to any man of iudgement whereof a chiefe one is his Maiesties vndertaking the cause in writing wherein wee are bound to blesse God that hath set such a King ouer vs whom he hath indowed with such singular gifts as to giue occasion to such an Obiection Hee was no foole that pronounced that CoÌ„mon-wealth happy where learned men had the gouernment or the gouernors were learned and another who holds those wise men in the Gospel who came from the East are therefore held Kings because they were learned which I speake not to derogate froÌ„ other Kings but to thanke God for our owne whose drops that fall both from his tongue and Pen are as the Prophet Dauid speakes in another case like raine falling vpon the mowen grasse or as showers that water the earth We haue read in our own Chronicles of one Bladud a Brittish King who studied at Athens of Alured a Saxon King who translated the Psalter into his own language of Henry a Norman King who for his great schollership was surnamed the Beauclarke but for a King only Dauid and Salomon excepted that hath written so much and so well as his Maiestie exposing it to publike censure hath left it as an euerlasting monumeÌ„t of his name to posterity for mine owne part I must confesse in my small reading I haue not met with any either in our owne or forreine History Some Kings haue done some what in this kinde but hee excelleth them all so that for a Christian King to write and to publish his writings to the world euen in matter of Religion is not without example The Booke of Charlemaine in defence of the decree of the Synode of Frankeford which himselfe had thither called and against the Canons of the second Nicene Council touching the controuersie of adoring images is yet extant to bee seene in the Palatine library so is it acknowledged by Augustinus Steuchus in his second booke of Constantines donation where hee presses some things in that Booke for the Popes aduantage Howbeit Bellarmine in his second Booke of Images and 15th Chapter labourto prooue the contrary granting that it was sent by that Emperour to Pope Adrian but not as his owne His Maiesties Bookes aswell the former in defence of the Oath of Allegeance as the later by way of Premonition to the Christian States are no doubt as great corrasiues and eyesores to you as to vs they are cordiall and comfortable and cannot be but to him as dishonourable if hee should recall them as now they are honourable if hee continue constant to himselfe and them Now that they should proceede rather from the instigation of others then his owne disposition is a surmise of your owne I know not whether more foolish as being ignorant of that which hee had both written and spoken and done since hee came to yeeres of discretion conformably thereunto or dishonest in calling his Maiesties singular wisedome into question in suffering himselfe to bee so farre abused as vnwittingly to bee sent on other mens errands and to serue other mens turnes Howsoeuer there is nothing you say in that booke by which you cannot but vnderstand both the Premonition and the Apologie both bound together in one volume and titled together in one front why his Maiestie may not when he please admit the Popes Supremacie in Spirituals wherein first you dash though peraduenture vnawares against your great Cardinal who in his Letter to Blackwell professeth that in whatsoeuer words the Oath of Allegeance in defence of which his Maiestie wrote his Apologie bee conceiued it tends to none other end but that the authorie of the head of the Church of England may bee transferred from the Successour of S. Peter to the Successour of K. Henry the VIII this indeed he affirmes falsly but both in his Tortus against his Maiesties Apologie and in his Apologie against his Maiesties Premonition hee affirmeth truely that the vsurped Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome is in them both impugned And I cannot but marueile at such shamelesse impudencie as dares thus to write to his Maiestie touching his owne writings whose very words toward the later end of his Apologie are these discoursing before of the Supremacie of K. Henry the VIII in Church-matters for which Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas Moore were pretended to haue suffered I am sure saith hee that the Supremacie of Kings may and will euer be better maintained by the word of God which must euer be the true rule to discerne all weighty heads of doctrine by to bee the true and proper office of Christian Kings in their owne dominions then hee will euer be able to maintaine his annihilating Kings and their authorities together with his base and vnreuerent speaches of them wherewith both his former great volumes and his late bookes against Venice are filled Where he goes on and proues this Supremacie aswell by the Old as the New Testament and the practise both of the Kings of Israel and the Christian Emperours in the Primitiue Church both explaning and iustifying the Oath of Supremacie as it is by him imposed and taken by vs and in his Premonition written afterward though set before in the Booke he is so cleere in this point that Mr. Dr. cannot but stand conuinced either of grosse negligeÌ„ce in not reading or vnpardonable forgetfulnes in not remembring what he had read His Maiesties words are these But as I well allow of the Hierarchie of the Church for distinction of orders for so I vnderstand it so I vtterly deny that there is an earthly Monarch thereof whose word must be a Law and who cannot erre in his sentence by an infabilitie of spirit Because earthly Kingdomes must haue earthly Monarchies it doth not follow that the Church must haue a visible Monarch too for the world hath not one earthly Temporall Monarch Christ is his Churches Monarch and the holy Ghost his Deputie Reges gentium dominantur eorum vos autem non sic Christ did not promise before his Ascension to leaue Peter with them to direct and instruct them in all things but he promised to send the holy Ghost vnto them to that end And for these two before cited places whereby Bellarmine maketh the Pope to triumph ouer Kings I meane Pasce oues and Tibi dabo claues the Cardinall knowes well enough the same woâ—â—s of Tibi dabo are in another place spoken by Christ in the plurall number and hee likewise knowes what reasons the ancients doe giue why Christ bade Peter Pasce oues and also what a cloud of witnesses there is both of ancients and euen of late Popish Writers yea diuers Cardinals that doe all agree that both these speeches vsed to Peter were meant to all the Apostles represented in his person otherwise how could Paul direct the Church of Corinth to excommunicate the Incestuous person Cum Spiritu suo whereas he should then haue sayed Cum Spiritu Petri and how could all the
his Arguments sometimes beyond the extent of the Letter such extrauagant matters as he drawes in vpon the bye I thought it sufficient to reply vnto in my marginall notes so that in one of the two nothing I thinke worth the answering hath escaped vnanswered and I shall craue that curtesie of the Reader if he receiue not satisfaction in the one to haue recourse to the other and this I take to bee faire and iust dealing without exception once I am sure I haue dealt with him as my selfe in like case should desire to be dealt withall which I take to bee the safest rule of iust dealing Surely a matter it is of little labour and credite but lesse honestie to deale as Fitz-Simon hath done with Mr. Mason whose learned and painfull booke of the lawfull Consecration of our Bishops he pretends he read ouer and confuted in 15. dayes but his chiefe confutation as may eaâ—ily appeare to the Reader stands in denying acts vouched out of the publike Register or as Eudaemon the common packehorse of Rome hath lately dealt with my Lord of Salisburie answering his Antilogie a booke of about 60. sheetes full of varietie of learning and â—uident proofe with a Libel of some three or foure sheets at most which he hath also rather stained with rayling at persons and catching at words then made offer to answere so much as one materiall point and to speake a trueth I haue good reason to thinke he rather wrote it that the title might be seenâ— in the common Catalogue then that the Booke it selfe might commonly bee read in regarde that the worke is so slender and the copies so few that as it is scarce to be had so is it scarce worth the reading being had himselfe professeth that he wrote it Ne magni aliquid latere in â—o libro putarent queÌ„ nemo confutasset Lest men should thinke some great matter lay hidden in that booke which no man had confuted but hee that shall compare both may well say notwithstanding his answere that no man hath yet confuted it Somewhat more wisely and warily hath he dealt with Casaubons Exercitations answering onely the fourth chapter of his first Exercitation and promising a whole volume to follow after against the rest in imitation belike of Richard Stanihurst who hath published his flourish to a future combate with his Nephew Mr. Dr. VSher but I thinke wee shall see the full encounters both of the one and the other by leasure Pollicitis diues quilibet esse potest but Tarda solet magnis rebus inesse fides An easie matter it is to promise great matters but not so easie to performe them being promised For mine owne part I must confesse I haue made a larger answere then either the treatise answered deserued or the state of my bodie and my leisure being to make so often returnes from a remote part of the Kingdome to mine attendance in Court could well permit or indeed my selfe at first proiected but I haue now found it true in mine owne experience which I haue often heard obserued by others to fall out many times in writing as it doth in building many alterations and additions present themselues besides and beyond the first designe It was written of Fame but it may as truely be said of this kind of writing Vires acquirit â—undo It gathers strength in going as in eating a man sometimes gets a stomack which was the reason together with an expectation that either some more able pen would haue vndertaken this encounter or some matter of greater importance promised by the Author himselfe and Pelitier would ere this haue beene published to the world that mine answere hath beene differred till now but if it be well enough it is soone enough how well it is let the reader iudge whom notwithstanding I shall desire to suspend his iudgement till hee haue heard both parties speake which request mee thinkes is but reasonable considering I haue dealt so fauourably with the aduerse party as to set downe all at full that hee could say for himselfe With whom if I deale in mine answering as if hee were still aliue it is to bee ascribed to himselfe who in the conclusion of his Letter professeth hee sent his soule therein neither is that I haue done herein without example of those by whose greatnesse if need were small faults might be countenanced it is I hope sufficient that I neither intend thereby to wrong the dead or deceiue the liuing Neither let it bee thought blameable that being by profession a diuine I haue medled so much in matters of state it was rather out of the necessitie of the arguments to bee replied vnto then any desire or disposition of mine owne farther then to make it appeare to the world that the Religion by vs professed is more sutable to the preseruation of the ciuill power and in speciall the forme of policie established among vs then that religion which dares accuse ours of the contrary of which I may truely say that in the termes it now stands it doth not so much vphold temporall policie as it is vpheld by it and yet like the iuie which riseth by clasping the oake hath it at length ouertopt the oake of Soueraignetiâ— it selfe whereas on the other side ours hath hitherto had none other supports but the meere euidence of trueth and diuine assistance and so according to that receiued principle of nature being still nourished by the same meanes as it was first bredde it makes vs confident that it will both grow the better and last the longer Thus commending thee to Gods grace the worke to thy charitable censure and my selfe to thy Christian prayers I rest Thine in our Common SAVIOVR George Hakewil ⧠The Publishers Preface to the Reader before Dr. CARIERS Booke HAuing exactly perused good Reader this Treatise here presented to thy view and finding it both in stuffe and stile to be learnedly and eloquently contriued I tooke my selfe in some sort obliged in Christian duty to divulge it in print to the world vnwittingly I confesse to the Author howbeit encroaching vpon his charitable consent who I am well assured is most forward to defray his talent in ought wherein the Catholike Romane religion may be aduanced Of this firme and full resolution he hath made effectiue proofe not onely in words but also in workes The Author as it is notoriously knowen hath gained name and fame among the Protestants hauing beene a Teacher in their Colledges a Preacher in their Pulpits a Doctor in their Schooles a Canon in their Churches Chaplaine to the King his most excellent Maiestie flowing in wealth supported with the credit of the Court most likely in short time to aspire to higher Ecclesiasticall preferments had hee persisted in the course of his former profession Yet notwithstanding all these worldly allurements which are in good sooth wondrous inticing baites to hooke and to hold an vnstayed soule Mr. Doctor
censure of wise men might deseruedly haue purchased some more respectiue termes of the Father whereas Thuanus the most vnpartiall and iudicious Historiographer of our age giues this testimonie of him that he was a Prince of singular naturall indowments and such a one in whom had hee not too much loosed the reines to this pleasure you could hardly find wanting any perfection Nay after his diuorce from his Queene and from the Church of Rome the Bishops which hee named sayth hee were honest men and good Schollers being euer himselfe a great Patron of learning which testimonie I the rather alledge because the Spanish expurgatorie index hath rased it as also diuers other verie memorable passages in this Author B. C. 5. Thus I satisfied my selfe at Schoole and studied the Artes and Philosophie and other humane learning vntill being Master of Artes and fellow of Corpus Christi Colledge in Cambridge I was at last by the Statutes of that house called to the studie of Diuinitie and bound to take vpon me the Order of Priest-hood then I thought it my duetie for the better satisfaction of mine owne soule and the sauing of othermens to looke as farre into the matter as possible I could that I might find out the Trueth and hauing the opportunitie of a very good Librarie in that Colledge I resolued with my selfe to studie hard and setting aside all respect of men then aliue or of Writers that had mooued or maintained Controuersies farther then to vnderstand the question which was betwixt them I fell to my prayers and betooke my selfe wholly to the reading of the Church Historie and of the ancient Fathers which had no interest on either side and specially â— made choise of S. Augustine because I hoped to find most comfort in him for the confirming of our Religion and the confuting of the Church of Rome G. H. 5. After your perusing the Chronicles of England you betake your selfe to the reading of the Church Historie and ancient Fathers and in speciall make choise of S. Augustine in whom you find the doctrine of Rome euery where confirmed and ours confuted But I would faine know whether one maine point of the doctrine of the Church of Rome be not the Supremacie of that Sea and whether a chiefe feather in that wing be not Appeals from forraine parts Now whether S. Augustine approued them I appeale to his practise being one of those Bishops in the Councell of Carthage who discouered and disclaimed the impudencie and forgerie of the Church of Rome in challenging that as right which some of constraint had performed and others of courtesie had graunted for which himselfe with his Fellow-Bishops were excoÌ„municated by the Bishop of Rome and for any thing I can finde in the Church Historie so died Some of his workes I haue read specially those of Christian doctrine and of them I will be bold to say that they confirme no one point of Romish doctrine controuersed at this day and surely there if any where had beene the proper place to declare the Bishop of Rome Supreame iudge in all controuersies B. C. 6. In this sort I spent my time continually for many yeeres and noted downe whatsoeuer I could gather or rather snatch either from the Scriptures or the Fathers to serue my turne But when after all my paines and desire to serue my selfe of Antiquitie I found the doctrine of the Church of Rome to be euery where coÌ„firmed by most profound demonstrations out of holy Scripture made most agreeable to the trueth of Christs Gospel and most conformable to all Christian soules and saw the current opinions of our great Preachers euery where confuted either in plaine termes or by most vnanswerable consequence although mine vnderstanding was thereby greatly edified for which I had great reason to render immortall thankes to our blessed Sauiour who by these meanes had vouchsafed to shewe himselfe vnto mee yet my heart was much grieued that I must be faine either not to preach at all or to crosse and varâ—e from the doctrine which I saw was commonly receiued G. H. 6. I haue perused your Common-place booke written for the most part with your owne hand and indeed it thereby appeares that your noting might more deseruedly bee termed a snatching then a gathering though by your will you solemnely bequeath it as a rich legacie to C.C.C. in Camb. whereof you were a Fellow but you found the doctrine of the Church of Rome you say euery where confirmed by most profound demonstrations from holy Scripture in trueth I must confesse they are so deepe that throughout this treatise they are inuisible but I much desire to knowe by what profound demonstration from holy Scripture you would proue the adoration of images the administration of the Sacrament vnder one kinde the exercise of publike prayer in a language not vnderstood of the people or lastly the Bishop of Romes vsurpation ouer the temporals of Princes vnlesse you bring Bellarmines profound demonstration to that purpose Pasce oues meas or Baronius Surge occide manduca or the Canonists fecit Deus duo magna luminaria much like a profound demonstration I haue heard of for proofe of the Salique law the lillies neither labour nor spinne therefore the Crowne of France ne tombe point sur laquenouille fals not to the distaffe or like that of a Frier who would needs proue that ten worlds were made in the first Creation and that out of our Sauiours wordes in the Gospel annon decem factisunt mundi but he was well answered by his brother in the words following Sed vbisunt nouem and did hee not deserue the title of D. profundus trow you for so profound a demonstration By such like profound demonstrations you find the doctrine of the Church of Rome made most agreeable to the trueth of Christs Gospel which for the Sacrament is drinke yee all of this and for the power of his ministers my kingdome is not of this world wordes deliuered as it seemes out of a propheticall spirit as foreseeing what errours should in after ages spring vp in his Church but you doe well to say that those doctrines were made agreeable to this trueth they may bee made so or at leastwise made to seeme so by forging and hammering vpon the anuill of mens conceits howbeit in themselues they are not so as the belles seeme to the childe to ring that tune which runnes in his head B. C. 7. Being thus perplexed with my selfe what course I were best to take I reflected backe againe vpon the Church of England and because the most of those Preachers which drewe the people after them in those dayes were Puritans and had grounded their diuinitie vpon Caluins institutions I thought peraduenture that they hauing gotten the multitude on their side might wrong the Church of England in her doctrine as well as they desired to doe in her discipline which indeed
vpon due search I found to be most true for I found the Common prayer booke and the Catechisme therin contained to hold no point of doctrine expresly contrary to Antiquitie but onely that it was very defectiue and contained not enough and for the doctrine of I Predestination Sacraments Grace Freewill Sinne the new Catechisme and Sermons of those Preachers did run wholly against the Common prayer booke and Catechisme therein and did make as little account of the doctrine established by law as they did of the discipline but in the one they found opposition by those that had priuate interest in the other they said what they list because no man thought himselfe K hurt G. H. 7 If our Common prayer Booke and Catechisme therin contained holde no point of Doctrine contrarie to Antiquitie as you affirme Surely the Church of Rome must needs be contrary to Antiquitie in as much as it holds diuers points contrarie to it If we should beginne with the Preface which is confirmed by equall authoritie of State as the bodie of the booke it tels vs in the verie entrance there was neuer any thing by the wit of man so well deuised or so sure established which in continuance of time hath not beene corrupted as among other things it may plainly appeare by the Common praiers in the Church commonly called Diuine Seruice the reason is added a little after in as much as the godly and decent orders of the Fathers were altered and neglected by planting in vncertaine Stories Legends Responds Verses vaine repetitions Commemorations Synodals that commonly when any Booke of the Bible was begunne before three or foure Chapters were read out all the rest were vnread Another reason is there annexed that whereas S. Paul would haue none other language spoken to the people in the Church then they vnderstand and haue profite by hearing of the same the Seruice in this Church of England these many yeeres hath beene read in Latine to the people which they vnderstand not so that they haue heard with their â—ares onely but their minde hath noâ— beene edified thereby Now for the bodie of the Common prayer Booke I will first beginne with the diuision of the Commandements The Church oâ— Rome ioyneth the two first in one the better thereby to cloke their Idolatrie in the worship of Images But the Common prayer Booke of the Church of England diuideth them into two therein following two of the Fathers at most excepted all Antiquitie The Church of Rome in the doctrine of the Sacrament of the Eucharist teacheth that we eate and drinke the Body and Blood of Christ carnally The Common prayer of the Church of England in the forme of administring that Sacrament that wee doe both Spiritually and by Faith feed on him in our hearts eating and drinking in remembrance that C H R I S T dyed and shed his Blood for vs. The Church of Rome holdeth that the Oblation of the Bodie of C H R I S T is to be iterated The Common prayer Booke of the Church of England that being by himselfe once offered hee is a full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice for the â—innes of the whole world which also meeteth with the Romish satisfaction for Veniall sinnes as they call them and temporall punishment dew to Mortall The Church of Rome teacheth that the outward Sacrament of Water sufficeth to saue Infants The Common prayer Booke of the Church of England in the administration of publike Baptisme that the working of the holy Ghost is to be ioyned thereunto The Church of Rome teacheth that Laijks and Women may in some cases lawfully Baptise The Common prayer Booke of the Church of England in the administration of priuate Baptisme that none may doe it lawfully but the lawfull Minister The Church of Rome teacheth that children may bee confirmed before they come to yeres of discretion and are able to yeeld an account of their Faith The Common prayer Booke of the Church of England in the order set downe for Confirmation teacheth and commandeth the contrarie More might bee sayed to this point but this shall suffice to shew that if the Common prayer Booke of the Church of England be in no point of doctrine contrarie to Antiquitie as M â— Doctor affirmeth then must Antiquitie needs bee contrarie to the doctrine of the Church of Rome in as much as the doctrine thereof and our Common prayer Booke are contrarie each to other But you further adde that though it containe no point contrarie to Antiquitie yet is it verie defectiue and containeth not enough Indeed we confesse yâ— we goe not so far as the Church of Rome but so far as we haue warrant We pray to God in the Name of CHRIST they to God to Saints We pray for the liuing they for the liuing and the dead We acknowledge 2. Sacraments they to those two adde fiue more We make the Communion of the Eucharist properly a Sacrament they a Sacrament and a sacrifice and that propitiatorie We hope to be saued by the merits of Christ they by his merits and their owne the principall ground of all these additions is that we make Scripture the onely rule of faith they both Scripture and traditions and by mingling the water of their owne inuentions with the wine of the Gospel they haue made the Law of Christ of none effect And surely if defect may iustly bee imputed to vs excesse may much rather to them who in their Pontificall spend seuen leaues in the largest fol. onely about the benediction of bels which is indeed little different from Baptisme and many hundreds about such â—opperies and trifles as wise men among themselues cannot but laugh at and yet dare not speake against and good men pitie though they cannot remedy I I marueile what doctrine of predestination grace free-will or sinne you finde in the Common Prayer booke or Catechisme therein the end of the one being not to set downe doctrinall positions but the exercise of religious actes and of the other as briefly as may bee to instruct children in the principles of Christian religion not men of riper age in the controuersies K It is to me strange that you dare write thus to his Maiestie who made it knowen to the world by his pen when other Christian Princes and Churches were silent that hee thought himselfe hurt by the pestilent subtilties of Vorstius howbeit he were not vnder his dominions by Legate his own subiect who was burnt at London for Arianisme some few yeeres since But surely I am clearely of opinion that his Holinesse would take it much more to heart and thinke himselfe more hurt if a Frier should preach against his power in deposing Kings and disposing of kingdomes then if he denied the eternall generation of the second person in Trinitie from the first or the procession of the third from the other two B. C. 8. This truely was an increase of my griefe for knowing diuerse of those Preachers to be
his Angels charge ouer thee but suppressed that which made against him to keepe thee in all thy wayes now if any man farther desire his Maiesties meaning in calling Rome the Mother Church hee hath fully expressed himselfe in his Premonition Patriarchs saith he I know were in the time of the Primitiue Church and I likewise reuerence that institution for orders sake and amongst them was a contention for the first place And for my selfe if that were yet the question I would with all mine heart giue my consent that the Bishop of Rome should haue the first seat I being a Westerne King would goe with the Patriarch of the West whereby it is cleare that his Maiesties meaning was and is to yeeld the Bishop of Rome ouer other Westerne Bishops in case they should meet iâ— Councell a prioritie in sitting not a superiority in commanding a primacy or precedency in order not a supremacie in power and iurisdiction it beeing the marke which Mr. Doctour driues at and from thence labours cunningly but malitiously to inferre contrary to his Maiesties both minde and words I conclude this point with a Reuerend Prelate His Vicarship to Christ must be proued by stronger and plainer euidence then you haue yet shewed before wee may grant it and for his Patriarkeship saith he which you now take hold of by Gods law he hath nne in this Realme for â—ixe hundred yeeres after Christ he had none for the last sixe hundred as looking to greater matters hee would haue none aboue and against the swâ—rd which God hath ordained he can haue none to the subuersion of the faith and oppression of his brethren in right reason and equity he should haue none you must seeke farther for subiection to his tribunall this land oweth him none B. C. 18. There is another statute in England made by Queene Elizabeth and confirmed by your Maiesty that it is death for any English man to bee in England being made a Priest by authority deriued or pretended to bee deriued from the Bishop of Rome I cannot beleeue that I am a Priest at all vnlesse I be deriued by authority from Gregory the great from whence all the Bishops in England haue their being if they haue any being at all G. H. 18. The Statute intended is the 27. of Eliz. Cap. 2. which indeed in the body thereof hath words sounding to that purpose but the sense is malitiously peruerted and the inference thereupon for he that shall reade through that Statute and consider all the parts shall clearely perceiue that therby none other Priests are intended then Popish Priests made and ordeined by Popish Bishops and not such as Mr. Doctour was made in England by any of our Bishops here Though perhaps it were true that our Bishops did deriue their first authority from Gregory which we do not yeeld vnto considering that Augustine from whom they are pretended to deriue it was not consecrated by him but by Aetherius Archbishop of Arles if wee may beleeue our own Venerable Bede for the title of the Statute is An Acte against Iesuites Seminary Priests and such other like disobedient persons and the preamble of the acte hath these words Whereas diuers persons called or professed Iesuites Seminary Priests and other Priests which haue beene and froâ— time to time are made in the parts beyond the Seas by or according to the order and rites of the Romish Church haue of late yeeres commen and bene sent into England c. So that if according to the rule Praefatio est clauis Statuti we shall interprete the body by the title or preamble howsoeuer the wordes in the body of the acte bee somewhat generall yet what Priests are intended by the Law-makers is euident enough and except M. Doctour were a Priest according to the Order and Rites of the Romish Church by shauing anoynting and imposition of hands by a Popish Bishop and that since the first yeere of Queene Elizabeth he needed not to haue feared the danger of the Law B. C. 19. There is another Statute in like maner made and confirmed that it is death to bee reconciled by a Catholike Priest to the Church of Rome I am perswaded that the Church of Rome is our mother Church and that no man in England can be saued that continues wilfully out of the visible vnitie of that Church and therefore I can not chuse but perswade the people to be reconciled thereunto if possibly they may G. H. 19. This Statute also is either purposely or ignorantly mistaken and is not distinct from that following but are both one namely 23. Eliz. cap. 1. The title of it is An Acte to retaine the Queenes Maiesties Subiects in due obedience and the preamble recites that whereas diuers ill affected persons haue practised to withdraw the Queenes Subiects from their naturall allegeance the purueiw of the Acte followeth that all persons which shall put in practise to â—bsolue perswade or withdrawe any of the Queenes subiects from their naturall obedience to her Maiestie or to withdraw them for that intent from the religion established and so foorth shall be traitours and the person willingly absolued or withdrawen as aforesayd to be likewise a traitour so that the withdrawing of the Subiect from their naturall obedience or for that intent from the religion established is the offence made treason and not simple exhorting to the Romish religion as is alleadged And yet to speake a trueth I see not how any exhortation to an absolute submission of the vnderstanding and the will to the Bishop of Romes Iurisdiction which now is made the onely essentiall forme of that religion can well be seuered from such an intent But Rome you say is the mother Church and no man in England can bee saued that continues wilfully out of the visible vnitie of that Church Where if you terme it the mother Church in that sense that his MAIESTIE doeth wee imbrace it but if your meaning bee that shee is our mother either in regard that wee receiued the first life or still should receiue the nourishment of religion from her wee denie it our nation being first conuerted to the Christian faith by Ioseph of Arimathea who intombed the Corps of our Sauiour and lieth himselfe interred at Glastenbury together with twelue disciples his assistants where they first preached the Gospel as Gildas affirmeth in the life of Aurelius Ambrosius and Malmesbury in the Booke intituled The Antiquitie of Glastenbury written to Henry of Bloys brother to King Steuen and Abbot of the same place and it is consented vnto by the learned Antiquaries of later times as namely Mr. Cambden Iohn Bale Matthew Parker Polydore Virgil and others grounding themselues vpon the authoritie of the best approued and most ancient writers and withall considering our keeping of Easter and other Ceremonies were after the fashion of the Easterne Church and not of the Westerne at the comming of Austin I may very well coniecture that our
preiudice of any honest man in England to see some vnity betwixt the Church of England and her mother the Church of Rome And now hauing declared the meanes of my couersion to Catholike religion I will briefly also shew vnto you the hopes I haue to doe your Maiesty no ill seruice therein G. H. 21. It is true indeed that those Statutes which you alledge are not seuerall in themselues but members of the same And it appeares well though you had not professed it that at the writing hereof you had not your bookes about you you affirme things vncertaine so confidently and things certaine so falsly But you are sure you say they make such fellonies and treasons as were the greatest vertues of the Primitiue Church whereas wee are more sure that the greatest vertues and fattest sacrifices and shortest cut to heauen as they are now esteemed in the Church of Rome were in the Primitiâ—e Church held none other but murders and parricides and felonies and treasons Thou doest promise saith Augustine to Patilian that thou wilt reckon many of the Emperours and iudges which by persecuting you perished and concealing the Emperours thou mâ—anest two iudges or deputies why didst thou not name the Emperors of thy Communion wert thou afraid to bee accused as guilâ—y of treason where is your courage which feare not to kill your selues To say the Emperours perished for persecuting was treason in his time in our age you thinke it much that reproching of Princes as tyrants and heretiques and aiding the Pope with your perswasions absolutions and rebellions to take their Crownes from them should be punished or adiudged treason how beit a certaine trueth it is that there is no conspiracie so pernitious and dangerous to the state as that which is whispered into mens eares and conueyed into their hearts vpon a sense of deuotion and outwardly couered with a shew of religion notwithstanding as true it is that in England none are put to death for Caâ—holâ—ke religion no nor for the Romish which you call Catholike as hath beene at large iustified in a booke written by a Peere of the Realme intiâ—uled the defence of the iustice of England and is verified by his Maiesty in his Apologie for the Oath of Allegiance in the very entrance of his answere to the Popes first Breue where he not onely cleareth himselfe at large from this imputation but the late Queene that blessed defunct Lady as he there calleth her in whose proceedings saith he who list to compare with an indifferent eye the manifold intended iâ—uasions against her whole kingdome the forreine practises the internall publike rebellions the priuate plots and machinations poysonings murthers and all sorts of deuises dayly set abroach and all these wares continually fostered and fomented from Rome together with the continuall corrupting of her Subiects aswell by temporall bribes as by faire and spaciâ—us promises of eternall felicitie and nothing but booke vpon booke publikely set foorth by her fugitiues for approbation of so holy dâ—signes who list I say with an indifferent eye to looke on the one part vpon these infinite and intollerable temptations and on the other part vpon the iust yet moderate punishmeÌ„t of a part of these hainous offenders shal easily see that that blessed defunct Lady was as free from persecution as thâ—y shall free these hellish instruments from the honour of Martyrdome And againâ— his Maiestie maintaineth the same in his Premonition to Christian Princes not farre from the conclusion As for the cause of their punishment sayth he speaking of Romish Catholikes I doe constantly maintaine that which I haue sayd in my Apologie that no man either in my time or the late Queenes euer dyed here for his Conscience for let him be neuer so deuout a Papist nay though he professe the same neuer so constantly his life is in no danger by the Law if he breake not out into some outward act expressely against the words of the Law or plot some vnlawfull or dangerous practise or attempt Priests and Popish Churchmen onely excepted that receiue orders beyond the Seas who for the manifold treasonable practises that they haue kindled and plotted in this countrey are discharged to come home againe vnder paine of Treason after their receauing of the sayd orders abroad and yet without some other guilt in them then their bare home comming haue none of them beene euer put to death Hitherto his Maiestie Whereas on the otherside wee iustly complaine that they execute our professours though strangers for Religion and only for Religion and in that most bloodie and barbarous manner specially where the Inquisition is in force that whore of Babylon being drunke and yet not filled with the blood of the Saints And whereas you impute crâ—elty to our Lawes what tragicall cruelties were exercisâ—d in Queene Maries dayes euen vpon women and children nay which is most odious and vnnaturall vpon women great with childe I pray God as well forget as some yet aliue well remember Now as you holde and handle our Martyrs worse then Traytors So your most notorious Traâ—tors must stand registred in the Calender of Martyrs Not many dayes before Garnet suffered there came to visite him at his lodging in the Tower certaine choise Diuines amongst whome the chiefe were My Lordes the Bishops of Bath and Wells of Lincolne and Leichfield as now they are among other questions one of them proposed this Whether if the Church of Rome afâ—er his execution should declare him a Martyr hee did approoue thereof hee deepely sighing and shrinking vp his shoulders made this answere Me a Martyr O what a Martyr but the Church will nâ—uer doe it and I pray God it be neuer so much as thought vpon Indeed if I had dyed for the Catholike Religion and vnhappie man had beene acquainted with nothing else but that which was reuealed mee in Confession I might perhaps seeme not vnworthy the honor of Martyrdome and merite the iudgement of the Church but now as the case stands I must acknowledge my fault and confesse the sentence of death pronounced against me most iust Then againe doubling and trebling his sighes and shewing tokens of vnfained sorrow I would to God sayeth he what is done might be vndone I could wish that any other chance had befallen me rather then my name should thus be stained with the blot of Treason which offence though most grieuous yet I distrust not but it may be washed away with the teares of repentance and that Christ will haue mercie on me Sure I am that if I had all the world in my power to bestow I would willingly giue all that I might be freed from the guilt and imputation of treason which lies heauie vpon my conscience shall stand recorded in the sentence of my condemnation Notwithstanding all this is hee recorded a Martyr apologized by Eudemon and by Delrio paralelled with Denis the Areopagite What would Mr. Doctour say to this now had wee
if you pretend both and in the end performe neither it is the worst piece of seruice you can doe B I suppose there is no gouernour in the world who deserues that name but that a chiefe part of his care is to make his subiects at leastwise morally good that so he may find them the more obedient and some of those very heathen kingdoms which S. Augustine describes in his bookes of the city of God specially that of the Romanes yeelded more rare examples of morall goodnesse namely of iustice and temperance then it doth at this day though it professe Christ. And for the seruing of the times and turnes of those that beare the sway I doubt not but as many may be found in those kingdomes which you call Catholike who are as able and willing to doe it for their owne aduantage as amongst the heathen themselues C It is true that the happinesse of the whole State extends to euery particular member of the same in as much as they all belong to the same body but that the happinesse of euery particular member should reach to the whole body of the State is not alike certaine But to grant both I must confesse my dulnesse I conceiue not how from thence it followes that the vertue of a good man and a good citizen is alwayes and necessarily the same Once I am sure that Aristotle who defends the one denies the other Bodin both a Christian a Catholike of your owne in my iudgement truely obserues that the best men for the most part are the worst Statesmen in as much as being caried vp to heauen by contemplation they shunne societie and seeke out deserts and solitary places for their abode And I would faine know of your Monkes and Friers and Hermites and Anchorites who presume by their vertue and goodnesse not onely to merite for themselues but to supererogate for others what good they doe as members for the Common wealth but onely by meanes of that imaginary Supererogation which is no lesse hard for a wise man to beleeue then for a good to performe But to let passe the examination of the trueth of both those positions and the dependance of the later vpon the former your inference therupon to iustifie your selfe and your owne proceedings is both in it selfe more vntrue and in regard of the premises more loose and inconsequent in as much as by leauing your station and betaking your selfe vnto and consulting with the enemies of his Maiesty and the State for the ruine and destruction of both which you maske vnder the glorious titles of honour of our Sauiour common saluation vnity peace reconciliation seruice to his Maiesty good of his kingdome you neither performe the part of a good Common wealths man not yet of an honest man consequently indanger as farre as in you lieth not onely the happinesse of the State in which you liued Church in which you were baptized but of your owne together with them but aboue all a marueile it is that acknowledging your selfe a member of the Church of Rome you notwithstanding still professe your selfe a Minister of the Church of England since your common opinion of vs is that amongst vs there is no lawfull calling to the Ministery no sucâ—ession or conferring of holy Orders no Ephod no Teraphim but that our Ministers are in the state of Lay-men and none other Of this cunning dealing I can conceiue none other reason but that you may with more ease and least suspition conuey your poyson into the readers minde B. C. 2. And although it be sufficient for a man of my profession to respect onely matters of heauen and of another world yet because this world was made for that other I haue not regarded mine owne estate that I might respect your Maiesties therein And after long and serious meditation what religion might most honour your Maiestie euen in this world I haue conceiued vndoubted hope that there is no other Religion that can procure true honour and securitie to your Maiestie and your posteritie in this world but the true Catholike Roman Religion which was the very same whereby all your glorious Predecessours haue beene aduanced and protected on earth and are â—uerlastingly blessed in heauen G. H. 2. The deuill howbeit he be rather a Polititian then of any other profession yet when he came to tempt our LORD tooke vpon him the habite of a Diuine but you in tempting the LORDS annointed lay aside the habite of a Diuine and wholy take vpon you the person of a Polititian But herein if I should tell you you played Phormioes part before Hannibal you would thinke your deepe Policie much impeached Now as you differ from the Deuill in that he turned himselfe in appearance into an Angel of light being indeede a Spirit of darkenesse but you being an Angel in profession turne your selfe into a tempter so in this you both agree as if you had learned your methode from him and proposed him as your patterne that as hee being beaten from Scripture betooke himselfe as being his last refuge to the shewing of the kingdomes of the world and the glorie of them to our Sauiour promising him all if hee would but fall downe and worship so you perceiuing belike all other arguments to bee spent in vaine at length you purpose to try what vse may bee made of the deuils last motiue by promising his Maiestie all worldly honor and securitie for himselfe and his posteritie if he would but fall downe and worship your Lord the Pope but as the deuil promised that which was none of his to giue so doth your Lord too in the disposing of those kingdoms and the glory of them which no way belong vnto him except it bee by the title of being heire apparent to the god of this world and the prince that ruleth in the aire but were it not for feare of interrupting of your deepe and serious meditations I should make bold to put you to the question whether these were the baits that Saint Peter angled with to catch soules or the weapons that Saint Paul fought with when he professed that they were not carnall but mightie through God to cast downe holdes they proposed not honour and securitie to the disciples of CHRIST but hazard and basenesse I insist the longer vpon this argument because the whole following discourse is stuffed with nothing else but reasons of this nature as if in the profession of Religion not the sinceritie and trueth of it were so much to be regarded as those secular and temporall commodities which sometimes attend it as the shadow doth the bodie His Maiesties owne words to his sonne of fresh blessed memorie touching this point are most remarkeable worthy to be written in letters of gold and to be ingrauen in a pillar of brasse or marble If sayeth he my conscience had not resolued mee that all my Religion presently professed by mee and
multitude iudge according to custome is because that they beeing bred and brought vp in the hatred of Spaniards and Papists can not choose but thinke they are bound to hate them still Wee might giue the same reason with more shew of truth of your multitude trained vp in the hatred of those who you call Lutheranes and Caluinists whom they are taught to hate more then ours either a Spaniard or Papist which two what reason you haue to couple together I vnderstand not except it be to iustifie the front of Puentes his booke Chronicler to the King of Spaine which sets forth Rome as the Sunne with this inscription Luminare maius vt praesit vrbi orbi and Spaine as the Moone with this Luminare minus vt subdatur vrbi dominetur orbi ouer both is written Fecit Deus duo magna luminaria and in the midst betweene both are the armes of Rome and Spaine knit together with this motto In vinculo pacis vnder the one is set Rome as a conquerour and vnder the other Spaine as a warriour both supporting betweene them the ball of the world vnder which is this title Tomo Primero de la conueniencia de las dos Monarquias Catholicas la de la Iglesia Romana y la del Imperio Espanol c. Neither are we ignorant who they are that doe not whisper it in corners but publish it to the world in their bookes that GOD MADE TWO GREAT LIGHTS ☉ The greater to be the Soueraigne of the City and the World ☽ The lesser to be ruled by the City and to ouer-rule the World IN THE BOND OF PEACE THE FIRST VOLVME OF THE CONVENIENCIE OF THE TVVO CATHOLIKE MONARCHIES THAT OF THE CHVRCH OF ROME and the other of the Spanish Empire With a Defence of the Precedencie of the Catholike KINGS of SPAINE before all the KINGS of the World TO THE MOST GLORIOVS PHILIPPO ERMENIGILDO OVR LORD EMPEROVR OF THE KINGDOMES OF SPAINE AND SENIOR OF THE GREAtest Monarchie that euer hath bene amongst men from the Creation of the World to this age AVTHOR Mr. Fr. IVAN de la Puente of the Order of the Predicants Chronicler to the Catholicall Maiestie Calificador to the Inquisition and Prior of S. Thomas in Madrid 1612. We haue the true resemblances of royall linages ROME SPAINE IN MVTVALL AYDE At MADRID Out of the Kings Print P.P. fe FECIT DEVS DVO LVMINARIA MAGNA Luminare maius vt praesit Vrbi et Orbi Luminare minus vt subdatur vrbi et dominetur orbi In vinculo pacis TOMO PRIMERO DE LA conueniencÃa de las dos MonarquÃas CatolÃcas la de la Iglesia Romana y la del ImperÃo Espanol y defensa de la Precedencia de los Reyes Catolicos de Espanna a todos los Reyes del Mundo AL GLORIOSISIMO FILIPO Ermenigildo nuestro Sennor Emperador de las EspanÌ„as y SenÌ„or de la maior Monarquia que antenÃdo los hombres des de la creacÃon hasta el SÃglo presente Autor el Maestro fr Iuan de la Puente de la orden de Predicadores ChronÃsta de la Mag a CatolÃca CalÃfÃcador dela InquisicÃon y PrÃor de S to Tomas de MadrÃd 1612. as there is one head who guides all in spirituall so there should bee but one to doe well in all Christendome to gouerne all in ciuill affaires and not vnlikely Mr. Doctor when he thus ioyned Spaniards and Papists together might secretly ayme at some such matter and yet are not the Pope and the Spaniard so firmely vnited betweene themselues but that Charles the V. was content to winke at least at the sacking of Rome by Charles Burbon then vnder his pay and Phillip the II. his sonne being one of the pretenders to the Crowne of Portugall refused to stand to his Holinesse arbitrement in the decision of that controuersie and they both while they liued were and this present king yerely is accursed at least inclusiuely for withholding the kingdomes of Naples and Sicilie as being of right parts of S. Peters patrimonie But all that is obiected against the Papists or Spaniards are in your account the falsifications and slanders of puritanicall Preachers howbeit who they are that labour by that meanes to disgrace their opposites let the Pictures forged and printed of our fained persecutions in couering your Catholikes with Beares skinnes and baiting them with dogs testifie and your reports which my selfe haue heard from your Friers in their Pulpits of our strange barbarisme as well in manners as religion as if no sparke of ciuilitie or knowledge of God were left amongst vs. It is your practise if not your doctrine Calumniare audacter semper aliquid haeret Bee bold to lay on loade with slandering somwhat will alwaies sticke to though the wound be closed and cured some scarre will euer remaine though a man purge himselfe neuer so sufficiently yet such is the nature of slander that it runnes faster and spreads farther then the purgation Many who heard the one neuer heard of the other or if they heard it through malice and naturall corruption they more willingly hold fast and entertaine the one then the other I haue heard it credibly reported that a Spaniard comming to Oxford and seeing the Trinitie pictured long agoe in the Diuinitie schoole window he wondred at it considering hee had been taught by their Preachers that wee denied and blasphemed the Trinitie And here the Pamphlet written and published of Bezaes death and reuolt which himselfe liued to answere with Bezarediuiuus though it bee famously knowen yet it is not amisse to reuiue it being so notable and shamelesse an imposture Touching your motion to his Maiestie for the silencing of those Preachers vpon whom for speaking freely against the abuses of the Church of Rome you bestow the liuerie of Make-bates it is not vnlike for the manner of it to Philips capitulating with the Athenians that for the better negotiating of a peace they would be content for a while to deliuer ouer their Orators into his custodie But Demosthenes finding himselfe to be chiefly interessed in that businesse told his citizens that it was as much as if the woolues should desire to haue the dogs in their keeping that guarded the sheepe His Holinesse may permit and countenance and by rewards incourage his Iesuites and Friars to speake and write what they list of Kings Princes and namely of his Maiestie our most renowmed Soueraigne witnesse the railings and slanders of Pacenius Christanouie Becanus Coquaeus Eudaemon Schoppius Rebullus Parsons Coffeteau Peletier Gretser their pennes may walke at libertie their tongues are theirs they ought to speake what Lord shall them controll But his Maiestie shall doe well to bridle and restraine his most painefull and duetifull Ministers who stand in the watch-tower and keepe Sentinell to discrie the incursions of the enemie and to discouer such false Prophets as come to vs in sheepes clothing but within are rauening woolues or if
termeth Caluin a reuerend Father and worthy ornament of the Church of God Now touching his booke of Christian Institution in particular M. Hooker who is well knowne not to haue contemned the doctrine of the Church of England as a ragge of Poperie thus writes Two things saith he speaking of Caluin in his Preface to his bookes of Ecclesiasticall policie of principall moment there are which haue deseruedly procured him honour through the world The one his exceeding paines in composing the Institutions of Christian religion The other his no lesse industrious trauaâ—les for exposition of holy Scripture according to the same Institutions In which two things whatsoeuer they were that afterward bestowed their labour he gained the aduantage of preiudice against them if they gaine-sayed and of glory aboue them if they consented Then which I cannot imagine what could bee vttered more effectually Thus malice would not suffer you to see that worth in Caluin and his Writings which these Worthies professed and published who were notwithstanding more earnest and zealous Patrones of the doctrine of the Church of England then your selfe But it may be you thought it would bee credit enough for you onely to enter the lists with so stout and renowned a champion howbeit to hunt after applause by dishonouring the names of famous men was held by S. Ierome and is accounted by all good and wise men but a tricke of vaine and childish arrogancie there being lesse comparison betwixt Carier and Caluin then Caluin and Stapleton whom notwithstanding a great Diuine and publike professour of one of our owne Vniuersities comparing together professeth there was more sound Diuinity in Caluins little finger then Stapletons head or whole body I will conclude mine answere to this Section with the words of a graue Bishop yet liuing no enemie to the doctrine of the Church of England as his Writings shew Caluin is so well knowen sayeth hee to all those that bee learned or wise for his great paines and good labours in the Church of God that a fewe snarling Friars cannot impeach his name though you would neuer so wretchedly peruert his words Thus much of Caluin and his Writings for I durst not goe so farre as Thurius Praeter Apostolicas post Christi tempora chartas Huic peperere viro saecula nulla parem B. C. 29. These reasons or rather corruptions of State haue so confounded the doctrine of the Church of England and so slandered the doctrine of the Church of Rome as it hath turned mens braines and made the multitude on both sides like two fooles which being set backe to backe doe thinke they are as farre asunder as the horizons are they looke vpon But if it please your Maiestie to command them to turne each of them but a quarter about and looke both one way to the seruice of God and your Maiestie and to the saluation of soules they should presently see themselues to bee a great deale more neere in matters of doctrineâ— then the Puâ—itanicall Preachers on both sides doe make them beleeue they are I can not in the breuity of this discourse descend into particulars but if it please your Maiestie to command me or any other honest man that hath taken paines to vnderstand and obserue all sides freely and plainely to set downe the difference betwixt Caluinisme and the doctrine of England established by Law and then to shew Locos Concessos and Locos Controuersos betwixt the Church of England and the Church of Rome I doubt not but the distance that will be left betwixt for matter of doctrine may by your Maiesty be easily compounded G. H. 29. Whether reason or rather corruption of State haue not bred confusion rather in the doctrine of the Church of Rome then of England let Romes infinite ambition and insatiable couetousnesse masked vnder pretence of doctrine testifie As long as the Bishops of Rome kept them to their profession in the gaining of soules to God matters went wel for doctrine but when once they turned Statists in stead of gaining soules cast about for the gouernment of the world then were their Friars and flatterers found who were as readie to shape and frame her Doctrine according to the modell of State Before the Councill of Trent which was called in the memorie of some yet liuing it is made euident by my learned brother Dr. Carleton in his Consent of the Catholike Church against the Tridentines that the Doctrine of the rule of Controuersies of the Church of Iustifying Faith of Grace was the same in the Church of Rome which is now publikely taught and professed with vs. If by the Church of Rome we will vnderstand her chiefe Prelates not those Friars and flatterers which belonged rather to her Court then her Church from whence then arose this confusion of doctrine which followed after but onely from that corruption of State which went before and yet it cannot but bee acknowledged that as our bodies first warme our clothes and then our clothes serue to keepe warme our bodies so the corruption of State first brought foorth this confusion of doctrine but being brought foorth the daughter serues to nourish and maintaine the mother Now for the confounding of our doctrine wee answere with S. Paul If our Gospel saith he be hid it is hid to them that are lost So we if our doctrine bee confounded it is to them whom the God of this world hath confounded and blinded lest the light of the glorious Gospel of CHRIST who is the image of God should shine vnto them The second thing which you charge vs with is the slandering the doctrine of the Church of Rome and are your Romanists cleare of that accusation or dare any man of iudgement and learning discharge them doth not Pererius accuse Catharinus for calling that an intollerable and desperate opinion of Luther touching Reprobation which notwithstanding was the same opinion and none other as Pererius confesseth then S. Augustine maintained touching the same point Doth not Reynolds our Countrey man howbeit otherwise maliciously bitter against Caluin specially in his Caluino Turcisme in his iudgement free Caluin from the imputation of making God the authour of sinne in his latter yeeres which notwithstanding is still pressed vpon him both by your selfe and others Doth not Bellarmine cleare him from making the second person in Trinitie to be from himselfe and not from the first with which errour notwithstanding hee is charged by Genebrard by Lyndan by Canisius And for our owne Church doth not Bristow affirme that our Religion is prooued by experience to be indeed no Religion Doth not Allen speaking of our Sacraments Seruice and Sermons call them things which assuredly procure damnation Doth not Reynolds in the booke before named endeuour to make our Religion worse then the Turkish not distinguishing betwixt Caluinisme and the doctrine of the Church of England But
one example for all may be that lewd libeller who in the very entrance of his libell exclaimeth That the Protestants haue no Faith no Hope no Charitie no Repentance no Iustification no Church no Altar no Sacrifice no Priest no Religion no Christ. What shall we say to these intemperate Spirits if they speake of malice then I say with Michael the Archangel The Lord rebuke them But if they speake of ignorance then I say with the holy Martyr S. Steuen Lord lay not this sinne to their charge or with our blessed SAVIOVR Father forgiue them they wote not what they doe Now for our slandring the doctrine of the Church of Rome when you or any other shall produce the like Assertions out of any Writer amongst vs of note and credite I shall be content to yeelde farther credite to your Assertion then as yet I finde reason I should for the residue of this Section I referre the Reader to my marginall notes as deseruing in my iudgement no better or other answere B. C. 30. But perhaps there is so great opposition in matter of State that although the doctrine might bee compounded yet it is impossible to heare of agreement and if there bee the same reason of State which there was in beginning and continued all Queene Elizabeths dayes there is as little hope now that your Maiestie should hearken vnto Reconciliation as then was that King Henry the VIII or Queene Elizabeth would but when I doe with the greatest respect I can consider the State of your Maiestie your Lords your Commons and your Clergie I do see as little cause in holding out in reason of State as I doe in trueth of doctrine G. H. 30. From the matter of doctrine you passe to thereason of State in which if your reasons be of no greater waight or truth then in the former his Maiestie his Lords his Commons his Clergie haue no more reason to hearken to reconciliation with Rome then King Henry or Queene Elizabeth or the Subiects in their times had which hee that lookes not through the spectacles of a preiudicate opinion will as easily discouer as you confidently affirme the contrary B. C. 31. King Henry the VIII although hee had written that Booke against the Schisme of Luther in defence of the Sea Apostolike for which he deserned the title of Defensor fidei yet when he gaue way to the lust of Anne Bullen and the flattery of his fauorites and saw hee could not otherwise haue his will he excluded the Pope and made himselfe Supreame head of the Church that so hee might not onely dispence with himselfe for his Lust but also supplie his excesse with the spoyle of the Church which was then very rich But when hee saw God blessed him not neither in his wiuing nor in his thriuing hee was weary of his Supremacie before he died and wished himselfe in the Church againe but hee died in the curse of his father whose foundations he ouerthrew and hath neither childe to honour him nor so much as a Tombe vpon his graue to remember him which some men take to bee a token of the Curse of God G. H. 31. King Henry the VIII wrote a Booke indeed or at least a Booke was in his name written in defence of the seuen Sacraments against Luther as Mr. Doctor might haue learned if no where else yet out of Cardinall Bellarmins Apologie But in defence of the See of Rome which hee cals Apostolike I haue not mette with any and it should seeme by his mistake of the subiect handled in that booke himselfe neuer mette with it as for the Title which King Henry receiued the world is not ignorant how liberall his Holinesse is in bestowing Titles where hee expects some greater aduantage sticking down a feather that hee may quietly carrie away the goose Thus did hee giue Charles the Emperour neere about the same time the Title of Defensor Ecclesiae for directing a Writ of Outlawrie against Luther whereupon at the Emperours beeing here in England those verses were set vp in the Guildhall in London ouer the doore of their Councell Chamber where they yet remaine Carolus Henricus viuant defensor vterque Henricus fidei Carolus Ecclesiae And in the Bull by which Leo the tenth confirmed this Title to the King subscribed with his owne name and the names of fiue and twentie Cardinals and Bishops it appeares that their chiefe scope of honouring him with this Title was to tye him and his posteritie faster to that See But as a learned and graue Prelate of our owne hath well obserued being the high Priest for that yeere not so in the next he foretold by way of prophecie what the King of England should bee which we find to the honour of CHRIST and the glory of our kingdome most truely and happily accomplished in our Gracious Souereigne now reigning who hath to the vtmost defēded the truly Christian and Catholike faith by his Pen and will no doubt bee as ready to doe it when occasion shal serue with his sword and yet were it not for feare of crossing your imaginarie reconciliation you would with Bellarmine tell vs that his Maiestie in present as vndeseruedly retaines that Title as King Henry receiued it deseruedly who afterward notwithstanding as deepely incurred his Holinesse disfauour aswell by calling into question that Title which the Bishops of Rome had assumed to themselues of Pastours vniuersall S. Peters successours and Christs Vicars as by resuming to himselfe that Title which some of the Popes had yeelded his predecessours as may appeare in the Letter of Eleutherius Bishop of Rome to Lucius King of Great Britaine in which Eleutherius attributeth to the King the Title of Gods Vicar within his kingdome which letter howsoeuer the Authour of the Threefold conuersion labour to staine with the blemish of forgery yet is it to be found inrolled in the Copie of King Edward the Confessors Lawes Neither is it true that Henry tooke this Title to himselfe it was giuen him by the Parliament of his Lords and Commons and Conuocation of his Clergie not as a new thing but as renewed And if he were desirous to change his bedfellow in hope of heires male as you tell vs before it was not to giue way to the lust of Anne Bulleine as here you affirme and if hee might haue had his will in being dispensed with by yeelding to the Popes will in ioyning with Francis the French King against the Emperour Charles as before it is proued then did he not exclude the Pope take that Title to dispence with himselfe especially being mooued with the approbation of so many Vniuersities and learned men But if thereby he made himselfe a way for the supply of his excesse with the spoyle of the Church wee haue not wherein so iustly to excuse him howbeit hee conuerted much of it to good vses namely to the erecting of sixe Bishoprickes
one of the Heralds at Armes the title whereof was this The maner of the Tombe to be made for the Kings Grace at Windsor So that I cannot but woonder how either our Historiographer and our Herauld should be so much mistaken or which I rather thinke how Mr. Doctor so great a Polititian should be so sowly deceiued and so confidently leade others into the same errour I will conclude this Section with the conclusion of ourfamous Annalist touching this Prince Princeps Magnanimus in cuius maximo ingenio inerant confuso quodam temperamento virtutes magnae vitia non minora A stout and gallant Prince he was in whose braue spirit a man might obserue blended and tempered together by a rare kinde of mixture great vertues and no lessevices But had he honoured the See Apostolike as much at last as hee did at first his vices had beene buried in silence and his vertues highly extolled whereas now by opposing himselfe against it his vertues are suppressed and his vices racked vpon tenterhookes and set vpon the Stage which course were enough to make the best Princes nay the best men to appeare monsters to the world B. C. 32. Queene ELIZABETH although she were the daughter of Schisme yet at her first comming to the Crowne shee would haue the Common Prayer Booke and Catechisme so set downe that shee might both by English Seruice satisfie the Commons who were greedie of alteration and by Catholike opinions gaue hope to her neighbour Princes that she would her selfe continue Catholike and all her life long she caried herselfe so betwixt the Catholikes and the Caluinists as shee kept them both still in hope But yet being the daughter of the breach-maker and hauing both her Crowne and her life from the Schisme it was both dishonourable and dangerous for her to hearken to Reconcilement And therefore after she was prouoked by the Excommunication of Pius Quintus shee did suffer such Lawes to be made by her Parliaments as might cry quittance with the Pope and Church of Rome This course seemed in policie necessary for her who was the daughter of King Henrie the VIII by Anne Bulleine borne with the contempt of Rome the disgrace of Spaine and the preiudice of Scotland G. H. 32. From Henry the father you descend to Elizabeth the daughter as you call her of Schisme howbeit she were indeed the Nursing mother of the Church And for the Common prayer Booke which she allowed it was the same with very litle alteration which was current by publike authority during the reigne of her brother King Edward So that it was no inuention of hers to satisfie the Commons as you falfly suggest but an imitation of her renowned brother for the satisfying of her owne conscience and the furtherance of the seruice of God in a knowen language You adde that by Catholike opinions she gaue hope to her neighbour Princes that she would continue a Catholike wheras the world knowes that her mother was otherwise affected being brought vp in France vnder the Lady Margret Alençon a principal fauouresse of the Protestant religion there after shee had a while waited vpon Q. Mary yonger sister of king Henry the VIII and wife to Lewes the XIII the French king and as long vpon Claudia sister to the Guise and wife to Francis the first and in regard she was this way affected the holy maide of Kent was by Clergie men suborned to prophecie against her and as one writes it seemeth very plaine that the crimes supposed against her were matters contriued by the Pope and his instruments her chiefest enemies none of them all that were accused in the same treason confessing the acte euen vnto death but haue left direct testimonies in writing to the contrary one meane groome excepted namely Marke Smeton who made confession vpon some promise of life belike but was executed before he was aware or had time to recall what he had said Now the mother being thus affected and that before king Henry cast his affection towards her or disaffected Rome in likelyhood the daughter had beene that way also affected whether the breach with Rome by her mothers mariage had bene made or no. It was S. Pauls argument to Timothie that the faith first dwelt in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice and therefore he was well perswaded of him also He argues not from his father and his grandfather but from his mother and his grandmother so may we by the same reason from the faith which dwelt in the mother of Queene Elizabeth make some coniecture of her faith that it was not different from her mothers But her education vnder Roger Ascham who was himselfe that way affected to cōtinue her so read vnto her among other authors for her diuinity exercise Melancthons common places will yet farther cleare this matter but the suspition cast vpon her though most vniustly as hauing a finger in Wyats conspiracy and Stories damnable aduise to leaue lopping at the branches and strike at the roote will put it out of doubt and doubtlesse as in that regard shee suffered much hardenesse during the raigne of her sister so had shee not suruiued to haue worne the Crowne had not God in his prouidence mooued the heart of the Spaniard to preserue her aliue not so much out of any loue of her person or pittie of her ruefull estate as out of reason of state lest she being taken out of the way and her sister dying as she did without issue the Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland might in time be vnited and annexed to the Crowne of France by meanes of the Lady Mary Queene of Scotland next heire in right after Queene Elizabeth then affianced to Francis Dolphin of France and heire apparent to Henry the second the French King then which the Spaniards thought nothing could happen more disasterous to their affectation of greatnesse Besides all this being as she was the miracle of her sexe and ranke for wit and learning it is not improbable that as the knowledge of the Arts and Languages and the light of the Gospell brake forth both together so in her person the one might haue prepared and as it were beaten out a way for the entrance of the other though neither her Mother had beene that way affected nor her Father made any breach as wee see his Maiestie that now is to the glory of God and our great comfort though his Father were slaine before his birth and his Mother liued and died in that Religion in which shee was brought vp yet by the excellencie of his naturall parts and learning but especially by the working of Gods holy spirit hath attained to such a light of Religion that he hath not only discouered the trueth but chosen and professed it being discouered and with his Penne maintained and defended that which he professeth True indeede it is that Queene Elizabeth during the raigne of her sister tender both by sexe
fire her Nauie and with three thousand Spaniardsâ— subdue Ireland to the Spanish dominion These and many other sufficient reasons to prouoke her we find recorded by Hieronimus Catena in the life of Pius Quintus who was Secretarie to Cardinall Alexandrin that Popes Nephew so that though he haue in that discourse discouered many things to the world of Pius his proceedings against that Queene before vnknowen to our English yet may wee well by reason of his place afforde him credite as also in regarde his booke was Printed and published in Rome it selfe with the Priuiledge and approbation of Sixtus Quintus next Successor to Pius saue one And had she not good reason then to suffer such Lawes to bee made by her Parliament as might crie quittance with the Pope and Church of Rome Yet I will bee bold to say that lesse innocent blood nay lesse blood was shed in her 44. yeeres in maintenance of Christs and her owne authoritie against the vsurpation of the Pope then in her sisters foure yeeres in maintenance of the Popes vsurpation against her owne and her Successours lawfull authority insomuch as an Italian and hee no Protestant as I guesse giues this testimonie of her Tanta extitit eius animi moderatio atque innata clementia vt non immerito c. So great and so apparant was the moderation of her minde and inbred clemeÌ„cie that not vndeseruedly it may be said of her which the ancient histories haue left to posteritie of Alexander Seuerus borne of his mother Mammaea Nempe Anaematon hoc est citra sanguinem namely that shee hath gouerned her kingdome without bloodshed Cum suapte natura semper à caedibus crudelitate abhorreat for euen her nature doth abhorre the thought of slaughter or crueltie so he goeth on in a large discourse of her praise And when he thus wrote she had reigned twenty yeres it being a maruell as the late Bishop of Lincolne in his answere to Parsons hath well obserued their Index expurgatorius had not scowred him ere this and for this nay their owne Priests shall speake for Queene Elizabeths Lawes who say that considering Iesuiticall practises shadowed vnder the cloake of Religion all the Lawes enacted against Catholikes were made with great moderation and clemencie as comming from a Prince most milde and mercifull nor haue they cause to vrge repeale of any Statute made so long as Iesuits take such courses Nay which is more Parsons himselfe in the Preface to the first part of his triple conuersion commendeth Queene Elizabeth for her moderate gouernment and that was in the last yeere of her reigne and yet by the way it is worth the noting that in one and the same leafe hauing so commended her in one page mary then she was aliue in the very next page for then he heard shee was dead in a Preface to his Maiestie he compares her to Dioclesian for crueltie whereas her sobrietie and clemencie was such that her brother King Edward was wont commonly to call her His sweete sister Temperance neither did shee euer heare of any capitall punishment though neuer so deserued vpon offenders euen of such as had sought her own death but it bred a kind of horror and sadnesse in her whereby had not her Counsellers earnestly inculcated the necessitie of some exemplary iustice many dangerous attempters had escaped due punishment which mooued her to say being once questioning with a great Diuine in Oxford about books meetest for Princes to studie on that her reading of Senecade Clementia had done her much good but some would perswade her it had done her State as much harme howsoeuer I will shut vp this point with S. Augustine when he was intreated to mediate for a mittigation of some strait Lawes if Princes serue Christ in making Lawes for Christ they doe what they ought I will not gaine say them and your selfe graunt that this course seemed in poliâ—ie necessary for her who was the daughter of King Henry the VIII by Anne Bulleine borne with the contempt of Rome the disgrace of Spaine and the preiudice of Scotland and it is true indeede that it both seemed and was a necessary course for her not onely in policie but in pietie who was the daughter of him who vpon iust reason vnhorsed the Pope of his pretended authoritie by her who was not onely a zealous professour but a Patronesse of that trueth which wee professe and for her birth with the contempt of Rome and disgrace of Spaine it seemed by her courses shee was not vnwilling to haue it so intâ—rpreted but for the preiudice of Scotland shee was vpon all occasions so farre as shee conceiued it stood with her safetie and honour most willing to expresse the contrary and surely by her liuing and dying in a single State without marriage she rather prepared a way to the furtherance of that Title which wee now see to our great comfort as she would also no doubt to hers Si quis modo sensus in vmbris if there were any feeling or knowledge in the dead of these temporall and transitory affaires seeing it is fallen out to bee as true in that succession as it is in its owne nature strange Mira cano Sol occubuit nox nulla sequuta est B. C. 33. But now that your Maiestie is by the consent of all sides come to the Crowne and your vndoubted Title setled with long succession the case is very much altered for your Maiestie hath no need of dispensations nor will to pull downe Churches nor no dependance at all on Henry the VIII and if this Schisme could haue preuented your Title with the diuorce of one wife and the marrying of fiue more neither your mother nor your selfe should euer haue made Queene Elizabeth afraid with your Right to the Crowne of England and therefore though it were necessary in reason of State to continue the doctrine of diuision as long as the fruit of that doctrine did continue yet now the fruit of Schisme is all spent and that Parenthesis of State is at an end there is no reason but that the old sentence may returne againe and bee continued in that sense as if the Parenthesis had been cleane left out and that God had of purpose crossed the fleshly pretence of Schisme and raised your Maiestie to restore it as your most wise and Catholike progenitor King Henrie the VII did leaue it G. H. 33. If his Maiestie by the consent of all sides bee come to the Crowne why did Clement the VIII the yeere before his entrance and that as his Maiestie witnesseth in the Conclusion of his answere to Paulus Quintus his first Breue contrary to his manifold vowes and protestations at the same time and as it were with the same breath deliuered to diuers of his Maiesties Agents abroad send to Henry Garnet Iesuite their Arch-priest in England two Bulles to the contrary the one to the Clergie and the other
like most vnsufferable vexations Iohn of Sarisbury in his 6. booke and 24. chapter De nugis Curalium complaines Polidor Virgil himselfe an Italian in his 8th booke and second chapter De inuentoribus rerum is not sparing in the relation of them and the booke aboue mentioned intituled Antiquitates Britannicae is so full of them as it seemes to haue bene written to none other purpose which notwithstanding I finde not gainesaid by any Romanist And can wee expect then that his Maiesty by the helpe of Romish Catholike Religion should euer bee enriched Surely in reason that which is the meanes of impouerishing his Realme and his subiects can not be a meanes of inriching him In the want of people saith Solomon he might as well haue sayd in the peoples want is the destruction of the Prince For as the multitude of people is the kings honour so the wealth of the people is the kings riches and the welfare of the people the kings safety But saith Mr. Doctour one of the maine pretenses of Henry the VIII was to enrich himselfe in the spoile of the Church which notwithstanding in euent proued to be contrary to which I reply with the Poet Careat successibus opto Quisquis ab euentu facta not anda putat Actions are not so much to be measured by their issues and euents as by the causes from which they spring and the ends to which they are directed When the people exceeded too much in offring gifts toward the worke of the Sanctuary by the discretion of Moses they were restrained and a proclamation made throughout the Campe they should bring no more Why should it not be as lawfull for Henry the VIII to restore it backe againe to the owners if too much were giuen as for Moses to restraine them for giuing hee tooke it out of their hands who vpon al occasions at the Popes command were ready to vse it as a weapon against himselfe and in defence of their holy Father and conferd it vpon those who therewith were to serue both himselfe and the State in peace at home and in wars abroad As the Church prayes for the ciuill state so is it to shield the Church and better it were the Church should quit a part of her maintenance then that the whole should lie obnoxious to the â—acrilegious hands of forreine vsurpation If in performance hereof that which should haue bene ordained to publike or sacred was by some ill disposed persons or the king himselfe turned to priuate and prophane vses or if that which inseperably belongs to the maintenance of Ecclesiasticall persons were put into the possession of those who serued not at the altar this manner of proceeding might so staine and vitiate the whole action as it might carry a secret curse with it vpon the authours and actours of it No doubt but a good cause and in it selfe most iust both may bee and oft is marred in the handling and being handled neuer so well yet in the issue it may miscarry Gods iudgements being alwayes in themselues most iust but many times their causes hidden from vs. I vndertake not the defence of Henry or any other Prince or person in robbing the Church but to his vnfortunate euents we may oppose the happy successe of Queene Elizabeth his daughter and successour both in gouernment and in opposition to the Church of Rome She maintained long and chargeable wars in diuers kingdomes abroad against Balak and Balaam Gog and Magog to the infinite expense of her treasure and yet at her death she left more in her coffers then her Romish Catholike sister and immediate predecessour notwithstanding her peace abroad her mariage with the Lord of the Indies and her readmittance though with much adoe of the Popes authority Lastly for full satisfaction in this point Mr. Doctor hauing so good intelligence of his Maiesties disposition and being so inwardly acquainted with his secrets as he makes himselfe could not well be ignorant that his Maiesty is so farre from inriching or hoping to inrich himselfe in the spoile of the Church vnder colour of religion that to his immortall fame since his comming to the Crowne he hath bound his owne hands and his posterity from alienating the reuenues consecrated to the Churches vse so that your inuectiue in this place is malicious against King Henry if in no other regard yet because it is impertinent in regard of his Maiesty who hath no Monasteries to pull downe nor as your selfe before confesse will to pull downe Churches but though he haue no will to pull downe Churches but rather to set them vp it followes not but that he should be willing to preserue that Church wherof vnder God he is set by God as the chiefe Gouernour from the spoile and tyrannie of forreine vsurpers Nay the latter may not vnfitly be inferred vpon the former And if in regard of that preseruation onely wee now pay his Maiesty what those tyrants formerly receiued he receiues nothing but what he rightly may nor we pay but what in duety and conscience we ought B. C. 36. There is yet another obiection or two in reason of state concerning your Maiesty which seeme to be harder to answere then all the rest Whereof the one is that your Maiestie hath vndertaken the cause in writing and set out a booke in print and it must needes be great dishonour to you to recall it This indeede is it which I haue heard the Caluinists of England often wish for before it was done and much boast of after it was by meanes effected that your Maiestie should no longer be able to shew your selfe indifferent as you did at the first but were now ingaged vpon your honour to maintaine their party and oppugne the Catholikes and altogether to suppresse them But there is nothing in that booke why your Maiesty may not when you please admit the Popes Supremacie in spirituals and you are partly ingaged thereby to admit the triall of the first general Councels and most ancient fathers and as for the question of Antichrist it is but an Hypotheticall Proposiâ—ion and so reserued as you may recall your selfe when you will And howsoeuer that booke cameforth either of your owne disposition or by the daily instigation of some others that did abuse your clemency and seeke to send you of their owne errand it cannot serue their turnes nor hinder your Maiestie from hearkening to an end of conteâ—tion For if King Henry the VIII in the iudgement of Protestants might saue his honour and contradict hiâ— booke from very good to starke naught they must not deny but that your Maiesty may increase your Honour by altering your booke from lesse good to much better G. H. 36. There are not onely two but many more Obiections that might be made in reason of State concerning his Maiesty which not onely seeme but are indeede harder to answere then your poore and slight euasions can giue satisfaction
Apostles haue otherwise vsed all their censures only in Christs Name and neuer a word of his Vicars Peter we read did in all the Apostles meetings sit among them as one of their number and when chosen men were sent to Antiochia from that Apostolike Councell at Ierusalem the text sayeth it seemed good to the Apostles and Elders with the whole Church to send chosen men but no mention made of the head thereof and so in their Letters no mention is made of Peter but onely of the Apostles Elders and Brethren And it is a wonder why Paul rebuketh the Church of Corinth for making exception of persons because some followed Paul some Apollos some Cephas if Peter was their visible head for then those that followed not Peter or Cephas renounced the Catholike Faith But it appeareth well that Paul knew little of our new doctrine since he handleth Peter so rudely as hee not only compareth but preferreth himselfe vnto him But our Cardinall prooues Peters Superiority by Pauls going to visite him Indeed Paul sayeth he went to Ierusalem to visite Peter and to conferre with him but he should haue added and to kisse his feet To conclude then the trueth is that â—eter was both in age and in the time of Christs calling him one of the first of the Apostles in order the principall of the first twelue and one of the three whome Christ for orders sake preferred to all the rest and no further did the Bishop of Rome claime for three hundreth yeere after Christ Subiect they were to the generall Councels and euen but of late did the Councell of Constance depose three Popes and set vp the fourth and till Phocas dayes that murthered his Master were they subiect to Emperours But how they are now come to bee Christs Vicars Gods on earth Triple Crowned Kings of Heauen Earth and Hell Iudges of all the world and none to iudge them heads of the Faith absolute deciders of all controuersies by the infallibilitie of their spirit hauing all power both Spirituall and Temporall in their hands the high Bishops Monarchs of the whole earth Superiours to all Emperours and Kings yea Supreme Vice-gods who whether they will or not can not erre How they are now come I say to this top of greatnesse I know not but sure I am Wee that are kings haue greatest need to looke to it As for me Paul and Peter I know but these men I know not and yet to doubt of this is to denie the Catholike Faith nay the Word it selfe must be turned vpside downe and the order of Nature inuerted making the left hand to haue the place before the right that this Primacie may be maintained Thus we see how clearely and strongly his Maiestie both in his Apologie proues the Supremacie of Kings in causes Ecclesiasticall and disproues in his Premonition the pretended Supremacie of Popes euen in Spirituals denying them to be Christs Vicars Peters Successors visible Monarchs heads of the Faith deciders of all controuersies high Priests vniuersall Bishops and destroying the two maine grounds of that Monarchie the Supremacie of S. Peter and their infallibilitie in iudging Truely in the Writing hereof mee thought I was touched with shame and pittie that a Diuine should with such palpable falshoods belie his Soueraigne and gull the world and a Doctor of Diuinitie so fowlie stumble in so plaine and manifest a case howbeit it cannot be denyed to be true which he addes that his Maiestie by that Booke is partly ingaged to admit the triall of the first generall Councels and the most ancient Fathers For the Councels I reuerence and admit saith hee the foure first generall Councels as Catholike Orthodoxe and the said foure generall Councels are acknowledged by our Acts of Parliament and receiued for Orthodoxe by our Church And for the Fathers saith hee I reuerence them as much and more then the Iesuits doe for what euer the Fathers for the first fiue hundred yeeres did with an vnanime consent agree vpon to be beleeued as a necessarie 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 will therefore in that case follow S. Augustines rule in iudging of their opinions as I find them agree with the Scriptures what I find agreeable thereunto I will gladly imbrace what is otherwise I will with their reuerence reiect So that his Maiestie admitteth the foure first Councels not as Diuine Oracles or as the foure Gospels but as Catholike and Orthodoxe and reuerenceth the most ancient Fathers not as the holy Scriptures but as consonant thereunto And if that triall should be made your holy Father would thereby gaine as litle for the countenancing of his vsurped Supremacie as Zozimus Boniface and Celestine his Predecessours in forging a Canon of the first Nicene Councell for their pretended Iurisdiction in appeales and labouring to force the Councell of Carthage thereunto whereas that Councell in precise termes confineth other Bishops and Patriarchs to the exercise of their iurisdictioÌ„ within their own Diocesses or Prouinces as the Custome of the Bishop of Rome was the words are these Let old Customes be kept they that are in Egypt and Lybia and Pentapolis that the Bishop of Alexandria haue the preheminence of all these because such is the Custome of the Bishop of Rome too likewise also in Antioch and in other Prouinces let the Churches enioy their dignities and prerogatiues which words of the Councel grounding on the Custome of the B. of Rome that as he had preeminence of all the Bishops about him so Alexandria and Antioch should haue of all about them and likewise other Churches as the Metropolitan each in their owne Prouinces doe shew that the Pope neither had preeminence of all through the world before the Nicene Councell nor ought to haue greater preeminence by their iudgement then he before time had This Councell was called about 327. yeeres after Christ and there met in it 318. Bishops the chiefe lights of Christian Religion at that time Ambrose saying that their number was mistically prefigured in those 318. Souldiers by whome Abraham got the victory ouer the fiue Kings The second generall Councell was helde at Constantinople against Macedonius who denyed the Diuinitie of the holy Ghost consisting of 150. Bishops about the yeere 383. called by Theodosius the Elder who both prescribed the place and time the matter to be discussed and maner of proceeding in it sent his Deputie thither to supplie his roome as moderator or president for the keeping of order obseruing of decencie and lastly by his Imperiall power ratified the Decrees thereof all which acts flowing from the prerogatiue of his place and office are now denyed by the Pope and his flatterers any way to belong to
ordinary confessing and communicating as Mr. Doctour it being rightly obâ—erued by a worthy gentleman who confesseth that hee brought with him into those parts this perswasion that surely in this there must needes bee a very great restraint to wickednesse a great meanes to bring men to integrity and perfection when a man shall often suruey his actions with diligence censure them with griefe and shame confesse them with punishment eâ—piate and extinguish them with firme intent neuer to returne to the like againe whatsoeuer had defiled or stained the soule notwithstanding saith he hauing searched into the meaning thereof in those parts I finde that as all things whereof humane weakenesse hath the custody and gouernâ—ment fall away decaying by insensible degrees from their first perfection and purity and gather much soile and drosse in vsing so this as much as anything for this point of their religion which in outward shew carieth a face of seueâ—ity and discipline is become of all others the most remisse and pleasant and of the greatâ—st content to the dissolutest mindes the matter being growen with the common sort to this open reckoning what neede wee refraine so fearefully from sinne God hauing prouided so ready a meanes to be rid of it when we list yea and the worser sort will say when we haue sinned we must confesse and when we haue confessed we must sinne again that we may also confesse again and withal make worke for new Indulgences and Iubilies making account of Confession as drunkards doe of vomiâ—ing who drinke till they vomite and vomite that they may drinke againe yea I haue knowen of those that caried shew of very deuout persons who by their owne report to excuse their acquaintance in matters criminall haue wilfully periured themselues in iudgement onely presuming of this present and easie remedie in Confession and others of more ordinary note amongst them when the time of confessing was at hand would then venture vpon those actions which before they trembled at as presuming to surfet and surcharge their stomacks by reason of the neighbourhood of the phisitian which phisitian also himselfe is perhaps more apparently infected with the noysome disease his patient discloseth then the patient who is not any way bettered by the counsell which the Phisitian giueth but this must be granted to bee the fault of the people yet a generall fault it is and current without controllement howbeit the Priests are no more excusable on their parts then the people telling the penitent that God is mercifull and whatsoeuer sinnes he committeth so long as hee doth penance and is no Lutherane there is good remedy for him and for their penance it consisteth ordinarily but in Aue Maries and Pater nosters with Almes deedes by those that are able and fastings by them that are willing yea I haue knowen when the penance for horrible and open blasphemy besides much other lewdnesse hath bene none other then saying of their Beades thrice ouer a matter of some houres muttering and which in Italy they dispatch also as they goe in the streets or ride on the way or doe their busines at home making none other of it then as it is indeed two lips and one fingers worke but were the penance by the Priests inioyned neuer so hard and sharpe the Popes plenary pardons sweepe all away at a blow Now whether seruants be not with them vnfaithfull to their masters children disobedient to their parents people vndutifull to their Prelates Subiects disloyall to their Soueraignes aswell as with vs I leaue it to them to iudge who haue had experience of both Did not Clement and Rauilliac and the Powder-traytours vse Confession and those villaines who assaulted the Prince of Aurange the one sorely wounding the other murdering him and did not their confessions serue to harden them in their damnable resolutions Lastly for the seale of Confession without which you say it is impossible to vse the thing it selfe wee hold it being rightly limited a lawfull yet an humane constitution as neither in trueth is particular confession it selfe to men any other and he that will not forbeare in conscience and common honesty to disclose a secret reuealed in such manner will hardly forbeare for feare of punishment and sure I am of opinion better no seale to at all then such a concealement imposed as is by the factours of the Romish Church maintained and was not onely preached by Garnet but in him commended by Eudaemon and Bellarmine and in others by his example bee the issue thereof neuer so deuilish or toward the king and kingdome neuer so dangerous and although it be true as his Maiesty truely obserueth that when the Schoolemen came to bee Doctours in the Church and to marre the old grounds in Diuinity by sowing in amongst them their Philosophicall distinctions though they I say maintained that whatsoeuer thing is tolde a Confessour vnder the vaile of Confession how dangerous soeuer the matter bee yet is hee bound to conceale the parties name yet doe none of them specially of the old Schoolemen deny that if a matter be reuealed vnto them the concealing whereof may breede a great and publike danger but that in that case the confessour may disclose the matter though not the person and by some indirect meanes make it come to light that the danger thereof may be preuenâ—ed But no treason or deuilish plot though it should tend to the ruine or exterminion of a kingdom I vse his Maiesties owne word must be reuealed if it be told vnder Confession no not the matter so farre indirectly disclosed as may giue occasion for preuenting the danger therof though it agree with the conceit of some 3. or 4. new Iesuited Doctors yet is it such a new and dangerous head of doctrine as no king or State can liue in security where that position is maintained And here it shall not be amisse to remember that vnto ward answere which Binet the Iesuit shaped to Casaubon in the kings library in Paris two or three moneths before the death of Henry the great as they talked of Garnets execution which the Iesuit termed martyrdom It were better quoth he that all kings should perish then that the seale of confession should once be broken vp adding withal this reason that the gouernment of kings was but an humane constitution wheras confession was a diuine ordinance which wheÌ„ I heard saiâ—h Casaubon Obstupui steteruntque comae vox faucibus haesit But afterwards reading the bookes written by men of the same mettall and societie and perceiuiâ—g hee had sayd nothing which they taught not in effect though not in the same wordes I left wondring sayeth hee and censured mine owne folly Notwithstanding all this the same Mr. Casaubon confesseth and not onely for himselfe but for vs speaking in the plurall number in the Page immediatly going before that it was an ancient decree of the Church full of pietie and wisedome that it should not bee
how hath their multitude intangled the Christian world yet must no man dare open his mouth to complaine of that We reade of Luther that when he heard his books by publike order were burnt in Rome he as solemnely burnt the Canon law at Wittenberge We haue not proceeded neither thinke wee it fit to proceed so farre but haue rather chosen out of that dunghill to seeke for a pearle which hauing found we are content to keepe and as occasion serues to make vse of We haue not wholly abrogated the Canon law but wee retaine it in part though not as receiuing strength from the Popes authoritie who for any thing I know hath no more right of making lawes for vs then wee haue for him but from the gouernours of our owne Church Neither did the Kings of France in the erection of their Vniuersities receiue it any otherwise then to vse at their own discretioÌ„ not to oblige them as a law or if it did the power of it was deriued from their owne approbation not from Romes imposition and therefore haue they expresly and by name forbidden the 6th Booke of the Decretals to bee read in their Vniuersities as lawe as being expresly against the lawes and liberties of the Gallican Church Now if they refuse one part they might in my iudgement by the same reason if they found it inconuenient or disagreeable reiect the whole and I thinke they would not stand much if occasion serued vpon the casting off of the Canon lawe who could by no meanes yet bee induced to the receiuing of the Canons of the Council of Trent A notable instance hereof wee haue euen in the depth of Popery in our owne Countrey At the Parliament of Merton it was proposed that children borne before marriage might bee adiudged legitimate according to the rule and practise of the Canon law They all made answere with one voice Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari we wil not yeeld to the change of the lawes of England by which it appeares that they receiued not in those very times all the Popes Canons as lawes and those which they receiued they had not the force of lawes because the Pope imposed theÌ„ but because themselues entertained them in that nature and to that purpose ratified them Mr. Doctor need not marueile then if our Parliament now make lawes to the same purpose and by the same authority as they ratified those The Summons of Parliament euer since the time of King Henry the V. and how long before I know not haue in one constant forme and tenour made mention that the Parliament is summoned to consult de negotijs statum defensionem Regni Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae contigentibus of businesses concerning the State and defence of the Realme and Church of England Among other Kings S. Edward begins his lawes with this protestation that it was his Princely care Vt populum Dei super omnia Sanctam Ecclesiam regat gubernet To rule and gouerne Gods people and aboue all the Church of God And before him Ina kâ—ng of the West Saxons professeth that hee called a Councill of his Bishops and Senators that they might consult of matters De salute animarum Statu regni touching the saluation of their soules and the State of the kingdome And therefore doeth our chiefe Antiquarie rightly distinguish our Courts into Ecclesiasticall Ciuill and mixt which hee makes the Parliament as beeing compounded of both and consequently capable to determine of matters of both natures though I must needes say the case is somewhat altered from â—ormer times when not onely the Arch-bishâ—ps the Bishops the Abbots and Priors whose number was double to thâ—t which now it is and litle inferiour to the â—eâ—porall Lords sate in thhe igher House of Paâ—liament and had conâ—luding voâ—ces but the bodie of the Clergie and Cathedrall â—hurches had their Proctours amongst the Commons as may be câ—llected by diuers of our Statutes in print but noâ— that the number of the Lords Spirituall in the higher House is â—essened and the others are cleane excluded the lower House mee thinkes it should stand with reason and equitie that thâ— liâ—ertie of making of lawes or Canons in Church-matters should bee referred and reserued by his Maiesties gracious fauour and with his Royall assent to Church-men assembled in their Conuocation who are presumed to be most able and willing to establish good and wholesome Constitutions and to reforme what is amisse Thus in the yeere 1603 at his Maiesties first entrance into this kingdome by vertue of hiâ— Prerogatiue Royall and Supreame authority in causes Ecclesiasticall did hee graunt licâ—nce and free power vnto them to treate and agree vpon such Ordinances as they should thinke necessary and conuenient for the honour and seruice of Almighty God and the good and quiet of the Church and afterward being by them agreed vpon and throughly considered by his Maâ—estie out of his princely inclination to maintaine the present estate and gouernment of the Church of England hee not onely coâ—firmed them by his Royall Assent but by the same authoritie commaunded the entertainement and execution of them through the Realme Another matter you fling at is the multitude of Lawyers at this day as iâ— they were exceedingly increased but if you had read and well obseâ—ued Foretescues obseruation in this behalfe who wrote about 200. yeeres since being then Chiefe Iustice of England and had compared this time to that you would haue found that the number of that Proâ—ession in those dayes was litle lesse then at this day certainely their colledges were then more then now His words are Sunt namque in eo decem hospitia minora et quandâ—que verò plura quae nominantur hospitia Cancellariae ad quorum quodlibet pertinent centum studentes ad minus et ad aliqua eorum maior in multo numerus licet non omnes in eis semper conueniant MaioruÌ„ quatuor sunt ad minimuÌ„ eorum pertinent in forma praenot at a ducenti studentes aut propè They haue ten lesser houses which they call Innes of Chancerie to euery of which belong one hundred students at least and to some many more though they be not all continually resident in them of the bigger houses they haue â—oure and to each of them in like manner belong two hundred students or thereabout Whereras at this present in some of the Innes of Court there are not 260. and in the greatest little aboue 300. in commons at one time and for the â—nnes of Chancerie they are but eight in number and in most of them not aboue 50. in commons together But if they are increased it may well be imputed not so much to our multitude of statuts as to our long peace the nurse of homebred quarrels or to the dissolution of our Monestaries and that as I conceiue for foure reasons First for that whereas in those dayes when the Monasteries stood many yonger brothers did
first on God and then on the Soueraigne Magistrate his annointed and vicegerent on earth In regard of externall coactiue iurisdiction with Saint Augustine wee distinguish betweene the eternall God and the temporall Lord yet wee obey the temporall Lord for his sake that is the eternall God But where Caluinisme preuaileth three or foure stipendary Ministers you say that must preach as it shall please Mr. Maior and his brethren may serue for a whole Citie where by Caluinisme you vnderstand not the discipline or forme of Church gouernment conceiued by Caluin but Doctrinall pointes maintained by him or at leastwise by you imposed on him I say imposed on him in as much as the greatest part of those positions is certainly no part of his Doctrine and for the rest malice and preiudice set aside they might suffer as fauourable a construction in Caluin as in Saint Augustin or in Bellarmine and other Iesuits and schoolemen neither is all that Caluin hath written without exception maintained by those in England who otherwise imbrace and reuerence his paines as of a chiefe Captaine in the Lords battailes your positions I will examine as they lie in order whereof the first is That God hath predestinated a certaine number to bee saued without any condition at all of their being in the visible Church by faith or their perseuering therein by good workes To which I answere that if wee consider Predestination before the fall it can haue no reference to Faith or good workes flowing from thence in as much as if Adam had stood in his originall integritie wee should not haue needed the comming of CHRIST for our saluation and consequently neither faith in him nor those workes which are the necessarie fruits and effects of that faith but if after the fall then are they both required not as impulsiue and meritorious causes but as markes and effects infallible of our Predestination and withall as the ordinary conditions and meanes of our saluation This I take to bee Caluins opinion in the third booke and 22. chap. of his Institutions and not Caluins onely but Martyrs in his Commentary on the 8th to the Romanes and Zanchies in his 5. booke of the nature of God and second chapter and Bezaes in the acts of the conference at Montpelgard and generally of our owne Writers that haue touched this point and if wee erre herein wee erre with St. Augustine who in his 87. tract vpon Iohn thus speaks Hic certe vacillat eoruÌ„ ratiocinatio qui praescientiam Dei defendunt contra gratiaÌ„ Dei ideo dicunt nos electos ante mundi constitutionem quia praesciuit nos Deus futuros bonos non seipsum nos facturuÌ„ bonos Non hoc dicit qui dicit non vos me elegistis quoniam si propterea nos elegisset quia bonos futuros â—sse nos praesciuerat simul etiam praescisset quòd eum nos fuissemus prius electuri Heere falleth to the ground their vaine manner of reasoning who defend the foresight of God against the grace of God affirming that wee were therefore chosen before the foundation of the world because God foresaw wee would bee good not that himselfe would make vs good But hee sayes not so who sayes you haue not chosen mee for had hee chosen vs because hee foresaw wee would bee good hee should also haue foreseene that we would first haue chosen him To the same purpose doth hee speake in the 98. Chapter of his Manuel to Laurence and in his 105. Epistle neither doeth the Master of sentences disâ—ent from him herein in his first Booke and 41. distinction Opinati sunt quidam sayeth he Deum ideo elegisse Iacob quia talem futurum praesciuit qui in eum crederet ei seruiret Some saith he haue beene of opinion that God chose Iacob because hee knew hee would beleeue on him and serue him which Saint Augustin in his Retractions confesseth that himselfe sometimes held where hee plainely prooueth that had hee bin chosen for any merit to come that election had not proceeded from grace The same is also the opinion of Scotus of Aquinas and Bellarmin himselfe so that to say God hath predestinated a certaine number without any condition of faith or workes as the impulsiue or meritorious cause of our predestination is not Caluins opinion alone neither was he the first broacher of it And to say that hee predestinated a certaine number without any condition of Faith and workes as the markes and effects of our Predestination and the means of our saluation is not Caluins opinion at all but thrust vpon him by Mr. Doctor He hath chosen vs sayeth the Apostle before the foundation of the world that wee should bee holy making holinesse the finall but not the efficient cause with which distinction doeth Sixtus Senensis shut vp the matter in the sixth Booke of his Library where hauing at large alleaged the sayings of Origen Chrysostome Ambrose Hierome c. who seeme to hold that the Prescience of workes is the cause of diuine Predestination quae quidem sententia sayeth he in Pelagio damnata est which opinion was coÌ„demned in Pelagius he addeth that Augustin hauing sometime held the same vpon better aduice retracted it almost in innumerable places and at length concluds Neâ— dubium est c. Neither is there any doubt to bee made but that some of those foresayd Fathers in pronouncing our workes foreseene to bee the cause of Gods Predestination vnderstood it of the finall cause and not of the meritorious The second point which you call Caluiniâ—me is that God hath Reprobated the greatest part of the world without any respect at all of their infidelitie heresie or wicked life to which I answere that this point of Doctrine being rightly vnderstood is not Caluins alone but Martyrs Zanchies Bezaes in the places before alleaged and generally of our owne diuines nay of Saâ—nt Augustin of Lombard of Scotus of Thomas and of Bellarmine himselfe who in the place aboue quoted distinguisheth Reprobation into a negatiue and a positiue acte the negatiue is Gods will of not sauing men the positiue his will of damning men of the former of these sayeth hee no cause can bee assigned in regard of vs as neither of our Predestination but of the lattter the cause is the foresight of sinne Now the former of these two acts is that by which men are properly sayd to bee reprobated as by the latter to bee damned so that to say God hath reprobated the greatest part of the world without respect of any thing in themselues is no more Caluinisme then Beâ—â—arminisme Catherinus indeed enueighs bitterly against those who affirme that God reprobats some not because hee foresees their wicked life but because his pleasure is to exclude them from Eternall life and this opinion hee ascribes to Luther calling it impious and intolerable but Pererius somewhat sharper sighted takes vp the blundring olde man for it putting him
read and search the Scriptures and yee erre not knowing the Scriptures and for traditions he names them not but to reiect them Secondly it is acknowledged by the greatest Clerks and chiefest pillars of the Church of Rome that the Euangelists in writing their Gospels and the Apostles their Epistles were none other but the pens of a ready Writer the Secretaries of their Lord and Master now that which the Secretarie writes according to the direction and inditing of his Lord more commonly is more iustly ought to be called the writing of the Lord then the Secretarie it is St. Augustines reason in the last Chapter of his first booke of the consent of the Euangelists Cum Euangelistae saith hee Apostoli scripserunt quae Deus ostendit dixit nequaquam dicendum est quod ipse non scripserit quicquid enim ille de suis factis dictis nos legere voluit hoc scribendum illis tanquam suis manibus imperauit In as much as the Euangelists and Apostles wrote that which God manifested and spake it cannot be said that himselfe wrote not for whatsoeuer his pleasure was wee should reade touching his workes and words that he gaue them in charge to write as it had beene with his owne fingers Thirdly it is reported by Eusebius lib. 1. cap. 13. that our Sauiour left in writing a letter to Abgarus King of Edessa the copie whereof he there setteth downe at large affirming the originall to haue bene kept among the publique Records of that Citie but for mine owne part I must needs say that if it bee not fained I can not conceiue why it should not be receiued as canonicall Fourthly and lastly it may very well bee that our Sauiour wrote nothing himselfe in as much as those things which were to bee written were testimonies concerning himselfe for though it be true in regard of his diuine authoritie which hee deliuers in the eight of St. Iohns Gospel Though I beare record of my selfe yet my Record is true Yet in regard of the apprehension of flesh and blood it is as true which he hath in the fifth of the same Gospel If I should beare witnesse of my selfe my witnesse were not true B. C. 2. That our Sauiour commanded not his Apostles to write his Religion but to teach it Ite praedicate G. H. 2. As if a man might not teach as well by his pen as his tongue by writing as speaking nay doctrine deliuered by writing as it is conueyed more purely and certainely without mixture arising from humane frailtie and corruption so it spreads farther and lasts longer and if it degenerate is more easily reformed It is worthy to bee marked which St. Luke hath in the Preface of his Gospel to that noble Theophilus Hee confesseth that he had beene instructed in the doctrine of Religion yet hee thought to write vnto him from point to point that hee might haue the certainety of those things so that though hee had indifferent good knowledge before yet writing the storie was the meanes to beget certainety so saith Dauid This shall bee written for the generation to come Neither to my remembrance doe I reade of any that forbad their followers to write but onely the Pythagoreans and the Druides Once wee are sure that it pleased Almighty God to countenance the writing of holy Scripture by his owne practice in as much as hee wrote the Decalogue once and againe in tables of stone And as he led the way himselfe so in expresse termes he commanded his seruants the Prophets to doe the like Moses and Esay and Ieremy and Ezekiel and Habacuk Before the Law was written what vniuersall apostasies there were from the true worship of God the floud is a sufficient testimonie and after it was lost though the Priesthood continued what generall swaruings there were both of Prince and people as well in maners as religion appeares 2. Chro. 34. What forbids vs then to thinke that our Sauiour in commanding his Apostles to teach all nations should not by vertue of that command as well giue them in charge to publish their doctrine by writing as to deliuer it by word of mouth Besides whiles wee reade in the first of the Reuel at the 11. verse that he who was dead and is aliue commands Iohn to write those things which he saw in a booke and againe at the 19. verse Write the things which thou hast seene and the things which are and the things which shall come hereafter And againe in the second and third Chapters in particular to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus write to the Angel of the Church of Smyrna write to the Angel of the Church of Pergamus write to the Angel of the Church of Thyatira write to the Angel of the Church of Sardis write to the Angel of the Church of Philadelphia write to the Angel of the Church of Laodicea write while I say we finde the charge of writing so often giuen to Iohn and that by him who was dead and is aliue I can neuer subscribe to the trueth of that Proposition that our Sauiour commanded none of his Apostles to write except I should denie S. Iohn to haue beene an Apostle or our Sauiour to be vnderstood by him who was dead and is aliue B. C. 3. That of the twelue Apostles seuen did leaue nothing at all in writing but taught their Successours the Religion of Christ by word of mouth G. H. 3. This Proposition supposeth the number of the Apostles to haue bene but twelue whereas Matthias made the thirteenth and Paul the fourteenth who proclaimes it in the front of the greatest part of his fourteene seuerall Epistles Paul an Apostle But it may be Mr. Doctor will not vouchsafe him that name because he wrote more then any of the Apostles Secondly in the fifteenth of the Actes wee reade that the Apostles met together in Councill wrote Letters the very tenour whereof there appeares neither can it be otherwise conceiued but that the whole number of them or at leastwise the greatest part was there assembled So that to say that seuen of them left nothing in writing is both derogatorie from the authoritie of Scripture and in it selfe vniustifiable Thirdly it may very wel be that seuen of them left nothing els but that Letter in writing not because they held it sufficient to teach only by word of mouth as Mr. Doctor would imply but because sixe of them had written which how needfull it was they should performe appeareth aswell by Saint Paul as Saint Iude. Fourthly and lastly though nothing of their writing bee come to our hands yet it is not certaine whether they left nothing in writing since it is probable that Saint Paul wrote another Epistle to the Corinth which is now no where extant B. C. 4. That Saint Marke Saint Luke and Saint Paul were not of Christs company whiles he was vpon the earth and therefore must needs learne
Page 3. 2 Page 200. 3 Which Dispensation was first granted contrarie to the opinion of all the Cardinals of Râ—me being Diuines Hall ann Hâ—nry 8. 4 In the yeere 1562. and againe in 1571. 5 Apol. for the Oath of alleagiance p. 108. 6 Eusebius lib. 3 de vita Constantâ—i * Psal. 91 11. 7 Such a precedenciâ— hath the Emperour before Christian kings but no command ouer them 8 B. Bilson part 2 of Christian subiection p. 237. 1 This penalty was not inflicted for taking Orders but for returning after Orders taken such a penalty did Solomon impose and execute vpon Shimei 1. King 2. 2 There is lesse doubt of the Episcopall being of our Bishops then of those that deriue their being from the Popes in regard of their manifold schismes and if it came to scanning the Archbishop of Canterbury hath faiâ—er euidence to shew for his right to that See then the Bishop of Rome to the Popedome nay the Pope to the Bishopricke of Rome * Roâ— 11. 18 c. 1 He that examines the writings will easily find you wrote without booke 2 Such a Catholike then as your selfe the Sâ—ate standing as it doth can by your owne confession bee no good subiect 3 As if onely Puritanes were at the making of those Statutes or they alone make care and conscience of the execution of them 4 A mâ—rueile it is that a man of your age and experience should conceiue or affirme that to belong to the office of a Iustice of Peâ—câ— which appertaines to the Iudges or Iustices itenerant 5 Your hope must needes be grounded vpon a vaine presumption of some strange and sudden alteration in his Maiestie considering his full resolution and your many infirmities but your hope is perished with your selfe and so may all they who entertaine the like 6 You speake as if the naturall birth of a man gaue him interest in the Saints of heauen whereas there they put off all carnall affections and become like vnto the Angels 7 The Saints of heauen haue no knowledge of the particular conuersion of a sinner by any ordinary intuition but by reuâ—lation extraordinary 8 Many Saints no doubt are triumphant which were neuer militant in that Church which acknowledgeth the Pope her head 9 Where no offence is committed there needs no pardon to be either demanded or granted 10 The seruice you intended was nothing els but a plotting with the Pâ—pâ— and his Factours how you might betray the liberty of your Countrey and submit your Soueraignes neck to the yoke of his seruice 11 Vnlesse the Church of Rome draw neerer to vs then hitherto shee hath made sheâ— of it cannot bee but with the preiudice of all the honest men in England and honesty it selfe that a neerer vnion betwixt her and the Church of England should be concluded then already there is 1 Contrâ— literâ—â— Patâ—â— 2. c. 92 2 This Booke was written by my L. Burleigh L. Treasourer wherein hee pâ—ouâ—s that no Romish Catholikes were then executed but for iustifying the Bul of Pâ—us V. which Card. Allen replied vnto but so weakely as the trueth is thereby streâ—gthened 3 This samâ— poiâ—t is againâ— confirmed by his Maiesty in his booke Dâ— droâ—â— dâ—s Râ—yeâ— Pagâ— 113. 4 Ego intraproximum trimestro â—el sâ—mestre tot puta quinque vel sex reconciliaui pro quibus spondere ausiâ— quod quaecunque occasiâ— inciderit a parte nâ—stra â—â—turi sint omnes Tâ—rt Torti 138. 1 I suppose your meaning is to be accounted so 2 I haue not met with any that teacheth it but holy Father Aristotle in the entrance of his Politikes 3 That which you call the malice of the times was the iust censure of your superiours procured by your own malice against the trueth 4 What seruice could you do by dying but by remouing a dangerous instrument 5 So then you seeme to confesse that for religion you were of the same mind long before you went hence as since you haue declared your selfe which notwithstanding in diuers other places you contradict 1 Pol. lib. 3. cap. â— In methodâ— histâ— vt apparet in 〈◊〉 ex purgatâ—riâ— 1 That is you haue put off a Diuine to put on a Statesman but the prouerbe is Monachus in aula piscis in arido and your owne saying is that false Religion is but a policie for the temporal seruice of Princes 2 What securitie did it procure to Henry the IIII. and the 7. Emperours or to Chilperike Phil. lebâ—l Lewis the XII or the 2. last Hen. of France and if there be no securitie but in that religion what religion is that which will admit of no security in any but it selfe 3 They were aduanced by the grace of God and their owne right not by the Roman Religion which in a maner is all one with the Bishop of Romes authoritie by which Histories recorde how king Iohn and diuers other his Maiesties predecessours aswell of England as France and Scotland haue bene aduanced and protected 4 Why then if the Roman Religion had remained amongst vs should they still haue beene prayed for as if they had remained in Purgatorie 1 All this must be vnderstood of the Church of Rome which first curseth and then by all meanes laboureth to confound such as oppose against her imputing her owne deuillish plots to Gods working 1 See Lipsius his admiranda or de magnitudine Remani Imp. 1 It is rather Rome that is fallen from the vnitie of Christs Church 2 You are somwhat more fauorable to her herein then Bocius in his 12. booke and 3 chapter of the signes of the Church Terenixa passim pradicatur ex illicito coitu ac propterea fuitincemitijs Angliae publicis decretum vt illi defunctae in regno possent succedere ex huiusmodi concubinatunati A most malicious lie 3 She came vpon the religion professed and established in her sisters reigne which you call remainders of deuotion and wee denie it not but how comes it to passe that her sister was so vnfortunate if the onely comming vpon her remainders made Q. Elizabeth so happy 4 That which you cal maintaining of warre amongst her neighbours his Maiestie in her ensuing Epitaph termes the relieuing of France and supporting the Netherlands hee might iustly haue called it the setting vp of a iust King in his owne kingdome and the freeing of a free Estate from the vniust vsurpation of a forreine power 5 For feare of failing wee are yeerely supplied with a new Mission of shauelings from the fountaine but sure I am perswaded if this current were stopped our peace and prosperitie would be both more honourable and certaine then it is 1 That is as far as the drift of your reason proposed in the 2. and 3. Section of this Chapter 2 To conferre is not properly by a bare permission but by donation 3 Kingdomes may be bestowed vpon wicked men for many other reasons besides the sinnes of the people
bene angry with them who standing least vpon his Maiâ—sties supremacie not onely endeuor to crosse his desires but to indanger his person and to cut off himselfe and his posterity 10 By the keyes doing the Crowne seruice belike you meane the triple Crowne 11 That the Keyes are tyed to the Scepter is false his Maiâ—sty neither hauing nor challenging the right of binding and loosing but true that by the Pope both Scepter and sword too are tyed to the Keyes 12 If his Mâ—â—â—stiâ—s title rather serue others then himselfe we are sure his Holinesse title rather serues himselfe then others Pag. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 1 Exâ—mptiâ— Clericorum in rebus pâ—liâ—iciâ— tâ—m quoad personas tuÌ„ quoad bona introducta est iure humanâ— paritâ—r diuino Bel. l. de cle cap. 28 * 2. Sam. 17. 6 1. Chron. â—3 12. 2 Chrâ—n 6. 2. King 23. 2. 2. Châ—o 20. 3. Nehem. 9. 38. 2. King 18. 4. 2. Chron. 17. 8. 1. King 2. 27. 2 Socr. 1. 9. 3 Theod. 1. 9. 4 Theodoretus lâ— 5 cap. 9. 5 Euagriâ—â— lib. 1. cap. 2. 6 Leâ— Epist. 43. Gen. 14. 19. 7 Apud Stoâ— de regnâ— See to this purpose Aristot. pol. lib. 3. cap. 11. 8 Ferdin Lopâ—z lib. 1. Hist. Iud. Cap. 14. 9 Quia in Ciuitate bellicosa plures Romuli quam Numae similes reges putabat fore iturosque ipsâ—s ad bella ne sacra desereâ—entur flamineÌ„ Iâ—ui assiduum Sacerdotem â—reauit Liu. lib. 1. * 2. Pâ—t 2. 9. * 1. Cor. 2. 15. 10 Maynard de priui Eccl. art 9. 11 Bulla Pâ—â— Quin. ast; Ier. 1. 10. 12 See their book of Sacred Ceremonies 13 Monit Poâ—â—â— * Matth. 28. 18. * 1. Sam. 13. 13. * 2. Cro. 26. 19. * Exod. 28. 14 Without all contradiction the lesse is blessed of the greater Heb. 7. 7. * Exod. 4. 16. * 2. Chron. 19. * Deut. 17. 12. * Acts 25. 11. 1 It is more to be feared that Rome will doe what she can to make him poore but neuer complaine that he is not rich 2 The reason why God did not blesse it I haue giuen in mine answere 3 The Court of augmentation is annexed to the Exchequer and yeelds yeerely to his Maiestie as much as euer as I thinke 4 As they were then in the hands of the Clergie they yeelded nothing but at their pleasure 5 You obiect to his Maiestie his empty Coffers but labour to make them more emptie by subiecting him to Rome 6 How diligently you haue perused the Statutes I haue made it appeare in mine answere to the later part of your first chapter and yet it seemes you are more skilfull in them then in the Satutes whereof Dauid speakes I will delight my selâ—e in thy Statutes Psa. 119. 16. * Proâ— 14. â—â— * Exod. 36. 1 See the Statute 2 Witnesse the Church of Saint Albons 1 It seemes then that they whom you call Caluinists as touching the confession of his faith are of the same iudgement with his Maiesty 2 To grant thaâ— which notwithstanding is not false as I haue shewed in mine answere to this Sect. yet are there many things in the same booke which if his Maiâ—sty maintaine as vpon his honor he is bound to doe he can neuer turne Romane Cath. 3 K. Henry neuer contradicted his booke 4 From thence it followes that by your owne acknowledgement what his Maiestie hath written is good * Luke 22. 25. * Iohn 14. 26. * Iohn 21. 15. 16. 17. * Mat. 18. 18. * 1. Cor. 5. 4. * Acts 15. * 1. Cor. 1. 11. * Gal. 2. * Gal. 1. 18. 1 Bel. de Rom. pâ—nt lib. 1. cap. 27. Can. 6. 2 In prefat lib. de fide 3 Pag. 89 90 91 92. 93. 4 Episc. Eli. in respons ad Apol. Card. Bellar. pag. 167 168 169 170 171 172. 5 Lib. 5. vltra med in Apol. 1. 2. sapius repetit 6 In haâ—â—si Sethianorum in cap. vlt. 1. Pet. 7 De Sanct. bâ—atit lib. 1. cap. 6. 8 Lib. 2. de purgat cap. 8. 9 De S. beat lib. 1. cap. 5. 10 Lib. 4 de Râ— Pont. cap. 8. * Pag. 89. 11 Lib. 1. de Rom. Pont. cap. 8. 12 Cypr-Epist ad Pompo cont Epist. Steph. 13 Pag. 474. * Iohn 19. 22. * Ecclus. 27. 11. 1 Indeed he cannot well bee a good subiect who either reconciles himselfe or perswades others to be reconciled to that Church which maintaines heretikes to be as infidels if not worse his Maiesty an heretike 2 I guesse at your meaning your Cath had cause to be angry that it succeeded not 3 Belike you vnderstand the Parliament who perswaded his Maiesty to the imposing of the oath of allegeance 4 His Maiesty may both detest the fact and punish the offendours and endeuour by wholsome lawes to preuent the like mischiefe and yet both liue and die in charity 5 Where is that reason 6 God indeed is exorable but vpon submission and hearty contrition which yet appeares not either in the tongues or pens of Romanist 7 Quid opus est verbis quum facta se ostendunt 8 His Maiesty is as the Angel of God wise to discerne who they are that labour to misinforme him and misleade his people 9 It should seeme then you are fallen from the hope of perswading his Maiesty to become a Rom. Cath. to the toleration of that religion which notwithstanding he cannot admit without double periury See Tâ—rtuâ—a Torti pag. 82. 14 Christanouic Pacenius Becan Parsons Coqueus Eudamon Schoppius Reboule Coffeteau Peletier Gretser Suarez Beaumanoir * Râ—â— 3. 15. 2 Ad M. Torti lib. Resp. pag. 191 3 L. of Balmerinoch then his Maiesties Secretary 1 Many of those passengers who iustly feare danger haue greater experience in the guiding of this ship then your selfe could haue 2 The attaining of your Hauen we take not to bee the way to Heauen * Acts 17. 10. 1 Defence du Droit des Rois pag. 111. 112. 1 Whether your Preachers or your Friars and â—esuites abuse the people more with lies in their Sermons let them iudge who haue heard both 2 For morall and ciuill honestie there were among the ancient Romans and more learned then they 3 Belike they condemned you for one among the rest and were not much mistaken 4 It is well you hold some honest men amongst them least your selfe should bee accounted none 5 The Romish Church for many chiefe points hath not so much as pretext of Scripture 6 We might say the like of some of your followers more truly in as much as we beare them record that they haue zeale but not according to knowledge 7 What makes you to crie out so against Puritane Preachers but that most of the people are led by Sermons 8 I haue said it before and I will be bold vpon this occasion giuen to report it againe not to boast of it but to praise God for it that his Maiesties Dominions
afford as many sufficient and learned Preachers and that in a more substantiall and conscionable fashion then the Popes Hierarchie and that London alone affords more then Rome it selfe and their readinesse to supply Sermons is not so much out of any good will they beare that exercise as out of ill will they beare vs. Iohn Aduenâ— lib. 30. Anal. Boio 1 So that in Mr. Doctors Logick an honest Protestant may thus be defined One that can endure the State of England as it is and could be content it were as it was that he might receiue more benefit 2 You tel vs before that all false religions in the world are but humane policies and we as truely returne it vpon you that this humane policie fauours of a false religion 3 Many of them though they professed themselues dead to the world yet were they aliue to the flesh Renulfus Câ—str lib. 7. 1 Indeede by the forme of words yet extant in the masse booke and vsed by the Priest it is supposed that a number should Communicate daily with him but it seldome is so 2 If wee had no vse of confessours yet might and ought inferiors be kept in awe of hell fire by their Preachers and superiours be tolde of their errours in state by their Counsellers but you seeme to assure his Maiestie that if hee will not be told of his errours in confession he shall in rebellion * 2. Cor. 5. 18. 1 Bell de peâ—â—t lib. 3. Cap. 2. 2 Epist ad Front pag. 129. 3 Premon 125 4 See nouell doct in the ende of the Premon the 3. 5 Epist. ad Front pâ—g 140. 6 Pag. 326. 7 That is they doe not binde him to present the party confessing as appeares both in the body and title of the Canon * Gal. 5. 1. 1 If in those middle times when all things ranne in a current course there were not so many Statutes made in Church matters it must be imputed rather to the want of occasion then of power the plantation or reformation of the Church chiefly giuing occasion to the making of lawes in Church matters 2 When the name of a Parliament began in England is vncertaine See my L. Coke in his Preface to the ninth part of his reports 3 I take the raising of new houses to be no hinderance to the Common-weâ—lth the Lawyers themselues being a part of the Commons 4 As 〈◊〉 the Ciuill Law came not from the Roman Infidels â—hich notwithstandâ—ng stand well enough with the authoritie of the Ecclesiasticall Courts 5 What you call Catholike I know not but sure I am that since King Eth. time many Statutes haue been made for the restraâ—ning of the Bâ—shop of Romes vniuâ—t vsurpation neither doâ— finde that hee â—â—â—tered any thing in the lawes of the kingdome saue onely by commaâ—ding them to be turned into his mother tongue 6 Iâ— by better times you meane the restitution of the Romish Religion or the recoÌ„ciliation of our Church to Rome you had certainly very little reason to expect them from the learning wisedome and moderation of those that are now the chiefest in that profession the chiefest of all hauing both fâ—equently and fullâ— declared himselfe to the contrary and suffred for it by the slanderous tongues and pennes of malicious Romanists and namely Eudaemon and Parsons 1 Bod in lib. 1. de â—epub cap. 8. 2 See Monsâ—ir Seruius the Kings Attourney generals speach in the end of the reformation of the Vniueâ—sitie of Paris 3 Spâ—culum Iust. anno 712. 4 Statut. 21. Râ—â— 2. cap. 11. 5 Comment cap. 49. 6 A God containes the Sea within his owne bounds and marches so is it my office to make euery Court containe it selfe within its owne limits see his Maâ—â—sties Speech in Parliament 1609. 7 Cap. 17. 1 What thoâ—â— Clergie men are wee desire to know and who in your sense are Caluinists 2 What those points of doctrine are wee shall see in the next Section 3 That his Maiesties fauour to the Clergie is such as not to giue way to their ouerthrow and in stead of them to set vp a few stipendary Preachers we haue had good triall and are bound to blesse God for it but sore against the will of all Romane Catholikes it is that his Maiestie should fauour them so much 1 How Caluin himselfe though he were a stipendary Minister pleased Master Maior and his brethren let his banishment more then once for his free preaching testifie 2 We are assured that both his Maiesty and his heire apparent are so well resolued in this point as they wil neuer put it to the question 3 Our Sermons are not so cheape as your Masses which notwithstanding are in a manner the very life and soule of your Priesthood 4 The vntrueth of this assertion appeares in mine answere 5 As if all those who are called Lords and goe in Rochets were not by their place conformable to the discipline had often before they come to that place subscribed to the doctrine established by Law 6 They may more easily turne Lay with you where Lay men are admitted to the administration of the Sacrament 7 These kinde of Clergie men desire no satisfaction from you but wish you had bin as carefull to maintaine that trueth which once you professed as to confute their pretended errours which confutation notwithstanding you speake much of but no where performe nor so much as vndertake 8 You may rather call them temporizing then temperate 9 It were well that others knew them too if any such there bee who in iudgmeÌ„t approoue the trueth of that religion which you call Cath. and yet proâ—â—sse themselues not onely members but Ministers of our Church but our hope is that their number is not such as you vaunt of it being vnpossible that honest men and good Schollers should take the oath of Supremacie and subscribe to our articles of religion and yet in iudgement approue the authority of the B. of Rome which is in a maner the substance of that religion 10 Had ours had the like temperate course held with them or the like liberty afforded in Queene Maries dayes they would haue thought themselues happy 11 Their wiues and children are bound to pray for you in regard of your fatherly care of them 12 It is well that you account your selfe one of the honest men and good Schollers but they are so farre I hope from accounting you one of them as they vtterly condemne and mislike your courses 13 But it pleased God you should die among strangers and not liue to see that toleration you desired neither shall any of them we hope that yet liue and desire to see it 14 As if the whole fortune of Greece depended vpon your submission to that Church 15 What assurance can there bee on our parts from them who hold yâ— faith is not to be held with heretikes but you forgot your promise made to my Lords Grace of