thousand souldiers scarce one hundred dare discharge a musker and of that hundred scarce one can use it like a souldier And for their armes they are so ill provided that one corselet serveth many men when such as shew their armes upon one day in one place lend them to their frēds in other places to shew when they haue use And this if it be spied is only punished by a mulct in the purse which is the officers aime who for his advantage winkes at the rest and is glad to finde and cherish by connivence profitable faults which increase his revenue Thus stands the state of that poore miserable country which had never more people and fewer men So that if my master should resolve upon an invasion the time never fits as at this present securitie of this mariage and the disuse of armes having cast them into a dead sleepe a strong and wakening faction being ever amongst them ready to assist us and they being unprovided of shippes and armes or hearts to fight an universall discontentment filling all men This I haue from their muster-masters and Captaines who are many of them of our religion or of none and so ours ready to be bought and sould and desirous to be my masters servants in fee. Thus much for the state particularly wherein I haue bent my selfe to weaken them and strengthen us in all these haue advanced the Catholicke cause but especially in procuring favours for all such as favour that side and crossing the other by all meanes And this I practise my selfe give out to be generally practised by others that whatsoever successe I finde I still boast of the victory which I doe to dishearten the heretiques to make them suspitious one of an other especially of their Prince and their best Statesmen and to keepe our owne in courage who by this meanes increase otherwise would be in danger to decay Now for religion and for such designes as fetch their pretence from thence I beheld the policie of that late Bishop of theirs Bancroft who stird up and maintained a dangerous schisme betweene our secular Priests and Iesuites by which he discovered much weaknes to the dishonour of our clergie and prejudice of our cause This taught me as it did Barnevelt in the Low countries to worke secretly and insensibly betweene their Conformists and Non-conformists and to cast an eye as far as the Orcades knowing that busynes might be stirred up there that might hinder proceedings in England as the French ever used Scotland to call home the forces of England and so to prevent their conquests The effect you haue partly seene in the Earle of Argile who sometimes was Captaine for the King and Church against the great Marquis Huntley now fights under our banner at Bruxels leaving the crosses of S. George S. Andrewe for the staffe of S. Iames. Neither doe our hopes end here but we daily expect more revolters at least such a disunion as wil never admit solid reconcilemēt but will send some to us and some to Amsterdam For the King a wise and vigilant Prince labouring for a perfect union betwixt both the kingdomes which he sees cannot be effected where the least ceremony in religion is continued divers sharp and bitter braules from thence arising whilst some striving for honour more then for truth prefer their owne way wil before the general peace of the Church the edification of soules he I say seekes to worke both Churches to uniformitie and to this end made a journey into Scotland but with no such successe as he expected for divers of ours attended the traine who stirred up humors and factions and cast in scruples and doubts to hinder crosse the proceedings yea those that seeme most adverse to us and adverse from our opinions by their disobedience and example helpe forward our plots and these are incouraged by a factious and heady multitude by a faint irresolute clergie many false brethrē being amōgst their Bps. by the prodigal Nobilitie who maintaine these stirs in the Church that thereby they may safely keepe their Church livings in their hands which they haue most sacrilegiously seased upon in the time of the first deformatiō which they feare would be recovered by the Clergy if they could be brought to brotherly peace agrement for they haue seene the King very bountiful in this kind hauing lately increased their pēsiōs setled the Clergy a cōpetēt maintenance besides out of his owne meanes vvhich in that kingdome is none of the greatest having brought in and restored whole Bishopriks to the Church which were before in lay-mens hands a great part of the Nobilities estates consisting of spirituall lands vvhich makes them cherish the puritanicall faction who will be content to be trencher-fed with scraps and crummes and contributions and arbitrary benevolences from their Lords and Lairds and Ladies and their adherents and followers But quoth the Inquisitor generall how if this act of the Kings wherein hee is most earnest and constant should so far thrive as it should effect a perfect union both in the Church Common wealth I tell you it would in my conceite be a great blowe to us if by a generall meeting a generall peace should be concluded and all their forces bent against Rome and we see their politick King aimes at this True quoth Gondamore but he takes his marke amisse howsoever hee understand the people and their inclination better then any man and better knowes how to temper their passions and affections for besides that he is hindred there in Scotland underhand by some for the reasons before recited and by other great ones of ours who are in great place authoritie amongst them hee is likewise deluded in this point even by his owne Clergie at home in England who pretend to be most forward in the cause For they considering if a generall uniformitie were wrought what an inundation would follow whilst all or most of theirs as they feare would flock thither for preferment as men pressing towards the sunne for light and heare and so their owne should be unprovided these therefore I say howsoever they beare the King fairly in hand are underhand against it and stand stiffe for all ceremonies to be obtruded with a kinde of absolute necessitie upon them when the other wil not be almost drawne to receive any When if an abatement were made doubtlesse they might be drawne to meete in the middest but there is no hope of this with them where neither party deales seriously but onely for the present to satisfie the King and so there is no feare on our side that affections and opinions so divers will ever be reconciled and made one Their Bishop of S. Andrevves stands almost alone in the cause and puls upon himself the labour the losse and the envie of all with little proficiencie whilst the adverse faction haue as sure friends and as good intelligence about the King
fully Iesuited upon any forreigne invasion would rather take part with their owne King though a heretique then with his Catholique Majestie a stranger The Ambassadour desired him to be of another minde since first for the persons generally their bodies by long disuse of armes vvere disabled and their mindes effeminated by peace and luxury far from that they were in 88. when they were dayly flesht in our blood and made hearty by customary conquests And for the affectiō of those whom they call Recusants quoth hee I know the bitternes of their inveterate malice haue seē so farr into their natures as I dare say they will be for Spaine against all the world Yet quoth hee I assure your Honours I could not imagine so basely of their King and State as I haue heard them speake Nay their rage hath so perverted their judgements that what I my self haue seen and heard proceed from their King beyond admiration even to astonishmēt they haue slighted misreported scorned and perverted to his disgrace and my reioycing magnifying in the meane time our defects for graces Here the Duke Pastrana president of the Councell for Italy steps up and sayd he had lately read a booke of one Camdens called his Annalles where writing of a treaty of mariage long since betwixt the English Elizabeth the french Duke of Andiou he there observes that the mariage vvas not seriously intēded on eyther side but politickly pretended by both States counterchangeably that each might effect their owne ends There quoth he the Englisch had the better and I haue some cause to doubt since they can dissemble as vvel as wee that they haue their aymes underhand as we haue and intend the match as little as we doe And this quoth he I beleeue the rather because their King as he is wise to consult and consider so he is a constant master of his word and hath written and given strong reasons against matches made vvith persons of contrary religions which reasons no other man can answere and therefore doubtlesse he wil not go from or conncell his sonne to forsake those rules layd down so deliberately Your Excellency mistakes quoth the Ambassadour the advantage was thē one the side of the Englisch because the Frēch sought the match now it must be on ours because the English seeck it who will grant any thing rather thē breake off and besides haue no patience to temporize and dissemble in this or any other disigne as the French haue long since wel obserued for their necessities will giue them neither time nor rest nor hope els where to be supplyed As for their King I cannot search into his hart I must beleeve others that presume to know his minde heare his words and read his writings and these relate vvhat I haue delivered But for the rest of the people as the number of those that are truely religious are ever the least and for the most part of least accompt so is it there where if an equall opposition be made betwixt their truely religious and ours the remainder which wil be the greatest number will stand indifferent and fall to the strōger side where there is most hope of gaine and glorie for those two are the gods of the magnitude the multitude Novv these see apparantly no certain supplyes of their wants but from us Yes quoth the Duke for even now you sayd the general state loathing this match vvould redeme the feare there of with half of their estates It is theaefore but calling a Parliament and the busines were soon effected A Parliament quoth the Ambassadour nay therein lies one of the principal services I haue done in working such a dislike betwixt the King and the lower house by the endeuor of that honourable Earle and admirable Engine a sure servant to us and the catholike cause while he lived as the King will never indure Parliament againe but rather suffer absolute want then receive conditionall relief from his subjects Besides the matter was so cunningly caried the last Parliament that as in the powder plot the fact effected should haue been imputed to the Puritans the greatest zelots of the Calvinian sect so the proposition which damde up the procedings of this Parliamēt howsoeuer they were invēted by Romane Catholiques and by thē intēded to disturbe that session yet were propounded in favor of the Puritans as if they had beē hāmered in their forge Which very name and shadovv the King hates it being a sufficien aspertiō to disgrace any person to say he is such a sufficient barre to stop any suite utterly to crosse it to say it smels of or inclines to that partie Mareover there are so many about him who blovv this cole fearing their owne stakes if a Parliament should inquire into their actions that they use all their āt and industrie to withstād such a councell perswading the King he may rule by his absolute prerogative without a Parliament and thus furnish himself by warying with us and by other domestick projects without subsidies when levying of subsidies and taskes have been the onely use princes haue made of such assemblies And wheras some free mindes amōgst thē resembling our Nobilitie who preserve the priviledge of subjects against soveraign invasion call for the course of the common lavve a lawe proper to their nation these other tyme servers cry the lawes down and cry up the prerogative wherby they prey upon the subject by suites and exactions milk the estate and keep it poore procure themselves much suspition amōgst the better more judicious sort hate amōgst th' oppressed commons yet if there should be a Parliament such a course is taken as they shal never choose their sheere Knights and Burgesses freely who make the greater half of the body thereof for these being to be elected by most voices of Freeholders in the countrey where such elections are to be made are caried which vvay the great persons vvho haue lands in those countries please who by their letters command their tenants followers and friends to nominate such as adhere to them and for the most part are of our factiō and respect their owne benefit or grace rather then their countries good yea the countrey people themselves will every one stand for the great man their Lord or neighbour or master vvithout regard of his honesty wisdome or religion That which they ayme at as I am assured of by faithful intelligence is to please their lādlords to renue their lease in which regard they will betray their Countrey and religion too elect any man that may most profite their particular Therefore it is unlikely there should ever be a Parliament impossible the Kings debts should be payd his vvants sufficiently repaired and himselfe left ful handed by such a course indeed as it is generally thought by any other course but by a mariage with us For which cause whatsoever proiect we list to attēpt enters safely at
as he hath and the same Post perhaps that brings a packet from the King to him brings another from their Abettors to them acquainting them with the whole proceedings and counsels preparing them aforehand for opposition this I know for truth and this I reioyce in as conducing much to the Catholick good But quoth the Nuntio are there none of the hereticall preachers busie about this match Me thinkes their fingers should itch to be writing and their tongues burn to be prating of this busynes especially the puritanicall sort howsoever the most temperate and indifferent cary themselves The truth is my Lord quoth the Ambassadour that privately what they can and publiquely what they dare both in England Scotland all for the most part excâ—pt such as are of our faith oppose this match to their utmost by prayers counsels speeches wishes but if any be found longer tongued then his fellowes we haue still meanes to charme their sawcinesse to silence them and expell them the Court to disgrace them and crosse their preferments with the imputation pragmaticke Puritanisme For instance I will relate this particular A Doctor of theirs and a Chaplaine in ordinary to the King gaue many reasons in a letter against this mariage and propounded a way how to supply the Kings wants otherwise which I understanding so wrought underhand that the Doctor was committed and hardly escaped the danger of his presumptuous admonition though the state knew his intent was honest and his reasons good Wherein wee on the other side both here and with the Arch Duke haue had bookes penned and pictures printed directly against their King and state for which their Ambassadours haue sought satisfaction of us in vaine not being able to stay the print or so much as to touch the hem of the Authors garment But wee haue an evasion which hereticks misse our Clergie being freed from the temporall sword and so not included in our treaties and conditions of peace but at libertie to give any hereticall Prince the Mate when they list whereas theirs are liable to accompt and hazard are muzled for barking when ours may both barke and bite too The Councell table and the star-Chamber do so terrifie them as they dare not riot but run at the stirrop in excellent coÌ„maÌ„d and come in at the least rebuke They call their preaching in many places standing up but they crouch and dare not stand up nor quest behaue theÌ„selves like Setters silent and creeping upon their bellies licke the dust which our Priests shake from their beautifull feete Now quoth the Duke of Lerma satisfie me about our owne Clergie how they fare .. For there were here Petitions made to the King in the name of the distressed afflicted persecuted and imprisoned Priests that his Maiestie would intercede for them to free them from the intollerable burdens they groned under and to procure their liberties and letters were directed from us to that end that you should negotiate this demand with all speed and diligence Most excellent Prince replyed Gondamore I did your command with a kinde of command my selfe not thinking it fit to make it a suite in your name or my Masters I obtained them libertie to walke freely up and downe to face and outface their accusers Iudges Magistrates Bishops and to exercise their functions almost as freely altogether as safely as at Rome Here the Nuntio objected that he did not well to his judgement in procuring their libertie since they might doe more good in prison then abroad Because in prison they seemed to be under persecution and so vvere pittied of others and pittie of the person prepares the affection further Besides then they were careful over their owne lives to give no offence but abroade they might be scandalous in their lives as they use to be in Rome and Spaine and other Catholik countreys and so the opinion of their holynesse which upholds their credit and cause against the maried Clergie would soone decay But the Ambassador replyed he considered those inconveniences but besides a superior command he saw the profit of their libertie more then of their restraint For now they might freely conferre and were ever practising and would doubtlesse produce some worke of wonder And besides by reason of their authoritie and meanes to change places did apply themselves to many persons wheras in prison they onely could deale with such as came to be caught or were their owne before And this quoth he I adde as a secret that as before they were maintained by private contributions to devout Catholiques even to excesse so much more now shall they be able to gather great summes to weaken the State and furnish them for some high attempt by the example of Cardinall VVoolsey barrelling up gold for Rome And this they may easily doe since all Catholiques rob the hereticall Priests and withhold tythes from them by fraud or force to give to these of their owne to whom it is properly due And if this be spied it is an easie matter to lay all upon the Hollander and say he carries the coyne out of the land who are forward enough indeed in such practises and so ours shall not onely be excused but a flawe made betwixt them to weaken their amities beget suspition betwixt them of each others loue But amongst all these priests quoth the Inquisitor generall did you remember that old reverend father Baldwin who had a finger in that admirable attempt made on our behalfe against the Parliament house such as he deserving so highly adventuring their lives so resolutely for the Catholique cause must not be neglected but extraordinarily regarded thereby to incourage others to the like holy undertakings Holy father quoth Gondamor my principall care was of him whose life and libertie when I had with much difficultie obtained of the King I solemnly went in person attended with all my traine and divers other well willers to fetch him out of the Tower where he was in durance Assoone as I came in his sight I behaved my self after so lowly huÌ„ble a maner that our adversaries stood amazed to behold the reverence we giue to our ghostly fathers And this I did to confound them their contemptuous Clergie and to beget an extraordinary opinion of holinesse in the person pietie in us and also to provoke the English Catholiques to the like devout obediencie and thereby at any time these Iesuites whose authoritie was somewhat weakened since the schisme betwixt them and the Seculars and the succeeding powder-plot may vvorke them to our ends as Masters their servants Tutors their schollers fathers their children Kings their subiects And that they may doe this the more boldly and securely I haue somewhat dasht the authoritie of their high Comission upon which whereas there are diverse Pursevants men of the worst kinde and condition resembling our Flies Familiars attending upon the inquisition whose office and imployment it is to disturbe the Catholiques search their
his excellency was the card and Compas by which I sayled to make profit of al humors and by all meanes to advance the state of the Romish faith and the Spanish faction togither upoÌ„ all advantage eyther of oathes or the breach of theÌ„ for this is an old observation but a true that for our pietie to Rome his holynes did not onely give but blesse us in the conquest of the new world And thus in our pious perseverance we hope stil to be conquerours of the old And to this end wheras his excellentie in his excellent discourse seemes to extend our outward forces private aimes onely against heretiques and restraine them in true amitie with these of the Romish religion This I affirme that since there caÌ„ be no security but such princes though now Romish Catholiques may turne heretiques hereafter my aimes haue ever been to make profit of all to make my master master of al who is a faithful constant sonne of his mother Rome And to this end I behold the endevours of our Kings of happy memorie hovv they haue achieved kingdomes and conquests by this policy rather theÌ„ by opeÌ„ hostility and that without difference as wel from their allies and kinsfolks men of the same religion and profession such as were those of Naples France and Navar though I doe not meÌ„tion Poitugall now united to us nor Savoy that hardly slipt froÌ„ us as of an adverse and heretical faith Neyther is this rule left of as the present kingdome of France the State of Venice the Low-countries Bohemia now al labouring for life under our plots apparantly manifest This way therfore I bent my engins in England as your honours shal particularly heare Neyther shal I need to repeat a Catalogue of all the services I haue there done because this state hath been acquainted with many of them here to fore by the intercourse of letters and messengers Those onely I will speak of that are of later edition done since the returne of the Lord Rosse froÌ„ hence and may seeme most directly to teÌ„d to those ends formerly propounded by his Excellentie that is the advancement of the Spanish State and Romish Religion togither First it is well observed by the wisdome of our State that the King of England who otherwise is one of the most accoÌ„plisht Princes that ever raign'd extreamly hunts after peace and so affects the true name of a Peacemaker as that for it he wil doe or suffer any thing And withall they have beheld the generall bountie munificence of his minde and the necessity of the state so exhausted as it is unable to supply his desires who onely seeks to haue that he might giue to others Vpon those advantages they have given out their directions and instructions both to me and others and I haue observed theÌ„ so farre as I was able And for this purpose wheras there was a marriage propounded betwixt them and us howsoever I suppose our State too devout to deale with heretiques in this kinde in good earnest yet I made that a cover for much intelligence and a meanes to obtaine whatsoever I desired whilest the State of England longed after that mariage hopeing thereby though vainely to settle peace and fill the Excheaquer Here the Arch Bishop of Toledo Inquisitor generall stept up and interrupted Gondamor saying that maryage was not to be thought vpoÌ„ first for religions sake lest they should indanger the soule of the younge Lady and the rest of her company who might become herâ—ticks secondly for the state lest by giving so large a portion to heretiques they should inrich and in able them for warres impoverish and weaken the Catholiques To the first objection the Popes Nuntio answered that his holynes for the Catholique cause would dispense with the marriage though it were with a Turke or infidel 1. That there was no valuable danger in hazarding one for the gaining of many perhaps of all 2. That it was no hazard since women espetially yong ones are to obstinate to be removed from their opinions and abler to worke Solomon to their opinions then Solomon to work them to his faith 3. That it was a great advantage to match wich such from whom they might break at pleasure having the catholique cause for a colour and besides if need were to be at liberty in all respects since there was no faith to be kept with heretiques And if his Holynes may dispeÌ„ce with the murther of such dispose of their crownes as what good Catholique doubts but he may much more may he and wil he in their mariages to prevent the leprous seed of heresie and to settle Catholique blood in the chaire of State To the second objection the Ambassadour himselfe answered saying that though the English generally loathed the matche and would as he thought buy it off with halfe of their estates hating the nation of Spain and their religion as appeared by an uproare and assault a day or two before his departure from London by the Apprentices who seemed greedy of such an occasion to vent their owne spleenes in doing him or any of his a mischiefe yet two sorts of people unmeasurably desired the match might proceed First the begging and beggarly Courtyers that they might haue to furnish their wants Secondly the Romish Catholiques who hoped hereby at least for a moderation of fynes and lawes perhaps a tolleraaion and perhaps a total restauration of their religion in England In which regard quoth he I haue knowne some zealous persons protest that if al their friendes and halfe their estates could procure theÌ„ the service of our Lady if she came to be maried too their Prince they would freely use the meanes faithfully to fight under her colours when they might doe it safely And if it came to portion they would underhand contribute largely of their estates to the Spanish Collector and make up halfe the portion out of themselves perhaps more So that by this mariage it might be so wrought that the state should rather be robd and weakened which is our ayme then strengthened as the English vainely hope Besides in a small tyme they should worke so far into the body of the State by buying Offices and the like whether by sea or land of Iustice civil or ecclesiastical in Church or State all being for money exposed to sale that with the helpe of the Iesuites they would undermine them with meere wit without gunpowder and leave the King but a fewe subjects whose faithes hee might rely upon whilst they were of a faith adverse to his For what catholique body that is sound at the hart can abide a corrupt and heretical head With that the Duke Medina del rio Secco president of the councel of warr and one of the councel of State rose up and sayd his Predecessors had felt the force and wit of the English in 88. And he had cause to doubt the Catholiques themselves that were English and not