Church of Rome you notwithstanding still professe your selfe a Minister of the Church of England since your common opinion of vs is that amongst vs there is no lawfull calling to the Ministery no sucâ—ession or conferring of holy Orders no Ephod no Teraphim but that our Ministers are in the state of Lay-men and none other Of this cunning dealing I can conceiue none other reason but that you may with more ease and least suspition conuey your poyson into the readers minde B. C. 2. And although it be sufficient for a man of my profession to respect onely matters of heauen and of another world yet because this world was made for that other I haue not regarded mine owne estate that I might respect your Maiesties therein And after long and serious meditation what religion might most honour your Maiestie euen in this world I haue conceiued vndoubted hope that there is no other Religion that can procure true honour and securitie to your Maiestie and your posteritie in this world but the true Catholike Roman Religion which was the very same whereby all your glorious Predecessours haue beene aduanced and protected on earth and are â—uerlastingly blessed in heauen G. H. 2. The deuill howbeit he be rather a Polititian then of any other profession yet when he came to tempt our LORD tooke vpon him the habite of a Diuine but you in tempting the LORDS annointed lay aside the habite of a Diuine and wholy take vpon you the person of a Polititian But herein if I should tell you you played Phormioes part before Hannibal you would thinke your deepe Policie much impeached Now as you differ from the Deuill in that he turned himselfe in appearance into an Angel of light being indeede a Spirit of darkenesse but you being an Angel in profession turne your selfe into a tempter so in this you both agree as if you had learned your methode from him and proposed him as your patterne that as hee being beaten from Scripture betooke himselfe as being his last refuge to the shewing of the kingdomes of the world and the glorie of them to our Sauiour promising him all if hee would but fall downe and worship so you perceiuing belike all other arguments to bee spent in vaine at length you purpose to try what vse may bee made of the deuils last motiue by promising his Maiestie all worldly honor and securitie for himselfe and his posteritie if he would but fall downe and worship your Lord the Pope but as the deuil promised that which was none of his to giue so doth your Lord too in the disposing of those kingdoms and the glory of them which no way belong vnto him except it bee by the title of being heire apparent to the god of this world and the prince that ruleth in the aire but were it not for feare of interrupting of your deepe and serious meditations I should make bold to put you to the question whether these were the baits that Saint Peter angled with to catch soules or the weapons that Saint Paul fought with when he professed that they were not carnall but mightie through God to cast downe holdes they proposed not honour and securitie to the disciples of CHRIST but hazard and basenesse I insist the longer vpon this argument because the whole following discourse is stuffed with nothing else but reasons of this nature as if in the profession of Religion not the sinceritie and trueth of it were so much to be regarded as those secular and temporall commodities which sometimes attend it as the shadow doth the bodie His Maiesties owne words to his sonne of fresh blessed memorie touching this point are most remarkeable worthy to be written in letters of gold and to be ingrauen in a pillar of brasse or marble If sayeth he my conscience had not resolued mee that all my Religion presently professed by mee and
my Kingdomes was grounded vpon the plaine words of the Scripture without the which all points of Religion are superfluous as any thing contray to the same is abomination I had neuer outwardly auowed it for pleasure or awe of any flesh I take his meaning to be either for loue or feare of any mortall man or rather for any worldly and fleshly consideration whether it were to gaine and make aduantage by entertaining and embracing it or to loose and suffer disaduantage by reiecting and opposing the contrary I speake not this as if by Gods grace as much and more both honour and securitie did not waite vpon our Religion as vpon the Romish but onely to shew that these are no sufficient inducements to draw so much as a priuate man much lesse to mooue the diuine and noble spirit of a Christian prince specially such a prince as hath often shewed himselfe able to iudge of reasons of a higher straine to the accepting of a new beliefe and another forme in the seruice of God but only the plaine demonstration and cleare euidence of the truth of that beliefe and necessitie of that forme B. C. 3. The first reason of my hope is the promise of God himselfe to blesse and honour those that blesse his Church and honour him and to curse and confound those that curse his Church and dishonor him which hee hath made good in all ages There was neuer any man or Citie or State or Empire so preserued and aduanced as they that haue preserued the vnitie and aduanced the prosperitie of the Church of Christ nor any been made more miserable and inglorious then they that haue dishonoured Christ and make hauocke of his Church by Schisme and heresie G. H. 3. To grant that which you assume that the Church of Rome is the onely true Church this argument drawen from temporall blessings is sometimes false vncertaine alwayes and your assertion that neuer any man or Citie or State was preserued aduanced as they that haue presâ—rued the vnitie and aduanced the prosperitie of the Church of Christ is very broad and too large considering it extends euen to Solomon himselfe who though hee aduanced the Church yet can it not properly bee said that hee aduanced the Church of Christ nay out of the Church who were euer more prosperous succesfull in their affaires then Augustus and Traian Of the former of whom it is said that he found Rome of Bricke and left it of Marble of the later that hee raised the Romane Empire to the highest pitch of glory and spread the power of their Command vnto the farthest borders and largest circuit that euer before or since hath by them been possessed for the kingdome of Dacia hee subdued Armenia Parthia and Mesopotamia made subiect Assyria Persia and Babylon conquered passed Tygris and stretched the confines of the Romane Empire vnto the remotest dominions of the Indies which neuer before that time had seene the Romane Banners or so much as heard of their name besides his morall vertues were such that in the choyce of a new Emperour they euer wished for one more happie then Augustus better then Traian and yet this man with whom for outward prosperitie no Christian Emperour can bee balanced was not only out of the Church but an enemie to it raised against it the third and one of the hotest persecutions of the tenne For further proofe hereof I referre the reader for this point to S. Augustines first 10. bookes of the Citie of God and surely he that shal duely consider the flourishing greatnesse of the Assy rian and Grecian but especially the Romane Monarchy will easily discouer the lightnesse of this reason and the vanitie of the assertion I speake not to detract from the Christian and truely Catholike religion euen in regard of outward blessings but onely to proue that God bestowes them sometimes vpon the good thereby to shew that absolutely and in themselues they are not bad sometimes againe vpon the bad to shew that in themselues they are not good and takes them sometimes from both to shew that in their owne nature they are indifferent B. C. 4. If I had leasure and bookes it were easie for mee to enlarge this point with a long enumeration of particulars but I thinke it needlesse because I cannot call to mind any example to the contrarie except it be the State of Queene Elizabeth or some one or two others lately fallen from the vnitie of the Catholike Church or the State of the great Turke that doth still persecute the Church of Christ and yet continues in great glory in this world but when I consider of Queene Elizabeth I find in her many singularities she was a woman and a mayden Queene which gaue her many aduantages of admiration she was the last of her Race and needed not care what became of the world after her dayes were ended she came vpon the remainders of deuotion and Catholike religion which like a Bowle in his course or an Arrow in his flight would goe on for a while by the force of the first moouer and shee had a practise of maintaining warres among her neighbours which became a woman well that she might be quiet at home and whatsoeuer prosperitie or honour there was in her dayes or is yet remaining in England I can not but ascribe it to the Church of Rome and to Catholike religion which was for many hundred yeeres together the first mouer of that gouernment and it is still in euery setled kingdome and hath left the steppes and shadow thereof behinde it which in all likelihood cannot continue many yeeres without a new supplie from the fountaine G. H. 4. Why you should ioyne Queene Elizabeth with the great Turke I see no reason but onely for the iustifying of Rainolds his booke of Caluino Turcisme Otherwise a marueile it is that you would instance in her happinesse whom the Pope in his Briefe declared amiserable woman and yet her gouernement was not more happie then her sisters who notwithstanding shee submitted her necke to the Romane yoke was vnfortunate howbeit in her owne disposition she is reported to haue been a gracious and vertuous Lady instance may bee brought in the bringing in of a forreiner the frustrating of the great hope of her conception her short and bloody reigne extraordinary dearths and hurts by thunder and fire and lastly the losse of Calis the last footing wee had in France being held by her predecessors the space of about 250 yeeres whereas Queene Elizabeth oppugned and accursed from her very Cradle by the Church of Rome their thunderbolts returned vpon their owne heads and her selfe like a tender plant after a thunder shower prospered the more and being no lesse full of honour then dayes she was gathered to her fathers as a ripe sheafe of corne that is carried into the barne in so much that her Successour our most renowned SOVERAIGNE in admiration of
apostata So then in Saint Augustines opinon God did not onely order those honours by his prouidence as you would haue it but conferre them by his bounty Neither haue we any reason to thinke but that he who called Cyrus his Shepheard and his Anointed and gaue him the treasures of darkenesse and assured Nabuchadonosor by his Propheâ— that himselfe had giuen to him a Kingdome and power and strength and glorie may as truely bee sayd to haue conferred that gouernment vpon the Turke which now he holds But it seemes you aime through the Turkes sides to strike at Queene Elizabeth and through her at King Iames Infidels and Heretikes being in the Roman language ranked together So that their king domes being not by Gods donation they might lie loose and by occasion fall as it were by excheate to his holinesse gift Your reasons of the largenesse and long continuance of the Turkish Empire are as farre from the purpose as your whole discourse is from any sound Diuinitie for not to stand vpon the sifting of the trueth of them which in some of them may not vniustly be questioned your inference is that such principles are of great importance to increase and maintaine a temporall estate But the point is whether any can be of sufficient importance to vphold any estate when God for the dishonouring of his CHRIST is purposed to ruine it and as the Psalmist speakes of a fruitfull land to make it barren for the iniquity of the people that dwell therein before you speake of a Supernaturall iudgement of God in destruction and here of a Naturall and humane inuention for preseruation which can hold no more proportion with the former then a Venice glasse with an yron pot or an earthen vessell with a brasen Lastly what states you should meane that are willing to become Turkish I know not but what they are that inioy their estates in capite Ecclesiae ad voluntatem Domini Papae and enioyne the greatest silence and outward reuerence in matters of Religion and withall are content to admit the toleration of Iewes and Turkes too in their Dominions rather then of Christians your selfe when you wrote this could not bee ignorant Nay some of the Popes themselues as namely Alexander the VI. and Paulus the III. if we may credite Thuanus had secret commerce with the great Turke against the Christian Princes and the former of them if Iouius and Guicciardin mistake not tooke vnder hand of the Turke Baiazets two hundred thousand Crownes to kill his brother Gemen And Alexander the III. wrote to the Soldan that if he would liue quietly he should by some sleight murther the Emperour Frederike Barbarossa and to that ende sent him the Emperours picture B. C. 6. It is most true which I gladly write and so giue out with all the honour I can of your Maiesty to speake that I thinke there was neuer any Catholike king in England that did in his time more imbrace and fauour the true body of the Church of England then your Maiesty doth the shadow thereof that is yet left and my firme hope is that this your desire to honour our blessed Sauiour in the shadow of the Church of England will moue him to honour your Maiesty so much as not to suffer you to die out of the body of his true Catholike Church and in the meane time to let you vnderstand that all honour that is intended to him by schisme and heresie doth redound to his great dishonour both in respect of his realla and of his mysticall body G. H. 6. You honour his Maiesty much indeed in giuing out that he imbraceth a shadow in stead of a substance as Ixion did a cloude in stead of Iuno and Iacob bleare-eyed Lea in stead of Rachel but in trueth of the Church of Rome wee may safely say that with Esops dog in snatching at the shadow she hath lost the substance of religion she hath so couered ouer all the parts of diuine seruice with the leaues of ceremonies that hardly is the fruit it selfe to be seene she hath so bepainted the face of Gods worship that not easily is the natiue complexion thereof to be â—ound The Poet spake it of the women of his time Pars minima est ipsa puellasui But we may more truely affirme it of the Romish religion her ornaments and apparell are such that a man may seeke Rome in Rome and her religion in her religion and not find either I will giue but one instance for all Bellarmine in the conclusion of his controuersies of the Sacrament of Baptisme maketh no lesse then twelue ceremonies to march before it fiue to assist and fiue to hold vp the traine of which some are profane the greatest part ridiculous and few or none wherein wee differ so much as knowen to the primitiue Church Now if the Church of England haue scowred off the drosse and pared away the superstition and nouelty retaining the substance together with the most comely and ancient ceremonies aswell in this Sacrament as in other parts of diuine seruice and his Maiesty follow her therein shall he therefore be sayd to imbrace the shadow and not the body whereas in truth if euer King of England embraced the body of religion without respect to the shadow of vaine and needlesse ceremonies it is his Maiesty which while he doth there is little feare by Gods grace of his dying out of the body of Christs true Catholike Church whose head is not the Bishop of Rome but Christ himselfe vnderstood in the 10. of S. Iohns Gospel and there shal be one sheepefold and one sheepeheard B. C. 7. For his reall body is not as the vbiquitaries would haue it euery where aswel without the Church as within but only where himselfe would haue it and hath ordained that it should bee and that is amongst his Apostles and Disciples and their successours in the Catholique Church to whom he deliuered his Sacraments and promised to continue with them vntill the worlds end So that though Christ bee present in that Schisme by the power of his dietie for so he is present in hell also yet by the grace of his humanity by participation of which grace onely there is hope of saluation hee is not present there at all except it be in corners and prisons and places of persecution and therefore whatsoeuer honour is pretended to be done to Christ in schisme and heresie is not done to him but to his vtter enemies G. H. 7. By the reall body of Christ I suppose you vnderstand the naturall his mysticall body being also reall but not naturall and I see not but this naturall body may as well bee euery where wherein you taxe the Vbiquitaries as in heauen and on earth and vpon earth in tenne thousand places at the same instant which the Church of Rome maintaines but it seemes by confining of him to the Church on earth your purpose is to exclude him from
state being now setled and a continuall posteritie like to ensue of one nature and condition God knoweth what that forcible weapon of necessitie may constraine and driue men vnto at length But thankes be vnto God the Father of our Lord Iesus CHRIST who hath so fixed and stablished the Royall heart of our gracious Soueraigne as that neither his bloodie threates nor your sugred promises can moue it one point from the center of that trueth which himselfe hath still professed and in which his posterity are trained vp And thus the weakenesse of the foundation vpon which the first reason of your vaine hope is grounded is discouered God in his promises is alwayes most sure but this your reason pretended to be grounded thereupon most vnsure since neither the true Religion is found at this day in that Church which you call Catholike neither are temporall blessings alwayes annexed to that Religion which is indeed true Thus much you might haue learned of Hall the Iesuite who after the discouery of the Powderplot recites vnto Littleton for his comfort certaine examples of Heretikes ouercomming Catholikes in battell and Infidels ouerthrowing Christians or of father Robert Parsons in his Replie to his MAIESTIE touching Queene ELIZABETHS happinesse outward felicities saith hee are worldlings arguments no necessary improuements of Gods blessing howbeit Father Robert Bellarmine makes it one of the 15. and Bozius one of his 100. notes of the true Church but much rather and better might you haue learned it of the Prophet Dauid who was so sorely perplexed with this point that till he went into the Sanctuarie of God and there vpon consultation with him vnderstood the reason of it hee was well nigh at his wits end saying to himselfe in a kinde of despaire Then haue I clensed mine heart in vaine in vaine haue I washed mine hands in innocencie Yet if the argument were infallible God hath approued the trueth of his Maiesties Religion by those manifold outward blessings and miraculous deliuerances which of his mercâ—e hee hath vouchsafed him So that his Maiestie might iustly take vp that of the same Prophet in another place Blesse the Lord O my soule and forget not all his benefits who redeemeth thy life from destruction who crowneth thee with louing kindnesse and tender mercies and our hope and vnfained prayer to God is that whiles his Maiestie ceaseth not in this maner to honour God God will not cease in like maner to honour him and his posteritie with many blessings in this world and in the next with eternall happinesse B. C. 10. The second reason of my hope that Catholike Religion may be a great meanes of honor security to your Maiesties posteritie is taken from the consideration of your neighbors the Kings and Princes of Christendome among whom there is no state ancient and truely honourable but onely those that are Catholike The reason whereof I take to be because the rules of Catholike Religion are Eternall Vniuersall and Constant vnto themselues and with all so consonant to Maiestie and Greatnesse as they haue made and preserued the Catholike Church reuerent and venerable throughout the Christian world for these thousand and sixe hundred yeres and those temporall states that haue beene conformable thereunto haue beene alwayes most honourable and so are like to continue vntill they hearken vnto Schisme And as for those that haue reiected and opposed the rules of Catholike Religion they haue beene driuen in short time to degenerate and become either tyrannicall or popular Your Maiestie I know doth abhorre tyrannie but if Schisme and Heresie might haue their full swinge ouer the Seas the very shadow and reliques of Maiestie in England should be vtterly defaced and quickly turned into Heluetian or Belgian popularity for they that make no conscience to prophane the Maiesty of God and his Saints in the Church will when they feele their strength make no bones to violate the Maiestie of the King and his children in the common wealth G. H. 10. Hauing opened your entrance to a second reason in shew but indeed the same with the former you tell vs that among all the Kings and Princes of Christendome there is no state ancient and truely honorable but onely those that are Catholike wherein you doe the King of Denmarke and Sweden specially the former great honour in consideration belike of his neere alliance to his Maiestie as also to all the secular Princes of Germanie the house of Austria and the Duke of Bauaria onely excepted and among the rest the Prince Elector Palatine of Rhine his Maiesties sonne in law is most bound to thanke you and it seemes you conceiued so much by intending your iourney to Hydelberg and good reason you should haue been welcome considering you make both him and all the rest of the Kings and Princes of Christendome that haue forsaken Communion with the Church of Rome to bee both base and tyrannicall wheras I may be bold to say it that at this day there are none more moderate in their gouernments then those whom you call Schismatikes and of them the greatest part were neuer so flourishing as since they renounced societie with that Church specially the Heluetians and Belgians in whom you instance being growen more rich more powerfull and politike in their affaires then euer before And for popularity the Heluetians had it long before any change of religion and those very Cantons which call themselues Catholike retaine that forme and none other vnto this day And for the Belgians it appeares by the Prince of Orenge his Apollogie that they euer challenged their freedome as due by the Capitulations betweene them and their gouernours the Dukes of Burgundy and now at last after so much Christian blood spilt as all the world knowes in the Articles of peace concluded betweene the King of Spaine and them they are declared a free State Now whether they make any conscience of profaning the Maiestie of God let their published Confessions which testifie and hee that compares their practise with that of the Italians may easily iudge of the tree by the fruits whether wee regard the prophanation of his Maiesty in the blaspheming of his Name or the disgracing of his word or the vnsanctifying of his day for his Saints they all agree I speake for the maine body of their guides and professours in giuing them as much honour as they are lawfully capable of or would themselues willingly receiue and if this bee the heresie you meane wee professe it hath had its full swinge ouer seas already but doe not yet perceiue that therâ—by the Maiestie of our King is any way violated but rather strengthened and increased Lastly whereas you tell vs that you take the reason of all this to bee because the rules of Catholike religion are eternall vniuersall and constant to themselues I graunt there is and ought to be a mutuall dependance betwixt religion and ciuill policie the one both giuing
and receiuing life and strength vnto and from the other yet true religion medleth not so much with the temporal state as to hinder or further the proceedings of it otherwise then by the force of the word and the power of Ecclesiasticall censures but that which you call the Catholike religion hath like the Iuie that growes into the wall so incorporated and intwisted it selfe into the bowels of those States where it is setled that it can hardly bee rooted out or remooued without endangering the bodies of the States themselues which cannot but giue vs iust occasion to suspect that it is for the most part in the points controuersed betweene vs nothing else but a policie inuented of men to serue their owne turnes And consequently according to your owne rule set downe in the second Section of your first chapter a false and counterfeit religion And in trueth when wee shall come to examine the rules of that Church wee shall finde that they are not so consonant to the Maiestie and greatnesse of temporall Princes as you pretend but rather tend to the trampling of their Maiestie vnder foote and laying their honour in the dust and to the aduancing and raising of the greatnesse of the Bishop of Rome to the vtmost pitch and possibilitie of height Some of these rules which make so much for the Maiestie of Kings are brought by Bellarmine and by his Maiestie truely obserued and quoted in the latter end of his Apologie for the Oath for Allegeance which because they are so pat to this present purpose I will craue pardon to borrow and annexe hereunto they are twelue in all a fit number for the Iesuites Creede or to make vp a full Iury to passe a verdict vpon Mr. Doctors Assertion That Kings are rather slaues then Lords That they are not onely subiects to Popes to Bishops to Priests but euen to Deacons That an Emperour must content himselfe to drinke not onely after a Bishop but after a Bishops Chaplen That Kings haue not their authority nor office immediatly from God nor his Law but onely from the law of nations That Popes haue degraded Emperours but neuer Emperour degraded the Pope nay euen Bishops that are but the Popes vassals may depose Kings and abrogate their lawes That Churchmen are as farre aboue Kings as the soule is aboue the bodie That Kings may be deposed by their people for diuers respects But Popes can be deposed by no meanes for no flesh hath power to iudge of them That obedience due to the Pope is for conscience sake But the obedience due to Kings is onely for certaine respects of order and policie That those very Churchmen that are borne and inhabite in Soueraigne Princes countreys are notwithstanding not their Subiects and cannot bee iudged by them although they may iudge them And that the obedience that Churchmen giue to Princes euen in the meanest and meere temporall things is not by way of any necessary subiection but onely out of discretion and for obseruation of good order and Custome His Maiesties inference hereupon is this These contrarieties saith hee betweene the Booke of God and Bellarmines bookes haue I here set in opposition each to other vt ex contrarijs iuxta se positis veritas magis elucescere possit and thus farre I dare boldly affirme that whosoeuer will indifferently weigh these irreconciliable contradictions here set downe will easily confesse that Christ is no more contrary to Beliall light to darkenesse and heauen to hell then Bellarmines estimation of Kings is to Gods by whom they are called as his Maiestie noteth before The sons of the most High nay Gods themselues The Lords annointed Sitting in his throne The angels of God The light of Israel The nursing fathers of the Church with innumerable such stiles of honor wherwith the old Testament is filled and as for the New Testament Euery soule is commanded to be subiect vnto them euen for conscience sake All men must be prayed for but specially Kings and those that are in authoritie The Magistrate is the minister of God to doe vengeance on him that doth euill and reward him that doth well yea we must obey all higher powers but specially Princes and those that are supereminent Giue vnto Caesar what is Caesars and to God what is Gods So that wee may iustly conclude out of his Maiesties true collections and iust inferences that the rules of holy Scripture which wee make our principall and onely infallible leuell aswell in matter of manners as of doctrine are indeed most consonant to the maiesty and greatnesse of Kings but the rules of that religion which you call Catholike as they are reported by Bellarmine next his Holinesse the chiefe pillar and Proctor thereof this age hath aforded most disconsonant and repugnant thereunto I cannot but wonder then what Mr. Doctor meant to write thus to his Maiestie who hauing so particularly and exquisitely published his mind to the world in this point it must needs argue grosse ignorance and negligence in him not to haue read or obserued what was by him written or a strong presumption of his owne abilitie with one breath of his mouth or blot of his pen to perswade his Maiesty to the contrary B. C. 11. I knowe well that the Puritans of England the Hugonots of France and the Geuses of Germany together with the rest of the Caluinists of all sorts are a great faction of Christendome and they are glad to haue the pretence of so great a Maiestie to be their chiefe and of your posteritie to be their hope But I cannot be perswaded that they euer will or can ioyne together to aduance your Maiestie or your children further then they may make a present gaine by you they are not agreed of their religion nor of the principles of vniuersall and eternall trueth and how can they be constant in the rules of particular and transitory honour where there is nullum principium ordinis there can bee nullum principium honoris such is their case there is a voyce of confusion among them as well in matters of State as of Religion their power is great but not to edification they ioyne together only against good order which they call the common enemie and if they can destroy that they will in all likelihood turne their fury against themselues and like deuils torment like serpents deuoure one another in the mean time of they can make their Bourgers Princes and turne old kingdomes into new States it is like enough they will doe it but that they will euer agree together to make any one Prince King or Emperour ouer them all yeeld due obedience vnto him further then either their gaine shal allure them or his sword shall compell them that I cannot perswade myselfe to beleeue and therefore I cannot hope that your Maiestie or
your posteritie can expect the like honour or securitie from them which you might doe from Catholike Princes if you were ioyned firmely to them in the vnitie of Religion G. H. 11. His Maiestie neither needes nor desires aduancement from forraine parts or parties yet we cannot but acknowledge that those whom you call Geuses of Germanie a nicke name first imposed on the Netherlanders by Barlamont a Spanish factor who withstood the bringing in of the Spanish Inquisition among them and vpon occasion of that name tooke for their deuice a wallet and a dish with this Inscription Faithfull to God and the King euen to beare the Wallet Inferring thereby that they were better Subiects then Barlamont and his adherents are more able vpon all occasions to second his Maiestie specially vpon the Seas then any other State in Christendome What seruice they did vs in the yeere 1588. by keeping the Prince of Parma from ioyning with the Spanish fleete which had swallowed vs vp in conceit it is well knowen and no doubt but being confederates and friendly vsed they would be readie vpon like occasion to performe the like friendly office And for those whom you call Catholikes I would know how many of them labor to aduance their confederates farther then it stands with their owne aduantage or reputation In matter of Religion the Netherlander Heluetian and French differ not at all and from some States of the higher Germanie they differ not so much as the French Catholike from the Romish and Spanish in as much as the latter admit of the Councell of Trent the former not so and againe which is another notable and maine point of difference the former submit the Pope to a generall Councell the latter not but as they haue made him transcendent ouer Kings so haue they ouer Bishops too not onely single but assembled in Synode So that vpon the matter they were as good keepe themselues at home and saue so much trauell and charge But to graunt those whom notwithstanding you call Caluinists without exception or distinction were not agreed of their owne religion yet to say that the rules of particular and transitorie honour depend vpon the principles of vniuersall and eternall truth it can by no meanes be admitted as a true principle since those rules by reason may be and by practise are as certaine and constant amongst Infidels as Christians No people were euer more punctuall and precise in termes of honour then the ancient Grecians and Romanes yet were they we know without God in the world without the knowledge of vniuersall and eternall truth And the same may be iustified of many of the Easterne princes at this day but I cannot but meruaile at your folly specially taking vpon you to play the Statesman in telling his Maiestie that the Caluinists will neuer agree together in making any one king ouer them all as if any Prince in Christendome were so sencelesse as to expect it or they so mad as to offer it considering they are all either vnder the obedience of other Soueraignes or free Estates of thēselues And yet no doubt but as great securitie may be expected from them as from your Catholikes though his Maiestie were vnited to them in Religion in as much as they maintaine not the lawfulnesse of aequiuocation nor acknowledge any superiour power able to assoile them from the obligation of their oathes and solemne promises What reason hath his Maiestie if hee were as firmely ioyned to them in the vnitie of their Religion as the Pope himselfe could desire to expect greater securitie from them then his Predecessors found at the hands of their Ancestors or themselues vpon occasion and opportunitie finde at the hands each of other Nay if they find no securitie many times from the Popes themselues who are the pretended heads of that Religion with what assurance can they expect it one from another being thereby onely linked together as members vnto that head It hath beene sayd of some of them how iustly I leaue to those who haue made triall that they neither sing as they pricke nor pronounce as they write nor speake as they thinke the latter of which if we may credit Comines might iustly be verified of Lewis the XI of France who made shew of deuotion in the vnity of that religion no man more in so much that he would often sweare by and kisse his Nostredam of lead which he euer wore as a brouch in his hat yet what little security other princes of the same religion found at his hands in their contracts with him the same historiographer who was well acquainted with his secrets witnesseth and were he silent yet his counsell giuen to his sonne Charles the eight that hee should learne no more latine but this Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare would speake as much which lesson is indeede onely recorded of him but it may rather bee wished then thought that it is not learned and practised of the greatest part of the great ones in the world Machiauels name being hatefull and odious to all but his rules and preceps too much imbraced of some B. C. 12. The third reason of my hope that Catholike religion should bee most auaileable for the honour and security of your Maiesty and your children is taken from the consideration of your subiects which can be kept in obedience to God and to their king by no other religion and least of all by the Caluinists for if their principles be receiued once and well drunke in and digested by your Subiects they will openly maintaine that God hath as well predestinated men to be traitours as to be kings and hee hath as well predestinated men to be theeues as to be iudges and hee hath as well predestinated that men should sinne as that Christ should die for sinne which kinde of disputations I know by my experience in the countrey that they are ordinary among your countrey Caluinists that take themselues to be learned in the Scriptures especially when they are met in an alehouse and haue found a weaker brother whom they thinke fit to instruct in these profound mysteries and howsoeuer they be not yet all so impudent as to holde these conclusions in plaine termes yet it is certaine they all hold these principles of doctrine from whence working heads of greater liberty doe at their pleasures draw these consequences in their liues and practises and is this a religion fit to keepe subiects in obedience to their Soueraigne G. H. 12. Your third reason to perswade his Maiesty to the renouncing of his owne religion and the imbracing of yours is by bearing him in hand that none other will keepe his subiects in obedience and least of all the Caluinisticall But is it possible so learned and so wise a man as you take your selfe to bee should write in this maner and withall remember that your letter was directed to his Maiesty who hath long since proclaimed
Kings and Princes wheresoeuer they can preuaile in which passage can none other bee intended but the Netherlanders of whom touching this point I will say no more that they are now after the wasting of so much treasure and the shedding of so much Christian blood declared a free estate by him whose Regall right you pretend they ouerthrow Lastly those whom you call Caluinists either denie or call into question as few principles of Religion or Articles of Faith as any Romish Catholike nay I will be bold to say it and readie to make it good that the former maintaine some of them strongly which the latter ouerthrow if not in plaine termes and directly yet at least indirectly and by consequence by establishing their owne Articles Vnknowne to the Apostles and the Primitiue Church they make the Articles of our Christian Creede of none effect and for exposition which concernes not points in difference betweene vs and the Church of Rome if I can iudge any thing your Writers differ more among themselues and assume to themselues a greater libertie in expounding then ours and if they be restrained of their Allegoricall Tropologicall and Anagogicall interpretations as impertinent many times to the point in hand as wide from the scope of the Text they will presently cry out that wee despise the authoritie of the Church when it may be they haue wrested the meaning of one or two latter Fathers against the streame of Antiquitie and what bond of obedience can there be to God or to Kings for Gods sake in such Religion B. C. 14. It is commonly obiected by States-men that it is no matter what opinions men hold in matters of Religion so that they be kept in awe by Iustice and by the sword Indeed for this world it were no matter at all for Religion if it were possible to doe Iustice and to keepe men in awe by the Sword In Militarie estates while the Sword is in the hand there is the lesse need of Religion and the greatest and most martiall estates that euer were haue beene willing to vse the Conscience and reuerence of some Religion or other to prepare their Subiects to obedience but in a peaceable gouernment such as all Christian kingdomes doe professe to be if the reines of Religion bee let loose the sword commonly is too weake and comes to late and is like enough to giue the day to the Rebell And seeing the last and strongest bond of iustice is an Oath which is a principall act of Religion and were but a mockerie if it were not for the punishment of Hell and the reward of Heauen it is vnpossible to execute iustice without the helpe of Religion and therefore the neglect and contempt of Religion hath euer beene and euer shal be the forerunner of destruction in all setled States whatsoeuer G. H. 14. Hauing now spent your powder and shot in discharging your three substantiall reasons and the Apologizing of the Powder-treason for the filling vp of your paper but to the abusing of his Maiesties leisure and patience you here begin a fresh with a solemne discourse of the necessitie of Religion for a well ordered Common-wealth vnder colour of meeting with an obiection of States-men that it matters not what opinions men hold in matters of Religion so they bee kept in awe by iustice and by the sword But these Statesmen I take to be of Machiauels sect who of what nation he was by birth and of what religion by profession wee are not ignorant The ancient Romans indeed being themselues Lords of the world became vassals to the Idoles of all nations by admitting the free vse of their diuerse Religions of them all holding that as it seemeth the most perfect Religion which refused none as false neither is the Turke much different from that opinion howbeit hee preferre his owne Religion before all others but all other States-men who are so conuersant in affaires of State as they neglect not Christanitie can not but hold the Christian religion alone admittable in Christian Common-wealthes Now as we grant in all States some Religion necessary and in Christian States onely the Christian admittable So with all we confesse an Oath to bee a principall acte of that Religion But how it is abused by Romish Catholikes for seruing their owne turnes by Dispensations by aequiuocations and Mentall Reseruations both Histories witnesse and wee haue had too great experience By which meanes that which indeede should be the surest and strongest band of truth iustice and as the Apostle speakes an end of all strife is become the matter of quarrell and a meere visard for iniustice and falshood to maske vnder and by the same meanes as the Romish Religion is growen odious to vs so for their sakes both ours and theirs going both vnder the common name of Christians is in that respect growen odious to the very Turkes who obserue an oath made by the name of their Mahomet more inuiolably then wee by the Name of CHRIST one to another as well appeared by our King Henry the third who being a great exactor vpon the poore Commons as euer was any king before him or since and thinking thereby to winne the people sooner to his deuotion most faithfully promised them once or twice and thereunto bound himselfe with a solemne oath both before the Clergie and Laitie to graunt vnto them the old liberties and Customes of Magna Charta and Charta de Foresta perpetually to bee obserued whereupon a Quindecim was granted to the King but after the payment was sure the King trusting the Popes dispensation for a little money to be discharged of his oath and couenant went from that he had promised and solemnely sworne before In like manner the sayd King at another time being in neede of money signed himselfe with the crosse pretending and swearing deepely in the face of the whole Parliament that hee himselfe would goe in person against the Saracens but as soone as the money was fingred small care was taken for the performance of the oath being so put in head by certaine about him that hee needed not to passe of that periurie for so much as the Pope for an hundred pounds or two would quickly discharge him thereof as Matthew Parris reports it who liued at the same time and was often in Court with him this was then the account which by reason of the Popes easie dispensations Kings made of their oathes to their Subiects The like account by the same meanes did Charles the 9th of France and the Queene his mother make of their oath taken to the King of Nauarre the Prince of Condie the Admirall and the rest of the Protestant profession at what time his sisters marriage was made more red with their blood then his wine but this blood crying for vengeance himself at his death issued blood at all the passages of his bodie Neither did Subiects make any other reckoning of their oathes taken to their Kings
first Table in their number making of foure but three and of those three they breake the first and second in worshipping the Blessed Virgine Angels Saints Reliques Images with diuine worship and in speciall the Crucifix and Sacramentall Bread professedly with the same kind of worship which is due to Christ as God and what account they make of the other two their little reckoning of blaspheming and profaning Gods Name and Gods day giue but too sufficient demonstration to the world But to bee plaine with you I finde no such words in S ir Francis Bacons Essayes printed the yere 1612. which vpon this occasion I haue reuised there beeing onely one of religion and that the very first which speakes so wittily so learnedly so fully against your drift in this place and the former section which shewes how the deuill out of the arsenall of false apprehensions sends forth the distorted engines of actions they be his owne words in that place as I cannot but hold it both a fence and a grace to insert it into mine answere whole and intire as himselfe hath deliuered it lest I should doe him iniury by mangling it The quarrels and diuisions for religion saith hee were euils vnknowen to the heathen and no maruell for it is the true God that is the ielous God and the gods of the heathen were good fellowes but yet the bounds of religious vnitie are so to bee strengthened that the bounds of humane societie bee not dissolued Lucretius the Poet when hee beheld the acte of Agamemnon induring and assisting at the sacrifice of his daughter concludes with this verse Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum But what would hee haue done if hee had knowen the Massacre of France or the Powder treason of England Certainely hee would haue been seuen times more Epicure and Atheist then hee was nay hee would rather haue chosen to haue been one of the mad men of Munster then a partaker of those counsels For it is better that Religion should deface mens vnderstanding then their pietie and charitie retaining reason onely but as an Engine and Chariot-driuer of cruelty and malice It was great blasphemie when the deuill sayd I will ascend and bee like the highest but it is a greater blasphemie if they make God to say I will descend and bee like the Prince of darkenesse And it is no better when they make the cause of Religion descend to the execrable actions of the murthering of Princes butchering of people and firing of States neither is there such a sinne against the person of the holy Ghost if one should take it literally as in stead of the likenesse of a Doue to bring him downe in the likenesse of a Vulture or Rauen nor such a scandall to their Church as out of the Barke of S. Peter to set foorth the flagge of a Barge of Pyrats and Assassins Therefore since these things are the common enemies of humane society Princes by their power Churches by their decrees and all learning Christian Morall of whatsoeuer Sect or opinion by their Mercurie rodde ought to ioyne in the damning to Hell for euer these facts and their supports and in all counsels concerning Religion that counsell of the Apostle would be prefixed Ira hominis non implet iustitiam Dei The same noble gentleman speaketh much to the same purpose in his Essay of Superstition as that it erecteth an absolute tyrannie in the mindes of men it hath been the confusion and dissolution of many States anâ— bringeth a new Primum mobile that rauisheth all the Spheres of gouernement The master saith hee of Superstition is the people and in all superstition wise men follow fooles arguments are fitted to practise in a reuersed order And thus I hope by this time Mr. Doctor hath gained little to the aduantage of his cause from the true and wise obseruations of Sir Francis Bacon Lastly for your instance in Mutinous souldiers I cannot conceiue whither your discourse tends but to shew that more honestie is yet left amongst vs then in those of your profession and is like to bee as long as we feare the assault of a common enemie which is like to bee as long as you remaine in opinion and condition like your selues B. C. 17. And as for their exhortations to obedience to your Maiestie when they haue first infected the vnderstanding of your Subiects with such principles of rebellion as haue disturbed and ouerthrowen all other States where they had their will it is a ridiculous thing to thinke vpon such exhortations and all one as if a fantasticall fellow finding a herd of young cattell in a close should first breake downe the hedges and then crie aloud to the cattell they doe not venture to goe out not seeke any fatter Pasture for feare they bee put in the pound and if they chance to feede where they are because they haue no experience of other and to tary in the Close for an houre or two then the vnhappie fellow should runne to the honour of the cattell and tell him what great seruice hee had done him and how hee had kept his cattell in the Close by â—is goodly charmes exhortations Let them say what they list of their own honesty and of their exhortations to obedience as long as they doe freely infect the peoples soules with such false opinions in religioÌ„ they do certainly sowe the seedes of disobedience rebellion in mens vnderstandings which if they bee not preuented by your Maiesties giuing way to Catholike religion will in all likelihood spring vp in the next generation to the great preiudice and molestation of your MAIESTIE and your posteritie so that whether I doe respect heauen or earth mine owne soule or the seruice of your Maiestie God or your neighbours or your subiects my assured hope is that by ioyning my selfe to the Catholike Church I neither haue done nor shall doe any ill duety or seruice vnto your Maiestie G. H. 17. You say that our exhortations to obedience are ridiculous the vnderstanding being once infected with such principles of rebellion as wee teach Had you vouchsafed to haue stooped to the nominating of those principles in particular you had dealt ingenuously and giuen some matter of reply but as you would shew your selfe a polititian in the whole body of your discourse so doe you specially in this that throughout you insist vpon vniuersals which not onely dazell the eyes of their vulgar Reader but yeelde starting holes of euasion to the authour What your Principles are and what ours touching obedience to the ciuill Magistrate I haue already opened in mine answer to the twelfth and thirteenth Sections of this Chapter Now the remedie you say to preuent the mischiefe likely to ensue vpon such doctrine is the admission of Catholike religion as if wee neuer heard nor read of any rebellion abroad nor at home raised from the professours of that religion during the space of a thousand sixe
hundred yeeres for so long you say hath it lasted whereas in trueth if that be true where our religion hath yeelded one rebell to speake within compasse yours hath yeelded a thousand and if the Principles of our religion as the case now stands induce men to rebellion surely in common reason it should much rather doe so if a contrary be once admitted to confront it So that whiles you pretend to perswade his Maiestie to the safest course you aduise him in all likelihood to the most dangerous Whether his Maiestie then respect heauen or earth his neighbours abroad or his Subiects 〈◊〉 home his securest course will bee to maintaine and allow that onely religion which he professeth and consequently in labouring to draw him to the contrary you cannot but doe him very ill seruice B. C. 18. But perhaps there is such opposition both in matter of doctrine and matter of State as it is impossible that euer there should be any reconciliation at all betwixt the Church of England and the Church of Rome of which I humbly pray your Maiestie to giue mee leaue to shew to you what I haue obserued G. H. 18. Your imaginary possibility of reconciling England with Rome is a fond speculation of an idle braine and nothing else but a Castle built in the ayre whether we consider as a later writer of our owne hath well obserued the indisposition of the parties or the qualitie of the Controuersies or the difficultie of the meanes For the first of which were we neuer so peaceably disposed yet such a stiffe auersenesse there is in the Romanists that they suffer not their adherents to ioyne with vs in any religious exercise against which notwithstanding themselues can no way except They excommunicate their Subiects who trauell or traffique into our countreys they straightly charge them not to reade or keepe any of our Bookes though meerely tending to the practise of piety no nor the Bible it selfe without speciall leaue though of their owne tranâ—lation And for vs they esteeme no better of vs then of Iewes or Turkes nay to the Iewes they allow Synagogues within Rome it selfe whereas vs they persecute with fire and sword and for the Turkes they hold their Alcoran in nothing inferiour and in some things much betteâ— then our religion or our Translation of the Bible No maruaile then though Cassander by labouring to mediate a reconcilement howbeit hee were set a worke by Ferdinand and Maximilian both Emperors hath carried away blowes on both sides which it seems Bellarmin in his 3. booke and 19. Chap. of Laiks thought he well deserued helping to lay on loade vpon him The second thing that makes vs irreconcileable is the qualitie of our controuersies they being not verball differences as some would haue but materiall and that of the highest nature no lesse then the redemption of mankind and the iustification of a sinner but aboue all that vpon which the rest depend of the Bishop of Romes power in iudging and determining inâ—alliblely of all controuersies arising in matter of religion wee may bee sure they will euer while they are able without yeelding an inch as stiffely maintaine as wee iustly oppugne which the latest writings of their Iesuites haue giuen vs so sufficient occasion by aduancing and inlarging this power to the vtmost to bee confident of that wee neede make no farther doubt of that matter The third thing which makes vs irreconciliable is the difficultie in the meanes of reconcilement which in the iudgement of the wisest is in likelihood the definition of a generall Councill or nothing But who shall call this Councill and prescribe the time and place of meeting and persons that shall meete who shall sit as President in it what shall be the rule of disputing and meanes of executing what is determined we shal need a former Councill to define B. C. 19. It is true that the breach hath continued now these many yeres and it is much increased by so long continuance so that it was neuer greater then it seemes to be at this day nor neuer more dangerous to deale withall For if a man doe but goe about to stop it there ariseth presently a great and fearefull noise and roaring of the waters against him but yet neuerthelesse the greatnesse of the noise ought not to discourage vs but rather to giue vs hope that though it bee wide yet it is but shallow and not farre from the bottome as proceeding from affection which is sudden and violent and not from iudgement which is quiet constant and alwayes like it selfe For if a man aske in colde blood whether a Romane Catholike may be saued the most learned Churchman will not denie it and if a man aske whether a Roman Catholike may be a good Subiect the most wise States-man will easily grant it May we be both saued then we are not diuided in God May wee be both good Subiects then we are not diuided in the King What reason is there then that we should be thus hotely and vnplacably diuided G. H. 19. The increase of the reformed Churches which you call a breach so that their strength was neuer greater nor more dangerous to deale withall then at this day though the disciples of Rome grieue and gnash their teeth at it and consume away to see it yet haue we good reason to thanke God for it in as much as neither the deuil nor the Pope neither Rome nor the gates of Hell with all their bloodie Persecutions their holy Leagues and mischeiuous Combinations could euer yet preuaile against it Nay hitherto the more they haue laboured to quench it and trample it vnder foot the more hath it shined like a bright torch and flourished as the Palme tree which the more it is pressed downe the more it spreadeth Their blood hitherto hath prooued the seede of the Church and that which S. Augustine speakes of the first Christians may be verified of them they were mangled they were scourged they were stoned they were burned they were multiplied and because you cannot with all your malice and power and policie destroy it we argue with Gamaliel that it is from God neither can you iustly call that sudden or violent which as your selfe before confesse hath now continued these many yeeres and hath increased by continuance whereas sudden things in their ordinary course and by discourse of reason last little and by continuance rather decrease it being proper only to naturall motions to gather strength and fortifie themselues in going And for that great roaring of the waters which you pretend though it be a noise fearefull to you yet to vs is it acceptable as being occasioned not so much from the shallownesse of the waters themselues as from the stoppings and opposition of others and their own concurrence to remoue and beare down by all lawfull meanes that which is opposed for the stopping of their current But the reason which you adde why wee should thinke them
shallow as proceeding rather from affection then iudgement is this because if a man aske you say in cold blood whether a Roman Catholike may be saued the most learned Church-man will not denie it Wherein if we be more charitable to you then you are to vs in passing censures of damnation it should in my iudgement rather argue the goodnesse of that Religion from whence such charity flowes towards mens persons then be vrged as a proofe for the approbation of that erronious doctrine which in it selfe it condemns The Turke is too liberall in admitting all Religions to the hope of saluation and on the other side you are too niggardly and sparing in shutting out all from the hope thereof which receiue not the marke of the beast in their foreheads or hands We desiring to runne a middle course betwixt both extremes as we shut out all such who directly deny the merits of CHRIST so doe wee passe a fauourable censure on those who deny him not of malice but of ignorance and that not directly but by consequence It is true that S. Paul hath in the fifth to the Galatians If yee be circumcised CHRIST shall profit you nothing That is if a man put his trust in Circumcision or in any thing else beside Christ though with Christ in the matter of iustification he is abolished from Christ and the merite of his death and Passion Now what confidence the Romanists put in their owne satisfaction for veniall sinnes and temporall punishment either in this life or in Purgatorie due to mortall their writings testifie but yet our assurance is that many of them when they come to make their last account betwixt God and their owne Conscience and throughly consider of the weakenesse and corruption of their owne nature for the vncertaintie of their owne proper righteousnesse and for the auoiding of vaineglory according to Bellarmins aduise they rest wholly in the alone mercie and goodnesse of God renouncing in particular that merite of worke which their Church in generall for her owne aduantage maintaineth and teacheth them to maintaine Or lastly God of his Graciousnesse may accept of their repentance for vnknowen sins and consequently for their erronious opinons which by reason of their education they vnwittingly imbrace yet this charitable construction of ours can bee no sufficient warrant for vs either to shut our eyes against a knowen trueth or to open our eares to hearken to any motion of reconcilement to a knowen errour Now whether a Romane Catholike may bee a good subiect wholly submitting himselfe to Romish positions I referre the reader to his Maiesties speech in Parliament in the yeere 1605 who should know what belongs to his owne state and to mine answere to the 12. Sect. of this Chapter a part of his Maiesties very words in that speech are these I therefore doe thus conclude this point that as vpon the one part many honest men seduced with some errors of Popery may yet remaine good faithfull subiects so vpon the other part none of those that truely knowe and beleeue the whole grounds and schoole conclusions of their doctrine can euer prooue good Christians or faithfull subiects If then we bee so farre diuided both in God and in the king how can we but be vtterly diuided in our selues B. C. 20. Truely there is no reason at all but onely the violence of affection which being in a course cannot without some force be stayed The multitude doth seldome or neuer iudge according vnto trueth but according vnto customes and therefore hauing beene bred and brought vp in the hatred of Spaniards and Papists cannot chuse but thinke they are bound to hate them still and that whosoeuer speaketh a word in fauour of the Church of Rome or of Catholike religion is their vtter enemy and the Puritanicall Preacher who can haue no being in charity doth neuer cease by falsifications and slanders to blow the coales that hee may burne them and warme himselfe But if your Maiesty shall euer bee pleased to commaund those make-bates to hold their peace a while and to say nothing but that they are able to proue by sufficient authority before those that are able to iudge and in the mean time to admit a conference of learned and moderate men on either side the people who are now abused and with the light of the Gospel held in extreme ignorance are not yet so vncapable but they will be glad to heare of the trueth when it shall be simply and euidently deliuered by honest men and then they will plainely see that their light of the Gospel which they so much talke of is but a counterfeit light in a theeues lanterne wherby honest mens eyes are dazeled and their purses robbed and it will also appeare that there is not indeed any such irreconciliable opposition betwixt the Church of England and the Church as they that liue by the schisme doe make the world beleeue there is neither in matter of doctrine nor in matter of State G. H. 20. You farther endeuour to prooue in the entrance of this Section that the diuision of the Church of England from the Church of Rome ariseth rather from affection then iudgement in as much as the multitude doth seldome or neuer iudge according to trueth but according vnto customes Now whether it be the Church of England or the Church of Rome that stands vpon multitude and that multitude vpon custome the Bishop of Rome himselfe shall be the iudge nay not onely your multitude but the chiefest pillars of your Church stand most vpon it if you had but looked into your great Cardinals notes of your Church you should haue found antiquity or custome to haue beene the second howbeit both Acosta and Xauerius in their seueral writings made the Indians standing vpon their customes the chiefe difficulty of their conuersion to CHRIST It was Symmachus the Pagans argument in his Epistle to Theodosius the Emperour recorded by S. Ambrose Seruanda est tot saeculis fides nostra sequendi sunt maiores nostri qui secuti sunt foeliciter suos Our religion which hath now continued so many yeeres is still to bee retained and our ancestours are to bee followed by vs who happily traced the steps of their forefathers and is not this Mr. Doctors owne argument to perswade his Maiesty to the Romish religion in the 2. and 10. Sect. of this Chapter how comes it then to passe that in this place he findes fault with those that iudge according to custome and makes it a popular errour teach that a while and indeed we may be brought to shake handes with Rome she standing vpon a pretended truth of antiquity but we vpon the antiquity of trueth in as much as our Sauiour said not I am antiquity but I am trueth And S. Cyprian his blessed Martyr Antiquity without truth is nothing els but ancient errour Now the reason you giue that our
they bee not silenced they must say nothing but what they are able to prooue by sufficient authority before those that are able to iudge as if our Bishops were ignorant that it belonged to their charge to take notice of the preaching of vnsound doctrine within their Diocesse and accordingly to censure it or knowing what is their duety in that behalfe they were more vnwilling or vnable to performe it then Doctor Carier and his Colledge of Critickes and in the meane time a conference must be had of learned and moderate men on either side such belike as your selfe like Metius Suffetius luke-warme halting betwixt two opinions rowing to the shore and looking to the Sea holding with the hare and running with the hound who publikely pray for the King and priuately worke for the Pope true learning we reuerence and Christian moderation we highly esteeme but Science falsely so called bent to the patronage of falsehood and neutralitie vnder the vizard of moderation to the reconciling of error to trueth is but the abusing of faire and honourable Titles to base and malicious ends which imputation you labour to fasten vpoÌ„ vs as if by the light of the Gospel we held the people in extreme ignorance wheras the Prophet Dauid tels vs that the word of the Lord was a lanterne to his feete and a light vnto his pathes and S. Peter You haue a most sure word of the Prophet to which you doe well that you take heede as vnto a light that shineth in a darke place but you beare vs in hand that the light of the Gospel holds men in extreame ignorance Zachary prophesied of his â—onne the Baptist that he was ordained to giue light to them that sit in darkenesse and in the shadow of death to guide their feete into the way of peace and the Baptist himselfe of CHRIST that he was that true Light which lighteth euery man that commeth into the world But you tell vs that it serues to dazell mens eyes and rob their purses And no doubt had you liued among the Pharisees in the time of CHRIST or Iohn the Baptist you would haue called their doctrine a counterfeit light in a theeues lanterne aswel as ours being in substance the same with theirs And for ignorance I may bee bolde to say it with a thankefull acknowledgement to God for it that a good part of our people are more expert in the Scriptures and are better able to yeeld an account of that faith which is in them then many of your Prelates and Priests whereof some beare the name of the brotherhood of ignorance and all at least by your practise acknowledge her the mother of deuotion in as much as you withhold the trueth in vnrighteousnesse like Esopes dog you neither eate hay your selues nor suffer others to eate it You pretend the key of Knowledge but you neither enter in your selues nor suffer others to enter you neither reade nor esteem the Scriptures your selues as you ought nor suffer the people to reade them but seale them vp in an vnknown language to the vse of a few with whoÌ„ you please to dispense B. C. 21. For matter of doctrine there is no reason that your Maiestie or the Kingdome should be molested or burthened for the mainetenance of Caluinisme which is as much against the Religion of England as it is against the Religion of Rome and will by necessarie consequence ouerthrow not onely the Catholike Church the Communion of Saints and the forgiuenesse of sinnes but also all the Articles of the Creede saue onely so much as the Turke himselfe will be content to beleeue which will be easie to proue vpon better leasure The doctrine of England which is contained in the Common prayer booke and Church Catechisme confirmed by act of Parliament and by your Maiesties Edict wherein all Englishmen are baptized and ought to be confirmed and therefore there is some reason that this should be stood vpon But this doctrine in most of the maine points therof as hath bene touched before and requireth a iust Treatise to set downe in particular doth much differ from the current opinions and Catechismes of Caluinisme doth very neere agree with or at least not contradict the Church of Rome if wee list with patience to heare one another and those points of doctrine wherein wee are made to be at warres with the Church of Rome whether we will or not doe rather arguethe corruptions of the State from whence they come then are argued by the grounds of that Religion wherevpon they stand and the contradiction of doctrine hath followed the alteration of State and not the alteration of State beene grounded vpon any trueth of doctrine G. H. 21. We are now come to one of the maine points you driue at howbeit you seeme onely to glance at it in passage and to draw it on vpon the bye which is to put vs off from all fellowship and communion with those Churches who acknowledge Caluin to haue beene an excellent instrument of God in the abolishing and suppressing of Poperie and the clearing and spreading of his trueth that so being separated from them we may either stand single and be encountred alone or returne againe to our old bias and relaps vpon Rome and so through Caluins sides you strike at the throat and heart of our Religion For our parts we all wish with the Reuerend learned Prelate of our owne Church that you were no more Papists then wee Caluinists no more pind on the Popes sleeue then we on Caluins whoÌ„ we esteeme as a worthy man but a man and consequently subiect to humane error and frailtie We maintaine nothing with him because he affirmes it but because from infallible grounds he proues it whereas the Popes bare assertion with you is proofe sufficient You are so sworne to his words that they are of equal or higher authoritie with you then Pythagoras his precepts with his Schollers ipse dixit is enough for your warrant but for vs we imbrace Caluin as himselfe doth authors not diuine vsque ad aras so farre foorth as with diuine hee accordeth and no farther This is our iudgement of Caluin but to say that the doctrine which he maintaines is as much against the Religion of England as it is against that of Rome is a desperate assertion and such as can neuer be made good did all our fugitiues lay their heads together and were all their wits turned into one And I much meruaile what you meant pretending so much tendernesse of conscience and diligence in search of the trueth to suffer your malice so farre to preuaile vpon your iudgment as to let so foule a blot so manifest a falshood to drop from your pen and not only so but to present it to the scanning of so learned a Prince and to publish it to the view and censure of the world For if Caluins
doctrine bee as opposite to our Religion as to the Romish then must it needs follow that either ours and the Romish agree in one or that ours is as distant from Caluins as Caluins is from the Romish both which to bee vntrue appeares aswell by the testimonie of all other Romish writers and the authority of the Pope himselfe in his Bull against Queene ELIZBAETH as those whome they terme Lutherans who euer range vs among the Caluinists as also of our owne writers and those of forraine Churches by you termed Caluinistical because with him they ioyne in profession of the same trueth the manifold Letters by them written and Bookes dedicated to our late blessed Queene our Bishops and Noble men by French and Heluetian Diuines specially of Zurich and Basil testifie to the world that they then held their religion to bee the same with ours and ours with theirs and for any thing I know neither theirs nor ours is since changed saue onely some such neutrals as your selfe labour to drawe vs neerer to Rome then they can bee drawen or the trueth it selfe will permit that wee should Among many other testimonies I will onely instance in two the one an Heluetian touching our conformitie with forreine reformed Churches in former times the other a French man touching the present the Heluetian is Bullinger who dedicating his Commentaries vpon Daniel to Horne Bishop of Winchester Iewell Bishop of Salisbury Sandes Bishop of Worcester Parkhurst Bishop of Norwich and Pilkington Bishop of Durham in his Epistle Dedicatory professeth hee did it chiefly to this ende that posterity might vnderstand their indissoluble knot of friendship and the mutual consent betweene England and Suisserland in matter of Religion howbeit they were remooued farre asunder in situation of place The French is Peter Moulin who in defence of his Maiesties Booke against Coffeteau acknowledgeth that wee had enough sufficient men of our owne to defend the Cause but that hee vndertooke the worke to let the world knowe that the same Confession which his Maiestie had made was also theirs and that they and the trueth were assailed in his Person and Writings But what neede I stand vpon the particular testimonies of priuate men since the Confessions of our Churches are extant to be compared as well in the Booke intituled The Harmony as in that other termed The bodie of Confessions In the meane time to giue the Reader some satisfaction I will set downe the doctrine of the Church of England in points of difference together with Caluint on the one side of it and the Romish on the other that so wee may make some estimate whether Caluinisme bee as opposite to the Religion of England as to that of Rome Now for the doctrine of the Church of England I will not extend it so wide as to the Bookes and Lectures of our Bishops and publique professours the lights and guides of our Church and Vniuersities nor yet contract and confine it as Mr. Doctor doeth within the narrow compasse of the Common prayer Booke and Church Catechisme the booke of Canons and therein Nowels Catechisme Can. 79. being confirmed and allowed by publike authoritie But aboue all I very much maruell Mr. Doctors memory should so farre faile him as quite and cleane to forget the Booke of Articles solemnely agreed vpon by the Reuerend Bishops and Clergie of this kingdome at two seuerall meetings or Conuocations of theirs in the yeeres of our Lord 1562 and againe 1604 and lately againe confirmed by two seuerall Canons the 5 and 36 in number since himselfe subscribed to them at the taking of his Orders if not of his Degrees and liuing a long time as Chaplen in house with Archbishop Whitegift and since keeping his ordinary turnes of waiting at Court and residence at Canterbury he could not bee ignorant of them nay I can shewe it vnder his owne hand which argues hee fought against the light of his owne conscience that setting downe the differences betweene the Olde English and New French diuinitie as he calles it hee quotes diuers of those Articles for the doctrine of the Church of England and besides professing himselfe so skilfull in the Statutes he could not but knowe that The Booke of Articles and Iniunctions is by them aswell confirmed and authorized as The Booke of Common Prayer in which Articles are also allowed and ratified The second Booke of Homilies and holy Orders so that whatsoeuer is doctâ—inally deliuered in any of these may safely bee called The doctrine of the Church of England But for the present I will content my selfe with the Booke of Articles onely and for the doctrine of the Church of Rome with the Canons and positions of the Tridentine Councell and Catechisme and for Caluines doctrine with that specially which hee hath deliuered in his 4. Bookes of Christian Institutions Here followeth the Table of differences B. C. 22. For when the breach was resolued on for the personall and particular ease of Henry the VIII and the children of his later wiues it was necessary to giue euery part of the Common-wealth contentment for which they might hold out in the heate of affection and studie to maintaine the breach otherwise it was likely that in the clearenesse of iudgement it would quickly haue growen together againe and then the authours thereof must haue beene excluded and giuen account of their practise G. H. 22 Howbeit Henry the VIII actually indeed made that breach with Rome which continues at this day and is like to doe till Rome by her reformation endeuour to make it vp yet they certainely erre who seeke the cause of it onely in him and in his times or fixing their eyes vpon his person quarrel looke not vp to the state and course of former ages for as no wise man would assigne the cause of death to some accident falling out in the last point and period of life but to some former distemper or intemperancie so the reasons of vnhorsing the Pope and reiecting his authoritie with the generall applause of all the estates of the Realme hauing beene so long anâ— so deepely rooted in mens minds are not to be searched for in the personall and particular proceedings of Henry the VIII but in the ancient Records and euidences of our Histoâ—ians who all complaine of the spurring and gauling and whipping of our land by those Italian riders vntill like Balaams asse shee turned againe opened her mouth to complaine and being out of all hope of reliefe by complaint cast her rider As many witnesses we haue hereof well neere as Writers since the last 600. yeres as many cleere testimonies as there be leaues in Mat. Paris the most learned and sufficient Writer vnlesse you will except William of Malmesburie that those times afforded It was a memorable speech of Robert Grosteed Bishop of Lincolne who liued 358. yeres since in the time of Gregory the IX Caelestine the IIII. Innocent the IIII.
none otherwise of Faith then the Scriptures giue him warrant which it may bee in your opinion are but a strong fancie neither but had you as throughly read him vpon that point of Iustification by faith as Pighius did though with a mind to confute him you might haue had the grace to haue yeelded in opinion to him as hee did by the confession of Tapper in the 8th Article of his second Tome sometimes his fellow-pupil vnder Adrian the VI. Pope of that name neither doth hee in that Catechisme teach them to contemne all ancient learning and authoritie as you faine but fained authoritie and learning falsely so called For what learning haue wee more ancient then the Scriptures or what authoritie more binding and yet for authoritie of the most auncient Councels and godly Fathers I thinke hee voucheth more then euer Doctor Carrier read though hee built not his faith vpon them and teach others to doe the like in regard of such auncient learning and authoritie being but humane the aduise of the Prophet is to bee regarded or rather the command of God by the Prophets mouth to bee obeyed Thus saith the Lord Stand in the wayes and see and aske for the olde pathes where is the good way and walke therein and yee shall finde rest for your soules For it is true that with all wise and moderate persons that kind of antiquitie obtainâ—th that authoritie and reuerence as it is sufficient matter to moue them to make a stand and to discouer and take a viewe but it is no warrant to guide or to conduct them a iust ground I say it is of deliberation but not of direction but on the other side as it is well obserued by a writer whom Master Doctor himselfe before nameth with honour who knoweth not that time is truely compared to a streame that carrieth downe fresh and pure waters into the salt sea of corruption which enuironeth all humane actions and therefore if man shall not by his industry vertue and policie as it were with the Oare rowe against the streame and inclination of time all institutions and ordinances be they neuer so pure will corrupt and degenerate Finally for the iustifying of that which you haue deliuered touching Caluine and his proceedings you send vs to Bezaes narratioÌ„ of Caluins life but had you not in the perusal therof shut vp the eye of charitie and onely opened that of malice and enuie you might as easily haue seene and obserued in the same narration his wonderfull assiduitie in reading in preaching in writing in conferring insomuch that being aduised by his physicians and by his friends requested a little to forbeare in regard of the weakenesse of his body and his manifold infirmities his vsuall answere was that idlenesse to him was the greatest sickenesse or Vultis me otiosum à Domino deprehendi will yee that the Lord when hee commeth should finde me doing nothing his zeale to Gods trueth and courage in maintaining it such that he not only crushed the errors of the Church of Rome but quelled like another Hercules so many new monsters of opinions by the clubbe of Gods word that the very meÌ„tioning the names of the authors and summâ— of their seuerall heresies would take vp much time and many lines his sound and profound knowledge in his profession such that Melancthon no childe in Diuinitie was wont to style him by an excellencie The Diuine his temperance such that for many yeres he tooke but one repast a day his modesty such that by his will hee ordained after his death there should be no monumeÌ„t erected to him or so much as a Tombe-stone layed ouer him yet Beza his Colleague would not spare to bestowe this ensuing Epitaph on him which hee was as able as vpon that sad occasion vnwilling to afford and the other out of his deserts as worthy as out of his modesty the crowne of all his other vertues vnwilling to receiue Romae ruentis terror ille maximus Quem mortuum lugent boni horrescunt mali Ipsa à quo potuit virtutem discere virtus Cur adeo exiguo ignotoque in cespite clausus Caluinus lateat rogas Caluinum assidue Comitata modestia viuum Hoc tumulo manibus condidit ipsa suis. O te beatum cespitem tanto hospite O cui inuidere cuncta possint marmora After his death many of the citizens who had often seene him before yet much desired to see him againe and many strangers came from forreine parts purposely to know him and to bee knowen vnto him among whom was a worthy Gentleman at that time Ambassador in France for the Queen of England and howsoeuer malice haue found Lucianus in his name charitie hath found Alcuinus B. C. 28. Now it is the nature of all common people especially of Ilanders not onely still to affect more and more noueltie and libertie and to bee weary of their olde Clergie but also to admire any thing that comes from beyond the Seas and to cherish and comfort one another with reporting the good successe which Schismatikes and Rebels happen to haue against their lawfull Prelates and ancient gouernours and to impute all their good fortune to their new Religion Hence it is come to passe that that doctrine which is indeed the lawfull doctrine of the Church of England is neglected or contemned as a relike or a ragge of Popery and Caluins institutions being come from Geneua and fairely bound vp with the Preface of the Gospell is dispersed throughout all Schooles Cities and Villages of England and hath so infected Priest and people as although it bee against law yet is it cryed vp by voyces to be the only current Diuinitie in Court and Countrey in hope belike that it may one day serue the turne in England as well as it hath done in Geneua and in other places where it hath preuailed G. H. 28. Your Countrey-men are herein much bound to you in that you make Ilanders so much to affect nouelty ascribing their change of religion to the changeablenesse of their nature whereas other nations in the continent of Europe are by consent of those who are interessed in neither by nature more changeable then they That Polander who first by his pen encountred his Maiesties Premonition labouring to wype off the staine of the Powder-treason from the religion of the actours laid it vpon the nature of an English man whom in all religions he accuses to be naturally disloyall to his Prince to his imputation of disloyalty you adde the affectation of nouelty thereby to lay a staine vpon our religion But Qui mala non mutat in bonis non perseuerat The seruant is not aboue his lord nor the disciple aboue his master and we know that it was the question which the Iewes proposed to our Sauiour What new doctrine is this and of the Grecians to S. Paul May wee not know what this new
fruit of that doctrine did continue Thus his owne testimonies like the false witnesses which deposed against our Sauiour agree not together but is it likely that shee caried her selfe all her life long with such indifferencie considering shee sent helpe both by men and money to the Protestants in Germanie in Scotland in France in the Netherlands Shee harboured and succoured such Italians French and Dutch as forsaking their owne Countreys for conscience sake fled for refuge into her Dominions as to a common Sanctuary of piety and Religion affording them conuenient places for the exercise of their deuotions in the Isles of Iersey and Garnsey in Hampton in Norwich in Sandwich in Maidston in Canterbury in Colchester and in London it selfe Moreouer shee that would not so much as admit Pius Quartus his Nuntio in the yeere 1561. to enter her Kingdome though hee brought with him very friendly Letters from the Pope Shee that would not bee intreated by the Emperour and other Princes sollicitations to send her Bishops or Ambassadours to the Councill of Trent nor to yeelde any toleration of the Roâ—ish Religion within her Dominions alleaging that it would bee dishonourable to her selfe repugnant to the decrees of her Parliament preiudiciall to her Realme pernicious to her Subiects vnlawfull in it selfe offensiue to God scandalous to her neighbours and vnsafe for the Romane Catholikes themselues Shee that was sought vnto for mariage from Scotland from Denmarke from Sweden in regard of her Religion and in treatise with the Emperour Ferdinand for his sonne Charles and with the French King and Queene mother first for the Duke of Aniou afterwards King of Poland and France by the name of Henry the third and secondly for the Duke of Alençon his yonger brother commonly knowen by the name of Monsieur afterwards Duke of Aniou alwayes interposed this condition That they should innouate nothing in Religion onely hauing the exercise of their owne in some priuate place to themselues Shee that in the yeere 1579 entertained with all honourable respect Iohn Casimere sonne to Frederike the third Count Palatine and great Vncle to Frederike the fift who now gouernes himselfe a Protestant and hauing led an armie of Germanes in defence of the Protestants aswell into France as into the Netherlands bestowing on him the noble Order of the Garter which with her own hands shee put on together with many rich presents and an yeerely pension during his life bestowed on him Shee that was voyced by the Papists to conclude all her Parliaments with Axes and Taxes because of her exactions vpon Recusants and rigorous Lawes as they pretended against Seminary Priests Iesuites in regard whereof they compared her to Nero and Dioclesian the most bloody Emperours and cruell persecutors of the Christians Lastly Shee that could not be won to yeelde one iote either by the flatteries and faire promises of Paulus Quartus nor to shew any token of being dismayed or dishartened by the threats and thundering Bull of Pius Quintus is it possible I say that she who notwithstanding all the difficulties dangers that might from then cearise was from her cradle to her graue thus zealous and constant in her Religion sutable to that Motto which she had chosen to her selfe Semper eadem should now be said or thought to haue carried her selfe all her life long so coldly indifferently as to haue giuen hope to both contrary factions But being you say the daughter of the Breach-maker hauing both hâ— Crowne and her life from the Schisme it was both dishonorable and dangerous for her to hearken to Reconcilement whereas in trueth she had her life and held her Crowne from the Author of life and grand Commander of Crownes to which shee had farre better right then hee that would haue deposed her to his triple Crowne the one being helde of her by lawfull succession which had beene so acknowledged by the Bishop of Rome himselfe would shee haue submitted herselfe to the power of that See but the other of him by vnlawfull vsurpation And if in regarde shee was the daughter of the Breach-maker it was both dishonourable and dangerous for her to hearken to Reconcilement it must consequently follow that likewise dangerous and dishonourable it would haue beene to keepe the Pontifician partie in hope and though she were iustly prouoked by the biting Excommunication of Pius Quintus being stricken by him before she was Legally cited or warned in so much as some of the Romish Catholikes themselues thought it a peece of rashnesse in that Pope so to deale with her yet before this Bull was extant shee gaue so little hope to those whom you call Catholikes that the Pope therein labours to paint her foorth as a barbarous and bloody Persecutour and wee may well imagine that had shee giuen such hope as you pretend she did to the Romanists the world had neuer heard the bellowing of that Bull But thankes be vnto God The raine fell the floods came the windes blewe and beat sore vpon her house but it fell not for it was founded vpon a Rocke and that Rocke was CHRIST During her happie and glorious raigne somewhat aboue the space of 44. yeeres shee saw the change of no lesse then 8. Popes Paulus the 4th sitting in that See at her entrance and Clement the eight at her death betweene which two came these seuen Pius 4. Pius 5. Cregorie 13. Sextus 5. Vrban 7. Gregorie 14. and Innocent the 9th all which wrought more or lesse both against her Person and State so that she might deseruedly take vp that of the Psalmist Many Bulles haue compassed me strong Bulles of Bashan haue beset me round they gaped vpon mee with their mouthes as a rauening and roaring Lyon But being by his Gracious prouidence who set the Crowne vpon her head deliuered from all their snares shee might well stampe that of the same Psalmist vpon her coyne as shee did and with all no doubt vpon her heart Posui Deum adiutorem meum and sing with Deborah after her victory vpon Sisera O my soule thou hast marched valiantly or as some read it thou hast troden downe strength Now that which sharpened her against Pius Quintus was not onely his Bull though that were in it selfe cause sufficient to inrage her but the setting aworke of one Ridolphus a Florentine who vnder the colour of Marchandizing became the Popes agent for blowing the coales and stirring vp the minds aswell of her owne Subiects as of forraine Princes against her by whom the olde Foxe promised if need were to goe in person himselfe against her and to lay to pawne if occasion so required all the goods of the See Apostolike euen to the Chalices the Crosiers the Reliques and the Holy Vestments Besides all this he conferred an yeerely pension and titles of honour vpon Tho Stanley a discontented fugitiue only for raâ—ling vpon her and vainely bragging that he would set on
to the Laitie The Title of the former was Dilectis filijs Archipresbytero reliquo Clero Anglicano and the other Dilectis filijs principibus nobilibus Catholicis Anglicanis salutem Apostolicam Benedictionem The summe of both thus To our Beloued sonnes the Archpriest and the Clergie the Peeres and nobles Catholikes of England greeting and Apostolicall benediction The tenor was That after the death of her Maiestie then liuing whether by course of nature or otherwise whosoeuer should lay Claime or Title to the Crowne of England though neuer so directly and neerely interessed by discent should not be admitted to the throne vnlesse hee would first tolerate the Romish religion and by all his best endeuours promote the Catholike cause vnto which by a solemne and sacred Oath hee should religiously subscribe after the death of that miserable woman for so it pleased his Holinesse to terme Elizabeth that most great and happie Queene By vertue of which Bulles if vertue may be in any such vicious libels the Iesuites disswaded the Romish minded Subiects from yeelding in any wise obedience vnto our most gracious Soueraigne now being But this not working to their wished effect and hee now solemnely proclaimed with an vniuersall applause loue and peace their hopes beganne to wither and growe colde and no succours from Spaine being now to bee expected Garnet the Superiour for the auoyding farther dangers sacrificed these starued Buls to the God of fire Moreouer in the yeere 1588. when his Holinesse blessed that inuincible Spanish Nauie was it to settle the Crowne vpon his Maiestie after Queene Elizabeth should be deposed Surely his Maiestie both rightly conceiued and freely expressed the contrary to Sir Robert Sidney at that time sent into Scotland from Queene Elizabeth affirming that hee expected none other good turne at the Spaniards hands but that which Polyphemus promised to Vlisses that others being first deuoured himselfe should haue the fauour to bee swallowed last And did not the greatest part of Pius his Bull aiming principally at her through her sides also strike his Maiestie And did not one Robert Parsons who sate at the helme in Rome write a certaine Booke of Titles intituled Doleman wherein he excludes his Maiestie and prefers the Infant a of Spaines right before all other pretenders to the Crowne but when hee once saw his Maiestie setled beyond all hope and expectation he made as you doe and the rest at that time did a vertue of necessitie acknowledging his vndoubted and lawfull Claime in his Preface to his Triple conuersion whereof for mine owne part I can giue none other reason then that which you adde to another purpose the case is altered Whiles his Maiestie was onely in hope you shewed your selues in your owne colours being now quiet in possession you plucke in your hornes yeelde to the times and are content to bee carried with the streame And though the personall case bee altered in regard of his Maiestie and Henry the VIII yet if his Maiesty either needed the like dispensations or had the like will to pull down Churches I make no question but his Holinesse would without any great difficulty giue way to both conditionally that his pretended but vsurped authority might be restored But as he is a publique person and represents the body of the State the case is no way different which is the freeing of it from forraine and vniust vsurpation And for Queene Elizabeth I will be bold to say it that at her comming to the Crowne she was not so farre ingaged for the defence of that religion which she constantly maintained to her dying day as his Maiesty hath by manifold obligations bound himselfe to the maintenance and continuance of that which she at her death left and hee at his entrance found established amongst vs. For testimonies wee neede goe no farther then his frequent and solemne protestations aswell by his penne as by word of mouth and that not onely before but since his comming to the Crowne to which if we adde the carefull education of his Sonne the most noble and hopefull Prince euen in that respect the bestowing of his onely daughter that most sweet and vertuous Lady vpon the Prince Palatine not onely a Protestant but as you terme them a Caluinist the honourable entertainement of Isaac Casaubon and Peter Moulin the liberty giuen to the French Dutch for the free and publike exercise of their religion in diuers parts of his Maiesties Dominions and lastly his constant refusall of so much as the Toleration of any other religion notwithstanding the importunitie of suits and supplications for it the matter as I suppose will be cleane out of doubt And as Queene Elizabeth was prouoked by Pius V. so was his Maiesty by Paulus V. in a degree very little different the one absoluing her subiects from their oath of Allegeance and the other forbidding his to take such an oath So that though the Parenthesis in regard of personall succession bee ended yet in respect of profession which of the two is the more to bee regarded the sentence as yet runnes on and as we hope will haue no period but with the worlds end But the more to exasperate his Maiesty against King Henry the VIII and his daughter Queene Elizabeth you tell him that if the Schisme could haue preuented his title neither his Mother nor himselfe should euer haue made Queene Elizabeth afraid with their right to the Crowne of England For the iustnesse of the diuorce I haue already deliuered mine opinion at large and yet if any desire farther satisfaction let him reade the first dialogue of Antisanderus who both strongly maintaines the equity of the Kings proceedings in that businesse and clearely confutes the slanders of that base fugitiue and for his wiues had the way bene fairely made vnto them no iust exception could be taken to the number Philip the II. of Spaine besides his Mistresses had successiuely foure wiues whereof the first was his fathers Cousin germane and the last his owne For the compassing of which what strange courses he tooke I list not to relate but referre the reader to the Prince of Aurange his Apologie yet none that I know hath taxed him for his multitude of wiues in as much as he liued and died a Romane Catholike Did not Henry the last of France diuorce his first wife after they had bene almost as long married and vpon lesse shew of iust reason then Henry the VIII but the one made semblance at last of subiecting himselfe to the See Apostolike which the other by no meanes could bee brought vnto as he did at first this alone beeing it that varied the case and that which he did herein may well be interpreted to haue sprong from a desire of setling the Crowne in his owne posterity rather then of preiudicing the title of Scotland For though during his reigne some discontentments there were between the two nations yet not long before his death
hee concluded a match betwixt his sonne Prince Edward and Queene Mary of Scotland that as his father had vnited the white and the redde Roses in the royall branches of Yorke and Lancaster so his sonne might vnite the Lions passant and rampant in the armes of England and Scotland but it so pleased God that that match vpon occasion fell asunder and that happy vnion was reserued to our times Now for Queene Elizabeths feare those of her Sexe indeed by their nature are fearefull and great Princes by reason of the place they stand in are â—ealous specially of the heire apparent if hee be potent if neere at hand if remote in blood if in Religion different yet all the feare she conceaued from his Masties Mother arose partly from the practises of the French with whose King she matched and partly of the Seminarie Priests and Iesuites and pretended Catholikes euer making her the highest marke and pitch of their ambition till they had brought her to the lowest ebbe of her misfortune which was also hastned through her Subiects feare rather then their own as appeares by her seuerall answeres and replies to the demands of the Parliament and propositions of her counsel touching that point as also in that as soone as the newes of it was brought to her not thinking on any such matter she receiued it with indignation her countenance her speech shewed it with excessiue griefe for a while she stood as it were astonished and afterwards betook her selfe in priuate to mourning and weeping shee sharpely entertained her counsellers remooued them from her presence and commanded Dauison her Secretarie whom shee accused of being more foreward and officious in that businesse then she either desired or expected to be brought to his triall in the Starre Chamber where he was deepely censured in a mulcte of ten thousand pound and imprisonment at the Queenes pleasure but her displeasure was so heauy against him that hee continued there long and assoone as the excesse of her griefe gaue her leaue she thus briefly wrote with her owne hande to the King of Scotland now our gracious Soueraigne Most deare Brother I Wish you vnderstood but felt not with what vnmatchable griefe my minde is perplexed by reason of that wofull accident executed against my meaning which my pen trembling to mention you shall vnderstand by this my cousin I shall request you that as God and many others can testifie mine innocencie herein so you would rest assured that had I commanded it I would neuer haue denyed it I am not of so base a minde as either to feare to doe that which is iust or to denie it being done I am not so degenerate or of a Spirit so ignoble but as it is no Princely part to couer the inward intention of the minde with the outward speech so will I neuer dissemble mine actions but labour rather that they may appeare to the world in their proper colours Be you therefore fully resolued as the trueth is that had I intended such a matter I would neuer haue cast it vpon others neither haue I reason to charge my selfe with that which I intended not For other matters this Bearer will impart them to you and for my selfe beleeue it there is none liuing that loues you better and more intirely or is more carefully prouident for you and your good and if any happen to suggest any thing to the contrary perswade your selfe that such thereby aime at their owne aduantage rather then yours God keepe you long and long in safetie Yet out of the blacke cloud of this sad accident did the disposition of diuine prouidence as some wise men haue obserued most clearely shine in as much as those things which both Q. Elizabeth of England Q. Mary of Scotland chiefly desired and shot at in all their consultations were by this meanes effected The latter as at her death she witnessed wished nothing more earnestly then that the two diuided Realmes of England and Scotland might bee vnited in the person of her dearest sonne The former that true Religion together with the safetie and securitie of the Kingdome might bee preserued entire and that God was pleased to grant both their wishes to our comfort wee feele and can not but most willingly acknowledge And for his Maiestie he both signified to Queene Elizabeth by Sir Francis Walsinghame in the yeere 1583. almost foure yeeres before his mothers death that he would most constantly maintaine the same Religion which was then publikely receiued and againe sent her the same message by Sir Robert Sidney about two yeeres after So that she needed not to feare his right in that regarde and for his affection otherwise hee both testified it before her death in the Preface to his Basilicon Doron where he thus speakes In England reignes a lawfull Queene who hath so long with so great wisedome and felicitie gouerned her kingdomes as I must in true sinceritie confesse that the like hath not beene read or heard of either in our time or since the dayes of the Roman Emperour Augustus And since her death hee hath yeelded the like testimonies of her aswell in his Apologie as also in his Premonition where he remembers that being chosen to be his Godmother shee sent into Scotland the Font wherein he was baptized So that if by outward actions and speeches we may make coniecture of the inward thoughts and Passions of the minde shee was so farre from fearing his Maiesties right to the Crowne as she endeuoured rather by all conuenient meanes to aduance it neither doe I find it recorded by her friends or obiected by her enemies that during all her reigne vpon any occasion shee euer conceiued a thought or cast out a word toward the setting vp of any other Successour or the preiudicing of his right Nay in the yeere 1587. she sent the Lord Hunsdon gouernour of Berwike into Scotland to giue him notice that the Iesuiticall faction euen while his mother liued proiected how they both might be put by their right and the Spaniard brought in and withall was presented him an instrument subscribed by the Iudges of England assuring him that the sentence passed vpon his mother could no way bee preiudiciall in law to the right of his title But it will be sayd shee discouered her feare in stopping any declaration of the heire apparent specially being vrged thereunto by the three estates assembled in Parliament in the yeere 1566. whereas in trueth she in reading might haue obserued that few or no Successors in collaterall line had beene declared aâ— Lewis Duke of Orleans was not declared heire to Charles the eight yet succeded peaceably that it hath oâ—ten prooued dangerous to name a successour not only to the possessours but sometimes to the Successours themselues as it did to Roger Mortimer Earle of March designed heire to the Crowne by Richard the second his sonne Edmund being helde in prison and there pining away vpon none other
reason The like befell Iohn de la Poole designed by Richard the third after the death of his owne sonne to bee his Successour himselfe being alwayes euen in that respect suspected of Henry the VII till at last he was slaine and his brother vnder Henry the VIII beheaded These reasons might mooue her Maiestie for the stopping of that declaration not the feare of his Maiesties right but the care of preseruing it being sufficiently proclaimed in his blood and discent Whatsoeuer it were since his Maiestie who had the neerest interest in that errand hath bene content thus graciously to passe it ouer it cannot but argue want both of wisdome and charitie in Mr. Doctor thus vnseasonably and maliciously to reuiue it Lastly God of purpose no doubt raised vp his Maiestie to crosse the worldly and diuelish pretence of Rome and to perpetuate the life of that Religion which you call Schisme and I make no doubt but if King Henry the VII had found it left by his predecessor in the state that his Maiestie did hee would in his wisedome haue left it to his Successor as hee is like to doe and I am the rather induced to thinke so because in the first yeere of his raigne the Pope hauing excommunicated all such persons as had bought allome of the Florentines by his permission if not command it was resolued by all the Iudges of England that the Popes Excommunication ought not to be obeyed or to bee put in Execution within the Realme of England and in the same yeere hee suffered sharpe lawes to be made by the Parliament to which himselfe gaue being by his Royall assent for the reformation of his Clergie then growen very dissolute and in the eleuenth yere of his raigne a Statute was enacted that though by the Ecclesiasticall Lawes allowed within this Realme a Priest cannot haue two Benefices nor a bastard be a Priest yet it should be lawfull for the King to dispence with both of these as being mala prohibita but not mala per se all which argues that they then held the King to bee personam mixtam as it was declared in the tenth yeere of his reigne that is a person mixt because hee hath both Ecclesiasticall and Temporall iurisdiction vnited in his person B. C. 34. But perhaps the Schisme though it serue you to none other vse at all for your title yet it doth much increase your authority and your wealth and therefore it cannot stand with your honour to further the vnity of the Church of Christ. Truely those your most famous and renowned ancestours that did part with their authority and their wealth to bestow them vpon the Church of CHRIST and did curse and execrate those that should diminish and take them away againe did not thinke so nor finde it so And I would to God your Maiesty were so powerfull and so rich as some of those kings were that were most bountifull that way You are our Soueraigne Lord All our bodies and our goods are at your command but our soules as they belong not to your charge but as by way of protection in Catholike religion so they cannot increase your honour and authority but in a due subordination vnto Christ and to those that supply his place in iis quae sunt iuris diuini It was essentiall to Heathen Emperours to bee Pontifices as well as Reges because they were themselues authors of their owne religion But among Christians where Religion comes from CHRIST who was no worldy Emperour though aboue them all the spirituaâ— and temporall authority haue two beginnings and therefore two Supremes who if they bee subordinate doe vphold and increase one another but if the temporall authority oppose the spirituall it destroyeth it selfe and dishonoureth him from whom the spirituall authority is deriued Heresie doth naturally spread it selfe like a caâ—kâ—r and needes little helpe to put it forward So that it is an easie matter for a meane Prince to be a great man amongst heretikes but it is an hard matter for a great king to gouerne them When I haue sometimes obserued how hardly your Maiesty could effect your most reasonable desires amongst those that stand most vpon your Supremacy I haue bene bold to bee angry but durst say nothing onely I did with my selfe resolue for certaine that the keyes were wont to doe the Crowne more seruice when they were in the armes of the miter then they can doe now they are tyed together with the scepter and that your title in spirituall affaires doth but serue other mens turnes and not your owne G. H. 34. Hauing passed your supposed remoouall of all opposition both in doctrine and State thereby to make a readier way to your imaginary reconciliation you now come to an endeuour of clearing such obiections as you conceiued would offer themselues whereof the first is that the religion established which you call schisme serues to increase his Maiesties authoritie and wealth and therefore it cannot stand with his honour to further the vnity of the Church of CHRIST Indeed it must be confessed and cannot bee denied that the religion established yeelds his Maiestie the authority due vnto him which is more then the Romish yeelds to the Soueraigne Princes of her profession and yet no more then CHRIST and his Apostles in practise yeelded and in precept command And yet withall it cannot be denied but some of his Maiesties ancestours partly through the insensible incrochment of some ambitious Popes and partly through the neglect of some weake kings did part indeed with some of their authority to bestow it vpon that Church to which you intitle Christ yet that they reserued to themselues a power euen in Ecclesiasticall causes I haue already made sufficiently to appeare in mine answere to the 16 section of the first chapter and in diuers other places to which I wil presume to adde that which his Maiesty hath published to the world touching this very point in his Premonition to all Christian Princes and States My Predecessors ye see of this kingdome euen when the Popes triumphed in their greatnesse spared not to punish any of their Subiects that would preferre the Popes obedience to theirs euen in Church matters so farre were they then from acknowledging the Pope their temporall Superiour or yet from doubting that their owne Church men were not their Subiects And now I will close vp all these examples with an Acte of Parliament in King Richard the II. his time whereby it was prohibited that none should procure â— benefice from Rome vnder paine to be put out of the kings protection And thus may ye see that what those kings successiuely one to another by foure generations haue acted in priuate the same was also maintained by a publike law By these few examples now I hope I haue sufficiently cleared my selfe from the imputation that any ambition or desire of nouelty in me should
haue stirred mee either to robbe the Pope of any thing due vnto him or to assume vnto my selfe any farther authority then that which other Christian Emperours and kings through the world and my owne Predecessours of England in especiall haue long agone maintained Neither is it enough to say aâ— Parsons doth in his answere to the Lord Cooke that farre more kings of this Countrey haue giuen many more examples of acknowledging or not resisting the Popes vsurped authority some perchance lacking the occasion and some the ability of resisting them for euen by the ciuill Law in the case of a violent intrusion and long wrongfull possession against me it is enough if I proue that I haue made lawful interruption vpon conuenient occasions Hitherto his Maiesty And I cannot but wonder what Mr. Doctour meant if he had read it not to take any notice of it or if he reade it not how he durst presume thus to write to his Maiesty without so much as the reading of his writings From whence we may gather that what Henry the VIII acted in that regard was but a manifestation of the intents and desires of his predecessors which they durst not fully expresse and what they enacted a preparatiue to the roundnesse of his proceedings Besides I see not but if his Maiesties predecessors granted that to his Holinesse which was indiuidually annexed to the Crowne as being a speciall branch of their prerogatiue Royall his Maiestie stands none otherwise bound to maintaine that graunt then they held themselues obliged to make that good which King Iohn had yeelded vnto him and if they did part with their authoritie as your selfe speake then was it their owne before they parted with it and not the Bishops of Rome as your Romane Catholikes would haue it by Diuine right and consequently beeing their owne as they vpon occasion best knowen to themselues conferred it so vpon a contrary occasion I see no reason but either themselues or their successours might as lawfully resume it But the trueth is that it was not giuen by them but stollen by the Bishop of Rome and by him held vnder colour of prescription yet your selfe by discourse of reasâ—n and force of trueth are driuen to confesse that our bodies and goods are at his Maiesties command either forgetting 〈◊〉 whom you wrote or not remembring or it may bee so much as knowing what the Church of Rome whose defence you vndertake defends touching the exemption aswell of the bodies as the goods of Churchmen from the iurisdiction of the secular though Supreame power and how his Maiestie in diuers parts of his writings hath most sufficiently prooued the nouelty of this doctrine so that what you write herein can bee imputed to none other but to grosse flattery or palpable ignorance flattery of his Maiestie in that which he truely holds or ignorance of that which is falsely held by the Church of Rome but like a shrewd Cow that hath yeelded a good meale oâ— milke and then ouerthrowes it with a spurne of her foote so hauing subiected our bodies and goods to his Maiesties commaund you exempt our soules from his charge but by way of protection in Catholike Religion as if you meant purposely to crosse that of the Apostle Let euery soule be subiect to the higher powers But I would â—aine dâ—maund if his Maiestie should not protect vs in that Religion which you call Catholike whether our bodies and goods shall then bee at his commaund Surely if his Holinesse whom you cannot but vnderstand by those that supplie Christs place in ijs quaesunt iuris diuini and to whom you would haue vs subordinate haue the command of our soules and his Maiestie onely of our bodies the later may command what hee list but men will execute his commands no farther then the former will be pleased to giue leaue whereof we haue had often and fresh experience aswel in the Bulls of Pius Quintus and in the Breuâ—s of Paulus Quintus and in trueth â— cannot but commend his wit though not his honestie that hee intitleth himselfe vnto and interesteth himselfe in the more actiue and noble part the bodie without the soule being as the shales without the kernell or the scabberd without the sword Those Kings that out of their Regall authoritie purged the Church of corruptions and reformed the abuses thereof brought the Arke to her resting place dedicated the Temple and consecrated it with prayers proclaimed fastes caused the booke of the Lawe new found to bee read to the people renewed he Couenant betweene God and his people bruised the brasen Serpent in pieces which was set vp by the expresse commandement of God and was a figure of Christ destroyed all Idols and false Gods make a publique reformaâ—ion by a Commission of Secular men and Priests mixed for that purpose deposed the high Priest and set vp another in his place they that lawfully called Generall Councils for the suppressing of heresies as Constantine did the Nicene Theodosius the elder the first at Constantinople Theodosius the yonger the Ephesin Valentinian Martian the Chalcedonian they that made Lawes for the ordering of Church-men and Church-matters as Iustinian and Charlemaine cannot in the iuâ—gement of any indifferent man be said to haue no charge of the soules of such aâ— are committed to their charge but onely by way of protection Neither doeth it follow that his Maiestie in taking the charge of soules vpon him according to the qualitie of his office and Gods appointment whose officer hee is should therfore be himself a Priest or be the author of his owne Religion as you would maliciously inferre from the custom of the heathen Emperors no more then the Kings of Israel or the Emperors of the Christian Primitiue Church were Priests or authors of that religion which by diuine ordinance they tooke care of aswell in the Priest as in the people aswell in confirming and countenancing what was in order as in censuring and restoring what was amisse neither was it in the time of the law of nature held vnlawfull that both the Regall and the Ecclesiasticall the princely and the priestly power should reside together in one person during which Law wee haue not many examples of Kings that gouerned a people where the Church of God was planted there is onely mention to my remembrance of Melchisedecke King of Salem and of him it is sayd withall that hee was a Priest of the most High God so that in his person these two offices the principalitie and the Priesthood were ioyned both which followed the prerogatiue of the birth-right and to this double dignity was answerable a double portion the like do we reade of Anias that he was Rex idem hominuÌ„ Poebique Sacerdos and it was the speach of Diogenes the Pythagorean that to make a compleat King hee had need bee a Captaine a Iudge and a Priest of which two
the height of his anger any more then this he declared not and lesse then this well he could not But before this you say in the entrance of this Section stil harping vpon your old string He was indifferent wheras your great Cardinall a man of no meane intelligence in his Tortus makes his Maiesty to haue bene a Puritane whiles hee was in Scotland and againe confirmes the same in his Apologie for that in the first booke of his Baâ—ilicon Doron he affirmes that the religioÌ„ there professed was grounded vpon the plaine words of the Scripture and againe in his second booke that the reâ—ormation of religion in Scotland was extraordinarily wrought by God And before the Powder treason he makes him so farre from indifferencie as he faines the seuerity of his lawes against Romane Catholikes to haue giuen occasion to that foule conspiracy and to the conspirators being then without all hope of entring into so desperate a course And sure it seemes the Powder-traytours themselues held him not indifferent for they discouered greater anger towards him in the proiecting of that bloody treason then he toward them or their associates after the discouery of it which notwithstanding it seemes by Watsons confession not long before his execution the Iesuites were hatching before his vndertaken for religion too was detected not full three moneths after his Maiesties right to the Crowne before it was setled or so much as set on his head nay Garnet himselfe their Arch-Priest being sollicited not long before the Queenes death by a gentleman of a noble family but Popishly affected that when time serued hee would set forward the kings title among Catholikes returned this answere that he had nothing to doe with the kings right or the promoting it in as much as he was so hardened in a religion contrary to his that now there was no hope of his conuersion left Thus we see that neither the Powder-traitours themselues nor Watson and Clerke Priests nor the Iesuits nor the Arch-Priest nor the Cardinall held him indifferent before the Powder-treason yet Mr. Doctor is of a contrary opinion to them all perswaded it may be by his Maiesties Letters pretended to be addressed before his entrance into this kingdome in the yeere 1598. to Pope Clement the VIII Cardinall Aldobrandin and Cardinall Bellarmine that some one of the Scottish nation might bee created Cardinall by whose intercourse he might more freely and safely negotiate with the Pope this reason indeede I haue heard some Romane Catholikes much stand vpon and except this be it I cannot conceiue what should moue Mr. Doctour thus boldly and frequently to vpbraid his Maiesty with indifferency which was the fault of the Angel of the Church of the LaodiceaÌ„s And surely he that writing to his Maiesty so grosly erreth about his Maiesties writings I may I hope without breach of charity suppose that hee neuer so much as read or saw the full answere to this obiection long since published to the view of the world standing partly vpon his Maiesties peremptory deniall of euer yeelding his consent to the sending of such letters and giuing the Pope to vnderstand by messages deliuered by word of mouth that if hee haâ— receiued any letters at all as written from him he should esteeme them none otherwise but as counterfeit or gotten by stealth partly vpon the confession of the party himselfe before his Maiesty and the Lords of his Counsell who out of an ambitious desire of aduancing his neere kinsman to the dignity of a Cardinal being then the Secretary of State shufled in those letters among others when his Maiesty was ready to take horse and so by cunning got them to be subscribed and partly vpon the Popes proceedings after the receit of them which was the shewing of them to such as came thither of the Scottish nation and demanding whether they thought the subscription to bee his Maiesties owne hand suffering some to take copies of them besides he neither answered the Letters nor granted the suite contained in them and some yeeres after writing to his Maiesty by Sr. Iames Lindsey he neither mentioned those letters nor blessed his Maiesty with Apostolike benediction and after all this sent his two Breues to the Romane Catholikes here in England for the excluding of him from the Crowne And thus haue we now not onely the traitours the secular Priests the Iesuits the Arch-Priest the Cardinall but the Pope himselfe making against this vaine supposition of his Maiesties indifferencie before the Powder-treason To conclude this Section then and therewithall my reply to such pretended motiues as might incline his Maiestie to reconcilement with the Church of Rome or toleration of Roman Catholikes if his Maiestie haue as great reason to continue seperation with the Church of Rome as Henry had to make it and Queene Elizabeth to maintaine it and that it doth increase his lawfull authoritie both ouer more persons and in more causes if it may serue for the better inriching of his coffers an vnion with that Church can not but bring both his honour and wisedome into question being so farre prouoked without iust occasion giuen or any satisfaction hitherto made and hauing so deepely ingaged himselfe in the quarrell if thereby hee shall depriue himselfe of that blessing which otherwise he might expect and hitherto hath felt from Christ his Sauiour whose cause hee pleadeth from his Christian and truely Catholike neighbour Princes states and Subiects and lastly from the Church of CHRIST in whose communion is the greatest comfort both in life and death then whatsoeuer some discontented fugitiue or hired aduocate of Rome may say to the contrary I doe verely beleeue they doe but speake for themselues and that there is no true reason that may concerne his Maiesties good but rather danger and harme why hee should admit a publike toleration of Papists and Popish Religion who stoppe their eares at home against the charmer charme hee neuer so wisely and abroad with great eagernesse pursue the ruine of their natiue countrey among whom I professe I must hold Mr. Doctor to haue been one till I be better informed to the contrary B. C. 38. But although your Maiestie sit at the Sterne and commaund all yet are you caried in the same â—hippe and it is not possible to weild so great a vessell against winde and tyde and therefore though it doe not concerne your Maiestie in your owne estate yet if your Lords and your Commons and your Clergie doe reape any great benefit by the Schisme it will be very hard for your Maiestie to â—ffect vnitie but if vpon due examination there bee no such matter then is it but the crie of the passengers who for want of experience are afraid where there is no danger and that can be no hinderance to any course your Maiestie shall thinke to bee best for the attaining of the hauen G. H. 38. From his Maiestie that sits at the Sterne and commands
lawfull to the Confessor to publish that which he heard in confession but none saith hee of those holy Fathers euer decreed that constitution of Ecclesiasticall discipline with such strictnesse as thereby to make the Law of God of none effect They knew well enough that if the case so stood as the Law of the Church enioyned silence and the law of God vtterance wee should rather obey God then man They knew well enough that Dauid is commended of the Sonne of God to whom properly belongs the interpretation of the lawe himselfe being the author of it for the eating of the Shew-bread which otherwise was not lawfull saith Christ for him to eate rather then hee would suffer himselfe to starue with hunger To like effect is that which my Lord of Ely hath in his last booke against Bellarmine Let that reuerence which is due to that seale be preserued inuiolate but towards penitents not wilfull proceeders in thier mischieuous plots neither is that saith hee the seale of God and CHRIST but of Satan and Antichrist with which so horrible villanies are masked But will Mr. Doctor say these are but the opinions of priuate men I demaund the authority of your Church for the seale of secresie but if he had â—in as skilful in the decrees Canons of our Church as he would beare vs in hand he was he would surely haue forborne that demaund the 113. Can. of those which were agreed vpon in Conuocation anno 160â— ratified by his Maiesties royal assent concluding thus Prouided alwayes that if any man confesse his secret hidden sins to the Minister for the vnburthening of his conscience and to receiue spirituall consolation and ease of mind from him wee doe not any way binde the said Minister by this our Constitution but doe straightly charge and admonish him that he do not at any time reueale and make knowen to any person whatsoeuer any crime or offence so committed to his trust secrecie except they be such crimes as by the Lawes of this Realme his owne life may be called into question for concealing them vnder paine of irregularitie So that neither is Mr. Doctors Assertion true that the people with vs are freed from the possiâ—ility of Confessing though they are from the necessitie nor his reason because wee haue taken away the seale of secrecie the abuse being onely by vs remouâ—d but the vse aswell by publike authoritie as priuate opinions retained and maintained But to conclude this point the libertie which the people haue gained by separation from Rome stands not so much in forbearance of Confession rightly vsed as in that libertie wherewith CHRIST hath made them free for if the sonne haue made them free then are they free indeed if they intangle not themselues againe with the yoke of bondage my counsell is that which the Apostle there aduiseth Stand fast and to like effect though in another place and case Art thou free seeke not to bee bound and as many as walke according to this rule peace shall bee vponthem and mercie and vpon the Israel of God B. C. 43. As for the libertie of making Lawes in Church-matters the common Lawyer may perhaps make an aduantage of it and threfore greatly stand vpon it but to the Common people it is no pleasure at all but rather a great burden for the great multitude of Statutes which haue been made since the Schisme which are more then fiue times so many that euer were made before since the name of Parliament was in England hath caused also an infinite number of Lawyers all which must liue by the Commons and raise new families which cannot bee done without the decay of the old and if the Canon of the Church and Courts of Confession were in requâ—st the Lawyers market would soone bee marred and therefore most of your Lawyers in this point are Puritans and doe still furnish the Parliament with grieuances against the Clergie as knowing very well that their owne glory came at the first from the Court Infidel and therefore cannot stand with the authoritie of the Church which came at the first from the Court Christian I speake not against the anciâ—nt lawes of England which since King Ethelberts time were all Catholike nor against the honest Lawyers of England I know many and honour all good men among them and doe looke for better times by the learning wisedome and moderation of the chiefest But I am verely perswaded that the pretended liberties of the Commons to make Lawes in matter of Religion doth burden the Common-wealth and doth trouble and preiudice your Maiestie and pleasure none at all but the Puritan and petti-fogging Lawyer that would faine fetch the antiquity of his Common Law from the Saxons that were before King Ethelbert So that whether wee respect the spirituall instruction and comfort or the temporall wealth and libertie of the Commons of England if the Puritan Preacher and the Puritan Lawyer who both seeke the ouerthrowe of the Church and deceiue and consume the people would let them alone there would quickely appeare no reason of their state at all why they should hate the Catholike Church that is so comfortable and beneficiall vnto them or maintaine the Schisme that with sugred speaches and counterfeit faces doth so much abuse them G. H. 4â— The next priuiledge which you pretend to the Commons is the liberty of making Lawes in Church-matters as if they could make lawes without the consent of the Lords both Spirituall and Temporall or they all without the royall assent of his Maiestie and for the multitude of Statutes which you speake of the multitude of erroneous opinions deuilish practises from Rome haue caused a great part of them and the malice both of the deuil as knowing his time to be but short and of men in this last and worst age of the world generally increasing must needes giue occasion to more lawes Hee that shall looke into the bodie of the ciuill law may find that those lawes multiplied faster from Constantines time to the ende of Iustinians which was about 200. yeere then in foure nay in fiue hundred yeeres before though the one were vnder a Christian gouernement and the other vnder an heathenish whâ— tooke their beginnings as wee knowe onely from the lawes of the twelue tables which were brought out of Greece Did not God himselfe besides those twelue precepts grounded vpon the law of nature adde many lawes therunto for the gouernement of his Church and that which hee did by the Ministry of Moses vnto that speciall people the same power hath hee left to the gouernours of particular Churches conditionally all their lawes bee conformable or at leastwise not repugnant vnto his law the rule and square of all humane lawes how hath the Canon law it selfe to which Mr. Doctors drift is wholly to resubmit vs in Church gouernement growen vp to a great bulke and massie bodie and
G. H. 44. And wee are on the other side as confident that in going to the Church of Rome and forsaking your owne in which you were bred and baptized besides the indangering of your own soule you haue done no good seruice to his Maiestie neither in respect of himselfe nor his children neither of his Lords nor Commons in perswading vnitie with the Church of Rome vnlesse first shee could bee perswaded to the imbracing of the same veritie in Religion with vs. There is onely the Clergie left which if Popery should goe on and preuaile as you desire it should shall not in the next age bee left to bee satisfied or to giue satisfaction but there is little reason that any man that loues the Clergie should desire to satisfie such Clergie-men as your selfe while you were among vs who vnder hand fauour Papists and maintaine such points of doctrine as if his Maiesties authoritie were not would out of hand ouerthrow the doctrine established and in stead thereof reestablish the Papacie B. C. 45. There neuer was is nor shall bee any wellsetled State in the world either Christian or heathen but the Clergie and Priesthood was is and must bee a principall part of the gouernment depending vpon none but him onely whom they suppose to bee their God but where Caluinisme preuaileth three or foure stipendary Ministers that must preach as it shall please Mr. Maior and his brethren may serue for a whole city and indeede if their opinions bee true it is but folly for any State to maintaine more For if God haue predestinated a certaine number to bee saued without any condition at all of their beeing in the visible Church by Faith or their perseuering therein by good workes If God hath reprobated the greatest part of the world without any respect at all of their infidelity heresie or wicked life if the faith of CHRIST be nothing else but the assured perswasion of a mans owne predestination to glory by him if the Sacraments of the Church bee nothing but signes and badges of that grace which a man hath before by the carnall couenant of his parents faith if Priesthood can doe nothing but preach the word as they call it which lay Lay-men must iudge of and may preach to if they will where occasion serues If the study and knowledge of antiquity vniuersality and consent be not necessary but euery man may expound Scripture as his owne spirit shall moue him If I say these and such like opinions be as true as they are among the Caluinists in the world common and in England too much fauoured and maintained there will certainely appeare no reason at all vnto your Parliament whensoeuer your Maiesty or your successours shall please to aske them why they should bee at so great a charge as they are to maintaine so needlesse a party as these opinions doe make the Clergie to be They can haue a great many more sermons a great deale better cheape and in the opinion of Caluinisme the Clergie doe no other seruice they that doe in England fauour and maintaine those opinions and suppresse and disgrace those that doe confute them they although themselues can be content to bee lordes and to goe in Rochets are indeed the greatest enemies of the Clergie and it were no great matter for the Clergie they might easily turne lay and liue as well as they do for the most part but it is a thing full of compassion and commiseration to see that by these false and wicked opinions the deuill the father of these and all other lies doth daily take possession of the soules of your Subiects both of Clergie and laitie These kind of Clergie men I confesse I doe not desire to satisfie any other way then as I haue alwayes done that is by the most friendly and plaine confutation of their errours to shew them the trueth as for other Clergie men that are conformable to the religion established by Law as well for their doctrine as for their discipline if they be good Schollers and temperate men as I know many of them are they cannot but in their iudgements approue the truth of Catholike religion and if it were not for feare of losse or disgrace to their wiues and children they would be as glad as my selfe that a more temperate course might be held and more liberty afforded to Catholikes and Catholike Religion in England These Clergie men I am and euer shall be desirous to satisfie not onely in respect of themselues but also in respect of their wiues and children whom I am so farre from condemning or misliking as that I doe account my selfe one of them and I desire nothing more in this world then in the toleration of Catholike religion to liue and die among them and therefore I haue had so great care in this point as before I did submit my selfe to the Catholike Church I receiued assurance from some of the greatest that if his Maiesty would admit the ancient subordination of the Church of Canterbury vnto that mother by whose authority all other Churches in England at the first were and still are subordinate vnto Canterbury and the first free vse of that Sacrament for which especially all the Churches in Christendome were first founded the Pope for his part would confirme the interest of all those that haue present possession in any Ecclesiasticall liuing in England and would also permit the free vse of the Common Prayer booke in English for Morning and Euening Prayer with very little or no alteration and for the contentment and security of your Maiesty he would giue you not onely any satisfaction but all the honor that with the vnity of the Church and the safetie of Catholike Religion may be required which seemed to me so reasonable as beeing before satisfied for the trueth of Catholike Religion I could aske no more so that I am verely perswaded that by yeelding to that trueth which I could not deny I haue neither neglected my duety and seruice to your Maiesty and your children nor my respect and honour to your Lords and Commons nor my loue and kindenesse to my honest friends and brethren of the Clergie but rather that my example and my prayers shall doe good vnto all G. H. 45. That the Clergie should be a Principall member of the body popolitike we graunt but that they should depend on none but him only whom they suppose to bee their god wee denie Indeed where the authority of the Bishop of Rome swayes looke how many Clergy men there are so many subiects are exempt from the Iurisdiction of the secular power and wholy depend vpon his Holinesse who is to them in regard of the vniuersalitie of his commaund and the infallibilitie of his iudgement in stead of their God but for vs Non habemus talem consuetudinem neque Ecclesia Dei we depend
those two things which M. Doctour craues to be yeelded vnto he shrowds vnder the cloake of the first vse of the Sacrament whereas his Maiestie rightly termeth the present doctrine and practise of the Church of Rome therein new coyned articles neuer heard of in the first 500. yeeres Such as are the cutting off of one halfe of the Sacrament from the people priuate Masses where the Priest playeth the part both of the Priest and of the people their Transubstantiation Eleuation for adoration reseruation in boxes and circuâ—gestation in Processions besides an infinite number of ridiculous and apish toyes in the celebration of it Notwithstanding you make no bones to demand the free vse hereof that is as I conceiue in effect the publike toleration and liberty of Romish religion a matter most vnreasonable to be expected from his Maiesty of any king liuing who therefore specially seemes to mislike the bitternesse of some busie Ministers who God be blessed grow both fewer in number and more calme in their courses because they trouble the peace of the Church thereby giuing aduantage to the entry of Papists by the diuision thereof how then can you conceâ—ue any hope of a Toleration of your pretended Catholike religion it selfe But if you consider that which his Maiesty writeth against the mariage of his sonne to oâ—e of a different religion your hope wil be much lesse Solomon from the toleration of a strange worship within his dominions fell at last as we know to the imbracing of it himselfe And it is obserued by Diuines both Iewish and Christian that the diuersitie of religion tolerated by King Solomon in diuine worship was by God requited vpon his heire and next successour Iure talionis by a retaliated diuision of an vnrecouerable rupture in the ciuill gouernment Your owne Stapleton spares not to reuile Bodiâ— in particular as an enemy to Christianity for maintaining that liberty The Rhemists conclude to like purpose in their annoâ—ations vpon the new Testament and Bellarmine spends two whole chapters in confuting their arguments who pleade for this indifferencie inforâ—ing it from the example of the Iewish Church grounds of Scripture practise of Emperours iudgement of Fathers yea reason and experience to bee pernitious in any Realme boâ—h to the Ecclesiasticall and ciuill state and dangerous euen to themselues which vse that liberty shall we imagine then that his Matie a king if any other in the world so desirous to serue God truely without shrinking or wauering setled in conscience resolued in iudgement confirming by practise by word by writing by oath by lawes by aduice what hee openly professeth would euer differ so much from himselfe as to admit euen of a partiall Toleration of a religion different from if not contrary vnto his owne a matter so contrary to Gods will so dishonourable to himselfe so dangerous to the State Be not partaker saith S. Paul to Timothy of other mens sinnes now I cannot conceiue how in his case the Magistrates permitting when it is in his power to forbid can well be distinguished from pertaking From your demands you come to your promises whereof the first is that the Pope for his part would confirâ—e the interest of all those that haue present possession in any ecclesisticall liuing in England he must then confirme the interest of all those whom you call Puritans and Caluinists as well as others which I thinke hee will bee as vnwilling to doe as they to take it from him nay I am perswaded there is no Clergy man in England worthy the name and credit of a good Subiect or the profit of the liuing he holdes who would thinke the possession of it any way the securer for the Popes confirmation But to grant that the right of those who haue the present interest in them might by that means bee strengthened what were like to become of the fattest Benefices and best dignities of our Church the same power continuing in the next age wee may in part coniecture by the experience of former times they being by the Popes authoritie conferred vpon his fauourits Italians and strangers who neuer came so much as to see them and yet notwithstanding was the rest of the Clergy so harrowed partly by the cunning practise and partly by the violent extortion of his Legats and Collectours as I haue already shewed that it is surely a lamentable thing to read it much more to feele it The Second thing you promise is the permitting the free vâ—e of the Common prayer booke in English for Morning and Euening prayers with vâ—ry little or no alteration belike then his Holinesse hath of late better studied that Scripture of Saint Paul the 1. to the Corinthians and the 14. then which I see not what can be more cleerely spoken not onely for reading and expounding the Scriptures but specially for praying in a knowen language and if his Holinesse iudge it no offence to God to permit the vse of our Liturgy in English what reason can our Recusants pretend of their refusall to ioyne with our Congregation in the vse of it except his purpose bee to permit it only for an interim as Charles the 5th did to the Germans vntill hee can gaine further strength to worke his owne ends or as hee doth the stews to auoide a greater conceiued mischiefe but God be thanked wee haue and hope still to haue the freâ—â—se of that booke without his permission and for his permission should thinke nothing the better but rather the worse of it The third and last thing you offer is that for the contentmâ—nt and securitie of his Maiesty his Holinesse would giue him not only any satisfaction but all the honour that with the vnity of the Church and safety of Catholike religion may bee required but how farrâ— the vnitie of the Church and the safety of Catholike religion extends it selfe is so doubtfull a case as none can determine it but the Pope himselfe so that except his Maiestie can define or diuine rather what that meanes hee shall bee as farre to seeke of his securitie as euer Hee hath alreadie declared by his Breues that the taking of the Oath of Allegeance cannot stand with the safety of Catholike Religion so that if hee will secure his Maiestie hee must not only condemne those Authors and damne that Doctrine which teaches his power in deposing Kings and disposing of Kingdomes but hee must either recall that declaration made as hee pretendeth vpon long and weightie deliberation which it may bee to â—erue his turne hee would as willingly doe as absolue the Venetians though they no way submitted themselues in the point controuersed or if hee persist in the maintenance thereof as in greatest likelihood hee wâ—â—l I see not which way hee can secure his Maiestie except hee may bee said to secure who cuts off all meanes of his securitie an oath being among all Christians and Heathens if they bee but morally honest
a Christians for whom he did predestinate them also hee called and whom hee called them also hee iustified and whom hee iustified them also hee glorified since then hee neither calls nor iustifies Turkes wee are sure they cannot be of the company of the predestinate But his Maiestie himselfe I now remember well concluded this point at the conference at Hampton Court and therefore wee neede not feare his being deceiued in iudgement his determination is that wee should iudge of our Predestination not so much descendendo by prying into Gods secret counsell as ascendendo by searching our owne hearts the sincerity of our owne hearts being as it were the counterpane of Gods eternall decree locked vp in the Cabinet of his counsell and therefore the Apostle in the 2. to Tim. and the 2. ioynes them both together The foundation of God saith hee remaineth sure and hath this seale The Lord knoweth who are his there is the Instrument sealed on Gods part the Counterpane on ours instantly followes and let euery one that calleth on the Name of CHRIST depart from iniquitie So that the way to assure our selues that wee are in the number of those that are sealed to life is to call on the name of CHRIST in our profession and depart from iniquitie in our conuersation the one is required in our life and the other in our beliefe Neither is the faith of such beleeuers an opinion or fancie but the ground of things which are hoped for and the euidence of things which are not seene and a shield to quench all such fiery and venemous dartes nor is their hope a presumption but a sure anchor against despaire nor their charitie lust but the loue of their neighbours as of themselues nor their God an idole but that Lord who hath reuealed himselfe vnto vs in his word whereas on the other side we may iustly say that the Popes Ecclesia malignantium may more easily serue a Turke her Religion being rebellion her practice murthering of soules and bodies as it acknowledged in the publike prayers of our Church her faith beeing but wauering and full of irresolution her hope a balancing and estimation of her owne merit her charity an ostentation of workes no God so powerfull with her and beneficiall vnto her as the Pope and the Masse We know that all religions begin their Creed with I beleeue in God but none haue lesse reason then they who beleeue in him in generall without particular application and for S. Augustines testimonies that to an heretike the entertainement and imbracing of his fantasies is his religion I demand which is more likely to build his religion on fantasieâ— either he who depends meerely on the written word of God or hee that equals his owne inuentions thereunto B. C. 47. I haue more things to write but the haste of answering your Maiesties commandement signified to me by S ir Thomas Lake his letters haue made mee commit many faults in writing this very suddenly for which I craue pardon and cut of the rest but for my returning into England I can answere none otherwise but thus I haue sent you my soule in this treatise and if it may finde entertainement and passage my body shall quickely follow after and if not I pray God I send my soule to heauen and my body to the graue as soone as may be In the meane time I will reioyce in nothing but onely in the Crosse of CHRIST which is the glory of your Crowne and therefore I will triumph therein not as being gone from you to your aduersary but as being gone before you to your Mother where I desire and hope for euer to continue Your MAIESTIES True seruant and Beadesman Beniamin Carier G. H. 47. S. Iohn concludes his Epistle to Gaius I haue many things to write and Mr. Doctor his to his Maiestie I haue more things to write but S. Iohn trusts to come shortly after and speake with him mouth to mouth but Mr. Doctour will not promise that except he be first assured his Letter may finde entertainment which as I heare was very slender and no marueile then he hasted not after S. Iohn craued not pardon for his faults which we make the marke of an Apocryphal writer but M. Doctor doth and that very deseruedly in as much as he chose rather with Albinus to craue pardon for his faults committed then not to commit them and whereas he imputes his faults to his sudden writing in imitation belike of Campian therein he addes another fault to his former in as much as a great part of this was written long before his Maiesties command came to his hands partly in a Latine Epistle to Mr. Casaubon and partly in an English letter to an honourable person in Court and yet for any great matter is in it in my iudgment it needed no long deliberation as it was suddenly written if it were so so may it somewhat mooue a man of a suddaine apprehension but surely the grauer and wiser sort I thinke it will little affect Lastly for your returne into England you can make none other answere you say then this that you haue sent your soule in this treatise and if it may finde passage your body shall follow after while you were here your body was with vs but your soule with them for anima est non vbi animat sed vbi amat and your selfe in your Common place booke maintaine that a man may liue among heretikes or Schismatikes not yeelding outward obedience to the Church and yet liue in the State of grace if his soule be vnited to the Church in the vnderstanding by faith and by charity in the will conditionally he withhold himselfe from such outward obedience not for priuate respects but for the publike aduantage of the Church As your soule then was with them when your body was with vs so your body being with them your soule was then busie working here with vs but for their purposes and sure except you altered your opinions set downe in this treatise and I haue cause to feare you entertained worse dying among the Iesuits better you should stay there both in body and soule or send your soule out of your body and your body to the graue as in Gods prouidence you haue done then to returne to infect that Countrey and Church in which you were borne and bred and baptized which as you professed in your last Sermon before his Maiesty and in writings which I haue to shew vnder your owne hand might iustly contend with any Church in the world for purity of doctrine But it seemes you had forgotten being but a nouice in that doctrine you were to passe by Purgatory before you came to heauen except you supposed the Spaw waters had sufficiently purged you or else you presumed farre vpon the merit of your profound demonstrations as if thereby you needed not De profundis to be sung nor Masse to be
more often Recognized it in his prayer before his Sermons 4 Pag. 220. Where among such famous Doctors as were conuerted lately to the Romish Religion hee reckons Dr. Bull for one 5 See the late B. of Lincolnes answere to a namelesse Catholike p. 115. 6 May 21. 1610 7 His Maiesty there speakes of the French King Henry the IV. 8 Nâ—sâ— itaque idexpâ—ctâ—â—ur a serenâ—ssimo Regâ— vâ— palam â—or am vniueâ— so mundo profiteatur sâ—metâ—â— ad sidem cogâ— non vâ—deo quo modo aâ—imus Regius in tâ—m iusta 17a tanto perâ—â—â—lo suo suorum pâ—ssit ad corum parâ—es propius aâ—â—edere 9 See the relation of the state of religion in these Westerne parts which it were much to be wished the Author himselfe would perfect and publish 10 Brittaâ—nom 〈◊〉 pag. 324. 1 I can shew it in the Authors owne Letters that he had a purpose of publishing it 2 He hath now gotten more name and fame by running away from vs then by any acte that euer hee did among vs. 3 The Credite he had in Court was won by his hypocrisie 4 He was like enough to aspire to higher preferment but while he remained like himselfe not like to attaine it 5 What intiâ—ing baits could these be vnto him who by his own acknowledgement felt the state of his body such that hee could not long enioy them 6 The wauering was in his braine not in their opinions 7 Hee professeth indeed that hee found a large opposition betweene the new French as he calleth it and the old English but betweene the English and the Râ—mish none at all or â—o small as it might easily be reconciled Chap. 2. Sâ—ct 29. 8 Or rather a counterfeit light from him who is transformed into an Angel of Light 9 His owne relation shewes how slowly he proceeded in this businesse as being in hope of higher preferment and yet in despaire of longer life 10 Catholike Roman I take to be as much as Kent and Christâ—ndome 11 Had Mr. Dr. done so he had rested where he was Cap. 2. Sâ—â—t 36. 1 You might haue named Scripture as well as art but it seemes you purposely forbore it lest you shou'd seeme a Caluinist 2 In your 2. chap. 21. Sect. you affirme the doctrine of the Church of Eng. to be that which is conteined in the coÌ„mon prayer booke and Church Catechisme very nere agreeing with or at least not contradicting the Church of Rome 3 Had you brought any proofe from the Scriptures ancient Fathers for the trueth of that Religion which you call Cathol you would haue thereby giuen vs some reaâ—on to thinke â—ou had indeed studied them 4 Your reconcâ—liation of religâ—oÌ„ was nothing else but a renouncing of the truth 5 It is maruell you had not imparted knowledge by writing 6 Your place compelled you not to preach points of Râ—mish doctrine 7 Catholike Religion is not hated in England but the religion of pretended Catholikes is iustly restrained 8 You might as fully and â—reely haue enioyed the preâ—ence of our blessed Sauiour in the vnitâ—e of the English Church as the Râ—mish 9 How can there be a dayly oblation of that which himselfe offered once for all Heb. 7. 27. 9. 28. and 10. 10 10 When his Maiâ—sties reasons are answered why he should not bee already esteemed in the vnitie of the Catholike Church prayer for his admission into it will bee admitted 11 Your dueâ—ie would better haue appeared in writing somewhat in defence of his Maiesties writings 12 Your auowed presence at the dayly oblation as you call it was a sufficient declaration of your reuolt 13 How sufficiently either of these two bee shewed I leaue it to the indifferent Reader to iudge 14 I wonder that any hauing affiance in his Holinessâ— pardons should desire his Maâ—esties 15 Hee is indeed likely to bee a faithfull seruant to his Maiestie who flies to the tents and pleads the cause of his sworne enemies 1. Pâ—t 3. 4. 1 It was such a schisme as the Apostle practised when certaine were hardened disobeyed speaking euill of the way of God he departed from them and separated the discsples Acts 19. 9. and gâ—ue the like commandement to others if any teach otherwise and consenteth not to the wholsome words of the Lord Iesus and from such separate thy selfe 1. Tim. 6. 3 4 5. 2 This ambition of yours was it which being some what crossed or not fully satisfied caused your apostâ—sie as it did Arrius his heresie 3 Yet himselfe afterward iustifies it chap. 2. sâ—ct 21. 4 Doe men gather grapes of thornes or figs of thistles and can either duety or loue be expected from such subiects and friends better is the hâ—tred of an open enemy then the loue of such a friend 5 Ab ouo vsquâ— ad maluâ—â— He repeats the same phrase in diuers other places * Colâ—ss 2. 23. * Esai 1. 12. 6 Great zeale and neutralitie in Religion seldome stand together as neither doe gâ—eat zeâ—le and vehement ambition 7 We grant as much tâ—at the gates of hell shall neuer vtterly prâ—uaile against it Non bene câ—n 〈…〉 vna sede morantur ambitio zelus * Iames 3. 16. * Rom. 10. 2 * Lâ—ke 16. 8. * 2. Thes. 2. 7. * Matth. 10. 1â— 1 He indeede deliueredit to his Apostles and disciples to continue but sure wee are it continued not by that succession and in that Church which you call visible and perpetuall or at least not as he deliuered it the enuiâ—us man came in the night and sowed tares amongst it * Matth. 19. 8. 2 Obserue here the great zeale of this man which himselfe boasteth of in the 2. Sâ—ction going before * Matth. 13. 5. 25 1 It is to be noted that some of thesâ— Vniuersities professe in their published instruments that they tooke an oath to deliuer and to study vpon the foresaid questions as should be to the pleasure of God and according to conscience the copie whereof is to be seene in our English Chronicles 2 After the determinations of these Vniuersites were read in open Parliament there were shewen aboue a 100. bookes drawen by Doctours of strange regions which all agreed the Kings marâ—age to be vnlawfull 1 How learnedly you vnderstood the state of the question betwixt vs appeares afterward in setting downe the opinion of the Church of Rome touching Images 2 No mention at all of reading the Scriptures that was too base a worke for so great a Clerke 1 How comes it to passe then that the profouÌ„d Doctors for prooâ—e of many doctrines of that Church forsake the Scriptures flie to traditions 2 As if in your learning the Gospel were not Scripture 3 Belike then we in these colde Northerne Climats haue no Christian soules 4 When those Preachers shal be named and their current opinions specified and the passages quoted by which they are conâ—uted I doubt not but the vnanswerable
consequents will finde a sufficient answere in the meane time you must giue vs leaue to suspect that Doluâ— latet in vniuersalibus falshood insists vpon generals 5 Wee haue good reason to thinke you were not so much grieued for crossing those great preachers you speake of as that thereby your prefeâ—ment was crossed 1 Such a profound demonsration is that of Bellarmine out of Petrus Damianus to shew the reason why in the Popes old Seales S. Paul was on the right hand of S. Peter because forsooth Paul was of the tribe of Beniamin and Beniamin signifies the sonne of the right hand and for this he quotes Gen. 35. and 42. * Matth. 26. 27. * Iohn 18. 36. 1 It seemes then your Puritane for you tell vs before those preachers were such may be a very honest man yet afterwards you tell vs their principles are such as ouerthrow all honesty 2 As loth as you were to oppose them in publike yet you did as farre as you durst as your selfe afterwards confesse 3 The faith in which you were baptized is the â—ame which now is professed in the Church of England and that I am sure no man expected you should oppugne * Luke 16. 26. 1 I had thought before that a Puritane and a Caluenist a creature of Schisme in your language had bene all one 2 If Dauid himselfe bee a Schismatike as you make him how were the creatures of Schisme to strong for him 3 Those whom you call temperate men we may suspect to bee neutrals made of lincie whoolsie neither hote nor cold but halting betweene two opinions 1. Kings 18. 21. 4 That which you call honest preaching of the Trueth wee take to be the neerest approching that may be to Româ— gates 5 Herein you failed not in that at last you vnmasked your owne hypocriosie * 2. King 9. â— â—â— * Ierem. 51. 9. 1 You might more properly haue applied fiery to your desperate Cath. for such was their practise 2 There needed no great violence to aggrauate the haynousnesse of that plot 3 How comes it then to passe that notwithstanding all this in the next chap. you so earnestly labour the conuersion of his Maiestie and the whole Realme Ex oreâ—tuâ— condemnaberis serue nequam Luke 1â— 22. 1 What needed any great wit or learning for the iustification of that doctrine which by your owne confession holds no point expresly contrary to antiquity 1 To allow the people images for religious vse and then to admonish them that they take heed of idolatry is as if a man should put an hungry horse into a goodly pasture and then command him not to eate or a child vpon the top of a lâ—dder and then bid him take heed of a fall 2 Why do they couer them in Lent then 3 We should indeed haue our conuersation amongst the Saints in heauen but not amongst their images on earth M. Hooker in his 5. booke of Ecclesiastical policie Sect. 65. 1 I tolde you before you were prepossessed with preiudice which made you obiect so weakely 2 Had it taken effect they would haue abhorred it as Sixtus did the Friars murthering of Henry the III. of France in the Consistorie of Cardinals where he compares it to the worke of our Redemption 3 A likely matter that his Maiestie should make complaint in a iudicial proceeding to him in whom he professeth that he acknowledgeth no right of proceeding iudicially in the censure of his owne Subiects 4 All those Writers whom you call Catholikes doe so condemne it as they seeme rather to thinke it vnfortunate in the successe then mischieuous in the plot 5 What authoritie this is will appeare in Pius his Bull whose words are these And him alone hath hee made chiefe ouer all nations and kingdomes who may alone root out destroy scatter waste plant and build that the faithfull people knit together with the band of mutuall charitie might be kept in the vnitie of the Spirit 1 How could your hope bee such since your resolution was to the contrary as appeares by your own words in diuers passages before 2 Your selfe within a fewe lines after acknowledge you found many 3 So that it seemes by your owne confession the greatest corruptions are to be found in the Church of Rome seeing by Gods wheate field in your vnderstanding can bee meant none other but that Church in which in your opinion grace most aboundeth 4 Belike then you saw some broad difference in the circumstance 5 You made sure worke for that by carrying ouer store of monies with you by obtaining pensions from the Pope the Q. Mother of France and Cardinall Peâ—â—on * Gal. 2. 21. * Col. 2. 20 21 22 * 1. Pet. 1. 19. 1 It may bee those afflictions serued to free you from Purgatorie as you presume in the conclusion of your letter otherwise I see not why you should afflict your selfe for chusing the only supposed meanes of your saluation 2 You disputed with such learned men as you could meet with and yet auoided the companie of Catholiks you promise his Maiesty to remember him at the dayly oblation and yet you abstained from their Churches 3 That which you call peace is a betraying of 〈◊〉 the trueth and 〈◊〉 that which you call a reconciliation is a rent froÌ„ forreine reformed Churches 4 I marueile who gaue you authoritie to bring M. Casaubon ouer from France 5 Hauing receiued this answere What moued you to be so saucie and importunate to mooue his Maiestie the second time to entertaine Societie with that Church 6 Though you loued that Romish religion well you loued your life better 1 In what sense Rome may bee termed the mother â—hurch see in mine answere to the 45. Section 2 His Maiestie termeth him the Patriarch but not the Primate of the West 3 Where was your great zeale then to sweare against your conscience for fashion but did you not take it again when you came to yeres of discretion at the taking of your degrees at your institution in your Benefices at your admittance to your Prebendry and Chaplenship and oft recognize the truth of the summe of the said oth in your prayer before euery sermon you made How then comes it now to passe that you would not take it again to gaine the greatest preâ—ermeÌ„t in yâ— world but that you were out of hope to get any or by your owne confession long to enioy it 4 The Bishops in K. Hen. the 8. time thought themselues as good Christians as your selfe yet they tooke it or at least made a shew of taking it with a good conscience besides you call thâ— consciences or the Christianity of your honest brethren of the Clergy into question who haue taken the same oath it may be more then once and yet being good Schollers as you pretend they could not be ignorant what offence they incurred in taking it 1 Master Dâ—â—lington in his inference vpoÌ„ Guicciardines Degression
Page 3. 2 Page 200. 3 Which Dispensation was first granted contrarie to the opinion of all the Cardinals of Râ—me being Diuines Hall ann Hâ—nry 8. 4 In the yeere 1562. and againe in 1571. 5 Apol. for the Oath of alleagiance p. 108. 6 Eusebius lib. 3 de vita Constantâ—i * Psal. 91 11. 7 Such a precedenciâ— hath the Emperour before Christian kings but no command ouer them 8 B. Bilson part 2 of Christian subiection p. 237. 1 This penalty was not inflicted for taking Orders but for returning after Orders taken such a penalty did Solomon impose and execute vpon Shimei 1. King 2. 2 There is lesse doubt of the Episcopall being of our Bishops then of those that deriue their being from the Popes in regard of their manifold schismes and if it came to scanning the Archbishop of Canterbury hath faiâ—er euidence to shew for his right to that See then the Bishop of Rome to the Popedome nay the Pope to the Bishopricke of Rome * Roâ— 11. 18 c. 1 He that examines the writings will easily find you wrote without booke 2 Such a Catholike then as your selfe the Sâ—ate standing as it doth can by your owne confession bee no good subiect 3 As if onely Puritanes were at the making of those Statutes or they alone make care and conscience of the execution of them 4 A mâ—rueile it is that a man of your age and experience should conceiue or affirme that to belong to the office of a Iustice of Peâ—câ— which appertaines to the Iudges or Iustices itenerant 5 Your hope must needes be grounded vpon a vaine presumption of some strange and sudden alteration in his Maiestie considering his full resolution and your many infirmities but your hope is perished with your selfe and so may all they who entertaine the like 6 You speake as if the naturall birth of a man gaue him interest in the Saints of heauen whereas there they put off all carnall affections and become like vnto the Angels 7 The Saints of heauen haue no knowledge of the particular conuersion of a sinner by any ordinary intuition but by reuâ—lation extraordinary 8 Many Saints no doubt are triumphant which were neuer militant in that Church which acknowledgeth the Pope her head 9 Where no offence is committed there needs no pardon to be either demanded or granted 10 The seruice you intended was nothing els but a plotting with the Pâ—pâ— and his Factours how you might betray the liberty of your Countrey and submit your Soueraignes neck to the yoke of his seruice 11 Vnlesse the Church of Rome draw neerer to vs then hitherto shee hath made sheâ— of it cannot bee but with the preiudice of all the honest men in England and honesty it selfe that a neerer vnion betwixt her and the Church of England should be concluded then already there is 1 Contrâ— literâ—â— Patâ—â— 2. c. 92 2 This Booke was written by my L. Burleigh L. Treasourer wherein hee pâ—ouâ—s that no Romish Catholikes were then executed but for iustifying the Bul of Pâ—us V. which Card. Allen replied vnto but so weakely as the trueth is thereby streâ—gthened 3 This samâ— poiâ—t is againâ— confirmed by his Maiesty in his booke Dâ— droâ—â— dâ—s Râ—yeâ— Pagâ— 113. 4 Ego intraproximum trimestro â—el sâ—mestre tot puta quinque vel sex reconciliaui pro quibus spondere ausiâ— quod quaecunque occasiâ— inciderit a parte nâ—stra â—â—turi sint omnes Tâ—rt Torti 138. 1 I suppose your meaning is to be accounted so 2 I haue not met with any that teacheth it but holy Father Aristotle in the entrance of his Politikes 3 That which you call the malice of the times was the iust censure of your superiours procured by your own malice against the trueth 4 What seruice could you do by dying but by remouing a dangerous instrument 5 So then you seeme to confesse that for religion you were of the same mind long before you went hence as since you haue declared your selfe which notwithstanding in diuers other places you contradict 1 Pol. lib. 3. cap. â— In methodâ— histâ— vt apparet in 〈◊〉 ex purgatâ—riâ— 1 That is you haue put off a Diuine to put on a Statesman but the prouerbe is Monachus in aula piscis in arido and your owne saying is that false Religion is but a policie for the temporal seruice of Princes 2 What securitie did it procure to Henry the IIII. and the 7. Emperours or to Chilperike Phil. lebâ—l Lewis the XII or the 2. last Hen. of France and if there be no securitie but in that religion what religion is that which will admit of no security in any but it selfe 3 They were aduanced by the grace of God and their owne right not by the Roman Religion which in a maner is all one with the Bishop of Romes authoritie by which Histories recorde how king Iohn and diuers other his Maiesties predecessours aswell of England as France and Scotland haue bene aduanced and protected 4 Why then if the Roman Religion had remained amongst vs should they still haue beene prayed for as if they had remained in Purgatorie 1 All this must be vnderstood of the Church of Rome which first curseth and then by all meanes laboureth to confound such as oppose against her imputing her owne deuillish plots to Gods working 1 See Lipsius his admiranda or de magnitudine Remani Imp. 1 It is rather Rome that is fallen from the vnitie of Christs Church 2 You are somwhat more fauorable to her herein then Bocius in his 12. booke and 3 chapter of the signes of the Church Terenixa passim pradicatur ex illicito coitu ac propterea fuitincemitijs Angliae publicis decretum vt illi defunctae in regno possent succedere ex huiusmodi concubinatunati A most malicious lie 3 She came vpon the religion professed and established in her sisters reigne which you call remainders of deuotion and wee denie it not but how comes it to passe that her sister was so vnfortunate if the onely comming vpon her remainders made Q. Elizabeth so happy 4 That which you cal maintaining of warre amongst her neighbours his Maiestie in her ensuing Epitaph termes the relieuing of France and supporting the Netherlands hee might iustly haue called it the setting vp of a iust King in his owne kingdome and the freeing of a free Estate from the vniust vsurpation of a forreine power 5 For feare of failing wee are yeerely supplied with a new Mission of shauelings from the fountaine but sure I am perswaded if this current were stopped our peace and prosperitie would be both more honourable and certaine then it is 1 That is as far as the drift of your reason proposed in the 2. and 3. Section of this Chapter 2 To conferre is not properly by a bare permission but by donation 3 Kingdomes may be bestowed vpon wicked men for many other reasons besides the sinnes of the people
as to be a scourge to other States or for some other temporall seruice which either their predecessors had done or theÌ„selues might doe or lastly as S. Ierome notes God thereby inuites them by his bounty that theÌ„selues should bee conuerted from their owne sins See T. Fitzâ—herbert of this poiâ—t in his treatise of Policie and Religion part 1. ca. 17. 4 His ordinary guarde in Constantinople and there about are but 24. thousand and though many of them be taken from the breasts of their Christian mothers yet is it not the greatest part as you auouch 5 Their facilitie in admitting other religions aswell as their owne to hope of Saluation should in reason rather weaken their Empire then fortifie it and those other principles of great importance rather serue to make a tyrant then to increase or maintaine a temporall Christian gouernement Rom. 13. De Ciuit dâ—i lib. 5. Cap. 21. 1 Since it was first a Church there were neuer so many able labourers in it nor religioÌ„ so sincerely preached and professed as by Gods gracâ— it is at this day so that it rather deserues the name of a body and yours of a shadow 2 By Schisme and Heresie you vnderstand schismatikes and heretikes and among them you ranke his Maiestie Such is the great honour you doe him as the Iewes dealt with Christ so doe you with his annointed they said Haile King of the Iewes and they 〈◊〉 him with theâ—r rods Iohn 19. 3. 1 Obserue the moderation of this reconciler who would beare the world in hand that Christ is none otherwise present among vs in our Churches then he is among the deuils in hell 2 If they shall say vnto you Behold he is in the secret chambers beleeue it not Mat. 24. 26. 1 Who are more guilty of this then your Priests and Iesuites 2 Was not this the pretence of Thomas Pâ—râ—y Earle of Northumberland and Charles Neuill Earle of Westmerland when they tooke armes and raised forces against their Soueraigne in the yeere 1569. and yet sent out Proclamations and Commissions in her name which notwithstanding they ceased not to bee Popish traitouâ—s howbeit the Spanish expurgatory index labours to cleare them from that imputation as also the Earle of Desmond and a notorious traitour of Ireland by rasing that â—estimonie of them in M. Cambden who iustly records them so to posterity 3 Who haue serued their own turnes most and raised more sedition the Clergy of Rome by their vniust vsurpation or the Clergie of England by their iust reformation I leaue to the world to iudge 1 This is the hope and prayer oâ— you all as long as you want stâ—ength but if you had that once we should quickly heare you change your note and sing another song In the meane time we can account your prayer none other then as theirs in the last Psalme saue one who haue the praise of God in their mouth and a two edged sword in their hands either be what you would seeme or seeme to be what indeed you are * Psal. 73. * Psal. 103. 1 In the front of this reason you seeme to disstinguish it from the former but in the pursuit of this Section you meerely confound them 2 In saying so you cannot but put his Maiestie to rebuke also there being the like none other reason of him and of other Kings who haue disclaimed vnion with Rome 3 I meruaile much where those rules were to be found for the space of the first 300. yeeres after Christ and whether the greatnesse and Maiesty of the great Turke or King of China be not beyond all the rules that Catholike Religion deliuereth in that kind 4 What they are that despise gouernement and speake euill of those that bee in authoritie his Maiestie is not now to seeke 1 De Laâ—ciâ— cap. 7 2 De Ponti Ro. lib. 1. cap. 7. 3 Ibidem 4 Ibidem de Cler. cap. 20. 5 De Pontif. lib. 3. cap. 16. * Lib. 5. cap. 8. 6 De Laicis cap. 8. 7 De Pontif. lib. 5. cap. 8. 8 De Pontif. lib 2 cap. 26. 9 De Pontif. lib. 4. cap. 15. 10 Dâ— Clericis cap. 28. 11 Ibidem 12 Ibidem * 2. Sam. 7. 14. * Psal 82 6. * 1. Sam. 24. 11. * 2. Chro. 9. 8. * 2. Sam. 14. 20. * 2. Sam. 21. 17. * Isay 49. 23. * Rom. 13. 5. * 1 Tim. 2. 2. * Rom. 13. 4. Matth. 22. 11. 1 Neither the Dutch nor the French acknowledge his Maiestie their chiefe 2 They ioyne together against the visible Monarchie of the church or rather the tyranny of the Pope which you call order but good it can not be being not from God 3 I desire to learne where you find that the deuils torment one another once we are sure if they did but helpe to cast out one another their kingdome could not stand 4 You seeme to intend the Netherlands which notwithstanding was neuer a kingdome nor their Bourgers Princes but how the Pope hath turned the ancient kingdome of the Romanes into a new State and made himselfe of a Priest a temporall Prince wee are not ignorant 5 Neither can I perswade my selfe that your Catholikes will euer ioine together to make one King ouer them all though the Iesuites it may be both desire and endeuour it 1 The word Geuse in their language signifies a begger 1 Bellarmine chargeth not only Calum with this opinion but Zuinglius and Kellison Melancthon who were not Caluinists 2 Surely that Pope who in his Conclaue told his Cardinals that the dominican Frier murdered the French King by the will of God by his ordinaÌ„ce by the aide of the Almighty by his speciall helpe spake litle lesse yet is that oration verified by Warmington a Romish priest sometimes Chapleine to Card. Allen from whom himselfe got a copie 3 They might quickly bee as learned as your selfe in the Scriptures for any thing appeares in this Epistle 4 Belike your selfe were present to take your part of the ale or you had good intelligence with the alewise 1 1 In his speech in Parliament after the Powder treason * Iob. 12. 19. 21. In 1. 2. d. 129. n. 2. In 1. Iac. 10. reas cap. 8. Demonst. 1 3 7. Lection 8. par â— De sig lib. 3. cap. 5. In hâ—â— epist. to Cham. In his Suruay l. 5. c. 2. Bib. sel. li. 8. c. 11 De amis gra lib. 2. cap. â— 3. Lib. 3. q. 12. de sac l. 1. pa. 4. c. 12. 2. d. 34. q. 1. art 3. 1. q. 13. art 1. pa. 1 9 3. 1 2. q. 93. art 6. pa. 4 96. 2. d. 37. q. 1. 1. par q 49. ar 2 Lib. 1. dist 41. In 9. ad Rom. lect 3. Torquet ac flectit in eis inuisibiliter operando * Vers. 27. 28. * Vers. 5. * Cap. 1. 21. * Cap. 10. 15. 1 Foelix scelus virtus vocatur had it taken effect that which now is stiled an horrible
afford as many sufficient and learned Preachers and that in a more substantiall and conscionable fashion then the Popes Hierarchie and that London alone affords more then Rome it selfe and their readinesse to supply Sermons is not so much out of any good will they beare that exercise as out of ill will they beare vs. Iohn Aduenâ— lib. 30. Anal. Boio 1 So that in Mr. Doctors Logick an honest Protestant may thus be defined One that can endure the State of England as it is and could be content it were as it was that he might receiue more benefit 2 You tel vs before that all false religions in the world are but humane policies and we as truely returne it vpon you that this humane policie fauours of a false religion 3 Many of them though they professed themselues dead to the world yet were they aliue to the flesh Renulfus Câ—str lib. 7. 1 Indeede by the forme of words yet extant in the masse booke and vsed by the Priest it is supposed that a number should Communicate daily with him but it seldome is so 2 If wee had no vse of confessours yet might and ought inferiors be kept in awe of hell fire by their Preachers and superiours be tolde of their errours in state by their Counsellers but you seeme to assure his Maiestie that if hee will not be told of his errours in confession he shall in rebellion * 2. Cor. 5. 18. 1 Bell de peâ—â—t lib. 3. Cap. 2. 2 Epist ad Front pag. 129. 3 Premon 125 4 See nouell doct in the ende of the Premon the 3. 5 Epist. ad Front pâ—g 140. 6 Pag. 326. 7 That is they doe not binde him to present the party confessing as appeares both in the body and title of the Canon * Gal. 5. 1. 1 If in those middle times when all things ranne in a current course there were not so many Statutes made in Church matters it must be imputed rather to the want of occasion then of power the plantation or reformation of the Church chiefly giuing occasion to the making of lawes in Church matters 2 When the name of a Parliament began in England is vncertaine See my L. Coke in his Preface to the ninth part of his reports 3 I take the raising of new houses to be no hinderance to the Common-weâ—lth the Lawyers themselues being a part of the Commons 4 As 〈◊〉 the Ciuill Law came not from the Roman Infidels â—hich notwithstandâ—ng stand well enough with the authoritie of the Ecclesiasticall Courts 5 What you call Catholike I know not but sure I am that since King Eth. time many Statutes haue been made for the restraâ—ning of the Bâ—shop of Romes vniuâ—t vsurpation neither doâ— finde that hee â—â—â—tered any thing in the lawes of the kingdome saue onely by commaâ—ding them to be turned into his mother tongue 6 Iâ— by better times you meane the restitution of the Romish Religion or the recoÌ„ciliation of our Church to Rome you had certainly very little reason to expect them from the learning wisedome and moderation of those that are now the chiefest in that profession the chiefest of all hauing both fâ—equently and fullâ— declared himselfe to the contrary and suffred for it by the slanderous tongues and pennes of malicious Romanists and namely Eudaemon and Parsons 1 Bod in lib. 1. de â—epub cap. 8. 2 See Monsâ—ir Seruius the Kings Attourney generals speach in the end of the reformation of the Vniueâ—sitie of Paris 3 Spâ—culum Iust. anno 712. 4 Statut. 21. Râ—â— 2. cap. 11. 5 Comment cap. 49. 6 A God containes the Sea within his owne bounds and marches so is it my office to make euery Court containe it selfe within its owne limits see his Maâ—â—sties Speech in Parliament 1609. 7 Cap. 17. 1 What thoâ—â— Clergie men are wee desire to know and who in your sense are Caluinists 2 What those points of doctrine are wee shall see in the next Section 3 That his Maiesties fauour to the Clergie is such as not to giue way to their ouerthrow and in stead of them to set vp a few stipendary Preachers we haue had good triall and are bound to blesse God for it but sore against the will of all Romane Catholikes it is that his Maiestie should fauour them so much 1 How Caluin himselfe though he were a stipendary Minister pleased Master Maior and his brethren let his banishment more then once for his free preaching testifie 2 We are assured that both his Maiesty and his heire apparent are so well resolued in this point as they wil neuer put it to the question 3 Our Sermons are not so cheape as your Masses which notwithstanding are in a manner the very life and soule of your Priesthood 4 The vntrueth of this assertion appeares in mine answere 5 As if all those who are called Lords and goe in Rochets were not by their place conformable to the discipline had often before they come to that place subscribed to the doctrine established by Law 6 They may more easily turne Lay with you where Lay men are admitted to the administration of the Sacrament 7 These kinde of Clergie men desire no satisfaction from you but wish you had bin as carefull to maintaine that trueth which once you professed as to confute their pretended errours which confutation notwithstanding you speake much of but no where performe nor so much as vndertake 8 You may rather call them temporizing then temperate 9 It were well that others knew them too if any such there bee who in iudgmeÌ„t approoue the trueth of that religion which you call Cath. and yet proâ—â—sse themselues not onely members but Ministers of our Church but our hope is that their number is not such as you vaunt of it being vnpossible that honest men and good Schollers should take the oath of Supremacie and subscribe to our articles of religion and yet in iudgement approue the authority of the B. of Rome which is in a maner the substance of that religion 10 Had ours had the like temperate course held with them or the like liberty afforded in Queene Maries dayes they would haue thought themselues happy 11 Their wiues and children are bound to pray for you in regard of your fatherly care of them 12 It is well that you account your selfe one of the honest men and good Schollers but they are so farre I hope from accounting you one of them as they vtterly condemne and mislike your courses 13 But it pleased God you should die among strangers and not liue to see that toleration you desired neither shall any of them we hope that yet liue and desire to see it 14 As if the whole fortune of Greece depended vpon your submission to that Church 15 What assurance can there bee on our parts from them who hold yâ— faith is not to be held with heretikes but you forgot your promise made to my Lords Grace of