and sellers of their deare countriemens bloud they go about busily to perswade such a reciprocation to be betwixt the King Catholicke of Spaine and the faith Catholicke of Rome that as reall relations the latter relatiue cannot be without his former correlatiue which must giue him his being and essence in nature Insomuch as it is become a point of necessitie or as they absurdly and heretically would make men beleeue a thirteenth Article of our faith that either all Catholicke Christians must endeuour to put all Europe into a Spaniards hands or otherwise that the Catholicke religion will be vtterly extinguished and perish and so by consequent all runne Hysteron Protheron a milne horse a King Pope a Curch Spaniard and the faith of S. Peter and his successours must hang vpon the monarchie of King Philip and his heires And how long forsooth Mary euen so long as the Iesuits shall please which is vntill they may be able to pull him and all other Princes downe from their thrones by causing popular rebellions as hereafter shall be proued Well well these fellowes must be talked withall in time and made to know themselues and their grosse errours against al diuinitie philosophie policie pietie and order Meane while we leaue them to chop logicke in barbarisme and feede their chimericall conceits with Relatiues of Ens rationis or rather Ens insensibile insensatum irroale infatuatum fictum and so passe on to the next point of plot-casting by Fame and Report of the vnworthie heroicall matchlesse magnificall Mecenates THE ARGVMENT FOR THE THIRD GENERALL QVODLIBET ONe naile driues in another the first partie prouokes a reioynder by a second encounter and vpon occasion of plots cast by doctrine principles rules and obseruations of practise doth necessarily follow a Quodlibet of new plots cast by Fame and Report and how the Iesuits come to be enriched honoured and regarded with preferments aboue their deserts by that meanes THE THIRD GENERALL QVODlibet of plots by Fame and Report THE I. ARTICLE WHether the Iesuits or any other religious order be to be preferred before secular Priests or not or if not whether the said Iesuits are to be preferred before all other monasticall or religious orders or which and how many are before them THE ANSWERE IT is neuer enough to be admired at that religious men being by vow and profession dead and buried to the world should be blinded with a conceit Note here a simple coÌ„ceit of good father Gerard to inferre a Iesuits place to be aboue a secular Priestes because forsooth an old Queen Marie Priest told him that he had seene religious men sit aboue other priests at Table Well poore man I pitie his simplicitie in that being otherwise of a good nature he is much blinded and corrupted in his life maners by being a Iesuit which societie would God he did and would forsake considering how it is now corrupted as any one amongst them But for his author God wot many Priestâ— other men women were and are too submissiue at somtimes to their inferiors though in carresie a religious person as a stranger be placed aboue a priest as an ordinarie guest or friend or in his owne house which is ciuilitie so to do yet it is no way of due right nor euer was so taken that they can possibly simul semel sub vno eodem subiecto be dead and aliue mortified and made liuely yea and that spiritu carne simul for to be mortificatos quidem carne viuificatos autem spiritu is no lesse then euery Christian Catholicke may and should be to be wholy sequestrate from the world in body and mind and yet withall al wholy substantially actually plodding in it with bodie and soule ouer head eares Yet we must beleeue that such is the Iesuits rare calling and state that forsooth they are wholy dead and wholy aliue absolute spiritual men and yet meere worldlings which if they can make good and go through with it I say it is a greater miracle to speak ad homineÌ„ for in respect of Gods omnipotencie miracles admit not maius minus then to raise a triduane Lazarus from death to life againe yea onely to the patible and withall impatible body of our Sauiour Christ was this priuiledge left as a prerogatiue royall reserued to his sacred Maiestie diuine that it should be simul semel dead and aliue And this only by reason of the hypostasis or hypostaticall vnion of his deitie to his humanity By meanes whereof restraming infringing and holding in the impregnable force of the first in the time of his bitter death and passion for otherwise he could not haue suffered in speech of miracles we say it was more miraculous because more seeming impossible how that euer he could suffer death then for him to rise from death to life againe suffering the same power diuine to haue his yet limited force againe after that fearefull and last gaspe in giuing vp his blessed ghost vpon the crosse it followed that the same tres-sacred bodie or totum compositum Christ himselfe was both dead and buried and yet the same Christ aliue both in soule descending into hell vntouched and also in body lying three dayes and nights in his graue and yet not corrupted as powerably preserued per concomitantiam diuinitatis so as no corruption of mans mortality could then take place And therefore the Iesuits striuing for a superiority aboue seculars would go an ace aboue both their and our Lord and maister Iesus the circumstances considered in this their miraculous working of wonders in themselues by their spirituall death and temporall resurrection Here may be well remeÌ„bred a merry iest of a Gentlewoman in Fetter-lâ—ne who talking of one maister Edward Cossin a sorry fellow god-wot but who is so bold as blind Bayard and none more arrogant in place taking then this punie father a Priest gone then ouer to be a Iesuit yea quoth she is he gone now truly then I see he will seeke to a state of more perfection Well yet pure Lady by her leave this thogh a Iesuiticall fond perswasion was quite contrary to a solemne protestation made by a chiefe father at Rome in excuse of inticing the English youth who said that â—f hee were to chuse a state of perfectioÌ„ he would sooner chuse to go as a Seminary Priest into England theÌ„ to enter into or be of the strâ—ctest order of religion whatsoeuer Of this matter I haue written a peculiar Treatise which is one of the 10. volumes or bookes I meane to set out against these new masters the Iesuits and their especially father Parsons errors as time place approbation and other occasions shall permit perswade allow me wherein I haue made an historicall discourse or chronicle of the conuersion of all countries to the Christian faith the beginning progresse end and fall of such and so many as are gone of euery religious order as
crow so fast ouer all Surely were I a Iesuite and vnpriested I would neuer abide one hower in their order for feare of afterclaps Well I will be no blabbe nor do wish to be the Prophet of their destruction but fiat iustitia ruant coeli they haue had their time of defaming disgracing and accusing let them giue vs ours of defending THE IIII. ARTICLE VVHether is it lawfull to set out the Iesuits in their proper colours to vse satyricall and biting words and writings against them and to detect them of all such vices as may humble them and breed in peoples hearts a true conceit of them euen as they are and none otherwise better or worse Or else fitter to conceale from the worlds eare all such things as yet are not discouered of them and only to defend in mild answers c THE ANSWERE ALL Priests and others that are not of that seditious Iesuiticall and Spanish faction are bound in charitie as now the case stands to detect them to the vttermost First for a caueat to the ignorant multitude seduced by them hereafter to beware of them Secondly per legem talionis returning their malice foule detraction defamation calumniation obloquie and what not inuented by them against the innocent vpon their own heads Thirdly for that the same legifer Who willed the patient if smitten on the one eare to offer the other did also allow it as iust and lawfull that in what sinne soeuer a man had sinned in the same he should be punished and with like measure to his brother giuen it should be remeasured to him againe Fourthly for this cause it was that our Sauiour Christ himselfe although he acknowledgeth that the Scribes and Pharisees sitting in Moses chaire were in their doctrine to be obeyed that is so long as they remained visible members of and in Gods church they ought to be obediently beleeued in all points of doctrine concerning the Catholike faith yet for their corrupt manners lewd life and hypocrisie with how many vaes and woes to you Scribes and Pharisees did he come vpon them How many hypocrites how many progenies and vipers broodes and how many Sathans and begotten of the diuell did he tearme them yea and sometimes also euen his owne beloued Apostles And haue not all the saints and seruants of God vsed the like libertie of speech when occasion was giuen and time was for it Reade Saint Paules Epistle to his Timothe to his Corinthians to his Galathians c. Reade the Ecclesiasticall histories of the words of Saint Iohn the Euangelist of Saint Policarpe of Saint Anthony of Saint Chrysostome c. yea reade but for proofe hereof sundry of Fa. Parsons letters bookes libels and pamphlets together with sundrie Satyricals of Maister Blackwels though silly man I verily thinke he wrote some things against his conscience at the instigation of those seeming top of wits willing precise Pythagorists the Iesuits In the which libels pamphlets and Satyres seeing you shall find a manifest but most vnlawfull libertie of speech to detract the innocent then à fortiori no reason but those should be discouered in way of iustice and common charitie who hold an vniust charter of another mans good name fame and life tearing it in peeces with their toungs euery houre at their pleasure as though the fee simple of all mens acts words and thoughts were in their gift to raise and let fall the price of all at their deuotion Fiftly this discouery made by the secular cleargie and Seminarie Priests of the Iesuits trecherous abuse of Synonamaes Epithetons phrases tialitie and simplicitie to be made such a dotterell as the Iesuits cannot chuse but laugh in their sleeue to thinke how they can draw wind and make him willingly to speake write or act what they please with or against himselfe without all sense honestie modestie conscience religion vnderstanding or learning Insomuch as it appeares by this that his simplicitie is so great that he stands in such awe of them and so much and wholy at the Iesuits deuotion to stand or fall that if they should send vnto him or will him to set out an edict that all crowes were white he would commaund all vnder paine of excommunication to subscribe vnto it For how is it possible otherwise that in a case so manifest as this is scil the Iesuits write directly infamous libels against both Catholicke Priests and against the whole Common-wealth of their natiue land and against all in generall of both states ecclesiasticall and temporall and the Seculars write onely Apologies in a iust defence of all these this being the case on both sides how is it possible that a halfe witted man vnlesse ouercome with partiall fauour or feare should erre so grossely and palpably in the sight of all the world as to suspend excommunicate c. or at least make it be giuen out so or winke at the brokers of it to haue it thought that the Priestes bookes may not be read and yet the Iesuits bookes may nay shall be commended vnto both men and women of purpose to be read as most excellent rare and learned matter scil for to bring their necks into the halter well if God pardon maister Blackwell this fault there is good hope he will pardon all his offences yet is it vincibilis yea and Crassa ignorantia in the highest degree of grosnesse Secondly Maister Blackwels authoritie is onely if he haue any and not lost all by abuse of it in causes ecclesiasticall concerning Religion c. and therefore let him looke to the case of premunire for his accepting of an vnheard of soueraigntie contrarie to the order prescribed by the ancient lawes of this kingdome as some do hold and for his intermedling in allowance of the Iesuits libels and statizations and not threaten the seculars in that wherein he hath nothing to do Thirdly if his authoritie extended as it is pretended to inhibite and forbid all kind of bookes but such as he should approue allow and licence yet in all reason it hath this limitation viz where he himselfe is not a partie or if not so yet in an action of life and death of soule bodie honor or good name he cannot forbid any whosoeuer to write or speake in defence of anie the said liues and to cleare himselfe if he can neither can he yet forbid or forwarne any one to reade or heare any thing that may saue the life of the innocent And therefore the most inhumane vnchristian vncatholicke vniust and vncharitable part that euer was heard of to stop or seem to stop the Priests Apologies written in defence of their good names taken away by the Iesuits an act so cruell vnnaturall and contrarie to all lawes diuine or humane as the Popes Holinesse cannot dispense with any one to fulfill it no more then to dispense with any one to kill himselfe either bodily or ghostly as the not writing of these Apologies or the like were at least the
Christendome and farre more then they will allow to the poore prisoners at Wishich or to students at home or other places where the Seminary and secular Priestes liue vnder them and therefore rightly called their prisoners as kept so streightly that they may not recreate themselues together nor two of them haue any speech or conference without a third with many like Turkish cruelties which these tyrants vse against the English Priestes whilest they liue in all iollitie wealth and pleasure themselues there as in all other bookes and Apologies you may find set out at large of that matter Seuenthly they professe no continuall silence nor solitarie life as sundrie religeous do and keepe it most strictly thinking it a death to come foorth of their Cels and Cloisters into the world to haue any speech medling or sight of any worldly thing But they quite contrarie professe such a popularity secularitie temporalitie and all mundane kind of life and medling in worldly affaires as wonder it is how euer they haue time to thinke of God or any good Saint Eightly they professe neither chastitie nor yet obedience more then any other religious order doth yea no more in very deed their manner of performing obedience to their superiour considered then euery secular Priest doth And if a man go to the wayes and meanes of performance of this their vowe of chastitie and obedience it is farre inferiour and more imperfect vncertaine and dangerous in them then in any or the most part of other religious orders Ninthly if their perfection consist in this that they labour in preaching teaching conuersion of soules ministring of Sacraments managing of causes with Princes and ciuill persons and therefore as diuines say quia maius est illuminare quam illuminari so they affirme that they haue taken a state of most perfection that way vpon them and indeed they take so much vpon them in that behalfe as they seeme to arrogate an Apostolicall power and authoritie reserued to themselues alone therein speaking it in plaine tearmes that the seculars ought not to meddle in such affaires but content themselues like sillie simple men with hearing confessions at most or onely saying of Masse for as for confessions I wis they will not with their good-wils permit that a secular Priest should take the confessions of any vnlesse it be of meane persons and poore folkes where no gaine nor commoditie is to be had but at Gods hand onely yet by these worshipfull Rabbies leaues if they vsurpe secular Priests places and authority and thereupon challenge a degree of perfection vnto them before and aboue all other then would I know from whence they haue that gift to illuminate and power and authority of preaching teaching hearing confessions and other like Ecclesiasticall iurisdictions For as for their managing of Ciuill and Martiall causes as inuasion of kingdomes raising of rebellions defamation of Princes and bringing all into a popular contempt that are not themselues or dependent on them and the like absurdâ—ties as they haue receiued no such commission from God nor his Church but directly from the common enemy of mankind as suggested by him and after bred in their itching ambicious idle working braines so no secular will wish seeke or accept of that their seditious turbulent and bloudy office vnfit of all other for Priests to deale in out of their hands It is therefore of the former Ecclesiasticall iurisdictions lawfull authorities whereof I speake would know from whence of whom they haue them Either they must haue them immediatly from God or else from man To say they haue them immediatly from God I thinke they will not but yet if they dare say so as who can tel what giddy heads puffed vp with swelling pride impudency insolency wil say or do when it stands theÌ„ vpon to stand to their tacklings or else haue all their followers disciples forsake them then first it wil be demanded per quaÌ„ regulam do they proue it Secondly what testimony or witnesse haue they for it Thirdly how when in what place was this new institution of Ecclesiastiques promise granted confirmed ratified Fourthly by what signe tokeÌ„ wonder or miracle shal we know it is from God immediatly for miracles we must haue for confirmations of all new doctrine approbation of ancient Catholike traditions customes orders Thirdly what manner of man vbi gentium where was he borne whose sonne was he where and how was he brought vp how liued he how died he that was the first author or illuminate of this innouation and change Sixtly and last of all after all these things are examined and knowne and that with helpe of an Aesopian fable they can bring vs into a conceit of a Lucean Tower to be firmely built in the imaginatiue horescope of their wandring zodiacke yet will they all be proued by this meanes to be flat forerunners of Antichrist and Archinuenters of new Puratinisme worse then euer yet was heard of or else made to do publike pennance throughout all Churches in Christendome confessing before the whole world as I pray God graunt them grace humility and patience to do it what blind guides and seducers of innocent hearts they haue bene leading many soules into eminent danger of perdition by arrogating to to much vnto themselues c. Againe if they say they haue this authority and by consequent are in state of perfection aboue the seculars by institution and gift of and from the Pope his Holinesse and Sea Apostolike then it will be replied by necessary sequele vpon them First that the Pope himselfe must needes be thereby of a more perfect life then they are which in no wise they will yeeld vnto yea arrogating an extraordinarie familiaritie with God to be due to them alone and a kind of impossibilitie of errour in their Synodall consultations called vnder and by their Generall their speciall prerogatiue and meanes to bring any one to perfection they are so farre from yeelding or granting it at least equally with them to his Holinesse is such as they haue preached openly in Spaine against Pope Sixtus the last of all holy memorie and rayling against him as against a most wicked man and monster on earth they haue called him a Lutheran hereticke they haue termed him a wolfe they haue said he had vndone all Christendom if he had liued and in few Card. Bellarmine himself as Iudge Paramount being asked what he thought of his death answered Qui sine paenitentia viuit sine paenitentia moritur proculdubio ad infernum descendit and to an English Doctor of our nation he said Conceptis verbis quantum capio quantum sapio quantum intelligo descendit ad infernum Well let this passe as a comfort to seculars to be ful of imperfections as vnworthie creatures to be iustly censured of by these worthie perfectiues that dare iudge their chief Pastor which no sacred Sinode nor OEcumenicall Councell either wold either
durst euer haue done so before them Secondly if these new illuminates take their perfection from this principle Quia maius est illuminare quā illuminari then must they by necessarie sequele herein also be pleased to heare it that maius est dare quà m accipere and therefore if the State Ecclesiasticall secular Cleargie giue them this authoritie wherby they come to this peerelesse perfection à fortiori yet stil the secular Prelats as the giuers thereof must be before thē in that degree of perfection Thirdly in order of perfections this hath euer bene an auncient Canonicall obseruation and rule of none denied that any religious person may passe into an other order of religion that is stricter then his owne is whereunto he hath vowed himselfe at the first intending therein to liue and dye and all this in regard that the said stricter order is holden to be a state of more perfection and nearer familiaritie or intercourse with God and his holy Angels and Saints But now admit the Iesuites order or rather societie for they are such straunge men as all must consist of innouations nouelties and new names amongst them were so strict as in regard of this point of perfection none might passe out of their societie into any other religious order yet as out of all other religious orders there haue passed some in all ages to take secular charge curam animarum vpon them so also out of the Iesuites societie there haue passed diuers that haue bene Cardinals c. And if they denye Cardinals to be seculars or to take charge of soules vpon them once I am sure they are not Monasticall and by consequent the farther secluded frō seculars or ecclesiastiques the more temporall and laicall must needes their liues be But yet seeing all this notwithstanding they may come out of the societie to be Cardinals and then à fortiori to be Bishops or other Prelats and Pastors more directly taking curam animarum vpon them it followeth that alwaies their state of perfection is inferior to the secular Fourthly that thing wherein the merit is either counted greater in seeking for it or in accepting of it being offered or the sinne greater in neglecting to take it or refusall being commaunded is euer of more perfection then any other wanting those circumstances But as no man is bound neither may he leaue his Bishopricke or other pastorall office void without dispensation of his superiour So on the contrarie any religious person Iesuit or other may lawfully yea and oftentimes is bound to leaue his Cell Cloyster or Colledge though by his departure the doores must and may be shut vp for any comming there euer after and take curam animarum vpon him Vtpote quia is qui episcopatum desiderat bonum opus desiderat c. Et bonum vt supra dixi quo communis eo melius Therefore still is a secular life of more perfection then a religious by that principle of illuminating others Fiftly if they vrge their perfection of life by illuminating of soules to consist of this that it is done vnder obedience to their superior which vertue of obedience being in holy Scripture prophetically defined to be better then sacrifice it followeth that of all other signes of perfection Christian renuntiation mortification and denying of themselues this is the greatest most manifest and chiefe in that by reason hereof be they neuer so well setled to their content wish and desire hauing all things that may please or delight them and freed preserued and defended from all things that may molest them yet must they keepe such a strait hand and strait watch ouer their will and all their senses continually as volens nolens their will must not be theirs but their superiors to go or runne thence in change of a thought or turne of a hand and repaire out of England or other Northerne region into Ethiope Egypt or India or else wheresoeuer they shall be commaunded yea though it be morally certaine they shall neuer come thither or else there to be murdered or slaine And this is the point indeed whereupon they stand as a precious mirrour of all perfection and attributed to their societie alone To which I answer first that I could wish with all my heart and so could many thousands in England wish the like that their obedience were tried and themselues mortified to perfection aboue all seculars in their quiet departure out of this land and go and liue where they list afterward according as they and their superiours shall thinke fittest for them to make this their state of perfection secure But I doubt if they should by neuer so powerable authoritie be called out hence yea if it were from his Holinesse they would call him a Protestant for so doing as now they do all seculars or others that wish it both for their owne and the generall good quiet and securitie of our Prince countrie present State and all Catholikes in generall borne vnder English allegeance And againe if they should be thrust out and expelled by force as like enough they are to be so by some sudden vprore rebellion or inuasion procured by them as a Gent. of the Spanish faction and an entire friend and follower of one Father Ouldcorne seemed to say no lesse of late vz. That these contentions must end with bloud and I verily beleeue he said true bloud must and will end it indeed if they be not thrust out in time but cursed be these bloudie massacrers that are the procurers of it Then doubt I on the other side these perfectly mortified ghostes will be so farre out of patience as they will loose all their merite without recouerie and the rather am I so perswaded by reason of the great murmuring sorrow execrations and curses they vsed so pathetically passionatly and extreame outragiously against the King of France and his honorable Councell for expelling them thence notwithstanding their liues were all in his hands so that whereas he might iustly haue put them all to death for traitors arrested vpon high treason yet granting them their liues gratis and also giuing of them three French crownes a peece with a certaine time of leaue to prouide for themselues to depart they most ingratefull of all other a vice to be plaine with you which is generally noted in them all as a natiue braunch proper to Nicke Machiuels crue neuer to be thankfull longer then they are in hope of a greater benefite thereby forgetting or rather not any way acknowledging any benefite mercie or lenitie but all extremitie tyrannie and crueltie shewed towards them by the King fell into such tearmes of malitious speeches against his Christian Maiestie as some English Priests being thē in the low Countries confines of France at the time of their expulsion did note and report vnto me in verbo sacerdotis that the common people hearing it and how vehemently they spoke against the peace then in hand betwixt these two
Iesuits perfections that bring all the world into admiration of their Pharisaical holinesse and Scribisticall zeale and religion THE III. ARTICLE VVHether seing the Iesuits are of so bad imperfect corrupt a life is their societie a confirmed order of religion or else is it a secular or ecclesiasticall state of life or otherwise a meere temporall profession of companionship as the word societie importeth or none at all or what is it THE ANSWERE IT is as I haue told you before enough for that matter a very hotch potch of al together their founders principles which were good in the originall being quite peruerted corrupted and altered by them in the execution and practise For as you may gather clearely out of the last Quodlibet they are neither secular nor religious and yet they will be counted the latter in name and will be of themselues the former nay more then the former in action Insomuch as to the great discredit of their societie and the reuerend esteeme had at the first of them they runne now such a desperate course as if religion were but a meere politicall and Atheall deuise or practicall science inuented by fig-boyes and men of the Bernard high lawe such like as liue by their wits principles of Machiauell taught by their Arch-Rabbies how to maintaine with equiuocations dissimulation detraction ambition sedition contention surfeiting sorer then euer did Heliogabalus with his many hundred varieties of seruices serued in at euery banquet or feast royall at his Table in setting diuision breeding of ielousie making of hostile strife by opposition of King against King State against State 〈…〉 the 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 f lowes â—â—â—cap or wnes to â—â—â—â—on â—â—ngdom and to 〈◊〉 Kinâ—â— with Pâ—mphlets in then ambi ious hearts And whâ— is it they cannot do with fâ—cing aloof of but come it once to â—â—ysting they are gone So in their great ostentâ—tion of learning when the secular challenged or rather intreated a dispâ—â—ation to be had about schisme they durst not come to the encounter but like cowards and scolds â—ailed against of for mouing of such a matter Priest against Priest Peere against Peere parents against children sisters against brothers children against parents seruants against maisters wiues against husbands huâ—bands against wiues and one friend against another raising of rebellions murthering of Princes making vprores euery where vntill they make those they cannot winne otherwise vnto them either yeeld to be their vassals for to liue quiet by the or force them to flight or driue them out of their wits or otherwise plague them to death Are these men then to be called religious nay are they to be called seculars or Ecclesiastickes Nay are they worthie the name of Catholike laitie nay of temporall worldly Mechanicall Christians No no their course of life doth shew what their study is and that howsoeuer they boast of their perfections holinesse meditations and exercises whereof we will talke anone yet their platforme is heathenish tyrannicall Sathanicall and able to set Aretine Lucian Machiauell yea and Don Lucifer in a sort to schoole as impossible for him by all the art he hath to besot men as they do as is most manifest by this onely contention betwixt the seculars and them if there were none other proofe For could the foule feend himselfe or all the infernall furies haue put such an odious conceit into Catholikes heades and hearts against their owne ghostly Fathers and deare friends as these worse then wicked spirits haue done Could the Diuell with all the art he hath haue made the laitie to haue condemned and contemned the seculars and with whoups and howbubs made all the world ring of them as of disobedient irreligious Publicanes and Schismatikes for not subscribing to the Archpriest at their becke and command a full halfe yeare before euer he had any authoritie It is maruellous to thinke of this â—â—nding impudencâ—â— of the Iesuits in establishing of then Archpriest and what shamefull and gracelesse shifts they are driuen vntâ— or â—â—â—her vâ—â—untarily fallen into for defence of their intollerable wickednesse and abuse of all estates therein Amongst others of which bald shifts this is one and a chiefe to blind the ignorant withall For that the Pope hauing now confirmed the Archpriests authoritie alâ—hough it were vnlawfully gotten and that he sheweth himselfe partiall vnfit and too cruell therein yet now all men ought to obey it and may no way speake against it yea if he excommunicate suspend c. vniustly or whatsoeuer he do else yet being in authoritie he ought to be obeyed and those whom he so censureth to be auoyded And thus these ignorant see not how that by this meanes murders treasons blasphemies vsurpations extorsions cousinage heresie or whatsoeuer vice or villanie is committed by any inferior officer may not be complained on to a superior But that an excommunication passing from such a grosse vsurper is still of force be there cause or no cause for it they all this while keeping silence and bearing all their reproches with patience And then againe when a forged foisted in authoritie was gotten by cousinage and cogging most egregiously with his Holinesse and so the grant to none effect yet the seculars willing to put all vp quietly and rest with the losse and taking away of their good names which was dearer to them then their liues But not permitted to liue so they being of fresh tormented againe by these most turbulent and malicious men and vrged to make a kind of recantation or satisfaction by way of publike penance with repentance of not yeelding at the first and acknowledging they were in schisme could then all the feends in hell haue driuen into peoples minds a conceit of scandale or any other offence to haue bene giuen or committed by the seculars for either appealing to his Holinesse for iustice against these tyrants in their iust defence and to haue the cause tried there betwixt them or for setting out bookes to declare and make knowne to the world what these wretched men were and how mightily both the seculars were iniured and all others deluded by them No it had bene impossible for any wicked spirit to haue dealt so maliciously and yet haue perswaded the people that the seculars were still in the fault and the Iesuite innocent lambes Saints and free And yet this haue these Machiuileans done and banded it out most impudently yea so farre as notwithstanding the discouerie of their high impietie by bookes and other meanes yet will the people still beleeue them in euery thing They will beleeue that the seculars in time of their long silence did yet deserue to be railed vpon contemned and reuiled as they were They will beleeue that their now writing in their owne iust defence and setting out but in part as they haue deserued is odious scandalous and very euill done of them So as both silence and speech condemnes them and all this by a cogging tricke of Machiauell
wrath The like was their most odious and inhumane cruelty shewed towards maister Benson in keeping him from all reliefe so as he became far in debt and being in the Counter his fellow prisoner maister Edward Coffin a young Iesuit hauing abundance knowne to be sent and brought vnto him yet could of his Iesuiticall charity suffer him to continue in that want wherein he liued It were too tedious to recount all the inhumane parts of these cruel harted men of their dogged natures Iewish harts where once they conceiue a dislike rightly fulfilling therein that Atheall principle of Machiauell neuer to pardon though in pollicy it be good to flatter and fawne vntill thou seest thy time and may take thine aduantage without repulse where thou once hast taken a displeasure against any person publike or priuate or common society or other corporation or company I could enlarge my selfe here with a long tragicall discourse of this one party last named how maliciously they haue bene bent against him not for any thing that he hath either published or done against them but onely for that vpon earnest suite made vnto him by me I got him to set me downe with much a do what he had heard and seene at Rome concerning the death of Pope Xistus Cardinall Allane Cardinall Tollet the Bishop of Cassana and some others of all which there went a general report that their liues were not any whit lengthned howsoeuer they were or might be shortned by the Iesuits meanes as a great suspition there was of all or most of them Which that reuerend good Priest of a mild modest scrupulous feare writing sparingly vnto me attesting as his Priestly behauiour hath euer since approued it that he was loth to meddle in discouery of any such matter being then in place where he was rather to occupy the best thoughts of his passage here hence not knowing when he might be called to his account then to busie his wits with calling to mind what had past in the Romane Colledge or elsewhere during his abode there And only that which he wrote was rather to excuse their impious dealings thē otherwise being not so much nor so plainely deliuered as I had heard before Yet this letter being so cunningly intercepted or stolne out of my cassocke pocket or otherwise reuealed by one maister C. Io. who playd on both sides as the effects shewed shortly after or howsoeuer it was a coppy they got thereof and to heare how the Archpriest layd on load on the poore man for it and how his good maisters the Iesuits prosecuted it would make any man hate them euer after But to let these things passe and to come to their sacriligeous abuse of that manner of meditation and method of holy exercise which was with more deuotion and more fruitfull progresse practised ere euer any Iesuite was borne then it hath bene since amongst them although I do not deny but it is very good and wel set forth by them as my selfe can partly witnesse of mine owne experience hauing taken it at their hands Mary the managing of a matter is all and therein the intention is chiefly to be respected which is ordinarily knowne through the effects produced by it For although that act which is of it selfe euill as we say intrinsice per se can neuer possibly be made good yet doth it not therefore follow è conuerso that an act which of it selfe is good can no way per accidens be made euil verbi gratia for a man to kil his own father or violently rauish his mother can by no dispensatiō or other meanes euer be made lawfull good or allowable but yet a man intending to conuert a soule and takes his confession with intēt to enioyne him for penance to murther his Soueraigne or commit some suchlike or farre lesse horrible crime that act of teaching preaching mouing the penitent to confession is good of it selfe but yet the intention makes it starke naught damnable in him that vrgeth or perswadeth the sayd penitent vnto it To this doth fitly symbolize S. Augustines quadruparte destinction saying Est bonum bene factum est bonum malefactum Est malum malefactum est malum benefactum denotating by these two aduerbes benè malè the intention which may alter that per accidens that otherwise is or might be quite contrary per se And so the Iesuits exercise although in it selfe it did far surpasse and go beyond all others in matter manner and method obserued in the actuall vse of it yet when it is done for an euill end as to make it a conicatching or cosening tricke or sleight to picke a man or womans purse nay to get all their lands by it thē is the intention wicked and naught and by consequent the act is naught in them Of this exercise then because it is a point of most importance as wherwith many good Catholikes are mightily abused both men women and especially such as be of the mildest sweetest gentlest natures fitter indeed for heauen then to liue amongst such counterfeits on earth I will set you downe a relation made by a reuerend Priest a most ancient worthy cōfessor and one whose hoary lockes grauity learning wisdom gouernment and long sufferance may iustly apall and abate the heate of the prowdest Iesuits haughty hart within this land His words are these or to this effect set downe as followeth When the Iesuits find one fit for their turne they insinuate themselues into him keepe him company vse him with all kind of sweet behauiour and courtesie pretend to haue an especiall care of his well doing in al things but principally how he may attaine to be in high fauour with God To which purpose they enter by degrees into certaine discourses of hell wherin they omit none of their skill by authorities examples and large amplifications to make the same as terrible as possibly they can By which course they cast the party in time into great feare and pensiuenesse all which were well done if it were to a good end Whē they haue held on after this sort so long as they thinke cōuenient intermingling now and thē some cōforts least otherwise the party vnder their fingers should grow weary of them then they begin to be more plentifull in the setting forth of such cōfortable promises as are made in the Scriptures to the children and seruants of God Here they omit no part of their skill to describe the heauens the Maiesty and glory of God the happy estate and ioyes of the Saints in that euerlasting kingdome which is prepared for those who in this life shall imbrace the Christian faith and become obedient children in their true calling vnto their holy mother the Catholike Romane Church In a letter of father Iohn Gerrard the Iesuit dated in August 1599. to father Parsons amongst other simple complements whereby Protheus comports Camelion he vseth these words scil Your selfe
iniuries done vnto him more probable they caused the same to be openly promulgated out of the pulpit in the Colledge at Rhemes The second particular calumniation amongst an hundred now to be omitted may well be that against Doctor Lewis a man so fauoured by diuerse Popes as first he was made Montseigneur then Bishop of Cassana afterward Nuncio for Gregorie the fourteenth to Lucerna and then Visitor generall of Rome and all the Popes dominions Note here these base Polititians ingratitude they hauing receiued by him many very extraordinarie benefites as by his procurement they got the Rectorship of the English Seminarie in Rome Furthermore when 22. of them were to be banished out of the citie of Perugio for their cousinage to haue enriched themselues there one of them being notoriously detected for alluring a Gentlewoman to giue them a very rich chaine of gold without her husbands priuitie as a very like case fell out at Leege in low Germany these fine fingred figge boyes are so nimble about Ladies and Gentlewomens iewels this prudeÌ„t good Bishop being their generall Visitor vsed such meanes as all was hushed vp and they continued there still Notwithstanding all which with many like benefits receiued at his hands A vile part of Fa. Parsons and others that because the blessed man this good Bishop now in heauen disliked of the Iesuits gouernment and their gouernors in the English Col. at Rome they should publish libels against him here in England after his death notwithstanding that the holy Bishop within foure houres before his death vpon occasion protested that he had bene most falsly charged with vpholding and maintaining of the Students in the English Seminarie against the Iesuits Yea it is well knowne that whilst he was aliâ—â— he might haue curbed many of that insoleÌ„t crew being their Visitor generall But a milder man liued not nor more apt to put vp and forgiue al iniuries and eueÌ„ of purpose he refrained to visite that crew because knowing their hard coÌ„ceits of him he would not giue theÌ„ any occasion to say he was partiall if he had dealt so roundly with theÌ„ as they deserued yet all was one nay it is far better to be an open enemie to their cursed designments then to conniue and be a flattering current of their fatall course For it is a rule with them Quinon est nobisâ—â—â— contra nos est c. yet the kind fathers could not endure him and this only because he disliked their courses practises in their garboiles at Rome about the Students in the English Seminarie And so extreme is their malice where they once take displeasure as their wrath and indignation is intollerable though it be for neuer so small a trisle which this good Bishop found most true For whilest he was aliue they caused their disciples to raile vpon him most spitefully calling him a factious seditious and most partiall man And a little before his death they cast out a libel against him wherein they had laid many horrible crimes to his charge and amongst other things made this deuout prayer for him full like their charitie towards all good men scil aut mors aut Turca aut Deus aut Diabolus eripiat cum à nobis which cursed letter came to his hands who heartily forgaue it theÌ„ But being dead when in all humanitie their hatred should haue bene buried with him yet ceassed they not to follow the pursuite of their impietie in persecuting his happie memorie with their Iesuiticall calumniations that most irreligiously Yea that impious caitise Fa. Parsons in a letter dated the 13. of Iuly 1598. and sent into England not to be kept secret writeth of this good Bishop thus after his slie fashion scil A third cause saith Father Parsons there was meaning of the Students opposing of theÌ„selues against the Iesuits no lesse important perhaps then any of the rest or more then both together which was a certaine disgust giuen at the very foundation of the Colledge vnto a certaine principall man of our nation and his friends then resideÌ„t in Rome Who afterwards not affecting greatly the gouernment or gouernors of that Colledge was euer in re or in opinion a backe to them that would be discontented c. Where by the way all men may see that the secular Priests here in England haue not alone disliked of the Iesuiticall gouernment gouernours and politicall or rather Atheall designments A third calumniation in particular was of that most renowned Prelate and blessed Cardinall Doctor Allane a man in whose very countenance was pourtraid out a map of politicall gouernment indeed stained with a sabled dye of grauitie sublimated with a reuerend maiestie in his lookes yeelding fauour and forcing feare the true allurements of affections in admirable aspects of worlds wonders as the memorie of former glorie of these and honour of future ages one most reuerenced of our nation and worthily reuerenced of vs one or two actions excepted whereunto he was drawne by Fa. Parsons exorbitant courses and impudencie of whom Pope Gregorie of holy memorie said to his Cardinals Venite fratres mei ostendam vobis Alanum as much to say as I will shew you a man in Anglia borne to whom all Europe may giue place for his high prudence reuerend countenance and purport of gouernment This blessed Cardinall then whom all admired and none could iustly blame yea euen our common aduersaries did commend his mild spirit in comparison of Doctor Saunders both writing about one time but with a farre different drift intent and manner of proceeding His Grace neuer liked of inuading conuersions of countries with bloudy blades And howsoeuer he was drawne as weried out with impostors exprobrations and expostulations of father Parsons and others of that hote spirited vnnaturall tribe of Dan. Coluber in via to some odious attempts against his dread Soueraigne and deare country both which he with no lesse loyalty honored then dearely affected in his best thoughts yet afterwards he retired himselfe from those seditious courses mightily condemning and contemning all such factious dispositions in his very hart as apparantly was knowne before his death His words writings and all his actions did euer tend to lenity so as he was often wont to say that seeing England was lost gone from her ancient faith by reason of our forefathers offences neither cleargy nor laity secular nor religious noble nor ignoble man woman nor child being free it was to good sense that we and all their posterity should be punished and remaine in desolation vntill by vertuous and good life it might please our most mercifull Lord and redeemer to auert his wrath from our country and to incline our Soueraigne Lady and Queene to looke vppon our afflictions and to commiserate our miseries we seeking for none other worldly ioy nor comfort here on earth Note here the malicious pollicies of these wicked men the Iesuiticall faction against Cardinall Allane for retiring himselfe froÌ„ their
Atheisme may a man be possibly an vnspotted Catholike by externall professiō and outward shew of life and yet be proued to be an Atheist in action practise and maner of proceeding in the same externall shew professiō that he makes THE ANSWERE HE may be so for a right Machiuilean whom commonly in that sense we call an Atheist must be a counterfeit of all religions professions sects A Preacher an Heralt of armes and an Alchumist must be vniuersall mē fit o discourse of any thing the first by applicatiō of his speech agreeing to the quality of the person for one kind of document is for Princes an other for studēts another for pesants c. and so in the difference of coates and confections of quintessences the like is of an Atheist in another kind scil in counterfeiting of actions c. opinions factions and affaires he must be one of those three sorts of persons that ought to be seene throughly and not superficially in all arts and sciences He must be a Cateline in countenance a Protheus in shape and a Camelion in change gaudere cum gaudentibus flere cum flentibus semper vultum gestare in manibus to chide and cherish to winke and looke to laugh and weepe with a breath He must be a precise Pithagoras a sage Solon a magnificall Mecaenas and a wanton Thraso all at once He must be a legifer with Licurgus a martial mā with Hector and a Councellor with Cicero He must be an Antiquary with Nestor an Historian with Plutarch and a Sapient with Cato He must be a Dauus in crafty slinesse a Pigmaleon in fond affections an Vlisses in courtly pleasance to cast his eye here there his head vp and downe vse his voice high or low at his pleasure In few he must comply with all times comport all persons and be full of complements in all things pertaining to motion in iesture and behauiour speech silence or any action So as a perfect Atheist must be either a complete Alchumist or an vpright humorist but alwayes an hypocrite THE IIII. ARTICLE VVHether all the Iesuits may in the sense precedent in the last Article be rightly called Atheists or not and wherein their fallacy doth most consist An od conceit I haue of the Iesuits perfection excellency moues me to place the Generall loco summi generis as a Summist of all the rest subordinate vnder his fatherhood For their society being subiect to no superiour authority otherwise thē as they please yet authorised of their own bare word to checke controule and correct al whō they are displeased withall sparing neither king Kesar Pope nor Priest their head must needs be a primum or supremum genus as not subordinate to or vnder any earthly power nor yet subiect to any law THE ANSWERE TO say the Iesuites are all smattred with Atheisme I will not and to say that any of them all are absolutely scotfree from it I cannot it is so repugnant from their owne principles Therefore must we needes vse a distinction betwixt a Iesuit commandant and a Iesuit obeisant A Iesuite commandant I take in this place to be one of these three vniuersals or predicables scil father Generall father Prouinciall father Rector the first as a summum genus of the society commands all in all nations the second as a species commands those of that kingdome nation and prouince where he liues and the third loco differentiae like the Lord Maior of London or gouernour of this or that Towne or City doth commaund with a different authority all those that liue vnder him there And a Iesuite obeisant may be deuided into the other two Pophytian vniuersals called proprium accidens with the addition of omni soli semper vbique to the former and separable and inseparable to the latter For all inferiour Iesuits must obey their superiour fathers they onely must acknowledge their obedience to a sole Iesuit and none other Prince Potentate or Prelate whosoeuer their obedience must last for euer at no time free for what cause soeuer and it must be euery where without exception of person or place so as if they be commaunded to call the Pope his holinesse Lutherane they must do it and so they haue if to murther an annointed Prince they must do their indeuour and none hath bene wanting and if in court or country Church or Palace the field of warre or land of peace that in a Heathen Hereticall Schismaticall or Catholike country all is one they must obey it And this is proprium quarto modo as agreeing to none other order society association company or corporation whatsoeuer saue onely the Iesuits A sword is inanimate and but a dead peece of mettall and yet it is the death of a quicke life leading man A cause instrumentall is the immediat agent in euery action artificiall and the principal agent naturall is but therin a cause remote Take then away the instrument and the artificer is able to do nothing moue the instrumentall Iesuits and their fantor◠instrumentall to forsake the Iesuiticall Principles and then will not Fa. Parsons be able to do any thing which being so therefore stands it their Prouincials Fa. Garnet Weston vpon all they are worth to bestirre themselues to lie to face to forge to deny to forsweare to renounce to praise to extoll to admite to defame to despise to count light and to do all that the diuel can suggest or wit can deuise to aduance themselues and ouerthrow the seculars else are they no Atheists nor currant Politikes sed vtri credendum sit censetu whethe seculars or Iesuits are herein to be obeyed Againe it is rightly called accidens aswell separabile as inseparabile for as it commeth by chance and falleth out by hap-hazard that any one is a Iesuite so being once admitted confirmed and professed in the societie which few are such is their pollicy to keepe them in awe and themselues out of feare of reuealing their chiefe secrets which onely the professed fathers are acquainted withall in chiefe vntill they be throughly tried by many yeares continuance the graces graunted and rules prescribed them being both inherent to their order it is an inseparable accident vnto them to be such and none other euer after for otherwise there were no reason of their freedome more from impossibilitie of error then others haue And yet because free will bewraies their folly launching out right Libertine-like perforce hereupon it comes that popular applause puffing them vp with proud conceits of their owne proper excellencie finding that they haue as good parts gifts and abilities as their superiors be he Rector Prouinciall or Generall greedily affecting soueraigntie with their fellowes a quotidian hot ague naturally burning in all ambitious hearts and either being inwardly too scrupulous or outwardly too lauish after many and perhaps long conflicts with themselues they break out renounce the societie