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
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
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
for the Popes Supremacy or against her Majesties Regality but for the very Crimes of Sedition and Treason it shall suffice briefly in a manner of a repetition of the former reasons to remember these things following First it cannot be denied but that her Majesty did for many years suffer quietly the Popes Bulls and Excommunications without punishment of the Fautors thereof accounting of them but as of words or wind or of Writings in Parchment weighed down with lead or as of water-bubbles commonly called in Latine Bullae and such like but yet after some proof that courage was taken thereof by some bold and bad Subjects she could not but then esteem them to be very Preambles or as forerunners of greater danger and therefore with what reason could any mislike that her Majesty did for a bare defence against them without other action or force use the help of reviving of former Laws to prohibit the Publication or Execution of such kind of Bulls within her Realm Secondly when notwithstanding the prohibition by her Laws the same Bulls were plentifully but in secret sort brought into the Realm and at length arrogantly set upon the Gates of the Bishop of Londons Palace near to the Cathedral Church of Pauls the principal City of the Realm by a lewd person using the same like a Herald sent from the Pope who can in any common reason mislike that her Majesty finding this kind of denunciation of War as a defiance to be made in her principal City by one of her Subjects avowing and obstinately maintaining the same should according to justice cause the offender to have the reward due to such a fact and this was the first action of any capital punishment inflicted for matter sent from Rome to move Rebellion which was after her Majesty had reigned about the space of twelve years or more Thirdly when the Pope had risen up out of his Chair in his wrath from words and writings to actions and had contrary to the advice given by S. Barnard to his Predecessor that is when by his Messages he left Verbum and took Ferrum that is left to feed by the Word and began to strike with the Sword and stirred her Noble men and People directly to disobedience and to open Rebellion and that her lewd Subjects by his commandment had executed the same with all the Forces which they could make or bring into the field who with common reason can disallow that her Majesty used her principal Authority and by her Forces lawful subdued Rebels Forces unlawful and punished the Authors thereof no otherwise than the Pope himself useth to do with his own Rebellious Subjects in the Patrimony of his Church And if any Prince of People in the World would otherwise neglect his Office and suffer his Rebels to have their wills none ought to pity him if for want of resistance and courage he lost both his Crown his Head his Life and his Kingdom Fourthly when her Majesty beheld a further increase of the Popes malice notwithstanding that the first Rebellion was in her North parts vanquished in that he entertained abroad out of this Realm the Traiters and Rebels that fled for the Rebellion and all the Rabble of other the Fugitives of the Realm and that he sent a number of the same in sorts disguised into both the Realms of England and Ireland who there secretly allured her People to new Rebellions and at the same time spared not his charges to send also out of Italy by Sea certain Ships with Captains of his own with their Bands of Souldiers furnished with Treasure Munition Victuals Ensigns Banners and all other things requisite to the War into her Realm of Ireland where the same Forces with other auxiliar Companies out of Spain landed and fortified themselves very strongly in the Sea-side and proclaimed open War erecting the Popes Banner against her Majesty may it be now asked of these persons Favourers of the Romish Authority what in reason should have been done by her Majesty otherwise than first to apprehend all such Figitives for stollen into the Realm and dispersed in disguising habits to sow Sedition as some Priests in their secret Profession but all in their apparel as Roisters or Ruffins some Scholars like to the basest Common people and them to commit to Prisons and upon their examinations of their Trades and Haunts to convince them of their Conspiracies abroad by testimony of their own Companions and of sowing Sedition secretly at home in the Realm What may be reasonably thought was meet to be done with such seditious persons but by the Laws of the Realm to try condemn and execute them and especially having regard to the dangerous time when the Popes Forces were in the Realm of Ireland and more in preparation to follow as well into England as into Ireland to the resistance whereof her Majesty and her Realm was forced to be at greater charges than ever she had been since she was Queen thereof And so by Gods power which he gave to her on the one part she did by her Laws suppress the seditious stirrers of Rebellion in her Realm of England and by her Sword vanquished all the Popes Forces in her Realm of Ireland excepting certain Captains of mark that were saved from the Sword as persons that did renounce their quarrel and seemed to curse or to blame such as sent them to so unfortunate and desperate a Voyage But though these reasons grounded upon rules of natural reason shall satisfie a great number of the Adversaries who will yield that by good order of Civil and Christian Policy and Government her Majesty could nor can do no less than she hath done first to subdue with her Forces her Rebels and Traiters and next by order of her Laws to correct the Aiders and Abettors and lastly to put also to the Sword such Forces as the Pope sent into her Dominions yet there are certain other persons more nicely addicted to the Pope that will yet seem to be unsatisfied for that as they will term the matter a number of silly poor Wretches were put to death as Traiters being but in profession Scholars or Priests by the names of Seminaries Jesuits or simple School-masters that came not into the Realm with any Armor or Weapon by force to aid the Rebels and Traiters either in England or in Ireland in their Rebellions or Wars of which sort of Wretches the commiseration is made as though for their contrary opinions in Religion or for teaching of the people to disobey the Laws of the Realm they might have been otherwise punished and corrected and yet not with capital punishment These kinds of defences tend only to find fault rather with the severity of their punishments than to acquit them as Innocents or quiet Subjects But for answer to the better satisfaction of these nice and scrupulous Favourers of Traiters it must be with reason
repine or complain some of those Nations might have done written and spoken as it had pleased them It little became either Master Saunders otherwise an excellent man or Master Parsons or any other of our own Nation to have intermedled with those matters or to write as they have very offensively done in divers of their Books and Treatises to what purpose we know not except it were to shew their malice to dishonour their own Country as much as lay in them and to move a greater dislike in the State of all that be Catholicks than before they had Kings ever have had and will have their plots and practices for their own safeties it being as inconvenient to their Policy for one Prince by his Might to over-top another as it is amongst the principal members of our natural bodies for one member to swell or grow too great above his due proportion Happy had we Catholicks been at this day if these men being Priests had never troubled themselves with State-matters which they have managed as Phaeton did his Fathers Chariot very greatly to our prejudice Let them pretend never so great skill in their disposing of Kingdoms ordine ad Deum they have certainly dealt with ours ordine ad Gehennam But this is not all which the State may justly challenge us for In the time of our said Peace and upon the coming into England of the Queen of Scots whilst her Majesty of England and the State were busied as partly you have heard before it pitieth our hearts to see and read what hath been printed and published out of Italy in the life of Pius Quintus concerning his Holiness endeavors stirred up by false suggestions to joyn with the King of Spain for the utter ruine and overthrow both of our Prince and Country Would to God such things had never been enterprised and most of all that they had never been printed We that have some skill with our Pens presume too much a great deal upon our own Wits What good the mentioning of these points can bring to the Church we see not but sure we are it hath done much hurt and given our common Enemies very great advantage against us For now it is usually objected unto us by every one of any reach when we complain of some hard dealings towards us Yea say they very well good Masters were you not in quiet Who then gave the cause that you were troubled When her Majesty used you kindly how treacherously was she dealt with by you Did not Pius Quintus practise her Majesties subversion she good Lady never dreaming of any such mischief Was not one Robert Ridolphi a Gentleman of Florence sent hither by the Pope under colour of Merchandize to sollicite a Rebellion Did not Pius Quintus move the King of Spain to joyn in this Exploit for the better securing of his own Dominions in the Low Countries Was not the Bull denounced against her Majesty that carrieth so fair a Preface of zeal and pastoral duty devised purposely to further the intended Rebellion for the depriving of her Majesty from her Kingdom Had not the Pope and King of Spain assigned the Duke of Norfolk to be the Head of this Rebellion Did not the Pope give order to Ridolphi to take 150000 Crowns to set forward this attempt Was not some of that Money sent for Scotland and some delivered to the said Duke Did not King Philip at the Popes instance determine to send the Duke of Alva into England with all his Forces in the Low Countries to assist the Duke of Norfolk Are all these things true and were they not then in hand whilst her Majesty dealt so mercifully with you How can you excuse these designments so unchristian so unpriestly so treacherous and therefore so un-prince-like When we first heard these particulars we did not believe them but would have laid our lives they had been false but when we saw the Book and found them there God is our witness we were much amazed and can say no more but that his Holiness was misinformed and indirectly drawn to these courses But to proceed it being unknown to the State what secret matters were in hand against them both at home and beyond the Seas the Catholicks here continued in sort as before you have heard till the said Rebellion brake forth in the North 1569. a little before Christmas and that it was known that the Pope had excommunicated the Queen and thereby freed her Subjects as the Bull importeth from their subjection And then there followed a great restraint of the said Prisoners but none of them were put to death upon that occasion the Sword being then only drawn against such Catholicks as had risen up actually into open Rebellion Wherein we cannot see what her Majesty did that any Prince in Christendom in such a case would not have done And as touching the said Bull many both Priests and Lay Catholicks have greatly wished that it had never been decreed denounced published or heard of For we are perswaded that the Pope was drawn thereunto by false suggestions of certain undiscreet turbulent persons who pretending to him one thing had another drift in their heads for their own advancement And therefore we have ever accounted of it as a sentence procured by surreption knowing it to be no unusual thing with the Pope through indirect means and factious heads to be often deceived in matters of Fact as we now find it in the setting up of our new Arch-Priest Now upon all these occasions her Majesty being moved with great displeasure called a Parliament in the thirteenth year of her Reign 1571. wherein a Law was made containing many branches against the bringing into this Land after that time of any Bulls from Rome any Agnus Dei Crosses or Pardons and against all manner of persons that should procure them to be so brought hither with many other particularities thereunto appertaining Which Law although we hold it to be too rigorous and that the pretended remedy exceeded the measure of the offence either undutifully given or in justice to have been taken yet we cannot but confess as reasonable men that the State had great cause to make some Laws against us except they should have shewed themselves careless for the continuance of it But be the Law as any would have it never so extreme yet surely it must be granted that the occasions of it were most outragious and likewise that the execution of it was not so tragical as many since have written and reported of it For whatsoever was done against us either upon the pretence of that Law or of any other would never we think have been attempted had not divers other preposterous occasions besides the causes of that Law daily fallen out amongst us which procured matters to be urged more severely against us In the year 1572. out cometh Master Saunders Book de visibili Monarchia wherein he taketh upon him to set down how the Pope had
Dignities by which the Pope may win the affection of other Church-men Concerning which I first inquire whether this be roundly true I doubt you 'd be loth to reject all the Abbeys and Benefices annexed to your Colledges to verifie this Vow as you have set it down in your Paper and therefore the effect of your Vow is only that private men may not be alienated from your Order with hope of quiet lives in such Benefices and not the contempt of the Power and Honour following it as is sufficiently testified by another Vow of yours which is that if any of yours for special reasons be made Bishop he shall be bound to be subject to the Provincial or Rector of the place of his Residence and to take their advice in the government of his Church which you extend as far as to Cardinals to a capacity of which Eminent Dignity notwithstanding your special Vow your Dispensations easily reach So that your Vow is no Religious one of despising Honours but a politick abuse mask'd under the veil of Religion that the abler men of your Order may not be separated from it and so the Body may remain the stronger and your General more potent to resist the Pope himself Neither does this any way diminish but increase your dependence on the Pope both because 't is by him your Houses are furnisht with Benefices and those never to return to the Popes Donation as because you oblige your Friends by procuring others for them you being at his elbow to suggest this or that friend on whom all his Benefices may be conferred by which means you get the endearment due to the Pope from those Friends to the increase of your own power and riches and your selves still find out new pretended necessities to beg more So that this Holy Vow of yours no ways makes you less subject to the Pope but to suck his paps the harder as those know who have seen what passed in France and Flanders these late years especially under the Archduke Leopold 10. Yet have I another Doubt concerning this Vow of yours viz. Whether it does not make you as refractory to Kings and Princes as to the Pope For to speak truth whatever the Right is in other Countries in England where the Canons and Concordates with the Pope have been out of use a hundred years and by consequence have no force even in your own Doctors opinions and therefore things are to be governed by Nature and Reason at least in England I say all such Benefices and Collations belong more to the King than to the Pope For it being clear that the Offices to which Benefices are annexed are to be provided of able men and who are able men none can tell that understand not the Office 't is plain that Secular Clergy-men ought to be the chusers of Officers of their kind Regulars of Regular Superiors and by consequence the Donors of such Benefices But the people first got an influence on the chusing of Bishops because 't was rationally believed those would be able to do most good who were in the peoples good liking But when Bishops grew to have great Revenues and to be esteemed men of so high Quality in the Common-wealth the Emperors and Kings began to cast an eye on their Election and not without reason for it concerns them that none be in eminent places but such as they are secured of will breed no disturbance in the Common-wealth After this if any Clergy-man had done the King service he found it the best way of recompence to cause him to be chosen into a place of Authority and Eminency The Popes title to the giving of Benefices began by his Office of Patriach of the West which since the Council of Nice he more narrowly looked to the government of exhorting and correcting by Letters such Bishops and Churches there as did not their duties And this held till Pepin found how efficacious the reverence of the Pope was to make him obeyed and accepted for King of France Since which time whether for Ambition or for security sake men began to think no Act firm unless it were ratified at Rome In times following the Popes began to have need of Christian Princes and these found it the sweetest way to help the Popes by granting imposition upon the Clergy So came the first-fruits to the Popes and to assure those Incomes the custom of having Bulls from Rome to confirm the Elections of the Clergy was likewise introduced So that this Authority of the Popes comes from the Princes Agreements with them and not from any Superiority or Power of the Popes Wherefore these Agreements being by time and essential changes annulled all giving of Benefices belong to the Chusers and the King I come now to the close If your renouncing of Benefices make you less subject to the Pope as you pretend it makes you in England less subject to the King And if it makes you more hardly rewardable and more pressing on the Pope it will make you the like to Kings As in Leopold's time you were so wholly the means for coming to Benefices that hardly a command from Spain could take place for any that was not your Confident 11. My Eleventh Doubt is how you answer your banishment out of France and Venice viz. that Both these States have repealed their Acts. Which answer makes nothing to this that you either did not deserve the sentence or deserved to have it released one of which any judicious man would have expected at your hands Now to come to particulars the Venetians were so resolute against you that they made it Treason for any of their State so much as to motion your return and refused divers Princes intercessions for you Till their case reducing them to fear the slavery of the Turk if they had not the Popes assistance promised them largely if they would re-admit you they rather chose to struggle with your Treasons at home than admit the Barbarians conquest of their Dominions Whether they have cause to repent or not I know not But the current news at this present is that the Pope who procured your admittance has having found you so unfaithful to him notwithstanding all his love to you insomuch that he 's about question you by what means you are so suddenly raised to so great wealth wherein I fear he 'l not find obedience so ready as he found flattery when he was to pleasure you Your measure in France was indeed hard the fault being not proved to be universal but particular and so in divers places was never executed and easie to be repealed having proceeded more out of presumption than proof But your case in England is far different your whole English Congregation following their Head Parsons and maintaining his Acts even since his Death 12. My Twelfth Doubt is concerning your conclusion Whether you intend to mend what hitherto you have done amiss or rather to persist in your Equivocations and Dissimulations
bethink your selves well of this Dilemma If your solicitings stop the progress of the Act how will you be hated as guilty of the continuance of those Sanguinary Laws if your endeavours do not stop it how will you be both hated for attempting it and scorned for miscarrying in 't FINIS All Offenders cover their faults with contrary causes Rebels do most dangerously cover their faults Rebellion in England and Ireland The Rebels vanquished by the Queens Power Some of the Rebels fled into other Countries Rebels pretend Religion for their defence Ringleaders of Rebels Charls Nevill Earl of Westmer land and Thomas Stukeley The effect of the Popes Bull against the Queen of England The practises of the Traitors Rebels and Fugitives to execute the Bull. Seminaries erected to nurse seditious Fugitives The Seminary Fugitives come secretly into the Realm to induce the people to obey the Popes Bull. Sowers of sedition taken convented and executed for Treason The seditious Traitors Condemned by the antient Laws of the Realm made 200. years past Persons Condemned spared from Execution upon refusal of their treasonable opinions The Foreign Traitors continue sending of persons to move sedition in the Realm The Seditious Fugitives labour to bring the Realm into a War external and domestical The duty of the Queen and all her Governours to God and their Country is to repel practices of Rebellion None charged with capital Crimes being of a contrary Religion and professing to withstand Foreign Forces Names of divers Ecclesiastical persons professing contrary Religion never charged with capital Crimes The late Favourers of the Popes Authority were the chief Adversaries of the same by their Doctrines and Writings A great number of Lay persons of livelyhood being of a contrary Religion never charged with capital Crime No person charged with capital Crime for the only maintenance of the Popes Supremacy Such Condemned only for Treason as maintain the effects of the Popes Bull against her Majesty and the Realm Dr. Sanders maintenance of the Popes Bull. The persons that suffered Death were Condemned for Treason and not for Religion A full proof that the maintainers of the Bull are directly guilty of Treason Dr. Mortons secret Ambassage from Rome to stir the Rebellion in the North. Persons and Campion are offenders as Dr. Sanders is for allowance of the Bull. Faculties granted to Persons and Campion by Pope Gregory 13. Anno 1580. Harts Confession of the interpretation of the Bull of Pius Quintus A Conclusion that all the infamous Books against the Queen and the Realm are false Difference of the small numbers that have been executed in the space of five and twenty years from the great numbers in five years of Queen Maries Reign An Advertisement to all princes of Countries abroad The Authority claimed by the Pope not warranted by Christ or by the two Apostles Peter and Paul Pope Hildebrand the first that made War against the Emperor An. Dom. 1074. The Judgement of God against the Popes false erected Emperour Pope Gregory the Seventh deposed by Henry IV. Henry 5. Frederick 1. Frederick 2. Lewis of Banar Emperours Whatsoever is alwful for other Princes Soveraigns is lawful for the Queen and Crown of England The Title of universal Bishop is a Preamble of Antichrist Rome sacked and the Pope Clement taken Prisoner by the Emperors Army 1550. King Henry the Second of France his Edicts against the Pope and his Courts of Rome The besieging of Rome and the Pope by the Duke of Alva with King Philips Army Queen Mary and Cardinal Pool resisted the Pope D. Peyto a begging Fryer The Kings of Christendom never suffer the Popes to abridge their Titles or Rights though they suffer them to have rule over their People The Queen of England may not suffer the Pope by any means to make Rebellions in her Realm Additaments to the Popes Martyrologe The strange ends of James Earl of Desmond D. Saunders James Fitzmorice John of Desmond John Somervile The prosperity of England during the Popes curses Reasons to perswade by reason the Favourers of the Pope that none hath bin executed for Religion but for Treason The first reason The second reason The 〈◊〉 Pius Qâ—â—â—â—â—… set up at Pauls The first punishment for the Bull. The third reason Rebellion in the North. The fourth reason The Invasion of Ireland by the Pope The Popes Forces vanquished in Ireland The Politick Adversaries satisfied Objection of the Papists that the persons executed are but Scholars and unarmed Many are Traiters though they have no Armor nor Weapon The Application of the Scholastical Traiters to others that are Traiters without Armor Six Questions to try Traiters from Scholars The offenders executed for Treason not for Religion Unreasonable and obstinate persons are left to Gods Judgment Saunders Morton Web c.