resolutions That force by force is to be beaten backe from your bodies and liues For this defence Reason to the Learned Necessity to the barbarous Custome to all Nations and Nature it selfe hath prescribed to the bruite beasts What need I speake more let vs haue no league with this brood of Antichrist but warre rather Let vs bethinke our selues all and euery one of vs who haue any care and liking of Religion or of the safety renowne and liberty of their Countrey that we ought to beware of the Popish traines and entrappings For sooner or later whatsoeuer they now intend and couer will they at their time effect and bring to passe Whosoeuer thinkes they haue giuen ouer thinkes farre amisse seeing that rule so old true and religious doth neuer faile There is no peace with the vngodly Therefore let it be so farre from vs to hold consederacies with these Iesuited Traytors that we rather account them conspiracies which although they lye hid perhaps for a time yet at last they appeare and are as easily discerned by their actions as the Lyon by his clawes What Is there for vs greater security now then was in those French vproares when these Iesuites these plagues of men haue lowly insinuated themselues into very many Prouinces Cities Townes Castles yea and into the Courts of Princes and their familiarity for so exceedingly well do these runnagate common Barretors know at first how to humilitate themselues as also to faigne Pouerty and aboue all things to seeme godly that these coyne-mongers haue not onely by their forged name gotten incredible wealth and opinion of true Religion but like Bloud-bounds of better scenting then euer Verres had any they haue also cunningly smelt out the purposes of Princes and their secresies and mysteries of State All which as soone as afterwards they haue in particular beene related to their fellowes and by common aduise handled and discussed then presently are sent into sundry Prouinces such men as some call the Kings some the Popes Legats others the Apostolicall Nuntioes and others call them with other Titles but as for me by what name I may call them I know not vnlesse peraduenture in that they tempt and sollicite some by rewards and briberies some by hope and promises some by feare and threatnings they may rightly be called Traitors and betrayers of their Countrey who if in the beginning the consines and entrance of Kingdomes and Regions had beene forbidden them and commandement to abstaine hereafter they had beene deliuered by the consent of all the States either these Mountebanckes had not at all brought their poyson into diuers Prouinces or else they had receiued condign paiment for their paines But after it was lawful for them to betray Kings and Princes to effect their busines either by gold or siluer to send intelligencers abroad to retaine Pentioners and to turne and returne at their pleasure to what place soeuer infinite mischiefes did presently ensue thereupon and doe daily Let euen Spaine her selfe the chiefe nurse of these Waspes and Locusts beare witnesse be Italy also witnesse let France speake and the not meane Cities of Germany and Low-Countries from my very soule I reioyce that the Iland of England is blest and free from these Flyes and Locusts vnlesse some that perchance lurke and lye close in corners and I pray God it may so remaine euerlastingly Meane while most noble King Iames most mighty valiant and constant defendour and reuenger of the faith goe on to chase out thy kingdome this Vipers-brood men mockers and contemners of God from whose onely power all mans power is deriued which goe about vnder the pretext of Religion vtterly to roote out all iust and lawfull dominion Your Maiestie according to your singular wisedome doth see what that wicked desire of the Pope went about to doe with your selfe your children your posteritie and your subiects Hath not that Romane gulfe long since deuoured all the wealth bloud and life of England Are not these holy men the fathers of the Societie such as striue to enter not onely vpon our goods chests and money but vpon the liberty also and safety and as it were the very bones and marrow of vs all Are not these the men that were accustomed not onely to set vpon but to sell our liues and soules and heauen it selfe at a price To these men then must we listen of these and none other are Kings and Princes to be iudged if they refuse and doe not of their owne accord accept of any most vnequall condition they strait cry out that they are to be pursued and persecuted to death Are not these those companions that euery-where labour with tooth and naile to bring in that Spanish Inquisition which at first was practised onely against the Sarazens and Infidels and I pray you what good comes of it of what vse is it Truely none vnlesse as miserable wretches wee shall be constrained to looke for murther vpon murther and most cruell slaughters But God forbid most gracious King and you all vertuous and great Princes that we who by so long and large distance of ground seuered from Spaine haue no communitie at all with the Religion manners and custome of that Nation liue in a well gouerned Kingdome Commonwealth should beare the same yoake as this people doth or that the same euill should be put vpon vs or any good people which hath in it all euils The Spanish Inquisition For this is that if any man knowes it not already which not onely by poysoning takes away the liues of famous men the Countries best commoners teares in peeces the ciuill lawes of Commonwealths but also breakes in sunder the very lawes of nature and Nations Listen further and vnderstand ye Princes could euer yet euen Spaine her selfe and Arragon could they of Granato the Castellans the Neapolitans the Italians the French-men and amongst all the most miserable men of the Low-Countries nourish that direfull and vgly monster with so many sheddings of their bloud so cruell a wilde beast so vntamed and so vnsatiable is that Spanish-Romane beast which cannot I say be fattened nor so much as haue her paunch filled vp with Christians bloud And to this Beast so wilde and sauage will the curteous French-men the wise men of the Low-Countries and the Gentles and Nobles of England refuse to yeelde obedience with good reason Set before your eyes examples which for the most part doe chiefely moue consider them call to remembrance the late and fresh memory of the French Germanes and Low-Country-men and you shall haue cause great enough oh Princes to defend your right your priuiledges and especially Christian Religion purged from the Popish dregs and filth All which truely according to your faith and dutie wish to be protected by your prouidence and cannot be forsaken of you without the manifest destruction of all that's Gods or mans Neither is it likely that that Stoicall numbnesse is so ingrafted imprinted in your
seemed to hold so deere that hee could not be without them were all put to the sword Oh damnable and inexorable Man-killers for whom it was not enough to slaughter and mangle their bodies but that they runne also vpon their goods which were then layd open to the will and prey of these cut-throats who in their owne estates before hauing been most needy base ragged are now with other mens goods profuse and riotous Neither had any good man any thing in his house of any ancient Monument from his Ancestors any thing I say neuer so deare or well-esteemed that could scape the clutches of these rapinous theeues and burglarers The carkasse of the Admirall was haled into the streetes and abused with infinite reproaches by the rash base and ignoble vulgar and a long time tumbled vp and downe in the kennels and durt At last the head being cut off which some say was sent to Rome was most despightfully hanged vp on a publique gallowes without the Citie Oh vnworthy deed oh madnesse oh barbarous furie and most estranged from all sence or feeling of humanity Did it become your enuy and treachery to dragge a man to an ignominious execution of Natures frame almost diuine and of a minde altogether good and great a man fit to haue beene kept for the doubtfullest and hardest times of the Common-wealth whom his most famous deseruings towards his Countrey his many noble acts and the glory of his vertue had raised vp to Heauen And yet for all this he had nothing left him which the rage and fury of the Souldiers could deprine him of But what could not be taken from a valiant and godly man a stedfast faith in God an immortall memory of his name and reputation those neither wounds nor words nor bloudy cut-throates could bereaue from him Whilst these things are thus done at Paris and that the King had willed the Captaine of these men to stay the sight whilst the body of the Admirall was abused in the streets with all manner of iniuries then after this began the seditious Cittizens to run in heaps into the streets to assaile people of euery Sex and degree and to rush euery where in the darke making confusion of all things as if an eternal night had ouerspred the kingdome What say you to this That very many euen well affected to the Popsh Religion were slaine and extremitie showne euen to the very Counsellors of the Parliament if any amongst them were of a milder temper then they Be this knowne to all good men that no light or fluency of Eloquence can be such no man can be stored with such abundance and facility of speech that he may be able to deliuer the deadly spoiles and deaths of that day For what degree of mischiefe can be added to the vnbridled and vntamed lycentiousnesse of these conspirators seeing there is nothing so common as breath to the liuing earth to the dead These men after they had taken away life did either cast the very carkases to be torne and rent of dogs or threw them into the riuers so was a Woman for vertue and lynage most noble and excellently learned aboue her Sexe the Lady of Iuern with her daughters so were two sisters women of Orleance throwne into the Riuer of Soame because they refused to heare their sacrilegious Masse and had rather shed their life and bloud then that they would forsake the true and sincere Religion After these sinnes so horrible and abhominable What thinke you was done next Any brest in which there is the least drop of remorse may heare it and lament The Parisians reioyce with all merriments they triumph openly with ioy they goe on Procession to giue thankes to their Saints and Idols as for a thing done brauely Oh blinde and impious thoughts of men oh trunkes oh stockes and stones Good God can these things enter into the hearts of Christians But let vs proceede and with griefe wee shall see that no sort of wickednesse was omitted in this enterprise They fained that God by a new miracle did approue and allow of these murthers and that in the great Church-yard of Saint Innocents as they tearme it a certaine Hawthorne-bush that neuer before had budded did on the sodaine in that accursed day bud and flourish which bush the Duke of Aniow the Kings brother with a great traine of them of Paris and Orleance would needes see kisse and adore What impiety I pray you what barbarousnesse can be greater then this or what more franticke part is there then that these men should inuent such a mâ—racle to witnesse their phrensie and make their madnesse more manifest to the world Then forsooth did bushes flourish it was not the bush but deceit that flourished wickednesse flourished for a time the vngodly flourished but they shall wither at the last be adiudged to euerlasting fire as straw or stubble they shall be consumed Neither yet after that dismall day did the cruelty of these robbers and Assassines cease or giue ouer for there were then sent euen when there was weeping and wailing through the whole citie and that in all the streetes thereof many were cruelly slaine either of the Nobilitie or of the Counsellors and Aduocates or of the most notable Professours of the Vniuersitie or of the Merchants Some I say were sent euen of the King oh deede nothing kingly which in euery house and inward roome of the house should make diligent search if any hidden by chance had escaped the hands of these murtherers Hereupon a most huge slaughter is made againe neigther as I may speake with the Poet was then the Hoste from Guest or Guest from Hoste was safe Many persons of great and high name and estimation were committed to the Goales if any of them refused to heare their execrable Masse they had straight their throates cut and tumbled headlong into the Riuer For the vpshot that all in generall might taste of their rage and cruelty and that all things in the whole kingdome might be turned topsi-turuie with Letters sent by Postes and with what meanes they can they perswade the Gouernours of Prouinces and the Cities of the Kingdome by their example vtterly and without exception to make away and roote out all those that were of the reformed Religion Neuerthelesse there wanted not some euen the most heauy enemies of Religion that refused to obey these Edicts and amongst the rest the Gouernour of Burgundy who plainely disallowed of the Kings proceedings yet to them of Orleance and the seditious people of Lions this message was most welcome aboue all things where beyond measure they exercised cruelty and where Butchers were hyred as in the time of Licinius the Emperour to bowell vp the Christians nay more which is an horrible thing to speak to buy the far grease of them which were fattest This likewise is a dolefull and lamentable case that very few Cities at all in the Kingdome very few Townes very few
Villages and Riuers there are which haue not beene filled with the goare of the godly Martyrs This is more that their inhumane cruelty was so great as in so grieuous an affliction it was not lawfull for Widowes to bewaile their Husbands nor Orphanes their Parents but that at Paris little ones and infants were found who when they did see themselues hal'd from their Mothers brests their Mother 's hurried to execution did not forbeare to cry out till themselues likewise had their tender bloudshed Oh more then Scythian barbarousnesse for what Tyrant did euer doe this in any part of Scythia not to suffer them to mourne to whom he gaue cause of mourning Rightly didst thou most graue Orator and Philosopher that didst not well endure nor couldest abide to beholde men so barbarous and mischieuous There remaineth nothing that these combined enemies of the Truth haue wherewith to maintaine themselues either before God or nature it selfe or any Christian but that they may be confounded of the very Ethnicks themselues which neither endued with the knowledge of the true God nor instructed with holy-writ nor puft vp with that great and glistering name of Romane Catholike doe gather these things euen by the very law and light of Nature it selfe by which they are a shame to you Scribes and Pharisees Doe therefore the Law and Prophets in GODS name depend vpon you vpon your counsels and traditions vpon the Cupborde of the Pope father of mischiefe and vpon his Messengers and Assassines Blush you Theeues and Pyrats woe to you Hipocrites which attribute to your selues the Supremacie of the Church vnder a false and forged title You I say conscript and sworne Fathers who haue forsworne Piety and the knowledge of good things and a sound Conscience But lest any man should thinke wee grow teastie without cause and speake preiudicially which vseth to take away right iudgement Let vs heare and go forward with the rest and that by the tops and chiefe points of the matters lest our discourse grow to be infinite The things already spoken of though they were cruell and abhominable yet did they not fully satisfie the desires of these bloudy butchers They goe on therefore and at Paris in the middest of the Market-place they cause to be hanged vp Brickmald a most renowned man and most skilfull in warlike affaires being almost of the age of three-score and ten yeares who by chance had hid himselfe in the house of the English Embassador as also one Cauagne a man of great wisedome and Chancellour to the Princes both of Naturre of Condee then made they a laughing-stocke of the Picture and coat of Armes of the Admirall which through the streets they ignominiously abused and euery day they were altogether busie in this either how they might kill or by fearefull threatnings enforce to their impious and forbidden superstition the professors of the true and reformed Religion By this it appeareth more cleare euen then noone-day that the cruelty of these men was in the highest degree their Nature fierce and sauage themselues nesarious bloud-suckers and that neuer any Pyrate was more barbarous Antiochus was cruell but an open enemy of the Church and an Heathen Nero was cruell but for full fiue yeares most mercifull and afterwards openly euill Domitian was cruell but when hee vnderstood that the Kingdome of Christ was Heauenly not earthly he left off to persecute the Christians In the Raigne of Charles the sixt King of France hee being young foolish and witlesse as the Chronicles report France was grieuously distressed But there can nothing be repeated out of all the records of Antiquity which comes neere vnto the cruelties we haue rehearsed if we well waigh the circumstances And although these things be thus true apparant and approoued yet dare they charge these godly Noblemen with an idle accusation and an imputation of forged conspiracie when amongst them all not one though prouoked did vnsheath his sword when those pittilesse cut-throats did likewise put to death Women and Children when their very cosin Germans and amongst them some Earles Barons and Nobles did not escape from them without great danger when they banished from the Court and kept prisoner Michaell Hospitalis the high Chancellour of France and a most honourable person for this cause onely That he withstood their wicked Counsailes when they enforced no small number by violence and threatnings to their idolatrous Masses lastly when Christopher Thouanus the first President in the Parliament gratulating to the King that forsooth his famous victory did openly amongst other things repeat that saying of Lewis the eleauenth Who knowes not how to dissemble knowes not how to rule But I detaine your Lordship with an Oration ouer-long lest therefore I should abuse your Lordships patience I will make short of what remaines Let vs then but looke into this one thing whether these matters which wee haue already vttered doe not so palpably shew forth the impious combination of the Popelings that it may be viewed euen with our eyes From hence let all Christian Kings and Princes that are wise see and vnderstand this betimes that this French calamitie cannot be disioyned from theirs when the Religion common to either is assailed and the Tyrants invred to so many mischiefes and greedy of good mens bloud cannot so rest and content themselues Oh most renowned Princes do you still remaine in doubt Doe not so but marke and note what after these times which we haue recounted at another time and not fiue yeares since befelt that great and most Christian King Henrie the fourth Consider with how many ambushes fraudes and deceipts they belayed the most famous Queene of England ELIZABETH of happy and blessed memory Call to minde with how many engines they battered the poore wretches of the Low-Countreyes both publiquely and priuately for the space of these fortie yeares and vpwards Remember all you of the English Nobility that horrible Gunne-powder Treason which enterprized at one stroke to destroy and blow vp your most mighty KING your noble QVEENE together with their Royall Progeny and the flower of all the Nobility of England This is worth the labour to know with how plausible and goodly a name these glozing Parazites and Pillers of the Romish Religion doe entitle such like abhominable misdeeds marry A stroke giuen from Heauen Oh vowes oh words and men of Hell Doe you you hell-hounds bring downe from Heauen the forge and fountaine of your sinnefull actions I speake truth oh Christians and your selues know it to be so that had not the Lord of Heauen and Earth hindred this stroke England had not for one yeare onely beene miserable and tormented but stab'd and mangled with infinite wounds iniuries violences murthers and rapines should hardly haue drawne their begged breath amidst her deadly enemies Wherefore I pray and beseech you you Princes and Noblemen that the painted shew of Christian Religion and the name Catholike deceiue you not let this rather be your