alterum diem Deo volente Qui te seruet Illustrissime Domine Londini VIII Eid Sept. MDCXIII Tuae Reuerentiae obseruantiss cultor IS CASAVBONVS Right Reuerend my Gracious Lord I Send vnto your Grace the Letter whereof you haue heard The Letter was sent me with intent it should be communicated vnto the King but I thought it fitter to bee suppressed and to be shewed vnto none For I cannot approue the drift of that learned man who wrâ—te the Letter Wherefore I answered him forâ—â—with and with many words aduised him to desist from that purpose I brought him many reasons why I certainely beleeued it was folly or rather frensie to hope for any good from the Romish Phalaris for that very terme I vsed who laughs at our euils if there be any amongst vs. I laid before his eyes how auerse the Peeres of the Romish Church are from all equitie specially Bellarmine of whose impiety I wrote at large vnto him I set before his eyes with how great danger to himselfe he seemed to become the Popes Patron I alledged testimonies of Matthew Paris of the great misery of England when it was vnder the Popes obedience I added the example of that Narbonois who of late sent vnto the Kings MAIESTY a booke of the like argument that being commanded by the KING to say my mind I professed my detestation thereof and that it was his MAIESTIES will to haue some animaduersions set in the margent of the booke After which what became of Carier I know not This I thought good to signifie vnto your Grace but I expected vntill you were returned vnto the Citie for the publishing of my booke stayes meat home I haue other weighty matters whereof to aduise with your Grace within this day or two God willing who preserue you my gracious Lord. London Sept. 6. 1613. Your Graces most respectiue Obseruer ISA. CASAVBON B. C. 17. There is a statute in England made by King Henry the VIII to make him supreame head of the Church in spirituall and Ecclesiasticall causes which Statute enioynes all the subiects of England on paine of death to beleeue and to sweare they doe beleeue that it is true and yet all the world knowes if King Henry the VIII could haue gotten the Pope to diuorce Queene Katherine that he might marrie Anne Bullen that Statute had neuer been made by him and if that title had not enabled the King to pull downe Abbeys and religious houses and giue them to Lay men the Lords and Commons of that time would neuer haue suffered such a Statute to be made This Statute was continued by Queene Elizabeth to serue her owne turne and it is confirmed by your Maiestie to satisfie other men and yet your Maiestie yeeldeth the Church of Rome to be the mother Church and the Bishop of Rome to bee the chiefe Bishop or Primate of all the Westerne Churches which I doe also verely beleeue and therfore I doe verely thinke he hath or ought to haue some spirituall iurisdiction in England and although in mine yonger dayes the fashion of the world made me sweare as other did for which I pray God forgiue mee yet I euer doubted and I am now resolued that no Christian man can take that oath with a safe conscience neither will I euer take it to gaine the greatest preferment in the world G. H. 17. The Statute here intended can be none other then the Sâ—tute 26. of H. VIII Cap. 1. for that is the first Statute that medleth with the Supremacie which Statute is as the Common Lawyers terme it Statutum declaratiuum not introductiuum noui iuris as doth clearely appeare by the Preamble which hath these words Albeit the Kings Maiestie iustly and rightfully is and ought to bee taken and accepted supreame head of the Church of England and so is recognized by the Clergie in their Conuocation yet neuerthelesse for corroboration and confirmation thereof Be it enacted that the King shall bee taken and accepted Supreme head c. So that the Doctor is fowly mistaken to say that there was a Statute made by K. Henry the VIII to make him Supreme head for it was his ancient right that made him so and it was his Clergie that had acknowledged him to be so before the making of this Statâ—te nay the very phrase and letter of this Statute it selfe doeth purposely renounce the power of making and assumes onely the authority of confirming Whereby it is cleare that Henrie VIII made not a statute to make himselfe Supreme in Ecclesiasticall causes as Mr. Doctor affirmeth but to confirme those Statutes and Rights which his noble Progenitors as iuâ—tly challenged to belong to their Crown as the Bishops of Rome vniustly pretended to be annexed to their Myter And where he sayes that the Statute which according to his vnderstanding made him Supreme head did also enioyne the Subiect to beleeue and sweare it tâ— bee true it is manifest that there is not any mention at all of any oath in that Statute but it is true indeede that in the 28. of Henry VIII chap. 10. there is an oath of Supremacie ordeined the refusall whereof by some certaine persons enioyned by that Act to take it was made high Treason And herein againe is the Doctour deceiued nay which is worse seeketh to deceiue others for onely some certaine persons were bound by that Statute to take the oath and not all the Subiects of England as he falsely surmiseth Anno 35. Henry VIII cap. 1. the oath of Supremacie ordeined by 28. was repealed and a new forme of oath prescribed and extended to more persons but neuer to all in generall The same Parliament Cap. 3. enioyneth that the stile of Supreme head be receiued and vsed and this was all that was done by Henry VIII in the point of Supremacie by way of Statute So that to say as Master Doctor doth that all the Subiects in England are bound vpon paine of death to beleeue the Supremacie is a malicious fiction in two respects First touching the persons enioyned to take the oath and lyable to the punishment and then againe as touching the offence for that beliefe alone which is a secret inclination of the minde knowne onely to God the searcher of the heart and not issuable nor tryable by any Law humane should be made an offence punishable by death is in it selfe so absurde as it cannot but appeare to bee a false imputation to charge our Law-makers therewithall Lastly whereas hee sayes that Henry the VIII would neuer haue made that Statute if he could haue gotten the Pope to haue diuorced Queene Katherine that he might haue married Anne Boleine it is cleare and all the world may know that if King Henry would haue ioyned with Francis the French King in the warre of Naples against Charles the Emperour the Pope would not haue stucke to haue giuen way to that diuorce for the better procuring of which Combination hee did not onely
Kings Henry the VIII and Edward the VI. who by their Letters Patents haue warranted the same of which landes and possessions if the owners should now be dispossessed the King should be bound to repay vnto them all their money which would arise to such a huge masse that it would be a hard matter for the Crowne to restore it 3 The Nobles and Gentry of this realme most of whom haue sold and aliened their ancient inheritances to buy these new cannot liue according to their degrees if these possessions should be taken from them 4 The purchasers or owners of such lands and possessions in as much as they came to them by iust title according to the ordinance of the Kings of this kingdome haue held and doe still hold a good and iustifyable course in obteining them 5 The enioying of such landes and possessions is so common vnto euery State and condition of men Cities Colledges and Incorporations that if the same bee taken from them there will necessarily follow thereupon throughout the whole Kingdome a suddaine change and confusion of all Orders and Degrees 6 Seeing that the goods and possessions of the Church euen by the authority of the Cannons may bee aliened for the redemption of captiues and that the same may bee done by that Church onely to whom such possessions doe belong It is fit and reasonable that such dispensations should bee granted for continuing of possession already gotten for so great a good of publike concord and vnity of the Church and preseruation of this State as well in body as in soule Those possessions indeed in many places I speake specially of Tenths which by reason of Popish dispensations were first caried from the Church are as the flâ—sh which the Eagle stole from the Altar carying a coale of fire with it to the burning down and quite consuming of the nests of many of them that held them and in this respect Mr. Doctor may well say that the most part of them who now enioy them haue payed well for them in asmuch as the first owners were enforced or their posteritie within a generation or two to sell that which others purchased Now this curse of God I can impute to none other thing then to the alienation of Tenths from their proper vse to which they were and still should be ordained or at leastwise the bare and scant allowance which is made to the Minister of the greatest part of the fattest Impropriations so that commonly no Parishes are worse prouided for then those that pay most the redresse wherof if it should please God to put into his Maiesties heart and the assembly of the Estates in parliament it would bee a worke no doubt honourable in it selfe acceptable to CHRIST and beneficiall to his Church for which he would the rather blesse their other proceedings I speake not for the restoring of Impropriations though that were rather to be wished then hoped their value being little or nothing inferiour to the Benefices but the making of a coÌ„petent allowance out of them for the maintenance of a preaching Minister and I am sory to heare that some of them should be so backward in the former who most vrge the later the rather for that I would not haue it thought our Religion cannot stand but by the spoyle of the Church liuings though the Pope as it seemes by Mr. Doctor cares not who loseth so that himselfe may winne The vertue of the Sacraments expressed in holy Scripture wee preach not against but as for merit of workes and inuocation of Saints they were preached against and that in England long before the lands were taken from the Abbeys and though they are still preached against yet with vs are the Saints reuerenced with the honour due vnto them by our obseruation of the dayes consecrated to the memorials of their glorious and precious deaths And some Churches are built among vs as occasion serues and necessitie requires but more Hospitals Schooles almeshouses Colledges Libraries and the like charitable workes since the beginning of Queene Elizabeths reigne to this present time then in the space of any three score yeeres successiuely taken since the Conquest which I speake not to boast of the fruits of our Religion but to giue God the honour and as for the Hugonotes of France as you are pleased to terme them if they bee guilty of pulling downe Churches wee neither incourage them to it nor defend them in it as neither doe wee the Papists in their barbarous massacres but onely say of them as the parents of the blind man they are of sufficient age let them answere for themselues Lastly because you addresse your discourse in particular to the Nobles in this Section I craue leaue to put them in mind of a peece of a letter written by their predecessors to the Bishop of Rome during the reigâ—e of Henrie the III. I will recite it in the words of Matthew Parris translated The great ones sayth hee by writing to the Pope complained of the scandals bred out of the rapine and auarice of Rome and spread not onely in England but through the Christian world that themselues would not endure that their countrey from thencefoorth should bee so rudely handled no though the King himselfe should winke at it and vnlesse say they these matters bee speedily redressed by you let your Holinesse know for certaine that it may not vniustly bee feared that such a danger is likely thereby to ensue both to the Church of Rome and to our Lord the King that no remedie will easily bee found for it My hope then is that our Nobles being now farther enlightned by the beames of the Gospell and the cleare discouery of the trueth in the writings of learned men then their predecessours who liued in those times of darkenesse will like the Noble Theophilus to whom S. Luke dedicates his Gospell and The Actes of the Apostles and those noble Bereans who the more noble they were receiued the word with the greater readinesse hold fast the profession which they haue vowed themselues vnto by resisting the vsurpation and tyranny of that man of sinne and maintaining the libertie and freedome of their countrey In the first Parliament held by Queene Mary after her Comming to the Crowne the Nobilitie of England though they gaue way to the administration of the Sacraments and other doctrinall points as they were vsed and held in her Father Kings Henries time yet could they hardly be induced either by her importunitie whom it most concerned in regard of her birthright made good by the Popes dispensation or by the perswasions of Cardinall Poole her Cosin and by her made Archbishop of Canterbury who had beene for many yeeres maintained for the most part at the Popes charge to yeeld that the Queene should surrender her title of Supreme head of the Church of England or that the Pope should bee suffered to exercise his wonted iurisdiction within her dominions how much more then at
reason the Bishop of Rome hath or at least wise formerly had the word Mysterie engrauen on his diademe since in the seuenteenth of the Reuel at the fift verse it is foretold it should be written on the forehead of the â—reat Whore For to passe by other depthes of Satan as they bee called Reuel 2. verse 24. I would know what Religion was ener in the world which inuented a policie like to the Popes dispensations in generall but specially in Mariages it being hitherto the best stake in his hedge and without exception the strongest sinew for the tying of Christian Princes vnto him as to their head they being made many of them by it legitimate and illegitimate without it So they stand in a maner bound to defend his authority with the same sword that they do their own Crownes And I am verily perswaded were it not that they lie obnoxious to him in this regard some of them would not sticke so close to him as they doe especially since the publishing of his Maiesties learned and godly premonition vnto them Farther what vse they make of Confessions for the discouerie of all secrets as well of nature as of States Indulgences Canonizations Consecrations Of their bloodie Inquisition which like a sharpe Northerne winde nippes the spring of Religion in the bud Of forging false Authours and corrupting the true Of suppressing the bookes of our Writers and correcting their owne Of spreading false rumors and razing all antiquitie that makes against them the world hath long since discouered Besides all this they haue a baite for euery fish a motiue to draw euery seuerall humour for an ambitious disposition they haue a triple Crowne or a Cardinals cap for a Contemplatiue a Monkes cloister or a Friars coule for a working practical head imployment in State affaires for a Scholasticke preaching writing and in writing some they set to meditations some to politike discourses some to cases of conscience some to commentaries some to controuersies according to the seuerall point and temper of their wits Nay he that shal but consider the politike forme of gouernment obserued in the onely order of the Iesuits their rules their intelligence their corespondence their infinite cunning deuises how to winne some whom they desire for respects to be of their society or to make their friends and to disgrace or remoue others whom they suspect to stand in theirway may iustly pronounce of them that they haue perfectly learned the former part of our Sauiours lesson Be wise as serpents but not the latter be ye innocent as doues wheras nothing argues the inocency of our cause more then that it hitherto hath bin and still is supported meerely by the goodnesse of God and the euidence of trueth H Surely if true religion be vnchangeable then the Romish cannot be the true it hauing suffered so many changes both in doctrine and practise that wee may now iustly question it whether it bee the same or no as the Schollers of Athens did Theseus his ship after many reparations wee may seeke Rome in Rome it selfe and not find it I will instance onely in the Masse which like a beggars cloakehath receiued so many additions and patcheâ— that if S. Peter should now liue to see a Priest saying Masse hee would without doubt conceiue it to bee any thing rather then the commemoration of Christs death or the administration of his Supper and to speake a trueth as long as the traditions of Men are held of equall authoritie with the liuely Oracles and eternall trueth of God it caâ—not bee but that religion which is grounded on them should be as subiect to variation as are the conceptions of mens minds So that your ground for the finding out of that religion wherein a maâ— might finde rest vnto his soule is excellent good but your application erroneous since there is indeede no rest but vpon eternall trueth and no trueth eternall but that which is diuine B. C. 3. My next care then was after I came to yeeres of discretion by all the best meanes I could to enforme my selfe whether the religion of England were indeed the very same which being prefigured and prophecied in the olde Testament was perfected by our blessed Sauiour and deliuered to his Apostles and disciples to continue by perpetuall succession in his visible Church vntill his comming againe or whether it were a new one for priuate purposes of Statesmen inuented and by humane lawes established Of this I could not chuse but make some doubt because I heard men talke much in those dayes of the change of religion which was then lately made in the beginning of Queene ELIZABETHS raigne G. H. 3. I would demaund by M. Doctors leaue whethermen might not talke as much of the change of religion made in the beginning of Queene Maries raigne as Queene Elizabeths But you will say Queene Maries was a restitution to the ancient and wee replie that Queene Elizabeths was a restitution to a more ancient and most true it is the most ancient is the most true So that in this regard wee may iustly say Nos non sumus nouatores sed vos estis veteratores and with our Sauiour From the beginning it was not so B. C. 4. I was sorry to heare of a change and of a new religion seeing me thought in reason if true religion were eternall the new religion could not be the true But yet I hoped that the religion of England was not a change or a new religion but a restitution of the olde and that the change was in the Church of Rome which in processe of time might perhaps grow to bee Superstitious and Idolatrous and that therefore England had done well to leaue the Church of Rome and to reforme it selfe and for this purpose I did at my leisure and best opportunitie as I came to more iudgement reade ouer the Chronicles of England and obserued all the aâ—terations of religion that I could find therein but when I found there that the present religion of England was a plaine change and change vpon change and that there was no cause of the change at all at the first but onely that â— King Henry the VIII was desirous to change his olde bedfellow that hee might leaue some heires males behind him for belike hee feared the females would not bee able to withstand the title of Scotland and that the change was continued and increased by the posteritie of his latter wiues I could not chuse but suspect some thing But yet the loue of the world and hope of preferment would not suffer me to beleeue but that all was well and as it ought to be G. H. 4. You told vs before that your care was assoone as you came to yeeres of discretion by all meanes you could to enforme your selfe whether the religion of England were indeed the very same which being prefigured and prophecied in the olde Testament was perfected by our blessed Sauiour and
her singular vertues and excellencies erected to her euerlasting memorie a princely Monument in the magnificent Chappell of her grandfather Henry the seuenth inscribed with this ensuing Epitaph of her greatnesse Sacred vnto memorie Religion to its primitiue syncerity restored Peace throughly setled Coine to the true value refined Rebellion at home extinguished France neere ruine by intestine mischiefes relieued Netherland supported Spaines Armado vanquished Ireland with Spaniards expulsion and traitors coercion quieted both Vniuersities Reuenues by a law of prouision exceedingly augmented finally all England enriched and xlv yeeres most prudently gouerned ELIZABETH a Queene a Conqueresse a Triumpher the most deuoted to pietie the most happie after lxx yeeres of her life quietly by death departing hath left here in this most famous Collegiate Church which by her was established and refounded these remaines of her mortality vntil at Christs call they shall againe rise immortall Shee died the xxiiij of March the yeere of Saluation MDCII of her reigne xlv of her age lxx For an eternall memoriall Vnto ELIZABETH Queene of England France and Ireland daughter of King Henrie the VIII grandchild to K. Hen. the VII great grandchild to K. Ed. the IIII the mother of this her Countrey the Nurse of Religion and Learning for perfect skill of very many languages for glorious endowments as well of minde as body and for regall vertues beyond her Sex A Prince incomparable IAMES of Great Britaine France and Ireland King inheritor both of her Vertues and Kingdomes to her so well deseruing piously hath this erected Which I haue the rather set downe at large aswel for the reuerence I bare her memorie in whose reigne it is not the least part of my comfort that I was borne and baptized as to commend to posteritie his Maiesties Royall disposition in giuing her right so farre as were it not authorized by his princely testimonie future ages would thinke it fabulous but specially to shew that hee ascribeth all her honour and prosperitie not to the Church of Rome as Mr. Doctor doth or to the religion by him called Catholike but to her deuotion and pietie and the restoring of religion to its primitiue syncerity For with it as shee made the entrance of her reigne so doth hee of her Epitaph both esteeming it as the head spring from whence all that ensuing happinesse did flow and was deriued neither can it in mine vnderstanding bee otherwise ascribed to Rome then in granting that the reputation and renowne which shee wanne was in part gained and much increased by escaping through Gods especiall prouidence euer watchfull ouer her the manifold treasons and frustrating the barbarous attempts that were hatched at Rome and to bee acted by Romish vassals aswell against her person as estate which made her greatest enemies confesse the finger of God is heere and surely had not Rome endeauoured by might and maine to quench and eclipsâ— her light witnesse the Bull of Clement the 7th while shee was yet in her mothers wombe and afterward of Pius and Sixtus and Cardinall Comoes letter to Parrie and Cardinall Allens booke to the Nobilitie of England in the yeere 1588. I am clearely of opinion the beames of her honour had not shined so clearely and gloriously to the world as they did Lastly those singularities which you bring of being a woman a maiden Queene and the last of her Race they were indeed aduantages of admiration but such in my iudgement as rather shew that shee was blessed from heauen then by any earthly meanes in as much as liuing and dying both without the helpe of an husband and hope of an heire from her owne body she notwithstanding proiected and effected so great matters and so much good to the State she gouerned B. C. 5. As for the honour and greatnesse of the Turke and other Infidels as it reacheth no farther then this life so it hath no beginning from aboue this world And if we may beleeue S. Ambrose in Luc. 4. alibâ— those honours are conferred rather by Gods permission then his donation being indeed ordained and ordered by his prouidence but for the sinnes of the people conferred by the Prince that ruleth in the ayre It is true that the Turkish Empire hath now continued a long time but they haue other principles of State to stand vpon the continuall guarde of an hundreth thousand Souldiers whereof most of them know none other Parents but the Emperour the tenure of all his Subiects who holde all in Capite ad voluntatem Domini by the seruice of the Sword their enioyned silence and reuerence in matters of Religion and their facility in admitting other Religions aswell as their own to the hope of saluation and to tolerate them so that they be good Subiects These and such like are principles of great importance to increase an Empire and to maintaine a temporall State But there is no State in Christendome that may endure these Principles vnlesse they meane to turne Turkes also which although some be willing to doe yet they will neither hold in Capite nor hold their peace in Religion nor suffer their King to haue such a guard about him nor admit of Catholike Religion so much as the Turke doeth G. H. 5. You might with the Turke aswell haue ioyned the King of China the Sophie of Persia the Chame of Tartarie the great Magore Presbiter Iohn the like whose estates few Christian Princes exceede or can match in riches and greatnes But that they should haue their estates Conferred on them by the Prince that ruleth in the aire neither Ambrose affirmes it nor is it in it selfe true Saint Ambrose his words are these A Deo potestatum ordinatio amalo ambitio potestatis The ordaining of the power is from God but the ambitious desire not the conferring of it from the diuell Indeed it is his challenge in that chapter To whomsoeuer I will I giue it speaking of the power and glory of earthly Kingdomes but it is the voice of God speaking in the person of wisedome in the 8 th of the Prouerbs By mee Kings raigne and Saint Paul teacheth vs There is no power such as himselfe liued vnder but of God to which purpose it is well sayd of S. Augustine whom M. Doctor pretendeth to follow most among the ancients Qui dedit Mario ipse Cesari Qui Augusto ipse Neroni Qui Vespasiano vel patri vel filio suauissimis imperatoribus ipse Domitiano crudelissimo ne per singulos ire necesse sit Qui Constantino Christiano ipse apostatae Iuliano Hee that gaue it to Marius gaue it to Caesar He that gaue it to Augustus gaue it to Nero He that gaue it to Vespasian the father or his sonne most sweet Emperours gaue it also to Domitian the most cruell and that I should not need to reckon vp the rest in particular He that gaue it to Constantine the Christian gaue it to Iulian the
one of the Heralds at Armes the title whereof was this The maner of the Tombe to be made for the Kings Grace at Windsor So that I cannot but woonder how either our Historiographer and our Herauld should be so much mistaken or which I rather thinke how Mr. Doctor so great a Polititian should be so sowly deceiued and so confidently leade others into the same errour I will conclude this Section with the conclusion of ourfamous Annalist touching this Prince Princeps Magnanimus in cuius maximo ingenio inerant confuso quodam temperamento virtutes magnae vitia non minora A stout and gallant Prince he was in whose braue spirit a man might obserue blended and tempered together by a rare kinde of mixture great vertues and no lessevices But had he honoured the See Apostolike as much at last as hee did at first his vices had beene buried in silence and his vertues highly extolled whereas now by opposing himselfe against it his vertues are suppressed and his vices racked vpon tenterhookes and set vpon the Stage which course were enough to make the best Princes nay the best men to appeare monsters to the world B. C. 32. Queene ELIZABETH although she were the daughter of Schisme yet at her first comming to the Crowne shee would haue the Common Prayer Booke and Catechisme so set downe that shee might both by English Seruice satisfie the Commons who were greedie of alteration and by Catholike opinions gaue hope to her neighbour Princes that she would her selfe continue Catholike and all her life long she caried herselfe so betwixt the Catholikes and the Caluinists as shee kept them both still in hope But yet being the daughter of the breach-maker and hauing both her Crowne and her life from the Schisme it was both dishonourable and dangerous for her to hearken to Reconcilement And therefore after she was prouoked by the Excommunication of Pius Quintus shee did suffer such Lawes to be made by her Parliaments as might cry quittance with the Pope and Church of Rome This course seemed in policie necessary for her who was the daughter of King Henrie the VIII by Anne Bulleine borne with the contempt of Rome the disgrace of Spaine and the preiudice of Scotland G. H. 32. From Henry the father you descend to Elizabeth the daughter as you call her of Schisme howbeit she were indeed the Nursing mother of the Church And for the Common prayer Booke which she allowed it was the same with very litle alteration which was current by publike authority during the reigne of her brother King Edward So that it was no inuention of hers to satisfie the Commons as you falfly suggest but an imitation of her renowned brother for the satisfying of her owne conscience and the furtherance of the seruice of God in a knowen language You adde that by Catholike opinions she gaue hope to her neighbour Princes that she would continue a Catholike wheras the world knowes that her mother was otherwise affected being brought vp in France vnder the Lady Margret Alençon a principal fauouresse of the Protestant religion there after shee had a while waited vpon Q. Mary yonger sister of king Henry the VIII and wife to Lewes the XIII the French king and as long vpon Claudia sister to the Guise and wife to Francis the first and in regard she was this way affected the holy maide of Kent was by Clergie men suborned to prophecie against her and as one writes it seemeth very plaine that the crimes supposed against her were matters contriued by the Pope and his instruments her chiefest enemies none of them all that were accused in the same treason confessing the acte euen vnto death but haue left direct testimonies in writing to the contrary one meane groome excepted namely Marke Smeton who made confession vpon some promise of life belike but was executed before he was aware or had time to recall what he had said Now the mother being thus affected and that before king Henry cast his affection towards her or disaffected Rome in likelyhood the daughter had beene that way also affected whether the breach with Rome by her mothers mariage had bene made or no. It was S. Pauls argument to Timothie that the faith first dwelt in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice and therefore he was well perswaded of him also He argues not from his father and his grandfather but from his mother and his grandmother so may we by the same reason from the faith which dwelt in the mother of Queene Elizabeth make some coniecture of her faith that it was not different from her mothers But her education vnder Roger Ascham who was himselfe that way affected to cōtinue her so read vnto her among other authors for her diuinity exercise Melancthons common places will yet farther cleare this matter but the suspition cast vpon her though most vniustly as hauing a finger in Wyats conspiracy and Stories damnable aduise to leaue lopping at the branches and strike at the roote will put it out of doubt and doubtlesse as in that regard shee suffered much hardenesse during the raigne of her sister so had shee not suruiued to haue worne the Crowne had not God in his prouidence mooued the heart of the Spaniard to preserue her aliue not so much out of any loue of her person or pittie of her ruefull estate as out of reason of state lest she being taken out of the way and her sister dying as she did without issue the Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland might in time be vnited and annexed to the Crowne of France by meanes of the Lady Mary Queene of Scotland next heire in right after Queene Elizabeth then affianced to Francis Dolphin of France and heire apparent to Henry the second the French King then which the Spaniards thought nothing could happen more disasterous to their affectation of greatnesse Besides all this being as she was the miracle of her sexe and ranke for wit and learning it is not improbable that as the knowledge of the Arts and Languages and the light of the Gospell brake forth both together so in her person the one might haue prepared and as it were beaten out a way for the entrance of the other though neither her Mother had beene that way affected nor her Father made any breach as wee see his Maiestie that now is to the glory of God and our great comfort though his Father were slaine before his birth and his Mother liued and died in that Religion in which shee was brought vp yet by the excellencie of his naturall parts and learning but especially by the working of Gods holy spirit hath attained to such a light of Religion that he hath not only discouered the trueth but chosen and professed it being discouered and with his Penne maintained and defended that which he professeth True indeede it is that Queene Elizabeth during the raigne of her sister tender both by sexe
the euents are so cleane contrary to the Prefaces and pretences of them as if God of purpose would laugh them to scorne G. H. 35. If the Crowne haue more Pence paid in now then in former times it must needes follow that were it not by default of officers the meanes might bee greater to doe great workes both in peace and in warre whereas you vpbraid his Maiestie that his are but yet hoped for hee hath had other occasions as the world well knoweth of expence then his ancestors had and those occasions that they had hee hath not whether in building at home or in warring abroad theirs it may be were more conspicuous but his more necessary and yet I doubt not but vpon iust occasion his Maiestie would bee able to maintaine as great and as powerfull an armie as any of his predecessors to the terror of Rome and the Romanists who are so farre from complaining of his Maiesties wants as they would rather triumph most in this that hee were not rich Gretser in your account I am sure a good Catholike complaines not butscoffes at his Maiesties neede of money in his answere to Monsieur Plessis his Epistle Dedicatory to his Maiesty prefixed to his Mysteriū iniquitatis in which his Maiestie being incouraged by that noble Lord to lay by his Pen and take his sword in hand though it were to the passing of the Alps and the sacking of Rome Gretser in his replie makes it the burden of his song in diuers periods Sed deest pecunia But the onely sure way you say for his Maiestie to inrich himselfe is to turne Romane Catholike as if it were not fresh in memorie what infinite masses of treasure the pretence of that Religion carried out of the land to the triple Crowne of Rome and other forreiners well neere as much as was brought to the Crowne of England it selfe as appeares in Bonners Preface to Gardiners oration of true obedience In the reigne of King Henry the third it amounted by iust computation to the summe of 60000. markes which amounts to an incredible masse at this day and was more then the standing reuenues of the Crowne at that time as the Author of the British antiquities reports it out of Matthew Paris in the life of Boniface Archbishop of Canterburie in which relation are also set downe the grieuances which the Bishops the Abbots the Barons and the king himselfe exhibited in their seuerall Letters to his Holinesse touching the grieuousnesse of his exactions the effect whereof was as followeth That the Pope being not content with that aide which is called Peter-pence hee made money here in England by a thousand cunning sleights and trickes without the consent of the King against the ancient Right and Liberties of the Kingdome and against the Appeales put in by the Kings Ambassadours and Proctors in the Council of Lions That the Benefices and Prebendaries in England were by him conferred vpon Italians and Romanes not able to speake or so much as to vnderstand our language and that many times one Italian succeeded another as in lawfull inheritance the Church reuenues being by this meanes wasted and caried out of the kingdome the word of God not preached Ecclesiasticall dueties not obserued hospitality almes and Diuine Seruice neglected and lastly the walles and roofe of Chancels and Parsonage houses suffered to drop downe to the indangering of many soules and the vtter desolation of the Church That of those Churches into which hee thrust not strangers he exacted Pensions against his owne promise by letter That the natiue English were vpon all occasions drawen by Citations to the Court of Rome against the Customes and Common Law of the Kingdome and against the Popes owne priuiledges formerly granted To like purpose is that which I finde in a Manuscript of Mr. Hales a man renowned in his time aswell for his learning as his honestie his words are these speaking of the cunning fetches of the Bishops of Rome for the enriching of themselues and their Clergie to the impouerishing of the King and the State First saith hee they exempted the Clergy aswell the Secular as the regular from the authoritie of the Kings of England whereby they neither would obey the Prince but when and wherin it pleased them nor albeit they had the greater part of the possessions and profits of the Realme they would be contributory to the charges of the defence thereof but when it listed them Secondly they reserued to themselues the collations generally specially of all Archbishopricks Bishopricks Abbies Priories all other dignities and benefices in England which many times they gaue to aliants that neuer dwelt in England nor euer came into England So the reuenues thereof were not spent in the Realme but caried out of the same when they gaue them to any of the Realme they made them pay exceeding summes of money for Palls Annats First fruits Tenths and such like whereby the Realme from time to time was very much impouerished Thirdly they vsed to dispence not onely with their owne Lawes and Canons but also many times with Gods word in matters of Matrimony and otherwise whereby they sucked no litle treasure out of the Realme Fourthly in causes testamentary in causes of Matrimony and diuorces right of tithes oblations and obuentions they had decreed that men might appeale from any Court within this Realme to the Court of Rome whereby the people of this nation was very much troubled by reason it was so farre distant from this Realme and when they came thither they could not in long time haue redresse but with long delayes were constrained to spend whatsoeuer they had Fiftly with dispensations for eating flesh and white meates for pardons and redemption of soules out of Purgatory for dispensations with vowes and such like beggery they scraped together infinite summes of money and because no fish should escape for lacke of bait they had their Dataries and Collectours continually gaping for the prey resident here in England Lastly the Clergie of this Realme being animated by the authority of the Bishop of Rome the Arch-bishops Bishops and such as had Spirituall Iurisdiction within this Realme not onely vnreasonably troubled and vexed the people of this realme in their Courts but also exceedingly pilled polled and robbed them vnder colour of Fees and duties The Parsons and Vicars were not content with the moderate Mortuaries and Corse-presents but also daily increased the same and would haue what it pleased them without any consideration of the misery and pouerty of the widow and children liuing yea and many times where the dead had but a bare vse and no property in the goods and chattels they were found in his possession and in many places they would neither baptize nor marry nor bury but they would haue some extraordinary reward the common sort of Priests would not depart with any their Masses or praiers vnlesse they were sure to haue money Of these and the
very honest men and such as I did loue with all my heart I was very loth to dissent from them in priuate much more loth to oppose them in publike and yet seeing I must needes preach I was lothest of all to oppugne mine owne conscience together with the faith wherein I was baptized and the soules of those to whome I preached neuerthelesse hauing gotten this ground to worke vpon I began to comfort my selfe with hope to proue that the religion established in England was the same at the least in part L which now was and euer had beene held in the Catholique Church the defects whereof might be supplied whensoeuer it should please God to moue your Maiestie thereunto without abrogating that which was alrâ—ady by Law established which I still pray for and am not altogether out of M hope to see and therfore I thought it my duety as farre as I durst rather by N charitable constructions to reconcile things that seemed different that so our soules might bee for euer saâ—ed in vnity then by malitious calumniations to maintaine quarrels that so mens turnes might for a time bee serued in dissention G. H. 8. L How then can we bee esteemed heretiques who broach their owne fantasies since holding as the Church of England doth we hold the same that the Catholike Church hath euer held M Truely you had little reason to hope to liue to see thosâ— vnwarrantable Supplies you speake of by his Maiesties command aswell in regard of your owne infirmities of body as his MAIESTIES strong resolution of minde to the contrarie but it may bee your intelligence deceiued you sure wee are your hope failed you N Touching your opinion of Reconciliation whether it may be thought to proceede of charitie or arrogancie as also whether it be probable or in a maner possible as the case now stands I shall haue fitter opportunitie to discusse hereafter then in this place Yet giue mee leaue by the way to tell you that in my iudgement you call that Vnitie which is indeed distraction it tending to nothing els but a rent and a drawing of vs further from other reformed Churches and neâ—rer to the Church of Rome for if this were not your meaning the same charitable constructions would haue serued to recoÌ„cile things that to you looking through the false spectacles of preiudice passion seemed verie different betwixt vs other reformed Churches abroad much better easier then for the reconciling of those maine broad differences which are indeed betwixt vs and the Church of Rome Of which I feare I may too truly say as Abraham doth to the rich glutton in hel between you and vs there is a great gulfe set so that they which would goe from hence to you can not neither can they come from thence to vs. I speake in regard of Reconciliation in differences of Religion for otherwise but too manie are suffered to goe from hence thither and hauing sucked their poison to returne againe at their pleasures for the vomitting of it out amongst vs notwithstanding the sharpe penalties and great gulfe set betweene vs. B. C. 9. In this course although I did neuer proceed any farther then law would giue me leaue yet I found the Puritans and Caluinists and all the creatures of Schisme to be my vtter enemies who were also like the sonnes of Zeruiah too strong for Dauiâ— himselfe 2. Sam 3. 39. but I well perceiued that all temperate and vnderstanding men who had no interest in the Schisme were glad to heare the trueth honestly and plainely preached vnto them and my hope was by patience and continuance I should in the ende vnmaske hypocrisie and gaine credite to the comfortable doctrine of Antiquitie euen amongst those also who out of misinformation and preiudice did as yet most mislike it And considering with my selfe that your right to the Crowne came onely by O Catholikes and was ancienter then the Schisme which would very faine haue vtterly extinguished it and that both your P disposition by nature your amitie with Catholike Princes your speeches and your proclamations did at the beginning all tend to peace and vnitie I hoped that this endeuour of mine to enforce Catholike Religion at the least as farre as the Common prayer Booke and Catechisme would giue leaue should be well accepted of your MAIESTIE and bee as an introduction vnto farther peace and vnitie with the Church of Rome G. H. 9. O His MAIESTIES right to the Crowne is double the one from his mother lineally descending of the first match of the Ladie Margaret daughter to Henrie the VII and sister to Henrie the VIII Kings of England with Iames the fourth King of Scotland his MAIESTIES great Grandfather who though she imbraced that Religion in which shee was brought vp being neuer acquainted with any other yet as his Maiesty obserueth in his Monitorie Preface to the Christian Princes shee disliked some of the superstious Ceremonies and abhorred those new opinions which the Iesuits call Catholike His second right aboue any other preâ—endor was from his father descended of the second match of the sayd Ladie Margaret with Archibald Douglas Earle of Angush being brought vp in Q. Elizabeths Court whose father the Duke of Lenox professing the reformed religion as well appeared by his practise in his life in receiuing the Sacrament after the manner of the reformed Churches and by the confession of his faith in the hearing of many ministers at his death in all likelihood his Maiesties father himselfe should be that way affected though Cardinall Bellarmine vpon the relation of I know not whom would faine haue it otherwise And whereas you say that schisme would faine haue extinguished his Maiesties right it is well knowen that those whom you call schismatikes were the chiefe instruments vnder God to preserue his Maiesties not onely right but life against the fury of some whom you call Catholikes both before his mothers death and since P From his Maiesties progenitors you come to his owne disposition by nature his amity with Catholike Princes his speaches his Proclamations which all tended at the beginning you say to peace and vnitie True indeed it is that his Maiestie by nature is disposed to mercy his amitie with Christian Princes argues his charitie and heroical ingenuitie voide of ielousie suspition euen where occasioÌ„ may seem to be giuen his speaches and Proclamations were not bloody yet all this could not serue your turne as a sufficieÌ„t warrant to endeauor a peace with the Church of Rome in matters of religion no more then a league with the great Turke for traffike should giue occasion of ioyning with him in Mahometisme but had you withall with the other eye reflected a little backe vpon his Maiesties education from his very Cradle the choice of his aliance in mariage his counsel to his sonne touching the matter of religion in the first booke of his Basilicon Doron his
words so many and forcible arguments to the contrarie be deduced I must confesse I know not what belongs to Logike and for other passages in the same speech which seeme to fauour your cause you must either iniuriously wrest them from the authors meaning or make them by reasonable construction sutable to these Howsoeuer your selfe being a Churchman and one of those whom he sharpely taxeth for changing their coats through curiositie affectation of noueltie or discontentment in their priuate humours cannot possibly be ranked amongst them to whom as to minds only retaining the liquor they first dranke in out of his speciall clemencie he proposeth more fauourable conditions and yet among these too he hath since discouered an vnnaturall disposition whom he hoped to find by moderate gentle vsage in the matter of naturall subiection quiet and well minded men and therefore no marueile if his Maiestie be since more exasperated and farther off from any reconciliation with that Religion then before But Mr. Casaubon you say tolde you that his errand hither was nothing else but to mediate peace betweene the Church of Rome and the Church of England It is certainely false that Mr. Casaubons errand was by his Maiestie intended to bâ— such and most vnlikely to be true that it was by Mr Casaubon so reported to you considering his direct and expresse writings both before his comming ouer and since against the chiefe Patrons and controuersed points of the Church of Rome and among the rest in the conclusion of his Epistle to Cardinall Perron where hee assures him from his Maiesties mouth and in his name that his constant purpose and full resolution was as long as the Church of Rome yeelded not to antiquity and trueth to entertaine no society with her at all which you might haue read before your departure and spared the paines of writing to M. Casaubon whome that I may yet more fully cleare from this imputation being not able now to speake for himselfe I will here set downe his Letter written with his owne hand to my Lords Grace of Canterbury vpon this very occasion in which hee termes the report no better then the slander of a wicked Apostate Illustrissimo Reuerendissimo Praesuli Domino Cantuariensi totius Angliae Primati Domino meo summa obseruantia colendo Illustrissime Reuerendissime Domine HEri quum essem in Aula ostendit mibi Regia Maiestas librum à Carerio sibi missum in quo mira quaedam de me narrantur puto Serenissimum Regem tuae Reuerentiae illa ostendisse Ego Dei gratia puto me sic vixisse priusquam in hoc regnum venirem postquaÌ„ veni in Angliam vt curare non debeam quid perditus apostata deâ—me garriat aut scribat apparet ipsum grauissimâ— iratum esse mihi propter Epistolam quam illi scripsi vt ab hoc insano consilio eum reuocarem propterea id agit vt meum nomen apud Regiam Maiestatem tuam Reuerentiam infamet Sedspero meliora de Regesapientissimo de te Illustrissime Presul apud quem si mihi opus esse apologia crederem omnia omisissem vt tuae Reuerentiae praesens me purgarem Sed non puto adeo infoeliciter mecum agi vt inâ—andi apostatae calumniae aliquid apud te contra existimationem meam valeant Si iusseris statim adero et ad omnia tuae Reuerentiae satisfaciam Interim quam sim occupatus in colophone imponendo operimeo narrabit tuae Reuerentiae Vederburnus noster verè pius iuuenis tua beneuolentia Presul Illustriss non indignus Deus immortalis te seruet Ecclesiae suae In Musaeo XIV Kal. Ian. MDCXIII Tuae Illustriss Reuerentiae obseruantissimus cultor ISA. CASAVBONVS Right Reuerend my Gracious Lord YEsterday being at Court the KINGS MAIESTIE shewed mee a booke sent him from Carier wherein certaine strange things are reported of me I thinke his MAIESTIE hath shewed them vnto your Grace I hope I haue by the grace of GOD so liued both before I came into this Kingdome and since I came into England that I ought not to care what a forlorne Apostate pratleth or writeth of me It appeares he is very angry with me for a letter I wrote him to reclaime him from that mad course thereupon he goes about to traduce me to the KINGS MAIESTY and your Grace But I hope better both of that most wise KING and of you most renowned Prelate Vnto whom if I thought there were need of Apologie I would laying all other things aside in person purge my selfe vnto your Grace But my case I trust is not so vnhappy that the slanders of a lewd Apostate should be of any force with you against my reputation If you command I will forthwith repaire vnto you and satisfie your Grace vnto the full In the meane time how busily I am occupied about the conclusion of my worke my friend Vederburne a very religious yong man and not vnworthy of your Graces fauor can shew your Grace God Immortall preserue you vnto his Church From my study Decemb. 19. 1613. Your Graces most respectiue Obseruer ISA. CASAVBON And that it may appeare how auerse hee was from vnion with that Church I will hereunto adde a former Letter written likewise to my L. Grace of Canterbury touching the same businesse before he was thus prouoked by D. Carier vpon occasion of a Letter written to the same effect from the Doctor to him Illustrissime Reuerendissime Domine MItto Reuerentiae Epistolam de quâ inaudiuisti Ego acceptam Epistolam vt Regi communicaretur putaui premendam neque ostendendam cuiquam mortalium Non enim possum probare consilium viri illius eruditi qui epistolam scripsit Quare respondi illi statim multis cum illo egi vt ab eo proposito desisteret Multas rationes ei attuli cur certò crederem amentiam esse aut potiâ—s furorem boni aliquid sperare à Romano Phalari nam hoc verbo vsus sum qui nostra mala si quae sunt inter nos ridet Proposui ei ob oculos quà m essent alieni proceres Romanae Ecclesiae ab omni aequitate imprimis Bellarminus de cuius impietate plura ad eum scripsi Posui illi ante oculos quanto cum suo periculo patronum Papae videretur agere Attuli testimonia Matthaei Paris de summâ Angliae infoelicitate quando Papae Ro. paruit Addidi exemplum illius Narbonensis qui nuper ad Ser. Regem similis argumenti librum miserat me iussum à Rege loqui eum librum detestatum esse D. Regem voluisse in latere libri animaduertere Posthaec quid factum sit Carerio nescio Hoc ego volui Reuerentiae tuae significatum Sed expectabam donec ad vrbem redijsses nam me libri mei editio domi tenet Sunt alia quaedam grauia de quibus acturus sum cum tuâ Reuerentiâ post vnum aut
referre this Matrimoniall cause to the hearing and determining of his Legates but gaue Campeius a secret Bull in his bosom as witnesseth Francis Guicciardin in the 19th Booke of his Historie a Catholike in his profession no man more a reporter of things hee sawe no man truer and a creature of the Popes imployed in honourable charges the Copie of it is to be seene in Anti-Sanders dated in the yeere 1527. the 17th of December and the fifth yeere of Clement the seuenths Popedome wherein hee infringeth the former dispensatioÌ„ affirming that the King could not continue in such Matrimonie without sinne whereupon hee decreed that after the delaration of the nullitie of the former mariage and the Kings absolution it should bee lawfull for him to marrie another This Bull he forbad him to shew to any saue onely to the King and Cardinall Wolsey his fellow Commissioner in that businesse and though openly he commanded him to handle the cause with all expedition yet secretly hee willed him to protract the time promising that himselfe would watch an opportunitie to publish the Decree so the King and Queene were cited to appeare before them in May following at which time after some debating of the cause they protracted the sentence till the beginning of August and after many delayes finding that King Henry could not by hope of the diuorce bee drawen to side with the French the Pope commanded Campeius to burne his Bull and to returne home whereby it appeares that King Henry might easily haue had the nullitie of his mariage with Queene Katherine ratified at Rome without taking the title of Supreme head if hee would haue yeelded to the Popes conditions But the Lords you say and Commons would neuer haue suffered such a Statâ—te to bee made had not that title inabled the King to pull downe Abbeys and Religious houses and giue them to Lay men I would faine know then what mooued the Bishops to giue way to it who had no share in that diuision yet had they with the consent of the Clergie passed it in Conuocation before it was so much as proposed in Parliament and for the Commons a very little share fell out to their parts And if â—he assuming of that title were indeed so needfull as you pretend for the supressing of those houses by what authoritie did Cardinall Wolsey dissolue some and the King by his example more before that title was by him publikely assumed Now for Queene Elizabeth it is true that she reuiued those Statutes of Supremacie enacted by her father and repealed by her sister but not without diuers exceptions as may appeare by the bookes in so much as a new forme of Oath was established by her which is the Oath at this day in force the refusall of which vpon a second offering by such as stand conuicted of a former refusall is by the Statute of 5â— Eliz. cap. 1. made high Treason and it is none otherwise Nay further by an expresse prouiso in that Statute none are compellable to take the Oath the second time but Ecclesiasticall persons and some few others especially named in that Statute neither doth shee take to her in that or any other Statute the title of Supreme head but of Gouernour by which what shee vnderstood herselfe expressed in her Iniunctions and her Clergie in their 37. Article confirmed in two seuerall Conuocations where they thus speake Where wee attribute to the Queenes Maiestie the chiefe Gouernment by which title we vnderstand the mindes of some slanderous folkes to be offended wee giue not to our Princes the ministring either of Gods word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Iniunctions also lately set foorth by Elizabeth our Queene doe most plainely testifie but that onely prerogatiue which we see to haue beene giuen alwayes to all godly Princes in holy Scripture by God himselfe that is thâ—t they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiasticall or Temporall and restraine with the ciuill sword the stubburne and euill doers neither doe I see how Osorius in his Epistle to her can be interpreted to affoord her lesse where he professeth that all Kings are Pro parte suaiuris diuini Vicarij Vicars of Gods Law in their places From Queene Elizabeth you passe to his Maiestie and tell him that he confirmed the same Statute to satisfie other men arguing therein his Maiestie of great weakenesse either as being not able to iudge what he did or as being caried by others against his owne iudgement But that his MAIESTIE did it aduisedly and rather to satiffie himselâ—e then others appeares by this that hee was inuested with the same power which that Statute giues him before his receauing of the Crowne of England and since himselfe with his owne penne hath thus both iustified and explained it if these examples saith he sentences title and prerogatiues and innumerable other in the olde and new Testament doe not warrant Christian Kings within their owne dominions to gouerne their Church aswell as the rest of their people in being Custodes vtriusque tabulae not by making new Articles of Faith which is the Popes office as I said before but by commaunding obedience to bee giuen to the word of God by reforming the Religion accâ—rding to his prescribed will by assisting the Spirituall power with the Temporall sword by reforming of corruptions by procuring due obedience to the Church by iudging and cutting off all friuolous questions and Schismes as Constantine did and finally by making decorum to be obserued in euery thing and establishing orders to be obserued in all indifferent things for that purpose which is the onely intent of the Oath of Supremacie if this office of a King I say doe not agree with the power giuen him by Gods word lâ—t any indifferent man void of passion iudge But yet his Maiestie you say yeeldeth the Church of Rome to be the Mother Church and the Bishop of Rome to bee the chiefe Bishop or Primate of the Westerne Churches Indeed his Maiesty in his first speech in his first Parliament called after his entrâ—nce to this Kingdome is pleased to acknowledge the Romane Church to be our Mother Church this M. Doctour is content to vrge but to conceale that which he addeth defiled with infirmities and corruptions as the Iewes were when they crucified Christ and as I am none enemy saith he to the life of a sicke man because I would haue his body purged of ill humours no more am I an enemy to their Church because I would haue them reforme their errours not wishing their throwing out of the Temple but that it might be purged and clensed from corruption otherwise how can they wish vs to enter if their house bee not first made cleane Herein Mr Doctour dealing with his Maiesty as the deuill did with our Sauiour hee pressed that out of the Psalme which made for himselfe Hee will giue
state being now setled and a continuall posteritie like to ensue of one nature and condition God knoweth what that forcible weapon of necessitie may constraine and driue men vnto at length But thankes be vnto God the Father of our Lord Iesus CHRIST who hath so fixed and stablished the Royall heart of our gracious Soueraigne as that neither his bloodie threates nor your sugred promises can moue it one point from the center of that trueth which himselfe hath still professed and in which his posterity are trained vp And thus the weakenesse of the foundation vpon which the first reason of your vaine hope is grounded is discouered God in his promises is alwayes most sure but this your reason pretended to be grounded thereupon most vnsure since neither the true Religion is found at this day in that Church which you call Catholike neither are temporall blessings alwayes annexed to that Religion which is indeed true Thus much you might haue learned of Hall the Iesuite who after the discouery of the Powderplot recites vnto Littleton for his comfort certaine examples of Heretikes ouercomming Catholikes in battell and Infidels ouerthrowing Christians or of father Robert Parsons in his Replie to his MAIESTIE touching Queene ELIZABETHS happinesse outward felicities saith hee are worldlings arguments no necessary improuements of Gods blessing howbeit Father Robert Bellarmine makes it one of the 15. and Bozius one of his 100. notes of the true Church but much rather and better might you haue learned it of the Prophet Dauid who was so sorely perplexed with this point that till he went into the Sanctuarie of God and there vpon consultation with him vnderstood the reason of it hee was well nigh at his wits end saying to himselfe in a kinde of despaire Then haue I clensed mine heart in vaine in vaine haue I washed mine hands in innocencie Yet if the argument were infallible God hath approued the trueth of his Maiesties Religion by those manifold outward blessings and miraculous deliuerances which of his mercâ—e hee hath vouchsafed him So that his Maiestie might iustly take vp that of the same Prophet in another place Blesse the Lord O my soule and forget not all his benefits who redeemeth thy life from destruction who crowneth thee with louing kindnesse and tender mercies and our hope and vnfained prayer to God is that whiles his Maiestie ceaseth not in this maner to honour God God will not cease in like maner to honour him and his posteritie with many blessings in this world and in the next with eternall happinesse B. C. 10. The second reason of my hope that Catholike Religion may be a great meanes of honor security to your Maiesties posteritie is taken from the consideration of your neighbors the Kings and Princes of Christendome among whom there is no state ancient and truely honourable but onely those that are Catholike The reason whereof I take to be because the rules of Catholike Religion are Eternall Vniuersall and Constant vnto themselues and with all so consonant to Maiestie and Greatnesse as they haue made and preserued the Catholike Church reuerent and venerable throughout the Christian world for these thousand and sixe hundred yeres and those temporall states that haue beene conformable thereunto haue beene alwayes most honourable and so are like to continue vntill they hearken vnto Schisme And as for those that haue reiected and opposed the rules of Catholike Religion they haue beene driuen in short time to degenerate and become either tyrannicall or popular Your Maiestie I know doth abhorre tyrannie but if Schisme and Heresie might haue their full swinge ouer the Seas the very shadow and reliques of Maiestie in England should be vtterly defaced and quickly turned into Heluetian or Belgian popularity for they that make no conscience to prophane the Maiesty of God and his Saints in the Church will when they feele their strength make no bones to violate the Maiestie of the King and his children in the common wealth G. H. 10. Hauing opened your entrance to a second reason in shew but indeed the same with the former you tell vs that among all the Kings and Princes of Christendome there is no state ancient and truely honorable but onely those that are Catholike wherein you doe the King of Denmarke and Sweden specially the former great honour in consideration belike of his neere alliance to his Maiestie as also to all the secular Princes of Germanie the house of Austria and the Duke of Bauaria onely excepted and among the rest the Prince Elector Palatine of Rhine his Maiesties sonne in law is most bound to thanke you and it seemes you conceiued so much by intending your iourney to Hydelberg and good reason you should haue been welcome considering you make both him and all the rest of the Kings and Princes of Christendome that haue forsaken Communion with the Church of Rome to bee both base and tyrannicall wheras I may be bold to say it that at this day there are none more moderate in their gouernments then those whom you call Schismatikes and of them the greatest part were neuer so flourishing as since they renounced societie with that Church specially the Heluetians and Belgians in whom you instance being growen more rich more powerfull and politike in their affaires then euer before And for popularity the Heluetians had it long before any change of religion and those very Cantons which call themselues Catholike retaine that forme and none other vnto this day And for the Belgians it appeares by the Prince of Orenge his Apollogie that they euer challenged their freedome as due by the Capitulations betweene them and their gouernours the Dukes of Burgundy and now at last after so much Christian blood spilt as all the world knowes in the Articles of peace concluded betweene the King of Spaine and them they are declared a free State Now whether they make any conscience of profaning the Maiestie of God let their published Confessions which testifie and hee that compares their practise with that of the Italians may easily iudge of the tree by the fruits whether wee regard the prophanation of his Maiesty in the blaspheming of his Name or the disgracing of his word or the vnsanctifying of his day for his Saints they all agree I speake for the maine body of their guides and professours in giuing them as much honour as they are lawfully capable of or would themselues willingly receiue and if this bee the heresie you meane wee professe it hath had its full swinge ouer seas already but doe not yet perceiue that therâ—by the Maiestie of our King is any way violated but rather strengthened and increased Lastly whereas you tell vs that you take the reason of all this to bee because the rules of Catholike religion are eternall vniuersall and constant to themselues I graunt there is and ought to be a mutuall dependance betwixt religion and ciuill policie the one both giuing
first Table in their number making of foure but three and of those three they breake the first and second in worshipping the Blessed Virgine Angels Saints Reliques Images with diuine worship and in speciall the Crucifix and Sacramentall Bread professedly with the same kind of worship which is due to Christ as God and what account they make of the other two their little reckoning of blaspheming and profaning Gods Name and Gods day giue but too sufficient demonstration to the world But to bee plaine with you I finde no such words in S ir Francis Bacons Essayes printed the yere 1612. which vpon this occasion I haue reuised there beeing onely one of religion and that the very first which speakes so wittily so learnedly so fully against your drift in this place and the former section which shewes how the deuill out of the arsenall of false apprehensions sends forth the distorted engines of actions they be his owne words in that place as I cannot but hold it both a fence and a grace to insert it into mine answere whole and intire as himselfe hath deliuered it lest I should doe him iniury by mangling it The quarrels and diuisions for religion saith hee were euils vnknowen to the heathen and no maruell for it is the true God that is the ielous God and the gods of the heathen were good fellowes but yet the bounds of religious vnitie are so to bee strengthened that the bounds of humane societie bee not dissolued Lucretius the Poet when hee beheld the acte of Agamemnon induring and assisting at the sacrifice of his daughter concludes with this verse Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum But what would hee haue done if hee had knowen the Massacre of France or the Powder treason of England Certainely hee would haue been seuen times more Epicure and Atheist then hee was nay hee would rather haue chosen to haue been one of the mad men of Munster then a partaker of those counsels For it is better that Religion should deface mens vnderstanding then their pietie and charitie retaining reason onely but as an Engine and Chariot-driuer of cruelty and malice It was great blasphemie when the deuill sayd I will ascend and bee like the highest but it is a greater blasphemie if they make God to say I will descend and bee like the Prince of darkenesse And it is no better when they make the cause of Religion descend to the execrable actions of the murthering of Princes butchering of people and firing of States neither is there such a sinne against the person of the holy Ghost if one should take it literally as in stead of the likenesse of a Doue to bring him downe in the likenesse of a Vulture or Rauen nor such a scandall to their Church as out of the Barke of S. Peter to set foorth the flagge of a Barge of Pyrats and Assassins Therefore since these things are the common enemies of humane society Princes by their power Churches by their decrees and all learning Christian Morall of whatsoeuer Sect or opinion by their Mercurie rodde ought to ioyne in the damning to Hell for euer these facts and their supports and in all counsels concerning Religion that counsell of the Apostle would be prefixed Ira hominis non implet iustitiam Dei The same noble gentleman speaketh much to the same purpose in his Essay of Superstition as that it erecteth an absolute tyrannie in the mindes of men it hath been the confusion and dissolution of many States anâ— bringeth a new Primum mobile that rauisheth all the Spheres of gouernement The master saith hee of Superstition is the people and in all superstition wise men follow fooles arguments are fitted to practise in a reuersed order And thus I hope by this time Mr. Doctor hath gained little to the aduantage of his cause from the true and wise obseruations of Sir Francis Bacon Lastly for your instance in Mutinous souldiers I cannot conceiue whither your discourse tends but to shew that more honestie is yet left amongst vs then in those of your profession and is like to bee as long as we feare the assault of a common enemie which is like to bee as long as you remaine in opinion and condition like your selues B. C. 17. And as for their exhortations to obedience to your Maiestie when they haue first infected the vnderstanding of your Subiects with such principles of rebellion as haue disturbed and ouerthrowen all other States where they had their will it is a ridiculous thing to thinke vpon such exhortations and all one as if a fantasticall fellow finding a herd of young cattell in a close should first breake downe the hedges and then crie aloud to the cattell they doe not venture to goe out not seeke any fatter Pasture for feare they bee put in the pound and if they chance to feede where they are because they haue no experience of other and to tary in the Close for an houre or two then the vnhappie fellow should runne to the honour of the cattell and tell him what great seruice hee had done him and how hee had kept his cattell in the Close by â—is goodly charmes exhortations Let them say what they list of their own honesty and of their exhortations to obedience as long as they doe freely infect the peoples soules with such false opinions in religioÌ„ they do certainly sowe the seedes of disobedience rebellion in mens vnderstandings which if they bee not preuented by your Maiesties giuing way to Catholike religion will in all likelihood spring vp in the next generation to the great preiudice and molestation of your MAIESTIE and your posteritie so that whether I doe respect heauen or earth mine owne soule or the seruice of your Maiestie God or your neighbours or your subiects my assured hope is that by ioyning my selfe to the Catholike Church I neither haue done nor shall doe any ill duety or seruice vnto your Maiestie G. H. 17. You say that our exhortations to obedience are ridiculous the vnderstanding being once infected with such principles of rebellion as wee teach Had you vouchsafed to haue stooped to the nominating of those principles in particular you had dealt ingenuously and giuen some matter of reply but as you would shew your selfe a polititian in the whole body of your discourse so doe you specially in this that throughout you insist vpon vniuersals which not onely dazell the eyes of their vulgar Reader but yeelde starting holes of euasion to the authour What your Principles are and what ours touching obedience to the ciuill Magistrate I haue already opened in mine answer to the twelfth and thirteenth Sections of this Chapter Now the remedie you say to preuent the mischiefe likely to ensue vpon such doctrine is the admission of Catholike religion as if wee neuer heard nor read of any rebellion abroad nor at home raised from the professours of that religion during the space of a thousand sixe
beene in the Easterne Church hee being worse then an Infidell that prouideth not for those of his owne houshold To conclude wee neither speake nor write against lawfull Vowes but the rashnesse of them and impossibilitie in performing them Not against true Virginity but the fained shew of it and the preferring it by so many degrees before the honourable estate of mariage Not against necessary Pouertie but the voluntarie choise of it when more good may be done by possessing and vsing those meanes God hath sent vs Not against Fasting but the pharesaicall vse of it and making it part of diuine worship Not against Praying but the performance of it in a strange tongue rather for custome then for conscience rather by number then by weight in drawing neere vnto God with our lippes when our hearts are farre from him Not against Watching but the pretended apish imitation and merit in it Not against Obedience but the abuse of it in the enterprising of damnable and desperate attempts Lastly not against austeritie of life but inciuilitie and that shew of wisedome which S. Paul censureth in the second to the Col. Consisting in voluntary Religion and humblenesse of minde and not sparing the bodie You doe well to adde that all these are required in a Monasticall conuersation but how they were or are performed God knowes and the world not vndeseruedly suspects B. C. 26. Vpon these conditions the Lords the Commons and the Clergie were content to beleeue that the King was Supreme head of the Church of England Not that they did thinke so indeed or that they desired to augment his authoritie but that they might bee protected by him freely enioy those commodities which they thought schisme had brought vnto them and feared the vnity of the Church might againe take from them Hence did arise a necessitie of inueighing against the Pope and the Church of Rome as against Antichrist and Babylon and the greatest enemies of the State of England Insomuch that that Clergie man was most acceptable to them and in their opinion most worthy of preferments that could most confidently preach and write the most foule and monstrous assertions of the Pope and the Church of Rome though they were neuer so false These and such like are those temporall respects which would faine seeme the daughters of those doctrines which themselues haue brought foorth and to be diuided from the Catholike Church by doctrine when they themselues haue caused the doctrine of diuision G. H. 26. Vpon these conditions you say that the Lords and Commons and Clergie were content to beleeue that the King was supreame head of the Church of England whereas your selfe before confesse that these conditions were afterward graunted to the Clergie who notwithstanding were the forwardest in perswading the King to accept and assume that title as may appeare by the booke set out by the whole Conuocation of England intituled The Institution of a Christian man besides the Treatises of diuers particular Bishops to the same purpose as namely Stephen Gardiners discourse of true obedience together with Bonners Preface annexed to it Longelands Sermon and Tunstals Letter to Cardinall Poole all which are extant to be reade and seene at this day and surely he that shall obserue their vehement protestations specially of Gardiner whom I hold the most sufficient among them for learning and withall the soundnesse and weight of the reasons which they enforce against the Popes pretended iurisdiction will easily beleeue that they thought in very deede as they wrote that their minds and their pennes concurred in one But from hence you say arose a necessitie of enuying against the Pope and the Church of Rome as against Antichrist and Babylon as if his Holinesse had neuer beene graced with the title of Antichrist before Henry assumed his title of supreame head nor Rome called Babylon before England was freed from that Babylonish captiuity Whereas your famous Cardinall hath none other proofe from Scripture that S. Peter was euer at Rome but by expounding Rome to be the Babylon from whence he dated his first Epistle And when the seuerall markes of Antichrist shall be applied to any so properly as to the Bishop of Rome I will confesse he is iniuriously so styled in the meane time I can hardly imagine any so foule and monstrous assertions which some of your Popes haue not deserued euen by the confession of your owne Writers it being enough to make a modest man blush in reading and relating that which they blushed not to act nay boasted of being acted in so much as I doubt not but I may confidently affirme that neither the Catalogue of Emperours taking in the Heathenish among the Christians nor any one succession of Kings in the world since the first creation of it to this present age euer afforded so many monsters of men so many incarnate deuils so expert in all kind of villanies as that of your Popes neither can any one King or Emperour be named whom some of your Popes haue not out-stripped And what needed then any imitation of your side in faining false assertions where true were so plentifull B. C. 27. In all these and all other doctrine of diuision men haue receiued great countenance and encouragement from Geneua For although M. Iohn Caluin were neuer any good subiect or friend to Bishop Duke or King yet hee did so fit the common people with new doctrine that no Gospel can be so pleasing to them nor so light some as his for finding Geneua to be fallen out both with their Bishop who was their ancient Prince and their Duke to whom they pretended against their Bishop and to bee all in a combustion amongst themselues for want of gouernment although he were then a stranger and a very young man of some sixe and twenty or seuen and twenty yeeres olde at the most yet he thought good vpon the opportunity to giue the venture and to step in himselfe to be founder of a new Church and state amongst them And for that purpose hee found them such a Catechisme as they might easily contemne all ancient learning and authority and saue themselues by a strong fancie which hee called faith And this pleased the Bourgers of Geneua so well that they called a meeting and caused all the Citizens to sweare that that Catechisme was true and all Popery false as may appeare in Caluins life written by Beza and prefixed to his Epistles And although the ministeriall Presbitery of Geneua haue lost much of M. Caluins greatnesse yet the Citie hath had the fortune euer since by the helpe of their neighbours to hold out against their Bishop and the Duke and all their ancient gouernours G. H. 27. You passe on in this Section and the next to passe your censure vpon Geneua and Caluin in as much as from them wee haue receiued great countenance and encouragement whereas neither Geneua nor Caluin were
one example for all may be that lewd libeller who in the very entrance of his libell exclaimeth That the Protestants haue no Faith no Hope no Charitie no Repentance no Iustification no Church no Altar no Sacrifice no Priest no Religion no Christ. What shall we say to these intemperate Spirits if they speake of malice then I say with Michael the Archangel The Lord rebuke them But if they speake of ignorance then I say with the holy Martyr S. Steuen Lord lay not this sinne to their charge or with our blessed SAVIOVR Father forgiue them they wote not what they doe Now for our slandring the doctrine of the Church of Rome when you or any other shall produce the like Assertions out of any Writer amongst vs of note and credite I shall be content to yeelde farther credite to your Assertion then as yet I finde reason I should for the residue of this Section I referre the Reader to my marginall notes as deseruing in my iudgement no better or other answere B. C. 30. But perhaps there is so great opposition in matter of State that although the doctrine might bee compounded yet it is impossible to heare of agreement and if there bee the same reason of State which there was in beginning and continued all Queene Elizabeths dayes there is as little hope now that your Maiestie should hearken vnto Reconciliation as then was that King Henry the VIII or Queene Elizabeth would but when I doe with the greatest respect I can consider the State of your Maiestie your Lords your Commons and your Clergie I do see as little cause in holding out in reason of State as I doe in trueth of doctrine G. H. 30. From the matter of doctrine you passe to thereason of State in which if your reasons be of no greater waight or truth then in the former his Maiestie his Lords his Commons his Clergie haue no more reason to hearken to reconciliation with Rome then King Henry or Queene Elizabeth or the Subiects in their times had which hee that lookes not through the spectacles of a preiudicate opinion will as easily discouer as you confidently affirme the contrary B. C. 31. King Henry the VIII although hee had written that Booke against the Schisme of Luther in defence of the Sea Apostolike for which he deserned the title of Defensor fidei yet when he gaue way to the lust of Anne Bullen and the flattery of his fauorites and saw hee could not otherwise haue his will he excluded the Pope and made himselfe Supreame head of the Church that so hee might not onely dispence with himselfe for his Lust but also supplie his excesse with the spoyle of the Church which was then very rich But when hee saw God blessed him not neither in his wiuing nor in his thriuing hee was weary of his Supremacie before he died and wished himselfe in the Church againe but hee died in the curse of his father whose foundations he ouerthrew and hath neither childe to honour him nor so much as a Tombe vpon his graue to remember him which some men take to bee a token of the Curse of God G. H. 31. King Henry the VIII wrote a Booke indeed or at least a Booke was in his name written in defence of the seuen Sacraments against Luther as Mr. Doctor might haue learned if no where else yet out of Cardinall Bellarmins Apologie But in defence of the See of Rome which hee cals Apostolike I haue not mette with any and it should seeme by his mistake of the subiect handled in that booke himselfe neuer mette with it as for the Title which King Henry receiued the world is not ignorant how liberall his Holinesse is in bestowing Titles where hee expects some greater aduantage sticking down a feather that hee may quietly carrie away the goose Thus did hee giue Charles the Emperour neere about the same time the Title of Defensor Ecclesiae for directing a Writ of Outlawrie against Luther whereupon at the Emperours beeing here in England those verses were set vp in the Guildhall in London ouer the doore of their Councell Chamber where they yet remaine Carolus Henricus viuant defensor vterque Henricus fidei Carolus Ecclesiae And in the Bull by which Leo the tenth confirmed this Title to the King subscribed with his owne name and the names of fiue and twentie Cardinals and Bishops it appeares that their chiefe scope of honouring him with this Title was to tye him and his posteritie faster to that See But as a learned and graue Prelate of our owne hath well obserued being the high Priest for that yeere not so in the next he foretold by way of prophecie what the King of England should bee which we find to the honour of CHRIST and the glory of our kingdome most truely and happily accomplished in our Gracious Souereigne now reigning who hath to the vtmost defēded the truly Christian and Catholike faith by his Pen and will no doubt bee as ready to doe it when occasion shal serue with his sword and yet were it not for feare of crossing your imaginarie reconciliation you would with Bellarmine tell vs that his Maiestie in present as vndeseruedly retaines that Title as King Henry receiued it deseruedly who afterward notwithstanding as deepely incurred his Holinesse disfauour aswell by calling into question that Title which the Bishops of Rome had assumed to themselues of Pastours vniuersall S. Peters successours and Christs Vicars as by resuming to himselfe that Title which some of the Popes had yeelded his predecessours as may appeare in the Letter of Eleutherius Bishop of Rome to Lucius King of Great Britaine in which Eleutherius attributeth to the King the Title of Gods Vicar within his kingdome which letter howsoeuer the Authour of the Threefold conuersion labour to staine with the blemish of forgery yet is it to be found inrolled in the Copie of King Edward the Confessors Lawes Neither is it true that Henry tooke this Title to himselfe it was giuen him by the Parliament of his Lords and Commons and Conuocation of his Clergie not as a new thing but as renewed And if he were desirous to change his bedfellow in hope of heires male as you tell vs before it was not to giue way to the lust of Anne Bulleine as here you affirme and if hee might haue had his will in being dispensed with by yeelding to the Popes will in ioyning with Francis the French King against the Emperour Charles as before it is proued then did he not exclude the Pope take that Title to dispence with himselfe especially being mooued with the approbation of so many Vniuersities and learned men But if thereby he made himselfe a way for the supply of his excesse with the spoyle of the Church wee haue not wherein so iustly to excuse him howbeit hee conuerted much of it to good vses namely to the erecting of sixe Bishoprickes
to the Laitie The Title of the former was Dilectis filijs Archipresbytero reliquo Clero Anglicano and the other Dilectis filijs principibus nobilibus Catholicis Anglicanis salutem Apostolicam Benedictionem The summe of both thus To our Beloued sonnes the Archpriest and the Clergie the Peeres and nobles Catholikes of England greeting and Apostolicall benediction The tenor was That after the death of her Maiestie then liuing whether by course of nature or otherwise whosoeuer should lay Claime or Title to the Crowne of England though neuer so directly and neerely interessed by discent should not be admitted to the throne vnlesse hee would first tolerate the Romish religion and by all his best endeuours promote the Catholike cause vnto which by a solemne and sacred Oath hee should religiously subscribe after the death of that miserable woman for so it pleased his Holinesse to terme Elizabeth that most great and happie Queene By vertue of which Bulles if vertue may be in any such vicious libels the Iesuites disswaded the Romish minded Subiects from yeelding in any wise obedience vnto our most gracious Soueraigne now being But this not working to their wished effect and hee now solemnely proclaimed with an vniuersall applause loue and peace their hopes beganne to wither and growe colde and no succours from Spaine being now to bee expected Garnet the Superiour for the auoyding farther dangers sacrificed these starued Buls to the God of fire Moreouer in the yeere 1588. when his Holinesse blessed that inuincible Spanish Nauie was it to settle the Crowne vpon his Maiestie after Queene Elizabeth should be deposed Surely his Maiestie both rightly conceiued and freely expressed the contrary to Sir Robert Sidney at that time sent into Scotland from Queene Elizabeth affirming that hee expected none other good turne at the Spaniards hands but that which Polyphemus promised to Vlisses that others being first deuoured himselfe should haue the fauour to bee swallowed last And did not the greatest part of Pius his Bull aiming principally at her through her sides also strike his Maiestie And did not one Robert Parsons who sate at the helme in Rome write a certaine Booke of Titles intituled Doleman wherein he excludes his Maiestie and prefers the Infant a of Spaines right before all other pretenders to the Crowne but when hee once saw his Maiestie setled beyond all hope and expectation he made as you doe and the rest at that time did a vertue of necessitie acknowledging his vndoubted and lawfull Claime in his Preface to his Triple conuersion whereof for mine owne part I can giue none other reason then that which you adde to another purpose the case is altered Whiles his Maiestie was onely in hope you shewed your selues in your owne colours being now quiet in possession you plucke in your hornes yeelde to the times and are content to bee carried with the streame And though the personall case bee altered in regard of his Maiestie and Henry the VIII yet if his Maiesty either needed the like dispensations or had the like will to pull down Churches I make no question but his Holinesse would without any great difficulty giue way to both conditionally that his pretended but vsurped authority might be restored But as he is a publique person and represents the body of the State the case is no way different which is the freeing of it from forraine and vniust vsurpation And for Queene Elizabeth I will be bold to say it that at her comming to the Crowne she was not so farre ingaged for the defence of that religion which she constantly maintained to her dying day as his Maiesty hath by manifold obligations bound himselfe to the maintenance and continuance of that which she at her death left and hee at his entrance found established amongst vs. For testimonies wee neede goe no farther then his frequent and solemne protestations aswell by his penne as by word of mouth and that not onely before but since his comming to the Crowne to which if we adde the carefull education of his Sonne the most noble and hopefull Prince euen in that respect the bestowing of his onely daughter that most sweet and vertuous Lady vpon the Prince Palatine not onely a Protestant but as you terme them a Caluinist the honourable entertainement of Isaac Casaubon and Peter Moulin the liberty giuen to the French Dutch for the free and publike exercise of their religion in diuers parts of his Maiesties Dominions and lastly his constant refusall of so much as the Toleration of any other religion notwithstanding the importunitie of suits and supplications for it the matter as I suppose will be cleane out of doubt And as Queene Elizabeth was prouoked by Pius V. so was his Maiesty by Paulus V. in a degree very little different the one absoluing her subiects from their oath of Allegeance and the other forbidding his to take such an oath So that though the Parenthesis in regard of personall succession bee ended yet in respect of profession which of the two is the more to bee regarded the sentence as yet runnes on and as we hope will haue no period but with the worlds end But the more to exasperate his Maiesty against King Henry the VIII and his daughter Queene Elizabeth you tell him that if the Schisme could haue preuented his title neither his Mother nor himselfe should euer haue made Queene Elizabeth afraid with their right to the Crowne of England For the iustnesse of the diuorce I haue already deliuered mine opinion at large and yet if any desire farther satisfaction let him reade the first dialogue of Antisanderus who both strongly maintaines the equity of the Kings proceedings in that businesse and clearely confutes the slanders of that base fugitiue and for his wiues had the way bene fairely made vnto them no iust exception could be taken to the number Philip the II. of Spaine besides his Mistresses had successiuely foure wiues whereof the first was his fathers Cousin germane and the last his owne For the compassing of which what strange courses he tooke I list not to relate but referre the reader to the Prince of Aurange his Apologie yet none that I know hath taxed him for his multitude of wiues in as much as he liued and died a Romane Catholike Did not Henry the last of France diuorce his first wife after they had bene almost as long married and vpon lesse shew of iust reason then Henry the VIII but the one made semblance at last of subiecting himselfe to the See Apostolike which the other by no meanes could bee brought vnto as he did at first this alone beeing it that varied the case and that which he did herein may well be interpreted to haue sprong from a desire of setling the Crowne in his owne posterity rather then of preiudicing the title of Scotland For though during his reigne some discontentments there were between the two nations yet not long before his death
haue stirred mee either to robbe the Pope of any thing due vnto him or to assume vnto my selfe any farther authority then that which other Christian Emperours and kings through the world and my owne Predecessours of England in especiall haue long agone maintained Neither is it enough to say aâ— Parsons doth in his answere to the Lord Cooke that farre more kings of this Countrey haue giuen many more examples of acknowledging or not resisting the Popes vsurped authority some perchance lacking the occasion and some the ability of resisting them for euen by the ciuill Law in the case of a violent intrusion and long wrongfull possession against me it is enough if I proue that I haue made lawful interruption vpon conuenient occasions Hitherto his Maiesty And I cannot but wonder what Mr. Doctour meant if he had read it not to take any notice of it or if he reade it not how he durst presume thus to write to his Maiesty without so much as the reading of his writings From whence we may gather that what Henry the VIII acted in that regard was but a manifestation of the intents and desires of his predecessors which they durst not fully expresse and what they enacted a preparatiue to the roundnesse of his proceedings Besides I see not but if his Maiesties predecessors granted that to his Holinesse which was indiuidually annexed to the Crowne as being a speciall branch of their prerogatiue Royall his Maiestie stands none otherwise bound to maintaine that graunt then they held themselues obliged to make that good which King Iohn had yeelded vnto him and if they did part with their authoritie as your selfe speake then was it their owne before they parted with it and not the Bishops of Rome as your Romane Catholikes would haue it by Diuine right and consequently beeing their owne as they vpon occasion best knowen to themselues conferred it so vpon a contrary occasion I see no reason but either themselues or their successours might as lawfully resume it But the trueth is that it was not giuen by them but stollen by the Bishop of Rome and by him held vnder colour of prescription yet your selfe by discourse of reasâ—n and force of trueth are driuen to confesse that our bodies and goods are at his Maiesties command either forgetting 〈◊〉 whom you wrote or not remembring or it may bee so much as knowing what the Church of Rome whose defence you vndertake defends touching the exemption aswell of the bodies as the goods of Churchmen from the iurisdiction of the secular though Supreame power and how his Maiestie in diuers parts of his writings hath most sufficiently prooued the nouelty of this doctrine so that what you write herein can bee imputed to none other but to grosse flattery or palpable ignorance flattery of his Maiestie in that which he truely holds or ignorance of that which is falsely held by the Church of Rome but like a shrewd Cow that hath yeelded a good meale oâ— milke and then ouerthrowes it with a spurne of her foote so hauing subiected our bodies and goods to his Maiesties commaund you exempt our soules from his charge but by way of protection in Catholike Religion as if you meant purposely to crosse that of the Apostle Let euery soule be subiect to the higher powers But I would â—aine dâ—maund if his Maiestie should not protect vs in that Religion which you call Catholike whether our bodies and goods shall then bee at his commaund Surely if his Holinesse whom you cannot but vnderstand by those that supplie Christs place in ijs quaesunt iuris diuini and to whom you would haue vs subordinate haue the command of our soules and his Maiestie onely of our bodies the later may command what hee list but men will execute his commands no farther then the former will be pleased to giue leaue whereof we haue had often and fresh experience aswel in the Bulls of Pius Quintus and in the Breuâ—s of Paulus Quintus and in trueth â— cannot but commend his wit though not his honestie that hee intitleth himselfe vnto and interesteth himselfe in the more actiue and noble part the bodie without the soule being as the shales without the kernell or the scabberd without the sword Those Kings that out of their Regall authoritie purged the Church of corruptions and reformed the abuses thereof brought the Arke to her resting place dedicated the Temple and consecrated it with prayers proclaimed fastes caused the booke of the Lawe new found to bee read to the people renewed he Couenant betweene God and his people bruised the brasen Serpent in pieces which was set vp by the expresse commandement of God and was a figure of Christ destroyed all Idols and false Gods make a publique reformaâ—ion by a Commission of Secular men and Priests mixed for that purpose deposed the high Priest and set vp another in his place they that lawfully called Generall Councils for the suppressing of heresies as Constantine did the Nicene Theodosius the elder the first at Constantinople Theodosius the yonger the Ephesin Valentinian Martian the Chalcedonian they that made Lawes for the ordering of Church-men and Church-matters as Iustinian and Charlemaine cannot in the iuâ—gement of any indifferent man be said to haue no charge of the soules of such aâ— are committed to their charge but onely by way of protection Neither doeth it follow that his Maiestie in taking the charge of soules vpon him according to the qualitie of his office and Gods appointment whose officer hee is should therfore be himself a Priest or be the author of his owne Religion as you would maliciously inferre from the custom of the heathen Emperors no more then the Kings of Israel or the Emperors of the Christian Primitiue Church were Priests or authors of that religion which by diuine ordinance they tooke care of aswell in the Priest as in the people aswell in confirming and countenancing what was in order as in censuring and restoring what was amisse neither was it in the time of the law of nature held vnlawfull that both the Regall and the Ecclesiasticall the princely and the priestly power should reside together in one person during which Law wee haue not many examples of Kings that gouerned a people where the Church of God was planted there is onely mention to my remembrance of Melchisedecke King of Salem and of him it is sayd withall that hee was a Priest of the most High God so that in his person these two offices the principalitie and the Priesthood were ioyned both which followed the prerogatiue of the birth-right and to this double dignity was answerable a double portion the like do we reade of Anias that he was Rex idem hominuÌ„ Poebique Sacerdos and it was the speach of Diogenes the Pythagorean that to make a compleat King hee had need bee a Captaine a Iudge and a Priest of which two
first Tome of the Councils If Mr. Doctour I say had well coâ—â—â—ered this together with that famous resistance made by the sixt Councill of Carthage in which S. Augustine was a member to the vniust claime of three succeeding Popes Zozimus Boniface and Celestine in the high businesse of Appeales hee might in good discretion haue forborne to presse his Maiestie to the triall of the most ancient Fathers Now touching the question of Antichrist it is not discussed by his Maiestie as an hypotheticall proposition but as his opinion his Maiesties words are these As for the definition of Antichrist I will not vrge so obscure a point as a matter of faith to be necessarily beleeued of all Christians but what I thinke herein I will simply declare Cardinall Peron indeed makes the proposition of deposing Kings to bee problematicall and yet withall a part of the Catholike faith but his Maiestie though he make his opinion of Antichrist no part of his faith yet beeing his opinion in regard of his apprehension you cannot make it hypotheticall which hee also declared to bee his iudgement before his comming to the Crowne of England by his Commentarie on certaine verses of the 20th Chapter of the Reuelation of S. Iohn neither is his Maiestie the onely King that hath been of that opinion You may remember not long since one of the French who stamped on his coyne Perdam Babylonem vntill then his Maiesties substantiall and weighty reasons touching that point bee disprooued I see no reason hee hath to recall what hee hath written in the meane time his Maiestie may more iustly take vp that then the Author of it what I haue written I haue written lest hee should incurre the censure of changing as the Moone Lastly for the example of Henry the VIII it is both false and impertinent false in that you say he contradicted his booke whereas his booke as I haue already shewed is onely touching the seuen Sacraments which he held to his dying day impertinent in that you take it as granted that his Maiesty by recalling himselfe should alter from lesse good to much better which is the thing alwayes by vs denied but neuer was or euer can be proued by you Indeed we find that S. Augustine made his Retractations from naught or lesse good to better and Bellarmine in his Recognitions from bad to worse and Dr. Carier to haue fallen from a formall Protestant to a professed Papist and as our Sauiour speakes to Saint Peter thou being conuerted strengthen thy brethren So hee contrariwise being himselfe peruerted labours to weaken his Maiesties faith but it is grounded on that Rocke against which the gates of hell with their power much lesse the instruments of Rome with their foisting and cogging shall neuer be able to preuaile B. C. 37. The other and the greatest obiection that howsoeuer your Maiesty before your comming to the Crowne and in the beginning of your reigne were indifferent yet after the Gun-powder treason you were so angred and auerted as now you are resolued neuer to be friends and therfore he is no good subiect that will either himselfe be reconciled to the Church of Rome or perswade any of your subiects thereunto I confesse your Maiesty had good cause to bee throughly angry and so had all good men whether Catholikes or Protestants but if your Maiesty will hearken to those that worke their owne purposes out of your anger you shall bee driuen to liue and die out of charity which although it bee not so horrible to the body yet is it much more harmefull to the soule then violent or sudden death It is hard I confesse for a priuate man to asswage his anger on the sudden and there is as much difference betwixt the anger of a priuate man and the indignations of a Prince as betwixt a blast vpon the riuer which is soone downe and a storme vpon the sea which hauing raised the billowes to the height is nourished by the motion thereof and cannot settle againe in a long time but there is a time for all things and seuen yeeres is a long time When a man is in the midst of his anger it pleaseth him not to bee intreated by his neighbours much lesse by his seruants but when a man hath chidden and punished vntill he is weary hee will bee content to heare his seruant speake reason and though he be not the wisest yet he is the louingst seruant that will venter to speake to his master in such a case God himselfe is exorable and it pleaseth him to be intreated by his seruants for his enemies I am perswaded there is no good Catholike in the world that can be your Maiesties enemy and therfore I doe assure my selfe that God will be pleased with you to heare them speake and not bee angry with me for mouing you thereunto And if your Maiesty doe but vouchsafe so much patience as to giue equall hearing I doubt not but yoâ— shall receiue such satisfaction as will giue you great quiet and contentment and disquiet none of your subiects but those onely that doe for their aduantage misinforme your Maiesty and misleade your people And if your Maiesty haue no such vse of the Schisme as King Henry the VIII and Queene Elizabeth had and that it doth neither increase your authority nor your wealth nor your honour but rather hinder them all and depriue you of that blessing which otherwise you might expect from CHRIST and his Church from your Catholike neighbour Princes and subiects and from the Saints in heauen in whose Communion is the comfort of euery Christian both in life and death then whatsoeuer some great Statesman may say to the contrary I do verely beleeue they doe but speake for themselues And that there is no true reason that may concerne your Maiesty to hinder you from admitting a toleration of Catholikes and Catholike Religion that those who cannot command their vnderstanding to thinke otherwise may find the comfort they doe with so great zeale pursue in the vnitie of the Catholike Church amongst whome I confesse my selfe to be one that would thinke my selfe the happiest man in the world if I might vnderstand that your Maiesty were content that I should bee so G. H. 37. You come at last to the greatest obiection as you terme it which is the Gun-powder treason but doubtlesse in the iudgement of any indifferent reader you say least in the clearing of it seeming rather in conclusion to referre it to a farther hearing then for the present to answere the obiection or excuse the plot That which you haue to say is that there is a time for all things and God himselfe is exorable as if his Maiesty were mercilesse and inexorable whereas hee proceeded vpon the discouery of that most barbarous designe with such rare clemency and singular moderation that iustice was onely taken vpon the very actors and offenders themselues
wherewith you being kindled haue no lesse constantly and couragiously then wisely and religiously withstood so great rashnesse wee had been vtterly ouerwhelmed with intolerable griefe and indeed this had been a fearefull token seeing wee may not without cause suspect lest into France haue flowen sparkes of the lamentable fire of England to the consuming and destruction of all true Pietie and Religion in that most Christian Kingdome which wee trust relying on Gods helpe shall alwayes more and more increase vnder the patronage of so godly a King trained vp with so great vigilancie to this end principally by a most religious and truely most Christian mother you thereunto diligently yeelding your helpe as you alwayes commendably haue done but although such hopes doe not a little comfort vs yet are wee not for all this free and voide of all affliction and trouble yea wee are vehemently anguished considering with our selues in how crosse and stormie a time wee by the secret dispensation of God vndertooke the guiding of S. Peters Barke standing doubtfull and perplexed lest happily through our negligence the sinke of vices increase and consequently the nauigation growe more dangerous and difficult for this cause wee dayly flie vnto him and implore his helpe who as without any merit of ours so also when wee thought nothing lesse was pleased we should sit at the sterne and guide the helme whom wee pray that while the waues rush against the Prow and heapes of foming Sea swell on each side and tempest follow in the Sterne hee not suffer any wracke notwithstanding so violent shaking of the shippe meane while we giue the greatest thankes to his infinite goodnesse that in the greatest danger which hitherto happily wee haue been in hee hath relieued vs with most seasonable succours to wit by your singular vertue and prouided for the safetie of the Kingdome of France by the counsell industry and religious fortitude of the Ecclesiasticall order of that Kingdome and on the other side wee gratulate you much and withall greatly praise you that your France nowe beholdeth flourishing againe in you the zeale pietie learning and magnanimity of her holy Fathers Denis Hilary Martin Bernard and the rest whose memorie is blessed for their care of Gods honour and the Churches dignity yea and all the holy Church of God may acknowledge of your company Cardinals of such eminence as become so worthy members of the holy Apostolike Sea and Bishops and Prelats and Pastours who are good seruants and faithfull and truely worthy of their Master hauing really shewed that they loue his glory more then themselues true Pastours of the sheepe of Christ who for the saluation of their flocke haue not doubted to lay downe their owne life while by shedding of their owne blood they haue with so great feruencie of minde shewed themselues ready to maintaine the fences of the Lords folde that is the Churches Rights Highly therefore doe wee praise you and gratulate you againe for what is more laudable what more glorious then for the Priests of God setting aside respect of all humane commoditie constantly to haue defended the dignity of holy Church and through zeale of maintaining the Catholike trueth to neglect their owne life As also it is to bee ascribed to the greatest happinesse that it so fell out this noble triall of your Priestly vertue should be made the Pietie and Religion of holy King Lewis his Progenitour no lesse reigning in your King then the memory of his glorious name reuiues in him wherefore wee doe the more exhort you that you alwayes more earnestly persist in your most laudable enterprise God verely will perfect the worke hee hath begun in you acknowledge his hand wonderfully moouing the hearts of Kings which hee holdeth and with one accord beare vp against the violence of the raging Sea stirred with the storme of humane pride and the whirlewind of secular wisedome seuered from the feare of God doubtles the tempests that are risen he will allay who failed not his wauering disciples indeed hee suffereth vs to bee tempted but giues an issue with the temptation therefore bee of good courage knowing that the Iudge standeth aboue and beholdeth the combate of his seruants to giue vnto euery one a reward worthy of his labour and he that fighteth valiantly shall be worthily rewarded Now we whose charitie hath been alwayes great toward you in the Lord vehemently louing you and highly esteeming your excellent vertue doe most willingly promise to afford you whatsoeuer helpe or Comfort in the Lord vpon this occasion we can yeeld being exceedingly bound to you for your so glorious and admirable exploit not ceasing in the meane time daily to pray vnto God the Father of mercies that by the increase of his holy grace hee would vouchsafe alwayes to keepe and strengthen you in his holy seruice and because wee cannot sufficiently according to our desire manifest vnto you by writing this most louing affection of our heart vnto you wee haue giuen in charge to our Venerable Brother Robert Bishop of Montpellier our Apostolike Nounce that what hee hath receiued in Commission touching this businesse more at large from vs hee carefully by word of mouth impart vnto you who will also further declare vnto you what wee thinke fitting for the full perfecting of the businesse To him therefore shall yee giue altogether the same credence which yee would to our selues speaking vnto you God confirme you in euery good worke and direct alwayes your Counsels and endeuours according to his holy pleasure and we from the inmost bowels of our charitie bestow vpon you our Apostolike benediction Yeuen at Rome at S. Mary the greater vnder the Signet of the Fisherman the last of Ianuary 1615. the 15th yeere of our Popedome Petrus Strozza Now as long as such griefe such ioy such hope such feare such loue such ielousie is so passionately expressed in the main businesse about which his Maiesties personall and publique quarrell with Rome first beganne what likelihood is there of perswading his Maiestie that no Roman Catholike in the world can bee his enemie except first hee bee perswaded that the Pope of Rome is no Roman Catholike yet how farre hee was mooued to anger vpon occasion of the Powder-treason against the body of that profession his owne wordes deliuered in the next session of Parliament after the discouery of that bloody designe shall testifie as for mine owne part sayth hee I would wish with those ancient Philosophers that there were a Christall window in my brest wherein all my people might see the secretest thoughts of my heart for then might you all see no alteration in my mind for this accident further then in these two points The first caution and warinesse in gouernment to discouer and search out the mysteries of this wickednesse as farre as may beâ— The other after due triall seuerity of punishment vpon those that shall bee found guilty of so detestable and vnheard of a villenie This was
themselues might haue liued and died in the seruice of God without posteritie and haue helped to maintaine the rest of their families which was so great a benefit to the Common-wealth both for the exoneration and prouision thereof as no humane policie can procure the like The Farmer and Husbandman who laboureth to discharge his payments hath little or nothing left at theyeres end to lay vp for his children that increase grow vpon him may remember that in Catholike times there were better penny-worths to bee had when the Clergie had a great part of the Land in their hands who had no neede to raise the Rents themselues and did what they could to make other Lords let at a reasonable rate which was also an inestimable benefite to the Commons so that whereas ignorant men carried with enuie against the Clergie are wont to obiect the multitude of them and the greatnesse of their prouisions they speake therein as much against themselues as is possible for the greater the number is of such men as be mundo mortui the more is the exoneration of the Commons and the more the land is of such as can haue no proprietie in them the better is the prouision of the Commons for themselues can haue no more then their food and their regular apparell all the rest either remaines in the hands of the Tenants or returnes in hospitalitie and reliefe to their neighbours or is kept in a liuing Exchequer for the seruice of the Prince and Countrey in time of necessitie so that the Commons doe gaine no wealth at all but rather doe lose much by the Schisme G. H. 41. You proceede and assure the Commons that our separation from Rome makes much against their wealth and libertie for proofe whereof you beginne with the Puritan vnthrift who lookes for the ouerthrow of Bishops and Churches Cathedrall hoping to haue his share in them Now I denie not but some such vnthrifts there may bee shrouding themselues vnder the vizard of those whome you call Puritans but their power is not so great God bee thanked as wee neede feare them nor I hope shall bee whiles his Maiestie and his posterity sway the Scepter who is so farre from pulling them downe or giuing any way vnto it that hee hath not onely to his immortall fame bound his hands from withdrawing any thing from them but restored them in Scotland and both often and openly professed No Bishop no King and as for them which looke for that ouerthrow let their eyes drop out of their sockets with looking and the yong rauens deuoure them I haue heard of a platforme of our Church gouernment deuised by Parsons if the Pope should once againe recouer his footing amongst vs in which one especiall piece of his proiect is the pulling downe of the Bishopricks Churches Cathedrall that his Holinesse and the Padres may bee all in all so that the Iesuites may most properly bee termed those Puritan vnthrifts And I make no doubt but if his Holinesse could dispence with those who withhold the Tenths of the Church he might as well dispence with the pulling downe of Bishoprickes and Cathedrall Churches Now for those honest Protestants who for matter of religion could be content it were as it was conditionally themselues might receiue more benefit their heads may bee in England but sure their hearts are in Rome deceiuing themselues aswell in vndervalewing the benefit they haue as in expecting that they haue not nor are euer like to haue the faire pretexts and promises made them from Rome being like the Apothecaries boxes haâ—â—ng Catholicon set on their front in capitall letters as if they conteined a soueraigne medicine for all diseases but within are full of deadly poison or like the apples of Sodome which are to looke to beautifull buâ— being touched onely with the finger presently are turned into dust The first apple you present the Commons if they yeeld to the reentertaining of Popish religion is increase of wealth But before we goe any farther in the triall of this point I shall desire all ingenuous Papists rightly to informe both themselues and others what the two Monkes Matthew Paris and Matthew of Westminster haue left vpon record touching the Bishop of Romes most intolerable exactions in this kingdome whiles his authority here preuailed and then to iudge indifferently whether by submitting our neckes to that yoke which our fathers were not able to beare it be likely the wealth of our land should be increased That which one of the Popes pronounced touching our Countrey was doubtlesse the opinion of them all I speake of latter times Verè hortus noster deliciarum est Anglia verè puteus inexhaustus est vbi multa abundant de multis multa possunt extorqueri England is our Paradise of pleasure a well neuer to bee drawne drie and where much abounds much may be taken It was the speach of Innocent the IV. reported by Maâ—thew Paris anno 1245. about which time S. Edmond Archbishop of Canterbury vndertooke a voyage to Rome to complaine of the great vexations and extortions offered the Clergie and people by Caâ—dinall Otho his Legate who hiding himselfe in the tower of Ousnie Abbey for feare of a tumult of the Schollers of Oxford they termed him Vsurer Simonist rent-racker money-thirster peruerter of the King subuerter of the kingdome enriching strangers with the spoiles of the English but Edmund returning home without successe in his complaint and weary of his life in England by reason that hee could not redresse the Popes oppressions made choise of a voluntary banishment at Pountney in France where hee died with the honour and opinion of a Saint Not long after his Holinesse desirous to see England caused his Cardinals to write their letters to the King that it would be a thing tending much to his honour and safety and to his kingdomes immortall glory to enioy the Lord Popes presence who did long to view the rarities of Westminster and the riches of London but the Kings Counsell told him plainely that the Romane rapines and simonies had enough stained the English puritie though the Pope himselfe came not personally to spoile and prey vpon the wealth of this Church and kingdome the like deniall of entrance hee had found both in France and Arragon it being said that the Pope was like a mouse in a sachell or a snake in ones bosome who but ill repay their hosts for their lodging and the infamies of his Court deserued none other whose filth saith our Monke sent foorth a steame and stench as high as the very cloudes These and worse were the effects of the Bishop of Romes vsurpation here in England by imposing continuall taxes and tallages being sometimes the tenth sometimes the fifteenth sometimes the third sometimes the moity of all the goods both of the Clergie and Laity vnder colour of maintaining the Popes holy warres against the Emperour and the Greeke Church who were then
lawfull to the Confessor to publish that which he heard in confession but none saith hee of those holy Fathers euer decreed that constitution of Ecclesiasticall discipline with such strictnesse as thereby to make the Law of God of none effect They knew well enough that if the case so stood as the Law of the Church enioyned silence and the law of God vtterance wee should rather obey God then man They knew well enough that Dauid is commended of the Sonne of God to whom properly belongs the interpretation of the lawe himselfe being the author of it for the eating of the Shew-bread which otherwise was not lawfull saith Christ for him to eate rather then hee would suffer himselfe to starue with hunger To like effect is that which my Lord of Ely hath in his last booke against Bellarmine Let that reuerence which is due to that seale be preserued inuiolate but towards penitents not wilfull proceeders in thier mischieuous plots neither is that saith hee the seale of God and CHRIST but of Satan and Antichrist with which so horrible villanies are masked But will Mr. Doctor say these are but the opinions of priuate men I demaund the authority of your Church for the seale of secresie but if he had â—in as skilful in the decrees Canons of our Church as he would beare vs in hand he was he would surely haue forborne that demaund the 113. Can. of those which were agreed vpon in Conuocation anno 160â— ratified by his Maiesties royal assent concluding thus Prouided alwayes that if any man confesse his secret hidden sins to the Minister for the vnburthening of his conscience and to receiue spirituall consolation and ease of mind from him wee doe not any way binde the said Minister by this our Constitution but doe straightly charge and admonish him that he do not at any time reueale and make knowen to any person whatsoeuer any crime or offence so committed to his trust secrecie except they be such crimes as by the Lawes of this Realme his owne life may be called into question for concealing them vnder paine of irregularitie So that neither is Mr. Doctors Assertion true that the people with vs are freed from the possiâ—ility of Confessing though they are from the necessitie nor his reason because wee haue taken away the seale of secrecie the abuse being onely by vs remouâ—d but the vse aswell by publike authoritie as priuate opinions retained and maintained But to conclude this point the libertie which the people haue gained by separation from Rome stands not so much in forbearance of Confession rightly vsed as in that libertie wherewith CHRIST hath made them free for if the sonne haue made them free then are they free indeed if they intangle not themselues againe with the yoke of bondage my counsell is that which the Apostle there aduiseth Stand fast and to like effect though in another place and case Art thou free seeke not to bee bound and as many as walke according to this rule peace shall bee vponthem and mercie and vpon the Israel of God B. C. 43. As for the libertie of making Lawes in Church-matters the common Lawyer may perhaps make an aduantage of it and threfore greatly stand vpon it but to the Common people it is no pleasure at all but rather a great burden for the great multitude of Statutes which haue been made since the Schisme which are more then fiue times so many that euer were made before since the name of Parliament was in England hath caused also an infinite number of Lawyers all which must liue by the Commons and raise new families which cannot bee done without the decay of the old and if the Canon of the Church and Courts of Confession were in requâ—st the Lawyers market would soone bee marred and therefore most of your Lawyers in this point are Puritans and doe still furnish the Parliament with grieuances against the Clergie as knowing very well that their owne glory came at the first from the Court Infidel and therefore cannot stand with the authoritie of the Church which came at the first from the Court Christian I speake not against the anciâ—nt lawes of England which since King Ethelberts time were all Catholike nor against the honest Lawyers of England I know many and honour all good men among them and doe looke for better times by the learning wisedome and moderation of the chiefest But I am verely perswaded that the pretended liberties of the Commons to make Lawes in matter of Religion doth burden the Common-wealth and doth trouble and preiudice your Maiestie and pleasure none at all but the Puritan and petti-fogging Lawyer that would faine fetch the antiquity of his Common Law from the Saxons that were before King Ethelbert So that whether wee respect the spirituall instruction and comfort or the temporall wealth and libertie of the Commons of England if the Puritan Preacher and the Puritan Lawyer who both seeke the ouerthrowe of the Church and deceiue and consume the people would let them alone there would quickely appeare no reason of their state at all why they should hate the Catholike Church that is so comfortable and beneficiall vnto them or maintaine the Schisme that with sugred speaches and counterfeit faces doth so much abuse them G. H. 4â— The next priuiledge which you pretend to the Commons is the liberty of making Lawes in Church-matters as if they could make lawes without the consent of the Lords both Spirituall and Temporall or they all without the royall assent of his Maiestie and for the multitude of Statutes which you speake of the multitude of erroneous opinions deuilish practises from Rome haue caused a great part of them and the malice both of the deuil as knowing his time to be but short and of men in this last and worst age of the world generally increasing must needes giue occasion to more lawes Hee that shall looke into the bodie of the ciuill law may find that those lawes multiplied faster from Constantines time to the ende of Iustinians which was about 200. yeere then in foure nay in fiue hundred yeeres before though the one were vnder a Christian gouernement and the other vnder an heathenish whâ— tooke their beginnings as wee knowe onely from the lawes of the twelue tables which were brought out of Greece Did not God himselfe besides those twelue precepts grounded vpon the law of nature adde many lawes therunto for the gouernement of his Church and that which hee did by the Ministry of Moses vnto that speciall people the same power hath hee left to the gouernours of particular Churches conditionally all their lawes bee conformable or at leastwise not repugnant vnto his law the rule and square of all humane lawes how hath the Canon law it selfe to which Mr. Doctors drift is wholly to resubmit vs in Church gouernement growen vp to a great bulke and massie bodie and
how hath their multitude intangled the Christian world yet must no man dare open his mouth to complaine of that We reade of Luther that when he heard his books by publike order were burnt in Rome he as solemnely burnt the Canon law at Wittenberge We haue not proceeded neither thinke wee it fit to proceed so farre but haue rather chosen out of that dunghill to seeke for a pearle which hauing found we are content to keepe and as occasion serues to make vse of We haue not wholly abrogated the Canon law but wee retaine it in part though not as receiuing strength from the Popes authoritie who for any thing I know hath no more right of making lawes for vs then wee haue for him but from the gouernours of our owne Church Neither did the Kings of France in the erection of their Vniuersities receiue it any otherwise then to vse at their own discretioÌ„ not to oblige them as a law or if it did the power of it was deriued from their owne approbation not from Romes imposition and therefore haue they expresly and by name forbidden the 6th Booke of the Decretals to bee read in their Vniuersities as lawe as being expresly against the lawes and liberties of the Gallican Church Now if they refuse one part they might in my iudgement by the same reason if they found it inconuenient or disagreeable reiect the whole and I thinke they would not stand much if occasion serued vpon the casting off of the Canon lawe who could by no meanes yet bee induced to the receiuing of the Canons of the Council of Trent A notable instance hereof wee haue euen in the depth of Popery in our owne Countrey At the Parliament of Merton it was proposed that children borne before marriage might bee adiudged legitimate according to the rule and practise of the Canon law They all made answere with one voice Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari we wil not yeeld to the change of the lawes of England by which it appeares that they receiued not in those very times all the Popes Canons as lawes and those which they receiued they had not the force of lawes because the Pope imposed theÌ„ but because themselues entertained them in that nature and to that purpose ratified them Mr. Doctor need not marueile then if our Parliament now make lawes to the same purpose and by the same authority as they ratified those The Summons of Parliament euer since the time of King Henry the V. and how long before I know not haue in one constant forme and tenour made mention that the Parliament is summoned to consult de negotijs statum defensionem Regni Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae contigentibus of businesses concerning the State and defence of the Realme and Church of England Among other Kings S. Edward begins his lawes with this protestation that it was his Princely care Vt populum Dei super omnia Sanctam Ecclesiam regat gubernet To rule and gouerne Gods people and aboue all the Church of God And before him Ina kâ—ng of the West Saxons professeth that hee called a Councill of his Bishops and Senators that they might consult of matters De salute animarum Statu regni touching the saluation of their soules and the State of the kingdome And therefore doeth our chiefe Antiquarie rightly distinguish our Courts into Ecclesiasticall Ciuill and mixt which hee makes the Parliament as beeing compounded of both and consequently capable to determine of matters of both natures though I must needes say the case is somewhat altered from â—ormer times when not onely the Arch-bishâ—ps the Bishops the Abbots and Priors whose number was double to thâ—t which now it is and litle inferiour to the â—eâ—porall Lords sate in thhe igher House of Paâ—liament and had conâ—luding voâ—ces but the bodie of the Clergie and Cathedrall â—hurches had their Proctours amongst the Commons as may be câ—llected by diuers of our Statutes in print but noâ— that the number of the Lords Spirituall in the higher House is â—essened and the others are cleane excluded the lower House mee thinkes it should stand with reason and equitie that thâ— liâ—ertie of making of lawes or Canons in Church-matters should bee referred and reserued by his Maiesties gracious fauour and with his Royall assent to Church-men assembled in their Conuocation who are presumed to be most able and willing to establish good and wholesome Constitutions and to reforme what is amisse Thus in the yeere 1603 at his Maiesties first entrance into this kingdome by vertue of hiâ— Prerogatiue Royall and Supreame authority in causes Ecclesiasticall did hee graunt licâ—nce and free power vnto them to treate and agree vpon such Ordinances as they should thinke necessary and conuenient for the honour and seruice of Almighty God and the good and quiet of the Church and afterward being by them agreed vpon and throughly considered by his Maâ—estie out of his princely inclination to maintaine the present estate and gouernment of the Church of England hee not onely coâ—firmed them by his Royall Assent but by the same authoritie commaunded the entertainement and execution of them through the Realme Another matter you fling at is the multitude of Lawyers at this day as iâ— they were exceedingly increased but if you had read and well obseâ—ued Foretescues obseruation in this behalfe who wrote about 200. yeeres since being then Chiefe Iustice of England and had compared this time to that you would haue found that the number of that Proâ—ession in those dayes was litle lesse then at this day certainely their colledges were then more then now His words are Sunt namque in eo decem hospitia minora et quandâ—que verò plura quae nominantur hospitia Cancellariae ad quorum quodlibet pertinent centum studentes ad minus et ad aliqua eorum maior in multo numerus licet non omnes in eis semper conueniant MaioruÌ„ quatuor sunt ad minimuÌ„ eorum pertinent in forma praenot at a ducenti studentes aut propè They haue ten lesser houses which they call Innes of Chancerie to euery of which belong one hundred students at least and to some many more though they be not all continually resident in them of the bigger houses they haue â—oure and to each of them in like manner belong two hundred students or thereabout Whereras at this present in some of the Innes of Court there are not 260. and in the greatest little aboue 300. in commons at one time and for the â—nnes of Chancerie they are but eight in number and in most of them not aboue 50. in commons together But if they are increased it may well be imputed not so much to our multitude of statuts as to our long peace the nurse of homebred quarrels or to the dissolution of our Monestaries and that as I conceiue for foure reasons First for that whereas in those dayes when the Monasteries stood many yonger brothers did
betake themselues to Monâ—sticall liuâ—s they doe now apply themselues to the study of the Law Secondly for that the possessions of the Monasteries being then in Mortmaine could not be aliened whereas now being in the hands of Lay-men they are daily bâ—ught and solde which settetâ— the Lawyer doubly aworke first in 〈◊〉 coâ—ueyances for them and then in alterâ—tion about them Thirdly the Abbots and Priors foreseeing their ruine Set many leases vnder hand which could not but breed a great intanglement in their possessions Fourthly and lastly the dispersing of them into the hands of so many particular men resting before in the possessions of Corporations cannot but proue the cause of much strife and consequently of many suites and controuersies no marueile then if by our increase of people other trades and professions increasing Lawyers should doe the like But if the Canons of the Church and the Courts of Confession were you say in request the Lawyers market would soone bee marred what say you then to those Countreys where both these are in request and yet doe their Lawyers both encrease and flourish more then ours And when both these were in request among vs their number as I shewed before was little lesse if not as great or more then now it is if â— vnderstand the words of that reuerend Iudge aright And if most of our Lawyers bee in this point Puritans that is in refusing the rescripts of the Popes as the Canons of the Church and your seale of Confession as a diuine ordinance for my part I blame them not but for the Canons of our owne Church collected by William Linwood in the reigne of King Henry the 5th and afterwards by 32. selected persons Bishops inferiour Diuines and Cannonists deputed to that worke by King Henry the eight after his death by his Sonne King Edward the sixth as also our present Canons now in force I haue knowen some of our Lawyers much esteeme But if they furnish the Parliament with vniust and vnnecessarie grieuances I defend them not but leaue them to make their owne apologie only thus much I say that the whole body of a profession is not to bee charged with the fault of some fewe specially being imputed by those who desire most to fish in our troubled waters to warme their handes at the fire of our contentions and to rippe vp our woundes if we haue any with smiling countenances Hoc Ithacus velit magno mercentur Atridae Now if the one incroach vpon the other farther then their proper and limited bounds permit I excuse them not but leaue them to the censure of his wisedome and restraint by his power vpon whom they depend both and from whom they both receiue their limits and being Lastly whereas you make him a Petty-fogging Lawyer that would fetch the antiquity of the Lawe from the Saxons that were before King Ethelbert herein you make that famous Iudge before named whom in his time they esteemed a Father of the Law and a learned antiquarie a Petty-fogging Lawyer in as much as in his Book aboue mentioned he thus speaketh The realme of England was first inhabited by the Britanes next after them the Romanes had the rule of the land and then againe the Britanes possessed it after whom the Saxons inuaded it and changing the name thereof did for Britaine call it England after them for a certaine time the Danes had the dominion of the realme and then the Saxons againe but last of all the Normans subdued it whose descent continueth in the gouernment of the Kingdome at this present and in all the times of these seueral Nations and of their Kings this realme was still ruled with the selfe same customes that now it is which if they had not bene right good some of those Kings mooued either with pride or with reason or affection would haue changed them or altogether abolished them and specially the Romans who did iudge all the rest of the world by their owne Lawes likewise would other of the foresayed Kings haue done who by the sword only possessing the realme of England might with the same power haue extinguished the Lawes thereof and touching the antiquitie of thesame neither are the Romane ciuil Lawes by so long continuance of ancient times confirmed nor yet the Lawes of the Venetians which aboue all other are reported to be of most antiquitie for as much as there Iland in the beginning of the Britanes was not then inhabited as Rome it selfe was then also vnbuilded neither are the Lawes of any which worshipped God so ancient wherefore the contrary is not to bee sayd nor thought but that the English Customes are very good yea of all other the very best neither can I conceiue any other reason Mr. Doctor hath thus bitterly to enuie against our Lawes as if they came from the Court infidel and were a burthen to the Common wealth but because some of them are bent against the Popes vsurpation and the admission on of his emissaries from Rome and as the Canon Law carries vp the Arke of the Church that is the Pope fifteene cubits aboue the highest mountaineâ— of Soueraigntie so is the Common Law so fauourable and aduantageous in extending the Prerogatiue of the King as his Maiestie professeth For a King of England to despise the Common lawe is to neglect his owne Crowne and a little after protesteth that if it were in his hand to chuse a new law for this Kingdome hee would not onely preferre it before any other nationall lawe but euen before the very iudiciall law of Moyses So that whether wee expect Spirituall instruction and comfort or the semporall wealth and libertie of the Commons of England if the Iesuite and Seminarie Priest who both seeke the ouerthrow of our Church and deceiue and consume the people would let them alone there would quickly appeare no reason of State at all why they should desire reconciliation to Rome which with sugred speaches and counterfeit faces doth so much abuse them or loathe the reformation which is euery way so comfortable and beneficiall vnto them B. C. 44. I am therefore in very assured hope that by my comming to the Catholike Church beside the satisfying and sauing of mine owne soule I shall doe no ill seruice to your Maiestie neither in respect of your selfe nor your children nor in respect of your Lords and Commons and that there is no reason concerning the state of any of these that is sufficient to disswade vnitie There is onely the Clergie left which if Caluinisme may goe on and preuaile as it doth shall not in the next age bee left to bee satisfied and there is little reason that any man that loues the Clergie shall desire to satisfie such Clergie-men as do vnder-hand fauour Caluinists and maintaine such points of doctrine as if your Maiesties fauour were not would out of hand ouerthrow the Clergie and in stead of them set vp a few stipendary Preachers
or is Caluin charged by any aduersary to ouerthrow any of these so much as by consequence where then is M. Doctors moderation 4 I thinke we shall expect long before that leasure be offered 5 If all English men then your selfe were baptised in that doctrine in which notwithstanding you were not confirmed as you ought or at leaâ—t wise it was not sufficiently confirmed in you 6 It was touched indeed but not prooued 7 That iust treatise will prooue nothing els but an vniust calumnie if by Caluinisme you vnderstand Caluins doctrine 8 My Table of comparison here annexed to mine answere will manifest many plaine contradictions and that in the mainest points of doctrine 9 Wee professe the patience of doues but not of asses such as you would prooue vs to bee if you make vs in that to beleeue what you promise to prooue 10 It is the obstinacie of the Church of Rome that inforceth vs to be at warres with her 11 Whether the contradiction of the doctrine which you here confesse but denyed before rather argue the corruptions of State from whence they come then are argued by the grounds of that Religion whereupon they stand we shall haue fitter opportunitie to examine in the Sections following 1 My Lord of Ely 1 The words of the Bull are these Impia mysteria instituta ad Caluini praescriptum à se suscepta obseruata etiam à sub ditis sâ—ruari mandauit 2 Obserue their yeâ—rely Catalogues that come from the Mart of Frankeford 3 I haue in mine hands Letters written froÌ„ Beza to Archbishop Whitgift and from him againe to Beza wherein they both acknowledge that we agree in the substance of true religion Eliz. 13. Art 35. 36. 1 How could it be for the eaâ—e of his later wiues and their children since the breach was made vpon the taking of his second wife or â—ather his first if his marriage with Queene Kâ—therâ—ne were a nullitie and that before hee had any childe by her 2 Yet hereafter you goe about to prooue that in temporall respects the Romish religion is the fittest to giue contentment to the seuerall members of the State 3 That vntimely growing together would rather haue beene a cause of festring and rankling so that the breach is kept open rather vpon iudgement then vpon affection 4 You make the King the authour of it who should haue excluded him or called him to an account Gregory 7 Reâ—â— lib. 7. â—pist 1. 〈◊〉 3. concil pa. 1244 edit Bâ—â—ij 1 Were not those fauorites fauorers of the Romish religion 2 If they were Saints why did you still pray for them as if they had bene in Purgatory 3 Of these two last you may say as they in the 19. of the Acts who made siluer shrines for their great Goddesse Diana By this craft we haue our wealth 1 M. Cambden in his description of Worcestershire 2 By the common lawes of England it is euidâ—nt 〈◊〉 no man 〈◊〉 he be Ecclesiasticall or haue Ecclesiasticall iurisdiction can haue inheritance of tythes My L Cookâ— in his fiâ—t part of reports 2â— Ed. 3. lib. Ass. pl. 75. 3 Were not the fire in Purgaâ—ory in which the â—oules of those dead are supposed to be very hote the fire in the Popes and Monks kitchins would quickely be very cold 1 Your pompous and empty shewes in Gods seruice well deserue that title of goodly gay nothings 2 Satisfaction and penance I take to be both one in the language of Rome though you seem to put a differeÌ„ce betweene them 3 Whether the people were kept in obedience by the Popes authority let the manifold troubles by his meanes raised testifie 1 What carnall minded Priest or Monke would not rather entertaine varietie of Concubines then be tyed to one wife Sacerdotibus magna ratione sublatâ—s nuptias 〈◊〉 restituâ—ndâ—â— viderâ— * 1 Tim. 5. 8. 1 Those doctrines being set on foote and maintained as I haue shewed before long before our diuision from Rome might well cause it but could not be caused by it 1 You had smal reason to make him an enemie to Dukes saue only for not betraying his Citie to the Duke of Sauoy 2 Why his doctrine should bee so pleasing to the common people I see no reason but onely the force of trueth since it restraineth them of much liberty which the Romish affordeth 3 They were fallen out with their Duke and yet pretended to him whereas in trueth the Duke pretended to them not they to him Duke Amadius indeed got that donation from Pope Martin but neither himselfe nor any of his successours could euer enioy the possession and as I heare Philibertus their present Duke publikely renounced his pretence vnto it in the last assembly of the Protestants of France at Grenoble 4 Better an young reformer then an olde apostate 5 Hee found the substance of it in the Scriptures though not the forme or method 6 Your faith of Rome comes not so farre as a strong imagination it contents it selfe with a bare speculation or naked apprehension some reprobates going as farre in beleeuing and all diuels farther 7 Bâ—zaes words are Eiurato palâ—m Papatu by which I take to be vnderstood the renouncing of the Papacie or the Popes authority not the swearing of all Poperie to be false or the abiâ—â—ing of a mans hope of attaining the Popedome as a relapsed â—riar lately expounded himselfe 8 That which was affected by Gods speciall prouidence in their often and miraculous deliuerances you maliciously ascribe to fortune and the helpe of their neighbours How could the Bishop and the Duke be both their ancient gouernours Method hist. cap. 6. 1 Tom. 2. parâ— 1. 2 In the 〈◊〉 part of his Sermons against Caluin preached at Thurin 〈◊〉 1582. 1 Thâ—u which teachest another man should not steale doest thou steale 4 So that a man might truely say of them as the O rator doth of some of his time Prouenieâ—ant ad rompub noui oratorâ—â— adolescentuli 5 See no man despise thy youth Tit. 6 Me non esse pecuniosum si quibusdam viuus non persuadeo mors tamen ostendet 7 M. Hooker in his Preface to his Ecclesiasticall discipline 8 Bâ—zaes words are Plâ—risque ex collegiâ— timiditate turbas fugiâ—ntibus * Ierem. 6. 16. 1 You haue made your obseruation good by your owne affecting of nâ—ueltie in the change of your religion 2 There must needs be more libertie in that prâ—fession where induâ—gences are so rise and dispensations so easie 3 If by the old Clergie you meane the ancient forme of Ecclesiasticall gouernement it remaines at this day vnaltered 4 The admiring of all that comes from beyond seas may better bee applied to your Romane Catholikes then any other to whom omnâ— longinquum pro magnifico est as also their comâ—orting one another with reports 5 But by the Papists it is condemned as heresie 6 I cannot possibly conceiue