MORBVS ET ANTIDOTVS THE DISEASE WITH THE ANTIDOTE OR A Declaration of Henry Yaxlee of Bouthorpe in the Countie of Norfolke Esquire wherein he sheweth how he was a Papist and how by Gods grace he as now lately converteâ— Published by Authoritie Ieremy 6.16 Thus saith the Lord stand yee in the wayes and see and aske for the old pathes where is the good way and walke therein and ye shall find rest for your soules 1. Thess 5.21 Proue all things hold fast that which is good LONDON Printed by W. Iones for Nicholas Bourne and are to be sold at the South Entrie of the Royall Exchange 1630. To the Christian Reader CVrteous Reader J craue thy favourable Censure vpon what thou shalt reade in this booke What J speake therein of mine owne knowledge is vpon my conscience true and what J cite out of Authours J haue faithfully endevoured to relate truely If any indeed can advertise me of any errour therein J shall thanke him and reforme my selfe Jn one thing I cary still the same minde which I did when I was a Papist viz. To haue myne heart the thing which God most desiereth alwayes studious to finde and ready to embrace the true Religion And I make no doubt but that God in mercy hath guided me vnto the same and will therein further enlighten and establish me vnto my liues end O that my deare kindred countrymen would but reade without preiudice what is so plentifully written on either side or be content to heare indifferently what can be pleaded Then should they clearely see that what auncient truth soever the Papists doe holde the Protestants also doe beleeue and maintaine the same and that that is all novell ungrounded and not Catholique wherein the Protestant dissenteth from the Papist But herein is their misery they dare not reade nor seeke any light but from those whose chiefe care is to keep them in darknesse least it should appeare vnto them that the Protestant is truely so called for protesting against the hay straw and stubble of the additions and innovations of Popery And so I rest in charitie Charitate etiam non ficta beseeching Almighty God that ye may all become what in his unspeakable mercy he hath made me The obedient sonne of my deare Mother the true Church of ENGLAND Henry Yaxlee A DECLARATION OF HENRY YAXLEE OF BOVTHORP IN THE COVNTY of Norfolke Esquire wherein he sheweth how he was a Papist and how by Gods grace he is now lately converted I Was a Recusant because I was taught from my cradle to beleeue the Catholique Church by my Creede And withall I was by all our teachers then perswaded that Rome being the successiue seate of St. Peter could teach no other but the true Catholique Faith though all other Churches failed But when I found in Bellarmines booke a De Rom p. lib. 4. cap. 11. that Pope Honorius is numbred among those who were condemned by the 7. Councell for Heretiques And in Melch. b Lib 6. cap. 1 et vltim Canus that Celestinus 3. had decreed that the woman whose husband falleth into heresie may marie an other And in Alfon. c Alfons a Castro coÌ„ ra haere ses lib. 1 cap. 4. de Cast that Omnis homo errare potest in fide etiamsi Papa sit Nam de Liberio constat fuisse Arrianum et Anastasium Papam fuisse Nestorianum 1 Every man though he were the Pope himselfe may erre in matter of faith for it is manifest that Liberius was an Arrian and that Pope Anastasius was a Nestorian And in the same chapter Cum constet plures eorum esse adeo illiteratos vt Grammaticam penitus ignorent quî fit vt sacras literas interpretari possent i. When it is manifest that many of them were so ignorant as that they did not at all understand the Grammar how can it be that they should interpret the holy Scriptures By this I conceived that it were safest for every Christian that feareth God to beleeue the article according to the Apostles C … Catholicam without addition of Romanam 〈◊〉 is the Catholique not the Roman Church swarving from the Catholique But I was further confirmed when I found many godly learned and vertuous Priests as D. Bagshawe and Master Iohn Collington whose names I remember are to their bookes laying open in their writings that the Iesuites specially Father Parsons haue misled the Popes to doe the most Antichristian iniustice that ever was heard of to those Priests that were appellants to the Popes for justice as you may reade in Bagshawes answer and Collingtons defence as also in divers other whereof I giue you this Catalogue viz. 1. A letter written by A. C. 2. A relation of the faction at Wisbiche 3. A Dialogue betweene a Seculaâ—â—riest and a lay Gentleman 4. Declaratio motuum ac turbationis Angliae 5. Doct. Elies notes Notes vpon the Apologie 6. Important Considerations written in the name of the Priests 7. A sparing Discoverie of Father Parsons These Priests being Roman Catholickes doe plainly declare in the said bookes that the Pope is guided by the violent faction of the Iesuites to do the most Antichristian injustice even to those Priestes who tooke a journey to the Pope by the consent of their brethern by appeale to lay open the wrongs offered unto them by the Iesuites Yea Father Parsons caused them when they were come to Rome to be layd in the jaole where they might haue been starved before ever they had spoken with the Pope if the French Kings Embassador had not with much difficultie procured them audience as appeareth in the aforesaid booke of Important Considerations written in the name of all the Priests distressed and oppressed by the Iesuites Hereupon Collington in his defence printed 1602. fol. 24. is bould to affirme in capitall letters that Father Parsons was so notoriously given to practise treason and to bring an invasion of Forreiners upon this Realme as that even Pasquin in Rome speaketh of him in these words If there be any man that will buy the Kingdome of England let him repaire to a Merchant in a square blacke capp in this Cittie and he shall haue a very good peniworth thereof And in another of the Priests books you shall finde that the Iesuites guide the Church of Rome by murthering Kings Popes and Cardinalls as in Quodl p. 295. The Iesuites and their faction doe devise and publish such a kinde of doctrine that subiects are not bound to obey wicked Princes in their temporall Lawes and commandements but untill they be able by force of armes to resist him Quodl p. 228. And the qualification being pretended that though they seeke to kill Kings yet it may be they will spare Popes Cardinals and Bishops it is peremptorily answered Surely no. ibid. pag. 24. And as there are shrewd suspitions in Rome concerning the death of two Popes two Cardinals and one Bishop already so I make no question at all
saith he but that hereafter if any Pope crosse their plotts and purposes the Iesuites will haue such a figge in store for his Holinesse as no Antidote-shall prevent or long preserue his life after it When I had read these things in the authours aboue named I concluded that Rome might be a part of the Catholick Church though a member corrupted with errours but it could not be the Catholique Therefore I did not much marvell when I saw diverse Romish Priests come openly to Paules Crosse in London and preach that the Mysterious working of Antichrist is now in Rome which caused them to come out of her as out of Babilon As you may see in Sheldon the Converts printed Sermon and in Higgens his first and second Sermon lately printed And yet saith Sheldon many Christians may be saved in Rome beleeving the true fundamentall points of Catholique faith and not partaking with her in her latter corrupted doctrine authorized and Printed at Rome which hath beene burnt by the Catholique Roman Authoritie in France which I take it are these Bellarmines bookes teaching that the Pope hath power disponendi omnium temporalia to dispose of the temporall things of all And no doubt but this doctrine might cause those poore deluded soules to enter into the Powder plott thinking the deede to be meritorious as appeared by the speech of Sir Everad Dighbie at his death An other may be Becanus his booke wherein he dispuring of King-killing concludeth in the affirmatiue in these wordes Nihilcertius nothing more certeine Suarez is an other who in his booke against King Iames saith That none can kill him but those whom the Pope shall appoynt To these may be added Mariana whose judgement in his booke is that it is the safest way to poyson him These bookes were burnt in France for teaching damnable and seditious doctrine even by the Roman Catholique authoritie and partie there I meane by such Catholiques as will persist in the true fundamentall poynts of Catholique faith not be deluded with their errors No though the Pope himselfe should decree them Much lesse will they forsake the Apostles Creed Extrau cap vnam SaÌ„ctam de maior et obed Credo Ecclesiam Catholicam I beleeue the Catholique Church Though Boniface the eight hath long since Decreed That it is alltogether necessary to to beleeue the Church of Rome See the grand impostor of the now Church of Rome put forth by the Bish of Covent Leech feild 1628. and to be subiect to the Roman Bishop Which thirteenth Article added by that Pope the wiser sort of Catholiques in France doe not beleeue but oppose with wordes writings Decrees and fire not boasting themselves to bee the onely Church inerrant as ROME doth but holding themselves to be a true member of the Catholique protesting against these corrupted doctrines of Rome innovated by the Iesuites as appeareth by the Priests bookes aboue recited of whom I give you here some taste as followeth some whereof I formerly mentioned Doct. Elye in his notes upon the Apologie pag. 9. in the preface saith thus They plunge themselues over head and eares in Ecclesiasticall affaires with such audacitie and obstinacie as that they haue turned all topsie turvie And in the Quodl page 321. We find it thus of the Iesuites doctrine Certeinely therin is nothing else but fallacie vpon fallacie error vpon errour one contradiction encountring another And in the booke called Declar. Mot. ac turb in Angl. pa. 29. a Iesuite mainteineth this most atheisticall and heathenish assertion that one who is not a Christian may be Pope of Rome And as it is in Anthony Copelies letter pag 67. an other Iesuite openly and for found doctrine maintayned it first to his Auditours in the Schoole and at this instant expressely in the Inquisition doth say Non est de fide credere hunc Romanum Pontificem esse Christi Vicarium It is not a matter of Faith to beleeue that this present Pope is Christs Vicar Also in the Quodl pag 31. Thus we reade To let passe their eronious Doctrine concerning their Generals infallibilitie of truth for deciding of matters Their absurd paradoxes of Aequivocation and ibid. pag 29. The Iesuites every way in Printed bookes in writings manuscripts and most of all in private conference have taught contrarie to the Roman Church And therefore saith Anthony Copely pag 40. It is no marvell if in fundamentall poynts of Catholique faith they oppose against the Angelicall Doctor and be therefore endited before his Holâ—nes at this present by the Dominicans in Spayne for Pelagians and sundrie other kindes of heretiques as also impostors by the Sorbonites of Paris and all other French Clergie as we credibly heare And Quodl pag 138. Never was there any Religious order that held such extravagant exorbitant irreguler opinions as they doe Doct. Bagshawes answer pag 20. saith thus Father Weston and Archer are charged by Doct. Norden for defending the stues to be as lawfull as the Pope himselfe as if they had as it seemeth a very league with hell against the truth These were not the first motiues which made me mistrust the Romish doctrine for by my bringing up I was so prejudicate in mine opinion as that I thought scorne to imagine that the true Catholique faith could infalliblie be received from any place but Rome In so much as when I heard of that most inhumane barbarous and damnable Powder plott conceived and attempted only by Romish Catholiques I was amazed to thinke that from Rome and from no other place in the world could be received the saving faith I then professed it to certeine famous Iesuites to whom I was then devoted that I thought to beleeue the Roman Catholique Church was as ridiculous as to say Christendom Kent or the vniversall particuler I was notwithstanding then easily satisfied herein when they told me that the meaning was not to make a particular Church to be vniversall but onely to intimate that no faith is truely Catholick but that faith which is taught in Rome as they sayd they were readie to justifie and that there was no more reason for vs to forsake the Church of Rome for the Powder plott then for the Apostles to have forsaken Christ for the fact of Iudas And thus I rested a while satisfied Widrintons Supplic to the Pope untill the oath of Allegiance came out Then went I to my sayd Father f Widrint ans to Fits Herb. and told him that diverse e Priestes defended that the King had made a lawfull oath to try the Romish which of them did adheare to the true Catholik faith of Rome and which to the innovated treasonable doctrines thereof And that d they further defended that those who refused to take this oath should not onely be hanged for traytors but loose also their soules eternally for wilfully denying their lawfull Allegiance Whereupon I asked him againe whether I might reade the sayd bookes to informe and satisfie my
Hee that is an honest man by scruple and a religious bridle take heede of him and account of him as hee is and hee hath religion without honestie I will not say hee is more wicked but farre more dangerous than hee that hath neither the one nor the other Who so killeth you will thinke that hee doth an acceptable service unto God Not because religion teacheth or any way favoureth wickednesse as some very foolishly and maliciously from this place doe object for the most absurd and falsest religion doth it not but the reason is that having no taste nor image nor conceit of honesty but by imitation and for the service of religion and thinking that to be an honest man is no other thing than to be carefull to advance religion They beleeve all things whatsoever be it treason treachery sedition rebellion or any other offence to bee not onely lawfull and sufferable being coloured with zeale and the care of religion but also commendable meritorious and worthy canonization if it seeme for the progresse and advancement of religion and the overthrow of their adversaries Thus you may see what conceit that learned man had of yeelding to men that absolute obedience which is due to God alone So that he was farre from the doctrine of the Iesuites who in their 13 rule do teach that if the Superiour say that white is black we must beleeve it and obey And a Iesuite once avowed to my face before sufficient witnesse that this rule is orthodoxe Hee that will see more concerning this point let him reade De la Mar. against the Iesuites his open pleading in Parliament of Paris against Monthalon their chosen Advocate He that would beholde how the particular Church of Rome hath beene led by particular factions to forsake the universall Catholicke faith let him reade George Carleton since Bishop of Chichester his booke of Iurisdiction Regall Papall Episcopall If any man reade these and see not the universall faith there brought to particular fancie it must bee crassa ignorantia if hee have will to please God and capacity for to understand But the greatest motives yet to perswade me that Rome hath corrupted the Catholique faith are two The first is for that all the most religious the most learned yea the very Canonized Saints of Rome have in all latter ages cryed out of the corruptions in the Church of Rome as you may finde in a booke published both in Latine and in English by IAMES MAXVVELL a Researcher of Antiquities which no Romish Papist ever contradicting I presume that it cannot bee excepted against by the later yeares See what the Priests haue written against the Iesuites He that hath not meanes to come by the bookes themselues may reade the Collections made by Tho. Iames which I haue found truely cited out of the said books of the Priests The Collections of Tho. Iames printed at Oxford were sold by Iohn Barnes neere Holborne Conduite The second motiue is that within this later hundred yeeres the Church of Rome hath vsurped authority to expurge reprint alter or change what they haue thought good out of both ancient and late Writers that speake against them as may appeare by their Indices Expurgatorij concerning which I referre you to D. Iames his Collections printed 1625. But concerning the credit of the Canonized Saints and others cited by Maxwell it is necessary you should heare what the greatest and learnedst Doctors of Rome haue thought of them Thus may you reade in Trithem Abbas in his booke of illustrious men That Pope Eugenius the third with the consent of 18 Cardinals and a great number of Bishops assembled in the Councell of Treiur And also Pope Boniface the ninth did Canonize diners of the Saints that spake against the corruptions of Rome Turrecremata Bellarmine and Baronius with the most famous learned men of Rome haue all highly commended the said Saints that thus cryed out of Rome and called out loud for reformation in their dayes The like was done by the good French Cardinall Peter de Aliaco in his booke of Reformation of the Church in his time presented to the Councell of Constance And the Councels both of Constance and Basil did vna voce disallow the Popes vsurpation in challenging himselfe to be aboue a generall Councell insomuch that the said Councell deliuered it as a deposite of the Church by vnanimous consent in forme of a Decree that it ought not to be so In these words The Pope tenetur obedire ought or is bound to obey the Councell etiam in fide moribus euen in matter of FAITH and manners Yea where was the Popes authority aboue a generall Councel when all Appeales to parts beyond the Seas were prohibited by the African Councell They are not then the late Protestants alone that haue called for Reformation of the Romish Church but euen also these ancient The late famous Sir Thomas Moore holden one of the lights of the Roman Church and defender thereof in his time seemeth to scorne that any man should beleeue that he was so farre corrupted in the Faith as to beleeue the Pope to be aboue a generall Councell Dial. l. 1. c. 26. His words are Neuer did I beleeue the Pope to bee aboue a generall Councell Notwithstanding the Papalins contrary to the Catholicke faith haue accounted the French Church to bee a schismaticall Church for holding the Vniuersall or generall Councell to be aboue the Pope as appeareth at large in the aforesaid pleadings of De la Martilire against the Iesuites Heare now what the Seminarie Priests speake against the faction of the Iesuites that hath swayed and ouer-ruled Rome at and since the Councell of Trent Watson Quodl pag. 82. doubteth that Antichrist may be already come for that the Iesuites be the fore-runners of Antichrist though it appeareth that Saint Bernard thought he was come before when as he saith Ep. 127. that Antichrist then sate in S. Peters chaire If then the godliest and learnedst of the Church of Rome haue in all Ages cryed out of the corruptions both of the doctrine and manners in the Church of Rome as you may see in the books aforesaid then we may say there haue neuer wanted Professors and Protestants in all Ages defending that Catholicke Roman Faith which Paul commended to the Romans resisting the tyranous vsurped innouated Doctrine of the Church or Court of Rome as may bee further seene in that from time to time euen generall Councels as well as Prouinciall haue refisted the innouations of Rome The African Councell and others of that time resisted Appeales to the Pope The later Councels of Constance and Basil haue concluded that the Pope is not aboue a Generall Councell As then Saint Paul saith that God hath set in the Church Apostles Prophets Euangelists Teachers for the perfecting of the Faith vntill all come to the vnity of the Faith Eph. 4.11 12 13. See Master Bernards booke entituled looke beyond Luther And
that vn till Christs comming againe 1 Tim. 6.14 So if you looke beyond Luther you shall finde that there neuer wanted a visible company of Pastors protesting against the innovated doctrines of the Church of Rome which made as I suppose the Iesuite disputants in Sir Humphrey Linds his house ashamed to try the succession of doctrine offering their blinde buttery booke of names For if they durst try their succession of their doctrine Why did they not either then vndertake it or since make supplication to his Maiesty that they might proue the same and so saue their Credits And since that I had digested and set downe in writing these former inducements I haue beene yet further confirmed by the reading of two bookes the one of Sir Humphrey Linds intituled via tuta wherein is manifestly proued that whatsoeuer the Protestants hold positiuely for matter of faith no learned Papists can or euer could deny And that whatsoeuer the Protestants deny of the things held by the Papists the same cannot be prooued to be Catholicke and Apostolicke agreeing with the Apostles Creed The other is Doctor Fauours booke entituled Antiquity triumphing ouer Nouelties wherein is as plainely proued that the Papists doe speake contemptuously and disgracefully of the Scriptures to deterre men from reading of them Contemne those first and best generall Councels wherin they speake against them and for the Protestants And in the later they take what parts make for them and reiect what makes against them as reprobate as I find Cardinall Bellarmines distinction of them to bee partim probata partim reprobata L. 1. c. 4. de concil eccl The like doe they by the Fathers and also by Histories as you may see if you reade cap. 7 8 9. of the said booke of D. Fauour And all this it seemeth will not serue the turne for they haue set vp shops and Inquisitors of purpose called their Indices Expurgatorij to blot out in the Catholicke Writers what makes against them with a deleatur and to adde what may serue their turne And likewise in their citations they make vse of Bastard and counterfeit Fathers acknowledged by themselues to be such as you may see more plainly and particularly in Doctor Iames his booke printed 1612. entituled A Treatise of Scripture Councels Fathers corrupted by the Romish Pastors And as for their contempt of the Fathers When Tertullian pleaseth Bellarmine he is with him granissimus Author A most graue Author a famous Doctor a Catholike Writer Bellar. de Rom. pont l. 2. c. 5. But if he speake against or please not Bellarmine then he is an Heretique and he will answer fidem non esse omnino adhibendam Tertulliano in hac parte that no credite at all is to be giuen to Tertullian in this case ibid. lib. 4. cap. 8. And as for the vse which the Papists doe afford vnto that euidence of antiquity which is histories Doctor Fauour proposeth certaine examples to make it plaine that in this case the Romanists either miserably or doggedly snarle at all antiquity or vtterly reiect and deny it Cap. 9. § 20. the most expedite course they can deuise to ouerthrow that which in truth would ouerthrow them His first instance is in the matter of Pope Ione The truth of which historie when he hath confirmed by the witnesse of more then a double Grand-iurie of sufficient Authors older and later Greekes and Latines domesticall and forraigne Diuines Lawyers and Physitians Philosophers Poets and other humanitians Priests Bishops in their accompt Saints and Cardinals Fryars Monkes and Canons yea and whole Vniuersities not one of them an enemy nay not so much as one of them not a friend to the Roman Catholicke Court and Religion c. At last hauing named the seuerall Authors in the Margin of his page hee saith Yet because this story doth preiudice the vaunt of their perpetuall succession doth make vncertaine their pretended onely sufficient ordination giues a shrewd shake to their counterfeit rocke c. Fiue or sixe and thirty Authors constantly in diuers countries in many Ages in Catholicke Vninersities Citizens of Rome and Officers in the Popes Court secular religious are all corrupted falsified denyed discredited shaken off and branded with infamy and all must be without sap or sense truth or honesty learning or credit onely to salue that frothy Sea from this filthy Queane And all this begun and set on foot by that one consciencelesse Onuphrius De Rom. pon◠l. 2. c. 6. whom Cardinall Bellarmine himselfe reiecteth as a contradictor of all antiquity and for auouching that for which he hath no authority Who was borne some hundreds of yeares after some of the said Historians which is strange that any man should beleeue it fit that he alone is sufficient to out-beard and out-face all former antiquity And saith D. Fauour I maruell how they laugh not one at another when they see how they gull the simple world as the Auruspices did among the Gentiles His second example is the story of Pope Silvester the second infeofing Antichrist in the Sea of Rome by liucrie and seisin about which he sheweth that they vse the like dealing as about the former story of Pope Ione And while I considered these foule abuses in the Church of Rome there came to my minde an answer which a Iesuite Father Floyd made vnto me when I told him that King Iames his answer to Cardinall Perrone his speech in the Parliament of Paris did charge the said Cardinall with manifold falsifications of the holy Scriptures to proue the Popes power to depose Princes And that if the King were not answered the cause would be much scandalized The Iesuite answered mee that there was too much written already and that he must be answered another way I was afraid then to aske him any more fearing it might be another Powder-plot the rather because I heard Master Smith my old Lady Kneuets Priest affirme that he had heard a zealous Catholicke say when he first heard how the Powder-plot had missed that it was the onely way in the world that could haue beene deuised to haue rooted out the Protestants And now I am easily drawne to beleeue Father Floyd that they will answer no more with bookes or writings but with force and plots if as the Scripture saith Ex ore tuo te iudico a man may iudge according to their owne words specially if we consider how the secular Priests do charge the Iesuites with ambitious vsurping authority in the Church of Rome corrupting it with their treasonable doctrines as is euident in the said Priests bookes whereof I haue already giuen the Reader some taste And I thinke good here to adde more the rather because that the bookes are not easily to be had for that the Iesuites making vse of a rich Spanish Ladies purse for the buying vp and burning of hereticall bookes they tooke vp as many as they could of these Priests books which they counted worst