at Rome That if hee did not speedily withdraw that citation hee would no longer acknowledge him for Pope At which bold Declaration the Pope and his Conclave being affrighted the prosecution of that businesse ceased by the very withdrawing of the Citation it self and by the Popes future silence All which open affronts the Popes in this fifteenth age after our bleffed Saviours incarnation endured from these Kings not because they were more deare to their Subjects then their Predecessors or the Popes lesse potent then in former times for their strength in Italy was more encreased in that age then in ten fore-going but indeed it was the light of the Gospel that began about these times to dawn every where that made way for dispelling those chains of darknesse with which both Prince and people had in those former ages been enfettered So as the Pope fearing lest all should fall from him as some Germane Princes Republiques and Cities had already done was fain to comply with the French King to submit to the Emperor and to Court the King of England by the intercession of foraine Princes for a reconcilement But to proceed from Henry the eighth of England the Father to Mary Queen of the same Realm his daughter of whom and her wisdome the Pontificians so much boast It is certain that she entred her raign with the breach of her publique faith For whereas the Crown was set on her head by the German and Commons of Suffolk although they knew her to be a Papist which shewes that the godly Protestant usually nicknamed by those that are prophane lustfull and Popishly affected is the best Subject any Soveraign can be happy in yet she in one of her first acts of Councell took order for their restraint long before the Masse and Latine Service were generally received in London it self and caused that Diocesse to taste the sharpest Inquisition and persecution that raged during her raign which was happily shortened by her husbands contemning her person and her enemies conquering her Dominions neither of which she ever had power to revenge or recover so as though the cause of her death proceeded from no outward violence yet was her end as inglorious and miserable as her raign had been turbulent and bloody She might have taken warning by the sudden and immature death of James the fifth King of Scotland her cousin Germane who raising persecution in Scotland against his loyall and innocent Protestant Subjects in the yeere 1539. burning some exiling and imprisoning others and forcing many to blaspheme in abjuring the known Truth by the advice and procurement of James Beton Archbishop of St Andrews and David Beton Abbot of Arbroth his brother never saw good day after two brave young Princes his sons were the yeer following cut off by abortive ends in their cradles Wars to his great losse and disadvantage were raised between himself and his Uncle Henry the eighth King of England and all things fell out so crosse to his haughty and vast minde as it hastened his death which fell out in the yeere 1542. SECT. XV WEre the Histories of Popish Prelates worthy to be joyned to those of Kings and Princes wee might fill up a large Tract with Gods judgements powred upon them For as most of them have been given up to lust and crapulositie so have many of them been bitter enemies of the truth and stingie persecutors We have seen the fall of the Cardinall of Guise and all ages have cause to admire the exemplary judgements of God powred out upon that bastard-slip Stephen Gardner Bishop of Winchester in the very instant of his plauditees and caresses for the vivicombury of reverend Latimer and learned Ridley But I shall content my selfe to have abstracted as a taste for the rest the notorious punishments inflicted by a higher hand upon two Arch-Prelates the one of England the other of Scotland Thomas Arundell Arch-bishop of Canterbury having been the successefull traytor by the help of his reverend fellow-Bishops to establish Henry the 4th in the Throne of R. the second his liege Lord and Cousin-German pressed the new King whose broken title needed his Prelates supportment to use his temporall sword for the destroying the disciples of John Wicklesse whose numbers were so increased at that time as they even filled the kingdome the King assents and having by their mercilesse instigation shed the bloud of Gods Saints he raigned neither long nor happily H. 5. a brave and martiall Prince his son succeeding him the Protestants began to meet more publikely and to professe the truth more openly then before the Archbishop thereupon renews his former suit to the son he had before pressed with successe upon the father and prevailed In particular he first aimed at the destruction of Sir John de Old Castle Knight commonly called the Lord Cobham who had most affronted him This noble Gentleman was extracted from an ancient Family of Wales where he had large possessions and much alliance by whose means he after lay long-hidden there notwithstanding all the search his bloudy enemies made after him he had issue by Katherine daughter of Richard ap Yevan his first wife John who died before himself and Henry de Old Castle who survived him and to whom King Henry the sixth in the 7th yeare of his raign restored divers Mannors and Lands which had been entailed upon him he married to his last wife Joan the sole daughter and heire of Sir John de la Pole Knight whom he had begotten upon the sole daughter and heire of the Lord Cobham of Kent which Joan had been first married to Sir Robert de Hemenhale a Suffolk Knight and was secondly the wife of Sir Reginald de Braybroke Knight by whom shee had onely issue that survived her the said Sir John de Old Castle her third husband in her right enjoyed the Castle of Couling in Kent and many other large and great possessions and by the marriage of her also he was neerly allied to the Duke of Suffolk the Earl of Devonshire and many other great Peers of the Realme at that time and did doubtlesse enjoy the stile and title of Baron Cobham as is infallibly proved by severall Writs of Summons sent unto him being all entred upon Record in the Close Rolls by which he was summoned to assist in the House of Peers in Parliament by that name in the time of H. 4. and H. 5. All which I have thought fit to transmit to posterity touching this noble martyr being no where to be found in any publike story not onely to shew how many supportments he had besides the favour of King Henry himself to have retarded the Clergie from questioning him but also how easily he was destroyed by the bloudy Prelates of those endarkened times when the Soveraign had but permitted them the use of his power to ancillate to their cruell resolutions of which impotent act of the Kings saith Archbishop Parker himselfe Rex virum clarum sibique familiarissimum
thirty millions of money upon those fruitless designs and not gained a foot of ground in either of those Realmes he lost a great part of the Seventeen Provinces with whom having broken the Oath solemnly sworne to them upon his Inauguration they by assistance of England and France freed themselves from his unjust oppression and tyranny Neither did the divine Justice let him so escape but raised a fire in his own house so as the Jeast of Augustus touching Herod might well be verified in him That it had been better to have been his swine then his sonne For whereas he had issue by Mary his first wife the daughter of John the third of that name King of Portugall one onely sonne called Charles a Prince of admirable towardlinesse he during the life of Englands unhappy Mary his second wife treated a marriage for his said sonne with Elizabeth the eldest daughter of Henry the second of France During the treaty Mary his wife dying he marries the Princesse Elizabeth himselfe intended for his sonne they both often in private after never forgetting their old affection lament their unhappy losse each of other the sonne also distasts his Fathers cruelties and the butcheries of his Inquisitors This enraged his jealous Father who having in the yeare 1568. first imprisoned him within a few dayes after poysoned him in a dish of broath His Mother in Law followed him within a few moneths after sent out of the world by the same kind hand and meanes say the French Writers the violence of the poyson causing her to miscarry also by an abortion And then was Philip the Father put to seek out a fourth wife and having married Anne the daughter of Mary his own naturall sister he had issue by her Ferdinand and James both cut off by death in their Infancy and Philip who being the onely issue of this incestuous Match lived to inherit his Fathers Dominions though not the full measure of his cruelties having been perhaps forewarned by his sad and loathsome end to pursue a more milde and peaceable Government Rodolph the second of that name Emperour of Germany not following the steps of the wise Maximilian his Father but of the foresaid Philip his Brother in Law sought by all secret and hostile means to enervate and destroy Religion in the Empire What got he by it but to have the curse of the Scripture to fall upon him That the Elder Brother should serve the younger for Matthias the Arch-Duke of Austria raising an Army in the yeere 1608. and joyning his Forces with those of the oppressed Protestants in Bohemia hemmed up his brother Rodolph in Prague got the Kingdom of Hungary from him in possession the Empire in reversion and left him only the robes and complements of Majesty which notorious affront he did not long over-live nor ever had the means or power to revenge SECT. XI IF wee passe out of Spain and Germany from the House of Austria into France to consider the sad successes of the Princes of the Valesian line upon their hatred and persecution of Religion wee shall see so many instances of Gods just indignation against them as they may not only leave to all posterity a just ground of admiration but save us the labour also of searching any further back into the elder Histories of Gods judgements powred out on the persecuting Emperours in the Primitive times Henry the second of France was meanly married to Katherine de Medices the Niece of Pope Clement the seventh during the life of Francis the Dolphine his elder brother afterwards poysoned That prudent Prince Francis the first his Father deceasing hee succeeded him in his Throne and Purple and swayed the French Scepter divers yeers with much tranquillity and happinesse till loathing the coiture of his Queen unfit indeed for a Princes bed he grew highly enamoured on Pictavia of Valence a woman of exquisite beauty and good extraction with whom hee long after lived in continuall advowtrie and was by her enticed to the persecution and slaughter of the Protestants in the yeere 1553. that so by the confiscation of their lands and goods shee might enrich her self and her kindred This persecution set a period to all his former victories and was followed the next yeere with the losse of the City of Senis in Italy to the Spaniard the death of that gallant old Generall Leo Strozzi by a base hand and the overthrow of the French Army by James de Medices In the yeer 1556. the violence of persecution was again renewed against the Professors of the Truth and the very next yeer following as before God again gave up the French Army to the slaughter of the Spaniards and the Dutch at the fiege and battell of St. Quintins in which there were about 3000. slain upon the place and many of them signall men and the Town soone after taken in by assault Annas Duke of Memorancie himself the Constable of France Gasper de Colignie Earle of Caestilion Admirall of France the Marshall of St Andrew the Duke of Longevile and a number of other great Peers were taken prisoners In summe the losse and slaughter was so great and fatall to the French as it well-neer equalled that victory obtained by the Duke of Bourbon at the battell of Pavia in Italy against Francis the first his Father yet Henry the second still shuts his eyes against the cause of all these losses and having his heart already cauterized by lust he not only caused the godly to be committed to the flames but would needs view their torments himself as a pleasing spectacle and had conspired and combined with Philip the second of Spain his new Sonne in Law for the utter ruine and finall subversion of Geneva Nay but a few houres before his death in the yeer 1559. Lodowick Faber and Annas Burgus two Senators of Paris because they had spoken a little freely for the innocency and piety of the Protestants in the open Senate were imprisoned upon his expresse command in the Bastile in the same City by Gabriel Earle of Mongomery one of the Captains of his Guard and the persecution against all others of the same profession grew hot and furious when the King upon the 29th of June the same yeere running at Tilt with that very Earle of Mongomery and neer the very Baslile where the Senators remained prisoners was struck with a splinter of Mongomeries speare through his eye into his brain and never had the happinesse to speak any one word after though he survived the wound a few dayes or to acknowledge his former lust and cruelty Had the Papists but such an instance of Gods immediate providence in vindicating their cause we should soon heare of one true miracle amidst so many false and adulterate But if wee further looke to Gods hand that followed this Prince in his posterity it will yet seem the greater Miracle for of five sons hee had all except one died without lawfull issue to survive them
practices although they exactly imitate their old master Pelagius in one particular which Vossius himselfe confesseth of him teaching many of their desperate doctrines as he did privately which yet they conceale and suppresse in their published Tractates which have given so many fatall wounds to the true Church of God in this and the last preceding age for the proofe whereof wee shall need to produce no other witnesses then those two sincere and impartiall Historians John Sleidane and the same Monsieur de Thou from whom wee may learne that after Melchior Hofman had broached his wicked Tenets in Germany about the yeere 1520. and with his disciples Thomas Muncer Bernard Rotman and John Leyden had assumed to themselves the name of Anabaptists and drawn many of the baser sort after them whom they perswaded not to suffer any of Noble blood to remain and that there could be no other lawfull Magistrate but one of their Sect they easily drew them to take armes and possessing themselves of the city of Munster in Westphalia had like to have proved the utter ruine of it had it not been delivered by the armes of some of the Germane Princes after which followed the execution of divers of those rebels After these men succeeded as chiefe propagators of their errours John Cerdo hanged at Brussels Michael Servetus the Spaniard burnt at Geneva and Cornelius Apelman executed at Vtrecht in the yeare 1570. all three of them though guiltie of divers grosse heresies yet were condemned and put to death for blasphemie and other notorious crimes John Williams their successor finding their treasonable and Anarchicall positions to afford them no safety in any well governed Monarchie or Republique got him to Ruremund in the Dutchie of Guelders and there having drawn to his partie some three hundred varlets and mean fellowes hee told them no goods could rightly appertain to any man but of their own Sect and therefore assured them whatsoever they could get by pillaging and robbery was a lawfull gain by which means many horrible and grievous thefts and spoiles were committed in Guelderland and in the Dutchie of Cleve adjoyning The said Williams also being taken was for his many abominable offences and villanies burnt at Buslaken in the Dutchie of Juliers yet died so courageously like Servetus his fellow Anabaptist as that their Sect was exceedingly confirmed and increased thereby so as had not their other portentous crimes justly necessitated their capitall punishment it had been much better for the true Church of God their lives had been spared For whereas before ignorant men had for the most part presidented their Church and kingdom for their chief Prophets commonly governed all the rest after their own wills these mens sufferings drew on as may be easily gathered Theodore Bibliander and Sebastian Castellio to give up their names to the maintenance of the same blasphemies who cunningly defended only in their publique writing those points which Pelagius had formerly broached whom Arminius Vorstius and the other Anabaptists of the nether Germany have since followed but for those dangerous and unsafe doctrines of condemning Magistracy extirpating Nobility and permitting robberies howsoever they may still in private teach and adhere to them and would perhaps if they could once make the stronger partie in any State soon enough practise them yet they have most politickly omitted not onely the maintenance but the very mention of them also in the said published Works and Tractates Thus also the Papists themselves upon occasion being pressed with any of their seditious tenets will deny them as Peter Cotton the Jesuite did their allowing of the murther of Kings after Henry the fourth of France was stabbed by that wicked Jesuited varlet Ravaillac and Henry Garnet at his execution protested that he ever abhorred the Gunpowder-plot The Pelagians in the time of the ancient Britaines were the undoubted instruments of the ruine of England then called Britaine of murthering Constantine the father and Constans the son both successive Kings there and of setting the Royall Crown upon the head of Vortigern Duke of Cornwall a Pelagianized traytor against his Soveraign who in lieu thereof to gratifie them soon filled up as may be probably collected the Bishops Seas to which neither Baronies nor Sericality were then nor for five hundred yeares after annexed with hereticall and lazie droanes who had well-neere ruined the true Church of God in those dayes All the world may know what warning King James of England that learned Prince gave to the united States of the Netherlands by his published Works upon the death of the Anabaptist Arminius and succession of that blasphemous Vorstius in his roome and chaire at Layden that if they did not in time look to the suppression of those blasphemous Heretiques they would in the end prove the ruine of their Church and State God of his infinit mercy grant that they may never be able to bring desolation or subversion to them nor to any other Church Kingdome or State of Christendome where the Gospel and the truth are established by the increasing of their numbers and powers to an excessive and formidable proportion SECT. XXIII WE have seen the greatest and uttermost punishment that the Primitive Church thought fit to be inflicted on the Heretiques of those times was exilement in which case they had alwayes a competent time allowed to provide conveniences before they receded safe conduct for their departure and a full power given them either to retain their praediall and fixed estates they left and to receive by their deputed agents the yeerly revenues of them or else sell them And if wee do seriously peruse the Histories of later times we shall finde the cruellest Tygres and most Wolvish Prelates that ever miscarried the affaires of any Kingdome or State since the yeare 1500. never to have grown to that senslesse and belluine height of malice against the godly as neither to suffer them to enjoy their liberty and quiet of their consciences at home nor yet peaceably and innocently to leave their deare and native countrey and to plant themselves in such parts of the world as they may enjoy their inward peace without offence or scandall to any Philip the second of Spain who was one of the most prodigious offenders against God in his time having vitiated women of the noblest rank violated contracts of the deepest nature murthered his eldest son and third wife unjustly detained the Kingdome of Navarre broken his oath with Arragon Naples and the Netherlands and the most resolved and premeditated persecutor of Christendome being wholly actuated precipitated to it by Nicholas Perenot Cardinall of Granvellan and the bloody Inquisitors yet in the yeer 1575. he set out a publick Declaration touching all the Inhabitants of the Netherlands that it should be lawfull for any that would not embrace the Rom m Religion to depart from thence whither soever they would and to sell their estates or else to retain them and to receive the