THE LOYALTY OF Popish Principles EXAMIN'D In Answer to a late Book Entituled STAFFORD'S Memoirs With some Considerations in this present Juncture offer'd to Protestant Dissenters By ROB. HANCOCK Fellow of Clare-Hall in Cambridge and Rector of Northall in Bedfordshire LONDON Printed by S. Roycroft for Thomas Flesher at the Angel and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1682. The PREFACE to the Christian READER IT may be expected that I should according to Custom say something towards the Recommendation of the following Discourse to the perusal of the Reader and tell him what Motives I had to undertake this work But the truth is I have neither studied nor ever seen any great Effects of this kind of Courtship I know the Weight and Importance of the Subject the Honesty and Charitableness of the Design the Truth and Evidence of the Matter the Importunity of Friends and the Authority of others whose Judgment we value above our own are the common heads of Excuse in such Cases If any or all of these will serve for an Apology I hope I have some right to them if they will not it must undergo the Readers Censure However I shall acquaint him with the Scope of the whole Treatise viz. To make a Faithful Representation of such Principles and Designs as under a colour of Religion do naturally tend to disturb the Publick Peace Settlement of this Church and Kingdom subvert the true Reformed Religion Destroy Christian Charity by fomenting Intestine Commotions or Foreign Vsurpations And if there be such a thing in the World I am loath to call it Religion as teaches men to advance it self by Treason and Bloodshed by Falshood and Treachery it is our Duty and Interest to detect the Fraud and Hypocrisy of it In the treating of this Subject 1. I have not only justified the Charge of Disloyalty and Cruelty against the Court and church of Rome but also examined and confuted the most plausible Arguments of Romish Loyalty and Charity 2. Because the Doctrines and Practises of some reputed Protestants have given a deep Wound to the Reputation of our Religion and some most horrid things have been taught and acted in this Nation out of a real or pretended zeal for the Protestant Cause I have vindicated the Honour Peaceableness of the Reformation and shewed from whence the most Fanatick Sectaries derived their Principles by whom they were Influenced and whom they gratified in that management of them 3. I have given a brief account of Comprehension and Toleration so far as they fell within the compass of the late Lord Staffords Design and I am sensible it would have been an Argument of weakness or arrogance in me to have entred upon a larger Discourse upon those Heads so soon after the late Proposals of a great and learned Man for the satisfaction of Dissenters (A) Preface to the unreasonableness of Separation printed 1681. Lastly I have concluded with such Important Considerations to all sober Dissenting Protestants whom I distinguish from wild Fanaticks as I believe are necessary for the keeping out of Popery In the Prosecution of the whole Argument I have neither made any uncharitable Reflections nor charged any persons with the remote Consequences of their Doctrines And though I will not answer for all little Mistakes or Inadvertencies in the Writing or Printing I have neither taken any Quotations upon trust nor misrepresented the words or sense of the Authors which I make use of But I must here informe the Reader that in my Animadversions upon Staffords Memoirs I have not meddled with the Life and Actions the Charge or Arraignment of the late Lord Stafford the Depositions of the Witnesses or the Observations upon them For I am not angry with the person of any Roman Catholick nor do I love to trample upon the Grave of a dead man besides it doth not become me to go out of my own Profession or discuss such matters as do not concern Religion And yet I think I may safely say that I have not omitted any thing which looks like an Imputation in the Reformed or a Vindication of the Roman Church and Religion If this Book should fall into the Hands of any of that Communion I confess I have not much hope of convincing them who by the very Principles of their Religion are bound to disbelieve their own Senses If any of the Dissenting Protestants shall please to look into it I have only this kindness shall I say or justice to beg of them that they would read the two last Chapters with the same sincerity and freedom from Passion with which they were written and then let them judge whether those Considerations and Advices are not as necessary to their own as to our Safety Farewel The Contents CHAP. I. THe Principles of the R. Church and Religion destructive of piety and vertue Three Cases wherein it is possible for R. Catholiques to be better than their Religion inclines or allows them to be Of the Principles and Practises of his Majesties R. Catholique Subjects in the time of the late Rebellion Of their Rebellion in Ireland and the Advantage which the Kings Enemies in England made of it Since his Majesties Restauration they refused to give him any reasonable security of their Allegiance for the future Many Papists actually in Arms against King Charles the First in England many others did him no Service Vpon what Motives the rest adhered to him A Consult of the English Jesuits about taking away his Life Of the Principles and Behaviour of the R. Catholiques under the Usurped Powers Of Mr. White 's Book CHAP. II. The Treasons and Seditions in other Countries especially the Bloody Wars in England and the Murder of King Charles the First charged upon the Protestants The Reformed Churches abroad and the Church of England vindicated from this Imputation The King brought to the Block by a prevailing Faction against the Consent of the Nobility and People of England The Romish Faction had a great Influence on the beginning and progress of the Rebellion The Troubles in Scotland fomented by Cardinal Richlieu's Agents The Letter of the Scotch Covenanters to the French King The Design of the Papists against the King discover'd Ann. 1640. What Influence they had on the War which followed in England and upon the Kings death Two Propositions added to the foregoing Discourse 1. That the Grounds on which the War against the King was justified were first laid by the prevailing Faction of the Roman Church This Proposition proved from Gregory 1. Zachary Gregory the 7th c. From Parsons Creswel Suarez Bellarmine Bouchier Mariana Fr. de Verone Reynolds They which have written in defence of the War or of the Kings death go upon the same Principles 2. That in the Reign of King Charles the First the Pope animated his Subjects to rebel and sent over divers Bulls to that purpose CHAP. III. Doctrines and Principles of the Roman Church 1. The Doctrine of Deposing Princes
upon the first intimation of displeasure from the Internuntio De Vecchiis and their General Superiors beyond the Seas (E) History of the Irish Remonstrance p. 577 578. In England many Roman Catholiques were actually in Arms against King Charles the First His Majesty himself that had most reason to know informs us That great numbers of that Religion were entertain'd in the Army of the Rebels that others were seduced to whom he had formerly denied employment that twenty or thirty at a time of one Troop or Company had been taken Prisoners (F) See His Majesties Declaration to all his loving Subjects in his Kingdom of Scotland But were not many of the Roman Catholiques in the Kings Army They were indeed but not so many as his Enemies would make the World believe His Majesty tells us in His Declaration That sometimes in a Month together there had not been one Papist near his Court I am sure he was not much beholden to them for their Company at any time His Majesty knew it was the Policy of his Enemies to hunt them into his Camp that they might bring an Odium upon the Royal Cause and confirm the People in that groundless Jealousie of the Kings adherence to Popery which made him by His Proclamation to inhibit all men of that Religion to repair to Him Besides we are told by one of the Roman Church That 't is a Maxim of the Jesuits who have long bore the greatest sway in England in the Quarrels of Princes and great Men to have some of their Fathers on one part and some for the contrary that they may work for their own Interests on both sides (G) The Author of the Jesuits Reasons unreasonable Printed 1662. And whatever boasts they now make of their Loyalty to the late King we have not yet forgotten how they pleaded to the late Usurpers That for the Preservation of their Lives they were forced to flee into the Kings Garrisons without ever acting against the State (H) The Christian Moderator printed 1652. p. 60. That a great part of them were never in actual Arms against the Parliament but only fled to the Enemies Garrisons for Shelter c. (I) Christian Moderator p. 18 But I have so much charity as to believe that some Roman Catholiques offer'd their Lives and Fortunes to the King upon more generous Motives that they served him faithfully and suffer'd for him because as a great Man of that Religion said of himself They valued the Favour and Esteem of their Country above all Earthly things or were true English men as to this World (K) The Earl of Bristol in his Speech made July 1. 1673. We have known some tempers that have conquer'd the malignity of Poyson and some men have a greater love for their King and Country than for their Priests and Confessors some have too much honesty and some too little zeal for Religion to be intrusted with the State-Mysteries of Jesuits and Bigotted Papists A reverend and learned Person of our Church hath divers times told the World in print (L) Dr. Du. Moulin Aus to Philanax Anglicus p. 56. Ed. 1679. This certain Intelligence shall be justified whensoever Authority will require it that the year before the Kings death a select number of English Jesuits were sent from their whole party in England first to Paris then to Rome with this Question in writing That seeing the state of England was in a likely posture to change Government whether it was lawful for the Catholiques to work that change for the advancing and securing the Catholique Cause in England by making away the King whom there was no hope to turn from his Heresie and p. 61. As for my being defied by the Papists I have defied them now seventeen years to call me in question before our Judges and so I do still That there was a Consult in England of the whole Faction of Jesuites about bringing his Sacred Majesty to the Block But what number of the Laity were privy to that execrable Design we are not able to learn But if ever the English Papists had any reason to boast of their Obedience to the Government it was under the late Usurped Powers For they basely flatter'd the most Infamous Rump (M) See the Petition of the Roman Catholiques to the Supream Authority of this Nation the Parliament of the Common wealth of England Christian Moderation p 59 60. p. 51. Divers Papists had taken the Oath of Abjuration and Engagement c. Part 2. p. 41. The Roman Catholiques have generally taken and punctually kept the Engagement c. Dr. Baily in the Life of B. Fisher as I find him quoted by Mr. Fowlis is very zealous in asserting the Loyalty of the Papists and yet at the same time bravely tells us what good Subjects they were to O. Cromwel Whereas saith he all other Sorts and Sects excepting those who are for all Sorts and Sects appear against the present Government like Aries Scorpio c. the Roman Catholiques like Pisces the Emblem of the Fisherman are contented to remain quiet under Foot They publiquely own'd them for the Supream Authority of the Nation and pleaded the Merit of their Fidelity to them And if generally to take and punctually to keep the Engagement if to flatter the great Tyrant if to offer that for a Toleration they would renounce the Interest of the Stuarts be Arguments of firmness of Loyalty to the Crown then I will grant That the Roman Catholiques are the Kings Most Loyal and Dutiful Subjects But I will conclude this Head with this Observation That Mr. White in the height of Olivers Tyranny set out a Book under the Title of The Grounds of Obedience and Government This moderate Roman Catholique as he is esteemed labours not only to disengage the People of England from all Obligation to his present Majesty then in Exile but his Majesty too from laying any further claim to his Crown but blessed be God the King was restored to his Government to which his Roman Catholique Subjects according to this Gentleman ought not to endeavour his Restitution CHAP. II. The Treasons and Seditions in other Countries especially the Bloody Wars in England and the Murder of King Charles the First charged upon the Protestants The Reformed Churches abroad and the Church of England vindicated from this Imputation The King brought to the Block by a prevailing Faction against the Consent of the Nobility and People of England The Romish Faction had a great Influence on the beginning and progress of the Rebellion The Troubles in Scotland fomented by Cardinal Richlieu's Agents The Letter of the Scotch Covenanters to the French King The Design of the Papists against the King discover'd Ann. 1640. What Influence they had on the War which followed in England and upon the Kings death Two Propositions added to the foregoing Discourse 1. That the Grounds on which the War against the King was justified were first laid by
the prevailing Faction of the Roman Church This Proposition proved from Gregory 1. Zachary Gregory the 7th c. From Parsons Creswel Suarez Bellarmine Bouchier Mariana Fr. de Verone Reynolds They which have written in defence of the War or of the Kings death go upon the same Principles 2. That in the Reign of King Charles the First the Pope animated his Subjects to rebel and sent over divers Bulls to that purpose STaffords Memoires p. 12 13 To the Instances given of Popish Malice and Bloodiness (A) This resers to the printed Tryal of the late Lord Stafford P. 9. from former Examples he answers That by the same reason and to as good purpose the traiterous Seditions and Outrages in Germany France Bohemia and Holland authorized and fomented by Calvin Zuinglius Beza and other Reformers the late bloody Wars in England the almost yesterdays Remonstrances and Practises in Scotland but above all that never to be paralell'd hellish Murder of the Lords Anointed our Glorious Soveraign Charles the First in cold blood by outward form of Justice on pretence of Reformation might be imputed to the Protestant Religion for all these horrid Villanies were committed by Protestants Protestants who gloried in being more than ordinarily refined from Popish Errors and Superstitions If it be said as most justly it may the Churth of England never taught such Practises the same say and protest the Papists in behalf of their Church Let this Author bestow as hard names as he pleases upon the Contrivers and Actors in these horrid Villanies and let that Religion if so wicked a thing must be called Religion which gave encouragement to them go as it deserves for Infidelity and Irreligion I am sure there are no greater Enemies to the Christian Religion than those which endeavour to pretend to promote it by such ways as are contrary to the very Nature and Design of all true Religion Indeed our Adversaries of the Roman Communion lay as bad things to the charge of the Protestants as we can do to their Church and Religion and as often as we put them in mind of the Fifth of November they are ready to reproach us with the Thirtieth of January And that I may not make any cause or persons look either better or worse than they are I shall make a faithful representation of the Doctrines and Practises of both sides so far as they are pertinent to the present Debate viz. Whether the traiterous Seditions and Outrages in England and other Parts of Christendom may be imputed to the Protestant Religion with as much reason as the Instances of Popish Malice and Bloodyness from former Examples may be to the Roman Church and Religion Some years ago was published a Seditious Libel under the Title of Philanax Anglicus wherein the Author taxes not only some Protestant Reformers but the very Reformation it self with Rebellion charges the English Reformers with Treason against Queen Mary and with a Roman boldness asserts That the Seditious Doctrines are allow'd by the generality of them that call themselves Protestants But this Book having had a solid and substantial Answer by Dr. Du Moulin I will not trouble my self or the Reader with any thing which he hath written in vindication of the Protestant Religion and the Reformed Churches and Divines abroad But I cannot but take notice of the ignorance or rather the Malice of the Author of the Controversial Letters out of whom the substance of the present imputation is taken who tells us He doth not know that the Church of England hath proceeded so far as the Roman Church hath done in the Council of Constance or condemned those Errors by any Authentick Censures And our Author is not afraid or ashamed to say that some Roman Catholiques are most remarkable peradventure of all others for firmness of Loyalty I shall endeavour therefore with as much brevity as the Subject will allow to vindicate the Honour of the Reformation of our own Church and Nation from this unjust and malicious Charge 1. The Confessions of the several Reformed Churches abroad are so full and clear in asserting the Obedience of Subjects to their Princes that I do not find our Adversaries of Rome have much to say against them (B) V. Corpus Syntagma Confessionum c. Aurei Allob. 1662 V.G. The Bohemian the Helvetian the French the Augustine the Saxon the â—…gick Confessions in the Articles concerning the Civil Powers We are told that the Protestants of France had towards the beginning of the War resolved upon a Declaration against the Parliament and Subjects of England taking Arms against the King and hâ—… published it if it had not been dasht by Cardinal Richlieu 〈◊〉 Englands Complaint by L. Gatford Printed 1648. pag 10. And 't is observable That upon the reprinting of all the Confessions of the Reformed Churches at Geneva An. 1654. it was moved That instead of the 39 Articles of the Church of England which do with the greatest plainness and sincerity assert the Duty of Subjects to Princes they would insert the Confession of the Assembly of Divines but the motion was utterly rejected by the University Senate and Church of Geneva and the 39 Articles put in as before (C) Durell vind Eccles-Angl c. 2. As to the Sayings of particular Doctors of the Reformation I cannot indeed I need not defend them they are no Pillars of our Faith nor do their Writings bear the stamp of publick Authority And since none of our Adversaries have proved that any of the Reformed Churches have by any Authentick Act approved of Seditions and treasonable Principles as I shall prove the Roman Church doth they cannot be imputed to the Protestant Religion with the same reason that we charge them upon the Roman Church Let the Papists say and Protest that their Church never taught any Seditious Practises yet I shall sooner trust my own Senses than such men as by the Principles of their Religion are under no Obligation of speaking Truth 2. No Church under Heaven did ever more expresly declare against all Seditious and Disloyal Practises than the Church of England Our Reformation was begun and carried on in a peaceable and legal manner and our Reformers proposed to themselves that excellent Rule of our Saviour They restored to God the things that were Gods and to the Kings the full exercise of their lawful Power We are Members of a Church whose just Glory it is not only to have constantly taught the Duty of Subjects to their Princes but suffered for her Loyalty to them Our Kings and the Church of England have always rejoyced and wept together and none ever forsook the Royal Cause in its Distress which had not first forsaken the Church or at least lost all their Zeal and Affection to her In Fine our late Royal Martyr declared That he died for maintaining the true Protestant Religion he acquitted not only the Church of England but all the true Sons of the Church from
out a Postern-Gate After his Speech was ended the King produced the Original Letter which he intercepted as it was going to the French King and ordered it to be read (F) Impartial Collections p. 309 c. As to the later Insurrections in Scotland I will only observel That besides the Information of some Romish Priests being sent thither to prepare them for a Rebellion their very Declaration shews they were acted by a Popish Spirit for the Act of Supremacy was condemned and the Kings Authority in Ecclesiastical Affairs call'd an Vsurping Power But to return So true were the Romish Emissaries to their good Old Cause that having set the factious Party to work in Scotland they took advantage from that conjuncture to stir up a National Rebellion and barbarous Massacre in Ireland of which I have spoken already I cannot pass over the Conspiracy against the King in the Year 1640 because it gives some further light into the Designs of Cardinal Richilieu and the Jesuites Whilst his Majesty resided at York he was acquainted by the Archbishop of Canterbury with the Information he had received from Sir W. Boswel his Majesty's Ambassadour at the Hague By the discovery of this Plot it is evident that the Jesuitical Party exasperated the King and his Subjects one against another labouring to incense his Majesty against them as conspiring against his Crown and Government and them against their Soveraign as aiming at the subversion of their Laws Liberties and Religion That they stirred up the Scots to rebel hindred all accommodation between the King and them and endeavoured to bring his Majesty under a necessity of craving the Assistance of the Papists which he should neither obtain without yielding to their own terms nor refuse without the hazard of his life That for the compassing of their Ends Cardinal Barbarino was engaged fifty Scotch Jesuites were maintain'd in London Cuneus in quality of the Popes Legate Chamberlain Chaplain and Almoner to Cardinal Richlieu Sir T. Matthew a Jesuited Priest Captain Read a Secular Jesuite and that all the Papists in England did contribute to the carrying on the design Here was a Plot against the King and Kingdom and Protestant Religion of which he that desires a full account may consult Mr. H. Lestrange and Mr. Sanderson in their Histories Prinn's Romes Master-piece and others of later time What great numbers of Priests Jesuites and other Romish Agents afterwards flocked into England what various shapes they assumed how they insinuated into the Councils and Armies of the Kings Enemies Mr. Gatford Prinn Dr. du Moulin and others informs us to whom I refer the Reader And even some of the Members in the Long Parliament were sensible how active our Enemies of Rome had been in raising and fomenting the War as we learn from a late Writer who sate in that Assembly I will barely relate what he saith without making any Collections or Inferences from his words The Parliament Vote That which was done at York for a Guard to the King to be a preparation for War against the Parliament a breach of the Trust reposed in him by his People contrary to his Oath and tending to the dissolution of his Government and all such as serve him there to be Traytors to the Laws of the Kingdom Upon the debate for raising an Army one of the Members declared his sense Our Enemies of the Popish Church have left no Evil Arts unessayed to bring us to our present posture and will yet leave none unattempted to make our breaches wider well knowing that nothing will more advance their Empire than our Divisions Our Misery whom they account Hereticks is their Joy and our Distractions will be their Glory and all Evil arts and ways to bring Calamities upon us they will esteem Meritorious (A) Memorials of the English Affairs ad An. 1642. Sanderus de Schism Angl. 1585 p. 188. Quo Haereticorum ut fit bello Catholici indies plures constantioresque in fide fiunt Campanella de Mon. Misp Amst 1641. p. 204. Jam verò ad enervandos Anglos nihil tam conducit quam dissensio discordia inter illos excitata perpetuóque nutrita quod citò occasiones meliores suppeditabit P. 207. Verum ab alia parte instiget primores Comitiorum aut Parliamenti ut Angliam in formam reipublicae reducant Nor did the design of Cardinal Richlieu die with him it was vigorously pursued by Mazarine to whom he left his Instructions at his death and what an intimate Correspondence was maintain'd between him and the Grandees of Derby House we are told by the Author of the History of Independency (B) Hist of Indep p. 114 115. His words are these To negotiate which the detaining of the Prince in France the Grandees of Derby House and the Army have an Agent lying Lieger with Cardinal Mazarine the great French Instrument of State who is so well supplied with Money and so open handed that it hath been heard from Mazarines own Mouth That all the Money the Queen and Prince have cost the Crown of France hath come out of the Parliaments Purse with a good advantage It is likewise said Mazarine hath an Agent here to drive on the Interests of France in England To all which we may add That the King having assented in the Isle of Wight to pass five strict Bills against Popery the Jesuites in France at a General Meeting there resolved to bring him to Justice by the power of their Friends in the Army And this resolution of the Fathers was agreeable to the sense of the Roman Conclave For the Question being sent to Rome from the whole Party of Jesuites in England the year before the Kings death whether considering the present posture of Affairs it was lawful for the Catholicks to work a change in the Government by making away the King whom there was no hope to turn from his Heresie It was answered affirmatively (C) Answer to Philanax Anglicus p. 59 65. To what I have said upon this Argument I will add these two Propositions 1. That the grounds on which the War against the King was maintain'd so far as it was maintained under a colour of Religion were laid by the prevailing Faction of the Roman Church and the most dreadful effects of Fanaticism which were the consequents of it may be justified by their Principles And here I could make it evident That the same Maxims of Political Divinity the same Arguments and many times the same Phrases and Expressions are to be found in the heads of both Factions I know it is disputed whether the Ring-leaders of Sedition amongst us poysoned the Jesuites or the Jesuites them but I do not envy the Bishops of Rome the honour of having first poysoned them both with Antimonarchical Doctrines If Milton the great Oracle of one of the Factions had owned himself to be a Papist there had been no reason to wonder at the Impiety of his Doctrines which he
once pronounced it will be lawful for the Commonwealth to deny Obedience to him And because a War must necessarily follow the Counsels how to maintain it must be sit down Arms must be quickly provided and Taxes laid upon the People to defray the Expences of the War And if it be requisite and the Commonwealth cannot otherwise maintain it self it will be lawful both by the right of Defence and more by the Authority proper to the People to declare publiquely the King to be the common Enemy and then to kill him with the Sword The Commonwealth from which the Royal Power hath its Original may when the case requires it bring the King to Judgment and deprive him of his Soveraignty for the Commonwealth hath not so transferr'd the Right of Power to the Prince but it hath reserved a greater Power to it self 2. But if there be no opportunity for the States of the Kingdom to assemble in this case of necessity they may dispense with the Formalities of Law any man may do that which the Commonwealth is supposed to desire should be done the common voice of the People shall be his Warrant that cuts of the Kings Head 3. But what if this be like to endanger the Traytors Neck Then he may take away the King by conveying a strong and subtile Poyson into 〈◊〉 Garment or Saddle as the Moors have kill'd their Enemies with poysoned Presents But 't is time to draw to a conclusion of this Head J. Goodwin in one of his Pamphlets hath this remarkable expression As for offering violence to the person of a King or attempting to take away his Life we leave the proof of the lawfulness of it to those profound Disputers the Jesuites c. And one of his Adversaries in a Letter to him declares that J. Goodwin is for ought he knows the first and only Minister of any Reformed Church that ever was of that Jesuitical Opinion as himself stiles it (L) Nethersole in a Letter to J. Goodwin Printed Jan. 8 1648. And though I will not undertake to make good that Assertion yet to the Positions of any of our Sectaries I can oppose the Authorities of a whole Herd of Jesuites and other Divines of the Roman Church But to all these Observations I will only add one more That as a Preparative to the Murder of King Charles the First a Book was printed An. 1648. licensed by G. Mabbot bearing this Title Several Speeches delivered at a Conference concerning the Power of Parliaments to proceed against their King for Misgovernment The Heads upon which these Speeches are pretended to be made and the very Matter and Expressions excepting only some few not material Passages are wholly taken out of the Book of Parsons an English Jesuit the great Design of which was to baffle the Title of King James to the Crown of England animate the People to Rebellion and introduce the Roman Catholique Religion All the difference is Parsons published his Book by way of Dialogue these turned it into Speeches This Parsons was Rector of the English College at Rome missed very narrowly of a Cardinals Cap of how great esteem he was at Rome may be gather'd from that famous Inscription on his Monument (M) Aligambe p. 413 414. And he hath furnished the Seditious Spirits amongst us with Arguments and Precedents for their Practises against the King This false new Title they are the words of Mr. Prinne ' published at this Season intimated to the World that this Discourse of a Jesuit for which he was condemned of High Treason was nothing else but Speeches made by some Members of the Commons House at a Conference with the Lords of which Book though himself and divers others complained there was nothing done to vindicate the Houses from this gross Imputation (N) Prinne's Speech in the House of Commons Decemb. 4. 1648. p. â—00 By all which we see that the Popes and Jesuites though at a distance contributed very much to the late Bloody Wars in England and the dismal consequences of them All the difference I can find between the Heads of both Factions is only this Whether the Power of Deposing and Chastising Kings belongs to the People or to the Pope The Fanatique Sectaries allow the People by their Representatives to resume the Power into their own hands whereas some of the Popish Fanatiques reserve this Power to the Pope as the Common Father of Christendom Some I say for the greater part of them invest the Commonwealth with this Authority And so much of the first Proposition 2. In the Reign of King Charles the First the Pope stirr'd up his Subjects of the Roman Communion to Rebel forbad them to take the Oath of Allegiance and absolved them from their Obedience In the beginning of his Majesties Reign the Pope by his Bull strictly forbids the taking the Oath of Allegiance (O) Urban 8. Dilectis filiis Catholicis Angliae Romae Maii 30. 1126. An. 1642. The Pope persuades Eugenius Oneal to give proofs of his Valour in joyning with the Irish Catholiques against the Haeretiques grants to him and all his Adherents the Apostolical Benediction and Plenary Indulgence (P) In a Bull dated Octob. 8. 1642 to Eugegenius Oneal An. 1643. he grants a Bull of Plenary Indulgence to all the Roman Catholiques of Ireland who had joyned in the Rebellion began in the year 1641. (Q) This Bull is dated May 25 1643. all which Bulls are extant in the Histories of those times and therefore need not be transcribed When the Irish Papists submitted to the King subscribed and swore to the observation of the Articles agreed upon the Pope absolved them from their Oath took upon himself to be their General in the person of his Nuntio assumed the exercise of the Regal Power imprisoned those Roman Catholiques and threatned to take away their Lives who had promoted the Peace and desired to return to their Allegiance to his Majesty And 't is observable That soon after the most Infamous Rump had crowned all their Wickedness with the Murder of his Sacred Majesty they nulled the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and so made themselves as Innocent as the Child unborn (R) Feb. 9. The House voted that the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy should be Null and Void Memorie 's of the English Affairs ad an 1648. Thus I have proved with as much brevity as a Discourse of this consequence would admit That neither the Reformed Churches abroad nor the Church of England gave any encouragement to the late Bloody Wars in England or the Murder of the Lords Anointed and I have shewed what Influence the Principles and Practises of the prevailing Faction of the Roman Church had upon them I have omitted nothing that deserves our Consideration except the Gunpowder Treason which having been the Subject of many Sermons and Books I shall pass it over only with these two Observations 1. The late Lord Stafford at his Tryal
Protestants call it by what name you please but it must be such a one as will only serve a present turn and is inconsistent with a lasting Settlement such a one as tendeth not to the lessening but the encreasing our Differences and will in the conclusion ruin the beauty if not the very being of the Church of England (A) See the Letter of Advice given to F. Young concerning the best way of managing the Popish Interest in England upon his Majesties Restauration The first Advice is To make the Obstruction of Settlement the great Design especially upon the Fundamental Constitution of the Kingdom The Letter is cited by the Dean of S. Pauls in his Preface to the Unreasonableness of Separation A Church against which as their Attempts have been more frequent so they have been carried on with more Art and Industry than against any Church in the Christian World A Church that is free from Impostures and Innovations from Superstition and Enthusiasm which are the principal Ingredients of Popery A Church that endeavours to reduce all things to their Antient Limits and so long there can be no room for Papal Usurpations And I appeal to all wise men Whether it be either the Interest or Duty of the Romish Faction continuing true to their Principles to strengthen or repair such a Church as this which they are bound to pull down or break in pieces All the Service that I could ever find they did the Church of England was to raise and support Sects and Factions amongst us to creep in among them under various disguises to weaken the Government to lay us open to the Assaults of Foreign and Domestick Enemies and to bring us into such a disorder and confusion as was more likely to end in Atheism or Popery than in the Vnion of Protestants If we look back as far as the first beginning of the Separation from our Church we shall see many strong probabilities that the busie Factors for Popery the Jesuites and Jesuited Papists had a great Influence on it and what advantages they have ever since made of our unnatural Heats and growing Schisms we are not wholly ignorant They knew the safest though not the quickest way to reduce their Religion was by fomenting domestick Factions And when some of the Exiles in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign returned home with a dislike of some things in our Church they laid hold of this Opportunity of dividing the Protestants and enflamed the differences in hope of making them destroy one another and fall a Prey to the common Adversary Whilest Harding Sanders and others of the Roman Communion attacked our Church on one side saith a learned and faithful Historian Coleman Butten Hallingham and others were as busie on the other And it hath been lately published to the world from the Lord Burleighs Papers that Faithful Commin a Dominican Friar and Thomas Heath a Jesuite were employed by the Pope and Jesuites under the disguise of zealous Protestants to draw men off from the Communion of the Church of England Such wonderful Friends are the Emissaries of Rome to order and unite amongst English Protestants But I will conclude this Head with the Declaration of Indulgence An. 1671 2 concerning which the Author of the Letter from a Person of Quality to his Friend in the Country tells us That when the War was to be made with Holland the Lord C. advised to quiet all Dissenters in Religion at home with granting the Declaration of Indulgence and the E. of S. though a man of Principles and Interest opposite to the other presently closed with his Advice And Coleman own'd that the Fatal Revocation of this Declaration for Liberty of Conscience was that to which the Papists owed all their late Miseries and Hazards We all know that from this time Licenses were accepted and Meeting-houses built People were withdrawn from the Parochial Assemblies and Books written to justifie their Practises upon such Principles as naturally lead to endless Separations and the destroying the very being of our Church Whole Herds of Priests and Jesuites have lurked in these Kingdoms and the Roman Church hath had a most plentiful Harvest amongst us If this be called the Vniting of Protestants it must be by the same Figure by which the destroying mens Rights is call'd the defending their Liberties 2. I come to consider the Endeavours which have been used by the Roman Catholicks to procure a Toleration for themselves At Queen Elizabeth's first coming to the Crown the Pope threatned to Excommunicate her the Emperor and other Foreign Princes moved by their Ambassadors for a free and open Exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion (B) Cambden Eliz. ad an 1558. In King James his time Cardinal Bellarmine roundly tells his Majesty That if he desired to consult his own and his Peoples Safety he must give Liberty to their Religion (C) Bel. Resp. ad Apol. Ed. Câ—… Agripp 1610. p. 21. Si â—ex secure regnare vitae suae ac suorum consulere cupit sinat caâ—…os frui antiqua possessione religionis suae And the Lord Herbert in a Letter to the King An. 1623. tells him The Pope will never grant his Consent to the Marriage of the Prince with the Infanta of Spain unless his Majesty grant some not able Privileges and Advantages to the Roman Catholicks in his Dominions He adds The King of Spain would never insist on obtaining these Privileges but that he desires to form a Party in your Majesties Kingdoms which he may always keep obsequious to his will c. (D) Cabala printed 1654. In the beginning of King Charles the First his Reign the Irish Papists taking advantage of the Emptiness of the Kings Treasury proffered to maintain Five Thousand men at their own Charge if they might enjoy a Toleration but that Motion was crushed by the Bishops The Project failing in Ireland the English Papists offer'd but with no better Success to buy the free Exercise of their Religion at the expence of maintaining a certain proportion of Ships (E) Fullers Church History l. 11. p. 128 129. It is well known how that restless Faction fed their Disciples with continual expectations of a Change and though these two Excellent and Pious Princes did inviolably maintain the established Protestant Religion yet they gained this mighty Advantage that notwithstanding all the Writings and Speeches Declarations and Protestations of King James against Popery the Fears and Jealousies of his Subjects occasioned only by some short Relaxations were never cured in his days And in the Reign of King Charles the First whatever Indulgence either the Gentleness of his own Disposition prompted him to or the necessity of his Affairs extorted from him was looked upon as the Effect of his Majesties Inclination to Popery For though the War was raised by discontented covetous and ambitious men and carried on by a leading Faction yet it was necessary to make Religion a Stalking Horse to their
the Guilt of his Blood scarce any one of which he said had been a Beginner or an active Prosecutor of the War If then by the Protestant Religion our Author mean the Christian Religion as it is professed in the Church of England or in the best reformed Churches abroad his Charge is most unjust and malicious if he mean any thing else by it he might better have called it the Popish or Fanatick than the Protestant Religion What a potent Faction of men which they may call Protestants as they call themselves Catholiques did in these Kingdoms all men know But of all men living the Romanists have the least reason to call them Traitors and Rebels as I shall shew afterwards But though the King was arraigned in the name of the Commons of England yet it was well observed by his Majesty at his Tryal That they never asked the Question of the tenth man of the Kingdom much less of the major part of the Nation They had no consent of the House of Peers the Ordinance for trying the King being rejected by the Lords They were no free or full House of Commons for that House being freed from the Insolence of the Army resolved upon a Treaty with his Majesty recalled their Votes of Non-Addresses and voted that he should be in Honour freedom and safety And after the major part of the House had voted the Kings Concessions to be a sufficient ground for Peace the Army Officers seized and committed some of the Members as they were coming to the House accused others of inviting the Scots the last Summer and required that they might be excluded Thus many of the Commons being forced out and others absenting themselves they restored the Votes of Non-Addresses and voted the drawing up a Charge of Treason against his Majesty This is that Venerable Assembly a mere unparliamentary Juncto which in obedience to these Masters damn'd all former Votes in Favour of the King and brought him to the Block against the Laws of the Kingdom the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy the Sense of the Church of England of the House of Peers and of the greater part of the House of Commons But if we trace the Footsteps of this Rebellion as far as we can it will appear that the Romish Faction had a great Influence both on the first Beginnings and Progress of it What is it that they have more maligned than the Government and Constitution of this Church and Kingdom Or how could the Roman Conclave find out a safer if not a quicker way to ruin the Protestant Religion than by breaking in pieces that Church which is the Strength and Beauty that Kingdom whose Soveraign was under God the Defender of the Reformation It was the Judgment of Bishop Bramhall That the Popes Privy Purse and Subtle Councils helped to kindle our Civil Wars which ended in the Tragical Murder of the Lords Anointed The intemperate Heat of the Seditious Spirits in Scotland had fermented a great part of the Kingdom but before they broke out into open Hostilities they made secret Applications to Cardinal Richlieu the great Minister of France and Favourite of Rome which made use of all his Interest and Policy to embroyl his Majesties Affairs in that Kingdom This great Statesman knowing that it was the Interest of England to hold the Ballance even between France and Spain and that his Majesty had in the year 35 hindred the French from making themselves Masters of the Spanish Netherlands resolved to blow the Coals in Scotland and practise upon the Male-contents whom he found so well prepared for an Insurrection To this purpose he sends Chamberlain a Scot to exasperate the Confederates against the King appoints one of his Secretaries to reside among them to be present in their Councils of War and to direct their Proceedings and some of the Covenanters had free access to Con the same Countryman whilst Chamberlain was Negotiating for the Cardinal This is certain the Court of Rome and the Jesuites those inveterate Enemies of our Religion and Government could not have thought of a more effectual and easie Method to bring us to ruin than by making us do their Work for them and the Cardinal who had formed those vast Designs of enlarging the French Monarchy observing if not raising the Tumults in that Kingdom laid hold of the Advantage which men of ambitious and restless Spirits had put into his Hands Ann. 1639. came to light a Letter of the Scotch Covenanters written to the French King wherein they desired his Protection and Assistance The Lord Lowdon being by the Kings Command examined about it confessed it was his hand-writing and that it was framed before the Pacification which being agreed to the Letter he said was never sent (D) The Memoires of D. Hamilton And The Memorials of the English Affairs ad an 1639. The late Author of the Impartial Collection hath furnished us with a more exact Discovery of the secret Influence which those Foreign Councils and Assistances gave both to the Scottish Commotions and English Rebellion The Letter to the French King is set down by him in English (E) An Impartial Collection of the great Affairs of State c. vol. 1. Published 1682. p. 276 277. which I will here transcribe SIR YOur Majesty being the Refuge and Sanctuary of afflicted Princes and States we have found it necessary to send this Gentleman Mr. Colvil to represent to your Majesty the Candour and Ingenuity as well of our Actions and Proceedings as of our Intentions which we desire to be engraved and written to the whole World with a beam of the Sun as well as to your Majesty We therefore most humbly beseech you Sir to give Faith and Credit to him and to all that he shall say on our part touching us and our Affairs being most assured Sir of an Assistance equal to your wonted Clemency heretofore and so often shewed to this Nation which will not yield the Glory to any other whatsoever to be eternally Sir your Majesties most Humble most Obedient and most Affectionate Servants Subscribed by divers of the Principal Covenanters At the Meeting of the Parliament in England Apr. 13. 1640. the Lord Keeper in his Speech to both Houses acquaints them Since his Majesty came from Berwick it came to his certain knowledge That they the Scots have addressed themselves to Foreign States and treated with them to deliver themselves up to their Protection and Power as by Gods great Providence and Goodness his gracious Majesty is able to shew under the Hands of the prime Ringleaders of that Faction than which nothing could be of more dangerous consequence to this and his Majesties other Kingdoms Whosoever they be that do or shall wish England ill they may know it to be of too tough a complexion and courage to be assailed in the Face or to be set upon at the Fore-door and therefore it is not unlikely but they may as in former times find
of any one Reformed Church that concurred with them in promoting it It is now time to come to the Principles of the Jesuites and though I cannot find that the Divines and Casuists of other Orders are much more Honest and Loyal than they yet I shall confine my self to them because their Seditious and Treasonable Doctrines are maintain'd for the advancement of the Court of Rome and by a particular influence from the Holy See This is the richest most learned and active of all the Orders of the Roman Church they are under the strictest Vow of Obedience to the Pope have had more ample Charters and Bulls of Priviledges than all the other Orders they are best qualified to dive into the Councils of Princes and Statesmen and into the Consciences and Purses of the People they have almost devoured the Secular Clergy worn out the other Orders and engrossed the trade of hearing Confessions in England to their own Faction and whensoever there hath been any dangerous Attempt upon our Church or State they were the principal Contrivers and Agents the other Clergy is but their Tools and Instruments How much they have improved and refined these cursed Principles I cannot inform the Reader without transcribing a great part of the Works of Parsons Creswel Suarez Bellarmine Bouchier Mariana Fr. de Verone and others out of almost any one of which I could gather an entire Body of Commonwealth Divinity Nor can it be alledged that these are only the Opinions of private Doctors which are disowned by the Body of the Society for their Books are perused and approved either by the General or by other Superiours or by the most eminent Divines authorized and assigned by them And is it not expressed in most of the Licenses that there is nothing in them contrary to Faith or good Manners That they are profitable for all Casuists and Guides of Souls But that this may appear to be no uncharitable imputation I shall set down some of Bellarmine's Principles and then refer you to the other Authors as they are cited in the Margent by which you may see it is the glory of their Society to be obliged to a perfect Uniformity in Doctrine (M) Disput R. Bellarmini Lagduni 1610. Tom. 1. de R. Pontifice l. 1. c. 3. Regimentemperacum ex omnibus tribus formis c. 1. Then he informs you which is the best kind of Government Let not the Presidents of Provinces be the Kings Deputies or Annual Judges but true Princes who may both be obedient to the Command of the chief Prince and in the mean time govern their Province or City not as if it were another Mans but as their own By this means both Monarchy and Aristocracy may have place in the Commonwealth And if neither the Supream Prince nor the Inferior Princes acquire their Dignity by right of Succession but by the Election of the People this would be the best and most desirable form of Government (N) V. Constitut Soc. Jesconst 42. Doctrinae differentes non admittanturâ—… nec verbo in concionibus vel lectionibus publicis nec scriptis libris qui quidem edi non poterunt in lucem sine approbatione Consensu Praepositi Generalis A form of Government more Democratical by his own acknowledgment than that of Venice (O) L. 1. c. 2 p. 619. Respublica Venetorum est Aristocratia admixta Monarchiae 2. The Power is in the whole Multitude as in its proper Seat and Subject and that by Divine right and it dependeth on the consent and courtesie of the People to set either Kings or Consuls or other Magistrates over them and if there be a lawful Cause they may change the Government and turn a Monarchy into an Aristocracy as they please (P) De Laicis l. 3. c. 6. Sect. Secundo nota Quarto nota This he took to be the common Doctrine of their Divines but afterwards finding that some had written against it he comes to confirm it in the Recognition of his Works And first he proves it from Aquinas Dominicus à Soto Navarre c. then he confirms it by Experience For saith he the City of Rome was first governed by Kings then the People set up Consuls instead of them which kind of Government was therefore esteemed just because it seemed good to the People Afterwards he commends the saying of Navarre That the People do never so transfer their Power to a King but they retain it habitually in themselves and may in certain cases resume it into their own hands Lastly he proves from several Examples out of Scripture That it belongs to the People to set a King over themselves (Q) Recognitio l. 3. Qui est de Laicis 3. Kings are admitted to the Government under certain Conditions and Limitations which if they transgress the Subjects are discharged from all obligation of Obedience to them Princes are received into the Church with an express or tacit Compact That they shall submit their Scepters unto Christ defend and preserve the Faith under the penalty of forfeiting their Crowns therefore if once they fall into Heresie or become Enemies to Religion they may be judged by the Church and Deposed without any Injury to them (R) De R. Pont. l. 5. c. 7. Sect. Quarta ratio 4. It is lawful for the People in certain Cases to depose the King In Temporal Commonwealths if the King degenerate into a Tyrant though he be the head of the Kingdom he may be deposed by the People and another Elected (S) De Concil Auctor l. 2. c. 19. Sect. Ad alteram consequentiam If you object That the Primitive Christians did not depose Nero Dioclesian c. he answers They wanted strength they were bound to be subject for Wrath but not for Conscience sake for otherwise they might lawfully have set up new Kings and Princes over them as is evident from 1 Cor. 6. (T) De R. Pont. l. 3. c. 7. Quod si Christiani olim non deposuerunt Neronem c. id fuit quia deerant vires temporales Christianis Id. de Excus Barclaii If you urge those Texts of Scripture which require Obedience to Kings and Princes T is true saith the Cardinal to disobey your King is against the Law of God but the Pope when he deposes a King doth not permit the People to disobey the King but makes him that was their King to be a King no longer (V) Idem in Earclaium If you demand Precedents out of Scripture Was not Uzziah deposed 2 Chron. ' 26. Was not Athaliah deposed and put to ' death 2 Chron. 23. (X) Id. de R. Pont. l. 5. c. 8. 5. He makes the Civil Government to truckle under the Ecclesiastical For the Civil Government is instituted by Men but the Church Government is from God alone and of Divine Institution (Y) Id. de Laicis l. 3. c. 6. Sect. Quinte nota Et. de R.
Pont. l. 1. c. 7. Sect. Praeterea principatus c. The Cognizance of Church Matters belongs not to Secular Princes they have no judgment in Ecclesiastical Matters because Civil Peace and Tranquility is the proper object of their Care If they do not their duty they are to be brought under the Lash and be compelled to it by Excommunication The Ecclesiastical Power is to the Secular as the Spirit is to the flesh which rules moderates and sometimes restrains it but the Flesh hath no command over the Spirit neither can it direct or judge or restrain it in any thing (A) L. 1. c. 7. tit Quod non sit Ecclesiasticum regimen penes Principes Seculares Vid.l. 5. c. 7. de Clericis l. 1. c. 29. Sect. Alterum Argumentum c. Et Bellar. contra Barclaium 6. Though the Cardinal hath not in express Terms asserted the lawfulness of putting Kings to death and I know very few of any Perswasion that have expresly asserted it yet he hath furnished the Regicides both with Precedents for their practice and Warrants for their Doctrine For he teaches That the Church may exercise a Coercive power over Kings and Princes by any ways and methods that are necessary for the good of the Church That Kings may be Deposed and there is no great difference as I shall shew afterwards between Deposing and putting them to death He proves his Doctrine from the practice of Jehoiada the High Priest that commanded the Souldiers to put Athaliah to death not only for Tyranny but for adhering to a false Religion (B) Id. de R. Pont. l. 5. c. 7 8. In his Book against King James he commends the Murther committed by J. Clement on Henry the Third of France calls the Regicide a Sacred Person and admires the miraculous Providence of God in bringing him to death (C) Bell. in Torto p. 71. Ed. 1608. Deus ultus est Christum suum dum per alium sacratum virum alioqui militiae imperitum inermem Regem tundem non sine manifesto divinae Providentiae miraculo intersecit But what if Heaven will not work a Miracle for them The Cardinal is so well skilled in the Art of King-killing that he can dispatch a Prince with less hazard to his own Party He would not have Ecclesiastical Men put them to death with their own hands but the Pope must first admonish them then deprive them of the Sacraments next absolve their Subjects from the Oaths of Allegiance and if need be deprive them of their Royal authority The Execution belongs to others (D) Id. contra Barclaium Thus I have given a short account of the Antimonarchical Principles of this great Man that was first Reader of Controversial Divinity at Rome afterwards sent by Pope Sextus the Fifth into France with his Legate Cardinal Cajetan where he stir'd up the People to a Rebellion against their Sovereign (E) Qui Lutetiae egit per illos annos publici furoris totius conjurationis Ligam vocant approbator fautor fax perpetua Is Casauboni ad Fr. Duc. Epistola p. 21. and was advanced to the dignity of a Cardinal by Clement the Eighth (F) Alegambe Bibl. Script Soc. Jes p. 410 411. I might now shew that these are the common Principles of the Society but this would afford matter enough for an entire Discourse (G) See Parsons under the counterfeit name of Doleman in his Conference about the next Succession to the Crown of England part 1. Creswel under the name of Philopater and Reynolds under the name of Rossary De justa Christianae reipublicae in Reges impios haereticos autoritate He was no Jesuite but of the same Principles Suarez Def. fid Cath. c. A Book written against King James Bouchier de justa Hen. 3. abd è Francorum Regno A small Book but almost every page is full of Treasonable Principles Mariana de Rege Regis Institutione or as some call it Institutio principum occidendorum Fr. de Verone Apol. pro J. Chasiello A Book that if it be possible outstrip Mariana's in Villany To which I could add Endem Johannes Molina Lessius Em. Sa Greg. de Valentia Tolet. c. Whether Junius Brutus was a Protestant or no is not certain I find King James suspects the Book was set out by a Papist The Positions of Knox and Buchanan are summed up by B. Bancroft in his dangerous Positions l. 1. c. 4. The later Patrons of these Principles are well known These are the Men that furnish'd the leading Faction amongst us with Principles and precedents with Arguments and Texts of Scripture as will appear to any one that compares the Books cited in the Margent with the Speeches Declarations and Pamphlets of the late Times Out of them they either did or might have derived the grounds of the War against the King of erecting an High Court of Justice and of bringing him to the Block Out of them I could easily deduce all the Materials of that Bloody Ordinance to erect an High Court of Justice for the Trial of the King the Impeachment against his Majesty in the name of the Commons of England the Speech of Bradshaw President of that Mock-court of Justice and Milton's Vindication of the Proceedings against the King But because Bellarmine did not in express terms justifie the putting of Kings to Death I will add That Mariana doth not only defend the lawfulness of a formal and aggressive War against a Soveraign Prince but also sets down a Method of destroying him either with or without the Formality of Justice His Book was written An. 1599. which was divers years after he had read Tho. Aquinas in the University of Paris (H) Alegambe p. 258. It was approved by Aquaviva the General of the Jesuites by Hoyeda Visitor of the Society in the Province of Toledo by divers other grave and Learned Jesuites It was commended or justified by Ribadeneira Scribanius Gretser and Becanus of the same Society It was ordered to be burnt by the Parliament of Paris but F. Cotton could never be induced to write against it The Authors of the Apology publish'd at Paris in the name of the Society soon after the Murder of Henry the Fourth durst not plainly and honestly condemn it and whatever some credulous People are now made to believe neither the Pope nor Superiours of the Jesuites ever passed any publick Censure upon this most pestilent and Treasonable Book But to return 1. Suppose there be a competent Strength and interest then the readiest and safest way (F) Mariana Edit Moguntie 1605. p. 58 59 c. is for the People to meet in a publick Assembly to deliberate by publick Consent what is to be done and then to keep inviolably that which is agreed upon by Common consent The Prince must first be admonished and exhorted to amend but if he refuse the Remedy and there be no hopes of his amendment the Sentence being
General Councils and by the Publique Breviaries And this is no mere Speculative Doctrine but a kind of State-Engine fitted to raise and support the Papal Monarchy Have not the Bishops of Rome made use of it as often as it was in their Power and served their Interest Have they not trampled on the Necks of Princes and absolved their Subjects from their Allegiance Disposed of their Crowns and Dominions animated their own Subjects and other Princes to take up Arms against them Cast them out of the Church and out of their Kingdoms Yea so true have they been to this Principle that not only such as were very Prodigies of Pride and Tyranny but even the more prudent and moderate Popes have so often put it in practise that the troubles and Confusions the Wars and Treasons which have followed in Christendom make up a great part of the History of some Ages (Z) See the Catalogues of Princes excommunicated and deposed by Popes in their own Authors V.G. Bellar. de R. Pont. l. 5. c. 8. Bzovius de Pont. Rom. c. 46. p. 613. to 620. Paul the third Excommunicated and deposed our Henry the Eighth Bullarium tom 1. p. 619. Pius the Fifth Excommunicated and Deposed Queen Elizabeth tom 2. p. 305. Clement the Eighth sent two Breves into England to debar King James from succeeding to the Crown See King James his Works p. 257. And yet after all the Complaints and Sufferings of Princes under this Usurped Power not the least care is taken either by the Church or Court of Rome to secure their Rights Why did not the Council of Trent make a plain and Honest Explication of the Popes Power and the Rights of Princes when they had so fair an opportunity to vindicate themselves and their Religion And in what request this Doctrine is at Rome may appear from hence that since the breaking out of the Popish Plot in England the present Pope was pleased to condemn sixty five Propositions but as great a Scandal as their Religion lay under amongst us could not find in his heart to speak one unkind word of this Doctrine (A) A Decree made at Rome March 2. 1679. condemning some Opinions of the Jesuites and other Casuists I know some private persons and some Assemblies of Church-men of the Roman Communion have at some times taught the contrary Doctrine but it concerns them not me to reconcile their Determinations with the Doctrine of their Church However I will say these three things 1. They have been such as were over-awed by Princes or in expectation of Favours and Preferments from them 2. They have been censured and excommunicated by the Teaching Governing part of the Church and as much as in them lay shut out of her Communion 3. Where Princes Excommunicated and deposed for other real or pretended Crimes have procured any Advocates to plead for them yet they have either excepted the case of Haeresie or not undertaken to prove the Unlawfulness of deposing Princes for it 2. The next thing to be considered is the Doctrine of King-killing Concerning which the late Lord Stafford did indeed declare That if he were of any Church whatsoever and found that to be its Principle he would leave it But this Patron of the Roman Cause did not think fit to acquaint us with that expression of his Lordship in the printed Tryal p. 53. As to the Doctrine of King-Killing and absolving Persons from their Allegiance I cannot say the Church of Rome does not hold it I never heard it did hold it it may be it does it may be not I say not one thing or other From which words we may learn these two things 1. That his Lordship knew not that the Church of Rome had any where condemn'd this wicked Doctrine 2. That the English Priests and Confessors do not plainly and honestly difavow and condemn it or instruct their Proselites in the Principles of Loyalty Indeed the Church of Rome hath not in express terms asserted the Lawfulness of putting Kings to death but there is so little difference between the deposing and putting Kings to death that whosoever allows of the one can be no Enemy to the other if he understand the Consequences of his own Doctrine For when a King is deposed by any lawful Authority he is a King no longer If he take up Arms to recover his Dominions you may fight against him with as good a Conscience as against an Usurper And will a King be so tame as to lay down his Crown at the Popes or his Peoples Feet Will he suffer himself to be stript of his Royal Dignity without striking a stroke or solliciting the Assistance of other Princes I would not imitate the uncharitable Spirit of the Roman Church whilst I am writing against it nor dare I charge all men with the Consequences of their own Doctrines but I am sure many of the greatest Divines and Casuists of that Church have both seen and vindicated them and I do not find that the rest are able to confute them But saith Cardinal Perron in his forecited Orations a King deposed being once Reformed and become a new Man may be restored to the lawful use and practise of his Regality And what if he will not reform what if he be more hardned in disobedience than Childerick was and prefer his own Honour and Conscience above the Bull of a Pope or the Act of a Rebellious Faction in his own Kingdom truly then he may lose his Head as well as his Crown notwithstanding any care the Church of Rome hath taken of him If he take the Field so may his Enemies it may be they have been before hand with him But suppose the poor disarmed man a King you cannot call him if he have no right to the Crown be not able to raise Forces and therefore resolves to trudge to his Holiness and there bare-headed bare-footed as we know who did humbly beg Absolution of the Pope Perhaps he may be in a good Humour grant him Absolution upon such terms as he did Henry the 4th that he submit himself to the Judgment of an Assembly of the States But what if it be now too late to reforme It may be his Kingdoms are already given away to another for the Popes are free enough in giving what is none of their own or perhaps the Estates of the Kingdom have turned it into a Commonwealth In Fine Princes deposed from their Soveraignty are liable to so many hazards that they have seldom survived their deprivation unless it were in exile or in a Prison But I must pass over the Jugglings and Equivocations of men of King-killing Principles Ask them if it be lawful to kill a King They tell you no and many of them call God to Witness the Integrity of their Hearts and Loyalty of thier Practises But if a King fall from the Faith and become an Enemy to Gods Church and People If he do regis personam exuere turn Tyrant and
Soveraign Princes in that Decree or not is not material for since the Rights of Inferiour Princes are properly their Soveraigns to absolve Subjects from their Allegiance without asking the Soveraigns leave is to deprive the Soveraigns of their due That this Power hath been challenged and executed by divers Popes upon Soveraign Princes as well as Subordinate Lords and particularly upon Henry the 8th and Queen Elizabeth is notorious to all the World and they did no more than the Laws of the Roman Church allow (E) Decret par 2. caus 15. qu. 6. c. 4. Nos Sanctorum c. Decret Greg. l. 5. tit 7. c. 16. I know not why the Roman Catholiques should call this an Usurpation of the Popes when they are entrusted by the General Councils with the Interpretation and Execution of all their Decrees But what need I insist on the proof of this Proposition When his Lordship in the printed Tryal declared He could not say the Church of Rome does not hold it only he never beard it did And a learned Author of that Church in Answer to this Charge saith ' As to the Popes Power of absolving Subjects I beg leave is wave such curious Controversies (F) See Dr. Stilling fleets Answer to several late Treatises 1674 in the Preface where his words are cited Thus I have endeavoured to give a clear and satisfactory Account of these four great Questions and proved my Assertions by as good Law as any is in the Roman Church at this day I know nothing that can invalidate the Testimonies which I have produced unless they can shew either that I have misquoted any of the Laws or mistaken the Sense of them that they have been condemned or abrogated by some publique Act of the Church binding to all persons of that Communion or else that the same Principles which oblige the Roman Catholiques to receive the other Articles of Faith wherein we differ from them do not also oblige them to receive these Canons and Decrees But if none of these things can be proved then let all men judge Whether the Treasons and Seditions in other Countries especially the late bloody Wars in England and Hellish Murder of the Lords Anointed may by the same reason be imputed to the Protestant Religion as Queen Mary's Cruelties the Powder Plot the Irish Barbarism the French Massacre and many other Instances of Popish Malice and Bloodiness from former Examples may be charged on the Roman Church and Religion CHAP. IV. Testimonies of the Loyalty of the Roman Church and Religion considered The first from St. Math. 22.21 The second from the Decree of the General Council of Constance The third from the Annotations of the Divines of Rhemes on Rom. 13. The fourth from the Censure of the Doctors of the Faculty of Sorbon against a Book of Sanctarellus LEst this might seem a meerly extorted Profession of a despairing Man p. 44. My Lord endeavoured to prove by several convincing Testimonies he had ever been Instructed and Educated in the same Sentiments as the established Doctrine of the Roman Catholick Church 1. His first Testimony was taken from places of Holy Scripture particularly that of St. Math. 22.21 Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars c from the plain and clear sense of which and other Texts of Holy Writ nothing he said in this World was able to remove him That we are bound to render to all Men their dues and to Caesar the things that are Caesars is not disputed among any sort of Men that I know But how shall a Roman Catholick understand which are the Rights of Caesar or by a just and equal distribution give to God what is Gods and to the King what is the Kings The Holy Scriptures indeed have told us with all plainess and sincerity what we are to give to Caesar but the lusts and interests of Men have perverted the clearest Texts and made them serve their own Pride and Covetousness I believe his Majesty will hardly stand to the determination of the Rhemish Divines by whom his Lordship saith he was instructed in the Principles of Faith and Loyalty For our Blessed Savior commands us to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and his own practice was a Comment on his Precept But the Rhemists in their Annotations outhat Text are afraid to speak plain as Men that mean honestly should do They are more afraid of giving too much than too little to Caesar (A) See the Rhemists Annotations on St. Math. 22.21 In their Annotations on St. Math. 17. they roundly tell us that Caesar hath no right to any payments from the Clergy (B) Rhem. Annot 8. St. Mat. 17.26 Though Christ tò avoid scandal paid Tribute yet indeed he sheweth that himself ought to be free from such payments as also his Apostles and in them the whole Clergy c. Which Exemption and Priviledge being grounded upon the very Law of Nature it self c. And in Hebrews 5.1 in all Matters touching God his Service and Rellgion the Priest hath only Charge and Authority as the Priest Temporal is the Peoples Governour Guide and Sovereign in the things touching their worldly Affairs And one of the Holy General Councils of the Roman Church tells us and pretends to prove it from Scripture too that Secular Princes ought not to require any Tribute from the Clergy (C) Conc. Lat. 3. c. 19. p. 455 456. Ne Laici imponant Ecclesiis onera And in the Margent we have Gen. 47. quoted 2. His second Testimony was taken from the Authority of the General Council of Constance to which all Roman Catholicks are bound to submit the 15th Canon and definition of which Council is Quilibet Tyrannus potest debet licitè meritorie occidi c. Every Tyrant lawfully and meritoriously may and ought to be killed by any Vassal or Subject whatsoever even by hidden Treacheries and subtle Flatteries or Adulations notwithstanding any Oath given or confederation made with him without expecting the Sentence or Command of any Judge whatsoever Which Clause is added in regard of the right of Supream Temporal Monarchs over Inferiour Princes subordinate to them This Doctrine the Synod declares to be erronious in Faith and Manners and the same as Heretical condemns c. The Council condemned this Proposition And would not an Assembly of the old Heathen Philosophers have done as much Had the same Proposition been brought before them and upon the same occasion I am confident as far as we can judge by their Writings they would have made a better provision for the security of Princes than the Fathers at Constance did But since it is acknowledged That all Roman Catholicks are bound to submit to this Council of Constance I will fairly represent some of the Doctrines of it That damnable Doctrine of breaking Faith with Hereticks was notoriously Patronized and put in practice by this Council For the Emperour had granted a safe Conduct to J. Husse
become of the Souls of the people May not the most erroneous and pernicious Doctrines and Practises prevail in the Church whilst the greatest part of it follow their Guides and think they are bound to believe as the Church believes I know 't is commonly call'd the Jesuitical Art of Equivocation but though they have extended the Practise of it further though they have polished it with more dexterity and defended it with more subtilty than others of that Communion yet I must needs say Parsons spoke one great Truth when he told us this Doctrine hath been received in the Roman Church for 400 years The Principal Cases wherein the Divines of the Roman Church allow of it are these that follow If a man be charged with a secret Crime which cannot be proved by clear evidence If the Judges before whom he appears be Incompetent as all ours in England are If it were told him in Confession or if he hath been absolved by a Priest If it be necessary to the obtaining some great good or the avoiding some great evil And what a man may safely say he may safely swear What he may deny in a Court of Judicature he may deny at his Execution For if that which otherwise would be a Lie is saved by a mental Reservation there can be no danger in swearing to it in standing upon our own vindication and making the most serious Appeals to Heaven at the point of death Besides suppose it were unlawful to equivocate in any case whatsoever yet if it be not a Mortal Sin if a thousand Venial Sins cannot damn a man I know no reason why they should not venture upon it to save their own Lives or the Honour of their Religion In fine This Doctrine hath been expresly avowed by the Holy See those Divines which declaim against it with most seeming bitterness in other cases allow of it in that of Confessions those few Divines which have written against it are charged with singularity or haeresie But he that desires to see the Doctrine of Equivocation and Mental Reservation justified by the greatest Authorities of the Roman Church may consult any of the Authors cited in the Margent (F) Lessius de Antichristo in Opuse Ed. 1626. p. 773. De Justitia Jure c. 42. Dub. 9. n. 47 48 p. 626 c. Bonacina tom 2. Disp 4. qu. 1. punct 12. Fr. Tolet. De instruct Sac. l. 4. c. 21. l. 5. c. 57. Eudaemon Joannes Apol. pro Garnetto c. 2. Azorias Institut Mor. l. 11. De Jure jurando c. 4. J. de Dicastillo Tract de Juram Disp a. dub 12. See also Is Casaub Ep. ad Fr. Duraeum Parsons in his Treatise of Mitigation And in his quiet and sober Recknoning with M. Morton The Judgment of Pope Pius the 5th Abbot de Mendacio Pras p. 9. c. And p. 39 40. whose Books are licensed and approved by their Superiours or other Eminent Divines And now it were easie to give an Answer to the Decree made at Rome March 2. 1679. against some Propositions of the Jesuites and other Casuists that Decree being so very lame and defective that we are not at all secured by it from the pernicious effects of this Doctrine for 1. The Propositions condemned are the 27th and 22th and though I did believe those two Propositions to be false yet I might equivocate in some of the Principal Cases before mentioned 2. They are not condemned as evil or impious in themselves contrary to the Laws of God and Nature and consequently the Censure or Condemnation is not indispensable But what if a man be barr'd the use of Equivocation and Mental Reservation What if he voluntarily or by the command of his Judges do renounce them I answer If they be lawful in other cases there can be no reason why they should be sinful in this V. G. You are commanded to tell all you know of such a Matter Your Answer is I know no more than I have told you i.e. with this Reservation That I am bound to tell you And being further required to speak without a Mental Reservation why may you not still answer I do not make use of any Mental Reservation i.e. So as I am bound to tell you This second Answer is defensible upon the same Principles with the first So Garnette was required by the Lords Commissioners to answer without Equivocation yet he denied a certain Truth upon his Salvation and with the most bitter and solemn Imprecations (G) Is Casaub Ep. ad Fr. Duraeum p. 117. And this was no more than was Lawful by the Principles of Parsons Soto Ja. a Graffiis Bonacina c. On the contrary Simplicity and Godly Sincerity are constantly recommended by her the Roman Church as truly Christian Vertues necessary to the conservation of Justice Truth and Common Society But doth this Author think we never read the Acts of their Famous Council of Constance I am sure J. Husse and Jerome of Prague felt the sad effects of the Simplicity and godly Sincerity which are but other names for breach of publique Faith of the Roman Church Having thus examined the Principles of this little Treatise so far as they fall under our present Debate it will be no hard matter to discover the Fraud and Hypocrisie of his Discourse p. 47. which deserves a distinct Consideration The question between us is Whether the denial of the Principles charged on the Roman Catholicks be a sufficient Justification of their Innocence This Author seems to joyn with us in a just abhorrence of them Let those in Gods Name if any there be of what Religion soever who hold such Tenents suffer for them why should the Innocent be involved with the Guilty There is neither Reason nor Justice in it I confess the Design of dividing the Papists and making a difference between men of loyal and disloyal Principles is very charitable even great and good men are apt to believe that to be practicable which they earnestly desire and I know none which would not be glad to see a prudent and safe way found out for making a discrimination between the Innocent and the Guilty But the Dispute among those of out Church is not whether there be any Loyal and Honest men of the Roman Communion nor yet whether they deserve more Favour than other Papists but whether we can find out a safe and certain way to distinguish between men of Honest and Seditious Principles It is agreed on both sides 1. That there are some good men of that Communion 2. That the Righteous ought not to be as the Wicked 3. That we can have no security from the Principles of their Religion Those very persons who are for dividing the Papists acknowledge That none of them can be truly good and loyal but such in whom common reason or common Christianity prevail above their Religion that all the Reason we can have to believe that they will do us no hurt if they are truly
him who is Obliged before God is to teach men to prefer their own Conscience before the Authority of the Church (Z) History of the Council of Trent l. 8. And Laynez was so far from being call'd to an Account for that bold Assertion that he was Honoured and highly complimented by the Fathers of that Council In short The Bishops of Rome have presumed to alter the Nature of Things to absolve in some Cases from the Obedience of God himself to grant Pardons for the greatest Sins against the Divine Majesty and to License Incestuous Marriages against the Law of God and Nature But the High-Priest did not use to let out Goliahs Sword but upon Extraordi-Occasions It may be these Dispensations are not very commonly and frequently sent over hither for many Papists do not need them some are not fit to be trusted with them and 't is not always for the Interest of the Roman Church and Religion to grant them CHAP. VI. Of the late Lord Staffords Declaration and Address to the House of Peers concerning a Comprehension for the Dissenting Protestants and a Toleration for the Papists 1. Of the Comprehension for the Dissenting Protestants Three Propositions concerning Comprehension 'T is neither the Duty nor Interest of any Roman Catholicks continuing true to their Principles to promote a firm and lasting Vnion of Protestants What Influence the Romish Agents had on the first Separation from our Church Of the late Declaration of Indulgence 2. Of the Toleration for the Papists Of their endeavours to procure a Toleration under Queen Elizabeth King James King Charles the First the late Vsurped Powers and his present Majesty What the Design of that Faction is in endeavouring to procure a Toleration They have been the worse for Favour and Indulgence as is evident from their Behaviour towards Queen Elizabeth King James King Charles the First and his present Majesty This Chapter concluded with the Protestation of King Charles the First P. 52 53. MY Lords Declaration before the House of Lords after his Condemnation That there had been at divers times endeavours used and Overtures made to obtain an Abrogation or at least a Mitigation of Severities against Catholicks but this to be procured no otherwise than by Legal and Parliamentary means That he himself went to Breda whilst the King was there and propounded 100000 l. in behalf of the Catholicks to take off the Penal Laws That after the King came in there was a Bill brought into the House in Favour of Catholicks but it was opposed by my Lord Chancellor Hide With some later Proposals and Expedients c. These he avouched were the chief and only Designs he ever had or knew of amongst Catholicks for promoting their Religion In his former Address to the Court p. 41. he declared That it was ever indeed his Opinion that an Act of Comprehension for Dissenting Protestants and a Toleration for Roman Catholicks yet so as not to admit them into any Offices of Profit or Dignity would much conduce to the Happiness of the Nation but this not otherwise to be procured or desired than by a free Consent of the King Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled That he never read or knew of Coleman 's Letters or Consultations for Tolerations till he saw the Letters themselves in the Printed Tryal In the Printed Tryal p. 201. My Lords I believe that after that all of all Religions had Meetings amongst themselves to endeavour to get that Toleration which they proposed humbly to your Lordships there I will never deny that my Opinion was and is That this Kingdom can never be happy till an Act of Parliament pass to this effect It was my Opinion then and I did endeavour it all I could that the Dissenting Protestants might have a Comprehension and the other those of the Church of Rome a Toleration But how comes a zealous Papist to have so much kindness for Dissenting Protestants Were I a Dissenting Protestant I should very hardly be persuaded That those men which ever since the Reformation have endeavour'd to undermine the Foundations of our Religion are now become Friends to the Protestant Interest I should call to mind Coleman's Declaration after Sentence given against him That possibly he might be of an Opinion that Popery might come in if Liberty of Conscience had been granted I should be afraid of helping to break in pieces the established Religion and Government lest when they have gotten the Power into their Hands they should betake themselves to their old Arguments of Fire and Fagot But to return I shall take occasion from his Lordships Declaration to give a brief Account of the Comprehension for Dissenting Protestants and the Toleration for the Roman Catholicks so far as they of the Romish Party are concerned in them 1. I begin with the Comprehension for Dissenting Protestants If by Comprehension be meant such a Settlement as tendeth to a firm and lasting Union of Protestants and is consistent with the Security of the Reformed Religion the Honour of our first Reformers and the establishment of the Church of England in short such a Settlement as may shew that the present Terms of Communion with our Church are not unlawful I say if this be the meaning of Comprehension let it be considered 1. That Private Persons of how great Eminency soever can only make Proposals to their Lawful Superiors for the Laws are still in force and cannot be altered by any Authority less than that by which they were Enacted 2. That divers very Eminent Persons of the Church of England have made the most fair and equal Proposals for the Satisfaction of all wise and peaceable men which are consistent with the Honour and Safety of the best established Church in Christendom 3. Since the Alteration of the Established Laws concerning the Preservation of our Church and Religion is one of the weightiest Considerations in the World since it is impossible to gain all Parties without receding too far from the first Principles of the Reformation there is something to be done by the Dissenters before they can reasonably hope for an Alteration of the present Constitutions I mean it should be known what kind of Alteration is desired and for whom what sort of men will be gained by it and what number of them When they which make such loud outcries and passionate Expostulations for Vnion have gone thus far then may our Governours understand what Measures are fittest to be taken i. e. Whether it be expedient to make any Alterations and if it be how far to Alter for the sake of Peace and a firm Vnion of Protestants Private Persons may judge of the Lawfulness of things imposed by Authority but it is an Argument of Pride and Immodesty for private persons to think themselves Competent Judges of the necessity or expediency of Laws But this is not the Design of the leading Faction of the Roman Church I grant they may be for promoting a seeming Union among