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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04286	An apologie for the oath of allegiance first set foorth without a name, and now acknowledged by the authour, the Right High and Mightie Prince, Iames, by the grace of God, King of Great Britaine, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. ; together with a premonition of His Maiesties, to all most mightie monarches, kings, free princes and states of Christendome.	James I, King of England, 1566-1625.; Paul V, Pope, 1552-1621.; Bellarmino, Roberto Francesco Romolo, Saint, 1542-1621.	1609 (1609)	STC 14401.5; ESTC S1249	109,056	264

that you should bee one or rather the Standerd-bearer and Generall to the rest And whatsoeuer hath beene the cause that your Constancie hath quailed whether it bee the suddennesse of your apprehension or the bitternesse of your persecution or the imbecillitie of your old age yet we trust in the goodnesse of God in your owne long continued vertue that it will come to passe that as you seeme in some part to haue imitated the fall of Peter and Marcellinus so you shall happily imitate their valour in recouering your strength and maintaining the truth For if you will diligently weigh the whole matter with your selfe truely you shall see it is no small matter that is called in question by this Oath but one of the principall heads of our faith and foundations of Catholique Religion For heare what your Apostle S. Gregory the Great hath written in his 24. Epistle of his 11. booke Let not the reuerence due to the Apostolique Sea bee troubled by any mans presumption for then the estate of the members doeth remaine entire when the head of the faith is not bruised by any iniury Therefore by S. Gregories testimonie when they are busie about disturbing or diminishing or taking away of the Primacie of the Apostolique Sea then are they busie about cutting off the verie head of the faith and dissoluing of the state of the whole body and of all the members Which selfe same thing S. Leo doth confirme in his third Sermon of his Assumption to the Popedome when he saith Our Lord had a speciall care of Peter prayed properly for Peters faith as though the state of others were more stable when their Princes minde was not to be ouer come Whereupon himselfe in his Epistle to the Bishops of the prouince of Vienna doeth not doubt to affirme that he is not partaker of the diuine Mystery that dare depart from the solidity of Peter who also saith That who thinketh the Primacy to be denied to that Sea he can in no sort lessen the authority of it but by beeing puft vp with the spirit of his own pride doth cast himself headlong into hel These many other of this kind I am very sure are most familiar to you who besides many other bookes haue diligently read ouer the visible Monarchie of your owne Saunders a most diligent writer and one who hath worthily deserued of the Church of England Neither can you be ignorant that these most holy learned men Iohn Bishop of Rochester and Tho. Moore within our memorie for this one most weightie head of doctrine led the way to Martyrdome to many others to the exceeding glory of the English nation But I would put you in remembrance that you should take hart considering the weightines of the cause not to trust too much to your owne iudgement neither be wise aboue that is meete to be wise and if peraduenture your fall haue proceeded not vpon want of consideration but through humane infirmity for feare of punishment and imprisonment yet doe not preferre a temporall liberty to the libertie of the glory of the Sonnes of God neither for escaping a light and momentanie tribulation lose an eternall weight of glory which tribulation it self doth worke in you You haue fought a good fight a long time you haue well neere finished your course so many yeres haue you kept the faith doe not therefore lose the reward of such labours do not depriue your selfe of that crown of righteousnesse which so long agone is prepared for you Doe not make the faces of so many yours both brethren and children ashamed Vpon you at this time are fixed the eyes of all the Church yea also you are made a spectacle to the world to Angels to men Do not so carry your self in this your last acte that you leaue nothing but laments to your friends and ioy to your enemies But rather on the contrary which we assuredly hope for which we continually power forth prayers to God display gloriously the banner of faith and make to reioyce the Church which you haue made heauie so shall you not onely merite pardon at Gods hands but a crowne Farewell Quite you like a man and let your heart be strengthened From Rome the 28. day of September 1607. Your very Reuerendships brother and seruant in Christ Robert Bellarmine Cardinall THE ANSWERE to the Cardinals Letter AND now that I am to enter into the fielde against him by refuting his Letter I must first vse this protestation That no desire of vaine glory by matching with so learned a man maketh mee to vndertake this taske but onely the care conscience I haue that such smooth Circes charmes and guilded pilles as full of exterior eloquence as of in ward vntruthes may not haue that publike passage through the world without an answere whereby my reputation might vniustly be darkened by such cloudy and foggy mists of vntruthes and false imputations the hearts of vnstayed and simple men be mis-led the trueth itselfe smothered But before I come to the particular answere of this Letter I must here desire the world to wonder with me at the committing of so grosse an errour by so learned a man as that hee should haue pained himselfe to haue set downe so elaborate a letter for the refutation of a quite mistaken question For it appeareth that our English Fugitiues of whose inward societie with him he so greatly vaunteth haue so fast hammered in his head the Oath of Supremacie which hath euer bin so great a scarre vnto them as he thinking by his letter to haue refuted the last Oath hath in place thereof onely paid the Oath of Supremacie which was most in his head as a man that being earnestly caried in his thoughts vpon another matter then he is presently in doing will often name the matter or person hee is thinking of in place of the other thing he hath at that time in hand For as the Oath of Supremacie was deuised for putting a difference betweene Papists and them of our profession so was this Oath which he would seeme to impugne ordained for making a difference between the ciuilly obedient Papists the peruerse disciples of the powder-Treason Yet doth all his letter runne vpon an Inuectiue against the Compulsion of Catholiques to deny the authoritie of Saint Peters Successors and in place thereof to acknowledge the Successors of King Henry the eight For in King Henry the eights time was the Oath of Supremacie first made by him were Thomas Moore and Roffensis put to death partly for refusing of it From his time til novv haue al the Princes of this land professing this Religion successiuely in effect maintained the same and in that Oath only is contained the Kings absolute povver to be iudge ouer all persons asvvel Ciuil as Ecclesiastical excluding al forraine povvers and Potentates to be iudges vvithin his Dominions vvheras this last made Oath containeth no such matter onely medling

hath not procured my sparing by these answerers who haue neither spared my Person directly in naming me nor indirectly by railing vpon the Author of the Booke it is now high time for me no longer to conceale nor disauow my selfe as if I were ashamed of my owne deed And therefore that yee may the better vnderstand the nature of the cause I will begin at the first ground thereof The neuer ynough wondered at and abhorred POVVDER-TREASON though the repetition thereof grieueth I know the gentle hearted Iesuite Parsons this Treason I say being not onely intended against me and my Posteritie but euen against the whole house of Parliament plotted only by Papists and they onely led thereto by a preposterous zeal for the aduancement of their Religion some of them continuing so obstinate that euen at their death they would not acknowledge their fault but in their last words immediatly before the expiring of their breath refused to condemne themselues craue pardon for their deed except the Romish Church should first condemne it And soone after it being discouered that a great number of my Popish Subiects of all rankes and sexes both men and women as well within as without the Countrey had a confused notion and an obscure knowledge that some great thing was to be done in that Parliament for the weale of the Church although for secrecies cause they were not acquainted with the particulars certaine formes of prayer hauing likewise bin set down and vsed for the good successe of that great errand adding hereunto that diuers times and from diuers Priests the Arch-traitors themselues receiued the Sacrament for confirmation of their heart and obseruation of secrecie Some of the principall Iesuits likewise being found guiltie of the foreknowledge of the Treason it selfe of which number some fled from their triall others were apprehended as holy Gamet himselfe and Ouldcorne were and iustly executed vpon their owne plaine confession of their guilt If this Treason now clad with these circumstances did not minister a iust occasion to that Parliament house whom they thought to haue destroyed couragiously and zealously at their next sitting downe to vse all meanes of trial whether any more of that mind were yet left in the Countrey I leaue it to you to iudge whom God hath appoynted his highest Depute-Iudges vpon earth And amongst other things for this purpose This Oath of Allegiance so vniustly impugned was then deuised and enacted And in case any sharper Lawes were then made against the Papists that were not obedient to the former Lawes of the Countrey if ye will consider the time place and persons it will bee thought no wonder seeing that occasion did so iustly exasperate them to make seuerer Lawes then otherwise they would haue done The time I say being the very next sitting downe of the Parliament after the discouerie of that abominable Treason the place beeing the same where they should all haue bene blowen vp and so bringing it freshly to their memorie againe the persons being those very Parliament men whom they thought to haue destroyed And yet so far hath both my heart and gouernment beene from any bitternes as almost neuer one of those sharpe additions to the former Lawes haue euer yet beene put in execution And that ye may yet know further for the more conuincing these Libellers of wilfull malice who impudently affirme That this Oath of Allegiance was deuised for deceiuing and intrapping of Papists in points of conscience The truth is that the Lower house of Parliament at the first framing of this Oath made it to containe That the Pope had no power to excommunicate me which I caused them to reforme onely making it to conclude That no excommunication of the Popes can warrant my Subiects to practise against my Person or State denying the deposition of Kings to be in the Popes lawfull power as indeed I take any such temporall violence to bee farre without the limits of such a Spirituall censure as excommunication is So carefull was I that nothing should be contained in this Oath except the profession of natural Allegiance ciuill and temporall obedience with a prom●se to resist to all contrary vnciuill violence This Oath now grounded vpon so great and iust an occasion set forth in so reasonable termes and ordeined onely for making of a true distinction betweene Papists of quiet disposition and in all other things good Subiects and such other Papists as in their hearts maintained the like violent bloody Maximes that the Powder-traitors did This Oath I say being published and put in practise bred such euill blood in the Popes head and his Cleargie as Breue after Breue commeth forth vt vndam vnda sequitur prohibiting all Catholiques from taking the same as a thing cleane contrary to the Catholicke faith and that the taking thereof cannot stand with the saluation of their soules There commeth likewise a letter of Cardinall Bellarmines to Blackwell to the same purpose but discoursing more at length vpon the sayd Oath Whereupon after I had entred in consideration of their vniust impugning that so iust and lawfull an Oath and fearing that by their vntrue calumnies and Sophistrie the hearts of a number of the most simple and ignorant of my people should be mis-led vnder that faire and deceitfull cloake of conscience I thought good to set foorth an Apologie for the said Oath wherin I proued that as this Oath contained nothing but matter of ciuill and temporall Obedience due by Subiects to their Soueraigne Prince so this quarrelling therewith was nothing but a late vsurpation of Popes against the warrant of all Scriptures ancient Counsels and Fathers vpon the temporall power of Kings where with onely my Apologie doth meddle But the publishing of this Booke of mine hath brought such two Answerers or rather Raylers vpon me as all the world may wonder at For my Booke beeing first written in English an English Oath beeing the subiect thereof and the vse of it properly belonging to my subiects of England and immediatly thereafter being translated into Latine vpon a desire that some had of further publishing it abroad it commeth home vnto me now answered in both the Languages And I thinke if it had beene set forth in all the tongues that were at the confusion of Babel it would haue beene returned answered in them all againe Thus may a man see how busie a Bishop the Deuill is and how he omitteth no diligence for venting of his poisoned wares But herein their malice doth cleerely appeare that they pay me so quickly with a double answere and yet haue neuer answered their owne Arch-priest who hath written a booke for the maintenāce of the same Oath and of the temporall authoritie of Kings alledging a cloud of their owne Scoolemen against them As for the English Answerer my vnnaturall and fugitiue Subiect I will neither defile my pen nor your sacred eies or eares with the describing of him who ashames nay abhorres not to rayle

nay to rage and spewe forth blasphemies against the late Queene of famous memorie A Subiect to raile against his naturall Soueraigne by birth A man to rayle against a Lady by sexe A holy man in outward profession to insult vpon the dead nay to take Radamanthus office ouer his head and to sit downe and play the Iudge in hell And all his quarrell is that either her Successour or any of her Seruants should speake honourably of her Cursed be he that curseth the Anointed of God and destroyed mought he be with the destruction of Korah that hath sinned in the contradiction of Korah Without mought such dogs and swine be cast forth I say out of the spirituall Ierusalem As for my Latine Answerer I haue nothing to say to his person he is not my Subiect he standeth or falleth vnto his owne Lord But sure I am they two haue casten lots vpon my Booke since they could not diuide it the one of them my fugitiue to rayle vpon my late Predecessor but a rope is the fittest answere for such an Historian the other a stranger thinketh he may be boldest both to pay my person and my booke as indeed hee doth which how iustly either in matter or maner we are now to examine But first who should be the true Authour of this booke I can but guesse He calleth himselfe Matthaeus Tortus Cardinal Bellarmins Chaplain A throwen Euangelist indeed full of throward Diuinitie an obscure Authour vtterly vnknowen to me being yet little knowen to the world for any other of his works and therefore must be a very desperate fellow in beginning his apprentisage not only to refute but to raile vppon a King But who will consider the cariage of the whole booke shall find that hee writeth with such authoritie or at the least tam elato stylo so little sparing either Kings in generall or my person in particular and with such a greatnesse Habemus enim exemplaria Breuium illorum in manibus and Decernimus as it shall appeare or at least be very probable that it is the Masters and not the mans labour especially in one place where he quarrelleth mee for casting vp his moralis certitudo and piè credi vnto him hee there grossely forgetting himselfe saith malâ fide nobiscum agit thereby making this Authour to be one person with Bellarmine But let it bee the worke of a Tortus indeed and not of a personated Cardinall yet must it be the Cardinals deede since Master Tortus is the Cardinals man and doeth it in his masters defence The errand then being the Cardinals and done by his owne man it cannot but be accounted as his owne deed especially since the English Answerer doeth foure times promise that Bellarmine or one by his appointment shall sufficiently answere it And now to come to his matter and manner of Answere Surely if there were no more but his vnmannerly manner it is enough to disgrace the whole matter thereof For first to shew his pride in his Printers preface of the Po●itan edition of this elegans libellus he must equall the Cardinals greatnesse with mine in euery thing For though he confesseth this Master Tortus to bee an obscure man yet being the Cardinals Chaplaine he is sufficient enough forsooth to answere an English booke that lacketh the name of an Authour as if a personated obscure name for Auhour of a Cardinals booke were a meet match for answering a Kings booke that lacketh the name of an Authour and a Cardinals Chaplaine to meete with the Deane of the Kings Chappell whome Parsons with the Cardinall haue as it seemeth agreed vpon to intitle to bee the Authour of my Apologie And not onely in the Preface but also through the whole Booke doeth he keepe this comparatiue greatnesse He must bee as short in his answere as I am in my booke he must refute all that I haue said against the Popes second Breue with equall breuity and vpon one page almost as I haue done mine and because I haue set downe the substance of the Oath in 14. Articles in iust as many Articles must he set downe that Acte of Parliament of mine wherein the Oath is contained And yet had hee contented himselfe with his owne pride by the demonstration of his owne greatnesse without further wronging of me it had bene the more tol●rable But what cause gaue I him to farce his whole booke with iniuries both against my person and booke For whereas in all my Apologie I haue neuer giuen him a foule word and especially neuer gaue him the Lye he by the contrary giueth me nine times the Lye in expresse termes and seuen times chargeth mee with a falshood which phrase is equiualent with a Lye And as for all other words of reproch as nugae conuitia temeritas vanitas impudentia blasphemiae sermonis barbaries cum eadem foelicitate scribendi cauillationes applicatio inepta fingere historias audacia que in hominem sanae mentis cadere non potest vel sensu cōmuni caret imperitia leuitas omnem omnino pudorem conscientiam exuisse malâ fide nobiscum agit vt lectoribus per fas nefas imponat of such like reproches I say I doubt if there be a page in all his booke free except where he idlely sets down the Popes Breues and his owne Letter And in case this might onely seeme to touch the vnknowen Authour of the booke whom notwithstanding he knew well enough as I shew before he spareth not my Person with my owne name sometimes saying that Pope Clement thought me to be inclined to their Religion sometimes that I was a Puritane in Scotland and a persecutor of Protestants In one place he concludeth Quia Iacobus non est Catholicus hoc ipso Haereticus est In another place Ex Christiano Caluinistam fecerunt In another place hee saith Neque omnino verum est Iacobum nunquam deseruisse Religionem quam primò susceperat And in another place after that hee hath compared and ranked me with Iulian the Apostate he concludeth Cum Catholicus non sit neque Christianus est If this now be mannerly dealing with a King I leaue it to you to iudge who cannot but resent such indignities done to one of your quality And as for the matter of his booke it well fits indeed the manner thereof for he neuer answereth directly to the maine question in my booke For whereas my Apologie handleth onely two points as I told you before One to proue that the Oath of Allegiance doeth onely meddle with the ciuil and temporal obedience due by Subiects to their naturall Soueraignes The other that this late vsurpation of Popes ouer the temporall power of Princes is against the rule of all Scriptures ancient Councels and Fathers hee neuer improoues the first but by a false inference that the Oath denieth the Popes power of excommunication directly since it denyeth his authoritie in

the naturall Allegiance and next clearely confirmed by this Oath which doeth nothing but expresse the same so as no man can now hold the faith or procure the saluation of his sould in England that must not abiure and renounce his borne and sworne Allegiance to his naturall Soueraigne And yet it is not sufficient to ratifie the last yeeres Breue by a new one come foorth this yeere but that not onely euery yeere but euery moneth may produce a new monster the great and famous Writer of the Controuersies the late vn-Iesuited Cardinall Bellarmine must adde his talent to this good worke by blowing the bellowes of sedition and sharpening the spur to rebellion by sending such a Letter of his to the Arch-priest here as it is wonder how passion and an ambitious desire of maintaining that Monarchie should charme the wits of so famously learned a man The Copie where of here followeth TO THE VERY REuerend Mr. George Blackwel Arch-priest of the English Robert Bellarmine Cardinall of the holy Church of Rome greeting REuerend Sir and Brother in CHRIST It is almost fourty yeeres since we did see one the other but yet I haue neuer bin vnmindful of our ancient acquaintance neither haue I ceased seeing I could doe you no other good to commend your labouring most painfully in the Lords vineyard in my prayers to GOD. And I doubt not but that I haue liued all this while in your memory and haue had some place in your prayers at the Lords Altar So therefore euen vnto this time wee haue abidden as S. Iohn speaketh in the mutuall loue one of the other not by word or letter but in deede and trueth But a late message which was brought vnto vs within these few dayes of your bonds and imprisonment hath inforced mee to breake off this silence which message although it seemed heauy in regard of the losse which that Church hath receiued by their beeing thus depriued of the comfort of your pastorall function among them yet withall it seemed ioyous because you drewe neere vnto the glory of Martyrdome then the which gift of God there is none more happy That you who haue fed your flocke so many yeeres with the word and doctrine should now feed it more gloriously by the example of your patience But another heauy tidings did not a litle disquiet and almost take away this ioy which immediatly followed of the aduersaries assault and peraduenture of the slip and fall of your Constancy in refusing an vnlawfull Oath Neither truely most deare Brother could that Oath therfore be lawfull because it was offered in sort tempered and modified for you know that those kinde of modifications are nothing else but sleights subtilties of Sathan that the Catholique faith touching the Primacie of the Sea Apostolique might either secretly or openly be shot at for the which faith so many worthy Martyrs euen in that very England it selfe haue resisted vnto blood For most certaine it is that in whatsoeuer wordes the Oath is conceiued by the aduersaries of the faith in that Kingdome it tends to this end that the authoritie of the head of the Church in England may be transferred from the successour of S. Peter to the Successour of K. Henry the eight For that which is pretended of the danger of the Kings life if the high Priest should haue the same power in England which hee hath in all other Christian Kingdomes it is altogether idle as all that haue any vnderstanding may easily perceiue For it was neuer heard of from the Churches infancy vntill this day that euer any Pope did command that any Prince though an Heretike though an Ethnike though a Persecutor should be murdered or did approue of the fact when it was done by any other And why I pray you doeth onely the King of England feare that which none of all other the Princes in Christendome either doeth feare or euer did feare But as I saide these vaine pretexts are but the trappes and stratagemes of Satan Of which kinde I could produce not a f●we out of Ancient Stories if I went about to write a book● and not an Epistle One onely for example sake I will call to your memory S. Gregorius Nazianzenus in his first Oration against Iulian the Emperour reporteth That he the more easily to beguile the simple Christians did insert the Images of the false gods into the pictures of the Emperor which the Romanes did vse to bow dawne vnto with a ciuill kind of reuerence so that no man could doe reuerence to the Emperours picture but withall he must adore the Images of the false gods whereupon it came to passe that many were deceiued And if there were any that found out the Emperours craft and refused to worship his picture those were most grieuously punished as men that had contemned the Emperour in his Image Some such like thing me thinkes I see in the Oath that is offered to you which is to so craftily composed that no man can detest Treason against the King and make profession of his Ciuill subiection but he must be constrained perfidiously to denie the Primacie of the Apostolike Sea But the seruants of Christ and especially the chiefe Priests of the Lord ought to be so farre from taking an vnlawfull Oath where they may indamage the Faith that they ought to beware that they giue not the least suspicion of dissimulation that they haue taken it least they might seeme to haue left any example of preuarication to faithfull people Which thing that worthy Eleazar did most notably performe who would neither eate swines flesh nor so much as faine to haue eaten it although hee saw the great torments that did hang ouer his head least as himselfe speaketh in the second booke of the Machabees many yong men might be brought through that similation to preuaricate with the Law Neither did Basil the great by his example which is more fit for our purpose carrie himselfe lesse worthily toward Valens the Emperour For as Theodoret writeth in his Historie when the Deputy of that heretical Emperour did perswade Saint Basill that he would not resist the Emperour for a little subtiltie of a few points of doctrine that most holy and prudent man made answere That it was not to bee indured that the least syllable of Gods word should bee corrupted but rather all kind of torment was to be embraced for the maintenance of the Trueth thereof Now I suppose that there wants not amongst you who say that they are but subtilties of Opinions that are conteined in the Oath that is offred to the Catholikes and that you are not to striue against the Kings Authoritie for such a little matter But there are not wanting also amongst you holy men like vnto Basil the Great which will openly auow that the very least syllable of Gods diuine trueth is not to be corrupted though many torments were to be endured and death it selfe set before you Amongst whom it is meete