which I willingly let passe and come to the rest of his seditious Bookes as his Admonition and Appendix For the former of these Don Lucifer the wittiest Fiend in Hel could not haue written more spitefully so that all posteritie cannot choose but condemne him for a most scurrilous Traitour and had he beene brought vp amongst all the Ruffians and Curtizans in Christendome he could not haue learned to haue writ more vilely prophanely and heathenishly for the later to wit his Appendix the booke was impudentlie fathered on Cardinall Allen after his death being hatched by the vnnatural heat of his ambitious hart wherin the Arch-Statist presumes to cal his learned Maiestie that now is king of great Brittaine and then was of Scotland obstinate Hereticke Who so bold they say as blind Bayard he feares no colours hath no shame or conscience what he writes so he write with an invectiue humour as hath beene largely proved already Wherefore having viewed examined and reexamined his Bookes and Writings we will now enquire farther after his life and conversation for as the Poet said a man may chance to write a lewd Booke which is a sober honest man But was he so so was Don Lucifer and al the Fiends in Hell from whom this man seemed to be descended in the right line giving occasion to diverse by his soule enormous and divelish life to think that he was not a meere man but some Fairies brat or begotten by an Incubus or aerish spirit vpon the bodie of a base woman Shew me that Treason treacherie or noted villanie wherein Parsons had not a hand a heart and a head name that vice whatsoever it be lying coosening forgerie periurie craft hypocrisie dissimulation envie pride covetousnes vaine-glory backebiting selfe-loue crueltie murders and oppressions ambition heresie Atheisme whereof he was not guilty in the highest degree Speake you holy Priests of a sacred function that knew him best and lived longest with him speake boldly and shame not to tel him roundly of his faults We wil descend vnto some few particulars in order as they shal lie most convenient for our purpose and first of his foule conspiracies treasonable plots plottings of Treason You wil say perhaps it is not good rubbing that sore any more it hath beene touched alreadie to the quicke I confesse it hath beene so but in a different kinde For it is one thing to write an other to act treasons Parsons is guilty of both of the former there is little doubt by that which is spoken and of the later lesse by that which now followeth by way of evident demonstration To proue that Father Parsons was no lesse a traitour in action then in writing first we shew and can proue that we say with a wet finger that he gaue his concurrence furtherance to a forraine invasiō here in England sought to indanger his Maiesties person by the Scots set his rest vpon the hopes of Spaine procured himselfe to be the kings servant practised with the students there and diverse others to giue their names to a Charter of subscription first prophecied and promised vnto himselfe good successe and then tooke vpon him with his Iesuiticall Plotcasters to be an Actor an orator or a broker in labouring to bring that prophecie to an effect and rather then it should faile to be the bloudie instrument to worke it of his owne head Againe who is it that caused the Seminaries in Spaine and S. Omers to be erected and that alone procured 2000 crownes a yeare pension more for the College at Doway though he deserved small thanks for his labour considering the decay of Students at Rhemes and Lovaine Father Parsons Who was it that procured that the first forme of oath now vsed was brought into the Roman Seminarie and after that example by himselfe into the Seminaries of Spaine whereby al promised to take holy orders and returne into England when they should be appointed by their Superiors Father Parsons Who was it that vsed perswasion at Rome to the Students there that they should haue at State and al for which State-medling they could but die and dy they should if they were taken without State-medling Father Parsons Who is it that vpon a Luciferian pride durst presume to cal the king of Scots an obstinate hereticke and the French king a reprobate of God forsaken Father Parsons Who is it that chopped and changed the crowne of England 8. or 9. several times as it pleased him playing with it as little boies sport themselues with king by your leaue the great ones every hand while crying a New King a new and in the end set it to sale wherevpon a certaine Romish gentleman affixed a briefe Libell vpon Pasquines buttock in dirision and scorne of him If there bee any man that will buy the kingdome of England let him repaire to a Merchant in a blacke square cap in the Citty and hee shall haue a very good penny-worth thereof Was not this F. Parsons so then the premises duly considered we may safely conclude that this is that same Parsons whome all the Realme Prince and Peeres with all true English hearts haue cause to curse hate spit at and so an end of that matter Now as his predominant and most exorbitant qualitie was Treason so was he deepely learned and in a short time a great proficient in sundry other qualities belonging to the Divels craft as first for truth in him there was none Qui posuit mendacium spem suam professing the Art of lying and vsing tricks as in adding diminishing equivocating and subintelligiturs to serue his turne for you must note by the way that Equivocation is the Divels Sophistrie and the common principle of the Iesuits and he is not scarsely to be accounted a Iesuit that cannot lie dissemble and equivocate at every word these be the Aphricanian Phalanges and Iesuiticall forces Hence it is that Cameleon like he hath banded of and on with time like Protheus and in truth neither Protheus in his complements nor the Sea Euripus in his Crosse tide Ebbes and flowes for his inconstancy of old hath beene held more infamous then E. Parsons Yet he had a worse fault then all these and that is he incurred the hateful crime of forgerie taking vpon him to thrust in and out for his purpose as if hee had had a dispensation granted to forge at his pleasure Hee was shrewdly mistrusted to haue added or altered somwhat in Bellarmines Letter hee did alter the sentence of the two Cardinals Caietan and Burghesio Corrupted the Registers and Records at Rome and hee was charged in Oxon amongst very many things with forgerie by one Stancliff his fellow Bursar these wee thought good to note by the way for a tast of some of his forgeries in lesser matters but hee
as also by countermined platformes in practicall conspiracies for else whereto tended a Blanke importing treason wherevnto many were requested to subscribe their new Spanish Doleman to which day for the delay of it they giue the daily pox their treasonable plots for surprizing the Lady Arbella for solliciting Earle Ferdinando to rise against her Maiestie for entertaining Yorke and Yong in the plot for firing her Maiesties storehouses and to flie with ships and all into Spaine c. And the like in Scotland For by their doctrine of Prince-killing haue they not enioined one for penance to murder his Soveraigne and doe they not hold it for sound doctrine that if one of them be commanded to murther an annointed Prince he must doe his endeavour and none hath beene wanting as lately enough in the murther of the last French king and latelier might haue beene seene in the now regnant in our own deare Soveraigne sundry times by the Iesuiticall hand had not Gods hand beene the stronger Three or foure of them were esteemed Martyrs in Englād but they died rather to their shames for their sinnes than to Gods glory if her Maiestie and the State would take them at the worst they might all bee iustly condemned for erroneous and traiterous persons For out of the Jesuits docttrine certainely there is nothing else but treacheries treason and conspiracies and hence it must needes followe that there is not a Iesuit in all England but hath a smacke of impietie irreligiositie treacherie treason and Machiavillian Atheisme and it cannot be but as long as there is one Iesuit left in England there wil be mutinies treason conspiracies and factions do what Pope or Prince or any other is able to do or say to the contrary All their plots and conspiracies wherof I am fully perswaded there are a great many yet lie hidden and vnknowne tend herevnto this is it that makes their bookes so full of plots exasperations and conspiracies against the Church and common weale that causes their mony to fly so fast over the Ocean two thousand pounds intercepted in one yeare going over to prepare for an invasion for an exploit in time to come But how hath God favored these prevaricators Pharisees and Conspirators against God and their country these massacring butcherlie buyers and sellers of their deare countrymens bloud Their hopes of the English Nation were vaine and their Catilinian coniurations and conspiracies were not sanctified nor blessed by the hand of God Gods hand was ever the stronger and to conclude their evill successe shewes that God was not pleased with them The 61. Proposition Murderers of Kings Popes Cardinals c. THe Iesuits and their seditious faction do broach publish such a kinde of doctrine that subiects are no longer bound to obey wicked Princes in their temporall Lawes and commandements but till they be able by force of armes to resist them A most dangerous doctrine most vnfit to be published in this age By this doctrine the Iesuits murdered Henry the third and writ a discourse against him de iusta abdicatione H 3. as if it had beene hatched in hell practised against divers kings in France defeated the Polonian of his kingdom and here in England haue sought to compasse their wicked purposes by Norfolke Stukely Saunders For all which and many mo traiterous practises the Iesuits are at this day an odious detestable Generation But though they seeke to murder wicked Princes and propose rewards to such as kill tyrants yet it may be they will spare Popes Cardinals Bishops surely no they grow as bad as bad may be namely to the outraging of that which is most holy and if there be as there are shrewd suspitions in Rome cōcerning the death of two Popes two Cardinals and one Bishop already I make no question at all but that if hereafter any Pope shall crosse their plots and purposes the Iesuits wil haue such a figge in store for his Holines that shall do so as no Rubarbe Angelica Mithridate or other medicine or Antidote shall expell the venim poison and infection from his heart nor any bezar perle gold or vnicornes horne long preserue his life after it The 62. Proposition In Doctrine they turne all topsie turuie THey plunge themselues over head eares into Ecclesiasticall affaires with such audacity and obstinacie as they haue turned all topsie turvy The 63. Proposition By hereticall Positions OVt of the Iesuits doctrine certainely therein is nothing els but fallacie vpon fallacie errour vpon errour one contradiction encountring an other all nothing A Iesuit mainetained this most vile Atheall and heathenish assertion that one that is not a Christian may be Pope of Rome and an other Iesuit openly and for sound doctrine maintained it first to his Auditors in the Schoole at this instant openly in the Inquisition doth viz non est de fide credere hunc Romanum Pontificem esse Christi vicarium that it is no matter of faith to beleeue that this or that Pope of Rome is Christs Vicar To let passe their erroneous doctrin concerning their Generals infallibilitie of truth for deciding of matters their absurd Paradoxes of Equivocation The Iesuits every way in printed Books in writen copies or Manuscripts and most of all in privat conference haue taught contrarie to the beliefe of the Romane Church and therefore it is no marvell if in materiall points of catholike faith they oppose against the Angelicall Doctour and be therefore at this present in dighted before his Holinesse by the Dominicans in Spaine for Pelagians and sundry other kindes of Hereticks as also for impostors by the Sorbonists of Paris and all other French cleargie as we credibly heare The 64. Proposition By extravagant opinions NEver was there any religious order that tooke their course that held such phantastical extravagant exorbitant irregular opinions as they do The 65. Proposition Approving of the Stewes Fa Weston and Archer charged by Doctor Norden for defending the Stewes to be lawfull and very necessarie to be as lawfull as the Pope himselfe as if they had made as it seemeth a verie league with Hell against truth The 66. Proposition Abuse of Confession THEY abuse this sacred seale for the managing of worldly businesses herevpon it is reported that the Pope sent a precept or a decree to the Religious houses in Rome thereby prohibiting vnder great penalties that any should vse the knowledge of a mans estate in the Sacrament of confession to any Politicke ende or matter in any external affaire whatsoever but the Iesuits delayed their obedience herevnto and so they make confession a cony-catching or cousening tricke or slight to picke a man or womans purse nay to get all their lands by it and yet
now to speake of the person Father Robert Parsons The life of Father ROB. PARSONS an English Iesuit THis famous Father Rob. Parsons was borne of meane parentage infamous from the time that hee was first borne vnhonestly begot and basely borne vpon the body of a very base queane his supposed father of gentry no better then a Black-Smith his right father indeed the Parish Priest by meanes whereof hee was binominous some times called Rob. Parsons sometimes Rob. Cowbucke should not being base borne haue beene a Priest as altogether illegitimate and irregular the place where he was borne was called Stockersey in Somersetshire wherevpon he was called the Bastard of Stockersey a knowne bastard for the disparages of his birth not his baptisme could wash away his parents were so poore that his mother and sister had an annuall almes bestowed on them towards their sustenance who else had gon a begging after his supposed fathers death But how meane soever his Fathers estate was sure it is that he was brought vp in his tender yeares vnto the study of learning and the Arts and in processe of time his towardly inclinatiō being more generally known he was preferred vnto Oxford and there chosen fellow of Baliol College where he spent his time partly well partly ill Well for he professed himselfe a Protestant that with such affectation as he dealt with Mr Squire for direction in the study of Divinitie and conferred ordinarily in the reading of Calvin with Mr Hide a fellow in the house a knowne Calvinist but otherwise learned and a very morall gentleman and he was so eagar in promoting the Religion then professed that being Bursar he disfurnished the College Librarie of many ancient bookes and rare Manuscripts in their steed brought in a number of Protestant Books the first that were ever there and lastly his resolution was such for his constancie in this Religion that hee protested to one Iames Clarke his old schoolefellow then abiding in the Inner Temple who doubted his Religion that hee neither then was neither ever ment to be a Papist and offered to take an oath for assurance of the same Furthermore his Morall conversation and discipline was such and so strict that hee would haue punished one of his owne Pupils and Schollars whereof being the ancientest fellow of the College saue one of Noblemen and Gentlemens Sonnes and kinsmen he had aboue 20 at one time to this day both very vertuous learned for going to a play In like sort he wēt about to bring seven or eight in danger for taking after the fashion of schollars certaine puddings from a Pupill of his Hetherto he behaved himselfe very well but marke what followed This his too great severitie was remitted and his dealing in Oxford in the end proved lewd seditious and wanton and so infamous was hee there being then Master of Arts that hee was hissed out the College with whouts and hobubs and ringing with bels and the resolutenesse of the fellowes was such to hee rid of him that they had provided the toling of the Bell for him as the manner is for one which is to depart the world Thus was he banished Oxford with the great ioy of all men not for Religions sake but for libelling siding and other lewdnes True it is he had the favour to resigne being first lawfully expelled tendring his submission with teares and promise that he would ever after carry himselfe in good sort Now is Mr Parsons put to his shifts and the griefe of this expulsion did so farre prevaile with him that he notwithstanding his solemne protestation vnto the fellowes of the College and his old friend of the Temple packs the next yeare after over the Sea to studie in Padua and the yeare after that to wit in the yeare of our Lord 1575. he hies him to Rome and there enters the Societie of Iesus but now see what a thing it is to be a Iesuit he staies not long there but like a forward child putting himselfe out he obtaines of Pope Gregory the 13. to be sent together with F. Campian into England at the sute of D. Allen as was said in name of all English Cartholiks who desired greatly the assistance of the Iesuits in that mission where for the furtherance of the Popish cause hee was appointed Superiour this happened in the yeare 1580. These two holy Fathers being safely and secretly arrived here in England cease not to doe that for which they came to withdraw men from their allegiance to their true and lawfull Prince to side with the Pope and the king of Spaine but their employments were diverse according to their severall gifts Campian excelled in speech Parsons best was in writing the one therefore travelled vp and downe the Country making his chiefe abode in about London the other kept more about the Sea coasts and especially about the parts of Sussex from whence being discovered he might the more easily get into France saue one For he had well learned our Saviours words when you are persecuted in one Citty fly vnto another This precept of our B. Saviour he quickly put in practise for as secret as he lay and as cunning as hee was in casting his plots by letters written and bookes printed to exasperate the State yet the Fox was vncased his Letters intercepted and the Print and Printers which hee had procured for divulging of his Popish books so that the next yeare after his first arrivall he was constrained to flie into France leaving his fellow labourer to the mercy of the Magistrates into whose hands shortly after he fell and by the hands of iustice was as he well deserved soone cut of Thus hath our cunning Polititian that learned coūseller forsaken our Campe and rescued himselfe from our Country perils and now he begins to cry quit with the State as well as he could minding nothing but revenge His first approaches are verball by seditious books or rather enormous Libels for example Greencoate Philopater his Bookes of Reformation Admonition and of Titles His second attempts Real by plotting secret Treasons open invasions and lastly by vrging both Pius 5. and Sixtus 5. to excommunicate the Late Queene whome not long before as is to bee seene in a certaine Supplication made to the Queene by one Iesuit for all the rest hee tearmes most mighty most mercifull most feared best beloved Princesse the shot-anchor of all their iust hopes perfect in all Princely duty Sacred Maiestie and what not with protestation made vnto her that hee will yeeld and perswade in conscience all Temporall obedience and take her part even against the Popes Armie Thus wee see our Iesuiticall or rather Ignatian Apostle Father Cowbuc beginning to play his prises and bathing his hands in bloud sitting at the sterne
vnmasking his violent nature of whom Cardinall Allen held this opinion that he was a man very violent and of an vnquiet spirit and said that his turbulent head and lewd life would be a discredit to the Catholicke cause and no marvel if we obserue either his words or Actions how they haue alwaies since his interdealings in State affaires tended to most cruell barbarous and butcherly designements as by the sequel of his life shal more plainely appeare And first for orders sake I intend to note vnto you his discomposed writings and afterwards his exorbitant or extravagant and lewde Actions not comprising al for that were impossible would aske a wider volume but comprehending some of the chiefest in each kinde The Bookes which he composed were partly of Religion partly of State of Religion as his Resolution c. of State as his Green-coat Philopator c. the former sort were very commendable and worthy workes indeed not only in the iudgements of Papists but of a very learned and iudicious Protestant who hath published some of them in print with open profession of some small additions where the Auctor or Translatour rather was found to goe amisse but the later sort are condemned by diverse learned writers in sundry passages of their bookes and nether Protestants nor Papists haue allowed them The best and first Booke which he writ and which won him all the praise was his Booke of Resolution which he premised and divulged respectiuely as an exordium to all the rest of his seditious Pamphlets and lying Libels to breed in mens minds an assured opinion of his Religion pietie and devotion and yet not to heap more praises vpon him then he iustly deserues he was but a Collector or a Translator at the most the Booke not of his owne absolute invention but taken out of other Auctors his praise was for wel translating of it close coutching and packing it vp together in a very smooth stile and singular good Method and alack alack as all men knowe it is easie to lay fine threads together when they are gathered to a mans hand and as easie to translate a worke almost verbatim out of peece-meale Copies into his mother language The true praise to say the truth of this worke was due to Granada that laid the platforme to Fa. Parsons hand and gaue him the principall grounds matter thereof and which also was deserved by Mr Brinckley for the penning as diverse report When he had made an end of this Book he made an end also therewith of devotion sinceritie honest dealing For after the publication of this worthy work he more beat his braines about State matters then about the exercise of a Religious life and happy had he beene as one wisely obserues if his pen had staied here gon no farther but when Religion was once wordlefied in him and that State matters and the designing of kingdomes had so great a part in his studies then he shooke hands with all shamefastnesse and bid all truth and modesty farewell and began to furnish the world with sundry bookes of State touching Succession after the death of the Queene and Reformation vpon the Conquest of this Land and such like and see the wilinesse of this Fox his turnings and windings here there these Libels the contents whereof were wholly infamatory came not forth with his name or any knowne liverie he either concealed his name or gaue thē such names as it pleased him to devise for which cause some Papists haue little cause to thanke Mas Parson and namely Mr Doleman in whose name hee set out the Booke of Titles notwithanding that hee detested the contents of it which might haue brought him in great danger This Booke was set forth against the whole State entituling most traiterously the Spanish Infanta to the English Crowne and the king Catholike as some thinke and spare not to say was privie to the setting forth of this lucklesse labour now this was Parsons policie and forecast if the Booke had beene commended as it neither was nor deserved it then who but Fa. Parsons should haue beene the Father thereof but now that many exceptions are taken vnto it hee good man is not the Auctor of it his name is not Doleman and gladly hee would shift and wash his hands of it but all the water betwixt this and Rome will not serue his turne so to do and thus much be spoken of his Doleman There followes or rather as some thinke goeth before a railing Booke of one Andrew Philopater alias Robert Parsons written in accusing or reprooving some one or many of all her Highnes Nobles and civill Magistrates What opinion trow we haue the best learned Papists of this Booke Some hold it to be a most seditious treacherous and infamous Libell and worthy of Father Parsons fraught til it almost burst againe with al Iesuiticall pride and poyson some to be a most vnpure and loathsom booke against the State take one example for all in this Philopater the Auctour very peremptory slie and saucie as his manner is very bold lie affirmeth that when kings do deflect from the Catholike Religion and draw others with them Liberos esse subditos c posseque debere si vires habuerint huiuscemodi hominem dominatu eijcere I wil not English the words for very shame Let vs go on forwarde to the examination of some of his other Bookes Was not his Greencoate alias his Leycesters Common wealth a famous booke Yes verely as Bookes in the Law are called famosi Libelli For it was an inormous Libell written against one of the Peeres of this Land Wherein the Malapert or Resolute Iesuit keepes his old wont to resolue vs peremptorily that a different Religion is a barre to inheritāce He might haue left such scoggerie as he hath set out in this Book to Tarleton Nash or els to some Puritan Mar-prelate or other like companions Next followes his Booke of Reformation which vnder reformation was Father Parsons Babell that is his castle in the aire wherein he prescribes Rules to al Estats here you see he is no changeling the same man that he was before or rather growne more audacious and impudent and wel he might considering that these orders were begunne in their deepe Iesuiticall Court of Parliament at Stix in Phlegeton and suggested thence into Father Parsons sconce being ended and compiled into a full and complete volume by him and his Generall intituled The High Court of Reformatiō for England Wherin are sundry wise Acts contained Amongst the rest that the Iesuits Capuchins only should liue there that Bishops must be Pensioners Abbey-lands thus thus disposed he also hath his Legem Agrariam limiting the Nobilitie and Gentry how much they should spende with a number of the like senselesse fooleries al