1594. lib. 2. fol. 72. sua potenti adeo hunt Haereticum percussit ut desperata salute demonibus invocatis jurans execrans blasphemans miserrimè animam malignam exhalarit obiit autem Calvinus morbo pediculari vermibus circa pudenda in apostemate seu ulcere faetentissimo crescentibus ita ut nullus assistentium faetorem amplius ferre posset That is God in the rod of his fury visiting Calvin did horribly punish him before the houre of his death for hee so stroke this Heretick so hee termâ—d him in regard of his Doctrin concerning the Sacrament and of God being the Author of sin with his mighty Hand that being in dispaire and calling upon the Devill hee gave up his wicked soule swearing cursing and blaspheming hee dyed of the disease of lyce and worms a kinde of death wher with God often stryketh the wicked as Antiochus Herod c. increasing in a most loathsom ulcer a bout his privy parts soe as none present could endure the stench the same Author saith Scio lego Bezam aliter de vita moribus obitu Calvini scribere cum vero Beza eadem Haeresi eodem fermè peccato nobilitatus sit ut historia de Candida ejus meretricula testatur nemo ipsi in hac parte fidem habere potest I know and read Beza to write otherwise of Calvins life manners and death but Beza being infected with the same Heresie hee means the denyall of the real presence in the Sacrament and being accused of the same sin as the History of Candida his little whore makes good noe man can give credit to Beza writing Calvins life A sodomite as wee have said a bove will not condemne a nother sodomite Finally I give you heer Iohannes Haerennius words a protestant writer who being himselfe an ernest Caelvanist and at Geneva when Calvin dyed testifyeth Calvins filthy dispairing death himselfe having bin present and an eye wittness therof Whose words are as followeth Calvinus in disperatione finiens Ioannes Herenius in libello de vita Calvini vitam obyt turpissimo fetidissimo morbo quem Deus rebellibus maledictis comminatus est prius excruciatus consumptus quod ego verissime attestari audeo qui funestum tragicum illius exitum his meis oculis presens aspexi That is Calvin ending his life in disperation dyed of a most filthy and loathsum disease which God doth use to inflict on Rebells and acurssed sinners being before tormented and consumed away which I can truly attest having been present and seen with myne eyes his tragicall and curssed end Tell mee Sall after this horrible end of Calvin a pillar of the English Church and your highest esteemed Doctor whose institutions are your golden Rules what Angells have hurried him out of this world to the tribunall of the Sonne of God and to what Eternity have they carryed him of Glory or Confusion Certainly such a despairing end of his life can be noe other then the beginning of an Eternity of Flames and Torments XII CHAPTER Of Beza's Doctrin and Conversation THe aforesaid Hierom Bolseck writt alsoe the life of this filthy Beza and what ennormious villanies hee committed First hee rann away with a Taylors wife in Callendors-street in Paris and shee then stole away her husbands goods hee sould a way a Priory hee had to one for redy monyes and hee had farmed it to another for 5. years for mony before hand after his running away these two fell to a publick sute which lyes upon record in the Court of Paris Hee was accused for getting his mayd Claudia with Child in Geneva and then faining himselfe and his mayd to be sick of the plague hee procured they should be lodged in two Chambers of Petrus Virettus in another Garden to conceal the sin hee had Claudia bled and strongly purged soe as shee was delivered of a dead Child which they buried in the Garden the Barber that blooded Claudia confessed all this to Doctor Bolseck upon oath What doth Beza to cover the foule matter hee composes a Hymne of certaine spirituall songs of the great paines hee suffered by vehemence of the plague and printed them at Geneva Sall is not this a holy man fitt to reforme the Church of God and to Sanctify the World O abhominable Imposter that covered black sinns with spirituall Hymnes Bolseck in publishing Beza's life anno 1582. doth object against him many great and haynous Imputations setting downe in particular with speciall naming of tymes places and persons and cleare circumstances Beza printed seditious Books for stirring up and fomenting civill warrs in France wherof one was intitled the French Fury another the truth another the watch another the waking Bell hee writt a most pestellent Book intitled De Iure Magistra tuum in subditos A thing soe perfidious as Mr. Suttlife saith The Doctrine Suttl in his ans to a Libel suplicatory pa. 75. and pa. 92. Banc. in his Serray of holy pretended discipline printed 1593. Cap. 3. pag 45. and in his book of dangerous positions pa. 21. therof doth wholy tend unto trouble and rebellion doth arme the subjects against the Prince and overthroweth in effect all the Authority of Christian Kings and Magistrates Likewise Bancroft Protestant Arch-Bishop of Canterbury delivers the same opinion of that dangerous Hereticall Book Who will be pleased to consider the principels and Aphorismes of Zwingâ—ius Calvin and Beza the tribunes of the furious People Boute-feux and Ring-leaders of Rebellion it shall appeare clearly ex effectis that Geneva is the School of Rebellion and the Semenary of all the civill warrs in France and if you will call to minde both theire beginnings theire proceedings and theire continuance till this tyme in the Kingdome of France In all these three things are specially to be observed 1. Theire many Conspiracyes 2. Theire many and great Batles against the King and his Officers 3. And the horrible outrages and attempts both incomparable for crueltie and incredible for disloyalty To say noe more of these things let it serve turne to informe you of the open and actuall Rebellion of these new Saints who sought by the sword in theire hands to compell the King to pacification Remember first that furious and memorable Battle upon the plaine of Dreux the Batle of Saint Dennis the Battle of Ianac the Battle of Coutras the Battle of Moncontour and the besieging of Roan where the King of Navare lost his life At Saint Dennis the Constable was slaine and at tarnat the Prince of Conde and at Coutras the noble Duke Ioyeuse ended his days The fields of France were stayned with noble French blood and a curssed Beza was the greatest instigator of all men living in those Battles and seditions against his King Charles the ninth who was bound to defend the Catholick Religion prescrib'd in France and professed for aboue 1300. years against all Heresiarks and impious men that would chase out that Religion and bring
to see or discerne though all the world knew him to be Summersets competitor This crafty man though hee had bin allways a Roman Catholick in his Iudgment yet as many polititians use to doe hee dissembled his belief and soothed the Protectors inclination to the Protestant Reformation and made account those new men for Propagation and Preseruation of theire new Ghospell and Doâ—trin would fix upon himselfe for theire chief Patrone and Director and take with him whome hee would appoint for Soueraigne of the Land and to this purpose hee much humored their madness and zeal while they were intoxicating the people with the liberty and pleasure of the new Religion Dudlay being all in all with the Protector and having gotten the power of the Militia into his owne hand hee began to settle a new Religion in England upon the score of a refined Reformation and to unsettle the goverment and ancient faith and in doeing all this hee gave the world to understand the Protector did all and therby made him soe odious that none could indure to heare his name or to live under his goverment This wicked Earle compassed what hee went about to his owne desire his impious drift was to make his Sonne King who was marryed to my Lady Iane Gray of the Blood-Royall and a Protestant Infine hee contrived the Protectors distruction and had him put to death the young King to be poysoned the Princes Mary afterwards Queen to be excluded and the Lady Iane Gray to be Crowned Queen of England For preparing the way to all those sadd things this cruell impious man by force of the Army which was in his hands against his owne Conscience in the first Parlament and yeare of King Edwards Raigne obtained in favour of Protestancy and these new men an act of indemnity for the new Preachers and Hereticks from pennaltyes inacted by the ancient Lawes of the Land against marryed Priests and Hereticks and a repeal of the English Statutes that had tyme out of memory confirmed the imperiall Edicts and Lawes against Heresies But in the second year and Parlament of Edward VI. it was carryed though by few votes and after along debate of aboue foure months that the Zwinglian or Sacramentarian Reformation should be the Religion of England O tempora ô mores ô exicrabilem Parlamenti Anglicani impietatem ô scelus Cleri Apostatantis Who the Contrivers of the XXXIX Articles and first Reformers of Protestant Religion TRue Faith and all Sanctity being chased out of England by the sinns of the Clergie and the wicked laymen in the Parlament the Charge of framing Articles of this new Religion as alsoe of composing the Liturgie and a Book of Rites Ceremonies and Administration of Sacraments was committed to Thomas Cranmer Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and to som other Protestant Devines who were all married Fryers and Priests lately come out of Germany with their sweet harts videlicet Hooper and Roger Monks Coverdale an Augustin Fryer Bale a Carmelit all these Englishmen Peter Martir a Chanon Regulare Martin Bucer a Dominican and Bernardus Ochinus a Capucin these three strangers came over with three galloping Nuns invited by the Protector and Cranmer out of Germany and apointed to preach and teach in both Universityes and at London who were to agree with the rest in the new modern forme of Religion which was a matter of great difficulty because the tenets which they untill then had professed were irreconsilable For that Hooper and Rogers were fierce Swinglians that is Puritans or Presbiterians and joyned in faction against Cranmer Ridly and other Prelaticks Hugh Latimer of great regard with the common people hee opposed himselfe to Cranmer and others for their opposing his pretention to the Bishoprick of Worsester Coverdale and Bale were both Lutherans and yet differed because the one was a riged the other a milde or halfe Lutheran Bucer had alsoe professed a kind of Lutheranisme in Germany but in England was what the Protector would have him to be and therfore would not for the space of a whole yeare declare his opinion in Cambrid though pressed to it by his schollers concerning the Real Presence untill hee had heard how the Parlament had decided the Controversy at London and then hee changed his opinion and became wholy a pure Zwinglian The same tergiversation was used by Peter Martir at Oxford and soe ridiculously that coming sooner in the first Epistle of Corinthians which hee undertook to expound to the Words HOC EST CORPVS MEVM then it had bin determined in Parlament what they should signify the poor Monk with admiration and laughter of the University was forced to divert his Auditors with impertinent comments upon the precedent Words Accipite manducate fregit dixit c. Which needed noe explanation At length when the news was com that both houses had ordered these Words HOC EST CORPVS MEVM should be understood figuratiuely and not literally Peter Martir sayd hee wonderd that any man could be of another opinion though hee knew not the day before what would be his owne opinion As for Bucer hee was a concealed Iew joyned in Contriving the XXXIX Articles only to make good days with his Nun and dyed a Iew being asked confidently his opinion of the Sacrament by Dudley Duke of Northumberland in the presence of the Lord Paget then a Protestant who testifyed the same publickly afterwards hee answered that the Real Presence could not be deny'd if men believed that Christ was God and spoke the Words THIS IS MY BODY But whether all was to be believed which the Evangelistes writt of Christ was a matter of more Disputation Peter Martir who came to England to Cherish in pleasures his wanton Nun whose death hee lamented efeminatly was noe Protestant in Iudgment as is cleare by what is said and yet hee joynd in the XXXIX Articles Bernardus Ochinus who loved Woemen soe well as by an express written Book hee affirmeth Polligamy or the lawfullness of having two Wives together dying professed himselfe to be a Iew and soe whilest hee lived in England was but a counterfeit Protestant to make bon-chear with his Nun and for this cause agree'd to the XXXIX Articles Cranmer was a meer contemporiser and of noe Religion at all Henry the eight raised him from Chapline to Sr. Thomas Bullen Ann Bullens Father to be Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to the end hee might divorse him from Queen Catharin and marry him to said Ann Bullin which hee did Afterwards by the Kings Order hee declared to the Parlament that to his knowledg Ann Bullen was never lawfull wife to his Maiesty by which hee let the World know Elizabeth her daughter had noe right title to the Crowne of England After this hee marryed the King to Ann of Cleves and when the King was weary of her Cranmer declared this marriage alsoe null and married and unmarried him soe often that hee seemed rather to exercise the office of a pymp then the function
faith To vanquish a coward that makes noe resistance is but a smale Glory and Victory for a Champion the tentation that mastered you was like to such a Champion Illa tentatio vicit te non quia non potuit ipsa vinci repelli sed quia tu qui victus es nullarum virium fuisti That tentation mastered you not because the tentation was strong and could not be vanquished but because you that was vanquished was of noe force or resolution Tertulian speaks much to the same purpose in those tearms Hereses de quorundam infirmitatibus habent quod valeant non valentes si bene valentes fidem incurrant That is to say Hereses take theire force from the weakeness of some but would have noe force if they encountred men strong in faith You have beene indeed cast downe because you would not stand and fight for I dare affirme there are hundreds of simple honest lay-men Catholicks borne in Ireland would have rather suffered torments and death it selfe then abjure theire faith as you have don for that they would have made good use of the Grace God hath given them as you have not done but like a languishing man hast yielded to that black temptation over which they would have tryumphed It was exellently said of the formentioned Tertulians Nemo saepiens est nisi fidelis nemo major nisi Christianus nemo Christianus nisi qui usque ad finem perseveraverit Behold this Sage Father holds noe man wise but a man strong in his faiih noe man great or noble but a Christian noe man a Christian but hee that continues stout and faithfull to God in Combatts and temtations and more especialy when the storme of persecution rises upon this tryall you fainted and forsooke your Master and your Religion and now of what Religion I beseech you are you I am say you a Protestant a true Child of the Church of England but of what Sect or kind of Protestants are you is a new Queere for under this Notion of Protestant pass Lutherans Calvinist Moderat and Rigid Swinglians Anabaptists Phanaticts or the last Sect which calls themselves Quakers Shall I speak my mind to you having gone out of the Roman Catholick Church and quit the faith therin professed all along from the Apostles tymes till this day you are of noe Religion for all the rest is but Paganisme Judaysme and Heresy This assertion is evident out of the great Doctor of Nations in his Epistle to the Ephesians where hee says plainely Vnus Dominus una Fidos unum Baptisma Ad Ephes cap. 4. One Lord one Faith one Baptisme Ergo there are not two faithes to be sau'd in but one only and that the Roman Catholick Faith that noe man can be sau'd without this sole only faith Saint Paul teacheth clearely in his Epistle to the Hebrewes as thus Sine fide autem imposibele est placere Deo the words following give evidently the reason Credere enim eportet accedentem ad Deum Epist ad Hebr. cap. 11. quia est inquirentibus se remunerator sit But without faith it is imposible to please God for hee that cometh to God must believe that hee is and is a rewarder to them that seek him That the Roman Catholick Faith is that only true faith wherin men are to be saued is evidently confirmed for that it is taught and defended only in the Roman Catholick Church which hath the true signes and propertys of a true Church for that shee is one only and can not be many that shee is visible and visibly dispersed over the whole world and therfore Catholick and Universall that shee is infallible and can not be deceived nor deceive depending in her Doctrin upon the infallible Revelation of God being assisted with Christ's promise of the perpetuall presence of the Holy Ghost with her and consequently can neuer faile or fall into error that shee containeth not only the good or the elect in this life but alsoe divers wicked members as the barne doth both wheat and chaff that likewise shee hath continued perpetually visible from Christ to our days by manifest Successions of Popes and Bishops knowne to the world and shall soe to the end that there is noe hope of salvation out of this Church and without this Faith though aman live otherwise neuer soe well or give neuer soe much Almes or give even his blood or suffer neuer soe much for Christ his name Wee know there are some that say and hold that Catholicks and Protestants can be sau'd each in his owne Religion But that is a desperate Opinion and the refuge of a very Carless Conscience if not voyd of all faith Noe Catholick is of this mind they are only Protestants that say soe for wee Catholicks hold with the Fathers of the Church that salvation is only as before was said to be found in the Catholick Church among others Sainct Irenaeus and Tertulian neare the Apostles tyme and after them Epiphanius Theodoret and Saint Augustin doe specially treat of this matter The reason is evident in as much as Catholicks and Protestants doe disagree in substantiall Articles and Theorems of Christian faith theire disagreements being knowne to be in above a hundred points great and small partly about the God-head of Christ his Church head members and Authority therof in his descent to hell remission of sinns all which are Articles of the common Creed partly about the Sacraments both of theire nature number force and efficacy about the Real Presence the effect of Baptisme externall Sacrifices Purgatory and the Invocation of Saints praying for the dead faith and workes manner of Justification and the like All which are knowne to be very substantiall points It is therfore very absurd and plainly tending to a secret kinde of Athisme to uphold the Catholick and Protestant Religion doe not differ in substantiall points and the differrence being supposed as it must be it is an Heresy to hould the Catholicks and Protestants may be sau'd each in his owne Religion and Profession but Catholicks can be sau'd in theirs which can not be said of the Protestant and his for being out of the Arke Debet perire as Saint Jerom says regnante deluvio Consider therfor Sall having departed out of the Catholick Church what Eternity you may wait for an Eternity of Flames darkness and inconsolable lamentation Vbi ignis Sulphur spiritus procellarum pars calicis eorum this shall be your inheritance I must confess learned men unless careless are not soe easily intrapped by Hereticks for all this I see with all your Mastership of Philosophy and Divinity in Spaigne you haue bine deluded and circumvented by the Protestant Arch-Bishop of Cashel who likly is not an unlearned man hee hath not been carless in working your eternall ruine and undoeing and it is usually the principall care of Hereticks to pervert true believers as Tertulian doth excellently teach Studium est saith hee Heriticis
see not why I should not only compare but preferre alsoe one Cranmer before six hundred Becketts of Canterbury This is one Impudency let us heare another Quid in Nicolao Ridlaeo videtur cum quovis Divo Nicolao non conferendum That is What is there in Nicholas Ridley that Impudent rediculous demaunds of Iohn Fox may not be compard with any Saint Nicholas whatsoever To this every man that hath redd the life of Saint Nicholas surnam'd the great that was Bishop of Myra and soe famous in the first councell of Nice and hath either knowne the other Nicholas Ridley intruded into two Bishopricks of England at once together with his Burgundian wife or shall read those things which afterwards I am to set downe of him and Octob. 19 his actions out of Fox himselfe when I come to his festivall day will easily be able to make full answer There followeth Fox his third demaund of the learned reader more impudent and impious then the rest Qua in re saith hee Latimerus Hooperus Marshius Simsonus caeterique Christiani Martyrii candidati inferiores summis maximisque ill is Papistici Calendarii divis imò multis etiam nominibus non prâ—ponendi videantur That is In what one thing may Latimer Hooper Marsh Simson and other renowned Christian Martyrs in this book contained seem to be inferiour to the highest and greatest Saints of the Papisticall Calendar or rather not to be preferred before them all for many respects Here now you see his full sense and these his Martyrs are to be preferred before the highest and chiefest Martyrs of the Popes Calendar But some one of the Protestant Congregation will tell mee it is a flatt lye that Fox hath canonized Malefactors for Saints to wype of this staine I remitt this man to examine his Calendar by years monthes and days and to point out with a fingar som of them for it were toe tedious to pass â—an 7. 8. 9. 10. Febr. 6. Enormityes of divers Foxian Saints over them all In the first place I give you Sr. Iohn Old-Castle and Sr. Roger Acton who with above forty more were hanged in Saint Gylses field for treason and for actuall Rebellion and for conspiring the death of King Henry the fifth and of his Brethern who yet are made solemne Martyrs by Iohn Fox in his Calendar and distributed into divers festivall days for celebrating theire memories behold two capitall rubricated Martyrs of Iohn Fox who dyed for Rebellion and treason Soe write Catholick and Protestant Authors as Walsingham who liu'd at the same tyme with Old-Castle Likwise Stow expresly speaks thus Towards the end of the yeare 1417. Stow anno 5. Henr. 5. pag. 572. Sr. Iohn Old-Castle taken by chance in the Territory of the Lord Powesse was brought up to London in a Litter wounded during the Parlament and there examined Which Stow sets downe thus Assoon as Sr. Iohn Old-Castle was brought into the Parlament before the Kings Brother Duke of Bedford Regent and governour of the Realme his indightment was read before him of his forcible insurrection against the King in Saint Gylses field and other treasons by him commited The question was asked why hee should not be deem'd to Dye c. But the said Old-Castle giving many frivelous answers and speaking nothing to the point the chief Iustice admonished the Regent not to suffer him to spend the tyme soe vainly and being commaunded to answer finally why hee should not suffer death To which hee stoutly answered that This Rich. then in Scoctland was a Mock King a suborned impostore hee had noe Iudg among them soe long as his Leage Lord King Richard was a live and in the Realme of Scotland Which answer when hee had made because there needed noe other wittness hee was condemn'd to be drawne and hang d upon a Gallows and to be burned hanging upon the same Which Iudgment was executed on him the 14. of December in Saint Gylses field Where many honourable persons being present the last words that hee spoke were to Sr. Irpingham adjuring him that if hee saw him rise from death to life againe the third day hee would procure that his sect might be in peace and quiett Thus farre are the words of Stow Old-Castle was of the Sect of Wicklif And who will not say now but that this traytor publickly executed for treason is a worthy Martyr for Fox his Calendar and Martyraloge If Hackett the puritan put to death in Queen Elizabeth's days for saying he would rise againe the third day as Old-Castle did say and went devoutly to the Gallows as the other did crying IEHOVA IEHOVA as Stow setteth it downe and at the Stow anno 33. Eli. Christi Vero 1591. pag. 2289. Gallowes noe less bitterly rail'd against Q. Elizabeth then Old-Castle did against that worthy King Into his Calendar had he gone without further Consultation and in some respect was fitter for it being a Calâ—anist in the purest degree which Old-Castle was not as after shall be made appeare It is alsoe cleare and manifest Of Sir Roger Acton and his cause why hee was hanged that Sir Roger Acton Knight with Sir Iohn Old-Castle and others conspired King Henry the fith his death with his Bretheren and was taken in open Rebellion against him in the field of Saint Gyles in London upon the yeare 1414. And was condemned of treason at Westminster and on the tenth of February was drawn hang'd and buried under the Gallows soe â—elateth Stow. Stow. in Chro. â—n Dom 1414. pa. 551 Holen anno 1414. And Holenshed in effect writeth the same citing for his Authors Titus Livius And Hall in the Margent Stow and Holenshed as aboue was said were both Protestants Iohn Zisca alsoe the famous Bohemian Murtherer who besides the Rebellion against his Prince and Lieg Lord was a common manqueller began his Rebellion by murthering openly the Major of Prage and other Senators and then breaking violently into the court soe afflicted the sick King Vincislaus as hee fell presently into a dead Palsy and therof soon after departed this life Hee continued that most cruell and outrageous Rebellion against the afflicted Widow Queen Sophia his souveraigne Lady and against the Emperour Sigismund Brother to Vincislaus lawfull Successor to that Crowne for divers years And this with such slaughter and opprobrious handling especially of Priests and Religious men as scarse is read in any other Barbarous Historie calling himselfe in his Title Monachomastix the Murtherer of Monks His cruell bloody Soldiers were a company of People called Thaborits from a Castle being on a hill which Zisca cal'd Monthabor which hee had taken by treason and violence from a Catholick noble man killing both him and all his that were with in it who followed him for spoyle and licentious life There were committed more outragious insolencyes Murthers and grievous villanyes in a few years by the Directions of this cruell Zisca then any other Historie doth