how well he manageth that and leave matters of Preaching to the Clergy such as himself was Scilicet Tom. 2. Fol. 259. and Tom. 1. Lat. Fol. 540. he tells them plainly Non est regum aut Principum c. It belongs not to Kings and Princes to take upon them to establish Doctrine no not the true Doctrine but to be subject and obedient themselves in that case And Chemnitius in his Epistle to the Elector of Brandenburgh speaking of Queen Elizabeth after he had taxed her sufficiently in other particulars he fals at last upon her Title of Supremacy in these words Et quòd foemineo a saeculis inaudito fastu se Papissam caput Ecclesiae facit saying by a strange Womanish and unheard of kinde of Arrogance she makes her self as it were a She-Pope in her own dominions Head of the Church What the doctrin practise of those in Scotland is and hath ever bin since their pretended Reformation is too well known to be disputed Cartwright teacheth the same in all his Books but especially in his last And so do all the Presbyterians generally both here and beyond Seas They of Amsterdam in their Confess Fid. 1607. go somewhat further Pag. 50. Art 2. when they resolve That Vnicuique Ecclesiae particulari est par plenum jus c. That every particular Church hath ful and equal power with any other Church or Churches to use exercise and enjoy whatsâ—ever ordinances of Perpetuity Christ hath committed to his Church therefore it is cleer upon that supposition That no one Person is left Supream Governor over many Dr. Whitacre in his answer to Reinolds speaking upon this subject Pag. 4. hath a passage not easie to be understood The Title saith he of Supream Head of the Church hath been disliked by diverse Godly Learned men and of right it belongeth to the Son of God and therefore saith he never did our Church give that Title unto the Prince nor did the Prince ever challenge it By saying that many Godly Learned men disliked it meaning Calvin Gilby Knox Luther c. mentioned before and upon this ground viz. that of right it belongeth to the Son of God he sheweth sufficiently what his own judgement therein is But when he saith never did our Church give the Title of Supream Head of the Church to the Prince nor the Prince challenge it who can tell what he meaneth For admit that what was done by King Henry the Eighth were not rightly said to be done by their Church yet I hope they will own the Church in King Edward the Sixths time who challenged the Supremacy notoriously enough as appeareth in the first Parliament which he held wherein it was Enacted That whosoever after the Fifth of March nex ensuing should deny that the Kings Heirs and Successors were not or ought not to be Supream Head in Earth of the Church of England and Ireland immediately under God for the third assertion should be guilty of Treason And that Queen Elizabeth after him declined the Title and chose rather to be called Supream Governess mended the matter not a whit For it was not the Title onely but the power pretended unto and exercised by and under that Title at which men made scruple and that power Queen Elizabeth claimed and exercised all her Reign as much as ever King Edward her Brother had done So that the refusing of this Oath being the onely or chief matter alledged for the deprivation of the Catholike Bishops seeing Protestants themselves were no better agreed about it they might in all reason have expected if not a milder sentence yet at least a more favorable Execution thereof from the Queen whom they had so lately and so unanimously acknowledged and no less willingly then any other persons of the Realm Who always bear themselves obsequiously towards her in temporal matters never made complaint never writ Libels Invectives or Books against her as the Reformers in other parts perpetually did against their Princes and as too many of her Subjects at home that is to say Ministers of her own making and others in short time set themselves to do No Homilies of sedition were dispersed among the people No Wyat No Oldcastle appeared in the Field by their instigation notwithstanding all the Adversity Disgrace Wants which they suffered In a word such was their behavior constantly towards her even to the very last of their lives that noe indifferent man will attribute it to any thing else but to the most excellent and right Christian resolution of those worthy men to suffer perfectly for such a good cause and unto that Patience Humility Obedience Aequanimity and Resigned Temper of Spirit which as it was exemplary in them so is it indeed Innate as I may say and most natural unto all Vertuous and Religious men that are truely Catholike And such in truth though envy frown when we speak it is the general Inclination and Temper of all English Catholikes towards their Sovereign Prince both within and without the Realm as the experience of their quiet behavior for so many years together of hard times have cleerly shewen When I speak of Catholikes within the Realm I mean Recusants in general as we are called men and women of all Estates and Conditions who have had our shares and tasted of the Cup of affliction as God was pleased to administer it unto us at this present not much less then a Hundred of years When I speak of those without the Realm I mean the Seminaries of Priests Religious Persons and Students that be Catholike beyond the Seas Concerning which Seminaries we are to know that when the old Clergy of England Bishops and Priests were some languishing in Prison other in Exile many dead and all in disfavor The Secretary and such other Politick Protestants as then sate at the Stearn of Government in England did confidently imagin that in a short time both Priest and Priesthood would be worn out and extingished in this Nation And truely it was observed that about the year 1576. there were not above Thirty of the old Priests remaining in the Realm Hereupon Doctor Allen a man even raised by God to do his Country good in a time of greatest necessity together with some others of the English Clergy begun the Seminary at Doway about the year 1569. meerly out of spiritual charity towards their poor Country and a Christian Providence to prevent the utter decay of Religious Professors Priests and others who might serve in time to come to uphold true Religion in England and to preserve a Continuation of the Catholike Church there as it had ever been from the Apostles times to that present unto succeeding Generations And as by the great blessing of God we see their pious Counsels have had an happy effect unto this day notwithstanding the many oppositions adversities and difficulties which they have met with as well from England as from other places They intended also
the Instruction and training up of yong Scholars viz. of the Catholike Nobility Gentry and others of our Nation in the studies of Learning Vertue and all kinde of honest and christian Education which as the case stood they could not possibly have in their own Country without Ship-wracking of their consciences and great peril of their souls This I say was the first and onely design of the Seminaries viz. to be a Nursery of young and tender plants as should be committed to them to be fitted for the Service of God and the leading of a true Christian Vertuous life afterward and not to be Seedplots or Forges of Treason and seditious practises against their Country as their Adversaries cease not to accuse them That 's a calumny black and palpable as shall appear more hereafter At present I shall onely take notice of what that great Protonotary of England brings in charge against them in his Book called Justitia Britannica which are three things First That they are a company of base fugitive persons Secondly that they corrupt the Land with false Doctrine and Thirdly That they practise with forreign States to disturb the Kingdom raise rebellion and withdraw Subjects from their obedience As touching the First I am very well assured that there be Gentlemen of our Nation at Doway both in the Colledge and Monasteries of as good Families as well Bred and as Eminent Scholars as any I have known of all these sorts in the Universities of England wherein I am not altogether a stranger I will not make Comparisons for that were but to make them more odious neither am I willing to detract any thing from the honor of our English Academies which I am bound to maintain It must be confessed there be many excellent wits and men of great learning bred in them yet this I may truly say That those beyond Sea are of no base quality neither is their education in those places such as should render them liable to that Character in time to come Yea rather they are so orderly governed and their times of study devotion exercise both Scholastical and Spiritual recreation yea even of their most necessary repast and rest are all so exactly measured out to them all occasions of idleness excess and ill company so prudently and carefully prevented that it is indeed no wonder they appear so civil so devout so religious temperate sober and well governed in all outward deportment as through the grace of God they do They are as I said by their Superiors strictly kept to their tasks yet rather won then forced unto good They are bridled with a hard bit but it is carried with such a gentle hand as it doth not pinch but guide them So that as their studies blessed be God are not altogether unhappy so neither is their life unpleasant but sweet agreable to vertuous mindes and full of the Noblest contents And that they should be counted Fugitives is most injurious For do they live there as Outlaws in a forreign Province have they fled for any crime doth Justice enquire after them or wait for them in their own Country what Felonies what Treasons have driven them thence but such as a very few years before were not onely in the same place where they are now so hardly censured but in all places of Christendom and by all people of sound judgement counted the greatest vertues Again they live not there out of any factiousness of spirit or ill affection towards his Majestie or the State of England but for conscience sake onely and to avoid the severity of Laws enacted here against Catholikes and the profession of Catholike Religion It is necessity that compels them to take this course In England Catholikes have no Churches wherein to serve God publickly nor liberty to serve him privately any where else The Sacraments are never or but very seldom Administred to them in comparison of what they should be They can have no priviledge or benefit of the Universities for education and study without Oaths going to Church and hearing and doing many other things contrary to a good conscience Beside all this did not Barty Knolls and Hales did not Jewel Horn Cox Pilkington Poynet and many others in Queen Maries time take the same course for conscience as they pretended They would not willingly have been called Fugitives when they were abroad Why then should those Gentlemen at Doway Saint Omars and elsewhere Exil'd as it were at present from their native Country upon the same common pretence and reason viz. reason of conscience be called Fugitives or stigmatized with any such Characters of ignominy Let those Laws be repealed first which threaten present death to them upon their return and which were all procured against them unduly and by misprizion viz. of their supposed practisings against the State which as they complain were never proved nor are true Let it be permitted to them to enjoy Liberty of Conscience and to serve God as all good Catholikes and Christians ought to do without molestation and danger to their persons prejudice to their estates further then they shall give just offence to the State and the world would quickly see where their truest affections lay Neither Doway nor St. Omars nor Rhemes nor Rome it self would hold them from returning with all thankfulness and speed to express their humblest obedience to his Majestie and fidelity to their native Country And as for their Parents Kinsfolks and Friends from whom they are now unhappily separated and from many of them perhaps against their wills they should plainly finde that natural affection was not extinguished in them neither would kindness creep where it might safely go The Second objection is They corrupt the Land with false Doctrine This objection supposeth that Calvinism and the present Religion by Law established in England is the true which England it self denied but a few years since and the whole Christian world doth at this day I do not except the Protesttants themselves For there is not any one of their pretended Churches abroad that agreeth with this present Church of England in all points of Doctrine and Discipline established But to wave that quâ—stion at present as no part of my undertaking it must be considered there are learned and vertuous men on both sides one whereof will not it seems vaile Bonnet to the other in point of understanding the Scriptures How then should the diffâ—râ—nce be decided even in reason but by some Authority distinct from them both yet indifferent and superior to both which can be no other but the judgement and tradition of the Catholike Church precedent unto both Besides this the Bishops in the first Parliament offered to defend their Religion by disputation which the Protestants would not accept but upon an unequal condition that is as Master Camden himself reporteth Nisi Baconus in studiis Theologicis parùm Versatus c. Vnless Sir Nicholas Bacon might be President and Moderator of the business
who was a man neither of competent Dignity to preside in such an action thoâ—gh he were newly put into an high office nor yet of sufficiâ—nt abilities to judge of such matters being a man of the other Robe but a Serjeant at law a few days before and beside all this a Partialist and open favorer of the Adversaries of the Church Therefore the Bishops refused him as an incompetent person as well they might Though for doing so they endured a great deal of calumny But indifferent men will judge best And certainly had the Queen at all desired the Disputation as some pretend or that it should have had any just and fair issue she would have provided Judges as easily she might more agreeable to the Dignity of the action and the Qualities of the Disputants both for Ability Indifferency and Honor Since their time F. Robte Parsons Campian and diverse others have made the same request to the State being desirous to bring truth to the Tryal and Touchstone in some publike maner which cannot but be some argument that at least they do beleeve in sincerity and good conscience that themselves are in the right and therefore shâ—uld not be so hastily condemnâ—d or prejudgâ—d of their cause If it be said that such demands as these have been answered disputations have been permittâ—d as for example that of Doctor Reinolds with Master Hart that of Doctor Goad with F. Campian and that in both these and some other truth hath appeared so manifestly on the Protâ—stants side that both Catholikes and Priests ought to be convinced I reply There was not faire play used in those actions it was iniquissima conditio the most unequal dealing that ever was used for a man armed to set upon a Captive a man at Liberty upon one in Fetters dâ—stitute of Books having no warning nor liberty given him to prepare him self but which is woâ—st of all and the greatest inhumanity that ever was heard of in the sight and view of the rack whereon he had a very little while before been posed with most cruel questions which was the case of that excellent and blessed man F. Edmund Campian afterwards Martyr And as for Doctor Reinolds although he pretends something to the contrary yet it is certain he framed that Combat which he published between himself and Master Hart at his own pleasure Lastly the Clergy and other Priests of the Catholike Church in England do pretend and have not seldom offered to prove that the chief Basis of Protestant Doctrine in general is either Fallacy or Forgery and that the chief builders of this Babel by name Bp. Jewel the grand Apologist of the English Church Luther himself Calvin Melancthon Du Plessis the Hugonots Saint Augustine in France Doctor Morton their Achilles in England both the Whites not excepting Laud himself the late Patriarke of English Protestants nor Andrewes nor Mountague but generally all other Proctors of that cause do defend thâ—mselâ—â—â— and endeavor to bear down Catholikes not with sincere and plain dealing becoming Christians but with calumny and falâ—hood that is to say by false Quotations Corruptions Falsifying and misreciting of Authors untrue reporting of Doctrines false and unjust criminations of mâ—ns persons and of whole Orders of men and by many other indirect ways unseemly and unworthy of the cause of truth They humbly therefore implore and hope from the justice of his Majâ—stie and the State that they shall not be condemned without hearing But as the charges which they bring against their Adversaries are of a foul nature tending much to the dishonor of God and disparagement of Christian faith which God will not have to be upheld by ungodly and evil mâ—ans so they shall before sentence be permitted to plead foâ— themselves and to prove the charge against their Adversaries for whom it is not to purpose to recriminate in the business and say that Catholikes are guilty of the same faults For we maintain the contrary And desire to know what one Doctrine it is that we charge them with as odious and offensive to Christian eares but the Reader if he please may finde it expressly and undeniably verified upon them by our Authors and perticularly in that exact Treatise of the Bishop of Chalcedon called Collatio doctrinae Protestantium c. extant both in Latine and English what crime do we lay to their charge but we prove it by Authors and Testimonies of good credit and most commonly from among themselves What do we bring out of Antiquity in behalf of Catholike Religion or against them which they themselves confess not upon some other occasion The Protestants Apology is a Magazine of Evidences in this kinde And as concerning the Index Expurgatorius whereby they pretend that we Corrupt Authors it is onely a specious calumny to catch those who are willing to be deceived For first the very maner of proceeding doth exempt it from all imputation and suspicion of Fraud with indifferent men it being ab origine a thing intended and made for publike view and to be openly exposed and avowed to the world as it was which matters of Fraud Forgery and false play use not to be Secondly the Expurgators appointed to the oversight of that business meant not to corrupt Authors but to correct former and less perfect Editions by better Copies and more exactly compared especially such Editions as they found corruptly and partially published by Hereticks And where they observed that any late writer had been bold by way of Annotations or otherwise to deliver any thing out of his private judgement less consonant unto Catholike Doctrin or Truth then was requisite they spared not to admonish the Reader of it by their censure In all which doing what is there we pray that can be blamed Yea suppose it should happen that the reasons which moved them to Correct in this or that place and to vary from some other reading were not sufficient and that they inserted their Deleaâ—ur and other censures where they ought not yet I say the Index of their Expurgations being faithfully published to the world and so easily procureable by all men it was impossible that any prejudice should arise to truth by it every man being left free either to follow or refuse the said corrected Reading as he judged best Beside when we say Catholikes are not guilty of misalledging Authors or of any other abuse of that nature we would be understood to speak not onely of wilful and culpable misalledging of which onely we accuse our Adversaries but also of such writers especially as being themselves publikly Authorized to handle the controversies of Religion in the Schools Their works are afterward upon mature examination published to the view and judgement of the world or else of such Prelates and Persons of Dignity in the Church as have had leisure and set themselves to combat the Heresies of the time For otherwise as we do not charge them here with any mistakes of Amès Bucanus
should prevail more then where men of wisdom and discerning judgements sit at the Helm And as Zuinglius before him had found That he could not induce Francis the First to favor him so Calvin well perceived that Kings and Dei gratâ—á would be always blocks in his way Therefore he is willing to remove them so far as he can out of the way that they may not impeach the current of his Prâ—achings and to that end tells them in plain terms Dan. 6.22 Abdicant se potestate Princes deprive themselves of aâ—â— power when they oppose God and it is better in such case to spit â—n theâ—r faces then to obey them Which irreverence yet he never learned from the example of any Apostle or Prophet There is a respect due to the persons of Princes even when they forget their office if we be not much mistaken Doctor Bilson labors much to save Calvins credit in this business with Princes and to expound the words in some tolerable sense Christians subject to Antichrists Rebellion He says Calvin speaketh not a word of depriving Princes or resisting him with Arms. That by Abdicant se he means not they loose their Crowns but their power to command unlawful things a fine gloss they loose a power which they never had but in lawful things they retain their power still The phrase Conspuere he confesseth to be harsh and that the comparison was urged by him in vehemâ—nt words yet is willing to excuse them But as to the first plea it is wholly impertinent For what though he use not the words of deprivation and resâ—stance are therefore the words he useth excusable to speak too plainly had been to erre too palpably which stood not with Calvins craftiness Beside what was Daniels defence which he urgeth it was onely in Humility Patience and Prayer It was not after the violent fashion of Genevah he did not spit in Nebuchadonozors face nor tell him he was unworthy to live And for the second Abdicant se what means he that Kings do loose not their Crowns but onely their Power to Command Speak plain English and be clear You confess the King looseth his Power to Command but you adde obscurely in these things meaning in matters of Religion for so it must be understood though you cast a cloak over the words and cover the matter But I dâ—sire to know what is a Kings Crown without power to command He that teacheth they loose their Royal Power doth he not say as much as that they forfeit it and if they forfeit it who may challenge and take the forfeiture of such a Crown But by such Lectures and Doctrines as these doth not Calvin plainly enough arm the Subjects against the Prince when they revolt for Religion And is not this the very ground of all the Combustion and Civil Wars in France Yea but in other things lawful Princes retain their power First these are not Calvins words but Doctor Bilsons who writes and lives under a Monarchy Calvins words are indifinite Abdicant se potestate They deprive themselves of the power they have without exception or limitation absolutely not after a sort in all things not in some particular for altogether not for some time onely and then to be restored For Princes once dispossessed seldom recover their hold again Secondly what Court or Magistrates shall take cognizance and determine wherein Kings loose their power and wherein not who shall judge and decide the difference between the matters lawful and unlawful that you speak of Though as I say Calvins own words import no such restriction at all which doth plainly appear by his harsh phrase as you call it of spitting in his face that is to defie them openly and to contemn them and their acts according to your own interpretation But this you say is far from Rebellion true but not from Treason And therefore though he teach not the one yet he may teach the other Extenuate the words as much as you can yet they will be really heinous and seditious For he that holdeth a King is not worthy to be or to live among men doth he not sufficiently excommunicate him from his Government As for your Insurgunt contra Deum it is a stale and Arbitrary pretext and serves onely to make them odious under a feigned charge of impiety it convinceth nothing but much impudence and malice in the objectors who should first learn to be vertuous themselves before they charge vice so freely upon others especially Princes A thing which they never yet were in any kinde that the World knoweth To conclude this you grant in effect That if the King of Babylon threatens Daniel with punishment in case he will not worship his Idol or the King of France commands his Subjects to obey the Laws and communicate at the Altar of the Church in both cases alike abdicant se potestate the Kings loose their power and Subjects ought not to obey them but rather to spit in their faces And this was the reason why Doctor Alâ—â— objeâ—ted it to Calvin as seditious Doctrine and Doctor Bilson well knoweth that seditious Doctrines are not so dainty at Genevah For there it was that in hatred of thâ—ee Queen Maries of England and Scotland that Calvin first set a broach that more then seditious Paradox against Gynocraty or the Government of Women and by instruction and example from him Knox and Goodman afterward published their several Books of that subject Look but upon the History of Scotland Printed by Wautroller Page 213. and you will finde that Knox Apologized for all his practises from the authority and judgement of Calvin viz. That it was lawful for Subjects to reform Religion when Princes will not And that Calvins opinion in the point may be yet more manifested the practises of his darling and Scholar Master Theodore Beza must be considered who perfectly understood his Doctrine and did no less bravely put it in execution In the Preface to his Translation of the New Testament which he maketh to Queen Elizabeth he writeth thus Quo die Scil. 19. Decemb. Vpon which day Anno 1564. saith he two years sâ—nce the Nobility and Gentlemen of France under the command of his Excellency the Prince of Conde being assisted with Your Majesties Auxiliaries and some others from the Princes of Germany laid the first foundation of the true Reformed Religiâ—n in France with their own blood This I hope Master Bilson himself will confess to be Rebellion yet Beza justifieth it openly yea glorieth that himself was not an accessory but a principal in the business For after he had commended some other good services of this nature which the Reforming Parties had done at Meaulx Orleans c. He concludes Id quod eò libentiùs testor Which I speak saith he the more freely because I my self as it pleased God was present at most of those Counsels and Actions It is true there be some that would excuse even this Action
should be abolished and that whosoever defended the Popes Authority in Scotland should be banished and that all former Acts to the contrary should be repealed This was pretended to be done by the three Estates but the Queens Commission could not be shewn nor any consent of hers to confirm such Acts beside the opposition which the Clergy or State Ecclesiastical generally made against such proceedings See Jo. Leslaeus hist of Scotland not onely in the Parliament or Convention of States where they happened to be overborn but all the Kingdom over Therefore to make that seem good by a colour of Law which was at first begun by meer Faction and Violence some years after viz. Anno 1567. and after the deposition or rather unjust and forced Resignation of their lawful Sovereign the Queen they procure an other Parliament to be called the Earl Murray being then Regent and the King scarce out of his Cradle which confirms the Acts of the Parliament 1560. Cap. 9. and prescribes an oath to be taken by all succeeding Kings to maintain the Religion then received to which as yet no King had ever consented and establisheth the Confession of that Church The Queen provoked with their many and insufferable indignities had before this time sent for some French Forces into Scotland to oppose them But this they take so ill and the Preachers of new Doctrine in all parts of the Kingdom improve the occasion so much to her disadvantage and to the further incensing of the people that at last they not onely make shift to exclude her from all Government putting her in condition of a private person but dishonor her beside with most capital and criminous Accusations yea and cast her into prison not without great danger of her life Beza that Tibullus of Genevah instigating and encouraging them much thereunto who is pleased in his Reformed Zeal and Eloquence to call her Medea Athaliah and what not Nullum ejus sceleribus nomen c. The Good Man it seems could not finde words bad enough to express her guiltiness and yet how well is it known he had store of them always at command and how maliciously he pleaded against her while she was prisoner in England onely out of hatred to the House of Lorrain appears abundantly in his Book called Reveille-Matin I confess generally t is better to bury old quarrels then to renew their memory yet to justifie the Innocent and to detect perfectly the evil practises of these men I cannot forbear to insist a while on this Subject and to declare more particularly what inducements they pretended for such exorbitant courses They accused the Queen of procuring the death of her Husband the Lord Henry Darley out of a desire and intention to marry Bothwel who was principal in the murther Therefore say they for zeal to Justice for the Honor of the Realm and satisfaction to Forreign Nations it is necessary that she be under restraint til she cleer her self from the imputation of such heinous crimes These were their Accusations and pretenses But touching the Murther it was very unlike to be true and certainly required manifest proofs if ever any cause did Her Sex was not fit for such a Butchery and her nature known to be too Royal to harbor such dishonorable Treachery though she had some just cause of offence against him If she had desired to put him to death he was her Subject and she might have done it openly legally and by course of Justice He had been of the Confederacy for the killing of David Riza her Secretary his own Dagger was found in his Body The Earl Morton beeing fled into England upon that offence he presumed to revoke him and call him home without thâ— Queens knowledge or allowance Neither was he Loyal to the Queen in respect of Conjugal affection and duty his offâ—nsiveness in that kinde was very notorious and scandalous to all the Court and occasion of much disquiet and difference betwixt the Queen and him and from whence their common Adversaries took advantage in a short time to ruin them both What then is the proof of such a crime what evidence bring they to convince her guilty of the Fact First they object that Douglas Earl Bothwels man was executed for it True And that it was he that brought a Box of Letters of the Queens to Bothwel which he had received of Sir James Balfoor at Edenburgh to carry to his Master by which Letters intercepted their juglings and practises viz. of the Queen and Bothwel were discovered It is answered Lyes have commonly one Leg short and so 't is here For is it probable that either the Queen or the Earl should repose such confidence and so great secrets in a man that was known to be at the devotion of a contrary Faction as Sir James Balfoor was Is it likely she would at all send such a Packet which she knew contained matter of great Peril but of no consequence at all to her self For she directs them to be burnt and might have done that her self well enough without the labor of sending them to him Beside the Queen ever denied those Letters to be hers though her hand had been counterfeited to them neither was there Superscription Indorsement Seal Date or any thing else that might possibly discover more cleerly whose they were or from whom coming Her hand was onely Subscribed the Letters themselves of another Character and truly it is not probable that in a business of so great privacy she should require the State of a Secretary and that of some Stranger too for had it been the hand of any of her ordinary Amanuenses the case had been cleer and a discovery would have been easily made Neither could he who delivered them ever be found out to discover the Pack and Douglass who was the man accused to carry them protested at his death that he never knew of any such Letters Lastly supposing that she had indeed sent them yet was there no express proof of any unlawful act attempt or practise to charge her with Suppose she had desired to have her husband murthered doubtless it had been a great offence against God and odious to all men but was it a sufficient cause for her own Subjects to take Arms against her and to depose her Was not David in a like case in the business of Vriah and Bathshebah Yet he forfeited not his Crown Saint John Baptist reproved Herod for his Adultery yet did neither exhort nor counsel the people to deprive him of his Dignity though he were both a stranger of Idumaea and an usurper Edward the fourth of England was not deposed for keeping another mans Wife though he committed a great sin Nor Henry eighth for cutting off the Heads of so many of his own Wives and committing as great sins Spectante populo in the view of his Kingdom and of all the world Surely these Bouâ—efeux while they presume to punish their Kings for sin without
the Kings of Spain France Poland the Princes of Italy Germany c. And yet this is but the first peale which he rang as a Toxsan or Alarum-bell to Bohemia For he addeth another Article which if they look not well to it may touch Reformers Freehold as well as other Princes It is Quando sub praeâ—extu Religionis c When under colour of Religion they look after their own advantages or profit This had not been a Lecture to be read to Henry the Eighth and the Courtiers of his time And surely if a man should ask Murray and Morton those two pillars of Reformation in Scotland Orange and Horn in the Netherlands Conde and the Admiral in France the Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland in England Saxony Sweden Denmark and the rest of the Lutheran Princes in Germany whether they had not some by-ends of Avarice Ambition and other sinister and worldly nature when they seemed to be most hot and zealously transported it might trouble them all perhaps what to answer Last of all he assigneth another cause of deposition viz. When they oppress their Subjects in matter of Conscience Which indeed is the strangest of all for who ever knew a Calvinist permit Liberty of Conscience to another man whom he could compel to his own and yet in this point he is so earnest that unless the people do this viz. Resist the Superior Magistrate in the defence of themselves and true Religion he tells them in conscientiis incolumes esse nequeunt They cannot have true peace of Conscience They should offend God by not doing it And in his Commentary upon Judges he speaketh yet more absurdly and dangerously Magistratus Minor potest occidere majorem The Inferior Magistrate in this case may kill the Superior Baylâ—ffs Sheriffs Constables their King and Sovereign or if they think fit one another upon the quarrel of Religion because saith he Domestick Tyrants are more to be suppressed or opposed then Forreigners or such as are without us Neither was Paraeus the onely Master of Paradoxes in that Country although it must be confessed his Doctrine so corrupted the Palatinate that in England to prevent the like evill his Books were purged by fire Gracerus his Pew-fellow teacheth that the Malice of Antichrist that is in his sense the actings or zeal of any Catholike Prince for the true Religion established coercenda est gladio must be resisted saith he or restrained by the Sword And Aretius himself sufficiently shews his affections to the Emperor Christian Empire when he teacheth that the Dragon in the Apocalyps that is the Devil Dedisse Imperio potestatem suam c. gave to the Empire its power and greatness and that plenitudinem Diabolismi the Fulness of Diabolical malice and hatred against Christ dwelleth in the Empire Nor are we to think that this Doctrine was onely Speculative among them it was the practise also of that pretended Church ab origine Yea their own Neighbors and Elder Brethren have felt the effects of it in much inhumane and uncivil usage from them Ask Gieskenius who was a man of Learning and no small account among the Lutherans and he will tell you one pretty exploit of theirs Emdenses Illustrem Dominum suum motâ seditione c. They of Emden saith he had by this time almost driven their Leige Lord out of all his dominions by their seditious proceedings And that they rested not till they had obtained these Articles of him who was himself a Lutheran Ne Illustrissimus Comes c. That his Excellency should not have power to grant unto his Subjects of Emden the exercise of any Religon but Calvinism 2. That himself onely at Court may have a Preacher of the Auspurgh-Confession So it was matter of favor to him that Subjects should tolerate their Princes Religion but for themselves it must be framed entirely according to their own Mode They must direct and their Prince obey If you object that this was but a private tumult and that the Church of the Palatinate did not approve of such proceedings against their Brethren it is cleerly answered by this That in the year 1602. there were twenty points established in that Church The first whereof was this Schulting Hierarch Anaâ—res Totus Lutheranismus omnes libri eorum c. That the whole Doctrine of Luther opposite to Calvinism and all the Lutherans Books be for ever taken away and prohibited Neither are they permitted in any part of the Palatinate the Marquisate of Brandenburgh or the Territory of Emden 'T is true The Lutherans where they command do as wisely provide against them They have as little footing in all the Duke of Saxonies Countries Hamborough or the Hans Towns That great Synod of Torgaw convented by the means and procurement of those Protestant Princes do testifie that the Calvinists had troubled and brought to ruin omnes Christianas Ecclesias All Christian Churches Vniversities Kingdoms and States where ever they were admitted And hence it is that they are not included under the peace and protection of the Empire the Religions Vried is no way permitted unto them as appeareth by the Edict of Charls the Fifth De composit pacis c. Anno 1532. Nor are they comprehended in his Sentence De confess Suevicâ 1530. Nor in the Interim 1548. Nor in the Constitution De pace publicâ And for the Acts made at Passau 1552. by the Emperor Ferdinand the very words exclude them from all benefit So also in his Declaration at Auspurgh 1555. And in the conclusion or agreement of the Princes of the Augustan Confession with the three Electors and other Princes and Cities in the year 1557. it was declared that the Sacramentaries Anabaptists Osiandrians c. were all excluded from the Articles of peace and that there should be Edicts published against them by common consent and for their utter extirpation This was enacted in the year 1557. and in the year 1566. Caesar and the Princes of the Dyet decreto publico scripserunt c. published a general decree concerning Frederick the Elector Palatine of the Rhine that he should desert the opinions of Calvin and not suffer them to be taught in any of the Churches or Schools of his Country And this Decree of the Dyet was intimated to him in the presence of the Bishops of Mentz Triers and Colen of the Elector of Saxony and of the Embassadors also of the Marquis of Brandenburgh and after his death by his Son Lewis it was obeyed In the same year the Princes declare in their reply to the Emperor permittere se nolle that they will not permit that any Sects whatsoever shall be harbored in their Dominions and that they count the Zuinglians and Calvinists for such which was also long before declared viz. in the Recess of the Empire in the year 1555. Calvinism then being so long before not counted tolerable in Germany the Bohemians of late have made it much more odious and intolerable by
they did by private Authority and Faction It shall suffice therefore to send this Master T. M. for his better instruction unto a great Doctor of his own Church Doctor Bilson above mentioned who as we have heard before holdeth it tantum non as an Article of Faith that Princes are not to be deposed which is also the judgement of the greatest Doctor of the English Church and hath been so for these Fifty years and upwards But we demand of them is it good Doctrine in the Reign and case of Queen Elizabeth onely and not so in the Reign and case of Queen Mary It is a position frequently defended in their own Schools Dominium non fundatur in gratiâ and the contrary Doctrine is as generally exploded in Wâ—cleff The difference then of Religion alters not the Authority and power of Jurisdiction And Wyat with his complices rising in Arms without and against royal Authority was a Rebel against Queen Mary as much as Westmorland and the rest with them whom the English Chronicles mention were Rebels in rising against Queen Elizabeth But you will say Queen Mary observed not the Laws of the Realm she abrogated the Statutes of the First of Edward the Sixth which all the Kingdom approved and 't is the profession of good Princes to observe the Laws and to govern by them I answer it is true Legibus se Subjectos esse c. it is a most Christian profession of all Kings to be subject to their own Laws but it would be understood cum grano salis soberly and to refer more to the directive part or power of them then to the corrective or punitive especially in criminal cases if any such should happen lest the remedy should prove worse then the disease the reparation of a private person turn to the ruin of the publike which is contrary to reason the end of government Beside in Princes we may consider their private Acts as I may so cal them of Government which consist in the Executive part of their Office viz. in administring or dealing justice betwixt man and man and in seeing so far as the Law or reason requireth of them that all men under them live well and according to their several duties in these Acts the Prince may be justly supposed to be bound up to the Law and that he ought not to do otherwise then the Law prescribes But who ever accused Queen Mary of breach of Law or misgovernment in this sense Happy had it been for some of her Successors and this whole Nation if they had affected arbitrary Government and Rule no more then she did Secondly we may consider in Princes their more publike Acts which concern all their people in general and consist in the Legislative part of their Office and in these they are Free they are absolute unlimited and bound to nothing but onely to proceed upon such advise as the Constitutions of their several Governments do require that is most commonly and as is best upon advise and the consent of their whole people represented and giving them Counsel in Full Parliament I say in this capacity the Prince is bound to no Law but the Law of Reason and a Good Conscience as to all other respects at liberty to enact or abrogate to make or repeal what Laws he shall think fit and most likely to procure publike good upon such advise given And did not Queen Mary so proceed Did she do any thing but by publike consent advise and supplication of her people in Parliament Beside if Queen Mary should be so subject to her Brothers Laws as not to alter them upon any reason in a legal and due manner why was not Queen Elizabeth so subject to Hers yea why was not King Edward the Sixth himself so subject to the Laws of his Father Why were they altered and that in his Minority too When he was a Childe and understood no more in things of that nature and consequence then a Childe you will say The Religion which Queen Mary brought in was corrupt and impure That of her Brother before and of Queen Elizabeth after her was pure and according to Gods word But this is your assertion onely we say still That you proceed upon a false supposition that presumption and self-conceit rules the greatest part of your rost That thing viz. Whether Queen Maries or Queen Elizabeths Religion were best is the grand question betwixt us And as it is certain that it was never yet by any general and orderly Counsel no not of Protestants determined on your side so we are sure and the world together with your selves know it hath been often legally solemnly determined for us by all sorts of Counsels Provincial National Oecumenical And we pray what reason can be given why the Judgement of Parliament restoring Catholike Religion under Queen Mary with the consent and advise of the chief and best of the whole Clergy of the Nation should not be as good as that which under Queen Elizabeth abolish'd it not onely contrary to the Queens Oath taken at her Coronation but without the advise or consent of so much as any one Bishop or spiritual Prelate of the whole Kingdom who yet in a business of that nature viz. concerning Religion were by all Laws both of * Malach. 2.7 Heb. 13.7.8 17. God and of the Nation principally to be consulted with But let us gratifie our Adversaries as much as may be Let us suppose the worst viz. that Queen Mary had indeed erred in the introduceing of some kinde of superstitions ought she therefore presently to be censured by Ministers or deposed and put down by a Wyat God forbid Solomon himself a wise and a great King did fall into grievous sins and particularly into the grosest of those kinds whereof they presume to censure Queen Mary He had many Hundreds of strange Wives contrary to the Law of Moses and by reason of them fell to Idolatry beyond measure The Queen never took but one Husband and he a Catholike Prince of the same Religion with her self and with the whole Christian world beside except onely some few Provinces which Heresie had lately corrupted Yet neither did the Priest or people take upon them to depose such a King as Solomon They left him to him who is the Supream and most proper Judge of Kings and who in the time appointed by his Divine Providence raised up Jeroboam to chastise him in his Son Yea when Julian himself of a Christian Emperor became Apostate and persecuted the Christians of his time with all maner of vexation and cruelty which either policy of malice could devise neither the people nor the Pastors of the Church though they sharply reproved and inveighed against his proceedings yet none of them took up Arms against him none went about to deprive him either of Dominion or Life And if they thought it not expedient or becoming Christians to do so against a Tyrant acting Tyrannically and onely by the
done it to her no little trouble No they never attempted any kinde or any shew of violent resistance at all either by Domestick or Forreign help but always from first to last most submissively behaved themselves towards her tendring her safety and the Peace of the Realm far above their own Lives Liberties and Estates 'T is true it was once debated among them whither they ought not to proceed to Excommunication against her both for the preservation of Catholikes and discharge of their Office Yet considering the great trouble and inconveniences that might arise thereby both to her Majestie and the State in case the people should fall into any disorders thereupon or take Arms in defence of Religion They concluded notwithstanding her case and proceedings were very much liable to censure yet for their parts to leave her to Gods Judgement and referred the whole business to his Holiness And herein also the Favor and Interest of King Philip as they had always done did stand her in no small stead For he knowing the practises of France upon this occasion and how much they labored at Rome that sentence of Excommunication might pass against Queen Elizabeth onely out of design and hoping to invest themselves of England thereupon under the Title and pretensions of Queen Mary of Scotland who was the next Heir and at that time married to their King Was the more willing to hinder it least by this means England and Ireland both together with Scotland should come to be Incorporate as it were into the Crown of France and so become an enemy too potent for him to deal with out of which respect also even in Queen Maries time more then once he had kept of proceedings against her which otherwise would have concerned her very neerly Therefore so long as there was any hope that the Queen might be capable of better Counsels he ceased not by his Ministers to do all good Offices here betwixt the Queen and the Clergy and at Rome hindered the passing of the censures for no small time notwithstanding all the indeavors and instances thereunto made by the French But the Prelates all this while as I said chose rather a Durate then Armate ever professing with their mouths and making it good no less with their examples and practises that Preces and Lachrimae indeed Prayers and Tears were the onely weapons which they had to fight against the Queen Though the world knows how little these prevailed with her whose severity towards them continued in the same extremity from first to last not relenting nor affording the least remission in any degree of Liberty or Estate unto their dying day Doctor Scot Bishop of Chester died at Lovain in Exile Goldwel of Asaph died at Rome Pate Bishop of Worcester was indeed at the Councel of Trent and subscribed there for the Clergy of England but never returned Doctor Oglethorpe Bishop of Carlile who had Crowned the Queen was yet deprived with the rest dying suddenly and very shortly after so did also Doctor Tonstal that Learned and Famous Prelate Bishop of Durham while he was Prisoner at Lambeth Yet not before he had personally given the Queen a sound and Godly Admonition concerning her strange proceedings with that liberty and freedom of zeal which became so venerable a Prelate and true Pastor of Gods Church as he was and as some have said Godfather to the Queen Bourn Bishop of Bath and Wells was prisoner to Cary Dean of the Chappel and there dyed Doctor Thirlby Bishop of Ely was first committed to the Tower afterwards He and Secretary Boxhal were sent to Lambeth and there ended their days Bishop Bonner of London Watson of Lincoln with the Abbot of Westminster Fecknam died all prisoners and as some say in the Marshalsey Prior Shelly was banished and died in Exile This was the the very Sad yet as by their Patience Submission and Sufferance appeared very Christian Catastrophe of so many grave religious and good Prelates of England chief Pastors of the Church of God in our nation Thus was a third and the most venerable State of the Realm who like the Cedars of Liâ—â—anus ever since King Etheldreds time for so many years together had stood flourishing in great Dignity and Power in this Land on a sudden cast down disgraced put in prison or banished the Realm The chief and immediate cause of which hard procedings against them was the refusing the Oath of Supremacy for no other crime no other fault could be charged upon them This indeed they refused as a thing which concerned their Conscience very much And although perhaps some of the Prelates now living had either for fear or upon surprizal in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth when it was first enacted given more consent or connivence to it then became Prelates of the Church to do yet they had now better considered themselves and resolved to be constant not onely to the Doctrine of Catholike Faith in that point but also to the judgement of the whole Kingdom which so lately in full Parliament had desired the Abrogation of that Law and acknowledged the Supremacy of Ecclesiastical Authority to be where Christ placed it viz. in the Sea Apostolike Nor did the English Prelates refusing to acknowledge the Queen Head of the Church any thing more then what the Protestants themselves at least no mean ones among them would likewise do For 't is manifest that setting aside some few English at home they do generally abroad dislike the Princes Supremacy in Ecclesiastical causes as much as any Not to mention Gilby who in his Book called Admonitio ad Anglos calls King Henry the Eighth reproachfully Monstrum Libidinosum Aprum qui Christi locum invasit c. A libidinous Monster a Wilde Bore broken into Christs Vineyard and making himself Head of the Church which belongs onely to Christ Calvin himself in his Commentary upon O see is very angry at those who attribute so much to Secular Princes as to give them such absolute power in the affairs of Religion and in plain terms confesseth Qui initio tantoperè extulerunt Henricum Regem Angliae certè fuerunt inconsiderati homines c. They saith he who first advanced the Authority of King Henry of England to such a height did not well consider what they did when they gave him that Supream Power in all Causes it was a matter which always greeved me very much saith he For indeed they did no less then blaspheme when they called him Supream Head of the Church under Christ Sir Thomas Moor Bishop Fisher Abbot Whiteing of Glastenbury and those many other Holy Abbots and Religious men of all sorts who suffeâ—ed in the case of Supremacy under Henry the Eighth never said more And Luther himself saith no less but more scurrilously as his humor was Quid ad nos Mandatum Electoris Saxoniae What hath the Prince Elector of Saxony to do to command me Let him look to his Sword and see
Posse Tyrannum a quoquam c. That a Prince though Tyrant can be put to death by any private Authority And at a Councel held at Oxford under Steven Langton Arch-Bishop of Canterbury about the year 1228. Excommunication is decreed against all such as violate the Kings Peace or disturb the State of the Kingdom Yea the Councel of Constance Sess 15. declares it to be an error in Faith to hold otherwise Nuper accepit sancta synodus c. This Holy Synod saie the Fathers of it hath been lately informed that certain erronious opinions are holden contrary to Peace and good Estate of the Common-wealth viz. That a Tyrant may be lawfully and meritoriously taken away and killed by any Subject or Vassal of his c. Non obsâ—ante quocunque juramento c. Notwithstanding whatsoever Oath of Fidelity or Allegiance that he hath made to him Such Doctrine saith the Councel is contrary both to Faith and Manners and whosoever shall hold it pertinaciously are Hereticks and as such to be proceeded against according to the Canons What can be said or desired more upon the Parricide of Henry the Fourth King of France the Parliament of Paris a Court ever most studious of their Princes safety and extreamly vigilant against the encroaching of any forreign power contrary to his just Authority in Temporal causes yet thought it sufficient to publish this decree of the Church against the Assassinates of Princes both to shew the heinousness of the crime as also how much the Catholike Doctrine doth condemn such practises So that hereby as in a Glass the world might see the integrity of Catholike Loyalty if men would judge of them not by the private and perhaps misinterpretâ—table assertions of some particular Doctors but by these publike and avowed principles of their beleef This is the Basis on which they build the rule by which they walk and govern themselves in point of obedience towards their Sovereign Princes Or if they would judge of them by their proceedings and addresses to their Superiors their frequent petitions professions protestations of all just obedience will sufficiently cleer them If by their practice and manner of life their quiet deportment their peaceable manner of living and conversing with all men yea their prayers which they daily make unto Allmighty God in the behalf of their Prince and for the happiness of their Country do shew how innocent they are and how little they deserve those black aspersions and calumnies of Treason Rebellion Disloyalty Et quid non which some men are so diligent to cast upon them Yea to speak with no greater confidence then we justly may they shew how much more secure Princes may be and how much better Tye and assurance they have of Catholikes Loyalty then either of Lutherans or Calvinists For although Protestants do seem sometimes to teach obedience to the Civil Magistrate very freely and that it is sin for private Subjects to resist them as for Example Melancthon in his Epitome of Moral Philosophy makes it Peccatum Mortale No less matter then Mortal Sin I use his own words To violate the Tempâ—ral Laws of the Magistrates Yet is their Doctrine so clogged with exceptions so many limitations and Proviso's as it were are commonly added to it that Princes especially such as differ from them in Religion cannot finde I say not full and plenary but not so much as probable or competent security from them Melancthon in the place before mentioned limiteth himself thus Debet autem haec sententia c. But this which I have delivered saith he concerning obedience to the Civil Magistrates must be rightly understood viz. of such Magistrates as command nothing contrary to the Law of God as all Catholike Princes do in his opinion What security therefore have they from his Doctrine Lib. de Consens Evang. Beside we have shewen before according to his doctrine the people or inferior Magistrates may reform Religion and overthrow Idolatry as they call it without any publike Authority or Commission So that if the Justices of the Peace in some County or but the Petty Constables in Towns do beleeve the Religion professed by the Prince or State to be Idolatrous and not according to Gods word they are discharged of obedience by Melancthon and may fall to reforming solely of themselves And what his Master Luthers opinions were concerning this matter hath been sufficiently shewen already there need be no repetition of them here Danaeus teacheth the same or worse Lib. 6. Polit. c. 3. So doth Peter Martyr on Judges Cap. 11. and in his Common places And Althusius Politic. Cap. 35. P. 37. where among other causes of a Just War maintained by Subjects against their Sovereigns Purae Religionis defensio defence of True Religion hath the Second place Yea it is wel known that Sureau a Protestant Minister in France otherwise called Rosâ—eres wrote a Book expresly on this subject That it was lawful to kill Charls the Ninth Belfor lib. 6. cap. 103. his natural Sovereign and the Queen-Mother if they would not obey the Gospel But to conclude with one instance for all The Hugonots of France having in the Nine and thirtieth Article of their Confession professed That men ought to be obedient to the Laws to pay Tributes and to bear the Yoke of subjection quietly even under unbeleeving Magistrates They adde a limitation which corrupts and nullifies all that they had said viz. Dummodo Dei summum imperium integrum maneat So long onely as Gods Supream Authority is entirely acknowledged which under the Government of an Infidel Magistrate cannot be easily conceived Therefore upon the matter they profess nothing but abuse their Prince and the world with bare words as it is usuall with them to do Which is yet more evident by the Declaration which their Synod at Bearn in the year 1572. purposely made of this Article and of the Limitation of it Dei imperium dicitur manere illibatum Poplon nier lib. 34. cum Rex exterminatâ Catholicâ Religione c. Gods Sovereign Authority say they is then understood to be entirely acknowledged when the King abolishing or rooting out Catholike Religion shall set himself to advance onely the true and pure worship of God that is to say that which is so in their sense and opinion But to do this is it a thing to be supposed of an Infidel Prince to whom they pretend to profess subjection or is it to be expected of a Catholike Therefore I say they contradict themselves apparenly in their profession and do indeed profess nothing really but that they are Impostors and deserve to be branded with Characters of jealousie and distrust by all the Princes States of Christendom The book called Comment de Statu Relig. â—c a Protestant piece is ful of such stuff but especially Pâ— 2. Lib. 12. Cap. 1. where he affirmeth expressly That in all Oaths of Allegiance and Duty there is this condition always implyed at
Doctrine a condemned Doctrine a Doctrine so far as Doctrin can barely be not only of dangerous but of damnable malignity being contrary to the Doctrine and Institutions of true Christian Religion which our Saviour by his Apostles left unto the Church to be professâ—d and observed for ever and therfore in it self of such nature that it ought to be deposed by all men who desire to be saved and in profession whereof no man living may securely rest This we say of their Doctrine But as to the persons of Protestants themâ—elves viz. how far their personal errour in the profession thereof is voluntary and affectate what means of better information they do neglect against how much light that is inward knowledge and perswasion of minde that Catholike Religion is true they doe sin or what secret doubtings they have that it may be true what inward stirrings and checks of conscience they doe stifle in themselves and persist in a way which their own hearts suspect meerly for temporal ends and because it stands better with their designs of this world that is the present interests of their honouâ—s reputation ease pleasure profit c. or lastly how far their ignorance of the truth may be perhaps invinc ble which where it is so excuseth much of all this we say nothing God onely knoweth how things are with them in these respects not man no not the men themselves and therefore as concerning their persons to his judgemâ—nt onely we must leave them This business therefore viz. of Protestants being counted Heretikes by us is but a Bug-bear a Scar-crow set up on purpose by those our Adversaries who would have the difference and aversions which they have bred betwixt us to be immortal Rather it were to be wished by all honest men of what perswasion soever that a just and equitable liberty in matters of conscience were granted unto all if but for this onely respect viz. That so by a free confident and friendly conversing one with another void of suspition void of jealousie fear danger to one party or other and by amicable discourse and debating of things truth might come to be more cleerly discoverded and we might be able through Gods grace mutually to give and receive good one of another But this is a work which hath so much of God and goodness in it that we cannot but expect many adversaries should appear against it However those Doctors Boutefeux should doe well to remember if they pleas'd that even by the Law of Seniority Catholikes might expect some little favour For we beseech them to tell us upon what Patrimony doe themselves and families now live but that which the right Heirs of the Church dis-inherited indeed or disseized by the power of the State have left them What Priviledges Immunities Honours have they but what the old Church gave them What Churches have they either Cathedral Collegiate or Parochial which She built not What Colledges which She founded or endowed not Nay whence have they their Bible the Creed the Ceremonies or any thing else that is good and commendable among them but from Her If She had not preserved them faithfully to their hands they had never found them Shall Charity then be for ever so buried in England that the posterity of those from whom they must confess to have received these great advantages shall never be remembred by them never be used with equity and common justice It were too great a shame surely to lye long upon such a Nation as this and a defect of Government which all Nâ—tions about us would observe Beside let our Adversaries remember what the French commonly say Chacum á son tour and we in England A dog hath a day Religion here with us since King Henry the Eighth wore the Crown hath had many changes and exchanges as the world knoweth and the principles on which it now standeth are not thought to be so fixed and unmoveable but that it may take one turn more All things are in the hands of God and whatsoever he hath determined in the Counsel of his Divine wisdom must stand and take effect in its appointed due time say we or do we to the contrary what we can And therefore let our hot Brethren the Calvinists who can themselves so little endure the severity of Bishops let them not further promote nor hold up persecution against any body else least in an howre when they think lest of it the mischief which they wish to others fall upon their own heads and that they finde themselves not onely out of the Saddle where they would be but in the Mire under the Horse belly and so obnoxious as they may have need of favor themselves They desire nothing more then Liberty of Conscience in their own way fulness of liberty to themselves let them be perswaded also to grant the same unto others That this is but equal reason it self will tell us And that persecution for matter of Religion is not always the best means to advance religion is the judgement of as wise and learned men even of their own profession as any they can shew for the contrary What Luthers opinion was in the point I value no much because the world did not take him for a man very learned or very wise although by Gods permission he did much mischief in it for his time as a simple Conjurer though he be neither Mathematician nor Philosopher himself yet by the help of the Devil may raise a storm able to confound all the Sciences Nevertheless what he thought appears in his Assertions Art 33. de non comburendis Haereticis Vrbanus Rhegius Wolfgangus Musculus famous men and Protestants both of them in their Common places are much against persecution for Religion So is Osiander Epitom Centur. 7. Chytraeus in Chron. 1593. Castalio and others But above all Acontius in his Book de Stratagemat Satan is most earnest Dominus non permittit haereticorum supplicium imò definitè declaravit interdixit c. God saith he doth not permit nor allow that Hereticks should be thus punished yea he hath expresly declared his minde to the contrary and forbidden the Magistrate to exercise any such Authority upon them Calvin once that is till he had setled himself in power at Genevah held the same opinion and was much for Liberty of Conscience Hen. 2. when Annas Burges died for Heresie in France Of the same judgement also is Monsieur Lanou in his Discourses Sturmius in his Epistles Bâ—lloy Melancthon and many other professed and earnest Protestants Not to mention Erasmus Cassander Grotius or any other of that middle temper And as for matter of example or practise do not the Cantons in Switzerland agree well enough in Temporal things notwithstanding their difference in Religion is mutual Toleration of one another in their several judgements that way any prejudice to the publike peace Are there any people under Heaven more happy and free then they or more likely to
pleasure enjoying the full swinge of their Lust and Lawless Appetites without controule Lastly Erasmus who was a man of intimate acquaintance with them and knew their ways as well as themselves and beside one that never writ partially in favor of Catholikes as the world well knoweth what a Testimony gives he of them in his Spongia advers Hutten Lutheranos video multos c. I meet saith he with many Lutherans abroad but with such as live according to the rule which they pretend very few or none Consider well saith he all this sort of people which call themselves Gospellers and tell me if you can where in the world is there more Luxury Prodigality and Excess used where Lust and Debauchery on the one side or Covetousness on the other rageth more Are those people meaning the Catholikes whom yee have forsaken and seem to detest so much in any respect so blamable as they Give me one example if you can of any one man whom this Doctrine of the Gospel as you call it hath at all bettered in his manners hath made of a drunkard or intemperate person sober and well governed of shameless or licentious modest and chast I can give you many saith he who by turning Lutherans are become Ten times worse then they were What man living ever saw a Lutheran shed a Tear out of any sense or dislike of sin or so much as to breath out a sigh or knock his brest in sign of sorrow and detestation of himself that he had offended God No verily Contrition is not any necessary part of their Pennance it is a thing altogether unknown among them I mean as to the practice and true exercise of it Their opinion or principle of onely Faith viz. That Christ hath done all for them and that they have nothing to do in order to Salvation but to beleeve this is a sufficient Antidote against all such kinde of sadness with which they like not to be troubled Yea it is most lamentable to consider how generally men live and dye without any other sense or feeling of their sins at all save what the shame prejudce or some other Temporal inconvenience which commonly attendeth the doing of evil may perhaps cause in them in relation to God they perswade themselves that nothing is required of them but onely to believe that all is forgiven That Christ hath done all that is to be done by them and suffered all that is necessary to be suffered so they take no further care but dye accordingly that is in a most unhappy security For as concerning that other pretence viz. that Luther should be sent thus Extraordinarily as they say to detect Antichrist unless they mean by giving some example or pattern of him in his own person and practises which in many respects were indeed very Antichristian I know not how it can be understood For if they mean he should discover the Pâ—pe to be Antichrist it is a stale I had almost said an exploded pretence no less vain then any of the rest discovering more inconsideration and spleen in the pretenders then any thing else The Characters which Holy Scripture doth give of that great Antichrist who is to come and make War upon the Church towards the latter end of the world are many and cleer yet so little applyable to the Pope as not any thing can be less The sum of them all is expressed in those Titles which Saint Paul giveth him 2 Thess 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which is understood That Antichrist must be a professed and open Enemy of our Saviour Christ holding and maintaining all things diametrically contrary and in opposition to him He must be the head of a people openly and expresly at defiance with the Kingdom of Christ which is the Church and not onely supposed to be so in the opinion of some few men by interpreâ—ation and some strained consequence of misgovernment in that society which is professedly Christs own Kingdom No the people and followers of Antichrists Kingdom must oppose and persecute the people and followers of Christ to the death He must be an Enemy in all points unto Christs law to Christs Testament to Christs Priesthood All which he must for some short time Universally abolish and put down It is not vice alone nor some supposed superstition nor error in opinion onely which shall erect and constitute that accursed State but it must be a general Apostacy and departure from the Law of Christ as both Melancthon in his Common places Basil 1562. Pag. 34. Tom. 7. P. 875. and Zanchius a famous Protestant in his answer to the Arians do acknowledge it must be an opposition publike and professed to the same Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they say and a persecution of the Professors thereof general all the world over But doth Saint Peters Successor thus are these things applyable to the State of the Church under his government What face of Brass can maintain it without blushing Doth he persecute any man for professing Christ Or doth he punish or censure any but according to his office and as the Canons of the universal Church enacted acknowledged and exercised by all Christian Princes and good Prelates before him do prescribe Doth not Luther himself confess Contra. Anabap. that in the Papacy true Christianity is still retained Doth he not confess that the Popes Church as he calls it is the Church of God That there is true Baptism true Absolution or Remiâ—sion of sins among them the true office of Preaching yea the true Catechism that is the Summary of all Doctrines necessary to be preached Are these things to be maintained by Antichrist Or to be found and professed in that rabble of Miscreants which shall follow him Doth not Whitacre Junius Saravia Zanchius and almost all Protestants generally acknowledge as much that we hold at least the principal Articles of faith That we agree in Fundamentals That the Roman Church is a true Church of God yea our Mother Church in whom is yet remaining and from whom English Protestants at least pretend to have received True Ordination True Calling and Authority to preach Lastly is there any Prince or Person on Earth that professeth greater reverence and observance to the Law of Christ then the Pope doth How then can he be Antichrist is there any Power or Authority known in the world more vigilant active zealous and continually attent to preserve this Law in its full Honor Estimation and Integrity with all men then the Sea Apostolike hath always been and is Nay to speak ingenuously and seriously in what condition think we had Christianity been at this day if that Authority had not been established and acknowledged in the world but that all things had been left to those Arbitrary and dividing Principles on which Protestancy pretendeth to build viz. Sole Scripture and every mans private Interpretation or Reasoning The destructive inconvenience whereof are