meaning Nomen non facit Episcopum sed vita c. It is not the Name but the Life that makes a Bishop If a Man have the Name of a Prelate and does not answer the reason thereof in sincerity of Doctrine and integrity of Life but live scandalously in open Sin he is but a Nomine-tenus Sacerdos A Bishop or Priest in Name not in Truth Yet still Wickliff did not deny but that such an ones Ministerial Acts were valid for so in the same Treatise p. 138. he saith Unless the Christian Priest be united unto Christ by Grace Christ cannot be his Saviour Nec sine falsitate dicit verba Sacramentalia Nor can he pronounce the Sacramental words without Lying Licet prosint Capacibus The notwithstanding they are available so far that the worthy Receiver is thereby nothing hinder'd from partaking of the Grace signified Obj. 3. They pretend that Wickliff maintain'd That it was not lawful for any Ecclesiastical persons to have any Temporal Possessions or property in any thing Answ This is falsly imputed to him he only tax'd the Abuses of the Revenues given to so many Abbies Priories and Monasteries tending only to Superstition and the keeping so many Drones in idleness And therefore he was of opinion That our Kings might dispossess them thereof and give them Genti facienti Justitiam to good and godly Uses The Poverty he exhorted to was no other than that which St. Paul recommends viz. Having Food and Rayment therewith to be content He did not debar Ministers from actual having but from Covetous affecting the things of this World which are to be Renounc'd saith he Per Cogitationem Affectum in the Mind and the Affections Obj. 4. They charge him with asserting That God ought to obey the Devil Answ This is so senseless and improbable a Slander that no Man in his Wits can believe it And on the quite contrary Wickliff in his Commentary on Psal 112. Expresly affirms That the Devil can do nothing without God's permission Obj. 5. Well but if they cannot fix Blasphemy upon him they will charge him with Treason This is a frequent Stratagem of the Devils and his Instruments If thou suffer this Man thou art not Cesar ' s Friend said the Jews of old not that they cared for Cesar but only to gratifie their own Revenge Thus the Papists charge Wickliff as a Teacher of Sedition and an opposer of Magistrates and that if a Civil Magistrate be in a mortal Sin he is no longer to be obey'd Answ There is much craft and malice but very little truth and no reason for this Slander Wickliff indeed in several of his Works admonisheth the King and all other inferiour Officers and Magistrates that he beareth not the Sword in vain nor hath his Office for nought but to discharge well and truly the part and Office of a King by seeing wholsom Laws duly executed and Justice impartially administer'd And tells him That if he be defective in such his Duty by suffering the Sword of Justice to rust in its Scabard and his People to perish for want of good Governance then he is not properly and truly a King that is in effect and operation for so the words must necessarily be understood being spoken by way of Exhortation But otherwise so far was Wickliff from mutinying himself or persuading others to any act that was Rebellious that never any Man in those times did so stoutly assert the King's Supremacy in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil against all usurped foreign Jurisdiction for which amongst many others he gives this reason That otherwise our Soveraign should not be King over all England but Regulus parvae partis a petty Governour of some small parts of the Realm Nor does any thing tending to countenance Rebellion appear in any of his Works that are extant But the Friars and proud Clergy having an inveterate spleen against Wickliff and there happening to fall out about the same time a grievous Insurrection of the Commons under Wat Tyler occasioned chiefly upon a civil score about Taxes Commons and Servitude but much augmented by one John Ball a Priest and one of Baal's Priests too for ought I know for he does not at all appear to be any of Wickliff's Followers therefore in spight to Wickliff they cast the odium of that Frantic Tumult upon him and his Doctrine But indeed as Wickliff was a person of extraordinary Learning and Piety so that in substance he held and taught the very same Doctrines as are at this day maintained by the Church of England is demonstrated by the Learned Dr. James Oxford Library-keeper in his Book Intituled An Apology for John Wickliff shewing his Conformity with the now Church of England c. Printed Anno 1608. However to the end the vulgar Reader may better judge of this reverend man and his Works I shall here produce some few passages out of two of his Books Printed by the said James from the Original Manuscripts remaining one in Bennet Colledge Cambridge the other in the Publick Library at Oxford The English being excusable considering 't was wrote above 300 years agoe in his complaint to King Richard the Second and his Parliament Article 2. He hath these words Nothing ought to be damned as errour and false but if it favour errour or unrightewiseness against Gods Law And Article 4. He prays That Christ's teaching O beleave of the Sacrament of his own Body that is plainly tawght by Christ and his Apostles in Gospels and Pistles mayen be tawght openlie in Churches of Christen People and the contrary teaching and false beleave is brought up by cursed Hypocrits and worldlie Priests unkunning in Gods Law which say they are Apostles of Christ but are Fools And he concludes that Article with these words As Christ saved the wordle by writing and teaching of foure Evangelists so the Fiend casteth to Damme the wordle and Priests for letting to Preach the Gospel by these four by fayned Contemplation by Songs by Salisbury use and by worldly business of Priests And in his Treatise against the Orders of Friars Ca. 4. runs thus Friars sayen that if a man be once professed to their Religion he may never leave it and be saved though he be never so unable thereto for al time of his life and they wil nede him to live in such a state ever more to which God makes him ever unable and so nede him to be damned Alas out on such heresie that Mans Ordinance is holden stronger than is the Ordinance of God For if a man enter into the newe Religion against mans ordinance he maie lawfully forsake it but if he enter against Gods Ordinance when God makes him unable thereto he shall not be suffered by Antichrist's power to leave it And if this reason were wel declared sith no man wote which man is able to this new Religion by Gods dome and which is not able no man should be constrained to
superiour Lord in whose presence the King could not punish any Noble-Man without his consent And so the Criminal for this horrid Act escap'd the reach of Justice Quia sic placuit Papae says Theodoric of Neym because it so pleas'd the Pope to have it THE COURANT. Tory. WHat says little Harry as the great Heraclitus calls him Does he not Triumph about Friday's work Truem. Not at all as I hear of tho if some people might have their will it would be almost matter of wonder to see Right at any time take place But still I think tho the Turky-Printer bustled as much as the best Powder-monkey Extortioner Soap-Chandler or Splitter-splutter Suborner in the Pack yet your Gang had no great cause of boasting for some of the forlorn White Friars Troops I hear were cut off by the Shoulder-dabbers in their Retreat But prethee what hast got in thy paw there Thou art always like the Observator sumbling of Papers Tory. 'T is an odd thing I took up in the Street and I know not what the Devil to make on 't However for once I 'le read it just as Parson Whip-spur does his Sermon which he never perus'd before he came into the Pulpit The Copy of a Letter from a Roman Catholic in Albania to a Popish Priest in Albionia May it please your Reverence WHat is every where admir'd I joyfully congratulate the wise and a live Conduct of our Vice Master who by his unwearied pains and care hath gain'd such a Senate as unanimously hath recogniz'd his pretensions and tho never so much a Papist he shall be so far they declare from being opposable that he must not be question'd which gives us great confidence if our Friends could at last procure such a complying Assembly in your parts we may once again have in prospect the Advancement of the Romish Catholic Religion tho poor Ned our grand Agitator were most wretchedly Sacrific'd to the Glory of the Design over this whole Island without much opposition But we are even now startled besides the late indignity of burning our Holy Father in Essigie at some Rumours which are spread amongst us for 't is averr'd the greater assurance we have of the Gentleman 's faithful Adherence to his Holinesses Supremacy and the See of Rome the less hopes we have of his coming to the Imperial Dignity or getting such a Senate as will bring our holy Enterprize to perfection in your Nation For 't is diffus'd as a Maxim and generally receiv'd That no resolv'd Papist can be admitted as a lawful King there according to the Rules of their present Government They pretend to prove it thus Every King of Albionia according to the Law is to be in all Causes and over all persons as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal Supream Head and Governour Therefore no resolv'd Papist can according to Law there be King for be that owns the Popes Supremacy disclaims his own Supremacy consequently hath already renounc'd his Title and agreed an Act of Exclusion against himself And as for procuring such a Senate by the Laws establisht which are and have graciously been declared to be our Rule every Popish Recusant must be question'd discover'd repress'd and debarr'd from any Office and no man is to conceal maintain abet aid or assist a Popish Recusant in advancing him to any place of Trust Authority or Government but it shall be construed to signifie his consent to overthrow King Religion and Government establisht in so much that he shall incur the dangâ—â— and penalty of a Praemunire if not of Treason So that it cannot reasonably be suppos'd that ever the more considerate part of the Commons can be surprized unwarily to chuse such Men as lye under the suspicion of the Guilt beforementioned or that have been Abhorrers Anti-petitioners or Addressers against Legal Senates to be their Representatives in any future Assembly of the States To these gauling Objections of the Heretics which obstruct our hopes I humbly implore of your fatherly Wiâ—dom some Salâ—e and Satisfaction that so at once we may silence our Adversaries and confirm our Friends Thus doing you may contribute much to the carrying on the holy Design which hath been and will be the Desire and Endeavours of Paradisopolâ—s Dec. 5. 1681. Your most obedient Son c. Tory. Now would I give a Guinney to have this Priest's Answer for tho I don't understand what this Letter is about yet I love Replies extreamly For certainly he that has the last word must be the wisest Man Truem. For that very reason Sir I tell you I am Your Servant Printed for Langley Curtis 1681-2 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY Jan. 20. 1681-2 Asperius nihil est misero cum surgit in Altum The Cardinals vote That if a Pope be negligent or unfit to govern he may have Curators plac'd over him Pope Vrban the Sixth drowns five Cardinals in Sacks He dies Boniface the Ninth succeeds him POpe Vrban the Sixth being seemingly reconcil'd at Naples with his Hector Charles the Titular King of Sicily did with his precious Nephew Pregnan retire to Lucera between Naples and Salerno a place no less pleasant than safe for their persons where he devoted himself to Sloth and all kind of sensual Voluptuousness whilst the Affairs of the Church every day ran to wrack and the Cardinals were continually alarm'd and in danger between the Forces of the said Charles on the one side and those of Lewis of Anjou who we told you was with a great Army enter'd into Italy on the behalf of the other Pope call'd Clement the Seventh Therefore at the instance of Cardinal Reatino their Eminencies held a Consult together where after a long debate it was resolv'd by the opinions of many Doctors That if a Pope should happen to grow negligent or be found unfit to govern the the Church or to be one so self-will'd and conceited as to refuse all wholsom Advice and thereby brought the Church St. Peter's Bark into danger or were so ungovernable a Cockscomb That without the counsel of his Cardinals he would rashly do all things according to his own Fantasy and Lust that then and in such case it was lawful to substitute by the Election of the Cardinals some fit Curator or Curators Governours or Guardians by and with whose direction and advice the Pope should be obliged to manage all affairs of moment in the Church This was concluded by the Conclave as you may see in the History of Theodorie a Nyem l. 1. c. 24. whose Testimony is so much the more to be valued for that he was Secretary to this very Pope Now was not this a hopeful most holy Infallible Ghostly Father fit for a Bib and Muckinder that must have Tutors and Curators to direct him Did these Cardinals think you believe That their Pope was not subject to Error when they conclude him such a Natural as to need Managers and Guardians But
Truem. Pish Natt Implement will undertake all that and more This unknown Lady will in a trice Blanch ye a Blackamore turn Swine into Sheep make a Hog-dog-rascally Villain as Innocent as a Sucking Devil Nay shee 'l make Subornation of Perjury Lawful or which is as good render it Vnpunishable and all this according to Law Don't you know Bobbloody coat the Sow sucker Tory. Yes yes but now you talk of Rogues and Miracles didst ever heard the Legend of Longinus Truem. No prethee let 's ha 't Tory. Longinus you must Note was a Roman Red coat and somewhat Purblind They tell you that he was the very Man that with his Lance pierced our Blessed Saviour's side and some of the Blood happening on his Eyes presently cured his sight and his Soul being Illuminated as well as his Body he was Converted and Believed and Lived Thirty eight Years a Monastick Life in Cappadocia and then was carried before one Octavius the President to whom Preaching Christ Octavius commanded all his Teeth to be struck out and after that his Tongue to be cut off but still Longinus Preached on And then without 〈…〉 Spake to good purpose when his Tongue was out And at last had his Head Chopt off and after that did a Thousand Miracles Truem. Well and what of all this This is word for word in that ingenious Treatise call'd Devotions of the Roman Church Tory. 'T is so and likewise the same Author from the Roman Festival adds the following story That the hand of Thomas the Apostle that was in Christ's-side would never go into his Tomb but always lay without unburied which hand had such vertue in it that if the Priest when he goes to Mass put a Branch of a Vine into that hand the Branch presently putteth sorth Grapes and by that time the Gospel be said the Grapes will be Ripe and then the Priest takes them and wrings them into the Chalice and with that Wine Honseleth the People Truem. A pretty way to get Liquor But are these all the Miracles you have to tell us Tory. Why what would you have me talke Sense and have an Information brought against me Printed for Langley Curtis 1681-2 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY Feb. 24. 1681-2 Scito Te mortalitèr peccare si servabis fidem datam Haereticis Pope Martin the Fifth to the Duke of Lituania apud Cochlaeum in Histor Hussit l. 5. Further Observations touching that wieked Tenet of the Romish Church That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks That memorable Appeal of Amurath the Turk to Christ against the King of Hungary breaking his League by the Popes Warrant c. WE told you in the last how the Council of Constance wickedly caused John Huss to be Condemn'd and executed notwithstanding the safe Conduct given him by the Emperour If you would have the matter briefly summ'd up you may find it in Sleidan's Commentaries l. 3. Aberat â—um fortè Sigismundus c. Sigismund by chance was then absent when the Council thus proceeded and being inform'd thereof took it very ill and came thither to expostulate about it but when once he was told by the Pope That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks he not only said by his Resentments tho the Bohemians oft interceded with him and requested the safe Conduct might be made good but also was one of the first that bitterly inveigh'd against him Or if you will rather take it in the words of Nauclerus thus Incinerationem Johannis Huss Imperator non aequo animo tulit c. The Emperour was much dissatisfied with the burning of John Huss because he had allow'd him his safe Conduct but the holy Synod answer'd That he could not be tax'd with breach of Faith in the Case for the Council it self had not granted any safe Conduct Et Concilium majus est Imperatore and the Council is greater than the Emperour and therefore he could not lawfully grant any such thing against the pleasure of the Council especially in matters of Faith Bâ—canus and other Advocates for Popery to excuse this Council from the odium of allowing Breach of Promise made by Catholicks to such as they are pleas'd to call Hereticks in that Decree wherein it declares That no Secular Power how Soveraign soever can hinder the proceedings of the Ecclesiastical Tribunal in Causes of Heresie and consequently if the Emperour or any other Secular Prince grants a safe Conduct or engages by never so solemn Oaths or Promises to do any thing which they account prejudicial to that Jurisdiction it is not obligatory do alledge the Reason thereof to be for that it is a promise made of things out of and beyond the Power and Jurisdiction of such a Prince which is to say That altho in Cases properly appertaining to the Princes Jurisdiction he is bound by his Word Promise or Oath yet in case of Heresie or persons suspected of Heresie for all is one with them he is not because the same is of Ecclesiastical Cognizance and what is this less than to say That Promises made to Hereticks are not binding However this to be the Doctrine of the Roman Church will further and undeniably appear from the Sentiments of her allowed Doctors in their Writings and from their Practises Their famous Bishop of Symancha in his Catholick Institutions cap. 45. tells us expresly Haereticis fides à privato data servanda non est Faith or promise made by a private person to an Heretick is not to be kept And a little after Any person is bound to reveal an Heretick to the Inquisition Non obstante side aut Juramento the he hath bound himself by Promise or Oath to the contrary And lest you should think some restriction in the word private Person 't is plain he means All for presently after he affirms Nec fides à Magistratibus data est servanda Haereticis Faith made by Magistrates to Hereticks is not to be kept Now if it be not to be regarded either by Magistrates or by private Persons it follows that 't is to be kept by no body at all That incomparable Historian Thuanus l. 63. ad Annum 1577. tells us That the Popish Divines of France Aperto Capite in Concionibus evulgatis Scriptis ad fidem Sectariis servandam non obligari principem contendebant allato in eam rem Concilii Constantiae Decreto They taught publickly both in the Pulpit and from the Press That Princes were not bound to keep touch with Sectaries alledging to warrant such their Assertions this Decree of the Council of Constance And what wonder is all this when the Casuists justifie other grosser ' Villanies As the before-mentioned Symancha Instit Cathol Tit. Is apud quem Haereticus aliquid deposuerit non tenebitur post manifestam Haeresim rem depositam illi reddere A person with whom one that is an Heretick shall intrust any Goods is not bound
to express their Abhorrence of such Popish Shams and Lies and to Address to the Right Honourable the LORD MAYOR That Thompson be call'd to Account for 't Printed for Langley Curtis 1681-2 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY March 17. 1681-2 Plangunt Anglorum gentes Crimen Sodomorum Paulus fert horum sunt Idola Causa malorum Surgunt nigrati Gierzitae Simone Nati Nomine Praelati hoc defensare parati Qui Reges estis populis quicunque praeestis Qualiter his gestis gladios prohibêre potestis Versic Parl. exhib Anno 18. Rich. 2. The Proceedings against Dissenters in the Raigns of King Richard the Second and King Henry the Fourth WE have told you the severe Laws made against all those that in these dark Times durst open their Eyes and see farther than Popery the Church then as by Law establisht thought fit to permit them such Hereticks were generally call'd Lollards they were the Puritans the Fanaticks the Whigs the Brummingham's of those days and how busie the Magistrates especially of the Clergy were to put the said Laws in Execution against them will appear in the following account 'T is true during the Raign of King Richard the Second we do not find any burnt to Death for the profession of Religion but many were imprison'd harrass'd and in great trouble and especially William Swinderby a Priest and Walter Brute a Lay-man but Learned and a Graduate of the University of Oxford the several Articles against whom and their Answers thereunto you may read at large in Foxes Acts and Monuments too tedious here to recite I shall therefore only note That John Bishop of Hereford having by solemn sentence denounced the said Swinderby to be an Heretick Schismatick and a false informer of the People and to be avoided by all faithful Christians He the said Swinderby did thereupon Appeal from such the Bishops Sentence to the King and Council by an Instrument under his hand which both in respect of the Matter and of the English wherein it is written being such as was then current now above 280 years ago I shall trespass so far on the Readers patience as to repeat it verbatim IN nomine Patris Filii Spiritûs Sancti Amen I William Swinderby Priest knowledge openly to all Men That I was before the Bishop of Hereford the Third day of October and before many other good Clerkâ— to answer to certain Conclusions of the Faith I was accused of and mine Answer was this That if the Bishop or any Man couâ—hâ— shew me by God's Law that my Conclusions or my Answers were Errour or Heresie I would be amended and openly revoke them before all the people but they sayden singly with word That there was Errours in them and bidden me subject me to the Bishop and put me into his Grace and revoke mine Errour and shewed me nought by God's Law ne Reason ne proved which they weren And for I would not knowledge me Guilty so as I knew no Errour in them of which I should therefore the Bishop sate in Doom in mine absence and deemed me an Heretick a Schismatick and a teacher of Errours and denounced me accursed that I come not to correction of the Church and therefore for this unrightful Judgment I appeal to the King's Justices for many other Causes One Cause is For the King's Court in such matter is above the Bishop's Court for after the Bishop has accursed he may not fear by his Law but then mote he sech succour of the King's Law and by a Writ of Significavit put a Man in Prison The second Cause For in cause of Heresie there liggeth Judgment of Death and that doom may not be given without the King's Justices For the Bishop will say Nobis non licet interficere quenquam that is It is not lawful for us to kill any man as they sayden to Pilate when Christ should be deemed And for I think that no Justice will give sodenly and untrue Doom as the Bishop did and therefore openly I appeal to hem and send my Conclusions to the Knights of the Parliament to be shewed to the Lords and to be taken to the Justices to be well adviset or that they given Doom The third Cause is For it was a false Doom for no Mâ—n is a Heretick but he that Masterfully defends his Errour or Heresie and stifly maintains it And mine Answer has always bene Conditional as the people openly knows for ever I say and yet say and alway will that if they cannen shew me by Gods Law that I have erret I will gladly bene amendet and revoke mine Errours and so I am no Heretick ne nevermore in Gods grace will ben en no wise The fourth Cause is For the Bishop's Law that they deme Men by is full of Errours and Heresies contrary to the truth of Christ's Law of the Gospel For there as Christ's Law bids us Love our Enemies the Pope's Law gives us leave to hate them and to sley them and graunts Men pardon to werren again Heathen Men and sley hem And there as Christ's Law teach us to be merciful the Bishop's Law teachs us to be wretchful for Death is the greatest wretch that 〈◊〉 mowen done on him that guilty is There as Christs Law teaches us to blessen him that diseazen us and to pray for him the Popes Law teacheth us to Curse them and in their great sentence that they usen they presume to Dam hem to Hell that they cursen And this is afoue Heresie of Blasphemy There as Christ's Law bids us be patient the Pope's Law justifies two Swords that wherewith he smitheth the Sheep of the Church and he has made Lords and Kings to swear to defend him and his Church There as Christ's Law forbideth us Letchery the Pope's Law justifies the abominable Whoredom of common Women and the Bishops in some place have a great Tribute or Rent of Whoredom There as Christ's Law bids to minister Spiritual things freely to the people the Pope with his Law sells for Money after the quantity of the Gift as Pardons Orders Blessings and Sacraments and Prayers and Benefices and preaching to the People as it is known amongst them There as Christ's Law teaches Peace the Pope with his Law assoiles Men for money to gader the People Priests and other to fight for his Cause There as Christ's Law forbids Swearing the Pope's Law justifies Swearing and compels men thereto Whereas Christ's Law teacheth his Priests to be Poor the Pope with his Law justifies and maintains Priests to be Lords And yet the fifth Cause is For the Pope's Law that the Bishops demen Men by is the same unrightful Law that Christ was demet by of the Bishops with the Scribes and with the Pharisees for right as at time they gaven more credens to the two false Witnesses that witnessed against Christ then they deden to all the people that witnesseden to his
Fact and so being taken 4 or 5 years after was upon that outlawry without any further Tryal or Judgment Hang'd and Burnt This is the Tale The Credit of which depends partly upon the Testimonies of Historians and partly upon that of the Records of the Commission and Indictment We shall consider each of these whereby the Reader will more clearly perceive how Improbable it is in all its parts and how ill laid together in the whole 1. As to the Historians Thomas of Walsingham is the first whom all latter Authors follow as a Flock doth the Bell-weather and when we have told you that he was a Benedictine Monk of St. Albans you may easily make Judgment of his Sincerity and what truth there is in those who take matters from him upon trust Amongst the rest I observe the Jesuite Parsons makes great use of John Stow's Testimony and indeed take notice of any Popish Author speaking of modern English History you shall find commonly Stow's Chronicle strutting his Margin this made me wonder why they should make choice of him who was but a mean Mechanic being by Trade a Tayler and ignorant of the Latin Tongue rather than so many other Learned Authors till I suppose at last I hit upon the reason in a Treatise of Dr. Matth. Sutclife afterwards Dean of Exeter Intituled A Threefold Answer c. to Parsons 3 Conversions Printed Anno. Dom. 1606. where p. 3. That Reverend Author who no doubt being Contemporary with Stow had good grounds for his Assertions saith John Stow is a simple Story-writer and a worse Protestant For 't is well known that certain crafty Companions and enemies of Relion were too much Conversant with him to write truely in these matters And p. 24. Stow hath the most part of his Lies concerning the Lord Cobham alis Sir John Old castle out of Walsingham which understanding he understood 〈◊〉 being Latin and he a meer English Tailer Now it was no difficult thing if he Imployed persons Popishly Affected to Translate for him for them to Impose upon his Ignorance what would make for their Cause and then twit us with the noise and pretended Testimony of a Protestant Author Secondly that which might lead some Historians into an Error was that in the second year of this King Henry the 5. an Act was made part of this we recited in our last That all Convicted of Hâ—resy should forfeit all their Lands and Goods wherefore since they were to lose both Life and Estate the noise went that Haeresy was then made Treason tho indeed it was not so I will give an Instance or two of such misled Authors Thomas Walden in the Prologue of his first Tome to Pope Martin has these words speaking of this very business Nec Mora Longa processint qui Statutum c. Nor was it long but it was publickly Enacted by a Statute that all the Wicklevists as they were Traitors to God so should also be accounted Traitors to the King So Roger Wall of the Acts of King Henry 5. Statuit et decrevit ut quot quot Illius Seâ—tu quae diciâ—â—r Lollardâ—rum invenirentaer aemuli et fautores eo facto Rei Proditorij Criminis in Majestâ—tem Regiam haberenter He establisht and Decreed saith he That all that should be found Embracers or favourers of the sect which is called Lollards should for that only Fact be Adjudged Guilty of the Crime of Treason against the Kings Majesty And Polidore Virgil in the 22 Book of his History harps upon the same string declaring that all the Followers of Wickliffes Doctrine were deemed Hostes Patriae Enemies of their Country which is all one as to say Traitors And yet all this while the Statute does not make them Traitors nor speak any thing of putting them to Death for in case of being Convict of Haeresy and refusing to Abjure they were already to be burnt by the Statute of 2 H 4. Ca. 15. But it being so vulgarly taken as appears by these Examples 'T is no wonder that knowing Sir John Old-castle to be convicted for what they call'd Haeresy and that he was Executed they delivered to posterity that he was Executed for Treason as Imagining Haeresy to be Treason by the Law In the next place as to the Records I willingly acknowledge there is no kind of humane Testimony that ought to challeng a greater Reverence Probant et non Probantur yet even Records themselves are liable to be falsisied and whether sometime of that kind is not to be suspected here may still be a question there being not a few Symptomes of Fraud and ill practice As 1. The Commission issued to Indict and Try them bears Date the 10 th of Jannuary 1414. which was on Wednesday next after the Epiphany or Twelfth day And by the Record of the Indictment it not only appears that they were the very same day Indicted and the Bill found which is very much that a Court should sit the very same day the Commission Authorising them bears date for what time was there then for summoning a Jury c. But also in the same Indictment it is averr'd that the very same 10 th of January too was the day on which the aforesaid Conspirators to the number of Twenty Thousand were so in Warlike manner assembled in St. Gilses-fields See both the Records in Foxe fol. 529. Which being so one would expect rather to hear of Commissions Issued not so much to try them as to raise Forces to suppress them Inter Arma silent Leges twenty Thousand Rebels got together where not like much to value a Commission of Oier and Termener 2. In the Record of the Indictment it is said per Sacramenta duodecim Juratorum exstitit presentatum by the Oaths of 12 Jurators it is presented But the names of the Jurors are ommitted whereas I humbly Conceive if any such Indictment had been really and bona fide framed and found the Jurors names as in all other cases would have been here particularly Inserted in the Record 3. The Crimes alleaged in this pretended Indictment are of several sorts some of them Extravagant and all very observeable for tho there be some matters Treasonable to colour the process yet the bottom of all appears to be that they were Enemies to the Church But take the very words of the Record and Judg of them your selves By the Oaths of 12 Jurors 't is presented that John Oldcastle of Coulingin the County of Kent Chevaleir Note tho he were styled Lord Cobham in Right of his Wife yet he was no Peer of the Land and others vulgarly called Lollards who long have rashly held diverse Heritical Opinions contrary to the Catholic Faith and other manifest Errors repugnant to the Catholic Law to maintain such their Errors not being able to Accomplish their design as long as the Royal power and Regal State of our Lord the King as well as the State and Office of the Prelatick dignity within the Kingdom of England
sordid covetousness and other pranks before-mentioned Angelus de Clavasio a Friar Minorite in his Book call'd Summa Angelica in the word Pope affirms that this very Martin after long consultation gave a man leave to marry with his own Sister dispensing with the Positive Law of God and Nature This Pope likewise was a very busie stirrer up of persecutions and bloody wars against the poor Bohemians as Hereticks they having sometime before embraced Wickliffs Doctrine But of this and the other troubles of those people for the sake of the Gospel we shall take another opportunity to discourse The COURANT. Truem. MEthinks you look Cloudily to day Monsieur Tory does Tuesdays Verdict stick in your Gizzard would not the Sham take Could not poor Nat get a Christian Jury as he call'd it that might believe the Sun was a Bottle of Ink and that Sir Edmondbuâ—y Godfrey Killed himself 4 days after he was Murthered Tory. Prethee why dâ—ee talk so you know I never justified that story I think 't was very ill done and the Contrivers of it deserve to be punisht Truem. Why this 't is for a man to be unfortunate and down the wind his friends streight abandon him as vermine run from falling Houses All the while bonny Nat was towring upon the wing alarming the world with his Regiments of Five-Hundreds and his Troops of Sixty's that should Swear Canon-pooof and drive the Nail home and Clench it then you and all your party appeared openly in favour of the welcome News I know not what to think on 't says one I was never satisfied in that business of Godfrey's Murder Nay quoth a second there are shrewd Circumstances in these two Letters to Prance they are ingeniously Pen'd and a great deal of weight in them Alas Sir adds a third 't is not to be doubted but he can make it all out and by such a number of Protestant Witnesses too not so much you see as a suspected Papist is concerned else you must think he would never write so confidently I fancy here will be a notable discovery and then what will become of Madam Plot when she has lost one of her main Crutches Damme concludes the fourth man that story of Godfrey's being Killed at Sommerset-house was all Bubble why the Divel should the Papists meddle with him the three poor fellows were meerly sworn out of their Lives and so were all the rest that noise of a Popish Plot was nothing in the world but an intrigue of the Whigs to destroy the Kings best Friends and the Devil fetch me to Hell in a Hand basket if I might have my will there should not be one Fanatical Dog left alive in the three Kingdoms This Gentlemen was wont e're while to be the stile of Discourse at Sam 's and Margarets and now when the Oracle Nathaniel's 600 and 60 witnesses are dwindled to half a dozen and they only serv'd to prove him and his associates impudent lying villains and that he is like to scour a Pillory do you desert the Cause and come sneaking like a Quaker and Cry Friends never own'd it Tory. A Pillory never fear it Nat I le promise you has friends in a Corner what he did was only to Print the Papers for money in the way of his Trade and he has discover'd his Authors what would you have more of the honest man Truem. I will not presume to prejudge his doom I doubt not but the Reverend Judges will do him and the Nation Right but for what you alleadge that he did it for others in way of his Trade will for him be but a vain excuse for he has made it his own Act he did not do it Ignorantly or by surprize not imposed upon by false Information or mistake but willfully and with a malicious design as appears 1. For that it was contrary to his own personal knowledge he himself view'd the Boâ—y at the White-house as is proved by Affidavit and from the Testimony of his own Eys he himself then Printed that there was no Blood that it was evident he was strangled c. 2 When he first publisht his pretended Sarum-Letter which was only to sound the waters there was presently a satisfactory answer return'd yet soon after he Printed his first Letter to Prance and that too being solidly refuted he flung out a second and has himself all along in his Intelligence and by word of mouth espoused the thing and boasted he would prove it sometimes by 500 sometimes by 60 witnesses Nay since the very last Term has vapored in Print at the same rate and endeavoured before hand to cast a scandal on any Jury that should try him Now if such a man in such a cause wherein the honor of the King and of the Justice of the Nation and the whole Protestant Interest is so highly concern'd and so impudently arraigned and aspersed shall escape without some exemplary mark from that Justice which he has so daringly affronted it might prove an unaccountable precedent Tory. But what should be his design in all this Truem. We need not go to Gaâ—bury to discover that 't is plain it was to sham off the belief of the Popish Plot that it may still proceed to excuse the Papists from that barbarous murder and fix the Odium of being guilty of innocent blood on the King and his Judges and all the Protestants in the Nation for putting Green Berry and Hill to death wrongfully And this alone methinks should open your eyes to see through the boasted Loyalty of Thompson all such fellows and their kindless forsooth to the Church of England and what interest it is that under that disguise they serve And to shew all the world that the Popish Plot is still working on for it can never be imagined that three such little inconsiderable fellows would ever have troubled their heads with such a business or dar'd to have broach'd it in that audacious manner had not men of wiâ—er heads and greater figure abetted them Though Pâ—in and Farwell own'd themselves Authors of the Letters yet if ever the matter can be throughly sifted Tâ—e wager that a Jesuitâ— or Priest was the Composer of them Printed for Langley Curtis 1682 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY June 30. 1682. Infanda Tellus quáque vix pejor stygem Vehit profundis apta suppliciis humus Quousque sae vos misera lassabis Deos Experta Fulmen An excellent discourse of Clemangis that we ought to depart out of Babylon The story of Pope Eugenius IV. who is deposed in the Council of Bazil IN our last we mentioned the Complaints of Clemangis the Reverend Arch-Deacon of Baior touching the lamentable corrupt state of the Church and shall now add another notable discourse of his in an Epistle to Gerrard Market a Doctor of Paris which though somewhat long we chuse to recite not only for the Excellency of the matter and to shew what