when he speaks of the commotions of a Party yet here I am accused to think Rebellion no crime and to excuse their faults because I tell you what Papists in those days said for themselves The Minister can call himself a Loyal Subject and yet defend the Hugonots who were the most notorious and insolent Rebels that any History can shew nor had they any other pretence for the Massacres and continual ravages committed by them but Mr. Calvin and Mr. Beza's telling them God said thus and thus and therefore unless their respective Kings would suffer them to destroy a Religion in quiet possession since the Reign of Clouis they would bring Armies into the field and fortifie Towns against their Liege-Lords as every body knows they did till subdued in the time of Lewis the XIII I think good Mr. Parson I am as well known in England as your self and am sure can find more Protestants of Quality that shall engage for my Loyalty thē you can people of any sort 'T is not this Minister Reader only but others have called my narration of the matter of fact a questioning of Queen Elizabeths Title judge you by my words in the Apology whether it be so or no nor could I omit in honour the Plea of the foregoing age their misdemeanours being every day thrown in my dish But suppose I had questioned her Title there is no Treasonable intention in it I am sure because the Title of our King has no dependance upon that Princesse nor was she the first of our Monarchs against whose right Posterity has argued No body is blamed for saying King Stephen was an usurper or that Edward the Fourths Title was better then that of the three preceding Henry's What is 't then I beseech you were the fact proved against me I have committed that Protestant Authors have not done and worse Sr. Walter Rawley in his Preface of the History of the world has not only something to say against almost all the Kings of Englād but Buck in his Ric. 3 has bastardized Hen. 7 and all his offspring and thereby invalidates theire title to the Crowne either as Yorkists or Lancastrians Nor does Speed refraine from questioning the right of most of our Princes from the Conquest till Henry the fowrth's Reigne Yet none of these have been branded with the Character of ill Subjects 'T is he that is to be accounted wicked who sedititiously descants on Titles to breed Commotions and Disorders The Minister says I defend the calumny of those Catholicks in saying 'T was a very hard question whether the right to the Crown lay in Queen Elizabeth or in the Queen of Scots Reader that which I said was That this was a harder Question then the Dispute of York and Lancaster which cost so much Blood and Treasure and because I would know your opinion I will state these two Questions to you York had the interest of a third brother by Marriage Lancaster that of a fourth Brother and these two dispute about the Crown of England which women are capable of The second Question is this Henry the eighth married his brothers wife who was said to be a Virgin for Prince Arthur was but fifteene and a little more wen he died By this Princess K. Hen. had our Q. Mary and after he had lived with her 20 years he fell in love with a handsome young Lady whereupon he had in short time a scruple of Conscience that it was unlawful to live longer with his old wife because she had been-married to his brother His Conscience being still tender he caused the Scriptures to be searched and found not only there the Marriage to be void but that the Pope himself had no power in England and besides that rich Abbies were also contrary to the word of God Being thus truly informed he threw away Wife Pope and Monks and married the other by whom he had Queen Elizabeth while his first Wife lived 'T was thought by many curious wits that there could be but one of the daughters legitimate because both Mothers were contemporaries and that to Christians the Scripture permits but one wife at a time After the death of this King and his Son 't was put to the Kingdom to decide which of these children were lawfully begotten both Lords and Commons acknowledged Mary for their Queen which was as much to say she was born in true Wedlock Nor did Luther himself fail to disapprove of Queen Elizabeths birth I doubt not but the people were informed of the cause of the Kings scrupule as also that this brother Arthur had never known his wife Nay before K. Henry married Queen Katherine she protested she was a Virgin and offered to be tryed by Matrons The Bishop of Ely also deposed That the Queen whom all even the King himself esteemed for a Saint had often in confession told him she never carnally knew the Prince Nor in the whole examination was there any colourable pretence produc'd but the common vanity of all boys to be thought men before their time For 't was affirmed Arthur should say the next morning after Marriage that he had been in Spain that night Besides this there were those I believe that told the People that though St. John forbad Herod to take his brother Philips wife because his said Brother was then alive for Josephus sayes Herodias parted from her husband Philip in his life time and in contempt of the lawes married Herod yet he never prohibited by those words a Christian to marry his sister in-law if her Husband were dead The Case being thus fancied by the Papists in the time of Queen Elizabeth they argued that if Mary was the true Child then the other was the Natural but Mary was owned Legitimate And my Lord Bacon say's the ligitimation of Queen Mary and Elizabeth were incompatible Ergo the Kingdom not being Elective Mary Stuart the next Legal Heir must necessarily succeed her Yet suppose these Papists were wrong in their conclusion I am sure nevertheless I am still in the right viz. That it is a harder Question to resolve whether the Marriage be Null if a woman marries two Brothers then whether a third or fourth brother has the better Title to the Crown for that was the contest betwixt York and Lancaster But the Minister urges if the Papists thought Queen Elizabeth an Usurper why did not they stir sooner for there was no Rebellion he says in ten years and when after ten it broke out in the North there was not the least mention made of the Q. of Scots or her Title I wish the Catholicks had not only sat still ten years but forty five years also yet to shew you that this Minister will be wrōg in every thing I shall give you a most succinct account of this business Queen Mary of England in the latter part of her Reign was in open war with France and the Qu. of Scots was
and that Catholicks were never put to death in England for Religion but for Treason REPLY IV. Is not this pretty that no body died in England for Religion but for Treason and yet many hundred of Priests have been executed for no other crime but being Priests Nay Lay-men have been hanged for being converted and others for letting a Priest say Mass in their houses when as to hear Mass on Festivals every Catholique is in Conscience obliged if he can Besides have not many Catholiques also suffered for believing the Pope to be Head of the Church By this Argument then if the Parliament should make it Treason as who knows but they may to hold Episcopal Ordination only valid or that the King cannot give Orders it might then be as well said that they that are executed in pursuance of that Law died for Treason and not for their Religion But lest the Minister that has the boldness in almost every Paragraph to deny apparently known things might to deceive his Acquaintance still say I have not proved what I assert Not to trouble my Reader with many citations take this one example out of John Stow that downright plain Historian He tells us That fourteen Papists were at a clap executed six only for being made Priests beyond Sea and remaining here four Lay-men only for being reconciled and four more only for abetting or relieving the others Now if that be sufficient for the justice of the procedure to say there are Laws to this purpose enacted then most certain it is that the Primitive Christians were all Traytors being banisht by the lawful Magistrate from several places where they taught and knowing also many particular Injunctions against their Preaching and seducing the Emperors Subjects as the Ethnicks were pleased to call it Nay the Great St. Alban our famous Proto-Martyr was executed as may be seen in the Martyrology for being contrary to Dioclesians Laws converted to the Faith and abetting or entertaining in his House the Priest Amphibalus which Priest was his Spiritual Instructor according to Mr. Cambden in his famous Treatise of Brittain SECT IV. APOLOGY These are they that by beginning with us Murthered their Prince and wounded you And shall the same method continue by your approbation We are sure you mean well though their Design be wicked But let it never be recorded in Story that you forgot your often Vows to us in joyning with them that have been the cause of so great calamity to the Nation ANSWER V. He urges that by saying the Kings Murtherers began with us Catholicks we take liberty of bestowing Characters on whom we please so that no body must act against us lest they be thought to continue the Method of the Kings Murtherers For Vows he says we Catholicks are more sure of those of Protestants to us then they of ours to them because they want a Pope to dispence with them REPLY V. Pray Reader upon mature consideration tell me now whether they were not the Kings Murtherers that pursued Papists in the beginning of the War Their design afterward I am sure plainly appeared and pray God those were not of the same Tribe who first promoted our late troubles Let me ask also whether you find not us at home and abroad as strict to our promises as any other you converse with But since this Minister upbraids us with our dispensing with Vows be pleased to consider who has been most busy the Romish or Protestant Pope herein The Papists have from the beninning refused the Oath of Allegeance as 't is now worded but the Reformed took it in all the degrees of preferment viz. when graduated in the Universities when admitted into Orders when Justices of Peace when Parlimament-men and in short when any Dignity either in Church or State is conferred Yet for all the often repetition of it half the Kingdom were in Rebellion against the King even directly contrary to what they had sworn Now on the other side there was no Papist that declared not for the King though all the Party as I said refused the Oath and for this refusal severely suffered both in their Estates and Persons Besides if it were a Doctrine amongst us as the Protestants state it that the Pope can when he pleases absolve us from our Oaths why should we then do you think refuse the taking of this Doubtless a Dispensation if it could be granted might be procured at less charge then two thirds of our Estates omitting all corporal punishments Oaths by our Tenets are not in themselves unlawful nor can it be out of want of zeal for our Prince that we refuse them since 't is plain that we all like one man stood by him in his great affliction and misery You must know Reader this Oath was framed by one Perkins an Apostate Jesuite who knowing what we could take and what not purposely mingled certain truths with uncertain speculative points to make us fall within the Law of refusal T would be tedious to shew all the real exceptions we have to it nor do any of them truly relate to our obedience to the King for as to the Allegeance I would be bound to word an Oath which no Papist shall scruple at and yet it shall be more strong then this But Reader to give you my opinion of Oaths though nevertheless I am not for taking away that laudable Custome of swearing Subjects I think them really useless where without them as in Allegeance we are naturally bound for honest men will be punctual in duty though they never swore when as the wicked can at no time be obliged let the Bond be never so Sacred SECT 6. APOLOGY Of all Calumnies against Catholicks we have admired at none so much as that their Principles are said to be inconsistent with Government and they themselves thought ever prone to Rebellion ANSWER VI. On this short Paragraph he makes a wonderful long Discourse saying That 't is a calumny of ours to call that a calumny which is true for first our Councels secondly our Decretals thirdly our Divines teach that the Pope has Power to depose Kings and to discharge Subjects of their Allegeance which Doctrines are inconsistent with Government But every Papist is bound to beleive their Councels Decretals and Divines Ergo we may well be thought prone to Rebellion REPLY 6. To answer to these things perspicuously I shall treat of them singly Object 1. That our General Councels decree this he proves by the Lateran Councel under Innocent the III. which expresly ordains he says That in case any Prince be a favourer of Hereticks after admonition given the Pope shall discharge his Subjects from their Allegeance and shall give away the Kingdome to some Catholique that may root out these Heretiques I grant that the sense of the words is in the Councel and that in determinations of Faith Councels are infallible But as for other matters we say not that Councels are infallible in every point
That some days after there was a solemn Procession to St. Louis and an Inscription set over the Church-door by the Cardinal of Lorrain to congratulate his Holiness and the Colledge in the Kings name for the stupendious effects and incredible events of their Counsels given him and of their assistance sent and of their twelve years wishes and prayers Soon after he says the Pope sent Cardinal Ursini to congratulate the King to commend and bless them that had to do in the Massacre and to perswade the reception of the Councel of Trent by this Argument That the memory of the late glorious action to be magnified in all ages as conducing to the Glory of God and Dignity of the Holy Roman Church might be sealed by the approbation of the Holy Synod for so it would be manifest that the King consented to the destruction of so many not of hatred or revenge but ardent desire to propagate the Glory of God which could not be expected while the Protestants stood through all the Provinces of France The Answerer then concludes this Paragrah with commending the Head of the Church for his judgment in cutting throats not mincing the matter like me whom he is pleased to call an English limb of him who durst not say what I desired for fear of provoking the Protestants nor what the thing deserved for contradicting the Pope REPLY XVIII Can Thuanus or any man else look upon that action with more horrour then I Certainly no yet Reader I must tell you Thuanus is esteemed as malitiously partial a Writer as ever undertook the writing of a History Nay Heylin that other Hanibal that sworn enemy of Rome says That Thuanus savours more of the party then of the Historian Now for his professing to be a Catholick it adds nothing to his Authority because in every Religion there are those that write out of spleen and Faction To a stranger abroad Milton would go for a Protestant because he calls himself so yet in his Books the true matter of Fact is so perverted by his malice that it becomes at last as false as the rest of those damnable lies with which his Papers are stufft But though Thuanus be thus reputed yet this Minister will pervert the Divel himself to do us a mischief He has told us that the Pope ordered a Jubilee through Christendom to give God thanks for destroying in France the Enemies of the Church by which he would have the Reader believe that the Massacre was the cause of this Jubilee when as Thuanus tells us That the Jubilee was to thank God for the Victory at Lepanto against the Turk for the success of Spain against the Rebels in Belgium and to beseech God for the election of a Catholick King in Poland as well as for the business in France But truly I need not complain for such Preachers of Gods word may say any thing so it discredit the Papists let it be never so improbable in it self For my part I can believe not that the Pope and Consistory who are by Protestants reputed dexterous and subtle would make publike Procession and Triumph for Murther in cold blood which could bring them no farther good for the advantages were already obtained but might occasion much scandal which by reason it was the cause of Luthers revolt was the more carefully to be avoided for the future It may be they were not sorry in their hearts For what men are so at the death of their Enemies Yet we see often that those which have a titillation the thing being done would nevertheless loose rather their own lives then give the least consent to the fact Davila tells us in one place of his Fifth Book That the King and Queen-Mother contrived the destruction of the Rebels and communicated their design only to the Duke of Anjou the Guises and the Count of Rhetz and this resolution to Massacre we see there was a pretty while before Pius V. died In another place of this Book I find this Pope died some three months before the execution In another place of this Book I find that this Pope would never consent to the marriage of Margaret to the King of Navar by reason of his Religion and yet in the time of this Marriage Ch. 9. had determined this Butchery Therefore putting all this together it was plain the Pope had no hand in the wicked contrivance Gregory 13. who succeeded and before whose Election this Massacre was designed was at last brought to dispence with the Match it being made appear to him how dangerous it might be in those Schismatical times if the King should in anger solemnize the Marriage without leave for so this King had threatned the aforesaid Pius V. and daily gave more symptoms of his resolution in the Wedding and anger for being contradicted in it at Rome Reader We have no other way to discover the errors of Historians but by conjectures after we have compared times and circumstances The reasons that I have therefore last mentioned assure me that the Pope had no hand in the design yet suppose he had been of the Plot with the King as 't is plain he was not I am sure that can be no excuse to the Hugonots for their former Rebellion and unspeakable abominations as you shall presently see But let the Pope have what design he would 't is still evident according to the Apology that the King and Queen-Mother who could only perform this Murther were moved to this Massacre for Interest of State and not Religion For the King was not such a Bigot or Pious man upon a Spiritual account to draw such a hazard or at least a scandal on his own person and for the Queen-Mother that great intriguer she valued Religion little for sometimes she favoured Protestants sometimes again persecuted them Nay when it was for her advantage she gave great and suspitious signs that she would be of the Reformed Religion also as may be seen in Davila in the second Book My Minister will not perchance be yet satisfied that I call it a Cabinet-Plot but says they died for their Religion and that the King had not better Subjects then those that were massacred Brave Coligni being the first that fell Now Reader that you may see what kind of Subject our Minister is and such a one I always doubted him I will briefly shew you how these Hugonots behaved themselves among whom Coligni was a Principal and who is honoured with the title of Brave by this most Loyal Parson In the time of Francis the First Calvin appeared and dedicated his Institutions to him The preaching of this man pleased the changeable humor of many French but the Sect was kept under by the King and especially by his Son Hen. 2. who like wise Governours were unwilling to let an unheard-of Religion get root in their Country well knowing that Rebellion would follow as afterwards it happened to the purpose Francis the 2. succeeded Hen.
then Wife to the Dauphin This Hostility and the private designs of Spain hindred all intrigues of the Queen of Scots friends to secure the Succession Things being in this condition our Queen dies nor did the Dauphin make any present claim which together with the natural coolness of Englishmen to all strangers especially the French moved Archbishop Heath to what he did About some six months after this the Dauphin takes upon him the Title and Armes of England and immediately also by the death of his Father the Crown of France fell to him which gave him the name of Francis the Second But by that time Q. Elizabeth was too well setled to be deposed without blows and before things could be ordered for such an enterprize the Hugonots lay so heavy on his shoulders that he was necessitated to the Treaty at Edenburgh by which he was to relinquish his former pretences in relation to England yet before these Articles were sealed the King himself died and so all things stood as they were before The Q. of Scots being now a widow returns with much ado to Scotland which was all in a flame by the seditious preaching of the new Reformists Assoon as she arrived there Q. Elizabeth having often sent to her to ratifie the Treaty with her Husband she after consideration returned answer That she was content to do so upon condition she were by Parliament declared her Heir This Proposition seemed not strange to her English well-willers because our Histories could tell them That Maud the Empress was necessitated to the like by King Stephen But Queen Elizabeth would not harken to those terms whereupon presently Margaret Niece to Henry the Eighth the Earl of Lenox her husband Arthur Pool and his Brother Grandchildren to George Duke of Clarence Fortescue and others were apprehended for intending to set up the Queen of Scots interest The fact they confest but as all malefactors find something to extenuate their crimet hey pitcht upon the weakest excuse that ever was heard of viz That they intended not to depose Queen Elizabeth but to be beforehand in Arms because Conjurers had told them she would dy that year After this the vigilancy of Q. Elizab. was such and the disasters of Scotland so great that the Catholiques were forc'd to sit quiet for a while Instead of Peace with the Rebels the Queen of Scots was necessitated to seek for shelter in England where had she been used as the Honour of the Nation required she would have concluded an inviolable agreement between the Queen and those Catholiques that stood for her Title But when this Royal Guest had once trusted her self among her Enemies she was both denied access to the Court and also refused the liberty of retiring into another Kingdom This inhumanity was quickly noised about the World whereupon Pius V. sent Ridulph a Florentine to consult with the Catholiques about the Interest of their Queen All Arguments were used which could possibly be thought of to persuade her Enemies to let her go and when no fair means would do the Rising in the North happened 'T is true the Declaration of those great Lords that were up mentioned no other motive but Religion because this could not shock either the Queen or People so much as the name of the Queen of Scots would have done for that implied ipso facto the altering both of Religion and Government also Who is ignorant that that Great man our General whose memory all ages shall for ever honor concealed at first what he had long determined well knowing that the once naming of the King would ruine that design which his wit so well laid and his conduct so happily executed Besides this Reader you must know before this Rebellion broke out Leonard Dacres second Son to the Lord Dacres of Gylsland undertook the delivery of the Queen being then in Darbyshire in my Lord Shrewsburie's custody Of this design my Lord Northumberland was complotter therefore 't was plain he being Chief in the Northern Insurrection intended her Title though there was nothing of it in his Delaration Consider therefore how notoriously false this Minister is there having been Claims Plots and endeavours by the greatest of the Land before the rising in the North and when it happened that also was on the Queen of Scots account 'T were tedious Reader to tell you how many attempts followed this Insurrection for there scarce passed a day till the death of the Queen of Scots but something was contrived to prevent the machinations of her unkind Kinswoman By all this you may see that while Queen Elizabeth used her distressed Guest with any kindness the piety of that Princess which moved her rather to be contented with the Succession then put England in a perpetual broyl caused her to command the English Catholiques to lie still whom according to the Ministers own confession the prohibition of their Religion forten years had not exasperated to Commotions But assoon as their Queen was imprisoned without hopes of liberty and they left to the dictates of their own Loyal inclinations they never ceased either at home or abroad to sollicite the destruction of their Enemies Consider also I beseech you the carriage of the Popes who used all fatherly and gentle means imaginable because they saw the Queen of Scots whose right they deemed it was of her self inclining like another Maud to expect till the death of her Cozen should put an end to all pretences These Popes were sufficiently urged by the Duke of Guise and others yet upon the former considerations being desirous of peace they never had practices against Queen Elizabeth till Mary Stuart was in prison nor ever publisht the Excomcommunication till the Queen absolutely refused her liberty even after the intercession of the French and Spanish Embassadours But the Minister says the Popes owned Queen Elizabeths Title and therefore Papists ought not to have disputed it 'T is true he says so and yet confesses that Paul the IV. who governed the Church when she came first to the Crown would not acknowledge her Legitimate But how comes the Gentleman to say that the other cause of his Holiness's not acknowledging her was because she audaciously assumed the Crown without his leave Does he find any such record in our Histories Did Queen Mary ask his consent Did any Pope send in this manner to Edward the Sixth Or lastly which of all our Kings used to entreat his favour to be Crowned Reader this is a pretty capricchio of the Parson as it had been unusuall if the Pope had made such a claim Pius the Fourth succeeding the said Paul for the reasons aforesaid shewed as much prudence and good nature as ever man did in hope to compose things without effusion of blood and certainly after his death as much had been spilt as ever was in any Reign had not Queen Elizabeth been the wisest woman that ever swayed Scepter Pius V.
drew in had their disloyalty out witted and were nevertheless Traytors still For 't is clear by being drawn in both parties were sufficiently disposed for it What I lay upon Cecil he says is a groundless and an impudent Fiction which I am properly the author of for no body ever spoke it before but in railery He asks by what Tradition or Revelation I received it sixty years after the fact when as neither K. James nor Bellarmine nor the Apologists of that age knew any thing of it He desires to know who were Cecils setters that would be hanged that his art might not be suspected for none were saued and Garnet said he would give all the World to clear his name and Conscience of the Treason These are strong presumptions for the Negative of Cecils having no hand in the Plot but he says there is only my bare word for the affirmative which if it be enough â—ere is a never-failing Topick to write Apologies for any Villany viz. that the then great Ministers of State drew them in In Queen Elizabeths days we had a higher game to fly at to wit her Title to the Crown but durst not make so bold with King James otherwise we had not stoopt to a Minister of State He says farther that I strive to diminish the Plot by calling the Plotters Desperadoes who could not be called so by reason of Poverty because their Estates were great nor by reason of discontents for there was not a man as King James said that could pretend a cause of grief If the cause was because they had not all they desired it is so far from excusing them that it gives occasion to suspect me I ought he says to call the Discovery a Miracle because King Iames named it so and especially since Bellarmine acknowledged it so but 't is no wonder that I who will not call the Plot Treason will not allow the Discovery to be a Miracle SECT XXVIII APOLOGY This will easily appear viz. how little the Catholique Party understood the design seeing there were not a score of guitlty found though all imaginable industry was used by the Commons Lords and Privy-Councel too ANSWER XXVIII He says few understood the very design for 't was not safe to tell it many but Papists generally knew there was a design and pray'd for the success of it Though but a score were in the Plot yet fourscore appeared in Rebellion nor is it probable so small a number could think to do much by surprizing Princess Elizabeth unless they expected other assistance But Treason he says is hated by all when unsuccessful REPLY to ANSW XXVIII 'T was never in my heart and so will all that know me testifie to think that the Conspirators in this Treason were not Traytors in the highest degree or that any punishment could equal the blackness of their offence In the Apology I am sure there are no words that can be rackt to this for my intent there was only to shew in short that the Catholick body was innocent knowing nothing of the entreprize That the Plot for which these were executed was made or at least fomented by the Policy of a great Statesman And lastly though the design had been suggested by Papists alone and unanimously approved by all yet we that live now are guilty of no sin and therefore 't were severe to be punisht for it That the Catholick Body had no hand in the Treason most plainly appears by the quality of the Actors and by the number of them I know there were four or five Gentlemen of Ancient blood engaged but I look upon that as no wonder for out of the first twenty Catholicks accidentally met I 'll lay a considerable wager to find as great Families as any were there unless that of the Percies yet this Percy was a man of no fortune nor am I certain though I well know my Lord Northumberlands Relations whether really he was a kinsman or only for names sake called his Cozen. A Plot is lookt upon as general when a good number of the Chief of a Party are intrigued in the design The Catholick Noblemen were then not only as considerable as any but also the considerablest of the Nation for at that time there being no Duke but the late King the first Marquess the first Earl the first Viscount and the first Baron were of our Profession and I believe 't will be granted that the Lords Winchester Arundel Mentacute and Abergavenny and so proportionably the rest of the Papal Nobility had Estates able to be Partizans if they thought fit in any conjuration Now none of these Noblemen nay not one of all the Peers nor any more of the Gentry then the Traytors whom I will by and by mention had a hand in the design therefore to call this as the Minister and others do an universal Popish Plot is in it self a contradiction or at least a riddle beyond my capacity to unfold For the number of these Gunpowder Traytors they were but thirteen Laymen in all whereof four viz. Catesby Percy and the two Wrights were killed in the apprehending Tresham died in the Tower And eight suffered as Faun Keys Baâ—eâ— Graunt Rookwood the two Winters and Digby and 't is evident there were no more of the CoÌ„spiracy seeing that in all their examinations no Gentleman was discovered which could not happâ— out of design to save their friends because several secret particulars they revealed and Baldwin Hammond Tesmond and Gerard being Jesuites were as the Minister says found Actors in the Plot. If then the Malefactors did accuse their Confessors as our Adversarys calls them certainly they would never have spared others had there been any more guilty Besides this of their accusing no-body the Commons Lords and Privy Councel were so vigilant that they left no stone unturn'd to find the depth of the Plot and to shew how nice they were in all manner of suspitions the Lords Sturton and Mordant two Catholicks were fined only because absent from the House that day by which 't is plain they were so far from finding positive proof that there was not the least glimpse of any thing otherwise they would never have descended to so slight a possibility for there is not a day wherein the Parliament sits but there may be found more Catholicks out of the House then were then Nay the circumspection was so great that my Lord Northumberland a protestant was imprisoned for many years as thought perchance to know somewhat because being Captain he had admitted Percy into the Band of Pensioners Thus Reader you see how impossible it is that the Catholick Party were involved here in and for the fourscore that appeared with them in Rebellion they were only Servants and Horse-boys who as Sanderson says were watcht hourly for fear of quitting their Masters and this also Speed confirms affirming that these were ever ready to steal from the Conspirators and that more care was
run counter to his Royal inclinations when he punishes the weak and harmless ANSWER XXXVI He says he desires only to be safe and against our dangerous Principles neither our affability nor hospitality can defend them for the Irish never treated Protestants better then the year a fore they cut their Throats The best means of security is the execution of the Laws by which those that renounce their disloyal Principles will be distinguisht and the disloyal and seditious only kept weak REPLY XXXVI I have sufficiently treated the Irish Rebellion in the first Reply neither have I bin wanting to shew you that a Protestāt Author viz. Heath lays the cause of it on the English Long-Parliament which occasioned so many mischeifes by their wicked beginings against that good Prince encouraged the designes of the rest of his seditious subjects Nor had the Scots themselves bin then wanting by their actuall levying warr against their King corresponding with his forrain Enemies to prick forward seeing they were successefull all those who studied commotions disorders Judge then whither they were the Papists of England or the Reformed in both Kingdomes of Great Brittain that farthered the Irish Rebellion But now that the Irish never treated Protestants better then the yeare before they curt theire throats is a foolish invention of this shamelesse Minister nonsense in it selfe Nor was it practicable unlesse the English had like the Israelites in Egypt bin sojournours at will had nothing to doe with the Government For would it not be a mad expression to say that the Hugonots of France better treated this yeare the Papists there then they had done before or that the Round-heads treated the Cavaliers more kindly then they had done since the Kings Restauration But this is un Coup d'esprit a peice of witt of the Worthy Minister truely so great a one that I admire it should doe it much more were it not soe common SECT XXXVII APOLOGY Why may not we Noble Country-men hope for favour from you as well as the French Protestants find from theirs A greater duty then ours none could express we are sure Or why should the United Provinces and other Magistrates that are harsh both in mind and manners refrain from violence against our Religion and your tender breasts seem not to harbour the least compassion or pity These neighboring people sequester none for their Faith but for transgression against the State Nor is the whole party involved in the crime of a few but every man suffers for his own and proper fault Do you then the like and he that offends let him die without mercy And think always we beseech you of Cromwels injustice who for the actions of some against his pretended Laws drew thousands into Decimation even ignorant of the thing after they had vastlie paid for their securitie and quiet ANSWER XXXVII He says he has answered our instances of French Protestants and Dutch Papists When we governed the civilized World he says we hanged and burnt men for no cause but Faith which proves Protestant Barbarity better then Popish civility yet these were little for their credit unless they could say that none of us suffered but by the known and necessary Laws of the Kingdom 'T is necessary to maintain the Kings Authority and Peace of the Nation and if we call Religion any thing contrary to these whether ought they to alter their Laws or we our Religion He says as Inquisitors bedress one with Pictures of Devils that is to be burnt for an Heretick so I put Cromwel on any thing I would render odious but they are weak that see not the difference betwen Cromwels Edicts that ruined men for Loyalty and Laws that restrained them from Treason and Rebellion REPLY XXXVII How childishly rediculous is this Ministers Allegation That none of us suffered but by known Laws What does he mean Did we ever when we governed England put any to death but by the known Laws established many hundred years before the Malefactors were born and which are still on foot and used to this day by Protestants against Hereticks But fully to reply to this Answer I cannot better do it then by beseeching you to read over this short Section of the Apology again and then tell me whether any request can be more reasonable and Christian or whether this way of involving the whole in the crimes of a few be not exactly the Procedure of Cromwel SECT XXXVIII APOLOGY We have no studie but the Glory of our Soveraingn and just libertie of the Subjects ANSWER XXXVIII Sir If we may judge by your works there is nothing less studied in your Colledge SECT XXXVIIII APOLOGY Nor was it a mean argument of our dutie when every Catholique Lord gave his voice for the Restauration of Bishops by which we could pretend no other advantage but that 26. Votes subsisting wholly by the Crown were added to the defence of Kingship and consequently a check to Anarchy and confusion ANSWER XXXVIIII This is no argument of your Duty for sure you are it no Lord. Nor is it likely that these Lords followed your direction in the doing of this Duty REPLY to ANS XXXIX Good Mr. Parson 't is more then you know but that I am a Lord yet whether I am or no the Catholick Lords and I are of the same Loyal Principles and what they did any other Catholick would have done had he been Member of their House SECT XL. APOLOGY 'T is morally impossible but that we who approve of Monarchy in the Church must ever be fond of it in the State also ANSWER XL. If you mean this of Papists in general that which you mean morally impossible is experimentally true For in Venice Genoa Lucca and other Popish Cantons of Switzerland they very well approve of Monarchy in the Church yet they are not fond of it in State also But if you mean this of the Jesuitical Party then it may be true in this sence that you would have the Pope to be sole Monarch both in Spirituals and Temporals REP. to ANSW XL. I think I have been as lately at Lucca Genoa and Venice and know the places as well as the Minister 'T was not therefore my meaning that there were no Popish States but that generally Popery tends to Monarchy and on the contraty Calvinism from which the Church of England differs only in Bishops leans altogether to a Democratical Government Heretofore in the Civil Wars of our Country there was never the least mention of a Commonwealth but still the Rebels would have a King and rather then fail one of another Kingdom I beseech God that the present Principles have no other tendency but to Monarchy for Reader you must know that Principles may blindly lead men to a thing which not only their judgments but their inclinations loath as for example the Reformed both in judgment and inclination desire unitie but their Principles in spite of all endeavours will