time in your proud boasting The words you say were neuer sufficiently proued to haue been spoken by him neither by sufficient witnesses nor by his owne confession and because the words could not serue to any purpose but to his owne ruine he being known to be wise and no foole you would haue it beleeued that he spake them not at all This is but a simple defence Sir Encounterer of your stout champion seeing the words were spoken in the hearing of so many witnesses both of your side and ours in the Parliament house and seeing that the speech being generally testified by them that heard him at that time it was neuer either by himselfe denied or by others that were present controlled If Doctor Storie had been so wise as you would perswade he was he would neuer haue vsed such impudent words such shamelesse talke such vnconscionable and cruell speeches without anie pittie of such as he had persecuted most cruellie as it is certainelie reported he did also at that time As for the interpretation which you call a bloudie commentarie it was not deuised to draw bloud nor to presse him downe seeing he long since receiued his iust iudgement it doth onely descrie his bloudie and disloyall heart which caused his tongue to vtter such furious and bloudie speeches You would faine haue Doctor Storie not to meane the Queene by the roote but either heresie it selfe or the infected Nobilitie and Gentrie But alas Sir N.D. your fained glosses are so farre from drawing his words to another sense that they rather confirme the same much like to Pilates superscription which being set vp to shew the cause of Christs condemnation did yet notwithstanding proclaime his innocencie and conuince them of crueltie for doe not you a little before confesse that these words could serue to no other purpose but to his owne ruine and doe not you here acknowledge that the Nobilitie and Gentrie seasoned with true Religion which you in the madnes of your idle braine call heresie were but inferiour roots both which things doe proue that his words which were these They meaning the Commssioners and Counsellors in Queene Maries time laboured onely about the young and little sprigs and twigs while they should haue stricken at the roote and cleane haue rooted it out cannot be meant of any other but of the Prince and chiefe roote from whom by the great goodnes of God the generall and open profession of Christian Religion hath againe sprung vp in this our land and with whom it doth continue yet still notwithstanding that Bacon Cicill Knowles and all those that you named are dead and gone The words must needs aime at a person and not an heresie at one and not at many at a chiefe and not at anie inferiour howsoeuer this glosing and cunning Encounterer would perswade vs of our Queenes affection to Poperie or denie that true Religion was willinglie and ioyfullie without compulsion and constraint from others established and maintained by her Rishton one of your Masters speaking of her before she was crowned saith Animum in eare suum statim patefecit c. 1. she presentlie shewed her mind in Religion both by silencing Catholike preachers as he calleth them as also by suffering all those that had liued in exile for Religion to returne home and by charging a certaine Bishop readie to celebrate before her that he should not eleuate the consecrate host For which respects as he confesseth the Archbishop of Yorke and the rest refused to crowne her The iudgement which Doctor Storie receiued by the Iustice of our land was most iust not being iudged to death for these words as you craftily yet verie foolishlie and falsely haue set downe but for that he denied her Maiesties Supremacie in the land and Soueraigntie ouer him and pleaded himselfe to be no subiect to the Queene but to the king of Spaine And this is it that your Martyr-maker Doctor Saunders seemeth to insinuate in his title added to Doctor Storie shewing that he suffered for the Primacie of your Bishop of Rome but obserue the blasphemie of this Pope-holy Encounterer against Christ and his heinous accusation out of a trecherous heart against the Magistrates and Iustice of our land in comparing such a traitour as Storie was with our Sauiour Christ and our Iudges with Pilate Leaue your blind zeale Sir Romanist which carrieth you so violently to such impieties and begin at length to imbrace true Religion with vs in the feare of God and in all loyaltie and dutie reuerence and commend the true Iustice of your Countrie Whatsoeuer your Catholikes doe imagine Storie to be worthie of hauing made him a Martyr who indeed was a traitour howsoeuer your selfe blinded with partiality heresy cannot find out any trespasse of moment committed by him though he denied our Prince to be his Soueraigne and Queene yet to euerie Christian and in different reader his iudgement will appeare to be iust and his offence no lesse then treason Doctor Saunders indeed hath made him a Martyr in his booke of the visible Monarchie of the Church and it may be you haue a purpose to canonize him for a Saint if there might be found a Suriu◠that by his Legions or Legend of lies would faine vnto him a better life some strange miracles but it being true that the cause not the punishmēt doth make a Martyr and that some things had in great estimatiō with mē may be abominable in Gods sight your traiterous Story shal be no better a Martir then the Martirs of Montanus Marcion Nouatus heresies of whom Eusebius maketh mentiō And so leauing your traiterous Doctor let vs come to the second hostilitie wherwith you find fault that is the Bull of Pius Quintus with the excommunication of her Maiestie concerning which Bul it moueth your patiēce greatly that euery where in schooles sermons books places of Iustice this fact of your Pope should be produced as a sound witnes and testimony of the vnsound and disloyall hearts of such of your catholikes as approue your Popes dealing therein by which you would enforce that matter wanted wherwith to charge your traitors at their arraignment for there was alwaies many and sufficient proofes wee need not seeke farre for matter to conuict you of most grosse impieties and cursed practises you haue herein yeelded vs too great an haruest to labour in and our hearts desire hath euer been that we might trulie speak better things of you We charge none to be guiltie of the fact but such as approue it or shew thēselues too forward to yeeld obediēce vnto it yet sir N.D. I think you could hardly resolue this doubt how a papist acknowledging your Popes authoritie and iustifying his proceeding therein may acknowledge her Maiestie to be his true and rightful Queene For in the title to that Bul you know the Queene is called a pretended Queene by the Bull she is deposed her
Heauen and not in the Pix was counted heresie and for that cause men were called before your Clergie and branded to the slaughter Our stories are full of examples out of your owne Registers that reading of Scriptures was accounted heresie not to stand vpon many vnder Longland Bishop of Lincolne Agnes Welles was conuented and amongst other things examined whether Thurstan did euer teach her the Epistle of S. Iames or the Epistles of S. Peter and S. Paul in English Thomas Earle was likewise chaeged for hearing the Epistle of S. Same 's read in English Agnes Ashford of Chesham for teaching Iames Norden certaine sentences of Scripture as Teend ye not a candle and put it vnder a bushell but set it on a candlesticke that it may giue light to all in the house such like To Robert Pope Iohn Morden and his wife was obiected that they recited the tenne commandements in English To Iohn Phips was obiected that he was very ripe in the Scriptures Ienkin Butler appeached Iohn Butler his owne brother for reading to him in a certaine booke of the Scripture and perswading him to hearken to the same what should I stand to number vp any more which vnder this one Bishopâ— for reading them selues or hearing read some part of the Gospels Acts or any the Epistles or Reuelation were called into question of life The like proceeding was vsed by other Bishops and namely by Tunstall then Bishop of London before whom many were conuented for that holy heresy of reading the Scriptures In number of whom one going to be burned for an heretike and seeing the booke of the Reuelation bound to the stake to be burnt with him which happely he had diligently read being thereto moued with that sentence Blessed is he that readeth and they that heare the words of this prophecie spake with a lowde voice these words O blessed Reuelation how well is it with mee that I shall be burnt with thee Infinite such examples might be shewed not onely in our owne countrie but in forraine kingdomes I will alleadge onely one example of a godly Bookeseller of Auignion in France The Bishop of Aix with other Prelates passing through the streets euerie one leading his Minion vpon his arme and buying vp such filthie pictures and rimes as were then to be sold they came where there was a Bookeseller setting out French and Latine Bibles to saile at which sight they being much moued said to the Booke-seller darest thou be so hardie to set out such marchandise to sell here in this Towne Dost thou not know that such bookes are forbidden To whom the Booke-seller answered is not the holy Bible as good as these goodly pictures that ye haue bought for these Gentlewomen Which speech so offended the Bishop of Aix that he brast forth into these words I renounce my part of Paradice if this be not a Lutheran So commaunding him to be apprehended he was by the Prelates attendants most despitefully handled some crying out a Lutheran a Lutheran to the fire with him to the fire with him some beating him with their fistes some pulling him by the beard others by the haire that the poore man was all embrued in blood before he came to the prison The next morning being brought before the Iudges in the presence of the Prelats the selling of bibles in French was laide to his charge he was asked whether he knew not the Bible to be forbidden in all christendome saue onely in Latine To which he answered that he knew the contrarie and that he had sold many Bibles in the French tongue with the Emperors Priuiledge with other words reprouing their forbidding of Gods most holy bookes which he ordained for the instructing of the ignorant and for the reducing againe into the way such as haue gone astray the charitable Prelates cried out haue him to the fire without any more words the Iudge yet paused willing him to acknowledge those Prelates to be true Pastors of the Church which he denying that he could doe with a good conscience sith they reiected the holy bookes of God he was immediatly condemned to be burned and the selfe same day executed and for a signe and token of the cause of his condemnation he carried to the place of his execution two Bibles hanged about his necke and so exhorting the people to read the Scriptures he was for this cause onely cruelly put to death Who then can doubt but that the Romish Clergie are the true heires and successors of those cruell Tyrants Antiochus Dioclesian Maximinus c. Who like them haue burned in the fire not only the Scriptures of God but also the bodies of them that read therein and that to them it may be applied that which is written in the Machabees The bookes of the law which they found they burnt in the fire and cut in peeces Whosoeuer had a booke of the Testament found by him or who soeuer consented vnto the law the kings commandement the Bishops may we say was they should put him to death by their authoritie I had thought this gentleman had runne himselfe out of breath in charging me with lies and fictions but now follow foure more saith he but I say his loude quadruple lye shall cleare and discharge me of all The first is that I say Ignorance was held by them to be the Mother of Deuotion a strange accusation and grieuous slaunder no doubt to charge those men with nourishing the people in ignorance whom all the world knoweth to haue vsed strange meanes to bring them to knowledge For what meant they by the costly setting vp of many faire and well guilded Images in Churches Was it not that they might be laye mens bookes and by reading on them they might attaine knowledge What Pius the fift goodman was he not most carefull the people might be edified when as it is written in his high commendation in a procession he was not carried on mens shoulders as Popes vsed to be but he went on foote to the great edifying of the people Now if the Pope will vouchsafe to goe on foote to the end to edifie the people thereby how can it be thought he would haue them bread in ignorance But Sir if you will not forceablie writhe and wrest my proposition to extend it to ignorance absolutely but vnderstand it as it is euident to be meant of the ignorance of the Scriptures yourselfe I hope will free me from any fiction herein and will acknowledge that Doctor Fulke doth iustly charge your Rhemists who setting forth the new Testament in English if that which is pestered with so many obscure words may be called an English translation and yet excusing themselues for being of that erronious opinion that the Scriptures should be alwaies in our mother tongue or that they ought or were ordeyned by God to be read indifferently of all That Doctor Fulke I say doth iustly charge them that they are afraide
vnder his Father and Grand-father and for their affections declining to Idolatrie and not truly esteeming the blessings in Iosiah their king powred vpon them the Lord threatneth to bring euill vpon that place and the Inhabitants thereof Which he did by suffering Iosiah to be slaine by the souldiours of the king of Egypt and within few yeares after his death selling his owne people into the hands of the idolatrous Babilonians For as darknesse naturally followeth light and night the day so do great punishments accompanie rare blessings when they are not duely esteemed as they ought Blessed was Ierusalem by the testimonie of the Lords owne mouth when he said My beloued had a Vineyard in a very fruitfull hill and he hedged it gathered out the stones of it and he planted it with the best plants and built a Tower in the middest thereof and made a wine-presse therein But when he looked for grapes and it brought forth wild-grapes the Lord threatned from the height of this blessed estate to cast them into the gulfe of miserie to take away the hedge from his Vineyard that it might be eaten vp and breake downe the wall thereof that it might be troden downe c. The Lord hath not therefore been lesse beneficiall to vs in placing so gracious an head vpon the bodie of this Realme because you and some such as your selfe are doe yet remaine to God ingrate and to your Prince and Countrey vnnaturall Onely I beseech God that whereas by his appointment the Oliue is yet ouer vs with her fatnes and the Figge with her sweetnes and the Vine with her fruitfulries that amongst many other sinnes of our land for our vngratefull contempt of so great a blessing a Bramble be not set ouer vs which is good for nothing but to burne and consume vs and so much concerning my supposed contradiction Now Sir N. D. it is your pleasure to heare my manner of speech in these words If I should take vpon me to enter into the enumeration of all the benefits and blessings that from the Almightie haue beene powred vpon this little Iland of England c. And hauing thus vnperfectly repeated them you passe the ouer with this sleight exception saying That in mentioning our little Iland I must take Scotland with me else I erre in Cosmographie as though England were not deuided in gouernment from Scotland though both rest vpon one continent and as though your selfe did not tearme this Realme an Iland euen where you do distinguish it from Scotland Therefore Nodum in scirpo quaeris and to this shift you are put very often for want of matter But if seemeth that Scotland was named here by you chiefly to make way for your purpose to giue a glaunce at battels murders destruction of Countries Prouinces Townes Cities Houses and particular men that haue beene in Scotland within these fortie yeares as though Scotland had neuer tasted these or any of these before and then you come in with Ireland wherein you seeme to bewaile the death of the noble Desmons whose treasons yet liue by succession in one of the same name who it is said wrote â— treason full letter stuffed with most intolerable opprobries and slaunders against her Maiestie and the state to the King of Spaine And this I hope is no great proofe of your sonâ—dnes to Queen or State France and Flaunders follow to fill vp the number But had you any respect of truth or care of modestie you would neuer haue made the true Religion wee professe the cause of murders tumults and garboyles which teacheth dutifull obedience and condemneth all mutinies seditions and rebellions You should do well to haue told vs who murdered the King the Lord Iames the Lord Russell in Scotland In France who murdered the Prince of Conde after he was taken prisoner which I thinke the law of Armes will not well beare Likewise who they were that laidâ— bloudy hands vpon the Admiral Chattilion being first shot in with a Pistoll with three bullets in the streetes and afterwards slaine in his chamber And so of Marlâ—ret slaine in his garden and of the famous learned man Ramus who hauing paid monie to ransome his life was beyond all humanitâ—e most cruelly quelled And generally who were the Authors not onely of the bloudie massacre in Paris but also of the like vprores in other Cities and quarters of the Realme principally at Lyons Orleans Roan Tolouse in which Cities within the space of one moneth there are numbred at the least thirtie thousand godly Protestants to be slaine your holy father at Rome to shew with what spirit he is led and with what meanes he sticketh to maintaine his Religion which otherwise would fall to the ground so soone as he heard of this bloudie tragedie maketh great ioy with his Cardinals with their procession with their gunshot and singing Te Deum Yea in honour of that Act proclayming a Iubile with great indulgence and solemnitie For Flaunders tell vs who murdered the noble Prince of Orange against whom it was proclaimed that who soeuer could bring him aliue or dead or slaie him should haue fiue and twentie thousand crownes You shall finde that such a Catholike-faith as yours is hath still sought to maintaine it selfe by such Catholike means as these are treasons tumults seditions secret murders and such like As for our true Christian Religion it is so cause of tumults garboyles and murders as Christes birth was of the murther of the poore infants in which neither Christ nor the infants ought offended the madnes was in Herod and all Ierusalem to be for this cause in an vprore In a word it is Herods Religion which seeketh to murther Christ and the Christes and annoynted of the Lord. I proceed to your aduertisement for a better direction to mens iudgements that all blessings of a Common-wealth may be reduced to two heades the one spirituall belonging to the soule and conscience the other temporall concerning the bodie and weale publike and that the Lord hath richly blessed this land since her Maiesties Raigne I doubt not to proue to all that haue iudgement and indifferency following your owne methode And first there hath beene in England since this happie alteration change from popish superstition to Christian veritie One God worshipped in spirit and truth one faith one belief one forme of seruice in praier and praises to God one number of Sacraments which are onely two by the word of God one head of the Church which is Christ the Lord as the holy Ghost testifieth by the Apostle Him hath God appointed to be the head of the Church And his substitute annointed appointed ouer vs is our Soueraigne and Queene who is to commaund and be obeyed in Christ and for Christ in all causes aswell ecclesiasticall as ciuill and not your proud vsurping Priest at Rome and if you can like to looke vpon the harmonie of confessions you shall find all the
might when the valiant Souldier of Iesus Christ Thomas Hawkes was before him and alleaging against the Popish manner of baptising both the addition of many ceremonies deuised by man as their oyle creame salt spittle candle coniuring of water c. as also that they wanted the chiefe thing meaning preaching alleaging the text Goe teach all Nations baptising them c. by and by replieth vpon Master Hawkes and taketh this exception against that allegation Thou speakest that because I am no Preacher And as if to taxe a Bishop for being no Preacher had been so hainous a matter though the man of God answered that he spake the text and meant not of him yet all his Doctors and seruants present spake with a loude voice making a great noise he speaketh it of you my Lord. And yet the latter part of King Henries raigne and the short but happie raigne of King Edward helped you to farre moe Preachers by their faint yeelding then in former times of Poperie haue been accustomed to be as is not onely apparant in this kingdome but in others if I had leasure to inlarge The onely example of Doctor Bassinet a man of great learning and authoritie in France shall suffice me at this time who in his first answere to the oration of the Bishop of Aix perswading to set vpon the Merindoâ—ians and as heretikes to destroy them confesseth his owne ignorance of true Religion till of late he fell to reade the Scriptures and yet he was a Iudge of heresie and with all his rash condemning of those whom they call Lutherans to death although he was content so farre to yeelde to punish them with fines and banishment which should speake too intemperately against the constitutions of the Church and of the Pope his words are thus Englished The cause why in conscience I am thus disquieted is this that now of late since I haue giuen my selfe more diligently to the reading and contemplation of the holy Scriptures I perceiue that the most part of those Articles which they that are called Lutherans doe maintaine are so conformable and agreeing to the Scriptures that for my part I can no longer gainsay them except I should euen wilfully and maliciously resist and striue against the holy ordinances of God albeit hitherto to maintaine the honour of our holy Mother the Church and of our holy Father the Pope and of our Order I haue consented to the opinions and doings of the other Doctors as well through ignorance as also because I would not seeme to attempt any thing against the will and pleasurâ— of the Prelates and Vicars generall Against which his confession when the Bishop of Aix replied thus Is there any difference thinkest thou betwixt heresies and blasphemies spoken and maintained against the holy Scriptures and opinions holden against our holy Mother the Church and contrarie to our holy Father the Pope a most vndoubted and true God in earth Art thou a Master in Israel and knowest not these things Doctor Bassinet more fully layeth open the generall and common blindnes and darknes of those times in these words Are not they those which haue forsaken Iesus Christ the fountaine of liuing water and haue digged vnto themselues pits or Cesterns which will holde no water Truly euen those they are which vaunt themselues to be the salte of the earth and yet haue no sauour at all which call themselues Pastors and yet are nothing lesse then true Pastors for they minister not vnto the sheepe the true pasture and feeding neither deuide and distribute the true bread of the word of life and if I may bee bolde to speake it would it not be at this present as great a wonder to heare a Bishop preach as to see an Asse flye Are not they cursed of God which glorie and vaunt themselues to haue the keyes of the Kingdome of Heauen and neither enter in themselues nor suffer them that would enter to come in c. By which and infinite other euidences may appeare that there is in a manner as great difference betwixt kingdomes professing the Gospell of Christ as this land now doth through Gods blessing and those that are subiect to Poperie as was sometimes betweene Aegypt and Goshen As for your allegation against those my speeches to passe by your bolde assertion that England had continued aboue a thousand yeares vnder that darkenes of Poperie the vanitie whereof is by sundry learned men discouered it is euident by Beda his plaine testimonie in these words Haec in praesenti iuxta numerum librorum quibus lex diuina scripta est c. This I land at this present according to the number of the bookes in which the lawe of God is written doth search out and confesse one and the selfe same knowledge of the highest truth and of the true height in liue tongues namely of the Angels of the Brittaines of the Scots of the Picts and of the Latines which in meditation of the Scripture is made common to all the rest Wherein he meaneth that the Latin tongue was common to all the learned of those foure peoples as the vulgars were to the vnlearned So that in former times this Iland had the Scriptures in their owne tongue to be a lanterne to their feete and a light to their steps and delighted not in ignorance of the Scriptures and in darkenes as of late as also the most and chiefest points of your blinde errors haue been hatched long since the time you prescribe as in the particulars of the patching together of the Masse by degrees and successiuely of the absurd doctrine of Transubstantiation with other like is by men of great learning and iudgment manifestly proued Yet by the way this I note that by your secret confession you yeeld almost 600. yeares to the truth we professe before your Religion was hatched seeing both your selfe and others commonly make claime for a 1000. yeares But to passe by this doth not this Encounterer strongly thinke you refute mine assertion of the darkenes in times of Poperie when he saith speaking of the state of this kingdome in those times And it was accounted then as wise learned valiant noble and flourishing a kingdome as France Italy Spayne c. An argument by which the Religion of the heathens may aswell be freed from darknes and ignorance For was not Rome when it had those lightes of learning and eloquence Cicero Crassus Hortensius and others as also those famous and wise both Counsellors and Captaines Marius Scilla Pompey Caesar Cato Scipio and such like was not I say Rome then accounted as wise learned valiant noble and flourishing a kingdom as France Italy Spaine or any other Christian kingdomes be at this day and yet it is true that their knowledge was ignorance and their light darkenes vnlesse the Apostle be deceiued who saith of them all generally Their foolish heart was full of darkenes and when they professed themselues to be
your generall Viccars warrant which Romish conceite you shall finde learnedlie confuted by Doctor Bilson who is now Bishop of Winchester in the latter sence I need not to labour any more proofe then that before is set downe touching your breeding of Gods children in blindnes and ignorance and withholding the keye of knowledge from them and how will you haue them meddle with or care for that which they know not Though I say I may well iustifie both yet let me tell you that you doe not well distinguish the word meddle for as to meddle may signifie to be present in Councels c. in which sence you seclude the Laytie from medling with Religion so likewise it may signifie to trie and examine by the touchstone of Gods word the doctrine there taught and not to beleeue without farther discussing whatsoeuer their superiours teach them And in this sence likewise you will not haue them meddle yet the men of Berrhea are much commended for medling thus in Religion in that hauing heard the Apostle they searched the Scriptures daily to see whether those things were so as he deliuered and to this medling doth the Apostle exhort all Deerely beloued beleeue not euery spirit but trie the spirits whether they be of God or not And Chrisostome thinketh it an absurd thing that all men should not thus meddle with Religion Quomodo absurdum non est c. What an absurditie is that for money we trust not other men but count it and tell it after them but for more excellent things simplie to follow other mens sayings especially sith we haue the exactest rule and ballance of all the testimonie of the lawe of God therefore I pray and beseech you that you will leaue what this and that man thinketh and enquire all these things of the Scriptures Now how doe you permit lay men thus to meddle with matters of Religion when as ye take from them the vse of the Scriptures which as the rule or leuell serueth the Architect to direct his building by the ballance trieth the true waight of euery thing plainly sheweth what doctrine is true and to be imbraced what false and to bee reiected But no maruell that you haue forbidden them thus to meddle with matters of Religion when you haue broached such doctrines and maintained such opinions as some of your selues confesse cannot be iustified by the Scriptures It is recorded that some of the learneder sort of your Cleargie haue vsed to say amongst their friends Sic diecrem in Scholis sed tamen maneat inter nos c. I would say so in the schooles but yet let it be kept secret amongst our selues I thinke the contrarie we say so in the schooles but yet it cannot be proued out of the Scriptures c. Howsoeuer it may be you will generally be loath to confesse thus much of the Scriptures yet the Fathers you haue not onely mangled and depraued where their testimonies were pregnant against your errors as for example that plaine place of Gregorie Nissen Eam solummodo naturam quae increata est colere venerari didicimus we haue learned to adore and worship onely that nature which is vncreated where your Spanish Diuines in their Index expurgatorius set down this direction Deleatur dictio solummodo put out the word only sundry such places as both our learned men haue discouered in your Indices are to be found out But you plainly professe thinking it should haue remained secret among your selues and neuer to haue come to our knowledge that in the auncient Fathers you do very often deny very many errors meaning such sentences as make for vs against you by inuenting some comment or exposition and that you doe faine and deuise some conuenient sence when they are by the aduersaries in disputations and conferences obiected against you which things considered should stir vp the spirits of all men thus to meddle with matters of Religion and not by and by to beleeue and receiue euery doctrine because your Church teacheth it And now are we come to that high and capitall slaunder against the holy Pope-made Saint Thomas Becket whom I call a traitour at which the gall of this Popish Saint-seruer is so moued that he taketh on fretteth chafeth and as another mad Aiax Flagellifer threatneth that I shal rest with a broken head as in another place he speaketh of cudgelling with blowes and bastinadoes wherewith he supposeth to haue wrought a manly peece of worke But Sir pause a while the more rage the lesse reason and the the greater haste commonly the worse speede It were good aduise for you that threaten the breaking of other mens heads to looke warily to your own for the olde verse may happily be verified in you Saepe sagittantem didicit referire sagitta Inque virum plagae conuersarecurre re plaga The arrow oft vpon the shooter doth rebound And he receiues the blow that others thought to wound To examine a little the state of this Becket who was a traitor as I affirme not I onelie but many before me against Henrie the second but to vse the words of mine Author taken vp and shrined for a newe Saint made of an olde Rebell fiftie yeeres after his death which was in the fourth yeere of Henrie the third I doe openly professe to auoide all such carpers and quarrell-pickers as this fellow is to separate betweene his punishment and death and betwixt his cause and carriage against his Prince The first being outragious against all law and order by priuate persons not publikely authorised therto the second traiterous and meritorious of death the king hauing to that end iust matter enough if he had pleased by lawe to prosecute the cause against him which by sundrie euidences may be shewed but some fewe shall serue And first if Ciprians rule be true Non poena sed causa facit Martyrem It is not the punishment but the cause that maketh the Martyr what was the maine ground of the controuersie betwixt the King and him was it not as they terme them the liberties of the Church as this Encounterer granteth liberties not spirituall but carnall not of Christes giuing but of Antichrists deuising There were as Authors affirme in that time of Henrie the second more then a hundred murthers besides other felonies proued vpon the Clergie which when the King would haue punished according to the lawes of the land Becket opposeth himselfe and beardeth the King in this so iust an action vnder title of standing for the liberties of the Church a holy quarrell no doubt but such a Martyr such a cause From this straunge ground these proceedings ensued there was a law and constitution that neither Bishop nor Clerke should goe out of the land without the kings licence and then he should take an oth not to procure any hurt against the king or any of his notwithstanding this proude Prelate who
also but euer with due reuerence to both parents c. All which by way of similitude you apply to our Queene as a mother and your Pope as a father and to your Saundrs Allen Bristow Stapleton c. as elder brethren and to the Priestes and lay men in England as yonger brethren c. which similitude consisteth of nothing but dissimilitudes For first the Pope is no way our father and therfore our obedience reuerence loue not to be deuided betwixt the Queene and him as the childrens betwixt the father and mother the Queene is our mother both nourishing vs as a tender parent in things temporall as also in taking care for the Church of Christ in this land in things spiritual according to the Lords promise by the Prophet to his Church Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and Queenes thy nurses So did Iehosaphat Ezechias Iosias amongest the Iewes Constantine Iustinian Charles the great with other like Princes amongst the Christians commaund and make lawes in causes ecclesiasticall and acknowledged no vniuersal father-hood of your Pope I wish he did discharge the dutie of a true spirituall father within his owne Diocesse and Bishopricke but it is an hard testimonie that Laurentius Valla giueth him Papas dici nomine Patres re Parricidas that the Popes are called fathers in name but in deed they are Parricides Againe if the elder brethren interpose their iudgement betwixt their Parents by your own confession it must euer be with due reuerence to both partes this reuerence your elder brethren haue not shewed towards the Queene too good a mother for so vngracious Impes whom they not onely call heretike pretended Queene vsurper c. but haue by all meanes sought the murthering of her sacred person Thirdly the yonger children you say must holde their peace and mourne for the contentions but not intermeddle But Sir your elder brethren whom you allow to speake are farre enough from reach they may safely define what they will against the Queene and cast abroad their iudgements in railing bookes to yonger brethren to settle in them a consent therto Which being done they must yet make shew not to intermeddle to the end they may the better auoide perill to their persons secretly hearten the people against her Maiestie Take an instance hereof from one of your yonger brethren one Paine a Priest who walked no lesse closely for his safetie then he was directed nor lesse cunningly to corrupt the peoples hearts then he was commanded who from his owne mouth discouered to one Eliot a bloudy platforme laid to destroy her iestie and diuers of her Honorable Councell with armed men the effecting whereof stayed onely the comming ouer of certaine Priests which were expected in the meane time through Gods goodnes this horrible treason was discouered and preuented And Paine being asked how they durst practise or attempt any such mischieuous action his answere was that to kill the Queene or to vse anie crueltie against her or any that would take her part was no offence to God and that they might doe it as lawfully as to a brute beast and to approue himselfe a fit messenger to be sent on such a bloudie errant he affirmed that himselfe would be one of the first that should execute the same here is one of your yonger brothers whom all the world must confesse to be a fit son for such a father as your Pope is Besides this your Cardinall Allen Doctor Worthington and others as elder brethren sent Richard Hesketh a Gentleman of Lancashire and a younger brother to induce the Lord Strange late Earle of Derbie to make a suddaine rebellion in England and to take vpon him the title of the Crowne assuring him from them and others of treasure and forraine forces to maintaine the same which treason the Honorable Earle dutifully detected Hesketh himselfe confessed and bitterly cursed his elder brethren to make him a yonger brother to aduenture the danger of the treason that they as elder brethren doe teach and deuise farre enough from reach Is this the weeping of your yonger brethren without intermedling are these the teares then are they of a right Crocodiles brood which seemeth to weeepe but it is to this end that they may sooner kill and destroy Nay further then this these elder brethren commend to their yongers treason against her Maiestie for a point of their faith namely that if the Pope say the worde none of the Papistes ought to obey her Maiestie nor to account her Queene of England for in the cases of conscience as Doctor Bilson now Bishop of Winchester noteth wherewith the Iesuites that came into England were furnished to the 55. Article when they be asked whether the Bull of Pius Quintus that was giuen out or any Bul that the Bishop of Rome can hereafter giue out all Catholikes be bound to yeeld obedience faith and loyaltie to Queene Elizabeth as to their lawfull Prince and Soueraigne the resolution is he that demaundeth this question asketh in effect whether the Pope might doe it or no to which demaund what a Catholike should answere it is playner then I need here to explicate If therefore a Catholike be asked do you beleeue that the Bishop of Rome may depriue Queen Elizabeth of her crown he must answer not regarding any danger of death I beleeue he may for this questiō is a point of faith and requireth a confessiō of our faith Do not these elder brethrē think you dutifully put in their iudgements between these two imagined Parēts the Queen the Pope when they teach their yonger brethrē treason against the Queen for an article point of their faith To ende with this Cardinall who thanks be to God ended his life before he could attaine the expected end of his traiterous dessignments doth he not perswade that it is not onely lawfull but honorable to murther Princes for Religion for saith hee There is no warre in the world so iust or honorable be it ciuill or forraine as that which is waged for Religion Now if it be true that ciuill warre which is the warre of Subiects against the Prince be iust and honourable then is it an honourable act for Subiectes to kill the Prince for the ende proposed in warre is victorie and the way to victorie is bloudshed and slaughter not so much of the people who are not impugned but for partaking with the Prince as of the Prince himselfe whom you seeke to depose and place an other in his steed And this doctrine of your Cardinals Parrie himselfe confesseth vnder his owne hand writing did throughly resolue confirme and strengthen him in his diuellish purpose to kill the Queene Doctor Allens booke saith he was sent me out of France it redoubled my former conceipts euerie word in it was a warrant to a prepared mind It taught that Kings may be excommunicated depriued and violently handled It proueth that all warre
performe his word and such like which are all commendable vertues they pronounce such a man without further enquirie to be a good Christian and a religious man whereas many times they that doe such things not onelie are not true Christians but professe no Religion at all may not these then be truly said to be deceitfull baites in such a man It is written of Iulian the Apostata that he caused almes-houses to be erected in sundrie places of his Empyre appointing that poore Christians aswell as others should be there relieued yeelding this reason that sith the Christians taught to doe good not onely to friends but to our enemies it were ashame for them to be inferiour to Christians in doing good Amongst Turkes Iewes Pagans many things are done wisely valiantly iustly and according to ciuill honestie yet are but deceitfull arguments to perswade to be of their Religion and as Chrysostome I trow tearmeth such mens outward good works as gaye apparrell put vpon a dead carcase I haue ascribed no more to the Papists in this point then may trulie be yeelded to the heathen and yet the Papistes especiallie of the wealthier sort when now the streame and course of the law goeth against them vsing for policie much kindnes courtesie affabilitie to the inferiour and common sort may by this meanes winde themselues into their bosomes and as a Mirmaiden with her sugred song and the Scorpion with his fawning and smiling meane destruction in the ende fo by this plausible courtesie they seeke to drawe and induce to their religion by which sugred baite many are ensnared with the wordes of our Sauiour Beware of false Prophets by their fruites ye shall know them c. I gladly agree and subscribe to them as also to the testimony of Saint Iames Thou hast faith and I haue workes shew me thy faith without workes and I will shew thee my faith by my workes For as wee see not the soule of man it being a spirituall substance yet whom we see to walk to speake to haue sense and feeling wee know the soule to be in that man so faith being an inward qualitie of the soule cannot be seene of anie but by effectes namely good workes And as a painted fire is no fire because it wanteth heate and an Image is not a man because it wanteth sense so no more is that faith indeed but onely in name which doth not fructifie by good workes as the Church of Sardi had a name that it liued but indeed it was dead it was called spirituall but was carnall The true iustifying faith must be accompanied with an holy conuersation Iustification and sanctification cannot be seuered But being my selfe in the ranke of learners I confesse it becommeth me to referre you for a full answere to your blasphemy against our true doctrine of iustifycation to those that haue both learnedlie and diuinelie handled it to the true comfort of all Gods children Now to bring you out of your wonder for my speaking so much of deceipt and dissimulation in your Catholikes seeing of all other people in the Realme these men say you dissemble least c. I must pray you with patience to peruse some of your Iesuiticall instructions discouered by one of their owne crew some few yeeres past in the Northparts to a godlie learned man who by authoritie was imployed in the examination of them and tell me how you can cleare your Recusants I meane such of them as haue been taught these holy lessons and apprehended them for fit to be followed and follow them as too manie doe from deceipt and deepe dissimulation A seducer being sent ouer to play his part amongst vs when he was taken did reueale amongst many other things to his assigned examiner these three positions following First that the Recusants should reserue themselues both in bodie and goods in plenitudinē temporis secondly that they should not make doubt to present themselues to our Churches for it should not only not be imputed to them for sin but takē to be as meritorious as if they did sit so long in the stockes for Christ his cause Thirdly that in all their answeres and other behauiours they should shew themselues as dutifull Subiects till such time as there were certa spes victoriae these be brought with speciall direction to be taught and perswaded and how farre these lead wide from deepe dissimulation I appeale to the indifferent Reader but this is no noueltie in Poperie though your dimme sight cannot discerne it And I pray you Sir what meant sundry of your Recusants the last sommer when all the land was in armes to sell away their goods and to slide out of the way themselues when order was giuen to dsarme them did not this arguea reseruing of themselues in plenitudinem temporis and that they had some hope that their certa spes victoriae was not farre off You proceed further to my triple accusation as you terme it against them which yet is rather an admonition for due prouidence then an accusation to draw on anie heauie punishment I note three things First the harme they continually doe secondly the hurt they would doe thirdly their deep dissimulation for the first I onely insist in this one hurt that when the Gentleman recuseth and is borne withall the meaner sort receiue infection and draw backe also Likewise though the husband come to the Church if the wife refufe the danger redoundeth to the whole household and wiues of the meaner sort are by them likewise infected Of which you make light but it ought to be of more moment to vs and therefore more heedfully to be seene vnto then you desire to haue it For how shall the child the seruant the tenant be forward to know the truth when the Parent the Master the Land-lord refuse knowledge The wifes recusancie was not so common till men infected with popery were perswaded that they could not be drawne by law to pay the penaltie for the wiues and the Popes holines had a dispensation readie for the husband to goe to Church Now that the meaner and poorer sort of women are infected by these of the wealthier and that they when they come home labour also to peruert their husbndes it neither need seeme strange to you and we that liue to serue in the countrie finde too lamentable experience of it For commonlie and for the most part men proue to be such as are they whose companie they frequent and daily experiēce doth teach vs the tiuth of the old saying Cum boni cum malis conuer santur c. When the good conuerse and keepe companie with the euill sooner are the good by the euill corrupted then the euill by the good conuerted Heresie is by sundrie writers compared to the plague as for sundry other respectes so for this that as the plague doth spread it infection to manie oftentimes infecting the whole house and reaching the venome