infinitely mischievous when shared by a Foreigner whose interests are necessarily contrary to those of our Prince and Nation as the Popes certainly are But this mischief stays not within the aforesaid bounds for the Pope is not content with a bare Co-ordination but demands the Preference for his spiritual Sword and claims a power to depose Kings and dispose of Kingdoms This we learn at large from Bellarmin Suarez Turrecremata Card. Perron Thom. Aquin Ledesma Malderius to pass by innumerable others all whose Works were publisht by Authority and so own'd as consonant to the Doctrines of the Church to which may be added the Pope's definition who makes it authentic Law in these words We say and define and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary to Salvation for every human Creature to be subject to the Bishop of Rome and this Law of Pope Boniface the Eighth's making he effectually commented on himself of whom Platina says That he made it his busines to gave and take away Kingdoms to expel men and restore them at his pleasure All which that it might want no Sanction or Authority to render it the Doctrine of the Church is justified in the third and fourth Lateran Council the Council of Lions the Council of Constance all which call themselves General and therefore speak the Doctrine of the Church What has been done in this kind since the days of Gregory the Seventh throughout Europe would fill a large Volume in the bare Narration whoever has a mind to see those black Annals need not consult Protestant Writers but read Baronius or Platina and there he will satisfie himself Behold at large the last and greater Triumphs of the Capitol Crowns and Scepters and the necks of Emperors and Kings trampled upon in great Self-denial by Christ's humble Vicar their Realms and Countries taken from them and involv'd in blood by the Leiutenant of the Prince of Peace Subjects discharg'd from their Allegiance in the right of him who himself disown'd the being a divider and a Judge and in a word the whole world made his Kingdom who pretends his interest deriv'd from our Lord Jesus who disclaim'd the having a kingdom of this World. So that it was not said amiss by Passavantius That the Devil made tender of all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them to our Lord Christ but he refused them afterwards he made the same offer to his Vicar the Pope and he presently accepted it with the Condition annext of falling down and worshipping The English Reader who desires to be satisfied in matter of Fact may please to consult the History of Popish Treasons and usurpations not long since written by Mr. Foulis to pass by others who have also dealt in that Subject At present I shall only add that although our neighbouring Princes have difficulty enough given them by this Universal Monarch who like his Predecessors in Heathen Rome makes it a piece of his Prerogative to have Kings his Vassals yet they often help themselves by some Advantages which our Sovereign is not allowed The most Christian King has his Capitularies Pragmatic Sanctions Concordats and the Privileges of the Gallican Church to plead upon occasion And his Catholic Majesty as the eldest Son of the Church has several Rights of Primogeniture especially in the Kingdom of Sicily But the Crown of England is not to be treated with such respect it alas ever since the days of Henry the Second or at least King John is held in fee of the Pope and we are in hazard to be called unto account for the Arrear of 1000 Markes per Annum payable ever since that time And Cardinal Allen has given it for good Canon Law That without the approbation of the See Apostolic none can be lawful King or Queen of England by reason of the antient Accord made between Alexander the third in the year 1171. and Henry the Second then King when he was absolv'd for the death of S. Thomas of Canterbury That no man might lawfully take that Crown nor be accounted as King till he were confirmed by the Soveraign Pastor of our souls which for the time should be This accord being afterwards renewed about the year 1210 by King John who confirmed the same by oath to Pandulphus the Popes Legate at the special request and procurement of the Lords and Commons as a thing most necessary for the preservation of the Realm from the unjust usurpation of Tyrants and avoiding other inconveniences which they had proved c. But if this be but the single Opinion of a probable Doctor we may have the same asserted by an infallible one Pope Innocent the Fourth who before his Colledge of Cardinals and therefore in likelihood e Cathedra declares that the King of England was his Vassal nay to speak truth his Slave From hence it is that the succeeding Popes have been so free on all occasions of turning out of doors these their Tenants upon every Displeasure and little pet Not to mention the old Mis-adventures of Richard the Second King John c. Hence it was that Paul the Third sent against King Henry the Eighth in the year 1538. his terrible thundring Bull as the Author of the History of the Council of Trent calls it such as never was used by his Predecessors nor imitated by his Successors in the Punishments to the King were deprivation of his Kingdom and to his adherents of whatsoever they possest commanding his Subjects to deny him Obedience and Strangers to have any Commerce in that Kingdom and all to take Arms against and to persecute both himself and his followers granting them their Estates and Goods for their prey and their Persons for their Slaves Upon like terms Paul the Fourth would not acknowledge Queen Elizabeth because the Kingdom was a Fee of the Papacy and it was audaciously done of her to assume it without his leave And therefore Pius the Fifth went on and fairly deposed her by his Bull dated Febr. 25. 1570. but because the stubborn Woman would needs be Queen for all this Pope Gregory the Thirteenth deposes her again and having two hopeful Bastards to provide for to the one he gives the Kingdom of England to the other that of Ireland Nor was she unqueen'd enough by all this but Sixtus Quintus gives away her Dominions once more to the King of Spain and after all when nothing of all this would thrive Clement the Eighth sends two Breves for failing into England one to the Laity the other to the Clergy commanding them not to admit any other but a Catholic though never so near in blood to the Succession in plain terms to exclude the Family of our Sovereign from the Crown When King James was come in notwithstanding those Breves the Gun-powder Plot was contrived to throw him out again and when that had occasion'd the State for its own Security to require the taking
of an Oath of Allegiance Paul V. sent his Breves with all speed to forbid the taking of it and for fear those might be forgotten in time in the year 1626. Vrban VIII sends again to forbid his beloved Sons the Catholics of England to take that pernicious and unlawful Oath of Allegiance Yet more in the late unnatural Rebellion in Ireland the loyal Catholicks as now they call themselves submitted that unhappy Kingdom to his aforesaid Holiness Pope Vrban to pass by other offers no less treasonable and after that as we are credibly informed Pope Innocent the Tenth bestowed it as a Favour on his dear Sister and much dearer Mistris Donna Olympia And sure we have all the reason in the world to believe that every thing of this will be done again when the old Gentleman at Rome is pleased to be angry next has a mind to gratifie a neighbour Prince or wants a Portion for a Son or a Favour for a Mistris And as it is the Papists of England have but this one excuse for that mortal sin of obedience to their Heretic Prince that they are not strong enough to carry a Rebellion And truly 't were great pity these men should be intrusted with more power who give us so many warnings beforehand how they are bound to use it But to all this the Roman Catholics have one short reply That they are the most Loyal Subjects of his Majesty and have signally approved their duty by their service and fidelity in the last War. To this I say in short that as bad as Popery is I do not think it can eradicate in all its Votaries their natural conscience no Plague was ever so fatal as to leave no Person uninfected but always some have scapt ' its fury The case is fully stated by King James of famous memory As on one part many honest men seduced with some Errors of Popery may yet remain good and faithful Subjects so on the other part none of those that truly know and believe the whole grounds and School conclusions of their Doctrines can ever prove either good Christians or good Subjects To speak the plain truth and what the insolent boasts of Papists makes necessary to be told them whatever was done then was no trial at all of Loyalty The late Rebels found it necessary for the countenancing their cause to make a loud pretence against Popery and to have the benefit of spoiling them So that the Roman Catholicks did not so much give assistance to the King as receive Protection from him When they shall have adher'd to their Prince in spight of the commands of their holy Father the Pope and defended their Sovereign and his Rights when it was not their interest to do it they will have somewhat worth the boasting As the case now stands they had better hold their peace and remember that the Sons of another Church served their King as faithfully as they though they talk less of it But since they will needs have the World know what good Subjects they have been let them take this short account from the Answer to the Apology for the Papists Printed An. 1667. In Ireland there were whole Armies of Irish and English that fought against his Majesty folely upon the account of your Religion In England it is true some came in voluntarily to assist him but many more of you were hunted into his Garrisons by them that knew you would bring him little help and much hatred And of those that fought for him as long as his Fortune stood when that once declined a great part even of them fell from him And from that time forward you that were always all deem'd Cavaliers where were you In all those weak efforts of gasping Loyalty what did you You complied and flattered and gave sugared words to the Rebels then as you do to the Royalists now You addressed your Petitions to the Supreme Authority of this Nation the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England You affirmed that you had generally taken and punctually kept the Engagement You promised that if you might but enjoy your Religion you would be the most quiet and useful Subjects of England You prov'd it in these words The Papists of England would be bound by their own interest the strongest Obligation amongst wise men to live peaceably and thankfully in the private exercise of their Conscience and becoming gainers by such compassions they could not so reasonably be distrusted as the Prelatic party which were losers If this be not enough to evidence the singular loyalty of Papists in the late War they may hear a great deal more of their vertue celebrated from their Petitions and public Writings in my Lord Orrery 's answers to Peter Welsh his Letter And because in those Writings they are so ready to throw the first stone against the late Regicides they would do well to clear themselves from the guilt of that Sacred blood which is charged home upon them by the Answerer of Philanax Anglicus who has not yet been controuled for that accusation V. To this barbarous insolence of Excommunicating and Deposing Kings may succeed the usual consequent of that but greater prodigy of Tyranny the putting whole Nations under Interdict and depriving them of all the Offices and comforts of Religion and that generally without any other provocation than that the Prince has insisted on his just rights or the people performed their necessary duty History is full of instances hereof Within the compass of one Age I mean the eleventh Century almost all the Nations of Europe fell under this Discipline France England Scotland Spain and Germany and some of them several times over and so it has gone down in following Ages The nature of the punishment we may learn from Matthew Paris who describing the Interdict in the days of King John which lasted amongst us for six years three months and fourteen days says There ceased throughout England all Ecclesiastical Rites Absolution and the Eucharist to persons in their last Agonies and the baptizing of Infants only excepted also the bodies of the dead were drag'd out of Cities and Villages and buried like the Carkasses of Dogs in the high-ways and ditches without any prayers or the Sacerdotal Ministry One would imagine that he who pretends to hold his Empire from the Charter of pasce oves the feeding of Christs Sheep would find himself concerned no to destroy and starve them or withhold from them their spiritual food for almost seven years together an unusual prescript for abstinence in order unto health But we may not wonder at all this for pasce oves with a Roman Comment means all Coertion and Dominion and they who take away the Scriptures and half the Communion from the Layty are not to be controul'd if they also withhold the other offices of piety VI. A farther consideration may be the Laws of the Land which in case of Popery must
be content to truckle under the Canon Law and occasional Bulls of his Holiness or Legantine Commissions The proceedings of the Courts in Westminster veiling to Prohibitions and Appeals to Rome against which a Premunire will be a weak fence in Bar to the plenitude of the Apostolic Power and to murmur or dispute any thing will be especially to new Converts interpreted Heresie a word of so sharp an importance as not to need a Comment There is a Tradition that heretofore the Gentlemen of the long Robe were in that mean estate as to ply at Westminster Hall Gate as now Watermen do at the Stairs for a Fare let the Practicioners in that noble Profession consider whether some such thing would not in earnest be the consequent of Popery And the rest of the People of England would do well to think whether they are fitted for a Journey to Rome as often as they shall be called thither I do not mean the divertisement of Travel or devotion of Pilgrimage but the compulsion of Citations from that Court where the attendance and expence is not likely to be less than formerly it was when it occasioned the groans and sad complaints of our Fore-fathers which though they have escaped our experimental knowledge sufficiently appear in all our Histories Or should the English Law have some quarter given it and be allowed a little Chamber practise this must be only in reference to the Layty All Ecclesiastics are under a more perfect dispensation and only accountable to the Apostolic See either for their actions or concerns the benefits of which though the Secular Priests share in some proportion the Regulars much more liberally enjoy being owned by the Pope as his Souldiers and Pretorian bands listed under the Generals of their several Orders maintained indeed at the cost of the Countries where they live but for the service of their Sovereign abroad to whom they owe an entire and blind obedience And that they may give no Hostages to the State where they reside are forbid to marry So that if Popery should prevail we must besides all charges necessary to secure our selves from forreign enemies both by Land and Sea constantly maintain a vast Army of possibly an hundred thousand men for such were the old numbers to assure our slavery to the Roman Yoke Nor are these Priviledges of the Church only personal the places themselves which these religious men possess are hallowed into Sanctuaries and give protection unto any criminal that treads within their thresholds the most horrid Murther or barbarous Villany is to have the Benefit of the Clergy and if the Malefactor have but time to step into a Cloyster he fears no farther prosecution VII But besides the inconvenience of submitting to a foreign Law that certain mark of slavery and the intolerable burthens that attend its execution it will be of moment to advise how well our Property and interest in our estates will stand secur'd And though when Princes are upon their good behaviour to be disseiz'd of their dominions whenever they offend his Holiness of Rome the Pesant or the Gentleman have no great reason to expect indemnity yet should the Farm or Manor-house be too low a mark for the Roman Thunderer to level at 't is not to be imagined the Lord Abbots and the Lands of all Religious houses will be past by as trifles The Church is ever a Minor and cannot be prescribed against by time or barr'd in her claims and our holy Father out of his Paternal care will find himself concern'd to vindicate the Orphan committed to his trust Some perchance who enjoy those Lands think they need not apprehend any thing because they hold under Acts of Parliament But they who imagine this should consider that the same strength that can repeal those Laws that establish Protestancy may also do as much for those which suppress Religious houses and no body can tell what the force and swing of a violent turn especially in England may produce where we seldom proceed with coldness or reserve Acts of resumption are not things unheard of in ours or in forrein stories Nor is the consent of the Pope in Queen Maries days a better security for in case of a change of Religion all those grants will be interpreted a bare permission and that conditional in order to the great end of reclaiming an heretical Kingdom which not being then accepted of and finally submitted to will not be thought obligatory when Papists by their own skill or interest have gotten the power into their hands King Charles the First yielded at the Isle of Wight that the Church Lands should be leased out for 99 years in order to a present peace and settlement of all things through the interposition of a powerful and violent Faction it was not then accepted of Does any man think the Obligation of leasing for 99 years remains now Let our Lay-Abbots apply this to their case and then judge whether they upon a revolution will be more secure of their Possessions than the late Purchasers were or whether those Purchasers were not as confident of transmitting their Acquisitions to their posterity as any possessor of Church Lands now is or has been The King of France not long since has redeemed back to the Crown those demesnes which belong'd to it paying back such summs as were really laid out by the Purchasers and allowing the mean profits as interest for the money so laid out Which method of procedure has been defended by very considerable Arguments to be just and equitable If the money expended on the Church penniworths at the dissolution of Religious houses were now refounded and the advantage of above 100 years profit already received were thrown in to the bargain though the present Proprietaries would have an ill exchange yet there would be so much plausibleness in the grounds of it as in the zeal and heat of a turn would not be easily controul'd especially if it be farther prest that the first claim from the Acts of Parliament suppressing Church Lands appear to be not full and peremptory the Lands of the first suppression in the 27. year of Henry 8. not seeming to intend an alienation to common and secular uses but to have been vested in the King in trust that the revenues might be employed to the pleasure of Almighty God and to the honour and profit of this Realm As to the second in 31 year of Henry 8. The Act supposes and is built upon the alienations legally made by the respective Religious Houses and Corporations who are said of their own voluntary minds good wills and assents without constraint coaction or compulsion of any manner of person or persons by the due order and course of the common Laws of this Realm of England and by their sufficient Writings of Record under their Covent and common Seals c. Now to the verifying of these particulars a great many doubtful circumstances and nice
Officers which upon computation amounted to above three times the Kings Revenue a great part thereof carried out of the Kingdom in a time when the Indies had not filled it with Gold and Silver The tyranny was so intolerable that the whole Nation protested against it in their Letter to the Council of Lyons Anno 1245. wherein among others things they declare That the Italians received hence yearly above sixty thousand Marks besides all other payments to the See of Rome and carried out of the kingdom a greater revnue than the King had who was Tutor to the Church and was to support the charge of the State. Which complaint yet had no other answer than delays and a severe example to terrifie them immediately made upon the Emperour Frederick the Second against whom his Holiness Innocent the Fourth then Pope to use the words of the Acts of the Council Pronounced and thundred out the Sentence of Excommunication not without the horrour and amazement of all hearers and by-standers Only the Annats or First Fruits of Bishopricks as they were computed in Parliament Anno 1532. in a few years came to an hundred sixty thousand pound sterling it would be endless to audit the whole Account As England was by the Popes stiled an inexhaustible pit so was there no bounds set to the industry of them who attempted to drain it After a sad complaint of the Rapine Avarice and Tyranny of the Pope and his Officers among us Matthew Paris breaks out in these words we might there see heart breaking grief the cheeks of pious persons drown'd in tears the doleful moan that they made and the sighs which they multiplied saying with bleeding groans It were better for us to die than behold the calamity of our Country and pious People of it woe to England who heretofore was Princess of Provinces and Ruler of Nations the mirrour of Excellence and pattern of Piety is now become Tributary vile persons have trampled upon her and she is a prey to the ignoble But our manifold sins have procured these iudgments from God who in his anger for the iniquity of his People has made a Hypocrite and Tyrant to rule over them If Almighty God should for the like Provocations put us again under the same Egyptian Task-masters we need not doubt of the self-same usage But now for all this expence 't is pleasant to examine what is to come back to us in exchange even Parchments full of Benedictions and Indulgences store of leaden Seals Beads and Tickets Medals Agnus-Dei's Rosaries hallowed Grains and Wax-candles such Traffique that an Indian would scarce barter for such pitiful Gauds that would hardly bribe a child of a year old and yet this is the goodly price they offer for all the wealth of a whole Nation X. After this Tyranny over our Estates in the particulars rehersed there is a very remarkable one behind which will well deserve to be considered It is Auricular Confession where not to mention its ill aspect upon Goverment as being made an Engine of State and Pick-lock of the Cabinets of Princes sealing up all things from the notice of the Magistrate but making liberal discoveries against him hereby not only the Estate but Soul and Conscience of every private man are subjected to the Avarice and Rapine and withal the Humour and Caprice the insolence and Pride nay Lust and Villany of a debauched Confessor Every mortal sin upon pain of Damnation must be confessed and when the Penitent after great anxieties has freed himself from this disquiet he must submit to the Penance however rigorous or chargeable or foolish which the Priest enjoyns he and his Family are entirely in the power of this Master of their secrets And if this Awe and Empire however grievous were the whole Inconvenience 'twere something tolerable it being to be hoped that so severe a Remedy would affright from Guilt but the very contrary happens the Priest takes often benefit of the Sin which he absolves from and having the advantage of these two Points that the person whose Confession he has taken has lost Modesty and that he can absolve from the Crime it will be easie to persuade the Repetition of that Sin which his breath can easily blow away and render none I shall not here mention on the other part the perfunctory Penances which seem only imposed to invite to sin again and those authorized by a most authentic pattern that of the Popes themselves for what Markets may we not expect from a poor Priest when his Holiness in his Tax of the Apostolic Chancery has valued the most horrid crimes at so easie rates as a few Grosses or a Julio and eighteen pence or half a crown compounds for the foulest most abominable Guilt Nay when a Visit to a priviledg'd Shrine or Altar and the bare recital of a short Prayer purchases pardon for 100 500 546 6646 dayes Nay for 7500 10000 1000000 years according to the grants of several Popes to be seen for our great comfort and edification in the Horae B. Virginis So that the story of that plump Confessor who for six Acts of Adultery is said to have enjoyn'd the repetition of six Penitential Psalms and when 't was told him that there were seven of them advised the Votary to commit Adultery once more and repeat the whole number may seem a very severe act of Discipline and besides a full atonement for past sins supererogation for future ones So that Vice being brought to this easie rate besides all other mis-adventures unless we will stand for the honour of being Cuckolds and have our Posterity share the Title which is proverbial in Popish Countries to be fils de Prestre it will concern us to look about us while 't is time and prevent these vile dishonours which are preparing for us If it shall be said that 't is not imaginable men should pervert so sacred an action as the receiving of Confessions to those purposes of villany that are suggested I answer first That we may without breach of Charity suppose that thing possibly to be done which is notoriously known to have been done as also that the horror of the crime is competently allayed by their Doctrine who think only Marriage and not Fornication inconsistent with the dignity of a Clergy-man And therefore the Nephews of great Clergy-men and Popes have in all Ages been owned and preferred and moreover fornication has been allowed to Priests and Friers in in compensation for their restraint from marriage three or four Whores as part of their spiritual preferment I say all this being put together there will be little hopes to preserve honour in Families where so many circumstances concur together to betray it XI After all this there still remains a farther reason why we should resist the groath of Popery even the most pressing that can be urged Self-preservation to avoid Imprisonment and Inquisition Fire and Fagot