Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	abandon_v	church_n	late_a	19	3	6.5856	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02750	A declaration of egregious popish impostures to with-draw the harts of her Maiesties subiects from their allegeance, and from the truth of Christian religion professed in England, vnder the pretence of casting out deuils. Practised by Edmunds, alias Weston a Iesuit, and diuers Romish priestes his wicked associates. Where-vnto are annexed the copies of the confessions, and examinations of the parties themselues, which were pretended to be possessed, and dispossessed, taken vpon oath before her Maiesties commissioners, for causes ecclesiasticall.	Harsnett, Samuel, 1561-1631.	1603 (1603)	STC 12880; ESTC S120922	196,686	296

shall then be full of chaire-worke indeed And verily as many as be young women and maides and marke in the course of this storie the kind handling of Anne Fid and Sara three proper young maids by the Doctors of the Chayre and withall shall obserue well the manner of the Chayre theyr holy brimstone holy potion and the rest of that holy geere wil I doubt not be much delighted with the contemplation of that day and rather then faile hartily both wish and pray that all theyr holy works may grace Tiburne as they haue worthily deserued with new holy reliques before that day come Well howsoeuer you like them or theyr holy chaire this is theyr theoreme sure and sound that the greatest part of Protestants be possessed and so they proceeded with Anne Fid and Sara Who before they becam entangled in their holy ginnes were protestant maydes went orderly to Church Mary after that they and their Leno had caught them with cat-biting hipping and crosbiting as you haue heard that they had brought them with their Syren-songs to belieue that some wicked spirit had lyen a long time lurking in theyr bellies and theyr sides why then they enchaunt them a fresh with this lamentable dolefull dittie That theyr harts doe bleede for sorrow to see them in this pittifull wofull plight being in Satans possession that they burne with bowels of cōmiseration and compassion of theyr distressed estate that they would spend theyr best spirits and liues to doe them any good onely one little thing is a barre that hinders the influence of all diuine grace and fauour vpon them and that is theyr religion which they must first abandon and be reconciled to the Pope or otherwise all theyr holy ceremonies are of no auaile And heere beginnes their holy pageant to peepe into the stage First they tell Friswood and Sara as you may see in their confessions that theyr baptisme they had receiued in the Church of England must be amended in regard it wanted many rites ceremonies ornaments belonging to the baptisme of the Church of Rome Heere Allen and Parsons will con you little thanke for so little setting by their resolution in cases for England Their words are these Ceremoniae omissae baptismi in pueris cum possunt commodè suppleri debent non autem id faciendum consulimus in ijs qui sunt prouectioris aetatis ne inde nascatur scandalum aut opinio priorem baptismum non valuisse Your Ceremonies say your two Gods may be fitly played vpon the baptisme of children but vpon an adultus not so least a conceit or scandale arise thereby that the former baptisme should not be of it selfe good Allen and Parson determine Friswood and Saras English baptisme good enough without your goodly ceremonies florished ouer their heads and yet you must be dooing in spight of them both Your implements were ready for the purpose and it fitted your deuill-worke better and so you esteemed not Allen or Parsons a pinne And in good sooth you might aswell haue kept these goodly Ceremonies in your budget except you cleerly meant to mocke almighty God and to make the sacrament naught els saue a rattle for fooles babes and women to make sport withall In my opinion there was neuer Christmas-game performed vvith moe apish indecent slouenly gawdes then your baptising and super-baptising ceremonies are Your puffe your crosse-puffe your expuffe your inpuffe vppon the face of a tender infant beeing the impure stinking breath of a foule impure belching swaine your enchaūted salt your charmed grease your sorcerised chrisme your lothsome driuell that you put vppon theyr eyes eares noses and lyppes are fitting complements for hynch pynch and laugh not coale vnder candlesticke Frier Rush and wo-penny hoe Which are more ciuilly acted and with lesse foule soyle and lothsome indecorum then your spattring and greasing tricks vpon the poore infant and yet old doting Bellarmine blurres three whole leaues of paper in displaying the banner of this ridiculous trumpery telling vs a long tale that they came from tradition of the Church when we can aswel tell as hee can his Aue Marie from what sniueling Pope what drunken Frier what Heathenish imitation they did all proceede But see these popish guegawes acted vpon Friswood herselfe First out comes the holy chaire and Friswood the new babe is placed very demurely in it with a cloth vpon her head and a crosse vpon it Then in comes the priest attired in an Albe or a Cope with a candle in his hand or else he is Anathema by the Counsell of Trent and after the performance of a whole anticke-sute of Crosses hee approches very reuerently to Friswood in the chayre Then as herselfe in her confession describes it he first charmes her in Latine then he puts salt in her mouth spittle vppon her eares and eyes and annoints her lippes and her nose with oyle and so God and Saint Frauncis saue the young childe in steade of Friswood christening her by the name of Frauncis because that Saint had such a soueraigne commaund ouer the birds of the ayre that his name for it was made communicable both to hee and shee and Sara was christened by the name of Mary Suppose now gentle Reader that Friswoods Mother had come sodainly in and seene the Priest with his candell in his hand and his Cope vpon his backe busie in his enchaunting Latine charme and with-all had espied her daughter Friswood musled in her chaire of estate with a cloath and a Crosse and her other sacred geare I wonder what she would sodainly haue thought whether she would not haue beene much amazed at this infernall incantation and haue imagined that a ghost in steede of Friswood had beene coniured out of hell But if shee had had the hart to haue spoken vnto Friswood and to haue called her by her name and she should sodainly haue stepped out of her enchaunted chaire and haue said that her name had not beene Friswood but Frauncis verily they would haue taken her for a ghost in deede or haue feared that the Priest had enchaunted her out of her wits But stay what hast For after these new transformed creatures had their ceremonies and rites done vppon them and were framed fashioned and attired for their parts and were ready for the chaire the stage no man abroad could be admitted to either sight or speech with them intus res agitur they were now mysticall creatures and must attend their sacred close mysteries within All must be mum Clum quoth the Carpenter Clum quoth the Carpenters wife and Clum quoth the Friar You shall be more thoroughly confirmed by Friswood her selfe touching this poynt who saith in her examination That neither shee nor her sister Sara did see either father or mother being in the same Towne all the while that they were in theyr hands neyther would they suffer their father or mother to speake with them though they desired it many times

be dissembled or otherwise vttered in great distemper procured by loathsome potions and violent fumigations And they shal be very wel armed against all such deceites if euer it be their haps to heare or read the confessions and examinations of the parties before mentioned Marrie they must keepe their owne counsel For I am perswaded that if any shall seeme to be a curious beholder at such times and a mouer of questions he shal not be any welcome guest vnto them Heereof any may be further aduertised that wil take the paines to reade a little French Treatise of a counterfeit Daemoniack at Paris and how the Exorcists could in no sort endure the questions doubts that were propounded vnto them when they were at their work but pretended that such curiosity and want of faith did greatly hinder them in their proceedings There will be many exceptions taken to that which heere I haue deliuered vpon my conscience to proue that the said parties pretended to be possessed were not counterfeits as that some things fell out which were not possible to be dissembled The chiefe obiection wil be as touching a peece of a knife in length about two inches and a halfe which was said to come out of the bodie of Anne Smith hauing beene conuaied into her before as it was pretended by the deuil And to cleare the matter the deuil was made forsooth to shew by Philosophie that he was able to doe such a thing for to this effect it was giuen out that the deuil should reade vs as I may terme it a Lecture I am as you know by creation a spirit and haue lost no part of my knowledge and cunning in the secrets of nature and that I can dissolue any Iron or hard matter at my pleasure into a liquid substance and so I did and poured it into her porredge which she eating swallowed vp the knife in that liquid substance and the same being so in her body I reduced it into the artificiall forme which before it had And thus much you may beleeue quoth the deuil if you be but Philosophers or to this effect Whervnto for aunswer as the truth is so farre forth as I know or beleeue First as the peece of the knife came out of her mouth without hurting of her if it came out of her mouth at all and that there were not a shift of legerdemaine vsed to make it seeme indeede to those that were present that it came out of her mouth so might it be taken forth againe hauing beene put into her mouth by the Exorcist himselfe for ought I know as some of the said parties haue acknowledged that the Exorcists somtimes would thrust bigge●● ones and peeces of reliques into their mouthes Amongst the which Friswood Williams deposeth that as she verily beleeueth they thrust a rustie naile into her mouth and afterwards pretended that it came out of her body 2. Anne Smith hath deposed that she is fully perswaded that they haue reported vntruly of the taking of a peece of a knife out of her mouth Howbeit shee saith shee durst not at that time contradict them but it is needelesse for mee to aunswer this or any such like obiection For the things are in themselues so ridiculous as I thinke no man will be so mad as to take vppon him to defend them And when wee our selues that were actors in those matters thought wee had wonne our spurres yet diuers auncient priests as Maister Heywood Maister Dolman Maister Redman and some others hearing of the course we held did shake their heads at it and shewed their great dislike of it Likewise the grauer sort that were then imprisoned at Wisbich were greatly offended there-with as I haue beene credibly informed and said that howsoeuer for a time wee might be admired yet in the end wee would thereby marre all and vtterly discredit both our selues and our calling Where-vpon wee the younger sort of the Seminarie priests that were then dealers herein thought our selues hardly dealt with by them and that they did but enuie at the cōmendation which they saw wee daily gayned themselues being no actors amongst vs. But now I see that the said auncient Fathers had beene acquainted of likelihood with such deuises beyond the Seas and were greatly greeued to haue them brought into England notwithstanding Ma Edmunds and the rest would needes proceede as is before in part expressed and haue thereby to their perpetual shame made them true Prophets I haue my selfe before confessed that my pen is in the booke that was taken with Ma Barnes wherein I layd together those things that Sara Williams was pretended to haue done and said in one of her fits at Hackney the 10 of Ianuarie some things whereof I saw and heard my selfe others I receaued by peece-meale of Maister Thomson Ma Thulice and others and layd them altogether with the best skill I had to make them seeme strange and wonderfull For although both my selfe as I said before and so I thinke of the rest did know that all was but counterfeite yet for as much as we perceaued that thereby great credit did grow to the Catholique cause and great discredit to the Protestants wee held it lawfull to doe as we did Shortly after I had first conformed my selfe to the state of the Church established heere in England and there-vpon disclosed many things to the late Lo. Treasurer concerning sundry very pernicious designments against her Maistie and this state I fell againe to my old course by the perswasion of some of my auncient acquaintance that were priests hauing had small time to ground my selfe by study thereby to defend my said conformitie I was no sooner come to my old byace but they soone drew mee for the good of the Catholique cause to say that all in effect was false that I had before confessed Although not long after the treasons did so breake forth and were so fully confessed by Babington himselfe that not onely that which I had reported was iustified by them to be true but a great deale more then euer I knew or dreamed of Likewise I hauing detected in some part the folly of the said exorcisings it is scarce credible how earnest the said priests were with me to avow them againe for matters of veritie Wherevnto for the reason before mentioned I did vvillingly yeeld nothing doubting but that if God should once againe so draw his grace from mee as that I should become to be as then I was that is wholy addicted to popery as I trust in his mercy hee will neuer doe I should be as ready againe to deny all that now I haue affirmed vpon my oath as I was before For the generall conceit amongst all the priests of that order is that they may deny any thing which beeing confessed doth turne to the dishonour of the Catholique Church of Rome Besides they haue other obiections that serue theyr turnes as that the Magistrates in England are no competent Iudges the