most plaine y t it is not the euidence of truth that maketh our ministers come so thicke vnto you well it may be flatterie and falshood And can you make vs beleeue that all they doe come to you from vs for the trueth 〈◊〉 knowe in your religion No no they regard the popes riches more then his religion the treasure of his coffers more then the truth of his cause and his liuinges more then his learning Therfore you may put out truth well enough for truth is as hard to come by at Rome at your popes hand as to haue Okes growing in the Sea And as for your pouertie that cannot allure them for it is not like the Popes seruants should be poore I pray God they may bee poore in spirite the Pope that hath the angels of heauen at his commandement hee may haue golde and siluer enough at his becke And he that may haue money as much as hee list then he were very vnkind to suffer them to lacke that doe proppe him vp in his Popedome 〈◊〉 that can doe whatsoeuer God can doe then hee may doe what soeuer Christe coulde doe therefore as Christe made Peter 〈◊〉 fetch twentie pence out of a fishes mawe So the Pope may cause thousandes of poundes to bee fetcht out of great whales bellies and neuer hurt any body for it I thinke our ministers that are thus reuolted to you doe not loue pouertie so well that therefore they would forsake their countrie flie from their friendes procure their princes displeasure only to haue your cōpany for pouertie sake Therefore heerein you thrcape kindnesse on them whether they wil or no for I dare say thus much in their behalfe that they had rather go to Rome for the popes purse then for your pouertie And if they goe to Rome so thicke three folde for your honestie as you woulde faine persuade vs then in my iudgement they make but a sory iourney I hope that honestie is not so scarse in England that for it they had neede to goe to Rome I beleeue I coulde helpe them to more honestie for a pennie heere then they can haue for a pound there Yea and that which you call honestie I feare wil proue hypocrisie disobediencie or rather plaine traitrie which may goe well enough for dishonestie Wherefore it were more wisdome to haue without trauell and cost honestie at home then with painefull iournies and great expences to buie dishonestie or rather treason at Rome There are a great sort of good wittes wise heads honest men and good Subiectes in Englande and all they I am sure doe thinke that you that flee to the Pope and forsake your Prince obey the Pope disobey your Prince obserue the Popes lawes breake Gods and the Queenes lawes refuse your owne Countrie thinke better of a strange Countrie discommend your Queenes proceedinges commende the Popes pernitious practises and disprayse Englande and extoll Rome are not greatly ouerladen with honestie You doe well to haue a good opinion in your selues and for want of other to set foorth your owne honesties But Saint Paule sayeth Hee that prayseth himselfe is not allowed but he whome the Lorde prayseth 2. Corinth 10. You are faine to report it your selues least otherwise it should bee hidde and vnknowne You doe as the vnshame faste guest did that thought himselfe honester then any of the guestes beside who looking a great while to bee willed to bee set at the vpper ende of the Table and sawe that none woulde bidde him hee without any more adoe as one more shamelesse then shamefaste set himselfe downe and so tooke his place without an Usher at the higher ende of the Table Which when the good man of the house saw perceiuing him to be more bolde then honest made the lower ende to bee the vpper ende and so accordingly hee set and placed his guestes as hee thought good whereby this man that woulde faine haue beene exalted and that did set and place himselfe highest without any remoouing was inforced to sitt lowest So you seeing none either will or can well prayse your honesties for there is no great cause for that you haue chaunged your selues from beeing the Queenes Subiects to be y e Popes slaues and from beeing faithfull Christians to bee forsworne Iesuites haue dishonested your selues as the vnshamefast guest did by publishing your owne honesties All your Countrie men that are honest in deede woulde haue thought you a great deale honester than you are if you had obeyed your Prince obserued her lawes and continued in your owne Countrie Yea and woulde haue had a better opinion that you woulde bee honest if you woulde flie from the Pope embrace Gods worde returne to your Countrie and humbly submitte your selues to our most mercifull Prince and Queene of Englande This is the way rather to recouer your honesties lost then to get any credite by blasing your honesties abroade in your owne bookes Your late trayterous attempts your priuie conspiracies your 〈◊〉 practises your seeking and wishing the death of your Prince the destruction of her Councell and the confusion of your Countrie too manifestly knowne and through Gods goodnesse reuealed whereby some of your holy Priests had new tippets giuen them at Tyborne fit for their profession is a manifest proofe that you are very full of honestie and though you woulde faine bee honest yet your owne writing doth witnesse your dishonestie for though in lesse then a line you haue set foorth your owne honesties yet your whole booke hath bewrayed your dishonestie The sixteenh part IN the beginning of your aunswere these are your woordes For the better vnderstanding of this first part as also to see howe little cause this little man whiche is master Nicols had to trouble vs with bragging it shall not bee amisse to set downe in few woordes some short progresse of his life c. Namely his course from Wales to Englande and from England to Flaunders from Flaunders to Rome and from Rome to the pulpit in the Towre of London c. As it was not amisse for you in the first part of your disceuerie to set downe a short progresse of M. Nicols life for the better vnderstanding of the firste parte of the same Euen so I thought it not amisse in the first beginning of this my booke for the better vnderstanding of your good disposition and honestie heerein to shew foorth plainely and truly your abhominable profession and your most execrable oth for the perfourmance thereof And though in derision you call him this little man and make as though hee hath troubled you with bragging as little as he is Hee whose seruant he is is able to giue him strength enough to ouerthrow your mightie Giants It was not little Dauid that boasted of his manhood but it was great Golyah that bragd of his strēgth And as little Dauid seemed but a dwarfe to Goliah the enemie of God so doth M. Nicols seeme by your saying
louing subiectes which are disobedient vnto her and that seeke procure desire and wishe her death and distruction Therefore be thankefull to God that hath giuen you and vs such a mercifull prince to raigne ouer vs and loue and obey her that giueth you for iustice mercie and for extremitie lenitie And nowe as her grace doth refraine from that shee may doe so prouoke not her 〈◊〉 to that shee can doe And as I sayde thinke not that her grace can not vse the swoord against you because shee hath not vsed it for if you thinke so you do not onely deceaue your selues but also do much abuse her Maiestie in that you seeme thereby to make her a Prince without powre whereby you are vnwoorthie of the great mercie shee sheweth vnto you What seruant is so foolishe to thinke muche more to say that because his master doeth not beate him for his fault therefore he can not beate him Because the mercifull father doth not beate his sonne for his offence that maketh not that he can not beate him for the same Shall her clemencie and mercie make you thinke in her disabilitie Therefore if any of you thinke so as I beleeue some of you haue said so you are not worthie of such a merciful mistres that vseth you so Thus farre haue I written to this ende in my said booke whereby it appeareth most manifestly that my drift was altogether to she we forth her Maiesties great lenitie and mercie And that shee hath as great powre and authoritie as Q. Marie had to make lawes and to vse the swoorde with seueritie iustice as well as shee as appeareth by the whole circumstaunce of the matter both before and after which you of purpose did not onely leaue out but also did so choppe and chaunge my wordes to discredite me withall that they had neyther good sentence nor sence And this is the verye cause and grounde why I wrote the saide wordes that you 〈◊〉 vnhonestly altered And though you mislike my eloquence yet I hope the indifferent reader will not thinke y t these my argumēts are so fonde and sencelesse and so disorderly couched as you would haue made them beleeue by your wrested and altered words If they marke but your woordes that you wrote in steade of mine and conferre my comparison betweene Queene Marie and her Maiestie with your wordes they may soone see your malicious meaning For where you haue written The papistes crye vpon their Queene Marie and wee crye vpon our Queene Elizabeth I haue no such wordes at all And morouer within sixe of your lines after you haue fathered these wordes vpon me Why then howe can papistes be otherwise but English enemies and extreeme enemies to Englande If I haue any such sentence or woordes I will yeelde vnto you and bee one of the popes Iesuites which to be I woulde be loth You might haue thought me to be a very dolt if I should go about to proue papists to be english enemies because the Queenes maiestie was a kings daughter and a kings sister You your selfe are so cunning in finding out of such mysticall causes that I am not able to compare with you therein for first you made that M. Nicols going from Wales to England and from thence to Flaunders and so to Rome from Rome to the pulpit in the Towre of London was the cause that he was borne at Combridge in Wales Then after you would seeme to proue that I was a musition because I was a rimer and nowe thirdely because you woulde haue me to be a citer of your causes you woulde make your reader beleeue that I prooue that papistes must needes bee extreeme enemies to england because the Queenes Maiestie was king Henries daughter and king Edwards sister But truely you are tried before to bee so cunning and experte in finding out of the causes of thinges that this deepe profound cause y e is alledged for the prouing of papists to be extreeme enemies to england is of your own inuention for they know that my wit is to weake and my learning to light to find out such a mysticall cause It had been enough for Peter 〈◊〉 to haue 〈◊〉 this argument the prouer of the popes powre that saide because Peter paide the tribute money for Christ himself therfore the pope hath authoritie ouer the whole Church of God And because Christ saide to Peter followe thou me and againe launche forth in the deepe and because Peter drew his sword and cut off Malcas eare therefore the pope hath authoritie of the whole Churche of God This had been a fitter argument for him then for mee Also this argument had been more meet for pope Innocent than for me which woulde proue that the Moone being inferiour to the Sunne therefore the Emperour was inferior to the Pope And that the Emperoute is a thousande folde inferior to him because God hath made two lights in heauen Which is the Sunne and the Moone These such like arguments are more meete for Popes then Protestants And now for that you Iesuites are sworn to the pope Therefore this argument that papists are English enemies and extreeme enemies to Englande because Queene Elizabeth is as well a kings daughter and a kings sister as Q. Marie is a more 〈◊〉 argument for a Iesuite then for a 〈◊〉 If the indifferent reader consider mine own words before written he can spie no such thing as you charge mee withal But may 〈◊〉 perceiue that I wrote the same only to proue that y t Queenes maiestie hath as great powre to vse y e sword and to make laws against her obstinate and disobedient subiects as Queene Mary had And that it is as lawfull for her grace to punish and execute her obstinate disobedient subiects as for Queene Marie to punish and execute her louing and harmelesse subiects the professors of the Gospel that obey her with due obedience Therefore it is no great matter for you to proue that I am neither eloquent nor learned if you may chop change my words foist in your own at your plesure as you haue done Tullie was an eloquent writer yet if I shoulde chop and change his works writings putting in leauing out what I list in the same I could make him seeme quickly to haue but small eloquence Plato and Aristotle were learned Philosophers yet I coulde make them seeme vnlearned if I shoulde vse their bookes as I thought good Salamon was the wisest mā that euer was except Christ whose wordes if I shoulde backe and choppe thrust in and pull out what I list as you haue done I coulde make him see me to bee no very wise writer And as it is no great matter for you to say and prooue that a man can not goe when before you haue cut off his legges So it is a verye easie thing for you to make your reader 〈◊〉 that I haue neyther eloquence learning nor wit when you
shalbe plainely proued to be none of Christes Church but to bee the Synagogue of Sathan And as you haue gone about to discredite my sayde booke by this your discouery so I will God willing therein disproue your said othe and you by some paricular partes of my said book by you slandred as it shall appeare manifestly to the indifferent reader And 〈◊〉 that I haue discouered your detestable and horrible 〈◊〉 whereby the meaning of this your discouerie may 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 I will proceede God willing to repugne some particular 〈◊〉 of your booke and to defende mine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rest for M. 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 as I saide before who chiefly knoweth his owne cause and 〈◊〉 best able 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The seconde part TO the intente you woulde haue your simple Reader thinke that you haue the name of Jesus in great reuerence though you dispise his doctrine you haue on the one side of your florished Jesus placed these words of Saint Paule God hath exalted him and giuen him a name which is aboue all names If you thinké that S. Paule ment these wordes on Jesus Christ as most certainly he did thē why should you not 〈◊〉 y t his doctrin is aboue all doctrines It is a strange matter that you shoulde reuerence the name of Jesus and detest and forsweare the doctrine of Jesus Surely if a man detest a mans deedes or doctrine I cannot thinke that hee doth loue or fauour his name for hee that hateth a mans doings or doctrine will haue no great lust to heare of his name Nay the hearing of his name will make him straight way to speake euill of his person Therefore if you loue the name of Jesus you will not sweare to renounce the doctrine of Jesus but because you haue sworne to forsake the doctrine of Jesus therfore say what you will you cannot loue the name of Jesus Wherfore vnlesse you receiue the doctrine of Jesus and beleeue only to bee saued by him at your last gaspe hee wil say to you at the last day though you tell him thē y t you are Jesuites and holde of his name away yee workes of iniquitie for I know you not The thirde parte ON the other side of this your florished name of Jesus you haue set these wordes of Saint 〈◊〉 in the Actes of the 〈◊〉 whereby you would 〈◊〉 the people thinke that all you doe is by the 〈◊〉 of God when God knoweth you 〈◊〉 all thing 〈◊〉 quite 〈◊〉 to the same and sweares for state of 〈◊〉 that you will withstand the same vntill your last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the wordes There is no other name vnder heauen giuen vnto men wherein wee must bee saued Saint Peter by these wordes sheweth him selfe to bee no good Procter for the Pope though the Pope taketh him for his chiefe piller and Patron Except Peter ment nothing by these wordes or that they must haue none other sense then the Church of Rome will allow for the scriptures by the saying of Cardinall Cusanus hath no right sense nor meaning but that the Church of Rome doth allowe and also by your meaning or els you woulde not sweare so deepely to admit the holy Scripture according to that sense which your holy mother the Church hath and doth holde And so you may make the sense and meaning thereof to fall out thus There is none other name vnder heauen giuen vnto men wherby we must bee saued that is to say There is no saluation without the Churche of Rome or that none can bee saued without the catholike faith of the Church of Rome If this were Peters meaning or that the giuing of the sense thereof is referd to the Church of Rome whereby to expound them thus or which way they list Then it is like this name of Jesus will doe you Jesuites great pleasure or els if Saint Peter ment thus by the same wordes or that the Church of Rome hath power to expounde them thus There is none other name vnder heauen giuen vnto men 〈◊〉 in wee must bee saued that is to say if wee carry or weare vpon vs the name of Jesus either printed written grauen sowed or embroidered or otherwise 〈◊〉 then I will not say but that the bare name of Jesus woulde saue both Jesuits and Jewes for then Jesuits Jewes Turkes Sarrizins Heathen Infidels and all other be they neuer so wicked may haue the name of Jesus sowed or set on their garments and then they shoulde bee safe so saued by the name of Jesus Or els if Peters or the Popes meaning bee that the naming of Jesus without any other thing wil saue vs then I will not say but that the only naming of Jesus will saue both Jesuites Jewes Gentiles yea and Diuels also for the Diuels that possessed the two men to whom Christe gaue leaue to goe into the heerde of Swine did name Jesus saying O Iesu thou sonne of God c. And therefore if naming of Jesus will serue the turne then Diuels and all may be saued But it is not the setting of the name of Jesus florished as it were with fierie tongues in your bookes nor the textes of scripture magnifying the name of Jesus nor the wearing on you the name of Jesus in your Agnus deis or your gospels or other such like nor y e fayned naming of Jesus but the following of the doctrine of 〈◊〉 and beleeuing only in Jesus For so did the Pharisees and the Saduces bragge and boast of Abraham as you doe of Jesus yet for all that holy John Baptist coulde not abide them but called them generation of vipers saying O generation of vipers who hath taught you to flee the vengeaunce to come as though they coulde not flee from it because they were not taught by Christe or that they thought to flee from it by the traditions of men not by the worde of God Doe therefore saith hee the fruites of repentance and thinke not in your selues wee haue Abraham to our father c. Therefore boast not nor bragge too much of the name of Jesus as the Pharisees and Saduces did of Abraham neither follow the traditions of the Churche of Rome as they did y e traditions of their elders But follow the doctrine of Jesus and beleeue only in Jesus For according to Christes wordes Not all they that say Jesus Jesus shall enter into the kingdome of heauen but they that doe the will of Jesus which is in heauen Whose will can neuer bee doone vnlesse wee heare or reade the last will of Jesus which is the holy Gospell The fourth part AND vnder the name of Jesus you haue placed these wordes of the 〈◊〉 of Salomō A lying witnes shall haue an euil end As though your Jesuitical 〈◊〉 were nothing but truth y t professors therof did neuer make lie and as though our religion were altogether false and in the professours thereof were nothing but falsehood But if euill endes are
haue curtald my writing and haue 〈◊〉 out and foysted in what it pleaseth you Wee must thinke this honest dealing because a Jusuite hath done it but if a Christian had done so you woulde haue called it impudencie the mother of desperation But if mine owne wordes woulde haue proued me so vneloquent as you woulde make mee and that the same had beene so without sence as you woulde fayne haue had them I am out of doubt that then you woulde haue written mine owne woordes as they were But for that you thought they were too true to serue your turne Therefore to discredite me you displace and deface mine and trust in your own as though they were mine But though mine eloquence be small yet I trust the indifferent reader when hee hath throughly vewed my woordes and likewise weyed yours will as well iudge that my matter hath some method and my sentences some sence as you by corrupting them woulde haue made thē both without method and sence If the first part of my booke as you say be nothing but such argumentes as you before haue written for mine the reader had a good occasion rather to rende the whole booke than to reade the rest But they that shall thinke good to reade the rest of the first part of my saide booke what the argumentes are I will leaue it to their consideration trusting that the matter thereof is more meete to bee market then to bee mockt The 42. part VVHere as you say I haue made no first parte of my said booke at all yet there are such distinctions of euery matter as I thought sufficient But if you had been nie mee if you had had a name as you haue not I woulde haue come to you that you might haue taught me howe to haue parted my booke But nowe because you are namelesse it may beseeme my booke as well to bee without partes as you to bee without a name And if it bee lawefull for you to make a booke without putting your name vnto it then it is as lawefull for mee to make a booke without putting your partes vnto it Perhappes you woulde haue had mee deuide my booke into chapters I am sory I did not if you therfore would haue liked it the better Yet for all the Bible is in chapters you haue not the greater deuotion vnto it but though y e Bible is nowe deuided into partes and chapters it is harde for you to proue that the bookes of the same were at the first writing in chapters as they bee nowe For Christ when he alledged any text out of Moses or the Prophets yet he neuer mentioned any part or chapter where it was neither did S. Paule nor any other of the Apostles Notwithstanding when I am throughly perswaded that the bookes in the Bible when they were first written were deuided in such parts and chapters as they bee nowe 〈◊〉 to pleasure you withall I will deuide my saide booke into such chapters and partes But vntill then I 〈◊〉 desire you to bee content with my distinctions And nowe for that I did not parte my saide booke as I shoulde haue done wherein I was fouly ouerseen therefore I haue deuided this booke into parts to please you 〈◊〉 The 44. part THen you goe further with me and do say as foloweth In the seconde part hee wandreth by certaine controuersies but as without all witte and learning like an English doctoure citing all his matter out of lewels defence of Apologie Foxes martyrologe and Cowpers Epitomie of the Cronicle so without all 〈◊〉 or limitation of lying It is not for a Christian I perceiue to compare in witte and learning with a Jesutte You haue so much that I must needes haue the lesse but for that small portion of witte and learning that I haue I thanke my heauenly father for it What I haue therein I haue receiued And he that gaue Salamon his wisedome is able to 〈◊〉 mine I reioyce that I knowe Christ for that is witte and learning enough for mee And though you may excell mee in witte and learning yet the more you corrupt mens writinges and 〈◊〉 their wordes the lesse will your witte and learning be esteemed especially with the godly and wise All is 〈◊〉 witte or wisedome that you call so and all 〈◊〉 not foolishnes that you accompt foolishnesse your earthly wisedome is heauenly follie And Saint Paul saith the wisdome of this worlde is foolishnes with God Then contrary I may say that many take Gods wisedome to be mere foolishnesse I pray God that you bee not one of them And therefore though you say that I wander in the seconde part of my saide booke without all witte and learning I wandered so as it pleased God to directe me For though my learning as I must needes confesse is but small yet my prompcer in the making of that booke had learning enough for vs both For God I am most sure was my director and the holy ghost was my instructor For if the holy ghost will instrucc the godlie in their speeche that are witnesses of the Gospell then I am sure hee will instruct and guide their pennes that take his cause in hande and doe write against his enemies in the defence of his woorde And if a Sparrowe light not on the grounde without Gods prouidence then I am most certayne that I wrote that my booke which is a greater matter then a sparrows lighting on the the grounde not without the prouidence and helpe of God And if my learning bee small or if I bee without witte or learning then it is the more shame for you to professe and maynteyne suche a religion as an vnlearned man is able to disproue Which I am sure I haue done through the help of God by the scriptures Ancient doctours and naturall reason in my saide booke as the godly and indifferent reader may easely iudge Though you discommende and discredite it is as much as you may But I am most sure which before God I speake vnfaignedly the profoundest papist and the learnedest Jesuite of you all shall neuer bee able to confute or conuince it vnlesse you confute it with burning of it or killing of me Which are your chiefest argumentes to confute withall If you had as muche wisedome as you pretende to haue learning you coulde not haue been taken tardie and in such trippes as I haue taken you Therefore bragge not too-much of your witte and learning for the weake you see many times do confounde the learned and wittie If the cause you wade in were as true as it is false you shoulde with lesse learning then I thinke you haue gette a great deale more credite by writing than you doe But if you had tenne times more learning then you haue and my witte and learning were lesse then it is hauing the trueth on my side I woulde not feare to confounde you For seeing a brute beast and an Asse did reprooue the
leades you to lying therefore if you loue God tell the trueth and if you hate the diuell flye falshood Thus you haue peest and patcht my sayings with your 〈◊〉 ragges and put in and pulled out chopt and changed and placed and displaced my wordes as you thought good with foisting in of your owne woordes whiche I neuer wrote besides that you haue most nakedly and barely without any circumstances or argumentes 〈◊〉 vp such a sort of my matters in such a strait roome that is in 16. of your litle shorte lynes the causes proofes and effects whereof are scantly comprehended in so many of my leaues 〈◊〉 and without disproouing or confuting any parte of the same For other wordes then mine owne by you cutte short or 〈◊〉 or thrust in for mine owne yon alledged none as here by your woordes appeareth for I haue written and set downe all your whole and verie woordes concerning your deriding and slaundering my booke hitherto without diminishing or adding any thing therevnto Which plainnesse if you had vsed with mee you had then written more matter and fewer lyes And when you had shortened my sayings maymed my method cutte off my conclusions hidde my argumentes falsified my wordes and thruste in what you liste to the disabling of mee and discrediting of my booke more craftelye then Christianly you conclude with these woordes This is Luptons charitable doctrine with manye thinges more which Iomitte and so you ende without any moe woordes or further argumente whereby your reader may perceiue the trueth of your dealing though you say this is Luptons charitable doctrine But howe charitable soeuer it is your doctrine and doinges hether to are not verie commendable The 56. part ANd nowe that you haue learnedly and cunningly confuted the firste and seconde parte of my booke according to your owne accompt onely with displasing leauing out and curtalling of my woordes and foisting in of your own as before it is manifestly proued you come to the third part as you call it and confutes the same onely with briefe reciting of my wordes and nowe and then falsifiyng the same as you did before without any one argument of your own for the disprouing thereof Thinking belike that your reader is bounde to take all for lies that a Iesuite doth recite Me thinks you haue takē a very euil course for the discrediting of my booke for if you are a credible man your selfe as a Iesuite can bee none other if you recite a lie it will bee thought to bee true because you haue tolde it as if a lyer chaunce to tell trueth it will not bee beleeued but bee taken for a lie Nowe chuse you whether you will be counted a credible and a true man and thereby haue my booke counted for trueth because my woordes are recited by you or else to bee a lyer and to haue my booke taken for false because you repeate or recite the wordes thereof But as hither to I haue not left out any one woorde of yours touching your confuting of my booke which you call the first and seconde part so I will not conceale or hide your woordes touching the rest of my booke whiche you call the thirde part Whereby the indifferent reader shal perceiue how learnedly a Iusuite hath confuted a christian with saying of nothing But it may bee that as lay mens dalliyng and kissing of women must bee construed or iudged otherwise then priestes dalliyng and kissing of women as before is mentioned so perhappes the Iesuites disproouing or confuting is contrary to the Christians confuting For as the Christians confute by writing so the Iesuites may confute by thinking whiche is a thing necessarie for your reader to vnderstande For though you doe not drisprooue or confute mee by writing yet hee maye suppose you haue confuted me by thinking Therefore if the Iesuites haue that aduantage of the Christian they may easily and quickly confute what so euer is written against them And surely if you haue confuted my booke it must needes bee by thinking and not by writing And nowe without any falsehood I will write your owne woordes which you recite as myne and these are they that followe In his thirde part hee prooueth his religion by euident and manifest myracles out of Master Foxe his Actes and Monumentes as for example That one Burton Bayliffe of Crowlande in Lincolne shyre for compelling a curate to say Masse vpon zeale of papistrie in the beginning of Queene Maries dayes was afterwardes for his punishment called K. by a crowe that flewe ouer his head And besides that his 〈◊〉 embrued with the Crowes dongue that shee let fall vpon him which dongue did so stinke vpon his beard as made him continually to vomit for diuers dayes vntill he died most miserably I remember very well that in the 294. page of my said booke I haue described a strange example and a doleful and miserable end of one Burton Bayliffe of Crowlande in Lincolne shire a hastie procurer and a great defender of the masse in Queene Maries time but not altogether vttered in that sort as here you haue reported it for I saide not that hee was called R. for his punishment But though you seeme to deride me for writing of it yet you haue not so much as with one woorde gone about to disproue it neither haue you saide that it is false or vntrue for if you coulde I am sure you woulde A strange matter that you would haue your Reader to 〈◊〉 my wordes and yet doe not confute them nor goe about to disproue them You say hee compelled him to say masse vpon zeale of Papistrie But I woulde knowe who willed him to haue such zeale in papistrie Or who willed him to haue such a loue to the masse that hee should hate his brother that God commaunded 〈◊〉 to loue or threate to thrust his dagger in him vnlesse hee would say masse which cruel dealing you haue left out Surely it may well belong to the religion of a Iesuite but I am sure it is cleane contrary to the religion of a Christian. You call it in the margent Luptons myracle no it was none of my myracle it was Gods myracle yea and suche a myracle that if you had the feare and grace of God you woulde not so deridingly and contemptuously write of the mightie hand and great iudgement of God shewed therein You write also in the margent a simple fellow that forgat by cutting of his beard to saue his life Either you woulde haue your Reader beleeue that it was a lye or that hee might haue saued his life by cutting of his beard If it 〈◊〉 a lye why haue you not prooued it a lye And if it were true as it was very true doe you thinke that all the cutting or washing of his beard that might bee was able to saue saue his life whom God did vetermine to bring to his death no no it is impossible If a little Sparrowe light not on
on a mans face the Crow fleeing and the man riding whiche brought him to his death You write in the margent A poore pope that had no chāberlaine to keep out dogs 〈◊〉 though the office of the Popes Chamberlaine were to whip out dogges Doe you thinke that an Earles dogge may not come into a Popes chamber or that a dogge cannot bee so luckie as to haue one licke at a popes foot What if GOD would haue vs to vnderstand that a dogge was as meete to kisse the popes foote as an owle was fit to bee the popes holy Ghost Truly Christ washt his Apostles feete but I neuer read that they kist his feete yet Christes feete were as well worthie to be kist as the popes Therefore all wise men may well thinke that the popes foote was more meete to bee kist of the Earle of Wiltshires dogge then of him selfe And whereas I haue neither made this a myracle neither written it for a myracle you thought to make it a myracle by foysting in your owne wordes which did cleane turne and chaunge my sense for whereas I say But also snatcht at his great toe thinking belike it was more meete to be bitten of dogges than to be kissed of men You haue written thus but also snatched at his great toe signifiyng thereby that it 〈◊〉 a part more fit for dogges to kisse than men Thus it is manifest that you haue thrust in signifiyng thereby for my words thinking belike 〈◊〉 hath so 〈◊〉 and changed my sense and meaning that it appeareth a myracle by your wordes which is that the dogge did signifie by his snatching at the Popès great toe that it was a part more fit for dogges to kisse then men Therfore it must needs appeare a myracle to euery one that reades this as you 〈◊〉 it for is it not myraculous for a dog to haue such diuine knowlege to signifie vnto y e people wherfore he hath done a thing specially such a mysticall matter as y e kissing of y e Popes foote Truly you went very farre before when you told the cause why M. Nicols was borne at 〈◊〉 in Wales and in telling my thought or what I woulde haue saide but herein you haue shewed your selfe to be of a more deepe and profounde iudgement in shewing the intent and meaning of the Earle of Wiltshires dogge for you haue flatly told what hee did signifie by his snatching of the Popes great toe Wherefore though you counted this for my myracle I must confes it is none of mine but yours for now I perceiue a Christian is farre vnable to compare with a 〈◊〉 in making of myracles It was happie that you changed my wordes and thrust in your owne wordes in their place or els we had had no myracle of the dogs kissing of y t Popes feete Now I trust you wil mende the word Myracles in the margent of your booke and write Luptons Myracle in steede of myracles for there was but two in all and one of them of right is returned to your selfe Wishing that you because it is not meete you shoulde lacke your due praise to write in the margent against the myraculous storie of the Earle of Wiltshires dogge The Iesuites myracle But I muse that you tooke such paines to leape so farre backward for this that is no myracle and might haue had halfe a dosen at the least hard by with easily going forward yea and touching the same matter and tending to suche end as the myracle of Burton which you recited before But because that myracle of Burton which you call my myracle hath lost his companion and is now cleane without companie therefore I will place some of his olde fellowes with him which you either sawe not or woulde not see for that I am loth that hee shoulde be without some comfort or companie for you know it is very vncomfortable to stande moping alone and these be they that follow One Richard Denton hauing wordes of commendations sent to him from one William Woolsey that was after burned for professing of the Gospell which were that hee marueiled that the saide Denton tarried so long beehinde him seeing he was the first that deliuered him the booke of the Scriptures into his hand and told him that it was the truth desiring him to make hast after as fast as hee coulde Which Denton saide when the saide message was doone to him I confesse it is true but alasse I cannot burne But after though hee could not burne willingly in Christes cause hee was burned against his wil not in so good a cause For after that his house being on fire hee went in to saue his goods and thereby hee was burned and lost his life And thus hee was burned for earthly goods that refused to burne for heauenly treasure Also one dale a Promoter of the professours of Gods word that helped them forward to the fire was eaten into his body with lyse and hee so died as it is wel knowē of many Alexander the keeper of Newgate a cruell enemie to them that lay there for this our religion died very myserably being so swolne that hee was more like a monster then a man and was so rotten within that no man coulde abide the smell of him Beholde also another myracle of God on the Parson of Crundall in kent who vpon Shrouesunday hauing receiued the Popes pardon from Cardinall Poole came to the Parishe Churche and exhorted the people to receyue the same as hee had doone him selfe saying that hee stoode nowe so cleere in conscience as when hee was first borne and cared not nowe if hee shoulde die the same houre in that cleerenesse of conscience Whereupon he being strucken sodenly by the hand of God and leaning a little on the one side immediatly shronke downe in the pulpet so was found dead speaking not one worde more c. Beholde another straunge myracle which God shewed on the proude papistical persecutor of Gods seruants in Queene Maries time Steeuen Gardiner then Lord chauncellour of England who after so long professing of your papisticall doctrine when there came a Bishop to him on his death bed and put him in remembrance of Peters denying of his master he answering againe said that he had denied with Peter but neuer repented with Peter And so both stinkingly and vnrepentantly dyed You could not spie this myracle or els you thought it would not serue your turne Here is also an other which if you marke well is more like a myracle then that that you made of the Earle of Wiltshires dogge As one Iames Abbas a professour of the Gospell in Q. Maries time was led by the Shiriffe to the fire where hee was burned at Bury diuers poore people 〈◊〉 in the way and asked their almes he 〈◊〉 hauing no money to giue thē and desirous yet to distribute something among them 〈◊〉 pull of all his apparrell sauing his Shirte 〈◊〉 the same vnto
THE Christian against the Iesuite Wherein the secrete or namelesse writer of a pernitious booke intituled A Discouerie of I. Nicols Minister c. priuily printed couertly cast abrod and secretely solde is not only iustly reprooued But also a booke dedicated to the Queenes Maiestie called A persuasion from papistrie therein derided and falsified is defended by Thomas Lupton the authour thereof Reade with aduisement and iudge vprightly and be affectioned only to truth Hee hath made a graue and digged it but hee himselfe will fall into the pit which hee hath made Psal. 7. Seene and allowed ¶ Imprinted at London for Thomas Woodcocke dwelling in Paules Church yard at the signe of the blacke Beare 1582. To the right honorable Sir Francis Walsingham knight principall Secretarie to her Maiestie and one of her highnesse most honourable priuie Councell Thomas Lupton wisheth earthly prosperitie and heauenly felicitie AS there is hath been and will be right honourable both Wheate and Darnel Corne and Cockle and good Seedes and tares euen so there hath been is and wil be sowers of both sorts For the children of God doe sowe the good corne of Gods word and the seruants of Satan haue and will scatter abroad Darnel the Diuels doctrine But as the godly sowers shall dwell for euer with God whose good seede they did sow Sothe throwers abroad of the Darnell shall dwell with the Diuel except they cease frō their sowing Yet they like senselesse Swine will needes wallowe in the puddle of perdition though they are theeatned with the scriptures for the same Both which sowers are so different at this day that they that haue any glimmering at all may know the good sowers frō the euill the godly frō the wicked the true from the false Notwithstanding these wicked sowers of the diuels darnell goe about as much as in them lie to persuade vs that they are the true sowers and that their Cockle is pure and good corne But whose sowers they are and whose seede they doe sowe all they that are guided by Gods worde doe right perfectly knowe And as there hath been a wonderfull rable of Satanicall sowers from the beginning euer seeking to choke the good corne of Gods worde with their diuelish Darnell so there hath sprung vp not long since a seditious sect of Satanical sowers seeking by al meanes to choke or suppresse the good corue with their cockle and the Gospell of Christ with the doctrine of the Diuell And these are they that call themselues Iesuites but they rather deserue to be called Iudaites for they follow Iudas in betraying not Iesus in sauing One of which number as it shoulde seeme hath made a pernicious booke in praise of the Pope and Papistrie and in reproch of M. Nicols lately conuerted from Papistrie to the Gospel and returned from the Pope to his Prince But it doth appeare that hee doubted his docttrine els hee woulde haue set his name to his booke Wherein also hee doth detract a booke by 〈◊〉 pende and published called A persuasion from papistrie which I 〈◊〉 dicated exhibited to the Queenes 〈◊〉 without disprouing or confuting any one part thereof Whose namelesse worke in such points as I knewe to bee false I haue not only taken vpon me to reproue but also to defend my selfe my said booke by him therein depraued slandered And for that I know your honour to be a zelous fauourer of the Gospell a perfect professour of Gods worde an affable Magistrate whose wisedome and learning is such that you can easily try truth from falshood right from wrong I haue chosen you to bee a Iudge betweene a Christian a Iesuite Beseeching you to pardon mee for my boldnesse heerein assuring your honour that your common commendations and the good will I beare you hath made me to doe that that discretion and modestie shoulde haue made mee refuse But though my basenesse doth not deserue such a Iudge yet the cause which is Christs doth craue such a one Humbly requesting you though your affaires be great and your leasure little to reade and peruse the same as occasion will serue and time will permit Trusting that your reading thereof will bee more delightfull than tedious will rather recreate you than wearie you And thus ceasing heerein any further to trouble your honour I do wishe you in this life to bee guided by God and after to raigne for euer with Christ. Your Honours most humble and faithfull to commaunde Thomas Lupton ¶ A briefe Table for the finding out of necessarie matters of this booke A ANswere vnloked for Fol. 1. Pag. 1. A thing worth the noting Fol. 18. pa. 2. 〈◊〉 lawes in y e chiefe of the popes bosome Fol. 13. pag. 2. Abhominable doctrine to say that any man can doe suche penance as gods iustice requireth fo 34. pa. 1 Apostles did cast lots for a fellow Apostle but not for the prophetes to be their protectors Fol. 38. pa. 2. As god bearteh with wicked men so popes and princes may suffer their stewes Fol. 41. pag. 2. Apt argument of one that is suffered to steale apples Fol. 46. pa. 1. As the Pope hath a heauenly iudgement in his brest so Iesuites haue worldly mens thoughts in their 〈◊〉 Fol. 53. pa. 1 Asper latine for a Cat. Fol. 54. pa. 2. Abundantia latine for water Fol 54. pag. 2. Agnus dei as Christes blood can put away 〈◊〉 Fol. 60. pa. 1. Astronomicall second and they musical semebrief are both in one time Fol. 63. pag. 2. An eosi kinde uf confuting Fol. 67. pag. 2. Authoritie of the Church of Rome is more then gods word Fol. 83. pag. 1. Arguments and circumstances of two sides brought in 15 〈◊〉 words Fol. 88. pag. 1. As much as GOD is better than a priest so much is the priest better than a king Fol. 92. pag. 2. Alexander keeper of Newgate dyed miserably Fol. 94. pag. 1. Acts and monumentes is tyed with long chaines in all Churches of England if Iesuites doe not IyeFol 97. pag. 1. B BArnards text against themselues Fol. 9. pag. 2. Bare brokers extoll base wares Fol. 10 pag. 2. Boniface the Pope caused Pope Iohns eyes to be put out Fol. 20. pag. 1. Bishops dealinges not liked of S. Barnard Fol. 21. pag. 2. Better to haue honestie for nothing at home than to pay decre for knauery at Rome Fol 29. pag. 1. Bread the body of Christ his soule and Godhead is there truly substantially if Jesuites sweare truly Fol. 5. pag. 2. Booke promised that shall shew how falsly Iesuites are for sworne Fol. 6. pag. 2. Boasting of the name of Iesus 〈◊〉 not serue their turne Fol. 8. pa. 1. Berry Uicar of Aylsham a cruell papist died sodeinly with a greate grone Fol. 9. pag. 1. Balaās wickednes made not y e prophetes religion false Fo 18. pa. 1. Boasting learned papists like to the proud learned pharisees Fol. 25. pag. 2. Because the pope would not beelike
excellent learned men for thus of them he writeth Constat plures papas adeo Illiteratos esse vt grāmaticā penitus ignorent it is manifest y t many Popes are so vnlearned that they are vtterly ignorant of their grāmar If M. Nicols learning bee feeble being by your own saying a seely Grammarian then many of your Popes had not much learning being no Grammarians at all Therefore in affirming M. N. feblenes in learning you haue made me proue some of your popes to bee altogether w tout learning you should haue foreseen before you wrot least by dispraising your foe you danger your friends is not this a goodly gaine you haue got it is as you do euer and as you shall alwayes you thinke by your 〈◊〉 to ouerthrowe other but with your owne trypps you ouertumble your selues Well though it stand M. Nicols in hand to haue learning being a minister of gods word yet it maketh no matter whether one haue learning or no that commeth to bee Pope for Baldus writeth Papa est doctor vtriusque iuris authoritate nō Scientia The Pope is doctor of both lawes by authoritie not by knowledge You may see what a precious matter it is to be a pope if any knew that his sonne shoulde be pope he need neuer put him to schole The Popes brest hath suche a speciall prerogatiue that it hath more learning without studie then all the mens brestes in the worlde haue with studie as it seemeth by one of the popes gloses which is this Et si totus mundus c. Although al the world woulde iudge in any matter against the pope yet it seemeth wee ought to stand to the Iudgement of the Pope For hee seemeth to haue all lawes in the chest of his bosome Therefore whatsoeuer the Pope either aloweth or disaloweth we are bound likewise to alowe or disalow the same And whosoeuer is not obedient to the lawes of the Church of Rome must be deemed an heretike and it were as great sinne as Church robbing to reason of any the popes doynges You that feare to run into the laps of heresie must affirme y t the pope hath all lawes whatsoeuer in his brest though he be 〈◊〉 so vnlearned a dolt whatsoeuer he aloweth or disaloweth you must alow or disalow y e same They haue 〈◊〉 harde hearts fantastical wits that will not beleeue al this y t is thus glosed of y e pope And as it may be thought y t the pope hath power aboue al other to iudge rightly of al earthly matters causes because he hath all laws fast closed in his 〈◊〉 which he had neede to keep close well shut for feare they 〈◊〉 out euē so he hath a heauēly iudgemēt which none other on y e earth hath or can haue but he for thus it is writtē Papa 〈◊〉 coeleste arbitriū c. The pope is said to haue an heauēly iudgemēt therfore in such things ashe willeth his will standeth in stead of reason Neyther may any man say vnto him O sir why do you thus like as a lawe may be made by the onely will of the pope so may the same 〈◊〉 be dispensed withall onely by the will of the pope If the pope haue such a heauenly iudgement as his doctors allowe him as he taketh vpon him he might doe very much good especially in determining iudging of poore mens causes y t haue wrong whereby without any expenses trauell they might quickly obtaine their right Well as king Salomon obtayned great wisedome at gods hands so God sent him an occasion soone after for the tryall thereof which was by finding out of the true mother of a liuing child that two harlots did striue for for being doubtfull who was y e true mother very wisely hee made them beleeue hee woulde cutte or deuide the child between them wherewith she that was not the mother thereof was well content but the true mother pricke w t naturall affection of her childe willed rather that the other should haue her hole child aliue then she to haue halfe of it being dead which when the wise Salomon perceiued hee deliuered to the right mother her owne child Euen so as the pope hath a diuine a heauenly iudgement so you shall see what an occasion was giuen him to showe set forth his diuine heauēly iudgement w t to y e intēt that the popes diuine knowledge heauēly wisedome should not be 〈◊〉 I haue set forth a worthy example thereof in my said booke which you so much mislike called a perlwasion from papistrie as followeth There was a great contention between thē of Ratispone in Germanie the Abby of S. Denis in France about the body of S. Denis which was so deep a doubt to discusse that none but the pope was able to trie the trueth therof And so to Rome they went the pope sate sadly in iudgement about it examined their allegations matter throughly and grew to a conclusiō in the end gaue therof his deep diffinitiue sentence and said that both they of Ratispone they of S. Denis had the whole body of S. Denis that whosoeuer would say the cōtrary shuld be an heretik If the truth had not bin fast nailed to y e pops chaire also if he had not had a meruelus diuine heauenly iudgement the pope could neuer haue giuen such a true wise and learned iudgement of this weightie matter Nowe surely it was a popelie Resolution yea and such a one as must needes make the veriest fooles in the worlde beleeue that Will Sommers woulde not haue giuen so found and ridiculous a iudgement This famous diuine and true iudgement of the Pope is sufficient if there were nothing els to make vs beleeue that the Pope can not lie Here the Pope showes that hee had a heauenly powre with his diuine iudgement more like a God then a man Though this before written may perswad you Iesuits that this pope had all lawes and knowledge in his brest yet it assureth vs Christians that he had no witte in his brayne and though it teache you that hee was a diuine iudge yet it doeth tell vs plainely that hee was a very doite Wherefore though you count M. Nicols but a seely Gammarian yet if he had sitte in place of the Pope he woulde haue giuen a wiser Iudgement than he and though you count his learning but feeble yet he woulde not haue giuen such a feeble iudgement of the body of saint Denise as your Pope did Yet euery one must beleeue that will not bee an heretike that his iudgement was true in y t he said y t S. Denis had one body in germanie and an other in Fraunce All this before written well weyed and considered howesoeuer you Iesuites iudge of master Nicols learning wee Christians must thinke that some of your Popes had neither wisedome nor learning The 9. part YOu
it had been as good for you to haue holden your peace and not to haue entituled our preachers and ministers with suche infamous actes as you haue done For your great gaine you looked for thereby may 〈◊〉 turne to your losse if the Popes owne decree your owne counsels and manifest actes and deedes with persons and place may bee credited before the bare worde of one 〈◊〉 without any tryall argument or proofe The II. part VVHo doth not see say you the great varietie of important learned personages whiche from time to time vpon tryall of the truth doe returne vnto vs euen from their ministerie c. If you meane that there are such a number of Apostatase come ouer to Rome or beyonde the seas then to tell you euen truely I and many thousandes besides do neither see it nor heare of it neyther doe wee misse them I will tell you my mind such as are wearie of their welfare in englande I wishe they shoulde taste of euill fare at Rome and suche as are not pleased to bee gouerned by a most mercifull prince at home I woulde they were yokt with a cruell tyrant abrode and suche as are not 〈◊〉 with their owne 〈◊〉 countrey of Englande I woulde they might suffer some penurie in a barran and forraine soyle for thoughe suche maye pleasure you yet I am sure they doe but 〈◊〉 vs. But if there be such a great nūber of thē it is a great tokē they loue not their prince so well as the Pope and therefore more meete to be with the Pope then with their prince And because they preferre the popes lawes before the Queenes proceedings therefore I thinke them more 〈◊〉 for Rome then for Englande You may say they are true to the Pope but I am sure they are false to their prince or els they would be content to bee gouerned by 〈◊〉 grace But though many returne from vs to you yet our prince doth not send them 〈◊〉 to Rome to stirre 〈◊〉 there and to seeke the 〈◊〉 of the pope as the pope hath sent some hither 〈◊〉 England of late to allure the people to rebellion for the confusion of their 〈◊〉 You make as though there were a 〈◊〉 great number of them returned from vs to you if all the important learned personages had returned to be of your 〈◊〉 that are still of ours then you might haue boasted that they had been a great number in deede Yet it seemeth by your saying as though you had almost all and weefe we or none or that shortly for that they refuse vs so fast that Englande will bee destitute of meete men for the ministerie You count our learned men that are dayly wonne from the Gospell to you but you consider not the greate number of the simple and vnlearned sort that our preachers winne dayly from you to vs. If you encrease one way I beleeue wee encrease twise as much an other way And whereas these important learned men you meane before they reuolted frō vs were able to instruct the simple and vnlearned shortly I 〈◊〉 not but that manie of the simple learned that are 〈◊〉 conuerted to vs will bee able to reprooue your sayde important learned personages And this their great returning to your religion you say is vpon the tryall of the trueth This is your owne bare 〈◊〉 for other argumentes or proofe to confirme the same you bring none But belike the tryall of your trueth hangeth 〈◊〉 mens 〈◊〉 to you which if it be so then why may not the daily returning of other to vs try as well that ours is the trueth 〈◊〉 If you meane the trueth is tried by the number of them that returne then we haue no cause to refuse you therein far whereas one doth turne from the Gospell to 〈◊〉 twentie haue and doe dayly both here and in other countreys come from papistrie to the Gospell But the turning or returning of the people is no perfect way to try the trueth For Gods worde 〈◊〉 him that turneth but hee that turneth must not trie Gods worde None of the popes preachers did euer turne so manye in a day to 〈◊〉 as Peter did turne to the Gospel for Saint Peter converted in 〈◊〉 day three thousande by preaching the Gospell Therefore if the trueth of religion depende of the nomber of them that are turned then I am sure the religion of the Gospel is true and all other religions are false For none other religion in all the worlde hath so quickly soddenly and myraculously encreast and sprung vp as the gospel And further if you will make the trueth of your religion to consist by the turning of vs to you why may wee not then as well say that the turkes religion is also true for that diuers Christians haue and doe reuolt to the same And as you say that many of our ministerie is returned frō vs to you euen so I say that many of Christs disciples went from him and walked no more with him yet I hope you wil not say that Christs religion was false because his disciples daparted from him and forsooke his religion But as Christs disciples were false disciples because they departed from Christ euen so our men of the ministerie bee they neuer so learned are false ministers and Apostatas because they are returned from vs whiche teache the same Gospell that Christ taught to his disciples And whereas you boast that they that are returned from vs to you are important learned personages yet if a christian may giue a Iesuite counsell I woulde wishe you not to leane too muche to your or their learning for great learning without Christ is nothing but small learning with Christ is much God beholdeth the lowlie not the learned The blessed virgin Marie the mother of Christ saide that GOD looked on the lowlinesse not of the learning of his handemaide The hawtie and learned Pharisees were not chosen by Christ to be his Apostles they had suche learning that they thought scorne of Christ as you with your learned important personages thinke scorne of the Gospell And as the proud learned Pharisees said to the simple and plaine Iewes that beleeued Christe in these wordes Are yee also brought into errour doe any of the rulers or of the Pha risees beleeue on him but the cōmon people which know not the law are accursed So you with your important learned personages may say to the common simple people that beleeue the gospel wil you be seduced frō our holy mother the Church of Rome will you be brought into the errour of these heretikes of a newe religion do you see any of vs that are important learned personages beleeue on their newe founde doctrine none followe them but the common and vnlearned people which vnderstande not the scriptures Take heede therefore what you doe for our most holy father the Pope hath not onely cursed them but also wee holie Jesuites that holde on the blessed name
Christe with childe he was able to pardon it I am sure you can not prooue that our ministers haue had any suche licences from our Prince as manye of the Popes Prelates and Priestes haue had of the pope to committee sinnes and offences The Pope hath giuen dipensations for sinnes before they bee done and hee hath giuen pardons for them after they bee done as it is manifest And though the Popes pardons whiche are delicate sawces to procure sinne are not warranted by Gods woorde but are quight contrarye to the same yet you sweare as before is 〈◊〉 that the vse of them is verye wholesome for Christian people And though you alledge without proofe that our ministerie doeth excuse dishonestie yet it appeareth plainely by your othe that your Societie doe swere to maynteyne blasphemie Idolatrie disobediencie and traytrie vntyll your last gaspe Nowe whether ministerye in Englande or your spiritualtie of Rome doe excuse dishonestie more let the indifferente reader bee iudge The more you striue to withstande trueth or to slaunder the ministers of the Gospell the more you set forth your follie and vtter your shame The 21. part YOu say onely such goe to purgatorie as die in the fauour of God but haue not done suche penaunce for their sinnes as Gods Iustice requireth and therefore they are to bee purged by fire c. If Christe or his Apostles had tolde you that suche goe to purgatorie it might haue wonne some credite to your cause but your owne bare woordes though you are a Iesuite deserue no suche credite wherefore vntill wee finde your purgatorie in the Gospel of Christe wee will not beleeue you Therefore you waste but your winde to tell vs of any thing that is not there to be founde O what an horrible doctrine is this to thinke any man the holiest that euer was except Christe can doe such penance for sinnes as gods iustice requireth you and they that thinke so are enemies to the crosse of Christ. Can any thing 〈◊〉 in heauen or earth satisfie Gods iustice for our sinnes or els purge our sinnes but only the blood of Christ no no if an Angel of heauen should say so I would not beleeue him or if the moste ancient or learned Doctour that euer was shoulde write so I woulde vtterly abhorre his opinion therein S. Iohn saith the blood of Iesus Christe the sonne of God purgeth vs and maketh vs cleane from al our sinnes And S. Paul saith Christ hath wrought the purgation of our sinnes Saint Cyprian saith Sanguis tuus domine non quaerit vltionē Sanguis tuus lauat crimina peccata condonat Thy blood O Lord seeketh no reuenge thy blood washeth our sinnes and pardoneth our trespasses S. August saith Valeat mihi ad perfectionem liberationis tantum pretium Sanguinis domini mei Let onely the price of the blood of my Lord auaile me to the perfectiō of my deliuery Now if Christ doth purge vs make vs cleane from all our sinnes then there is none left for the fire of purgatorie to clense If Christ hath wrought the purgation of our sinnes then I am sure your 〈◊〉 of purgatorie if there were anie can not purge them better If according to Saint Cyprian the blood of Christe washeth away our sinnes then what neede haue wee of eyther your popes purgatorie or pardon And if S. August desired that only the price of christs blood might auaile him to the perfection of his deliuerie then why doe you bring S. Augustine in as an vpholder of your purgatorie If our sinnes might haue been purged by fire as by your woordes you seeme to dreame then Christ woulde not so painefully haue purged vs with his blood You write a long circumstaunce of the saying of Saint Augustine beginning thus Neyther is it to be denayde that the soules of the dead are relieued by the pietie of their liuing friendes c. In all the same hee doeth not once name purgatorie much lesse prooue it But what if therein Saint Augustine had made mention of purgatorie shoulde wee therefore beleeue there is a purgatorie beecause Saint Augustine wrote it Nay if Saint Augustine or any other wryte anye thinge of his owne fancie or 〈◊〉 not commaunded nor commended by Christe as in the same hee doeth I will not beleeue him And at this pointe I woulde wishe that all men were to take all doctours and learned mens writinges for no better then fables in things touching our saluation if the same doe not agree with the worde of God But though you woulde make your simple Reader beleeue y t S. Augustine doth allowe your Purgatorie as hee doth not yet your Reader were very simple if hee woulde credite S. Augustine if hee bee contrary to Christe or affirme his owne 〈◊〉 cie not allowed by Christe The 22. part AND thus you say further that you teach as it may appeare in the councell of Florence in literis vnionis that there are three sorts of men which dye one very good which goe straight to heauen one very euill which goe straight to hell one meane betwixte both which goe to purgatorie c. This your teaching may agree with the Councell of Florence but I am sure it agreeth not with the councell of the Apostles therefore beleeue you the councell of Florence and wee will beleeue the councell of the Apostles at Hierusalem And whereas you bring in Saint Augustine for the prouing of your Puagatorie I thinke I shall bring in S. Augustine to say that hee knoweth no such Purgatorie for heere 〈◊〉 affirme three places heauen hell and purgatorie but 〈◊〉 the third place is one mo thā Saint Augustine knewe of if you will beleeue Saint Augustine himselfe and these are his wordes touching the same Primum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Catholicorum diuina 〈◊〉 oritate regnum credit esse coelorū c. The first place the Catholike faith by gods authoritie 〈◊〉 to bee the kingdome of heauen from whence such as are not baptised are excluded the second place 〈◊〉 same Catholike faith beleeueth to be 〈◊〉 where all runnegates and whosoeuer is without the 〈◊〉 of Christ shal taste euerlasting punishment As for any thirde place 〈◊〉 vtterly knowe none neither shall wee finde in the holy scriptures that there is any such Heere by S. 〈◊〉 sayings there is heauen and hell but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee knoweth not and because he saith that it is 〈◊〉 to bee founde in the Scriptures therefore it seemeth that hee woulde not allow any thing but that is to be found in the Scriptures Wherefore you may bring what text you will of Saint Augustine for your purgatorie but hee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee knoweth no such place and it were requisite that hee shoulde knowe of the place before hee can proue it I thinke it had beene a greate deale better for the Pope to haue claimed authoritie ouer Paradise that is mentioned in diuers places of the Scripture
and countrey as you hope but to your owne confusion I am sure as you may see if you will and some haue felt against their wills The 34. part YOu say in the commendation of your Church of Rome as followeth Albeit priuate olde men may lacke wit yet Chirstes olde spouse which is the Church can not If al be true that you say then it is so in deede for you bring none other autour but your selfe neyther any argument for proouing of the same It is impossible but that your olde spouse shoulde be verie full of witte if they haue such wise Cardinals and pregnant pillers as Petrus Asotus and Hosius were that affirmed that the same Councell wherein our sauiour Christ was condemned to die had the holy ghost and that the same was a iust decree wherby they pronounced that Christ was worthie to die Moreouer he could not chose but be full of wisedom that wrote vpon the popes decree that the Iewes had committed mortall sinne if they had not nayled Christ to the Crosse. These members of your holy mother your olde spouse were no fooles I 〈◊〉 that tooke parte with Annas and Caiphas against Christe They might well haue diuelishe witte but I am sure they had no godly wisedom In deed the true Church of Christ which is gouerned and taught by the holy ghost can want no godly wisedome but your Church of Rome whiche you counte Christes olde spouse hath and doeth lacke both learning wit and honestie as before it doth manifestly appeare That pope was very full of witte which you counte the chiefe of your Churche that gaue iudgement and sentence that they at Ratilpone in Germanie and the Abbay of Saint Denise in Fraunce had both the whole bodye of Saint Denise at once as is before mentioned He had more witte than Salomon for Salomon coulde make but one childe into two halfe children but your sayde profound and wise pope made one Saint Denise into two whole Saint Denises Belike the Pope thought that seeing euery simple and raskall priest coulde make Christes bodie at one time to be in many places thē he being the prince of al priests was able to make the body of S. Denise to be in two places And further your olde spouse of Rome can want no wit because it can not erre if it woulde and no maruell for it can haue the holye Ghost in the likenesse of an Owle to instructe it for in one of your late Councelles in Rome as they were singing and roaring of Veni creator spiritus that is Come holy ghost c. by and by at their becke and calling a poore olde Owle amazed with the noyse thinking belike shee was the holy ghost that they called for so earnestly leapt out of the hole where shee sate and came downe in the middes of them and sate amongst them Thus you may perceiue that there is a great difference betweene the Spirite of God and the Popes holy Ghost For God the holy Ghost discended and appeared to Christe in likenesse of a faire white doue but the popes holy ghost did discende and appeare to the Pope in the shape of a foule euill fauoured owle Surely they are fowlie ouerseene that wil not be guided by your Churche that is taught and instructed by suche a holy ghost Your olde spouse can neuer want 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 inspired by such a holy spirite The 35. part AFter this your discouering of Maister Nicols manners and learning to his reproche as you thought and commending your owne follies you discommend and goe about to discredite my sayde booke called A perswasion from papistrie But though you decide it without any reprouing or consuting therof yet I haue so reproued and confuted such partes of this your discouerie as I thought necessarie was meete for me to do that you are so vncouered that the wise may see that you daunce naked in a net though you thinke your selfe well enough couered And these are your wordes concerning the same Of late in the middest of our persecutions there came forth a waightie worke of 40 sheetes of paper made by one Thomas Lupton entituled a perswasion from papistrie he woulde haue said a diswasion but that papistrie and perswasion began both with a letter I must needes confesse my sayd booke was not published very long since it is so lately come forth that it seemeth you had no leasure to peruse the same as you shoulde for if you had red it as aduisedly as many haue done you woulde not I thinke haue derided it as you haue done You say it came forth in the middest of your persecutiōs It came forth at such time as it had pleased God to giue me his instrument leaue to finishe the same for of my selfe I am most certayne I neither began it proceeded in it neither finished it For if a sparrowe light not on the grounde without Gods prouidence then the penne of a man Gods image doth not light on the paper without Gods direction y t writeth in Christes cause and indefence of Gods worde But that it was in the middest of your persecutions I hardly can thinke for that it were requisite that they shoulde beginne before they be in the middest In deede her highnes doth not persecute you as queene Marie did vs yet shee hath power to punish you much more than shee doth And because you haue written in derision agaynste my sayde booke whiche I am nowe in hande to defende I will nowe write some parte of my wordes therein touching this time which you call the middest of your persecution And these are my wordes If you would marke but her maiesties power and knew what shee may doe and weyghe your owne dooynges and what yee ought to doe truely you woulde say then that shee is the moste miledest and mercifullest Queene one of them that euer raigned You thinke not a misse in her grace and counte her not vnmercifull though shee put theeues to death for stealing whiche GOD hath not commaunded to bee punished with death and can not you see that her Maiestie is marueylous mercifull in that shee suffereth you to liue for disobeying Gods woorde and committing Idolatrie whiche GOD by his lawe hath commaunded to bee punished with death King Iosias 〈◊〉 the idolatrous Priestevpon the alters that committed Idolatrie and yet hee is reckoned for a Godly king But our mercifull Queene Elizabeth hath not burned the popishe priestes on the alters where they committed idolatrie in saying of Masse and worshipped a piece of breade for the bodie of Christe which shee might haue done if shee would and yet you count not her for a godly and mercifull Queene You praise and extoll Queene Marie to the heauens for vsing crueltie and for burning her humble and faultlesse Subiectes But if our 〈◊〉 Elizabeth shoulde vse lawefull seueritie on her stubborne and disobedient people Gods foes and her enemies that desire her
death and destruction the confusion of their countrey and the ruine of this Realme you woulde dispraise and slaunder her and say shee were a cruell tyrant Nay for all her highnesse hath vsed you so mildely and mercifully as shee hath done yet some of you woulde darken her desertes if you coulde in sayinge moste spitefully and falsly that this is the time of tyrannie these are the daies of persecution this I graunt but not in Englande though you meane in Englande Truly suche as doe say so must needes I thinke speake against their conscience and knowledge vnlesse they take mercy for crueltie and crueltie for mercie and then I may say vnto them as Esay saide to the Iewes Woe bee to you that cal euill good and good euill c. If this bee the time of tyrannie and persecution when you that are manifest enemies to your Queene and countrie before well proued are suffered to liue peaceably to inioy your goods quietly to goe at your libertie or imprisoned to fare daintily and there to liue merily or to bee releast vpon suretie Then what was Queene Maries time when her simple humble and faultlesse subiectes were cruelly imprisoned in stocks and chaines other engins tormented most tyrannously racked their friendes to come to them not suffered on the bare boordes and ground lodged to haue penne and inke and candle light not permitted for want of meate to bee famished in prisons priuily to bee murthered and abrode in euery mans eyes to bee burned That time of Queene Mary to all wise men may rather seeme to bee the time of crueltie tyrannie and persecution than this milde and mercifull time of our Queene Elizabeth I beseech God to open your eyes to see howe her grace doth persecute you for if you did see yet I feare some are blinde for the nonce you would then say that shee persecuteth you none other wise than the louing father doeth his childe and as the good scholemaster doth persecute his scholler that hee would faine haue to learne Thus much concerning your now persecution I haue declared in my said booke whereby it may plainely appeare that yours is rather a pleasant pastime then a painfull persecution to that that the Protestants felt in Queene Maries time therfore you cannot 〈◊〉 say that my said booke came foorth in the middest of your persecutions but in the middest of your easie and carelesse liuing The 36. parte YOU call my saide booke a weightie worke of fortie sheetes of paper The proud and learned Scribes and Pharisees and the other common people thought the 〈◊〉 two mytes were but of a small value but in y t sight of Christe they were counted great for that it was all shee had Euen so that my saide simple booke being al y t I was able to doe may bee counted light in your iudgement but before God I am sure it is so weightie that it will weigh downe all your learned bookes that you write for the maintenance of the Pope your Romish Church And though in 〈◊〉 you name it a weightie worke yet I haue proued in good earnest that the booke wherein you deride it is but a very light worke for that this my answere hitherto hath weyed it cleane downe But though you count it a very simple and light work yet I must content my selfe there with for so the Popes learned Doctors counted and estemed the Scriptures For Ludouicus a Canon of the Church of Laterane in Rome openly in an Oration pronounced in the late Conuenticle of Trident for the mainteining of the decrees where of you are so deepely sworne saide as followeth Ecclesia est viuum pectus Christi scriptura autem est quasi mortuum Attramentum The Church is the liuely breast of Christe But the scripture is as it were dead inke The Bishop of Poiters in the same your godly counsell of Trident saide thus Scriptura est res inanimis muta sicut 〈◊〉 sunt reliquae leges politicae The scripture is a dead dumbe thing as are all other politike lawes To this ende writeth Albertus Pigghius Si dixeris haec referri oportere ad iudicium Scripturarum c. If thou say these matters must be put ouer to the iudgement of the scriptures thou shewest thy selfe to bee voide of common reason For the scriptures are dumbe iudges and cannot speake Eckius called the Scriptures Euangelium Nigrum Theologiam Attramentariam The blacke Gospell and inken diuinitie Furthermore in the discommendation of the scriptures Pigghius writeth thus Sunt scripturae vt non minus vere quam festiue dixit quidam velut Nasus cereus qui sehorsum illorsum in quācunque volueris partem trahi retrahi fingique facile permittit The scriptures as one man both truly and merily saide is like a nose of waxe that easily suffereth it selfe to be drawne backward and forward and to be moulded and fashioned this way and that way and howsoeuer yee list Thus reuerently did your Doctors of your Romish Church write of the most holy Scriptures You wrote immediately before these wordes It is a world to see what pillers of defence they haue got what graue writers in their cause what bookes they suffer to come out against vs dayly But may not I say to you and that more rightly and truly It is a most lamentable thing both to see and to heare what pernicious and pestiferous pillers your Church of Rome hath and what impudēt writers you haue in your cause and what beastly bookes your holy father and you doe suffer to bee in printe and goe abrode wherein the holy Scripture and worde of God is made a iesting and 〈◊〉 stocke The simplest the vnlearnedst the youngest writer that is or euer was amongst y t professours of the Gospell may be counted graue writers in comparison of these your nowe mentioned doctours Whatsoeuer you count of our writers you neuer founde that wee wrote so vnreuerently and so decestablie of the holy worde of God the tryar of all truth as these and other of your Romishe graue writers haue doone These your graue writers might be auncient and graue men to see to but they haue written most childishly 〈◊〉 fondly falsly and diuelishly It is not the grauitie of the person that maketh the writing graue but the graue and true writing shewes the grauitie of the person therefore if you consider well your graue pillers y t wrote as is before in y t defēce of your church you haue no great cause mockingly and restingly to call vs graue writers as though none but they of your 〈◊〉 can be graue writers And now for that your Popes pillers and your graue writers doe call the scriptures which is the holy woorde of GOD dead Inke a liuelesse letter a dumbe Iudge that cannot speake a blacke Gospell inken Diuinitie and a nose of waxe whereby they tooke the holy Bible not to bee any weightie worke
goodnes I am that I am And if I had bin neuer so euil yet I may reioyce to come from euil to be a professor of the gospell the seruāt of God rather then you to shrinke frō the gospel though you liued blameles in the sight of the worlde and now to become Iesuites reuolting from our sauiour to satan from your prince to the pope The 39. part YOu say that he seemeth to haue bin some musition in time for that much of his matter passeth frō him in time You that can tell before hand what one woulde say you are able quickly to turne prose into time It is a strange matter that you that perhaps haue not read my booke through can finde that the most of my matter therein is rime when I that made it am most sure there is not one verse of rime in it I thinke you are as well skilde in prose as some of your popes was in grammer eyther you were in some pleasant dreame when you wrote this or you neuer read my said booke or els surely you do not knowe prose from rime I thinke you doe take latin verses to be english rime so you may haue some rime to charge me with all I remember I wrote two verses of Baptista Mantuanus in my said book and that were these Viuere qui sancte cupitis discedite Roma Omnia cum liceant non licet esse bonum If these latine verses be the ryme you ment of for other rime there is not in all the booke then I must needes confesse that some part of my matter is rime but not much of my matter as you say vnlesse two lines bee much matter in fortie sheetes of paper and then the sheetes must be very small or els the two lines must be marueilous great I thinke in deede much of the meaning of my matter in the same booke is conteyned in the sayde two latine verses For all the Idolatrie blalphemie pride mischiefes and errours that I perswade you and all other from in that booke is committed and practised in Rome and therefore the effect of muche of my matter conteined in my saide booke is comprehended in the sayde two latine verses which belike you tooke for Enlishe rime And because I woulde haue you to consider the same well I will now turne the same latin rime into plaine english prose which is this that foloweth All ye that would liue godly get you away frō Rome for whereas all thinges there are lawfull it is not lawfull to bee good This is the prose of all the latin rime in my sayd booke for other english rime I am sure there is none If you marke this rime well it showes that your holy citie of Rome is more meete for Iesuites then for Christians I thinke you pickte a quarrell with mee for the nouce to make me shew you the rime of my booke Because you would haue me to praise your holy citie of Rome you haue in your discouerie made great long discourses in cōmending y e godly customes charitable works of your citie of Rome but Baptista Mantuanus here in two lines hath extolde her out of measure Well though you say that much of my matter in my said booke is rime no rime at all therein yet your hole matter wherin you haue 〈◊〉 forth my riming is nothing but time for these are your wordes wishing the indifferent reader to marke whether the same be rime or not Of this autors estate and calling I can not yet learne But that he seemeth to haue bin some musition in time for that much of his matter passeth frō him in rime Though you would make men beleue that my prose is rime yet the indifferent reader can not thinke that your rime is prose It is a great ouersight in you to say that much of my matter of fortie sheetes of paper is rime and can not prooue that there is one verse of 〈◊〉 in all y e hole booke which you haue affirmed only in two lines yet both the same lines are nothing but rime You would haue me euill thought of for riming though I rimed not at all and can you be well thought of that reprooueth me with nothing but rime It appeareth here by your learned and aduised writing that I haue been a musition because of my runing then I trust I am discharged from being a musition because in my sayde booke I haue not rimed at all Surely it seemeth that you haue a deepe and mysticall iudgement in the finding out of the grounde and causes of things I remember that before it showed plainly by your argument that the going of M. Nicols from Wales to England from England to Flaunders from Flaunders to Rome and from Rome to the pulpit in the towre of London was the cause that he was borne at cowbridge in wales as in y e same place it may more plainly appeare And as by your learning you founde out that M. Nicols comming from Rome to the pulpit in the towre of London was the cause he was borne at Cowbridge in Wales so by your deepe knowledge you haue I perceiue founde out that my riming is the cause that I was a musition For your own wordes showe no lesse which are these that followe He seemeth to haue bin some Musition in time for that much of his matter passeth from him in rime Hereby it appeareth by your rime that if I could not haue 〈◊〉 I had neuer bin a 〈◊〉 Therefore it 〈◊〉 happie I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or els farewell all 〈◊〉 and singing But I woulde faine knowe of you whether the cause is to be preferred before the effect or not 〈◊〉 is better then the effecte the 〈◊〉 cause I am sure you can not denie but that it is aboue the effect marie as for 〈◊〉 causes the effecte sometime may excell the cause nowe if the cause bee better then the effecte then a 〈◊〉 is to bee esteemed aboue a musition So that 〈◊〉 be the cause of musicke which you 〈◊〉 before to bee the cause that I haue been a musition and if the cause bee to bee 〈◊〉 before the effect then a rymer is better than a musition And so a common rymer is better thou the best singing 〈◊〉 of the popes holie 〈◊〉 But they woulde not bee well pleased with you if they knewe that by proouing me a musition you make them worse then the simplest 〈◊〉 that is And if the cause which is riming bee not better then the effect which is musicke yet doe or say what you 〈◊〉 the cause muste needes bee before the effect So that by your proouing mee to bee a musition because of my ryming the rymer must needes bee before the 〈◊〉 And so one can not be a musition vnlesse he be a rimer before But herein I thinke your argument will not holde for I am sure there are and haue been many excellent 〈◊〉 that coulde ryme neuer a
agreement of the same planets so 〈◊〉 And as two planets being in the thirde signe one from another beholding one another is a good and friendly aspect called a Sextile aspect So two notes distant in the thirde place or stringe one from another is a good concord and is called a third And as two planets being in the fourth signe one from another aspecting ech other is a quartile and an euill aspect So two notes distant in the fourth place one from another is a discord called a fourth And as two planets being in the fifte signe one from another and beholding one another is the best aspect of all other called a trine aspect So two notes distant in the fifte place one from another is the best concord of al other called a fifte And as two planets being in the seuenth signe one frō another aspecting one another is the worst aspect of al other called an opposite aspect Euen so two notes distant in the seuenth place one from another is a merueilous discorde in musicke called a seuenth Here you may see how wonderfully our earthly musick being oue of the foure Mathematicall sciences doeth agree with heauēly astronomie being also one of y e foure mathematicall sciences So that if you had been as profoundly seen in this worthy science of musick as you are in your diuelish doctrine of papistrie you would haue sought some other way or meane to discredite me than by naming me a musition or by my hauing knowledge in such a famous science Therfore I beleeue I shall winne more credite by your calling me a musition then you will get honestie by being 〈◊〉 Iesuite But it may be y t your drift was to dishonest me by making your reader beleue y t I was a musition and got my liuing by musicke as though they that liue by musicke must needes be vnhonest or whatsoeuer they write is not worth the reading I 〈◊〉 you thinke better of your romishe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our English 〈◊〉 But if Iesuites may esteeme 〈◊〉 musitions surely a Christian may thinke well of Englishe musitions And if your musitions in Rome are to bee commended though they liue by their 〈◊〉 then I cannot fee why our Englishe 〈◊〉 shoulde bee disdayned that liue honestly by the same But to the entent you shall haue 〈◊〉 occasion to disdayne or disable mee for my knowledge in Musicke whereas I tolde you before in certifiing you of my estate and calling that I neuer had any spirituall 〈◊〉 though you might suppose otherwise now likewise to put you out of doubt though I haue some simple knowledge in Musicke I professe not musicke neither doe I gette any liuing or any money by Musicke Notwithstanding better and learneder than I haue done The knowledge of Sciences was wont to make 〈◊〉 to be esteemed and shall then the excellent Science of Musicke make me bee disdayned But suppose that Musicke were not one of the foure Mathematicall Sciences and so excellent as it is shoulde my knowledge therein woorke my discredite 〈◊〉 my booke therefore bee lesse counted of or esteemed Saint Luke is though to haue had skill in paynting which is not comparable to the Science of Musicke should therefore y e gospel of Christ or y t acts of y e apostles which he wrote bee disdayned or discommended because a painter or one that had skill in painting wrote it Shall the Gospell of Christ bee reiected which S. Matthewe wrote because hee was a tolgetherer which is not so deepe a mysterie as Musicke Shall Paules epistles be discredited because hee being a tentmaker did write them which is not so learned a science as Musicke Shall S. Peters epistles bee thought not worth the reading because they were made by a 〈◊〉 which is not so harde to learne as musicke Now seeing neither saint Matthewe by his tolgethering neither S. Luke by his painting nor S. Peter by his fishing nor yet S. Paul by his tentmaking are the lesse esteemed nor their 〈◊〉 lesse embraced then why shoulde my knowledge in the famous science of Musicke which you rather surmised then certainly knew cause me either to be disdayned or my booke diseredited And seeing king Dauid and the prophete of God was not the lesse honoured for his knowledge in musicke and his playing on the harpe neyther his booke which hee wrote of the psalmes is therefore lesse liked methinkes then you should not goe about to make me to be disdayned or my booke to be despised by surmising mee to be a musition or because I haue skill in musicke Therefore when you meane to discommende any hereafter reprooue rather his wickednesse then his writing his lewdnesse than his learning and his manners then his musicke vnlesse hee bestowe his learning in lying and his writing in wresting of the trueth as you Iesuites doe The 40. part THen after you come to a peece-of my preface and haue one snatch at it reciting my woordes not confuting the phrase as though you woulde haue your reader to disdayne my inditing as you woulde haue had them mistike mee for musicke and these are your wordes To the great comfort and ioy as he hopeth of her highnes being framed by him not troublingly by louingly vnto her subiects And so you leaue that matter and goe no further As before you geste a wrong cause of my being a musition so I perceiue you are ignorāt of y t cause of my writing y e same in y e order And thogh it appeare before y e you knew my thought and what I woulde haue saide yet here it is manifest that you know not what I ment in writing of this But that you may vnderstande that my wordes in this place are not so impertinent as you woulde haue them import I will shew you the foūdation wherfore I did frame thē The truth is about ten yeeres before I gaue her maiestie this my booke whiche you so muche discommende I with some paynes and trauel deuised a suite for the great profite and commoditie especially for the poore and needie of this my natiue countrey of Englande in most necessarie places throughout the whole realme being a marueylous profite to thousandes and hurte to none in the forefront whereof were these briefe woordes written In dei gloriam in Angliae Laudem In tuam O princeps vtilitatem Maximamque perpetuam famam Commoditas multis incommodum nullis Wherein I a Christian wished more good to this my countrey then euer any Iesuite did perfourme I am sure And as that suite was onely to bee graunted by her grace for the profite of her subiects so this my booke that I gaue her maiestie of late was to be perfourmed of her subiects to y e comfort and ioy of her grace For I beleeue if her stubborne and disobedient subiects that obey and fauor the pope would become obedient and obey her grace as my chiefe drift is in my saide booke I thinke it woulde be no small comfort
reasonable For if in worldly affayres witnesses are thought best when they be liuing shall witnesses then be thought best in heauenly causes when they bee dead Antiquitie is no credite to an cuill writer neither late yeeres can bee any discredite to a good writer Time ought not to be preferred before truth but truth before time Christes and his Apostles words were as true and good fifteene hundreth yeeres since as they bee nowe Therefore the long continuance of the time since maketh not their wordes the truer or their authoritie the better So that if a mans wordes or writings are worthie to bee alleadged for authoritie a thousande yeeres after hee is dead then they may bee alleadged in his life time or soone after his death Wherefore if master Iewell late Bishop of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reuerende and learned Doctor Cowper nowe Bishop of Lincolu and the godly zelous and learned master Foxe haue written wisely faithfully and truly as most assuredly they haue doone whose worthie workes you may well disprayse but neuer confounde or confute then they deserue nowe as well to bee alleadged for authorities as though they had written them a thousande yeere since And to tel you truly thes their learned workes procured mee to produce them for witnesses and to quote their sayings in my saide booke the rather thereby to allure mo to esteeme their writings and to reade their saide bookes So that if you consider all thinges well you ought neither to disdaine nor discredite my booke for alleadging authorities out of master Iewell Doctor Cowper and master Foxe who were and are famous godly and learned writers The 47. part AS you say I doe it without all modestie or limitation of lying whether I doe lye without all modesty it is very manifest that you haue falsified my woordes with no great modestie And as my lyes are without limitation so they are without number for that you are not able to prooue mee so much as with one lye for if you coulde your Reader shoulde haue beene sure to haue hearde of it But whereas you say without any further proofe that I lye without limitation I haue plainely prooued before that you haue lyed with limitation and so your lyes are limited and mine vnlimited My lyes are so farre hence and that is because they are without limitation that you cannot finde them but your lyes are so nigh hand because they are within limitation that I quickly spied them Well though to my remembraunce I haue not made any 〈◊〉 lye in all my saide booke yet I must needes confesse that I made a very foule ouersight in taking one syllable in steede of another which was in the intitling of my booke naming it a persuasion in steede of a disuasion But for your iust reproouing mee therein I haue I trust sufficiently set foorth mine owne negligence with the due commendation of your intelligence not doubting but that your gentle instruction shall bee a sufficient warning for mee euer hereafter for vsing persuasiō in steede of disuasion When you shall chaunce to make any moe lyes you were best let them bee made without limitation as mine were and then it will bee harde to finde them for yours were limited within such a small compasse that they were espied and catcht at the first The 48. part THen after you come to shewe my lyes but it had beene better for you I thinke not to haue vttered them for surely they will rather shame your selfe then credite your cause And these are your wordes that followe For hee saith that the Papistes holde The Pope to bee very God The light of the world the Sauiour of mankinde That they print him in their bookes our Lorde God the Pope That the Pope also acknowledgeth the thing taking himselfe in deede to bee a God That hee dispenseth both against the olde and new testament That hee biddeth vs not to forbeare swearing any day That hee alloweth all priestes to haue harlots That hee giueth licence for money to keepe as many concubines as a man will That his fast is to cramme in as many banquetting dishes as men can That all papists are worse and deserue more death then drunkards theeues murtherers and Pyrates This is Luptons charitable doctrine with many thinges more which I omit You haue gathered diuers of my words written in sundrie places couched them altogether at your pleasure here in one place And you haue further more cutte and curtalde them farre otherwise then I wrote them whereby you haue marred my method and drowned my sence making my woordes to hange together as feathers doe in the winde and all to discredite my booke Thus you doe not onely deface and falsifie my woordes but also you fetch them out of their due places where I did set them and doe place them in such crooked corners that they neither reprooue falshood nor yet defend truth And whē you haue done so you neither confute nor reproue them vnles you do it with these words This is Luptons charitable doctrine with many things more which I omit or els perhappes your wordes in the margent which is Luptons lyes haue confuted them If I shoulde haue gone about to confute you onely with false repeating and vnorderly displacing of your woordes without any more a doe then I had not takē halfe the paines I haue done I haue not delt thus with you as the indifferent reader may iudge for I haue not left out one woorde of yours neyther haue I added any words to yours nor yet haue I displaced anye woordes of yours But you when you haue falsified my woordes you leaue them at randon committing the confuting thereof to your reader whose misliking thereof who can not well like them as you haue vsed them is all the confuting that you desire If you did loue the doctrine of Iesus as well inwardly as hypocritically you professe his name outwardely you woulde deale plainely and truely as Iesus did But because you deale fraudulently and falsly you are rather of the feloshippe of Iudas than of Iesus Yet for all your falsifiyng of my woordes suppose that I had written the selfe same woordes before mentioned 〈◊〉 had placed them euen in such order as you haue done you seeme by your silence without further reproouing or confuting them that they are true For if they had been false why haue you not particularly declared howe and in what sorte they are false as I haue done yours Truely if they had beene lyes as they are not you woulde haue certified your reader wherein I had lied For you that woulde discredite me for mistaking of a sillable as you thought no doubt you would haue proued me a lier in all this if you could At the first beginning of which your falsified woordes you affirme that I say that the papistes holde the pope to be very God c. If you had ment as truely
other most diuelish detestable decrees for mainteining of the same as in other places I haue declared before Wherefore though you woulde haue your Reader to thinke that your wordes were mine yet you leaue them barely as you haue doone the 〈◊〉 without disprouing them leauing them to bee discredited of your Reader Which you your selfe were not able to confute and yet they were your owne wordes and not mine as before it is manifest A true Christian woulde bee 〈◊〉 to bee taken in suche a trippe 〈◊〉 I haue now taken you being a Iesuite The 54. part AFter this what sodaine toy hath taken you in the head I know 〈◊〉 but you haue iumpt forward fortie sides or pages where belike you haue spied some thinge that will serue your turne which you haue ioyned to your former falsified wordes and that are these That his fast is to cramme in as many banketting dishes as men can and there you stay and goe no further leauing them as you haue doone the rest for your Reader to confute But as according to your wont you haue written my words otherwise then I wrote them so you left out those wordes both before and after them which openeth the sense thereof neither haue you declared how I compared the Popes fast and Christes fast together but because you haue written thē both falsely and left thē nakedly to make your reader haue an euill opinion in me to discredite my booke I wil here vtter mine owne wordes that they may shewe whether they are so without order sense or good meaning as you haue gone about to make them And thus they are as followe And as this Romish Churche hath with her most wicked prayer blotted out the pure and perfect order of praying which Christe did teach in the scriptures euen so she hath with her vaine fond and superstitious fastings quite banished the true fasting required by the Gospell For Christe in the Gospel saith When yee fast be not sad as the hypocrites are c. But when thou fastest appeare not vnto men to fast but vnto thy father which is in secret and thy father which seeth in secret shal reward thee opēly Heere Christ doth appoint vs that we must not let it be knowen whē we fast but the popes fast is published the dayes so commonly and openly commaunded appointed that euery one may know when they fast So that Christe hath appointed his fasting so priuily but the Church of Rome proclaimes her fastes as openly Christ hath appoynted no dayes nor times for his fasting The Church of Rome hath appointed dayes and times for her fasting The meaning of Christes fasting is to absteine from what soeuer either meates or drinkes that make vs prone to sinne The popes fast is to forbeare flesh onely but permits men to eate all kinde of fishe though it bee neuer so dayntie deliciously drest and all kinde of iunkettes and banketing dishes with delicate wines as muche as wee will cramme and powrein Christes fast is to keepe our bodies lowe to bee in subiection to the spirite But that is not performed in the popes fast but by their daintie dishes and drinkes the Spirite is brought in subiection of the body Christes fast is a willing and an vncompelled abstinence The popes fast is a constrayned abstinence and is done of many against their wills Christes fasting is to make vs vertuous and holy before god The popes fast is hypocritical and to make vs seeme holy before men This is difference enough to shewe you that the Christian fasting of Christe and the common fasting of the Pope are farre vnlike and do not agree so that the one shall haue his rewarde hereafter of God and the other hath his rewarde alredy of men c. And this is the circumstaunce cause and effect of my woordes Thus the indifferent reader may perceiue that you haue not onely altered my woordes but also through displacing them and cutting them from their 〈◊〉 which shoulde haue witnessed their true intente 〈◊〉 and meaning you haue gone about to beguile him yea and moste maliciously to discredite or defame mee But I trust by that time hee hath weyed my wordes and your wordes together hee will regarde my booke as it is and you as you are The 55. part IF I had made such bagaries in my booke as you haue done here in yours you might then haue iustly saide that I wandred without all witte or learning for whereas you pickte your last woordes though falsely out of the 171. page of my booke nowe on the sudden you haue leapt backwarde againe an 164. pages at the least which is a great deale further then before So that it seemeth you haue tryed howe farre if neede were you can leape backwarde especially at a dead lift If you had leapt but halfe a score sides or pages further you had leapt quite out of the booke and then you had not founde this snare where with you haue snarled mee Well I must gette out of it as well as I may and these are your woordes that followe affirming that I say in the 5. and 6. page of my booke That all papistes are worse and deserue 〈◊〉 death then drunkardes theeues murtherers and pyrates and so you leaue neyther disprouing nor confuting them by any other proofe or argument but refers it to your reader to confute if he list as you haue done all the rest or else perhappes you looke that eyther they shoulde disprooue or confute them selues or that these your knitting vp wordes that followe shoulde take the paynes to doe so muche for you Whiche are This is Luptons charitable doctrine with many thinges moe which I omitte You haue quoted in your margent that these my wordes are in the 5. and 6. page or side of my booke Surely if the seuer all matters that you write as mine were as sentencious as they be short and were vttered as truly as you haue writtē them falsely I am sure you woulde neuer haue cumbarde your booke with them There are but fifteene woordes of them in all 〈◊〉 that mee thinkes one side myght haue holdē them well enough especially seeing two lines of one of the sides of my booke holdeth as muche and more And I am sure it woulde haue done so as the ende of the fifte and 〈◊〉 pages fall out if you had written any one Sentence of myne as I wrote it But as you haue falsisted my wordes before so haue you done nowe and you seeme to include as you thought good the whole circumstaunce and argumentes of these two sides or pages to that ende in your aforesaide fifteene 〈◊〉 woordes whiche is too straite a roome for a Christian by way of argumente to prooue the easiest matter that is I knowe not what a Iesuite may doe But that it may appeare howe you goe about to disgrace my sayde booke and to discredite mee by deceauing your reader I
truely so the spirite of Satan procureth the professours of Papistrie to speake or write falsely And where you say rather mockingly then modestly to bee read with deuotion A man may reade the wise and learned answeres y e pacient sufferings and the whippings scourgings and tormētings of the godly Gospellers with more deuotiō then your Romanes that before you wrote of can whip and scourge themselues for their owne offences yea though they scourge all the blood out of their bodies And though you Iesuites thinke that the reading of that most excellent necessarie booke will worke small deuotion in them that reade it yet wee Christians doe beleeue that you that write against the truth falsifiyng mens writings and make such manifest lyes doe not the same with any godly deuotion I hope wee Christians may reade master Foxes martyrologe with as great deuotiō y t expresseth the doyngs of the Saints of God that dyed wrongfully for professing Gods worde as you Iesuites may read your Popish martyrologe of the popes traiterous Saints that were iustly executed for murther and treason Thus though you thought vtterly to defame and discredite mee beeing a Christian by that time y t the indifferent Reader haue read this throughly I thinke you will wiune but small credite though you bee a Iesuite The 60. part YOu speake these words in the knitting vp of yuor said Discouerie As long as there shall bee either honest vertuous learned wise modest noble or gentle minde in Englande so long shall wee gaine by these their proceedings You haue a very good opinion in your works and writings for though your cause be neuer so course and your writings be neuer so false yet by your saying there is neuer honest vertuous learned wise modest noble nor gentle minde in England but such as take your cause to bee good and your religion true And as long as there is any suche you shall gaine and that by óur writings and proceedinges Then by this your sayings it appeareth if you chaunce to loose and wee gaine by your proceedinges then there is neuer an honest vertuous learned wise modest noble nor gentle minde in Englande This is the definitiue sentence of a Iesuite therefore it must needes be true Wherefore it were best for vs to suffer you to gaine by our proceedings least all our honest vertuous learned wise modest noble or gentle minds in England vanish quite away out of Englande and then were Englande vtterly marde But if you count your losses with your winnings I feare at the ende of your account your gayne will not bee very great nay it will seeme rather that you haue loste then wonne and so your loosing hath made vs loose all our honest wise and vertuous Noble men and Gentle men wherewith Englande was wont to florishe when you did gaine or win What a most spitefull saying and an arrogant 〈◊〉 is this of a Iesuite 〈◊〉 though there were neuer an honest vertuous learned wise modest noble nor gentle minde in England that are contrarie to your religion or that will not suffer you to gaine by your lying and to winne by your wicked writing Here in the knitting vp you haue shewed what you are for as you haue proceeded with vntruth so you end with falshood And as you haue runne this your rase vntruly and vnchristianly so you haue ended the same most 〈◊〉 and arrogantly And now for that you haue detracted my said booke called a persuasion from papistrie to bring it into such contempt that thereby it shoulde not bee read though you bee a Iesuite you may bee deceiued for whereas you thought to haue blowne out y e fier it may be y e thereby you haue kindeled the flame For you haue so 〈◊〉 mee to defende it that many perceiuing heereby howe vniustly you haue charged mee with 〈◊〉 may haply reade and peruse it that otherwise if you had not been too busie with your penne should neuer haue hearde of it whereby your doctrine may the more be despised And thus as many haue doone perhaps you may loose by that you hoped to winne I 〈◊〉 you are fullier answered then you looked for and more reproued and confuted then your friendes wold haue thought for your faire shew is turned into a foule shadowe your pretended wisedome into manifest folly your curious cunning into counterfeating lying though some more armed with affection than ruled with reason haue bragd that your learning is so great and your saide booke so true that the one shoulde seeme incomparable and 〈◊〉 other vnreproueable Not doubting but that they that shall reade this my booke written as an answere to you and in the defence of my saide booke called A persuasion from papistrie will not easily bee persuaded that my saide booke whiche you counte so light and so full of lyes is without all method or matter which I dedicated and deliuered with mine owne handes to the most famous learned and mercifull princes of the world whose subiect I am whō I am most bound vnder God to obey And if I were as great a lyer as you woulde fayne make me yet what wise man wil thinke that I durst once presume to lyne that booke with lies that I gaue to her grace But though you as it becommeth a Iesuite went about as much as in you laye to diseredite mee and my saide 〈◊〉 and thereby to make mee loose the fauour of men yet I as beseemeth a Christian wishe with all my heart that you may 〈◊〉 the holy 〈◊〉 and of a false Iesuite become a true Christian whereby you may obtayne the fauour of God FINIS Uirescit vulnere veritas Imprinted at London at the three Cranes in the Vintree by Thomas Dawson for Thomas Woodcocke dwelling in Paules Church-yard at the signe of the blacke Beare 1582. I. part Acts. 17. Matth. 20. Marke 1. Marke 10. Mark 15. Iohn 12. Actes 1. Acts. 6. Actes 13. Actes 23. Chrys. in act Homil. 19. Concil later sessi 6. pag. 604. Math. 7. Math. 7. The othe of the Iesuites Bullapiiquarti super ordinatione promotione doctorum aliorum cuiuscunque artis et facoltatis professorum c. 2. part Phil. 2. ver 9. 3. part Acts. 4. ver 12. Math. 〈◊〉 Math. 3. Math. 7. 4. part Persuas from papistrie Pag. 289. Pag. 291. Pag. 〈◊〉 Pag. 〈◊〉 Pag. 292. 5. part Bernard ser. 4.2 in Can. Persuas from papistrie Pag. 290. Pag. 293. Pag. 294. Pag. 296. Pag. 296. Pag. 298. 〈◊〉 part Discouerie Pag. 3. Dist. 40. si papa in glossa Extra de trās episcopi Quanto in glossa The. 7. part discou pag. 3. Inter epi. Au. epi. 91. Eras. The 8. part discou pag. 3. Erasmus in scholis in Hieronym ad Marcellam De con distin 4 Retulerunt Iulius pp. 1. 9. quae 3. neque ab Augu. dist 19. si Romanorum in glos Extra de trās 〈◊〉 quanto in glossa 3. King 3. Perswasion from papistry pag. 121. Iohā Caluin