such straite lawes were made for comming into England of Seminarie priests bringing in of Agnus Dei crosses medals graines c. reconcilement perswasions to the catholike faith and the like All which when I saw the bookes of the excommunication of her Maiestie by Pius Quintus diuers others tending to that purpose written since and withall had well considered what the Iesuits dealing had beene how that they had procured these indulgences pardons to serue their owne turne therewith I then wel perceiued vpon what grounds the said six articles were built And Master Bales a blessed martyr shall witnes with me at the latter day how woe my hart was vpon the last speech he and I had together in the house of an honorable person where we met about those and other matters my last words being these vnto him scil that his holines was misinformed and indirectly drawne to these courses by Iesuiticall meanes And therefore of all other orders of religion were I to goe into any I would neuer be Iesuit whiles I liued And this may suffice for the matter in question to conuince any catholikes true meaning hart that the circumstances well considered with all humble obedience to the See apostolike be it spoken there neither was due circumstances in the Bull of Pius Quintus to binde any to withdrawe their allegiance from our Soueraigne neither and much lesse was it conuenient that the same excommunication should haue beene renewed againe THE IX ARTICLE VVHether then seeing her Maiestie and the state knew such practises were by priests and other catholikes vsed and put in execution and yet were ignorant who were of that faction more one then an other till now of late that God hath most strangely and in very deed as it may he termed miraculously reuealed the truth which long hath beene hidden to discerne who are innocent and who free may not then her lawes and proceedings against all catholiks in generall from the beginning of her Highnesse raigne to this present discouery of the treasons and traitors that vrged it be truely counted both milde and mercifull And that howsoeuer of her owne accustomed innate royall disposition benignitie clemencie her Highnesse may and we shoulde wrong our owne conceits in preiudice of her sweete and Princely nature if we should not thinke she would now at length take pittie of such her owne catholike subiects as haue manifested their loyaltie innocencie and ignorance of what was intended against her royall person and state Yet whether in tendring the afflictions which the innocent both secular priests lay persons haue sustained by making such lawes or prouisoes and adding them to the lawes alreadie made as may free both the priests and those that receiue them from the paines and penalties before by statute enacted against them all in generall may not for all that the sayd former statutes penall lawes and actes enacted be thought to stande in force against the Iesuiticall faction and no reason or sense to haue them repealed but both to haue beene made with great moderation and also to stand and remaine with as great pollicie in all or any wisemans iudgement that shall duly consider the Iesuits practises and other her Highnes enimies against her person state and kingdome in the course precedent of all this time THE ANSWERE I Holde directly the affirmatiue part heerein scil that both her Maiesties lawes and proceedings against all sorts of catholikes haue bene milde and mercifull the opinion and iudgement of her Highnesse in religion one way and their foresaid practises against her another way duly considered and also that all the appellants and other priests and catholikes that ioyne with them in prosecuting that appeale as there is iust cause and many reasons which we doubt not of but that to her high prudence and Princely wisedome they will present themselues in laments submissions and teares on our behalfes and in pollicie mercy and iustice on the part of her Highnesse towards vs why some prouisoes should be made for securing of them the said appellants and their associates together with those that do or shall receiue them heereafter from danger of the foresaid penall lawes so haue they and we all that be catholikes in England this day as great motiues causes and reasons moouing vs to admire that euer any of vs are left on liue to make knowne to all posteritie what hath hapned in our daies the like woonders hauing neuer hitherto as yet beene seene as our wretched age hath left recorded to those shall follow vs by succeeding turnes of natures course to the worlds end And by consequent we cannot vrge an absolute repeale of any former statute or penall law so long as any Iesuit or other priest or lay person of their faction which I hope would be very few if any were after they were gone shall remaine within the land but thinke our selues happie and deepely bound to her Maiesty if a prouisoe onely may be made in forme aforesaid to keepe the innocent harmeles though with an other prouisoe also or stricter statute if stricter may be for the vtter expelling of all Iesuits out of the land And for to make this my opinion sinke the deeper into all catholikes heads and harts that either are infected with the Spanish pip or otherwise Iesuited in affection or faction I must and do craue pardon for enlarging my selfe a litle in handling this subiect to the purpose and agreeing to their capacitie Often haue many wise learned and prudent greatly mused what should haue beene the cause in morall sense to speake to men of the heauie and sore affliction of catholiks in England for many yeeres yea it hath beene thought of many great clerkes yet with pardon craued ignorant of our English cases as heereafter will appeere that the circumstances considered as the occurrents came to their minds that their persecution in the primitiue church was not greater if so great respecting the danger of soule-wracke then the persecution in England hath beene for these twenty yeeres space and vpward to wit since the infortunate arriuall of the Iesuits in this land The causes moouing many to admire thereat and in multitudes of vollees in morneful sighes and sorrowes hurled out with wailings one to another greeuing when wise deuout true compassionates of their countries miseries met together that for our owne and our forefathers sinnes so heauie a scourge shoulde be laid vpon our nation our deere countrymen our flesh and blood our neerest linckt vnto vs often times our greatest lothers Amongst others these were the causes of their woonder how it should be First they considered with how great a sympathie all concord naturall incline and reciprocall affection It is no maruell though the Iesuits be so egar of England as they are and that they hazard body soule and all they haue or can be able to make to haue it wholy theirs For considering the poore lodgings scarcity of victuals and vncomfortable trauell
the Puritanes may dispense with some of their confederacy to insinuate themselues into the Ministery and to vse Surplice cap crosse ring and all according to the Queenes iniunctions which is quite contrary to their doctrine but that they do it for loue of their benefices and euen so the Iesuites may dispense with some of their close confederates or society to passe vnder the name of secular Priestes for their priuate gaine and more aduantage though otherwise their profession be quite contrarie Fourteenthly the Puritanes will haue no superiours no more will the Iesuites Fifteenthly the Puritanes will acknowledge no obedience to any Ecclesiasticall dignitie no more will the Iesuites but yet both of them counterfeitly and dissemblingly do yeeld Sixteenthly the Puritanes labour to pull all Bishops downe and to haue none but Superintendents in England and haue made hauocke alreadie of all such in Scotland and the Iesuites will let no Bishop be in either Realme if they can keepe them from that superioritie ouer them Seuenteenthly the Puritanes seeke to pull downe Kings and Princes and so do the Iesuites Eighteenthly the Puritanes would bring all Kings and common-wealthes to a popularitie and Oligarchicall gouernement and so would the Iesuites Nineteenthly the Puritanes controull both Princes and Prelates as if they were their superiours and the Iesuites checke and controule both Pope and Prince as at least their equals Twentiethly the Puritane Ministers must be of counsell with the Prince in the highest affaires of his Realme so must the Iesuiticall padres or else all is out of frame One and twentiethly the Puritanes must appoint Prince Court and Counsell what to set downe and define in all matters of gouernement and state and so must the Iesuits Two and twentiethly the Puritanes must haue the perusing ratifying and confirming of whatsoeuer doth passe from the Prince or Lords spirituall or temporall of the land and so must the Iesuites or else it shall be despised reiected and holden for ridiculous and not worth the setting foorth or publishing Three and twentiethly the Puritanes must haue all Princes Nobles or other states so dutifull and seruiceable vnto them as they must not laugh they must not play they must not walke they must not talke they must not giue or receiue any gifts or vse any priuate conference or decent recreation c. without their consent or priuitie and onely so much and no more then they appoint them and euen iust so is it with the Iesuits Foure and twentiethly the Puritanes hold he cannot be a good Christian that doth resist them and the Iesuites that he cannot be a sound Catholike that speakes against them c. Fiue and twentiethly the Puritanes count themselues the new illuminates c. and the Iesuits that they are freer from errour more familiar with God more precisely and peculiarly illuminated and more specially indued with the spirit of guiding soules then secular Priests are c. Innumerable of the like comparisons may be made betwixt them in matters of life and manners and I pray God not too many in matters of faith and religion which seeing they both square and differ herein from the Protestants it followeth that the Iesuits and Puritanes do come neerest together in platformes though both opposite one to the other in intention as farre as farre may be THE III. ARTICLE VVHether the Iesuits doctrine smell of innouation and by consequent of heresie in any thing or else is it onely a singularity in matters of manners in all things done or maintained by them THE ANSWEE IT is one thing to smell of any corruption and an other to be infected with a pouant or stinke of the same and therefore that the Iesuits smell most horrible of both and that in a most dangerous manner it is cleare by all these fiue and twenty degrees comparatiue betwixt them and the Puritanes And the like may be sayd of their new institution of an Archpriest a plaine and manifest innouation as a word title and authority quite out of vse in the Church of God at this day All you deuout but maruelously seduced Catholikes for the loue of our sweete Sauiour I desire you and on Gods behalfe I charge you as you loue your owne soules to lay aside all blind affection and partial doom and conferre one of these Quodlibets with another and then weigh well with your selues what cause you haue to moue you to be so eager in defending these moâ—e dangerous aduersaries of your soule then any other professed enemy to the Romane Catholike faith and neuer at all taken or appointed to gouerne in that sense and to that intent and purpose as he is taken to be and is by them instituted and appointed How they smell of other dangerous innouations it will bewray it selfe in time THE IIII. ARTICLE VVHether any of them haue published in printed bookes or openly or in priuate conference taught any thing contrary to the beleefe of the Catholike Romane Church or not THE ANSWERE THey haue and that euerie way in printed bookes in written copies or manuscripts and but most of all in priuate conference Which contrary to their opinion will not be hardest to get witnesses of to auouch it to their face especially in matters of confession and other points which I blush to write of as I haue had relation made vnto me But to the purpose whereunto otherwise do all their libels letters and suggested slaunders spread abroad against secular Priestes the Ecclesiastical state and the resemblance betwixt them and the Puritan Zuinefeldians Anabaptists or family of loue c. tend saue onely to the broaching abroad of most abhominable heresies And in particular whereunto doth father Parsons popular doctrine in the Ciuilians discourse tend saw onely to an absurd heresie of denying free will in humane actions when as in the first part and neere the beginning thereof to cut off all right of succession by birth and bloud he sets me this downe for a generall rule maxime or exioma scil Those things that are of the law of God and nature are common to all nations as God and nature are common to all ergo if the gouernement and regall right of succession were by the law of God and nature descending by birth and bloud the same should be common and alike in and to all nations as God and nature are c. But we see that is false for some nations haue one kind of gouernement and manner of succession and some another c. ergo gouernement and succession by birth and bloud are not of the law of God and nature This Elenchiall fallacy for he will not dare stand syncategorematically to approue it denies slatly free-will putting no difference betwixt the law of God and nature in man and the same law in bruite beastes whereas there is not a boy of any wit that rightly vnderstands onely Porphiries predicables but wold hisse him out of the schooles for a fond wrangling and vnlearned
except it be with the flap of a fox tail shal neuer be able to do them any seruice Besides in the said decision I haue touched sundrie of the exceeding great base and most vile standerous and contemptible indignities wrongs and reproches neuer in honor to be put vp by any of a Dacres bloud offered by the Iesuits faction to the now Lo Dacre his euer honorable house name Yea one of his own c. was brought into such a forwardnesse of following these holy fathers taught withal her lesson how to vse the art of dissembling according to the Iesuits rule of sweating and forswearing in a contrarie sense and meaning that she was as bold and resolute as rash and impudent vnnaturally to maintaine that she would not for father mother sister brother nor all the friends she had in the world besides euer yeeld to forsake the companie of one Iesuit a Pearle for a Ladie let it hap as hap would Iohn Gerrard yet afterwards being charged therwith or to that effect that she should haue no dealings with any of them she deeply protested by a letter backe vnto his Lordship that she had not neither would haue notwithstanding that about the same time her said Iesuiticall father was either with her or shortly after came vnto her and since hath she had all wholy such as she knew to be of the Iesuits faction in plaine termes affirming it that there should none of the other side meaning the secular priests come to her knowledge wittingly and willingly within her doores Of all which with other practises in the North as the secret confederacy made by that faction against his honor I had intended to haue informed his Lordship if the foresaid partie had not disclosed a letter which I sent to insinuate as much vnto him and to giue him a caueat c. I will say no more here but that this third kind of coÌ„sorts or factious heads set on by the Iesuits against the secular Priestes are of the proud ambitious and aspiring minds that hoping to clime high when these Realmes of England Wales and Scotland shal be all one Monarchiall I le of Iesuits they are not much to be blamed if they pleade their cause and prosecute their quarrell with tooth naile Thus you see that there must needes be many seduced by them and especially deuout women poore soules who mightily dote and runne riot after them Now what kind of people they are that liue so and by what art and meanes these seditious plot-casters do worke it you shall in the end find to your griefe In the meane while I must tell you this withal that of the more graue wise and truly more ancient Catholickes and religious sort of both cleargie and laitie men and women they loose daily more and more as by their owne confession the case is manfest and cleare For whereas they sayd about a three yeares agone that there were but three or foure of the factious Priestes so like lozels this Iesuiticall faction termed the secular Cleargie they now acknowledge and cannot denie it because the names of so many are in printed bookes for the appeale that there are thirtie and yet we wil find twise thirtie moe And for three or foure noble men and gentlemen of the laitie on our side as then they sayd we had no moe and those but of green heads and shallow wits God wot we will account vnto them so many scores And the like is for women which daily also increase of the better and grauer sort more ancient Catholike and matronlike behauior as is manifest by those noble Ladies some of honor others of worship born wherat their saucy factious Iacks scoffingly do enuie to wit that any such matchlesse matrons by any of theirs should modestly defend or speake in behalfe of their ghostly fathers or else very like it is that their malice doth rise of this that these rightly to be termed herein prudent virgins carrying the oile of Catholike Christian charitie which their foolish virgins want about with them in their timerous and tender hearts could not be drawn to raile and scold with their pure spirited soules a qualitie said to be naturally proper to a woman but yet neither proper commendable nor allowable to any gentlewoman of honour or worship borne but a staine to that sexe and a dishonour to womanhood yea and also to their profession if they reade or rather heare S. Pauls Epistles read against women tatlers and Gospellers wherwith he was troubled as now the secular Priests are to reuile the Iesuits with reprochful words as their seeming saints haue the secular Cleargie euerie where Well let it passe as the number of the Seminarie and Secular fautors do increase on all sides so questionlesse it will do stil And when these hot holy Ladies that now fume out flames of a Iesuiticall and seditious zeale against Priests shall lay their hands a little heauier on their hearts with Mea maxima culpa they will remember what they haue said and done and thereupon be as readie not to defame for we desire it not but to forsake their wicked seducers the Iesuits that haue set theÌ„ on to detract contemne and despise Christ his Catholike annointed Priests THE VII ARTICLE WHether the Iesuits or secular Priests are or ought sooner to be beleeued and why the one sooner or rather then the other THE ANSWERE Out of this quodlibet is inferied made knowne the great folly wil full scruple of many Catholiks that will beleeue a false hearted cousining Iesuit or Iesuiticall broker sooner then they wil do their owne ancient known ghostly father or other secular Priest so vpon a false suggestion that any authoritie be it lawful or vnlawfull inferior or superior without difference being once obtained ought to be obeyed by consequent that none may come to confession c. to a secular Priest because forsooth an hereticall in this point Iesuit saith so being in very deed themselues with their Archpresbitery in that danger of suspension excommunication and Gods curse by their wicked courses which they would cast ouer to the secular Cleargie in shew of the people not caring what damnable â—â—â—â—e they liue in so as the blinded with their errours do not know it THe secular Priestes as worthier and superiour persons are euer to be credited and preferred before the Iesuites in matters of any account either pertaining to the Church or Common-wealth First because the secular priests represent in themselues the whole eccesiastical state which as a prime branch of a Common-wealth is euer one and the first of the two called States ecclestiasticall and temporall or the spiritual and temporal subiected vnder euerie Christian Prince and King Monarchial throughout the world Secondly for that the lawes of this land concurring herein with the Popes canons and Caesars codes a secular Priest his word is accepted of in counteruaile of twelue other witnesses wheras I
vt in quo quis peccauit in eodem punietur Now then that this neuer practised nor ordinarily heard of the like crueltie amongst heathen and infidels should be in vse amongst the Christians nay amongst Catholickes nay amongst Priestes nay amongst religious persons and that against their own deare brethren countrimen and friends that suffer for the same cause which they pretend to suffer for that this should be maintained as lawfull by any Iesuit who takes vpon him to be an illuminate an inculpable guider of soules a man come to the highest step of the scale or ladder of perfection that all laws shold bind men to giue of their owne proper goods and treasures for reliefe of captiues and the poore and needie and that these men notwithstanding should withhold not their own which were more tollerable but other deuout and charitable persons both men and womens deuotions and beneuolence and that not from ordinarie captiues or other poore afflicted for Christ his sake but for such as are not without cause of iealousie had of thē all for the Iesuits cursed conspiracies treacherous attempts persecuted imprisoned put to death The very Canibals and Anthropophagies shall rise vp at the last day and condemne this barbarous and sauage generation of Belials brood for this crime And whereas the grace of God deriued to his Church by the sacred priesthood ought to be bestowed gratis as is said Gratis accepistis gratis date the Iesuits haue deuised a false kind of exercise whereby to fleece charitable people and so inrich themselues therin imitating Simon Magus in selling Gods blessings nay in that their precise course is farre more execrable then his was For Simon Magus dealt plainly though villanously and most blasphemously in offering to buy the holy Ghost and gifts of God for money But these ô what shall I terme them deale cousiningly in making people beleeue that the exercises or other graces which they bestow in Gods behalfe are more precious and singular in themselues then if giuen by anie other either secular or religious Priest that is not Iesuited The persecutiō of the Iesuites is so extreme in depriuing of prisoners yea and all others abroade so much as they can possibly of all reliefe that vnlesse her Maiestie and honorable Councell either clearly dismisse her tried most loyall subiects with a gracious conniuence at their secret vse of their function no way seeking to offend any one or else extend her magnificall beneficence in maintaining them as condemned to her Highnes prisons they are not possibly long to continue hold out or liue and so draw them on by litle and little to make it seeme a matter in conscience to giue anie thing from them nay not to giue all a man or woman hath or can possibly make for them in recompence of these so great and extraordinary giftes graces bestowed vpon them As though the least gift of God or drop of grace giuen in and by any sacrament ministred by any though the meanest priest be able to be counteruailed with all the wealth in the world which foule abuse is nothing else but a meere mentall Simonie vsurie sacriledge and most impious hypocrisie That this shamefull theft should not onely passe vnpunished in measure according to the qualitie condition and state of the person who taking vpon him a religious profession it aggrauates at least if it do not alter and change the sinne to be more hainous in him then in any other by many degrees of impiety But withal that the people should be set on to auow it as most iust conuenient to be so scil that no reliefe should be sent to anie opposite to a cursed pharisaicall Iesuites designements yea and that the Iesuits themselues should glory in it make their vaunt of it scil that they wil make all the secular priests leape at a crust ere it be long for so said that good holy father Iohn Gerrard of late to the Ladie Markham in Notingham shire who told it shortly after to Master Atkinson c. and that they will driue the Seculars perforce to yeeld vnto them for meere pouerty want The pillages of the Iesuits both in England and Scotland being so much the more odious by how much as spirituall robberies yea and that committed by religious seeming persons passe al temporall pilferings there are three in chiefe which are generally to be noted First a report of faculties gotten to abstract from what parsonage or vicarige they list all spiritualities for preuenting forsooth of symony thereby to make them meerely temporal and saleable and then being sold at the highest rates vpon pretence of deuiding the mony betwixt S. Peter and poore prisoners one good father or other comes with Dominus opus habet and makes alwaies the best part of it their owne cleare gaines Secondly alike to this is their order set downe for restitution as verbi gratia an vsurer or extraordinary gaine-maker by buying or selling or by anticipation or dilation of payment or a Lawyer taking more of Clients then his ordinary fees or a procurer of any euill cause also a landlord Sherife or other officer or persō whosoeuer that gets any thing falsly or indirectly for which a restitutiō as indeed there ought must be made because the parties often know not how much nor to whom to make it therefore must they compound forsooth with the fathers giuing certa pro incertis to Saint Peter and the prisoners but the fathers swallow vp all or the most of it yearly amounting to a mighty sum of mony some one man hauing giuen 500. pounds to that end Thirdly but amongst al their deuises to enrich increase their order their forme of meditatiō called by thē an holy exercise is worthy the noting for all others to beware of them that haue not felt the smart of it already and this practise is for such as are either for their pregnancie of wit learning or their parentage friends or their wealth possessions fit for the Iesuits purpose cannot otherwise but by the taking of this holy exercise be allured to their society this then is such a barbarous cruelty as I want words to expresse the abhominatiō of the sin Maister Tempest was so canuased amongst them that hauing his faculties taken from him and being thrust out a doores of his owne friends his father in law hiding his face whē he came in place where he was his owne sister not daring to owne nor acknowledge him nor to send him any reliefe and in few his ghostly father denying him to come at the Sacraments at length being thus cruelly dealt withall he was forced to yeeld to whatsoeuer they would vrge him vnto notwithstanding that as himselfe hath since confessed and told some of his friends he neuer to death could or should like of them in his hart knowing their tyranny and extreame cruelty to passe all measure against whomsoeuer they powred out their
coeur how to insinuate a detraction vnder colour of zeale religion affection or otherwise against any whom it stands them vpon either to haue as an affied friend on liue or else pull down as an infest foe vpon his knees to death or may they not do so THE ANSWERE IT is a most vnchristian Turkish hereticall and traiterous ground they stand vpon and a promontorie farre beyond all the capes and points of pietie lying out into the dead sea Persian gulfe or Stigian lake of perdition to affirme that all whosoeuer without exception of person time or place must be defamed detracted backbitten despised and borne down that are opposite to them and their designements And therfore by consequent their suffering if not vrging maintaining commanding the simpler sort so to do on their behalfes is a new way discouered by a backe doore set open to the entrance of the sorest hatefullest and most dangerous heresie that euer yet was in the Christian world which all true Catholike hearts will tremble to thinke on when they see the effects of it apparantly before their eyes as partly we haue alreadie and meane God willing to touch it a little further to the quicke ere these Quodlibets be all ended and bewaile they shall with feare griefe and anger at themselues that euer comming into the Catholike church with religious deuout sincere meaning care desire of sauing their owne poore soules for I am not of that wretch Parsons mind that none can be a right Catholike or established in Gods fauour vnlesse he runne his restlesse cursed race against his Prince countrey and deare friends none I verily thinke vnlesse it were some such Atheist as Parsons or an odde reprobate amongst a thousand but come to be Catholique of meere remorce of conscience for the loue of God and resolute beliefe that howsoeuer any other is perswaded this is the onely truth and way to walke in In which though they may be damned by dying impenitent for their offences yet out of it they cannot be saued liue they otherwise neuer so morally vertuous Comming then with this consolation as a speciall grace and meere gift of God infused into the soule of man fully bent to hazard credite honour fauour fortune goods lands life and all rather then to loose their soules by doing any one act against their owne conscience in points of religion and seruice of God for therein onely not in other affaires doth Saint Peters sentence hold obediendum maius est Deo quà m hominibus And being thus quieted in their mind voyding their thoughts of all temporizing statizing and seditious medlings with the affaires of Prince or Peer that they shold notwithstanding haue bene so readie to beleeue these new teachers of innouations rebellions inuasions conspiracies hatred of their Prince defamation of the blond royall of the land wishing for population to their natiue countrey hauocke spoile destruction of all for their ambitious vnnaturall vnlawfull pleasures and desires this shall grieue many a deuout Catholikes heart that euer after so many memorable constant worthie and happie conflicts with themselues in these daungerous times of soule-wrack they shold become so senslesse as to follow such false teachers and the erronious doctrine of the Iesuites in these cases this shall one day cause many a vertuous Ladie wring their hands for woe that euer they were so forward on these new Pharisees behalfe vnnaturally disloyally inhumanely bent against their Prince and countrey and indiscreetely irreligiously vncharitably against secular Priests This I say shall make them readie to eate their owne nailes to remember their rash vehement and cruell begunne persecution of their secular Priests their owne ghostly fathers the present Apostles of their countrey their dearest nearest and carefullest tender hearted friends prepared euery houre to come vpon their hands knees if need require to expose their poore worn out bodies for their sakes to the sorest trials on earth rather then any the least danger of soule-wracke should happen vnto them by their meanes or want of instruction comfort and consolation in their sufferance for Gods cause And considering that notwithstanding the Iesuites fautors a most seditious faction haue whetted their teeth to so sharpe an edge causelesse against those that neuer did them wrong but much good many waies as none of the common aduersaries were euer so eagerly bent against priesthood Priests in generall then they shew themselues to be therein by these cony-catching hypocriticall mates procurements yet still all being readie to shed their bloud in defence of one and the selfe same vniforme Catholike faith and religion maintained outwardly on both sides alike I say outwardly on both sides alike because no Iesuite dare as yet openly maintaine the contrarie It would seeme impossible how that euer such malice hatred deepe disdaine and contempt of any either Prince or Priest could rest in a Catholike heart as it doth generally in the Iesuites faction were it not that in like cases we find how many thousands of seeming good Catholikes and no doubt for the present were so morally outward for who doth see the hearts of men but God alone qui scrutator cordium est c. haue bene abused seduced and drawne by peecemeale into most horrible blasphemies heresies contempt of the chiefe mysteries and points of our saluation by such as at the first did hoyst vp sailes aloft bare as great a countenance and were as sound Catholikes as any Iesuite nay as any the most religious Priest Monke Nunne or Frier that is on liue and yet iust by like singularitie ambition arrogancie and aspiring humours fell away into such grosse errours and heresies as afterwards they did maintaine euen to death For neither Pelagius nor Beringarius nor Nouatus nor Arius nor any other but had as good holy vertuous deuoute religious and seeming setled and established men and women in the grace of God that were their followers at the first and that stoode in defence of them as earnestly faithfully resolutely deuoutly and zealously in their kind as any pure spirite these new illuminates haue at this present to pleade for them Neither did neither durst any of these heretickes maintaine their errour openly at the first but by degrees being crossed in their proud conceipts First they raised a sedition and dislike of their auncient fathers teachers and gouernours then taught secretly straunge paradoxes and opinions amongst the ignotant people which might be interpreted diuerse waies after that vt est natura hominum nouitatis auida finding how that new names straunge words and other nouelties out of vse in the Church of God as hereafter shall be proued of the Archpresbiterie did breede an admiration to be had of them as rare learned men and I know not what then from the mobile vulgus they proceeded further to draw great persons Nobles Honours and Graces promiscually vnto them vpon that againe perceiuing exceptions to be taken against them as there is alwaies some dogge in
into your society Was heauen made did Christ suffer his bitter death and passion left he an order in his Church that none should be admitted into a state of perfection but either rich folkes or Philosophers or Princes for howsoeuer you teach to the contrarie openly yet your practise sheweth it to be your meaning priuatly No no seditious Choristes Dathanians and Abironistes there is no such text of Scripture nor Cannon of Apostle nor Decree of ecumenicall Synode nor Tradition of the Church nor consent of Doctors nor rule nor principle nor any the least clause in the foundation of your society or confirmation of the same by the Apostolicall Romane Sea that makes for you in this point of singularity election and choice The doctrine of the Catholike Church consists of three speciall principia or causes rightly so tearmed in Christian Philosophie the one supplying locum materiae scil fides the other formae vel efficientis scil charitas and the last finalis scil spes called of Diuines the three Theologicals because they are all infused and none of them acquisite vertues The first is faith as the gate without which none can enter into Gods house either here militant on earth or triumphant in heauen for accedentem ad Deum oportet credere c. The second is charitie as the way by which poore sinners walke in their iourney towards heauen which whosoeuer wants if he haue faith able to remoue mountaines giue all he hath to the poore and his body to the fire yet without charitie shall he neuer come there Si charitatem non habuero nihil sum The third is hope as the finiall end of our entrance into the Church of God and cause of our progresse in a vertuous course of life therein which is to be partakers of a glorious resurrection and to enioy eternall blessednesse for if it were not in hope of this miserabiliores essemus omnibus hominibus Of these three the Apostle sayth manent tria haec fides spes charitas maior autem horum est charitas as much to say as this it is hope that moues vs to trot and trudge and take such paines to come to heauen it is faith that openeth the way thither without which God can neuer be pleased but charitie is the forme and cause efficient and therefore as a golden meane and chiefe of three she giues the Crowne to King and Queene and remaines in heauen for euermore Now tell me you illuminates of high aspires wherein doth your familiaritie and approximation to the inaccessible light consist I know you will not be Solifidians because you smell more of Familians And if you will be neither of both but beleeue as the Catholike Church beleeues then why doth not your words and deedes agree in one You know our sweete Sauiour died for all alike and yet neither all nor halfe nor third nor tenths of all shall be saued You know the merits of Christ Iesus extended on his part equally to Iew and Gentile Christian and Heathen faithfull and infidell Catholike and Heretike and aswell to those that liued in the time of his death and passion as to those that died in Noes time or are now or shall be borne hereafter to the worlds end and yet but one kind to wit the faithfull liuers members of the Catholike Church for vnus Deus vna fides vnum Baptisma vnica est columba mea and would God all of that one company and body mysticall might be saued You know it is not Gods will absolute but permissiue that any one soule should perish and yet herein is an insoundable deapth which a nearer friend of Gods then any of you are calling to mind the Prophets speech Iacob dilexi Esau autem semper odio habui durst neuer define vpon but concluded with nescit homo vtrum odio vel amore dignus sic You know that infirma elementa huius mundi elegit Deus vt fortia quaeque confunderet that Christ chose for his Apostles innocent plaine and simple men without gust or gaule welt or gard and that he confessed vnto his heauenly father humbly acknowledged it as a speciall fauor quia abscondisti haec sayth he à sapientibus prudentibus reuelasti ea paruulis Which paruuli I can neuer be perswaded was meant of the Iesuiticall elated spirite but rather of a Seraphicall Frier whose patron sweete S. Francis hath iustly for his innocency and true humility abounding in his charitie that Ghospell appointed for his day In few you know that if heauen were onely prepared for rich men then beggers might go abegging indeede If for Gentles Nobles and great Princes then boores pesants carters and plow-men might well intreate Peers Penilesse to make a supplication for them to the diuell If for Academickes Peripatetickes Stoickes Epicures and other Philosophers or else if for Samothists Solonists Licurgions and other Lawyers or otherwise if for Petrists Thomistes Scotists and other schoolemen learned wise and profound Clearkes then poore soules what should become of simple men and silly women they might all go hang themselues in deepe despaire If all these three be required in one person as commonly you Iesuites hunt after such buckes of the first head but yet with a veluet pawme then alas for woe how shall euer those come in heauen that haue neither qualitie of body to get it nor gift of mind to gaine it nor quillet of land to buy it nor quidditie of wit to keepe it No no proud Pharisees you are deceiued Non est personarum exceptio coram Deo neither hath he left the kingdome of heauen to be giuen to one more then to another for any humane gift or qualitie in them Sed qui potest capere capiat It is layd open to all alike and onely the truest louers carrie away the greatest trophees and charitable emulation who may loue their Lord God most deerely that is the onely spirituall strife for heauen amongst all those that euer come thither regnum caelorum vim patitur violenti rapiunt illud It is neither gotten by poyse of words by pregnancie of wit by bragge of birth by boast of wealth by dint of sword or pricke of speare Onely such a pricke doth pricke it as prickes the heart of God and man and no humane creature is exempted but all admitted to haue that heauenly Caduceus striken into their hearts Not the poorest begger nor simplest soule nor basest body that liues but hath the touch of loue and affections as naturally inserted in his will as hath the greatest Monarch vnder heauen and therefore all alike neare to God by creation by redemption by natures incline in euery one Loue diuine which we call charity making no distinction of persons but by the measure of their affections And so true it is dimissa sunt ei peccata multa quoniam dilexit multum Et qui plus diligit ei plus dimittitur Hereupon riseth the common opinion to carry
against the Iesuits which euery catholike priest is bound vnto to make things knowne and euery loyall subiect and dutifull childe is to take notice thereof for auoiding their owne danger both of body and soule Therefore must it needs follow that forasmuch as a libell or inuectiue imports a calumniation or slander against any or many publike or priuate persons vpon a special peculiar intent either of reuenge or preferring a priuate faction or action in opposition against a publike cause the matter here handled and the wrong done being no priuate hurt but a publike harme no sole foule danger but a common-wealth damage no indiuiduall action of the person but a specificall or rather genericall faction of the case that is heere in request amongst vs on the behalfe of the catholike church in generall and our natiue countrey togither with all other common-wealths * It may not be left nor accounted of as a libelling against the seditious Iesuits and their priuate faction but turning backe the diuels malice vpon himselfe and their slanders of the innocent vpon their owne heads I conclude that as the relinquishing of the Iesuits for Pharisees and conspirators against God and their countrey as they are were the safest way for all catholikes schismatiks or other of their and the Puritanes fautors so were it also the Iesuits best course to auoide the lande and those pure spirited children of theirs that will come now at no seculars nor much lesse heereafter if they euer depart it were best for them to be packing with them and make triall what will be the end of them both if they delight so much as it seemeth they doe in nouelties and change and when they are all gone and the great new Abbot with them or whether they be all exiled and banished the land or no which were great pittie but they should let them know this that the Church of God hath no neede of any of them and the common-wealth much lesse as both being now so pestered with them as a greater securitie could not come to either state Ecclesiasticall or temporall then to concurre by one consent vtterly to expell them the land And although it greeues my very hart to thinke that so many vertuous and truely sincere catholikes and religious men and women are deluded by their Pharisaicall life so much as greatly it is to be feared because greatly if it happen to be lamented that if they should fall into manifest Apostasie or open rebellion as they are in a great forwardnesse to both or any other execrable error these fondlings would follow them euen into hell mouth spite of priest or pope himselfe so vainly are many perswaded of them Yet false prophets shall they prooue and so let them trust vnto it as a generall receiued veritie of all true catholikes throughout the world and flat heresie to defend the contrary that shall dare presume to affirme the fall and stand of the catholike church faith and religion to depend vpon them No no if euery one of their brokers were a professed Iesuit and euery professed Iesuite a prouinciall ouer a 1000. Rectors and euery Rector had vnder him 10000. ministers and euery minister so many nouices euery nouice a Parsonian spirite and after all this if the prowd gates of infernall dungeons were broken vp and that they had all the helpes out of Stix Corceris and Fligiton that olde satanas Segnior Belzebuh Don Lucifer or Damp. Bemoth could affoord them yet neither should they neither could they euer preuaile against the impregnable rocke which standing post alone would split them all one after another THE VIII ARTICLE VVHether was it of secret intelligence giuen from some of the Lords of the Counsell or did it rise onely of a Iesuiticall Machiuillian deuise that catholikes should haue such a iealousie and feare as many seeme to haue least these proceedings of certaine secular priests against the Iesuits togither with the extraordinary intercourse betwixt them and the State be like to occasionate all the said catholikes ouerthrow heeretofore or not THE ANSWERE IT was spoken of late as from a Lady of high renowne to one of her women in her bed chamber but I will not say the Countesse spoke it because her woman not her Lady was Iesuited and therefore likely to be a plot of her ghostly fathers fathered vpon her honorable Mistres that neither her Maiestie nor the Lords of her Highnesse honorable Counsell ment any more good or scant so much to the seculars as to the Iesuits but only for the time present to get out of the seculars being but simple men what they coulde by this meanes and first set them forward to worke out the Iesuits and then to picke a quarrell at the saide seculars to make them all away c. Which wordes smell so ranke of a Iesuiticall breth as they can not be imagined to come of any other spirite First for the great indignitie included in them to regall Maiesty especially against our dread Soueraigne and honorable Counsell as to impute vnto them so cruell and neuer heard of the like tyranny to massacre the innocent who labouring wholy for her Maiesties realmes safety desire nothing to themselues but an abiect quiet in a frownd on state Secondly for the accustomed arrogancie of a Iesuiticall spirite in that in contempt of priesthood and all seculars they would impute this danger to come as their manner is by reason of the seculars want of experience c. Thirdly be it so as it were too to preiudiciall presumptuous and saucie a part for any subiect especially liuing in like to this of our frownd on state to cause any such iealousie to be had of their Soueraigne and honorable Counsel that no good were ment but hard measure intended to be offred to the innocent by shedding of guiltlesse bloud adding affliction to affliction and so increasing all our miseries by this small comfort of liberty graunted to some few particulars yet three commodities would ensue heereof which now we al do want one is that we should then suffer but one kinde of persecution whereas now we suffer two at once the Iesuits tongue torments being more cruel and heauie vnto vs then our aduersaries racks ropes or Tiburne tippets an other is that if we may by meanes of his holinesse commaund get riddance of the Iesuits hence out of the land and an absolute confinde libertie granted to all catholike prisoners we should not then feare to die of famine which now many are very like shortly to die of vnlesse her Maiestie take pittie of them euen of her innate princely disposition and of her meere mercy all that be in Framlingham castel readie to starue already as receiuing no maintenance nor reliefe of the common beneuolence And a third but not the least is an assured hope that by such a means al should die glorious martyrs as freed from those factious seditions and trayterous dispositions wherewith Parsons that traitor attainted hath
a holier place then earth the land of Eden far before Palestine Paradise terrestriall alwaies to be preferred before Hierusalem and yet out of these haue our fellow Angels and Israels ancestors mans protophlast both bene thrust out with infliction of perpetuall exile out of heauen vpon the former and an inhibition to the latter neuer to returne into the countrey of Eden nor garden of Paradise againe and then à simili no reason of their returne home to the land of behest hereafter nor to account them Gods people th◠〈◊〉 Nation and the like more then any other inhabitants vpon the 〈◊〉 the middle earth seeing all are one by creation as come of one man Adam all one by preseruation as we are appointed to guarde the Persians with as tender care ouer them as you haue ouer the Iewes and so hath euery guardian Angell ouer that countrey and people allotted to his custody all one by Synderisis and instinct of proper kinde as inclined to seeke for good to eschewe euill and wishing after summum bonum if in paris naturalibus they could haue obtained it and all one by relation betwixt the D. attributes and mans deserts on Gods part as one qui neminem vult perire sed omnes animas saluas facere aswell Gentile as Iewe or proselite Yet for all this an other Angell replied and it was our blessed Ladies paranimphe Saint Gabriell as may be well coniectured because Daniell saith that this holy spirite appeered vnto him from the beginning and told him of things to come towards the end of the world what should happen in these latter daies and how the Septuaginta Hebdomades were abbreuiated ouer his people and ouer the holy citie meaning Hierusalem This Archangell then reuiued the plea on the Iewes behalfe that needes they must returne to Hierusalem againe to repaire the holy Citie to restore the Temple to reinstall their high priest to consecrate the altar to annoint the holy of holies to purge the place of sacrifice polluted by the Gentiles and to exercise their many ceremonies sacraments and sacrifices which were not to be vsed made or offered extra ciuitatem sanctam Hierusalem and bicause that after 62. weeks vnderstand 8. Hebdomads to be first ended in time of this altercation and despicion amongst the Angels occidetur Christus therefore to confirme what God hath promised by his Angels speaking in the mouth of his prophets the Iewes of necessitie must returne againe that God may be glorified his church florish and his priests offer sacrifice vnto him in the place appointed them But to this roundly and readily Malachies Angell made answere agreeing to the minde of the Persians guardian that as he had said so true it was that non est personarum acceptio apud Deum but that who when and in what place soeuer the name of God shall be called vpon there then and by that same person shall his name be glorified And for the particulars Hierusalem in deed was the holy city and so it should be counted to the worlds end not for that Adam was therein created liued died and his scul buried in mount Caluarie not for that it was the seate of the holy line deuoluted from Adam to Christ not for that the law the prophets the sacrifice and the high priests gaue the prerogatiues of all sanctitie and holines to this place before any other But that which made that land holy that people holy that line holy that city holy was bicause the holy of all holies Christ Iesus the sonne of God and Mary the immaculate tressacred blessed virgine came out of that line liued in that land was linked in blood to that people by the two tribes of Iuda and Leui kings and priests watred many a house with his teares and sanctified that citie with his owne most pretious blood imbruing the streetes earth and stones from Pilats palace to Caiphas his place and from thence to the Caluarian mount without the gates of the citie Whose personall birth life and death as they left an inestimable sanctitie behinde them to that land so the Iewes wilfully depriuing themselues of so inualuable a price as he paied for mans redemption haue woorthily deserued an vtter extirpation of their race a subuersion of their state and a captiuity bondage and slauerie of themselues and their posteritie for euer And although there had been and were during the time of captiuitie many holy religious and deuout men and women amongst them yet not onely bicause the greatest part of the multitude and sundry of their kings princes and gouernors had offended their Lord God in the highest degree which is in schisme heresie and apostasie with idolatrie so highly displeasing the diuine maiestie as the punishment of those vices hath alwaies beene this videl a conquest of the land a downefall of nobilitie a desolation of the state a deflowring of their virgins a dishonoring of their wiues a massacre of their ancients a population of the common wealth and a seruile life to all their youth led captiues out of their natiue land But withall as the Persian had said bicause the prouidence in appointing of Guardians for euery prouince prince people and particular person had been in vaine and to no purpose if God should for euer withdraw his mercie frō all saue only those of his owne flesh and blood as he was a Iew borne and if our Iewes prophets spoke in generall when they said that Deus non vult mortem peccatoris sed magis vt conuertatur viuat then can it be no otherwise but that the Hebrues Israelites and Iewes hauing continued these three thousand and od hundreds of yeeres vnder one kinde of true worship of our Lord God the onely visible Church true faith sacrifice and religion remaining inuiolate amongst them alone reason doth conuince on the part of man and mercy and iustice on Gods behalfe doth ratifie and confirme the argument to be good lawfull and expedient that the Iewes should be dispersed before the Messias come into so many nations prouinces and kingdomes of the Gentiles as his holy will is to haue partakers of his merits And all this to the end that the Gentiles being by creation in God himselfe and preseruation in the power of his angels his owne people as well as they liuing now in darknes ouerwhelmed with ignorance and giuen ouer vnto prophane idolatrie might by this their conuersing and familiar liuing amongst them come to haue some knowledge of their end that there is another world after this and that they are to acknowledge honor and latrially adore but one God alone That this was the meaning of the holy Ghost Malachies corrupt heretikes The former constantly expecting Gods iust designments in these causes alledge that they come as Apostles of their countrie whose peculiar propertie is to conuert soules by suffering their owne blood to be shed not in procuring the shedding of any others Sanguis enim martyrum est semen
a catholike nay of a Christian nay of a humane creature but of a beast or a deuill a violater of all lawes a contemner of all authority a staine of humanity an impostume of all corruption a corrupter of all honestie and a Monopole of all mischiefe From whom as from the source of all our sorrowes doe daily ebbe flowe and rise vp to full floods in bubbles of bloud and teares new spring tides of our English calamities keeping vs all continually tossed to and fro vpon the Ocean maine of incessant sadnes All eies of enemies casting a greedie looke after the long expected pray he hath put them in hope of all our friends bewailing our heady downefall in his plotted intendments all English harts irritated by him our soueraignes life often sought for our country standing betraied into the enemies hands our selues poore innocent men and women that be catholikes and ignorant of his bloudy practises and vnnaturall designements haue already felt the smart of his wickednesse whilest he like a faint soldier nay a dastardly coward for neuer expect manhood in Machiauel high prowes in politikes nor valour in vices and a false deceitfull shepheard did winde himselfe out of the bryars and left both vs and Christ his flocke to the spoile And would God he had but onely left for then should we haue found no want of far his betters there hauing euer bene better then he for learning wisedome gouernement and all true tokens of vertue pietie and religion euen when he was at the best which was at the time of his writing the Resolution a very commendable and worthy work in deed though neither of any so high points aboue ordinary capacitie as to merite him the name of a schooleman or yet of any great or profound diuine being but a plaine positiue discourse and that not of his owne absolute inuention but taken out of other authors onely the praise being his for well translating of it close couching and packing it vp together in a very smooth stile and singular good method wherein truely he was to be commended But was all this comparable to Salomon to Origen to Appollinaris and many moe who lost their good spirits by their selfe conceits he his by his proud ambitious harts aspires so vnable now to speake or write of any spiritual priestly or religious matter as a very reuerend priest comming ouer of late told me that he neuer heard a meaner sermon made beyond the seas then he had heard of father Parsons and that his words and writings for edifying or giuing any good instruction and ghostly counsell were as barren bare and far from his former abilities on that behalfe as if he had been before father Robert Parsons the Iesuit and now poore George Parsons the waiward foole his brother Thus it is when proud Nimrods will presume to build Babel aboue the welkin take vpon them to be strong hunters coram Domino and thinke to face it out that the outward apparance and habite onely may forestall carrie away and preiudicate mens conceits where the effects disclaime to the contrary crying out against him that he hath lost the spirit he had through his arrogancie and abuses of Gods graces If he be a religious man he is in the number of monasticks what hath he then to doe with the world to coosen the innocent and heape together this mucke of the molde If he be a Iesuit he hath by profession sequestrated himselfe from all medling in secular affaires what hath he then to doe with common wealthes titles successions and princes proceedings If he haue abiured all pompe maiestie and glorie here on earth he is for a church and a cloister not for courts and palaces what hath he then to doe in determining of state matters to court to monarches to cap to crownes to canton kingdomes and to crowne kings and Queenes with pamphlets as he pleaseth If he be a priest his office is to pray and offer sacrifice for the liuing and the dead piè religiose de resurrectione mortuorum cogitans for the popes holines and all cardinals bishops and clergy the whole church of God here militant on earth for the vnitie league peace and concord amongst all Christian princes for the conuersion of all nations to the catholike Roman Church for the extirpation of all Paganisme Iudaisme Turcisme infidelitie schisme and heresie for the preseruation of his prince and countrie from all inuading foes ciuill warres and other enimies both bodily and ghostly for all the nobles and peeres of his soueraignes realme for his owne flesh and blood friends and kinred if he haue any as being filius terrae he is of a great Clan base though it be In few if a vestall virgine in time of gentilisme could not be brought to vtter any curse execration or imprecation against an enimie of Rome bicause as she said in pagan rite her office was to pacifie not to punish to preserue not to put downe and to pray for all not to persecute any then much more ought this to be a christian catholike religious priests office and charge then what hath he to doe in Campo Martio with Bellonaes banner to ballance his pen with gastfull gores of English blood or to imbrew a priestly hand in princes bowels O monster of mankinde fitter for hell then middle earth If thy profession will not draw thee to consideration of the premises yet shewe some signes of charitie in sparks of grace if it were but onely in policie to mooue thee to forbeare thy barbarous cruelty bicause thereby thou giuest occasion for diuers to thinke thou art not a meere man but some Fairies brat or begotten by an Incubus or aerish spirit vpon the body of a base womā And there fore imitating thy vile progenitors thou daily dost minister new matter to increase our home persecutions by thy spritish crueltie Princes are alwaies iealous many times haue iust cause and euer more then any other priuate person to be so for the greater honors the greater mo grieuouser osors Why dost thou then not now surcease frō prouoking our prince to be suspitious of vs by thy trecheries after the blood of an hundred martyrs all innocent men and reuerend priests shed by thy meanes Loe wretch is not this ynough to giue thee a gorge to glut a cormorants mew neuer satiated with our blood Leaue of leaue of leaue of it is not possible for all you Iesuits in the world with all the helpe of hell and puritanes to band it out Your plants are blasted in the bud your corne shaken before the reape and your whole societie become infamous by your prouincials most hatefull platforms And howsoeuer these Quodlibets or other discoueries of your hypocrisie be hardly taken of some for a time and holden of many for odious libels yet in tract of time when passions are alaid and blinde affections haue referred the matter to reason to consider of then questionles both men and