to be sufficient You proceede to the reckning vp of our pretences for so it phansieth your pen to by-name the reasons following as though all were false colours and no truth at all and thus you repeate them as obiected by vs. 1. It is a thing deuised by the Iesuites I trust you will not make shew to deny this the truth being so cleare as the light of the Sunne when it shineth And if you do a number of conuincing testimonies can be brought against you and you by gainesaying so euident a truth will giue vs good cause to take heede how farre we beleeue you in doubtfull and vnknowne matters 2. The Superior is one of the Iesuites owne choosing This also we auerre for a certaine truth and auow further that not only the Superior but all the assistants are likewise of your choosing as Maister Blackwell himselfe neither could nor did deme nor seemed vnwilling to acknowledge And what greater soueraigntie would you seeke to carrie ouer vs if you might haue your wishes being in the dignitie of priesthood and in the labours for our countrie by many yeares our iuniors 3. Why should the Iesuites appoint vs a Superior more then we a Generall to them If the resemblance be not good I praye shew the difference that disproueth and the reasons why you may elect our Superior and we not yours 4. It is the fine head of Father Parsons that hath inuented this Omit the epitheton I meane so farre as it carrieth the nature of a quipping word and the residue we maintaine belieuing there is no one who will not wilfully blind himselfe but seeth so much For what can be clearer if particulars be compared or what lesse denyable or more manifest then that whereof his owne letters to Maister Doctor Pearse to Maister Doctor Worthington and others beare witnes infalliblie Therefore good sir where you let not to affirme that God hath made Maister Blackwell our Superior you are to proue prouing your assertion that father Parsons act was Gods deede and what the one the other did which will be somewhat hard for you to do in respect of the indirect dealing which father Parsons vsed in sending ouer word vnto vs to desist from further proceeding to the choosing of a Superior as from a matter I wot not of what ill consequence and he himselfe notwithstanding to labour and effect it vnder-hand contrary to the purport of his message and all our knowledges The Cardinall addressed a letter as you know to two reuerend Priests while they were on the way to England and in it made speciall mention of two apostolicall Breues which his Holines had then newly set forth The letter signed with his Graces seale and subscribed with his owne hand rehearsed the contents of both in manner following Sua Sanctitas Breue apostolicū edidit Datum apud Sanctū Marcum sub anulo Piscatoris die decimo octauo huius mensis septembris praesentis anni 1597. quo prohibet omnino ne quis Anglicanae nationis quoad illud Regnum ad religionis Catholicae ac sedis Apostolicae vnionem redierit Doctoratus gradum in theologia vel iure accipiat nisi post cursum quatuor annorum expletum alios adhuc quatuor annos ad ea quae didicit perpolienda impendat neque tunc etiam nisi habeat suberioris Collegij in quo vltimò studuerit licentiam in scriptis cum Protectoris vel vices eius gerentis assensu qui secus fecerit illum poenam excommunicationis ipsi sedi Apostolicae reseruatae ipso facto incurrere neque praeterea gradum quem accepit vllum esse omnino sed prorsus inualidum Edidit praeterea This Breue was neuer seene for ought we euer heard sua Sanctitas aliud Breue exhortatorium ac consolatorium ad Catholicos Anglicanos pijssimum illud quidem ac verè Apostolicum quo eos ad constantiam patientiam longanimitatem coeterasque virtutes hortatur praecipue vero concordiam pacem ac vnionem quae coeterarum omnium virtutum fundamenta sunt atque vincula eosque vitent qui seditiones ac diuisiones seminant Good sir as I may be deceiued so perhaps I am yet vnder correction I must thinke that there may be framed out of these a dilemma or forked argument that maketh euery way greatly for vs. Either the reported Breues were set forth or not set forth If set forth then what should perswade that his Holines wisedome and diligent regard being alike circumspect and prouident in making forth his particular and speciall Briefes for ordering the precedents would in enacting this new authoritie a much more iealous and contentious subiect forget or neglect or refuse to do the like or more Shall we attribute to his sacred fatherhood prudence vigilancie and maturest consideration in small matters take them frō his Holines in great His Holines possesseth the Chaire that hath the promis of diuine assistance He is our holie Father and therefore retaineth care of continuing peace among vs his children as the dignitie requireth so his Holines is full of charitie benignitie and compassion and therefore much vnlike especiallie while the Magistrate is in drawing his sword against vs that his Holines would appoint a meere punishing authoritie that neuer had an example and not so much as signifie to vs the constitution thereof by Bull Briefe or other Papall instrument but as if our case function and trauels were despiseable to leaue vs to the reports of others for notice thereof who as to his Holines knowledge deedes haue proued incline more to fauour that is against vs then to friend or causes And to say as some say or as they say who say most that his Holines wisedome omitted to make forth a Briefe thereof for feare of trouble and prouoking the State is so light and superficiall a reason as it best answereth it selfe in his owne weakenes For what greater trouble could such a Briefe cause which the institution of the new authoritie causeth not more Neither do we demand the transporting of the Briefe though we see no more danger therein then in sending ouer the Cardinals letters yea much lesse because the pot that goeth often to the water is likelier at length to returne broken then that which was vsed but once The fauour and iustice we sue for is only canonicall notice of that which is done For this we call for this we haue long and often called and for this shall we still continue calling being both iust and reasonable and the performāce of no difficultie nor requiring time were the authoritie his Holines ordinance On the other side if no such two Briefes were set forth as I am sure you will not grant then must father Parsons the archdeuiser thereof be much too blame in getting the Cardinals hand subscription and seale to the aforesaid Letter and iust cause administred why we should suspect the like peece of cunning in other letters that haue come from the Cardinall
soeuer the same was meant by vs was neuerthelesse alike offensiuely taken by our Arch-priest as his Reuerence did not only most peremptorily reiect them all but returned in his answere that impenitencie of heart and an obstinate will of sinning being the more grieuous phrensie drew vs to the That is called by our Arch-priest a destructiō of peace and order which the Canons of holie Church appointed for the preseruation of peace and order making of the requests and that our petition of hauing the Arch-priest and the assistance to be chosen hereafter by the voyces of the Priests who were to obey was the destruction of peace and the perturbation of order in the Church being in truth the expresse decree of holie a Ca. 1. de electi Canons and the customarie forme of electing Superiors ouer the whole Christian world Againe his Reuerence tearmed our demaund of hauing the treatise of schisme reuersed an vnreasonable request because as he gaue the reason the medicine ought not to be remoued before the sore be thoroughly cured applying besides these words of scripture vnto vs stiffe-necked and of vncircumcised hearts and eares alwayes resisting the holy Ghost with many other alike exciting speeches Not long after the exhibiting of the aforesaid conditions his Holines Breiue arriued and we presently without any stay receiued Maister Blackwell to our Arch-priest and yeelded him our obedience yea such was our affection to vnitie as for desire thereof we were content to pardon all the iniuries and defamations past being many in number and in qualitie most grieuous At this very time our Archpriest wrote likewise a common Letter willing and commaunding all Priests not to vpbraide and impute the fault of schisme any more vnto vs. Which fauour so to call the surceassing of most grieuous wrongs we know not whether it moued sorrow or no in the Iesuites who perhaps had conceiued some feare least the concord begun might diminish the authoritie and sway they carryed with the Archpriest being linked now to his body and brethren but most certaine it is that not many weekes after the making of this generall attonement father Iones a Priest of the Societie gaue forth and defended the assertion that whosoeuer should stiffely maintaine that our refusall to the subordination appointed before the arriuall of his Holines Breue did not make vs schismatickes incurred by such his patronage of our case the censures of holy Church Which vnreasonable position our Archpriest my selfe acquainting him therewith affirmed to be true as there hath bin nothing hitherto written or spoken by the Fathers against vs which his Reuerence how vnprobable and iniurious soeuer the same was hath not soothed and to his power sought to iustifie Neither did his Reuerence after the aforesaid prohibition only allow and defend this strange saying of father Iones but also he himselfe diuulged a resolution both declaring that we were schismaticks by our refusall and directing all Priests not to apply the benefite of absolution vnto vs vnlesse we did acknowledge the offence and make satisfaction for it Which reuiuall of matters rising so directly and in points of like importance both from the Societie and from our Archpriest and for that also some of our fellowes were thorough the diuulging of the foresaid resolution denyed absolution in the sacrament of penance and not suffered to celebrate in some places where they came and where before they had bin well accoumpted of we not seeing a fitter meane either of easing our distresses or of relieuing our good names framed the Petition following to our Arch-priest Verie Reuend Father WE humblie beseech you that the extreame necessitie of the hard tearmes our good names are brought into may both excuse the boldnes if bounden indeuour to put off so great a hurt may be called boldnes and encline your consideration to take in good part the proposing of our request Your Reuerence and others do still affirme and seeme to auow the opinion more and more that we incurred the crime and penalties of schisme in not absolutely admitting your Authoritie before the ariuall of his Holines Breue our first certaine notice of his priuitie thereunto Would God therefore it might please you deere sir for perfit tryall of the truth the thorow ending of the controuersie to licence that we may conferre reason or dispute the case with the conditions vnder specified Good manners and more the duties of obedience forbid vs to name or request you to be one of the disputants being our Superior but if your owne desires shall carrie you to the yeelding of your most help for better declaration and strengthening of the issue we shall hartilie greete the fauour and rest fuller satisfied in respect we wish the vttermost that can be said and vrged against vs. For certes if we see our selues we do neither affect to be misled by errour or dwell in ignorance or presupposing that we are deceiued seeke for ought more then to haue the noted crime fortified with the proofes that may most reproue and conuict our guiltines Among all the meanes our poore wits could thinke of this appeared of most force and the readiest as well to let the mistaken see their faile as also to mediate a generall attonement in regard the rules of conscience bind to acknowledge a truth when it is euidentlie shewed and the agnizing induceth to satisfaction and satisfaction hath right and authoritie as well to cancell iniuries past as also to inuite loue for the time to come Two soueraigne effects and being the natiue begetters and nourcers of peace cannot but bring great ioy and edification to many If therefore your better iudgement shall like to ratifie this course and vouchsafe to giue vs notice the aduertisement will much glad vs and shall indebt vs for dutifull thanks to your Reuerence for the kindnes Neither without good cause for if the difference be not after this way decided alas we see no remedie but of constraint our good names bleeding alike pittifullie as they do and the wound so oft and hardlie rubbed on as it is we must either wittinglie suffer perpetuall infamie to come vpon vs or take our pennes in hand cleere our selues as we may A processe that feareth because great likelihood our apologie shall receiue an answere the answere require a reply the reply occasion a reioynder and so the difference become a circle that is to say without end vnlesse How neere is this prediction true it be that lamentable end which the Apostle specifying sayd quod si inuicem mordetis comeditis videte ne ab inuicem consumamini if ye bite and deuoure one another take heed least ye be not consumed one of another To flye this gulfe and eschue so idle wast of so much time that we say nothing of the scandall we most submissiuely intreate your good Reuerence to graunt for your selfe and solicite the Fathers that we may in this sort the shortest as we deeme and the
receiued from his Holinesse do pronounce and declare that those first letters of our Institution did truly bind all the Catholicks in England and that those who haue any wayes wittingly impugned our authority were truly disobedient to the See Apostolike and rebellious against our office instituted by the same See And a little after We forbid all Priests in vertue of holie obedience and vnder paine of suspension and interdict the absolution whereof we reserue to our selues I adde also the losse of all their faculties to be incurred ipso facto the Laiety likewise vnder paine of interdict to be incurred ipso facto that none of them presume in any wise by word or writing directly or indirectly to defâ—nd that former disobedience the cause of so great perturbation of peace amongst vs. Instructed by long experience what great inconueniences haue growne to the vpholding of discord by those priuie meetings which in former yeares we haue prohibited so farre as they haue bin the nourishments of schismes do therefore once againe strictly forbid all such assemblies commaunding all our assistents and other reuerend Priests that they aduertise vs of all such meetings and assemblies which tend not to the furtherance of piety and hospitality or of ciuility and peace And we prohibit vnder paine of suspension from diuine functions and losse of all faculties that no Priest in any wise by word or writing goe about either to seeke or giue any voyces for what cause soeuer before the same be knowne to be communicated with vs or with two of our assistents These things are in the aforesaid Decree For which intollerable wrongs and oppressions and many other indignities which we haue indured these two yeares space and more and for that likewise we do not know whether your Reuerence hath any authority at all to make Decrees seeing no such facultie appeareth in the Constitutiue Letter In the name of God Amen In the yeare of our Lord 1600. 13. Indiction the 17. day of the moneth of Nouember and in the 9. yeare of the Papacy of our most holy Father Clement by the prouidence of God the eight of that name We English Priests whose names are vnder-written finding our selues agrieued in the premises and fearing more grieuous oppressions in time to come do make our appeale and prouocation to the Sea Apostolike and aske of you Maister George Blackwell the first second and third time instantly more instantly and most instantly our Apostles or dimissory letters submitting our selues and all we haue persons faculties goods and rights to the tuition protection and defence of our most holy Father Clement the eight and to the See Apostolike And we make this our appeale in our owne names and in the names both of the Cleargie and Laiety of which later there are many hundreds whose names for iust causes are concealed that adhere vnto vs by meanes of the controuersie of schisme or in any of the aforesaid matters or dependance or prosecution thereof or after any other sort desiring if there be any thing to be added taken away or changed for the more validitie of these presents that the same may be added taken away or changed as the forme of lawe shall require Giuen at Wisbich the yeare and day of the moneth Indiction and the yeare of the Papacy as aboue Thomas Blewet Christopher Bagshaw Christopher Thules Iames Tayler Iohn Thules Edmund Caluerley William Coxe Iames Cope Iohn Colleton George Potter Iohn Mush William Watson William Clarke Iohn Clinsh Oswell Needem Roger Strickland Robert Drury Francis Momford Anthony Hebbourne Anthony Champney Iohn Bingley Iohn Boswell Robert Thules Cuthbert Troolop Robert Benson Richard Button Francis Foster Edward Bennet Iohn Bennet William Mush Since the making of this Appeale there are others who haue subscribed thereunto and giuen their names as Maister Doctor Norris Maister Roger Cadwalader and Maister Iasper Lobery beside some other who for feare of the extremitie vsed against the Appellants durst not their friends being few and their state meane manifest themselues to our Arch-priest but sent their Appeales by our bretheren that are gone to Rome The Letter following was sent together with the Appeale VEry Reuerend Sir we send you our Appeale herein inclosed and haue prefixed the reasons to the end your self denying to mitigate the rigour on foote against vs our countrie may see till further satisfaction come foorth whereupon the discreete may suspend their condemnation of vs. Another cause that alike moueth vs thereunto was the affiance we hold that your Reuerence vnderstanding our grounds in this full maner would neither reiect the appeale nor blame vs for the making and lesse punish vs for a necessitie so many wayes behoouable Againe our pouertie want of meanes skill and friends to prosecute the matter did not a little perswade the particularizing of some of our pressures in regard the persons whose helps we are to solicite in the managing of the busines may the more willingly viewing the measure of our oppressions yeeld vs their most furtherance How long and with what discontentment of my fellowes I haue prolonged the sending of the appeale in hope of a more quiet issue in the difference none almost that are of our side but can witnes And now being brought in dispaire of expecting any such good end by the tenour of your yesterdayes Letter I can but grieue and commend the successe to God Concerning that part of your last Edict which forbiddeth vnder heauiest penalties either to giue or collect suffrages vpon any cause soeuer before the same be communicated to your selfe or to two of your reuerend assistants how hard soeuer the Iniunction appeareth yet for obedience we acquaint you by these with our determination of procuring other our bretheren to subscribe to the appeale and as their names shall come to our hands so to send them vnto your Reuerence Thus beseeching the goodnes of almightie God euer to guide you to the doing of his holie will I take my leaue Nouember 25. 1600. Dutifully yours I. Colleton Now our precedent appeale being à grauamine from aggreuances we were consequently bound to a Pan. in ca. vt debitus de appel nu 38. in Clement ca. appellanti dâ— appel nu 1. Decius in ca. vt debitus de appel â—u 83. alij expresse particularly the causes of our appellation b Clement ca. appellanti de appel nor could we by law alleage any other causes though neuer so notorious in the prosecution of the appeale then such only as we had before set downe in the same Which plainely sheweth the necessity we had to particulate and prefixe them in the maner we did And to the end they might appeare not to be feigned we quoted the letters annexed the date and cited the words which deliuer the aggreuances Againe it seemeth most strange how this orderly course the Canons c Ca. super â—o secundo de appel licensing euery one to appeale vpon reasonable cause none of
of the appeale he ought and is bound to deferre thereunto And the reason is because appellation doth alwaies implie an vniustice receiued or intended and in things doubtfull the ſ Salo◠de iustitia q. 63. art 4. contr 2. concl 2. regula 11. de reg iur lib. 6. diuine law naturall and humane declareth that the case of the agrieued or sufferer is to be preferred A Fift essentiall point wherein our Archpriest seemeth likewise to transgresse the lawes of holie Church is that his Reuerence hauing admitted my appeale à grauaminibus futuris from future agrieuances deliuered me my apostles or dimissory letters would * From the 20. of December to the 21. of February following some few weekes after notwithstanding this his formall allowance of the Appeale suspend interdict and redouble the taking away of my faculties and this vpon no new offence which was notorious but See these things set downe in his own letter pag. 190. euen for consenting to the prefixing of the causes before the appeale which himselfe admitted and for making answere to a lay Gentleman his letter the copie whereof is set downe before and lastly for that three of the appellants did denye the giuing of their assents to the said causes which were prefixed All a Ca. super de appel Ca. Romana ca. sià Iudice de appel lib. 6. Panormitan in ca. ad reprimendam de off iudi ordi nu 9. Silu. verb. appellatio nu 1. lawes and writers do assigne these two effects to euery appeale admitted viz. the suspending of the superiours iurisdiction in the cause from whome and in which the appellation was made and the reuoluing of the said cause to the tryall of the higher Iudge to whome the appellation was made Hence it appeareth plaine that Maister Blackwel admitting my appeale and after proceeding against me in the very same kind of agrieuances for which I appealed and this his proceeding against me chiefely for annexing the causes of the Appeale he allowed without any new and notorious offence committed by me as the fore-goings do manifestly conuince hence I say it most euidently appeareth that his Reuerence therein brake the lawes of holy Church vnlesse his authoritie be a transcendant aboue all the written rules either of lawe or conscience A sixt particular wherein our Arch-priest exceedeth the limits of his authoritie as we verily beleeue is his opinion and practise touching the reuocation of faculties What opinion his Reuerence holdeth herein his letters to Maister Charnock of the 17. of Iune 1600. This letter is set downe pag. 199. do manifestly shew wherein amongst other things he writeth thus Facultatum concessio vt etiam duratio merè voluntaria censenda est cum facultates delegatae sine vllo prorsus crimine solo nutu concedentis vel ab co potestatem habentis expirent As the graunt of faculties so the continuation of them is to be counted meere voluntarie sith delegatine faculties expire without any fault vpon the sole will of the graunter or of the party that hath authority from him A strange position and which cannot but prognosticate somewhat See Panormitan in ca. in singulis de stat mona nu 7. Cardinall Caietaine appointed Maister Blackwell Arch-priest and gaue him Delegatine authoritie as is plaine by his graces words cui vices nostras pro tempore delegemus to whome for the time we delegate our stead and yet * § 6. vers 10. Note a contradiction betweene the two opinions father Lyster in his treatise against vs affirmeth that the Pope cannot depose him without a crime committed neither is the authority or office wherewith Maister Blackwell is inuested a like meane of his maintenance as the hauing of faculties is to Priests that liue in our countrey which putteth a materiall difference betweene the cases and inferreth that if Maister Blackwell may not but vpon a crime be remoued by the Pope much lesse may faculties be taken away from Priests in England without any crime foregoing The donation of faculties to Priests in their mission seemeth not so to depend on the meere pleasure of the superiour as our Arch-priest would pretend but rather to be an implicitiue couenant and the performance thereof due vnto them by iustice vnlesse their owne misdemeanor bereaue them of the interest For can their admittance into any of the Colledges the addicting of themselues to the study of Diuinity the taking of an oath to be made Priests and goe into England when the Superiour shall appoint promise lesse then a couenant on the Superiors side to furnish them with faculties at the time of their going vnlesse as is sayd their owne deserts shall make them vnworthie sith the hauing of faculties is the chiefest meane of inabling thē to do good in our country the end why they became Priests and resigned the liberty of their former state And as the giuing of faculties to Priests at their departure for England is not to be counted a meere voluntarie fauour being in truth the due hire of their trauels and alteration of their state so neither can the continuation of our faculties iustly be deemed to depend in such sort vpō the will of the graunter as that at his pleasure they expire and determine without any sufficient cause giuen Vndoubtedly the disgrace and iniuries which accompanie such a fact is an oppression that sendeth vp his cry to heauen for punishment vpon the imposer An extremitie that men who haue left the Vniuersitie forsaken the preferments of learning in their country relinquished their patrimonies lost the loue of their worldly friends brought themselues in dislike with their Prince and the State deuoted their trauels to the gaining of soules and hourely for that cause venture their liues and floting beside in a sea of difficulties must after all these and in the middest of these be spoyled of their faculties yea at the arbitrarie pleasure of another and this sine crimine without any blame or fault But who seeth not how this doctrine of our Archpriest tendeth to bōdage and meere tyrannie For haue Priests in our Countrey either Tithes Parsonage or Vicaredge or any other help of maintenance though they serue the Altar in more danger then any Priest in the Christian world beside then the voluntarie charities of those with whom they deale And with whome can they deale being depriued of their faculties The Councell of a Sess 21. de refor ca. 2. sc 1. Trident enacteth seuerall prouisoes that Priests should not through necessitie of want be driuen to beg holding the same a reproch to the order The like also haue the auncient Canons b Dist 50. ca. studeat decreed appointing that Priests euen guilty of murder when their liues are spared should be allowed a competent portion for their maintenance out of the benefices they had when they committed the fact And touching the censure of suspension all the Canons c Panormit in
sound but according to the intention of the speaker suspend or take away faculties but when there is a true and a reall neede or necessitie which in this subiect the nature of the punishment and circumstances of place and persons considered can not be but a matter of mortall sinne and such a mortall sinne as is cleare by the euidence of the transgression it selfe and that the delinquent was admonished before of the fault and did not amend For if admonition would morallie or did reforme the partie there can be no necessitie or neede either of repealing or suspending his faculties Now to the examination of the causes The first cause that our Arch-priest alledgeth is for that we defend our cause O Lord would not a man wonder to heare such a cause alleadged if so he knew that we were neuer iuridicallie condemned and lesse by such a superiour Iudge as from whose sentence we neither did nor could appeale Verily the ignorance or exigent must needes be great when that is brought for a cause of robbing Priests of their faculties in such a countrie as ours which the lawe of God Nature and all Nations doth allow namely the vncondemned to maintaine and defend their vnguiltinesse and the reputation of their good names The second cause put downe is our demaund of satisfaction Strange and very strange how the asking of satisfaction that is a recompence n D. Tho. in 4 dist 15. q. 1. art 1. q. 3. according to the equalitie of iustice for iniuries committed can be reputed a cause of taking away faculties from Priests liuing in England and the iniurie for which satisfaction was demaunded not disproued yea in the immediate and direct consequence approued to be a true and grieuous iniurie by the censure of a famous Vniuersitie But what was the satisfaction demaunded and which did alike aggrauate the matter as for it our faculties must be taken away without proofe of the cause or citation Father Lister in a publick Treatise condemned vs of Schisme our Arch-priest approueth the condemnation and in seuerall letters not vnstiflie maintaineth the same our ghostlie children by his and the Iesuites report or defamations rather were put in feare to haue spirituall participation with vs and we desired the retractation of the said treatise as also of the resolution which our Arch-priest sent abroade as receiued from Rome charging vs with the same crime And are not these trow ye capitall demaunds being duties of iniustice by all lawes if so we be cleare of the crimes pretended as now the Pope himselfe on the first of Aprill last after the full hearing of the matter and after all the accusations shifts and descants that father Paâ—sons his friends and the aduocates of our Arch-priest could amplifie hath declared for vs and freed as well from the imputation of rebellion and schisme as from the ignominie of the disobedience obiected for not admitting the subordination before the comming ouer of his Breue in confirmation of the same Who is more blind than he that will not see And holie scripture saith haec cogitauerunt errauerunt excaecauit Sapient 2. autem illos malitia eorum these things they haue thought and they haue erred for the faultinesse of their affection hath blinded their vnderstanding The third cause rendred by our Arch-priest for the taking away of my faculties is for that I wrote diuerse letters vnto him full of contumelies or calumniations partly published against himselfe partly against other Superiours In my requests aboue specified I besought his Reuerence to name the letter vnto me or set downe the words wherein I had misdemeaned my selfe either towards him or any other Superiour What could I do more my selfe not remembring any such thing for comming to the vnderstanding of my fault But as reasonable as this petitioÌ„ was yet his fatherhood not liking or not vouchsauing to answere me directly only willed me to recount what I had written and this was all that either then or euer since I could receiue from him touching the particulars of the foresaid generall charge Let others iudge of the course and how farre the same is from show of all good dealing that any Priest his faculties should be taken from him vpon any generall cause without descending to the particular or further proofe of the generall then by willing him to remember what he had written The Sheriffe of London commeth to Symphronius and taketh away all his goods pretending that he wrote vnto him certaine letters wherein sundrie hye treasons were contained Symphronius robbed in this manner of his goods demaundeth the Sheriffe who made the seisure to tell him what letters of his these were and what were the treasonable words in particular for which he thus oppresseth him The Sheriffe biddeth him remember what he wrote and other aunswere giueth none Who will not admire the vniustice the partie thus rifled being neither condemned nor the treasons particularized nor proofe made of any Againe how would our Countrie exclaime of the crueltie if the Lord chiefe Iustice should put a Counseller from the barre and forbid him his practise alleadging for cause that he had spoken dishonourablie of him but would not recite what speeches they were nor when he spake them nor suffer him to pleade and prooue his innocencie in the accusation Our Arch-priest his vsage is in all points like he tooke away our faculties before the fault was prooued the vse of them being the onely trade we haue to liue by neither will he suffer vs to argue and defend our vnguiltines but beside the prohibition and iniustice defameth vs in generalities and requested to name the particulars he refuseth and biddeth vs to examine our selues a reason that the greatest tyrant in the world may yeeld for the fowlest wrong that can be committed Some of my letters vnto him are set downe before others follow as the contents of them do fall in with the matter treated and the reader may iudge how full they are of contumelies or calumniations that is of o D. Tho. 2. 2. q. 72. art 1. q. 73. art 1. c. open reprochfull words against his or any other Superiours honour and of imposing of p Idem 2. 2. q 68. art 3. c. false and malicious crimes vpon either Certes many of those that haue already seene my letters rather take my manner of writing to the Arch-priest for ouer-ceremonious and submissiue then for contumelious calumniatiue And I verily assure my selfe that the partiallest reader who shall not wilfullie depose all regard of equitie and conscience can not but witnes for me against the accusation if he duly consider of the many iniuries his Reuerence hath done me and the infinite prouocations which his common made letters haue giuen especially that by name which he wrote to Maister Iackson the 18. of March. In which his Reuerence not onely calleth me the sonne of Beliall but applieth besides this sentence of holie Scripture vnto me ab
of vnitie but the refusing of the same So that wee finde true that which is most worthilie sayd by Sainct Paule Non tenens caput ex quo totum corpus per nexus coniunctiones subministratum constructum crescit in augmentum Dei And the cause of this refusing the head he expressed before frustra inflatus sensu carnis suae With this head therefore must I hold to him must I be vnited to him must we cleaue Qui ille coniungitur meus est qui cum illo non colligit spargit And vnfaignedlie I affirme vnto you that I continuallie pray in particular for your vnion vnto him in respect of the loue I haue borne and do beare vnto you which shall not decay although you would with neuer so great contrarietie of iudgements and opinions And thus wishing you to follow that which is most to the glorie of God and your owne soules health I ceasse 11. Nouember 1598. Your plaine friend as you wished Henry Ga. Very reuerend Sir PErusing your Letter I find little to the purpose wherein I intreated your answere My desire was to be aduertised of all such wrongs as either in your owne knowledge or by auowable information I had committed against the Societie and you altogether leauing this point amplifie another matter Neuerthelesse sith you haue taken paines to write what better pleased you then to satisfie my request I shall not let for eauening your labour to returne you also my opinion of that you haue written Touching my strangenesse I pray consider whether I can not with greater reason except the same against you then you against me For you know the way to me I know not where to come to you and while I did know I was as I verily thinke oftner then ten times with you for your once being with me Besides in my knowledge there was neuer any cause offered why you should estrange your selfe and moe then one giuen me that might iustlie disswade my repaire to you as namely when out of good will vpon aduertisement I told the elder Gentlewoman of the safe shipping of her maide-seruant she refused to take notice making a like strange of my speeches as if I had bin a person iustlie to be mistrusted or not to be trusted with so small a secret Againe one of those that belong vnto you and who was very well and long weeting to my free accesse in former time vnto you made pretie shifts in dissembling the house and quarter where you abide Both which in common reason did and must bid me doubt least wonted good will or trust or both be decayed in you and in them towards me If you shall say that you haue sent for me once or twise my being in Phisick at those times as the messenger could informe from his eye sufficiently excuseth my faile and verily since my better health I haue seuerall times wished for a guide to conduct me vnto you so little I did affect to estrange my selfe notwithstanding the vtter shew or counterpleadings of the aforesayd discurtesies Maister Blackwell in his last speech with me sayd the Fathers of the Societie had many exceptions against me which was one principall cause why I wrote vnto you in the tenor I did but now if strangenesse be all and the same no more deseruingly obiected I see well a little can soone and easily be made much against me You say Loue inforceth you to pittie me for my hurtfull proceedings Good sir in my iudgement you should haue shewed as much loue and certes loue better qualited if it had stood with your good liking to haue forborne alike hardlie to mis-censure my proceedings I wote not of what hurt my proceedings may be made the occasion because the frailtie of man may make what is perfit good to serue to shadow that which is ill But how my proceedings may be the cause of hurt which requiring an intention doth make them truly hurtfull and so denominate this I see not because I do not espye in my selfe any such intent and meaning And if you say my proceedings be of that qualitie in their nature you say more then I hope you shall be able to proue and vntill you proue them so why may not my nay perswade as much as your yea or more in regard you cannot be so priuie to my actions their circumstances and my intent as my selfe Such as sinisterlie report of me are by the auowance of your own assertion to giue account on what ground they vttered their reports Father Iones reported affirmeth the same in his Letter to me that I should call your kind of gouerning the English Colledge in Rome a Macheuilian gouernment or worse And when by letter I wished him either to proue that I spake the words or disproue himself for doing me the iniurie he returned answere if I did purge my selfe of Fishers confession I should satisfie him Verily as I wote not what the father meant by this kind of replie so the probablest meaning that may be directlie gathered of his words seemeth to be that Fisher hath appeached me of such plentifull bad matter against your Societie as vntill I cleare my self thereof the good man cannot hold himself satisfied and in the interim my good name forsooth to be so deepely wounded and publickly depraued as licenseth him to report as he did or what he listeth further of me My request is the performāce of your owne graunt that he giue an account on what ground he vttered the report if so any detractiō be found in me I yeeld my self to fullest satisfaction if in him I demād my right And because this sore spreadeth in time like a canker by sufferance the sooner satisfaction be made the better But here I cannot but greatlie meruaile with what shew of charitable dealing Fa. Iones or any of the Societie can vpbraid me with Fishers confession whome your selues call as I vnderstand your letter a malicicus slanderer and an impudent libeller If you say the man is sithence altered I hope you haue better proofe thereof and I desire to know it then that speaking to my reproofe he must make no lye and no fault at all to diuulge or obiect the same against me and in speaking to yours he must tell no truth and a crime to repeate it or once to thinke it of you Your fortune is good my fauour little neuerthelesse if coniectures vpon likelihood of circumstances may perswade ought they pleade for me against the assumption For what can carrie more probabilitie then that he who being at libertie free and out of feare could and did dispence with his conscience for slandering a meany and such a meany as your selues be who haue so mightie partners euery where would in his restraint in the height of his distresses and for sooner ridding himselfe out of trouble make scruple perdy to wrong or calumniate such a meane one as my selfe is so farre off also and without all acquaintance in
There is one clause chiefely in his Graces letter of the tenth of Nouember which bearing little shew of indifferencie maketh vs the more to feare the like guile by father Parsons For who euer heard where there was but an outward face of iustice that the Iudge shall commaund one aduersarie to informe him of the life and manners of the other aduersarie and to lay downe his causes and reasons for him in the matter in question betweene them The partialitie appeareth such as deforceth vs to thinke that euer his Grace read the Letter but signed it vpon confidence of father Parsons sinceritie and wisedome A smooth meane to deceiue the best You see good sir how either part of the proposition and one must needes be true maketh in our excuse for not stooping downe our necks to the yoake that father Parsons hath prepared and by all meanes laboureth to inforce If Maister Standish be asked the cause of his iourney to Rome the perswasions vsed to him to that end the helps he receiued the companions he went with his long expectance for father Parsons returne out of Spaine who brought him to the presence of his Holines the particulars of the oration he made of whom he receiued the instructions his Holines speeches in answere thereunto he can informe enough if your owne acquaintance with the plotting and processe of the matter be not light sufficient to teach you who inuented the new authoritie who layd the ground who added the complements I should stay my pen from writing it if it auailed ought to be silent in that which euery man notes It would make more to the praise of father Parsons if being a religious man he were either lesse actiue or busied in matters directlier appertaining to his calling and charge For what hath he to do with the Priests in England How do we depend of him At what back-dore vnknowne doth his authoritie or charge come in Or what may the rich pleasures be that his wit and trauels hath stead vs in and bound vs to him why he should in this high presume of our patience and yeelding to whatsoeuer he liketh to appoint Sundry of his deuises or to returne the same word back againe that he giueth vs disturbances haue so little made vs beholden vnto him that neither we nor our Countrie haue receiued more preiudice from any that seemeth to loue vs. He happie we happier if religion were lesse worldlified in him and state matter and the designing of kingdomes had not so great a part in his studies 5. Father Parsons hath giuen wrong information to the Cardinall and his Holines So farre as the coniectures of all likelihood may auerre a troth this is no vntruth because we can no way conceiue that the Cardinall or his Holines would euer haue decreed such a penall forme of gouernment consisting only in taking away of graces without bringing the least benefit to our countrie or ease to our afflictions if their wisedomes had bin fullie and rightfullie informed of the true state and termes of our aduersities That I say nothing of the designes and petitions which many of the ancients in our realme had assigned and were forthwith determined to exhibit them to his Holines view iudgement and approbation Further if father Parsons had giuen true information to the Cardinall and his Holines it followeth necessarilie that his credit is right litle or nought with either which you would not haue vs to thinke yea and their loues and care also which we shall neuer thinke as litle or lesse towards the huge multitude of our manifold miseries in reason their supreame authoritie and compassion cannot be drawne to graunt vpon his information and solliciting no other fauour then increase of penalties and facultie to reuoke whatsoeuer our late Cardinall of blessed memorie had obtained of the sea Apostolick as well to credit Priests the more as also to manifest his greater affection towards our Countrie yea and as though this had bin too litle seueritie to inflict besides that kind of punishment without annexing the same to any crime or crimes as no age since the beginning of the world as I verily assure my self yeelds in all respect a president All which considerations commaund vs to belieue that the Cardinall especiallie his holines had no part in setting downe the particulars of the authoritie or were not well informed but much more misinformed by father Parsons 6. The Cardinall was alwayes partiall on the Iesuits side I wote not into what hard meaning the word partiall may be drawne therefore we only affirme that his Grace is no way a back-friend to your Societie but euery way most ready to do you all the pleasures and the best furtherances he can 7. Some of necessitie must be sent to informe better I verily belieue the necessitie hereof was many wayes so importantlie great that vnlesse our two brethren had out of their charitie and due considerations aduentured vpon the difficulties of the iourney for learning the truth and his Holines pleasure in all things there had bin much more alteration and questioning among vs about the validitie and bond of the authoritie then now is or hereafter can be hauing by their labours made knowne our case and submissiuelie referred our selues to his Holines arbitement in what soeuer That the Cardinall by the title of his Protectorship should haue the like soueraigntie in England as to inforce a Superior vpon vs manger our vnwillingnes and without our priuitie seemeth so strange a noueltie as the like was neuer heard of in our countrie before nor as I thinke euer had instance in any other country hereticall or catholick Or if his excellencie haue this ample iurisdiction by any other title grace or priuiledge it were very meete we knew it and after some authenticall manner especially sith he delegateth authoritie euen to take all authoritie from vs graunted by whome soeuer or when soeuer yea to remoue vs from the places of our acquaintance and residence and by consequence to turne vs to seeke harbour and sustenance among strangers an extremitie most seueare and most meruellous the rigour of the lawes of our Realme and the tearmes of the best condition that Priests liue in dulie considered which is meane and base enough without this new increase of our greater contempt and agrieuances 8. The messengers must procure that some assistants be chosen who may not be thought partiallie affected to the Iesuits Sir admit this were so albeit I thinke there will be many other motions made before yet what kind of iniustice or vncharitable dealing can you deduce from hence Is there not good cause that at least some of the assistants who haue by the veritie of Maister Blackwels words euery one in his owne quarter as large authoritie to execute all extremities as himselfe against vs should be perfitlie vpright without poize of biase or parcialitie And I praye what reason can you yeeld or any other complice of the new authoritie why
that the Constitutiue Letter maketh mention how his Grace in ordaining the new authoritie followed therein the will of his Holinesse we may answere that imagining as we did and vpon most pregnant grounds that father Parsons was the inditer of the letter we had little reason knowing him as we do to credit euery word therin especially the matter being so greatly preiudiciall to our selues Church and Realme and so fit a rise or step besides to his further designes Another reason also and which more induced vs not to beleeue euery word in the Cardinals Letter was the report it made of the fatherly charitie which the Iesuits exhibited towards all Priestes in our countrey and that they molested no one An affirmance so farre from truth as to doubt whether it be true or no were to doubt whether yee be cold or fire hote or whether there be a Sunne in the element For who can deny vnlesse he be resolued to deny any thing how apparant or demonstrable soeuer but that all the Cleargy and sociall dissention in our Realme proceeded from some of the fathers of the Society The dissention at Wishich from fa. Weston assuming superioritie the dissention now on foot from fa. Lister the author from fa. Garnet the approuer from fa. Iones the increaser from fa. Holtby the maintainer and from some other of the Society the abettours of our most grieuous wrongs and infamie Thus no doubt we might answer and neither idlely nor vntruly yet we will not thus answer but referre our selues to the sixth Proposition which yeeldeth another kind of reioynder and bringeth more light and helpe to our cause and innocencie For the said Proposition teacheth that the formall obiect of obedience is the knowne precept of a Superiour not the sole will vnlesse it be an imperatiue or commanding will and so notified as the subiect vnderstand it to be a commaund So that admitting we had bene bound to heleeue euery word in the Cardinals Letter as how little we were bound it will appeare anon and more in the next reason yet the Cardinall vsing but these words Nos S t is suae pijssimam prouidentissimamque voluntatem sequentes hoc ipsum statuere decreuimus We following the most godly and the most prouident will of his Holines haue decreed to appoint a subordination among the English secular Priests we could not see how this related will of his Holines did put on the nature of a precept especially after so expresse and certain a maner as that we were bound all causes how iust soeuer set aside to obey forthwith the new authoritie not respite our absolute submission therunto no not so long as til we could seÌ„d to his Holines for more direct assured knowledge in the matter Beside the reasons were neither few nor vulgar but many and very materiall which droue vs to thinke that if his Holinesse had possessed such a determination as at vnawares without any one of our assents or priuitie to appoint vs a superiour and with so large soueraigntie ouer vs yet that he would neuer haue vsed so little fauour towards vs who liue in the midst of so many miseries and dayly spend our liues for the truth and primacie of that Chaire as to enact the authoritie in so powerable a manner that euen at the first appearing thereof and by the bare Letter of one Cardinall only it should be the crime either of notorious disobedience or schisme an impossibilitie euen not to prostrate our selues and surrender our full and absolute obedience thereunto without either making question how it câ—me or so much as to send to his Holinesse for vnderstanding whether it was his ordinance or no. First the milde and sweete disposition of his Holinesse nature forbad vs so to thinke then the quality of our pressures the ancient Canons Distinct 63. Ca. Si â—n plebibus of the holy Church allowing Priests the election of their Archpriest the deserts of our poore estate seruing God in the degree of Priesthood without either enioying or expectance of Church liuing yea and which did most of all deforce vs from entertaining so hard a thought of his Holinesse loue and pastorall regard towards vs his afflictiue labourers was the most respectiue and honourable speeches which himselfe vsed to some of our brethren namely that he would not appoint any order of gouernemeÌ„t in our country before the good A ground of surreption Priests in England so gracious were his Holinesse words should aduertise him what kind of gouernement were fittest best sorted with the miseries of our Church That his Holinesse vsed these speeches there be two Priests or moe in England that will depose it and father Parsons himselfe hauing more then once reported so much cannot without doing wrong to his religious profession denie or vnsay the same So that the question rested whether of these two we should sooner and were more bound ☜ to beleeue the Popes owne word or the Cardinals Letter Either the Popes word related vnto vs by seuerall of our brethren of good report and the immediate hearers thereof or the Cardinals Letter penned as we no whit doubted by our boldest aduersarie containing apparant vntruthes as before is shewed and will hereafter more appeare And now the matter of our choise to whom we should giue more credite being of this quality whether sooner to beleeue the Popes owne word or the Cardinals Letter was it possible that father Lister or any other of lesse holy profession and of meaner parts could embolden their pens and tongues to by-name vs so prodigally as he and some of his complicers haue done Or could it be thought credible that our superiour who by his place and order of charity is the more inuited to loue vs and bound by iustice wherein he may to defend vs would intreate his children our trespasse no greater in so vnkind and hard a manner as he hath done and continueth Let others who can aunswere We will returne and proceede in our proues Senior Acrisio of the Popes Fiscals and who had commission to examine maister Bishop and maister Charnocke in their imprisonment at Rome hath giuen very good testimony with like circumstances as not lightly any euidence may deserue more beliefe For this officer hauing by himselfe and father Parsons taken the examination of the two prisoners and demanded of like as many questions of them as were thought necessary he told them that now he was to make relation of all things to his Holinesse and therefore counselled them to commend the cause to God by prayer adding that it were not amisse also if they would enioyne to themselues three dayes fast that weeke for better prospering of the affaire A spirituall taske which the prisoners gladly vndertooke and performed in the time prescribed The next weeke Senior Acrisio came to the prisoners and among other matters very confidently affirmed to them both apart that the new superiority was not instituted by his
like sort bound to beleeue the President of Doway the Rectour of the Colledge at Valedolid father Parsons and so many of the Iesuits as haue authoritie to giue faculties vpon credence of their owne word yea the ground and respects being one we are likewise bound if the former reason be good to beleeue our Archpriest and his successors of what bad qualitie soeuer they happen to be vpon testimonie of their owne word because authoritie to delegate faculties is now annexed to the office and so any of this number may at his pleasute by borrowing leaue of his conscience innouate set vp pull downe chop and change what he listeth in our Church by saying onely he had a commandement from his Holinesse without shewing script or scrowle or other assurance for proofe thereof then his bare word and we bound forsooth vnder crimes of greatest infamie to admit the same and subiect our selues theÌ„ which what greater folly what fouler distain to the dignitie of our Priesthood or what in his nature or consequence layeth open a wider gap to let in intrusion confusion and all vtter hauocke both of order and discipline in the house and Sanctuarie of Almightie God and spouse of our Sauiour ANother reason which our aduersaries vse for confirming their Position against vs is the variety of the testimonies they shewed vnto vs besides the Constitutiue Letter for proofe that the subordination was erected by his Holinesse priuitie and commaund namely a second Letter of Cardinall Caietanes signifying that his Lordship receiued a charge from his Holinesse to institute the subordination he did a Letter of the Popes Nuntio in Flunders a Letter of Doctour Stapletons on other of Doctour Barrets an other of father Bellarmines since Cardinall an other of Doctour Worthingtons and two other from our two brethren which went to Rome in the affaire all attestating as our aduersaries are pleased to report the subordination to be the commaundement of his Holinesse A faire shew to carrie away the vulgar and credulous but of too light substance by much to perswade any of iudgement who haue but looked vpon the Canons of holy Church were all true that is said as when the particulars come to scanning we trust neither all nor the most part will so fall out And first it is cleere by the authoritie aboue rehearsed out of Innocetius Panormitane Speculator Felinus Egidius Bellemera Bouerus Zecchius Conradus the very choise of both the ancient and moderne Canonists that all Papall delegation especially communicating iurisdiction in penall matters must of necessitie ere any be bound to obey be first proued either by shewing the rescript of the delegation or an authenticall copie thereof Neither can such a delegation iustly according to the forme of the law be proued by record of witnesses saue when as Bouerus noteth the originall hath bene shewed before as the Verb delegatio 7. nu 10. originall of this delegation if so the Cardinall his grace receiued authoritie from his Holinesse by way of formall delegation was neuer if euer extant to be shewed Which saying also of Bouerus is not generally to be vnderstood in all kinds of Delegation but in such onely as do not deriue a pluralitie of particular iurisdictions the contrarie whereof the new subordination doth containing at least ten seuerall iurisdictions and as many moe instructions For in delegations of this sort proofe is to be made by shewing of the original or an authentike copie thereof and not by the sole record of witnesses as after the allegation of a In prohemio super Clement Barbatia the Doctors of the Rota haue b Decisione quae incipit Quod licet Romana curia in plaine termes decided who also quoteth these words of Baldus for ampler proofe of the assertion Gratia Papaefacta super iurisdictione non potest probari per testes The grace that the Pope giueth communicating iurisdiction cannot be proued by witnesses And the reason is plaine and inuincible for where many particulars c In ca. 1. de allodijs col 3. in tit are delegated and those vndepending one of other as in the new authoritie there the volubilitie of humane memorie and the strict necessity of neither adding nor detracting considered with other circumstances namely that wordes may often beare diuerse senses and do take their limitation and truest exposition from that which went before or followed after in the same Commission there we say where these thing meete the proofe of the delegation cannot without suspition of errour be made by report of witnesses but ought onely to be made by shewing the originall or a testified copie as the authours before cited do write Which reason also seemeth as strongly to conclude that the faculties and iurisdiction giuen to the Archpriest and particularized partly in the Constitutiue Letter partly in the instructions and partly in the additions being many in number and distinct without dependance each of other cannot well for the same cause and ficklenesse of memorie be proued by witnesses but rather require for due proofe the shewing and comparing of an authenticke note or abstract of the things in particular which were graunted to the Archpriest or Cardinall by his Holinesse which hitherto we neuer saw nor heard tell of nor which perhaps was euer extant notwithstanding the iust necessitie thereof Neuerthelesse we wil yeeld to our aduersaries to the end to make our iustification the cleerer and the lesse impugnable that the like delegation or commission may be proued by witnesses though the originall nor anie authenticke copie were euer shewed before Which was neuer affirmed by any writer or euer practised as we thinke no not where oppression and bondage raigned most Yet here we trust that yeelding thus much voluntarily our aduersaries wil not an inch so freely and friendly being giuen them take by and by anâ—ell and thinke it enough to proue the delegation or commission in generall and not also to proue the tenour in particular For if this large scope were once in vre and admitted the next may be to bid all order farewell as wherein discipline is rifled tyrannie set free the practise of holy Church turned vpside downe and the arayes of all Christian peace and quietnesse vtterly broken in regard it followeth hereby that whosoeuer can prooue a delegation or commission may forthwith incroch and challenge therupon to order all matters either out or in his commission as he listeth without restraint limit checke or gainestanding of any as hauing by the former scope authoritie for his warrant which is so very absurd that he scarcely deserueth the name of a man and lesse the praise of scholership who shall shew himselfe so very a babe as once to affirme it And now here we demand who in the rankes of the foresayd witnesses which are yet all that our aduersaries themselues claime witnesse of doth in his record descend to the specifying of any one particular contained in the commission Let the testimonies be
owne life and there keepeth them without looking on them and thereby commeth to haue leisure and appetite to gaze vppon the life and cariages of some of the secular But to proceed in examining the rest of the testimonies Secondly his Holinesse Nuncio in Flaunders in his Letter to maister Blackwell and which our aduersaries alleage as a testimony against vs made no mention at all of the tenor of the commission nor of any particular that should be contained therein Our aduersaries themselues will not deny this or if they do we must say there is no truth in their words The whole that his Lordships letter can be drawne to make against vs or to testifie for them was in that his honour writing to M. Blackwell wrote vnto him by the name and title of Archpriest which also hapned as we thinke through this occasion After father Parsons had won the Cardinall to solicite and erect a subordination in our Church the like as himselfe thought fittest he sent a copie of the Constitutiue Letter to the Nuncio in Flaunders and to others there to reade Whereupon the Nuncio seeing maister Blackwell to be constituted Archpriest by the Cardinall gaue him also that title And what is this for proofe of the commission specially for proofe of the tenour the thing which is to be witnessed as is declared before or else what is witnessed to be little worth Thirdly touching the testimony of D. Stapleton the most and all that he wrote to the Nuncio concerning the authority of maister Blackwell and which our aduersaries lay hold on for reckord against vs was that his Holinesse had made him Archpriest Which thing also he did neither write by way of affirmance or to testifie so much but onely accidentally by occasion of another matter to weete what he thought fittest to be done about maister Tempest For at that time the Nuncio had sent M. Tempest vnto him with his accusers to be examined in the points for which the Cardinall Protector had taken away his faculties while he was in the way downwards from Rome and giuen likewise order to the Nuncio that he should be stayed in the Low-countries and not suffered to go into England Now when Doctor Worthington and maister Caesar Clement his accusers had charged him before Doctor Stapletō with as many things as they thought good or as their instructions from father Parsons directed and he had made his answer and purgation thereunto Doctor Stapleton aduertising the Nuncio by letter how the matter passed before him withall giuing his honor to vnderstand what he thought meetest to be done in the cause wrote that maister Tempest might wel be dismissed and suffered to depart into England and as he should there demeane himselfe so to receiue againe his faculties of the Archpriest whom his Holinesse had constituted superiour in England By all which being the whole summe of that Doctor Sapleton wrote to the Nuncio what more may be gathered then that Doctor Worthington and maister Caesar Clement relating the contents of the Constitutiue Letter or shewing a copie thereof vnto him which at that very season was newly come to Bruxels and made common to many the other incidently thereupon inserted in his foresayd Letter to the Nuncio the words aboue mentioned Which in no sence can iustly be reckened a testimony the writer by euidence of all circumstances thinking nothing lesse in vsing the words then as a witnesse to testifie the commission or that the subordination was the ordinance of his Holinesse by what he did say But whatsoeuer Doctour Stapletons intention was therein either to witnesse or not to witnesse the subordination as it could not be to witnesse it vnderstanding the same but by report yet our aduersaries themselues wil not say that the good man did particularize or testifie the tenour of the commission or any one iurisdiction contained therein Or had he rehearsed in his letter some moe or few particulars of the commission as he did not yet we desire to know what reason or fatisfaction can be yeelded why he might not as well haue erred in relating the tenour and consequently neither bond nor wisedome in vs to beleeue his words as he did in saying that M. Tempest vpon desert of his good cariage in England might haue his faculties restored vnto him by the Archpriest whē M. Blackwell at that time had no authority at all as himselfe both confessed practised either to restore him or giue faculties vnto any other vpon what necessity soeuer We will not stay here to aske the cause why D. Stapletons letter addressed to the Nuncio vpon the aforesayd businesse was brought ouer with other like into England and here shewed for testimonies But although we will not stand to demand the reason hereof yet we cannot but giue all men to know that our suspition doubts and mistrust of the validity of the new authority were no whit lesned thereby but very much increased seeing what meane proues were mustered and as it were marshalled in the forefront of the army of prooues against vs. Fourthly concerning the testimony of M. D. Barret there was yet much lesse cause why he should be brought for witnesse vnlesse the necessity be such that any thing must serue that can make the least shew of sounding against vs we neuer saw or heard but of two letters that he should write the one to the Popes Nuncio in Flaunders concerning matters belonging to Maister Tempest the other to maister Blackwell himselfe In either of which no other testimony was giuen then that he named maister Blackwell Archpriest and wished that those effects might follow vppon the authority which the author in the institution of the authority intēded without naming who he was And what we pray could this possibly make to the proofe of that which was then in question and which we stood vppon to know after an assured and requisite manner viz. whether the Cardinall receiued a commaundement from his Holinesse to erect such a subordination with like iurisdiction in all points ouer vs. Well it must needes argue a rich wardrope and good proues no doubt to lye in store where such poore stuffe is brought forth for shew Fiftly touching the testimony of father Bellarmine of whose letter our impugners seeme not to make the least account first we say that to this day there be very few of our company who euer saw the letter and for certaine neither of these two whom Maister Blackwell calleth the Princes in the action and hath sorest punished for defending their owne and their brethrens good names against the slaunders imposed euer cast eye thereon or the same euer sent by any or offered vnto them to reade till after the arriuall of his Holinesse Breue and our absolute admittance of the authority And therefore whatsoeuer testimony it caried it could little condemne or blame those that knew no more thereof But what might the contents be of the letter or to whom was the same
principally meant in not taking the names of moe Priests with them or in a better forme then they did and specially because they omitted the procuring of the King of France his Letter in their behalfe to his Ambassadour in Rome which was promised and another to his Holinesse himselfe for request of fauourable audience in their sute matter of iust sorrow they smarting after the rate they did for omitting of the helpes vpon confidence only of the most behoueable and reasonable petitions they were to propose But of what persons beside the Cardinall his Grace did our two brethren remaining close prisoners heare that the Archpresbytership and the faculties adioyned was the order of his Holinesse Had any of those accesse vnto the prisoners which liued neare about his Holinesse or were often in his presence and so by likelihood might heare when the commission was giuen or after talked of Were other straungers or their countrey-men in the city allowed to come vnto them Were the students of the Colledge licensed at that time to visite the prisoners and haue communication with them No no they were alike straightly kept as they were not suffered to consult or speake with any nor the one of them with the other What then did his Holinesse Fiscall who was appointed to examine the prisoners but not long after surrendred the office to father Parsons report so much vnto them It cannot be sayd because the same man at the end of all their examinatioÌ„s resiftings told the prisoners as they both witnesse that the subordination was not the ordinance of his Holinesse Of whom then had the prisoners that intelligence vndoubtedly either from father Parsons or father Owen who onely had recourse vnto them relators that must needes haue beliefe giuen to their words because the one was a chiefe deuiser of the authority and his reputation lay in gage to haue it go forward the other a profiting scholler in father Porsons studies and his right hand in this busisinesse as the seruice following declareth When maister Charnocke wrote his letter vnto vs by the appointment of the Cardinals for a finall end of their durance as father Owen reported and father Parsons had the perusing thereof a night and a day it was brought againe vnto him by father Owen with order from father Parsons to adde that the subordination erected was the order of his Holinesse who answering he could not write so because he knew it not the other replied that the Cardinall protector sayd it when he sate in iudgement in the cause and that father Parsons affirmed the same and therefore he might well and truly write that to his knowledge the Archpresbitership was the appointmeÌ„t of his Holinesse Whereupon the prisoner being willing to giue the fathers the most contentment he could for his speedier riddance out of prison promised him to write in so large a maner in that point as possibly he could with any truth and accordingly signified in his Letter yet not that he knew the subordination to be the order of his Holinesse but that he heard the Cardinal to affirme it and also vnderstood it by credible relation of others The like wrote M. Bishop and not vnlike vpon the same perswasion But neither the one nor the other of our brethreÌ„ nor the Cardinall Protector in the Constitutiue Letter nor any other of whom witnesse is claimed did euer in the least word affirme that the faculties and iurisdiction annexed to the Archpresbitership the onely point which was most needfull of all other to be descended vnto being the most materiall and which alone for the amplenesse rigour vnusualnesse thereof caused our delay were the ordinance or commandement of his Holines A thing worthiest of special note as that most manifesteth the headie violence of our aduersaries and how beyond all colour of reason they haue proceeded in their accusations and outcries against vs. Now touching the commendation and dutie our two brethren sent to be done to our and their superiour the Archpriest who could thinke reading the passage but that somwhat lay hid was insinuated by the words that they being prisoners in Rome should as it were hunt after so impertinent an occasion of calling M. Blackwell their Superiour and direct commendations vnto him by that title when as we were right sure they both well knew that the Cardinals Letter made him but Superiour ouer the Priestes residing in England and Scotland only and not ouer any whiles they liued any other where And one of them being sithence asked the meaning of the said words aunswered that the authoritie of the Archpriest not stretching to any out of England this clause so farre as I can so farre distant vsed in the same sentence where he rendred his dutie did shew that he wrote it onely to make faire weather with father Parsons and the sooner to get himselfe released of the imprisonment he indured But would our aduersaries indeed vnderstand the truth how much or wherein our two brethren do either beare witnesse against vs or condemne our standing off to yeeld our obedience vntill the comming of his Holinesse Breue Let them reade M. Bishop his answere to father Parsons Letter and the censure vpon the same both printed in the English booke and written when they were not in hold and then tell vs the particularities wherein they giue testimonie against vs or find fault with our delay In the meane there are none but must see that all the testimonies which are brought against vs proceeded from one head take their whole force from the Cardinals word and not from his Graces word as auowing the particular faculties iurisdiction annexed to the Archpresbytership to be the command or appointment of his Holinesse but from his Graces word onely that he receiued a Commission to make peace in our Country and that following the will of his Holinesse he decreed a subordination We therefore being not bound to beleeue specially to obey as hath bene sufficiently proued before the Cardinals word himselfe writing and affirming it we were lesse bound by al consequence to beleeue and obey the same related or witnessed vnto vs by others And here I thinke good to aduertise touching the report I haue made of all the precedent testimonies that I do not so aâ—â—ow it as that I engage my word the report to be in euery iot one with the Letters themselues for this were the imperfection of mans memorie considered to ground certaintie vpon vncertaintie especially the time being long since I read most of the Letters and neuer read them but once nor could be admitted to copie them forth wheÌ„ also I feared no accident lesse then that matters would fal out as now they do or that we should euer haue had occasion to proue our selues no disobedient run-agates from the Church of Rome or from the supreme Pastour thereof who with semblable perill of life and renunciation of worldly preferment haue for many yeeres laboured to reduce
question of his Graces authority or looking for further proofe then the testimony of his owne word for warrantise therof but such truthes must haue like proues To end all in few words we aske our aduersaries what is our dutie to do if the laity shall refuse to beleeue one two or moe of vs to be Priestes and will not haue communion in diuine Seruice and Sacraments with vs as with Priestes vntill we shew them our Letters of orders or shall otherwise according to law proue our selues to be men of that calling Will they out of their wisedome and charitie giue vs other counsell then to haue patience in the interim and to procure with most conuenient speede satisfaction and legall testimony to their doubts and exceptions No truly well then we not holding our selues bound to admit the subordination vpon credence of the Cardinals word vntill such time as his Grace had either shewed the rescript of the delegation or proued his verball commission or obtained from his Holinesse a confirmation of the authoritie erected what was the part of our Archpriest the societie their adherents to do in this point not as ours was in the former to patient our bearing off and procure so soone as they could one of the foresaid proues for our due satisfaction either a sight of the Commission it selfe or an authentical proofe thereof or else some Papall instrument for testimonie of that which his Grace had brought into our Church and imposed vpon vs. It cannot be denied the cases being alike or rather our case infinitely more demaunding that right of iustice And if this had bene their dutie as the lots changed it would soone haue bene proclaimed then what thankes did we deserue in sauing them that labour and charges and vndertaking to our great cost the discharge of that businesse for them We desire not to be our owne iudges neuerthelesse can we thinke but that our paines therein craued a gentler recompence at their hands then to imprison those that were sent about the businesse and not only to imprison them a thing neuer heard of as we thinke since S. Peter sate first in the Chaire the nature of the affaire considered but to raise most fabulous and sinfull reports of them and dub both them vs with the surnames of all impietie as of faction emulation ambition scandall rebellion highest sacriledge disallegiance to the Sea Apostolicke renegacie from the spouse of Christ and of what not implying turpitude in this kind A strange requitall and so strange as inhumanitie it selfe could hardly deale lesse charitably or more vnconscionably with vs had we bene Iewes or Turkes and the onely drosse of either nation but our Lord Iesus giue vs euer his grace to possesse our soules in patience and incline our disturbers to reuerse at length their most vncharitable slanders the cause and continuing occasion of all the scandalous broile among vs past present and to come We haue bene the longer in refuting this weake and vngrounded reason because not onely the vulgar but father Holthy in his discourse of the 30. of Iune 1601. and diuerse other both of the Laitie and Cleargie Secular and Religious haue it most frequently in their mouths and enforce the obiection as a most mightie and choking argument to conuince what they most ignominiously burden vs withal A Fourth reason that our oppositours bring for proofe and maintenance of the crimes they impute vnto vs is the fewnesse of our number being as father a In his said discourse the 30. of Iune Holthy writeth but twelue or thirteene in all or as b Doctour Haddock and M Array in the libel dated the 10. of Ianuary 1599. giuen vp to the two Cardinals Protector and viceprotector against M. Bishop and M. Charnocke other make the account but ten and c In his letter to M. Bishop the 9. of October 1599. and in the Apologie after father Parsons manner of numbring vs much fewer then ten First let vs admit that these men write a truth as how farre their wordes swarue from all truth it commeth after to be examined yet we are to demaund of them and the rest of our impugners who think the fewnes of our number matter euidence cleere enough to condemne vs by whether the cause we stand in be naught in that we are but fiue ten or twelue which defend it If they say yea as they must or else bewray their own reason then must it follow by force of the same reason that the cause of S. Thomas of Canterbury in defence whereof d Gulielm Neubrigensis lib. 2. ca. 16. no one Bishop adhered vnto him in the whole Realme nay all subscribed to the Articles he stood against was treasonable rebellious or vnlawfull then the cause that Bishop Fisher died for and the causes that infinite other of great Holinesse maintained hauing fewer and incomparably fewer of the cleargie vnited to them in open defence of the same then are now or were at first of our companie were likewise either treasonable or rebellious or vnlawfull which we are sure our aduersaries will not say and yet they cannot but say it if they stand to the triall of the reason they make against it or shall not acknowledge the vnsoundnesse or inualiditie thereof For further satifaction in this point we refer our aduersaries to the dayly iudgement which experience maketh the surest confutation of all other whether the small number of open defendants especially when the sword of authoritie is drawne against the matter or action defended as it is in our case be a sufficient warrantie in conscience for any one of vnderstanding to infer that the cause they stand in is wicked or vngodly or not meete for men of quiet natures or Priests to be seen in Verily the question is so cleare and demonstrated by dayly experience as he that should make doubt hereof might not amisse seem to haue liued out of the world nothing being more frequent in the world then for truth to find fewest defenders when authoritie humane fauour and temporall gaine be her impugners But to vnderprop this weake reason founded vpon our small number father Holthy fortifieth and gildeth the matter in this wise It is Pag. 2. 5. well inough knowne saith he that those who receiued the authoritie farre exceeded the other who deferred their obedience not onely in number being twentie for one but in all things else setting their presumptuous minds and busie heads â—side And it is too too cleare that the refusall came not either of ignorance or infirmitie but of plaine malice of an obstinate will not to obey and from a proud presumptuous mind and seditious spirite Also it is manifest that some of the best among them were euer noted for busie and seditious spirites yea no one of their chiefest almost but he was noted with some particular fault or exception but among their brethren who embraced their authoritie there were many which
expresly contrarie to his Holinesse Breue O Lord Christ O Sir our Superiour who are we or what may our cause be that not to be adiudged renegates from the Sea Apostolike or traitors to God by sinne must be accounted a preiudice to the dignitie of the sea Apostolicke strange and so strange as it astonieth You say that the sentence clearing vs of schisme and sinne is expresly contrarie to his Holinesse Breue We beseech you to quote the wordes to shew the place for if it be expresly contrarie as you say then the contrarietie must needes consist in plaine termes not in deductions or inferences vpon the tenour or purport of the Breue Or if this much be not to be shewed as al the labor vnder heauē can neuer shew it because neither of the two wordes schisme or sinne is vsed in the Breue nor we that prolonged the yeelding of our obedience any where specified in the same we then pray you to frame the arguments which conclude and infer so much For verily we for our parts do not see as is said before * Pag. 109. 110 111. in the place where we haue discoursed of this very point how any such inferēce cā with vnderstāding be made Or if vnderstāding be mis-led to make such an inference yet we protest that we cānot cōnceiue how the authorities that contradict the verity of such an inference which we haue alleaged * Pag. 58. sequentibus before cā possibly be answered or colourably shifted off Or were all the Canonists deceiued their authorities worth nothing yet if M. Blackwell be such a superiour Prelate as is contained vnder the wordes of the former Extrauagant and as his former faculties and largest iurisdiction must in all reason make him then is it dead sure that no such inference can be made because that cannot be schisme or sinne which the Extrauagant decreeth and commaundeth to be obserued vnder the paine of leesing the fruites of their ecclesiasticall liuings that shall presume to transgresse the precept And as we cannot conceiue how the censure of the Vniuersitie could be preiudiciall to the dignitie of the Sea Apostololicke or expresly contrary to his Holinesse Breue so can we lesse imagine how the same censure can be reckened preiudiciall to our common peace so much wished for by his Holinesse vnlesse our purgation of schisme and sinne be such a barre or aduerse hinderance of peace as the one cannot stand or be effected except the other be repealed Which lacke of charitie howsoeuer it may sort with the kind of peace that perhaps some of our aduersaries affect whose passion of ouerweening of themselues is so puissant as they can hardly if at all count that peace for peace wherein our discredit is not proclaimed yet we are sure that the stiffe seeking of our dishonour cannot sort with that peace which his Holinesse wisheth to be among vs. For this being a charitable peace charity not reioycing 1. Cor. 13. vpon iniquitie but reioycing with truth the fathers of the Societie especially our Superior should rather congratulate that we were acquited by publike sentence of a famous vniuersitie in the crimes obiected vpon errour then by opinionatiue defending their rash and temerarious iudgement make nouissima peiora prioribus their last actions worse Math. 12. then their first against vs. Concerning the other reason which our Archpriest alleageth also as part of the cause why he did so seuerely prohibite the defending of the censure of Paris viz. for that the same was preiudicial to the sentence iudicially giuen by the two Cardinals appointed iudges in our cause we know not where to take the first exception the whole and euery word thereof lyeth so loose and open Father Parsons in the Apologie will Fol. 133. not haue the said sentence giuen so much by way of a iudiciall sentence as by way of a letter vnder the two Cardinals their hands and seales So that if we may beleeue father Parsons the sentence was not iudicially giuē Neither were the two Cardinals appointed iudges to decide whether our deferring for the causes rehearsed in the question to receiue M. Blackwell our Superiour vpon view of the Cardinals Letter were schisme or sinne the matter meerely considered in it selfe abstracted from all circumstances nor yet were their Graces appointed iudges in the cause of any one of our whole companie saue only in the cause of M. Bishop and M. Charnocke as the title of the decree and the decree it selfe doth witnes Againe their Graces sentence doth not signifie that they inflicted the punishment vpon our said two brethren for refusing to subscribe to the new authoritie or for comming to Rome because there is no such thing set downe nay the contrarie is expressed in that the causes for which they were restrained from comming into England or for going into the kingdomes of Scotland and Ireland were onely as the words of the decree do testifie for maintaining controuersies with other men of their owne order and for that it appeared in no case expedient for the English cause that they should returne into England Now to mainetaine controuersies with other men of their owne order and to appeare not to be expedient that they should forthwith returne into England are things different from deferring their obedience to the Archpriest and from sending or going to Rome for fuller knowledge of his Holinesse pleasure and to lay open our difficulties vnto him Besides if the cause in which the two Cardinals were appointed Iudges See more of this point pag. 101. sequentibus was the refusall to subscribe to the authoritie of the Archpriest instituted by the Letters of Cardinall Caietane and for sending to Rome then was Cardinall Caietane appointed iudge in the cause that most nearely concerned himselfe a thing against law and so intollerable in the ministring of iustice as his Holinesse would neuer haue assigned him iudge therein nor the Cardinall for edification sake haue vsed the office especially in designing the punishment Or to grant which is no more so then a foxe is a fearnebush that the two Cardinals had giuen sentence in the same cause before and otherwise then did the vniuersitie What then must the censure of a renowned vniuersitie one of the most famous in Christendome be so lightly set by abandoned detested and that in a matter of fact as whosoeuer shall either defend or maintaine it directly or indirectly in word or writing must if he be a priest be presently in the fact it self suspended from diuine offices and leese his faculties or if such a delinquent be a lay Catholike he must in like manner be interdicted ipso facto A rigour as the like whereof all the Annales and records of all the Prelates actions since Christs time hitherto cannot as we assure our selues yeeld one instance or neare example But that which of all other points in the decree seemeth to be most out of rule
holy bene the cause sine qua non of many sinfull scandals the world will witnesse yea in that many some by their pens some by their tongues some after another maner haue spoken and done that which was very sinfull and which they would not haue done had your order neuer bâ—ne founded You know what the Prophet and the Apostle writeth and of whom Ecce pono in Sion lapidem offensionis Esa 8. Rom. 9. petram scandali Behold I put in Syon a stone of stumbling and a rocke of scandall And yet we are more then sure that you will not inferre any of our Sauiours actions to be vnlawfull albeit they caused many most sinfull scandals in the kind of cause aboue mentioned But now let vs see how you shew the information giuen to the Sorbon Doctors to be wroÌ„g defectuous false sinistrous For euery of these is your own Epitheton You make 6. exceptions to this purpose The first is that we in proposing the question said only that an ecclesiasticall Superior was coÌ„stituted by the Letters of a most illustrious Cardinal not telling the Doctors that he was Protector of the nation which doth much increase as you say his credit for matters touching the country vnder his protectioÌ„ The inualidity of this exceptioÌ„ is refuted before the Cardinal not instituting Pag 66. 67. the subordinatioÌ„ by any vertue of his Protectorship but onely by commission from his Holinesse what did the adding or not adding that the Cardinall who was his Holinesse delegate in the action was also Protector of the nation import sith the institution of the subordination did not belong to his office of Protectorship and consequently we not bound to obey his letter vntill he had prooued the commission because Literis cuiusdam credendum est de his quae facere De probati §. 3 nu 15. potest vel debet ratione officij sui Beleefe obedience saith Speculator is a tribute due to be giueÌ„ to the letters of those that coÌ„mand the things which appertaine to their office So that the ordaining of the subordination being a thing not belonging to the office of his Protectorship we held it superfluous to set downe in the state of the question that the Cardinall who by his Letters instituted the subordination was also the Protector of our nation And whereas you say that the adding of being Protectour of the nation doth much increase his credit for matters touching the Country vnder his protection we say the same if either you meane by matters such as beloÌ„g to the office of Protectorship or do meane that the title of being Protector doth much increase his credit though not so much as we were bound to beleeue and take his Graces word for warrantize of his Holines commission vnto him But if you meane another or greater increase of his credit then either of these then we discent from you in opinion and assure our selues that ye can neuer make good by reason or authoritie that which you say herein Your second exceptioÌ„ That we putting down the questioÌ„ did but onely signifie that the Cardinall did it according to the will and good liking of the Pope but did not tell them that it was expresso mandato by his Holinesse expresse commandement which the Cardinall setteth down clearly in his Letters Father your little sincerity or rather boldest audacitie amateth For where doth the Cardinall cleerely set downe in his Letters that he receiued an expresse commaundement to erect a subordination Certes either your ignorance appeareth grosse and verie faultie that would not ouerview the letter before you affirmed out of it a matter of such weight or your audacitie in the affirmance there being no such commandement We graunt that the Cardinall in the beginning of his Letter maketh mention of an expresse commaundement receiued from his Holinesse to make peace in our countrey to the example of the peace in the English Colledge but what is this to an expresse commandement of erecting a subordination especially so afflictiue burdenous in our whole church How litle these two do folow one another and how the expresse commandement of doing the one is not nor cannot be the expresse or tacitiue commandement of doing the other the three first Propositions with sundry other places in our Pag. 23 â—4 second Reason do manifest and confirme aboundantly When the Cardinall came in his Letter to appoint the Subordination he made this entrance For so much as some men thinke it would not a little auaile to the making of peace if a subordination were constituted among the English Priests and the reasons yeelded by the Priests themselues which was but M. Standish onely so farre as yet we know for the same were approued by our holy Father we following the most godly and most prudent will of his Holinesse haue decreed to ordaine a subordination Where is the expresse commandement you talke of and which as you say the Cardinall setteth downe clearely in his Letter we meane an expresse commandement of instituting a subordination Verily we must answer you with a Non est inuentus except you can lend vs a spirit to find that which is not We propounded the question in as full or more large termes then the Cardinall vsed for his Grace wrote sequentes voluntatem we following the most godly and prudent will of his Holinesse haue decreed to ordaine a subordination And we in the state of our question wrote that the Cardinal did also declare in his letters vnto vs that he decreed the subordinatioÌ„ iuxta voluntatem beneplacitum according to the will and good liking of his Holinesse So that where the Cardinall said he did institute the subordination following the will of his Holinesse we added that not onely he did it following his will but that also he did it according to his Holinesse good will and pleasure which is somewhat more ample or of greater emphasis Your third exception We concealed another thing vttered also in the Cardinals Letters to wit that a subordination was demaunded by Priests letters to his Holinesse What did you dreame when you wrote this for where we pray is it vttered in the Cardinals letters that Priests in their Letters to his Holinesse did demaund a Subordination Fie what failings are these must we thinke the cause you pleade no better but that it requireth to be vpholden with such apparant falsities The Prophet saith in detestation of idols Lingua ipsorum polita à fabro ipsa etiam Baruc. 6. inaurata inargentata falsa sunt non possunt loqui Their tongue is polished by the Carpenter and themselues being gilded and siluered ouer are notwithstanding counterfeit and cannot speake We know not what Art hath polished your pen but certaine we are that howsoeuer the counterfeits she draws shew faire to the outward view yet looked into and examined they are false and as idols speake little truth Againe how shall we know that
true as we maintaine and the other information to our brethren by your owne wordes but as false we are content if this much do please to allow the comparison Neuerthelesse the truth is that the information and motiues which inuited some of our brethren to manifest themselues and drew others to amend their former hastie errour in receiuing so fruitlesse an authoritie vpon the sole warrantize of the Cardinals Letter was times deciphering The true causes of the increase of our numbers of matters the loue of truth the direction of their owne consciences the inward working of their compassion the sorrow griefe their hearts felt by seeing how vniustly we their brethren were slandered and how violently beyond all measure extremities were caried prosecuted against vs and this vpon no colour or inducement more then because we were few So that compassion of our miseries and loue of lessening the burden by diuiding it among more were the meanes and information that increased our number and not the participation of our libertie and the sore baite therof Neither is there scarce any one Catholicke or Protestant in our countrey that markes how matters passe but can tell that we onely and none but our partie are punished by the Archpriest Which thing whether it be true or no or not more then our words import let the taking away of faculties from seuerall of the Appellants since the making of the appeale let the suspending and interdicting of vs let the solemne declaration which he made by his letters addressed to that end Vniuerso clero Anglicano caeterisque In his letter of the 21. of February 1601. Christi sidelibus in Angliae regno commorantibus to the vniuersall English Cleargie and other faithfull people of Christ abiding in the kingdome of England let his refusing of our appeale * In the same Letter In his letter of the 16. of May 1601. D. Bagshaw In his Letter the 18 of March 1601. M. Colleton let his strange inuerting of our words let the contumelies in calling one of vs Erraticus per saltuÌ„ ascendens Doctor a wandring Doctor ascending by iumpes and another the sonne of Belial let the exempting of vs from hauing part of the common diuidents if we be prisoners or if we be at libertie let their excluding of vs from all places and fauors where the aduerse part can preuaile let the disgraces the obloquies the slanders that are euerie where in citie and countrey spread tennised and maintained against vs and the freedome and rich friendship which our brethren of the other side find beare witnesse and decide whether the participation of our libertie and the freedome we enioy aboue our fellowes of the other partie be a sore baite for yong men or not rather most potent meanes to deterre both yong and old from taking part with vs. Moreouer there be some Priests in our countrey who for that they The rigor of the gouernement be destitute of friendes and know not how possibly to liue if they should openly appeale or otherwise manifest their conscience in matters haue written and protested to his Holinesse that they dare not appeale by reason of the foresaid extremities Againe our Archpriest In his Letter of the 21. of Febr. 1601. Stilo Romano warneth and exhorteth in our Lord all Catholickes Vt omnibus modis quibus possunt nos vitent that by all meanes possible they should shunne our companie and taking vs to be breakers of peace he wisheth them as they do shew themselues patrons and foster-fathers of the Church of Christ Omni ope atque opera iuxta Apostoli praeceptuÌ„ etiam confundere nitaÌ„tur that they would labor by all helpes and furtherances to confound vs according to the precept of the Apostle Likewise one of the Assistants M. Standish words to M. Drâ—wâ—e said that he wold no more froÌ„ henceforth account the AppellaÌ„ts his brethreÌ„ nor otherwise esteem of theÌ„ theÌ„ of Bâ—l Topâ—lif Also another Priest of like forwardnes aduiseth that our coÌ„pany should be shuÌ„ned M. G. as his who hath a plague sore running vpoÌ„ him And some Priests that are not known to adhere vnto vs haue told vs that if their benefactors did know they were in our coÌ„pany they would discontinue their charities withdraw their good affectioÌ„ from them All which to our seeming do conuince that the benefite and libertie we enioy by appealing is not so sweete a baite for misleading young men as the matter is made but rather most sower auersions and such as he that is a young man and not a senior in vertue and in contempt of worldly fauours will beware as of his vndoing how he appeales or haue commerce with vs in the cause And albeit we haue staid long about the confutation of this reason yet here we cannot omit to note one thing more viz. that you hauing otherwhere affirmed that we were not aboue ten or not so many and In the libell the 10. of Ianuary 1599. In your letter to M. Bishop the 9. of October 1599. repeating also in this very place that we were not the twentieth part at the beginning of those that admitted the gouernement would neuerthelesse after the reading of our appeale and seeing thirtie of our names therunto make a doubt by an if whether we haue increased our number since Certes how slow of beleefe soeuer you would make your selfe to appeare in this point yet our Archpriest is not so incredulous for he said not long since by credible relation that the Laitie had neede to sticke vnto him for the Priests were fallen away Neither do we doubt if there were a commission graunted to examine euery Priest on his oth how he liketh the gouernement but that the number of those which would depose for it would be very small and hardly twentie besides the Assistants in all England if al the Assistants should take theis othes for the allowance thereof as we doubt they will not Your fifth exception that we pretended onely to refuse to subscribe to the authoritie of the Archpriest before he had obtained letters from the Sea Apostolicke for confirmation as who would say that this being done we meant to be quiet Sir how highly you esteeme of your owne credit yet deedes being euer of more power to perswade then wordes we hope especially hauing thousands of witnesses on our side that our deedes will be credited before your wordes Did we not all presently vpon the arriuall of his Holinesse Breue receiue the authoritie and subiect our obedience to M. Blackwell the matter is plainer then can be denied and it is acknowledged by our Archpriest and fuller by father Garnet in their letters which are set down in the tenth Chapter of the Apologie yea your selfe intitleth that Chapter in this manner of the Fol. 146. 147. Fol. 148. ending of all controuersies vpon the publication of his Holinesse Breue But you call in doubt whether the
speeches and writings do speake euery where very vnkindly and vnreuerently of him Sir if we should aske you what these vnreuerent speeches writings were the instances would be to seeke vnlesse you deuised matter of your own coining Or to let this passe whom should we beleeue you or the famous Cardinall Allen gone also to God who told M. Mush that the said Protector neuer did nor euer would as he feared do good to our countrey And we are sure that fewe or none tasted anie part of that you report except M. Haddocke who left our campe without any great losse to our cause and perchance some other deuoted persons whom you recommēded And here we humbly request that we may not be thought to write this being more then anie of vs wrote before either vpon another motiue or to other end then we did that is to purge our selues of the note of hatefull ingratitude which you impute vnto vs and to shew how litle beleefe you deserue in many of your writings Touching the last calumne in the beadrole vz. the terrours we cast Fol. 117. into lay mens heads of admitting forreine authoritie from the Pope which tendeth you say to a worse consequence then all the rest and by which as Fol. 14. 15 16. you write in another place his Holinesse and all other godly and learned men may see and pitie vs but especially our spirit of vindicatiue and maleuolous proceeding c. We answer that you seeme by this course construction of our wordes to carrie a verie sharpe disposition of wounding vs in the speedingest place you can Is your religious charitie no more That which was affirmed was onely that by the opinions of diuerse men In the copie of Discourses pag. 6. of iudgement in the lawes of our countrey this our admitting of the Archpresbyteriall iurisdiction may by law and will by likelihood be drawne within the compasse of an old law of Premunire made in a Catholike time because it is an externall iurisdiction brought into our Realme against the will and notice of our Prince and countrey This was the summe and the worst of all that was written and the cause of the writing was to yeeld a reason why we deferred to receiue the Subordination vpon view of the Cardinals Letter namely because the preiudice it might this way turne vs vnto was great and great by an auncient law of the Realme Which brought vs into a most certaine opinion that we were no wayes obliged in conscience notwithstanding the contrarie position of the Iesuites and our Archpriest to admit the Subordination vpon the sole credence of the Cardinals Letter the preiudice we should incurre by the admitting thereof being as we haue said so great to our selues and profitable to none and consequently that which most of anie other thing did iustifie our delay Because no writer who is See the Authors quoted pag 61. 62. ◠89. largest in the prerogatiues of Cardinals but doth hold that in matters of verie great preiudice a Cardinall is not to be beleeued vpon his word in things that he relateth to haue receiued from another So that the cause which enforced vs to mention the said law of Premunire being no other then to iustifie our bearing off or to free our selues in the crimes obiected against vs by father Lyster and others and our words also which ensued in the verie next page witnessing that his Holinesse least commaund should euer bind vs though with hazard and losse of our liues to accept of any Ecclesiasticall iurisdiction which he should appoint make known vnto vs after a Canonicall maner we cannot but maruel what passion guided or rather blinded your pen in running thus eagerly vpon vs without iust or colourable cause giuen if you had bene pleased to vnderstand our intention and words aright And we maruell the more hereat in respect you fall into this inuectiue humour after our deeds had verified our words and we really admitted the subordination according to our promise vpon the first appearance of his Holinesse Breue notwithstanding the danger of the foresaid lawe of Premunire standing in force and inlisting vs within the penalties thereof for so doing A fact wherein we litle doubt whether the clergie of Fraunce or Spaine would haue followed vs if the case had bene theirs but would haue respited their acceptance notwithstanding the Breue till his Holinesse had bene otherwise and fuller aduertised and the mischiefe prouided for But now we being so few that is to say some fiue or sixe and such as we Fol. 15 119 were for so scornefully do you terne vs small account perchaunce is to be made of our right specially standing against the designe of a Iesuite we haue to alleage Nulla erit distantia personarum ita paruum audietis vt magnum That in discussing of rights there is no difference Deut. 1. of persons or number to be respected but the case of the few small is to be tendred as well as the case of the many and great Your other assertions that we by our foresaid naming of the Statute of Premunire laboured to cast terrors into lay mens heads of admitting foreine authoritie from the Pope and that we would haue the Princes consent to be needfull for the legitimatio of the new authoritie denominate our selues being but some fiue or sixe to be the Countrey and that we also opposed our selues against the Subordination for that his Holinesse had not asked our consents These are so ill deductions so farre fetcht and sauouring so strongly of the old leuen that whosoeuer reades them must hold you farre gone in passion or drowned in indignation against vs. Did the Subordination concerne anie lay man at all when we mentioned the Statute of Premunire The Constitutiue letter is as flat as flat may be against anie such inference or interpretation For it onely instituteth M. Blackwell Archpriest ouer the Seminarie priestes abiding in England or Scotland and giueth him not the least authoritie in the world ouer the Laitie or so much as once toucheth anie such matter How shamefully therefore do you wrest our words sith when we first wrote them the Subordination implied none of the Laitie and were onely printed to shew by reason that we were no such lewd persons nor intangled in the censures of holy Church as father Lyster with his adherents did most ignorantly or most vncharitably censure and diuulge vs to be We assure our selues father Parsons that your restlesse spirit and pen your enterprising and busie actions haue turned heretofore our Catholike Professants to infinite preiudice for to no knowne cause can we impute so much the making of the seuere lawes of our countrey as to your edging attempts and prouocations And as we assure our selues of this so do we feare least this your notorious playing and descanting vpon our wordes and your forward endeuours to Fol. 15. 110. 117. 132. draw all things
delegat nu 4. sayth Felinus accused of Homicide I confesse the fact but I will defend that I did it in my owne defence or vpon some other lawfull cause this defence cannot be impeached The like hath b In ca. dilecti de except nu 13. Panormitan c In repert verb. defensio Benedictus Vadus and others And if this kind of defence so intrinsecall a right of nature and iustice could be or were once imbarred alas what oppressions would there presently appeare in the world what villanies swarme euery where For would not euery charge euen against innocencie it selfe be a condemnation when the partie charged and not condemned by lawe must not be permitted to speake in his owne defence nor in purgat on of the sclaunder obiected Non sufficit quod factum sit notorium nisi etiam sint notoriae qualitates ipsius facti scilicet quod nulla defensio siue excusatio competat The notoriousnes of the fact is not sufficient as d In sua prac cano li. 3. de modo procedendi in criminibus notorus conclu 1. Alfonsus Vilagut writeth for the Iudge to proceede to the condemnation of any one vnlesse the qualities and all the circumstances of the same fact be likewise so notoriously ill as no defence excuse or tergiuersation can be pretēded to the cōtrary which if it be so how much more doth the same hold true ere the Iudge or ecclesiasticall superiour can forbid the accused to defend their vnguiltines especially before triall iuridicall condemnation The e Ca. cum inter de except excommunicate the f Panor in ca Dilecti de except nu 13. bandite the g Ibidem hopelesse and deepest sunke person in all wickednes are allowed to speake in their own defence yea the Diuell himselfe if he should contend with another in iudgement is not as h In ca. Cum contingunt de foro compet nu 27. in pract ca 3. nu 2. Panormitan and i Ii 3. de inquisitione § 5. nu 6. Durandus write to be put from this rite and due of iustice Againe k In ca. Dilecti vbi supra Panormitan affirmeth the like doth l In eodem ca. nu 6. Felinus with all m Bartolus in l. cum mulier ff solu mat Petr. de anchorano in reg accessori◠in verb. 70. quaero de reg iuris in 6. Baldus in ca. 2. de rescript in sine alij other of account that a statute or decree which prohibiteth the accused to defend themselues is of no validitie by reason it impugneth the very instinct of nature and of that kind of intrinse call instinct of nature which most properly belongeth and proceedeth from reason Alas n 1 Cor 4. must now the ministers of Christ and the dispensators of the mysteries of God be inferiour to the Bandite or outcast of the world in so conscionable a dutie Must Priests being called the o Malach 2. Angels of the Lord of hosts the children p S. Ambr. of S. Peter and the vicars of the Apostles not receiue that tribute of iustice which cannot be denied to the Deuill Vndoubtedly if this being the practice of the aucthoritie and our case be not to breake the law of nature or to dispence therein our wits iudgement and common reason are cleane extinguished and all the learned must needes go to schoole againe but to the third breach AS the authoritie is practised it either transgresseth the law of man and holie church or else maketh our Archpriest a dispensor with himselfe in the same And to begin our prooues hereof with his transgressings of the Constitutiue Letter The said letter only maketh him Archpriest ouer the secular priests and giueth him no iurisdiction at all ouer the Laytie especially to interdict thē Also the letter giueth him authoritie to restraine take away priests their faculties but granteth him no iurisdiction to impose any ecclesiasticall censure either suspension interdict or excōmunication vpon them These things are all apparāt in the letter saue that only about the censure of suspension there may some vaine cauill but no substantiall doubt be made if places be conferred together and no words oueruiolently diuorsed from their fellowes in the same clause The words which can only make for shew of aucthority to suspend are these Si quis his in rebus In the constitutiue letter pag. 2. inobedientem se aut inquietum aut contumacem ostenderit hunc post debitum admonitionē ac reprehensiones fraterna charitate praemissas liccat etiam paenis coercere ecclesiasticis ablatione nimirum facultum vel suspensione If any one in these matters shall shew himselfe disobedient vnquiet or stubborne it is lawfull after due admonition and reprehensions first vsed in brotherlie charitie to correct this partie by ecclesiasticall penalties viz. by ablation of faculties or suspending Our Archpriest and the maintainers of his clayme of hauing authoritie to suspend vs from the Aultar and other diuine offices do separate and abstract the word Suspending from the word Faculties and would haue it to signifie the generall Censure of suspension and not the penaltie of suspending faculties only To which we answere that the said separation and vnderstanding of the word cannot be true because the Cardinal particularising the faculties he giueth to the Archpriest maketh no mention of suspending from the Aultar or other deuine offices but only rehearseth these two facultatum restrictio aut etiam reuocatio si id necessitas postulauerit the restraining of faculties or also the reuoking of them if necessity shall require it So that in the first place the Cardinall declareth the faculties he giueth to the Archpriest for him to chastice vs if neede be And in the second he directeth him when how and vpon what cause he should vse the said punishing faculties And thus hauing shewed the reason and our owne grounds why we assure our selues that our Archpriest hath not aucthoritie to suspend vs from the Aultar or from any other diuine office saue only from the vsing of our faculties let vs see the proofes by which he practiseth and iustifieth the contrarie After that M. Blackwell had suspended and interdicted me and diuers others I addressed this Letter following vnto him SIr M. Iackson hath shewed me the * * By which he suspended interdicted eight of the prisoners in Framingham and my selfe writing that Maister N. deliuered him frō you These are as much as I may without preiudice to my appeale to request you first to giue me to vnderstand by what aucthoritie you interdicted me in respect that neither the letters patent nor his Holines Breue nor any addition that I euer heard of giueth you any show of the like iurisdiction Secondly if you haue more aucthoritie then the Constitutiue Letter the Additions Instructions and the Breue import yet to vouchsafe to let me know the ground warrantize you proceed vpon in
vnlike to these later which came from Wisbich hath fallen into the same penalties him likewise we declare to haue incurred the like censures and penalties namely suspension interdict and the losse of all faculties as we by these presents do impose vpon him Which truly we ought necessarily to haue done though it had bin but for this only cause that Maister George Strensham whom the framers of that Libell call by the name of Potter Iames Cope Richard Button partly by their owne hand-writing and othe and partly as we haue heard by serious protestations do deny euer to haue giuen their consent to those Letters The blame of which fraude we trulie know not to whom we should rather impute it then to M. Colleton who sent vs the Letters Now that neither of these three imputed offences were so notorious as our Archpriest by law or conscience could declare me to be suspended and interdicted or could suspend interdict or reduplicate the taking away of my faculties without citation before or hearing what I could say in the matter I lay this ground That a fact be so notorious as the ecclesiasticall iudge may declare the doer to haue fallen into censures or to impose censures vpon him for the same without summons it is not only of necessity as it hath bene aboue prooued out of Alphonsus Vilagut Panormitane and Felinus that the fact it selfe be notorious but that also the nature and the circumstances of the said fact be likewise notorious that is so manifestly and palpably faulty as no colour or tergiuersation can be pretended For then only as the h 2. q. 1 Prohibentur part 2. sequenti ca. Tua de cohab Cler. ca. Vestra eod tiâ— Canons teach may the iudiciary order of citing be omitted when the fact which is to be punished is apparant knowne to many and can neither be denied nor iustified by any shift or pretext soeuer Qualities which can not fall in or sort with any of the foresaid three offences obiected And to shew that they can no way agree with the imputed offence of subscribing my name to the Appeale or with yeelding my consent to the reasons prefixed before the same we will first set downe the two braunches of the decree for breaking of which our * In his Letter to the Assistents of the 28. of Nouemb 1600. Archpriest affirmeth that we incurred the censures of suspension and interdict and the losse of our faculties and then after prooue that our default therein was not so notorious that he could without citation declare vs to haue incurred the said censures and penalties Prohibemus in virtute sanctae obedientiae omnibus praesbyteris sub Decretum 18. Octob. 1600. poena suspensionis atque interdicti addo etiam amissionis omnium facultatum ipso facto incurrendarum ne quisquam praeteritam inobedienttam quouis § 4. modo verbo vel scripto directè vel indirectè defendere praesumat Prohibemus sub poena suspensionis à diuinis amissionis omnium facultatum § â— ne quis sacerdos vllo modo suffragia vel scripto vel verbo danda ambiat vel det ad quamcunque causam quam antea nobiscum vel cum duobus Assistentibus nostris non constat fuisse communicatam that is We prohibite all Priests in vertue of holie obedience and vnder paine of suspension and interdict I adde also of leesing all their faculties to be incurred in the fact it selfe that none presume any maner of way by word or writing directly or indirectly to defend the former disobedience We prohibite vnder paine of suspension from diuine offices and losse of all faculties that no Priest in any sort either by writing or word of mouth seeke or giue voyces in any cause soeuer not knowne to haue bin communicated before to vs or to two of our Assistants Now though by the setting downe of our reasons why we did appeale and the giuing of our names to the appeale were a notorious or publike fact which had many witnesses and could not be denied neuerthelesse the nature and qualities of the fact were not so certainly and openly knowne to be criminous or ill as that no circumstances or causes might occurre to make the same both lawfull and commendable To defend our good names being priests and tootoo wrongfully assailed and to secke redresse by appellation to S. Peters chaire of most vnworthy oppressions heaped on vs and the Catholike Laity euen to the scandall and iniury of religion are circumstances and such approuing qualities of our fact as do make our breach of the decree not only no apparant offence but most euidently free it from all blame or rather highly commend it And to the end that the vnskilfull in the Latine tongue may see how vniustly our Archpriest hath proceeded against vs as well in calling our reasons a o In his letter to Master Mush the first of March 1600. libelling and * In his letter to M. Iackson the 18. of March 1600. seditious letter as in suspending interdicting and taking away our faculties for putting our names to the Appeale we will here set downe the whole Appeale it selfe in English truly translated omitting the Latine because that is already printed in our booke to his Holines To the very Reuerend Maister George Blackwell Archpriest of the Seminarie Priests in England VEry many and most vnworthie are those things which for these two yeares last past we haue indured at the hands of the fathers of the societie of Iesus and of your Reuerence both approuing and multiplying their iniuries done against vs. Among the reasons why hitherto we haue borne with silence so vniust burdens our aâ—fiance was not the least that the equitie of our cause by little and little deeper seene into some ease or tolleration of our said burdens would in short time growe vnto vs. But hauing now by more then long try all found both our selues to be deceiued in our hopes and also the weight of our afflictions so excessiuely increased by reason of such our qualited patience that not only we our selues but a great number of lay Catholikes most deseruedly deare vnto vs are thereby also maruellously oppressed so that we are enforced by appealing to flee to the sea Apostolicke in most humble manner for succour The reasons of which Appeale are these that ensue First for that your Reuerence hath often approoued the too great The first cause iniuries and reproch which the Fathers of the Societie in word and deede most wrongfully laid vpon vs as namely when father Lister Iesuite composed and had set forth a treatise of Schisme against vs who vpon iust causes deferred for a while to subiect our selues to your authoritie till either by view of Apostolicall letters or other canonicall proofe the same were shewed to be instituted by his Holines commaund and inioyned vnto vs in which beside other vnseemely speeches he hath these slaunders in the fifth paragraph
your Reuerence very well knowes that all these mischiefes or home-dissentions might at the beginning and may yet without any difficultie be quenched by the retractation of these opinions yet for all this your reuerence had rather that all places should be disquieted with the trouble of these variances and that masters and seruants parents and children husbands and wiues pastors and sheepe Priests and lay people should grow to a hurly burly and mutuall contention yea and that Priests themselues should fall at iarres by meanes of this controuersy then that those three fathers of the Society should reuoke their errors or by acknowledging their temeritie make satisfaction to those whom they had offended by such and so great an iniury The fifth cause The fift cause is that seeing the holy Canons do ordaine and the lawes of nature it selfe and of all Nations do require that no man being accused ought to be condemned of the crime or endomaged in his goods or fame or suffer any punishment in his person till he be first in some sort cited and permitted to answere vnto the crimes obiected yet your Reuerence doth testifie by your owne writing that you in no sort are bound to any of all these rules either in iudging or punishing and this also by the will of his Holines himselfe By which new kind of iudgement and authority neuer heard of since the world begun your Reuerence hath lately taken away all the faculties from From Master I. M. and I. C. our two Priests as is said before and there is none of vs but may iustly feare least that ours likewise be taken from vs how much soeuer this course of proceeding seeme to violate the expresse tenor of the Letters patents of the most illustrious Cardinall Caietane Protector of good memory by the which your authority was delegated vnto you as doth manifestly appeare to him that reades the same your R. owne writing we will heere set downe word for word § It is not his Holines intention nor neuer was that in exercising of my authority for correction of manners and conseruing of our ecclesiasticall discipline and peace in this time and in these difficulties that we should be bound in any wise to the forme of contentious or Court trials especially in the reuocation of faculties the graunt whereof as also the continuance is to be deemed meerely voluntary whereas delegated faculties do cease without any crime committed at the only pleasure of the graunter or of one that hath authoritie from him Iune 17. 1600. G. B. Archpriest of the Cath. of England To Master R. Ch. The last cause is for that your Reuerence hath by ordayning The sixt cause decreed we will vse your owne very words and promulgated a degree wherein you haue pronounced and declared all vs who before the comming of the Apostolike Breue made stay of submitting our selues for many causes vnto your authority to be in very deede disobedient to the See Apostolike and rebellious to your office instituted by the same See and haue moreouer vnder paine of suspension interdiction and losse of all faculties to be incurred ipso facto prohibited vs that by no meanes we should presume either by word or writing directly or indirectly to defend that our delay wherein your Reuerence and the Prouinciall father of the Society of Iesus with others your complices do affirme and boldly maintaine the nature of deadly sinne and very schisme it selfe to be included and many mo through your authority and perswasion haue commonly holden vs and do still repute vs as men guilty of the said enormities Whereupon we cannot but wonderfully admire the too too great seueritie of this decree both depriuing vs of the reputation of our good names and bringing burden intollerable for many respects vpon vs. For seeing we are commaunded both by Gods law and mans yea by the very instinct of nature it selfe and lastly by the reason of our office to defend our fame and so neere as we can to preserue it from touch or blemish your Reuerence hath expressely forbidden vs this duty vnder most grieuous ecclesiasticall penalties and censures And whereas beside we tooke our orders of Priesthood by which institution of life we fell into the heauy displeasure of our Prince and are made incapable of all temporall commodities and are euery minute in continuall danger to loose our liues only for the recouery of soules and for propagating the Catholike faith your Reuerence hath bereaued vs of that speciall thing which before others was most necessary to the attayning of the same viz. the vse of our faculties for this only cause that we labored to free our good names from infaming calumniations as we are bound to do Whereof it must needs follow that we shall in short space be brought to vnseemely beggery and want of all necessaries and soone after to most certaine destruction of life We purposely omit here to make any mention of that prohibition of yours to wit that no man goe about to seeke or giue any voyces or make any meetings or assemblies Which restraint is thought to bee ordayned by your Reuerence to this end that all courses may be debarred vs by these meanes both of repelling vniust oppressions by mutuall connexion of voyces and wils and likewise of appealing to Peters Chaire With the like seuerity your Reuerence in the same decree doth also thunder the penaltie of interdiction to be incurred ipso facto against all the laiety that submit not themselues to your sentence or iudgement in this controuersy The sharpnes of which hard dealing may iustly seeme to them for this cause the more violent in respect that the penalties which they are charged by the lawes of our country become so much the heauier and more burdensome vnto them For those that are of ability pay twenty pound a moneth to the Queenes Eschequer and those that pay not the former summe forfet all their goods and two third parts of their lands and if it can be prooued that they haue heard Masse they pay one hundred marks Likewise if they receiue any priest into their house or otherwise releeue his wants they loose all their goods lands and life Which being so they thinke your Reuerence dealeth too seuerely and vniustly with them by inflicting this censure of Interdict whereby they neither can receiue Sacraments nor be present at diuine Seruice nor yet be buryed after christian maner if either they defend the sentence of the most famous Vniuersity of Paris as appeareth by the Decree of your Reuerence before alleaged or take vpon them in any sort to defend the good names of their ghostly fathers or any way cleare those from the imputation of schisme by whose good meanes they were either first brought to the obedience of the See Apostolike or continued in the same and do well know by their long conuersing with them the sincere integritie of their liues The Decree is as followeth We by our authority
ca. pastoralis § verum nu 16. Dâ—cius nu 7 ibid. de appâ—llâ— Felinus in ca. Apostâ—licae de except na 12. Gâ—mini mus in ca. si compromissarius de elect li. 6. alij agree that when one is suspended from the fruites of his benefice pro poena for punishment of a fault his necessities are to be relieued out of the same benefice d Glossa in ca. studeat d. st 50. verb. sin Licet clericus sit suâ—pensus ab homine vel Canone tamen ei relinqui debeat vnde se suos pâ—ssit suslentare Albeit a Cleargie man be suspended by his Ordinarie or the Canon yet there ought so much to be allotted vnto him as wherewith he may honestlie maintaine himselfe and his familie But our Arch-priest as his owne writings declare seemeth to haue little part of this consideration and good spirit when he teacheth and diuulgeth that all our faculties being the only meanes we liue by may be taken away sine crimine vpon his only will The Cardinall in his ninth Instruction calleth those Priests that are resident in Catholick houses the parish priests of the same flock Which if it be so then haue they in respect of the said persons e Henriquez de poeni sacra lib. 3. ca. 6. nu 6. authoritie à iure communi to heare their confessions and absolue them of all sinnes from which ordinarie Curates may absolue their parishioners Nor can this iurisdiction for any cause be taken away so long as they remaine their Pastours though the same may be suspended But let this stand as it may yet it is very apparant and none can denie but that our faculties here in England are in stead of Church-liuings vnto vs our only benefices Rebuffus f In repet de rescrip coll 2. ad medium writeth and g In verb. Papa nu 12. 13. Siluester and h In 12. q. 2. non liceat Archidiaconus haue the same quod Papa post collata beneficia non habet potestatem auferendi ea sine causa that the Pope after induction hath not authoritie to depriue the incumbent or take away the benefice without a cause and the same Authour proueth the position by Barbatia i In ca. quod translationem de offi legat nu 121. inuent 16. qu. 7. where he saith that it was defined by the Councell that none should be depriued of their benefices nisi pro graui culpa but only vpon a sore and grieuous offence Yea the contrarie seemeth to be as k P. 2. lib. 2. cap. 18. nu 9. Graffius writeth against the rights of morall equitie namely that one should be put from his benefice which perhaps he atteyned to by much paine and expences without any cause or fault foregoing that could deserue the depriuation Which if it be true in the ablation of benefices graunted it holdeth more true and stronger in the reuocation of our faculties for the causes aboue-mentioned It appeareth by that little we haue said how vnconscionable and extreme is the opinion which our Arch-priest holdeth touching the voluntarie graunt and continuation of our faculties Let vs now see the correspondencie of his practise and as we haue alwayes alleaged his Decrees or letters for proofe of that we affirmed so shall we do the like in this point also being of importance And to the end no exception may be taken either for abridging or dismembring his words we will set downe the whole Instrument by which his Reuerence first tooke away faculties from some of vs. Omnibus dilectissimis mihi Assistentibus Clero Anglicano salutem SCiatis nos antegressis temporibus duobus illis D. Ioanni Musho D. Ioanni Collingi onto facultates suspendisse propter eorum manifestam inobedientiam perturbationem pacis postea autem eas restituimus ex ipsorum submissione Quoniam autem illi iam defendunt caeusam suam satisfactionem petunt c varias ad nos literas dederunt contumelijs siue calumnijs plenas partim emissas in nosipsos partim in alios etiam superiores atque etiam hoc ipso tempore multa satagunt contra paecem c. Ideo nunc Nos Georgius Blackwellus Archipresbyter Angliae reuocamus his duobus omnes facultates c iubentes vt omnibus catholicis id notum faciatis ne ab ijs fortasse socramenta recipiant Plura ex communibus literis intelligetis in quorum fidem hisce nostris literis sigillo nostro munitis manu propria subscripsimus Londini 17. Octobris 1600. Vester seruus in Christo Georgius Blackwellus Archipresbyter Angliae The English To all my dearely beloued Assistants and to the English Cleargie salutation BE it knowne vnto you that heretofore we suspended Maister Iohn Mush and Maister Iohn Colleton from the vse of their faculties for their manifest disobedience and perturbation of peace and afterwards restored them vpon their submission But now because they defend their cause and require satisfaction c. and haue sent vs diuers letters full of contumelies and calumniations partly published against our selues partly also against other Superiours and euen at this very instant do goe about many thing contrary to peace c. Therefore we George Blackwell Archpriest of England do reuoke from these two all their faculties c commanding that you make the same knowne to all Catholicks least perhaps they may receiue Sacraments at their hands More of these matters you shall vnderstand by our generall letters for credit of which matters we haue subscribed with our owne hand these our letters sealed with our owne Scale From London the 17. of October 1600. Your seruant in Christ George Blackwell Arch-priest of England Presently as I receiued the aforesaid Instrument which was the seauenth day after the date thereof I returned the letter following VEry Reuerend Sir at this instant Maister Heborne deliuered me a Letter directed to your Assistants and the Cleargy of England giuing them to vnderstand that you haue reuoked all Maister Mushes faculties and mine with an c. And you specified foure causes thereof with a second c. The first is for that we defend our cause then for that we aske satisfaction thirdly for writing vnto you diuers letters full of contumelie or calumniations partly published against your Reuerence partly also against other Superiours and lastly for that at this present we busily bestir our selues in manie matters against peace with a third c. Moreouer you commaund the sayd Assistants and Cleargie of England to acquaint all Catholicks with what you haue done least haplie they receiue Sacraments of vs concluding that they shall vnderstand moe things out of your common letters My humble request is that you would vouchsafe to expresse these residues at length and plainely as also what common letters you meane and to whom we shall resort for a sight of them otherwise in my poore iudgement the processe will appeare hard For to diuulge in this notorious
after diligent consideration had of the nature of the businesse either reuerently to accomplish our commaundement or yeeld a reasonable cause why you may not fulfill it And p In ca. si quando de rescript nu 1. Ioannes Andreas writeth Is ad quem rescriptum Papae dirigitur debet illi parere aut iustam causam ostendere quare non paret He to whome the Popes rescript is directed ought to obey it or assigne a cause why he doth not obey it The same q Ibidem nu 1. hath Felinus r In ca. cum teneamur de praebend in apostillis ad Innocent Baldus writeth further Quod si in literis Papae dicatur districtè praecipuendo mandamus tamen potest supersederi ex causa iusta That if the Pope do strictly coÌ„maund such a thing to be done neuerthelesse the same may be omitted vpoÌ„ a iust cause Likewise the Glosse affirmeth s In ca. cum teneamur de praebend Quod â—portet mandatum domini Papae adimplere nisi subsit causa non adimplendi That we ought to fulfill the commaundement of the Pope except there be a cause of not fulfilling it Also Graffius writeth alleaging Saint Thomas and Panormitane for proofe of the position t P. 1. li. 2. ca. 36. nu 15. 16. Quod in omni praecepto legis positiuae admittitur exceptio causa rationabilâ—â— That in euery precept of a positiue lawe the exception of a reasonable cause is admitted And the reason hereof is because the lawes of the Church or commaundements of Superiours are not secundum se in their owne natures of the necessitie of saluation as are the precepts of God v D. Thomas 22. q. 147. art 4. ad 1. See the 7. 8. and 12. propositious pag. 27. See also pag. 47. being the precepts of the lawe of nature but only by the institution of the Church or decree of the Superior and therefore some causes or obstacles may occurre whereby a partie may not be bound to the obseruance of them By all which it appeareth with how little iudgement or rather with what ignorance and childish reasoning father Parsons in the tenth leafe of the Appendix inueyeth and inferreth against vs for affirming that one may vpon a reasonable cause deferre to fulfill the commaundement of the Superiour NOw for the more perspicuitie of all that hath bin hitherto said it seemeth necessarie that we put downe the whole race of the controuersie and what offers of attonement we haue made from time to time that so the reader may see whetherside hath more inclined to peace and sued for it And to shew this from the beginning of the difference and how desirous we euer were to giue satisfaction to all parties who were scrupulouslie grieued at the manner of our proceedings chiefely of mine on whome most blame was layd I will here set downe two Letters for testifying of such our willingnes the one written to father Garnet the other to an earnest lay-fauorite and patrone of the aduerse part Very Reuerend Sir VNwillingnesse to shew my selfe either too quick in taking or ouer-tender in brooking iniuries hath hitherto not a little as to me seemeth staid both toung and pen from due questioning and complaining and would haue done longer but that reports are now growne to the like head as euen feare of offending through too great neglect of my good name necessarily enforceth a more respectfull consideration vpon me My owne eares haue bin witnes good Sir and my friends euery where giue me to vnderstand how sinisterly I am talked of for wronging that I vse but one and no harder a tearme albeit many and much harder be spread of me the fathers of the Societie These are therefore to beseech you and in all right of charitie to intreate the receiuing of so much fauour or rather not the vndue tribute of iustice from you as to acquaint me with those particulars wherein I haue reproueablie either to your owne knowledge or by such information as will be stood vnto miscaried my selfe in word deede or demeanour against your selfe or any of your societie I expect my full charge and do no way desire you to leaue any point vntouched or not amplified to the most whereof you hold me culpable Adding that the plainer you deale with me herein the better cause I haue to like you Aduertising besides that for sauing some of your friends credit so farre as the deliuery of like vntruths do discredit it importeth to alleage the most you can against me If my leaue be desired as no neede I yeeld it franckly because I would not willingly dwell in ignorance of my sinnes nor omit satisfaction where I am bound to make it Thus in briefe you haue my request and see the motiues I praye affoord me the performance with the soonest Fare you well with very good will though the course if with your priuitie followed against me sheweth little good will Nouember 5. 1598. By him whom plainenesse in the premisses maketh more yours I. Colleton SIr I perceiue by the continuance of your hard speeches against me vttered euen where they may worke me most hurt that there will be no end of the euill vnlesse some meanes be taken that both you may vrge whatsoeuer you can obiect against me and I on the other side haue leaue and hearing to make my answers To which intent I offer by these to come where and when you shall appoint and do further beseech you that you would haue such present as you thinke can speake most and best proue your and their accusations against me I shall come alone only with the testimonie of my owne conscience you may take to your selfe as many as you shall thinke good and if you and they shall iustly proue me to be faultie in that I goe charged withall I wil forthwith God willing both aske you pardon and be ready to make any satisfaction that shall be thought fit In the meane it were good we remembred what the holy Ghost writeth The abomination of men is the detractor By which words the wisdome of heauen seemeth to affirme that of all ill qualities which make men hatefull and their companie to be abandoned the vice of detraction is the first Surely if the mouth speaketh from the abundance of the hart then what suds must lodge in the hart of him that depraueth the good name of another and incomparablie more in his who calumniouslie accuseth his spirituall father For such a one the lawes of holy Church reckon for an infamous person No more but what I write to you the same I meane to your sonne Maister N. Fare you well the 28. of Ianuary Yours howsoeuer you repute of me Iohn Colleton TO the latter of these Letters I receiued no answere at all and of the former I receiued the answere that followeth which I thought good to set downe verbatim both to the end that others might see wherewith I was charged and how I cleered
quietest of all others stint and end the variance And hauing now good sir proposed our request and giuen you a feeling of our desires it followeth that we suppliantlie beg of your good Fatherhood which our hearts performe in most respectiue manner that you would not stretch our words beyond our intention which is only to make to appeare how earnestlie we couet a friendlie conference to heare what can be said and be heard what we can say to the end the question to and fro largely discussed the truth may lye open and all further contention dye for euer Which being the all only scope and marke of our designe propounded also vpon hope of leaue and vnder correction we trust there is no cause why we should feare to haue our intercession for a conference named a challenge our inforced defence a voluntarie opposition satisfaction to others a breach of obedience and the seeking of repose to our owne soules vndutifulnes to our Superior or contempt of Authoritie An intreatie that would make our case most miserable loaden till we be forced to bemoane our agreeuances and then more loaden for making way to ease them But our hope is better and we misdoubt no part of the precedent in respect of your owne construction but because the addresse the purport so beseeking remayneth to be imparted by you to others and perhaps not euery one in readines to vnderstand our meaning to the best therefore we haue presumed the more expressely to signifie what we would not haue conceiued amisse And thus reuerenced sir being come to the end of that we would say we leaue with humblest request of pardon and like defrayment of dutie The first condition FAther Wallay Father Lister and whome and how many soeuer of the Societie they shall thinke good to choose vnto them to be reasoners debatours or disputants of the one side and of the other three such Priests of our companie as we shall nominate The second The grounds reasons arguments answers reioynders of both sides vpon full discussion and agreement to be set downe in writing The third The vmpeers or arbitratours to heare and determine of the waight truth and coherence of all that shall be said or alleaged by either side to be two or three of the senior Assistants and Maister Doleman And that it be in the choice of your Reuerence to admit such of the Laitie to be hearers of the dispute as to your wisedome for the qualitie of occurrances shall seeme meete The fourth That each of the foresaid arbitratours shall faithfullie promise in the word of a Priest to proceede to the giuing of sentence vpon the proofe and disproofe of either side according to the dictamen of their consciences and inward perswasion without delay colour mitigation and all partialitie The fift If the said arbitratours shall iudge that our case was schisme and our selues schismaticks then we to be bound most humblie to aske pardon on our knees of your Reuerence and the Societie for hitherto defending the contrary against the veritie of their your affirmance If of the other side they shall censure or deeme that we were no schismaticks then the Societie especially the penner and the approuers of the pamphlet of schisme to acknowledge their errour reuerse the tract and make vs some ratable satisfaction for the heape of iniuries and infamies sustained The last That it be lawfull without offence or prohibition for either side after sentence giuen and fulfilling of the premisses to seeke if it so please a resolution in the difference from the Vniuersities beyond the seas vpon shew and euidence of the said written dispute grounds reasons proofes arguments subscribed with the hands of the vmpeers and disputers of both sides to the end it may manifestly appeere to be the same and no place left to the other side to suspect any indirect dealing either by adding changing or subtracting ought to in or from the originall and that none of the foresaid arbitratours or disputants refuse or deferre to put to his name being requested thereunto An Appendix DEere sir after the writing of these no weake doubt began to arise in our minds whether we had done well or ill in not descending fuller into the causes that induced or truer constrained vs to the making of the foresaid Supplication And the more we chewed the doubt the greater it waxed and the plainer we sawe how we had therein omitted the particularizing of that which would most iustifie the mouing and best pleade the graunt of our sute May it therefore stand with your good leaue that we here supplie the defect for what you giue not leaue to the same we reuoke and beseeke it be holden vnwritten 1 The head sourse whence our agreeuances do chiefely spring is the retractation or vnperforming of that which your selfe did set downe vnder your hand and the testimonie of one of your Assistants namely a prohibition willing and if that were not sufficient commaunding all parties to desist to inueigh or follow the note of schisme against vs but contrariwise to suffer all matters past to quaile and to english your owne Latine phrase lye buryed in perpetuall obliuion Which charitable ordinance and many wayes most needefull for making and conseruing peace how much and how oft it hath bin gone from let the particulars declare that follow One of vs informed your Reuerence that a Father of the Societie whome he named affirmed and stood to the iustifying of the assertion that whosoeuer beleeues or to vse his owne word holds opinion dogmatizando that we were not schismaticks incurreth ipso facto the censures of holie Church Which licence of speech at leastwise outwardly you no way seemed to dislike but answered the position was true And if true and we not deceiued in the signification of the word how many good sir of very good conscience do there abide in a right dolefull and a most miserable plight of soule All our ghostlie children not few in number and some of them of good qualitie and infinite others beside hold opinion nay firmely most resolutely and with boldest assurance beleeue we were no schismaticks and will the Father say that we and they all through this our beliefe liue and continue in a damnable state and vnder the heauiest curse vpon earth Pardon we can neuer thinke it nor count it lesse in our selues then rashest temeritie euen but once to surmise the same yet vnlesse the Father be mistaken or our selues beguild in the darke or incongruent senses of his speech we see no auoydance but we must needs more then thinke it being bound if his position be true to belieue and teach the veritie therof Verily deere sir this touch or somewhat more sitteth so neere is of that nature reacheth to so many and goeth vested with like circumstances as by no warrant of conscience we may neglect the disproofe were we through the vertue of humilitie or the holie contempt of our selues neuer so greatlie
proane and willing thereunto as teacheth Sainct Tho. quodl 10. quest 6. art 13. and may be auouched by that knowne saying of Sainct Augustine Qui conscientiae suae confidens famam negligit crudelis est He is cruell that neglecteth his good name vpon the cleerenesse of his conscience And againe by that exhortation of the Apostle prouidentes bona non tantum coram Deo sed etiam corā omnibus hominibus prouiding good things not only before God but also before all men And the reason is apparant for being pastours and labouring in the busines of gaining soules the report of a good name is as important to vs for the good of our neighbour as a good conscience for our selues 2 Further your Reuerence being sued vnto by the whole number of Priests in the Clinck for vouchsafing to restore M. Benson to the vse of his faculties you refused or thought it not meete so to do vnlesse among other points he did first acknowledge sorrow his long adherēce to the schismaticall conuenticle meaning so naming our companie Which forme of speech and manner of proceeding cannot but make plaine to euery vnderstanding how desperatly grieuous you repute our state and what miscreants we come to be reckoned when our Superiour letteth not to tearme our fellowship a schismatical conuenticle and that also by pen whereunto then to a sodainnesse of speech a farre more mature deliberation concurreth Consider in the name of our Sauiour we humble the request vnto you the place you hold the authoritie your words beare your writings more and how thereby the waight of our affliction with the hauock of our credits dayly increaseth all or most men taking your word for warrant against vs. 3 Againe there is a Letter auowed to be written by your Fatherhood as the tenor can agree to no other and the copies common wherein the words following lye word for word without change or interposition We haue receiued a resolution from our mother citie that the refusers of the appointed authoritie were schismaticks and surely I would not giue absolution to any that should make no conscience thereof Do they thinke that the scandall that did arise thereof that the discrediting of our Protectors authoritie that the opprobrious speeches against the Fathers vttered by them that the danger they drue me vnto may be free from sinne I hope they haue not so senselesse a conscience And therefore my direction is that they do make accompt thereof and do make satisfaction before they do receiue the benefit of absolution The order and manner of satisfaction I referre vnto the discretion of their ghostlie fathers which haue not bin marked with this note of schisme O good Lord help vs is our demaund standing off only for canonicall proofe that the designed authoritie was the ordinance of his Holines or that it had his Holines approbation adiudged to make vs schismaticks and the maiestie of the place remembred to credit our dome the more And hereupon as if all were by and by an vndoubted truth whatsoeuer is aduertised by some persons against vs you first soothing what you would do your selfe commaund all other that we make satisfaction ere the benefit of absolution be imparted vnto vs. An ordinance only and that seldome annexed to publick and horrible crimes but patience must be our remedie much patience seemeth not vnneedfull albeit our hope is there may be some as meane schollers in Rome as there are elsewhere or how singularlie learned soeuer he or they were that thus hardlie concluded it inferreth not much because as the euidence and information were deliuered so without all doubt were we sentenced and if these were either not true or vnperfit as we assure our selues of the one or both then must the iudgement depending thereon needes take the same dye be of like veritie And if it be replied that true and full information was giuen then we aske why it is not added to the resolution or otherwise shewed vnto vs to the end our selues and others may be witnesses thereof and haue whereupon we may iustlie alter and repent our contrarie opinion Besides it were to good purpose and to our seeming not vnrequisite that as well the names of the resoluers as also the most substantiall reasons of such their opinion were likewise set downe and adioyned to the resolution For without these or other good specialties what man or woman of conscience in the world vpon view or hearesay of an vnauthored resolution without shew of proofe reason instance example or authoritie will condemne so many as are of our side of so irreligious a crime and criminall outrage whose proper entitie and nature requireth in the doer wittingnes deliberation obstinacie and rebellion and that immediatlie or mediatlie against our high Pontifex and as Pontifex or head of our Church for vpholding and maintenance of whose prerogatiues we haue suffered and dayly do many sorts of pressures calamities and death it selfe A strange proposition and much incredible In like manner how is it possible that such a bare and naked resolution should weigh ought with vs standing as we are verily perswaded we do vpon diuersitie of assured grounds for the contrarie especiallie when we consider who wrote the resolution ouer a puney in Religion and fellow Iesuite with the creatours of our schisme at what time when a feare was conceiued least we had sent to the Sorbonists for their opinion why because the vsuall aduertiser either had not as may be coniectured or would not be seene to haue his finger in so great an vnright condemned ere we were heard to speake or asked the reasons why we did prolong our submission To draw neerer would not the ods in the iudgement of all men good sir fall on our side if to counteruaile this vnstrengthened resolution we should oppose the opinion censures of our english Students and Doctors at Doway who as an honest Priest reported Maister Beisley that came from thence make the discourse and proofe of our schisme a meere iest and matter of recreation to sport themselues with by the fire and cannot beleeue but the author trauelled when he penned it in some forgetfulnes of his schollership or distemper of head Or if we should seeke to incounter the said resolution by the suffrage euen of such our fellow Priests here at home as haue not bin marked with this note of schisme who being eye and eare witnesses to all particulars and not without some knowledge in the state of most of our soules and therefore by probabilitie as likely to see as farre into the point as strangers were we anon cast in the closing or should we leese thereby If reports be true or many of good vnderstanding not deceiued there are few of our said brethren either reuerēt for yeares or speciallie counted of for learning vertue wisedome iudgement discretion true courage in Gods cause or for any other good part who do not greatlie meruaile at this
onely affirmeth that his Holinesse enioyned him by speciall commandement to make peace in our countrie after the example of the peace and quietnesse made in the English Colledge at Rome Which commission or authoritie to make peace is vnlesse we be infinitly deceiued a farre different thing in nature from the authoritie to institute an Archpriest with like ample and exorbitant iurisdiction in our whole Church Verily the proportion seemeth to be so little and the dissimilitude between the meanes of making peace and it the quality of the subordinatioÌ„ the maner of bringing it into our Church considered as there could well no hope be conceiued of peace to follow through the institution of such a subordination except we would make the fathers of the Society our directours and remaine euermore their obseruant pupils If it be replied that the Cardinall wrote in the Letter Constitutiue how in decreeing the subordination he followed the will of his Holines We answere that to follow the Popes will in doing of a thing differeth much from receiuing of a speciall commaundement of doing the same Neither doth it appeare in the Cardinall his Letter that his grace followed the will of his Holinesse in erecting this subordination in specie with the iurisdiction faculties and instructions adioyned nay the contrary seemed plaine in that his Holinesse willed the Cardinall by speciall commaundement as his Grace relateth the words in the Constitutiue Letter to labour the effecting and establishing of peace in our countrie which standing his Holines intention and will could not be but that such a subordination should be ordained amoÌ„g vs as might most auaile to the making and continuing of true peace and in which principall qualitie the new subordination being most defectiue if not part of the faculties annexed of a quite contrary nature what inference more direct then that the Cardinall only followed the will of his Holinesse in the name of a subordiuation a point of lesse moment and not in the substance matter specialties and forme thereof points incomparably more important Which how vnperfect a manner it is of following his Holinesse will we leaue to others to iudge Finally where you father Parsons do say that his Holinesse commanded the institution of the subordination in respect of the diuision and dissention raised in England betweene Priestes and Iesuites or Priestes and Priests we are glad to see you to correct the defaming errour though the whole Realme could reprooue you if you did it not which your selfe inserted in the Constitutiue Letter making the cause of instituting the subordination to be dissention betweene the Secular Priests and the Lay Catholickes And as we are glad of this so may we not omit to note the pollicie that you labouring to erect a subordination concealed that froÌ„ his Holines which was true which most needed reformation to wit great dissention betweene Iesuits and some secular Priests and pretended other vntrue matter viz. strife among the Secular Priests and debate betweene them and the lay Catholickes a most iniurious calumniation And when by this cunning finenesse of masking matters you had obtained your desire that is such a forme of gouernement as your selues made choice of neither comprising your brethren here as it had bene reason it should being the more potent part of the contenders but in steed of this iustice and equality made you and them in truth the electours of our Archpriest and our Archpriest commanded in matters of waight to seeke your iudgement and aduise In the ninth instruction then when matters be compassed and all things that your selues assigned most strongly coÌ„firmed to agnize or colour the former vntruth which as it seemeth could not be but a studied falshood by rehearsing many distinctiue causes is proofe of wit and the more by doing it in such a language as those who by authoritie ought most to punish and remedie the fault cannot vnderstand the abuse For concluding our answere to this sixth obiection we say no more but wish the Composer to arme himselfe with patience by considering these words of holy Scripture qui inconsideratus est ad loquendum Prouerb 13. sentiet mala He that is in considerate in his speeches against another must not thinke but to feele the rebukes due vnto his folly A Seuenth obiection which our aduersaries alleadge against vs is that we being the persons who a In the Apologie fol. 101. went about to erect sodalities to b Ibidem fol. 105. ordaine new associations to c Ibid. fol. 90. make a certaine gouernment among our selues without consent counsell or notice of any Superiors and this to the preiudice of others the most part of our brethren reclaiming and misliking the same And were d Ibid. fol. 100 so seruent in this point to haue a subordination and gouernment among our selues as without all superiours authoritie we would haue set vp our association Did neuerthelesse e Ibid fol. 104 when the institution of the Archpriest came into England and was promulgated by the prudent and godly letters of the Protectour and ordained for conseruation of peace by the highest authoritie that is vpon earth begin hauing resolued to be vnquiet first to stagger and doubt and then to discusse our superiours commandement and lastly to contemne it Which sinne of ours f â—n the letter of the six Assistâ—nts to the Nuncio in FlaÌ„ders 2. of May 1601. §. 7. can no where else be placed but in the highest greece of disobedience seeing it was coÌ„mitted against the supreme Pontifex himselfe and against the dignitie of the whole Romane Court. The obiection is laid downe in their owne wordes as it is to be seene in the places quoted neither haue we wittingly omitted ought that themselues adde of waight to this purpose And now to answere directly hereunto First we acknowledge that some of our companie went about though after and not with like feruour as M. Standish now an Assistant did being the first motioner of the matter and chiefe prosecutor to erect a sodalitie of such as would giue willingly their word and names to obserue certaine rules that should be agreed vpon and deemed fit for the good of themselues and manie other during the present state of things The cause of this proiect were certaine hard speeches which some indiscreete persons either the too zealous followers of the societie or some of the fathers themselues or both gaue forth against the secular Priests in generall that they liked not to liue vnder obedience or to haue other Superiours then the direction of their owne wils Which report put away the working of diseased humours grew chiefly and outwardly of this cause for that many of our brethren in Wisbich refused to accept father Weston to their Superior and to accept such orders as he the said father Weston and his partie wherof many were secret Iesuits and none so ancient either in yeeres or in sufferance for the cause as were
sundry of the other side and of lesser talents also thought fit to appoint To remoue this exception and to let the authors of the report to see in our deedes that we were no such worshippers of our owne wils nor so auerted from the duties of obedience but that we would in the degree that becommed secular Priests both relinquish the one and bind our selues to the other and also to giue helpes and prouocation to our nature dull by inheritance of going the more forward in vertue we thought good if not necessarie to vnite our selues and agree vpon some certaine rules and choise of a superiour for the better obseruing of discipline and the said rules The rules that were set down to be obserued by the sodality intended were first some eighteene as M. Standish can record who taking them to translate shewed them to fa. Garnet not vnlike to other of the societie containing chiefly matter of increasing sociall and mutuall loue and this not onely betweene Priests that should be of the sodalitie but betweene them and all Priests as the rules themselues yet extant in the first draught can witnes namely of surnishing Priests at their first comming of releeuing the needes of other especially of prisoners and persons fallen into trouble or decayed for harbouring of Priests of preaching monethly or catechizing weekely of aduenturing vpon any daunger for sauing or comforting a soule in extreme necessitie being requested thereunto of disliking no one for not being of the sodalitie of declining al such occasions as might breede variance with others especially with the fathers of the societie if any like cause be offered by them to acquaint the superiour of the sodalitie with it that he might forthwith before the matter grew to head or be knowne to many conferre with the Superior of the societie for redresse and a charitable end of the difference of spending daily some time in meditation or in reading some spirituall booke of conferring about difficult and intricate cases and neuer vpon his owne iudgement to resolue such without taking the aduice of other his brethren of making a generall confession euery halfe yeere for the halfe yeare past and of other like points And none of all the rules to bind vnder mortall sinne saue onely that the superior should not incorporate or vow himselfe a member of another bodie before such time as he had relinquished the office If they of the North not knowing what we had done in the South drew other rules or moe what skilled that sith they stood contented to accept of those rules which most voices should approoue and ours of the South not theirs of the North were approoued And now this being the designe intended the cause why it was intended and the breuiate of the rules we aske the sixe Assistants that sent the letter of information to his Holinesse Nuncio in Flaunders against vs we aske father Parsons the writer of the Apologie and so farre as in dutie we may we ask also their superiours by whose allowance the said Apologie was printed what it was that was so greatly amisse either in the circumstances or nature of the designe as might deserue the reproches which the said letter to his Holinesse Nuncio layeth vpon vs for hauing such a purpose When the matter was broken to father Garnet for vnderstanding his liking and opinion in the same he answered that it was the best thing which was taken in hand in all this Queenes time if it could be effected Likewise when the affaire was communicated to father Weston he seemed to like it very well And if they haue since changed their mindes yet we request father Parsons the maker of the Apologie and ou◠Archpriest the allower of the printing thereof and of the Appendix to shew the reason why they terme the setting downe of g Fo◠7◠Rules in Wisbich by the eighteene Priests and the electing of father Weston for h Fol. 73. their Iudge Correctour and Censurer ouer them i Ibidem a holy and quiet purpose and so k Fol. 90. mainely depraue and condemne the sodalitie we intended wheras the rules of that l Fol. 66. Academie or congregation as they call it are neither m Fol 65. more easie or commodious nor more * Fol. 72. auance honest and ciuill conuersation among those that should liue vnder the orders the qualities which the Apologie attributeth to the said rules then were the rules of the sodalitie we went about to make and perhaps not equall to ours in the foresaid qualities and incomparably behind ours in other respects more generall and releeuing the distressed Or howsoeuer their rules exceeded ours in goodnes or ours theirs in that and in forwarding a common good yet it cannot be denied but that we who laboured or rather proposed the instituting of a soliditie did surpasse them in this one point viz. in desisting from prosecuting M. Blackwell M. D. Bauine and M. Tiruit our purpose assoone as we first vnderstood that some two or three of our brethren misliked our endeuors holding it for more charitie to surceasse that for peace and quietnesse sake which might occasion good to our selues and others then by proceeding in a matter we were not bound too to kindle the ire or emulation of a few The like if the greater and better part of the prisoners in Wisbich for so our Archpriest and father Parsons styleth them had bene pleased to haue done as by no perswasion they could be brought vnto O Lord what tumults what broiles what scandall what infinite detraction had there bene left vncommitted And it is worth the labour to note who they were that principally opposed themselues against the institution of the sodalitie albeit none were to be of that companie but with their owne liking and intreatie Doctour Bauen the senior Assistant stood so stifly opposite against the introduction of the sodalitie or association as he letted not to affirme when his opinion was asked therein that if the Pope should appoint a Bishop in our countrey during the present state of matters he would be one that should resist and informe his Holinesse of the inconuenience and hurt which the bringing in of such authoritie would worke in our Countrey And M. Blackwell only of all the Priests in our contrey wrote certaine reasons in dislike and condemnation of the Sodalitie to wit that as by the rules of Phisick and Philosophie it was no wisedom for any who had a long while kept their health by liuing in such an ayre or by feeding on such meates after to change the same ayre or alter their customarie diet and as it is a dangerous errour in ciuill pollicie to seeke to change the forme of gouernement vnder which they haue enioyed lōg peace happines so is it folly or great temeritie hauing liued so many yeares in peace and quietnesse in our Countrey as we haue without any association or other superior to begin now to
strange resolution and not a little grieue to see and heare how sharplie how vncharitablie how iniustlie we are dealt with and what bond of endlesse discord the pamphlet of schisme the occasion and origin of all hath most vnfortunatelie cast among vs which notwithstanding we do not rehearse that when the difference commeth to tryall we intend to make benefit of such their opinions hoping without that help to be able with sounder proofes to confirme what we hold then with such allegations Now touching your Fatherhoods charge and our culpablenes in the other offences specified we omit to say much partlie in regard of dutie partlie because we would not be thought tender in taking nor full of defending partlie also for that the raising of scandall must fall in fine to their part to whome the lawfulnes or vnlawfulnes of the vsed processe and more the truth or vntruth of our schisme after deciding shall prescribe and giue it And as for the other three kinds of sinne of discrediting our Protector of vttering opprobrious speeches against the fathers and of drawing your selfe into danger our only answere is that because the mentioning of them in this sort bringeth a suspition of their vngodlines vpon vs all we most hartilie beseeke you to nominate and take condigne punishment of the guiltie and thereby free the residue of so foule a staine Doubtlesse if the taunts of our schisme composed and the pluralitie of by-words which he spent in that paradox with lesse modestie against vs yea if his condemning vntruths in sentencing vs to be rebels schismaticks fallen from Gods Church offenders against all faith and humane authoritie excommunicate irregular contemners and treaders downe of due obedience to the Sea Apostolick scandalizers of all the godlie infamous throughout euery mans mouth no whit better then soothsayers and idolaters and to be counted of as ethnicks and publicans if these we say with other intollerable defamations dispersed and sent to Rome against vs for deeper deprauing our designes and persons which we can proue some by letters yet extant others by testimonie of credible relatours were vprightly ballanced with that which we haue said or written against the Fathers it would soone appeare and as manifestlie as light at noonetide who haue most exceeded who haue surfeited and who remaine obliged to satisfye for vttering we may say lauishing of loose bad opprobrious speeches Is it possible we meane Father Garnets words in his letter to me of the 7. of March 1599. not for religious humilitie or morall courtesie but for gaule it selfe or a worse humour to exaggerate matters heauier vpon vs then to affirme that if those whome we haue begotten to Christ or who are our ghostlie children should receiue sacraments at our hands they seeme to receiue poyson in place of medicine from vs yea also to commit grieuous sinne if they do but intreate vs to celebrate or shall but help vs at Masse Surely surely had we defiled our pennes against the Fathers with like stuffe and doctrine Lord how francklie had we bin exclaimed against with open mouth if not all the bels both in towne and country rung out Crucifige vpon vs long since to our euerlasting ignominie But the abhomination and execration of our schisme commerited and importuned this and a fuller measure of bitternes to be powred vpon vs. Be it so though we hope by all authorities to cleere our selues from any such tainder yet the same being neither decided by sentence of holie Church nor in talke nor in the least suspition before it pleased the Fathers to raise and spread the calumniation of vs we cannot but thinke we haue reason to blame them of course and homely dealing that hauing alwayes honored them in the degree we haue and they being neither our superior against whome our offence if any were was committed nor in any way with vs in subordination vnto him but a distinct body from him and vs thus peremptorily thus eagerly thus violently to censure and condemne their long welwillers and ioint-labourers with them in one vineyard To say charitie induced them to so exceeding a processe against vs were to speake voluntarilie beyond all likelihood of truth for if charitie had bin the motiue charitie being as the Apostle writeth patient benigne not prouoked to anger suffering all things hoping all things bearing all things they would either haue deferred the denouncing of their cruell sentence vpon vs knowing that we had long before that time sent to his Holines for vnderstanding his pleasure or haue vsed ciuiller tearmes or at leastwise not interlaced so many frumps and mightily inciting scoffes as they did in the treatise fitlier beseeming a Stage-player then a religious person 4 There remaineth one materiall point yet vnremembred and which putteth vs in feare ofmo troubles at hand viz. that part of your letter to Maister Clearke wherein you signifie that you are content for the time to suffer vs in our opinion of schisme as the lesse euill and will not deale as yet as a prelate may do for appeasing the same What course you intend against vs good sir in these your words we know not in particular but a warning they must needes be vnto vs either to addresse our selues to take vpon vs without demerit the turpitude of schisme and thereby discredit our nation staine our function leese our faculties loade our consciences wrap our selues in censures and turmoile if not agonize the soules of our ghostlie children in breeding doubts whether their confessions made vnto vs or hereafter to be made be good or no. On these mischiefes great and many and very fearefull we must wittinglie put our selues as is said or prepare our patience to beare whatsoeuer it shall like our hard friends to aduise and your selfe to impose vpon vs. Lamentable to remember how much the former glorie and renowne of our english schollers and priests at Rome are sithence the death of our blessed Cardinall eclipsed or rather blotted or rather then either if we may so say defamed Which euill hitherto outlandish and confined chiefely to that place begins now alas to creepe hitherward apace nay hath alreadie found large welcome in our realme and gauled the reputation of Priests impeached the increase of Catholicks decayed the reliefe of prisoners and raysed the like mutinies and debates in our country as the generall and Gods cause lyeth groueling amitie pineth peace droopeth our aduersaries reioyce and dissention and faction seeme only to raigne Our good Lord for the infinitenes of his mercy guide and graunt you good Father the happines to reforme all and pardon the causers whosoeuer they be that they feele not the smart of the misdeede in the reckoning of their last accompts For conclusion we appeale honored sir to the indifferencie of your owne thoughts whether these and mo of like agreiuance which if we would we could alleage being the aduersities of our present state there be not greatest necessitie of mouing and recommending this