violently urged by the Jesuits above all others excepting that Society whose rich Colleges and abundance of Treasure made it apparent quickly to the World that some were great gainers while the poor Lay-Catholicks were made great sufferers by that Recusancy Upon Campian's Execution England grew too hot for our Father Parsons and notwithstanding the mighty zeal he pretended for the Conversion of England yet he was for saving one and getting out of harms way and therefore slips away back into France under the Pretext of conferring with Doctor Allen about the Seminaries and of Printing some Books which could not be done in England and never returned hither tho' he continued Superiour of the Jesuits Mission after this But though the Kingdom was delivered from such a Firebrand yet he continued diligent beyond Seas in his Seditious Designs and was to the last a constant Enemy to his Native Countrey As he had laboured in the promoting the Popish Recufancy and getting the English Papists to be governed by the Jesuits so he now employs all his Arts and all his interest to get Seminaries erected for the supplying England from time to time with Priests to keep up that Recufancy and to prepare the Papists here to joyn with any Invasion that they abroad should procure against their own Countrey Assoon as he was got hence to Roan in France he dealt with the Duke of Guise to erect a Seminary for such a purpose in Normandy after which he goes into Spain and prevails with King Philip to encourage and erect such in Spain so that in a short time they could not only boast of their Seminaries at Rome and at Rhemes but of those at Valladolid at Sevil at St. Lucars in Spain at Lisbon in Portugal at Doway and St. Omers in Flanders in all which their Youth were educated with violent Prejudices against their own Native Countrey and their minds were formed to all the Purposes and Designs which this chief Incendiary Parsons had in his head Father Moor the Author of the History of the Mission does indeed tell us That Father Parsons was for having the Youth that were entered into these Seminaries to take an Oath about faithfully answering the End and Benefit of their Education there but says not a word of their being forced to subscribe the Infanta of Spain's Title against the True Title of the then King of Scots King James the First The Oath was this IN. N. considering with how great benefits God hath blessed me c. do promise by God's assistance to enter into Holy Orders assoon as I shall be fit for them and to return into England to Convert my Countrey-men there whenever it shall please the Superior of this House to command me But when once Father Parsons being puffed up with his Familiarity with the King and Court of Spain had devoted his Soul and Body both to the service of that aspiring Crown then he was for having the Youth in the Seminaries to subscribe to the Spanish Title which was of his own inventing to the Crown of England then he was for speaking out his design against his Native Countrey And that he dealt in such traiterous designs after his getting out of England is proved upon him by their own Writers As touching the Colleges says Clark the Priest concerning him and Pensions that are maintained and given by the Spaniard which he so often inculcateth we no whit thank him for them as things are handled and occasions thereby ministred of our greater Persecution at home by reason of Father Parson's treacherous practices thereby to promote the Spanish Title to our Country and his hateful Stratagems with such Scholars as are there brought up enforcing them to subscribe to Blanks and by publick Orations to fortifie the said wrested Title of the Infanta meaning Isabella Clara Eugenia Daughter to Philip the Second of Spain whose Right to the English Crown was maintain'd in a Book by this Parsons made but published by him under the false name of Doleman As this Priest gives us an account of the zeal of Father Parsons for the Infanta so Watson another Romish Priest helps us to another of his knavery about the same affair That Parsons earnestly moving the young Students in Spain to set their hands to a Schedule that they would accept the Lady Infanta for Queen of England after the decease of her Majesty to wit Queen Elizabeth that now is but finding them altogether unwilling to intermedle with these State-affairs belonging nothing to them and most hurtful to both their Cause and Persons used this cunning shift to draw on the innocent and simple youths to pretend forsooth to them of Valladolid that the Students in Sevil had done it already no remedy then but they must follow And that having thus craftily gotten their names he shewed them to the Students in Sevil for an example of their fact and forwardness which he required them to imitate Though these are sufficient Evidences of the use Father Parsons put the erected Seminaries to yet I cannot but add that great and wise Cardinal the Cardinal d'Ossat's account of these very Seminaries in his Letter to the King of France Henry the Fourth about the Spaniards and Father Parsons Design against England For this purpose also says he were the Colleges and Seminaries erected by the Spaniards for the English at Doway and at St. Omers wherein the young Gentlemen of the best Families in England are entertain'd thereby to oblige them and by them their Parenâ—â— and Kindred and Friends The principal care which these Colleges and Seminaries have is to catechise and bring up these young English Gentlemen in this Faith and firm Belief that the late King of Spain had and that his Children now have the true Right of Succession to the Crown of England and that this is advantageous and expedient for the Catholick Faith not only in England but where-ever Christianity is And when these young English Gentlemen have finished their Humanity-Studies and are come to such an age then to make them throughly Spaniards they are carried out of the Low-Countries into Spain where there are other Colleges for them wherein they are instructed in Philosophy and Divinity and confirmed in the same Belief and holy Faith that the Kingdom of England did belong to the late King of Spain and does now to his Children After that these young English Gentlemen have finished their courses those of them that are found to be most Hispaniolized and most couragious and firm to this Spanish Creed are sent into England to sow this Faith among them to be Spies and give advice to the Spaniards of what is doing in England and what must and ought to be done to bring England into the Spaniards hands and if need be to undergo Martyrdom as soon or rather sooner for this Spanish Faith than for the Catholick Religion In this Cardinal we find to what excellent purposes the Seminaries were erected that Father Parsons laboured
so much about and of which he glories so much up and down his Writings These Seminaries were the Nurseries of the Conspiracies and Treasons which were from time to time set on foot and carried on against the Queen and Realm of England and Father Parson 's whole Life from his leaving the Mission in England appears to me to have been one continued Act of Treason against his Natural Queen and Native Country To mention some of his Treasons that are come to light he was very grateful to the Duke of Guise whom he had perswaded to set up a Seminary in France for the English that should come thither for with him he conspires against his own Queen how to depose her and set up in her room Popery and the Queen of Scots He endeavoured for this purpose as we are told to make a List of Catholicks which under the conduct of the Duke of Guise should have changed the State of the Kingdom using for it the pretence of the Title of Queen Mary of Scotland But that her Council at Paris which understood business better were so sensible of his boldness that they took from him the Queen's Cypher which he had purloyned and commanded him never more to meddle in her affairs But notwithstanding these People would not let our Father Parsons have any thing further to do in those treasons which were really carried on at that time for the Queen of Scots yet he pretended to mighty merit upon her and her Son's Account in his Letter to Father Chreyton the Jesuit telling him how many long and tedious journeys he had taken for their sakes and how much Mony he had procured for them at one time twenty four thousand Crowns from the King of Spain at another time the same summ and from Pope Gregory XIII four thousand Crowns he confesses indeed that things had not succeeded for them as he had wished but wonders that any body should make him to be an Enemy to the King of Scots who had been so very serviceable to him and his Mother I suppose Father Parsons was disgusted at this sleighting of his faithful services to the Queen of Scots by her Ministers and to be revenged of her and them betakes himself wholly into the Spanish Interest which he espoused so far as not only to sollicite and encourage their open attempts by Invasion against England but after the ill success of that to set up their sham Title to the Kingdom of England He and Cardinal Allen whom Parsons had by his Interest with the King of Spain procured to be made a Cardinal two Brethren in iniquity were mighty forward for the famous Spanish Invasion in 1588. and to make it more successful wrote in defence of it a Tract which Allen was perswaded to own though Parsons had as great if not a greater hand in it than himself In this Admonition to the Nobility and People of England the Queen's Government is called impious and unjust her self an Usurper obstinate and impentinent and it is affirmed that for this reason Pope Sixtus Quintus moved by his own and his Predecessors zeal and the vehement desire of some principal Englishmen had used great diligence with divers Princes especially with the Spanish King to use all his force that she might be turned out of her Dominions and her Adherents punished for a great many Reasons there laid together after which it proceeds thus Wherefore seeing these Offences some of them rendring her uncapable of the Kingdom others unworthy to live his Holiness by the power of God and the Apostles reneweth the Censures of Pius V. and Gregory XIII against her excommunicates and deprives her of all Royal Dignity Titles Rights and Pretences to England and Ireland declares her Illegitimate and an Usurper of the Kingdoms and absolves all her Subjects from their Obedience and Oaths of Allegiance due to her And expressly commands All under pain and penalty of God's Wrath to yield her no obedience aid or favour whatsoever but to employ all their power against her and to joyn themselves with the Spanish Forces who will not hurt the Nation nor alter their Laws or Priviledges only punish the wicked Hereticks And by the same Presents it was declared not only lawful but commendable to lay hands on the said Usurper and other her Adherents for doing of which they should be well rewarded And lastly to all these Roman Assistants is liberally granted a plenary Indulgence and Remission of all their Sins But this unerring Thunderbolt as well as the Spanish Invincible Armado did very shamefully miscarry to the no small disappointment of our good Father Parsons who was not discouraged at that defeat though a worse Man than himself if any such could be would have seen the Finger of God plainly in it but labours with the King of Spain a while after for a second Invasion and after that for a third plotting and devising all ways to bring the King of Spain to it and the Papists of England both those at home and the fugitives abroad to joyn and assist the King of Spain in it but all his pains was lost about these Invasions from abroad and therefore he next sets himself to raise a Rebellion in England it self and deals with Ferdinand Earl of Derby to appear in and â—ead it which because he declined to do he was poysoned by Father Hesketh's procurement who had been sent to him by Father Parsons But failing here also of the desired success the poor Father was now at a loss what to do with this Kingdom of England and since he saw all miscarried that he had plotted against Queen Elizabeth who descended to her Grave full of years and honour his next business was to keep out King James who was a Protestant also from succeding her For this purpose he wrote his Doleman or Conference about the next Succession to the Crown of England the chief design of which was to exclude the Scotch Title as well the Lady Arabella's as King James's and to set up the Spanish Infanta I know Mr. Camden will have Cardinal Allen and Sir Francis Inglefield to have their shares in this Book but Cardinal d'Ossat who had far better opportunities of finding out the Author makes it to be Parson's own and in one of his Letters to the King of France gives that King an account of it wherein he gives our Jesuit the true Character he deserved of being a fellow that regarded neither truth nor reason One thing I cannot but remark here that though this Jesuit had the Impudence to meddle in these matters and to set up forged Titles against the Royal Line of Scotland yet when King James contrary to their Popish designs as well as Expectations did quietly succeed to the Crown of England he had the greater Impudence to deny his ever intending to exclude that King this is in the Preface to his Three Conversions of England added upon the news of the Queens Death and
Succession of the King of Scotland to the Crown of England And as for the person says he to the English Catholicks now advanced I know most certainly that there was never any doubt or difference among you but that ever you desired his advancement above all others as the only Heir of that renowned Mother for whom your fervent zeal is known to the World and how much you have suffered by her adversaries for the same Yet do I confess that touching the disposition of the person for the place and manner of his advancement all zealous Catholicks have both wished and prayed that he might first be a Catholick and then our King this being our bounded duty to wish and his greatest good to be obtained for him And to this end and no other I assure my self hath been directed whatsoever may have been said written or done by any Catholick which with some others might breed disgust Thus the Jesuit thought to pacifie King James's Court by a piece of Impudence to be met with only in a Jesuit whoever will be at the pains to compare Parson's Doleman with this Preface cannot but declare him to be the greatest Villain that ever set Pen to Paper and to have lost all sense of Modesty Truth and Justice Amidst these his Projects for the Spanish Interest he had hopes upon the death of Cardinal Allen to be made by the Spanish Interest a Cardinal for England and there was set about in Flanders by Holt the Jesuit and Worthington a Petition to the King of Spain for that purpose subscribed by the Common Soldiers Labourers Artizans and Pensioners nay Scullions and Laundresses as well as by those of better rank and quality Upon this Father Parsons makes haste out of Spain to Rome to hinder it as the Jesuits say for him when he came thither upon a day set him he waited on the Pope and acquainted him how the City was full of the discourse of his being shortly to be made a Cardinal and that Spain and Flanders rung with it too and therefore begged of him that he would not think of making him a Cardinal who might be more serviceable in the condition he was now in to the affairs of England The Pope told him That the King of Spain had not written a syllable to him about any such thing and that he must not mind foolish Reports and bid him go and mind his studies I cannot but think that this neglect in the King of Spain lost him Father Parsons who soon after though he could not leave of plotting went on other designs four of which he seems to have had on foot together for the Exclusion of King James from the Crown of England The most improbable one was that of the Peoples rising and setting up a popular Government he had furnished them with Principles in several of his Books for this purpose In the Second and Third he dealt with the Pope either about making if his Purse and Interest were large enough his Kinsman the Duke of Parma King or in joyning with the Lady Arabella's Interest and marrying her to the Duke's Brother the Cardinal Farnese whom he had made upon the death of Cardinal Cajetan Protector of England thereby to ingratiate him with the Clergy and Laity of this Kingdom Cardinal d'Ossat gives a very large account of both these Projects in the Letter whcih I have already quoted to the King of France And in another of his Letters he gives an account of the fourth Project wherein he himself had been dealt with by Parsons then Rector of the College of Jesuits at Rome which was that the Pope the King of France and King of Spain should agree among themselves of a Successor for England that should be a Catholick and that they should joyn their Forces to settle him in the Throne of England Thus we see how Plotting and Treason was the whole business of this Jesuit's Life in which he was so notorious that Pasquin set him forth thus at Rome If there be any Man that will buy the Kingdom of England let him repair to a Merchant in a black square Cap in the City and he shall have a very good penniworth thereof While he thus filled his head with designs and hopes of a Popish Prince to be set up in England by some of these foreign Princes it was that he drew up the following Memorial for that his Prince his Directions to whom are like his other Counsels and Actions I will trouble the Reader with no more of his History As I take the Jesuits to be the very worst of Men so I think the preceeding accounts have proved Father Parsons to be the very worst of Jesuits A MEMORIAL OF THE REFORMATION of ENGLAND CONTAINING Certain Notes and Advertisements which seem might be proposed in the First Parliament and National Council of our Country after God of his mercy shall restore it to the Catholick Faith for the better Establishment and Preservation of the said Religion Gathered and set-down by R.P. 1596. THE PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR SHEWING How and why these Notes were gathered and the principal Parts to be treated THE Notes and Observations of this Memorative following were gathered and laid together in time of Persecution when there was no place to execute or put them in ure and it is no more than seventeen or eighteen Years past that the Gatherer began first to put some of them in writing and having had the experience of the Years which have ensued since and his part also in the Catholic affairs of his Country and the Practice of divers other Catholic Nations abroad he was desirous in case that himself should not live to see the desired day of the Reduction of England yet some of his Cogitations and Intentions for the publick good thereof might work some effect after his Death and that thereby other Men might be the sooner moved to enter into more mature Considerations of these and such like Points yea and also to descend unto many more particulars than here are set down For that the Gatherer's meaning was only to open the way and to insinuate certain general and principal Heads that might serve for an awaking and remembrance at that happy day of the Conversion of our Country unto such Persons as shall be then able and desirous to further the common good and to advance Almighty God's Glory with a Holy Zeal of perfect Reformation who perhaps may be so entangled with multitudes of other business and Cogitations at that time as they will not so easily enter into these except they be put in mind thereof by some such Memorials and Advertisements as here are touched And what is said in this Treatise for the Kingdom of England is meant also for Ireland so far as it may do good seeing the Author desireth as much benefit for God's Service and the good of that Nation to the one Country as to the other And for that the principal
been perverted by dissolution of Life and Heresie they have brought her into more misery infamy and confusion within the compass of few years than all other Christian Kingdoms round about us together Wherefore the principal help and hope next under God which our poor afflicted Country hath or may have of her redress is by means of her good Catholick Prince that God of his Mercy shall vouchsafe to give us who also considering the great work whereunto he is called shall in no wise be able better to satisfie his Obligation and Duty to God and the Expectation of all good Men and to assure his own Possession and Estate than to make account that the security of himself his Crown and Successor dependeth principally of the assurance and good establishment of the Catholick Roman Religion within his Kingdom and whatsoever is done or permitted against this Religion is not only against Jesus Christ our Saviour and his Spouse his Catholick Church but also against every Catholick Prince as his supream Minister and much more against the King of England as things do now stand both for Religion and Estate First of all then is to be recommended with all humility and earnest suit unto his Majesty that shall be established the singular care and holy zeal of restoring perfectly the Catholick Religion in our Realm and to employ his whole endeavour and authority therein and to concur and assist with his Princely favour and special Protection all such Men as principally shall labour therein and above other the Council of Reformation the Prelates Preachers and Clergy of his Realm and by example of his own Royal Person in frequenting the Holy Sacraments and other pious Actions of Religion and Devotion to animate all other his Subjects and foreign Princes also and Countries about him to whom he will in these our times be a remarkable mirrour to imitate the same and this for his own Person But concerning his Majesty's Council both in Spiritual and Temporal affairs it will import also exceeding much that he make choice of fit and worthy persons And for the first which is in matters concerning conscience the pious custom of some Catholick Kings and namely those of Portugal in times past is greatly to be commended who besides their Temporal Council had also another of learned Spiritual Men named the Table of Conscience in taking any thing in hand and execution of the same And for this Council they were wont to make choice as I have said of some number of eminent and learned Men and also notorious for their Piety and good Consciences whether they were of Religious Orders or no and the head or chief of these commonly the King 's own Confessor who might with more security by council and assistance of these able Men direct the King's mind with safety of Conscience And whatsoever Prince shall take this course no doubt but he shall find great help light comfort security and quietness of Mind thereby And as for the World abroad it must needs be a singular great justification of all his acts intention and attempts in the eyes and tongues of all Men seeing he doth them by the direction of so irreprehensible a Consultation His Temporal Council shall be needful to be made with great choice and deliberation especially at the beginning in England for that if any one person thereof should be either infected with Heresie or justly suspected or not fervent nor forward in the Catholick Religion and in the Reformation necessary to be made for good establishment of the same it would be to the great prejudice of the cause and of his Majesty and Realm And seeing Heresie and Hereticks could be so vigilant for overthrowing of true Religion at the beginning of this Queen's Reign as they admitted no one Man to govern whom they might suspect to favour true-Religion how much more zealous and jealous ought our new Catholick Prince to be in excluding from his Privy Council and other places of chief charge and government not only Men known or justly feared to be favourers of Heresie and Hereticks that will never be secure to God or his Majesty but also â—old and doubtful professors of Catholick Religion until they be proved by long tract of time And seeing that his Majesty shall have so great choice at that day of approved constant Catholicks within the Realm as never was seen the like since our first Conversion who have suffered so constantly at the hands of Hereticks in these Persecutions it is to be hoped and expected that his Majesty will serve himself first and chiefly of these men above all others according to their merits and after these of such other known Catholicks as albeit God gave them not fortitude and constancy to suffer so much as the others did for Religion yet were they ever secret favourers and never Persecutors or open Enemies to the truth It is to be commended with like submission and instance to his Majesty that after he shall have taken the Crown upon him and embraced this Realm as his loving Spouse he will confirm first of all the Laws Customs Priviledges Dignities and Liberties of the same and to take away all such burdens servitudes and unjust oppressions as have been any way laid upon us in former times but since the entrance of Heresie And as this is to be done to all the Realm as to the Nobility and to the Commonalty so principally and above others it is reason that it should be performed to the Church and Clergy-men who beyond all others have been injured in these latter times so that at the least it will be just that the Church of England be restored to the same state of Priviledges Possessions Dignities and Exemptions wherein it was when King Henry the Eighth began to Reign And for that the external face and material part of our Churches hath been so much defaced spoiled and broken down by King Henry the Eighth and his Children as all the World seeth it will be one principal part of our new King's Piety and Religion to concur effectually to the rebuilding and restoring of the same again by the means touched by me before of that moderate and temperate manner of restitution whereof I have spoken largely in the First Part of this Memorial And it is to be hoped that his Majesty will be the first and most fervent fartherer of the same according to the Holy Obligation Vow and Offer that he will make to Almighty God for that Heroical enterprise to his eternal honour and infinite benefit and beautifying of our Commonwealth Which sound Foundation of Religion and Piety being once laid it may be suggested to his Majesty with like sollicitude touching the execution of Justice to all Men with indifferency which is the principal point of a true Catholick Prince's Office next after God and Religion and is so much the more necessarily to be looked to now in England after so long
THE JESUIT'S MEMORIAL FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE Church of England THE JESUIT'S MEMORIAL For the Intended Reformation of England Under their First POPISH PRINCE PUBLISHED From the Copy that was presented TO THE Late KING JAMES II. WITH An INTRODUCTION and some ANIMADVERSIONS BY EDWARD GEE Rector of St. Benedict Paul's-Wharf and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXC To the Right Reverend Father in God WILLIAM Lord Bishop of S. ASAPH Lord Almoner to Their MAJESTIES My Lord IT was a very easie thing for me to determine to whom I should present the following Discourses as it was from your Lordship's Sermon before Their Majesties the last 5th of November that I had the hint of your Lordship's having seen the Memorial that we had sought but in vain so earnestly after in the late King's Time so it was by your Lordship's Interest that I obtained not only the happiness of seeing it but the permission to publish it from the most authentick if not the only Copy in England from that which had been presented by the Jesuits to the late King James himself And since my Lord Decency requires the concealing from whose hands your Lordship received this Copy of the Memorial and the Leave for me to publish it it was necessary for me to address it to your Lordship from whose hands I received it that thereby any Objections against my Fidelity or Truth herein may be prevented as all will when my Lord Almoner's Name is seen at the Head of it Some indeed will wonder to see a Jesuit's Book dedicated by a Minister of the Church of England to a Bishop that hath been always most zealous against Popery and especially against the Jesuits Order to such persons I hope this Apology will be sufficient I am sure it will be to your Lordship that I publish this Jesuit's Memorial because I am fully perswaded that I am by it doing a greater service to the Protestant Interest against Popery than I was ever able to do by any thing I wrote against Popery during the Controversie in the late Reign In this Memorial we have naked Jesuitism and the several Projects laid down by which our Protestant Religion was not only to have been rooted out of England but the very possibility of its ever reviving here prevented and this I hope will teach some of the discontented People among us to acknowledge at least that our danger from the Jesuits Faction in the last Reign was as great as we made it and that our Deliverance by their present Majesties was a far greater blessing upon the account of our Protestant Establishment than they have hitherto been pleased to believe it I have had so much experience of your Lordship's goodness towards me that I do not in the least suspect your pardoning me the trouble of this Address Had I had no other reasons to make it the many favours I have received at your Lordship's hands would have engaged me to make this publick acknowledgment for them since I cannot but reckon it one of the greatest blessings of my Life that I have the honour to be known to your Lordship who are so eminent for your extraordinary Learning Piety Charity and Moderation I mention your Lordship's Moderation because some Men of late have been pleased to be very angry with your Lordship for it had your Lordship and those Eminent Persons that continued of your Judgment been as willing to part with Episcopacy as with the Apocrypha and as desirous to lay aside the whole Liturgy as they were to improve it I should have excused their anger against you for which I can see no other reason in the World but that your Lordship and those of your Mind could not forget so fast and so entirely as some others did their discourses their promises and intentions about accommodating matters with the Moderate Dissenters as well as giving ease to the rest of them That your Lordship may be blessed with a long continuance of health and enabled thereby to finish those excellent Designs that you have under your hands that you may long continue an Ornament to the Church of England and to Protestant Episcopacy and may be blest with success in your endeavours for the Establishment and Glory of both these is the most sincere Prayer of My Lord Your Lordship 's most obliged and most obedient Servant EDWARD GEE THE INTRODUCTION SINCE the Jesuit that was Author of the following Memorial has made so much noise in the World and was infamous for his Treasonable Practices during the Reigns he lived in and has by his seditious writings laid the Foundation of perpetual trouble to the Kingdom of England as long as there are or shall be either Papists in England or English Papists beyond Seas it will not be improper to furnish the Reader with the History of him that thereby he may be enabled to read and pass a truer Judgment upon the following Memorial for rooting out our Protestant establishment and replanting again their Popish Religion in England The World is not agreed either about his Name or Parentage for the Name of Parsons or Persons as he writes it himself they will have it to be given him upon a scandalous reason while the true name of his supposed Father was Cowback or Cubbuck He was born not at Stockersey in Somerset-Shire as the Secular Priests affirm against him but at Nether-Stowey in that County and notwithstanding the meanness of his Parentage had the advantage of a liberal Education and was fitted for the University whither he was sent and admitted into Baliol College in Oxford he was afterwards made Fellow of the same College and entered into Holy Orders and became a noted Tutor having the greatest number of Pupils in the College But notwithstanding his setting out so very well he was afterwards turned out of his Fellowship and the College with disgrace he was not expelled indeed but forced to resign with leave to keep his Chambers and Pupils a while longer but this grace was quickly crossed out the occasion of which the Writers of those times and of his own Society are very much divided about Father Morus the Jesuit and Author of the History of the Jesuits Mission into England will have it to be because he was not only suspected of inclining to Popery but as he will have it palam de Religione aliter judicaret loqueretur quam regni jura definierant c. both thought and spake openly for the Romish Religion and therefore that it was an unfit and a dangerous thing to trust such a Man with the Education of so many Youth as he generally had under his care But this cannot be the true reason since Father Persons behaved himself as a good Protestant and conversed especially with such Men Mr. Squire and Dr. Hide for example then famous Men and zealous Protestants as might instruct and confirm
Members and Branches whom this Memorial may concern are Three to wit the whole Body of the Realm jointly and then the Crgy and Temporalty apart Therefore the same order shall be observed for more perspecuity's sake in treating matters that are to be handled according to these three parts First of things that appertain to the whole Body of the Realm in general and then to the Clergy and Laity in particular's dividing each one of these two latter Members into his particular branches also as namely the Clergy and Spiritualty into Bishops Priests and Religious and the Laity and Temporalty into the Prince with his Council the Nobility and Commons making of every one of these chief Members their particular Chapters also apart as in Prosecution of this Treatise shall appear And to the performance of this the Author was incouraged especially by two points which for divers Years he has been perswaded in The First That God will most certainly at his time appointed restore the Realm of England to the Catholic Faith again as may appear by the evident hand he holdeth now in the work The other That England being once converted may be made the Spectacle of all the World and an Example of Perfection to all other Catholic Countries and Churches round about it if want of Zeal and good will do not hinder it in those that God shall bring to that blessed day which the Gatherer of this Memorial hopeth will not and with this hope he setteth down the Notes and Advertisements ensuing A Table of the Chapters of this MEMORIAL PART I. Touching the whole Body CHAP. I. SOme special Reasons why England above all other Realms ought to procure a perfect Reformation when time shall serve CHAP. II. What manner of Reformation is needful in England after so long a storm of Persecution which is declared by the Example of Gold coming out of the Furnace and of a Garden newly planted after the Weeds and Thorne are consumed by Fire CHAP. III. How this happy Reformation may be best procured and what Disposition of Mind is needful for it in all parts CHAP. IV. How all sorts of People to wit Catholicks Schismaticks and Hereticks may be charitably dealt withal to their most profit at the neat change of Religion CHAP. V. The forwardness that ought to be in all Men for the appeasing of God's Wrath about the rapine of Ecclesiastical Lands and Livings and with what facility and case a good Composition and reasonable Satisfaction may be agreed upon without the over-burdening of any Party and how the said Livings may be disposed of CHAP. VI. Of the many great and singular Benefits that would ensue to the Church and Realm of England by this manner of Restitution Agreement and Disposition of Ecclesiastical Livings CHAP. VII Of a Council of Reformation to be ordained by the Authority of the Prince and Parliament with consent of the See Apostolick and wherein they are principally to be occupied for the raising up of our Churches again and first of all in gathering up and profitably bestowing of these Church-Livings that shall be restored CHAP. VIII Of divers other great Points that will belong to the Council of Reformation to deal in for the bringing of our English Church to its former Perfection CHAP. IX There ensue yet more matters that appertain to the Council of Reformation for beautifying our Church above the beauty that it had before and above the rest of all Christian Churches CHAP. X. Of the Parliament of England and what were to be considered or reformed about the same both in it self and other PART II. Touching the Clergy CHAP. I. OF the Clergy in general what they are and ought to do at the next change and how soundly united with the Laity CHAP. II. Of Bishops and Bishopricks of England what is to be restored and what continued what reformed CHAP. III. Of Deans Canons Pastors Curates and the rest of the Clergy what is needful to make them flourish CHAP. IV. Of Seminaries Colledges Vniversities and Schools for restoring and increase of our Clergy CHAP. V. Of Vniversities more at large and of the Government Discipline and manner of proceeding of our English Vniversities and in what Points they do differ from other Vniversities abroad and what is to be increased added and altered or established to make them absolutely the best in the World CHAP. VI. How Offices Preferments Fellowships Scholarships and other said places were to be provided in our Vniversities to avoid infinite inconveniences and of divers other Points to this purpose CHAP. VII Of Religious Men and Women and matters appertaining unto them and their Estate and how England may be furnished with them in far better sort than any other Catholick Nation in the World PART III. Touching the Laity CHAP. I. OF the Laity and Temporalty in general and of the agreement and concurrence with the Clergy for both their good with the Difference of both their States CHAP. II. Of the Prince and his Councel and matters belonging to them for the publick benefit CHAP. III. Of the Nobility and Gentry of England and matters appertaining to their Estates for the bettering the same every way CHAP. IV. Of the Inns of Court and Studies of the Common Laws of England and of the Laws themselves what is to be considered amended or bettered in each part CHAP. V. Of the Commons of England and of matters appertaining to them how tenderly they are to be cared for cherished and maintained with divers Advertisements for their publick Commodity The FIRST PART of this MEMORIAL OF THE Reformation of England Wherein are touched Points that do belong to the whole Body of the Realm as before in the Preface has been declared and is the Ground of the other Parts that ensue CHAP. I. Some special Reasons why England above all other Realms ought to procure a perfect Reformation when time shall serve IF ever Nation under Heaven were bound to shew themselves grateful to Almighty God and to turn heartily and zealously unto him and to seek his highest glory by a perfect Reformation of their Country when his Divine Majesty shall open the way it is the English Nation for the Reasons following First For that no other Nation in the World on whom God hath laid the scourge of Heresie hath received so many helps and graces to resist the same as England hath done which is evident by the b multitudes and valour of English Martyrs by the fortitude and zeal of so many and such Confessors by their Constancy Patience and Fervour at home by the store of Seminaries abroad and by the Spirit of Priests brought up in them and many other Favours and Priviledges used towards the English Nation in these our days all which do require an extraordinary Demonstration of forwardness of English Catholicks when the time shall serve to be answerable in some sort to these extraordinary Benefits Secondly We do both see and feel the inestimable damages that ensued
that there will be no difficulty Here our Jesuit was much out in his Observations which are not only contrary to the Experience of our Age but of his own as for the late Attempts to replant Popery in England I appeal to the Popish Priests employed in the Mission whether it appeared or proved to be so very easie a thing to bring Popery into the good esteem of the English Nation and for Father Parsons own Age notwithstanding the Protestant Religion had so short a time as the Reign of the Young King Edward to spread it self in yet when Queen Mary had a Mind to restore Popery she was forced upon arts much below her Station in the World to promise what she was far from performing that none of her Subjects should be forced in Conscience that she would in particular preserve to the Suffolk and Norfolk Men who had been so great instruments in her advancement to the Throne that Reformation begun in her Brother's days for which they were zealous and never make any innovation or change of the then established Reformed Religion but would content her self with the private exercise of her own Religion Such assurances do not make the Restitution of Popery even then to be so easie a thing as the Jesuit things and when the Queen broke her Faith with these Suffolk Hereticks and was for setting up Popery again with all the haste she could yet her first Parliament would not do her business for her though very dishonourable and base practices were used to make them fit for the restoring Popery effectually though in many places as an Historian of that time informs the World of the Country some were chosen by force and threats and in-other places those employed by the Court did with violence hinder the Commons from coming to chuse in others false Returns and after all some unserviceable for such violent purposes were violently turned out of the House of Commons So that that cunning Politician Gardiner was forc'd to dismiss this Parliament and by Bribes and Corruptions buy and pension another before they could get their Popery made the established Religion but with such abatements and defects in the business of Abby Lands particularly as make our Jesuit complain and be ashamed of them Did such Experience then give any grounds for our Jesuit to be so confident of the facility of bringing in Popery again This shews that a Jesuit can be very zealous both against Reason and against even his own as well as all other People's Experience God be thanked that upon a second tryal of their skill under a Popish King and managed by Jesuits too it is found that it is not only a difficult but an impossible thing to replain Popery in England e Life and Spirit by putting good and vertuous Men We should be so far from angry that we ought to thank the Jesuit for making this Reflection upon our Cathedrals and Universities Had he commended them I should have suspected them to have been such as himself was when he was turned out of his College at Oxford for Immorality Mr. Camden our famous Historian says our Jesuit was his contemporary in Oxford that he was Fellow of Baliol College and â—â—de open Profession of the Protestant Religion until he was for his loose carriage expelled with disgrace and then went over to the Papists It was great Pity therefore that when our Jesuit was in the Chapter providing that good and vertuous Men upon the re-establishment of Popery should be put into our Colleges he took no particular care for his own College Baliol that especial care might be taken there above all others that if any of those ill Men were alive then who had been so wicked as to expel out of their College the sober pious and chaste Mr. Parsons they should be removed with disgrace for an example to all other Colleges CHAP. II. What manner of Reformation is needful in England HAving spoken of a perfect Reformation if any Man would ask what manner of Reformation this is I could answer him no better to the purpose considering the present State of England under Persecution than to say That it ought to be as the Reformation or Purification of Gold is when it cometh out of the fiery Furnace to wit pure simple perfect without corruption dregs or rust for so God himself compareth his True Church and all his Elect after their probation by the Fire of Tribulation And again I may compare it to the State of a Garden which being over-grown with Weeds and Thistles the Owner thereof putteth fire to the whole and when all is consumed then beginneth he to plant chosen and sweet Herbs at his pleasure And the like is God's desire to do with this English Garden if we will cooperate with his holy designment Hereof then it followeth that the Reformation of England after this long and sharp Persecution ought to be very perfect full and compleat not respecting so much what some cold Catholicks use to do in other Countries where Spirit is decay'd and Corruption crept in as what may be done or ought to be done in England or if we will needs cast our eyes upon the Example of others let us look upon the Apostles and their Successors and upon the Primitive Church that had the force of Christ's Spirit stirring and hot in them which long continuance of time afterward did both weaken and cool and in many a one has been quite extinguished And to come to some particulars the whole World knoweth how that the 1 late Holy Council of Trent when it came to matters of Reformation of Manners it was constrained to accommodate it self in many things to the capacity of that decay'd State of Christendom which then they found and so to set down those Decrees which they might suppose would be received generally in the Church as the Physician does in tempering his Medicine according to the strong complexion and disposition of his Patient though not so effectually many times as the Disease it self in rigour would require Thâ—â— those Holy Fathers of the Council moderating many of their Decrees in this behalf of manners according to the weakness of this our Age and omitting many other points of more rigour and perfection suggested to them by divers holy and learned Men and this yet notwithstanding we set with what difficulties delays unwillingness cautels protestations restraints and exceptions this part of the Council touching Reformation has been received in divers Countries that otherwise are Catholick by reason of the general Corruption grown into Men's Lives and Customs for purging whereof even unto the quick it is supposed that God hath sent this Fire of Heresie into Christendom and is feared by many that it will never cease until all be cleansed England then having passed now this Fire ought to make Declaration by her works when time shall serve how much she hath profited by this Purgation and to receive not only the
forelaid Council of Trent entirely and fully without Limitation or Restraint but to embrace also and to put it in ure where occasion and place is offered such other points of Reformation as tend to the perfect restitution of Ecclesiastical Discipline that were in use in the ancient Christian Church though afterward decayed for want of Spirit and not urged now again nor commanded for the Council of Trent for the causes before by me alledged for better Declaration whereof we may consider that the Council of Trent touching Reformation of Manners had to repair an old ancient House whereof many parts were sore weakened by Corruptions and some perished but yet the whole could not be changed nor built anew but necessarily the reparation must be made according to the State and Condition of the other parts that yet remained and so those good Fathers could not frame all points to their own likeing nor yet according to the Rules of perfect Ecclesiastical Architecture But now in England no doubt but that the State of things will be far otherwise whensoever the change of Religion shall happen For then it will be lawful for a good Catholick Prince that God shall send and 2 for a well affected Parliament which himself and the time will easily procure to begin of new and to build from the very foundation the external face of our Catholick Church and to follow the Model which themselves will chuse and if that will be a good and perfect Model it will endure at least for a time and be a pattern of true Christianity to the rest of the World but if it be but ordinary and of the meaner sort at the beginning it will quickly slide back to the old Corruptions wherein it was before and so the benefit of this Probation and Tribulation will soon be lost both before God and Men which Jesus forbid for that it is and will be the greatest Crown that ever England hath had since her first Conversion to the Christian Faith and according to this account must our purpose be of Reformation whensoever God shall restore us to Liberty and Peace lest we lose in Peace that which we gained in War as Eusebius Caesariensis saith that some did in antient Persecutions and it ought to be a warning to us to take heed by their Examples And this is so much as in this behalf seemeth needful to be remembred Animadversions on Chap. II. 1 THE late Council of Trent The Jesuit in the former Chapter was complaining of the coldness and imperfect Reformation of Queen Mary's Reign and here he is as severe upon the Council of Trent it self which notwithstanding its being directed and assisted by the Holy Ghost as this Jesuit as well as the rest of their Writers will have it to be when they are engaged in Controversie against the Reformed and notwithstanding the Infallible Vicar at Rome presided in it by his Legates and did from time to time influence and direct all its Consultations and Determinations yet was so base and cowardly according to our fierce Jesuit as to truckle to the humours of the Age and make a very lame and imperfect Reformation out of compliance with the lukewarmness and iniquity of that Age. But the rest of the World were not of our Jesuit's Mind but did easily see that no Temporal Prince could submit to that Council which by the bye was nothing but a meer Western Conventicle of Italian Bishops and the Pope's own Creatures who had sworn to be true and faithful to him and to preserve to him those which he and they call the Rights and Honours of S. Peter before ever they came within the Walls of that assembly without wrong to himself and to his People However our Jesuit is for having his Popish Prince in England to receive the Council of Trent entirely and fully without Limitation and Restraint though the Prince that does it makes himself feudatory to the Popes and leaves his Country to their disposal when they think fit to have it escheat to them this no body can doubt of it that will but examine what that Council at Trent hath determined about the Matter of Duels in any Princes Countries and this without Question is one of the Reasons why the Gallican Church could not then nor can be to this day perswaded to admit the Council of Trent entirely but refuse it as to the Canons about Discipline which encroach upon the Prince's Right and the Churches Authority By what I can observe from our Jesuit he is for overdoing the whole World and while he brands others with the name of Cold Catholicks would I suppose have a Council of Jesuits to reform their Church and then I am sure it will be done to purpose 2 For a well affected Parliament which himself and the time will easily procure Here is an Instance of a fatal mistake in our Jesuit's Politicks and Foresight The Papists in England by God's Permission have had a Popish Prince and a Prince governed by Jesuits too and as zealous as our Jesuit himself could either imagine or wish him to be and yet after all he was not able to get a well affected Parliament that is a Parliament that would have settled Popery effectually among us That Prince came to the Crown with greater advantages than one of his Perswasion could well have been supposed to have done he was no sooner fixt in his Throne than he had the good success to break and suppress two very dangerous Rebellions and appeared to the World to have the love of all his Subjects who gratified him in his first Parliament with every thing that they could either with Honour or Conscience give But when tempted I am afraid by the reading of this Jesuit's Memorial and by the strange success against the two Insurrections he began to pull off the Vizard and was for breaking in upon the National Protestant security by keeping up a standing Army with a great many Popish unqualified Officers and thought it would prove 〈◊〉 easie matter to bring in his Popery we see how miserably he was out in his Measures that very Parliament that had been so kind as to settle a greater Revenue upon him than ever King of England had by six hundred thousand Pounds a Year as I have been informed for some Years and to give him great Supplies and to Voâ—â— him more and that did stand by him with their Fortuneâ— and Lives were yet for standing by their Religion and their Laws and were neither so tame nor foolish as to be either complemented or hector'd out of either of them This dissolved that Parliament and shewed how graâ—â—ful a Popish Prince could be to the best and kindest Parliament And when this Parliament was dissolved and Popery made every day larger steps than before and the whole Constitution was laid to sleep in favour of Fanatiâ— and Papists did he or time procure a more kind or well affected Parliament Indeed all the care imaginable
on the contrary side Qui facit veritatem saith he venit ad Lucem ut manifestentur opera ejus And though I confess that in a quiet and establisht Catholick State Disputation with Hereticks were not to be presumed profitable yet our Condition is different now at the beginning and will be for some Years in England and all satisfaction must be given that may be conveniently and seeing our building is true at the Foundation and our Mony with which we desire to enrich Men is pure Gold and tried the more we rub it on the Touchstone the better it will appear and the more acceptable it will be to all Men. One other publick satisfaction also I could wish were given for some days at the beginning to certain principal Persons in London or elsewhere or rather that every Bishop should do it in his City or Diocess for that in my Opinion it would be of very great importance And this is That some chief Man of Learning and Authority of our side or the Prelate himself should take a certain hour in the day to confer openly the writings of some two of both sides as namely of Juell and Dr. Harding in London for that they write both in the Vulgar Tongue the one against the other and of Whitaker and Dr. Stapleton in Oxford or Cambridge for that they writ in Latin and the manner of this Conference might be that one in Pulpit or publick Audience should read some Paragraph out of one of them and confer presently the Authors which he citeth and whether he citeth them truly or no and to let the places be read publickly out of their own Authors which may be prepared to be there present and then the answer of the other might be read and Authors also that he alledgeth and for more indifferency of this Examination or Collation there might be two Learned Men appointed one of each side a Protestant and a Catholick to see that no fraud or injury be done to any Party but only the Books examined sincerely and seeing that the truth is but one and cannot but appear by this Collation h I perswade my self this Examination would do exceeding much good to all such of understanding as should be present as indeed I suppose that all principal Protestants likely would be for that the Exercise would be both pleasant and profitable and I dare avouch that Juell will be discovered to make so many shifts and to slide out at so many narrow holes and creeks to save himself and to deny falsifie and pervert so many Authors Doctors and Fathers as his own side within few days would be ashamed of him and give him over which would be no small blow to overthrow Heresie even by the root in England he having been their chiefest Pillar to maintain the same in that Kingdom Besides these two publick satisfactions I do perswade my self there will be need of little more for that the private Industry of divers good and learned Men and one Lay-man with another and the vertuous lives and conversations of our Priests and Clergy-men and the Example of all sorts of Religious People both Men and Women and the very outward face show and practice of Catholick Devotion the wearisomness of Heresies and of their Authors and Maintainers will quickly work out all affection of People towards them and plant it the contrary towards true Religion Piety and Catholick Christianity And thus much for gaining of those that have been deceived by error and are of a good nature and think they do well and do hold a desire to know the truth and follow the same and finally do hope to be saved as good Christians and do make account of an honest Conscience though they be in Heresie But for others that be either wilful Apostates or malicious Persecutors or obstinate Perverters of others how they may be dealt withal it belongeth not to a Man of my Vocation to suggest but rather to commend their State to Almighty God and their Treaty to the wisdom of such as shall be in authority in the Commonwealth at that day admonishing them only that as God doth not govern the whole Monarchy but by Rewards and Chastisements and that as he hath had a sweet hand to cherish the well-affected so hath he a strong arm to bind the Boysterous Stubborn and Rebellious even so the very like and same must be the proceeding of a perfect Catholick Prince and Commonwealth and the nearer it goes to the Imitation of God's Government in this and all other points the better and more exact and more durable it is and will be ever And this answer may be given in general for in particular what order is to be holden with such as before I named Persecutors Arch-Hereticks false Bishops Preachers Ministers Apostates Traytors to the Cause Strangers and Foreign Hereticks that do oppress the Realm and others of the like Crue and Condition I leave to be determined according to the circumstance of time occasion and place when opportunity shall be offered Animadversions on Chap. IV. f PErchance it would be good not to press any Man's Conscience at the beginning for matters of Religion for some few Years The perusal of this part of this Chapter I cannot but recommend to all those Dissenters in England that did in the late Reign not only accept of the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience but give the King such extravagant thanks for it They must not deny that they were warned of the snare and that all the Kindness shewed them was but forced and would in a little time have proved their own as well as Ruine of the Church of England which was too wise to be trickt by the Jesuitical Arts of that Court They may see here what was the sole design of that grinning Toleration and which is more how lasting it was to have been Who can read the Jesuit's Instructions and Limitations here about it as the late King questioness did and remember the Cant that was set about then that the Liberty of Conscience should be made as firm as Magna Charta and established to all Posterity It was indeed the Admiration of all wise Men that the Dissenters who had believed that the Declaration of 1672. was designed to make way for Popery and had seen it proved out of other Books as well as Coleman's Letters that this was their most probable way to bring in Popery should in the Reign of a Popish King himself governed by Jesuits and when Popery was barefac'd be imposed upon to comply with and which was ten times more foolish to address and thank the Popish King for that Declaration which I do from my Soul believe would not have been continued to this Year 1690. so many are the Limitations and Restraints and Conditions in it that it would have been the easiest thing in the World for them when they pleas'd to have taken the forfeiture of this Charter also for Liberty of Conscience It
that other in place of this of Malta or besides this some other new Order were erected also in our Country of Religious Knights and m that their Rule might be to fight against Hereticks in whatsoever Country they should be imployed And when Heresies should fail that they then keep our Seas of England from Pirats and our Land from publick Theft binding themselves for their probation to serve in their Exercises the time that should be limited and for keeping the Land at home they might have other Companies and Confraternities under them much like to that called the Holy Hermandad in Spain which alone keepeth all these great and vast Kingdoms from Robberies And this Order of new English Knights might quickly be made a very flourishing Order being permitted also to Marry and they might take the Name and Protection of some Holy King of England or of all the Holy Kings joyntly or of St. George all which I leave to the Consideration of this Council to deal therein with the Prince and Parliament Animadversions on Chap. VII m THat their Rule might be to fight against Hereticks In this Chapter our Jesuit treats of his Council of Reformation he had great reason to avoid giving it the name of the Holy Council of Inquisition since how fond soever Portugal or Spain may be of an Inquisition it is odious to England and abominable and ought to be so to all Christians there being nothing more barbarous nor more diametrically contrary to the Religion of the Blessed Jesus than the Popish Inquisitions But this would have been very slender comfort to us in England since it seems we were to have had the Thing without the Name for the use the Jesuit would have had the young Popish Gentry of England put to in this Chapter is to have them listed into a Fraternity the business of which was to have been very honourable to them to wit to go a Dragooning about the Nation and to have hunted down the Protestants whom he here calls Hereticks like wild beasts and when they had thus Christianly rooted out all Protestants by this mild perswasive way out of this Nation then forsooth these wonderful valiant Knights were to have been sent abroad to purge the World of Heretie and after all our Seas of Pyrats and the Land of Thieve which if they had done I am sure England would have been rid of the Jesuits as well as of Protestants Nor is the Jesuit content with this for after a few years England was to have Name and Thing for when his Council of Reformation resign up their Authority he makes it necessary that they should leave some good and sound manner of Inquisition established for the Conservation of that which they have planted And indeed the Jesuit is in the right of it that a sound manner by which I know the Jesuit means a most severe and bloody manner of Inquisition is absolutely necessary either for the planting or the preserving such an absurd and ridiculous Religion as Popery is in England CHAP. VIII Of divers other Points that will belong to the Council of Reformation to deal in HItherto only hath been treated of Abby-Lands and Ecclesiastical Livings to be collected imployed and disposed by this Council and Religious Orders to be replanted but many other Points do yet remain for that the whole weight of Restitution both of the External and Internal face of our English Church and the perfect reparation both material and formal of the same will depend principally of the Authority Wisdom Zeal Magnanimity and Piety of this Council and for this purpose such principal branches as come now to my Mind I will here set down First of all it will appertain to these Men to send Commissioners abroad into the Realm and to have ordinary Correspondence in all the Shires of England thereby to advise from time to time what are the greatest wants and what first is to be remedied or provided for As for Example here Preachers here Confessors here Priests to say Mass here Seminaries here Schools here Monasteries here Colleges here Nunneries here Hospitals here building or enlarging or repairing of old Parish-Churches with their Sacristies or Revestries Tabernacles Church-Houses publick Crosses and the like whereof I shall treat more in some particular Chapters afterwards in the Second Part of this Memorial And for that the Reverence of Religion and motive of Devotion to the People doth greatly depend of these external things it must be one principal care of this Council to have them well reformed and practical Men sent about the same The like necessity will be also to augment the Livings of certain Curates and Pastors in many places and to increase in some others where one is not sufficient as commonly it will not be convenient for one only Priest to live any where alone if it may be remedied in respect of wanting a Confessor for himself or others when he should be sick except the Parish lay so near to some other as in all necessities they might give mutual help one to the other as if they lived together For singing and hearing of Mass also at the beginning order must be taken that divers Parishes repair to one upon Sundays and great Holy-days and that Priests be so distributed as they may supply the best that may be until better provision can be made and perhaps it would not be amiss to call in some stranger Priests for a time Men of Edification and Vertue such as might be procured by means of some Pious and Zealous Bishops of Foreign Countries and by Commendation and Election of some Religious Orders that keep Schools and do know the Vertue of every one and being requested by our Council of Reformation would have care to direct only such Men unto us as should be for the purpose who being divided about the Realm and convenient Stipends appointed them without appropriation of any Benefice for that would have inconvenience they would greatly ease and help our English Clergy until it be increased and grown stronger and these Strangers would serve to say Mass and administer some Sacraments in Parish-Churches and might supply also the Labour and Function of some Canons for singing in the Quire and divers Cathedral and Collegiate Churches where other Provision of our own Nation could not be so soon made And it perchance would be less hurt to pass on with these Strangers for a time who afterwards may be removed if they should not prove well than for haste and want to make up a number of unable or evil Priests of our own who would be ever after a Seed of Corruption and Disorder to the whole Realm of which point I shall say also more in the Second Part when I come to speak of Seminaries where no Priests at all could be planted at the beginning there some honest and discreet Person or Persons of the Parish or of the next to it though they be Lay-men were to be assigned to have
Societies and Confraternities are seen to be instituted in other Countries where Charity doth flourish and ought to be also in ours and the publick Prisons for this respect of the Shires were to be put in principal Towns and Cities where these Societies might be erected and an extract or summary of all the charitable works accustomed to be done in other great Cities by the Confraternities and other ways as namely in Rome Naples Milan Madrid and Seville were to be had and considered by our Council of Reformation and put in ure as much as might be conveniently in England A general Story of all the most notable things that have hapned in this time of Persecution were to be gathered and the matter to be commended to Men of Ability Zeal and Judgment for doing the same And when time shall serve to procure of the See Apostolick That due honour may be done to our Martyrs and Churches Chapels and other memories built in the place where they suffered and namely at Tyburn where perhaps some Religious House of the third Order of St. Francis called Capuchins or some other such of Edification and Example for the People would be erected as a near Pilgrimage or place of Devotion for the City of London and others to repair unto Before this Council make an end of their Office or resign the same which as before has been signified may be after some competent number of Years when they shall have settled and also secured the state of Catholick Religion and employed the Lands and Rents committed to their charge and this were to be done with the greatest expedition that might be it would be very much necessary that they should leave some good and sound manner of Inquisition established for the conservation of that which they have planted For that during the time of their authority perhaps it would be best to spare the name of Inquisition at the first beginning in so new and green a State of Religion as ours must needs be after so many Years of Heresie Atheism and other Dissolutions may chance offend and exasperate more than do good but afterwards it will be necessary to bring it in either by that or some other name as shall be thought most convenient for the time for that without this care all will slide down and fall again What form and manner of Inquisition to bring in whether that of Spain whose rigour is misliked by some or that which is used in divers parts of Italy whose coldness is reprehended by more or that of Rome it self which seemeth to take a kind of middle way between both is not so easie to determine but the time it self will speak when the day shall come and perhaps some mixture of all will not be amiss for England and as for divers points of the diligent and exact manner of proceeding in Spain they are so necessary as without them no matter of moment can be expected and some high Council of Delegates from his Holiness in this affair must reside in the Court to direct and to give heart and authority to the other Commissioners abroad as in Spain is used or else all will languish Their Separations of their Prisons also from concourse of People that may do hurt to the Prisoners is absolutely necessary as in like manner is some sharp execution of Justice upon the obstinate and remediless Albeit all manner of sweet and effectual means are to be tryed first to inform and instruct the Parties by Conference of the Learned and by the Labour and Industry of Pious and Diligent Men for which effect some particular method and order is to be set down and observed and more attention is to be had to this for that it is the gain of their Souls than to the execution only of punishment assigned by Ecclesiastical Canons though this also is to be done and that with resolution as before hath been said when the former sweet means by no way will take place And finally this Council of Reformation is to leave the Church of England and temporal state so far forth as appertaineth to Religion as a Garden newly planted with all kind and variety of sweet Herbs Flowers Trees and Seeds and fortified as a strong Castle with all necessary defence for continuance and preservation of the same so as England may be a spectacle for the rest of the Christian World round about it And Almighty God glorified according to the infinite multitude of dishonours done unto him in these late Years And for better confirmation of all points needful to Religion it would be necessary that either presently at the beginning or soon after some National Council of the English Clergy should be gathered and holden and to consider in particular what points of Reformation the Council of Trent hath set down and to give order how they may be put in execution with all perfection And finally besides these points touched by me for the Council of Reformation and this National Synod to look upon many more will offer themselves when the time shall come no less necessary and important perhaps than these which their charity and wisdom and quality of their Office will bind them to deal in for God's Service and the publick weal And I have only noted these thereby to stir up their memory to think of the rest CHAP. X. Of the Parliament of England and what were to be considered or reformed about the same or by the same FOR that the English Parliament by old received custom of the Realm is the Fountain as it were of all publick Laws and settled Orders within the Land one principal care is to be had that this high Court and Tribunal be well reformed and established at the beginning for a performance whereof certain Men may be authorized by the Prince and Body of the Kingdom to consider of the points that appertain to this effect and among other of these following First of the number and quality of these that must enter and have Voice in the two Houses And for the higher House seeing that Voices in old time put also divers Abbots as the World knoweth it may be considered whether now when we are not like to have Abbots quickly of such greatness and authority in the Commonwealth as the old were it were not reason to make some recompence by admitting some other principal Men of these Orders that had interest in times past as for example some Provincials or Visitors of St. Benet's Order seeing that the said Order and others that had only Abbots in England are now reformed in other Countries and have therein Generals Provincials and Visitors above their Abbots and with the same Reformation it will be convenient perhaps to admit them now into our Country when they shall be restored and not in all points as they were before Secondly about the Lower House it may be thought on whether the number of Burgesses were not to be restrained to greater Towns
declared in themselves to have been of no force nor yet the Laws therein made and consequently to be frustrate and to be put out of the Book of Statutes except such as this Parliament shall think necessary to confirm and ratifie or make anew The Decree and Law for the faithful restitution of Abby-Lands and Ecclesiastical Revenues with the Moderation before specified is to be determined of among the very first points of importance and it were to be performed with a great alacrity and promptness of minds in all Men thereby to bind Almighty God to deal the more liberally also with us in all the rest that were to be done as no doubt but he would and after this many other particular Commissions and Subdelegations are to be given forth by the Prince and Parliament to particular Troops and Companies of Men for setting good order in divers matters as namely one very ample to the Council of Reformation before-mentioned for the reestablishing of Religion and for gathering up and disposing of the Ecclesiastical Rents and Revenues aforesaid And other were to be given out to certain principal Lawyers and others to reform the points that shall seem needful about our Common Laws Inns of Courts and the like as hath been mentioned another for the Universities another for the planting of Seminaries as well of our Nation as of our Neighbours Strangers for their Conversion and divers other such like weighty affairs are to be committed by different Commissions to able and fit Persons for putting our Commonwealth in joynt again except it shall seem best to commit the most of these matters by a general Commission to the Council of Reformation in form as hath been declared all which being confirmed by our Catholick Prince and See Apostolick may be executed sweetly and securely by the grace of God to his most high glory and everlasting good of our Realm And this is so much as I have to note for the present about this First Part concerning the whole Body of the Realm in general Now shall I speak somewhat of the two principal Members which are the Clergy and Temporalty in particular Animadversions on Chap. X. n THat every Man be sworn to defend the Catholick Roman Faith and moreover that it be made Treason for ever for any Man to propose any thing for change thereof In the late Popish Reign every one does remember what abundance of pains was taken to ridicule the Penal Laws and Test but especially the Test for the decrying of which all Mouths were opened all Pens employed even one of our own if we can with truth call our own that Scandal of Protestant Episcopacy Dr. Parker of Oxford and yet we see that how abominable soever a Test was in favour of the Church of England the Jesuit is for having one and that no body be admitted to suffrage in Parliament till he hath taken a swearing Test for Popery And just so it is with Penal Laws though those made against Papists which by the bye were made not against their perswasion in Religion but against the Treasons and Plots which as Papists they were ever and anon running into be abominable yet against Hereticks they are absolutely necessary When I first read this Chapter I could not but wonder at the Impudence of the Romish Priests in the late Reign that made such tragical Exclamations against Penal Laws but especially of the Jesuits who having this Memorial in their hands and admired by them should exclaim against sanguinary Laws when yet they were resolved as soon as they could get a Popish Parliament to have all the Laws that were ever made against Hereticks those for burning them at Stakes restored and put in full Authority God hath delivered us out of the hands of such abominable and bloody Hypocrites and may He ever preserve us from them who gave good words to the Protestant Dissenters that would be cajoled by them with their Mouths while they had destruction and ruine in their hearts against all Protestants whatsoever And at the same rate were too many Dissenters gull'd about the promised Liberty of Conscience that was to be established in Parliament to be made as firm as Magna Charta and it should have been made Felony or Treason and I know not what for any one in Parliament ever to have motioned a Repeal of it but now we see in the Memorial found in the late King's Closet what it was that was to be so firmly established we find that immediately it was to have been made Treason for ever for any Man to propose any change of Popery in England The SECOND PART of this MEMORIAL Touching the CLERGY I noted in the beginning the Clergy might be divided into Three principal Branches which are Bishops Priests and Religious Orders both of Men and Women and so according to this Division shall I prosecute this Memorial CHAP. I. Of the Clergy in general what they are and ought to do at the next change HAving to speak of the Clergy in general which God from the beginning of his Church vouchsafed to name his own Portion for that they were dedicated more particularly than other Men to his Divine Service and our Saviour to call them by the most honourable name of the light of the World and Salt of the Earth The first point of all to be remembred unto them seemeth to be that if ever there were a time wherein the effect of these names were needful to be shewed and put in execution it will be now at the beginning of our Countries next Conversion whose Fall and Affliction may perhaps in great part be ascribed to the wants of these effects in former times past And furthermore it may be considered that the State of the Clergy in England after a long desired Reduction and happy entrance of some Catholick Prince over us and after so long and bitter a Storm of cruel Persecution will be much like unto that which was of the general Church of Christendom in time of the first good Christian Emperor Constantine the Great after the bloody Persecutions of so many Infidel Tyrants that went before him for three hundred years together at what time as God on the one side provided so many notable zealous and learned Men for the establishing of his Church as appeareth by the three hundred and eighteen most worthy Bishops gathered together in the general Council of Nice so on the other side the Devil ceased not to stir up amongst the Clergy of that time divers and sundry Divisions Emulations and Contentions some of indiscreet zeal against such as had fallen and offended in time of Persecution and some other grounded upon worse causes of Malice Emulation and Ambition tending to particular interest whereby both that good Emperour in particular and all the Church of God in general were much troubled and afflicted and many good Men scandalized and God Almighty's Service greatly hindered and the common Enemy comforted And considering that the
none at all if he deserveth it And that the Condition also be put by the Prince and Pope in providing of Bishopricks to wit that when ever the Prince or Archbishops shall require Visitors of His Holiness to visit any Bishop or Archbishop and shall find just cause to deprive him or put him down to a lower Bishoprick that it shall be lawful and that each Prelate may enter with this express Condition as also Deans Archdeacons Canons and the rest And that sometimes it be put in Execution for that this will be a continual Bridle and Spur to them when they know they have no certainty or perpetuity and as to the good it will be an occasion of perpetual promotion so to the other it will be a motive to look about them Order must be given by the Bishops for often meeting of the Clergy in Provincial Synods or otherwise to confer their doubts and to take light and incouragement the one of the other And for the better keeping of Unity both in Mind and Spirit and Actions and the old Canons Customs and old Ecclesiastical Ordinances of our English Church are to be brought in ure again as much as may be and as they serve profitably to our Times Whether it be convenient to have a Third Archbishop in England and some Bishopricks increased enlarged diminished or divided I have put it in Consideration before the Council of Reformation and so have no more to note in particular about this Chapter of Bishops but only to refer my self to that which in general the Holy Council of Trent has ordained about Reformation of Bishops which I do suppose ever as a Foundation to all that here or elsewhere is added for England alone at its next change to Catholick Religion CHAP. III. Of Deans Canons Pastors Curates and the rest of the Clergy AFter Bishops do follow the other inferiour Order of the Clergy to which may be apply'd so much of that which I have spoken before in the Chapter of Bishops as doth concern them And furthermore you may add the Advertisement and Ordinations of the Holy late Council of Trent about Reformation of Priests which were convenient should be put in Execution in England above all other Catholick Countries with Zeal and Devotion and what else I can remember that is particular to our Country or not touched by the said Council I shall endeavour to suggest in this place All Men will confess that Deans and Canons and other Ministers of Cathedral Churches at their first Institution and many years after did live in common and did eat together in one Hall or Refectory and that their Life and manner of Discipline was a community of one good and well ordered College as we read of those that lived under St. Augustin as their Bishop in the City of Hippo in Africa and of those that long after lived under St. Dominick as their Prior in the City of Osma in Spain and for this effect were the Closes or Cloisters built in every Cathedral Church for Canons to live together under one Lock and Discipline as hath been said and for this cause were they called Regular and the very name of Canon signifieth a Rule and in divers places yet of other Countries the same is observed though not with so great Exaction as from the beginning it was But now in England it might be restored to the first perfection again so as our Canons might live in common and be Exemplar Men of Life And if there should be any difficulty to obtain this of all yet at leastwise that no Man live abroad or alone but by particular leave and Dispensation And that such as will live in Community may have some priviledges above the rest and that ordinarily of these Men may be chosen Deans Archdeacons Heads of Colleges Bishops and other Dignities so as to live Exemplarly may have some priviledge and enlargement above the rest for which cause also it would be good that some ordinary degrees and steps were known in the Commonwealth for Ecclesiastical Men to ascend and to go up by And first Seminaries and ordinary Colleges in the Universities and from thence to be Heads of Houses and Fellows of the exempted and priviledged Colleges of which I shall speak more in the Chapter following concerning Universities and from those to be Canons in the Cathedral Churches and after to pass to other Dignities Prelacies and Bishopricks Among which Degrees of Promotion no one is more fit to try Men and to make them sufficient for higher places than Canonneries if they were used to this effect and Men ordinarily taken from thence to other preferments and this according to their Merits only and behaviour in the same and not for favour kindred and other respects And still the most virtuous wise and orderly is to be preferred and especially those that are pious and Men of Alms though they were somewhat inferiour to the rest and that no troublesome unquiet idle vain heady proud or dissolute Men should be preferred though he were never so qualified otherwise but rather know certainly he should be put back from that place and with that express Condition to take his Canonry or other Dignity when he entereth as before hath been noted I have suggested before in the Chapter belonging to the Council of Reformation how that the scarcity of good and able English Priests being so great as it is like to be at the next change when so many places will be to fill as the greatness of such a Kingdom requireth the first care must be in all reason and good Law of prudence to furnish Bishopricks Deanries Archdeaconries and some such other principal charges of Jurisdiction and Government where only the English Men will be able to discharge the Office by reason of the Language and not Strangers But yet where no convenient provision can be made of the English Nation there to help our selves rather with some discreet and vertuous Men of other Countries for a time and those to be chosen and sent us only upon our Petition by zealous and good Bishops abroad than to leave the People wholly unfurnished namely for saying of Mass singing in the Quire of Cathedral Churches and Collegial and other such like Priestly Functions as by Men of other Languages may be performed with Condition that this shall be used only for a space until our Clergy shall be increased and no propriety of Benefices to be given to them but only competent Pensions and Allowance during their aboad in England which may be so long as they behave themselves well and give Edification to the People I have spoken also of English Preachers to be sent over the Realm alloting to every Bishop so many as may be had for that purpose and that he divide them as he shall think most needful and that for some few years at least it would be more commodious for the Publick and more liberty for the Preachers and Priests
those times And at these meetings Priests may be examined of these and like points and take direction of their Superiours and propose their doubts or difficulties which they have found in the course begun of setting up Religion and gaining of Souls And there might be ordained Sermons Conferences and Exhortations to be made at these meetings and certain learned Men appointed to examine and resolve their doubts which would be a great light and incouragement for them all to go forward in this Holy Work And this is so much as at this time cometh to my Mind about these matters needful to be remembred except I should add That the form of Apparel of our new English Clergy is to be reduced also to the measure and proportion of that Perfection and Edification which we desire to see in our Priests at the next change and that both vanity and novelty be avoided then and above all lightness and dissolution for which effect perhaps the best means will be to bring in use again as near as may be the old grave custom and fashion of Apparel that our Clergy-men used in ancient times whereof such as at that day shall be appointed to consult and treat of this matter will better be able to set down the particulars CHAP. IV. Of Seminaries Colleges Vniversities and Schools AS concerning Seminaries and Colleges for Institution and Increase of our Clergy-men at the beginning of the next change and how they ought to be erected in every Diocess or Bishoprick founded and provided for by Contribution of Ecclesiastical Benefices established with good Laws and necessary Priviledges provided of good Governors divided into divers Members or Parts according to the number of our Universities in England and that the lesser Seminaries abroad be subordinate to the greater of the said Universities and how that none commonly should be admitted to Priesthood but such as have been brought up and given good proof of themselves in these Seminaries or other Colleges of like Discipline Of all these points I say there hath been sufficiently spoken before in divers Chapters of this Memorial which need not be repeated in this place only I add that these great Seminaries which in the First Chapter of the Second Part of this Memorial I said were to be erected in the University for Heads of the other that were to be subject unto them abroad in every Diocess may serve also for that effect which Mr. John Avila required in the former Chapter which is for these to enter and be proved for a time who pretend to be Priests and that before they take Holy Orders they do dispose themselves duly by making the Spiritual Exercises and using of other means whereby to know and consider well what they take in hand and that such as be of best wits be applied to preaching and those of meaner to hear Confessions and those of Prudence Activity and sound approved Vertue to be imployed in Government and thus much of Seminaries of our own Country But now for help of other Countries also we ought to have some special care considering the Benefit that we have received by Seminaries to procure their Conversion so much as lies in us by the same means and for this purpose it would be a work of great Piety and Edification and partly also due that we should erect in our Country and namely in London where most concourse of Merchant Stangers are some number of Seminaries for the help of our Neighbours oppressed or infected with Heresie as namely Denmark divers parts near to us of Germany Poland Gothland Sweedland Scotland Muscovy and the Isles of Zeland from all which places store of youth might be had by reason of the concourse and Contraction of Merchants that daily come to London from those parts And by the Industry of some good Catholick Men that may be found or made in the said Countries by such zealous English Priests of our own as would be willing to employ themselves in this work and go thither also if need be among which most gladly the Writer of this Memorial would offer himself for one And so procuring and setting a certain sure manner of correspondence from these Kingdoms for their youth to come to us and putting in Spirit to them when they be with us together with learning for aiding of their Countries the like effect would follow in the end which we have seen and proved in England And Almighty God would be greatly glorified thereby and we should revive again the old glorious Piety and Zeal of our Ancestors the Saxons who after their own Conversion were Converters almost of all Nations round about them and this for this matter As for the Universities it is well known that they are the Fountains of all good Learning Policy and Government in the Commonwealth and therefore to be favoured nourished increased and those also which England hath are the most fair and best furnished for the material part which is for the number of Colleges and manner of Building Foundations and Commodities of Rents that be to be seen in all Christendom as they can testifie who have seen the one and the other though in other Countries also there be many goodly Universities in like manner which in the formal and more essential part do greatly exceed ours to wit in their good order of Discipline Number Quality Variety and Diligence of Readers abundance of Students and the like all which points also might be brought easily into ours and so make them absolutely the best of Europe and to be frequented also by multitudes of foreign Scholars seeing that maintenance is better cheap with us than any where else And this would be a point of much honour to our Nation And to bring all this to pass the first thing must be that large and ample Commission be given by the Prince and Parliament and confirmed also by the Pope to certain Men of Experience Learning and Wisdom for that purpose to see what is convenient to be ordained for those effects and times and for reducing of our Universities to the best utility of our Commonwealth having yet respect so far forth as no great inconvenience do ensue thereof to the old ancient Statutes Customs and Orders of the said Universities and Colleges and especially that the Founders be not deprived of any substantial part of their Holy Intentions And for that he that writeth this Memorial hath seen and informed himself of the chiefest Universities that be in Christendom and has had experience also of our own the principal parts he hath noted and seen to be worthy to be considered for the reforming or bettering of our English Universities are these which ensue First That the exceeding great multitude of Oaths which are wont to be given to them that take degree of School in our Universities be moderated or taken away for the easing of Men's Consciences and that some few principal and substantial Points only be given by
and be registred in some Book by some Men of Confidence about his Majesty free from all suspicion of Interest or Corruption and appointed only to attend unto this affair and to take the Memoires that shall be sent from all places which Memoires Lists and Catalogues might be renewed from time to time as before hath been mentioned and hereby would come to pass that the Prince by tract of time should come to be perfectly informed of the merits and abilities of all his principal Subjects and therefore again would ensue that worthy Men without seeking and labouring for it as commonly they are more modest than others should be sought out and preferred and that ambitious and unworthy which ordinarily are the most importunate suiters should be restrained and put back to the comfort of all good Men and to the inestimable benefit of the Commonwealth and singular help of God and the Prince's Service And as this would be one great means to advance worthy Men so is there another of no less importance or piety for the amending of such as run awry which easily might be performed by a careful Catholick Prince to the great benefit of many and to his own singular commodity both with God and Man And this is that some special good Man about his Majesty which is discreet pious and learned as for example his Confessor or the like should be appointed to take the Relations and Informations which do come and would come in such a case of principal Men's behaviour through his Realm both Ecclesiastical and Temporal especially of such as are in Government and Authority and that when any evil fame or report should come of any Man 's bad proceeding or notorious negligence in his duty or manner of life and were confirmed by many ways for light of credit he ought not to be considering the natural inclination of Men to speak rather evil than good of such especially as are in authority then should this person confer the same with his Majesty and by his Licence though as of himself by the way of Friendship admonish the said Party of the opinion and report that is of him to the end he might look about him and amend that which were amiss before the Prince should be forced to take knowledge thereof or put his hand in the matter And I am of opinion That this only Art of Brotherly Correction which is commanded straitly by God to all Men but especially to Governors and such as have care over others though little used now in the World if this one means I say were brought into England among other good Orders now at the beginning and put some times in Execution by our Catholick Prince's commandment it would remedy more evils and procure him more hearty good-will with the People and merit with Almighty God than any thing else that could be devised for this purpose Many other such-like things might be here suggested for the happy day that we expect when God shall please to send us this Catholick Prince but that both these and all other points besides that are treated in this Memorial if any shall be judged worthy of Observation will appertain principally unto him as the head of all to see them set forward established and preserved I shall descend to no more particulars in this place but remit me to that which in other Chapters also is recorded recommending the whole to his Majesty's Protection and zealous furtherance so far forth as they shall be found to tend to the greater glory of God and advancement of the Weal publick And for that divers good Books and notable Discourses are abroad also in Print about this Subject and do lay before good Princes Eyes many excellent points for their better help light and direction in Government I do remit my self also in many points and among other to a notable Treatise come forth this very year in the Spanish Tongue written by a grave and learned Man of the Society of Jesus named Father Ribadeneira the Title whereof is Of the Religion and Vertues that a Christian Prince ought to have for the well governing and preservation of his Estates which in my Opinion is a right excellent piece of work and worthy to be read by all good Princes for that it will put them in mind of many rare and necessary points fit to be remembred embraced and put in execution and whatsoever Prince would read it diligently or appoint every day at his best leasure but some little part thereof to be read unto him with attention and he would continue this Exercise with desire to please God to discharge his Conscience and to govern well his Commonwealth he would hardly do amiss in my Opinion and should have need of little other Counsel for taking the right way in all his occasions purposes and affairs CHAP. III. Of the Nobility and Gentry of England and matters appertaining to their Estate BY the Nobility of England we do understand according to the fashion of other Countries not only Noblemen of Title but Gentlemen Esquires Knights and other degrees that be above Yeomen Husbandmen and the Commonalty In which inferiour sort of Nobility beneath Barons I mean of Knights Esquires and Gentlemen there is not that distinction observed betwixt their degrees in foreign Countries as is in ours and I take ours to be far better and the more laudable Order This Nobility then and Gentry being the chief Members of our Realm are carefully to be preserved by our Catholick Prince in their ancient honours dignities priviledges and whatsoever injury or disestimation hath been laid upon them these later years by some base Heretical Persons in authority it is to be removed and particular inquiry made by Commissioners appointed by the Parliament for this purpose wherein and in what points the Nobility of England have been injured dishonoured or oppressed in these later years of Heresie to the end that supplication may be made to the Catholick Prince for remedy thereof And as the ancient Nobility of England in times past came to that dignity in the Commonwealth and to their credit and estimation both with Prince and People first for their Piety and Zeal in Christian Religion and secondly for their Fidelity and Valour in Service of their Prince and Country so their Heirs and Posterity must conserve the same by the self-same means And first of all it will behove them greatly to take it for a point of chief honour greatness and Nobility at this next Conversion of our Realm to shew their eminent zeal in furthering Religion and the Reformation before-mentioned in all they can both by their authority credit power and zeal and edifying also other Men by their Example of Life as by frequenting the Holy Sacraments in their own Persons publickly and often and by joyning chearfully and piously as their fore-Fathers were wont to do with the Clergy and other good Men to further the advancement of God's cause in all points and
poor with Alms that no Brass Mony at all hath been permitted as in all other Countries is used where yet there is much more store of Silver than in ours For without this neither can the poor live nor small traffick be maintained wherefore of necessity it must be thought on that some Brass Mony be brought in correspondent to our Farthing Half-penny and the like I have spoken also before of a certain Common Treasure or bank to be erected in every great Town for poor Men to borrow Mony upon sureties with very little or no interest which would be a great help and stay for many poor People Divers Companies and Societies also and Confraternities are to be erected among the common People for their exercise in Piety and works of Charity as for example the Confraternity or Brotherhood of the blessed Sacrament of the Christian Doctrin of visiting Prisons or the Sick All which Brotherhoods and Societies must have their particular Statutes Rules and Ordinances for their good directions in their holy purposes Though the number of Grammar-Schools in English Towns Cities and Villages be more frequent commonly than in any other Countries yet are they now to be increased and no Village lightly should pass without a Master in it to teach the Children to write and read at the least and to cast accounts and to know the Christian Doctrine and when good wits are discovered they should be sent to higher Schools and thence to the Seminaries to go forward in learning And particular care ought to be had as before hath been noted that Men be not suffered to bring up their Children idly without some Talent of Study Art Science or Occupation And of this the Bishops ought to make inquiry of the Curate and Church-wardens in their Visitations and the Secular Justices in their ordinary Quarter-sessions to the end that this fountain of evil in the Commonwealth may be avoided And albeit many things more may be noted especially out of the godly Customs of other Catholick Countries yet not to enlarge any further this Memorial which is grown much greater than at the beginning I had purposed I mean to stay here leaving the Consideration and suggesting of the rest to them that shall know more and live at that happy day which we pray for of the Conversion of our Country And if only these few Notes or the principal of them which we have laid together in this Memorial shall be put in Execution I do not doubt by the help of Almighty God to whose Glory all tendeth but that our Country in small time would flourish more than ever again So as we may justly take that comfortable saying of Esaiah the Prophet to be spoke to us which he spoke to Jerusalem after a mighty storm of Purgation past Consolamini consolamini Popule mens Dimissa est iniquitas Hierusalem suscepit de manu Domini duplicia pro omnibus peccatis suis. FINIS Subscribed by the Author 's own hand this that followeth This I had to suggest to the Honour of Almighty God and good of our Country ROB. PERSONS Books lately Printed for Ric. Chiswell THE Fifteen Notes of the Church as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmin examined and confuted by several London Divines 4 o. With a Table to the whole and the Authors Names An Exposition of the Ten Commandments By Dr. Simon Patrick now Lord Bishop of Chichester The Lay Christians's Obligation to read the Holy Scriptures by Dr. Stratford now Lord Bishop of Chester The Texts which the Papists cite out of the Bible for proof of the points of their Religion Examined and shew'd to be alledged without Ground In twenty five distinct Discourses by several London Divines with a Table to the whole and the Authors Names The Case of Allegiance in our present circumstances considered in a Letter from a Minister in the City to a Minister in the Country 40. An Examination of the Scruples of those who refuse to take the Oath of Allegiance By a Divine of the Church of England A Dialogue betwixt two Friends a Jacobite and a Williamite occasioned by the late Revolution of Affairs and the Oath of Allegiance The Case of Oaths Stated 40. A Letter from a French Lawyer to an English Gentleman upon the present Revolution 40. The Advantages of the present Settlement and the great danger of a Relapse A short View of the Unfortunate Reigns of these Kings William the 2d Henry the 2d Edward the 2d Richard the 2d Charles the 2d and James the 2d Dr. Sherlock's Summary of the Controversies between the Church of England and Church of Rome The Plain Man's Reply to the Catholick Missionaries Dr. Wake 's Tracts and Discourses against Popery in 2 Vol. â—â—â—rto Some Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont By P. Allix DD. 40. Geologia Or A Discourse concerning the Earth before the Deluge wherein the Form and Properties ascribed to it in a Book intituled The Theory of the Earth are excepted against And it is made appear That the dissolution of that Earth was not the Cause of the Universal Flood Also a new Explication of that Flood is attempted By Erasmus Warren Rector of Worâ—ington in Suffolk The Present State of Germany or aâ— Account of the Extent Rise Form Wealth Strength Weaknesses and Interests of that Empire The Prerogatives of the Emperour and the Privileges of the Electors Princes and Free Cities adapted to the present Circumstances of that Nation By a Person of Quality 40. (a) Morus Historia Missionis Anglicanae Soc. Jesu l. 2. p. 39. * Thus non (b) In the Proctor's Book I find one Tho. Hyde proceeded Master of Arts the same year with Rob. Parsons viz. 1573. (c) Christopher Bagshaw admitted Fellow 1572. left the College 1582. was made Priest in France lived a while in the English College at Rome proceeded Doctor some say at Padua A.P. Reply p. 156. others at Paris and was one of the Faculty at Sorbonne He was active against the Archpriest in the stirs at Wisbich he lived to be very old (d) Dr. Sutclif's Blessings on Mount Gerizim p. 288. * Where he was then Master Camden's Elizabeth Book 2. p. 246. * Morus Historia Missionis p. 40. Acceptis ab Everardo mandatis de re Catholicae per nostri instituti ministeria diligenter procuranda atquo non minori diligentis vitaâ—â—a 〈◊〉 rerum quae ad regni publica negotia pertinerent seu verbo seu scripto trabatione Mor. Hist. Min. l. 3. p. 61. * Pag. 12 13. (c) Important Considerations p. 40. Hart's Confession taken December 31. 1580. in Lord Burleigh's Tract p. 14. (*) Andreas Philopaâ—… Responsio ad Edictum Reginae Angliae p. 106 107. in Fouli`s History of â—â—pish Treasons p. 77. Vertumnus Romanas Lettres Card. d'Ossat Part 2. l. 7. (a) Jesuits Reasons Unreasonable p. 65. (b) Morus Hist. Miss Jesuit l. 4. p. 122. Pitsaeus also makes him to be the Author of it Watson's Quodlibet p. 120. Morus Hist. Miss Jes. l. 6. p. 234 235. (c) Lettres Card. d'Ossat Part 2. l. 8. n. 162. See Animadversions * Important Considerations in a Collection of several Treatises concerning the Reasons and Occasions of the Penal Laws p. 31. (3) p. 34. (m) p. 55.56 (3) Camden Elizabeth B. 2. 150. Perfect Reformation Council of Trent State of England (l) Vertumnus Romanus published by Dr. Featly Pref. p. 7. * Apparatus p. 7. * Lib. 8. p. 153. 1685. Rebus intra Regnum utcunque stabilitis concordia florentibus proxima serenissimo Regi cura fuit suas ditiones cum Ecclesiae Catholicae Capite Romano Pontifice sanctaque Sede Apostolica connectere à qua haeresis eas ante sesquise ulum divulserat Ad tentandum ergo Vadum anno 1685. Romam destinat Jodunem Carillum stirpis claritudine opulentia illustrem Cui revocato cunctis ex vâ—to gestis Legatus extraordinarius eo destinatus est anno sequenti nempe 1686. illustrissimus Comes de Castlemaine Obedientiam Canonicam Jacobi Catholicorum Regni nomine testaturus See Bishop Burnet's History of the Reformation Second Part p. 390. c. ☜ ☜ ☞ ☜ * See his 9 th Chapter ☞ ☜ ☜ ☜ A good manner of proposing in Parliament New Laws to be made or thought on ☜ Mortmains ☞ Whether the first Parliament of Q. Elizabeth were good ☞ The name of the Clergy A Consideration both for Prince and People The Education in our Seminaries The cry of Mr. John Avila Bishops Livings No access of Women to be permitted Occupations of a good Bishop What Men ought to be chosen Bishops Benefices to be provided by opposition Of helping our selves by Strangers No Appropriation of Benefices at the beginning Churches Chancels and Sacristies ☜ ☞ Preferment for those of Seminaries Directions and often Meetings for the Clergy Of Priest's and Clergy-men's Apparel Proof of such as desire to be Priests out of Seminaries Of Universities and Colleges Multitude of Oaths to be restrained Competent Stipends Mathematicks and Tongues Defects of Grammar Schools Time and spaces of courses in Faculties Beginning of establishing Discipline Order of Apparel ☞ Wants of divers Colleges Heads of Houses Ordinary Jurisdiction How Founders Intentions for Masses may be satisfied Emulation to be avoided ☞ The Ordaining of a new Clergy by Christ. Temporal authoriâ—y far inferiour to Spiritual The old Temporal honour of English Clergy The importance of a good Prince and the account that he must make ☞ A Council of Conscience (b) ☞ The quite contrary has happened very lately in England Restoring of Liberties and Priviledges ☜ Restitution of Justice Multitude of Thieves in England (c) This Principle does not only justifie an Exclusion-Bill but a worse Practice that I will not name Lists of Mens names and merits Nobility's Servants Nobility's Children Wards Younger Brothers Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Daughters and Dowries Setting the Lands at the old Rent of Assize Old Rents commodious to the Common-wealth Reformation of the Common Law Remedy for bringing Suits to London Visitors upon Lawyers and Judges The Common Laws of England unjust in matter of Life and Death The Equity and Piety of Imperial Laws in matter of Life and Death Inquiry upon Injuries done to the Commonalty Honest Recreation of the Commonalty Corpus Christi Feast Divers Schools The Conclusion