personam antequam ad castra Londini veneram in meo Catologo suggestu praedictorum locum occupauerunt inter caeteros Romanae religioni addictos Si captus non fuissem cunctis Papistis indicassem interrogaÌ„tibus me causam scribendi talia mendacia in mea examinatione Ego fui scriptor sed Deus scit alios fuisse autores Si mea fragilit as me non excusabit appello ad misericordiam vestram qua munitos esse dicitis ostendite tunc illam pro amore Dei liberate me non vrgeatis me sicut caeteri loqui scribere contr a conscientiam meam postea cernetis sine impulsu quod liberè fatebor veritatem D. Alane grauiter te offendi sed tamen dico quod recumbo in tuam clementiam De religione nihil dico quod scriptura docet nullum excipio librum neque veteris neque noui firmiter credo nihil aliud credam facite mecum quod vultis comburite suspendite interficite decapitate ego idem sum si veritatem noÌ„ habeo Christus est veritas ostendat mihi veritatem aperâ—at oculos meos D. Alane Odovvenus Hoptonus Praeses Castri Londinensis minis iussit vt examinationem iuxta voluntatem illius scriberem Quando nomina Papistarum patefeci quorum quam plurima nomina nunquam ante audiueram eos fautores Papae Reginae Scotorum acerrimos inimicos Regiae Maiestatis virorum à conciliÃs omnium illorum qui defensores sunt religionis quae publicè in Anglia docetur asserere non vererer Et omnes illi de quibus mentio facta est nobiles generosi fuerunt Hoc si à te factum erit Regina promouebit te inuenies me promptissim um fore ad te iuuandum Cuncti proceres te magno prosequuntur amore nihil indigebis Mittam tecum seruum Oxonium ibi sustentaberis centum Marcas singulis annis dabo operam vt adipiscaris sine dubio pingue sacerdotium tibi dabitur Si hoc non praestabis grauissima poena mulct aberis consule tibi igitur Et hanc ob causam partim metu ductus partim adulatione victus hoc in me quadrauit adagium Quid ipse aiebat confirmaui promissum illius iuramento perstrictum fuit Haec quae exaraui adeò vera sunt vt nihil verius Videte homines qua mecum Tragedia vsus est ille Praeses Quamprimum veneram in conspectum D. Odovveni Hopton ductus cum satellite confessus sum me illius religionis fuisse tamen hypocrisi maxima me vti voluit paratus eram in die Dominico istius hebdomadae qua captus eram in ecclesiam venire mea sponte tamen iussit vt apparerem reluctari seruus illius iussus fuit trahere me ad ecclesiam quasi inuitus fuissem ex his paucis colligite plura De bulla affix a parietibus Rhemis hoc noÌ„ audeo consirmare sed ita fama volauit inter alummos Papae in Collegio Anglicano Romae sito vtrum ista excommunicationis bulla contrae nostram â—eginam Elizabetham renouata fuit ex integro impressa Romae prorsus ignoro sed ignoscite mihi quae tali modo temere falso scripsi feci Quae literis mandantur me libera sponte sine compulsione vlla vt conscientiam meam liberam redderem in praesentia Gulielmi Iohnson Georgij Robinson mand at a sunt in carcere Rothomagensi in die Sabbati 19. Februarij An. 1583. Ioannes Nicolaus DOctor Allen what things soeuer I haue written against the Pope Cardinals and Bishops I wrote them through ambition and such things as I printed in England touching the manners of the Pope Cardinals Bishops I had heard them in Italie of peisantes and poore men I had neuer published any booke God is my witnes if the Lieutenant of the Tower of London had not prouoked me to write for I vvas partly deluded at that time vvith great promises partly also pricked forward with desire of vaine glorie Such things haue ben vvritten by me pubickly cheefly touching the manners of the Pope Cardinals Bishops and of the vvhol Clergie vvhich I had by report of men of no credit But as sone as I had obteined my libertie incontinent I amended my former fault and coÌ„fessed to M. Luck Kirby novv executed but then a prisoner that I had vvritten very lewdly I wrote many things I did many things the which I vtterly denied either to write or to do before that the Lieutenant of the Tovver threatened me and that often to rack and torment me vvhich greuous punishmentes my fraile flesh did abhorre And therefore I did but execut his vvill and inuention Whatsoeuer he commaunded that I wrot that I did so I spake not of mallice but by constraint not of euell vvill but of deuellish suggestion I vvrote many things falsly and it repented me that euer I vvrote them before I departed out of England as a runnegate for my enormeous sinnes vvhich vexed and disquieted my conscience daie and night excedingly I neuer appeered before any Iudge or other officer in England as a vvitnes against any one Romane Catholick in so much that vvhen they vvere araigned I absented my self from London of purpose The Pope the Cardinals the Bishops and other Catholick Romanes haue bestovved many benefits vpon me and I haue requited them vvith ingratitude but I haue shewed the cause feare of greuous punishement and magnificall promises withdrew me cleene from God If you vvorthie men had ben in the like danger I knovv not what you vvould haue doÌ„ne I could heare nothing els vvhiles I vvas in prison but these threates Do so or els the Officers shal carry-thee to be racked I had leuer he had said to bee hanged It is an euel thing to haue my bodie by these tortures to be made two foote longer then euer God made it They recompted vnto me the manner and order of racking vvhich vvhen I heard the feare and horror of this kinde of punishement did quite ouercome me in mine examination I vvrote dovvne into my booke the names of such as the Lieutenant or his seruant vvould haue me write Sir George Peckam knight vvas in the rovvle of the Papists Iudge Suthcot and many other whose names and personnes vvere vnknovvne to me before I came to the tovver occupied a rome in my rovvle among the rest that vvere addicted to the Roman religion and that by the suggestion of the forenamed If I had not ben apprehended I vvould haue answered all Papists that vvould haue asked me for vvhat cause I vvrote so many lies in my examination That I vvas the writer in deede but God knovveth other men vvere the Authors If my frailtie vvill not excuse me I appeale to your mercie vvhere with you say you are fenced shevv it then and for the loue of God set me at libertie afterwards you shall see that I vvill confesse the truth freely vvithout all
A TRVE REPORT OF THE LATE APPREHENSION AND IMPRISONNEMENT OF IOHN NICOLS Minister at Roan and his confession and ansvvers made in the time of his durance there VVherevnto is added the satisfaction of certaine that of feare or frailtie haue latly fallen in England PRINTED AT RHEMES By Iohn Fogny 1583. THE PREFACE Good Christian reader the children and specially the Priests of Gods Church haue ben manifoldly assailed by their aduersaries in our coūtrey these later yeres first by the vvriting and preaching of the Sect-maisters vvhich made no great impression Secondly by authoritie of the Ciuil Magistrate vvhich vvas more forceible but yet preuailed no further then to the losse of some rich-mens transitory goods a fevv poore mens temporal liues neither the one nor the other perished to the ovvners but both laid vp vvith Christ and bestovved vpon him to the hundreth fould aduantage in the next and to the great encrease of the Catholike partie in this life Lastly by practise and pollicie of certain crafty cōsciēceles men by falshood forgerie altering in the sight of the simple the causes of their death punishment making their liues actiōs odious to the vvorld Vvhereby they disaduātaged in deede the Catholike part much more then by any plaine violēce or pretēded iustice vvhatsoeuer Besides the cōmon persuasions of Protestants but most false though grounded vpon the experimēt of their ovvne disloyaultie in the daies of Q. Mary that al Catholikes be ennemies to the state vvas it not a great tēptation to such as knovv not the deepe subtiltie of Sathā to see that certain good fellovves vvere found to preach print aduouch to the faces of the poore desolate persons yea and to svveare that they had purposed and practized the Queenes death particularly recording the time place and circumstances and naming such and such of the Counsel that vvere vvith all to be massacred and al this either so coulorably and confidently or so plausibly oportunely for the practize that publike iustice passed vpon them as malefactors and therevvith many pretty pāphlets put forth and spred for the tempering of mens speaches and conceits of such strange procedings In this case truly a poore and vnaduised man might haue ben either for some time abused or haue foūd good cause to say vvith the prophete Penè moti sunt pedes mei my feete vvere almost moued But he that said nothing is hidd vvhich shall not be reuealed vvould not haue this error long to preuaile but hath to his ovvne glory the honor of his saincts and great aduantage of the Catholike cause in our countrey and the vvhol Church many vvaies discouered that trechery as short gaudies almost hath the ennimie of such traffick as Iudas had of the betraying and sale of Christ vvho disclosed his ovvne treason yelded vp his money againe and hanged him self before his Maister vvhom he sould vvas executed God giue the aduersaries better grace and an other kind of repentance then that proditor had to saluation and not to perdition But truely his name be therefore euerlastingly glorified our mercifull lord hath merueilously reuealed to the shame of heresie these sinful inuentions of the Churches ennemies The conscience and certen knovvledge of so many good men that knevv those holy confessors innocency the vvisedom of others that savv the practiz coulour and collusion the note of their ansvveres and full satisfactiō giuen at the barre their vniforme and sincere protestations of their innocencie at their death the very qualities of such persons as vvere the first brochers and instruments of their accusation and condemnation al these things and diuers treatises set forth of the matter haue opēned and made clere the case to the vvhol vvorld vvhereby god of his old mercies hath turned all these difficulties and apparent distresses to the singular benefit of his truth And lo here more to see his svvet prouidence and disposition of these things Iohn Nichols him self the first author of the shamfull fiction and that first set dovvne the particularities for vvhich the men of god vvere cōdemned and executed falling of late into the handes of the iustice at Roan hath confessed al the collusion and forgerie Vvhich vvas thought meete to be published Verbatim euen as him self vvrote gaue forth to the Officers and others the Original partly remaining in the court roules partly to be shevved of his ovvne hand vvriting In setting it dovvne no one title is altered nor the very incongruities of his speach amended And though he vvas in prison vvhen he did it yet he did nothing of feare or compulsion being assured that he could not for such matters as he had committed in Englād nor for religion be any long time in durance in Fraunce but al came of deepe remors of mind and conscience for the death of the innocents vvhich he knevv came by his false accusation vvherevvith he vvas invvardly so vexed in England though he continued as he dooth yet in his peruerse pretēded religion that he both confessed his foule dealing to one of the cōdemned persons and to some in office and authoritie there and also in fine left the Realme therefore specially and partly as he saith him self because the Bishops vvho vvere cōmaunded and had promised him euery one of them a yerely pension for recompence of that his seruice vvould not keepe touch vvith him but shaked him of vvith a Tu videris like as the ievves did their copesmā sudas Vvhere vpon he obteined a peece of mony of an other his principal patron vvho thought it pitie or at least no pollicie to cast the poore miser of in that sorte and passed ouer into the lovve countrey vvithout taking his leaue vvent forvvard into Germany provvling as his manner hath long ben vvith Epistles for his liuing and not finding cōtentement so he purposed into Turkey and thithevvard he vvent on till by the persuasion of his cōpanion one M. Laurence Caddey sometime student of the English College in Rome he vvas turned back from that desperat course into Fraunce by vvhose godly endeuours for both their saluations notice vvas giuen of the said Nichols in Rhemes and Paris and after vvas apprehended in Roan vvhere he vvrote and spake the letters and other things follovving and therevpon vvas dimissed very shortly And being aftervvard among some contreymen of his ovvne religion to vvhom he resorted for payment of his fees he vvas demanded before them by some that vvere Catholiks vvhether he vvould novv being at liberty auouch all the things confessed in the time of his restraint he ansvvered that all vvere most certaine that he vvould stand to all that he had vttered A protestant yet he vvould be still though in prison he shovved him self vvilling to conferre and to yeld to reason and might at the same time haue easily ben inuited to Rhemes if he had not falne into the Protestants hands at his releasing At his first arriual in Roan the vaine man told
my self to be an heretick that thereby I might procure his licence and so goe to my freends both without their danger mine owne The Bishop being a wily Fox straight waies commaunded me to signifie so much in publick audience and then he vvould graunt me my request then beganne the tragedie of my vvo miserie I began to excuse my self of fearefulnes to wepe before him that taught the Bishops sonnes and befote Iohn Dias the Bishops chaplen Then I thought vvith my self that if I should withstand the Bishop a thowsand worldly inconueniences should haue ensued thereof because I had said before I vvas as he vvas in religion these and other such like causes of my miserable outward defection did the Diuel put into my hed who although he had thought to haue throwne me downe for euer at that time yet I hope to giue him and al his the ouerthrow and neuer here after vvhile I liue to yeld to such like temptations for the performaunce vvhereof I beseech the blessed virgin Marie and al the holy company of heauen and al good Catholicks to pray for me I could name some vvitnesses of the great passions and in ward strife I had vvith my self vpon the first consideration of my pretended reuoult but that I dare not name them for putting the godly men in danger this onely I vvil ade therein that al the world may see I neuer vvas theirs in hart sith my first reconcilemeÌ„t to the Catholick Church First when I was in prison in the Gatehorrse I went euery daie to the dore of a Catholick which lay in the next rome to the chamber I lay in weeping bitterly shevved him that I should do against my conscience from vvhich he merueilous charitably and comfortably dehorted me vvith great reasons and incouragement to be constant in confession of my faith but the Diuel his Ministers and mine infirmitie preuailed and I did that vvhich was required at my hands After I had done that which euer since hath ben a naile in my conscience in diuers places I vvas conuersant vvith the Catholicks and neuer vttered or hurt any nor vvould haue done for al the good in the vvorld the persons and places I could name but for their endangering When I vvas at Cambrige I counselled diuers to go ouer sea and persuaded them so that I had brought them ouer vvith me in deede if it had not ben for feare of their Tutors-Many youthes there be God be thanked for it vvel bent to vertu and the Catholick Religion I beseech God bring them thence Besides vvhen my chamber fellowes especially one Sir Hutton Doctor Hutton his nephevv vvould speke against F. Campion I haue defended him so farre that he called me often Papist and defendor of Traitors and threatened he vvould complaine of me to the Maister and the Seniors I haue spoken the same and hovv he vvas falsely accused c. in mine ovvne countrey to one being both vvell learned and very catholickly bent as vvee vvalked by the Seas side But some vvil obiect I kept company vvith Ioâ—â— Nichols a feruent heretick to vvhich Obiection I ansvvere confessing that I kept him company to much for if I had follovved him in al points he vvould haue brought both him self and me to euerlasting destruction for I am sure that neuer vvoman brought out such a horrible and ougley monster in manners as he is But if ye consider th' end vvherefore I vvas conuersant vvith him I hope ye vvill not thinke me to be much blame vvorthie First I vvent about to knovv his lying spirite and his detestable manners vvhich I am sure I knovv although to mine owne discredit as vvell as any but especially I vvent about to get him out of England from being the cause of shedding of Innocent blood the vvhich I thanke God I haue obteined haue procured his apprehension not for hatred or hurt of his person as God dooth knovv but for desire of sauing his soule and detections of his foule slauÌ„ders against the Church of God and her children I vvas neuer I thanke God most humbly of his malitious humor if I had ben I might haue vomited my poison against the Catholicks I might haue gone to the priuie counsel haue enstauled my self as many do I might haue receiued good conditions of liuing being offred I might haue staide at Cambrige at the cost of my parents vvhich are able to keepe me in the schooles of learning many commodious vvaies for vvorldly preferment I might haue follovved if I had invvardly liked of that foule heresie nether had I any neede to go into a straÌ„ge couÌ„trey vvhere I knevv I should liue poorely To be short vvhiles I was in England this last time I vvas neuer quiet in conscience because vvhatsoeuer I did I did it against the same Other reasons I could yeld but because I vvilbe short these shal suffice one thing doth comfort me no litle that many haue falne as grosely as I haue donne and aftervvards haue become most firme and constant It remaineth onely that for this publick sinne and scandal and al other offences I craue pardoÌ„ of God of the holy Church of Christ his Vicar here vpon earth Gregory the XIII of that name head of the said holy Church and al other that I gaue scandall to thereby And I request al good Catholicks to take me as their brother in Christ Iesu And I beseech al good Christians for Iesus Christ his sake to pray for me that I neuer become an heretick but that I may liue and die in the Catholick and Apostolick Church which is the Church of Rome and that after this life I may enioy the kingdom of heauen to the vvhich God bring vs for Iesus Christ his sake to vvhom vvith the Father the holy Ghost be al honor power and glory both now and for euer world without end Laus Deo ac deiparae virgini Mariae By me Laurence Caddey THE COPIE OF A LETTER vvritten by the said Laurence Caddey to his Patron and frend I Thinke my self happy most worthy Patron that your Fatherly affection towards me is not decreased but wonderfully and more then I could looke for augmented I now see that first of al you haue a great loue to my soule secondarily to your Countrey and to me your poore countrey-man a great thing it is to bestowe vpon me my habit but vvhat greater then to giue your vvord and besides a testimoniall most necessarie in these perillous times but you can do no other seing that the quallities of the trevv Church be in you eminentissimo quodam modo the vvhich most aboundantly dooth bestow not onely interna Charismata vpon those that peniteÌ„tly doo runne vnto her for soccour but also al exteriour graces necessary for them you therfore be no stepfather nor shee no stepmother but most louing and charitable nourishers both of the invvard and outward man of your penitent and contrite children As for the declaration of my