ere while a laudable Papist and Queen Elizabeth for all this might be a very good Pâ—otestant Sure we are that King James and King Charles who were nearest concerned in this matter never imputed the Fault of it to her Religion Your other instance is of that most execrable Murther committed on the best of Kings by his own Subjects and by such as you say would fain be called Proâ—estants Sir we would fain be called Christians and Members of the Catholick Church would you take it well of a Turk that should therefore charge our faults upon you but you do worse than a Turk in charging these mens faults upon us They were neither then nor since of our Communion but that blessed Prince was whom they murther'd He declared upon the Scaffold I dye a Christian according to the profession of the Church of England as I found it left me by my Father He charged the Princess Elizabeth not to grieve and torment her self for him for that would be a gloâ—ious Death which he should dye it being for the Laws and Liberties of this Land and for maintaining the true Protestant Religion He died with some Care not to leave you this advantage by his Death as it appears by these words of his last Letter to His Majesty that now is The scandal of the late Troubles which some may object and urge to you against the Protestant Religion established in England is easily answered to them or your own thoughts in this that scarce any one who hath been a beginner or an active prosecutor of this late War against the Church the Laws and Mee either was or is a true lover embracer or practicer of the Protestant Religion established in England which neither gives such Rules nor ever before set such Examples My Lords and Gentlemen we know who were the Authors of this last abomination how generously you strove against the raging Torrent nor have we any other ends to remember you of it but to shew that all Religions may have a corrupted spawn and that God hath been pleased to permit such a Rebellion which our Progenitors never saw to convince you perchance whom for ever may he prosper that popery is not the only source of treason But do you indeed know who were the Authors of this last abomination Pray Sir be plain with us for in these doubtful words there seems to be more truth than every man is aware of The Rebellion that led to it began we know in Scotland where the design of it was first laid by Cardinal Richelien His Majesties irreconcileable Enemy Then it broke out in Ireland where it was blest with His Holiness's Letters and assisted by his Nuntio whom he sent purposely to attend the Fire there Lastly here in England you did your parts to unsettle the People and gave them needless occasions of jealousie which the vigilant Phanaticks made use of to bring us all into War and Confusion Both in England and Scotland the special Tools that they wrought with were borrowed out of your Shops It was His Majesties own Observat on by which you may guess whose spawn they were Their Maxims saith he were the same with the Jesuites their Preachers Sermons were delivered in the very phrase of Becanus Scioppius and Eudaemon Johannes their poor Arguments which they delivered in their seditious Pamphlets printed or written were taken almost verbatim out of Bellarmin and Suarez In Ireland where you durst do it you imploy'd Iron and Steel against him with which you might as well have preserved him if you had pleased but you denyed to do that as he tell us only upon account of Religion Then followed the accursed Fact it self agreed to in the Councils of your Clergy contriv'd and executed by the Phanaticks In vain did the poor Royallist strive against it for what could he do when two such streams met against him of which the deepest was that which came from Rome where the false Fisherman open'd all his Flood-gates to overwhelm us with those troubles which for the advantage of his trade he had often before endeavoured but could never prevail till now to send them pouring in upon us Little we think when your Prayers and ours were offer'd up to beg a blessing on the Kings Affairs ever to see that day in which Carlos Gifford Whitgrave the Pendrels should he punish'd by your desires for that Religion which obliged them to save their forlorn prince a stigmatized man for his Offences against King Church a chief promoter of it Nay less did we imagine that by your Votes Huddleston might be hang'd who again secured our Sovereign and others free in their fast Possessions that sate as Judges and sealed the Execution of that great Prince of happy Memory That many Gentlemen of your Church were not of your Party we do willingly acknowledge and that some of them in that critical day of Danger did the King very eminent Service But so did Protestants too therefore you cannot ascribe this to Your Religion Nor does it seem reasonable that to requite particular persons for their service we should abandon those Laws which may secure the publick against as great a danger To question his Life that had freely exposed it for our Sovereigns were too great a Barbarity for any Christians but of your Sect or any Age but Queen Maries dayes for then Sir Nicholas Throgmorton was indeed so dealt with but we do not more detest those times than such examples And we know that His Majesty without any trespass on his Laws may protect and reward those persons whom he judgeth deserving it as well as his Royal Predecessors did in whose Reigns the penal Laws were made Pray be you as favourable to the stigmatized Man whom sure you are not angry with for his Offence against King and Church whatsoever you say and if he be now a promoter of any thing that displeaseth you bear with him as His Majesty doth for whom he lately did his utmost against Phanaticks toward the bringing of him in and he would not willingly live to see the Pope turn him out again For the Regicides be as severe with them as you please only beware how you tax His Majesty's Mercy for fear you may have need of it We confess we are unfortunate and you just Judges whom with our lives we will ever maintain to be so nor are we ignorant the necessity of Affairs made both the King and you do things which formerly you could not so much as fancy Yet give us leave to say we are still loyal nay to desire you to believe so and to remember how Synonymous under the late Rebellion was the word Papist and Cavalier for there was never no Papist that was not deemed a Cavalier nor no Cavalier that was not called a Papist or at least judged to be popishly affected Your fawning upon the Parliament and commending of your selves we pass over as things
The Late APOLOGY In behalf of the PAPISTS Reprinted and Answered In behalf of the ROYALLISTS LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in S. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXIII TO THE AUTHOR OF THE Apology SIR ABout fourscore Years ago in a time when there were such Apprehensions of the Papists as now there are and howsoever they are now surely then they were not without cause some of your Predecessors to palliate the matter and to make their Governors more secure of them writ a Book to this effect that Catholicks are to imploy no other Arms against their Prince but the Arms of Christians viz. Tears and Spiritual Means daily Prayers and Watchings and Fastings So you begin My Lords and Gentlemen The Arms which Christians can use against lawful Powers in their severity are only Prayers and Tears We cannot say that you writ your Book for the same End as they did But we do not like it that you jump so together in the same Beginning Now since nothing can equal the infinity of those we have shed but the cause viz. to see our dearest Friends forsake us we hope it will not offend you if after we have a little wip'd our eyes we sigh out our Complaints to you Of the Cause of your Tears we shall say more anon Of the Quantity of them you say very extravagantly Nothing can equal the infinity of those we have shed For you might have excepted those of the Protestants in Queen Maries dayes or of them that suffered in the late Irish Rebellion You ought to have excepted the Fears of your Fabulous Purgatory and yet those are said to be short of Infinity But you Jesuites love to be Hyperbolical whether ranting or whining as if that Religion which obliges you to damn all other Christians had likewise forbidden you to speak like other Men. We had spoke much sooner had we not been silent through Consternation to see you inflamed whom with reverence we honor and also to shew our submissive patience which used no slights nor tricks to divert the Debates of Parliament for no body can imagine where so many of the great Nobility and Gentry are concerned but something might have been done when as in all Ages we see things of publick advantage by the managers dexterity nipt in the bud even in the very Houses them selves Far be it from Catholicks to perplex Parliaments who have been the Founders of their I riviledges and all Antient Laws Nay Magna Charta it self had its rise from us which we do the less boast of since it was not at first obtained in so submiss and humble a manner In the same Roman Style you commend your owne silence and patience You boast that you have been the Founders of the Parliaments Priviledges and all Antient Laws Of the first let every man believe as he sees cause But the second we cannot allow in either sense whether you mean it of your selves or of your Predecessors For as now in your Church men are of two sorts even so they were heretofore in this Realm There were some that wholly minded the common interests of Christian Religion and Civil Government Others were Papalini asserters and promoters of the Popes usurpations They which acted in those first capacities were not more your Predecessors than Ours They which acted in the other were truly and only Yours You say We sung our Nunc Dimittis when we saw our Master in his Throne and you in your deserved Authority and Rule 'T is very well And yet some of you sung your Venite Exultemus when you saw his Blessed Father upon the Scaffold But what of that since the Son is King who is not glad that he is King or whom would it not grieve to have his Loyalty called in Question Nor could any thing have ever grieved us more but to have our Loyalty called into question by you even at the instigation of our greatest Adversaries If we must suffer let it be by you alone for that 's a double Death to men of Honor to have their Enemies not only accusers but for their insulting Judges also Sir he that is Loyal and a man of Honor has no cause to fear Death double or single For our Kings have alwayes Declared that they put no man to death for Religion Therefore if you Truly fear Death it is for Treason If you only pretend this it is a Calumny Either way you are no friend to the Government for all your pretences to Honor and Loyalty These are they that by beginning with us murthered their Prince and wounded you and shall the same method continue by your Approbation We are sure you mean well though their design be wicked but never let it be recorded in story that you forgot your often Vows to us in joyning with them that have been the cause of so great Calamity to the Nation How far it is true that the Kings Murtherers began with you we shall consider anon But it seems you take the Liberty of bestowing that Character upon whom you please that no man hereafter may dare move for the Execution of any Law against you for fear of being said to continue the Method of the Kings Murtherers As for any Vows that we have made to you whatsoever they are you are more sure of them than we can be of any that you make to us for we have no Pope to dispense with them Neither is it recorded in Story that English Protestants ever joyn'd with the Enemies of their Nation Of all Calumnies against Catholicks we have admired at none so much as that their Principles are said to be inconsistent with Government and they themselves thought ever proue to Rebellion 'T is a Calumny of yours to call those things Calumnies which are true and which you cannot Deny without such a Presumption as we should much admire in you if it were not so very Ordinary Concerning your Principles where should we look for them but in your Councils your Decretals and the Books of your Divines In each of these we are taught that the Pope has a Power to depose Kings and to discharge Subjects from their Allegiance which Doctrines are utterly inconsistent with Government for whosoever believes them no Prince can be secure of him But whosoever is a Papist is bound to believe them And he that has imbib'd this Faith may well be thought ever prone to Rebellion The Council of Lateran under Pope Innocent III. expresly Ordains that in case any Prince be a favourer of Hereticks after admonition given The Pope shall discharge his Subjects from their Allegiance and shall give away his Kingdom to some Catholick that may root out those Hereticks and possess his Kingdom without contradiction 'T is observable that this Pope was himself a deposer of Kings namely of John King of England and of Otho IV. the Emperor and also that this Council which made Rebellion a Duty was the first that made Transubstantiation
an Article of Faith Next for the Bulls and Decrees of your Popes which according to Bellarmine are sufficient to make that to be sin which is not sin or not to be sin which is sin it would be tedious to instance in all that could be produc'd to this purpose From Gregory VII downward such a Trade was driven of deposing Kings that no weak Prince could wear his Crown but at the Pope's Courtesie And that it might never be otherwise Pope Boniface VIII declares it for Law in these words We say and Define and Pronounce that it is absolutely Necessary to salvation for every humane Creature to be subject to the Bishop of Rome Which Oracle is thus interpreted by Bertrand Every humane Creature i. e. Every Magistrate Must be subject c. i. e. Must submit himself to be deposed when the Pope thinks fit And that the Gloss doth not injure the Text it appears by the Tenor of the Decree especially by those words about the middle of it that the Spiritual Power is to order the Worldly Power and to Judge it if it be not as it ought according to that in Jeremy I have set thee over Nations and over Kingdoms c. In which suppletive c. these words are wound up To root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down to build and to plant All which powers this Law-giver of yours endeavoured himself to exercise He endeavour'd saith Platina to give and take away Kingdoms to expell men and to restore them at his pleasure Agreeably to this doctrine and practice your great Canonist Lancelottus teaches you That the Pope may depose Kings and Emperors and transfer their Kingdoms and Empires from one Line to another Which wholsome Doctrine no doubt as well as the rest of his Book Pope Pius IV. has made Authentick by his unerring Approbation Lastly for your Divines They have generally own'd it and many of them have written large Books in defence of it We do not tell you this as news for your Clergy-men know it already but that your Laity may not be ignorant of it we shall quote them some few of the greatest Doctors of your Church in this Age. And we shall leave it upon you to shew them when and where they were condemned what Justice has been executed on the Persons what Index Expurgatorius has censur'd the Writings of these Authors Nay if you deal honestly you cannot but confess that their Works are generally approved and that their Persons are had in admiration among you that are the guides of the Lay-mens Consciences We pass over the gross things of Mariana's Book because they which once licens'd it for love of the Doctrine have since condemned it for fear of their King 's heavy Displeasure But pray Sir who condemned your Cardinals Bellarmine and Baronius who teach you that the Pope may do with any King as Jehoiada did with Athalia that is he may deprive him first of his Kingdom and then of his Life Bellarmine indeed elsewhere expresses it more like a Jesuite and a man of distinctions in these words The Pope does not allow you not to obey your King but he makes him that was your King to be not your King as who should say when the Pope has done His part then you are free to do Yours Again who condemn'd your great School-Men Suarez and Valentia of whom the one writes against his Majesties Grand-Father that a King Canonically Excommunicated may be deposed or killed by any man whatsoever the other says that an Heretical Prince may by the Pope's sentence be depriv'd of his life much more of his Estate and of all Superiority over others Nay who has condemned our Country-man Parsons or Cresswel for the high-fliers of Popery have been those of our own Nation by whom this is laid down as a Conclusion of the whole School of Divines and Canonists and declar'd to be Certain and of Faith that any Christian Prince whatsoever that shall manifestly swerve from the Catholick Religion and endeavour to draw off others does immediately fall from all Power and Dignity c. and that even before any Sentence of the Pope is pronounced against him and that all his Subjects whatsoever are free from all obligation of any Oath of Obedience which they have made to him as their lawful Prince and that they may and ought if they be strong enough to eject such a one from the Government of Christians as an Apostate an Heretick a deserter of Christ and an enemy of his Common-wealth c. Cardinal Perron went not altogether so high but yet he held to the Roman Catholick Principle that Kings may be deposed by the Pope when he sees cause He seemed to be of another opinion while Henry IV. was alive but when He was dead and a Child was in the Throne then he ventur'd to declare this publickly in his Oration on behalf of the whole Clergy of France He maintained that this was the current Doctrine in France till the time of Calvin and for the contrary Doctrine viz That Kings are not deposable by the Pope Rossaeus calls it the Paradox of the Lutherans Perron calls it a Doctrine that breeds Schisms a gate that leads into all Heresie and to be held in so high a degree of detestation that rather then yield to it he and his fellow-Bishops would chuse to burn at a Stake But how has this Doctrine taken among the Papists in our Kings Dominions it has not taken with some of them either because you have not thought it seasonable for you to instruct them in it for Doctrines of this sort are then only proper to be Inculcated when they may do Execution or else because your Instruction has been over rul'd by some better Principle as we doubt not there have always been some of your Church in whose generous breasts the English man has been too strong for the Papist But yet this Doctrine has taken with others and many of them have practised according to it as we shall shew you hereafter and many more would have been practising if there had not been something to hinder them or deterr them For 't is allowed by your Divines as a very good Reason for Catholicks to omit the Duty of Rebellion if they are not strong â—nough to go through with it So Bannez excuses our English Catholicks and so Bellarmin does the Primitive Christians Nay your Casuists say If there be any notable danger of Death or Ruin without which you cannot perform it that then you are not bound to endeavour it Long may these Good Reasons continue for if these were remov'd we know not how far we may trust you For one of your Brethren another poisoner of the people has been so forward already since His Majesties Restauration as to declare in Print that in case your Pope should take upon him to Deprive our