at length retired to Sublâ—cum a towne distant forty miles from Rome whither many people by reason of the great fame of his integrity and holinesse of life resorted vnto him but within a while he departed thence and repaired to Cassinum an ancient City in that Region where he built a Monasterie and in a very short time gathered together all such Monks as then wandred here and there in the Woods and Desarts of Italy and gaue them certaine rules and statutes to obserue and keepe And withall bound them to three seuerall Vowes the which were neuer heard of before that S. Basil had ordained them in the East Country to his Monks which was about the yeere 383. for Basil was the first that gaue Rules or Orders vnto Monks Among other Lawes and Statutes hee ordained that after that a Monk had remained the space of one whole yeere in his Abbey if so be that he was willing to continue there still hee should make three seuerall solemne Vowes first to liue chastly but with this Prouiso Si non castè tamen cautè that is to say if he could not liue chastly he should goe about his bunesse warily Secondarily to possesse nothing And thirdly to obey his Superiours in what thing soeuer they should command him Which decree of Benet or rather of Basil but receiued and allowed of by Benet was ratified by the Church of Rome for an Euangelicall Law or Decree Againe Benet gaue his Monklings a new kinde of foolish habit appointing them also a certaine forme of praying allowing them but meane Commons and withall a new manner of Abstinence that was likewise neuer heard of before But now the world is altered with them for whosoeuer will suruay or view them well shall see that they liue like Princes and farre more like Epicures than Religious men as all those that are or haue beene acquainted with them can testifie This Congregation of Saint Benet grew by little and little to be so great that it is almost incredible Yet in the end there hapned such a Schisme among them that it was and still is diuided into many families as Cluniacenses Camalduenses Vallisumbrenses Montoliuetenses Grandimontenses Cistercienses Syluestrenses Coelestini and diuers others who are now adaies either vnited with other Orders or else quite extirpated and abolished All these seuerall Sects of Monks who apply their minds to nothing else but to sloth idlenesse gluttony idolatry whordome fornication and the like impietie vnlesse it be to inuent and bring in daily more new Sects of Monks and Friers are reported to haue proceeded from the first Family of Saint Benet Those that were first instituted by this Saint as they themselues confesse are those that now adaies weare a blacke loose Coat of stuffe reaching downe to their heeles with a Cowle or hood to couer their bald Pates which hangs downe to their shoulders and their Scapular shorter than any other of these Monks and vnder that Coat another white Habit as large as the former made of Stuffe or white Flannen They shaue the haires of their heads except one little round circle which they leaue round about their heads which they call Corona their Crowne forsooth because they would bee honoured as Kings and Princes By the rule that their Patron gaue them they are bound to abstaine perpetually from flesh vnlesse when they are sicke And therfore these immodest moderne Monks who doe eat Flesh daily except the time of Lent and other fish daies must of necessity be alwaies sicke vnlesse they will impudently confesse as indeed they cannot deny but that they obserue not the Lawes and Statutes of their Patron Saint Benet and therein haue infringed and falsified one of their vnlawfull Vowes Where you may obserue that this Monasticall Institution being but humane and not grounded or warranted by the Word of God did not continue long inuiolated the nature of men being inclined yea in the best things to wax daily rather worse than better And therefore the Benedictin Monks haue contaminated their former Piety and Deuotions with the Mammon of this world as Promotions Sloth Gluttony and all manner of Luxury which was the cause that this one Family was so rent and diuided into so many Sects and Schismes as daily experience teacheth vs. How religiously they haue liued heretofore and still liue those that are conuersant in their owne Histories and haue trauelled in forraigne Countries can best tell to their perpetuall shame although our new vpstart English Benedictin Monks would haue the world beleeue that their Order first planted the Christian Religion in this Land and that the Monks of their Order were euer godly and religious men and therefore not to be ranked with the Iesuites who are great Statesmen for they good Monks meddle not with matters of State or with Kings affaires but for all their counterfeit holinesse let me tell them in their eares that an English Benedictin of Swinsteed Abbey poisoned King Iohn for the which fact he was and still is highly honoured by all Papists in generall And one saith of him thus Iohannes Maior de gestis Scotorum lib. 4. c. 3. Cluniacenses Regem perimere meritorium ratus est he thought it a meritorious deed to kill the King The Monks that are called Cluniacenses being formerly of the Congregation of Benet were first instituted in Burgundie by one Otho an Abbot of that Congregation vnto whom William surnamed the Godly Duke of Aquitaine gaue a certaine Village called Mastick and other lands towards their maintenance which was about the yeare of our Lord DCCCCXVI Camalduenses Not long after the Camalduenses Monks started vp the Author of it was one Romoaldus who had beene formerly a Monk of Benets Order in a Cloister neare Rauenna in Italy from whence he made an escape to the Prouince of Hetruria which is now the Duke of Florence his Dominion where hauing obtained a coÌ„uenient place of one Modulus he built a Monastery on the top of the Appenine hills and there erected another new Family These Monks weare a white habite and professe to lead a very austere kinde of life but to say the truth all is but meere hypocrisie Vallis-vmbresenses In the other side of those former hilles at a place called Vallis-Vmbrosa in the yeare of our Lord 1060. one Iohn Gualbertus a Florentine instituted another new Family of Monks who did weare a purple habite Monteliuetenses The Monteliuetenses began to peepe out about the yeare 1047. at the same time when there were three seuerall Popes liuing who troubled all Christendome for the Papacie The Institutor of this Family of Monks was one Bernardus Ptolomeus they liued at the first at Sienna a Citie in Tuscan in Italy but afterwards hauing gathered their crummes together they built an Abbey on the top of an high hill not farre from thence they weare a white habite this Family was approued by Pope Gregory the twelfth Grandimontenses The Author or
by the Heretikes this holy Relique was miraculously preserued and conueighed to this Cloister at Louain where it hath beene euer since worshipped with no lesse adoration than the Sacrament of the Eucharist O admirable hoggish Relique a peece of Bacon worshipped for the Body of Christ Nay they haue not beene ashamed to print a little Treatise of the miracles it hath wrought From thence Frier Thomas brought this Gentleman to a Chamber in that Cloister where they did vse to entertaine strangers and puts a Fagot on the fire for it was in the winter time and then began to taste of the Tobacco but for feare that the other Friers should smell it his Fatherhood stood vpon a stoole in the Chimney to blow vp the smoke which came out of his Nosthrils like the smoke of a Brew-house Within a while the Gentleman departed and not long after Frier Thomas was found tardy taking of a Pipe of smoke and for feare of being put to some extraordinary penance his Fatherhood made such an eloquent Oration in commendation of this Indian herbe that he perswaded the Prior and the rest of the Friers to take a Pipe of Tobacco which they did and liked so well of it that they haue vsed it euer since and I make no question but Father Thomas will be had in a perpetuall memory in their Bookes for that his good instruction There is another famous English Father of this Order his name is Father Baldwin a man likewise guilty of no great learning This good Father was sometimes an Apprentise to a Goldsmith in London afterwards in the City of Antwerpe he became an Augustin Mendicant Frier I saw him there trauersing the street with another Frier but I did not speake with him for I was going in haste a Ship-boord towards Holland for it was the last day of the late Truce that was betweene the King of Spaine and the States of the Vnited Prouinces I was told that he is now in England and it may well be for I thinke the Friers of Antwerpe had rather haue his roome than his company At Grenoble a City in France there was a Frier of this Order who in his talke and gesture seemed to all men to be a very religious godly man But alas his fortune was bad for as he Sodomitically medled with one of his owne brethren a Frier of the selfe same Order he was taken doing the deed but this horrible fact being forgiuen him vpon his deniall he was at another time apprehended imprisoned and punished for being vnder a Rocke nigh the foresaid City of Gronoble too familiar with a queane Another Augustine Frier and a Confessor hauing heard the confession of a Flemming inioyned him in his penance to goe on Pilgrimage to the Idoll of Loretto to offer his gifts at her Altar and craue her intercession to her Son Christ Iesus and in the meane time this holy Father slept with his Wife and being taken naked in bed by the Officers of the City they let him goe to his Monastery without any further trouble or punishment because hee was a graue Father and an eloquent Preacher I haue read that a Frier of this Order was imprisoned in Rome in the yeere 1580. for the wilfull murdering of three seuerall persons at seuerall times and yet was neuer executed for he was a famous Preacher and a great Whoremonger These Augustine Friers haue a woodden Crucifix in their Monasterie neere Burgos in Spaine that yeelds them no lesse than six or seuen thousand Crownes yeerely This Crucifix as they themselues report was made by one of the Apostles and was afterwards found vpon the Seas neere the Coast of Spaine together with a Scrowle or Schedule written in good strong Parchment signifying the vertue and holinesse of this woodden Christ And from thence it was with great ioy and deuotion brought to this Cloister where it is set vp in a little Chappell and had in great honour See the iugling of these Friers and hath wrought as they say many strange Miracles and is much frequented by the Country people who offer very largely vnto it This Crucifix is as big as any reasonable man and most artificially carued and painted it hath a false Beard and a Periwig of a Chestnut colour haire and artificiall nailes set on both hands and feet They make the ignorant people beleeue that those artificiall haire and nailes of the Crucifix doe grow and that it doth sweat Water and Bloud euery Friday which drop downe into a great siluer Bason that is alwaies vnder the feet of the Crucifix Moreouer they set Wheat in their Garden which is a bigger graine than any other ordinary Wheat of this Wheat they report a wonderfull story For they say that when Adam was driuen out of Paradise he tooke a whole handfull of the Eares of the Wheat that did grow there and carried it away with him into the world and of this kinde of seed is there Wheat which they grind in a little Mill made for that purpose and of the Meale and the Water and Bloud that the holy Crucifix doth sweat they make little Cakes as big as a dry Fig which they sell for a quartillo a peece which is as much as three halfe pence in English money They haue the length of the Crucifix in blue silke Ribands with these words painted in siluer letters La Medida del Santo Crucifixo de Burgos that is to say The measure of the holy Crucifix of Burgos These Ribands they sell for twelue pence a peece for they say that they haue many vertues and are good for a hundred diseases and aboue all the rest they are a present remedy for the head-ach and for weomen that are in labour of child-birth Nay if all be true that these Friers report there is neuer a Quack-saluer in Christendome with all his Oile Salues and Waters that doth cure so many diseases as these Ribands doe And as for their little Cakes which they call Pañcillos they are precious things for all interiour Diseases and rare Antidots against all manner of poison and withall as long as any one doth carry one of them about his neck either in a clout or a siluer case the Deuill can haue no power ouer him The Chappell where this Crucifix is will scarce containe twenty persons and is made like a Chamber seeled ouer without any windowes at all and the Crucifix is made fast to a wall ouer the Altar hauing the head close to the feeling there hang three silke Curtaines before it of three seuerall colours viz. blue red and white They doe vse when they doe shew this woodden Christ great reuerence for they kneele all downe with great deuotion and silence and then one of the Friers very softly drawes the first Curtaine and afterwards saith a Pater and an Aue and in like manner the second but when he comes to the last and that El Santo Christo de Burgos The holy Christ of Burgos for so
like a madde man as sometimes their fashion is in their Sermons Pedro Pedro que aveys dexado vna barca podrida c. Peter Peter what hast thou forsaken to follow Christ an old rotten boat and a few torne nets But our Spanish Saint forsooke a kingdome Calla Pedro hold thy peace Peter and giue the vpper hand to our Saint a certaine English Gentleman standing by me told me in my care this Saint forsooke his Kingdome when he could not keepe it any longer Being in my lodging in the Citie of Valencia in Spaine vpon Shroue-sunday in the after-noone there came in two Dominican Friers and a man that carried a great paper-book and an inkhorne in his band The Friers demanded of the good-wife if shee would haue her name written in their booke The woman told them that her husband had beene taken twice prisoner by the Moores and that she had spent almost all that she had to pay his ransomes and therefore desired them to excuse her for that time whereupon the Friers departed away in a great rage I maruelling to see them depart so discontented asked her the reason she told me that these Friers had in their Cloister a viall full of the milke of the blessed Virgin and that the most part of all the women of that Citie and Countrey neare adioyning did vse to write their names in their booke and in the Lent-time to come to them for a little of the milke And why said I would you not let them write your name in their booke she answered me because shee was not able to giue them money for said she the poorest woman doth giue them two crownes and yet they haue not aboue a little thimble-full of milke Then I began to question with her and demanded of her how long had these Friers this milke and how much might it be in quantitie that could serue so many women what was it good for and withall I told her that I did much wonder that it consumed not and how they could get enough to serue so many persons for the Citie is very great and in my conscience sixteene of the best kine in Cheshire cannot giue at one milking so much milke as would suffice to giue euery woman in that Citie and the Countrey thereunto adioyning a thimble-full of milke Then she began to tell me how that these Friers had a little viall full of the milke of the blessed Virgin for many yeares ago and in the time of Lent they vsed to powre one drop of it into a great quantitie of white goats-milke the which it sanctified being stirred together and yet the milke in the viall doth not waste or diminish The Poet perhaps meant this milke when he said Ouo prognatus eodem Mille licet sumant deperit inde nihil Though thousands take and none say nay Yet nothing wastes or weares away This milke say they is good for a thousand diseases and for young children when they are new borne before such time that they did sucke of their mothers brest Moreouer whosoeuer tooke of this milke must spend the same within the space of one whole yeare next after the receiuing of it from the Friers vpon paine of excommunication And that it was worth vnto the Friers of that Cloister one yeare with another aboue foure or fiue thousand crownes And is not this I pray you fine cheating and cousening And yet in Spaine and Italy it is death to speake against their impostures and iugling trickes and are not these simple ignorant people in a miserable and lamentable bondage and slauery that liue in those Countries I dare say that there are more than fortie Cloisters of Monks Friers and Nuns that pretend to haue of the milke of the most blessed Virgin Mary which they keepe as a holy relique and shew it in a viall to be adored and worshipped of such ignorant fooles as will bring a good offertorie with them but I neuer heard of any that made sale of it in this fashion but those Friers of Valencia I wonder how they came by this Milke or the like Reliques of our Sauiour his Mother and the Apostles which they and other Friers and Nuns pretend to haue for there was neither Monk Frier or Nun in the world for many hundred yeeres after the time of our Sauiour his blessed Mother and the Apostles I know what they will say Forsooth the holy Angels of God did bring it them as they did transport the house of the blessed Virgin out of Palestina into Dalmatia and thence to Loretto in Italy Oh horrible lies doe not these impudent and brazen fac't liers deserue the Whetstone of all other men And yet it is heresie to contradict them A learned Doctor saith Consuetudo peccandi tollit sensum peccati the custome of sinning takes away the sense or feeling of sinne In like manner all Monks Friers Iesuites popish Priests and Nunnes yea the Pope and all his Cardinals and Prelates because it is their common trade to cogge cheat and lie make no scruple of it because I say it is their profession and the profession of their grand Master the Deuill Nay I imagine that some of them do thinke they speake truth when they lie according to the old Prouerbe Vsus promptus facit Practise makes a man expert What an infinite number of Mony doth that Idoll which they call La Virgien Santissima de Atocha by Madrid in Spaine bring yeerely to these Dominican Friers in whose Church it is to be seene I meane the goodly Image of the blessed Virgin Mary I make no question but some of our curious English Gentlemen that did attend his Maiesty in his voiage into Spaine haue seene this rich Lady let them then report how many great siluer Lamps hanged vp with siluer Chaines some worth one hundred pound some more some lesse with Oile of Oliues still burning in them what store of siluer yea golden Chalices siluer Patents Candlesticks Basens Ewers and other Church-furniture of gold siluer veluets silkes and sattens great Torches made of pure Bee wax some of them of one hundred pound weight What siluer Ships siluer Armour Eyes Hands Armes Thighs Legs Feet and whole bodies are there to be seene I omit to speake of woodden Crutches that lame Beggers offer and leaue there to honour this goodly woodden Lady and all to cheat fooles of their mony Haue they not in euery great city or towne of the old and the new Castile yea and Toledo men of purpose that go vp down the streets all day long with a box in their hands fast lock't with the picture vpon it of this holy Image of our Atocha Lady and a little hole in the lid of it for men to put in their deuotion crying like so many Costermongers or Oister-women in London Para Alumbrar la Virgien Santissima de Atocha por amor de Dios as if they would say Good people bestow your charity to buy Oile and Wax to burne
blowes with his Musket rest and would haue broken her bones if another whore of his acquaintance had not come in hearing the old woman cry who pacified him and lay with Señor Laurencio for so was his name that night O the Religion and conscience of these Catholike Spaniards that tyrannize farre worse than the Turke wheresoeuer they get the vpper hand But now to returne againe to the Iesuites who are the only commanders of this City whose words are Lawes yea Oracles among the Spaniards They preach and catechise young children twise or thrise a weeke yea the Souldiers doe take protestants children by force and bring them to the Iesuites to be instructed in popery Alas if I should tell you all the wrongs and misdemeanours that the Iesuites haue committed in this City and elsewhere this Pamphlet would grow to be a great volume The next Summer after the death of the Emperour Matthias the Iesuites of Liege kept a great solemne funerall for him which was as neere as I can remember in this manner First a noble mans sonne that was one of their Schollers being very richly attired riding vpon a great horse with an imperiall Crown on his head hauing a Canopy carried ouer him borne by six men attended on with a great traine representing the person of the King of Spaine another in the same manner representing the King of France others the King of Bohemia that is now Emperour and all other Catholike Princes Euery one of them hauing a guard of Souldiers both horse and foot all being the Iesuites Schollers They were all drawne out in their diuisions Souldier-like hauing their Captaines and other Officers who were Iesuites to lead them on in a great market place which is by Saint Pauls Church from whence the counterfeit hearse was brought forth carried and accompanied with many Mourners with that state and Ceremonies as great Princes are wont to be brought to their last home After that followed these Kings and Princes seuerally accompanied with their traine and guard hauing their banners carried before each of them placed by Heralds Then came the Breaden god their Sacrament carried by a Iesuit vnder a Canopie borne by foure schollers in white Surplices singing after that followed the Image of the blessed Virgin Mary very curiously wrought wherein wanted neitheir cost nor art carried vpon mens shoulders accompanied with many Iesuites and singing men and last of all came Wickliffe Iohn Hus Ierome of Pragus Martin Luther Caluin Beza M. Bucer P. Martyr Oecolampadius Zuinglius Bullinger Melancton Fox and Master Perkins all bound with iron chaines and led and guarded with a squadron of Deuils who made the Monks Friers and other Clergy men to skip for ioy to see those men that had writ en against them to be led captiue by Lucifer and his Angels The Hearse being thus attended by so many Kings and Princes the Sacrament the blessed Virgin and the blacke guard marcht forward to the Iesuites College where they all entered and fell to their prayers here might you haue seene Hus Luther Beza Perkins and the rest yea the Deuils with their Beads in their hands say Paters and Aues for the Emperours soule Truly I maruelled much to see the Iesuites permit those whom they call and condemne for Heretikes to enter into their Church and to accompany the blessed Sacrament and the blessed Virgins Image yea in my opinion they abus'd those Catholike Kings and Princes who were then and there represented to intrude those men into their company whom they neuer affected or loued and that which is worse to place Deuils to bring vp the reare of their armie All these Souldiers were the Iesuites Schollers and taught and instructed in military Discipline by the Iesuites themselues who are euery where martiall men and giuen tam Martiquà m Mercurio for in euery Army Leaguer Garrison or Nauie that any Catholike King or Prince hath there the Iesuites will be as busie as an Atturney in Westminster Hall in the middest of a tearme Hij Palladi oratores noui Philosophi in Castris non in Claustris versantur They had rather to be stirring abroad and follow the Campe than bee confined within the circuit of a Cloister And therein they doe imitate their Father Ignatius of infamous memory for he was a Souldier and so are they yea in euery one of their Colleges they haue Armour and munition to furnish many thousand Souldiers and besides there is not any one of them but knowes how to vse his Armes as if he had beene a Souldier all the daies of his life To conclude this funerall or Obsequies did cost the Parents and friends of these young Iesuiticall Kings and Princes by report aboue two thousand pounds sterling What shall I say The Iesuites haue beene the vtter ruine and ouerthrow of Don Sebastian the last King of Portugall and Algarbes for through their policie and wicked counsell he lost his Crownes and Kingdomes and in the end his life They haue beene the chiefest cause of all the ciuill Warres Massacres and troubles in France since the death of Henry the third of France to this present time These seditious infernall Locusts haue beene the only occasion of those bloudy warres betweene the King of Poland and the great Duke of Moscouia or Russia and againe betweene Poland and Swethland Haue not the Iesuites beene the cause of the losse of Voltalin the vpper and lower Palatinate And haue they not beene the cause of all these Wars Bloudshed Commotions Dearth Famine Persecutions Rapine Miseries Calamities and Destructions that haue hapned in Italy France Germany Bohemia Netherlands the seuenteene Prouinces and other neighbouring Countries Cities Townes and Common wealths these forty or fifty yeeres and vpwards I omit to speake of their seuerall trecherous designes against Queene Elizabeth of famous memory or of the Gunpowder treason or how that they haue beene these twenty yeeres banished out of all the territories of the Signory of Venice for their impostures and lewd practises and for being common disturbers of the peace and tranquillity of the common wealth Neither how they haue incroached vpon the priuileges and liberties of most of the famous Schooles and Vniuersities of Italy Spaine Portugall France Netherland Germany Poland and other Catholike Countries But I will speake a word or two more of their Colleges Churches Schooles and manner or method of teaching and so conclude First of all I would haue you to vnderstand that they receiue none into their Society but such as are either descended of great parentage and good friends whose greatnesse may countenance their designes and procure others to bee beneficiall vnto them or such as are wealthy to inrich their Colleges or learned and witty Schollers who by their workes writings are like to aduance the credit and reputation of their society or some Trades-men to be their Lay-brethren and Officers of their Colleges or else some cunning fly knaue or crafty companion to bee their Porter vpon whose
dealing liberally with them as being for euer to be remembred in their Masses as one of their Benefactors The Mendicant Friers especially the Franciscans and they haue beene in Law together in Spaine for many yeeres about this visitation of the sicke men in articulo mortis The Iesuites said that it appertained vnto them because their profession is actiue and to be alwaies stirring among the flocke and to doe good to the world abroad whereas that of the Franciscans and the other begging Friers was contemplatiue and so by consequence most decent that they should containe themselues within their Cloisters The Friers on the other side replied that their profession was Meeknesse Innocency Pouerty and to doe good vnto all men As for the Iesuites that they are proud ambitious aspiring entermedlers in matters of state men of great riches and couetous of more and therefore by no meanes to be admitted to such as lie at the point of death The matter hath beene much argued of and greatly debated in Spaine and Rome And all the other Orders of Monks and Friers were and still are vehemently against them and they haue beene openly inueighed against in the publike Schooles of most of the Vniuersities of Italy Spaine France Netherland and Germany yet notwithstanding they are so strongly backt by the King of Spaine whose turne they serue againe in other matters that howsoeuer the cry goe against them they preuaile and hold their owne still Moreouer they haue so cunningly wrought that wheresoeuer they are they onely are the generall hearers of all Confessions diuing thereby into the secrets and drifts of all men acquainting themselues as I said before with their humours and imperfections and making as time and occasion serues their owne vse and benefit And yet if some poore person come vnto them to confesse they will seldome or neuer heare his confession and if they doe they will hardly absolue him of his sinnes As for examples sake a certaine Gentle in Madrid in Spaine to try whether the Iesuites would confesse poore folkes sent his man vpon a time to their College in the night time to intreat them they would send one of their Fathers to confesse a poore man that lay a dying in the street albeit there was no such matter but the Porter told him that all the good Fathers were gone to take their rest and could not come by and by he sent another man to intreat them to come to receiue the confession of a great rich Cauallero whom they knew to haue laine sick for a long time whereupon two of them came forth presently but when they were a little from home his men by his appointment beat the two Iesuites soundly and tooke away their clokes from them But by the way seeing it comes so well to our purpose I wil tell you a pretty story that hapned heretofore in the Low Countries A Merchant whose name was Hamyel being sicke at Antwerpe of a consumption the Iesuits knowing him to be a man of great possessions and without children presently repaired vnto him vnder colour of spirituall consolation laying before him the vanity of this life and the glory of the world to come with sundry other perswasions as of all men liuing they haue their tongues most at will and commending vnto him their Order as of all other the most meritorious perfect and acceptable to God and to which their holy Father the Pope and his Predecessors haue granted more Indulgences than to any other order of Religion whatsoeuer In so much that they brought the poore man being of himselfe simple into their Society thinking there was no other way to be saued so as before hand he infeoffed their College with his land which was two hundred pounds a yeere giuing them much goods and rich moueables and when he had so done died within three moneths after the same His next heires by counsell of their friends put the Iesuites in suit against which though they opposed themselues with all vehemency yet to their great shame and reprehension sentence was giuen against them by the Royall Councell of Mechlin which Court hath authority to determine definitely both in ciuill and criminall causes without appeale Notwithstanding they would not so giue ouer but by the meanes aid and support of one Pamele a President chiefe Fauourite of theirs they appealed from thence to the Councell of Estate at Bruxels getting the cause after sentence giuen to be remoued a thing there vnusuall and scarcely euer heard of before where the processe was hanging for a long time yet afterwards the Iesuites to their great shame were constrained to compound with their aduersaries Another time a rich and wealthy Merchant of the same City whose name was Iohn Baptista Spinola a man then knowne in most Merchant Townes in Christendom but one in that point whose deuotion and scrupulosity ouerwent his wisdome comming to them to confession telling them of some vniust gaine with which he felt his conscience touched they presently with sundry terrifying speeches told him that he was in the state of damnation out of which he could not be deliuered vntill such time that hee had made restitution as well of that confessed as of all other money and goods that he had by vsury vnlawfully gotten laying before him Quod non dimittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum with sundry other such sentences whereof they haue good store In fine they put the man into such feare of conscience that he yeelded to make restitution if so the same might bee done without his vndoing discredit or shame Whereupon to comfort him againe but indeed fearing lest if they dealt too rigorously and roughly with him they should get nothing they told him that if in stead of all such interests and vsuries with which he found his conscience burdened hee onely would bee content to deliuer vnto them some such summe of money as without his vndoing he thought hee might conueniently spare they would take it vpon their soules to see the summe imployed vpon good vertuous and charitable vses to the greater merit and benefit of his soule and as a thing more acceptable vnto God and lesse scandalous to the world than if hee should make restitution to whom it appertained and had beene by his vsury interessed Whereupon the Merchant being well satisfied in conscience gaue them the money and they him their absolution The Capuchins afterwards made great suit vnto this Merchant to become a religious man of their Order and to make a distribution of his goods among them hee made great shew to be very willing for a while but in the and he deceiued them and falling to his old bias did not sticke to tell vnto some of his priuate friends this former tale and by that meanes the Iesuits iugling came to light They haue perswaded the last Duke of Bauaria this Dukes Father to become one of their Society and to make them a College of his owne Palace at Monachum
men of the Towne where they built the goodliest houses in all the Citie because forsooth they would be neare these holy Fathers to haue their spirituall comfort and consolation in time of need The Iesuits being thus seated and setled like Princes the first thing was that they did to requite the Citizens great loue and extraordinary charges They procured vnto themselues from the King of Spaine the Archduke the Archduchesse Letters Patents that they should haue for euery barrell of beere that is drawn within that Town two shillings nine pence farthing which is for euery quart pot two Liards or halfe a Stiuer which is about an halfe-peny halfe farthing English and doth amount to a great summe of mony yearly considering the greatnesse of the Towne and the multitude of the people that are the Inhabitants thereof Albeit the Assise which they were constrained to pay before that time for their beere was as much in equall portion to the King and the Archduke as they did pay to the Brewer from which the poore begger was not free but if he did drinke he paid so much vnto the King as he did to the Victualer And yet these vnconscionable and couetous Iesuites did for their benefit and better maintenance procure this other imposition to be laid vpon the Inhabitants notwithstanding the former extraordinary loue and kindnesse which they receiued from them Both which assise of the beere the poore inhabitants haue beene constrained to pay euer since as well to the King as to the Iesuites by means whereof and other their politike cheating and cosenage they are become not only exceeding rich but also odious to all the Townes and Countrey there adioyning And besides whereas the inhabitants of this Towne had been for many hundred yeares free and exempt from all forfeiture or confiscation of their lands and goods to the King if any of them had committed any felony murder treason or the like their bodies being only liable to the Law and not their lands or goods Now these Iesuites perceiuing that the State-house the Towne Charter and all the ancient Records of the Towne had beene some certaine yeares before burnt by occasion of fire procured vnder-hand a Patent to be granted to their College of all forfeitures and confiscations whatsoeuer that should happen to fall due to the King within that Towne and the liberties thereof and hauing so done they began to seize vpon the land and goods of all such as were conuicted for any of these or the like crimes or offences The Magistrates of the Towne and all the rest of the inhabitants with one consent did oppose the Iesuites as intruders vsurpers and common perturbers of their Priuileges and Liberties whereupon the Iesuites commenced their sute against the Magistrates and all the inhabitants of the Towne in the higher Courts wherein the Iesuites would haue surely preuailed if that a certaine Religious man as I thinke a Canon Regular of the Order of S. Augustine that liued in an Abbey about six miles from the Towne and yet in the territories of the same had not found out in the Library there an old booke of Histories or Antiquities in Manuscript written many hundred yeares since wherein was contained among other things a Copie of the Charter of this Towne of Lysle which being shewed vnto the Councell of State the Iesuits with much shame disgrace had a definitiue sentence giuen against them neuer afterwards to intermedle with the Priuileges and Statutes of the Towne and to pay cost and charges besides Oh the honestie of these holy men of the society of Iesus Iohn Chastell was taught and perswaded by the Iesuites to murder Henry the fourth of France and yet some Papists would deny it if they could because they are loth to make the Iesuites odious and yet others did helpe to erect a pillar of stone neare to the Kings Palace in Paris whereby so much was signified But the Iesuits when they were recalled againe into France from their banishment got leaue of the King vpon the Queenes request to deface it some few yeares before the King was murdered by Rauillacke In the yeare 1607. The Iesuites procured the Emperour Rodulphus to prescribe that ancient Imperiall City Donawert in high Germany and to giue it in prey vnto the Duke of Bauaria who came priuately with foure or fiue thousand men and tooke it and ransacked it and afterwards put a strong garrison therein altering their Lawes and Customes and debarring them of all their former Priuileges whatsoeuer in so much that the chiefest men in the Citie were constrained to abandon both house and home and to seeke after another place to inhabite I came thorow this Citie within three moneths after that the Duke of Bauaria had taken it and it grieued my heart to see into what miserable bondage the poore Citizens were brought and all through the deuillish practise of these irreligious Machiauills who then did tyrannize ouer them like so many Turks or Infidels for they managed the whole affaires of the Citie the Gouernour which the Duke had placed there ouer the souldiers stood but for a cipher for he durst doe nothing without the consent of the Iesuits The Magistrates were all put out of their charge offices other base poore mechanicall fellowes appointed in their places farre vnworthy the high dignitie of Consuls or Burghemasters in such an ancient free and noble City as that is The souldiers were billeted in all the Protestants houses and not in any Papists house where they dominierd like so many deuills making hauock of all that they could come by and yet the Protestants were constrained to pay them their wages besides What shall I say The Iesuites in effect did command and controll the whole Citie as they pleased They banished their Ministers and compelled the inhabitants either to goe to heare Masse contrary to their consciences or else forsake the Citie and liue in exile And yet this is nothing in comparison to that the Protestants of Aquisgranum haue endured and yet doe suffer The Emperour Charles surnamed the Great hunting vpon a time in the Forest of Arden found out certaine Bathes or hot waters in which place he built a very faire Citie and called it Aquisgranum and gaue it many priuileges and great freedome among other things he ordained that all other Emperours his Successours should be crowned there and that the Imperiall Diadem which is now kept at Franckfurt vpon Main should be kept in this Citie Here likewise hee built among other Churches a very faire Collegiat Church endowing it with great reuenues within a Chappell of this Church the craftie Clergie men obseruing the ignorance of the people in those daies set vp an Image of the blessed Virgin Mary which they affirmed to worke great miracles by meanes whereof and of the hot Bathes this Citie came to be very famous and haunted by many people for many that were visited with sicknesse and diseases came from farre
euery man to his owne Classe and there stay till the bell rings againe and then againe at the first toll they and the Schollers come out for they must not breake the Orders and Rules of the Schoole In the morning after they haue been at Schoole an houre and a halfe or thereabout the same bell rings and then they goe to Church to heare Masse which endures halfe an houre and then they returne to their Classes againe But in some Countries when the daies are long after Masse they goe home to breake-fast and within halfe an houre after they come to schoole againe Euery day or euery other day they haue disputations in the three lowermost Classes where the boies doe challenge and prouoke one another in the declining of Nounes Pronounes Verbs or Participles or in coniugating of Verbs either in Latine or Greeke And this they doe for to get one anothers place which breeds such emulations among them that it makes them of their owne accord study both night and day some to maintaine their places seats and dignities and others of meere schoole ambition to aspire and ascend higher But none must as I haue heard challenge or prouoke the Emperour or the Senators but those that are next in dignity vnto them so that those of the Plebeyans cannot ascend to the Senate or any other place or dignity but by degree When two of them haue done disputing the Master giues his iudgement and then other boies start vp and craue leaue of the Master to challenge their aduersary to the combat who permits those two whom he pleaseth to enter into the List and thereupon these two companions stand vp and crosse themselues first before they beginne to oppose one another The Iesuits haue another pretty tricke how to make their Schollers study and bring in profit for themselues that is They will sometimes giue vnto their Schollers both a priuate or a publike Premium a reward which doth not onely animate and incourage the boies to study but also oblige and enduce their parents to recompence the Schoole-master But vnto great men or rich mens sonnes they doe vse to giue the best Premia or rewards because they doe expect in counter-exchange a great recompence to the poorer sort they giue little Pictures of Saint Ignatius their Patron of the blessed Virgin Mary or of some Saint that they most affect But on the richer sort they bestow Beads and Bookes or some costlier Pictures Euery Saturday in the afternoone all the Schollers of their seuerall Classes doe meet together in a great spacious roome to be catechized by one of the Iesuites who is appointed to expound Canisius Catechisme and to strike or infuse into their tender capacitie such damnable points of doctrine as they please as that it is a meritorious deed to murder Kings and Princes being excommunicated by the Pope To equiuocate cog lye cheat and that a Roman Catholike is not bound or tied to keepe faith with Heretikes meaning Protestants And a thousand more of their Iesuiticall positions which I for breuitie sake doe forbeare to treat of Into this catechizing Schoole none are permitted to enter but onely their owne Schollers for it seemes they are ashamed to let men of vnderstanding know what good instructions they giue vnto their Pupils But howsoeuer those points of doctrine they strike into their capacity in their tender age the same very seldome weareth away but rather increaseth with their yeeres as daily experience teacheth vs. I would to God that the Church of England which professeth the true Orthodoxall Religion would be as carefull to haue her children instructed in their nonage in the truth of the Gospell of our Sauiour Christ Iesus which leadeth them to saluation as that false Mountebanke Synagogue of Rome the Chaire of Antichrist and the sonne of perdition doth to hurle them headlong to hell and damnation And therefore I would wish all religious and painfull Schoole-masters to take a course that those Infants which are committed to their tutelage bee before all things well instructed and taught the Christian Doctrine and the Principles or grounds of the true Religion Moreouer the Iesuites Schollers must not reueale vnto any man those points of Doctrine that are taught them in their catechizing Schooles for if they doe they must confesse it to their ghostly Father who is a Iesuite and most commonly the Prefect of the Schooles when he comes to be shrift which is once euery moneth and then he is sure to haue some extraordinary penance inflicted vpon him and euer after to be branded and noted for a Tell-tale out of the Schooles But such as will swallow downe this golden poisoned bait and proue a good Proficient oh he is a good boy and shall not want his Premium for indeed this day is the ordinary time that they bestow their best Premia or Rewards vpon their Schollers Oh the subtilties and trumperies of these Loyolists to seduce these simple youths to their diabolicall and Antichristian doctrine And whereas they take vpon them to instruct and teach children freely and without any reward I dare boldly speake it they get six times more than if they would keepe a mercenary Schoole for it is but a poore Schoole that brings them not in yeerely aboue fiue or six hundred pound sterling But their Schooles in great Cities and Vniuersities are worth a great deale more for it is an ordinary thing to see seuen or eight hundred Schollers in their fiue inferiour Classes and therefore in those Colleges where they teach all the Arts and where there are twelue Classes and euery Classe a Master there are not most commonly lesse than a thousand or fifteene hundred Schollers who are still soliciting their parents and friends to be bountifull to their Masters the Iesuites and they themselues when they come to inherit their Lands Patrimony or Portions will likely be beneficiall to them and still fauour and protect their society and faction to the vttermost of their power Yea the poorest of them all that are not able to bestow any gratuity vpon them when they are young and their Schollers when they are come to age and preferment will not be vngratefull to them of whom they had their learning and education And againe the Iesuites doe speake to their Schollers whose Parents are rich if they dwell in the same Towne or City to perswade them to frequent their Churches to heare Masses and to come to them to Confession and withall to be of their sodality to the end they might the better diue into their secrets and participate of their wealth which is the maine matter they aime at And whereas all other Monks and Nuns make three Vowes that is to say Chastity Pouerty and Obedience the Iesuites to the end to giue a push beyond all other religious Orders adde one more which is that they shall at all times be ready to runne and trudge from one Country to another like poore Rogues to what part soeuer
Sepulchritae seu fratres Dominici Sepulchri 19 Fratres Vallischolariorum whereof some are as yet extant and some Orders quite dissolued and abolished 20 Victoriani 21 Gilbertini 22 Eremitae S. Pauli quos alij Augustinensibus annumerant 23 Fratres de Poenitentia 24 Coronati 25 Hospitalarij 26 Milites diut Iacobi de Spata And many more who doe differ both in Habit and Exercises as also in Rules and Precepts of life as Alfonsus Aluaris de Gueuarra one of their Writers witnesseth Of the Monks called Praemonstratenses THese Monks descended downe from Heauen as they themselues brag in the Bishoprick of Laudan at a place which they call Praemonstratum The Author of this Order was one Northbertus a Priest borne in Lorrain who patched vp an Order or Rule for his new begotten Monks out of Saint Augustines Rule which was afterwards approued and confirmed by Pope Calistus the second Bruschius Polydor. They weare a long white cloth Coat open before and a linnen Surplice ouer and ouer that a long white cloth Cloke a corner Cap or a Hat when they goe abroad of the same colour and vnderneath all Doublets Breeches linnen Shirts Shooes and white Stockins These Monks haue lands and reuenues to maintaine themselues and are rich wheresoeuer they liue This Sect began about the yeere 1170. and had Abbies likewise in England but at this instant I am perswaded there is not one English man of that Sect. Of the Cruciferi or Crucigeri or the Cruched Friers THis Order of Friers is more ancient than all the former Orders if ye will beleeue them For they say that Clitus Saint Peters Disciple and the third Bishop of Rome after him was warned by an Angell to build for them a house to entertaine all those that fled thither for the Christian Religion sake which he with all speed performed so that in a short time many godly men repaired thither and were entertained who for many yeeres afterwards bare a Crosse in their hands in memoriall of the death and passion of our Sauiour A thing vnlike to be true that Clytus should bee warned by an Angell to build a house for a company of lazie Friers to entertaine all those that fled to Rome for the Christian Religion sake whereas the very name of Monks or Friers was not then or many hundred yeeres after either knowne or heard of in the Church of God And withall the persecution was then so great in Rome that the Saints themselues were constrained to forsake the City and therefore it is not credible that other Christians should repaire thither for reliefe and succour in their distresse and persecution There are others of opinion that one Cyriacus Patriarch of Ierusalem and he whom they report to haue shewed S. Helen Constantine the Great 's Mother where the Crosse was whereon our blessed Sauiour was crucified was the first that instituted this order in memoriall of the inuention of the Crosse and that hee gaue order that these Monks should euer afterwards carry a Crosse in their hands And that this Cyriacus was afterwards martyred by Iulian the Apostata and therefore their Order became almost extinguished But Pope Innocentius the third about the yeere 1215. did reuiue it againe and euer since it hath flourished And Pope Pius the second commanded them to weare a skie colour Habit. But now this Order of Friers weare a Crosse of red cloth or Scarlet fixed to their Habit on their brest and weare blacke Matth. Westmonast Balaeus These Friers doe likewise liue by their Lands and Reuenues They had a Monastery heretofore at Tower-hill where you may see the ruines of it and that place is called by their names to this day Their first comming into England was in the yeere 1244. and their first Cloister was at Colchester Of the Trinitarian Friers Sabellicus Enne 9. l. 4. Polydor. l. 7. c. 4. IN the time of the same Pope Innocentius the third the Friers who are called Trinitarians began to shew themselues to the world One Iohannes Matta and one Felix Anchorita who liued a solitary life in France were warned in their sleepe as they report to repaire to Rome to the Pope to seeke for a place of him to build them a Cloister Is not this fine Iugling And this good Pope forsooth in the meane time was warned in a vision to entertaine them which he did and ordained that they should weare a white Habit with a red and a skie colour Crosse wrought on their brests in the same Their charge was to goe and gather Money to redeeme Christians that were Captiues vnder the tyranny of the Turks and Infidels and therefore they were called Monachi de redemptione captiuorum that is Monks of the redemption of Captiues But these good men so good forsooth were they they aimed at another kinde of redemption for they haue and still doe purchase Lands with the Money that they haue gathered and as for the poore Christian Captiues if they doe suffer for Christs sake they shall haue reward but let them expect no redemption from them These holy Friers scorne to haue any Saint for their Patron for they say that the blessed Trinity gaue them their Rule and Order as is to bee seene by these Verses which they write or paint in great capitall Letters in all their Couents Hic est ordo ordinatus Non à Sanctis fabricatus Sed à solo summo Deo That is Our Order was instituted By th' Eternall Lord of Host And not by Saints or mortall men As other Friers boast The first comming of these Friers into England was in the yeere of our Lord 1357. Of the Friers of the Order of our blessed Lady which they call in Spaine Los frayles de nuestra Señora de Merced ABout the yeere 1285. Martin the fourth being Pope one Philippus Tuscius a Florentine borne and a Professor of Physicke did erect this Order of Friers Pope Benedict the eleuenth and many other Popes after him did approue it and gaue them many Pardons Indulgences and Priuileges They haue many Couents in Italy and Spaine and are very rich but in France or any other Countries I thinke they haue few or none at all They weare a white Habit and are maruellously well deuoted to the blessed Virgin and haue many reuelations from her as they themselues report but all is but meere hypocrisie Sabellious saith That this Order increased so fast that within some few yeeres after their first institution they had in Italy 48. Cloisters wherein were more than 1500. Monks and Nuns Of the Order of Saint Briget SAint Briget a noble Princesse of Swethland being a widow did institute an Order of Friers and Nuns and comming her selfe to Rome obtained of Pope Vrban the fifth a confirmation of the same Order or institution that is that both Sex should liue together in one Cloister hauing a wall betweene them and that the Nuns should lie in the vppermost chambers and the Friers
grieuous plague at London and ouer all England that the like was neuer knowne before But now to the matter It is most certaine that these Canon Regulars and the Mendicant Augustine Friers were both of some other mens institution For many men in those daies vnder a counterfeit shew of piety did a long time after the daies of S. Augustine liue for some certaine time in wildernesses and solitary places and in the end gathered themselues together into one Family vnder the name of this holy man and called themselues Augustiniani Eremitani because they professed forsooth to imitate him in their Discipline and rule of life though indeed they were and still are meere Hypocrites and quite contrary to S. Augustine in sanctity of life learning and Religion And by this meanes these shauelings became to be the first Order of the rout of Begging Friers whereof they are not a little proud But truly I see no reason why these men should liue thus by the sweat of other mens browes for it is well knowne that S. Augustine whom they brag though vntruly to be their Patron and first Institutor did not liue idly by begging as they doe but was a very painfull man and a great Doctor or Teacher in Gods Church as his Workes doe testifie And withall it is most apparant that our Sauiour Iesus Christ did neuer beg neither did his Apostles or Disciples liue lazily and idly by othermens labours as Saint Paul testifieth of himselfe saying 1 Cor. 4.12 Et laboranimus operantes proprijs manibus We laboured working with our owne hands And S. Chrysostome saith that the Monks of Aegypt got their liuing with their owne hands as the Greeke Monks doe for the most part at this instant yea S. Francis whose Family or to say more plainly whose Sects are spread ouer the face of the earth would haue his Friers get their liuing by their handie worke as appeares by his last Will and Testament But alas now adayes it is no lesse than blasphemie to say that Monks and Friers must worke nay they hold them no better than Heretickes that would haue such holy men to follow the institution of the Apostle that is 2 Thess 3.10 That hee that would not worke should not eat These Mendicant Augustine Friers doe weare a long white coat of cloth downe to their heeles all loose with a cowle or hood of the same when they are in their Cloisters but when they goe abroad they weare another blacke coat ouer the other with another cowle both their coats are then bound close to their bodies with a broad leather girdle or belt which girdle is a very holy thing if you will beleeue them for they call it S. Augustines girdle and many lay people do weare it for pure deuotion sake because forsooth it hath some singular great vertue I haue seene many great Princes weare it namely Q. Margaret of France and others whom for breuitie sake I forbeare to name This leather Belt is giuen to none but vnto those that are their speciall good Benefactors and such as pay dearely for it which brings them in no small benefit Neuerthelesse these holy Fathers haue beene a long time not so well thought of because Doctor Martin Luther who was sometimes a Frier of this Order did reuolt from the Sea of Rome but yet of late they begin to flourish againe and are exceeding rich especially in Italy and Spaine The Augustine Friers in London which was built for them by Humfrey Bohum Earle of Hereford and Essex and many other Cloisters in England did heretofore belong to this Order of Friers and therefore some Englishmen of late tooke this holy habite whereof Father Thomas Witherhead alias Tomson alias Tom Poet alias Tom Tobacco a great Father and yet but a Homunculus a man a little bigger than a Dwarfe was the first A man of an extraordinary great knowledge in choosing of good Tobacco and no meane Actor as the Children of the Reuells could once tell and withall a peece of an English Poet for Latine he had neuer any This good father receiued this habite of the Prior of the Augustin Friers at Louain in Brabant and afterwards was made Priest and then sent into England to conuert as I thinke Ballad-makers Players Tobacconists and Tinckers His fatherhood being at Louain in his Nouiciatship or in the yeare of his Approbation wrote a letter secretly vnto a speciall friend of his that then liued at Bruxells requesting him of all Loue to send him an ounce or two of Tobacco and a few pipes The Gentleman willing to pleasure him tooke his iourney from Bruxells to Louain which was about twelue English miles and brought the Tobacco and pipes with him and vpon his arriuall to Louain repaired to the Augustine Friers Cloister to speake with Frier Thomas but alas it would not be granted because that he was a Nouice and for feare that the partie being an English-man was not a Catholike yet in the end Frier Thomas perceiuing that it was his friend commended him so highly to the Prior and the Master of the Nouices for a good Catholike Gentleman and with much adoe obtained leaue to speake with him The Gentleman being permitted to come into the Cloister saluted the Prior and the rest of the Friers with such complements that the Prior gaue Frier Thomas leaue not only to conuerse with him priuately but also to shew him the Cloister Garden the Church and the Reliques The Gentleman giuing the Prior many thanks walked together with Frier Thomas into the Church where Frier Thomas and another Frier that was the Sacristan or he that had the charge of the holy things shewed him among many other Reliques one that was the holiest of all which was a little bit of rotten flesh as big as a shilling inclosed in a siluer box couered ouer with a cristall-glasse which holy Relique as they said had wrought many miracles and had beene for many yeares in great honour in that Citie The Gentleman being very desirous to know the whole history of this holy morsell for his better edification requested them to certifie him of the truth The Dutch Frier told him that there was heretofore a young man dwelling in Midleburgh in Zealand who hauing bin at Cōfession on Easter-day in the morning with an Augustine Frier went home and did eat one morsell of Bacon and drunke too much and afterwards came to the Church to receiue the blessed Sacrament which was no sooner put into his mouth but the fellow did vomit it vp againe transubstantiated into flesh which the holy Frier perceiuing demanded of him what hee had done who confessed his great offence in drinking and eating before the receiuing of the Sacrament and asked God and our Lady forgiuenesse and afterwards became a Frier of that Order This Sacrament which was so miraculously transubstantiated into the visible body of Christ was put into the Reliquary And afterwards when these religious Friers were thence expulsed
a Saint by Pope Gregory the ninth and his worship was the first inuentor or founder of the Inquisition and the Friers of his Order are as yet the Inquisiters in all Italy Saint Dominick if you will beleeue his Friers wrought more miracles than Christ for they write many blasphemous and ridiculous things of him in his Legend whereof I could recite many but for feare that I should rather surfet than satisfie you I will produce here one or two and so passe ouer the rest La vida de San. Domingo A certaine man was possessed with Deuills whereupon Saint Dominick bound about his necke certaine Reliques whereof some of them were no better than shitten clouts at the least whose perfume the Deuills could not abide and therefore cried out that they would depart But good Saint Dominick would not beleeue the Deuils vntill the Reliques became sureties for them Ibidem Another time as the holy man preached certaine women were amazed at his doctrine and cried out that if he said true they had serued a strange Master the holy man bade them be quiet and they should see what strange Master they had serued Whereupon comes in an vgly Cat with fiery eyes shewing her hinder-parts vnto them which was very filthie to behold at last he leapes into the Belfrie and left such a smell behind him that had almost choak'd them all Ibidem It fortuned also vpon a time that a Nun called Mary had a sore thigh for which she prayed to S. Dominick because she durst not pray to God who pitying the Religious Votary that was so well deuoted vnto him came vnto her when she was asleepe and annointed the place and healed the sore But now leauing the Saint I will proceed to suruey his spirituall babes the Dominican Friers Ouo prognatus eodem In the yeare of our Lord 1470. one Allen of the Frocke a Frier of this Order was the first that deuised and composed the Rosarie of our Lady who neglecting the Gospell of our Lord and Sauiour he preached it abroad and so his booke was published wherein are related many miracles of the Virgin Mary wrought by vertue of this Rosarie wherein he saith That vpon a time the blessed Virgin Mary came vnto his chamber or Cell and hauing a ring made of a locke of her owne haire she by deliuery of it betrothed her selfe vnto him kissed him and offered to him her paps to be handled and sucked by him and finally conuersed with this sweet Frier Allen as familiarly as a spouse is wont to do with her mate O sweet Iesus what true Christian is there that is not astonished at the hearing of these horrible blasphemies These Dominican Friers doe make a great benefit of this foresaid Rosarie for in euery Towne or City that they haue a Couent there is a fraternity of the Rosary consisting of the Lay people of either sex who doe pay to them a good sum of money at their first entrance into the same fraternitie and a yearely pension besides to say Masses for them and the soules of the Brethren and Sisters of the fraternity that are in Purgatorie Of all other Begging Friers these are the Richest and best schollers And therefore the Iesuites and they can neuer agree for they wrote many railing books and libels against each other and in their Sermons especially they doe exclaime and raile the one on the other A certaine Iesuite preaching vpon a time told his Auditors that he had seene a Vision which was thus He thought that he had beene in Hell and that he saw there some of all sorts of men and women as Popes Cardinals Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Monks Friers Priests Abbesses Prioresses and Nuns yea Emperours Kings Princes Noble-men Knights Gentlemen to conclude all manner of men women and children but hee saw there neuer a Iesuite And therefore praised God that had giuen him grace to be of the Societie of Iesus and not of any other Order of Friers or of any other vocation profession or calling whatsoeuer So that all his Sermon was in commendation of the Iesuites These two learned Sermons were preached in the yeare 1600. as a Student of Padua in Italy witnesseth in a Pamphlet which he writ in the Italian tongue about the yeare 1607. it is intituled Condolenza de vn Studente de Padua a 1. Patri Iesuiti par 2. The next Sabbath day a Dominican Frier came and preached in the selfe-same place and told the people that he had likewise dreamed or seene a strange Vision and that hee thought he had beene in Hell and saw there the soules of all sorts of men and women yea of Friers of his owne Order but saw neuer a Iesuite there whereat he wondered and was so amaz'd that he could not say an Aue Maria or a Pater noster and repented him a thousand times that he had not beene a Iesuite In the end he demanded of a little Deuill what was the reason there was neuer a Iesuite there seeing there was some of all other men women and children yea of all other Orders of Religious men The Deuill told him that the Iesuites were by themselues in another hell vnderneath that for said he they come hither so fast and are so many that Pluto and the rest of the Deuills could scarce rule them The Frier replied saying I would wish Pluto to haue a great care to search them with speed for feare that they haue conueyed hither some gun-powder with them for they are very skilfull in Mine-workes and in blowing vp of whole States and Parliament-houses and if they can they will blow you all vp and then the Spanyards will come and take your Kingdome from you whereat the Deuill laughed and the Frier awaked out of his sleepe And was not this good sound doctrine I pray you to edifie their Auditors withall In Spaine the Dominican Friers beare a great sway for the Kings Confessor is alwaies a Dominican Frier yet a Iesuite is the Queenes Confessor both their Patrons were Spanyards and therefore so much the greater Saints It was my fortune about nine years ago to come vpon a Holy-day I think it was S. Isidors day to heare a Sermon which a Dominican Frier preached in commendation of this Spanish Saint who extolled him so much that he preferred him before S. Peter This Saint was as he said once King of Andaluzia in Spaine and forsooke his Kingdome and became a Bishop Others doe write that he was driuen out of his Kingdome by the Moores and then became a Bishop This Frier citing that place of the Gospell where our Sauiour saith Whosoeuer shall forsake father or mother wife or children for my name sake shall haue it a hundred fold in heauen then Peter said Master we haue left all to follow thee what shall we haue Our Sauiour told him that they should sit vpon twelue seats and iudge the twelue Tribes of Israel The Frier cried out
are reformed forsooth and are turned either Obseruant Franciscans or Recollects In their Habit they doe differ little or nothing from the Obseruants Their Churches and Cloisters are like the Conuentuals and the Obseruant Franciscans very faire and spacious built like Christ-Church in London Recollect Friers The Recollect Franciscans are a kinde of reformed Obseruants and doe differ little or nothing at all in Habit from the Penitentiarians but in their Rule Discipline and Ceremonies they are quite contrary the one to the other This Sect began of late yeeres and yet they haue at this instant Couents in all the chiefest Townes and Cities of Italy Spaine France and Netherland There is a Couent of English Friers of this Order at Doway in the Low Countries who are maintained by the beneuolence of our English Catholikes in England It is not aboue fiue or six yeeres since it was built and yet they begin to increase apace for they haue their Prouinciall and Collectors here in England as well as the other Friers Priests and Iesuites These Recollects must handle no money but they may possesse it and receiue and dispurse it by their Collectors Receiuers and Dispencers yet our English Friers may handle and possesse money when they are in England for they haue a dispensation from the Popes holinesse to handle and possesse both gold and siluer Capuchin Friers The most holy and renowned Sect of all the Franciscan Friers are the Capuchins who weare the like Habit as the Recollect and Penitentiarians doe sauing that in stead of Shooes they patch three or foure leather soles vnder their feet tyed ouer with leather straps and on their backs vpon their Habit they weare a peece of another old Habit sewed to their Frock in token of humility because forsooth they will not weare a new Habit without that patch forfeare that the world should imagine them to be proud And yet who is prouder than these Hypocrites in heart though not in habit Moreouer in their holy greasie stinking Cowle they differ from all the other Franciscan Babes for these men weare a long Cowle or Hood sewed to the necke or collar of their Frocke very small at the end or top I neuer beheld a Capuchins Cowle but I must needs thinke of a crying Bird which some call a Lapwing that breeds and liues vpon Heaths and Moores for this Fowle hath a tuft of Feathers vpon the head standing vpright and so is the Capuchins Cowle And truly I may wel compare these Capuchins to Lapwings not only for their heads but also because the one is very subtil and crafty for to protect defend their young ones and the others for the propagation of their Order or Sect. This Sect beganne neere about the same time that the Iesuits did start vp which was about the yeere of our Lord 1540. Their Author or Institutor was one Godefridus Veraglius of Buscano in the Prouince of Piemont in Italy vnder the Dominion of the Duke of Sauoy who was the first Generall of their Order This Godefridus albeit that in his youth he had liued in the thickest darknesse of superstition yet afterwards being inspired with diuine grace forsooke Popery and embraced the truth of the Gospell for comming vpon a time in company of Cardinall Carrafa who was sent as a Legat from the Pope to the French King he forsooke him and his Religion at Lions in France and went from thence to Geneua where being instructed and confirmed in the Christian Religion he remained for a certaine time and afterwards comming backe to Buscano his owne Country as he was trauelling thence towards Angeronia where he was chosen to be their Minister in his iourney at a place called Borgesio he was apprehended and thence brought to Turino where the Duke of Sauoy keepes his Court where after such time that he had constantly professed and defended the truth of the Gospell he was burned aliue to death before the Court gate in the yeere of our Lord 1557. Martyr lib. Hiâ—…oria Eccl. refoâ—m in Gal. Reg. lib. â— â—…l 158 Gal. Edit These Capuchins nor the Recollects or Penitentiarians neuer sing high Masse but all priuate Masses neither doe they sing but onely recite their Canonicall houres or vse any Organs or Hymnes or any Copes or Surplices as the Obseruant and non Obseruant Franciscans and other Monks and Friers doe but they reade their Office or canonicall houres leisurely and distinctly yea they reade so leisurely as one may write euery word they speake and to say the truth they cry or whine when they reade much like poore French Beggers when they begge almes at mens doores Moreouer the Quire or the place where they sit to recite their Office or Canonicall houres is behind the high Altar in the vpper end of the Church with a partition wall betweene in which wall right ouer the midst of the Altar there is a great hole or a window of Crystall Glasse thorow the which they may see the eleuation of their breaden god I meane their Sacrament when it is eleuated at time of Masse Their Churches are not very spacious but very neat and most commonly they haue therein but one Chapell or two at the most wherein is but one Altar set vp to say Masse Here I would haue you to vnderstand that all these Sects of Friers formerly mentioned or to be mentioned in this Treatise haue seuerall Ceremonies or to say more plainly apish tricks in singing or saying of the Masse and other diuine Seruice as for example the Capuchin Frier that serues at the Masse that is to say he that plaies the Clarke who most commonly is a Lay-brother and no Masse-Priest doth alwaies from the time of the Sacrament vntill the Offertorium that is to say vntill the Priest doth offer it as a Sacrificium placabile pro vniuis defunctis an acceptable Sacrifice for the liuing and for the dead to wit in Purgatory yea if they be well payed for Cow and Calfe the Frier I say that serues at Masse vpon his knees must stretch out both his armes right forth crosse wise so that his body may be like a Crucifix and for his paines he shall obtaine a great reward in Heauen and doth questionlesse merit say they either the deliuery of a soule out of Purgatory or else at leastwise some relexation of the paines of the same Carolus Boromeus Arch-bishop and Cardinall of Milan was once a Capuchin Frier and afterwards by dispensation from the Pope was promoted vnto all these honours And whithin a while after his death sanctified by Pope Paul the fift He was the first man that this Pope caused to be inrolled in the Catalogue of Saints This Canonization brought into the Popes Exchequer more than twenty thousand pounds as I haue heard the Milanesses themselues credibly report I saw vpon the ground where his body had beene buried For it was taken out of the graue againe vpon the Popes command to make Reliques of
it which was within the Cathedrall Church of Milan before the high Altar more than two bushels of gold and siluer in a great heape inclosed with in a great high iron grate where no body could come at it which was the offering of simple ignorant people all which and much more was for his Holinesse To be briefe this was the first as I thinke of all the Capuchins that haue beene as yet sanctified But Pope Paul perceiuing the profit to be so great did afterwards canonize halfe a squadron more whereof limping Ignatius the Author or Instituter of the Sect of the Iesuites was one Is it not an absurd and a base thing for Dukes Princes Noble men Gentlemen and other wealthy men without any want or compulsion to become begging Friers Would you not thinke such men mad and those that giue them almes no better than fools I know there are some that will not beleeue this to be true and yet it is most certaine for I will name you two or three that I knew The first is Duke Ioyeux a French man a great enemy to the Professors of the Gospell and one that for many yeeres had borne armes against King Henry the fourth of France our gracious Queenes Father in the ciuill warres of France who when the warres was ended became a Capuchin Frier being then aboue fifty yeeres old leauing all his estate to his only daughter and heire I haue seene him in his Habit with a Wallet ouer his shoulder in company of another Capuchin begge from doore to doore in his owne Country in that Prouince wherein he was borne But what is it that Monks and Friers cannot bewitch men to doe They made him change his Christen name and call himselfe Frier Angell afterwards he was made a Masse-Priest In the end this Father Angell and one Father Arch-Angell otherwise Father William Barlow an English Capuchin Frier who is now liuing in Paris went to Rome to the Chapter Generall of the Capuchins about some nineteene yeeres agoe and in their returne home this Duke-like Capuchin fell sicke of a burning Feuer and died about Sauoy Alas good Frier he was not vsed to goe such a voiage on foot as Roan in Normandy is from Rome being aboue a thousand English miles The other is the Duke of Ascots brother a very proper young noble man who together with another noble mans sonne of Spaine whose name I forget by the perswasions of the Capuchin Friers priuately departed from the Arch-Dukes Court at Bruxels and without the consent or priuity of their friends became Capuchins I could relate here many such examples if it were not for breuity sake There are many English men of this Order both in France and Netherland and most of them Gentlemens sonnes of good reckoning and some of them now lurking about the Court and City not in their foolish Capuchin Habit but like Gallants endeuouring to seduce his Maiesties subiects from their duty to God and their allegeance to their Soueraigne And one aboue all the rest is too much frequent in the Court but I would wish him to walke more narrowly or else depart quickly There is almost neuer a Towne or City in those popish Countries but the Obseruants Recollects and Capuchin Friers haue Couents and in some great Cities the Capuchins haue two or three as in Rome Milan Paris and other Cities And yet they haue neither Lands or Reuenues but what they get by begging Neuerthelesse they fare more like Princes than such men as they professe themselues to be for albeit they touch no money yet haue they their Collectors Receiuers and Dispencers to receiue and dispurse money for them and to buy any thing that they want For if any man or woman will bestow any money vpon them they will send for their Receiuer to take it and to write downe in a Booke how much it is for he must make them an account once euery yeere of all that he hath receiued and dispursed And as for Bread Wine Wood and other things that they stand in need of for the prouision of their Couents they haue more bestowed vpon them than they can well spend Besides this they haue in euery Towne or City where they dwell particular benefactors who giue them a monthly stipend and doe still procure them more for they are of their Fraternity and partakers forsooth of their super-abundant merits These men haue a stocke in money which they doe priuately and vnder hand employ and put out to vse for the good of these holy Friers Withall they begge twice or thrice a weeke in some Cities daily with Wallers and Bottles ouer their shoulders all that is giuen them whether it be Fish Flesh Bread Fruits Herbs Roots Spice sweet Oile or any thing else they bring home either on their shoulders or else vpon an Asse Where you must note that these and all other begging Friers receiue no scraps but whole Loaues of the purest Bread and of the best Wine and the best prouision in the house Neither doe they begge in any humble manner as other poore people but in an imperiall arrogant sort and without any reuerence they rather command than craue and vnlesse it be good almes and giuen them with cap and knee they care not for it for all these Monks Iesuits and Friers rich or poore are as proud as Lucifer though not in their Habit yet in their gesture and behauiour and if any man passe by them or speake vnto them without his hat in his hand and with a low reuerence yea in Spaine and Italy vnlesse they honour them and kisse the sleeues of their Habits they hold them little better than Lutherans and Heretikes Except they be some great Personages who indeed are more ceremonious and obsequious and doe flatter them more than the common people And also that their Copes Vestments Chalices and other their Church Vtensels are farre from temperature yea exceeding in sumptuousnesse let all those that haue seene them beare me record if this be not true Moreouer all Mendicant Friers at their first comming to inhabite in any Towne or Citie will in outward shew seeme to be Saints humble meeke and good to the poore the which doth purchase them such reputation among the common people that they will contribute very liberally towards the building of their Couents and all other things that they need In the meane time these vnsanctified Fathers like so many Emmets while the season serues them will bestir themselues as being not ignorant of that saying of the Poet Dum aestas annique finunt componite nidos They will be sure to cramme their coffers with gold and siluer and to prouide against a rainy day as the old prouerb is while the good market lasteth and while their counterfeit sanctitie is blasted vp with the vaine breath of the doting vulgar who are bewitched with their hypocrisie and pretended holinesse for if you will beleeue these hypocriticall Friers and all other Friers of what
gaudy Churches in all the chiefest Cities in France and are in great credit and estimation especially among great Ladies and Gentlewomen with whom they are if you will beleeue the other Mendicant Friers too familiar They haue a faire Cloister and a fine delicate Church at Paris and also in most Cities of France and no where else built by great Ladies who doe resort there daily to heare Masse and Sermons and to haue some other spirituall conference with these holy Fathers The other rout or rabble of old begging Friers cry out with wide mouthes vpon these new vpstart Sects for they say that they doe seduce their Benefactors to bestow vpon them the charity and beneuolence which they were wont to haue and therefore they are ready to starue But to say the truth these seuerall Sects of Mendicant Friers haue vndone the poore for they are increased of late to so many Sects that the poore people can get nothing because of them For in those Catholike Countries the Parishioners are not taxed or constrained to pay towards the reliefe of their poore as the manner is in England or among the Protestants in those Countries But the Friers say Giue vs your beneuolence and we will bestow vpon the poore And by this meanes the poore are neglected and these Priests of Baal well fed and prouided for It is a maruellous thing to consider the blindnesse of the Romish Catholikes that cannot perceiue the manifest hypocrisies practises and impostures of their Priests Monks Friers Iesuits and Nuns and how they are cheated daily of their goods by these Locusts who doe increase so fast that I doe imagine they will in the end wax infinite For I dare be bold to affirme that there are in France at this instant more Monks Friers Iesuits and Nuns by three thousand then there were when the last King was murdered yea within Paris and the Suburbs thereof or neere thereunto there is betweene thirty and forty Monasteries and Colleges of Monks Friers Iesuits and Nuns built since that Kings death and all those liue by begging either publikely or priuately for a man cannot goe through any street in the City but he shall see Monks and Friers by couples trudging here and there and where there is any profit like to ensue there will they flocke like so many Rauens to a dead carcasse And as it is reported that Aphrick doth euery new Moone ingender strange Monsters in like manner the Church of Rome doth euer and anon produce new Babylonian Monsters I meane new Sects of Friers and Nuns to perturbe and trouble the peace of our Ierusalem The Author of the Congregation of the Fullians was a Cistercensian Frier and their Rule is composed out of that Rule the Cisterciens doe professe to obserue but somewhat more strictly as they say but to say the truth they are all one for the Fullians are a kinde of reformed or Mendicant Cistercians forsooth and therefore the greater Hypocrites Of the Jesuites THe origine or beginning of this Societie is but of a new institution not much aboue fourescore yeares since whereof the Founder was one Ignatius Loyola borne in Biscaya a Region in Spaine who had beene formerly a Souldier and borne armes at Pampelona against the French where he was maimed with a hurt that he receiued on both his knees whereof he halted euer after His Order was confirmed by Paul the third in the yeare 1504. Maphaeus in vita Ignat. Bellar. in Chronolog And himselfe Sanctified by Pope Paul the fifth in the yeare 1622. not for his holinesse and sanctitie of life but for an infinite summe of money giuen vnto the Pope by the Iesuites and withall because the Duke of Bauaria by the wicked practises and deuillish policie of his spirituall children the Iesuites and the helpe of the King of Spaine had taken the Palatinat from the Prince Elector Palatine the true and lawfull owner thereof This Ignatius ordained that all those of this his vpstart Societie should call themselues Iesuites or Patres Societatis Iesu Fathers of the Societie of Iesus And the reason is as the Iesuites report Serm. Valderama pag. 10. because our Lord Iesus who being the Sauiour of our soules from the time of his Natiuitie into the world vnto his death neuer dealt in other businesse than in that which concerned our saluation So the life of our Ignatius was wholly bestowed about the sauing of soules the life of Iesus was manifested in his miracles and Ignatius was transformed into him whose name the Iesuites beare And againe as this good Father was going to Rome for to obtaine the approbation of his Order Maphaeus in vita Loyola lib. 2. Rib. l. 2. c 2. and finding himselfe much perplexed about that which might befall him there Iesus appeared vnto him carrying a Crosse and in the same vision God the Father was seene recommending this new Societie vnto his Sonne who promised him that he would be propitious and fauourable vnto him at Rome And Valderama infers Serm pag. 48. that vpon his arriuall to Rome the Pope hauing well considered Ignatius hands he found them all printed with the name of Iesus whereupon he said Digitus Dei hîc est The finger of God is in these hands And therefore these speeches fortified the holy man and gaue him occasion to name his Company the Societie of Iesus But indeed it is apparent that this title is proper to all Christians in generall as Saint Paul speaking to the Corinthians witnesseth saying 1 Cor. 1.9 God is faithfull by whom you haue beene called to the Societie of his Sonne Iesus And againe Saint Iohn 1 Iohn 1.3 To the end our Societie may be with the Father and with his Sonne Iesus Christ And yet the Iesuites goe about to proue by these former passages our of Saint Paul and Saint Iohn that their Societie hath beene euer since the time of our Sauiour And not new as many Writers yea of their owne Religion doe proue Watson in his Quodlib p. â—00 and Sparing discourses p. 36. for Pope Sixtus quintus conuenting the Generall of the Iesuites vpon a time before him demanded why he and his Order called themselues Iesuites who answering said That they did not call themselues so but Clerkes of the Societie of Iesus Then the Pope replying said But why should you appropriate vnto your selues to be of the Societie of Iesus more than other Christians are of whom the Apostle saith Vocati sumus in Societatem Filij eius We are called into the Societie of his Sonne But the Iesuites Generall made him no answer Const Prouinc lib. 1. de Consuetudine eius autem And againe the reason why wee are called Christians of Christ and not Iesuites of Iesus is this saith Lindwood Christ hath communicated vnto vs what is signified by his name Christ that is to say Vnction but he hath not communicated vnto vs what is signified by his name Iesus for Iesus
he was dead euery Courtier belonging to the Eternall King was admitted all the celestiall people ran to see him Angells Archangells Thrones c. It is now among the Papists as it was heretofore among the Heathen people for they had many gods as Apollo Iupiter Mars Mercury Aeolus Neptune Pan Cupid c. And goddesses likewise as Minerua Pallas Venus and the like And euery one of them their distinct office as for example Apollo was the god of Wisdome Mars the god of Warre Aeolus the god of the Winds Neptune of the Seas Pan for Shepherds and Cupid the god of Loue. Minerua was the goddesse of Learning and Venus the goddesse of Loue. The Papists haue as many Saints which they honour as gods and euery one haue their seuerall charge assigned vnto them by God for the succour of men women and children yea ouer Countries Common-wealths Cities Prouinces and Churches nay to help ones bones et caeterapecora campi al manner of beasts as S. George for England and other Countries S. Dauid for Wales S. Andrew for Scotland S. Patricke for Ireland S. Denis for France S. Iames for Spaine S. Antony for Italy S. Marke for Venice S. Roch for to cure the Plague and for Sheepe S. Antony for Swine and for fire S. Lucy for the Tooth-ach S. Petronel for the Feuer and S. Martin for the Itch Moreouer S. Valentine for Louers S. Chrispin and Crispianus for Shoo-makers S. Clement for Bakers Brewers and Victualers S. Sebastian for Archers S. Nicolas for Butchers and an hundred more some assigned to this office and some to that But would you know what office hath our Limping Ignatius in good sooth an office well agreeing with the humour of a Spanyard who loues to be conuersant with the female sex for he is become a Midwife for thus saith one of his owne Children Serm. Vald p. 51. Blessed Father Ignatius doth assuredly and most readily assist all women that are in labour for this vigilant Pastor doth alwaies accompany the sheepe that are great with young for to helpe them to be deliuered as it is written in Esay Foetas ipse portabit that is to say He will looke to the Ewes for to haue their wooll and their lambes For you must lay the blessed Fathers Signet vnto the patient and she will soone be rid of her paine and the only sight of his name hath giuen eyes to the blinde hands to the maimed and legs to the lame hath consumed the stone in the kidneyes and very easily brought women to bed By this it seemes that this Saint hath shouldered the blessed Virgin out of doores for all good Catholike women were wont to call vnto her for helpe in that extremitie And it is not long since I read in a Catholike book how the blessed Virgin her selfe came accompanied with two Angels to visit a Lady Abbesse that was gotten with childe and or the preseruation of her honour commanded those two Angells to deliuer her of her burthen and to carry it to an Hermit to bring it vp which in time became a Bastardly Bishop it may be he was a Spanish Bishop for they are all or the most part Bastards Cum sec part Serm. discip de tempore Magun apud Ioh. Albinum Anno 1612. I maruell how the other Monks Friers and Priests can brooke that S. Ignatius should play the Mid-wife considering that a great part of their maintenance doth depend vpon women that are great with childe for they come often vnto them with money in their fists and many other good gifts to haue Masses said for their safe deliuery But aboue all the rest the Augustine Friers of Burgos in Spaine who sell the measure of their Crucifix at so deare a rate because it is a precious Relicke for many diseases especially for a woman that is in labour And is not this a great hinderance to the Franciscans that haue S. Francis Cordon and likewise to diuers other Religious persons that haue many pretious Relickes of wonderfull vertue especially for such women that are in labour of child-birth Why do they not sue and implead against the Iesuits for Monopoly And besides it is against the Popes profit for many good Ladies especially in Italy whē they are great with childe doe vow if they can haue a safe deliuerance to goe on pilgrimage to the Image of the blessed Virgin Mary of Loretto and there offer some costly thing vnto her Shrine All which comes into the Popes Exchequer And I am sure that the Montebanckes shall all fare the worse and Mid-wiues nothing the better But because I would not be too tedious I will leaue this halting holy-hee Mid-wife and descend to suruey his spirituall Babes I meane the Iesuites the maine pillars of the Antichristian Synagogue of Rome the Intelligencers of Spaine the Incendiaries of Christendome and Belzabubs chiefe Agents Among all other Orders of Monks and Friers though the Common-wealths wherein they liue are exceedingly exhausted by them in matters of charge especially in Italy and the Spanish Dominions as being in a manner compelled to reedifie their ruined Cloisters and Couents to build them new from the very ground and from time to time to repaire the same to furnish them with costly Images and rich furnitures and daily to supply their wants as well in yeelding them victuals as in satisfying their exorbitant demands which are infinite of which who so denieth any is presently reputed to be an Hereticke yet all is nothing in comparison of that which by the Iesuites they are compelled to endure who haue now gotten that hand ouer them that the chiefe Magistrate-ship and places of dignity are not granted but vnto such as shall be by their likings allowed and by their authority confirmed neither without their aduice and counsell dare they determine of any great matter concerning either gouernment or policie There is not any mans businesse but they must haue an oare in it They neuer place themselues any where but in the middest of goodly rich Cities for as one saith Opulentas ciuitates vbi sunt commoditates semper querunt istipatres Where they wring themselues into the fairest Palaces in some of them dispossessing by violence those to whom they pertained As for example their Colleges at Antwerp the one belongeth to the society of the Merchants of Aquisgranum and the other to the society of the English Merchants of the Staple and was called heretofore by the name of the English house where English Merchants and their Factors liued vntill such time that they were tyrannically abused by the Spanyards and their adherents Moreouer their Colleges at Bruxels and at Paris are detained by them from the true owners thereof I could name an hundred more of these their vsurpations to proue their intrusions into Cities Townes Castles and Noble-mens houses but this shall suffice in this place Their Churches are rich and sumptuous their moueables and houshold-stuffe magnificent rather than decent their gardens
and neare to this vp-start Lady and the Bathes Besides all the Copper that is brought from the vpper parts of Germany to Netherland or these parts is first brought thither to be refined In fine when the mistie fogges of superstition began to disperse and the glorious sun-shine of the Gospell to appeare it pleased God in this Citie among others the neighbouring Townes and Prouinces to call some to the true knowledge of his word in so much that the most part of the inhabitants thereof the Monks Friers Nuns and the other Clergy men excepted in a short time became Protestants and had Ministers and a Church in the middest of the Citie The Priests and Friers perceiuing how the number of the Protestants began to increase daily more and more that this counterfeit Lady was fallen sicke and could worke no more miracles because the Protestant Ministers had discouered their deceits and trumperies and spoiled their market and withal that the people came not with their offertories vnto them as in former times which was to their no small losse and hinderance They I say plotted how to preuent this danger and first they intended to bring the Iesuites into the City but this could not be for the Protestants were more in number than they and withall there was an equall number of Magistrates of either Religion for there were two Protestant Burghemasters and two Papists Then they practised how to betray the Citie to the King of Spaine but their treacherie was discouered and the Protestants betaking themselues to their armes preuented it and the Duke of Cleue who was then Protector of the Citie at their request put in a garrison of souldiers to defend them from the King of Spaines forces who neuer after attempted any thing against the Citie vntill after the Duke of Cleues death at which time by the treacherous plots of the Iesuites who were priuately lurking there sent an armie secretly vnder the conduct of Spinola and tooke the Citie by treachery and not by force of armes or valour and sets a garrison of foure thousand men therein all billeted or lodged in Protestants houses and they themselues constrained to abandon the City or else to liue no better than those that liue vnder the cruell tyrannie of the Turks And as for the Ministers some they put to death others escaped away to Holland and other parts Those of the Protestants that euer had beene Burghemasters that they found they put likewise to death and many other of the Townsmen that at any time withstood them vpon any former tumults or commotion fared no better I came to this Citie in the moneth of December 1616. where the next day I beheld to my no small sorrow a most lamentable tragedie which was as followeth As I would haue departed away I could not because the Ports or Gates were locked and all the souldiers in the Towne but onely those that had the watch drawne in their full compleat armes to the Market-place which is very spatious as big as Smithfield in London In which Market-place there was a scaffold set vp hard by the State-house vnto the which they brought a proper young man about six and twentie yeares of age bound hauing a Iesuite on either side who mounting the scaffold with a very sweet and chearefull countenance kneeled downe and said a short mentall prayer then rising and looking about him espied a friend of his hard by the scaffold vnto whom he cast his cloake intreating him to deliuer it vnto his wife who was in a corner of the Market-place a farre off together with many other women and children vpon their knees making the most lamentable noise that euer I heard and desiring God to iudge their cause This man lifting vp his hands pulled off his hat and making a low reuerence towards those women and many other Protestants that stood by them with a loud voice desired them all to pray for him and desired God to forgiue him all his sinnes for Christ his sake signifying further vnto them that the Iesuits had promised to saue his life if so be that he would confesse his sinnes and receiue the Sacrament the which said he I did being drawne thereunto by their faire promises and perswasions and the entire loue I bare to my wife children and kinsfolkes But now I am heartily sory for it and then kneeling downe again asked God the Reformed Church with teares forgiuenesse for said he I doe from my heart renounce all Popery and will die a member of the Reformed Church wherein I was brought vp Whereupon the Iesuits perswaded him to recant those words and to call to the blessed Virgin Mary for helpe but he would not saying that he was sory for that which he had already done And within a while he kneeled downe againe and the Executioner after that he had tyed a hand-kerchiefe ouer his eyes with a sword strucke off his head whereupon the Protestant women and children made such a lamentable crie that it made some of the Papists themselues weepe and pull their hats ouer their eyes This being done they presented to the view of all the beholders another pitifull spectacle more lamentable than the former A poore old man of about threescore and ten yeares of age whose name was Iohn Balkbernâ—r who being not able to go by reason of his long imprisonment which was aboue two yeares in a Dungeon as I was told where none of his friends was permitted to visit him or to administer any comfort vnto him hauing beene racked and tortured three seuerall times This man had beene one of the Burghemasters of the Towne and euer opposed himselfe against the Iesuites and the Spanish faction in the defence of the Liberties of the Citie Him they brought supported by the Hangman and his man to the scaffold accompanied likewise with two Iesuites and when he was got vp the scaffold all the drums in the Citie were beaten and the Trumpetters did found their Trumpets being set all round about the scaffold because that no man should heare what this poore dying-man said who lifting vp his hands and eyes often towards heauen in the end kneeled downe and receiued very patiently that fatall stroke the Executioner smiting off his head as he had done the former Whereupon the Protestant women and children made such a great cry as they had formerly done which made many of the Papists yea the Gouernour himselfe who was a Germane to weepe and shake his head The Magistrates of the City and the Emperours Delegats sate in a gallery on the side of the State-house to see the execution which being ended they withdrew themselues backe into the State-house where was a great feast prouided for them Good God how merry were the Iesuits Priests and Friers all that afternoone I protest to you I did see with mine eyes aboue twentie of them crossing the streets so drunke that they could scarce go or stand and when they met the Hangman they shooke
him by the hand as though he had beene some great Dutch Heer or Lord telling him that he had performed his part wonderfull well which made the Rogue so proud of his office that I heard him wish that all Protestants had but one head and he the striking of it off vnto whom a townsman that was a Protestant answered saying that the Protestants had but one head which was Christ Iesus their Sauiour vnto whom said he thou base Varlet shalt one day giue an account for thine vncharitable wish and they that set thee on worke this day for spilling of innocent bloud Whereupon some Priests that stood by and heard his words went presently to the Magistrates and accused him and presently caused him to be apprehended and put in prison what became of him I know not but I haue heard that he was banished and that he liueth now in Emden Since that time the Iesuites haue caused a pillar of free-stones to be erected in that place where the scaffold was with the portraiture of the Hangman striking off this mans head with this inscription in great capitall letters viz. Sic pereant qui hanc Rem-publicam Sedem Regalem spretis Sacrae Caes Maiestatis edictis euertere moliuntur Ad damnandam memoriam Ioannis Balckberner in vltimo tumultu Anno MDCX. hic excitato Inter perduelles Antesignani Columna haec ex decreto D. D. Subdelegatorum Sanctae Caesaris Maiestatis iussu III. Nonas Decembris Anno MDCXVI They procured the King of Spaine without any right or reason to send Spinola with an army to take Weesell one of the Hans Cities being at peace and amity with him and little fearing any such perfidious treachery where they haue and still doe vse such tyranny that it is as good for the inhabitants to be vnder the Turke as vnder the Spanish gouernment This City was rich and had great traffique and commerce with high Germany the States Countries and all Netherland But it is now beggerd by meanes of the Iesuites and Spaniards their protectors For as soone as Spinola had put a garison of six thousand horse and foot into this City the Iesuites likewise came thither and were placed in the chiefest house in the City which did heretofore belong to the Duke of Cleu◠who was protector of it and afterwards to the Marquesse of Brandenburg his lawfull heire and successor This noble City wherein the Gospell of Christ was truly and sincerely preach'd is now become a stinking Sinagogue of Antichrist and a prey to Iesuits and Spaniards who were not content to make hauock of almost all they had contrary to the composition made betweene Spinola and them when they yeelded the Towne vnto him but also rauished their wiues and daughters before their eyes neither will they suffer them to make sale of their houses and carry away that little they haue left them and to permit them to depart to some other Country or City to seek their fortune but compell them to stay there to labour and toile like so many slaues to maintaine them They haue the best Chambers and Beds in their houses and they themselues are constrained to lie vpon Mats and in straw they haue all their houshold stuffe at their command and they themselues are compelled to wash scoure and doe all manner of drudgery for them The poore Inhabitants must of necessity prouide Fiting Candles Salt Vinegar and Water for them gratis and attend on them with cap and knee or else be stab'd or well beaten And albeit that it was agreed betweene the States of the vnited Prouinces and the King of Spaine that the Protestants of Weesell should haue free liberty of conscience to vse their Religion in respect the Iesuits Monks Friers and Papists of Emerick haue the like at their hands yet they can neuer goe to Church or Sermons and especially when they sing Psalmes but they mocke and abuse them either by hurling of stones in at the windowes or some other villany In the yeere 1619. comming from Venice to Holland I came to this City and arriuing at my lodging where I was very well acquainted the good man and his wife who knew me fell a weeping telling me they had neuer a bed to lodge me in for we haue six Spaniards said they that lodge here and the rest of our beds they sold and purloined away and then they shewed me their house and how they had sold all their houshold stuffe for they had neither Brasse nor Pewter nor any thing to dresse their meat but one iron pot for the rest were earthen they lay themselues vpon a straw bed more like Beggars than Citizens The day was farre spent and I weary that I could goe no further and therefore I resolued to stay there that night and to lie vpon a boord or a bench While I was comforting of the old folkes as well as I could there came in a Spanish Souldier that had lost his money at Dice and Cards in the court of guard and would haue borrowed a Dollar of the good wife who told him that she had none for her selfe besides said she you owe me ten Gilders that is twenty shillings in English mony I thought you would haue paid me that first for I was constrained to pawne my bed to get money for you and euer since my husband and I haue laine vpon straw which we neuer did before in all our life time whereupon the Spaniard Señor Iuan de Nauarra for so was his name called her Puta Vieja old Whore and a thousand such names and shooke her almost all to peeces then leauing her crying tooke the pottage pot and filled it halfe full with water and put a great Brick-bat and a peece of rotten Cabbidge into it and laid it ouer the fire and went out into the yard and brought in three or foure great Fagots and other wood and made such a great fire that I was afraid he would haue burn'd the house and thus he continued burning of Fagots and Billets which are very deare there for the space of two houres and would haue burnt more had not she gone forth and borrowed of one of the neighbours two shillings to giue him for feare that he would haue burn'd all her wood albeit I thinke in my conscience that he did burne in that time more than did cost her eight pence But when he had the money away he went and then she tooke off the pot and threw the stone and rotten Cabbidge away and made something ready for our Supper but before that we could make an end two other Spaniards came in and without bidding or inuiting sate downe with vs and tooke part of that little we had and then went away without offering any money or saying so much as we thanke you The very same night another Spaniard would haue the old woman after ten of the clocke to goe and fetch him a whore and because she would not goe hee gaue her three or foure
it shall please the holy Father the Pope and their Father Generall to send them yea though it were to the worlds end and murder Kings and Princes to merit Heauen And withall all other Monks and Friers doe make these three Vowes but once which is after that they haue beene in the Habit one whole yeere which they call the yeere of approbation or nouiceship at which time they make their profession yet the Iesuites will haue their Nouices to serue them two yeeres in their nouiciat before they make their Vowes which first Vowes they call Vota simplicia single Vowes because they can as they say dispence with them for after a man hath beene a Iesuit twenty or thirty yeeres they may if they please put him away and exclude him out of their society whereof I haue knowne many yea among our English Iesuites I haue knowne some namely one who went by the name of Master Floyd who liued at Paris not long agoe and is now but a Secular Priest albeit he was for many yeeres a Iesuite the reason is as I thinke because he and those that they put out of their society were not wicked enough to keepe them company or else doe put themselues out of the society of the Iesuites when they perceiue their villany But when one hath beene trained vp many yeeres in their Machauillian Schoole if he be for their turne then he makes those Vowes again and then he is a professed Iudaist which is not without a long proofe and triall of his integrity and deuotion to their Order and to the rearing vp of the Spanish Monarchie and then and not before they will acquaint him with the hidden mysteries of their Order For in some Colleges there are threescore or fourescore Iesuites and yet not aboue three or foure professed Iesuites yea albeit they weare all one kinde of Habite and fare all alike And in many great Cities they haue three Houses First their Domus Professa wherein liue none but professed Iesuites secondly their College where they haue their Schooles wherein the Rector and one or two more of them are Professed and none else And lastly their Nouiciate where all their young Nouices are kept and mewed vp vnder the gouernment of a Rector and two or three more professed Machiauills HAuing treated of all Monks Friers and Iesuites and of their beginning proceedings present estate in particular It remaines now for me to speak a word or two of their impostures cozenage in generall but more specially of the Mendicant Friers and Iesuites which may serue as a Caueat or Premonition to shew with what brasen faces and palpable lyes and grossenesse they proceed to subuert and ouerthrow True Religion and yet iustifie themselues to the world to countenance their wickednesse though neuer so foule and hainous I omit to speake of their Doctrines Schoole-questions Ceremonies the Popes Supremacie and many other such matters of controuersies which haue beene so often disputed by many and confuted by our learned Diuines But leauing those matters vnto others far more sufficient than my selfe I will speake no more than I haue seene and knowne of my knowledge to be true or can bring sufficient authoritie and then I will draw to a conclusion First I would haue you to vnderstand that these Monks and Friers doe most ambitiously and arrogantly bragge that this or that holy Saint was the first Institutor or Founder of their Order or Religion As the Ieromite Monks bragge of their pretended Patron S. Ierome the Benedictins of S. Benet the Austen Friers of S. Austen the Dominicans of S. Dominick the Franciscans of S. Francis and so of the rest Others more ambitious than they haue mounted vp a little higher as the Trinitarians who would make the world beleeue that their Order was first instituted by the blessed Trinitie who gaue them their Rule by a diuine reuelation whereof they brag not a little as may be seene by this Rithme which is written in capitall letters ouer the doore of their Cloister in the Suburbs of Arras in the Prouince of Artois in the Low Countries and many other places as I told you before Hic est ordo ordinatus Non à sanctis fabricatus Sed à solo summo Deo The Carmelite Friers doe boast that the blessed Virgin Mary gaue them their Habite vpon Mount Carmell together with a Scrowle wherein was written their Rule and Order of life and manners The Iesuites scorne to deriue their Order from any Saint no not from lame Ignatius their Founder but from Iesus whose Companions they are if you will beleeue them for they style themselues Patres Religiosi Societatis Iesu Fathers and Religious men of the Society of Iesus his companions and play-fellowes but they play foule play with him for they hitherto haue and do still play the theeues with him in robbing him of his honour and glory the which they attribute vnto the blessed Virgin Popish Saints Images and the like trash O horrible blasphemy Horresco referens These great titles serue them for a cloake to couer their hypocrisies and abominable impieties But let vs returne to the matter I doubt not but I shall make it yet a little more manifest vnto you how far the Iesuits do differ from the Lord Iesus likewise the other rable of Friers from their pretended Patrons for these borrowed titles of honours are none of their owne Ouid. lib. 3. Metamorph Nam genus proauos quae non fecimus ipsi Vix ea nostra voco Iuuenal Satyr 8. Stemmata quid faciunt quid prodest Pontice longo Sanguine censeri pictosque ostendere vultus Maiorum c. Si coram Lepidis malè viuitur Ausonius in Solonis Senten Pulchrius multò parari quam creari nobilem Senec. in Herc. furente Qui genus iactat suum Aliena laudat These Iuglers haue many wayes and trickes to cheat men of their money besides that which they get by begging as by sale of their priuate Masses Confessions lying Miracles Pardons and Indulgences Reliques Confraternities and the like And withall by perswading other men that are rich to become Friers of their Orders and sometimes they doe seduce young Merchants and shop-keepers to breake with their Creditors and vnder-hand to purloine and sell away other mens goods and to offer or giue them all the money which they haue or can borrow and then they will entertaine them into their Orders and perhaps send them away priuately vnto some other Monastery of their Order in some other Prouince to be taught and instructed in their Rule and discipline for one whole yeare which they call the yeare of Approbation or Nouice-ship for after that one hath beene a yeare in any Cloister either of Monks or Friers the Iesuites only excepted who haue two yeares of Approbation if he be willing to perseuere and to leade a Monasticall life he makes his profession and those three Vowes of Chastitie Pouertie