secular Priests attainted or convinced of Actual Treason against her Majestie viz. Ballard for knowing and yet concealing the attempts of Babington in the business of the Queen of Scots and old Parson Plomtree of the North who said Mass once at a rising in those parts And yet how greevously are they charged with such crimes all along the Queens Reign And how much was the people incensed against them upon that perswasion What Sermons Proclamations Lawes were made in Thunder and Lightening and Blood against these poor men Souldiers of our Saviour Christ and fighting onely with Spiritual Arms under his Banner The Cross in that part of the Catholike Church which is Militant in England What calamities afflictions miseries have they not endured by persecution hereupon The onely Colledges of Rhemes and Doway beside other Religious Orders from other places have sent out into our Lords Harvest no less then One hundred persons who have all suffered for Things purely Spiritual that is either for being Priests or for doing the Office of Priesthood viz. Saying Mass Reconciling of Sinners unto God c. In the year 25. of Queen Elizabeth it was made Felony to harbor a Priest and to be a Priest Treason And the Act looked so cruelly back to primo Elizab. that whosoever was made Priest since that time might very easily be drawn within compass of the charge The Law was made upon occasion of those Treasons of Parry Francis Throgmorton Anthony Babington and his complices as also upon occasion of F. Campian and those Priests arraigned with him For a general apprehension was taken that these had combined with some forreign Princes and other persons of power within England to restore Religion and deliver the Queen of Scots out of prison which was a business then fresh in memory Hereupon the Priests in England frame a supplication by common consent and finde means to present the same to the Queen at Greenwich by the hands of Master Shelley Wherein after they have first condemned and renounced the practises of Parry c. They profess and declare their own judgement in these words First we utterly deny that the Pope hath power to command or give License to any man to consent unto Mortal sin or to commit or intend to commit any thing contrary to the Law of God Secondly whatsoever person he be that maintaineth such opinion we renounce him and his opinion as devilish and abominable Thirdly we protest before God That all Priests who ever conversed with us have acknowledged your Majestie their lawful Queen tam de jure quam de facto as well of right as for your actual possession of the Crown that they pray for you and exhort your Subjects to obey you Fourthly and lastly they profess that it is heresie and contrary to Cotholike faith to think that any man may lift up his hand against Gods Anointed T is true the Petition had no other success with her Majestie then this viz. that Master Shelley who presumed to commit such a Treason as to present it was suffered to be sent to the Marshalsea by order of Secretary Walsingham and there to be kept prisoner to his dying day onely upon this pretence Scilicet because the Councel had not been first acquainted with the business Howbeit by this supplication the world may cleerly see They answer the Six Articles which in those times used to be so commonly and captiously propounded to such men framed by Doctor Hammon viz. Whither the Queen were lawful Queen notwithstanding the sentence Decleratory of Pope Pius Quintus against her whither that sentence were to be obeyed in althings Whither the Pope by such sentence could give her Subjects any lawful Authority to rebel or depose her c. For if she be their lawful Sovereign notwithstanding that sentence and that obedience and loyalty be due unto all lawful Princes by the Law of God and of nature it is easie to see what must be said to such questions According also as Bishop Watson Abbot Fecknam Doctor John Harpsfeild Doctor Nicholas Harpsfeild with others who were very often and rigidly examined upon them yet professed perpetually obedience to her Majestie tanquam verae Reginae as unto their true and lawful Sovereign Yea saith Doctor Nicholas Harpsfeild reported by Goldastus a Protestant Ego regalem ejus Authoritatem Goldast de Monar Sac. Imp. Rom. c. I do acknowledge saith he her Royal Authority in all Temporal and Civil affair without exception They presented the like humble supplication to his Majestie that now reigneth some while after the discovery of that wicked and desperate Plot of the Gun-powder-treason another to the Parliament then sitting and another to the Earl of Salisbury in all of them professing the same things And though it hindred not the passing of some severe Acts against Catholikes in that Parliament occasioned as I suppose by that foul and horrid attempt yet the King himself in his Proclamation published upon that subject gratiously professeth his opinion of the generality of his Catholike Subjects viz. That they did abhor such a detestable Conspiracy no less then himself True it is F. Garnet suffered for concealing that Treason and Sir Everard Digby for contributing in some sort to the security or rather flight of some of the Conspirators But as the one viz. Sir Everard Digby much lamented his ill fortune that he should leave behinde him the memory of so great a stain protesting always that he was never made privy to their design and drift So the other viz. F. Garnet knowing it onely as he did in the way of confession and the Seal of that Sacrament which is Secrecy being by the Doctrine of Catholike Religion and that not without most just and necessary cause esteemed so inviolable it may abate something even in the judgement of man of that Heynousness of guilt and blame whereof all good Christians otherwise must necessarily condemn him In a word how much Catholikes in general and especially Priests do detest rebellion and Treason even in times of greatest affliction and pressure and what Religious observers they are of all just loyalty and obedience to their lawful Princes appears cleerly not onely by a book written in those times by the learned Bishop of Chichester Doctor Christopherson against rebellion but also by the Annotations of the Divines at Rhemes upon the New Testament where Pag. 301. we read thus Subjects saie they are bound in Temporal things to obey even the Heathen being their lawful Kings and to be subject to them for Conscience to observe their Temporal Laws to pay them Tribute to pray for them and to perform all other duties of Natural Allegiance Doctor Kellison in his Survey goeth further giving the reason of this Because saith he Faith is not necessarily required to jurisdiction neither is any Authority lost by the loss of Faith Which is also the Doctrine of Saint Thomas who in his Book Cap. 6. de Regim Princip denieth utterly
were men which of all others were thought to care least for Religion Sir Philip Sidney indeed like a Noble and worthy Courtier as he was endeavored by a short Treatise to present unto Her Majesty the unfitness disproportion and inconveniencies of that Match both in relation to Her Person and the whole Realm but he did it privately and with discreet circumspection Stubs like an indiscreet and fiery Zelot taking the question in hand and prosecuting it in a way more likely to incense and corrupt the people then to advise or inform the Queen Cund in Elizab. his hand paid for his presumption And though some of the greatest and wisest of the Councel appeared very earnestly for it as a thing which was likely to unite the whole Kingdom of France unto England and would surely bring along with it the offer of the Netherlands by the Prince of Orange and the States whereby England was like to become a petent Monarchy yet was the whole Body of the Kingdom cast into much distemper and jealousies thereby Some upon partiality and faction others upon distrust of the practises of France some for their own some for their friends sinister ends and ambitions as in this very case I am perswaded men are not a little possessed with the same diseases and humors And if I did not well know the nature of the multitude which is a Beast with many heads and as mad brains I should wonder how they durst oppose the designs of their Sovereign a Prince of so great Experience and Judgement and who hath managed this business from the beginning with such wariness caution and prudence as this great Conjunction cannot portend any other effects then honor comfort and prosperity to the whole Nation Is he not the fittest to judge in his own case And his case being the case of the Commonwealth in general if any private man shall arrogate to himself either more wisdom to amend what is already done or pretend more affection to the State or more providence to foresee and prevent inconveniences certainly he must needs fall into the custody of the Court of Wards till he recover himself But having said this I shall leave the whole matter as a deliberative still and tell you in few words what the occasion was of this Discourse which followeth The occasion of the following Discourse THere met at a Merchants House in London where Merchants for their Table and Hospitality do worthily bear the Bell from all the Merchants in Europe divers persons of quality where being together in a Garden before Dinner T. Aldreds Letter the Pamphlet aforesaid and some strange reports of seditious practises from Amsterdam were read and discoursed upon In the midst of all comes in a fine Chaplain belonging to a great person in England and one that was of the Merchants acquaintance who hearing but a little of the discourse which at that time was the common Table-talk of City and Country with much vehemency he affirmed the Match was likely to breed great troubles and mischief to the Kingdom and that forsooth in regard as well of the increase of Catholikes within the Realm which it would occasion as also in regard of Spain which he ignorantly called an ancient Enemy Hereupon also he took occasion to rail bitterly against the Church of Rome as the Seminary of all the commotions in Europe and the contriver and plotter of all Treasons in England And being resolved to shew his Rhetorick in the Ruff and to omit nothing which might exasperate the company against Catholikes he alledged for examples in thundering language Heywards Reign of Edw. 6. the death of King Edward the Sixth sillily enough that you will say the many conspiracies against Queen Elizabeth buâ— especially that horrible project of the Gun-powder Treason which being undertaken onely by a few desperate Male-contents in justice might rather be buried with the offendors then objected perpetually to innocent men who do generally with great sorrow abhor the very memory of the fact and were publikely acquitted thereof by the King himself in the next Parliament following See the Kings Speech in Parliament Besides this he urged That Princes be disquieted yea endangered many times by Excommunications Bulls and other censures from the Pope by the Catechisms and Doctrines of Jesuites and that the Subjects of England are withdrawn by them from their obedience to their lawful Princes Lastly That they are a people so full of treacheries and disloyalty as no Nation can shew the like He forgat nor you must think to arm himself with the authority of Doctor Morton whose Maxim it was That we may now as well expect a white Aethiopian as a good Subject of that Religion He produced a Book entituled A discovery of Romish Doctrine in the case of Conspiracy and Treason wherein the Author playeth his master-prize against poor Catholikes with equal malice and indiscretion charging them with an infinity of scandalous accusations able to drive men into despair of the Kings Grace towards them and to breed in His Majesties Royal Heart an everlasting distrust of them He urged Parson Whites rash and uncharitable judgement against them That all their Religion was full of such Doctrines as afforded Monsters of conspiracy against the State that they teach men to murther Kings to blow up Parliaments and that since Bells time never was there such a ravenous Idol found as are the Priests of the Seminaries Ormerode also that famous Picture-maker was alledged in this heat who by a great mistake took upon him to condemn the singular and renowned Doctor Allen as affirming That Princes may be slain by their Subjects from the Text Numb 25. At length he concluded all with that Rhetorical flourish of Monsicur Lewis Baily in his Book of The Practice of Piety pag. 783. which he produced with much oftentation as if it alone had been enough to cast the whole Society of the Fathers into a fit of a Quartane Jesuites and Priests saith he are sent to withdraw Subjects from their Allegiance to move Invasion and to kill Kings If they be Saints who be Scythians Who are Cannibals if they Catholikes This conclusion for the art and wit of it could not but deserve a plaudite so the company went to Dinner and after Dinner this fine Chaplain was gone in haste Thereupon some of the company not so much taken with his Rhetorick as were the rest desired a Gentleman then present who well understood the World and was a freeman not obliged to any particular order furthen then as a Son of the Church to deliver his opinion of the Ministers invective which at last upon their much importunity he was perswaded to do in such maner as is here with his leave and particular information represented to you After some pause Claudius accusat Maechos quoth he Catilina Cethegum This is most ridiculous who can endure to hear a Gracchus inveigh against Sedition A man may perceive by the Prologue That
with Cardinal Wolsey he had extreamly flattered and bedaubed with praises But now finding by some tartness in the Kings answer That it was but to build castles in the air to expect any favor or countenance from him the poor Frier runs presently mad with rage and fowl language The King is no longer now a King with him Lib. cont Reg. Angliae but an evious mad fool full of bastardy and baseness he hath not a vein of Princely blood in all his body he is a Basilisk to whom this impudent Apostata denounceth damnation A glorious King indeed that lyeth most stoutly and like a King Nay He is a lying Felâ—ow covered with the title of a King not a King but a Sacrilegious theif Lastly which is the height of all imaginable scurrility and rudeness Jus mihi erit Majestatem tuam stercore câ—nspergere If I were neer you saith he I should make bold to dress such a Majesty as it deserves The passage is so extreamly fowl that to render it otherwise would both offend the Reader and defile the Paper I omit infinite more of the same stamp and stain which the Reader if he please to be further curious upon such a subject may finde gathered together by no less honorable a person then Sir Thomas Moor Lord Châ—ncellor of England in those times and published by him in a Latin work of his against Luther Printed at Lovain in the Year 1566. Nor was his behavior towards the Emperor himself and Princes of Germany much better He not onely wrote a Book expresly with this title Surius ad annum 1521. Against the Two Edicts of Caesar which we must also know were Edicts legally published and with consent of the other States and Princes of the Empire but therein he openly chargeth the Emperor himself and the other Princes with false play Turpe est Caesarem ac Principes manifestis agere mendaciis What a shame is it saith he that an Emperor and Princes should lie thus palpably And in the same Book of the same persons speaking Deus mihi dedit negotium It is Gods will saith he that in this business I should not have to do with reasonable men but I see these wilde Beasts of Germany will murder me if they can And therefore more bitterly maliciously and traiterously afterwards Oro cuncios pios Christianos I beseech saith he all godly Christians that they would onely pray for these blinde Princes by whom God afflicteth them in his great wrath but saith he let us not follow them by any means let us not serve them in their Wars nor give them any Contribution against the Turk For that was a thing either then in debate or but lately consented to by the States of the Empire For the Turk saith he is a Prince ten times wiser and more honest then they And what good I pray can such fools expect against the Turk who do themselves so horribly blaspheme and offend God Will any man think this tolerable but he proceeds Art 367. In his Book against the Five hundred Articles Quid ergo boni in rebus Divinis What good think we saith he can such impious and wicked Tyrants appoint in matter of Religion Before they were fools now they are Tyrants And still he goeth on from worse to worse that is higher and higher as it were by degrees in his impudence For in his Book De Saeculari potestate concerning the Civil Magistrate or the Powers of the World He delivers his opinion of all Kings and Princes in general and how he would have them esteemed in these words Scire debes c. You must know saith he that from the beginning of the world to this day it hath ever been a rare thing to finde a wise Prince but more rare to finde one that was honest For commonly they are the veriest fools and knaves in the world And again Quis nescit c. Who knows not saith he that Princes are like Venison in Heaven very dainty and rare it seems scarse one of a thousand perhaps saved This was the charity of the man towards Christian Princes in general as for the Emperor himself in his Book De bello contra Turcas he expresly denieth him to be the head of Christendom or so much as a difender of the Faith and least this might be capable of some tolerable sense he explicates his meaning plainly in the reason which he giveth Eos namque esse pessimos hostes For saith he Emperors and Princes are commonly the greaâ—est enemies which Christianity and the Faith have Yea in his Book Contrae Rusticos against the Boors which was an occasion and subject where if ever he meant to do it a man would think he was obliged to favor Magistracy and Civil Dignities yet even there his Language is the same or worse Sciatâ—â— boni domini Deum sâ—c procurare quod subditi nec possunt nec debent c. You must know my good Lords saith he That Gâ—d will have it so that your Subjects neither can nor will nor ought any longer to endure your Tyrannical G vernments Mark well that debent they ought not it was not put in for nothing I warrant you Those good men the Boors were not altogether or too much to be discouraged by that Book of his though titled against them it having been from his Sermons and Doctrines commonly divulged that they took the cheif grounds of their Insurrection Did ever man before him vent such seditious Paradoxes with impunity Can such assertions as these come from the Spirit of God Did ever any of the Prophets Apostles Martyrs use such barbarous liberty of speech against the worst of Neroes Dioclesians Julians that ever persecuted the Church Did Elias speak thus to Ahab and Jezabel and yet his flatterers commonly call him the Elias of Germany St. Paul if he had pleased to regard him gave him a far better example Acts 26.25 using Festus the Roman Governor with much more reverence And without all doubt no true Christian zeal can be so irregular so rude so intemperately passionate and scurrilous To revile and speak evil of dignities is the property of another spirit then the Spirit of God Jude 8.9 or else Saint Jude deceives us To give Caesar his Sovereign and all the Princes of Germany the lie although it were very insufferable yet it may seem but a personal or particular contempt but to proclaim them all Savages Fools Knaves Tyrants and to say that the Turk was a wiser and honester man then any of them in whose Government as all the World knows the Sacred Law of Christ our Saviour is wholly abrogated and the blasphemous Dreams of a wretched Impostor set up and maintained by force in stead thereof and the Moral Law of God publikely and daily by a contrary law of Mahomet in many respects violated and broken to the great dishonor of God indeed and shame of Christendom is a Language so absurdly
the Boors who made such havock for a while in Germany by their conspiracies and especially against the Clergy did not onely pretend the Gospel and the Liberty of the Gospel for their doings but did even appeal therein to Luther himself Ad Lutheri judicium prâ—vocaverant They appealed saith he to Luthers judgement Not to urge what Erasmus hath to this effect Hyperaspist advers Lutherum nor what Menno Simonius an Anabaptist acknowledgeth in his Book De cruce Christi Quà m sanguinolentas seditiones Lutherani c. What bloody Riots and Murthers the Lutherans have committed for some years past to maintain theâ—r Doctrine And as to that part of the Objection that Luther did reprove yea write against the Boors it is the poorest fallacy of all He did it but how With such calumniating and taxing of the Princes themselves as they could be little secured by his writing and the Boors as little discouraged He did it but when When it was too late when he could forbear no longer when he found himself generally censured and murmured at by the Nobility and better sort of people as an occasion at least if not an Instrument and Fautor of those mischeifs Lastly He did it but when When he saw the Boors go down that they were not likely to maintain their quarrel nor to go through with their work then indeed he left them in the Bryers wisely enough though they appealed to him though they used yea alledged his own Homilies and Sermons for what they did though they were all for Reformation all for Liberty all against the Church of Rome and against Bishops yea and that their very word in the Field was Vivat Evangelium Let the Gospel flourish Hitherto we have discoursed cheifly of Luthers doctrinal extravagancies and touched upon the evil practises or fruits thereof onely in such men as either for the privateness and meanness of their condition being all of them Boors Peasants and rude Country people or for the unsuccessfulness of their designs are generally disclaimed Such as neither Luther nor any of his followers will readily own I come now to give a further instance of the mischief which the doctrine and doings of this man brought upon Germany in a business which was publikely owned not by Luther onely but by many of the Princes themselves who for the defence of his new Doctrine and protection of his wretched person bandied themselves against the Emperor their Sovereign Lord and against the general body of the Empire of which they were both Members and Subjects and by the Publike Laws whereof themselves in that relation ought to have been governed The beginning proceedings and issue of which confederacy was briefly thus Old John Frederick Elector and Duke of Saxony the Landsgrave of Hessen with some others already caught with the Liberty and other advantages which they made of Luthers new doctrine besides an old and inveterate emulation in most of them against the House of Austria which then was and still is Imperial first enter a League at Smalcald which is a Town of Hessia upon the Frontiers of Saxony onely as they pretended for their own defence and to maintain their Religion and Liberties against such men as would invade or persecute them We must observe here first That the Religion spoken of was a Religion but then newly and privately taken up of themselves contrary to that which was publikely received and acknowledged in the Empire and by vertue or rather pretext whereof they were obliged to do and suffer to be done many things which were expresly contrary to the Constitutions of the Empire which Constitutions the Emperor together with themselves were by oath solemnly bound to observe and see observed In this League were also comprehended the Duke of Wittemberg and some of the Imperial Towns They renewed it again at Franckfort and after that again at Auspurgh confirming it with a general and solemn Protestation of what their opinions were in matter of Religion which Protestation being then exhibited unto the Emperor in their names the Title or Sirname of Protestants became thenceforward appropriate to that party After this viz. Anno 1536. Suspecting some opposition would be made against them by the Emperor and other States of Germany for such proceedings and not willing to be taken at unawares by him they bring viz. themselves first of all an huge Army into the Field commanded by the yong Duke of Saxony John Frederick his Father being dead and the Landsgrave of Hessen with resolution by force of Arms to finde or make themselves right as they called it The Duke of Wittemberg the Imperial Towns Auspurgh Vlm Strasburgh and Franckfort sent them aid The Count Palaâ—ine of the Rhine had levyed Two hundred horse for them but upon better thoughts revoked them when they were upon their march The Duke of Brunswick and his sons the Duke of Luneburgh the yong Marquess of Baden the Prince of Anhalt the Counts of Furstenburgh and Mansfield joyned with them either in person or power Surius in Chron. Their Army consisted of about Seventy thousand fighting men and among them Seven thousand and seven hundred at least were Horse they had an hundred and twelve Cannon and Field pieces with such an infinite quantity of all sorts of Provisions as gave them an assured hope and confidence of Victory The eyes of all Princes were upon this action and Germany it self trembled in expectation of the event and success of such an Army prepared as they saw to swallow up the Emperor if they could and to subvert the whole Government and Religion of the Empire I mean that Religion and Government which was then established and had stood so established many hundred years before the Fathers or Grand-fathers of any of those Princes now in Arms to destroy it were born The Emperor had onely God and a just cause on his side for his friends those I mean who openly and avowedly appeared for him were few viz. The King of the Romans his Brother the Duke of Bavaria and the Duke of Cleve For though Duke Maurice of Saxony followed him yet in regard of his affinity with the Landsgrave whose Son in law he was as also for his Religion being a Lutheran he could not but be suspected However it pleased God notwithstanding this huge Army of the Princes that the Emperor became Master of the Field with a most compleat and signal Victory yea which was an accident more rare the two Generals Saxony and Hessen both of them became prisoners and their whole Army was defeated The yong Duke of Saxony a person much honored and pittied had his life given him with some connivence for his Religion yet his impregnable Fort at Gotha was demolished and the Electorate with all the Lands thereunto belonging were bestowed by the Emperor upon Duke Maurice The like mercy for life was shewed the Landsgrave who after some time obtained his liberty also The Duke of Wittemberg for Two hundred
by Edward the Sixth was not warrantable being done in his Minority and when he had neither age to discern what he did nor liberty to discern any thing to the Protector and Northumberland in whose hands he was If you approve not this Argument why do you disallow the same plea for the Authority of the King of France was the age of the one a Bar in Law and not in the other or was the one an absolute King and not the other was King Edwards consent sufficient to authorize his Uncles doings and was King Charls his consent insufficient and nothing worth to authorize the Constable with his Army to pursue and punish their Army of Rebels Beza's opinion therefore In câ—nfess fid is much contrary to what he alloweth and commendeth here For if there be no other remedy but preces and lachrymae for private persons against the oppressions of a Tyrant he betrayed the Admiral and the Prince very foully to bring them into the fields of Dreux to fight against the King for Religion Doctor Bilson hath taken up somewhere one notable singularity to excuse the Prince of Conde viz. That he was not an absolute Subject of France ought not simple subjection to the Crown Ergo might lawfully do something more then others But it argueth such a gross ignorance in the Laws of France and in the state of that Prince that it deserveth more to be pitied then answered Neither could it help the Admiral who had no other Protection then that of his Sword nor Priviledge but from his new Religion But because that smooth profession of Beza above mentioned is so much insisted on and cunningly used as it were to cast a mist before the eyes of an unwary Reader it will be necessary to clear that business a little further by letting you see the man himself in more proper colours as in relation to this point First therefore read his Positions and Catechism of Seditions viz. That Book of his called Vindiciae contra Tyrannos There acting the part of Junius Brutus a Noble Roman indeed but great enemy of Kings he propounds in the first place this Question Whether Subjects be bound to obey their Kings when they command contrary unto Gods Law and resolveth presently Pag. 22. We must obey Kings for Gods sake when they obey God But otherwise Pag. 24. we are absolved For as the Vassal saith he looseth his Fief or Lordship if he commit Felony so doth the King loose his Right and his Realm also viz. By commanding contrary unto Gods Law Which considering that Gods Law is onely as they themselves shall think good to interpret it is dangâ—rous enough But Pag. 65. he is more notable Conspiracy saith he is goâ—d or ill according as the end is at which it aimeth Which is a most pernicious Maxim and a Doctrine fit for nothing but to encourage Ruvillac Poltrot or some such villanous assassinate to his desperate work or to be a buckler to the Conspirators at Ambois So Pag. 66. The Magistrates saith he or any one part of the Realm may resist the King being an Idolater as Lobna revolted from Joram when he forsook God And Pag. 132. The Government of the Kingdom is not given to the King alone but also to the Officers of the Realm And again Pag. 103. The Kings of France saith he Spain and England are crowned and put as it were into pâ—ssession of their charge by the States Peers and Lords which represent the people And Pag. 199. There is a stipulation in all Kingdoms Hereditary As in France when the King is crowned the Bishops of Beauvois and Loan ask the people if they desire and command This man shall be King What if they do it is no argument that the people do therefore chuse him to be King for his Kingdom is confessed already to be Hereditary and so the Succession determined by Law much less that they make him such It is an acceptation onely not an election a declaration of their willing Subjection Obedience and Fidelity towards him and nothing else as you may be well informed out of Francis Rosselets Ceremonies at the Consecration or Inauguration of the Kings of France Was there ever an Assembly of Estates held to consecrate or elect a King of France or do the Kings of France count the time of their Reign from their Inauguration onely and not from their entrance was not Charls the Seventh full Eight years King of France before he was crowned as the French Historians themselves report Gaguin Giles or think you that the Peers are Ephori No they are Pares inter se but not Companions to the King They are not States as in Holland to rule and direct all Affairs For in France and England all the Authority depends upon the Kings and what is the State but the Authority of the Prince Who onely by his Letters Patents createth Peers disposeth all Offices giveth all Honors receiveth all Homages in cheif as being the sole Fountain from whence springeth both Nobility and Authority And he that would either restrain this Sovereignty within any narrower bounds or communicate it to others makes no difference between the Crown of a King and the Berrette of a Duke of Venice Many other Maxims and Rules he hath of this nature fit for nothing but to introduce Anarchy and confusion in the World most of them false all of them dangerous Vails onely to cover the ugly faces of Sedition and Treason because in their proper shapes no man living can abide to see them I might here travel and weary you further with as much good stuff out of his Book De Jure Magistratus for his it is as most men think or else Hottomans who was his Comrade But I shall leave them both for indeed they touch the string of Sovereignty with too rough a hand yea rather they strain to break it if they could by such gross and misinterpretable Paradoxes as when they say The States are above the King that is the Body above the Head As if any man could seriously make it a question whether people should be commanded by the Master or by some of their fellow-servants by the Subject or by the Sovereign by the Prince of Conde and the Admiral or by their Lawful King and Sovereign King Charls And therefore had King Philip good reason to cut off the head of that Justice of Arragon upon a just occasion and to teach the people by example what the true meaning was of Nos qui podemos tanto come vos All which Paradoxes it were easie to refel but that I have undertaken onely to discover and not to combate And because they are both learnedly and piously confuted already by Barclay Baurican and Blackwood Onely by the way I shall desire you to observe how politickly they go to work They profess not openly and absolutely any desire to change the State or to depose Kings But this they do They labor by insinuation first
nor the Emperor himself This is his Homily If Governors fall from God and still we must remember what it is to fall from God in his sense ad furcas abripiant away with them God requires it of the people that they fall upon them and Hang them up instantly Most excellent Consistorian Doctrine verily such Spirits and such Preachers deserve the countenance of the State Neither is Buchanan much behinde in such grave and wholesome Counsels Buchan de jure regn apud Scotos p. 61. For first he tels you that the people is above the King and of greater Authority then he If he means this of the people Collectively taken and Legally represented albeit it were true yet is it not any way pertinent to his purpose for never did he nor any of his reforming brethren beyond the Seas act any thing by the Authority of the people in that sense if he means as he must do of the people dispersedly and rising in tumults heer and there of their own heads it is apparently seditious and destructive of all Governments whatsoever After he hath said this and that the people may bestow the Crown at their pleasure notwithstanding that the Law ordereth the descent thereof in a particular and certain succession he falls at last into a Dialogue worth your observing They hold saith he meaning Royallists that Kings must be obeyed good or bad It is blasphemy to affirm that saith Buchanan But God placeth often times evil Kings say the Royallists So doth he oft private men to kill them saies Buchanan But in 1 Tim. we are commanded to pray for Princes say they So are we commanded to pray for Theeves saith he But say the Royallists S. Paul commands obedience to Princes Saint Paul wrote so saith Buchanan in the infancy of the Church if he lived now he would write otherwise It hath been said that nullum magnum ingenium sine aliquâ mixturâ insaniae These great high-soaring wits have commonly some tincture of frenzy following them Buchanan in his time was counted for such a great wit but questionless had he been perfectly sound he could never have let slip such a Hysteron-proteron as this is from his Pen he would never have set the Cart thus before the Horse the people above the King arming them to kill their Princes under any undeclared unjudged pretense of Tyranny For when such a thing is done without justice and publick order what can be more impious and abominable yet Knâ—x not onely justyfieth it but could be content there were publike rewards appointed for such Assassinates Histor of Scotland p. 372. and Murderers of Tyrants as he calls them which there are for such as kill Wolves So far doth the zeal and light of their new Gospel carry them The sword of Gideon is now in their hands and all are Midianites Moabites and Enemies of God that stand in their way But I pray thee good Reader what is Anarchy Sedition Treason if this be order or good government I shall not need to trouble you further with instances of Doctrine The book of Dangerous positions c. gives a general Sentence that such Divinity as this is not holden by Knox and Buchanan alone but generally saith he for ought I can perceive by the chief Consistorians beyond the Seas He means the Presbyterian Divines Calvin Beza and the rest of their Gang whose opinions have been but too much reverenced here in England since the year 1570. and it would be very unhappy that such shops of sedition as their Consistories be should be ever set up or opened here Whittingham in his Preface to Goodmans Book of Obedience testifieth from Genevah that it had been allowed and much commended by the chief Divines of that place Calvin himself Epist 105. to Knox doth applaud his practices and encourage him to proceed Buchanans works pass'd for a long time as currant in Scotland as if they had been Printed Cum privilegio till the King at last found it necessary to prohibite them So we see it was not Goodman alone nor Knox alone but the whole Congregation of Presbyterians that defended such dangerous Paradoxes and not in one Country but generally where they were admitted not lately or newly but originally and from the beginning of their sect Yea their Genevah Bibles pretend to prove it from 2 Chron. 15.16 where they allow the deposing of Queen Maacha by her son King Asa for Idolatry But it is an example which by no violence they can use will be fitted to their purpose For first it was done not by private persons Mark that but by Asa the King Secondly not by the King alone but with the full consent yea Covenant of all the people V. 13. and not contrary but according to the express Law Deut. 13.9 What is this to private persons or the people tumultuously runing together against their Princes and killing them not only without any publike order or authority acknowledged but even contrary to the Laws established and while the Princes themselves are doing nothing but what the Laws established and their Office oblige them to do Such practises as these are not allowed at Doway nor are there any such notes to be found in the Rhemists Testament Leslaeus Hist lib. 10. The Biâ—hop of Ross chargeth them but Knox especially that in his Sermons he bitterly inveighed against â—he Nobility Quod Jesabelem illam â—x medio non sustâ—lerunt c. because â—hey were slow in removing that Jezabel so he calls the Queen Regent of Scotland either from the Goâ—rnment or out of the World For â—t is not certain which he meaneth â—nd the phrase as his Spirit inâ—lines to the worse And therefore because the Nobility as it seems would make no more haste they â—egin the Reformation themselves â—iz He and thirty more of his â—ompany first of all by surprizing â—he Castle of Saint Andrews and â—urdering of the Cardinal Betun This was in the year 1546. The Queen hereupon summoning him â—o appear and answer for such outâ—ages he refused she proclaims â—im Traytor he contemns her Proâ—lamation and having secured â—imself at Saint Johnstons from any danger of apprehension by the Queens Officers who sought him he was so far from relenting or shewing any respect to the Queen Regent that at the same time he perswades the Burgesses of the place viz. Saint Johnstons and of Dundee to suppress the Frieries to pull down Images in the Churches and overthrow the Abbeys of Stone and Saint Andrews Which they did keeping Forces in the Field two moneths together taking the Coyning Irons into their custody and proceeded so uncontroulably and without resistance in their disordrous courses that it even brake the heart of that Noble and Religious Queen Regent to see it After whose death in the year 1560. the Queen being then in France by the instigation and procurement of Knox it was enacted as a Law perpetual and fundamental in the State That Catholike Religion
which tasted of the severity of those Laws were not a little insolent and prone to attempt Yet that she was withal a Princess very merciful is manifest by her compassion shewn to such as deserved not well of her that is To the Dutchess of Somerset to Sir John Cheek who had been the principal corrupter of King Edward her Brothers Infancy to Sir Edward Montague Lord Cheif Justice who had both counselled and subscribed to her disinheriting to Sir Roger Ch lmley to the Marquis of Northampton to the Lord Robert Dudly to Sir Henry Dudly to Sir Henry Gates c. who stood all of them attainted and the Duke of Suffolk All which persons were very obnoxious to Her Justice she knew very well they neither affected Her Religion nor Title They were already her prisoners in the Tower yet she released them all But for all this the Zealots of her time would not be quieted nor suffer her to enjoy any quiet They Libel against the Government of Women they pick quarrels and murmur at her marriage they publish invectives and scurrilous Pamphlets against Religion yea they forbear not to conspire and plot Her Deprivation out of a desire to advance Her Successor to the Crown under whom every Calvinist expected a Golden Age. The austerities and abstinences which Catholike Religion prescribed and which the Queen by Authority of Parliament had but lately reduced and was her self very exemplary in the observation of them were not much pleasing to some Gallants about the Court nor to many others both in City and Country whose affections were better satisfied with the Liberties of the former Age and therefore desired some change of this But among other Instruments of mischeif that Book written by Goodman intituled Of Obedience was a most pernicious Incentive among the commons teaching expresly Ad Nobil Scot. P. 94. That Queen Mary deserved to be put to death as a Tyrant and a Monster And that other of Knox with whom the Zealots of England did correspond too much where he hath among many other of like nature this passage Illud aud actèr affirmaverim c. This I dare boldly say saith he the Nobility Magistrates Judges and whole people of England were bound in Conscience not onely to oppose and withstand the proceedings of that Jesabel Mary whom they call their Queen but even to have put her to death and all her Priests with her After this Sir Thomas Wyat takes up Arms for which Master Fox worthily Chronicles him marches his Army like another Cyrus as some called him over Shâ—oters-Hill threatning both the Court and the City Prince and People And for this Goodman in his Book Of Obedience commends him saith He did but his duty and that it was the duty of all who professed the Gospel to have risen with him This was their doctrin then And though it be said That Goodman recanted his opinion in Queen Elizabeths days it was perhaps onely that part of it which opposed the Government of Women And if he did it absolutely what doth it prove but the inconstancy of such men and how easily they can conform themselves to times that favor them and of what spirit they are under the cross and affliction Wyats pretence was particoloured looking as he would seem both at Religion and bonum Publicum in his opposing the Queens marriage with Spain as both Holinshead and Stow agree They that suppose it to have been meerly upon a civil account are confuted by the Queen her self in her Speech at Guildhal where she tells the City That she had sent divers of her Counsel to Wyat to demand the Reasons of his Insurrections and that they found The business of the marriage was onely a cloak to cover Religion which was the thing principally aimed at For he urged also to have the Tower delivered to him to have power to nominate and chuse new Counsellors declaring plainly That he would not trust but be trusted But Master Fox is plain in the case for he confesseth of all that Rabble which followed Wyat That they conspired among themselves for Religion and made Wyat their cheif The marriage was looked upon by them onely as an accessory thing and a means to strengthen that which they meant to overthrow and eo nomine for that respect onely it was to be hindred Upon this account William Thomas a Gospeller of those times conspireth to kill the Queen and at his death is so far from repenting of such a foul intention That he glorieth to die for the good of his Countrey Yea the Faction grew so tumultuous and bold That Doctor Pendleton was shot at in the very Pulpit Preaching at Pauls and Master Bourn had a Dagger thrown at him in the same place the multitude being so disorderly That the Lord Major himself had much ado to quiet them and the Lords of the Counsel were forced to come thither the next Sunday with a guard to keep things in order and to prevent further combustions which were feared At Westminster upon Easter-day a desperate fellow wounded the Priest as he was at Mass in Saint Margarets Church there After this they found out a Perkin Warbeck and brought him upon the Stage one Wilâ—iam Fetherston counterfeiting King Edward whom the world and some of themselves especially knew well enough to be dead on purpose to amuze the Queen and disturb the State There was one Cleber sometimes a Pedant living at Yakesly in Norfolke put to death for a conspiracy against the Queen Vdal Staunton Peckham and Daniel were committed for the same crime for which and for attempting to rob the Exchequer and her Treasury and also for Heresie they had their desert Not to speak of the Treasons of Dudley and Ashton set on by the French In Devonshire Sir Peter and Sir Gawin Cary great Protestants together with Sir Thomas Denny took arms to impede King Philips arrival in England possessed themselves for some time of Excester Castle but afterward seeing things go contrary to their expectation they made an escape by getting over into France Thomas Stafford coming well instructed from Genevah made Proclamations publickly in several places of the Kingdom that Queen Mary was not lawful Qeen was unworthy to reign and to abuse the people further gave out no less boldly then falsly that already Twelve of the best fortified places in England were committed to the Spaniards Upon which pretense Bradford Proctor Streachly and he surprize the Castle of Scarborough in Yorkshire a Fort of singular strength which they would hold against the Spaniards they should have said against their Queen and Sovereign but they lost it and their heads beside Henry Duke of Suffolk one to whom the Queen had given life before being Father to the Lady Jane and a privy Counsellor in those Treasons of Northumberland fled into Leicestershire with the Lord Gray making Proclamation against the Queens marriage but not being able to raise a Commanding Army as he hoped was compelled
continue such so long as they keep under some few fiery zealots that would still be blowing the coals of dissention among them Not to speak of Sweden Denmark c. doth not that famous Kingdom of Poland Tolerate diversity of Religions doth not the great Emperor of Mosko the same and is not the general Unity of their Subiects which ariseth thereupon and would certainly be otherwise if the Government were otherwise is it not a Wall of Brass to both of them against their great enemy the Turk Let Germany also be our example that vast Nation and people no less Magnanimous and Stout is not Toleration judged expedient among them could any thing else cure their troubles Let us consider how peacably and happily Catholikes and Lutherans have conversed and lived there together for no less then an Hundred years and upwards without any dissention without any trouble upon the account of Religion save onely what Ambition and the factious Spiritedness of some particular Princes have bred and brought upon the Country much against the will of the people under that pretence No man doubteth but Charls the Fifth Emperor and Ferdinand his Brother were in their times great and wise Princes yet found they no better means to redress the troubles of State then by commanding Vt utraque pars caveret c. That special care should be had on both sides to compel no man to make profession of Religion otherwise then in his own Conscience he should be perswaded was best As Dresserus a Protestant relates it rejecting with much disdain the contrary opinion of some who as he saith would have but one Religion onely professed in the Empire And for France the case and condition of affairs there is notorious to all the world Nor could that Kingdom ever be brought to quiet till the Calvinists therein were brought upon their knees that is to such pass as to be glad of and to bâ—gge for that favorable Toleration of their profession from the King which themselves in no parts of the world beside will grant to others What reason can be given by indifferent men why the policy of England should be so singular and so differing from that of all other Christian Kingdoms and Nations about her Why should our Government be more severe in this point and more Sanguinary then that of our Neighbors It may seem to reflect something upon the honor of our Nation to mention the Turk in this case Yet certainly it cannot be denied but that Christians live quietly in his Dominions and upon conditions so easie that I am perswaded the Catholikes of England would be well contented with the like If onely it be determined that we must purchase that with our money which all other our fellow-subjects the people of this Nation do enjoy freely and count it their natural right In a word therefore to conclude seeing that both in the judgement of Protestant Divines and in the practice of Protestant Princes and States Toleration of diverse Religions is held neither unlawful nor unexpedient in Government and seeing that for so long a time of afflictions persecution of our Priests and other manifold pressures upon us for matters of Conscience Catholikes have yet through the grace of God demeaned themselves so loyally and obsequiously in all points as they have not done or attempted to do upon their own account or for the interest and advancment of their own profession any thing offensive to the State or prejudicial to the publike peace seeing that nothing can be fastned upon them in that kinde with any colour of truth but onely the business of the Gun-Powder-Treason and seeing that was a devise though acted by the hands of some desperate and wicked Catholikes yet contrived rather by the Devil and some crafty Enemies which we had in the State to make us eternally odious and suspected in the Nation and to disoblige some great person of his promises in favor of us as it may be justly thought considering what kinde of States-men sate at the Helme in those times what knowing men D' Ossat Lettres liur 2. ep 43. Pryns Antip. of Prelat P. 151. strangers abroad have writ and what Protestants themselves at home have discovered since upon that subject Seeing that Catholikes always wished well to his Majesties Title and prayed for his happy succession to these Kingdoms seeing we were not of Counsel with those who sent Beal into forreign parts to promote the Titie of Suffolk nor that set Hales on work at home as he did with law and little art to make it good nor that procured Sir N. B. to make a nest for the Phaenix by such a great volum as he wrote to that purpose Seeing that we were ever Champions to his Majesties just claim Especially Sir Anthony Brown that wise and noble Author of the Book against Leicester and that Aiax of the Law whom no man ever durst encounter in this cause Master Plâ—ydon We hope so long and so try'd fidelity will by the Kings gracious favor procure us at last some liberty and refreshment and that our humble supplication shall be considered wherein casting our selves down at the feet of our Sovereign and of the State we beg onely of them in those words of the Poet. Hanc animam concede mihi Tua caetera sunto Let our souls be left free unto God and as for our Bodies or Estates take them dispose of them freely as Justice requireth and in due proportion with our Neighbors and other the good people of the Nation for the service of the Kingdom and of the publike AN APPENDIX Concerning LUTHERS Mission I Was now going out of the field but behold an Ambush appears which is laid to surprize me it pretends at one charge to rout all the forces of my arguments and to bereave me of my hopes of Victory by eluding rather then disproving of what I have said It is a reply which some men are pleased to make in behalf of Luther whose heat and irregular vehemency which I call sedition was nothing but zeal say they of Gods honor and truth which burning within his own breast happened to kindle some lively sparks also in others They say that Luther was Elias a Prophet sent immediately and extraordinarily by God to reform the errors and corruptions of the world to restore vertue and good life to detect Antichrist who had for so many ages bewitched the whole Church with his impostures and seduced her into Idolatrie and Heresie And that therefore such a Prophet was not to be tedder'd as it were and bound up to the rules of ordinary professors But if he neglected Authority despised the Laws abused and insulted upon the Majestie of Princes disturbed the peace and tranquility of their States we are not to wonder nor lay it to his charge It was no more then a Prophet might do Tune es qui conturbas Israel did not Ahab say to Elias Art not thou he which troublest Israel The
apparently seen at this day may it please the Divine Goodness to give us grace to lay them to heart as is meet 'T is true in their opinion and as they have confidence to say Filia devoravit Matrem The Daughter that is the Protestant Congregations have over-reached the Mother-Church in perfection of wisedome and hath been able to reform Her in some parts yet certainly they ought not to pretend Her to be so foulely apostatized as that Antichrist should govern there Institut lib. 4. c. 2. Sec. 11. where Calvin himself confesseth even in the deepest of her supposed Errours there hath ever remained inviolabile Foedus Dei The Covenant of God inviolate Beside the Apostacy of that great Antichrist must be a publike thing notorious and visible to all men not secret nor creeping on by degrees and unperceived till after some long tract of time He is Stella cadens de Calo and drawing a third part of the Stars with him so strangely as it shall astonish and amaze the world to observe it Whereas to suppose the worst that can be The departure of the Roman Church from the purity of Christian Faith and that Apostacie which should make her become of the Church of Christ the Synagogue of Antichrist was so obscure so invisible such a long time of drawing on that as the greater and better part of Christendom doe not perceive it unto this day so of them which pretend they doe there is scarce any one couple among them can agree upon the time of his Appearance Many Ages ago sayes Calvin but when he dares not speak Napier a Scot and a great Traveller in this pretended search of Antichrist is of opinion that he hath reigned ever since the time of Pope Sylvester and the year 313. and so very wisely makes all the Christian Emperors Kings Queens c. that succeeded Constantine yea and Constantine himself who dyed not till the year 340. in stead of being Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers of the Church and Defenders of the Faith of Christ as by the Prophesies of Scripture concerning them they were to be Psal 72.11 Isa 49.23 to have been the supporters of Antichrist and advancers of his Superstitions Beza assigneth Pope Leo and the year 440. Doctor Fulk Willet and Dounham seem to name Boniface and the year 607. Bullinger and some other with him are content to stay longer and expect some hundred of years more viz. untill the time of Hildebrand that is Pope Gregory the seventh the year 763. yet Doctor Whitaker sayes Pope Gregory the first was the last true Bishop of Rome and all that followed after him Antichrists Perkins thinketh Antichrist appeared about 900 years since Hospinian 1200. Danaeus about the year 574. It were infinite to relate their jarring and contradicting of one another in divers other very material circumstances touching this question as whosoever please to see may finde in such Catholike Writers as have handled this controversie but especially in cardinal Bellarmin Now seeing Lutheâ—s pretended Calling proves so unjustifiable and hard to be made good we must of necessity take some liberty to look further into the business and to examine what his True Calling was and who it was indeed that set him on work to play such odd pranks in the Church of God Of this there goeth a black Story which divers men labour to palliate and disguise as well as they can divers wayes but Luther himself telleth the plain truth viz that it was the Devil that first set him on work to write against the Mass which all men know is the Principal and most Divine Office of Christian Religion and whereunto whatsoever else is done in Religion in one way or other relateth In his Book de â—brogandâ Missâ thus he writeth Contigit me sub mediam noctem subito expergefieri ibi Satan mecum cepit hujusmodi disputationem At midnight such a time saith Luther I happened to be suddenly awaked out of sleep and presently the Devil fell a disputing with me and so he proceeds in his Narrative wherein all all those Arguments are formally producâ—d and urged by the Devil upon which Luther afterward resolved to abrogate Mass as any man may see in the Book it self above cited which is commonly extant with the rest of his Works This with Doctor Fulk Charke and some others is onely a spiritual combat in minde which they suppose Luther might have with the Devil as many other good men have had in spirit but not any real or personal conflict But we reply whether those reasons came from the Devil by bodily and outward conference or onely by way of inward suggestion it is not so material that they came from the Dâ—vil in the opinion and apprehension even of Luther himself is confessed But Secondly Luther in that Narrative describeth the very voice and accent of the Devil in the disputation which he saith was a great yet a base and hollow voice and which so affrighted him that he sweat again although as himself confesseth against the Swenkfeldians upon other occasions such encounters were not unusual with him but rather familiar Thirdly the Devil knowing his humour flatters him with Titles and calls Doctor very learned Doctor up and down the disputation Fourthly Luther affirming elsewhere that Empser and Oecâ—lampadius two Preachers of Reformation but not of his strain were strangled by the Devil confesseth here that this encounter was like theirs though he had the good hap to come off alive perhaps because he yeelded as neither Job Saint Paul nor ever any good man ever did See Hospinian also a Calvinist in his Historia Sacramentaria Fifthly Jo. Manliuâ— a great Lutheran Preacher and Luther himself Epist ad Patâ—em Tâ—n 2. Witteb fol. 269. confesseth that he was frequently haunted by Spirits and that Satan used personally to affright and molest him he maintaines that Zuingliys â—arolstadius c. had their several Expositions of the words Hoc est corpus meum from the instruction of the Devil why may it not then be as probable that they had all one Master Sixthly Baldwinus another Lutheran writes a Book purposedly upon this Subject and confesseth in plain termes That it was a real Truth no fiction or dream but a matter of fact and a true Story His onely excuse of it is this It happened saith he after Luther had abandoned the Mass and thinkes the Devils intent was onely to bring to Luthers remembrance his old errours that he had been a Priest and said Mass fifteen years together and so to drive him to despair But truly if that were all the design The Devil was but an Ass To attempt such a tried souldier as he was armed cap a pe with a confidence invincible and the Doctrin of only Faith with such a blunt and feeble weapon as despair Luther was a man out of his reach for that He that teacheth nothing can hurt a Christian but onely unbelief Supr Sec. 2. med That