alterum diem Deo volente Qui te seruet Illustrissime Domine Londini VIII Eid Sept. MDCXIII Tuae Reuerentiae obseruantiss cultor IS CASAVBONVS Right Reuerend my Gracious Lord I Send vnto your Grace the Letter whereof you haue heard The Letter was sent me with intent it should be communicated vnto the King but I thought it fitter to bee suppressed and to be shewed vnto none For I cannot approue the drift of that learned man who wrâ—te the Letter Wherefore I answered him forâ—â—with and with many words aduised him to desist from that purpose I brought him many reasons why I certainely beleeued it was folly or rather frensie to hope for any good from the Romish Phalaris for that very terme I vsed who laughs at our euils if there be any amongst vs. I laid before his eyes how auerse the Peeres of the Romish Church are from all equitie specially Bellarmine of whose impiety I wrote at large vnto him I set before his eyes with how great danger to himselfe he seemed to become the Popes Patron I alledged testimonies of Matthew Paris of the great misery of England when it was vnder the Popes obedience I added the example of that Narbonois who of late sent vnto the Kings MAIESTY a booke of the like argument that being commanded by the KING to say my mind I professed my detestation thereof and that it was his MAIESTIES will to haue some animaduersions set in the margent of the booke After which what became of Carier I know not This I thought good to signifie vnto your Grace but I expected vntill you were returned vnto the Citie for the publishing of my booke stayes meat home I haue other weighty matters whereof to aduise with your Grace within this day or two God willing who preserue you my gracious Lord. London Sept. 6. 1613. Your Graces most respectiue Obseruer ISA. CASAVBON B. C. 17. There is a statute in England made by King Henry the VIII to make him supreame head of the Church in spirituall and Ecclesiasticall causes which Statute enioynes all the subiects of England on paine of death to beleeue and to sweare they doe beleeue that it is true and yet all the world knowes if King Henry the VIII could haue gotten the Pope to diuorce Queene Katherine that he might marrie Anne Bullen that Statute had neuer been made by him and if that title had not enabled the King to pull downe Abbeys and religious houses and giue them to Lay men the Lords and Commons of that time would neuer haue suffered such a Statute to be made This Statute was continued by Queene Elizabeth to serue her owne turne and it is confirmed by your Maiestie to satisfie other men and yet your Maiestie yeeldeth the Church of Rome to be the mother Church and the Bishop of Rome to bee the chiefe Bishop or Primate of all the Westerne Churches which I doe also verely beleeue and therfore I doe verely thinke he hath or ought to haue some spirituall iurisdiction in England and although in mine yonger dayes the fashion of the world made me sweare as other did for which I pray God forgiue mee yet I euer doubted and I am now resolued that no Christian man can take that oath with a safe conscience neither will I euer take it to gaine the greatest preferment in the world G. H. 17. The Statute here intended can be none other then the Sâ—tute 26. of H. VIII Cap. 1. for that is the first Statute that medleth with the Supremacie which Statute is as the Common Lawyers terme it Statutum declaratiuum not introductiuum noui iuris as doth clearely appeare by the Preamble which hath these words Albeit the Kings Maiestie iustly and rightfully is and ought to bee taken and accepted supreame head of the Church of England and so is recognized by the Clergie in their Conuocation yet neuerthelesse for corroboration and confirmation thereof Be it enacted that the King shall bee taken and accepted Supreme head c. So that the Doctor is fowly mistaken to say that there was a Statute made by K. Henry the VIII to make him Supreme head for it was his ancient right that made him so and it was his Clergie that had acknowledged him to be so before the making of this Statâ—te nay the very phrase and letter of this Statute it selfe doeth purposely renounce the power of making and assumes onely the authority of confirming Whereby it is cleare that Henrie VIII made not a statute to make himselfe Supreme in Ecclesiasticall causes as Mr. Doctor affirmeth but to confirme those Statutes and Rights which his noble Progenitors as iuâ—tly challenged to belong to their Crown as the Bishops of Rome vniustly pretended to be annexed to their Myter And where he sayes that the Statute which according to his vnderstanding made him Supreme head did also enioyne the Subiect to beleeue and sweare it tâ— bee true it is manifest that there is not any mention at all of any oath in that Statute but it is true indeede that in the 28. of Henry VIII chap. 10. there is an oath of Supremacie ordeined the refusall whereof by some certaine persons enioyned by that Act to take it was made high Treason And herein againe is the Doctour deceiued nay which is worse seeketh to deceiue others for onely some certaine persons were bound by that Statute to take the oath and not all the Subiects of England as he falsely surmiseth Anno 35. Henry VIII cap. 1. the oath of Supremacie ordeined by 28. was repealed and a new forme of oath prescribed and extended to more persons but neuer to all in generall The same Parliament Cap. 3. enioyneth that the stile of Supreme head be receiued and vsed and this was all that was done by Henry VIII in the point of Supremacie by way of Statute So that to say as Master Doctor doth that all the Subiects in England are bound vpon paine of death to beleeue the Supremacie is a malicious fiction in two respects First touching the persons enioyned to take the oath and lyable to the punishment and then againe as touching the offence for that beliefe alone which is a secret inclination of the minde knowne onely to God the searcher of the heart and not issuable nor tryable by any Law humane should be made an offence punishable by death is in it selfe so absurde as it cannot but appeare to bee a false imputation to charge our Law-makers therewithall Lastly whereas hee sayes that Henry the VIII would neuer haue made that Statute if he could haue gotten the Pope to haue diuorced Queene Katherine that he might haue married Anne Boleine it is cleare and all the world may know that if King Henry would haue ioyned with Francis the French King in the warre of Naples against Charles the Emperour the Pope would not haue stucke to haue giuen way to that diuorce for the better procuring of which Combination hee did not onely
reason The like befell Iohn de la Poole designed by Richard the third after the death of his owne sonne to bee his Successour himselfe being alwayes euen in that respect suspected of Henry the VII till at last he was slaine and his brother vnder Henry the VIII beheaded These reasons might mooue her Maiestie for the stopping of that declaration not the feare of his Maiesties right but the care of preseruing it being sufficiently proclaimed in his blood and discent Whatsoeuer it were since his Maiestie who had the neerest interest in that errand hath bene content thus graciously to passe it ouer it cannot but argue want both of wisdome and charitie in Mr. Doctor thus vnseasonably and maliciously to reuiue it Lastly God of purpose no doubt raised vp his Maiestie to crosse the worldly and diuelish pretence of Rome and to perpetuate the life of that Religion which you call Schisme and I make no doubt but if King Henry the VII had found it left by his predecessor in the state that his Maiestie did hee would in his wisedome haue left it to his Successor as hee is like to doe and I am the rather induced to thinke so because in the first yeere of his raigne the Pope hauing excommunicated all such persons as had bought allome of the Florentines by his permission if not command it was resolued by all the Iudges of England that the Popes Excommunication ought not to be obeyed or to bee put in Execution within the Realme of England and in the same yeere hee suffered sharpe lawes to be made by the Parliament to which himselfe gaue being by his Royall assent for the reformation of his Clergie then growen very dissolute and in the eleuenth yere of his raigne a Statute was enacted that though by the Ecclesiasticall Lawes allowed within this Realme a Priest cannot haue two Benefices nor a bastard be a Priest yet it should be lawfull for the King to dispence with both of these as being mala prohibita but not mala per se all which argues that they then held the King to bee personam mixtam as it was declared in the tenth yeere of his reigne that is a person mixt because hee hath both Ecclesiasticall and Temporall iurisdiction vnited in his person B. C. 34. But perhaps the Schisme though it serue you to none other vse at all for your title yet it doth much increase your authority and your wealth and therefore it cannot stand with your honour to further the vnity of the Church of Christ. Truely those your most famous and renowned ancestours that did part with their authority and their wealth to bestow them vpon the Church of CHRIST and did curse and execrate those that should diminish and take them away againe did not thinke so nor finde it so And I would to God your Maiesty were so powerfull and so rich as some of those kings were that were most bountifull that way You are our Soueraigne Lord All our bodies and our goods are at your command but our soules as they belong not to your charge but as by way of protection in Catholike religion so they cannot increase your honour and authority but in a due subordination vnto Christ and to those that supply his place in iis quae sunt iuris diuini It was essentiall to Heathen Emperours to bee Pontifices as well as Reges because they were themselues authors of their owne religion But among Christians where Religion comes from CHRIST who was no worldy Emperour though aboue them all the spirituaâ— and temporall authority haue two beginnings and therefore two Supremes who if they bee subordinate doe vphold and increase one another but if the temporall authority oppose the spirituall it destroyeth it selfe and dishonoureth him from whom the spirituall authority is deriued Heresie doth naturally spread it selfe like a caâ—kâ—r and needes little helpe to put it forward So that it is an easie matter for a meane Prince to be a great man amongst heretikes but it is an hard matter for a great king to gouerne them When I haue sometimes obserued how hardly your Maiesty could effect your most reasonable desires amongst those that stand most vpon your Supremacy I haue bene bold to bee angry but durst say nothing onely I did with my selfe resolue for certaine that the keyes were wont to doe the Crowne more seruice when they were in the armes of the miter then they can doe now they are tyed together with the scepter and that your title in spirituall affaires doth but serue other mens turnes and not your owne G. H. 34. Hauing passed your supposed remoouall of all opposition both in doctrine and State thereby to make a readier way to your imaginary reconciliation you now come to an endeuour of clearing such obiections as you conceiued would offer themselues whereof the first is that the religion established which you call schisme serues to increase his Maiesties authoritie and wealth and therefore it cannot stand with his honour to further the vnity of the Church of CHRIST Indeed it must be confessed and cannot bee denied that the religion established yeelds his Maiestie the authority due vnto him which is more then the Romish yeelds to the Soueraigne Princes of her profession and yet no more then CHRIST and his Apostles in practise yeelded and in precept command And yet withall it cannot be denied but some of his Maiesties ancestours partly through the insensible incrochment of some ambitious Popes and partly through the neglect of some weake kings did part indeed with some of their authority to bestow it vpon that Church to which you intitle Christ yet that they reserued to themselues a power euen in Ecclesiasticall causes I haue already made sufficiently to appeare in mine answere to the 16 section of the first chapter and in diuers other places to which I wil presume to adde that which his Maiesty hath published to the world touching this very point in his Premonition to all Christian Princes and States My Predecessors ye see of this kingdome euen when the Popes triumphed in their greatnesse spared not to punish any of their Subiects that would preferre the Popes obedience to theirs euen in Church matters so farre were they then from acknowledging the Pope their temporall Superiour or yet from doubting that their owne Church men were not their Subiects And now I will close vp all these examples with an Acte of Parliament in King Richard the II. his time whereby it was prohibited that none should procure â— benefice from Rome vnder paine to be put out of the kings protection And thus may ye see that what those kings successiuely one to another by foure generations haue acted in priuate the same was also maintained by a publike law By these few examples now I hope I haue sufficiently cleared my selfe from the imputation that any ambition or desire of nouelty in me should
Kings Henry the VIII and Edward the VI. who by their Letters Patents haue warranted the same of which landes and possessions if the owners should now be dispossessed the King should be bound to repay vnto them all their money which would arise to such a huge masse that it would be a hard matter for the Crowne to restore it 3 The Nobles and Gentry of this realme most of whom haue sold and aliened their ancient inheritances to buy these new cannot liue according to their degrees if these possessions should be taken from them 4 The purchasers or owners of such lands and possessions in as much as they came to them by iust title according to the ordinance of the Kings of this kingdome haue held and doe still hold a good and iustifyable course in obteining them 5 The enioying of such landes and possessions is so common vnto euery State and condition of men Cities Colledges and Incorporations that if the same bee taken from them there will necessarily follow thereupon throughout the whole Kingdome a suddaine change and confusion of all Orders and Degrees 6 Seeing that the goods and possessions of the Church euen by the authority of the Cannons may bee aliened for the redemption of captiues and that the same may bee done by that Church onely to whom such possessions doe belong It is fit and reasonable that such dispensations should bee granted for continuing of possession already gotten for so great a good of publike concord and vnity of the Church and preseruation of this State as well in body as in soule Those possessions indeed in many places I speake specially of Tenths which by reason of Popish dispensations were first caried from the Church are as the flâ—sh which the Eagle stole from the Altar carying a coale of fire with it to the burning down and quite consuming of the nests of many of them that held them and in this respect Mr. Doctor may well say that the most part of them who now enioy them haue payed well for them in asmuch as the first owners were enforced or their posteritie within a generation or two to sell that which others purchased Now this curse of God I can impute to none other thing then to the alienation of Tenths from their proper vse to which they were and still should be ordained or at leastwise the bare and scant allowance which is made to the Minister of the greatest part of the fattest Impropriations so that commonly no Parishes are worse prouided for then those that pay most the redresse wherof if it should please God to put into his Maiesties heart and the assembly of the Estates in parliament it would bee a worke no doubt honourable in it selfe acceptable to CHRIST and beneficiall to his Church for which he would the rather blesse their other proceedings I speake not for the restoring of Impropriations though that were rather to be wished then hoped their value being little or nothing inferiour to the Benefices but the making of a coÌ„petent allowance out of them for the maintenance of a preaching Minister and I am sory to heare that some of them should be so backward in the former who most vrge the later the rather for that I would not haue it thought our Religion cannot stand but by the spoyle of the Church liuings though the Pope as it seemes by Mr. Doctor cares not who loseth so that himselfe may winne The vertue of the Sacraments expressed in holy Scripture wee preach not against but as for merit of workes and inuocation of Saints they were preached against and that in England long before the lands were taken from the Abbeys and though they are still preached against yet with vs are the Saints reuerenced with the honour due vnto them by our obseruation of the dayes consecrated to the memorials of their glorious and precious deaths And some Churches are built among vs as occasion serues and necessitie requires but more Hospitals Schooles almeshouses Colledges Libraries and the like charitable workes since the beginning of Queene Elizabeths reigne to this present time then in the space of any three score yeeres successiuely taken since the Conquest which I speake not to boast of the fruits of our Religion but to giue God the honour and as for the Hugonotes of France as you are pleased to terme them if they bee guilty of pulling downe Churches wee neither incourage them to it nor defend them in it as neither doe wee the Papists in their barbarous massacres but onely say of them as the parents of the blind man they are of sufficient age let them answere for themselues Lastly because you addresse your discourse in particular to the Nobles in this Section I craue leaue to put them in mind of a peece of a letter written by their predecessors to the Bishop of Rome during the reigâ—e of Henrie the III. I will recite it in the words of Matthew Parris translated The great ones sayth hee by writing to the Pope complained of the scandals bred out of the rapine and auarice of Rome and spread not onely in England but through the Christian world that themselues would not endure that their countrey from thencefoorth should bee so rudely handled no though the King himselfe should winke at it and vnlesse say they these matters bee speedily redressed by you let your Holinesse know for certaine that it may not vniustly bee feared that such a danger is likely thereby to ensue both to the Church of Rome and to our Lord the King that no remedie will easily bee found for it My hope then is that our Nobles being now farther enlightned by the beames of the Gospell and the cleare discouery of the trueth in the writings of learned men then their predecessours who liued in those times of darkenesse will like the Noble Theophilus to whom S. Luke dedicates his Gospell and The Actes of the Apostles and those noble Bereans who the more noble they were receiued the word with the greater readinesse hold fast the profession which they haue vowed themselues vnto by resisting the vsurpation and tyranny of that man of sinne and maintaining the libertie and freedome of their countrey In the first Parliament held by Queene Mary after her Comming to the Crowne the Nobilitie of England though they gaue way to the administration of the Sacraments and other doctrinall points as they were vsed and held in her Father Kings Henries time yet could they hardly be induced either by her importunitie whom it most concerned in regard of her birthright made good by the Popes dispensation or by the perswasions of Cardinall Poole her Cosin and by her made Archbishop of Canterbury who had beene for many yeeres maintained for the most part at the Popes charge to yeeld that the Queene should surrender her title of Supreme head of the Church of England or that the Pope should bee suffered to exercise his wonted iurisdiction within her dominions how much more then at
very honest men and such as I did loue with all my heart I was very loth to dissent from them in priuate much more loth to oppose them in publike and yet seeing I must needes preach I was lothest of all to oppugne mine owne conscience together with the faith wherein I was baptized and the soules of those to whome I preached neuerthelesse hauing gotten this ground to worke vpon I began to comfort my selfe with hope to proue that the religion established in England was the same at the least in part L which now was and euer had beene held in the Catholique Church the defects whereof might be supplied whensoeuer it should please God to moue your Maiestie thereunto without abrogating that which was alrâ—ady by Law established which I still pray for and am not altogether out of M hope to see and therfore I thought it my duety as farre as I durst rather by N charitable constructions to reconcile things that seemed different that so our soules might bee for euer saâ—ed in vnity then by malitious calumniations to maintaine quarrels that so mens turnes might for a time bee serued in dissention G. H. 8. L How then can we bee esteemed heretiques who broach their owne fantasies since holding as the Church of England doth we hold the same that the Catholike Church hath euer held M Truely you had little reason to hope to liue to see thosâ— vnwarrantable Supplies you speake of by his Maiesties command aswell in regard of your owne infirmities of body as his MAIESTIES strong resolution of minde to the contrarie but it may bee your intelligence deceiued you sure wee are your hope failed you N Touching your opinion of Reconciliation whether it may be thought to proceede of charitie or arrogancie as also whether it be probable or in a maner possible as the case now stands I shall haue fitter opportunitie to discusse hereafter then in this place Yet giue mee leaue by the way to tell you that in my iudgement you call that Vnitie which is indeed distraction it tending to nothing els but a rent and a drawing of vs further from other reformed Churches and neâ—rer to the Church of Rome for if this were not your meaning the same charitable constructions would haue serued to recoÌ„cile things that to you looking through the false spectacles of preiudice passion seemed verie different betwixt vs other reformed Churches abroad much better easier then for the reconciling of those maine broad differences which are indeed betwixt vs and the Church of Rome Of which I feare I may too truly say as Abraham doth to the rich glutton in hel between you and vs there is a great gulfe set so that they which would goe from hence to you can not neither can they come from thence to vs. I speake in regard of Reconciliation in differences of Religion for otherwise but too manie are suffered to goe from hence thither and hauing sucked their poison to returne againe at their pleasures for the vomitting of it out amongst vs notwithstanding the sharpe penalties and great gulfe set betweene vs. B. C. 9. In this course although I did neuer proceed any farther then law would giue me leaue yet I found the Puritans and Caluinists and all the creatures of Schisme to be my vtter enemies who were also like the sonnes of Zeruiah too strong for Dauiâ— himselfe 2. Sam 3. 39. but I well perceiued that all temperate and vnderstanding men who had no interest in the Schisme were glad to heare the trueth honestly and plainely preached vnto them and my hope was by patience and continuance I should in the ende vnmaske hypocrisie and gaine credite to the comfortable doctrine of Antiquitie euen amongst those also who out of misinformation and preiudice did as yet most mislike it And considering with my selfe that your right to the Crowne came onely by O Catholikes and was ancienter then the Schisme which would very faine haue vtterly extinguished it and that both your P disposition by nature your amitie with Catholike Princes your speeches and your proclamations did at the beginning all tend to peace and vnitie I hoped that this endeuour of mine to enforce Catholike Religion at the least as farre as the Common prayer Booke and Catechisme would giue leaue should be well accepted of your MAIESTIE and bee as an introduction vnto farther peace and vnitie with the Church of Rome G. H. 9. O His MAIESTIES right to the Crowne is double the one from his mother lineally descending of the first match of the Ladie Margaret daughter to Henrie the VII and sister to Henrie the VIII Kings of England with Iames the fourth King of Scotland his MAIESTIES great Grandfather who though she imbraced that Religion in which shee was brought vp being neuer acquainted with any other yet as his Maiesty obserueth in his Monitorie Preface to the Christian Princes shee disliked some of the superstious Ceremonies and abhorred those new opinions which the Iesuits call Catholike His second right aboue any other preâ—endor was from his father descended of the second match of the sayd Ladie Margaret with Archibald Douglas Earle of Angush being brought vp in Q. Elizabeths Court whose father the Duke of Lenox professing the reformed religion as well appeared by his practise in his life in receiuing the Sacrament after the manner of the reformed Churches and by the confession of his faith in the hearing of many ministers at his death in all likelihood his Maiesties father himselfe should be that way affected though Cardinall Bellarmine vpon the relation of I know not whom would faine haue it otherwise And whereas you say that schisme would faine haue extinguished his Maiesties right it is well knowen that those whom you call schismatikes were the chiefe instruments vnder God to preserue his Maiesties not onely right but life against the fury of some whom you call Catholikes both before his mothers death and since P From his Maiesties progenitors you come to his owne disposition by nature his amity with Catholike Princes his speaches his Proclamations which all tended at the beginning you say to peace and vnitie True indeed it is that his Maiestie by nature is disposed to mercy his amitie with Christian Princes argues his charitie and heroical ingenuitie voide of ielousie suspition euen where occasioÌ„ may seem to be giuen his speaches and Proclamations were not bloody yet all this could not serue your turne as a sufficieÌ„t warrant to endeauor a peace with the Church of Rome in matters of religion no more then a league with the great Turke for traffike should giue occasion of ioyning with him in Mahometisme but had you withall with the other eye reflected a little backe vpon his Maiesties education from his very Cradle the choice of his aliance in mariage his counsel to his sonne touching the matter of religion in the first booke of his Basilicon Doron his
and Alexander the VI. who lying vpon his death-bed the very night of his departure making a lamentable and bitter complaint to the Priests and Monkes that stood about him of the miserable estate of the Church and laying the burthen of so great a mischiefe vpon the Popes shoulders whom therefore he called Heretike and Antichrist at length hee yeelded vp his soule vnto God with these words in his mouth Non liberabitur Ecclesâ—a ab Egiptiaca seruitute nisi in ore gladij cruentandi The Church will neuer bee freed from this Egyptian slauery but by the point of a bloodie sword Thus did this holy man foresee and foretel as it were by a Prophetical Spirit that which we see accoÌ„plished So that Henrie the VIII serued onely as a midwife to bring to the world that birth wherewith our countrey had bene in trauell many yeres before and had not he bene borne some other meanes would haue beene found out for the doing of that which he did and what we see already done in England will also vndoubtedly be brought to passe in other Nations when their measure is full and God will In the meane time that the trueth of this assertion may the better appeare I will adde to those examples and instances brought to this purpose by his Maiestie in his Premonition two others in my iudgment very obserâ—able the one of William surnamed the Conquerour the other of Henrie for his learning surnamed Beauclerke his third sonne and second Successor in the Kingdome both out of the Manuscripts of that noble Antiquarie Sr Robert Cotton knight Barronnet The father thus writes to Gregory the VII commonly knowen by the name of Hildebrand vpon notice giuen him from his Legate Hubert that he was to doe him fealtie and â—o pay him money as his ancestors had done Hubertus Legatus tuus Religiose Pater ad me veniens ex tua parte me admonuit quatenus tibi successoribus tuis fidelitatem facerem de pecunia quam antecessores mei ad Romanam Ecclesiam mittere solebant melius cogitarem vnum admisi alterum non admisi fidelitatem facere nolui nec volo quia nec ego promisi nec antecessores meos antecessoribus tuis id fecisse comperio Hubert your Legate Religious Father comming vnto me aduertised me as from you that I was to doe fealtie to you and your Successors and that I should bethinke my selfe better of the money which my Predecessors were wont to send to the Church of Rome the one I admitted the other I admitted not The fealtie I would not performe neither will I because neither my selfe promised it nor doe I find that my Predecessors performed it to yours Vpon which occasion as it may well be supposed the Pope returned this answer to his Legate Hubert after signification how little he esteemed money without honour giuen him hee comes to the person of the King in these termes Multa sunt vnde Sancta Romana Ecclesia aduersus eum queri potest nemo enim omnium Regum etiam Paganorum contra Apostolicam sedem hoc praesumpsit tentare quod is non erubuit facere There are many things whereof the holy Roman Church may complaine of against him in as much as none of the Pagan kings haue attempted that against the Sea Apostolike which hee hath not blushed to put in execution Now for Henry the sonne who in this regarde swarued not from his fathers steppes part of Pope Paschals letter vnto him runnes thus Paschalis seruus seruorum Dei dilecto filio Henrico illustri Anglorum Regi Salutem Apostolicam benedictionem Cum de manu Domini largiùs honorem diuitias pacemque susceperis mir amur vehementius grauamur quod in Regno potestateque tua beatus Petrus in beato Petro Dominus honorem suum iustitiamque perdiderit Sedis enim Apostolicae nuncij vel literae praeter iussum Regiae Maiestatis nullam in potestate tua susceptioneÌ„ vel aditum promerentur nullus inde clamor nullum inde iudicium ad sedem Apostolicam destinatur Paschal the seruant of the seruants of God to our beloued sonne Henry the most renowned King of England health and Apostolicall benediction Sythence you haue plentifully receiued honour riches and peace from the hand of the Lord We exceedingly woonder and take it in ill part that in your Kingdome and vnder your Gouernment S. Peter and in S. Peter the Lord hath lost his honour and right in as much as the Nuntioes and Breues of the Sea Apostolike are not thought worthy entertainement or admittance in any part of your Dominions without your Maiesties warrant No complaint now no appeale comes from thence to the Sea Apostolike To which the King after termes of complement replies in in this manner Eos honores eam obedientiam quam tempore Patris mei antecessores vestri in Regno Angliae habuerunt tempore meo vt habeatis volo eo videlicet tenore vt dignitates vsus consuetudines quas pater meus tempore antecessorum vestrorum in regno Angliae habuit ego tempore vestro in eodem regno meo integrè obtineam Notumque habeat Sanctitas vestra quod me viuente Deo auxiliante dignitates vsus regni Angliae non minuentur Et si ego quod absit in tanta me deiectione ponerem Optimates mei imo totius Angliae populus id nullo modo pateretur Habita igitur Charissime Pater vtiliori deliberatione ita se erga nos moderetur benignitas vestra ne quod inuitùs faciam à vestra me cogatis recedere obedientia That honour and obedience which your predecessors had in the Kingdome of England during the Reigne of my father my will is you should haue in my time with this condition that my selfe fully and wholly enioy all the Dignities Prerogatiues and Customes which my father enioyed in the sayd Kingdome in the time of your predecessors and I would your Holinesse should vnderstand that during my life the digninities and prerogatiues of the Crowne of England by Gods grace shall not bee minished and if I should so farre abase my selfe which God forbid my Lords and Commons would by no meanes endure it wherfore most deare Father vpon better aduice let your gentlenesse be so tempered toward vs that I bee not enforced which I shall vnwillingly doe to withdraw my selfe from your obedience Whereby it appeares that Henry the first began to hammer and beate vpon that which Henry the last by Gods appointment in the fulnesse of time brought to perfection and though these two Kings the Father and the Sonne gaue way to some part of the Popes iurisdiction as I shewed before Yet hereby it appeares it was a burthen vnto them B. C. 23. Therefore to the Lords and fauorites of the Court was giuen the lands and inheritance of the Abbies and religious houses that hauing once as it were washed their hands in the bowels and bloud of the Church
themselues and their forefathers had bene kept in awe and obedience vnto God and their kings G. H. 24. The Commons might haue beene disburdened of their Subsidies had those reuenues and treasures which came or might haue come to the Crowne by the downefall of monasteries bene imployed as they might haue bene the plates and wires of gold of Beckets onely shrine together with the pearles and precious stones of inestimable value filling two great chests But God so ordered the matter for their laying of sacrilegious hands as it may be thought vpon those tenths which by himselfe were consecrated to himselfe that neither it nor the rest prospered neither was the king thereby much inriched nor the Commons relieued it beeing like the dead flie in the boxe of oyntment or the Colloquintida in the Prophets pottage Now for the peoples liberty in making lawes at their own pleasure to liue as they listed it is a matter fondly surmised and published of you not promised by the State nor demanded or expected by them The Lawes Ecclesiasticall were in King Henries time and by his authority appoynted to be compiled and digested by a certaine company of Bishops and other diuines ioyned in Commission with Ciuill and Canon-Lawyers to the number of 32. but this worke being leâ—t imperfect by the death of that king was afterward finished in the dayes and by the command of his sonne Edward which my selfe haue seene though by the vntimely death of that king also it neuer yet receiued publike allowance And for other lawes as the world knoweth they neither could nor can make any without the consent of the Lords spirituall and temporall and the approbation of the king And lastly how the lawes of your Church crossed their affections let their often and dangerous rebellions for the restoring of them testifie there beeing none in trueth more fitting to the humour of a natural minded man as may appeare by this that a man of no religion and like white paper or sponged tables apt to receiue any impression will sooner imbrace yours then any other in the world From this you digresse to their studying of the Scriptures that they might be able to confute confession satisfaction penance and to declaime against that tyranny of the Church whereby themselues and their forefathers had bene kept in awe and obedience to God and their king For their studying of the Scriptures it is indeede a great eye-sore to you because thereby your malice in withholding your followers from reading them and withall your burdensome traditions thrust vpon them for your owne honor and gaine but to their paine and grieuance are clearely discouered and discerned from that which before you call eternall trueth but to them nothing can bee more profitable or to their guides more comfortable so it bee done with reuerence and â—obriety and as our Preface to the Bishops Bible exhorts not so much to dispute and contradict as to learne and obey as being a practise which both our Sauiour himselfe and his Apostles and the holy Fathers of the Primitiue Church specially S. Chrysostome in diuers homilies often and earnestly exhort their heares vnto And for the confutation of those poyntes you name I am of opinion and I thinke not without reason that many of our people are better able by Scriptures to confute them as they are now held and vsed amongst you then your greatest Bishops and Cardinals are from thence able to proue them of whom some haue not sticked to professe that they thought that time which they passed in reading the Scriptures to be of all other the most vnprofitably spent preferring Tullies Orations before Pauls Epistles and Aristotles Ethikes before Solomons Prouerbes B. C. 25. To the Clergiemen that would turne with the times beside the possibilitie of present preferment by the alteration was giuen shortly after leaue to marrie to purchase and to enioy the profit and pleasure of the world as well as the laitie and what carnall minded Monke or Priest would not with might and maine keepe open the breach after he was once plunged in it rather then to be in danger to forgoe so pleasing a coÌ„moditie Hence did arise a necessitie of speaking and writing against Vowes Vrginitie Pouertie Fasting Praying Watching Obedience and all that austeriâ—ie of life which is by the Lawes of the Church required in a monasticall and Priestly conuersation G. H. 25. Little hope was there giuen for the present to the Church-men that yeelded to the King for matter of preferment since the Abbots and Priors were not onely turned out of doores but their houses rased and their goods and lands confiâ—cated And for the Bishops none of their places thereby fell voide they all Rochester onely excepted ioyntly concurring with the king in casting off the Romish yoke and for their marrying purchasing neither of theÌ„ were permitted during the reigne of king Henry who liued reigned somewhat aboue 14. yeres after the breach with Rome Howbeit if wee may credite Mr. Cambden an vnpartiall Antiquarie Churchmen were not forbidden mariage in England till the yere 1102. then Anselme Archbishop of Canterburie sayeth hee offered violence both to nature and to the Scriptures which he writes vpon occasion of one Ealphegus a Priest famous for his learning who was married and dwelt in the South part of Deuonshire And further he alledgeth the words of Henry of Huntindon touching that act of Anselme He forbadwiues to the English Priests being neuer before forbidden which to some seemed a thing very decent to others as dangerous least whiles they aimed to a puritie aboue their reach they might fall into horrible impurities to the dishonour of CHRISTS Name and their profession Those words of Cambden before quoted together with these of Huntindon by him alledged are commaunded to be rased by the Spanish Index But they might aswell haue rased those of theâ—I â—I in Platina auouching that hee saw great reason why Priests should be restrained of mariage but greater why it should be restored them or those of Cassander by that ouer rigorous and vnseasonable constitution speaking of restraint of marriage in Churchmen wee see much grieuous and abominable scandall to haue arisen in the Church or those of Mantuan touching S â— Hillary Bishop of Poictiers in France Non tibi progenies nocuit non obfuit vxor Legitimo coniuncta toro Or lastly those of the same Poet speaking of the father of Nazianzen Praesule Patre satus nam tunc idiura sinebant non horruit illâ Tempestate Deus Thalamos cunabula toedas And in another place of the father of Basil and Gregorie Nyssen Tutius esse volunt qua lex diuina sinebat Isse viâ veterumque sequi vestigia patrum Quorum vita fuit melior cum coniuge quam nunc Nostra sit exclusis Thalamis coniâ—gis vsu. And if marrying be allowed them I see no reason but they should withall be allowed purchasing as they are and alwayes haue
beene in the Easterne Church hee being worse then an Infidell that prouideth not for those of his owne houshold To conclude wee neither speake nor write against lawfull Vowes but the rashnesse of them and impossibilitie in performing them Not against true Virginity but the fained shew of it and the preferring it by so many degrees before the honourable estate of mariage Not against necessary Pouertie but the voluntarie choise of it when more good may be done by possessing and vsing those meanes God hath sent vs Not against Fasting but the pharesaicall vse of it and making it part of diuine worship Not against Praying but the performance of it in a strange tongue rather for custome then for conscience rather by number then by weight in drawing neere vnto God with our lippes when our hearts are farre from him Not against Watching but the pretended apish imitation and merit in it Not against Obedience but the abuse of it in the enterprising of damnable and desperate attempts Lastly not against austeritie of life but inciuilitie and that shew of wisedome which S. Paul censureth in the second to the Col. Consisting in voluntary Religion and humblenesse of minde and not sparing the bodie You doe well to adde that all these are required in a Monasticall conuersation but how they were or are performed God knowes and the world not vndeseruedly suspects B. C. 26. Vpon these conditions the Lords the Commons and the Clergie were content to beleeue that the King was Supreme head of the Church of England Not that they did thinke so indeed or that they desired to augment his authoritie but that they might bee protected by him freely enioy those commodities which they thought schisme had brought vnto them and feared the vnity of the Church might againe take from them Hence did arise a necessitie of inueighing against the Pope and the Church of Rome as against Antichrist and Babylon and the greatest enemies of the State of England Insomuch that that Clergie man was most acceptable to them and in their opinion most worthy of preferments that could most confidently preach and write the most foule and monstrous assertions of the Pope and the Church of Rome though they were neuer so false These and such like are those temporall respects which would faine seeme the daughters of those doctrines which themselues haue brought foorth and to be diuided from the Catholike Church by doctrine when they themselues haue caused the doctrine of diuision G. H. 26. Vpon these conditions you say that the Lords and Commons and Clergie were content to beleeue that the King was supreame head of the Church of England whereas your selfe before confesse that these conditions were afterward graunted to the Clergie who notwithstanding were the forwardest in perswading the King to accept and assume that title as may appeare by the booke set out by the whole Conuocation of England intituled The Institution of a Christian man besides the Treatises of diuers particular Bishops to the same purpose as namely Stephen Gardiners discourse of true obedience together with Bonners Preface annexed to it Longelands Sermon and Tunstals Letter to Cardinall Poole all which are extant to be reade and seene at this day and surely he that shall obserue their vehement protestations specially of Gardiner whom I hold the most sufficient among them for learning and withall the soundnesse and weight of the reasons which they enforce against the Popes pretended iurisdiction will easily beleeue that they thought in very deede as they wrote that their minds and their pennes concurred in one But from hence you say arose a necessitie of enuying against the Pope and the Church of Rome as against Antichrist and Babylon as if his Holinesse had neuer beene graced with the title of Antichrist before Henry assumed his title of supreame head nor Rome called Babylon before England was freed from that Babylonish captiuity Whereas your famous Cardinall hath none other proofe from Scripture that S. Peter was euer at Rome but by expounding Rome to be the Babylon from whence he dated his first Epistle And when the seuerall markes of Antichrist shall be applied to any so properly as to the Bishop of Rome I will confesse he is iniuriously so styled in the meane time I can hardly imagine any so foule and monstrous assertions which some of your Popes haue not deserued euen by the confession of your owne Writers it being enough to make a modest man blush in reading and relating that which they blushed not to act nay boasted of being acted in so much as I doubt not but I may confidently affirme that neither the Catalogue of Emperours taking in the Heathenish among the Christians nor any one succession of Kings in the world since the first creation of it to this present age euer afforded so many monsters of men so many incarnate deuils so expert in all kind of villanies as that of your Popes neither can any one King or Emperour be named whom some of your Popes haue not out-stripped And what needed then any imitation of your side in faining false assertions where true were so plentifull B. C. 27. In all these and all other doctrine of diuision men haue receiued great countenance and encouragement from Geneua For although M. Iohn Caluin were neuer any good subiect or friend to Bishop Duke or King yet hee did so fit the common people with new doctrine that no Gospel can be so pleasing to them nor so light some as his for finding Geneua to be fallen out both with their Bishop who was their ancient Prince and their Duke to whom they pretended against their Bishop and to bee all in a combustion amongst themselues for want of gouernment although he were then a stranger and a very young man of some sixe and twenty or seuen and twenty yeeres olde at the most yet he thought good vpon the opportunity to giue the venture and to step in himselfe to be founder of a new Church and state amongst them And for that purpose hee found them such a Catechisme as they might easily contemne all ancient learning and authority and saue themselues by a strong fancie which hee called faith And this pleased the Bourgers of Geneua so well that they called a meeting and caused all the Citizens to sweare that that Catechisme was true and all Popery false as may appeare in Caluins life written by Beza and prefixed to his Epistles And although the ministeriall Presbitery of Geneua haue lost much of M. Caluins greatnesse yet the Citie hath had the fortune euer since by the helpe of their neighbours to hold out against their Bishop and the Duke and all their ancient gouernours G. H. 27. You passe on in this Section and the next to passe your censure vpon Geneua and Caluin in as much as from them wee haue receiued great countenance and encouragement whereas neither Geneua nor Caluin were
to the Laitie The Title of the former was Dilectis filijs Archipresbytero reliquo Clero Anglicano and the other Dilectis filijs principibus nobilibus Catholicis Anglicanis salutem Apostolicam Benedictionem The summe of both thus To our Beloued sonnes the Archpriest and the Clergie the Peeres and nobles Catholikes of England greeting and Apostolicall benediction The tenor was That after the death of her Maiestie then liuing whether by course of nature or otherwise whosoeuer should lay Claime or Title to the Crowne of England though neuer so directly and neerely interessed by discent should not be admitted to the throne vnlesse hee would first tolerate the Romish religion and by all his best endeuours promote the Catholike cause vnto which by a solemne and sacred Oath hee should religiously subscribe after the death of that miserable woman for so it pleased his Holinesse to terme Elizabeth that most great and happie Queene By vertue of which Bulles if vertue may be in any such vicious libels the Iesuites disswaded the Romish minded Subiects from yeelding in any wise obedience vnto our most gracious Soueraigne now being But this not working to their wished effect and hee now solemnely proclaimed with an vniuersall applause loue and peace their hopes beganne to wither and growe colde and no succours from Spaine being now to bee expected Garnet the Superiour for the auoyding farther dangers sacrificed these starued Buls to the God of fire Moreouer in the yeere 1588. when his Holinesse blessed that inuincible Spanish Nauie was it to settle the Crowne vpon his Maiestie after Queene Elizabeth should be deposed Surely his Maiestie both rightly conceiued and freely expressed the contrary to Sir Robert Sidney at that time sent into Scotland from Queene Elizabeth affirming that hee expected none other good turne at the Spaniards hands but that which Polyphemus promised to Vlisses that others being first deuoured himselfe should haue the fauour to bee swallowed last And did not the greatest part of Pius his Bull aiming principally at her through her sides also strike his Maiestie And did not one Robert Parsons who sate at the helme in Rome write a certaine Booke of Titles intituled Doleman wherein he excludes his Maiestie and prefers the Infant a of Spaines right before all other pretenders to the Crowne but when hee once saw his Maiestie setled beyond all hope and expectation he made as you doe and the rest at that time did a vertue of necessitie acknowledging his vndoubted and lawfull Claime in his Preface to his Triple conuersion whereof for mine owne part I can giue none other reason then that which you adde to another purpose the case is altered Whiles his Maiestie was onely in hope you shewed your selues in your owne colours being now quiet in possession you plucke in your hornes yeelde to the times and are content to bee carried with the streame And though the personall case bee altered in regard of his Maiestie and Henry the VIII yet if his Maiesty either needed the like dispensations or had the like will to pull down Churches I make no question but his Holinesse would without any great difficulty giue way to both conditionally that his pretended but vsurped authority might be restored But as he is a publique person and represents the body of the State the case is no way different which is the freeing of it from forraine and vniust vsurpation And for Queene Elizabeth I will be bold to say it that at her comming to the Crowne she was not so farre ingaged for the defence of that religion which she constantly maintained to her dying day as his Maiesty hath by manifold obligations bound himselfe to the maintenance and continuance of that which she at her death left and hee at his entrance found established amongst vs. For testimonies wee neede goe no farther then his frequent and solemne protestations aswell by his penne as by word of mouth and that not onely before but since his comming to the Crowne to which if we adde the carefull education of his Sonne the most noble and hopefull Prince euen in that respect the bestowing of his onely daughter that most sweet and vertuous Lady vpon the Prince Palatine not onely a Protestant but as you terme them a Caluinist the honourable entertainement of Isaac Casaubon and Peter Moulin the liberty giuen to the French Dutch for the free and publike exercise of their religion in diuers parts of his Maiesties Dominions and lastly his constant refusall of so much as the Toleration of any other religion notwithstanding the importunitie of suits and supplications for it the matter as I suppose will be cleane out of doubt And as Queene Elizabeth was prouoked by Pius V. so was his Maiesty by Paulus V. in a degree very little different the one absoluing her subiects from their oath of Allegeance and the other forbidding his to take such an oath So that though the Parenthesis in regard of personall succession bee ended yet in respect of profession which of the two is the more to bee regarded the sentence as yet runnes on and as we hope will haue no period but with the worlds end But the more to exasperate his Maiesty against King Henry the VIII and his daughter Queene Elizabeth you tell him that if the Schisme could haue preuented his title neither his Mother nor himselfe should euer haue made Queene Elizabeth afraid with their right to the Crowne of England For the iustnesse of the diuorce I haue already deliuered mine opinion at large and yet if any desire farther satisfaction let him reade the first dialogue of Antisanderus who both strongly maintaines the equity of the Kings proceedings in that businesse and clearely confutes the slanders of that base fugitiue and for his wiues had the way bene fairely made vnto them no iust exception could be taken to the number Philip the II. of Spaine besides his Mistresses had successiuely foure wiues whereof the first was his fathers Cousin germane and the last his owne For the compassing of which what strange courses he tooke I list not to relate but referre the reader to the Prince of Aurange his Apologie yet none that I know hath taxed him for his multitude of wiues in as much as he liued and died a Romane Catholike Did not Henry the last of France diuorce his first wife after they had bene almost as long married and vpon lesse shew of iust reason then Henry the VIII but the one made semblance at last of subiecting himselfe to the See Apostolike which the other by no meanes could bee brought vnto as he did at first this alone beeing it that varied the case and that which he did herein may well be interpreted to haue sprong from a desire of setling the Crowne in his owne posterity rather then of preiudicing the title of Scotland For though during his reigne some discontentments there were between the two nations yet not long before his death
haue stirred mee either to robbe the Pope of any thing due vnto him or to assume vnto my selfe any farther authority then that which other Christian Emperours and kings through the world and my owne Predecessours of England in especiall haue long agone maintained Neither is it enough to say aâ— Parsons doth in his answere to the Lord Cooke that farre more kings of this Countrey haue giuen many more examples of acknowledging or not resisting the Popes vsurped authority some perchance lacking the occasion and some the ability of resisting them for euen by the ciuill Law in the case of a violent intrusion and long wrongfull possession against me it is enough if I proue that I haue made lawful interruption vpon conuenient occasions Hitherto his Maiesty And I cannot but wonder what Mr. Doctour meant if he had read it not to take any notice of it or if he reade it not how he durst presume thus to write to his Maiesty without so much as the reading of his writings From whence we may gather that what Henry the VIII acted in that regard was but a manifestation of the intents and desires of his predecessors which they durst not fully expresse and what they enacted a preparatiue to the roundnesse of his proceedings Besides I see not but if his Maiesties predecessors granted that to his Holinesse which was indiuidually annexed to the Crowne as being a speciall branch of their prerogatiue Royall his Maiestie stands none otherwise bound to maintaine that graunt then they held themselues obliged to make that good which King Iohn had yeelded vnto him and if they did part with their authoritie as your selfe speake then was it their owne before they parted with it and not the Bishops of Rome as your Romane Catholikes would haue it by Diuine right and consequently beeing their owne as they vpon occasion best knowen to themselues conferred it so vpon a contrary occasion I see no reason but either themselues or their successours might as lawfully resume it But the trueth is that it was not giuen by them but stollen by the Bishop of Rome and by him held vnder colour of prescription yet your selfe by discourse of reasâ—n and force of trueth are driuen to confesse that our bodies and goods are at his Maiesties command either forgetting 〈◊〉 whom you wrote or not remembring or it may bee so much as knowing what the Church of Rome whose defence you vndertake defends touching the exemption aswell of the bodies as the goods of Churchmen from the iurisdiction of the secular though Supreame power and how his Maiestie in diuers parts of his writings hath most sufficiently prooued the nouelty of this doctrine so that what you write herein can bee imputed to none other but to grosse flattery or palpable ignorance flattery of his Maiestie in that which he truely holds or ignorance of that which is falsely held by the Church of Rome but like a shrewd Cow that hath yeelded a good meale oâ— milke and then ouerthrowes it with a spurne of her foote so hauing subiected our bodies and goods to his Maiesties commaund you exempt our soules from his charge but by way of protection in Catholike Religion as if you meant purposely to crosse that of the Apostle Let euery soule be subiect to the higher powers But I would â—aine dâ—maund if his Maiestie should not protect vs in that Religion which you call Catholike whether our bodies and goods shall then bee at his commaund Surely if his Holinesse whom you cannot but vnderstand by those that supplie Christs place in ijs quaesunt iuris diuini and to whom you would haue vs subordinate haue the command of our soules and his Maiestie onely of our bodies the later may command what hee list but men will execute his commands no farther then the former will be pleased to giue leaue whereof we haue had often and fresh experience aswel in the Bulls of Pius Quintus and in the Breuâ—s of Paulus Quintus and in trueth â— cannot but commend his wit though not his honestie that hee intitleth himselfe vnto and interesteth himselfe in the more actiue and noble part the bodie without the soule being as the shales without the kernell or the scabberd without the sword Those Kings that out of their Regall authoritie purged the Church of corruptions and reformed the abuses thereof brought the Arke to her resting place dedicated the Temple and consecrated it with prayers proclaimed fastes caused the booke of the Lawe new found to bee read to the people renewed he Couenant betweene God and his people bruised the brasen Serpent in pieces which was set vp by the expresse commandement of God and was a figure of Christ destroyed all Idols and false Gods make a publique reformaâ—ion by a Commission of Secular men and Priests mixed for that purpose deposed the high Priest and set vp another in his place they that lawfully called Generall Councils for the suppressing of heresies as Constantine did the Nicene Theodosius the elder the first at Constantinople Theodosius the yonger the Ephesin Valentinian Martian the Chalcedonian they that made Lawes for the ordering of Church-men and Church-matters as Iustinian and Charlemaine cannot in the iuâ—gement of any indifferent man be said to haue no charge of the soules of such aâ— are committed to their charge but onely by way of protection Neither doeth it follow that his Maiestie in taking the charge of soules vpon him according to the qualitie of his office and Gods appointment whose officer hee is should therfore be himself a Priest or be the author of his owne Religion as you would maliciously inferre from the custom of the heathen Emperors no more then the Kings of Israel or the Emperors of the Christian Primitiue Church were Priests or authors of that religion which by diuine ordinance they tooke care of aswell in the Priest as in the people aswell in confirming and countenancing what was in order as in censuring and restoring what was amisse neither was it in the time of the law of nature held vnlawfull that both the Regall and the Ecclesiasticall the princely and the priestly power should reside together in one person during which Law wee haue not many examples of Kings that gouerned a people where the Church of God was planted there is onely mention to my remembrance of Melchisedecke King of Salem and of him it is sayd withall that hee was a Priest of the most High God so that in his person these two offices the principalitie and the Priesthood were ioyned both which followed the prerogatiue of the birth-right and to this double dignity was answerable a double portion the like do we reade of Anias that he was Rex idem hominuÌ„ Poebique Sacerdos and it was the speach of Diogenes the Pythagorean that to make a compleat King hee had need bee a Captaine a Iudge and a Priest of which two
themselues might haue liued and died in the seruice of God without posteritie and haue helped to maintaine the rest of their families which was so great a benefit to the Common-wealth both for the exoneration and prouision thereof as no humane policie can procure the like The Farmer and Husbandman who laboureth to discharge his payments hath little or nothing left at theyeres end to lay vp for his children that increase grow vpon him may remember that in Catholike times there were better penny-worths to bee had when the Clergie had a great part of the Land in their hands who had no neede to raise the Rents themselues and did what they could to make other Lords let at a reasonable rate which was also an inestimable benefite to the Commons so that whereas ignorant men carried with enuie against the Clergie are wont to obiect the multitude of them and the greatnesse of their prouisions they speake therein as much against themselues as is possible for the greater the number is of such men as be mundo mortui the more is the exoneration of the Commons and the more the land is of such as can haue no proprietie in them the better is the prouision of the Commons for themselues can haue no more then their food and their regular apparell all the rest either remaines in the hands of the Tenants or returnes in hospitalitie and reliefe to their neighbours or is kept in a liuing Exchequer for the seruice of the Prince and Countrey in time of necessitie so that the Commons doe gaine no wealth at all but rather doe lose much by the Schisme G. H. 41. You proceede and assure the Commons that our separation from Rome makes much against their wealth and libertie for proofe whereof you beginne with the Puritan vnthrift who lookes for the ouerthrow of Bishops and Churches Cathedrall hoping to haue his share in them Now I denie not but some such vnthrifts there may bee shrouding themselues vnder the vizard of those whome you call Puritans but their power is not so great God bee thanked as wee neede feare them nor I hope shall bee whiles his Maiestie and his posterity sway the Scepter who is so farre from pulling them downe or giuing any way vnto it that hee hath not onely to his immortall fame bound his hands from withdrawing any thing from them but restored them in Scotland and both often and openly professed No Bishop no King and as for them which looke for that ouerthrow let their eyes drop out of their sockets with looking and the yong rauens deuoure them I haue heard of a platforme of our Church gouernment deuised by Parsons if the Pope should once againe recouer his footing amongst vs in which one especiall piece of his proiect is the pulling downe of the Bishopricks Churches Cathedrall that his Holinesse and the Padres may bee all in all so that the Iesuites may most properly bee termed those Puritan vnthrifts And I make no doubt but if his Holinesse could dispence with those who withhold the Tenths of the Church he might as well dispence with the pulling downe of Bishoprickes and Cathedrall Churches Now for those honest Protestants who for matter of religion could be content it were as it was conditionally themselues might receiue more benefit their heads may bee in England but sure their hearts are in Rome deceiuing themselues aswell in vndervalewing the benefit they haue as in expecting that they haue not nor are euer like to haue the faire pretexts and promises made them from Rome being like the Apothecaries boxes haâ—â—ng Catholicon set on their front in capitall letters as if they conteined a soueraigne medicine for all diseases but within are full of deadly poison or like the apples of Sodome which are to looke to beautifull buâ— being touched onely with the finger presently are turned into dust The first apple you present the Commons if they yeeld to the reentertaining of Popish religion is increase of wealth But before we goe any farther in the triall of this point I shall desire all ingenuous Papists rightly to informe both themselues and others what the two Monkes Matthew Paris and Matthew of Westminster haue left vpon record touching the Bishop of Romes most intolerable exactions in this kingdome whiles his authority here preuailed and then to iudge indifferently whether by submitting our neckes to that yoke which our fathers were not able to beare it be likely the wealth of our land should be increased That which one of the Popes pronounced touching our Countrey was doubtlesse the opinion of them all I speake of latter times Verè hortus noster deliciarum est Anglia verè puteus inexhaustus est vbi multa abundant de multis multa possunt extorqueri England is our Paradise of pleasure a well neuer to bee drawne drie and where much abounds much may be taken It was the speach of Innocent the IV. reported by Maâ—thew Paris anno 1245. about which time S. Edmond Archbishop of Canterbury vndertooke a voyage to Rome to complaine of the great vexations and extortions offered the Clergie and people by Caâ—dinall Otho his Legate who hiding himselfe in the tower of Ousnie Abbey for feare of a tumult of the Schollers of Oxford they termed him Vsurer Simonist rent-racker money-thirster peruerter of the King subuerter of the kingdome enriching strangers with the spoiles of the English but Edmund returning home without successe in his complaint and weary of his life in England by reason that hee could not redresse the Popes oppressions made choise of a voluntary banishment at Pountney in France where hee died with the honour and opinion of a Saint Not long after his Holinesse desirous to see England caused his Cardinals to write their letters to the King that it would be a thing tending much to his honour and safety and to his kingdomes immortall glory to enioy the Lord Popes presence who did long to view the rarities of Westminster and the riches of London but the Kings Counsell told him plainely that the Romane rapines and simonies had enough stained the English puritie though the Pope himselfe came not personally to spoile and prey vpon the wealth of this Church and kingdome the like deniall of entrance hee had found both in France and Arragon it being said that the Pope was like a mouse in a sachell or a snake in ones bosome who but ill repay their hosts for their lodging and the infamies of his Court deserued none other whose filth saith our Monke sent foorth a steame and stench as high as the very cloudes These and worse were the effects of the Bishop of Romes vsurpation here in England by imposing continuall taxes and tallages being sometimes the tenth sometimes the fifteenth sometimes the third sometimes the moity of all the goods both of the Clergie and Laity vnder colour of maintaining the Popes holy warres against the Emperour and the Greeke Church who were then
AN ANSWER TO A TREATISE WRITTEN BY Dr. CARIER By way of Letter to his MAIESTIE WHEREIN HE LAYETH DOWNE SVNDRY POLITIKE CONSIDERATIONS By which hee pretendeth himselfe was moued And endeuoureth to moue others to be reconciled to the Church of ROME and imbrace that Religion which he calleth CATHOLIKE By GEORGE HAKEWIL Doctour of Diuinity And Chapleine to the PRINCE his Highnesse B. C. Mine heart will vtter foorth a good matter I will intreat in my workes of the King G. H. Giue thy iudgements to the King O God and thy righteousnesse to the Kings sonne IMPRINTED AT LONDON by IOHN BILL 1616. Cum Priuilegio TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAIESTIE DREAD SOVERAIGNE HAD this Letter of Dr. Carier beene imparted or the drift of it onely reached to your Maiestie it would haue deserued none other answere then your Maiesties priuate censure and might well haue beene buried in silence with the Author of it But now that it not only aymes in particular at all the members of the bodie Politike First the Nobles then the Commons and lastly the Clergie but withall is published to the view of the World and spread through all the quarters of your Land for the better effecting of that it aymes vnto and is not a little magnified by the Romish faction It must needs argue in vs either want of wisedome in preuenting a mischiefe or of power in prouiding for our owne safetie or of zeale and sinceritie in our loue to the Trueth if it should passe without some discouery aswell of the malicious scope to which it tends as the weakenesse of the arguments by which it endeuours to perswade The maine end which it driues at is either a totall reconcilement to the Church of Rome or if that cannot be a partiall toleration of the Romish Religion The generall meanes by which it striues to compasse this end are first by working a destraction euen amongst those your Subiects who euery way conforme themselues aswell to the doctrine as the discipline of the Church of England established by publike allowance in making some Puritanes and some Protestants who in his language can endure the state of the Church of England as it is but could be content it were as it was implying thereby the rest to be Puritanes some Caluinists and some temperate men who cannot but in iudgment approue the trueth of that Religion which he calles Catholike thereby implying the rest to bee Caluinists the one he termes the greatest enemies of the Clergie the other his honest and louing brethren wherof he professeth he knew many and himselfe to be one whereas in trueth if any such there be the difference should rather haue beene made betwixt Protestants and Papists English and Romish Catholikes since they who could be content the Church of England were as it was before the Reformation can in my iudgement bee none other then Papists and those that in their iudgement approue the doctrine of the pretended Catholike Religion can as farre as I apprehend it been none other then Romish Catholikes Thus those whom we call Papists he calles Temperate Protestants and those whom we call Protestants he calles State Puritanes The second generall meanes for the compassing of his desired end is an indeuour to worke an vtter seperation betwixt our Church and other reformed Churches specially those of France and the Netherlands whom therefore in contempt hee calls Hugonots and Geux and their doctrine Caluinisme intending thereby as I conceiue either to weaken our strength by leauing vs to stand single or which is worse to inforce vs at length to relapse vpon Rome And to this purpose is hee bold to affirme that their doctrine makes as much against the Religion of England as that of Rome whereas the writings of the most learned men aswell on their as on our side our harmonies of Confessions the testimonie of our aduersaries nay the Pope himselfe in his Bull against Queene ELIZABETH your Maiesties Bookes and practise in the matching of that Noble Ladie your daughter and in permitting those Churches the free exercise of their Religion within your dominions so plainely euince the contrarie that I wonder hauing let fall so foule a blot from his pen he durst present it to your Maiesties view and yet I neede not wonder considering hee was not ashamed to tell your Maiesty that for any thing you haue written in your Apologie or Premonition you may when you please admitte the Popes Supremacie in spirituals which must needes argue either that he was meerely ignorant what your Maiesty had written or cared not at all what himselfe wrote regarding rather the euennesse of his Stile and the cadencie of his sentences then the trueth of his assertions like false windowes bearing proportion with the rest of the building but without light By the trueth of these assertions your Maiestie may make an estimate of the whole piece in which if I can iudge any thing I haue not met within the narrow compasse of so short a treatise so formally pend and carrying so faire an outside so many weake arguments so many grosse mistakes so many notorious falshoods so many irreconciliable contradictions so many sandie and disioynted consequences howsoeuer were his proofes neuer so strong so sure so true so consonant so coherent yet was hee a man most vnfit to intermeddle in a businesse of vnion and pacification who was so farre ingaged to one partie as by his owne acknowledgement hee was perswaded that all the Religion at this day prescribed and practised by the Church of Rome is the true Catholike Religion and promiseth particularly to iustifie it from point to point when time and opportunitie should serue and your Maiestie together with vs of the same profession he rangeth among Iewes and Infidels and heretiques for refusing to ioine with them in the worship of Christ in the Sacrament But God blessed not his vaine proiect Mr. Henrie Constable dying within fortnight after he came from Paris by Cardinall Perrons appointment to Leidge to conferre with him and himselfe a while after in Paris within a moneth of his comming thither to conferre with the Cardinall yet as the Apostle speakes of Abel being dead he yet speaketh though in a different manner and the speach of dead men commonly prooues more effectuall more profitable or more dangerous then that of the liuing For your Maiesty there is God be thanked no feare at all the obligations by which you haue tied your selfe to the Religion established amongst vs being so many and so strong and withall his motiues for inducement to the contrary so weake dealing with your Maiesty as the deuill did with our Sauiour who being beaten from Scripture fell to the promising of the glory of kingdomes which notwithstanding was not in his power to performe onely for their sakes some Replie seemed not vnnecessary of whom it may truely be sayd which hee falsly affirmes of your Maiesty that they imbrace shadowes
bee to this point more fully and cleerely spoken B. C. 13. And for the blessed SacrameÌ„t they do not worship the Accidents which they see but the Substance which they beleeue and surely if Christ be there truely really present as your Maiestie seemeth to graunt hee is hee is as much to bee worshipped as if wee saw him with our bodily eyes neither is there any more Idolatry in the one then in the other If our blessed Sauiour himselfe should visibly appeare in person as hee was vpon the earth Iewes and Infidels would hold it for Idolatry to worship him and would crucifie him againe and so would all heretikes also who refuse to worship him in the Sacrament where hee is really present G. H. 13. You tell vs that the people doe not worship the accidents which they see but the substance which they see not but the question is whether they rightly beleeue the substance of Christs body to lie hidden and as it were buried vnder those Accidents which I am sure Saint Augustine on whom you so much relie is so farre from defending or else the adoration of Images before mentioned that in diuerse places hee maintaineth the cleare contrarie to both And to grant that after the words of Consecration pronounced the bodie of Christ is there folded or kneaded vp in a bodily maner yet whether the Priest that pronounceth them be rightly Ordered and if hee be whether hee pronounce them with the intent that the Church intends they may iustly make a doubt and consequently a question whether their worship bee idolatrous or no for in such cases by confession of all in stead of Christs bodie they worship the bread for our parts wee constantly beleeue him to be in heauen and not in the bread whereas we make a iust doubt whether a great part of them who beleeue him to be in the bread doe with like constancie beleeue that hee is in heauen You further adde that if he be truely and really present as his MAIESTIE seemeth to graunt he is as much to be worshipped as if wee saw him with our bodily eyes But indeed it is not the seeing of him with our bodily eyes that makes the matter or giues occasion of worshipping for then a blind man could not worship him at all nor a seeing man in the darke but the beleeuing of him to be present in a bodily manner Wee beleeue him then with his MAIESTIE it being Caluins opinion expressed in the very selfe same termes to be truely and really present but in a manner Sacramentall not bodily and consequently not to bee worshipped there as being not wrapped vp vnder the accidents of bread but triumphing in heauen And here by your leaue how submissiuely soeuer you would seeme in other places to carrie your selfe towards his Maiestie you make bold to put the title of Heretike vpon him and to ranke him among no better then â—ewes and Infidels But our iust defence is that after the way which you call Heresie we giue more true and lawfull honour to our blessed Sauiour then you casting all that religious worship which you giue to the blessed Virgin to Angels to Saints to the bread in the Eucharist to Images to Reliques to the Crosse and all that opinion of Merit of Supererogation and Satisfaction which you ascribe either to your selues or others wholy and solely vpon him either as God or as Man or as Mediatour betwixt God and Man onely wee denie to giue that honour to his Image or the bread in the Eucharist which is as essentially due to him as to them vndue B. C. 14. After diuers other obiections not so much because I was not as be cause I desired not to be satisfied I came to the Popes supposed pride and tyrannie ouer Kings and Princes and tolde them of the most horrible Treason intended and practised by Catholikes against your MAIESTIE which hath not yet beene iudicially condemned by the Church of Rome They all seemed to abhorre the fact as much as the best Subiests in the world and much more to fauour and defend the authoritie of Kings and Princes then Heretikes doe And they sayed that although your Maiestie were out of the Church yet they doubted not but if complaint were made in a iudiciall proceeding that fact should be iudicially condemned In the meane time it was sufficient that all Catholike writers did coÌ„demne it and that the Pope by his Breue had condemned it exhorting the Catholikes of England to all Christian patience and obedience and as for any other authoritie or superioritie of the Pope then such as is spiritual and necessary for the vnity of the Church I haue met with none that doe stand vpon it G. H. 14. You well say they seemed to abhorre the fact it being of the nature of those whereof Tacitus speakes Quae nunquam laudantur nisiperacta which are neuer commended till they are ended had it taken effect according to their designes for the setting vp of their Religion among vs it had vndoubtedly bin recorded a most happie and fortunate successe which now by abortion onely and miscariage is stiled an horrible Treason And if they defend the authoritie of Kings and Princes much more then they whom they call Heretikes I would faine know how it comes to passe that more of those Princes wâ—om you call Catholikes permit within their Dominions the publike exercise of Religion to those Heretikes then the contrarie Surely in my iudgement it is an euident argument that Christian Staâ—es conceiue reason to bee more iealous of the one then of the other neither is the reason farre to be sought â—ince the one acknowledgeth no Supreme forreine power which the other doth but the Pope you say condemned the Powder-plot by his Breue I much desire to see that Breue of the Popes which condemnes it I suppose it is most like to be found on the backside of Constantins donation as an Ambassador of Venice told the Pope touching his right to the Adriatique Sea or we may say of it Breuis esse laboro obscurusfio hee is so briefe and obscure in it as we can find no such matter Two Breues of Clements I remember I haue heard of for the withstanding of his Maiesties entrance to the Crowne and two others of Paulus V. against the taking of the oath of allegiance which I marueile M. Doctour neuer vouchsafed so much as once to remember through his Letter but any against the Powder-plot I cannot call to minde I haue seene or so much as heard of Lastly wheras you beare vs in hand that the Popes fauourites stand vpon none other authoritie for their Master then such as is spirituall and necessary for the vnity of the Church I guesse their meaning to be Bellarmines indirect power in temporals or temporall power in ordine as spiritualia in relation to spirituall dueties which is in trueth vpon the matter as much as can be demanded by them
preiudice of any honest man in England to see some vnity betwixt the Church of England and her mother the Church of Rome And now hauing declared the meanes of my couersion to Catholike religion I will briefly also shew vnto you the hopes I haue to doe your Maiesty no ill seruice therein G. H. 21. It is true indeed that those Statutes which you alledge are not seuerall in themselues but members of the same And it appeares well though you had not professed it that at the writing hereof you had not your bookes about you you affirme things vncertaine so confidently and things certaine so falsly But you are sure you say they make such fellonies and treasons as were the greatest vertues of the Primitiue Church whereas wee are more sure that the greatest vertues and fattest sacrifices and shortest cut to heauen as they are now esteemed in the Church of Rome were in the Primitiâ—e Church held none other but murders and parricides and felonies and treasons Thou doest promise saith Augustine to Patilian that thou wilt reckon many of the Emperours and iudges which by persecuting you perished and concealing the Emperours thou mâ—anest two iudges or deputies why didst thou not name the Emperors of thy Communion wert thou afraid to bee accused as guilâ—y of treason where is your courage which feare not to kill your selues To say the Emperours perished for persecuting was treason in his time in our age you thinke it much that reproching of Princes as tyrants and heretiques and aiding the Pope with your perswasions absolutions and rebellions to take their Crownes from them should be punished or adiudged treason how beit a certaine trueth it is that there is no conspiracie so pernitious and dangerous to the state as that which is whispered into mens eares and conueyed into their hearts vpon a sense of deuotion and outwardly couered with a shew of religion notwithstanding as true it is that in England none are put to death for Caâ—holâ—ke religion no nor for the Romish which you call Catholike as hath beene at large iustified in a booke written by a Peere of the Realme intiâ—uled the defence of the iustice of England and is verified by his Maiesty in his Apologie for the Oath of Allegiance in the very entrance of his answere to the Popes first Breue where he not onely cleareth himselfe at large from this imputation but the late Queene that blessed defunct Lady as he there calleth her in whose proceedings saith he who list to compare with an indifferent eye the manifold intended iâ—uasions against her whole kingdome the forreine practises the internall publike rebellions the priuate plots and machinations poysonings murthers and all sorts of deuises dayly set abroach and all these wares continually fostered and fomented from Rome together with the continuall corrupting of her Subiects aswell by temporall bribes as by faire and spaciâ—us promises of eternall felicitie and nothing but booke vpon booke publikely set foorth by her fugitiues for approbation of so holy dâ—signes who list I say with an indifferent eye to looke on the one part vpon these infinite and intollerable temptations and on the other part vpon the iust yet moderate punishmeÌ„t of a part of these hainous offenders shal easily see that that blessed defunct Lady was as free from persecution as thâ—y shall free these hellish instruments from the honour of Martyrdome And againâ— his Maiestie maintaineth the same in his Premonition to Christian Princes not farre from the conclusion As for the cause of their punishment sayth he speaking of Romish Catholikes I doe constantly maintaine that which I haue sayd in my Apologie that no man either in my time or the late Queenes euer dyed here for his Conscience for let him be neuer so deuout a Papist nay though he professe the same neuer so constantly his life is in no danger by the Law if he breake not out into some outward act expressely against the words of the Law or plot some vnlawfull or dangerous practise or attempt Priests and Popish Churchmen onely excepted that receiue orders beyond the Seas who for the manifold treasonable practises that they haue kindled and plotted in this countrey are discharged to come home againe vnder paine of Treason after their receauing of the sayd orders abroad and yet without some other guilt in them then their bare home comming haue none of them beene euer put to death Hitherto his Maiestie Whereas on the otherside wee iustly complaine that they execute our professours though strangers for Religion and only for Religion and in that most bloodie and barbarous manner specially where the Inquisition is in force that whore of Babylon being drunke and yet not filled with the blood of the Saints And whereas you impute crâ—elty to our Lawes what tragicall cruelties were exercisâ—d in Queene Maries dayes euen vpon women and children nay which is most odious and vnnaturall vpon women great with childe I pray God as well forget as some yet aliue well remember Now as you holde and handle our Martyrs worse then Traytors So your most notorious Traâ—tors must stand registred in the Calender of Martyrs Not many dayes before Garnet suffered there came to visite him at his lodging in the Tower certaine choise Diuines amongst whome the chiefe were My Lordes the Bishops of Bath and Wells of Lincolne and Leichfield as now they are among other questions one of them proposed this Whether if the Church of Rome afâ—er his execution should declare him a Martyr hee did approoue thereof hee deepely sighing and shrinking vp his shoulders made this answere Me a Martyr O what a Martyr but the Church will nâ—uer doe it and I pray God it be neuer so much as thought vpon Indeed if I had dyed for the Catholike Religion and vnhappie man had beene acquainted with nothing else but that which was reuealed mee in Confession I might perhaps seeme not vnworthy the honor of Martyrdome and merite the iudgement of the Church but now as the case stands I must acknowledge my fault and confesse the sentence of death pronounced against me most iust Then againe doubling and trebling his sighes and shewing tokens of vnfained sorrow I would to God sayeth he what is done might be vndone I could wish that any other chance had befallen me rather then my name should thus be stained with the blot of Treason which offence though most grieuous yet I distrust not but it may be washed away with the teares of repentance and that Christ will haue mercie on me Sure I am that if I had all the world in my power to bestow I would willingly giue all that I might be freed from the guilt and imputation of treason which lies heauie vpon my conscience shall stand recorded in the sentence of my condemnation Notwithstanding all this is hee recorded a Martyr apologized by Eudemon and by Delrio paralelled with Denis the Areopagite What would Mr. Doctour say to this now had wee
fire her Nauie and with three thousand Spaniardsâ— subdue Ireland to the Spanish dominion These and many other sufficient reasons to prouoke her we find recorded by Hieronimus Catena in the life of Pius Quintus who was Secretarie to Cardinall Alexandrin that Popes Nephew so that though he haue in that discourse discouered many things to the world of Pius his proceedings against that Queene before vnknowen to our English yet may wee well by reason of his place afforde him credite as also in regarde his booke was Printed and published in Rome it selfe with the Priuiledge and approbation of Sixtus Quintus next Successor to Pius saue one And had she not good reason then to suffer such Lawes to bee made by her Parliament as might crie quittance with the Pope and Church of Rome Yet I will bee bold to say that lesse innocent blood nay lesse blood was shed in her 44. yeeres in maintenance of Christs and her owne authoritie against the vsurpation of the Pope then in her sisters foure yeeres in maintenance of the Popes vsurpation against her owne and her Successours lawfull authority insomuch as an Italian and hee no Protestant as I guesse giues this testimonie of her Tanta extitit eius animi moderatio atque innata clementia vt non immerito c. So great and so apparant was the moderation of her minde and inbred clemeÌ„cie that not vndeseruedly it may be said of her which the ancient histories haue left to posteritie of Alexander Seuerus borne of his mother Mammaea Nempe Anaematon hoc est citra sanguinem namely that shee hath gouerned her kingdome without bloodshed Cum suapte natura semper à caedibus crudelitate abhorreat for euen her nature doth abhorre the thought of slaughter or crueltie so he goeth on in a large discourse of her praise And when he thus wrote she had reigned twenty yeres it being a maruell as the late Bishop of Lincolne in his answere to Parsons hath well obserued their Index expurgatorius had not scowred him ere this and for this nay their owne Priests shall speake for Queene Elizabeths Lawes who say that considering Iesuiticall practises shadowed vnder the cloake of Religion all the Lawes enacted against Catholikes were made with great moderation and clemencie as comming from a Prince most milde and mercifull nor haue they cause to vrge repeale of any Statute made so long as Iesuits take such courses Nay which is more Parsons himselfe in the Preface to the first part of his triple conuersion commendeth Queene Elizabeth for her moderate gouernment and that was in the last yeere of her reigne and yet by the way it is worth the noting that in one and the same leafe hauing so commended her in one page mary then she was aliue in the very next page for then he heard shee was dead in a Preface to his Maiestie he compares her to Dioclesian for crueltie whereas her sobrietie and clemencie was such that her brother King Edward was wont commonly to call her His sweete sister Temperance neither did shee euer heare of any capitall punishment though neuer so deserued vpon offenders euen of such as had sought her own death but it bred a kind of horror and sadnesse in her whereby had not her Counsellers earnestly inculcated the necessitie of some exemplary iustice many dangerous attempters had escaped due punishment which mooued her to say being once questioning with a great Diuine in Oxford about books meetest for Princes to studie on that her reading of Senecade Clementia had done her much good but some would perswade her it had done her State as much harme howsoeuer I will shut vp this point with S. Augustine when he was intreated to mediate for a mittigation of some strait Lawes if Princes serue Christ in making Lawes for Christ they doe what they ought I will not gaine say them and your selfe graunt that this course seemed in poliâ—ie necessary for her who was the daughter of King Henry the VIII by Anne Bulleine borne with the contempt of Rome the disgrace of Spaine and the preiudice of Scotland and it is true indeede that it both seemed and was a necessary course for her not onely in policie but in pietie who was the daughter of him who vpon iust reason vnhorsed the Pope of his pretended authoritie by her who was not onely a zealous professour but a Patronesse of that trueth which wee professe and for her birth with the contempt of Rome and disgrace of Spaine it seemed by her courses shee was not vnwilling to haue it so intâ—rpreted but for the preiudice of Scotland shee was vpon all occasions so farre as shee conceiued it stood with her safetie and honour most willing to expresse the contrary and surely by her liuing and dying in a single State without marriage she rather prepared a way to the furtherance of that Title which wee now see to our great comfort as she would also no doubt to hers Si quis modo sensus in vmbris if there were any feeling or knowledge in the dead of these temporall and transitory affaires seeing it is fallen out to bee as true in that succession as it is in its owne nature strange Mira cano Sol occubuit nox nulla sequuta est B. C. 33. But now that your Maiestie is by the consent of all sides come to the Crowne and your vndoubted Title setled with long succession the case is very much altered for your Maiestie hath no need of dispensations nor will to pull downe Churches nor no dependance at all on Henry the VIII and if this Schisme could haue preuented your Title with the diuorce of one wife and the marrying of fiue more neither your mother nor your selfe should euer haue made Queene Elizabeth afraid with your Right to the Crowne of England and therefore though it were necessary in reason of State to continue the doctrine of diuision as long as the fruit of that doctrine did continue yet now the fruit of Schisme is all spent and that Parenthesis of State is at an end there is no reason but that the old sentence may returne againe and bee continued in that sense as if the Parenthesis had been cleane left out and that God had of purpose crossed the fleshly pretence of Schisme and raised your Maiestie to restore it as your most wise and Catholike progenitor King Henrie the VII did leaue it G. H. 33. If his Maiestie by the consent of all sides bee come to the Crowne why did Clement the VIII the yeere before his entrance and that as his Maiestie witnesseth in the Conclusion of his answere to Paulus Quintus his first Breue contrary to his manifold vowes and protestations at the same time and as it were with the same breath deliuered to diuers of his Maiesties Agents abroad send to Henry Garnet Iesuite their Arch-priest in England two Bulles to the contrary the one to the Clergie and the other
the height of his anger any more then this he declared not and lesse then this well he could not But before this you say in the entrance of this Section stil harping vpon your old string He was indifferent wheras your great Cardinall a man of no meane intelligence in his Tortus makes his Maiesty to haue bene a Puritane whiles hee was in Scotland and againe confirmes the same in his Apologie for that in the first booke of his Baâ—ilicon Doron he affirmes that the religioÌ„ there professed was grounded vpon the plaine words of the Scripture and againe in his second booke that the reâ—ormation of religion in Scotland was extraordinarily wrought by God And before the Powder treason he makes him so farre from indifferencie as he faines the seuerity of his lawes against Romane Catholikes to haue giuen occasion to that foule conspiracy and to the conspirators being then without all hope of entring into so desperate a course And sure it seemes the Powder-traytours themselues held him not indifferent for they discouered greater anger towards him in the proiecting of that bloody treason then he toward them or their associates after the discouery of it which notwithstanding it seemes by Watsons confession not long before his execution the Iesuites were hatching before his vndertaken for religion too was detected not full three moneths after his Maiesties right to the Crowne before it was setled or so much as set on his head nay Garnet himselfe their Arch-Priest being sollicited not long before the Queenes death by a gentleman of a noble family but Popishly affected that when time serued hee would set forward the kings title among Catholikes returned this answere that he had nothing to doe with the kings right or the promoting it in as much as he was so hardened in a religion contrary to his that now there was no hope of his conuersion left Thus we see that neither the Powder-traitours themselues nor Watson and Clerke Priests nor the Iesuits nor the Arch-Priest nor the Cardinall held him indifferent before the Powder-treason yet Mr. Doctor is of a contrary opinion to them all perswaded it may be by his Maiesties Letters pretended to be addressed before his entrance into this kingdome in the yeere 1598. to Pope Clement the VIII Cardinall Aldobrandin and Cardinall Bellarmine that some one of the Scottish nation might bee created Cardinall by whose intercourse he might more freely and safely negotiate with the Pope this reason indeede I haue heard some Romane Catholikes much stand vpon and except this be it I cannot conceiue what should moue Mr. Doctour thus boldly and frequently to vpbraid his Maiesty with indifferency which was the fault of the Angel of the Church of the LaodiceaÌ„s And surely he that writing to his Maiesty so grosly erreth about his Maiesties writings I may I hope without breach of charity suppose that hee neuer so much as read or saw the full answere to this obiection long since published to the view of the world standing partly vpon his Maiesties peremptory deniall of euer yeelding his consent to the sending of such letters and giuing the Pope to vnderstand by messages deliuered by word of mouth that if hee haâ— receiued any letters at all as written from him he should esteeme them none otherwise but as counterfeit or gotten by stealth partly vpon the confession of the party himselfe before his Maiesty and the Lords of his Counsell who out of an ambitious desire of aduancing his neere kinsman to the dignity of a Cardinal being then the Secretary of State shufled in those letters among others when his Maiesty was ready to take horse and so by cunning got them to be subscribed and partly vpon the Popes proceedings after the receit of them which was the shewing of them to such as came thither of the Scottish nation and demanding whether they thought the subscription to bee his Maiesties owne hand suffering some to take copies of them besides he neither answered the Letters nor granted the suite contained in them and some yeeres after writing to his Maiesty by Sr. Iames Lindsey he neither mentioned those letters nor blessed his Maiesty with Apostolike benediction and after all this sent his two Breues to the Romane Catholikes here in England for the excluding of him from the Crowne And thus haue we now not onely the traitours the secular Priests the Iesuits the Arch-Priest the Cardinall but the Pope himselfe making against this vaine supposition of his Maiesties indifferencie before the Powder-treason To conclude this Section then and therewithall my reply to such pretended motiues as might incline his Maiestie to reconcilement with the Church of Rome or toleration of Roman Catholikes if his Maiestie haue as great reason to continue seperation with the Church of Rome as Henry had to make it and Queene Elizabeth to maintaine it and that it doth increase his lawfull authoritie both ouer more persons and in more causes if it may serue for the better inriching of his coffers an vnion with that Church can not but bring both his honour and wisedome into question being so farre prouoked without iust occasion giuen or any satisfaction hitherto made and hauing so deepely ingaged himselfe in the quarrell if thereby hee shall depriue himselfe of that blessing which otherwise he might expect and hitherto hath felt from Christ his Sauiour whose cause hee pleadeth from his Christian and truely Catholike neighbour Princes states and Subiects and lastly from the Church of CHRIST in whose communion is the greatest comfort both in life and death then whatsoeuer some discontented fugitiue or hired aduocate of Rome may say to the contrary I doe verely beleeue they doe but speake for themselues and that there is no true reason that may concerne his Maiesties good but rather danger and harme why hee should admit a publike toleration of Papists and Popish Religion who stoppe their eares at home against the charmer charme hee neuer so wisely and abroad with great eagernesse pursue the ruine of their natiue countrey among whom I professe I must hold Mr. Doctor to haue been one till I be better informed to the contrary B. C. 38. But although your Maiestie sit at the Sterne and commaund all yet are you caried in the same â—hippe and it is not possible to weild so great a vessell against winde and tyde and therefore though it doe not concerne your Maiestie in your owne estate yet if your Lords and your Commons and your Clergie doe reape any great benefit by the Schisme it will be very hard for your Maiestie to â—ffect vnitie but if vpon due examination there bee no such matter then is it but the crie of the passengers who for want of experience are afraid where there is no danger and that can be no hinderance to any course your Maiestie shall thinke to bee best for the attaining of the hauen G. H. 38. From his Maiestie that sits at the Sterne and commands
all you come to the Subiect but if it were in the power of Romanists I doubt much whether hee should long sit there and how hee commaunds all well appeares by their refusall to take those lawfull Oathes which hee imposeth Now for the Subiect you beginne first with the Lords and so descend to the Commons Concluding lastly with the Clergy and sing them seuerally a Syrens song that so being lulled asleepe the common ship they are caried in may dash vpon the Rocke of Rome B. C. 39. For mine owne part for the discharge of my duetie and conscience I haue considered of all there States and can resolue my selfe that I haue not preiudiced the State of any good Subiect of yours but mine owne in comming to the Catholike Church And first for your Lords and Nobles it is true that many of their anâ—estors were allowed a very good share in the diuision of the Church when the Shisme began therfore it concerned them in reason of State to maintaine the doctrine of diuision but I thinke there are very few in England either Lords or other now possest of Abbey lands which haue not payed well for them and might aswell possesse them in the vnitie of the Church as in the Schisme and there was a declaration made by the Pope to that purpose in Queene Maries dayes so that now there is no neede at all to preach against the merits of good workes nor the vertue of the Sacraments nor the inuocation of Saints nor the rest of Popery that built Churches vnlesse it bee to helpe the Hugonotes of France to pull them downe G. H. 39. Hauing entred into a deepe studie and serious consideration of all States at length you resolue as from the oracle that you haue preiudiced none in playing the turnecoate but your selfe and sure I am of the same opinion there being none as I hope so vnwise as to be turned by you Now in taking this suruey you begin with the Lords who were allowed a very good share you would say a great in the diuision of the Church yet if they will bee so good as to side with the Pope they shall both enioy their Religion and keepe their possessions as now in this Religion they doe so wee see you would iuggle at fast and loose play at small game rather then sit out and became all vnto all that you might winne some though in another sense then S. Paul both meant and practised it And whereas you would salue the matter by thâ—ir paying for those possessions that shift will not serue the turne for Queene Maries dayes when the greatest part of them were both vnsold and vnbought otherwise then in the first sharing By your opinion that Abbey lands may bee aswell possessed in the vnitie of the Church as in the Schisme as you are pleased to call it it seemeth you haue seene the motiues perswading to a dispensation in that behalfe collected and reduced into writing in the second yeere of Queene Maries reigne the originall of which amongst other authentike remembrances of that time is preserued in the Office of his Maiesties Papers which because I verely thinke it was the ground of that Declaration made by the Pope in Queene Maries time which you speake of and a prinâ—ipal inducement of the Statute made the same yeere in confirmation thereof and for that also I suppose it is not any where publikely to be found I will here insert ANNO DOM. 1554. QVod omnes qui iusto titulo iuxta leges huius regni pro tempore existentes habent aliquas possessiones terras siue tenementa Monasteriorum Prioratuum Episcopatuum Collegiorum Cantariarum Obituum c. siue eadem pecunijs suis perquisiuerunt siue per donationem vel per mutationem siue alio modo legitimo quocunque in sua possessione huiusmodi remanere possint valeant easdem suas possessiones ratas confirmatas sibi habere ex confirmatione dispensatione Sedis Apostolicae Causae rationes quare huiusmodi dispensationes cum honore conscientia rectè concedi possint 1 Status Coronae huius Regni bene sustineri non potest vt cum honore regat gubernet si huiusmodi possessiones ab illa separentur quod hodie maxima pars possessionum Coronae sit ex huiusmodi terris possessionibus 2 Complurimi homines pecuniis suis acquisiuerunt ingentes huiusmodi terrarum portiones à serenissimis Regibus Henrico VIII Edwardo VI. qui per suas Litteras Patentes easdem terras warrantizauerunt quibus terris possâ—ssionibus sipossessores huiusmodi nunc priuarentur Rex teneretur rependere pecunias omnes in hac partâ— expositas quae in tantarum summarum vim molâ—m sese extenderent vt d Corona difficillimè restitui possent 3 Magnates nobiles huius regni quorum plerique vendiderunt alianauerunt antiquas suas haereditarias possessiones vt has nouas obtinerent in suo statu viuere non possunt si huiusmodi possessiones ab illis auferantur 4 Acquisitores vel possessores huiusmodi terrarum possessionum propterea quod easdem habuerunt ex iusto titulo iuxta ordinem Regum huius regni habebant etiamnum habent bonam fidem in illis obtinendis 5 Possessio huiusmodi terrarum adeò est communis cuique statui ordini hominum Ciuitatibusque Collegiis Incorporationibus vt si ab illis tollantur auferantur subitam quandam metamorphosin singulorum statuum magnam omnis ordinis confusionem in vniuerso regno hinc indesequi necesse sit 6 Cum bona possessiones Ecclesiae ex authoritate Canonum pro redemptione captiuorum alienari possint Idque per illam Ecclesiam solam ad quam illae possessiones pertinebant aequum est dispensari pro continuatione possessionis iam acquisitae propter tantum bonum publicae concordiae vnitatis Ecclesiae ac praeseruatione istius Status tam in corpore quam in anima THat all such as by iust title according to the Lawes or Statutes of this Realme for the time being haue any possessions lands or tenements lately belonging to Monasteries Priories Bishoprickes Colledges Chanteries Obites c. Whether they haue purchased theÌ„ for their money or are come to possesse them by gift grant exchange or by any other legal meanes whatsoeuer may retaine and keepe the same in their possessions and haue the same ratified and established vnto them by the confirmation and dispensation of the Sea Apostolike Causes and reasons why such dispensations may be iustly granted with honour and conscience 1 The state of the Crowne of this kingdome cannot be well susteined to gouerne and rule with honour if such possessions be taken from it for at this day the greatest part of the possessions of the Crowne consisteth of such lands and possessions 2 Very many men haue with their moneyes bought and purchased great portions of those lands from the most Excellent
how hath their multitude intangled the Christian world yet must no man dare open his mouth to complaine of that We reade of Luther that when he heard his books by publike order were burnt in Rome he as solemnely burnt the Canon law at Wittenberge We haue not proceeded neither thinke wee it fit to proceed so farre but haue rather chosen out of that dunghill to seeke for a pearle which hauing found we are content to keepe and as occasion serues to make vse of We haue not wholly abrogated the Canon law but wee retaine it in part though not as receiuing strength from the Popes authoritie who for any thing I know hath no more right of making lawes for vs then wee haue for him but from the gouernours of our owne Church Neither did the Kings of France in the erection of their Vniuersities receiue it any otherwise then to vse at their own discretioÌ„ not to oblige them as a law or if it did the power of it was deriued from their owne approbation not from Romes imposition and therefore haue they expresly and by name forbidden the 6th Booke of the Decretals to bee read in their Vniuersities as lawe as being expresly against the lawes and liberties of the Gallican Church Now if they refuse one part they might in my iudgement by the same reason if they found it inconuenient or disagreeable reiect the whole and I thinke they would not stand much if occasion serued vpon the casting off of the Canon lawe who could by no meanes yet bee induced to the receiuing of the Canons of the Council of Trent A notable instance hereof wee haue euen in the depth of Popery in our owne Countrey At the Parliament of Merton it was proposed that children borne before marriage might bee adiudged legitimate according to the rule and practise of the Canon law They all made answere with one voice Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari we wil not yeeld to the change of the lawes of England by which it appeares that they receiued not in those very times all the Popes Canons as lawes and those which they receiued they had not the force of lawes because the Pope imposed theÌ„ but because themselues entertained them in that nature and to that purpose ratified them Mr. Doctor need not marueile then if our Parliament now make lawes to the same purpose and by the same authority as they ratified those The Summons of Parliament euer since the time of King Henry the V. and how long before I know not haue in one constant forme and tenour made mention that the Parliament is summoned to consult de negotijs statum defensionem Regni Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae contigentibus of businesses concerning the State and defence of the Realme and Church of England Among other Kings S. Edward begins his lawes with this protestation that it was his Princely care Vt populum Dei super omnia Sanctam Ecclesiam regat gubernet To rule and gouerne Gods people and aboue all the Church of God And before him Ina kâ—ng of the West Saxons professeth that hee called a Councill of his Bishops and Senators that they might consult of matters De salute animarum Statu regni touching the saluation of their soules and the State of the kingdome And therefore doeth our chiefe Antiquarie rightly distinguish our Courts into Ecclesiasticall Ciuill and mixt which hee makes the Parliament as beeing compounded of both and consequently capable to determine of matters of both natures though I must needes say the case is somewhat altered from â—ormer times when not onely the Arch-bishâ—ps the Bishops the Abbots and Priors whose number was double to thâ—t which now it is and litle inferiour to the â—eâ—porall Lords sate in thhe igher House of Paâ—liament and had conâ—luding voâ—ces but the bodie of the Clergie and Cathedrall â—hurches had their Proctours amongst the Commons as may be câ—llected by diuers of our Statutes in print but noâ— that the number of the Lords Spirituall in the higher House is â—essened and the others are cleane excluded the lower House mee thinkes it should stand with reason and equitie that thâ— liâ—ertie of making of lawes or Canons in Church-matters should bee referred and reserued by his Maiesties gracious fauour and with his Royall assent to Church-men assembled in their Conuocation who are presumed to be most able and willing to establish good and wholesome Constitutions and to reforme what is amisse Thus in the yeere 1603 at his Maiesties first entrance into this kingdome by vertue of hiâ— Prerogatiue Royall and Supreame authority in causes Ecclesiasticall did hee graunt licâ—nce and free power vnto them to treate and agree vpon such Ordinances as they should thinke necessary and conuenient for the honour and seruice of Almighty God and the good and quiet of the Church and afterward being by them agreed vpon and throughly considered by his Maâ—estie out of his princely inclination to maintaine the present estate and gouernment of the Church of England hee not onely coâ—firmed them by his Royall Assent but by the same authoritie commaunded the entertainement and execution of them through the Realme Another matter you fling at is the multitude of Lawyers at this day as iâ— they were exceedingly increased but if you had read and well obseâ—ued Foretescues obseruation in this behalfe who wrote about 200. yeeres since being then Chiefe Iustice of England and had compared this time to that you would haue found that the number of that Proâ—ession in those dayes was litle lesse then at this day certainely their colledges were then more then now His words are Sunt namque in eo decem hospitia minora et quandâ—que verò plura quae nominantur hospitia Cancellariae ad quorum quodlibet pertinent centum studentes ad minus et ad aliqua eorum maior in multo numerus licet non omnes in eis semper conueniant MaioruÌ„ quatuor sunt ad minimuÌ„ eorum pertinent in forma praenot at a ducenti studentes aut propè They haue ten lesser houses which they call Innes of Chancerie to euery of which belong one hundred students at least and to some many more though they be not all continually resident in them of the bigger houses they haue â—oure and to each of them in like manner belong two hundred students or thereabout Whereras at this present in some of the Innes of Court there are not 260. and in the greatest little aboue 300. in commons at one time and for the â—nnes of Chancerie they are but eight in number and in most of them not aboue 50. in commons together But if they are increased it may well be imputed not so much to our multitude of statuts as to our long peace the nurse of homebred quarrels or to the dissolution of our Monestaries and that as I conceiue for foure reasons First for that whereas in those dayes when the Monasteries stood many yonger brothers did
G. H. 44. And wee are on the other side as confident that in going to the Church of Rome and forsaking your owne in which you were bred and baptized besides the indangering of your own soule you haue done no good seruice to his Maiestie neither in respect of himselfe nor his children neither of his Lords nor Commons in perswading vnitie with the Church of Rome vnlesse first shee could bee perswaded to the imbracing of the same veritie in Religion with vs. There is onely the Clergie left which if Popery should goe on and preuaile as you desire it should shall not in the next age bee left to bee satisfied or to giue satisfaction but there is little reason that any man that loues the Clergie should desire to satisfie such Clergie-men as your selfe while you were among vs who vnder hand fauour Papists and maintaine such points of doctrine as if his Maiesties authoritie were not would out of hand ouerthrow the doctrine established and in stead thereof reestablish the Papacie B. C. 45. There neuer was is nor shall bee any wellsetled State in the world either Christian or heathen but the Clergie and Priesthood was is and must bee a principall part of the gouernment depending vpon none but him onely whom they suppose to bee their God but where Caluinisme preuaileth three or foure stipendary Ministers that must preach as it shall please Mr. Maior and his brethren may serue for a whole city and indeede if their opinions bee true it is but folly for any State to maintaine more For if God haue predestinated a certaine number to bee saued without any condition at all of their beeing in the visible Church by Faith or their perseuering therein by good workes If God hath reprobated the greatest part of the world without any respect at all of their infidelity heresie or wicked life if the faith of CHRIST be nothing else but the assured perswasion of a mans owne predestination to glory by him if the Sacraments of the Church bee nothing but signes and badges of that grace which a man hath before by the carnall couenant of his parents faith if Priesthood can doe nothing but preach the word as they call it which lay Lay-men must iudge of and may preach to if they will where occasion serues If the study and knowledge of antiquity vniuersality and consent be not necessary but euery man may expound Scripture as his owne spirit shall moue him If I say these and such like opinions be as true as they are among the Caluinists in the world common and in England too much fauoured and maintained there will certainely appeare no reason at all vnto your Parliament whensoeuer your Maiesty or your successours shall please to aske them why they should bee at so great a charge as they are to maintaine so needlesse a party as these opinions doe make the Clergie to be They can haue a great many more sermons a great deale better cheape and in the opinion of Caluinisme the Clergie doe no other seruice they that doe in England fauour and maintaine those opinions and suppresse and disgrace those that doe confute them they although themselues can be content to bee lordes and to goe in Rochets are indeed the greatest enemies of the Clergie and it were no great matter for the Clergie they might easily turne lay and liue as well as they do for the most part but it is a thing full of compassion and commiseration to see that by these false and wicked opinions the deuill the father of these and all other lies doth daily take possession of the soules of your Subiects both of Clergie and laitie These kind of Clergie men I confesse I doe not desire to satisfie any other way then as I haue alwayes done that is by the most friendly and plaine confutation of their errours to shew them the trueth as for other Clergie men that are conformable to the religion established by Law as well for their doctrine as for their discipline if they be good Schollers and temperate men as I know many of them are they cannot but in their iudgements approue the truth of Catholike religion and if it were not for feare of losse or disgrace to their wiues and children they would be as glad as my selfe that a more temperate course might be held and more liberty afforded to Catholikes and Catholike Religion in England These Clergie men I am and euer shall be desirous to satisfie not onely in respect of themselues but also in respect of their wiues and children whom I am so farre from condemning or misliking as that I doe account my selfe one of them and I desire nothing more in this world then in the toleration of Catholike religion to liue and die among them and therefore I haue had so great care in this point as before I did submit my selfe to the Catholike Church I receiued assurance from some of the greatest that if his Maiesty would admit the ancient subordination of the Church of Canterbury vnto that mother by whose authority all other Churches in England at the first were and still are subordinate vnto Canterbury and the first free vse of that Sacrament for which especially all the Churches in Christendome were first founded the Pope for his part would confirme the interest of all those that haue present possession in any Ecclesiasticall liuing in England and would also permit the free vse of the Common Prayer booke in English for Morning and Euening Prayer with very little or no alteration and for the contentment and security of your Maiesty he would giue you not onely any satisfaction but all the honor that with the vnity of the Church and the safetie of Catholike Religion may be required which seemed to me so reasonable as beeing before satisfied for the trueth of Catholike Religion I could aske no more so that I am verely perswaded that by yeelding to that trueth which I could not deny I haue neither neglected my duety and seruice to your Maiesty and your children nor my respect and honour to your Lords and Commons nor my loue and kindenesse to my honest friends and brethren of the Clergie but rather that my example and my prayers shall doe good vnto all G. H. 45. That the Clergie should be a Principall member of the body popolitike we graunt but that they should depend on none but him only whom they suppose to bee their god wee denie Indeed where the authority of the Bishop of Rome swayes looke how many Clergy men there are so many subiects are exempt from the Iurisdiction of the secular power and wholy depend vpon his Holinesse who is to them in regard of the vniuersalitie of his commaund and the infallibilitie of his iudgement in stead of their God but for vs Non habemus talem consuetudinem neque Ecclesia Dei we depend
those two things which M. Doctour craues to be yeelded vnto he shrowds vnder the cloake of the first vse of the Sacrament whereas his Maiestie rightly termeth the present doctrine and practise of the Church of Rome therein new coyned articles neuer heard of in the first 500. yeeres Such as are the cutting off of one halfe of the Sacrament from the people priuate Masses where the Priest playeth the part both of the Priest and of the people their Transubstantiation Eleuation for adoration reseruation in boxes and circuâ—gestation in Processions besides an infinite number of ridiculous and apish toyes in the celebration of it Notwithstanding you make no bones to demand the free vse hereof that is as I conceiue in effect the publike toleration and liberty of Romish religion a matter most vnreasonable to be expected from his Maiesty of any king liuing who therefore specially seemes to mislike the bitternesse of some busie Ministers who God be blessed grow both fewer in number and more calme in their courses because they trouble the peace of the Church thereby giuing aduantage to the entry of Papists by the diuision thereof how then can you conceâ—ue any hope of a Toleration of your pretended Catholike religion it selfe But if you consider that which his Maiesty writeth against the mariage of his sonne to oâ—e of a different religion your hope wil be much lesse Solomon from the toleration of a strange worship within his dominions fell at last as we know to the imbracing of it himselfe And it is obserued by Diuines both Iewish and Christian that the diuersitie of religion tolerated by King Solomon in diuine worship was by God requited vpon his heire and next successour Iure talionis by a retaliated diuision of an vnrecouerable rupture in the ciuill gouernment Your owne Stapleton spares not to reuile Bodiâ— in particular as an enemy to Christianity for maintaining that liberty The Rhemists conclude to like purpose in their annoâ—ations vpon the new Testament and Bellarmine spends two whole chapters in confuting their arguments who pleade for this indifferencie inforâ—ing it from the example of the Iewish Church grounds of Scripture practise of Emperours iudgement of Fathers yea reason and experience to bee pernitious in any Realme boâ—h to the Ecclesiasticall and ciuill state and dangerous euen to themselues which vse that liberty shall we imagine then that his Matie a king if any other in the world so desirous to serue God truely without shrinking or wauering setled in conscience resolued in iudgement confirming by practise by word by writing by oath by lawes by aduice what hee openly professeth would euer differ so much from himselfe as to admit euen of a partiall Toleration of a religion different from if not contrary vnto his owne a matter so contrary to Gods will so dishonourable to himselfe so dangerous to the State Be not partaker saith S. Paul to Timothy of other mens sinnes now I cannot conceiue how in his case the Magistrates permitting when it is in his power to forbid can well be distinguished from pertaking From your demands you come to your promises whereof the first is that the Pope for his part would confirâ—e the interest of all those that haue present possession in any ecclesisticall liuing in England he must then confirme the interest of all those whom you call Puritans and Caluinists as well as others which I thinke hee will bee as vnwilling to doe as they to take it from him nay I am perswaded there is no Clergy man in England worthy the name and credit of a good Subiect or the profit of the liuing he holdes who would thinke the possession of it any way the securer for the Popes confirmation But to grant that the right of those who haue the present interest in them might by that means bee strengthened what were like to become of the fattest Benefices and best dignities of our Church the same power continuing in the next age wee may in part coniecture by the experience of former times they being by the Popes authoritie conferred vpon his fauourits Italians and strangers who neuer came so much as to see them and yet notwithstanding was the rest of the Clergy so harrowed partly by the cunning practise and partly by the violent extortion of his Legats and Collectours as I haue already shewed that it is surely a lamentable thing to read it much more to feele it The Second thing you promise is the permitting the free vâ—e of the Common prayer booke in English for Morning and Euening prayers with vâ—ry little or no alteration belike then his Holinesse hath of late better studied that Scripture of Saint Paul the 1. to the Corinthians and the 14. then which I see not what can be more cleerely spoken not onely for reading and expounding the Scriptures but specially for praying in a knowen language and if his Holinesse iudge it no offence to God to permit the vse of our Liturgy in English what reason can our Recusants pretend of their refusall to ioyne with our Congregation in the vse of it except his purpose bee to permit it only for an interim as Charles the 5th did to the Germans vntill hee can gaine further strength to worke his owne ends or as hee doth the stews to auoide a greater conceiued mischiefe but God be thanked wee haue and hope still to haue the freâ—â—se of that booke without his permission and for his permission should thinke nothing the better but rather the worse of it The third and last thing you offer is that for the contentmâ—nt and securitie of his Maiesty his Holinesse would giue him not only any satisfaction but all the honour that with the vnity of the Church and safety of Catholike religion may bee required but how farrâ— the vnitie of the Church and the safety of Catholike religion extends it selfe is so doubtfull a case as none can determine it but the Pope himselfe so that except his Maiestie can define or diuine rather what that meanes hee shall bee as farre to seeke of his securitie as euer Hee hath alreadie declared by his Breues that the taking of the Oath of Allegeance cannot stand with the safety of Catholike Religion so that if hee will secure his Maiestie hee must not only condemne those Authors and damne that Doctrine which teaches his power in deposing Kings and disposing of Kingdomes but hee must either recall that declaration made as hee pretendeth vpon long and weightie deliberation which it may bee to â—erue his turne hee would as willingly doe as absolue the Venetians though they no way submitted themselues in the point controuersed or if hee persist in the maintenance thereof as in greatest likelihood hee wâ—â—l I see not which way hee can secure his Maiestie except hee may bee said to secure who cuts off all meanes of his securitie an oath being among all Christians and Heathens if they bee but morally honest
bed Thus farre out of Thuanus To these may be added the miserable end of Philip the II. King of Spaine who though he had bene a chiefe pillar of the Romish Church and a great enemy of the Protestants and their religion yet died hee of the same disease which the Doctour out of Bellarmin and Bellarmine out of Cochaeus imputes to Caluin As also the vnhappy endes of all those who were the chiefe plotters in the Massacre of France Charles the IX then King the Queene Mother Henry the third then Duke of Aniou the Kings brother and the Duke of Guise of which Charles died wallowing in his owne blood issuing out of all the conduits of his body the Duke of Guise was suddenly slaine at Blois by Henries command for griefe whereof the Queene Mother died within a few dayes and in reuenge of the Guises death not long after Henry himselfe was murdered by a Frier Lastly to crie quittance also with the Dr. in regard of the ends of Luther Zuinglius Oecolampadius and Caluin whom he counteth Arch-heretikes and termeth Monsters it may please him to remember that sundry of the Bishops of Rome who haue bene very Antichrists and by his owne Platina and Genebrard are called Monsters of men haue had most fearefull and wretched ends For some haue beene poisoned some murdered by Anti-Popes some haue died in prison Iohn the XII euen in the very act of adultery was suddenly striken by the deuill saith Turrecremata and died without repentance others that haue compacted with the deuill haue bene caried away by him and not to reckon vp all that thus haue perished seeing it would bee too tedious fiftie Popes arow being rather Apostatical then Apostolicall and monsters of men It is no marueile saith Genebrard if they were so many in few yeeres and died quickly His last argument is the temporall prosperity of them which haue defended the Church His examples are likewise a meere translation of Bellarmines 18th Chapter of the notes of the Church So that for answere thereunto I might iustly referre the Reader to them who haue answered him as also to my Replie to the fourth Section of M. Doctors second chapter of his Letter to his Maiesty But I chuse rather to close vp the whole with his Maiesties words in the latter end of his answer to Cardinall Perrons oration History saith his Maiesty and experience teach vs that disunion with the Pope hath no whit impeached the prosperitie of kingdomes Philip the faire reigned in peace and prosperity notwithstanding his attempts vpon the Papall Sea King Lewis the twelfth defeated in battell the troupes of Pope Iuly the second and his alies declared him falne from the Papacie and caused Crowns to be stamped wherin Rome is called Babylon yet neuerthelesse was loued and honoured of his subiects who gaue him the title of Father of the people Neuer did Great Britaine euer receiue so great blessings of God nor enioyed so much peace and plentie as since the time that Popes haue no more but the looking on and sent no more their Legats to gather the tribute of S. Peter and that the Kings of England doe no longer homage vnto the Pope for their Crowne and are no more lashed by Monkes What was Holland Zeland and Frizeland before that God lighted among them the torch of the Gospell in comparison of the riches and prosperitie wherein God hath aduanced them The Common wealth of Venice doeth it enioy lesse peace and prosperity then before since they haue taken from the Pope one of his swords and haue shaken off his temporall power On the contrary side the Kings of France after they had giuen vnto the Popes all what they held in Italy and the Countie of Auinion haue againe receiued of them but course entertainmeÌ„t Popes haue forged a donation of Constantine to the end to deface the memory of the donation of Pepin and Charlemaine They haue troubled the State banding themselues for the sons of Lewis the Courteous against their owne father whose life was an example of innocence They haue skimmed the Realme of Money by infinite pillages wherewith the Kings of France haue endeuoured to meete by their pragmaticall sanction They haue oftentimes interdicted the Realme degraded their Kings sollicited their neighbours to inuade the kingdome stirred vp the people against the King whence many troubles and parricides haue ensued Rauilliac rendred this reason of his attempt because said hee the King would make warre against God inasmuch as hee would make warre against the Pope and that the Pope was God Which maketh mee to maruell how the Cardinall could alleage for example the late trouâ—lâ—s during which France fell foule with the Pope seeing that the Pope himselfe raised vp those troubles If the Kings or people of France hauing offended the Pope God had otherwayes sent among them somâ— pestilence or famine this might with some probabilitie haue been taken for a reuenge of the iniurie done vnto his Vicar but seeing the Pope himselfe hath caused these euils it is not God who punisheth the iniuries done vnto the Pope but the Pope who reuengeth himselfe and which is worse without receiuing any wrong Whence it appâ—areth that to exhort the Kingdome to maintaine vnion with the Pope by the remembrance of the calamities past is not to exhort them to loue the Pope but to call to minde the euils which he hath caused and to tremble at his thundrings and conspiracies which hurt those onely that feare them and which haue drawen vpon my kingdome many blessings Now if France haue had any prosperitie during the time that it well accorded with the Pope this hath been because the Pope seeketh the amitie of those Princes that are in prosperitie and which haue meanes to annoy him Kings are not therefore in prosperitie because the Pope is vnited with them but the Pope is vnited with them because they are in prosperitie Euen as swallowes arriue in the spring but make not the spring so the Pope ioyneth himselfe to the prosperitie of kingdomes but maketh not their prosperitie But if there happen any disaster in a Kingdome or any ciuill warre which putteth an Estate in danger the Pope vnder a shadow of hauing care of the saluation of soules thrusteth himselfe into the quarrell and runneth vnto the wracke to reape his profit thereby And if a State change its Master hee will that the new possessour vnto whom hee hath giuen aide hold the kingdome of his liberalitie but if the ancient possessour conquer his enemies notwithstanding the Popes thundrings then his Holinesse offers him all sorts of Indulgences and out of his compassion receiueth him againe whom hee was not able to destroy Hitherto his Maiestie then which nothing can bee spoken more fully and effectually to this purpose For surely not to speake of the prosperitie of forraine countries who haue broken off communion with the Roman Synagogue he is more then blind that cannot see and too