ouer the night So in the firmament of the vniuersall Church God hath set two great dignities the authority of the Pope and Emperor of the which two this our dignity is so much the weightier as that we must giue account to God for the Kings of the earth and for the Lawes of men Wherefore know ye Emperors that ye depend vpon the iudgement of vs and we must not be reduced to your will for looke what difference there is betweene the Sunne and the Moone so great is the power of the Pope ruling ouer the day that is ouer the spiritualty aboue Emperors and Kings ruling ouer the night that is ouer the Laity Now seeing then the Earth is seauen times bigger then the Moone and the Sunne eight times greater then the earth it followes that the Popes dignity many degrees doth surmount the estate of Emperors And although Constantine the great writing to a Pope alleadged the words of Peter 1 Pet. 2. 13. Submit your selues to euery humane creature as to Kings c. Yet in their Decretals they expound the minde of Peter to exhort all subiects and not his successors to be subiect proouing the Priesthood to be aboue Kings by the wordes of Ieremy Behold I haue set thee ouer Kings and Nations c. Neyther must Kings and Princes thinke it much to submit themselues to my iudgement for so did Valentinianus the Emperour and also Carolus For my power is not of man but of God who by his celestiall prouidence hath set me Master and gouernour ouer his vniuersall Church whereby all criminall causes as well of Kings as all other to be subiect to my censure For my Church of Rome is Prince and head of all nations the Mother of the Faith the foundation cardinall whereupon all Churches doe depend as the doore doth vpon the hinges The first of all other seates without spot or blemish Lady mistresse instructer of all Churches a glasse and spectacle to all men to be followed in all whatsoeuer she obserues Against which Church of Rome whosoeuer speakes any euill is forthwith an hereticke yea a very Pagan a witch an Idolater and Infidell hauing fulnesse of power onely in her owne hands in ruling deciding absoluing condemning casting out or receiuing in To which Church of Rome it is lawfull to appeale for remedy from all other Churches although it was decreed otherwise in the Councell of Carthage that no man should appeale ouer the Sea vnder paine of excommunication yet Gratians glosse can helpe that with a limitation Nisi forte Romanam sedem appellauerint Vnlesse they appeale to the Sea of Rome Of the which Church of Rome the Pope is Head the Vicar of St. Peter yea not the Vicar of St. Peter properly but the Vicar of Christ and successor of Peter Rector of the vniuersall Church and directer of the Lords vniuersall flocke chiefe Magistrate of the whole world Lex animata in terris A liuing Law in the earth hauing all Lawes in the chest of my breast Yea Nec Deus nec homo quasi neuter inter vtrūque Being neyther God nor man but the admiration of the world and a middle thing twixt both The Pope hath both swords in his power both of Temporall and spirituall iurisdiction able by his owne power alone without a Councell to depose the Emperor to transferre his kingdome and to giue a new election as hee did to Fredericke and diuers others to whom Emperors and Kings bee more inferior then lead is to gold for doe you not see the neckes of Kings and Princes bend vnder our knees yea and think themselues happy and well defenced if they may kisse our hands What doe wee talke of Kings The Pope is aboue Angels as his Clarke Antoninus writes That hee is greater then Angels in foure things 1 In iurisdiction 2 In administration of Sacraments 3 In knowledge 4 In reward And so in Bulla Clementis the Pope commands the Angels of Paradise to absolue the soule of man out of purgatory and to bring it into the glory of Paradise Who is able to comprehend the greatnes of my power and seate For by me onely generall Councels take their force and confirmation and the interpretation of the said Councels and of all other causes doubtfull must stand to my determination yea my Letters and Epistles Decretall are equiualent to Generall Councels and whereas God hath ordained all causes of men to be iudged by men he hath only reserued me that is the Pope of Rome without all question of men vnto his owne iudgement and whereas all other Creatures be vnder a Iudge onely I which am Iudge of all can be iudged of none neyther of Emperor nor the whole Cleargy nor of Kings nor yet of people For who hath power to iudge vpon his Iudge so that I differ in power and maiority and honor reuerentiall from all degrees of men For the better declaration of it the Canonists make three kindes of powers in earth 1. Immediata which is mine immediately from God 2. Deriuata which belongeth to other inferiour Prelates from mee 3. Ministralis belonging to Emperors and Princes to minister for me for the which cause the anointing of Princes and my consecration differ for they are annoynted in the arme or shoulders and I in the head This order of Priests Bishops Archbishops Patriarkes and Cardinals the Church of Rome hath instituted following the example of the Angelicall Army in heauen and the Apostles on earth For among them there was a distinction of power and authority albeit they were all Apostles yet it was granted to Peter they all agreeing to it that hee should haue superiority ouer them all and therefore had his name giuen him Cephas that is say they head or beginning of the Apostles whereupon the order of Priesthood first in the new Testament began in Peter to whom it was said Thou art Peter and vpon thee will I build my Church Math. 16. 18. And I will giue thee the keyes of the kingdome of Heauen Whatsoeuer thou shalt binde vpon earth c. v. 19. Seeing then such power is giuen to Peter and to the Pope in Peter as his successor who is then in all the world that ought not to be subiect to my Decrees which haue such power in heauen in hell in earth with the quicke also the dead whereupon Pope Clement in his Bull of lead sent to Vienna granted to all such as died in their peregrination to Rome that the paine of hell should not touch them And all such as tooke the holy Crosse vpon them should euery one at his request not onely be deliuered but also deliuer 3. or 4. soules out of Purgatory And againe Christ said to Peter I haue
preaching but since they were dead they were high coloured blushing at the wickednesse of their supposed and but supposed successors ashamed of the Doctrine and practises of your Church of Rome and that this shame had altered their colour And sure all Gods seruants who haue the feare of God before their eyes are ashamed and abhorre such abominable practises The cause as Bodin saith which mooued Tacitus to exclaime against Christians was quia Christiani affectarunt crimina quae Ethniti abhorruerunt Because Christians affect those sinne with the Ethnickes doe abhorre if Tacitus were now aliue how would he exclaime against the Church of Rome for animating people to commit such villanies which all Ethnickes except sauages or Cannibals abhorre and condemne Behold how Rome is degenerated from her primitiue State time was she loathed such deedes either to commend or canonize Trators Facta haec Roma olim nec sancta nec Ethnica nouit Such workes in ancient times this Rome did hate In her first Christian yea in Ethnicke State But now Quod natura nefas odit doctrina capescit Which nature most detest Doctrine defend Yea haue not some of them laboured to extenuate the deuillish deuise of these superlatiue Powder-traytors with these words Alas it was the attempt of some few and vnfortunate Gentlemen vnfortunate as they count because they failed in performance or as others of them These Catholickes held the King no King or not their King and expectanda erat diuturna persecutio a perpetuall persecution was to be expected and Eudemen a Iesuite hath write to defend Garnets Treason and rightly played the Daemon and haue not some others excused the fact of Rauilliacke one of Marianas Schollers who stabbed Henry the fourth the late famous French King whose death neuer sufficiently to be lamented and neuer of Kings sufficiently reuenged with these pretences Fuit stolidit as regis ob susceptum haereticorum patrocinium It was the folly of the King for patronising these heretickes meaning Protestants So that I may define these Iesuits to be as one did define a Frier to be cadauer mortuum è sepulchro veniens missum à daemone inter homines a dead Carrion comming out of his graue sent of the deuill among men and truly such are rather monsters then men who will commend or command murther applaud murtherers and Traytors who are portenta virorum viri portentorum monsters of men or men monsters viri sanguinum men of blood viri occisionis slaughter men and though in all professions some are bad A Cham will be in the Arke Saul among the Prophets and Iudas among the Apostoles some may fall into murther or Treason c. Yet when such come to their end and punishment they vsually confesse their faulte to be in their nature not in their religion excepting onely Roman Catholickes who seeke to fetch poyson from heauen and to prooue murther by the Scripture Dogmatis atque Scholae sunt haec non crimina morum So that these cannot say with Cassiodorus follow my doctrine but not my maners for both precepts and practise treasonble And that I may giue a little tast or touch of their practises in this kind least I should seeme to condemne them without cause I will in the next Chapter demonstrate how that many Popes of Rome who are the heads of Popery which is the mystery of iniquity haue caused and procured many Emperors Kings Princes and worthy men to be greatly persecuted and grieuously killed So that we may say to them as our Sauiour to the Pharisees I will send them Prophets and Apostles and of them they shall slay and persecute that the bloud of all the Prophets with many Kings Princes and learned men may be required of this generation CHAP. VI. A short Catalogue or rehearsall of certaine Emperors Kings and famous men who haue beene persecuted by the Antichrist of Rome I Cannot nor will not enterprise to declare all the particular persecutions of the Church of Rome against seuerall Kings and Potentates who distasted and in some sort opposed themselues against their corruptions for that would require a long Tractate to discouer the miserable mischiefes of the whore of Babilon drunken with the bloud of Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus Christ for that were an endlesse worke and the Spirit of truth might say to me as to Ezechiel Turne thee againe and thou shalt see greater abhominations then these I will confine my selfe to a few examples The Emperour Philippicus Bardanius because hee commanded all Images to be remoued out of the Churches by the counsell and consent of Iohn Patriarke of Constantinople was denounced an Hereticke publiquely excommunicated by Pope Constantine and commanded no gold nor siluer to be stamped with his Image nor any mention made of him in their common prayers Lodouicus Pius the Emperor eight hundred yeares after Christ was thrust out of his Kingdome by the French Cleargie and the Pope Philip the Emperor by the procurement of the Pope Innocent the third who said Eyther he would haue Philips Crowne or Philip his Miter continually opposed himselfe against him and stirred vp Count Otho against him who miserably did slay him at Bamberge in his priuy chamber Henry the seuenth oppressed by the Pope and his Cardinals stirring vp enemies against him was at last poysoned by a Monke in the Sacrament I omit to speake of the other Henries tragically vexed by tyrannicall Popes the extreamities and indignities whereunto they brought them haue replenished the world with plentifull histories The Emperor Fredericke the seauenth truely complaining That the happines of Emperors was alwaies opposed by the Popes enuy Neyther haue the Kings of the earth found better vse some of them by Popes deposed from their Kingdomes as Childericke the French King by the Pope deposed vnder pretence of stupidity and thrust into a Monastery Philip the first for matrimoniall causes Philip called the faire for collating of benefices Rachis King of the Lombards by Pope Zachary put into a Monastery with many others which might be named Nay not onely by Popes deposed but of their liues depriued Manfred the King of Naples and Sicily had the Duke of Anien armed against him by Pope Vrbane the fourth by whom hee was slaine So Conradinus King of Naples and Sicilye being taken prisoner by Charles brother to the French King was miserably put to death by the Popes Counsell King Iohn of England was vilely vexed and depriued of his Kingdome by the Pope and his Bishops and the French King set vp against him and at last was poysoned by a Monke Ioane the Queene of Naples was depriued of her Kingdome by Pope Vrbane who consented to her murther Gemin Otto the brother of the great Turke being prisoner was poysoned by the Pope hired thereunto by a
sequi â—porter sed Dei veritatem Wee may not follow the custome of men but the truth of God for as Tertullian Quodcunque contra veritatem sapit hoc erit haeresit etiam consuetudo Whatsoeuer is contrary to truth is heresie euen custome and antiquity Ignatius writes that he heard some say Nisi Euangelium in â—nt quis inuenero non credam Vnlesse I find the Gospel among the Ancients I will not beleeue it Pâ—gani saith Austen Antiquitatis causa se verum tenere contendunt The Pagans for the cause of antiquity contend they hold the truth If antiquity might carry it the Iewes might carry it from the Christians The Church of Antioch from the Church of Rome for so saith Bellarmine Petrus Antiochiae Cathedram suam aliquandiu tenebat priusquam ad Romam eam transtulisset Peter did set his Chaire at Antioch before he translated it to Rome Indeed the woman of Samaria pleades antiquity to Christ our Fathers worshipped in this mountaine and ye say that in Ierusalem is the place where men ought to worship so say our Lay-Papists Our Fathers worshipped God with Images with the Masse c. But Christ will say to them as to that woman ye worship that which ye know not Away with your wicked and wil-worship I will be worshipped according to my word The great hinderance saith the Iesuite Acosta to the plantation of the Roman Faith among the Indians Ex inueterata consuetudine proficiscitur proceeds from their ancient custome wherein before they were inured and from it hardly reclaimed and as the Iesuite Xauerius saith Indi ne Christiani fierent hanc causam afferebant so à maioribus suis semper cultores extitisse c. The Indians that they should not be made Christians alleadged this cause that they had alwayes beene worshippers according to their Forefathers The same is the answere of many Papists We serue God as our Fathers did and yet the Lord saith to all walke not in the ordinances of your Forefathers neither obserue their manners nor defile your selues with their Idols I am the Lord your God walke in my Statutes c. Men should not doe as the most doe but as they must doe God doth not say walke as others doe but Haec est via ambulate in ea This is the way walke ye in it Truth is not to be tried by antiquity or vniuersality but by the Scripture Nabuchadnezars idolatry graced with vniuersality onely three doe gainesay it In a word with Cyprian Multitude errantium non parit errori patrocinium An erring multitude doth not patronize error It hath beene a long time the calumny and reproaches of Popish Priests men who haue an infirmity to void excrements at their mouth to defame our Church with an vpstart nouelty where was your Church before Martin Luthers time We doe not fetch our Religion from Martin Luther a worthy man but from the Scripture from Christ and his Apostles we want no antiquity hauing the Scripture your Iesuite will tell you so much Sanctarum Scropturarum summa est antiquitas c. The Holy Scripture is of the greatest antiquity and that Church whose doctrine agrees with it is most ancient Yet Martin Luther is more ancient then your Tridentine Fathers and brood of Iesuites the Atlasses to support your falling Church But many hundred yeeres before Luthers dayes there wanted not famous and zealous men who resisted the corrupt doctrine of the Church of Rome the persons and the points the time when in all Ages are compendiously recited by a iudicious and very learned Diuine of our Church to whose Booke for breuity sake I referre my Reader The nakednesse of the Roman Diana was discouered long agoe for which dscouery many good men haue beene Acteon-like hunted by bloody hounds to death Corruptions spread by degrees Et tanquam cancer serpit as Espencaeus creepes stealing like a Canker infects one part then another Such hath beene the malady of the Church of Rome their creeping corruptions canker-like first one part then another point that it is hard to set downe the precise time when these corruptions ingendered The Greekes debated long on this probleme The ship Argos wherin Iason sayled for the golden Flecce after the voyage ended was laied vp in the roade for a Monument where decaying by degrees it was repaired by peeces anew in the end the whole substance of the vessell extinct and nothing left but onely the reparations successiuely made Now the question was whether-this ship suppose it Peters were the same that he sayled in when he liued or an other renewed and whether can any man tell when such a peece was added such a part supplied And if this cannot be so precisely shewed doth it follow infallibly that it was the very Argosie wherein Iason sayled So in this case their ship their Church so often peeced so many new points added euery Pope almost changing his Predecessors decrees abrogating this point and augmenting it with another that it is indeed a new ship and can iustly pleade no great antiquity And for vniuersality and vnity in Doctrine no Church so much diuided VVe doe reade how Popes vsually haue condemned that which other Popes haue confirmed Councels contradicted that which others haue concluded Their outcries in Schooles Pulpets Consistories one against another makes their diuision and difcord audible That we may say of them which Lucian of the old Phlosophers With the noise of their disputations they haue so filled the eares of Iupiter and made him deafe that he cannot heare their prayers How irreconciliable are the iars and contentions of Scotus Aquinas Egidius Romanus and others that they imitate the wranglings of the old Academicks Stoicks and Peripatetickes Haue they not Families of the Schoolemen wherein euery one professeth his particular Sect-Master Thomas Scotus Occham Durandus both Masters and Scholers haue spent their lines and liues in opposition The Dominican and Franciscan Friers many ages quarrelling about the conception of the Virgin Mary Their writers sharping their pens one against another Armachanus against the Friers the Iesuites and secular Priests one against another Catharinus against Caietan Catharinus and Soto one against another Pighius Gropper Bâ—rus Peresius Cassander Hosius Almayne c great pillars of Popery some fourescore yeeres agoe are now by late Iesuites contemned and confuted who knoweth not saith Bellarmine that Pighius in many points was miserably seduced by reading Caluins Bookes and of Gropper and other Diuines of Collen he saith Their Bookes haue need of the Churches censure Yea are not the writers of the last stampe euen Bellarmine Gregory of Valence Stapleton Suarez Vasquez Molina Baronius c vp to the eares in contention and faction among themselues Bellarmine confuted by Barâ—layus Suarez Carerius Marsilius yea Bellarmine hath often confuted himselfe by contradictions Suarez confuted by Vasques Baronius by
Confirmation granted by Pope Leo the tenth Anno 1513. sept id Martij pontificis anno primo the which Bull was granted Hospitali sancti spiritus in Saxia almae vrbis in which is an approbation of all former pardons obtained to the saide Hospitall and the members thereof as Innocent the third grants to all that visit the saide Hospitall two thousand and eight hundred yeares of pardon Pope Alexander the fourth grants foure thousand yeares eight hundred Lents of pardon Pope Celestine the fifth grants also to the saide Hospitall and the members an hundred thousand yeares of pardon Pope Clement the fift grants also two thousand and eight hundred yeares of pardon Pope Boniface the eight 2500. yeares of pardons Pope Clement the sixt 8000 yeares and 8000 Lents full remission of al their sins Pope Innocent the sixt 2000 years and 2000 Lents of pardons Pope Benedict the 12 3000 years as many Lents of pardons All which grants of pardons by the Popes confirmed to the said Hospitall and the members if this were as good ware as they make some beleiue who would not goe visit this Hospitall yea be a member of it Can any Papist goe to the Deuill who may haue a pardon for a little money and saying ouer a prayer or two which prayers haue such power that when S. Bernard said one before a Rood it so pleased the said Rood that it bowed it selfe and embraced him in the armes Like the Rood of Naples which spake so kindely to Thomas Aquinas Or like the Crucifixe which nodded the head to the Monke Gualbertus Indeed if Popes prayers be like Amphions harpe to mooue stones Saxa moueresono testudinis prece bland◠Ducerè quò vellet The famous Amphion with his harpe could play To moue the stones so popish harpers pray If Popes can giue so large pardons for sinnes and haue so good prayers I muse they cannot cure the Papists of bodily sicknesse for sicknesse is the punishment of sinne rather Popes doe encrease their sicknesse by procuring Gods plagues and punishments to be inflicted vpon them for affecting such practises to haue their sinnes pardoned of Popes when as it appertaineth onely to God They who are Gods dearest Ministers I feare the Pope is none haue no other power heerein then to declare in Gods name forgiuenesse of sinne not to make them a pardon for money if they truely beleeue in Christ and repent and so release the band of discipline in open offenders where the fruites of repentance appeare and so the meanest minister of Christ by vertue of his spirituall office may declare absolution of sinnes to the truely penitent but to forgiue sinnes none can or may doe it but God alone I euen I am hee that putteth away thy iniquities for mine owne sake and will not remember thy sinnes Come vnto me all ye that are weary and laden and I will ease you with a thousand places of Scripture exhorting all to come vnto Christ and apply his bloud vnto their soules for the remission of their sinnes There is no other way by which wee can be saued or our sinnes pardoned ad impetrandam nostris sceleribus veniam non pecunias impendere sed hoc facere c. saith Chrysostome To get a pardon for sinne money will not doe it but to beleeue in Christ And indeed the Pardon-Procters are so dazeled in the defence of them like the sodomites smitten with blindenesse at Lots doore that they cannot tell how to finde any ground for them but are compelled abruptly to say with Bellarmine Sufficit ad Indulgentias Bullas defendendas Ecelesia authorit as The authority of the Church alleadged not proued is sufficient to defend Bulles and Indulgences a weake argument to defend wicked pardons But their Glosse vpon that great Bull of Boniface the 8 saith Foure things concurre as principall to make a pardon effectuall 1 Authority in the granter 2 Capacity in the receiuer 3 Piety in the end 4 vtility in the worke But authority heerein the Pope hath none idoneity or capacity in the receiuer namely that he be a true member of Christ and purged from his fault the Pope cannot tell Piety in the end is none for it opens a wide way to all impiety vtility to the party none for hee is robbed of his money and deluded in his soule the onely vtility comes to the Pope to enrich his coffers for by this deuice a world of wealth is raised for men who doe beleeue these pardon-mongers to be released out of the paines of Purgatory telling them what a grieuous punishment it is to lye in Purgatory fire which is indeed ignis fatuus or the fire of the Popes kitchin to warme his backe and belly they will willingly giue their money to goe to Heauen by a pardon Thus it is written of Boniface the ninth who sent into diuers kingdomes his Treasurers with pardons who extorted great summes of money from simple people that in some one Prouince they would get together aboue an hundred thousand florens omnia peccata relaxantes releasing all offences whatsoeuer Christ said to his Apostles freely you haue receiued freely giue But heere no penny no pardon no pater noster so that wee may say of these Popes as one doth of Gregory the ninth O auarum cor vbi Petri paupert as quamiactatis O couetous hart where is Peters pouerty whom yee boast of that to play impostors to the world will sell such ware as you fetch from the Deuils shop to cozen the simple of their money bring them into a fooles Paradise to hope of pardon of their sinne by buying your mercenary indulgences and Buls the basest trash that can be inuented to sell for siluer remission of sinnes and euen saluation of soules as Iudas did for thirty peeces his Sauiour But heerein let Gods children say to the Pope as Daniel did to Balshazzer keepe thy rewards to thy selfe and giue thy gifts to another keepe your paltry pardons to your selues saying as Dauid did to the Prophet Gad Let vs fall into the hands of the Lord for his mercies are great and not into the hands of men the Pope or his Priests for the very mercies of the wicked are cruell The inuention of Popes pardons was to maintaine their pride the power vnlawfull the causes vngodly the vse abhominable and the end deceiueable neyther by the Scriptures or practise of the Primitiue Church warrantable I hasten to put this Piunace into harbour weary with being on the Sea of Rome therefore to bee briefe let all that desire to be faithfull seruants to their Lord and Sauiour who as yet halt betwixt God and Baal being as one cals them Lunae vituli Moone-Calfes once a moneth come to the Temple hoping to walke to heauen with statute-legges or others who are more setled vpon their lees whose mindes as yet the God of this
of these bloud-thirsty Traytors euen emancipated to cruelty by a noble and notable deliuery and shall we not render vnto him a cordiall and continuall thankesgiuing of our lips ioyned with a reall thankesgiuing of our liues or shall we praise him with our mouthes and prouoke him with our sinnes Lip-labor is lost labour except with an internall thankefulnesse there goes an entire obedience Consider Christs caueat Sinne no more lest a worse thing come vnto thee Let our newnes of life expresse the greatnesse of our thankefulnesse God will not accept the sacrifice of mouth-praisers proceeding from vnsanctified liuers Let this our commemoration and recognition of Gods mercies past prouoke vs to all obedience in the reformation of our liues to come So shall wee make an holy vse of so happy a deliuery Singula illius mala erunt nobis singula bona Their banefire of powder our bonefire of praises And withall to make vs more vigilant to vn-earth these foxes who will creepe into holes vnder the ground to worke our ouerthrow foresight is the wise mans Beacon Melius est praecauere quam pauere Take vs the foxes the little foxes which destroyes the vines for they are a part of that generation of whom speakes Salomon Whose teeth are as swords their iawes as kniues they will not spare in the day of vengeance and like the whorish woman will hunt for the pretious life of man Remember therefore the counsell of the sonne of Syrach Who will trust a thiefe that is alwaies ready And let this our true thankefulnesse to God be a durable seruice not like a morning dew and cloud that goeth away or a Widdowes ioy oritur moritur gotten and forgotten in an houre a suddainefit or momentaâ—y passion or entertained like an annuall guest as if the force and fruite of our thankefull ioy should be confined to one day or like a common retainer should haue but a yeerely acceptance no I haue appointed thee a day for a yeere euen a day for a yeere saith God to his Prophet but this of ours est Dies pro omnibus annis a day to thanke God all the yeeres of our life alwayes to say and sing with Deborah praise yee the Lord for the auenging of Israel yea euen the starres in their course fought against Sisera So let thine enemies perish O Lord. And thou O Lord which didst keepe vs from the conspiracy of the wicked and from the rage of the workers of iniquity by discouering their villanie to thee most mighty and mercifull God we offer vp our bodies and soules as a liuing sacrifice desirous to doe thee all prostrate seruice in body and soule which thou hast preserued in peace appointed by the wicked to haue perished in powder we will neuer forget this mercy or forbeare our humble thankes to thee for our deliuery but so long as the Sunne and Moone endureth wee with our posterities till time shal be no more will cherish the remembrance of it with an immortall thankfulnesse saying to thee with holy Melchi-sedecke after Abrahams victory Blessed be the most high God which hath deliuered our enemies into our hands to which King euerlasting immortall inuisible vnto God onely wise be all the honor and glory for euer and euer Amen CHAP. IIII. A description of the Persons THe Romish professors who teach the people to eate their God and kill their King were the chiefe instruments in the Powder-treason all the Actors and adherents were great Recusants Lay Recusants Catesby Percy Winter Tresham Wright c. deuised the plot and then the lesuits fell in with them allowed and ratified by Garnet Gerard Oâ—â—corne Greenewell c. Iesuits and Popish Priests Garnet imparted the Popes Breues to Catesby a right Catiline whereby he was stirred vp to deuise some way to worke a generall ouerthrowe This Catesby was the inuentor of this Villanie Accipe nunc Danaúm insidias crimine ab vno disce omnes Learne by this Traytors odious fault and fall Yee Papists to abhorre Treason in generall This Canniball or Roman-catholicke Catesby hauing bethought him of the powder-plot for the blowing vp of the Parliament house in generall rearmes breakes the case to Garnet What if in some case the innocent should be destroyed with the guilty He answers they might so that it were for a good able to recompence the loâ—se of the innocent And afterward the plot plainly propounded to him not by way of confession as his Procters pleade for him but in conference about it as he voluntarily confessed before his death that Greenewell with this Catesby was heard of him not confessing but consulting yet if it had beene by way of confession for his owne confession prooues the contrary he should haue reuealed the plot if not the parties yea the parties also if hee would follow the example of his fellow-confessors Bodin doth relate an example heerein how a Norman had a purpose to kill King Francis yet afterward changed his minde these farre from such thoughts and opens this sinne in his confession to a Minorite Frier of his former yet forsaken purpose the Frier doth enioine him penance and grants absplution yet declares all to the King and the Iudges of the Court of Paris cause him to be executed But these who before had turned them from the true religion and tutored them in the Schoole of rebellion were so far from reuealing as that their heads and hearts were with them to 〈◊〉 well of the accomplishing Gerard gaue the Traytors the Sacrament to kind them to secrecy Hammond in 〈◊〉 house absolued the Traytors the Treason reuealed Oldcorne alias Hall defends the plot being discouered and willes the Catholickes not to be discouraged Tesmond plotted with Garnet and goes vp and downe to raise vp Armes The publicke writings of our state and records heerein with some of their owne confessions examinations and subscriptions are inuincible witnesses against all the cauels of deprauing Papists who labour to cleere these their polyprogmaticke Priests from hauing an hand in so hellish a plot by desperate and notorious vntruths But it is manifest by the mouth of Time Truth that these Priests were priuie to the Powder plot against all Popish calumniations suggested to the contrary and these Lay Recusants hauing first suckt the pestilent poyson of this vnheard Treachery out of the ill humors of Popish doctrine infused into them by the treasonable Tribe of Iesuits who teach Treason and cause Traytors to be canonized in Romes Calender Proh Superi quantum mortalia pectoracaecae Noctis habent ipso sceleris molimine Tereus Creditur essepius laudemque á crimine sumit O Lord what hearts possessed with the night Of deepest ignorance depriu'd of sauing light Can grace with praise such deedes of darknesse right These politicke Priests knowing these their Lay-disciples to be of turbulent and
promise of two hundred thousand Crownes and the seamelesse coate of Christ This Pope was Pope Alexander the sixth of which thing reade Cuspinian in Baiazet the 2. Henry the second of England was by the Popes appointment whipt of the Monkes Iulian and Lawrence the Dukes of Florence by the Popes practise were assaulted in the Church at the time of the eleuation of the host and the one greeuously wounded the other murdered Henry the third of France after many treasons of the Sorbonists against him was at last murdered by a Dominican Frier which murder the Pope in a solemne oration extolled to the skies Henry the fourth his successor first wounded by Chastell a Disciple of the Iesuites for which they were then banished the Realme and afterward treacherously murdered by a popish miscreant Rauilliacke This Henry assaulted by sixe Popes Gregory the thirteenth Sixtus the fift Vrbane the seuenth Gregory the fourteenth Innocentius the ninth Clement the eight the last hauing brought the King to be reconciled to the Church of Rome triumphed ouer him and yet this King thus their owne because hee seemed to fauor the Protestants must die a bloudy death The Prince of Orenge lamentably murdered by a Papist who for the said Parricide is highly commended by the Friar Surius his name was Balthazar Gerardus Our late famous Queene Elizabeth of happy memory since the tenth yeare of her raigne about which time Pius Quintus excommunicated her till her dying day was not free from the treasons of Papists Parries Campians c. the Popes with their adherents raising vp inuasions and so farre as they were able laboured to haue wrought her destruction Our high Soueraigne that now is hath had experience in Scotland of Popish treason and in England this Powder-plot makes it perspicuous I need not produce other examples which in all nations abound of high personages and Peeres destroyed by popish hands The Viceroy of Rauenna vnder Leo the third Emperor with his sonne slaine by the Popes faction The Prince of Condie poysoned William Prince of Aurance slaine by a Popish villaine Charles the King of Spaines sonne because he was thought to fauor Protestants made an end of by their inquisitors In a word let the Massacre in Paris in which were destroyed in a night and few daies many noble and religious Protestants among the which Noble Caspar Colignius slaine Let the fires and faggots in England in Queene Maries reigne in which were cruelly burned many zealous and deuout Christians who for the Gospels sake sacrificed their bloud in fiery flames and wonne the glory and Crowne of Martyrdome Let this Power-Treason inuented by Popish people ratified by popish Priests in which they intended to haue made a generall martyrdome Let the Spanish Inquisition which hath put to death with exquisite torments many thousand people Let these foure speake for all and surely they will speak that or more then that which Eberhardus the Archbishop of Saltsburge a good old man once spake who when he had knowen ten Romane Bishops and had diligently marked their practises vnder Fredericke the first Henry the sixt his sonne and Fredericke the second his nephew for fifty yeares together deciphered or described the Pope for a rauenous wolfe vnder a Shepheards weed compounded wholly of Auarice Luxury Contention Warres Discord and desire of Rule with such like attributes whose oration at large is extant in Auentine a Roman Catholike writer Or will speake that which the Poet Massaeus writes of Pope Iulius the second as great a bloud sucker as euer reigned in Rome by whose meanes in seauen yeares 200000 Christians were destroyed of this Pope the Poet hath this Epitaph Genua euipatrem genâ—tricem Graecia partum Pontus vnda dedit num bunus esse potest Fallaces Ligures mendax Graecia pontâ— Nulla fides in te singulasolm habes Thy Father Genoan Mother Grecian borne In Ocean Sea can goodnesse thèe adorne Genoans are full of fraud Greece lyes maintaine In Sea no trust all these in thee one raigne So that I will end this point with this obseruation that Mahomet Phocas and Boniface the third who first had the stile of vniuersall Bishop liued all about the same time So that Mahometisme Popery and murthering of Christian Kings began all at once and now conioyned in one And all the people of Great Britanny haue cause to thanke God that they are free from this Head the Head of these mischiefes and I would the land were free from all his members yet they are among vs as Labans Idols in Iacobs tent vpon Record not by allowance and many wish that such a voice might eccho in our Soueraignes eares who is a mercifull King as once came from the Smiths forge to the hearing of the Landgrave of Hesse a mild Prince the Smith striking his iron saide Duresce inquam duresce vtinam Langrauius durescat waxe hard waxe hard would to God the Landgraue would waxe hard So it might bee wished that the sword of Iustice were sharper against seducing Iesuites that their haunts and harbors were stopt places of entertainment scoured and the femall Hierarchy which breedes many were put downe for these serpents will first tempt Eue the weaker vessell and women soone induced hardly reclaimed So should God be serued with more holy deuotion in true religion and our King and Country be freed from treason and rebellion CHAP. VII I Haue a little touched the persons as well Authors as Actors shewing that originally and ordinarily this sinne of Treason flowes from the sinke or sea of Rome because Cardinall Bellarmine would outface the world with It was neuer heard of from the Churches infancie that any Prince though an heretike or persecutor was murdered by the Popes command or allowance when it is shewed that not only allowance or recognizance but consent content yea head heart and all haue ioyned together in the destruction of Princes so that I may say to him Tute-lepus es c. He hath deliuered many treasonable positions of deposing degrading exciting Armes c. and can a traytor be vnwelcome to him it may be so for Proditores etiam ijs qui mercede condâ—cunt inuisi sunt Traytors are hated of them who hire them but they like the treason if effected and many times the traitors too and euen canonize them for good members whose pedigree in the hangmans heraldry is knowne to be base murderers and abhorred traytors it Is very strange Si fur displiceat Verri homicida Miloni I had rather say with the Prophet Osee As theeues wait for a man so the company of Priests murther in the way by consent for they worke mischiefe and may say of their Priests as an olde Poet speakes of their Pope Qui fore debuit gratia datinus Factus est ecclesia ablatâ—â—us Of Grace who should be the Datiue case Is now become
anathematized but neuer others Can Gods Church be wonne or woed with swords and armes Indeed Phillip of Macedon led an Army against Bizantium and said that hearing of the beauty of the City he was come to make loue to her but the Otator tels him It was not the manner of Louers to wooe with instruments of warre but musicke The City of Gods Church will be wonne with no warlike Engines the weapons of our warfare are not carnall saith Paul The Church of Christ was neuer planted by blood except passiuely and so Semen Ecclesiae fuit sanguis Martyrum The blood of Martyrs the seed of the Church But these parties would build vp their Church with blood actiuely as if lately they had passed from Mount Gerizim to Mount Eball to curse and consume all It is a weighty and worthy worke to plant the Gospell the glad tidings of peace and no better way to doe it then by prayers and peace but in this worke the Papists euer vsed the wrong toole labouring to make men Haeredes vineae exhaeredes vitae Dispossesse them of life here howsoeuer hereafter If their arts faile their armes follow fit souldiers for Bacchus who is described with Buls hornes Semper paratus ad feriendum Alwayes prepared to strike and fight but it is a pretty saying of one Nemo ita tenetur inter duo vitia quin ei exitus patet absque tertio No man is so included betwixt two vices but he may get out without making a third If these men were so confident of the truth of their Religion and none more confident then the ignorant why did they not follow the Counsell of truth it selfe if they persecute you in this City flie into another yet they had no cause to say so truly why did they not forsake all and flie to Rome there were their hearts what did their bodies here or if with him they would first kisse their Father and Mother before they would follow Christ had a naturall affection to the things on earth yet why were they not willing with the Apostles to submit themselues to the higher Powers in bodily obedience but in spirituall seruice to say with Peter and Iohn Whether it be right in the sight of God to obey you rather then God iudge ye But how comes it to passe that such Lay-Papists of small knowledge and lesse grace should take vpon them to be reformers of Religion Were they extraordinarily called to this worke as Ehud was to be a Sauiour to Israel in destroying King Eglon or as Iehu in killing Ioram and the stocke of Achab had the Lord said vnto them as to Ioshua Arise goe ouer this Iordan feare not nor be discouraged for I the Lord thy God wil be with thee c. They write indeed that God and man had concurred rather the diuell and his Angels had consented Iudas heart Esawes hand and Achitophels head had all conspired Concurrêre homines sed quales quippe profani Impuri infames scelerati sanguinolenti Horribiles medici funesti seditioss Tales demissi coelo censores A crue combind but who prophane impure Infamous wicked such as all would cure With blood and fire Phisitians that with powder Would blow vp all diseases cry yet lowder Heralds from heauen these sent the Church to plant If God sent such then God good men doth want If such be good in hell ill men are scant But the Lord gaue such no Commission for such wicked and him that loues iniquity doth his soule hate the Lord will iustifie no wicked men nor imploy them in any wicked action But these had their Commission from the deuill and were at his command set to this worke and might say with Chrysalus in Plautus Insanum magnum molior neg otium Verâ—… possim rocte vt emolier A mad peece of worke I goe about And feare I shall not doe it as Iought And because they failed in the performance of it therefore manus manum fricat one Traytor bemâ—nes an other alas vnfortunate Gentlemen grieuing that it was their ill fortune to haue their hopes frustrated for it is very true which 〈◊〉 obscrues conspiracies discouered will not be credited or will be impayred by report 〈◊〉 occisiâ— principibus vnlesse the Princes the obiects of their mischiefe be slaine which if at any time it come to passe and the conspirator escape how highly he is magnified imitating a people of whom I haue read who worship Iudas for a God because he did betray Christ to the Iewes to be crucified by whose death comes saluation Thus this Catholicke cause should haue produced a Catholicke curse vpon our Common wealth but when they cursed vs God blessed vs defeated the deuises of the wicked dispersed these fogges and mistes of Sathans spirits and made it manifest to all the world that both their cause and course was bad Causa mala est fructus edidit illa malos For a corrupt tree bringeth forth euill fruit and therefore were they cut downe with the axe of Iustice and were not Gods mercy aboue all his workes cast into fire CHAP. IX Fourthly the Ends. WE are come to the last act of this intended Tragedy the ends of it which is almost without end In their expectation though frustrated in the execution they had set vp Hercules Pillars Nil vltra no humane malice or mischiefe could reach any further Hoc Scelus Abyssus ex Abyssu natum A boundlesse prodigy sprung from the bottomlesse pit I will not nay cannot fully finish this taske onely touch it Magnum opus hoc moueo maior reliquis datur ordo Perficere in captum This point I onely touch and leaue the rest To them who are with greater gifts possest And so many learned men by Preaching and Printing haue laboured in this worke and still out of the store of matter this Subiect affords will annually spend their breath in the declaration of this deuillish mischiefe and deliuery by Diuine mercy that I may forbeare any large discourse And truly if all of vs were as some say the seauenty Interpreters appointed by Ptoloms were put in diuersas cellulas â—aman sio diuisi eadem scriptitarunt into seuerall Roomes yet all separated they writ the same things which S. Ierome thinkes a fabulous figment So if all of vs were put apart heerein we should agree and sing with Ananias Azarias and Misael Blesse yee the Lord praise him and exalt him aboue all things for euer for he hath deliuered vs from the hell and saued vs from the hand of death and deliuered vs from the furnace and burning flame of powder euen from that fire hath he deliuered vs. Therfore coÌ„fesse vnto the Lord that he is gracious and his mercy endureth for euer wherein for better order sake to touch the Tragicall ends and dismall effects of this confused Babell a monstrous and multiplying Hydra of