nay to rage and spewe forth blasphemies against the late Queene of famous memorie A Subiect to raile against his naturall Soueraigne by birth A man to rayle against a Lady by sexe A holy man in outward profession to insult vpon the dead nay to take Radamanthus office ouer his head and to sit downe and play the Iudge in hell And all his quarrell is that either her Successour or any of her Seruants should speake honourably of her Cursed be he that curseth the Anointed of God and destroyed mought he be with the destruction of Korah that hath sinned in the contradiction of Korah Without mought such dogs and swine be cast forth I say out of the spirituall Ierusalem As for my Latine Answerer I haue nothing to say to his person he is not my Subiect he standeth or falleth vnto his owne Lord But sure I am they two haue casten lots vpon my Booke since they could not diuide it the one of them my fugitiue to rayle vpon my late Predecessor but a rope is the fittest answere for such an Historian the other a stranger thinketh he may be boldest both to pay my person and my booke as indeed hee doth which how iustly either in matter or maner we are now to examine But first who should be the true Authour of this booke I can but guesse He calleth himselfe Matthaeus Tortus Cardinal Bellarmins Chaplain A throwen Euangelist indeed full of throward Diuinitie an obscure Authour vtterly vnknowen to me being yet little knowen to the world for any other of his works and therefore must be a very desperate fellow in beginning his apprentisage not only to refute but to raile vppon a King But who will consider the cariage of the whole booke shall find that hee writeth with such authoritie or at the least tam elato stylo so little sparing either Kings in generall or my person in particular and with such a greatnesse Habemus enim exemplaria Breuium illorum in manibus and Decernimus as it shall appeare or at least be very probable that it is the Masters and not the mans labour especially in one place where he quarrelleth mee for casting vp his moralis certitudo and piè credi vnto him hee there grossely forgetting himselfe saith malâ fide nobiscum agit thereby making this Authour to be one person with Bellarmine But let it bee the worke of a Tortus indeed and not of a personated Cardinall yet must it be the Cardinals deede since Master Tortus is the Cardinals man and doeth it in his masters defence The errand then being the Cardinals and done by his owne man it cannot but be accounted as his owne deed especially since the English Answerer doeth foure times promise that Bellarmine or one by his appointment shall sufficiently answere it And now to come to his matter and manner of Answere Surely if there were no more but his vnmannerly manner it is enough to disgrace the whole matter thereof For first to shew his pride in his Printers preface of the Poâ—itan edition of this elegans libellus he must equall the Cardinals greatnesse with mine in euery thing For though he confesseth this Master Tortus to bee an obscure man yet being the Cardinals Chaplaine he is sufficient enough forsooth to answere an English booke that lacketh the name of an Authour as if a personated obscure name for Auhour of a Cardinals booke were a meet match for answering a Kings booke that lacketh the name of an Authour and a Cardinals Chaplaine to meete with the Deane of the Kings Chappell whome Parsons with the Cardinall haue as it seemeth agreed vpon to intitle to bee the Authour of my Apologie And not onely in the Preface but also through the whole Booke doeth he keepe this comparatiue greatnesse He must bee as short in his answere as I am in my booke he must refute all that I haue said against the Popes second Breue with equall breuity and vpon one page almost as I haue done mine and because I haue set downe the substance of the Oath in 14. Articles in iust as many Articles must he set downe that Acte of Parliament of mine wherein the Oath is contained And yet had hee contented himselfe with his owne pride by the demonstration of his owne greatnesse without further wronging of me it had bene the more tolâ—rable But what cause gaue I him to farce his whole booke with iniuries both against my person and booke For whereas in all my Apologie I haue neuer giuen him a foule word and especially neuer gaue him the Lye he by the contrary giueth me nine times the Lye in expresse termes and seuen times chargeth mee with a falshood which phrase is equiualent with a Lye And as for all other words of reproch as nugae conuitia temeritas vanitas impudentia blasphemiae sermonis barbaries cum eadem foelicitate scribendi cauillationes applicatio inepta fingere historias audacia que in hominem sanae mentis cadere non potest vel sensu coÌ„muni caret imperitia leuitas omnem omnino pudorem conscientiam exuisse malâ fide nobiscum agit vt lectoribus per fas nefas imponat of such like reproches I say I doubt if there be a page in all his booke free except where he idlely sets down the Popes Breues and his owne Letter And in case this might onely seeme to touch the vnknowen Authour of the booke whom notwithstanding he knew well enough as I shew before he spareth not my Person with my owne name sometimes saying that Pope Clement thought me to be inclined to their Religion sometimes that I was a Puritane in Scotland and a persecutor of Protestants In one place he concludeth Quia Iacobus non est Catholicus hoc ipso Haereticus est In another place Ex Christiano Caluinistam fecerunt In another place hee saith Neque omnino verum est Iacobum nunquam deseruisse Religionem quam primò susceperat And in another place after that hee hath compared and ranked me with Iulian the Apostate he concludeth Cum Catholicus non sit neque Christianus est If this now be mannerly dealing with a King I leaue it to you to iudge who cannot but resent such indignities done to one of your quality And as for the matter of his booke it well fits indeed the manner thereof for he neuer answereth directly to the maine question in my booke For whereas my Apologie handleth onely two points as I told you before One to proue that the Oath of Allegiance doeth onely meddle with the ciuil and temporal obedience due by Subiects to their naturall Soueraignes The other that this late vsurpation of Popes ouer the temporall power of Princes is against the rule of all Scriptures ancient Councels and Fathers hee neuer improoues the first but by a false inference that the Oath denieth the Popes power of excommunication directly since it denyeth his authoritie in
An Apologie for the Oath of ALLEGIANCE FIRST SET FOORTH WITHOVT a name And now acknowledged by the Authour the Right High and Mightie Prince IAMES by the Grace of GOD King of Great Britaine France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Together with a PREMONITION of his Maiesties to all most Mightie Monarches Kings free Princes and States of Christendome PSAL. 2. Vers 10. Et nunc Reges intelligite Erudimini qui iudicatis terram ROM 14. Vers 13. Non ergo ampliùs inuicem indicemus Sed hoc iudicate magis ne penatâ—s offendiculum fratri vel scandalum ¶ Imprinted at London by Robert Barker Printer to the Kings most Excellent Maiestie April 8. ANNO 1609. Cum priuilegio Regali TO THE MOST SACRED AND Inuincible Prince RODOLPH the II. by GODS Clemencie Elect EMPEROVR of the ROMANES KING OF GERMANIE HVNGARIE BOHEME DALMATIE CROATIE SCLAVONIE c. ARCH-DVKE OF AVSTRIA DVKE OF BVRGVNDIE STIRIA CARINTHIA CARNIOLA and WIRTEMBERG c. Earle of TYROLIS c. AND TO ALL OTHER RIGHT HIGH AND MIGHTY KINGS AND RIGHT EXCELLENT Free PRINCES and STATES of Christendome Our louing BRETHREN COVSINS ALLIES CONFEDERATES and FRIENDS IAMES by the grace of GOD King of GREAT BRITAINE FRANCE and IRELAND Professor Maintainer and DEFENDER OF THE True Christian Catholique and Apostolique FAITH Professed by the auncient and Primitiue Church and sealed with the blood of so many holy Bishops and other faithfull crowned with the glory of Martyrdome WISHETH euerlasting felicitie in CHRIST our Sauiour TO YOV MOST SACRED AND INVINCIBLE EMPEROVR RIGHT HIGH AND MIGHTIE KINGS RIGHT EXCELLENT FREE PRINCES AND STATES MY LOVING BRETHREN AND COVSINS To you I say as of right belongeth doe I consecrate and direct this Warning of mine or rather Preamble to my reprinted Apologie for the Oath of Allegiance For the cause is generall and concerneth the Authoritie and Priuiledge of Kings in generall and all supereminent Temporall powers And if in whatsoeuer Societie or Corporation of men either in Corporations of Cities or in the Corporation of any mechanike craft or handie-worke euery man is carefull to maintain the priuiledges of that Societie whereunto hee is sworne nay they will rather cluster all in one making it a common cause exposing themselues to all sorts of perill then suffer the least breach in their Liberties If those of the baser sort of people I say be so curious and zealous for the preseruation of their common priuiledges and liberties as if the meanest amongst them bee touched in any such poynt they thinke it concerneth them all Then what should we doe in such a case whom GOD hath placed in the highest thrones vpon earth made his Lieutenants Vice-gerents and euen seated vs vpon his owne throne to execute his Iudgements The consideration heereof hath now moued me to expone a Case vnto you which doeth not so neerely touch mee in my particular as it doeth open a breach against our authoritie I speake in the plurall of all Kings and priuiledge in generall And since not onely all rankes and sorts of people in all Nations doe inuiolably obserue this Maxime but euen the Ciuill Law by which the greatest part of Christendome is gouerned doeth giue them an interest qui fouent consimilem causam How much more then haue ye interest in this cause not being similis or par causa to yours but eadem with yours and indeed yee all fouetis or at least fouere debetis eandem causam mecum And since this cause is common to vs all both the ciuill Lawes and the municipall Lawes of all Nations permits and warne them that haue a common interest to concurre in one for the defence of their common cause yea common sence teacheth vs with the Poet Ecquid Ad te pòst paulò ventura pericula sentis Nam tua res agitur paries cùm proximus ardet Awake then while it is time and suffer not by your longer sleepe the strings of your Authoritie to be cut in singulis and one and one to your generall ruine which by your vnited forces would rather make a strong rope for the enemie to hang himselfe in with Achitophel then that hee should euer be able to breake it As for this Apologie of mine it is true that I thought good to set it first out without putting my name vnto it but neuer so as I thought to deny it remembring well mine owne words but taken out of the Scripture in the beginning of the Preface to the Reader in my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that nothing is so hid which shall not bee opened c promising there which with GOD his grace I shall euer performe neuer to doe that in secret which I shall need to be ashamed of when it shall come to be proclaimed in publique In deed I thought it fit for two respects that this my Apologie should first visite the world without hauing my name written in the forehead thereof First because of the matter and next of the persons that I medled with The matter it being a Treatise which I was to write containing reasons discourses in Diuinity for the defence of the Oath of Allegiance and refutation of the condemners therof I thought it not comely for one of my place to put my name to books concerning scholastick Disputations whose calling is to set forth Decrees in the Imparatiue moode for I thinke my selfe as good a man as the Pope by his reuerence for whom these my Answerers make the like excuse for that his Breues are so summary without yeelding any reason vnto them My next reason was the respect of the persons whom with I meddled Wherein although I shortly answered the Popes Breues yet the point I most laboured being the refutation of Bellarmines Letter I was neuer the man I confesse that could thinke a Cardinall a meet match for a King especially hauing many hundreth thousands of my subiects of as good birth as he As for his Church dignitie his Cardinalship I meane I know not how to ranke or value it either by the warrant of God his word or by the ordinance of Emperours or Kings it being indeed onely a new Papall erection tolerated by the sleeping conniuence of our Predecessors I meane still by the plurall of Kings But notwithstanding of this my forbearing to put my name vnto it some Embassadours of some of you my louing Brethren and Cosins whome this cause did neereliest concerne can witnesse that I made Presents of some of those bookes at their first printing vnto them and that auowedly in my owne name As also the English Paragraphist or rather peruerse Pamphleter Parsons since all his desciption must runne vpon a P. hath truely obserued that my Armes are affixed in the frontispice thereof which vseth not to bee in bookes of other mens doing whereby his malice in pretending his ignorance that he might pay me the soundlier is the more inexcusable But now that I find my sparing to put my name vnto it
hath not procured my sparing by these answerers who haue neither spared my Person directly in naming me nor indirectly by railing vpon the Author of the Booke it is now high time for me no longer to conceale nor disauow my selfe as if I were ashamed of my owne deed And therefore that yee may the better vnderstand the nature of the cause I will begin at the first ground thereof The neuer ynough wondered at and abhorred POVVDER-TREASON though the repetition thereof grieueth I know the gentle hearted Iesuite Parsons this Treason I say being not onely intended against me and my Posteritie but euen against the whole house of Parliament plotted only by Papists and they onely led thereto by a preposterous zeal for the aduancement of their Religion some of them continuing so obstinate that euen at their death they would not acknowledge their fault but in their last words immediatly before the expiring of their breath refused to condemne themselues craue pardon for their deed except the Romish Church should first condemne it And soone after it being discouered that a great number of my Popish Subiects of all rankes and sexes both men and women as well within as without the Countrey had a confused notion and an obscure knowledge that some great thing was to be done in that Parliament for the weale of the Church although for secrecies cause they were not acquainted with the particulars certaine formes of prayer hauing likewise bin set down and vsed for the good successe of that great errand adding hereunto that diuers times and from diuers Priests the Arch-traitors themselues receiued the Sacrament for confirmation of their heart and obseruation of secrecie Some of the principall Iesuits likewise being found guiltie of the foreknowledge of the Treason it selfe of which number some fled from their triall others were apprehended as holy Gamet himselfe and Ouldcorne were and iustly executed vpon their owne plaine confession of their guilt If this Treason now clad with these circumstances did not minister a iust occasion to that Parliament house whom they thought to haue destroyed couragiously and zealously at their next sitting downe to vse all meanes of trial whether any more of that mind were yet left in the Countrey I leaue it to you to iudge whom God hath appoynted his highest Depute-Iudges vpon earth And amongst other things for this purpose This Oath of Allegiance so vniustly impugned was then deuised and enacted And in case any sharper Lawes were then made against the Papists that were not obedient to the former Lawes of the Countrey if ye will consider the time place and persons it will bee thought no wonder seeing that occasion did so iustly exasperate them to make seuerer Lawes then otherwise they would haue done The time I say being the very next sitting downe of the Parliament after the discouerie of that abominable Treason the place beeing the same where they should all haue bene blowen vp and so bringing it freshly to their memorie againe the persons being those very Parliament men whom they thought to haue destroyed And yet so far hath both my heart and gouernment beene from any bitternes as almost neuer one of those sharpe additions to the former Lawes haue euer yet beene put in execution And that ye may yet know further for the more conuincing these Libellers of wilfull malice who impudently affirme That this Oath of Allegiance was deuised for deceiuing and intrapping of Papists in points of conscience The truth is that the Lower house of Parliament at the first framing of this Oath made it to containe That the Pope had no power to excommunicate me which I caused them to reforme onely making it to conclude That no excommunication of the Popes can warrant my Subiects to practise against my Person or State denying the deposition of Kings to be in the Popes lawfull power as indeed I take any such temporall violence to bee farre without the limits of such a Spirituall censure as excommunication is So carefull was I that nothing should be contained in this Oath except the profession of natural Allegiance ciuill and temporall obedience with a promâ—se to resist to all contrary vnciuill violence This Oath now grounded vpon so great and iust an occasion set forth in so reasonable termes and ordeined onely for making of a true distinction betweene Papists of quiet disposition and in all other things good Subiects and such other Papists as in their hearts maintained the like violent bloody Maximes that the Powder-traitors did This Oath I say being published and put in practise bred such euill blood in the Popes head and his Cleargie as Breue after Breue commeth forth vt vndam vnda sequitur prohibiting all Catholiques from taking the same as a thing cleane contrary to the Catholicke faith and that the taking thereof cannot stand with the saluation of their soules There commeth likewise a letter of Cardinall Bellarmines to Blackwell to the same purpose but discoursing more at length vpon the sayd Oath Whereupon after I had entred in consideration of their vniust impugning that so iust and lawfull an Oath and fearing that by their vntrue calumnies and Sophistrie the hearts of a number of the most simple and ignorant of my people should be mis-led vnder that faire and deceitfull cloake of conscience I thought good to set foorth an Apologie for the said Oath wherin I proued that as this Oath contained nothing but matter of ciuill and temporall Obedience due by Subiects to their Soueraigne Prince so this quarrelling therewith was nothing but a late vsurpation of Popes against the warrant of all Scriptures ancient Counsels and Fathers vpon the temporall power of Kings where with onely my Apologie doth meddle But the publishing of this Booke of mine hath brought such two Answerers or rather Raylers vpon me as all the world may wonder at For my Booke beeing first written in English an English Oath beeing the subiect thereof and the vse of it properly belonging to my subiects of England and immediatly thereafter being translated into Latine vpon a desire that some had of further publishing it abroad it commeth home vnto me now answered in both the Languages And I thinke if it had beene set forth in all the tongues that were at the confusion of Babel it would haue beene returned answered in them all againe Thus may a man see how busie a Bishop the Deuill is and how he omitteth no diligence for venting of his poisoned wares But herein their malice doth cleerely appeare that they pay me so quickly with a double answere and yet haue neuer answered their owne Arch-priest who hath written a booke for the maintenaÌ„ce of the same Oath and of the temporall authoritie of Kings alledging a cloud of their owne Scoolemen against them As for the English Answerer my vnnaturall and fugitiue Subiect I will neither defile my pen nor your sacred eies or eares with the describing of him who ashames nay abhorres not to rayle
deposing of Kings And for the second point he bringeth no proofe to the contrary but Pasce oues meas and Tibi dabo claues regni coelorum and That no Catholike euer doubted of it So as I may truely say of him that he either vnderstandeth not or at least will not seeme to vnderstand my Booke in neuer directly answering the maine question as I haue already sayd and so may I iustly turne ouer vpon himselfe that doome of ignorance which in the beginning of his Booke he rashly pronounceth vpon me saying that I neither vnderstand the Popes Breues his Letter nor the Oath it selfe And as hee delighteth to repeat ouer and ouer I know not how oft and triumpheth in this wrong inference of his That to deny the Popes power to depose Kings 〈◊〉 â—o deny the Popes Primacie and his spirituall power of Excommunication So doeth he vpon that ground of Pasce oues meas giue the Pope so ample a power ouer Kings to throne or dethrone them at his pleasure and yet onely subiecting Christian Kings to that slauerie as I doubt not but in your owne Honours yee will resent you of such indignities the rather since it concernes so many of you as professe the Romish religion farre more then me For since hee accounteth me an heretike like Iulian the Apostate I am consequently extra caulam and none of the Popes flocke and so am in the case of Ethnicke Princes ouer whom he confesseth the Pope hath no power But yee are in the Popes folde and you that great Pastour may leade as sheepe to the slaughter when it shall please him And as the asses eares must be hornes if the Lion list so to interpret it so must ye be remoued as scabbed sheepe from the flocke if so be the Pope thinke you to be though your skinne be indeed neuer so sound Thus hath hee set such a new goodly interpretation vpon the words of CHRIST Pasce oues meas as if it were as much to say as depose Christian Kings and that Quodcunque solueris gaue the Pope power to dispense with all sorts of Othes Vowes Penalties Censurers Lawes euen with the naturall obedience of Subiects to their Souereigne Lords much like to that new coined glosse that his brother Baronius made vpon the words in S. Peters vision Surge Petre occide manduca That is said hee to the Pope Goe kill and confound the Venetians And because I haue in my Booke by citing a place in his controuersies discouered him to be a small friend to Kings hee is much commoued For whereas in his said Controuersies speaking de Clericis hee is so bold as to affirme that Church-men are exempted from the power of earthly Kings and that they ought them no subiection euen in temporall matters but onely virationis and in their owne discretion for the preseruation of peace and good order because I say citing this place of his in my Booke I tell with admiration that he freeth all Church-men from any subiection to Kings euen those that are their borne-Subiects hee is angry with this phrase and sayth it is an addition for breeding enuie vnto him and raising of hatred against him For saith hee although Bellarmine affirmed generally that Church-men were not subiect to earthly Kings yet did he not insert that particular clause though they were borne and dwelling in their dominions as if the words of Church-men and earthly Kings in generall imported not as much for Layicks as well as Church-men are subiect to none but to their naturall Soueraigne And yet doeth he not sticke to confesse that he meant it though it was not fit he saith to be expressed And thus quarrels hee me for reuealing his Printed secret But whose hatred did he feare in this was it not yours Who haue interest but KINGS in the withdrawing of true Subiection from Kings And when the greatest Monarchs amongst you will remember that almost the third part of your Subiects and of your Territories is Church-men and Church-liuings I hope yee will then consider and weigh what a feather hee puls out of your wings when he denudeth you of so many Subiects and their possessions in the Popes fauour nay what bryers and thornes are left within the heart of your Dominions when so populous and potent a partie shall haue their birth education and liuelyhood in your Countries and yet owe you no Subiection nor acknowledge you for their SOVERAIGNES So as where the Church-men of old were content with their tythe of euery mans goods the Pope now will haue little lesse then the third part of euery Kings Subiects and Dominions And as in this place so throughout all the rest of his booke hee doeth nothing but amplifie the Popes power ouer Kings and exaggerate my vnreasonable rigour for pressing this Oath which he will needes haue to bee nothing but a renewed Oath of Supremacie in more subtill and craftie termes onely to robbe the Pope of his Primacie and spirituall power making his temporall power and authoritie ouer Princes to bee one of the chiefe ARTICLES of the Catholike faith But that it may the better appeare vnto you that all my labour and intention in this errand was onely to meddle with that due temporall Obedience which my Subiects owe vnto mee and not to entrap nor inthrall their Consciences as he most falsly affirmes Ye shall first see how farre other Godly and Christian Emperours and Kings were from acknowledging the Popes temporall Supremacie ouer them nay haue created controlled and deposed Popes and next what a number of my Predecessors in this Kingdome haue at al occasions euen in the times of the greatest Greatnesse of Popes resisted and plainely withstood them in this part And first all Christian Emperours were for a long time so farre from acknowledging the Popes Superioritie ouer them as by the contrary the Popes acknowledged themselves for their Vassals reuerencing and obeying the Emperours as their Lords for proofe whereof I remit you to my Apologie And for the creating of Popes the Emperours were in so long and continuall possession thereof as I will vse for my first witnesse a Pope himselfe who in a Synod of an hundreth fifty and three Bishops and Abbots did ordaine That the Emperour CHARLES the Great should haue the Right of choosing the Pope and ordaining the Apostolicall Seate and the dignitie of the Romane Principalitie nay farther hee ordained That all Archbishops and Bishops should receiue their Inuestiture from the Emperour or els be of no auaile And that a Bishop wanting it should not bee consecrate pronouncing an Anathema against all that should disobey this Sentence And that the Emperours assent to the Popes Election was a thing ordinary for a long time Platina and a number of the Popes owne writers beare witnesse And Bellarmine himselfe in his booke of Controuersies cannot get it handsomely denied Nay the Popes were euen forced then to pay a certaine summe of money
to the Emperours for their Confirmation And this lasted almost seuen hundreth yeeres after CHRIST witnesse Sigebert and Luitprandus with other Popish Historians And for Emperours deposing of Popes there are likewise diuers examples The Emperour Ottho deposed Pope Iohn the twelfth of that name for diuers crimes and vices especially of lecherie The Emperour Henry the third in a short time deposed three Popes Benedict the ninth Siluester the third and Gregory the sixt as well for the sinne of Auarice as for abusing their extraordinarie authoritie against Kings and Princes And as for Kings that haue denied this temporall Superioritie of Popes First we haue the vnanime testimonie of diuers famous Historiographers for the generall of many Christian Kingdomes As Walthram testifieth That the Bishops of Spaine Scotland England Hungary from ancient institution till this moderne noueltie had their Inuestiture by Kings with peaceable inioying of their temporalities wholly and entirely and whosoeuer saith hee is peaceably solicitous let him peruse the liues of the Ancients and read the Histories and hee shall vnderstand thus much And for verification of this generall assertion we will first begin at the practise of the Kings of France though not named by Walthram in this his enumeration of Kingdomes amongst whom my first witnesse shall be that vulgarly knowen Letter of Philip le Bel King of France to Pope Boniface the viij the beginning whereof after a scornefull salutation is Sciat tua maxima fatuitas nos in temporalibus nemini subesse And likewise after that Lewes the ninth surnamed Sanctus had by a publike instrument called Pragmatica Sanctio forbidden all the exactions of the Popes Court within his Realme Pope Pius the ij in the beginning of Lewes the eleuenth his time greatly misliking this Decree so long before made sent his Legate to the said King Lewes with Letters patents vrging his promise which he had made when he was Dolphin of France to repeale that Sanction if euer hee came to bee King The King referreth the Legate ouer with his Letters-patents to the Councel of Paris where the matter being propounded was impugned by Ioan. Romanus the Kings Atturney with whose opinion the Vniuersitie of Paris concurring an Appeale was made from the attempts of the Pope to the next generall Councell the Cardinall departing with indignation But that the Kings of France and Church therof haue euer stoken to their Gallican immunitie in denying the Pope any temporall power ouer them and in resisting the Popes as oft as euer they prest to meddle with their temporall power euen in the donation of Benefices the Histories are so full of them as the onely examples thereof would make vp a bigge Volume by it selfe And so farre were the Sorbonists for the Kings and French Churches priuiledge in this point as they were wont to maintain That if the Pope fell a quarrelling the King for that cause the Gallican Church might elect a Patriarch of their owne renouncing any obedience to the Pope And Gerson was so farre from giuing the Pope that temporall authoritie ouer Kings who otherwise was a deuoute Roman Catholike as hee wrote a Booke de Auferibilitate Papae not onely from the power ouer Kings but euen ouer the Church And now permitting all further examples of forraigne Kings actions I will onely content mee at this time with some of my owne Predecessors examples of this Kingdom of England that it may thereby the more clearly appeare that euen in those times when the worlde was fullest of darkened blindnesse and ignorance the Kings of England haue oftentimes not only repined but euen strongly resisted and withstoode this temporall vsurpation and encroachment of ambitious Popes And I will first begin at King Henry the first of that name after the Conquest who after he was crowned gaue the Bishopricke of Winchester to William Gifford and forthwith inuested him into all the possessions belonging to the Bishopricke contrarie to the Canons of the new Synod King Henrie also gaue the Archbishopricke of Canterburie to Radulph Bishop of London and gaue him inuestiture by a Ring and a Crosiers staffe Also Pope Calixtus held a Councell at Rhemes whither King Henry had appointed certaine Bishops of England and Normandie to goe Thurstan also elected Archbishop of Yorke got leaue of the King to goe thither giuing his faith that hee would not receiue Consecration of the Pope And comming to the Synode by his liberal gifts as the fashion is wanne the Romanes fauour and by their meanes obtained to bee Consecrate at the Popes hand Which as soone as the King of England knewe hee forbad him to come within his Dominions Moreouer King Edward the first prohibited the Abbot of Waltham and Dean of Pauls to collect a tenth of euery mans goods for a supply to the holy Land which the Pope by three Bulles had committed to their charge and the said Deane of Pauls compering before the King and his Councell promised for the reuerence he did beare vnto the King not to meddle any more in that matter without the Kings good leaue and permission Here I hope a Church-man disobeyed the Pope from obedience to his Prince euen in Church matters but this new Iesuited Diuinitie was not then knowen in the world The same Edward I. impleaded the Deane of the Chappell of Vuluerhampton because the said Deane had against the priuiledges of the Kingdome giuen a Prebend of the same Chappell to one at the Popes command whereupon the said Deane compeered and put himselfe in the Kings will for his offence The said Edward I. depriued also the Bishop of Durham of all his liberties for disobeying a prohibition of the Kings So as it appeareth the Kings in those dayes thought the Church men their SVBIECTS though now wee be taught other Seraphicall doctrine For further proofe whereof Iohn of Ibstocke was committed to the goale by the saide King for hauing a suite in the Court of Rome seauen yeares for the Rectorie of Newchurch And Edward II. following the footsteps of his Father after giuing out a Summons against the Abbot of Walden for citing the Abbot of S. Albons and others in the Court of Rome gaue out letters for his apprehension And likewise because a certaine Prebend of Banbury had drawen one Beuercoat by a Plea to Rome without the Kings Dominions therefore were Letters of Caption sent foorth against the said Prebend And Edward III. following likewise the example of his Predecessors Because a Parson of Liche had summoned the Prior of S. Oswalds before the Pope at Auinion for hauing before the Iudges in England recouered the arrerage of a pension directed a Precept for seasing vpon all the goods both spirituall and Temporall of the said Parson because hee had done this in preiudice of the King and Crowne The saide King also made one Harwoden to bee declared culpable and worthy to bee punished for procuring the Popes Bulles
against a Iudgment that was giuen by the Kings Iudges And likewise Because one entred vpon the Priory of Barnewell by the Popes Bull the said Intrant was committed to the Tower of London there to remaine during the Kings pleasure So as my Predecessours ye see of this Kingdome euen when the Popes triumphed in their greatnes spared not to punish any of their Subiects that would preferre the Popes obedience to theirs euen in Church matters So farre were they then from either acknowledging the Pope for their temporal Superior or yet from doubting that their owne Church-men were not their Subiects And now I will close vp all these examples with an Act of Parliament in King Richard 2. his time whereby it was prohibited That none should procure a Benefice from Rome vnder paine to be put out of the Kings protection And thus may yee see that what those Kings successiuely one to another by foure generations haue acted in priuate the same was also maintained by a publike Law By these few examples now I hope I haue sufficiently cleared my selfe from the imputation that any ambition or desire of Noueltie in mee should haue stirred me either to robbe the Pope of any thing due vnto him or to assume vnto my selfe any further authoritie then that which other Christian Emperours and Kings through the world and my owne Predecessours of England in especiall haue long agone maintained Neither is it enough to say as Parsons doeth in his answere to the Lord Cooke That farre more Kings of this Countrey haue giuen many more examples of acknowledging or not resisting the Popes vsurped Authoritie some perchance lacking the occasion and some the abilitie of resisting them for euen by the ciuill Law in the case of violent intrusion and long and wrongfull possession against mee it is enough if I proue that I haue made lawfull interruption vpon conuenient occasions But the Cardinall thinkes the Oath not onely vnlawfull for the substance thereof but also in regard of the Person whom vnto it is to bee sworne For saith he The King is not a Catholike And in two or three other places of his booke he sticketh not to call me by my name very broadly an Heretike as I haue already tolde But yet before I be publikly declared an Heretike by the Popes owne Law my people ought not to refuse their Obedience vnto me And I trust if I were but a Subiect and accused by the Pope in his Conclaue before his Cardinals he would haue hard prouing me an Heretike if he iudged mee by their owne ancient Orders For first I am no Apostate as the Cardinall would make mee not onely hauing euer been brought vp in that Religion which I presently professe but euen my Father and Grandfather on that side professing the same and so cannot be properly an Heretike by their owne doctrine since I neuer was of their Church And as for the Queene my Mother of worthie memorie although she continued in that Religion wherin she was nourished yet was shee so farre from being superstitious or Iesuited therein that at my Baptisme although I was baptized by a Popish Archbishop shee sent him word to forbeare to vse the spettle in my Baptisme which was obeyed being indeed a filthy and an apish trick rather in scorne then imitation of CHRIST And her owne very words were That shee would not haue a pockie Priest to spet in her childs mouth As also the Font wherin I was Christened was sent from the late Queene heere of famous memorie who was my Godmother and what her Religion was Pius V. was not ignorant And for further proofe that that renowmed Queene my Mother was not superstitious as in all her Letters whereof I receiued many she neuer made mention of Religion nor laboured to perswade me in it so at her last words she cōmanded her Master-houshold a Scottish Gentleman my seruant and yet aliue shee commanded him I say to tell me That although she was of another Religion then that wherein I was brought vp yet she woud not presse me to change except my owne conscience forced mee to it For so that I led a good life and were carefull to doe iustice and gouerne well she doubted not but I would be in a good case with the profession of my owne Religion Thus am I no Apostate nor yet a deborder from that Religion which one part of my Parents professed and an other part gaue me good allowance of Neither can my Baptisme in the rites of their Religion make me an Apostate or Heretike in respect of my present profession since wee all agree in the substance thereof being all baptized In the Name of the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost vpon which head there is no variance amongst vs. And now for the point of Heretike I will neuer bee ashamed to render an account of my profession and of that hope that is in me as the Apostle prescribeth I am such a CATHOLIKE CHRISTIAN as beleeueth the three Creeds That of the Apostles that of the Councell of Nice and that of Athanasius the two latter being Paraphrases to the former And I beleeue them in that sense as the ancient Fathers and Councels that made them did vnderstand them To which three Creedes all the Ministers of England doe subscribe at their Ordination And I also acknowledge for Orthodoxe all those other formes of Creeds that either were deuised by Councels or paticular Fathers against such particular Heresies as most reigned in their times I reuerence and admit the foure first generall Councels as Catholike and Orthodoxe And the said foure generall Councels are acknowledged by our Acts of Parliament and receiued for Orthodoxe by our Church As for the Fathers I reuerence them as much and more then the Iesuites doe and as much as themselues euer craued For what euer the Fathers for the first fiue hundreth yeeres did with an vnanime consent agree vpon to be beleeued as a necessary point of saluation I either will beleeue it also or at least will be humbly silent not taking vpon me to condemne the same But for euery priuate Fathers opinion it bindes not my conscience more then Bellarmines euery one of the Fathers vsually contradicting others I wil therefore in that case follow S. Augustines rule in iudging of their opinions as I finde them agree with the Scriptures what I find agreeable thereunto I will gladly imbrace what is otherwise I will with their reuerence reiect As for the Scriptures no man doubteth I will beleeue them But euen for the Apocrypha I hold them in the same account that the Ancients did They are still printed and bound with our Bibles and publikely read in our Churches I reuerence them as the writings of holy and good men but since they are not found in the Canon we account them to be secundae lectionis or ordinis which is Bellarmines owne distinction and therefore not sufficient whereupon alone to ground any article
disagreeth front their Traditions with almost as many foule wordes and railing epithetes as the Cardinal bestoweth on my Apologie not ruling nor interpreting Scripture by scripture but making their Traditions to be such a touchstone for it as he condemneth of Heresie not only those places of Scripture that he citeth but layeth the same generall condemnation vpon all other the like places wheresoeuer they be writin the Scriptures And yet praised bee GOD we beginne now with our eyes as our predecessors haue done in some ages before to see these Witnesses rise againe and shine in their former glory GOD as it were setting them vp againe vpon their feete and raising them to the heauens in a triumphall cloud of glory like Elias his fiery chariot Which exalting of the Gospel againe hath bred such an earthquake and alteration amongst many Nations as a tenth part or a good portion of these that were in subiection to that great Citie to wit Babylon are fallen from her seuen thousand that is many thousands hauing beene killed vpon the occasion of that great alteration and many others conuerted to the feare of GOD and giuing glory to the GOD of heauen This now is one of the wayes by which I thinke this place of Scripture may be lawfully and probably interpreted The other is more common and seemeth more literally to agree with the Text. And this is to interpret not the word of GOD but the Preachers thereof to bee meant by these Witnesses Few they were that first beganne to reueale the man of Sinne and discouer his corruptions and therefore well described by the number of two Witnesses Nam in ore duorum aut trium testiū stabit omne verbum And in no greater number were they that begun this worke then the greatnesse of the errand did necessarily require They prophecied in sackcloth for they preached Repentance That diuers of them were put to cruell deaths is notorious to the world· And likewise that in the persons of their Successours in doctrine they rose againe and that in such power and efficacie as is more then miraculous For where it is accounted in the Scriptures a miraculous work of GOD wrought by his holy Spirit when the Apostle S. Peter conuerted about three thousand in one day these Witnesses I speake of by the force of the same Spirit conuerted many mighty Nations in few yeeres who still continue praising GOD that he hath deliuered vs from the tyranny of Antichrist that raigneth ouer that great Citie and with a full crie proclaiming Goe out of her my people lest ye be partaker of her sinnes and of her plagues Let therefore these Miracle-mongers that surfet the world and raise the prise of paper daily with setting foorth olde though new gilded Miracles and Legends of lies 〈◊〉 such I say consider of this great and wonderfull miracle indeede and to their shame compare it with their paultry wares Thus hauing in two fashions deliuered my coniecture what I take to be meant by these two Witnesses in the xj of the Apocalyps there being no great difference between them In the one taking it to bee the word of God it selfe In the other the word of God too but in the mouthes of his Preachers It resteth nowe that I come to the third point of the description of Antichrist which is anent his Person That by the Whoore of Babylon that rideth vpon the Beast is meant a Seat of an Empire and a successiue number of men sitting thereupon and not any one man doeth well appeare by the forme of the description of the Antichrist throughout all the sayd Booke For in the last verse of the xvij Chapter the Woman is expounded to bee That great Citie that reigneth ouer the Kings of the earth which cannot signifie the only person of one man but a successiue number of men as I haue already saide whose seat that great City must be like as in the same Chapter The seuen heads of the Beast are two wayes expounded First they are called seuen Hils which is plaine And next they are called seuen Kings which cannot bee meant by the Kings that shall giue their power to the Beast and bee subiect vnto her which is immediately after expressed by the tenne hornes But rather appeareth to be those seuen formes of gouernment of that Seat fiue of which had already been and fallen As Kings Consuls Dictators Decemuiri and Tribuni militum The sixt was in the time of S. Iohn his writing of this booke which was the Gouernment of the Emperours The seuenth which was not yet come and was to last but for a short space was the Ecclesiasticall Gouernment by Bishops which was to come vpon the translation of the Empire from Rome to Constantinople though their gouernment was in a maner substitute to the Emperours For though that forme of Gouernment lasted about the space of 276. yeeres yet was it but short in comparison of the long time of the reigne of the Antichrist not yet expired which succeeded immediatly thereunto And the eighth which is the Beast that was and is not and is to goe to perdition is the Antichrist the eighth forme of Gouernement indeed by his absolutenesse and yet the seuenth because hee seemeth but to succeed to the Bishops in an Ecclesiasticall forme of gouernement though by his greatnes hee shall make Babylons Empire in glory like to that Magnificence wherein that great Citie triumphed when it most flourished which in S. Iohns time was much decayed by the factions of the great men the mutinies of the armies and the vnworthinesse of the Emperours And so that flourishing state of that great Citie or Beast which it was in before S. Iohns time and Being much decayed was but in a maner in his time should bee restored vnto it againe by Antichrist who as he ascendteh out of the botomlesse pit so must hee goe to Destruction And likewise by that great lamentation that is made for the destruction of Babylon in the xvij Chapter both by the Kings and by the Merchants of the earth where it is thrice repeated for aggrauating the pitie of her desolation that That great Citie fell in an houre By that great lamentation I say it well appeareth That the raigne of Antichrist must continue longer then three yeeres and a halfe or any one mans time For the Kings that had committed fornification with her in delicijs vixerant behoued to haue had a longer time for contracting of that great acquaintance And the Merchants of the earth set her foorth and describe her at great length as the very staple of all their riches which could not bee so soone gathered as in one mans time And to conclude now this description of the Antichrist I will set downe vnto you all that is spoken of him in the Apocalyps in a short methode for the further explaining of these three
points that I haue already handled The Antichrist is foure times in my opinion described by Iohn in the Apocalyps in foure sundrie visions and a short Compendium of him repeated againe in the xx Chapter He is first described by a pale Horse in the vision of the Seales in the sixt Chapter For after that CHRIST had triumphed vpon a white Horse in the first Seale by the propagation of the Gospel and that the red Horse in the second Seale is as busie in persecution as CHRIST is in ouercomming by the constancie of his Martyrs and that famine and other plagues signified by the blacke Horse in the third Seale haue succeeded to these former persecutions Then commeth foorth the Antichrist vpon a pale Horse in the fourth Seale hauing Death for his rider and Hell for his conuoy which rider fitted well his colour of palenesse and he had power giuen him ouer the fourth part of the earth which is Europe to kill with the sword and vse great persecution as Ethnick Rome did figured by the red Horse and to kill vvith spirituall hunger or famine of the true word of GOD as the blacke Horse did by corporall famine and with death whereby spirituall death is meant For the Antichrist signified by this pale Horse shall afflict the Church both by persecution and temporall death as also by alluring the Nations to idolatry and so to spirituall death and by the beasts of the earth shall hee procure their spirituall death for hee shall send out the Locusts ouer whom he is King mentioned in the ninth Chapter of this booke and the three Frogges mentioned in the xvj of the same for intising of all Kings and Nations to drinke of the cup of her abominations That that decription now of Antichrist endeth there it is more then plaine for at the opening of the first Seale the soules and blood of the murthered Saints cry for vengeance and hasting of iudgement which in the sixt Seale is graunted vnto them by CHRISTS comming at the latter day signified by heauens departing away like a scrol when it is rolled with a number of other sentences to the same purpose But because this might seeme a short and obscure description of the Antichrist hee describeth him much more largely specifikely especially in the vision of the Trumpets in the ninth Chapter For there hee saith at the blowing of the fift Trumpet Heresies being first spread abroad in three of the four former blasts to wit in the first third and fourth blast for I take temporall perecution to be onely signified by the second blast hee then saw a starre fall from Heauen to whom was giuen the key of the bottomlesse pit which being opened by him with the smoke thereof came foorth a number of Locusts whom he largely describeth both by their craft and their strength and then telleth the name of this their King who brought them out of the bottomlesse pit which is Destroyer By this Starre fallen from heauen being signified as I take it some Person of great dignitie in the Church whose duetie being to giue light to the world as CHRIST saith doeth contrary thereunto fall away like Lucifer and set vp a Kingdome by the sending foorth of that noisome packe of craftie cruell vermine described by Locusts and so is the Seat of the Antichrist begun to bee erected whose doctrine is at length declared in the second vvoe after the blast of the sixt Trumpet where it is saide That the remnant of men which were not killed by the plagues repented not of the works of their hands that they should not worship Deuils and idols of golde and of siluer and of brasse and of stone and of wood which neither can see heare nor goe As for worshipping of Deuils looke your great Iesuited Doctor Vasques and as for all the rest it is the maine doctrine of the Romane Church And then it is subioyned in this text that they repented not of their murther their sorcerie their fornications nor their theft By their murther their persecution is meant and bloody massacres For their Sorcery consider of their Agnus Dei that will sloken fire of the hallowed shirts and diuers sorts of Reliques and also of Prayers that will preserue men from the violence of shot of fire of sword of thunder and such like dangers And iudge if this be not very like to Sorcerie and incantation of charmes By their Fornication is meant both their spirituall fornication of Idolatry and also their corporall fornication which doth the more abound amongst them as well by reason of the restraint of their Churchmen from marriage as also because of the many Orders of idle Monastike liues amongst them as well for men as women And continuall experience prooueth that idlenesse is euer the greatest spurre to lecherie And they are guiltie of Theft in stealing from GOD the titles and greatnes of power due to him and bestowing it vpon their head the Antichrist As also by heaping vp their treasure with their iuggling wares and merchandise of the soules of men by Iubiles Pardons Reliques and such like strong delusions That he endeth this description of Antichrist in the same ninth Chapter may likewise well appeare by the Oath that that Mightie Angell sweareth in the sixt verse of the tenth Chapter And after the blast of the sixt Trumpet that time shall be no more and that when the seuenth Angell shall blow his Trumpet the mysterie of GOD shal be finished as he had declared it to his seruants the Prophets Onely in the eleuenth Chapter he describeth the means whereby the Antichrist was ouercome whose raigne he had before described in the ix Chapter and telleth vs that the two witnesses after that they haue beene persecuted by the Antichrist shall in the end procure his destruction And in case any should thinke that the Antichrist is onely spoken of in the xj Chapter and that the Beast spoken of in the xiij and xvij Chapters doth onely signifie Ethnicke Rome there needeth no other refutation of that conceit then to remember them that the Antichrist is neuer named in all that xi Chapter but where hee is called in the seuenth verse thereof the Beast that commeth foorth of the bottomles pit which by the description of the place he commeth out of prooueth it to be the same Beast which hath the same originall in the xvij Chapter and in the very same words so as it is euer but the same Antichrist repeated and diuersly described in diuers visions Now in the xij and xiij Chapters and so foorth till the xvij he maketh a more large and ample propheticall description of the state of the Church and raigne of the Antichrist For in the xij Chap. he figureth the Church by a Woman flying from the Dragon the Deuill to the wildernesse And when the Dragon seeth he
no absurdities Otherwise it is an easie thing for Momus to picke quarrels in another mans tale and tell it worse himselfe it being a more easie practise to finde faults then to amend them Hauing now made this digression anent the Antichrist which I am sure I can better fasten vpon the Pope then Bellarmine can doe his pretended temporall Superioritie ouer Kings I will returne againe to speake of this Answerer who as I haue alreadie told you so fitteth his matter with his maner of answering that as his Style is nothing but a Satyre and heape full of iniurious and reprochfull speeches as well against my Person as my Booke so is his matter as full of lyes and falsities indeed as he vniustly layeth to my charge For three lyes hee maketh against the Oath of Allegiance contained and maintained in my Booke besides that ordinary repeated lye against my Book of his omitting to answere my lyes trattles iniurious speeches and blasphemies One grosse lye hee maketh euen of the Popes first Breue One lye of the Puritanes whom he would gladly haue to bee of his partie And one also of the Powder-Traitors anent the occasion that moued them to vndertake that treasonable practise Three lies he makes of that Acte of Parliament wherein this Oath of Allegiance is contained He also maketh one notable lye against his owne Catholike Writers And two of the causes for which two Iesuites haue bene put to death in England And hee either falsifies denies or wrests fiue sundry Histories and a printed Pamphlet besides that impudent lye that he maketh of my Person that I was a Puritane in Scotland which I haue alreadie refuted And for the better filling vp of his booke with such good stuffe he hath also fiue so strange and new principles of Diuinitie therein as they are either new or at least allowed by very few of his owne Religion All which lyes with diuers others and fiue strange and as I thinke erroneous points of Doctrine with sâ—n dry falsifications of Hystories are set downe in a Table by themselues in the end of this my Epistle hauing their Refutation annexed to euery one of them But as for the particular answering of his booke it is both vnnecessarie and vncomely for me to make a Reply Vnnecessarie because as I haue alreadie told you my Booke is neuer yet answered so farre as belongeth to the maine question anent the Oath of Allegiance the picking of aduantage vpon the wrong placing of the figures in the citations or such errors in the Print by casuall addition or omission of words that make nothing to the Argument being the greatest weapons wherewith hee assaults my Booke And vncomely it must needs be in my opinion for a King to fall in altercation with a Cardinall at least with one no more nobly descendâ—d then he is That Ecclesiasticall dignitie though by the sloath of Princes as I said before it bee now come to that height of vsurped honour yet being in the true originall and foundation thereof nothing else but the title of the Priestes and Deacons of the parish Churches in the towne of Rome at the first the style of Cardinals beeing generally giuen to all Priestes and Deacons of any Cathedrall Church though the multitude of such Cardinall Priests and Deacons resorting to Rome was the cause that after bred the restraining of that title of Cardinall Priests and Deacons onely to the Parish priests and Deacons of Rome And since that it is S. Gregorie who in his Epistles sixe hundreth yeares after CHRIST maketh the first mention of Cardinals and so these now Electours of the Apostolike Sea beeing long and many hundreth yeers vnknowen or vnheard of after the Apostolâ—ke age and yet doth he speake of them but in this sense as I haue now described I hope the Cardinall who calleth him the Apostle of England cannot blame me that am King thereof to acknowledge the Cardinall in no other degree of honour then our said Apostle did But how they should now become to be so strangely exalted aboue their first originall institution that from Parish-priests and Deacons Priests inferiours they should now come to be Princes and Peeres to Kings and from a degree vnder Bishops as both Bellarmine and Onuphrius confesse to be now the Popes sole Electors suâ—plying with him the place of a General Counsel whereby the conuening of generall Councels is now vtterly antiquated and abolished nay out of their number onely the Pope to be elected who claimeth the absolute Superiority ouer all Kings how this their strange vsurped exaltation I say should thus creepe in and be suffered it belongeth all them in our place and calling to look vnto it who being GOD his Lieuteâ—aÌ„ts in earth haue good reason to be iealous of such vpstart Princes meane in their originall come to that height by their owne creation and now accounting themselues Kings fellowes But the speciall harme they do vs is by their defrauding vs of our common Christian interest in generall Councels they hauing as I sayd vtterly abolished the same by rowling it vp and making as it were a Monopoly thereof in their Conclaue with the Pope Whereas if euer there were a possibilitie to bee expected of reducing all Christians to an vniformitie of Religion it must come by the meanes of a generall Councell the place of their meeting beeing chosen so indiffereÌ„t as all Christian Princes either in their owne Persons or their Deputie Commissioners and all Church men of Christian profession that beleeue and professe all the ancient grounds of the true ancient Catholike and Apostolike Faith might haue tutum accessum thereunto All the incendiaries and Nouelist fire-brands on either side beeing debarred from the same as well Iesuites as Puritanes And therefore hauing resolued not to paine my selfe with making a Reply for these reasons here specified grounded as well vpon the consideration of the matter as of the person of the Answerer I haue thought good to content my selfe with the reprinting of my Apologie hauing in a maner corrected nothing but the Copiers or Printers faults therein and prefixed this my Epistle of Dedication and Warning therunto that I may yet see if any thing will be iustly said against it Not doubting but enow of my Subiects will reply vpon these Libellers and answere them sufficiently wishing YOV deepely to consider and weigh your common interest in this Cause For neither in all my Apologie nor in his pretended Refutation thereof is there any question made anent the Popes power ouer mee in particular for the excommunicating or deposing of me For in my particular the Cardinall doeth me that grace that he saith The Pope thought it not expedient at this time to excommunicate me by name our question beeing onely generall Whether the Pope may lawefully pretend any temporall power ouer Kings or no That no Church men can by his rule be subiect to any temporall Prince I haue already shewed you And what
obedience any of you may looke for of any of them de facto he plainly forewarneth you of by the example of Gregorie the Great his obedience to the Emperor Mauritius not beeing ashamed to slaunder that great Personages Christian humilitie and obedience to the Emperour with the title of a constrained and forced obedience because hee might or durst doe no otherwise Whereby he not onely wrongs the said Gregorie in particular but euen doeth by that meanes lay on an heauie slaunder and reproach vpon the Christian humilitie and patience of the whole Primitiue Church especially in the time of persecution if the whole glorie of their Martyrdome and Christian patience shall be thus blotted with that vile glosse of their coacted and constrained suffering because they could or durst do no otherwise like the patience and obedience of the Iewes or Turkish slaues in our time cleane contrary to S. Paul and S. Peâ—â—rs doctrine of obedience for conscience sake and as contrarie to Tertullians Apologie for Christians and all the protestations of the ancient Fathers in that case But it was good lucke for the ancient Christians in the dayes of Ethnicke Emperors that this prophane new conceit was yet vnknowen among them otherwise they would haue bin vtterly destroyed and rooted out in that time and no man to haue pitied them as most dangerous members in a Common-wealth who would no longer bee obedient then till they were furnished with sufficient abilitie and power to resist and rebell Thus may ye see how vpon the one part our Cardinall will haue all Kings and Monarchs to be the Popes Vassals and yet will not on the other side allow the meanest of the Pope his vassals to be subiect to any Christian Prince But he not thinking it enough to make the Pope our Superior hath in a late Treatise of his called the Recognition of his bookes of Controuersies made the people and Subiects of euery one of vs our Superiors For hauing taken occasion to reuisite againe his bookes of Controuersies and to correct or explaine what he findeth amisse or mistaketh in them in imitation of S. Augustine his retractions for so hee saith in his Preface he doth in place of retracting any of his former errours or any matter of substance not retract but recant indeed I meane sing ouer againe and obstinatly confirme a number of the grossest of them Among the which the exempting of all Church-men from subiection to any Temporall Prince and the setting vp not onely of the Pope but euen of the People aboue their naturall King are two of his maine points As for the exemption of the Clerickes he is so greedy there to proue that point as he denieth Caesar to haue beene Pauls lawfull Iudge contrary to the expresse Text and Pauls plain Appellation and acknowledging him his Iudge besides his many times claiming to the Roman priuiledges and auowing himselfe a Roman by freedome and therefore of necessitie a Subiect to the Roman Emperour But it is a wonder that these Roman Catholikes who vaunt themselues of the ancientie both of their doctrine and Church and reproch vs so bitterly of our Nouelties should not bee ashamed to make such a new inept glosse as this vpon S. Pauls Text which as it is directly contrary to the Apostles wordes so is it without any warrant either of any ancient Councell or of so much as any one particular Father that euer interpreâ—s that place in this sort Neither was it euer doubted by any Christian in the Primitiue Church that the Apostles or any other degree of Christians were subiect to the Emperour And as for the setting vp of the People aboue their owne naturall King hee bringeth in that principle of Sedition that he may thereby proue that Kings haue not their power and authoritie immediatly from God as the Pope hath his For euery King saith he is made and chosen by his people nay they do but so transferre their power in the Kings person as they doe notwithstanding retaine their habituall power in their owne hands which vpon certaine ocasions they may actually take to themselues againe This I am sure is an excellent ground in Diuiniâ—â—e for all Râ—bels and rebellious people who are hereby allowed to rebell against their Princes and assume libertie vnto themselues when in their discretions they shall thinke it conuenient And amongst his other Testimonies for probation that all Kings are made and created by the People hee alledgeth the Creation of three Kings in the Scripture Saul Dauid Ieroboam and though he be compelled by the expresse words of the Text to confesse that God by his Prophet Samuel anointed both Saul and Dauid yet will he by the post-consent of the people proue that those Kings were not immediatly made by God but mediatly by the people though he repeat thrise that word of Lott by the casting whereof hee confesseth that Saul was chosen And if the Election by Lott be not an immediate Election from God then was not Matthias who was so chosen and made an Apostle immediatly chosen by God and consequently hee that sitteth in the Apostolike Sea cannot for shame claim to be immediatly chosen by God if Matthias that was one of the twelue Apostles supplying Iudas his place was not so chosen But as it were a blasphemous impietie to doubt that Matthias was immediatly chosen by God and yet was hee chosen by the casting of Lots as Saul was so is it well enough knowen to some of you my louing Brethren by what holy Spirit or casting of Lots the Popes vse to bee elected the Colledge of Cardinals his electors hauing beene diuided in two mighty factions euer since long before my time and in place of casting of Lotts great fat pensions beeing cast into some of their greedy mouthes for the election of the Pope according to the partiall humours of Princes But I doe most of all wonder at the weaknesse of his memorie for in this place hee maketh the post consent of the people to bee the thing that made both these Kings notwithstanding of their preceding inauguration and anoyntment by the Prophet at GODS commandement forgetting that in the beginning of this same little booke of his answering one that alledgeth a sentence of S. Cyprian to prooue that the Bishops were iudged by the people in Cyprians time hee there confesseth that by these words the consent of the people to the Bishops election must be onely vnderstood Nor will he there any wayes be mooued to graunt that the peoples power in consenting to or refusing the Election of a Bishop should be so vnderstood as that therby they haue power to elect Bishops And yet do these words of Cyprian seeme to be farre stronger for granting the peoples power to elect Church-men then any words that hee alledgeth out of the Scripture are for the peoples power in electing a King For the very words of Cyprian by himselfe there cited are That
the naturall Allegiance and next clearely confirmed by this Oath which doeth nothing but expresse the same so as no man can now hold the faith or procure the saluation of his sould in England that must not abiure and renounce his borne and sworne Allegiance to his naturall Soueraigne And yet it is not sufficient to ratifie the last yeeres Breue by a new one come foorth this yeere but that not onely euery yeere but euery moneth may produce a new monster the great and famous Writer of the Controuersies the late vn-Iesuited Cardinall Bellarmine must adde his talent to this good worke by blowing the bellowes of sedition and sharpening the spur to rebellion by sending such a Letter of his to the Arch-priest here as it is wonder how passion and an ambitious desire of maintaining that Monarchie should charme the wits of so famously learned a man The Copie where of here followeth TO THE VERY REuerend Mr. George Blackwel Arch-priest of the English Robert Bellarmine Cardinall of the holy Church of Rome greeting REuerend Sir and Brother in CHRIST It is almost fourty yeeres since we did see one the other but yet I haue neuer bin vnmindful of our ancient acquaintance neither haue I ceased seeing I could doe you no other good to commend your labouring most painfully in the Lords vineyard in my prayers to GOD. And I doubt not but that I haue liued all this while in your memory and haue had some place in your prayers at the Lords Altar So therefore euen vnto this time wee haue abidden as S. Iohn speaketh in the mutuall loue one of the other not by word or letter but in deede and trueth But a late message which was brought vnto vs within these few dayes of your bonds and imprisonment hath inforced mee to breake off this silence which message although it seemed heauy in regard of the losse which that Church hath receiued by their beeing thus depriued of the comfort of your pastorall function among them yet withall it seemed ioyous because you drewe neere vnto the glory of Martyrdome then the which gift of God there is none more happy That you who haue fed your flocke so many yeeres with the word and doctrine should now feed it more gloriously by the example of your patience But another heauy tidings did not a litle disquiet and almost take away this ioy which immediatly followed of the aduersaries assault and peraduenture of the slip and fall of your Constancy in refusing an vnlawfull Oath Neither truely most deare Brother could that Oath therfore be lawfull because it was offered in sort tempered and modified for you know that those kinde of modifications are nothing else but sleights subtilties of Sathan that the Catholique faith touching the Primacie of the Sea Apostolique might either secretly or openly be shot at for the which faith so many worthy Martyrs euen in that very England it selfe haue resisted vnto blood For most certaine it is that in whatsoeuer wordes the Oath is conceiued by the aduersaries of the faith in that Kingdome it tends to this end that the authoritie of the head of the Church in England may be transferred from the successour of S. Peter to the Successour of K. Henry the eight For that which is pretended of the danger of the Kings life if the high Priest should haue the same power in England which hee hath in all other Christian Kingdomes it is altogether idle as all that haue any vnderstanding may easily perceiue For it was neuer heard of from the Churches infancy vntill this day that euer any Pope did command that any Prince though an Heretike though an Ethnike though a Persecutor should be murdered or did approue of the fact when it was done by any other And why I pray you doeth onely the King of England feare that which none of all other the Princes in Christendome either doeth feare or euer did feare But as I saide these vaine pretexts are but the trappes and stratagemes of Satan Of which kinde I could produce not a fâ—we out of Ancient Stories if I went about to write a bookâ— and not an Epistle One onely for example sake I will call to your memory S. Gregorius Nazianzenus in his first Oration against Iulian the Emperour reporteth That he the more easily to beguile the simple Christians did insert the Images of the false gods into the pictures of the Emperor which the Romanes did vse to bow dawne vnto with a ciuill kind of reuerence so that no man could doe reuerence to the Emperours picture but withall he must adore the Images of the false gods whereupon it came to passe that many were deceiued And if there were any that found out the Emperours craft and refused to worship his picture those were most grieuously punished as men that had contemned the Emperour in his Image Some such like thing me thinkes I see in the Oath that is offered to you which is to so craftily composed that no man can detest Treason against the King and make profession of his Ciuill subiection but he must be constrained perfidiously to denie the Primacie of the Apostolike Sea But the seruants of Christ and especially the chiefe Priests of the Lord ought to be so farre from taking an vnlawfull Oath where they may indamage the Faith that they ought to beware that they giue not the least suspicion of dissimulation that they haue taken it least they might seeme to haue left any example of preuarication to faithfull people Which thing that worthy Eleazar did most notably performe who would neither eate swines flesh nor so much as faine to haue eaten it although hee saw the great torments that did hang ouer his head least as himselfe speaketh in the second booke of the Machabees many yong men might be brought through that similation to preuaricate with the Law Neither did Basil the great by his example which is more fit for our purpose carrie himselfe lesse worthily toward Valens the Emperour For as Theodoret writeth in his Historie when the Deputy of that heretical Emperour did perswade Saint Basill that he would not resist the Emperour for a little subtiltie of a few points of doctrine that most holy and prudent man made answere That it was not to bee indured that the least syllable of Gods word should bee corrupted but rather all kind of torment was to be embraced for the maintenance of the Trueth thereof Now I suppose that there wants not amongst you who say that they are but subtilties of Opinions that are conteined in the Oath that is offred to the Catholikes and that you are not to striue against the Kings Authoritie for such a little matter But there are not wanting also amongst you holy men like vnto Basil the Great which will openly auow that the very least syllable of Gods diuine trueth is not to be corrupted though many torments were to be endured and death it selfe set before you Amongst whom it is meete
vvith the ciuil obedience of subiects to their Soueraigne in meere temporall causes And that it may the better appeare that vvhereas by name he seemeth to condemne the last Oath yet indeed his vvhole Letter runneth vpon nothing but vpon the condemnation of the Oath of Supremacie I haue here thought good to set downe the saide Oath leauing it then to the discretion of euery indifferent reader to iudge whether hee doeth not in substance onely answere to the Oath of Supremacie but that he giueth the child a wrong name I A B. doe vtterly testifie and declare in my Conscience that the Kings Highnesse is the onely Supreame Gouernour of this Realme and all other his Highnesse Dominions and Counties as well in all Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall things or causes as Temporall And that no forraine Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to haue any Iurisdiction Power Superioritie Preeminence or Authoritie Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall within this Realme And therefore I do vtterly renounce and forsake all forreine Iurisdictions Powers Superiorities and authorities and do promise that from hencefoorth I shall beare faith and true Allegiance to the Kings Highnesse his Heires and lawfull Successors and to my power shall assist and defend all iurisdictions Priuiledges Preâ—minences and Authorities graunted or belonging to the Kings Highnesse his Heires and Successours or vnited and annexed to the Imperiall Crowne of the Realme So helpe mee God and by the Contents of this booke And that the iniustice as well as the errour of his grosse mistaking in this point may yet be more clearely discouered I haue also thought good to insert here immediatly after the Oath of Supremacie the contrary Conclusions to all the points and Articles whereof this other late Oath doeth consist whereby it may appeare what vnreasonable and rebellious points hee would driue my Subiects vnto by refusing the whole body of that Oath as it is conceiued For he that shall refuse to take this Oath must of necessitie hold all or some of these propositions following That I King IAMES am not the lawfull King of this Kingdome and of all other my Dominions That the Pope by his owne authoritie may depose me If not by his owne authoritie yet by some other authoritie of the Church or of the Sea of Rome If not by some other authoritie of the Church Sea of Rome yet by other meanes with others helpe he may depose me That the Pope may dispose of my Kingdomes and Dominions That the Pope may giue authoritie to some forren Prince to inuade my Dominions That the Pope may discharge my Subiects of their Allegiance and Obedience to me That the Pope may giue licence to one or more of my Subiects to beare armes against me That the Pope may giue leaue to my Subiects to offer violence to my Person or to my Gouernement or to some of my Subiects That if the Pope shall by sentence excommunicate or depose me my Subiects are not to beare Faith and Allegiance to me If the Pope shall by Sentence excommunicate or depose mee my Subiects are not bound to defend with all their power my Person and Crowne If the Pope shall giue out any Sentence of Excommunication or Depriuation against me my Subiects by reason of that sentence are not bound to reueale all Conspiracies and Treasons against mee which shal come to their hearing and knowledge That it is not hereticall and detestable to hold that Princes being excommunicated by the Pope may be either deposed or killed by their Subiects or any other That the Pope hath power to absolue my Subiects from this Oath or from some part thereof That this Oath is not administred to my Subiects by a full and lawfull authoritie That this Oath is to be taken with Equiuocation mental euasion or secret reseruation and not with the heart and good will sincerely in the true faith of a Christian man These are the true and naturall branches of the body of this Oath The affirmatiue of all which negatiues doe neither concerne in any case the Popes Supremacie in spiritual causes nor yet were euer concluded and defined by any complete generall Councell to belong to the Popes authoritie and their owne schoole Doctors are at irreconciliable oddes and iarres about them And that the world may yet farther see ours and the whole States setting downe of this Oath did not proceed from any new inuention of our owne but as it is warranted by the word of GOD so doeth it take the example from an Oath of Allegiance decreed a thousand yeeres agone which a famous Councel then together with diuers other Councels were so farre from condemning as the Pope now hath done this Oath as I haue thought good to set downe their owne words here in that purpose whereby it may appeare that I craue nothing now of my Subiects in this Oath which was not expresly and carefully commanded then by the Councels to be obeyed without exception of persons Nay not in the very particular point of equiuocation which I in this Oath was so carefull to haue eschewed but you shall here see the said Councels in their Decrees as carefull to prouide for the eschewing of the same so as almost euery point of that Action and this of ours shall be found to haue relation and agreeance one with the other saue only in this that those ould Councels were carefull and strait in commanding the taking of the same whereas by the contrary he that novv vanteth himselfe to bee head of all Councels is as carefull and strait in the prohibition of all men from the taking of this Oath of Allegiance The vvordes of the Councell bee these Heare our Sentence Whosoeuer of vs or of all the people thorowout all Spaine shall goe about by any meanes of conspiracie or practise to violate the Oath of his fidelitie which he hath taken for the preseruation of his Countrey or of the Kings life or who shall attempt to put violent hands vpon the King or to depriue him of his kingly power or that by tyrannicall presumption would vsurpe the Soueraigntie of the Kingdome let him bee accursed in the sight of God the Father and of his Angels and let him be made and declared a stranger from the Catholike Church which he hath prophaned by his periurie an aliant from the company of all Christian people together with all the complices of his impietie because it behooueth all those that bee guiltie of the like offence to vnder-lie the like punishment Which sentence is three seuerall times together and almost in the same wordes repeated in the same Canon After this the Synode desired That this Sentence of theirs now this third time rehearsed might be confirmed by the voyce and consent of all that were present Then the whole Clergie and people answered Whosoeuer shal cary himselfe presumptuously against this your definitiue sentence let them be Anathema maranatha that is let them
vnto the said Arch-priests charge as I haue neuer done to any for cause of conscience so was Blackwels constancie neuer brangled by taking of this Oath It being a thing which he euer thought lawfull before his apprehension and whereunto hee perswaded all Catholikes to giue obedience like as after his apprehension he neuer made doubt or stop in it but at the first offering it vnto him did freely take it as a thing most lawfull neither meanes of threatning or flatterie being euer vsed vnto him as himselfe can yet beare witnesse And as for the temperature and modification of this Oath except that a reasonable and lawfull matter is there set downe in reasonable temperate words agreeing thereunto I know not what he can meane by quarelling it for that fault For no temperatnes nor modifications in words therein can iustly be called the Deuils craft when the thing it selfe is so plaine and so plainely interpreted to all them that take it as the onely troublesome thing in it all bee the words vsed in the end thereof for eschewing aequiuocation and mentall reseruation Which new Catholique doctrine may farre iustlier bee called the Deuils craft then any plaine and temperate words in so plaine and cleare a matter But what shal we say of these strange countrey clownes whom of with the Satyre we may iustly complaine that they blovv both hote and cold out of one mouth For Luther and our bolde and free speaking Writers are mightily railed vpon by them as hot brained fellovves and speakers by the Deuils instinct and novv if vve speake moderately and temperately of them it must bee tearmed the Deuils craft And therefore we may iustly complaine vvith CHRIST that when we mourne they wil not lament and when vve pipe they vvill not dance But neither Iohn Baptist his seueritie nor CHRIST his meekenesse and lenitie can please them vvho build but to their owne Monarchie vpon the ground of their ovvn Traditions and not to CHRIST vpon the ground of his Word and infallible trueth But vvhat can bee meant by alleadging that the craft of the Deuill herein is onely vsed for subuersion of the Catholique faith and euersion of S. Peters Primacie had need bee commented anevv by Bellarmine himselfe For in all this Letter of his neuer one vvord is vsed to proue that by any part of this Oath the primacy of S. Peter is any vvay medled vvith except Master Bellarmine his bare alledging which without prouing it by more cleare demonstration can neuer satisfie the conscience of any reasonable man For for ought that I know heauen and earth are no farther asunder then the professon of a temporall obedience to a temporall King is different from any thing belonging to the Catholique faith or Supremacie of S. Peter For as for the Catholique faith can there bee one word found in all that Oath tending or sounding to matter of Religion Doeth he that taketh it promise there to beleeue or not to beleeue any article of Religion Or doeth he so much as name a true or a false Church there And as for S. Peters Primacie I know no Apostles name that is therein named except the name of IAMES it being my Christen name though it please him not to deigne to name me in all the Letter albeit the contents thereof concerne me in the highest degree Neither is there any mention at all made therein either disertis verbis or by any other indirect meanes either of the Hierarchie of the Church of S. Peters succession of the Sea Apostolike or of any such matter but that the Author of our Letter doeth brauely make mention of S. Peters succession bringing it in comparison with the succession of Henry the eight Of which vnapt and vnmannerly similitude I wonder hee should not bee much ashamed For as to King Henries successour which he meaneth by mee as I I say neuer did nor will presume to create any article of fayth or to bee Iudge thereof but to submit my exemplary obedience vnto them in as great humilitie as the meanest of the land so if the Pope could bee as well able to proue his either Person all or Doctrinall Succession from S. Peter as I am able to proue my lineall descent from the Kings of England and Scotland there had neuer been so long adoe nor so much sturre kept about this question in Christendome neither had M. Bellarmine himselfe needed to haue bestowed so many sheetes of paper De summo Pontifice in his great bookes of Controuersies and when all is done to conclude with a morall certitude and a piè credēdum bringing in the Popes that are parties in this cause to bee his witnesses and yet their historicall narration must be no article of faith And I am without vantrie sure that I doe farre more neerely imitate the worthy actions of my Predecessors then the Popes in our age can be well proued to be similes Petro especially in cursing of Kings and setting free their Subiects from their Allegiance vnto them But now we come to his strongest argument which is That he would alledge vpon me a Panick terrour as if I were possessed with a needlesse feare For saith the Cardinall from the beginning of the Churches first infancie euen to this day where was it euer heard that euer a Pope either commanded to be killed or allowed the slaughter of any Prince whatsoeuer whether he were an Hereticke an Ethnike or Persecutor But first wherefore doth he here wilfully and of purpose omit the rest of the points mentioned in that Oath for deposing degrading stirring vp of arms or rebelling against them vvhich are as vvell mentioned in tha◠Oath as the killing of them as being all of one consequence against a King no Subiect being so scrupulous as that hee will attempt the one and leaue the other vnperformed if he can And yet surely I cannot blame him for passing it ouer since he could not otherwise haue eschewed the direct belying of himselfe in tearmes which hee now doeth but in substance and effect For as for the Popes deposing and degrading of Kings hee maketh so braue vaunts and bragges of it in his former bookes as he could neuer with ciuil honesty haue denied it here But to returne to the Popes allowing of killing of Kings I know not with what face hee can sent so stout a deniall vpon it against his owne knowledge How many Emperors did the Pope raise warre against in their owne bowels Who as they were ouercome in battaile were subiect to haue bene killed therein which I hope the Pope could not but haue allowed when hee was so farre inraged at Henry the fift for giuing buriall to his fathers dead corps after the Pope had stirred him vp to rebell against his father and procured his ruine But leauing these old Histories to Bellarmines owne bookes that doe most authentically cite them as I haue already said let vs turne our eyes vpon
our owne time and therein remember what a Panegyrik oration was made by the Pope in praise and approbation of the Frier and his fact that murthered king Henry the third of France who was so farre from either being Heretike Ethnike or Persecutor in their account that the said Popes owne wordes in that oration are That a true Frier hath killed a counterfeit Frier And besides that vehement oration and congratulation for that fact how neere it scaped that the said Frier was not canonized for that glorious acte is better knowen to Bellarmine and his followers then to vs here But sure I am if some Cardinals had not beene more wise and circumspect in that errand then the Pope himselfe was the Popes owne Kalender of his Saints would haue sufficiently proued Bellarmine a liar in this case And to draw yet nerer vnto our selues how many practises and attempts were made against the late Queenes life which were directly enioyned to those Traitours by their Confessors and plainely authorized by the Popes allowance For verification whereof there needes no more proofe then that neuer Pope either then or since called any Church-man in question for medling in those treasonable conspiracies nay the Cardinals owne S. Sanderus mentioned in his letter could well verifie this trueth if he were aliue and who will looke his bookes will find them filled with no other doctrine then this And what difference there is betweene the killing or allowing the slaughter of Kings and the stirring vp and approbation of practises to kil them I remit to Bellarmines owne iudgement It may then very clearely appeare how strangely this Authours passion hath made him forget himselfe by implicating himselfe in so strong a contradiction against his owne knowledge and conscience against the witnesse of his former bookes and against the practise of our owne times But who can wonder at this contradiction of himselfe in this point when his owne great Volumes are so filled with contradictions which when either he or any other shall euer be able to reconcile I wil then beleeue that he may easily reconcile this impudent strong deniall of his in his letter of any Popes medling against Kings with his owne former bookes as I haue alreadie said And that I may not seeme to imitate him in affirming boldly that which I no wayes proue I will therefore send the Reader to looke for witnesses of his contradictions in such places heere mentioned in his owne booke In his booke of Iustification there he affirmeth That for the vncertaintie of our owne proper righteousnes and for auoiding of vaine glory it is most sure and safe to repose our whole confidence in the alone mercie and goodnes of God Which proposition of his is directly contrary to the discourse and current of all his fiue bookes de Iustificatione wherein the same is conteined God doeth not encline a man to euill neither naturally or morally Presently after he affirmeth the contrary That God doeth not encline to euill naturally but morally All the Fathers teach constantly That Bishops do succeede the Apostles and Priestes the seuentie disciples Elsevvhere he affirmeth the contrary That Bishops do not properly succeed the Apostles That Iudas did not beleeue Contrary That Iudas was iust and certainely good The keeping of the Law according to the substance of the worke doeth require that the Commandement be so kept that sinne be not committed and the man bee not guiltie for hauing not kept the Commandement Contrary It is to bee knowen that it is not all one to doe a good morall worke and to keepe the Commandement according to the substance of the worke For the Commandement may be kept according to the substance of the worke euen with sinne as if one should restore to his friend the thing committed to him of trust to the end that theeues might afterward take it from him Peter did not loose that faith whereby the heart beleeueth vnto iustification Contrary Peters sinne was deadly Antichrist shall bee a Magician and after the maner of other Magicians shall secretly worship the Deuill Contrary He shall not admit of idolatrie he shall hate idoles and reedifie the Temple By the words of Consecration the true and solemne oblation is made Contrary The sacrifice doeth not consist in the words but in the oblation of the thing it selfe That the ende of the world cannot bee knowen Contrary After the death of Antichrist there shall bee but fiue and fourtie daies till the ende of the world That the tenne Kings shall burne the scarlet Whoore that is Rome Contrary Antichrist shall hate Rome and fight against it and burne it The name of vniuersall Bishop may be vnderstood two wayes one way that hee which is said to be vniuersal Bishop may be thought to be the onely Bishop of all Christian cities so that all others are not indeed Bishops but only Vicars to him who is called vniuersal Bishop in which sense the Pope is not vniuersall Bishop Contrary All ordinary iurisdiction of Bishops doeth descend immediatly from the Pope and is in him and from him is deriued to others Which few places I haue onely selected amongst many the like that the discret and iudicious Reader may discerne ex vngue Leonem For when euer hee is pressed with a weightie obiection he neuer careth nor remembreth how his solution and answere to that may make him gainesay his owne doctrine in some other places so it serue him for a shift to put off the present storme withall But now to returne to our matter againe Since Popes saith hee haue neuer at any time medled against Kings wherefore I pray you should onely the King of England bee afraid of that whereof neuer Christian King is or was afraid Was neuer Chistian Emperour or King afraid of the Popes How then were these miserable Emperours tost and turmoiled and in the end vtterly ruined by the Popes for proofe whereof I haue already cited Bellarmines owne bookes Was not the Emperour afraid who waited bare-footed in the frost and snow three dayes at the Popes gate before hee could get entrie Was not the Emperour also afraide who was driuen to lie agroofe on his belly and suffer another Pope to tread vpon his necke And was not another Emperour afraide who was constrained in like manner to indure a third Pope to beat off from his head the Imperiall Crowne with his foote Was not Philip afraid being made Emperour against Pope Innocentius the thirds good liking when he brake out into these wordes Either the Pope shal take the Crowne from Philip or Philip shal take the Miter from the Pope whereupon the Pope stirred vp Ottho against him who caused him to be slaine and presently went to Rome and was crowned Emperour by the Pope though afterward the Pope deposed him too Was not the Emperour
before hee lost his head to fil it with I haue great reason to doubt if he would haue constantly perseuered in induring his martyrdome for that one most waightie head of doctrine And surely these two captaines and ringleaders to martyrdome were but ill folowed by the rest of their countrymen for I can neuer reade of any after them being of any great account and that not many that euer sealed that weighty head of doctrine with their blood in England So as the true causes of their first falling in trouble wherof I haue already made mention being rightly considered vpon the one part and vpon the other the scant number of witnesses that with their blood sealed it a point so greatly accounted of by our Cardinal there can but smal glory redound therby to our English nation these onely two Enoch and Elias seruing for witnesses against our Antichristian doctrine And I am sure the Supremacie of Kings may and will euer be better maintained by the word of God which must euer bee the true rule to discerne al weighty heads of doctrine by to be the true and proper office of Christian Kings in their owne dominions then he wil be euer able to maintaine his annihilating Kings their authorities together with his base vnreuerend speeches of them wherewith both his former great Volumes and his late Bookes against Venice are filled In the old Testament Kings were directly Gouernours ouer the Church within their Dominions purged their corruptions reformed their abuses brought the Arke to her resting place the King dancing before it built the Temple dedicated the same assisting in their owne persons to the sanctification thereof made the booke of the Law new-sound to be read to the people renewed the couenant betweene God and his people brused the brasen Serpent in pieces which was set vp by the expresse cōmandement of God and was a figure of Christ destroyed all Idols and false gods made a publike reformation by a Commission of Secular men and Priests mixed for that purpose deposed the hie Priest and set vp another in his place and generally ordered euery thing belonging to the Church-gouerment their Titles and Prerogatiues giuen them by God agreeing to these their actions They are called the Sonnes of the most High nay Gods themselues The Lords anoynted Sitting in Gods throne His seruants The Angels of God According to his hearts desire The light of Israel The nursing fathers of the Church with innumerable such stiles of honor wherwith the old Testament is filled wherof our aduersary can pretend no ignorance And as to the new Testament Euery soule is commaunded to be subiect vnto them euen for conscience sake All men must bee prayed for but especially Kings and those that are in Authority that vnder them we may lead a godly peaceable and an honest life The Magistrate is the minister of God to doe vengeance on him that doth euill reward him that doeth well Ye must obey all higher powers but especially Princes and those that are supereminent Giue euery man his due feare to whom feare belongeth and honour to whome honour Giue vnto Caesar what is Caesars and to God what is Gods Regnum meum non est huius mundi Quis me constituit Iudicem super vos Reges gentium dominantur eorum vos autem non sic If these examples sentences titles and prerogatiues and innumerable other in the old and new Testament do not warrant Christian Kings within their owne dominions to gouerne the Church as well as the rest of their people in being Custod es vtriusque Tabulae not by making new articles of faith which is the Popes office as I saide before but by cōmanding obedience to be giuen to the word of God by reforming the religion according to his prescribed will by assisting the spiritual power with the temporal sword by reforming of corruptions by procuring due obedience to the Church by iudging and cutting off all friuolous questions and Schismes as Constantine did and finally by making decorum to bee obserued in euery thing establishing orders to be obserued in al indifferent things for that purpose which is the only intent of our Oath of Supremacy If this Office of a King I say doe not agree with the power giuen him by Gods word let any indifferent man voyd of passion iudge But how these honourable offices styles and prerogatiues giuen by God to Kings in the old new Testament as I haue now cited can agree with the braue stiles and titles that Bellarmine giueth thē I can hardly conceiue 1. That Kings are rather slaues then Lords 2. That they are not only subiects to Popes to Bishops to Priests but euen to Deacons 3. That an Emperour must content himselfe to drinke not onely after a Bishop but after a Bishops Chaplen 4. That Kings haue not their authority nor office immediatly from God nor his Lawe but onely from the Law of Nations 5. That Popes haue degraded many Emperours but neuer Emperour degraded the Pope nay euen Bishops that are but the Popes vassals may depose Kings and abrogate their lawes 6. That Church-men are so farre aboue Kings as the soule is aboue the body 7. That Kings may be deposed by their people for diuers respects 8. But Popes can by no meanes bee deposed for no flesh hath power to iudge of them 9. That obedience due to the Pope is for conscience sake 10. But the obedience due to Kings is onely for certaine respects of order and policie 11. That these very Church-men that are borne and inhabite in Soueraigne Princes countreys are notwithstanding not their Subiects and cannot be iudged by them although they may iudge them 12. And that the obedience that Churchmen giue to Princes euen in the meanest and meere temporall things is not by way of any necessary subiection but onely out of discretion and for obseruation of good order and custome These contrarieties betweene the booke of God and Bellarmines books haue I heere set in opposition ech to other Vt ex contrarijs iuxta se positis veritas magis elucescere possit And thus farre I dare boldly affirme that whosoeuer will indifferently weigh these irreconciliable contradictions here set downe wil easily confesse that CHRIST is no more contrary to Beliall light to darkenesse and heauen to hell then Bellarmines estimation of Kings is to Gods Now as to the conclusion of his letter which is onely filled with strong and pithy exhortations to perswade and confirme Blackwell to the patient and constant induring of Martyrdome I haue nothing to answere saue by way of regrate that so many good sentences drawen out of the Scripture so well and so handsomely packed vp together should bee so ill and vntruely