bethink your selves well of this Dilemma If your solicitings stop the progress of the Act how will you be hated as guilty of the continuance of those Sanguinary Laws if your endeavours do not stop it how will you be both hated for attempting it and scorned for miscarrying in 't FINIS All Offenders cover their faults with contrary causes Rebels do most dangerously cover their faults Rebellion in England and Ireland The Rebels vanquished by the Queens Power Some of the Rebels fled into other Countries Rebels pretend Religion for their defence Ringleaders of Rebels Charls Nevill Earl of Westmer land and Thomas Stukeley The effect of the Popes Bull against the Queen of England The practises of the Traitors Rebels and Fugitives to execute the Bull. Seminaries erected to nurse seditious Fugitives The Seminary Fugitives come secretly into the Realm to induce the people to obey the Popes Bull. Sowers of sedition taken convented and executed for Treason The seditious Traitors Condemned by the antient Laws of the Realm made 200. years past Persons Condemned spared from Execution upon refusal of their treasonable opinions The Foreign Traitors continue sending of persons to move sedition in the Realm The Seditious Fugitives labour to bring the Realm into a War external and domestical The duty of the Queen and all her Governours to God and their Country is to repel practices of Rebellion None charged with capital Crimes being of a contrary Religion and professing to withstand Foreign Forces Names of divers Ecclesiastical persons professing contrary Religion never charged with capital Crimes The late Favourers of the Popes Authority were the chief Adversaries of the same by their Doctrines and Writings A great number of Lay persons of livelyhood being of a contrary Religion never charged with capital Crime No person charged with capital Crime for the only maintenance of the Popes Supremacy Such Condemned only for Treason as maintain the effects of the Popes Bull against her Majesty and the Realm Dr. Sanders maintenance of the Popes Bull. The persons that suffered Death were Condemned for Treason and not for Religion A full proof that the maintainers of the Bull are directly guilty of Treason Dr. Mortons secret Ambassage from Rome to stir the Rebellion in the North. Persons and Campion are offenders as Dr. Sanders is for allowance of the Bull. Faculties granted to Persons and Campion by Pope Gregory 13. Anno 1580. Harts Confession of the interpretation of the Bull of Pius Quintus A Conclusion that all the infamous Books against the Queen and the Realm are false Difference of the small numbers that have been executed in the space of five and twenty years from the great numbers in five years of Queen Maries Reign An Advertisement to all princes of Countries abroad The Authority claimed by the Pope not warranted by Christ or by the two Apostles Peter and Paul Pope Hildebrand the first that made War against the Emperor An. Dom. 1074. The Judgement of God against the Popes false erected Emperour Pope Gregory the Seventh deposed by Henry IV. Henry 5. Frederick 1. Frederick 2. Lewis of Banar Emperours Whatsoever is alwful for other Princes Soveraigns is lawful for the Queen and Crown of England The Title of universal Bishop is a Preamble of Antichrist Rome sacked and the Pope Clement taken Prisoner by the Emperors Army 1550. King Henry the Second of France his Edicts against the Pope and his Courts of Rome The besieging of Rome and the Pope by the Duke of Alva with King Philips Army Queen Mary and Cardinal Pool resisted the Pope D. Peyto a begging Fryer The Kings of Christendom never suffer the Popes to abridge their Titles or Rights though they suffer them to have rule over their People The Queen of England may not suffer the Pope by any means to make Rebellions in her Realm Additaments to the Popes Martyrologe The strange ends of James Earl of Desmond D. Saunders James Fitzmorice John of Desmond John Somervile The prosperity of England during the Popes curses Reasons to perswade by reason the Favourers of the Pope that none hath bin executed for Religion but for Treason The first reason The second reason The 〈◊〉 Pius Qâ—â—â—â—â—… set up at Pauls The first punishment for the Bull. The third reason Rebellion in the North. The fourth reason The Invasion of Ireland by the Pope The Popes Forces vanquished in Ireland The Politick Adversaries satisfied Objection of the Papists that the persons executed are but Scholars and unarmed Many are Traiters though they have no Armor nor Weapon The Application of the Scholastical Traiters to others that are Traiters without Armor Six Questions to try Traiters from Scholars The offenders executed for Treason not for Religion Unreasonable and obstinate persons are left to Gods Judgment Saunders Morton Web c.
Ecclesiastical which opinions are nevertheless in some part by the Laws of the Realm punishable in some degrees and yet for none of these points have any persons been prosecuted with the charge of Treason or in danger of life And if then it be inquired for what cause these others have of late suffered Death it is truly to be answered as afore is often remembred that none at all are impeached for Treason to the danger of their Life but such as do obstinately maintain the contents of the Popes Bull afore-mentioned which do import that her Majesty is not the lawful Queen of England the first and highest point of Treason and that all her Subjects are discharged of their Oaths and Obedience another high point of Treason and all warranted to disobey her and her Laws a third and a very large point of Treason And thereto is to be added a fourth point most manifest in that they would not disallow the Popes hostile proceedings in open Wars against her Majesty in her Realm of Ireland where one of their Company Dr. Sanders a lewd Scholar and Subject of England a Fugitive and a principal Companion and Conspirator with the Traitors and Rebels at Rome was by the Popes special Commission a Commander as in form of a Legate and sometime a Treasurer or Pay-Master for those Wars which Dr. Sanders in his Book of his Church Monarchy did afore his passing into Ireland openly by Writing gloriously avow the foresaid Bull of Pius Quintus against her Majesty to be lawful and affirmeth that by vertue thereof one Dr. Mooreton an old English Fugitive and Conspirator was sent from Rome into the North parts of England to stir up the first Rebellion there whereof Charles Nevill the late Earl of Westmerland was a Head Captain And thereby it may manifestly appear to all men how this Bull was the ground of the Rebellions both in England and Ireland and how for maintenance thereof and for sowing of Sedition by Warrant and allowance of the same these persons were justly condemned of Treason and lawfully Executed by the ancient Laws temporal of the Realm without any other matter than for their practices and Conspiracies both abroad and at home against the Queen and the Realm and for maintaining of the Popes foresaid Authority and Bull published to deprive her Majesty of her Crown and for withdrawing and reconciling of her Subjects from their natural allegiance due to her Majesty and to their Country and for moving them to Sedition and for no other causes or questions of Religion were these persons condemned although true it is that when they were charged and convinced of these points of Conspiracies and Treasons they would still in their answers colourably pretend their actions to have been for Religion but in deed and truth they were manifest for the procurement and maintenance of the Rebellions and Wars against her Majesty and her Realm And herein is now the manifest diversity to be seen and well considered betwixt the truth of her Majesties actions and the falshood of the blasphemous Adversaries that where the factious party of the Pope the principal Author of the Invasions of her Majesties Dominions do falsly alledge that a number of persons whom they term as Martyrs have died for defence of the Catholick Religion the same in very truth may manifestly appear to have died if they so will have it as Martyrs for the Pope and Traitors against their Soveraign and Queen in adhering to him being the notable and only open hostile Enemy in all actions of War against her Majesty her Kingdoms and People and that this is the meaning of all these that have so obstinately maintained the Authority and contents of this Bull the very words of the Bull do declare in this sort as Dr. Sanders reporteth them PIus Quintus Pontifex Maximus de Apostolicae potestatis plenitudine declaravit Elizabetham praetenso Regni jure necnon omni quocunque dominio dignitate privilegioque privatam Itemque Proceres subditos populos dicti regni ac caeteros omnes qui illi quomodocunque juraverunt à juramento hujusmodi ac omni fidelitatis debito perpetuo absolutos That is to say Pius Quintus the greatest Bishop of the fulness of the Apostolick Power declared Elizabeth to be bereaved or deprived of her pretended right of her Kingdom and also of all and whatsoever Dominion Dignity and Priviledge and also the Nobles Subjects and People of the said Kingdom and all others which had sworn to her any manner of ways to be absolved for ever from such Oath and from all debt or duty of fealty and so forth with many threatning Cursings to all that durst obey her or her Laws And for Execution hereof to prove that the effect of the Popes Bull and Message was a flat Rebellion it is not amiss to hear what Dr. Sanders the Popes firebrand in Ireland also writeth in his visible Church Monarchy which is thus Pius Quintus Pontifex Maximus Anno Domini 1569. reverendum presbyterum Nicolaum Mortonum Anglum in Angliam misit ut certis illustribus viris authoritate Apostolica denunciaret Elizabetham quae tunc rerum potiebatur haereticam esse ob eamque causam omni Dominio potestate excidisse impuneque ab illis velut ethnicam haberi posse ne◠eos illius legibus aut mandatis deinceps obedire cogi That is to say Pius Quintus the greatest Bishop in the year of our Lord 1569. sent the reverend Priest Nicholas Morton an Englishman into England that he should denounce or declare by the Apostolick Authority to certain Noblemen Elizabeth who then was in possession to be an Heretick and for that cause to have fallen from all Dominion and Power and that she may be had or reputed of them as an Ethnick and that they are not to be compelled to obey her Laws or Commandments c. Thus you see an Ambassage of Rebellion from the Popes Holiness the Ambassadour an old doting English Priest a Fugitive and Conspirator sent as he saith to some Noblemen and those were the two Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland Heads of the Rebellion And after this he followeth to declare the success thereof which I dare say he was sorry it was so evil with these words Qua denuntiatione multi nobiles viri adducti sunt ut de fratribus liberandis cogitare auderent ac sperabant illi quidem Catholicos omnes summis viribus affuturos esse verùm etsi aliter quà m illi expectabant res evenit quià Catholici omnes nondum probè cognoverant Elizabetham haereticam esse declaratam tamen laudanda illorum Nobilium consilia erant That is By which denuntiation many Noblemen were induced or led that they were boldned to think of the freeing of their Brethren and they hoped certainly that all the Catholicks would have assisted them with all their strength but although the matter happened
true and jealous love in Christ Jesu Thirdly we desire you by the mercies of God to take heed of Novelties and Jesuitism for it is nothing but treachery dissimulation ambition and a very vizard of most deep hypocrisie When other Kingdoms begin to loath them why should you so far debase your selves as to admire them Give us not occasion to say with the blessed Apostle You foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you Fourthly never give ear to any private Whisperers or Jesuitical perswasions that shall tend to allure you from your duties and allegiance unto her Majesty or your native Country All arguments that can be brought to corrupt you in either assure your selves are false and unlearned sophistications The Catholick faith for her stability and continuance hath no need of any treachery or rebellion The promise made to S. Peter is her sure ground and is more dishonoured with treasons and wicked policies of carnal men than any way furthered or advanced The word of the spirit and not the sword of the flesh or any arm of man is that which giveth life and beauty to the Catholick Church We are fully perswaded in our consciences and as men besides our Learning who have some experience that if the Catholicks had never sought by indirect means to have vexed her Majesty with their designments against her Crown if the Pope and King of Spain had never plotted with the Duke of Norfolk if the Rebels in the North had never been heard of if the Bull of Pius Quintus had never been known if the said Rebellion had never been justified if neither Stukeley nor the Pope had attempted any thing against Ireland if Gregory the Thirteenth had not renewed the said Excommunication if the Jesuits had never come into England if the Pope and King of Spain had not practised with the Duke of Guise for his attempt against her Majesty if Parsons and the rest of the Jesuits with other our Country-men beyond the Seas had never been Agents in those traiterous and bloody designments of Throckmorton Parry Collen York Williams Squire and such like If they had not by their Treatises and Writings endeavoured to defame their Soveraign and their own Country labouring to have many of their Books to be translated into divers languages thereby to shew more their own disloyalty if Cardinal Alane and Parsons had not published the renovation of the said Bull by Xistus Quintus if thereunto they had not added their scurrilous and unmanly admonition or rather most prophane Libel against her Majesty if they had not sought by false perswasions and ungodly arguments to have allured the hearts of all Catholicks from their Allegiance if the Pope had never been urged by them to have thrust the King of Spain into that barbarous action against the Realm if they themselves with all the rest of that generation had not laboured greatly with the said King for the Conquest and Invasion of this Land by the Spaniards who are known to be the cruellest Tyrants that live upon the earth if in all their proceedings they had not from time to time depraved irritated and provoked both her Majesty and the State with these and many other such like their most ungodly and unchristian practices but on the contrary if the Popes from time to time had sought her Majesty by kind offices and gentle perswasions never ceasing the prosecution of those and such like courses of humanity and gentleness if the Catholicks and Priests beyond the Seas had laboured continually the furtherance of those most Priest-like and divine allurements and had framed their own proceedings in all their works and writings accordingly if we at home all of us both Priests and people had possessed our souls in meekness and humility honoured her Majesty born with the infirmities of the State suffered all things and dealt as true Catholick Priests if all of us we say had thus done most assuredly the State would have loved us or at least born with us where there is one Catholick there would have been ten there had been no speeches amongst us of Racks and Tortures nor any cause to have used them for none were ever vexed that way simply for that he was either Priest or Catholick but because they were suspected to have had their hands in some of the said most traiterous designments none of her Majesties enemies durst so readily have attempted her State and Kingdom we had been in better friendship with those that seek now most to oppose themselves against us and to all men as we are perswaded bonus odor Christi odor vitae ad vitam whereas by following the said new violent Spirits quasi turbae impellentes parietem we are become odor mortis ad mortem non solum iis qui pereunt sed etiam iis qui salvi fiunt And therefore let us all turn over the leaf and take another course than hitherto we have done To conclude we do also further intreat and beseech you to consider with your selves the state of the Seminaries beyond the Seas as now they stand at the disposition of the Jesuits and joyn together with us that the said Jesuits may be removed from the government and direction of them It is too well known how hotly they are addicted to the pursuing of a Spanish Monarchy for the advancement whereof because it tendeth to their own glory being altogether Hispaniated and transported into those humors the better to resemble and imitate their Founder and Father Ignatius Loyola a Spaniard they will certainly never cease to put in practice all the mischief they can either devise themselves or learn amongst their company which is as they consort themselves the very School of Machiavellism In the which our joynt suit if we cannot prevail it remaineth then that you would be pleased to be intreated by us not to send or suffer your children or friends to go beyond the Seas unto them that so they may be driven if needs they will train up Youths to make them Traiters to gather them up in other Countries whereby they shall not be able so much to infect or endanger us Besides we are fully perswaded that by this course although at the first we be not heard by reason of the might that the Jesuitical faction are grown unto yet his Holiness when he shall perceive it and in the depth of his singular wisdom consider what inconvenience may come thereof will easily be drawn to hearken unto us Or howsoever as our Saviour Christ saith in another case potens est Deus de lapidibus istis suscitare filios Abrahae though you never send your Sons or Friends beyond the Seas to the ruinating both of your selves and of your Country if the Jesuits shall still have the direction of them so say we that the Church lived before they were born and needeth not for the advancement of her glory any of their traiterous practices but is able of her self by the assistance of God to raise
disloyalty be purged out My sixth To offer even your selves an advantage if your courage and cause will stretch to improve it For the following Doubts are many of them such as Protestants themselves urge against your Reasons and are communicated here to you partly on purpose that you may provide better satisfaction My last to satisfie even the passionate too is Because your unchristian spirit of Calumny is still as unquiet as ever having of late most unjustly aspersed Principal Persons of almost every Body but your own which comportment of yours makes it but fit if Truth and the Common Good favour you not neither should I. To think and declare thus much satisfies me if it do not others I cannot help it Only I wish your favourers to beware of doing any thing that may be interpreted an abetment of you till you approve your selves heartily loyal lest they discover themselves too deeply tainted with your Principles and temper The Jesuits Reasons Vnreasonable DOVBTS 1. TO begin then My first Doubt shall be Whether you Jesuits have ground to hope the same favour with others For if you by your unjust and wicked practices provoked the Magistrates to enact those Laws if the rest of Priests and Catholicks were by you plunged in such miseries upon discovery of your Negotiations which were imputed to the whole Body of them how can you be thought to deserve remission whose seditious Principles are too deeply guilty of the Blood of Priests and Catholicks shed in the Kingdom ever since you first came into it Those who know your practices in the Countries where you by the means ordinarily of deluded Wives govern the Great Ones know this to be your Maxime to manage Religion not by perswasion but by command and force This Principle did your chief Apostle of England Robert Parsons bring in with him His first endeavours were to make a List of Catholicks which under the conduct of the Duke of Guise should have changed the state of the Kingdom using for it the pretence of the Title of Queen Mary of Scotland But her Council at Paris which understood business better were so sensible of his boldness that they took from him the Queens Cypher which he had purloyned and commanded him never more to meddle in Her affairs Poor Edmund Campian who is generally accounted an innocent and learned man and others suffered for such practices of his Parson's endeavours being suppressed by this Queen he turned himself to the Spaniard and with all his might fostered the Invasion of Eighty eight which is known to have been another occasion of Sanguinary Laws He wrote on that occasion his Dolman to justifie the Spaniards Title to England degrading the Scottish succession and Title of our Soveraign He wrote also Leicester's Common-wealth at that time called commonly Blewcoat because it was sent into England bound in blew paper which extremely exasperated the State and augmented its indignation against Catholicks The same man at Queen Elizabeths death procured a Bull from the Pope to the Catholicks in England against King James to hinder his coming to the Crown unless he would give liberty of Conscience and as his friends gave out had twenty thousand men listed for that effect had not his Majesty prevented the danger with sweet words Next followed that detestable Machination of blowing up that Royal Race and the whole Nobility with the House of Commons which was the occasion of the Oath of Allegiance and all the Persecution of Catholicks following upon it King James professing not to persecute for Religion but for Treason This you alledge not to be originally your Invention but is it no guilt to follow another mans wickedness when it leads to so horrid a crime For without doubt both by prayers before-hand and by publick testifications after the Fact was discovered you were highly accessary to it nay many years after you did and peradventure to this very day still do pertinaciously adhere to it I could urge great and manifest instances of this were it not to lose time That monstrous Straw of which all Christendom rung so long and the Pictures of Garnet and Oldcorne cannot be denied nor want they evidence of your inward minds After these came out the ridiculous and satyrical Books against King James the Corona Regia and the Quaeries And yet your so well affected spirits could not be at rest till your Patriarch Parsons was shamefully turned out of Rome by Monsieur Bethunes the French Ambassador and order from the King of France being discovered to plot a new Treason against his Country to introduce the Duke of Parma Thus you followed King James to his death Direct Treason against King Charles of glorious memory before the Wars I cannot accuse you of but how refractory you were to the Queens desires and orders at Rome for his late Majesties assistance is well known and what you have done since the beginning of the Wars and how you have behaved your selves both in and out of England is fitter for me to remit to his Majesty and the Courts Informations than to eâ—gage my pen in far fewer and weaker which I could produce Only I shall add this word If Colonel Hutchinson were well examined and pressed he would perhaps discover â—â—â—ange secrets about your treating with Cromwel no doubt much to his Majesties advantage So that leaving you this Doubt to ruminate upon whether the condition of them who have guiltily provoked and deserved the Sanguinary Laws be the same with theirs who have suffered for being mistaken to be their Fellows I proceed to 2. My Second Doubt about your first Reason That the Jesuits are free-born Subjects as well as others In which methinks I find one of your usual sleights of Equivocation For a Jesuit may signifie the man who is a Jesuit and may signifie with the complexion of being a Jesuit In the former sense there is no difference between any other Priest Regular or Secular and a Jesuit as to free-born but in the second there 's a wide one For the others have nothing against them but such Laws as had their beginning from difference in Religion their degrees and communities having been accepted by the Laws of the Kingdom in virtue of which they are free-born Subjects and parts of the Common-wealth as far as difference of Religion permits Now it being the Law of England that no Ecclesiastical Community may settle here unless admitted by the Civil Power as we see in proportion practised in all Catholick Estates and Jesuits never having participated of this favour all your practices of usurping Jurisdiction making Colledges and Provinces in or for England possessing your selves of great sums of monies for such ends and the like actions have been hitherto all usurpations unlawful both in respect of the Donors and Acceptors 'T is unlawful for any man even according to the sense and practice of Catholick times by virtue of your priviledges to live or preach in England or any of his Majesties
Dignities by which the Pope may win the affection of other Church-men Concerning which I first inquire whether this be roundly true I doubt you 'd be loth to reject all the Abbeys and Benefices annexed to your Colledges to verifie this Vow as you have set it down in your Paper and therefore the effect of your Vow is only that private men may not be alienated from your Order with hope of quiet lives in such Benefices and not the contempt of the Power and Honour following it as is sufficiently testified by another Vow of yours which is that if any of yours for special reasons be made Bishop he shall be bound to be subject to the Provincial or Rector of the place of his Residence and to take their advice in the government of his Church which you extend as far as to Cardinals to a capacity of which Eminent Dignity notwithstanding your special Vow your Dispensations easily reach So that your Vow is no Religious one of despising Honours but a politick abuse mask'd under the veil of Religion that the abler men of your Order may not be separated from it and so the Body may remain the stronger and your General more potent to resist the Pope himself Neither does this any way diminish but increase your dependence on the Pope both because 't is by him your Houses are furnisht with Benefices and those never to return to the Popes Donation as because you oblige your Friends by procuring others for them you being at his elbow to suggest this or that friend on whom all his Benefices may be conferred by which means you get the endearment due to the Pope from those Friends to the increase of your own power and riches and your selves still find out new pretended necessities to beg more So that this Holy Vow of yours no ways makes you less subject to the Pope but to suck his paps the harder as those know who have seen what passed in France and Flanders these late years especially under the Archduke Leopold 10. Yet have I another Doubt concerning this Vow of yours viz. Whether it does not make you as refractory to Kings and Princes as to the Pope For to speak truth whatever the Right is in other Countries in England where the Canons and Concordates with the Pope have been out of use a hundred years and by consequence have no force even in your own Doctors opinions and therefore things are to be governed by Nature and Reason at least in England I say all such Benefices and Collations belong more to the King than to the Pope For it being clear that the Offices to which Benefices are annexed are to be provided of able men and who are able men none can tell that understand not the Office 't is plain that Secular Clergy-men ought to be the chusers of Officers of their kind Regulars of Regular Superiors and by consequence the Donors of such Benefices But the people first got an influence on the chusing of Bishops because 't was rationally believed those would be able to do most good who were in the peoples good liking But when Bishops grew to have great Revenues and to be esteemed men of so high Quality in the Common-wealth the Emperors and Kings began to cast an eye on their Election and not without reason for it concerns them that none be in eminent places but such as they are secured of will breed no disturbance in the Common-wealth After this if any Clergy-man had done the King service he found it the best way of recompence to cause him to be chosen into a place of Authority and Eminency The Popes title to the giving of Benefices began by his Office of Patriach of the West which since the Council of Nice he more narrowly looked to the government of exhorting and correcting by Letters such Bishops and Churches there as did not their duties And this held till Pepin found how efficacious the reverence of the Pope was to make him obeyed and accepted for King of France Since which time whether for Ambition or for security sake men began to think no Act firm unless it were ratified at Rome In times following the Popes began to have need of Christian Princes and these found it the sweetest way to help the Popes by granting imposition upon the Clergy So came the first-fruits to the Popes and to assure those Incomes the custom of having Bulls from Rome to confirm the Elections of the Clergy was likewise introduced So that this Authority of the Popes comes from the Princes Agreements with them and not from any Superiority or Power of the Popes Wherefore these Agreements being by time and essential changes annulled all giving of Benefices belong to the Chusers and the King I come now to the close If your renouncing of Benefices make you less subject to the Pope as you pretend it makes you in England less subject to the King And if it makes you more hardly rewardable and more pressing on the Pope it will make you the like to Kings As in Leopold's time you were so wholly the means for coming to Benefices that hardly a command from Spain could take place for any that was not your Confident 11. My Eleventh Doubt is how you answer your banishment out of France and Venice viz. that Both these States have repealed their Acts. Which answer makes nothing to this that you either did not deserve the sentence or deserved to have it released one of which any judicious man would have expected at your hands Now to come to particulars the Venetians were so resolute against you that they made it Treason for any of their State so much as to motion your return and refused divers Princes intercessions for you Till their case reducing them to fear the slavery of the Turk if they had not the Popes assistance promised them largely if they would re-admit you they rather chose to struggle with your Treasons at home than admit the Barbarians conquest of their Dominions Whether they have cause to repent or not I know not But the current news at this present is that the Pope who procured your admittance has having found you so unfaithful to him notwithstanding all his love to you insomuch that he 's about question you by what means you are so suddenly raised to so great wealth wherein I fear he 'l not find obedience so ready as he found flattery when he was to pleasure you Your measure in France was indeed hard the fault being not proved to be universal but particular and so in divers places was never executed and easie to be repealed having proceeded more out of presumption than proof But your case in England is far different your whole English Congregation following their Head Parsons and maintaining his Acts even since his Death 12. My Twelfth Doubt is concerning your conclusion Whether you intend to mend what hitherto you have done amiss or rather to persist in your Equivocations and Dissimulations
Christendom with their noise and clamours of the dreadful Persecutions in England that Great man thought it not below him to write this Apology for the Execution of Justice here and to shew how reasonable just and moderate the Proceedings of the State were considering the height and insolence of the provocations and this was published in several Languages and dispersed in the Courts of Princes to undeceive them as to all the false reports of the Romish Emissaries who have taken upon them that publick Character of the Popes Ambassadors to lye abroad for his and their own advantage 2. But after that by the means of Cardinal Allen and others they had endeavoured to blast the reputation of that Apology and after the death of that great Minister of State the Secular Priests did publish their Important Considerations wherein they assert the Truth of what was said in the Apologie and vindicate the Honour and Justice of the Penal Laws which is the second Treatise here published and printed according to their own Copy and which hath been so much concealed or bought up by those of that Religion that it hath been heard of by sew and seen by fewer Protestants 3. And lest any should say that all those dangerous Principles to Government are since his Majesties happy Restauration utterly disowned by them I have added a third Treatise printed by one of their own Religion 1662. which charges the Jesuitical Party so deep with those Principles and Practices as to make them uncapable of any Favour If other persons will pursue the same method in retrieving such considerable Treatises as these are they may do more service to our Church and Nation than by writing Histories themselves and I shall desire the late Apologist to set these Authors of his own Church against the petty Historians he so punctually quotes on all occasions And we have so much the more reason to consider these things since in a very late Treatise called the Bleeding Iphigenia the Irish Rebellion is defended by one of the Titular Bishops to be a just and holy War and seeing they still think it lawful what can we imagine then that they want but another occasion to do the same things THE EXECVTION OF JUSTICE IN ENGLAND For maintenance of Publick and Christian Peace c. IT hath been in all Ages and in all Countries a common usage of all offenders for the most part both great and small to make defence of their lewd and unlawful facts by untruths and by colouring and covering their deeds were they never so vile with pretences of some other causes of contrary operations or effects to the intent not only to avoid punishment or shame but to continue uphold and prosecute their wicked attempts to the full satisfaction of their disordered and malicious appetites And though such hath been the use of all Offenders yet of none with more danger than of Rebels and Traytors to their lawful Princes Kings and Countries Of which sort of late years are specially to be noted certain persons naturally born Subjects in the Realm of England and Ireland who having for some good time professed outwardly their obedience to their Soveraign Lady Queen Elizabeth have nevertheless afterward been stirred up and seduced by wicked Spirits first in England sundry years past and secondly and of latter time in Ireland to enter into open Rebellion taking Arms and coming into the Field against her Majesty and her Lieutenants with their Forces under Banners displayed inducing by notable untruths many simple people to follow and assist them in their Traitorous actions And though it is very well known that both their intentions and manifest actions were bent to have deposed the Queens Majesty from her Crown and to have traiterously set in her place some other whom they liked whereby if they had not been speedily resisted they would have committed great bloodsheds and slaughters of her Majesties faithful Subjects and ruined their native Country Yet by Gods power given unto her Majesty they were so speedily vanquished as some few of them suffered by order of Law according to their deserts many and the greatest part upon Confession of their faults were pardoned the rest but they not many of the principal escaped into Foreign Countries and there because in none or few places Rebels and Traitors to their natural Princes and Countries dare for their Treasons challenge at their first muster open comfort or succour these notable Traitors and Rebels have falsly informed many Kings Princes and States and specially the Bishop of Rome commonly called the Pope from whom they all had secretly their first comfort to Rebell that the cause of their flying from their Countries was for the Religion of Rome and for maintenance of the said Popes Authority Whereas divers of them before their Rebellion lived so notoriously the most part of their lives out of all good rule either for honest manners or for any sense in Religion as they might have been rather familiar with Catalin or Favourers to Sardanapalus than accounted good Subjects under any Christian Princes As for some examples of the heads of these Rebellions out of England fled Charles Nevill Earl of Westmerland a person utterly wasted by looseness of life and by Gods punishment even in the time of his Rebellion bereaved of his Children that should have succeeded him in the Earldom and how his Body is now eaten with Ulcers of lewd causes all his Companions do see that no Enemy he had can wish him a viler punishment And out of Ireland ran away one Thomas Stukeley a defamed person almost through all Christendom and a faithless Beast rather than a Man fleeing first out of England for notable Piracies and out of Ireland for treacheries not pardonable which two were the first Ringleaders of the rest of the Rebels the one for England the other for Ireland But notwithstanding the notorious evil and wicked lives of these and others their Confederates void of all Christian Religion it liked the Bishop of Rome as in favour of their Treasons not to colour their offences as themselves openly pretend to do for avoiding of common shame of the World but flatly to animate them to continue their former wicked purposes that is to take Arms against their lawful Queen to invade her Realm with Foreign Forces to pursue all her good Subjects and their Native Countries with Fire and Sword for maintenance whereof there had some years before at sundry times proceeded in a thundring sort Bulls Excommunications and other publick Writings denouncing her Majesty being the lawful Queen and Gods anointed Servant not to be the Queen of the Realm charging and upon pains of Excommunication commanding all her Subjects to depart from their natural Allegiances whereto by birth and by Oath they were bound Provoking also and authorising all persons of all degrees within both the Realms to Rebell and upon this Antichristian Warrant being contrary to all
spared nor mercy yielded and wherein neither the Vanqueror nor the vanquished have cause of triumph And forasmuch as these are the most evident perils that necessarily should follow if these kind of Vermine were suffered to creep by stealth into the Realm and to spread their poyson within the same howsoever when they are taken like Hypocrites they colour and counterfeit the same with profession of devotion in Religion it is of all persons to be yielded in reason that her Majesty and all her Governours and Magistrates of Justice having care to maintain the peace of the Realm which God hath given in her time to continue longer than ever in any time of her Progenitors ought of duty to Almighty God the Author of Peace and according to the natural love and charge due to their Country and for avoiding of the Floods of blood which in Civil Wars are seen to run and flow by all lawful means possible as well by the Sword as by Law in their several seasons to impeach and repel these so manifest and dangerous colourable practices and works of Sedition and Rebellion And though there are many Subjects known in the Realm that differ in some opinions of Religion from the Church of England and that do also not forbear to profess the same yet in that they do also profess Loyalty and Obedience to her Majesty and offer readily in her Majesties defence to impugn and resist any Foreign Force though it should come or be procured from the Pope himself none of these sort are for their contrary opinions in Religion prosecuted or charged with any crimes or pains of Treason nor yet willingly searched in their Consciences for their contrary opinions that savour not of Treason And of these sorts there are a number of persons not of such base and vulgar note as those were which of late have been executed as in particular some by name are well known and not unfit to be remembred The first and chiefest by Office was Dr. Heth that was Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor of England in Queen Maries time who at the first coming of her Majesty to the Crown shewing himself a faithful and quiet Subject continued in both the said Offices though in Religion then manifestly differing and yet was he not restrained of his liberty nor deprived of his proper lands and goods but leaving willingly both his Offices lived in his own House and injoyed all his purchased Lands during all his natural life until by very age he departed this World and then left his House and living to his Friends an example of gentleness never matched in Queen Maries time The like did one Dr. Pool that had been Bishop of Peterborough an ancient grave person and a very quiet Subject There were also others that had been Bishops and in great estimation as Dr. Tunstal Bishop of Duresm a person also of very quiet behaviour There were also other Dr. White and Dr. Oglethorp one of Winchester the other of Carlisle Bishops and Dr. Thurleby and Dr. Watson yet living one of Ely the other of Lincoln Bishops not pressed with any capital pain though they maintained the Popes Authority against the Laws of the Realm and some Abbots as Mr. Fecknam yet living a person also of quiet and courteous behaviour for a great time Some also were Deans as Dr. Boxall Dean of Windsore a person of great modesty and knowledge Dr. Cole Dean of Pauls a person more earnest than wise Dr. Reynolds Dean of Exeter and many such others having born Office and Dignities in the Church and had made profession against the Pope which they began in Queen Maries time to change yet were they never to this day burdened with capital pains nor yet deprived of any their goods or proper livelyhoods but only removed from their Ecclesiastical Offices which they would not exercise according to the Laws And most of them for a great time were retained in Bishops Houses in very civil and courteous manner without charge to themselves or their friends until the time that the Pope began by his Bulls and Messages to offer trouble to the Realm by stirring of Rebellion about which time only some of these aforenamed being found busier in matters of state tending to stir troubles than was meet for the common quiet of the Realm were removed to other more private places where such other wanderers as were men known to move sedition might be restrained from common resorting to them to increase trouble as the Popes Bull gave manifest occasion and yet without charging them in their Consciences or otherwise by any inquisition to bring them into danger of any capital Law so as no one was called to any capital or bloody question upon matters of Religion but have all injoyed their life as the course of nature would and such of them as yet remain may if they will not be Authors or Instruments of Rebellion or Sedition injoy the time that God and nature shall yield them without danger of life or member And yet it is worthy to be well marked that the chiefest of all these and the most of them had in the time of King Henry the Eight and King Edward the Sixth either by Preaching Writing reading or arguing taught all people to condemn and abhor the Authority of the Pope yea they had many times given their Oaths publickly against the Popes Authority and had also yielded to both the said Kings the Title of supream head of the Church of England next under Christ which title the Adversaries do most falsly write and affirm that the Queens Majesty doth now use a manifest lie and untruth And for proof that these foresaid Bishops and learned men had so long time disavowed the Popes Authority many of their Books and Sermons against the Popes Authority remain printed to be seen in these times to their great shame and reproof to change so often and specially in persecuting such as themselves have taught and established to hold the contrary There were also and yet be a great number of others being Lay-men of good possessions and Lands men of good credit in their Countries manifestly of late times seduced to hold contrary opinions in Religion for the Popes Authority and yet none of them have been sought hitherto to be impeached in any point or quarrel of Treason or of loss of Life Member or Inheritance so as it may plainly appear that it is not nor hath been for contrarious opinions in Religion or for the Popes Authority as the Adversaries do boldly and falsly publish that any persons have suffered Death since her Majesties Reign and yet some of these sort are well known to hold opinion that the Pope ought by Authority of Gods word to be Supream and only Head of the Catholick Church and only to rule in all causes Ecclesiastical and that the Queens Majesty ought not to be the Governour over all her Subjects in her Realm being persons
otherwise than they hoped for because all the Catholicks knew not that Elizabeth was declared to be an Heretick yet the Counsels and intents of those Noblemen were to be praised A Rebellion and a vanquishing of Rebels very smoothly described This noble fact here mentioned was the Rebellion in the North the Noblemen were the Earls of Westmerland and Northumberland the lack of the event or success was that the Traitors were vanquished and the Queens Majesty and her Subjects had by Gods Ordinance the Victory and the cause why the Rebels prevailed not was because all the Catholicks had not been duly informed that the Queens Majesty was declared to be as they term it an Heretick which want of information to the intent to make the Rebels mightier in number and power was diligently and cunningly supplyed by the sending into the Realm of a great multitude of the Seminaries and Jesuits whose special charge was to inform the people thereof as by their actions hath manifestly appeared And though Dr. Sanders hath thus written yet it may be said by such as favoured the two notable Jesuits one named Robert Persons who yet hideth himself in Corners to continue his Trayterous practice the other named Edmond Campion that was found out being disguised like a Royster and suffered for his Treasons that Dr. Sanders Treason is his proper Treason in allowing of the said Bull but not to be imputed to Persons and Campion Therefore to make it plain that these two by special Authority had charge to execute the sentence of this Bull these Acts in Writing following shall make manifest which are not feigned or imagined but are the very Writings taken about one of their Complices immediately after Campions Death Facultates concessaepp Roberto Personio Edmundo Campiano pro Anglia die 14. Aprilis 1580. PEtatur à summo Domino nostro explicatio Bullae declaratoriae per Pium Quintum contra Elizabetham ei adhaerentes quam Catholici cupiunt intelligi hoc modo ut obliget semper illam haereticos catholicos vero nullo modo obliget rebus sic stantibus sed tum demum quando publica ejusdem bullae executio fieri poterit Then followed many other Petitions of faculties for their further Authorities which are not needful for this purpose to be recited but in the end followeth this Sentence as an answer of the Popes Has praedictas gratias concessit Summus Pontifex patri Roberto Persnio Edmundo Campiano in Angliam profecturis die 14. Aprilis 1580. Praesente patre Oliverio Manarco assistente The English of which Latin Sentences is as followeth Faculties granted to the two Fathers Robert Persons and Edmond Campion for England the 14 day of April 1580. LET it be asked or required of our most holy Lord the explication or meaning of the Bull declaratory made by Pius the Fifth against Elizabeth and such as do adhere or obey her which Bull the Catholicks desire to be understood in this manner that the same Bull shall always bind her and the Hereticks but the Catholicks it shall by no means bind as matters or things do now stand or be but hereafter when the publick execution of that Bull may be had or made Then in the end the conclusion was thus added The highest Pontiff or Bishop granted these foresaid graces to Father Robert Persons and Edmond Campion who are now to take their Journeys into England the fourteenth day of April in the year of our Lord 1580. Being present the Father Oliverius Manarke assistant Hereby is it manifest what Authority Campion had to impart the contents of the Bull against the Queens Majesty howsoever he himself denied the same And though it be manifest that these two Jesuits Persons and Campion not only required to have the Popes mind declared for the Bull but also in their own Petitions shewed how they and other Catholicks did desire to have the said Bull to be understood against the Queen of England yet to make the matter more plain how all other Jesuits and Seminaries yea how all Papists naming themselves Catholicks do and are warranted to interpret the said Bull against her Majesty and her good Subjects you shall see what one of their fellows named Hart who was condemned with Campion did amongst many other things declare his knowledge thereof the last of December in the same year 1580. in these words following The Bull of Pius Quintus for so much as it is against the Queen is holden among the English Catholicks for a lawful sentence and a sufficient discharge of her Subjects fidelity and so remaineth in force but in some points touching the Subjects it is altered by the present Pope For where in that Bull all her Subjects are commanded not to obey her and she being excommunicate and deposed all that do obey her are likewise innodate and accursed which point is perillous to the Catholicks for if they obey her they be in the Popes Curse and if they disobey her they are in the Queens danger therefore the present Pope to relieve them hath altered that part of the Bull and dispenced with them to obey and serve her without peril of excommunication which dispensation is to endure but till it please the Pope otherwise to determine Wherefore to make some conclusion of the matters before-mentioned all persons both within the Realm and abroad may plainly perceive that all the infamous Libels lately published abroad in sundry languages and the slanderous reports made in other Princes Courts of a multitude of persons to have been of late put to torments and Death only for profession of the Catholick Religion and not for matters of state against the Queens Majesty are false and shameless and published to the maintenance of Traitors and Rebels And to make the matter seem more horrible or lamentable they recite the particular names of all the persons which by their own Catalogue exceed not for these twenty five years space above the number of threescore forgetting or rather with their stony and sensless hearts not regarding in what cruel sort in the time of Queen Mary which little exceeded the space of five years the Queens Majesties Raign being five times as many there were by Imprisonment Torments Famine and Fire of Men Women Maidens and Children almost the number of four hundred and of that number above twenty that had been Archbishops Bishops and principal Prelates or Officers in the Church lamentably destroyed and of Women above threescore and of Children above forty and amongst the Women some great with Child out of whose bodies the Child by fire was expelled alive and yet also cruelly burned examples beyond all heathen Cruelty And most of the youth that then suffered cruel Death both Men Women and Children which is to be noted were such as had never by the Sacrament of Baptism or by Confirmation professed nor were ever taught or instructed or ever had heard of any other kind of Religion but only
Master the Emperour Henry and that in following their ungodly Counsels he had brought upon him Gods heavy and just Judgments And so Henry the Emperour prevailing by Gods power caused Gregory the Pope by a Synod in Italy to be deposed as in like times before him his Predecessor Otho the Emperour had deposed one Pope John for many hainous crimes and so were also within a short time three other Popes namely Sylvester Bennet and Gregory the Sixth used by the Emperour Henry the Third about the year of our Lord 1047. for their like presumptuous attempts in temporal actions against the said Emperours Many other examples might be shewed to the Emperours Majesty and the Princes of the holy Empire now being after the time of Henry the Fourth as of Henry the Fifth and after him of Frederick the First and Frederick the Second and then of Lewis of Bavar all Emperours cruelly and tyrannously persecuted by the Popes and by their Bulls Curses and by open Wars and likewise to many other the great Kings and Monarchs of Christendom of their noble Progenitors Kings of their several Dominions whereby they may see how this kind of tyrannous Authority in Popes to make Wars upon Emperours and Kings and to command them to be deprived took hold at the first by Pope Hildebrand though the same never had any lawful example or warrant from the Laws of God of the Old or New Testament but yet the successes of their tyrannies were by Gods goodness for the most part made frustrate as by Gods goodness there is no doubt but the like will follow to their confusions at all times to come And therefore as there is no doubt but the like violent tyrannous proceedings by any Pope in maintenance of Traiters and Rebels would be withstood by every Soveraign Prince in Christendom in defence of their Persons and Crowns and maintenance of their Subjects in Peace so is there at this present a like just cause that the Emperours Majesty with the Princes of the holy Empire and all other Soveraign Kings and Princes in Christendom should judge the same to be lawful for her Majesty being a Queen and holding the very place of a King and a Prince Soveraign over divers Kingdoms and Nations she being also most lawfully invested in her Crown and as for good governing of her People with such applause and general allowance loved and obeyed of them saving a few ragged Traiters or Rebels or persons discontented whereof no other Realm is free as continually for these twenty five years past hath been notably seen and so publickly marked even by strangers repairing into this Realm as it were no cause of disgrace to any Monarchy and King in Christendom to have her Majesties felicity compared with any of theirs whatsoever and it may be there are many Kings and Princes could be well contented with the fruition of some proportion of her felicity And though the Popes be now suffered by the Emperor in the Lands of his own peculiar Patrimony and by the two great Monarchs the French King and the King of Spain in their Dominions and Territories although by other Kings not so allowed to continue his Authority in sundry cases and his glorious Title to be the universal Bishop of the World which Title Gregory the Great above nine hundred years past called a profane Title full of Sacriledge and a Preamble of Antichrist yet in all their Dominions and Kingdoms as also in the Realm of England most notably by many ancient Laws it is well known how many ways the tyrannous Power of this his excessive Authority hath been and still is restrained checked and limited by Laws and Pragmatiques both ancient and new a very large field for the Lawyers of those Countries to walk in and discourse And howsoever the Popes Canonists being as his Bombarders do make his Excommunications and Curses appear fearful to the multitude and simple people yet all great Emperours and Kings aforetime in their own cases of their Rights and Royal Preheminences though the same concerned but a City or a poor Town and sometime but the not allowance of some unworthy Person to a Bishoprick or to an Abbey never refrained to despise all Popes Curses or Forces but attempted always either by their Swords to compel them to desist from their furious actions or without any fear of themselves in body soul or conscience stoutly to withstand their Curses and that sometime by force sometime by Ordinances and Laws the ancient Histories whereof are too many to be repeated and of none more frequent and effectual than of the Kings of France But leaving those that are ancient we may remember how in this our own present or late Age it hath been manifestly seen how the Army of the late noble Emperour Charles the Fifth Father to King Philip that now reigneth was not afraid of his Curses when in the year of our Lord 1527. Rome it self was besieged and sacked and the Pope then called Clement and his Cardinals to the number of about thirty three in his Mount Adrian or Castle S. Angelo taken Prisoners and detained seven months or more and after ransomed by Don Vgo di Moncada a Spaniard and the Marquess of Grasto at about four hundred M. Duckats besides the ransoms of his Cardinals which was very great having not long before-time been also notwithstanding his Curses besieged in the same Castle by the Family of the Colonesi and their Fautors his next Neighbours being then Imperialists and forced to yield to all their demands Neither did King Henry the Second of France Father to Henry now King of France about the year 1550. fear or regard the Pope or his Court of Rome when he made several straight Edicts against many parts of the Popes Claims in prejudice of the Crown and Clergy of France retracting the Authority of the Court of Rome greatly to the hinderance of the Popes former profits Neither was the Army of King Philip now of Spain whereof the Duke of Alva was General stricken with any fear of cursing when it was brought afore Rome against the Pope in the year of our Lord 1555. where great destruction was made by the said Army and all the delicate Buildings Gardens and Orchards next to Rome-Walls overthrown wherewith his Holiness was more terrified than he was able to remove with any his Curses Neither was Queen Mary the Queens Majesties late Sister a person not a little devoted to the Roman Religion so afraid of the Popes cursings but that both she and her whole Council and that with the assent of all the Judges of the Realm according to the ancient Laws in favour of Cardinal Pool her Kinsman did forbid the entry of his Bulls and of a Cardinal Hat at Callis that was sent from the Pope for one Fryer Peyto whom the Pope had assigned to be a Cardinal in disgrace of Cardinal Pool neither did Cardinal Pool himself at the same time
obey the Popes commandments nor shewed himself afraid being assisted by the Queen when the Pope did threaten him with pain of Excommunication but did still oppose himself against the Popes commandment for the said pretended Cardinal Peyto who notwithstanding all the threatnings of the Pope was forced to go up and down in the streets of London like a begging Fryer a stout resistance in a Queen for a poor Cardinals Hat wherein she followed the example of her Grandfather King Henry the Seventh for a matter of Allum So as howsoever the Christian Kings for some respects in Policy can endure the Pope to command where no harm nor disadvantage groweth to themselves yet sure it is and the Popes are not ignorant but where they shall in any sort attempt to take from Christian Princes any part of their Dominions or shall give aid to their Enemies or to any other their Rebels in those cases their Bulls their Curses their Excommunications their Sentences and most solemn Anathematicals no nor their Cross-keys or double edged Sword will serve their turns to compass their intentions And now where the Pope hath manifestly by his Bulls and Excommunications attempted as much as he could to deprive her Majesty of her Kingdoms to withdraw from her the obedience of her Subjects to procure Rebellions in her Realms yea to make both Rebellions and open Wars with his own Captains Souldiers Banners Ensigns and all other things belonging to War shall this Pope or any other Pope after him think that a Soveraign Queen possessed of the two Realms of England and Ireland stablished so many years in her Kingdoms as three or four Popes have sit in their Chair at Rome fortified with so much duty love and strength of her Subjects acknowledging no Superiour over her Realms but the mighty hand of God shall she forbear or fear to withstand and make frustrate his unlawful attempts either by her Sword or by her Laws or to put his Souldiers Invaders of her Realm to the Sword martially or to execute her Laws upon her own rebellious Subjects civilly that are proved to be his chief Instruments for Rebellion and for his open War This is sure that howsoever either he sitting in his Chair with a triple Crown at Rome or any other his Proctors in any part of Christendom shall renew these unlawful attempts Almighty God whom her Majesty only honoureth and acknowledgeth to be her only Soveraign Lord and Protector and whose Laws and Gospel of his Son Jesus Christ she seeketh to defend will no doubt but deliver sufficient power into his Maidens hand his Servant Queen Elizabeth to withstand and confound them all And where the seditious Trumpetters of infamies and lies have sounded forth and entituled certain that have suffered for Treason to be Martyrs for Religion so may they also at this time if they list add to their forged Catalogue the headless body of the late miserable Earl of Desmond who of late secretly wandring without succour as a miserable Begger was taken by one of the Irishry in his Cabin and in an Irish sort after his own accustomed savage manner his head cut off from his body an end due to such an Arch-rebel And herewith to remember the end of his chief Confederates may be noted for example to others the strange manner of the death of Dr. Sanders the Popes Irish Legat who also wandring in the Mountains in Ireland without succor dyed raving in a Phrensie And before him one James Fits-Morice the first Traiter of Ireland next to Stukely the Rakehel a man not unknown in the Popes Palace for a wicked crafty Traiter was slain at one blow by an Irish noble young Gentleman in defence of his Fathers Country which the Traiter sought to burn A fourth man of singular Note was John of Desmond Brother to the Earl a very bloody faithless Traiter and a notable Murderer of his familiar friends who also wandring to seek some prey like a Wolf in the Woods was taken and beheaded after his own usage being as he thought sufficiently armed with the Popes Bulls and certain Agnus Dei and one notable Ring about his neck sent from the Popes finger as it was said but these he saw saved not his life And such were the fatal ends of all these being the principal heads of the Irish War and Rebellion so as no one person remaineth at this day in Ireland a known Traiter To this number they may if they seek number also add a furious young Man of Warwickshire by name Somervile to increase their Kalender of the Popes Martyrs who of late was discovered and taken in his way coming with a full intent to have killed her Majesty whose life God always have in his custody The attempt not denied by the Traiter himself but confessed and that he was moved thereto in his wicked spirit by inticements of certain seditious and traiterous persons his Kinsmen and Allies and also by often reading of sundry seditious vile Books lately published against her Majesty But as God of his goodness hath of long time hitherto preserved her Majesty from these and the like Treacheries so hath she no cause to fear being under his Protection she saying with King David in the Psalm My God is my helper and I will trust in him he is my protection and the strength or the power of my salvation And for the comfort of all good Subjects against the shadows of the Popes Bulls it is manifest to the World that from the beginning of her Majesties Reign by Gods singular goodness her Kingdom hath enjoyed more universal Peace her People increased in more numbers in more strength and with greater riches the earth of her Kingdoms hath yielded more fruits and generally all kind of worldly felicity hath more abounded since and during the time of the Popes Thunders Bulls Curses and Maledictions than in any other long times before when the Popes Pardons and Blessings came yearly into the Realm so as his Curses and Maledictions have turned back to himself and his Fautors that it may be said to the fortunate Queen of England and her People as was said in Deuteronomy of Balaam The Lord thy God would not hear Balaam but did turn his Maledictions or curses into Benedictions or blessings the reason is for because thy God loved thee Although these former reasons are sufficient to perswade all kind of reasonable persons to allow of her Majesties actions to be good reasonable lawful and necessary yet because it may be that such as have by frequent reading of false artificial Libels and by giving credit to them upon a prejudice or forejudgment afore grounded by their rooted opinions in favour of the Pope will rest unsatisfied therefore as much as may be to satisfie all persons as far forth as common reason may warrant that her Majesties late action in executing of certain seditious Traiters hath not proceeded for the holding of opinions either
for the Popes Supremacy or against her Majesties Regality but for the very Crimes of Sedition and Treason it shall suffice briefly in a manner of a repetition of the former reasons to remember these things following First it cannot be denied but that her Majesty did for many years suffer quietly the Popes Bulls and Excommunications without punishment of the Fautors thereof accounting of them but as of words or wind or of Writings in Parchment weighed down with lead or as of water-bubbles commonly called in Latine Bullae and such like but yet after some proof that courage was taken thereof by some bold and bad Subjects she could not but then esteem them to be very Preambles or as forerunners of greater danger and therefore with what reason could any mislike that her Majesty did for a bare defence against them without other action or force use the help of reviving of former Laws to prohibit the Publication or Execution of such kind of Bulls within her Realm Secondly when notwithstanding the prohibition by her Laws the same Bulls were plentifully but in secret sort brought into the Realm and at length arrogantly set upon the Gates of the Bishop of Londons Palace near to the Cathedral Church of Pauls the principal City of the Realm by a lewd person using the same like a Herald sent from the Pope who can in any common reason mislike that her Majesty finding this kind of denunciation of War as a defiance to be made in her principal City by one of her Subjects avowing and obstinately maintaining the same should according to justice cause the offender to have the reward due to such a fact and this was the first action of any capital punishment inflicted for matter sent from Rome to move Rebellion which was after her Majesty had reigned about the space of twelve years or more Thirdly when the Pope had risen up out of his Chair in his wrath from words and writings to actions and had contrary to the advice given by S. Barnard to his Predecessor that is when by his Messages he left Verbum and took Ferrum that is left to feed by the Word and began to strike with the Sword and stirred her Noble men and People directly to disobedience and to open Rebellion and that her lewd Subjects by his commandment had executed the same with all the Forces which they could make or bring into the field who with common reason can disallow that her Majesty used her principal Authority and by her Forces lawful subdued Rebels Forces unlawful and punished the Authors thereof no otherwise than the Pope himself useth to do with his own Rebellious Subjects in the Patrimony of his Church And if any Prince of People in the World would otherwise neglect his Office and suffer his Rebels to have their wills none ought to pity him if for want of resistance and courage he lost both his Crown his Head his Life and his Kingdom Fourthly when her Majesty beheld a further increase of the Popes malice notwithstanding that the first Rebellion was in her North parts vanquished in that he entertained abroad out of this Realm the Traiters and Rebels that fled for the Rebellion and all the Rabble of other the Fugitives of the Realm and that he sent a number of the same in sorts disguised into both the Realms of England and Ireland who there secretly allured her People to new Rebellions and at the same time spared not his charges to send also out of Italy by Sea certain Ships with Captains of his own with their Bands of Souldiers furnished with Treasure Munition Victuals Ensigns Banners and all other things requisite to the War into her Realm of Ireland where the same Forces with other auxiliar Companies out of Spain landed and fortified themselves very strongly in the Sea-side and proclaimed open War erecting the Popes Banner against her Majesty may it be now asked of these persons Favourers of the Romish Authority what in reason should have been done by her Majesty otherwise than first to apprehend all such Figitives for stollen into the Realm and dispersed in disguising habits to sow Sedition as some Priests in their secret Profession but all in their apparel as Roisters or Ruffins some Scholars like to the basest Common people and them to commit to Prisons and upon their examinations of their Trades and Haunts to convince them of their Conspiracies abroad by testimony of their own Companions and of sowing Sedition secretly at home in the Realm What may be reasonably thought was meet to be done with such seditious persons but by the Laws of the Realm to try condemn and execute them and especially having regard to the dangerous time when the Popes Forces were in the Realm of Ireland and more in preparation to follow as well into England as into Ireland to the resistance whereof her Majesty and her Realm was forced to be at greater charges than ever she had been since she was Queen thereof And so by Gods power which he gave to her on the one part she did by her Laws suppress the seditious stirrers of Rebellion in her Realm of England and by her Sword vanquished all the Popes Forces in her Realm of Ireland excepting certain Captains of mark that were saved from the Sword as persons that did renounce their quarrel and seemed to curse or to blame such as sent them to so unfortunate and desperate a Voyage But though these reasons grounded upon rules of natural reason shall satisfie a great number of the Adversaries who will yield that by good order of Civil and Christian Policy and Government her Majesty could nor can do no less than she hath done first to subdue with her Forces her Rebels and Traiters and next by order of her Laws to correct the Aiders and Abettors and lastly to put also to the Sword such Forces as the Pope sent into her Dominions yet there are certain other persons more nicely addicted to the Pope that will yet seem to be unsatisfied for that as they will term the matter a number of silly poor Wretches were put to death as Traiters being but in profession Scholars or Priests by the names of Seminaries Jesuits or simple School-masters that came not into the Realm with any Armor or Weapon by force to aid the Rebels and Traiters either in England or in Ireland in their Rebellions or Wars of which sort of Wretches the commiseration is made as though for their contrary opinions in Religion or for teaching of the people to disobey the Laws of the Realm they might have been otherwise punished and corrected and yet not with capital punishment These kinds of defences tend only to find fault rather with the severity of their punishments than to acquit them as Innocents or quiet Subjects But for answer to the better satisfaction of these nice and scrupulous Favourers of Traiters it must be with reason
have added that Clause that None in the Church but you were bound under pain of Damnation not to teach that Doctrine whereas all good Christians think it damnable to teach any wicked Doctrine such as this is declared to be by all France I wish to God you would instance in what Sermons or serious Discourses any of you have argued against this Doctrine out of which it might be gathered that in your hearts you dislike it I hear you and yours have much exclaimed against some even late Pamphlets that touch the Oath of Allegiance though none of those Books as far as I understand press the taking of the Oath it self in its present terms but only oppose this King-dethroning Doctrine Surely unless you declare your selves farther this must cause a main suspicion that you dislike the Oath not as Moderate Catholicks do for the ambiguity of the expression but because the Doctrine of Deposition pleases you And why should the Peace of Kingdoms and the quiet of all Christendom depend upon your Generals Order for that 's all the security I can find your Paper gives us who will assure us your Generals Order may not alter to morrow and that which you call now a mortal sin to do becomes then as mortal a sin not to do and has not then the World reason to fear that where and when the interest of your Body will either dispense with your obedience to your General or prevail so far with him as to revoke the Prohibition you speak of you will be ready again to maintain the same Deposing Power with as much fierceness as those few whom you now seem to disowne For who are those few Bellarmine of whom one of your Society though in Prison when he spake it said King James was no more to be compared to Bellarmine than Balaams Ass to Balaam Suarez whom you esteem the Master of the World Lessius under the name of Singleton Fitzherbert the chief in his time of your English Writers Patriarch Parsons Mariana Salmeron Becanus Vasquez Omnes Capita alta ferentes and of whom you will renounce none for less than being frightned to lose a Province as when in France you were threatned to be put out if you had not condemned Suarez and Santarellus With these deserves to be ranked for his Merits in the same kind F. Symonds of a far later date who procured to be condemned at Rome those three Propositions expressed in the Christian Moderator of which the first was expresly made to disclaim the Popes power in absolving Subjects from their Obedience to the Civil Government Are all these but four or five Nay I could reckon above four or five besides all these so that there is no farther security of your not preaching this Doctrine than until the Pope please to attempt again the Deposition of some King of England for then no doubt but your Generals Decree will be released and the Interest of your Order to preach this Doctrine again As to that perverse and unseasonable insinuation that Others too have defended the Popes deposing power as well as you I answer perhaps Flattery or Errours may have prevailed so far with some others besides Jesuits yet with this difference in the point we now treat some persons of other Communities have written for that exorbitant power in the Pope and very many and far more against it not only the faculties of Paris and Sorbonne but seven or eight whole Universities in France have unanimously and solemnly condemned it All this while what single Jesuit has spoken one unkind word against it though both particularly suspected and highly concerned to clear themselves Cry you mercy you there subscribed also their Condemnation of it But why find I not that alledged here if there be not some juggle in 't Sure you would not have waved urging it among your best Reasons did not your hearts disavow that forced compliance then and so hate the Medium for the Conclusions sake Your Generals Prohibition as your Reasons seem to express it is Not to teach c. that Doctrine and then you are free at least to teach c. the contrary which who of you ever did so much as in a private Conference Nor will it help you if your Generals Prohibition be to speak either for or against that Opinion which I believe is the truth though your Reasons craftily dissemble it since then you neither have hitherto given nor can hereafter give the least satisfaction to Princes without disobeying your General Let any one but cast his eye upon F. Lloyd or Fisher a famous man in his generation and consider what he writes in his Answer to the Nine Points That he omitted the discussion of the Ninth Point about the Pope's Authority to depose Kings for being bound by the command of his General given to the whole Order not to publish any thing of that Argument without sending the same first to Rome to be reviewed and approved his Answer to that Point could not have been performed without very long expectation and delay And so goes on referring His Majesty and the Reader in general to the Treatises lately written on that Subject to which said he ' T is not needful any thing should be added And I ask first is not this Jesuits proceeding with his King extremely both uncivil and disloyal too his Majesty commands an English Jesuit to write concerning the Opinion of deposing Kings and giving away their Kingdoms by Papal power whether directly or indirectly What says the Jesuit to this important question wherein all Princes and particularly his Majesty was so nearly concerned He could not answer it without sending it first to Rome to be approved c. and so excused himself and made no answer at all which now of these two will you guess was the Jesuits supreme Soveraign the King or his General Nor should I have stayed so long upon the example of one particular Jesuit though never so eminent among them but that by these their Reasons I see they all cleave to the same Principle of not meddling with this point whatever it costs them without leave of their General Secondly I ask concerning those late Treatises here mentioned by the Jesuit were they not those very Books which Paris and so many whole Universities of France publickly condemned I have this motive to think so F. Fisher wrote this Book 1626. these Treatises were that very year condemned and some of them as Santarellus printed but the year before But that F. Fisher adhered to the affirmative of the Popes deposing power is clearly evident by his other excuse that commonly Kings are not willing to hear the proofs of coercive Authority over them c. As also when his Adversary objected that Suarez's Book was burnt by the Hangman he answers far from disliking his Brother Jesuit in these peremptory words I likewise demand of you says Fisher if Jesuit Suarez his Book be prejudicial to Princely Authority why is the same
allowed in all other Catholick Kingdoms c Does this sound as if the Jesuits had changed their inclination to that Doctrine whilst one of their eminentest Writers strives thus to defend nay applaud even Suarez one of the most offensive and extragavant even Jesuits that ever medled with that Subject 7. My Seventh Doubt is about your dependence on the Pope which you gloriously explicate to consist in this that The Jesuits are obliged by a particular Vow to be ready to go even unto the utmost Bounds of the Earth to preach the Gospel to Infidels I desire to know by what virtue you explicate your Vow in these words the terms of your Vow are these In super promitto specialem Obedientiam summo Pontifici circa missiones which by the tenour of the words signifies to go whither he shall send you and do what he shall command you in your Missions First there 's never a word of preaching the Gospel nor of Infidels and your Missions may be as well to Catholicks as to Infidels as we see the Peres de la Mission in France for the most part are imployed among Catholicks and I would demand whether your Mission into England be not as well to Catholicks as to Protestants Wherefore by this Vow you are bound to do whatever the Pope commands you as for example if the Pope should excommunicate or depose the Prince and command you to move the Catholicks to take Arms you were bound by your Vow to do it And therefore 't is no wonder if you give the Pope a Catalogue of these men and their qualities for they are generally speaking those who are eminentest in your Order and brag to him how great an Army of Pens and Tongues you bring devoted to him to further any attempt or design he shall command Besides is it not well known that none of your Order go into Infidels Countries but such as desire it whereof no small part do it for discontentment they find in your Colledges and that the Pope may as well send one of the Pillars of St. Peter's Church in Rome to preach to Infidels as one of your professed Fathers if it be against your General 's and his own will Therefore this special obedience is but a flash of vanity above others by which the Pope has a Chimerical power over you such as your subtilty in Divinity will call potentiaremota which without your own wills shall never come into Act. Yet do I not think that His Majesty will quarrel with you for this Vow as you explicate it though to tell you my sence of it I do not know how it stands with His Prerogative that the Pope shall have power over his Subjects which may be useful to him to send them without his leave to Japan and China But this Authority you assume to your selves and further For you do not only oblige your Subjects to come in or go out of the Kingdom when you command them but play the Judges of life and death upon the Kings natural Subjects without his leave or any crime that according to Civil Laws deserves punishment You presume by your power to send them to Watten or some such place wherein either your selves have high Justice or the high Justice is at your Devotion there frame Process against them and execute them without making account to His Majesty of the life of his Subject for pretended crimes committed in England This taking the whole story together I conceive to be no less than making your selves Soveraigns over His Majesties Subjects that is to be an Act of high Treason Yet all parts of this Action are evidently in your hands in virtue of your obedience and your having such places of high Justice in your Command so that your Subjects have other Soveraigns than the King's Majesty whom by consequence they ought to fear more than him since their power is more immediate and pressing and pressed on their Consciences As for the practice 't is said to have been used upon one Thomas Barton an eminent Scholar among you who wrote a Book called The agreement of Faith and Reason How true it is I undertake not to justifie but if you 'l justifie your selves from High Treason it behoves you to produce the man And so you have my seventh Doubt 8. My Eighth Doubt is that you equivocate with us in this word Dependence for you turn it to be dependence by Vow whereas more likely it means dependence of Interest and signifies that 't is your interest to ingage the Pope to you by maintaining all height of Supreme Authority in him though it be never so irrational and against Gods Law For by so doing you also can use it all for your own Interest in procuring for your selves and friends whatever lies either in the Popes Authority or Grace as Exemptions Priviledges Benefices c. For men look not on your Body as on others whose Generals have no other power than according to their Rules to look to their Discipline But on you they look as on an Army managed by one man whose Weapons are Pens and Tongues and the Arts of Negotiation and all plausible means of commending your selves to the World Which you exercise in such a height as to have had the boldness to threaten the Pope with a Schism to tell the King of Spain your Tongues and Pens had gotten him more Dominions than his Armies to attempt breaking the Liberties of Venice to be able to raise Seditions in most Countries and to be dreadful to the very Kings and Princes And all this because as Christ proposed to his Disciples the love of one another for the Badge of Christianity so your Generals propose to you blind obedience for the Badge of a Jesuit that is by cooperating with them to make them powerful and great Lords and your selves invincible and terrible to all that oppose you For this end you exalt the Popes Infallibility that you may get your Opponents condemned in Rome and then cry them down for Hereticks For this reason you teach the Pope to have all Authority in the Church and other Bishops to be but his Deputies so joyning with your Brother-Presbyters in really destroying the Hierarchy that when you by Grace or surreption have purloyn'd a Command from that Court you may treat all that resist you as Schismaticks and Rebels to the Church Yet if we believe Mr. White acknowledged an able man they are both damnable Heresies and destructive of Faith and Church and many others also of our most learned dislike them though their courage c. reaches not to brand them so severely In this complication of Interests then and not in your glorious Vow consists the dependence you have so specially on the Pope in a matter not of Religion but of Temporal profit and greatness 9. My Ninth Doubt is about the comparison you make between your selves and others telling us how you are by special Vow excluded from all Benefices and