of all This Lady was by the Iesuites placed in Barbican neere to the Spanish Ambassadours house and being apprehended by a Purseuant she was committed to prison where hauing continued shee thought her selfe therein most happy for that as the Papists commonly reported she had come from Spaine hither purposely to endure some afflictions with the English Papists for the Catholicke cause But to returne to my purpose of relating some passages out of the Priests bookes concerning the Iesuites a Dialogue betweene a secular Priest and a lay Cath. p 86. They are indeed Priests but exceeding cunning politickes withall And these b D. Bagsh ans p. 10. politique Canuasers or Machiauellian c Quodl p. 15. polititians haue d Ib. b. p. 147. so many Machiaucllian deuices as euery plot and drift seemeth to be an infallible rule of falsehood and principle in chiefe whereby the Iesuites doe square their actions as neuer a Prince in Christendome nor any man liuing can tell where to find or how to trace and trust them e Quodl p. 17. 21. for in all sacrilegious and temporizing platformes f Ibid p. 18. atheall plots of perdition g Ibid. Machiauellian or rather Mahumetan-like faction h Ibid. p. 62. Heathenish tyrannicall Sathanicall and Turkish gouernment none i Jbid. p 64. goeth beyond the Iesuites at this day k Ibid. p. 62. And they are able to set Aretine Lucian Machiauell yea and Don Lucifer to schoole as impossible for him by all the Art he hath to besot men as they doe by reason of their blind dead carkasse obedience formerly expressed out of Maffeus and the Iesuites Constitutions But to proceed with some further passages of the bookes before mentioned l Relation of the faction at Wisb p. 77. It is to bee feared lest they will bring in bondage not onely Prelates but the very Princes and Monarches themselues m Quodl p. 173. They haue houlstered hearded and borne-out many foule matters against the greatest and chiefest Princes on earth n Declar. mot ac turb in Angl. p. 17. They haue plotted diuers forraigne inuasions o Ibid. p 83. They set Kingdomes to sale and talke and write of nothing but forraigne enemies that shall inuade this Land p Quodl p. 186. So that this Land by their mischieuous drifts and deuises lies open to the spoyle of the first that can catch it q ibid p. 182. They fish for a Monarchy r ibid p. 324. and haue at all Christendome for both estate Ecclesiasticall and Temporall But Å¿ Rel. of the fact at Wish p. 71. specially they challenge a spirituall Monarchy ouer all England by t Ibid p. 74. right or wrong seeking it So u Qâ—odl p. 234 that all the Iesuites ayme at one marke and one course and conceiue one and the same generall hope to haue England a Iaponian Monarchy as one termed it or an apish Iland of Iesuites w Quodl p. 65. They haue intelligence in all the Kings Courts in Europe by some principall man or woman of marke of their placing x Jbid. And their chiefe agent to discouer the secrets of Princes is alwayes a Iesuite in re or in spe y Ibid. p. 315. These Agents in all Princes Courts giue information to their Generall once a moneth So that z Ibid. p. 65. nothing is done in England but it is knowne in Rome within a moneth after at the least a Elies notes paâ— 34. They seeke to haue all men at their beeke and commandment And b Relation of the faction at Wâ—â—b p. 69. so miserable is the state of the Catholickes in England that all must depend vpon theÌ„ c Q … p. 9. as though the fee-simple of all mens acts words and thoughts were in their gift And therefore of all orders the d Jbid. p. 24. Capuchins liue best with the Iesuites because the Iesuites would willingly haue all and the Capuchins would willingly haue nothing but euen to keepe life and soule together If any body wanting the Authors here cited would see more to this effect he may be satisfied by Doctor Iames his booke of the Downefall of Iesuites whose Collections I haue examined and haue found to be true as I said before If then the Priests accuse the Iesuites who are now the onely rulers of Popes Princes and Priests lippes more for feare of them then for any affection vnto them to be meere hypocritical Machiauelian Atheists how can a Christian man that feareth God beleeue such a particular Church guided as their owne Priests confesse so abundantly by such a particular faction to be the Catholicke Church and not rather the mystery of iniquity Seeing the Scripture saith 2 Thess 2. that theÌ„ man of sinne opposeth and exalteth himselfe aboue all that is called God sitting in the Temple of God as God And that the mystery of iniquity doth worke and that the comming of that wicked is after the working of Sathan with all power and signes and lying wonders and with all deceiueablenesse of vnrighteousnesse in them that perish because they receiued not the loue of the truth To whom God shall send strong delusions that they shall beleeue a lye L. 4. â—p 3â— And seeing that Saint Gregory foretelling of these times saith The king of pride is at hand an army of Priests is prepared to attend him All which are most true of the Pope and of the enchanting subtilties of the Iesuites hood-winking the world with blindnesse as is affirmed by their owne brethren and Priests Whereunto to we may adde the iudicious discourse lately made to the Polonian Nobility assembled in Parliament for reformation Vide Mercur. Gallo-Belgic Dantisc Anno 1607. p. 67 deinceps Where it is anowed that the greatest enemies to that and other free estates were Iesuites c. and that their faction is a most agill sharpe sword whose blade is sheathed at pleasure in the bowels of euery Common-wealth but the Handle reacheth to Rome and Spaine So that the very life death and fortunes of all Kings Magistrates and Common-wealthes hang vpon the Horoscope of the Iesuites pleasures I cannot be of the mind of some of my acquaintance yet Romish Catholiques who lately told me that they must needes be Atheists if they forsake the Church of Rome because they cannot tell forsooth where the Protestant succession of Priesthood and Doctrine was before Luthers dayes But I say that if they were not holden strongly with their dead carkasse obedience of the Iesuites and their thirteenth rule afore deciphered they might well see that the Protestants in England can proue vndenyably the lawfull succession of Priesthood euen from the Popish Doctrines and their Records when as Luther first sought the Reformation If then the Popish bee good the Protestants must be good also as appeareth by Master Masons booke of this argument And that the doctrine of the Protestants is
that vn till Christs comming againe 1 Tim. 6.14 So if you looke beyond Luther you shall finde that there neuer wanted a visible company of Pastors protesting against the innovated doctrines of the Church of Rome which made as I suppose the Iesuite disputants in Sir Humphrey Linds his house ashamed to try the succession of doctrine offering their blinde buttery booke of names For if they durst try their succession of their doctrine Why did they not either then vndertake it or since make supplication to his Maiesty that they might proue the same and so saue their Credits And since that I had digested and set downe in writing these former inducements I haue beene yet further confirmed by the reading of two bookes the one of Sir Humphrey Linds intituled via tuta wherein is manifestly proued that whatsoeuer the Protestants hold positiuely for matter of faith no learned Papists can or euer could deny And that whatsoeuer the Protestants deny of the things held by the Papists the same cannot be prooued to be Catholicke and Apostolicke agreeing with the Apostles Creed The other is Doctor Fauours booke entituled Antiquity triumphing ouer Nouelties wherein is as plainely proued that the Papists doe speake contemptuously and disgracefully of the Scriptures to deterre men from reading of them Contemne those first and best generall Councels wherin they speake against them and for the Protestants And in the later they take what parts make for them and reiect what makes against them as reprobate as I find Cardinall Bellarmines distinction of them to bee partim probata partim reprobata L. 1. c. 4. de concil eccl The like doe they by the Fathers and also by Histories as you may see if you reade cap. 7 8 9. of the said booke of D. Fauour And all this it seemeth will not serue the turne for they haue set vp shops and Inquisitors of purpose called their Indices Expurgatorij to blot out in the Catholicke Writers what makes against them with a deleatur and to adde what may serue their turne And likewise in their citations they make vse of Bastard and counterfeit Fathers acknowledged by themselues to be such as you may see more plainly and particularly in Doctor Iames his booke printed 1612. entituled A Treatise of Scripture Councels Fathers corrupted by the Romish Pastors And as for their contempt of the Fathers When Tertullian pleaseth Bellarmine he is with him granissimus Author A most graue Author a famous Doctor a Catholike Writer Bellar. de Rom. pont l. 2. c. 5. But if he speake against or please not Bellarmine then he is an Heretique and he will answer fidem non esse omnino adhibendam Tertulliano in hac parte that no credite at all is to be giuen to Tertullian in this case ibid. lib. 4. cap. 8. And as for the vse which the Papists doe afford vnto that euidence of antiquity which is histories Doctor Fauour proposeth certaine examples to make it plaine that in this case the Romanists either miserably or doggedly snarle at all antiquity or vtterly reiect and deny it Cap. 9. § 20. the most expedite course they can deuise to ouerthrow that which in truth would ouerthrow them His first instance is in the matter of Pope Ione The truth of which historie when he hath confirmed by the witnesse of more then a double Grand-iurie of sufficient Authors older and later Greekes and Latines domesticall and forraigne Diuines Lawyers and Physitians Philosophers Poets and other humanitians Priests Bishops in their accompt Saints and Cardinals Fryars Monkes and Canons yea and whole Vniuersities not one of them an enemy nay not so much as one of them not a friend to the Roman Catholicke Court and Religion c. At last hauing named the seuerall Authors in the Margin of his page hee saith Yet because this story doth preiudice the vaunt of their perpetuall succession doth make vncertaine their pretended onely sufficient ordination giues a shrewd shake to their counterfeit rocke c. Fiue or sixe and thirty Authors constantly in diuers countries in many Ages in Catholicke Vninersities Citizens of Rome and Officers in the Popes Court secular religious are all corrupted falsified denyed discredited shaken off and branded with infamy and all must be without sap or sense truth or honesty learning or credit onely to salue that frothy Sea from this filthy Queane And all this begun and set on foot by that one consciencelesse Onuphrius De Rom. pon◠l. 2. c. 6. whom Cardinall Bellarmine himselfe reiecteth as a contradictor of all antiquity and for auouching that for which he hath no authority Who was borne some hundreds of yeares after some of the said Historians which is strange that any man should beleeue it fit that he alone is sufficient to out-beard and out-face all former antiquity And saith D. Fauour I maruell how they laugh not one at another when they see how they gull the simple world as the Auruspices did among the Gentiles His second example is the story of Pope Silvester the second infeofing Antichrist in the Sea of Rome by liucrie and seisin about which he sheweth that they vse the like dealing as about the former story of Pope Ione And while I considered these foule abuses in the Church of Rome there came to my minde an answer which a Iesuite Father Floyd made vnto me when I told him that King Iames his answer to Cardinall Perrone his speech in the Parliament of Paris did charge the said Cardinall with manifold falsifications of the holy Scriptures to proue the Popes power to depose Princes And that if the King were not answered the cause would be much scandalized The Iesuite answered mee that there was too much written already and that he must be answered another way I was afraid then to aske him any more fearing it might be another Powder-plot the rather because I heard Master Smith my old Lady Kneuets Priest affirme that he had heard a zealous Catholicke say when he first heard how the Powder-plot had missed that it was the onely way in the world that could haue beene deuised to haue rooted out the Protestants And now I am easily drawne to beleeue Father Floyd that they will answer no more with bookes or writings but with force and plots if as the Scripture saith Ex ore tuo te iudico a man may iudge according to their owne words specially if we consider how the secular Priests do charge the Iesuites with ambitious vsurping authority in the Church of Rome corrupting it with their treasonable doctrines as is euident in the said Priests bookes whereof I haue already giuen the Reader some taste And I thinke good here to adde more the rather because that the bookes are not easily to be had for that the Iesuites making vse of a rich Spanish Ladies purse for the buying vp and burning of hereticall bookes they tooke vp as many as they could of these Priests books which they counted worst
said one Pope if he had meant so It is not amisse to haue a little further consideration of that army of Priests the Iesuites which attend the Pope according to the mouthes of their owne Priests It is obserued saith one of them a Quod. p. 16. by men how religious orders haue their periods And againe b Ibid. p. 74. That at the rising of euery new order some are raised vp to be a curbe to that Order It being so as c Bagsh ans p. 8. some of the temporall Magistrates haue told the Iesuites that Iesuitisme of a serpigo is become a Gangrene it must therefore bee cut off For d Quodl p. 1. 75. We are perswaded they will be drawen to such matters as a Visum est spiritui sanct◠nobis i.e. It seemeth good to the holy Ghost and to vs must indicially passe indefinitine sentence against them And the Pope is to be intreated to lay the Axe to the roote of the tree and to cut off this pride of this society spreading it selfe farre and neere for vnlesse a damme be set vp against the streame thereof the raging course will burst asunder all bonds of honesty and modesty and carry away headlong many with the force therof It e Relat. of the faction at Wisb p. 77. is time to looke to them for they are become already incorrigible of any Prince Prelate or People and therfore an heauy destruction is like to come to their Society and surely their fall without speciall miracle is incurable and they are like enough to be expelled by force These contentions cannot end but with bloud for as they liue Templar-like in all things there will be a right Templarian downefall And all ought to assist to the pulling downe of these Templarian Iesuiticall Sectaries and banishing them out of the Christian world Otherwise they will be the meanes to destroy all Popes and Kings and to gouerne with their Presbytery and Superior as you may see in the latter end of Watsons Quodlibets If out of their owne Priests mouthes they be thus iudged who are vnder the Popes curse What would the said Priests speake if they were free from the said curse as the Protestants are I make no doubt but that they would say as the Protestants proue their separation from the Romish Church was most lawfull and iust in respect of both Prince and State by reason that they are bound to be both Traitors at the Popes will as appeareth by their doctrines and also Heretickes if they command it to be beleeued ex Cathedra Both which you may finde to bee vnanswerably prooued by T.I. in his Treatise of the holy Catholike Faith and Church specially in his 15 Chapter I may say vnanswerably prooued because H. Floyd the Iesuite tould me as I said before they must be answered another way Finding as it seemeth he thought their cause weakened by their insufficient answeres already Otherwise what needed so many plottes and treasons as haue beene acted by them since their doctrines teach the same ordine ad deū bonū Spirituale in order vnto God and spirituall good as is discouered by their owne Priests And doth not Bellarmine giue this in reason why the Christians in the primitiue times resisted not Nero and Dioclesian viz quia deërant vires they wanted strength And doth not R. Parson in his Andrew Philopater say bouldly that when Kings doe deflect from their Catholike Religion which he meaneth to be the Romish Liberos esse subditos c That the subiects are free from their allegiance Posseque et debere si vires habuerint eiusmodi hominem è dominatu eijcere that they may ought if they be able cast such a one out of his gouernment If I had not found both by their Doctrine and practise that a man could not be a Catholike after the Roman fashion but that he must needes be a traytor in my Conscience I had not forsaken them For I should haue been caried away as the wisest and learnedst Papists are at this day tyed by the Iesuits blinde dead Carbeis obedience not to search and beleeue what God biddeth but what the Pope and my ghostly father teach hoodwinking and lulling a man a sleepe for euer seeing any more with these words ipsi enim praeuigilabunt quasi rationēreddituri pro animabus vestris i.e. for they watch ouer you as they that shall giue account for your soules and Obedience is better then Sacrifice Their meaning is obedience to the Priest or Pope howsoeuer not suffering you to see or vnderstand those words Cum docuerint te iuxta legem eius i.e. when they shall teach thee according vnto his law and forgetting or not suffering you to see that it is better to obey Gods Commandements rather then men Councelling massacres and powder plottes If they were suffered to see these true bounds of obedience they could neuer haue had so many so wise and so learned men to vndertake a powder plot as they haue found The manifold transgressions of the rule giuen by the Apostle Ro. 13.1 2 5. Into all which transgressions this Doctrine of their absolute obedience to man doth plunge them doth leade and draw them as the Philistines did Sampson blindfoulded after that they had put out his eyes The Apostles Rule is let let euery man be perswaded in his owne minde Ro 14.5 But assuredly those in the powder plote were not perswaded in their owne minde but in their obedience to their ghostly Fathers that teach it ad bon◠Spirituale for a spirituall good As you haue had it from their owne Priests mouthes and pennes So I end praying our Lord Iesus Christ to preserue vs all to his sauing Grace Deo soli sit Gloria FINIS