Spaniard to have joyned with him to our own destructions telling us many fair tales and alluring us with sundry great promises all of them meer illusions falshoods and most traiterous instigations and juglings He ascribeth it to error of Conscience and want of courage terming the same an effeminate dastardy that we had then suffered her Majesty almast thirty years to reign over us He threatned us with Excommunication and utter ruine both of our selves and all our Posterity if we did then any longer obey abet or aid defend or acknowledge her Highness to be our Queen or Superiour and did not forthwith joyn our selves with all our Forces to the Spaniards The good Cardinal by Parsons means is drawn to say That the Pope had made him Cardinal intending to send him as his Legat for the sweeter managing of this forsooth godly and great Affair and to affirm upon his honour and in the word of a Cardinal that in the fury of the Spaniards intended Conquest there should be as great care had of every Catholick and penitent person as possibly could be And to allure the Nobility of this Realm he promised them to become an humble Suiter on their behalfs that so as they shew them selves valiant in assisting the King of Spain ' s Forces they might continue their noble Names and Families Surely they had been wise men that should have relyed much either upon his promise or the Spaniards courtesie This Jesuit also telleth all Catholicks the better to comfort them but indeed to the great scandal for ever of all Priesthood and to shew how just and holy the cause was they had in hand that there were divers Priests in the Kings Army ready to serve every mans spiritual necessity by Confession Counsel and all consolation in Christ Jesus Also he so advanceth the Forces of the Enemies extenuateth her Majesties abilities to withstand them as he accounted the Victory obtained in effect before they were landed telling us That besides the said great Forces we should so be assisted by the blessed Patrons both of Heaven and Earth with the guard of all Gods holy Angels with our blessed Saviour himself in the soveraign Sacrament and with the daily most holy oblation of Christs own dear body and blood as it could not fall out otherwise but that we must needs prevail Which kind of perswasions some of them being ridiculous the most very traiterous and these last most blasphemous as tending so greatly to the dishonour of Religion we detest and abhor And in all these Jesuitical and disloyal practices this is our comfort that albeit we doubt not but that the Pope as a temporal Prince did joyn and contribute towards this intended Invasion yet we find Father Parsons declaration of Xistus Quintus sentence of deposition of her Majesty at that time and of his admonition thereunto adjoyned as in the Popes name to have no warrant at all besides his own bare affirmation either of Breve or of any other publick Instrument as in such cases had been most necessary otherwise than that he told us it was the Popes pleasure that we should take notice thereof by his Book which was then printed and to have been scattered amongst us By warrant whereof as we are perswaded it was not lawful for us to have killed a Goose if her Majesty had forbidden us so to do Of these matters to return still to our former Apologies we would have said nothing were they not objected unto us and shewed us out of the Books themselves as notes and arguments of our traiterous hearts our Adversaries pressing the same upon us as if they did belong unto us and we were as guilty of them as either they that plotted or published them Which conceit if it should take root in those that be in Authority how could we hope for any favour but were rather to expect the greatest extremity that might be So as still we may say that the proceedings held against her Majesty well weighed these foreign Jesuitical practices have been the cause of all our troubles When it had pleased God to deliver her Majesty and this Kingdom from the said intended Invasion Mr. Parsons whether ashamed of the foil for the success whereof he was so peremptory or for that he thought matters would be better managed in Spain if he were there to give his advice departed from Rome as we take it and became a Courtier to attend King Philip where by Mendoza his fellow Jesuit's means he grew shortly into so great estimation not for any goodness in him towards this Realm you may be sure but rather in respect of his deadly hatred against it that he procured a Seminary to be erected at Valledolyd 1589. But we will leave his proceedings in Spain a while In these ten years last mentioned from 1580. till 1590. or but little before we find her Majesty to be excommunicated by Gregory the Thirteenth Mr. Sherwin and the rest of our Brethren too much Jesuited refuse to answer whether they will take the Queens part or the Popes if he should come by force of Arms to assail her in her own Kingdom Parsons and Heywood are found to be Practitioners but especially Parsons The intention of the Duke of Guise is entertained here and prosecuted Her Majesties life is sought by treachery Babington and his Companions shoot at the Crown Stanley is a Treacherer breaketh his faith and is defended for so doing Then followed the Invasion and lastly Parsons plottings in Spain and the erection of new Seminaries there Now let us consider how we our selves all this while have been dealt with Such of us as remained in Prison at Wisbich and were committed thither 1580. and others not long after committed also thither to the number of about thirty three or thirty four continued still in the several times of all the said most wicked designments as we were before and were never brought into any trouble for them but lived there Colledge-like without any want and in good reputation with our Neighbours that were Catholicks about us It is true that towards the number of fifty as our memory serveth us Priests and Catholicks of all sorts within the compass of the said ten years were put to death we say upon our knowledges concerning the most of them for their consciences but our Adversaries as they think do still affirm for Treason Such Priests as in their examination were found any thing moderate were not so hardly proceeded with insomuch as fifty five to our remembrance that by the Laws we acknowledge might likewise have been put to death were in one year viz. 1585. what time great mischiefs were in hand spared from that extremity and only banished Which fact howsoever some have written of it the parties themselves accounted it for a great benefit and so would they also have done we doubt not of it if they had been then of that number Whereas therefore Mr. Parsons as we think exclaimeth in a
repine or complain some of those Nations might have done written and spoken as it had pleased them It little became either Master Saunders otherwise an excellent man or Master Parsons or any other of our own Nation to have intermedled with those matters or to write as they have very offensively done in divers of their Books and Treatises to what purpose we know not except it were to shew their malice to dishonour their own Country as much as lay in them and to move a greater dislike in the State of all that be Catholicks than before they had Kings ever have had and will have their plots and practices for their own safeties it being as inconvenient to their Policy for one Prince by his Might to over-top another as it is amongst the principal members of our natural bodies for one member to swell or grow too great above his due proportion Happy had we Catholicks been at this day if these men being Priests had never troubled themselves with State-matters which they have managed as Phaeton did his Fathers Chariot very greatly to our prejudice Let them pretend never so great skill in their disposing of Kingdoms ordine ad Deum they have certainly dealt with ours ordine ad Gehennam But this is not all which the State may justly challenge us for In the time of our said Peace and upon the coming into England of the Queen of Scots whilst her Majesty of England and the State were busied as partly you have heard before it pitieth our hearts to see and read what hath been printed and published out of Italy in the life of Pius Quintus concerning his Holiness endeavors stirred up by false suggestions to joyn with the King of Spain for the utter ruine and overthrow both of our Prince and Country Would to God such things had never been enterprised and most of all that they had never been printed We that have some skill with our Pens presume too much a great deal upon our own Wits What good the mentioning of these points can bring to the Church we see not but sure we are it hath done much hurt and given our common Enemies very great advantage against us For now it is usually objected unto us by every one of any reach when we complain of some hard dealings towards us Yea say they very well good Masters were you not in quiet Who then gave the cause that you were troubled When her Majesty used you kindly how treacherously was she dealt with by you Did not Pius Quintus practise her Majesties subversion she good Lady never dreaming of any such mischief Was not one Robert Ridolphi a Gentleman of Florence sent hither by the Pope under colour of Merchandize to sollicite a Rebellion Did not Pius Quintus move the King of Spain to joyn in this Exploit for the better securing of his own Dominions in the Low Countries Was not the Bull denounced against her Majesty that carrieth so fair a Preface of zeal and pastoral duty devised purposely to further the intended Rebellion for the depriving of her Majesty from her Kingdom Had not the Pope and King of Spain assigned the Duke of Norfolk to be the Head of this Rebellion Did not the Pope give order to Ridolphi to take 150000 Crowns to set forward this attempt Was not some of that Money sent for Scotland and some delivered to the said Duke Did not King Philip at the Popes instance determine to send the Duke of Alva into England with all his Forces in the Low Countries to assist the Duke of Norfolk Are all these things true and were they not then in hand whilst her Majesty dealt so mercifully with you How can you excuse these designments so unchristian so unpriestly so treacherous and therefore so un-prince-like When we first heard these particulars we did not believe them but would have laid our lives they had been false but when we saw the Book and found them there God is our witness we were much amazed and can say no more but that his Holiness was misinformed and indirectly drawn to these courses But to proceed it being unknown to the State what secret matters were in hand against them both at home and beyond the Seas the Catholicks here continued in sort as before you have heard till the said Rebellion brake forth in the North 1569. a little before Christmas and that it was known that the Pope had excommunicated the Queen and thereby freed her Subjects as the Bull importeth from their subjection And then there followed a great restraint of the said Prisoners but none of them were put to death upon that occasion the Sword being then only drawn against such Catholicks as had risen up actually into open Rebellion Wherein we cannot see what her Majesty did that any Prince in Christendom in such a case would not have done And as touching the said Bull many both Priests and Lay Catholicks have greatly wished that it had never been decreed denounced published or heard of For we are perswaded that the Pope was drawn thereunto by false suggestions of certain undiscreet turbulent persons who pretending to him one thing had another drift in their heads for their own advancement And therefore we have ever accounted of it as a sentence procured by surreption knowing it to be no unusual thing with the Pope through indirect means and factious heads to be often deceived in matters of Fact as we now find it in the setting up of our new Arch-Priest Now upon all these occasions her Majesty being moved with great displeasure called a Parliament in the thirteenth year of her Reign 1571. wherein a Law was made containing many branches against the bringing into this Land after that time of any Bulls from Rome any Agnus Dei Crosses or Pardons and against all manner of persons that should procure them to be so brought hither with many other particularities thereunto appertaining Which Law although we hold it to be too rigorous and that the pretended remedy exceeded the measure of the offence either undutifully given or in justice to have been taken yet we cannot but confess as reasonable men that the State had great cause to make some Laws against us except they should have shewed themselves careless for the continuance of it But be the Law as any would have it never so extreme yet surely it must be granted that the occasions of it were most outragious and likewise that the execution of it was not so tragical as many since have written and reported of it For whatsoever was done against us either upon the pretence of that Law or of any other would never we think have been attempted had not divers other preposterous occasions besides the causes of that Law daily fallen out amongst us which procured matters to be urged more severely against us In the year 1572. out cometh Master Saunders Book de visibili Monarchia wherein he taketh upon him to set down how the Pope had
For first whereas you being the chiefly or only suspected Body are therefore bound to offer more satisfaction than others you make your Proposition to submit to whatever all other Catholick Priests shall agree to which sounds as much as if any disagree you will adhere to them or in plain terms that you 'l agree to no more than by shame you shall be forced to for not plainly appearing the worst of Priests and Enemies to the Catholick Cause 13. My Thirteenth Doubt is why you pretending to be the greatest Divines among Catholicks remit your selves to the determinations of others and not as good Subjects ought examine what satisfaction is necessary and fit to be given the State and both offer it your selves and provoke others to do it not standing so scrupulously upon your Generals decree which surely should not be thought to bind in such extreme cases even the Laws of the Church and of general Councils we know oblige not where our obedience would ruine us and will you still more precisely observe your own By-Laws than the sacred Canons of the Universal Church Methinks therefore in due satisfaction concerning the pretences of the Pope against the King whatever Catholick Doctors hold favourable to Princes in these differences should by you be gathered together and subscribed and promised to be maintained with all your power As first the Doctrine which denies that the Pope has any Authority in any case to depose or temporally molest the King or any of His Majesties Subjects Likewise that he has no Authority to release any lawfully made Oath of Allegiance or other promise to his Majesty or any of his Subjects And because none of these or the like assertions can be strong and firm in the mouth of him that holds the Pope's Infallibility in determining points of Faith but whenever the Pope shall determine the contrary he must renounce what before he held for good therefore you should do the like in respect of the Pope's Infallibility Moreover because if the Pope by his own or any others Authority may force his Majesties Subjects to go into Countries where they cannot enjoy the protection of their Prince the Subjects are not free to maintain these assertions therefore this Position also that a Subject of England is bound to appear before any foreign Tribunal without His Majesties consent is also to be condemned Nor is it less necessary you should expresly renounce the Doctrines of Equivocation and Mental Reservation without which all the rest afford very little security And I could wish you would find some way how to assure us that when you solemnly make your disclaim of these last Opinions you do not practise them even while you renounce them Unless such Tenets be stubbed out of the heads and tongues of your Preachers there cannot be expected any hearty Allegiance in the Jesuited Party whose consciences are governed by you but such a one as shall waver with every blast from Rome Neither can any Priest exempt himself from subscribing the condemnation of all these For Ignorance of necessary truths is not to be allowed in Teachers And supposing that every one knows the Propositions are not Articles of Catholick Faith the manifest Inconveniences that follow them will evidently convince they are to be condemned For temporal subjection to Princes is the main ground of the peace and good government of the Common-wealth and what is against that is against the Law of God and Nature I should think it therefore not so much your best as your only way to lay aside your private Interests with the Pope and declare your selves not the last but the forwardest in your Allegiance to His Majesty that you may cancel your former proceedings and blot out the setled Opinion of your Dissimulation You can do it if you will for you teach men to depose their own private consciences on the Opinions of others You cannot deny but the contrary Opinions are asserted by Catholick Doctors and therefore by your own Maximes 't is lawful for you to hold them nor will I now dispute those Maximes It concerns you deeply for you must have a special favour from the Civil State and not to pretend to such is to profess you break the Catholick Parliament's Statutes and press the Popes exorbitant Authority and draws all your adherents into Treason before God and a Praemunire by the Laws Think therefore soberly and conclude strongly what you have to do and let not your General 's Interest oversway Truth and Justice and your private Good Yet one reflection occurs to me worth your notice rising from the Report I toucht at the beginning That you seeing your selves shut out from the Favour Voted by the House of Lords to other Catholicks are casting about how to stop the progress of that Vote and prevent its growing into an Act. Whereupon I raise this Quaere why you who are but a particular Body should not rather take up your roots and transplant than so to seek your private benefit that you care not to hazard the whole Do you not remember how and why you went from Venice you voluntarily departed in pure Obedience to the Pope upon a quarrel betwixt Him and that State and were only kept out not sent away And were it not now as high a Charity and as much for your reputation to yield for a time till your own deportments shall deserve your restitution to which nothing can more conduce than your peaceable departure especially where the circumstances are so different When you left Venice you were conceived to hope a speedy return by the Popes Arms and Triumph over your own Country whereas if you now go away your departure will be absolutely free from the blemish of that suspicion and remain to all posterity an Action of pure Heroick Vertue while in so tender a case you prefer the publick before your own present private good You who could leave a Country where you were rich and prosperous meerly to comply with the Pope can you not now depart from a Country where your selves say you are poor and afflicted for the universal good of Religion Else will not this pitch of Reluctance savour too rankly of the rich glue which indeed fastens your hearts here and betray at length to the inquisitive that your yearly Rents got by the Mission in England are more than ten times as much as what belongs to all Missions besides both Secular and Regular Only this word more I shall desire you to consider how the Catholicks of England nay of all the World will be scandalized and provoked against Jesuits if they see you palpably and uncharitably drive on your own Interest alone without caring what becomes of Religion unless you may have your wills This I propose only upon supposition that the Report is true For if you endeavour no more than to procure your selves may be included in the Act without endangering your Neighbours I heartily wish you may prove it just but