Kings nomination and refused to Consecrate others named by him At which the King as he had good reason being angry banished him out of his Kingdom But how this was resented at Rome and what troubles ensued thereupon to this Realm the Historians of that Age have sadly recorded After Henry the First came Stephen and after him Henry the Second A potent and warlike Prince who besides England held Normandy Anjou Poitou c. Yet this potent King was strangely disquieted by Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury A man abundantly stored with an ambitious turbulent and ungrateful Spirit as appeared by his disowning the Investiture of the King by whose favour and bounty he was promoted and receiving his Pall from the Pope At which the King being enraged exiled him out of him Dominions but he fled to Rome the Sanctuary in those days always open for such Traitors where he was not only entertained to the great grief of the King but countenanced encouraged and bid hearthy welcom by Pope Alexander the Third who vindicated the quarrel for indeed it was his own at so high a rate that this great Prince partly through necessity and fear of the power of the Keys which made wonderful clinking in those times and partly being perswaded by some Prelates Matth. Paris In Hen. Secund. p. 117. gave this Archbishop a meeting in hopes of a reconciliation at Froncevaux and did that which no man would have believed for he held the Bridle of Beckets horse and that proud Prelate not contented to have received the honour once alighted on purpose that the King should pay him submission twice as he also did Thus that Priest practised Apostolick humility After this Triumph highly applauded at Rome Becket returned into England full of glory Where instead of bringing Peace he was the Bearer and Proclaimer of an Excommunication and Sentence of deposition of the Archbishop of York and his Adherents for Crowning the young King in his absence The King being in Normandy and hearing of these procedures of the Archbishops sent four of his Attendants to require him to absolve those he had so unjustly excommunicated and take off his Suspensions from others Which command he refusing to obey the King began to lament his condition This moved the same four whom he had sent before to return into England and finding the Archbishop in the Church of Canterbury some say at the High Altar at three a clockiin the Afternoon calling him Traitor slew him No sooner did the news of this arrive King Henry still in Normandy but he shew'd a great deal of sorrow for it and though he protested his innocency as to the fact yet he sent an Embassie to the Pope to make satisfaction But the testy old man was so enraged that he would not so much as vouchsafe his Embassadours to kiss his feet but in great wrath spake of Interdicting the whole Kingdom which in those days was looked upon as the sending all the English into Hell The dread of which forced this Magnanimous King to buy his Absolution at a dear rate acquitting not only his right of investing but likewise engaging to keep two hundred men of Arms in pay for the service of the Holy War and the Popes Assigns to be the receivers And to make the satifaction compleat the Majesty of this great Monarch to the wonder of the world must be so far debased as to be stript naked and whipt by a company of Monks And that such Rebels as Becket might never want encouragement in succeeding Ages the Pope did not only defend him whilst he lived but Canoniz'd him when he was dead King Henry being gathered to his Fathers his Son Richard surnamed Cor de Lion succeeded him not only in his Throne but in his troubles too That Prince for the better securing Normandy was resolved to fortifie the Castle of Andeli See Mat. Paris p. 175. At which Walter Archbishop of Rouen being displeased immediately Interdicts all Normandy and flies to Rome where he found as kind entertainment as ever Becket did And now what must the King do Alas submit to contest was in vain for such was the fear of an Interdict in those times that there was nothing which the Pope could not obtain of Princes and Nations if he did but threaten them with it But above all that in the Reign of King John was the most dismal when England remained under the Interdict six years three months and an half Not only the King and his Court but all the People of the Nation were Excommunicated and that not for Heresie not for any Crime of theirs but for a quarrel between the King and the Pope about Investitures Collations and Money matters Matth. Paris in Johan p. 217. Then saith Matthew Paris who was an Eye-witness of all that disorder all the Sacraments of the Church ceased in England saving only the Confession and Communion of the Host in the last necessity and Baptism of little Children Then were the Dead carried out of Towns as if they had been Dogs and buried in High-ways and Ditches without Prayers and without Service of Priests Yet this not producing the end it was designed for the Balaam of Rome proceeds to curse the King by name and finally to pronounce sentence of Deposition against him discharging all his Subjects of their Oaths of Allegiance and sends his Legat to Philip Angust King of France that for the remission of his sins he should invade the Realm of England with force of Arms and giving to all those that would attend him in that Conquest forgiveness of all theirs and the same graces as to them that visit the Holy Sepulchre Whereupon Philip to obtain pardon of his sins or rather to make himself Master of this Land raised a mighty Army whilst Innocent by his Creatures was labouring to engage the English against their own King By this means King John was strangely and suddenly weakned and utterly disabled to hold his Kingdom and seeing strong invasions from without and daily revoltings within to open Insurrections and every man now counted a Saint and Martyr that would fight against him and considering that the Popes Bulls like Magick Spells had let loose many turbulent Spirits not to be laid again but by him that raised them After much debate and with a heart full of anguish and rage at last resolves to prostitute his Crown and Dignity to Pandulph the Legate that he might receive it again from him as from the Popes hands and be protected by him Thus the Pope taking advantage of this poor Princes misery made him a Vassal to his own greatness and his Kingdom a prop to uphold St. Peters Chair For these pretended Successors of that great Apostle fish not for Souls but for Empire even with the destruction of Millions if their own Doctrine be true which says that all that die under the Interdict without some special grace or priviledge and that not to be had without ready
money are eternally damned as dying out of the Communion of the Church So that if St. Peter should now come to his Successor in his old tone Silver and Gold have I none if he were a thousand Peters he must into Purgatory How many Millions then of Souls did this Innocent the Pope wilfully send to Hell in this great Kingdom of England in the Space of above six years And this for no offence no fault of theirs For what could they do if the King would not be ruled by the Pope Are these the actions of the Vicar of Christ Is this the kind Father of the Church Is this the way of managing the Keys Yes he that consults the Reigns of our succeeding Kings from the time of King John to our own which would make me too great a debtor to your patience particularly to relate shall find that no stone has been left unturn'd no policies though never so horrid have not been put in execution to reduce this Nation to that miserable slavery they had once imposed upon it For it is not for the Points of true Doctrine but for Wealth and Grandeur for the setting up of their visible Monarchy of the Church whereof Christ and his Apostles never spake a word and of which the Primitive Fathers never dreamt they so much contend Henry the Eighth held all the Doctrinal Points of the Romish Religion yet for rejecting the Jurisdiction of Rome was Excommunicated by the Pope his Subjects commanded to deny obedience and all men to take Arms against him This is it which if our Religion would allow Pius IV. Hist Conc. Trid. lib. 8. p. 7.5 they would allow of our Religion The Politick rather than Pious Pope said once Since he could not regain the Protestants it was necessary to keep those in obedience which he had to make the division strong and the parties irreconcilable Conformable whereunto their now Doctrine is that such as submit not to the Popes Supremacy do renounce Christianity When the Fires of Queen Maries bloudy Reign could not do this work how many Plots were laid against the life of Queen Elizabeth that Queen of blessed memory by whose gracious hand God wrought those wonders that the most potent Kings can hardly reach Honour filled the Circle of her Crown her brow with Majesty her heart with Piety and her lap with Plenty Yet how execrable were the Treasons against that glorious Defender of the Faith and of her Royal Rights When neither the Dagger nor the Poyson could reach her Sacred Person an invincible Armado as they themselves stiled it must be sent to invade England three Popes having made way for the Sword by three roaring Bulls which dethroned the Queen and commanded her Subjects to take Arms against her But when the invincible Army had lost that name being defeated by the powerful Arm of God other Armies were poured from time to time into Ireland ever prone to Rebel When all those effects were frustrated God blessing England because the Popes cursed it and Elizabeth full of days and glory was translated from a Temporal to an Eternal Diadem her peaceful Successor Defender of the same holy Faith must be welcomed to his Throne by a Mandate of Clement the VIII declaring him unworthy to sit there as an Heretick and forbidding his Subjects to obey him When all that would not effect the desired end to make short work such a device is excogitated as nothing but Rome and the Devil could have invented And now they are resolved on that desperate Cry Incendium extinguatur ruina the King and his Royal Issue Lords and Commons all the flower and vigour of the Kingdom must be blown up sent to heaven before the Resurrection Bloudy Priests that would have offered a whole burnt Sacrifice and made both Prince and Peers pass through the fire an oblation to their Moloch of Rome And as for our late King of blessed memory that Prince in whose breast all those Vertues Centred which severally had commended the great Monarchs of former Ages Was he not beholden as it is now apparent to his Holiness for raising all those storms of Rebellion upon the face of his calm Government hoping in those troubled waters to have catch'd that Fish he had been Angling for so many Ages Indeed the large claim of St. Peters Regalities has been for these last six hundred years the cause of all the Corruptions of Faith and Religion of all the Confusions and Distractions of all the Seditions and Rebellions in the West of the world And we of this Island by sad experience have been taught that this is the great Wheel that sets those Mischiefs Plots and Treasons on going wherewith the State hath been so many times shaken torn and brought to the brink of ruine For when hot-headed Zealots are really perswaded that the Pope has power to depose Emperours and Kings that oppose him and absolve Subjects from their Allegiance to them and this believed as absolutely necessary to Salvation what Royal bloud will they spare What attempt be it never so cruel never so unjust never so difficult will they not assay to bring their Country under the Popes subjection and to promote his Universal Monarchy Or can it be expected they will desist from endeavouring its reducement though after the most inhumane and barbarous way that any thing but Rome and Hell ever thought of so long as the Pope whose slaves they are is himself a slave to his own cruel and illimited Ambition which to satiate all the Kingdoms and all the bloud in the world are too little And never was it more evident more apparent to the world than in this late discovered Conspiracy against our most gracious Sovereign what their resolutions are and what both King and People must expect from the Roman Prelate whose malice never sleeps nor whose Agents never rest to work his Ruine so that he may say of them and justly too as King David did of his They are minded to do me some mischief so maliciously are they bent against me But we will pass from their Malice and Policy to a consideration of their Might and Power the next in order The mighty men are gathered against me The mighty alas he is such in the Superlative degree that is enemy to his Majesty if you will believe him for this he that asserts that all Empires and Scepters are at his dispose As Pius the Fifth taught the People of this Kingdom in express words in the Bull of Deprivation which he thundred against Queen Elizabeth And to make this good to the world and to shew the height of his Pride Pope Celestine crowned Henry the Sixth Emperour of that name with his feet and kickt it off when he had done making no less than an Emperours Crown his Foot-ball Gregory the Seventh made Henry the Fourth pay attendance at his Gates in Winter four days bare-footed And Alexander the Third with an insulting scorn trode on the Neck
acknowledgments Yet these must be cried up for the Vertuoso's the Wits of the Age. It is strange it was not so thought of old and let who will admire them David sets a Fools Cap upon their heads Psal xiv 1. The fool hath said in his heart there is no God that is as the word there signifies no Judge no Providence and I hope you will not think the term uncivil it is not mine but his And would they but have recourse to their own Consciences consult those indeleble Letters there engraven and never to be rased out they must however puft up with pride and aiming to be singular and different in Paradoxism from all the world acknowledge that there is a good providence over them that orders all the Affairs of the world from the least to the greatest from Crowns and Scepters to the falling of a Sparrow on the ground and the very numbring of their hairs and joyn with holy David and say Vnto thee O my strength will I sing For thou O God art my refuge and my merciful God Having taken a view of Davids Innocency and the malice of his Enemies together with Gods delivering of him and his thankfulness Let me now beg your patience and attention to see how our gracious King runs parallel not only with him in his dangers but in his deliverances too And first as David having been oft delivered not only from the private designs of his Enemies but when their Rebellion was grown to that height and power as to force him from his Throne was brought back again by the powerful arm of Heaven had good reason to stile the Almighty not only God but his God So surely no Prince since Adams Creation ever had greater proofs of an Omnipotent Protection than our now mest gracious Sovereign How diligent how vigilant was Heaven in the securing of him when our Nation was in a flame of Rebellion from his Enemies who prized his destruction more than their own preservation And had not a more than ordinary Providence provided for his escape how had his Royal bloud been sacrificed as an Allay to their unheard-of Cruelty But above all that of his miraculous Restauration when his Adversaries thought themselves in secure possession when Church and State Religion and Learning Laws and Liberty were not only in danger but already devoured in the hope and expectation of his Enemies when Atheism and Ignorance were in a full and fierce torrent breaking in upon his Dominions and we his Subjects at the very brink of a remediless Confusion fit Objects either for the pity or the scorn of the World as they stood affected to us then even then when nothing but faith and that of the taller sort too could see any appearance of him did Heaven to the wonder and amazement of the world place him on the Throne of his Fathers All which may justly intitle him when in danger as well as David to say Deliver me O my God for lo they lie waiting for my Soul Now for Policy the next Parallel his Majesties Enemies that lie waiting for his Soul clearly out-vie and out-do King Davids Alas they in those more early days of Impiety were never acquainted with such contrivances and stratagems as the old Gentleman of Rome by his Agents the Jesuits teaches his Creatures in these of ours Who put on all the formalities of Religion and merit when they intend to murther Making good that Prediction of our ever blessed Saviour They shall kill you and think they do God good service And have they not turned their Pens into Pen-knives multiplied the School into a Camp Arguments to Armies teaching all their Proselytes dismal Conclusions Indeed what mask do they not make use of to destroy and promote faction Observing that Maxim of their old Roman Masters Divide impera and to this end have they not been nay are they not Presbyterians Anabaptists Libertines Pagans any thing so they be not Subjects Most if not all the storms that have been raised in Christendom since Charlemains time are owing to the Pope and his Ministers And I hope it will be no digression for the King of England never dies to let you see how industrious they have been in all Ages to bring this Nation under the Romish slavery ten times worse than that of Egypt And though our Kings have been more kind and generous Vassals than any of their Neighbours though they were as obedient Sons as any that ever owned St. Peters Keys as liberal in their erecting and endowing Churches and Monasteries as any Princes in the world as the many stately and magnificent Structures before the hammers of their own impieties rung their passing-knels in each corner of the Land did and their ruines still do sufficiently witness yet none have been so ungratefully requited as they No Crown suffered so much ignominy and bondage under the Tyranny of the Roman Prelate as this of England For no sooner had the munificent Monarchs of this Nation built so many famous Fabricks but the Pope claimed the investing and Collating of them Not that the Church might be better provided for but that by Bribery and Simony he might enrich his Treasury of which though many instances might be given let that of Walter Gray set down by a Monk of their own speak for all the rest Matth. Paris in Johan p. 263. who for his investiture at Rome obliged himself to pay to the Pope ten thousand pounds sterling in those days enough for a Kings Ransom This was the end for which the Pope had used so many Policies taking the advantage of the necessities of Kings and their rebellious Subjects This was it for which so much bloud had been shed for which above an hundred set Battels were fought since Gregory VII This was it for which those that suffered in the Popes claim for it were stiled Martyrs put into the List of Saints and were sure to do Miracles after their death This was it which made Vrban the Second espouse the Interest of Anselm who was fled from his own Prince William Rufus and liking the prudence of that Fugitive made use of his Counsel and gave him the Archbishops Pall thereby voiding the Investiture he had received from the King his Master and obliging him with the gift of that he had nothing to do with to a dependency on him And what disturbances followed both to King and State Matth. Paris in Guliel Rufo the above-cited Monk has largely set down Neither did this quarrel die with Vrban and King William for no sooner had Henry the First of that name ascended the Throne and Paschal the Second seated himself in St. Peters Chair but he justified as well as his Predecessor the Archbishop in his Rebellion against his Sovereign and sends him a Mandate to declare that no Lay man should have power to confer any Investiture Upon which this Bishop devoted to the Roman Interest began to degrade his Brethren promoted by the