your generall Viccars warrant which Romish conceite you shall finde learnedlie confuted by Doctor Bilson who is now Bishop of Winchester in the latter sence I need not to labour any more proofe then that before is set downe touching your breeding of Gods children in blindnes and ignorance and withholding the keye of knowledge from them and how will you haue them meddle with or care for that which they know not Though I say I may well iustifie both yet let me tell you that you doe not well distinguish the word meddle for as to meddle may signifie to be present in Councels c. in which sence you seclude the Laytie from medling with Religion so likewise it may signifie to trie and examine by the touchstone of Gods word the doctrine there taught and not to beleeue without farther discussing whatsoeuer their superiours teach them And in this sence likewise you will not haue them meddle yet the men of Berrhea are much commended for medling thus in Religion in that hauing heard the Apostle they searched the Scriptures daily to see whether those things were so as he deliuered and to this medling doth the Apostle exhort all Deerely beloued beleeue not euery spirit but trie the spirits whether they be of God or not And Chrisostome thinketh it an absurd thing that all men should not thus meddle with Religion Quomodo absurdum non est c. What an absurditie is that for money we trust not other men but count it and tell it after them but for more excellent things simplie to follow other mens sayings especially sith we haue the exactest rule and ballance of all the testimonie of the lawe of God therefore I pray and beseech you that you will leaue what this and that man thinketh and enquire all these things of the Scriptures Now how doe you permit lay men thus to meddle with matters of Religion when as ye take from them the vse of the Scriptures which as the rule or leuell serueth the Architect to direct his building by the ballance trieth the true waight of euery thing plainly sheweth what doctrine is true and to be imbraced what false and to bee reiected But no maruell that you haue forbidden them thus to meddle with matters of Religion when you haue broached such doctrines and maintained such opinions as some of your selues confesse cannot be iustified by the Scriptures It is recorded that some of the learneder sort of your Cleargie haue vsed to say amongst their friends Sic diecrem in Scholis sed tamen maneat inter nos c. I would say so in the schooles but yet let it be kept secret amongst our selues I thinke the contrarie we say so in the schooles but yet it cannot be proued out of the Scriptures c. Howsoeuer it may be you will generally be loath to confesse thus much of the Scriptures yet the Fathers you haue not onely mangled and depraued where their testimonies were pregnant against your errors as for example that plaine place of Gregorie Nissen Eam solummodo naturam quae increata est colere venerari didicimus we haue learned to adore and worship onely that nature which is vncreated where your Spanish Diuines in their Index expurgatorius set down this direction Deleatur dictio solummodo put out the word only sundry such places as both our learned men haue discouered in your Indices are to be found out But you plainly professe thinking it should haue remained secret among your selues and neuer to haue come to our knowledge that in the auncient Fathers you do very often deny very many errors meaning such sentences as make for vs against you by inuenting some comment or exposition and that you doe faine and deuise some conuenient sence when they are by the aduersaries in disputations and conferences obiected against you which things considered should stir vp the spirits of all men thus to meddle with matters of Religion and not by and by to beleeue and receiue euery doctrine because your Church teacheth it And now are we come to that high and capitall slaunder against the holy Pope-made Saint Thomas Becket whom I call a traitour at which the gall of this Popish Saint-seruer is so moued that he taketh on fretteth chafeth and as another mad Aiax Flagellifer threatneth that I shal rest with a broken head as in another place he speaketh of cudgelling with blowes and bastinadoes wherewith he supposeth to haue wrought a manly peece of worke But Sir pause a while the more rage the lesse reason and the the greater haste commonly the worse speede It were good aduise for you that threaten the breaking of other mens heads to looke warily to your own for the olde verse may happily be verified in you Saepe sagittantem didicit referire sagitta Inque virum plagae conuersarecurre re plaga The arrow oft vpon the shooter doth rebound And he receiues the blow that others thought to wound To examine a little the state of this Becket who was a traitor as I affirme not I onelie but many before me against Henrie the second but to vse the words of mine Author taken vp and shrined for a newe Saint made of an olde Rebell fiftie yeeres after his death which was in the fourth yeere of Henrie the third I doe openly professe to auoide all such carpers and quarrell-pickers as this fellow is to separate betweene his punishment and death and betwixt his cause and carriage against his Prince The first being outragious against all law and order by priuate persons not publikely authorised therto the second traiterous and meritorious of death the king hauing to that end iust matter enough if he had pleased by lawe to prosecute the cause against him which by sundrie euidences may be shewed but some fewe shall serue And first if Ciprians rule be true Non poena sed causa facit Martyrem It is not the punishment but the cause that maketh the Martyr what was the maine ground of the controuersie betwixt the King and him was it not as they terme them the liberties of the Church as this Encounterer granteth liberties not spirituall but carnall not of Christes giuing but of Antichrists deuising There were as Authors affirme in that time of Henrie the second more then a hundred murthers besides other felonies proued vpon the Clergie which when the King would haue punished according to the lawes of the land Becket opposeth himselfe and beardeth the King in this so iust an action vnder title of standing for the liberties of the Church a holy quarrell no doubt but such a Martyr such a cause From this straunge ground these proceedings ensued there was a law and constitution that neither Bishop nor Clerke should goe out of the land without the kings licence and then he should take an oth not to procure any hurt against the king or any of his notwithstanding this proude Prelate who
also but euer with due reuerence to both parents c. All which by way of similitude you apply to our Queene as a mother and your Pope as a father and to your Saundrs Allen Bristow Stapleton c. as elder brethren and to the Priestes and lay men in England as yonger brethren c. which similitude consisteth of nothing but dissimilitudes For first the Pope is no way our father and therfore our obedience reuerence loue not to be deuided betwixt the Queene and him as the childrens betwixt the father and mother the Queene is our mother both nourishing vs as a tender parent in things temporall as also in taking care for the Church of Christ in this land in things spiritual according to the Lords promise by the Prophet to his Church Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and Queenes thy nurses So did Iehosaphat Ezechias Iosias amongest the Iewes Constantine Iustinian Charles the great with other like Princes amongst the Christians commaund and make lawes in causes ecclesiasticall and acknowledged no vniuersal father-hood of your Pope I wish he did discharge the dutie of a true spirituall father within his owne Diocesse and Bishopricke but it is an hard testimonie that Laurentius Valla giueth him Papas dici nomine Patres re Parricidas that the Popes are called fathers in name but in deed they are Parricides Againe if the elder brethren interpose their iudgement betwixt their Parents by your own confession it must euer be with due reuerence to both partes this reuerence your elder brethren haue not shewed towards the Queene too good a mother for so vngracious Impes whom they not onely call heretike pretended Queene vsurper c. but haue by all meanes sought the murthering of her sacred person Thirdly the yonger children you say must holde their peace and mourne for the contentions but not intermeddle But Sir your elder brethren whom you allow to speake are farre enough from reach they may safely define what they will against the Queene and cast abroad their iudgements in railing bookes to yonger brethren to settle in them a consent therto Which being done they must yet make shew not to intermeddle to the end they may the better auoide perill to their persons secretly hearten the people against her Maiestie Take an instance hereof from one of your yonger brethren one Paine a Priest who walked no lesse closely for his safetie then he was directed nor lesse cunningly to corrupt the peoples hearts then he was commanded who from his owne mouth discouered to one Eliot a bloudy platforme laid to destroy her iestie and diuers of her Honorable Councell with armed men the effecting whereof stayed onely the comming ouer of certaine Priests which were expected in the meane time through Gods goodnes this horrible treason was discouered and preuented And Paine being asked how they durst practise or attempt any such mischieuous action his answere was that to kill the Queene or to vse anie crueltie against her or any that would take her part was no offence to God and that they might doe it as lawfully as to a brute beast and to approue himselfe a fit messenger to be sent on such a bloudie errant he affirmed that himselfe would be one of the first that should execute the same here is one of your yonger brothers whom all the world must confesse to be a fit son for such a father as your Pope is Besides this your Cardinall Allen Doctor Worthington and others as elder brethren sent Richard Hesketh a Gentleman of Lancashire and a younger brother to induce the Lord Strange late Earle of Derbie to make a suddaine rebellion in England and to take vpon him the title of the Crowne assuring him from them and others of treasure and forraine forces to maintaine the same which treason the Honorable Earle dutifully detected Hesketh himselfe confessed and bitterly cursed his elder brethren to make him a yonger brother to aduenture the danger of the treason that they as elder brethren doe teach and deuise farre enough from reach Is this the weeping of your yonger brethren without intermedling are these the teares then are they of a right Crocodiles brood which seemeth to weeepe but it is to this end that they may sooner kill and destroy Nay further then this these elder brethren commend to their yongers treason against her Maiestie for a point of their faith namely that if the Pope say the worde none of the Papistes ought to obey her Maiestie nor to account her Queene of England for in the cases of conscience as Doctor Bilson now Bishop of Winchester noteth wherewith the Iesuites that came into England were furnished to the 55. Article when they be asked whether the Bull of Pius Quintus that was giuen out or any Bul that the Bishop of Rome can hereafter giue out all Catholikes be bound to yeeld obedience faith and loyaltie to Queene Elizabeth as to their lawfull Prince and Soueraigne the resolution is he that demaundeth this question asketh in effect whether the Pope might doe it or no to which demaund what a Catholike should answere it is playner then I need here to explicate If therefore a Catholike be asked do you beleeue that the Bishop of Rome may depriue Queen Elizabeth of her crown he must answer not regarding any danger of death I beleeue he may for this questiō is a point of faith and requireth a confessiō of our faith Do not these elder brethrē think you dutifully put in their iudgements between these two imagined Parēts the Queen the Pope when they teach their yonger brethrē treason against the Queen for an article point of their faith To ende with this Cardinall who thanks be to God ended his life before he could attaine the expected end of his traiterous dessignments doth he not perswade that it is not onely lawfull but honorable to murther Princes for Religion for saith hee There is no warre in the world so iust or honorable be it ciuill or forraine as that which is waged for Religion Now if it be true that ciuill warre which is the warre of Subiects against the Prince be iust and honourable then is it an honourable act for Subiectes to kill the Prince for the ende proposed in warre is victorie and the way to victorie is bloudshed and slaughter not so much of the people who are not impugned but for partaking with the Prince as of the Prince himselfe whom you seeke to depose and place an other in his steed And this doctrine of your Cardinals Parrie himselfe confesseth vnder his owne hand writing did throughly resolue confirme and strengthen him in his diuellish purpose to kill the Queene Doctor Allens booke saith he was sent me out of France it redoubled my former conceipts euerie word in it was a warrant to a prepared mind It taught that Kings may be excommunicated depriued and violently handled It proueth that all warre
thereof to neighbour-houses so that it sometimes filleth the whole Towne or Citie with dead corpses so heresie feeketh to infect manie and to spread the poyson of it from one to another Now those that are sicke of the plague by a laudable policie we seclude from companie that so they may not infect others greater care ought in my opinion to be taken of heretikes that they may not raunge whither they wil and keepe companie with whom they please for that the danger is greater of heresie then of the plague for the plague killeth but the bodie heresie killeth the soule the plague threatneth temporall death heresie eternall But you aske from what these wiues children seruants tenants and husbands doe fall and I answere as manie of them as become Papists fall from true Religion and manie of them also from loyaltie and sound loue to their countrie But you say conscience is cause of this fall and not euill will or rebellion and I answere it is fancie that leadeth them rather then conscience for conscientia must be cum scientia conscience must be grounded vpon knowledge and knowledge is to be fetched not from your traditionall doctrine of Rome and vnwritten verities but from the written word of God which is able to make a man wise to saluation through faith which is in Iesus Christ. The long idle discourse that you runne about forcing men to doe an act contrarie to their conscience maketh nothing against vs but much against your selues for we neuer taught it we doe not practise it we subscribe to the whole discourse of Saint Paule concerning the meates sacrificed to Idols as also to the generall proposition whereupon he groundeth that particular argument that what soeuer is not of faith is sinne Therefore we first tender instruction to informe the conscience and if that be obstinately refused and reiected as the fashion of the most Recusants is to answere They will not conferre with anie they are setled then moderate punishment we hold fit to be inflicted by the Christian Magistrate thereby to reclaime them from their Idolatrie by which God is dishonoured and to bring them to the true honour and worship of God Moderate correction of heretikes accompanied with due instruction was neuer accounted consciencelesse and vnmercifull dealing but alwaies practised in the Church Augustine commendeth it by experience Cùm doctrinae vtili disciplina salutaris adiungitur c. When wholesome discipline is ioyned to godlie doctrine that not onely the light of truth may expell the darkenes of errour but the force of feare may breake the bands of euill custome we reioyce at the conuersion of manie This point the same father in sundrie places teacheth But what punishment is laid vpon Recusants by the rare clemencie of her Maiestie any way comparable to those that Christian Emperours haue made against Recusants or such as refused to communicate with the Church of Christ They were discommoned from buying and selling from bequeathing their goods or lands to others or receiuing anie Legacies from others yea they might not inioy their fathers inheritaunce c. What like thing is done to English Recusants or rather what not vnlike they buy they sell they bequeath their goods at their pleasure they receiue legacies and inioy inheritances The most that for many yeers was done to them for their recusancie was some restraint of their persons but with free vse of their goods and open resort of their wiues and friends and after the daungerous attempts of manie yet the greatest increase of penaltie is a Multe of monie which also is easilie passed ouer for scant the tenth Recusant doth either pay the whole penaltie of money or suffereth the restraint of his person but liueth at home and at libertie But Sir you that make such a pitifull complaint or rather outragious outcrie against the gentle and motherlie chasticement wherewith her Maiestie correcteth Recusants what say you to your whipping and scourging to your torturing and tormenting to your holy house in Spayne because I perceiue you are so addicted to Spayne what to the infinite fires you kindled in Queene Maries time wherein so manie hundreds of Gods Saints young and olde learned and vnlearned men and women without respect of age or sex were burnt to ashes what to your sundrie massacres namely of the Albigenses Calabrians Merindolians c. May your Prelates whip and scourge those that refuse to come to your Idolatrie as Boner did diuers with his owne hand May you torture and torment men because they will not beleeue your vnwritten verities as Boner burnt Tomkins hand and Tirrell a Iustice of peace did Rose Allens hand May you put men to death for refusing to acknowledg a peece of bread to be their maker contrarie to the iudgement of the ancient fathers as Augustine testifieth It neuer pleased anie good man in the Catholike Church that heretikes should be put to death nay may you kill both young and olde without difference as in the former Massacres without euer perswading them or giuing them respite to aduise vpon your doctrine and may not your selues be punished may not moderate corrections be inflicted vpon you shall it be sacriledge to touch the hemme of your garments but God giue you grace to repent your owne bloudie murthers and to take benefit by her Maiesties gentle correction who sucketh not your bloud but seeketh your benefite and endlesse saluation Touching the hurt Recusants would do I say who doubteth but they would haue vp their Masse againe c. And here he fareth like a mad man saying That the Turke nor any Prince in the world vrgeth men vpon vaine points of inward wishes secret cogitations that I contrary to al reason humanity would haue it vrged vpō Catholikes in England what they wish what they desire But I pray you of what secret wishes speake I Do I presume to sit in the consistory of mens harts to iudge their inward thoughts or rather folowing the rule of our sauiour by their fruits shal ye know thē do I only speak of such as are by outward actiōs opēly discouered or what vrging would I haue of these wishes of punishment for their smart or of prouidence for our own safetie when he hath answered me this then let him tell me whether not only Turkes but all christian Princes in the world wil haue an eie to such subiects as are by their masters abroad by new Inmates intruding Iesuits at home taught that it is not only lawful but honorable to rebel against the prince vpon the Popes command and from whō the forraine enemy inuador doth opēly professe that he expecteth aide This needeth no further answer because he hath no further mattter to build his calumnious inuectiue vpon This is a point of rare most insolent barbarity that cōdemning my few words of the hurt Recusants would doe though by open effectes bewraied as more then Turkish he
spirituall and temporall Supremacie as it may seeme with small reuerence Philip by the grace of God c. To Boniface bearing himselfe for chiefe Bishop little health or none at all Let thy foolishnes know that in temporall things we are subiect to no man and that the giftes of Prebends and Benefices made and to be made by vs were and shal be good both in time past and to come And that we will defend manfully the possessours of the said Benefices and we thinke them that beleeue or thinke otherwise to be fooles or madmen Charles the 5. Father to King Philip of Spayne for a lesse matter then withdrawing his subiectes from loyaltie or attempting to depose him and make him no King rang an hot Alarum at Rome gates by his Souldiours and did take the Pope himselfe prisoner And for all his claime of Monarchie let him offer to thrust the King of Spaine from his throane and see if as Catholike as he is he will acknowledge this his Supremacie or rather will not seeke by all meanes to bridle his furie Therefore gentle Sir I must make bold to returne your imputation of lunacy vpon your selfe and your colleagues Thrasilaus a frenticke person who poore man was not in anie proportion worth one ship yet thought all the ships that arriued in the hauen of Athens to be his he would tell them suruey them and set downe accounts of them In like sort a melancholike impression hath so deepely setled it selfe in these mens braines that though indeed they be destitute of the testimonie of Antiquitie yet they boast that the fathers make with them and that all antiquitie is on their side forsooth euen as all the ships of Athens belonged to poore Thrasilaus From his Archprelacie let vs briefely come to his pride which we shall not need to seeke in his inward disposition as this Popeling imagineth it sheweth it selfe apparantlie in outward actions Neither in iudging by the external shew may I as wel cōdemne all other Princes and great men in the world for admitting honour according to their degrees as hee would perswade there being great difference betwixt the outward honour due to Priestes and that which appertaineth to Princes and this Luciferian Priest challenging such honour as no prince or monarch the like The Pope will haue the Emperour to holde his stirrope whilest he mounteth on horsebacke and Pope Adrian was angrie with the Emperour Frederike for holding his stirrope on the wrong side when he is mounted the Emperour must lead his horse by the bridle and Kings walke along before yea when he is carried on mens shoulders the Emperour they say must helpe to carrie him for a space Pope Caelestine the 4. Crowned Henrie the 6. Emperour lying prostrate before him with his feet Gregorie the 7. made Henrie the 4. Emperor with his wife and young child to waite at his gate three diaes bare foot barelegd to sue for absolution and at the length made him to surrender his Crowne into his hands Franciscus Dandalùs the Embassadour of the Noble State of Venice was faine with a chaine about his necke to lie vnder the Popes table like a Dog to pacifie his indignation conceiued against the Venetians What should I speake of his blessed feete which hee maketh Kings and Emperours to kisse What speake I of kissing his feete which barbarous pride yet scarce any heathen Emperour is read to haue shewed towards inferiour persons but towards Kings I thinke none Alexander the third did treade on the necke of Fredericke Barbarossa the Emperour and caused that verse of the Psalme to be song Thou shalt walke vpon the Adder and Cockatrice and shalt tread the Lyon and Dragon vnder thy feete These I take it are sufficient euidences of Pride intolerable and more then heathenish Leauing to set downe further proofes of his pride we will now shew how iustlie hee is tearmed a bloudie Monster Cyrus whose head Queene Tomyris cut off and cast into a bole of bloud with this reproach Satia te sanguine quem sitijsti i. Glut thy selfe with bloud after which thou hast thirsted was but a milke soppe to the bloud sucker of Rome Valla professeth of the Popes in his time that they were called Fathers in name but in deede were murtherers that the Pope maketh warre vpon people that liued in peace and soweth discord amongst Christian Princes Iulius the second plaied the gallant warriour in his owne person and casting aside Peters keyes did betake himselfe to Paules sworde Sundrie Popes haue sent their Cardinals to be generall of their Armies and to shed Christian bloud Pope Adrian set Pipine and Charles Kings of France against them of Lombardie Boniface setteth the King of England against the French King and another time they haue set the French against the English The examples of this bloudie humour in sowing dissention betwixt Kingdomes are so many that the Popes owne Secretarie Platina confesseth Pontifices Romanos inimicitias non secus ac saeuissimos Tirannos exercuisse i. That the Popes of Rome did exercise hostilitie and hatred no lesse then the most cruell Tirants What should I speake of his bloudie trecheries The Emperour Fredericke being in warre against the Turke the Pope did take from him his lands in Apulia and Lombardie perswadeth the Turke by letters not to yeelde vp the holy land to him but to kill him gaue a pardon to whosoeuer would fight against him The Hospitalers and Templaries by letters shewed the Turke how Fredericke might be betrayed which treason the naturall honest Turke detested in this point honester then the Pope sent the letters to the Emperour and said in contempt of Christ and Religion Eccefidelitas Christianorum i. Beholde the fidelitie of Christians Gregorie the seuenth how many waies sought hee to destroy Henrie the fourth Emperour and namelie once when the Emperour was at his Prayers at Saint Maries Church in Rome hee appoynted by a Nouice hired to that purpose to haue the Emperour murthered by throwing downe a great stone vpon him Henrie the sixt Emperour was by a Frier hyred thereto poysoned in the Sacrament how barbarouslie Stephanus dealt with his predecessor Formosus after his death how many Popes Gregorie the seuenth poysoned to get the Popedome how Vrban the sixt sowed diuers Cardinals in sackes and drowned them in the Sea generallie of how many massacres the Popes haue been authors and how they haue reioyced at the effussion of Christian bloud these things to set downe were either to write Iliades after Homer or at the least chiliades after Erasmus In a word Alexander the sixt the Papists themselues condemne for a bloudie monster of whome after his death these verses were publikely scattered Mirum cur vomuit nigrum post fata cruorem Borgia quem biberat concoquere haud poterat Borgia dead much bloud did vomit from his brest What maruaile that the store he dranke could not digest But these happilie were the faultes of olde times