also but euer with due reuerence to both parents c. All which by way of similitude you apply to our Queene as a mother and your Pope as a father and to your Saundrs Allen Bristow Stapleton c. as elder brethren and to the Priestes and lay men in England as yonger brethren c. which similitude consisteth of nothing but dissimilitudes For first the Pope is no way our father and therfore our obedience reuerence loue not to be deuided betwixt the Queene and him as the childrens betwixt the father and mother the Queene is our mother both nourishing vs as a tender parent in things temporall as also in taking care for the Church of Christ in this land in things spiritual according to the Lords promise by the Prophet to his Church Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and Queenes thy nurses So did Iehosaphat Ezechias Iosias amongest the Iewes Constantine Iustinian Charles the great with other like Princes amongst the Christians commaund and make lawes in causes ecclesiasticall and acknowledged no vniuersal father-hood of your Pope I wish he did discharge the dutie of a true spirituall father within his owne Diocesse and Bishopricke but it is an hard testimonie that Laurentius Valla giueth him Papas dici nomine Patres re Parricidas that the Popes are called fathers in name but in deed they are Parricides Againe if the elder brethren interpose their iudgement betwixt their Parents by your own confession it must euer be with due reuerence to both partes this reuerence your elder brethren haue not shewed towards the Queene too good a mother for so vngracious Impes whom they not onely call heretike pretended Queene vsurper c. but haue by all meanes sought the murthering of her sacred person Thirdly the yonger children you say must holde their peace and mourne for the contentions but not intermeddle But Sir your elder brethren whom you allow to speake are farre enough from reach they may safely define what they will against the Queene and cast abroad their iudgements in railing bookes to yonger brethren to settle in them a consent therto Which being done they must yet make shew not to intermeddle to the end they may the better auoide perill to their persons secretly hearten the people against her Maiestie Take an instance hereof from one of your yonger brethren one Paine a Priest who walked no lesse closely for his safetie then he was directed nor lesse cunningly to corrupt the peoples hearts then he was commanded who from his owne mouth discouered to one Eliot a bloudy platforme laid to destroy her iestie and diuers of her Honorable Councell with armed men the effecting whereof stayed onely the comming ouer of certaine Priests which were expected in the meane time through Gods goodnes this horrible treason was discouered and preuented And Paine being asked how they durst practise or attempt any such mischieuous action his answere was that to kill the Queene or to vse anie crueltie against her or any that would take her part was no offence to God and that they might doe it as lawfully as to a brute beast and to approue himselfe a fit messenger to be sent on such a bloudie errant he affirmed that himselfe would be one of the first that should execute the same here is one of your yonger brothers whom all the world must confesse to be a fit son for such a father as your Pope is Besides this your Cardinall Allen Doctor Worthington and others as elder brethren sent Richard Hesketh a Gentleman of Lancashire and a younger brother to induce the Lord Strange late Earle of Derbie to make a suddaine rebellion in England and to take vpon him the title of the Crowne assuring him from them and others of treasure and forraine forces to maintaine the same which treason the Honorable Earle dutifully detected Hesketh himselfe confessed and bitterly cursed his elder brethren to make him a yonger brother to aduenture the danger of the treason that they as elder brethren doe teach and deuise farre enough from reach Is this the weeping of your yonger brethren without intermedling are these the teares then are they of a right Crocodiles brood which seemeth to weeepe but it is to this end that they may sooner kill and destroy Nay further then this these elder brethren commend to their yongers treason against her Maiestie for a point of their faith namely that if the Pope say the worde none of the Papistes ought to obey her Maiestie nor to account her Queene of England for in the cases of conscience as Doctor Bilson now Bishop of Winchester noteth wherewith the Iesuites that came into England were furnished to the 55. Article when they be asked whether the Bull of Pius Quintus that was giuen out or any Bul that the Bishop of Rome can hereafter giue out all Catholikes be bound to yeeld obedience faith and loyaltie to Queene Elizabeth as to their lawfull Prince and Soueraigne the resolution is he that demaundeth this question asketh in effect whether the Pope might doe it or no to which demaund what a Catholike should answere it is playner then I need here to explicate If therefore a Catholike be asked do you beleeue that the Bishop of Rome may depriue Queen Elizabeth of her crown he must answer not regarding any danger of death I beleeue he may for this questiō is a point of faith and requireth a confessiō of our faith Do not these elder brethrē think you dutifully put in their iudgements between these two imagined Parēts the Queen the Pope when they teach their yonger brethrē treason against the Queen for an article point of their faith To ende with this Cardinall who thanks be to God ended his life before he could attaine the expected end of his traiterous dessignments doth he not perswade that it is not onely lawfull but honorable to murther Princes for Religion for saith hee There is no warre in the world so iust or honorable be it ciuill or forraine as that which is waged for Religion Now if it be true that ciuill warre which is the warre of Subiects against the Prince be iust and honourable then is it an honourable act for Subiectes to kill the Prince for the ende proposed in warre is victorie and the way to victorie is bloudshed and slaughter not so much of the people who are not impugned but for partaking with the Prince as of the Prince himselfe whom you seeke to depose and place an other in his steed And this doctrine of your Cardinals Parrie himselfe confesseth vnder his owne hand writing did throughly resolue confirme and strengthen him in his diuellish purpose to kill the Queene Doctor Allens booke saith he was sent me out of France it redoubled my former conceipts euerie word in it was a warrant to a prepared mind It taught that Kings may be excommunicated depriued and violently handled It proueth that all warre
doctrine and institute of life these places might haue seemed to serue some turne but to seeke to raise vp a building without a sure and sound foundation is to climbe high for a certaine and dangerous downefall Therefore vnles you can fetch their foundation from the word of truth these places of Scripture shall neuer be proued to concerne them any thing at all A worthie sect it must needes be that was so lately sounded by Ignatius Loiola a lame Souldiour who when hee would tricke vp these Nouices as the Beare licketh her deformed whelpes and send them abroade into the world offered by himselfe and his friends 3000. hoastes or propitiatorie sacrifices to God so many horrible blasphemies against that alone true propitiatorie sacrifice of Christ Iesus which was offered once and onely once for our sinnes thereby to obtaine grace and fauour to his new erected societie Concerning the profession of these Iesuites their doctrine their life name and conuersation what is to be obiected against them whether they be seditious troublers of Common-wealths and seekers of Princes deaths I neede not say any thing since they are by so many so plainelie handled and laide open and almost all the Christian world seeth and abhorreth their treacheries The Sorbonists of Paris will tell you that their name is vsurped without warrant for in deede what presumption is it that not being content with the auncient and honorable name of Christians which was first giuen to the saithfull at Antioch drawne from Christ the name of our Sauiours office who hath made vs Kings and Priests to God his father they will speciallie bee called Iesuites of Iesus which is our Sauiours name of nature and so as much as in them is diuide Iesus from Christ or ouer presumptuouslie by a speciall priuiledge intrude vpon that name their profession they shew to be different from all others consisting in practising as deepe politikes against Princes and States their doctrine that it is lawfull in some cases for Subiects to kill their Princes labouring by stirring vp seditions and authorising treasons to holde vp and strengthen the tyrannie of Spaine This hath been by the way proued in part in my Resistance to the fourth Encounter by the example of Cardinall Allen who publikelie teacheth that there is no warre whether forraine or Ciuill so honorable as that which is vndertaken for Religion By whose perswasions Parrie confessed that hee was animated and encouraged to kill the Queene as also by the cases of conscience which the Iesuites brought with them into England in which they teach that it is a point of faith that if the Pope depose her Maiestie she is no longer to bee obeyed nor acknowledge for our Queene To which may be added that Parrie was hartened and resolued likewise by Iulio Palmio a Iesuite to put in execution his intended treason against her Maiestie And besides this Edmund Yorke and Richard Williams who being apprehended confessed the same were by Iberra the King of Spaines Secretarie hired to murther the Queene the assignation for the payment of 40000. Crownes for the performance of this notable exploite was deliuered as in deposito to one Holte a Iesuite an olde English Rebell Many were the conferences held about this villanie in which Holte the Iesuite did sit in a sort as a President or head of all these conspiracies and did vehemently perswaded Yorke and Williams to enterprise the matter not onelie receiuing of them both an oath to performe it but also ministring to them the Sacrament thereupon himselfe kissing it and swearing to them solemnly for the assurance of their reward shewing also to them the bill of assignation signed with the King of Spaine his Secretaries hand for the more assurance of the payment Yea further that the insatiable thirst in this Iesuite after her Maiesties bloud may be more manifest he tolde Yorke that seeing the English had often failed to perfourme this enterprise if now it should not be perfourmed by Yorke and his Companie he would afterwards imploie Strangers in it Which in deede before this he attempted by perswading one Patricke Cullin an Irishman and a Pencioner of the King of Spaine to come secretly into England to kill her Maiestie and being his ghostlie Father gaue him absolution to this purpose which Cullin being at his comming apprehended and examined confessed the whole and was accordinglie condemned and executed Whether Doctor Guifford be a Father amongst the Iesuites or a simple Priest I cannot affirme sure it is by Sauage his owne confession that hee perswaded this Sauage to vndertake that most barbarous and sauage acte of shedding the innocent bloud of our gracious Soueraigne The famous Iesuite Posseuine exhorteth the Souldiours of Pius Quintus sent into France against those of the Religion that it is their dutie to kill all Protestants otherwise they breake their faith and lose their saluation And to leaue forraine matters and to ende with our owne because to prosecute all particulars in this kinde were infinite Wal-poole a Iesuite did by oath latelie binde Squyre Stanley and others either by poyson or stabbing to kill her Maiestie By which and sundrie other examples it is euident that this Iesuiticall broode is of Caines humour who had a bloudie heart and hand to shed his brothers bloud and that they follow nay runne farre before Chore in conspiracie For farther insight into this new foundation I referre the Reader at his leasure to the Bishop of Winchesters booke before named to Doctor Humfreyes Iesuitismus to Kemnicius c. The profession practise and vertues of this sect was so fully sifted and tried by the Catholikes of France that it may not be thought to be done by enemies that the vniuersity of Paris wholy opposed it selfe against them and by the mouth of their aduocate pronounced thē worthy of Banishment and after that vpon farther search into them the Parliament of Paris by a publike decree condemned them and cast them out of the whole Kingdome of France into perpetuall Banishment A worthy example of the wise and politike Kingdome of France to try out their treacheries which I wish all Christian Kingdomes would follow that so all Iesuites might be perpetually banished into Terra Virginea or Terra Florida with which this fellow in the entrie of his libell disporteth himselfe from whence no daunger of them might redound to any Christian Monarch Whereto the consideration of the principall vow of this new-found sect might serue to perswade Their principall vow is as a Catholike Frenchman setteth it downe to obey their generall or superiour who is alwaies a Spaniard or one of the King of Spaynes Dominions the words of which vow are set downe to be these That in him they must acknowledge Christ to be present as it were and if Iesus Christ should commaund to goe kill they must doe so In which vow to omit the intollerable blasphemie that they make a
sinfull man equall with God for Gods will is the Rule of Iustice and God doth not commaund things because in themselues they are good but they are therefore good and lawfull because he commaundeth them so that if God commaund Abraham to kill his owne sonne he must yeeld simplie obedience and be content to doe so but it is high sacriledge for any man to vsurpe this piuiledge of God all men may and oftentimes doe erre So that we may not thinke any thing lawfull to be done because our superiours commaund it but we must examine all their commaundements whether they be consonant to the reuealed will of God which is the Rule to trie right and wrong good and euill Cicero an heathen man and ledde onely by the light of nature condemneth as most wicked the resolution of Blasius who professed that he so highly esteemed Gracchus that he held himselfe bound to doe whatsoeuer he badde him who being asked as before is noted whether if he should bidde him set the Capitole on fire answered he would neuer bid me do so but if he would I would haue done it But I say to omit this blasphemie is it obscure by the example set downe in this vow if Iesus Christ should commaund to go kill they must doe so whereto this sect tendeth If Christ commaund to kill we must doe so they must acknowledge Christ to be present in their superiours and yeeld obedience to them as to Christ If then the superiours please for the enlarging of the Spaniards territories or for other reasons pleasing themselues to commaund to kill where is the safetie of Princes liues The Iesuites are sworne men to stirre Rebellion yea and to execute murther vpon Princes if their superiours bid them Is not the Princes safetie made to hang vpon the slender twine-threed of the fauour and good liking of the superiours of this sect And do not the Punies teach to our English Papists for a point of faith in their cases of Conscience that the Queene is no longer to be obeied as our lawfull Soueraigne if the Pope depose her Therefore leauing your Iesuites branded with Cains bloudie worke which is proued not by my words but by their owne out of their speciall vow and by their many bloudie practises I wish that as England breedeth no Wolues and Ireland will beare no Snakes venemous Serpents so these two kingdomes may neuer harbor or foster Iesuites who pretend the sweet name of Iesus and come in sheeps cloathing but inwardlie are rauening wolues and as serpents doe hisse into the eares of Subiectes sedition and rebellion against their lawfull Soueraignes As for Parsons because I obiected not against him any speciall or personall matter but the generall imputation of English Iesuites I will in that generall conclude him without spending any more words about his person Resistance to the sixt Encounter about Recusants TRue is the saying of Tully Qui semel modestiae limites transilijt c. He that hath once broken the bounds of modestie must be lustily and outragiously impudent so fareth it with this masked and disguised companion who being vizoured cannot blush he hath runne a strange veine of immodest and impudent rayling in the whole course of his processe in which praise he passeth all that euer I haue read but in this Encounter he is outragious and doth here ouercome himselfe He hath left no corner of his wit vnsought how he might calumniate and slander me he termeth me an Herodian without conscience and readie to pawne my soule for pleasing the Prince and State He chargeth me with a diuellish and detestable disposition against Catholikes that either I haue plaied the part of Iudas to betray and take them or of Caiphas to condemne and afflict them And not content herewith because happely he knoweth no step of anie bloudy action can be shewed in me that I euer whipped stocked fettered or sought to bring any to death yea when one Hanse a Priest was by authoritie committed to me it is well knowne I vsed him withall humanitie and courtesie letting him fare no worse then my selfe and lodge as might haue seemed a better man then himselfe he chargeth not onely my selfe but also my honourable brother that dead is with a supposall of wishes against her Maiesties safetie hauing perfectlie learned the olde lesson of the schoolemaster of rayling Calumniare audacter c. Rayle and slaunder boldlie for though the wound may be cured yet a blemish or scarre will remain But it is well written of Plinie that the nature of the Loadstone is to draw Iron to it but an Adamant set against it doth withstand it that it cannot draw so though this intemperate vnbridled tongue would draw vpon me ignominie reproach and hatred yet against all his calumniations I will oppose the cleerenes and freedome of a good conscience and that shal be as a fenced Tower and wall of Brasse to breake and blunt the forces of all the sharpe arrowes that this vnrulie tongue hath or shall shoote against me And so bequeathing all his rayling in his whole libell to the diuell from whence it proceeded as Saint Iames teacheth vs speaking of such a tongue as his that it setteth on fire the whole course of nature and is set on fire of hell and commending his person to the Lords mercie if it may please him at anie time to indue him with a better spirit to the substance and matter of his exceptions against mee I will shape a short yet I hope a sufficient answere The first exception or rather meere cauill is against these my words that I direct to the common sort That though some Papistes doe shew a good outward ciuill carriage in ciuill matters yet let not that possesse you with too great a regard of them tearming it afterward a deceitfull bayte Whence you gather or rather wring out two things first that I make little account of good life in Catholikes secondly that I leaue good-workes to Catholikes and reserue onely threed-bare faith to our selues But good Sir there is no such matter you misse your ayme verie much as I know grant that not the hearers of the law but the doers shal be iustified and that if we be not doers of the word but hearers onely we deceiue our owne selues hauing no interest in those three benefits specified in our Creed by Christ purchased to the faithfull Forgiuenes of sinnes Glorious resurrection of our bodies Eternall life so I did neuer so much as by dreame imagine any the least forwardnes to good workes in Papistes aboue vs to whom God forbid that herein we should be inferiour It seemeth you are possessed with Narcissus folly to fall in loue with your owne shadowe take heede of his end But I pray you are not the vulgar and common sort easilie deceiued by and outward ciuill carriage of men Who when they see a man keepe good hospitalitie giue almes to the poore
doth himselfe and I am perswaded contrary to his own cōscience onely vpon an innate and naturall engrafted inclination he hath to be mouthed like the diuell burst forth into such a malignant presumption of inward thoughts against my honourable dead brother and my selfe as no barbarous Scythian would euer offer the like We will examine it in a word He is not onely contented to hold on his rayling fit at me but he must steppe into the graue of a dead man my honourable dead brother and such a dead man as thousandes yet liuing did know and will witnesse him to haue been a most religious man both in knowledge and practise and a most loyall and dutifull subiect and seruant to his Soueraigne which he expressed by his care diligence and paines in all her seruices and in sifting out all perils that might impeach her safetie He was precise and straite in his gouernment for his Soueraignes good and in the execution of Iustice in his place in all causes betweene partie party he was of a most vpright and indifferent carriage and that will manie Recusants yet liuing witnesse for him against this calumniatour He continued President of Yorke for many yeeres by her Maiesties commission who hath giuen manie a most gracious testimonie in his life time of his approued fidelitie and her well-liking of his seruice to his great comfort and commendation and since his death in her princely affection to him hath often bewailed the losse of him and yet this base railing companion blusheth not to strike at this religious honourable Gentleman with his malicious penne by imputing vnto him vndutifull and disloyall wishes against her highnes for whom all our English world knoweth he neuer held his patrimonie nor his life too deare to be spent As for so much as expecting what person should succeed her so delightfull a thing it was to him to see the end of her daies as he would often verie heartily pray that he might not liue to see her daies ended which his praier the Lord heard in whom he died assuredlie and therefore is blessed for euer Therefore thou blasphemous mouth against God and man cease anie more to barke at this blessed dead mans graue As for my selfe I liue to set my foote against anie that dare accuse him or me of the least disloyall thought and if thou darest not shew thy face I neither will offer nor desire anie better clearing then the course of my dutifull carriage hath done and shall doe to my dying daie I will onelie adde this one sentence written heretofore by a true hearted Englishman wherein I ioyne with him from my heart I like better the honest wisedome of those that studie how the Queene may stand and not fall then the reaching pollicie of those that deuise how themselues may stand when the Queene is fallen And from such reaching Polititians God deliuer and disburthen her Maiesty and her kingdome and increase the number of such religious honest hearts to her as will pray daily to God for the prolōging of her daies employ their wits wholy to preserue her person and put backe all perils that may come towards her and will not thinke their liues too deere to stand in the gappe to withholde daunger from her The third imputation against the Papistes is their dissimulation of which somewhat hath been alreadie shewed but here you proceed againe to raile cauill and misconstrue my words your railing I still passe ouer in which kind I list not to contend with you your cauilling and misconstruing shall briefely be laid open My words you set downe These ciuill honest men that vnder pretence of Conscience rebell against God in religion and refuse to yeeld a loyall obedience to their Liege-Ladie seeme to carrie a most lamentable resolution lurking in their bosomes against Queene Countrie and vs all c. And if this be conscience I know not what conscience meaneth and yet this conscience they fetch from Rome c. You beginne with the last wordes from which you pike out this conclusion against me that I know not what conscience meaneth either in nature and definition or in practise and feeling the first you say is past my vnderstanding by reason my bringing vp hath hnot been in schooles the other you take vpon you to make plaine I am voide of by my manner of writing against Catholikes c. Surely I willingly confesse my wants in learning to be verie great and doe bewaile my losse of time in that behalfe yet this I hope I may say without suspition of vanitie or ostentation that I laid the grounds of learning in one of the best schooles in this land namely Winchester and added some further building in one of the best Vniuersities in Christendome namelie Oxford studying there in Magdaleine Colledge vnder that worthy Doctor Humfrey where besides my priuate study I wanted not such furtherance as the cōference with sundrie of the best learned in the Vniuersitie could afford me and since I left the Vniuersitie I haue not spent so much time in hunting hawking as you presume although I hold them for lawfull recreations moderatelie vsed in the feare of God And therefore I did long since know I praise God that Conscience is a part of our vnderstanding determining of our particular actions either with them or against them I knowe also that of this Conscience God onelie is Lorde and his words and lawes doe onely binde the same properlie and from hence must we fetch the direction and warrant of our practise of Conscience which will not admit vs to depose and set vp and to obey disobey Soueraignes at our pleasures yea and to kill Princes as your Pope giueth warrant to doe and then to say we doe it of Conscience but will giue me a sufficient warrantise to condemne all such Schoolemasters and Schollers and so Sir not as a teacher in our Israel but as a Scholler I haue tolde you what Conscience is and by that touch I haue giuen of the practise and feeling of Conscience which must bee warranted by the word of God and not by mens dreames and traditions I haue cancelled the warrant you would take to your selues to disobey and resist the authoritie giuen to her Maiestie from God The rest that you snarle at in these words or in those that follow concerning my speeches against Recusants or any thing materiall thereto belonging I will briefelie answere First my tearmes of falsehoode disloyaltie wicked treasons and lurking resolutions against Queene and Countrie calling them the Catilines of our time c. This doth moue your patience much and for this I must vndergoe the bitter biting of your venemous and slaunderous tongue and bee called a monstrous lyer and calumniatour which by a bricke wall will hazard to light vpon your selfe For why should I be blamed to charge them with falsehoode disloyaltie treason and lurking resolutions against Queene and Countrie and to bee the very