Orders of Monks and Friers like so many bulwarkes or strong forts to oppose all batteries and assaults whatsoeuer her Aduersaries shall plant or set against her As the Benedictins Carthusians Ieromites Bernardins Augustins Carmelites Dominicans Franciscans Capuchins Recollects Iesuites Theotines Oraterians Fullians Barnabists and an hundred more of these bald pates Also Nunnes Beghins close Nunnes loose Nunnes Sisters Canonesses And Hermites as those of the Orders which they attribute to Saint Anthony Hilary Macarius S. Theon S. Frontinian S. Paul the Heremite S. Apollonius and many more Now hath the Popes added to these the holy Gildes or Confraternities of Saint Roch Saint Hubricht S. Sebastian S. Coronna who are clad in blew Saint Anthony in blacke Saint Martin in white Saint Dominicke in blacke Of the Iesuites and Capuchins c. Yea moreouer holy Orders of Knights as those of the Rhodes or Malta Teutonickes or Dutch Knights Templers Knights of Saint Iames Our Ladies Knights Knights of Ierusalem Knights of the Order of Calatraua and many more whom for breuitie sake I omit for truly I had need of six hundred tongues and two hundred pens yea a mouth of steele with a brazen voice if I should declare all the diuersities of Orders and Religions which the holy Popes haue set vp not only without but also against the holy Scripture And yet I name not the Popes themselues their Cardinals Prelates Patriarkes and such like beasts whereof neither the Apostles or Prophets euer heard of nay I dare boldly say that if the Apostles or Prophets had but once seene or heard the hundreth part of these new Religious Orders named they would haue beene afraid of them For seeing that Saint Paul could not suffer that among the Corinthians some should call themselues the disciples of Peter others of Paul and others of Apollo how would he haue been then afraid and out of quiet to haue seene and heard of such an innumerable company of new and diuers names Professions Religions and Rules of perfection some clad in black some in white some in gray greene blew some in red and some in furres c. And euery one to esteeme his owne Order and Rules for the best and most worthy to be regarded he would surely haue thought himselfe to be in a new world Therefore the holy Father the Pope and his Monks and Friers yea all his Clergie men will not haue men to found themselues or depend only vpon that which the Prophets and Apostles haue written and taught for say they the world is now altered and the Popes haue found out and established new Religions new Commandements and new Articles of Faith whereof the Apostles neuer heard or knew of For otherwise beleeue me if nothing else were esteemed but the bare Scriptures and writings of the Prophets and Apostles then should the Decrees Decretals and Ordinances of the Church of Rome and all the Councells which haue beene kept and holden by the Order and Commandements of the Popes yea all the before specified Orders and Religions of Monks Friers Nunnes Heremites Gildes and Knight-hoods be vtterly ouerthrowne yea all their pretended Merits and Supererogations Prayers to Saints Purgatory and such like trumperies would not be worth a rotten Apple If men I say would begin to esteeme the holy Scripture alone for a true and sufficient rule and direction to attaine to saluation then should Luther be commended and praised for causing the Decrees and Decretalls of the Pope to be burned in Germany when his bookes were burned at Rome Now because there are many Monks Friers and Iesuites sent and transported into England out of the English Seminaries Colleges and Cloisters that are in forraigne parts as trading Factors for the Pope and the King of Spaine to extoll the sanctitie of the one and the power of the other I haue according to my bounden duty to my natiue Country and out of the zeale and reuerence I beare to Gods Church and true Religion vndertaken to write this ensuing Discourse my purpose being to discouer the beginning and in some manner the proceedings and present estate drifts and impostures of all Monks Friers and Iesuites in generall and of our English in particular and as well to instruct all those my louing Country men that are not as yet thorowly acquainted with their Impostures Hypocrisies Fornications Murders Idolatries Blasphemies many other abominable Impieties and inaccessible Mysteries as also to informe those that are carried away with the blind loue of these busie Hornets that they will not be perswaded that they are such wicked Hypocrites and impious Traitors as they are indeed to the end that the truth being knowne it may appeare in the face of the world what they are who in stead of the wholsome milke of the Word of God doe feed them who are committed to their charge with the poison of detestable Blasphemies and humane Traditions applying vnto the Virgin Mary and others their Saints many passages of holy Scriptures which are only proper vnto the Diuinity with their impious and abhorred doctrine of killing and murdering of Kings and Princes that are excommunicated by the Pope and Church of Rome We reade that many religious men heretofore contemning the world and all the pompe pride and vanity thereof withdrew themselues into Wildernesses and desart places in Syria Egypt and other Countries to the end they might the better being not troubled with worldly cares and incumbrances bestow their time in reading and studying the holy Scriptures fasting praying meditating and such diuine exercises Whereof Paul surnamed the first Heremite Anthony Hilarion Basil and Ierome were the first and chiefest among the Christians who for their sanctity of life were in those daies had in great honour for then this kinde of life was simple and free and not bound or tied to such vnlawfull Vowes and ridiculous Ceremonies as our moderne Monkes and Friers now adaies pretend to obserue and keepe Their Habit was then homely and yet decent as euery man best pleased to weare Neither were they bound to abide or remaine in any one particular place or Couent nor tied to one kind of life by vow but free to stay there where they liked best or to goe vnto any other City or Country where they would at their owne pleasure if that at any time it repented any of them to haue vndertaken or entred into that kind of life it was in his owne proper power to recant and withall to returne to his former vocation or calling againe without any note or signe of inconstancy or scandall which kind of life if the Monks of our time would imitate we should hold them farre more holy than we doe or to say the truth than they are indeed They sought out the most desart places they could find that is in the Wildernesse and therefore were called Heremites quasi eremum colentes inhabiting in the Wildernesse which the Grecians call Anchorites because they liued alone without any company and therefore
THE VNMASKING OF All popish Monks Friers and Iesuits OR A Treatise of their Genealogie beginnings proceedings and present state Together with some briefe obseruations of their Treasons Murders Fornications Impostures Blasphemies and sundry other abominable impieties Written as a Caueat or forewarning for Great Britaine to take heed in time of these Romish Locusts By Lewis Owen STOB SERM. 44. Quae nascentia mala sunt ea crescentia peiora LONDON Printed by J. H. for George Gibâ— and are to be sold aâ— his Shop at the signe of the Flower-de-Luce in Popes head Alley 1628. TO THE RIGHT VVORshipfull Sir IOHN LLOYD Knight and Sergeant at Law and one of his Maiesties Iustices of Peace and Quorum for the County of Merioneth c. SIR NOt being able in any better manner to answer the greatnesse of the obligation wherein I stand ingaged vnto your Worship for your manifold fauours so often conferred vpon me I must intreat you to rest contented with an infinity of thankes which I presently send you together with this insuing Discourse or Pamphlet being A Treatise of the genealogy proceedings and present state of all Monks Friers and Jesuits in generall c. vntill such time as occasion shall furnish me with means to make you a more worthy satisfaction To the Gentle Reader AS our Sauiour Christ Courteous Reader hath builded his Church which he hath so dearly bought and purchased vpon himselfe the only sure rocke and foundation thereof Than the which as the Apostle saith no other can be laid So on the other side hath Satan alwaies sought nothing more than to vndermine shake and if it were possible to ouerthrow the same For he well peceiueth that so long as this spirituall house and glorious building standeth firmely and surely grounded and founded vpon Christ the euerlasting truth the way and the life contained in the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles which they not only haue deliuered to the Church by liuely voice But as the faithfull Pen-men Notaries and Secretaries of the Holy Ghost haue also registred and committed to writing in the sacred Scriptures for the continuall comfort and instruction thereof Matt. 7.24,25 it remaineth vnremoueable and inuincible against hell gates and all the stormes and tempests raised against it by him and all his instruments Iohn 8.44 Wherefore he layeth all his battery and bendeth all his forces against this foundation labouring by falshood and lyes whereof he is the father to corrupt depriue alter obscure and deface the Gospell of Christ and the word of life and thereby to subuert and ouerturne or at least to weaken and shake the faith of the faithfull resting wholly thereupon This hath beene euer from the beginning his practise and is at this day and shall be vntil his kingdome be vtterly remoued and taken away Wherfore he is fitly named by Christ Iohn 8.44 A lyer and a murderer from the beginning For as by lyes he laboureth either to extinguish and abolish either to discredit and peruert the truth of the Word so doth he thereby intend and purpose the murdering and destruction of mankinde both body and soule For which cause our blessed Sauiour Iesus Christ foreseeing the dangerous and malicious attempt of Satan gaue vs warning aforehand that we might not be found vnprouided and so by securitie and carelesnesse lose the victory Deut. 13. Therefore as well Moses and the Prophets before the comming of Christ inspired with his Spirit as also at his comming in the flesh he himselfe and his Apostles do giue vs a watch-word and often admonish vs Mat. 7.15 To auoid and take heed of false Prophets false Apostles and false Teachers though they work signes and miracles and come in sheeps cloathing that is make neuer so great a shew to be the true Prophets of God in outward appearance yea though they following the foot-steps of their father Satan 2 Cor. 11.14,15 Who transformeth himselfe the sooner to deceiue into an Angell of light turne themselues into the Apostles of Christ Here-hence is it that the Apostle Saint Paul chargeth the Galathians Not to beleeue an Angell comming from heauen but rather to hold him accursed if hee should teach vnto them any other doctrine than that which at his mouth they had receiued To the same purpose Saint Iohn 1 Ioh. 4.1 willeth the faithfull not to beleeue euery spirit but to trie the spirits whether they be of God because many false Prophets are entred into the world But albeit this warning against false Prophets be in diuers places giuen vnto vs yet then especially doeth our Sauiour Christ and his Apostles labour to stirre vp the godly to a more continuall and earnest watchfulnesse and warinesse when they tell of the state of the latter dayes wherein wee liue Apo. 12.12 by how much they foresaw these times should be more perillous than any other in which Satan perceiuing his time and kingdome to be short should rage most violently and vse most tyrannie and strange practises to driue them from the only foundation Christ Take heed saith our Sauiour speaking of these later times Mat. 24.4,5,11,23,24,25,26 Mark 13.21 Luk. 17.23 that no man deceiue you for many shall come in my name saying I am Christ and shall deceiue many and there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signes and wonders so that if it were possible they should deceiue the very Elect behold I haue told you before Saint Paul saith 1 Tim. 4.1,2,3 That in the later times men should depart from the faith and should giue heed vnto spirits of errours and doctrines of Deuils c. Peter also and Iude 2 Tit. 3.1,2,3,4,5 1 Pet. 2.1,2,3 Iud. 4.18 Declare that there should be false Teachers which should priuily bring in damnable heresies euen denying the Lord that had bought them and that many should follow their destruction by whom the way of truth should be euill spoken of and should turne the grace of God into wantonnesse and deny God the only Lord and our Lord Iesus Christ But that is chiefly to be considered and marked which the Apostle Saint Paul writeth of Antichrist and his comming for before the later day he sheweth 1 Thes 2.3,4,8,9,10,11 That there should come an Apostasie and departing from the faith and that the man of sinne should be disclosed euen the sonne of perdition which is an aduersary and exalteth himselfe against all that is called God c. But to omit their monstrous and manifold errours drawn from the sinckes and puddles of all former Heretickes wherewith this confused and huge Babel of this Romish Antichristian kingdom hath beene builded vp the meanes and instruments whereby the same hath bin brought to passe are the hypocriticall swarmes of Popish Monks Friers Iesuits and such other irreligious Orders But especially the same is to be seene at this day in the new and lately inuented sects of the Iesuits Capuchins and the rest