I demand what King he deposed you take exception that he farre before is deposed by him whosoeuer for time to come doth breake the priuiledge of that house so long as the world endured And thefore hee deposed Kings not onely before they were crowned but before they were borne But the proposition that you defend is as false as the reason you alleadge is friuolous What King soeuer doth infringe the priuiledge of the monasterie of Medard let him be depriued of his honour Whether is this rather a depriuation of a King or an imprecation Adde which you omitted and let him be damn'd in the lowest pit of hell with Iudas the traytour If the Pope haue power out of this place to depose a King he hath likewise power to damn him But he hath not power to damne him therfore he hath not power to depose him Are you well in your wits who take a vow for a censure and the forme of imprecation for a sentence of depriuation a former curse for a reuenge following § 113 And you neuer can sufficientlie adorne and set out Gregorie the seuenth your sweet delight and that worthily for that he shewed himselfe not onely a traytour as you are your selues and desire to make others like your selues but also a captaine and ring-leader of all treason to promote the glorie of Preists with diminishing the credit of the people For those praises which you laie vpon Gregorie and those reproaches you cast vpon Henrie doe nothing either helpe your cause or hurt ours but I wonder that this good Arch-deacon as you call him prooued so bad a Bishop Gregorie condemned and for what that all the Germaine Bishops almost did condemne him in the Councell of Wormes of monstrous periuries strange mis-behauiours and diuers outrages in his life But the Italians did acquit him Not so neither For thirtie of them beeing assembled at Brixia after they had receiued Ambassadours and letter from nineteene Bishops who had consulted at Mentz with the Nobles of Italy and Germanie did publikely testifie that Gregorie did most impudentlie inâ—rude himselfe into the See Apostolike by deceit and briberie did peruert all Church gouernment did trouble all gouernment in the Christian Empire did attempt the destruction both of bodie and soule of a Catholike and peaceable King and maintained a periured rebell against him Nor being therewith content at last adiudged Hildebrand a most shamelesse person committing sacriledge and robberie defending periuries and murthers calling into questiun the Catholicke and Apostolicke faith about the body and bloud of Christ being an ancient scholler of Berengarius the hereticke an euident obseruer of dreames and diuinations And therefore to be canonically deposed for his backsliding from the true faith Lambert in an 1077. and to bee thrust out of his Popedome But these factious fellowes fauoured the Emperour against the Pope What they that fauoured the Pope against the Byshoppe But Lambert Schafnaburgensis doth praise the man But the same very Lambert whenas he was the Popes Legate and had shewed that the Emperour had reconciled and submitted himselfe at Canufium yea by his owne report all of them the Italians began to chafe to hisse and clappe their handes and to scoffe at his apostolicall Legacie with flowting outcries and to cast out bitter and railing curses in their madde moode that they nothing regarded his excommunication whom all the Italian Byshoppes had excommunicated a goodwhile since vpon iust causes him who had climbd vp into the Apostolicke seat with simonicall heresie imbrued it with murthers defiled it with adulteries and capitall enormities that the King had done otherwise then became him and had much staind his honour for submitting the maiesty of a King to an Hereticall Pope most infamous for all villanies For all this wee excuse not the faults of the Prince but defend his right neither do we accuse the life of the Pope condemned by his own side but we weigh his fact we obserue this one thing that a Simoniacall and an adulterous Emperour as Marianus Scotus writeth was ill remooued by a Simoniacall and adulterous Pope as the Germaines and Italians call him I am not ignorant that Fredericke the first and second § 114 are after the same manner as bitterly traduced and disgraced by the Popes Flatterers as Henry the fourth was Princes traduced by popist writers as Ludâ—uicke the fourth Emperour by Iohn the 22. and Philippe the fourth surnamed the faire the French King by Boniface the 8. and Henry the 2. King of England by Alexander the 3. and Iohn King of England by Innocent all of them being once excommunicated were by the flattering stile of the Romane writers abused and slandered That it is no great matter to wonder at that the Princes of our time being taken for Heretickes by you though falsly Henry the 8. Edward the 6. Elizabeth and Iames the first be so vnworthily dealt withall who did euen then in the midst of popish darknesse so cruelly vexe their owne Princes But that not only the English whose faithfulnesse toward their Princes certaine hyred vassales of the Pope haue endeauored to corrupt in their bookes set out in English but that the Germaines the French the Spaniard the Italian may see out of their owne monuments the fidelitie of their ancesters toward their owne Emperours and Princes euen then when the Popes did most terribly thunder against them that they may acknowledge it with me and the rather imitate and expresse it in so cleare a light of the Gospell hearken I pray you hearken not what a few Lutheranes and Caluenistes but what the Catholickes of these nations almost without number haue often decreed in their Sinodes and Parliaments for their Kings against the Popes tyrannie which writers shall with authoritie easily ouercome the rest either old or new being few in number and corrupted by bribes § 115 You heard before what the Germanes Italians both Byshoppes and Nobles did decree publickely for their Emperour Henry the 4. against Gregorie the 7. Now heare what the Germanes did publickly first for Fredericke the second against Innocent the 4. then for Lewes against Iohn the 22. and after of the rest The Pope resisted by the popish clergy The Germane Byshoppes first whenas they had receiued a charge from Albert Pope Innocents Legate to publish the bull of excommunication against Frederick all of them refused it The Abbotes being commanded to curse the Byshoppes that refused neglected it The Clergie receiuing a new charge that they should choose new Byshoppes and the Monkes other Abbotes being greatly agast at the nouelty of the example began to disdaine and chafe and detest the rashnesse of the Popes Legate and greeuously to accuse euen the Pope himselfe for vndertaking so strange and shamefull an action against all equitie and right and filling all Germanie with troubles How did they entertaine Raberius a French man being another Legate sent from Innocent in the same businesse hauing his associate the
distinguish of the proposition and that out of Gods booke which considereth the Church after 2. sorts 1. After the inward truth and the outward profession 2. After the outward profession only As blessed Iohn calleth the Church of Sardis the Church of Christ although it had greeuously fallen from the doctrine of Christ Why so Because as yet it professed the name of Christ and retained the sacrament of Baptisme and because certain lay hid among them who had not polluted themselues So the Church of Rome may bee called the Church of God and of Christ because it professeth the name of Christ because it retaineth certaine footsteps and outward markes of a visible Church as Baptisme the Decalogue the creed The Papists haue the truth as the Philistines had the Arke the Lords Prayer but notes miserably corrupted as the Philistines who retained among them the Arke of Gods presence but they felt it to bee to them the Arke of pestilence as the Cutthites the bastard Israelites who had Moses bookes and would at once feare God and worship Idoles As the Samaritanes their successors who brag'd that they had Iacobs well among them when they had infected the well of the water of life Therefore the Delegates did iustly complaine of the Church of Rome in the Councell of Trent That that was true which God complained by Ieremie This people haue committed two euills one they haue forsaken me the fountaine of liuing water The other they haue digged to themselues cesternes which can hold no water Although I cannot denie that certaine relikes of the inuisible Church doe lie hidden in the same who haue not bended their knee to Baal But as it is said to the Church of Sardis You haue a name that you liue but you are dead that may deseruedly be spoken of the Romish Church in respect of the inward faith the soule of the Church you are starke dead although in outward profession you are said to liue You are called the Temple of God because you reteyne the name of Christ but you are the whore of Babylon because you haue forsaken the faith The temple of God equiuocally not vniuocally for an equiuocall Church is good enough for aequiuocating Christians Now the ten hornes that is the ten Kings haue one purpose as the Angell speaketh to giue ouer his virtue and his power to the beast Her they will serue they will loue and seeke after her her they will susteyne with their forces at her booke they will draw the sword and being confederaed in holy leagues both with the beast and within themselues will fight with the Lambe but after that the Lambe shall by litle and litle begin to weaken and consume Antichrist by the preaching of his word then the ten hornes which before had to doe with the whore shall begin to hate her and leaue her forsaken and naked CHAP. XXII An aduise to Princes to ioyne against the Pope 8 WHich cannot bee said of old but of new Rome whereof a great part of the prophecie is now fulfilled For the Pope hath lost as Bellarmine bemoaneth a great part of Germanie Suetia Gothia Noruegia all Denmarke a good part of England France Heluetia Polonia Bohemia and Pannonia He might better haue said all England and ioyn'd Scotland and Ireland thereto but that he would shew he hath a litle vaine hope in certaine secret and broken relicks of Antichrist among vs. I would to God that as the Kings of Great Britannie with many other great Princes haue cast of the whore A desire that France and Spaine would forsake the Pope so the Kings of France and Spaine would forsake her Rome is more to be feared of them then of our Britaine King whose Crowne is more free whose succession more certaine whose subiects more loyall whose kingdome is more remote and shut vp from popish assaults I would that so mighty Princes this Princes confederates would follow his valour and holines in this point whereby they might wholy fulfill the prophecie It is not for men of meane condition to giue counsell but to make prayers while they expound this so holy and waightie prophecie If not to aduise yet to wish first that those two potent Kings would ioyne with the King of Great Britaine and others those worthy Kings and Princes of the Reformed Church against Antichrist Next that if they doe make a secret league with Antichrist and within themselues against the Kings and Princes of the Reformed Church that all our side would make a holy League with all possible haste and take heed that our neighbours and brethren the Protestants of France and Flanders be not vnawares opprest by them whiles ours neglect them But wee may not make warres with our neighbour Kings But we ought to take heed lest they bring in a very dangerous warre vpon vs. But we must be addicted to peace True which hath no treacherie nor deceipt otherwise an holy warre is to be preferred before a trecherous peace whereto the Holy Ghost doth exhort Kings that with vnited forces they destroy and ouerthrow the whore of Babylon that is Rome as Bellarmine himselfe confesseth CHAP. XXIII The ouerthrow of Rome AS the Angell doth continue his prophecie to the last ouerthrow of the whore which cannot agree with heathenish and imperiall Rome for this ouerthrow doth follow the dissolution of the old Empire and the diuision thereof into ten kingdomes which according to the prophecie would that the whore should first perish afterward themselues should consume and destroy it Therefore this ouerthrow belongeth to Rome that is popish but christian in name as the Angell did notably expound it for whereas shee is said to sit vpon many waters that is many people and many nations as the Angell expounds it ver 15. and whereas the woman is called the great Citie which beareth rule ouer the Kings of the earth ver 18. nothing doth hinder but that it may be popish Rome But that popish Rome is not rightly said to haue gouerment first it is sufficient that Rome then Imperiall is described to be the seate wherein the whore of Babylon shall beare rule afterward Againe they which call her the kingdome of the Romanes Turrianus the kingdome of Priests doe confesse that shee beareth rule who haue very cunningly changed the secular kingdome into a spirituall that which Aquinas the Angelicall Doctor doth obserue Aquinas But so excellent a prophecie did not onely looke into the age then present but foresaw the age long after to follow And therefore the description of the whore is first set out in all her parts as you see and after her destruction which cannot be vnderstood of the burning of Ethnicke Rome by the Gothes and Vandales 10 but by a finall and sodaine destruction as it were a myllstone cast by great force into the sea For it shall not saith the Angell be found againe any more which cannot agree to Ethnicke Rome for after it had receiued
imputed I haue made an euerlasting couenant with you neuer to forsake you euer to blesse you and to send my feare into your hearts that you neuer forsake me The imputation of righteousnesse doth necessarily follow the forgiuenes of sinne the grant of life and that eternall life doth likewise follow imputation of righteousnes for he that beleeueth in the sonne of God shall neuer come into condemnation but shall go from death to life and let him surely perswade himselfe that being now iustified by me and now glorified by me that being saued by my grace he shall sit in heauenly places with me and enioy the reall possession of the highest heauens Your sanctification Sanctification is the second part of the new couenant the beginning of your glorification as your coronation hereafter is the full accomplishment For what is grace but glory begun ☜ and what is glory but grace perfected Eternall life therefore which is begun in this world and made perfect in the world to come doth not differ in kinde but in degree Therefore your sanctification is begun in this world so that the relikes of sinnes doe abide in the most holy but couered the inbred corruption did abide in Paul regenerated but weakned it remained in him to try him not to destroy him that corruption is remitted not finished the guilt is released but the act remaineth Sanctification is not therefore perfect but true which inlightneth your mindes to true knowledge and reformeth your wills to the sincere obedience of the Gospell and therefore doth change the whole man both the inward and the outward man into my likenes by the power of my spirit that beholding the same in the Gospell as in a glasse Glorification you may proceed from glory to glory that is from the glory of your sanctification here to the glory of your coronation hereafter And herein behold how ill the Pope and I agree How Christ Antichrist disagree I set before you free remission he a mercenarie I a categoricall and absolute he an imperfect and hypotheticall I an euerlasting he a temporarie I require a sincere sanctification of a sinner in this life but imperfect hee faines a perfect holinesse but a counterfeit Now your Christ Iesus as he is propounded in the free couenant and the new testament is appointed the only foundation of the Church by the Prophets and Apostles vpon whom they are taught to build their good workes as gold siluer and pretious stones as the superficies fit for that golden and pretious foundation but they denie good workes to be the foundation it selfe because your workes be they neuer so glorious cannot endure the weight and burthen of the kingdom of heauen They make Christ alone euen Christ alone apprehended by faith as it were that mightie Atlas that with his shoulders and his power can beare vp heauen being made of God for you wisdome iustice sanctification and redemption and therefore the foundation of the whole building Not that saluation is begun by him and made perfect by you for there is one great stone of the whole building as deepest in the foundation so chiefest in the corner as the ground and beginning so the roofe and accomplishment of saluation Which your Pope hath not only deformed with wood hay and chaffe built vpon it that is with foolish and absurd doctrines differing from the foundation but with wicked and pestilent doctrines ouerthrowing the foundation and by that meanes hath most wickedly taken away the beginning matter forme instrument and end of saluation The causes of saluation For whereas the holy Scripture doth appoint the free mercy of God the efficient cause of righteousnesse the meritorious my obedience both actiue and passiue the formall the imputation thereof by the Holy Ghost the instrumentall faith conceiued out of Gods word founded vpon a free promise the finall the glory of Gods diuine mercy and iustice when as the Pope doth ouerthrow all the foundations of saluation then doth hee take and stop from you all the meanes and lights of comfort While I set before you eternall life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a reward of grace he makes it a stipend for worke that I make a gift hee makes a debt that I make a patrimonie he makes a stipend what I make due to adoption he makes as paid for obedience Hee doth not say it to him that is obedient which is very true but for obedience which is very false that he forsooth might set my gifts to sale and by that meanes depriue me of glory and you of peace From whence it doth arise that the Romane Antichrist let him pretend what he will is a breaker of Gods couenant a corrupter of his will a subuerter of the foundation being full of Satan being busie about this one thing to bring destruction to my Churches and damnation to your soules Is it any maruaile then if he bring destruction to bodies and ouerthrow to Empires Papists as Doggs when as he secretly sends in his runnagate Priests into your Kingdomes who as mad dogs with their infamous libels may rent in sunder the good name and fame of Kings bring them into hatred contempt of others Who as subtle Foxes Foxes do with their cunning sleights alienate the Kings subiects from the faith of their obedience due by my commandement and to be performed by their oath Wolues And as cruell Wolues after they haue taken away the Kings good name by false calumniations and drawne away the Kings subiects from their fealtie and obedience doe spill the Kings blood by what meanes soeuer either by open rebellions or secret conspiracies and defend it to be a deed most lawfull and meritorious They shew their dogs tooth by rayling their fox-like subtletie by equiuocating and their woluish crueltie by conspiring They doe nothing else but deceiue the simple bite them that be sincere and deuoure those that be innocent They pretend faith but they teach periurie They say they reconcile men to Christ but in deed reconcile them to Antichrist in the meane while whom they get to adhere to the Pope they draw from the King For while they build vp spirituall obedience they cast downe the ciuill is not this the qualitie of a Fox They set vpon those that be weakest that they may ouercome the strongest as the Serpent seduced Eue that Eue might seduce Adam so these Serpents set vpon wiues that the wiues may deceiue their husbands they catch after women that they may entangle young men in whom is greater vigor and heat to commit any wicked enterprise So they haue a schoole full of masculine women and feminine men doth not here appeare to you the wilinesse of the serpent Now with what vilanous slanders these curres haue abused Princes both liuing and dead being the excellencies and glories of the earth witnes those infinite libels cast out against Elizabeth Queene of England and Iames King of Great
you for all the sorrowes they haue endured For what else could haue extorted that Law from so mercifull a Queene which you ere-while blamde as bloody For your Iesuites after the sending in of Pius the fifts Bull came swarming into England as Campion Parsons and many others and did mightily labour to put that Bull in execution and did propound it as the thirteenth Article of their faith That there was no more obedience to be shewed to a Queene excommunicated The seditious doctrine of Iesuites gaâ— that seuere law when it came to practise and deposed then presently followed the rebellion in the North. It was therefore your seditious doctrine that begat so seuere a law Your schoole hath made the Catholike doctrine of Rome a Catechisme of rebellion Your Logicke first made a Papist and a Traytor to be all one your Societie was the first ouerthrow of the Roman-Catholikes estate For your Papists behaued themselues quietly for the first eleuen yeeres while Pius the fift that old credulous dotard was induced by the false whisperings of the English Catholikes as they call them shewing that their powers were so strong that they could resist the Queenes forces had excommunicated the Queene by his Bull and depriued Her of her kingdome and had released her subiects from the Oath of their Allegeance and being so released stirred them vp to take armes against Hir. But the old man quickly found his error and corrected it with his dispensation that the Papists to redeeme their troubles so hee speaketh should shew outward obedience to Queene Elizabeth but restreyned with two conditions one things so standing thother while the publike execution of the Bull might be performed that is to say while they had so much power as by force they might ouercome the Queene Rebellion among Iesuites is an article of faith Hence among the cases of conscience brought into England by you sprang out the 55 Article Where a Catholike being demanded Doe you beleeue that the Pope can put the Queene from her authoritie he is taught to answer notwithstanding any feare of death I do beleeue it For this question doth appertaine to faith and requires a confession of faith Behold your Catholike faith which this present oath is said by the Pope to crosse it is the chiefe head of Iesuitisme which we may call the marrow of Poperie And are you now in a chafe Saturnine that a few Iesuites are hangde vp for Traytors who make treason an article of their faith And doe you not thinke the King hath a iust cause to take away their heads Alaâ—us who haue with such coniuring bewitched the consciences of subiects that they thinke that warre holy iust and honorable which is raised against their Prince But what if they were not only messengers and masters § 8 but authors and actors of rebellion The Iâ—suites and authors and actors of rebellion and haue entred into the most cruellest conspiracy that euer was since the creation not onely to depose the King and absolue his subiects but to rase out the King and Kingdome and to blot out the English nation and to root out the men out of the earth for euer and that not the guilty onely but the innocents also according to that olde tyrannicall practise Cicero pro Diatore Let our friends perish so our enemies perish also And they would haue the Catholikes with heretickes The Martyrdome of the Kingdome of England as wee seeme to you the noble with the ignoble and the fathers to bee Martyrs with their sonnes For what else was that gun-powder treason deuised by you but the Martyrdome of the King and Kingdome § 9 Then Saturnine you doe great wrong to the Iesuites saith he whom you faine to bee the Authors of Catesbies conspiracy for that which they heard onely vnder the seale of confession thought it was meet to bee concealed about the martyrdome of the kingdome as you call it which God wote hurt no body being only deuised and not performed Garnet therefore the chiefe Iesuite did wrong to the Iesuites saith Patriotta who when himself had nourished that euill humor in Catesby whom hee would haue to bee the head and heart of the whole conspiracy a right Cateline and an apt scholler who concluded by a very wicked consequence out of the bull of Clement the eight wherein the Pope had excluded the King being an hereticke as hee writ from entrance into the Kingdome concluded I say that being entred he was by all meanes possibly to bee expelled out of that wicked proposition which now is in question hee suckt out that most pestilent poyson of that vnheard-of treachery But when Garnet would haue him the cheife worke-man in this conspiracy hee ioyned vnto him diuers other counsellers out of his owne tribe nay out of his owne bosome And lest that liuing messe of Iesuites being singularly inspired with the spirit of the Pope of Rome Garnet Greenwell Gerard. Parsons should lay the whole fault vpon a Lay-traitor now dead let it be vnderstood that it was confest by Garnet being now ready to die vnder his hand by a voluntarie confession Hee writ that Greenwell with Catesby was heard of him The Traytor betraies himselfe not confessing but consulting That Greenwell with Gerard were not onely authors but actors who declared their guiltinesse of the fact by their flight That Baldwine and Parsons were acquainted with it whereof he set on Fauxe that Fire brand in Germany The other made acquainted by him of the villanous treachery came flying against the day out of Italie into Lyons in France as it were on pilgrimage to S. Winefreds well as a crow to carrion that like another Nero hee might with a detestable pleasure neerer behold the fire most furiously consuming each part of his country But this Martyrdome of the King and Kingdome as you call it was not brought to effect What then As though we are ignorant that Antichrist doth deliuer many to death and doth assigne many more That hee doth thirst after more blood then he doth spill We were all Martyrs in your intention but not in execution That the mischeefe was deuised we attribute it to your malice that it tooke no effect to Gods mercy Which mooued the neuer-suspecting heart of the King the most mildest of all that are haue beene or shall be that out of those letters whereof little reckoning was made he smelt out the kind of danger and I may almost say the verie gun-powder it selfe and so was made an instrument of the publike safetie Hence riseth a double bond one that bindeth the King to God the other that more neerely for euer bindeth vs to the King There is no want either of counsell and care to the King and his prudent and faithfull Counsellers but when neither care nor counsell can preuent such blinde and secret conspiracie both thankes are to be giuen to God for our deliuerance past whereof I doubt wee
neighbour Princes the faction of subiectes the treason of the nobles and the superstition of the people And doe you call this a moderate chastisement And safe for kings and good for subiects Wherein as there are many thinges very vniust and vnworthy so those are most of all that hee tearmeth these wicked treacheries holy counsells and pretendes that they tend in order to a spirituall end And doe in that manner sowe the scruples of conscience mingled with the seedes of treacherie in the harts of men as if the graines of religion and rebellion had sprung out of one and the same blade So it comes to passe that the Romane faith at this day doth beget and nourish most dangerous faction both to Kings and subiectes which so long is very demure and humble till as a wise man obserues it hath found the keye of power and authoritie For as all faction which springs out of the heate of desire is dangerous so that is most dangerous which riseth out of the scruple of conscience For when it riseth from desire it is like fire that taketh hold of stubble which though presently it rise vp into a great flame yet soone being consumed is extinguished But when it ariseth from the conscience it is like fire that heates iron which getting his strength but slowly keepes it surely as a very worthy and a wise Senator left it in writing Wherefore that which Bellarmine said of the Oath of § 88 allegeance that it was not therefore lawfull because it was offered someway tempred and qualified that may more iustly be said of the Popes temporall dominion as it is qualified and tempered by Bellarmine knowe therefore Argentine that such qualifications are nothing else but Satans sleights and deceits wherewith the maiesty of Kings is either openly or closely assailed which Christ hath fortified plainely with his commandements That these vaine pretences of Aduerbes are Sathans ginnes and stratagems whereby vnder the colour of religion he bringeth vtter destruction both to your soules and bodies But because you will not giue as good credite to vs as to your owne men and I think it not meete to take vpon mee Velbacellus part I pray you Calander entreat your Confessour that hee would lay open and vnfold the subtill and hurtfull fleights deuises of this working braine Yeelde so much saith Calander to the Catholikes your friends Velbacellus yeelde it to the Catholike religion which is necessary to bee discerned from these false Catholike opinions as you call them lest the consciences of Catholikes be corrupted § 89 Then Velbacell I will doe saith hee as you require me in respect of my duty to the King not vnwillingly but against the Popes inhibition not so willingly howsoeuer it bee I answer for the satisfying of the conscience sincerely and for the Catholike religion not vnfitly The Oath of Allegeance and Supremacy confounded by Bellarmine And I maruell much that Bellarmine beeing a learned man and of great wit did confound the Oath of Allegeance with the Oath of Supremacy but I am greeued at the heart that the supremacy of the Pope which he doth of right enioy in spirituall and ecclesiasticall causes is so enfolded with the worldly gouernment which is in temporall and ciuill causes that hee brings his lawfull authority in hazard to be lost Adde thereto that when he had ouerthrowen the direct dominion of the Pope in all temporall matters with sound reasons hee did maintaine the indirect gouernment in order to the spirituall as hee speaketh with such slight flaggy arguments that with this his playing fast loose hee seemes to haue left him no authority at all Although other thinke otherwise and thinke that hee doth aswell submit Kings crownes to the Popes feete as Baronius doth But let it bee as euery man takes it Hee cannot directly take away the crownes from Kings What then but he can indirectly hee cannot as Pope ordinarily depose Kings but extraordinarily he can as hee is the cheife spirituall Prince Hee hath not inherent authority but that is fetcht else where much forsooth what matter is it with what authoritie Kings be cast off if they may be cast off by the Pope But they be worse then mad who subiect the crownes of Kings to schoole-distinctions Heere Saturnine But although sayd hee it please § 90 you to scoffe at the distinctions of Catholike Doctors yet I hope you will not deny that the Pope is Lord of all the temporaltyes which doth belong to the Bishopricke of Rome But that England Ireland are portions of Peters patrimony and the Bishop of Romes temporalties it is plaine by the articles of agreement betweene Alexander the third Pope of Rome and Henry the second King of England agreed on in the yeere of the Lord 1171. who when he was absolued by the Pope for the death of Thomas of Becket did couenant that none should afterward accept that Crowne of right or should be acknowledged for King till hee had his confirmation from the cheefe pastour of our soules Which couenant was renewed in the yeere 1210. by Iohn King of England who had confirmed the same by oath to Pandulphus the Popes Legate at the request of the Barons and Commons as a matter of great importance to preserue the common-weale to keepe it from the vniust vsurpation of Tyrants and to auoyd other mischeefes whereby before they had smarted and to preuent that they fall not into the like againe by the default of any wicked King thereafter Wherefore if it bee honourable and pious for the Bishop to dispose of the kingdome being made tributary why may hee not likewise depose a refractory and a disobedient Prince § 91 Then Velbacellus you alleadge saith hee a worme eaten and ridiculous charter whereby you make the King of England Tributarie to the Pope England not tributarie to the Pope neither can bee which was neuer done and if it were it neither could or ought binde the successours Kings of England For Rome neither can nor euer could at any time shew such a grāt as Thomas Moore that great Catholike doth argue and if it could it was to no great purpose for no King of England might at any time giue away England to the Pope or make his kingdome tributary though he were so disposed Therefore let vs passe by that counterfet compact and that friuolous deuise and let vs returne to the matter in hand The question is not Saturnine of the true temporalties of the patrimonie of Peter but of the true temporalties of the patrimony of Kings the soueraignty whereof either directly or indirectly is giuen to the Pope and it is giuen either by Law diuine or positiue and therefore the temporalties of Kings doe no more belong to the Pope then the temporalties of Peter belong to Kings And euery King may as well depriue a Pope as any Pope may depriue a King And an Emperour may aswell he called Lord of all the spiritualties as
Byshoppe of Rentzburge when he deliuered the bull against the prince All of them scoft at the mans impudency and disdainefully askt what that light headed and superstitious French man what the Rome-pope himselfe did in Germanie without the consent of the Germaine-byshops his colleagues They disdaine that discordes should be sowne that the libertie of Christians should bee opprest that the flocke of Christ redeemed by his blood should bee brought into slauerie by false Teachers And when the Legate would not giue ouer the Germane Byshoppes did not onely dispise his commandements but denounced a curse against him in all their Churches as an enemie to Christian peace and an Arch hereticke and pronounced him to be worse then any Turke Saracene Tartar or Iew. They did publickly likewise accuse the Byshoppe of Rome for attempting such matters among Christians which were against reason and the law of nations against the doctrine of Christ and which were not at any time done among the most sauage Tartars And as the Byshops so the nobles of Germanie did take in foule scorne so great a wrong offered by the § 116 Pope to the Emperour their Master to repell it conuented all the States wherein Eberhardus the Archbyshoppe of Salisburge a godly olde man when hee had knowne ten Romane-byshoppes and had diligently markt their practizes and dispositions vnder Fredericke the first Henry the sixt his sonne and Fredericke the second his Nephew for fifty yeares together that the chiefe byshoppe was wholy compounded of auarice luxurie contention warres discordes and desire of rule and so did decipher him for a rauenous wolfe in each part vnder a Shepheards weede and so liuely paint him out that although in other matters he were not a Lutherane in this one you would haue said he had beene almost Luther himselfe The old Catholicke fathers Oration is extant in Auentine a Catholicke Writer Auenti annal lib. 7. fol. 683. there you may haue it if you will read it § 117 That which the Byshoppes and Nobles of Germanie with the whole commons did with common consent against Innocent the fourth in the quarrell of Fredericke the Emperour the very same they did in the like quarrell of Lewes the fourth Emperour against Iohn the 22. that although they were released from the Oath of Obedience they did notwithstanding take the Oath of obedience to be faithfull to Lewes though hee were remooued and that they did by the iudgement of all the Doctours in both lawes Philip the faire the French King in a councell with full consent of the Nobles and Byshoppes did not only set at nought and despise the iniust sentence of the Popes depriuation sent out against him but brought all the kingdome from the Popes obedience and that hee might the better tame his pride he laid hold of the Pope kept him in durance so that within sixe weekes after in great anguish of soule hee gaue vp the Ghost Popes crossed by the French The pragmaticall sanction is well knowne which did of old infringe the Popes authoritie and all the canons of the Church of France that part which maintaineth the popish religion and all the decrees of the Kings parliament do so disanull the Popes power in excommunicating Kings and releasing their Subiectes from the Oath of obedience Tract inscript le Franc. Discours an 1600. that the very body of Sorbone and the whole Vniuersitie of Paris doe condemne the doctrine of the Iesuites as schismaticall and pernicious Neither Henrie the 8. onely Edward the 6. and § 119 Queene Elizabeth English practise against Popes whom you tearme Caluinists and Heretickes did by their lawes expell this vsurped authoritie of the Pope and punished by death the Abetters thereof but other Kings of England who raigned in the midst of poperie thought good to contemne the Popes censures and to suppresse the Actors therein by your Lawes The law of Edward the 3. 25 Edwar 3. doth it not seeme to bee made by a Caluinist which makes it treason to attempt and go about the death of the King to mooue warre in his Kingdome against the King or to ioyne with the Kings enemies in his kingdome or to giue them aide and comfort either within the Kingdome or without Doe you not see how that two hundred yeares before Queene Elizabeth was borne the Priests treason couered with the habite of religion by the Statute of Edward the third in euery branch of it as it were with lime twigges is met with and suppressed If to attempt the death of the King be treason therefore Greenway and other Iesuites who tooke counsell to destroy the King and kingdome had beene Traytors by Edward the thirds Law although Queene Elizabeth had made no such law If to raise warre against the King in his kingdome were then treason the priests were Traytors who stirred vp papists to take armes and to ioyne themselues with Catsby and Persie in the rebellion If to ioyne with the Kings enemie in his kingdome were then treason how can you then ye Iesuits auoide the sharpenesse of King Edwards law who being the instruments of sedition doe adheare to the Pope the Kings deadly enemie vnder the colour of religion If to aide and animaâ—e the Kings enemies either within his kingdome or without was treason at that time truly whosoeuer at this day vnder pretense of religion whatsoeuer do either solicite foraine Kings to inuade this Kingdome as Garnet Creswell Baldwine and others haue done or perswade the people to take armes to depose their King as Greenwell Hall and others haue vndertaken were Traytors although Elizabeth with her Caluinists had neuer made any law against them § 120 But King Edwardes law you will say doth not touch the people by name True But when the noble King remembred that the French King was stirred vp against Iohn King of England who had contemned the Popes censures that the Subiectes were incensed against their King the Barons and Byshops fell from him and were the Ministers of the Popes wrong that thereby hee might the better confirme his subiects in their obedience against the French the Spanish and the Romane and all others whatsoeuer froâ— whom he foresaw danger might come to himselfe and his kingdome and that he might decline the enuy of naming the Pope particularly made a generall Statute with the consent of the Byshoppes Baron and Commons without any exception of person or cause whatsoeuer wherein hee made him a Traytor whosoeuer did adhere to the Kings enemy in his kingdome or did aide or animate any either within his dominions or without who should moue warre against the King including by his generall word aswell the Pope as the Popes factours as if hee had expressely named them § 121 But in the 26. of Richard the second the Prelates Dukes Earle Barons and aâ—l the Commons of England the Clarkes and Lay people named the Pope when they all ioyned in a couenant of association with the
Britaine What maruaile is it if they raile vpon holy Doctors that doe but write against them when they reuile great Princes that can proscribe them But that is no maruaile that they spare not the good name of a King when they spare not his blood For they be not only byting doggs but deuouring wolues as appeares not only by the gun-powder Treason I should haue said the Iesuites treason but by the cruell death of Henry the third and fourth Kings of France An exhortation to Princes I am grieued at your sluggishnes I am greeued at your slauerie ô yee Kings and Princes who doe endure such sowers of sedition such teachers of periurie such authors of King-killing Beware of these dogs catch these foxes driue away these wolues as my spirit hath aduised you to whom slandering is a sport consening is a game rebellion and conspiracies is meat drinke Foresee that your patience be no longer hurtfull both to you and me Awake out of sleepe at the last and defend my glory together with your owne safetie take the cause of the Gospell in hand and laying aside Antichrist put on Christ Iesus not a false and a faigned Iesus as he is deuised by that Apostata but true and right Iesus as he is preached by the Apostle Doe no longer hold shadowes for bodies shewes for substances preferre not things vaine before those that be sound nor things fraile before eternall Vaine and fraile is the outward shew of Christ which deceiues the eyes sound and eternall is the truth that feeds the soules it is not the forme but the power of the Crosse that brings saluation Let not the glistering shew of Antichrist which wrongs you being aliue and cannot helpe you being dead deceiue your eyes that it may keepe you from Christ from whom you may expect comfort in life and true rest in death Whereby their madnes seemes the more who groueling vpon the ground so dote vpon Antichrist that they neglect the faith of Christ his name onely being reteyned who cannot feele the sauing force of the Crosse nor the inward power of the Spirit nor the heauenly light of the Gospell nor the spirituall glory of my kingdome As if my estate base and contemptible in whom there is no outward forme nor shew to be desired as my Prophet Esay said had caused you to turne both your looking and your liking from me or as if I had suffred the most greeuous anguishes of the soule and the most bitter tortures of the bodie for mine owne sake and had not been wounded for your transgressions and broken for your sins that the chastisement of your peace might reside vpon me and saluation out of my wounds and miseries might come to you For this is the very truth the basenesse of the estate I vndertooke ☜ the weaknes of the flesh I tooke on me the ignominie of the Crosse I endured for your sake seemes vile and contemptible in the iudgement of flesh and blood But if that heauenly maiestie if that power if that glory which through the vaile of humilitie weaknesse and ignominie is transparent to the eye of faith might appeare to your mindes euen as I am described by Iohn a lambe slaine and a lyon inuincible that so I may appeare to you a mighty God in the forme of a weake man How great loue and feare if you beleeue either a heauen or a hell would the vniting of so infinite mercy with such infinite power and iustice stirre vp in your soules Great sinners such as commonly Kings are had need of great grace the preaching whereof shall be as acceptable to you as necessarie when once you shall feele the stinge of an accusing conscience pricking you whereby you might come to heauen by the way of repentance that could not come thither by the way of innocencie But they that vnderstand not the force of their sicknes desire not the force of the remedie And while they feele not the wound inflicted by sinne they looke not for the remedie applied by grace To whom I denounce that I will proue either a most louing Patron or a most seuere Iudge with my right hand to saue them or to be reuenged on them All men whatsoeuer they haue or are owe it all of right to me but Kings and Princes chiefly whom by my speciall fauour and grace I haue aduanced a few ouer so many millions of men and placed them in mine owne throne To what end to what end I pray that they might giue themselues to lust and idlenesse to serue the Dragon to aduance and adorne Antichrist not so not so verily But that they may watch ouer the Church may fight for the Lambe may spoile teare in pieces the Beast if that heauenly quire of Saints in heauen fall down before the lambe sitting on his throne and worship him that liues for euer and cast their Crownes before the throne saying Thou art worthy ô Lord to haue all glory and honor because thou hast made all things and being slaine hast redeemed vs by thy blood vnto God If that innumerable ranke of melodious Angels doe with sweet and loud voices sing of the power wisdome and strength of the Lambe that is slaine and giue him all honor due vnto him What ought you to doe you vnder whose purple robes as yet abideth dust and ashes and who weare but corruptible Crownes vpon your heads what ought yee to do in the cause of your King and Redeemer for since I haue brought those holy soules after the end of all their trauels dangers in my quarrell and battell into the possession of true happines promised and vowed vnto them you that as yet are in the very heat danger of the battell both the necessity of my helpe the expectance of the reward ought to stir you vp to a more feruent desire to defend mine honor Heere I haue a iust grieuous cause to complain that your mutual suspitions quarrels haue made Antichrist weake and contemptible in himselfe to be so dreadfull and mighty Hence it is that that Laterane Idoll hath taken to it selfe the golden head of a swelling title and spread abroad the siluer armes of his pecuniary inrisdiction and strouted out the brazen belly of conspiracy and rebellion and hath mooued and stirred from home those iron feet of violence and pride wherewith he hath not onely trod vpon your crownes but your neckes I tell you plainly the discord of Kings hath encreased Antichrist their amity shall weaken him Is it for your good to admit of spies that may search into your counsels fiery spirits that may cast the seedes of discord betweene neighbor-kings and set them together by the eares Harpeyes that may spoyle you of your treasures Horse leeches that may sucke your blood secret traytors that with faire words may cut your throats who when they haue laught at you in their sleeues that they haue left you lead and taken your golde that
King against the Pope that theâ— would maintaine to the houre of death against the papall citations suspensions excommunications and censures the crowne of England which they held as alway free subiect to no common-weale but immediately subiect to God and not subiect by name to the Byshoppe of Rome that they would vnite theÌ„seâ—ues to the King against the Pope in all causes vndertaken by the Pope against the King his crowne and dignitie and wouâ—d liue and die with the King This was the loue and the ancient faithfulnesse of the whole English people toward their King namely against the Pope they were so far from suffering the King to be deposed by the Pope Now the Spaniards with what earnestnes they haue § 122 detested the treacherie of subiects against their king couered with anie pretence or colour of religion whatsoeuer Concil Teleta 4 Cano. 75. their manie Councels of Toled doe declare in that booke which is intitled the Apologie for the Oath of Allegeance The practice of Spaniards against Popes wherein they seeme to checke your equiuocation which they obserued in many things when as they made profession of their oath with their tongue and retained in their minde perfidious treachery Doe you not see how in the thicke darknesse of Poperie these noble Nations the Iâ—â—lians Germanes French English and Spanish did retaine this light and heat of obedience toward their Kings against the Popes and that in this businesse neither the Bishops dissented from the Nobles nor the Nobles from the Bishops but the Laickes with the Clearkes and the Clearkes with the Laickes Councels with Parliaments did fully agree to maintaine the dignitie of the King and the obedience and concord of subiects against the popish censures what is becom of this ancient nobility and this vertue of the people where is that magnanimity of the Italians French Germanes and Spanish when shall wee euer see a second Fredericke or another Philip the faire who will suppresse the Popes insolency in Germany and France when will these noble Kingdomes bring foorth such Catholike Bishops which will keepe the Kings crownes and the peoples consciences free from the Popes tyrannie They haue England Scotland and other famous countries going before them in this businesse But you call these schismaticall the Italian Germane French English and Spanish who with common consent resisted the Pope But marke if you beleeue Sigebert your Abbot if it bee not a harder matter for you to wipe away the note of heresie from the Pope who carries himselfe so proudly against Kings then to take away the aspersion of schism from those Catholike people who did maintaine their Kings against the popes § 123 But from these things which we haue spoken it doth sufficiently appeare Saturnine how that is very false which you alleadged erewhile that the Councels and nationall Parliaments did euer approoue the deposing of Kings by Popish censures when as they did publikely condemne their insolencie cruelty treacherie toward their Kings as you see For so the matter stands grace did neuer destroy nature or diuinitie ciuility faith did neuer ouerthrow ciuill iustice but made it better nor euer took away the affection of man but made it more humane And when men ought to behaue themselues reuerently toward the parents of their bodies much more reuerently ought they to carrie themselues toward their countrie and the father thereof for this loue of our countrie and reuerend respect of our Kings is not taught vs by a master but in bred and grafted by nature which whosoeuer doth vnder pretence of religion either weaken or blot out he opposing himselfe to God the author of nature is to bee accompted not a Pastour but an impostor not a holy father but a cruell tormentour of soules and bodies But you as if the Popish religion put all ciuill honestie out of the minde of men and as if Popish zeale did blot out all naturall affection you thinke that the glorie of your Pope must be builded vp with the blood of our Princes and the greatnesse of your Kingdome with the ruines and desolations of our Countrey And if Catholike Kings did retaine those Princely spirits of their ancestours proud Popes would not more boldly desire to rule without the commandement of God then they to forbid them being armed with the sword of God And by the exaÌ„ple of most excellent Protestant Kings they would not onely prune and cut off these hurtfull sprigges of this vniust and poisonfull power but they would vtterly cut vp and plucke vp that poisoned tree from the verie roots out of their Kingdoms But the beginning of all this mischeife is the Popes spirituall supremacie whereby hee claimes to be the head of the visible Church the Vicar of Christ the Iudge and Father of Kings the vniuersall Bishop of Bishops to whom the originall of all spirituall iurisdiction doth forsooth immediately descend from Christ to be deriued mediately to others from him which whether it be done with greater wrong to Kings or to Bishops I cannot iustly set downe But all this spirituall supremacie from whence all the force and nature of that excommunication doth depend whereof so many things haue beene spoken and of the deposing of Kings and of releasing of subiects from the oath of obedience Patriott shall plucke it in peeces in the Creede wherein first he shall flie at the head of Popery after hee shall wound the bodie Thus wee haue seene Pragmaticall Antichrist vpon the stage now wee shall heare him disputing out of his chaire DOGMATICAL ANTICHRIST OR The Popes Creede OR The Pastor raigning The second booke of the Dialogue AFter that the most renowned Iames § 124 King of Great Bâ—itaine had made answer to the Popes two buls Bellarmines Epistle for the Oath of Allegeance One Matthew Tortus vnder whose visard Bellarmine lay hid vttred both elswhere diuers articles blasphemous against God and those two reproachfull against Princes full of insolencie and crueltie one of the supreme dignitie the other of the depriuing power of the Pope and set them out being taken foorth of the Popes new creede with all the skill hee could This creede was composed of twelue new articles of the Romish-Catholike faith The diuision of the Popes creede taken in Councell of Trent as it it propounded in the bull of Pius the fourth about the oath of the profession of the Christian faith It may bee diuided into two parts one wherein the faith of Christians the other wherein their faithfulnesse toward Princes is corrupted From that spring out the articles of superstition and idolatrie from this of treason and sedition By them they are made euill Christians by these euill subiects that it is hard to say whether they haue more troubled the Church or this the common-wealth Hence Lionell Sharpe an English Diuine tooke vpon him to lay open the popes whole creede and to illustrate it in a Dialogue For when as the most learned Bishop of Chichester had