conscience how to carrie my selfe betweene my Prince and Prelate His answere was they were hereticall bookes and that I ought not to reade them And he further said that I might spend my time better in reading Iohnsons playes which he there offered unto me Then and not before I began to distrust and reading the foresayd collections in the Authours themselves I perceived that all was not found that came from Rome though I was formerly told that the Priests had written out of mallice against the Iesuites and not truth Then I considered what fundamentall poynts the Protestant beleeving Catholiques and the Papist pretending Catholiques differed in And I found in deverse protestant writters that they deny not any one poynt of reall Catholique Faith explicitely to bee beleeved of necessitie or as necessary to salvation as was made evident in the disputation betweene Fisher and his partner on the Romish part and Doctor White and Doctor Feately for the Protestants in Sir Humphrie Linne his house in Sheerelane where the Protestant disputantes maintayning that they denyed no essentiall poynt of Catholique Religion but the innovated unjustifiable Doctrine of Rome They made their instance First Doctor Feately challenged the Iesuites to shew that for the first 500. yeares any one of fifteene poynts of Popish beleefe which hee then rehearsed had beene beleeved by visible Congregation of Christians or by any one Father or writter of note Wherewith he droue the Iesuites to this shamefull evasion viz. That these are Scholasticall poyntes not fundamentall Wherevpon Doctor White Replyed that all those poynes had been concluded by the Councell of TRENT and therefore were fundamentall to the Papists And receiving no answer from the Iesuites to this Reply Doctor White insisted in sixe particular poyntes of innovated Popish Doctrine and challenged the Iesuites to shewe if they could any one Father or writer of note for the first sixt hundred yeares after Christ who held any one of the said sixe poynts Whereto nothing was answered as you may see manifest in the Relation printed 1624. Since which time meeting Mr. Sweete one of the aforesayd Iesuite Disputants I asked him why he would not yeilde as well to trie the succession of doctrine as of names whereas the succession of Doctrine and not of names was most materiall to giue satisfaction to doubtfull consciences because that by the Doctrine it would have appeared who had taught according to the Scriptures Contrary whereunto whosoever teacheth is accursed Gal. 1.8 But to all this I could gett no other answere but this viz. It would have taken too long a time When I could receiue no better answere from Master Sweete I immagined that hee might bee of the opinion of the Priestes and Papistes in the first thirteene yeares of Queene ELIZABETHES Raigne For the most of them did not make then any separation from the Protestants as beleeving any reall difference betweene them to cause them to separate For the Laity went to Church generally and the Priests tooke benefices holding the English Leiturgie as good as the Latine Becanus saith Controv. Angl. If the King be an hereticke and command us to pray at the Church with his subjects possumus id praestare wee may doe it And I finde some other * Parsons treat to mitigat cap 2. fol. 63. Iesuites of the same opinion that Protestants are no heretiques untill that by a lawfull Iudge he or they bee denounced convicted and condemned by name which we ascribe not to the Protestants I demaund then by what rule of charity shall the Papists separate themselves from the Protestants in the worship of God now contrary to the practise which was before 13. Elizabeth Moreover in the same leafe Parsons reasoneth thus out of Saint Augustine lib. 4. de bapt cont Don. c. 16. If a man should for example beleeve the heresie of Photinus who denied the distinction of three persons in God and the divinity of Christ and should thinke it the true Catholicke faith Istum nondum dico haereticum saith Saint Augustine I doe not thinke this man yet to be an heretique except when the doctrine of the Catholique faith to wit that which hath beene held generally by most Churches in Christendome be made manifest unto him Observe here that he doth not say the Church of Rome because that the damnable doctrin which brought forth the Powder plot had been all ready broched and put in practise And the Romish bookes burnt in Paris for the sayd doctrine Else hee would have defended the Faith of Boniface the Eight That it is alltogether necessarie to salvation to beleeve the Roman Church And so let the Article of the APOSTLES CREED be forgotten For it were needlesse to enquyre what the Vniversall Church hath taught if as that Decree teacheth it be sufficient to salvation to beleeue the now particular Roman Therefore I beleeve the Romish Catholique and Protestant Catholique in whatsoever they teach according to the fundamentall poyntes of the universall Faith contayned in the APOSTLES CREED And not the corrupted doctrines of the particular Church of Rome which the Iesuite Disputants were as it seemeth ashamed to defend in Sir Humphrie Lines house as is abouesayd Now it may bee demanded how so many wise religious grave and learned Romish Catholiques can be thought so ignorant as to beleeue the particular Roman to be the universall Catholique Church which all are bound to beleeue by the Apostles Creed It is apparant that many of them are not naturally ignorant or of incapacitie But it is as apparant that they are made so by Arte. For whereas our Saviour Christ hath appoynted a prescribed obedience according to the Lawes Divine as in Deutrenom 17.10.11 The vnited Priests aforenamed with the Divines of Venice and France accuse the now Divines of Rome the Iesuites for teaching an absolute obedience to the Pope and their Superiour as I will relate and beginne with the third part of the Iesuites Constitutions Cap. 1. Where their vowe of obedience is at large described as well to the Pope as to their Superiour in these words following And because of the things which belong to the vowe c. we will speake of obedience which all must labour strictly to observe and not onely in those things which they are bound but others also though the same be not a commandement but onely a signe of their Superiours will as if it were our Saviour Christs owne voice And let every one perswade himselfe to be governed even like a dead carkasse turned and tumbled even which way soever a man will Or like an olde mans staffe which serveth him that holdeth it in his hand for whatsoever he will use it where and when he list Vpon this passage the Glosse hath these words Obedience concerning the execution of it is then performed when that which is commanded is done The two which dispatched the two Henries in France seemed to have learned this Obedience And if the powder had taken fire more
MORBVS ET ANTIDOTVS THE DISEASE WITH THE ANTIDOTE OR A Declaration of Henry Yaxlee of Bouthorpe in the Countie of Norfolke Esquire wherein he sheweth how he was a Papist and how by Gods grace he as now lately converteâ— Published by Authoritie Ieremy 6.16 Thus saith the Lord stand yee in the wayes and see and aske for the old pathes where is the good way and walke therein and ye shall find rest for your soules 1. Thess 5.21 Proue all things hold fast that which is good LONDON Printed by W. Iones for Nicholas Bourne and are to be sold at the South Entrie of the Royall Exchange 1630. To the Christian Reader CVrteous Reader J craue thy favourable Censure vpon what thou shalt reade in this booke What J speake therein of mine owne knowledge is vpon my conscience true and what J cite out of Authours J haue faithfully endevoured to relate truely If any indeed can advertise me of any errour therein J shall thanke him and reforme my selfe Jn one thing I cary still the same minde which I did when I was a Papist viz. To haue myne heart the thing which God most desiereth alwayes studious to finde and ready to embrace the true Religion And I make no doubt but that God in mercy hath guided me vnto the same and will therein further enlighten and establish me vnto my liues end O that my deare kindred countrymen would but reade without preiudice what is so plentifully written on either side or be content to heare indifferently what can be pleaded Then should they clearely see that what auncient truth soever the Papists doe holde the Protestants also doe beleeue and maintaine the same and that that is all novell ungrounded and not Catholique wherein the Protestant dissenteth from the Papist But herein is their misery they dare not reade nor seeke any light but from those whose chiefe care is to keep them in darknesse least it should appeare vnto them that the Protestant is truely so called for protesting against the hay straw and stubble of the additions and innovations of Popery And so I rest in charitie Charitate etiam non ficta beseeching Almighty God that ye may all become what in his unspeakable mercy he hath made me The obedient sonne of my deare Mother the true Church of ENGLAND Henry Yaxlee A DECLARATION OF HENRY YAXLEE OF BOVTHORP IN THE COVNTY of Norfolke Esquire wherein he sheweth how he was a Papist and how by Gods grace he is now lately converted I Was a Recusant because I was taught from my cradle to beleeue the Catholique Church by my Creede And withall I was by all our teachers then perswaded that Rome being the successiue seate of St. Peter could teach no other but the true Catholique Faith though all other Churches failed But when I found in Bellarmines booke a De Rom p. lib. 4. cap. 11. that Pope Honorius is numbred among those who were condemned by the 7. Councell for Heretiques And in Melch. b Lib 6. cap. 1 et vltim Canus that Celestinus 3. had decreed that the woman whose husband falleth into heresie may marie an other And in Alfon. c Alfons a Castro coÌ„ ra haere ses lib. 1 cap. 4. de Cast that Omnis homo errare potest in fide etiamsi Papa sit Nam de Liberio constat fuisse Arrianum et Anastasium Papam fuisse Nestorianum 1 Every man though he were the Pope himselfe may erre in matter of faith for it is manifest that Liberius was an Arrian and that Pope Anastasius was a Nestorian And in the same chapter Cum constet plures eorum esse adeo illiteratos vt Grammaticam penitus ignorent quî fit vt sacras literas interpretari possent i. When it is manifest that many of them were so ignorant as that they did not at all understand the Grammar how can it be that they should interpret the holy Scriptures By this I conceived that it were safest for every Christian that feareth God to beleeue the article according to the Apostles C … Catholicam without addition of Romanam 〈◊〉 is the Catholique not the Roman Church swarving from the Catholique But I was further confirmed when I found many godly learned and vertuous Priests as D. Bagshawe and Master Iohn Collington whose names I remember are to their bookes laying open in their writings that the Iesuites specially Father Parsons haue misled the Popes to doe the most Antichristian iniustice that ever was heard of to those Priests that were appellants to the Popes for justice as you may reade in Bagshawes answer and Collingtons defence as also in divers other whereof I giue you this Catalogue viz. 1. A letter written by A. C. 2. A relation of the faction at Wisbiche 3. A Dialogue betweene a Seculaâ—â—riest and a lay Gentleman 4. Declaratio motuum ac turbationis Angliae 5. Doct. Elies notes Notes vpon the Apologie 6. Important Considerations written in the name of the Priests 7. A sparing Discoverie of Father Parsons These Priests being Roman Catholickes doe plainly declare in the said bookes that the Pope is guided by the violent faction of the Iesuites to do the most Antichristian injustice even to those Priestes who tooke a journey to the Pope by the consent of their brethern by appeale to lay open the wrongs offered unto them by the Iesuites Yea Father Parsons caused them when they were come to Rome to be layd in the jaole where they might haue been starved before ever they had spoken with the Pope if the French Kings Embassador had not with much difficultie procured them audience as appeareth in the aforesaid booke of Important Considerations written in the name of all the Priests distressed and oppressed by the Iesuites Hereupon Collington in his defence printed 1602. fol. 24. is bould to affirme in capitall letters that Father Parsons was so notoriously given to practise treason and to bring an invasion of Forreiners upon this Realme as that even Pasquin in Rome speaketh of him in these words If there be any man that will buy the Kingdome of England let him repaire to a Merchant in a square blacke capp in this Cittie and he shall haue a very good peniworth thereof And in another of the Priests books you shall finde that the Iesuites guide the Church of Rome by murthering Kings Popes and Cardinalls as in Quodl p. 295. The Iesuites and their faction doe devise and publish such a kinde of doctrine that subiects are not bound to obey wicked Princes in their temporall Lawes and commandements but untill they be able by force of armes to resist him Quodl p. 228. And the qualification being pretended that though they seeke to kill Kings yet it may be they will spare Popes Cardinals and Bishops it is peremptorily answered Surely no. ibid. pag. 24. And as there are shrewd suspitions in Rome concerning the death of two Popes two Cardinals and one Bishop already so I make no question at all
saith he but that hereafter if any Pope crosse their plotts and purposes the Iesuites will haue such a figge in store for his Holinesse as no Antidote-shall prevent or long preserue his life after it When I had read these things in the authours aboue named I concluded that Rome might be a part of the Catholick Church though a member corrupted with errours but it could not be the Catholique Therefore I did not much marvell when I saw diverse Romish Priests come openly to Paules Crosse in London and preach that the Mysterious working of Antichrist is now in Rome which caused them to come out of her as out of Babilon As you may see in Sheldon the Converts printed Sermon and in Higgens his first and second Sermon lately printed And yet saith Sheldon many Christians may be saved in Rome beleeving the true fundamentall points of Catholique faith and not partaking with her in her latter corrupted doctrine authorized and Printed at Rome which hath beene burnt by the Catholique Roman Authoritie in France which I take it are these Bellarmines bookes teaching that the Pope hath power disponendi omnium temporalia to dispose of the temporall things of all And no doubt but this doctrine might cause those poore deluded soules to enter into the Powder plott thinking the deede to be meritorious as appeared by the speech of Sir Everad Dighbie at his death An other may be Becanus his booke wherein he dispuring of King-killing concludeth in the affirmatiue in these wordes Nihilcertius nothing more certeine Suarez is an other who in his booke against King Iames saith That none can kill him but those whom the Pope shall appoynt To these may be added Mariana whose judgement in his booke is that it is the safest way to poyson him These bookes were burnt in France for teaching damnable and seditious doctrine even by the Roman Catholique authoritie and partie there I meane by such Catholiques as will persist in the true fundamentall poynts of Catholique faith not be deluded with their errors No though the Pope himselfe should decree them Much lesse will they forsake the Apostles Creed Extrau cap vnam SaÌ„ctam de maior et obed Credo Ecclesiam Catholicam I beleeue the Catholique Church Though Boniface the eight hath long since Decreed That it is alltogether necessary to to beleeue the Church of Rome See the grand impostor of the now Church of Rome put forth by the Bish of Covent Leech feild 1628. and to be subiect to the Roman Bishop Which thirteenth Article added by that Pope the wiser sort of Catholiques in France doe not beleeue but oppose with wordes writings Decrees and fire not boasting themselves to bee the onely Church inerrant as ROME doth but holding themselves to be a true member of the Catholique protesting against these corrupted doctrines of Rome innovated by the Iesuites as appeareth by the Priests bookes aboue recited of whom I give you here some taste as followeth some whereof I formerly mentioned Doct. Elye in his notes upon the Apologie pag. 9. in the preface saith thus They plunge themselues over head and eares in Ecclesiasticall affaires with such audacitie and obstinacie as that they haue turned all topsie turvie And in the Quodl page 321. We find it thus of the Iesuites doctrine Certeinely therin is nothing else but fallacie vpon fallacie error vpon errour one contradiction encountring another And in the booke called Declar. Mot. ac turb in Angl. pa. 29. a Iesuite mainteineth this most atheisticall and heathenish assertion that one who is not a Christian may be Pope of Rome And as it is in Anthony Copelies letter pag 67. an other Iesuite openly and for found doctrine maintayned it first to his Auditours in the Schoole and at this instant expressely in the Inquisition doth say Non est de fide credere hunc Romanum Pontificem esse Christi Vicarium It is not a matter of Faith to beleeue that this present Pope is Christs Vicar Also in the Quodl pag 31. Thus we reade To let passe their eronious Doctrine concerning their Generals infallibilitie of truth for deciding of matters Their absurd paradoxes of Aequivocation and ibid. pag 29. The Iesuites every way in Printed bookes in writings manuscripts and most of all in private conference have taught contrarie to the Roman Church And therefore saith Anthony Copely pag 40. It is no marvell if in fundamentall poynts of Catholique faith they oppose against the Angelicall Doctor and be therefore endited before his Holâ—nes at this present by the Dominicans in Spayne for Pelagians and sundrie other kindes of heretiques as also impostors by the Sorbonites of Paris and all other French Clergie as we credibly heare And Quodl pag 138. Never was there any Religious order that held such extravagant exorbitant irreguler opinions as they doe Doct. Bagshawes answer pag 20. saith thus Father Weston and Archer are charged by Doct. Norden for defending the stues to be as lawfull as the Pope himselfe as if they had as it seemeth a very league with hell against the truth These were not the first motiues which made me mistrust the Romish doctrine for by my bringing up I was so prejudicate in mine opinion as that I thought scorne to imagine that the true Catholique faith could infalliblie be received from any place but Rome In so much as when I heard of that most inhumane barbarous and damnable Powder plott conceived and attempted only by Romish Catholiques I was amazed to thinke that from Rome and from no other place in the world could be received the saving faith I then professed it to certeine famous Iesuites to whom I was then devoted that I thought to beleeue the Roman Catholique Church was as ridiculous as to say Christendom Kent or the vniversall particuler I was notwithstanding then easily satisfied herein when they told me that the meaning was not to make a particular Church to be vniversall but onely to intimate that no faith is truely Catholick but that faith which is taught in Rome as they sayd they were readie to justifie and that there was no more reason for vs to forsake the Church of Rome for the Powder plott then for the Apostles to have forsaken Christ for the fact of Iudas And thus I rested a while satisfied Widrintons Supplic to the Pope untill the oath of Allegiance came out Then went I to my sayd Father f Widrint ans to Fits Herb. and told him that diverse e Priestes defended that the King had made a lawfull oath to try the Romish which of them did adheare to the true Catholik faith of Rome and which to the innovated treasonable doctrines thereof And that d they further defended that those who refused to take this oath should not onely be hanged for traytors but loose also their soules eternally for wilfully denying their lawfull Allegiance Whereupon I asked him againe whether I might reade the sayd bookes to informe and satisfie my
Catholicke no Papist can be so impudent as to deny if hee will pull off the Popes spectacles clouded with the mist of the Iesuites thirteenth rule For as I shewed before the Protestants teach no doctrine in the affirmatiue but what the Papists hold at this day viz. the Apostles Creede and that according to the ancient Catholicke interpretation of the Nicen and Athanasian Creeds and the first foure generall Councels They deny indeed the Popish addition of 12 other articles made by Pope Pius quartus because the Papists cannot proue any one of them Catholicke and Apostolicke And because the Apostle said If wee Cal. 1.8 or an Angell from heauen teach otherwise let him be accursed Saint Augustine saith of the Apostles Creed He that beleeueth more beleeueth too much and he that beleeueth lesse beleeueth too little The famous learned Friar Padro Paulo of Venice in his History of the Councell of Trent which confirmed that Creed of Pius quartus discouereth how that Counsell was ouer-ruled by the faction of the Iesuites and that it was there a common by-word euen among the Papists themselues that that Councell was guided by the holy Ghost which came euery weeke from Rome in a Cloakebagge If we may not beleeue an Angell of light teaching otherwise then the Apostles Creed then blame not the Protestants protesting against the Papists late additions and corruptions but rather beleeue and follow them because they teach nothing but that which the Papists themselues cannot deny to bee the Catholicke faith And deny such a Councell such a Creed so new and so branded by the Papists owne best and most learned Priests Mine old acquaintance propoundeth to me yet another question viz. How good Christians could conuerse and communicate with such a Church so corrupted before Luther This is lately well answered by the Bishop of Exeter in his booke entituled The old Religion and well prosecuted by others who make it plaine that one may communicate as they did with the Papists as wee may communicate with the Diuell when he said Thou art Christ the Sonne of the euerliuing God Not because the Diuell spake it but because it is Gods truth and consequently ours So we may communicate in the truth with any in errour with none For example Some Priests were as vehemently earnest and zealous denyers of Romes corrupted doctrine before Luthers time as Master Burton and others now And many then resisted the Roman errors euen to death as the Wiclifians and other learned and religious Priests as the Histories of the seuerall times and ages doe testifie Others more cooley and aduisedly sought the Reformation as Erasmus Cassaender Petrus de Aliaco and others who communicated with Rome in her truthes and scorned her errours as appeareth by their bookes written to men and to Councels to reforme the Church euen so long before Luthers dayes as the Councell of Constance It may be obiected why then should the Reformers now protest a separation more then the said Reformers did before Luther This is sufficiently answered in the dispute between Mr Burton and his Antagonists where Master Burton though accounted an ouer-zealous Separatist from the Church of Rome confesseth that they were not bound then and yet are bound now since the Councell of Trent to separate Because that since by the Councell of Trent men are sub anathemate bound to beleeue as well the errours as the truthes of the Church of Rome and as well the new Creed of Pius quartus as the ancient Creed of the Apostles Before the Councell of Trent publication of these new Articles men would ordinarily say when this new teaching was discouered Let them pipe what they will wee will dance what wee list Meaning that they thought themselues safe if they beleeued the old Creed and left the new Romish And I say further in the words of a learned Diuine In his Treatise of the Catholicke Faith that though we could then communicate with such a Church without euident danger of damnation as they did then yet in as much as we cannot communicate with it now vpon any better termes then legall seruants or bondslaues do with their Masters we are bound in conscience and religious discretion when lawfull occasion is offered as now it is to vse our liberty to seeke our freedome rather then to liue in bondage according to the rule of the Apostle giuen to seruants 1 Cor. 7.20 21. c. Let euery man abide in the same Calling wherein he is called Art thou called being a seruant care not for it But if thou maist be made free vse it rather for he that is called in the Lord being a seruant is the Lords freeman Likewise also he that is called being free it Christs seruant Yee are bought with a price be yee not the seruants of men that is yeeld not that absolute obedience to men as the Iesuites teach which is due onely to God Padr Paul Defence of the State of Venice That obedience as the learned Venetian saith which God commands vs to performe to our Ecclesiasticall superiors is not a foolish or ridiculous subiection nor is the power of the Prelate an arbitrary iudgement but both the one and the other must be ruled by the Word of God according to the place Deut. 17. before cited Absolute obedience is due onely to God and whosoeuer supposeth any humane will to be infallible vttereth great blasphemy in ascribing that to the creature which is due onely to the Creator I once asked a learned Romish Priest within this seuen yeeres whether praying to Saints were a matter of Faith or not He answered that wee are not bound to pray to Saints So shall you finde many Romish Catholickes before Luthers dayes Respons ad apologiam Card. Bell. p. 9. and after the Councell of Lateran who would say at the Eleuation Adoro te si tu es Christus i.e. If thou be Christ I doe adore or worship thee So farre were the wiser sort of the Romish Catholickes then from beleeuing that Councels definition Thus you see how and why men did communicate without a separation then and why they may not now Likewise the Priest who answered me about praying to Saints told me that many things in Rome are taught inter piècredenda things to bee religiously beleeued As the Popes power to depose Princes which you see is denyed by Priests that daily say Masse to this day as well learned French as English who call it Nonam Catholicam fidem Iesuitarum The Iesuites new Catholicke Faith So that this late vp-sprung error in the Church of Rome wants not men visible in the same Church to teach truth and correct error as in all former ages some alwayes haue done So powerfull is God to defend his Church from errors euen by those that are members of that corrupt part of the Church according to that saying that there should be some Doctors some Pastors to teach the truth hee could haue