truely so the spirite of Satan procureth the professours of Papistrie to speake or write falsely And where you say rather mockingly then modestly to bee read with deuotion A man may reade the wise and learned answeres y e pacient sufferings and the whippings scourgings and tormētings of the godly Gospellers with more deuotiō then your Romanes that before you wrote of can whip and scourge themselues for their owne offences yea though they scourge all the blood out of their bodies And though you Iesuites thinke that the reading of that most excellent necessarie booke will worke small deuotion in them that reade it yet wee Christians doe beleeue that you that write against the truth falsifiyng mens writings and make such manifest lyes doe not the same with any godly deuotion I hope wee Christians may reade master Foxes martyrologe with as great deuotiō y t expresseth the doyngs of the Saints of God that dyed wrongfully for professing Gods worde as you Iesuites may read your Popish martyrologe of the popes traiterous Saints that were iustly executed for murther and treason Thus though you thought vtterly to defame and discredite mee beeing a Christian by that time y t the indifferent Reader haue read this throughly I thinke you will wiune but small credite though you bee a Iesuite The 60. part YOu speake these words in the knitting vp of yuor said Discouerie As long as there shall bee either honest vertuous learned wise modest noble or gentle minde in Englande so long shall wee gaine by these their proceedings You haue a very good opinion in your works and writings for though your cause be neuer so course and your writings be neuer so false yet by your saying there is neuer honest vertuous learned wise modest noble nor gentle minde in England but such as take your cause to bee good and your religion true And as long as there is any suche you shall gaine and that by óur writings and proceedinges Then by this your sayings it appeareth if you chaunce to loose and wee gaine by your proceedinges then there is neuer an honest vertuous learned wise modest noble nor gentle minde in Englande This is the definitiue sentence of a Iesuite therefore it must needes be true Wherefore it were best for vs to suffer you to gaine by our proceedings least all our honest vertuous learned wise modest noble or gentle minds in England vanish quite away out of Englande and then were Englande vtterly marde But if you count your losses with your winnings I feare at the ende of your account your gayne will not bee very great nay it will seeme rather that you haue loste then wonne and so your loosing hath made vs loose all our honest wise and vertuous Noble men and Gentle men wherewith Englande was wont to florishe when you did gaine or win What a most spitefull saying and an arrogant 〈◊〉 is this of a Iesuite 〈◊〉 though there were neuer an honest vertuous learned wise modest noble nor gentle minde in England that are contrarie to your religion or that will not suffer you to gaine by your lying and to winne by your wicked writing Here in the knitting vp you haue shewed what you are for as you haue proceeded with vntruth so you end with falshood And as you haue runne this your rase vntruly and vnchristianly so you haue ended the same most 〈◊〉 and arrogantly And now for that you haue detracted my said booke called a persuasion from papistrie to bring it into such contempt that thereby it shoulde not bee read though you bee a Iesuite you may bee deceiued for whereas you thought to haue blowne out y e fier it may be y e thereby you haue kindeled the flame For you haue so 〈◊〉 mee to defende it that many perceiuing heereby howe vniustly you haue charged mee with 〈◊〉 may haply reade and peruse it that otherwise if you had not been too busie with your penne should neuer haue hearde of it whereby your doctrine may the more be despised And thus as many haue doone perhaps you may loose by that you hoped to winne I 〈◊〉 you are fullier answered then you looked for and more reproued and confuted then your friendes wold haue thought for your faire shew is turned into a foule shadowe your pretended wisedome into manifest folly your curious cunning into counterfeating lying though some more armed with affection than ruled with reason haue bragd that your learning is so great and your saide booke so true that the one shoulde seeme incomparable and 〈◊〉 other vnreproueable Not doubting but that they that shall reade this my booke written as an answere to you and in the defence of my saide booke called A persuasion from papistrie will not easily bee persuaded that my saide booke whiche you counte so light and so full of lyes is without all method or matter which I dedicated and deliuered with mine owne handes to the most famous learned and mercifull princes of the world whose subiect I am whō I am most bound vnder God to obey And if I were as great a lyer as you woulde fayne make me yet what wise man wil thinke that I durst once presume to lyne that booke with lies that I gaue to her grace But though you as it becommeth a Iesuite went about as much as in you laye to diseredite mee and my saide 〈◊〉 and thereby to make mee loose the fauour of men yet I as beseemeth a Christian wishe with all my heart that you may 〈◊〉 the holy 〈◊〉 and of a false Iesuite become a true Christian whereby you may obtayne the fauour of God FINIS Uirescit vulnere veritas Imprinted at London at the three Cranes in the Vintree by Thomas Dawson for Thomas Woodcocke dwelling in Paules Church-yard at the signe of the blacke Beare 1582. I. part Acts. 17. Matth. 20. Marke 1. Marke 10. Mark 15. Iohn 12. Actes 1. Acts. 6. Actes 13. Actes 23. Chrys. in act Homil. 19. Concil later sessi 6. pag. 604. Math. 7. Math. 7. The othe of the Iesuites Bullapiiquarti super ordinatione promotione doctorum aliorum cuiuscunque artis et facoltatis professorum c. 2. part Phil. 2. ver 9. 3. part Acts. 4. ver 12. Math. 〈◊〉 Math. 3. Math. 7. 4. part Persuas from papistrie Pag. 289. Pag. 291. Pag. 〈◊〉 Pag. 〈◊〉 Pag. 292. 5. part Bernard ser. 4.2 in Can. Persuas from papistrie Pag. 290. Pag. 293. Pag. 294. Pag. 296. Pag. 296. Pag. 298. 〈◊〉 part Discouerie Pag. 3. Dist. 40. si papa in glossa Extra de trās episcopi Quanto in glossa The. 7. part discou pag. 3. Inter epi. Au. epi. 91. Eras. The 8. part discou pag. 3. Erasmus in scholis in Hieronym ad Marcellam De con distin 4 Retulerunt Iulius pp. 1. 9. quae 3. neque ab Augu. dist 19. si Romanorum in glos Extra de trās 〈◊〉 quanto in glossa 3. King 3. Perswasion from papistry pag. 121. Iohā Caluin
THE Christian against the Iesuite Wherein the secrete or namelesse writer of a pernitious booke intituled A Discouerie of I. Nicols Minister c. priuily printed couertly cast abrod and secretely solde is not only iustly reprooued But also a booke dedicated to the Queenes Maiestie called A persuasion from papistrie therein derided and falsified is defended by Thomas Lupton the authour thereof Reade with aduisement and iudge vprightly and be affectioned only to truth Hee hath made a graue and digged it but hee himselfe will fall into the pit which hee hath made Psal. 7. Seene and allowed ¶ Imprinted at London for Thomas Woodcocke dwelling in Paules Church yard at the signe of the blacke Beare 1582. To the right honorable Sir Francis Walsingham knight principall Secretarie to her Maiestie and one of her highnesse most honourable priuie Councell Thomas Lupton wisheth earthly prosperitie and heauenly felicitie AS there is hath been and will be right honourable both Wheate and Darnel Corne and Cockle and good Seedes and tares euen so there hath been is and wil be sowers of both sorts For the children of God doe sowe the good corne of Gods word and the seruants of Satan haue and will scatter abroad Darnel the Diuels doctrine But as the godly sowers shall dwell for euer with God whose good seede they did sow Sothe throwers abroad of the Darnell shall dwell with the Diuel except they cease frō their sowing Yet they like senselesse Swine will needes wallowe in the puddle of perdition though they are theeatned with the scriptures for the same Both which sowers are so different at this day that they that haue any glimmering at all may know the good sowers frō the euill the godly frō the wicked the true from the false Notwithstanding these wicked sowers of the diuels darnell goe about as much as in them lie to persuade vs that they are the true sowers and that their Cockle is pure and good corne But whose sowers they are and whose seede they doe sowe all they that are guided by Gods worde doe right perfectly knowe And as there hath been a wonderfull rable of Satanicall sowers from the beginning euer seeking to choke the good corne of Gods worde with their diuelish Darnell so there hath sprung vp not long since a seditious sect of Satanical sowers seeking by al meanes to choke or suppresse the good corue with their cockle and the Gospell of Christ with the doctrine of the Diuell And these are they that call themselues Iesuites but they rather deserue to be called Iudaites for they follow Iudas in betraying not Iesus in sauing One of which number as it shoulde seeme hath made a pernicious booke in praise of the Pope and Papistrie and in reproch of M. Nicols lately conuerted from Papistrie to the Gospel and returned from the Pope to his Prince But it doth appeare that hee doubted his docttrine els hee woulde haue set his name to his booke Wherein also hee doth detract a booke by 〈◊〉 pende and published called A persuasion from papistrie which I 〈◊〉 dicated exhibited to the Queenes 〈◊〉 without disprouing or confuting any one part thereof Whose namelesse worke in such points as I knewe to bee false I haue not only taken vpon me to reproue but also to defend my selfe my said booke by him therein depraued slandered And for that I know your honour to be a zelous fauourer of the Gospell a perfect professour of Gods worde an affable Magistrate whose wisedome and learning is such that you can easily try truth from falshood right from wrong I haue chosen you to bee a Iudge betweene a Christian a Iesuite Beseeching you to pardon mee for my boldnesse heerein assuring your honour that your common commendations and the good will I beare you hath made me to doe that that discretion and modestie shoulde haue made mee refuse But though my basenesse doth not deserue such a Iudge yet the cause which is Christs doth craue such a one Humbly requesting you though your affaires be great and your leasure little to reade and peruse the same as occasion will serue and time will permit Trusting that your reading thereof will bee more delightfull than tedious will rather recreate you than wearie you And thus ceasing heerein any further to trouble your honour I do wishe you in this life to bee guided by God and after to raigne for euer with Christ. Your Honours most humble and faithfull to commaunde Thomas Lupton ¶ A briefe Table for the finding out of necessarie matters of this booke A ANswere vnloked for Fol. 1. Pag. 1. A thing worth the noting Fol. 18. pa. 2. 〈◊〉 lawes in y e chiefe of the popes bosome Fol. 13. pag. 2. Abhominable doctrine to say that any man can doe suche penance as gods iustice requireth fo 34. pa. 1 Apostles did cast lots for a fellow Apostle but not for the prophetes to be their protectors Fol. 38. pa. 2. As god bearteh with wicked men so popes and princes may suffer their stewes Fol. 41. pag. 2. Apt argument of one that is suffered to steale apples Fol. 46. pa. 1. As the Pope hath a heauenly iudgement in his brest so Iesuites haue worldly mens thoughts in their 〈◊〉 Fol. 53. pa. 1 Asper latine for a Cat. Fol. 54. pa. 2. Abundantia latine for water Fol 54. pag. 2. Agnus dei as Christes blood can put away 〈◊〉 Fol. 60. pa. 1. Astronomicall second and they musical semebrief are both in one time Fol. 63. pag. 2. An eosi kinde uf confuting Fol. 67. pag. 2. Authoritie of the Church of Rome is more then gods word Fol. 83. pag. 1. Arguments and circumstances of two sides brought in 15 〈◊〉 words Fol. 88. pag. 1. As much as GOD is better than a priest so much is the priest better than a king Fol. 92. pag. 2. Alexander keeper of Newgate dyed miserably Fol. 94. pag. 1. Acts and monumentes is tyed with long chaines in all Churches of England if Iesuites doe not IyeFol 97. pag. 1. B BArnards text against themselues Fol. 9. pag. 2. Bare brokers extoll base wares Fol. 10 pag. 2. Boniface the Pope caused Pope Iohns eyes to be put out Fol. 20. pag. 1. Bishops dealinges not liked of S. Barnard Fol. 21. pag. 2. Better to haue honestie for nothing at home than to pay decre for knauery at Rome Fol 29. pag. 1. Bread the body of Christ his soule and Godhead is there truly substantially if Jesuites sweare truly Fol. 5. pag. 2. Booke promised that shall shew how falsly Iesuites are for sworne Fol. 6. pag. 2. Boasting of the name of Iesus 〈◊〉 not serue their turne Fol. 8. pa. 1. Berry Uicar of Aylsham a cruell papist died sodeinly with a greate grone Fol. 9. pag. 1. Balaās wickednes made not y e prophetes religion false Fo 18. pa. 1. Boasting learned papists like to the proud learned pharisees Fol. 25. pag. 2. Because the pope would not beelike
dispuleased that I name my selfe a Christian wherewith I am right well contente Assured that the true 〈◊〉 of a christian which was instituted by Christ almost Sextien hundreth yeres since shall alwaies be able to counterueyle the Superstition of a Iesuite of which religion and societie one Ignatius Layola a Spaniarde of Biskay was the first founder beginner and captaine not fiftie yeeres since And though you holde by the first name of our high friende and redeemer which is Iesus yet wee holde by his seconde name which is Christ much musing what Spirite should incense you to leaue the auncient name of a Christiā which many thousandes of martyres and other Godly and learned men haue most defirously embraced and gladlie reteined whom God hath euer since Christes time preserued prospered and blessed amonges which I neuer hearde nor readde that any of them were called Iesuites Whereof you may see a manifest proofe if you will by the prosperitie of our prince her godly gouernment her peaceable raigne and her woonderfull Successe who is the chiefe defendresse of vs and this our Christian religion vnder God for reade all the Cronicles with the conference of tunes and you shall not finde that euer any prince or kingedome haue been more blessed Which prosperitie and blessinges God doth not commonly bestowe vpon heretikes as you doe terme vs for on his enemies and Heretyltes I muste not saie Iesuites hee sendeth commonlye his Curses plagues warres dearth scarcitie and trouble with all kinde of euill successe By which tokens markes you may knowe your selues and howe that God doeth not fauour neither you nor your doinges For what successe haue your practises your deuises are dayly reuealed your conspiraces are preuented your treasons are bewrayed your power diminished your Souldiers against her highnesse in Irelande discomfited and killed your captaines and crewe discouered and all your other doinges turne to your owne distruction And that the same may more plainelie appeare by the prosperouse successe of the true Christians on the one side and the euill successe of Gods Enemies on the other side I haue by infallible argumentes and examples plainelie prooued in my saide booke called A persuasion from papistrie that wee haue the true religion and you the wronge euerie indifferent reader whereof cannot choose but confesse But I thinke I vnderstand wherefore you haue chosen rather the name of Iesus than the name of Christ that is this as I take it For as much as your papisticall or Iesuiticall religion doth teach that you may be your owne Sauiours by your good workes masses the Popes pardons and other such trumperie yea and by whipping of your selues as shall appeare heereafter I thinke therefore you haue chosen to bee called Iesuites of Iesus which signifeth a Sauiour the firste name of our redeemer Christe importing thereby to bee your owne Sauiours So that you shall not neede that he shalbe your Sauiour but your sesues according as your Romish doctrine doth allowe But we because wee are most sure that none can be our Sauiour but Iesus Christ therefore we are content to yeeld ouer y t name of Iesus to him selfe thinkinge our selues far vnworthie to be named thereby and are most glad to be intitled by his second name Christ which signifieth vnctus that is annointed and so to bee called Christians Knowing that we can doe no good thing vnlesse wee bee spirituallye annoynted comforted and learned or inspired by the holy spirite of God the holy ghost And yet it may be that you name your selues Iesuites of Iesus the Sonne of Siracke or of some other Iesus of your owne allowing which may be the Pope who by his owne lawes hath all power in heauen and earth and by the sayings of Simon Begnius is your sauiour for he said to Pope Leo Beholde the Lion is come of the tribe of Iuda the roote of Dauid c. O most blessed Leo we haue looked for thee to be our Sauiour Whereby if it be so but you are woorse then madde if you beleue so he may be your Iesus so you his Iesuits as you are in deed Or rather I thinke you name your selues 〈◊〉 of your Iesus of bread that is of your owne making which you say sweare is the very body soule and 〈◊〉 of Iesus Christ our sauiour But because my sayde booke hath manifestly prooued that your Iesus of breade is but a plaine cake whereby you are most falsely 〈◊〉 therefore you deride and discommend it y t it should not be read Perhaps you will say y t you are no Iesuite and therefore I misname you in deede you haue not named your selfe to bee a Iesuite wherefore I can not much blame you for you that are loth to vtter your first Christian name and the olde ancient name of your progenitors and auncetors it is no maruell though you hide your last name Iesuite which is but lately sprung vp and counterfeite But by all coniectures you are a Iesuite partly for that you so mightily write in their defence and against him that hath reprooued them and partly for that you haue florished your booke in the first front thereof with the name of Iesus howesoeuer it is furnished with his worde which maketh a great showe outwardly howesoeuer it is inwardly Which name of Iesus is so enuironed with fierie and clouen tongues as it shoulde seeme that he hath a very harde heart that will not beleeue that euery Iesuite when he speaketh hath the holy ghost vpon him in the liknesse of fierie and clouen tongues as the Apostles had soone after Christes ascention Truely this your papisticall and Iesuitical religion consisteth onely in name and outwarde vaine 〈◊〉 which are bables to bring babes a bedde but farre in sufficient to intise the wise to your wayes You knowe that all they that say Lord Lord shall not enter into the kingdome of heauen but they that do the will of God There will some say to Christe did not we worke myracles and cast out diuels in thy name but Christ will say vnto them away yee workers of iniquitie for I knowe you not If Christ will vse them thus that cast out diuels out of men in the name of Iesus what will he doe to you that fill men full of diuels vnder the name of Iesus Bee no more blinde but see it is not the naming of your selues by the name of Iesus that wil make you blessed but the embracing and following the doctrine of Iesus Therefore esteeme not the crosse more then Christ nor traditions more than trueth lest Iesus Christ say vnto you away ye workers of iniquitie for I knowe you not You and wee haue profest in our Baptisine to forsake the diuell and all his woorkes and to be true Christians the souldiers and seruāts of christ which we promised to performe but you if you be a 〈◊〉 the rest of that sect haue broken the same in that you are become Iesuices and haue
vnto Christ therefore he is loth to be humble meeke Fol. 33. pag. 1. Blessings of the pope fall 〈◊〉 but cānot go vpward fol. 37. pa. 2 Blessings of a blinde Pope haue no vertue Fol. 37. pag. 2. Booke may be a witnes if dust may be a 〈◊〉 fol. 52. pag. 2 Baptista Mantuanus extolleth Rome out of measure fol. 57. pag. 2 Burning and killing are the chiefest arguments that the papists haue to confute withal fol. 74. pag. 1 Better to be an English doctor than a latine dolte fol. 74 pag. 2 Booke nay be aswell without parts as a Iesuite without a name fol. 73. pag. 1 Booke most decestable in Italian ryme fol. 60. pag. 1 Better to deuise a lye then to come without fol. 86. pag. 1 Burton bayliffe of Crowland dyed strangely fol. 90. pag. 2. fo 91. 1 Best to suffer the Iesuites to gaine and winne least wee loose all our honest wise and noble mindes of England fol. 98. 2 Beginning of the boke forgotten whē the last ende was a writing fol. 97 pag. 2 C CAuse why the discouerie was written against master Nicols fol. 12. pag. 2 Conquest of the pope in Ireland not great fol. 15. pag. 1 Church of Rome which way a mother fol. 15. pag. 1 Children of the mother of Rome the Diuels bastards fol. 16. pag. 1 Children of the diuell are not tellers of truth fol. 17. pag. 1 Childrens 〈◊〉 founde in a Popes pond sheweth the chastitie of Popish Prelates fo 23. pag. 1 Christes Disciples departing from Christe made not Christes religion false fol. 25. pag 1 Christians are accurst by Iesuits for professing Gods worde fol. 6. pa. 1 Christe will 〈◊〉 vprightly with thē that deale preposterously with him fol. 27. pag. 2 Councell of Florence teacheth who goe to heauen hell and purgatorie fol. 35. pag 1. Controuler of two or three lines of 〈◊〉 ouerseene in one English word fol. 32. pag. 1 Christe aswell worthie to be kneeled vnto as the Pope fol. 36. pag. 1 Christe went on foote in as greate a throng as the Pope and was not carried on mens shoulders fol. 37 pag. 1 Christ rode but one day in all his life and that was on an Asse not on men fol. 37. pag. 1 Christe helpt the blinde and lame 〈◊〉 out riding on mens backes which did as muche good as the Popes blessings fol. 37. pag. 1 Christe bade the Apostles goe and preach but he did not bid the pope ride on men to blesse the people fol 37. 2 Church of Rome ought to dissemble whoredome fol. 40 pag. 2 Ciuil magistrats may permit whore dome without fault fol. 41. pag. 2 Christ and S. Paule brought foorth to maintaine the Popes stewes fol. 44. pag. 1 Christe much beholden to the Popes Iesuite for bringing him as a witnesse for vpholding of whoredome fol. 44. pag. 2 Christe will not boulster whoredome now beeing in heauen that abhord it being on earth fol. 45. pag. 1 Charitable deedes commendable so that they be not done as meriting workes fol. 46. pag. 2 Christ neede not haue been whipte if our owne whippings might put away our sinnes fol. 47 pag. 2 Christes olde spouse the Churche of Rome cannot lacke wit fol. 49. pag. 1 Cause why the boke called a Persuasion from papistrie was so intituled fol. 53. pag. 1 Christian hath taken a Iesuite napping fol. 54. pag. 1 Christian describeth his estate calling to a Iesuite because the Iesuite as yet hath not learned it out fol. 55 pag 2 Calling of a christiā passeth al earthly callings fol. 56. pag. 1 Cause that the Iesuites are no true subiects fol. 61. pag. 1 Cōmendation of musick fol. 62. pa. 2 Children 〈◊〉 laughing in their sleepe fol. 63. pag. 2 〈◊〉 discords of musicke cōpared with the aspects of the planets fol. 63. 2 Coggers foysters of false 〈◊〉 thriue not by their trade 69. pag. 1 Christ marueiled at the 〈◊〉 faith not at his lerning fo 75. p. 2 Christ said Oye of litle faith not O ye of litle learning fol. 75. pag. 2 Christ is to be credited in citing the Prophets without further searche fol. 77. pag. 1 Christ and his Apostles words were as true in their life time as they be now fol. 77. pag. 2 Christians lyes without limitation whereby they cannot be found fol. 78. pag. 1 Christiā sufficiently warned for vsing persuasion in steede of disuaston fol 78. pag. 2 Christe neuer tooke vpon him to dispense with the word of God as the Pope doth fol. 80. pag. 2 Christ learned Iudas his religion but the Diuell did teache him his treason fol. 18 pag. 1 Christes doctrin was not false thogh he conuerted no Priestes fol. 28. pag. 1 Christ and the pope haue one iudgement seat fol. 83. 1 Christian confuteth by writing Iesuite by thinking fol 90 pag. 2 Cutting of beardes cannot preuaile against Gods determination fol. 91. pag 2 Christe 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 but they did not kisse Christes 〈◊〉 fol. 93. pag. 1 D DEsperate and dolefull deathes of persecuting Papists fol. 10. pag. 1 Doctors of the Pope wrote thinges more meete for swine than for men fol. 13. pag. 1 Defence of a seely grāmarian fol. 12. pag. 1 Diuell the fittest husband for the mother of Rome fol 15. pag. 2 Doctrine must not be allowed by deeds but deeds by doctrine fol. 19 pag. 1 Detestable license graunted by Pope Sextus fol 21. pag. 2 Diuelish head cannot haue a godly body fol. 21. pag. 2 〈◊〉 of Priestes with women must bee counted for holinesse fol. 23. pag. 1 Detesters of a mans doctrine care not much for his name fol. 7. pa. 1 Doctrine of Iesuites distroyed with their owne darts fol. 10. pag. 2 Derided for vsing a P. fol. 27. pag. 2 Discouerer hath not gained much by discouering M. Nicols progresse fol. 31. pag. 2 Desperatiō of M. Nicols vncertain for that he is yet aliue fol. 31. pa. 2 Doubfull whether the Angell that keepeth Paradise woulde let the Popes soules in and out fol. 35. pag 2 Doubtful whether the diuels that are kepers of the Popes Purgatorie 〈◊〉 let y e soules out of purgatory if they were once in fol. 35. pag. 2 Defence of y e popes stewes fo 40. p. 1 Deuout Romans whip them selues for their sinnes fol 46. pag. 2. 〈◊〉 seldō or neuer vsed f. 53. p. 2 Daniel was of no great estate or 〈◊〉 the confounded the wicked Iudges fol. 56. pag. 1 Difference betweene papists musick and our musicke fol. 61. pag. 2. Dentō that could not burne in Christes cause was burned in a worse cause fol. 94. pag. 1. Dale a promoting papist was eaten with lise fol. 94 pag. 1. Doccor Whittington as he came frō the burning of a godly woman that he condemned was in a great throng of people killed by a Bull none other hurt but he fol. 95. pa. 2 96. 1. Definitiue sentence of a Iesuite fol. 98. pag. 2. E EUill successe of Iesuits Fol. 4. pag. 1. Euill luck
speciall markes according to Salomon of lying witnesses then you that are Iesuites haue no great cause to boast that you are true witnesses And nowe for that you graunt that a lying witnesse hath an euill ende then they that haue euill endes are not like to bee true witnesses and so by this meanes Sherwood and Ducket that dyed so dangerously and had so euill an end of late though they professed your Romishe religion and did holde on the Pope were lying witnesses And seeing they were lying witnesses the thing they witnessed was a lye and so by your owne sayings in the first front of your boke of this your discouerie you haue discouered your Romish religion which they witnessed at their last gaspe to bee a lye And as you haue proued here by Salomon that Sherwood and Ducket were lying witnesses by their euill ende So I haue shewed in my saide booke called A persuasion from papistrie Diuers of your Romish religion that had euill 〈◊〉 because they were lying witnesses but least you should forget them I will put you in remembrance of some of them Iohn de Roma a professour of your Romishe religion an enemie to the Gospel and a great 〈◊〉 therof for hee filled bootes with boyling grease and so put them on the Gospellers legges tying them backward to a forme with their legges hauging downe ouer a small fier to torment them the more and so examined them through the vengeance of God rotted and swarmed full of vermine not able to abide his owne smell so that his flesh fell away from his bones by peecemeale whose end and death was most horrible and euill and therefore by your owne iudgement hee was a lying witnesse The Commendator of Saint Anthonie of Vienna an enemie to the Gospell one of 〈◊〉 holy Romish Church that gaue sentence of condenmation on a true professour of the Gospell called 〈◊〉 dyed 〈◊〉 and had an 〈◊〉 ende and therefore according to your owne sentence hee was a lying witnesse Thomas Arundale Archbishop of Cantorburie a principall member of your Romishe Church that condemned the Lorde Cobham a true professour of the Gospell his tongue did so swell that hee coulde swallow no meate and so dyed and had an euill end and therefore by your owne doome hee was a lying witnesse Also a certaine Bishop of Hungarie a mightie mainteiner of your popish religion and a false witnesse against the Gospell did runne about starke madde and rauing died miserably and so he had an euill ende and therefor he was a lying witnesse Moreouer one Berrie the Uicar of Aylsham a Comissarie and a champion of your Church and a cruell persecutor of the professours and witnesses of Gods worde fell downe sodenly to the ground with a 〈◊〉 grone and neuer 〈◊〉 after neither shewed any token of repentance and so hee had an euill ende and therefore by your owne saying hee was a lying witnesse A great sort of suche are described at large in the latter end of my said boke wherby it doth most manifestly appeare that the said professors of your Romish religion were false witnesses because they had an euill ende And so your romishe doctrine is false because the professours mainteiners and defenders are lying witnesses And nowe as lying witnesses are tryed by their euill endes so true witnesses are knowne by their good endes And because the pure perfect professors of Gods worde our religion haue good endes therefore they are true witnesses And as I haue prooued a great fort of your Romishe religion by my saide booke to bee false and lying witnesses because of their euill endes so haue I in the latter ende of the saide booke proued diuers professours of this our religion to bee true witnesses for that they had good endes For they that suffered for the Gospell were in their tormentes most patient and constant whō God did myraculously ayde helpe and strengthen vntill the yeelding vp of their spirite Which if you had read as aduisedly as I feare you omitted purposely you should soone haue spied thē of your religiō to be lying witnesses by their euil ends and them of our religion to be true witnesses by their good ends If you would sticke to this saying of Salomō produced by you and consider the most wicked dangerous deathes and horrible desperate and euill ends of your sectaries and professours of your religion you would thē say y t the 〈◊〉 Papists are lying witnesses Therefore haue a better consideration of the same wordes of Salomon and then you shall plainly perceaue that you are woūded with your owne arrowe and that you haue shot your selues thorow with Salomons shafte The 〈◊〉 parte VNder the saide sentence of the Prouerbes of Salomon you haue placed these wordes of Saint Barnard An nō ex hac odiosa impudentia pullulabit mox impenitentia mater desperationis Will not impenitencie the mother of desperation shortly breede or spring of this hatefull impudencie Hereby you woulde haue your Readers beleeue that the professours of the Gospell and they that speake or write against you in the defence thereof are so without all shame that it will bring thē shortly to impenitencie and then to desperation I woulde the lesse blame you for bringing this text of S. Barnarde against vs if you coulde shewe but one of the earnest professours followers and continuers of the Gospell that dyed impenitently desperatly as I haue alleadged a great sort in my saide booke by you slaundered and can do many mo of your Romish and Papisticall religion that haue died most horribly wickedly and desperately But because you are not able to doe it you seeke by one that is of more credit thē your selfe to discredite vs. But as you shoote without his consent so you shoote his shaft heere at a wrong marke for he shooteth not this arrowe at vs nay he shooteth it at you For if you Jesuites and Papistes bee impudent lying witnesses against the manifest truth of the Gospell and haue an euill end dying impenitently and desperatly Then doeth not the text shew plainely that S. Barnard hath hit you and not touched vs Yes I thinke And that it may appeare whether this text of S. Barnarde doth hit your selues or not though you shoote it at vs I wil here briefly note some examples of the impenitent and desperate deathes of some of the champions of your Romishe Church which I haue produced in my saide booke concerning the same The Lord of Reuest chiefe president of the Parliament of Aiax being a great professor and mainteiner of the popes religion and there withall a cruell persecutor of the Gospellers was stricken with a horrible furie and madnesse and so he dyed in his rage furie Whereby it appeareth y t he was impudent so impenitent therby brought to desperation One Morgan Bishop of S. Dauids in Queene Maries time a great post of your popish Church
that condemned Bishop Farrare whereby he was burned for professing the gospel was soone after so strickē by the power of God y t his meat would not go down but rise pick vp againe somtimes at his mouth somtime blowne out at his nose most hor rible to behold so he cōtinued vntill his death Wherby it is more like that hee was impenitent thereby brought to desperation A Suffragane of Douer in Q. Maries time a champiō of your Romish Church did breake his neck falling downe a payre of stayres in y e Cardinals chāber at Grenewitch immediatly after he had receiued y e Cardinals blessing which sheweth that he rather died impenitently desperatly for all he had the Cardinals blessing One Clarke a mightie mainteiner of your religion an opē enemie to y e gospel to all y e godly preachers thereof in king Edwards daies hāged himself in y e towre of London which sheweth rather that hee was impenitent and thereby brought to desperation The great and notable Papist called trolling Smith fell downe sodenly in the streete dyed which argueth rather y e 〈◊〉 was an impenitent a desperate Papist And also one Rockwood a perfect Papist and the chiefe procurer of the great trouble of certaine godly men in Callys for this our religion when he was at the point of death staring and raging cryed and saide that hee was vtterly damned And he would not aske God mercy but brayed and cryed out all too late all too late whereby it appeareth that hee was an impudent Papist which brought to impenite 〈◊〉 and so to die desperately These with diuers moe of your Romish religion that had such euill ends and dyed impenitently and desperately haue I set foorth in the latter ende of my saide booke whereby you and your sect may see if yee will see that Saint 〈◊〉 pickt not this dart at vs but at you And therefore more like a vaine bragger than a skilfull fighter with the weapon you thought to hurte vs you haue wounded your selfe As you and your fellowes haue alwayes doone yet yea and alwaies shal doe and say what you can It is a 〈◊〉 matter to make children and fooles beleeue that a gloworme will burne them so you may easily persuade y e simple people that this and such like textes that you florish your bookes withall will quite ouerthrowe vs. But as the gloworme is not 〈◊〉 though it shine bright and therefore cannot burne them that touche it so your textes you bring against vs when they are throughly rypt and scande though they seeme neuer so great and strong can neither hurte vs nor stirre vs. Nay you destroy your owne doctrine with your owne dartes The sixte part IN the beginning of your saide Discouerie you say thus to the indifferent Reader It is one point among other of very bare brokers to extoll immoderatly very base wares c. If extollers of very base wares are very bare brokers 〈◊〉 by this your owne saying you Iesuites and Papistes are not only the 〈◊〉 but also the baddest and falsest brokers of all other for you 〈◊〉 Masses and say they will saue vs you preferre the Popes pardons and pronounce them as precious you praise your romishe relickes and affirme they will relieue vs and also that your oyle will worke our saluation with diuers other of the Popes wares which you extoll to be so excellent and pure that none other wares on the earth but they can worke the like wonders But for that Gods woorde doth not warrant these your wares neyther the prophetes doe proclame them neyther Christ doth commaunde them nor the Apostles doe allowe them nor the Euangelistes did once 〈◊〉 them Therefore howsoeuer you Iesuites doe extoll them we christians must needes dispise them And nowe as these your popish wares are prooued base and badde wares because they are neither commaunded nor commended by Christ so you must needs 〈◊〉 but very bare brokers nay detestable and diuelishe deceauers for if they may iustly bee called dissemblers and deceauers rather then noughtie brokers that set forth and extoll vellewres for veluet sackcloth for sattan course harden for fine linnen browne paper for pure partchment ale for alligant and water for wine though they loose not all their money they paide for the same and though their saide false wares may doe them some pleasure then you that be Iesuites and Papistes may rightly be called detestable and diuelishe deceauers that extoll prayse preache and write masses for Gods mercy crosses for Christ the popes oyle for Christs blood bread for Christes body the Popes paltrie for Gods pardons fables for fayth 〈◊〉 for treasure relickes for remission the decrees of men for the doctrine of God falshode for trueth damnation for saluation and the endelesse paines of hell for the euerlasting Ioyes of heauen which most false and counterfeate wares through your praysing and extolling of them the ignorant people doe buie them of the Pope and pay therefore dearely to their vtter destruction therfore all this well weighed and considered though you meane by your wordes that wee are bare brokers yet here you are descried to be detestable and diuelishe deceauers farre woorse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brokers And though you counte M. Niclos for the base wares that we the bare brokers doe so extoll yet if you aduise your selfe aswel as you shoulde and no lesse then we wishe he is not so base a ware as you take him except that be a base ware that is bought with the deerest price for how base soeuer you make him he cost more thē al the popes wares are worth hee cost euen the very heart blood of Christ the sonne of God yea and Christ was enforst before he could 〈◊〉 him to come out of heauen into this earth here to pay it and lay it downe for him Therfore if you aduise your selfe wel M. Nicols is not very base ware Al the masses that you are able to mumble nor all the money that they cost and yet they cost a great deale in a yeere can not buie him though you sweare they can saue both the quicke and the dead It seemeth you take him for base ware because you count his learning to be but base howe base soeuer his learning is now with vs you counted him well learned when hee was with you Do you thinke he was better learned whē he was y e pope scholler then now when he is Christs disciple or was his knowledge more profoūd whē he profest y e pope thē now when he preacheth Christ belike y e pope hauing al lawes heauenly iudgement in his brest when he came to him breathed him full of learning and nowe at his comming away the Pope tooke it frō him againe You haue very good luck for wicked vnlearned men if they please obey the Pope thē they are godly learned men but if they displease
excellent learned men for thus of them he writeth Constat plures papas adeo Illiteratos esse vt grāmaticā penitus ignorent it is manifest y t many Popes are so vnlearned that they are vtterly ignorant of their grāmar If M. Nicols learning bee feeble being by your own saying a seely Grammarian then many of your Popes had not much learning being no Grammarians at all Therefore in affirming M. N. feblenes in learning you haue made me proue some of your popes to bee altogether w tout learning you should haue foreseen before you wrot least by dispraising your foe you danger your friends is not this a goodly gaine you haue got it is as you do euer and as you shall alwayes you thinke by your 〈◊〉 to ouerthrowe other but with your owne trypps you ouertumble your selues Well though it stand M. Nicols in hand to haue learning being a minister of gods word yet it maketh no matter whether one haue learning or no that commeth to bee Pope for Baldus writeth Papa est doctor vtriusque iuris authoritate nō Scientia The Pope is doctor of both lawes by authoritie not by knowledge You may see what a precious matter it is to be a pope if any knew that his sonne shoulde be pope he need neuer put him to schole The Popes brest hath suche a speciall prerogatiue that it hath more learning without studie then all the mens brestes in the worlde haue with studie as it seemeth by one of the popes gloses which is this Et si totus mundus c. Although al the world woulde iudge in any matter against the pope yet it seemeth wee ought to stand to the Iudgement of the Pope For hee seemeth to haue all lawes in the chest of his bosome Therefore whatsoeuer the Pope either aloweth or disaloweth we are bound likewise to alowe or disalow the same And whosoeuer is not obedient to the lawes of the Church of Rome must be deemed an heretike and it were as great sinne as Church robbing to reason of any the popes doynges You that feare to run into the laps of heresie must affirme y t the pope hath all lawes whatsoeuer in his brest though he be 〈◊〉 so vnlearned a dolt whatsoeuer he aloweth or disaloweth you must alow or disalow y e same They haue 〈◊〉 harde hearts fantastical wits that will not beleeue al this y t is thus glosed of y e pope And as it may be thought y t the pope hath power aboue al other to iudge rightly of al earthly matters causes because he hath all laws fast closed in his 〈◊〉 which he had neede to keep close well shut for feare they 〈◊〉 out euē so he hath a heauēly iudgemēt which none other on y e earth hath or can haue but he for thus it is writtē Papa 〈◊〉 coeleste arbitriū c. The pope is said to haue an heauēly iudgemēt therfore in such things ashe willeth his will standeth in stead of reason Neyther may any man say vnto him O sir why do you thus like as a lawe may be made by the onely will of the pope so may the same 〈◊〉 be dispensed withall onely by the will of the pope If the pope haue such a heauenly iudgement as his doctors allowe him as he taketh vpon him he might doe very much good especially in determining iudging of poore mens causes y t haue wrong whereby without any expenses trauell they might quickly obtaine their right Well as king Salomon obtayned great wisedome at gods hands so God sent him an occasion soone after for the tryall thereof which was by finding out of the true mother of a liuing child that two harlots did striue for for being doubtfull who was y e true mother very wisely hee made them beleeue hee woulde cutte or deuide the child between them wherewith she that was not the mother thereof was well content but the true mother pricke w t naturall affection of her childe willed rather that the other should haue her hole child aliue then she to haue halfe of it being dead which when the wise Salomon perceiued hee deliuered to the right mother her owne child Euen so as the pope hath a diuine a heauenly iudgement so you shall see what an occasion was giuen him to showe set forth his diuine heauēly iudgement w t to y e intēt that the popes diuine knowledge heauēly wisedome should not be 〈◊〉 I haue set forth a worthy example thereof in my said booke which you so much mislike called a perlwasion from papistrie as followeth There was a great contention between thē of Ratispone in Germanie the Abby of S. Denis in France about the body of S. Denis which was so deep a doubt to discusse that none but the pope was able to trie the trueth therof And so to Rome they went the pope sate sadly in iudgement about it examined their allegations matter throughly and grew to a conclusiō in the end gaue therof his deep diffinitiue sentence and said that both they of Ratispone they of S. Denis had the whole body of S. Denis that whosoeuer would say the cōtrary shuld be an heretik If the truth had not bin fast nailed to y e pops chaire also if he had not had a meruelus diuine heauenly iudgement the pope could neuer haue giuen such a true wise and learned iudgement of this weightie matter Nowe surely it was a popelie Resolution yea and such a one as must needes make the veriest fooles in the worlde beleeue that Will Sommers woulde not haue giuen so found and ridiculous a iudgement This famous diuine and true iudgement of the Pope is sufficient if there were nothing els to make vs beleeue that the Pope can not lie Here the Pope showes that hee had a heauenly powre with his diuine iudgement more like a God then a man Though this before written may perswad you Iesuits that this pope had all lawes and knowledge in his brest yet it assureth vs Christians that he had no witte in his brayne and though it teache you that hee was a diuine iudge yet it doeth tell vs plainely that hee was a very doite Wherefore though you count M. Nicols but a seely Gammarian yet if he had sitte in place of the Pope he woulde haue giuen a wiser Iudgement than he and though you count his learning but feeble yet he woulde not haue giuen such a feeble iudgement of the body of saint Denise as your Pope did Yet euery one must beleeue that will not bee an heretike that his iudgement was true in y t he said y t S. Denis had one body in germanie and an other in Fraunce All this before written well weyed and considered howesoeuer you Iesuites iudge of master Nicols learning wee Christians must thinke that some of your Popes had neither wisedome nor learning The 9. part YOu
vs whether you meane spirituall birth or temporall bearing vs on her backe I am sure you say most vntruly She may beare or bring foorth Iesuites if she will but shee can neuer beare or bring forth true Christiās if shee woulde as you that are Iesuites take her for your mother reioyce y t she hath borne you so we y t are Christians take god for our father are most glad y t we are borna new in christ through hearing of y e gospel working of y e holy ghost And 〈◊〉 for other bearing I am sure y e pope which is y e head of 〈◊〉 church hath beene so long vsed to bee borne on mens shoulders that hee will disdeyne to beare or carry any either on his shoulders or other wise Therefore in this that your holy mother hath borne vs take it which way you will is a most manifest vntruth vnlesse you haue some other mysticall meaning in it that is to busie for my braine And with our bringing vp I thinke your holy mother hath not been muche troubled for thankes bee to God our soyle hath and doth dayly yeelde vs sufficient sustinance and 〈◊〉 of all things yea that hath been such a long time since your holy mother hath curst vs for so long as shee blest vs wee neuer fared so well that the like hath not been seene God graunt wee be thankefull for it vnlesse you meane our bringing vp in Queene 〈◊〉 time by your holy mother which if all things bee well marked may bee called rather a beating downe then a bringing vp no doubt your holy mother tooke then great paynes with bringing of vs vp for they that obeyed her they helpt to feed her and bring her vp and such as stucke to Gods worde and refused her she did beate downe and burned them to ashes was not this a louing mother that thus brought vp her children If you meane of the bringing vp of master Nicols by your holy mother at Rome in feeding and releeuing him I must needes say that though it was to feeding of his body it was to the killing of his soule For your holy mother feedeth her children as cattell is fed for though the oxe is glad when he is put into a good pasture to bee fed yet the simple oxe is fedde to bee killed So your holy mother feedeth her children to the death of their soules and nourisheth them louingly to their endlesse destruction And as the oxe is ignorant that hee is fedde for his death so you little knowe the destruccion will follow this your bodily feeding Therfore if you woulde consider the ende of your holy mothers feeding of you woulde rather fast and fare hard in England vnder your mercifull prince then to haue all the pleasures you can wish vnder your cruell wicked mother of Rome Therefore 〈◊〉 from that feeding that will make you fast al wayes and shunne from these delicates that will driue you to the Diuell The tenth part YOU write in your sayde booke to the greate slaunder and reproche of our ministers and Preachers that if the notable infamous acts of ministers and Preachers onlie in this one Realme of Englande for the space of one dozen yeeres past were gathered into some one booke for the view of the worlde they woulde be more in quantitie and in qualitie more heinous than all that they haue gathered by great labour and much fashood in their seuerall bookes out of the liues of the woorst Catholikes for these thousande yeeres past ouer all the whole worlde c. If you had lamented the wicked liuinges and lasciuious liues of the ministers and Preachers of Gods worde as you reioyce therein you woulde not haue written so manifest a falshood as you haue done But as the Diuell is the father of lies so can not his children be tellers of trueth And as you haue detracted my booke without anie triall so you haue 〈◊〉 our ministers and preachers without any proofe or any argument but this your owne bare wordes thinking belike that you Iesuices shoulde be of such credite that your bare sayinges shoulde bee taken forsooth and your counterfaite coyne should goe for currant Whatsoeuer before I haue written of you I haue done the same with authorities and argumentes but this that you haue written against our ministers and preachers wee haue but only your penne for a proofe and your worde for a warrant But as I must needes confesse that many of our ministers and preachers haue not liued so well as they shoulde nor so godlye as I wishe yet it is moste manifest for certaine hundreth yeeres past that many of your holie Popes Cardinalles Prelates and Papisticall priestes haue liued so horribly incontinently and diuelishly that it will loath any true Christian to heare I doubt not but if you could haue mamfested your malicious minde against our preachers and ministers you would not wish such slight woordes so soone haue giuen it ouer but for that it would haue beene to busie for you openly to proue such a number of notable infamous actes against our preachers and ministers as you pretēd priuily with your penne You referre your readers in the mangent of your booke to the recordes of our temporal courtes Indeed y e Pope his prelates are wilier thē our spiritualty for none of their doings or deeds may be called to account but only before thēselues No lay mā may accuse you no tēporal iudge may cōdēne you nor no king may controll you wherby your diuelish practises may be kept priuie and y t the cōmon people shold not know your detestable dealings And because you would seeme to be saints though your liuings were lothsome you prouided a remedy for a mischiefe but if y e practises of your Popes the cōdicions of your cardinals y e blemishes of your Bishops the Acts of your Abbots the maners of your monks y e facts of your fryers y e chastity of your chānōs the pernitious doings of your priests for a thousād yeres past might haue come in questiō before tēporal magistrates ciuil iudges y t y e lay mē might haue cōplaind so a gainst thē according to their causes as they may do against our preachers ministers with vs thē I am most sure certain y t al the abhominable actes detestable deeds execrable enormities and filthy facts of them could not be conteined in a great number of greater bookes then the greatest bybles we haue For seeing there is so manie bookes filled with their filthy factes and detestable doings for all their restrained lawes and priuie keeping of the same what a number of volumes would haue 〈◊〉 farced therewith if euery one that would might haue written according to their desertes complayned to the temporall powers according as they had occasion Also it cannot bee that our ministers and preachers of Gods worde which is the director of trueth should generally liue so infamously as
haue her your mother is a verie whoore so this holy mother that I wil speake of was a very harlot if they that haue 〈◊〉 without husbāds are harlots For though Marie the mother of Christ did conceaue by the holie Ghoste yet I hope you wil not say but that this your mother did cōceaue by some other Your Pope Ioan the eight whose proper name was Gilberta a dutch woman of Magunce first went with an Euglish monke out of the Abbey of Fulda in mans apparell to Athens And after through her dexteritie of witte and learning was made Pope and so she ruled as pope two yeeres sixe monethes At the last that it might appeare what a holy matrone was head of your holy mother in a general procession openly she fell in labour and trauell of childe and so dyed by reason whereof the Cardinals vntill this day do auoyde to come neere that streete where your holy mother the Church of Rome receiued that shame So that all that whyle they had no man Pope but a woman Pope But though al this while they lacked a holy father yet they were sure they had a holie mother If euer ante might cal y e church of Rome their mother they that were aliue and vnder this your virgin Pope Ioan might lawfully call her mother for then they had a mother indeed y t was the ruler and head of their church It hath pleased you to entitle our Preachers ministers w t infamous actes but this act of your Pope Ioan was not very famous if yee marke it wel I am sure that in all these twelue yeres in which you so charge our preachers ministers w t infamous acts nor yet for this xx yeres nor at any 〈◊〉 vnder y e preaching of the gospel you are able to say that you haue read or heard y t euer our ministery was once touched w t such a notable infamous act as this y e was committed by this your holy harlot chiefe head ruler of your sayd holy mother I muse y t euer you can be so fond foolish 〈◊〉 once to thinke y t your romish church could be a holy mcther that was ruled and gouerned by such an vnholy harlot You shal 〈◊〉 now another famous Pope I may not say in famous for that is the liberal liuery that you vouchsafe to bestow on out preachers ministers pope Iohn y e thirtenth was full of all abhominable vices he was a whoremaster an 〈◊〉 incestuous libidinous a gamester an extortioner periured a fighter a murtherer cruel and tyrannous of his Cardinals some he put out their eyes of some of thē he cut out their tōgues of some he cut of their fingers of some 〈◊〉 noses and many other such like mercifull actes I must not say infamous actes he ordeined deacōs in a stable he cōmitted incest with two of his owne sisters he called for the diuel to help when he playd at dice he made boyes bishops for money he defloured virgins strāgers he made a stewes of his pallace of Lateran he lay with Stephana his fathers concubine w t other he put out y t eyes of bishop Benedict he caused houses to be set on fire he brake opē houses he drank to 〈◊〉 diuel c. If this Pope were Christes vickat thē Christ did chose for himself but a mad vickar he was far vnlike his master it is hard for you to finde such a famous fellowe I may not say infamous amōg al y e patriarks prophets or apostles do you thinke you can pick out such a one amōg al our preachers ministers of Gods word y t haue 〈◊〉 are or euer shal 〈◊〉 I think it wil be very hard for you to doe you might me thinkes well haue spared your notable infamous actes frō our ministers and preachers and bestowed them a great deale better vpō these your notable famous I must not say infamous popes for y t they did such notable famous facts y t none other can deserue to haue that title from them Pope Iohn the 14. caused one Petrus first to be stript naked then his head to be shauē to be hāged by y e haire a hole day together after that to be set vpō an Asse his face 〈◊〉 backward his hāds boūd vnder y e Asses 〈◊〉 so to be led through y e city y t al men might see him y t done to be scourged w t rods so banished the city Whether he was a chast pope or no I know not but it appeareth he was a very charitable pope according to y e charitie of your holy mother the church of Rome Pope Boniface the 7. caused Pope Iohns eyes to be put out after to be thrown into prison where he was as some say famished some say he was slaine by Ferrucus Your holye Pope Hilde brande was a notable Sorcerer and a Necromancer who on a time sent 〈◊〉 for a booke that hee had left behinde him who though hee commaunded them to the contrary reading a little of the same sodenly there came a greate sorte of Diuels about them wherewith they were almost out of their wittes and then the diuelles saide vnto them tell vs what you woulde haue vs to doe or els we wil fall vpon you then one of them that had the booke bad them plucke downe certaine walles 〈◊〉 to Rome which they did quickly and at last with 〈◊〉 feare they came to the pope and gaue him his holy booke It is said that the Pope hath the holye Ghost at commaundement but sure this Pope 〈◊〉 had the diuell at his becke It is no maruell though your Churche of Rome were a holy mother that was ruled and gouerned by such a holie father This holy Hildebrand hired one to lay great stones ouer the Emperours head in the roofe of the Church where he vsed to pray and to let them fall vpon him and so to kill him but the fellow that did so fell down and was dasht all to peeces with the same This was a famous deede of a Pope but you woulde haue saide as you might well enough that it had beene a notable infamous acte of a Preacher or minister of the Gospel Also this holy Pope Hildebrand 〈◊〉 three men to death before they were conuict or founde or approoued guiltie and caused them to be hanged without delay cōtrary to al law Also be caused the foote of a widowes sonne to be cut off not withstanding he had fulfilled al that was enioyned him by the saide Pope before and after his foote beeing cut off he died within three dayes after All you that woulde learne equitie and iustice learne here of the Pope I coulde neuer reade that Christ after hee had the woman that was taken in aduoutry goe away and sinne no more that eyther he commaunded the Iudges to put her to death as this Pope did or els that he caused
death and destruction the confusion of their countrey and the ruine of this Realme you woulde dispraise and slaunder her and say shee were a cruell tyrant Nay for all her highnesse hath vsed you so mildely and mercifully as shee hath done yet some of you woulde darken her desertes if you coulde in sayinge moste spitefully and falsly that this is the time of tyrannie these are the daies of persecution this I graunt but not in Englande though you meane in Englande Truly suche as doe say so must needes I thinke speake against their conscience and knowledge vnlesse they take mercy for crueltie and crueltie for mercie and then I may say vnto them as Esay saide to the Iewes Woe bee to you that cal euill good and good euill c. If this bee the time of tyrannie and persecution when you that are manifest enemies to your Queene and countrie before well proued are suffered to liue peaceably to inioy your goods quietly to goe at your libertie or imprisoned to fare daintily and there to liue merily or to bee releast vpon suretie Then what was Queene Maries time when her simple humble and faultlesse subiectes were cruelly imprisoned in stocks and chaines other engins tormented most tyrannously racked their friendes to come to them not suffered on the bare boordes and ground lodged to haue penne and inke and candle light not permitted for want of meate to bee famished in prisons priuily to bee murthered and abrode in euery mans eyes to bee burned That time of Queene Mary to all wise men may rather seeme to bee the time of crueltie tyrannie and persecution than this milde and mercifull time of our Queene Elizabeth I beseech God to open your eyes to see howe her grace doth persecute you for if you did see yet I feare some are blinde for the nonce you would then say that shee persecuteth you none other wise than the louing father doeth his childe and as the good scholemaster doth persecute his scholler that hee would faine haue to learne Thus much concerning your now persecution I haue declared in my said booke whereby it may plainely appeare that yours is rather a pleasant pastime then a painfull persecution to that that the Protestants felt in Queene Maries time therfore you cannot 〈◊〉 say that my said booke came foorth in the middest of your persecutions but in the middest of your easie and carelesse liuing The 36. parte YOU call my saide booke a weightie worke of fortie sheetes of paper The proud and learned Scribes and Pharisees and the other common people thought the 〈◊〉 two mytes were but of a small value but in y t sight of Christe they were counted great for that it was all shee had Euen so that my saide simple booke being al y t I was able to doe may bee counted light in your iudgement but before God I am sure it is so weightie that it will weigh downe all your learned bookes that you write for the maintenance of the Pope your Romish Church And though in 〈◊〉 you name it a weightie worke yet I haue proued in good earnest that the booke wherein you deride it is but a very light worke for that this my answere hitherto hath weyed it cleane downe But though you count it a very simple and light work yet I must content my selfe there with for so the Popes learned Doctors counted and estemed the Scriptures For Ludouicus a Canon of the Church of Laterane in Rome openly in an Oration pronounced in the late Conuenticle of Trident for the mainteining of the decrees where of you are so deepely sworne saide as followeth Ecclesia est viuum pectus Christi scriptura autem est quasi mortuum Attramentum The Church is the liuely breast of Christe But the scripture is as it were dead inke The Bishop of Poiters in the same your godly counsell of Trident saide thus Scriptura est res inanimis muta sicut 〈◊〉 sunt reliquae leges politicae The scripture is a dead dumbe thing as are all other politike lawes To this ende writeth Albertus Pigghius Si dixeris haec referri oportere ad iudicium Scripturarum c. If thou say these matters must be put ouer to the iudgement of the scriptures thou shewest thy selfe to bee voide of common reason For the scriptures are dumbe iudges and cannot speake Eckius called the Scriptures Euangelium Nigrum Theologiam Attramentariam The blacke Gospell and inken diuinitie Furthermore in the discommendation of the scriptures Pigghius writeth thus Sunt scripturae vt non minus vere quam festiue dixit quidam velut Nasus cereus qui sehorsum illorsum in quācunque volueris partem trahi retrahi fingique facile permittit The scriptures as one man both truly and merily saide is like a nose of waxe that easily suffereth it selfe to be drawne backward and forward and to be moulded and fashioned this way and that way and howsoeuer yee list Thus reuerently did your Doctors of your Romish Church write of the most holy Scriptures You wrote immediately before these wordes It is a world to see what pillers of defence they haue got what graue writers in their cause what bookes they suffer to come out against vs dayly But may not I say to you and that more rightly and truly It is a most lamentable thing both to see and to heare what pernicious and pestiferous pillers your Church of Rome hath and what impudēt writers you haue in your cause and what beastly bookes your holy father and you doe suffer to bee in printe and goe abrode wherein the holy Scripture and worde of God is made a iesting and 〈◊〉 stocke The simplest the vnlearnedst the youngest writer that is or euer was amongst y t professours of the Gospell may be counted graue writers in comparison of these your nowe mentioned doctours Whatsoeuer you count of our writers you neuer founde that wee wrote so vnreuerently and so decestablie of the holy worde of God the tryar of all truth as these and other of your Romishe graue writers haue doone These your graue writers might be auncient and graue men to see to but they haue written most childishly 〈◊〉 fondly falsly and diuelishly It is not the grauitie of the person that maketh the writing graue but the graue and true writing shewes the grauitie of the person therefore if you consider well your graue pillers y t wrote as is before in y t defēce of your church you haue no great cause mockingly and restingly to call vs graue writers as though none but they of your 〈◊〉 can be graue writers And now for that your Popes pillers and your graue writers doe call the scriptures which is the holy woorde of GOD dead Inke a liuelesse letter a dumbe Iudge that cannot speake a blacke Gospell inken Diuinitie and a nose of waxe whereby they tooke the holy Bible not to bee any weightie worke
letter And as you thinke that papistrie beginning with a P. did put mee in minde to say persuasion because it beganne also with a P So I thinke that dishonestie beginning with a D. shoulde like wise haue put you in remembrance to haue saide disuasion because it began also with a D. And as by your words I had some occasion to say a persuasion from papistrie because papistrie and 〈◊〉 began both with a letter yet you had no suche occasion to say a persuasion frō dishonestie because dishonestie and persuasion begin with contrarie letters Thus as the wicked through Gods goodnesse fall many times into the same pits that they make for the Godly so you being a Iesuite are 〈◊〉 fast in your owne snare which you laid for a Christiā In this your disabling of my skill in the intitling of my said booke thereby to bring your owne knowledge in credit you haue gained as the vaine glorious Priest did that to encrease his own glorie in learning controuled a young scholler for speaking true latine Which was thus a man hauing a sonne at home with him whom he had put to learning beeing very desirous to know whether he had profited well or not desired the Parson or Uicar of the Parish to examine and appose his said sonne And then the said Priest being both curious and vaine glorious askt the young man what was latine for a Prieste To whome hee answered Sacerdos no saide the Prieste therein you are deceiued For who hath the chiefest learning or wisedome but priests Therefore Sapientia is a very fit latine worde for a Prieste wherewith the sober and wise young man held him content then immediatly the Priest seeing a Cat saide to the saide young man I pray you what is latine for a Cat The young man answered him that Catus was Latine for a Cat no said the Priest a Cat hath very sharpe nailes and therfore Asper is the right latine worde for a Cat whom the young man did not contrarie And the saide Priest as hee was sitting by the fire askt the saide Scholler what was latine for fire Forsooth said hee Ignis that is not so saide the Priest for when a man commeth in very colde what maketh him more glad then a good fire Therefore there is no fitter name for fire then Laeticia all which words y e Scholler kept well in his minde but yet saide nothing Then as they al walked abroade after in the yarde the Priest espying a ponde or ditch with water saide to the Scholler what is latine for water Then the Scholler tolde him that Aqua was latine for water no saide the Priest you are wide for as there is a merueilous great aboundance of water aswell on the maine lande as in the deepe and brode Sea so the best latine word that can be for water is abundantia and as they walked a little further the Prtest espying a barne saide to the scholler tell mee what is latine for a Barne then the young man saide that Horreum was latine for a Barne y t is not so saide the Prieste for what greater ioy can bee to a man than to see his Barne full of corne Therefore Gaudium is the true latine woorde for a Barne When the Schollers father hearde that the Prieste contraried his sonne in euery thing that hee askt him hee was very angrie with his sonne and saide all that hee had spent on him was in vaine Sir said the Priest your sonne will do wel enough he hath not yet the yeeres to atteine to our learning And thus he made y e simple vnlerned mā beleeue y t he had controuled his sonne rightly whereas he did it but to set forth his owne vaineglory as you haue done This young scholler remembring well the priestes new latin thought to controlle him with an example without any argumentes though the priest controlled him with blinde argumentes without any example and so soone after hee gotte a Catte and tied a fire brand at her tayle and put her into the priestes barne that was full of corne and whē he had so done he came to the priestes windowe and cryed aloude saying O sapientia sapientia Asper currit cum Laeticia nisicitius veneris cum abundantia nunquam intrabis in gaudium Which is by y e priests own deuised latine but not according to true latine O priest priest the Catte doeth runne with fire and vnlesse thou come the sooner with water thou shalt neuer enter into thy barn But for that the priest had forgotten his owne latine and tooke the same woordes truely as they signified in deede whiche is O wisdome wisdome sharpe rūneth with gladnes and onles thou come the sooner with aboundance thou shalt ueuer enter into ioy the Priest sturde neuer a whitte for hee had cleane forgot the signification of his owne deuised latine whereby his barne and all his corne was burned And thus as the priest gayned but litle for controlling the Scholler when he sayde true so you haue not gayned much in controlling mee for the intiteling of my booke And if it was a great fault in the priest to forget fiue words of latine which he taught the yong scholler then it is a fowle shame for to forget one Englishe worde wherein you controled me And if it were a shame for the priest for refusing his owne latine wherewith vayne gloriously hee discredited the scholler to his father and tooke the true meaning of the schollers woordes then it can be no great praise to you to refuse your owne Englishe woorde whiche you wrote vaynegloriously to diseredite mee to all the whole realme to vse my word y t you reproued me for Thus I trust I haue defended the title of my booke called A perswation from papistrie and sufficiently answered you for your curious comtrolling me because I put not in 〈◊〉 for perswation The 38. part AFter this your controlling of the title of my booke these are your wordes that followe Of this authours estate and calling I can not yet learne but that hee seemeth to haue been some musition in tyme for that much of his matter 〈◊〉 from him in ryme You can not yet learne of my estate and calling you say what remedie I trust you shall wel enough hereafter But you haue one great aduantage of mee for you knowe my name and so doe not I yours whereby with trauell and searche you may learne my estate calling but w t al y e trauel search y t I am able to make I can not learne neither your state nor conditions because you hide your name I thinke you haue left your name out of your booke because you would not haue vs learn your state and conditions Though you knowe not my calling for all you knowe my name yet I thinke I knowe your calling though I knowe not your name I take that your calling is to be a Iesuite and to bee one of the Popes sworne
disciples in which your calling though you reioyce doubtles you haue a great cause to mourne lament if you deeply wey and consider your execrable oth I haue a calling also though not great in the sight of the world wherefore I thinke you esteeme my worke the lesse Euen Iesus Christ the Sonne of God that called Peter and Paule and the rest of the Apostles hath called mee I thanke his diuine Maiestie for it where vnto I firmely beleeue that I was called before the foundation of the worlde according to the sayings of S. Paul for we knowe saith hee that all thinges worke for the best vnto them that loue god which also are called of purpose for those which he knewe before he also ordeined before that they shoulde be a like fashioned to the shape of his Sonne that he might be the first begotten among many brethren And whom he appoynted before them also he called and whom he called them also he iustified whom he iustified them also he glorified Rom. 8. Which calling I take to bee no simple nor smal calling nay it is a higher calling then to be called to bee eyther pope or prince for thereby I am called to bee one of the members of Christ which assureth mee that the body and head 〈◊〉 at length bee together And for that Christe my heade whereof through Gods goodnesse I am a member is nowe in heauen and shall raygne as a king there for euer then I one of his members and part of his bodie shall raigne for euer with him in heauen This is my chiefe calling I thanke God Now if I bee called to bee an inheritor of such a kingdome which is the kingdome of heauen passing all other kingdomes then my estate can not be simple nor small for he y t hath an estate of inheritance in the kingdome of heauē as I beleue verily I haue through Iesus Christ y t greatest emperor hath no such inheritāce on the earth the fee simple of the best Lordship in the world is not comparable to it Nowe you haue learned both my estate and calling which I my selfe haue tolde you that you shoulde take no further trauell nor paynes in learning my estate and calling for it seemeth by your saying that you meane to trie out my estate and calling for that you say as yet you can not learne it as though you doubt not but at length to find it out Therefore briefly to saue you some trauell I me selfe haue shewed you my estate and calling It may bee that this that I haue tolde you is not my estate and calling that you are so desirous to learne but my worldly calling and estate which if you did knowe then it seemeth you woulde worke wonders For then belike you woulde confute my booke which confuting perhappes you keep in store vntill that time Thinking belike it is not worthie of confuting vnles it were made by some profounde leaned doctor or one that is of some great estate calling But if young Daniel though hee was neyther doctor of diuinitie neyther of any great worldely estate or calling both confounded and condemned the two learned wicked iudges that were of great estate and worldely calling that sought the death of innocent Susanna then why may not I though I am neyther a profounde Doctour neyther of any greate estate or worldely calling haue sufficient knowledge to confute and confound with the word of God your Iesuitical or papisticall doctrine and the popes deuilishe Doctors that persecute kyll and murther the innocent members of Christ the professours of the Gospell or els it may bee that the confuting of my sayd booke consisteth in the knowing of my calling and estate You were best neuer learne my callinge and estate and so you may haue a very good excuse not to trouble your selfe with the cōfuting of my booke But if I thought you staied from confuting of it for lacke of knowledge of my worldly calling and estate I woulde my selfe describe the same at large vnto you but I hope there is no such misterie in confuting vnlesse it be found out of late by y e sincere societie of the Iesuits Yet that you may haue some better gesse of my calling and estate I will say thus much vnto you if it will doe you any pleasure I am neyther preacher nor minister I would to God I were apt or able for such a worthy function neyther prebendarie deane archedeacon parson nor vicar neyther haue nor yet euer had any liuing or worldly profite or commoditie by any of the same Therefore I trust to escape the name of a notable and infamous liuer wherwith of your courtesie you haue intitled our preachers and ministers But if my not being a preacher or minister will not saue me from your slaunder I must arme my selfe paciently to suffer it for as long as I doe not deserue it I care the lesse beseeching God that I doe not I had rather a great deale you shoulde speake euill of mee then say well of mee for this I am sure of that you wilfull and determined papistes and sworne or rather for sworne Iesuites as long as you are so can not commende a good protestante nor disprayse an euill papist therefore if you shoulde commende me I must become a papist from which God defende me or you must bee protestantes which I beseech God to graunt wherefore I may reioyce if you speake euill of me for then I am sure to be a professor of Gods woorde but I may lament if you say well of me for then I am sure I shoulde be a papist and an enemie to the Gospell If you coulde prooue that I haue been a traytour a murtherer a drunkarde a bearer of false witnesse and maker of discorde an oppressour or an extortioner or any such notorious malefactor whiche I thanke God you can not that shoulde not daunte me neyther make me once to shrink but should cause me rather to reioyce not that I had been such a sinner but that God of his goodnesse had called me from being a fauourer of vice to be a louer of vertue and from a seruant of Sathan to bee a childe of God Saint Paul was not ashamed to tell openly yea more then once or twise that he persecuted the saintes of God then which there can not bee a greater offence yet he did not reioyce therein but in that God called him to the Gospell and that hee was persecuted as one of the saintes of God and therefore with Saint Paule I am not ashamed what I haue been but I reioyce that God of his goodnes hath opened vnto nice the light of his gospel so that neither slander reproch neither any thing shal dismay me for that I am made a member of Christ and I say with S. Paule when I mas a childe I spake as a child I vnderstood as a child I imagined as a child c. But now through Gods grace and
goodnes I am that I am And if I had bin neuer so euil yet I may reioyce to come from euil to be a professor of the gospell the seruāt of God rather then you to shrinke frō the gospel though you liued blameles in the sight of the worlde and now to become Iesuites reuolting from our sauiour to satan from your prince to the pope The 39. part YOu say that he seemeth to haue bin some musition in time for that much of his matter passeth frō him in time You that can tell before hand what one woulde say you are able quickly to turne prose into time It is a strange matter that you that perhaps haue not read my booke through can finde that the most of my matter therein is rime when I that made it am most sure there is not one verse of rime in it I thinke you are as well skilde in prose as some of your popes was in grammer eyther you were in some pleasant dreame when you wrote this or you neuer read my said booke or els surely you do not knowe prose from rime I thinke you doe take latin verses to be english rime so you may haue some rime to charge me with all I remember I wrote two verses of Baptista Mantuanus in my said book and that were these Viuere qui sancte cupitis discedite Roma Omnia cum liceant non licet esse bonum If these latine verses be the ryme you ment of for other rime there is not in all the booke then I must needes confesse that some part of my matter is rime but not much of my matter as you say vnlesse two lines bee much matter in fortie sheetes of paper and then the sheetes must be very small or els the two lines must be marueilous great I thinke in deede much of the meaning of my matter in the same booke is conteyned in the sayde two latine verses For all the Idolatrie blalphemie pride mischiefes and errours that I perswade you and all other from in that booke is committed and practised in Rome and therefore the effect of muche of my matter conteined in my saide booke is comprehended in the sayde two latine verses which belike you tooke for Enlishe rime And because I woulde haue you to consider the same well I will now turne the same latin rime into plaine english prose which is this that foloweth All ye that would liue godly get you away frō Rome for whereas all thinges there are lawfull it is not lawfull to bee good This is the prose of all the latin rime in my sayd booke for other english rime I am sure there is none If you marke this rime well it showes that your holy citie of Rome is more meete for Iesuites then for Christians I thinke you pickte a quarrell with mee for the nouce to make me shew you the rime of my booke Because you would haue me to praise your holy citie of Rome you haue in your discouerie made great long discourses in cōmending y e godly customes charitable works of your citie of Rome but Baptista Mantuanus here in two lines hath extolde her out of measure Well though you say that much of my matter in my said booke is rime no rime at all therein yet your hole matter wherin you haue 〈◊〉 forth my riming is nothing but time for these are your wordes wishing the indifferent reader to marke whether the same be rime or not Of this autors estate and calling I can not yet learne But that he seemeth to haue bin some musition in time for that much of his matter passeth frō him in rime Though you would make men beleue that my prose is rime yet the indifferent reader can not thinke that your rime is prose It is a great ouersight in you to say that much of my matter of fortie sheetes of paper is rime and can not prooue that there is one verse of 〈◊〉 in all y e hole booke which you haue affirmed only in two lines yet both the same lines are nothing but rime You would haue me euill thought of for riming though I rimed not at all and can you be well thought of that reprooueth me with nothing but rime It appeareth here by your learned and aduised writing that I haue been a musition because of my runing then I trust I am discharged from being a musition because in my sayde booke I haue not rimed at all Surely it seemeth that you haue a deepe and mysticall iudgement in the finding out of the grounde and causes of things I remember that before it showed plainly by your argument that the going of M. Nicols from Wales to England from England to Flaunders from Flaunders to Rome and from Rome to the pulpit in the towre of London was the cause that he was borne at cowbridge in wales as in y e same place it may more plainly appeare And as by your learning you founde out that M. Nicols comming from Rome to the pulpit in the towre of London was the cause he was borne at Cowbridge in Wales so by your deepe knowledge you haue I perceiue founde out that my riming is the cause that I was a musition For your own wordes showe no lesse which are these that followe He seemeth to haue bin some Musition in time for that much of his matter passeth from him in rime Hereby it appeareth by your rime that if I could not haue 〈◊〉 I had neuer bin a 〈◊〉 Therefore it 〈◊〉 happie I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or els farewell all 〈◊〉 and singing But I woulde faine knowe of you whether the cause is to be preferred before the effect or not 〈◊〉 is better then the effecte the 〈◊〉 cause I am sure you can not denie but that it is aboue the effect marie as for 〈◊〉 causes the effecte sometime may excell the cause nowe if the cause bee better then the effecte then a 〈◊〉 is to bee esteemed aboue a musition So that 〈◊〉 be the cause of musicke which you 〈◊〉 before to bee the cause that I haue been a musition and if the cause bee to bee 〈◊〉 before the effect then a rymer is better than a musition And so a common rymer is better thou the best singing 〈◊〉 of the popes holie 〈◊〉 But they woulde not bee well pleased with you if they knewe that by proouing me a musition you make them worse then the simplest 〈◊〉 that is And if the cause which is riming bee not better then the effect which is musicke yet doe or say what you 〈◊〉 the cause muste needes bee before the effect So that by your proouing mee to bee a musition because of my ryming the rymer must needes bee before the 〈◊〉 And so one can not be a musition vnlesse he be a rimer before But herein I thinke your argument will not holde for I am sure there are and haue been many excellent 〈◊〉 that coulde ryme neuer a
agreement of the same planets so 〈◊〉 And as two planets being in the thirde signe one from another beholding one another is a good and friendly aspect called a Sextile aspect So two notes distant in the thirde place or stringe one from another is a good concord and is called a third And as two planets being in the fourth signe one from another aspecting ech other is a quartile and an euill aspect So two notes distant in the fourth place one from another is a discord called a fourth And as two planets being in the fifte signe one from another and beholding one another is the best aspect of all other called a trine aspect So two notes distant in the fifte place one from another is the best concord of al other called a fifte And as two planets being in the seuenth signe one frō another aspecting one another is the worst aspect of al other called an opposite aspect Euen so two notes distant in the seuenth place one from another is a merueilous discorde in musicke called a seuenth Here you may see how wonderfully our earthly musick being oue of the foure Mathematicall sciences doeth agree with heauēly astronomie being also one of y e foure mathematicall sciences So that if you had been as profoundly seen in this worthy science of musick as you are in your diuelish doctrine of papistrie you would haue sought some other way or meane to discredite me than by naming me a musition or by my hauing knowledge in such a famous science Therfore I beleeue I shall winne more credite by your calling me a musition then you will get honestie by being 〈◊〉 Iesuite But it may be y t your drift was to dishonest me by making your reader beleue y t I was a musition and got my liuing by musicke as though they that liue by musicke must needes be vnhonest or whatsoeuer they write is not worth the reading I 〈◊〉 you thinke better of your romishe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our English 〈◊〉 But if Iesuites may esteeme 〈◊〉 musitions surely a Christian may thinke well of Englishe musitions And if your musitions in Rome are to bee commended though they liue by their 〈◊〉 then I cannot fee why our Englishe 〈◊〉 shoulde bee disdayned that liue honestly by the same But to the entent you shall haue 〈◊〉 occasion to disdayne or disable mee for my knowledge in Musicke whereas I tolde you before in certifiing you of my estate and calling that I neuer had any spirituall 〈◊〉 though you might suppose otherwise now likewise to put you out of doubt though I haue some simple knowledge in Musicke I professe not musicke neither doe I gette any liuing or any money by Musicke Notwithstanding better and learneder than I haue done The knowledge of Sciences was wont to make 〈◊〉 to be esteemed and shall then the excellent Science of Musicke make me bee disdayned But suppose that Musicke were not one of the foure Mathematicall Sciences and so excellent as it is shoulde my knowledge therein woorke my discredite 〈◊〉 my booke therefore bee lesse counted of or esteemed Saint Luke is though to haue had skill in paynting which is not comparable to the Science of Musicke should therefore y e gospel of Christ or y t acts of y e apostles which he wrote bee disdayned or discommended because a painter or one that had skill in painting wrote it Shall the Gospell of Christ bee reiected which S. Matthewe wrote because hee was a tolgetherer which is not so deepe a mysterie as Musicke Shall Paules epistles be discredited because hee being a tentmaker did write them which is not so learned a science as Musicke Shall S. Peters epistles bee thought not worth the reading because they were made by a 〈◊〉 which is not so harde to learne as musicke Now seeing neither saint Matthewe by his tolgethering neither S. Luke by his painting nor S. Peter by his fishing nor yet S. Paul by his tentmaking are the lesse esteemed nor their 〈◊〉 lesse embraced then why shoulde my knowledge in the famous science of Musicke which you rather surmised then certainly knew cause me either to be disdayned or my booke diseredited And seeing king Dauid and the prophete of God was not the lesse honoured for his knowledge in musicke and his playing on the harpe neyther his booke which hee wrote of the psalmes is therefore lesse liked methinkes then you should not goe about to make me to be disdayned or my booke to be despised by surmising mee to be a musition or because I haue skill in musicke Therefore when you meane to discommende any hereafter reprooue rather his wickednesse then his writing his lewdnesse than his learning and his manners then his musicke vnlesse hee bestowe his learning in lying and his writing in wresting of the trueth as you Iesuites doe The 40. part THen after you come to a peece-of my preface and haue one snatch at it reciting my woordes not confuting the phrase as though you woulde haue your reader to disdayne my inditing as you woulde haue had them mistike mee for musicke and these are your wordes To the great comfort and ioy as he hopeth of her highnes being framed by him not troublingly by louingly vnto her subiects And so you leaue that matter and goe no further As before you geste a wrong cause of my being a musition so I perceiue you are ignorāt of y t cause of my writing y e same in y e order And thogh it appeare before y e you knew my thought and what I woulde haue saide yet here it is manifest that you know not what I ment in writing of this But that you may vnderstande that my wordes in this place are not so impertinent as you woulde haue them import I will shew you the foūdation wherfore I did frame thē The truth is about ten yeeres before I gaue her maiestie this my booke whiche you so muche discommende I with some paynes and trauel deuised a suite for the great profite and commoditie especially for the poore and needie of this my natiue countrey of Englande in most necessarie places throughout the whole realme being a marueylous profite to thousandes and hurte to none in the forefront whereof were these briefe woordes written In dei gloriam in Angliae Laudem In tuam O princeps vtilitatem Maximamque perpetuam famam Commoditas multis incommodum nullis Wherein I a Christian wished more good to this my countrey then euer any Iesuite did perfourme I am sure And as that suite was onely to bee graunted by her grace for the profite of her subiects so this my booke that I gaue her maiestie of late was to be perfourmed of her subiects to y e comfort and ioy of her grace For I beleeue if her stubborne and disobedient subiects that obey and fauor the pope would become obedient and obey her grace as my chiefe drift is in my saide booke I thinke it woulde be no small comfort
louing subiectes which are disobedient vnto her and that seeke procure desire and wishe her death and distruction Therefore be thankefull to God that hath giuen you and vs such a mercifull prince to raigne ouer vs and loue and obey her that giueth you for iustice mercie and for extremitie lenitie And nowe as her grace doth refraine from that shee may doe so prouoke not her 〈◊〉 to that shee can doe And as I sayde thinke not that her grace can not vse the swoord against you because shee hath not vsed it for if you thinke so you do not onely deceaue your selues but also do much abuse her Maiestie in that you seeme thereby to make her a Prince without powre whereby you are vnwoorthie of the great mercie shee sheweth vnto you What seruant is so foolishe to thinke muche more to say that because his master doeth not beate him for his fault therefore he can not beate him Because the mercifull father doth not beate his sonne for his offence that maketh not that he can not beate him for the same Shall her clemencie and mercie make you thinke in her disabilitie Therefore if any of you thinke so as I beleeue some of you haue said so you are not worthie of such a merciful mistres that vseth you so Thus farre haue I written to this ende in my said booke whereby it appeareth most manifestly that my drift was altogether to she we forth her Maiesties great lenitie and mercie And that shee hath as great powre and authoritie as Q. Marie had to make lawes and to vse the swoorde with seueritie iustice as well as shee as appeareth by the whole circumstaunce of the matter both before and after which you of purpose did not onely leaue out but also did so choppe and chaunge my wordes to discredite me withall that they had neyther good sentence nor sence And this is the verye cause and grounde why I wrote the saide wordes that you 〈◊〉 vnhonestly altered And though you mislike my eloquence yet I hope the indifferent reader will not thinke y t these my argumēts are so fonde and sencelesse and so disorderly couched as you would haue made them beleeue by your wrested and altered words If they marke but your woordes that you wrote in steade of mine and conferre my comparison betweene Queene Marie and her Maiestie with your wordes they may soone see your malicious meaning For where you haue written The papistes crye vpon their Queene Marie and wee crye vpon our Queene Elizabeth I haue no such wordes at all And morouer within sixe of your lines after you haue fathered these wordes vpon me Why then howe can papistes be otherwise but English enemies and extreeme enemies to Englande If I haue any such sentence or woordes I will yeelde vnto you and bee one of the popes Iesuites which to be I woulde be loth You might haue thought me to be a very dolt if I should go about to proue papists to be english enemies because the Queenes maiestie was a kings daughter and a kings sister You your selfe are so cunning in finding out of such mysticall causes that I am not able to compare with you therein for first you made that M. Nicols going from Wales to England and from thence to Flaunders and so to Rome from Rome to the pulpit in the Towre of London was the cause that he was borne at Combridge in Wales Then after you would seeme to proue that I was a musition because I was a rimer and nowe thirdely because you woulde haue me to be a citer of your causes you woulde make your reader beleeue that I prooue that papistes must needes bee extreeme enemies to england because the Queenes Maiestie was king Henries daughter and king Edwards sister But truely you are tried before to bee so cunning and experte in finding out of the causes of thinges that this deepe profound cause y e is alledged for the prouing of papists to be extreeme enemies to england is of your own inuention for they know that my wit is to weake and my learning to light to find out such a mysticall cause It had been enough for Peter 〈◊〉 to haue 〈◊〉 this argument the prouer of the popes powre that saide because Peter paide the tribute money for Christ himself therfore the pope hath authoritie ouer the whole Church of God And because Christ saide to Peter followe thou me and againe launche forth in the deepe and because Peter drew his sword and cut off Malcas eare therefore the pope hath authoritie of the whole Churche of God This had been a fitter argument for him then for mee Also this argument had been more meet for pope Innocent than for me which woulde proue that the Moone being inferiour to the Sunne therefore the Emperour was inferior to the Pope And that the Emperoute is a thousande folde inferior to him because God hath made two lights in heauen Which is the Sunne and the Moone These such like arguments are more meete for Popes then Protestants And now for that you Iesuites are sworn to the pope Therefore this argument that papists are English enemies and extreeme enemies to Englande because Queene Elizabeth is as well a kings daughter and a kings sister as Q. Marie is a more 〈◊〉 argument for a Iesuite then for a 〈◊〉 If the indifferent reader consider mine own words before written he can spie no such thing as you charge mee withal But may 〈◊〉 perceiue that I wrote the same only to proue that y t Queenes maiestie hath as great powre to vse y e sword and to make laws against her obstinate and disobedient subiects as Queene Mary had And that it is as lawfull for her grace to punish and execute her obstinate disobedient subiects as for Queene Marie to punish and execute her louing and harmelesse subiects the professors of the Gospel that obey her with due obedience Therefore it is no great matter for you to proue that I am neither eloquent nor learned if you may chop change my words foist in your own at your plesure as you haue done Tullie was an eloquent writer yet if I shoulde chop and change his works writings putting in leauing out what I list in the same I could make him seeme quickly to haue but small eloquence Plato and Aristotle were learned Philosophers yet I coulde make them seeme vnlearned if I shoulde vse their bookes as I thought good Salamon was the wisest mā that euer was except Christ whose wordes if I shoulde backe and choppe thrust in and pull out what I list as you haue done I coulde make him see me to bee no very wise writer And as it is no great matter for you to say and prooue that a man can not goe when before you haue cut off his legges So it is a verye easie thing for you to make your reader 〈◊〉 that I haue neyther eloquence learning nor wit when you
haue curtald my writing and haue 〈◊〉 out and foysted in what it pleaseth you Wee must thinke this honest dealing because a Jusuite hath done it but if a Christian had done so you woulde haue called it impudencie the mother of desperation But if mine owne wordes woulde haue proued me so vneloquent as you woulde make mee and that the same had beene so without sence as you woulde fayne haue had them I am out of doubt that then you woulde haue written mine owne woordes as they were But for that you thought they were too true to serue your turne Therefore to discredite me you displace and deface mine and trust in your own as though they were mine But though mine eloquence be small yet I trust the indifferent reader when hee hath throughly vewed my woordes and likewise weyed yours will as well iudge that my matter hath some method and my sentences some sence as you by corrupting them woulde haue made thē both without method and sence If the first part of my booke as you say be nothing but such argumentes as you before haue written for mine the reader had a good occasion rather to rende the whole booke than to reade the rest But they that shall thinke good to reade the rest of the first part of my saide booke what the argumentes are I will leaue it to their consideration trusting that the matter thereof is more meete to bee market then to bee mockt The 42. part VVHere as you say I haue made no first parte of my said booke at all yet there are such distinctions of euery matter as I thought sufficient But if you had been nie mee if you had had a name as you haue not I woulde haue come to you that you might haue taught me howe to haue parted my booke But nowe because you are namelesse it may beseeme my booke as well to bee without partes as you to bee without a name And if it bee lawefull for you to make a booke without putting your name vnto it then it is as lawefull for mee to make a booke without putting your partes vnto it Perhappes you woulde haue had mee deuide my booke into chapters I am sory I did not if you therfore would haue liked it the better Yet for all the Bible is in chapters you haue not the greater deuotion vnto it but though y e Bible is nowe deuided into partes and chapters it is harde for you to proue that the bookes of the same were at the first writing in chapters as they bee nowe For Christ when he alledged any text out of Moses or the Prophets yet he neuer mentioned any part or chapter where it was neither did S. Paule nor any other of the Apostles Notwithstanding when I am throughly perswaded that the bookes in the Bible when they were first written were deuided in such parts and chapters as they bee nowe 〈◊〉 to pleasure you withall I will deuide my saide booke into such chapters and partes But vntill then I 〈◊〉 desire you to bee content with my distinctions And nowe for that I did not parte my saide booke as I shoulde haue done wherein I was fouly ouerseen therefore I haue deuided this booke into parts to please you 〈◊〉 The 44. part THen you goe further with me and do say as foloweth In the seconde part hee wandreth by certaine controuersies but as without all witte and learning like an English doctoure citing all his matter out of lewels defence of Apologie Foxes martyrologe and Cowpers Epitomie of the Cronicle so without all 〈◊〉 or limitation of lying It is not for a Christian I perceiue to compare in witte and learning with a Jesutte You haue so much that I must needes haue the lesse but for that small portion of witte and learning that I haue I thanke my heauenly father for it What I haue therein I haue receiued And he that gaue Salamon his wisedome is able to 〈◊〉 mine I reioyce that I knowe Christ for that is witte and learning enough for mee And though you may excell mee in witte and learning yet the more you corrupt mens writinges and 〈◊〉 their wordes the lesse will your witte and learning be esteemed especially with the godly and wise All is 〈◊〉 witte or wisedome that you call so and all 〈◊〉 not foolishnes that you accompt foolishnesse your earthly wisedome is heauenly follie And Saint Paul saith the wisdome of this worlde is foolishnes with God Then contrary I may say that many take Gods wisedome to be mere foolishnesse I pray God that you bee not one of them And therefore though you say that I wander in the seconde part of my saide booke without all witte and learning I wandered so as it pleased God to directe me For though my learning as I must needes confesse is but small yet my prompcer in the making of that booke had learning enough for vs both For God I am most sure was my director and the holy ghost was my instructor For if the holy ghost will instrucc the godlie in their speeche that are witnesses of the Gospell then I am sure hee will instruct and guide their pennes that take his cause in hande and doe write against his enemies in the defence of his woorde And if a Sparrowe light not on the grounde without Gods prouidence then I am most certayne that I wrote that my booke which is a greater matter then a sparrows lighting on the the grounde not without the prouidence and helpe of God And if my learning bee small or if I bee without witte or learning then it is the more shame for you to professe and maynteyne suche a religion as an vnlearned man is able to disproue Which I am sure I haue done through the help of God by the scriptures Ancient doctours and naturall reason in my saide booke as the godly and indifferent reader may easely iudge Though you discommende and discredite it is as much as you may But I am most sure which before God I speake vnfaignedly the profoundest papist and the learnedest Jesuite of you all shall neuer bee able to confute or conuince it vnlesse you confute it with burning of it or killing of me Which are your chiefest argumentes to confute withall If you had as muche wisedome as you pretende to haue learning you coulde not haue been taken tardie and in such trippes as I haue taken you Therefore bragge not too-much of your witte and learning for the weake you see many times do confounde the learned and wittie If the cause you wade in were as true as it is false you shoulde with lesse learning then I thinke you haue gette a great deale more credite by writing than you doe But if you had tenne times more learning then you haue and my witte and learning were lesse then it is hauing the trueth on my side I woulde not feare to confounde you For seeing a brute beast and an Asse did reprooue the
other most diuelish detestable decrees for mainteining of the same as in other places I haue declared before Wherefore though you woulde haue your Reader to thinke that your wordes were mine yet you leaue them barely as you haue doone the 〈◊〉 without disprouing them leauing them to bee discredited of your Reader Which you your selfe were not able to confute and yet they were your owne wordes and not mine as before it is manifest A true Christian woulde bee 〈◊〉 to bee taken in suche a trippe 〈◊〉 I haue now taken you being a Iesuite The 54. part AFter this what sodaine toy hath taken you in the head I know 〈◊〉 but you haue iumpt forward fortie sides or pages where belike you haue spied some thinge that will serue your turne which you haue ioyned to your former falsified wordes and that are these That his fast is to cramme in as many banketting dishes as men can and there you stay and goe no further leauing them as you haue doone the rest for your Reader to confute But as according to your wont you haue written my words otherwise then I wrote them so you left out those wordes both before and after them which openeth the sense thereof neither haue you declared how I compared the Popes fast and Christes fast together but because you haue written thē both falsely and left thē nakedly to make your reader haue an euill opinion in me to discredite my booke I wil here vtter mine owne wordes that they may shewe whether they are so without order sense or good meaning as you haue gone about to make them And thus they are as followe And as this Romish Churche hath with her most wicked prayer blotted out the pure and perfect order of praying which Christe did teach in the scriptures euen so she hath with her vaine fond and superstitious fastings quite banished the true fasting required by the Gospell For Christe in the Gospel saith When yee fast be not sad as the hypocrites are c. But when thou fastest appeare not vnto men to fast but vnto thy father which is in secret and thy father which seeth in secret shal reward thee opēly Heere Christ doth appoint vs that we must not let it be knowen whē we fast but the popes fast is published the dayes so commonly and openly commaunded appointed that euery one may know when they fast So that Christe hath appointed his fasting so priuily but the Church of Rome proclaimes her fastes as openly Christ hath appoynted no dayes nor times for his fasting The Church of Rome hath appointed dayes and times for her fasting The meaning of Christes fasting is to absteine from what soeuer either meates or drinkes that make vs prone to sinne The popes fast is to forbeare flesh onely but permits men to eate all kinde of fishe though it bee neuer so dayntie deliciously drest and all kinde of iunkettes and banketing dishes with delicate wines as muche as wee will cramme and powrein Christes fast is to keepe our bodies lowe to bee in subiection to the spirite But that is not performed in the popes fast but by their daintie dishes and drinkes the Spirite is brought in subiection of the body Christes fast is a willing and an vncompelled abstinence The popes fast is a constrayned abstinence and is done of many against their wills Christes fasting is to make vs vertuous and holy before god The popes fast is hypocritical and to make vs seeme holy before men This is difference enough to shewe you that the Christian fasting of Christe and the common fasting of the Pope are farre vnlike and do not agree so that the one shall haue his rewarde hereafter of God and the other hath his rewarde alredy of men c. And this is the circumstaunce cause and effect of my woordes Thus the indifferent reader may perceiue that you haue not onely altered my woordes but also through displacing them and cutting them from their 〈◊〉 which shoulde haue witnessed their true intente 〈◊〉 and meaning you haue gone about to beguile him yea and moste maliciously to discredite or defame mee But I trust by that time hee hath weyed my wordes and your wordes together hee will regarde my booke as it is and you as you are The 55. part IF I had made such bagaries in my booke as you haue done here in yours you might then haue iustly saide that I wandred without all witte or learning for whereas you pickte your last woordes though falsely out of the 171. page of my booke nowe on the sudden you haue leapt backwarde againe an 164. pages at the least which is a great deale further then before So that it seemeth you haue tryed howe farre if neede were you can leape backwarde especially at a dead lift If you had leapt but halfe a score sides or pages further you had leapt quite out of the booke and then you had not founde this snare where with you haue snarled mee Well I must gette out of it as well as I may and these are your woordes that followe affirming that I say in the 5. and 6. page of my booke That all papistes are worse and deserue 〈◊〉 death then drunkardes theeues murtherers and pyrates and so you leaue neyther disprouing nor confuting them by any other proofe or argument but refers it to your reader to confute if he list as you haue done all the rest or else perhappes you looke that eyther they shoulde disprooue or confute them selues or that these your knitting vp wordes that followe shoulde take the paynes to doe so muche for you Whiche are This is Luptons charitable doctrine with many thinges moe which I omitte You haue quoted in your margent that these my wordes are in the 5. and 6. page or side of my booke Surely if the seuer all matters that you write as mine were as sentencious as they be short and were vttered as truly as you haue writtē them falsely I am sure you woulde neuer haue cumbarde your booke with them There are but fifteene woordes of them in all 〈◊〉 that mee thinkes one side myght haue holdē them well enough especially seeing two lines of one of the sides of my booke holdeth as muche and more And I am sure it woulde haue done so as the ende of the fifte and 〈◊〉 pages fall out if you had written any one Sentence of myne as I wrote it But as you haue falsisted my wordes before so haue you done nowe and you seeme to include as you thought good the whole circumstaunce and argumentes of these two sides or pages to that ende in your aforesaide fifteene 〈◊〉 woordes whiche is too straite a roome for a Christian by way of argumente to prooue the easiest matter that is I knowe not what a Iesuite may doe But that it may appeare howe you goe about to disgrace my sayde booke and to discredite mee by deceauing your reader I
leades you to lying therefore if you loue God tell the trueth and if you hate the diuell flye falshood Thus you haue peest and patcht my sayings with your 〈◊〉 ragges and put in and pulled out chopt and changed and placed and displaced my wordes as you thought good with foisting in of your owne woordes whiche I neuer wrote besides that you haue most nakedly and barely without any circumstances or argumentes 〈◊〉 vp such a sort of my matters in such a strait roome that is in 16. of your litle shorte lynes the causes proofes and effects whereof are scantly comprehended in so many of my leaues 〈◊〉 and without disproouing or confuting any parte of the same For other wordes then mine owne by you cutte short or 〈◊〉 or thrust in for mine owne yon alledged none as here by your woordes appeareth for I haue written and set downe all your whole and verie woordes concerning your deriding and slaundering my booke hitherto without diminishing or adding any thing therevnto Which plainnesse if you had vsed with mee you had then written more matter and fewer lyes And when you had shortened my sayings maymed my method cutte off my conclusions hidde my argumentes falsified my wordes and thruste in what you liste to the disabling of mee and discrediting of my booke more craftelye then Christianly you conclude with these woordes This is Luptons charitable doctrine with manye thinges more which Iomitte and so you ende without any moe woordes or further argumente whereby your reader may perceiue the trueth of your dealing though you say this is Luptons charitable doctrine But howe charitable soeuer it is your doctrine and doinges hether to are not verie commendable The 56. part ANd nowe that you haue learnedly and cunningly confuted the firste and seconde parte of my booke according to your owne accompt onely with displasing leauing out and curtalling of my woordes and foisting in of your own as before it is manifestly proued you come to the third part as you call it and confutes the same onely with briefe reciting of my wordes and nowe and then falsifiyng the same as you did before without any one argument of your own for the disprouing thereof Thinking belike that your reader is bounde to take all for lies that a Iesuite doth recite Me thinks you haue takē a very euil course for the discrediting of my booke for if you are a credible man your selfe as a Iesuite can bee none other if you recite a lie it will bee thought to bee true because you haue tolde it as if a lyer chaunce to tell trueth it will not bee beleeued but bee taken for a lie Nowe chuse you whether you will be counted a credible and a true man and thereby haue my booke counted for trueth because my woordes are recited by you or else to bee a lyer and to haue my booke taken for false because you repeate or recite the wordes thereof But as hither to I haue not left out any one woorde of yours touching your confuting of my booke which you call the first and seconde part so I will not conceale or hide your woordes touching the rest of my booke whiche you call the thirde part Whereby the indifferent reader shal perceiue how learnedly a Iusuite hath confuted a christian with saying of nothing But it may bee that as lay mens dalliyng and kissing of women must bee construed or iudged otherwise then priestes dalliyng and kissing of women as before is mentioned so perhappes the Iesuites disproouing or confuting is contrary to the Christians confuting For as the Christians confute by writing so the Iesuites may confute by thinking whiche is a thing necessarie for your reader to vnderstande For though you doe not drisprooue or confute mee by writing yet hee maye suppose you haue confuted me by thinking Therefore if the Iesuites haue that aduantage of the Christian they may easily and quickly confute what so euer is written against them And surely if you haue confuted my booke it must needes bee by thinking and not by writing And nowe without any falsehood I will write your owne woordes which you recite as myne and these are they that followe In his thirde part hee prooueth his religion by euident and manifest myracles out of Master Foxe his Actes and Monumentes as for example That one Burton Bayliffe of Crowlande in Lincolne shyre for compelling a curate to say Masse vpon zeale of papistrie in the beginning of Queene Maries dayes was afterwardes for his punishment called K. by a crowe that flewe ouer his head And besides that his 〈◊〉 embrued with the Crowes dongue that shee let fall vpon him which dongue did so stinke vpon his beard as made him continually to vomit for diuers dayes vntill he died most miserably I remember very well that in the 294. page of my said booke I haue described a strange example and a doleful and miserable end of one Burton Bayliffe of Crowlande in Lincolne shire a hastie procurer and a great defender of the masse in Queene Maries time but not altogether vttered in that sort as here you haue reported it for I saide not that hee was called R. for his punishment But though you seeme to deride me for writing of it yet you haue not so much as with one woorde gone about to disproue it neither haue you saide that it is false or vntrue for if you coulde I am sure you woulde A strange matter that you would haue your Reader to 〈◊〉 my wordes and yet doe not confute them nor goe about to disproue them You say hee compelled him to say masse vpon zeale of Papistrie But I woulde knowe who willed him to haue such zeale in papistrie Or who willed him to haue such a loue to the masse that hee should hate his brother that God commaunded 〈◊〉 to loue or threate to thrust his dagger in him vnlesse hee would say masse which cruel dealing you haue left out Surely it may well belong to the religion of a Iesuite but I am sure it is cleane contrary to the religion of a Christian. You call it in the margent Luptons myracle no it was none of my myracle it was Gods myracle yea and suche a myracle that if you had the feare and grace of God you woulde not so deridingly and contemptuously write of the mightie hand and great iudgement of God shewed therein You write also in the margent a simple fellow that forgat by cutting of his beard to saue his life Either you woulde haue your Reader beleeue that it was a lye or that hee might haue saued his life by cutting of his beard If it 〈◊〉 a lye why haue you not prooued it a lye And if it were true as it was very true doe you thinke that all the cutting or washing of his beard that might bee was able to saue saue his life whom God did vetermine to bring to his death no no it is impossible If a little Sparrowe light not on
the grounde without Gods prouidence Then the dounge of this Crowe did not light on the Bearde of this Idolatrous massemonger the enemie of God without the foreknowledge and appointment of God to the shortening of his dayes If through Gods prouidence Tobias the seruant of God was made blinde through the falling of Swallowes dounge then why shoulde wee not thinke like wise through Gods prouidence that this Burton the enemie of God might bee brought to his death by the stenche of the dounge of a Crowe falling vpon his Bearde But because you haue left out some of my wordes which manifesteth this Gods myraculous might the more and hath added something of your owne that diminisheth the credite thereof I referre the Reader to the very wordes thereof written according to truth in the 294. page of my saide booke The 57. part AFter this you set foorth another of my myracles but howe like a myracle it is or whether I wrote it as a myracle or to any such ende let the indifferent Reader iudge You leapt two great leapes backwarde before But now you haue shewed your vtter most cunning whereby it seemeth that you exceede all Christians in leaping backward for you haue leapt backewarde at this one leape 202. pages or sides and all to fetche out a meete myracle for your purpose For amongst all the rest of the myracles where this Burton the massemonger was placed and yet of either side of him I am sure there were 〈◊〉 store you coulde not finde one that woulde serue your turne So that if you had left out this myracle for whiche you leapte backward so lustily then Luptons myracle had been vtterly mard for lacke of company But to comfort him withall you haue taken this paines to leape so farre backeward and all to get him a companion And nowe I will recite your owne wordes which you pickt out purposely because they should seeme more like lyes then the 〈◊〉 And these are your wordes which you alleadge as mine Againe say you that in king Henries dayes the Earle of Wiltshire and others going to Rome as Embassadors to the Pope refused to kisse the Popes foote when he held it out to them at what time the Earles dogge hauing more deuotion to it as he saith then they not onely went and kissed the popes foote but also snatched at his great toe * signifying therby that it was a part more fit for dogs to kisse then men Because this my last myracle may seeme something dark to the Reader as you haue told the tale for if it make for my turne you had rather put in lesse then all I will now recite mine owne myracle the occasion wherfore I wrote it whereby your Reader may see howe truly you haue told my tale and also what an apt and fit myracle you haue found out to be a companion of the other myracle But I must tell you this by the way that there where you pickt out this myracle I talkt chiefly of the popes pride and not of any myracles and therefore the more 〈◊〉 for a myracle if my matter had any good method And these are my very wordes which shewe the occasion why I wrote this great myracle of the dogges kissing of the Popes foote Pope Adrian saith of himselfe whatsoeuer the Emperor hath he hath it of vs it is in our power to bestow the Empire on whome wee list It may bee so but one may looke all the bible ouer ere hee can finde it And also the Pope hath made it heresie though Christ did not make it for a king not to hold his kingdome at his handes c. The Pope if we may credite his prerogatiue being of his owne penning is of no small power for hee is called Lorde of Lordes and king of kinges hee compelleth Emperours and Princes to sweare fealtie and obedience to him Cardinall Zabarella saith the Pope doth what him listeth yea though it be vnlawful and is more than a god you called it Luptons lyes before because I wrote that the Pope was called our Lorde God the Pope but heere one of the Popes owne Cardinalles hath out lyed me for hee saith that the Pope is more then a God And one saith that a Prieste is so much aboue a king as a man is aboue a beast as much as God is better than a priest so muche is the priest better than a king hee that setteth a king before a priest setteth the creature before the Creator By this it appeareth that priestes are no small fooles If this be true then it is no maruell that men were wont to haue priestes in great estimation and reuerence But I maruell that king Iosias was so bolde to burne such a number of Priests that were so farre his Superiors and that were as farre aboue him as hee himselfe was aboue a beast Truly I thinke it was because they could not shewe him their Commissions belike the lefte them at home c. And nowe marke I pray you whether these wicked Popes before mentioned with many other that call them selues Christes vicars are not more like Lucifer the Diuell in pride then Christe the sonne of God in humilitie I thinke there was neuer such Lordlinesse or pride in any worldly prince as hath beene in diuers of these wicked Popes for the Pope suffereth the Emperour which is the chiefe rular of all Christendome to holde his stirrop to holde his horse by the bridle to beare his traine and to kisse his feete Yea and the Emperour was shent of Pope Hildebrand because he held the left styrrop in steede of the right when hee got vpon his horse there was neuer Emperour nor king that euer reciued any such seruice of any of the popes But the Earle of wiltshire and the other Embassadors from king Henry the eight to the Pope farre inferiour to the Emperour refused to kisse the Popes foote though the pope helde it out purposely therefore yet the Earle of wiltshires dogge hauing a greater deuotion thereto then they did not only kisse the popes foote though thing vnmanerly but also 〈◊〉 at his great toe Thinking belike it was more meete to bee bitten of dogges than to bee kissed of men Heere is the mightie myracle y t youhaue made of this matter was it not worthy to 〈◊〉 fetcht so farre of yea and that with such a backward leape You perceiue well enough but that you list to deride mee and to delude your Reader that I wrote not this as one of gods myracles but as one of the Popes proude practises neither is it like in any point to your former tale of the myraculous worke and great iudgement of God shewed on Burton the 〈◊〉 of Crowlande vnlesse the presumptuous pride of a Pope may bee compared to the desperate death of a Papist vnlesse a dogges snatching at the Popes foote which did him no harme be like to the dounging of a Crowe
to do And so secretly between them it was agreed that if the paine might be suffered thē he shold lift vp his handes aboue his head towards heauē before he gaue vp y e Ghost And whē he was brought to the stake to be burned there mildely patiētly he addressed himself to y e fire hauing a strait chaine cast about his midle after whose 〈◊〉 praiers made vnto god the fire was set vnto him in y e which whē he continued long when his speech was taken away by violence of the flame his skin also drawē together and his fingars consumed with the fire so that all mē had thought certainly he had 〈◊〉 dead suddēly contrary to expectatiō the said blessed seruaunt of God being mindfull of his promise before made reached by his handes burning on a light fire which was marueylous to beholde ouer his head to the liuing God and with great reioycing as it seemed strooke or clapped them three times together At the sight whereof there followed such an outcrie of the people and especially of them which vnderstoode the matter that the like commonly hath not been hearde and so this blessed seruant of God strayght way synking downe into the fire gaue vp his Spirite If you had been as quicke a sighted Christian as you were a blinde Iesuite and as pure a Protestance as you were a peruerse papist you woulde haue seene this marueylous myracle and not haue ouerleapt it so farre backwarde I maruell that you tooke such paynes to leape an hundreth leaues for a false miracle of a dog and might so easely and that so nie at hande haue had a true miracle of a faithfull man Belike it was eyther to bright for your dymme eies to beholde for that you made suche haste to the dumbe dogge of an Erle that you had no leasure to staye and beholde the Seruaunt of God Thus if you had been as well willing to make but halfe a steppe as it were eyther backwarde or forwarde as you were of set purpose wilfully bent to make such an vnreasonable leape backewarde you might haue been easely spedde of better truer myracles then of the Earle of Wyltshires Dogge But because you thought that without any further circumstaunce as you would dresse them the one would be derided and the other discredited therfore you pickt them out of all my whole booke for the nonce and as a godly godfather haue giuen them a name calling them Luptons myracles But because I haue prooued that of the Earle of Wyltshires Dogge to bee a myracle of your own making therefore from hence forwarde it shall bee called the Iesuites myracle And nowe seeing you began with the first myracle I haue made an eude with the last myracle hoping you will winne as litle credite by medling with my myracles as you get gaine by controlling of the title of my booke Thus you haue cunningly confounded my matter and miracles onely reciting them as it pleaseth you adding to your owne wordes and diminishing mine as you thought good without eyther disproouing or 〈◊〉 them at all according to your wonted order which you woulde haue your indifferent reader thinke to bee a sufficient disproouing and confuting But I hope the indifferent reader not armed with affection wil iudge that you haue wandered vnwisely and vsed me vnchristianly The 58. part ANd then you ende with your supposed or thinking confutation of my booke with these wordes folowing All these thinges and many more the like he prooueth out of master Foxe his Martirologe otherwise called Acts Monumentes tyed with long chaynes in al Churches of Englande to be read with deuotion The more like the rest of the myracles bee to these the more I am sure you mislike them I neede not bee ashamed to prooue them by the booke of that learned and godly M. Fore called Acts and Monuments for that it is a worke of great credit and authoritie Which booke he hath most diligently painefully set forth with such knowledge truth that you may barke or rayle against it but the learnedest Iesuit or papist of you al shal neuer be able to disproue confute or cōfound it do what you can And though it be but lately set forth and the author thereof yet aliue I haue prooued before by sufficient argumentes that the thinges therein are nowe as well to bee produced and also to be credited as though the authour were dead a thousande yeeres since The 59. part YOu say that it is tyed with long chaynes in all Churches of England to bee read with deuotion I would y t a Iesuite were herein no lyer If you had not your popish masse and your other idolatrous seruice in mo Churches in Italie Fraunce and Spaine Gods word truely preached in all the rest then we haue those bookes in the Churches of Englande the popes pompe and power woulde quickly perishe and your romishe Church woulde florishe but a while As you haue continued your course against me most falsly and vntruly so you haue ended the same with a manifest vntrueth For I am most assured that euery Church in London hath neyther the same booke tied nor vntied I wish they had then can it be thought that euery Church in Englande hath them I am most certayne that no smal number that fauour your papistical religion here in this realme of england will thinke that herein you haue waded too farre and fowlie ouer shot your selfe who must needes witnesse agaynst you that this same booke that you say is tyed with long chaynes in all Churches of Englande is not in the Churches where they dwell neyther tyed nor vntyed Before you had some shadowe to couer your lies but you can not shadowe this it is so manifest You sayde before that I wandred by certayne controuersies but as without all wic and learning but here you haue vnwisely ended with a lie without any 〈◊〉 It seemeth that you had forgotten the beginning of your booke when you wrote the latter ende of your booke for in y e first side of your booke you bring a text of Salamō against liers but in the latter end of your book without eyther Scripture or text you play the lier your self What a shame is it for you at your first entrie to seeme to defend truth and to ende your book with such a manifestlye Your owne woordes in the beginning of your discouerie doe showe what you are like to come to for the latter ende of your discouerie For there you say according to Salamon a lying witnesse shall haue an euill ende then can you looke making such an apparant lie in y e latter ende of your booke for a good ende If you were a fauourer of the gospell as you are an enemie to the Gospell you would then frame your selfe to speake trueth as now you giue your self to fable and lie As the spirite of God doeth direct the godly professour of Gods worde to write