the Vniuersities could not cloake any great enormitie from notice yea the very age of the greater part they going euer very young is a warrant to quite them from any such offence as should force them to flie their Countrie And as for the rest which are of riper yeares they haue bin so notified for theyr morrall life that they haue made common report theyr harbinger to take vp their due roomes in euerie mans good opinion In sume this being an approued accusation deliuered by one that in the same discourse hath empanalled an enquest of vntruths to finde out him in this also guilty of falsehood it needeth no other answere but a wise censure of the Reader But now most mercifull Princesse licence our too much wronged innocencie to relate the sharpest doubt of this vnkinde aduersarie ioyned vvith those three odious tearmes of fugitiues rebels and traytours dipped as deep in the bitternes of gaule as hee would haue it enter into our dearest blood And first wee craue most humblie but the right of Christians beleefe of our oath which is the only Certificat to make our thoughtes vndoubted vppon hope whereof we oppose our guiltlesse hartes against these tiles as our best armour of proofe protesting vpon our soules and saluation and calling Almightie God and his Angels to witnesse that as we hope to haue any benefit by the most precious woundes and death of our Lord IESVS CHRIST the whole and onely intent of our comming into this Realme is no other but to labour for the saluation of soules and in peaceable and quiet sort to confirme them in the ancient Catholike faith in the which theyr forefathers liued died these thousand foure hundred yeares out of which we vndoubtedly beleeue it is impossible that any soule should be saued This from the sincerest of our thoughts before the throne of God wee must truelie professe intending if no other remedie may be had to let your Maiestie seale it vvith the best blood that our faithfull faultles harts can afford And if any be so hardened in a set incredulitie as rather to condemne vs to periurie thē to cleare vs vpon so deep an oath we will make reason his guide into our intentions by which if he think vs not as much perished in our wittes as he supposeth vs to be in our fidelitie he shall easilie see the truth of our protestation for first treason being an offence that carrieth with it selfe a staine of infamie as can neuer be taken out and maketh them that commit it dead vnpardonable persons Who cā imagine any so foolish desperate as to incurre so reprochfull a crime full of certaine perils hauing no other possible marke for his hope but the vttermost of worldlie euils And if any one should chaunce to be so farre distracted from his sence and to throw himselfe into so bottomles a destruction Yet that so many and so learned so graue men as dayly suffer for their cōming in Priestes would cast away their labours liues and credittes for nothing but a cruell and eternall reproch our bitterest enimie would neuer deeme it likelie and what other inticement shuld allure vs to be traitors not any perswation that our selues can compasse so great an exploit there being scarce 300. Catholik priests of our nation in the whole world a sillie armie to subdue so great a Monarchie not any confidence in Catholik assistance whō none is so mad to think able to doe such an enterprise being few in nūber dispuruied of munitō narowly watched by Officers restrained in their liberties impouirished in their goods disabled in all prouisions Not the imagination to be aduaunced by forraine power for then we would rather expect the conquest till the time and oppertunitie were ripe for vs to enter vpon our hopes then so venterously to presse vpon the swordes of our enimies and hazard not only our future expectations but our present safeties wee would rather liue abroad though it vvere with as hard shifts as those that now possesse honorable romes did once at Ceneua then leopard our welfare to so many so knowne and vneuitable harmes which we are more likely soone to feele then so long to eschue And if wee were to come as rebels into the Realme our education in Colledges should be aunswerable to the qualities we should be trained in martiall exercises busied in publike and ciuell affaires hardened to the field made to the weapō whereas 1000. eares and eyes are witnesses that our studies are nothing els but Philosophie diuinity our teachers religious men acquainted with no other knowledge but learning and vertue all our warlike preparations the wresting for our wils the mortifying of our bodies and a continuall warfare with Nature to get the victorie ouer our selues and for other schoolepoints of sedition wherein this our hard friend findeth vs to be instructed Almighty God is our witnes that wee neyther learne nor teach any hauing only had in our studies the common end that all men shot at namely to attaine such knowledge that might be an ornament to our functions a help to our conuersations a benefit to our countrie But if by these Schoolepoints of sedition be meant that religion which there we are taught and here wee professe this meaning aunswereth it selfe For this cannot be any way treasonable to your Maiesties estate vnles that it be esteemed offensiue which was the faith of all your royal auncestors these 1400 yeres is the faith of the greatest part of Christendome and for the defence whereof your Maiesties most worthy father attained the glorious title of defender of the Faith But vvhatsoeuer this informer meant by his schoolepoints of seditiō we hope that your Highnes censure wil free vs from the thing it selfe sith neyther likelihood to effectuate any hope at home nor any likenesse of our education abroad can in your vvisedome seeme to argue vs guiltie of anie rebellious intentions Let this further be an assured proofe to the contrary that sith we are so religiously addicted to the end of our comming that for the atchiuing thereof we recount our torments triumphes our deathes a glorie If this end were the ouerthrow of your Maiestie or if your displeasing had bin the point that with so many bleeding woundes wee haue witnessed to be so deare vnto vs wee would with the losse of fewer liues haue perfitted our purposes and long ere this haue brought the cards to an vnfortunate shufling for whosoeuer hath content̄ed his own life is Maister of anothers and he that is resolute to spend his blood will rather seeke to sell it for the intended price then with a fruitles affection cast it away for nothing No no most Gratious SOVERAIGNE Heauen and Earth shall vvitnesse vvith vs in the dreadfull day of doome that our breastes neuer harboured such horrible treasons and that the end of our comming is the saluation of soules not the murthering of bodies wee beeing rather willing to die
then to contribute the least haire of our head to the latter and not so willing to liue as to shed the best blood in our bodies for the first giue then O most gratious Queene wise men leaue to see that they shew themselues no lesse disloyall to your Maiestie theÌ„ enuious to vs that durst diuulge these Fables vnder the name of your Highnes making their Prince the patronesse of theyr fayned and deuised falsehood Now with what shadow or likelie-hood can it sincke into any sound beleefe that we come with ample authority to perswade your Maiesties Subiects to renounce theyr duties and to bind them with othes Sacraments to forsweare their naturall allegence to their Princess highnes to yeeld all their powers to the Spanish Princes forces for to say we doe it vppon hope to be inriched with those possessions that others now enjoy hath but smal semblance of probabilities considering how much likelier wee are to inherite your RACKES and possesse your place of EXECVTION then to suruiue the present incombences of spirituall liuinges or to liue to see any dignities at the KING of SPAINE his disposition and sith both the daylie Martyrdomes of manie before our eyes and our own euident and hourely daungers can not but kill in vs all such aspiring fantasies if any minde were so mâ—ddâ— as to sell his soule at so base a rate Let it be scanned with equitie how little seeming of truth it carrieth that so manie should vpon so improbable and vncertaine expectations offer their liues to most probable and certaine shipwracks And can any imagine vs to be so simple that we cannot see how impossible it is for Catholikes to do the king any good though they were as much bent that vvay as their accusers would haue it thought doe we not see that they are scattered one among thousandes and at all such accurrants so well watched and so ill prouided that to vvish them to stirre in the Kinges behalfe were to traine them to their vndoing to expose them to a generall massacer by domesticall furie and what better aduocate can plead for vs in this case then your Maiesties own experience who in the last attempt of the king found none more forward to doe all duties and liberally to stretch theyr abilities then Catholikes were in your highnes defence and though they were ceassed for men and money farre aboue their reuennewes and so fleeced of theyr armour and weapons that they were left vnfurnished for their owne sauegards yet were they so far from mutining or touch of disloyaltie that they willingly yeelded more then any other of their qualitie vvhich doubtlesse if Priests had sworne them with othes or bound them with Sacraments to the contrarie they would neuer haue done sith they venture both liues and liberties for other charitable works of farre lesse weight then the auoyding of the damnable sinnes of periurie and sacriledge It is also vvell knowne euen vnto the Coyners of these vntrue surmises that if the King should come so slenderly prouided as to need the handfull of Catholikes helps who neyther haue conntenance charge nor authoritie in the common wealth your Maiestie neede not greatly feare sith it were impossible he should be strong to whome so weake and bootles a succour should be necessarie And to what effect should wee then perswade Catholikes to leaue theyr obedience to your Highnes sith it can neyther benefit vs nor auaile them but rather draw vpon vs both a manifest subuersion yea did we not rather strengthen them in their duties and so confirme them in patience that with conscience and religious feare they restrained nature It were imposible for fleshe blood to disgest the vnmercifull vsage that they suffer by such persons whose basenes dubleth the iniury of their abuse for who if it were not more than the feare of man that hath helde them would not rather die vpon the enimies that sought their blood as for men of ill mind it were no hard matter than to liue to continuall death to leaue the authors of their euills behinde them to triumph ouer their ruines and to send after them more of their deerest friendes What gentleman coulde indure the peremtory insolent imperiousnes of a company of gredy manerlesse mates which stil are praying vpon Catholickes as if they were common booties ransack them day night brauing them vnder their own roofes with such surlinesse as if euery cast-away were allowed to be vnto theÌ„ an absolute Prince But happily because we desire to recouer the lapsed confirme the standing in the ancient faith of their forefathers it may be presumed that this is a with-drawing from your Maiesties obedience But if indiffereÌ„cy may be one of the Iury disloialty shal neuer be found the sequell of any article of our Religion which more than any other tyeth vs to a most exact submission to your Temporall authority and to all pointes of alleageance that either now in Catholicks Countries or euer before in Catholickes times were acknowledged to be due to any Christian Prince doe not nowe Catholicks gouerned by the Principâ—les of their faith yeelde in respecte thereof with a knowen mildnesse their goods liberties landes liues and doe they not with a most resolute patience obay a scourging and afflicting hande Then howe much more woulde they bee willing to double their duties and increase their seruiceable affections to your Highnesse if they sounde but the like clemencie that other subiectes enioye and were not made as nowe they are common steeles for euerie mercilesse and flint-harted to strike out vpon them the sparkes of their fury It is a point of the Catholike faith defeÌ„ded by vs against Sectaries of these daies like subiects are bounde in conscience vnder paine of forfeting their right in Heauen and in incurring the guilte of eternall torments to obay the iust Lawes of their Princes which both the Protestantes and Puritanes deny with their father and master Caluin And therefore if we were not pressed to that which by the generall verdit of allegeance was iudged breach of the Lawe of God we shoulde neuer giue your Maiesty the least cause of displeasure for excepting these points which if vnpartial audience were allowed we coulde proue to imploy the endlesse misery damnation of our soules in all other ciuill and temporall respectes we are so submitted and pliable as any of your Maiesties best beloued subiectes If then your highnesse woulde vouchsafe to behold our case with an 〈◊〉 eie and not to viewe vs in the mirror of a misse-informed minde we woulde not doubte but that your excellent wisedome woulde finde more groundes euen in pollicy and in the due care of your safetie to incline your gratious fauour towards vs stil inthralled in our present vnhappinesse But it may be that some more willing to rip vp olde faults than to admit any clearing of them when in their hearts they haue already condemned vs to all punishments
Seminaries where the place is in exile the rules strickt the gouernement austere our willes broken the least fault chastised a most absolute vertue exacted And who can imagine those to be so desolute humors who this determine to abridge themselues of all actions of disolutenes and to imprison their affections within the presinct of a reguler and straight order and lest happily it may be imagined that wee say more then in proofe we finde it is knowne to thousandes and daylie seene and witnessed by trauellers that we are there tide to so prezise tearmes in diet apparell exercise all other things that wee are much more shortned of our scope then in any Colledge of our English Vniuersities I omit the prayer fasting haire-cloth and other chastisements of the body vvhich being voluntary yet vsuall are to any if not more then partiall Iudges inuincible groundes against this slaunder of being dissolute but let our intertainmeÌ„t at our returne be a finall ouerthrow of this false imposition for who can thinke them dissolute that being by the Lawes by examples by commoÌ„ experience taught with what bloody conflictes they are heere to encounter howe many feares daingers and agonies both in life and death they vndoubtedly expect are notwithstanding contented for reclaiming of soules vnto Gods folde willing to yeelde their bodies to the hasard of al those miseries foreseene and foreknowne and aduisedly chosen before all worldly contentments But it may be that some vnaquainted with our states will measure our mindes by our apparell beeing as we confesse more agreeable oftentimes to the common fashion than to the graue attire that seemeth our calling neither is our habit or behauiour so ruffian-like or disordered as this inditor euer forgetting trueth when he remembreth vs would willingly haue it imagined but in this we must yeeld our reason sith we cannot reforme the inconuenience till your Maiesty thinke it good to licence vs without daunger to exercise our functions much-more mighty is the saluation of our soules than the externall decency of our apparell which though it be necessary in time and place yet is it not so essentiall a point as for the care thereof to neglect the charge of Gods flocke the safetie of our owne liues Dauid vpon iust cause fained him mad but his madnes was an effect of perfect wisedome and reason the guide of his seeming follie Iudith laying aside her hairecloth and widdowes weed disguised her selfe in such ornaments as were fitter to allure laciuious eies theÌ„ to beare witnes of her sober mind And if God added grace beautie to her youthful dresses to further her iust reuenge vpoÌ„ her enimies much more may we hope he will allow a lesse disguisage in vs to reuiue the soules of our dearest friends It is no sure argument of inward beautie to be vaine in shew seeing a modest and an humble minde may be shadowed vnder the glorious courtly robes of a vertuous Hester And if angels for the benefit of bodyes haue suted their shapes to the requestes of their Ministers now appearing like souldiers as to Iosua now like trauailers as to Tobie now like gratious youths as to Lot yea if Christ as the occasion required seemed to the two Disciples a Pilgrime to Saint Marie Magdalene a Gardiner why may not we for the winning of soules which as God is our witnes is the onely cause of our comming frame our behauiour and attyre to the necessity of our daies as we read the auncient bishops did in the persecution of the Vandalls this therfore caÌ„not be estemed a iust presumption of a dissolute minde in vs whom not any will to such finenesse but a desire of safety enforceth vs to weare the liueries of the time Nowe whereas the heauy aduersaries of our good names hath abused your Maiesties eares with a truethlesse surmise that we shoulde auoide the Realme for lacke of liuing we humbly resigne his folly to the correction of your Highnesse wisedome for to whom can it seeme probable that we flie for lacke of liuing of whom many haue vowed all willingly acepted a voluntary pouerty leauing that we had without either hope or care of getting more our wealth beeing nowe in well-doing and our passions our best possessions is it like that for wante of liuing any woulde enter into a course wherin without possibility of preferment they were in apparant hazarde to loose their liues are anie sledde for such pouerty that at the least they coulde not haue liued in seruice with more ease and lesse labour than they tie themselues vnto in a most streight life where they doe more by a willing obedience than they should haue beene put vnto in a hired subiection or are they of such qualitie and of so manie pleasing partes that they can in these seuere times winne men with perill of their Liues Landes and Posterities to entertaine and comforte them and could they not haue found without plunging themselues in the Sea of daungers some more easie meanes for a competent maintenance then to beg it out of so manie exegents and to wring it through so grieuous oppressions and why should these feares of wantes pinch them more then infinite others whom they left behind them They are men of as pregnant wittes as deliuered tongues as mature iudgements as most of the Innes of Court or Vniuersities where they liued yea they were already stepped so far into promotion that they needed not to haue doubted nothing lesse then lacke of liuing diuers of them hauing bin Proctors of Vniuersity Fellowes Officers of Colledges and likely to 〈◊〉 riseâ— to 〈◊〉 higher preheminencie To â—omitte those that hauâ— Reuennewes and Annuities of they owne besides the allowance and kinred vvith rich most wealthy families It pleaseth further this vnfriendly informer who seemeth best pleased with displeasing vs to deriue our departure from a conscience guilty of crimes committed being stil himselfe in the likenesse of his speeches as voide of veritie as full of ill will for if Priestes at theyr arraignement be in manner charged with Originall sinne many of them hauing bin scarcely borne at the rising in the North which is alwaies a common place to declaime against them If all the notorious faults that may any way coÌ„cerne Catholikes are made ordinarie inditements to condemne those that neuer heard of them till they come to the barre how much would any fault of their own be obiected yea and multiplied in the vrging if any such could haue bin found but yet none was euer touched for any thing committed before his departure as all testimonies may depose and the verie recordes testifie in our behalfe and to preuent any inst groundes of this oblique the superiours not ignorant how many eyes are busied in watching for the least aduantage against vs make diligent scrutenie for the perfect notice of theyr vertue whome they admit to Priesthood who being for the most part among many of theyr owne houses or standing in
attempts than to wreake so much anger vpon vs that were neuer chargeable with so huge enormities And yet the death of one man shut vp in a silent obliuion that open offer of vprore most blasphemous impietie against God and your Maiestie though it be generallie knowne that there were more fauorers and 〈◊〉 of that parti than coulde be euer charged with Babingtons offence We speake not this to incense your Maiestie against others being so well acquainted with the smarte of our owne punishementes to wishe any Christian to be pertaker of our paines Our onely intent is most humbly to intreat that if so impatient a zeale accompanied with seditious wordes and actions was so easilie finished and remitted in the chastisement of one your Highnesse in clemencye woulde not suffer so many innocent Priests Catholikes to be so cruelly and continually martyred who neuer incurred so enormous crimes And sith we daylie in our liues alwaies at our executions vnfeinedly praie for your Maiesty sith at our deathes wee alwaies protest vpon our souls our clearnes from treason our dutiful loyal minds subscribing our protestation with our dearest blood Let vs not most mercifull Soueraine be thus daily plunged deeper into newe disgraces and still proclaimed and murthered for traitours Let vs not be so esteemed for Godlesse and desperate monsters as to spende our last breath in bootlesse periuries or at our greatest neede of Gods fauour to sacrifice to the diuell our finall vowes what reason then can moue vs so damnably to dissemble when our expired date cutteth off all hopes our deathe the ende of euills hath in this worlde no after feares and a resolute contempt of our own liues excludeth al thoughts of meaner liues yea if any hope feare or loue carry any swaye as doubtlesse there doth in all Christian minds it is a hope to be saued a feare to be damned aloue to God to his trueth our endlesse wel-doing al which in that dreadfull moment whereupon dependeth our whole eternity can neuer be motiues vnto vs to sende our forsworne soules headlong to hell-fire But let vs proceede in our necessary defence as the inditor doth in his false accusations we are charged for the easiar 〈◊〉 of vnnaturall people weake of vnderstanding to yeeld to our perswations to haue brought Bulles Indulgences pretending to promise Heauen or cursing damnation to hel It was but a forraine supply for want of true factes to fasten vpon this fonde conclusion being so farre from trueth and so full of incongruity that euery nouice in our faith can reproue it for error I omitte the reprochfull termes of vnnaturall and weake vnderstanding most iniuriously fathered vppon such a Princes pen whome a Royall minde hath taught not to staine her paper or blemishe her stile with those and so many other base and reuiling wordes as are pestered together in this proclamation I reporte all men to their eies and eares for aunswere to these slaunders whether the soule-rightes excepted in all temporall duties Catholikes be not as naturall to their Prince as beneficial to their neighbours as reguler in themselues as any other subiectes yeelding the vttermost of all that is exacted in Subsidies Persons Men and Munition besides the patient losse of our Goods and Landes for their Recusansie Let it be read in letters of experience whether Catholikes be of shallowe braine or of so weake vnderstanding that they woulde be carried away with these imaginary Bulles promising heauen and threatning hell of which Catholikes eares neuer hearde before This worlde can witnesse that in Diuinitie Lawe and Phisicke and all other faculties and functions either of Piety or pollicy all Englande I may say all Christendome scarce knoweth any men more renoumed than our ENGLISHE Catholikes without vanity be it spoken in a iust defence but though they were not such Sallomons for wisedome as some others take themselues to bee yet they bee allowed ordinary sence and intendment which if it be but so much as may serue them to tell ouer the Articles of their Creede it is enough to be knowen that no Bulle can promise Heauen or threaten Hell but for keeping or breaking Gods Commaundementes Iudge then most Soueraigne LADIE whether that it be not too great an indignation to see the sacred name of our Noble QVEENE which next to Gods worde shoulde be honoured among the most impregnable testimonies of trueth to be with vndeserued abuse by any subiecte subscribed to these most vaine and so impossible fictions Who likewise but meaning to make his PRINCES paine a spring of vntruethes woulde against the certaine knowledge of so many and so infinite people as well seers as hearers euen as from your MAIESTY that no PRIEST in Indited Arreined or Executed for Religion sith it is so often and in euerie Sessions seene that vnlesse we our selues shoulde confesse manifestly that wee were PRIESTES no other treasonable crime coulde bee iustly proued against vs and for this howe farre it is from deseruing this odious title your Maiesty may easilye gather for that all Christendome hath these fifteene hundred yeeres honoured for Pastours and gouernours of their soules those that nowe are more than vnfauourably termed Traytors yea if to be a Priest made by the authoritie of the See of Rome present within your highnesse dominions be a iust title of treason If they that harbour reliue or receiue any such be worthy to bee deemed fellons then all the glorious Saintes of this Lande whose Doctrine and vertue God Almightie confirmed with many miracles were no better than traitours and their a-bettours fellons Then DAMIANVS and FVGATIVS that first brought Christianity in King LVCIVS his time 1400. yeers past then Saint AVGVSTINE his companions that conuerted our Realme in Saint GREGORIES time were who in the compasse of treason sith theyr functions and ours were all one equally deuided from the Sea of Rome from whence they were directly by the Popes Elutherius and Gregorie sent into this kingdome being Priests and Religious men as all antiquity doth witnes yea all the Churches and places of pietie chiefe ornaments of this Noble Realme all the Charters and Indowments bestowed vpon Priests Religious persons yet registred in the ancient laws are but monuments of felonie fauourers of treason And if it should please God to alot the day of generall resurrection in your Maiesties time a thing not impossible as vncertaine what would so many Millions of Prelates Pastours and Religious people thinke that both honored and blessed this kingdome with the holines of their life and excellencie of their learning much vvould they rest amazed to see their Relikes burned their memories defaced and all theyr Monasteries dedicated once to pietie praier and chastitie now either buried in their ruines or prophaned by vnfitting vses but more would they muse to find their Priesthood reckoned for treason and the releefe of Priests condemned for felonie these being the two principall testimonies of deuotion
in so doubtfull tearmes that the death of your Maiestie vvould be an alarumâ—â— to infinite vprores and likelier to breed all men to a generall calamitie then CATHOLIKES anie cause of comfort and therefore vs to seeke it were not onelie an impietie to our Countrie but a tyrranie to our selues vvho of all others vvere surest to finde the fiercest encounters of the popular peoples furie though vvee could as then no man possible can finde a priuie or secret harbour from the common stormes yet whome should vve look vpoÌ„ that may promise vs any hope or comfort of bettering our fortunes sith the likeliest to succeede are further from our Religion then your Maiestie euer vvas and likelier to charge vs vvith a heauier hand then to lighten the burthen vvherevvith vvee are alreadie brused and both your Maiesties Sex inclined to pietie and the mildenesse of your owne disposition rather vvrested by others then proone of it selfe too angrie resolution maketh vs more vvilling to languish in this quartane of our lingring cumbers then to hazarde our selues to those extreame fittes that might happilie be caused by the heate of men more vvar-like and lesse pittying mindes for nowe our dispairefull estate is much like vnto a vveake and tender Castell beseeged vvith manie enimies and continually battered and beaten with shotte in vvhich though the aboade be amongst manie accounted most daungerous and distresseful yet without it there is nothing but certaine miseries rest you therefore assured most Gratious Soueraigne sith we are deuoted to so harde a destiny that we neither dare hope for any cause of contentment or ende of vnhappinesse we had rather trust to the softnesse of your mercifull hand and next to God to rest to the hight of your possibilities in your fauor and clemency than by any vnnaturall violenâ—â— against Gods annointed to seeke the ruine of your Realme and drawe vpon our selues the extreamest of worldly harmes in this only we craue admittance of our 〈◊〉 requests that euill informers rob not our wordes of due beleefe nor drawe your wisedome to their friuolous feares wholly grounded in meere fictions and purposely deuised to our ignominie Nowe whereas he imposeth on some to haue saide that they woulde take part with the Armie of the Pope against our Realme it is a most vnlikely thing vnlesse it were proceeded out of some fraile toung by force of torture that was rather willing to say what they seemed to require than to abide the hel of their intolerable torments for such is nowe our forlorne estate that we are not onely prisoners at euery promoters pleasure and common steps for euerie one to tread vpon but meÌ„ so neglected by our Superiours and so left to the rage of pittiles persons that contrary to the course of all Christian lawes wee are by extreamest tormeÌ„ts forced to 〈◊〉 our very thoughts It is not enough to confesse that wee are Priests for it is seldome denyed but wee must be vrged vpon the torture with other odious interogations farre from our knowledge much further from our action We are compelled to accuse those whome our conscience assureth to be innocent and to cause their ouerthrow by our confessions to whose souls we 〈◊〉 Pastors and they the fosterers of our bodies And if we doe not because without vntruthes and iniuries we cannot answere we are so vnmercifuly tormented that our deathes though as full of pangs as hanging drawing and vnbowelling vs quicke can make them are vnto vs rather remedies theÌ„ further reuenges more releasing then incresing our miseries Some are hanged by the handes eight or nine houres yea twelue houres together till not only their wits but euen their senses fayle them when the soule weary of so painefull an harbour is ready to depart then apply the cruell comforts reuiue vs only to martyr vs with more deaths for est soones they hang vs in the same maner trying our eares with such questions which either we cannot because we knowe not or without damning of our soules we may not 〈◊〉 some are whipped naked so long and with such excesse that our enimies vnwilling to giue constancy the right name said that no man without the helpe of the diuell coulde with such vndauntednesse suffer so much Some besides their tormentes haue beene forced to be continually boâ—â—ed clothed many weekes together pyned in their â—yet consumed with varmine and almost stifeled with stench and kept from sleepe till they were past the vse of reason and then examined vpon the aduantage when they coulde scarce giue an account of their owne names Some haue beene tortured in those partes that it is almost a torture to Christian eares to heare it let it then bee iudged what it was to Chaste and Modest men to indure it the shame beeing no lesse offensiue to their minde than the paine though most excessiue to their bodies diuerse haue beene throwne into vnsauorie and darke dungeons and brought so neere staruing that some for famine haue licked the verye moisture of the walles Some haue beene so farre consumed that they were hardly recouered of life What vnsufferable agonies we haue beene put vnto vpon the Racke it is not possible to expresse the feeling so farre exceedeth all speech Some with instruments haue beene rouled vp together like a balle and so crushed that the blood sprouted out at diuerse partes of their bodies To omitte diuerse other cruelties better knowne by their particular names to the Racke-Miasters and Executioners then to vs though too wel acquainted with the experience of their smartes It is not possible to keepe any reckoning of the ordinary punishments of BRIDEWELL nowe made the common Purgatorye of PRIESTES and CATHOLIKES as grinding in the Mille beeing beaten like slaues and other outragious vsages for to these we are most cruelly enforced at the discreation of such as beeing to all other despised vnderlings take their onely felicitie in laying their greedye commaundements shewing their authority vpon vs to whome euery warder Iaylor and Porter is an vnresisted Lord. Thus most excelleÌ„t Princes are we vsed yea thus are we vnhumanely abused for being Priestes of our forefathers faith and of purpose to wring out of vs some odious speeches which might serue at our arraignments for stales to the people to make them imagine greater matters than can be proued whereas neither euill meaning nor trueth but torture onely was guide to the toung that spake them within so hard conflictes of fleshe bloode with so bitter conuulsions is apte to vtter anie thing to abridge the sharpenesse and seuerity of the paine Such vndoubtedly were the wordes alleaged of taking part with the armie of the Popes against our Realme if they euer issued out of Priestes mouthes or else they were spoken by some vnskilfull Lay-man that knowing not howe to aunswere such captious questions and for reuerence of the chiefe Pastour of GODS Church not daring to say that he woulde not take part against him had