A MISSIVE TO His Majesty of Great Britain KING JAMES Written divers yeers since By Doctor CARIER Conteining the Motives of his Conversion to Catholike Religion VVith a notable fore-sight of the present distempers both in the Church and State of His Majesties Dominions And his Advice for the prevention thereof Eructavit cor meum verbum bonum dico ego opera mea Regi Psal 44. First printed at LIEGE and novv re-printed at PARIS VVith some Marginall Notes And a previous Discourse to the like purpose M. DC XLIX To the Reader of what Reformation soever in matters of Religion LIghting casually of late on the ensuing Letter written above thirty yeares ago by one of the most learned of his time among English Divines Doctor Carier Chaplain to King James and sent to His Majesty by him as a justification of his then deserting the Protestant Cause and conversion to the Catholike Church as a submissive testimony of his loyalty to his Soveraigne and as a faithfull Servants advice to his royall Master for his future safety both in this and the world to come I could not but sigh with a groaning Utinam that the King had entertained his suggestion with a more yeelding regard Had he been so happy I dare boldly pronounce the temporall State of his left Kingdome to say nothing of the other world and posterity had not been so deplorable as now with mournfull countenances we are forced to behold it Dr. Carier being a man born and bred from his infancy in the Protestant Profession orderly promoted to his academicall degree and above others indeared to his Prince for his greater proficiency in the literature and principles of the English Church .i. in the grounds of Luther or Calvin or both with others of the late Reformers of the old Christian world fore-saw to what tragicall conclusions their premises did dispose and what Cockatrices would be conuaturally hatch'd out of their eggs when time served to sit long upon them he foresaw they would certainely prove destructive to Church and State where ever they found good acceptance Nor can I say the Doctor was a Prophet by that fore-sight more then he who seeing the heavens over-cast with clouds prognosticates a tempest or he who seeing Gunpowder enough laid under the corner stones of a building and the match fired fore-tells a quick subversion of that Fabrick A man becomes not a Prophet by such a prediction but contrarily he is to be esteemed short-sighted and of little consideration that sees not those necessary effects if he sees the cause Take first for example sake those Doctrines of your first Generall in the late Reformation Luther in his Comments upon S. Paul to the Galat. in his bookes de libertate Christiana and de seculari potestate That Christians are not tied to the observance of the Decalogue but freed by faith from all Laws That among Christians there must be no Superiority That there is no hope of salvation or safety as long as the Common-wealth is governed by humane or civill Lawes That God is to be prayed unto that Magistrates be not obeyed by their Subjects These Doctrines are impugned and execrated by all Catholikes as their Books do every where testifie but take them I say and digest them once for truths and then tell me what sequeles will naturally follow or rather what will not follow tell me if you can to what end Ecclesiasticall or Civill Lawes are enacted what obedience can Princes or Magistrates of either sort expect from those they count their Subjects who scoure in his owne possessions what curb for vice To those points of reforming Doctrine add his scornfull sawcy censure of temporall Princes in the cited book de Seculari Potest Scire debetis quod ab initio Mundi rara admodum avis est princeps prudens ad huc multò rarior Princeps probus sunt communiter maximè fatui ac pessimi nebulones super terram sunt Lictores Carnifices Dei It is a thing that all ought to take notice of that from the beginning of the world a prudent Prince hath been a very rare bird and much rarer a Prince morally honest they are most commonly the veriest fools and greatest knaves on earth they are the Catchpoles and Hangmen of God Whether this proceeding as Doctrine from the mouth and pen of one reputed a reforming Saint be not apt to breed disrespect of Princes in their Subjects and to stir these to disobedience contempt and rebellion against them I appeale to others judgement Adde again his spirited incouragements against Bishops in his Bulla contra ordinem Ecclesiasticum Quicunque opem ferunt saith he corpus bona famam in hoc impendunt ut Episcopatus Devastentur c. And again Evangelium quocunque venit oportet ut tumultuetur nisi id faciat non est verum Whosoever afford their assistance and imploy their strength goods and credit to wast and destroy Bishopricks and to root out Episcopall Government they are the beloved children of God and true Christians obedient to God and resisting the Ordinances of the Devill and on the contrary side whosoever maintaine E-Episcopall Government and obey it they are the Ministers of Satan wheresoever the Gospell comes it must breed tumults unlesse it do so it is a signe it is not the right or true More might be added out of his booke Contra Regem Angliae of his insulting foule language against Princes Church and Bishops but what I have already produced is sufficient to demonstrate that one conversant in his Schoole must quickly discover him altogether destructive of all order in Church and State But before I go any further I cannot but wonder that the pretended Bishops in England did not see themselves Mar-Prelates I mean destroyers of their owne Government put Deane and Chapter to boot and consequently of their Church whilest they sided so strongly with Luther and magnified his reformation which to do was co ipso as you may read in his words utterly to abolish Episcopacy and to cut their owne throats O insensari◠O senslesse and unwise men what bewitcht you into so blind a stupidity as not to see so palpable an error and contradiction in your practise Secondly take this Dogmaticall point of your other grand Reformer Calvin all Catholikes declaime against it as most execrable blasphemy touched by D. Carier in his Letter That God predestinates to evill That he is the Author willer and promoter of what men call evill as well as of those they call good actions and then tell me what rationall check you can find against any crime how enormous soever be it treason or rebellion against Church or Prince with the slaughter of both be it blasphemy against God or Deicide it self as far as humane malice can reach towards it hath not the perpetrator a ready protection to justifie his fact God predestinated him unto it God would have it so who must not obey God or who may lawfully resist
of the Catholikes Where the Church afterwards called the Lutheran or Reformed was in the yeare of Christ 1512. when Luther was an Augustine Frier in his Monastery a Catholike in communion with the Pope of Rome Who was then a Protestant In what Countrey did he live What was his name the question is not Who was then a Protestant in name without asking them we know by Histories that the Lutherans had the name of Protestants some yeares after the Reformation begun from their Covenants and Protestations first made at Spire and afterwards at Smalcald in Germany when finding their party growing strong they began to take head against their Catholike Soveraigne Charles the fifth Nor was the question who was then before Luthers forsaking his cloistre and former Religion opposite to the Church of Rome or of a different beliefe from hers This question had been easily answered by naming the Hussits Wicklesians Berengarians Arrians and others which for particular points of Doctrine were as different from Luther as he from the Catholike but the meaning of the question was and still is Who did then believe all those points of Faith and onely those which Luther or any other after-Reformer did afterwards believe and wherein they differed from the beliefe of Catholikes which they pretended to reforme this hath been from the beginning and still is a tormenting question to all of the Reformed Churches and though daily asked by Catholikes Writers and Discoursers yet to this day could never be answered with any satisfaction or probability worthy a Schollers pen. If now in this November 1648. I should aske who is a Protestant in England .i. one holding all those points of faith and only those what other definition of a Protestant to give I know not but desire the learned Protestants to agree in it and to set it downe that he who desires to be one of their number may know what he desires which Luther the supposed Grandfather of Protestancy and Enemy to Catholikes professed to believe perhaps it would prove as troublesome or unsatisfiable a Quaere as the former yea if I should aske what three or four Schollers speaking of those that are come to some eminency in learning and to have some conceit of themselves for it are to be found in the Kingdome justly agreeing in all matters of faith yea to come closer to the purpose if the question were what one man setting the Catholikes aside is there to be found of the same opinion now in matters of saith that he was of on the second of November 1640 the day before the present Parliament began perhaps it would put you to a long search before you met a sure satisfactory answer Lest you should think I speake too much at random consider I beseech you how frequently you meet with men seriously and deliberately saying Pox on it rather then hazard my life liberty or fortunes I 'le be of any profession I 'le keep my conscience to my self but I 'le never lose my land for want of outward compliance or conformity with the prevailing Multitude And really their practice both in Religion and Loyalty is squared by that Dictamen Of what Religion I pray you do you count these Are they Protestants Weighing them in the true scale of the Sanctuary I take them to be Nullisidians indifferent for Christianity or the Turkish Turbant in evident state of damnation for their soules and that Tyre and Sidon may escape with a more remisse damnation in the day of Judgment then they Mat. ch 11. v. 22. Consider secondly the multitude of Sects lately sprung up in the Kingdom what divisions and subdivisions are there known to be of the old Anabaptists besides the two main Factions of Presbyterians and Independents new things and names that have almost quite abolished their Protestant Progenitor their zeale and number ebbing and flowing by successe of the Sword Some you know are servent Zelots of the Scottish Reformation others detest it as pestiferous and hereticall Some retain the old denomination of Protestants yet have much of the new Modell Some hold Episcopacy essentiall to the true Protestant Church others deny it holding Bishops altogether unnecessary to the reformed Churches and demonstrating it by the not being and non-use of them in any Reformation even from the beginning out of the King of Englands Dominions Some againe as you know either of curiosity or to prevent Penalties frequent the Parish Churches on Sundayes and on other dayes frequent Conventicles of another Communion utterly detesting that of the Parish Church as superstitious or hereticall and so on the Week daies outwardly disavow the profession they avowed on the Sunday Consider thirdly the little regard that is now given to the 39. Articles heretofore the distinctive difference of the old English Protestant And fourthly the questioning of the Apostles Creed which implies a doubt of its truth at least in some points Before this Parliament it was every where used throughout the Kingdome as an outward profession of every ones beliefe Now it is questioned and consequently doubted of by the Representative Body of the whole Kingdome and their Synodicall Divines Add to this the old true saying Dubius in fide infidelis est he that doubts in matters of faith is no right believer and then draw you the consequence Put all together and you will see that the questions I made you are not so easily answerable as perhaps you thought at the first S. Augustine lib. de haeres numbereth ninety severall Heresies so many Reformations were they sprung up betwixt Christs time and his i. in about four Centuries So many more rose betwixt S. Augustines daies and Luthers i. 180. Heresies in 1500. yeares according to the observation of others Betwixt Luthers apostacie from S. Austins Rule and defection from the Catholike Church in the yeare 1517. and the year 1595. which is but the intervall of 78 modern Authors Staphilus Hosius Pâ—ateolus and others do reckon 270 new Sects all Reformations of what was some daies or houres before But if any man would number all the Reformations or Sects that these last 8. yeares have hatcht in England perhaps the probablest rule of his Arithmetick would be quot capita tot sententiae as many opinions in matters of Religion as heads of men no common name being to be found sit to comprehend our Sectaries but that of a Suist one that followes his own dreams or fancy in choice of Scripture in the interpretation of it and in every particular concerning Religion without profession of agreement or communion which any follow unlesse it be the communion of non-agreement The Scrofa Alba of Reformation hath been so fertile these later dayes that to use Stanislaus Roscius his words Lib. de Atheismis Errans nescit quid velit neec quid nolit The erring Reformer doth neither know what he would nor what he would not let it be but new it sufficeth S. Hilarie lib. ad Constantium Constantem Imperat.
purposing with my self that if I could be well I would go from thence to Heydelberg and spend this winter there But when I was gone from the Spa to Aquisgrane and so to Colein I found my self rather worse then better then I was before And therefore I resolved with my self that it was high time for me to settle my thoughts upon another world And seeing I was out of hope to enjoy the health of my body at the last to look to the health of my soule from whence both Art and experience teach me that all my bodily infirmities have their beginning For if I could by any study have proved Catholike Religion to be false or by any means have professed it to be true in England I doubt not but the contentment of my soule would have much helped the health of my body But the more I studied the Scriptures and most ancient Fathers to confute it the more I was compelled to see the truth thereof And the more I laboured to reconcile the Religion of England thereunto the more I was disliked suspected and condemned as a common enemy And if I would have been either ignorant or silent I might perhaps with the pleasures and commodities of my preferments have in time cast off the care of Religion But seeing my study forced me to know and my place compelled me to preach I had no way to avoid my grief nor any means to indure it I have therefore apprehended the opportunity of my Licence to travell that I may withdraw my self for a while from the sight and offence of those in England who hate Catholike Religion and freely and fully enioy the presence of our B. Saviour in the Unity of his Catholike Church wherein I will never forget at the daily Oblation of his most B. Body and Blood to lift up my heart unto him and to pray for the admission of your Majesty thereunto And in the meane time I have thought it my duty to write this short Treatise with my own hand wherein before I publish my self to the world I desire to shew to your Majesty these two things 1. The means of my conversion unto Catholike Religion 2. The hopes I have to do your Majesty no ill service therein I humbly crave your Majesties pardon and will rest ever Your Majesties faithfull and truly devoted Servant B. Carier Liege Decemb. 12. 1613. CHAP. I. The meanes of my Conversion to the Catholike Religion I Must confesse to Gods honour and my owne shame that if it had been in my power to choose I would never have been a Catholike I was born and brought up in Schisme and was taught to abhor a Papist as much as any Puritan in England doth I had ever a great desire to justifie the Religion of the State and had great hope to advance my self thereby Neither was my hope ever so great as by your Majesties favour it was at the very instant of my resolution for Catholike Religion and the preferment I had together with the honour of your Majesties service was greater by much then without your Majesties favour I look for in this world But though I was as ambitious of your Maiesties favour and as desirous of the honours and pleasures of my Countrey as any man that is therein yet seeing that I was not like any long while to injoy them and if I should for my private commodity speak or write or do any thing against the honour of Christ his Church and against the evidence of my owne conscience I must shortly appeare before the same Christ in the presence of the same his Church to give an account thereof Therfore I neither durst any further pursue my own desire of honour nor hazard my soule any farther in the justification of that Religion which I saw was impossible to be justified by any such reason as at the day of Judgement would go for payment and that it may appeare that I have not respected any thing so much in this world as my duty to your Majestie and my love to my friends and Countrey I humbly beseech your Majesty to give me leave as briefly as I can to recount unto you the whole course of my studies and indeavours in this kind even from the beginning of my life untill this present 2. I was born in the Year 1566. being the son of Ant. Carier a learned and devout man who although he were a Protestant and a Preacher yet he did so season me with the Principles of Piety and Devotion as I could not choose but ever since be very zealous in matters of Religion Of him I learned that all false Religions in the world were but Policies invented of men for the temporall service of Princes and States and therefore that they were divers and alwaies changeable according to the divers reasons and occasions of State But true Christian Religion was a truth revealed of God for the eternall salvation of soules and therefore was like to God alwaies one and the same So that all the Princes and States in the world never have been nor shall be able to overthrow that Religion This to me seemed an excellent ground for the finding out of that Religion wherein a man might find rest for his soule which cannot be satisfied with any thing but eternall truth 3. My next care then was after I came to years of discretion by all the best meanes I could to informe my selfe whether the Religion of England were indeed the very same which being prefigured and prophesied in the Old Testament was perfected by our B. Saviour and delivered to his Apostles and Disciples to continue by perpetuall succession in his visible Church untill his coming againe or whether it were a new one for private purposes of Statesmen invented and by humane Lawes established Of this I could not chuse but make some doubt because I heard men talk much in those dayes of the change of Religion which was then lately made in the beginning of Q. Elizabeths Reign 4. I was sorry to heare of change and of a new Religion seeing me thought in reason if true Religion were eternall then new Religion could not be true But yet I hoped that the Religion of England was not a change or new Religion but a restitution of the old and that the change was in the Church of Rome which in processe of time might perhaps grow to be superstitious and idolatrous and therefore that England had done well to leave the Church of Rome and to reform it self and for this purpose I did at my leisure and best oportunity as I came to more judgment read over the Chronicles of England and observed all the alterations of Religion that I could find therein But when I found there that the present Religion of England was a plain * What then is it now change and change upon change and that there was no cause at all of the first but onely that K. Henry 8. was desirous to change his
in the beginning and I remember M. Causabon told me when I brought him out of France that his Errand was nothing else but to mediate peace betwixt the Church of Rome and the Church of England Therefore I thought before I would submit my selfe to the Church of Rome I would write to M. Causabon such a Letter as hee might shew unto your Mdjesty containing such conditions as I thought might satisfie your Majesty if they were performed by the Church of Rome The copie of which Letter is too long here to set downe But when Mr. Causabon answered me that he knew your Majesty was resolved to have no society with the Church of Rome upon any condition whatsoever and that it would be my undoing if those my Letters should come to your Majesties hands or of those that bare the sway I began to despaire of my returne into England unlesse I would overthrow both the health of my body and the quiet of my mind and either utterly damne my own soule or greatly indanger not only my living and credit but my life it selfe also by reason of your Majesties displeasure and the severity of the Statutes made and in force against Catholikes and Catholike Religion 16. There is a Statute in England made by King Henry the 8. to make him supreme head of the Church in spirituall and Ecclesiasticall Causes which Statute injoynes all the Subjects of England on paine of death to believe and to sweare they do believe that it is true And yet all the world knowes if King Henry the 8. could have gotten the Pope to divorce Q. Katherine that he might marry Anne Boleigne that Statute had never been made by him and if that Title had not enabled the King to pull down Abbeyes and Religious Houses and give them to Lay-men the Lords and Commons of that time would never have suffered such a Statute to be made This Statute was continued by Q. Elizabeth to serve her own turne and it is confirmed by your Majesty to satisfie other men And yet your Majesty yeelds the Church of Rome to be the Mother Church and the Bishop of Rome to be the chiefe Bishop or Primate of all the Westerne Churches which I doe also verily believe and therefore I do verily thinke he hath or ought to have some spirituall Jurisdiction in England And although in my younger daies the fashion of the world made me swear as other men did for which I pray God forgive me yet I ever doubted and am now resolved that no Christian man can take that * .i. Of Supremacy Oath with a safe conscience neither will I ever take it to gaine the greatest preferment in the world 17. There is another Statute in England made by Q. Elizabeth and confirmed by your Majesty which makes it death for any Englishman to be in England being made a Priest by authority derived or pretended to be derived from the Bishop of Rome I cannot believe that I am a Priest at all unlesse I be made by authority derived from Gregory the great from whence all the Bishops in England have their being if they have any being at all 18. There is another Statute in like manner made and confirmed that it is death to be reconciled by a Catholike Priest to the Church of Rome I am perswaded that the Church of Rome is our Mother Church and that no man in England can be saved that continues wilfully out of the visible unity of that Church and therefore I cannot chuse but perswade the people to be reconciled thereunto if possibly they can 19. There is another Statute in like manner made and confirmed that it is death to exhort the people of England to Catholike Romane Religion I am perswaded that the Religion prescribed and practised by the Church of Rome is the true Catholike Religion which I will particularly justifie and make plaine from point to point if God give time and oportunity and therefore I cannot chuse but perswade the people thereunto It may be these are not all severall Statutes some of them may be members of the same for I have not my bookes about me to search but I am sure all of them do make such felonies and treasons as were the greatest vertues of the Primitive Church and such as I must needs confesse my selfe I cannot chuse if I live in England but indeavour to be guilty of and then it were easie to find Puritanes enough to make a Jury against me and there would not want a Justice of Peace to give a sentence and when they had done that which is worse then the persecution it selfe they would all sweare solemnly that Doctor Carier was not put to death for Catholike Religion but for Felony and Treason I have no hope of protection against the cruelty of those Lawes if your Majesty be resolved upon no conditions whatsoever to have any society at all or communion with the Church of Rome And therefore whilst the case so stands I dare not returne home againe But I cannot be altogether out of hope of better newes before I die as long as I do believe that the Saints in heaven do rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner to Christ and do know that your Majesty by your birth hath so great an interest in the Saints of heaven as you shall never cease to have untill you cease to be the son of such a mother as would rejoyce more then all the rest for your conversion Wherefore I assure my selfe that she with all the rest doe pray that your Majesty before you die may be Militant in the Communion of that Church wherein they are Triumphant And in this hope I am gone before to joyne my prayers with theirs in the unity of the Catholike Church And do humbly pray your Majesty to pardon me for doing that which was not in my power to avoid and to give me leave to live where I hope shortly to die unlesse I may hope to do your Majesty service and without the prejudice of any honest man in England to see some unity betwixt the Church of England and her mother the Church of Rome And now having declared the meanes of my conversion to Catholike Religion I will briefly also shew unto you the hopes I have to do your Majesty no ill service therein CHAP. II. The hopes I have to doe your Majestie no ill service in being Catholike MY first hope that your Majesty will accept of that for the best service I can do you which doth most further the glory of our Blessed Saviour and my own salvation Indeed there are Kingdomes in the world where the chiefe care of the Governor is Non quà m bonis sed quà m subditis regnent such were the heathen Kingdoms which S. Augustine describes in his 2. de Civit. Dei cap. 20. In such Common-wealths the way to be good Subjects is not to be good men but to serve the times and the turns of them that beare the sway
now purchased the Bishops Lands at easie rates c. Favourites of the Court were given the Lands and Inheritance of the Abbeys and religious Houses that having once as it were washed their hands in the bowells and blood of the Church both they and their posterity might be at utter defiance therewith And so having overthrowne and prophaned the good works of the Saints it was necessary for them to get them Chaplains that might both dispute preach and write against the merits of good works the Invocation of Saints the sacrifice of the Altar Prayer for the dead and all such points of Catholike Doctrine as were the grounds of those Churches and Religious Houses which they had overthrowne and prophaned And it was not hard for those Chaplains by some shew of Scripture to prove that which their Lords and their followers were so willing to believe 24. To the Commons was given great hope of reliefe for their poverty case of Subsidies and of the burden of so great a Clergie and many other goodly gay nothings And for the present they should have liberty and the benefit of the Common-Law that is leave to live by such Lawes as themselves list to make and to contemne the Authority of the Church which although it were for their benefit every way yet because it crossed their affections like wayward Children they could never abide it And was not this reason enough for them to hold out the breach and to study Scripture themselves that they might be able to confute Confession Satisfaction Penance and to declaime against all that Tyranny of the Church of Rome whereby themselves and their fore-fathers had been kept in awe and obedience unto God and their Kings 25. To the Clergy men that would turne with the times besides the possibility of present preferment by the alteration was given shortly after leave to marry and to purchase and injoy the profit and pleasure of the world as well as the Laity And what carnall minded Monk or Priest would not with might and maine keep open the breach after he was once plunged in it rather then be in danger to forgo so pleasing a commodity Hence did arise a necessity of speaking and writing against Vowes Virginity Poverty Fasting Praying Watching Obedience and all that austerity of life which is by the Lawes of the Church required in a Monasticall and Priestly Conversation 26. Upon these conditions the Lords the Commons and the Clergie were content to believe that the King was supreme Head of the Church of England not that they did think so indeed or that they desired to augment his authority but that they might be protected by him and freely injoy those commodities So our Purchasers love not to hear of peace or unity lest they should come to lose their so easie bought Bishops lands other profits which they thought Schisme had brought unto them and feared the unity of the Church might again take from them Hence did arise a necessity of inveighing 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 never so false These and such like are those temporall respects which would faine seem the daughters of those Doctrines which themselves have brought forth and to be divided from the Catholike Church by Doctrine when they themselves have caused the Doctrine of Division 27. In all these and all other Doctrines of Division men have received great countenance and incouragement from Geneva For although â— John Calvin were never any good Subject or friend to Bishop Duke or King yet he did so fit the common people with new Doctrine that no Gospell can be so pleasing to them nor so lightsome as his For finding Geneva 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 be all in a combustion among themselves for want of government although he were then a stranger and a very young man of some 26. or 27. years old at the most yet he thought good upon the oportunity to give the venture and to step in himselfe to be the founder of a new Church and State amongst them and for that purpose he found them out such a Catechisme as they might easily contemn all ancient Learning and authority and save themselves by a strong fancy which he called Faith And this pleased the Burgers of Geneva so well that they called a meering and caused all the Citizens to sweare that that Catechisme was true and that all Popery was false as may appeare in Calvins life written by Beza himselfe and prefixed to his Epistles And although the Ministeriall Presbytery of Geneva hath lost much of M. Calvins greatnesse yet the City hath had the fortune ever since by the help of their neighbours to hold out against their Bishop and their Duke and all their ancient Governours 28. Now it is the nature of all common people especially of Islanders not only still to * These late times witnesse this truth sufficiently affect more and more novelty and liberty and to be wearie of their old Clergie but also to admire any thing that comes from beyond the Seas to cherish and comfort one another with reporting the good successe which Schismaticks and Rebells happen to have against their lawfull Prelates and ancient Governours to impute all their good fortune to their new Religion Hence it comes to passe that that Doctrine which is indeed the lawfull Doctrine of the Church of England is neglected and contemned as a Relique or a Rag of Popery and Calvins Institutions being come from Geneva and fairly bound up with the Preface of the Gospell is dispersed throughout all Schooles Cities and Villages of England and hath so infected both Priest and People as although it be against Law yet it is cried up by voices to be the only current Divinity in Court and Countrey In hope belike that it may one day serve the turn in England as well as it hath done in Geneva and in other places where it hath prevailed 28. These reasons or rather Corruptions of State have so confounded the Doctrine of the Church of England and so slandered the Doctrine of the Church of Rome as it hath turned mens braines and made the multitude on both sides like two fools who being set back to back do think they are as far asunder as the Horizons are which they look upon But if it might please your Majesty to command them to turne but each of them a quarter about and looke both one way to the Service of God and your Majesty and to the salvation of soules they should presently see themselves to be
same ship and it is not possible to weild so great a vessell against wind and tide And therefore although it do not concern your Majesty in your own estate yet if your Lords and your Commons and your Clergie do reap any great benefit by the Schisme it will be very hard for your Majesty to effect unity But if upon due examination there be no such matter then it is but the cry of the passengers who for want of experience are afraid where there is no danger and that can be no hinderance to any course your Majesty shall think to be best for the attaining of the haven 39. For my own part for the discharge of my duty and conscience I have considered of all their states â—nd can resolve my self that I have not prejudiced the state of any good Subject of yours but mine own in coming to the Catholike Church And first for your Lords and Nobles It is true that many of their Ancestors were allowed a very good share in the division of the Church when the Schism began and therefore it concerned them in reason of their state to maintaine the doctrine of division But I think there are very few in England either Lords or other now possest of Abbey lands which have not paid well for them and might not as well possesse them in the unity of the Church as in the Schisme And there was a Declaration made by the Pope to that purpose in Queen Maries dayes so that there is now no need at all to preach against the merits of good works nor the vertue of the Sacraments nor the Invocation of Saints nor the rest of that Popery that built Churches unlesse it be to help the Huguenots of France to pull them down 40. But perhaps the Commons of England do gain so much by the Schisme as they cannot abide to heare of unity Indeed when the Puritan Preacher hath called his flock about him and described the Church of Rome to be so ignorant so idolatrous and so wicked as he hath made himself believe she is then is he wont to congratulate his poor deceived Audience that they by the means of such good men as himself is are delivered from the darknesse idolatry and wickednesse of Popery and there is no man dare say a word or once mutter to the contrary But the People have heard these lies so long as most of them begin to be weary and the wisest of them cannot but wonder how these Puritan Preachers should become more learned and more honest then all the rest that lived in ancient times or that live still in Catholike Countries or then those in England whom these men are wont to condemne for Papists Neverthelesse I confesse there be many honest men and women amongst them that being carried away with prejudice and pretext of Scriptures do follow these Preachers out of zeale and devotion to the truth as my selfe did untill I knew it was but counterfeit And these good People if they might be so happy as to heare Catholikes answer for themselves and tell them the truth would be the most devout Catholikes of all other But most of the People were never led by Sermons if they were the Catholike Church is both able and willing to supply them far better then the Schisme But it was an opinion of wealth and liberty which made them break at the first and if they doe duly consider of it they are never the better for either of both but much the worse 41. For wealth the Puritan unthrift that looks for the overthrow of Bishops and Churches Cathedrall hopes to have his share in them if they would fall once and therefore he cannot chuse but desire to increase the Schisme that he may gain by it but the honest Protestant that can endure the State of the Church of England as it is could be content it were as it was for he should receive more benefit by it every way The poore Gentleman and Yeoman that are burdened with many Children may remember that in Catholike times the Church would have received and provided for many of their sonnes and daughters so as themselves might have lived and died in the service of God without posterity and have helped to maintain the rest of their Families which was so great a benefit to the Common-wealth both for the exoneration and provision thereof as no humane policie can procure the like The Farmer and Husbandman who labors hard to discharge his payments and hath little or nothing left at the years end to lay up for his Children that increase and grow upon him may remember that in Catholike times there were better penny-worths to be had when as the Clergie had a great part of the land in their hands who had no need to raise their Rents themselves and did what they might to make other Lords let at a reasonable rate which was also an inestimable benefit to the Commons So that whereas ignorant men carried with envy against the Clergie are wont to object the multitude of them and the greatnesse of their provisions they speak therein as much against themselves as is possible For the greater the number is of such men as are Mundo mortui the more is the exoneration of the Commons and the more the lands are of such as can have no propriety in them the better is the provision of the Commons For themselves can have no more but their food and regular apparell all the rest either remaines in the hands of the Tenants or returnes in Hospitality and relief to their Neighbours or is kept as in a living Exchequer for the service of Prince and Country in time of necessity So that the Commons do gain no wealth at all but rather lose much by the Schisme 42. And as for liberty they are indeed freed from the possibility of going to shrift that is of confessing their sinnes to God in the eare of a Catholike Priest and receiving comfort and counsell against their sinnes from God by the mouth of the same Priest which duty is required of Catholike People but only once in the yeare but performed by them with great comfort and edification very often so that a man may see and wonder to see many hundreds at one Altar to communicate every Sunday with great devotion and likely no day passe but divers do confesse are absolved and receive the blessed Sacrament The poor Commons of England are freed from this comfort neither is it possible unlesse their Ministers had the seat of Secrecie for them to use it And what is the liberty that they have instead thereof Surely the servants have great liberty against their Masters by this meanes the Children against their Parents the People against their Prelates the Subjects against their King and all against the Church of Christ that is against their own good and the Common salvation for without the use of this Sacrament neither can Inferiors be kept in awe but by the Gallowes