and countrey as you hope but to your owne confusion I am sure as you may see if you will and some haue felt against their wills The 34. part YOu say in the commendation of your Church of Rome as followeth Albeit priuate olde men may lacke wit yet Chirstes olde spouse which is the Church can not If al be true that you say then it is so in deede for you bring none other autour but your selfe neyther any argument for proouing of the same It is impossible but that your olde spouse shoulde be verie full of witte if they haue such wise Cardinals and pregnant pillers as Petrus Asotus and Hosius were that affirmed that the same Councell wherein our sauiour Christ was condemned to die had the holy ghost and that the same was a iust decree wherby they pronounced that Christ was worthie to die Moreouer he could not chose but be full of wisedom that wrote vpon the popes decree that the Iewes had committed mortall sinne if they had not nayled Christ to the Crosse. These members of your holy mother your olde spouse were no fooles I 〈◊〉 that tooke parte with Annas and Caiphas against Christe They might well haue diuelishe witte but I am sure they had no godly wisedom In deed the true Church of Christ which is gouerned and taught by the holy ghost can want no godly wisedome but your Church of Rome whiche you counte Christes olde spouse hath and doeth lacke both learning wit and honestie as before it doth manifestly appeare That pope was very full of witte which you counte the chiefe of your Churche that gaue iudgement and sentence that they at Ratilpone in Germanie and the Abbay of Saint Denise in Fraunce had both the whole bodye of Saint Denise at once as is before mentioned He had more witte than Salomon for Salomon coulde make but one childe into two halfe children but your sayde profound and wise pope made one Saint Denise into two whole Saint Denises Belike the Pope thought that seeing euery simple and raskall priest coulde make Christes bodie at one time to be in many places thē he being the prince of al priests was able to make the body of S. Denise to be in two places And further your olde spouse of Rome can want no wit because it can not erre if it woulde and no maruell for it can haue the holye Ghost in the likenesse of an Owle to instructe it for in one of your late Councelles in Rome as they were singing and roaring of Veni creator spiritus that is Come holy ghost c. by and by at their becke and calling a poore olde Owle amazed with the noyse thinking belike shee was the holy ghost that they called for so earnestly leapt out of the hole where shee sate and came downe in the middes of them and sate amongst them Thus you may perceiue that there is a great difference betweene the Spirite of God and the Popes holy Ghost For God the holy Ghost discended and appeared to Christe in likenesse of a faire white doue but the popes holy ghost did discende and appeare to the Pope in the shape of a foule euill fauoured owle Surely they are fowlie ouerseene that wil not be guided by your Churche that is taught and instructed by suche a holy ghost Your olde spouse can neuer want 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 inspired by such a holy spirite The 35. part AFter this your discouering of Maister Nicols manners and learning to his reproche as you thought and commending your owne follies you discommend and goe about to discredite my sayde booke called A perswasion from papistrie But though you decide it without any reprouing or consuting therof yet I haue so reproued and confuted such partes of this your discouerie as I thought necessarie was meete for me to do that you are so vncouered that the wise may see that you daunce naked in a net though you thinke your selfe well enough couered And these are your wordes concerning the same Of late in the middest of our persecutions there came forth a waightie worke of 40 sheetes of paper made by one Thomas Lupton entituled a perswasion from papistrie he woulde haue said a diswasion but that papistrie and perswasion began both with a letter I must needes confesse my sayd booke was not published very long since it is so lately come forth that it seemeth you had no leasure to peruse the same as you shoulde for if you had red it as aduisedly as many haue done you woulde not I thinke haue derided it as you haue done You say it came forth in the middest of your persecutiōs It came forth at such time as it had pleased God to giue me his instrument leaue to finishe the same for of my selfe I am most certayne I neither began it proceeded in it neither finished it For if a sparrowe light not on the grounde without Gods prouidence then the penne of a man Gods image doth not light on the paper without Gods direction y t writeth in Christes cause and indefence of Gods worde But that it was in the middest of your persecutions I hardly can thinke for that it were requisite that they shoulde beginne before they be in the middest In deede her highnes doth not persecute you as queene Marie did vs yet shee hath power to punish you much more than shee doth And because you haue written in derision agaynste my sayde booke whiche I am nowe in hande to defende I will nowe write some parte of my wordes therein touching this time which you call the middest of your persecution And these are my wordes If you would marke but her maiesties power and knew what shee may doe and weyghe your owne dooynges and what yee ought to doe truely you woulde say then that shee is the moste miledest and mercifullest Queene one of them that euer raigned You thinke not a misse in her grace and counte her not vnmercifull though shee put theeues to death for stealing whiche GOD hath not commaunded to bee punished with death and can not you see that her Maiestie is marueylous mercifull in that shee suffereth you to liue for disobeying Gods woorde and committing Idolatrie whiche GOD by his lawe hath commaunded to bee punished with death King Iosias 〈◊〉 the idolatrous Priestevpon the alters that committed Idolatrie and yet hee is reckoned for a Godly king But our mercifull Queene Elizabeth hath not burned the popishe priestes on the alters where they committed idolatrie in saying of Masse and worshipped a piece of breade for the bodie of Christe which shee might haue done if shee would and yet you count not her for a godly and mercifull Queene You praise and extoll Queene Marie to the heauens for vsing crueltie and for burning her humble and faultlesse Subiectes But if our 〈◊〉 Elizabeth shoulde vse lawefull seueritie on her stubborne and disobedient people Gods foes and her enemies that desire her
but a booke of small importance and very light though it bee the weightiest worke of all other then it is no maruell though you count my booke to be a very light worke But I feare if you turn not to the Gospell from the Pope as my saide booke doth 〈◊〉 persuade you that it as light as you make it will proue heuie against you at the last day and then ryse as a witnesse against you Iesuites as the people of Niniuee that repented at the preaching of Ionas and the Queene of Saba shall ryse and witnesse against the Iewes that repugned or withstoode Christe For if the dust that the Apostles did shake from their feete shall bee a witnesse against the vnbeleeuing and wicked Iewes then it is not vnlike but that my said booke which doth 〈◊〉 persuade you to imbrace the Gospell shall be a witnesse against you obstinate and incredulous Iesuites Though my said booke be fortie sheetes of paper yet you haue not confuted any one worde thereof neither approued y t there is any lye in the same though in pour margent you write Luptons lyes and whereas you haue written scant the fourthpart of one sheete in deriding discrediting my said boke of fortie sheetes without confuting or reprouing any one part of y t same I haue now writtē aboue twentie sheetes of paper against you for deprauing and slaundering the same wherein I haue most manifestly reproued diuers partes of your 〈◊〉 booke of Discouerie besides the defence of mine owne booke If I had left my name out of my boke as you haue done yours you could not so rightly haue hit of the same But as they that haue a true and iust cause in hande neede not feare to vtter their name as I am most sure I haue So they y t deale vniustly take partiu a vile and noughtie cause are glad to hide their name as nowe you haue doone Which cōcealing of your name doth not a litle discredit your cause The 37. parte BEcause I haue intituled my said booke A persuasion from papistrie therefore it seemeth you iudge that the 〈◊〉 is vtterly disgraste and for that you would haue it knowne that you are able to teach or rather cōtroule mee you say I would haue saide a diswasion but that papistry and persuasion begā both with a letter Who would haue thought that it had lyen in a Iesuite to knowe what a Christian woulde haue said your name doth import that you shoulde bee well learned but I would neuer haue iudged vntill I did heare it of your selfe that you had beene so deepely learned as to knowe a mans thought you say as shall appeare heereafter that it seemeth I haue been some Musicion but whatsoeuer I haue beene it is not vnlike but that you haue beene or are some fortune teller for you that can declare a mans thought can easily tell folkes their fortune It seemeth to mee that as the Pope hath a heauenly iudgement in his breast so you haue worldly mens thoughtes in your bosome But least you shoulde take too deepe a conceite in your knowing of mens thoughtes to put you out of doubt you haue myste of my thought it was neuer in my minde to say a Disuasion I know not your age no more than I knowe your name but it may bee y t before you euer knew any letter of the booke y t I knewe the difference betweene persuadere and disuadere And now that you haue myst my thought I will not sticke to tel you 〈◊〉 thought Because my whole drift in my saide booke is to persuade you and all other to Gods worde from Papistrie 〈◊〉 for that in my iudgement the title woulde haue beene too long if I shoulde haue saide A persuasion to Gods worde from papistrie I thought it good for the shortnesse of the title to leaue out Gods worde as a thing to bee vnderstanded and to intitle it a persuasion from Papistrie as I did in deede thus I haue not onely shewed you that you haue myst of my thought as good a Clarke as you are but also my very intent and thought in intitling my saide booke as it is And though I coulde not sufficiently proue the contrary but that there had beene some errour in this woorde Persuasion and that the sense did require this word Disuasion whereby it ought to haue beene a disuasion from Papistrie yet you knowe this worde Disuasion is seldome or neuer vsed especially among the common people for whose sakes I made my said booke as wellas for the learned And as I wrote it to allure Papists to Gods worde so I made it to make protestants the simple people to shun papistrie For euery one saith commonly vpon occasion I persuaded him frō play I persuaded him frō drunkennes I persuaded him from stealing I persuaded her from folly and such like and not I disuaded him from play I disuaded him frō drunkennesse I disuaded him from stealing or I disuaded her frō folly so that this is to be considered that Loquendū scribendum cum multis Sapiendum cum paucis Therefore if I had vsed persuasion which the most doe knowe and vse in steede of disuasion which fewe doe vnderstande and vse though there had beene some small errour by ouersight as by good foresight there was none as before is well proued yet mee thinkes you being a Iesuite and a professour of Iesus shoulde rather haue borne with an ouersight or an vnwilling errour then to write and publish that for a faulte which is no fault at all But if you had not contrould me thus in the intiteling of my booke rather of malice then of matter and of curiosity than of cause to the disabling of my learning the more to extoll your owne knowledge you your selfe woulde not haue offended in the like yea and that so manifestly that by no meanes you are able to excuse it For in the 110. page or side of your said discouerie being the seuēth leafe of G. the second side second line you haue discouered your own vnhonest dealing in these wordes that follow Therefore haue the noble matrones of Rome procured an other house called Casapia behinde Pantheon where these women may come for a time to proue what they will resolue vpon in which time the said matrones doe omit no 〈◊〉 to persuade them frō all dishonestie for the time to come c. Heere a Christian hath taken a Iesuite napping for you say that the matrones do omit no meanes to 〈◊〉 them from all dishonestie I knowe not what law you haue amongst you but I wolde thinke it is as lawfull for a Christian to say a persuasion from Papistrie as for a Iesuite 〈◊〉 say a persuasion from dishonestie Therefore where you write I woulde haue saide a disuasion but that papistrie and persuasiō began both with a letter now do I write that you shoulde haue said disuasion because dishonestie and disuasiō begin both with a
death and destruction the confusion of their countrey and the ruine of this Realme you woulde dispraise and slaunder her and say shee were a cruell tyrant Nay for all her highnesse hath vsed you so mildely and mercifully as shee hath done yet some of you woulde darken her desertes if you coulde in sayinge moste spitefully and falsly that this is the time of tyrannie these are the daies of persecution this I graunt but not in Englande though you meane in Englande Truly suche as doe say so must needes I thinke speake against their conscience and knowledge vnlesse they take mercy for crueltie and crueltie for mercie and then I may say vnto them as Esay saide to the Iewes Woe bee to you that cal euill good and good euill c. If this bee the time of tyrannie and persecution when you that are manifest enemies to your Queene and countrie before well proued are suffered to liue peaceably to inioy your goods quietly to goe at your libertie or imprisoned to fare daintily and there to liue merily or to bee releast vpon suretie Then what was Queene Maries time when her simple humble and faultlesse subiectes were cruelly imprisoned in stocks and chaines other engins tormented most tyrannously racked their friendes to come to them not suffered on the bare boordes and ground lodged to haue penne and inke and candle light not permitted for want of meate to bee famished in prisons priuily to bee murthered and abrode in euery mans eyes to bee burned That time of Queene Mary to all wise men may rather seeme to bee the time of crueltie tyrannie and persecution than this milde and mercifull time of our Queene Elizabeth I beseech God to open your eyes to see howe her grace doth persecute you for if you did see yet I feare some are blinde for the nonce you would then say that shee persecuteth you none other wise than the louing father doeth his childe and as the good scholemaster doth persecute his scholler that hee would faine haue to learne Thus much concerning your now persecution I haue declared in my said booke whereby it may plainely appeare that yours is rather a pleasant pastime then a painfull persecution to that that the Protestants felt in Queene Maries time therfore you cannot 〈◊〉 say that my said booke came foorth in the middest of your persecutions but in the middest of your easie and carelesse liuing The 36. parte YOU call my saide booke a weightie worke of fortie sheetes of paper The proud and learned Scribes and Pharisees and the other common people thought the 〈◊〉 two mytes were but of a small value but in y t sight of Christe they were counted great for that it was all shee had Euen so that my saide simple booke being al y t I was able to doe may bee counted light in your iudgement but before God I am sure it is so weightie that it will weigh downe all your learned bookes that you write for the maintenance of the Pope your Romish Church And though in 〈◊〉 you name it a weightie worke yet I haue proued in good earnest that the booke wherein you deride it is but a very light worke for that this my answere hitherto hath weyed it cleane downe But though you count it a very simple and light work yet I must content my selfe there with for so the Popes learned Doctors counted and estemed the Scriptures For Ludouicus a Canon of the Church of Laterane in Rome openly in an Oration pronounced in the late Conuenticle of Trident for the mainteining of the decrees where of you are so deepely sworne saide as followeth Ecclesia est viuum pectus Christi scriptura autem est quasi mortuum Attramentum The Church is the liuely breast of Christe But the scripture is as it were dead inke The Bishop of Poiters in the same your godly counsell of Trident saide thus Scriptura est res inanimis muta sicut 〈◊〉 sunt reliquae leges politicae The scripture is a dead dumbe thing as are all other politike lawes To this ende writeth Albertus Pigghius Si dixeris haec referri oportere ad iudicium Scripturarum c. If thou say these matters must be put ouer to the iudgement of the scriptures thou shewest thy selfe to bee voide of common reason For the scriptures are dumbe iudges and cannot speake Eckius called the Scriptures Euangelium Nigrum Theologiam Attramentariam The blacke Gospell and inken diuinitie Furthermore in the discommendation of the scriptures Pigghius writeth thus Sunt scripturae vt non minus vere quam festiue dixit quidam velut Nasus cereus qui sehorsum illorsum in quācunque volueris partem trahi retrahi fingique facile permittit The scriptures as one man both truly and merily saide is like a nose of waxe that easily suffereth it selfe to be drawne backward and forward and to be moulded and fashioned this way and that way and howsoeuer yee list Thus reuerently did your Doctors of your Romish Church write of the most holy Scriptures You wrote immediately before these wordes It is a world to see what pillers of defence they haue got what graue writers in their cause what bookes they suffer to come out against vs dayly But may not I say to you and that more rightly and truly It is a most lamentable thing both to see and to heare what pernicious and pestiferous pillers your Church of Rome hath and what impudēt writers you haue in your cause and what beastly bookes your holy father and you doe suffer to bee in printe and goe abrode wherein the holy Scripture and worde of God is made a iesting and 〈◊〉 stocke The simplest the vnlearnedst the youngest writer that is or euer was amongst y t professours of the Gospell may be counted graue writers in comparison of these your nowe mentioned doctours Whatsoeuer you count of our writers you neuer founde that wee wrote so vnreuerently and so decestablie of the holy worde of God the tryar of all truth as these and other of your Romishe graue writers haue doone These your graue writers might be auncient and graue men to see to but they haue written most childishly 〈◊〉 fondly falsly and diuelishly It is not the grauitie of the person that maketh the writing graue but the graue and true writing shewes the grauitie of the person therefore if you consider well your graue pillers y t wrote as is before in y t defēce of your church you haue no great cause mockingly and restingly to call vs graue writers as though none but they of your 〈◊〉 can be graue writers And now for that your Popes pillers and your graue writers doe call the scriptures which is the holy woorde of GOD dead Inke a liuelesse letter a dumbe Iudge that cannot speake a blacke Gospell inken Diuinitie and a nose of waxe whereby they tooke the holy Bible not to bee any weightie worke
letter And as you thinke that papistrie beginning with a P. did put mee in minde to say persuasion because it beganne also with a P So I thinke that dishonestie beginning with a D. shoulde like wise haue put you in remembrance to haue saide disuasion because it began also with a D. And as by your words I had some occasion to say a persuasion from papistrie because papistrie and 〈◊〉 began both with a letter yet you had no suche occasion to say a persuasion frō dishonestie because dishonestie and persuasion begin with contrarie letters Thus as the wicked through Gods goodnesse fall many times into the same pits that they make for the Godly so you being a Iesuite are 〈◊〉 fast in your owne snare which you laid for a Christiā In this your disabling of my skill in the intitling of my said booke thereby to bring your owne knowledge in credit you haue gained as the vaine glorious Priest did that to encrease his own glorie in learning controuled a young scholler for speaking true latine Which was thus a man hauing a sonne at home with him whom he had put to learning beeing very desirous to know whether he had profited well or not desired the Parson or Uicar of the Parish to examine and appose his said sonne And then the said Priest being both curious and vaine glorious askt the young man what was latine for a Prieste To whome hee answered Sacerdos no saide the Prieste therein you are deceiued For who hath the chiefest learning or wisedome but priests Therefore Sapientia is a very fit latine worde for a Prieste wherewith the sober and wise young man held him content then immediatly the Priest seeing a Cat saide to the saide young man I pray you what is latine for a Cat The young man answered him that Catus was Latine for a Cat no said the Priest a Cat hath very sharpe nailes and therfore Asper is the right latine worde for a Cat whom the young man did not contrarie And the saide Priest as hee was sitting by the fire askt the saide Scholler what was latine for fire Forsooth said hee Ignis that is not so saide the Priest for when a man commeth in very colde what maketh him more glad then a good fire Therefore there is no fitter name for fire then Laeticia all which words y e Scholler kept well in his minde but yet saide nothing Then as they al walked abroade after in the yarde the Priest espying a ponde or ditch with water saide to the Scholler what is latine for water Then the Scholler tolde him that Aqua was latine for water no saide the Priest you are wide for as there is a merueilous great aboundance of water aswell on the maine lande as in the deepe and brode Sea so the best latine word that can be for water is abundantia and as they walked a little further the Prtest espying a barne saide to the scholler tell mee what is latine for a Barne then the young man saide that Horreum was latine for a Barne y t is not so saide the Prieste for what greater ioy can bee to a man than to see his Barne full of corne Therefore Gaudium is the true latine woorde for a Barne When the Schollers father hearde that the Prieste contraried his sonne in euery thing that hee askt him hee was very angrie with his sonne and saide all that hee had spent on him was in vaine Sir said the Priest your sonne will do wel enough he hath not yet the yeeres to atteine to our learning And thus he made y e simple vnlerned mā beleeue y t he had controuled his sonne rightly whereas he did it but to set forth his owne vaineglory as you haue done This young scholler remembring well the priestes new latin thought to controlle him with an example without any argumentes though the priest controlled him with blinde argumentes without any example and so soone after hee gotte a Catte and tied a fire brand at her tayle and put her into the priestes barne that was full of corne and whē he had so done he came to the priestes windowe and cryed aloude saying O sapientia sapientia Asper currit cum Laeticia nisicitius veneris cum abundantia nunquam intrabis in gaudium Which is by y e priests own deuised latine but not according to true latine O priest priest the Catte doeth runne with fire and vnlesse thou come the sooner with water thou shalt neuer enter into thy barn But for that the priest had forgotten his owne latine and tooke the same woordes truely as they signified in deede whiche is O wisdome wisdome sharpe rūneth with gladnes and onles thou come the sooner with aboundance thou shalt ueuer enter into ioy the Priest sturde neuer a whitte for hee had cleane forgot the signification of his owne deuised latine whereby his barne and all his corne was burned And thus as the priest gayned but litle for controlling the Scholler when he sayde true so you haue not gayned much in controlling mee for the intiteling of my booke And if it was a great fault in the priest to forget fiue words of latine which he taught the yong scholler then it is a fowle shame for to forget one Englishe worde wherein you controled me And if it were a shame for the priest for refusing his owne latine wherewith vayne gloriously hee discredited the scholler to his father and tooke the true meaning of the schollers woordes then it can be no great praise to you to refuse your owne Englishe woorde whiche you wrote vaynegloriously to diseredite mee to all the whole realme to vse my word y t you reproued me for Thus I trust I haue defended the title of my booke called A perswation from papistrie and sufficiently answered you for your curious comtrolling me because I put not in 〈◊〉 for perswation The 38. part AFter this your controlling of the title of my booke these are your wordes that followe Of this authours estate and calling I can not yet learne but that hee seemeth to haue been some musition in tyme for that much of his matter 〈◊〉 from him in ryme You can not yet learne of my estate and calling you say what remedie I trust you shall wel enough hereafter But you haue one great aduantage of mee for you knowe my name and so doe not I yours whereby with trauell and searche you may learne my estate calling but w t al y e trauel search y t I am able to make I can not learne neither your state nor conditions because you hide your name I thinke you haue left your name out of your booke because you would not haue vs learn your state and conditions Though you knowe not my calling for all you knowe my name yet I thinke I knowe your calling though I knowe not your name I take that your calling is to be a Iesuite and to bee one of the Popes sworne
latine before Whatsoeuer his knowledge is in the Latine tongue I knowe not but his Christian faith exceedeth your Iesuitic all learning For as the Centurion being captaine of an hundred souldiers before mentioned and Cornelius the Captaine to whome S. Peter was sent were more accepted of God for their faith though they were not deeply learned thē the proud learned Scribes Pharisees and high Priestes So this worthie zelous knight sir Owen Hopton being the Queenes Maiesties Liefetenant and chiefe captaine of the Towre and of all her Maiesties seruants and souldiers there though he be not so deepely learned as you yet for his zelous minde his earnest loue to Gods worde and for his perfect faith in Christ is no doubt therefore more accepted of God then you that cast of Gods woorde and cleaue to your owne wit and learning And for that you say that hee was ouermuch troubled with latine it is like you thought hee had but small knowledge in Hebrwe and Greeke But for his wanting of those two tongues in my iudgement hee is not the lesse to bee esteemed if the Popes were not worse to bèe thought of for wanting of Latine for if your Spirituall Popes that had all lawes in their bosomes and an heauenly or diuine iudgement in their breastes wanted Latine and Grammer as is before proued Then sir Owen Hopton being but a temporall knight and the Queenes Lieftenant of the Towre may well lacke both Heinwe and Greeke And thus though you seeme to deride mee for want of 〈◊〉 and learning yet I wish with all my hearte that Christe doe not despise you at the last and dreedefull day for lacke of faith The 46. part YOu say that I cite all my whole matter out of Iewels defence of the Apologie Foxe his Martyrologe and Cowper Epitome of the Chronicle As good as wise as godly learned as you woulde haue named these three worthie and learned men with more reuerence then you haue done beeing three such speciall and painefull learned writers for the commoditie of their Countrie and for the perpetuall profite of our posteritie as neither your great citie of Rome nor yet the whole Countrie of Italie haue bread or brought foorth at any one time three suche as this our Countrie of England hath done of them at least so manifestly knowne by their workes as they are by their writings Wee Christians heere in Englande doe knowledge our selues greatly bounde to God for them and such like though you Iesuites doe make small account of them I had been a very vnskilfull writer if I had not written in the same part of my booke one sentence of mine owne but all of other mens doings seeing it was one of the three partes of fortie sheetes of Paper But as al your woordes before haue not been Gospel so here you haue spoken more than truth But if you were as loth to speake that is false as it seemeth you are carelesse 〈◊〉 you speake you would I am sure haue saide that some part of the same was none of theirs Whether all my matter of that parte of my saide booke bee cited out of master Iewell master Cowpers and master Foxes bookes I wil referre the same to the indifferent reader thereof And if they say that I haue cited all the matter therein conteined out of the said learned mens bookes I will become a 〈◊〉 so that you if they say contrary will become a Christian. But as many arguments similitudes and sentences of the same was of mine owne deuising through Gods helpe so there are other learned authorities that I had neuer of them But suppose that I had taken all my authors for my purpose out of them being the authours words and truely alleadged shoulde that bee a discredite to my 〈◊〉 must euery booke bee counted vnlearned and of no value vnlesse euery sentence of Saint Augustine Chrisostome or other learned fathers doctors or writers that is 〈◊〉 therein bee taken out of the authours woorke that first wrote them Then many of your Papisticall pamphlets that you esteeme and extoll must not goe for 〈◊〉 Can you make mee beleeue that euery authour cited by you is taken out of the originall worke I scantly thinke it I doubt not but that some of you doe credite your friends quoting sometime without further searche What if I shoulde alleadge out of the Gospell of Saint Matthewe these wordes of Esay spoken by Christe which rightly may bee applied vnto you With the eares yee shall heare and shall not vnderstande and with the eyes yee shall see and shall not perceiue c. Or these wordes of Esay out of Saint Markes Gospell This people honoreth mee with their lippes but their heartes are farre from mee Will you not credite Christe the citer heereof Or will you ieast at the work because I tooke thē not out of the booke of the Prophesie of Esay May not a man vpon the credite of Saint Paule recite vpon some occasion some of his 〈◊〉 of the Prophetes or other Scriptures that hee citeth in his Epistles Or shall the booke bee disdained or discredited because the writer of the booke tooke not the same out of the Prophet that spake them Or out of his booke that first wrote them They that therefore will mislike a booke are rather precise papists then perfect Protestantes If I should make a good precious medicine would you dispraise or despise that good and precious medicine or think scorn of it because the herbes y t made it was not gathered in the garden beyonde the Sea from whence the Seedes or herbes were first brought If you were so curious you were not worthie to be cured of your disease And if such curiositie were vsed many one woulde bee dead before the medicine were made It maketh no matter howe nigh or where the herbes be gathered so that they be y e right herbs and haue the very vertue And so if wee produce learned mens sayings for testimonie and make therewith a spirituall confection for the health of the soule it forceth not out of what booke wee cite them so that they bee the right woordes and the true sense of the first Authour Therfore though I had cited all my matter out of master Iewels master Foxes and master Cowpers bookes as I haue not so that they be apt fit for my purpose beeing the very true woordes of the first and originall authour thereof you had neither therefore cause to discredite my booke neither the indifferent Reader to mislike my booke Perhaps you disdaine or mislike it because I haue cited in some pointes master Iewell master Cowper and master Foxe for authoritie seeing they are yet aliue or were but late writers and therefore you thinke them vnworthie to bee cited as authours Surely if you thinke so as I beleeue both you and many other do so then I take your opinion therein to bee rather preposterous then profound and reproueable then
yet in any part of my saide booke heere I will describe the most likest wordes vnto them that are there to bee founde and these are they Abbot Panormitane saith out of Hostiensis Christus Papa faciūt vnū cōsistoriū excepto peccato potest Papa quasi omnia facere quae potest Deus Christ and the Pope make one Consistorie and sinne excepted the Pope in a manner can doe all things that God can doe As you woulde haue your Reader thinke that your reciting of my wordes is sufficient to make them lyes so I woulde haue your Reader to iudge that my reciting of these woordes is sufficient to prooue Panormitan an abhominable and detestable blasphemer And as you haue falsified my wordes first and then committed them to bee confuted of your Reader so I haue writtē Panormitanes wordes truly and commit them to the iudgement of the indifferent Reader For I beleeue it is harde to finde a Reader that will thinke that Christe and the Pope haue one iudgement Seate and that the Pope can in a manner doe all thinges that God can doe But this I will speake on the Popes behalfe though hee cannot doe all that God can doe yet am I sure hee can doe more then GOD can doe for hee can sinne hee can be a lyar hee can bee vnmercifull and a tyrant hee can breake his promise hee can promise more then hee can performe and hee can shewe himselfe wiser and mightier then hee is all which God cannot doe And thus as Siluester 〈◊〉 saith that the authoritie of the Church of Rome is more then Gods worde So I say the Pope is able to doe more then God can doe or at the least that that God cannot doe Therefore though you a Iesuite doe charge mee with that I neuer wrore yet I haue not fathered all the falshoods on Panormitan that he hath writtē This your falsifyng displacing and leauing out of my wordes and foysting in of your owne will procure but small praise to your selfe and lesse credite to your Pope The 51. part THen you leape sodenly I know not vpon what occasion to the 172. page beeing seuentie pages or sides from that place at the least which is a lustie leape of a Iesuite and I may say to you a fewe such leapes will quickly leape ouer the whole booke Yea your leapes are so light that it will scantly appeare I beleeue that you haue toucht the booke where you affirme that I haue written there That the Pope biddeth vs not to forbeare swearing any day and so you leaue that matter without any other confuting and goe no further If my matters hangd thus as you haue patcht them togeather my booke had been more meete to haue beene written to one of your vnlearned Popes then to such a learned and prudent Prince But because you haue skipt so swiftly so farre of to these fewe wordes without declaring any other wordes either before or after the same leapes to another matter 21. pages or sides from the same I will here write mine owne words both going before and following whereby the indifferent Reader may see whether their matter method and sense bee better where you haue displaced thē then where I first placed them When I had confuted in my 〈◊〉 booke some part of the Popes doctrine I came then as occasion serued to the disprouing of the Popes fast and when I had discoursed therof as I thought meet I followed then w t these wordes S. Augustin one of the excellētest Doctors whose iudgement I trust you will not refuse writeth Vpon what daies wee ought not to fast and vpon what dayes wee ought to fast I finde it not appointed 〈◊〉 limited by any 〈◊〉 either of our Lorde or of the Apostles But what if S. Augustine had willed vs to fast 〈◊〉 suche dayes as y e Pope doth appoint a thousand other learned mē moe yet wee are not bounde eyther to beleeue or followe him or them vnlesse wee finde their sayings agree with Gods worde for Gods worde must leade them but they may not leade Gods worde Therefore because your Popish fast is not commaunded nor allowed by the holy scriptures but cleane contrary to the same as before is proued therefore it is superstitious wicked and highly displeaseth God and so of vs Christians ought not to bee vsed nor commended 〈◊〉 it bee vsed for worldly pollicie God commanded vs to refraine swering euery day but for fasting he appointeth vs no day but the Pope commaundeth vs to fast certaine dayes but biddeth vs not forbeare swearing any day Yet many of you regard the Popes lawe so muche and Gods commaundement so little that you thinke it a heynous matter to breake the fasting dayes that the Pope hath commaunded but make it no matter of conscience to sweare euery day which god hath forbidden Therefore keepe the fasting dayes commaunded by our Queene for good order and pollicie not for the Popes pleasure for his holines or hypocrisie c. Heere haue I written plainely my very woordes with the occasion and circumstances thereof whereby the indifferent Reader may perceiue that my wordes beeing in their owne place are not without method nor meaning and that you haue not dealt very honestly with me to shift my words so farre out of their owne place into such a strait narrowe vnfit corner yea and that in suche a strange place and so 〈◊〉 from their friendes that shoulde haue taken their parte that they that see them may suspect them for vagabounds If I shoulde vse this order with your booke as you doe with mine that is to picke out halfe a score wordes or either moe or lesse where I thought good chop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 other wordes 20 or 30. leaues of yea with such wordes as appertained nothing to y t purpose write nothing betwene to confute or reproue them as you do now heere haue done before the 〈◊〉 of your booke myght soone hee bereaued and you thereby shoulde get but small credite But though you a Iesuite can deale thus falsly 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 yet I a Christian cannot deale so vniustly with a 〈◊〉 Therefore flee falshood that workes your own shame and deale truely and vprightly as becommeth the seruants of Iesus The 52. part AND then againe you leape at one leape 21. pages or sides further and there you cull or weede out about 8. of my wordes ioyne them to these words concerning swering before mencioned nothing touching that matter or purpose and so you put them at your pleasure without any circumstance in a most vnapt place where they agree aswell as though a dogge and a cat were tyed together But the vnapter the place is the better it liketh you If you were as honest as you count your selfe holy you would suffer my wordes to goe among their fellowes and acquaintance and not to fetche them so farre of and thrust them you
truely so the spirite of Satan procureth the professours of Papistrie to speake or write falsely And where you say rather mockingly then modestly to bee read with deuotion A man may reade the wise and learned answeres y e pacient sufferings and the whippings scourgings and tormētings of the godly Gospellers with more deuotiō then your Romanes that before you wrote of can whip and scourge themselues for their owne offences yea though they scourge all the blood out of their bodies And though you Iesuites thinke that the reading of that most excellent necessarie booke will worke small deuotion in them that reade it yet wee Christians doe beleeue that you that write against the truth falsifiyng mens writings and make such manifest lyes doe not the same with any godly deuotion I hope wee Christians may reade master Foxes martyrologe with as great deuotiō y t expresseth the doyngs of the Saints of God that dyed wrongfully for professing Gods worde as you Iesuites may read your Popish martyrologe of the popes traiterous Saints that were iustly executed for murther and treason Thus though you thought vtterly to defame and discredite mee beeing a Christian by that time y t the indifferent Reader haue read this throughly I thinke you will wiune but small credite though you bee a Iesuite The 60. part YOu speake these words in the knitting vp of yuor said Discouerie As long as there shall bee either honest vertuous learned wise modest noble or gentle minde in Englande so long shall wee gaine by these their proceedings You haue a very good opinion in your works and writings for though your cause be neuer so course and your writings be neuer so false yet by your saying there is neuer honest vertuous learned wise modest noble nor gentle minde in England but such as take your cause to bee good and your religion true And as long as there is any suche you shall gaine and that by óur writings and proceedinges Then by this your sayings it appeareth if you chaunce to loose and wee gaine by your proceedinges then there is neuer an honest vertuous learned wise modest noble nor gentle minde in Englande This is the definitiue sentence of a Iesuite therefore it must needes be true Wherefore it were best for vs to suffer you to gaine by our proceedings least all our honest vertuous learned wise modest noble or gentle minds in England vanish quite away out of Englande and then were Englande vtterly marde But if you count your losses with your winnings I feare at the ende of your account your gayne will not bee very great nay it will seeme rather that you haue loste then wonne and so your loosing hath made vs loose all our honest wise and vertuous Noble men and Gentle men wherewith Englande was wont to florishe when you did gaine or win What a most spitefull saying and an arrogant 〈◊〉 is this of a Iesuite 〈◊〉 though there were neuer an honest vertuous learned wise modest noble nor gentle minde in England that are contrarie to your religion or that will not suffer you to gaine by your lying and to winne by your wicked writing Here in the knitting vp you haue shewed what you are for as you haue proceeded with vntruth so you end with falshood And as you haue runne this your rase vntruly and vnchristianly so you haue ended the same most 〈◊〉 and arrogantly And now for that you haue detracted my said booke called a persuasion from papistrie to bring it into such contempt that thereby it shoulde not bee read though you bee a Iesuite you may bee deceiued for whereas you thought to haue blowne out y e fier it may be y e thereby you haue kindeled the flame For you haue so 〈◊〉 mee to defende it that many perceiuing heereby howe vniustly you haue charged mee with 〈◊〉 may haply reade and peruse it that otherwise if you had not been too busie with your penne should neuer haue hearde of it whereby your doctrine may the more be despised And thus as many haue doone perhaps you may loose by that you hoped to winne I 〈◊〉 you are fullier answered then you looked for and more reproued and confuted then your friendes wold haue thought for your faire shew is turned into a foule shadowe your pretended wisedome into manifest folly your curious cunning into counterfeating lying though some more armed with affection than ruled with reason haue bragd that your learning is so great and your saide booke so true that the one shoulde seeme incomparable and 〈◊〉 other vnreproueable Not doubting but that they that shall reade this my booke written as an answere to you and in the defence of my saide booke called A persuasion from papistrie will not easily bee persuaded that my saide booke whiche you counte so light and so full of lyes is without all method or matter which I dedicated and deliuered with mine owne handes to the most famous learned and mercifull princes of the world whose subiect I am whō I am most bound vnder God to obey And if I were as great a lyer as you woulde fayne make me yet what wise man wil thinke that I durst once presume to lyne that booke with lies that I gaue to her grace But though you as it becommeth a Iesuite went about as much as in you laye to diseredite mee and my saide 〈◊〉 and thereby to make mee loose the fauour of men yet I as beseemeth a Christian wishe with all my heart that you may 〈◊〉 the holy 〈◊〉 and of a false Iesuite become a true Christian whereby you may obtayne the fauour of God FINIS Uirescit vulnere veritas Imprinted at London at the three Cranes in the Vintree by Thomas Dawson for Thomas Woodcocke dwelling in Paules Church-yard at the signe of the blacke Beare 1582. I. part Acts. 17. Matth. 20. Marke 1. Marke 10. Mark 15. Iohn 12. Actes 1. Acts. 6. Actes 13. Actes 23. Chrys. in act Homil. 19. Concil later sessi 6. pag. 604. Math. 7. Math. 7. The othe of the Iesuites Bullapiiquarti super ordinatione promotione doctorum aliorum cuiuscunque artis et facoltatis professorum c. 2. part Phil. 2. ver 9. 3. part Acts. 4. ver 12. Math. 〈◊〉 Math. 3. Math. 7. 4. part Persuas from papistrie Pag. 289. Pag. 291. Pag. 〈◊〉 Pag. 〈◊〉 Pag. 292. 5. part Bernard ser. 4.2 in Can. Persuas from papistrie Pag. 290. Pag. 293. Pag. 294. Pag. 296. Pag. 296. Pag. 298. 〈◊〉 part Discouerie Pag. 3. Dist. 40. si papa in glossa Extra de trās episcopi Quanto in glossa The. 7. part discou pag. 3. Inter epi. Au. epi. 91. Eras. The 8. part discou pag. 3. Erasmus in scholis in Hieronym ad Marcellam De con distin 4 Retulerunt Iulius pp. 1. 9. quae 3. neque ab Augu. dist 19. si Romanorum in glos Extra de trās 〈◊〉 quanto in glossa 3. King 3. Perswasion from papistry pag. 121. Iohā Caluin