some of the Inferiour Clergy may take him for Guide the Inns of Court scorn to be his Pupils for all he stiles himself Observ Numb 84. Roger L'Estrange of Grays-Inn Labourer The Man is as much out in his Law as he uses to be in his Divinity For tho God forbid any should be so wicked to imagin the Death of a collateral presumptive Heir to the Crown is not Treason by this Statute Coke 3 Instit fol. 8 9. speaking of the same words Before this Statute some did hold that to compass the Death of any of the King's Children was Treason but by this Act it is restrained to the Prince the King's Son being Heir apparent If the Heir apparent to the Crown be a collateral Heir apparent he is not within this Statute Roger Mortimer Earl of March was Anno Dom. 1487. 11 Rich. 2. proclaimed Heir apparent Anno 39 H. 6. Richard Duke of York was likewise proclaimed Heir apparent and so was John de la Poole Earl of Lincoln by R. 3. and Henry Marquess of Exeter by King H. 8. But none of these or the like are within the purvieu of of this Statute But since Roger will be dabbling with Statutes prethee read to him the following Clause of the Act of the 3d of King James c. 4. And further be it enacted That if any person or persons at any time after the tenth of June c. shall either upon the Seas or beyond the Seas or in any other place within the Dominions of the King's Majesty his Heirs or Successors put in practice to absolve persuade or withdraw any of the King's Subjects or to reconcile them to the Pope or See of Rome or if any person shall be wilfully absolv'd or withdrawn as aforesaid or willingly reconciled or promise obedience to any such pretended Authority every such person and persons their procurers and counsellors aiders and maintainers shall be to all intents adjudged Traitors and shall have judgment suffer and forfeit as in Cases of High Treason From whence 't is plain that every English Subject that has bin brought up in the Protestant Religion and afterwards revolts and turns Papist and so is reconcil'd to the See of Rome is ipso facto guilty of High Treason Printed for Langley Curtis 1682 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY May 12. 1682. Nunquam satis dicitur quod nunquam satis discitur Popery is a kind of Atheism proved in many particulars OUr Two last have contain'd some Arguments proving the Church of Rome not to be a true visible Church of Christ which will further appear if we can Demonstrate the same to be Guilty of the horrid sin of Atheism To know whether she be or no we must distinguish the several kinds of Atheism Atheisme is Two-fold Open and Colour'd Open-Atheisme is when men both in Word and Deed deny God and his Word Colour'd Atheisme is not so manifest and hath two Degrees 1. When men acknowledge a God a First Cause of Causes or Infinite Being that made and Governs the World but yet deny or are Ignorant of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Thus the Ephesians before they Believed the Gospel are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 2. 12. and said to be without God when yet no doubt in their natural Judgment they acknowledged because they deny'd Christ And in like manner though the Samaritans Worshipped the God of Abraham yet our Blessed Saviour saith They Worshipped they knew not what John 5. 46. And the Psalmist saith of all the Gentiles that their Gods are Idols The second Degree of this Colour'd Atheism is when men do rightly acknowledge the Unity of the Godhead in the Trinity of Persons yet so as by necessary Consequences partly of their Doctrine and partly of the Service of God they overturn that which they well maintained And in this Respect I say That the very Religion of the Church of Rome is a kind of Atheism 'T is true every Papist is not so shameless as one of their Popes who shewing some of his Confidents his Vast Treasures Hellishly said Quantas divitias nobis peperit haec Fabula Christi What a world of Riches has this Fable of Christ brought us in Yet the very Doctrines of their Church if understood and believed directly tends to lead all those of her Communion to the like or as desperate Impiety For 1. Whereas the Church of Rome maketh the Merit of the works of men to Concur with the Grace of God it overthrows the Grace of God If it be of works it is no more Grace Rom. 11. 6. whereas in words they own those glorious Attributes the Justice and Mercy of God to be Infinite do they not by Consequents deny both For how can that be Infinite Justice which may any way be appeased by humane satisfaction And how is God's Mercy Infinite when we by our own satisfactions must add a supply to the satisfaction of Christ 2. He that hath not the Son hath not the Father John 21. 23. and consequently is an Atheist Now the present Roman Religion hath not the Son that is Jesus Christ God and Man the Mediator of Mankind but hath transformed him into a feigned Christ For instead of one Jesus Christ in all things like unto us in his Humanity Sin only excepted They have framed a Christ to whom they Ascribe two kinds of Existing one Natural whereby he is visible touchable and Circumscribed in Heaven The other not only above but also against Nature by which he is substantially according to his Flesh in the hands of every Priest in every Host and in the mouth of every Communicant invisible untouchable and uncircumscribed and thus in effect they abolish his Man-hood 3. They Degrade our blessed Lord of his Offices and have Committed High Treason against the King of Glory and will you contend that such Arch Traitours are still true Subjects For one Jesus Christ the only King Lawgiver and Head of the Church They joyn unto him the Pope not only as a Vicar but also as a Companion or Equal in Government In that they give unto him power to make Laws binding Conscience To resolve and determine infallibly the sense of Holy Scripture c. For one Jesus Christ the only real Priest of the New Testament they joyn many Secondary Priests who pretend to offer Christ daily in the Mass for the Sins of the Quick and the Dead For one Jesus Christ the All sufficient Mediator of Intercession They have added many other Companions to Intercede for us And for the only Merits of Christ in whom alone the Father is well pleased they have devised a Treasury of the Church containing besides the merits of Christ the Over plus of the merits of Saints to be dispensed to men at the Popes discretion By all which we see That Christ and consequently God himself to be worshipped in Christ is changed for a Fantasie or Idol of mans
to express their Abhorrence of such Popish Shams and Lies and to Address to the Right Honourable the LORD MAYOR That Thompson be call'd to Account for 't Printed for Langley Curtis 1681-2 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY March 17. 1681-2 Plangunt Anglorum gentes Crimen Sodomorum Paulus fert horum sunt Idola Causa malorum Surgunt nigrati Gierzitae Simone Nati Nomine Praelati hoc defensare parati Qui Reges estis populis quicunque praeestis Qualiter his gestis gladios prohibêre potestis Versic Parl. exhib Anno 18. Rich. 2. The Proceedings against Dissenters in the Raigns of King Richard the Second and King Henry the Fourth WE have told you the severe Laws made against all those that in these dark Times durst open their Eyes and see farther than Popery the Church then as by Law establisht thought fit to permit them such Hereticks were generally call'd Lollards they were the Puritans the Fanaticks the Whigs the Brummingham's of those days and how busie the Magistrates especially of the Clergy were to put the said Laws in Execution against them will appear in the following account 'T is true during the Raign of King Richard the Second we do not find any burnt to Death for the profession of Religion but many were imprison'd harrass'd and in great trouble and especially William Swinderby a Priest and Walter Brute a Lay-man but Learned and a Graduate of the University of Oxford the several Articles against whom and their Answers thereunto you may read at large in Foxes Acts and Monuments too tedious here to recite I shall therefore only note That John Bishop of Hereford having by solemn sentence denounced the said Swinderby to be an Heretick Schismatick and a false informer of the People and to be avoided by all faithful Christians He the said Swinderby did thereupon Appeal from such the Bishops Sentence to the King and Council by an Instrument under his hand which both in respect of the Matter and of the English wherein it is written being such as was then current now above 280 years ago I shall trespass so far on the Readers patience as to repeat it verbatim IN nomine Patris Filii Spiritûs Sancti Amen I William Swinderby Priest knowledge openly to all Men That I was before the Bishop of Hereford the Third day of October and before many other good Clerkâ— to answer to certain Conclusions of the Faith I was accused of and mine Answer was this That if the Bishop or any Man couâ—hâ— shew me by God's Law that my Conclusions or my Answers were Errour or Heresie I would be amended and openly revoke them before all the people but they sayden singly with word That there was Errours in them and bidden me subject me to the Bishop and put me into his Grace and revoke mine Errour and shewed me nought by God's Law ne Reason ne proved which they weren And for I would not knowledge me Guilty so as I knew no Errour in them of which I should therefore the Bishop sate in Doom in mine absence and deemed me an Heretick a Schismatick and a teacher of Errours and denounced me accursed that I come not to correction of the Church and therefore for this unrightful Judgment I appeal to the King's Justices for many other Causes One Cause is For the King's Court in such matter is above the Bishop's Court for after the Bishop has accursed he may not fear by his Law but then mote he sech succour of the King's Law and by a Writ of Significavit put a Man in Prison The second Cause For in cause of Heresie there liggeth Judgment of Death and that doom may not be given without the King's Justices For the Bishop will say Nobis non licet interficere quenquam that is It is not lawful for us to kill any man as they sayden to Pilate when Christ should be deemed And for I think that no Justice will give sodenly and untrue Doom as the Bishop did and therefore openly I appeal to hem and send my Conclusions to the Knights of the Parliament to be shewed to the Lords and to be taken to the Justices to be well adviset or that they given Doom The third Cause is For it was a false Doom for no Mâ—n is a Heretick but he that Masterfully defends his Errour or Heresie and stifly maintains it And mine Answer has always bene Conditional as the people openly knows for ever I say and yet say and alway will that if they cannen shew me by Gods Law that I have erret I will gladly bene amendet and revoke mine Errours and so I am no Heretick ne nevermore in Gods grace will ben en no wise The fourth Cause is For the Bishop's Law that they deme Men by is full of Errours and Heresies contrary to the truth of Christ's Law of the Gospel For there as Christ's Law bids us Love our Enemies the Pope's Law gives us leave to hate them and to sley them and graunts Men pardon to werren again Heathen Men and sley hem And there as Christ's Law teach us to be merciful the Bishop's Law teachs us to be wretchful for Death is the greatest wretch that 〈◊〉 mowen done on him that guilty is There as Christs Law teaches us to blessen him that diseazen us and to pray for him the Popes Law teacheth us to Curse them and in their great sentence that they usen they presume to Dam hem to Hell that they cursen And this is afoue Heresie of Blasphemy There as Christ's Law bids us be patient the Pope's Law justifies two Swords that wherewith he smitheth the Sheep of the Church and he has made Lords and Kings to swear to defend him and his Church There as Christ's Law forbideth us Letchery the Pope's Law justifies the abominable Whoredom of common Women and the Bishops in some place have a great Tribute or Rent of Whoredom There as Christ's Law bids to minister Spiritual things freely to the people the Pope with his Law sells for Money after the quantity of the Gift as Pardons Orders Blessings and Sacraments and Prayers and Benefices and preaching to the People as it is known amongst them There as Christ's Law teaches Peace the Pope with his Law assoiles Men for money to gader the People Priests and other to fight for his Cause There as Christ's Law forbids Swearing the Pope's Law justifies Swearing and compels men thereto Whereas Christ's Law teacheth his Priests to be Poor the Pope with his Law justifies and maintains Priests to be Lords And yet the fifth Cause is For the Pope's Law that the Bishops demen Men by is the same unrightful Law that Christ was demet by of the Bishops with the Scribes and with the Pharisees for right as at time they gaven more credens to the two false Witnesses that witnessed against Christ then they deden to all the people that witnesseden to his
Fact and so being taken 4 or 5 years after was upon that outlawry without any further Tryal or Judgment Hang'd and Burnt This is the Tale The Credit of which depends partly upon the Testimonies of Historians and partly upon that of the Records of the Commission and Indictment We shall consider each of these whereby the Reader will more clearly perceive how Improbable it is in all its parts and how ill laid together in the whole 1. As to the Historians Thomas of Walsingham is the first whom all latter Authors follow as a Flock doth the Bell-weather and when we have told you that he was a Benedictine Monk of St. Albans you may easily make Judgment of his Sincerity and what truth there is in those who take matters from him upon trust Amongst the rest I observe the Jesuite Parsons makes great use of John Stow's Testimony and indeed take notice of any Popish Author speaking of modern English History you shall find commonly Stow's Chronicle strutting his Margin this made me wonder why they should make choice of him who was but a mean Mechanic being by Trade a Tayler and ignorant of the Latin Tongue rather than so many other Learned Authors till I suppose at last I hit upon the reason in a Treatise of Dr. Matth. Sutclife afterwards Dean of Exeter Intituled A Threefold Answer c. to Parsons 3 Conversions Printed Anno. Dom. 1606. where p. 3. That Reverend Author who no doubt being Contemporary with Stow had good grounds for his Assertions saith John Stow is a simple Story-writer and a worse Protestant For 't is well known that certain crafty Companions and enemies of Relion were too much Conversant with him to write truely in these matters And p. 24. Stow hath the most part of his Lies concerning the Lord Cobham alis Sir John Old castle out of Walsingham which understanding he understood 〈◊〉 being Latin and he a meer English Tailer Now it was no difficult thing if he Imployed persons Popishly Affected to Translate for him for them to Impose upon his Ignorance what would make for their Cause and then twit us with the noise and pretended Testimony of a Protestant Author Secondly that which might lead some Historians into an Error was that in the second year of this King Henry the 5. an Act was made part of this we recited in our last That all Convicted of Hâ—resy should forfeit all their Lands and Goods wherefore since they were to lose both Life and Estate the noise went that Haeresy was then made Treason tho indeed it was not so I will give an Instance or two of such misled Authors Thomas Walden in the Prologue of his first Tome to Pope Martin has these words speaking of this very business Nec Mora Longa processint qui Statutum c. Nor was it long but it was publickly Enacted by a Statute that all the Wicklevists as they were Traitors to God so should also be accounted Traitors to the King So Roger Wall of the Acts of King Henry 5. Statuit et decrevit ut quot quot Illius Seâ—tu quae diciâ—â—r Lollardâ—rum invenirentaer aemuli et fautores eo facto Rei Proditorij Criminis in Majestâ—tem Regiam haberenter He establisht and Decreed saith he That all that should be found Embracers or favourers of the sect which is called Lollards should for that only Fact be Adjudged Guilty of the Crime of Treason against the Kings Majesty And Polidore Virgil in the 22 Book of his History harps upon the same string declaring that all the Followers of Wickliffes Doctrine were deemed Hostes Patriae Enemies of their Country which is all one as to say Traitors And yet all this while the Statute does not make them Traitors nor speak any thing of putting them to Death for in case of being Convict of Haeresy and refusing to Abjure they were already to be burnt by the Statute of 2 H 4. Ca. 15. But it being so vulgarly taken as appears by these Examples 'T is no wonder that knowing Sir John Old-castle to be convicted for what they call'd Haeresy and that he was Executed they delivered to posterity that he was Executed for Treason as Imagining Haeresy to be Treason by the Law In the next place as to the Records I willingly acknowledge there is no kind of humane Testimony that ought to challeng a greater Reverence Probant et non Probantur yet even Records themselves are liable to be falsisied and whether sometime of that kind is not to be suspected here may still be a question there being not a few Symptomes of Fraud and ill practice As 1. The Commission issued to Indict and Try them bears Date the 10 th of Jannuary 1414. which was on Wednesday next after the Epiphany or Twelfth day And by the Record of the Indictment it not only appears that they were the very same day Indicted and the Bill found which is very much that a Court should sit the very same day the Commission Authorising them bears date for what time was there then for summoning a Jury c. But also in the same Indictment it is averr'd that the very same 10 th of January too was the day on which the aforesaid Conspirators to the number of Twenty Thousand were so in Warlike manner assembled in St. Gilses-fields See both the Records in Foxe fol. 529. Which being so one would expect rather to hear of Commissions Issued not so much to try them as to raise Forces to suppress them Inter Arma silent Leges twenty Thousand Rebels got together where not like much to value a Commission of Oier and Termener 2. In the Record of the Indictment it is said per Sacramenta duodecim Juratorum exstitit presentatum by the Oaths of 12 Jurators it is presented But the names of the Jurors are ommitted whereas I humbly Conceive if any such Indictment had been really and bona fide framed and found the Jurors names as in all other cases would have been here particularly Inserted in the Record 3. The Crimes alleaged in this pretended Indictment are of several sorts some of them Extravagant and all very observeable for tho there be some matters Treasonable to colour the process yet the bottom of all appears to be that they were Enemies to the Church But take the very words of the Record and Judg of them your selves By the Oaths of 12 Jurors 't is presented that John Oldcastle of Coulingin the County of Kent Chevaleir Note tho he were styled Lord Cobham in Right of his Wife yet he was no Peer of the Land and others vulgarly called Lollards who long have rashly held diverse Heritical Opinions contrary to the Catholic Faith and other manifest Errors repugnant to the Catholic Law to maintain such their Errors not being able to Accomplish their design as long as the Royal power and Regal State of our Lord the King as well as the State and Office of the Prelatick dignity within the Kingdom of England
and Bleated just like a Calf was not that now ingeniously done and much like a Gentleman Tory. You mistake he only paid his Adorations to the Golden Cross and said an Ave Maria and so Jogg'd on but prethee what is that dog story he keeps such a clutter with Truem. The matter of Fact was truly and nakedly as follows Miles Prance and another man and a third person that was a Constable went one evening into Sam 's Coffee-house and sat down quietly without speaking to any body but before Prance had drunk his dish a Journy-man Draper whisper'd the Company and told them who he was presently twenty or thirty of them flock about him call'd him scurrilous names and gave him all kind of Affronts which he took patiently only laught at their folly and paying for his Coffee he and one of the persons that came in with him went to the Old Dog Tavern and sat down in the Kitching where the other man in a Frolique would needs send to Sa'ms for L'Estrange who refusing to come unless a Name were sent the same person return'd the Boy again to tell him that one Squire Ketch would speak with him whereupon a Committee of four or five were sent from Sams who began a quarrel with Prance for sending for L'Estrange and he deny'd as most truly he might that he sent for him but there were no such Oaths or Execrations utter'd nor did ever Mr. Allens boys make such Affidavits as were Printed but all those lies were calculated on purpose to fully Mr. Prances Evidence against Thompson the day before whose Tryal this story was first blaz'd abroad by the Observator Printed for Langley Curtis 1682. The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY August 4. 1682. Monstra non Homines pagina nostra refert The wicked Lives of Pope Paul the II. a profest enemy of Learning and Sixtus the IV. who granted a License for Sodomy the story of Pope Innocent the VIII and his Sixteen Bastards OUR last acquainted you with a pretty tolerable Pope a man of sense and Letters and only tainted with Pride and Covetousness and a few such ordinary Vices but we now come to Brutes and Monsters hardly to be matcht by the Nero's and Caligula's or any the like prodigies of the Heathen World Pope Pius the 2 d. intent upon an expedition against the Turks dyed at Ancona in the year 1464. And is honour'd with this Epitaph Frigida membra Pii retinet lapis iste loquacis Qui pacem moriens attulit Italiae Vendiderat pretio Gentes Crimina multa Virtutis specie gesserat ille Pius Here the cold Bones of tattling Pius ly Who by his Death brought Peace to Italy Nations he sold and many Crimes did act But mask'd with seeming vertue each lewd Fact Peter Barbs a Venetian succeeds by the name of Paul the second one of the most pevish fancifull fools that we shall meet with in any History One of his first exploits was to abolish all the Abbreviators to whom Pope Pius his predecessor had sold those places without returning any of their Mony What these Gentlemens Office was I am not wise enough to acquaint you but it appears to be both of Honour and profit else they would never have stickled so much about it His pretended reason for putting them down was Ignorance when in truth they were the Learnedest men Pius could get together from most parts of the World and Platina who writes the Lives of the Popes hitherto was one of them a person no way contemptible for parts as the size of Learning went in those times When some of these discarded Officers petition'd him to refer their Cause to the hearing of the Auditors of the Rota a certain Court of Judicature in Rome and Platina spoke for all the rest this haughty Pope return'd this swaggering Answer What dost talk to us of Judges dost thou not know that all Laws are lodg'd within the Closet of our Breast Ita nos inquit ad Judices revocas ac si nescireo omnia Jura in scrinio pectoris nostri collocata esse This is our sentence let them all be packing I regard them not I am Pope and it is lawfull for me to disannull or approve the Acts of others at my own pleasure And because Platina not satisfied with this Answer wrot him a Letter about the same affair he accused him of Libelling and Treason which Treason was that he had â—alkt of Appealing from his Holiness to a General Council upon this poor Platina was Jail'd for four Months and not long after taken up again upon a Sham plot and put upon the Rack with several others of whom diverse being persons of good quality whom he names in his History dyed of their Tortures and when it appeared there was no such Conspiracy as the Pope had fancied yet they were long kept in durance least forsooth he should seem to have Committed them at first without cause and when other accusations fail'd he accused them of Heresy for disputing of the Immortality of the Soul out of Plato whom yet as Platina truly observes St. Austin affirms to come nearest therein to the opinion of a Christian and to compleat his ridiculous folly he very gravely pronounced all those to be Hereticks that should either in jest or earnest make mention of the name of an Academy This will not appear strange when you consider what the same Author relates that this Pope hated Learning and had such a spight against the Studies of Humanity that he called all that follow'd them Hereticks and for that reason exhorted the Citizens of Rome not to suffer their Sons to be any longer at the Studies of Learning for that it was sufficient if they had learned to write and read and therefore Genebrard fitly calls him Hostis Virtutis doctrinae the enemy of virtue and Learning The most memorable things that he did for the good of the Church was that he bought up at any rate all the extraordinary pretious stones he could hear of to make the Papal Mitre more gay and glorious for he took much delight to be gaz'd at and admired in that Bravery likewise he decreed that none should wear Scarlet Caps but Cardinals and in the first year of his Popedome he gave them Cloth of the same Colour wherewith to cover their Horses and Mules when they rode that the Apostatized Church might even litterally resemble that Whore described to us in the Revelations In the year 1465 the Cardinal of Laurence dying who was exceeding rich by the Popes consent bequeath'd his Estate to his two Brothers called Scaranupi but no sooner was he dead but the Pope seized on the Legatees and kept them in Prison till they surrendred the Estate to his disposal and so got those riches which saith Platina the late owner would rather had fallen to the Turks than him as being one that he hated and always had