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-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
knowing what course at first to take at length resolved to try his Fortune beyond Sea purposing as it should seem at his departure to study Physick but afterward when he came into Italy resolving rather to study the Civil Law which he did for a time at Bononia as himself in that place told Mr. Davers Brother to the late Sir John Davers as the said Mr. Davers hath himself told me but afterwards belike wanting means of continuance he turn'd to be a Jesuit Presently upon his departure out of England he sent a Letter or rather a notable Libel to Dr. Squire and he had so ordered the matter that many Copies of the Letter were taken and abroad in the hands of others before the Letter came to the Doctor which was the true cause that many lewd things were falsly reported of Dr. Squire although in truth he was such a man as wanted not faults c. February 1. 1601. at University College Your very Loving Friend George Abbot The inclosed Resignation mentioned in the Letter runs thus Ego Robertus Parsons Socius Collegii de Balliolo Resigno omne meum jus clameum quem habeo vel habere potero Societatis meae in dicto Collegio quod non quidem facio sponte coactus die decimo tertio Mensis Februarii Anno Dom. 1573. Per me Rob. Parsons The inclosed Decree about keeping his Chamber and Pupils mentioned in the Letter was this Eodem tempore decretum est unanimi Consensu Magistri reliquorum Sociorum ut Magister Robertus Parsons nuperrime Socius retineat sibi sua Cubicula Scholares quousque voluerit Communia sua de Collegio habeat usque ad Festum Paschatis immediate sequentis In this Letter we find the true account of the Proceedings at Baliol College against our Parsons that he was outed for falsifying the college-College-Accounts cheating the Commoners and for incapacity being illegitimo Thoro natus as appeared it seems to the College by Certificate With the Archbishop's account Mr. Camden's does very exactly agree who speaking of Parsons when become a Jesuit and Campian's coming privately into England in 1580. gives this Character of them both This Parsons was of Somersetshire a violent fierce-natur'd man and of a rough behaviour Campian was a Londoner of a sweet disposition and a well-polished man Both of them were by Education Oxford men whom I my self knew being of their standing in the University Campian being of St. John's College bore the Office of Proctour of the University in the Year 1568 and being made Deacon made a shew of the Protestant Religion till he withdrew himself out of England Parsons was of Baliol College wherein he openly professed the Protestant Religion until he was for his loose Carriage expelled with disgrace and went over to the Papists From the account of this matter from such plain evidence and such impartial unexceptionable Witnesses one ought to learn what little regard is to be given to one Jesuit's History or Character of another The Jesuit Morus in his account of Father Parsons leaving Baliol College says it was for his Religions sake and his honesty and not for Sedition and a Contentious temper which Morus says others had made the Father's crime and therefore that he had enlarged upon that business of the Resignation to cut off that Calumny that had been raised long after against the Innocent Honest Father Qua singillatim says the Jesuit à me percensenda fuerunt quo calumniae praecidatur tela quam multis post annis eadem haec invidia contexuit non Religionis ac probitatis defensae causa cessisse Personium sed cum reus commotae si Diis placet Seditionis ferri diuturnius non potuisset It requires the Pen and the Face of a Jesuit to write that a man was turned out of his College for being an honest man and for standing up for Probity when it appears from the authentick evidence of the College Books and those who were upon the same place that it was for direct knavery for cheating the College and Scholars while he was Bourfer to the value of an hundred Marks And the other branch of the Jesuit's account is just as true about his owning and asserting the Popish Religion whenas Mr. Camden who was his Contemporary and those who were of the same College shew that he not only made profession of the Protestant Religion while he continued there but was zealous for it and another adds to this That after he had so disgracefully left the College he declared to him that he neither was nor ever would be a Papist and which was a very wise thing offered to swear it too Quickly after this Resignation Parsons left Baliol College and Oxford also notwithstanding the Liberty that was allowed him of continuing in his Chambers and at Commons and having Pupils It seems Guilt and Disgrace made that University too uneasie to him to take the benefit of that allowance and therefore he hurries up to London but makes a very short stay there finding it best for a man in his condition vertere solum to travel beyond Seas whither though the guilt of his false and unquiet behaviour would go with him yet the disgrace might not get after him and so his life might not be too great a Burden to him Beyond Sea his first design was to study Physick but that soon altering he betook himself to the Study of the Civil Laws at Bononia and this also soon went off For within a year after his going beyond Seas we find him admitted at Rome into the Jesuits College by Mercurianus the General of their Order at that time It is very probable that as Vexation and Discontent those great Reconcilers of People to the Catholick Faith and Church of Rome then and now in fashion made him to turn Papist for all his Protestation to Mr. Clarke his Friend of the Inner-Temple to the contrary so Poverty and want of Conveniences necessary to the Study and Profession either of Civil Law or Physick and his natural temper did make him enter himself into the Jesuits Order This is certain that he was by Nature and Inclination every way fitted to make a compleat Jesuit he was fierce turbulent and bold which are the three main Qualifications of a Jesuit he had indeed one great fault I cannot tell whether I should call it a defect that he was too learned for that Society but perchance Ignorance was not then in Father Parson's days so peculiar and so essential to Jesuitism as our Age and especially our Nation has convinced the World that it is He was entred into the Jesuits College in July 1575. what progress in matters of Learning and Piety or whether he made any at all I do not find The active politick part seems to have employed him wholly from the time of his writing Jesuit and in that he has taken very large steps he was quickly taken notice of as a man
fixt upon the Bishop of London's Gates the Title of which to trouble the Reader with no more of it is this The sentence Declaratory of our holy Lord Pope Pius Quintus against Elizabeth Queen of England and the Hereticks adhering to her wherein also all her Subjects are declared to be absolved from the Oath of Allegiance and whatever other duty they owe unto her and those which from henceforth shall obey her are involved in the same Curse or Anathema But as terrible as this Title and as much more terrible as the Bull it self was it did no ways answer the Pope's Expectation it was so far from raising all the Papists in the Nation against her which was his Expectation as well 〈◊〉 his command that it was contemned and slighted by most and instead of alieâ—â—ting their duty and their affections from the Queen it did alienate them both from him who was so ill advised as by such hasty unreasonable and ridiculous provocations to bring the severity of Laws and Trouble upon them who had hitherto been suffered quietly to enjoy in private the exercise of their Religion but now had no reason to expect it any longer being made every one of them so obnoxious and suspicious to the Government by reason of this his declaratory Bull against the Queen In this Condition the Queen and Realm were when our two Jesuits were sent over and as no wise Man nor sober Man among the Papists themselves ever doubted that this Excommunication and Deposition of Queen Elizabeth was oweing to the false suggestions and traiterous and importunate solicitations of the Jesuits Faction so it is as little to be questioned that the Jesuits undertook to make this Bull effectual and to raise not only the Papists but all others that they could buy into their interest to depose the Queen and reduce the Realm to the Pope's Obedience and that for this very purpose their first Mission came over hither They pretended indeed that they came over only to minister in Spiritual things to the necessities of the remaining Catholicks in England and to propagate their Catholick Religion as they call it for the saving of Men's Souls and that their business was not to stir up Sedition against the Queen or to meddle with matters of State but whatever their pretences were or whatever Father Moor has devised for them in his account of their Mission into England this we are sure of that the private Instructions here following given these two Jesuits by Pope Gregory XIII for their coming hither together with their practices immediately after their getting into England prove the direct contrary upon them We must understand that as by the damnatory Bull of Pius V. Queen Elizabeth and all her Adherents were cursed and deposed from all Power and Authority so by the last clause but one of it the Papists themselves were put under the same Curse and Anathematized if they continued to obey her Praecipimusque interdicimus universis singulis c. And we command and forbid all and every the Noblemen Subjects People and others aforesaid that they presume not to obey her or her Monitions Mandates or Laws and for those who shall do otherwise than here commanded we do involve them in the same Sentence of Anathema This was very hard upon the Papists themselves since how unable soever they might be to depose the Queen and how certain soever their Ruine would be upon the least attempt towards it yet attempt it they must and disobey her and her Laws they must or else be put into the very same Condition with the Heretical Queen her self and therefore the Jesuits or their Friends who were to come over foreseeing this great inconvenience that the English Papists were not allowed to wait a favourable opportunity of deposing the Queen but must do it out of hand though it was absolutely impossible for them obtained faculties from this Pope's Successor Gregory XIII to free the Romanists in England from the Curse of that Declaratory Bull for the present till things were riper and a more favourable Juncture offered it self which Faculties were taken about one of these two Jesuits Complices immediately after Campian's Execution and run thus Facultates Concessae P. P. Roberto Parsonio Edmundo Campiano pro Angliâ die 14 o Aprilis 1580. PEtatur à Summo Domino nostro Explicatio Bullae Declaratoriae per Pium Quintum contra Elizabethum ei adhaerentes quam Catholici cupiunt intelligi hot modo ut obliget semper illam haereticos Catholicos vero nullo modo obliget rebus sic stantibus sed tum demum quando publica ejus dem Bullae executio fieri poterit Then followed as my Lord Burleigh's now stand but hereafter when the publick Execution of the said Bull may be had or made c. The Pope hath granted these foresaid Graces to Father Robert Parsons and Edmond Campion who are now to go into England the 14 th day of April 1580. Present the Father Oliverius Manarcus assistant Faculties granted to the Two Fathers Robert Parsons and Edmond Campian for England the 14 th of April 1580. LET it be desired of our most Holy Lord the Explication of the Bull Declaratory made by Pius the Fifth against Elizabeth and such as do adhere to or obey her which Bull the Catholicks desire to be understood in this manner That the same Bull shall always oblige her and the Hereticks but the Catholicks it shall by no means bind as affairs do Tract concerning Execution for Treason and not for Religion tells us many other Petitions of Faculties for their further Authorities which were all concluded thus Has praedictas Gratias concessit summus Pontifex Patri Roberto Personio Edmondo Campiano in Angliam profecturis die 14 o Aprilis 1580. Praesente Patre Oliverio Manarco assistente Thus furnished Father Parsons set out for England upon his true business which was not to read Mass and take Confessions and the like but to put this Bull of Deposition in Execution against his lawful Queen as soon as matters were a little riper and when the Jesuits thought fit to speak out And as his Instructions were such so his behaviour was every whit answerable to them he made it his whole business to alienate the Papists he conversed with from their Allegiance and went about the Kingdom in his several disguises upon the same traiterous errand one while in the habit of a Soldier another while in that of a Gentleman sometimes in the habit of a Minister again in that of an Apparitor a very Proteus Sedition and Treason was his business hither and he presently upon his arrival in England fell to his Jesuitical courses and so belaboured both himself and others in matters of State which the Jesuit Moor would fain have the World to believe they were charged in their Dispatches not to meddle in neither by word nor writing how he might set her Majesties Crown upon another Head
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
Succession of the King of Scotland to the Crown of England And as for the person says he to the English Catholicks now advanced I know most certainly that there was never any doubt or difference among you but that ever you desired his advancement above all others as the only Heir of that renowned Mother for whom your fervent zeal is known to the World and how much you have suffered by her adversaries for the same Yet do I confess that touching the disposition of the person for the place and manner of his advancement all zealous Catholicks have both wished and prayed that he might first be a Catholick and then our King this being our bounded duty to wish and his greatest good to be obtained for him And to this end and no other I assure my self hath been directed whatsoever may have been said written or done by any Catholick which with some others might breed disgust Thus the Jesuit thought to pacifie King James's Court by a piece of Impudence to be met with only in a Jesuit whoever will be at the pains to compare Parson's Doleman with this Preface cannot but declare him to be the greatest Villain that ever set Pen to Paper and to have lost all sense of Modesty Truth and Justice Amidst these his Projects for the Spanish Interest he had hopes upon the death of Cardinal Allen to be made by the Spanish Interest a Cardinal for England and there was set about in Flanders by Holt the Jesuit and Worthington a Petition to the King of Spain for that purpose subscribed by the Common Soldiers Labourers Artizans and Pensioners nay Scullions and Laundresses as well as by those of better rank and quality Upon this Father Parsons makes haste out of Spain to Rome to hinder it as the Jesuits say for him when he came thither upon a day set him he waited on the Pope and acquainted him how the City was full of the discourse of his being shortly to be made a Cardinal and that Spain and Flanders rung with it too and therefore begged of him that he would not think of making him a Cardinal who might be more serviceable in the condition he was now in to the affairs of England The Pope told him That the King of Spain had not written a syllable to him about any such thing and that he must not mind foolish Reports and bid him go and mind his studies I cannot but think that this neglect in the King of Spain lost him Father Parsons who soon after though he could not leave of plotting went on other designs four of which he seems to have had on foot together for the Exclusion of King James from the Crown of England The most improbable one was that of the Peoples rising and setting up a popular Government he had furnished them with Principles in several of his Books for this purpose In the Second and Third he dealt with the Pope either about making if his Purse and Interest were large enough his Kinsman the Duke of Parma King or in joyning with the Lady Arabella's Interest and marrying her to the Duke's Brother the Cardinal Farnese whom he had made upon the death of Cardinal Cajetan Protector of England thereby to ingratiate him with the Clergy and Laity of this Kingdom Cardinal d'Ossat gives a very large account of both these Projects in the Letter whcih I have already quoted to the King of France And in another of his Letters he gives an account of the fourth Project wherein he himself had been dealt with by Parsons then Rector of the College of Jesuits at Rome which was that the Pope the King of France and King of Spain should agree among themselves of a Successor for England that should be a Catholick and that they should joyn their Forces to settle him in the Throne of England Thus we see how Plotting and Treason was the whole business of this Jesuit's Life in which he was so notorious that Pasquin set him forth thus at Rome If there be any Man that will buy the Kingdom of England let him repair to a Merchant in a black square Cap in the City and he shall have a very good penniworth thereof While he thus filled his head with designs and hopes of a Popish Prince to be set up in England by some of these foreign Princes it was that he drew up the following Memorial for that his Prince his Directions to whom are like his other Counsels and Actions I will trouble the Reader with no more of his History As I take the Jesuits to be the very worst of Men so I think the preceeding accounts have proved Father Parsons to be the very worst of Jesuits A MEMORIAL OF THE REFORMATION of ENGLAND CONTAINING Certain Notes and Advertisements which seem might be proposed in the First Parliament and National Council of our Country after God of his mercy shall restore it to the Catholick Faith for the better Establishment and Preservation of the said Religion Gathered and set-down by R.P. 1596. THE PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR SHEWING How and why these Notes were gathered and the principal Parts to be treated THE Notes and Observations of this Memorative following were gathered and laid together in time of Persecution when there was no place to execute or put them in ure and it is no more than seventeen or eighteen Years past that the Gatherer began first to put some of them in writing and having had the experience of the Years which have ensued since and his part also in the Catholic affairs of his Country and the Practice of divers other Catholic Nations abroad he was desirous in case that himself should not live to see the desired day of the Reduction of England yet some of his Cogitations and Intentions for the publick good thereof might work some effect after his Death and that thereby other Men might be the sooner moved to enter into more mature Considerations of these and such like Points yea and also to descend unto many more particulars than here are set down For that the Gatherer's meaning was only to open the way and to insinuate certain general and principal Heads that might serve for an awaking and remembrance at that happy day of the Conversion of our Country unto such Persons as shall be then able and desirous to further the common good and to advance Almighty God's Glory with a Holy Zeal of perfect Reformation who perhaps may be so entangled with multitudes of other business and Cogitations at that time as they will not so easily enter into these except they be put in mind thereof by some such Memorials and Advertisements as here are touched And what is said in this Treatise for the Kingdom of England is meant also for Ireland so far as it may do good seeing the Author desireth as much benefit for God's Service and the good of that Nation to the one Country as to the other And for that the principal
poor with Alms that no Brass Mony at all hath been permitted as in all other Countries is used where yet there is much more store of Silver than in ours For without this neither can the poor live nor small traffick be maintained wherefore of necessity it must be thought on that some Brass Mony be brought in correspondent to our Farthing Half-penny and the like I have spoken also before of a certain Common Treasure or bank to be erected in every great Town for poor Men to borrow Mony upon sureties with very little or no interest which would be a great help and stay for many poor People Divers Companies and Societies also and Confraternities are to be erected among the common People for their exercise in Piety and works of Charity as for example the Confraternity or Brotherhood of the blessed Sacrament of the Christian Doctrin of visiting Prisons or the Sick All which Brotherhoods and Societies must have their particular Statutes Rules and Ordinances for their good directions in their holy purposes Though the number of Grammar-Schools in English Towns Cities and Villages be more frequent commonly than in any other Countries yet are they now to be increased and no Village lightly should pass without a Master in it to teach the Children to write and read at the least and to cast accounts and to know the Christian Doctrine and when good wits are discovered they should be sent to higher Schools and thence to the Seminaries to go forward in learning And particular care ought to be had as before hath been noted that Men be not suffered to bring up their Children idly without some Talent of Study Art Science or Occupation And of this the Bishops ought to make inquiry of the Curate and Church-wardens in their Visitations and the Secular Justices in their ordinary Quarter-sessions to the end that this fountain of evil in the Commonwealth may be avoided And albeit many things more may be noted especially out of the godly Customs of other Catholick Countries yet not to enlarge any further this Memorial which is grown much greater than at the beginning I had purposed I mean to stay here leaving the Consideration and suggesting of the rest to them that shall know more and live at that happy day which we pray for of the Conversion of our Country And if only these few Notes or the principal of them which we have laid together in this Memorial shall be put in Execution I do not doubt by the help of Almighty God to whose Glory all tendeth but that our Country in small time would flourish more than ever again So as we may justly take that comfortable saying of Esaiah the Prophet to be spoke to us which he spoke to Jerusalem after a mighty storm of Purgation past Consolamini consolamini Popule mens Dimissa est iniquitas Hierusalem suscepit de manu Domini duplicia pro omnibus peccatis suis. FINIS Subscribed by the Author 's own hand this that followeth This I had to suggest to the Honour of Almighty God and good of our Country ROB. PERSONS Books lately Printed for Ric. Chiswell THE Fifteen Notes of the Church as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmin examined and confuted by several London Divines 4 o. With a Table to the whole and the Authors Names An Exposition of the Ten Commandments By Dr. Simon Patrick now Lord Bishop of Chichester The Lay Christians's Obligation to read the Holy Scriptures by Dr. Stratford now Lord Bishop of Chester The Texts which the Papists cite out of the Bible for proof of the points of their Religion Examined and shew'd to be alledged without Ground In twenty five distinct Discourses by several London Divines with a Table to the whole and the Authors Names The Case of Allegiance in our present circumstances considered in a Letter from a Minister in the City to a Minister in the Country 40. An Examination of the Scruples of those who refuse to take the Oath of Allegiance By a Divine of the Church of England A Dialogue betwixt two Friends a Jacobite and a Williamite occasioned by the late Revolution of Affairs and the Oath of Allegiance The Case of Oaths Stated 40. A Letter from a French Lawyer to an English Gentleman upon the present Revolution 40. The Advantages of the present Settlement and the great danger of a Relapse A short View of the Unfortunate Reigns of these Kings William the 2d Henry the 2d Edward the 2d Richard the 2d Charles the 2d and James the 2d Dr. Sherlock's Summary of the Controversies between the Church of England and Church of Rome The Plain Man's Reply to the Catholick Missionaries Dr. Wake 's Tracts and Discourses against Popery in 2 Vol. â—â—â—rto Some Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont By P. Allix DD. 40. Geologia Or A Discourse concerning the Earth before the Deluge wherein the Form and Properties ascribed to it in a Book intituled The Theory of the Earth are excepted against And it is made appear That the dissolution of that Earth was not the Cause of the Universal Flood Also a new Explication of that Flood is attempted By Erasmus Warren Rector of Worâ—ington in Suffolk The Present State of Germany or aâ— Account of the Extent Rise Form Wealth Strength Weaknesses and Interests of that Empire The Prerogatives of the Emperour and the Privileges of the Electors Princes and Free Cities adapted to the present Circumstances of that Nation By a Person of Quality 40. (a) Morus Historia Missionis Anglicanae Soc. Jesu l. 2. p. 39. * Thus non (b) In the Proctor's Book I find one Tho. Hyde proceeded Master of Arts the same year with Rob. Parsons viz. 1573. (c) Christopher Bagshaw admitted Fellow 1572. left the College 1582. was made Priest in France lived a while in the English College at Rome proceeded Doctor some say at Padua A.P. Reply p. 156. others at Paris and was one of the Faculty at Sorbonne He was active against the Archpriest in the stirs at Wisbich he lived to be very old (d) Dr. Sutclif's Blessings on Mount Gerizim p. 288. * Where he was then Master Camden's Elizabeth Book 2. p. 246. * Morus Historia Missionis p. 40. Acceptis ab Everardo mandatis de re Catholicae per nostri instituti ministeria diligenter procuranda atquo non minori diligentis vitaâ—â—a 〈◊〉 rerum quae ad regni publica negotia pertinerent seu verbo seu scripto trabatione Mor. Hist. Min. l. 3. p. 61. * Pag. 12 13. (c) Important Considerations p. 40. Hart's Confession taken December 31. 1580. in Lord Burleigh's Tract p. 14. (*) Andreas Philopaâ—… Responsio ad Edictum Reginae Angliae p. 106 107. in Fouli`s History of â—â—pish Treasons p. 77. Vertumnus Romanas Lettres Card. d'Ossat Part 2. l. 7. (a) Jesuits Reasons Unreasonable p. 65. (b) Morus Hist. Miss Jesuit l. 4. p. 122. Pitsaeus also makes him to be the Author of it Watson's Quodlibet p. 120. Morus Hist. Miss Jes. l. 6. p. 234 235. (c) Lettres Card. d'Ossat Part 2. l. 8. n. 162. See Animadversions * Important Considerations in a Collection of several Treatises concerning the Reasons and Occasions of the Penal Laws p. 31. (3) p. 34. (m) p. 55.56 (3) Camden Elizabeth B. 2. 150. Perfect Reformation Council of Trent State of England (l) Vertumnus Romanus published by Dr. Featly Pref. p. 7. * Apparatus p. 7. * Lib. 8. p. 153. 1685. Rebus intra Regnum utcunque stabilitis concordia florentibus proxima serenissimo Regi cura fuit suas ditiones cum Ecclesiae Catholicae Capite Romano Pontifice sanctaque Sede Apostolica connectere à qua haeresis eas ante sesquise ulum divulserat Ad tentandum ergo Vadum anno 1685. Romam destinat Jodunem Carillum stirpis claritudine opulentia illustrem Cui revocato cunctis ex vâ—to gestis Legatus extraordinarius eo destinatus est anno sequenti nempe 1686. illustrissimus Comes de Castlemaine Obedientiam Canonicam Jacobi Catholicorum Regni nomine testaturus See Bishop Burnet's History of the Reformation Second Part p. 390. c. ☜ ☜ ☞ ☜ * See his 9 th Chapter ☞ ☜ ☜ ☜ A good manner of proposing in Parliament New Laws to be made or thought on ☜ Mortmains ☞ Whether the first Parliament of Q. Elizabeth were good ☞ The name of the Clergy A Consideration both for Prince and People The Education in our Seminaries The cry of Mr. John Avila Bishops Livings No access of Women to be permitted Occupations of a good Bishop What Men ought to be chosen Bishops Benefices to be provided by opposition Of helping our selves by Strangers No Appropriation of Benefices at the beginning Churches Chancels and Sacristies ☜ ☞ Preferment for those of Seminaries Directions and often Meetings for the Clergy Of Priest's and Clergy-men's Apparel Proof of such as desire to be Priests out of Seminaries Of Universities and Colleges Multitude of Oaths to be restrained Competent Stipends Mathematicks and Tongues Defects of Grammar Schools Time and spaces of courses in Faculties Beginning of establishing Discipline Order of Apparel ☞ Wants of divers Colleges Heads of Houses Ordinary Jurisdiction How Founders Intentions for Masses may be satisfied Emulation to be avoided ☞ The Ordaining of a new Clergy by Christ. Temporal authoriâ—y far inferiour to Spiritual The old Temporal honour of English Clergy The importance of a good Prince and the account that he must make ☞ A Council of Conscience (b) ☞ The quite contrary has happened very lately in England Restoring of Liberties and Priviledges ☜ Restitution of Justice Multitude of Thieves in England (c) This Principle does not only justifie an Exclusion-Bill but a worse Practice that I will not name Lists of Mens names and merits Nobility's Servants Nobility's Children Wards Younger Brothers Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Daughters and Dowries Setting the Lands at the old Rent of Assize Old Rents commodious to the Common-wealth Reformation of the Common Law Remedy for bringing Suits to London Visitors upon Lawyers and Judges The Common Laws of England unjust in matter of Life and Death The Equity and Piety of Imperial Laws in matter of Life and Death Inquiry upon Injuries done to the Commonalty Honest Recreation of the Commonalty Corpus Christi Feast Divers Schools The Conclusion