Christendom with their noise and clamours of the dreadful Persecutions in England that Great man thought it not below him to write this Apology for the Execution of Justice here and to shew how reasonable just and moderate the Proceedings of the State were considering the height and insolence of the provocations and this was published in several Languages and dispersed in the Courts of Princes to undeceive them as to all the false reports of the Romish Emissaries who have taken upon them that publick Character of the Popes Ambassadors to lye abroad for his and their own advantage 2. But after that by the means of Cardinal Allen and others they had endeavoured to blast the reputation of that Apology and after the death of that great Minister of State the Secular Priests did publish their Important Considerations wherein they assert the Truth of what was said in the Apologie and vindicate the Honour and Justice of the Penal Laws which is the second Treatise here published and printed according to their own Copy and which hath been so much concealed or bought up by those of that Religion that it hath been heard of by sew and seen by fewer Protestants 3. And lest any should say that all those dangerous Principles to Government are since his Majesties happy Restauration utterly disowned by them I have added a third Treatise printed by one of their own Religion 1662. which charges the Jesuitical Party so deep with those Principles and Practices as to make them uncapable of any Favour If other persons will pursue the same method in retrieving such considerable Treatises as these are they may do more service to our Church and Nation than by writing Histories themselves and I shall desire the late Apologist to set these Authors of his own Church against the petty Historians he so punctually quotes on all occasions And we have so much the more reason to consider these things since in a very late Treatise called the Bleeding Iphigenia the Irish Rebellion is defended by one of the Titular Bishops to be a just and holy War and seeing they still think it lawful what can we imagine then that they want but another occasion to do the same things THE EXECVTION OF JUSTICE IN ENGLAND For maintenance of Publick and Christian Peace c. IT hath been in all Ages and in all Countries a common usage of all offenders for the most part both great and small to make defence of their lewd and unlawful facts by untruths and by colouring and covering their deeds were they never so vile with pretences of some other causes of contrary operations or effects to the intent not only to avoid punishment or shame but to continue uphold and prosecute their wicked attempts to the full satisfaction of their disordered and malicious appetites And though such hath been the use of all Offenders yet of none with more danger than of Rebels and Traytors to their lawful Princes Kings and Countries Of which sort of late years are specially to be noted certain persons naturally born Subjects in the Realm of England and Ireland who having for some good time professed outwardly their obedience to their Soveraign Lady Queen Elizabeth have nevertheless afterward been stirred up and seduced by wicked Spirits first in England sundry years past and secondly and of latter time in Ireland to enter into open Rebellion taking Arms and coming into the Field against her Majesty and her Lieutenants with their Forces under Banners displayed inducing by notable untruths many simple people to follow and assist them in their Traitorous actions And though it is very well known that both their intentions and manifest actions were bent to have deposed the Queens Majesty from her Crown and to have traiterously set in her place some other whom they liked whereby if they had not been speedily resisted they would have committed great bloodsheds and slaughters of her Majesties faithful Subjects and ruined their native Country Yet by Gods power given unto her Majesty they were so speedily vanquished as some few of them suffered by order of Law according to their deserts many and the greatest part upon Confession of their faults were pardoned the rest but they not many of the principal escaped into Foreign Countries and there because in none or few places Rebels and Traitors to their natural Princes and Countries dare for their Treasons challenge at their first muster open comfort or succour these notable Traitors and Rebels have falsly informed many Kings Princes and States and specially the Bishop of Rome commonly called the Pope from whom they all had secretly their first comfort to Rebell that the cause of their flying from their Countries was for the Religion of Rome and for maintenance of the said Popes Authority Whereas divers of them before their Rebellion lived so notoriously the most part of their lives out of all good rule either for honest manners or for any sense in Religion as they might have been rather familiar with Catalin or Favourers to Sardanapalus than accounted good Subjects under any Christian Princes As for some examples of the heads of these Rebellions out of England fled Charles Nevill Earl of Westmerland a person utterly wasted by looseness of life and by Gods punishment even in the time of his Rebellion bereaved of his Children that should have succeeded him in the Earldom and how his Body is now eaten with Ulcers of lewd causes all his Companions do see that no Enemy he had can wish him a viler punishment And out of Ireland ran away one Thomas Stukeley a defamed person almost through all Christendom and a faithless Beast rather than a Man fleeing first out of England for notable Piracies and out of Ireland for treacheries not pardonable which two were the first Ringleaders of the rest of the Rebels the one for England the other for Ireland But notwithstanding the notorious evil and wicked lives of these and others their Confederates void of all Christian Religion it liked the Bishop of Rome as in favour of their Treasons not to colour their offences as themselves openly pretend to do for avoiding of common shame of the World but flatly to animate them to continue their former wicked purposes that is to take Arms against their lawful Queen to invade her Realm with Foreign Forces to pursue all her good Subjects and their Native Countries with Fire and Sword for maintenance whereof there had some years before at sundry times proceeded in a thundring sort Bulls Excommunications and other publick Writings denouncing her Majesty being the lawful Queen and Gods anointed Servant not to be the Queen of the Realm charging and upon pains of Excommunication commanding all her Subjects to depart from their natural Allegiances whereto by birth and by Oath they were bound Provoking also and authorising all persons of all degrees within both the Realms to Rebell and upon this Antichristian Warrant being contrary to all
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
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
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
obey the Popes commandments nor shewed himself afraid being assisted by the Queen when the Pope did threaten him with pain of Excommunication but did still oppose himself against the Popes commandment for the said pretended Cardinal Peyto who notwithstanding all the threatnings of the Pope was forced to go up and down in the streets of London like a begging Fryer a stout resistance in a Queen for a poor Cardinals Hat wherein she followed the example of her Grandfather King Henry the Seventh for a matter of Allum So as howsoever the Christian Kings for some respects in Policy can endure the Pope to command where no harm nor disadvantage groweth to themselves yet sure it is and the Popes are not ignorant but where they shall in any sort attempt to take from Christian Princes any part of their Dominions or shall give aid to their Enemies or to any other their Rebels in those cases their Bulls their Curses their Excommunications their Sentences and most solemn Anathematicals no nor their Cross-keys or double edged Sword will serve their turns to compass their intentions And now where the Pope hath manifestly by his Bulls and Excommunications attempted as much as he could to deprive her Majesty of her Kingdoms to withdraw from her the obedience of her Subjects to procure Rebellions in her Realms yea to make both Rebellions and open Wars with his own Captains Souldiers Banners Ensigns and all other things belonging to War shall this Pope or any other Pope after him think that a Soveraign Queen possessed of the two Realms of England and Ireland stablished so many years in her Kingdoms as three or four Popes have sit in their Chair at Rome fortified with so much duty love and strength of her Subjects acknowledging no Superiour over her Realms but the mighty hand of God shall she forbear or fear to withstand and make frustrate his unlawful attempts either by her Sword or by her Laws or to put his Souldiers Invaders of her Realm to the Sword martially or to execute her Laws upon her own rebellious Subjects civilly that are proved to be his chief Instruments for Rebellion and for his open War This is sure that howsoever either he sitting in his Chair with a triple Crown at Rome or any other his Proctors in any part of Christendom shall renew these unlawful attempts Almighty God whom her Majesty only honoureth and acknowledgeth to be her only Soveraign Lord and Protector and whose Laws and Gospel of his Son Jesus Christ she seeketh to defend will no doubt but deliver sufficient power into his Maidens hand his Servant Queen Elizabeth to withstand and confound them all And where the seditious Trumpetters of infamies and lies have sounded forth and entituled certain that have suffered for Treason to be Martyrs for Religion so may they also at this time if they list add to their forged Catalogue the headless body of the late miserable Earl of Desmond who of late secretly wandring without succour as a miserable Begger was taken by one of the Irishry in his Cabin and in an Irish sort after his own accustomed savage manner his head cut off from his body an end due to such an Arch-rebel And herewith to remember the end of his chief Confederates may be noted for example to others the strange manner of the death of Dr. Sanders the Popes Irish Legat who also wandring in the Mountains in Ireland without succor dyed raving in a Phrensie And before him one James Fits-Morice the first Traiter of Ireland next to Stukely the Rakehel a man not unknown in the Popes Palace for a wicked crafty Traiter was slain at one blow by an Irish noble young Gentleman in defence of his Fathers Country which the Traiter sought to burn A fourth man of singular Note was John of Desmond Brother to the Earl a very bloody faithless Traiter and a notable Murderer of his familiar friends who also wandring to seek some prey like a Wolf in the Woods was taken and beheaded after his own usage being as he thought sufficiently armed with the Popes Bulls and certain Agnus Dei and one notable Ring about his neck sent from the Popes finger as it was said but these he saw saved not his life And such were the fatal ends of all these being the principal heads of the Irish War and Rebellion so as no one person remaineth at this day in Ireland a known Traiter To this number they may if they seek number also add a furious young Man of Warwickshire by name Somervile to increase their Kalender of the Popes Martyrs who of late was discovered and taken in his way coming with a full intent to have killed her Majesty whose life God always have in his custody The attempt not denied by the Traiter himself but confessed and that he was moved thereto in his wicked spirit by inticements of certain seditious and traiterous persons his Kinsmen and Allies and also by often reading of sundry seditious vile Books lately published against her Majesty But as God of his goodness hath of long time hitherto preserved her Majesty from these and the like Treacheries so hath she no cause to fear being under his Protection she saying with King David in the Psalm My God is my helper and I will trust in him he is my protection and the strength or the power of my salvation And for the comfort of all good Subjects against the shadows of the Popes Bulls it is manifest to the World that from the beginning of her Majesties Reign by Gods singular goodness her Kingdom hath enjoyed more universal Peace her People increased in more numbers in more strength and with greater riches the earth of her Kingdoms hath yielded more fruits and generally all kind of worldly felicity hath more abounded since and during the time of the Popes Thunders Bulls Curses and Maledictions than in any other long times before when the Popes Pardons and Blessings came yearly into the Realm so as his Curses and Maledictions have turned back to himself and his Fautors that it may be said to the fortunate Queen of England and her People as was said in Deuteronomy of Balaam The Lord thy God would not hear Balaam but did turn his Maledictions or curses into Benedictions or blessings the reason is for because thy God loved thee Although these former reasons are sufficient to perswade all kind of reasonable persons to allow of her Majesties actions to be good reasonable lawful and necessary yet because it may be that such as have by frequent reading of false artificial Libels and by giving credit to them upon a prejudice or forejudgment afore grounded by their rooted opinions in favour of the Pope will rest unsatisfied therefore as much as may be to satisfie all persons as far forth as common reason may warrant that her Majesties late action in executing of certain seditious Traiters hath not proceeded for the holding of opinions either
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