regard had in times past and at this present as well by one priest of and towards another as by the Catholicke Laitie in generall to all priests without this newfangle Pharisaicall most daungerous exception of persons c. For what Catholick before these Iesuits got footing in England would not haue trembled at the heart to haue called an annointed Catholicke Priest howsoeuer he had earst liued a Knaue a Villaine a Spie a Southsayer an Idolater a Schismaticke a Libertine an Apostata an Atheist with other the most odious tearmes that the diuell or mallice is able to inuent And yet than this nothing is more common now euery where amongst this leaud brood of the Iesuiticall faction our common aduersaries euen of their owne humanitie and for ciuilities sake shewing a more reuerend esteeme and respect to be had of priests at least for their learning scholarisme morall vertues and other good abilities noted in most of those had by that faction in disgrace than any of these new pestiferous Puritanean Iesuiticall Sectaries will eyther acknowledge or giue any signe to bee had of them All the wonted benedictions of priests now are reiected their prayers their sacrifices their hallowes and their holies contemned and whatsoeuer else they doe pertaining to priestly function and authoritie though in neuer so bad persons yet to be reuerenced remaining in the Catholicke Church despised as of no valliditie worth or efficacie more than if the said Priests were but lay persons Loe what a readie way these mischieuous men haue made for Antichrist vnder pretence of their Pharisaicall zeale Secondly it is to be considered That the end these vngodly polliticke set the ignorant multitude on gog for against Priesthood and the Secular Cleargie is onely and wholly to withdraw all Catholicke hearts from them to themselues and their societie with more like diuellish than humane mallice in them And to make it seeme more plausible and easilier seased on in weake idle braines they possesse their inconstant flexible wandering thoughts with follies scruples and feares as That the Secular Priests are become prophane Publicanes and grosse sinners vnlearned ignorant infirme and weake men of no reach iudgement nor conscience in things that they runne on without making any account or reckoning of sinne that they haue no authoritie but all is lost they had by their bad demcanure that they remaine Catholickes onely in show for the time but are indeed very Atheists for so the speech will neuer out of my mind which one vsed of Doctor Bagshaw in the Gate-house after his departure to Wisbich tending wholly to this infamous kind of malignant backbiting that they are daungerous men to bee receiued into any mans house c. All these with many the like most impious speeches and slaunders are here touched as raised by that faction against innocent men blessed Martyrs and reuerend Priests euen from the beginning of enuie in a Iesuits heart to see any doe well that followed not them to this present houre And now they heaue at all in generall whereas before they maligned but some certaine priests in speciall whereof my poore selfe haue tasted so great and heauie an ouer-weight as euen enuie mallice and themselues might seeme with shame to keepe silent hereafter and horror of their account appaule them for the wrong they haue done me But yet I liue and so I must a while maugre the deuils mallice and all the Iesuits that hate me Thirdly it is furthermore to be well weighed That their enuious proceedings herein is most pernitious to all those Catholicks euen whom they beare most in hand of all good meant on their partie vnto them For who doth not see it that the onely cause of this their infeoft emulation at the Seculars good hap riseth vpon this That God sweetly so disposing as their innocencie beeing knowne to her Maiestie and Honourable Councell together with the Iesuits trayterous hearts they finding more fauour than the Iesuits do and thereby lesse daunger incurred by those that doe receiue them the Iesuits very pollitickely but most impiously maliciously and vnpriestly imagining that in the end this course taken would occasionate all the Catholicks in England to side with the Secular Priests and vtterly renounce the sayd Iesuits for their most safetie they haue no other shift nor meanes in the world to auoid this eminent daunger of perpetuall exile out of England as their like practises caused their odious banishment out of Fraunce than to beare the people in hand That her Maiestie and the State meaneth no fauour nor good to be extended to the innocent more than to the guiltie that the Secular Priests are but vsed as spies that the State intendeth to get out of them what they can and then to cut both them and those they conuerse with all off together And for those and like reasons are the Secular Priests say they very daungerous persons and ought not of any Catholicke to bee trusted Which most vile vncharitable and wicked speech of theirs is so much the more sencelesse by how much as it implicats a contradiction as in this ensuing discourse will appeare at large Meane while it is to be considered Whether Daniell or Esdras or Zorobabell or Tobias or Esther in the time of the Iewes captiuitie or the sweet Paranimph or Ioseph of Aramathia or the mournefull Magdalen or the choice vessell of election in the sorrowfull prime-birth of the Church her infancie or yet Saint Sebastian Saint Martyn S. Bernard S. Augustine S. Ambrose S. Clare or any other in time of the like heauie calamities in the Catholicke Church to these of ours finding extraordinarie fauour with God and grace with men more than others yea perhaps farre before them or at least their equals in vertue and true Catholicke religious zeale could find that were in the same predicament with them of disgrace were they I say to bee condemned by other Catholicke Christians in these dayes for that they found more friendship at the ciuile Magistrates hands than others could Was Daniel thought to be a rebell or Esdras a spie or Zorobabell an Atheist Or good Tobias an Ideot or Queene Esther a make-bate for that the first was made Generall of those Emperours forces vnder whom as captiue he liued the second in speciall esteeme trust and affiance with the same princes the third sent home with great treasure to build vp the ruinated Temple and Citie the fourth often spared being taken in the exercise of his countries rites ceremonies religious acts and other workes of charitie which most of his fellowes if they had been taken tripping in had been sure to haue died for and the fift and last of these obtaining mercie grace and pardon not onely for herselfe but also for her whole countrey people and Nation proscribed all to death irreuocable by false suggestion of Haman the traitour Againe Was blessed S. Iohn euer the worse for being not onely admitted into the iudgement hall by permission of the
due and where their own interest may enter to encroach also what they may The subjects sufferance and yeelding to the force and injurie is often taken by the superiour for title good ynough for whatsoeuer he listeth by iniquitie to obtrude and claime Gent. Dayly experience proueth this to bee ouertrue in many superiours giue them an inch and usually they will take an ell vnlesse they be all the better disposed and seeke in their prelacie more the glorie of God and the good of their subjects than their owne interest Priest Now therefore let all supposals passe and let vs come to the facts themselues and by them judge what he and we haue done First it doth not appeare by the words of his commission That the Archp. hath any authoritie at all to make new lawes and decrees at his owne pleasure which may bind vs to obey them or for breaking whereof he may justly inflict vpon vs any penaltie at all By his commission he is placed ouer the seminarie priests in England and Scotland in the degree and authoritie of an Arch-priest but absolutely to make lawes and decrees with the seuerest penalties for such as violate them was neuer heard of in Gods church to belong to the office of an Archpriest only by vertue of his cōmission he may Dirigere admonere reprehendere vel etiam castigare cum opus crit Direct admonish reprehend or chastice also when need shall bee but there is no word of making new lawes and decrees and therefore it is to be supposed that in all these points of his authority he is exactly to obserue the lawes of Gods church to which we yeelded our selues when we vndertook our Ecclesiasticall estate and not to his will and that he ought to proceed according to the ordinary course of Ecclesiasticall Canon already set downe to his hand and not he to lay vpon vs at his pleasure new burdens and bonds more rigorous and intollerable than are vsed in any part of the Christian world besides If he make lawes and decrees not hauing authoritie so to doe they are of no force to bind vs to obey and consequently it is no disobedience to resist them Gent. This must needs be thus if he haue no authoritie to make new lawes and decrees Pr. Surely as far as we can perceiue by the words of his Commission he hath none at all Gent. Then are you freed from the slaunderous report of disobedience for not obseruing his decrees and precepts Pr. I hope we be But yet further let vs suppose he had full authoritie to make decrees doth this proue that we are disobedient if wee refuse to obey and resist them Gent. Me thinke it doth Priest Doth it so what will you say that vnjust decrees are to bee obeyed or perhaps thinke you that this Archp. is so infallibly assisted by Gods spirit that he can make no decrees but just and good Gent. No I will neither affirme nor thinke either of these twaine For it is manifest that injust hurtfull lawes as they are not to be accounted lawes so are they not to be obeyed And againe the Archp. is a man subject to errors as others be and then especially an error is to be feared when being a partie in controuersies hee goeth about to decree any thing prejudicial to his aduersaries for in these cases aboue all the rest self-loue draweth him from indifferency and enclineth him to respect cheefely his owne particular And on the other side a mind auersed from his aduersaries spurneth him forward to deuise against them partiall and greeuous decrees Pr. The Archpr. cannot with any shew or colour of reason charge vs with disobedience to him except onely in that we obey not his decrees we acknowledge him for our Arch-priest and to haue as ample jurisdiction ouer vs as by his commission hee can claime In all things we are ready to obey him wherin he hath authoritie to commaund This one thing through his owne and the Iesuits renuing it after it was once forgiuen and ended resteth in controuersie between him them and vs to wit VVhether by reason of our delay to accept the authoritie before it was confirmed by the Popes Breue wee incurred the crimes of enormious disobedience rebellion and schisme against the See Apostolicke or no. He and they auerre we did we denie it hee and they haue slaundered and doe continually defame vs as guiltie of those sinnes faigned by themselues VVe haue stood and stand in defence of our assured innocencie and thinke it most violent iniquitie to bereaue vs of our good names vpon a priuat opinion of their owne before our cause either at home or abroad be orderly heard and tried and we also condemned by Gods Church Hee and they forbid vs vnder most greeuous penalties to defend our selues from their calumnies or our good names from their vndeserued slaunders in which prohibition because it is very injust we know our selues no way bound in conscience to obey them He and they cease not to wrong vs they keepe no measure nor meane in doing vs injuries but dayly oppresse vs with the heauiest and plainely intollerable afflictions we being denied all hearing triall of our cause at home flie by appeale to his Holinesse He and they exclaiming against this our fact heap vpon vs all disgrace and punishments we arme our selues with patience against the worst Now you see all our disobedience to the Arch-priest is in these two points First in that wee defend our good names against his and the Iesuits manifest slanders Againe in that we appeale to his Ho. for ending the controuersie wherein the Archp. is a principall partie and our violent aduersarie Both these I confesse are directly against the Archp. his will and decrees for his decrees are as I said that wee should not defend the schisme and rebellion wherewith he and the Iesuits haue defamed vs and that wee shall not appeale without his license But to defend ones owne good name injustly taken away is lawfull by the law of Nature it selfe and to appeale to the See Apostolicke from the injust oppressions of any superiour in the world yea without his license and against his will hath euer been and will bee alwayes lawfull in the Church of God and consequently it cannot be truly judged in vs any disobedience to the Archp. when we resist him and his decrees in those cases For as he can make no law to subuert the law of Nature touching the defence of a mans owne good name so can hee make no decree to prohibite or to hinder appeales from himselfe to the Pope and whatsoeuer he decreeth in these cases are of their owne nature frustrate and not to be obeyed by any Gent. It is evident that this report of your disobedience and rebellion against the Archpr. is a meer calumnie if you disobey him in no other decrees but these wherein if you should obey him you should shew your selues very foolish yea very culpable
hereticall or an euill prince VVhat can they say to the Bishops and Pastours in the Low countries and the Vniuersities of Doway whom they reckon to be their aduersaries by reason of the great contentions had betweene them about eight yeares ago VVhat to the Vniuersities of Louaine with whome they haue had bickering since VVhat to the whole order of Dominicans letting passe other religious betweene whom and them there hath been of long as is continuall bitter strifes in Spaine as all the world knoweth And all these included in Fa. Parsons ougly beadroll If all these be of bad disposition and gracelesse because they be the Iesuits aduersaries then haue we also good cause to dread but if contrariwise these be reported to be their aduersaries and are indeed no lesse than we and yet knowne to be good Catholick men Vniuersities and orders it is no true cause of disgrace vnto vs if we be reported also their aduersaries for defending our selues against their violent injuries and for resisting their other courses manifestly hurtfull to our whole church Gent. VVhat is the cause that they make these troubles and giue such discontent almost in euery place where they come Pr. Surely not any perfection of vertue that is in them aboue other religious men but their polliticke tampering and their busie stirring both in temporall states and Ecclesiasticall For they being not tied to keepe the quire with diuine offices as other religious orders bee they haue more leisure and libertie than any other to occupie themselues in matters impertinent vnto them It is their glorie to bee euer stirring in the greatest affaires and with the greatest personages where they come yea they delight so much in the actiue life that their young men are no sooner out of their nouiceship or course in learning but if there be ought in them they begin to tamper and to become polliticke and must be thought sufficient to mannage any businesse I remember I haue read in an Italian hystorie written by a gentleman of Genua touching the late king of Portugall Sebastian and the competitors to that crowne after his death how the Iesuits greatly fauoured by that king disturbed not a little the peace of that kingdome by their tampering in the princes affaires where the author noteth how with great indiscretion as vpon a head and suddainely they would haue reformed the corrupt manners of the countrey Againe how by the Cardinals meanes they procured the displacing of some auncient officers about the king and brought in such as depended on themselues to no small discontentment of many And lastly how especially vpon the Iesuits motion and persuasion the king entertained the Affricane affaires and resolued to vndertake that fatall voyage from which yet they could not afterwards dissuade him when it was misliked and thought daungerous by all his friends This Historie is now in English See page 9. 10. 11. c. because they had set him too farre in liking therwith before But at the last they wrought themselues out of fauour with the king as he sayth for they would ouerrule all Gent. I would see that hystorie Pr. I thinke you may haue it in England it is in Octauo and printed in Italie as I remember Gent. By likelyhood then this busie intermeddling of theirs in Vniuersities in kingdomes in the charges of Bishops and Pastours c. is the cheefe cause why they worke these troubles euery where Pr. Verely I thinke it be For among them he is most esteemed that can shew himself most politicke most stirring and vndertaking especially with greatest estates and highest matters Gent. These humours are not in them all For I know diuers of them very good simple and vertuous men which trouble their heads with nothing except their studie and deuotion Pr. There be some of them no doubt such as you say continuing in the simplicitie and good zeale wherewith they first entered and encreasing their spirituall graces These though they must sooth the humors of the rest and in all things defend their actions yet delight not to be busie and stickling in others mens affaires and indeed these be the glorie of their societie and deserue loue and honour aboue the rest But there be few of this sort considering it is a credit among themselues to be actiue and politick and no small contention who may bee thought most to excell in these Gent. Yet many good men thinke much and marvell what should be the cause why you secular priests should be aduersaries to the Iesuits haue contentions with them and especially with Fa. Parsons who is most esteemed of among the Iesuits for his wisdome and other good parts and who also hath wrought great good to our Nation by his booke of Resolution which argueth him to bee a vertuous man and by erecting Semenaries for the education of our yong men And generally the Iesuits seek not their owne temporall benefit but bestow themselues onely for the good of others many say that without them our Church had bene in worse case than it is Againe that it is but a slaunder that they entermeddle in the mattets of you secular priests or that they haue any dealings in the affaires of temporall estates It is no just cause giuen you by them but your own vnmortified passions and disobedient minds to your lawfull superiors which make you to repine and mammer and to exclaime against them Priest For the Iesuits in generall I neuer said nor thought other but that if they keepe themselues onely at these good exercises of preaching of ministring sacraments without prejudice to the ordinarie Pastors of catechising of teaching in schooles of visiting the sicke and liuing as brethren and fellow labourers in Gods worke seeke the estimation of the secular cleargie among their people I neuer thoght I say but that they be very profitable coadjutors in Christs church and deserue loue and reuerence of all sorts But if withall they become officious sticklers in princes affaires Ecclesiasticall or temporall or busie themselues with entermedling in the secular Cleargies matters which belong not to them and seeke to aduaunce themselues in credit and otherwise aboue the priests as in England they haue done I then thinke them very dangerous and noysome members in any church for the subuersion of peace and good order because vpon that disposition forthwith they bring in great deuisions and draw both priests and people into lamentable factions as is manifest in this poore realme At VVisbich you haue heard how they made very scandalous contentions about establishing a superioritie in one of theirs aboue all the other prisoners You haue heard also how they hindered the vnion of secular priests in a confraternitie how they withstood our endeuors touching Bishops or Suffraganes how without our consents or priuitie they procured an Arch-priest to be ordained ouer all English priests in England and Scotland they onely appointing what kind of superioritie and gouernement our Church should haue and
highest Priest when all the rest of our Sauiours Apostles were forced to flie away or else had beene sure by all morall coniecture to haue in the Iewish furie tasted of their Lord and maister his cup of torments at least if not of death but also being then free and neuer once examined what he thought of his maister Iesus he was able of his bare word to bring in his fellow S. Peter who if an vnhappie girle had not been might haue stayed there still without any sinne or offence committed by that action And yet in and by a Iesuiticall censure they had been certainely condemned as spies if they had escaped scotfree as S. Iohn did and S. Peter might if no worse matter had happened vnto him than that his personall presence there Was good old Ioseph thought to bee a Statist or should our blessed Ladie or Nicodemus as timorous as most of our English schismatickes are haue had a scruple or doubt of beeing betrayed in going to take downe and entombe the bodie of God her onely Iesus because the said Aramathian found more than ordinarie fauour at the high priests hands in obtaining of him to burie it where he thought good Was the blessed Magdalen suspected to bee a worse woman for that that she was permitted of the souldiours to passe and repasse to and from the sepulchre vntouched of them Was Saint Paule condemned of any one for hauing leaue being prisoner to goe where he lift for any to come to him that would and for that Festus that Felix that king Agrippa and others vsed him kindly often sent for him and would not permit his countreymen the Iewes to haue their bloudie will satiated when and as they desired In few were any of these that found more fauour than their fellowes in any time of persecoution ouer heard of to be iudged censured and condemned as spies as daungerous persons as reprobates or fallen from their faith before this day No certainely The Iesuits amongst many innovations in the Church of God haue brought this in first of any other for one scillicet That all men fortunes graces fauours and actions whatsoeuer should bee euill thought of which were eyther beneficiall to any without a commoditie to their soeietie or not squared agreeing to their trecherous proceedings or but onely done without their consent ratibition allowance and liking Well as their pride their enuie and their mallice hath been vnspeakeable herein so their teares their bloud and all their liues if they were giuen and bestowed in recompence and way of satisfaction will neuer bee able to rince out that staine of their good names which they haue charactered in their torne consciencelesse heart and credite which they haue lost thereby in the hearts of all other vertuous wise and sound Catholickes naturall Englishmen and women of all degrees As for their other generall slaunders That the matter in contention was once alreadie decided at Rome and therefore would they make the world beleeue That the Secular Priests were seditious turbulent and factious persons and also That they the said Priests are the onely Statesmen and meddlers statizing more daungerously than they the said Iesuits doe Hispanize or Spanifie c. the one and the other are both most false meere calumniations forgeries and slaunders without any truth in the report or broachers of them abroad and very sensibly prudently and learnedly are they here confuted and their shamefull dealing trecheries and impietie couertly discouered thereby together with the foysting in of that poore simple man Maister Blackwell into an office and authoritie hee little knew God wot what it meant or what treasonable practises were intended to bee wrought by him Finally there doe here occurre to be well considered as a point in my mind of as great a drift moment and consequence as any wee yet touched the panigeries of the Iesuits praises the causes moouing them to send foorth their spirits to course both sea and land with bugle blasts of bloudie Bellonaes menaces to all that dare presume to contradict a Iesuit and the extreame follie madnesse lunacie or what to tearme it I know not in sundrie of the Catholicke Laitie yea and of the more vnlearned and lesse experienced sort of Priests that will beleeue euery word to be an Oracle that falleth from a Iesuits lips in so much as once one sayd That if such a Priest a follower and factor of the Iesuits faction should bid him hang himselfe he would doe it that cannot be otherwise persuaded but that all the whole Church and Common-wealth of Christendome depends vpon these impotent aspirers that stand stiffely in it as a thing impossible how euer the Secular Priests should preuaile against such rare peerelesse Sance-peres that thinke it no way agreeing to Catholicke Christian doctrine how euer such pure illuminats who haue as they say of themselues a more neare familiaritie with God than any other priests should euer faile in points of faith good life gouernement and order in all things that their liues words and acts haue beene touched to the quicke and euer hetherto haue been found faultlesse spotlesse and as a man might say immaculate without crime for to the same end dooth one Father Holtbies speech in a rayling letter tend as written to a Catholicke ladie of no lesse noblenesse for her vertue than for her bloud against all the Apellants in generall but against a reuerend Priest maister Mush by name whose bookes Holthie is vnworthie to carrie in speciall that they are the most learned the most prudent the most vertuous the most religious the most what not perfection on earth is in a Iesuit with the contraries in all others to be found These straunge paradoxes as they presage a high marke which the Iesuits aime at and therewithall a heauie ruine so doe they demonstrate a sencelesse witlesse and idle braine in those that doe beleeue them that cannot see into them that will not be informed of their daungers by following their vnnaturall faction and therewithall prognosticate a sorer absurder and a more mischeeuous heresie if not Antichrist himselfe to bee brought in by them than euer yet was heard of in the Christian world to this houre For how is it possible vnlesse the dolorous date of mans miseries be well nigh spent and wee the miserable wretches reserued to liue in these heauie dayes of the Churches last calamities that euer any issuing out of Adams loines should be so ignorant of Natures frailetie in man as these Iesuit fautors seeme to be by this sencelesse attributing vnto them a state of innocencie in a sort aboue that wherein our Plasmist created our protaplast in terrestriall Paradise Mans wit though it haue suffered a great diminution by our protoparents fall as all the rest of the parts and powers in humane nature haue yea euen synderisis is not exempted but seemeth in many to be extinguished rather than to haue any being at all yet these sparkes of Natures light are left in
pilgrimage and as they were contracted by Adam in our first fall from innocencie in Paradice so perfectly to be renewed by Christ in our last resurrection to endlesse happinesse The law deliuered to Angels was transgressed in Heauen before euer Adam came within a ken of Paradice if we follow the common opinion That the Angels were created in that imperiall pallace the law giuen to man in the state of innocencie was broken in Paradice terrestriall the vnwritten law vnder the Patriarkes the written law of Moyses the Euangelicall and most perfect law of Christ all haue beene broken and too often violated on earth Of this all ages all times all places all persons of note and common sense haue complained God and Angels from Heauen complayned Prophets and prudent Princes wise and polliticke Regents carefull and vetuous Gouernours on earth complayne the Patriarckes and auncient first Fathers before the Law Priests Princes and Prophets vnder the Law Christ his Apostles Disciples and all holy men in the Law of grace haue complained the first man complayned the last man will complaine our Elders before sayth Seneca hereof complained we our selues complaine and those that shall liue after vs will complaine of mans miseries infirmities fraileties imperfections and weaknesse in all things And shall any Catholicke then bee so blinded with an erronious conceit of an extraordinarie perfection of pieties of religion of deuotion of familiaritie with God of freedome from sinne of peculiar indowments with grace for soule points gouernment and instruction in all things to rest in a Iesuit aboue all other men on liue Phy Catholickes phy let neuer so vncatholicke a thought take a momentarie repose vpon the buttresse of your breasts or once sincke into the centre of your hearts least you sinke downe into hell without redemption in so blasphemous a thought as this were and as too many of you haue beene infected though not as yet I hope so peruerted as that you are remedilesse impossible to be cured If the Iesuits will be Puritanes and esteeme better of themselues than all their neighbours doe besides yet puritanize not you with them least they take incouragement by your ignorant applauses to prosecute their impious courses and so draw you on to attempt their owne and your destruction yea and I pray God not perdition also of bodie and soule by running into some desperate heresie with or after them What should I say more I am still too tedious for such are the Meandrian passages in discourse of the Iesuiticall platformes drifts and deuices as dayes months and years would faile to set downe all the errors calumnies and pragmatickes vsed by them and their correspondent consorts on their owne behalfe against the Secular priests and all that ayme not at the period of their fatall course From which I beseech God to blesse preserue and keepe all innocent sincere harmlesse well meaning hearts and to recall reuoke and deliuer all those out of their snares that are alreadie infected with their flatterie falshood and follie And so crauing pardon if I haue exceeded too farre the limits of an Epistle or any way otherwise offended any person that is not Iesuited in affection or faction I now in a generall congie to all gentle censurers of my well meant how meane soeuer endeuours as heartily as hastily being called away doe take my leaue Yours all gentle Readers in all good wishes of health honor and happinesse vnto you W. W. Rectorem te posuerunt noli extolli esto in illis quasi vnus ex ipsis Eccle. 32. Non efficiamini inanis gloriae cupidi inuicem prouocantes inuicem inuidentes Gal. 5 6. RIght VVorshipfull Sir my heartiest salutations and Gods blessing to your selfe and your Catholicke familie After my departure from you I could not but vpon the remembrance of our long and intricate communication thinke it very needfull to set you downe in writing the principall points which had passed between vs in the said conference For I finding you to be of a vertuous and of a iust disposition by reason whereof you were enclined to iudge charitably of all sorts and had not suffered your selfe lightly and without proofe of things to bee caried away with such reports as might be disgracefull and iniurious to good men and your old friends I thought it my part to let you haue from mine owne pen the same in substance which you receiued from my mouth that hereby in the relation of my answeres you might be kept from error and my speeches be free from mistaking These times wherein we are fallen doe affoord vs plentie of humourous men and those no lesse void of sinceritie than of other Christian vertues And very hardly are they to be found which in matters of controuersie tread vprightly and be disposed to censure other mens words and actions as they bee in truth or as iustly they deserue but all rather value men and matters according as either blind affections lead them or as by passion or priuate lucre they bee drawne to iudge or report VVhich ill disposition as it hath infected the most so doth it not any where more apparently shew it selfe than in this controuersie fallen out betweene the Iesuites with the Archpriest and their adherents of the one partie and vs secular priests on the other wherein you see many run violently and are caried headlong as a forceable streame against vs ouerbearing vs with infamies and slaunderous reports vpon vncharitable surmises vnlikely presumptions and vntrue suggestions without respect of iust and due examination of our cause or as may bee feared in many without regard of truth Now mens iudgements are ruled wholly by fantasies and conceits of persons by present tasts of gaine or future hopes of preferment or like temporall respects to condemne vs before they know our cause indifferencie is abandoned equitie excluded passion partialitie and a pleasing humour beareth all the sway false reports are receiued as certaine verities and they are reputed for the best which in renting asunder our good names and in the office of defaming doe shew themselues most eagre and vehement It is a wofull thing indeed as you often said to behold so great a breach of concord and this scandalous deuision and strife to be among Ecclesiasticall persons but it is most horrible to see what violent and vniust courses are taken by men professing singular pietie vertue and perfection aboue others for the oppression of many innocent priests vtter subuersion of their good names No rumours that may disgrace vs are left vncast abroad no slaunderous reports which may tend to our discredite are vnuttered no false surmise that may defile or distaine our good names is kept from the peoples hearing And finally there is no man no woman as well of schismatickes and common enemies as of Catholickes which our aduersaries do not entertaine as fit instruments to be employed in this vncharitable worke of defaming vs yea to be officious and hot-spirited in this
want of this passionate dull imperfect and but ordinarie Catholickes though in truth they exceed and excell theirs in the performance of any Christian dutie excepting this onely that they are guided by the priests and haue not resigned themselues and all they haue to the wils and directions of the Iesuits And this foolish difference and friuolous distinction to be betweene the Iesuits and their dependents and the seminarie priests with their Catholicke people is not obscurely insinuated if it be not the principall scope aimed at in the Treatise of Three fairwels written by a cheefe fauourite of Iesuits but not without their priuitie their perusing and their consent in publishing it abroad for otherwise the Gentleman followed little of that resignation and perfection hee talked so much on in that book where he will haue a man in all things depend of the Iesuits and to bee guided by them As then no doubt he was himselfe in most absolute sort both in making and diuulging that gallant Treatise But now that some of ours vsually resort to the Bishop of London and haue secret conference with him I know not how farre the religious charitie and perfection of a Iesuit occupied in the custodie of Euangelicall counsels will aduenture to suspect judge or report thereof sure I am they should not haue proceeded thus farre as they haue done alreadie if they had obserued the rules and limits but of ordinarie precepts and Christian charitie VVe will not speake now of such priests as haue beene most officious for the Iesuits and Archpriest in furthering their hard attempts against vs and yet are knowne to come to the Bishop of Londons house no lesse than these of ours which they so rattle with infamies Let vs deale onely with these two of ours M. Bluet and M. Clarke vpon which the slaunders cheefely run Haue they not both been knowne for vertuous and good Catholicke priests the one hauing endured a longer imprisonment for defence of Christs faith than any Iesuit hath spent yeares in England yea before any of that order entered the realme Hath he not waxen old vnder that heauie yoke preferring the ignominie and affliction of Christs crosse aboue the glorie and pleasures of the world Hath hee not liued with great credit and honour among both Catholickes and Heretickes which he purchased by his Catholick zeale in defence of Gods cause and by his sincere discreet and vertuous comportment in his conuersation Hath hee now perhaps reuolted from his faith or professed himselfe an enemy or that in any the least degree he will bee rebellious or disobedient to the See Apostolicke Doth he not still lie in prison for his Catholicke religion Or can they say perhaps that he wanteth abilitie and the talents of wit or learning by reason whereof hee may be thought incapable of promotion or so insufficient to vndertake roumes of dignitie and liuings among heretickes that being fallen from his faith or become a traitor to Gods cause or what else soeuer the slaunderer will haue him For those defects of his they judge him unfit for preferments and woorthie no better than this little libertie hee hath in prison Meaner men than M. Bluet or M. Clarke if they fall to the protestants are friendly entreated are set at libertie and preferred to benefices in their ministerie as is manifest in Dawson Maior Bell Tedder and the rest what ill hap then haue these two to lie still in prison and misse all aduauncement For M. Clarke also it is well knowne how he hath long and zealously trauelled for the sauing of soules with no lesse paines and fruit than the Iesuits about him Hee hath made a more glorious profession of his faith and sustained harder triall by affliction than many of them Is he deuoid also of all sufficiencie and good talents that if he be gone from God and all goodnesse hee cannot yet if he would step out of prison to some fatter benefice among the ministers They that value their owne actions how slender and trifling soeuer they be aboue all that their fellowes doe are very easily caried away what by peeuish emulation what by selfe-liking into rash judgements and disgracefull reports to misconstrue the words and deeds of them they fancie not to interprete all sinisterly and to take and censure all they see or heare in the worst part they can deuise affirming against both the manifest rule of charitie and the expresse commaundement of God forbidding all rash and temerarious judgements in these words Matth. 7. Nolite iudicare non indicabimini nolite condemnare non condemnabimini affirming vncertaine things I say for certaine or taking vpon thē to judge anothers seruant when that office belongeth not to them Domino enim suo stat aut cadit Rom. 14. or if it concerne them judging secret things for manifest euils or finally if they bee manifest persecuting them as to be done badly without knowledge of mind intention and disposition of him that did them A good conceit or opinion by the law of Nature is due to euery man and this ought all Christians to carry in the secrecie of their owne hearts each one towards other vntill by some manifest and certaine fault one haue deserued the contrarie By the same law also a mans credit honor and good name should rest entire and safe without losse or detriment vntill by some inexcusable bad fact or fault or by some assuredly knowne crime they be impeached no lesse than this was due vnto our Catholicke priests in prison to M. Bluet to M. Clarke to M. Doctor Bag. whom more than any these religious fathers with the Archpriest and their complices haue disgraced with slaunders and to all the rest of vs in durance or abroad It was due vnto them I say from all sorts of Catholick people from all priests from the Archpriest from the Iesuits neuerthelesse they haue bereaued vs of this treasure and due By what crimes manifest and certaine haue wee lost our right herein How can they defend themselues from cruell injust rapine VVe were schismatickes say they we denie it and say it is no more but their own damnable calumnie slaunderous fiction VVe were rebellious and disobedient to the See Apostolicke we denie it and say this to be an vndeserued infamie we neuer hauing the least intention or thought without which these horrible crimes cannot be committed to seperate our selues from the See Apostolicke or to disobey in any thing Clement the eight or any superiour certainly knowne to be constituted by him ouer vs so farre forth as his authoritie might appeare to be extended And for this point our innocencie is so cleare that the Iesuits and Archp. with all their adherents shall neuer be able either by wit or learning or honest dealing to proue vs guiltie of these crimes or to defend themselues from the foule note of vncharitable contumelious slaunder VVere we knowne to be men of that bad life euill demeanure and
corrupt conscience for it could not be imputed to our ignorance that without good reason and all probabilitie of sufficient cause we were likely to forbeare the acceptance of the new authoritie till the comming of the Breue wittingly to cast our selues into a damnable state If our former labours and conuersations had deserued this conceit our aduersaries might haue had some pretence to justifie their doings and perhaps saued themselues from the ignominie of detractors and calumniators But if not as I hope the world will testifie for vs then surely they should haue takē another course contrarie to this they tooke as well for sauing themselues from greeuous sinnes as for preseruing vs from these horrible infamies into which they haue cast both themselues and vs by their headie and rash judgements For truly if any one reason of ours or all together be found a sufficient cause of our delay a heape of sinnes infamies will redound vpon their owne heads and we shall be freed And now touching M. Bluet M. Clarke and others of ours that are said to haue accesse and conference dayly with the Bishop of London or some other of the Counsel Haue their former cōuersation in the world and their long sufferings cast that euill sent or doe they yeeld such certaine proofes of a gracelesse disposition that this fact of theirs can deserue no defence nor excuse or is it so manifestly ill in it selfe that it will admit no cause as reasonable to salue it or is there no meane nor way whereby their fact indifferent doubtlesse in it owne nature may be if not altogether justified and defended yet at the least excused or left vnjudged to be alreadie of the vilest qualitie and they accordingly demeaned Aunswere for the Iesuits Is it a manifest and an vndoubted sinne that a Catholick priest and prisoner haunt an aduersaries house and haue conference with him Gent. Now truly I am persuaded it is not for I haue read of many good Saints that haue haunted the companie of euill persons with great zeale and merit and our Sauiour Christ himselfe and his Apostles vsed the company of scribes pharisies publicans and the worst sinners Priest If this be indifferent and may be done with merite what can make it a sinfull action in M. Bluet and M. Clarke Gent. Their intention and businesse onely or perhaps the scandale they giue thereby Priest For the scandale in respect of all the learned Catholicks of England the Priests and religious men especially it is Scandalum acceptum and not datum For they knowing it to be an indifferent action of it owne kind and to be justifiable and made good by many circumstances if they take scandale before they see some ill effect to be intended or necessarily to issue thereupon it must be onely Scandalum acceptum And for the simpler sort of Catholickes they also with their leaders are bound in conscience to suspect or judge no ill of the indifferent actions of their Catholicke fathers and prisoners vntill some sinfull intention or effect appeare And in this case much more ought the constancie of these Catholick priests imprisoned as long as they perseuer constant to stay at the least all good Christians from temerarious or rash judgements which is euer a greeuous sinne and in this case is greatly encreased by the state and dignitie of these men and by their former good deserts and sufferings than they should be moued by their accesse and conference onely to suspect or judge the worst or to vtter any thing derogatorie to their good names The Iesuits and Priests which are willing to set this scandale on foot and labour what lieth in them to make our priests actions seeme hainous and horrible and neuer cease to persuade the people to judge the worst and to exclaime against them these Iesuits and Priests haue the more sinne and as they be the authours and continuers of the scandale so haue they to answere for the sinnes of their disciples Gent. By my faith it is daungerous to be too forward in imitating the Iesuits zeale in this point and great safetie it is to suspend ones judgement and to temper ones tongue till more be knowne Pr. I thinke that the securest way for as S. Iames fourth sayth Qui detrahit fratri aut qui iudicat fratrem suum detrahit legi iudicat legem Si autem iudicas legem non es factor legis sed Iudex He that detracteth his brother or judgeth his brother detracteth the law and judgeth the law but if thou judge the law thou art not the obseruer of the law but the judge A Pharisaicall vice it is rashly to judge and condemn other men and I wish the Iesuits the Archpriest with their complices in slaundering vs were free from all note and contagion of this turpitude But if we throughly examine the causes which wee haue giuen them on our part and with indifferencie weigh the nature of these actions their circumstances in euery respect whereupon the Iesuits and their adherents haue judged and defamed vs of most horrible crimes we shall easily perceiue thē to haue transgressed the bounds of all Christian charitie A religious man is bound to tend and aime at Euangelicall perfection This consisteth not in the name of an order nor in the three essentiall vowes of pouertie chastitie and obedience to a Superiour For hereby onely the principall lets and impediments which may hinder their attaining to perfection are remoued But perfection indeed Tho. 2.2 which by their profession they are bound to endeuor vnto dooth consist in a full mortification of themselues in all respects and in a perfect charity towards God and man Now I demaund of the Iesuits what degree of charitie they haue shewed and exercised in this controuersie was euer any bad companions so dissolute and impudent and desperate railers so void of conscience and charitie which vpon so slender causes and grounds first of our delay to receiue the authoritie and now of hauing conference with the Bishop of London or others of the Counsell could euer haue run a more intemperate headie and vncharitable course of rash suspition and judgement to the ouerthrow of our good names than the Iesuits haue done Could they more haue exceeded the limits of grace of temperance of modestie of humanitie than the religious Fathers haue VVho in matters belonging onely to the supreame Pastor to decide haue taken vpon them to determine the cause who with their own particular fantasie haue preuented the sentence and judgement of the See Apostolicke and who finally vpon a priuat opinion of their owne thought yet erronious by men not their inferiors for learning judgement sinceritie and other vertues haue earnestly laboured for euer to disgrace and vtterly defame so many Catholick priests Could any lost or forlorne caitife haue made more vile and detestable inferences or gathered more loathsome poyson or raised a more pestiferous stinch by stirring in these matters and freely
in them So that it is nothing but your contentious spirits that moue you without any cause to stirre afresh in these matters for you can neuer be at rest because you are full of emulation and you cannot endure to obey your Archpriest because you are ambitious and desirous of authoritie your selues Pr. For our disobedience to the Arch-priest it is refuted before I need to say no more of that calumnie And touching the other That we are ambitious and would haue the authoritie our selues this is also an improbable deuised slaunder by our aduersaries How know they that we are ambitious Gent. Mary they say that M. Coll. should haue been Archbishop of Canterburie and M. Mush Archbishop of Yorke and the rest of you in like sort sought for other dignities Priest These truly be no other than malignant fictions of our aduersaries which respect not how they do it so they may detract vs and make vs more odious among priests and Catholickes in our nation But this onely reason quite confoundeth them That none of them is able to charge any of vs in particular with any such attempt that by word or deed we euer went about our owne preferment For in all things concerning these matters of procuring bishops or suffraganes or other prelates for gouerning our church after the death of Cardinall Allen when very scandalous contentions grew betweene the Iesuits and some seminarie priests at VVisbich our aduersaries cannot say that we went about it secretly did any thing or intended to do but by the general consents and concurrance of all our brethren priests and Iesuits referring all as well for the kind of gouernement as for the men to be preferred to the voices good liking and choise of euery one And onely wee propounded to our brethren what we judged fittest desiring euery one to giue their consent and opinion also that whatsoeuer should bee propounded to his Holinesse might be as from vs all or the most This being true as our aduersaries cannot denie it to bee what a wilfull peruersitie is it in them to charge vs with ambition and this the rather for that they are not ignorant how vnlikely it was that these whome they most note with this slaunder should bee chosen to these roomes if the election should haue passed by free voice generall consent of our whole cleargie For emulation it is a friuolous toy for admit any of vs were of that ambitious humour they report vs to bee yet is there no such good or pleasure in the Archp. his authoritie as any of vs should emulate him for it or desire to haue it from him neither since the beginning hath his carriage been in that office so commendable for discretion sinceritie vpright dealing among his bretheren moderation prudence compassion and other vertues requisit to bee in a superior especially in this afflicted state of ours that he hath giuen any man occasion to enuie his credit or couet the glorie of his actions But many he hath stirred vp to mislike him and his gouernment and to lament the wofull state of our Church mannaged by so vnfit a man For surely if I were deuoid of grace and if I were his mortall enemie I could not haue wished him to haue gouerned and behaued himselfe in worse sort than he hath done Gent. I haue heard of little good or none that he hath done since his first enterance into the office but sure I am our Church was neuer so harmed by contentions and scandals as it hath beene in these three yeares of his gouernment Priest No marueile when hee is wholly led by the Iesuits the principall authors and parties in these dissentions But now concerning that they say our cause hath been heard alreadie judged at Rome against vs and thereupon our two messengers punished and we all in them it is a manifest vntruth as appeareth by M. Doctor Bishops answere to Fa. Parsons letter and by the censure of the same letter all in print for by Fa. Parsons wicked false information our two priests could neuer haue accesse to his Ho. nor audience but were shortly after their arriuall apprehended as notable malefactors shut vp seuerally in very close prison vnder Fa Par. custodie Fa. P. was the misinformer to his Ho. Fa. P. was the guide to the officers that apprehended them Fa. P. was their jaylor their examiner the appointer of his brother Iesuit to bee the scribe notarie Fa. P. was the framer of libels against them the procurer instructer of two English priests his deputies to preferre his libels against them Fa. P. was the inuentor whisperer and soother of all bad matters which might bring them in hatred the disposer of the time and maner of their audience before two Cardinals seuen weekes after their taking the contriuer and moderator in all those actions the ransacker of all their writings and stuffe Fa. P. would neuer permit them to conferre together nor the one to see the other till they appeared before the Cardinall Fa. P. prohibited them to haue a copie of the slaunderous libels which hee had caused to bee read in the Cardinals presence for their disgrace or to answer to them Fa. P. depriued them of all aduise and helpes of learned counsell Fa. P. shut thē vp again for other seuen or eight weekes more vntil he had procured the Popes Breue for confirmation of the authority which himselfe had by collusion obtained a yeare before And after least they should returne to England and tell tales of his crueltie and corrupt dealings Fa. Par. plotted and deuised their miserable banishment the one into Paris the other into Mussipont in Lorraine It was Fa. P. that in Rome laboured to discredit them and all our Cleargie by carrying about and shewing their linnen sockes their handkerchifes their nightcoyfes very meane in respect of such as himselfe and his Iesuits haue worne in England and their silke points of 12. pence the dozen Fa. P. dismissed one many daies after the other least trauelling together they should haue too much comfort and helpe in so long a journey Fa. P. sent them away without viaticum or any farthing of prouision and allowance to liue vpon how long soeuer the time of their banishment should last and yet Fa. P. charitably prouided that they should not for any cause depart from those places without incurring the greatest censures Gent. This man seemeth to haue a violent or rather a cruell spirit Priest He hath so no doubt where he is offended and can execute his will Gent. VVhy did these two Priests goe to Rome Priest First to know assuredly whether the Archp. authoritie was instituted by his Holinesse for it was brought without any Apostolicall writ Againe to declare vnto his Ho. the difficulties and inconueniencies thereof and the harmes probably like to ensue to our whole Church vnlesse it were altred Againe truely to enforme his Ho. of the state of our Church in all things and lastly to know
them as perfectly Besides they haue their continuall abstinence their diuerse Lents and many extraordinarie fasts their nightly risings and watchings to sing laudes to God to meditate and to pray their great castigations and vsuall afflictions of their bodies by disciplines hard diet sharpe attire and other meanes of mortification All which the Iesuits want more than that now then like good ordinarie secular priests they will be doing something but little to account of in respect of the continued toyles and mortifications of other holy religions men of all sorts Now if religious perfection were the cause of this fayned hatred or emnitie we should be most auersed from all these orders in which we know these meanes of perfections or perfections most to abound and most loue and embrace the Iesuits in whom wee know all these to bee wanting But neither be we enemies to those holy orders neither will those holy men impute vnto vs this calumnie neither can the Iesuits themselues be ignorant that we loue and honour those orders and men for their great vertues and mortification of life And therefore this slaunder is intollerable injurie vnto vs all to make the world beleeue vs so void of grace and godlinesse that we are enemies to the Iesuits for their vertue and perfection thus putting vs in the ranke of the vilest miscreants that are or can be imagined The truth therefore is that wee loue and honour the Iesuits order and should both loue and honour them more the more they and their order tendeth to perfection and the lowlier conceit they caried of themselues And if we be their aduersaries it is for some other cause than their vertues Gent. For what I pray you Pr. No other but the very same for which the Iesuits haue accounted many men of great vertue and calling to be their aduersaries Gent. Father Parsons in his VVardword to Sir Francis Hastings seemeth to say that none but badly disposed men and wretches giuen ouer to wickednesse are aduersaries to Iesuits How then can it bee that good men are their aduersaries as you say Priest I say not that good men were their aduersaries but that they accounted many vertuous men their aduersaries For albeit they reckon euery one to bee their aduersarie that crosseth their doings in any respect yet in truth a vertuous man in so doing is their friend and if selfe-liking were abandoned would be so esteemed by them They onely and some such like as Fa. P. there speaketh of are their true aduersaries which hate and mislike their vertue and well doing and goe about to hinder this bee it in a Iesuit or in any other honest Catholicke man Gent. Such wicked men be aduersaries to all true Christians but yet Fa. Parsons with many beyond and these Iesuits in England account you and all your adherents here or abroad to bee aduersaries to their societie Pr. I graunt they doe But this is because we contradict and resist the ill actions and proceedings of some particular men of their societie For they must haue all approued and justified whatsoeuer any of them doth otherwise you cannot bee thought their friend This is a comfort that we may bee right good men before God and the world notwithstanding these Fathers account vs their aduersaries yea and persecute vs also as they haue and doe For many priests whom they haue sought vehemently to discredit by this report of being their aduersaries and therefore haue disgraced them in what they could as well in England as in our Colledges vnder their gouernment beyond which almost neuer haue been free from greeuous contentions are now glorious Martyrs in heauen which being rejected and persecuted by them yet laboured in Gods vineyard here as painefully and as fruitfully to say no more as any Iesuit in the realme yea and when it came to the triall of their vertue their resolution and their constant charitie these outcasts the Iesuits aduersaries were alwayes found no lesse patient in torments and prisons and no lesse courageous in shedding their blood for defence of Christs cause than any of the Iesuits This was manifest to let all the rest of the Martyrs and confessors passe in the blessed priests M. Iohn Ingram M. Thomas Pormort and M. Lanton glorious Martyrs yet reckoned in the number of the Iesuits aduersaries yea and not a little afflicted and disgraced by them for the same VVhat will Fa. P. and the Iesuits say to the most gracious and peerelesse jewell of our countrey Cardinall Allen Must he for companie also bee raunged and thrust into that predicament of their aduersaries where Fa. P. affirmeth to Sir Francis Hastings that none bee the Iesuits aduersaries except Heretickes Apostataes dissolute men disobedient malecontents the like It were too too bad impudencie and intollerable mallice to say that hee was not a right vertuous a wise and a gracious man Gent. Yea but he was not the Iesuits aduersarie Pr. Then they foulely belie him For I assure you my selfe haue often heard some Iesuits earnestly affirme that he was their aduersarie and much auersed from them before his death Gent. I maruell greatly that any of them hauing wit will report this for that must be a great discredit to them to say that a man of those graces which euery way he was knowne to haue were their aduersarie and auersed from them considering all men hearing this would foorthwith conceiue some euill desert to be in them by reason whereof hee was become their aduersarie Pr. The reporters were told no lesse but what is to be expected where ouer-weening of themselues blindeth these Saints Now then Cardinall Allen was their aduersarie by their owne confession but Cardinall Allen was well knowne in Christendome to be a good vertuous man then it followeth that good men may be the Iesuits aduersaries and againe that in truth it is no discredit for a Catholicke priest to be their aduersarie to contradict or withstand them in any ill attempt or action of theirs and lastly it followeth that the Iesuits bee no such Saints as their good end of doing all ad maiorem dei gloriam can justifie and make currant all they doe Gent. But what was Cardinall Allen their aduersarie indeed Priest I know that hee misliked and condemned many things the Iesuits did and in this sort hee was their aduersarie and so be we For I haue heard him much condemne their gouernement of our colledge in Rome namely for their want of frugalitie and vsing the houses liuing to the most benefit of our nation for their palpable partialitie to some of the students aboue the rest for their continuall enticing and drawing by an hundred cunning means our most towardly youths to be of their societie for keeping such many times as they had allured and woon vnto them vnder the names of our schollers till they had ended their courses of studie by which policie the Iesuits nouices occupied the roomes prouided for our students and by them more were
chusing the man which should be superior notably abusing his Hol. and our whole Cleargie in that action and very cunningly hereby preuenting that no superiour should be ouer them within the realme VVho but they enforced the same authoritie which themselues onely had deuised and fraudulently obtained VVho enforced it vpon our Clergie with violence and threats but they and this before it was confirmed by his Holinesse VVho wrongfully defamed the priests that bare off to receiue it before the confirmation came to bee schismatickes rebels c. but the Iesuits and others by their setting on VVho after all was pacified renewed the same slaunder and infamie against the priests that for charitie sake had forgiuen it but the Iesuits in England and at Rome and the Archp. by their aduise VVho haue continued the strife by refusing all conferences friendly debatings disputes meetings and so many most reasonable offers and indifferent conditions of peace and ending all as we haue made And who sought to ouerbeare vs all by strong hand without respect of equitie and conscience but the Iesuits and the Archpriest directed by them VVho haue most vncharitably injuried our priests by suspensions by depriuation of faculties by in just decrees by hereauing them of their maintenance of their friends and places of entertainement and harbour and all this without triall or proofe of any crime at all or admitting them to answere or citing them to appeare but Iesuits abusing the Archp. his authoritie For by his instructions as I haue said before he is to doe nothing without the Iesuits aduise and direction in any matter of importance the good men prouiding that not onely they should be exempted from all subjection and subordination to him and his authoritie but also that themselues should beare the greatest stroke in the execution thereof VVhat belonged all these matters to them if they had been content to stand within their owne bounds They are religious men by their particular societie and profession seperated from the secular cleargie and making a distinct bodie of themselues By the rule of their order not to take roomes of prelacie among the Cleargie of the secular rank VVhat then did it appertaine to them to chuse the manner of our gouernement or to appoint who should bee superiour to vs It cannot doubtlesse bee defended from a malapart and presumptuous attempt which is an inseparable proprietie of their busie entermedling humour Gent. They were priests labouring in this haruest with you and seeing this authoritie needfull they might procure it without blame Pr. They are priests indeed but they bee exceeding cunning pollitickes withall It was not the good nor peace of our church they aimed at in procuring this authoritie For then they would haue wrought with our consent and liking and the matter should not haue been shuffled vp in darkenesse as it was but that by this meane they might domineere ouer vs and themselues be freed from all subjection of our prelates They are priests and our fellow labourers so be we to them also this required at the most that we might admit them to joyne with vs in aduise about these elections as wee did in all things but it could neuer priuiledge them to enterprise and contriue these matters against our wils or without our consents and priuitie a great many of vs hauing laboured in the haruest as much as they others hauing toiled farre aboue them and as it were the whole burden and weight of the worke lying vpon our shoulders and not vpon theirs especially where painefull trauaile and pouertie is to be sustained They would scorne no doubt yea exceedingly disdaine and bestirre themselues if we priests their fellowes in this worke should presume to ouer-reach as they haue done and put our sickle into their haruest to appoint without their consents or knowledge what gouernment and superiour they should haue and yet wee with as much reason might doe this as they haue done the other Thus you see there is ouer-much cause giuen vs by them of greefe and discontentment Moreouer in this point they shewed another policie Gent. VVhat is that Pr. Marry there bee often in our Church large sums of money giuen in almes ad pios vsus we know they are granted and bequeathed but few are better for them they passe God knoweth whither but they are inuisible to poore Priests and prisoners Gent. Perhaps they come not to the Iesuits hands Priest I wish they did not more than their equall share But it is noted that either all or the most great summes come to the fingering of certaine lay men most intirely deuoted and familiar with the Iesuits the disposition of which men is thought to be sincere and iust and not willing to disperse the almes but as the Iesuits shall appoint or approoue VVee know the Iesuits to abound in all things the Priests and poore Catholicks in many places and the prisoners generally to suffer penurie more than euer they did Now if wee had in our Church Bishops or Suffraganes chosen by the free voyces of our Cleargie can you thinke these summes should be permitted thus vnprofitably to vanish away or that the exceutors should not be brought to their accounts or that the Iesuites should haue all the stroke in the distributions or that their shares should exceed the poore mens in so great inequalitie as a pound is to a pennie There was neuer greater almes giuen than hath beene within these foure or fiue yeeres in which the Iesuits haue borne the greatest sway and yet there hath neuer beene the like wants among poore Catholicke priests and amongst poore Catholickes in prison and abroad and in the seminarie at Doway as hath bene in these yeeres and still remaineth It is wonderfull to consider which way it goeth The Iesuits indeed abound in all things but I will not charge them with bad dealing let the supposition plead thus or so as men conceiue of it Gent. I will not condemne them neither But yet I haue heard of one Iesuit that hath worne a girdle with hangers and rapier aboue ten pound a jerken also that cost no lesse and also that had made him two sutes of apparrell in one yeare and all very costly whose horse furniture his owne apparrell on him was valued to an hundred pounds one who for his part by the report of his brother dispendeth yearly 400 li yet hath no patrimonie If some few more of thē be as wastful as this one no maruaile if great sums make little releefe among the poore Pr. In this point therefore they dealt politickely when they hindred vs of ordinary pastours and prelats that in all things themselues might run without checke or controuler Thus they seeke to benefit others and not their owne Gent. Yea but M. Blackwell the Archp. writ to Cardinall Caietane That the Iesuits sell their patrimonies to maintaine themselues and others Priest This is a meere fiction to set out the Iesuits with a vaine
a point of good nurture and due vnto them and they which seemed to dislike the disorder were accounted and vsed as aduersaries Gent. Me thinkes the Iesuits should giue them rather examples of mortification and humilitie than to contend about these vanities Pr. It should bee so but thus it was Fa. Creswell who was in Rome for many causes judged by Cardinall Allen to be the vnfittest to gouerne that euer he had knowne after many troublesome garboiles hee had made in the Colledge whilest hee was Rector there at last by Cardinall Allens meanes was remoued from that gouernement and sent into Spaine to Fa. Parsons This stirring and busie-headed Father during the time hee was Rector in Rome delighted in nothing so much as to crosse and ouer thwarâ— the students in euery thing They 〈◊〉 their vineyard a pleasant little groue of trees in which they much delighted to sit and to recreate themselues when they were permitted to goe thether for it cast a goodly shade and defended them from the piercing heats of the Sunne this comfort Fa. Crâ—swell he like thought not fit for banished schollers for suddainly without acquinting Cardinall Allen or any therewith he cut it downe and sold the wood and not long after the vineyard also was alienated by sale froÌ„ the Colledge The fact mightily offended the good Cardinall and the students but therein the good Iesuit tooke his joy This mans humor in that gouernement being as he thought something restrained by the Cardinals presence and authoritie of that full scope he desired to haue he would in publicke exhortations shew his discontentment and vauntingly say as a Iesuit told it me VVhat we respect not Cardinals in our dealing we feare them not we are rather to make Cardinals than to be ouer-ruled by them This same vnfit Rector by the judgement of Cardinall Allen comming into Spaine was by and by esteemed the fittest to gouerne that might be by Fa. Parsons There as the priests which come from thence report he keepeth no lesse reuelling among the students than hee had done at Rome This is hee that in open sermons exclaimeth against our secular cleargie in England saying There be many gone out of the Seminaries into England well qualified with learning and naturall talents but would to God wee could spunge out of them yea suck out of them with a spunge their learning and their naturall good qualities besides they bee contentious against vs and aduersaries to our societie Gent. These be monstrous speeches and argue a very vntemperat spirit Priest Oh it is a goodly zeale the man is feruent and as I heare according to his humor they in Spain and Fa. Parsons in Rome haue taken order That few of our students especially such as are thought not greatly to affect them and their proceedings shall be ouer-learned hereafter For almost all are set to positiue Diuinitie and not suffered to bee Philosophers or scholasticall Diuines And truly it seemeth incredible to heare how many of our finest wits and young men of great expectation these two violent Fathers void as it seemeth of all compassion and humanitie against whome they carry displeasure haue discredited and quite broken Some for no other faults but for breaking their fast in a cookes house when they had hard commons and great scarsitie of victuals in their Colledge as Fa. Parsons did a great companie at Rome others for eating a little milke which they bought as they walked in the fields others for washing themselues in a riuer without the citie and the like as Fa. Creswell did to some in Spain VVhere some also were put to a pennance of bread and water be cause they would not aske pennances some for slipping with his tongue and saying in stead of Patrem Ministrum Patrem ministerium some violently pulled by the eares for calling a lay Iesuit Harmannon that is brother in Spanish where he would haue ben called Pater Father and a thousand such which for breuities sake I now omit Gent. These religious men haue much deceiued me For I thought they had ben very mild and kept great moderation in their gouernment specially towards our countreymen which voluntarily haue vndertaken this hard course of life for seruing God and gaining of soules without any hope of temporall benefit but with assured miseries at their returne home as we see dayly many of them to suffer tortures imprisonments and death besides many other afflictions before they fall into the hands of their persecutors in respect of which difficulties reason would they should be courteously entertained during their time of studies and much borne with if they frame not themselues to the exact obseruance of some strict orders Pr. Our gracious Cardinall Allen was of your opinion in this point and so sweetly demeaned himselfe in his gouernement towards all that hee woon the hearts of euery one hee was full of pittie and compassion and in his great discretion could beare with the imperfections of young men For hee considered their hard estate of voluntarie banishment where they wanted almost all comforts pleasures which their owne countrey would haue yeelded them And therefore by all gentle and friendly vsage hee endeuoured to encourage them and yeeld them all contentment and consolations which the place and his abilitie would permit euer carefull that none should be discontented or made malecontent for trilles and matters of small importance And truly my selfe haue heard him often say That a good Gouernor especially in these times with our countrymen should haue a great regard to saue all that come vnder him and in no wise for some naturall imperfections and transgressions of good orders which may bee tollerated without sinne to discourage any nor for trifling and light faults to loose their other good talents Gent. This course is most agreeable without time and countreymen which enter voluntarily into this hard state of life and as voluntarily remaine therein Priest That blessed man thought so and during his life practised the same with all sorts for he withstood Fa. Creswels and the Iesuits attempts in the English Colledge at Rome when they endeuoured to bring vpon the students certaine hard orders which were no whit necessary to the good education of the schollers and yet could not but be exceeding disgustfull and greeuous vnto them without any the least profit at all Gent. VVhat orders were these Priest The very same which were misliked and rejected also by Cardinall Toledo when after Cardinall Allens death the Iesuits attempted afresh to establish them and indeed effected their desire after Cardinall Toledo was taken away As that no scholler shall write letters abroad or receiue any without license and the surview of the Iesuits their gouernors again that none shall write to any of his fellowes of the Colledge or receiue letters from him without the same licence and review Item That none shall come in companie conuerse or recreate with any other of his fellow students but with such onely as they