violently urged by the Jesuits above all others excepting that Society whose rich Colleges and abundance of Treasure made it apparent quickly to the World that some were great gainers while the poor Lay-Catholicks were made great sufferers by that Recusancy Upon Campian's Execution England grew too hot for our Father Parsons and notwithstanding the mighty zeal he pretended for the Conversion of England yet he was for saving one and getting out of harms way and therefore slips away back into France under the Pretext of conferring with Doctor Allen about the Seminaries and of Printing some Books which could not be done in England and never returned hither tho' he continued Superiour of the Jesuits Mission after this But though the Kingdom was delivered from such a Firebrand yet he continued diligent beyond Seas in his Seditious Designs and was to the last a constant Enemy to his Native Countrey As he had laboured in the promoting the Popish Recufancy and getting the English Papists to be governed by the Jesuits so he now employs all his Arts and all his interest to get Seminaries erected for the supplying England from time to time with Priests to keep up that Recufancy and to prepare the Papists here to joyn with any Invasion that they abroad should procure against their own Countrey Assoon as he was got hence to Roan in France he dealt with the Duke of Guise to erect a Seminary for such a purpose in Normandy after which he goes into Spain and prevails with King Philip to encourage and erect such in Spain so that in a short time they could not only boast of their Seminaries at Rome and at Rhemes but of those at Valladolid at Sevil at St. Lucars in Spain at Lisbon in Portugal at Doway and St. Omers in Flanders in all which their Youth were educated with violent Prejudices against their own Native Countrey and their minds were formed to all the Purposes and Designs which this chief Incendiary Parsons had in his head Father Moor the Author of the History of the Mission does indeed tell us That Father Parsons was for having the Youth that were entered into these Seminaries to take an Oath about faithfully answering the End and Benefit of their Education there but says not a word of their being forced to subscribe the Infanta of Spain's Title against the True Title of the then King of Scots King James the First The Oath was this IN. N. considering with how great benefits God hath blessed me c. do promise by God's assistance to enter into Holy Orders assoon as I shall be fit for them and to return into England to Convert my Countrey-men there whenever it shall please the Superior of this House to command me But when once Father Parsons being puffed up with his Familiarity with the King and Court of Spain had devoted his Soul and Body both to the service of that aspiring Crown then he was for having the Youth in the Seminaries to subscribe to the Spanish Title which was of his own inventing to the Crown of England then he was for speaking out his design against his Native Countrey And that he dealt in such traiterous designs after his getting out of England is proved upon him by their own Writers As touching the Colleges says Clark the Priest concerning him and Pensions that are maintained and given by the Spaniard which he so often inculcateth we no whit thank him for them as things are handled and occasions thereby ministred of our greater Persecution at home by reason of Father Parson's treacherous practices thereby to promote the Spanish Title to our Country and his hateful Stratagems with such Scholars as are there brought up enforcing them to subscribe to Blanks and by publick Orations to fortifie the said wrested Title of the Infanta meaning Isabella Clara Eugenia Daughter to Philip the Second of Spain whose Right to the English Crown was maintain'd in a Book by this Parsons made but published by him under the false name of Doleman As this Priest gives us an account of the zeal of Father Parsons for the Infanta so Watson another Romish Priest helps us to another of his knavery about the same affair That Parsons earnestly moving the young Students in Spain to set their hands to a Schedule that they would accept the Lady Infanta for Queen of England after the decease of her Majesty to wit Queen Elizabeth that now is but finding them altogether unwilling to intermedle with these State-affairs belonging nothing to them and most hurtful to both their Cause and Persons used this cunning shift to draw on the innocent and simple youths to pretend forsooth to them of Valladolid that the Students in Sevil had done it already no remedy then but they must follow And that having thus craftily gotten their names he shewed them to the Students in Sevil for an example of their fact and forwardness which he required them to imitate Though these are sufficient Evidences of the use Father Parsons put the erected Seminaries to yet I cannot but add that great and wise Cardinal the Cardinal d'Ossat's account of these very Seminaries in his Letter to the King of France Henry the Fourth about the Spaniards and Father Parsons Design against England For this purpose also says he were the Colleges and Seminaries erected by the Spaniards for the English at Doway and at St. Omers wherein the young Gentlemen of the best Families in England are entertain'd thereby to oblige them and by them their Parenâ—â— and Kindred and Friends The principal care which these Colleges and Seminaries have is to catechise and bring up these young English Gentlemen in this Faith and firm Belief that the late King of Spain had and that his Children now have the true Right of Succession to the Crown of England and that this is advantageous and expedient for the Catholick Faith not only in England but where-ever Christianity is And when these young English Gentlemen have finished their Humanity-Studies and are come to such an age then to make them throughly Spaniards they are carried out of the Low-Countries into Spain where there are other Colleges for them wherein they are instructed in Philosophy and Divinity and confirmed in the same Belief and holy Faith that the Kingdom of England did belong to the late King of Spain and does now to his Children After that these young English Gentlemen have finished their courses those of them that are found to be most Hispaniolized and most couragious and firm to this Spanish Creed are sent into England to sow this Faith among them to be Spies and give advice to the Spaniards of what is doing in England and what must and ought to be done to bring England into the Spaniards hands and if need be to undergo Martyrdom as soon or rather sooner for this Spanish Faith than for the Catholick Religion In this Cardinal we find to what excellent purposes the Seminaries were erected that Father Parsons laboured
so much about and of which he glories so much up and down his Writings These Seminaries were the Nurseries of the Conspiracies and Treasons which were from time to time set on foot and carried on against the Queen and Realm of England and Father Parson 's whole Life from his leaving the Mission in England appears to me to have been one continued Act of Treason against his Natural Queen and Native Country To mention some of his Treasons that are come to light he was very grateful to the Duke of Guise whom he had perswaded to set up a Seminary in France for the English that should come thither for with him he conspires against his own Queen how to depose her and set up in her room Popery and the Queen of Scots He endeavoured for this purpose as we are told to make a List of Catholicks which under the conduct of the Duke of Guise should have changed the State of the Kingdom using for it the pretence of the Title of Queen Mary of Scotland But that her Council at Paris which understood business better were so sensible of his boldness that they took from him the Queen's Cypher which he had purloyned and commanded him never more to meddle in her affairs But notwithstanding these People would not let our Father Parsons have any thing further to do in those treasons which were really carried on at that time for the Queen of Scots yet he pretended to mighty merit upon her and her Son's Account in his Letter to Father Chreyton the Jesuit telling him how many long and tedious journeys he had taken for their sakes and how much Mony he had procured for them at one time twenty four thousand Crowns from the King of Spain at another time the same summ and from Pope Gregory XIII four thousand Crowns he confesses indeed that things had not succeeded for them as he had wished but wonders that any body should make him to be an Enemy to the King of Scots who had been so very serviceable to him and his Mother I suppose Father Parsons was disgusted at this sleighting of his faithful services to the Queen of Scots by her Ministers and to be revenged of her and them betakes himself wholly into the Spanish Interest which he espoused so far as not only to sollicite and encourage their open attempts by Invasion against England but after the ill success of that to set up their sham Title to the Kingdom of England He and Cardinal Allen whom Parsons had by his Interest with the King of Spain procured to be made a Cardinal two Brethren in iniquity were mighty forward for the famous Spanish Invasion in 1588. and to make it more successful wrote in defence of it a Tract which Allen was perswaded to own though Parsons had as great if not a greater hand in it than himself In this Admonition to the Nobility and People of England the Queen's Government is called impious and unjust her self an Usurper obstinate and impentinent and it is affirmed that for this reason Pope Sixtus Quintus moved by his own and his Predecessors zeal and the vehement desire of some principal Englishmen had used great diligence with divers Princes especially with the Spanish King to use all his force that she might be turned out of her Dominions and her Adherents punished for a great many Reasons there laid together after which it proceeds thus Wherefore seeing these Offences some of them rendring her uncapable of the Kingdom others unworthy to live his Holiness by the power of God and the Apostles reneweth the Censures of Pius V. and Gregory XIII against her excommunicates and deprives her of all Royal Dignity Titles Rights and Pretences to England and Ireland declares her Illegitimate and an Usurper of the Kingdoms and absolves all her Subjects from their Obedience and Oaths of Allegiance due to her And expressly commands All under pain and penalty of God's Wrath to yield her no obedience aid or favour whatsoever but to employ all their power against her and to joyn themselves with the Spanish Forces who will not hurt the Nation nor alter their Laws or Priviledges only punish the wicked Hereticks And by the same Presents it was declared not only lawful but commendable to lay hands on the said Usurper and other her Adherents for doing of which they should be well rewarded And lastly to all these Roman Assistants is liberally granted a plenary Indulgence and Remission of all their Sins But this unerring Thunderbolt as well as the Spanish Invincible Armado did very shamefully miscarry to the no small disappointment of our good Father Parsons who was not discouraged at that defeat though a worse Man than himself if any such could be would have seen the Finger of God plainly in it but labours with the King of Spain a while after for a second Invasion and after that for a third plotting and devising all ways to bring the King of Spain to it and the Papists of England both those at home and the fugitives abroad to joyn and assist the King of Spain in it but all his pains was lost about these Invasions from abroad and therefore he next sets himself to raise a Rebellion in England it self and deals with Ferdinand Earl of Derby to appear in and â—ead it which because he declined to do he was poysoned by Father Hesketh's procurement who had been sent to him by Father Parsons But failing here also of the desired success the poor Father was now at a loss what to do with this Kingdom of England and since he saw all miscarried that he had plotted against Queen Elizabeth who descended to her Grave full of years and honour his next business was to keep out King James who was a Protestant also from succeding her For this purpose he wrote his Doleman or Conference about the next Succession to the Crown of England the chief design of which was to exclude the Scotch Title as well the Lady Arabella's as King James's and to set up the Spanish Infanta I know Mr. Camden will have Cardinal Allen and Sir Francis Inglefield to have their shares in this Book but Cardinal d'Ossat who had far better opportunities of finding out the Author makes it to be Parson's own and in one of his Letters to the King of France gives that King an account of it wherein he gives our Jesuit the true Character he deserved of being a fellow that regarded neither truth nor reason One thing I cannot but remark here that though this Jesuit had the Impudence to meddle in these matters and to set up forged Titles against the Royal Line of Scotland yet when King James contrary to their Popish designs as well as Expectations did quietly succeed to the Crown of England he had the greater Impudence to deny his ever intending to exclude that King this is in the Preface to his Three Conversions of England added upon the news of the Queens Death and
Succession of the King of Scotland to the Crown of England And as for the person says he to the English Catholicks now advanced I know most certainly that there was never any doubt or difference among you but that ever you desired his advancement above all others as the only Heir of that renowned Mother for whom your fervent zeal is known to the World and how much you have suffered by her adversaries for the same Yet do I confess that touching the disposition of the person for the place and manner of his advancement all zealous Catholicks have both wished and prayed that he might first be a Catholick and then our King this being our bounded duty to wish and his greatest good to be obtained for him And to this end and no other I assure my self hath been directed whatsoever may have been said written or done by any Catholick which with some others might breed disgust Thus the Jesuit thought to pacifie King James's Court by a piece of Impudence to be met with only in a Jesuit whoever will be at the pains to compare Parson's Doleman with this Preface cannot but declare him to be the greatest Villain that ever set Pen to Paper and to have lost all sense of Modesty Truth and Justice Amidst these his Projects for the Spanish Interest he had hopes upon the death of Cardinal Allen to be made by the Spanish Interest a Cardinal for England and there was set about in Flanders by Holt the Jesuit and Worthington a Petition to the King of Spain for that purpose subscribed by the Common Soldiers Labourers Artizans and Pensioners nay Scullions and Laundresses as well as by those of better rank and quality Upon this Father Parsons makes haste out of Spain to Rome to hinder it as the Jesuits say for him when he came thither upon a day set him he waited on the Pope and acquainted him how the City was full of the discourse of his being shortly to be made a Cardinal and that Spain and Flanders rung with it too and therefore begged of him that he would not think of making him a Cardinal who might be more serviceable in the condition he was now in to the affairs of England The Pope told him That the King of Spain had not written a syllable to him about any such thing and that he must not mind foolish Reports and bid him go and mind his studies I cannot but think that this neglect in the King of Spain lost him Father Parsons who soon after though he could not leave of plotting went on other designs four of which he seems to have had on foot together for the Exclusion of King James from the Crown of England The most improbable one was that of the Peoples rising and setting up a popular Government he had furnished them with Principles in several of his Books for this purpose In the Second and Third he dealt with the Pope either about making if his Purse and Interest were large enough his Kinsman the Duke of Parma King or in joyning with the Lady Arabella's Interest and marrying her to the Duke's Brother the Cardinal Farnese whom he had made upon the death of Cardinal Cajetan Protector of England thereby to ingratiate him with the Clergy and Laity of this Kingdom Cardinal d'Ossat gives a very large account of both these Projects in the Letter whcih I have already quoted to the King of France And in another of his Letters he gives an account of the fourth Project wherein he himself had been dealt with by Parsons then Rector of the College of Jesuits at Rome which was that the Pope the King of France and King of Spain should agree among themselves of a Successor for England that should be a Catholick and that they should joyn their Forces to settle him in the Throne of England Thus we see how Plotting and Treason was the whole business of this Jesuit's Life in which he was so notorious that Pasquin set him forth thus at Rome If there be any Man that will buy the Kingdom of England let him repair to a Merchant in a black square Cap in the City and he shall have a very good penniworth thereof While he thus filled his head with designs and hopes of a Popish Prince to be set up in England by some of these foreign Princes it was that he drew up the following Memorial for that his Prince his Directions to whom are like his other Counsels and Actions I will trouble the Reader with no more of his History As I take the Jesuits to be the very worst of Men so I think the preceeding accounts have proved Father Parsons to be the very worst of Jesuits A MEMORIAL OF THE REFORMATION of ENGLAND CONTAINING Certain Notes and Advertisements which seem might be proposed in the First Parliament and National Council of our Country after God of his mercy shall restore it to the Catholick Faith for the better Establishment and Preservation of the said Religion Gathered and set-down by R.P. 1596. THE PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR SHEWING How and why these Notes were gathered and the principal Parts to be treated THE Notes and Observations of this Memorative following were gathered and laid together in time of Persecution when there was no place to execute or put them in ure and it is no more than seventeen or eighteen Years past that the Gatherer began first to put some of them in writing and having had the experience of the Years which have ensued since and his part also in the Catholic affairs of his Country and the Practice of divers other Catholic Nations abroad he was desirous in case that himself should not live to see the desired day of the Reduction of England yet some of his Cogitations and Intentions for the publick good thereof might work some effect after his Death and that thereby other Men might be the sooner moved to enter into more mature Considerations of these and such like Points yea and also to descend unto many more particulars than here are set down For that the Gatherer's meaning was only to open the way and to insinuate certain general and principal Heads that might serve for an awaking and remembrance at that happy day of the Conversion of our Country unto such Persons as shall be then able and desirous to further the common good and to advance Almighty God's Glory with a Holy Zeal of perfect Reformation who perhaps may be so entangled with multitudes of other business and Cogitations at that time as they will not so easily enter into these except they be put in mind thereof by some such Memorials and Advertisements as here are touched And what is said in this Treatise for the Kingdom of England is meant also for Ireland so far as it may do good seeing the Author desireth as much benefit for God's Service and the good of that Nation to the one Country as to the other And for that the principal
forelaid Council of Trent entirely and fully without Limitation or Restraint but to embrace also and to put it in ure where occasion and place is offered such other points of Reformation as tend to the perfect restitution of Ecclesiastical Discipline that were in use in the ancient Christian Church though afterward decayed for want of Spirit and not urged now again nor commanded for the Council of Trent for the causes before by me alledged for better Declaration whereof we may consider that the Council of Trent touching Reformation of Manners had to repair an old ancient House whereof many parts were sore weakened by Corruptions and some perished but yet the whole could not be changed nor built anew but necessarily the reparation must be made according to the State and Condition of the other parts that yet remained and so those good Fathers could not frame all points to their own likeing nor yet according to the Rules of perfect Ecclesiastical Architecture But now in England no doubt but that the State of things will be far otherwise whensoever the change of Religion shall happen For then it will be lawful for a good Catholick Prince that God shall send and 2 for a well affected Parliament which himself and the time will easily procure to begin of new and to build from the very foundation the external face of our Catholick Church and to follow the Model which themselves will chuse and if that will be a good and perfect Model it will endure at least for a time and be a pattern of true Christianity to the rest of the World but if it be but ordinary and of the meaner sort at the beginning it will quickly slide back to the old Corruptions wherein it was before and so the benefit of this Probation and Tribulation will soon be lost both before God and Men which Jesus forbid for that it is and will be the greatest Crown that ever England hath had since her first Conversion to the Christian Faith and according to this account must our purpose be of Reformation whensoever God shall restore us to Liberty and Peace lest we lose in Peace that which we gained in War as Eusebius Caesariensis saith that some did in antient Persecutions and it ought to be a warning to us to take heed by their Examples And this is so much as in this behalf seemeth needful to be remembred Animadversions on Chap. II. 1 THE late Council of Trent The Jesuit in the former Chapter was complaining of the coldness and imperfect Reformation of Queen Mary's Reign and here he is as severe upon the Council of Trent it self which notwithstanding its being directed and assisted by the Holy Ghost as this Jesuit as well as the rest of their Writers will have it to be when they are engaged in Controversie against the Reformed and notwithstanding the Infallible Vicar at Rome presided in it by his Legates and did from time to time influence and direct all its Consultations and Determinations yet was so base and cowardly according to our fierce Jesuit as to truckle to the humours of the Age and make a very lame and imperfect Reformation out of compliance with the lukewarmness and iniquity of that Age. But the rest of the World were not of our Jesuit's Mind but did easily see that no Temporal Prince could submit to that Council which by the bye was nothing but a meer Western Conventicle of Italian Bishops and the Pope's own Creatures who had sworn to be true and faithful to him and to preserve to him those which he and they call the Rights and Honours of S. Peter before ever they came within the Walls of that assembly without wrong to himself and to his People However our Jesuit is for having his Popish Prince in England to receive the Council of Trent entirely and fully without Limitation and Restraint though the Prince that does it makes himself feudatory to the Popes and leaves his Country to their disposal when they think fit to have it escheat to them this no body can doubt of it that will but examine what that Council at Trent hath determined about the Matter of Duels in any Princes Countries and this without Question is one of the Reasons why the Gallican Church could not then nor can be to this day perswaded to admit the Council of Trent entirely but refuse it as to the Canons about Discipline which encroach upon the Prince's Right and the Churches Authority By what I can observe from our Jesuit he is for overdoing the whole World and while he brands others with the name of Cold Catholicks would I suppose have a Council of Jesuits to reform their Church and then I am sure it will be done to purpose 2 For a well affected Parliament which himself and the time will easily procure Here is an Instance of a fatal mistake in our Jesuit's Politicks and Foresight The Papists in England by God's Permission have had a Popish Prince and a Prince governed by Jesuits too and as zealous as our Jesuit himself could either imagine or wish him to be and yet after all he was not able to get a well affected Parliament that is a Parliament that would have settled Popery effectually among us That Prince came to the Crown with greater advantages than one of his Perswasion could well have been supposed to have done he was no sooner fixt in his Throne than he had the good success to break and suppress two very dangerous Rebellions and appeared to the World to have the love of all his Subjects who gratified him in his first Parliament with every thing that they could either with Honour or Conscience give But when tempted I am afraid by the reading of this Jesuit's Memorial and by the strange success against the two Insurrections he began to pull off the Vizard and was for breaking in upon the National Protestant security by keeping up a standing Army with a great many Popish unqualified Officers and thought it would prove 〈◊〉 easie matter to bring in his Popery we see how miserably he was out in his Measures that very Parliament that had been so kind as to settle a greater Revenue upon him than ever King of England had by six hundred thousand Pounds a Year as I have been informed for some Years and to give him great Supplies and to Voâ—â— him more and that did stand by him with their Fortuneâ— and Lives were yet for standing by their Religion and their Laws and were neither so tame nor foolish as to be either complemented or hector'd out of either of them This dissolved that Parliament and shewed how graâ—â—ful a Popish Prince could be to the best and kindest Parliament And when this Parliament was dissolved and Popery made every day larger steps than before and the whole Constitution was laid to sleep in favour of Fanatiâ— and Papists did he or time procure a more kind or well affected Parliament Indeed all the care imaginable
that other in place of this of Malta or besides this some other new Order were erected also in our Country of Religious Knights and m that their Rule might be to fight against Hereticks in whatsoever Country they should be imployed And when Heresies should fail that they then keep our Seas of England from Pirats and our Land from publick Theft binding themselves for their probation to serve in their Exercises the time that should be limited and for keeping the Land at home they might have other Companies and Confraternities under them much like to that called the Holy Hermandad in Spain which alone keepeth all these great and vast Kingdoms from Robberies And this Order of new English Knights might quickly be made a very flourishing Order being permitted also to Marry and they might take the Name and Protection of some Holy King of England or of all the Holy Kings joyntly or of St. George all which I leave to the Consideration of this Council to deal therein with the Prince and Parliament Animadversions on Chap. VII m THat their Rule might be to fight against Hereticks In this Chapter our Jesuit treats of his Council of Reformation he had great reason to avoid giving it the name of the Holy Council of Inquisition since how fond soever Portugal or Spain may be of an Inquisition it is odious to England and abominable and ought to be so to all Christians there being nothing more barbarous nor more diametrically contrary to the Religion of the Blessed Jesus than the Popish Inquisitions But this would have been very slender comfort to us in England since it seems we were to have had the Thing without the Name for the use the Jesuit would have had the young Popish Gentry of England put to in this Chapter is to have them listed into a Fraternity the business of which was to have been very honourable to them to wit to go a Dragooning about the Nation and to have hunted down the Protestants whom he here calls Hereticks like wild beasts and when they had thus Christianly rooted out all Protestants by this mild perswasive way out of this Nation then forsooth these wonderful valiant Knights were to have been sent abroad to purge the World of Heretie and after all our Seas of Pyrats and the Land of Thieve which if they had done I am sure England would have been rid of the Jesuits as well as of Protestants Nor is the Jesuit content with this for after a few years England was to have Name and Thing for when his Council of Reformation resign up their Authority he makes it necessary that they should leave some good and sound manner of Inquisition established for the Conservation of that which they have planted And indeed the Jesuit is in the right of it that a sound manner by which I know the Jesuit means a most severe and bloody manner of Inquisition is absolutely necessary either for the planting or the preserving such an absurd and ridiculous Religion as Popery is in England CHAP. VIII Of divers other Points that will belong to the Council of Reformation to deal in HItherto only hath been treated of Abby-Lands and Ecclesiastical Livings to be collected imployed and disposed by this Council and Religious Orders to be replanted but many other Points do yet remain for that the whole weight of Restitution both of the External and Internal face of our English Church and the perfect reparation both material and formal of the same will depend principally of the Authority Wisdom Zeal Magnanimity and Piety of this Council and for this purpose such principal branches as come now to my Mind I will here set down First of all it will appertain to these Men to send Commissioners abroad into the Realm and to have ordinary Correspondence in all the Shires of England thereby to advise from time to time what are the greatest wants and what first is to be remedied or provided for As for Example here Preachers here Confessors here Priests to say Mass here Seminaries here Schools here Monasteries here Colleges here Nunneries here Hospitals here building or enlarging or repairing of old Parish-Churches with their Sacristies or Revestries Tabernacles Church-Houses publick Crosses and the like whereof I shall treat more in some particular Chapters afterwards in the Second Part of this Memorial And for that the Reverence of Religion and motive of Devotion to the People doth greatly depend of these external things it must be one principal care of this Council to have them well reformed and practical Men sent about the same The like necessity will be also to augment the Livings of certain Curates and Pastors in many places and to increase in some others where one is not sufficient as commonly it will not be convenient for one only Priest to live any where alone if it may be remedied in respect of wanting a Confessor for himself or others when he should be sick except the Parish lay so near to some other as in all necessities they might give mutual help one to the other as if they lived together For singing and hearing of Mass also at the beginning order must be taken that divers Parishes repair to one upon Sundays and great Holy-days and that Priests be so distributed as they may supply the best that may be until better provision can be made and perhaps it would not be amiss to call in some stranger Priests for a time Men of Edification and Vertue such as might be procured by means of some Pious and Zealous Bishops of Foreign Countries and by Commendation and Election of some Religious Orders that keep Schools and do know the Vertue of every one and being requested by our Council of Reformation would have care to direct only such Men unto us as should be for the purpose who being divided about the Realm and convenient Stipends appointed them without appropriation of any Benefice for that would have inconvenience they would greatly ease and help our English Clergy until it be increased and grown stronger and these Strangers would serve to say Mass and administer some Sacraments in Parish-Churches and might supply also the Labour and Function of some Canons for singing in the Quire and divers Cathedral and Collegiate Churches where other Provision of our own Nation could not be so soon made And it perchance would be less hurt to pass on with these Strangers for a time who afterwards may be removed if they should not prove well than for haste and want to make up a number of unable or evil Priests of our own who would be ever after a Seed of Corruption and Disorder to the whole Realm of which point I shall say also more in the Second Part when I come to speak of Seminaries where no Priests at all could be planted at the beginning there some honest and discreet Person or Persons of the Parish or of the next to it though they be Lay-men were to be assigned to have
been perverted by dissolution of Life and Heresie they have brought her into more misery infamy and confusion within the compass of few years than all other Christian Kingdoms round about us together Wherefore the principal help and hope next under God which our poor afflicted Country hath or may have of her redress is by means of her good Catholick Prince that God of his Mercy shall vouchsafe to give us who also considering the great work whereunto he is called shall in no wise be able better to satisfie his Obligation and Duty to God and the Expectation of all good Men and to assure his own Possession and Estate than to make account that the security of himself his Crown and Successor dependeth principally of the assurance and good establishment of the Catholick Roman Religion within his Kingdom and whatsoever is done or permitted against this Religion is not only against Jesus Christ our Saviour and his Spouse his Catholick Church but also against every Catholick Prince as his supream Minister and much more against the King of England as things do now stand both for Religion and Estate First of all then is to be recommended with all humility and earnest suit unto his Majesty that shall be established the singular care and holy zeal of restoring perfectly the Catholick Religion in our Realm and to employ his whole endeavour and authority therein and to concur and assist with his Princely favour and special Protection all such Men as principally shall labour therein and above other the Council of Reformation the Prelates Preachers and Clergy of his Realm and by example of his own Royal Person in frequenting the Holy Sacraments and other pious Actions of Religion and Devotion to animate all other his Subjects and foreign Princes also and Countries about him to whom he will in these our times be a remarkable mirrour to imitate the same and this for his own Person But concerning his Majesty's Council both in Spiritual and Temporal affairs it will import also exceeding much that he make choice of fit and worthy persons And for the first which is in matters concerning conscience the pious custom of some Catholick Kings and namely those of Portugal in times past is greatly to be commended who besides their Temporal Council had also another of learned Spiritual Men named the Table of Conscience in taking any thing in hand and execution of the same And for this Council they were wont to make choice as I have said of some number of eminent and learned Men and also notorious for their Piety and good Consciences whether they were of Religious Orders or no and the head or chief of these commonly the King 's own Confessor who might with more security by council and assistance of these able Men direct the King's mind with safety of Conscience And whatsoever Prince shall take this course no doubt but he shall find great help light comfort security and quietness of Mind thereby And as for the World abroad it must needs be a singular great justification of all his acts intention and attempts in the eyes and tongues of all Men seeing he doth them by the direction of so irreprehensible a Consultation His Temporal Council shall be needful to be made with great choice and deliberation especially at the beginning in England for that if any one person thereof should be either infected with Heresie or justly suspected or not fervent nor forward in the Catholick Religion and in the Reformation necessary to be made for good establishment of the same it would be to the great prejudice of the cause and of his Majesty and Realm And seeing Heresie and Hereticks could be so vigilant for overthrowing of true Religion at the beginning of this Queen's Reign as they admitted no one Man to govern whom they might suspect to favour true-Religion how much more zealous and jealous ought our new Catholick Prince to be in excluding from his Privy Council and other places of chief charge and government not only Men known or justly feared to be favourers of Heresie and Hereticks that will never be secure to God or his Majesty but also â—old and doubtful professors of Catholick Religion until they be proved by long tract of time And seeing that his Majesty shall have so great choice at that day of approved constant Catholicks within the Realm as never was seen the like since our first Conversion who have suffered so constantly at the hands of Hereticks in these Persecutions it is to be hoped and expected that his Majesty will serve himself first and chiefly of these men above all others according to their merits and after these of such other known Catholicks as albeit God gave them not fortitude and constancy to suffer so much as the others did for Religion yet were they ever secret favourers and never Persecutors or open Enemies to the truth It is to be commended with like submission and instance to his Majesty that after he shall have taken the Crown upon him and embraced this Realm as his loving Spouse he will confirm first of all the Laws Customs Priviledges Dignities and Liberties of the same and to take away all such burdens servitudes and unjust oppressions as have been any way laid upon us in former times but since the entrance of Heresie And as this is to be done to all the Realm as to the Nobility and to the Commonalty so principally and above others it is reason that it should be performed to the Church and Clergy-men who beyond all others have been injured in these latter times so that at the least it will be just that the Church of England be restored to the same state of Priviledges Possessions Dignities and Exemptions wherein it was when King Henry the Eighth began to Reign And for that the external face and material part of our Churches hath been so much defaced spoiled and broken down by King Henry the Eighth and his Children as all the World seeth it will be one principal part of our new King's Piety and Religion to concur effectually to the rebuilding and restoring of the same again by the means touched by me before of that moderate and temperate manner of restitution whereof I have spoken largely in the First Part of this Memorial And it is to be hoped that his Majesty will be the first and most fervent fartherer of the same according to the Holy Obligation Vow and Offer that he will make to Almighty God for that Heroical enterprise to his eternal honour and infinite benefit and beautifying of our Commonwealth Which sound Foundation of Religion and Piety being once laid it may be suggested to his Majesty with like sollicitude touching the execution of Justice to all Men with indifferency which is the principal point of a true Catholick Prince's Office next after God and Religion and is so much the more necessarily to be looked to now in England after so long
poor with Alms that no Brass Mony at all hath been permitted as in all other Countries is used where yet there is much more store of Silver than in ours For without this neither can the poor live nor small traffick be maintained wherefore of necessity it must be thought on that some Brass Mony be brought in correspondent to our Farthing Half-penny and the like I have spoken also before of a certain Common Treasure or bank to be erected in every great Town for poor Men to borrow Mony upon sureties with very little or no interest which would be a great help and stay for many poor People Divers Companies and Societies also and Confraternities are to be erected among the common People for their exercise in Piety and works of Charity as for example the Confraternity or Brotherhood of the blessed Sacrament of the Christian Doctrin of visiting Prisons or the Sick All which Brotherhoods and Societies must have their particular Statutes Rules and Ordinances for their good directions in their holy purposes Though the number of Grammar-Schools in English Towns Cities and Villages be more frequent commonly than in any other Countries yet are they now to be increased and no Village lightly should pass without a Master in it to teach the Children to write and read at the least and to cast accounts and to know the Christian Doctrine and when good wits are discovered they should be sent to higher Schools and thence to the Seminaries to go forward in learning And particular care ought to be had as before hath been noted that Men be not suffered to bring up their Children idly without some Talent of Study Art Science or Occupation And of this the Bishops ought to make inquiry of the Curate and Church-wardens in their Visitations and the Secular Justices in their ordinary Quarter-sessions to the end that this fountain of evil in the Commonwealth may be avoided And albeit many things more may be noted especially out of the godly Customs of other Catholick Countries yet not to enlarge any further this Memorial which is grown much greater than at the beginning I had purposed I mean to stay here leaving the Consideration and suggesting of the rest to them that shall know more and live at that happy day which we pray for of the Conversion of our Country And if only these few Notes or the principal of them which we have laid together in this Memorial shall be put in Execution I do not doubt by the help of Almighty God to whose Glory all tendeth but that our Country in small time would flourish more than ever again So as we may justly take that comfortable saying of Esaiah the Prophet to be spoke to us which he spoke to Jerusalem after a mighty storm of Purgation past Consolamini consolamini Popule mens Dimissa est iniquitas Hierusalem suscepit de manu Domini duplicia pro omnibus peccatis suis. FINIS Subscribed by the Author 's own hand this that followeth This I had to suggest to the Honour of Almighty God and good of our Country ROB. PERSONS Books lately Printed for Ric. Chiswell THE Fifteen Notes of the Church as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmin examined and confuted by several London Divines 4 o. With a Table to the whole and the Authors Names An Exposition of the Ten Commandments By Dr. Simon Patrick now Lord Bishop of Chichester The Lay Christians's Obligation to read the Holy Scriptures by Dr. Stratford now Lord Bishop of Chester The Texts which the Papists cite out of the Bible for proof of the points of their Religion Examined and shew'd to be alledged without Ground In twenty five distinct Discourses by several London Divines with a Table to the whole and the Authors Names The Case of Allegiance in our present circumstances considered in a Letter from a Minister in the City to a Minister in the Country 40. An Examination of the Scruples of those who refuse to take the Oath of Allegiance By a Divine of the Church of England A Dialogue betwixt two Friends a Jacobite and a Williamite occasioned by the late Revolution of Affairs and the Oath of Allegiance The Case of Oaths Stated 40. A Letter from a French Lawyer to an English Gentleman upon the present Revolution 40. The Advantages of the present Settlement and the great danger of a Relapse A short View of the Unfortunate Reigns of these Kings William the 2d Henry the 2d Edward the 2d Richard the 2d Charles the 2d and James the 2d Dr. Sherlock's Summary of the Controversies between the Church of England and Church of Rome The Plain Man's Reply to the Catholick Missionaries Dr. Wake 's Tracts and Discourses against Popery in 2 Vol. â—â—â—rto Some Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont By P. Allix DD. 40. Geologia Or A Discourse concerning the Earth before the Deluge wherein the Form and Properties ascribed to it in a Book intituled The Theory of the Earth are excepted against And it is made appear That the dissolution of that Earth was not the Cause of the Universal Flood Also a new Explication of that Flood is attempted By Erasmus Warren Rector of Worâ—ington in Suffolk The Present State of Germany or aâ— Account of the Extent Rise Form Wealth Strength Weaknesses and Interests of that Empire The Prerogatives of the Emperour and the Privileges of the Electors Princes and Free Cities adapted to the present Circumstances of that Nation By a Person of Quality 40. (a) Morus Historia Missionis Anglicanae Soc. Jesu l. 2. p. 39. * Thus non (b) In the Proctor's Book I find one Tho. Hyde proceeded Master of Arts the same year with Rob. Parsons viz. 1573. (c) Christopher Bagshaw admitted Fellow 1572. left the College 1582. was made Priest in France lived a while in the English College at Rome proceeded Doctor some say at Padua A.P. Reply p. 156. others at Paris and was one of the Faculty at Sorbonne He was active against the Archpriest in the stirs at Wisbich he lived to be very old (d) Dr. Sutclif's Blessings on Mount Gerizim p. 288. * Where he was then Master Camden's Elizabeth Book 2. p. 246. * Morus Historia Missionis p. 40. Acceptis ab Everardo mandatis de re Catholicae per nostri instituti ministeria diligenter procuranda atquo non minori diligentis vitaâ—â—a 〈◊〉 rerum quae ad regni publica negotia pertinerent seu verbo seu scripto trabatione Mor. Hist. Min. l. 3. p. 61. * Pag. 12 13. (c) Important Considerations p. 40. Hart's Confession taken December 31. 1580. in Lord Burleigh's Tract p. 14. (*) Andreas Philopaâ—… Responsio ad Edictum Reginae Angliae p. 106 107. in Fouli`s History of â—â—pish Treasons p. 77. Vertumnus Romanas Lettres Card. d'Ossat Part 2. l. 7. (a) Jesuits Reasons Unreasonable p. 65. (b) Morus Hist. Miss Jesuit l. 4. p. 122. Pitsaeus also makes him to be the Author of it Watson's Quodlibet p. 120. Morus Hist. Miss Jes. l. 6. p. 234 235. (c) Lettres Card. d'Ossat Part 2. l. 8. n. 162. See Animadversions * Important Considerations in a Collection of several Treatises concerning the Reasons and Occasions of the Penal Laws p. 31. (3) p. 34. (m) p. 55.56 (3) Camden Elizabeth B. 2. 150. Perfect Reformation Council of Trent State of England (l) Vertumnus Romanus published by Dr. Featly Pref. p. 7. * Apparatus p. 7. * Lib. 8. p. 153. 1685. Rebus intra Regnum utcunque stabilitis concordia florentibus proxima serenissimo Regi cura fuit suas ditiones cum Ecclesiae Catholicae Capite Romano Pontifice sanctaque Sede Apostolica connectere à qua haeresis eas ante sesquise ulum divulserat Ad tentandum ergo Vadum anno 1685. Romam destinat Jodunem Carillum stirpis claritudine opulentia illustrem Cui revocato cunctis ex vâ—to gestis Legatus extraordinarius eo destinatus est anno sequenti nempe 1686. illustrissimus Comes de Castlemaine Obedientiam Canonicam Jacobi Catholicorum Regni nomine testaturus See Bishop Burnet's History of the Reformation Second Part p. 390. c. ☜ ☜ ☞ ☜ * See his 9 th Chapter ☞ ☜ ☜ ☜ A good manner of proposing in Parliament New Laws to be made or thought on ☜ Mortmains ☞ Whether the first Parliament of Q. Elizabeth were good ☞ The name of the Clergy A Consideration both for Prince and People The Education in our Seminaries The cry of Mr. John Avila Bishops Livings No access of Women to be permitted Occupations of a good Bishop What Men ought to be chosen Bishops Benefices to be provided by opposition Of helping our selves by Strangers No Appropriation of Benefices at the beginning Churches Chancels and Sacristies ☜ ☞ Preferment for those of Seminaries Directions and often Meetings for the Clergy Of Priest's and Clergy-men's Apparel Proof of such as desire to be Priests out of Seminaries Of Universities and Colleges Multitude of Oaths to be restrained Competent Stipends Mathematicks and Tongues Defects of Grammar Schools Time and spaces of courses in Faculties Beginning of establishing Discipline Order of Apparel ☞ Wants of divers Colleges Heads of Houses Ordinary Jurisdiction How Founders Intentions for Masses may be satisfied Emulation to be avoided ☞ The Ordaining of a new Clergy by Christ. Temporal authoriâ—y far inferiour to Spiritual The old Temporal honour of English Clergy The importance of a good Prince and the account that he must make ☞ A Council of Conscience (b) ☞ The quite contrary has happened very lately in England Restoring of Liberties and Priviledges ☜ Restitution of Justice Multitude of Thieves in England (c) This Principle does not only justifie an Exclusion-Bill but a worse Practice that I will not name Lists of Mens names and merits Nobility's Servants Nobility's Children Wards Younger Brothers Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Daughters and Dowries Setting the Lands at the old Rent of Assize Old Rents commodious to the Common-wealth Reformation of the Common Law Remedy for bringing Suits to London Visitors upon Lawyers and Judges The Common Laws of England unjust in matter of Life and Death The Equity and Piety of Imperial Laws in matter of Life and Death Inquiry upon Injuries done to the Commonalty Honest Recreation of the Commonalty Corpus Christi Feast Divers Schools The Conclusion
very promising in those affairs and did not deceive their expectations being fierce and zealous in promoting their Cause He seems to have over-acted his part since he quickly drew upon himself no very favourable Opinion from the General of their Order who found him too turbulent busie and medling and therefore complain'd That he was more troubled with one English man meaning our Father Parsons than with all the rest of his Society He was however after having been but five years among them pitch'd upon to be one of the Jesuits that should be sent in their first Mission into England and perhaps his unquiet and boisterous temper might be the best reason their General had to send him away Cardinal Allen was the person that first motioned such a mission of Jesuits into England and named Father Parsons not only for one but to be the Superiour The picking out such a man does tell the World as plain as words themselves could what the true business was upon which these Jesuits were first sent into England The great pretence and what was published every where was that they were only sent into Christ's Vineyard to serve the necessities of the remaining Catholicks in England and to recover others from their Heresies and Schism but Cardinal Allen knew other things and another sort of a design a design that required such men as Father Parsons himself was Had their sending been only and purely about Spiritual matters and the Salvation of Souls of all men living he would not have singled out our Jesuit whom he lookt upon to be a man very violent and of an unquiet Spirit and therefore more likely to cause Breaches and Divisions than to heal them And therefore some people who were not let into the Secret were very much disturbed when they heard that Father Parsons was sending amongst them expecting no good but a great deal of mischief to all the Catholicks left in England from the management of such a violent not cholerick and domineering Superiour even Blackwel himself that was afterwards Arch-Priest and so much at Father Parson's Devotion bewailed the coming of Parsons into England to a Friend of his saying That the President at Rhemes meaning Dr. after Cardinal Allen played a very indiscreet part to send him hither as being an unfit man to be employed in the Causes of Religion And being asked by that Friend why Father Parsons was unmeet for that Employment his answer was because his casting out of Baliol College and other Articles and Matters depending upon it betwixt him and Dr. Squire then living were very likely to be renewed and so to work great discredit both to him and to the Catholick Cause And indeed one cannot but wonder how a man who had left England so lately and upon such very scandalous accounts should have the face not only to come but to put himself forward upon such an Employment It confirms the Character of Mr. Camden and others of him that he was a man of confident boldness but it does not prove either Policy or Discretion in hiâ—â— except he had brought himself to believe that the Absolution he got in the Church of Rome when he turn'd Apostate had bloâ—ted his false tricks and knavish pranks oâ— of all Peoples Memories as well as out of Heavens Records However to do them justice who were for sending him into England against all those complainers against him and them such a man as Father Parsons was necessary for such a work as he was sent hither upon and what that work was we shall hear very quickly He and Father Campian were appointed for this Mission and parted from Rome on the Sunday after Easter 1580. with the Pope's Benediction Their Dispatches were given them there before they set out by Everard Mercurianus the General of their Order which Morus in his History of this Mission makes to be in short some Commands about faithfully discharging their Ministerial Function and by no means either by Word or Writing to meddle with the Publick Affairs of the Kingdom of England I was very careful not to omit the putting down these dispatches for the two Jesuits according to Father Moor's â—â—count of them because I shall shew by and by how wonderfully these do agree with another dispatch which though Father Moor leave it out of his History I will not leave out of mine and with the Practices of both these Jesuits as soon as they were got into this Kingdom Father Moor tells us that the two Jesuits with their Companions took Geneva in their way from Rome and made a visit to Beza with whom they had some Conference but no victory it seems because the poor ignorant Man took the advantage of the shutting in of the Evening to break off the Discourse and to conceal his ignorance a piece of History this that Father Moor ought not to expect to be credited in by any Body that hath ever heard of learning or learned Men or by any one but a Jesuit and a Jesuit's Fellow First Parsons set sail from Calice the two Sparks being unwilling to venture two such Treasures in one Bottom after Midnight which was the properest time for such works of darkness as he wâ—â— going about and got safe to Canterbury as Campian acquaints their General in his Letter to Rome in the disguise of Soldier but so gaudy and so airy thâ—â— he must be a very nice Man that coâ—â— â—hen suspect or find Piety or Modesty under such a dress and mien ay or without that dress I dare add for who ever heard otherwise of Father Parson's Modesty or Piety either After this he got as safe to London where he stayed for his Companion Father Campiâ—n who likewise escaped the strict search that was made for them their Pictures as well as the time of their setting out from Rome being got into England before them I must leave these Jesuits in their disguises for a while and look back to the State Queen Elizabeth was in with the Bishops of Rome Pius Quartus had a mind to attempt her by fair speeches and to perswade her to submit her Sceptre to his Crosier by fair Promises for which purpose by his Agent Parpaglia he wrote a very â—mooth Letter unto her giving her assurance of every thing she could desire from him But Queen Elizabeth was too prudent to be caught by such a gilded bait or to part with her Supream Power for a few good Words and therefore would have nothing to do with the Bishops of Rome so that all this Pope's hopes of her were lost Pius Quintus seeing his Predecessor's mild ways unsuccessful resolved upon harsher methods and made it his chief business to contrive and encourage Plots against her and not content with this 〈◊〉 slow and unsuccessful way of destroying her he without giving warning or sending Admonition to her le ts fly his Bull of Excommunication and Deprivation against her and causes it by an impudent Wretch Felton to be
fixt upon the Bishop of London's Gates the Title of which to trouble the Reader with no more of it is this The sentence Declaratory of our holy Lord Pope Pius Quintus against Elizabeth Queen of England and the Hereticks adhering to her wherein also all her Subjects are declared to be absolved from the Oath of Allegiance and whatever other duty they owe unto her and those which from henceforth shall obey her are involved in the same Curse or Anathema But as terrible as this Title and as much more terrible as the Bull it self was it did no ways answer the Pope's Expectation it was so far from raising all the Papists in the Nation against her which was his Expectation as well 〈◊〉 his command that it was contemned and slighted by most and instead of alieâ—â—ting their duty and their affections from the Queen it did alienate them both from him who was so ill advised as by such hasty unreasonable and ridiculous provocations to bring the severity of Laws and Trouble upon them who had hitherto been suffered quietly to enjoy in private the exercise of their Religion but now had no reason to expect it any longer being made every one of them so obnoxious and suspicious to the Government by reason of this his declaratory Bull against the Queen In this Condition the Queen and Realm were when our two Jesuits were sent over and as no wise Man nor sober Man among the Papists themselves ever doubted that this Excommunication and Deposition of Queen Elizabeth was oweing to the false suggestions and traiterous and importunate solicitations of the Jesuits Faction so it is as little to be questioned that the Jesuits undertook to make this Bull effectual and to raise not only the Papists but all others that they could buy into their interest to depose the Queen and reduce the Realm to the Pope's Obedience and that for this very purpose their first Mission came over hither They pretended indeed that they came over only to minister in Spiritual things to the necessities of the remaining Catholicks in England and to propagate their Catholick Religion as they call it for the saving of Men's Souls and that their business was not to stir up Sedition against the Queen or to meddle with matters of State but whatever their pretences were or whatever Father Moor has devised for them in his account of their Mission into England this we are sure of that the private Instructions here following given these two Jesuits by Pope Gregory XIII for their coming hither together with their practices immediately after their getting into England prove the direct contrary upon them We must understand that as by the damnatory Bull of Pius V. Queen Elizabeth and all her Adherents were cursed and deposed from all Power and Authority so by the last clause but one of it the Papists themselves were put under the same Curse and Anathematized if they continued to obey her Praecipimusque interdicimus universis singulis c. And we command and forbid all and every the Noblemen Subjects People and others aforesaid that they presume not to obey her or her Monitions Mandates or Laws and for those who shall do otherwise than here commanded we do involve them in the same Sentence of Anathema This was very hard upon the Papists themselves since how unable soever they might be to depose the Queen and how certain soever their Ruine would be upon the least attempt towards it yet attempt it they must and disobey her and her Laws they must or else be put into the very same Condition with the Heretical Queen her self and therefore the Jesuits or their Friends who were to come over foreseeing this great inconvenience that the English Papists were not allowed to wait a favourable opportunity of deposing the Queen but must do it out of hand though it was absolutely impossible for them obtained faculties from this Pope's Successor Gregory XIII to free the Romanists in England from the Curse of that Declaratory Bull for the present till things were riper and a more favourable Juncture offered it self which Faculties were taken about one of these two Jesuits Complices immediately after Campian's Execution and run thus Facultates Concessae P. P. Roberto Parsonio Edmundo Campiano pro Angliâ die 14 o Aprilis 1580. PEtatur à Summo Domino nostro Explicatio Bullae Declaratoriae per Pium Quintum contra Elizabethum ei adhaerentes quam Catholici cupiunt intelligi hot modo ut obliget semper illam haereticos Catholicos vero nullo modo obliget rebus sic stantibus sed tum demum quando publica ejus dem Bullae executio fieri poterit Then followed as my Lord Burleigh's now stand but hereafter when the publick Execution of the said Bull may be had or made c. The Pope hath granted these foresaid Graces to Father Robert Parsons and Edmond Campion who are now to go into England the 14 th day of April 1580. Present the Father Oliverius Manarcus assistant Faculties granted to the Two Fathers Robert Parsons and Edmond Campian for England the 14 th of April 1580. LET it be desired of our most Holy Lord the Explication of the Bull Declaratory made by Pius the Fifth against Elizabeth and such as do adhere to or obey her which Bull the Catholicks desire to be understood in this manner That the same Bull shall always oblige her and the Hereticks but the Catholicks it shall by no means bind as affairs do Tract concerning Execution for Treason and not for Religion tells us many other Petitions of Faculties for their further Authorities which were all concluded thus Has praedictas Gratias concessit summus Pontifex Patri Roberto Personio Edmondo Campiano in Angliam profecturis die 14 o Aprilis 1580. Praesente Patre Oliverio Manarco assistente Thus furnished Father Parsons set out for England upon his true business which was not to read Mass and take Confessions and the like but to put this Bull of Deposition in Execution against his lawful Queen as soon as matters were a little riper and when the Jesuits thought fit to speak out And as his Instructions were such so his behaviour was every whit answerable to them he made it his whole business to alienate the Papists he conversed with from their Allegiance and went about the Kingdom in his several disguises upon the same traiterous errand one while in the habit of a Soldier another while in that of a Gentleman sometimes in the habit of a Minister again in that of an Apparitor a very Proteus Sedition and Treason was his business hither and he presently upon his arrival in England fell to his Jesuitical courses and so belaboured both himself and others in matters of State which the Jesuit Moor would fain have the World to believe they were charged in their Dispatches not to meddle in neither by word nor writing how he might set her Majesties Crown upon another Head
Members and Branches whom this Memorial may concern are Three to wit the whole Body of the Realm jointly and then the Crgy and Temporalty apart Therefore the same order shall be observed for more perspecuity's sake in treating matters that are to be handled according to these three parts First of things that appertain to the whole Body of the Realm in general and then to the Clergy and Laity in particular's dividing each one of these two latter Members into his particular branches also as namely the Clergy and Spiritualty into Bishops Priests and Religious and the Laity and Temporalty into the Prince with his Council the Nobility and Commons making of every one of these chief Members their particular Chapters also apart as in Prosecution of this Treatise shall appear And to the performance of this the Author was incouraged especially by two points which for divers Years he has been perswaded in The First That God will most certainly at his time appointed restore the Realm of England to the Catholic Faith again as may appear by the evident hand he holdeth now in the work The other That England being once converted may be made the Spectacle of all the World and an Example of Perfection to all other Catholic Countries and Churches round about it if want of Zeal and good will do not hinder it in those that God shall bring to that blessed day which the Gatherer of this Memorial hopeth will not and with this hope he setteth down the Notes and Advertisements ensuing A Table of the Chapters of this MEMORIAL PART I. Touching the whole Body CHAP. I. SOme special Reasons why England above all other Realms ought to procure a perfect Reformation when time shall serve CHAP. II. What manner of Reformation is needful in England after so long a storm of Persecution which is declared by the Example of Gold coming out of the Furnace and of a Garden newly planted after the Weeds and Thorne are consumed by Fire CHAP. III. How this happy Reformation may be best procured and what Disposition of Mind is needful for it in all parts CHAP. IV. How all sorts of People to wit Catholicks Schismaticks and Hereticks may be charitably dealt withal to their most profit at the neat change of Religion CHAP. V. The forwardness that ought to be in all Men for the appeasing of God's Wrath about the rapine of Ecclesiastical Lands and Livings and with what facility and case a good Composition and reasonable Satisfaction may be agreed upon without the over-burdening of any Party and how the said Livings may be disposed of CHAP. VI. Of the many great and singular Benefits that would ensue to the Church and Realm of England by this manner of Restitution Agreement and Disposition of Ecclesiastical Livings CHAP. VII Of a Council of Reformation to be ordained by the Authority of the Prince and Parliament with consent of the See Apostolick and wherein they are principally to be occupied for the raising up of our Churches again and first of all in gathering up and profitably bestowing of these Church-Livings that shall be restored CHAP. VIII Of divers other great Points that will belong to the Council of Reformation to deal in for the bringing of our English Church to its former Perfection CHAP. IX There ensue yet more matters that appertain to the Council of Reformation for beautifying our Church above the beauty that it had before and above the rest of all Christian Churches CHAP. X. Of the Parliament of England and what were to be considered or reformed about the same both in it self and other PART II. Touching the Clergy CHAP. I. OF the Clergy in general what they are and ought to do at the next change and how soundly united with the Laity CHAP. II. Of Bishops and Bishopricks of England what is to be restored and what continued what reformed CHAP. III. Of Deans Canons Pastors Curates and the rest of the Clergy what is needful to make them flourish CHAP. IV. Of Seminaries Colledges Vniversities and Schools for restoring and increase of our Clergy CHAP. V. Of Vniversities more at large and of the Government Discipline and manner of proceeding of our English Vniversities and in what Points they do differ from other Vniversities abroad and what is to be increased added and altered or established to make them absolutely the best in the World CHAP. VI. How Offices Preferments Fellowships Scholarships and other said places were to be provided in our Vniversities to avoid infinite inconveniences and of divers other Points to this purpose CHAP. VII Of Religious Men and Women and matters appertaining unto them and their Estate and how England may be furnished with them in far better sort than any other Catholick Nation in the World PART III. Touching the Laity CHAP. I. OF the Laity and Temporalty in general and of the agreement and concurrence with the Clergy for both their good with the Difference of both their States CHAP. II. Of the Prince and his Councel and matters belonging to them for the publick benefit CHAP. III. Of the Nobility and Gentry of England and matters appertaining to their Estates for the bettering the same every way CHAP. IV. Of the Inns of Court and Studies of the Common Laws of England and of the Laws themselves what is to be considered amended or bettered in each part CHAP. V. Of the Commons of England and of matters appertaining to them how tenderly they are to be cared for cherished and maintained with divers Advertisements for their publick Commodity The FIRST PART of this MEMORIAL OF THE Reformation of England Wherein are touched Points that do belong to the whole Body of the Realm as before in the Preface has been declared and is the Ground of the other Parts that ensue CHAP. I. Some special Reasons why England above all other Realms ought to procure a perfect Reformation when time shall serve IF ever Nation under Heaven were bound to shew themselves grateful to Almighty God and to turn heartily and zealously unto him and to seek his highest glory by a perfect Reformation of their Country when his Divine Majesty shall open the way it is the English Nation for the Reasons following First For that no other Nation in the World on whom God hath laid the scourge of Heresie hath received so many helps and graces to resist the same as England hath done which is evident by the b multitudes and valour of English Martyrs by the fortitude and zeal of so many and such Confessors by their Constancy Patience and Fervour at home by the store of Seminaries abroad and by the Spirit of Priests brought up in them and many other Favours and Priviledges used towards the English Nation in these our days all which do require an extraordinary Demonstration of forwardness of English Catholicks when the time shall serve to be answerable in some sort to these extraordinary Benefits Secondly We do both see and feel the inestimable damages that ensued
to our Commonwealth and to all Christendom besides for that this perfect Reformation was not made in Queen Mary's time All wise and Godly Men attribute the loss of Religion again in our Country to this error and ingratitude towards Almighty God which that it may not happen any more Et ne postrema fiant pejora prioribus most careful diligence is to be used by all whensoever the Mercy of God shall offer occasion c the second time that the former error be well amended Thirdly It seemeth that as Almighty God in his Justice has used England for a scourge to the other Countries round about it both for the infecting them with Heresie as also by afflicting them by Sword Sedition and other Infestations so again in his mercy he meaneth to help and comfort them by means of England once reduced as may appear by that which abroad he hath begun to work in Scotland and Ireland by Executions of English Catholick Priests sent unto those Kingdoms wherefore to the end that this Holy Intention of our Saviour be not letted by us and England may be a Light and a Lantern to other Nations near unto it the Reformation must needs in reason be made first very exact and exemplar in England it self Fourthly The d Facility and Commodity that there is and will be in England to make this perfect Reformation whensoever God shall reduce that Country doth greatly conjure and oblige us to the same for we shall not find that difficulty and resistance by the grace of God in England which good Men do find in other Catholick Countries for bringing in of any Reformation that is attempted and that which the very Prophets ever found amongst the Jews and that Christ himself did find amongst the Scribes and Pharisees to wit the repugnancy of corrupt Livers and stubborn People that will contradict and resist their own benefit We are not like to find I say the infinite mercy of our Saviour be blessed for it either backward Bishops and dissolute Priests or Licentious Religious Men or Women to oppose themselves against so Holy a designment as this our Reformation is or if any one such creep in amongst the rest he would not dare to shew himself nor should he find followers all is now zeal and integrity in our new Clergy Almighty God be thanked for it and no less in our Laity and Catholick Gentlemen of England that have born the brunt of Persecution for so many Years so if we should want the effects of true and sound Reformation at the change again it would be for want of some zealous godly Men to sollicite and procure the same d For in the behalf of the Realm and Country I perswade my self most certainly that there will be no difficulty which ought to convince such as feel the Zeal of God's Glory within their breast to joyn hands together as St. Luke saith all Apostolical Men did in the Primitive Church and each to seek above other to have a part in the happy Procuration of so holy and important a Work And Lastly for our more incouragement hereunto it seemeth that the sweet and high Providence of Almighty God hath not been small in conserving and holding together a good portion of the material part of the old English Catholick Church above all other Nations that have been over-run with Heresie for that we have yet on foot many principal Monuments that are destroyed in other Countries as namely we have our Cathedral Churches and Bishopricks yet standing our Deanries Canonries Archdeaconries and other Benefices not destroyed our Colledges and Universities whole so that there wanteth nothing but a new form to give them e Life and Spirit by putting good and vertuous Men into them which is a great advantage before other Kingdoms where all is ruined and desolate and none or â—â—â—tle means left by reason of poverty to raise them up or repair them again but in many Years and with repugnance of many potent Persons for their particular Interest whereas in England there are and will be less resistance more easie and abundant means to restore and amend all that is wanting without over-burdening of any Man by the means that after shall be declared which is a very great and important point and a Token of God's sweet disposition for this effect and ought to encourage every true Catholick Man to concur the more willingly to the work and to help wherein he may to this holy and perfect Reformation that is pretended Animadversions on Chap. I. A Memorial of the Reformation c. This Memorial is a plain Instance to the World of what they have always changed the Order of the Jesuits with that they have been much greater dealers in Politicks than in Divinity and this Memorial is as clear a proof of the Jesuits being as great Bunglers at Politicks as ever any that pretended to then Notwithstanding the Author hereof was one of the most subtle Men the Jesuits ever had and not only by his being born and having lived long in his Native Country but by the Experience and Observations which his Converse and familiar access to the greatest Men in Foreign Countries did afford him might he supposed to have studied and understood the Genius and Temper of the People of England yet he appears to have been out in his measures as will be easily shewed in the following Animadversions He lays mighty stress upon some things which can no way bear it other things he takes to be most easie to his Popish Prince which reason would have told him then as Experience has told his Brethren since to be insuperable difficulties and his cruel and barbarous advices up and down the Memorial are so contrary to the temper of the honest Englishman as if the Design of the Memorial had been more to shew the Politicks and the Spirit of the Jesuit's Order than to convert England to Popery b Multitudes of Martyrs c. If the worst of Criminals must be nick-nam'd Martyrs we can then allow the Jesuit that there were some the later part of Queen Elizabeth's Reign but how to make Multitudes of them is beyond all the skill that I can obtain either from our own or their Historians It is agreed on both hands striking off such Scandalous Writers out of the rank of Historians as Sanders that for several Years in the beginning of that glorious Queen's Reign great Mildness and Clemency was used towards the Roman Catholicks and that no manner of Severity was used towards them till the Bishop of Rome by his Bull of Excommunication and Deposition of that Queen had justly incensed her and her Parliament to make several Laws against Popery and even after that most if not every one of those Roman Catholicks that suffered during her Reign suffered for Rebellion or Treason and not for Religion I will not vouch our Historians for the Truth hereof but take it in the words of their own Secular Priests who writ the Important
withal by the better sort of Catholicks to wit 4 weaker Catholicks which are commonly known in England by the name of Schismaticks and Hereticks that have been Enemies to both these sorts there is to be used true Love Piety and Christian Charity with the Prudence and Direction that is also convenient And for the first since they are our Brethren we ought to have sincere Compassion of their weakness and fall animating them hereby to rise and stand hereafter And unto the second for that by God's Grace they may be our Brethren we must use all Charity in like manner seeking their true and sincere Conversion with that Caution notwithstanding that is expedient for theirs and the publick good of all which I shall lay down some particular Notes in the Chapter following though it must be the Direction of Almighty God and Unction of the Holy Ghost which must guide our Prince Parliament and Magistrates and namely our Bishops in this point of dealing with Hereticks which will be a point of great moment and wherein will consist much for the True Reformation which we seek and for the assurance of Religion and wherein it is thought the error of Queen Mary's time was as pernicious as in any other thing whatsoever and therefore the more carefully to be remedied now Animadversions on Chap. III. 3 THE true Reconciliation of the Realm unto God and to his Church There is not only here but in several other places an appearance of Zeal for Piety and the Honour of God in this Jesuit but that it is no more than a bare appearance without any thing of the substance of Godliness will be more plain to him that will read the Memorial throughout this is not my conjecture but of several Writers of their own Church of Rome who look upon the Jesuits generally as the greatest dissemblers and hypocrites upon the face of the Earth that the obtaining more Wealth to their Order and Gain is all the Godliness that they have and therefore when they meet with a Jesuit talking about Piety or the Glory of God they treat him with Derision as knowing that True Religion is the least part of that Society's business and that the Piety they make shew of in their Writings is only for a cover to their politick designs and like true Pharisees to devour and eat up silly Recusants Estates and to ruine others to make their Society rich and splendid Thus in Queen Elizabeth's time our Jesuit himself that talks so gravely sometimes in this Memorial of the Glory of God and Reconciliation with God was one of those that made such a pudder about restoreing their Catholick Religion and rooting Heresie out of England whereas their true business was to betray their Country to the Spaniards to plot with them as it was always this traiterous Jesuit's practice to invade our Nation and thereby to obtain as they did from the Spanish King Gifts and Benevolences to their Order and Seminaries erected and endowed for them This was the Jesuit's true aim which without some face of Zeal for God and pretence of Piety could not be so easily compassed it is that wise and great Man the Cardinal d'Ossat's Observation of Parsons in that Letter from Rome wherein he gave the King of France an account of Parsons's Book about Succession That Parsons was so passionately concerned in it for the Spanish Interest that he made no conscience of contradicting himself grossly in it nor had any regard to Truth and Reason I think this ought to be a key to us to open the Jesuit's meaning when he talks of the true Reconciliation of the Realm to God I question not but the whole Reconciliation he drives at is that we might all turn true Papists and all Papists would fairly give up their Abby-Lands to their Council of Reformation which he sets up in his VII th Chapter 4 Weaker Catholicks which are commonly known in England by the name of Schismaticks How any Catholicks should be Schismaticks is worth our time to understand to do which we must go back to the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign when the Papists notwithstanding the Alteration in Religion made by that excellent Queen and her Parliament in the beginning of it went to Church to conform themselves to put it in the words of one of their own Writers a Romish Priest to the State as they did in King Edward the Sixth's time keeping privately to themselves the exercise of their own Religion This Practice of the Roman Catholicks continued for several Years here my Lord Chief Justice Coke says upon his own knowledge for ten or a dozen Years and had I suppose continued on had not the upstart Faction of the Jesuits set themselves with all their might and their Interest to break it off They were aware that such Conformity of their Roman Catholick Friends would in a few Years have left not one Papist in England and indeed it was morally impossible that it should have happened otherways since we need not doubt but that the great Truth and the Light the Doctrine and the Liturgy of the Church of England so exactly conformable to the Word of God and to the purest times of the Primitive Church would by God's Blessing have shined into their Hearts have enlightned them and made them become true Church of England Christians by renouncing all those Reliques of Popery which they fostered privately in their breasts And therefore the Jesuits and their Friends by the Interest they had in the Council of Trent got a little Cabal of that Council a dozen of Bishops and others out of which number Pate the Bishop of Worcester the only English Popish Bishop in that Council was left out though of all Men the fittest to have been consulted in this matter favourers of their Society to 〈◊〉 up Reasons why the Catholicks of England ought not and must not under pain of Schism and Damnation go to the Protestant Churches there in which they load our Church with many calumnies our Rites are made to be most wicked and accursed all which though these Twelve Caballers knew in their own Consciences to be as false as Hell yet to affright their People from our Churches they were forc'd to paint our Church as deformed as their own Church by her Idolatrous Rites and Superstitious Practices is However all this and the Pope's Rescripts to the same purpose would not hinder many Catholicks from going to Church and their defence was that this Decree as well as the Pope's Rescripts were surreptitiously gotten that both Pope and Councel were imposed upon and therefore they would not run themselves into needless danger these are the Men whom our Jesuit here does call Schismaticks CHAP. IV. How all sorts of People to wit Catholicks Schismaticks and Hereticks may be dealt withal at the next change of Religion AFter Union and good Disposition of Mind in all and a hearty Reconciliation of Almighty God will be necessary a sweet pious and
vetus fermentum cleanse your self throughly of the old Leaven For that I take this to be the most principal old Leaven that distained and distempered the other actions of our Catholick Realm at the last change and offended the eyes of our Just God most highly that they took no sound order at all for any reasonable satisfaction in this great affair of Restitution to be made to God and his Church For which is to be noted That albeit the Times and State of England and Condition of Men and Things there considered it seemeth not possible or at leastwise not expedient that any rigorous or exact satisfaction should be required in these affairs yet that some kind of moderate temperature and composition according to some form of Justice or correspondence of Equity should be taken in the matter I would think it so absolutely necessary as no good Christian Conscience can be secure without the same And the reason hereof is for that these Goods belong first to a third Party which were the Owners and Givers and by them taken from their Children and Kindred and Inheritors for a special Ecclesiastical use to be applied to God's Service and the help of their own Souls by perpetual Prayer ordained to be made for them cannot in any Reason or Law of Justice be taken wholly from those uses and applied or permitted to be profane but only by force seeing it is directly against the intentions of the first Founders and Givers and whereof it is to be presumed they would never allow if they were alive again but rather would say of the two That their Heirs and next Kin should re-enter and possess the same rather than by violence they should be detained by other temporal Men that are meer Strangers unto them Neither is it sufficient for the security of any careful Dan's Conscience to say That the See Apostolick has tolerated with these things in Queem Mary's time for that it is well known how times and matters went then and how the See Apostolick like a Prudent and Pious Mother was content to take of her Children what she could get rather than lose all So that the Toleration then used as in truth it may be said was upon constraint and fear of farther inconveniencies to follow if the matter should have been greatly urged at that time the covetous humours of divers principal Persons in Authority being well known together with the cold Dispositions of the rest of the Realm to do that which in equity and conscience they were bound in this behalf and this appeareth by the very words themselves of the general Bull of Absolution and Toleration which Cardinal Poole of Pious Memory delivered to the Realm for this effect wherein every Man in particular notwithstanding this general plaistering up of things is most earnestly exhorted to look unto his Conscience in these affairs and to seek the security thereof by Direction of Vertuous and Learned Men. And seeing Almighty God has declared his heavy displeasure since the patching of matters at that time by the lamentable and most miserable fall both of Religion it self and of these Persons also that were most backward in this Restitution and that these corrupt affections of some worldly People may be presumed to be well purged before this day by the fire of Persecutions in these latter Years I hope verily that it may easily be brought to pass at the next Reformation That some such good and substantial order may be taken in this weighty affair as God's Justice in part may be satisfied Men's Consciences quieted their Estates at home for the time to come assured the World abroad edified and the Church of God in some proportion of equity satisfied and thereby this great Petra Scandali that hitherto has endured and the strong brasen Wall that has divided between God and us may be removed whereof I do conceive so much the more hope and confidence for that the means to perform the same seem not to me very hard but rather easie supposing the good and pious Dispositions of Minds which I suppose we shall find at that day in those to whom the matter shall appertain And therefore I shall lay down in this place the means that I have conceived for the easie performance of this point All Englishmen do know the peculiar ancient custom of letting Lands in England after the rate of old rent of Assize which by experience of many Countries I can affirm to be the most commodious honourable and profitable Custom both for Lord and Tenant that is in the World all circumstances considered as afterwards shall be shewed And no sort of People were wont to be more observant of this Custom than were Religious and Ecclesiastical Land-lords who besides that they were never wont lightly to raise their Rents did use also commonly to take very small Fines so that in very Deed if these old Rents of Assize were restored again to the Church it might be said in effect That the whole were restored and thereby a certain proportion of equity in Restitution observed and on the other side if the possessions and the fee Farm of these Lands which commonly do amount to double or triple the value of the old Rent or may be made so good be left and made secure for ever unto the present Possessors of the same as by the Prince Parliament and Pope's Authority they may be I do not see but that the Composition and Temperature would fall out well for all Parties and for all effects that can be desired For first God's Justice and the Church's Right in a certain sort should be substantially satisfied and the Possessor's Conscience assured which is the principal and then his Ecclesiastical State also would not be over weakened or abated thereby as is evident And if it should happen out otherwise in some particular Men of special merit to wit that by this general Restitution he should be over much impoverished it would be an easie thing to help and recompense the matter otherwise as by giving him some Office or some Lease of fee Farm of other Lands that shall return wholly to the Church or the like For it is to be understood that albeit the Church do and may use this benign Compassion with such as be her Children and of particular deserts towards her for their Piety and Religion yet no reason is there but that such as be Enemies Persecutors or of notorious Impiety against her should leave the Livings which they possess of her wholly and wish more rigour of Justice than the other before named so that the Church may dispose not only of the old Rents but of Revenues also Houses Buildings and other Emoluments For better understanding whereof it is also to be noted that l as well these Lands intirely restored as the other old Rents before mentioned to the end they may be imployed to the best and greatest glory of God and publick profit of the Realm were
not to be turned presently at the first to any particular Owner that would challenge or lay claim to the same but rather by Petition of the Prince and whole Realm and approbation of the See Apostolick were to be assigned to some common Purses and Treasury and this to be committed to some certain Council of principal Bishops and Prelates and others most fit for the purpose for certain Years to be limited to gather up and dispose of all these Rents Revenues and Ecclesiastical Livings during the time to them assigned for the greatest benefit of the English Church and Realm and that at the end of the term allotted which might be some four five or six Years more or less as shall be thought best they might be bound to give an account to the Persons that should be assigned by the Prince Parliament and Pope's Holiness for this effect how they have disposed of this Treasury committed to their charge and this Council might be called the Council of Reformation as after shall be more particularly declared And the reason why it were not convenient to return these Lands and Livings again to the same Orders of Religion that had them before is evident to all Men to wit for that the Times and State of England are far other and different from that they were when these Lands were given and consequently do require different provision and disposition of things conformed to the present necessity and utility of the Realm as for example the World knoweth that the most part of all Abby-Lands appertained in the old time to the Religion of St. Bennet of which Order at this time there are very few of the English Nation to occupy or possess the same and to bestow them upon Strangers of that Religion England having so many other necessities were very inconvenient and besides this it may be so that many Houses and Families of that Order of St. Bennet or of St. Bernard or of the Monastical Profession though in it self most Holy will neither be possible nor necessary in England presently upon the first Reformation but rather in place of many of them good Colleges Universities Seminaries Schools for increasing of our Clergy as also of divers Houses of other Orders that do deal more in preaching and helping of Souls and for that respect will be more necessary to the Clergy of England in this great work at the beginning and for many Years after though of the other also are not to be omitted to be planted and well provided for according as it shall seem most expedient for God's glory the Universal good of the Realm to this Council of Reformation by whose hands their Lands Rents and Revenues may far more profitably be divided and imployed and with much more peace and quietness than if they should be returned to every particular Religion again Animadversions on Chap. V. k THat every one should have a special care and fervent desire to clear his Conscience well and sufficiently about Abby-Lands In this Chapter our Jesuit does very warmly press the Restitution of Abby-Lands and I could heartily have wished that those that furnished Dr. Johnston with his Materials for writing his little Book about the Assurance of Abby-Lands to the Possessors here in England had accommodated him also as they might with this Jesuits Memorial I am confident it would have saved the Doctor something else besides his Pains How ridiculous his Attempts were then was shewed by an Ingenious hand in a single Sheet of Paper entituled Abby and other Church-Lands not yet assured to such Possessors as are Roman Catholicks And indeed our Jesuit has knockt their great Argument from the Pope's Confirmation in Q. Mary's days on the head when he declares That it is not sufficient for the security of any careful Man's Conscience to say That the See Apostolick hath tolerated the Jesuit will not use the word Confirmed with these things in Queen Mary ' s time for that says he it is well known how times and matters went then And how the See Apostolick was content to take of her Children what she could get rather than to lose all so that the Toleration then used was upon constraint and fear of farther Inconveniencies to follow As that Attempt to assure Abby-Lands was ridiculous so I am afraid it was not the sincerest whosoever has read this Jesuit's Memorial and has any value for him cannot but suspect the same with me One thing is a little peculiar in this Chapter the Jesuit is for compromizing the business with the Possessors of Abby-Lands and yet his Arguments for a Restitution of those Lands if they prove any thing at all prove that the Restitutions ought to be absolute but let his Arguments be what they will the Jesuit is for having half a Loaf rather than none at all l That as well these Lands intirely restored as the other old Rents were not to be turned presently at the first to any particular Owner After the Jesuit has contended so earnestly in the first part of this Chapter for Restitution of Abby-Lands upon reasons of Conscience one cannot but wonder that he should not be for restoring them to their Primitive Owners which I am sure Conscience and Justice do as much exact as the Restitution of them at all The plain and true Reason of it is this The Jesuits being an upstart Order since the Suppression of Monasteries by King Henry the Eighth none of those Abby-Lands did belong to them nor could be restored to them and to have 'em all given up to the Benedictines and the other old Orders is what a Jesuit could never bear and therefore he is for having them all sequestred into a common stock for six and seven years in which time no question need be made but that the Jesuits would have run down all the old Orders as useless to England and would have swallowed the whole Morsel of Abby-Lands themselves CHAP. VI. Of the many great and singular Benefits that would ensue to the Church and Realm of England by this Restitution and Disposition of Abby-Lands FIrst of all would ensue the thing that we have most need of and it importeth us of all other Points which is that Almighty God's wrath would be pacified towards us and towards the Realm which may be presumed his Justice hath scourged and afflicted so grievously as all the World seeth and wondereth at for that infamous Sacriledge and Monstrous Rapine of King Henry the Eighth whereby at once he destroyed and pluckt from God and his Church and from all Saints and Souls deceased all the pious Acts and Memories of Religion that in more than a Thousand Years before him his Ancestors had bestowed that way and for that all or the most part of the Realm had their part and interest either of that Sacrilege at that time or of the Temporal gain afterward and no convenient satisfaction hitherto has been made no marvel if the hand of Almighty God has been
heavy over us For we read that God never ceased to beat and whip King Pharaoh until he had restored unto Abraham his Wife again and that 's a common Maxim among Divines Non dimittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum Secondly It would follow by this Restitution and temperate Composition That such as remain with the Possession of Abby-Lands and Ecclesiastical Livings in the manner aforesaid might hold them securely they and their Heirs without scruple or danger to God or the World which by no other means it seemeth can be assured them either in respect of the one or the other For in respect of God and their Conscience I have already said that 't is very hard to see how they may be assured any other ways For as for the See Apostolick though it may in certain cases dispose of Livings left to the Church from one use to another yet to the end their disposition may be available and the Possessor's Conscience free there are required many Conditions and Circumstances which will hardly be found or verified in our case of England For first the Disposition of Christ's Vicar must be free without all constraint fear or respect of avoiding greater inconveniences and then the commutation ought to be with consent of Parties interessed or that have claim if there be any as here are many to wit all Religious Orders and other Ecclesiastical People besides the Successors and Kindred of them that gave the Lands which would hardly agree to let the said Livings to be utterly alienated as they are Moreover the Commutation to be good in Conscience ought to be to so good an use or better for the time present and glory of God than was the first Institution of the Givers and Founders and which of themselves might be presumed if they were alive again and saw the circumstances of our Times that they would allow or not mislike of the same All which is so far off from our English case as all Men of judgment do easily see In respect of the World also and of temporal Justice there is no great security to the Possessors of these Lands without some such sound Order and Agreement as this is for that ever there will be murmuring and pushing at them and their Children and as Religious Orders shall come to grow and wax strong in England again they will have a saying to their old Tenants Invaders or Detainers of their Lands one way or other and it would be a ground of infinite suits and troubles and as the Prince should be affected for the present or interessed in the matter one way or other so would he favour or disfavour all which would be matter of great inconveniences and wholly cut off by this other way Thirdly It would follow by this manner of Restitution that the Church of England would be furnished again quickly to wit within the space of five or six Years which might be the time allowed for the aforesaid Council of Reformation to dispose of things of more variety of Religious Orders Houses Abbys Nunneries Hospitals Seminaries and other like Monuments of Piety and to the purpose for the present good of our whole Realm than ever it was before the Desolation thereof so as the words of St. Paul in a certain sense would be verified Vbi abundavit delictum ibi superabundavit gratia I say of more variety of Religious Monuments and more to the purpose for the present good of England for that they would not be so great perhaps nor so Majestical nor yet so rich nor would be needful for the beginning but rather in place of so great Houses and those for the most part of one or two or three Orders and those also contemplative that attended principally to their own Spiritual good and for that purpose were builded ordinarily in places remote from Conversation of People there might be planted now both of these and other Orders according to the Condition of those Times lesser Houses with smaller Rents and numbers of People but with more perfection of Reformation Edification and help to the gaining of Souls than before and these Houses might be most multiplied that should be seen to be most profitable to this effect And in this manner might England in small space become again the most excellent and best furnished Country in the World for variety and perfection of Religious Houses and other like Works and Monuments of Piety Fourthly would follow of this Restitution the Stay Pillar and Foundation of all other good Works to be done and of the whole external reparation of our English Church which may be made or much holpen by this common Purse and without this will hardly or never be done For that the necessity will be infinite and Reparations wonderfully great that will be needful after so long a Tempest Storm and Shipwrack Catholicks will be poor for divers Years and the Works will be many great and costly that must be done as namely The variety of Monasteries and Religious before-mentioned both for Men and Women repairing enlarging and multiplying of Churches increasing of poor Benefices restoring of Hospitals provision of free Schools erection of Seminaries both for the Youth of our Nation as also for others round about us infected of whose reduction we must also have care The founding of publick Lectors in our Universities and assisting many particular Colleges that lack Maintenance and Rent and a thousand particular wants needs and necessities more than are and will appear in the beginning for the new setting up of our Catholick Church again for which if we have not some such common Purse as this is the matter will go very slowly forwards and the Reformation never such as it ought to be Wherefore this point of restoring Abby-Lands with the moderation which I have said is to be holpen set forward and urged most earnestly by all such as have God's Zeal in them and desire a good Reformation in England And whosoever should be contrary or backward in this matter either for his own interest or for his Friends or of vain fear policy coldness or lack of fervour he were not to be heard seeing the reason alledged for it together with the facility to compass and perform the same are so notorious and evident and therefore not only the principal Persons of the Realm who may farther or hinder the same were to be disposed and dealt withal before hand but even the Prince and Catholick King that God shall give us and his Holiness also were to be prevented in this point as the most principal and important for all our work And of the Prince it were to be wished that he would promise or vow to Almighty God by way of Oblation That if he give him good success in the establishing of his Crown and the Catholick Religion he will for his part restore in the manner before mentioned all that he shall find invaded or retained by the Crown thereby to give example and
encouragement for others to do the like And in like manner of Hereticks and Rebels Goods which any way shall come to be confiscate he will abstain his hands from the part of God and of his Church which therein shall be found to appertain unto them and by this pious and religious proceeding there is no doubt but God will prosper and aid him much the more Of his Holiness also the like were to be required that considering the many necessities that England shall have at the first beginning to set up and restore the outward would vouchsafe not only to further and favour this designment of Restitution to be made in manner aforesaid but also as a bountiful Father remit some part of the temporal duties which will be due to the See Apostolick from England as the first-fruits of Bishopricks and the like for the certain space only of some Years after the next change for the setting of foot of our Church again which will be of great Edification to all the World and an infinite incouragement to our English Catholicks And last of all about this matter may be remembred that among Ecclesiastical Livings that have been invaded by temporal Men some have been taken from the Secular Clergy also as from Bishops Cathedral and Collegial Churches Colleges Deanries Parsonages Parish-Churches and the like though nothing so much as from Religious Orders And these for that their true Owners are or will be quickly extant and that present need will be of the same for the uses to which they were first appointed it is reason they should be returned to the same Uses and Churches again and not to the common Purse as the other yet with the Limitation Order and Reformation that the Council designed for this purpose shall think best and most expedient About Impropriate Parsonages Patronages and Advowsons of Benefices albeit for the part they come into Temporal Men's hands at the beginning as things either incorporated or annexed to Abby-Lands for that these Revenues and Priviledges were given to Religious Orders in the old times for the better maintenance and with Obligation only to provide Preachers and Teachers to the Parishes and that when Religious Houses were suppressed by King Henry the said Parsonages Tithes Advowsons and Patronages passed also to Lay-mens hands as Members and Parcels of Abby-Lands yet notwithstanding for that in truth they were taken from the Livings and Revenues of Pastors and Curates at the beginning and are part of the Revenues it seemeth more reason that they should be accepted rather Ecclesiastical than Monastical Livings and consequently be returned back to the Church again though with the Moderation and Qualification that shall seem most expedient to the Council and not to be disposed of to any other uses as Abby-Lands may be for the greater glory of God and better setting up of our Church again And for that I have divers times made mention of the Council of Reformation I shall now set down some Notes about the same CHAP. VII Of a Council of Reformation to be ordained and wherein they are principally to be occupied FOR the Execution of all these Notes and Advertisements that here are set down about the Reformation of England nothing will be of so much moment as to have certain prudent and zealous Men put in authority by the Prince and Parliament and Pope's Holiness to attend principally and as it were only to this affair and to be bound to give a continual account what they do in the same And for that and name of Inquisition may be somewhat odious and offensive at the beginning perhaps it would not be amiss to name these Men a Council of Reformation and that their authority might be limited for some certain number of Years as four five or six as it should be thought most convenient and sufficient for the setting up and establishing of the English Church and that before the end of this term assigned they shall give account to the Persons appointed for this purpose by the Pope Prince and Parliament of all matters committed to their charge and especially of the Ecclesiastical Rents received and imployed by them as after shall be declared And for that the matters and affairs which are to be laid upon these Men are many and weighty and of singular great importance it is necessary first that the place of their ordinary residence should be in London near the Court whereby they may have easie recourse and conference with the Prince and Council And secondly That their Persons be of great sufficiency and respect and fit for the purpose as for example perhaps may the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishop of Winchester London and Rochester whose Diocesses lie near about the City and will be no great lett to their ordinary charge to reside much in London and be imployed in this affair also And with these Men might be joyned other principal and skilful either Bishops or others as should be thought best together with all kinds of Officers Secretaries Notaries Gatherers Treasurers and other helps for better Execution of so great a charge The first and most principal thing that in Temporal matters should be committed to this Council is the gathering of the said old Rents of Assize of Abby-Lands and other Ecclesiastical Revenues which by vertue of the Restitution above mentioned are to return to the Church and by these Men as hath been specified are now to be put in one common Treasury and thence to be spent and imployed within this time limited of their Commission as they shall judge most needful and to the most advantage of God's Holy Service and common benefit of the Realm The like charge also will be necessary to lye upon them for the Collection and Custody of all other Ecclesiastical Rents and Revenues throughout England as of Benefices Parsonages Curates and other such Livings as cannot conveniently be provided of particular Owners seeing that the English Clergy which for the present we have and are like to have for a great time after the next Reduction of England will scarce be able to furnish the principal Dignities and places alone of Jurisdiction and Government as Bishopricks Deanries Archdeanries Colleges and the like and if besides these there be two or three Men left for Preachers to be given to every new Bishop to carry with him into his Diocess a small store God knows for so great a Charge it will be all and how then think you will it be possible to furnish the least part of the residue of Benefices throughout England for some number of Years Wherefore to remedy this inconvenience it seems that the only way would be for this Council of Reformation to appoint Collectors of these Rents and to be accountable for them as for the rest and allowing so much to be spent in every Parish as shall be thought needful they may reduce the remnant to the aforesaid common Purse for common necessities until there be store of Priests
to furnish all places with particular Curates and Pastors which may be by God's grace and good diligence of this Council in erecting and furnishing Seminaries within the space of some five or six years that is before this Council shall resign over their authority And in the mean space the best means of supplying the common Spiritual needs of England would be perhaps that no Priests besides Bishops Deans Archdeacons and the like that are needful for the Government of the rest should have any particular assignation or interest in any Benefice but only a sufficient Pension allowed him by the Council of Reformation or Bishop of the Diocess for his convenient maintenance and his Commission to Preach Teach hear Confessions and all other Exercises of Priestly Function And when the Council of Reformation were to leave their charge then might they take a view of all the Priests in their times or before and according to each Man's talent and good account given of himself in this time of tryal to place them in Benefices But yet with this express Proviso and Condition That they may be removed again from the same Benefices to a worse or to none at all if they give not Satisfaction in their Function which only Bridle may chance to do more good than all the Laws and Exhortations in the World and it would be good sometimes to put it in Execution to promote some in higher Benefices and thrust down others to lower by way of Visitation when cause is offered And one thing before all others will be of very great moment for this Council to put in practice which is That presently at the beginning they do publish an Edict or Proclamation with all severity commanding under pain of great Punishment That no Religious or Ecclesiastical Person whatsoever do enter into the Realm without presenting himself before the Council within so many days after his entrance and there to shew the cause why he cometh and the Licence and Authority by which he cometh and to stand to the Determination of the Council for his aboad or departure again for if this be not done and observed with all rigour many scandalous light and inconstant People partly upon novelty and partly upon hope to gain will repair presently to England and do great hurt by their Example And when this Door is once stopped it will be easie for this Council to write to all the Heads of Religious Orders that are in other Countries to send them such a number of exemplar and reformed Men or Women to begin to plant the said Religious in England as shall be thought expedient and be demanded And for that Religious Orders have been more defac'd dishonoured and persecuted in our Realm than in any Christian Country in the World perhaps it would be convenient to make such an amends and recompence as is not besides in any other Kingdom to wit that all the approved Religious Orders that are in the Church of God should be called into England and placed joyntly in the City of London for that at least it is to be presumed that this City would be capable of all and from thence they might be derived afterwards by little and little into other places of the Realm as Commodities were offered and as Men's Devotions should require and as they should be proved to be most agreeable and profitable to the State of our Country but altogether to be in London and that in the perfection of their first Institution would be a most excellent thing and a priviledge above all other Kingdoms in the World where all Religious Orders are not seen together and much less in the perfection of their first institute and observance which ought to be the Condition of admitting any Order into England now at our next Reformation be they Men or Women to the end that the greater Glory of God be procured in all things And for more easie effectuating of this there may be taken order that Religious Men and Women be called and admitted only from the Parts and Countries for beginning this great work of England where it is known that their Order is reformed and hath some that observe the first perfection of their Rule and in our days divers Countries have And with this one Observation only about Religious Orders and People England would be the most eminent Country of Christendom as hath been said In the beginning of Religious Houses in England care may be had that such be builded and most multiplied as be most needful and profitable for the time present and do apply their labours to action and to the help also of others and that before all the rest Seminaries and Colleges be built and put in order for the more ease of our Clergy And as for old and ancient Religious that appertain most to Contemplation though also they be not to be omitted yet when in every Shire there were one of a sort planted for a beginning and indowed with sufficient Rent for a competent number that would observe their first institution it were no evil entrance for that quickly the Devotion of Good People would increase the same and so would England come in small time to be furnished with more variety of Monasteries and Religious Monuments and of much more edification than when it flourished most Nunneries also for refuge of Virgins and of the devoutest sort of Womenkind were to be set up and the most of Observant Orders and of most edification were first to be planted for example and encouragement of others It were also to be considered whether some new Military Order of Knights were to be erected in our Realm for exercise and help of our young Gentlemen and Nobility as in other Countries we see it And as for England in times past it had only the Order of St. John of Malta wherein now perhaps there may be some difficulties at first for that we have no Knights left of our Nation in that Order to train the rest and to begin it only with strangers may seem hard And secondly For that albeit their institute be good and holy to fight against the Turk and other Infidels yet is Malta far off and these Ages have brought forth many more Infidels and Enemies near home to wit Hereticks and thereby the binding of young Gentlemen which live abroad in the World in Wealth Liberty Ease and Conversation also with Women to perpetual Chastity by Vow as Knights of Malta be without giving them the means and helps that other Religious Men have to keep the same which are Disciplines and restraint from Company and the like has also his difficulties as both reason and experience doth teach us and the examples of some other Countries do prove as namely of Spain where for avoiding of difficulties they have procured Dispensation from the Pope that the Knights of the Military Order of St. James Alcantara Calatrava and the like may Marry Wherefore some are of Opinion That it were good
pious Men may have Commission to consult what were to be redressed about the common Laws either for learning teaching or practice of the same to the end the Prince and Parliament might afterwards determine thereof And the like about our Colleges Halls and manner of reading both of Philosophy and Divinity Physick Civil and Common Laws and other Sciences in the Universities And amongst other Points to consider whether a Third University were not necessary in the North parts of England as at Durham Richmond New-Castle or the like place in these quarters for the better polishing of those parts towards Scotland and planting learned Men in the same seeing they have need and that the other two Universities which we have already are both of them far towards the South and many of the North parts cannot so conveniently send their Children unto them And divers other Countries have three Universities within much less circuit than these three would be A like Consideration also might be whether it were not expedient to have a third Archbishoprick in England for example at Bristol or thereabouts which might have for his Suffragant Bishopricks those of the West Country and more parts of Wales that lye near about And hereby might the Archbishoprick of Canterbury's charge and labour be eased much and the Metropolitan Visitations from three Years to three Years more commodiously performed and yet sufficient priviledges and preeminence left to the said Archbishop and Primate of Canterbury according to the ancient dignity of the said Church In like manner it may be put in Deliberation whether the number of Bishops in some part of the Realm were not to be increased for the better governing of the Clergy or at leastwise that their circuits were better divided some of them being at the present very ample and laboursome as Lincoln York and some other and in some other places perhaps the Livings of some other Bishopricks were to be augmented for better maintaining of the Dignity though ordinarily this is the least want of our Bishops in our Realm and the authority of the Place is better maintained by opinion of Gravity Learning Wisdom and Holiness than by much abundance of Riches CHAP. IX There ensue more matters that appertain to the Council of Reformation THough I have touched divers points yet follow there more belonging to this Council among which one very special is as hath been signified before the particular care that ought to be had of erecting of Seminaries at the very beginning for the encrease of the Clergy and this in every Bishoprick according to the Order of the Council of Trent And before that Men be interessed in the Livings either of Bishopricks or Benefices all the Ecclesiastical Livings of the Realm might be searched what each one might contribute to the erections and maintenance of these Seminaries which may be at such an easie rate as none had need to feel it and yet may the Furniture for Education of English youth be such by these means as no Realm in the World will have the like and all these Seminaries may be divided into two or three parts according to the number of the Universities or Archbishopricks and every University have one great Seminary wherein only the course of Divinity and Philosophy may be read and in the other abroad that are subordinate to these may be read Grammar Humanity and Rhetorick alone and as the Scholars shall grow fit they may be transferred to the great Seminaries of the Universities The like care must be had for well ordering of Grammar-Schools what Books are to be read and what manner of Masters are to be allowed as also for other Schools for Children Writing Reading and casting of Accounts by Arithmetick which greatly doth awaken and sharpen the wits of young Children and make them the more able Men for their Commonwealth if it be taught with care and good order as in other Countries it is where Children are wont to be examined in publick and made to Compose Divide and Multiply numbers upon the suddain and without Book and rewards proposed to them that do best And in all Schools must there be particular order also for teaching of the Christian Doctrine and divers proofs appointed for the same Publick and private Libraries must be searched and Examined for Books as also all Book-binders Stationers and Booksellers Shops and not only heretical Books and Pamphlets but also prophane vain lascivious and other such hurtful and dangerous Poysons are utterly to be removed burnt suppressed and severe order and punishment appointed for such as shall conceal these kind of Writings and like order set down for printing of good things for the time to come It would be of great importance that in every City or great Shire Town there should be set up a certain poor Man's Bank or Treasury that might be answerable to that which is called Monte della Pieta in great Cities of Italy to wit where poor Men might either freely or with very little interest have Mony upon Sureties and not to be forced to take it up at intolerable Usury as oftentimes it happeneth to the utter undoing and general hurt of the Commonwealth and for maintenance of these Banks some Rents or Stocks of Mony were to be assigned by the Council of Reformation out of the common Purse at the beginning and afterwards divers good People at their deaths would leave more and Preachers were to be put in mind to remember the matter in Pulpits and Curates and Confessors in all good occasions either of Testaments when they are made or of cases of Restitution when they should fall out and other such occasions The like good use were to be brought in that Ghostly Fathers in hearing Confessions and otherwise should admonish their Spiritual Children among other works of Piety to visit Hospitals and sick People as also publick Prisons and enjoin it some times for Penance and part of Satisfaction especially to principal People whose Example would do much good to others and by the Fact to themselves And to the end there should not be so much repugnance therein as commonly is wont to be in delicate Persons the Hospitals were to be kept fine cleanly and handsome and publick Prisons were to be inlarged with Courts and open Halls for People to visit them by day and relieve them with their Alms though by night they were kept more strait And above all other things convenient place is to be made in all Prisons to say and hear Mass and for Spiritual Men to make Exhortations to the Prisoners seeing that besides the chastisements of their Bodies the salvation of their Souls is also to be sought and oftentimes they are in better disposition to hear good Council and profit themselves thereby standing in the Prison than when they were abroad And for this effect only that is to say for looking to Prisoners and procuring the comfort relief and instruction of such as be in necessity therein divers
Societies and Confraternities are seen to be instituted in other Countries where Charity doth flourish and ought to be also in ours and the publick Prisons for this respect of the Shires were to be put in principal Towns and Cities where these Societies might be erected and an extract or summary of all the charitable works accustomed to be done in other great Cities by the Confraternities and other ways as namely in Rome Naples Milan Madrid and Seville were to be had and considered by our Council of Reformation and put in ure as much as might be conveniently in England A general Story of all the most notable things that have hapned in this time of Persecution were to be gathered and the matter to be commended to Men of Ability Zeal and Judgment for doing the same And when time shall serve to procure of the See Apostolick That due honour may be done to our Martyrs and Churches Chapels and other memories built in the place where they suffered and namely at Tyburn where perhaps some Religious House of the third Order of St. Francis called Capuchins or some other such of Edification and Example for the People would be erected as a near Pilgrimage or place of Devotion for the City of London and others to repair unto Before this Council make an end of their Office or resign the same which as before has been signified may be after some competent number of Years when they shall have settled and also secured the state of Catholick Religion and employed the Lands and Rents committed to their charge and this were to be done with the greatest expedition that might be it would be very much necessary that they should leave some good and sound manner of Inquisition established for the conservation of that which they have planted For that during the time of their authority perhaps it would be best to spare the name of Inquisition at the first beginning in so new and green a State of Religion as ours must needs be after so many Years of Heresie Atheism and other Dissolutions may chance offend and exasperate more than do good but afterwards it will be necessary to bring it in either by that or some other name as shall be thought most convenient for the time for that without this care all will slide down and fall again What form and manner of Inquisition to bring in whether that of Spain whose rigour is misliked by some or that which is used in divers parts of Italy whose coldness is reprehended by more or that of Rome it self which seemeth to take a kind of middle way between both is not so easie to determine but the time it self will speak when the day shall come and perhaps some mixture of all will not be amiss for England and as for divers points of the diligent and exact manner of proceeding in Spain they are so necessary as without them no matter of moment can be expected and some high Council of Delegates from his Holiness in this affair must reside in the Court to direct and to give heart and authority to the other Commissioners abroad as in Spain is used or else all will languish Their Separations of their Prisons also from concourse of People that may do hurt to the Prisoners is absolutely necessary as in like manner is some sharp execution of Justice upon the obstinate and remediless Albeit all manner of sweet and effectual means are to be tryed first to inform and instruct the Parties by Conference of the Learned and by the Labour and Industry of Pious and Diligent Men for which effect some particular method and order is to be set down and observed and more attention is to be had to this for that it is the gain of their Souls than to the execution only of punishment assigned by Ecclesiastical Canons though this also is to be done and that with resolution as before hath been said when the former sweet means by no way will take place And finally this Council of Reformation is to leave the Church of England and temporal state so far forth as appertaineth to Religion as a Garden newly planted with all kind and variety of sweet Herbs Flowers Trees and Seeds and fortified as a strong Castle with all necessary defence for continuance and preservation of the same so as England may be a spectacle for the rest of the Christian World round about it And Almighty God glorified according to the infinite multitude of dishonours done unto him in these late Years And for better confirmation of all points needful to Religion it would be necessary that either presently at the beginning or soon after some National Council of the English Clergy should be gathered and holden and to consider in particular what points of Reformation the Council of Trent hath set down and to give order how they may be put in execution with all perfection And finally besides these points touched by me for the Council of Reformation and this National Synod to look upon many more will offer themselves when the time shall come no less necessary and important perhaps than these which their charity and wisdom and quality of their Office will bind them to deal in for God's Service and the publick weal And I have only noted these thereby to stir up their memory to think of the rest CHAP. X. Of the Parliament of England and what were to be considered or reformed about the same or by the same FOR that the English Parliament by old received custom of the Realm is the Fountain as it were of all publick Laws and settled Orders within the Land one principal care is to be had that this high Court and Tribunal be well reformed and established at the beginning for a performance whereof certain Men may be authorized by the Prince and Body of the Kingdom to consider of the points that appertain to this effect and among other of these following First of the number and quality of these that must enter and have Voice in the two Houses And for the higher House seeing that Voices in old time put also divers Abbots as the World knoweth it may be considered whether now when we are not like to have Abbots quickly of such greatness and authority in the Commonwealth as the old were it were not reason to make some recompence by admitting some other principal Men of these Orders that had interest in times past as for example some Provincials or Visitors of St. Benet's Order seeing that the said Order and others that had only Abbots in England are now reformed in other Countries and have therein Generals Provincials and Visitors above their Abbots and with the same Reformation it will be convenient perhaps to admit them now into our Country when they shall be restored and not in all points as they were before Secondly about the Lower House it may be thought on whether the number of Burgesses were not to be restrained to greater Towns
declared in themselves to have been of no force nor yet the Laws therein made and consequently to be frustrate and to be put out of the Book of Statutes except such as this Parliament shall think necessary to confirm and ratifie or make anew The Decree and Law for the faithful restitution of Abby-Lands and Ecclesiastical Revenues with the Moderation before specified is to be determined of among the very first points of importance and it were to be performed with a great alacrity and promptness of minds in all Men thereby to bind Almighty God to deal the more liberally also with us in all the rest that were to be done as no doubt but he would and after this many other particular Commissions and Subdelegations are to be given forth by the Prince and Parliament to particular Troops and Companies of Men for setting good order in divers matters as namely one very ample to the Council of Reformation before-mentioned for the reestablishing of Religion and for gathering up and disposing of the Ecclesiastical Rents and Revenues aforesaid And other were to be given out to certain principal Lawyers and others to reform the points that shall seem needful about our Common Laws Inns of Courts and the like as hath been mentioned another for the Universities another for the planting of Seminaries as well of our Nation as of our Neighbours Strangers for their Conversion and divers other such like weighty affairs are to be committed by different Commissions to able and fit Persons for putting our Commonwealth in joynt again except it shall seem best to commit the most of these matters by a general Commission to the Council of Reformation in form as hath been declared all which being confirmed by our Catholick Prince and See Apostolick may be executed sweetly and securely by the grace of God to his most high glory and everlasting good of our Realm And this is so much as I have to note for the present about this First Part concerning the whole Body of the Realm in general Now shall I speak somewhat of the two principal Members which are the Clergy and Temporalty in particular Animadversions on Chap. X. n THat every Man be sworn to defend the Catholick Roman Faith and moreover that it be made Treason for ever for any Man to propose any thing for change thereof In the late Popish Reign every one does remember what abundance of pains was taken to ridicule the Penal Laws and Test but especially the Test for the decrying of which all Mouths were opened all Pens employed even one of our own if we can with truth call our own that Scandal of Protestant Episcopacy Dr. Parker of Oxford and yet we see that how abominable soever a Test was in favour of the Church of England the Jesuit is for having one and that no body be admitted to suffrage in Parliament till he hath taken a swearing Test for Popery And just so it is with Penal Laws though those made against Papists which by the bye were made not against their perswasion in Religion but against the Treasons and Plots which as Papists they were ever and anon running into be abominable yet against Hereticks they are absolutely necessary When I first read this Chapter I could not but wonder at the Impudence of the Romish Priests in the late Reign that made such tragical Exclamations against Penal Laws but especially of the Jesuits who having this Memorial in their hands and admired by them should exclaim against sanguinary Laws when yet they were resolved as soon as they could get a Popish Parliament to have all the Laws that were ever made against Hereticks those for burning them at Stakes restored and put in full Authority God hath delivered us out of the hands of such abominable and bloody Hypocrites and may He ever preserve us from them who gave good words to the Protestant Dissenters that would be cajoled by them with their Mouths while they had destruction and ruine in their hearts against all Protestants whatsoever And at the same rate were too many Dissenters gull'd about the promised Liberty of Conscience that was to be established in Parliament to be made as firm as Magna Charta and it should have been made Felony or Treason and I know not what for any one in Parliament ever to have motioned a Repeal of it but now we see in the Memorial found in the late King's Closet what it was that was to be so firmly established we find that immediately it was to have been made Treason for ever for any Man to propose any change of Popery in England The SECOND PART of this MEMORIAL Touching the CLERGY I noted in the beginning the Clergy might be divided into Three principal Branches which are Bishops Priests and Religious Orders both of Men and Women and so according to this Division shall I prosecute this Memorial CHAP. I. Of the Clergy in general what they are and ought to do at the next change HAving to speak of the Clergy in general which God from the beginning of his Church vouchsafed to name his own Portion for that they were dedicated more particularly than other Men to his Divine Service and our Saviour to call them by the most honourable name of the light of the World and Salt of the Earth The first point of all to be remembred unto them seemeth to be that if ever there were a time wherein the effect of these names were needful to be shewed and put in execution it will be now at the beginning of our Countries next Conversion whose Fall and Affliction may perhaps in great part be ascribed to the wants of these effects in former times past And furthermore it may be considered that the State of the Clergy in England after a long desired Reduction and happy entrance of some Catholick Prince over us and after so long and bitter a Storm of cruel Persecution will be much like unto that which was of the general Church of Christendom in time of the first good Christian Emperor Constantine the Great after the bloody Persecutions of so many Infidel Tyrants that went before him for three hundred years together at what time as God on the one side provided so many notable zealous and learned Men for the establishing of his Church as appeareth by the three hundred and eighteen most worthy Bishops gathered together in the general Council of Nice so on the other side the Devil ceased not to stir up amongst the Clergy of that time divers and sundry Divisions Emulations and Contentions some of indiscreet zeal against such as had fallen and offended in time of Persecution and some other grounded upon worse causes of Malice Emulation and Ambition tending to particular interest whereby both that good Emperour in particular and all the Church of God in general were much troubled and afflicted and many good Men scandalized and God Almighty's Service greatly hindered and the common Enemy comforted And considering that the
Times Men Matters and Occasions may chance to fall out very like or the same in England whensoever it shall be reduced to the Catholick Faith again great and special care is to be had lest semblable effect should also follow to the universal prejudice of the common cause wherefore this ought to serve as a preparative both for our Prince and People to put on the same pious and generous mind that Constantine the Great did to bear patiently with the infirmities of Men and remedy all matters the best he may and the People but especially Priests to beware of like deceit of the Devil and amongst other things if perchance in time of Persecution cause has been given or taken of offence or disgust between any person whatsoever that have laboured in God's Service and do tend all to one end to procure effectually now that it be altogether cut off and put in oblivion and this especially amongst the Clergy and by their means amongst others and if there should be any unquiet or troublesome Spirit found that under any pretence would sow or reap or maintain divisions that the Holy Apostles Counsel be followed with him which is to note and eschew him to the end that all may join chearfully and zealously to the setting up of this great and important work of Reformation And so much for Concord But as concerning example of good Life and to be Lanterns of the World I hope in Jesus there will be no great need at that day nor for that day now to call much upon our Clergy or at leastwise for some years after our Reduction they having received so abundant grace of Almighty God in this time of Persecution and so excellent a kind of Holy Education in our Seminaries as never perhaps any Clergy had in the World which Benefit of God ever ought to be a Spur unto them to be answerable to the same in their lives and works and to fear the most terrible sentence of St. Paul to the Hebrews about the hard and miserable case of such as after much and special grace received slide back again to their everlasting and most intolerable Damnation A blessed Servant of God in these our days cried out in a certain Memorial of his to the Council of Trent about matters of Reformation saying Take from us once if it be possible the shame and reproach of Israel which is the Evil and Idle Life of Clergy-men which cry ought ever to found in the Ears of our Clergy also for a watch-word and jointly to remember the Admonition of St. Paul no less necessary than this for them that are to labour in God's Vineyard which was That having meat and competent maintenance they should seek no farther but be content to labour willingly and liberally for so worthy a Master as is to pay them above all expectation or desire in the next Life Which Admonition is most important for moderating our appetites and avoiding of ambition greediness and contention when the day shall come though in England there will not want to give contentment also with abundance in temporal matters to all godly Men that shall labour there if his Divine Majesty vouchsafe to restore the same from his Enemies hands so as my hope is that our Clergy in every degree from the highest to the lowest will endeavour at that day to conform themselves to all rules of Reason Piety and Religion and to hearken gladly to any good Counsel or remembrance of Order and Discipline that shall be offered for theirs and the common good and with that I may presume to set down the Notes that hereafter do ensue CHAP. II. Of Bishops and Bishopricks in England BIshops and Prelates be Heads of the Clergy and if all ought to be Light and Salt how much more they that must lighten and season not only the Temporalty and Laity but all the rest of their own Order also who according to the example given them by their Prelate are wont to proceed And on the other side the best means for a Bishop to do much good in his Diocess is to have good Priests about him for that a Prelate without good Priests to help him is a Bird without Feathers to fly and to have good Priests he must make good Priests both by his Life Doctrine and other good means and especially by Seminaries for that Figs grow not on Thorns as our Saviour says and to have so great a Treasure it must cost both Labour Industry and Mony The Authority and Jurisdiction of Bishops in England is commonly more than in divers other Countries and more respected and their ordinary inquiry upon dishonesty of Life or suspicion thereof is peculiar to England alone and of very great importance for holding Men in fear of carnal sins and for this cause to be continued and increased And albeit in some other Counties simple Fornication be not so much punished or pursued and inquired upon and that the Stews also be permitted for avoiding of greater inconveniences in respect of the different natures and complexions of the People yet by experience we do find that the same necessity of liberty is not in England and consequently in no wife to be brought in again for that it is an occasion of fall and of grievous temptations to many that otherwise would not have them That English Custom also of often Visitations by the Bishop and by his Councellors Officials and other Ministers and Probats of Testament to be made before them and the use of often administring the Sacrament of Confirmation to Children is very laudable and to be honoured and any other thing that may belong to the authority credit or good estimation of the Bishop or of his Function and Office and if for a time after the next change some hand were given to Bishops also in Temporal affairs as to be principal in all publick Commissions within the Shire it would greatly authorise Religion and assure the Country much more to the Prince It will appertain to the Council of Reformation to consider of the Revenues of each Bishoprick and where there wanteth sufficient to bear out decently that State then to add so much as shall be necessary yet are Bishops to be admonished saith Mr. John Avila that Christ willeth them to be Lights of the World and Salt of the Earth by their fervour of Religion Prudence and Vertues and not by abundance of great Riches and Pomp and he alledgeth a Canon of the first Council of Carthage which saith thus Episcopus habeat vilem supellectilem mensam victum pauperem dignitatis suae authoritatem fidei vitae meritis quaerat And upon this he addeth That much more hurt hath come to the Church of God by overmuch Wealth of Bishops than by their Poverty albeit he wisheth notwithstanding that they have sufficient with Moderation And he beseecheth the Council of Trent that as well of Bishops Livings as of Deanries Archdeaconries Rich
none at all if he deserveth it And that the Condition also be put by the Prince and Pope in providing of Bishopricks to wit that when ever the Prince or Archbishops shall require Visitors of His Holiness to visit any Bishop or Archbishop and shall find just cause to deprive him or put him down to a lower Bishoprick that it shall be lawful and that each Prelate may enter with this express Condition as also Deans Archdeacons Canons and the rest And that sometimes it be put in Execution for that this will be a continual Bridle and Spur to them when they know they have no certainty or perpetuity and as to the good it will be an occasion of perpetual promotion so to the other it will be a motive to look about them Order must be given by the Bishops for often meeting of the Clergy in Provincial Synods or otherwise to confer their doubts and to take light and incouragement the one of the other And for the better keeping of Unity both in Mind and Spirit and Actions and the old Canons Customs and old Ecclesiastical Ordinances of our English Church are to be brought in ure again as much as may be and as they serve profitably to our Times Whether it be convenient to have a Third Archbishop in England and some Bishopricks increased enlarged diminished or divided I have put it in Consideration before the Council of Reformation and so have no more to note in particular about this Chapter of Bishops but only to refer my self to that which in general the Holy Council of Trent has ordained about Reformation of Bishops which I do suppose ever as a Foundation to all that here or elsewhere is added for England alone at its next change to Catholick Religion CHAP. III. Of Deans Canons Pastors Curates and the rest of the Clergy AFter Bishops do follow the other inferiour Order of the Clergy to which may be apply'd so much of that which I have spoken before in the Chapter of Bishops as doth concern them And furthermore you may add the Advertisement and Ordinations of the Holy late Council of Trent about Reformation of Priests which were convenient should be put in Execution in England above all other Catholick Countries with Zeal and Devotion and what else I can remember that is particular to our Country or not touched by the said Council I shall endeavour to suggest in this place All Men will confess that Deans and Canons and other Ministers of Cathedral Churches at their first Institution and many years after did live in common and did eat together in one Hall or Refectory and that their Life and manner of Discipline was a community of one good and well ordered College as we read of those that lived under St. Augustin as their Bishop in the City of Hippo in Africa and of those that long after lived under St. Dominick as their Prior in the City of Osma in Spain and for this effect were the Closes or Cloisters built in every Cathedral Church for Canons to live together under one Lock and Discipline as hath been said and for this cause were they called Regular and the very name of Canon signifieth a Rule and in divers places yet of other Countries the same is observed though not with so great Exaction as from the beginning it was But now in England it might be restored to the first perfection again so as our Canons might live in common and be Exemplar Men of Life And if there should be any difficulty to obtain this of all yet at leastwise that no Man live abroad or alone but by particular leave and Dispensation And that such as will live in Community may have some priviledges above the rest and that ordinarily of these Men may be chosen Deans Archdeacons Heads of Colleges Bishops and other Dignities so as to live Exemplarly may have some priviledge and enlargement above the rest for which cause also it would be good that some ordinary degrees and steps were known in the Commonwealth for Ecclesiastical Men to ascend and to go up by And first Seminaries and ordinary Colleges in the Universities and from thence to be Heads of Houses and Fellows of the exempted and priviledged Colleges of which I shall speak more in the Chapter following concerning Universities and from those to be Canons in the Cathedral Churches and after to pass to other Dignities Prelacies and Bishopricks Among which Degrees of Promotion no one is more fit to try Men and to make them sufficient for higher places than Canonneries if they were used to this effect and Men ordinarily taken from thence to other preferments and this according to their Merits only and behaviour in the same and not for favour kindred and other respects And still the most virtuous wise and orderly is to be preferred and especially those that are pious and Men of Alms though they were somewhat inferiour to the rest and that no troublesome unquiet idle vain heady proud or dissolute Men should be preferred though he were never so qualified otherwise but rather know certainly he should be put back from that place and with that express Condition to take his Canonry or other Dignity when he entereth as before hath been noted I have suggested before in the Chapter belonging to the Council of Reformation how that the scarcity of good and able English Priests being so great as it is like to be at the next change when so many places will be to fill as the greatness of such a Kingdom requireth the first care must be in all reason and good Law of prudence to furnish Bishopricks Deanries Archdeaconries and some such other principal charges of Jurisdiction and Government where only the English Men will be able to discharge the Office by reason of the Language and not Strangers But yet where no convenient provision can be made of the English Nation there to help our selves rather with some discreet and vertuous Men of other Countries for a time and those to be chosen and sent us only upon our Petition by zealous and good Bishops abroad than to leave the People wholly unfurnished namely for saying of Mass singing in the Quire of Cathedral Churches and Collegial and other such like Priestly Functions as by Men of other Languages may be performed with Condition that this shall be used only for a space until our Clergy shall be increased and no propriety of Benefices to be given to them but only competent Pensions and Allowance during their aboad in England which may be so long as they behave themselves well and give Edification to the People I have spoken also of English Preachers to be sent over the Realm alloting to every Bishop so many as may be had for that purpose and that he divide them as he shall think most needful and that for some few years at least it would be more commodious for the Publick and more liberty for the Preachers and Priests
and Physicians were also before in other Colleges whence they are removed And more than this also there may be some certain number of Priests and Chaplains established in these Colleges now occupied by Lawyers and Physicians to say Mass daily for the Founders which with Dispensation of the See Apostolick seemeth would be a reasonable and sufficient Compensation And this is so much as for the present occurreth to my mind to be suggested about the reforming and perfecting of our English Universities whereof would follow no doubt great honour and profit to our Commonwealth if it might be done as it should be and if besides all this a third University might be added to the two which we have already and be placed in the North Parts of England about Durham New-Castle or Richmond as before hath been mentioned in the Chapter appertaining to the Council of Reformation where reasons also were alledged for the same The utility no doubt and honour thereof would greatly import the benefit of our Weal publick and principally the parts near about where it should be placed which I leave to the wisdom of them who shall have authority to dispose thereof at the wished day that we expect and pray for CHAP. VII Of Religious Men and Women and matters appertaining unto them IN divers former Chapters there hath been mention made of Religious Orders both Men and Women which being the third principal part or member of the Clergy as before hath been signified should have in this place some peculiar Treatise also but that there has been so much spoken thereof already upon different occasions as little remaineth to be added here The principal point that seemeth needful to be remembred is That this part of the Clergy I mean Religious People is or ought to be the ornament of all the rest and that by the height of their Vocation they should participate in a more ample and eminent sort of those excellent names of Lights of the World and Salt of the Earth which our Saviour vouchsafed to attribute to all his Portion and Clergy but yet are they more due unto the State of Religious Persons which bind themselves by Vow to a life of greater perfection than the rest and consequently ought to be clearer Lights and more excellent Salt than any other And he that would consider of Religious Orders as he should seeing them intermixed among other People in a Catholick Commonwealth he should imagine them as Veins and Arteries spread throughout Man's Body to give Blood and Spirit to the fleshy parts that lye about them And again as Wells Springs Brooks and Rivers divided all over the Earth to minister moisture and life to the Fields and pasturages adjoyning unto them and so consequently as when the Rivers of any Country or Veins or Arteries do wax dry or are corrupted or give evil moisture nourishment or infection all the rest must needs perish and putrifie so when Religious People themselves be corrupted and do infect or scandalize others by their evil example or do dry up and fade away all the rest must needs come to desolation This hath been tryed in no Country more for times past than in ours and for that cause is the greater care and desire of good Men to have it well remedied at the next change and that as on the one side it is desired as before hath been noted that all the approved Religious of God's Church should be admitted again into England for more honourable satisfaction of impieties committed against them in times past so on the other side is there no less desire of good Men that none should be admitted but called for and chosen and such as will promise the perfect observation of their first Institution and Rule so as they may be true Lights and Salt indeed The Edict or Proclamation whereof I spoke before to be made at the very first beginning against the entrance of any Religious People but only upon Licence and Approbation of the Council of Reformation will help greatly to this effect if it be observed as it ought to be with exactness For otherwise all idle and wandring People and such as best may be spared in other places will flock to us All Emulation and Contention among Religious Orders must be carefully avoided at that day whereunto it seemeth that two things will greatly help first That no Religious be admitted but reformed as hath been said for that between good and perfect Men there is never Emulation or Contention both Parties being united in Christ Qui fecit utraque unum as the Apostle saith non est exceptor personarum and so the nearer that each part is united to Christ in Holiness and Perfection the nearer are they united with others also then can there be no difference between them according to the Rule most certain of Euclides that such things as are united in a third are united also between themselves so as wheresoever there is Contention or Emulation between Religions that profess both of them to serve Christ the off-spring is Imperfection in one or both parts and the more Contentious is ever the more imperfect and this is the first point The second help or remedy may be That the Council of Reformation with Faculty of his Holiness do take upon them the Distribution of all Ecclesiastical Livings and Lands which shall be restored according to the present necessity conveniency and utility of the time present without respect of former Possessors Great and special care must be had of erecting Monasteries for Women which are like to be far more in number than Men that will enter into Religion at the beginning having been violently debarred thereof all the Reign of this Queen And no one Impiety of our Hereticks perhaps hath been greater or more barbarous than the forcing of Virgins to break their holy purposes or not permitting to execute the same by entering into Religion And for that the scarcity of able Men will be such at that time and so many other things wherein to employ them as they shall be hardly able to attend to the Government of the Nunneries for a time which yet cannot well go forward without the Direction and oversight of some such grave vertuous and discreet Men. For this cause it behoveth to consider well what Orders of Religious Women are to be admitted at the first and how they may best be governed to the end that such strifes may be avoided as oftentimes in Catholick Countries about these and the like affairs do fall out In divers Parts and Provinces of Christendom there are some Religious Orders in these our days more reformed than others and of these ought our Council of Reformation to call before the rest For as the first Foundation shall be laid in England so will the rest follow and go suitable to that and as the Clock is first set with us so will the wheels walk afterwards and the hours follow accordingly And for that all
began to be Christians and to subject themselves also to this Spiritual Government and Jurisdiction of Souls and to be Sheep of these Spiritual Pastors among the rest they were admitted without detriment or diminution of their Temporal State and Government so far forth as it concerned the Temporal good of the Commonwealth which is Peace Wealth Justice and the like but yet so as they should not meddle or challenge power in the Spiritual Jurisdiction of Souls but be subject therein and leave that Government to Clergy-men and Spiritual Governors appointed by Christ and put in authority for that purpose long before Temporal Princes came to be converted as hath been declared And therefore came the distinction of Spiritual Governors and Temporal Governors of Clergy-men and Lay-men of Christian Pastors and Christian Sheep in which number of Christian Sheep and Subjects all Princes of the World are to be accounted in respect of their Souls and in all points appertaining thereunto and in respect of their Spiritual Pastors And albeit here in this life among Flesh and Blood where matters of this World and Life present are more respected commonly being present and the object to our Senses than Spiritual matters are of the life to come which are not seen but believed only though I say the external shew power and terror of Temporal Princes be much more respected reverenced and feared than is the authority of Priesthood or Jurisdiction of Spiritual Governors yet in themselves there is no comparison as by the reasons before alledged doth evidently appear but that the authority of Priesthood is much more great high and worthy and more principal and ancient in the Church of Christ for that it was before the other many Years and is over and above the other and that so far forth as St. Paul in his first Epistle and fourth Chapter to the Corinthians hath these words If you have secular Judgments among you appoint for Judges the contemptible that be in the Church of Christ for that function which yet I speak saith he to your shame for that none of the wiser sort among you do end or take up these temporal strifes but one Christian accuseth another and that before secular Tribunals even of Infidel Princes Christ himself when he was requested to judge between two Brothers in a Temporal matter he refused the same as also fled when the People would have made him a Temporal King and finally he said his Kingdom was not of this World which was not to disallow or contemn Judgment or Temporal authority of this World or that he was not in truth most lawful King also of this World being the Judge Author and Creator thereof but all this was to shew the small account he made of all this Temporal power in respect of the power Spiritual over Souls which properly he came to exercise and to plant and settle in the Church after him unto which all Kings and Emperors that would be saved should subject themselves and their Sceptres as we read that our Great Constantine before named and first Christian Emperor of the World did and after him the most renouned of the rest as Valentinian the two Theodosius's Justinian Charles the great and others in the occasions that were offered did humble themselves unto their Pastors and Governors of Christ's Church shewing themselves thereby to be the true Nurses and Foster-Fathers of Christ's Church which Isaiah the Prophet had foretold should come and succeed in Temporal Christian Kingdoms and Monarchies And yet by this did they not lose or diminish one jot of Temporal authority height or Majesty but rather did greatly confirm and increase the same for that Spiritual Pastors and Governors of Souls do teach and command all due reverence and obedience to be done in Temporal matters to Temporal Princes and do exhibit the same also themselves and do punish the contrary by Spiritual and everlasting punishments as well as by the Temporal upon such as are wicked or rebellious therein so as both these Governments joyned together in a Christian Commonwealth and one not disdaining or emulating the other but honouring rather respecting and assisting the same all goeth well both for the Temporal and everlasting felicity of all And such as do set division betwixt these two States are very Instruments of Sathan such as are the Hereticks Politicks Atheists and other seditious People of our days And for that in no other Country of the World whilest ours flourished hath there been more union love honour and respect born betwixt these two Orders of Spiritual and Temporal Men than in England as may appear even to this day by the many Temporal Honours Prerogatives and Dignities given to our Clergy in the Parliament and other Temporal affairs and that the Emulation and breach between the same enkindled and set on by the Devil and wicked Men hath been a principal cause of the ruine both to Country and both Parts that were Catholick in times past as hath been said and seen for this cause I thought it not amiss to speak somewhat more largely of the matter in this place and by this occasion having mentioned the same in divers other places of this Memorial before as a matter of no small importance to be throughly remedied and reformed at the next change if God say Amen which remedy will be if the Clergy considering their high Vocation and Estate be not proud thereof nor ambitious but endeavour to conform their lives to so great worthiness of their Profession And if Lay-men on the other side considering the very same to wit the dignity and reverence due to such as have Jurisdiction and Government over their Souls and must open and shut the Gates of Heaven unto them do not malign and envy their Estate as miserable Chore Dathan and Abiron did but do seek rather to profit themselves thereby and willingly joyn with them to the procuring their own and other Men's Salvations And this is so much as is needful to be spoken in this place of the Laity or Temporalty in general for that afterward there will be place to speak of all particularities that shall occur in the several Chapters that shall ensue CHAP. II. Of the Prince and his Council and matters belonging to them AS the Prince in every Commonwealth is the Head and Heart from whence all life and vigour principally cometh unto the same so above all other things is it of importance that he be well affected and disposed and so much the more in England above other Countries by how much greater and eminent his authority is and power with the People more than in divers other places by which means it hath come to pass that England having had more store of holy Kings in ancient times than many other Countries together came to have Religion and Piety more abundantly settled by their means than divers Realms about them and on the contrary side her Kings and Princes of later years having
good birth are driven oftentimes to great extremities and to undecent shifts for their maintenance to no small inconvenience to the whole Commonwealth Wherefore it may be thought upon whether some moderation in this point were not convenient to be put whereby younger Children might have some occasion to a reasonable Portion at least of their Parents Substance whereby to maintain themselves somewhat conformable to their Birth State and Condition In foreign Catholick Countries the younger Children of Nobility and Gentry are greatly helped and advanced by the Church wherein they are preferred before others in authority and dignity if their merits of learning and vertue be equal whereby it cometh to pass that these younger Brethren giving themselves to study upon hope of these preferments do come in time to be excellent Men and of more authority and living than their Elder Brothers which is a great stay for the Nobility and no less for the defence of Catholick Religion by the union of these Noblemen of the Clergy with others of their Lineage Kindred Acquaintance and Friendship of the Temporalty and consequently the custom is to be brought into England if Noblemen's Sons would make themselves fit Wherein there will be much less difficulty than in times past when that sweet and clear manner of teaching the Latin Tongue and other Sciences shall be brought into England which is used in other places and that other hard dark and base custom of so much beating of youth be removed and taken away About Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Daughters it is also to be considered that as many of them by all likelihood when Catholick Religion shall be restored will betake themselves to Religious and Monastical Life as in other Countries we see so shall their Parents be much eased thereby and the better able to provide for the Marriage of their other Daughters remaining in the World in which point notwithstanding seeing that the excesses of our times in giving great Dowries is grown to be at such a height that it impoverisheth oftentimes the Parents it seemeth a point worthy the consideration whether it were not expedient that the Parliament should limit the quantity of Dowries according to the State and Condition of every Man which no doubt would greatly ease the Nobility and Gentry of England and be profitable for many respects And touching the assurance of these Dowries as also for the Jointures of Lands the Laws of other Countries and ours are far different and good it were for us to take the best of them both And first for Dowries in other Countries they are more assured unto the Wife than in ours for that there the said Dowry never entreth into the Husband's Possession in propriety but only is put out to Rent and assurance given for it of which Rent only the Husband may dispose during his Wive's Life but no ways spend or diminish or impawn the Principle which seemeth a better order and more sure for the Wife than to leave all free to the Husband's Disposition as in our Country where oftentimes an unthrift matches with a rich Woman spendeth all she hath without remedy or redress The Wife also in other Countries if she has no Children may dispose of all her Dowry to good works or to any other uses that she will by her Testament in secret and sealed and not to be opened before she be dead And this may she do without obligation to leave any part to her Husband except she list which is some motive also for her Husband to use her well while she liveth upon hopes to be her Heir or Executor and if she hath Children then may she dispose only of the fifth part to good works whereof nothing is allowed by our Laws of England and it seemeth a great defect and may be considered whether it be not to be amended But on the other side touching Jointures the Condition of Women is better in England than in other places for that whether they bring Dowries or not by our Laws of England they may claim a Third of their Husband's Lands which in other Countries is not so where if they bring no Dowry they can claim no Jointure at all neither any part of their Husband's Goods except he please of his free-will to leave them any thing and if they bring Dowry then shall they have their whole Dowry again at their Husband's Death and more than this the half of all such Goods and Moveables as were gained since their Marriage by reason of the said Dowry or otherwise which is less prejudicial to the Son and Heir than the other of England but yet which of them be absolutely better may be a matter perhaps disputable And thus much for Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Children It shall not be amiss to pass to their Servants whom also they ought to have in place of Children and to comfort defend and cherish the desiring to see them wealthy and well able to live according to the ancient Love and Charity of English Land-Lords towards Vassals Subjects and Tenants which Love and tender care having been greatly broken and diminished in these later years by the impiety avarice riotousness and other disorders brought in by Heresie is to be restored again by Catholick Religion and Land-lords are to be taught to make such account of their Tenants as of them by whom they live and also by the Sweat of their Brows do suck and draw out of the Earth Commodities whereby Noblemen and Gentlemen are maintained at ease And for that many Landlords of these times have begun to raise their Rents and to impeach that old and most laudable tenure of England of old Rent of Assize it is to be understood that no one thing among the Customs of England seemeth to divers Men that have seen also other Countries of more importance to be kept observed and to be brought back again to the old use than this manner of letting and setting Lands for term of Life after the rates of the old Rents and that no one thing in times past hath been a greater ground of abundance and felicity in our Commonwealth both to Nobility and Commonalty than this honourable custom of Leasing their Lands for that it is generally profitable both to the Landlord and Tenant and Commonwealth in particular to the Landlord for that he setting down his Houshold and framing his Expences according to the rate of his old Rent which is certain may easily still be before hand and hold himself in abundance with the extraordinary incomes that shall enter by Leases Fines and other such casualties and in like manner the charges of Subsidies Tenths Loanes and other publick Impositions laid upon him by Parliament or other means they are ever according to his Rents in the Queen's Book which are far less and more easie than if he were charged according to the Portion of rack Rents To the Tenant also this way of taking Leases after the rate of old Rent is very
aggravation might be used with us as it is in other Countries as namely that their Bodies might be left unburied in the place of Execution for a memory and terrour unto others as in all other Christian Nations commonly is accustomed The use also of the Romans to whip certain Malefactors somewhat rigorously before their death did terrifie many at that time which otherwise would not much have esteemed hanging only and the like effect it would work also by likelihood with us if it were put in use Some other punishments also should be devised for many thefts of little quantity for saving of Man's Blood for that the custom of hanging in England for so small a sum and quantity as our Laws appoint is much reprehended in all other Nations But above all other things good and effectual means are to be sought to divert Men from these offences and to make them hate and shun them and this ought to be the greater care of a Commonwealth than to punish only such as do offend though this also ought not to be omitted and what means may be used to prevent the youth of England and avert them from this vice of stealing I have shewed by divers occasions in some Chapters before and surely it is great pity to see so many consumed by Gallowses in England more perhaps than in half Christendom besides And yet the sin not remedyed thereby for want of cutting off the root by good Education and by fear of Justice equally and constantly administred Divers other points of our Common Law might be touched wherein perhaps some Reformation or little Alteration might be used with the great good of our Commonwealth though for the whole course thereof as before I have signified being so established as it is I would not give Counsel to make great Mutation but rather endeavour to perfect that which is settled and supply the defects that may be of great inconvenience And this is all I remember to be suggested at this time about these affairs CHAP. V. Of the Commons of England and matters appertaining unto them THE Commonalty being the Body and Bulk of the Realm and those that sustain the labour of the same they are greatly to be cherished esteemed and conserved and next after the planting of true Religion and Knowledge of God great care is to be had of their enriching For that as Constantius the Emperour was wont to say The Prince's true Treasure are the Coffers of his Subjects and especially of the Commonalty who if they be poor and needy can neither pay their Landlords nor till or manure the ground nor help the Prince in his necessities And by the Commonalty I understand in this place Labouring-men Serving-men Husbandmen Yeomen Artificers Citizens and Merchants all which labour and toil to the end that others may live in rest And in England as before I have touched their Condition was wont to be more prosperous and happy than in any Country else of the World besides and may be again by the grace of God with the restoring of true Religion the loss whereof brought not only Spiritual but also Temporal misery upon our Realm First then is to be enquired upon by such Commissioners as for this purpose may be appointed what Oppressions Injuries Vexations Losses or other injuries have been laid upon the Commonalty or any part thereof by the Heretical Estate of these later Years or by bad Landlords Noble or Gentlemen of Puissance to the end it may be remedied also what Landlords principally have most raised or racked their Rents to the end they may be dealt withalâ— for some Moderation The Priviledges also both of the Commonalty in general or of any community within any Country Province or Circuit whether it be about Commons Woods Freedoms or the like that may have been broken taken away or injuriously violated may be considered restored and confirmed again And among other things necessarily to be lookt to among our Commonalty will be to reduce them again to their old simplicity both in Apparel Diet Innocency of Life and plainness of Dealing and Conversation from which Heresie hath distracted many The Distinction also peculiar unto our Country of divers States of the Commonalty as Labourers Husbandmen Yeomen Farmers and the like is to be conserved and Men are not lightly to be permitted to pass from these States to the State and Condition of a Gentleman without particular Merits to be allowed of by the Prince or by some priviledge of learning Chivalry or the like and not only by way of wealth as of late years hath been accustomed Order must be taken that the Commonalty may not be vexed with suits in Law by troublesome Men but that certain Men in every Shire as namely Justices of Peace and such-like may hear matters first and compose and take them up with the consent of both Parties or otherwise favour him that hath the most right and sheweth most modesty and desire of Peace The Law used in some foreign Countries that no Tenant may be surety for his Landlord or if he be that it be of no force in Law is very good and profitable oftentimes for both Parties The old exercise of England for Parishes to meet together upon Holy-days at the Church-houses Church-yards and other such places and there to disport themselves honestly for avoiding idleness or worse Occupations at home is not evil but to be continued avoiding only the excesses or abuses that may be therein which were not commonly accustomed to be great but the thing it self I mean that meeting and entertainment of mirth worketh divers good effects as by the want thereof in some other Countries has been noted for it holdeth the People in Contentment and maketh friendship of one Man with another and of one Parish with another and when they are joined together any good Instruction or exhortation may be made unto them if the Curate or any Spiritual Man will take the same in hand The custom also of going one Parish to another upon their Week-days with the Banner of their Saint is commendable and much more the Festival mirth wont to be used in Celebration of Corpus Christi Feast which were to be restored with all solemnity of honouring that Divine Sacrament which our Hereticks have sought so much to dishonour The means also of frequent Conversation and Contraction between the People of England by often Markets and Fairs wherein the Commodities of one Town are imparted with another is a thing more used in our Country than in any other in the World and much to be commended as also conserved and increased with immunities and priviledges for the many good effects that do result thereof The calling in of base Mony in this Queen's days and bringing all to Silver was an Act to gain to them that were Authors thereof and great incommodity it is to the Commonalty both in respect of traffick buying and selling and exchange as also of helping the