disloyalty from them that have freely taken them and none in Catholicks that have refused For the Oaths by none more readily taken and earnestly imposed on others than by those who began the Wars and promoted the Covenant and on the contrary by none more scrupled and refused than by those who always assisted the King ¶ Thirdly it may be objected as lately by Doctor Denton c. That Papists suffer not for Religion but because they are not obedient to the Laws c. Resp 1. By a Proviso of the Act 25 and 27. of Eliz. if any Priest committed shall submit to the Laws and take the Oaths they shall be freed from the penalty and not adjudged Traytors if they renounce their Religion Resp 2. Suppose that in the Apostles time a Law had been made by any King or Emperour of a contrary Religion to them that if any of the said Apostles or Priests should enter into their Dominions to preach a contrary Doctrine to to the Religion there received and to exercise any of their Apostolical or Priestly Functions it should be treason and under pain of death Would or could the Apostles have obeyed those Laws or did they obey the Governours of the Jews their lawful Superiours when they commanded them to preach no more in the name of Jesus Christ or to disperse Christian Doctrine which they held for Treason or did they fly out of their Dominions lest their sufferings should be imputed to disobedience and not for the name of Christ Is there not another blood to be respected called by the Prophet the blood of the Soul whereof the Pastor shall be guilty if he fly for fear or forsake his flock in time of danger and persecution Have not the English Priests the same Obligation of Conscience to help their Country-men in spiritual necessities as had the Apostles and Apostolick men to strangers for whose help they were content to offer their lives and incur any danger whatsoever ¶ Fourthly It may be demanded why cannot Papists come to our Churches Resp Unity and Vniformity are two things one being internal the other external therefore if they should conform yet they can have no verity faith or truth but as forced by which Religion is never better'd Truth and falshood are like the clay in Nebuchadonosors Image they may cleave but they will never incorporate Christ's Coat had no seam though the Churches vesture was of divers colours whence a learned Father saith in veste varietas sit scissura non sit The true God hath this attribute that he is a jealous God and therefore his worship and religion will endure no mixture or partner ¶ Fifthly To say or object the Popes Supremacy is dangerous This reflects not only upon the honour of Catholicks but the safety of all the Professors of it They acknowledg the Pope as Successor to Saint Peter is head of the Church and hath supream Authority in matters spiritual but how this can be offensive to the Temporalities of Princes is not understood by me nor those great Monarchs that are of his Church and submit to his authority and and yet are zealous and jealous of their own power and temporal Regalities as any Princes can possible be Our graver and more learned Divines distinguish between the inward power of the Keys and the outward jurisdiction by temporal penalties this they assign to the King in all causes and over all persons that they reserve to the Clergy as neither derived from or dependent of the Civil Magistrate And if I rightly understand the Religion of the English Church although they allow the King to be supream Governour of their Church yet they do not confer any Pastoral Office or Jurisdiction upon him and consequently he is one of the Flock and therefore as such he is subject to Pastors Wherefore if this be not looked on by Protestants as derogatory to the Kings authority I hope by the same reason Roman Catholicks will not be found guilty for owning the Popes Supreamacy in matters meerly spiritual There can be no just fear or jealousie that spiritual jurisdiction should supplant secular obedience because the Church-Discipline in it self is so innocent and passive We our selves acknowledg a spiritual authority in the Bishops promise a Canonical obedience to them and not to the King admit Jurisdiction in their spiritual Courts c. nay the Presbyterians in their Consistory and ecclesiastical Courts will allow the King no authority at all more than the meanest Subject and so do other Sects Now if a Subject v. g. the Bishop of Canterbury may be supream in Spirituals without any derogation to the Prince may not the Pope with less danger and inconvenience be truely called as King James did the Patriarch or Superintendent of the West For if that power be purely spiritual being of a different nature as is said before it cannot in the least degree be prejudicial to the Kings civil power but rather oblige those that acknowledg it faithfully to obey the King Therefore it ought to be no obstacle to Toleration otherwise no Christians or Sect whatsoever ought to be tolerated for let them be Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists c. do not they depend upon and own a power distinct from his Majesties Civil Power I mean a Power meerly spiritual or pastoral not subordinate to the King but to which the King himself if he be of your Religion ought to be subject as no Pastor but a Sheep no Teacher but a Hearer no Administer of Sacraments but a Receiver Such a Power all Sects and Religions seem to own no Catholick depends on or can own more The spirituall Primacy of the chief Pastor preserves peace and unity and is a greater defence to them than many Armies in subduing their minds to civil obedience without such a spiritual authority there is no influence on the people all preaching and Laws are but shaking Bulwarks to support Monarchy No Kingdom hath been more happy at home or glorious abroad than when the Pope was their spirituall Father When such a Primacy purely spiritual was acknowledged in England the Church here was never torn in pieces with Schismes nor poisoned with Heresies the honour and safety of our Dominions were far from being prejudiced or invaded It is denied then the owning Supremacy should worse their condition shall notions convince experience when a demonstration it self often gives way to practice Let 's summon the Kings of Europe of Catholick Profession to decide the contrary unanimously and proclaim their people are not rebellious by reason of any ecclesiastical dependance abroad Roman Catholicks did ever renounce any temporal power or jurisdiction belonging to the Pope over any Subject of his Majesties But since there is a Power purely spiritual as is shewed before from which Princes are not exempted Is it not more for their temporal security that the spiritual power should reside in one single person that usually is both learned and discreet and withal is a thousand
it This argument I urge no further than to evince in their justification that their unwillingness to swear is no evidence to prove their want of allegiance or any backwardness to lay down their lives and fortunes in his Majesties service For the practical part of the Subjects allegiance is that which only concerns the security of a Prince which all Catholicks will gladly swear unto Therefore I hope a true and real tenderness of Conscience which can have no ill consequence with it in relation to his Majesties safety will give no offence to them that are over them nor be a motive to hold a rigorous hand upon them Especially seeing these threescores years since the Oath was first established it hath been refused by Catholicks to be taken upon the score of Conscience though universally taken by others of any dignity conferred upon them in Church or State Yet no Catholick in England of any note or quality that all this time did act contrary to their allegiance sworn unto in the Oath On the other side I could wish it were as difficult to name those amongst the takers of the Oath who have so fatally broken them half the Kingdome being in rebellion contrary to what they had sworn to the ruine of the best King and the best man which perhaps this Nation had ever cause to glory in As for the Oath of Supremacy Luther Calvin Knox Gilby all pretended Reformers disliked it Calvin in his Commentary on Osee saith who advanced Hen. 8. to such a height did not well for they no less than blasphemed when they called him Supream Head under Christ Chemnitius a learned Lutheran in his Epist ad eloc. Briard of Queen Eliz. Supremacy saith quod foeminae a saeculis inaudito fastu se papissam caput Ecclesiae facit So Gilby in Admonit ad Angl. Our Cartwright also teacheth against Supremacy So do Presbyterians generally here and beyond Sea Henry the eighth once acknowledged the Supremacy more than ever any King did as appeared by Cardinal Campeius and Wolsey Legates he being called before them After his will being not executed made the Oath against Supremacy This Oath of Supremacy as it is worded and according to the sense of the first Lawgiver cannot lawfully be taken by any Christian or assembly without contradicting his belief understanding it Grammatically according to the proper and natural sense of the words at least ambiguous if not formally contradictory or the cause or reason of framing this Oath by Hen. 8. and what power was exercised by virtue of it and of the Parliament enjoining it appears to be a jurisdiction purely spiritual was communicated to him and assumed by him It s evident also by the many practises it was only a spiritual by-title of Supremacy he sought for to deprive the Pope for he stood in need of such a power to justifie his divorce and dispense with his intention of taking Ecclesiastical livings of Abbies Monasteries into his hands The Protection in King Edward the sixth continued the Oath to make new Church-Laws Institutions and commit new Sacriledges changes ubique arti contrary to which King Heâ— 8. published and declared Queen Mary renounces this jurisdiction and restores it to the Church Queen Elizabeth re-assumes it having a greater necessity for it then her Brother because her marriage was declared null by the Pope This Oath consists of two parts the affirmative as that the King is only Supream Head as well in Temporal as Spiritual c. Secondly the Negative that no Prince Prelate c. hath any jurisdiction or spiritual Power c. This Negative part of the Oath is contrary to a point of their Faith wherein not only all spiritual authority of the Pope but of a general Council or Western Church is disclaimed Is all jurisdiction purely spiritual only in the Kings right are Princes Pastors of Souls hath not a Heathen King the same spiritual right How could King James then call the Pope Patriarch of the West or how can a free general Council oblige Christians and to which learned Protestants profess to submit to as the chiefest authority under God And although in Queen Elizabeths time the Oaths were explicated that only civil and Kingly authority in causes Ecclesiastical was intended yet this negative clause cannot be by such expositions eluded Secondly An Oath to Catholicks and tender Consciences is so dreadful that they dare not call God to witness they sincerely swear the Pope ought not to have any Superiority in spiritual causes unless it might be permitted them at the same time and the same breath to signifie that it is intended of civil and Kingly authority in causes Ecclesiastical They tremble to swear at words ambiguous but formally contradictory Thirdly In the thirty nine Artticles of the Church of England it is defined that the Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this Kingdome and these Articles are confirmed by Act of Parliament Whereby it appears their intention is to require a renuntiation of a Catholick point of Faith and the Popes being Head of the Western Church This Act being made since the said exposition The Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance if the former were so expressed as to require an acknowledgement of a civil Supremacy in his Majesty and Ecclesiastical to the Church-Governours and if the unfortunate word Heretical and speculative points were left out of the other no Catholick would refuse either And more then this no Protestant Presbyterian c. that freely take them can intend by them an Oath being in it self a religious affirmation with Gods Seal Whosoever takes these Oaths absolutely must swear to take Almighty God to witness as he shall answer at the dreadful day of Judgment that he believes the Pope hath no Power c. now this word believe being in a matter of Religion and Profession of the same can signifie nothing but a Christian belief or Faith and imports thus much I N. N. do swear in the presence of Almighty God that the Pope hath no Power c. As I believe there is a God in Heaven or any other Article of Faith all this is virtually and really comprehended in the word believe Now what man of Conscience of what Opinion soever that feareth an Oath to use the Preachers words Eccles 9. 2. will venture his Soul so far as to swear all this are we all of us so certain that no forraign jurisdiction c. or that its Heretical c. as we are certain there is a God Heaven Hell c. and so make it a part of and Article of our Belief when it is not expresly nor plainly revealed in Scripture or declared by the Church and so not fundamental to our Belief or absolutely necessary to our Salvation If you say it may be obscurely delivered in Scripture then at least the unlearned cannot be able to discover it How then shall such dare to swear as in effect they do when they take the Oaths that
the stile Here is nothing proposed to be believed no Anathema fulminated no signification that the contrary is against the Scripture c. therefore at most it is a meer ecclesiastical ordinance touching external discipline and as such what is more ordinary and permitted than for Princes to refuse admittance therein we see some Churches of France reject the decrees of reformation made in the Council of Trent and also practised in England 8. Suppose it be an ordinance yet supream Princes and Kings are not named but excluded and only their Officers and Substitutes c. 9. No example can be produced in the Empire or other Catholick State that such an Oath in succeeding times was imposed or threatned But on the contrary we know Charls the fifth by a Law of the Empire publickly permitted Lutherans in several Provinces and all the Kings of France sinâ—e Hen. 3. permitted the Calvinists yet the Pope never threatned deposition or they feared it Therefore this doctrinal point of Faith is shamefully pretended to be involved on that or the like Decrees viz. the Popes power of deposing c. What State Kingdome or City received or taught the People this even as a probable Opinion It is well known in practice and doctrine other Sects and their accusers have been more faulty in this point then they as History and experience testifie of Princes actually deposed in Scotland Denmark Sweden Geneva c. and absolute rebellion following their doctrine in Poland Bohemia England France Hungary Germany c. Obj. Innocent the third who presided in this Council actually deposed King John and Otho the Emperour Resp Popes as private Doctors may err in matters of fact their Decrees and Bulls are not always held as infallible and may be opposed as often they have been by Papists nor will they scruple to do it especially about temporal affairs We do not approve whatsoever Popeâ— do in fact in deposing c. If some Popes have been exorbitant have not Papist themselves defended their Princes against all pretended illegal impositions of Rome If some Popes have transgressed and been passionate men it doth not follow all have as some Princes have been Tyrants not all This King John Protestant Histories conclude passing by his youthful Rebellion murthering his Nephew his Atheism c. they record he lost our whole interest in France discontenting all his people not defending their Rites and Priviledges c. So Heylin Daniel Martin Sir Robert Cotton Hist And Stow in his Chronicle 170. relates it thus King John being dissolute and perfidious and would not grant the Laws or Liberties of the Charter had as many enemies as Nobles Clergy and Layty petitioned against him for the Pope to depose him an opinion then in practice the Pope would not but sent Paendulph his Legate who comes over to Dover to King John to counsel the King's peace and reconcile him to God and the Church The King living then in great jeopardy to loose his Kingdome The King of France being invited by the Nobles and Clergy to invade the Kingdome saved the Kingdome by it after this the Clergy came over and all was in peace The Pope after this excommunicates the Barons for the disobeying the King and calling in the French King Lewis into the Realm And Gaule the Legate was sent from the Pope to forbid Lewis to go into or invade England to excommunicate him if he did But Lewis of France arrived in England whom the Barons assisted against King John John soon after died his eldest son Hen. 3. at nine years old was crowned King by the Bishops of Winchester and Bath c. and the Government of the King was committed to the Popes Legate the Bishop of Winchester and Earl of Pembroke The Legate maintained the King's part admonished prayed and commanded the disobedient to do as he did called a Council at Bristol caused the Bishops to incline to the King's part notwithstanding Lewis did what he could to the contrary Seeing Lewis and his complices were excommunicated every Sunday by the Legate though they had London and all the East parts of England Lewis had notice from Rome except he went out of England the sentence of excommunication of the Legate should be confirmed by the Pope For this cause saith Stow 175. a truce was taken between Lewis and King Henry Philip of France called his son Lewis to return he being passed over the Earl of Salisbury Earl Warren c. revolted to the Kings side and this by industry and virtue of the Pope's Legate Lewis being absolved from the excommunication went into France but his complices were by the Legate deprived of all benefit by their disobedience See Stow 170. Thus we see how for want of knowledge things are carried on and reported very frequently in the worst sense and construction it may be easily collected out of our own Authors and Chronicles that Popes have been great friends to our Princes and this Nation Take in short out of Stow 883. that Pope Adrian the fourth an Englishman invested Hen. 2. with the Dominion of Ireland and had it confirmed with an Assembly at Waterford Pope Vrbane who sent a Legate the Bishop Sabrine into England with sentence of excommunication against the City of London and Cinque-Ports and all those that troubled the King's peace King Richard of England being taken Prisoner unjustly by Leopold Duke of Austria in return from the Wars with the Saladine demanding a great ransome and misusing him The Pope excommunicated the Duke of Austrich and injoyned him to release the Covenants that he constrained our King to make and send home the Pledges The Duke refusing this Order shortly after broke his Leg and in great anguish ended his life and was kept unburied till his Son released the English Pledges Thus were the Pledges restored and the money behind released How oft did the Pope grant to the King of England the Tenth of all Ecclesiastical Goods as to Edward the first and second Sent the Abbot of Saint Denis Legat to request Edward the second to remove from him Pierce Gaveston without which the Kingdom could not be in peace nor the Queen injoy the Kings true love Vide Stow 213. Edw. 2. The Pope sent Ganelinus and Lucius de Flisco by the Kings request to make peace between England and Scotland and reconcile to the King Thomas Earl of Lancaster who brought Bulls from the Pope to excommunicate the Scots except they returned to peace with the King of England William Longshamp Bishop of Ely and Legate to the Pope and Chancellour of England was made Governour of the Realm by Richard the first Afterward the Archbishop of Roan was made Regent of England then being made Archbishop of Canterbury Then you see there was no jealousie of the Pope or his Clergy but on the contrary for many hundred years our Princes and Nation reposed as with just reason they might the greatest trust and confidence in their loyalty faith and
Parliament and chief Secretary printed at that time and neither could any noted or known Catholick by any device be drawn into this matter Those that were up in tumult with Catesby were by our Prot. Hist Howes never full fourscore and those made up with servants horse-boys and houshouldattendance as Saunders and Speed confirm For if Priests and Recusants so many thousands then in England would have entertained it no man can be so malitious and simple to think that there would not have been a greater assembly to take such an action in hand and the Council could not have been so ill-sighted but that they would have found some other culpable as some by all imaginable craft and industry endeavoured and desired But to confirm their innocency King James in his own Declaration saith that the generality of Catholicks did abhor such a detestable Conspiracy no less than himself And he was so kind to Catholicks the last half of his Reign of which Wilson complains in several places Wils K. of 193. which was impossible he should have been so favourable had he not been convinced they never had had any design of destroying him or his Secondly the King in his second Proclamation 1605. and in his third Proclamation 1605. when they were all discovered in which Proclamation we plainly see the King and Council knew the Complices and partakers of that villanie yet never taxed any Priest or Papist therewith Thirdly the King in publick Parliament did free Catholiks as much as Protestants when he plainly saith as truth is if it had taken effect Protestants and Papists should have all gone away and perished together The King in his second Proclamation against the Conspiracy calleth the Confederates Men of lewd life insolent dispositions and of desperate estates And to demonstrate from the publick Act their innocency as well Protestants he declares by Proclamation Proclamatione die 7. Novemb. 1605. We are by good experience so well perswaded of the loyalty of diverse Subjects of the Romish Religion that they do as much abhor this detestable conspiracy as our self and will be ready to do their best endeavours though with expence of their blood to suppress all attempters against our safety and the quiet of our State and discover whomsoever they shall suspect to be rebellious This by good experience he pronounceth Priests and Catholicks notwithstanding were upon this pretence persecuted though besides all these reasons aforesaid by publick consent both of their Clergy and Layety Catholicks presented and offered to maintain their cause and innocency in many humble Petitions whereof two were printed to the King The first begins To the most excellent and mighty Prince our gracious and dread Soveraign James King of England c. justifying of Catholicks and the Truth of their Religion against their Adversaries Most Gracious Soveraign THe late intended Conspiracy against the Life of your Royal Majesty the Life Vnion Rule and Direction to these united Kingdoms was so heinous an impiety that nothing which is holy can make it legitimate no pretence of Religion can be alleadged to excuse it God in heaven condemns it men on earth detest it innocents bewail it and your dutiful Subjects Catholicks Priests and others which have endured most for their Profession hold it in greatest detestation and horror c. Yet this is the miserable distressed state of many thousands of your most loyal and loving Subjects dread Leige for their faithful duty to God and Religion taught in this Kingdom and embraced by all your Progenitours and our Ancestors so many hundred years that every adversary may preach and print against us and make their challenge as though either for ignorance we could not or for distrust of our cause we were not willing to make them answer or come to trial when quite contrary we have often earnestly and by all means we could desired to have it granted c. And at this time when your chief Protestant Clergy Bishops and others is assembled we most humbly entreat this so reasonable a placet that although they will not as we fear ever consent to an indifferent choice opposition and defence in questions yet at least to avoid the wonder of the world they will be content we may have publick audience of those Articles Opinions ond Practises for which we are so much condemned and persecuted If we shall not be able to defend or prove any position generally maintained in our Doctrine to be conformable to those rules in Divinity which your Majesty and the Protestant Laws of England we can offer no more have confirmed for holy Canonical Scripture the first four General Councils the days of Constantine and the primitive Church let the penalties be imposed and executed against us c. in fine Your Royal person and that honourable Consistory now assembled are holden in your Doctrine to be Supream Sentencers even in Spiritual businesses in this Kingdome we therefore hope you will not in a Court from whence no appeal is allowed and in matters of such consequence proceed to Judgment or determine of execution before the arraigned is summoned to answer hath received or refused trial is or can be proved guilty c. Deny not that to us your true and obedient Subjects in a Religion so ancient which your colleagued Princes the King of Spain and Archduke do offer to thee so many years disobedient Netherlands upon their temporal submittance in so late an embraced doctrine That which the Arrian Emperors of the East permitted to the Catholick Bishops Priests Churches toleration What the Barbarian Vandals often offered and sometimes truly perforformed in Africk what the Turkish Emperour in Greece and Protestant Princes in Germany and other places conformable to the example of Protestant Rulers not unanswerable to your own Princely piety pity and promise no disgust to any equally minded Protestant or Puritan at home a Jubilee to us distressed a warrant of security to your Majesty in all opinions from all terrors and dangers from which of what kind soever we most humbly beseech the infinite mercy of almighty God to preserve your Highness and send you your children and Posterity all happiness and felicity both in Heaven and Earth Amen Another Petition to the King and Parliament from the Cath. in Eng. allowed by the Priests was presented by Sir Franc. Hastins and Sir Richard Knightly which urged likewise for a Disputation Another to the same tenure was then with the same assent subscribed with three and twenty hands of the greatest Catholick Gentry of England and presented to the chief Secretary of State potent in those times in Court and Council and as Recusants feared not equally affected towards them though never so innocent And the same Recusants were more than jealous that this practice of Conspiracy was no great secret to that Secretary long before divers of them that were actors in it by him named Catholicks were acquainted with it an invention to entrap those he did not
well of her as the Dutchess of Sommerset to Sir John Cheeke to Sir Edward Mountague Lord chief Justice who had subscribed and counselled her disinheriting to Sir Roger Cholmey to the Marqness of Northampton to the Lord Robert Dudley to Sir Henry Dudley to Sir Henry Gates c. who stood attainted and the Duke of Suffolke all obnoxious to her Justice she knew very well neither affected her Religion nor Title they being her prisoners in the Tower she released them all But for all this the Zealots of her time would not be quieted they libel against the Government of Women they pick quarrels and murmur at her Marriage they publish invectives and scurrilous Pamphlets against Religion yet forbear not to plot and conspire her deprivation Goodman writ a pernitious Book to have her put to death William Thomas a Gospeller conspires to Out of Fox his Martyrs kill the Queen and when hanged said he died for his Country Stow in Queen Mary p. 1056. On the contrary in Queen Elizabeths time although Catholicks then were the chief Ministers in Church and State and might have used indirect means against her she being of a contrary Religion and not of so clear a Title yet Catholick Bishops who set the Crown upon her head are commended by Holinshed a Prot. Hist ann Eliz. 26. pag. 1358 1360. for peaceable quiet Bishops and the Catholick temporal Lords there by him recorded to be far from opposing themselves against her interest as they are said there to offer her Majesty in her defence to impugne and resist any â—orreign force though it should come from the Pope himself Insomuch that they are commended by Holinshed for loyalty and obedience And Stow testifies how diligent Catholicks were to offer their service in that great action 88. neither were they altogether refused by her Majesty How the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellour of England Doctor Heath a Catholick Bishop instead of inveighing against her or casting forth of Libels as Cranmer did against Q. Mary her entrance and Government made a publick oration in her behalf to perswade the people to obedience and to acknowledg her power and authority Holin ib. 1170. whence the said Archbishops faithfulness was left to commendation also by Protestant Bishop Goodman in his Catalogue of Bishops How all Catholick Lords and Bishops repaired to London to proclaim her Queen who not long after turned them out of several Offices and Bishopricks Holinshed p. 1171. To use Cambdens own words and phrase the world stood Cambdens Britann p. 163. amazed and England groaned at it what would flesh and blood move him to was it not strange in the beginning to behold Abbies destroyed Bishopricks gelded Chaunteries Hospitals Colledges turned to profaneness change of Liturgies Rites c. to see people renounce their pious vows such unexpected alterations it being a pitiful thing as Stow saith to hear the Lamentations in the Country for religious Houses Stâ—w p. 964. Notwithstanding the loyalty and obedience of Catholicks towards her appeared undeniable in all things not only in their humble petitions but by their constant and general conformity unto her temporal Government in 88. and by their Protestations made at Ely 1588. as by other offers made to the Lord North the Queens Lieutenant there and by their just actions afterwards by their submission as to the Lords of the Privy Council and profession of all due acknowledgment to her Majesty notwithstanding the Sentence of Excommunication Whence the Author of Execution of English Justice acknowledges their obedience and loyalty to Elizabeth in a time when they wanted no matter of complaint Any man of candour and integrity may easily convince the vulgar error the unevenness of Queen Elizabeths nature and severity to that of Queen Marys Queen Elizabeth made new Laws against Catholicks and put them to death for not embracing a new heresie which has been condemned to the fire here and in all other Christian Countries She embrued her hands in the blood royal of Mary Stewart lawful Heir to the Crown put to death many noble persons by their blood to colour her Supremacy raised up upstarts Hereticks from nothing annihilated the antient Nobility and Gentry c. to use a Protest Historiographers words the bloody practices of Queen Eliz. if not so barbarous in appearance though more wicked in substance as being exhibited under the colour and pretext of Law in the starving and racking so many innocent worthy learned persons tearing out their hearts and bowels in publick view upon suborned witnesses base vagabond and perjured Catchpoles hired to swear Neither was there any reason then for persecution on the account of the Catholicks misdemeanours For as Cambden her own Historiographer noteth The reason of the penal Statutes in Eliz. was 1. the opinion of the Queens Illegitimation abroad 2. Jealousies had of the Queen of Scots her nearness to the Crown 3. the Bull of Pius 5. 4. the doubt of the house of Guise in behalf of their Neece 5. the offence given to the King of Spain in assisting Orange These causes induced the Queen with her Pauculi intimi saith Cambden We cannot excuse the persecution therefore under Queen Elizabeth against Catholicks for any cause given by them or just fear of their fidelity nor from the example of Christian Emperours and Kings that both for zeal of Religion and human policy to avoid danger of Rebellion made Laws and Statutes against Hereticks and innovators of the antient faith and sense of Scripture which descended to them by Tradition from the Apostles Queen Elizabeth taking a contrary way made Laws and Statutes against the ancient Religion and known sense of Gods word delivered from age tâ— age which practice destroys the order of Justice to persecute Christians for professing a Religion confirmed by the publick testimony and practice of the Christian world from the first propaâ—â—tion of Christianity to this present tâ—â—e No part of their Dectrine being â—â—er judged an heresie or novelty by antiquity otherwise they had not escaped the rigour of penal Laws made against Hereticks and Novelists in former ages But no History did or can ever mention any person that suffered as an Heretick for broaching or maintaining any one point which they now believe and profess Whereas Q. Mary her predecessors Emperours and Kings punished Novelists only that made Religons of their own heads condemneâ— as Hereticks by the Church in ancient times The disparity therefore was great Catholick Princes standing as defenders of their ancient Faith others as invaders and introducers of a new Belief They seek to keep what de jure they had Calvinists what they had not they possessors of the traditum and depositum left by Christ and his Apostles others descissors and injurious infringers of those Apostolick tyes and regulations so carefully delivered to all posterity Laws indeed have been made in Catholick Countries very severe against those the Church calleth Hereticks but they were none of the Churches