FRATRES SOBRII ESTOTE 1. PET. 5.8 OR An admonition to the Fryars of this Kingdome of Ireland to abandon such hereticall doctrines as they daylie publish to the corruption of our holy faith the ruine of soules and their owne damnation which steepeth not By PAUL HARRIS Priest GALAT. 4.16 Am I then become your enemy telling you the truth Printed MDCXXXIV TO POPE VRBANUS VIII The Epistle of Paul Harris Priest MOST blessed Father in these later and worser dayes are risen vp among vs from the Orders of the Begging Fryars men speaking perverse things and drawing many disciples after them not onely in the matter of the Eleaven Propositions but profiting vnto the worse they labour to transfer us from him who hath called us unto the grace of Christ unto an other gospell teaching the people as well in publicke assemâ—lyes as private houses these wretched and prophane doctrines 1. Whosoever shall dye in the habit of S. Francis shall never be prevented with an unhappy death 2. Whosoever shall take the Scapular of the Carmelites and dye in the same shall never bee damned 3. Whosoever shall faste the first Saturday after they have heard of the death of Luissa a Spanish Nun of the order of S. Clare shall have no part in the second death The first of these lewde positions is taken out of the Chronicle of the Fryar Minors for so are the Franciscans called tom 1. and fathered upon S. Francis as one of those Legacyes bequeathed by him unto his Order and by the Friars of his Order indifferently to be communicated to so many as shall before their death desire to be put into their habit which that it may bee the better knowne and notified unto the world it is commonly printed under the Image of S. Francis and placed at our Altars as both my selfe and many others have beheld with our eyes in this citty The second is recorded in a certaine sheet of paper not much unlike unto a Ballad printed by the Friar Carmelits The title whereof is An abridgment of the Priviledges of the holy Scapular granted by the most gracious Queene of Heaven MARY unto the Order of the Carmelites In which Compendium or Briefe the institute of the holy Scapular for so is it called is layd downe in these words S. Simon Stoc the sixt Generall of all the Latines of this Order did receive not without a manifest signe of the Divine favour this most sacred Scapular for when as he had along time with much earnestnesse besought of Almighty God that by some manifest token it might appeare that the Friar Carmelites were in the vndoubted protection of the blessed Virgin behold vpon a certain night he saw the Mother of God in great glory who reached downe vnto him this divine Scapular with these words Dilectissime fili hoc recipe tui ordinis scapulare meae confraternitatis signuÌ„ tibi et cunctis Carmelitis privilegium in quo quis moriens non aeternum patietur incendium Ecce signum salutis salus in periculis saedus pacis et pacti sempiterni Most loving son receive this Scapular of thy Order a token of my confraternity to thee and to all Carmelites a priviledge in which who so dyes shall not suffer ever lasting fire Behold the figne of sâ—lvation safety in dangers a league of peace and an everlasting covenant c. If more can be ascribed unto him who dyed for mankind upon the Altar of the Crosse I leave it to holy Church to determine And such was the vision of S. Simon Stoc exhibited by the Carmelites unto the Estate in the castle of Dublin in the moneth of August 1633. by the hands of Edmund Doyle Priest And if any doubt heerof they shall find the very originall with me when ever they shall be pleased to demaund the same And such is the authentication of the Scapular of the Carmelites evangelized every-where by the Friars of that Order and represented unto the eye at many of their altars by tables of picture Now if any desire to know what thing this Scapular is and have not seene the same behold this description The Scapular is onely two square pieces of cloath of the bignesse of two trenchers the one before pendant upon the brest the other behind upon the shoulders from whence it hath the name of Scapular The third Proposition as touching the Saturdayes faste of Donna Luissa the Nunn of S. Clare is much insisted upon and most carefully taught by the Cordeliers or Franciscan Friars and particularly by Friar Thomas Babe who published the same the 29. of Aprill being the feast of S. Peter Martyr and S. Catherin of Siena in the yeare of our Lord 1631. in the Cook-street of Dublin in a publicke audience whose exhortation to the people was to this purpose That forsomuch as a certaine holy Virgin called Luissa of the order of S. Clare had a revelation that whosoever should fast upon the next Saturday after they heard of her death should never dye in mortall sin or of any evill death The aforesaid Friar Thomas Babe perswaded the people then present to undertake so holy a pennance mooved wherewithall very many and I say signanter very many as they did be loeve his doctrin so did they most carefully observe the same faste among whom as chiefe of all the rest Thomas Flemming alià s Barnwell Archbishop of Dublin for exaniple unto his flock and as a prime man of the same order observed most devoutly the same as himselfe hath not bin ashamed diverse times to acknowledge Neither was that doctrine onely then but sundry other times also taught by that false Apostle Friar Babe and his fellowes in diverse other places of this City and Diocesse Most holy Father I meddle not with the matter of Indolgences neither doe I intend or ever did to discourse of that argument I onely complaine of these wicked doctrines and I doe adjure your sanctity in the Name of the crucified that you confirme your flock in these parts that they be not led away with these new doctrines from that faith in which our holy Mother the Church hath bred us from her brest I say that we be no longer mis-led by these Mendicants who seeke to perswade us these carnall fancyes more serviceable I confesse unto the belly then any wayes behoofeful unto the soule but rather as the Apostle willeth us that wee abide in those things which wee have learned and have beene committed unto us in no sort admitting these new Apostles as sent from heaven but rather avoyding them as seducers come from hell For we fooles doe verily beleeve That he who was borne of the blessed and immaculat Virgin God and Man Iesus and Emmanuel who suffered so many and so grievous torments upon the Crosse under Pontius Pilate who arose glorious from the death and ascended into Heaven that he and no other redeemed us from the curse of the Law that he and no other hath cleansed us from
with Maxentius the tyrant when in the sky hee saw a most bright Crosse with this circumscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In this overcome Euseb lib. 1. de vita Constant Albeit not that signe of the Crosse which appeared unto Constantin but he in whose hands all victoryes are seconded by humane meanes was the cause of gayning that battayle And so indeed it is said of the divine scapular in that sayned revelation of Simon Stec Ecec signum salutis salus in periculis foedus pacis pacts sempiterni Behold the signe of salvation safety in dangers a league of peace and of an everlasting covenant Say then that we admit of this qualification of theirs and take it for granted that the habit scapular be but bare signes onely significative not operative and onely of the nature of those foure signes last mentioned Yet must we needs confesse them to bee signes of farre more excellency of a greater importment in respect of their supernaturall object which is glory I meane then either the Rain-bow in the clouds or Gideoâ—s Fleece upon the sloore or the retrograde Sun in Ezechias horologe or Constantin his Crosse with the Emblem thereof In â—oc vince In this overcome For that these were but signes and pledges of temporall blessings as security from inundations victory in warre bodily health and the like But S. Francis legacy bequeathed unto his Friars is that whosoever dyes in their habit shall not perish of any unhappy death Simon Stâ—â— of the scapular is That whosoever dyes therein nâ—nquam patietur incendium sempiternum He shall never suffer eternall fire Dame Luissa her Saturday fast is That who so performes it shall not end his dayes in mortall sin These I wis are signes not of any worldly benefits or temporall blessings but of that Crowne of immortality which attends all such as have beene victorious in this our Christian warfare For if the soule that better part of Man be of a divine being and immortall as the best Philosophers have taught and if it be of that precious esteeme with God as he is said in the Scriptures to bee amator animarum a lover of soules And our blessed Saviour the Redeemer of soules could say Mar. 8. Quid enim proderit bomini c. What shall it boot a man to gaâ—ne the whole world and to loose his owne soule And if King Ezechias was so tender of his corporall health as he desired that the same should be confirmed unto him by a signe from Heaven which was a pledge farre more liefe and deare unto him then was that plastet of figs applyed unto his sore a seconâ—lary cause of his health No marveile then though a poore sinner should prize a signe from Heaven an assured pledge of eternall salvation before all other treasure upon earth yea before all other helpes and meanes conducing thereunto Alas then if it be true that these men tell us Why was not S. Francis and Simon Stoe no sooner with us Why did poors sinners misse these so precious signes and pledges of their salvation for a thousand two yeares since Christ Or why since there have beene habits scapulars from the dayes of S. Basil S. Augustine S. Benedict that none of them had that divine influence or signification as the gray habit of the Minors the two square patches ex quolibet panno of the Carâ—â—clites the former not five hundred yeares old and the later not so much But not to lament the times of greater antiquity Alas well away Where was this blessed habit scapular the day wherein S. Bernard dyed in which it is reported that of 30 thousand persons who then departed this life onely S. Bernard two moe were saved for so S. Vincentius the Dominican enformeth us in his 6. sermon de Septuag fró a vision made unto an holy Ermite sometime Deane of Langres in France as also Martinus Polonus in his promptuary of examples cap. 18. Or after that time againe and within the date of these so mysticall weeder where were these helpes divine comforts so farre transcending all sacraments and sacramentalls when as in the yeere of grace 1343. a holy Ermite saw in a vision the soules of men women falling as fast into hell as ever snow came downe from the clouds and onely three to mount up to Heaven namely the soule of a Bishop of a Charter-house Monke and of a Roman Widow This shall you reade lib. de â—rtâ— Carthusiensi in the time of Innocentius the sixt of that name Surely it seemes that either in those dayes there wanted Preachers to publish these miraculous graces of the habit and scapular or people to beleeve them Or else we must say that the shops wanted frises woollen cloath to make them of Or Taylors to cut them out which for my part I will as soone believe as the woods of Arden in Germany to want theeves Freebooters or the Gardens of Egypt to want Leekes Onions which some of the Egyptians worshipped as their gods as may appeare by that verse of Invenal Sat. 15. Porrum cepe nefas violare ac frangere morsu O sanctas gentes quibus bac nascuntur in hor tis Numina To chaw an Onion or a Leeke is held a foule offence O holy people whose gods doe grow but wot you whence Their gardens And I pray God That many among us who would bee esteemed very good perfect Christians yeeld not more honour unto the creatures albeit they make them not their gods then they ought or may stand with the integrity of our holy faith But to returne to our Argument For I purpose to leave no reason pro or contra indiscussed which may serve to discover the vanity of these aforesaid Revelations with which so many soules both have beene and are at this day abused And first for that Legacy of S. Francis grounded upon a vision or Revelation That whosoever dyeth in his habit shall never be prevented with an unhappy death I perswade my selfe besides what already hath been said that it is a meere fiction an lmposture of his Friars of later times untruly fathered upon the Saint for the maintenance of their bellyes And first it is held as most probable That S. Francis had no certaine or particular habit at all either of this or that cloath or colour but onely course and of small price such as might best sort with poverty pennance as may appeare by his rule cap. 2. in these words Fratres omnes vestimentis vilibus induantur possint eis repeciare de saccis alijs pecijs cum benedictione Dei Let all the Fryars be clad with course clothing they may patch them with sackcloth other patches on Gods blessing And this which our Friars doe hold to be a precept of the rule or equipollent to a precept may seeme to be confirmed by the practice of the Order for see wee not the
by Lo Scotus where J lye Who twise though being dead Was once but buryed Of me some doubt not say And sure I thinke they may Each Sophist I out-went In captious argument This and much more as touching the fate of Scotus may you read in Bzovius in his continuation of Cesur Baronius his Annalls in the years 1494. But not to wade into any further sea of examples Spaine will tell you how many Friar Minots have been cast away by shâ—pwrack in their voyages unto the Indyes My selfe in the yeare 1610 in the territoryes of Lerma in Cantle with many othors the whole town in a manner going forth to the same beheld the murdered body of a Franciscan Friar a stranger to that place who was supposed to have had moneyes being robbed of them was also slaine his body hid among the standing corne neere unto the gate of the towne of Leâ—ma But some peradventure will say that sudden death is not to be numbred among unhappy or disasterous fates at all For so much as we read that Iulius Casar disputing of that argument the day before he was slain in the Senat-house was of opinion that an inexpected death was to be preferred before any other Sueton in Iulio And a Princely writer of these times in his exposition upon the Lords prayer seemes not to disallow of that death which yeelds least trouble unto the sense So as in these mens opinions not a sudden but an unprovided death is that which is to be misliked conformable to that of Sapient 4. Iustus si morte praeoccupatus fuâ—rit in refrigerio eâ—it The just man though he be prevented by death he shall be in a refreshing And by their leaves I would say that the death which is inexpected may well be suspected feared to be unprovided And therefore for my part I pray God that death may knock at my doore along time before he enter still leaning unto the old Intanyes A subitanea improvisa morte libera nos Domine From a sudden an unlooked for death good Lord deliver us But to leave this point to those who have more leisure to dispute it whether a sudden death is to be numbred among miserable deaths or no Let us come unto a second wherein I demand whether a death insâ—icted by the hand of Iustice may not justly be numbred among unhappy deaths And I thinke none will deny it forsomuch as Peter hath said Nemo autem vestrum paetiatur ut homicida aut fur c. Let none of you suffer as a murderere or a thiefe c. If then we find Friars of the order of S. Francis who for their crimes demerits have been sentenced at the barre of Tribunalls to in famous dishonorable deaths How then have their habits priviledged them Or where is that legacy of S. Francis that who so dyeth in the habit of his Order shall never be prevented with an unhappy death If any be so curious as to enforme himselfe in this affaire I shall not need to send him either unto the Italian Guittiardin or to Spanish French History or further then unto the Annalls of England for no larger a time then betwixt the Norman Conqueror King Henry 8. Where he shall find examples moe then a good many of that kind I say of Friars of the Order of S. Francis who have bin put to shamefull deaths by the hand of Iustice And the same neither for building of Churches nor ministring of Sacraments But some will say That still I come short of the marke of what was intended so long as I insist onely in these temporall calamitiâ—s that accompany the death of the body which with how terrible a countenance soever they looke upon their patients by any misery or casualty deprived together with their lifes of the benefit of the Sacraments yet we know not but evâ—n in their last agony or before continued unto their end thorough the abundant mercy of God they might be found penitent truly contrite for their fins so as in that despicable wretched a passage unto the eyes of the world they might be able to say Transivimus per ignem aquam eduxisti nos in refrigerium We have passed thorough fire water thou hast brought us into a refreshing So as still to make good that propheticall prediction fathered upon S. Francis by his Friars such as dye in their habit whether by death sudden or deserved they shal alwayes dye happily Since no death is to be held absolutely miserable excepting that one which carryes with it Peccatum ad mortem Of which the Apostle S. Iohn Est peccatum ad mortem non pro illo dico ut roget quis 1. â—oh 5. There is a sin unto death I say that for it no man aske Which sin by S. Augustines judgment is finall impenitency I aâ—â—irme saith he That a sin to dea his to leave faith working by charity even till death Decorrept gratia cap. 12. And the same doctrine he teacheth De civicate Deilib 21. cap. 24. So then the last refuge of our Friars is that setting apart â—ll other kindes of death of which none can be defined to be absolutely miserable such as dye in their habit shall never dye impenitent but truly contrite for their sins by which they shâ—ll be seâ—ure from the second death the eternall separation from the blessed vision of God So S. Francis his supposed revelation of the habit Simon Stoc of the scapular doe concurre in this In quo quis moriens non patietur incendium sempiternuÌ„ In which whosoever dyes shall never suffer eternall fire As then we have hitherto proved instanced by many exaples that notwithstanding the habit of S. Francis there hath not wanted such as have perished both by sudden infamous deaths So now in the last place it remaines to take away all tergiversation to manifest unto the world which some will say is a hard tax That divers Friars ending their dayes in the habit of S. Francis have bin subiect even unto this last worst kind of death joyned with finall impenitency obduratnesse in sin consequently according unto the doctrine of holy Church can no wayes be held to have dyed happily And albeit no man in this life may judge another mans servant for that as the Apostle sayth he stanâ—s or falls unto his owne Lord to whom all judgment both of quick dead is reserved And that ordinarily none comes back from the next world to tell us how they fare according to that of Iob. 16. Ecte enim brevi anni transennt semitam per quam non revertar ambulo Loe our yeares passe swiftly I walke the path by which I shall not returne Notwithstanding in our Writers of the Acts Monuments of Saints we find nothing more common or familiar then visions or apparitions made unto the living as touching the estare condition of
like unto dumbe doggs either could not or would not open against the manifest vices corruptions of those to whom they were sent And the Apostle exhorteth his scholler Timothy as to exhort intreat and beseech so to blame reprove correct that by his owne example who so little feared the face of man as to comply with his Apostleship he would freely publickly reprehend such as were manifest sinners especially false teachers he would rouse out of their dens place the in the sight of the sun So 2. Tim. 3. having made a long Catalogue of publique offences offenders which then infested the Church concludes Et hos devita ex his enim sunt c. And these avoyd For of these there be who rush into mens houses lead away silly woemen into thraldome loaden with sins drawne away with many desires alwayes learning never attayning the knowledge of the truth c. And this not onely or alwayes in generall but sometimes he would descend unto particulars not sparing to rebuke notorious sinners by name For example in the Chap following Demas hath for saken me and is gone into Macedonia Alexander the Copper-sâ—â—yth hath she Wed me much evill our Lord will reward him according unto his Workes And this I thought fit by way of an Apology to alledge in my defence as well for this present Treatise now penned as also for such other bookes as I have heretofore written against the most knowne notorious errors abuses of the Mendicants especially of this Country and Kingdome with which I will conclude this Chapter CAP. III. The power of the Scapular and Habit ever the soules in Purgatory IF blessednes be the end summum bonum of the reasonable creature consisting in the cleare vision full fruition of the Creator as our holy faith teacheth us Two wayes after this life may a man be deprived of this blessed vision thorough his owne default Either eternally which is a full separation of the creature from the blessed vision of God the Creator Or a suspension for some time The former hath with it an abdication unto eternall punishment Discedite à me maledicti in ignem aeternum Depart from me ye cursed into hell fire The second hath onely a deputation unto the purging fire Si cujus opus arserit detrimentum patietur ipse enius salvus erit sic samen quasi per ignem If any mans worke burne he shall suffer detriment but himself shall be saved yet so as by fire Now if the doctrine of our Friars be good divinity all matters of the soule after this life are most sweetly accommodated First for hell we have seen in the former Chapter the fire thereof quite extinguished only by dying in the Carmelites Scapular or the Franciscans Habit so as a soule furnished with either of those commodityes may say with the Poet Contempt aeque jacent sine luce faces Now in this Chapter it is considerable whether they be not as forcible to quench the flames of Purgatory which if they doe I am labor in fine est We have no more to do but like Ioviall lads to passe our dayes Lucanicè in al pleasures delights a fig for what may betide us after death The second doctrine then of our Carmelites is that whosoever dyes in the Scapular he is not only freed ab incendie sempiterne from everlasting fire but also ab igne Purgateris from the purging fire at leftafrer his departure within eight dayes after inclusivè that is the longest terme For these be the words of their pretended indulgence I say pretended for undoubtedly it was never authorized by the See Apostolicke The works are these as they lye in that former abridgment of their priviledges cited in the beginning of this work and falsty fathered upon Clement 7. Pope of that name Die quo à saeculo hujusmodi purgatorium accesserint ipsa virgo gloriosa Dei genitrix Maria sabbatho sequenti post illorum confratrum seu religioserum ac sororum obitus visitando à poenis Purgatory hujusmodi corum animas liberabit By reason of this double Hujusmodi I confesse I am not so good a scholler as to make any sensible construction in English of these words notwithstanding that I have both learned my Grammar have my selfe composed one But yet we find by their sermons conferences bookes disputations that upon those words the Friar Carmelites conclude that by the benefit of the Scapular every soule that is adjudged unto Purgatory whose body in death was invefted therewithall by the ministery visitation of the blessed virgin under her conduct shal be delivered thence the next saturday after their decease which as I said before must needes be at the longest terme within eight dayes after death Yet sith the paines of Purgatory are so grievous happy say I be they who dye on Friday night because the day following they shall be delivered thence Now you must know that none have authority to give you this so holy a Scapolar but such a Priest as is of the Order of the Carmelites They have also in the aforesaid Treatise another priviledge granted as they say by Pope Nicholas the 4. Pope Innocentius the 4. but it is not to be believed but rather what Thomas Walsingham writ cited in the former chap. That to be a friar and a lyar is all one The priviledge is this That whosoever shall give an almes or an nights lodging unto a Carmelite shall have a plenary indulgence of all their sins Another priviledge they father upon Pope Vibanus 6. Nicholas 5. That whosoever shall call the Friar Carmâ—lites the brethren of the blessed virgin of mount Carmel shall have ten yeares of Indulgence Here is no ambition to be called the brethren of the blessed Virgin the Mother of God Vncles unto our Saviour To the imitation of which spirituall kinred alliance it is very like that our Ignatian Friars or Iesuites albeit with more modesty doe call themselves the fellowes or companions of our Saviour And of all Friars I know none of so conspicuous descents of so great a blood houses as these two the Carmelites to be the brethten of the blessed Virgin The Ignatians to be the companions of Iesus But why not since our Saviour hath said Math. 12. Whosoever shall doe the will of my Father that is in Heaven he is my brother and sister and mother Sith then our Saviour is contented to admit into his kinred such as shal do the will of his Father without exception of persons of what quility soever from the Cedar to the Hyssop from the Pope to the Sexten from the Prince to the Beggar To what end are these restrictions these singularityes of stiles titles importing a limitation or rather a kind of an exclusion of their brethren from such spirituall prerogatives especially our Saviour having left them to the generall extent of a
France and now of late brought into Italy and maintaines this custome contrary to the law yea to be more reasonable then the law it selfe namely that men of the laity rather then of the Glergy should be used as executioners in the aforesaid cases Those who desire to set moe examples of this nature let them read Sotus de Iure Iustitia Suarez or Lessius of the same Argument Now then to come home unto our case in hand I meane of civill causes commenced pleaded and determined in the Kings Courts the defendants being as well ecclesiasticall as lay persons in these Kingdomes of Britanny May we not perswade our selves that a custome so universally received and without interruption continued since the Conversion of the Saxons under Pope Gregory the great and King Ethelbert of England for the space of a thousand yeeres and upward may not take place of the Canon that sayth Preists in all causes must be presented before ecclesiasticall Iudges Cap. Qualiter de Iudicijs especially it being no lesse a law and a Canon of the Church as hath beene before observed That the customes of places being reasonable may derogate from the law written Ext. de consuetudinibus declared above by some examples Now then must I needes bee foreed to beleevâ—â— that all our Kings Bishops Nobles Iudges and Magistrates by whose authority Ecclesiasticall persons were convented in civill causes before secular Tribunals for a thousand yeares and upward did all live and dye excommunicated throwne out of the Church as perished members without hope of salvation when as among our English Kings themselves sixe of them were canonized Saints of which honor no other kingdome of the earth can glory namely King Oswald Etheldred Edmund Richaâ—d Edgar and Edward the Confessour many Bishops as S. Augustine S. Anselme Dunstaâ— Thomas all Archbishops of Canterbury Richard of Yorke Cutbeâ—t of Duresme Thomas of Hereford c. Alas while these and the rest of our country men were bound in the setters of Excommunication where were our gray and blacke Friars and the other zealous Regulars whose parts it was at the least after their arrivellto have anmonished both prince and people of their errors to have preached and published bookes condemning that practise so coâ—ary to the lawes as these maintaine of holy Church was the Pope and Roman court also asleepe for so many ages and would not enforme their spirituall children of so great a violation of the Canon had they misliked thereof Nay rather is it not the universall consent of all divines together with the Canon it selfe That the permission of the Pope in any Church law seeing the same either from the beginning not to be observed or by contrary custome antiquated and notwithstanding is silent and makes no opposition thereunto excuseth the subject from sin as presumed to approve and allow of the said practise See for this glan cap. in ist is § leges dist 4. in c. de treu pace in cap. cum multi 15. q. ult For so much then as it is certaine that as well ecclesiasticall as secular superiours may oblige their subjects albeit never so unwilling to obey their iust lawes so often then as they see the same lawes not to be observed and passe it over in silence they sieme thereby contented therewithall and such silence and taciturnity of the Law-giver may by the subiect according to the former rules be expounded a full consent and approbation of his practise Adde hereunto the observation of a late English Franciscan whose true name I understand is Dampart and his usurped Franciscus à sincta Clara in his late booke Deus Natura Gratia in which as my country man Edmund Bunny laboured in his treatise tending to Pacification to reconcile the Roman Catholiques to the Protestant profession So this Friar of the contrary by his glosses and paraphrasticall expositions labours to draw the Articles of the english confession to the Catholicke and Roman doctrines But let the Friar wring and wrest till he be weary he shewes himselfe but a time server a slatterer and a meere Alchimist adulterating both the doctrine of them and us and seeking to please both a inst reward for such a worke contenteth neither of whom it may be said as of the dead serpent stretched all along upon the grasse Amo sic vixisse oportuit yea so thou shouldest have lived The serpent all his life long lives crooked onely after death is straight so are many at this day both in their lives and doctrines very crooked onely death teacheth them how they ought to have lived themselves and how to have taught others to the example of the Apostle 2. Cor. 2. Non enim sumus sicut plurimi adulterantes verbum Dei sed ex sinceritate c. For we are not as very many adulterating the word of God but of sincerity and as of God before God in Christ we speake Well I must not forget for all my digressió wherefore I brought the Friar upon the stage namely for a testimony against his fellow Triars of this kingdome to shew how unlike to untuned Virginalis their wires doe jangle these maintaining that civill actions against a Priest must be heard and determined in the Bishops consitory the English Friar in the Kings courts for which he produceth his authors His words are as follow in his paraphrase upon the 27. article Confess Anglicana Regibus autem nostris fursse sic eoncessum jus nominandâ— providendi de beneficys testatur post alios Harpâ—feldius seculo 14 fursse etiam aliam consuctâ—â—dinem ex privilegio ort am immemorialem causas Clericorum cognoscendi patet ex decisione Rotae 804. ut communiter citatur To our Kings was granted the right of nomination and provision of benefices as after others witnesseth Harpsfeild in the 14. age As also another custome time out of minde sprung from a priviledge of taking knowledge of the causes of Clergy men as appeareth by the decision of the Rota as it is commonly cited So the English Friar This Do. Harpsfeild as I take it was Archdeacon of Canterbury in Queene Mary her dayes and continued the ecclesiasticall history of England froÌ„ Venerable Bode his time to his owne Decisiones Rota are the very life and quintessence of the Canon law so called from a known office in Rome called the Rota But neither of these bookes are with me for which I use the Friars quotation And now the infirmity of my body not permitting me to proceede further which for the space of these 2. moneths hath much afflicted me and dayly encreasing upon me I am forced thus abruptly to breake off rather then to make an end Beseeching almighty God of his infinite mercy to grant me and all my Adversaryes and all those who professe the name of Iesus Christ to live and dye in true faith hope and charity And so hoping to see the good things of our Lord in the land of the living I take my