doth but lightly touch the continued malice of the popish faction against her Maiestie euer since her first comming to the crowne and that rather to warne the carelesse subiect to take héede of such an enimie and to point at such pernicious traytors then to hurt such as haue béene and yet are abused by the craft and practise of others and are not themselues actors nor factious nor malicious to their countrey To hurt quiet men albeit abused by false colour of old religion it was no part of his purpose But séeing this simple Noddie hath no more reason but to bare and touch that wounde which béeing séene and touched must néedes gréeue many and shame all the faction of papists that haue shame to heare their owne and their consorts most abominable practises discouered I am content to méete him in this encounter and examine whether it bée true or no that is commonly reported concerning the practises of papists against her Maiestie and this state If any mislike this course let him deale with the Noddie that drew mée into it For mine owne part I was vnwilling to quarrell with them but séeing they will néedes stande vpon termes and challenge others I coulde not choose but answere Neuer any thing in this Realme did more displease the papistes then the match betwixt king Henry the eight and her Maiesties mother the Lady Anne Bollenne for thereby not onely the popes authority to dispence in causes of Matrimony but also to iudge in causes of princes was called in question Further they beganne to feare least the king that was a prince of heroicall courage would haue taken occasion vpon this abuse offered him to haue looked into the whole cause of religion Here began the hatred against her Maiestie which this faction hath borne her euer since and which by many attempts against her parents and her selfe they haue declared Clement the seuenth albeit he had receiued many fauours from king Henry and had promised otherwise yet whether wonne by perswasions of Charles the fift then béeing emperor or else mooued with the interest that himselfe had in it declared the kinges mariage to be voide and the issue of that mariage vnlawfull The which sentence was giuen Anno 1533. some little tyme before she came into the world So that it is no maruell if now they hate her which not onely in her parents but also in her lawful right was persecuted before she came into the world Not long after Paul the third did furiously thunder out a sentence of excommunication against Henry the eight depriuing him of his kingdome and againe declaring the mariage with the Lady Anne Bollen to be void and her children to be illegitimate With that fury did he prosecute that innocent lady and her children sparing nothing which might serue to worke both their destructions And when he could do nothing of himselfe he neuer ceased by Winchester and other his agents to pursue the cause vntill such time as they had caused an act of Parliament to bée made against both the mother and the daughter and brought the innocent Ladie her mother to her end and which is more gréeuous they loaded her with many slanders and reproches not onely in her triall but also in an act of parliament How vniustly God best knoweth and the king himselfe acknowledged with great griefe at his death as a Cosmograph lib. 16. Theuet a writer no way partiall hath testified Plusieurs gentils-hommes anglois saith hée speaking of king Henry the eightes death m'ont asseurè qu'il eut belle repentance des offenses par luy commises estant a l'article de la mort et entre lez autres choses de l'iniure et crime commise contre la dicte roine Anne de Boulan faulsement vaincue et accusee de ce qu'on luy imposoit It suffised not the enimie to take away an innocent ladies life but they tooke away also her honour and good name by diuers imputations which God the most iust iudge knoweth and I trust one day will more plainly declare Afterward it pleased God to put in the kings minde to reuerse the act that debarred her Maiestie of her right which hée did by his last will This so néerely touched the papists that as it shoulde séeme they haue abolished it thereby endeuoring to take away all monuments and records whereby her right might bée prooued This rancor of theirs did especially shew it selfe against her during the raigne of Quéene Mary For although her beautie vertue good carriage and many excellent parts wherewith God had endued her might haue mooued any to loue her yet in these men these excellencies and especially her religion wrought contrary effects For doubting least Quéene Mary hauing no issue should leaue the kingdome to her and fearing that shée woulde asswage their pride and tyrannie against Gods saints and abolish their superstitious abuses and hereticall doctrine they sought by all meanes to cut her off from the crowne The pope hée coulde not suffer his sentences and decretals to bée reuersed his adherents coulde endure no reformation of religion to bée established Gardiner charged her as an abbettor to Wyat and said shée had intelligence with him And this our aduersarie doth also signifie by his Mysticall bracelet and other darke surmises As if it were likely that a poore yoong maiden destitute of friends and meanes and in the handes of her enimies could helpe them any thing or that Wyat would communicate a counsell of such danger to her that percase might vtter it and no way coulde helpe him Howsoeuer it was he practised with diuers to accuse the innocent Lady and percase if God had not holpen her had effected his purpose That she held Quéene Mary and the state in suspence and care our aduersary denyeth not What then more probable then that they should séeke to disburthen themselues of that care and iealousie There are diuers that testifie that they had diuers consultations against her Doctor Storie shewed plainly That the papists committed a great error in that cutting of the boughs they had not strooken at the roote When either for shame or else because they could finde no probable cause against her they could not spill the innocent Ladies bloud it is certaine that they fayned Quéene Mary to be with childe to the intent that some supposed childe might be found to succéede Quéene Mary and to preuent the Ladie Elizabethes right All this notwithstanding it pleased God many of her enimies being taken away that shée shoulde possesse the crowne at what time a man woulde haue thought they woulde haue ceased to pursue her against whom they coulde not preuaile Yet euen then did they also shew their malice and first they caused the Quéene of Scots to claime the crowne to beare the armes of England Then by the way of Scotland the French began to threaten and to inuade her countrey and had procéeded further but that her Maiesties forces did shut them vp
was in the end excommunicated vexed with rebellions most shamefully murdred by a Dominican frier Don Caesare d'este duke of Ferrara was not I trow of our religion yet did the pope excommunicate him and most wrongfully take his state from him Lastly if religion now professed were the immediate cause and originall of any trouble like to ensue then should not the papistes haue béene the principall meanes to mooue warres and rebellions against the state nor the onely practisers against her Maiesties person and safetie as we haue found them to haue béene Wherefore if we will rightly estéeme we shall finde that as true religion is the cause of all those blessings we enioy so poperie and the faction that maintaineth it is the cause of all practises against her Maiestie and the state and of all rebellions and warres and mischiefes entended against vs. Againe as we were without danger as long as God was truely worshipped and idolatrie repressed and Iesuites and priests and their abettors diligently sought out and punished according to lawes and all concurred resolutely to maintaine true religion and the state so since Recusants began of some to finde fauour and masse-priests and Iesuites haue béene suffered to practise without punishment and idolatrie is begun to be priuily erected and some mens mindes grow colde in maintaining true religion and the present gouernment it is no maruell if some inconuenience be feared But remooue this there is no cause why any shoulde either doubt or feare For the pope hath businesse inough to maintaine his owne state no meanes to worke vs trouble but by English traitors In times past he was Stupor mundi the woonderment of the world now he is Fabula mundi that is a matter for idle priests and friers to prate of but not to be feared vnlesse wée liste The Spaniard hath more reason to feare vs and our associates of the low Countries that may be lordes of the sea if we please and may take what part of the Indies we list then we to feare him Sure if his force had béene such as is pretended neuer would he haue suffred such scorne nor descended to such dishonorable courses as he hath done Both the pope and Spaniard depend vpon the aide of English fugitiues and malcontents Draw from them this hope then haue you the end of these supposed feares and a full answere to this traitors painted tales and fables Thus you see this noddy hath neither reason nor truth in his discourse And yet that is not all the fault it hath For it is also impertinēt to the purpose For what if there were some cause of feare or doubt doth it therefore follow that we haue receiued no benefits nor blessings by her Maiesties most happie gouernment the abolishment of idolatrie and restoring of true and catholike religion If then there be no iust cause of feare and onely certaine pusillanimous companions quake at the popes thundring and Spanish bragging or else pretend to do it bicause they looke backe to the fleshpots of Egypt and glory of Babylon then are we to acknowledge Gods fauour that hath not onely giuen vs many graces by her Maiesties meanes but also meanes to maintaine them and to secure our selues And for such cowards as feare forreine enimies we are to put them into the next ranke to English traitors alreadie conspired with the enimie Hée telleth vs further That by alteration of religion in England Scotland Ireland Flanders and France haue tasted of many miseries tumults calamities and desolations Hée should haue said of many blessings and friendly fauors For kindnesses and fauours all our neighbors haue receiued from vs but those calamities and desolations that he speaketh of haue procéeded from the popes furie and malice and from his adherents persecuting quiet people for the profession of true Christian religion But let vs heare the rest of his wise tale Beside battels murders destructions of countries prouinces townes cities houses and particular men saith hée three Princes two Queenes and one King haue beene all brought to their bane by this occasion He saith further That the noble houses and linages of Hamiltons Douglasses Stuardes in Scotland of Desmondes and other peeres in Ireland haue been thereby ruinated and finally That in France and Flanders there is no end of the accompt of those that haue beene destroied by this change of religion as if we had procured all these battels murders destructions or as if wée or our religion were the occasion of the destruction of princes or kings or as if the massacres of France and those bloodie executions had béene committed by vs. What a shamelesse fellow is this to impute the cause of warres and troubles to vs that euer auoided warres as much as we could and offered force to no man nor euer stirred but as defendants for sauegard of our liues Are lambes the causes of the crueltie of wolues or were Christians the authors of the bloodie persecutions of heathen Emperors all these bigge wordes therefore are nothing else but arguments of the Noddies distracted mind and furious hatred against truth that exclameth and crieth out vpon religion and imputeth al calamities vnto it whereas in truth all the cause of this wracke and destruction both of states and priuate families proceeded wholy from want of conscience and hatred of true religion For if wee will looke backe and search the histories of our times wée shall finde that all those tragicall stirres and hurly-burlies that haue brought not onely millions of christians but also a great part of Christendome to destruction haue taken their beginning from the implacable hatred of popes and papists against Christian religion Paule the third enflamed the warres against the princes of Germanie which consumed a great part of that countrey himselfe sent thither great forces both of horse and foote fearing not a little least Charles the fift should make any composition with the Germans In the low Countries the people liued in peace and obedience to their gouernours vntill such time as the popish faction fearing the ruine of their Babylon beganne not onely to make cruell edicts and decrées against the professors of true religion but also by force of armes sought to establish both the Spanish inquisition and an absolute tyrannie a Vita de Pio. quinto Pius the fift when the kings of France and Spaine grew wery of troubles sent his messengers to negotiate with king Philip and the Cardinall of Alexandria to set forward the French king against his subiects He sent also money and soldiers to aide the king to destroy his subiects In king Henrie the eightes daies Paul the third in this Quéenes daies Pius the fift and Gregorie the thirtéenth and other popes a Sanders de Schism stirred vp diuers rebellions in England and Ireland against lawfull princes By the solicitation of the popes agents many thousands of innocent people were massacred in France contrarie to faith and promise These therefore are
the king and stirreth vp both his subiects and forreine enimies against him but also curseth and banneth all his friends subiectes and partakers Their goods hée giueth away for a spoile their persons hée will haue solde for slaues and the waste of the whole lande hée woulde haue remaine as a monument of his holinesses great displeasure Neither did it content him to prosecute the liuing onely vnlesse the dead also were throwne out into the fieldes as vnwoorthy of christian buriall Such is the charitie of his holinesse towards christians and his louing affection toward the English nation Neither was Paule the thirdes fact singular For in our times Pius quintus and Sixtus quintus haue published no lesse odious and scandalous excommunications against her most gracious Maiestie most bitterly cursing her and all her louing subiects then their predecessor did against Henry the eight and his people Further they haue not onely gone about to trouble this state by rebellions but also to subuert it by forreine b The plots were taken vpon Criton a Iesuite Throgmorton and others inuasions Haue wee not then great cause to honor and loue the popes holinesse that hath shewed himselfe so friendly to our princes and nation Wée may do well also to entertaine such priestes and friers as come from him séeing they wish vs no more harme then the destruction of the prince the ouerthrow of religion and the state the slaughter of our people Neither haue they any thing in their vowes but that all our throtes were cut by the Spaniard Nay when neither by open hostilitie nor secret treasons and practise they could preuaile against vs they haue encouraged certaine railing and scurrilous companions by infamous libels to defame her Maiestie to raile on her chéefe Counsellors and to dishonor all our nation and those especially that haue shewed themselues most forward in dooing God and their countrey seruice This prating companion sheweth himselfe verie spitefull albeit hée woulde dissemble it Sanders Rishton Allen Ribadineira and others haue published cart-lodes of slanders and lies against the Prince the Nobilitie and diuers other honest men Finally beside these wrongs and disgraces which concerne matters temporall the popes of Rome haue gone about to wrong vs in matters spirituall which concerne the saluation of our soules For they haue not onely sought to depriue vs of the worde of God in our mothers language of true faith and doctrine of the sincere administration of the Sacraments and of a true ministerie according to Christ his institution but also in lieu thereof to establish the idolatrous worship to stocke and stones of angels of saints departed and to bring into the church the abomination of the masse togither with manifold superstitions impieties and heresies And for this cause they haue secretly sent into this lande diuers a It is thought that aboue 400. of them are dispersed in diuers corners in England troopes of massing priestes and friers all marked with antichristes brand to seduce simple people and to draw them to superstition idolatrie and heresie Wherefore let all true christians and true harted Englishmen open their eies and beware that they be not oppressed both with spirituall and temporall bondage and slauerie This is it which the popes of Rome entend and haue by so many practises laboured this is also the drift of this glauering parasites discourse This the merchants of Babylon and slaues of antichrist which secretly lurke in diuers corners of this lande watching their oportunitie do wholie purpose But remember that you haue faire warning CHAP. VIII Of the Spanish nation and king Philip the second and his practises against England wherein also the eight encountre of our aduersarie N. D. is examined LOth I am and very vnwilling where the different betwixt vs and the Spaniard hath béene so long in deciding by blowes to begin any long contention about words termes It is a cōmon saying words are light as winde and men of action in wordes commonly vse least ostentation Beside that I holde it no good course to set out inuectiues against princes and especially such as are now departed this life and haue receiued their guerdon whether they haue done good or euill The popes and their parasites take to themselues libertie in infinite slanderous pamphlets to disgrace all men opposite to their faction neither sparing prince nor priuate person liuing nor dead but all honest men detest this frierlike fashion I thinke it also a vaine thing to recount matters formerly past that concerne vs little or nothing But yet seeing this pratling and busie felow our aduersarie will néedes haue the Spanyards and their late king the subiect of this encounter and like a fugitiue traytor sticketh not to aduance them aboue his owne nation and to pleade their cause against his owne prince and country I am content thus farre to reason of them as that men may learne how farre to trust them and vnderstand that we haue no reason either to feare their force or to yéelde them any superiority or to thinke better of the Spanyard then of our owne nation Lastly least any might suppose our aduersary to haue spoken wisely and learnedly I will briefely runne ouer his discourse and note the leudnesse and vnsufficiency of his pleading His vnnaturall and vnkind dealing against his prince and nation before which he taketh on him to preferre the Spaniard I néede not to note for it is too too apparent and sufficientlie knowne to any that will take paines to read ouer his idle discourse The time hath béene when the English and Spaniardes did well agrée as appeared not onely by mutuall trade and conuersation of both nations one with another but also by diuers publike contractes and leagues made betwixt them Sometime the kinges of England matched with the house of Spaine and sometime the Spanish kings haue had their wiues out of England and both of them estéemed much of the amity eache of other albeit the Spaniard hath béene more happy to receiue more profit of this coniunction with England then our nation by our matches and linking with the house of Spaine For by the aide of our archery the Spaniardes diuers times haue obteined victory against the Mores and Don Pedro king of Castile béeing expulsed by his subiects by the blacke prince and the English forces was restored to his kingdome Neither could Ferdinand king of Spaine so easily haue possessed the kingdome of Nauarre had not the forces of English sent for his aide by king Henry the seuenth distracted the French so that they could not come in time to succor their friends distressed Contrarywise king Edward the first matching with the house of Castile receiued smal aduancement as is declared in the chronicle of a In Henric. 3. Matthew of Paris and king Henry the seuenth matching with Catherine of Spaine presently lost his sonne and heire The same woman also béeing maried afterward to king Henry the eight was like to
is rich in mony Lastly as princes and states that haue great store of treasure haue meanes by their hired souldiers to make warres abrode and hardly canne be ouercome that way so are they weak and vnable to resiste if they be strongly affronted and set vpon at home where their treasure lyeth and their hired souldiers cannot be found Which appeared by the example of the Carthaginians and may appeare by the Spanyardes if wee please Now our cause is farre more iust and honest then the Spaniards b In primis spectat vt pacatè tantum suauiter viuat Andreas Philopater p. 14. Her Maiesty her people neuer desired any thing more then peace they desire nothing more then wars We if the Spaniard shall come against vs shall fight for our country our liberty our lawes our religion and conscience they come to spoile vs of al these and fight for the popes pleasure and for that religion of which they haue no a Stapleton praefat in princip doctrin relect further assurance then the popes word Her Maiestie neuer wronged the Spaniard nay she hath not taken that which lawes of warre and all nations did giue her When the shippes that carried mony to pay the souldiers in the low countries that were prepared against her and her country were brought into her ports and gaue her good meanes to helpe her selfe against her enimy yet was she content to restore the mony to the king When the Ilandes of Azores were offered into her handes yet did she refuse them Nay she would not accept of Antwerp and a great part of the low countries that offered to submit themselues vnto her béeing alwaies vnwilling to intricate herselfe with vnnecessary warres Yet was she assured that this was most lawfull and would be a certaine meanes both to bring the Spaniard to any conditions and to make the warres far from home and vpon other mens charges Nor in assisting them of Holland and Zeland hath she doone any thing but after she had attempted all other meanes and was forced to take this course by necessity for her owne safety But the Spaniards haue sought matter of quarrell against her and offered her and her people infinite wronges First king Philip hauing intricated our nation with the French about his quarrell lost Caleis and abandoned the English in his treatie of peace Anno 1567. when we thought he had continued our friend at the solicitation of the pope he b Girol Catena in vita Pij 5. It may also bee gathered out of the aduersaries discourse in Andreas Philopater determined to make warre vpon vs. Afterward he encouraged and holpe the rebels of the North and determined to aide the earle of Desmond in Ireland Anno 1588. he made open warres vpon vs and neuer since hath ceased to molest vs. Nay when he could do her Maiestie and her people no other harme he hath suffered Sanders booke of schisme and diuers other most rayling libells to be published by Ribadineira and others to the dishonor of our nation our princes and gouernours Finally Lopez that was executed for attempting to poyson her Maiestie c See his confession and the actes of the processe against him confessed that he was hired by Ibarra the Count of Fuentes and diuers of the kings agentes not without the kings priuity as was prooued by the deposition of Manoel Lois and Stephen Ferreira and diuers other circumstances Séeing then we haue such meanes to make warres and so iust a cause to vndertake them why should any eyther doubt or feare to encounter the Spanyardes especiallie if they will néedes be quarrelling But to surcease to discourse of the valour of the Spaniard in the warres and of his puissance or rather weakenesse both by sea and land let vs a litle consider him in his other parts and qualities and sée whether he deserueth such extrauagant commendations as N. D doth heap vpon him and what reason he hath to aduance the Spanyard so highly and to debase his owne nation Our aduersary a P. 106. commendeth the Spaniardes For their religion their labour in preaching and winning soules in the Indies their learning their morall vertues and forgetteth not to praise them for their country which he calleth Rich fertile and potent But if these be the points that he meaneth to stand vpon he will hardly perswade his Reader to affoord him any assent or credit For the religion of the Spaniard is not catholike as we shall easily prooue when we come to speake of catholike religion Nay few of that nation know any religion but are ledde by the noses by the pope and his priestes and friers receiuing for truth whatsoeuer they teach though neuer so false not knowing the very grounds of Christian faith though neuer so true Our aduersary knoweth that the Spaniard is saide to account it but a Peccadillo or little fault not to beléeue in Christ and euery man may sée they haue no right faith that receiue all the popes decretalles for true religion In the Indies their disorders haue béene so great that the barbarous people do beléeue rather any religion then that of the Spanyard Bartholomew à Casas a fryer and Hierome Benzo shew that where in Hispaniola there were thrée millions of people at the first arriuall of the Spanyardes there they shortly by their pious and vertuous gouernement brought them to the number of 300. So great was their slaughter and cruelty b Histor Indiar Hierome Benzo saith that all the religion the Indians haue is to make the signe of the crosse and to heare a latin masse which they vnderstand not and to performe such like ceremonies And if hée will not beléeue me yet hée may not with anie reason refuse the testimonie of Ioseph à Costa a Iesuite who of purpose writeth a storie of the new worlde and declareth how the Indians haue profited in religiō He sheweth that the Indians are so vnwilling to be baptized a De procuranda Indorum salute lib. 6. c. 3. That the Spaniards haue baptized many against theit wils whereby baptisme Is made a mocke among them Speaking of Christian religion in the Indies hée saith their knowledge is small and so offred to them that it is either refused easily or easily lost b Ibid. lib. 1. c. 2. Notitia quaedam vel ten uis offertur vel ita offertur vt facilè repudietur vel ita recipitur vt mox perniciosiùs deseratur He c Lib. 1. c. 14. saith They are like the Samaritanes that worship god idoles both togither And againe d Ibidem Simulatoriam Christianitatis speciem praeferunt non colunt deum seriò nec credunt ad iustitiam e A costa lib. 4. c. 15. Their priests and teachers hée chargeth to be giuen to couetousnesse dicing hunting concubinage and luxuriousnesse And this is that goodly conuersion of millions of soules of which this personate N. D. so much braggeth
to possesse a fertile and good countrey and which is praised in scriptures vnlesse the inhabitants bée good and vertuous Spaine I trow is not better then the land of Canaan that flowed with milke and hony yet were the people excéeding wicked What commendation is it to bée descended of a nation that hath had many religious Christians constant martyrs iust and wise princes valiant soldiers and captaines vnlesse the Spaniards continue in the steps of their ancestors But that now the Spaniards are like their auncestors this declamer durst not say Nay it may very well bée saide that the inhabitants of Spaine now are not descended of the Spaniards that were either in Traians Theodosius his time or in the daies of Isidorus and Leander Nor haue they the religion or zeale of the ancient Spaniards But saith the Ward-worder God in regard and recompence of other rare vertues will pardon other infirmities and defects Hée auoucheth also that God hath aduanced the Spaniards aboue other nations of Europe for the defence of Catholike religion So it appéereth by his owne confession that the Spaniards his clients want not sinnes and faultes hée calleth them onely infirmities Peccadillos and defects but all their enormous sinnes as hée supposeth are couered by their zeale in the popes seruice A verie excellent péece of doctrine If the Spaniard commit most heinous murders and rauage whole countries and liue most filthily and blaspheme Gods holy word neuer so execrablie yet by this mans diuinitie they neede not feare if they maintaine the popes cacolike religion and murder all that are studious of peace and Christs truth Let them go to father Parsons and hee will absolue them and set them toll frée that they shall not pay any thing to the pope But what if they oppugne catholike religion and murder Gods saints Then the case is altred and the Warder hath no fence for them nor for such offences Nay hée cannot denie but as their faith is heretical and superstitious so their sins are great and enormous The Spaniards therefore woulde be aduised not to trust this false frier too farre Zeale is commendable but then it must be ioyned with knowledge It is no Christian zeale that induceth men to kill poore christians Our Sauiour Christ sent his disciples to teach the Gentiles and not to kill them Neither did Peter kill the Gentiles and sinners that were ignorant of the truth albeit in a vision he was a Act. 10. macta manduca commaunded to kill and eate but sought by preaching to conuert them from their wicked liues to the truth of Christ Iesus But the pope and his adherents the Spaniards auert many from the truth conuert none to the truth kill the body with the sworde and destroy the soule with corrupt doctrine runne into the Indies vpon pretence of winning soules and yet neglect the Turkes Mores and Iewes that are hard at their doores And all this is commended in them by our aduersarie Nay he séemeth to teach that sinners that are out of the state of grace can merite remission of sinnes and that the Spaniards for murdring of Christians shall bée pardoned for other sinnes which they commit But be it hée shoulde onely say that a man that shoulde zealously adhere to the truth shoulde thereby purchase remission of other sinnes yet is not this iustifiable For wée being out of grace are dead in trespasses and sinnnes and Christ onely can purchase remission of sinnes which without faith cannot be applied to vs. Finally he is not ashamed to confesse That in times past our ancesters were neere linked to the Spaniard in loue leagues and allyance betwixt the princes of both the nations and that at this tyme the Spaniardes shew great kindenesse to papistes fled beyond the seas But little doth this make to the purpose and lesse for the commendation of the Spaniard For it is not here called in questiō what hath passed betwixt the natiōs but whether the Spaniard hath so rare partes in him that he is to be preferred before all other nations and before the English especially which is no way to be deduced or decided by this discourse concerning leagues and allyances Againe if we were so néere linked and conioyned together as our aduersary talketh and that to the profite and honor of both the nations what reason had the Spaniardes at the solicitation of that bald frier Pius Quintus to fall out with their ould friendes and to treate with our most malicious enimies What can they alledge why without all iust cause they should both by force and practises oppugne our nation that neuer offered them wrong Had they not thereby hazarded the losse of the low countries if her Maiesty would haue accepted them béeing offered vnto her And haue they not opened a way for the possessing some part of the Indiaes as oft as it shall please the princes of this land to establish a course for the mainteinance of the trade into those countries And albeit we haue omitted to take the aduantage of either of these two courses yet there is no time past but her Maiestie may alwaies take the one and percase haue opportunity to make benefit of the other Finally if the Spaniardes had remembred the ould friendship that hath passed betwixt both nations they would not haue abetted traytors to rebell nor receited rebelles that are fled out of the realme for feare of lawes albeit they pretend religion After the defence of the Spanish nation in generall our warder with his guard of loose wordes descendeth to speake of king Philip the second in particular A man now dead and buried and therefore the rather to be spared although while he liued he was a heauy enemy to our whole nation Yet for as much as our aduersary hired percase to pronounce a funerall discourse in his praise doth so commend him as he sticketh not to touch the honor of our nation someway entangled with his crosse dealings I thought it not amisse to consider what this exorbitant frier hath to say either for king Philip whome he rayseth out of his graue purposing percase to enshrine him for a saint or against the English nation which he hateth more deadly then doth the Spaniard First hée is offended that king Philip shoulde bée termed Proud ambitious false cruell trecherous tyrannicall and such like and saith that If any of the kings subiectes were to answere sir Francis he woulde giue him the lie and challenge him into the field As if the kings subiects were such dangerous men as none durst maintaine an honest quarrell against them or as if they were more terrible Rodomontes among the Spaniardes then otherwhere Well séeing these challengers come not forth we shall easily iustifie Sir Francis his charge against this frierlike combatants rude and vnciuill cauils and wrangling For it was no part of Sir Francis his meaning simply to charge king Philip with any matter further then concerned the cause in hand and further
we might heare the king of Spaine and princes of Italy secure vs as much then shoulde hée receiue an other answere In the meane while both he and others must haue patience if we bridle those that woulde runne a course to the hazard of this kingdome Neither because we stande against this proposition Do we therefore crie fire and sword blood against the papists nor do we crie out Crucifige crucifige as this desperate Iewe and fugitiue frier chargeth vs. For we vtterlie renounce all such bloodie massacres and fierie executions as the papistes practise against our brethren but onely we tie vp these popish woolues that woulde deuoure Christes flocke and stoppe their furious rage against their countreymen We may not suffer them to come with fire and sworde to the destruction and desolation of their countrey Wée know that in Quéene Maries times they persecuted Christ in his members and made vs beare his crosse but we are not so simple to put sworde and fire into their handes againe Now if they will néedes rebell against lawes they shall finde vs readie in the field to defend our religion prince and countrey and not burne vs at a stake as most cruelly they haue done diuers of our brethren If the papistes yet will quietly liue amongst vs we neither meane to endanger their liues nor take away their landes goods and liberties If they beginne to stirre whatsoeuer shall happen they must impute it to their owne deseruings He telleth vs further That there hath beene bloud inough spent in this realme and that aboue a hundred and thirty priests haue lost their liues within these twentie yeeres for religion men of peace learned vertuous well descended and martyrs But if he had named the men it would easily haue appeared that they were no martyrs of Christ but traytorous agentes of the pope and Spaniard sent hither out of Italy Spaine and other countries by forreine enimies It would likewise haue appeared that most of them were simple and ignorant youthes that for néede were driuen to séeke aduentures blindly led furiously bent fautors raysers of faction and such as no common wealth could endure And yet too many of this sort haue béene spared to the great hazard of the country I pray God that they do not first feele the harme that are cause of fostering such yoong woolues The last lord Treasurer knowing their natures kept them short And time I hope will make vs sée hidden truth It is knowne what Ballard practised with Babington and his confederates Bisley otherwise called The greene priest professed and set it downe vnder his hand that it was lawfull to kill the Quéene and that himselfe would haue doone it if he had could The rest were all linked in intelligence with forreine enemies He therefore that desireth liberty for such men doth not onely professe himselfe an open enemy of his prince and country but also impudently desireth that such may come amongst vs as may sow sedition bring in strangers and cut our throtes If this be a reasonable request let him be heard If we be weary of our liues then let vs entertaine this butcherly race They haue skill to cut mens throtes artificiallie and closely And finally if we be cōtent to heare her Maiestie closely charged to be an extreme persequutor and her iudges and iustice calumniated as if they had doone to death peacible quiet men then let vs open our eares to such impudent petitions as this is I thinke no honest man can reade it without indignation and therefore few words serue to refute it After he hath tould vs his pleasure of popish traytors and called them martyrs he ioyneth recusantes with them who no doubt he estéemeth as confessors Such confessors such martyrs as neuer Christes church knew all either dying for treasons or suffering for heresies and disorders and set on by Antichrist Of these recusants he prophesieth That they must winne in the end That all shall be paid vs that feare is an euill meanes to make things continue that her Maiesty will not liue alwaies that if exasperated mindes come to wreake their wrathes great extremities will ensue that we haue many enimies abrode All which discourse doth shew that the recusants whatsoeuer they pretend do nothing else but grind their téeth and whet their swordes to take reuenge vpon vs that they desire her Maiesties death whome God long preserue that they meane to ioyne with strangers and to worke the destruction of their aduersaries by all meanes whatsoeuer Our wise aduersary doth plainely confesse it and threaten it and by that meanes would strike a terror into vs. Which as it may make himselfe and his consortes odious so it may teach vs first to serue God as béeing threatned with this danger next to take a course to strangle such vipers blood as séeke the destruction of their prince and country As for the feares he obiecteth they may rather stirre vs vp to watch then to feare For the onely way to be without feare is to remooue the causes of feare He that hath madde dogges must tye them sure vp if he will not feare their biting He that will not feare théeues must ride well armed If we arme resolutely I sée no cause as I haue said alredy but that the Spaniardes should rather feare vs then we them To yéelde to conditions vnequall with papists were not as this sencelesse sophister surmiseth a way to cleare vs of feare but to redouble both feare and danger For it is an easie matter to thrust him downe to the bottome of the staires that is content to go downe one steppe But he that standeth vpon equall termes and yéeldeth not to any dishonorable conditions nor feareth to méete his enemy vpon the way may with more probabilitie defend himselfe against him He alledgeth also the examples of Augustus Henry the fourth Edward the fourth and Henry the seuenth which disposed themselues to clemency toward their latter daies and would perswade her Maiesty To vse the same clemency and sweetnesse to the exhilerating of all her people But first the case is so vnlike as nothing can be more For those princes contended not about religion but matters of state Now matters of state may be compounded by remitting of a mans right But religion may not be abandoned for that it is the cause of God Her Maiesty she did not possesse her kingdome by violence as those princes did And therefore if papists were true and loyall men they should not séeke to depriue her of her right She neuer offered violence to papistes but onely sought to liue in peace and put to death none but such as rebelled and practised against her sparing but too many of this sort those princes vsed clemency towards their subiectes that were not linked with forreine enemies nor were factious and punished those rigorously that practised against their states How then if the case were like canne her Maiesty not defend her right against such traytors
Parsons the Iebusite their trumpet to blow out their victory throughout England as they haue alreadie done it at Rome and in other places For what victory can be pretended when as yet not one corruption or falsification coulde bée iustified against Monsieur Plessis and when wée are able to charge not onely Bellarmine Caesar Baronius Gregorie de Valentia Sanders Harding Stapleton and their consorts whose forgeries and falsifications are innumerable but also their holy fathers whose determinations they hold to bée infallible with infinite wilfull falsifications And least anie thinke wée fable of many wée haue begun to note some fewe The vanitie of their triumph may also appéere by diuers other arguments First our cause dependeth not vpon the testimonie of Scotus nor Durand nor Petrus Crinitus No nor vpon two or thrée testimonies of this or that father But vpon the euidence of Canonicall Scriptures testimony of the catholike church of all times which wée doubt not to prooue both by the scriptures themselues and also by the interpretation consent of the most ancient and sounde fathers As for the writings of other fathers wée examine them by the rule of Gods worde and receiue them as farre as they agrée with the rule and foundation of faith The testimonie of later writers and schoolemen wée produce as a confession of our aduersaries against themselues and not as a foundation or necessarie defence of the truth which they in so many pointes oppugne They are therefore put in to fill vp the rankes of our squadrons rather then to do vs any great seruice and rather because our aduersaries estéeme them then because we thinke them woorthie to bée estéemed If then these authorities had béene ouerthrowne which is not granted yet all our other squadrons standing firme the aduersaries cannot think they haue woonne the field Secondly admit one learned man of our societie and communion had mistaken some fewe places yet is not euery mistaking a falsification vnlesse it be wilfull and fraudulent nor is euery particular mans errour to be ascribed to the whole church Nay albeit Bellarmine and Baronius be now Cardinals and men of note among the papistes yet will not Parsons I trow take on him to defende whatsoeuer they haue written And albeit such a shamelesse mate shoulde not doubt to vndertake any impossibilitie yet the popes of Rome will not abide by all they haue written Why then shoulde they vrge vs to that which thēselues mislike in their owne cause Thirdly the place and forme of triall and procéeding was all in fauour of the aduersarie and disfauour of the Lorde of Plessis For neither had hée sufficient time to consider of matters obiected and to prouide himselfe of bookes to iustifie his assertions nor so indifferent iudges as was to be desired the king stil interrupting him and disputing against him and leading the iudges which way it pleased himselfe Nor was the auditorie indifferent being for the most part of contrary opinion Nor coulde he by any humble request obtaine that either his aduersarie might precisely be tied to his challenge or that his booke might be examined orderly or any thing else that is requisite in an indifferent triall Fourthly if a gentleman and no professed diuine vpon such vnequall termes was able to make head against his aduersaries much better I hope shoulde we be able to resist if professed Diuines might procure an indifferent triall allowed by both sides and more hardly woulde the aduersaries bée able to make good their challenges against vs. Certes if Eureux coulde not so well acquite himselfe before iudges determined to iudge for him he woulde neuer be able to appéere in a frée generall councell or before equall iudges Fiftly it is most ridiculous to thinke that this Thrasonicall challenger was able to make good that cause which neither with lying forging facing nor any wit or policie the greatest clerkes of that faction are able to maintaine Finally the very wordes of Eureux his challenge do plainly conuict him to haue performed nothing I do binde my selfe a In his answere and offer made to Monsieur Plessis saith hée to shewe that neither in this booke of his against the masse nor in his treatise of the church nor in his common wealth of traditions is there to be founde so much as one place among them all which is not either falsely cited or impertinent to the matter or vnprofitably alleaged Againe He protesteth and bindeth himselfe to shewe fiue hundred enormous and open falsifications without any amplification or exaggeration and all these conteined in M. Plessis his onely late booke against the masse And this hée saide hée woulde prooue by Gréeke and Latine copies But hée spoke these wordes as it shoulde seeme more of brauerie then out of iudgement for in the first part hee hath vtterly failed and I thinke meaneth neuer to performe it If hée would bée pleased we would be glad to sée his Latine and Gréeke allegations and all that performed which he promised in writing But many doubt of his abilitie and himselfe too no lesse then others For being desired To examine M. Plessis his booke leafe by leafe and in order he vtterly refused that course The second part he began to handle but hath no way accomplished his promise For promising to shew 500. enormous falsifications he onely quoted 60. places whereof onely nine were examined and yet no falsification prooued but onely in Eureux his challenge If then the defendant is to bée acquited where the plaintife prooueth nothing or not so much as hée affirmeth then is Eureux to bée condemned that in his challenge braggeth much alleageth little and prooueth nothing In the meane while our relator may do well to cease his vaine facing and vanting For vnlesse hée triumph to couer his owne shame and losse there will bée no cause of triumph for him founde in this triall It is not the vaine boasting nor the false report of this relator that can turne truth into falsehood and falshood into truth When Eureux or any other of his consorts shall go about to performe his challenge in writing which wel cannot be denied nor altered he shall finde that the Lord of Plessis will bee both able and most readie to defende himselfe against all the calumniations of his aduersaries and for the truth of his cause hée shall neuer want assistance as long as God shall enable vs to speake or write The Kinges pleasure in censuring M. Plessis we will not examine Neither do I thinke the aduersaries will allow him to be iudge in their cause The papistes therefore must deuise some better matter to grace their Romish cause then this For neither the triall of matters at Fontainebleau nor this relation can helpe them any thing CHAP. IIII. That Peter Martyr bishop Ridley bishop Iewell master Iohn Foxe master D. Fulke and other famous men of our communion are vniustly charged with falsifications and wilfull corruptions by the relator WE will not
as seeke her destruction and the desolation of this countrey for our selues that professe true religion and abhorre Romish idolatry superstition and heresie With Sir Francis you haue no reason to be offended if you be as you pretend a friend to her maiestie and the countrey Hee speaketh against the Spaniard and why should he not the Spanish king without all iust cause professing himselfe our enimie He weigheth little the popes authoritie And hath he not reason the pope in his tyrannie shewing himselfe not onely to be our enimie but also the enimie of Christian religion of Christs church He toucheth also the practises and treasons of g Gifford Worthington c. priestes and h Parsons oâ— Delman Hâ—it Walpooiâ— c. Iesuites and their adherents but not without iust cause seeing they haue shewed themselues not catholikes as you terme them for catholikes neuer held either any such religion as theirs is nor sought by violence to murder lawfull Princes and ruinate their natiue countrey but dangerous traytors and most malicious i Testified by Sixtus Qâ—intus declaratorie sentence against the Queene enimies of their countrey Likewise he commendeth her Maiesties clemencie and you haue no cause to dislike the same least percase it may please God to turne her hart through your vngratefulnesse and hatefull practises from her entended course of clemencie which is not well fitting for your sharpe humors into a course of iustice which your treacherous and most wicked practises doe drawe vpon you This is his course against enimies this is his dealing with his soueraigne He neither iniustly chargeth his enimies nor doth he basely or seruilely flatter his friends and superiors But admit your aduersarie had not vsed either that moderation in his stile or sinceritie in his dealing which might passe the iust censure of seuere iudges yet no man hath lesse cause to finde fault with these courses then your selfe and your consorts For in railing and calumniation no man may compare with you It is not one only biting libell and iniurious pamphlet which you haue set out but very many and diuers I will deale plainly with you for that I am well acquainted with your stile and know your lewde packing and practising and can conuince you if you haue your steele vizor on and shame not to denie so plaine matters I say then that you Robert Parsons falsly abusing the name of Iesus to ouerthowe the truth of Iesus haue published first certaine chartels against your friends in Oxford secondly one famous or rather infamous libell against the Earle of k Leicesters coÌ„mon-wealth Leicester thirdly another single l Entitled a confutation of pretended feares libell against the late Lord Treasurer fourthly another infamous m The words by no loyall subiect may be spoken libel against her Maiestie against all her chiefe counsellers vnder the name of Andreas Philopater Neither can you excuse your selfe that n A Iesuite residing in the court of Spaine and Parsons disciple and Agent Creswell was the man that made the Latine which you cannot doe when as you either made it first in English or else gaue him all his argument Fiftly you holpe Allen in his libell against the Queene and state anno 1588. and published diuers copies Sixtly you set out Dolmans treacherous discourse to shew your selfe not onely a libeller but a notorious traitor and sworne enemie to your countrie Albeit o The discouery of a countersect conference one of your friends doth only terme it a chartell or libell This wardword shal make vp the seuenth libell and the patched relation of the conference betwixt M. Plessis and Eureux sent vs lately from Rome the eight Beside these you haue published diuers base and paltrie pamphlets not woorthie to be mentioned and these be the flowers or rather furies of your writings and the fruites of your inuectiâ—e veine Neuer did any vse more lying forging false dealing scornfull gibing odious bragging then your selfe in all your writings Your owne p The priestes banded in England against the Iesuites friends accuse you of Machiuilian and Turkish practises and well doe your writings and doings deserue these titles The like also may be verified of Sanders Rishton Ribadineira Allen that hungrie cardinall other your friends Tisiphone and the furies of hell spoke with their toongs wrote with their pennes and wrought in their malicious harts It is your selfe therefore and your treacherous consorts vpon whom all the reproofes wherewith you load your aduersarie do light fitly and lye heauily And that you shall perceiue by this discourse ensuing Wherein if I reforme your error in many things whereof before you were ignorant you are to thanke me If you fee the hostile dealings of your friends the pope and Spaniard declared and auowed and your owne and your consorts treasons and a great masse of your hidden villenies discouered take it grieuously you may thank your selfe that gaue the occasion If any Papist finde himselfe agrieued with my plainenesse let him impute the fault to you also that first began to stir these coales and to the mysteries of popish religion that contain such deepe matters of rebellion and treason and not to me that being thus prouoked haue so plainely reuealed them Because vpon small aduantages you haue made great triumphes and called your aduersary forth to answere you as it were in eight encounters vanting and facing as if you were to play your maisters prises I haue taken vpon me to ioyne with you vpon your owne ground and to try with you at your owne weapons hoping to prooue you ignorant both of state matters wherein you pretend to know such secrets and also of sound diuinitie and other learning of which your friends and your selfe make such vants For matters concerning Sir Francis Hastings his owne person I refer you to his owne answere that may sufficiently satisfie you For the rest I thought it not amisse to discourse with you more at large And because you goe about to carie away matters with faire pretenses as if you papists the popes children were the only catholikes and did professe the ancient faith of the catholike church and as if all others were heretikes and wrong beleeuers I doe also vpon your lend glosses draw you out into fiue new encounters wherein if you ward not the better it shall be prooued First that you are no catholikes nor hold the catholike faith secondly that your religion is a new deuise and not the auncient religion of Christs church Thirdly that you are heretikes Fourthly that the Romish Church is the harlot of Babylon and not the true church of Christ And lastly that your consorts haue beene executed for treason most iustly and not for religion Which being prooued I trust your selfe will confesse that wee haue iust cause to maintaine that religion that we professe and to withstand antichrist the Spaniard and all their adherents that goe about both by force and treason to
quod causa dispositiua schismatis Graecorum inter alias vna fuit propter grauamina Romanae ecclesiae in exactionibus excommunicationibus statutis saith Peter de Alliaco who doth shew many particulars of these gréeuances The Princes of Germany in a certaine diet at Nuremberg e 100. grauan Germ. in Fascic rer expet fugiend did complaine that the popes did offer thē A hundred greeuances and wrongs not sufferable which they declared by the particulars And yet none of those concerned corruptions of doctrine By her Maiestie we became frée from all the popes pillages exactions from the iniustice of his censures from the bondage of his decretals farre more gréeuous then the ceremoniall lawes of Moses whose yoke notwithstanding as the a Act. 15. apostle testifieth was so heauy that neither the people then nor their fathers were able to beare it Secondly where in Quéene Maries time the people had the Scriptures taken from them in their mother toong and liued in great ignorance of matters of saluation as seldome being instructed in matters of religion not onely the word of God began againe to be publikely read in Churches but also more sincerely expounded then before neither were any excluded from the knowledge of the same Thirdly the true administration of Christs Sacraments which by the abominable masse had beene abolished was restored and Gods people made partakers both of the Sacrament of his body and of the cup also and withall the true doctrine of Sacraments was publikely deliuered vnto the people of God Fourthly Gods true worship was againe restored according to his most holy worde and the practise of the Catholike church of Christ which before that had beene most shamefully corrupted with popish traditions and humane inuentions Fiftly the rodde of the oppressor by her peaceable gouernment was broken and the fires quenched that had burned so many innocents and true martyrs and the tortures remooued wherewith many honest men had beene greeuously afflicted and peace was giuen to the church so that all true Christians might without feare make profession of their faith and publikely meete to celebrate the name of God Those that were exiled returned and such true Christians as kept themselues secret did manifestly shew themselues Finally shée did not onely restore true religion and the right administration of Sacraments and Gods true worship but also abolished the manifold heresies and corruptions of popish doctrine Shee shut the mouthes of priests and friers preachers not of peace nor sent from God but sent by the pope and his adherents to maintaine heresie and faction whose preaching notwithstanding as saith Stapleton c In praefat ante relict princip doctrin Is the foundation of b Viz. according to the pope◠definition Christian religion Is it not a braue religion thinke you that is built vpon impious popes frier fraparts and massing priests mouthes Quomodo Christus saith hee ciúsque doctrina Christianae religionis fundamentum est sic alij nunc à Christo missi eorúmque doctrina praedicatio determinatio fundamenti apud me locum habebunt And a Ibidem againe In hac docentis hominis authoritate in qua Deum loquentem audimus religionis nostrae cognoscendae fundamentum necessariò poni cernimus Note I pray you how he saith most blasphemously that God speaketh by the popes mouth and by the mouthes of such friers and priests as he sendeth for of them he speaketh and how vpon their preaching he buildeth his Romish religion Well this abusiue foundation is nowe discouered and we are taught to builde not on pope nor on friers nor on legends nor lies nor vncertaine traditions but vpon the word of God Now also by her Maiesties authoritie the most blasphemous and idolatrous sacrifice and seruice of the masse and the priests of Baal with their Balaamiticall friers are remooued out of the church The same is also purged of idols and idolatrie and men from worshipping of stockes and stones and rotten ragges and bones and from adoration of angels and men departed this life are brought to worship the true and euerliuing God Finally where héeretofore men were taught to séeke remission of sinnes by masses indulgences iubileies holy water and other humane deuises and beléeued that if they had not remission héere they shoulde at the least finde it in purgatorie nowe these abuses were quite remooued and men taught that Christ Iesus without these ceremonies was the onely way to heauen and that Christians obteined remission of sinnes by faith in him and that no workes pleased God but such as he commanded This then is the first and principall blessing which by her Maiesties most happie gouernment this land enioieth a blessing I saie farre excelling all others as farre as spirituall and eternall happinesse excelleth temporall commodities And yet as appéereth by the confession of strangers that woondred at the happinesse and tranquillitie of this state in the troubles and turmoiles of all our neighbors round about vs God hath accumulated vpon this people of England by the meanes of her gouernment diuers temporall blessings also Wée are therefore secondly to consider what temporall graces we haue obteined by meanes of her happy attaining to the crowne and by her gouernment albeit I make no doubt but that all these latter graces do flow from the first as from a fountaine For God saith a 1. Sam. 2. expresly That he will honor those that honour him and experience teacheth vs that God blesseth those nations which giue harbor to his church and with a true hart receiue his worde and serue him duly according to the same First then we may remember that by her meanes we were deliuered from the thraldome of the Spaniard and the feare of forraine lords into which dangerous state Quéene Marie with her poperie had brought this lande Now how great a blessing this is we may easily vnderstand if we do but looke either into the miserable bondage of our neighbours of the low Countries or else of the Spaniards themselues And better then these we coulde not hope for but many reasons might mooue vs to feare woorse of which we shall haue occasion to speake héereafter In the low Countries during the time of Charles the fift it is b Hist Belgi◠Meterani lib. 2. reported and prooued by record That aboue fiftie thousand were done to death about the cause of religion onely and yet then neither was there any inquisition established nor did the Spaniard command so absolutely as sithence he hath Since that time all the priuileges of the countrey haue béene broken and such intollerable wrongs offered and impositions and taxes laide vpon them that the most aboundant countrey in Europe is now consumed and brought to nothing In Spaine the people liueth in excéeding feare of the Inquisition and paieth the tenth of all things bought and sold in the market and beside that diuers customes and whatsoeuer burthens or impositions else the Princes can with any
retracted his opinion Thirdly I say we suspend our opinion and giue no approbation to Luthers opinion concerning the carnall presence of Christs body in the Sacrament for that we sée that doctrine to be new not taught by the apostolike church Nay we finde it to be repugnant to the apostles doctrine deliuered in Scriptures to the doctrine of the ancient catholike church and to the analogie of faith Lastly I say that in external gouernment it is not necessarie that all churches should concur and agrée séeing not onely the east churches differed from the west but the western churches also from themselues The churches of Afrike had diuers customes differing froÌ„ the churches of Italy a I ibâ—d sa 〈◊〉 Ambrose in his church at Milan thought it not necessary in al things to follow the church of Rome Further I say that it is not to be doubted but that it is better in matter of externall gouernment to folow the consent of antiquitie and succéeding ages rather then any mans priuate humour and opinion and therefore I doubt not but our cause is better and our grounde more certaine which in searching out the doctrine of Christian faith do build our selues vpon Christ and his apostles and vpon holy Scriptures approoued by consent of times descent of holy fathers bishops testimony of the most ancient church which all appéereth in ancient symboles of faith then that of the papists which in doubts and controuersies runne to this pope or that pope which for the most part is but a blocke or a sot and a man ignorant not onely in the controuersies but often in the grounds principles of Christian religion Now what assurance the papists can haue of their faith that haue no ground but in the determination of the pope I report me euen to the papists themselues that condemne priuate opinions and singuler mens fancies and in externall termes yéeld all not to this man or that man but to the iudgement of Christ his vniuersall church Another spirituall blessing a P. 6. and 7. saith our aduersarie is when good works follow faith as meeknes penance mortification of the flesh continencie virginitie fasting praying almes voluntarie pouertie renouncing of the world And that mens sauage natures should be altered by Christs doctrine he prooueth out of Isay the 11. where it is saide That the woolfe shall dwell with the lambe and the Pard lie with the goate And the calfe lyon and sheepe abide togither Lastly hée asketh Whether our doctrine hath wrought these effects of peace and meekenesse of penance and mortification and the rest I answer that the doctrine of the Gospell hath wrought good effects in all true Christians And that all such do good workes and liue according to their profession And albeit euerie one do not so square their liues according to Gods law as they should do yet compare our people with the papists nay with the priests and popes themselues whom they call most holy and I make no question but they do farre excell them In Quéene Maries time this land flowed with bloud of innocents Vpon her Maiesties entrance these cruell executions ceased Such was her clemencie that shée would not shed the blood of those woolues that had shed the most innocent blood of many others Nay albeit during the time of her sisters reigne shée had receiued many wrongs yet did shée forget al. So rare was her clemencie that euen strangers commend it Tanta eius animi extitit moderatio saith b Histor Gâ—nuens lib. 23. Peter Bizarus atque inuata clementia vt non immeritò de illa dici possit quod veteres de Seuero Alexandro Mammea matre genito posteris tradidere nempe anaematon hoc est citra sanguinem gessisse imperium cum suapte natura semper à caedibus crudelitate abhorrens nunquam adduci potuerit vt aliquem nisi publico iudicio damnatum ad supplicium rapi pateretur Her people likewise did folow her steps and neuer sought the blood of papists though the world knoweth they séeke ours In France and Flanders our side neuer tooke armes but in defence of their liues against those that sought to murder them In our victories likewise great clemencie hath béene vsed The king of Nauarre now king of France was euer admired for his great clemencie The English entring perforce into Caliz and other places shewed great moderation in their victorie In diuers places where religion is professed adulterie is punished with death fornication with corporall punishments other vnnaturall filthinesse is not named No where are stewes accompted lawfull Neither do we accompt any man a true professor that doth not moderate his affections and absteine from swearing drunkennesse pride and deale mercifully with the poore and conscionably with all If any man do otherwise he may liue among vs but he is not of vs. But the whoorish synagogue of Rome she is redde with the blood of saintes No tigre was euer more fierce or cruell This farre surpasseth the bloody city whereof the prophet a Nahum 3. speaketh the gouernours of this synagogue like wolues haue deuoured the lambes of Christ and not spared his flocke they imprison the true professors they spoile them torment them and kill them Innocent the third caused many thousands to be slaine in France Iohn the two and twentieth did b Io. Villan hist. fiorent 11. persecute the poore Christians of Armenia and hired the Saracens to war vpon them and all because they would not acknowledge his authoritie Martin the fift and his successors with fire and sword sought to ruinate the Bohemians onely for séeking reformation of abuses and redresse for the cruell execution of Iohn Husse murdred at Constance contrarie to the emperors safe conduct To forbeare to speake of former times the world knoweth that the warres of Germanie against the protestants as they are called were stirred vp by Paul the third and prosecuted with great rigour By the instigation of bloody priestes of the Romish synagogue the innocent christians of Cabriers Merindole and the villages néere adioyning were most cruellie slaine without respect of age sexe or qualitie These be the wolues that in the time of Quéene Mary made such hauock of Christs flocke in England that haue caused millions of christians in France Flanders and other places to be slaughtered Lib. hist 24. Natalis a popish writer saith that thréescore thousand were murdred in the massacre of France anno 1572. Cum amirante saith he Lutetiae Parisiorum in omnibus propè Gallicis ciuitatibus caesa fuisse dicuntur plura sexaginta millibus hominum factionis Vgonoticae nouae religionis And therefore he doubteth not to cal this execution Cruell and bitter The numbers of those that haue béene secretly murdred by the bloodie Inquisitors in Rome Italie Spaine is excéeding great the crueltie of the persecutors strange the patience of saints admirable Neither doe they onely practise crueltie against such as they accompt
statute of Edward the third it is adiudged high treason To imagine the death of the prince or to stirre vp warre against her or to be adhaerent to her enimies But there is no one of these but is adherent to the pope the publike enimie of her Maiestie and this state all receiue authoritie and instructions from him and sticke not to defend his authoritie Most of them are his salaried schollers or agents Manie of them haue receiued stipends of the Spanish king and some were emploied in his nauie anno 1588. and sent against England All of them desired warres to be raised against England and some of them were agents to enduce the Spaniard to make warre vpon vs. That the pope is enimie to her Maiestie and this lande I thinke no man will make question séeing he séeketh to depriue her of the crowne raised the rebellion of the north and in Ireland and stirred vp the Spaniard to take armes against vs and himselfe armed ships and soldiers to fight against vs and sought in plaine termes to depose the prince and as they a In vita Pij 5. terme it L' abbattimento di quella reina That this is treason and a capitall crime by rules of state and lawes of all nations it is apparant by diuers arguments Maiestatis crimen est saith b l. Proximam ad l. Iul. Maiestatis Vlpian quod aduersus populum Rom. aut eius securitatem committitur And hee pronounceth them guiltie by whose procurement Either forreine enimies are stirred to take armes or seditious persons caused to rise or by whom any attempt is made against the prince or that shall c l. Lex vbi supra runne to the enimies or that shall sweare men to attempt against the prince or state or that shall d L. quisquis Cod. ad l. Iul. Maiest take on him a note of faction The same lawes are also practised both in France and Spaine other countries Alfonso the 9. king of Spaine in his first booke Del fuero real tit 2. by strict lawes prouideth for the safetie of the prince And most strāge it were séeing lawes prouide for the securitie of particulars that the law shoulde not take holde of those that practise against the whole state If then these yoong men had béene of such wit and learning and other good parts as this fellow pretendeth they woulde neuer haue suffred themselues to be drawne into a faction against their prince and countrie and others héereafter if they be wise wil take héed how they abuse the princes clemencie In Ireland sufferance and impunitie of such fellowes hath wrought euill effects He that is not blinde may also sée what they entend in England and if he be wise will not suffer such vipers to gnaw their mothers bowels So then it appéereth that no great incommoditie but rather great blessings haue hapned to this lande by the abolishing of poperie and superstition But suppose some temporall discommodities had ensued of this abolition of the masse and of restoring of christian religion yet most absurd it were for temporall commodities to forsake our christian profession He that taketh not vp his crosse and followeth me saith our sauiour e Matt. 10. Christ is not woorthy to be my disciple and not onely externall temporall commodities but our kindred and néerest bloud is to be forsaken for Christes sake He that loueth father or mother more then me is not woorthy of me a Ibidem saith our sauiour b Daniel 3. Sidrac Misach and Abednago chose rather to be throwne into the fierie furnace then to worship an idoll And shall we for any presupposed feares forsake our God and his truth and fall downe before idoles and yéelde our selues slaues to Antichrist a glorious thing it is to attaine wealth and honour in this world and to be made generals and heads of societies of friers and monkes and to be made cardinals but what shall it auaile a man to winne the whole world if he loose his soule Whatsoeuer therefore may happen let vs cleaue to the truth of Christ Iesus and hold on our profession vnto the end No man is crowned but that striueth vntill he haue obtained victorie If wée loose goods landes wife children father or mother or friend God can restore them to vs againe Nay if wée die in this quarrell God can giue vnto vs a farre better life Wherefore then should we doubt or feare Suppose I say the woorst yet haue we no cause to doubt But if we will rightly consider the present state of things we shall finde that wée haue great cause to reioice and hope the best Our cause is iust and honest For we stande for our religion our prince our countrey our reputation our wiues our children friends and whatsoeuer else is deere to vs. Neuer had this countrey more men nor better meanes either to defend or offend The cause is not ours alone but of manie others The enimie neuer was weaker then at this instant Onely this wanteth that we deale boldly and resolutely in so honest and godly a cause and neither feare the vaine brags of forreine enimies nor trust the smooth gloses of trecherous friers popish priests and rinegued English Now her Maiestie is surely possessed of the crowne and so well beloued of her subiects as shée can desire Take away the practising priests and malcontent traitors and at home shée hath no cause of feare In time past the popes of Rome had a strong faction within the land and diuided halfe of the regall authoritie with the prince The clergie and people for the most part were his vassals The countrey paide a great tribute to him The treasure of the lande was caried out at his pleasure Many ranne to him both for preferments and iustice now all this vsurped power is abolished and the people wholy dependeth next vnder God on the prince so that her authoritie and force now is farre greater then in time past Shée wanteth neither men nor ships nor ordinance nor munitions of warre If then her Maiestie would be pleased to make an establishment for the warres and seriously to consider how to resist these that now séeke her hurt and the destruction of her people we shoulde soone cause such rinegued enimies of the countrey to change the note of their song concerning dangers and feares and force forreine enimies to thinke more howe to defende themselues then to offende and offer violence to others Such is the state of our countrey and such are our meanes Great cause therefore haue we to giue God thanks that hath bestowed vpon vs so many spirituall and temporall graces And if we do not vse them to his glorie in exterminating the wicked reliques of Antichristianitie and defending that truth which we professe we shall shew our selues vnwoorthie of both and hazard that which now we quietly possesse CHAP. II. That the papists as they are charged by sir Francis Hastings do hold diuers
the churches interpretation then by séeing the same confirmed by scriptures For which cause the Bereans red the Scriptures and are therefore commended Secondly if the men that went to a Luc. 24. Emaus and the Ethiopian b Act. 8. red the Scriptures albeit they vnderstood them not at the first why shoulde Christians bée barred from reading such scriptures as they vnderstand What more simple argument can be deuised then this because an interpreter is necessarie that we may not read what hée interpreteth in a toong which we vnderstand Thirdly Philip that taught the eunuch was not the apostle Philip as the Noddy our aduersary supposeth shewing by example of himselfe that scriptures are not much to be red but Philip the deacon Lastly it is a matter most ridiculous because some places are hard to be vnderstood to debarre the people from the whole body of scriptures especially séeing many thinges are plaine and easie Nay this reason may better be retorted vpon our aduersary because diuers places are hard to be vnderstood that wée should diligently read them and heare them expounded that we may both by these and other places reape profit And thus it may appéere that euen simple women whome this scoffing mate calleth proud protestant people and scorneth at them for reading holy scriptures would be much ashamed if they could not reason better of these matters then this great popish Rabbin that taketh on him so boldly to determine matters Hauing thus fondly reasoned of reading of scriptures he cōcludeth forsooth very wisely that falsehood heresie is engendred of reading of scriptures And goeth about to prooue it first by the example of William Hacket William Ieffrey and Ioan Burcher thē by experience for that as he beléeueth more heresies are sprung vp within these 50. or 60. yeeres since scriptures began to be red in vulgar toongs thē in many ages before But his conclusion is nothing but a wicked calumniation of gods holy scriptures and his proofes consiste of a packe of lies both declare him to be a sclanderous lying enymy of Gods truth For it is not reading of scriptures which he stileth rash reading béeing vsed by lay people but neglect of scriptures that bringeth foorth error and heresie Philosophers therefore that contemned scriptures were called patriarkes of heretikes and heretikes by a De resur carn Tertullian are called Lucifugae scripturarum for that they fly from the light of scriptures And that is proued euen by the examples produced by the aduersary For those blasphemous heretikes did not fall into their impieties and heresies by reading scriptures but by gyuing héede to fond reuelations and renouncing scriptures experience also teacheth the same for while the light of Gods word was couered and scriptures neglected and héede giuen to popish decretalles and Mahomets reuelations all the heresies of papists and impieties of Mahomet and many other errors haue béene receiued by people ignorant of scriptures And that reading of scriptures is not cause of heresies it appeareth first for that not simple people reading scriptures but great clerkes reading philosophie and popish Decretalles and schoole Doctors haue béene authors of heresies Secondly in the Apostles times when all might reade scriptures then fewest heresies sprung vp That Ioan Burcher conueied bibles into the court or had any acquaintance with Anne Askeugh which this fellow reporteth is a lie deuised by himselfe Let him shew his author if he can that which he talketh of Anne Askeugh is impertinent But such is his blindenesse hée will needes haue all the world sée the cruelty of papists that burnt that innocent woman for denying their transubstantiation which if hée were wise he would haue either denyed or dissembled albeit some other should haue spoken of it And so it appeareth that Sir Francis Hastings had reason to charge the papists with hiding the scriptures from the peoples eyes and kéeping them as it were couered in toonges vnknowne contrary to Christs doctrine precedentes of antiquitie And no lesse reason haue christians to detest the boldnesse of this frapling frier that calleth preaching reading and reasoning of scriptures clouting of scriptures And thus much may serue to shew that the papists deale iniuriously in taking away translations of scriptures out of the hands of the multitude It is also most apparent that they rather perswade ignorance as fit for their blind deuotion then knowledge neither is this Rabbin able to shew the cōtrary He alledgeth Thomas of Aquine for his warrant and saith that he disputing of deuotion maketh ignorance neither to be mother nor daughter nor sister of deuotion But what if Thomas of Aquine doth not so teach doth it therefore follow that no other teacheth ignorance to be mother of deuotion who would reason so simply and ignorantly but he beside this albeit his master Thomas doth not directly teach it yet in effect he teacheth as much For first he sheweth a 2.2 q. 82. art 3. that deuotion doth most abound in simple people and in women And secondly he b 2. 2. q. 2. aut 6. teacheth that it is inough for the simpler sort to haue fidem implicitam and to beléeue as the church or as their superiors beléeue which is a meanes to bring in ignorance Finally I haue shewed that diuers others haue gone further in commending ignorance He saith further that all hold what Thomas holdeth and so beginneth to make a long speake of the nature cause and effectes of deuotion But first albeit we graunted that all held that which Thomas holdeth yet it doth not hereof follow that the papists hold no more nor otherwise then he holdeth For then what néeded so many later bookes and therefore this answere is not to purpose Beside that it is false For the Scotistes in most points dissent from him and in many points of schoole Diuinitie later doctors do contradict him as namely in his opinions of the procéeding of the holy Ghost principally from the father of the conception in originall sinne of the virgine Marie of the tormenting of soules in purgatorie by diuels of Christs locall being in the sacrament and infinite other matters Hée alleageth also a saying of Saint Augustine concerning deuotion and To make the wilfull malice of these good fellowes appeere saith hée Thomas of Aquine maketh this obiection to himselfe As if either Thomas of Aquines obiections to himselfe or else saint Augustines wordes could ascertaine vs what these fellowes hold or hold not séeing they dissent from Saint Augustine in many things and in all things doe not iumpe with Thomas and haue infinite nouelties more then either of these Wherefore vnlesse this fellow can shew that doctors Cole neuer vttered any such saying and that the practise of papists is not to nouzell their people in blindenesse and ignorance hée doth but trifle and sheweth himselfe fitter to sit in the alehouse among the goodfellowes he speaketh of then to dispute in schooles Lastly hée braggeth much of the learning
to beléeue that the popes excommunications are to bée executed and this is their common doctrine But suppose our aduersarie shoulde teach papists to contemne the popes authoritie which hée is not like to do yet would not his exhortation worke any effect For alwaies vpon the popes excommunication haue wars and rebellions ensued where the pope hath had any authoritie This was the beginning and motiue of the bloody warres of the popes against Henry the fourth and fift and the two Fridericks and against Otho Philip and Lewis of Bauier emperours of Germanie And no other cause can be assigned of the insurrections against king Henry the eight other excommunicate princes In vaine therfore doth this Noddy go about to reconcile the subiects obedience with the excoÌ„munications of the pope They neuer did nor euer coulde agrée hitherto Fire and water may percase bée reconciled but these two cannot Neither do I thinke that hée meaneth to reconcile them Onely hée desireth some respite vntill by our negligence either the papists may get a head or forreine enimies haue made their prouisions ready For how little affection hée beareth to the prince and state it appéereth throughout all his defence In this place hée goeth about to smooth and as farre as hée dare with the safetie of the cause in hand to defende the insurrection in the north of England anno 1569. the rebellions in Ireland the practises of Charles Paget and Francis Throgmorton and diuers other attempts against her Maiestie and the state Whereas the earles of Northumberland and Westmerland rose in armes in the north and spoiled all that quarter and purposed not onely the destruction of the prince but also the subuersion of the state and the bringing in of strangers as appéereth by the negotiation of Ridolpho as it is set downe in pope Pius the fift his life hée saith They onely gathered â—heir tenants togither and without battaile or bloudshed retired As if they had ment nothing but to méete at an ale-stake or May-game Doctor Sanders raised a rebellion in Ireland Francis Throgmorton not onely reuealed the secrets of the state to Bernardin Mendoça and practised with him how to draw in forreine enimies but also had his finger in other treasons Charles Paget began a practise about the coast of Sussex was the ouerthrow of Henry earle of Northumberland and afterward continued practising what mischéefe he could against his countrey The late earle of Northumberlandes actions were openly declared in the Starre-chamber to be dangerous The last earle of Arundell was taken as hée was passing ouer to the enimies And yet all these treasonable and dangerous practises are by him either lightly passed or else coloured Hée saith that Francis Throgmorton died for hauing a description of some portes in his chamber But his owne confession testifieth that hée was touched for far greater matters and I haue partly pointed at the same Hée saith The earle of Arundell was condemned onely for hearing of a masse and that he had cause to reioice that he was condemned for such a treason As if it were so spirituall and glorious a matter to heare a masse Assuredly in times past masses were no such glorious matters when they were solde to all commers for thrée-halfe-pence a péece and vnder As for the earle hée had great cause to commend the clemencie of this gouernment or else hée had well vnderstoode that hee had committed greater faultes then hearing of a masse all which I forbeare to relate for the respect I beare to his house The iustice that hath béene doone vpon papists that haue béene conuicted eyther of rebellion or secrete practises with forraine enemies or other kindes of treason and felony he calleth Pressures vexations dishonors rapines slaughters and afflictions Dishonoring her Maiestie and the state and calumniating the iudges And yet were more true catholickes and religious christians executed within one yéere in Queene Maries time then trayterous papists since her Maiestie came to the crowne a Histor Genuens lib. 23. Bizarus and other strangers do greatly commend her Maiesties clemency her very enemies could neuer appeach her of cruelty The papists most cruelly murder those that are of a diuers religion albeit they yéelde obedience to their prince and desire to liue quietly Her Maiestie executeth none to death for popish religion nay least she should séeme to touch any for religion she doth oftentimes spare offendors guiltie of dangerous practises and treasons Likewise in drawing the obstinate to the church there is great moderation vsed Many offend few are punished and that very gently The papistes haue the greatest part of the wealth of the land in their handes Diuers rayling companions are still publishing libels to the dishonor of her Maiestie and the whole gouernment neither can this Noddy represse his malitious affection but he must néedes allow their dooings And yet the papistes are spared although neuer the more for his wise pleading Finally he commendeth the papistes for their patience But I thinke he meaneth the patience rather of Lombardes then of christians For they neuer had yet patience but when they were vnable to resist In king Henry the eightes dayes they made diuers insurrections in England The trumpets of sedition were monkes and friers In king Edward the sixt his daies they stirred in Deuonshire and Cornewall and all for want of their masse and holywater and such like trinckets The chéefe moouers thereof were likewise priests in Quéene Elizabeths time they made head first in the north parts and afterward in Ireland by the seditious practises of priestes and Iesuites either most or a great part of that country is in combustion Neither haue they omitted any opportunity to mooue new rebellions in England In Fraunce they conspired together against their lawfull kings Henry the third and fourth and neuer gaue ouer vntill they were ouercome by famine sword and other calamities and this is the patience of papists nay they say that if the first christians had had power they would haue deposed Nero Dioclesian and other persecutors a Lib. 5. de pontif Rom. c. 7. Quod si Christiani olim saith Bellarm. non deposuerunt Neronem Dioclesianum Iulianum apostatam ac Valentem Arianum similes id fuit quia decrant vires temporales Christianis So when papistes are too weake to resist then they are content to obey but giue them head and then beware Compare now the dooings and procéedings of our side with our aduersaries I hope there shal be no such wickednes found in our hands Diligently doth this fellow search matter against vs but findeth none To iustifie his consorts he telleth vs of Goodman but we do not allow his priuate opinion Beside that he doth not like rebellion but misliketh womens gouernment which opinion since himselfe hath retracted Secondly he obiecteth against vs Wyats rebellion But that was not for religion but for matter of state not against Quéene Marie but against strangers whose tyrannie hée
abhorred Thirdly he telleth vs and that in very tragicall termes Of armies campes battailes insurrections desolations caused in Germanie France Flanders she practise of the world he was thought not vnworthy to be emploied in publike causes His body was mishapen especially his toes féete which declared that he was ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 genere that is of the kinde of crooked clawed beastes but that was couered with his gowne and slippers His first step out of the vniuersity was into the Cardinals house where he learned the Cardinals pride and vanity His first employment was in the negotiation at Rome about the kinges mariage with the Lady Anne Bollen who sent him thither together with Edward Fox to solicite her cause For his wit and experience he was thought fit to be employed and specially named by the Quéene but his false and treacherous dealing in that cause did much hinder the kinges procéeding as afterward did manifestly appeare Notwithstanding because the Quéene thought he had taken paines and dealt faithfully with her she was the cause that he was nominated by the king and so preferred to be bishop of Winchester The which that he might seeme to deserue he did publikely defend the kinges supreme authority against the pope and by an oath whereof there is yet a publike act remayning he forswore and abiured the pope afterward taking the opportunity of the kinges humor he wrought an alienation of the kinges minde from the Quéene and neuer ceased vntill he brought that innocent Lady vnto her end and not content herewith he was a speciall instrument of that act of parliament that was made against her mariage and her issue Thus this viper rewarded that good Quéene by whome he was aduanced Nourish vp dogs and they will bite saue the life of a serpent and he will sting Now hitherto Gardiner in outward shew was a great oppugner of the popes authority but whether vpon hope of greater preferment by the pope or displeasure to some about the king afterward he began to harken to the pope Béeing sent with Sir Henry Kniuet to Ratisbone to a certaine diet holden by the Emperor there he was discouered to haue made a packe with Cardinall Contarene and from thence wrote letters to the pope Which the king tooke so offensiuely that in all pardons commonly granted in parliaments he excepted treasons done beyond the seas meaning no doubt this treason of Winchester Returning home now reconciled to the pope he proued a great persecutor of true christians He was the chéefe moouer of the king to set out the act of six articles which was the occasion of so many innocents death and in execution thereof this wolfe was alwaies most forward as contrarywise if the king was aduised to reforme any abuse he was alwaies most backeward In the latter time of the king he was so out of his fauour that he came not in his presence And where beforetime he was made one of the tutors to young king Edward and an ouerséer of king Henries will he was quite dashed out and by no meanes could bée admitted again either to his place in the kings fauour or in his will Which procéeded as may probablie bée coniectured for that hée was the cause of Quéene Annes death which the king toward his latter ende so much repented In the beginning of king Edwards daies hée hindred the iourney into Scotland and whatsoeuer might make for the honor of the yoong king as appéereth by his letters to the Lord Protector And yet in open termes acknowledged the kings supremacie and once more a The acts are extant denied the pope But vpon the Protectors death the man séeing a storme comming did obstinately resist the kinges procéedings and so was woorthily depriued of his bishopricke and committed to prison But béeing deliuered from thence by Quéene Marie hée raged against the flocke of Christ like a woolfe famished and long restrained And as before hée had caused Quéene Anne to loose her life so hée sought to bring the ladie Elizabeth her daughter to destruction Hée was the onely instrument to examine and entrap the innocent ladie and by diuers meanes sought to suborne false witnesses to accuse her as an abbettor of Wyats insurrection And so farre hée preuailed as a warrant was brought to Master Bridges then lieutenant of the tower for her execution Thus had the hope of her happie gouernment béene cut off if God had not stirred vp the lieutenant to make staie of executiō vntill the Quéenes pleasure was further knowne Hée was also the onely man that prosecuted bishop Ridley and bishop Latimer to death insomuch that expecting newes from Oxford of their execution hée woulde not dine before hée had heard that fire was set to them But sée Gods iudgements vpon the cruell tyrant euen that selfe same dinner in the midst of his meriment God so strooke him that hée was carried from the table to his bed and neuer rose vntill hée died So hée raged while hée liued and raued when hée died His actions in his life time were odious his body dying did stinke so odiously that his seruants could not endure it He woulde not suffer the holy martyrs to speake at their death and therefore God stroke him so in his toong with swelling that sometime before his death he was not able to vtter one word and this was the life and death of this monster Of other qualities I will not speake One of his men set out a treatise against the mariage of ministers wherein it seemeth his finger was But much more honestie it had béene for him to haue beene maried Hee wrote diuers things but hée wrote not onely contrary to himselfe but also both to papists and protestants which his workes now extant do shew refuting notoriously the vaine brags which our aduersarie maketh of his learning William Allen was borne I know not where but he was brought vp in the vniuersity of Oxford from whence either discontented with the present gouernmēt or else induced with hope of better preferment otherwhere he fled into the low countries and there became a reader of the popes broken diuinity Afterward beeing nouzled among rebels and traytors he began to teach positions of rebellion and treason to his countrymen that came ouer and so instructed them that diuers of his scholers prooued maisters in wilfull disobedience and treason against their prince and country himselfe a Jn his answere ad per seq Aug. c. 5. saith That it is not onely lawfull but glorious for subiectes to take armes against princes that will not admit popish religion He alloweth and commendeth not onelie the rebellion in England but also in Ireland that was raysed for that cause Neither should it séeme that any practise was made against her Maiestie by the papists but he eyther was a plotter of it or had vnderstanding of it When her Maiestie sent aide to the distressed people of the low countries he by his pestilent
obey the magistrate commanding them to go to church And so gladly woulde hée finde a knot in a rush and as if hée had founde out great matters hée despiseth his aduersarie and calleth him Seely man and simple soule and bible-clerke knight and guilt-spurre doctor rayling at his pleasure and according to his fashion yea and without iust cause For first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is better translated Humane ordinance then Humane creature For properly men neither create nor are created by men Moreouer if wee shoulde translate humane creature then shoulde this subiection be not to magistrates ordeined by man but generally to all men And therefore the worde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying both creature and ordinance or election wée are to choose the fittest signification Secondly it is no part of sir Francis his meaning to teach an absolute obedience to bée due to temporall princes Nay hée thinketh it neither due to temporall nor ecclesiastical magistrates saue onely in things lawfull But this the papists denie to princes in ecclesiasticall externall gouernment simplie and in temporall causes too if the pope do excommunicate them or depose them Thirdly sir Francis did not alleage this place to prooue that papists were to go to church vpon the princes commandement but rather to shewe that they ought not to rebell against princes vpon the popes warrant as they do very often And thus all this matter about which the Noddy maketh so great exclamations is easily cléered and all his calumniations and cauillations at his aduersaries person and writings answered It resteth therefore nowe that we consider a little of his braue speake made in the latter end of this chapter to the Recusants Perhaps he is better able to teach them what they are to do héereafter then to defend that is done already First hée telleth vs That hee can say no more to cacolike Recusants then that which followeth Which sheweth that hée hath little to say in their defence and lesse for their instruction Then hée pronounceth in his graue voice That the course which they haue taken is most honorable and pious before God and man and that forsooth in three points first in shewing their dutie towards God by standing constantly and suffering for their conscience Secondly in offring all loyal obedience in temporall causes to their liege prince and lastly in edifying their neighbors by their good life and behauiour But what if they haue neither shewed their dutie to God nor suffered for their conscience nor offered loyall obedience to their prince nor haue so taken her nor haue either by their beléefe or life edified their neighbors May we not then conclude that their course is neither pious nor honorable and that albeit they escape the censures of men yet assuredly they shall answere before God Nay what if for religion they maintaine superstition for loyaltie nourish in their bosomes trecherie and disloialtie and ruinate their neighbours by their euill example doth it not hence follow that their course is impious and disloiall and odious both in the sight of God and of man and that not in thrée points but in many points resulting partly of their impieties and errors in religion and partly of their malcontent humours in ciuill actions It is most apparent For this Warder their good friend hath laide those grounds whereof this conclusion ariseth First then I say that no papist since her Maiesties raigne hath suffred death or losse of landes or liberty méerely for his conscience vnlesse he make it conscience not to commit treason Let the recordes be sought and their causes be examined and this will easily appeare And albeit some haue béene imprisoned yet was the same not directly for not comming to church but for refusing to pay the mulct Secondly compare their penalties and sufferinges with the sufferings of true Christians whome they imprison spoile torture and murder and that onely for matters of faith and then they will appeare nothing in comparison But were they much greater then they are yet it is the cause and not the suffering that maketh their patience commendable Haue they a See the conclusion of the 4. encountres following thâ—â— treatise suffered for their impieties idolatries treasons and felonies and for adhering to Antichrist Then is their shame great and their reward nothing Thirdly I deny that they haue shewed their duty towards God Nay in refusing to heare his word and to receiue the sacraments ordeined and instituted by Christ Iesus and administred according to his holy institution and embracing a fond and false religion standing partly on traditions and popish decretalles and partly vpon leud customes and lying legendes and partly vpon wicked heresies and false positions they haue declared themselues impious towardes God and aliens from Christ his church And that they shall well perceiue by a speciall encounter concerning that point Fourthly it is méere impudence to affirme that the recusantes haue offered to her Maiestie all loyall obedience in temporall causes or that they haue acknowledged her to be their liege prince For who knoweth not that the rebellions both in the north parts of England and also in Ireland were raysed by recusants and papists The same men haue diuers times attempted the destruction of her Maiestie and the alteration of gouernment as appeareth by the practises of Parry Somerfield Throgmorton Ch. Paget and others These are the men that Cardinall Allen hoped would ioyne with the Spanyard and helpe to depose her Maiestie And although now they stir not yet it appeareth that their a Those be the words of Campians facultie obedience must onely continue Rebus sic stantibus And call you this yéelding of loyall obedience Beside that the b Bulla Pij Quinti pope curseth all that will obey her or repute her as lawfull Quéene Whether is it then more likely that they will obey the popes sentences whom they take to be their soueraigne iudge in these cases or her Maiesties commaund which they respect not But suppose they would yéelde loyall obedience in temporall causes yet that is not sufficient to make the recusantes seeme loyall subiectes For the princes authority in commaunding for true faith and abolishing errors and abuses for establishing externall orders remoouing disorders both in the time of the law and in the auncient Christian church hath alwayes béene estéemed great Lastly I would aduise these cacolike malecontentes or recusantes or what you will haue them called not to bragge too much of their good works least they giue others iust occasion to make their vncharitable dealing and dishonest liuing knowne Now I will onely say this that he that fauoureth forraine enemies and entertaineth eyther practise or intelligence with them or receiueth markes of faction from them whatsoeuer his pretenses are cannot séeme much to edifie his neighbors Surely he leaueth for himselfe no place in the state that loueth not the state Let them therefore if they will néedes boast of their workes giue
no more eare to these hispaniolized English combined with traytors for the destruction of the country For he canne hardly séeme honest whome such rinegued traytors so highly do praise In the end of this chapter he goeth about to teach his disciples the recusantes how farre they are to yéelde obedience to their prince But if his teaching be no better in schooles then in these encounters I doubt he will make but few good schollers First he doth not shew vs whome he taketh for a lawfull prince which for determination of this controuersie would certainly be knowne For if he do not beléeue that a prince excommunicate by the pope and by him deposed is to be reputed lawfull and to be obeyed notwithstanding the popes spite then whatsoeuer he talketh here of obedience to princes concerneth her Maiestie nothing a P. 88. Secondly he would haue recusantes to serue their prince With body goods and life Where we are to note that he neither mentioneth the heart nor the inward affection Do we not then thinke that the recusantes will do her Maiestie good seruice that are deliuered vnto her without soule hart or harty affection Thirdly least vpon his promise they might perhaps be too forward in seruice he draweth them backe with a limitation and teacheth that their seruice and obedience is to stretch no further Then to iust causes of which he maketh eyther the recusantes themselues or the pope their holy father to be iudge So that her Maiestie if the pope procéede against her is to looke for no seruice at the recusantes handes Nay Allen in his traytorous exhortation to the nobility and people of England and Ireland hopeth to draw them to assiste forreine enemies against her Behould I pray you this goodly doctrine Fourthly he teacheth That Christian princes haue no more commaund nor authority in ecclesiasticall causes then heathen magistrates for that Christ altered nothing at all in temporall gouernement But that is a position contrary to the law of God to the practise of Gods church and most absurd sencelesse The law of God referreth ambiguous matters aswell to the iudge or prince as to the priests or leuites For in the Sanedrin of which that law is the foundation the soueraine magistrate was chiefe b Deut. 17. and the king was commanded To read in the law that he might kéepe it by his authority restraining offendors In auncient time vnder the law the kinges and soueraigne magistrates gaue lawes to priests leuites and not contrarywise In the church of Christ for a thousand yéeres or more there were no lawes obserued but those of princes Bellarmine would fetch it higher but his proofes faile him In their Bullary which containeth a summe of the popes lawes they begin with Gregorie the seuenth but in truth Gregorie the ninth was the first that gaue authoritie of lawe to the popes constitutions and gathered them into the booke of decretals Before this time bishops priests deacons and the whole church was a Cod. de sum trin fid â—ath tit sequentib gouerned by the lawes of Christian princes as appéereth by the lawes of Constantinus Magnus ValentiniaÌ„ Gratian Theodosius Arcadius b Ansegisus de leg ib. Caroli Ludouic Charles the great Ludouicus Pius and diuers others And certes very absurd it were if heathen princes that are strangers from Gods church shoulde haue as much authoritie as Christian magistrates that are principall parts thereof and to whom the execution of Gods law is committed Neither is it materiall that Christ altered nothing in the office of magistrates for it did alwaies belong to the magistrate that was of the church to gouerne the church in externall matters and to sée true doctrine published and the sacraments sincerely administred by those to whose office it appertained So we sée that by this false position he would exclude her Maiestie from all gouernement in ecclesiasticall causes and that notwithstanding his pretence of teaching obedience he teacheth flat disobedience to princes ecclesiasticall lawes and their commaundements Fiftly he c P. 88. teacheth That ecclesiasticall and temporall gouernment is so distinguished that he that ruleth in the one ought not to rule in the other The which doth vtterly ouerthrow the popes temporall kingdome which our aduersary would so willingly maintaine For why should he gouerne a kingdome pretending to be a bishop rather then a king gouerne a particular church of one nation in externall causes especially Secondly we do deny this distinction of authority vpon which our aduersaries fancies are founded And our reason is for that in Christian common wealthes where the same persons are members both of the church and common-welth there the chéefe gouernours ought to haue care both of church and common-welth and most absurd it were if the prince which is a principall member of Gods church shoulde haue no gouernment therein and that inferior persons shoulde haue supreme command ouer the prince Sixtly hée doth insinuate that the pope is Christs vicar the apostles successor in supreme gouernment of the church And this hée teacheth is Recusant schollers least percase they shoulde faile to obey him But this is nothing else but to draw her Maiesties subiects from their due allegiance and to perswade them to listen to the pope as pretending to bée Christs vicar and the apostles successor and supreme gouernour and head of the vniuersall church of Christ which is quite contrarie to his faire pretenses and purpose in this place where hee shoulde perswade the Recusants to obedience towarde their prince Beside that it is so false as nothing more Let this Noddy if he canne shew foorth the popes commission eyther for his vicegerentship or for his pretended apostolicke office and supreme gouernement let him prooue it vnto vs or else forbeare impudently to assume it and to affirme it wée doe shew that bishops are the apostles successors and yet that is no preiudice to the princes supreme authority nor neuer was What then is that which hée bableth of the pope that is neither bishop nor the apostles successor Finally hée affirmeth That ecclesiasticall gouernment stood distinct from ciuill 300. yeeres after Christ and that euery emperour and mortall prince conuerted to the faith and entring into the church submitted themselues to this ecclesiasticall gouernment and so continued vntill certaine heretikes confounded all And so still cunningly hée speaketh for the popes authoritie and secretly disableth not onely her Maiesties power in ecclesiasticall matters but her title also to the crowne standing as shée doth excommunicate by the pope He doth also abuse his reader with the ambiguitie of ecclesiasticall gouernment For if by ecclesiasticall gouernment he meaneth the power of the keies consisting in the censures of the church and power of priestly function which is properly ecclesiastical we grant that such ecclesiastical gouernment belongeth not to princes so that they are to execute the same in their owne persons But if by
Lucian and Rabelays but also all his owne companions of the societie of his firie father Ignatius As for his aduersarie hée hath not spoken any thing that in equall iudgement can be thought to sauour of immodestie For albeit hée seemeth to charge the Spaniards with Oppression and tyrannie and saith that they are Proud ambitious bloudie rauening and cursed of God yet his intention was not to touch the whole nation in which no doubt there are many ciuill religious and honest men and of great woorth especially when they come to the knowledge of the truth but diuers of them indefinitely and such especially as came in the popes seruice to execute his wrath and displeasure against innocent Christians For against these doth hée direct his discourse and against them doth hée animate his countreymen to fight séeing their purpose is to destroy our countrey and with crueltie to establish both a false religion and an absolute tyrannie Neither coulde hée vse more gentle termes considering the insolencies of the Spanish forces in these cases and the tyrannie of their gouernment The ambassadors of the citie of Siena a Natal Comes â—istor lib. 6. say That the gouernment of the Spaniard in the kingdome of Naples and other places of Italy is so rigorous that the countrey people desire to liue rather vnder the Turke then vnder the Spaniard And this by infinite insolencies and actes full of iniustice and crueltie for manie yéeres exercised by the Spaniards in the b Bartholomeus casas Indies in the c Belgica hist. Meterani Low countries and lately in the countries of Iuliers Wesell Monsterland and places adioyning may be verified Our ancestors were woont to say they were crabbe faced and woorse natured Vultu despicabiles moribus detestabiles as Matth. Parts testifieth And if antichrist and these that receiue his marke and worship him be cursed and miserable then are the Spaniards that are so willing to execute the popes most irreligious and vniust commandes most miserable and haue a great curse hanging ouer their heads But faith our fencing warder and bickerer The Spaniards are hated for their catholike religion especially and next for their virtue and valor He saith also that the like happened to the English when they were Lords of France for the most part and to the Romaines when they ruled a great part of the world But why should he seeke for new supposed causes when the true causes and reasons are so well knowne and so violent and all sufficient Beside that it is well knowne that the Neapolitanes Milaneses and Portingals do not hate the Spaniards for their religion but for the causes formerly declared Neither do we maligne the Spaniards for their catholike religion for we know that their religion is not catholike nay we do not hate them in regard of their false religion which they hould but rather pray for them and pittie theÌ„ but we haue great reason to suspect their encrochements and to detest their ambition iniustice rapines and tyranny How they may be called Fortes or valiant I report me séeing as Philosophers hould a Fortitudo est virtus pugnans pro iustitia Fortitude is a vertue striuing for iustice Lastly he offereth great wrong not onely to the Romaines but also to the ancient English to compare the Castilians vnto them For neuer was the Romaine or English gouernement like to the Spanish nor canne these two famous nations well bee compared to the inhabitantes of Casttle Granada Valentia and Arragon that vntill of late were a poore b Matth. Paris in Henr. base people and for the most part nowe consisteth of Gothes Vandales Mores Maranes and Iewes which haue surmounted and deuoured the auncient inhabitantes of Spaine He telleth vs also That it is no reason albeit some Spaniardes be found to haue those vices which Sir Francis imputeth to them that all the nation should be charged with them As if either he or any other did suppose all Spaniards to be of like vitious humor No Sir Francis doth onely charge Spaniardes indefinitely and those principally that are the popes vassals and agentes and are so willingly emploied in his seruice And in effect saith no more then our aduersary willingly confesseth He a P. 105. saith further That no nation in Europe hath more cause to glory and giue God thankes for his giftes aboundantly powred on them both natural morall and diuine then the Spanish who haue a country potent rich and fertile praised in scripture 1. Machab. 8. a people able in wit and body as appeared by Traian and Theodosius emperors by Seneca Lucan Martial Poetes by Hosius Damasus Leander Isidorus Orosius renowmed Christians by famous martyrs Christian kinges famous souldiers that haue conquered great countries by the sword and finally by excellent preachers that haue gayned many millions of soules to Christ by preaching And thus with bigge wordes and many great bragges he thinketh to put his aduersary downe But he is confident without cause and triumpheth before the victorie nay before he séeth his enimie To answere him in his owne tearmes I thinke there is no nation in Europe more behoulding to this base lying companion then the Spanish For renouncing all loue to his country and duty to his prince he hath sould himselfe to publike enemies to flatter them and to set out their praises Beside that he forgetteth all plaine and honest dealing and delighteth himselfe with vaine reportes and lyes The world knoweth that Spaine for the most part is a bare and barreine country and that the common sort is poore and miserable Portingall that is accompted the more fruitefull notwithstanding is but barreine Ieiuna miserae b Buchanan saith one tesqua Lusitaniae Valete longùm vosque glebae tantùm Fertiles penuriae How potent the country is it may appeare by this that it hath béene so often conquered by the Cathaginians Romaines Gothes and Vandales and lastly by the Mores of Barbary Theodosius and Traian albeit borne in Spaine were of Romaine bloud brought vp in Italy and Rome Seneca also and Lucan and Martiall had their learning and skill at Rome albeit Martiall for his filthy and obscene writing sauoureth of the humor of some Spaniards It is also a matter of méere impudency to compare the battels and conquestes of Spaniardes in the Indiaes where they had to do onely with naked men and people vnskilfull in feats of armes to the actions of the Romaines that haue subdued the most warlike people of the worlde Neither can wée account of his relation of winning of soules to Christ in the Indies by friers otherwise then as of a lying legend and vaine bragge that hath no ground For a Hierom. Benzo Barth Cas diuers report that they haue destroied millions of soules and speake sparely of winning of soules But were all this true that is héere reported yet maketh the same nothing so much for the Spaniard as the Noddie imagineth For what auaileth it
not haue kept secret Lastly where it is saide That the king had laide a plot for the destruction of the Ladie Elizabeth now Queene of England hée answereth That the worlde knoweth that the king at that day was her chiefe stay and defence and that for the reasons before alleaged and that finding her when he came into England in prison and hardly pressed about Wyats insurrection hee deliuered her and brought her to the court and yeelded her most carefull protection In the end hée concludeth That it is barbarous ingratitude not to acknowledge his fauour towards her But if this were a matter knowne to the worlde it were a great woonder if it shoulde neuer bée knowne in England where men haue greatest reason to know the same No no hée abuseth his Reader very much that imputeth the cause of her safetie to king Philip. For albeit for some causes hée had reason to respect her then when he hoped to haue issue by Quéene Mary yet afterward no doubt hée consulted and that for many and potent considerations to bée ridde of her Yea albeit her innocencie in Wyats cause was sufficiently knowne yet if God almightie had not béene her chéefe protector and stirred vp meanes for her safetie neuer thought of by man it was not the kings fauour that coulde haue defended or deliuered her But suppose God shoulde vse the king likewise for an instrument of her deliuerance yet did hée neuer any thing in regard of the Ladies innocencie but rather in regard of his owne profite as the Noddy vnawares confesseth in his third encounter and as is very apparent by the procéedinges of the king in that action But what if the king shoulde do a fauour to any person is it barbarousnesse for all others not to acknowledge the same In ancient time those that receiued a benefite were déemed vnthankefull if they did not acknowledge the same and endeuor to requite it but our barbarous Warder will haue all condemned for barbarous and vngratefull that either know not or acknowledge not the kings fauour extended to others Other points of his answere I haue before touched and refuted The premisses considered he doth woonder How sir Francis his booke which hée termeth a libell could bee suffred to passe to the print especially conteining so reprochfull calumniations against so great and potent a prince as the king of Spaine is But rather it is to bée woondred that Parsons or any Iesuite shoulde once open their mouth to speake of calumniations and libels when their common course is by libels and slandrous writings to denigrate all such as oppose themselues to their factious courses Parsons is not onely a practitioner but also hath passed master in this facultie Against my Lord of Leycester hée a Leycesters common-welth began to play his masters prises yet was not that his first libell as his friends of Oxford know The booke which hée published vnder the name of Andreas Philopater toucheth her Maiestie and all her cheefe Counsellors very rudely beside that hée set out a booke against the old Lord Treasurer and his whole house After that followed Dolmans booke which hée will not denie to bee both calumnious and iniurious and to haue béene written by him Hée is also charged by a friend of his to bee a principall actor in the infamous libell set out anno 1588. by Allen against the Quéene at the least hée ouersawe the presses and diuulged certaine copies thereof Nowe hée hath set out this fencing Ward-word comparable to the rest of his satyricall writings for the bitternesse thereof A certaine a A discouerie of a counterfeit conference p. 6. priest of his owne religion doth call his booke of succession set out by Dolman An infamous babling cartell or libell Iohn b Discouerie of the errors of William Criton Iesuite Cecil a popish priest doth not onely taxe Criton a Scottish Iesuite for setting out a Satyr pasquinado and libell against himselfe and others but condemneth all these pestilent courses of libelling and killing practised by the Iesuites Neither do I thinke that any can allow Ribadineiraes booke of schisme As for sir Francis Hastings Watch-word it is a discourse of another nature conteining neither satyricall inuectiue nor iniurious calumniation but a iust accusation and declaration of our enimies most wicked and malicious purposes against vs which none can mislike but such as professe themselues either enimies to our nation or traitors to their prince In the end of this discourse hée goeth about to cléere king Philip the second Of all supicion of hiring Lopez to poison her Maiestie yea of being priuie and consenting to that execrable fact But hée doth his client no pleasure in mentioning that wherewith hée is not charged and refuting the charge so loosely as if hée were hired to betray the kings cause as hée hath héeretofore long gone about to betray his prince countrey Wée I say do not charge the king with any such matter but onely referre our selues to Lopez his confession and to Manoel Lois and Stephen Ferreiraes depositions and to the bil of exchange for fifty thousand crownes to be paid to Lopez The witnesses and parties do all blot the king and his principall agents in the Low countries the Count of Fuentes and Ibarra Such a great summe coulde not bée paide without the kinges notice héereto may bée added a certaine token or iewell sent from Christopher Moro the kings counsellor and a message from the king brought to Lopez by one Andrada But nothing doth bréede more suspicion then this Noddies defence for the king Hée saith That this matter coulde neuer probably be knowne to the king And why not Coulde neither Lopez himselfe by letters nor Andrada by message nor secretarie Ibarra tell him of the purpose It is no question Nay it is confessed and deposed that they did Secondly hée saith That Lopez neuer gaue any signification of any such matter But his confession in writing testifieth the contrary And many heard him say more then his confession importeth Thirdly hée alleageth That the king was not to haue correspondence with Lopez being a Iew. As if the Spaniards vse not to haue correspondence both with Iewes and Turkes to serue their owne turnes or if any coulde bée more fit to execute such horrible factes then Iewes and Infidels Lastly hée asketh If the king had no agents neere to plot such matters but he must be made priuy himselfe But it may bée answered that no warrant coulde bée graunted for so great a summe but by the king that would not let fiftie thousand crownes go for nothing and that Lopez woulde do nothing vnlesse hée had the kings warrant both for the money and his further preferment It is therefore no Turkish impietie to talke of such matters but a course Turkish and heathenish or woorse to do or consent to such execrable empoisonments Neither would Parsons haue taken vpon him the defence of the king in this foule fact if he
concerneth the popish faction that pretendeth thereby to be greatly wronged Our a In his first encounter aduersarie saith That manie honorable and worshipfull gentlemen haue endured continuall and intolerable affliction for perseuering in their fathers faith and that aboue a 100. priests haue bin tortured hanged and quartered for the same cause These men he cléereth b In the conclusion of his encounters from treason celebrateth their martyrdome Likewise Cardinall c Ad persequutores Anglos Allen in his treatise against the execution done vpon popish priests and their consorts doth greatly complaine of Persecution iniustice tyrannie and extreme crueltie and beareth the worlde in hande That they were very innocents and without iust cause died for matters of their conscience onely and not as the sentence of their condemnation ran for their treasons and wicked practises against the state and finally That they are to be esteemed as holy martyrs and not as leude traytors And because few of late time haue opposed themselues against these fellowes exclamations and accusations not onely diuers abroad haue had a heard conceite of our dooings but also some euen among vs haue doubted of the matter and of late time either staied or moderated the execution of lawes against them I haue therefore thought it a very necessary point to resolue you that the popes agents and adherents that haue within this realme béene executed about his quarrels haue died for treason and not religion and are to bée estéemed as traytors and not as martyrs and that the rest of their consorts are to praise God for her Maiesties great clemencie and moderation that suffereth them to enioy their ease and pleasures whom neither religion nor lawes nor rules of state nor reason will suffer to liue among vs beléeuing speaking and practising as they do First the law of God is very direct against false prophets and teachers that shall go about to drawe vs to serue other gods Propheta ille saith a Deut. 13. Moyses aut fictor somniorum interficietur Afterward hée saith That if our brother or sonne or friend yea or wife that lieth in our bosome shall go about to induce vs to idolatrie our eie must not spare them nor haue mercie on them to hide them Neque parcat ei oculus tuus vt miserearis occultes eum sed statim interficies Neither is it to bée doubted but that popish priestes are within the compasse of false prophets and teachers that woulde drawe vs to worship the idole of the masse angels and saints departed the images of the Trinitie and crosse and stocks and stones and ashes and bones we know not of whom nay to worship our owne fancies and opinions which is a grosse point of idolatrie The b Apocal. 2. Bishop of Pergamus is sharpely reprooued for that he suffered certaine false teachers that spred and held the doctrine of Balaam and the Nicolaitans The prophet Helias caused Baals priests to be slaine The c Tit. 2. apostle commaundeth vs To reiect and auoide heretikes And saint Iohn d Iohn 2. forbiddeth vs either to receiue them into our houses or to salute them You that are the children of light saith e Epist ad Philadelph Ignatius fly the diuision of vnity and the euill doctrine of heretikes f Homil. 2. in genes Chrysostome exhorteth Christians To flie from an heretike as from a madde man The emperors Gratian Valentinian and Theodosius g Cod. de haeret Manich. l. omnes haereses decréed That all heresies forbidden either by Gods lawes or imperiall constitutions should for euer be silenced Omnes vetitae legibus diuinis imperialibus constitutionibus haereses say they perpetuò quiescant They forbid also hereticall prelates to teach or to ordeine inferior ministers The emperors h Ibidem l. cuncti haeretici Arcadius and Honorius tooke from heretikes all places of méeting and forbad the exercise of their religion vnder a gréeuous penalty They also confiscated all their goods and depriued them of ability to buy or sell or to make a testament or last will Finally g Ariani Theodosius and Valentinian adiudged certeine heretikes woorthy of death To conclude this point saint Augustine albeit sometime he taught that heretikes were not to be forced with penalties and punishments to embrace religion yet retracted his opinion and highly commended these imperiall lawes against heretikes In hoc saith h Epist 48. he seruiunt reges Christo ferendo leges pro Christo And againe Quis meÌ„tis sobrius regibus dicat nolite curare in regno vestro à quo defendatur aut oppugnetur ecclesia domini vestri Non ad vos pertineat in regno vestro quis velit esse religiosus quis sacrilegus Neither néede we vse many wordes in this case séeing our aduersaries not onely yéelde but also contend that all extremity is to be vsed against false prophets and false heretikes and their practise is not onely to confiscate their goods and to banish such but also to kill them and torture them with all rigour But no man can doubt whether papists be heretikes and their teachers false prophets and seducers but such as either are not resolued in religion or are vtter enimies of true religion First then we are to vnderstand that religion cannot bée maintained vnlesse heresies be suppressed Secondly religion doth require at the handes of magistrates that they defende themselues their state and people against all rebâ—ls and traytors and practisers against the state For the magistrate i Rom. 13. Carieth not the sword in vaine is gods minister for our good a reuenger of wickednes The principall end scope of princes is to protect their subiects against all violence and seditious practises k 1. Tim. 2. Obsecro saith the apostle primum omnium fieri obsecrationes orationes postulationes gratiarum actiones pro omnibus hominibus pro regibus omnibus qui in sublimitate sunt vt quietam tranquillam vitam agamus in omni pietate castitate l Isai 49. Kinges they are foster fathers and Quéenes foster mothers of the church and therefore may not such suffer the church either by force or practise of Iebusites and Cananites to bee oppressed How do Kinges better serue the Lord saith Saint m Epist 50. Augustine then by forbidding thinges contrary to Gods commandements and punishing seuerely such as offend Quomodo reges domino seruimus in timore nisi ea quae contra iussa Domini fiunt religiosa seueritate prohibendo atque plectendo And the n Rom. 13. apostle signifieth That we pay tribute for that they are gods ministers and do him in this point seruice And subiectes as the p Tit. 3. apostle teacheth are to Yeeld obedience to princes viz. that all may concurre to this end that the state may bée preserued in tranquillitie If then our Iebusites and priestes and their consorts the recusants and Cananites
Neither doth the pope whose slaues those are of whom we speake winke at any plot tending to sedition or hurt to his state or person whatsoeuer religion or pretence they make that are found to deale against him as c Iulius Clarus lib. senten 5. §. Laesae maiest appeareth both by his lawes and practise Innocēt the seuenth hauing but newly vsurped the temporal dominion in the citie of Rome caused diuers Romans that sought to defend their libertie without all order of law to be stabbed and throwne out of a high window to the ground Vndecim ciues saith d In Innocentio 7. Platina reipub suae labenti in negligentia pontificis consulturi statim necantur è fenestrisque deijciuntur quod diceret eo modo tolli seditiones schisma non alio quidem posse e Theod. à Niem lib. 2. de schismat c. 36. Vrban the sixth vpon pretence of cōspiracie against himself put diuers of his cardinals to death and vsed great crueltie against all that were but a little suspected of any course taken against him Neither did his aduersarie Clement take a milder course against those that wauered or stood euill affected to him although both Vrbane and he had their title called in question Iohn the 22. caused the bishop of Cahors to be skinned aliue and to be slaine with great torments Omnibus cruciatibus saith a In Ioan. 23. Platina coegit vitam cum morte commutare quòd in pontificem coniurasset Clement the fift vpon pretence of a conspiracie dissolued the whole order of Templars and caused diuers of them to be put to death b Platina in Paulo 2. Paul the second vpon suspition of some practise against him apprehended diuers principal men of his court and put them to exquisite torments Iouius in vita Leon. 10. Leo the tenth c spared not Cardinall Petrucci but put him to death for speaking words tending to the alteration of state in Siena albeit the same was onely recommended to the pope and none of his proper dominions Alexander the sixt vsed most cruelly to put men to death for euery word spoken against him as d In vita Alexandri 6. Onuphrius testifieth And of late time the whole order of friers called Humiliati vpon pretence of some pack against the Romish state or rather against cardinall Borrhomey was ouerthrowne and dissolued and diuers of them executed No reason therefore haue the papists to except against the actions of their holy father or such as haue care of their states as well as he hath of his vsurpations In Fraunce also they vse the same lawes and procéedings against traitors as their customarie lawes and the arrests and iudgements of their courts of parliament doe declare e Lib. de la rep 2. c. 5. Bodin sheweth that a certaine Gentleman was executed for a certaine intention against the king albeit he repented himselfe for it and neuer told it to any but his confessour Peter Barriere was likewise condemned of treason and executed at Melun for that he intended to murther Henry the fourth of Fraunce albeit Varade a Iesuite and others perswaded him it was an act meritorious Neither did the French king doubt to procéede against anie of the league or combination made against him by the pope Ghineard was executed for impugning the title of kings excommunicate and all the order of Iebusites expulsed by the kings edict for allowing and teaching that seditious doctrine I need not to bring any more testimonies in a cause so cleare séeing I think the aduersaries will not denie but that the lawes of all nations doe prouide for the indemnitie of the magistrates and state against rebels and traitors If then the popish faction proue a packe of traitors they must néeds confesse that they are condemned traytors by publike lawes and acts of all nations In this countrie also there are lawes specially made against fugitiues ouer sea against such as bring in medals Agnus Deies graines or other notes of faction against such as draw men from obedience to the prince to obey the pope and such like which are nothing but speciall declarations against such as adhere to forraine enemies or practise against the prince or state Whereby it appeareth that all lawes condemne practisers against the prince or state Thirdly it is directly contrary to rules of state to suffer such as are linked with forreine enimies and secretly combined against the prince or state or that condemne the princes right or intertaine intelligence against the prince or commonwelth The safetie of the people and state is principally recommended to the magistrates and officers of state Salus populi saith a De legib l. 3. Tully speaking of the chéefe commanders of a citie illis suprema lex And that ought to bée euery priuate mans principall desire and endeuor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith b Polit. lib. 3. c. 3. Aristotle Neither can any state stande where either men well affected are disgraced or seditious and malcontent humors escape vnpunished and vncontrolled Rewarde and punishment as a wise politike saith are the two bondes that kéepe the parts of the cōmon-wealth firmely togither And as good it were to haue no lawes against secret traitors practisers as not to sée them executed For law is a restraint of offences either voluntarily or ignorantly committed Lex c. est dilectorum quae sponte vel ignorantia contrahuntur coercitio as saith c L. lex ff de legibus Papinian Take away punishment and execution and you frustrate the lawe and take away law and you dissolue the sinewes of a common-wealth d Ibidem l. legis virtus Legis virtus haec est saith Modestinus imperare vetare permittere punire Neither haue any more interest in the execution of the lawes then such as haue chéefe command and reape greatest benefite by the state If then wée respect the saftetie of the state or of her Maiestie or our superiors or our selues or estéeme the honours landes and commodities which wée enioy or regard our wiues and children and dearest friendes which all lawes of state do recommend vnto vs according to our seuerall places then may we not suffer those to rest or roust among vs that threaten the destruction of vs all and are still working to vndermine the foundation of our state and safetie And if the popes agents and their consorts be such and so many as is reported euery where dispersed in this lande then are they not to bée longer harboured nor suffred among vs. Finally naturall reason may stirre vs vp to looke narrowly into the procéedings of these fellowes We may not suffer such as lie digging at the foundation of the state and plainely oppose themselues against it Neither hath the prince anie reason to protect them as subiects that will not acknowledge her to be their lawfull Quéene nor to suffer them to liue that attempt against her life nor to grant safety and
same appéereth by their owne confessions actions and procéedings Campian and his consorts béeing demanded Whether they tooke the Queene to be lawfull Queene notwithstanding the popes sentence of excommunication and per consequent whether Sanders and Bristow and such as teach otherwise taught soundly they refused to answere directly and woulde neither acknowledge her to bée their lawfull Quéene the popes sentence being in force nor condemne that traitorous doctrine Nor woulde they directly say That they woulde take the Queenes part if any by the popes commandement and authoritie should come to fight against her Nay contrariwise they séemed to like and allow the popes proceeding and condemne her Maiesties title If then such as by lawe refuse contumaciously to answere are to bee condemned as confessing the article and that both by the a Laetate §. qui tacent ff de interrog actio l. 2. §. quod obseruari Cod. de Iuram Calum ibidd ciuill law and by the b C. si post praestitū de confess in 6. gloss ibid. canons then are these fellowes to bée reputed as traitors and enimies to her Maiestie Beside that they haue brought with them certaine c Resolut casuum nationis Anglicanae cases of conscience in which all priestes are instructed and which they generally holde And therein first it is resolued d Cap. 1. cas 1. That she is an heretike and no lawfull Queene and that her Iudges and officers are not lawfull Iudges to interrogate them Further being e Cap. 3. cas vlt. demanded Whether they take her to bee their lawfull Queene and whether the pope hath authoritie to depose her and whether she be a schismatike or heretike they are taught to answere That shee is lawfull Queene for that the Bull of Pius the fift might percase not bee pronounced with all formalities requisite and to elude the other questions but not to speake directly Further in a certaine search of a house where Dauid Engleby a priest was taken these f They are recorded in the memorials of the councell of Yorke resolutions were founde first That the Queene before the popes Bull was not lawfull Queene That cacolikes are not to defend her or fight for her if any come to execute the popes bul That It is lawful to take armes against her yea to do what they please with her if they be sure to obtaine victorie And shall such vipers be suffered in a state that thus treasonably talke of the prince Assuredly if all do not speake so grossely yet all these conclusions flowe of the popes doctrine in this case of deposing of princes In the foresaide resolutions it is flatly resolued that it is lawfull to kill the Quéene but say the priestes Rebus vt nunc constitutis multo satius esset ne loqui quidem ea de re The second is prooued by their earnest solicitations from time to time to bring in the Spaniard and themselues I thinke will not denie but that they séeke that the pope may haue soueraigne gouernment in all ecclesiasticall causes at the least The erection of the English Seminaries in Spaine and other places was made for no other ende Neither hath Parsons and the Iesuites busied themselues of long time about any other purpose more then to preferre the Spanish title His commendation also of Spaniardes and his mediation for peace with them in his former treatise doth flowe from no other cause This is the cause also why the Seminary men that come out of Spaine into England do distribute certaine graines and tokens of faction as a certaine g In his allegations against Iesuites priest chargeth them Now then if wée will but consider the premisses which not onely by histories experience and our owne knowledge but also by the aduersaries confessions to bée shewed vnder their handes for the most part may bée verified wée may well woonder how it commeth to passe that such traytors are suffered but we cannot by any meanes doubt but that they are traytors and that in the highest degrée Neither can any excuse himselfe and say That it is no treason to bring in graines or medals or to bee a priest made by the popes faction or to reconcile men to the church and to commit such like matters as later lawes haue made treason For albeit these thinges howsoeuer they are to bée censured simply of themselues are not treason yet if graines and beads and such like toyes bée notes of a faction opposite to the state then is it treason by all lawes to haue them that condemne notes of faction That they are notes of faction it is apparant by those that are brought out of Spaine to distribute to such as like the Infantaes title It is also apparent by the wordes of a h Cap. 1. cas 2. resolut cas nation Anglic. resolution in a case of conscience among them Haec grana metalla benedicta multum conferre possunt ad afficiendo◠populos erga apostolicam sedem say the resoluers that is Allen and Parsons Againe to be a priest or false prophet simply in it selfe is not treason but by priesthood to vnite himselfe to a publike enimie and to make himselfe thereby of a faction against the state is and alwaies was to bée condemned as treason Thirdly to bée reconciled to the church is no treason but to be reconciled to the pope to take his side that by armes and practises seeketh to ouerthrow the state cannot be estéemed otherwise then as treason as may also appéere by the arrest giuen by the Court of Parliament of Paris against the Iesuites For albeit the same misliked not the order simplie yet because it was iudged a faction opposite against the prince and state the whole order of Iesuites was expulsed out of France Some also may pretend that it is a point of religion to obey the pope which notwithstanding is a matter vtterly false For in ancient time neither did Bishops attempt to depose Princes nor did Christians beleeue they had any such power Nay as Sigebertus Gemblacensis testifieth it was holden flat heresie which now the Iesuites hold and teach as a point of their religion But were it religion to obey the pope yet can it not be religion to rebell against Princes to depose them to murther them to adhere to forrein enimies that séeke the trouble of the state as doth the popish faction For p Breuiar Liberatij Syluerius a pope of Rome was condemned himselfe for packing with the Gothes against the Emperor and Abiathar and his consorts that q 3. Reg. c. 1. would haue made Adoniah king contrarie to Dauids intention were therefore r 3. Reg. 2. punished and hee deposed from his priesthood Finally to say Pater noster and to make crosses is not simply euill but to say Pater noster to worke a coniuration or to make a crosse to that purpose is an act of superstition So to obey a good Bishop in it selfe is
The kings iudgement in matters of religion is not allowed by the aduersaries themselues The glorious challenger in his letters to Rome compareth his king to Hunnericus an Arian heretike and a persecutor of the church And saith that as Eugenius bishop of Carthage would not dispute with the Arians without making the bishop of Rome acquainted albeit required by Hunnericus king of Vandals so he would do nothing without the cōsent of the bishop of Rome before the French king In other points neither his letters nor the popes Nuntioes letters nor that other good fellowes letters deserue any credit To conclude all this great stirre which Parsons maketh about nothing doth shew the great pouertie of the aduersaries cause that as men wracked at sea are glad to lay hold vpon euerie broken planke to saue their liues CHAP. VI. The notorious vanitie of the relators obseruations vpon the former narration is detected AFter our relator had trussed vp his fardle of fooleries to make the same more vendible he garnisheth his packet with certaine painted glosses which hee termeth obseruations And to make his eloquence séeme more admirable hée doth excorticate certaine Latin words according to his Romish fashion reflecting as he saith what occurred to his contemplation Which reflections occurrents obseruations and contemplations to do him pleasure we are content particularly to consider and sée whether he were not in a sounde sléepe when he thought himselfe to be in a profound contemplation And first verie wisely he obserueth Gods prouidence in conseruation continuation of the olde catholike faith deliuered first at the ascension of our Sauiour vnto his visible Church as he saith But if he speake of Christs faith then this obseruation cōcerneth him nothing For that faith hath alwaies continued and shall continue notwithstanding the opposition of the Iebusites and Cananites and all their adherents and néedeth neither their letters disputes nor practises to preserue it If he speake of the Romish faith as it is no question but hée doth then wée must tell him that wée denie that that faith is either the catholike faith or was deliuered at the time of Christ his ascension or in many ages after to any Church or procéeded euer from the apostles We doe therefore here obserue that hée is but a bad obseruer that marketh no better what was deliuered by Christ and his apostles Againe wée obserue that it is a strange fashion of spéech to say that the faith began to bée deliuered first at Christ his ascension For then it followeth that not onely the apostles before that time but also the patriarkes and prophets shoulde either be deuoide of faith and saued without faith which is impious to say or that they had faith before it first began It is also a strange doctrine to saie that the apostles at the ascension of Christ deliuered the faith to the visible church For that church is not now visible neither was that church that is now visible then Naie to saie that the whole catholike church is visible is an assertion repugnant as well to reason as to Christian faith Hée obserueth also That though new fantasies and deuises of particular men haue sprong vp with fresh and glistering titles that in the end God bringeth the same to confusion All which wée hope will prooue true in the glorious ruffle of the Iebusites and Romish synagogue For albeit these wicked Cananites will bée termed Iesuites and do pretend perfection in themselues and reformation in others yet their glorie beginneth to fade and their trecherous and Machiauelian practises begin to bée discouered not onely by vs but by their owne consorts The synagogue of Rome also and the kingdome of antichrist albeit it hath long triumphed troden the truth vnder foote yet beginneth to decay and is now oppugned of many and in the end shall bée ouerthrowne It resteth onely that they looke for aeternum opprobrium of which himselfe speaketh Finally the golden idole of the masse is now in most places abolished and where it remaineth is not valued at thrée-halfepence This obseruation therefore maketh much against the obseruer and against vs nothing and is verie farre wide from the matter of this conference out of which these obseruations shoulde be drawne The third point that hée obserueth is That the shame and confusion of heretikes and heresies consisteth principally in 4. points as holy fathers do note viz. First in diuision among themselues secondly in contradiction of sectaries thirdly in atheisme and coldnesse of religion fourthly in open lying and falsifications of authors to serue their purpose But hée leaueth out the very principall cause of the confusion of heretikes And that is partly for that they séeke their owne glorie and not the truth partly for that forsaking the direction of holy Scriptures they follow lying legendes and fables false traditions vaine opinions and determinations of popes and humane fansies Neither is hée so well versed in fathers that hée can tell what they say These 4. points certes which he alleageth the fathers do not say alwaies to bée proper to heretikes For neither are all heretikes diuided into partes nor do all seeme colde in religion some pretending superfluous and superstitious zeale neither haue all heretikes vsed open falsification and lying When hée commeth to exhibite the fathers which hée pretendeth I beléeue he will be driuen to falsifie them or else they will not serue his purpose But were it granted that these qualities are incident to heretikes yet doth the same make little for the aduersaries aduantage who are diuided into diuers sectes and religions and infinite diuers opinions and are not onely atheistes but also the grossest liers and falsificators of authors that euer were heard of in any recorde or historie With their atheisme also they ioine superstition and idolatrie and defende their matters not onely with falshoode and fraude but also with fine force and crueltie As for those of our cōmunion they cannot iustly be charged either with contradiction or diuision or impiety or falsificatiō either by Parsons or by his two friends Rescius and William Reynoldes as hath béene shewed in a treatise called Turcopapismus wherin the spite of those two dogs that haue long barked against religion and belched out al the slanders they could deuise is encountred and their bookes intitled Caluinoturcismus and de Atheismis and Phalarismis refuted and beaten backe vpon the papistes that in Turkish and tyrannicall crueltie and contempt of all religion surpasse all others If the machiauelian Iebusite Parsons dare oppose himselfe and will say no let him answere that bóoke If hee will not answere let him cease to bragge of bookes beaten to dust and refuted to the shame of him and his consorts In this place this may bée sufficient for auoiding this relators slāderous imputatiō that those two railing companions obiect other mens faults to vs and charge vs with priuate mens actes and opinions which neither the church nor we particularly allow and therefore
pleade vnsufficiently But wée charge them with leud opinions held by all the papists and most wicked and abominable actions allowed by publike authoritie Further the papistes alleage the testimonies of Lindanus Staphylus Cochleus Rescius Reynoldes and their owne consorts fellowes to bée receiued as witnesses before no indifferent iudge for their basenesse leudnesse and partialitie But wée are able to conuince them by their owne recordes and by witnesses authenticall to be such as they woulde haue vs to bée and farre woorse too And if Parsons maintaine the contrary hée shall soone receiue his answere and perceiue his owne inabilitie and the weakenesse of his owne cause Further he obserueth in Luther That at the first hee contemned the fathers and that afterward when wee began to shew how the fathers did witnesse for our cause that we alleaged them falsly But neither did euer Luther contemne all the fathers but where they spoke contrary to the prophets and apostles nor shall this counterfeit relator shew that wée haue alleaged the fathers vntruly as I will bée alwaies readie to iustifie against him Hée noteth also That we make plaine demonstrations of distrust in maintaining our cause And that hée prooueth first For that diuers bookes written in English by papists were forbidden by proclamation Secondly For that by a statute it was made death to reconcile men or perswade them to the Romish faith Thirdly for that Streite orders were set downe to restraine the resort of people to the papistes that are prisoners in Wisbich But if these be arguments of distrust then are the papists most distrustfull and fearefull to haue their matters come in scanning For they forbid all our bookes to be solde among them And if any disswade from poperie or talk against it it is present death Neither may any talke with prisoners in the inquisition As for our selues we are but too confident in these causes For there is no bald lousie friers book commeth forth but it is commonly sold in Paules church yard and any learned man may buy any of their bookes publikely Yea diuers simple soules not being able to iudge are often times deceiued by them So that it were fitting more care were had in this point But the true reason why our superiours haue forbidden English bookes popish perswasions and common repaire to popish prisoners is for that diuers simple soules not being so well able to iudge haue by such meanes béene drawne not only into leud opinions but also dangerous practises of which we should not offend if we did take more care then we do Finally he noteth that we cannot abide confession satisfaction restitution or the like which is true if by confession he meane auricular coÌ„fession made in a priests eare and by satisfaction scourging a mans selfe or walking in pilgrimage with hope thereby to satisfie God for his sinnes and such like satisfactions and by restitution such summes of money as papists are enioyned in lieu of true restitution to parties offended to bestow vpon priests Iebusites and notorious traitors It is not long since these companions drew from a drie fellow a little before his death two thousand pounds with the which the Iebusites their consorts now make merrie But if order be not taken for such deuises to draw mony out of the subiects purses and to take away these means from traitorous practisers the same in the end will make this state very sorrowfull And therefore I doubt not but the magistrates and iudges will looke to that verie diligently In the meane while I hope I haue taken order with this Relators lying obseruations CHAP. VII An answere to our aduersaries two petitions annexed to his former relation WHat successe our aduersarie is to hope for in his petition annexed to the Ward-word I hope may in part appeere by our answere And yet not expecting an answere he hath presumed to come to her maiestie with a new petition and to vs with another So copious and fluent he is in his libels and petitions a Homer Iliad ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is like a flye or rather because he speaketh so much for Spaniards a Spanish mosqueta that albeit she be beaten off from a mans bodie yet is bold to come againe and bite And b Non missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo Horat. leaue as it séemeth he will not vntill like the horseleach he hath filled himselfe with some mans blood First he desireth that her Maiestie would be pleased to admit such a tryall heere as passed in Fraunce of late assuring vs that the same would be pleasant to her Maiestie and all other assistants and verie briefe and easie As if Parsons the Iebusite and rector of the English seminarie of traytors were now verie carefull to yéeld satisfaction and contentment to her Maiestie and subiects that not long c Anno. 1588. since ioyned himselfe to the Spanish armie that came against vs and in the interim that the Spanish fléete was expected and while our commissioners were treating of peace holpe to make print and diuulge the most infamous d Aâ—lens letters to the nobilitie and people of England and Ireland libell against her Maiestie and her faithfull subiects that could be deuised or euer was set out in this kinde Furthermore euer since he hath béene busie either in stirring vp forrein enimies against vs or broching some treasonable practise against the state or writing seditious libels against one or other as appéereth by former proofes Nay when a certaine gentleman and one of the Spanish agents séeming more moderate then the rest disliked all practises for the murther of the Prince by the direction of Parsons others of his faction he had a cuchillada and dangerous blow with a falchion ouer the face as he was going to the church to heare masse An vnhappie masse might he call it if the blow had hit right He doth also much abuse his reader where he saith that the tryall will be briefe and easie and maketh a vaine brag offering himselfe to be the champion that must performe the challenge The first is euident for that they pretend so many falsificatious against vs and we haue so many false allegations and forgeries to charge our aduersaries withall and that most iustly that the examination cannot chuse but prooue long and difficult especially if they yéeld to vs that which they demaund themselues The second I thinke we shall finde true by experience For it is not Parsons I thinke that can performe all that is offered Nay little doth he vnderstand the galles of his owne cause that once dare obiect forgerie or falsification to others Beside that he is fitter to make a clerke to make libels and exhibit petitions then to make a good disputer to iustifie the popes broken cause In that he hath some prettie facultie in this we doubt of his abilitie His other petition is that some one or other would come forth against him and defend bishop Iewel Peter Martyr and M. Foxe whom hee purposeth as he pretendeth to loade with many and grieuous falsifications the points whereof we haue already e Chap. 4 noted and this I thinke is but a copie of his grimme countenance also and a Thrasonicall bragge For I do not thinke that he wil or dare put his cause vpon this trial Neither do I thinke that his consortes will come to an equall examination of all falsifications and coruptions passed on both sides for the causes that I haue f Chap. 1. alleaged Vnto both his petitions vntill further order be taken let him receiue this answere from me First that we very well like of such a triall here as passed lately in France For as the papists found themselues wronged or at least pretended to be wronged in M. Plessis his bookes so we doe say and offer to prooue that we are wronged nay that the whole world is wronged and abused by millions of forgeries and falsifications committed by Bellarmine Caesar Baronius Greg. de Valentia Suarez and their consorts yea by the popes of Rome whose sentences they hold to be infallible If then this pratling or rather scribling relator or any of his consorts do find himselfe agrieued with this assertion and offer as M. Plessis did in France being charged publikely with falsifying and corrupting authours by him alleaged I shall God willing either in publike schooles or els which is farre better in publike writing iustifie as much as I haue sayd and I take this to be the case of papists in England if they will obtaine that which M. Plessis desired in France Secondly I do offer my selfe partie do accept of Parsons his challenge do offer my self to proue that those men whom he challengeth haue dealt more iustly theÌ„ Bellarmine and Caesar Baronius and the rest of that side Nay I dare simply defend them against any crimination which this frapling frier hath to lay to their charge Let him begin when he dare In the meane while he may do well to answere the points deduced in the first chapter of this treatise wherein I haue charged not only priuate men but the whole synagogue of Rome with plaine forging and falsification and laid downe the particulars and not as the relator doth who hauing made a great bragge of falsifications shutteth vp his relation and iustifieth nothing Somewhat I had more to say to Parsons and to his associates the whole combination of them But I reserue it to some other time By this which alreadie is sayd I hope it will appeare that neither Iames Peron hath gained any thing against the Lord of Plessis nor Parsons hath reason to hope that he shall haue better successe against the Church of England God which is light truth grant all christians the light of his grace that they may not only sée the truth but also truly iudge what is truth and falshood And then I doubt not but it will appeare to them all that we are cleare of that crime which the aduersary imputeth vnto vs and that our aduersaries through the operation of errours beleeue lies and haue by all fraud and false dealing sought to oppresse the truth Laus Deo