the Cabala of their wicked Mysteries to justâ—fie Rebellions Assassinates and Massacres when the Church has very great need of them and finds it her Interest to own these Doctrines of Devils as other times it may suit better with her Designs to preach up Loyalty and Obedience to Princes and universal Charity to Mankind Lastly we know that the Venetians and the French have been always Opposers of the Pope's Encroachments upon Civil Sovereigns and that they do not submit to these sort of Doctrines which are so directly calculated for his attaining an Absolute Dominion over the Christian World a long projected Fifth Monarchy at least in the same degree that other Countries which are more Jesuited and enslav'd to the Pope are forc'd to do which by the way may serve for good a Argument to convince them of Differences among themselves and overthrow their glorious pretence of Union which they do so magnifie upon all occasions to our reproach but cannot signifie any thing to the purpose for which the Compendionist here intends it viz. to shew the Bishop of Lincoln in Answer to his Challenge at the end of his Book That the Church of Rome has by publick Acts and Declarations disown'd and condemn'd those Principles which His Lordship charges upon her He very confidently indeed affirms that the Censures of those Authors he mentions p. 78. l. 32. are such But what does he hope by Positiveness to face us down that the Venetians and the French are the Roman Church Or that the Universities of France and the Parliament of Paris are her Representatives Is it possible he should believe we have not Logick enough to distinguish between the Parts and Branches of a Church and the Church her self in her publick Authority and Representations Does he indeed imagine that he can at this time of day make the Judgments of particular Universities and Civil Assemblies pass upon us for publick Acts and Declarations of the Church of Rome He must needs pardon us we have been too often told it upon other occasions to be ignorant now that nothing but the Decrees of a Pope or a General Council are the publick Acts and Declarations of the Church of Rome and he has not so much as pretended to shew either of these for the Condemnation of those Principles which the Bishop has prov'd upon his Religion by both What scorn then can be vile enough to throw upon his impudent Claim of the Bishop's conditional promise of turning Papist when the termes upon which that promise was given are so far from being made good And why does he run over such a Bead-role of names The Colledge of the Sorbonne Paris Caen Rheimes c. I say to what end does he stun us with this vast din of insignificant Words and rattle in our Ears with empty â—ounds I thought to have pass'd by this Quibble upon the Bishop's Title 't is so very senceless and thin a conceit but because I find he is apt to think every thing unanswerable that is not particularly taken notice of I shall do him the favour to make the Reader observe this ridiculous Criticism Who could think says * Compend pag. 76. he that His Lordship's Heat against us should force him even to a Title that has confuted his whole Book viz. That Popish Principles and Positions when really believ'd are destructive and dangerous to all Kings especially Protestants for he cannot term them Principles of Faith because they were never thus believ'd c. I suppose by Principles of Faith here he means what is commonly understood by Articles of Faith i. e. Points necessary to Salvation for the words are equivocal and may bear several sences but because this is most favourable to his Objection I shall understand them so Now why cannot the Bishop term these Positions Principles of Faith He has prov'd them to have been decreed both by Popes and Councils and if that be not enough to make any Point a Principle of Faith in their Church I know not where or how we shall find any Principles of Faith among them He says indeed here and in other places would insinuate the same That they were never thus believ'd by any Catholick nor never thus approv'd of by the Church But that 's onely his word against the Bishop's Proof and signifies nothing but to convince the world of the shameless Impudence of Popish Writers who can even in Print and in the face of a learned and inquiring People affirm things contrary to direct Proofs without ever so much as endeavouring to answer those Proofs I see no reason therefore why the Bishop might not have term'd them Principles of Faith if he had pleas'd but that it was not at all material to the design of his Discourse so to do 't was enough for his purpose to prove them Principles of their Religion which he has most clearly done no matter whether they hold them necessary to Salvation or not their very holding them as Principles of their Religion does make that sufficiently dangerous to Princes which was what the Bishop undertook to show But let us suppose now that the Bishop cannot term these Positions Principles of Faith I 'le engage it shall do his Title no more hurt than 't is plain it would his Book indeed neither of them any at all This Title says he That Popish Principles and Positions when really believ'd are destructive c. has confuted his whole Book Why Because he cannot term them pray mark the Reason Principles of Faith c. Can any unprejudic'd man now whose Brains lie in their right place perceive any sort of Consequence in this Argument for my own part I can find none But if there be any little sence at the bottom of this awkard Blunder it must be this viz. a supposal that the real Belief of any Principle of Religion makes it immediately a Principle of Faith i. e. in his sence of those Terms a point necessary to Salvation though it was not so before which is certainly the most extravagant Whimsey that ever got hold of any mans Imagination but our confus'd Compendianists and if this be not his meaning he talks Wild Irish and is utterly unintelligible I think I need not go about to confute such self-evident Foolery as this the very Offer were an affront to the meanest Reader 's Understanding there 's hardly a School-boy but knows that Christian Religion teaches many useful and true Doctrines which are not necessary to Salvation that yet are really believ'd by all those that are really of the Christian Religion The Bishop's Title therefore is very proper and very consistent with the design of his Book and this man's exception to it most assurd and frivolous 'T is indeed not onely proper but charitable and modest it implies the Bishop does not believe that all who live in the external Communion of the Church of Rome are either so disloyal to their Prince or so unmerciful to their Friends and
of Universal Bishop in which he was confirm'd by a Council held at Rome the Year following After this Corruptions and Heresies crept apace into the Church of Rome which were still opposed by some famous Writers of these Churches both in this and the seventh Century about the end of which viz. in the Year 794 the Emperour Charles the Great having called a Council at Franckfurt did with the Western Churches joyntly endeavour to have drawn Pope Adrian and the Church of Rome out of that gulph of Superstition and Idolatry into which it was fallen by persuading them to embrace the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles But this design proving then ineffectual Lewis the Emperour Son and Successor to Charles undertook and prosecuted the same in the eighth Century and in order thereunto amongst other things he preferr'd to the Archbishoprick of Turin of which the Valleys of Piedmont are part one Claudius a chief Counsellour to Charles the Great and one of the most renowned men of his Age as well for Piety as Learning in the Year 815. But this good man finding that he could not resist that mighty torrent of Superstitious and Idolatrous Blasphemies which were taught and practis'd in the Church of Rome endeavour'd to keep his own Dioceses from being infected with them and to this end he told his People That they ought not to run to Rome for the Pardon of their Sins nor have recourse to the Saints or their Reliques that the Church is not founded upon S. Peter much less upon the Pope but upon the Doctrine of the Apostles that they ought not to worship Images nor so much as have them in their Churches c. These words we find in a Book written by a grand Adversary of his Also the same Author and others of the same stamp confess That Claudius and his Disciples and Successors were People of good Lives and Principles and that nothing could be objected against them for says one whereas all other Sects render themselves horrible by reason of their Blasphemies against God this hath a great appearance of Piety in as much as they live justly before men they believe aright concerning God in all things and hold all the Articles of the Creed there is onely one thing against them viz. that they deny the Church of Rome to be the holy Mother Church and will not obey her Traditions Another saith That these men did own the Christian Church in all other points and that he reckon'd and esteem'd them true Members of it I shall quote one Popish Writer more who was very famous in his time he in a Book published in the year 1632 with approbation and privilege saith That the aforesaid Doctrine which he calls Heresie continu'd throughout the ninth and tenth Centuries And afterward in another Book printed at Turin in the year 1649 dedicated to the Duke of Savoy speaking of the Doctrine which the Churches of the Valleys then held he saith It is the same which Claudius Archbishop of Turin and consequently of the Valleys being within that Diocese maintained in the eighth Century And thus you have seen the constant and uninterupted Succession of the Doctrine of these Churches from the times of the Apostles to that of Claudius and so through the ninth and tenth Centuries till the Waldenses came into these Valleys which was in the eleventh Century where they have profess'd and taught the same ever since I need not take the pains to prove the continued Succession of this Doctrine in those Churches from the eleventh Century till now because all Popish Writers do unanimously confess it but seeing divers of them have had the impudence to tell the World that the Waldenses who escaped the Massacre in France in the year 1165 and came from thence into the Valleys of Piedmont were the first Founders of that Religion which the Inhabitants there own and profess at this present I cannot but answer such Writers by telling them that it is not at all probable that the Waldenses who knew that the Seat of their grand Adversary was in Italy could have been so void of all sence and common prudence as to have undertaken so long and tedious a Journey over the Alps had they not been well assured beforehand that tho Natives of those Valleys had professed the same Religion with them and would receive and embrace them as Brethren I shall conclude this subject with a passage mention'd in the Preface of a French Bible which these Inhabitants caused to be printed at their own charge in the year 1535 and dedicate it to God himself where speaking as it were to him they say That they had always fully enjoy'd that Heavenly Truth contained in the Holy Scriptures ever since they were enriched with the same by the Apostles themselves I now come to give you the Causes of the Massacre in the Year 1655 and though many might be assign'd I shall mention two onely viz. the one general and the other particular the general Cause was the implacable Hatred and Malice of the Bishop of Rome and his Clergy against the Reformed Churches in the Valleys of Piedmont and in truth this hath been the Cause of all the other Massacres and Persecutions which have happen'd not onely in those Valleys but in all other parts of Europe ever since the Apostacy of the Romish Church has taken place and her tyrannical and usurped Power prevail'd in the World The particular Cause of this and other Massacres and Persecutions that have happen'd in these Valleys is the yearly allowance of Pensions Prebends Bishopricks Abbeys and Priories by the Court of Rome to the most eminent persons of the Duke of Savoy's Court upon condition of doing their utmost to destroy the Protestants and their Religion The principal means made use of by these Courtiers for effecting their designe were the same which had always prov'd successful formerly viz. they incensed the Duke of Savoy against his Protestant Subjects by many calumnies and false suggestions too tedious to be here inserted in so much that he publish'd an Order dated the 25th of January 1655. by which he commanded all his Protestant Subjects of what age sex or condition soever inhabiting certain Valleys therein mention'd to depart to other Valleys therein also nam'd in three days upon pain of death unless they should turn Papists within twenty days c. And though these poor Christians endeavour'd by their humble Addresses and Supplications to have oblig'd him to revoke this unjust and tyrannical Order yet he utterly refused to do it However he was not able to answer one of those many Arguments urged in their Petitions to induce him to grant their desires I shall name three First They urge the several Concessions made to them and their Ancestours by the Duke and his Predecessours for the free exercise of the reformed Religion in the Valleys of Piedmont and the quiet and peaceable enjoyment of their civil Rights and Priviledges Secondly They urge that
Church lately executed in France Again two days after that the Cardinal of Lorain had another great Procession of all the Clergy the Ambassadors Cardinals and the Pope himself who came to St. Lewis's Chappel where the Cardinal himself celebrated Mass Then in the name of the King of France he thanked the Pope and the Cardinals for the help they had afforded him both by their Counsels and Prayers of which he said he had found most happy effects He also delivered the King's Letter to the Pope in which he wrote That more Heretics had been destroy'd in that one day than in all the twelve years of the War Nor did the Pope think there was yet blood enough shed but that which all the World condemned as excessive cruelty he apprehended was too gentle Therefore he sent Cardinal Vrsin his Legate in all hast to France to thank the King for so great a Service done the Church and to desire him to go on and extirpate Heresie root and branch that it might never grow again In order to which he was to procure the Council of Trent to be received in France And as this Legate passed through France in his Journey to Paris he gave a Plenary Absolution to all that had been actors in the Massacre The best Picture Drawers and Workers of Tapistry were employed to set off this Action with all the Glory possible and a Suit of these Hangings continue to this day in the Pope's Chappel so that they seem to like the thing so well that they preserve the Memory of it still even in the place of their worship And indeed such a representation does very well agree with their Devotion whose Religion and Doctrin led on their Votaries to the thing so expressed By this we may easily gather what is to be expected from France and Rome if ever we should lie at the mercy of Men whose Religion will not only bear them out but also set them on to commit the most treacherous and bloody Massacres I conclude with this Protestation that whatsoever hath been mentioned by me in this Relation as matter of Fact hath been faithfully collected out of the most famous Popish Writers at that time in France and from none else which I am able to prove if requir'd so to do FINIS AN ACCOUNT OF THE Most Remarkable Passages OF THE Irish Massacre Anno 1642. THAT the Irish Papists do hate English Protestants more because they are Protestants than because they are English will clearly appear if we consider that this Massacre was acted by the Instigation of the Jesuits Priests and Friers and also that not so much as one English Papist was kill'd with the Protestants but on the contrary both English and Irish Papists were joint Actors in the said Massacre which was so bloudy and barbarous that I think it cannot be parallell'd in History and I hope never will be Though the Irish Papists did unanimously resolve to destroy all the Protestants in Ireland yet when they began to execute their damnable design they onely turned Protestants out of doors and stript them but afterward finding that they every where prevailed they at last murdered Men Women and Children without sparing any as you will see by what follows The Priests gave the Sacrament unto divers of the Irish upon condition they should spare neither Men Women nor Children of the Protestants One Hulligan a Priest read an Excommunication against all those that from thenceforth should relieve or harbour any English Scotish or Welch Protestants or give them Alms whereby many were famished The Friars exhorted them with tears not to spare any of the said Protestants The day before this Massacre began Anno 1642 the Priests gave the people a Dismiss at Mass with liberty to go out and take possession of all the Lands of the Protestants as also to strip and rob and despoil them of all their Goods and Cattel The Irish when the Massacre began persuaded many of their Protestant Neighbours to bring their Goods to them and they would secure them and hereby they got abundance peaceably into their hands whereof they cheated them refusing to restore them yet so confident were the Protestants at sust of them that they gave them Inventories of all they had and digged up their best things that were hidden in the Ground and deposited them in their custody They also got much into their hands by fair promises deep Oaths and Engagements that if they would deliver them their Goods they would suffer them with their Wives and Children quietly to depart the Countrey and when they had got what they could they afterwards murder'd them Having thus seized upon their Goods and Cattel ransack'd their houses got their persons stript Man Woman and Child naked they turn'd them out of doors strictly prohibiting the Irish under great penalties not to give them any Relief By means hereof many miserably perish'd through Cold Nakedness and Hunger In the Town of Coleraine of these poor people that fled thither for succour many thousands died in two days so that the Living could not bury the Dead but laid their Carcasses in ranks in waste and wide holes piling them up as if they had been Herrings One Magdalen Redman deposeth That she and divers other Protestants amongst whom were two and twenty Widows were first robbed and then stript naked and when they had covered themselves with Straw the bloudy Papists threw in burning Straw amongst them on purpose to burn them then they drove them out into the Woods in Frost and Snow where many of them died with extreme Cold and those that survived lived miserably by reason of their many Wants Yet though these bloudy Villains exercised such inhumane Cruel ties towards the poor Protestants they would commonly boast That these were but the beginning of their sorrows and indeed they made it good for having disarmed the English robbed them of their Goods stript them of their Clothes and having their persons in their power they furiously broke out into all manner of abominable Cruelties horrid Massacres and execrable Murders For there were Multitudes murder'd in cold bloud some as they were at Plough others in their Houses others in the High Ways all without any provocation were suddenly destroyed In the Castle of Lisgool were about one hundred and fifty Men Women and Children consumed with fire At the Castle of Tullab which was delivered to Mac Gutre upon Composition and saithful promises of Fair Quarter as soon as he and his entered they began to strip the people and most cruelly put them to the Sword murdering them all without mercy At Lissenskeath they hanged and killed above one hundred of the Scotish Protestants In the Counties of Armagh and Tyrone where the Protestants were more numerous their Murderers were more multiplied and with greater cruelty Mac Guire coming to the Castle of Lissenskeath desired to speak with Mr. Middleton who admitted him in he first burnt the Records of the County then demanded
pag. 76. prime Leaders as he styles them of the Reformation Luther Calvin Zuinglius Bezâ— c. have in express terms held that Princes might be Depos'd upon the account of Religion But he has not quoted any of their Books to direct us where this scandalous Tenet which he fixes upon them might be found but leaves us to hunt after it at large among the Voluminous Writings of those Authors I do not therefore think my self oblig'd to take any more notice of this Slander of his than if he had never vented it What does he expect to be believ'd upon his bare word sic notus Ulvxes Does he think we know them no better than to trust them But we will not use all the Advantages that we have against so bad a Cause and so weak an Adversary Let us suppose then for once that Luther Calvin and as many more as he has a mind to take into his c. have held That Princes may be depos'd upon the Account of Religion By what new Logick can he make this pertinent to the present Discourse Does he think it the same thing to hold indefinitely That Princes may be depos'd upon the Account of Religion and to hold That the Church has a Right to depose them upon that account to hold that they may be depos'd by an Authority Civil and to hold that they may be depos'd by an Authority Ecclesiastical Let him now speak his Conscience without a Dispensation Does he in good earnest think these two Propositions equivalent or at least equivalent as to the point in controversie between him and the Bishop of Lincoln and that they equally disgrace the profess'd Religion of him who affirms them He cannot fare be so void of the ordinary reason of a Man though he has swallow'd down never so many Roman Catholick Doctrines as not to perceive as palpable difference between them 'T is not but that the former of these Position is a very bad Principle dangerous to Princes and destructive to the Peace and Settlement of a Nation though not so much as the later because it wants the Enforcements of Conscience and Religion to fix it in the Mind and thrust it out upon occasion into Action with that violence which usually accompanies a pretended Zeal for the Honour of God But how bad soever it may be still 't is a Civil not a Religious Principle and though it may be Sedition in the highest degree it can never be Heresie a mans Life and Estate who maintains it is answerable for it not his Religion To make this a little clearer I say 'T is one thing to hold that Princes may be depos'd by the State though upon the account of Religion i. e for being of a Religion different from the establish'd grounding this Opinion upon the Laws and Customs of some particular Civil Constitutions or upon the ends of Government in general and quite another thing to hold that they may be depos'd by the Church grounding this Opinion upon the Laws of Religion and a Power suppos'd to be delegated to her by Christ This last is the Principle we charge and the Bishop of Lincoln has prov'd upon the Church of Rome which makes her Religion it self dangerous to Princes On the other side though Luther Calvin or any other Protestant Divines should hold the first though it be a false and a bad yet as I said before 't is a Civil Principle and their holding it could no more reflect on the Protestant Religion than an Error they might be guilty of in History or Mathematicks The Protestant Religion therefore remains clear from any suspicion of allowing the Doctrine of Deposing Princes the point I undertook to make good though it should be granted the Compendionist that Luther and Calvin c. have had ill Principles in relation to Civil Governments If he could prove indeed that Luther and Calvin or any other Protestant Divines have held The Lawfulness of Deposing Princes as a Principle of their Religion and plac'd the power of doing it in the Church he would say something that were to the purpose and parallel to what we accuse the Church of Rome of but in the Method he has taken he does but beat the Air and fight with Shadows I shall explain this Distinction a little further by some famous Examples in order to meet with the other Cavils of this idle Wrangler and make the Inconsequence of his Arguings if it be possible yet more apparent He may remember then that here in England Edward II. and Richard II. were actually depos'd in times of Popery and by Papists yet did our Writers never charge the Church of Rome though she held then the same Doctrines and had the same pride to trample on Princes that now she has with those two disloyal and unjust Usurpations upon the Sovereignty of the Kings of England And for what imaginable reason but this onely viz. because they were both Acts of the Civil Power and carried on by mon who grounded what they did upon Principles though grosly false and mistaken drawn from the Constitution of the English Government and the Rights of the two Houses of Parliament and the Church of Rome contrary to her Custom upon such occasions was onely a bare Spectator neither her Authority nor her Principles being made use of to further or justifie those Proceedings I would now ask this Collector of Impertinencies this tedious Compendionist whether he thinks this a good reason to clear the Church of Rome from being concern'd in the deposing these two unfortunate Princes If he says 't is as no doubt he will with what face can he pretend to charge the Church of England as he would be understood to do pag 76. lin 38. with the Endeavours that were us'd to keep Queen Mary from the Crown the Death of the Queen of Scots and the Bâ—ll of the late House of Commons against the Duke of York's Successiâ—n since the Cases are directly parallell I mean parallell in all that concerns the present question Were they not every one of them Acts of the Civil Power and carried on by men who grounded what they did on Civil not Religious Principles Was not the setting up of the Lady Jane Grey and the raising an Army to oppose Queen Mary an Act of the Privy Council in pursuance of King Edward's Will and a Law made in the Reign of Henry VIII for the illegitimating of this Princess as the Lords of the Council themselves declare in their Answer to her Letter writ from * Baker's Chron. â—ramingham Castle Was not the Death of the Queen of Scots most notoriously an Act of the State justified by the Laws of the Land Was she not indicted for Treason and known to pretend a better Title to the Crown than Queen Elizabeth Lastly was not the Bill against the Duke of York grounded on a suppos'd Legal Power in the King and the two Houses to alter the course of the Succession when they think
fit Have not all the Pamphlets that have been writ in Vindi … tion of that Bill argued the Lawfulness of it from the Constitution of the Civil Government and wholly disclaim'd the interesting of Religion at all in the business as to the justifying of it in the least degree endeavouring with great pains to prove that true Religion does not meddle with the Civil Rights of Princes but leaves them to be determin'd by the Laws and Customs of particular Countries By what strange consequence they can he entitle the Church of England or the Protestant Religion to things that are so perfectly of a Civil nature unless he will make them answerable for all the Actions of Protestants of what kind soever and resolve to maintain that childish Sophism I first took notice of as the chief ground of all his extravagant Raving against the Bishop's Book viz. The concluding the Principles of a Religion from the practises of her Professors Which is the very Dregs of Folly the last Running of Impertinence 'T is true the Protestant Religion i.e. the care of preserving it was no doubt the great Motive of doing what was done in every one of these three Cases but that is not here to the purpose for 't is not the Reason for which but the Authority by which a Prince is depos'd and the kind of Principle i. e. whether Civil or Religious 't is justified upon that must condemn or acquit a Church of the Guilt of it though this man endeavour all along to insinuate the contrary by such a fallacious way of representing the Position charg'd on the Church of Rome as makes that seem to be the chief Point in the Controversie between her and the Bishop of Lincoln which is in truth no part of it viz. the Motive or end of deposing Princes But 't is not the Business of this little Pamphlet … to state things fairly and reason clearly but to amuse the Reader◠and puzzle the Question a close way of arguing will not suit either with his Cause or his Understanding a good proof of which he gives us at the very first in these words * See the Compend pag. 76. If on the other-side says he the Bishop means that there have been Popish Doctors of the opinion that Princes might be Depos'd upon the account of Religion what Advantage I would fain know can that be to his Lordship or his Treatise since not only all the prime Leaders of the Reformation c Is it to be imagin'd now that a man should get so far out of his way unless he purposely design'd to ramble or write things so grosly impertinent to the matter he was treating of unless he studied to confound it and render it as little intelligible as was possible Never did any man take more true pains to understand a Discourse difficult in it self than he has done to misunderstand the Bishop's which was plain and easie or a least to make his Reader do so for he cannot be so dull himself in this Point as he would seem 'T is not possible that he or any man who has read the Bishop's Book should think it was the Bishop's meaning only to charge the Popish Doctors with holding indefinitely that Princes might be Depos'd upon the account of Religion when 't is so palpably evident in a hundred places of his Book that he only brings their Opinions as a collateral proof of his Charge of their Church and Religion and that with a quite different Tenet as I have already shew'd And as 't is the Roman Church and not the Doctors only or chiefly which the Bishop charges with holding that Princes may be Depos'd by her Authority not with holding indefinitely that they may be Depos'd upon the account of Religion So 't is the present Popish Canon-Law the Bulls the Decretals of Popes and the Canons of General Councils which are the Testimonies he relies upon for the making good of his Charge and not the private Opinions of Popish Doctors though being cited out of Books licens'd and approv'd by that Church they are of considerable weight in the Argument Now what says the Compendionist to these strong and most convincing Proofs Why in fine as Mr. Bayes says upon another occasion he wont tell us He has not one word not one syllable of Answer to them but passes them over with as deep a silence and as good a grace as if they were like most of his own not at all to the purpose This discreet and necessary Resolution being taken he bends all his little Wit and with a great deal of chearfulness goes about to invalidate what the Bishop urges from the Writings of the Popish Doctors which yet the poor impotent Scribler is by no means able to do as I have made appear in my Answer to his Charge of Luther and Calvin The Attempt however was just as wise and as likely to satisfie reasonable men as if a General who had a great and well disciplin'd Army to fight with should neglect the Main Body and with his whole Strength set upon the Forlorn Hope For his Objections of the Protestant Rebellion in Hungary the late Rising in Scotland the Murther of the Archbishop of S. Andrews and that Home-Blow of his the Gazet Advertisement of The Tryals of Twenty nine Protestant Regicides they are of the same nature and grounded on the same pitiful Falacy with those I have already answer'd and when he can shew us any Principle of the Protestant Religion that justifies Rebellion or Murder especially that of Princes or does but in the remotest degree encourage men to commit these detestable Crimes I shall again consider them In the mean time let him not wast his Paper and tire his Reader with the Repetition of such fulsom Sophistry But perhaps it may not be amiss to give a more particular Answer to his Home-Blow because he has such an opinion of its force and does so triumph with the conceit of his Victory I shall endeavour therefore to take him down in the height of his Rapture and shew his ignorant malice The Reader will remember the Point he should prove is That Protestant Principles are destructive to Kings for those are the very words of the Introduction to his terrible Argument of Instances of Fact Now did the Twenty nine Protestant Regicides ever pretend to justifie their abominable Villany by any Principle of their Religion Nay did they not pretend the quite contrary and ground it wholly upon a Civil Authority Did they not argue the lawfulness and justice of it from a Power they fancied in the People to call the King to an Account for his Actions Though in this they were as absurd Logicians as the Compendionist has all along shew'd himself and reason'd not only against the very first Principle of Civil Policy but point blank contrary to the most fundamental Maxims of the Law of England which says That the King can do no wrong and therefore makes his
Ministers questionable for the Miscarriages in Government because he himself is in his own Person inviolable and sacred but this concerns not the present Business These men I say as bad as they were had not the Impudence to Interest the Protestant Religion or any Protestant Church whatever in the guilt of their impious Treason by pretending to derive any Warrant or Encouragement for it from them or if they had it would have signified nothing to the Compendionist's purpose since there is no King-deposing or King-killing Principle to be found in any Protestant Confessions of Faith or Articles of Communion which are the only proper Evidences to convince a Protestant Church of any Principle or Doctrine that is laid to her charge and so it would have amounted to no more than their particular mistaking or perverting the Principles of their Religion as grosly and as wilfully as they did the Laws of their Country But this is not the case for they did not so much as pretend any Warrant from the Protestant Religion for what they did How then can He charge Protestant Principles with the Personal Crimes of these men Or what does this Home-Blow and all his other Instances prove except this only viz. That several Protestants have been Rogues very great Rogues Murderers Rebels Traytors c. Does He not know that they are all mortal men too and subject to many other Vices which he might very clearly have prov'd upon them if he had pleas'd by undeniable Examples There 's not a Sin the Pope pardons of what Price soever but 't is too sadly true that Protestants have been guilty of it at some time or other if that will do him any service But now in the name of a little common sense Who or what does this Raver oppose in this strenuous Argument Did ever any of our Writers assert that all the Protestants in the world were good Men and pious Christians Or is there any sort of people among us besides Quakers i. e. mad men who hold a state of Absolute Perfection in this Life He has put himself into an extraordinary Heat and made strange violent Assaults and yet no Enemy appears near him What ayles the man he has sure been combating some Giant in imagination like Don Quixote when he hack'd down the Walls of his Chamber Well who ever he be though it were Malambruno himself I 'll warrant him he 's kill'd outright this La Mancha has so laid about him with Home-Blows Another great quarrel he has to the Bishop is that he does not answer four Books nam'd in the Compendium's margin writ it seems by the Catholicks of England since the King's Restoration about the Deposing Power of the Church * Compend pag. 78. His Lordship says he is so far from answering these Authors that he never so much as cites them to this purpose a great fault indeed so that we must conclude them unanswerable Well argued o' my word I see he deals in nothing but Home-Blows Mr. Bayes and this Compendionist would have made a couple of rare Disputants if they had not been spoil'd by their Tutors and ill grounded at first they have both an admirable natural talent at Reasoning all the difference between them is Bayes lov'd it in Rhime and this man 's altogether for it in Prose But without Raillery does he believe the Bishop of Lincoln oblig'd to take particular notice of every idle Pamphlet of theirs that keeps a Pudder about the deposing Power of the Church with design to make the business intricate and dark and to think them as considerable as his Party always do their own Books No doubt he takes it monstrous ill too that the Bishop has not thought him worth his Answering and perhaps concludes himself unanswerable But I hope I shall hinder him from falling into that mistake and make him sensible what an Impar Congressus Achilli what a poor contemptible thing he is when he appears in the Lists against so great a Scholar as the Bishop of Lincoln For the Pamphlets he mentions they are more than answer'd in the Bishop's Book though it does not particularly name them and when he or any other Factor for Popery gives a tolerable Answer to those clear Testimonies I told him of before and which he never so much as cites to this purpose by which the Bishop does so plainly prove the Doctrine of Deposing Kings upon the Church of Rome I here engage my word to him these Pamphlets shall be made ridiculous by name and their Authors shew'd to the people in the Fools Coats they deserve In the next place be tells us * Compend pag. 78. That the Venetians have openly in their very writings denied this Deposing Power of the Church without Censure And That several Authors have been censur'd in France and elsewhere for writing for it In answer to which First we know very well that the Church of Rome does always accommodate her Allowing and Condemning of Books to the circumstances of her present condition and as Princes are sometimes forc'd by the necessity of their Affairs to disavow the Actions of their Ministers though done by their most express command so is this interested Church frequently reduc'd to connive at Books which she does by no means like and to Censure others which she does not onely approve but underhand directs A good Instance of this we have in the case of Sanctarellus's Book one of those he mentions which though at first printed by the Approbation and special Licence of * See Sanctarellus himself Mutius Vittellescus then General of the Jesuits and by the Order of the Master of the Pope's Palace yet when the Pope found it would not be endur'd in France but that both the Sorbonne had condemn'd it and the Parliament of Paris had order'd it to be burnt he thought fit after it had been out so long that the Copies were almost all bought up to forbid the Sale of it at Rome but without any manner of Censure either upon the Author or Doctrine * See more of this in the Preface to the Jesuits Loyalty which is generally their way of condemning those kind of Books when Civil Considerations at last oblige them to it viz. a bare Prohibition of them after every body has read them that cares for them Such a Condemnation as this did Mariana meet with in Spain and of this gentle nature was Becanus's Correction at Rome not for the Doctrines he maintain'd but for Overlashing as Bishop Montague expresses it in his Preface to King James's Works i. e. for speaking the mind of their Churchmore plainly than was at that time convenient For Secondly we know well enough that these Principles of Deposing and Killing Kings and Extirpating Hereticks are thought too precious Truths and too high Points to be ordinarily expoâ—'d to the â—ulgar and pross'd upon all occasions they are the Arâ—â—na Imperii of their Kingdom of Darkness and kept like Warrants Dormant among
Neighbours as those Doctrines he charges upon her really and heartily assented to must needs make them He hopes possibly that Humane Nature it self in some may check at their harshness and a particular sweetness of temper of others very much allay the Malignancy of their Poison and hinder them from having their full effect upon the Understanding at least such an effect as is justly to be dreaded from them when they seize upon the minds of melancholy Recluses or sink deep into the affections of her ignorant hot-headed Devoto's those Christian (a) A Sect of Religious Murderers among the Turkâ— See an Account of them in Tav … niâ—r's Six Voyages pag. 199. Faquirs For the Promise he makes us at last in imitation of the Bishop's (b) Compend pag. 79. That he himself will turn Protestant if the Bishop shows him but one single Paragraph in all his Book in relation to their dangerous Principles that he has not fully answer'd c. I will be so civil to him at parting to let him know be need not be in any pain about it for though the Condition of his Obligation be not in the least measure nor is ever likely to be perform'd yet I can assure him there 's no body intends to take any advantage of the Forfeiture Though he has been so far from answering every single Paragraph of the Bishop's Book that he has not in truth answer'd one single word of it to any purpose as I have already show'd him yet we will not be so unmercifully rigorous to require a Person of his Form of Parts to turn Protestant and force him to be a reasonable man and a good Christian against his Conscience no no let him stay where he is we are not at all fond of his Company and the Religion he has will best suit with his Wit I have now done with the Compendianist and shall enlarge this Preface no farther but to joine with all good English-men in offering up my hearty prayers to God Almighty that He would still preserve the Preotestant Religion among us and continue to render fruitless the contrary Endeavours and Contrivances of wicked and unreasonable Men fallacious Writers and Traiterous Plotters that He would keep the most knowing and best civiliz'd Nation in the World from falling again under the Barbarisme of Popery from being opprest by the Tyranny and cumber'd with the Weight of this huge unwieldly Masse of Nonsense and Puppetry This farce of Ceremonies this Counterfeit Christianity this Enemy to true Learning and free Philosophy this Discourager of Trade and useful Industry this Troubler of agreeable Conversation and reasonable Living this Prohibiter of good Sense and this Extinguisher of good Nature in a word this Un-Christian and this Immorall Religion or rather this new Species of Irreligion which by her Doctrines of dispensing with Oaths and absolving from all manner of Crimes upon slight and ridiculous Penances as well as by those the Bishop of Lincoln has convinc'd her of has not only overthrown the Foundations of real Goodness and true Piety but even of necessary Faith and common Honesty loosen the very Bands and Ligaments and undermining the Props of Civil Communities Errata in the Preface Page 1. Line 11. for grand read great Ibid. l. 17. for those r. these p. 3. l. l. 9. r. Compendianist and so in all other places where that word is us'd it being mistaken throughout the whole Preface p. 4. l. 17. after these words Does he expect to be believ'd upon his bare word the sence is left imperfect by omitting these which follow viz. Vpon the honour of a Popish Controvertist which the Reader is desir'd to add p. 10. l. 5. r. and Decretals Ibid. l. 30. for these r. those l. 36. for shew r. shame Many other Errors there are in the Printing which for their too great number I will not trouble the Reader with though in many places the Style is not onely prejudic'd by them but the sence corrupted and debas'd In the French Massacre p. 2. l. 5. for Son r. Cousin In the Irish Massacre p. 2. l. 25. dele not In Q. Maries Reign p. 2. l. 7. for hath r. had Ibid. l. antep dele by l. ult for Winchester r. Worcester AN ACCOUNT Of the Chief Passages of the MASSACRE IN The Valleys of Piedmont in the Year 1655. WHEN the following Sheets had passed the Press and the Preface was ready for it a certain Gentleman who had set me on work to collect and publish them signified his desire that I should add one Sheet concerning this Massacre but because it may be though most proper to conclude with Domestick Occurrences and because the notice of my Friends desire came too late for placing this Sheet next after the Irish Massacre where in reference to Time it should have been plac'd I was oblig'd to put it in the Front Before I come to treat of this Massacre in particular it will be necessary to give you an Account of the Antiquity of the Reformed Churches in the Valleys of Piedmont with the causes of this and other Persecutions which have been raised against them by the Bishops of Rome since the first Apostacy of the Roman Church As for their Antiquity I affirm that the Christian Religion which was planted in Italy by S. Paul has ever since been retained in the Primitive Purity of its Fundamental Doctrines and Divine Worship in the Churches of Piedmont to this day And for the Proof of this Assertion I must acquaint you that though many of their most ancient Records and other Authentick Manuscripts were destroyed by Popish Perseeutors in the years 1559 and 1560 yet a great number no less Authentick divers of which are now to be seen in the University of Cambridge were most wonderfully preserv'd and give as full and clear a Testimony to this Truth Besides we have the concurrent Testimonies of the most eminent Popish Authors who were the bitterest Adversaries of these Churches and yet which is almost miraculous they have by a strange over-ruling Providence unwittingly confess'd in many places of their Writings this Antiquity for the concealing of which and to make the World disbelieve it those very Books were purposely written and design'd To demonstrate these Particulars by some Instances I must inform you that it is a Truth generally received by all those who profess to be vers'd in Ecclesiastical History that before the Year 800 the differences between the Roman and Reformed Christian Churches were not publickly establish'd by any General Councils or Decrees in any part of Italy As for the first 500 years after Christ there cannot so much as one clear Sentence be produc'd out of any one Father or Council for the Papists against the Protestants In the next Century viz. in the Year 600 Boniface the Third of that name Bishop of Rome with the consent and approbation if not instigation of the Usurper Traitor and Murderer Phocas the Emperour took upon him the Title