of that which by their blood and death in the fire they did as true Martyrs testifie A matter of another sort to be lamented with simplicity of words and not with puffed Eloquence than the execution in this time of a very few Traytors who also in their time if they exceeded thirty years of Age had in their Baptism professed and in their youth had learned the same Religion which they now so bitterly oppugned And beside that in their opinions they differ much from the Martyrs of Queen Maries time for though they continued in the profession of the Religion wherein they were Christened yet they never at their death denied their lawful Queen nor maintained any of her open and Foreign Enemies nor procured any Rebellion or Civil War nor did sow any Sedition in secret Corners nor withdrew any Subjects from their Obedience as these sworn Servants of the Pope have continually done And therefore all these things well considered there is no doubt but all good Subjects within the Realm do manifestly see and all wavering persons not being led clean out of the way by the seditious will hereafter perceive how they have been abused to go astray And all strangers but especially all Christian Potentates as Emperours Kings Princes and such like having their Soveraign Estates either in succession hereditary or by consent of their people being acquainted with the very truth of these her Majesties late just and necessary actions only for defence of her Self her Crown and People against open Invaders and for eschewing of Civil Wars stirred up by Rebellion will allow in their own like Cases for a truth and rule as it is not to be doubted but they will that it belongeth not to a Bishop of Rome as Successor of Saint Peter and therein a Pastor spiritual or if he were the Bishop of all Christendom as by the name of Pope he claimeth first by his Bulls or Excommunications in this sort at his will in favour of Traytors and Rebels to depose any Soveraign Princes being lawfully invested in their Crowns by succession in blood or by lawful Election and then to Arm Subjects against their natural Lords to make Wars and to dispense with them for their Oaths in so doing or to excommunicate faithful Subjects for obeying of their natural Princes and lastly himself to make open War with his own Souldiers against Princes moving no Force against him For if these powers should be permitted to him to exercise then should no Empire no Kingdom no Country no City or Town be possessed by any lawful title longer than one such only an earthly man sitting as he saith in St. Peters Chair at Rome should for his will and appetite without Warrant from God or Man think meet and determine An Authority never challenged by the Lord of Lords the Son of God Jesus Christ our only Lord and Saviour and the only Head of his Church whilst he was in his Humanity upon the Earth nor yet delivered by any Writing or certain Tradition from Saint Peter from whom the Pope pretendeth to derive all his Authority nor yet from St. Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles but contrariwise by all Preachings Precepts and Writings contained in the Gospel and other Scriptures of the Apostles obedience is expresly commanded to all earthly Princes yea even to Kings by special name and that so generally as no person is exempted from such duty of obedience as by the sentence of St. Paul even to the Romans appeareth Omnis anima sublimioribus potestatibus sit subdita That is Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers within the compass of which Law or Precept St. Chrysostom being Bishop of Constantinople writeth that even Apostles Prophets Evangelists and Monks are comprehended And for proof of St. Peters mind herein from whom these Popes claim their Authority it cannot be plainlier expressed than when he writeth thus Proinde subjecti estote cuivis humanae ordinationi propter Dominum sive Regi ut qui superemineat sive Praesidibus ab eo missis That is Therefore be you subject to every humane ordinance or creature for the Lord whether it be to the King as to him that is supereminent or above the rest or to his Presidents sent by him By which two principal Apostles of Christ these Popes the pretended Successors but chiefly by that which Christ the Son of God the only Master of Truth said to Peter and his fellow-Apostles Reges gentium dominantur vos autem non sic That is The Kings of the Gentiles have rule over them but you not so may learn to forsake their arrogant and tyrannous Authorities in earthly and temporal causes over Kings and Princes and exercise their Pastoral Office as St. Peter was charged thrice at one time by his Lord and Master Pasce oves meas Feed my sheep and peremptorily forbidden to use a Sword in saying to him Converte gladium tuum in locum suum or mitte gladium tuum in vaginam That is Turn thy Sword into his place or Put thy Sword into the scabbard All which Precepts of Christ and his Apostles were duly followed and observed many hundred years after their death by the faithful and godly Bishops of Rome that duly followed the doctrine and humility of the Apostles and the doctrine of Christ and thereby dilated the limits of Christs Church and the Faith more in the compass of an hundred years than the latter Popes have done with their Swords and Curses these five hundred years and so continued untill the time of one Pope Hildebrand otherwise called Gregory the Seventh about the year of our Lord 1074. who first began to usurp that kind of Tyranny which of late the Pope called Pius Quintus and since that time Gregory now the Thirteenth hath followed for some example as it seemeth that is Where Gregory the Seventh in the year of our Lord 1074. or thereabout presumed to depose Henry the Fourth a noble Emperour then being Gregory the Thirteenth now at this time would attempt the like against King Henry the Eighth's Daughter and Heir Queen Elizabeth a Soveraign Queen holding her Crown immediately of God And to the end it may appear to Princes or to their good Counsellors in one example what was the fortunate success that God gave to this good Christian Emperour Henry against the proud Pope Hildebrand it is to be noted that when the Pope Gregory attempted to depose this noble Emperour Henry there was one Rodulph a Noble man by some named the Count of Reenfield that by the Popes procurement usurped the name of the Emperour who was overcome by the said Henry the lawful Emperour and in fight having lost his right hand he the said Rodulph lamented his case to certain Bishops who in the Popes name had erected him up and to them he said that the self-same right hand which he had lost was the hand wherewith he had before sworn obedience to his Lord and
spared nor mercy yielded and wherein neither the Vanqueror nor the vanquished have cause of triumph And forasmuch as these are the most evident perils that necessarily should follow if these kind of Vermine were suffered to creep by stealth into the Realm and to spread their poyson within the same howsoever when they are taken like Hypocrites they colour and counterfeit the same with profession of devotion in Religion it is of all persons to be yielded in reason that her Majesty and all her Governours and Magistrates of Justice having care to maintain the peace of the Realm which God hath given in her time to continue longer than ever in any time of her Progenitors ought of duty to Almighty God the Author of Peace and according to the natural love and charge due to their Country and for avoiding of the Floods of blood which in Civil Wars are seen to run and flow by all lawful means possible as well by the Sword as by Law in their several seasons to impeach and repel these so manifest and dangerous colourable practices and works of Sedition and Rebellion And though there are many Subjects known in the Realm that differ in some opinions of Religion from the Church of England and that do also not forbear to profess the same yet in that they do also profess Loyalty and Obedience to her Majesty and offer readily in her Majesties defence to impugn and resist any Foreign Force though it should come or be procured from the Pope himself none of these sort are for their contrary opinions in Religion prosecuted or charged with any crimes or pains of Treason nor yet willingly searched in their Consciences for their contrary opinions that savour not of Treason And of these sorts there are a number of persons not of such base and vulgar note as those were which of late have been executed as in particular some by name are well known and not unfit to be remembred The first and chiefest by Office was Dr. Heth that was Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor of England in Queen Maries time who at the first coming of her Majesty to the Crown shewing himself a faithful and quiet Subject continued in both the said Offices though in Religion then manifestly differing and yet was he not restrained of his liberty nor deprived of his proper lands and goods but leaving willingly both his Offices lived in his own House and injoyed all his purchased Lands during all his natural life until by very age he departed this World and then left his House and living to his Friends an example of gentleness never matched in Queen Maries time The like did one Dr. Pool that had been Bishop of Peterborough an ancient grave person and a very quiet Subject There were also others that had been Bishops and in great estimation as Dr. Tunstal Bishop of Duresm a person also of very quiet behaviour There were also other Dr. White and Dr. Oglethorp one of Winchester the other of Carlisle Bishops and Dr. Thurleby and Dr. Watson yet living one of Ely the other of Lincoln Bishops not pressed with any capital pain though they maintained the Popes Authority against the Laws of the Realm and some Abbots as Mr. Fecknam yet living a person also of quiet and courteous behaviour for a great time Some also were Deans as Dr. Boxall Dean of Windsore a person of great modesty and knowledge Dr. Cole Dean of Pauls a person more earnest than wise Dr. Reynolds Dean of Exeter and many such others having born Office and Dignities in the Church and had made profession against the Pope which they began in Queen Maries time to change yet were they never to this day burdened with capital pains nor yet deprived of any their goods or proper livelyhoods but only removed from their Ecclesiastical Offices which they would not exercise according to the Laws And most of them for a great time were retained in Bishops Houses in very civil and courteous manner without charge to themselves or their friends until the time that the Pope began by his Bulls and Messages to offer trouble to the Realm by stirring of Rebellion about which time only some of these aforenamed being found busier in matters of state tending to stir troubles than was meet for the common quiet of the Realm were removed to other more private places where such other wanderers as were men known to move sedition might be restrained from common resorting to them to increase trouble as the Popes Bull gave manifest occasion and yet without charging them in their Consciences or otherwise by any inquisition to bring them into danger of any capital Law so as no one was called to any capital or bloody question upon matters of Religion but have all injoyed their life as the course of nature would and such of them as yet remain may if they will not be Authors or Instruments of Rebellion or Sedition injoy the time that God and nature shall yield them without danger of life or member And yet it is worthy to be well marked that the chiefest of all these and the most of them had in the time of King Henry the Eight and King Edward the Sixth either by Preaching Writing reading or arguing taught all people to condemn and abhor the Authority of the Pope yea they had many times given their Oaths publickly against the Popes Authority and had also yielded to both the said Kings the Title of supream head of the Church of England next under Christ which title the Adversaries do most falsly write and affirm that the Queens Majesty doth now use a manifest lie and untruth And for proof that these foresaid Bishops and learned men had so long time disavowed the Popes Authority many of their Books and Sermons against the Popes Authority remain printed to be seen in these times to their great shame and reproof to change so often and specially in persecuting such as themselves have taught and established to hold the contrary There were also and yet be a great number of others being Lay-men of good possessions and Lands men of good credit in their Countries manifestly of late times seduced to hold contrary opinions in Religion for the Popes Authority and yet none of them have been sought hitherto to be impeached in any point or quarrel of Treason or of loss of Life Member or Inheritance so as it may plainly appear that it is not nor hath been for contrarious opinions in Religion or for the Popes Authority as the Adversaries do boldly and falsly publish that any persons have suffered Death since her Majesties Reign and yet some of these sort are well known to hold opinion that the Pope ought by Authority of Gods word to be Supream and only Head of the Catholick Church and only to rule in all causes Ecclesiastical and that the Queens Majesty ought not to be the Governour over all her Subjects in her Realm being persons
Ecclesiastical which opinions are nevertheless in some part by the Laws of the Realm punishable in some degrees and yet for none of these points have any persons been prosecuted with the charge of Treason or in danger of life And if then it be inquired for what cause these others have of late suffered Death it is truly to be answered as afore is often remembred that none at all are impeached for Treason to the danger of their Life but such as do obstinately maintain the contents of the Popes Bull afore-mentioned which do import that her Majesty is not the lawful Queen of England the first and highest point of Treason and that all her Subjects are discharged of their Oaths and Obedience another high point of Treason and all warranted to disobey her and her Laws a third and a very large point of Treason And thereto is to be added a fourth point most manifest in that they would not disallow the Popes hostile proceedings in open Wars against her Majesty in her Realm of Ireland where one of their Company Dr. Sanders a lewd Scholar and Subject of England a Fugitive and a principal Companion and Conspirator with the Traitors and Rebels at Rome was by the Popes special Commission a Commander as in form of a Legate and sometime a Treasurer or Pay-Master for those Wars which Dr. Sanders in his Book of his Church Monarchy did afore his passing into Ireland openly by Writing gloriously avow the foresaid Bull of Pius Quintus against her Majesty to be lawful and affirmeth that by vertue thereof one Dr. Mooreton an old English Fugitive and Conspirator was sent from Rome into the North parts of England to stir up the first Rebellion there whereof Charles Nevill the late Earl of Westmerland was a Head Captain And thereby it may manifestly appear to all men how this Bull was the ground of the Rebellions both in England and Ireland and how for maintenance thereof and for sowing of Sedition by Warrant and allowance of the same these persons were justly condemned of Treason and lawfully Executed by the ancient Laws temporal of the Realm without any other matter than for their practices and Conspiracies both abroad and at home against the Queen and the Realm and for maintaining of the Popes foresaid Authority and Bull published to deprive her Majesty of her Crown and for withdrawing and reconciling of her Subjects from their natural allegiance due to her Majesty and to their Country and for moving them to Sedition and for no other causes or questions of Religion were these persons condemned although true it is that when they were charged and convinced of these points of Conspiracies and Treasons they would still in their answers colourably pretend their actions to have been for Religion but in deed and truth they were manifest for the procurement and maintenance of the Rebellions and Wars against her Majesty and her Realm And herein is now the manifest diversity to be seen and well considered betwixt the truth of her Majesties actions and the falshood of the blasphemous Adversaries that where the factious party of the Pope the principal Author of the Invasions of her Majesties Dominions do falsly alledge that a number of persons whom they term as Martyrs have died for defence of the Catholick Religion the same in very truth may manifestly appear to have died if they so will have it as Martyrs for the Pope and Traitors against their Soveraign and Queen in adhering to him being the notable and only open hostile Enemy in all actions of War against her Majesty her Kingdoms and People and that this is the meaning of all these that have so obstinately maintained the Authority and contents of this Bull the very words of the Bull do declare in this sort as Dr. Sanders reporteth them PIus Quintus Pontifex Maximus de Apostolicae potestatis plenitudine declaravit Elizabetham praetenso Regni jure necnon omni quocunque dominio dignitate privilegioque privatam Itemque Proceres subditos populos dicti regni ac caeteros omnes qui illi quomodocunque juraverunt à juramento hujusmodi ac omni fidelitatis debito perpetuo absolutos That is to say Pius Quintus the greatest Bishop of the fulness of the Apostolick Power declared Elizabeth to be bereaved or deprived of her pretended right of her Kingdom and also of all and whatsoever Dominion Dignity and Priviledge and also the Nobles Subjects and People of the said Kingdom and all others which had sworn to her any manner of ways to be absolved for ever from such Oath and from all debt or duty of fealty and so forth with many threatning Cursings to all that durst obey her or her Laws And for Execution hereof to prove that the effect of the Popes Bull and Message was a flat Rebellion it is not amiss to hear what Dr. Sanders the Popes firebrand in Ireland also writeth in his visible Church Monarchy which is thus Pius Quintus Pontifex Maximus Anno Domini 1569. reverendum presbyterum Nicolaum Mortonum Anglum in Angliam misit ut certis illustribus viris authoritate Apostolica denunciaret Elizabetham quae tunc rerum potiebatur haereticam esse ob eamque causam omni Dominio potestate excidisse impuneque ab illis velut ethnicam haberi posse ne◠eos illius legibus aut mandatis deinceps obedire cogi That is to say Pius Quintus the greatest Bishop in the year of our Lord 1569. sent the reverend Priest Nicholas Morton an Englishman into England that he should denounce or declare by the Apostolick Authority to certain Noblemen Elizabeth who then was in possession to be an Heretick and for that cause to have fallen from all Dominion and Power and that she may be had or reputed of them as an Ethnick and that they are not to be compelled to obey her Laws or Commandments c. Thus you see an Ambassage of Rebellion from the Popes Holiness the Ambassadour an old doting English Priest a Fugitive and Conspirator sent as he saith to some Noblemen and those were the two Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland Heads of the Rebellion And after this he followeth to declare the success thereof which I dare say he was sorry it was so evil with these words Qua denuntiatione multi nobiles viri adducti sunt ut de fratribus liberandis cogitare auderent ac sperabant illi quidem Catholicos omnes summis viribus affuturos esse verùm etsi aliter quà m illi expectabant res evenit quià Catholici omnes nondum probè cognoverant Elizabetham haereticam esse declaratam tamen laudanda illorum Nobilium consilia erant That is By which denuntiation many Noblemen were induced or led that they were boldned to think of the freeing of their Brethren and they hoped certainly that all the Catholicks would have assisted them with all their strength but although the matter happened
Master the Emperour Henry and that in following their ungodly Counsels he had brought upon him Gods heavy and just Judgments And so Henry the Emperour prevailing by Gods power caused Gregory the Pope by a Synod in Italy to be deposed as in like times before him his Predecessor Otho the Emperour had deposed one Pope John for many hainous crimes and so were also within a short time three other Popes namely Sylvester Bennet and Gregory the Sixth used by the Emperour Henry the Third about the year of our Lord 1047. for their like presumptuous attempts in temporal actions against the said Emperours Many other examples might be shewed to the Emperours Majesty and the Princes of the holy Empire now being after the time of Henry the Fourth as of Henry the Fifth and after him of Frederick the First and Frederick the Second and then of Lewis of Bavar all Emperours cruelly and tyrannously persecuted by the Popes and by their Bulls Curses and by open Wars and likewise to many other the great Kings and Monarchs of Christendom of their noble Progenitors Kings of their several Dominions whereby they may see how this kind of tyrannous Authority in Popes to make Wars upon Emperours and Kings and to command them to be deprived took hold at the first by Pope Hildebrand though the same never had any lawful example or warrant from the Laws of God of the Old or New Testament but yet the successes of their tyrannies were by Gods goodness for the most part made frustrate as by Gods goodness there is no doubt but the like will follow to their confusions at all times to come And therefore as there is no doubt but the like violent tyrannous proceedings by any Pope in maintenance of Traiters and Rebels would be withstood by every Soveraign Prince in Christendom in defence of their Persons and Crowns and maintenance of their Subjects in Peace so is there at this present a like just cause that the Emperours Majesty with the Princes of the holy Empire and all other Soveraign Kings and Princes in Christendom should judge the same to be lawful for her Majesty being a Queen and holding the very place of a King and a Prince Soveraign over divers Kingdoms and Nations she being also most lawfully invested in her Crown and as for good governing of her People with such applause and general allowance loved and obeyed of them saving a few ragged Traiters or Rebels or persons discontented whereof no other Realm is free as continually for these twenty five years past hath been notably seen and so publickly marked even by strangers repairing into this Realm as it were no cause of disgrace to any Monarchy and King in Christendom to have her Majesties felicity compared with any of theirs whatsoever and it may be there are many Kings and Princes could be well contented with the fruition of some proportion of her felicity And though the Popes be now suffered by the Emperor in the Lands of his own peculiar Patrimony and by the two great Monarchs the French King and the King of Spain in their Dominions and Territories although by other Kings not so allowed to continue his Authority in sundry cases and his glorious Title to be the universal Bishop of the World which Title Gregory the Great above nine hundred years past called a profane Title full of Sacriledge and a Preamble of Antichrist yet in all their Dominions and Kingdoms as also in the Realm of England most notably by many ancient Laws it is well known how many ways the tyrannous Power of this his excessive Authority hath been and still is restrained checked and limited by Laws and Pragmatiques both ancient and new a very large field for the Lawyers of those Countries to walk in and discourse And howsoever the Popes Canonists being as his Bombarders do make his Excommunications and Curses appear fearful to the multitude and simple people yet all great Emperours and Kings aforetime in their own cases of their Rights and Royal Preheminences though the same concerned but a City or a poor Town and sometime but the not allowance of some unworthy Person to a Bishoprick or to an Abbey never refrained to despise all Popes Curses or Forces but attempted always either by their Swords to compel them to desist from their furious actions or without any fear of themselves in body soul or conscience stoutly to withstand their Curses and that sometime by force sometime by Ordinances and Laws the ancient Histories whereof are too many to be repeated and of none more frequent and effectual than of the Kings of France But leaving those that are ancient we may remember how in this our own present or late Age it hath been manifestly seen how the Army of the late noble Emperour Charles the Fifth Father to King Philip that now reigneth was not afraid of his Curses when in the year of our Lord 1527. Rome it self was besieged and sacked and the Pope then called Clement and his Cardinals to the number of about thirty three in his Mount Adrian or Castle S. Angelo taken Prisoners and detained seven months or more and after ransomed by Don Vgo di Moncada a Spaniard and the Marquess of Grasto at about four hundred M. Duckats besides the ransoms of his Cardinals which was very great having not long before-time been also notwithstanding his Curses besieged in the same Castle by the Family of the Colonesi and their Fautors his next Neighbours being then Imperialists and forced to yield to all their demands Neither did King Henry the Second of France Father to Henry now King of France about the year 1550. fear or regard the Pope or his Court of Rome when he made several straight Edicts against many parts of the Popes Claims in prejudice of the Crown and Clergy of France retracting the Authority of the Court of Rome greatly to the hinderance of the Popes former profits Neither was the Army of King Philip now of Spain whereof the Duke of Alva was General stricken with any fear of cursing when it was brought afore Rome against the Pope in the year of our Lord 1555. where great destruction was made by the said Army and all the delicate Buildings Gardens and Orchards next to Rome-Walls overthrown wherewith his Holiness was more terrified than he was able to remove with any his Curses Neither was Queen Mary the Queens Majesties late Sister a person not a little devoted to the Roman Religion so afraid of the Popes cursings but that both she and her whole Council and that with the assent of all the Judges of the Realm according to the ancient Laws in favour of Cardinal Pool her Kinsman did forbid the entry of his Bulls and of a Cardinal Hat at Callis that was sent from the Pope for one Fryer Peyto whom the Pope had assigned to be a Cardinal in disgrace of Cardinal Pool neither did Cardinal Pool himself at the same time
in like sort with their hallowed baggages from Rome to poyson the senses of the Subjects pouring into their hearts malicious and pestilent opinions against her Majesty and the Laws of the Realm and also to kindle and set on fire the hearts of discontented Subjects with the flames of Rebellion and to search and sound the depths and secrets of all mens inward intentions either against her Majesty or for her and finally to bring into a Bead-roll or as it were into a Muster-roll the names and powers with the dwellings of all that should be ready to rebel and to aid the Foreign Invasion These kinds of seditious actions for the service of the Pope and the Traiters and Rebels abroad have made them Traiters not their Books nor their Beads no nor their Cakes of Wax which they call Agnus Dei nor other their Reliques nor yet their Opinions for the Ceremonies or Rites of the Church of Rome and therefore it is to be certainly concluded that these did justly deserve their capital punishments as Traiters though they were not apprehended with open Armor or Weapon Now if this latter repetition as it were of all the former causes reasons afore-recited may not serve to stop the boisterous mouths and the pestiferous tongues and venemous breaths of these that are infected with so gross errors as to defend seditious Subjects stirrers of Rebellion against their natural Prince and Country then are they to be left without any further argument to the Judgment of the Almighty God as persons that have covered their eyes against the Suns light stopped their ears against the sound of Justice and oppressed their hearts against the force of reason and as the Psalmist saith They speak lyes they are as venemous as the poyson of a Serpent even like the deaf Adder that stoppeth his ears Wherefore with charity to conclude if these Rebels and Traiters and their Fautors would yet take some remorse and compassion of their natural Country and would consider how vain their attempts have been so many years and how many of their Confederates are wasted by miseries and calamities and would desist from their unnatural practices abroad and if these Seminaries secret Wanderers and Explorators in the dark would imploy their travels in the works of Light and Doctrine according to the usage of their Schools and content themselves with their Profession and Devotion and that the remnant of the wicked flock of the Seed-men of Sedition would ease from their rebellious false and infamous railings and libellings there is no doubt by Gods grace her Majesty being so much given to Mercy and devoted to Peace but all colour and occasion of shedding the blood of any more of her natural Subjects of this Land should utterly cease Against whose malices if they shall not desist Almighty God continue her Majesty with his Spirit and Power long to reign and live in his fear and to be able to vanquish them and all Gods Enemies and her Rebels and Traiters both at home and abroad and to maintain and preserve all her natural good loving Subjects to the true service of the same Almighty God according to his holy Word and Will Many other things might be remembred for defence of other her Majesties Princely honourable and godly actions in sundry other things wherein also these and the like seditious Railers have of late time without all shame by feigned and false Libels sought to discredit her Majesty and her Government but at this time these former causes and reasons alledged by way of advertisements are sufficient to justifie her Majesties actions to the whole World in the cases remembred Important Considerations Which ought to move all true and sound Catholicks who are not wholly Jesuited to acknowledge without all Equivocations Ambiguities or Shiftings that the Proceedings of her Majesty and of the State with them since the beginning of her Highness Reign have been both mild and merciful RIght Worshipful and our dear Friends We your ancient Teachers and spiritual Fathers the secular Priests in England that sundry years for your sakes have endured many calamities but cannot frame our selves to the new Jesuitical Faction that beareth so great a sway with you are every where amongst you accounted simple persons men destitute of the Spirit of Government without all Policy and Providence ignorant Pilots how to cast about with our Ships in sudden gusts or storms not trained up in the managing of great Affairs and far unmeet God wot to take upon us the guiding of Souls All which disgraces in the sense they are imputed unto us we take in good part whether they proceed from your selves or from your Spanish Statists that can work wonders or from you both and we must acknowledge that if their courses either formerly taken or still intended for the re-establishing of the Catholick Faith in this Kingdom be good ours do come far short of that pitch and well you may think as already you have in your wisdoms censured our weakness and judged of us Howbeit as yet by your good patience we must be bold to rejoyce in our simplicity and to confess in direct terms and so tell you plainly and wish you all to mark it well that posteriores cogitationes solent esse sapientiores Experience is said to be the Mistress of Fools but she is no foolish Mistress The Jesuitical Plots for the restoring of Religion in this Land by Treasons or Invasions are not sanctified or blessed by the hand of God Some of us the ancienter sort of Priests have ever misliked their courses herein and many other we know are of the same Judgment The old approved paths of our Forefathers when men have beaten their brains to the uttermost will always prove the best Novelties and fine devices of busie and unquiet heads are but as May-flowers that are gone in June they may carry a fair shew but they will not continue The ancient manner of planting the Catholick Faith hath been by Preaching Prayers private Instructions Confessions Absolutions and by the exercising of other Priestly Functions given ad aedificationem non ad destructionem to teach Obedience not Rebellion to fill mens hearts with joy and peace by the inward working of the Holy Ghost and not to feed them with hopes of Invasions and Treacheries with the Moon-shine in the water and follies or with preposterous cogitations to think they may expect for figs from thistles or that men may do evil that good may come of it As simple Priests as you esteem us yet this we tell you that we are not ignorant of the Machiavilian Rules which your Rabbies practise nor of their Wild-geese Races wherein they have run themselves out of all honest breath But we know them not to embrace them we thank God but to disclose them or rather to acknowledge them for wicked being disclosed too apparently already to our hands that you in time might eschew them if you will be advised by us and all
Christendom would like or tolerate any such Subjects within their Dominions if possibly they could be rid of them The duty we owe to our Soveraigns doth not consist in taciturnity or keeping close within our selves such Allegiance as we think sufficient to afford them but we are especially when we are required thereunto to make open profession of it that we may appear unto them to be such Subjects as we ought to be and as they may rely upon if either their Kingdoms or safeties be in hazard or danger And we greatly marvel that any Jesuits should be so hard laced concerning the performance of their duties towards the Fathers and Kings of those Countries where they were born and whose Vassals they are considering unto what obedience they tye themselves toward their own general provincial and other Governors unto whom they were no way tied but by their own consents and for that it hath pleased them voluntarily to submit themselves unto them If a quarrel should fall out for example betwixt the Jesuits and the Dominicans it would seem a very strange matter to the Provincial or General of that Society to be driven to be demanded of a Jesuit which part he would take But therewith we have not to intermeddle only we wish that whilst they look for so great subjection at those mens hands that be under them they do not forget their own Allegiance towards their Soveraigns or at the least so demean themselves as we poor men every way their equals and as sound Catholicks as themselves that we go no further may not be brought into hatred with her Majesty unto whom we profess all duty and true allegiance let other men qualifie the same as they list About the time of the overthrow of the Popes Forces in Ireland his Holiness by the false instigations of the Jesuits plotted with the King of Spain for the assistance of the Duke of Guise to enterprise upon the sudden a very desperate designment against her Majesty and for the delivery and advancement to the Crown of the Queen of Scotland For the better effecting whereof Mendoza the Jesuit and Ledger for the King of Spain in England set on work a worthy Gentleman otherwise one Mr. Francis Throckmorton and divers others And whilst the same was in contriving as afterwards Mr. Throckmorton himself confessed 1584. the said Jesuitical humor had so possessed the hearts of sundry Catholicks as we do unfeignedly rue in our hearts the remembrance of it and are greatly ashamed that any person so intituled should ever have been so extremely bewitched Two Gentlemen about that time also viz. Anno 1583. Mr. Arden and Mr. Somervile were convicted by the Laws of the Realm to have purposed and contrived how they might have laid violent hands upon her Majesties sacred person Mr. Somerviles confession therein was so notorious as it may not be either qualified or denied And Doctor Parry the very same year was plotting with Jesuits beyond the Seas how he might have effected the like villany How the worthy Earl of Northumberland was about this time brought into the said Plot of the Duke of Guise then still in hand we will pretermit Mr. Parsons that was an Actor in it could tell the story very roundly at Rome It wrought the noble Earls overthrow 1585. which may justly be ascribed to the Jesuitical practices of the Jesuit Mendoza and others of that crew Hereunto we might add the notable Treasons of Mr. Anthony Babington and his Complices in the year 1586. which were so apparent as we were greatly abashed at the shameless boldness of a young Jesuit who to excuse the said Traiters and qualifie their offences presumed in a kind of supplication to her Majesty to ascribe the plotting of all that mischief to Mr. Secretary Walsingham The treachery also of Sir William Standley the year following 1587. in falsifying his faith to her Majesty and in betraying the trust committed unto him by the Earl of Leicester who had given him the honourable Title of Knighthood as it was greatly prejudicial to us that were Catholicks at home so was the defence of that disloyalty made by a worthy man but by the perswasions as they think of Parsons greatly disliked of many both wise and learned And especially it was wondred at a while until the drift thereof appeared more manifestly in the year 1588. that the said worthy person by the said lewd Jesuits laid down this for a ground in justifying of the said Standley viz. That in all Wars which may happen for Religion every Catholick man is bound in conscience to imploy his person and forces by the Popes direction viz. How far when and where either at home or abroad he may and must break with his temporal Soveraign These things we would not have touched had they not been known in effect to this part of the World and that we thought it our duties to shew our own dislike of them and to clear her Majesty so far as we may from such imputations of more than barbarous cruelty towards us as the Jesuits in their writings have cast by heaps upon her they themselves as we still think in our consciences and before God having been from time to time the very causes of all the calamities which any of us have endured in England since her Majesties reign Which we do not write simply to excuse her Highness although we must confess we can be contented to endure much rather than to seek her dishonour but for that we think few Princes living being perswaded in Religion as her Majesty is and so provoked as she hath been would have dealt more mildly with such their Subjects all circumstances considered than she hath done with us But now we are come to the year 1588. and to that most bloody attempt not only against her Majesty and our common Enemies but against our selves all Catholicks nay against this flourishing Kingdom and our own native Country The memory of which attempt will be as we trust an everlasting Monument of Jesuitical Treason and Cruelty For it is apparent in a Treatise penned by the advice of Father Parsons altogether as we do verily think that the King of Spain was especially moved and drawn to that intended mischief against us by the long and daily solicitations of the Jesuits and other English Catholicks beyond the Seas affected and altogether given to Jesuitism And whereas it is well known that the Duke of Medina Sidonia had given it out directly that if once he might land in England both Catholicks and Hereticks that came in his way should be all one to him his Sword could not discern them so he might make way for his Master all was one to him yet the said Father Parsons for so we will ever charge him though another man by his crafty perswasion took upon him to be the Author of that Book did labour with all the Rhetorick he had to have perswaded us upon the supposed arrival of the
Spaniard to have joyned with him to our own destructions telling us many fair tales and alluring us with sundry great promises all of them meer illusions falshoods and most traiterous instigations and juglings He ascribeth it to error of Conscience and want of courage terming the same an effeminate dastardy that we had then suffered her Majesty almast thirty years to reign over us He threatned us with Excommunication and utter ruine both of our selves and all our Posterity if we did then any longer obey abet or aid defend or acknowledge her Highness to be our Queen or Superiour and did not forthwith joyn our selves with all our Forces to the Spaniards The good Cardinal by Parsons means is drawn to say That the Pope had made him Cardinal intending to send him as his Legat for the sweeter managing of this forsooth godly and great Affair and to affirm upon his honour and in the word of a Cardinal that in the fury of the Spaniards intended Conquest there should be as great care had of every Catholick and penitent person as possibly could be And to allure the Nobility of this Realm he promised them to become an humble Suiter on their behalfs that so as they shew them selves valiant in assisting the King of Spain ' s Forces they might continue their noble Names and Families Surely they had been wise men that should have relyed much either upon his promise or the Spaniards courtesie This Jesuit also telleth all Catholicks the better to comfort them but indeed to the great scandal for ever of all Priesthood and to shew how just and holy the cause was they had in hand that there were divers Priests in the Kings Army ready to serve every mans spiritual necessity by Confession Counsel and all consolation in Christ Jesus Also he so advanceth the Forces of the Enemies extenuateth her Majesties abilities to withstand them as he accounted the Victory obtained in effect before they were landed telling us That besides the said great Forces we should so be assisted by the blessed Patrons both of Heaven and Earth with the guard of all Gods holy Angels with our blessed Saviour himself in the soveraign Sacrament and with the daily most holy oblation of Christs own dear body and blood as it could not fall out otherwise but that we must needs prevail Which kind of perswasions some of them being ridiculous the most very traiterous and these last most blasphemous as tending so greatly to the dishonour of Religion we detest and abhor And in all these Jesuitical and disloyal practices this is our comfort that albeit we doubt not but that the Pope as a temporal Prince did joyn and contribute towards this intended Invasion yet we find Father Parsons declaration of Xistus Quintus sentence of deposition of her Majesty at that time and of his admonition thereunto adjoyned as in the Popes name to have no warrant at all besides his own bare affirmation either of Breve or of any other publick Instrument as in such cases had been most necessary otherwise than that he told us it was the Popes pleasure that we should take notice thereof by his Book which was then printed and to have been scattered amongst us By warrant whereof as we are perswaded it was not lawful for us to have killed a Goose if her Majesty had forbidden us so to do Of these matters to return still to our former Apologies we would have said nothing were they not objected unto us and shewed us out of the Books themselves as notes and arguments of our traiterous hearts our Adversaries pressing the same upon us as if they did belong unto us and we were as guilty of them as either they that plotted or published them Which conceit if it should take root in those that be in Authority how could we hope for any favour but were rather to expect the greatest extremity that might be So as still we may say that the proceedings held against her Majesty well weighed these foreign Jesuitical practices have been the cause of all our troubles When it had pleased God to deliver her Majesty and this Kingdom from the said intended Invasion Mr. Parsons whether ashamed of the foil for the success whereof he was so peremptory or for that he thought matters would be better managed in Spain if he were there to give his advice departed from Rome as we take it and became a Courtier to attend King Philip where by Mendoza his fellow Jesuit's means he grew shortly into so great estimation not for any goodness in him towards this Realm you may be sure but rather in respect of his deadly hatred against it that he procured a Seminary to be erected at Valledolyd 1589. But we will leave his proceedings in Spain a while In these ten years last mentioned from 1580. till 1590. or but little before we find her Majesty to be excommunicated by Gregory the Thirteenth Mr. Sherwin and the rest of our Brethren too much Jesuited refuse to answer whether they will take the Queens part or the Popes if he should come by force of Arms to assail her in her own Kingdom Parsons and Heywood are found to be Practitioners but especially Parsons The intention of the Duke of Guise is entertained here and prosecuted Her Majesties life is sought by treachery Babington and his Companions shoot at the Crown Stanley is a Treacherer breaketh his faith and is defended for so doing Then followed the Invasion and lastly Parsons plottings in Spain and the erection of new Seminaries there Now let us consider how we our selves all this while have been dealt with Such of us as remained in Prison at Wisbich and were committed thither 1580. and others not long after committed also thither to the number of about thirty three or thirty four continued still in the several times of all the said most wicked designments as we were before and were never brought into any trouble for them but lived there Colledge-like without any want and in good reputation with our Neighbours that were Catholicks about us It is true that towards the number of fifty as our memory serveth us Priests and Catholicks of all sorts within the compass of the said ten years were put to death we say upon our knowledges concerning the most of them for their consciences but our Adversaries as they think do still affirm for Treason Such Priests as in their examination were found any thing moderate were not so hardly proceeded with insomuch as fifty five to our remembrance that by the Laws we acknowledge might likewise have been put to death were in one year viz. 1585. what time great mischiefs were in hand spared from that extremity and only banished Which fact howsoever some have written of it the parties themselves accounted it for a great benefit and so would they also have done we doubt not of it if they had been then of that number Whereas therefore Mr. Parsons as we think exclaimeth in a
Pamphlet set out shortly after saying Where are now the old Tyrants of the World Nero Decius Dioclesian Maxentius and the rest of the great persecutors of the Christians Where is Genserick and Hunricus with their Arrian Hereticks alluding to the State here we think both him and divers others that have written to the same effect very greatly to blame Sure we are that the general cause of Religion for the which both we and they contend as oft we have said getteth no good but hurt by it and contrary to the old saying be he never so bad yet let him have justice though some hard courses have been taken by the State against us yet hath it not by many degrees been so extreme as the Jesuits and that crew have falsely written and reported of it But to return to Father Parsons in Spain and to proceed in the course of things which have happened since 1590. The said Father Parsons so managed the said Seminary erected in Valledolyd as within three years viz. 1591. twelve or thirteen Priests were sent hither from thence Also he procured some other Seminaries to be erected in Spain and furnished them with such Students as he thought fit which for our parts we greatly commend in him if he took this pains and imployed his favour with the King to a good end whereof we have some doubt knowing the Jesuits fetches but the State here did utterly condemn him for it finding that both he and some others were plotting and labouring by all the means they could for a new Invasion Whereupon a Proclamation was set out 1591. as well for an inquiry or search for all such Seminary Priests as either were or should hereafter come from Spain as also from any other Seminaries beyond the Seas upon suspicion that they were sent hither for no other end but to prepare a way for the said Invasion Whereas we are verily perswaded in our consciences and do know it for many that the Priests themselves had no such intention whatsoever the Jesuits had that sent them Against the said Proclamation three or four have whet their Pens but still whilst they seek to disgrace and gall the State they have ever thereby wounded and beaten us being themselves in the mean time void of all danger One of them Mr. Parsons by name as we suppose writing in his said Pamphlet of the new intended Invasion mentioned in the said Proclamation telleth us That the King hath just cause to attempt again that enterprise And again he saith That the King is so interessed together with the Pope to seck as he termeth it her Majesties reformation that he the said King is bound in Justice to do it and cannot without prejudice of his high estimation and greatness refuse at the soonest opportunity to attempt it Marry withal to comfort us he writeth That the King intendeth no rigorous dealing with our Nation in the prosecution of his Invasion when he cometh hither Which great favour of the King towards us we are to ascribe to good Father Parsons if we may believe his dutiful Subject Mr. Southwell the Jesuit For thus he telleth us If ever saith he the King should prevail in that designment of his new Invasion Father Parsons assisted with Cardinal Alanes Authority hath done that in our Countries behalf for which his most bitter enemies and generally all her Majesties Subjects shall have cause to thank him for his serviceable endeavours so far hath he inclined fury to clemency and rage to compassion Sure we are greatly beholding to this good Father that hath had so kind a remembrance of us But we wish that he had rather imployed himself as a religious man in the service of God and his private meditations than thus to have busied himself in setting forward and qualifying it when he hath done so outragious a designment and do pray with all our hearts that neither we nor this Kingdom do ever fall into the hands of the Spaniards whose unspeakable cruelties in other Countries a worthy Catholick Bishop hath notably described to all posterity The same Mr. Parsons also together with his fellow Jesuit Mr. Creswell as men that pretend extraordinary love to their Country have written a large Volume against the said Proclamation wherein what malice and contempt can devise that might provoke her Majesty to indignation against us is there set out very skilfully they themselves well knowing that no other fruit or benefit could come unto us by that discourse except it were still to plague us Whilst the said Invasion was thus talked of and in preparation in Spain a shorter course was thought of if it might have had success Mr. Hesket was set on by the Jesuits 1592. or thereabouts with Father Parsons consent or knowledge to have stirred up the Earl of Derby to rebellion against her Highness Not long after good Father Holt and others with him perswaded an Irish man one Patrick Collen as he himself confessed to attempt the laying of his violent and villanous hands upon her Majesty Shortly after in the year 1593. that notable Stratagem was plotted the whole State knoweth by whom for Doctor Lopez the Queens Physician to have poysoned her for the which he was executed the year after This wicked designment being thus prevented by Gods providence the said traiterous Jesuit Holt and others did allure and animate one Yorke and Williams to have accomplished that with their bloody hands that the other purposed to have done with his poyson we mean her Majesties destruction Hereunto we might add the late villanous attempt 1599. of Edward Squire animated and drawn thereunto as he confessed by Walpole that pernicious Jesuit But we must turn again to Father Parsons whose turnings and doublings are such as would trouble a right good Hound to trace him For in the mean time that the said Traiters one after another were plotting and studying how best they might compass her Majesties death they cared not how nor by what means he the said Father Parsons so prevailed with the King as he attempted twice in two sundry years his new Invasion meaning to have proceeded therein not with such great preparation as he did at the first but only to have begun the same by taking some Port Westward toward which he came so far onward as Silley with his Fleet. At both which times God who still hath fought for her Majesty and this Realm did notably prevent him by such winds and tempests as the most of his Ships and men perished in the Sea as they were coming hitherward Furthermore the said good Father in the midst of all the said traiterous enterprises both at home and abroad devised and set forward by him and his Companions was plodding amongst his Papers and playing the Herald how if all his said wicked designments failed he might at the least intitle the King of Spain and consequently the Infanta his Daughter to the Crown and Kingdom of England To which purpose he framed and afterwards published
a Book wherewith he acquainted the Students in those Seminaries in Spain and laboured nothing more than to have their subscriptions to the said Infantaes title therein promising unto her their present Allegiance as unto their lawful Soveraign and that when they should be sent into their Country they should perswade the Catholicks there to do the like without any further expectation of the Queen of England's death as Mr. Charles Paget affirmeth in his Book against Parsons We spake of the Seminaries in Spain before somewhat suspiciously and now you see the reason that moved us so to do Besides we do not doubt but that in the perusing of this our discourse you will be assaulted with many strange cogitations concerning our full intent and meaning therein Which although it cannot chuse but that it doth already in part appear unto you yet now we come to a more clear and plain declaration of our purpose You see into what hatred the wicked attempts of the Jesuits against her Majesty and the State hath brought not only all Catholicks in general but more especially us that are secular Priests although we did ever dislike and blame them nay detest and hate them no men more For any of us to have been brought up in the Seminaries beyond the Seas hath been and still is as you know a matter here very odious and to us full of danger But by Father Parsons courses with the Seminaries in Spain and now that he is Rector of the English Seminary in Rome and so taketh upon him by his favour there to direct and command all the rest what will the State here think of the Priests that shall come from any of those Seminaries hereafter where they must be brought up according to the Jesuitical humor and sent hither with such directions as shall be thereunto agreeable The said Book of Titles compiled by Parsons is here very well known almost to the whole Realm and Mr. Charles Paget hath not been silent as touching the Infanta and the bringing up of Students to be sent hither as Priests to promote her title Sundry sharp courses have been taken already with us and many Laws are made against us But now what may we expect but all the cruelty that ever was devised against any man if the State should think both us and all other Catholicks to be either addicted or any way inclined to the advancement of any foreign Title against her Majesty or her lawful Successors And it cannot chuse but that we should thereof be the rather suspected because at this time it is well known that the infection of Jesuitism doth bear great sway in England amongst us whilst our Archpriest who taketh upon him to rule all is himself over-ruled by Garnet the Jesuit who as a most base Vassal is in every thing at the beck and command of Father Parsons For the avoiding therefore of all the further mischiefs that may ensue we first profess as before we have often done that we do utterly dislike and condemn in our consciences all the said slanderous Writings and Pamphlets which have been published to the slander of her Majesty and this Realm protesting that the Jesuitical designments beyond the Seas together with certain rebellious and traiterous attempts of some Catholicks at home have been the causes of such calamities and troubles as have happened unto us great we confess in themselves but far less we think than any Prince living in her Majesties case and so provoked would have inflicted upon us Some of us have said many a time when we have read and heard speeches of her Majesties supposed cruelty Why my Masters what would you have her to do being resolved as she is in matters of Religion except she should willingly cast off the care not only of her State and Kingdom but of her life also and Princely estimation Yea there have been amongst us of our own calling who have likewise said That they themselves knowing what they do know how under pretence of Religion the life of her Majesty and the subversion of the Kingdom is aimed at if they had been of her Highnesses Council they would have given their consent for the making of very strait and rigorous Laws to the better suppressing and preventing of all such Jesuitical and wicked designments Secondly we do all of us acknowledge that by our Learning secluding all Machiavilian Maxims Ecclesiastical persons by virtue of their calling are only to meddle with praying preaching and administring the Sacraments and such other like spiritual Functions and not to study how to murder Princes nor to licitate Kingdoms nor to intrude themselves into matters of State Successions and Invasions as Fryer George did in Pannonia to the utter ruine of that beautiful Realm Thirdly we profess our selves with all godly courage and boldness to be as sound and true Catholick Priests as any Jesuits or men living in the world and that we do not desire to draw breath any longer upon the earth than that we shall so continue but yet therewith we being born her Majesties Subjects do plainly affirm and resolutely acknowledge it without all Jesuitical equivocation that if the Pope himself as some of the Apostles did do come into this Land or if he do send hither some Fugatius and Damianus as Eleutherus did or some Augustine Laurence or Justus as Saint Gregory did we will to do them service go unto them and lye down at their feet and defend with them the Catholick faith by the sacred Scriptures and authority of the Church though it cost us our lives But if he come or send hither an Army under pretence to establish the said Catholick Religion by force and with the Sword we will ever be most ready as native born and true Subjects to her Highness with the hazard of our lives and with all our might to withstand and oppose our selves against him and to spend the best blood in our bodies in defence of the Queen and our Country For we are throughly perswaded that Priests of what order soever ought not by force of Arms to plant or water the Catholick faith but in spiritu lenitatis mansuetudinis to propagate and defend it So it was planted in the Primitive Church over all the World crescit fructificat sicut in nobis est ex quo die recepimus The ancient godly Christians though they had sufficient forces did not oppose themselves in Arms against their Lords the Emperours though of another Religion But our purpose is not to dispute this point And now lastly we commend unto you all our very right dear and beloved Brethren this our most humble Suit First that you will interpret the whole premises no otherwise than we our selves have expounded our own meaning Secondly we intreat you to remember how dear we have been unto you and that we continue our unfeigned affection towards you still assuring you that howsoever you are changed we do affect you still with a