More News from Rome OR Magna Charta Discoursed of between a Poor Man his Wife AS ALSO A New Font erected in the Cathedral-Church at Gloucester in October 1663. and consecrated by the Reverend moderate Bishop Dr. William Nicolson Angel of the said Church according to the account of that infamously famous Man Dr. Lee. AS ALSO An Assertion of Dr. William Warmstrey Dean of Worcester wherein he affirmeth that It is a lesser sin for a man to kill his Father than to refrain coming to the Divine Service established in the Church of England The one was the killing of a particular Person The other made a breach in the Mystical Body of Christ The Members of the Mystical Body distinctly discoursed on By the said Poor Man and his Wife Imprinted at London for the Author for the only benefit of his Wife and Children Anno 1666 when time shall come The Epistle Dedicatory To my dear and beloved Wife DEar Wife I think it most proper to dedicate the ensuing Discourse unto your self for the use and benefit of my Children some of them by reason of their tender age are not as yet able to read I hope you will see them learn to read if I dye and also instruct them the best you can The Disconrse is partly the same which was discoursed on between our selves I know if any should see it they will be apt to say it is simple discourse let them know that it comes from poor country simple folks and yet not more simple than that which is in Ridiculus Mus the Church Catechism which teacheth to tell three lies in one breath Wherein I was made a member c. They may say likewise it wants method let them know that men and their wives do not alwayes talk by method but one among another The Times you know are much enclin'd to Superstition that 's but the Mother of Idolatry and dwelling in a place where 't is much used some of them are inclinable to run to the Worship to hear the Organs the Singing-men and Boyes they account it fine pastime to see the Bishop in his Lawn-sleeves the Doctors and Prebends in their Fools Caps Superstitious Habits and Formalities like Stage-Players or Morrice Dauncers is pretty sport to them they may in good earnest be drawn to a likeing of it and so in time joyn with them in their false worship The Discourse I have obtained to be printed hoping is may inform them what Superstition is and the example of Parents is many times prevalent with Children for imitation be it good or evil I can speak it by experience My father and mother were both of them Church-Papists and dwelling in a country village where there was only a Reading-Priest they commonly went to the Service or Even-Song as it is called and saw nothing in it that might justly offend them my mother taught me Popish prayers my father would go to his private Devotion he dying when I was but nine years of age left me among other things in present possession a stock of Popish Trinkets Books with fine red letters in them one Latin book in folio with thick covers of wood the leaves parchment gilded down the margent and on the top with letters and faces in them Images Beads and a Crucifix which was the finest of my gods and although my father never taught me to use any of them yet to work I went with them the Images had some small adoration the Beads I understood not the use of them the Crucifix a fine face neatly gilded I prayed unto My school-fellows had a game called Tray-Trip at which they played for such ware as they had I fell at it likewise and out went the Parchmentleaves and quickly brought the thick wooden Covers nearer together then to my Beads I went to work with them one after another then to my Crucifix hoping that might fetch all back again I tript it so long that at last I tript all away I have admired why the Devil would stand by as commonly he doth at gaming and see his young disciple thus cheated of his gods but that he thought to put them into the hands of the bigger boyes which might imploy them more to his advantage I could wish that all Superstition all Romes Remnants Reliques Rites and Rags were at stake between the Devil and the Pope at sweep-stake I could wish the Devil the winner on condition he would carry them to the bottomless Pit from whence they came and burn them But stay a little give the Devil his due they be his own already only out of good will and courtesie he spares them the Church of England for ornament and decency neither is the Devil so very a fool nor so bad a husband to burn that for trash so long as it will serve to help to make a hedg to keep honest godly Preachers out of the Pulpit which otherwise might help to dispossess him of his Kingdom It 's storied of a Noble Person who invited an Emperour to dinner where among the rest of superflums Neednots there were two rich Cupboards of Glasses of much value and high esteem with the owner the Noble Person had a Blackmoor who by accident brake one of the Glasses whose punishment for the fact must be no less than death and such a death as that he must be thrown into a great pond to be devoured of the Lampreys which were therein the Blackmoor gets him into a corner or hole and there roars and cryes most hideously The Emperour taking his leave and as he was going away he heard a fearful cry and enquiring what the matter was it was told him he sends for the Blackmoor who relating the matter with the circumstances the Emperor returns to the Noble Mans house and with a stick he had in his hand brake all the Glasses the Noble Man demanded of him wherefore he did it he answered It were better that all the Glasses were broken were they a thousand times so many rather than that the precious life of one man should be cast away It were better that all Romes Remnants Reliques Rites c. now in use in the Church of England were sent to Hell from whence they came rather than that one honest godly Preacher should have his mouth stopt for that he cannot endure that the Rags of the old Whores tail should be drawn through his teeth But I know Wife what they will say that a man of my condition should not meddle with these things it 's fitter for persons of higher quality than I am being of mean descent for parentage and a poor man To which I should answer their reverend Lordships were they present that I have more cause to stand for my Master Christ than they for Antichrist and that with more boldness too and for my parentage true it is I am meanly descended my Abavus for I find no Latin word beyond it for a great-Grand-father Japhet the third son of Noah from whom
Husband How came the Power then to be re invested in the Magistrate H. VVife I 'le tell you The Pope pretending himself to be Christ's Vicar General assumed the power of making Laws for the Church and all matters concerning the Church was there determined as we may see King Henry the eighth could not put away his VVife without Licence from Rome The King cashiering the Pope the Power came to be invested in him and so successively but good VVife talk of somewhat else W. Husband I heard that the Bishop lately conseorated a Font in the Cathedral Church newly erected there it seems it is made with rings to be carried about from place to place that when they move houshold as 't is hoped they will er 't be long they may carry it with them But in what manner was it consecrated and whence came this Consecration H. Wife for the manner as I was told thus The Bishop had the Common-Prayer-Book held over the Font one Idol over another and a prayer written in a peice of paper in his hand which he said and the Doctors of the Church very devoutly kneeling about it joyned with him in the performance of the duty The Silver Bowl brought three miles by the hand of the Churchwardens by the sober advice and discretion of that learned man Doctor Horwood the Parson of the place was also consecrated The Brasen Candlesticks were consecrated by Mr. Hanslip both Reader and Chantar after what manner I know not but if it were done with a Noddy-board with which he is a dexterous man it was aswel done as with the noddy-Noddy-book But to tell you from whence it came as two †Sabellicus Platina Popish Authors affirm from Pope Pius the first who consecrated Fonts in the year 145. The old Church Rubrick which I have seen retains the form Exorcizo te creatura salis et aquae per Deum vivum et sanctum c. I adjure thee O thou Creature of Salt and Water by the holy and living God c. in a most fearful manner it would make one tremble to read it for it 's little different from Conjuration some say and call it Conjuration the Font the Conjured Font. If we take it from Pius it must needs be Popish and Antichristian If from Moses's consecration of Vessels and Altars c. then it is a denying the Priesthood of Christ for Moses was a Priest aswell as King and Prophet as appears by his making an Atonement for the People and they may aswel offer a Ram or any other Sacrifice as use Consecration they endeavour by their practice to build up the Partition-wall of the Temple broken down and pull from the Cross the Ordinances which Christ hath nailed thereunto What have we to do with things under the first Covenant and they shew themselves superstitious and prodigious Dunces VV. But the Bishops of Rome were good Bishops they say for 500 years after Christ H. VVife The bringing in of these things was no part of their goodness they brought in one thing after another until Superstition brought forth Idolatry W. Obj. They say that the Church hath power to order such things as to their judgment shall seem fit and requisite H. Wife The Church hath no power to order any thing but what is already ordained There is a Bird called a Hickwal I have commonly seen them and two of them will build in one Nest And in this the Church of Rome and the Church of England are sister Hickwalls they build both in one Nest The Church and then we must believe in the Church But I 'le tell you one thing which I should have told you before but you prevented me by a question there is a Village in Gloucester-Shire called Nimphfield there remains the ruines of a Chappel I have seen it and as the present Incumbent told me it was dedicated to St. Anthony we have his name in a Proverb Like a Tantony Pigg It 's conceived he was a good Pigg-drencher as famous as Bacchus and Ceres among the Heathen whom they deified being excellent for planting of Vines and breeding of Corne. In this Chappel at the upper end of the Chancel near the Table was the Picture of a great Boar upon the wall and a Font in the Chappel which as some of the most sufficient in the Parish told me they took cut of the Chappel and placed in the Church where it still remains If St. Anthony did either feed his Piggs or lodge his Piggs or wash his Piggs in it it was aswel consecrated as if the Bishop had done it At Salperton in Gloucoster-Shire as some of the Parish have told me the Priest's means were very small they had one who was both Priest and Shepherd to keep Sheep a very diligent man in his place up he would betimes on a Sunday morning as they call it in Summer-time when the Fly was busie dress his Sheep come to Church and put his Tar-box in the Font and ring the Bell I am perswaded it was as well consecrated as if the Bishop had done it for I take the smell of a Tar-box to be as wholsome as the Bishops breath W. Fic fie Husband do not say so H. Wife do you think I would mis-inform you or my Children either for Superstition stinks worse than either a Pigg or a Tar-box I did not tell you how the Reverend Wren Bishop of Ely Consecrated the Chappel at Ely-House he perfumed it with Superstition which as he conceived might be an Antidote or preservative against the infection which might be left there by honest men who had preached the Gospel being a man of that sweet disposition much like the Fly which in Summer will suck and feed upon an excrement and let the sweetest Flowers alone but if such superstitious Fly-Blows be let alone they will quickly come to be Idolatrous Maggots He consecrated likewise the Cathedral Church at Ely and celebrated Pope Clements Ordinance Pope Melciades Sacrament Confirmation or Bishoping with which the Boyes were so well affected that to the number of fourty of them gathered themselves together and Confirmed two Mastive Doggs Likewise one Boy brought two Wreuns to be confirmed but the rest of the Boyes denying them the benefit of that Ordinance cryed out unanimously Pluck off their heads pluck off their heads they may come to be Bishops in time W. Good Husband be ruled by me let the Bishops alone they 'l have you in Lobs-Pound one of these dayes and put a Stony Dublet upon your threed-bare Coate They are men who pretend they love the King above any H. Wife they love the King just as the Ivie loves the Oak The Ivie is one of the best friends the Oak hath it spreads its branches embraces clips and huggs the Oak but all this while draws sap from and is nourished by him its love is but for it self We know that Ivie is good for little but to harbour a company of dim-ey'd creatures called Owls
to the Clink he must go When he came into Prison certain Papists being likewise Prisoners there one of them demanded of Mr. Sharp for what fact he was brought Prisoner who answered for throwing down Images in Banbury Church O sayes the Papist What a hodg-podge is your Religion we are put in for setting of them up and you are put in for pulling of them down And is not thie a pretty hogpodg that an honest man shall not have the liberty to print against the Papists but be discountenanced notwithstanding the aforesaid Act is still in force against printing and publishing Papists Books very many of them having been burnt by Authority But Wife to see how the Papist claws the Bishop in saying that those that you cannot bring into your Fold by your sweet paternal Call may be brought in by the power of your Pastoral Staff Again Your knowledge is super-excellent in all things there are incorporated in your sole person the vertues and faculties of thousands of others That your fair soul ever appears like the precious Bird of Persia called Ibis The Reverend Father that fair soul to gratifie him again rewards his good opinion of him with approbation of his Book and with a Shame-take-them both together to see the correspondency that is between them the one a Papist the other a Protestant in name whithout any Schism or Clashing one against another puts me in mind of the Cat and the Rat which was in our Cupboard not long since You may remember you told me seriously that there was a Rat in the Cupboard which when I had peept into and saw I used the best skill I had to catch a Blanket must be fetcht you held one end I the other the Cupboard thrown open when the Rat leapt into the Blanket we must clap to out comes the Rat into the Blanket but wanted patience to stay till we caught him In he comes another day Then Husband again the Rat is the Cupboard a Gentlewoman one near our own quality a Wantcatchers Wife gave us a verbal Certificate likewise of her Cats super excellency for Mous-hunting which when we had obtained my self being a discreet man got a pair of Tongs and fearing lest any thing might enterpose the fight of other wisely got out the Cheese much like a New Moon and a proportionable quantity of Bready into the Cupboard advanced is the Cat and enemies now in sight one of another some speedy execution is expected but nothing but peace At last I took up one end of the side-Cupboard and jumbled them together up went the other end and jumbled them again but nothing would do the Antipathy in Nature was quite gone I looked in and saw the Prelatical Cat and the Romane Rat sit as lovingly close together as might be without any Schism or Clashing We threw open the Cupboard the Prelatical Cat went home but lost some credict by it but hang 't what cares a Prelatical Cat for a little vulgar Credit so long as he can keep the Master of the companies good will and the Master of the Romane Rats also And is it not pretty to see the Bishop and the Papist like two Colts nabbing one another by the Manes or resembling weanning Calves licking one another Their courteous Carriage and loving Behaviour minds me of that passage of St. Francie who looking out at a Window and saw a Friar kiss a Nun was very thankful there was so much Charity in the world Now Wife I shall acquaint you with some passages in the Book First He commends Seignior Beaumanoir for a bloody Massacre in these words Who like a Noble Cordial Cavalier engaged his Sword in the Kings behalf and slew the Serpent and freed the Monarchy from any more of the Serpentine servitude It is well known that the whole estate of the Church enjoyed a setled Peace and all their Rights and Priviledges all Princes with great devotion were Nursing Fathers and Protectors of it There was a perfect Harmony for all matters of Religion and Faith between the Church of Rome and the Princes of Christendome Anno 1515. Martin Luther a man of a turbulent Spirit was the first that broke this long and happy Peace puf◠up with vain glory and ambitious conceit of himself put himself upon higher strarns and as a man grown sick in his spirit and of a fiery disease he began to rave and defame all Church-Government he abandoned the Cloister cast off his Habit and renounced all obedience to his Superiors for now he preacheth against the whole Clergy and Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome whose Authority in matters of Religion till that time was held Sacred He further saith that The Lord Cobham Sir John Acton and Sir John Oldcastle two of Wickliff's Disciples were deservedly put to death for Heresy Rebellion and Treason in Henry the Fifth's time He saith That this Heresy lay strangled in the Cradle until Edward the Sixth's dayes whence some ends of it were taken up again with more oftentation than ever in that Prince's minority and what rare effects of obedience were produced by that Massacre in Queen Maries dayes who brought them up to the Test we may reade in our English Chronicles wherein it 's plain that in those poor five years of her Reign there was de facto more open Violence Opposition and †Here he accounts the Martyrs for Rebels Rebellion made by her own Subjects than in many years before Again But my abundant care to have the good People of England disabused cleerly from that Abominable Rebellious Brood of Presbyters that Viperous Crew of Cockatrice Christians Again speaking before of killing Princes denies it to come from Rome for its opinions and practises is meer Callumny Again That so impious a thing as the murdering of Princes never entered into the heart tongne or pen of any true Romane Catholick Witness the Gun-powder Treason Again Luther may very well pretend to have taken their water-course from the Wickliffs and Waldenses and they again to have borrowed from the broken Cisterns of God's Church the ancient Sons of Disobedience and Rebellion the declared Enemies and Cast-awayes of Christianity in all ages Again The Preshyter the legitimate successor of the Traytox Judas who undoubtedly was the first Christian of this Crew Diabolical their Pedigree can come but from that high and mighty Lucifer their impious Opinions and prodigious practises do clearly demonstrate them to be but from the Devil Wife This is enough to acquaint you that Bellamy is a Papist but I have the Book to give you further satisfaction and by L'estrang's approbation of it in putting it in the Weekly Intelligence letting it fly to further the sale of it shews plainly what he is The Bishop Bellamy Crack-fart their Brother In point of judgment each like other MAGNA CHARTA Wife Husband the last Winter you and I fell into some discourse by the fire and brake off somewhat abruptly you promised to begin with Magna Charta
Hampton and Radborrough ten miles where he hath 200 l. per annum besides his full Crop at Gloucester and part of the Crop at Worcester From Hampton halled back again fourty miles to Bromsgrove Kings-norton and Mosely as his man saith the burdon he lies under is 1400 l. per annum But I think he over-burdens him yet willing to undergo more endeavoured for Upton upon Stavern 200 l. per annum but went to the wrong Patron likewise for the Bishop 〈…〉 Worcester but went without it what snop he hath made with White-Church in Warwick-shire I know not but gone it is An eminent Member of the Mystical Body Dr. Brough Parson of Michaels Cornhil in London Dean of Gloucester Prebend of Windsor having thousands of pounds for his Crops and more money he might have had had it not been for his charitable disposition but on a time enquiring what poor Widows there might be in Gloucester which wanted relief he had a List as I heard given him which when he had obtained said That he had set some money apart for that use and when they came to him he gave each poor widdow a new single Peâ—â—â—y I suppose they may be twenty or thirty Let him pass for a Martyr and a good Stider for he strides in and out 200. miles The 〈…〉 to L'Esirange he shall be sure of my assistance I could willingly add one more Singular-Martyr Mr. Tomkins a knocking Martyr that Antropophagist man-eater whose disposition is like the Devil's name Diabolus for he makes but Dia-bolus two bits of two brothers for he eats up that Godly Eminent Preacher Mr. Benjamin Baxter at Upton upon Seavern and his brother Stephen's Living at Harvington an honest man and a good Preacher besides he eats up seven or eight hundred pounds by the year in other places a greater Glutton than ever Mr. Marriot was let him pass for a Belly-Martyr As for Dr. Poury Reeve Bredioch c. you may expect in the next Edition by D'Estrange Phassen Gherechiet undt GOTTOS Barmhertsechceit weret von nua his en evechiet Priests Coveteousness and GOD's Goodness endure for ever as the word in the Original hath it The Papists call Mr Foxe's Book of Martyrs A dunghil of Martyrs But if all the Martyrs of this kind were brought and laid together they would make a dunghil as big as that which is made of the rotten Egs exhausted by the Gold-finders out of the Citizens Nests and laid between Islington and London and in time will smell as Odoriferously Another sort of the Mystical Body are such as once had cut themselves off from this Body and now have cunningly inoculated themselves again who called the Bishops first Reverend Fathers afterwards accounted them Rebel Fathers and Antichristian and now Reverend Fathers again The winter before the Act of Vniformity came forth there was a great wind which blew down tops of Steeples and Weather-Cocks yet before the year came about there were more Weather-cocks than Steeples And what a sad Persecution was like to come I heard diverse of the Parsons say Bartholmew day being the 24th of August compleated fourscore years from the day which the great Massacre began on in France and diverse of them seemed to be possessed with fear but the Persecution here fell out thus many men stab'd their own Consciences and there 's an end of the Persecution with them Some that marched with Sword and case of innocent Pistols exhorting to be couragious and upon deliverance by small means have clartered Gideon's Rams-horns and broken Pitchers together and prest the Covenant very hard and now qui color albus erat c. white then is black now Some that said they would live on brown bread yea some that said they would live upon stones rather than conform yet now can preach that some things may be dispensed withal and that some brown bread is better than no white I shall not yet speak of such but of One whose judgment was thought to differ from his present undertakings who hector'd his Conscience as he was told by one and basted it for being a little skittish and kickish that he made an Ass on 't and made the poor Jude carry a Bishoptick upon its back Raynolds you call him but Reynard the Fox of Norwich you may call him One who had been a great Synodian in the time of the Long-Parliament told me he went to seek God to know whether he should conform or turn out The Lord as he said answered him by his own Reason that it was better to conform and keep his living thou to be a Fool and leave it to a Knave This makes the country-man say that there is but the breadth of the shears between the Priest and the Taylour the one turns a Coat to get a Living the other turns a Coat to save a Living A Falconer told a tale I took it for no less than a lye That he kept his Hawk so long in the Mew and fed him with Mice that he was turned to be a perfect Owl but the ensuing passage makes me credit it the more One Mr. Dolphin a man who would not conform by any means having formerly removed from Broadway in Worcestershire where there was a stream of water running by his door being the Element that suits best with the nature of a Fish but removed to a place three miles further called Hunnibourn where there were great store of Geese and less water being famous for Geese No Goose to the Hunnibourn Goose where this Dolphin dwelling among them was turned Goose and in his white Feathers I mean with his Surplice on his back goes to Bishop Morly then of Worcester and kneels down before him with submission for his past carriage is pardoned received as a dutiful Son of the Church and a Member of the Mystical Body Mr. Collier of Blockley a great Presbyterian very forward to promote the Covenant having a Conscience of stretching Leather put it between his teeth and with the help of his Wife tug'd it so hard and strain'd it that he made it wide enough to protect and save three hundred pounds by the year The Bishop of Worcester a new Dr. Swop-soul since Morley coming to Evesham a Market-Town in Worcestershire saw a Blackmoor about sixteen or eighteen years of age and out of his good nature rather than from any desire or desert of the Blackmoor would needs make a Kirsensoul of him a day is appointed for the purpose Mr. Collier must preach the Sermon upon the occasion and did shewing the lawfulness of Infant Baptism if he had preached the lawfulness of Infidel Baptism he had hit the Nail on the head One Mr. Brit who in the dayes of the Covenant called his Parish together on a day solemnly to take the same which was accordingly performed but now the stream turning he will prove constant brown bread and small drink must be his diet if not live upon stones rather than conform But now the time is