those times And at these meetings Priests may be examined of these and like points and take direction of their Superiours and propose their doubts or difficulties which they have found in the course begun of setting up Religion and gaining of Souls And there might be ordained Sermons Conferences and Exhortations to be made at these meetings and certain learned Men appointed to examine and resolve their doubts which would be a great light and incouragement for them all to go forward in this Holy Work And this is so much as at this time cometh to my Mind about these matters needful to be remembred except I should add That the form of Apparel of our new English Clergy is to be reduced also to the measure and proportion of that Perfection and Edification which we desire to see in our Priests at the next change and that both vanity and novelty be avoided then and above all lightness and dissolution for which effect perhaps the best means will be to bring in use again as near as may be the old grave custom and fashion of Apparel that our Clergy-men used in ancient times whereof such as at that day shall be appointed to consult and treat of this matter will better be able to set down the particulars CHAP. IV. Of Seminaries Colleges Vniversities and Schools AS concerning Seminaries and Colleges for Institution and Increase of our Clergy-men at the beginning of the next change and how they ought to be erected in every Diocess or Bishoprick founded and provided for by Contribution of Ecclesiastical Benefices established with good Laws and necessary Priviledges provided of good Governors divided into divers Members or Parts according to the number of our Universities in England and that the lesser Seminaries abroad be subordinate to the greater of the said Universities and how that none commonly should be admitted to Priesthood but such as have been brought up and given good proof of themselves in these Seminaries or other Colleges of like Discipline Of all these points I say there hath been sufficiently spoken before in divers Chapters of this Memorial which need not be repeated in this place only I add that these great Seminaries which in the First Chapter of the Second Part of this Memorial I said were to be erected in the University for Heads of the other that were to be subject unto them abroad in every Diocess may serve also for that effect which Mr. John Avila required in the former Chapter which is for these to enter and be proved for a time who pretend to be Priests and that before they take Holy Orders they do dispose themselves duly by making the Spiritual Exercises and using of other means whereby to know and consider well what they take in hand and that such as be of best wits be applied to preaching and those of meaner to hear Confessions and those of Prudence Activity and sound approved Vertue to be imployed in Government and thus much of Seminaries of our own Country But now for help of other Countries also we ought to have some special care considering the Benefit that we have received by Seminaries to procure their Conversion so much as lies in us by the same means and for this purpose it would be a work of great Piety and Edification and partly also due that we should erect in our Country and namely in London where most concourse of Merchant Stangers are some number of Seminaries for the help of our Neighbours oppressed or infected with Heresie as namely Denmark divers parts near to us of Germany Poland Gothland Sweedland Scotland Muscovy and the Isles of Zeland from all which places store of youth might be had by reason of the concourse and Contraction of Merchants that daily come to London from those parts And by the Industry of some good Catholick Men that may be found or made in the said Countries by such zealous English Priests of our own as would be willing to employ themselves in this work and go thither also if need be among which most gladly the Writer of this Memorial would offer himself for one And so procuring and setting a certain sure manner of correspondence from these Kingdoms for their youth to come to us and putting in Spirit to them when they be with us together with learning for aiding of their Countries the like effect would follow in the end which we have seen and proved in England And Almighty God would be greatly glorified thereby and we should revive again the old glorious Piety and Zeal of our Ancestors the Saxons who after their own Conversion were Converters almost of all Nations round about them and this for this matter As for the Universities it is well known that they are the Fountains of all good Learning Policy and Government in the Commonwealth and therefore to be favoured nourished increased and those also which England hath are the most fair and best furnished for the material part which is for the number of Colleges and manner of Building Foundations and Commodities of Rents that be to be seen in all Christendom as they can testifie who have seen the one and the other though in other Countries also there be many goodly Universities in like manner which in the formal and more essential part do greatly exceed ours to wit in their good order of Discipline Number Quality Variety and Diligence of Readers abundance of Students and the like all which points also might be brought easily into ours and so make them absolutely the best of Europe and to be frequented also by multitudes of foreign Scholars seeing that maintenance is better cheap with us than any where else And this would be a point of much honour to our Nation And to bring all this to pass the first thing must be that large and ample Commission be given by the Prince and Parliament and confirmed also by the Pope to certain Men of Experience Learning and Wisdom for that purpose to see what is convenient to be ordained for those effects and times and for reducing of our Universities to the best utility of our Commonwealth having yet respect so far forth as no great inconvenience do ensue thereof to the old ancient Statutes Customs and Orders of the said Universities and Colleges and especially that the Founders be not deprived of any substantial part of their Holy Intentions And for that he that writeth this Memorial hath seen and informed himself of the chiefest Universities that be in Christendom and has had experience also of our own the principal parts he hath noted and seen to be worthy to be considered for the reforming or bettering of our English Universities are these which ensue First That the exceeding great multitude of Oaths which are wont to be given to them that take degree of School in our Universities be moderated or taken away for the easing of Men's Consciences and that some few principal and substantial Points only be given by
so much about and of which he glories so much up and down his Writings These Seminaries were the Nurseries of the Conspiracies and Treasons which were from time to time set on foot and carried on against the Queen and Realm of England and Father Parson 's whole Life from his leaving the Mission in England appears to me to have been one continued Act of Treason against his Natural Queen and Native Country To mention some of his Treasons that are come to light he was very grateful to the Duke of Guise whom he had perswaded to set up a Seminary in France for the English that should come thither for with him he conspires against his own Queen how to depose her and set up in her room Popery and the Queen of Scots He endeavoured for this purpose as we are told to make a List of Catholicks which under the conduct of the Duke of Guise should have changed the State of the Kingdom using for it the pretence of the Title of Queen Mary of Scotland But that her Council at Paris which understood business better were so sensible of his boldness that they took from him the Queen's Cypher which he had purloyned and commanded him never more to meddle in her affairs But notwithstanding these People would not let our Father Parsons have any thing further to do in those treasons which were really carried on at that time for the Queen of Scots yet he pretended to mighty merit upon her and her Son's Account in his Letter to Father Chreyton the Jesuit telling him how many long and tedious journeys he had taken for their sakes and how much Mony he had procured for them at one time twenty four thousand Crowns from the King of Spain at another time the same summ and from Pope Gregory XIII four thousand Crowns he confesses indeed that things had not succeeded for them as he had wished but wonders that any body should make him to be an Enemy to the King of Scots who had been so very serviceable to him and his Mother I suppose Father Parsons was disgusted at this sleighting of his faithful services to the Queen of Scots by her Ministers and to be revenged of her and them betakes himself wholly into the Spanish Interest which he espoused so far as not only to sollicite and encourage their open attempts by Invasion against England but after the ill success of that to set up their sham Title to the Kingdom of England He and Cardinal Allen whom Parsons had by his Interest with the King of Spain procured to be made a Cardinal two Brethren in iniquity were mighty forward for the famous Spanish Invasion in 1588. and to make it more successful wrote in defence of it a Tract which Allen was perswaded to own though Parsons had as great if not a greater hand in it than himself In this Admonition to the Nobility and People of England the Queen's Government is called impious and unjust her self an Usurper obstinate and impentinent and it is affirmed that for this reason Pope Sixtus Quintus moved by his own and his Predecessors zeal and the vehement desire of some principal Englishmen had used great diligence with divers Princes especially with the Spanish King to use all his force that she might be turned out of her Dominions and her Adherents punished for a great many Reasons there laid together after which it proceeds thus Wherefore seeing these Offences some of them rendring her uncapable of the Kingdom others unworthy to live his Holiness by the power of God and the Apostles reneweth the Censures of Pius V. and Gregory XIII against her excommunicates and deprives her of all Royal Dignity Titles Rights and Pretences to England and Ireland declares her Illegitimate and an Usurper of the Kingdoms and absolves all her Subjects from their Obedience and Oaths of Allegiance due to her And expressly commands All under pain and penalty of God's Wrath to yield her no obedience aid or favour whatsoever but to employ all their power against her and to joyn themselves with the Spanish Forces who will not hurt the Nation nor alter their Laws or Priviledges only punish the wicked Hereticks And by the same Presents it was declared not only lawful but commendable to lay hands on the said Usurper and other her Adherents for doing of which they should be well rewarded And lastly to all these Roman Assistants is liberally granted a plenary Indulgence and Remission of all their Sins But this unerring Thunderbolt as well as the Spanish Invincible Armado did very shamefully miscarry to the no small disappointment of our good Father Parsons who was not discouraged at that defeat though a worse Man than himself if any such could be would have seen the Finger of God plainly in it but labours with the King of Spain a while after for a second Invasion and after that for a third plotting and devising all ways to bring the King of Spain to it and the Papists of England both those at home and the fugitives abroad to joyn and assist the King of Spain in it but all his pains was lost about these Invasions from abroad and therefore he next sets himself to raise a Rebellion in England it self and deals with Ferdinand Earl of Derby to appear in and â—ead it which because he declined to do he was poysoned by Father Hesketh's procurement who had been sent to him by Father Parsons But failing here also of the desired success the poor Father was now at a loss what to do with this Kingdom of England and since he saw all miscarried that he had plotted against Queen Elizabeth who descended to her Grave full of years and honour his next business was to keep out King James who was a Protestant also from succeding her For this purpose he wrote his Doleman or Conference about the next Succession to the Crown of England the chief design of which was to exclude the Scotch Title as well the Lady Arabella's as King James's and to set up the Spanish Infanta I know Mr. Camden will have Cardinal Allen and Sir Francis Inglefield to have their shares in this Book but Cardinal d'Ossat who had far better opportunities of finding out the Author makes it to be Parson's own and in one of his Letters to the King of France gives that King an account of it wherein he gives our Jesuit the true Character he deserved of being a fellow that regarded neither truth nor reason One thing I cannot but remark here that though this Jesuit had the Impudence to meddle in these matters and to set up forged Titles against the Royal Line of Scotland yet when King James contrary to their Popish designs as well as Expectations did quietly succeed to the Crown of England he had the greater Impudence to deny his ever intending to exclude that King this is in the Preface to his Three Conversions of England added upon the news of the Queens Death and
forelaid Council of Trent entirely and fully without Limitation or Restraint but to embrace also and to put it in ure where occasion and place is offered such other points of Reformation as tend to the perfect restitution of Ecclesiastical Discipline that were in use in the ancient Christian Church though afterward decayed for want of Spirit and not urged now again nor commanded for the Council of Trent for the causes before by me alledged for better Declaration whereof we may consider that the Council of Trent touching Reformation of Manners had to repair an old ancient House whereof many parts were sore weakened by Corruptions and some perished but yet the whole could not be changed nor built anew but necessarily the reparation must be made according to the State and Condition of the other parts that yet remained and so those good Fathers could not frame all points to their own likeing nor yet according to the Rules of perfect Ecclesiastical Architecture But now in England no doubt but that the State of things will be far otherwise whensoever the change of Religion shall happen For then it will be lawful for a good Catholick Prince that God shall send and 2 for a well affected Parliament which himself and the time will easily procure to begin of new and to build from the very foundation the external face of our Catholick Church and to follow the Model which themselves will chuse and if that will be a good and perfect Model it will endure at least for a time and be a pattern of true Christianity to the rest of the World but if it be but ordinary and of the meaner sort at the beginning it will quickly slide back to the old Corruptions wherein it was before and so the benefit of this Probation and Tribulation will soon be lost both before God and Men which Jesus forbid for that it is and will be the greatest Crown that ever England hath had since her first Conversion to the Christian Faith and according to this account must our purpose be of Reformation whensoever God shall restore us to Liberty and Peace lest we lose in Peace that which we gained in War as Eusebius Caesariensis saith that some did in antient Persecutions and it ought to be a warning to us to take heed by their Examples And this is so much as in this behalf seemeth needful to be remembred Animadversions on Chap. II. 1 THE late Council of Trent The Jesuit in the former Chapter was complaining of the coldness and imperfect Reformation of Queen Mary's Reign and here he is as severe upon the Council of Trent it self which notwithstanding its being directed and assisted by the Holy Ghost as this Jesuit as well as the rest of their Writers will have it to be when they are engaged in Controversie against the Reformed and notwithstanding the Infallible Vicar at Rome presided in it by his Legates and did from time to time influence and direct all its Consultations and Determinations yet was so base and cowardly according to our fierce Jesuit as to truckle to the humours of the Age and make a very lame and imperfect Reformation out of compliance with the lukewarmness and iniquity of that Age. But the rest of the World were not of our Jesuit's Mind but did easily see that no Temporal Prince could submit to that Council which by the bye was nothing but a meer Western Conventicle of Italian Bishops and the Pope's own Creatures who had sworn to be true and faithful to him and to preserve to him those which he and they call the Rights and Honours of S. Peter before ever they came within the Walls of that assembly without wrong to himself and to his People However our Jesuit is for having his Popish Prince in England to receive the Council of Trent entirely and fully without Limitation and Restraint though the Prince that does it makes himself feudatory to the Popes and leaves his Country to their disposal when they think fit to have it escheat to them this no body can doubt of it that will but examine what that Council at Trent hath determined about the Matter of Duels in any Princes Countries and this without Question is one of the Reasons why the Gallican Church could not then nor can be to this day perswaded to admit the Council of Trent entirely but refuse it as to the Canons about Discipline which encroach upon the Prince's Right and the Churches Authority By what I can observe from our Jesuit he is for overdoing the whole World and while he brands others with the name of Cold Catholicks would I suppose have a Council of Jesuits to reform their Church and then I am sure it will be done to purpose 2 For a well affected Parliament which himself and the time will easily procure Here is an Instance of a fatal mistake in our Jesuit's Politicks and Foresight The Papists in England by God's Permission have had a Popish Prince and a Prince governed by Jesuits too and as zealous as our Jesuit himself could either imagine or wish him to be and yet after all he was not able to get a well affected Parliament that is a Parliament that would have settled Popery effectually among us That Prince came to the Crown with greater advantages than one of his Perswasion could well have been supposed to have done he was no sooner fixt in his Throne than he had the good success to break and suppress two very dangerous Rebellions and appeared to the World to have the love of all his Subjects who gratified him in his first Parliament with every thing that they could either with Honour or Conscience give But when tempted I am afraid by the reading of this Jesuit's Memorial and by the strange success against the two Insurrections he began to pull off the Vizard and was for breaking in upon the National Protestant security by keeping up a standing Army with a great many Popish unqualified Officers and thought it would prove 〈◊〉 easie matter to bring in his Popery we see how miserably he was out in his Measures that very Parliament that had been so kind as to settle a greater Revenue upon him than ever King of England had by six hundred thousand Pounds a Year as I have been informed for some Years and to give him great Supplies and to Voâ—â— him more and that did stand by him with their Fortuneâ— and Lives were yet for standing by their Religion and their Laws and were neither so tame nor foolish as to be either complemented or hector'd out of either of them This dissolved that Parliament and shewed how graâ—â—ful a Popish Prince could be to the best and kindest Parliament And when this Parliament was dissolved and Popery made every day larger steps than before and the whole Constitution was laid to sleep in favour of Fanatiâ— and Papists did he or time procure a more kind or well affected Parliament Indeed all the care imaginable
good birth are driven oftentimes to great extremities and to undecent shifts for their maintenance to no small inconvenience to the whole Commonwealth Wherefore it may be thought upon whether some moderation in this point were not convenient to be put whereby younger Children might have some occasion to a reasonable Portion at least of their Parents Substance whereby to maintain themselves somewhat conformable to their Birth State and Condition In foreign Catholick Countries the younger Children of Nobility and Gentry are greatly helped and advanced by the Church wherein they are preferred before others in authority and dignity if their merits of learning and vertue be equal whereby it cometh to pass that these younger Brethren giving themselves to study upon hope of these preferments do come in time to be excellent Men and of more authority and living than their Elder Brothers which is a great stay for the Nobility and no less for the defence of Catholick Religion by the union of these Noblemen of the Clergy with others of their Lineage Kindred Acquaintance and Friendship of the Temporalty and consequently the custom is to be brought into England if Noblemen's Sons would make themselves fit Wherein there will be much less difficulty than in times past when that sweet and clear manner of teaching the Latin Tongue and other Sciences shall be brought into England which is used in other places and that other hard dark and base custom of so much beating of youth be removed and taken away About Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Daughters it is also to be considered that as many of them by all likelihood when Catholick Religion shall be restored will betake themselves to Religious and Monastical Life as in other Countries we see so shall their Parents be much eased thereby and the better able to provide for the Marriage of their other Daughters remaining in the World in which point notwithstanding seeing that the excesses of our times in giving great Dowries is grown to be at such a height that it impoverisheth oftentimes the Parents it seemeth a point worthy the consideration whether it were not expedient that the Parliament should limit the quantity of Dowries according to the State and Condition of every Man which no doubt would greatly ease the Nobility and Gentry of England and be profitable for many respects And touching the assurance of these Dowries as also for the Jointures of Lands the Laws of other Countries and ours are far different and good it were for us to take the best of them both And first for Dowries in other Countries they are more assured unto the Wife than in ours for that there the said Dowry never entreth into the Husband's Possession in propriety but only is put out to Rent and assurance given for it of which Rent only the Husband may dispose during his Wive's Life but no ways spend or diminish or impawn the Principle which seemeth a better order and more sure for the Wife than to leave all free to the Husband's Disposition as in our Country where oftentimes an unthrift matches with a rich Woman spendeth all she hath without remedy or redress The Wife also in other Countries if she has no Children may dispose of all her Dowry to good works or to any other uses that she will by her Testament in secret and sealed and not to be opened before she be dead And this may she do without obligation to leave any part to her Husband except she list which is some motive also for her Husband to use her well while she liveth upon hopes to be her Heir or Executor and if she hath Children then may she dispose only of the fifth part to good works whereof nothing is allowed by our Laws of England and it seemeth a great defect and may be considered whether it be not to be amended But on the other side touching Jointures the Condition of Women is better in England than in other places for that whether they bring Dowries or not by our Laws of England they may claim a Third of their Husband's Lands which in other Countries is not so where if they bring no Dowry they can claim no Jointure at all neither any part of their Husband's Goods except he please of his free-will to leave them any thing and if they bring Dowry then shall they have their whole Dowry again at their Husband's Death and more than this the half of all such Goods and Moveables as were gained since their Marriage by reason of the said Dowry or otherwise which is less prejudicial to the Son and Heir than the other of England but yet which of them be absolutely better may be a matter perhaps disputable And thus much for Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Children It shall not be amiss to pass to their Servants whom also they ought to have in place of Children and to comfort defend and cherish the desiring to see them wealthy and well able to live according to the ancient Love and Charity of English Land-Lords towards Vassals Subjects and Tenants which Love and tender care having been greatly broken and diminished in these later years by the impiety avarice riotousness and other disorders brought in by Heresie is to be restored again by Catholick Religion and Land-lords are to be taught to make such account of their Tenants as of them by whom they live and also by the Sweat of their Brows do suck and draw out of the Earth Commodities whereby Noblemen and Gentlemen are maintained at ease And for that many Landlords of these times have begun to raise their Rents and to impeach that old and most laudable tenure of England of old Rent of Assize it is to be understood that no one thing among the Customs of England seemeth to divers Men that have seen also other Countries of more importance to be kept observed and to be brought back again to the old use than this manner of letting and setting Lands for term of Life after the rates of the old Rents and that no one thing in times past hath been a greater ground of abundance and felicity in our Commonwealth both to Nobility and Commonalty than this honourable custom of Leasing their Lands for that it is generally profitable both to the Landlord and Tenant and Commonwealth in particular to the Landlord for that he setting down his Houshold and framing his Expences according to the rate of his old Rent which is certain may easily still be before hand and hold himself in abundance with the extraordinary incomes that shall enter by Leases Fines and other such casualties and in like manner the charges of Subsidies Tenths Loanes and other publick Impositions laid upon him by Parliament or other means they are ever according to his Rents in the Queen's Book which are far less and more easie than if he were charged according to the Portion of rack Rents To the Tenant also this way of taking Leases after the rate of old Rent is very
THE JESUIT'S MEMORIAL FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE Church of England THE JESUIT'S MEMORIAL For the Intended Reformation of England Under their First POPISH PRINCE PUBLISHED From the Copy that was presented TO THE Late KING JAMES II. WITH An INTRODUCTION and some ANIMADVERSIONS BY EDWARD GEE Rector of St. Benedict Paul's-Wharf and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXC To the Right Reverend Father in God WILLIAM Lord Bishop of S. ASAPH Lord Almoner to Their MAJESTIES My Lord IT was a very easie thing for me to determine to whom I should present the following Discourses as it was from your Lordship's Sermon before Their Majesties the last 5th of November that I had the hint of your Lordship's having seen the Memorial that we had sought but in vain so earnestly after in the late King's Time so it was by your Lordship's Interest that I obtained not only the happiness of seeing it but the permission to publish it from the most authentick if not the only Copy in England from that which had been presented by the Jesuits to the late King James himself And since my Lord Decency requires the concealing from whose hands your Lordship received this Copy of the Memorial and the Leave for me to publish it it was necessary for me to address it to your Lordship from whose hands I received it that thereby any Objections against my Fidelity or Truth herein may be prevented as all will when my Lord Almoner's Name is seen at the Head of it Some indeed will wonder to see a Jesuit's Book dedicated by a Minister of the Church of England to a Bishop that hath been always most zealous against Popery and especially against the Jesuits Order to such persons I hope this Apology will be sufficient I am sure it will be to your Lordship that I publish this Jesuit's Memorial because I am fully perswaded that I am by it doing a greater service to the Protestant Interest against Popery than I was ever able to do by any thing I wrote against Popery during the Controversie in the late Reign In this Memorial we have naked Jesuitism and the several Projects laid down by which our Protestant Religion was not only to have been rooted out of England but the very possibility of its ever reviving here prevented and this I hope will teach some of the discontented People among us to acknowledge at least that our danger from the Jesuits Faction in the last Reign was as great as we made it and that our Deliverance by their present Majesties was a far greater blessing upon the account of our Protestant Establishment than they have hitherto been pleased to believe it I have had so much experience of your Lordship's goodness towards me that I do not in the least suspect your pardoning me the trouble of this Address Had I had no other reasons to make it the many favours I have received at your Lordship's hands would have engaged me to make this publick acknowledgment for them since I cannot but reckon it one of the greatest blessings of my Life that I have the honour to be known to your Lordship who are so eminent for your extraordinary Learning Piety Charity and Moderation I mention your Lordship's Moderation because some Men of late have been pleased to be very angry with your Lordship for it had your Lordship and those Eminent Persons that continued of your Judgment been as willing to part with Episcopacy as with the Apocrypha and as desirous to lay aside the whole Liturgy as they were to improve it I should have excused their anger against you for which I can see no other reason in the World but that your Lordship and those of your Mind could not forget so fast and so entirely as some others did their discourses their promises and intentions about accommodating matters with the Moderate Dissenters as well as giving ease to the rest of them That your Lordship may be blessed with a long continuance of health and enabled thereby to finish those excellent Designs that you have under your hands that you may long continue an Ornament to the Church of England and to Protestant Episcopacy and may be blest with success in your endeavours for the Establishment and Glory of both these is the most sincere Prayer of My Lord Your Lordship 's most obliged and most obedient Servant EDWARD GEE THE INTRODUCTION SINCE the Jesuit that was Author of the following Memorial has made so much noise in the World and was infamous for his Treasonable Practices during the Reigns he lived in and has by his seditious writings laid the Foundation of perpetual trouble to the Kingdom of England as long as there are or shall be either Papists in England or English Papists beyond Seas it will not be improper to furnish the Reader with the History of him that thereby he may be enabled to read and pass a truer Judgment upon the following Memorial for rooting out our Protestant establishment and replanting again their Popish Religion in England The World is not agreed either about his Name or Parentage for the Name of Parsons or Persons as he writes it himself they will have it to be given him upon a scandalous reason while the true name of his supposed Father was Cowback or Cubbuck He was born not at Stockersey in Somerset-Shire as the Secular Priests affirm against him but at Nether-Stowey in that County and notwithstanding the meanness of his Parentage had the advantage of a liberal Education and was fitted for the University whither he was sent and admitted into Baliol College in Oxford he was afterwards made Fellow of the same College and entered into Holy Orders and became a noted Tutor having the greatest number of Pupils in the College But notwithstanding his setting out so very well he was afterwards turned out of his Fellowship and the College with disgrace he was not expelled indeed but forced to resign with leave to keep his Chambers and Pupils a while longer but this grace was quickly crossed out the occasion of which the Writers of those times and of his own Society are very much divided about Father Morus the Jesuit and Author of the History of the Jesuits Mission into England will have it to be because he was not only suspected of inclining to Popery but as he will have it palam de Religione aliter judicaret loqueretur quam regni jura definierant c. both thought and spake openly for the Romish Religion and therefore that it was an unfit and a dangerous thing to trust such a Man with the Education of so many Youth as he generally had under his care But this cannot be the true reason since Father Persons behaved himself as a good Protestant and conversed especially with such Men Mr. Squire and Dr. Hide for example then famous Men and zealous Protestants as might instruct and confirm
very promising in those affairs and did not deceive their expectations being fierce and zealous in promoting their Cause He seems to have over-acted his part since he quickly drew upon himself no very favourable Opinion from the General of their Order who found him too turbulent busie and medling and therefore complain'd That he was more troubled with one English man meaning our Father Parsons than with all the rest of his Society He was however after having been but five years among them pitch'd upon to be one of the Jesuits that should be sent in their first Mission into England and perhaps his unquiet and boisterous temper might be the best reason their General had to send him away Cardinal Allen was the person that first motioned such a mission of Jesuits into England and named Father Parsons not only for one but to be the Superiour The picking out such a man does tell the World as plain as words themselves could what the true business was upon which these Jesuits were first sent into England The great pretence and what was published every where was that they were only sent into Christ's Vineyard to serve the necessities of the remaining Catholicks in England and to recover others from their Heresies and Schism but Cardinal Allen knew other things and another sort of a design a design that required such men as Father Parsons himself was Had their sending been only and purely about Spiritual matters and the Salvation of Souls of all men living he would not have singled out our Jesuit whom he lookt upon to be a man very violent and of an unquiet Spirit and therefore more likely to cause Breaches and Divisions than to heal them And therefore some people who were not let into the Secret were very much disturbed when they heard that Father Parsons was sending amongst them expecting no good but a great deal of mischief to all the Catholicks left in England from the management of such a violent not cholerick and domineering Superiour even Blackwel himself that was afterwards Arch-Priest and so much at Father Parson's Devotion bewailed the coming of Parsons into England to a Friend of his saying That the President at Rhemes meaning Dr. after Cardinal Allen played a very indiscreet part to send him hither as being an unfit man to be employed in the Causes of Religion And being asked by that Friend why Father Parsons was unmeet for that Employment his answer was because his casting out of Baliol College and other Articles and Matters depending upon it betwixt him and Dr. Squire then living were very likely to be renewed and so to work great discredit both to him and to the Catholick Cause And indeed one cannot but wonder how a man who had left England so lately and upon such very scandalous accounts should have the face not only to come but to put himself forward upon such an Employment It confirms the Character of Mr. Camden and others of him that he was a man of confident boldness but it does not prove either Policy or Discretion in hiâ—â— except he had brought himself to believe that the Absolution he got in the Church of Rome when he turn'd Apostate had bloâ—ted his false tricks and knavish pranks oâ— of all Peoples Memories as well as out of Heavens Records However to do them justice who were for sending him into England against all those complainers against him and them such a man as Father Parsons was necessary for such a work as he was sent hither upon and what that work was we shall hear very quickly He and Father Campian were appointed for this Mission and parted from Rome on the Sunday after Easter 1580. with the Pope's Benediction Their Dispatches were given them there before they set out by Everard Mercurianus the General of their Order which Morus in his History of this Mission makes to be in short some Commands about faithfully discharging their Ministerial Function and by no means either by Word or Writing to meddle with the Publick Affairs of the Kingdom of England I was very careful not to omit the putting down these dispatches for the two Jesuits according to Father Moor's â—â—count of them because I shall shew by and by how wonderfully these do agree with another dispatch which though Father Moor leave it out of his History I will not leave out of mine and with the Practices of both these Jesuits as soon as they were got into this Kingdom Father Moor tells us that the two Jesuits with their Companions took Geneva in their way from Rome and made a visit to Beza with whom they had some Conference but no victory it seems because the poor ignorant Man took the advantage of the shutting in of the Evening to break off the Discourse and to conceal his ignorance a piece of History this that Father Moor ought not to expect to be credited in by any Body that hath ever heard of learning or learned Men or by any one but a Jesuit and a Jesuit's Fellow First Parsons set sail from Calice the two Sparks being unwilling to venture two such Treasures in one Bottom after Midnight which was the properest time for such works of darkness as he wâ—â— going about and got safe to Canterbury as Campian acquaints their General in his Letter to Rome in the disguise of Soldier but so gaudy and so airy thâ—â— he must be a very nice Man that coâ—â— â—hen suspect or find Piety or Modesty under such a dress and mien ay or without that dress I dare add for who ever heard otherwise of Father Parson's Modesty or Piety either After this he got as safe to London where he stayed for his Companion Father Campiâ—n who likewise escaped the strict search that was made for them their Pictures as well as the time of their setting out from Rome being got into England before them I must leave these Jesuits in their disguises for a while and look back to the State Queen Elizabeth was in with the Bishops of Rome Pius Quartus had a mind to attempt her by fair speeches and to perswade her to submit her Sceptre to his Crosier by fair Promises for which purpose by his Agent Parpaglia he wrote a very â—mooth Letter unto her giving her assurance of every thing she could desire from him But Queen Elizabeth was too prudent to be caught by such a gilded bait or to part with her Supream Power for a few good Words and therefore would have nothing to do with the Bishops of Rome so that all this Pope's hopes of her were lost Pius Quintus seeing his Predecessor's mild ways unsuccessful resolved upon harsher methods and made it his chief business to contrive and encourage Plots against her and not content with this 〈◊〉 slow and unsuccessful way of destroying her he without giving warning or sending Admonition to her le ts fly his Bull of Excommunication and Deprivation against her and causes it by an impudent Wretch Felton to be
as appeareth by a Letter of his own to a certain Earl That the Catholicks themselves threatened to deliver him into the hands of the Civil Magistrate except he desisted from such kind of practices This Account of Father Parson's turbulent and seditious behaviour immediately upon his arrival in England is confirmed by our great Historian Mr. Camden who had it from some of the Papists themselves and speaks it upon their own credit that they had thoughts of delivering him into the Magistrates hands on this account But notwithstanding the Intentions and Threats of those more peaceable Papists we see Father Parsons went on in his own way wherein he made so good progress that though he came into England but in June that year viz. 1580. yet before Christmas all things seemed ready for an Insurrection the Papists being taught and that under pain of Damnation to renounce the Queen who had now no more Authority over them being deposed by the sentence of the Infallible Pope at Rome and the Popes and King of Spain's Countenance and Assistance promised them if they would but rise and make a Rebellion That the Papists by that time were generally come over to Father Parson's Party and lookt upon the Queen as no longer their Sovereign by reason of her Deposition by Pius the Fifth and Gregory the Thirteenth who sent the first Mission of these Jesuits into England is plain from the Confession of Hart one of their Fellows who was taken about that time wherein he acknowledged to put it in his own words That the Bull of Pius Quintus for so much as it is against the Queen is holden among the English Catholicks for a lawful sentence and a sufficient discharge of her Subjects fidelity and so remaineth in forte but in some points touching the Subjects it is altered by the present Pope viz. Gregory XIII For where in that Bull all her Subjects are commanded not to obey her and she being excommunicate and deposed all that do obey her are likewise innodate and accursed which point is perillous to the Catholicks for if they obey her they be in the Pope's Curse and if they disobey her they are in the Queen's danger therefore the present Pope to relieve them hath altered that part of the Bulls and dispenced with them to obey and serve her without peril of Excommunication which Dispensation is to endure but till it please the Pope to determine it otherwise This was a strange Alteration to be made in so short a time that the Bull of Pius Quintus should be generally despised when it was first publisht among the English Catholicks and that Parsons who came over to encourage and exhort to the putting that damnatory Bull in Execution against the Queen should be in danger of being delivered up into the Magistrates hands for his traiterous designs and yet within half a year that the Bull of this Pope should be holden among those English Catholicks for a lawful sentence and a sufficient discharge of the Subjects fidelity This shews that these Jesuits and the Seminary Priests did ply this matter very close and made it their chief if not their whole business to gain this point upon the English Papists that so they might be in a greater readiness to joyn in any foreign attempts against their Countrey or to rise here against her whom by these new Apostles they were taught and did now believe to have no authority at all over them And as these two Jesuits business was to fill their credulous Peoples Heads with this sort of Seditious Doctrine so they themselves had the boldness to assert and maintain it publickly when they thought it necessary for their purposes Campian our Father Parsons Brother-Missioner was taken at Lyford-House in Barkshire the next year and being brought to his Tryal and Convicted of High-Treason received his Sentence accordingly after his Condemnation being asked Whether Queen Elizabeth were a Right and Lawful Queen He refused to answer and being a second time asked Whether he would take part with the Queen or the Pope if he should send Forces against the Queen he openly professed and testified under his hand that he would stand for the Pope and yet this Jesuit must be a Martyr in the Popish Calendar and dyed purely for Religion and for being a Priest of the Catholick Roman Church whereas if there can be such a thing as Treason against any Government in the World Campian was certainly guilty of it And so his Brother Robert Parsons though he had not such an opportunity of testifying his Faith and making Confession of his Opinion in the face of Magistracy it self Campian's Execution frighting him away out of England yet by his writing he shewed to the World that his Brother Campian and he were perfectly of the same mind as to the Pope's power and Queen Elizabeth's Authority in England In his Book written on occasion of a Proclamation of this Queen against them and called generally Philopater from the feigned Name of Andreas Philopater under which Father Parsons disguised himself he does very frankly discover how much a Subject he lookt upon himself to be to his Lawful Queen even before the Pope's Sentence of Deposition against her Hinc etiam infert Vniversa Theologorum Jurisconsultorum Ecclesiasticorum est certum de fide c. It is certain says he and what we ought to believe and it is the Opinion of all Divines and Ecclesiastical Lawyers that if any Christian Prince fall from the Catholick Faith and would have others to follow him he himself thereby doth forthwith â—oth by Divine and Humane Law yea though â—he Pope the Supreme Judge hath not issued forth any censure against him fall from all â—is Authority and Dignity and his Subjects â—re freed from all their Oaths of Allegiance â—hich they sware to him as a Lawful Prince â—nd they may nay and ought if they have â—orce enough to overcome to pull him down â—rom his Throne as an Apostate Heretick a â—orsaker of Christ and an Enemy to the â—ommonwealth And so fond is Father Parsons of this Notion of the Lawfulness of Deposing Princes meerly for Religion that to make it go down the easier with his Popish Friends he was dealing with he makes it to be the certain determined and undoubted opinion of all Learned men and plainly agreeable and consonant to the Apostolick Doctrine After which he is not content with its being only lawful to Depose their Prince upon this account of falling from their Popish Religion but will have it that they are all obliged and bound to do so if they have strength and power upon their Consciences and utmost danger and pain of their Souls If this Jesuit was not a Doctor fit for a Papal Mission into England I am very much mistaken he that could in Print vent such Doctrine to the World as well as teach it in private among his Followers and Confidents what work and what progress
must be expected from him when he came furnished also with the Pope's Thundring Sentence of Excommunication and Deposition against the already despised and deposed Queen As to the Fruits of Father Parson's Doctrine in these points and his restless and seditious Practices against his Native Countrey upon them I will inquire after them by and by Soon after his coming into England a Controversie was raised and most probably by himself and fellow-Jesuit Campian about the Catholicks frequenting the Protestant Churches a thing which had been constantly and generally practised from the accession of the Queen to the Crown It is certain that abundance of people were drawn from their Popish Opinions and Superstitions by it and it is probable that the remaining Roman Catholicks would in time have come over entirely into the Communion of the Church of England and have brought their Hearts and Affections as well as their Bodies thither for it could not have been otherwise but that the Light and Plainness and Reasonable Service of the Protestant Church would have prevailed by God's Blessing upon every honest well-meaning Papist and have saved the Pope the trouble of detaching his Incendiaries and Seminary Priests hither Since therefore this Practice would have made their Seminaries useless and their whole Craft was endangered by it it was these new Jesuits Interest and they made â—t their business to oppose and exclaim against it every where and upon all occasions And they pretended that they had very good Authority for it no less than that of the Council of Trent which tho' it did not in open Council decree against and forbid all Catholicks the frequenting the Protestant Churches because this would have alarmed the Government of England and would have caused great mischiefs and disturbance to all the remaining Catholicks there yet did appoint a Committee of twelve Bishops and others to consider determine and give answer in the Name of the Council of Trent to the Petition that was either sent but without Name or pretended to be sent to that Council from the Catholicks of England wherein it was desired that they might be resolved in this point Whether the Laws enjoyning all Peoples going to their Parish Churches under a strict Penalty they might do it without danger of their Souls or offending God I put the sence of the Postulation in Father Moor's words in his History of the Mission the answer to which he makes to be that after Commendations of the English Papists for their constancy in the Catholick Religion and their having not during those troublesome times in England never bowed their Knees before Baal as if forsooth the Church of England had had Images and Reliques and a Wafer Host for their Members to bow to they declared to them with one consent that they ought not to be present at our Impious Worship nor can appear there without Sin and offending God and giving Scandal to the Church of God every where I know nothing worth the observing in that tedious dull determination of these twelve Delegates out of the Council of Trent which is so far from being worth transcribing that it is not worth reading except the good words they give our Protestant Worship throughout it which is one while Impious then most Profligate then Nefarious and which is the best Jest of all Idolatrous and what not It would be too great a disparagement of our Divine and Excellent way of Worshipping God to enter the lists in defence of it against such Sottish and Wretched Calumnies this I will only say concerning it That if to put into the Mouths of Minister and People Devout and Fervent Prayers to God for his Grace to enable them to repent of their sins to resist Temptations and to lead true Christian Lives in Piety Justice and Sobriety be Wicked and Nefarious then I will own that our Church Service does deserve this hard Character of being Nefarious That if to put the Prayers into such a Language as that the Unlearned as well as the Learned part of the Congregation may joyn with understanding in them and offer them up together with fervency of Spirit to God be Impious then I must again own that our Common-Prayer is Impious that if to offer up all the Prayers and Praises in our Divine Service to God the Father through the alone Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ our alone Mediator as well as Redeemer be Idolatrous and I know nothing else in our service so likely for those Delegates to fix the Idolatry upon then I will own and subscribe too that our Protestant Worship is Idolatrous Impious Profligate and Nefarious and what else or worse these Trent Fathers should have been pleased to call it It was very hard for men that did pretend to be Christians and were some of them men of great Figure in the Romish Church to give out such hard words against a Form of Divine Worship which probably never a one of them had ever seen or inquired into they being all Foreigners and perfect Strangers to this Church that were employed in this Affair I would ask one of that Persuasion Whether if Queen Elizabeth had come to terms with Pope Pius Quartus that sent her a flattering Letter by Parpalia his Nuncio and if that Pope as he offered her had confirmed the English Liturgy by his Authority and granted the use of the Sacraments to us English under both kinds this bare Confirmation of the Pope would have made our Worship to be holy pure and Christian which without it as they said was impure wicked and Idolatrous If the Pope's power be so great as to make Wickedness Innocence and Vice Virtue it s the better for them who live under him if it be not either the Pope was grievously out in offering to confirm or these doughty Delegates at Trent in giving such a Character of our Church of England-Worship Whether this whole business of the Delegates and their Determination be not an Invention of the Jesuits themselves I cannot affirm But if it was a real thing either it was not heard of much or had little effect among the English Catholicks since we see that eighteen years after its making the English Papists went to Church when Father Parsons came over and the thing was disputed among them in 1580 which it could not easily have been had the Council of Trent by twelve Delegates determined so strictly against it as the Jesuits say they did in 1562. eighteen years before Father Parsons laboured with all his might to break the Catholicks of that custom of frequenting the Protestant Churches which he did easily foresee would be the ruine of Popery in England and betook himself to his Pen and under the seigned Name of Howlet published Reasons why Catholicks refuse to go to Church But a Brother Romish Priest tells us That all this care and concern was meerly for Temporal ends and designs and shews that no body was a gainer by this Recusancy so
violently urged by the Jesuits above all others excepting that Society whose rich Colleges and abundance of Treasure made it apparent quickly to the World that some were great gainers while the poor Lay-Catholicks were made great sufferers by that Recusancy Upon Campian's Execution England grew too hot for our Father Parsons and notwithstanding the mighty zeal he pretended for the Conversion of England yet he was for saving one and getting out of harms way and therefore slips away back into France under the Pretext of conferring with Doctor Allen about the Seminaries and of Printing some Books which could not be done in England and never returned hither tho' he continued Superiour of the Jesuits Mission after this But though the Kingdom was delivered from such a Firebrand yet he continued diligent beyond Seas in his Seditious Designs and was to the last a constant Enemy to his Native Countrey As he had laboured in the promoting the Popish Recufancy and getting the English Papists to be governed by the Jesuits so he now employs all his Arts and all his interest to get Seminaries erected for the supplying England from time to time with Priests to keep up that Recufancy and to prepare the Papists here to joyn with any Invasion that they abroad should procure against their own Countrey Assoon as he was got hence to Roan in France he dealt with the Duke of Guise to erect a Seminary for such a purpose in Normandy after which he goes into Spain and prevails with King Philip to encourage and erect such in Spain so that in a short time they could not only boast of their Seminaries at Rome and at Rhemes but of those at Valladolid at Sevil at St. Lucars in Spain at Lisbon in Portugal at Doway and St. Omers in Flanders in all which their Youth were educated with violent Prejudices against their own Native Countrey and their minds were formed to all the Purposes and Designs which this chief Incendiary Parsons had in his head Father Moor the Author of the History of the Mission does indeed tell us That Father Parsons was for having the Youth that were entered into these Seminaries to take an Oath about faithfully answering the End and Benefit of their Education there but says not a word of their being forced to subscribe the Infanta of Spain's Title against the True Title of the then King of Scots King James the First The Oath was this IN. N. considering with how great benefits God hath blessed me c. do promise by God's assistance to enter into Holy Orders assoon as I shall be fit for them and to return into England to Convert my Countrey-men there whenever it shall please the Superior of this House to command me But when once Father Parsons being puffed up with his Familiarity with the King and Court of Spain had devoted his Soul and Body both to the service of that aspiring Crown then he was for having the Youth in the Seminaries to subscribe to the Spanish Title which was of his own inventing to the Crown of England then he was for speaking out his design against his Native Countrey And that he dealt in such traiterous designs after his getting out of England is proved upon him by their own Writers As touching the Colleges says Clark the Priest concerning him and Pensions that are maintained and given by the Spaniard which he so often inculcateth we no whit thank him for them as things are handled and occasions thereby ministred of our greater Persecution at home by reason of Father Parson's treacherous practices thereby to promote the Spanish Title to our Country and his hateful Stratagems with such Scholars as are there brought up enforcing them to subscribe to Blanks and by publick Orations to fortifie the said wrested Title of the Infanta meaning Isabella Clara Eugenia Daughter to Philip the Second of Spain whose Right to the English Crown was maintain'd in a Book by this Parsons made but published by him under the false name of Doleman As this Priest gives us an account of the zeal of Father Parsons for the Infanta so Watson another Romish Priest helps us to another of his knavery about the same affair That Parsons earnestly moving the young Students in Spain to set their hands to a Schedule that they would accept the Lady Infanta for Queen of England after the decease of her Majesty to wit Queen Elizabeth that now is but finding them altogether unwilling to intermedle with these State-affairs belonging nothing to them and most hurtful to both their Cause and Persons used this cunning shift to draw on the innocent and simple youths to pretend forsooth to them of Valladolid that the Students in Sevil had done it already no remedy then but they must follow And that having thus craftily gotten their names he shewed them to the Students in Sevil for an example of their fact and forwardness which he required them to imitate Though these are sufficient Evidences of the use Father Parsons put the erected Seminaries to yet I cannot but add that great and wise Cardinal the Cardinal d'Ossat's account of these very Seminaries in his Letter to the King of France Henry the Fourth about the Spaniards and Father Parsons Design against England For this purpose also says he were the Colleges and Seminaries erected by the Spaniards for the English at Doway and at St. Omers wherein the young Gentlemen of the best Families in England are entertain'd thereby to oblige them and by them their Parenâ—â— and Kindred and Friends The principal care which these Colleges and Seminaries have is to catechise and bring up these young English Gentlemen in this Faith and firm Belief that the late King of Spain had and that his Children now have the true Right of Succession to the Crown of England and that this is advantageous and expedient for the Catholick Faith not only in England but where-ever Christianity is And when these young English Gentlemen have finished their Humanity-Studies and are come to such an age then to make them throughly Spaniards they are carried out of the Low-Countries into Spain where there are other Colleges for them wherein they are instructed in Philosophy and Divinity and confirmed in the same Belief and holy Faith that the Kingdom of England did belong to the late King of Spain and does now to his Children After that these young English Gentlemen have finished their courses those of them that are found to be most Hispaniolized and most couragious and firm to this Spanish Creed are sent into England to sow this Faith among them to be Spies and give advice to the Spaniards of what is doing in England and what must and ought to be done to bring England into the Spaniards hands and if need be to undergo Martyrdom as soon or rather sooner for this Spanish Faith than for the Catholick Religion In this Cardinal we find to what excellent purposes the Seminaries were erected that Father Parsons laboured
to our Commonwealth and to all Christendom besides for that this perfect Reformation was not made in Queen Mary's time All wise and Godly Men attribute the loss of Religion again in our Country to this error and ingratitude towards Almighty God which that it may not happen any more Et ne postrema fiant pejora prioribus most careful diligence is to be used by all whensoever the Mercy of God shall offer occasion c the second time that the former error be well amended Thirdly It seemeth that as Almighty God in his Justice has used England for a scourge to the other Countries round about it both for the infecting them with Heresie as also by afflicting them by Sword Sedition and other Infestations so again in his mercy he meaneth to help and comfort them by means of England once reduced as may appear by that which abroad he hath begun to work in Scotland and Ireland by Executions of English Catholick Priests sent unto those Kingdoms wherefore to the end that this Holy Intention of our Saviour be not letted by us and England may be a Light and a Lantern to other Nations near unto it the Reformation must needs in reason be made first very exact and exemplar in England it self Fourthly The d Facility and Commodity that there is and will be in England to make this perfect Reformation whensoever God shall reduce that Country doth greatly conjure and oblige us to the same for we shall not find that difficulty and resistance by the grace of God in England which good Men do find in other Catholick Countries for bringing in of any Reformation that is attempted and that which the very Prophets ever found amongst the Jews and that Christ himself did find amongst the Scribes and Pharisees to wit the repugnancy of corrupt Livers and stubborn People that will contradict and resist their own benefit We are not like to find I say the infinite mercy of our Saviour be blessed for it either backward Bishops and dissolute Priests or Licentious Religious Men or Women to oppose themselves against so Holy a designment as this our Reformation is or if any one such creep in amongst the rest he would not dare to shew himself nor should he find followers all is now zeal and integrity in our new Clergy Almighty God be thanked for it and no less in our Laity and Catholick Gentlemen of England that have born the brunt of Persecution for so many Years so if we should want the effects of true and sound Reformation at the change again it would be for want of some zealous godly Men to sollicite and procure the same d For in the behalf of the Realm and Country I perswade my self most certainly that there will be no difficulty which ought to convince such as feel the Zeal of God's Glory within their breast to joyn hands together as St. Luke saith all Apostolical Men did in the Primitive Church and each to seek above other to have a part in the happy Procuration of so holy and important a Work And Lastly for our more incouragement hereunto it seemeth that the sweet and high Providence of Almighty God hath not been small in conserving and holding together a good portion of the material part of the old English Catholick Church above all other Nations that have been over-run with Heresie for that we have yet on foot many principal Monuments that are destroyed in other Countries as namely we have our Cathedral Churches and Bishopricks yet standing our Deanries Canonries Archdeaconries and other Benefices not destroyed our Colledges and Universities whole so that there wanteth nothing but a new form to give them e Life and Spirit by putting good and vertuous Men into them which is a great advantage before other Kingdoms where all is ruined and desolate and none or â—â—â—tle means left by reason of poverty to raise them up or repair them again but in many Years and with repugnance of many potent Persons for their particular Interest whereas in England there are and will be less resistance more easie and abundant means to restore and amend all that is wanting without over-burdening of any Man by the means that after shall be declared which is a very great and important point and a Token of God's sweet disposition for this effect and ought to encourage every true Catholick Man to concur the more willingly to the work and to help wherein he may to this holy and perfect Reformation that is pretended Animadversions on Chap. I. A Memorial of the Reformation c. This Memorial is a plain Instance to the World of what they have always changed the Order of the Jesuits with that they have been much greater dealers in Politicks than in Divinity and this Memorial is as clear a proof of the Jesuits being as great Bunglers at Politicks as ever any that pretended to then Notwithstanding the Author hereof was one of the most subtle Men the Jesuits ever had and not only by his being born and having lived long in his Native Country but by the Experience and Observations which his Converse and familiar access to the greatest Men in Foreign Countries did afford him might he supposed to have studied and understood the Genius and Temper of the People of England yet he appears to have been out in his measures as will be easily shewed in the following Animadversions He lays mighty stress upon some things which can no way bear it other things he takes to be most easie to his Popish Prince which reason would have told him then as Experience has told his Brethren since to be insuperable difficulties and his cruel and barbarous advices up and down the Memorial are so contrary to the temper of the honest Englishman as if the Design of the Memorial had been more to shew the Politicks and the Spirit of the Jesuit's Order than to convert England to Popery b Multitudes of Martyrs c. If the worst of Criminals must be nick-nam'd Martyrs we can then allow the Jesuit that there were some the later part of Queen Elizabeth's Reign but how to make Multitudes of them is beyond all the skill that I can obtain either from our own or their Historians It is agreed on both hands striking off such Scandalous Writers out of the rank of Historians as Sanders that for several Years in the beginning of that glorious Queen's Reign great Mildness and Clemency was used towards the Roman Catholicks and that no manner of Severity was used towards them till the Bishop of Rome by his Bull of Excommunication and Deposition of that Queen had justly incensed her and her Parliament to make several Laws against Popery and even after that most if not every one of those Roman Catholicks that suffered during her Reign suffered for Rebellion or Treason and not for Religion I will not vouch our Historians for the Truth hereof but take it in the words of their own Secular Priests who writ the Important
withal by the better sort of Catholicks to wit 4 weaker Catholicks which are commonly known in England by the name of Schismaticks and Hereticks that have been Enemies to both these sorts there is to be used true Love Piety and Christian Charity with the Prudence and Direction that is also convenient And for the first since they are our Brethren we ought to have sincere Compassion of their weakness and fall animating them hereby to rise and stand hereafter And unto the second for that by God's Grace they may be our Brethren we must use all Charity in like manner seeking their true and sincere Conversion with that Caution notwithstanding that is expedient for theirs and the publick good of all which I shall lay down some particular Notes in the Chapter following though it must be the Direction of Almighty God and Unction of the Holy Ghost which must guide our Prince Parliament and Magistrates and namely our Bishops in this point of dealing with Hereticks which will be a point of great moment and wherein will consist much for the True Reformation which we seek and for the assurance of Religion and wherein it is thought the error of Queen Mary's time was as pernicious as in any other thing whatsoever and therefore the more carefully to be remedied now Animadversions on Chap. III. 3 THE true Reconciliation of the Realm unto God and to his Church There is not only here but in several other places an appearance of Zeal for Piety and the Honour of God in this Jesuit but that it is no more than a bare appearance without any thing of the substance of Godliness will be more plain to him that will read the Memorial throughout this is not my conjecture but of several Writers of their own Church of Rome who look upon the Jesuits generally as the greatest dissemblers and hypocrites upon the face of the Earth that the obtaining more Wealth to their Order and Gain is all the Godliness that they have and therefore when they meet with a Jesuit talking about Piety or the Glory of God they treat him with Derision as knowing that True Religion is the least part of that Society's business and that the Piety they make shew of in their Writings is only for a cover to their politick designs and like true Pharisees to devour and eat up silly Recusants Estates and to ruine others to make their Society rich and splendid Thus in Queen Elizabeth's time our Jesuit himself that talks so gravely sometimes in this Memorial of the Glory of God and Reconciliation with God was one of those that made such a pudder about restoreing their Catholick Religion and rooting Heresie out of England whereas their true business was to betray their Country to the Spaniards to plot with them as it was always this traiterous Jesuit's practice to invade our Nation and thereby to obtain as they did from the Spanish King Gifts and Benevolences to their Order and Seminaries erected and endowed for them This was the Jesuit's true aim which without some face of Zeal for God and pretence of Piety could not be so easily compassed it is that wise and great Man the Cardinal d'Ossat's Observation of Parsons in that Letter from Rome wherein he gave the King of France an account of Parsons's Book about Succession That Parsons was so passionately concerned in it for the Spanish Interest that he made no conscience of contradicting himself grossly in it nor had any regard to Truth and Reason I think this ought to be a key to us to open the Jesuit's meaning when he talks of the true Reconciliation of the Realm to God I question not but the whole Reconciliation he drives at is that we might all turn true Papists and all Papists would fairly give up their Abby-Lands to their Council of Reformation which he sets up in his VII th Chapter 4 Weaker Catholicks which are commonly known in England by the name of Schismaticks How any Catholicks should be Schismaticks is worth our time to understand to do which we must go back to the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign when the Papists notwithstanding the Alteration in Religion made by that excellent Queen and her Parliament in the beginning of it went to Church to conform themselves to put it in the words of one of their own Writers a Romish Priest to the State as they did in King Edward the Sixth's time keeping privately to themselves the exercise of their own Religion This Practice of the Roman Catholicks continued for several Years here my Lord Chief Justice Coke says upon his own knowledge for ten or a dozen Years and had I suppose continued on had not the upstart Faction of the Jesuits set themselves with all their might and their Interest to break it off They were aware that such Conformity of their Roman Catholick Friends would in a few Years have left not one Papist in England and indeed it was morally impossible that it should have happened otherways since we need not doubt but that the great Truth and the Light the Doctrine and the Liturgy of the Church of England so exactly conformable to the Word of God and to the purest times of the Primitive Church would by God's Blessing have shined into their Hearts have enlightned them and made them become true Church of England Christians by renouncing all those Reliques of Popery which they fostered privately in their breasts And therefore the Jesuits and their Friends by the Interest they had in the Council of Trent got a little Cabal of that Council a dozen of Bishops and others out of which number Pate the Bishop of Worcester the only English Popish Bishop in that Council was left out though of all Men the fittest to have been consulted in this matter favourers of their Society to 〈◊〉 up Reasons why the Catholicks of England ought not and must not under pain of Schism and Damnation go to the Protestant Churches there in which they load our Church with many calumnies our Rites are made to be most wicked and accursed all which though these Twelve Caballers knew in their own Consciences to be as false as Hell yet to affright their People from our Churches they were forc'd to paint our Church as deformed as their own Church by her Idolatrous Rites and Superstitious Practices is However all this and the Pope's Rescripts to the same purpose would not hinder many Catholicks from going to Church and their defence was that this Decree as well as the Pope's Rescripts were surreptitiously gotten that both Pope and Councel were imposed upon and therefore they would not run themselves into needless danger these are the Men whom our Jesuit here does call Schismaticks CHAP. IV. How all sorts of People to wit Catholicks Schismaticks and Hereticks may be dealt withal at the next change of Religion AFter Union and good Disposition of Mind in all and a hearty Reconciliation of Almighty God will be necessary a sweet pious and
not to be turned presently at the first to any particular Owner that would challenge or lay claim to the same but rather by Petition of the Prince and whole Realm and approbation of the See Apostolick were to be assigned to some common Purses and Treasury and this to be committed to some certain Council of principal Bishops and Prelates and others most fit for the purpose for certain Years to be limited to gather up and dispose of all these Rents Revenues and Ecclesiastical Livings during the time to them assigned for the greatest benefit of the English Church and Realm and that at the end of the term allotted which might be some four five or six Years more or less as shall be thought best they might be bound to give an account to the Persons that should be assigned by the Prince Parliament and Pope's Holiness for this effect how they have disposed of this Treasury committed to their charge and this Council might be called the Council of Reformation as after shall be more particularly declared And the reason why it were not convenient to return these Lands and Livings again to the same Orders of Religion that had them before is evident to all Men to wit for that the Times and State of England are far other and different from that they were when these Lands were given and consequently do require different provision and disposition of things conformed to the present necessity and utility of the Realm as for example the World knoweth that the most part of all Abby-Lands appertained in the old time to the Religion of St. Bennet of which Order at this time there are very few of the English Nation to occupy or possess the same and to bestow them upon Strangers of that Religion England having so many other necessities were very inconvenient and besides this it may be so that many Houses and Families of that Order of St. Bennet or of St. Bernard or of the Monastical Profession though in it self most Holy will neither be possible nor necessary in England presently upon the first Reformation but rather in place of many of them good Colleges Universities Seminaries Schools for increasing of our Clergy as also of divers Houses of other Orders that do deal more in preaching and helping of Souls and for that respect will be more necessary to the Clergy of England in this great work at the beginning and for many Years after though of the other also are not to be omitted to be planted and well provided for according as it shall seem most expedient for God's glory the Universal good of the Realm to this Council of Reformation by whose hands their Lands Rents and Revenues may far more profitably be divided and imployed and with much more peace and quietness than if they should be returned to every particular Religion again Animadversions on Chap. V. k THat every one should have a special care and fervent desire to clear his Conscience well and sufficiently about Abby-Lands In this Chapter our Jesuit does very warmly press the Restitution of Abby-Lands and I could heartily have wished that those that furnished Dr. Johnston with his Materials for writing his little Book about the Assurance of Abby-Lands to the Possessors here in England had accommodated him also as they might with this Jesuits Memorial I am confident it would have saved the Doctor something else besides his Pains How ridiculous his Attempts were then was shewed by an Ingenious hand in a single Sheet of Paper entituled Abby and other Church-Lands not yet assured to such Possessors as are Roman Catholicks And indeed our Jesuit has knockt their great Argument from the Pope's Confirmation in Q. Mary's days on the head when he declares That it is not sufficient for the security of any careful Man's Conscience to say That the See Apostolick hath tolerated the Jesuit will not use the word Confirmed with these things in Queen Mary ' s time for that says he it is well known how times and matters went then And how the See Apostolick was content to take of her Children what she could get rather than to lose all so that the Toleration then used was upon constraint and fear of farther Inconveniencies to follow As that Attempt to assure Abby-Lands was ridiculous so I am afraid it was not the sincerest whosoever has read this Jesuit's Memorial and has any value for him cannot but suspect the same with me One thing is a little peculiar in this Chapter the Jesuit is for compromizing the business with the Possessors of Abby-Lands and yet his Arguments for a Restitution of those Lands if they prove any thing at all prove that the Restitutions ought to be absolute but let his Arguments be what they will the Jesuit is for having half a Loaf rather than none at all l That as well these Lands intirely restored as the other old Rents were not to be turned presently at the first to any particular Owner After the Jesuit has contended so earnestly in the first part of this Chapter for Restitution of Abby-Lands upon reasons of Conscience one cannot but wonder that he should not be for restoring them to their Primitive Owners which I am sure Conscience and Justice do as much exact as the Restitution of them at all The plain and true Reason of it is this The Jesuits being an upstart Order since the Suppression of Monasteries by King Henry the Eighth none of those Abby-Lands did belong to them nor could be restored to them and to have 'em all given up to the Benedictines and the other old Orders is what a Jesuit could never bear and therefore he is for having them all sequestred into a common stock for six and seven years in which time no question need be made but that the Jesuits would have run down all the old Orders as useless to England and would have swallowed the whole Morsel of Abby-Lands themselves CHAP. VI. Of the many great and singular Benefits that would ensue to the Church and Realm of England by this Restitution and Disposition of Abby-Lands FIrst of all would ensue the thing that we have most need of and it importeth us of all other Points which is that Almighty God's wrath would be pacified towards us and towards the Realm which may be presumed his Justice hath scourged and afflicted so grievously as all the World seeth and wondereth at for that infamous Sacriledge and Monstrous Rapine of King Henry the Eighth whereby at once he destroyed and pluckt from God and his Church and from all Saints and Souls deceased all the pious Acts and Memories of Religion that in more than a Thousand Years before him his Ancestors had bestowed that way and for that all or the most part of the Realm had their part and interest either of that Sacrilege at that time or of the Temporal gain afterward and no convenient satisfaction hitherto has been made no marvel if the hand of Almighty God has been
heavy over us For we read that God never ceased to beat and whip King Pharaoh until he had restored unto Abraham his Wife again and that 's a common Maxim among Divines Non dimittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum Secondly It would follow by this Restitution and temperate Composition That such as remain with the Possession of Abby-Lands and Ecclesiastical Livings in the manner aforesaid might hold them securely they and their Heirs without scruple or danger to God or the World which by no other means it seemeth can be assured them either in respect of the one or the other For in respect of God and their Conscience I have already said that 't is very hard to see how they may be assured any other ways For as for the See Apostolick though it may in certain cases dispose of Livings left to the Church from one use to another yet to the end their disposition may be available and the Possessor's Conscience free there are required many Conditions and Circumstances which will hardly be found or verified in our case of England For first the Disposition of Christ's Vicar must be free without all constraint fear or respect of avoiding greater inconveniences and then the commutation ought to be with consent of Parties interessed or that have claim if there be any as here are many to wit all Religious Orders and other Ecclesiastical People besides the Successors and Kindred of them that gave the Lands which would hardly agree to let the said Livings to be utterly alienated as they are Moreover the Commutation to be good in Conscience ought to be to so good an use or better for the time present and glory of God than was the first Institution of the Givers and Founders and which of themselves might be presumed if they were alive again and saw the circumstances of our Times that they would allow or not mislike of the same All which is so far off from our English case as all Men of judgment do easily see In respect of the World also and of temporal Justice there is no great security to the Possessors of these Lands without some such sound Order and Agreement as this is for that ever there will be murmuring and pushing at them and their Children and as Religious Orders shall come to grow and wax strong in England again they will have a saying to their old Tenants Invaders or Detainers of their Lands one way or other and it would be a ground of infinite suits and troubles and as the Prince should be affected for the present or interessed in the matter one way or other so would he favour or disfavour all which would be matter of great inconveniences and wholly cut off by this other way Thirdly It would follow by this manner of Restitution that the Church of England would be furnished again quickly to wit within the space of five or six Years which might be the time allowed for the aforesaid Council of Reformation to dispose of things of more variety of Religious Orders Houses Abbys Nunneries Hospitals Seminaries and other like Monuments of Piety and to the purpose for the present good of our whole Realm than ever it was before the Desolation thereof so as the words of St. Paul in a certain sense would be verified Vbi abundavit delictum ibi superabundavit gratia I say of more variety of Religious Monuments and more to the purpose for the present good of England for that they would not be so great perhaps nor so Majestical nor yet so rich nor would be needful for the beginning but rather in place of so great Houses and those for the most part of one or two or three Orders and those also contemplative that attended principally to their own Spiritual good and for that purpose were builded ordinarily in places remote from Conversation of People there might be planted now both of these and other Orders according to the Condition of those Times lesser Houses with smaller Rents and numbers of People but with more perfection of Reformation Edification and help to the gaining of Souls than before and these Houses might be most multiplied that should be seen to be most profitable to this effect And in this manner might England in small space become again the most excellent and best furnished Country in the World for variety and perfection of Religious Houses and other like Works and Monuments of Piety Fourthly would follow of this Restitution the Stay Pillar and Foundation of all other good Works to be done and of the whole external reparation of our English Church which may be made or much holpen by this common Purse and without this will hardly or never be done For that the necessity will be infinite and Reparations wonderfully great that will be needful after so long a Tempest Storm and Shipwrack Catholicks will be poor for divers Years and the Works will be many great and costly that must be done as namely The variety of Monasteries and Religious before-mentioned both for Men and Women repairing enlarging and multiplying of Churches increasing of poor Benefices restoring of Hospitals provision of free Schools erection of Seminaries both for the Youth of our Nation as also for others round about us infected of whose reduction we must also have care The founding of publick Lectors in our Universities and assisting many particular Colleges that lack Maintenance and Rent and a thousand particular wants needs and necessities more than are and will appear in the beginning for the new setting up of our Catholick Church again for which if we have not some such common Purse as this is the matter will go very slowly forwards and the Reformation never such as it ought to be Wherefore this point of restoring Abby-Lands with the moderation which I have said is to be holpen set forward and urged most earnestly by all such as have God's Zeal in them and desire a good Reformation in England And whosoever should be contrary or backward in this matter either for his own interest or for his Friends or of vain fear policy coldness or lack of fervour he were not to be heard seeing the reason alledged for it together with the facility to compass and perform the same are so notorious and evident and therefore not only the principal Persons of the Realm who may farther or hinder the same were to be disposed and dealt withal before hand but even the Prince and Catholick King that God shall give us and his Holiness also were to be prevented in this point as the most principal and important for all our work And of the Prince it were to be wished that he would promise or vow to Almighty God by way of Oblation That if he give him good success in the establishing of his Crown and the Catholick Religion he will for his part restore in the manner before mentioned all that he shall find invaded or retained by the Crown thereby to give example and
encouragement for others to do the like And in like manner of Hereticks and Rebels Goods which any way shall come to be confiscate he will abstain his hands from the part of God and of his Church which therein shall be found to appertain unto them and by this pious and religious proceeding there is no doubt but God will prosper and aid him much the more Of his Holiness also the like were to be required that considering the many necessities that England shall have at the first beginning to set up and restore the outward would vouchsafe not only to further and favour this designment of Restitution to be made in manner aforesaid but also as a bountiful Father remit some part of the temporal duties which will be due to the See Apostolick from England as the first-fruits of Bishopricks and the like for the certain space only of some Years after the next change for the setting of foot of our Church again which will be of great Edification to all the World and an infinite incouragement to our English Catholicks And last of all about this matter may be remembred that among Ecclesiastical Livings that have been invaded by temporal Men some have been taken from the Secular Clergy also as from Bishops Cathedral and Collegial Churches Colleges Deanries Parsonages Parish-Churches and the like though nothing so much as from Religious Orders And these for that their true Owners are or will be quickly extant and that present need will be of the same for the uses to which they were first appointed it is reason they should be returned to the same Uses and Churches again and not to the common Purse as the other yet with the Limitation Order and Reformation that the Council designed for this purpose shall think best and most expedient About Impropriate Parsonages Patronages and Advowsons of Benefices albeit for the part they come into Temporal Men's hands at the beginning as things either incorporated or annexed to Abby-Lands for that these Revenues and Priviledges were given to Religious Orders in the old times for the better maintenance and with Obligation only to provide Preachers and Teachers to the Parishes and that when Religious Houses were suppressed by King Henry the said Parsonages Tithes Advowsons and Patronages passed also to Lay-mens hands as Members and Parcels of Abby-Lands yet notwithstanding for that in truth they were taken from the Livings and Revenues of Pastors and Curates at the beginning and are part of the Revenues it seemeth more reason that they should be accepted rather Ecclesiastical than Monastical Livings and consequently be returned back to the Church again though with the Moderation and Qualification that shall seem most expedient to the Council and not to be disposed of to any other uses as Abby-Lands may be for the greater glory of God and better setting up of our Church again And for that I have divers times made mention of the Council of Reformation I shall now set down some Notes about the same CHAP. VII Of a Council of Reformation to be ordained and wherein they are principally to be occupied FOR the Execution of all these Notes and Advertisements that here are set down about the Reformation of England nothing will be of so much moment as to have certain prudent and zealous Men put in authority by the Prince and Parliament and Pope's Holiness to attend principally and as it were only to this affair and to be bound to give a continual account what they do in the same And for that and name of Inquisition may be somewhat odious and offensive at the beginning perhaps it would not be amiss to name these Men a Council of Reformation and that their authority might be limited for some certain number of Years as four five or six as it should be thought most convenient and sufficient for the setting up and establishing of the English Church and that before the end of this term assigned they shall give account to the Persons appointed for this purpose by the Pope Prince and Parliament of all matters committed to their charge and especially of the Ecclesiastical Rents received and imployed by them as after shall be declared And for that the matters and affairs which are to be laid upon these Men are many and weighty and of singular great importance it is necessary first that the place of their ordinary residence should be in London near the Court whereby they may have easie recourse and conference with the Prince and Council And secondly That their Persons be of great sufficiency and respect and fit for the purpose as for example perhaps may the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishop of Winchester London and Rochester whose Diocesses lie near about the City and will be no great lett to their ordinary charge to reside much in London and be imployed in this affair also And with these Men might be joyned other principal and skilful either Bishops or others as should be thought best together with all kinds of Officers Secretaries Notaries Gatherers Treasurers and other helps for better Execution of so great a charge The first and most principal thing that in Temporal matters should be committed to this Council is the gathering of the said old Rents of Assize of Abby-Lands and other Ecclesiastical Revenues which by vertue of the Restitution above mentioned are to return to the Church and by these Men as hath been specified are now to be put in one common Treasury and thence to be spent and imployed within this time limited of their Commission as they shall judge most needful and to the most advantage of God's Holy Service and common benefit of the Realm The like charge also will be necessary to lye upon them for the Collection and Custody of all other Ecclesiastical Rents and Revenues throughout England as of Benefices Parsonages Curates and other such Livings as cannot conveniently be provided of particular Owners seeing that the English Clergy which for the present we have and are like to have for a great time after the next Reduction of England will scarce be able to furnish the principal Dignities and places alone of Jurisdiction and Government as Bishopricks Deanries Archdeanries Colleges and the like and if besides these there be two or three Men left for Preachers to be given to every new Bishop to carry with him into his Diocess a small store God knows for so great a Charge it will be all and how then think you will it be possible to furnish the least part of the residue of Benefices throughout England for some number of Years Wherefore to remedy this inconvenience it seems that the only way would be for this Council of Reformation to appoint Collectors of these Rents and to be accountable for them as for the rest and allowing so much to be spent in every Parish as shall be thought needful they may reduce the remnant to the aforesaid common Purse for common necessities until there be store of Priests
to furnish all places with particular Curates and Pastors which may be by God's grace and good diligence of this Council in erecting and furnishing Seminaries within the space of some five or six years that is before this Council shall resign over their authority And in the mean space the best means of supplying the common Spiritual needs of England would be perhaps that no Priests besides Bishops Deans Archdeacons and the like that are needful for the Government of the rest should have any particular assignation or interest in any Benefice but only a sufficient Pension allowed him by the Council of Reformation or Bishop of the Diocess for his convenient maintenance and his Commission to Preach Teach hear Confessions and all other Exercises of Priestly Function And when the Council of Reformation were to leave their charge then might they take a view of all the Priests in their times or before and according to each Man's talent and good account given of himself in this time of tryal to place them in Benefices But yet with this express Proviso and Condition That they may be removed again from the same Benefices to a worse or to none at all if they give not Satisfaction in their Function which only Bridle may chance to do more good than all the Laws and Exhortations in the World and it would be good sometimes to put it in Execution to promote some in higher Benefices and thrust down others to lower by way of Visitation when cause is offered And one thing before all others will be of very great moment for this Council to put in practice which is That presently at the beginning they do publish an Edict or Proclamation with all severity commanding under pain of great Punishment That no Religious or Ecclesiastical Person whatsoever do enter into the Realm without presenting himself before the Council within so many days after his entrance and there to shew the cause why he cometh and the Licence and Authority by which he cometh and to stand to the Determination of the Council for his aboad or departure again for if this be not done and observed with all rigour many scandalous light and inconstant People partly upon novelty and partly upon hope to gain will repair presently to England and do great hurt by their Example And when this Door is once stopped it will be easie for this Council to write to all the Heads of Religious Orders that are in other Countries to send them such a number of exemplar and reformed Men or Women to begin to plant the said Religious in England as shall be thought expedient and be demanded And for that Religious Orders have been more defac'd dishonoured and persecuted in our Realm than in any Christian Country in the World perhaps it would be convenient to make such an amends and recompence as is not besides in any other Kingdom to wit that all the approved Religious Orders that are in the Church of God should be called into England and placed joyntly in the City of London for that at least it is to be presumed that this City would be capable of all and from thence they might be derived afterwards by little and little into other places of the Realm as Commodities were offered and as Men's Devotions should require and as they should be proved to be most agreeable and profitable to the State of our Country but altogether to be in London and that in the perfection of their first Institution would be a most excellent thing and a priviledge above all other Kingdoms in the World where all Religious Orders are not seen together and much less in the perfection of their first institute and observance which ought to be the Condition of admitting any Order into England now at our next Reformation be they Men or Women to the end that the greater Glory of God be procured in all things And for more easie effectuating of this there may be taken order that Religious Men and Women be called and admitted only from the Parts and Countries for beginning this great work of England where it is known that their Order is reformed and hath some that observe the first perfection of their Rule and in our days divers Countries have And with this one Observation only about Religious Orders and People England would be the most eminent Country of Christendom as hath been said In the beginning of Religious Houses in England care may be had that such be builded and most multiplied as be most needful and profitable for the time present and do apply their labours to action and to the help also of others and that before all the rest Seminaries and Colleges be built and put in order for the more ease of our Clergy And as for old and ancient Religious that appertain most to Contemplation though also they be not to be omitted yet when in every Shire there were one of a sort planted for a beginning and indowed with sufficient Rent for a competent number that would observe their first institution it were no evil entrance for that quickly the Devotion of Good People would increase the same and so would England come in small time to be furnished with more variety of Monasteries and Religious Monuments and of much more edification than when it flourished most Nunneries also for refuge of Virgins and of the devoutest sort of Womenkind were to be set up and the most of Observant Orders and of most edification were first to be planted for example and encouragement of others It were also to be considered whether some new Military Order of Knights were to be erected in our Realm for exercise and help of our young Gentlemen and Nobility as in other Countries we see it And as for England in times past it had only the Order of St. John of Malta wherein now perhaps there may be some difficulties at first for that we have no Knights left of our Nation in that Order to train the rest and to begin it only with strangers may seem hard And secondly For that albeit their institute be good and holy to fight against the Turk and other Infidels yet is Malta far off and these Ages have brought forth many more Infidels and Enemies near home to wit Hereticks and thereby the binding of young Gentlemen which live abroad in the World in Wealth Liberty Ease and Conversation also with Women to perpetual Chastity by Vow as Knights of Malta be without giving them the means and helps that other Religious Men have to keep the same which are Disciplines and restraint from Company and the like has also his difficulties as both reason and experience doth teach us and the examples of some other Countries do prove as namely of Spain where for avoiding of difficulties they have procured Dispensation from the Pope that the Knights of the Military Order of St. James Alcantara Calatrava and the like may Marry Wherefore some are of Opinion That it were good
that other in place of this of Malta or besides this some other new Order were erected also in our Country of Religious Knights and m that their Rule might be to fight against Hereticks in whatsoever Country they should be imployed And when Heresies should fail that they then keep our Seas of England from Pirats and our Land from publick Theft binding themselves for their probation to serve in their Exercises the time that should be limited and for keeping the Land at home they might have other Companies and Confraternities under them much like to that called the Holy Hermandad in Spain which alone keepeth all these great and vast Kingdoms from Robberies And this Order of new English Knights might quickly be made a very flourishing Order being permitted also to Marry and they might take the Name and Protection of some Holy King of England or of all the Holy Kings joyntly or of St. George all which I leave to the Consideration of this Council to deal therein with the Prince and Parliament Animadversions on Chap. VII m THat their Rule might be to fight against Hereticks In this Chapter our Jesuit treats of his Council of Reformation he had great reason to avoid giving it the name of the Holy Council of Inquisition since how fond soever Portugal or Spain may be of an Inquisition it is odious to England and abominable and ought to be so to all Christians there being nothing more barbarous nor more diametrically contrary to the Religion of the Blessed Jesus than the Popish Inquisitions But this would have been very slender comfort to us in England since it seems we were to have had the Thing without the Name for the use the Jesuit would have had the young Popish Gentry of England put to in this Chapter is to have them listed into a Fraternity the business of which was to have been very honourable to them to wit to go a Dragooning about the Nation and to have hunted down the Protestants whom he here calls Hereticks like wild beasts and when they had thus Christianly rooted out all Protestants by this mild perswasive way out of this Nation then forsooth these wonderful valiant Knights were to have been sent abroad to purge the World of Heretie and after all our Seas of Pyrats and the Land of Thieve which if they had done I am sure England would have been rid of the Jesuits as well as of Protestants Nor is the Jesuit content with this for after a few years England was to have Name and Thing for when his Council of Reformation resign up their Authority he makes it necessary that they should leave some good and sound manner of Inquisition established for the Conservation of that which they have planted And indeed the Jesuit is in the right of it that a sound manner by which I know the Jesuit means a most severe and bloody manner of Inquisition is absolutely necessary either for the planting or the preserving such an absurd and ridiculous Religion as Popery is in England CHAP. VIII Of divers other Points that will belong to the Council of Reformation to deal in HItherto only hath been treated of Abby-Lands and Ecclesiastical Livings to be collected imployed and disposed by this Council and Religious Orders to be replanted but many other Points do yet remain for that the whole weight of Restitution both of the External and Internal face of our English Church and the perfect reparation both material and formal of the same will depend principally of the Authority Wisdom Zeal Magnanimity and Piety of this Council and for this purpose such principal branches as come now to my Mind I will here set down First of all it will appertain to these Men to send Commissioners abroad into the Realm and to have ordinary Correspondence in all the Shires of England thereby to advise from time to time what are the greatest wants and what first is to be remedied or provided for As for Example here Preachers here Confessors here Priests to say Mass here Seminaries here Schools here Monasteries here Colleges here Nunneries here Hospitals here building or enlarging or repairing of old Parish-Churches with their Sacristies or Revestries Tabernacles Church-Houses publick Crosses and the like whereof I shall treat more in some particular Chapters afterwards in the Second Part of this Memorial And for that the Reverence of Religion and motive of Devotion to the People doth greatly depend of these external things it must be one principal care of this Council to have them well reformed and practical Men sent about the same The like necessity will be also to augment the Livings of certain Curates and Pastors in many places and to increase in some others where one is not sufficient as commonly it will not be convenient for one only Priest to live any where alone if it may be remedied in respect of wanting a Confessor for himself or others when he should be sick except the Parish lay so near to some other as in all necessities they might give mutual help one to the other as if they lived together For singing and hearing of Mass also at the beginning order must be taken that divers Parishes repair to one upon Sundays and great Holy-days and that Priests be so distributed as they may supply the best that may be until better provision can be made and perhaps it would not be amiss to call in some stranger Priests for a time Men of Edification and Vertue such as might be procured by means of some Pious and Zealous Bishops of Foreign Countries and by Commendation and Election of some Religious Orders that keep Schools and do know the Vertue of every one and being requested by our Council of Reformation would have care to direct only such Men unto us as should be for the purpose who being divided about the Realm and convenient Stipends appointed them without appropriation of any Benefice for that would have inconvenience they would greatly ease and help our English Clergy until it be increased and grown stronger and these Strangers would serve to say Mass and administer some Sacraments in Parish-Churches and might supply also the Labour and Function of some Canons for singing in the Quire and divers Cathedral and Collegiate Churches where other Provision of our own Nation could not be so soon made And it perchance would be less hurt to pass on with these Strangers for a time who afterwards may be removed if they should not prove well than for haste and want to make up a number of unable or evil Priests of our own who would be ever after a Seed of Corruption and Disorder to the whole Realm of which point I shall say also more in the Second Part when I come to speak of Seminaries where no Priests at all could be planted at the beginning there some honest and discreet Person or Persons of the Parish or of the next to it though they be Lay-men were to be assigned to have
care of the Church Revestry and Priest's House and to see all dressed up and kept in good order and that presently such things as were to be redressed or builded up for the necessity or decent use of all when Priests could be had should be out of hand beginning to be put in order and Mony to be allotted thereunto by the Council according to the Information given of the necessities for which effect divers Visitors Commissaries and Under-officials should continually be imployed to advertise and see how matters go forward And as for the Church-service if it may not be had as were to be wished every where at the beginning nor that it can else be done in all places by a Priest or Deacon or by one in Holy Orders yet at leastwise some such discreet Lay-man as before is mentioned might be appointed to see some good order kept and that the Bell be rung thrice a day to the Angels Salutation and that upon Holy-days at least if not more often the People be called together to the Church by the common Bell there to pray alone in private Prayer if no publick can be said as perhaps there may at least wise the Service of our Lady may be said by some one or other or many together and some Homily or Spiritual Book read and some Instruction given how to say every one the Beads and other like helps to the end that Prophanity Atheism or forgetfulness of God and Godliness enter not at the beginning before Priests may be had A Calendar is to be drawn out and agreed upon for the Holy-days that are to be observed in England few and well kept were much better than many with hurt of the Commonwealth and Dissolution of manners It is no small temporal loss for poor labouring Men that live and maintain their Families upon the labours of their hands to have so great a number of vacant days as in some Countries there be whereby the poor are brought to great necessity and the Realm much hindered in things that otherwise might be done and Corruption of Manners by idleness much increased For remedy of the first which is the multitude of Holy-days I mean besides Sundays let it be considered whether this Moderation amongst others might not be admitted that some days had only Obligation to hear Mass and that afterwards Men should work and that nothing should be taken from labouring Men's wages for this time spent in hearing of Mass so that this loss would fall only upon the richer sort that are better able to bear it Holy-days might be for half a day only to wit for the Forenoon and that after Dinner every Man should work and that this should not be left to every Man 's proper will to work or to make Holy-days at his pleasure for that many out of idleness would play and induce others to the same but only the order set down should be inviolably kept For the Second Point which is to keep well these Holy-days that are commanded it will import much that certain good Exercises be appointed to occupy and entertain the People upon these set days and these may be partly Spiritual as Service said or singing the Church-mattins Mass Even-Song Preaching reading of Homilies Catechisings or teaching the Christian Doctrine to the People wherein great care and special labour should be employed at the beginning and some other Exercises may be of honest entertainment and Relaxation of Mind which may keep the common sort from more disorderly Games and amongst other things the going of one Parish to another in Procession upon their Festival days is not the worst if some little abuses be taken away which were crept in and might be remedied by teaching them to go with Devotion saying their Beads the Litanies and the like and some Men appointed to repeat the principal points of the Saints Lives which they celebrate and by this means also one poor Parish helpeth another for the maintenance of their Church albeit the Council of Reformation may take order amongst other points that every Parish-Church have some particular Rent in a common Purse for their maintenance without asking Alms of the People Order may be taken also to bring in certain Brotherhoods and Societies in every Parish that shall be capable thereof whose peculiar profession may be to treat upon Holy-days of all good works and reforming of such abuses or wants as shall be discover'd And these Societies must have certain Priviledges Preeminences and Exemptions for them that do their Office well and Chastisement for the contrary but all must be subject and subordinate to the Ordinary For of Exemptions of Confraternities from Visitation of their Bishops many disorders and inconveniences have been seen in other Countries And above all other Confraternities or Societies one of the Christian Doctrine would be the most necessary in every Parish at the beginning whereof the Curate may be the head and some other of the graver sort and principal Men of the Parish may be adjoyned and their Office may be to be present on Holy-days when Disputation is held amongst the Children publickly in the Church and procure that none be away And it should be good that some particular emolument should result to these Men for their diligence and that there were some particular Rent also to buy rewards for their Children that shall prevail in this Disputation which would animate greatly both them and their Parents and others to be present and perfect in the Doctrine And to this Confraternity of Christian Doctrine might be joyned in the beginning the Society also of the Blessed Sacrament in the little Parishes where more Societies could not be put in ure whose principal charge 't is I mean the Confraternity of the Sacrament of the Altar to accompany the Body of our Saviour with Lights and other Actions of honour when it is carried abroad to the Sick and in other occasions And for that in no other thing God hath been more dishonoured in England than in matters touching this heavenly Sacrament it will be reason that particular recompence be made therein at the very first entrance of Religion again Some such Officer as the Romans called their Censor to look that no Man lived idly nor brought up his Children without some Exercise and means to live would be of importance for this Reformation And this man might call to account also such Men as lived suspitiously or scandalously as by Carding and Dicing or spent riotously any way his own Goods or his Wives And the like Commissioners were to be sent to the Universities to reform them to the best utility of the Commonwealth and of those that study in them and for drawing of strangers to frequent them as in other Countries And the like Visitation and Reformation may be made of the Universities of our common Laws to wit of the Inns of Courts and Chancery in London And this concerning both Manners and Learning and certain skilful prudent and
declared in themselves to have been of no force nor yet the Laws therein made and consequently to be frustrate and to be put out of the Book of Statutes except such as this Parliament shall think necessary to confirm and ratifie or make anew The Decree and Law for the faithful restitution of Abby-Lands and Ecclesiastical Revenues with the Moderation before specified is to be determined of among the very first points of importance and it were to be performed with a great alacrity and promptness of minds in all Men thereby to bind Almighty God to deal the more liberally also with us in all the rest that were to be done as no doubt but he would and after this many other particular Commissions and Subdelegations are to be given forth by the Prince and Parliament to particular Troops and Companies of Men for setting good order in divers matters as namely one very ample to the Council of Reformation before-mentioned for the reestablishing of Religion and for gathering up and disposing of the Ecclesiastical Rents and Revenues aforesaid And other were to be given out to certain principal Lawyers and others to reform the points that shall seem needful about our Common Laws Inns of Courts and the like as hath been mentioned another for the Universities another for the planting of Seminaries as well of our Nation as of our Neighbours Strangers for their Conversion and divers other such like weighty affairs are to be committed by different Commissions to able and fit Persons for putting our Commonwealth in joynt again except it shall seem best to commit the most of these matters by a general Commission to the Council of Reformation in form as hath been declared all which being confirmed by our Catholick Prince and See Apostolick may be executed sweetly and securely by the grace of God to his most high glory and everlasting good of our Realm And this is so much as I have to note for the present about this First Part concerning the whole Body of the Realm in general Now shall I speak somewhat of the two principal Members which are the Clergy and Temporalty in particular Animadversions on Chap. X. n THat every Man be sworn to defend the Catholick Roman Faith and moreover that it be made Treason for ever for any Man to propose any thing for change thereof In the late Popish Reign every one does remember what abundance of pains was taken to ridicule the Penal Laws and Test but especially the Test for the decrying of which all Mouths were opened all Pens employed even one of our own if we can with truth call our own that Scandal of Protestant Episcopacy Dr. Parker of Oxford and yet we see that how abominable soever a Test was in favour of the Church of England the Jesuit is for having one and that no body be admitted to suffrage in Parliament till he hath taken a swearing Test for Popery And just so it is with Penal Laws though those made against Papists which by the bye were made not against their perswasion in Religion but against the Treasons and Plots which as Papists they were ever and anon running into be abominable yet against Hereticks they are absolutely necessary When I first read this Chapter I could not but wonder at the Impudence of the Romish Priests in the late Reign that made such tragical Exclamations against Penal Laws but especially of the Jesuits who having this Memorial in their hands and admired by them should exclaim against sanguinary Laws when yet they were resolved as soon as they could get a Popish Parliament to have all the Laws that were ever made against Hereticks those for burning them at Stakes restored and put in full Authority God hath delivered us out of the hands of such abominable and bloody Hypocrites and may He ever preserve us from them who gave good words to the Protestant Dissenters that would be cajoled by them with their Mouths while they had destruction and ruine in their hearts against all Protestants whatsoever And at the same rate were too many Dissenters gull'd about the promised Liberty of Conscience that was to be established in Parliament to be made as firm as Magna Charta and it should have been made Felony or Treason and I know not what for any one in Parliament ever to have motioned a Repeal of it but now we see in the Memorial found in the late King's Closet what it was that was to be so firmly established we find that immediately it was to have been made Treason for ever for any Man to propose any change of Popery in England The SECOND PART of this MEMORIAL Touching the CLERGY I noted in the beginning the Clergy might be divided into Three principal Branches which are Bishops Priests and Religious Orders both of Men and Women and so according to this Division shall I prosecute this Memorial CHAP. I. Of the Clergy in general what they are and ought to do at the next change HAving to speak of the Clergy in general which God from the beginning of his Church vouchsafed to name his own Portion for that they were dedicated more particularly than other Men to his Divine Service and our Saviour to call them by the most honourable name of the light of the World and Salt of the Earth The first point of all to be remembred unto them seemeth to be that if ever there were a time wherein the effect of these names were needful to be shewed and put in execution it will be now at the beginning of our Countries next Conversion whose Fall and Affliction may perhaps in great part be ascribed to the wants of these effects in former times past And furthermore it may be considered that the State of the Clergy in England after a long desired Reduction and happy entrance of some Catholick Prince over us and after so long and bitter a Storm of cruel Persecution will be much like unto that which was of the general Church of Christendom in time of the first good Christian Emperor Constantine the Great after the bloody Persecutions of so many Infidel Tyrants that went before him for three hundred years together at what time as God on the one side provided so many notable zealous and learned Men for the establishing of his Church as appeareth by the three hundred and eighteen most worthy Bishops gathered together in the general Council of Nice so on the other side the Devil ceased not to stir up amongst the Clergy of that time divers and sundry Divisions Emulations and Contentions some of indiscreet zeal against such as had fallen and offended in time of Persecution and some other grounded upon worse causes of Malice Emulation and Ambition tending to particular interest whereby both that good Emperour in particular and all the Church of God in general were much troubled and afflicted and many good Men scandalized and God Almighty's Service greatly hindered and the common Enemy comforted And considering that the
Times Men Matters and Occasions may chance to fall out very like or the same in England whensoever it shall be reduced to the Catholick Faith again great and special care is to be had lest semblable effect should also follow to the universal prejudice of the common cause wherefore this ought to serve as a preparative both for our Prince and People to put on the same pious and generous mind that Constantine the Great did to bear patiently with the infirmities of Men and remedy all matters the best he may and the People but especially Priests to beware of like deceit of the Devil and amongst other things if perchance in time of Persecution cause has been given or taken of offence or disgust between any person whatsoever that have laboured in God's Service and do tend all to one end to procure effectually now that it be altogether cut off and put in oblivion and this especially amongst the Clergy and by their means amongst others and if there should be any unquiet or troublesome Spirit found that under any pretence would sow or reap or maintain divisions that the Holy Apostles Counsel be followed with him which is to note and eschew him to the end that all may join chearfully and zealously to the setting up of this great and important work of Reformation And so much for Concord But as concerning example of good Life and to be Lanterns of the World I hope in Jesus there will be no great need at that day nor for that day now to call much upon our Clergy or at leastwise for some years after our Reduction they having received so abundant grace of Almighty God in this time of Persecution and so excellent a kind of Holy Education in our Seminaries as never perhaps any Clergy had in the World which Benefit of God ever ought to be a Spur unto them to be answerable to the same in their lives and works and to fear the most terrible sentence of St. Paul to the Hebrews about the hard and miserable case of such as after much and special grace received slide back again to their everlasting and most intolerable Damnation A blessed Servant of God in these our days cried out in a certain Memorial of his to the Council of Trent about matters of Reformation saying Take from us once if it be possible the shame and reproach of Israel which is the Evil and Idle Life of Clergy-men which cry ought ever to found in the Ears of our Clergy also for a watch-word and jointly to remember the Admonition of St. Paul no less necessary than this for them that are to labour in God's Vineyard which was That having meat and competent maintenance they should seek no farther but be content to labour willingly and liberally for so worthy a Master as is to pay them above all expectation or desire in the next Life Which Admonition is most important for moderating our appetites and avoiding of ambition greediness and contention when the day shall come though in England there will not want to give contentment also with abundance in temporal matters to all godly Men that shall labour there if his Divine Majesty vouchsafe to restore the same from his Enemies hands so as my hope is that our Clergy in every degree from the highest to the lowest will endeavour at that day to conform themselves to all rules of Reason Piety and Religion and to hearken gladly to any good Counsel or remembrance of Order and Discipline that shall be offered for theirs and the common good and with that I may presume to set down the Notes that hereafter do ensue CHAP. II. Of Bishops and Bishopricks in England BIshops and Prelates be Heads of the Clergy and if all ought to be Light and Salt how much more they that must lighten and season not only the Temporalty and Laity but all the rest of their own Order also who according to the example given them by their Prelate are wont to proceed And on the other side the best means for a Bishop to do much good in his Diocess is to have good Priests about him for that a Prelate without good Priests to help him is a Bird without Feathers to fly and to have good Priests he must make good Priests both by his Life Doctrine and other good means and especially by Seminaries for that Figs grow not on Thorns as our Saviour says and to have so great a Treasure it must cost both Labour Industry and Mony The Authority and Jurisdiction of Bishops in England is commonly more than in divers other Countries and more respected and their ordinary inquiry upon dishonesty of Life or suspicion thereof is peculiar to England alone and of very great importance for holding Men in fear of carnal sins and for this cause to be continued and increased And albeit in some other Counties simple Fornication be not so much punished or pursued and inquired upon and that the Stews also be permitted for avoiding of greater inconveniences in respect of the different natures and complexions of the People yet by experience we do find that the same necessity of liberty is not in England and consequently in no wife to be brought in again for that it is an occasion of fall and of grievous temptations to many that otherwise would not have them That English Custom also of often Visitations by the Bishop and by his Councellors Officials and other Ministers and Probats of Testament to be made before them and the use of often administring the Sacrament of Confirmation to Children is very laudable and to be honoured and any other thing that may belong to the authority credit or good estimation of the Bishop or of his Function and Office and if for a time after the next change some hand were given to Bishops also in Temporal affairs as to be principal in all publick Commissions within the Shire it would greatly authorise Religion and assure the Country much more to the Prince It will appertain to the Council of Reformation to consider of the Revenues of each Bishoprick and where there wanteth sufficient to bear out decently that State then to add so much as shall be necessary yet are Bishops to be admonished saith Mr. John Avila that Christ willeth them to be Lights of the World and Salt of the Earth by their fervour of Religion Prudence and Vertues and not by abundance of great Riches and Pomp and he alledgeth a Canon of the first Council of Carthage which saith thus Episcopus habeat vilem supellectilem mensam victum pauperem dignitatis suae authoritatem fidei vitae meritis quaerat And upon this he addeth That much more hurt hath come to the Church of God by overmuch Wealth of Bishops than by their Poverty albeit he wisheth notwithstanding that they have sufficient with Moderation And he beseecheth the Council of Trent that as well of Bishops Livings as of Deanries Archdeaconries Rich
of the first and second Years of Divinity may have the like bonds to hear the publick Lecture of the Hebrew Tongue if they mean to take degrees as those also that study Rhetorick and Humanity may have Obligation to understand the Greek And that is to be noted that the common Grammar-Schools in England though there were many and great in divers places yet are they defective in many points for the sound attaining of the Latin Tongue which now may be amended partly by the Seminaries which are to be in every Shire and are to profess only Grammar Humanity and Rhetorick and partly by our Universities also where the study of the Latin Tongue may be setled in more perfection than it was wont to be The defects also of our Grammar-Schools are commonly these First That they have but one Master or at the most a Master and an Usher who cannot possibly read so different Lectures as the different Capacities of so great a multitude of Scholars will require wherefore in other Countries wheresoever good order is kept they do divide the whole compass of Grammar into four or five distinct classes or forms and do assign a particular Master to every one of them and above these do appoint another form for Humanity and another for Rhetorick so as they be six or seven distinct forms in all ordaining moreover that from the second or third form of Grammar the Scholars begin also to learn the Greek Tongue so as when they come to Rhetorick they have it very perfectly Moreover they appoint that none may pass from one of these forms to another upon will and favour but only upon strait Examination and Proof made by indifferent Men and that none be admitted to begin the course of Logick and Philosophy with intent to proceed and take degree therein and in other higher Faculties afterward except he first have passed these inferiour forms and in particular have bestowed one Years study in Rhetorick for the more perfection of the Latin Tongue which is the ground of all the rest Which order if it were well observed in our Universities and Schools of England and fit Masters appointed for the purpose and the inconvenience of over much beating of Children taken away which is another disorder of our Grammar-Schools wherewith divers of the best wits and especially such are best brought up and are of best Parentage are dismayed and terrified from study I would think that in few other places of the World studies would go better forward than among us The ordinary times and spaces appointed for reading and hearing courses of Sciences and Faculties in foreign Universities are of great utility and to be brought into ours as namely three years to end the course of Logick Natural Philosophy and Metaphysicks four years for the course of Divinity Law or Physick and after the fashion of English French and Flemish Universities which therein are somewhat different from others our Scholars might take degree of Batchelors of Art at the end of Logick or Natural Philosophy such I mean as should be able to defend the same in publick Disputations and no other and in the end of hearing the Metaphysicks or a year after to be allowed them for Repetition or going over again the whole course to such as were to take degree they might be made Masters of Art upon the like publick Tryal of Disputation and Examination as before The degrees of our Batchelors also or Licentiate in Divinity Law or Physick were not to be given to any but after the full study of their courses to wit of four years hearing each course and one or two years more to be allowed to repeat or look over the said courses again and after often publick Exercises and Tryals to be made upon him in the mean space and that after this degree of Licentiate or Batchelor other three years to be assigned of like Tryal for them that will pretend to proceed Doctors and that all these points of tryal for taking degrees be observed with rigour and not dispensed with and changed into many Contributions as is now accustomed but very rarely and upon some great and extraordinary occasion for that by this the same and estimation of our Universities would be exceeding great in the World abroad and our degrees of learning would be holden in great account and our Country would be full of learned Men with fewer titles void of substance And among other things provision must be made that such degrees as are taken abroad in some foreign Universities of less moment for Mony only or Favour without Merit may be called to Examination again and not allowed of in England without new approbation The order of dictating used in all foreign Universities to wit where the Master besides a brief Declaration of his Lesson by Discourse either before or after useth to dictate soft and fair so as all his Scholars do write his words is no doubt a most profitable order and holdeth both the Master and Scholar in attention the one not to speak any thing but well studied and thought upon for that it is to come to the view of others by the witness of so many as do write and take his Lectures and the other which are his Scholars are held also in attention by writing and for that they must give an account afterwards of the whole in time of repetition who otherwise would have their Cogitations in other matters whilest the Master readeth and therefore this order is also to be settled in our Universities and the precise number of days wherein Lectures or Vacations were to be had is to be established so far forth as may be and the matters that each Master is bound to read in every year are to be assigned under pain of forfeiture and the less that is left to Men's proper Wills or Arbitrement is the best both to profit and keep peace amongst Scholars And this so much as about matter of study and learning offereth it self to me for the present Other Men that shall be appointed to visit and reform our Universities at that day will see more These points are only for a remembrance And now will I speak also somewhat in the Chapter following about the manner of Government and proceeding of the said Universities CHAP. V. Of Government Discipline and manner of proceeding of English Vniversities IF our English Universities have need of Reformation touching matters of Learning Masters Readers and Lectures as hath been declared much more is the same necessary in points of Government Manners and form of Life and proceeding Wherein albeit our old Founders and Governours of English Universities left many good Laws and Orders conform to the times wherein they lived and to that which then was used yet the said times being now changed and matters standing far otherwise in the World and many things learned by experience which then were unknown and the rigour of old Discipline being wholly dissolved broken and loosed
by the Heresies of our time it will be needful in this behalf to make a great Reformation And albeit that all respect and reverent regard be to be had and born unto the old Laws and Ordinances of Universities and Colleges where no inconvenience is seen to the contrary yet must the Commission and Faculty of such as come to reform be very ample and large both from the Realm and See Apostolick And first of all for settling of common Discipline most evident it is that all habitation concourse and negotiation of Women which heretical Dissolution hath brought in is utterly to be removed from all Colleges and communities of Students and herewith all junkets all lascivious banqueting excess of Apparel Dancing Fencing-Schools and the like that no Man have leave to go forth but by knowledge and licence of his Superiour and this to known honest parts and Persons at Houses lawful accompanied with his fellow or more if need be in decent Apparel Which Apparel for use of the whole University may be divided generally into two or three sorts as in other best Universities of foreign Countries is to be seen to wit that Graduates Fellows and Scholars of particular Colleges may have one sort of Apparel distinct from the rest of the whole Body of the University and those of one College to be known from those of another by some distinction of Collars or other like difference in their habits and that after these Collegials all the rest which are Students of the University may have a certain general and modest kind of Attire without permitting any man to differ from the same which is a Student except in some rare and extraordinary case as of some Prince great noble Man or the like And that this common habit be divided only into two sorts the one for Divines only more grave which yet ought to be as near to old English custom and form of ancient Catholick times as may be and square Caps with Cassocks down to the Knee as in Lovain Doway Paris and other Universities of France and Flanders now also is used And the other sort of Apparel may be for Lawyers and Physicians and such as study Philosophy and inferiour Sciences or are Commoners in the Halls or Colleges which sort of Apparel may be long Cloaks with Hats as it is used in Spain and Italy if it shall be so thought convenient Which points I do touch the sooner in particular for that great exactness will be necessary in this behalf at the beginning both to cut off the liberty and superfluity brought in by Hereticks as also to prevent the Novelties which some of ours may chance bring home from other Countries if care be not had And this point of Apparel is a principle of much good or evil in the Commonwealth Porters that be discreet honest and faithful men must be appointed to the Gates of every College Heads of Houses also must be chosen at the beginning rather according to their vertue and love toward Discipline and good order than of any other quality For that without such men it will be hard in the beginning to raise up and establish again vertuous Life and Conversation after so universal a Flood of Enormities as hath overflowed all And for this respect perhaps it will be needful that not only all interest to Headships of Houses but Fellowships also and Scholarships and all other Officers of particular Colleges and of the Vniversities in general be made void at the beginning and new men planted and placed again upon choice as they shall be thought fit for this new beginning and perfect Reformation and that the overplus of Rents and Revenues of Colleges for the mean space be gathered and put in a common Purse by order of the said Council of Reformation not to be disposed of to any other uses as other Eclesiastical Rents before mentioned but to be reserved for better furnishing of the same Colleges and Universities as need shall offer it self when a number of Students shall be increased for more reason whereof it may be considered that not only our Universities in common will have need of great and publick reparations and expences at the beginning in building publick Schools founding of common Lectures and the like but every particular Hall also and College the like For that the most of them are very defective in their building and other things necessary to their furniture as of their Chappels Churches and publick Halls and places for Disputations Repetitions and other such exercises of learning as are in other Countries and are to be provided in ours And besides this divers of them do lack infirmaries for sick-men Rooms of Hospitals for Strangers Comers and Goers and Novices that enter of new or are in their first probation and divers such other buildings reparations and accommodating of their Houses both for common and private uses Many of them also do want Rents sufficient for maintenance of a sufficient number of Fellows and Scholars to uphold the credit of the House divers of them are in debt and other difficulties and wants without provision of sufficient Libraries and Books and other furniture necessary for learning all which particular needs of private Colleges as also the wants before mentioned of publick Schools Lectures Masters Readers must be now holpen with the common Purse of the Universities Lands laid together for some years at the beginning I mean the over-plus that shall remain above the maintenance of some few fit and chosen men to be Heads and Fellows of Houses for bringing in of this perfect Reformation And as for Heads and Governors of Colleges it may be thought upon whether it were not best that some moderation should be established for their expences state and manner of Life in the Colleges otherwise than now it is For seeing that England hath so many other places of Prelacy for men of merit to be preferred unto as divers Archdeacons Chancellorships and the like many men are of Opinion That it were much better that the Heads of Houses in Universities should never be given for time of Life nor have so great allowance of men houses and wages as some of them have that use it only to pomp and to no profit of Students but rather that it should be as it is in other foreign Universities a matter of dignity and honour than of wealth and gains and that it should endure but for a certain time to wit two or three years whereby more Men by succession of time might obtain the same and thereby made fit to govern afterwards in other places whereas now those that once get the Rooms accounting themselves sure thereof during their lives are made more careless and are much absent from their charges lying commonly in the Court and making this Headship of the College but a step of Ambition to a higher promotion And the allowance of their expences are so great that it outeth almost a
their studies with carefulness As for the ordinary Government and jurisdiction over each University it may be considered at that time what way will be best to take and the manner of other Universities in foreign Countries may be weighed by the Council of Reformation and their Commissioners as namely whether this ordinary Jurisdiction shall be only in the Chancellor as now is used in England and whether any Bishop may over-look them or the like as also whether the Offices of the Proctors and Clerks of the Market be to be committed to young Men that study as now is accustomed seeing that oftentimes it is occasion not only of distraction and loss of time unto them but also of dissolution of life and corruption of their manners by reason of the liberty that is given them thereby of conversation with loose and dissolute people Election of publick Readers and other Officers The Officers that are to be given by the University as also the publick Lectors and other such Preferments as are not so well given in other foreign Universities in my opinion as they might be where they are bestowed by the popular voices of the common Students in every Faculty who being less able to judge of the fitness of the Persons that stand for the same and more easie to be corrupted and drawn into factions mutinies and other disorders to trouble both themselves and others about such Elections and oftentimes also indanger their own Consciences in following passion in the choice made by others and therefore no doubt but the more quiet grave and sure way would be that these Elections should be made by the major part of the Heads of Houses only upon publick examination of the Persons that do stand for the Preferment and oath given by themselves to do uprightly and when it is for any publick Lecture the Doctors and Batchelors only of that Faculty might have their voices with them And for more gravity honour and renown of our Universities let it be considered whether it were not good to have more eminent and priviledged Colleges in the same for learned and grave Men only to enter as in divers Universities of Spain is used besides the ordinary Colleges we have for Students only in which no Man may study longer conveniently than the ending of his course in the Faculty he studieth and if he should he would rather be a burthen to the House and trouble to the rest which are Students than any thing else seeing he can have no exercise of learning convenient to his degree among them And for that cause the order hitherto observed is good no doubt and ought to be observed that Men that have ended their courses after some reasonable time given them also to repeat and look over the same again should depart and give place to others But yet to the end that such as would remain and go forward in studies might have commodity to do the same it would not be amiss perhaps that some such greater and more principal Colleges as are in other Universities should be erected also in ours for learned Men to enter and live therein to wit that none should be admited but such as have taken Degree of Doctor Licentiate or Batchelor of Divinity Law or Physick and that in the same Colleges there should be continual exercises of learning discipline and order together with settled maintenance fit for such Men conform to the orders of such-like Colleges as are in other Countries whose Rules and Laws might be viewed and brought into ours and out of these Colleges might be chosen both publick Readers Heads of Houses Canons Deans Chancellors Archdeacons and Bishops as also Doctors of Law for the Arches and other such Tribunals Physicians for the Court and other principal Cities of England And finally these Colleges would be as it were principal Store-houses of learned approved and eminent Men for the Prince and Commonwealth to lay hands on for all chief Functions within the Realm And albeit that by means of these principal and bigger Colleges great perfections of learning would grow quickly within the Realm both in the Faculties of Divinity Law and Physick for every one whereof there might be appointed one or more of these Colleges or at the leastwise for Law and Divinity yet moreover and besides this for better preparation to the same in other lesser Colleges divers Men are of Opinion That it would be a matter of much importance if all the Colleges of the Universities were sorted out unto the peculiar studies of these Faculties distinctly so as one Faculty only should be studied in one College and not all mixed as now in divers places as for example That some one or two Colleges among the rest were appointed out for only Lawyers and other two for Physicians and all the rest for Divines and that particular Halls and Convictories might be appointed and made subordinate unto these Colleges for Students of the same Faculties only to the end that the exercise of learning in every Faculty might be more frequented better maintained by living of many together that do profess one and the self same thing than by living straggling abroad in different Colleges as hitherto they have done where they have neither company help or comfort in their studies nor sufficient practice and exercise in the same especially Lawyers and Physicians that have solitary places in separate Colleges and by this other means should live together and profit more and be better known whereof also would ensue that all such causes of consultation as should come from abroad to be consulted either in the one or in the other of these two Faculties might be better done and with more credit and reputation in a Community of learned Men that live together than by particular Men that live asunder As for the College or Colleges of the Physicians that by this order should be established they might have their Gardens also a-part for all sort of chosen Simples from all parts of the World and some learned Men to attend only thereunto and to shew them unto Students of that Faculty and to read particular Lectures thereof at certain seasons as another might also of Anatomies apart according as before has been touched and is used in the University of Padua and some other such principal Schools beyond the Seas where this Faculty of Physick doth flourish most And if any Man would make a doubt and ask here how the Founders Wills and Intentions may be satisfied by these means in such Colleges as these Faculties of Law and Physick are to be settled in with Divines for that their meaning was to have Priests in their Colleges and Masses to be said for their Souls it may be answered That in other Colleges where all are to be Priests and Divines so many Masses may be appointed to be said every day for these Founders as they had appointed to be said in their own Colleges and as the places of Lawyers
began to be Christians and to subject themselves also to this Spiritual Government and Jurisdiction of Souls and to be Sheep of these Spiritual Pastors among the rest they were admitted without detriment or diminution of their Temporal State and Government so far forth as it concerned the Temporal good of the Commonwealth which is Peace Wealth Justice and the like but yet so as they should not meddle or challenge power in the Spiritual Jurisdiction of Souls but be subject therein and leave that Government to Clergy-men and Spiritual Governors appointed by Christ and put in authority for that purpose long before Temporal Princes came to be converted as hath been declared And therefore came the distinction of Spiritual Governors and Temporal Governors of Clergy-men and Lay-men of Christian Pastors and Christian Sheep in which number of Christian Sheep and Subjects all Princes of the World are to be accounted in respect of their Souls and in all points appertaining thereunto and in respect of their Spiritual Pastors And albeit here in this life among Flesh and Blood where matters of this World and Life present are more respected commonly being present and the object to our Senses than Spiritual matters are of the life to come which are not seen but believed only though I say the external shew power and terror of Temporal Princes be much more respected reverenced and feared than is the authority of Priesthood or Jurisdiction of Spiritual Governors yet in themselves there is no comparison as by the reasons before alledged doth evidently appear but that the authority of Priesthood is much more great high and worthy and more principal and ancient in the Church of Christ for that it was before the other many Years and is over and above the other and that so far forth as St. Paul in his first Epistle and fourth Chapter to the Corinthians hath these words If you have secular Judgments among you appoint for Judges the contemptible that be in the Church of Christ for that function which yet I speak saith he to your shame for that none of the wiser sort among you do end or take up these temporal strifes but one Christian accuseth another and that before secular Tribunals even of Infidel Princes Christ himself when he was requested to judge between two Brothers in a Temporal matter he refused the same as also fled when the People would have made him a Temporal King and finally he said his Kingdom was not of this World which was not to disallow or contemn Judgment or Temporal authority of this World or that he was not in truth most lawful King also of this World being the Judge Author and Creator thereof but all this was to shew the small account he made of all this Temporal power in respect of the power Spiritual over Souls which properly he came to exercise and to plant and settle in the Church after him unto which all Kings and Emperors that would be saved should subject themselves and their Sceptres as we read that our Great Constantine before named and first Christian Emperor of the World did and after him the most renouned of the rest as Valentinian the two Theodosius's Justinian Charles the great and others in the occasions that were offered did humble themselves unto their Pastors and Governors of Christ's Church shewing themselves thereby to be the true Nurses and Foster-Fathers of Christ's Church which Isaiah the Prophet had foretold should come and succeed in Temporal Christian Kingdoms and Monarchies And yet by this did they not lose or diminish one jot of Temporal authority height or Majesty but rather did greatly confirm and increase the same for that Spiritual Pastors and Governors of Souls do teach and command all due reverence and obedience to be done in Temporal matters to Temporal Princes and do exhibit the same also themselves and do punish the contrary by Spiritual and everlasting punishments as well as by the Temporal upon such as are wicked or rebellious therein so as both these Governments joyned together in a Christian Commonwealth and one not disdaining or emulating the other but honouring rather respecting and assisting the same all goeth well both for the Temporal and everlasting felicity of all And such as do set division betwixt these two States are very Instruments of Sathan such as are the Hereticks Politicks Atheists and other seditious People of our days And for that in no other Country of the World whilest ours flourished hath there been more union love honour and respect born betwixt these two Orders of Spiritual and Temporal Men than in England as may appear even to this day by the many Temporal Honours Prerogatives and Dignities given to our Clergy in the Parliament and other Temporal affairs and that the Emulation and breach between the same enkindled and set on by the Devil and wicked Men hath been a principal cause of the ruine both to Country and both Parts that were Catholick in times past as hath been said and seen for this cause I thought it not amiss to speak somewhat more largely of the matter in this place and by this occasion having mentioned the same in divers other places of this Memorial before as a matter of no small importance to be throughly remedied and reformed at the next change if God say Amen which remedy will be if the Clergy considering their high Vocation and Estate be not proud thereof nor ambitious but endeavour to conform their lives to so great worthiness of their Profession And if Lay-men on the other side considering the very same to wit the dignity and reverence due to such as have Jurisdiction and Government over their Souls and must open and shut the Gates of Heaven unto them do not malign and envy their Estate as miserable Chore Dathan and Abiron did but do seek rather to profit themselves thereby and willingly joyn with them to the procuring their own and other Men's Salvations And this is so much as is needful to be spoken in this place of the Laity or Temporalty in general for that afterward there will be place to speak of all particularities that shall occur in the several Chapters that shall ensue CHAP. II. Of the Prince and his Council and matters belonging to them AS the Prince in every Commonwealth is the Head and Heart from whence all life and vigour principally cometh unto the same so above all other things is it of importance that he be well affected and disposed and so much the more in England above other Countries by how much greater and eminent his authority is and power with the People more than in divers other places by which means it hath come to pass that England having had more store of holy Kings in ancient times than many other Countries together came to have Religion and Piety more abundantly settled by their means than divers Realms about them and on the contrary side her Kings and Princes of later years having
been perverted by dissolution of Life and Heresie they have brought her into more misery infamy and confusion within the compass of few years than all other Christian Kingdoms round about us together Wherefore the principal help and hope next under God which our poor afflicted Country hath or may have of her redress is by means of her good Catholick Prince that God of his Mercy shall vouchsafe to give us who also considering the great work whereunto he is called shall in no wise be able better to satisfie his Obligation and Duty to God and the Expectation of all good Men and to assure his own Possession and Estate than to make account that the security of himself his Crown and Successor dependeth principally of the assurance and good establishment of the Catholick Roman Religion within his Kingdom and whatsoever is done or permitted against this Religion is not only against Jesus Christ our Saviour and his Spouse his Catholick Church but also against every Catholick Prince as his supream Minister and much more against the King of England as things do now stand both for Religion and Estate First of all then is to be recommended with all humility and earnest suit unto his Majesty that shall be established the singular care and holy zeal of restoring perfectly the Catholick Religion in our Realm and to employ his whole endeavour and authority therein and to concur and assist with his Princely favour and special Protection all such Men as principally shall labour therein and above other the Council of Reformation the Prelates Preachers and Clergy of his Realm and by example of his own Royal Person in frequenting the Holy Sacraments and other pious Actions of Religion and Devotion to animate all other his Subjects and foreign Princes also and Countries about him to whom he will in these our times be a remarkable mirrour to imitate the same and this for his own Person But concerning his Majesty's Council both in Spiritual and Temporal affairs it will import also exceeding much that he make choice of fit and worthy persons And for the first which is in matters concerning conscience the pious custom of some Catholick Kings and namely those of Portugal in times past is greatly to be commended who besides their Temporal Council had also another of learned Spiritual Men named the Table of Conscience in taking any thing in hand and execution of the same And for this Council they were wont to make choice as I have said of some number of eminent and learned Men and also notorious for their Piety and good Consciences whether they were of Religious Orders or no and the head or chief of these commonly the King 's own Confessor who might with more security by council and assistance of these able Men direct the King's mind with safety of Conscience And whatsoever Prince shall take this course no doubt but he shall find great help light comfort security and quietness of Mind thereby And as for the World abroad it must needs be a singular great justification of all his acts intention and attempts in the eyes and tongues of all Men seeing he doth them by the direction of so irreprehensible a Consultation His Temporal Council shall be needful to be made with great choice and deliberation especially at the beginning in England for that if any one person thereof should be either infected with Heresie or justly suspected or not fervent nor forward in the Catholick Religion and in the Reformation necessary to be made for good establishment of the same it would be to the great prejudice of the cause and of his Majesty and Realm And seeing Heresie and Hereticks could be so vigilant for overthrowing of true Religion at the beginning of this Queen's Reign as they admitted no one Man to govern whom they might suspect to favour true-Religion how much more zealous and jealous ought our new Catholick Prince to be in excluding from his Privy Council and other places of chief charge and government not only Men known or justly feared to be favourers of Heresie and Hereticks that will never be secure to God or his Majesty but also â—old and doubtful professors of Catholick Religion until they be proved by long tract of time And seeing that his Majesty shall have so great choice at that day of approved constant Catholicks within the Realm as never was seen the like since our first Conversion who have suffered so constantly at the hands of Hereticks in these Persecutions it is to be hoped and expected that his Majesty will serve himself first and chiefly of these men above all others according to their merits and after these of such other known Catholicks as albeit God gave them not fortitude and constancy to suffer so much as the others did for Religion yet were they ever secret favourers and never Persecutors or open Enemies to the truth It is to be commended with like submission and instance to his Majesty that after he shall have taken the Crown upon him and embraced this Realm as his loving Spouse he will confirm first of all the Laws Customs Priviledges Dignities and Liberties of the same and to take away all such burdens servitudes and unjust oppressions as have been any way laid upon us in former times but since the entrance of Heresie And as this is to be done to all the Realm as to the Nobility and to the Commonalty so principally and above others it is reason that it should be performed to the Church and Clergy-men who beyond all others have been injured in these latter times so that at the least it will be just that the Church of England be restored to the same state of Priviledges Possessions Dignities and Exemptions wherein it was when King Henry the Eighth began to Reign And for that the external face and material part of our Churches hath been so much defaced spoiled and broken down by King Henry the Eighth and his Children as all the World seeth it will be one principal part of our new King's Piety and Religion to concur effectually to the rebuilding and restoring of the same again by the means touched by me before of that moderate and temperate manner of restitution whereof I have spoken largely in the First Part of this Memorial And it is to be hoped that his Majesty will be the first and most fervent fartherer of the same according to the Holy Obligation Vow and Offer that he will make to Almighty God for that Heroical enterprise to his eternal honour and infinite benefit and beautifying of our Commonwealth Which sound Foundation of Religion and Piety being once laid it may be suggested to his Majesty with like sollicitude touching the execution of Justice to all Men with indifferency which is the principal point of a true Catholick Prince's Office next after God and Religion and is so much the more necessarily to be looked to now in England after so long
a storm of injustice and iniquity by how much the more all parts and joints of equity both towards God and Man have been wrested and wronged therein by Hereticks and Atheists And first of all are to be redressed the open wrongs which have been done to our Catholicks for their Faith and Religion whether it were by shew or colour of Laws or by manifest Tyranny And secondly are to be remedied the known publick oppression of the common People by some that have been in authority as namely incroachments upon their Lands Tenements or the like as also the corrupt manner of proceeding of certain Quests and Juries both in matters of Life and Lands that in later days by the infection of Heresie have been accustomed to apply themselves to the favour of Magistrates in authority without regard of Right or Conscience One thing also in particular for very honour of our Realm and saving the Lives and Souls of infinite Men is greatly wished might be recommended to his Majesty and effectually redressed which is the multitude of Thieves that rob and steal upon the High-ways in England more than likely in any other Country of the World they being also oftentimes of no base Condition or Quality that do it but rather Gentlemen or wealthy Men's Sons moved thereunto not so much of poverty and necessity as of light estimation of the fault and hope of Pardon from the Prince whereby it cometh to pass that albeit the English Nation as by experience is found he not so much inclined to steal in secret as some other Nations are and that more are put to Death in England for punishment of that Fact than in many other Nations together yet is this enormity of robbing upon the High-ways much more frequent and notorious in England than any where else in Christendom which is a great infamy to our Government and hurt to the Common-wealth For remedy though divers means may be suggested whereof I shall have occasion to speak in the two Chapters following yet one principle is thought to be if it were once known that the Prince would hardly or never dispense or give pardon in that offence but upon great rare and extraordinary occasion For albeit many obtain not this pardon yet the very hope thereof encourageth others to attempt the Fact And we see that in some Countries and especially in Spain above all other that I have seen though the Realm be much bigger and have many more fit places to commit such offences than ours yet very rarely it is heard that publick robberies are committed upon the High-ways though in private and secretly is no Country perhaps more which principally is attributed unto the certain and constant publick Justice that is done upon them without remission that commit the Fact if they be found and to the great diligence used for finding them out by the particular pursuit of a certain Company and Confraternity of Men appointed for the purpose and peculiarly dedicated to this work named the Holy Brotherhood which is endued with many priviledges and sufficient authority for the same The which thing is wished also might be brought into England and made subordinate to the new Religious Order of Knights to be instituted both for the defence of Sea and Land which I have spoken of in the First Part of this Memorial And albeit the strictness of the Prince be necessary in giving Pardons for cutting off all hopes to the Malefactors yet were it to be wished that the rigour of our Temporal Laws for putting Men to death for theft of so small quantity or value as is accustomed in England were much moderated and some lesser bodily punishments invented for that purpose as also that some means of moderation wherein the manner of quick dispatch of Men's lives by Juries impanelled in haste and forced to give Verdict of Life and Death upon the suddain without allowing space either for them to inform themselves or for the accused to think duly upon his defence or to help himself by any Proctor Attorney contrary witness or other such aides as both reason and other Country Laws and equity it self seemeth to allow whereof I shall speak more when I shall come to speak of our Common-Laws of England in the Fourth Chapter of this Part. And for that it will not be enough to plant only Religion Justice and other such parts of a true Christian Commonwealth but also it will be needful to uphold maintain and defend the same It must appertain also unto a Catholick Prince whom God shall bless with the Crown of England to shew himself a continual Watch-man over the same and with his vigilance provide for the perpetuation thereof and first of all to assure the Succession of the Crown by good provision of Laws which Hereticks of later years have so much confounded and made so uncertain and in such manner must be link the state of Catholick Religion and Succession together as the one may depend and be the assurance of the other Moreover his Majesty must see due execution from time to time done of such good Laws and Ordinances as to these and like purposes by himself and the Realm shall be at the beginning determined and set down for which effect it seemeth that the custom of some other wise Catholick Princes of foreign Countries is much to be commended who do use both ordinarily and at other times unexpected to send Visitors to divers parts of their Realms as namely to Universities and to all Courts of Law and Justice and other places where any great abuse and excess may be committed touching the Prince's Service or other State of the Commonwealth which Visitors being Men of great integrity skill and wisdom and furnished with sufficient Authority and Commission to fear no Man do return back true Information of that which is well or amiss to the Prince and his Council who after diligent view and deliberation do cause the same to be published and all Parties to be punished or rewarded according to their merits which is a great Bridle to hold things in order Furthermore for that it is of great moment for the Prince to know and be truly informed of the quality and merit of such of his Subjects as he is to prefer to Offices and charge in the Common-wealth either Spiritual or Temporal it were necessary his Majesty from time to time as for Example from three years to three years or the like according as some other godly Princes also use should cause certain Lists and Catalogues to be given him of Men's names by divers secret ways and by Persons of credit discretion and good Consciences touching all such Subjects in every Country Province Universities Cathedral Churches Houses of Law and particular Colleges as for their learning wisdom and other good qualities were fittest to be imployed and preferred by his Majesty and that these Lists and Memoires should be often viewed by the Prince himself and by his Council
in particular by yielding and agreeing willingly to the order that shall be taken for the moderate restitution of Ecclesiastical Lands before mentioned And this for Religion But for the other points of Chivalry and acts of Arms our Nobility is by all means to be incouraged to exercise themselves and their Children therein according to the laudable example of their Ancestors who for the same were renowned both at home and abroad And in particular it were to be wished That they should shew their valour against hereticks and Enemies of God and his Church of these our days seeing they are so many and so pernicious as well at home among us as also in divers Kingdoms round about us whereas their Ancestors to fight against Infidels less dangerous and odious to God than these Hereticks undertook long costly and perillous journeys into Asia and other Countries And for better performance hereof I mean of fighting against Hereticks it may be considered as before I have noted whether it shall not be more convenient for the exercise of our Nobility and for the better provision for their younger Sons that some new kind of Religious order of Knights were appointed in England instead of the other of St. John of Malta whose Seat and Residence is very far from England and the observance of the Rule much fallen from the first perfection and hard to be reduced or kept by younger Gentlemen that live at liberty abroad especially touching the Vow of Chastity as hath been before declared As for other private Exercises and Customs ordinarily used by the Nobility and Gentry of England wherein they do exceed much the custom of other Countries as namely in the much use of Hawking Hunting keeping of great Houses many Servants much Hospitality and the like it is to be noted that as in it self they are things honourable and fit for Nobility being used with moderation that is convenient so for many reasons they being old customs of their Ancestors are not to be disswaded nor left off but rather continued for avoiding of greater inconveniences though with such Reformation as is needful for taking away or lessening of such excesses as sometime creep in As for example that those exercises before-mentioned of Noblemen's pass-times be not hurtful either to poor Men their Neighbours or to their own Devotion and acts of Religion whereunto they are bound as of hearing of Mass Sermons and the like and that their Housekeeping be moderated from gluttony dissolution and excess of drinking and that their keeping of many Servants be limited with these Conditions first That no Man keep any more than he can well maintain of himself and that wholly giving them sufficient whereon to live without necessity to attempt any other unlawful shifts or means for their maintenance as often doth happen in such Servants as being otherwise poor do take only Livery-Coats of their Lords and Masters for to shift thereby under their countenances and authority The second Condition is That these Servants be kept from idleness with some honest exercise either of labour or recreation and that they be taught the necessary points of Catholick Religion and Christian Doctrine and that some good Books be provided for them in places where they wait wherewith to entertain themselves and be moved to vertue and diverted from sin and that some peculiar account be taken of their Christian demeanour and of their going to Confession and the like for unto all this and more too is a good Catholick Lord and Master bound concerning his Servants A third Condition of keeping Servants or rather an advice to good Lords and Masters may be that they have care to provide for their Servants according to their merit not only for the time of their present service but some stay of certain living afterwards to the end that having spent their youth in their Lord's and Master's service they fall not afterwards into misery and being forced to seek their living by unlawful and dishonest means to dishonour both their Masters and themselves wherein also may be considered that if their Lords and Masters should die without providing for them at all or recompensing their service whether it were not convenient they should have Actions by our Law against his Heirs for some honourable satisfaction as the Civil Law and Statutes of other Countries do allow And thus much for Servants For Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Children it were greatly to be wished that such care were taken for their Education first in Piety and then in learning and other qualities fit for their Estate that their Prince and Commonwealth might afterwards imploy them worthily in occasions and affairs that shall be offered and not be forced to prefer other of far meaner birth for the defects and insufficiency of the Nobility And first of all to speak in order though it be not necessary for Heirs and Elder Brothers to study so much as the Younger for that they are to live on their Lands yet for sustaining the place wherein they are to live some learning is necessary but much more that they be brought up in Order and Discipline and that they be taught to know God and themselves seemeth may best be done either in the Seminaries and Convictories whereof I have spoken before or in some Colleges of the Universities when they shall be reformed and brought in order again and some part of this also may be taught at home by private Masters if their Parents be discreet and careful though this be somewhat hard and seldom taketh great effect by the overmuch indulgence of the said Parents as also by the flattery of Servants that ordinarily are wont to instil nothing but pride and vanity into their young Masters that are brought up among them so as the Education of Nobility and Gentry is much more effectual abroad than at home As for the manner of their Wardships begun in England with very good intention though different from all other Nations and of late years perverted by Heretical Governors against all equity to the Wards and Pupils both in their Livings and Educations and Match of Marriage that some good remedy and moderation may be had in this matter by dealing with the Catholick Prince which shall be as the Deputies of the Parliament shall best devise and suggest About the younger Sons of Noblemen and Gentlemen it is to be considered That the Common-Laws of England are much less favourable and beneficial unto them The Civil and Imperial observed in other Countries are such as do allow them equal Portions with their eldest Brethren of all the Goods Chattels and Lands of their Fathers which be not intailed as of all that also which has accrued or been augmented by means of the said intailed Lands or otherwise whereas the Laws commonly of England leave all to the elder Brother's disposition and pleasure if the Father chance to dye without taking particular order in the same himself whereby many younger Brethren of
commodious for that albeit he pay sometimes a good fine at his first entrance yet liveth he at an easie Rent afterwards and leaveth a certain and sure provision for his Children and commonly the Father payeth the Fine of his Son so as the Son entreth without any burthen at the beginning And if one Landlord take great Fines which also were to be moderated yet another will come of a better Conscience who will take less and so the Tenant liveth always in hope and if the worst happen he is sure to be preferred ever before others paying as another Man doth which is a great preferment and very honourable also to the Landlord to have Families continue in his Lands for divers Ages whereby they are more knit unto him in hearty good will and true Allegiance and being wealthy their Riches are his at commandment both for his own service and his Prince which is not so where Tenants are rackt and changed often and made so poor both in love and substance as they are neither willing nor able to do any thing at all for their Landlords when need requireth To the Commonwealth this manner of tenure is wonderful beneficial for that by this means the Lands come to be well manured tilled plowed planted fertile and abundant For that every Tenant holdeth the same as good as for his own Lands and knoweth that neither he nor his Posterity shall be deprived thereof where on the contrary side in divers Countries for that Lands are let only from year to year or for very few years together and that all Rents are raised and rackt to the uttermost it is pitiful to see how bare and needy common Husbandmen be and how miserably the whole Land lyeth open and naked without Hedge Ditch or Tree every Man only endeavouring to draw out the heart and substance thereof for the small time he hath to use it being well assured that if he should manure or cherish the same another would give more and take it from him the year following where they neither love the Lands nor the Landlords but only follow their present Commodity and both the Commonwealth the Prince the Landlords and themselves receive great damage thereby as hath been declared Wherefore it may be considered both by the Prince and Parliament whether it were not good that so honourable ancient and so profitable a custom of letting Lands after the old Rents be restored to our Country again and that all rackt Rents be brought back to the old proportion or somewhat near the same with some reasonable recompence to the Landlord by way of Fine and that from henceforward no Man may raise his yearly Rents but with a certain moderation to be limited which thing no doubt would wonderfully concern the Wealth ease and contentment of all the Realm for that every Realm is so much the better and more prosperous by how much the more indifferently the substance thereof is divided into the hands of many according to each Man's Estate and Condition and not as in some Countries where one sort of Men are very rich and the other sort extream poor the one sort of Lords having all in their own hands the other sort seeming to be Bond-men and meer Servants having only to eat that which the other sort giveth them from day to day whereby it cometh also to pass that little good can be done with them in matters of their Souls by reason of their continual labour ignorance rudeness and extream poverty From which misery God hath hitherto delivered the Commonalty of England by reason of this kind of Tenures Leases Bargains and Copy-holds by which most of the common People are able to maintain themselves decently and bring up their Children in Civility and will be able to do the same still and much better if the former custom be brought back again continued and established And for that I take this point to be a great and substantial foundation of the publick and particular weal of our Country I have been the longer in treating thereof And now therefore to make an end having spoken of the Nobility and Gentry both in their own Persons as also of their Housholds Servants Children Wives and Tenants there seemeth little remaining to be added except I should say That whereas the English Nobility seemeth in other things to be the most prosperous in the World in one thing only which concerneth them most of all which is the safety of their lives they are thought to be most unfortunate miserable and subject to injuries of any other Estate of Men that live for that upon any least suspicion or displeasure of the Prince or every of their Enemies they may be brought in danger and made away as we have seen that the greatest Men commonly of our Realm have been and few eminent Men above the rest as Dukes have dyed in their Beds and no marvel for that the Kingdom being but little and the sway of a Duke great among the People especially when there is but one or few of that Title and the way to cut them off so easie as to put him upon a Quest of his Peers whether they be Friends or Enemies and that in one day only he shall be tryed and the most of that time spent by the Princes learned Council in amplifying and exaggerating Enemies or suspicions of Enemies against him and no Lawyer or Attorney given or allowed to defend or speak for him which should be granted if the matter concerned but ten Shillings of Lands or Goods only These things I say being so which to Strangers seem wonderful and almost incredible no marvel though our Nobility be cut off many times upon small occasions and that their Estates by others be judged very slippery and miserable for remedy whereof some are of Opinion That for avoiding of jealousie in the Prince and Commonwealth against great and powerful Men it were a good means to have many equal in the self same degree as for example many Dukes Marquises as there are of Earls For that hereby every one would come to be less respected and to be of less power with the People for the Dignity would be divided amongst many and consequently less eminent in one And if any one should go about to be insolent the other would be able to repress him and we see that in old time it was so in England Another means will be that all such Dignities Prerogatives publick Emoluments Offices and Preferments as are to be in the Countries where these great Men dwell should depend on the Prince immediately and not of them and that some other Men also of Dignity that are made and set up by the Prince and depend only of him as namely Bishops should have sway with them and Commission in all matters belonging to the publick and when any poor Man were injured by a great he might be heard easily and remedied and so taken into the Prince's peculiar Protection as he durst
aggravation might be used with us as it is in other Countries as namely that their Bodies might be left unburied in the place of Execution for a memory and terrour unto others as in all other Christian Nations commonly is accustomed The use also of the Romans to whip certain Malefactors somewhat rigorously before their death did terrifie many at that time which otherwise would not much have esteemed hanging only and the like effect it would work also by likelihood with us if it were put in use Some other punishments also should be devised for many thefts of little quantity for saving of Man's Blood for that the custom of hanging in England for so small a sum and quantity as our Laws appoint is much reprehended in all other Nations But above all other things good and effectual means are to be sought to divert Men from these offences and to make them hate and shun them and this ought to be the greater care of a Commonwealth than to punish only such as do offend though this also ought not to be omitted and what means may be used to prevent the youth of England and avert them from this vice of stealing I have shewed by divers occasions in some Chapters before and surely it is great pity to see so many consumed by Gallowses in England more perhaps than in half Christendom besides And yet the sin not remedyed thereby for want of cutting off the root by good Education and by fear of Justice equally and constantly administred Divers other points of our Common Law might be touched wherein perhaps some Reformation or little Alteration might be used with the great good of our Commonwealth though for the whole course thereof as before I have signified being so established as it is I would not give Counsel to make great Mutation but rather endeavour to perfect that which is settled and supply the defects that may be of great inconvenience And this is all I remember to be suggested at this time about these affairs CHAP. V. Of the Commons of England and matters appertaining unto them THE Commonalty being the Body and Bulk of the Realm and those that sustain the labour of the same they are greatly to be cherished esteemed and conserved and next after the planting of true Religion and Knowledge of God great care is to be had of their enriching For that as Constantius the Emperour was wont to say The Prince's true Treasure are the Coffers of his Subjects and especially of the Commonalty who if they be poor and needy can neither pay their Landlords nor till or manure the ground nor help the Prince in his necessities And by the Commonalty I understand in this place Labouring-men Serving-men Husbandmen Yeomen Artificers Citizens and Merchants all which labour and toil to the end that others may live in rest And in England as before I have touched their Condition was wont to be more prosperous and happy than in any Country else of the World besides and may be again by the grace of God with the restoring of true Religion the loss whereof brought not only Spiritual but also Temporal misery upon our Realm First then is to be enquired upon by such Commissioners as for this purpose may be appointed what Oppressions Injuries Vexations Losses or other injuries have been laid upon the Commonalty or any part thereof by the Heretical Estate of these later Years or by bad Landlords Noble or Gentlemen of Puissance to the end it may be remedied also what Landlords principally have most raised or racked their Rents to the end they may be dealt withalâ— for some Moderation The Priviledges also both of the Commonalty in general or of any community within any Country Province or Circuit whether it be about Commons Woods Freedoms or the like that may have been broken taken away or injuriously violated may be considered restored and confirmed again And among other things necessarily to be lookt to among our Commonalty will be to reduce them again to their old simplicity both in Apparel Diet Innocency of Life and plainness of Dealing and Conversation from which Heresie hath distracted many The Distinction also peculiar unto our Country of divers States of the Commonalty as Labourers Husbandmen Yeomen Farmers and the like is to be conserved and Men are not lightly to be permitted to pass from these States to the State and Condition of a Gentleman without particular Merits to be allowed of by the Prince or by some priviledge of learning Chivalry or the like and not only by way of wealth as of late years hath been accustomed Order must be taken that the Commonalty may not be vexed with suits in Law by troublesome Men but that certain Men in every Shire as namely Justices of Peace and such-like may hear matters first and compose and take them up with the consent of both Parties or otherwise favour him that hath the most right and sheweth most modesty and desire of Peace The Law used in some foreign Countries that no Tenant may be surety for his Landlord or if he be that it be of no force in Law is very good and profitable oftentimes for both Parties The old exercise of England for Parishes to meet together upon Holy-days at the Church-houses Church-yards and other such places and there to disport themselves honestly for avoiding idleness or worse Occupations at home is not evil but to be continued avoiding only the excesses or abuses that may be therein which were not commonly accustomed to be great but the thing it self I mean that meeting and entertainment of mirth worketh divers good effects as by the want thereof in some other Countries has been noted for it holdeth the People in Contentment and maketh friendship of one Man with another and of one Parish with another and when they are joined together any good Instruction or exhortation may be made unto them if the Curate or any Spiritual Man will take the same in hand The custom also of going one Parish to another upon their Week-days with the Banner of their Saint is commendable and much more the Festival mirth wont to be used in Celebration of Corpus Christi Feast which were to be restored with all solemnity of honouring that Divine Sacrament which our Hereticks have sought so much to dishonour The means also of frequent Conversation and Contraction between the People of England by often Markets and Fairs wherein the Commodities of one Town are imparted with another is a thing more used in our Country than in any other in the World and much to be commended as also conserved and increased with immunities and priviledges for the many good effects that do result thereof The calling in of base Mony in this Queen's days and bringing all to Silver was an Act to gain to them that were Authors thereof and great incommodity it is to the Commonalty both in respect of traffick buying and selling and exchange as also of helping the