Parliament for putting down Monarchy and that you shall be helped with some personal interest to increase your hatred against the Protestants of Integrity for such shall you finde the Kings Majesty his Council his Parliament the pious Fathers of the Church and the wise Judges of the Land Could you not content your self to enjoy quietly your Sovereigns Clemency and forbearance but you must defame in Print all that are not of your gang which are no less then the King and the State From their Justice nothing can secure you but your obscurity But while you take an order that your person may lye undiscovered I will make bold to discover some of your Impostures All I cannot neither is it material for all that I need to do to provide an antidote against your poison is to do two things The one to wipe off the aspersions of Rebellion which you cast upon the holy Doctrine of the Protestant Churches The other to bring to the Bar the true Rebels which will be no recrimination but asserting the Pope in his ancient known possession of being the grand Patron and Architect of Rebellion of subjects against their Sovereignes and the especial directer of high Treason against the Kings of England Before I look to the body of his Book somthing must be said of his Epistle and Prefaces His Epistle is addressed to no less then the Right Reverend Father in God Gilbert Lord Bishop of London and Dean of His Majesties Chappel Royal since deservedly promoted to the highest Dignity of the Church of England A great Honour to his Book How far the great Patron which he chuseth is honoured with that Dedication and the due praises which he payeth unto him is obvious to any ordinary understanding Praise at the best is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a light gift to a wise man And since praise Seneca Sit tibi tam turpe laudari a turpibus quam si lauderis ob turpia hath its price from the praiser that eminent Prelate is little obliged to this Gentlemans praises who justifies in his Book what he is and what he aimes at It is praising him with a vengeance to take him for a Protector of his mischievous attempt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath more obliged our late most Reverend Archbishop Juxon now a glorious Saint in heaven whom he hath not spared to blame though he doth not name him but he points at him with his finger And then tells My Lord of London From all these vanities your Lordships known Innocency and Piety hath alwayes defended you scientifically inferring that Innocency and Piety is inconsistent with the Character which he had given of that great Prelate Could this Epistles be so senseless as to expect thanks from a Bishop of London for raising his commendation upon the disgrace of his Metropolitan What needed he to go so far out of his subject to bring in that malicious exception For the blame of the one adds nothing to the praise of the other Does he not shew his hatred against Protestant Prelates which he could not but express even when he took one of them for his Patron And no wonder that a Jesuite should maligne an Archbishop of Canterbury seeing the Jesuites had no greater enemies then those that sate in that See That which he findes amiss in that rarely accomplished Prelate is commended in him by wise men his laudable curiosity fit for a great Naturalist as he was to keep several sorts of Animals about his house as Aristotle did before him Their Nature and Inclinations he would observe with a judicious eye and speak of them pertinently and delightfully Of these Natural Lectures he was pleased to make me hearer several times and to imploy me to finde him Books of that subject So serious were his Recreations when he would unbend among those whom he honoured with his Discourses and Table after his great Imployments about the Government of Church and State As that great person 's known Piety and Innocency cannot be blasted by such a weak enemy as this Jesuite so it needs not be defended by such a weak Champion as I am His admired Vertue shines in an Orb elevated far above the reach of the barking of envie and if he needed the approbation of any under God he had a Royal Testimony when his late Majesty our glorious Saint and Martyr had so much confidence in his Piety and Innocency and together in his Wisdome and Courage that of all his Divines he chose him for his second when he was to encounter the terrors of a violent and ignominious death And by the excellent use which he made of his godly counsel in the retirement of his last devotions he ended his combates in a victorious death over all his enemies spiritual and temporal and yeilded his great soul unto God with joy and comfort For one thing this Jesuite and his confreres had great reason to hate that godly Prelate That after His Majesty had spoken many divine words upon the Scaffold he put him in minde to make a profession of his Religion which he did and professed before God and the world that he dyed a Protestant according to the Religion established by Law in the Church of England A profession which gave great discontent to the Papists and the Fanaticks for both wish'd that he had dyed a Papist indeed It is known with what calmness of spirit prudence and magnanimity that vertuous Prelate went through the tryals which he was put to after the Kings death for he was as wise as a serpent though as harmless as a dove And among his many Vertues he was a great Master of two which seldome meet together a singular and Moses-like meekness and an invincible constancy They that have known him moderating in the Vniversity and have seen him since acting in the greatest businesses of the Kingdome admire the readiness and solidity of his judgement fitted alike for speculation and action and in both excellent His dexterity and patience overcoming the most difficult affairs His sincerity in declaring himself without Complements and his fidelity in keeping his promises without wavering were very remote from the imputation of vanity which this enemy would fasten upon the reputation of that truly great and good man I cannot leave I cannot part from the mention of him without that reverend and affectionate expression of the Jews when they speak of their vertuous friends departed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let his memory be blessed for so his soul is in heaven for all the good he hath done in earth to so many and to me for one for to his Graces goodness next to God I owe the greatest part of my well-being To return to our Adversary Many things in his Epistle and Preface shew him to be an Adversary indeed to the whole Protestant party and a sworn slave to the Court of Rome But as he takes no pains to prove any thing but that all Protestants are Rebels
of the Court of Rome but Luther continued till death about thirty years destroying the Popes interests in Germany and all parts of Europe and neither Pope nor Caesar could touch him Wonderfull are the ways of Gods justice that the Pope by fomenting factions in the Empire and breaking the Emperours power did prepare safety and facility for his enemies in the following ages to make that great breach in his Kingdome and give that mortal wound to his power of which it shall bleed till it dye of it Against the Helvetian Reformation the Adversary saith nothing onely he arrayeth Zuinglius in a swaggering Pag. 3. swash buckler habit as if he had wrought Reformation with sword and buckler yet it was made quietly the preaching of the Gospel and began at Zurick in the year 1522. When Zuinglius was censured by the Bishop Sleidan of Constance his Ordinary for oppressing the Romish errours he set sorth Theses containing his doctrine and the Senate of Zurick called together all the Clergy of the Canton to confer about Religion and requested the Bishop to be present or send some authorized by him The Bishop sent Johannes Faber his Vicar General in whose presence the Consul invited all the assistants if they had any thing to oppose unto the Theses of Zuinglius that they would speak And Zuinglius having addrest the same invitation to the Vicar in particular the Vicar answered that treating of Controversies was not fit for that place and that it belonged to the Councel which should assemble shortly After that many words had past between them when none appeared that had any thing to oppose the Senate made an Edict that in all their dominions the Gospel should be purely taught out of the Books of the Old and New Testament and that humane traditions should be banisht This was obeyed and Reformation was established without either sword or buckler Neither do I read that Zuinglius was in armes till eleven years after that five Gantons of contrary Religion suddenly invaded that of Zurick and put Zurick men to a necessary but disorderly defense in which Zuinglius was slain The Switzers had cantoned themselves in the year 1315. which was 200 years before the Reformation Were I as unsincere as my Adversary I should charge the Roman Religion which then reigned with that change of State From Zuinglius the Adversary passeth to Calvin as the head of the French Reformation wherein he sheweth his great ignorance for the Reformed Religion was spread in France twenty years before Calvin was settled in Geneva and well nigh assoon as in Germany The beginning of which must not be ascribed to one Hugo whom our Adversary knowsnot nor any body else But the truth is that it was in France long before it was in Germany ever since the errours and tyranny of the Court of Rome began to be opposed by the Valdenses whose relicks after long persecutions by fire and sword remained in the Vale of Cabrieres and Marindol in Provence It was from thence that Reformation was propagated incouraged by the happy progresses of Luther and Zuinglius Wherefore the Popes creatures perceiving whence that blow came upon the Roman Court never left solliciting Francis the I. of France till they got an Edict for the extirpating of them which was executed with the utmost rigour And it was not for Religion that they were thus butchered but meerly to make a sacrifice to the pride and cruelty of Rome For as for their doctrine that excellent King Lewis the XII liked it so well that to some that represented it to him and would incense him against them He answered that they were better Christians then he and his Kingdome This was then the true Origine of the Reformation of France the doctrine of the Valdenses preserved in the relicks of their descent a doctrine perfectioned since into a more Orthodox Confession conformable to the Confessions of other Protestant Churches So Calvin had no hand in that Reformation and no more had he with that of Geneva or in turning that State into an Aristocracy as this Adversary upbraids him My business being to vindicate Reformation from the charge of rebellion I must take from the Reformers of Geneva that aspersion that they expelled their Bishop and that they altered the constitution of that State and both these ascribed unto Calvin It is a tradition received in England for a currant and undoubted truth And upon that ground many fine and judicious inferences are built But it is like the stories of the Phenix and the singing of Swans before their death never the truer for the curious similies and ingenious moralities that have Epistola Benedicti Turretini ad Scultetum in Annal. reformationis An. 1529. been spun out of that stuffe What credit can we give to Histories of things happened in the Indies two thousand years ago if in things done to lately and so near us gross mistakes go for uncontrollable truths I say it is utterly false thar Calvin was one of the planters of Reformed Religion at Geneva False also that he or the Reformers of Geneva turned their Bishop out of doors And false also that the Bishop went away upon the quarrel of Religion Farel Froment and Viret were they that wrought under God the conversion of the City by their Sermons and by a publick conference with the Friars and Clergy of Geneva there being then no Bishop in that Town who was fled eight moneths before seeing his conspiracy discovered to oppresse the liberties of the City by the help of the Duke of Savoy for which his Secretary was hanged after he was gone the said Bishop being hated before for the rape of a Virgin and many adulteries with Citizens Wives And it is most to be noted that they who after his flight See the book entituled A view of the Government c. by Iohn Durel reformed the Civil Government were strong Papists and mainly opposed the Reformation of Religion To which something like was seen in England not far from that time For the same English Bishops that most earnestly served Henry the VIII to make him acknowledged the Supreme Head of the Church of England Tonstal Gardiner Bonner c. were afterwards the greatest opposers of the Work of Reformation and the fiercest persecutors of the Protestants That the Church Discipline of Geneva was constituted without a bishop is a matter of another nature Their Successors that continue it so to this day are of age let them speak for themselves It is enough for my present purpose that I have vindicated the Introduction of Reformation into that State from the crime of rebellion As long as their Bishop lived they could not have another and durst not receive him being manifestly convicted of selling the Cities liberty to the Duke of Savoy And when the Bishop died they had used themselves to live without a Bishop The first proof of our Adversary to indite the French Reformation of
appointed by him to bear a lawful and holy Office Article XL. Affirmamus ergo parendum esse legibus statutis solvenda tributa reliqua onera perferenda subjectionis deniqne jugum voluntarie tolerandum etiamsi infidelis fuerint Magistratus dummodo Dei summum imperium integrum illibatum maneat Article XL. WEe maintain then that we ought to obey lawes and statutes pay tributes and bear other burdens of subjection and undergo the yoke with a good will although the Magistrates should be Infidels so that Gods Sovereigne Authority remain entire and inviolate The Belgick Confession CVncti homines cujuscumque sint vel dignitatis vel conditionis vel status legitimis Magistratibus subjiei debent illisque vectigalia ac pendere eis in omnibus obsequi ac obedire quae verbo Dei non repugnant preces etiam pro eis fundere ut eos Deus in omnibus ipsorum actionibus dirigere dignetur nos vero vitam tranquillam quietam sub ipsis cum omni pietate honestate ducere possimus ALl men of what dignity quality or state soever they be must subject themselves unto the lawful Magistrates pay unto them imposts and tributes and please and obey them in all things that are not repugnant unto the Word of God Also pray for them that God be pleased to direct them in all their actions and that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life under them in all piety and honesty The Helvetick Confessions SIcut Deus salutem populi sui operari vult per Magistratum quem mundo veluti patrem dedit ita subditi omnes hoc Dei beneficium in Magistratu agnoscere jubentur Honorent ergo revereantur Magistratum tanquam Dei Ministrum Ament eum faveant ei orent pro illo tanquam pro patre Obediant item omnibus ejus justis aequis mandatis Denique pendant vectigalia atque tributa quae alia hujus generis debita sunt fideliter atque libenter Et fi salus publica patriae justitia requirat Magistratus ex necessitate bellum suscipiat deponant etiam vitam fundant sanguinem pro salute publicâ Magistratusque quidem in Dei nomine libenter fortiter alacriter Qui enim Magistratui se opponit iram gravem Dei in se provocat AS God will work the safety of his people by the Magistrate whom he hath given to the World as a Father so all subjects are commanded to acknowledge that benefit in the Magistrate Let them honour and reverence the Magistrate as the Minister of God Let them love and assist him and pray for him as their Father Let them obey him in all his just and equitable commands And let them pay all imposts and tributes and all other dues of that kind faithfully and willingly And if the publick safety of the Countrey and Justice require it and that the Magistrate undertake a Warre by necessity let them also lay down their lives and spill their blood for the good of the publick and of the Magistrate and that in the Name of God willingly valiantly and cheerfully For he that opposeth himself to the Magistrate provoketh the heavy wrath of God upon himself The Bohemian Confession UNiversi singuli in omnibus quae Deo tantum non sunt contraria eminenti potestati subjectionem praestent primum Regiae Majestati postea omnibus Magistratibus qui cum potestate sunt in quibuscunque muneribus sint collocati sive ipsi per se boni viri sint sive mali itemque omnibus Administris Legatis horum ut eos revereantur colant quaecunque eis jure debentur ea omnia ut praestent etiam honorem eis tributum vectigal similia alia ad quae pendenda obligantur ut praestent pendant LEt all every one yield subjection in all things that are no wayes contrary to God unto the higher power first to the Kings Majestie and next to all Magistrates and those that are in Authority in what Offices soever they be placed whether the men be good or bad as also to all their Officers and Deputies And let them deferre unto them all honour and performe all things which are due unto them by right let them pay unto them also the homage imposts tribute and the like which they are obliged to pay and performe The Saxonick Confession MAgistratui Politico subditi debent obedientiam sicut Paulus docet Rom. 13. Non solum propter iram id est metu poenae corporalis qua afficiuntur contumaces ab ipsis Magistratibus sed etiam propter conscientiam id est contumacia est peccatum offendens Deum avellens conscientiam a Deo SUbjects owe obedience to the Politick Magistrate as St. Paul teacheth Rom. 13 not onely for wrath that is for fear of the corporal punishment which the Magistrates inflict upon the disobedient but also for conscience sake that is disobedience is a sinne offending God and separating the conscience from God The Suevick Confession NOstri Ecclesiastae obedientiae quae exhibetur Magistratibus inter primi ordinis bona opera locum dederunt docentes hoc unumquemque studiosius sese accommodare publicis legibus quo sincerior fuerit Christianus fideque ditior Juxta docent fungi Magistratu munus esse sacratissimum quod quidem homini contingere possit Vnde factum sit quod qui gerunt publicam potestatem Dii in Scripturis vocentur OUr Divines have placed the obedience which is done to the Magistrates among the good works of the first rank teaching that the more a Christian is sincere and rich in faith the more careful ought he to be to subject himself unto the publick Laws They likewise teach that to be a Magistrate is the most Sacred Office that a man may have Whence also it cometh that they that bear a publick Authoriry are called Gods in the Scriptures After all these the English Confession shall speak last to give the Sentence as the Apostle St. James spake the last in the Synod of the Apostles at Ierusalem because he was the Bishop Article XXXVII Of the Civil Magistrate THe Kings Majesty hath the chief power in this Realme of England and other his Dominions unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realme whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all Causes doth appertain And it is not nor ought to be subject to any forreigne Jurisdiction Where we attribute to the Kings Majesty the chief Government by which Titles we understand the minds of some slanderous persons are offended we give not to our Princes the Ministring either of Gods Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions also set forth by Elizabeth Our Queen do most plainly testifie but that onely Prerogative which we see to have been given alwayes to all Godly Princes in Holy Scripture by God himself that is that they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their Charge by
God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restraiz with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers The Bishop of Rome hath no Jurisdiction in this Realm of England The Lawes of the Realm may punish Christian men with death for heinous and grievous crimes It is lawful for Christian men at the Commandment of the Magistrate to wear weapons and serve in the Wars The XXXV Article appoints Homilies against Rebellion to be read in Churches The summary of these Homilies and the whole drift of them is contained First part page 2. of the first Homily against wilful disobedience and rebellion in these words In reading of the holy Scriptures we shall finde in very many and almost infinite places as well of the Old Testament as of the New That Kings and Princes as well the evil as the good do reigne by Gods Ordinance and that subjects are bound to obey them And that Doctrine of the Church of England which is that of the Word of God is fully demonstrated in these godly Homilies published and enjoyned to be read in Churches by Royal Authority CHAP. IV. Proving by the Bulls and Decrees of Popes That the Doctrine of the Roman Court in the point of Obedience to Sovereignes is a Doctrine of Rebellion HItherto we have stood upon the Defensive and have with no great labour wiped off the false and foul aspersions of Rebellion cast upon the Doctrine of the Protestant Churches Let us try whether we can use the Sword as well as the Buckler And we will use no other then the Popes own Sword For as David said of Goliah's sword There is none like that give it me In this Combate the enemies sword is the right weapon none like it The Adversary to disgrace our Doctrine hath objected to us some passages of our Authors most of them false or wrested and some actions of persons of the Protestant party But though he had proved all these to be true he had done no harm to our Doctrine which is not built upon private opinions or upon private or publick actions He should have taken our Confessions in hand and Indicted them of rebellious Tenets if he could have found any Or finding none he should have given glory to God and confessed the Truth of God with us But if I bring him the Bulls of his Popes and their Decrees can he scape as we do when he urgeth us with maxims of Buchanan or Goodman Can he say The Pope speaks Treason and prescribes Rebellion as we say of these men and my faith is not tyed to his authority Can he as freely go off from the Popes judgement as we do from the best of our party when their Tenet is represented to us aberring from the rule of Gods Word and dissenting from the Articles of Religion consented unto by the Provincial Convocations of the Church We will then object to him and his party that which they cannot disown unless they disown their Faith and Religion since their Faith and Religion depend upon the Popes Decrees and that so strongly and with such a spirit of delusion that the most pestilent opinions pass with them for Evangelical Truths and the most abominable actions for patterns of Holiness if they be once marked with that stamp according to Bellarmines sentence which no Romanist hath yet disallowed for any thing I know If the Pope did Bellarm. lib. 4. de Pontifice ca. 5. Si Papa erraret in praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona virtutes malas nisi vellet contra conscientiam loqui Idem cap. 31. in Barklaium In bono sensu dedit Christus Petro potestatem faciendi de peccato non peccatum de non peccato peccatum erre in commanding vices or prohibiting vertues the Church should be obliged to believe that vices are good and vertues evil unless she would speak against Conscience And to the same purpose he affirmeth That in good sense Christ hath given to St. Peter the power to make sin to be no sin and that which is no sin to be sin And he takes it for granted That the power which Christ hath given to St. Peter he hath ipso facto given it to the Pope his Successor If then we prove that sedition rebellion and murther of Kings is justified promoted yea and commanded by that Head of their Faith the Papists must either approve it as good and holy or cease to be Papists and learn to have the Faith of the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory without respect of persons Since the Roman Church stands much upon her Antiquity we will begin by the ancientest example of approving the murther of Kings that can be charged Ann. Chr. 611. upon the Roman See It is that of Gregory the I. who hearing that Phocas had slain the Emperour Mauritius his Liege Lord having first killed his children before his face and that he had invaded the Empire writ a gratulatory Epistle to that monster where these words are found We are glad that the benignity Greg. 1. lib. 11. Epist 36. Benignitatem pietatis vestrae ad Imperiale fastigium pervenisse gaudemus Laetentur Coeli exultet Terra de benignis actibus vestris universae Reip. populus hilarescat of your Piety hath attained to the Imperial Dignity Let the heavens rojoyce and let the Earth be glad and let the people of the whole Commonwealth be joyful for your gracious deeds The next example shall be that of Gregory the II. who rebelled against his Sovereigne the Emperour Ann. Chr. 726. Leo Isaurus and made Rome and the Roman Dutchy do the same And while the Emperour was sore afflicted with the wars of the Saracens in the East he made himself Lord of that part of his Masters Dominions in Italy for which Sigonius giveth an admirable Sigonius Hist de Regno Italiae lib. 3. Ita Roma Romanusque Ducatus à Graecis ad Romanum Pontificem propter nesandam eorum haeresim impietatemque pervenit reason That Rome and the Roman Dutchy were lost by the Grecians and got by the Pope of Rome by reason of their wicked heresie A strange kind of penance from a Pastor to turn the sinner out of his house and possess himself of it That wicked heresie of Leo Isaurus was That he prohibited the adoration of Images and pulled them down every where For that Heresie and Impiety the holy Father Gregory the II. imposed this penance upon the Emperour He made him lose his Estate and himself seized upon it This is the beginning of the Popes Temporal Principality This is the Title whereby he holds Rome and the Territory of it to this day even plain Rebellion and Tyrannical Invasion of his Sovereigns Estate and Dominion The next Successor of Gregory the II. was Gregory the III. of whom Platina writeth thus This Pope as soon as he attained to the Papal Platina in Greg.
shed in Christendome by the meanes of that plague of mankind Pope Julius the II. that it is thought that he was the death of two hundred thousand Christians in seven years time In a Synod of the Gallican Church at Tours it was Nicol. Cilles in Vita Ludov. XIII Thuan. lib. 1. declared that the Pope hath no power to make warre against a Christian Prince and if he do so that the Prince hath power to invade the Popes Territories This the King signifieth to Julius and cites him to answer to a General Council which both the Emperour and he had called to be held at Lyons The Council was held there but soon removed to Pisa where the Council cited Julius to appear and he not appearing was condemned as an Incendiary unworthy to sit at the Helme of the Church and declared deprived of the Papal Dignity There also Lewis coined golden Crownes with this Motto Perdam nomen Babylonis I will destroy the name of Babylon For it is observable that all that have quarrelled with the See of Rome these thirteen hundred years have called it Babylon and Saint Hierom ad Marcellam Hierome was he that began We cannot charge the Successor of Iulins Leo the X. to have stirred Wars abroad he loved too much his ease at home for that But I could not pass by him for indeed his memory is precious to all Protestants for giving occasion to the Reformation by his Indulgences And he is worthy to be recorded for his sentence spoken to his Secretary Cardinall Bembo Quantum nobis Crispinus nostrisque ea de Christo fabula profuerit satis est omnibus saeculis notum an anxiome of too high a nature to be Englished After him came next but one Clement the VII the Fomenter of the quarrell between the Emperour and the French joyning sometimes to the one sometimes to the other and playing false with both whereby he gave occasion to the taking and sacking of Rome The thundering of this Pope and of his Successor Iovius Paul the III. against Henry the VIII did him no harm but to themselves and to the Roman See very much Of the following Popes till Pius the V. the Protestants have much to say as of men that sought their own pleasure and wrought their ruine Hence so much blood split in horrible Massacres But these are besides my subject which is to make the Popes to appear Authors of rebellion But now in a good time we are come to Pius the V. that Pope whom the English Protestants have most reason to remember For without admonition or citation Cambdens Hist of Qu. Elizabeth premised he pronounced a sentence of anathema against that blessed and glorious Queen Elizabeth to raise rebellion in the Kingdome against her Authority and Life and caused the same to be published and set up upon the Pallace Gate of the Bishop of London the Title was this A sentence declaratory of our holy Lord Micolaus Sanderus de schismate Anglicano lib. 3. Pope Pius against Elizabeth Queen of England and the Hereticks adhering unto her Wherein her Subjects are declared absolved from the Oath of Allegiance and every thing due unto her whatsoever and those which from thenceforth obey her are innodated with the anathema In that Bull Pope Pius having first styled himself Servant of Servants declareth that God hath made the Bishop of Rome Prince over all people and all Kingdoms to pluck up destroy scatter consume plant and build Then he calleth Elizabeth the pretended Queen of England the servant of wickedness And having declared her crimes which are to have taken upon her self that supremacy which his Holiness pretended to and to have establish'd the true Catholick Orthodox Religion in her Kingdomes he doth thunder out this seditious Decree against her and all her loyall Subjects We do out of the fulness of our Apostolick power declare the aforesaid Elizabeth being an Heretick and a favourer of Hereticks and her adherents in the matters aforesaid to have incurred the sentence of anathema and to be cut off from the unity of the body of Christ And moreover we do declare her to be deprived of her pretended Title to the Kingdom aforesaid and of all Dominion Dignity and Priviledge whatsoever And also the Nobility Subjects and People of the said Kingdome and all other which have in any sort sworn unto her to be for ever absolved from any such Oath and all manner of duty of Dominion Allegiance and Obedience as we also do by authority of these presents absolve them and do deprive the same Elizabeth of her pretended Title to the Kingdome and all other things abovesaid And we do command and interdict all and every the Noblemen Subjects People and others aforesaid that they presume not to obey her or her Monitions Mandates and Laws And those which shall do to the contrary we do innodate with the like sentence of anathema This Bull was the fire and the roaring of the Canon and the bullet came forth immediately which was the rebellion in the North for which Chapino Vitelli was sent into England from the Duke of Alva under pretence of compounding some controversies about commerce And Nicholas Morton was sent from the Pope to knit the rebellion Which he did denouncing from his Master that Queen Elizabeth was an Heretick and thereby had forfeited to the Pope all her dominion and power At the same time a rebellion broke out in Ireland kindled or blown by a Spaniard Iuan Mendoza And when the Rebells of England were defeated they found refuge among the Papist Rebells of Scotland who set up again the English rebellion All these in vain by the gracious assistance of God to poor England as if his compassion had been stirred up by his jealousie after that the Pope had declared himself so insolently Prince over all People and all Kingdoms to pluck up destroy scatter consume plant and build And God would shew that to himself not to the Pope belongeth the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever Neither did Pius the V. fight onely by Bulls but at the same time that the Bull was published he laid down a hundred thousand Crowns to raise the rebellion and promised fifty thousand more yea and to bear the whole charge of the War That money was distributed by one Ridolpho And how active that Pope was to stirre Spain France and Netherlands against the Queen and to put her Kingdome in combustion is related by Hieronymo Catena an Authour of great credit at Rome in his life of Pius the V. Gregory the XIII succeeded Pius the V. in all his plots against England He gave to Thomas Stukely an English Rebell a Commission to help the Rebells of Ireland and get that Kingdome for the Bastard-Son of his Holiness Iames Boncompagnon and gave him the command of eight hundred Italians to joyn with King Sebastian of Portugal who had engaged his word to the Pope to serve him
with his whole power against Queen Elizabeth and had raised a great Army for that expedition But when Stukely came to Sebastian he found him possess'd with a new project to help a Moor King of Fez against another King who kept him out of possession and to get the Kingdome from them both To that War he invited Stukely promising that presently after that work done which he represented to him most easie they should go together to the War against England and Ireland So they sailed over into Africa where Sebastian and his whole Army were destroyed and with him Stukely and the Popes Italian Souldiers were cut in pieces A deliverance of England ever to be remembred with praise and admiration So let thine enemies perish O Lord. This Pope had a great hand in that unparallelled villany wrought by the marriage of Henry King of Navarra with the Sister of Charles the IX of France A marriage which Pius the V. would never consent unto by reason of their difference in Religion But when his Successor Gregory the XIII was told by the Cardinall of Lorrain that this marriage was intended as a trap to destroy Henry and his Protestant party he presently gave his dispensation for the celebrating of it and encouraged the design The horrible massacre which attended the jollity of that marriage was received at Thuanus Rome with triumphant expressions of publick joy And Cardinal Vrsin was sent Legat into France to praise the Kings piety and wisdom in that great action and to bestow blessings and spiritual graces upon the King and the Actors of that fearful Tragedy The Court of Rome might well praise what themselves had procured if not contrived and truly the plot hath an Italian garb and looks not like a production of the French soil Not long after this Pope sent to Henry the III. of France and to his people Indulgences for millions of years which were to be obtained by making processions to four Churches in Paris and by being zealous and diligent in the extirpation of heresies that is in his style to extermine the Protestants The male line of the Kings of Portugal being extinct this Pope laid a claim to the Kingdome as depending from the holy See and would have the Nation to have taken Arms for him against the heirs from the females But his claim was hissed out with great scorn In the year 1580. this Pope sent an Italian called San Iosepho with some Italian Troops into Ireland to joyn with the Irish Rebells When they were demanded by a message from the Lord Deputy who they were and what they came for they answered Some that they were sent by the most holy Father the Pope and some from the Catholick King of Spain to whom the Pope had given Ireland because Queen Elizabeth had justly forfeited her Title to Ireland by her heresie A doctrine which at the same time was preach'd in England and Ireland by Jesuites and other Seminary Priests with great boldness and vehemency till the Queen and her Councell perceiving what danger the State was running into by these mens activeness and impunity Campian and some others sent by the Pope on that errand were apprehended And being examined they obstinately defended the Popes authority over the Queen and maintained that she was no Queen as being lawfully deposed by the Pope upon which they were condemned and executed That Crown of Martyrdom the Pope procured to his Confessors And the greater the number is of those Martyrs that the Papists muster the more they exaggerate the Popes cruelty to his truest Vassalls For could the Pope expect that persons sent to perswade the people to dispossess and kill their Sovereign should have other dealing from the hand of Justice The principal Article of the late Papal Creed is that which Pius the V. sets forth in his Bull against the Queen that God hath made the Bishop of Rome Prince over all people and all Kingdoms But the English Papists are taught that besides that general right over all Kingdomes the Pope hath a peculiar right over England and Ireland as his proper Dominions This is Bellarmins doctrine which he hath made bold to maintain unto King James himself The King Bellarm. lib. cui Titulus Tortus pag. 19. Rex Anglorum duplici jure subjectus est Papae uno communi omnibus Christianis ratione Apostolicae potestatis quae in omnes extenditur juxta illud Ps 44. Constitues eos Principes super omnem terram Altero proprio ratione recti dominii of England saith he is subject to the Pope by double right The one by reason of his Apostolick power which extends over all men according to that Charter Ps 44. Thou shalt establish them Princes over all the earth The other proper by a right dominion Then he pleadeth that England and Ireland are the Churches dominions the Pope the direct Lord and the King his Vassal This then being become an Article of Religion in which the English Papists are instructed and this in consequence that if the Pope disallow the King he is no more King of England but an Usurper and must be used accordingly Let any man judge who hath some equity and freedome of judgement left whether a prudent Prince and Council of State ought to suffer such an instruction to be given to the people Truly the more Religion is pretended for that doctrine and the practice of Rebellion obtruded as a commandement of the Church the more it concernes the loyal Magistrate to oppose it vigorously Pope Sixtus the V. to favour the enterprise of Philip the II. upon England renewed the Excommunication of Queen Elizabeth pronounced by Pius the V. deprived her verbo tenus of her Kingdome absolved her subjects from all Allegiance to her and published a Croisada against her as against the Turk giving plenary Indulgence to all that would make warre against her But the Popes Curses provoked Gods blessings upon the Queen who might say as David when Shimei cursed him The Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day All the storms raised against England were blown over without harme The great preparations of Spain served onely to disable it and secure England And the many attempts against the Queens life upon that Bull contributed to her safety by manifesting to the World the wickednesse of Rome and the pernicious effects of the Roman principles For which I might produce the Examinations and Confessions of many that suffered for attempting to murther the Queen but I will bring but one for all William Parry acknowledged that he had promis'd at Rome to kill the Queen about which he was most troubled in his conscience till he lighted upon Dr. Allens book which taught that Princes excommunicate for heresie were to be deprived of Kingdome and life Which book saith he did vehemently excite me to prosecute my attempt This Popes Excommunications had more effect in France for after that he had excommunicated King Henry the
III. and absolved his subjects from all Allegiance to him in consequence of that Bull many of the French rebelled against their King and he wasslain upon that account by a Dominican Friar Which when this Pope heard he commended the action highly in a full Consistory at Rome and forbad that any funeral rites should be celebrated for him Which funeral rites usually celebrated at Rome for departed Princes consisting most in prayer for their souls it appeareth that his Holinesse was not contented that he had slain that King by his Bull but would also damne his soul Gregory the XIV excommunicated by his Bulls Henry the IV. of France forbidding all Peers Nobles Cities and Commons to yield him obedience and declaring him incapable of the Crown as an Heretick and relapse But that Bull was by the Court of Parliament then sitting at Tours condemned to be torn and burnt by the Hang-man Clement the VIII did the same over again and excommunicated Henry The Bull was condemned as the other to be burnt by the hand of the Hang-man But the effect of these Bulls appeared by the attempts against the Kings life which soon after followed first by a woman next by Peter Barriere and again by John Chastel all denying him to be King because he was not absolved by the Pope Neither did the effects of these Bulls cease after that the King was absolved by his Holinesse For by them the King got his death Ravilliac who killed him could alledge them when he was examined and say that the King was an Heretick in his heart and deserved to be slain as an enemy of the Church Paul the V. was as turbulent as his predecessors as he shewed it in his insolent and impertinent quarrel with the Venetians because they had stopt by Edict the giving of Lands to the Church whereby the State lost many tributes and services He threatned them of Excommunication if they did not recal that Law And upon their maintaining of it he excommunicated them and put their State in Interdict But it took no effect for none of their Clergy would or durst obey it the Jesuites onely excepted who therefore were expelled out of their dominions They condemned the Popes Bull by Edict and forbad the bringing of it into their Territory upon pain of hanging Neither did they give any satisfaction to the Pope when the businesse came to an Arbitrement but forced him to make amends to himself and to come to their terms In the beginning of this Popes reigne was detected that Treason not to be matcht in any age for cruelty and depth of villany the Gunpowder-plot to have destroyed in one blow the King the Parliament the Judges of the Land and all the flowre and strength of the Kingdome of England This horrid Treason was the effect of the several Bulls of the Pope before the Reigne of our gracious King James of glorious memory who coming into his Kingdome of England found it lying under a Papal Interdict and himself excluded from the Crown by a Bull sent into England a little before the death of Queen Elizabeth whereby all that are not Roman Catholicks are declared incapable of and excluded from the Succession of which his Majesty complains in his Apology And that Bull was produced in the Indictment of the Jesuite Garnet as the principal motive of the Gunpowder Treason This gave occasion to the Oath of Supremacy set forth by the King and his Parliament then sitting for the security of his Majesties Life and Dignity wherein it is required of all to whom it is administred to acknowledge his Majesty to be the lawful King of the Realmes of England Scotland and Ireland and that the Pope hath no right to depose him of his Kingdoms or dispense his Subjects from their obedience to him Also that they abhorre as impious and heretical this doctrine That Princes excommunicated by the Pope may justly be deposed or slain by their owne Subjects This Oath being presented to the Roman Catholicks some of them made no difficulty to take it among others Blackwell the Arch-priest Whereupon the Pope sent Apostolical Letters into England declaring that Dated Sept. 22. 1606. this Oath could not be taken with a safe conscience and exhorting the English to suffer all kinds of torments and death it self rather then to offend Gods Majesty by such an Oath To imitate the constancy of other English Martyrs To have their loins girt about with vertue to put on the Brest-plate of righteousnesse and take the Buckler of Faith He tells them that God who hath begun in them that good work will perfect it and will not suffer them to be Orphans c. And he injoyneth them to observe diligently the precepts contained in the Letters which Clement the VIII his predecessor had written a little before to Mr. George Arch-priest of England By which Letters all Princes of a Religion contrary to the Roman are excluded from the Crown of England These Letters whereby the English were exhorted to be Martyrs of the Popes Sovereignty in England and to make it an Article of their faith which they must signe with their blood that the Pope hath power to depose Princes and expose them to be expelled and slain by their own subjects did not receive that entertainment which he expected among the English of his Religion For some rejected them as supposititious forged by the Hereticks to draw persecution upon them and kindle their Kings wrath against them he being already justly provoked to revenge by the late conspiracy The Pope hearing of this sends other and more express letters Dated Aug. 23. 1607. into England to expostulate with the Roman Catholicks saying That he wondred at their doubting of the truth of the Apostolick letters to dispense themselves upon that pretence from obeying his commandments And therefore he declareth That those Letters were written by himself not only motu proprio ex certa scientia by his own motion and certain knowledge but also after a long and grave deliberation enjoyning them again to obey those Letters because such is his pleasure To these letters which set up rebellion with a high hand as an Article of the Roman Faith were joyned letters of Cardinal Bellarmine to Blackwell the Archpriest wherein he chides him bitterly for taking the Oath which under colour of modifications had no other end but to transport the Popes authority to a Successor of Henry the VIII And by the examples of his Predecessors he exhorteth him to defend the Popes primacy whom he calleth The Head of the Faith Of this Oath thus prohibited by the Pope and cryed down by Bellarmine the Jesuite Becanus saith That both of them the Pope and Bellarmine Beean de dissidio Anglic. Vterque negat salva conscientia praestari posse hoc juramentum quia abnegarent fi-Catholicam deny that it may be taken with a safe Conscience because by taking it the Catholick Faith is denyed Is it then an