Heathen persecutors Iewes Turkes and Heretikes in perpetuall tormentes for persecuting and striuing against the Catholicke ROMAN CHVRCH To this Constantine the great brought peace and quietnesse In this Church there hath beene continuall succession of Bishops without any interruption All Bishopps and Pastours of particular Churches in what land or country soeuer they were in vnder the cope of heauen were mēbers of this Church As for example S. Ignatius at Antioch Peter Alexander Athanasius Theophilus at Alexandria Macharius and Cyrillus at Ierusalem Proclus at Constantinople Gregory and Basil in Cappadocia Thaumaturgus in Pontus Polycarpas at Smyrna Iustinus at Athens Dyonisius at Corinth Gregory at Nysa Methodius at Tyrus Ephreem in Syria Cyprian Optatus Austin in Africke Epiphanius in Cyprus Ambrose Paulinus Gaudentius Prosper Faustus Vigilius in Italy Irenaeus Martine Hylarius Eucherius Gregory Saluianus in Fraunce Vincentius Orotius Hildefonsus Leander Isidorus in Spayne Fugatius Damianus Iustus Melytus Beda in England were Bishoppes and Pastours of this Church In briefe whatsoeuer deedes or works signes or monuments fragments or reliques remaine yet in anie land or countrie of them who planted the Christian Faith there doe testifie the Catholike Roman Religion All Princes Kings Emperors all States and commonweales which euer were christened the Theodosians in the east the Charles in the west the Edwards in Englande the Lewesses in Fraunce the Hermigildes in Spaine the Henries in Saxony the Wenceslaes in Boeme-Lande the Leopoldes in Austria the Steeuens in Hungary the Iosophates in India professed and protected the Roman Religion they builded Churches founded religious houses erected many other Monuments of pietie not for Protestants Iwis but for the professours of the Catholike Roman Religion which Faith and Religion S. Pattricke brought first into Ireland Palladius into Scotland S. Augustine into England and other Apostles into other countries witnesses of this Religion are al Vniuersities Colledges Hospitals Monasteries Churches Chappels and innumerable other monumentes Witnesses their foundations their ordinances yea and the very buildings themselues witnesses all Reuestryes Chauncels with steppes vp Aultars Rood lofts Cross-buildings al Crosses in Church and Church-yeardes Market-places and High-waies witnesses all Bishoprickes Deaneries Arch-deaconries Prebendes Parsonages Vicariages such like ordained trow you for women children to make them gentles Witnesses all tithes and other liuely-hoods so religiously lotted out not for ministers wenches their brats but for Sacred anoynted Priests Good Lord what would the founders of all these premisses say if they might come but to see how their lands and goods which they so religiouslie bestowed to honor God withall are by Protestants employed Witnesses spirituall Courtes Visitations Conuocations Excommunications Suspensions witnesses probations of dead mens wils witnesses bidding and forbidding of banes witnesses partitions of Diocese parishes all ordeyned and instituted by Papists Witnesses auncient lawes and customes witnesses the vulgar manners of people the Election and Inauguration of Emperours the rites of annoynting crowning of kings the dubbing of knights c. witnesses coynes windows towne-gates town-houses all rules and to conclude all things in the world witnes the Catholike Roman Religion Thus haue I briefelie my deare frendes set downe some plaine reasons of the religion which I professe for the enioying of which I am content to forgoe my natiue soyle my deare Parents you my dearest friends with all the rest and all those commodities and pleasures which you account in your letter I wish you not to thinke euill of mee for so doing for it is the religion wherein I was borne baptized and confirmed it is the religion which from time to time hath bin vniuersallie receaued throughout all Christēdome it is the religion which there in our own countrie of al others is the first the auncientest the moste benificiall of all the rest the mother and begetter of the others the religion of all our Christian Predecessours and therefore beare with me I pray you in that I will not yeelde vp my title and interest of that which I haue receaued from myne Elders by lineall and lawful discent no man for these thousand yeares at the least seeking to put mee or any of my predecessors out of it Yet if any Protestant or other whatsoeuer can shew me any good euidence why I should not possesse the same I am readie to giue it vp but hitherto they promising and vaunting to shew good euidence haue brought forth nothing but words and forgerie And therefore by Gods grace I purpose to hold the same euen vntill my dying day except such euidence come against my title as is not to be shewed no not by an Angell if he should come from heauen God blesse you in the aboundance of his mercie who sende vs ioyfull meeting eyther in this world or in the next or in both A COPIE OF ANOTHER LETTER WHICH THE TWO Cittizens of London wrote to theyr friende beyond the Seas shortlie after that the other was sent DEARE AND WEL-beloued friend after that we had sent the last Letter dated the 13. of September Anno. 1599. wee consulting and weighing the contents thereof with some what more deepe considerations then before wee had done it was thought good to write vnto you this second Letter to let you vnderstand that wee will not receaue nor medle with any grounds or reasons of your faith and religion therfore you neede not to trouble your selfe with writing any for wee assure our selues that you can bring forth none but such as Papistes vse to alleadge which are now growne verie stale out of request Onlie this is the desire of vs al that you would returne without delay but yet so as you may shew your selfe obedient to her Ma. lawes in comming to the Church as other good dutiful subiects doe for surelie what Religion soeuer you professe we thinke you may with safe conscience come to heare Diuine Seruice or a Sermon beeing no further vrged but that you may thinke and pray as you list And what Scripture authority or reason can you shew or pretend for refusing so to doe For we knowe the cōmon answere which women such sillie soules are accustomed to make in saying It is against my conscience I may not with a safe conscience so doe is too foolish for you who seeme to haue more knowledge Wee supposed at the first that your refusall proceeded of a timerous ouer scrupulous conscience but now wee beginne to suspect that because you haue gone so far in that course you thinke it would be some discredite as to be deemed vnconstant and a turne-coate if you should in any sort relent and come to conformitie and therefore you minde still to be obstinate but wee friendly aduise you to beware of such peeuishnes proceeding indeede from the roote of pride we wish you to submit your selfe to your gracious Princesse her honourable Coūcell to the lawes of your natiue Country and weigh with your selfe what you are to
themselues slaues to ambition as they did in Scotland or by following Lust and Leacherie or of some such like brutish occasion and neuer indeede vpon anie good ground vsing their religion only as a serueturne when other meanes faile to atchieue theyr vnlawfull desires It is plaine therefore in my iudgement that the Catholiks are they who euer fished simplie and syncerely with Saint Peeters Net and therein haue enclosed myraculous multitudes of fishes and that the Protestantes by theyr extraordinary and late angling haue caught none but such as were in a better and more sound maner taken before And although Freculphus writeth In Chron. tom 2. li. 4 cap. 20. that the Arrian heretikes conuerted the whole nation of the Gothes from Paganysme to the Faith in the time of Valens the Emperour socrates lib. 4. cap. 27. sozom. l. 6 cap. 37. Theodoret lib 4. cap. vlt. yet it appeareth by Socrates Sozomenus and Theodoretus that the greatest part of those Gothes were Catholike Christians before and afterward seduced by the Arrians for Heretikes cannot possiblie conuert anie to such faith as may make the conuerted better then they were before for that they hauing indeede the Scripture in some sort yet haue not the true sense thereof vvhich properly is the sword of the spirit and the wordes are rather the scabard in which the sword is sheathed And therefore they fighting only with the scabard without the sword cannot wound the harts of Infidels And no meruaile though they peruert Catholikes for that men are prone to libertie and to loosenesse of life which by such doctrine is permitted So that they are indeed most aptly by S. Augustine likened vnto Partridges lib. 13. contra faust cap. 12. which gather together young ones which they begot not whereas contrariwise the Holy Church is a most fertle Doue which continuallie bringeth forth new Pigeons THE FIFT REASON largenes of Dominion through the multitude of Beleeuers THE Church vvhich the Messias was to plant must be as is aforesaid dispersed throughout al nations kingdomes as the Holy Prophets most plainely foreshewed and namely the Royall Prophet speaking of the Apostles and Preachers vvhich should Succeede them saieth Psal 18. Theyr sounde went foorth into all partes of the Earth and theyr wordes vnto the endes of the circle of the earth And most manifestlie doth he foretell the largenesse of Christian Religion in the 71. Psalme And S. Iohn saw the foure beasts Apoc. c. 5. the foure and twentie Elders fall downe before the Lambe singing thus Thou art worthie Lord to take the Booke and to open the seales therof for thou hast bin slaine hast redeemed vs to God in thy Blood Cap. 7. out of euery Tribe people Language Nation in another place After these things saith hee I saw a great companie which no man was able to nūber of all Nations Tribes and Peoples and Tongues These thinges with manie such like in Holy writ are no wise verefied in any Religion vnder Heauen but onely in the Romaine Catholike Church for that none but it as euerie man knoweth hath had any large scope to account vpon in any age And it hath beene for these thousand yeares at the least throughout both the Hemyspheres in such sort as the sunne stretcheth not his beames further then it doth and hath done yea there is no tongue nor people nor climate in the vvorlde which hath not heard of in some measure receaued the Catholike Romaine Religion Neither can the Protestantes say that the Church now beginneth to flourish and to dilate it selfe in the worlde after so many ages for that now it is growen olde and aged as is most plaine to say that she increased not in her younge yeares but now in her olde age is to make her a monster She must therefore of necessitie haue growen increased occupied if not all the world yet no doubt the greatest part thereof and so hath the Catholike Romaine Church and none but she done Colloss 1. for in the Apostles time shee began to fructifie in all the world And in S. Irenaeus his time Irenaeus l. 1. cap. 3. Tertul. li. contra Iudaeos ca. 4. Cyprian de vuit eccles Athanas lib. de humanit shee was spreade all ouer the vvorld then knowen as she was afterwards in Tertullian his time and in the dayes of S. Cyprian Athanasius Chrisostome Hierome Augustine Theodoretus Leo the great and Prosper vvho in his booke De Ingratis hath these wordes verbi Chrisost Hieron in Mat. 24. Aug. in Epist 78. 80. ad Hesychium Theod. lib de legibus Leo. Mag. ser 1. de S S. Petro Paulo Sedes Roma Petri quae pastoralis honoris Facta caput mundo quic quid nos possidit armis Religione tenet Which thus may be Englished Rome Peters seate whose Bishop is of Prelates Peereles Lord Religion Lady makes of all which armes do not afford But the Protestantes peraduenture will graunt that the true Church flourished in those dayes but not afterwardes vntill this age in which they haue reformed the same yet is it most manifest that it flourished afterwards euen vntill this our time no lesse then it did before if not more for in Saint Gregory his dayes it was spread all ouer the world as appeareth by his Epistles to the Bishoppes of the East of Afrike Spayne Fraunce England Sicilie And by Saint Bede in cap. 6. cantic In vita S. Bernardi lib. 2. ca. 7. as also by Saint Bernard who disputing before Rogerius King of Sicilie auouched that in those dayes the East all the West Fraunce Germanie England Spaniardes and manie barbarous nations obeyed the Bishop of Rome And in these dayes it is all ouer Italie all ouer Spayne and in Fraunce in most parts of Germanie in Poleland Boheme besides England Hungarie Greece Syria Aethiopia Aegypt in vvhich Landes are manie Catholikes and in the nevve world it flourisheth mightily in al the foure parts of the world Eastward in the Indies Westward in America Northward in Iaponia Southward in Brasilia and in the vttermost parts of Afrike And to name somewhat more in particular some Countries in which it is happely receaued of many if not vniuersally of all but yet in many lāds it is receaued of the greatest parte of the inhabitants in Goa in Malabar in Cochin in Bazain in Colā in Tana in Daman in Ciaul in Coran in Salsetta in Pescaria in Manar in Trauancor in Cogiro in Bugen in Cicungo in Cicugne in Oian in Gomotto in Gensura in Xichi in Ormuz in Ternate in Momoia in Ambonio in Macazar in Cerignano in Siligan in Butuan in Pimiliran in Camigu in Supa in Sian in Bacian in Solar in Malacca in Tidor in Selebi and in the Ilandes of S. Thomazo S. Domingo Madera and in all those innumerable Islandes vvhich the King of Spayne there possesseth So that the Catholike Romaine Religion hath had and
that number is vsuall here in this Countrie signifying the fourth part or quarter of an hundred for when they will name any number as we vsually doe when we say a dozen a scoare c. they say vnquartron and by that number they commoÌ„ly buy buttons lace c. as we doe by dozens in England Take them in good part my deare friendes and assure your selues that wheresoeuer I liue I will still carrie a true English hart with mee by euer bearing a sacred reuerent respect towards my Soueraigne Princesse and my deare countrie as also a dutifull and obedient minde to my louing Parents and a friendlie affection towardes you for I would not haue you to thinke that liuing out of my Countrie for my conscience doth any way hinder the duties aforesaid for I call God to witnesse who is the searcher of all hearts that my Religion reserued I be are all loyaltie affection fidelitie which a poore Subiect ought to doe towards our Soueraigne Queene Elizabeth whom I pray God bountifully to blesse and allaue affection towardes my natiue Countrie with duty to Parents and loue to kindred as is aforesaid And thus desiring my father mothers blessing with many humble commendations to them and no fewer to you I leaue you to our Lord who send vs all of his heauenly grace From my Chamber at Phalempyne this 16. of Februarie Anno 1600. Your very louing friend T. H. THE I. REASON If the Prophecies of the Holy Bible be true as they be most true then must the Religion of the Protestants needes be false BEFORE the comming of the MESSIAS there was not any people or nation which did serue the true and liuing God but only the Iewes all others whatsoeuer being ouerwhelmed in a Sea of blindnes worshipping false Gods which indeede were Diuels and therevpon the Maister Diuell LVCIFER vvas tearmed Princeps huius mundi that is Ioan. 12. Prince of this world for that hee was honored and worshipped in all Lands Kingdomes Iewrie and that in part only excepted which miserable state condition God of his infinite mercie greatlie pittying promised in time to send a Sauiour vvhich should Redeeme all nations people free them from that pittiful seruitude and blindnesse and bring them to the knowledge of true and right Religion by suffering death and consequently by planting a Church to the which al nations should repaire This he did foretell by diuerse sundry Prophets as by Esay Cap. 2. who saide the Church should be as a mountaine to the which All Nations should flowe And many people shall goe and say Come and let vs ascende to the mountaine of our Lorde and after Idolles shall vtterly be brused and to be briefe all this Chapter yea all the rest in a manner fore-shewe the same matter declaring most plainely the conuersion of all Nations to the Church of the Messias Cap. 49. 60. Dan. 2. 7. Iâ—sal 47. Mich. 4. and how Kings and Queenes should come and doe homage vnto it that it should euer continue without interruption and that it should be most ample large the Prophet Dauid most manifestly foretelleth Luc. 1. Psal 71. saying that it should extend From Sea to Sea and from the riuer to the endes of the world and howe the Aethiopians shoulde fall downe Before the Messias with the kings of Tharsis Arabia and Saba and to be short all kings and people should acknowledge this Church as innumerable propesies of the olde Testament doe plainely foreshewe Heereupon it was that good men thirsted longed so greatlye for the comming of the Messias knowing that by him all people which sate in darckenesse and in the shadowe of death should be lightened deliuered and set in the right way to Heauen And so our Sauiour himselfe beeing now in the way to Ierusalem to suffer saide Nowe the Prince of this world shall be cast out Ioh. 12. and If I shall be exalted from the earth I will drawe all to to my selfe meaning by his Passion to drawe al people from heathenish Idolatry to serue him Nowe if the Religion of the Papists as these new men tearme them be false and erroneous then is it against the Messias and consequently it is a Religion of the diuels owne inuention and he the master inspirer thereof and so by it he is serued and worshiped and then must it needs followe that the Prophets were false yea Christ himselfe said not truelye in telling his Disciples That the Prince of this worlde that is the diuell should then be cast out and that hee woulde drawe all to himselfe for that since his Passion the diuell hath had a more large and ample dominion than he had before For before the comming of the Messias the people of the Iewes and Gentiles and almost all Nations Trybes and Kingdomes haue beene euer in Lucifer his thraldome vntil this our age in which Luther came to expell Lucifer and to ridde all the worlde out of his captiuity And so the Passion of our ReÌ„deemer auailed little or nothing at all for the space of these fifteene hundred yeres for a thowsand yeeres together he was not so far from drawing all vnto him as he saide he woulde doe Ioh. 12. that he drewe not so much as one person that any man can name And in our owne Countrey there of England it is most manifest that all were Papists without exception from the first Christening thereof vntill this age of King HENRY the eight Luther in postil Ger 1537. part 2. fol. 141. And so the Protestantes affirme of other Countries and boldly say that vntil this age the Gospel lay in the dust and was hidden vnder the benche CHRIST was vnknowen Which to say as the protestants must needes say blush not so to say indeed is meer madnesse flat infidelity and a plaine denying of Christ no small establishement of Mahomets religion For the Protestants Mahometanes agree in this that the Church which Christ founded fell some fiue or sixe hundred yeeres after his Ascension into most horrible errours and then say the Turkes the Angell Gabriell was sent from God to Mahomet to teach him how he should reforme the saide Church because it woulde not stande with the wisedome and goodnesse of Almightye God to suffer his Church to vanishe away through errous superstitions without sending in time to reforme it And in this out of doubte the Turkes haue far greater reason than the Protestantes haue which Protestantes by their Doctrine make Christ the most simple and most improuident Lawegiuer that euer was in the world For neither Plato Solon Lyeurgus nor any other Lawe-maker whosoeuer was so simple and improuident as to fashion and plant a common wealth which before it were well setled should vanishe away and come to nothing hauing no sufficient meanes to preuent errours and such abuses as would ouerthrowe their Lawes and destroie their common
done Satisfaction for his sinnes In artic Smalcal dic in artic 3. fal paenit papist that he is therby iust before God without Christ or faith which is a lye no lesse shamefull than the other For the Catholikes teache that no Iustice is had no sinne forgiuen no good thing obtained but by the Passion of our Sauiour Christ 6. They affirme that the Papists doe worship Saints in steed of Christ doe honour them as Gods which is a grose impudent lye as euery maÌ„ knoweth Hadd cont Osorium 7. They are not ashamed to write that Religion was not changed in England but by the coÌ„sent of the Bishops that the landes goods of Abbies Religious houses were distributed to Godly vses as to Schooles Vniuersities Hospitals And that the Pope for an ordinary tribute to him yeerely paide giueth free leaue vnder his great seale to Priestes to keepe concubines openly without controlement And the like lies they lay vpon the auncient Fathers as Melancthon said of S. Austen In Apol. tit de pec orig that he taught Originall sinne to be taken awaye in Baptisme not that it was not any more but that it was not imputed Whereas S. Austen spoke not there of Originall sin but of concpiscence So they say S. Bernard recaÌ„ted monachisme at his later ende Luth. tom 5. Ien. ger fol. 457. Teleman Heshus l. 1. de vera ec p. 60. that most of auncient writers Fathers retracted reuoked before they died the Doctrine which they had written or else that they thought otherwise than they wrote spoke By this meanes to defend their newe doctrine to shift off the auncient Fathers which are altogether plainly against it they are constrained to lay two notable lies vpoÌ„ the said fathers the one that they recalled their doctrine before their death the other that they wrote spoke one thing but thought another And no maruell though they slaunder wrong in this Atheistical manner the Holy Fathers when as some of them spare not the Apostles themselues If the three Apostles Peter Paul Barnabas Tom. 3. Ien. Ger. fol. 261. saith Luther had not held their tackle about Faith without works al the multitude had failed therin Iames stuÌ„bled in it But of this kind of stuffe I wil not here alleadge any more he who desireth to hear moe of their lies slauÌ„ders may find theÌ„ aboundantly set down by diuerse sundry authors at this day but yet take with you this saying of your M. Luther He who once lieth Tom. 1. Germ. fol. 423. saith he certainly is not of God is worthily suspected in all things And as for reuiling railing I thinke that Lucifer himselfe coulde little haue exceeded the Protestants therein especially their first Apostle the saide Martine Luther who with filthy beastly scuruy opprobrious speeches so be daubeth the Catholike church the magistrats therof as euery one may see what spirite possessed his heart the same out of all doubt which delighteth in filthinesse scurrility And to the end you may haue some aime what kinde of fellowe this Arche-apostle of your protestantisme was I wil here brieflie set downe a few words of his filthie mouth Hee calleth the Archbiship of Ments being a Prince Elector descended of the Princely Electorall familie of Brandeburge Tom 3. Germ. fol. 533. a. b. f. 326. 360. col mens f. 342. 343. a fraudulent a most shamefull lyar a shifting Bishop a filthie shitten Priest an hellish Cardinall a great a notable Epicure an impudent and euill worme a damned and lost man a craftie scoffer the greatest knaue that euer was except Nero Caligula c. Hee reuileth the Princes of the Empire Tom. 5. Germ. in glossa super edictuÌ„ imperat which did meete at the Diet at Angusta Anno. 1530. calling them traitours wicked men the diuels seruantes knaues madde hogges great and grosse asses Hee calleth the Princes of Germanie fooles Tom. 3. fol. 195. b. fol. 200 190. Tom. 2. scales and bubles of the Pope Gods Isbeers and hangemen Germane beasts the diuels puppies c. Hee braggeth that he esteemed the King of England and other Catholike Princes as miserable beggers dizzards and fooles vvhich make him pastime and as new nâ—ttes which he would haue to glorie and to sing in this manner Here wee nits doe sit vpon the head of the noblest beast in the earth in his haire wee are of a base lynage lice are our Parents those great Giants which killed euen Scilla the Romane Emperour Tom. 3. IeÌ„ Ger. f. 331. f. 334 a. and many others What haue wee to doe with Luther a begger it is true you are nits but yet you are not lice And in his infamous libell against the said King of England hee hath great store of oprobrious titles and names as Henrie by the inclemencie of God King of England King of lyes c. So dealt hee vvith that moste famous Prince George Duke of Saxonie Tom. 2. Ger. fol. 206. a. Tom. 6. f. 6. calling him a Tyrant freneticall mad possessed corporally of the diuell the diuels Apostle c. And in his infamous libell entituled Wider hans worst hee calleth Henry Duke of Brunswicke a grosse asse a stocke a tronke an impudent liar a mad man lunatike damned the theefe on the left hand asse of all asses in Wolfenbutell a pudding a sausage an house-firer who stuffeth him-selfe not by drinking wine but by deuouring and drinking Diuelles a fearefull fugitiue knaue a doting eunuch Prince of cut throats a broudy dogge by a thousand such like names But against the Catholike diuines yea and against his own of-spring the SacrameÌ„taries Iesu what terms vseth he where he hath so often that malepert interiection Trotz Swinglius setting forth the said Luther in his colours bringeth him in this maner reuiling In resp a. v. a. Sweâ—mer a knaue a diuell a theefe an hypocrite Trotz Botz Plotz Plitz tonitru po pu pa plump c. And when he had put the word Sola of his own braine into the text Rom. 3. beeing admonished by some of it he braied out said Tom. 5. Germ. fol. 141. fol. 144. Doctor Martine Luther will so affirmeth that a Papist and an asse are all one I wil haue it so I commaund it so againe Luther will so saith that he is a doctor aboue all the doctors in the Papacy Yea afterward it repented him that he had not corrupted the text of the Apostle worse in putting in more of his owne head and that he had not made the Apostle to say We suppose a man to be iustified by faith only without all works of al Lawes And many moe such like outrages I could here set down of his but I hope these maye suffice to make you to knowe what a milde and modest man this reformer of the christian worlde
mariage they permit no tapers nor lights in their churches they speak against worshiping of Saints and despise holie reliques of blessed Martyrs with Vigilantiu they take away the oblatioÌ„ of the sacrifice the hallowing of Chrisme with Eutyches Leo Epist 75. Aug. here 's 88. de pec merit lib. 3. cap. 5. loa Shutâ— lib. 50. causarum cap. 18. they teach that childreÌ„ may be saued without baptisme therefore that it is not of necessitie with the Pelagians they bragge with the Donatistes that all the world hath swarued from the right faith and they onely are the true Church And all the rest of theyr doctrine in a maner is borrowed thus of old heretiks which here particularly to set downe my breuity will not permit The like cobaerence agreement they haue with the old heretikes in deeds maners for I haue found by experience that the Protestant preachers expect Euseb l. 7. Hist c. 26. and desire great applause of their hearers as Paulus Samosatenus did of his followers they ouerthrow Aultars Opt. lib. 6 contr Do. abuse the blessed Sacrament handle despitefullie Holie Chrisme as the Donatistes did they faigne causes and come excuses why they will not goe to Generall Councels Aug. lib. 3. con Crescon Gram mat ca. 45. hist trip lib. 5. c. 34. as the saide Donatistes Macedonius and Dioscorus did The Donatistes also fained that diuers Bishops vvho were absent and that one who was dead did take theyr part against Catholickes therby to make theyr nuÌ„ber to seeme greater and there in England vvhen not somuch as one Catholicke Bishop could be induced by any perswations promises gifts or honours to consent to their Protestancy yet were not the Protestantes ashamed to abuse the Queenes Highnesse vvith this fained Supplication Anno. 1. Reginae Elizabethae Most humblie beseech your most excellent Maiestie your faithfull and obedient Subiects the Lordes spirituall and temporall c. The same Donatistes did torment moste cruellie Catholicke Priests plucking out the eyes of some Aug. Pon. com Epist 50. and of one Bishoppe they cut out the tongue and hand and murdered manie And the Protestantes of late in Fraunce did the like to Catholicke Priests and besides tying haulters about their neckes they drewe them dispiteouslie after theyr horses that done they cut off theyr eares noses priuie partes they ware their eares in their hats insteed of brooches and finally they either hanged vp their carcasses Claud. de Sanctis in lib. du SacrameÌ„t des eglyses or else shot them through with Pistolles of others they hackled and mangled their faces of othersome to trie force strength they did cleaue in two at one stroke their heades and of an old Religious man at Mans they first cut off his priuie parts then they fried them after they forced him to swallow them downe and last of all they did rip his stomake being yet aliue and see what was become thereof At S. Macharius they buried the Catholikes quicke they cut Infants in two they ripped the bellies of Priests and drew out their intrals by little little winding them about a sticke or tree At Patte a village some 6. leages from Orleaunce they burned Catholiks threw infants into the fire there to perish with the rest And manie other like outrages and barbarous cruelties they coÌ„mittd which who so desireth to know Victor de persec vaÌ„ l. 1. cap. 3. l 1. cap. de offic praef praetor lib. 3 Episc Egipti Epist ad Marcum Papaem may find them set downe by Claudius de Saintes in his booke noted before iâ— the margent The ArriaÌ„ heretikes troadeth B. Sacrament vnder their feet they ouerthrew the churches in Africa made of theÌ„ stables for their horses of Altars clothes vestments they made shirts and breeches they burned the bookes and carried the ornaments of the Churches away And how the Protestants haue abused the B. Sacrament spoiled churches burned bookes and haue not onlie made breeches shirts cushions but euen coats for players dizzardes of holy vestments Aultar clothes you cannot but know Theod. lib 1. cap. 6 Iulian that wicked Aapostata robbed Churches spoiled the Cleargy of their priuiledges banished the Priestes ouerthrew Aultars caused the sacrifice to cease reproued the Christians for doing reuerence to the Crosse Cyrill lib. 6. contra Iulian. l. 10 coa eundem and for making the signe thereof in their foreheades for painting it vpon the dores of theyr houses and for worshipping the Reliques of Mattyrs for visiting their tombes for praying to them at theyr graues Zozom li. 5. cap 12. and Sepulchres and termed them deadmeÌ„ hee ouerthrew destroyed the images pictures of Christ he brake open the shâ—ne wherein the bones of S. Iohn Baptist vvere religiouslie kept Theod. lib 5. cap. 6. burned them dispersed abroad the ashes Now whether the Protestants haue iumped iust into the steps of this wicked Apostata in doing the like or no I leaue to your iudgement knowledge consideration Zozom li. 5. cap 21 Athan. lib. de passion imag Chr. The Panims or heatheÌ„ men brake the image of christ the Iewes crucified it as theyr Elders had done Christ himselfe the Iew in in whose house it was fouÌ„d was troubled for it brought before the high priest for that he seemed by keeping that picture that hee was a Christian And doe not the Protestants euen as the Heathens and Iewes did The Iew was thought to be a fauourer of Christ because he kept his picture in his house and why should not Catholikes by the like reason be iudged fauourers and louers of Christ for hauing his Image in theyr Churches houses and chambers Or why should not Protestantes be deemed aduersaries and enimies to Christ as the Iews and Heathens were seeing they can no more endure his Picture or Crosse then they could The old Heretikes as Nestorius Socrat. lib. 7. hist cap. 23. Eus lib 6. cap. 55. lib. 7. c. 24. Nicephor lib. 6 cap. 30. Theodor. lib. 1. cap. 4 Nouatus Paulus Samosatenus the Arrians others were out of measure proud arrogant and wonderfullie conceited of themselues contemning the Doctours of the Church which had writttn before them and preferring them-selues before all others whatsoeuer the verie same doe the Protestants in a most proude and arrogant manner and the ringleader and Father of them all is not ashamed to breake out into these speeches Lutherus col mens I haue Excommunicated Origine long agoe there is nothing singuler in Athanasius fol. 474. 460. 932. 476 477. 17. Tertullian is very superstitious I make no count of Chrisostome for he is but a pratler Basil plainely is nothing worth hee is altogether a Monke Cyprian the Martyr is a weake Diuiner Hierome ought not to be numbred amongst the Doctours of the Church for he was an Heretike amongst all the