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
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
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
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
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
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
in like sort with their hallowed baggages from Rome to poyson the senses of the Subjects pouring into their hearts malicious and pestilent opinions against her Majesty and the Laws of the Realm and also to kindle and set on fire the hearts of discontented Subjects with the flames of Rebellion and to search and sound the depths and secrets of all mens inward intentions either against her Majesty or for her and finally to bring into a Bead-roll or as it were into a Muster-roll the names and powers with the dwellings of all that should be ready to rebel and to aid the Foreign Invasion These kinds of seditious actions for the service of the Pope and the Traiters and Rebels abroad have made them Traiters not their Books nor their Beads no nor their Cakes of Wax which they call Agnus Dei nor other their Reliques nor yet their Opinions for the Ceremonies or Rites of the Church of Rome and therefore it is to be certainly concluded that these did justly deserve their capital punishments as Traiters though they were not apprehended with open Armor or Weapon Now if this latter repetition as it were of all the former causes reasons afore-recited may not serve to stop the boisterous mouths and the pestiferous tongues and venemous breaths of these that are infected with so gross errors as to defend seditious Subjects stirrers of Rebellion against their natural Prince and Country then are they to be left without any further argument to the Judgment of the Almighty God as persons that have covered their eyes against the Suns light stopped their ears against the sound of Justice and oppressed their hearts against the force of reason and as the Psalmist saith They speak lyes they are as venemous as the poyson of a Serpent even like the deaf Adder that stoppeth his ears Wherefore with charity to conclude if these Rebels and Traiters and their Fautors would yet take some remorse and compassion of their natural Country and would consider how vain their attempts have been so many years and how many of their Confederates are wasted by miseries and calamities and would desist from their unnatural practices abroad and if these Seminaries secret Wanderers and Explorators in the dark would imploy their travels in the works of Light and Doctrine according to the usage of their Schools and content themselves with their Profession and Devotion and that the remnant of the wicked flock of the Seed-men of Sedition would ease from their rebellious false and infamous railings and libellings there is no doubt by Gods grace her Majesty being so much given to Mercy and devoted to Peace but all colour and occasion of shedding the blood of any more of her natural Subjects of this Land should utterly cease Against whose malices if they shall not desist Almighty God continue her Majesty with his Spirit and Power long to reign and live in his fear and to be able to vanquish them and all Gods Enemies and her Rebels and Traiters both at home and abroad and to maintain and preserve all her natural good loving Subjects to the true service of the same Almighty God according to his holy Word and Will Many other things might be remembred for defence of other her Majesties Princely honourable and godly actions in sundry other things wherein also these and the like seditious Railers have of late time without all shame by feigned and false Libels sought to discredit her Majesty and her Government but at this time these former causes and reasons alledged by way of advertisements are sufficient to justifie her Majesties actions to the whole World in the cases remembred Important Considerations Which ought to move all true and sound Catholicks who are not wholly Jesuited to acknowledge without all Equivocations Ambiguities or Shiftings that the Proceedings of her Majesty and of the State with them since the beginning of her Highness Reign have been both mild and merciful RIght Worshipful and our dear Friends We your ancient Teachers and spiritual Fathers the secular Priests in England that sundry years for your sakes have endured many calamities but cannot frame our selves to the new Jesuitical Faction that beareth so great a sway with you are every where amongst you accounted simple persons men destitute of the Spirit of Government without all Policy and Providence ignorant Pilots how to cast about with our Ships in sudden gusts or storms not trained up in the managing of great Affairs and far unmeet God wot to take upon us the guiding of Souls All which disgraces in the sense they are imputed unto us we take in good part whether they proceed from your selves or from your Spanish Statists that can work wonders or from you both and we must acknowledge that if their courses either formerly taken or still intended for the re-establishing of the Catholick Faith in this Kingdom be good ours do come far short of that pitch and well you may think as already you have in your wisdoms censured our weakness and judged of us Howbeit as yet by your good patience we must be bold to rejoyce in our simplicity and to confess in direct terms and so tell you plainly and wish you all to mark it well that posteriores cogitationes solent esse sapientiores Experience is said to be the Mistress of Fools but she is no foolish Mistress The Jesuitical Plots for the restoring of Religion in this Land by Treasons or Invasions are not sanctified or blessed by the hand of God Some of us the ancienter sort of Priests have ever misliked their courses herein and many other we know are of the same Judgment The old approved paths of our Forefathers when men have beaten their brains to the uttermost will always prove the best Novelties and fine devices of busie and unquiet heads are but as May-flowers that are gone in June they may carry a fair shew but they will not continue The ancient manner of planting the Catholick Faith hath been by Preaching Prayers private Instructions Confessions Absolutions and by the exercising of other Priestly Functions given ad aedificationem non ad destructionem to teach Obedience not Rebellion to fill mens hearts with joy and peace by the inward working of the Holy Ghost and not to feed them with hopes of Invasions and Treacheries with the Moon-shine in the water and follies or with preposterous cogitations to think they may expect for figs from thistles or that men may do evil that good may come of it As simple Priests as you esteem us yet this we tell you that we are not ignorant of the Machiavilian Rules which your Rabbies practise nor of their Wild-geese Races wherein they have run themselves out of all honest breath But we know them not to embrace them we thank God but to disclose them or rather to acknowledge them for wicked being disclosed too apparently already to our hands that you in time might eschew them if you will be advised by us and all
Dominions and whoever entertains you in such quality is subject to the penalties ordained by the Ancient Laws Neither without some main Reason which might force the aforesaid Statute ought you to hope or attempt any further stay in England in way of a Body till first you have obtained particular grace from the Civil Magistrate 3. My Third Doubt is Whether you have been as faithful to His Majesty as others Which is your second Reason For which I must note a Maxim or Practice found among you Jesuits and acknowledged by all who look into your ways which is in quarrels of Princes and Great Men to have some of your Fathers on one part and others for the contrary Which as I no ways deny to be very politickly done and to shew that you are Wiser than the Children of light so on the other side I affirm 't is a manifest sign you are faithful to neither I speak not this as to single men if there be any among you who prefer your loyalty to your Prince before obedience to your Superiour but as to the Community or Superiours who give this direction or connivence to their single Subjects to act on both sides by which they are convinced of acknowledging duty to neither but to work for their own interests Nor can the like be imputed to other Communities whose obedience is more rational and free without obligation to follow their Superiours Judgments further than to the observation of Canons and Rules 4. My Fourth Doubt is Whether you are as you say of tender Consciences as well as others your third Reason for which I remit him who desires a further information to The Mystery of Jesuitism translated some years since out of French The Author whereof is both learned in your Divinity and an upright and scrupulous Roman Catholick as his Book manifests Where every indifferent Reader may see as clear as noon-day that your Conscience is so tender as to stretch to all kind of Villanies by the award of that Theological Bawd commonly called Probability by which whatever three Divines hold or perhaps one is accounted Probable and lawful to be practised and whoever understands any whit of the world knows your General can with a whistle raise whole Legions of Divines to speak what he has a mind should pass for probable nay every Provincial can raise above three to make it de fide The World has seen the experience about Deposing Princes Equivocations mental Reservations and divers other juggles Although this seems enough for this point yet it is not amiss to add a Maxime of obedience which you have among you viz. That the Subject ought blindly to obey his Superiour without examination whenever it is probable there 's no sin in the action Out of which perswasion if three Divines at the most say a thing may be done which the Superiour will have done 't is not in a Subjects power under pain of damnation to refuse to do it Whereby 't is plain the tenderness of your Consciences is only about doing or not doing what your Superiour orders you 5. My Fifth Doubt concerning your Fourth Reason is whether all you say proves any heartiness for his Majesty For I question not the truth of all this but the Quaere remains whether you Jesuits were the first movers or the Gentry which did the King service to whom you adhered for not losing your places and interest you had in the parties Had you pleaded that any of this Gentry which you name was unwilling of himself and his Jesuit had induced him or made him constant when he would have relented this reason had been somewhat strong now 't is one of the probable Arguments which are subject to be turned to what pleases the Orator But to speak somewhat to particulars 'T is known Col. Gage's relations were to others more than to you and I could name by whose solicitation he took arms for the King who was not of your Coat As for Sir John Digby there are alive who know by whom he was armed and sent to the Kings Party in whom you had not so great interest Concerning the Noble Persons you name though you had the industry to make your selves their Ordinaries yet were they not for the most part so addicted to you that they had not great Relations to other Ecclesiastical Bodies So that it may appear their own inclinations and not your perswasions as far as is clear were their motives to follow the Kings Party I could say more were it fitting to enter upon private mens particular actions And so much to your Reasons 6. My Sixth Doubt concerns the Answer to the first Objection Whether Jesuits teach the Doctrine of the Popes deposing Kings My Doubt is what your Answer is whether I or no for I can find neither First you compare your Body to others which is no Answer to the Question but a spiteful and envious diversion to examine others actions who are sufficiently cleared because not questioned Secondly you tell us that some Jesuits did teach it but that since the first of January 1616. your General has forbidden any of his to teach preach or dispute for that Doctrine which answers not the Question and is a thing I am prone to believe For I have been informed that 't is a known practice of your Society that your Generals should forbid some actions which they are not unwilling their Subjects should practise to the end that they may reject weak men by saying it cannot be true because they have a Rule against it and to more understanding Parties they may excuse the fault by laying the defect on Particulars who will not obey their commands But I must farther note a cunning in this Answer For true it is the Parliament of Paris ordered the principal Jesuits to get such an order from their General for France upon which I suppose you build your answer not explicating whether it reaches to other Countries as particularly to England which I never heard so much as pretended and therefore it answers nothing to the real Question unless you produce the extension to the whole World which you cannot do since 't is plain Santarellus's Book was printed in Rome about ten years after 1616. teaching the power of Deposing in all latitude Wherefore either Santarellus's fact was a manifest disobedience to the nose of his General or the answer given an open Imposture making a special Decree for France a general one and so your answer fallacious and none No more than your fair inference that all Jesuits are bound under pain of Damnation not to teach that Doctrine which is a pure slur you use to put upon men unaccustomed to your ways whereas 't is a known position of yours that none of your Rules bind under so much as a Venial sin much less under Damnation And it seems you think there 's no Mortal sin but Disobedience or you esteem the Doctrine good though forbidden you else you would not