into your society Was heauen made did Christ suffer his bitter death and passion left he an order in his Church that none should be admitted into a state of perfection but either rich folkes or Philosophers or Princes for howsoeuer you teach to the contrarie openly yet your practise sheweth it to be your meaning priuatly No no seditious Choristes Dathanians and Abironistes there is no such text of Scripture nor Cannon of Apostle nor Decree of ecumenicall Synode nor Tradition of the Church nor consent of Doctors nor rule nor principle nor any the least clause in the foundation of your society or confirmation of the same by the Apostolicall Romane Sea that makes for you in this point of singularity election and choice The doctrine of the Catholike Church consists of three speciall principia or causes rightly so tearmed in Christian Philosophie the one supplying locum materiae scil fides the other formae vel efficientis scil charitas and the last finalis scil spes called of Diuines the three Theologicals because they are all infused and none of them acquisite vertues The first is faith as the gate without which none can enter into Gods house either here militant on earth or triumphant in heauen for accedentem ad Deum oportet credere c. The second is charitie as the way by which poore sinners walke in their iourney towards heauen which whosoeuer wants if he haue faith able to remoue mountaines giue all he hath to the poore and his body to the fire yet without charitie shall he neuer come there Si charitatem non habuero nihil sum The third is hope as the finiall end of our entrance into the Church of God and cause of our progresse in a vertuous course of life therein which is to be partakers of a glorious resurrection and to enioy eternall blessednesse for if it were not in hope of this miserabiliores essemus omnibus hominibus Of these three the Apostle sayth manent tria haec fides spes charitas maior autem horum est charitas as much to say as this it is hope that moues vs to trot and trudge and take such paines to come to heauen it is faith that openeth the way thither without which God can neuer be pleased but charitie is the forme and cause efficient and therefore as a golden meane and chiefe of three she giues the Crowne to King and Queene and remaines in heauen for euermore Now tell me you illuminates of high aspires wherein doth your familiaritie and approximation to the inaccessible light consist I know you will not be Solifidians because you smell more of Familians And if you will be neither of both but beleeue as the Catholike Church beleeues then why doth not your words and deedes agree in one You know our sweete Sauiour died for all alike and yet neither all nor halfe nor third nor tenths of all shall be saued You know the merits of Christ Iesus extended on his part equally to Iew and Gentile Christian and Heathen faithfull and infidell Catholike and Heretike and aswell to those that liued in the time of his death and passion as to those that died in Noes time or are now or shall be borne hereafter to the worlds end and yet but one kind to wit the faithfull liuers members of the Catholike Church for vnus Deus vna fides vnum Baptisma vnica est columba mea and would God all of that one company and body mysticall might be saued You know it is not Gods will absolute but permissiue that any one soule should perish and yet herein is an insoundable deapth which a nearer friend of Gods then any of you are calling to mind the Prophets speech Iacob dilexi Esau autem semper odio habui durst neuer define vpon but concluded with nescit homo vtrum odio vel amore dignus sic You know that infirma elementa huius mundi elegit Deus vt fortia quaeque confunderet that Christ chose for his Apostles innocent plaine and simple men without gust or gaule welt or gard and that he confessed vnto his heauenly father humbly acknowledged it as a speciall fauor quia abscondisti haec sayth he à sapientibus prudentibus reuelasti ea paruulis Which paruuli I can neuer be perswaded was meant of the Iesuiticall elated spirite but rather of a Seraphicall Frier whose patron sweete S. Francis hath iustly for his innocency and true humility abounding in his charitie that Ghospell appointed for his day In few you know that if heauen were onely prepared for rich men then beggers might go abegging indeede If for Gentles Nobles and great Princes then boores pesants carters and plow-men might well intreate Peers Penilesse to make a supplication for them to the diuell If for Academickes Peripatetickes Stoickes Epicures and other Philosophers or else if for Samothists Solonists Licurgions and other Lawyers or otherwise if for Petrists Thomistes Scotists and other schoolemen learned wise and profound Clearkes then poore soules what should become of simple men and silly women they might all go hang themselues in deepe despaire If all these three be required in one person as commonly you Iesuites hunt after such buckes of the first head but yet with a veluet pawme then alas for woe how shall euer those come in heauen that haue neither qualitie of body to get it nor gift of mind to gaine it nor quillet of land to buy it nor quidditie of wit to keepe it No no proud Pharisees you are deceiued Non est personarum exceptio coram Deo neither hath he left the kingdome of heauen to be giuen to one more then to another for any humane gift or qualitie in them Sed qui potest capere capiat It is layd open to all alike and onely the truest louers carrie away the greatest trophees and charitable emulation who may loue their Lord God most deerely that is the onely spirituall strife for heauen amongst all those that euer come thither regnum caelorum vim patitur violenti rapiunt illud It is neither gotten by poyse of words by pregnancie of wit by bragge of birth by boast of wealth by dint of sword or pricke of speare Onely such a pricke doth pricke it as prickes the heart of God and man and no humane creature is exempted but all admitted to haue that heauenly Caduceus striken into their hearts Not the poorest begger nor simplest soule nor basest body that liues but hath the touch of loue and affections as naturally inserted in his will as hath the greatest Monarch vnder heauen and therefore all alike neare to God by creation by redemption by natures incline in euery one Loue diuine which we call charity making no distinction of persons but by the measure of their affections And so true it is dimissa sunt ei peccata multa quoniam dilexit multum Et qui plus diligit ei plus dimittitur Hereupon riseth the common opinion to carry
crow so fast ouer all Surely were I a Iesuite and vnpriested I would neuer abide one hower in their order for feare of afterclaps Well I will be no blabbe nor do wish to be the Prophet of their destruction but fiat iustitia ruant coeli they haue had their time of defaming disgracing and accusing let them giue vs ours of defending THE IIII. ARTICLE VVHether is it lawfull to set out the Iesuits in their proper colours to vse satyricall and biting words and writings against them and to detect them of all such vices as may humble them and breed in peoples hearts a true conceit of them euen as they are and none otherwise better or worse Or else fitter to conceale from the worlds eare all such things as yet are not discouered of them and only to defend in mild answers c THE ANSWERE ALL Priests and others that are not of that seditious Iesuiticall and Spanish faction are bound in charitie as now the case stands to detect them to the vttermost First for a caueat to the ignorant multitude seduced by them hereafter to beware of them Secondly per legem talionis returning their malice foule detraction defamation calumniation obloquie and what not inuented by them against the innocent vpon their own heads Thirdly for that the same legifer Who willed the patient if smitten on the one eare to offer the other did also allow it as iust and lawfull that in what sinne soeuer a man had sinned in the same he should be punished and with like measure to his brother giuen it should be remeasured to him againe Fourthly for this cause it was that our Sauiour Christ himselfe although he acknowledgeth that the Scribes and Pharisees sitting in Moses chaire were in their doctrine to be obeyed that is so long as they remained visible members of and in Gods church they ought to be obediently beleeued in all points of doctrine concerning the Catholike faith yet for their corrupt manners lewd life and hypocrisie with how many vaes and woes to you Scribes and Pharisees did he come vpon them How many hypocrites how many progenies and vipers broodes and how many Sathans and begotten of the diuell did he tearme them yea and sometimes also euen his owne beloued Apostles And haue not all the saints and seruants of God vsed the like libertie of speech when occasion was giuen and time was for it Reade Saint Paules Epistle to his Timothe to his Corinthians to his Galathians c. Reade the Ecclesiasticall histories of the words of Saint Iohn the Euangelist of Saint Policarpe of Saint Anthony of Saint Chrysostome c. yea reade but for proofe hereof sundry of Fa. Parsons letters bookes libels and pamphlets together with sundrie Satyricals of Maister Blackwels though silly man I verily thinke he wrote some things against his conscience at the instigation of those seeming top of wits willing precise Pythagorists the Iesuits In the which libels pamphlets and Satyres seeing you shall find a manifest but most vnlawfull libertie of speech to detract the innocent then à fortiori no reason but those should be discouered in way of iustice and common charitie who hold an vniust charter of another mans good name fame and life tearing it in peeces with their toungs euery houre at their pleasure as though the fee simple of all mens acts words and thoughts were in their gift to raise and let fall the price of all at their deuotion Fiftly this discouery made by the secular cleargie and Seminarie Priests of the Iesuits trecherous abuse of Synonamaes Epithetons phrases tialitie and simplicitie to be made such a dotterell as the Iesuits cannot chuse but laugh in their sleeue to thinke how they can draw wind and make him willingly to speake write or act what they please with or against himselfe without all sense honestie modestie conscience religion vnderstanding or learning Insomuch as it appeares by this that his simplicitie is so great that he stands in such awe of them and so much and wholy at the Iesuits deuotion to stand or fall that if they should send vnto him or will him to set out an edict that all crowes were white he would commaund all vnder paine of excommunication to subscribe vnto it For how is it possible otherwise that in a case so manifest as this is scil the Iesuits write directly infamous libels against both Catholicke Priests and against the whole Common-wealth of their natiue land and against all in generall of both states ecclesiasticall and temporall and the Seculars write onely Apologies in a iust defence of all these this being the case on both sides how is it possible that a halfe witted man vnlesse ouercome with partiall fauour or feare should erre so grossely and palpably in the sight of all the world as to suspend excommunicate c. or at least make it be giuen out so or winke at the brokers of it to haue it thought that the Priestes bookes may not be read and yet the Iesuits bookes may nay shall be commended vnto both men and women of purpose to be read as most excellent rare and learned matter scil for to bring their necks into the halter well if God pardon maister Blackwell this fault there is good hope he will pardon all his offences yet is it vincibilis yea and Crassa ignorantia in the highest degree of grosnesse Secondly Maister Blackwels authoritie is onely if he haue any and not lost all by abuse of it in causes ecclesiasticall concerning Religion c. and therefore let him looke to the case of premunire for his accepting of an vnheard of soueraigntie contrarie to the order prescribed by the ancient lawes of this kingdome as some do hold and for his intermedling in allowance of the Iesuits libels and statizations and not threaten the seculars in that wherein he hath nothing to do Thirdly if his authoritie extended as it is pretended to inhibite and forbid all kind of bookes but such as he should approue allow and licence yet in all reason it hath this limitation viz where he himselfe is not a partie or if not so yet in an action of life and death of soule bodie honor or good name he cannot forbid any whosoeuer to write or speake in defence of anie the said liues and to cleare himselfe if he can neither can he yet forbid or forwarne any one to reade or heare any thing that may saue the life of the innocent And therefore the most inhumane vnchristian vncatholicke vniust and vncharitable part that euer was heard of to stop or seem to stop the Priests Apologies written in defence of their good names taken away by the Iesuits an act so cruell vnnaturall and contrarie to all lawes diuine or humane as the Popes Holinesse cannot dispense with any one to fulfill it no more then to dispense with any one to kill himselfe either bodily or ghostly as the not writing of these Apologies or the like were at least the
to haue liued by theÌ„ in England to haue past on their time in this vale of teares here during the short time of their transitory life full of all heauinesse and not molested innocent lambes that sought no establishing of houses Colledges sodalities societies or corporations to remaine to posterity which the Iesuits chiefly aimed at This being the grouÌ„d of al their cruell oppression of the innocent crying to heauen for vengeance I vndoubtedly beleeue it was Gods holy will to haue the Iesuits impiety knowne sooner by the Seminary Priests then by any other secular or religious and that no doubt to Gods great glorie and the benefit comfort and reliefe of all true Catholike harts either in England or elsewhere THE ARGVMENT OF THE second Generall Quodlibet I Haue stayed longer vpon the first Quodlibet then time which hasteneth me to depart hence will well allow me the like demurre vpon the rest The next generall Quodlibet followeth very fitly to be of plots cast by the Iesuits doctrine how neare they come to Puritanisme what it is their doctrinals of policies do arme at wherein there are ten Articles to be discussed vpon concerning that matter THE I. ARTICLE VVHether the Iesuites or the Puritanes be more dangerous pernitious and noysome to the common-wealth either of England Scotland or any other Realme where both or either of them liue together or apart THE ANSWERE 〈◊〉 that all Catholikes would seriously weigh the danger that they do occasionate both to the Church and common wealth yea aâ—d to their owne both bodies and soules reputation and present state by siding with these seditiâ—â— and â—actiâ—uâ—â—â—â—◠〈◊〉 many 〈◊〉 will not be â—â—â—med of 〈…〉 nor 〈◊〉 â—â—ed of 〈◊〉 owne folly THe Iesuits without all question are more dangerous not that their doctrine is as yet either so absurd as the Puritanes I meane in matters not of faith for therein I must and will so long as they remaine visible members of Gods Church euer esteeme of the worst and baddest Iesuit better then of the best and sanctliest seeming Puritane that liues but in matters and doctrine pertaining to manners gouernement and order of life nor that their intent is manifested as yet to be more malicious against both Church common-wealth Prince and Peere then the Puritanes are but because the meanes and their manner of proceeding is more couert more seeming substantiall more formall and orderly in it selfe and therefore are they more dangerous because of the two they are more like to preuaile by managing of whatsoeuer they take in hand And the rather for that their grounds are more firme their perswasions more plausible their performance more certaine as hauing many singular fine wits amongst them whereas the Puritanes haue none but grossum caputs many learned men on their sides the Puritanes not one many Gentles Nobles yea some Princes to side with them the Puritanes but few of the first rare to haue any of the second none at all vnlesse it be one of the last on their side And so by consequent if matters come to hearing hammering handling betwixt the Iesuits and Puritanes the latter are sure to be ridden like fooles and come to wracke Whereupon it also followeth that the former are in these respects more dangerous both to the Church and common-wealth as hereafter shall at large more manifestly appeare THE II. ARTICLE VVHether the Iesuites doctrine abstracted from matters of faith and religion come neerer in matters of life and manners to the Protestants or to the Puritanes THE ANSWERE THey are in this respect all wholly Puritanes and therefore do some for distinctions sake call the one Puritane Papists and the other Puritane Protestants To the better vnderstanding whereof a certaine great person is sayd to haue vsed a comparison in way of discourse betwixt Iesuits and Puritanes conferring them together in this manner or to this effect here ensuing Of all sects or religions the Iesuit and the Puritane quoth he come neerest and are fittest to be coupled like cats and dogs together First for that the Puritanes count all to be wicked sinfull creatures but theÌ„selues A reason why some Catholike Gentlemen that liue about London whom I could name and what they haue sayd about those â—arieâ— were discontented when wanting their wiues 3. or 4. or mo dayes and nights together they must bee forsooth in the holy exercise how they haue conceited these matters and whether a new sect of Anabaptists or family of loue be not greatly suspected to be ingendred of some foule monster or other amongst these new illuminated Iesuits I leaue it there the Iesuits will haue none to be counted holy vertuous or religious that are not of their societie or followers Secondly the Puritanes haue their secret conuenticles and meetings which none other must be acquainted withall and so haue the Iesuites Thirdly the Puritanes are entred into secret league of conspiracy against all other professors of the Gospell and so are the Iesuits against all other professors of the Romane faith Fourthly the Puritanes call themselues the sainctly brotherhood deuided from all others that are not of their sect and opinion and the Iesuits call themselues the holy diuision separated from all other that are not of their faction Fiftly the Puritanes haue a secret watchword to know whom to trust or to admitte to be of their confederacy and so haue the Iesuites Sixtly the Puritanes take an oath as it is reported neuer to reueale to death any secret done attempted or intended by them or amongst them and to the same effect is the Iesuits oath or vow of obedience Seuenthly the Puritanes iudge all men bound to tell them what they demaund and yet they bound to tell none any thing but what they please and euen right so the Iesuites Eightly the Puritane holds he may denie any thing before any Iudge whatsoeuer that is not of his fraternitie with iura periura secretum prodere noli and to the same sense is the Iesuites equiuocations to any but to one of their societie Ninthly the Puritanes vse all scoffing scolding and ignominious disgracing speeches that may be with most infamous libels against the Bishops and English Cleargie and euen so so the Iesuits vse the like against all the Bishops and Prelates of the Romane Cleargy Tenthly the Puritanes all wholly affect singularity in gate in countenance in speech in apparell and all their actions and euen so do the Iesuits Eleuenthly the Puritanes cannot endure to heare of any to equall them in any thing and no more or much lesse can the Iesuits Twelftly the Puritanes must haue all men to obey them An◠〈…〉 hereof was iâ— Wâ—â—ch where being all examined by ciuill Magistrates which were Iesuits and which were not not one of those that are knowne and acknowledge themselues to be so indeed amongst then Iesuiticall confederates but did deny it vnto the said iusticâ—rs vnlesse one Irishâ—an c. so must the Iesuits Thirteenthly
doubt whether any or all the Iesuits words yea or othes that are in England this day wil be accepted of for the value of a straw by any that knows the they are so fraudulent full of equiuocations and doublings Thirdly in the matters here in question the secular Priests speake not in their owne defence alone but defend the whole ecclesiasticall yea and temporall state against these Iesuiticall inuaders corrupters and vsurpers of both authorities Fourthly it is not a more common then true rule receiued of all persons degrees and orders either Christian or Heathen and in and by all lawes nations and ages ratified confirmed and verified that bonum quo communius eo melius but secular priesthood not Iesuitical societies extends it self ouer all estates persons and places being rightly called Seculars because they haue the cure and charge of soules layd on their backes to direct all that liue in a secular worldly or temporal state in matters of conscience soule affaires as christian directories to al humane or moral actions wherin vertue or vice impietie or holinesse good or bad may be included For which cause when the Apostle had commanded all with obedite prepositis vestris c. he gaue a reason with a quia ipsi dabunt rationē pro animabus vestris coram Deo As much to say as neither father mother sister brother or dearest friend neither Prince Peere Lord Ladie Maister or Mistris neither Abbot Prior Canon Regular Monke Frier Iesuit Hermit or Anchorite neither anie other person or persons can or shall be admitted to giue an account before God at the latter day on your behalfe concerning your soules affaires whiles you liued secularly in this vale of tears saue only those appointed ouer you to take this cure and charge vpon them For which cause they are also called Curates and Pastors c. Fiftly the Iesuiticall societie although the order be approued by the Pope his Holines therfore it is to be honored of all good Catholickes they that liue in it agreeing to their first institutiō profession calling are therfore also to be reuerenced if any such be now to be found amongst them yet being in the best sense and construction themselues can make of it a priuate peculiar corporation or an order not common but proper and therefore must needes respect their owne societie most yea grant them herein their principle to be tollerable In ordine ad Deum it followeth then by necessary sequell that all that are not Iesuits should follow beleeue credite trust to and defend the secular Priests as a common corporation in the weale publicke with them not those that euen in their Ordine ad Deum must and will carue for themselues first and leaue to their fautours and ignorant fauorites the off-fals scumme or refuse of their commodities I might here adde a new corolarie of another kind in confirmation of the credit respect and esteem that all secular Priests should and may euen de iure ex merito condigno chalenge to themselues of the Cath. laity before any Iesuit whosoeuer As first for that notwithstanding these seditious most mischieuous men haue bespattered with a most dangerous Gangrene the whole bodie misticall of Christ which vnlesse it be feared vp with hot irons here in Englād wil neuer come at Rome to be soundly cured it hath so venimously infected al flesh they furthermore haue most maliciously inflamed so many both men women and childrens hearts with insulting pride deepe disdaine and such vehement furie outrage and malice against secular Priests as the vnnaturall heate of their cursed zeale hath past already gradum ad octo and passe it any further it is twentie to one it will passe extra spheram actiuitatis and fall into tearmes of Apostacie yet spight of the diuel al Iesuitical Atheisme the secular Priests haue bin reuerenced ere euer Ignatius Loiola the Spanish souldier and first founder of the Iesuits order was borne they are at this present in the middest of these new maisters throughout all Europe and they will be when not one Iesuit shal be left aliue in the world vnlesse they amend their manners and reforme their order but all damned for heretickes or thrust out of Gods Church as Apostataes and Atheists I say the secular Priestes haue bin are wil be after al this these indiscreet misled Catholikes ancient most louing and faithfull ghostly fathers Who all gusts gallings infamies contempts slanders iniuries wrongs other points of vnkindnes set aside do wil loue them stil vnfainedly pray hartily for them day and night are and will be ready to offer their worne out bodies in prison and abroade for confirmation of them in the Catholike faith when these elated Pharisies shall be farre to seeke And further I put this for a second point which the Catholicke Laitie may please to consider vpon thar the power of Priesthood is called in question by these new religious Scribes and Pharises of whom it is not more strange to heare into what credit they are growne with the people especially women then to vnderstand into what obloquie contempt and disgrace the secular priesthood of Christ is brought by their hypocrisie to the worldes eye in alluring the peoples hearts from their auncient true friends and spirituall fathers and by their factious opposition against vs neuer ceasing to calumniate slander and defame all men most iniuriously falsly and perfidiously by their treacherous proiects and treasonable practises nor leauing of to insult triumph and tyrannize first ouer secular Priests and then ouer all others that are not professed Iesuits most proudly maliciously and disdainfully As these things neede not seeme strange much lesse incredible and least of all other impossible because their antesignanes or forefathers I meane the Scribes and Pharises in our Sauior Christ his time discountenanced priesthood with like pretexts to these and were growne into as great admiration with the people then as these new Iesuiticall Scribes are now witnesse Iosephus witnesse all antiquities witnesse Christ himselfe who with great zeale did cast those ietting iugglers out of the temple of Ierusalem So thē no Catholike being so ignorant simple or affectionate but knows must needs confesse that priesthood is the chiefest hold stand stay for them to build vpon it followeth that they must either renounce the Cath. Churches authority in crediting these false hearted seditious erronious Iesuits or els renounce the sayd Iesuitical doctrine credite the secular cleargy Christs church herein THE VIII ARTICLE WHether euer any Iesuit haue Apostataed from his faith and fallen out of the Catholicke Church or no and if there haue whether any such haue euer returned or bene reconciled againe or not THE ANSWERE NAy ask whether any of them do stand firme and remaine sound and liue conformable to the first institution of their order or no considering that euen those who otherwise are of good disposition
Christendome and farre more then they will allow to the poore prisoners at Wishich or to students at home or other places where the Seminary and secular Priestes liue vnder them and therefore rightly called their prisoners as kept so streightly that they may not recreate themselues together nor two of them haue any speech or conference without a third with many like Turkish cruelties which these tyrants vse against the English Priestes whilest they liue in all iollitie wealth and pleasure themselues there as in all other bookes and Apologies you may find set out at large of that matter Seuenthly they professe no continuall silence nor solitarie life as sundrie religeous do and keepe it most strictly thinking it a death to come foorth of their Cels and Cloisters into the world to haue any speech medling or sight of any worldly thing But they quite contrarie professe such a popularity secularitie temporalitie and all mundane kind of life and medling in worldly affaires as wonder it is how euer they haue time to thinke of God or any good Saint Eightly they professe neither chastitie nor yet obedience more then any other religious order doth yea no more in very deed their manner of performing obedience to their superiour considered then euery secular Priest doth And if a man go to the wayes and meanes of performance of this their vowe of chastitie and obedience it is farre inferiour and more imperfect vncertaine and dangerous in them then in any or the most part of other religious orders Ninthly if their perfection consist in this that they labour in preaching teaching conuersion of soules ministring of Sacraments managing of causes with Princes and ciuill persons and therefore as diuines say quia maius est illuminare quam illuminari so they affirme that they haue taken a state of most perfection that way vpon them and indeed they take so much vpon them in that behalfe as they seeme to arrogate an Apostolicall power and authoritie reserued to themselues alone therein speaking it in plaine tearmes that the seculars ought not to meddle in such affaires but content themselues like sillie simple men with hearing confessions at most or onely saying of Masse for as for confessions I wis they will not with their good-wils permit that a secular Priest should take the confessions of any vnlesse it be of meane persons and poore folkes where no gaine nor commoditie is to be had but at Gods hand onely yet by these worshipfull Rabbies leaues if they vsurpe secular Priests places and authority and thereupon challenge a degree of perfection vnto them before and aboue all other then would I know from whence they haue that gift to illuminate and power and authority of preaching teaching hearing confessions and other like Ecclesiasticall iurisdictions For as for their managing of Ciuill and Martiall causes as inuasion of kingdomes raising of rebellions defamation of Princes and bringing all into a popular contempt that are not themselues or dependent on them and the like absurdâ—ties as they haue receiued no such commission from God nor his Church but directly from the common enemy of mankind as suggested by him and after bred in their itching ambicious idle working braines so no secular will wish seeke or accept of that their seditious turbulent and bloudy office vnfit of all other for Priests to deale in out of their hands It is therefore of the former Ecclesiasticall iurisdictions lawfull authorities whereof I speake would know from whence of whom they haue them Either they must haue them immediatly from God or else from man To say they haue them immediatly from God I thinke they will not but yet if they dare say so as who can tel what giddy heads puffed vp with swelling pride impudency insolency wil say or do when it stands theÌ„ vpon to stand to their tacklings or else haue all their followers disciples forsake them then first it wil be demanded per quaÌ„ regulam do they proue it Secondly what testimony or witnesse haue they for it Thirdly how when in what place was this new institution of Ecclesiastiques promise granted confirmed ratified Fourthly by what signe tokeÌ„ wonder or miracle shal we know it is from God immediatly for miracles we must haue for confirmations of all new doctrine approbation of ancient Catholike traditions customes orders Thirdly what manner of man vbi gentium where was he borne whose sonne was he where and how was he brought vp how liued he how died he that was the first author or illuminate of this innouation and change Sixtly and last of all after all these things are examined and knowne and that with helpe of an Aesopian fable they can bring vs into a conceit of a Lucean Tower to be firmely built in the imaginatiue horescope of their wandring zodiacke yet will they all be proued by this meanes to be flat forerunners of Antichrist and Archinuenters of new Puratinisme worse then euer yet was heard of or else made to do publike pennance throughout all Churches in Christendome confessing before the whole world as I pray God graunt them grace humility and patience to do it what blind guides and seducers of innocent hearts they haue bene leading many soules into eminent danger of perdition by arrogating to to much vnto themselues c. Againe if they say they haue this authority and by consequent are in state of perfection aboue the seculars by institution and gift of and from the Pope his Holinesse and Sea Apostolike then it will be replied by necessary sequele vpon them First that the Pope himselfe must needes be thereby of a more perfect life then they are which in no wise they will yeeld vnto yea arrogating an extraordinarie familiaritie with God to be due to them alone and a kind of impossibilitie of errour in their Synodall consultations called vnder and by their Generall their speciall prerogatiue and meanes to bring any one to perfection they are so farre from yeelding or granting it at least equally with them to his Holinesse is such as they haue preached openly in Spaine against Pope Sixtus the last of all holy memorie and rayling against him as against a most wicked man and monster on earth they haue called him a Lutheran hereticke they haue termed him a wolfe they haue said he had vndone all Christendom if he had liued and in few Card. Bellarmine himself as Iudge Paramount being asked what he thought of his death answered Qui sine paenitentia viuit sine paenitentia moritur proculdubio ad infernum descendit and to an English Doctor of our nation he said Conceptis verbis quantum capio quantum sapio quantum intelligo descendit ad infernum Well let this passe as a comfort to seculars to be ful of imperfections as vnworthie creatures to be iustly censured of by these worthie perfectiues that dare iudge their chief Pastor which no sacred Sinode nor OEcumenicall Councell either wold either
with either in allowing or forbidding the reading or printing of it A third was his presumptuous boldnes in that he would by vertue of his authoritie suppose it were such so great and so inuiolate as he takes vpon him to haue it intrude himselfe to meddle with forbidding bookes to be either read or printed in Scotland without either asking leaue or at least giuing the Catholike Bishop of Glasco to vnderstand thereof beforehand A fourth was the insinuated suspition of a Premunire he hath incurred alreadie he may thank his good fathers for it by his authoritie to be increased hereby as seeking by this inhibition of printing or reading of anie booke that may touch a Iesuite especially that so daungerous a Polipragmon Father Parsons he shewes plainely that he would haue all the treasonable practises concealed not regarding what daunger of both bodie soule and common-wealths wracke happen to anie so as these new Fathers may haue their wicked designements Many other particular points haue I noted as being collected by necessarie sequele to ensue vpon that Letter whereof in the Apologie I intend to imptint of mine owne peculiar purgations I meane to treate at large Onely this for the present he may please to know that I neuer writ nor spake word in my life that I dare not publish in anie Court of Christendome concerning these matters so farre I am from all feare of exasperating anie Prince or Peere or incurring of anie daunger either in England which I am bound in all respects to my dread Soueraigne and natiue land to be most warie of offending or hurting anie maner of way or elsewhere And if as I haue suppressed the printing of that booke and sundrie others for a time let him not thinke it came vpon anie account or reckening I made of his suspension for that cause but for other reasons which he and his may and yet do both misse of though some of his assistants haue taken vpon them to know the causes why And hereupon one of them of a brauado hath made his vaunt since my returne last out of Scotland that he another maner of man then I poore wretch to deale with Princes hath written to his Maiestie King Iames exhorting him to embrace the Catholike faith and religion Were it not that the Iesuits haue a special priuiledge in two things one is to make all things to be beleeued as Gospell be it neuer so fals that they speake or write another to make al things to be iudged false be it as true as the Gospell it selfe that any other shall write or speake without their approbation But if directly against them out vpon it it is not to be heard spoken of or once looked vpon If these were not and withall that the vilest parts that can be played are counted acts of zeale amongst them if done by a Father so as it may be any way couered with either of their two principles scil propter bonum societatis vel ordine ad Deum otherwise I should greatly muse at the faire glose of father Southwell concerning father Parsons birth and education It being most vntrue that Fa. Southwell reports of him scil that hauing placed the vttermost of his ambition in the contempt of honor and the highest of his wealth in voluntarie pouertie will easily acknowledge his birth to haue bene of more honest then great parents Yet were they not so meane but they were able to affoord him such education as might haue made his good parts a way to no small preferment c. All which is most false a bastard he was vnhonestly begot basely borne a Wolsey in ambition a Midas in mundicitie a traitor in action which here I had not touched had he spared his owne Soueraigne and bloud royall of this land which if he do then all all all euery true Catholike should take his part for the English Crowne by this new statists procurement But what answer he had let himselfe report I thinke it will be but a scorne and he laughed at for a stale in shewing his exorbitant audacious folly I may not here forget a fifth Statute which I make no question of but that Father Parsons would be most carefull to haue it throughly perfected in that high Councell of Reformation for England and it is to be thought that it goes also vnder the tenure of a prouiso for legitimation of bastards For we may not imagine that Father Parsons was ignorant of his owne base estate as being a sacrilegious bastard in the worst sense scil a spurias begotten by the Parson of the Parish where he was borne vpon the bodie of a very base queane This then being so and he not so senslesse as to thinke but that he will find the Canon law more strict in dispensatiō with him for his irregularity then the Ciuill or common law wil be for dispensation to inherite c. which may be a good caueat to him to looke to his orders lest otherwise he lose his Rectorship perhaps a better thing besides there is no question to be made of it but that some close statute and prouiso was closely made and couertly foisted in for enabling some bastards in the spitefulle◠sense to be capable of any honour or dignitie either in the Church or Common wealth And true it is that this good Fa. Parsons altas Cowbacke filius populi filius peccati or the verie fiend him selfe might be chosen to a kingdome by his doctrine if any people would be so mad as to chuse him for their king because the said fury can translate himselfe into an Angell of light for an houres space though he turne into his hellish vgly shape within a minute of an hower after c. Happie were some men if they might haue a sight of that statute booke or huge volume of the high councel of reformation for England no doubt but he should find notable stuffe in it that would serue for many purposes But here I make an end concluding out of the premises 1. That the Iesuits would take it in scorne to haue any poore secular or Seminarie Priest cōpared with them in prudence pollicie considering that they dare beard the greatest and highest persons on earth in all things 2. That in generall England for this age were able to set Nicke Machiauell to schoole either in a good or a bad sense of pollicie 3. Yet taking Politia as S. Thomas and Diuines do for a chiefe branch of prudence with relation to gouernment of a bodie politicall or common wealth ciuill there are that excell both Machiauell and the Iesuits their politia being but an extrauagant or apocriphall vertue at the vttermost 4. But take it as a she craftie dissembling wilinesse with a relation to Atheisme or a non religion and then therin the Iesuits do farre passe Machiauell and I verily thinke any whomsoeuer of and in this age THE III. ARTICLE VVHether then if this kinde of Iesuiticall pollicie tend to
or Iudge Paramount on earth vnder the Diuell in hell must denounce the sentence following out from his infernall seate Forasmuch as the secular Priests durst presume to appeale to Saint Peters chaire against my faithfull seruant George Blackwell instituted at my appointment designements and instructions giuen to the Pope of Rome to make him Archpresbiter and Protonotharius c. in and throughout the great Kingdomes of Albion or great Britaine to do lawe and iustice vpon such rebels against my louing brother the King Catholike of Spaine as in that Imperiall Isle it should seeme meete iust and necessarie in his wisedome to haue sharpely rebuked chastised and punished and for that also I did prescribe the manner how the said Pope was to proceede according to the tenure of my abstract of statutes lawes orders and actes enacted by me and my Generall in the high Councell of Reformation for England with a prouiso that my forenamed seruant Maister Blackwell should haue nothing to do with the fathers of the societie I thought it meete in my experience and wisedome not onely to exempt all my brethren and confatherhoods the Iesuites in England Scotland or elsewhere from being vnder the Archpriest but moreouer and besides to will and commaund my said seruant Maister Blackwell vnder paine of officipard to do nothing without my Prouinciall Garnets counsell designements and decrees who being an especiall illuminate and hauing a more neare familiaritie with God then any of the rest by reason of his place and calling he the said Blackwell thus directed by him shall be so farre and free from error or doing any thing amisse in acting all things vnder obedience to my Prouinciall as whosoeuer should contradict any thing by him decreed I hold it sit that he be noted for an Ethnicke a reprobate and one that was neuer established in the grace of God c. All these lawes statutes and acts with prouisoes thus enacted forasmuch as the seculars contemptuously haue violated infringed and broken the very marrow center and quintessence of their contempt accrewing to the preiudice of the holy societie and therein to Father Parsons in chiefe it stood his Prouinciall Garnet vpon to lay about him on the behalf of Blackwell to make his cause and quarrell his owne and this to be outwardly in shew Clement the eighth his Holinesse the Pope of Romes in managing and menacing and inwardly in intention to be Parsons that bastardly vicar of hell his in the platforme plotcastings and practises And so for all the world neuer imagine nor dreame of any kind of temporall gouernement by a Puritane Iesuit to be otherwise intended then as a Puritane Minister said in Edenborough God and the Kirke against the King and his Councell and outher ney King or ney Minister in Scotland As much to say and as Knoxe that seditious traitor did write to her Maiestie that those Princes who will not subiect themselues to their infernall and damnable discipline yea and submit themselues to be ruled by the Puritanian Ministerie might iustly and shold be deposed and depriued both of Crown gouernement and life at their pleasure Wherein you may please to note by the way that the Puritanian Ministers made the Gospell and the blacke Kirke of Scotland their pretence for aduauncing such a man to the Crowne as should wholly subiect himselfe and sweare and subscribe to the defence of their doctrine And yet all the world knoweth it that they would bring all into a Swisserly popularitie or a Geneuian gouernment void of Prince peere or other Noble or at least will neuer yeeld to accept of any King that shall not be ruled by theÌ„ And euen so the Puritanian Iesuits must needs intend do make shew of aduancing none to the English Crowne but such a one as is conuerted to the Catholike Church of Rome making the Gospell and spouse of Christ their pretence therein But yet their platforme allowes no King power or potentate aboue them and by consequent seeing notwithstanding yet needes they must haue the countenance of some great Monarch for a time to gouerne by in the state temporall as now they make his Holinesse for a while their sconce and buckler in the state ecclesiasticall it were no pollicie in them to haue an absolute Soueraigne to raigne in this land no not euen the Infanta who questionlesse Parsons made choise of before her father or brother the King of purpose to haue her gouernement subordinate either vnder him or the Emperour but as they haue gotten an Archpriest to be as it were a Vicar generall subordinate vnder his Holinesse in causes Ecclesiasticall and yet his said Holinesse onely to be a shadow or cloake but to haue no medlings or dealings nor to know any thing of the affaires of his Church here further then they shall please to informe him of so will they neuer admit of other gouernement but a Viceroy to be as it were a Prorex or King homageâ— subordinate to Spaine or Austria in causes temporall And yet the said Prorex must stand at their deuotion and not be able to informe anie thing to the King absolute further or otherwise then as they shall appoint him which if he do or attempt the contrarie he is sure to be deposed and loose his life for it either such a new King homager chosen by the Prince absolute at their assignement or else no King euer after but a king Cardinall and Pope Iesuit THE X. ARTICLE VVHether then is it dangerous or not to haue any of the English bloud royall either maryed to one of the Iesuiticall or Spanish faction which I perceiue is all one in the generall pretence though not in the intention or practise either within or without the land or otherwise conuerted to the Catholike faith if God so giue them grace by any Iesuite or Iesuited Priest of their faction THE ANSWER THe daunger you make a question of may be two wayes taken one spiritually and the other corporally In neither of which daungers any one can be said properly and directly to be in the act of either mariage or conuersion Because as I said at the first these seditious turbulent factious Iesuites here in England howsoeuer they may be in foro conscientiae and before God excommunicated suspended irregular or otherwiâ—e haue incurred any ecclesiasticall censure by their absurd grosse erronious opinions practises and proceedings yet for that they liue hitherto as visible members of the Catholike Church and neither do neither dare publikely teach much lesse obstinately defend any thing contrarie to the Catholike Churches doctrine and beleefe and further forasmuch as there is no sentence as yet denounced from his Holinesse against them or if denounced yet not here made knowne or if knowne yet no Bull nor Briefe come for assurance thereof or if any such yet not publikely promulgated therefore in foro externo all these circumstances considered and that the Church doth iudge secundum allegata probata as
but will be commended to all posteritie let them looke to the danger that may ensue and so I leaue them to their best thoughts had of those matters fearing least some of them will too truely verifie the saying that a Counsellour at lawe is as wise as a dawe vnlesse he be amongst fooles c. For I was not ignorant at the writing heereof how some Iesuiticall lawyers that seeme some body and are taken so to be both schismatike some and catholike others haue not onely refused themselues but made others refuse to deale heerein Sed videant ipsi THE VII ARTICLE VVHether seeing many both catholikes and schismatiks doe mightily dislike this discouery of the Iesuits secret faults admit it were true and that the Iesuits had giuen iust cause for their iniuries and wrongs done to the seculars both which their fautors deny and therefore account this writing and setting out of bookes with such bitter sharpe gauling words to be nothing else but infamous libelling or Ouidian inuectiues or Horatian Satyriques of purpose to banish at least the Iesuits out of this land could there then any danger of body or soule come to the Iesuits by relinquishing of them with a generall consent of all both catholiks and schismatiks for schismatiks are most deluded and easeliest inueagled with fabulous reports giuen out of them to follow and ioyne with Priests for securing of her Maiesties royall person and her realme and auoidance of all incombrances or iealousies to be heereafter had of catholikes her highnesse euer most loyall subiects or whether their indangering if any were by this meanes would not indanger the whole realme or no THE ANSWERE IF a man will not be caried away with wordes and winde but will deepely enter into the consideration of things so as by proofes and probates he doth find most like to be true he cannot choose but thinke this question friuolous as wholy depending vpon these weak grounds and too too grosse conceits of any halfe witted body to be possessed or interteined scz First that it is not possible for such things to be true as is heere and in other bookes discouered of the Iesuits and by this rash resolue they giue more sanctitie to these Iesuits then to the Pope himselfe who hauing greater Note here differentiam actus liberi arbitrij All angels diuels and mortal men haue free will by creation but the angels onely ad bonum can not sin if they would the diuels ad malum cannot do good men ad vtrum libet may either do good or euill as they list because as yet in via whereas the other two are in patria assigned vnto them to liue the one to die the other therein for euer moe and more effectuall helpes meanes then any or all the Iesuits in the world to be good sound constant and firmely confirmed in vertue yet none denies but in matters of life and manners he may be an euill man the catholike faith and beleefe of his holinesse freedome from errour being onely in matters of faith and Vt est Petrus yea if this were so scz incredible that such horrible crimes should be committed by the Iesuits then followeth it withall that they want freewill and haue not potestatem ad vtrumlibet but are like angels confirmed in grace so by consequent must they be saints in heauen whose ghosts or spirits walke heere amongst vs. For otherwise it implicates a contradiction Saint Augustines sentence standing infringible allowed of by common consent of doctrine that there is no sinne committed in the world or euer hath beene but I or he or she or any humane mortall wight may commit the like be it as horrible loathsome and vnnaturall seeming against the course of kinde as can be imagined This therefore is peoples error put into their heads by these new illuminates Secondly it is but an accustomed coggerie of the Iesuits to make these bookes and writings against them seeme odious and such a deed as neuer was done before their drift therein being onely to continue their credite with the laitie to increase the contempt had in all men of the seculars and to perfect their mischieuous platforme cast for the destruction of their prince and countrey thereby which drift of theirs may easely be perceiued of any halfe witted body that doth but consider that if such things may be and that the Iesuits be men and therefore fraile and as subiect to fall into sinne as others are then sure it cannot be otherwise chosen but that they are guiltie of all these crimes laid to their charge and knowing not in all the world how to excuse or defend themselues if it come to triall the seculars vrging so vehemently as they do they haue no other shift but to stop the peoples eares eies and vnderstanding from comming to the knowledge of these matters Which stoppage can be by no other meanes then to make these bookes and writings set out to discouer them to be holden for infamous libels and Satyricall inuectiues neither to be read nor answered And this is a second false surmise or coggerie of the Iesuits to keepe the ignorant in error Thirdly whosoeuer shall reade and examine these 10. Quodlibets and other bookes written against the Iesuits from point to point shall finde that there is no such detraction slander or bitter speech vsed as they talke of nor so much as perhaps were necessary to discouer as the case stands for that the particulars of any one mans priuate life and actions as they are priuate with correspondencie had to the generall or common cause are not as yet touched but the cause so handled agreeing to the diuersitie of men matter time and place discussed of in these Interrogatories so as the answere may passe currant and apparant couertly exactly disioyntly without either interruption of iustice on the one side violated by concealing things necessary to be made knowne for cleering of the innocent fiat enim iustita ruant caeli or without breach of charitie on the other side hindred by reuealing of secret faults of any one impertinent to the manifestation of what ingenerall is intended And heere I account the secret faults which are needlesse or not at all to be opened to be whoredome drunkennesse robbery on the high way or in secret burghlary and the like offences which come of passion or frailtie of man And againe I account these publike common or generall faults though committed by priuate persons which rise of pride ambition c. may either indanger the church or common-wealth or hinder the common cause by taking away the life of any publike person or aduancing any one to hinder the same or finally be the cause directly or indirectly of leading ignorant people into errour or misconceit contrarie to the doctrine of the catholike church and resolute beleefe of euery obedient childe and member of the same And of this latter kind are the detractions and defamations if any be
of Spaine is more intollerable then these such idle speculations before mentioned For it is grounded not only vpon the said most sottish speculation against all the kings that liue but likewise vpon a most slanderous traiterous lie in making all the kings Queenes that haue been for aboue two hundred yeeres in this land to haue bene vsurpers tyrants traitors and I wot not what And that which doth not a litle moue my patience this bastardly Iesuite doth father this traiterous assertion vpon that worthy person Cardinal Allane from whom I durst be sworn he neuer had them nor so vile a cōceit euer harbored in his brest Whilest I haue bene diuers times thinking of this fellowes writings touching these such like matters I haue wōdred with my selfe how possibly he could be so blind as not to foresee that when kings should vnderstand what a plot he hath laid for the ouerthrow of all authority by setting vp and aduancing a popular furie they should find thereby verie iust cause giuen vnto them to detest both him and all the generation of Iesuits or any other catholikes whosoeuer that should teach or defend such bloodie traiterous doctrine But I haue stood too long vpon this point if you can procure Master Charles Pagets booke against father Parsons you shall finde the foxe so vncased and left so naked of all honestie wisedome or iudgement touching these points as you may well thinke my paines herein to haue beene needlesse except you will remember that my drift is onely to let you vnderstand that father Parsons and his fellowes are great intermedlers with matters of state and succession especially concerning the English crowne which when they shall be out of all hope euer to obtaine I am verily perswaded there will some of them run mad about it they are so extremely egar vpon it and in such a desperate iealousie and feare of loosing it And therefore will I proceede therein a little further by his Masterships leaue For as the said father Parsons hath laide his plot when England shall be Spanish how the ancient lawe of this realme shall be abrogated and the ciuill law aduanced in the place thereof so hath the prouident gentleman another treatise of reformation in store how to establish amongst vs when that time shall come the ancient lawe termed Lex Agraria Bicause that as it seemeth his mastership is of opinion that the nobilitie of England haue too large and great possessions and therefore by one of his rules in the said reformation their abilities and what they shall yeerely spend must be limited vnto them as also what retinue they shall keepe and what their diet shall be The like course he hath also ordained for the Bishops and clergie they must be put to their pensions and the ouerplus is to be at the direction of the Iesuits to be imploied by the appointment of their Generall resident alwaies in Rome propter bonum societatis and ordine ad Deum Of all which follies although I haue told you in part before yet they comming so fitly to hand as best agreeing to this Quodlibet of succession they can doe no harme to be repeated againe But now if any man thinke it impossible that these fellowes should be thus bewitched with these vaine conceits let him but consider the nature of pride ambition and libertie into what a fooles paradise they are able to cast any manner of persons or professions that are possessed with them They can hardly thinke of any thing but they account themselues woorthy of it and able by their wits to effect it euen the very supreme power and church of S. Peter such is their ambition And for their libertie they are men exempted frō the iurisdiction of all the superiors of the clergie sauing to their owne officers whereby as lawlesse libertines they write doe and say what they list and dreame of I know not what Iesuiticall monarchie And thus farre of this generall point that those men doe not slander the Iesuits that charge them to be greater statists then they would be accounted and thereby to transgresse all ancient orders of religious persons and to shew themselues as runnagates and degenerated from their owne profession THE III. ARTICLE VVHether is it profitable or expedient for the church of God that the Iesuits as father Parsons in sundrie of his writings and so generally all the rest in effect of that societie and some other of their humor should oppose themselues so much as they doe against princes in extenuating their authoritie vpon euery occasion and eftsoones by telling the world what small interest and hold they haue of their kingdomes as that in this case and that case or if they doe this or will not doe that then foorthwith dominium amittitur all is lost they cease to be kings and what else if they escape with their liues it shall please their fatherhoods to tell vs. THE ANSWERE I Thinke their course therein to be neither profitable nor expedient for the church but on the contrarie very pernitious and dangerous and especially in these our daies First bicause I doe not finde that the Apostles sent by our Sauiour Iesus Christ to preach the Gospell did inculcate any such matters or points either of doctrine or policie yea in their writings for ought I see there is no such thing expressed neither doe I remember that any historie doth tell vs of any such course but rather the quite contrarie to haue beene held by them Secondly the heathen kings both before the comming of Christ and in the Apostles times did suppose their titles to their kingdomes to bee much more firme and their subiects being both learned and wise men skilfull in all humane knowledge and lawes did thereof assure them terming them to be the verie life and soules of their kingdomes And it was accounted in the primitiue Church a great slaunder to the Gospell catholike doctrine of the church of Christ when some did report that the doctrine of the Christians was iniurious to the empire or ciuill magistracy as tending to the diminishing of their right and authority Thirdly if either the Apostles in those times or their successors afterwards in the Primitiue Church should haue written or preached of these matters as now the Iesuites doe they would out of question haue beene cut off presently It is true that although they tooke a very mild course yet they indured great persecutions and were very many of them put to death But if they had beene of the Iesuites spirit it is not probable that any but the Iewes who had trayterous harts to the Empire would euer haue indured to haue heard them speake We see that if their enimies could but deuise some litle shew though most falsely that they touched Caesars authority it was sufficient to cry out against them that they were not worthy to liue Nay how sought they to haue intangled Christ himselfe by their question of tribute
which he dissolued not like a Iesuite though Caesar was an Infidell but as all true Catholike Priests ought to doe saying in direct termes giue vnto Caesar that which is Caesars and vnto God that which is his owne of due right Fourthly the Apostles followed the steps of their Master For he being suspected by king Herode to aspire by degrees to the Empire cleared himselfe thereof by paying of tribute and by teaching all other subiectes to giue vnto Caesar that which was Caesars right Then his Apostles afterwards vnderstanding that it was commonly conceiued that the doctrine of the Gospell taught such points and preceps as were very preiudiciall to the state of the Empire and other kings and Princes they to purge that suspition did so oft in their writings commend and extoll the authority of all Emperors kings and Princes shewing the same to proceede from God himselfe and to be his owne ordinance Non est potestas nisi à Deo said Saint Paule to the Romanes And Ciuill Magistrates are sent from God said Saint Peter Ministri Dei sunt thus they taught for the iustifying of the Magistracy of such as were at that time Infidels and persecutors neuer mentioning that thereby they had lost their Empire or kingdomes or that they might iustly be deposed or any such matter as our Iesuites in the like case doe now a daies affirme Fiftly the holy Fathers of the Primitiue Church following the Apostles as they followed Christ when they found that through the malice of Sathan the same obiections amongest many other were still insisted vpon against the Christians and their doctrine as if all had tended to the impeachment of the Monarchy and treachery towards the Emperors they bent themselues to refell those slaunderous imputations Iustinus Martyr Athenagoras and Tertullian succeedingly did write diuers discourses and some to the Emperors themselues wherein they acknowledged as much as the Apostles had taught them And thus these auncient fathers said of the authority of their Emperors being still Infidels and persecutors Noster est magis Caesar vt à nostro Deo constitutus Loe we quoth Tertullian in his Apologie haue more interest in Caesar then the heathen bicause he is appointed Emperor by our God and not by the false Gods whom they worship The name of an Emperor à Deo traditur Dicam plane Imperatorē dominū I will plainely call the Emperor my Lord and Master Inde est Imperator vnde est homo antequam Imperator inde potestas illi vnde spiritus He that made him a man made him an Emperor from him he hath his authority who gaue vnto him life Sciunt c. Christians know who giueth the Emperors authoritie and that they are in their Empires à Deo secundi post quem primi The second person to God himselfe and next him the first With Tertullian the other two fathers before named doe in effect very fully agree whose doctrine you see doth no way sound like the aforesaid tune of Iesuitisme Sixtly I haue not read all the rest of the auncient fathers some of them I haue but neither by mine owne reading haue I found nor euer heard it reported by any of credit that the said fathers did in their times either preach or write any otherwise of the authority of magistrates although Infidels and persecutors nay Apostataes then as you haue heard Christ his Apostles Iustinus Martyr Athenagoras Tertullian did I wil only trouble you with S. Augustine who is most plaine That whether the king be good or bad milde or tyrannous bountiful to the church or a persecutor one that imbraceth the Gospel Cath. Roman faith or is become an Apostata yet they are Gods lieuetenants their power and soueraignty are both from God of him they hold their kingdomes are to be obeyed in all things which are not against the law diuine and Gods church here militant on earth as for their paying of tribute fighting his battels defending their countries and such like Read if you please that which he writeth vpon the 13. Chapter to the Romans and in his fift booke De Ciuitate Dei Cap. 22. and vpon the 124. Psalme in which last place you shal find that he mantaineth in precise termes that Iulian by his Apostacy was not held to haue lost the Empire or his right interest and title that be had before vnto it but obeyed by the Christians propter Dominum aeternum bicause the eternal God would haue it so Now no king be he vitious a schismatike or an heretike can be thought with any reason so euill as an Apostata It is woorse to slide from the faith of Christ totaliter wholy then aliqua ex parte as it is apparant in Saint Thomas Seuenthly I am of his opinion that as the receiuing of the Catholike faith and Gospell of Christ cannot make a priuate man to be a temporall king so the reiecting of the same faith c. cannot make a king a priuate man And indeed to my vnderstanding saluo semper meliori iudicio it were against all reason it should be otherwise As for example à Simili A Farmor being a heathen man and hauing the lease of a mannor which is not good in lawe doth receiue the faith of Christ and so becommeth a Christian Were it not an absurd conceit for any man to thinke that the receiuing of the Christian faith should make the said bad lease to be sound and substantiall Likewise on the other side the said Farmer hauing as sufficient a lease as law can make it of another mannor doth returne againe to Paganisme It would seeme to me as absurd if any person should imagine that the said lease or his right vnto it were thereby any whit impaired Againe when men receiue the Gospell and are baptized be they kings or priuate men it altereth not our case they receiue thereby an interest to the kingdome of heauen but no further right to their worldly inheritance then they had before And so also for the contrary If any king or priuate person being a Christian and withall a Catholike do fall out of the Catholike church and forsake the faith of Christ it is a sufficient punishment for him to loose thereby his inheritance and right to the ioyes of heauen though for his worldly state he be left as the church in puris naturalibus did finde him And the same is in my iudgement in an other like case If the heire apparant of any Catholike king or other prince were either addicted to heresie or should become an Apostata I being borne to be his subiect would vse my vttermost endeuour to reclaime him but if that purpose would not preuaile with him which I know God hath appointed to be the ordinary meanes for mens conuersions I hold it were a very impious part either in me or in any other priuate person being his subiect if we should seeke to preuent him of his right or if it laye in
life from God our nobility from our parents our kingdome from our subiects our religion from the church of Rome the which if you maligne vs for it we sende you backe againe by these presents then what shall we thinke or can we imagine that soueraigne princes of this our infortunate age will brooke it well to finde his holines to be tam durus Pater towards them But for meane subiects to presume as the Iesuits do neuer was it and now is it least tolerable THE IIII. ARTICLE WHether it is a fitte point of doctrine to be broached and diuulged to the world in these daies by the Iesuites that subiectes are no longer bound to obey wicked Princes in their temporall commandements and Lawes but till they be able by force of armes to resist them THE ANSWERE THat this is a most dangerous doctrine and most vnfit to be published in this age there is no one Catholike in England this day but I thinke will confesse it and therefore I hold it meet before I come directly to answer this Article First to make it apparaÌ„t that the Iesuites and their seditious faction do broach publish such a kind of doctrine for otherwise it might well seeme a slaunder malitiously imputed vnto them Amongst others father Parsons in his admonition before mentioned giueth this reason why the Popes sentence hath not beene put in execution since it was first giuen bicause forsooth her Maiesties forces were so great that they could hardly be resisted by the onely Inhabitants of the Realme without euident daunger and destruction of very many and noble persons c. in which case the censures of the Church doe not binde which is as much to say as if they had beene of might sufficient they had been bound to haue put the said sentence in execution against her highnes and the ouerthrow of the whole state and common wealth of their natiue land The same Iesuite also in his booke intituled Philopater is very peremptorie sly and sawcie as his manner is very boldly affirming that when kings doe deflect from the Catholike religion and drawe others with them Liberes esse subditos c. posseque debere si vires habeant buiuscemodi homineÌ„ dominatuÌ„ eijcere Subiectes are free and both may and ought if they be able to cast such a man out of his dominions Secondly when Henry the third of Fraunce had procured the death of the Duke of Guise and some other whereunto the French writers doe affirme he was compelled except he would haue suffred the Duke to haue puld the Crowne from his head it was not long after but that by the secret practises of the Iesuites he himselfe was murthered And not resting thus contented they writ such a discourse against him being a Catholike as if it had beene hatched in hell intituled De iusta abdicatione H. 3. In which treatise they affirme that it is lawfull for a priuate man to kill a tyrant for so they termed that king though there be neither sentence of the Church or kingdome against him Now in this booke to come to my purpose he propoundeth this obiection how and why it was that in the Primitiue Church the martyrs attempted no such course against the tyrants that then raigned and doth answere it in this sort Vâ—â—d laudable est cum resistere nequeas ita vbi pâ—ssis nolle resistere religionis patriae hosti nefarium ac pernitiosum est As much to say as thus in English As it is laudable to doe as those martyrs did when thou canst not resist so not to resist when thou maist the enimy of Religion and of thy countrey so they terme all kings that they dislike is a pernitious and horrible sinne Thirdly an other at that time with a Iesuiticall spirite doth tell vs his mind in plaine termes so as I shall not neede to proue the matter by any consequence The quarrell for Religion saith he and defence of innocencie is so iust that heathen Princes not at all subiect to the Churches lawes and discipline may in that case by the Christians armes be resisted naming none but speaking in generall termes without exception of persons so indefinitely or rather peremptorily and dissemblingly as all Iesuites doe that as well seruants as souerâ—ignes may by his principle take armes at their pleasure c. And might lawfully haue been redressed in the time of the Pagans and first great persecutors â—hen they vexed and oppressed the faithfull And againe There is no question but that the Emperor Constantine Valens Iulian and others might haue beene by the Bishop excommunicated and deposed and all their people released from their obedience if the Church or Catholikes had had competent forces to haue resisted Loe what doctrine this is to be diuulged in this so daungerous an age I leaue to others to conceite these things in as good sence as may make for our generall safety and common good of the Catholike cause onely I wish such passages had neuer fronted any English Port nor come to our aduersaries eares or knowledge And an other Iesuite to the same purpose saith Quod si Christiani olim non deposuerunt Neronem Diocletianum Iulianum Apostatam ac Valentem Arrianum alios id fuit quia de erant vires temporales Christianis Nam alioquin iure potuissent hoc facere In that Christians in times past did not depose Nero and Dioclesian and Iulian the Apostata and Valence the Arrian and others it was bicause Christians did then want temporall forces for otherwise they might lawfully haue dealt so with them Now what thinke you if such a doctrine had been heard or spoken of in Iulians Neroes or Dioclesians daies what thinke you would haue ensued thereof Questionlesse though the persecution were great yet probably it would haue beene double increased and augmented thereby And as for the scholemen which they alleage for this doctrine one and the chiefe is S. Thomas who hath some such point For Christians saith he obeyed Iulianus Quod illo tempore Ecclesia in sua nouitate nondum habebat potestatem terrenos principes coercendi ideo tollerauit fideles Iulano Apostatae ohedire in ijs quae non erant contra fidem vt maius periculum fidei vitaretur c. Bicause the Church then being in her infancy had not yet power to bridle Princes and therefore she did tollerate the faithfull to obey Iulian the Apostata in those things which were not against faith for the auoyding of a greater daunger which might otherwise haue insued to the Christian faith The other is Dominus Bannes vpon Saint Thomas who alleaging that the cause why catholikes in England do not rebell against her Maiestie is Quia facultatem non habent c. Both whose opinions and words as they may carry a diuerse construction so were they not set downe by either of them as conclusions but as argumentall reasons of doctrine disputatiue in the schooles Which
in this point of rebellion and popularitie saith that where Salomon affirmeth By me kings raigne and Saint Paul auoucheth that authoritie is not but of God and therefore he that resisteth authoritie resisteth God these places are to be vnderstood of authoritie power or iurisdiction in it selfe according to the first institution for otherwise when it is vniustly vsed it may be resisted in manie cases euen by the commons or multitude whom in his Appēdix he bindeth in conscience to rebell c. which kinde of shifts we haue euer detested and therefore nowe you shall heare what we thinke of this doctrine To speake plainely my minde in this case with all humble submission to the Catholike church and censure of my opinion herein I hold this doctrine of the Iesuits in these daies to be an open way to Atheisme so to expound the Apostles as that they might be thought to temporize which is a plaine kinde of dissimulation For there being question made concerning the doctrine of the Catholike church and Gospel of Christ as though it had impeached the authority of the ciuill Magistracie the Apostles to cleare themselues of so false an imputation did of purpose propose the contrary and prescribed such obedience and duty to all subiects as was by the lawes of God and all nations due vnto them But if the Apostles had beene of the Iesuits opinion in this matter and would haue dealt truely sincerely and directly as the Iesuits do neuer when such a doubt was made by the States where they preached they should haue answered to this effect scil If you that are Emperors kings and worldly gouernours doe meane to continue your wicked courses in opposing your selues against Christ and vs his seruants we are by the doctrine of our Master Christ and authoritie committed vnto vs to seeke your confusion and to depriue you from your Empires kingdomes and gouernments as soone as we are able to make head against you or if any of you will be content to heare and obey vs we must tell you that wherunto you must trust which is that when once you haue submitted your selues to this our said doctrine If you shall not foreuer afterwards conforme your behauiour and conuersation according to our rules and prescription we must be bold with you and do the best we can to mooue your subiects to rebellion and to depose you likewise as soone as they shall haue competent strength to incounter with you and in default thereof it is our duety to perswade by all the policies we can deuise some of your neighbour princes to take your subiects parts for your vtter ruine Inter bonos bene agere oportet We professe our selues to be teachers of the truth and therefore we cannot chuse being vrged vnto it in this particular but to signifie the truth vnto you after our plaine and direct proceedings with all men Now if such a kinde of answere to haue beene made by the Apostles do seeme most absurd then what wicked and absurd wretches are these good fathers who by their interpretations do impose it vpon them if they had dealt sincerely Or if the Apostles should haue meant indeed as these men would haue them and as it is before expressed then what might the world haue thought of them that to couer such tragicall points of blood and rebellion and to abuse princes they did pretend nothing but prayers paying of tributes honoring of kings and obeying of them for conscience sake But this course was farre from the blessed Apostles It is indeed very well befitting the puritanes the Iesuits such as Parsons Creswell c. who are the mē that teach practise it For it is their doctrine by dissimulation hypocrisie by lying equiuocating to seduce their hearers But what saith Master Blockwood to Buchanan Paulus vtendum fore precepit Laruatam hypocrisin sub persona religionis latere voluit Potestatibus obediendum edixit quia resisti non posset Christianos viribus admotos ad armacessantes ad arma concitat imperiumque frangit Did Saint Paule commaund vs to be time seruers Was it his minde that religion should be disguised with such a visard of hypocrisie Did he command men to obey the magistrates bicause they were not able to resist them Did he prouoke them to armes when their number and strength serued and bad downe with the Emperor This is right Mahumetisme tendeth to the ouerthrow of the Gospel and church Catholike the sweete spouse of Christ and therefore is to be detested cane peius angue Fiftly this Iesuiticall dreame doth derogate so much from the Maiestie of holy Scripture and the churches authority as thereby the vanity of it is very manifest and apparant For what saith Master Blockwood to Buchanan Itan ' diuinas leges vt humanas Aristotelis mensurarum similes esse putas Doest thou thinke Gods lawes as Aristotle speaketh of humane lawes that they are like measures that they should turne with the weathercocke and chaunge with the conditions of times and places No no much more truely and as it were by diuine inspiration doth he expresse the strength and constancie of diuine lawes who saith Non erit c. There shall not one lawe bee at Rome an other at Athens now one and then an other but there shal be one immortall lawe for all Nations and all times Imperator omnium Deus and God shall be Lord and Emperor of all He is the Inuenter the expounder and the giuer of this lawe which he that will not obey is his own enimy maximas poenas luet and he shal neuer escape greeuous punishments And such were Christs and his Apostles precepts not subiect to alteration and chaunge not framed to serue the time not fitted to this or that priuate person or plebian multitude one while commaunding obedience to tyrants and presently after to take vp armes against them but as we are to thinke of the very lawes of God their rules of obedience are permanent and to continue vnchangeable whilest this world endureth Furthermore it is to be supposed that the Church of God in the times of Iustinus Martyr and Tertullian did vnderstand the meaning of Christ and of his Apostles in this point as well as Parsons or any of his crue But it would haue seemed a strange doctrine both to them and all other Catholikes that had the feare of God before their eyes or any sparke of true and vnfained Catholike religion in their harts in those daies to haue heard it set down for positiue Diuinitie that notwithstanding any thing that Christ or his Apostles taught as touching obedience to kings and Princes yet it is to be accounted a pernitious and vnspeakeable sinne for subiectes being of sufficient force and ability not to resist for to that effect are father Parsons words in his Appendix and take armes against them if they be euill and wicked Instinus Martyr as I haue before obserued hauing set downe the duety of
Iesuites and neuer to trust a word they speake in commendation of the Spaniard and discommendation of other people or nations compared with them as also vpō the said kings Queenes and Archduke and Duchesse c. When they pretend any thing either on the catholike church or the Iesuites behalfe and by consequent shall doe an act of high merite iustice prudence and policy if they I meane all other christian princes and states expell these seditious factions turbulent irreligious persons out of all their territories seigniories regalties and dominions that haue pesterd the Church of God with such wicked doctrine as the proiect of that booke imports As none will iudge otherwise of them but as of most conscienceles careles and bloody minded men when they shall heare first of one booke set out as Greenecote is wherein the Author doth manifestly demonstrate that no different religion be it heresie or whatsoeuer ought to depriue a lawfull heire in fee simple of his fathers inheritance being but a subiect and a forraigner then in princes rights titles to kingdomes it must and ought to hold saith father Parsons in that place bringing in sundry examples how that neither in England catholikes by that name were debard of their lawfull inheritance vnder her Maiestie since the change of religion here neither the Puritanes in Scotland vnder the Queene Regent a catholike there neither in Fraunce Germany or else where was it euer heard of that any were disinherited for religious causes c. and then againe of an other as Parsons Doleman is together with his Appendix Philopater and others that quite discard all heretikes as he termes them from all interest pretend or title to any crowne Noe not if in case hereafter they should be catholike at the attempting of such an exploit or when they should see there were no remedy This last conceite with these hote spirited Puritanian Iesuiticall faction is holden so farre wide and contrary to the former as if the parties be not catholikes euer at the instant when their fatherhoods would haue them be you fully assured for no zeale of religion but of meere machiuilian policy either thereby to exasperate them against others or others against them and so to bring all a flote in fire and sword which is the onely thing they long for they must be censured iudged and condemned presently for reprobates atheists impostors to be conuerted and men be they Princes or whosoeuer vtterly of God forsaken This doctrine when princes and other men of learning iudgement and experience in such pragmatical platformes do perspicuously looke into and withall perceiue that religion is abused and Gods holy name blasphemed as being not his honor but their owne vnder a maske of catholike zeale they wish for they enter further into a deepe detestation of their Pharisaicall proiects iealously had of their owne naturall subiects and princely feare of their royall estates When they heare a man pretend as father Parsons doth on Spaniardes behalfe make a claime neuer heard of in any age to another mans lands in whose actuall quiet and apparantly rightfull possession by lineall discent from the father to the sonne for many hundred yeeres space times and ages past it hauing continued is now diuoluted to the present incumbent or prince regnant from his auncesters whose state title and regall honour he hath possesseth and peaceably enioyeth that so ancient renowned indubitate a right should now be called in question and that vpon the bare worde of a claymorous claime exceeding al meane modestie and measure made by an arrant traytor to God his Prince his countrey and to all lawes of God of nature of nations or of man and generally misliked of by all graue discreete prudent learned wise religious true harted catholikes especially for this his sodaine camelion vnexpected vndeserued vngrounded exorbitant passionate apostrophall change of a foisted in pretend audaciously presuming without buls breue billet ticket worde or warrant of any authoritie to charge all men to allow admit ratifie and confirme without all gainesay controlment or contradiction such a Soueraigne as he the said father Parsons will appoint them otherwise to be noted for Atheistes fooles rebels malicious politikes and aduerse to his catholike Maiestie and forsooth the common cause this this is that most odious scandalous irreligious treacherous erronious doctrine which is so preiudicial to the king catholike and his pretended cause as whiles Spaine is Spaine England England Fraunce Fraunce and Rome Rome will it neuer be forgotten nor forgiuen nor the iealousie thereof put out of all princes harts So as iustly father Parsons may be pointed at for woorse then a fabling libeller and were woorthie were he not a priest to be set vpon the pillorie and that euen by his catholike Maiestie for bearing the world in hand that he was set on to write those libels by warrant and priuitie of the said surmised pretendor whereas all circumstances both in the same bookes and scheduls together with those plotcasters speeches in secret to their friendes and the many dangers damages indignities discommodities accrewing to the king and his royal estate doe argue quite contrarie This is that venemous law will pearce the king catholike to the very naked hart if his Maiestie permit it to passe currant without due punishment inflicted vpon the presumant scribe and speedie abolishment of so polypragmaticall a platforme no lesse dangerously cast then traitorously laide to intrap all princes in Christendome in a Templars snare and as preiudiciall if not more in chiefe to the crowne and safetie of his royal person to his family in esse and to his successors for euer hereafter as to any other prince or monarch whosoeuer For let his Highnes winke at this doctrine and seeme to authorize it and then what better warrant or more plausible can be deuised when minds of people in all nations as ruefull experience doth tell vs are now a daies so quickly exulcerated with grieuous sores of gustes and discontent easily corrupted with maladies of contention and hastely set on horsebacke with superfluous humors of nouelties innouations ambition disdaine reuenge thirsting after bloud desirous of liberty and greedily affecting soueraignty then thus to authorize all and euery Prouince vnder his gouernment to rebell against him at their pleasure and auouche maintaine and defend for lawfull all their outragious insurrections malepert mutinies and contagious crimes against his highnes and soundest part of his nobles and subiects euery where but especially in the Low countries vnder this counterfeited conference holden at Amsterdam amongst the States there Yea by this colourable doctrine of Fa. Parsons hotch potch prodigious common wealthes authority when it comes to reasoning standing the premises without the kings controlment they may lawfully auerre al their practises proceedings and deeds past they may admit his maiestie peacebly to gouerne and raigne ouer them with this condition that he shall mantaine the course by them begun for gouernment
Atheall policy bring Spaine and all the rest vnder their subiection Which apparant intendment plots and practises with other like waighty considerations if the late king had liued would haue beene a sufficient warning to him for euer being abused by any Iesuite againe And happily when this king regnant and his sister the Lady Infanta shall know thus much and much more then here is said it will breede the same effect in their princely heads as a fit meane to cut off these turbulent state tamperers and no lesse ambitious aspirers then vngratefull maligners of those princes that haue backt aduaunced and defended them most And either hereafter force them in Spaine and in all other countries to auoide princes courts and medlings with nobles or the state where they liue and so retire themselues to their cloysters as religious men should do and as all do but they only who despise all order or else set them packing out of this Christian world amongst the Antipodes Indians other people to vs here vnknowen For so long as they stay vncontrold as they are the church of God will neuer be in quiet nor suffered to liue vnuexed by them THE VIII ARTICLE VVHether then seeing it seemeth the Iesuits aspire to the whole and absolute monarchie of the world haue they any intent or meaning to put in for a supremacy so to thrust out the Popes holines or haue they no such intended practises amongst them THE ANSWERE IF the question had beene whether euer any possibility or intendment were by them to get a Iesuite to be Pope or no the answere had beene more ready then it is to the former interrogatory For that the generall iealousie which most of that sacred consistory haue of the Iesuits pride ambition greedy affectation of a supremacy hath been cause that of late as some do say there is an order taken that no Iesuits shal euer be admitted hereafter to be Card at least not in that authority as some of them haue bene in least they worke some crafty meanes to get to that worthy dignitie as in tract of time they may bring it about to haue him Pope by that meanes and then questionlesse haue at all Christendome for bothe states ecclesiasticall and temporall Which to make apparant that they aime at no lesse and by consequent that as there was but one onely Iesus who was high priest and king in the Hebrewes Monarchiall Empire or kingdome of the Iewes with his twelue Apostles and the rest of his disciples substituted vnder him so in their intended platforme but one Iesuite Pope and prince Monarchiall like a presbyter Iohn in the kingdome monarchie of the whole Christian world with the fathers and lay brothers of his societie substituted in euery country region and prouince vnder him Although by relection of what hath bene already said there may ynough be gathered sufficient to confirme and demonstrate it against them especially if we conferre our English Iesuiticall practises and proceedings with others of other nations yet in my opinion there is no one thing that discouers their ambitious aspire more herein then father Parsons Doleman in his peremptorie censure of all impugners of his Iesuiticall or popular title for call it no more his Spanish title hereafter seeing he fisheth wholy for his owne societie in as high preiudice to the Spaniards Maiestie as to any other to the English crowne For hauing as I haue said before authorized his subiect Master Blackwell with so ample immunities priuiledges preheminences and substitutiue iurisdiction as neither pope nor prince nor any power or authoritie vnlesse Iesuiticall on earth may as it seemeth by shrewd suspition had of their speech and insinuation giuen by their actions haue to doe with him nor any in England Scotland or Wales appeale from him now by perusing that Quodlibet of plots by authoritie and conferring the same with this of succession you shall finde here the doctrinal decrees intended of that which there is set downe to haue already begun to be in practise Thus then he I meane father Parsons teacheth in his said booke of titles and other manuscripts First that all men liuing vnder the Spanish allegiance are bound to take notice of their kings rightfull title interest and claime to the English crowne c. Secondly that the English our countrymen though of another nation and no way subiect to Spaine at any time since the world began were obliged to acknowledge and subscribe and as some haue informed vs to sweare vnto the rightfull succession of the Lady Infanta Thirdly euery one be he forraigne or home borne subiect are prohibited in expresse words by the king there saith this good father and by an inhibition sent from the Archpriest here to shew their reasonable censure or to deliuer their opinion and conceit touching the contents of the foresaid bookes and writings vnder paine of incurring the churches curse and his maiesties high displeasure c. In these three positions that I may omit sundry others whereof he rankly smelleth of hereticall and rebellious doctrine to the See apostolike you may please to note what he takes vpon him and then compare confer quote the places in the first part of his Doleman making for this purpose and you shall finde that he arrogates to himselfe more then Apostolicall power so as what to make of him for my part I know not vnlesse an Antesignane or immediate forerunner of Antichrist for he taking vpon him authoritie aboue the Pope in this point of succession so farre as he would seeme to make his bloody proiects for performance thereof in a setled conceit as infringible if not more as if they were matters of faith desined by a sacred aecumenicall synode what this his doctrine and threats in compelling to beleeue and imbrace it will breede in time or what it is that he thereby shootes at vos iudicate Onely two things I will say first that a great many and those some of them at least no fooles nor babies are mightily mistaken in their censure iudgement and opinion had of his intended platforme therein another is that whatsoeuer his intent or meaning is or was for that matter yet hath he by that booke and others very suspitiously preiudiced the See apostolike and the popes holines in chiefe whose office he hauing peremptorily forestalled vsurped and preoccupated herein he is to be noted of high ambition great presumption sawcie disobedience and what else you may gesse besides to the Romane See as his chiefe superior without whose warrant graunt and authoritie he hath audaciously presumed to ouerthrowe states to make new kings to forme common wealthes and to frame lawes out of his owne braine-sicke fansie as though he were Monos supreme soueraigne and superior in chiefe vnder God if not equal vpon whom Pope prince peere and all persons of what degree calling or qualitie soeuer they be are to depend and from whom al officers magistrates powers dominations are