erre greatly It was their office to discerne the leprosie the Magistrates to separate lest they should faint others That we may therefore vrge this figure against you It is the duty of Princes to separate the leprous that is hereticall Popes rather then of Popes to separate hereticall Princes But whereas you said the person of the King was stoutly assalted by Azaria and 80. other Priests and by violence cast out of the Temple that is an error far more dangerous For they did not violently cast him out but as the text hath it they caused him to make hast to go out of the temple no force at all being attempted For it followeth because the Lord stroke him he was forced of his owne accord to depart And so the word signifies and so your vulgar translation hath it which you call Ieromes he made hast to go foorth 2. Chron. 26. The Iesuits violence taxed But this error hath brought forth that dangerous sin Saturnine by the helpe of your conclusion as it were by the aide of a Midwife For you conclude it is a manifest example that it is lawfull for Priests by force of armes and by violent meanes to represse the wickednesse of Kings Azarias I confesse and the other Priests did resist the King but with words not with weapons And because he had broken the Law by burning of incense they did as it was meete sharpely reproue him neither did they forceably rush vpon the Magistrate or lay strong hand vpon him to driue him out of the temple much lesse out of the kingdome But your men Saturnine go further and from admonition fly to rebellion from reprehension to force from reprofe to armes being cousoned and deceiued by the false interpretation of this and the like places § 37 Here I appeale to you Princes neither to you only who haue departed from the Pope but to you who cleaue vnto him ☜ How long will ye suffer these martiall and swaggering Priests to abuse your patience how long shall this superstitious madnesse deceiue you An Ap strophâ— to popish Kings how long shall this wolâ—ish fearcenesse vnder sheepes cloathing assaile you how long shall they couer their detestable rebellion against kings vnder the cloake of religion And as if they fetcht poyson from heauen as Hercules Aeteus in the tragedie abusing the authoritie of holy Scriptures and examples of holy Priests gather force against your sacred persons and opprobry to your Maiesties This is said Saturnine to chaffe with vs not to dispute § 38 with vs. But marke the reason if you please why Ozias the king was stroken with the leprosie because he presumed to execute the spirituall and priestly function whereof you haue ordained your Kings supreame Gouernours I marke it well said Patriotta and when we maintain that it is lawfull for our Princes to preach the Gospell to baptise to minister the supper of the Lord to forgiue sinnes then cast vs in the teeth with Ozias pride and plague In the meane while learne that it is not for priests but kings to beare armes and the kings of Iuda who vsed the temporall sword to restore the truth and suppresse error which Dauid Iehosophat Ezekias Iosias were said to haue done got great fauour with God and great honour with men But wee when wee are iustly displeased with you whenas like seditious tribunes you stirre vp the commons against Kings and call them to armes wherewith they may vanquish the professours of the Gospell as occasion is offered then here I pittie you exceedingly that from Azarias example peeuishly vnderstood and wretchedly drawn to your purpose you draw from an idle figure so slender an argument of your out-rage that there appeareth neither probabilitie in the Antecedent or necessitie in the consequence And whereas you said that Athalia was depriued of § 39 her kingdome and put to death by Iehoida the priest with the forces of the priests and people Athaâ—â—â— iustly deposed but not by the Priest Ioash the right heyre whom hee preserued in the temple being proclaimed annointed and crowned king you held that the Pope might likewise rightly depriue a lawfull king for heresie both of his kingdome and life it doth lay open apparantly the wretchednesse of your cause For what can you say else then that a wicked woman who flew all Ochasias the kings ofspring one sonne only excepted and did vniustly vsurpe the kingdome was surprised and punished by the vndoubted and lawfull heire of the crowne the king being proclaimed and annointed and the crowne set on his head by the consent of the whole kingdome as you your selfe haue confessed But Iehoida the high priest commanded to put her to death not the king True but hee commanded it by the authoritie of the king not his own But the king you say was but a childe of seuen yeares of age but hee was no lesse a king at seuen yeares then if he had beene of seuentie yeares For age cannot take away the right of a kingdome which bloud hath giuen him Iehoida had Gods law mans law to approue his action But Iehoida when he commanded Athalia to be slaine in the kings name did it both by Gods law and mans law First he preserued the young king in the Sanctuarie being kept from the rage of Athalia and nourisht him secretly in the Lords house Againe hee was the chiefe of his Tribe as others were of theirs that hee might arrogate so much to himselfe as others might in the nonage of the king to pacifie the kingdome and to take vengeance vpon the vsurping Queene for the cruell tyrannie against the kings progenie Besides that his wife was the kings Ant and he was his neerest kinsman and therefore was bound both by the law of nature and nations to defend the kings right his age and innocencie Last of all whatsoeuer hee attempted was with the Kings authoritie and with the common counsell and consent of all the nobility For he conuented all the captaines and cheife Fathers of Israel vnto him into the house of God and made a couenant with them and exacted an Oath of them in the house of God and shewed the kings sonne vnto them And so being not only the high priest but chiefe also of his Tribe and neerest allie to the king nor with his owne but with the common counsell and consent of the Peeres nor commanded with his owne but with the kings authoritie that wicked Athalia iniustly vsurping the kingdome the kings ofspring being first murthered and extinguished to be cast from her kingdome and of her life What is this to the Pope to depose a lawfull king to be murthered by a rebellious people being first by excammunication deposed from his kingdome And whereas you bragge of Elias zeale who did not § 40 only answere king Ahab very stoutly but slew 400. Elias killed not Baals Priests of Iesabels false Prophets you tell vs of the act but you cunningly conceale
sense whereby the Prophets doctrine doth vnderstand that the kingdome of sinne should be rooted out and destroyed and the kingdome of vertue should bee planted and aduanced in the conscience § 44 We haue examined your examples whence you inferre a conclusion that ill hangs together first that Kings rightly created and annointed may rightly be put downe I answer that one of the Kings you named was put downe and that was Ahab not by Elias not by Elizeus but by Iehu whom God by his owne mouth raised vp by name The deposing therefore of the King was not effected by the Prophet but by a Prince by name appointed to that purpose What doth this helpe your cause Saul was not deposed it is manifest that his posteritie was cut of from the succession of the kingdome and not his person from the present possession Ierobâ—am was by the Prophet sharpely reproued not violently expelled Ozias as a Leper was remoued from the gouernment not the right of his kingdome Athalia was neuer rightly created and for the cruell murthering of the Kings of-spring was put to death not by the Priests but the Kings authoritie The second conclusion is very idle for what causes the Kings in fact are to be secluded What shall you neede to enquire for what causes they be deposed when you doe not proue they should bee deposed Athalia was taken away neither for apostacie nor heresie but because shee vsurpt the Crowne against the lawfull heyre apparant God commended the acts of Ozias but detested his pride Ieroboam both an Apostata and an Idolater and yet neuer set beside the cushion Achab the Idolater was cast of with all his race but by the Magistrate not by the Priest The causes therefore which you alledge helpe your cause no whit at all The last conclusion which concernes the persons of § 45 the deposers is very lame You say that God vsed the ministerie of the Prophets and the Priests to that purpose either ordinarie or extraordinarie as iudges and executors of Gods will God did vse the tongues as I said of the Prophets and Priests to foretell and denounce those plagues which God decreed to bring vpon those Kings and sometimes hee vsed their hands to annoint those whom by name he appointed to be the successors of the kingdome but hee neuer vsed them either ordinarie or extraordinarie either iudges or executioners of his will in deposing them He vsed them as messengers who with their liuely voice did deliuer Gods decrees to Kings either deposed or appointed by God other execution or authoritie they had none which is very farre from that power of the Pope whom you challenge to be the ordinarie Iudge Tutor and Corrector of Kings And doe you endure his ferula ô yee Kings will you kisse the rodd that hath so often paid you and by this your patience make your Tutor more curst and whip you the more But I come now to you Saturaine § 46 You haue not of my word you haue not one Priest or Prophet vnder the old Testament that deposed a King Kings deposed Priests but I haue a King that deposed a Priest Whom you will say Abimilech I speake not of Saul who slew Abimelech for taking part with Dauid I passe ouer Ioash the King who commanded Zachariah Zacharia Iehoidas sonne to be stoned to death forgetting his fathers virtue and dutie What say you to Salomon who displaced Abiathar the high Priest from his primacie and dignitie Abiathar because he followed Adoniahs faction being the elder brother When it would haue followed by your conclusion that Salomon was rather to be deposed because the High Priest thought Adoniahs right to the kingdome to be better then Salomons § 47 But whereas you added that Princes hold their soueraigne dignitie and authoritie receiued from God because truth drew that speech from you which falls out very seldom I accept it willingly and thence conclude that God alone hath the power of putting downe Kings who alone set them vp and that Kings are bound to giue accompt to God alone from whom they receiued that honour But whereas you make the end of supreme princely maiestie receiued of God to be the promoting of the true worship and honor of God and the reteyning of the people in the faith and feare of the Lord I maruell what it ment that when alwaies you denie that a King should meddle with spirituall affaires and busines now as if you were forgetfull of your owne minde Alanus you direct the chiefe end and scope of the Kings dignitie to set forward the worship of God to stirre vp others to honor his high Lord and to preserue the people in the faith and feare of God We accept of your grant but that which you adde that Priests and Prophets haue opposed them-selues against Kings in all those matters How Priests ought to oppose Princes which may bring either dishonor to God or ouerthrow to religion or damnation to soules I am affraid vnlesse you expound your selfe more plainly wee may not grant it vnto you For if you say they opposed themselues as men of God and did earnestly admonish them by word and counsell or else did sharply reproue such Princes we doe willingly acknowledge the freedome of their holy vocation but to take vpon them to be Iudges ouer Kings by their rule and authoritie and do either iudicially depriue them or violently inuade them we detest the pride of such a turbulent spirit But betweene God and the King there is a certaine § 48 couenant which alwaies is of force either openly or secretly Be it so The couenant between God and the King And what if the King do breake some article of the league who shall accuse him before what iudgement seate before what Iudge shall hee be endighted shall it be in the Court of the common people who for fashion sake haue made choice and accepted of the King or in the consistorie of a Bishop who hath annointed and consecrated him I see what you meane to answer a Bishop who hath conditionally annoynted him if he breake the condition and couenant made with God hath againe depriued him and hath shewed iustice against him in the name of God who hath abused his supreme authoritie The Scripture recites nineteene Kings of Israel and § 49 fourteene of Iuda No bad King of 33 deposed by a Priest who brake the couenant made with the Lord and worshipped strange gods and draue the people to apostasie shew me any one of them to be depriued by a Priest or a Prophet because they had broken their first couenant and take the cause if you cannot leaue of to tell an vntruth and to crosse your own speech whom wee euen now heard confessing that Kings doe hold their supreme authoritie receiued from God not then from a Priest not from the people and that therefore they are not bound if they breake their couenant to giue
Byshoppe and by the power and authoritie of the King § 180 There are some who foolishly compare these two together there are other who doe wickedly mingle them together so that one doth destroy the other which God hath most wisely ioyned together that one should helpe the other Now this spirituall power if you respect Christ Ephes 4. is monarchicall vnder him alone if men it is aristocraticall vnder many as wee shewed out of Paul The ciuill is of three sorts Either belonging to the People Princes or cheife King Which last when wee set foorth wee disgrace not the rest The duty of a Byshoppe It cannot be denied but that the byshoppe in his spirituall perfection and comfort doth excell the King for God doth not appoint the King but the byshoppe to bee the seedsman of his word the Messenger of his grace the disposer of the mysteries of his kingdome But in the outward authoritie and power of compelling the King doth excell the byshoppe while hee commandes that which God alloweth Neither do I so preferre the ciuill gouernment before the spirituall but do affirme that the same God who teacheth those that be simple and draw such as be willing by the mouth of the minister doth draw those that bee negligent and constraine such as be retractory by the sword of the magistrate whom the spirit and God of the spirits hath ordained to that purpose Yea truly they who set the ciuill gouernment behind the spirituall simply as the body behinde the soule and the flesh behinde the spirit do make a very fleshly comparison betweene Kings and Byshoppes vnlesse they imagine Byshoppes to be without bodies and Kinges without soules And who so inferre thereupon that a godly king cannot inflict a punishment vpon a wicked Priest doe deface holinesse in the King as a matter temporall and aduance wickednesse in a Priest as a matter spirituall And who thence conclude that a Christian King cannot promote holy rites by his lawes as well as a minister can by his doctrine and censure giue more without cause to the shauing of a Priest then to the character of Baptisme and do foolishly preferre priestly annointing before the Princely And they seeme not wel to vnderstand what those excellent lights of the world Constantine Iustinian Theodosius Valentinian Gratian Zeno Charles the great Lâ—wes his sonne and Lothary his nephew and many other Kings and Emperors did out of Gods word iustly commaund Byshoppes in causes ecclesiasticall and wherein they did obey Byshoppes as was made manifest before But the Byshoppe hath power from God to gouerne § 181 the Church as is before said therefore aboue the King in the gouernment of the Church I distinguish of the gouernment One was Inward Outward It is one thing to administer the inward another thing to order it In the administration of the inward gouernment a Byshoppe doth excell a King in the ordering of it a King doth excell a Byshop I confesse a Pastor is superiour in feeding so Carpenters in building and Mariners in sayling are aboue a Prince A Priest not aboue a Prince What then are they simply better It is a fallacy from that which is in part to that which is simply But the actions of a Byshoppe are more excellent then the workes of a King as the preaching of the word the administration of the Sacraments the remitting and retaining of sinnes Therefore a Byshoppe doth excell a King But the working and perfection of these things doth depend not vpon the arbitrement of the Byshop but the commandement of God August cont Cres lib. 4. c. 6. Ambros There is a double spirituall power 1 Ministeriall of men 2 Imperiall of God Therefore the credit of these actions must serue the glory of God not the honour of the Priest The spirituall worke is of God A Byshoppe great not in respect of his person but doctrine the bodily seruice is of the Minister Men in the remission of sinnes doe not exercise the right of power but doe exercise their Ministerie They pray God doth grant The ministerie is from men the gift from an heauenly power The reason therefore drawne from the perfection of heauenly graces in the Church to preferre the person of a Priest before the person of a Prince is very weake because the subiection due to the sword is annexed to the person of the Prince the worthinesse and power due to the key is not annexed to the person of the Byshoppe but to his doctrine § 182 By Gods law obedience is due to each For hee that saith keepe the commandement of the King saith likewise obey your Prelates who watch ouer your soules But we are to hold this that here are not to be vnderstood by Prelates Popes and Cardinalls who obtrude their owne inuentions vpon vs but holy and Christian Byshops and Pastors who deliuer the word of God vnto vs as the Apostle addeth for wee are not tyed to the decrees of Doctours but to the oracles of God Therefore the obedience required is not the outward subiection to the person of the Priest but an inward submission to the doctrin of Christ and an allowance and practise of the same For in respect of the person Byshoppes are called seruantes and their function is called a Ministery as I said Therefore the greatest King is bound to beleeue and obey the least seruant of God deliuering his Lords will And he oweth that subiection to the Lord not to his Messenger to his doctrine not to his person For hee commeth not in his own but in the Lords name which may be as truely said of the meanest Minister as of the greatest Byshoppe What a Byshop may do A Byshoppe therefore may teach a King that is ignorant may reproue him being an Hereticke as the Prophet did Ieroboam king of Iuda may admonish him being of a bad life as Iohn did Herod may correct him being a Tyrant as Elias did Ahab may reprehend him being otherwise good if hee doe openly and greeuously trangresse as Nathan did Dauid and depriue him of the sacrament of grace while he repent as Ambrose did Theodosius But whether he can remoue him from the companie of his faithfull subiects by excommunication it is a great question and diuersly discussed by the Fathers They who hold it may be done by the Byshop do denie for all that that the King by him may bee put from the obedience of his subiectes much lesse being excommunicated bee abandoned by his subiects and killed either by open force or secret treacherie as certaine of the popish sort doe hold I say certaine for the honester sort decree otherwise and commit the King to the Byshoppes cure submit him not to his Court. For the King is the Lords seruant and the Byshoppes Lord as I said before subiect to the Byshoppes pulpit not his consistorie that he may be directed by him not iudged by him A Byshoppe is appointed to perswade not compell not to gape
not preferre himselfe before the sea of Alexandria and Antioch but the sea of Constantinople tooke them both away and did not equall himselfe to the Romane but abolished the Romane for he was the vniuersall and onely Byshoppe and made the other not his fellow but his Vicar For other were not Byshoppes but his Vicars onely as hee imagineth Gregorie to haue thought Lib. 4. epist 36. Lib. 4. ep 34. For Gregorie thought by that title not to take away all Byshoppes but to diminish them or that other Patriarches had their honour abrogated but derogated nor that all other were put downe but that hee was set vp aboue all other neither did hee goe about that one thing that he alone should be but be alone in authoritie or that other should be no Byshoppes at all but that he should seeme a Byshoppe of better worth then the rest and that hee should ioyne them as parts to himselfe not cut them off and should bee among Byshoppes as Lucifer among the Angells who preferred himselfe before others tooke not others away So this vniuersall Byshoppe suffered other Byshoppes to bee but to be in subiection if wee beleeue Gregorie a better interpreter of his owne minde then Bellarmine And this did Boniface the third effect when Boniface tooke nothing to him by the grant of Phocas which Iohn did not claime by the grant of Mauritius That which Boniface tooke to himselfe Paul the 5. retaineth and that much more He doth retaine therefore a new prophane wicked § 111 blasphemous name c. as Gregorie thought while hee is called vniuersall Byshoppe It is well said and truely an euill head is a head of euills And euery euill as it is more generall is the worse And therefore an vniuersall euill is the greatest euill from whence all other euills are powred into the Church and Common-weale into the Church heresies into the Common-weale treasons while it vtterly lost the faith of Christ and trod vnderfoote the maiestie of the Emperour Lib. 4. Ep. 39. Gregorie foretould each of them For thus he said to Anianus to consent to this wicked name what is it else but to loose the faith And how much damage the faith hath sustained it shall appeare by those Articles of the faith which follow And to Mauritius he writ Epist 32. that who so delighteth in that name doth thereby set himselfe aboue the honour of the Emperour And how much damage the Empire hath sustained the lamentable endes of many emperours doth declare Regius our Councellor shall tell you who they were Gregorie as I said was a true alasse too true a Prophet And our learned interpreter of Gregorie the Byshoppe of Chicester said well that the vniuersall Byshop is for the Empire Lucifer for the Church Antichrist § 212 Yet Gregorie himselfe they say though hee liked not the vniuersall title he exercised the vniuersall iurisdiction Wherein they imagine Gregorie to be not truly holy but prophanely politicke like to Caesar who refused the name of a King as odious that hee might more cunningly exercise the authority of a King Therefore they counterfet a certaine Epistle of Gregorie thus indorst to Iohn Byshoppe of Siracuse To Iohn Byshoppe of Siracuse concerning the Byshoppe of Constantinople accused of a foule fault In the Epistle it selfe the Bizancen primate is said to haue beene accused of a certaine fault Gregor lib. 7. Epist 64. whom the most holy Emperour would haue iudged by vs according to the cononical decrees But the error of name Bizancene or Biazene deriued not from Bizantium the citie of Constantinople Glosse in Grati. edita à Greg 13 but from Bizatium a Prouince of Africa is amended in the glosse of the Cannon law which saith that Anselme and Gratian were deceiued in the inscription of the Epistle of Saint Gregorie An epistle suspected to be forged because Bizancene did not signifie the Patriarch of Constantinople but the Primate of Africa Which things giues vs iust cause to suspect that the Epistle is forged as another wherein they bring in Gregorie affirming that the Constantinopolitane Church is subiect to the Apostolick-sea Lib. 7. epi. 63. Lib. 2. de Rom. Pontific c. 14. as Eusebius the Byshoppe of the same sea doth confesse Which place Bellarmine citeth But in Gregories time none did sit in the sea of Constantinople but Iohn and Siricius who did vsurpe the title of vniuersall Byshoppe Nicephorus a witnesse in his tripartite historie Whereby it appeareth that a counterfeit Eusebius is brought in as a witnesse of the Romane prerogatiue A counterfet Eusebius and a bastardly Epistle deuised by some scribe who testified that Gregorie wrot that being dead which while he liued hee reprehended so earnestly not only in another but in himselfe When this deuise tooke no successe they tried another § 213 way Baronius Bellarmine That there were very many of Gregories Predecessors who did write themselues Byshoppes of the Catholicke Church that is of the vniuersall The vniuersall Byshoppe and Byshop of the vniuersall Church not all one And that it is all one to be called the vniuersall Byshoppe of the Church and Byshop of the vniuersall Church Wherein they haue not onely Costerus gaine-saying them in his Euchiridion and Lindane in his Panoplie in whose iudgement these differ the vniuersall Byshoppe and the Byshoppe of the vniuersall Church or that all ambiguitie may be taken away they deny it to bee one to be called the Byshoppe of the Catholicke Church that is vniuersall and Catholicke that is vniuersall Byshop of the Church And they will deny it Is it all one to say Tortus is a learned diuine of the schoole of Papia and a Diuine of the learned schoole of Papia Nothing lesse For in that proposition false praise is giuen to Tortus in this true to Papia So the Pope is the Catholicke Byshoppe of the Church is one thing and the Pope is the Byshoppe of the Catholike Church is another For in that proposition a counterfet title of the Pope in this the true name of the Church is expressed But Catholicke and Vniuersall are all one What then But these propositions be not all one The Pope of Rome is the Byshoppe of the catholicke Church i. of the vniuersall therefore the Byshoppe is vniuersall no more then these two propositions be all one The King of Spaine is the Catholike King therefore the vniuersall King Or thus The King of Spaine is the King of the Catholicke Church therfore he is King of the whole Christian world For the power ouer all Churches doth no no more belong to the Pope who is called Catholike then the power ouer all kingdomes belongeth to the King that is called Catholike § 214 Although this vniuersall Bishop challenge the cheife gouernment not onely ouer spirituall but ouer temporall causes also so that the power ouer all things is in the Pope the execution of that power is sayd to reside in Emperours and Kings which
A LOOKING-GLASSE FOR THE POPE Wherein HE MAY SEE HIS owne Face the expresse Image of ANTICHRIST Together with THE POPES NEW CREEDE containing 12. Articles of superstition and treason set out by Pius the 4. and Paul the 5. masked with the name of Catholike Faith Refuted in two Dialogues Set forth by LEONEL SHARPE Doctor in Diuinitie And translated by EDWARD SHARPE Bachelour in Diuinitie 1. KING 18. How long will you halt betweene two religions if GOD be GOD follow him if Baal be GOD follow him LONDON Printed by EDWARD GRIFFIN dwelling in the little old Bayly neere the Kings-head 1616. THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY to the most Reuerend Clergie of ENGLAND IT must not seeme strange most Reuerend Fathers in GOD and my much beloued Brethren if seeing the Captaines of Israel be gone forth to warre against Antichrist a Souldier of a meaner rancke moued with the goodnesse of the cause enter the battaile and ioyne himselfe to the standard For all doe see the Pope renew the old warres and cannot rest quiet but assayes by all meanes Papistas nostros nostras dicerem how he may recouer the possession of GREAT BRITAINE being lost and in a vaine hope thereof our Papists in the masculine I should haue said in the feminine but that I should seem to some to haue spoken false Latine are growne more in number and farre more insolent then they were wont heretofore Who then though he be the meanest seruant of Christ borne vnder or rather with the Gospell restored without which he would not deeme Paradise it selfe to be a pleasant Country would not resist and withstand to his teeth Antichrist himselfe renewing his forces and taking courage vnto him with such earnestnesse to recouer that seat from whence aforetime he was iustly cast out I was not ignorant what labours were to bee vndertaken what wronges were to be digested by them who enter combate and maintaine fight with so cruell an enemie so that it were better for them to be silent if they thought what were auaileable rather for their owne priuate then for the publicke estate of the Church of Christ But that which vsually falles out in warre that the tried prowesse of the Captaines doth by their ensample whet on the courages of the Souldiers and doth stirre vp and pricke forward their sluggish mindes to the effecting of some exploite The very same doth happen to Gods Ministers in this spirituall warfare to whom there is abilitie giuen from God to some greater to some lesse to all some Whereby though they can adde nothing to the matters in controuersie and it may bee they ought not because not new things are to be deliuered by Diuines but after a new manner as Vincentius wrot nor with a diuers faith but with a diuers stile as Austen warneth yet notwithstanding both by the consent of their testimony with the difference of their giftes and the varietie of discourse they can and ought giue their helping hand to the Gospell That was also an encouragement that assoone as the beast wounded with the kings speare began to grunt Bellarmine Parsons Pacenius Christano Becan Coquaeus and many others it presently cast vp out of his mouth a great swarme of Iesuites who should not so much refute with arguments as traduce with slanders written with the hand of scorpions the Kings maiestie being not onely the best of Kings but the best of men and vndoubtedly the true Defender of the Faith Right Heretickes who murther men not with the sword but with their wiles as Ierome writeth for a mans style may bee counted aswell a cutthroate as a sworde drawne against Kings whose honour seemes to be more deare and tender vnto them then their liues So that Iames Clement or Francis Rauillacke were no more cruell in wounding the Kings body then Bellarmine or Pacenius in wounding the Kings name It is said that Ethnicke Rome did imprint that letter whereof Cicero makes mention not to the table of iudges as diuers interpret it but as Cicero and Pliny to the head and forehead of false accusers to the leaden head and iron forehead that they may carry countenances as stigmaticall slaues branded with the markes of those letters in disgrace of their slanderous tongues whom Plautus doth therefore tearme litered men Truely it may seeme very vniust if I doe not desire that those Iesuits should be accompted litered whom popish Rome doth nourish and cherish within her as those old geese and dogges who by their cackling and barking did pursue any that assaulted the capitall Adde that those two staues whereof Zacharie the Prophet maketh mention the authority of Magistrates and the obedience and agreement of Subiects Za cap. 1. vers 7. calling the one the staffe of beauty the other the staffe of bondes These gracelesse Iesuits endeauour to breake them both making rebellion an Arittle of their faith wherein they goe so farre that they be not only conuinced of our side but euen of their owne For of late certaine secular Priests as they are called more moderate in shew then the rest that they may the more freely disperse abroad closly among vs the seedes of superstition do cunningly inueigh against the Articles of treason brought in by the Iesuits whenas Alan and many other secular Priests do both command and practise treason Our men therefore both as good Patriottes and as faithfull Ministers being bound with the double bond of warfare euery one of them for his Graces for his time and place much more for his power ought to oppugne both these Articles whereby we may maintaine according to our vocations the liberty of the kingdome vnder which we were borne together with the truth of the Gospell by which we were borne again Wherein the most learned Byshoppe of Elye doth very iustly taxe the Ministers that are luke-warme and silent in a businesse of such importance Epist Dedicat to the KING who do not bestow their paines in writing when as this cause as hee saith is to be reckoned among those wherein he that gathereth not with Christ doth scatter abroad with the enemie of Christ wherein if any man shall not deliuer his faithfull knowledg eâ—e shall not deliuer his owne soule And doth adde this that in such a busines you were better want power then will and abilitie then faithfulnesse Which I remember was sometime tould me of that most Reuerend Archbyshoppe D. Whitgift then when the quarrell on both sides was not so hot when hee wished that in so great a plenty of excellent Diuines among vs there were more that would imploy their spare times from their duty of preaching in the paines of writing I am come therefore into the fielde being thereto prouoked with the goodnesse of the cause the ensample of the Captaines the iniury of the enemie the Oath of warfare the encouragement of the Fathers that I might somewhat daunt the enemie insulting so vnworthily To which purpose I thought good to set this taske
Images The Popes imagine that they be Masters of abstinence and continencie when for conscience sake they forbidde meates and marriages when as in truth they bring in the doctrine of deuills as S. Paul teacheth They doe not intend so you will say The murtherer doth not intend to kill his Father but his enemie but in stead of his enemie hee killeth his Father in the darke shall we say hee killed not his father but his enemie because he intended not his fathers but his enemies death which if it be absurd to speake in this outward darknes do we not thinke it as absurd in this inward darknesse of the soule if any man say that he doth worship God when hee doth worship the Dragon because hee doth intend to worship God not the Dragon Therefore the Emperours and the Popes doe agree in a third that is in worshipping the Dragon from whom they haue receiued their power Adde hereto that the Pope in whom the image of the first beast doth reuiue and liue againe as shall appeare afterward while he driueth men to worship himselfe it may be said that he doth compell them to worship the image of the first beast from whence thus I dispute He that compelleth men to worship the image of the first beast is Antichrist The Pope doth compell men to worship the image of the first beast The Pope therefore is Antichrist CHAP. XV. The decayed Emperour reuiued by the Pope 5 FOR shee is said to cure and heale the deadly blow of the former beast and to restore to him a spirit and a voice That I may not be longer about those things which are so copiously vnfolded by others the Empire tooke a deadly wound in Augustulus The Empire dead which was the last Emperour of the East from whom the Empire lay as it were dead for 325 yeeres till it was restored againe by the Pope and receiued as it were new life in Charles the Great as Bellarmine doth vauntingly confesse For he saith That the Pope did translate the Empire first from the Greekes to the French reuiued afterward to the Germaines and appointed that the choice of the Emperour should be made by seauen Electors on that condition that the confirmation and inauguration of the Emperour so chosen should belong to the Pope that by this meanes that dead head might seeme to liue and flourish againe by the spirit of the Pope But reseruing to himselfe the power of the Empire hee left the title to the Germaines Cap. 15. de mira Anti as Bellarmine doth vnaduisedly confesse that Antichrist shall be the last that shall enioy the Romane Empire without the name or title of the Romane Emperour The Emperor but titular And therefore the Germane Emperour in respect of his power is only Titular for the Pope hath not only deriued to him the spirituall power but the temporall also therefore the state of Antichrist is the liuely image of the old Empire The Germaine Empire is not now the Empire but the title and dead ghost of the Empire to whom the Pope giueth spirit that is authoritie and a voice that is his Edicts when he giueth life to the Emperour by his confirmation To what end I pray you â— that it may sustaine and vphold the Popes Seate wherein the power of the Empire doth reside without a name according to Iohns Prophecie Hence the Germane Emperour is called the Procurator and protector of the Apostolicall See I dispute then thus Antichrist is the restorer of the old Romane Monarchie witnes S. Iohn The Pope of Rome alone is the restorer of the old Romane Monarchie Bellarmine not onely witnessing it but glorying in it The Pope of Rome therefore alone is Antichrist CHAP. XVI Of bringing downe fire from heauen BVt Bellarmine doth expound this place according to the letter as that likewise of bringing downe fire from heauen Antichrist saith he and the Antichristian Church doth make the image of the Beast to liue and speake But the Pope and the Popish Church did neuer make the image of the Beast to liue and speake Therefore the Pope is not Antichrist Besides Antichrist saith he doth cause fire to come from heauen in the sight of men The Pope did neuer bring downe fire in the sight of men The Pope therefore is not Antichrist The proposition of the former syllogisme taken literally is not S. Iohns proposition for not the image of euery beast is to take life from Antichrist but the image of the first Beast that is of the Romane Empire which the Pope in name and title renued in the Emperour in strength and power retained in himselfe And therefore hee peruersely collecteth out of Iohn that power is giuen to Antichrist to giue life and frame speeches to Images which may seeme as credible to sober men Popish false miracles as that the picture of Memnon being enlightned by the Sunne beames spake very plainely as Tacitus reporteth But grant it be so the assumption literally taken agreeth with the Pope and the popish Synagogue if ye beleeue the Legend How often by them are images counterfeited to moue to sweat to nodd to speake in the sight and opinion of simple people that they may be allured to the worship of those Saints whose images they be There was some wonder toward as oft as the image began to speake Martialis The Deuill did often speake in the images of the Ethnicks but a Priest in the images of the Papist that hee may seeme to take the Deuils turne in deluding of men I retort therefore this argument Whatsoeuer Church doth make images to speake in the opinion of men is Antichristian But the popish Church doth make images to speake in the opinion of men Therefore the popish Church is Antichristian 6. Now I come to Bellarmines latter syllogisme if first I shall explaine the sixt action of the Beast Shee worketh great signes so that she maketh fire to descend from heauen in the sight of men The Beast that is Antichrist doth worke great miracles v 13. which blessed Paul calls lying signes and wonders 1. in respect of the end because they serue to seduce men Ioh 14. 2. in respect of the matter for they be either the counterfeytings of lying men or the wonders of deceitfull spirits as Augustine speaketh 3. In respect of the forme for whereas true miracles doe exceede nature and are wrought by the omnipotent power of God false wonders are they which are partly effected by naturall causes partly by the power of Sathan Bellarmine doth well agree with vs in all False miracles The miracles of the first and second kinde haue been infinite in the darke kingdome of Antichrist the apparition of Spirits the visions of Angells our Ladie how often hath shee come gliding out of heauen how often haue the miserable soules crept puling out of Purgatorie besetting high-wayes and recounting their torments to procure men to pittie them hence the market of
Purgatorie is growne very gainefull and the bargaines about sinnes very profitable Then could the Images walke a foote then could the Bells strike alone without helpe then could the Angells like Quoristers chant it out in Canterburie Minster and play vpon Dunstans Harpe then could the Apostles come downe from heauen to helpe Basill to say Masse These lying miracles were faigned by cheating knaues to confirme strange lyes and to cozen simple people of their coine For how often hath a spirit being apprehended by the Magistracie and an Angell stript and our Ladie sent to her Cell been all of them notably whipt Soules so whipt with rodds that they had rather beene in Purgatorie So they couerd all their tricks and conueyances their kinde of deceit and their manner of working with the feare of punishment Of these miracles Paul spake which being meerely false had a shew of miracles but not the power being the deuises of cogging companions There were other miracles of deceiueable spirits which were wrought partly by the force of naturall causes partly by the power of Satan So that that Synagogue seemed to be another Canidia Antichrist doth make fire to descend from heauen in the view of men saith S. Iohn that is in the opinion of men as they imagine Whether that be taken mystically or literally let vs in a word consider Fire according to the Scripture descends mystically either when God doth approue the religion and sacrifices of his seruants How fire descends from heauen in the Scripture as of Abel and Elias or when God doth by an extraordinarie fashion send downe the graces of the Spirit into their hearts as in the fiery tongues or when God did cast downe fire from heauen moued by the prayers of his seruants as of Elias to destroy his enemies Three sorts of fire 1. Is the fire of sacrifice 2. The fire of grace 3. The fire of Reuenge In all these Antichrist is Gods Ape For he hath confirmed and approued the sacrifice of the Masse and Transsubstantiation with miracles The Masse confirmed by a false miracle witnesse that pillar of fire from heauen falling to the earth euen vpon that place where by the negligence of the Priest as the Legend reports the bodie of God fell out of the pixe vpon the grasse that pillar of fire shining like the Sunne was about the bodie of God so that all the beasts of the field except a blacke Horse which bended but one of his leggs bended all their foure leggs to the bodie Which miracle I haue brought out of the Legend that I might gratifie Bellarmine who knowes that beasts then were well nurtured like to his leane iade that forgetting to eat his meat did adore the sacrament vpon his knees which the beasts had not done if God forsooth had not brought downe the fiery pillar from heauen whereby they might haue discerned the bodie of God lying vpon the grasse Adde hereto that Antichrist doth bestow the grace of the spirit sanctification vpon his Agneit Dei his hallowed graines his holy water and his bells as Primasius hath it Further hee striketh his enemies with vengeance from God as it were with fire fallen from heauen but that in the conceit of men that they whom Antichrist his furie doth daunt may seeme to be wounded with heauenly reuenge as it were with fire falne from aboue Which whether it be true of the flash of excommunication which the Pope who is called the God of reuenge casts abroad let Kings looke to it whose kingdomes haue been often set on fire by such popish lightning But to excommunicate a King is say they no miracle But so to excommunicate a King that you cast him out of his kingdome and release subiects from the obedience of their Kings it is a great miracle that either Kings are so patient to endure or Subiects so madde to beleeue Wherefore this is not materiall fire but mysticall brought downe from heauen by Antichrist in the sight of men not that he doth so indeed but that he seemeth so to doe Although if the literall sense doe more content you I haue found out Gregorie the seuenth Gregor the 7. miracle that notable enchanter who could strike fire out of his bosome as oft as he listed Thus I infer Whosoeuer in the conceits of simple men doth seeme to bring downe reuenging fire out of heauen is Antichrist This the Pope doth and hath done Therefore the Pope is Antichrist CHAP. XVII Of the Popes Character I Proceede The Beast is sayd to imprint his character vpon all both great and small to bee carried either in their fore-head or their right hand Wherein he doth peruersly follow Christs character which GOD doth imprint vpon his seruants subiection to Christ and the acknowledging of him to bee their head and Sauiour And it is partly inward partly outward Christs character of two sorts The inward character is true faith imprinted vpon the soule by the spirit of God whereby we beleeue that Christ is our onely Redeemer The outward character is the confession of the mouth the operation of the hands And therfore a Christian doth beare the marke of God in his heart by faith in his fore-head by profession Rom. 10. in his hand by working as S. Paul hath expounded besides that the two sacraments are the seales of faith the witnesses of profession and the practises of holinesse The diuers characters of the Pope In like sort Antichrist hath a marke proper to himselfe of his owne which he doth imprint and brand the Antichristians withall Which character hangs vpon his name and his name vpon his state Of the first Beast that is of the Romane or Latine monarchie The seauen formes of gouernment among the Romanes there were seauen heads that is seuen kingly formes of gouerning the common-weale 1. Kings properly so called 2. Consuls 3. Decemviri 4. Tribunes of souldiers 5 Dictators 6. Emperors properly called 7 Antichrist The state of the Beast is Romane or Latine Therefore the character of the Beast is a note of difference whereby all they are discerned from all other who are of the Romane or Latine Religion whom we tearme Papists And the subiection to the Pope of Rome as to their head and the acknowledging of that See the inward and outward marke of Antichrist The double marke or character of Antichrist The inward marke is that implicite faith which I toucht before The outward marke is that outward profession of the mouth and the conformity of life to the Popes lawes as the obseruation of the heathenish rights was called the character of the Greekes which is made perfect by the sacraments of confirmation and order inuented by the Pope And Antichrist doth so imprint all his with the marke of the Beast that hee will suffer none to buy or sell except they be branded with the Beasts marke So euery Papist is a stigmaticke otherwise he cannot hold his house
of those ten hornes which in his time had not attained the Kingly soueraignety Daniel speakes of the ten kings of the race of Seleucus and Lagis who by turnes successiuely succeeded one another in the Kingdome Iohn speakes of tenne Kings among whom the Romane Empire was to bee diuided who gouerned at one time in diuers prouinces Daniel tels vs what the little horne which was the tenth did doe to the three next foregoing without mention of the rest Iohn tels vs what the ten hornes shall doe to Antichrist which is not one of the tenne hornes but one of the seuen heads of the Beast Daniels king is a tenth horne pointing out one singular man Iohns king is not to bee accompted an eleuenth horne but a head and signifies not one singleman but a state Daniels tenne hornes rose out of the ruines of the Macedonian Empire Iohns ten hornes out of the ouerthrow of the Romaine Empire So that there is no likenesse betweene Daniels hornes and Iohns Dan. 7.8 but that in either of them they were ten Daniels ten hornes if you consider the chronologie were broken fell off many ages before Iohns ten hornes did appeare that is before they receiued kingly power with the Beast the Romane Empire being destroyed Those ten hornes if you consider cosmographie beare rule in Syria and Babylon out of these ten hornes wherein a certaine number is set for an vncertaine as our men haue prooued one had the Kingdome of France another of Spaine another of Great Britaine and other in other nations and kingdomes Those ten hornes after the captiuity and before the comming of Christ did oppresse Iury scituated betweene them These hornes being conuerted by Christ triumphing in the heauens shall at the last wound and strike thorow that double horned Beast of Rome O cunning Chronologie and skilfull Cosmographie BELLARMINE that can so well distinguish the places and times of each prophesie CICERO did in open place iestingly taxe a certaine Poet Bellarmine well compared who was very foolish in the iudgement of others but very learned in his own that in one place made Euripides and Menander and in another Socrates and Epicurus haue conference together whose liues were seuered not by many yeares but many ages and that he had many Schooles in the world that had as little learning as himselfe He did as wittily sport at other writers who said that Numa was Pythagoras scholler when Pythagoras was borne diuers ages after Numa But another most pleasantly said that by the ignorance of a foolish Historiographer he was made a Babilonian of a Grecian and that his Countrey being cut off from Hellespont with the very wales and towers and people were carried into Mesopotamia These mens ignorance Bellarmine seemeth very well to expresse who brings in Kings of Siria long dead conuersing with many Kings of Europe borne a thousand yeares after transporting Europe into Asia Absurdities out of Bellarmines interpretation and Paris to London and the seates of other Kings and Princes who fell from the Romane Empire together with their subiects into Hierapolis and Babylon That I can hardly refraine from crying out that this learned Historiographer will one day bring to passe that The Parthian shall drinke Araris the German Tygris A man may easily slippe in the mistaking of a yeare or yeares but it is a foule fault to confound an age or ages together which this learned Doctour hath committed But I know his answer that he had rather erre with certaine fathers then hould a truth with vs. Let vs now see the returne of that terrible demonstration fetcht out of Daniels corrupt interpretation If the Romane Empire bee not as yet altogether ouerthrowne Antichrist is not yet come For the destruction of the Romane Empire is a certaine token fore-running the comming of Antichrist as it appeares out of Daniel who speakes neuer a word either of the desolation of the Romane Empire or of the comming of Antichrist But the Romane Empire is not so vtterly ouerthrowne Therefore Antichrist is not yet come The generall ouerthrow of the Romane Empire hee thus proueth out of Daniel If before the comming of Antichrist the Romane Empire be to be diuided into ten Kings whereof none is or is called the King of the Romanes then Antichrist is not yet come For the generall ouerthrow of the Empire is not come because the name remaineth The first is true Therefore the last is true He proueth the assumption out of Daniel What be the two feete and ten toes out of the first vision of the 2. feete and out of the second of the ten hornes of the beast without a name For as two feete haue ten toes which are not feete and as the ten hornes are not the beast so the Romane Empire shall be diuided into ten Kings whereof none is the King of the Romanes O full wittily as hee thinkes But Daniels two feete are not the esterne and westerne Empires of Rome but Ptolomeus Lagis and Seleucus Nicauor Alexanders Princes as I said before And the ten hornes of the beast are not ten Kings rising out of the ruine of the Romane Empire but ten Seleucides as toes springing out of those feete after the destruction of the Macedonian Empire whence foure hornes arose in Alexanders place as I shewed before which fell afterward to bee two feete Hath not Bellarmine prooued the assumption doubtely well out of Daniel But he hath shewed it I warrant you better afterward out of Iohn For those ten hornes in Iohn are ten Kings among whom the Romane Empire is diuided I grant it Neither so shall I loose the cause But that is not set downe by Iohn which Bellarmine addeth whereof none is or is called the King of the Romanes The cleane contrary is set downe by Iohn as I prooued before As the Romane Empire was to be taken away as Paul taught Why the Romane Empire restored so farre forth as it hindered the reuealing and gouernment of Antichrist So a new Empire as the picture of the old was to bee restored of the land-beast chap. 13. i. of Antichrist that the whore of Babylon might sit vpon her backe chap. 17. One of the two heades of the sea-beast i. the westerne Empire of Rome dead in Augustulus reuiued in Charles by the land-beast that is Antichrist got life againe and gathered strength and therefore it was not finally ouerthrowne The image of the first beast recouered life and voice and therefore did not altogether loose her power and name The image of the old Empire got life againe the name remained the thing it selfe perished not but past ouer from the chiefe secular Prince to the chiefe spirituall prince as Aquinas teacheth So as Antichrist was the last state that held the Romane Empire without the name of the Romane Emperour as Bellarmine confesseth Therefore the Pope did transfer the Maiesty and the power of the Romane Empire to himselfe and hath left a
bare name and title to the Emperour that the Emperour might be like him The power of the Empire in the Pope the name in the Emperour A Bishoppe in name and an Emperour in name Indeed the Bishop infringeth the faith of Christ professeth his name and seemes his Vicegerent A substitute in name but a reall Aduersarie So the maiestie of the Emperour resides in the Pope the title in the Emperour Then the titulare Emperour is the Popes reall vassall Let him be called and you will the King of the Romanes to whom the Pope hath not left one foote of land in all Italie So that the old Romane Empire in substance and power is so diuided betweene the Kings and the beast that it is extinguished vnlesse happily you would haue the Empire consist not in the number of landes but of sillables I retort therefore the argument that I may ouerthrow the assumption of the first syllogisme which he tooke for granted that the Romane Empire was not yet subuerted The prophecie of Saint Iohn hath taught vs that the Romane Empire is to be diuided and determined as Bellarmine saith and then that Antichrist shall come Euent proueth that the Empire is a good while since ouerthrowne Therefore Antichristi come CHAP. XXXI Wherein the third demonstration is refuted BEllarmines two former demonstrations as 2. reedes we haue broken in peeces let vs if you please breifely scatter the rest being fully refuted by others Any man will see how weake they be being seuered I haue vnited them that they might bee the stronger two of the signes accompanying and two other following being as notably concluded whereby he prooueth that Antichrist is not as yet come The first signe that doth accompanie the comming of Antichrist is not only the preaching of Enoch and Elias but their combate with Antichrist Wherein Bellarmine doth greatly doat not vnlike a franticke woman among vs who imagined shee had such inward acquaintance with the Angell Gabriel that she receiued many letters from him to be deliuered to many others about diuers businesses I thinke Elias was the Carrier And wee haue such an other mad fellow sent to giue light vnto the world These seeme not to be so mad as Bellarmine who as if he had conferred with Enoch and Elias three daies since in Paradise The fable of Enoch Elias or at least had receiued letters from them doth hold so fast and tell so confidently that Iewish fable receiued from others that he seemes to beleeue it it is this that both of them being reserued so many ages in a certaine aëreall paradise liuing in their mortall bodies shall returne into the world to fight with Antichrist and shall be slaine by him and both of them shall rise againe the third day before the generall resurrection and by that miracle conuert the Iewes and enforce them to kill Antichrist their Messias as they thought in the mount of Oliues and to embrace Christ at the last their true Messias To proue the truth of all these passages Bellarmine hath misreported diuers testimonies out of the Scripture and fathers all which the most excellent and learned King of great Britaine hath so wrested out of the hands of the silly weake Doctour that in the iudgement of all learned men hee seemes to haue wonne the cause It is not needfull then to discusse those testimonies againe that I may not doe that which is done alreadie all which are restored by the King to their naturall and proper sense so that from thence I may fetch arguments to pursue the beast being wounded with the Kings weapon All godly learned men will grant that these two holy Prophets for their singulare holinesse had an especiall priuiledge from God when one of them Heb. 11. that is Enoch was translated that he should not see death the other was taken vp in a fiery chariot into Heauen Let me therefore aske Bellarmine certaine questions for my learning that I may search out the truth of this busines not only for the refuting of the fable but for comforting of the Church The first question First therefore I demand where Enoch and Elias be at this present Bellarmine answeres and that confidently in Paradise What are they in that Paradise A discourse of Paradise wherein Adam was placed at the first which Moses describes to be planted by God in the region of Eden a place so full of delights watered with a great riuer from whence foure other great and noble riuers did flow Out of which he makes mention that Adam was expelled a dreadfull Cherubine being set to stoppe the entrance that none of Adams posterity may euer reenter where the Armenians condemned afterward for Hereticke in the Florentine counsell did say that the soules of the Saints did abide after death to the day of iudgement yea saith Bellarmine in the very same Paradise Enoch and Elias are reserued aliue Enoch Elias haue a losse by being in Paradise and loosing heauen A great priuiledge forsooth that when other Saints the citizens of heauen doe liue with God these for so many ages bee kept out of heauen by God That wee may grant that Paradise is as well planted and delightsome a place as euer it was wherein with the smell of flowers and fruit the sweetnesse of fountaines the greenesse of the fields the chanting of birds the melodie in the woodes the shadow of trees they might delight themselues so many ages Yet for all that Paradise could not be so pleasing vnto them that it could content them for the losse of one day wherein they were depriued of heauen Ecclesiasticus corrupted For whereas Bellarmine proues out of the Apocryphal scripture of Ecclesiasticus that Enoch was translated into Paradise he had said somewhat if Paradise had not beene foisted into the Apocryphall text for though it bee in the Latine vulgare translation yet it is not in the Greek originall But what will hee answere for Elias whom the canonicall Scripture doth plainly set downe to bee taken vp into heauen not as it were into heauen but into heauen it selfe He cannot denie that which many sober Papists do grant that God in the Scripture did pubblish his decree concerning Elias in uery plaine wordes vnlesse happily in Bellarmines opinion when God had determined to take Elias vp into heauen he suddainly changed his minde and cast him into Paradise Elias therefore doth so much the more greeuously take the losse of heauen as he was neere enioying of it Paradise taken away and mist it But if Paradise which was sometime a most pleasant and delightsome place hath beene a long time since taken away what comfort then is left to Enoch and Elias wherewith they might comfort themselues for the want of heauen Now to let passe other Papists Pererius the Iesuite doth in many wordes proue that Paradise was ouerflowne with the flood and grew so wilde and vnwholesome that although it was a place yet it
and tell you must bee necessarily made against my Church for you are like to haue Christ himselfe against you in the field I know full well that lately at Rome as often before a cōuenticle of Priests haue bin gathered together by the Pope of Rome and Sathans command to deface and diminish my glory That they tooke counsell wherein the Popish Kings and Princes were in a league confederated among themselues against the Protestant Kings and Princes chiefely against IAMES the King of Great Britanny who concluded the Pope to be Antichrist and as hee rightly inferred Popish Kings and Princes were the members of Antichrist that the common cause were to be maintained by common forces that he sent in his Priests who might prouoke his sons as hee calles them to wage warre against my seruants The Kings therefore of the Reformed Religion haue more neede imposed by Antichrist to fulfill the prophesie and to fight Gods warre and vnite their forces and powers against that double horned Beast the Pope For I thinke that popish Kings haue learnt more wit at the last then to put in execution the bloody and cruell counsell of the Beast They know that the first Beast bore it not scot free whose ten hornes were sayd to bee crowned because it spilt the innocent blood of my seruants For the very same power of the Empire which did condemne mee being borne into the world the Prince of your saluation and fasten mee vpon the crosse the same did endeauour to ouerthrow the Primitiue Church with ten persecutions How I did reuenge the death of my Saints vpon the authors thereof how I did cut off some of the Emperors by mutuall fights how did I comsume the people with continuall plagues how I did deuoure the cities with floodes and earth-quakes how I strucke and dispersed whole armies with thundrings and lightnings cast from heauen their stories doe well declare As many creatures as I had so manie viols I had of my raging wrath which I powred out vpon mine and my seruants enemies But some of you will saie Those were Pagans that did kill and Christians that were killed wee are Catholikes which doe punish they are heretickes which are punished They are as certainly hereticks as you are Catholiks You Catholiks I wold you were Christians they be not words but deeds must make this good You carrie the name of Christ I confesse but you plaie the Pagans vnder the name of Christ Are they heretickes True as I am an hereticke that call all things to the rule of the Word But Antichrist doth alleadge Scripture also true as the Diuell did alleadge them misvnderstood Who as he enticed the Iewes to kill me shadowed out and promised in the Propheticall Scriptures to bee the Messias so he hath moued manie Catholikes in name in truth most hereticall heretickes the bond slaues of Antichrist to burne both my seruants and their books and they blot out as much as lay in them by their cunning and their power the faith and the Church whose quarrell I often reuenged with a high hand stretched from heauen I will giue you one notable example After that the Counsell of Constance had condemned to the fire those two my seruants Hu◠and Hierome the Pope sent two Erinnes into Germanie the Cardinall of Winchester and the Cardinall of Saint Angelo who when they had called backe Sigismund the Emperour from making warre against the Turkes they incited him to beare armes against the Bohemians the new professours of my Gospell and brought into the field three other great Germane Princes with all their forces will you heare the issue of their whole fight passage The Bohemians leuy an armie come into the fielde strike vp the alarum they had scarce come to handy gripes but the King and the Princes being stroke with a causlesse suddaine feare in their rage crying out to their souldiers to stand to it and fight did cowardly and beastly flie away fiue times they made inrodes into Bohemia and fiue times they were discomfited And so not long after three seuerall Popes the Authors of this tragedy and those two diuilish Cardinalls not without great shame and sorrow came to a fearefull end In all which occurrences hee that doth not behold the hand of God is blinde he that doth not feare it is wicked I passe ouer that inuincible Spanish Armado which being gathered together by the instigation of Priests was dispersed by the windes swallowed vp by the seas and brought to confusion by the hand of God What do you thinke that Gods hand is shortened or doe you thinke that God hath left off to defend his seruants Infinite be the examples of Gods power which God hath shewed both in former ages and often in this present age in the defence of the Church against her mightiest enemies Let thinges to come be taught by things past And if those former tyrants or those that followed had gone vnpunished for their wickednesse there had beene cause for Antichrist with all his faction to haue reioyced in their sinne there had beene some reason that the Kings of the earth had promised to themselues impunitie who had bestowed all their might in building vp and enlarging the Kingdome of the two horned beast Now that I haue first crackt and broken to peeces the ten crowned and bloody hornes and after haue scattered both by land and sea the smokie slaues of the second beast what at last shall become of Antichrist is declared in the sixt seale But what in the mean time may Antichrists souldiers hope for who being set on fire by these fire brandes did turne all their forces to do mischiefe I doe aduise you therefore yee popish Kings and Princes that ye depart out of Babylon as fast as you can then that being conuerted to me you make warre with vnited forces in the quarrell of the Church against Antichrist at least that you giue no eare to these Syrenes or Erinnes which will bring destruction both to your soules and bodies On my word the Byshoppe of Rome and the great Antichrist are termes conuertible The decree of God standes fast for euer that the Byshoppe shall be consumed by those Kings by whom he was adored You cannot serue mee and the Pope with whom peace being made by you see if it be not to be called peace rather then a compact of slauerie From whence if I cannot drawe the popish Kings and Princes I will for all that warne you yee Kings and Princes Protestants that you preferre a holy warre before a wicked league with the Pope and think those armes to be holy when there is no hope left but in armes And take heede that being deceiued with an opinion of a false peace you bee not on a suddaine brought to ruine I wish you may bee at peace with neighbour Kings and neighbour Kings with you but at no hand haue peace with the Romane Antichrist Why so it is wicked it is dangerous it cannot hold
you for all the sorrowes they haue endured For what else could haue extorted that Law from so mercifull a Queene which you ere-while blamde as bloody For your Iesuites after the sending in of Pius the fifts Bull came swarming into England as Campion Parsons and many others and did mightily labour to put that Bull in execution and did propound it as the thirteenth Article of their faith That there was no more obedience to be shewed to a Queene excommunicated The seditious doctrine of Iesuites gaâ— that seuere law when it came to practise and deposed then presently followed the rebellion in the North. It was therefore your seditious doctrine that begat so seuere a law Your schoole hath made the Catholike doctrine of Rome a Catechisme of rebellion Your Logicke first made a Papist and a Traytor to be all one your Societie was the first ouerthrow of the Roman-Catholikes estate For your Papists behaued themselues quietly for the first eleuen yeeres while Pius the fift that old credulous dotard was induced by the false whisperings of the English Catholikes as they call them shewing that their powers were so strong that they could resist the Queenes forces had excommunicated the Queene by his Bull and depriued Her of her kingdome and had released her subiects from the Oath of their Allegeance and being so released stirred them vp to take armes against Hir. But the old man quickly found his error and corrected it with his dispensation that the Papists to redeeme their troubles so hee speaketh should shew outward obedience to Queene Elizabeth but restreyned with two conditions one things so standing thother while the publike execution of the Bull might be performed that is to say while they had so much power as by force they might ouercome the Queene Rebellion among Iesuites is an article of faith Hence among the cases of conscience brought into England by you sprang out the 55 Article Where a Catholike being demanded Doe you beleeue that the Pope can put the Queene from her authoritie he is taught to answer notwithstanding any feare of death I do beleeue it For this question doth appertaine to faith and requires a confession of faith Behold your Catholike faith which this present oath is said by the Pope to crosse it is the chiefe head of Iesuitisme which we may call the marrow of Poperie And are you now in a chafe Saturnine that a few Iesuites are hangde vp for Traytors who make treason an article of their faith And doe you not thinke the King hath a iust cause to take away their heads Alaâ—us who haue with such coniuring bewitched the consciences of subiects that they thinke that warre holy iust and honorable which is raised against their Prince But what if they were not only messengers and masters § 8 but authors and actors of rebellion The Iâ—suites and authors and actors of rebellion and haue entred into the most cruellest conspiracy that euer was since the creation not onely to depose the King and absolue his subiects but to rase out the King and Kingdome and to blot out the English nation and to root out the men out of the earth for euer and that not the guilty onely but the innocents also according to that olde tyrannicall practise Cicero pro Diatore Let our friends perish so our enemies perish also And they would haue the Catholikes with heretickes The Martyrdome of the Kingdome of England as wee seeme to you the noble with the ignoble and the fathers to bee Martyrs with their sonnes For what else was that gun-powder treason deuised by you but the Martyrdome of the King and Kingdome § 9 Then Saturnine you doe great wrong to the Iesuites saith he whom you faine to bee the Authors of Catesbies conspiracy for that which they heard onely vnder the seale of confession thought it was meet to bee concealed about the martyrdome of the kingdome as you call it which God wote hurt no body being only deuised and not performed Garnet therefore the chiefe Iesuite did wrong to the Iesuites saith Patriotta who when himself had nourished that euill humor in Catesby whom hee would haue to bee the head and heart of the whole conspiracy a right Cateline and an apt scholler who concluded by a very wicked consequence out of the bull of Clement the eight wherein the Pope had excluded the King being an hereticke as hee writ from entrance into the Kingdome concluded I say that being entred he was by all meanes possibly to bee expelled out of that wicked proposition which now is in question hee suckt out that most pestilent poyson of that vnheard-of treachery But when Garnet would haue him the cheife worke-man in this conspiracy hee ioyned vnto him diuers other counsellers out of his owne tribe nay out of his owne bosome And lest that liuing messe of Iesuites being singularly inspired with the spirit of the Pope of Rome Garnet Greenwell Gerard. Parsons should lay the whole fault vpon a Lay-traitor now dead let it be vnderstood that it was confest by Garnet being now ready to die vnder his hand by a voluntarie confession Hee writ that Greenwell with Catesby was heard of him The Traytor betraies himselfe not confessing but consulting That Greenwell with Gerard were not onely authors but actors who declared their guiltinesse of the fact by their flight That Baldwine and Parsons were acquainted with it whereof he set on Fauxe that Fire brand in Germany The other made acquainted by him of the villanous treachery came flying against the day out of Italie into Lyons in France as it were on pilgrimage to S. Winefreds well as a crow to carrion that like another Nero hee might with a detestable pleasure neerer behold the fire most furiously consuming each part of his country But this Martyrdome of the King and Kingdome as you call it was not brought to effect What then As though we are ignorant that Antichrist doth deliuer many to death and doth assigne many more That hee doth thirst after more blood then he doth spill We were all Martyrs in your intention but not in execution That the mischeefe was deuised we attribute it to your malice that it tooke no effect to Gods mercy Which mooued the neuer-suspecting heart of the King the most mildest of all that are haue beene or shall be that out of those letters whereof little reckoning was made he smelt out the kind of danger and I may almost say the verie gun-powder it selfe and so was made an instrument of the publike safetie Hence riseth a double bond one that bindeth the King to God the other that more neerely for euer bindeth vs to the King There is no want either of counsell and care to the King and his prudent and faithfull Counsellers but when neither care nor counsell can preuent such blinde and secret conspiracie both thankes are to be giuen to God for our deliuerance past whereof I doubt wee
vsurper of the Kingdome which had murthered all the Kings Progeny What is this to the Pope that hee may depose a lawfull Prince with his Bishoply authority And whereas you propounded Elias zeale to bee imitated by you Patriott answered truely that your zeale was too fiery and would proue too preposterous vnlesse you could prooue you had Elias speciall instinct And when you said that Achab was remooued from his Kingdome by Elias or Elizeus it is partly true partly false It is true that you say he was remooued but by Iehu whom one of the sonnes of the Prophets did annoynt by Gods speciall commandement which God gaue to Elizeus that Iehu should roote out all the posterity of Achab. Hee was not therefore deposed by Elias or Elizeus but by Iehu whom God had raised vp by name extraordinarily for that purpose Neither did the sonne of the Prophet when hee annoynted Iehu beginne thus thus sayth Elizeus but thus saith the Lord. This doth no whit help the popes cause that Patriott did somtime scatter abroad your arguments as brooms that are not bound together and enforced him as a cripple with a broken legge to halt now vpon one leg now vpon both both in his antecedent and consequent as if the antecedent retained neither truth in the matter or Law in the forme and the consequent had lost all the necessity of proofe So that you neither did helpe the popes power or satisfie our consciences For it was to no purpose as he rightly said to seeke for causes at the last why princes should in fact be deposed by preists and prophets when you cannot proue that any was deposed § 71 You therefore as it seemes could not alleadge that any king was deposed by a priest but Patriott did alleadge that a preist was deposed by a king one especially Abiathar by Salomon This did not onely not help but hurt the popes cause Heere when you did enforce the couenant between God and the King your ready aduersary did demand if the King breake any of the articles of agreement who would enter suite against him or in what court or consistory were hee to bee accused And out of your owne grant hee concluded when you said that the king held his supreame authority taken from God and therefore the king was to yeeld account to God alone in the heauenly court for his gouernment Two pillers of gouernment ouerthrowen And where there are two pillers of gouernment Authority in the King and obedience in subiects which for all our good we are to keep safe sound you seemed Saturnin to ouerthrow them both when you made the king as it were an hypotheticall propositiō and the subiects conditionales but when you made the Popes categoricall and absolute although I reuerence them as most holy fathers yet I will speake truly you haue dealt herein as an vnskilfull Phisition who gets a more greeuous disease to the body by curing one that is easier Being repelled from the old Testament you fled into § 72 the strength of the new and here I had great hope that that your feede my sheepe and I will giue you the keyes had well strengthned the Popes authoritie and sharpned the edge of ecclesiasticall excommunication But it fell out otherwise For the aduersarie proued that by the first wordes diligence was enioyned the Byshoppe to feede the flocke and by the second were committed the keyes of the heauenly not the earthly kingdome And he brought for proofe not onely Augustine and Bernard as common witnesses but Aquinas Pope Vrbane Dominicus à Soto and Ludouicus Rycheomus all of them being on our side who thought the force of the keyes to be not in possessions but in crimes not in binding Scepters but sinnes and iudge it not to be a rooting vp but a meere discipline What you doe you thinke these to be Heretickes as lately you tearmed Sigebert and Vincentius what maruell is it if strangers accuse the Pope when his owne condemne him if his enemies set vpon him when his friends forsake him if the late Catholickes leaue him when the ancient forsake him The first foundation therefore of our obedience laid by Patriotta vpon the perpetuall and vnchangeable commandement of Christ and his Apostles standes firme and sure vnlesse you thinke that it be lawfull for the Vicar of Christ an holy man though a sinner to plucke downe the sacred tables of the Testament to violate the heauenly lawes of Christ and to abrogate the eternall decrees of God Forwhereas in the end you say that the Apostles and their Successours might lawfully haue deposed Nero Dioclesian Iulian Constantius Valens and the rest if the Church had had power to resist you would neuer haue said it as your aduersarie rightly obiected vnlesse you thinke the holy Apostles and fathers were dissemblers who obeyed those euill Emperours for feare not for dutie for times sake not for conscience sake wherein we heard that not the holy Scripture only but the antient historie was directly against you § 73 That we may greatly lament that Bellarmine and Alan so great wittes brought forth so wicked an vntruth And that we may omit Symancha Creswell Reynoldes Parsons and others of our side who brought all their wit and eloquence to patronize so wicked a cause with Alan trumpets not of the word but of warre and we must needes confesse that they haue brought an ouerthrow to many Catholicke families and a plague to their Countrie but also a torture to our consciences and an euerlasting infamie to the Catholicke religion Wherfore leaue off I pray you any more to solicite vs in this cause Saturnine vpon whose head wee see your first argument to be retorted by Patriotta who confest that subiection reuerence honour fealtie and obedience is due to a King while the King is a King But the King is king and we be subiects notwithstanding any excommunication or authoritie of the Pope whatsoeuer as Patriotta hath proued against you as it seemes to vs not only with common but with proper arguments of our owne Catholickes It followeth therefore by your owne confession that all subiection reuerence honour fealtie and obedience is to be performed of vs to our King § 74 Then Saturnine I am right heartily sorry most honourable Calander and am much vext with all that you whom wee euer held a deuout sonne of the Romaine Church now to finde a Renegate in the Heretickes tents and not onely doubting of the supreame authoritie of the Byshoppe but that which is farre worse and more dangerous to your soule oppugning it For not onely the excommunication of Princes which to diuers seemes to be the soueraigne censure of the ecclesiasticall and spirituall power of the Pope belongeth vnto him but their ouerthrow also and rooting out which proceedes not from the power of excommunication but from the power of a certain supreame authoritie in the Pope either as he is directly the Lord of the temporalties or indirectly in
Ecbertus ruine Eebertus flying out of his throne into a sincke-hole to saue his life lost it Conradus the elder sonne being rightly disinherited of his fathers kingdome which hee had betrayed died miserably Conradus ruine Henry the younger sonne being instructed by the Popes lesson to breake his oath wherewith hee bound himselfe to his Father Henries treacherie against his father first leuied an armie against his Father And when by the intercession of diuers of the nobilitie who regarded the sunne rising more then the sunne setting the quarrell seemed to be ended between the Father and the Sonne the sonne allured the Father with promises teares and Oathes to enter into a castle whom he receiued as an Emperour but detained as a prisoner and made him this offer that either he should resigne his crowne or his head O most periurde and vilanous parricide O most wicked scholler of a wicked master That stone which Gregorie the 7. first moued against § 104 Henry the 4. Emperour with his ouerthrow as it appeareth the same other Popes afterward haue not left off to cast downe vpon other Emperours and Kinges sometime with no better successe alwaies with no lesse disgrace to the Church As Adrian the 4. and Alexander the third against Fredericke the first Honorius and Gregorie the 9. and Innocent the 4. against Fredericke the 2. two very wise deuoute and valiant Emperours that we name no others For Adrian the 4. Adrian against Fredericke an agreement being made with the Cardinalls and William King of Sicely and other peeres and cities of Italy that they should expell Fredericke the first out of Italie first cast out his bolt of excommunication And when a flie shortly after had choakt Adrian as he was a drinking Choakt with a flie Alexander the third persecuted the Emperour in the same footsteppes hee sent out his Cursitors out of his owne bosome who should sollicite Crema Placentia Vâ—rona Mylaine Brixia to rebellion he did more incense William the King of Sicely his aduersarie to assault Fredericke He did corrupt Henry Duke of Saxonie and made him forsake his soueraigne in the field hee raised vp the French the English the Spanish and the Venetian to molest and vexe him with these deuises and engines he endeauored to strippe the Emperour of his kingdome and his life But God did so blesse and assist his seruant Fredericke that he tooke the cities of Italy and ouerthrew them droue the treacherous Duke out of his dukedome and the Pope from his Popedome and made him flie to Saint Marke at Venice vnder the habite of a Cooke Although hee afterward being mooued by naturall affection to release his sonne out of captiuity suffred himselfe to be there trod vpon by Alexanders feete Alexander trod vpon the Emperours necke Which base indignity was not so reproachfull for the Emperour to suffer as for the Pope to commit § 105 It is not requisite to touch the causes why the Popes thought meete that Henry the 4. As Cardinall Wolsie deâ—lt with King Henrie the 8. Emperour and Fredericke the first should bee deposed whenas there was no lawfull power or iust reason for any Popes at any time to depose Emperours Adrian the Pope that followed was displeased with Fredericke the first because the Emperour had set his name in his letters before the Popes name because he forbad the Cardinalls vnder the colour of visiting the Churches to robbe and to spoile them i. because hee withstood the Byshops ambition and auarice As Gregorie the seuenth set vpon Henry the fourth that hee might transferre the donation of byshoprickes taken from the Emperour to himselfe so Adrian to exempt the persons of Byshops whereby neither in respect of their benefice or duty they might adheare to Princes Fredericke the second had good successe against the Pope Pla. in Greg. 9 The like causes did incense Honorius and Gregorie the 9. and Innocent the 4. against Fredericke the second his Nephew whom God did assist being so vnworthily abused that hee handled the treacherous Cardinalls according to their deserts plagued the Popes and his Priests shut vp Gregorie the ninth and brought him to that miserie that he died in great anguish of minde Let the Pope take heede lest if hee Gregorize with Princes Princes Henrize and Frederize with Popes Neither is Innocent the 4. Conuina Theobaldus Franciscus Gulielm de San. Seuerino Pandulphus therefore the more happy § 106 man that by the name of the Church the power of the keyes the discord of princes the negligence of Byshoppes the superstition of the people he droue Fredericke the second out of his Empire and prouided two other to bee chosen in his roome For if they had not preuailed more with conspiracies and poysonnings then elections Caspini in Freder 2. Fredericke murthered they could neuer haue surprized Fredericke that noble Prince But at last hee was taken away by poyson as he returned into Apulia Whereof when he seemed to haue recouered hee was choaked with a pillow by Manfred his bastard sonne as hee lay in his bed These bee the actes of Popes whereby they ruinate Princes and so highly aduance their Popedome The popish engines against Princes Excommunications wherewith as with hookes they catch after kingdomes and as with whippes to scourge kings open rebellion whereby they tosse Princes vp down as balles with their feete and secret conspiracies wherby as with ginnes they lay for and entangle Princes and take them vnawares that they may more couertly take them out of the way by poyson That there is a great doubt as I said left whether the Byshoppe of Rome grew more by the vertue and obedience of his predecessors or by their treacherie and wickednes whether by the beneficence of former Emperors or patience of the later he is come to that height and toppe of greatnesse that the world wonders at I haue now laid the two foundations of obedience toward a King whatsoeuer he bee and of the fealtie of their subiectes One in the perpetuall and vnchangeable decree of Christ the other in the perpetuall practise of the ancient Christians and chiefly of the Byshops of Rome for eight hundred yeares at the least till worldly ambition had cleane put out all pietie and religion § 107 Here Saturnine that I may omit saith he other things least our disputation be ouerlonge which you haue collected out of histories concerning the Byshoppes of Rome that one I cannot passe ouer that you said that Gregorie the 7. whom you defaced as much as you could was the first Authour that excommunicated and deposed Kings For both Leo the 3. Emperour was excommunicated by Gregorie the 2. and plainely depriued of all his temporalties he held in Italy and the Greeke Emperors were remoued from the Empire by Leo the third Byshoppe of Rome for defect in religion and forsaking the defence of the Church and the Empire translated to the Germaines The defence
derogation will statute decree and commandement or by any rash attempt to withstand it If any shal presume to attempt any thing against these let him know that he shall incurre the displeasure of almightie God and of blessed Peter and Paul his Apostles Giuen at Rome at Saint Peters in the yeare of the incarnation of our Lord 1564. in the Ides of Nouember and of our Byshopricke the first You haue heard of mee Calander the 12. open and § 131 knowne Articles of the Popes Creede Secret Articles drawne from the former Now if it please you take them which are drawne from them more hidden and vnknown I hope my old friend Saturnine will giue me leaue to open vnto you seeing your time is not long and are not farre from heauen and doe daily expect the houre of your departure to open I say to you the inward sense of the creede and to furnish you as it werewith prouision in this your iorney that when you depart hence Saint Peter the Porter of heauen may the sooner let you in being thus prouided The Masters speake wisedome among those that bee perfect they haue certaine hid mysteries all which they doe not lay open to all but some certaine to some as these are thought best to agree with their capacities and desires Neither will I poure out all I will reserue the mysticall sense of euery Article to be found out by the practise In the meane time by your fauour Saturnine the order being somewhat inuerted I will propound the primacy the eleuenth Article in order the first in authoritie whereon all the rest depend which I desire you with some of your best reasons to defend now rather then at any other time wherein it is fiercely impugned by the assaltes of the Heretickes of our time § 132 I beleeue therefore that Saint Peter was very certainly appointed in the Scripture to be the primate The primacy is the chiefe head of faith and the cheife foundation of the Catholike faith as Bellar in Torto most plainly grounded vpon the Scriptures and Prince of the Apostles and of the vniuersall Church and that the Pope of Rome Peters successor is the heire of this primacy and vniuersal principality in the whole who being the key-keeper of eternall life the Pastour of the vniuersall flocke the head and foundation of the vniuersall Church the infallible rule of faith the cheife iudge of all causes and persons hauing the same tribunall with Christ and the same consistorie in steade of Christ nay in steade of God nay as God himselfe vpon earth and therefore I hold him to bee reuerenced and worshipped I beleeue the chiefe inward power annexed to the primacy is of 2 sorts Sacred Temporall The sacred whereby the Byshoppe of Rome as the spirituall Lord can by excommunication driue away Kings and Princes from the flocke of Christ not onely Heretickes in the faith as rauening wolues but Catholickes also if they proue wicked as outragious rammes and to depriue them of all gouernment and free their subiectes from the Oath of fealty and Obedience The temporall whereby the Pope as Lord of the temporalties in earth can dispose of all crownes and them directly Princes saucily resembled to Wolues Rammes by Bellarmine or indirectly in order to the spiritualls as it set downe by you Saturnine in the former Dialogue can take from one and bestow vpon another as hee shall thinke it to be auaileable to the spirituall end And I vow and sweare spirituall obedience to the chiefe Prince my spirituall Byshoppe of Rome according to those mysticall rules which our Masters haue prescribed to the cureent right of the present Church and the preseruation of the same Here Saturnine you seeme not halfe wary enough § 133 Argentine said he who not contenting your selfe with a publicke profession of the faith Popish misteries not to be reuealed which Pius the 4. did prescribe especially to the more learned sort but haue published the hidden and secret Articles drawne from thence i. Mysteries as wee call them and that in the presence of Heretickes which before the creede was set out ought to haue beene beleeued of you but ought not to be reuealed It seemes then said Patriott as Aristotle had some strange bookes which he writ to all and other subtill bookes which he writ for them of the wiser sort which were said to be set out and not set out So the Pope hath some doctrine that is populare and other that is mysticall that many of the doctrines of your Church seem to be Proserpinaes mysteries Yet you see sometime how they fall from men that bee not so euill disposed and come abroad into the world Then Argentine as much as euer I hated heresie so § 134 much I loue the Catholicke faith whereof I need not be ashamed seeing Calander required it at my handes and you were present who can stoutly maintaine the same against any cauelling Hereticke whatsoeuer That was very necessarie said Calander seeing other were here who could as stoutly make answere Therefore let vs ignorant Lay-men learne let the learned teach It is your part to answere mine to demaund It is an olde song of the Papists a learner must beleeue but a truer a learner must aske You beleeue too many things Argentine as there be many men who bee too incredulous in many thtngs so I feare that in many things many be too credulous When we beginne to beleeue that wee ought not wee will not beleeue that wee ought How oft and that without cause may you heare it among vs It is a matter of faith which ranging out of the circuite of holy Scripture I suppose reacheth farther then it ought These doctrines therefore of the Catholicke faith as they are called which are brought by our men into the forme of a creed the state and drift of euery cotrouersie being briefly and truly propounded I could wish they were soundly disputed and discust by you But chiefly that primarie Article of the supremacy whereof I desire not to know all but the most chiefe pointes as also of the rest that the errors of the Church of Rome now doting for age as they be well obserued by certaine honest Pontificians may appeare vnto vs. § 135 Those certaine Pontificians Saturnine said must be very honest I warrant you that reproue our Father the Pope and accuse our mother the Church of dotage For whereas you desire to haue the Articles of the Catholicke faith discust Calander you are in a great error For they are in all humilitie to be receiued not curiously to be discussed For as Austen saith well the simplicity of beleeuing not the quicknesse of vnderstanding is required in a Christian man That he may with reuerence beleeue what the Church teacheth not wittily discusse it and may humbly submit himselfe to the iudgement of the Church without any discourse § 136 But said Calander if you confesse that our mother the Church hath
with their decrees The popish levvd dealing Here the Popes side haue brought in so many voluntarie corruptions forgeries impostures wherewith they might foyste in false Canons and blot out true that they who haue dealt so deceitfully are rightly deemed to haue a bad cause Lastly wee brought into open view not only the doctrine and practise of Christ and Peter that the literall sense hath reproued this supremacie which the allegoricall sense of the Scripture did not proue and that literall sense is confirmed not only by the testimonie of the ancient Fathers and Doctors of our owne side but by the testimonie of the very Papists themselues So that this tower of Babylon being not only bereft of her rotten weake vpholders but being also thrust at by our strongest engines that is by the decrees of the Church and oracles of scripture must needs be shaken in peeces and fall to the groud Therefore the supremacie of Peter that in Bellarmines iudgement is a transcendent thing aboue all by the censure of the Scripture is nothing at all and the succession of the Pope is not from the institution of Christ as they say but from the fact of Peter and this fact is proued not by any certaine reuelation but by an vncertaine vision Behold why the primacie of Bellarmine in Tortus did vaunt that this article of the catholike faith had a sure ground in the Scriptures And now marke Calander to what passe all Bellarmines deuises are brought The deposing of a King hangeth on the excommunication of the Pope the power of excommunication is vnited to the supremacie the supremacie hath the beginning from a Primate but the Primate though hee be narrowly fought for yet cannot possibly be found in the text Where is then the supremacie where is the power of excommunicating Kings where is the right of deposing them Truly your Primate hath either a bad title or a bad Patron But the Patron is said to be very good therefore the title is very bad But the Papists will accept any thing at his hands as he hopeth with whom if hee preuaile in this cause it is more for the credulitie of the Readers than the wisdome of the Writer Then Regius The supremacie being ouer-turned that double power which is so annexed to the supremacie must needs be ouer-turned the spirituall and the temporall The spirituall whereby as a Bishop by excommunication hee thinks hee may driue from their kingdomes Kings that are in opposition whether Heretikes or Roman-Catholikes The temporall whether it be direct or indirect whereby hee may as the chiefe spirituall Prince take the Crowne from one and bestow it at his pleasure vpon another But of the temporall we shall see afterward Excōmunication the mother of rebellion Now let vs consider of the spirituall This great Sophister when the Pope of Rome purposed to shoot his venemous arrow at the head of the Prince he bent the Popes bowe with this double power as it were with a double stringe that if the temporall did faile the spirituall should hit him home Which if I should not accompt holy as the desire of gold is holy I should lye For this tricke of popish excommunication wherewith he bindeth Kings that they cannot raigne or absolue subiects that they doe not obey the world hath felt long since that it is but a diuelish arte as Vrshergensis saith which hath brought in treacherie and rebellion vnder the cloake of faith and religion dreadfull to Kings damnable to subiects to whose bodies it hath brought destruction and damnation to their soules as appeareth manifestly by the former Dialogue § 222 Then Saturnine We saith he for our parts do not greatly care what Heretikes say what the Church ordeynes that we regard neither are we bound to their conceits but to hir decrees And wee retayne the supremacie by a double right by claime and by possession About the claime the Heretikes haue often moued many brawles from the possession they shall neuer remoue vs. Then Regius you say that you regard the constitutions of the Church as you call them I wish rather you should regard the oracles of Scripture You say that you hold the supremacie by a double right by clayming and by possessing The Pope is falne from the right of a great claymer as Patriott hath plainly won Now at the last you vrge another right of a great possessor which what is it else than the right of a strong theefe For what other law belongs to theeues than to brag that that which they possesse is their owne howsoeuer they haue got it Now seing the supremacie is not grounded vpon Gods institution but mans ambition which you see to be clearely ouerthrowne by the oracles of the scripture and decrees of the Councells it followeth now that the serpents head being broken we breake in peeces likewise the rest of his members Then Calander Saturnine seemes to bee driuen to straites when as being beaten from the right of clayming he flyeth to possession That therfore you may haue a breathing time let vs put of the conference about the other Articles till another day for now it is more than time that you refresh your minds being tyred with the labor of this discourse A Table of the principall matters conteyned in this Treatise A. ABomination of desolation what is ment thereby 82. 90 Absurdities 78. 108. 133 An admonition to popish Princes 156. Adrian against Fredericke choakt with a flye 253. Agathus obedience to Constantine 249 The oath of Allegeance and Supremacie confounded 240 Ambrose did obey Valentinian an Arrian 248 Alexander the 3. in a Cooks attyre 374 Alexander and his foure Princes 99 Alexander trod vpon the Emperors necke 254 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof it is a note 6. Antichrists type in Daniel himselfe in Iohn 2. The reasons 98. Hee began to worke in Pauls time 2. He must decay by the preaching of the word and perish at Christs last comming 793. Epiphanes described in Daniel not Antichrist 3. Hee shall worke wonders 3. Hee is held for one single man 5. The reasons ib but is a succession 9. Antichrist hath two hornes like a lambe speaketh like a dragon 5. 40. Antichrist is Christs Vicar in apparance in truth his aduersarie 6. Antichrist not a beast of three yeares and a halfes continuance 8. Heresies makes the great Antich 8. 28. Antichrist is the Land beast 9. As many Marij in one Caesar so many Antichrists in one Antichrist 11. He is that man of sinne and sonne of perdition 11. Antichrist in many ages yet but one 11 The popish description of Antich 12 a bearer 39 Antichrist a falling starre an Apostata a Renegate from the Lord. 13 He is not a Iew but an Apostaticall Christian 15. He sitteth in the temple of God or against the temple 17 He doth not openly deny Christ 19 Antichrist denieth Christs two natures three offices and the benefits therof 20. 21. 26. 27 His kingdome darke and smoakie
the like destruction Apoc. 16. 17. c. This the seuenth Angell which powred out his viall into the aire doth notably set out There went a great voyce from heauen out of the throne saying It is finished And there were made lightnings and sounds and thunders and a mighty earth-quake such an one as was not since men inhabited the earth And the great city was diuided into three parts and the cities of the Heathen fell and great Babylon came into remembrance with God to giue vnto it the cup of the indignation of his wrath And euery Iland did flie away and the hils were not found and a great haile like talents fell downe from heauen vpon men and men did blaspheme God for that great plague of haile What maruell if when the Creator is offended all the creatures be likewise offended for as then the stars abiding in their order course did fight from heauen against Sisera for Deborrah so now the lightnings and thunders and wonderfull earth-quakes and the mighty talentary haile shall when God is angry fight for his Church against great Babylon And as then the victory at the waters of Megiddo so these now shall not bee attributed to the force of men but the powers of heauen So likewise in the 20 of Iohn when Sathan shall be loosed after a thousand yeeres by whom Gog and Magog shall bee mustered to battell the tents of the Saints and the beloued city shall bee besieged but hee addeth that fire shall issue out of heauen from God which shall consume the enemies In which place Iohn doth not vnderstand those enemies whom Ezechiel describeth the Seleucidae inhabitants of Syria and Asia the lesse For Gog doth signifie Asia the lesse deriuing the name from Giges their king Magog is Hierapolis the chiefe seat of Idolatry in Syria builded by the Scythians by them so called So that in Ezechiel Gog is taken for Asia the lesse and Magog for Syria now because the Seleucidae were the most outragious cruell enemies of the Iewes by whom after their captiuity and before the comming of the Messias they were to endure most greeuons afflictions therefore by a vsuall prouerbe among the Iewes the cruell enemies of the Church are called Gog and Magog The enemies of God called Gog Magog And why which Iohn did apply to the setting out of the enemies of the Christian Church whom Sathan in the latter dayes vnder the conduct of Antichrist should stirre vp to warre against the Saints Not therefore the same whom Ezechiel describes but the like called Gog and Magog consumed and deuoured by fire sent from God out of heauen that the conquest being got not by earthly but by heauenly powers might take away courage from the Antichristians and encrease it in the Saints In the meane time one of the seuen Angels chap. 17. had conference with Iohn saying Come and I will shew thee the condemnation of the great whore which sits vpon many waters that is people nations and tongues with whom the Kings of the earth haue committed fornication and the people haue beene drunke with the wine of her fornication who after they haue a long time fought on the beasts side a against the Lambe at last being conquered by the Lambe who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords shall ioyne their forces against the Beast The order in destroying of Antichrist and shall deuoure and consume by fire the Babylonish whore left naked forsaken of all men And marke in what order the victory shall proceede First Antichrist is consumed with the spirit of the Lords mouth that is with the ministery of the word but with the brightnesse of the Lords comming is cleane abolished So saith Paul so Iohn After the preaching of the eternall Gospell by the second Angell followeth the spirituall fall of Babylon denounced by the third Angell chap. 14. Babylon is falne Afterwards Gods decree of Antichrists ruine being published by the seuenth Angell his destruction followes shewed by one of the seuen Angels and the outward ouerthrow of Babylon procured by Princes That prophesie is fulfilled this is to bee fulfilled let that which is fulfilled win credit to that must be fulfilled There followeth at the last the last condemnation and euerlasting destruction of the whore chap. 18. proclaimed from heauen by another Angell Babylon that great city is falne is falne Antichrists Metropolitane seat is now become a dwelling place for Diuels An exhortation to come out of Babylon and a cage for euery vncleane spirit and euery vncleane bird There is ioyned by him an heauenly admonition to them who as yet abide in Babylon Come out of her my people lest as you bee partakers of her sinnes you likewise be partakers of her plagues Heere the Angell speaketh to all Papists cheefely to them that be simple and ingenuous that they be careful of their saluation if the words of God cannot mooue them let his deedes moue them if they will not hearken to men let them hearken to Angels if they feare not temporall punishments let them feare eternall let them come out of Babylon with all speede lest as they be found partners of her sinnes they be found partners likewise of her plagues which the Angell doth describe very liuely in the verses following While at the last the last Angell being of great strength tooke vp a stone as it were a mill stone and cast it into the sea saying with such force shall Babylon that great city bee cast and shall neuer be found againe Where the most bitter lamentations of her louers and the exceeding ioy and triumph of the Saints is described In which battell whereof the Angels prophesie there is no cause Comforts for Gods children in respect of the Captaines why the Antichristians should lift vp their mindes or Christians deceiue theirs For if wee looke vpon the captaines of either side on that side the Lambe on this Antichrist on that side the inuincible lion on this a silly beast shal fight If we look vpon the subsidiary souldiers on that side Souldiers most valiant Princes conuerted by Christ shall fight on this side with old doating Priests forsaken by Christ If we look for souldiers from heauen we shal haue the Angels fellow-souldiers in this battell whom we had fellow-witnesses of the Gospell So heauenly bands shall fight with earthly forces If we look for the authors of this war God on this side shal fight with the Diuell Authors powre and eternity with weaknesse and rottennesse If we looke to the causes of this warre the truth and the pure worship of that one euerliuing God Causes written religion sound faith heauenly magnanimity shall fight with deceipt with idolatry with superstition with perfidiousnesse and feare And if God doe suffer some of his souldiers to fall in the quarrell that they may rise againe and come to him will hee suffer his cause to be lost will he suffer his
truth and power to be ouercome by errour and wickednesse Assuredly hee will neuer suffer it The Christians therefore haue no cause to feare the Pope hath no cause to insult For the Pope alone hath all the markes of Antichrist The Pope alone therefore is Antichrist CHAP. XLII The scope and conclusion of the whole worke I Haue finished the Glasse Paul the fift set before you to see your selfe before others to look on themselues wherein Antichrist is fully set downe as in preface Heere you may see contained his right and true marks the false being reiected and cast by Euery of them in seuerall and all of them ioyntly together doe prooue the Pope to be that great Antichrist Hence it followeth that Popery is Antichristianity What hee is and who he is appeares out of the preface What he doth and what he teacheth out of the Dialogue diuided into three bookes First comes vpon the stage Antichrist pragmaticall In the two other bookes Antichrist dogmaticall There he carries himselfe like a Rebell heere like a Sophister there he doth impaire the glory of the Empire heere the truth of the Gospell there hee doth vndermine the faithfulnesse of subiects heere the faith of Christians The first booke doth propound the rules and grounds of Christian fealty and obedience toward Kings against Christian rebellion shadowed ouer with a shew of Catholike religion The other two doe erect the foundation and pillers of Christian doctrine and faith against the Antichristian heresie compacted of twelue new articles of the faith brought into the forme of a creede by Pius the fourth whereupon I call it the Popes creede I doe solemnely professe that I am afaithfull seruant of Christ and the King I doe not take vpon me being the meanest and the least of all other to giue warning vnto Kings once already warned by the great King not therefore to bee warned of any but of Christ the King of Kings Let Iesus Christ therefore bee in our thoughts a while who although he be absent in body yet present in spirit hath an interest and being yea and a gouernment also in the spirits of all Christians and chriefly of all Princes his bountie is to be loued his maiesty is to be dreaded euen of Kings for as the powerfull gouernment of Kings is to be dreadfull to their owne subiects so the most powerfull gouernment of God is to bee dreadfull to Kings of God I say manifested in the flesh who being present with them in spirit seemeth thus to speake and complaine CHAP. XLIII THE PROSOPOPEY I AM not ignorant who am ignorant of nothing ô yee Christian Kings and Princes that the Byshop of Rome my Vicare as he calles himselfe my Aduersarie The Pope both an hereticke and traytor as he carries himselfe hath beene a Teacher of heresie in the Church and a Practiser of treason in the common-weale for these many yeares For euer since hee was made the vniuersall Byshop he hath done nothing else but corrupted my Gospell and peruerted your Empire And no maruell for out of the corruption of the Gospell doth follow the dissolution of the Empire For whereas I haue erected by the Gospell a twofould pillar of gouernment Authoritie in Magistrates and Allegeance in Subiects it is strange to see the Gospell peruerted in the mindes of men how each pillar of gouernment falles to the grounds The greatest fault whereof is in the Byshops treacherie and in your slothfulnesse that whereas I had submitted all Byshops vnder your power and iudgement you haue suffered one to fly out so farre aboue the rest that he dare not onely rebell against yours but against my Maiestie also That therefore the ancient dignitie of the Empire may be recouered being lost and for euer maintained being recouered my counsell to you is that the truth of the Gospell shaken and long weakened by the Popes tyrannie may at last be restored by your princely authoritie For what is more reasonable then that I should haue you defenders of my glory whom I haue appointed Ministers of my power And if it were in question heretofore whether that Byshoppe were that Antichrist He is so prophetically described by my beloued Disciples Iohn and Paul that now it is out of question seeing that euent hath laid open and made cleare the prophecie For all the partes of the prophecie are so plainely interpreted All notes of Antichrist agree with the Pope of the succession of the persons the nature and disposition of the King and kingdome the acts of the beast the impression of the Character the number of his name the scituation of his seate the time of his reuealing the cuppe of the whore the kind of his marchandise the fall of Babylon lastly the comming in and going out the birth and death of Antichrist the last answering the first and the middle answering both with such a consent and barmonie inferring things to be fulfilled by things that are fulfilled that I could not haue made it clearer if I had named the Byshop of Rome himselfe And Antichristianity is well defined by my Apostle to be not iniquitie but the mysterie of iniquitie For if Antichrist had appeared to you in his owne likenesse you needed not to haue beene so carefull about the businesse Now that hee doth insinuate himselfe with a counterfet holinesse and a dissembled sanctity how many millions of innocent men hath he cosoned and deceiued with his hidden mysticall wickednesse But let the visard be taken off from this hidden Antichrist then none can hereafter be deceiued but he that will wittingly and willingly be deceiued Beware therefore that the old trickes and stratagemes being laid open beguile you no more He faineth himselfe to be the Prince of the couenant and yet he hath altered my couenant Hee pretendes himselfe to be a Keeper of my will and testament and yet he hath not only raced and defaced my testament The Pope hath altered Christ his Testament and brought in a new but hath foysted in one of his owne He termes himselfe the foundation of the Church and chalengeth to him my peculiar title and yet hee doth with cunning deuises subuert and ouerthrow my Church He makes a shew of great zeale to my crosse and yet doth annihilate the power of the crosse The holy Scripture makes mention of Gods double gouernment the Legale and Euangelicall The legale which hath the condition of working annext vnto it do this and thou shalt liue Ierem. 31.31 Heb. 8.5 ad finem The Euangelicall requireth the condition of beleeuing Beleeue and thou shalt be saued But it requireth faith not as a worke but as an instrument whereby you may receiue the promises of the spirit therefore that is called a conditionall this a free conuenant Where there is no couenant there is no faith and where there is no faith there is no saluation Humane faith doth rest vpon an humane couenant heauenly faith vpon a heauenly couenant Heauenly faith is
the cause and manner of it The famine of the kingdome and Elias miracle were the causes that king Ahab yeelded vp by a compact and publicke decree of the kingdome these false Prophets into Elias hands to be put to death according to Gods Law But Elias you say kild them What with his owne hand do you think the Prophet was a slaughter-man you will say no though they were not slaine by Elias hand yet by Elias authoritie You should say by his aduise rather then authoritie For Elias was a priuate man not a Magistrate But Ahab if Elias had not vrgd him had not slaine them I thinke so Elias mooued the king to do it but compeld him not Ahab gaue his consent with all Israel that the Baalitish priests who had seduced the king and kingdome should bee slaine being conuicted by Gods law For whenas a greeuous famine grew vpon them and that no raine could fall but at the word of Elias as hee had foretold Ahab before the drought being accused to Ahab to be the procurer of the famine and troubler of Israel defendeth himselfe and testifieth before the king that God had sent that plague vpon all Israel because he and his Fathers house had forsaken the commandements of God and worshipped strange Gods And to make his word good he offered before all Israel vpon paine to loose his head that the king and his people were seduced by Baals priests and that he would make it plain by a miracle that is with fire sent downe from heauen which should make it appeare whose sacrifice God did approue promising that they should haue plenty of raine after the conuersion of Israel to the true God and that he was sent to that end at that time The King accepts the condition all the rest giue their consents and when they plainly perceiued by the miracle of Elias that the Baalites were conuicted to be the deceiuers and should haue cast downe themselues vpon their faces and giuen glorie to God as the people did and should most humbly haue submitted them-selues to the truth of God Elias did aduise them to lay hands on the Baalites and to punish them with death by Gods law due to such seducers and deceiuers So Elias perswaded Ahab and all Israel to consent to the slaughter of the Baalites with a publike decree Therefore by the consent of the King the decree of the kingdome in so extreame necessitie by so notable a miracle wrought by the Prophet not by Elias hand but by his perswasion the people did in publike place put to death those Baalitish impostors according to the law of God publikely convicted How can you draw this example to your purpose Will you reason after this manner False Prophets may rightly be put to death by Magistrates therefore Princes may rightly be deposed by Priests I will not send you to the schooles to learne better Logicke but to * An I le in Thessaly where Eleborus groweth that purgeth Melancholie Anticyra to purge your foolish braine if you dispute after this manner § 41 But you will say hee consumed Ochasias captaines and souldiers with fire calld downe from heauen How Ochosias souldiers were destroyed by whom Elias spake the word God performed the deed That fire from heauen was not in Elias power but in Gods will And if Elias had not receiued a speciall instinct of Gods spirit to that end he durst neuer haue called for fire from heauen for that had been plainly to haue tempted God which Christ reproued in his Apostles desirous to imitate Elias As these were extraordinarie so by no meanes you can thence draw a conclusion for disputation or an ensample for imitation no more then you can allow of thest because Israel by Gods command spoyled the Egyptian or perswade that one kill himselfe because Sampson killd himselfe or teach that one may curse and kill vnhappy boyes because Elizeus handled fortie two in that manner that calld him bald pate in Bethell But here I doe acknowledge you to be very peruerse followers of Elias How the Papists differ from Elias in their fire-workes in that you goe about to vse consuming fire for Elias calld downe for fire from the height of heauen but you haue fetcht it vp from the depth of hell Elias by the instinct of God you by the instigation of the Diuell And yet Elias did not once touch the King much lesse depose him but you went about not only to depose the King but vtterly to consume the King with all his excellent progenie and kingdome But Elias you say did by Gods appointment anoint § 42 Iehu King ouer Israel and cast off Ahabs sonne and all his house for euer bearing rule in the kingdom Elias did not annoint Iehu but one of the sonnes of the Prophets whom Elizeus sent and chargde him in the name of God not in Elizeus name marke but in the name of God that Iehu should take sword in hand and roote out Ahabs house The King therefore was not cast off by the prophet but slaine by Iehu to whom God had giuen Ahabs kingdom that he might destroy Ahab and all his house and posteritie Now if you please let vs weigh your argument God may rightly giue a Kingdome to whom he will and by name stirre vp a subiect to punish his masters sinne therefore the Pope may rightly doe the same What Catholike King can be safe from the conspiracies of his subiects if once he begin to displease the Pope With such arguments our English Iesuites haue gone about to bewitch ou men that they may take away the liues of our most worthy Princes Be they not the very slaues of Antichrist and members of the Diuell who do flatter the Pope with such argumēts to the destruction of Kings § 43 But Elias did cast downe and destroy Kings that is to say did foretell they should be cast downe if you beleeue Hugo the Cardinall Hugo the Cardinal expounding Ieremie And Ieremie was set ouer Kingdomes to plant and roote out to build vp and plucke downe Kingdomes that is as that learned Cardinall expounds it I haue appointed you saith God to pull vp that is to threaten the Iewes that they shall be cast out of their owne countrey and that you destroy that is that you prophesie that the Citie of Ierusalem shall be destroyed and that you disperse that is that you foretell that they shall be dispersed by the Chaldean Princes and that yee scatter abroad that is foreshew that the kingdome of the Iewes shall be scattered abroad after the captiuitie And that the Iewes should not be cast into despaire hee did not only foreshew their captiuitie but their deliuerance also adding that he should build vp that is shew that the Citie should be re-edified and that you should plant that is tell the Iewes that they shall be planted in Iurie This literall sense Hugo the Cardinall did giue that I may omit the mysticall