Selected quad for the lemma: book_n
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A08200
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A true report of the late apprehension and imprisonnement of Iohn Nichols minister at Roan and his confession and ansvvers made in the time of his durance there. VVherevnto is added the satisfaction of certaine, that of feare or frailtie haue latly fallen in England.; True report of the late apprehension and imprisonnement of John Nichols minister at Roan.
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Allen, William, 1532-1594.
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1583
(1583)
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STC 18537; ESTC S105146
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45,115
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86
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The cause why I came not to Rhemes was because I was ashamed of my self Your Pacience is greater then my mallice Your wordes proceeding from brotherly charitie do declare with what spirit you are endewed Laurence Caddey vvho deliuered my former letter vnto you hath affirmed the fore said things to be true and that with an other he also can witnes into what speaches I burst forth vvhen I vnderstood this your charitie If it be true M.D. Allen that you haue so great care of my soule that your Reuerence vvould not sticke to trauaile to what place soeuer to saue it do you your endeuour then to saue it For if my soule be saued by your meanes you shall saue your owne soule also as holy writ saith but if I doo perish bodie and soule by your carelessnes and negligence you are to render accompt thereof at the daie of Iudgement I am emprisoned and that worthely and am fedd hitherto more delicatly then I haue deserued I do appeale to your worship and not to the Popes Nunce And if you will promis me by your letters that the faults vvhich I haue by any meanes whatsoeuer committed against any man shal be forgiuen me and that no man shal pursue me to death for the crimes that I haue committed I will come to Rhemes yeld my self into your hands if you deny me this my bloud shal be required at your hands and you shal be the cause of the losse of my soule I esteeme not this transitorie life I am content to dye and that euery daie Oh if I felt once my soule to be endewed with vertue religion staied vpon Gods holie word no man vvould be more glad then I should be Many report that I haue no religion in me and they saie truely in respect of my vvorks for I am ouerwhelmed with many abhominable vices I say thus much haue often said it out of the pulpit That I doo firmely beleeue whatsoeuer is vvritten in the old and new Testament If the Sergants were drawing me to the fire or gallowes I would not beleeue any other thing My life is like a shadowe I crie to you worshipfull Sir and full of charitie out of the prison of Roan to assist me whiles yet I liue If you complaine of my books I will retract that which is false I will shewe the cause vvhy I wrot so I vvill open my mind aboundantly so far as the limites of truth will permit M.D. Allen albeit I haue greuously offended that notwithstanding I commit the care of my soule vnto you I know not vvhat the Pope Cardinals and others in authoritie ar determined to do with me if they thinke it best to take vengeance on me for the iniuries vvhich I haue vniustly donne vnto them the lords will be donne they know where to finde me let them put their designes in execution hardly but for all that I hope better of their charitie Being brought into these distresses I beseech you D. Allen to assist me with counsel and al other works of charitie and you shal thereby heape to your self a treasure in heauen and shall binde me to be yours foreuer I am not obstinate God grauÌ„t I may be sauued after this life I haue written Fare you well and pray for me a greuous sinner for as long as I liue I will hope M.D. Allen render good for euil and by so doing you shal be Christe his disciple For so Christ did so he taught By me Iohn Nichols Englisman your louer POst scriptum The spirit doth fight against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit and for a time the spirit being ouer whelmed with the flood of sinnes doth yeeld vnto the flesh but I hope that the spirit will get the victorie and weaken the force of the flesh God be merciful vnto me Imprisonment is a meanes by which I may finde the way to heauen M. D. Allen helpe me vvith your aduice whiles time is partely because you are a Christian man partly also because you are my country man I reade your bookes and am not weary of reading I haue gained great comfort consolation by reading them I will reade still and will refuse no conference with any Roman Catholik I haue written and novv expecte your fauorable answere as I hope to my saluation 18. Feb. 1583. By me most greuous sinner Iohn Nicols vnvvorthy to liue DOctor Alane contra Papam Cardinales Episcopos quaecunque scripsi scripsi ambitionis causa quae audiueram in Italia de moribus Papae Cardinalium Episcoporum aliorúmque inter agrestes inopes homines literis in Anglia mandaui nullum librum aedidissem Deus est mihi testis nisi Praeses Castri Londinensis me ad scribendum prouocasset Partim tunc temporis grandipromissione delusus partim appetens interituram gloriam a me publicè scripta sunt ea praesertim de moribus Papae Cardinalium Episcoporum totiusque ecclesiastici ordinis quae fama acceperam à viris non fide dignis libertate mihi eo tempore concessa paulo post resipui me nequiter scripsisse Domino Lucae Kirbeoâ—am vita defuncto cum in carceribus detentus fuerat confessus sum Multa scripsi multa feci quae scribere aut facere negaui prorsus antequam Praeses Turris Londinensis saepe minatus sit Grauissimum torquaris tormentum quam acerbam poenam pati meafragilis caro abhorruit Illius igitur inuentionem atque voluntatem executus sum quod imperabat scripsi feci sic locutus sum non ex malitia sed ex impulsu non ex praua voluntate sed ex satanica suggestione Multa scripsi falsò quae scripsisse poenituit me antequam ex Anglia tanquam profugus ob enormia peccata mea quae conscientiae meae magnam inquietem diu noctu iniecerunt discesseram Nun quam in Anglia steti coram Iudice aut alio quouis magistratu taÌ„quam testis coÌ„tra quemuis Catholicum Romanum quando in iudicium vocati sunt ex proposito abfui Londino Papa Cardinales Episcopi alij Catholici Romani in me multa contulerunt beneficia quae ingratitudine recompensaui sed causa ostenditur metus grauissimi supplicij magnifica promissa me à Deo auocauerunt si vos viri dignissimi in eodem periculo versaremini nescio quid faceretis Nihil aliud audire potui in carceribus quam has minas Fac sic aut satellites te ducent torqueri maluissem si dixisset suspendi Non bona res est corpus isto cruciatu longius fieri per duos fere pedes quam natura concedit Narratum est mihi modus torquendi cum audiueram timor horror istiusmodi supplicij me omnino vicit in meaexaminatione Quorum voluit ille Praeses aut sernus illius nomina scribi scripsi Georgius Peccam aeques auratus in Catalogo fuit Papistarum Iudex Southcotus alij multi mihi ignoti ad nomen ad
be preferred in England And as touching the College of Rhemes this I saie that I spake more of mallice then of truth and so in likevvise the College of Rome vvas falsely accused by me And as concerning M. Doctor Allen I say in conscience that I knovv or haue heard by the man nothing els but innocencie his religion excepted 7 Besides these vve vvill proue him to be a periured person not onely for that he is in relapse falne againe into those heresies vvhich he abiured publickly solemnely voluntarily at Rome 4. yeres since but for that he promised vpon his othe when he was a student in the English College at Rome that he vvould take holy orders and go into England and there to teach the Catholick faith vvhensoeuer he should be sent by his superiors which promis confirmed vvith an oth he hath broken not vvithout great scandall The seuenth article is true and I haue incurred periurie for that at Rome I liued as an hypocrite being neuer in hart of the Romane religion 8 Moreouer vve obiect to him that he abused the Pope vvith craft and deceipt vvhen vnder pretence of sicknes and that he could not awaie vvith the aier of Rome he desired leaue of his holynes to come to the College at Rhemes there to follow his studie and to be made prieste and to that ende requesting and receiuing of his holynes 50. crovvnes of gold but assoone as he had gotten the money thus fraudently he vvent straight into England As concerning the eight article it is graunted I defrauded the Pope of 25. crownes giuen vnto me in vvay of Viaticum to bing me to Rhemes For al these articles being thus graunted by me Iohn Nicols I am right sory and submit me self vnder the feete of any such as I haue maliciously and greuously offended God knovveth I spake these things vvith a desire to be promoted rather then vvith a minde to vtter the truth God be merciful vnto me and pardon me and al those vvhom I haue thus offended vvilfully I crie mercie and beseech them for Christ his sake to forget such iniuries so impudently committed against them partly by Sathans prompting partly by the countenāce of others in commending such stuf By me Iohn Nicols Englishman M. Stubs gaue me the matter of my booke in the Tovver intituled The recantion of Iohn Nicols c. M. Vvilkinson did vvrite in the margent the notes and also added to that vvhich I vvrote and corrected the faults by me escaped Moreouer I told my Lord Treseurer about alhallowtide last past Anno Domini 1582. these vvordes that follovve If it may pleas your honor I am right sorie that I haue such bookes put forth that conteine more falsehood then truth My lord ansvvered that the Papist found out that I lyed Vvhen I confessed to M. Kirkby in the tovver that it repented me in vvriting such bookes as vvere contrary to the truth M. Lucas Kirkby reported these my vvords to M. Reignolds of Oxford vvho made reporte thereof to Sir Frauncys Vvalzingham vvho being certified of this thing vvrote or sent to M. Lieutenant of the Tovver of London that I should be sent for and examined face to face before M. Kirkby to knovv vvhether it vvas so or not as Sir Frauncis vvas certified Vvhen I came to the Tovver M. Kirkby vsed these vvordes to me vvhen he saw me Speke the truth quoth he and shame the Diuel So I vvill quoth I doubte not thereof M. Kirkby was examined apart and I ansvvered truly if I had been permitted by M. Lieutenant so to do For vvhen I said so I told M. Kirkby that I vvrote those bookes for ambition say not so quoth M. Lieutenant vvrite quoth he to his Secretary after this manner That he vvas sorie that he vvrot his bookes so rudely as he did Vvhen M Reignolds in the presence of Doctor Humfrey told me that he vvould proue to my face before M. Doctor Humfrey M. Kirkby being called before them that I had vttered such vvords as that I vvas sorie that my bookes were published conteinning more vntruth then veritie and that I said I vvould forge no more against the Papists neither in print nor pulpit Vvhich thing vvhen M. Lieutenant heard he had him hold his peace and talke no more thereof By me Iohn Nicols THE SATISFACTION OF LAVRENCE CADDEY TOVCHING his frailties and fall from the Catholike Church at his retorne into England IF there be any Catholicks in England or out of England that heard of my speach or recantation at Paules crosse which was in the yere of our Lord 1581. These are to certifie them that it vvas directly against my conscience and that I vvas neuer of that Religion that then I pretended as God shal saue me at the general day of Iudgement For I will shew plainely and manifestly that of my inward defection from our Mother the Catholick Church there were neuer any effectual causes vvhereby it may most cleerely appeere that invvardly I vvas neuer since my first reconciliation to the Catholick Church an heretick For either I invvardly separated my self from the Catholick Church because I thought some points of the Churches doctrine to be false or for the euel life of the Catholicks For the first although I neuer studied diuinitie but as much as some Cathecumini do and the yonger schollers that are yet in the course of Philosophie or other prophane sciences yet I am not I thanke God so dull of vvit but I can Iudge somewhat of Religion and of the difference betwene the Catholicks and the Protestants by the sermons of learned men which I haue here to fore frequented by the cōuersation I had vvith learned Fathers vvhich daily did expound the harder points of Religion and often did dissolue diuers folish and childish Sophismes of hereticks Whereby I knovv and truly euer since my first conuersion did knovv that euery point of the Catholick religion is conformable to the vvord of God although the hereticks do falsely say that they are grounded vpon the bare traditions of men and to me it is euident that there is no article of the Catholick faith novv called in doubt which may not be proued by diuers places of the scriptures or by most cleere sequell inuincebly deduced and gathered of the same And where the aduersaries say that either the Catholicks do recite places out of the scriptures vvhich are not authētical or els if they do allege places out of the true scriptures that they expound them falsely according to their ovvne fancies I vvas neuer since my first reconcilement so simple or necligent of my saluation as not to see that to be an vsual stale euasion of al old hereticks For this I knovv that Luther that provvde Lucifers Primogenitus or vvhat other singular sectarie soeuer being but one man although he had ben most holy in the sight of men as in deede he vvas most vnholy and vvicked both before God and man ought not to iudge