doubt whether any or all the Iesuits words yea or othes that are in England this day wil be accepted of for the value of a straw by any that knows the they are so fraudulent full of equiuocations and doublings Thirdly in the matters here in question the secular Priests speake not in their owne defence alone but defend the whole ecclesiasticall yea and temporall state against these Iesuiticall inuaders corrupters and vsurpers of both authorities Fourthly it is not a more common then true rule receiued of all persons degrees and orders either Christian or Heathen and in and by all lawes nations and ages ratified confirmed and verified that bonum quo communius eo melius but secular priesthood not Iesuitical societies extends it self ouer all estates persons and places being rightly called Seculars because they haue the cure and charge of soules layd on their backes to direct all that liue in a secular worldly or temporal state in matters of conscience soule affaires as christian directories to al humane or moral actions wherin vertue or vice impietie or holinesse good or bad may be included For which cause when the Apostle had commanded all with obedite prepositis vestris c. he gaue a reason with a quia ipsi dabunt rationē pro animabus vestris coram Deo As much to say as neither father mother sister brother or dearest friend neither Prince Peere Lord Ladie Maister or Mistris neither Abbot Prior Canon Regular Monke Frier Iesuit Hermit or Anchorite neither anie other person or persons can or shall be admitted to giue an account before God at the latter day on your behalfe concerning your soules affaires whiles you liued secularly in this vale of tears saue only those appointed ouer you to take this cure and charge vpon them For which cause they are also called Curates and Pastors c. Fiftly the Iesuiticall societie although the order be approued by the Pope his Holines therfore it is to be honored of all good Catholickes they that liue in it agreeing to their first institutiō profession calling are therfore also to be reuerenced if any such be now to be found amongst them yet being in the best sense and construction themselues can make of it a priuate peculiar corporation or an order not common but proper and therefore must needes respect their owne societie most yea grant them herein their principle to be tollerable In ordine ad Deum it followeth then by necessary sequell that all that are not Iesuits should follow beleeue credite trust to and defend the secular Priests as a common corporation in the weale publicke with them not those that euen in their Ordine ad Deum must and will carue for themselues first and leaue to their fautours and ignorant fauorites the off-fals scumme or refuse of their commodities I might here adde a new corolarie of another kind in confirmation of the credit respect and esteem that all secular Priests should and may euen de iure ex merito condigno chalenge to themselues of the Cath. laity before any Iesuit whosoeuer As first for that notwithstanding these seditious most mischieuous men haue bespattered with a most dangerous Gangrene the whole bodie misticall of Christ which vnlesse it be feared vp with hot irons here in Englād wil neuer come at Rome to be soundly cured it hath so venimously infected al flesh they furthermore haue most maliciously inflamed so many both men women and childrens hearts with insulting pride deepe disdaine and such vehement furie outrage and malice against secular Priests as the vnnaturall heate of their cursed zeale hath past already gradum ad octo and passe it any further it is twentie to one it will passe extra spheram actiuitatis and fall into tearmes of Apostacie yet spight of the diuel al Iesuitical Atheisme the secular Priests haue bin reuerenced ere euer Ignatius Loiola the Spanish souldier and first founder of the Iesuits order was borne they are at this present in the middest of these new maisters throughout all Europe and they will be when not one Iesuit shal be left aliue in the world vnlesse they amend their manners and reforme their order but all damned for heretickes or thrust out of Gods Church as Apostataes and Atheists I say the secular Priestes haue bin are wil be after al this these indiscreet misled Catholikes ancient most louing and faithfull ghostly fathers Who all gusts gallings infamies contempts slanders iniuries wrongs other points of vnkindnes set aside do wil loue them stil vnfainedly pray hartily for them day and night are and will be ready to offer their worne out bodies in prison and abroade for confirmation of them in the Catholike faith when these elated Pharisies shall be farre to seeke And further I put this for a second point which the Catholicke Laitie may please to consider vpon thar the power of Priesthood is called in question by these new religious Scribes and Pharises of whom it is not more strange to heare into what credit they are growne with the people especially women then to vnderstand into what obloquie contempt and disgrace the secular priesthood of Christ is brought by their hypocrisie to the worldes eye in alluring the peoples hearts from their auncient true friends and spirituall fathers and by their factious opposition against vs neuer ceasing to calumniate slander and defame all men most iniuriously falsly and perfidiously by their treacherous proiects and treasonable practises nor leauing of to insult triumph and tyrannize first ouer secular Priests and then ouer all others that are not professed Iesuits most proudly maliciously and disdainfully As these things neede not seeme strange much lesse incredible and least of all other impossible because their antesignanes or forefathers I meane the Scribes and Pharises in our Sauior Christ his time discountenanced priesthood with like pretexts to these and were growne into as great admiration with the people then as these new Iesuiticall Scribes are now witnesse Iosephus witnesse all antiquities witnesse Christ himselfe who with great zeale did cast those ietting iugglers out of the temple of Ierusalem So thē no Catholike being so ignorant simple or affectionate but knows must needs confesse that priesthood is the chiefest hold stand stay for them to build vpon it followeth that they must either renounce the Cath. Churches authority in crediting these false hearted seditious erronious Iesuits or els renounce the sayd Iesuitical doctrine credite the secular cleargy Christs church herein THE VIII ARTICLE WHether euer any Iesuit haue Apostataed from his faith and fallen out of the Catholicke Church or no and if there haue whether any such haue euer returned or bene reconciled againe or not THE ANSWERE NAy ask whether any of them do stand firme and remaine sound and liue conformable to the first institution of their order or no considering that euen those who otherwise are of good disposition
some afterwards becoming very holy vertuous and religious persons in another kind and others giuē ouer to such libertie as the obseruation had by them of their superiors behauiour and other rules and principles partly insinuated and taught them partly collected by necessarie sequeles and conferring of things together by them they fall quite away out of Gods Church and become Apostataes from their faith their vow their obedience and all things and so make the former inseparable accident to become separable and quite separated from them Of this kind then of the Iesuits obeysants to leaue the former commandants to purge their Politiques from Atheisme I can say none otherwise then as of inferior subiects petite captaines forragers purueyors and common souldiers to wit that though such be bound to obey their Soueraigne the Generall of the field or Emperour of the warres yea perhaps sometimes in battell vnlawfull in attempts tyrannicall and vniust enterprises which they often neither knowing neither suspecting neither bound to enquire after for Princes affaires are subiects secrets sacramentum regis reuelare nefas est they may intend act and performe without offence vnder obedience that which in the commandant is most criminall offensiue and damnable yet neither doth neither can this excuse them in foro externo and by the law of nature of nations and of armes to be equally guiltie as the other are and being taken in the warres or otherwise by the opposite Prince or aduersarie may be proceeded against as if they were the Generals Coronels and Captaines of whole regiments companies and bands because they as instruments these as principall agents intend the producing of one and the selfe same effect precedent in these causes And conformably hereunto forasmuch as the Generall the Prouincials and the Rectors amongst the Iesuits are those in cuius virtute caeteri operantur although many of the inferiour sort of Iesuits obeisants may be and I verily thinke are vertuous and good men of themselues and so do liue and may no doubt continue so to their liues end yet by reason of this subordination and due obedience required in all inferiours to their superiours and all euery religious or secular order or societie as Friers and Monks to their Abbots Priors and Guardians these againe to their Prouincials and these to their Generall of Benedictines Dominicanes Franciscans c. Also in Cannons of Cathedrals to their Deane Deanes Archdeacons Parsons Vicars and all the rest of the seculars and religious or Ecclesiastical and Monasticall order to their Bishops Bishops to their Metropolitanes and Primates c. and all these againe together with the Lords and other Nobles Gentles and meaner subiects subordinate one vnder another to their Soueraigne Lord Prince and King c. It must needs follow that there is not a Iesuite in all England this day but hath a bitter smacke of Fa. Parsons impietie irreligiositie trecherie treason and Machiuilean atheisme And so by reason of their subordinate obedience they are all tainted with that fowle vice which consists of many Atheall principles all reduced to two monstrous heads to wit exaltation of them selues and downcast of all that side not with them And like as the cutting off of whole bands of common souldiers The Iesuits haue al the three helps of aduancing thē to a Monarchie scil money by cousinage men by false deuises and munition by promise of kingdomes to great persons is a more securitie for the aduerse partie then if but one captaine were cut off alone these three matters money munition and multitude being the strength of all warfare and onely hope of conquest victorie and triumph and againe as the increase and supply of such is the onely helpe and meanes of repairing an annie casseered or bringing a broken battel into rankes orders againe it must needs be a consequent of course that the Iesuits haue no smal drift in collecting conueying and hoording vp so great and many summes of money in creeping in with so many great persons and in flocking together here in England as of late yeres they haue and daily do more more increase And it cannot be otherwise but that so long as there is one Iesuit left in England there will be mutinies treasons conspiracies and factions do what Pope or Prince or any other is able to do or say to the contrarie Therfore do I conclude that their aduancement being the readie downefall of all that are not with them there is not a Iesuit nor a Iesuits fautour any where to be found but hath a fowle taste of Atheisme either directly per se or indirectly or virtute primi principalis agentis The experience whereof halfe witted men may see in England and elsewhere the chiefe obiection in request to make sillie soules to dote on thē being this scil Why is not such a Father a good man I neuer heard him speake an euill word of any creature nor meddle in anie state matter or other worldly affaire but all his speech tends to pietie vertuous life and mortification c. I say if anie be so pure as beleeue it that list now that I haue both heard so much seene so manie letters of Fa. Gerrard to the contrarie of whom of al the rest I euer thought the best that Iesuit of all other doth most hurt as vsed of purpose to win affections and get great summes of money into his hands whereby the societie is backt strengthened and the aduerse partie thereby more weakened euery way And this reason was once alleaged on the Lord Dacres behalfe why none of his should in pollicie giue any extraordinarie countenance to any Iesuite knowing the chiefe was his Lordships mortall enemie and therefore the name of a friend to any inferiour did increase the number of enemies all running one way for obedience THE V. ARTICLE WHether then seeing it seemeth that the Iesuites worke much by inferior agents employing those that are fit for nothing else to winne peoples harts vnto them by gifts bribes plawsible perswasions words of admiration and other meanes in all things rare may then any one mā or other set forth himselfe to the world or not verbi gratia in concealing such things as may hinder his owne aduancement as meannesse of birth insufficiencie of wit want of learning wealth and other fauours of fortune or abilities vertues and graces either attending on the bodie or mind together with hiding such defects as are priuate in himselfe either of nature or otherwise accidentall And if he may then whether to the preiudice of any other or not either in generall or inspeciall THE ANSWERE NO question but he may do so either for a publike or for a priuate good so it be without preiudice of others thereby yet neither may all persons do so alike nor those that may yet not at all times alike nor in all places equally without difference For the better vnderstanding wherof it is to be noted
earth His words are these When I came to Rome saith he I found the Colledge as a field with two hostile campes within it father Generall and his assistants wholly auersed and throughly resolued to leaue the gouernement c. And taking vpon him to shew the causes of those long troubles in the Colledge he saith Some thinke that it is in great part the nature of the place that ingendereth high spirits in them that are not well established in Almighty Gods grace For comming thither very young and finding themselues presently placed and prouided for abundantly This speech had bene fitly applied to father Parsons himselfe and may iustly be returned vpon him and his society and acquainted daily with sights and relations of Popes Cardinals and Princes affaires our youthes that were bred vp at home with much more simplicity and kept vnder by their parents and maisters more then the Italian education doth comport forget easily themselues and breake out into liberty I meane such as haue run astray and lost respect to their superiours in Rome And this opinion of the circūstance of place is greatly increased by the iudgement of strangers both Spanish and French Flemings and other nations who affirme that they try by experience that their people which liue in Rome if they be not men of great vertue do proue more heady afterwards and lesse tractable then others brought vp at home But yet to this other men of our nation adde a second reason for the English Colledge which is at Rome being a place whereunto many young men do resort onely vpon a desire of seeing nouelties When any come thither of the English nation find such a commodity of study and maintenance themselues in want and misery they made suite for that whereunto perhaps they had no true vocation from God nor due preparation in themselues to so holy and high an estate and so being once admitted fell afterwards into disorder and to put out of ioynt both themselues and others c. Thus farre this impious father sheweth it to be the want of grace in some and want of true calling in others that they disagreed with the Iesuits But now to heare his report of the estimation that our English students and Priests haue gotten by their being at Rome I thinke it will make all parents afraid and all our youth abhorre comming at Rome amongst them euer after vnlesse their parents wish or themselues intend to haue them all Iesuits or at least Iesuites bondslaues to sweare to whatsoeuer they say to trot and trudge whither and when they please and to runne their most traiterous race and cursed courses inhumane odious hatefull to God and man In good faith deare Catholikes Lords Ladies Gentles or whosoeuer you be that haue your children or other friends vnder the Iesuits tyrannicall yoke in bondage beyond the seas pardon for Gods loue pardon my vehemencie on your behalfe against these malignant wretches I could not with patience set hand to paper after I had read this letter following but walked two or three turnes vp and downe in my chamber trēbling in anger with my heart as high as my head to thinke on the villany of this bastardly runagate Parsons cursed be the hower wherein he was borne this filius peccati sacrilegij iniquitatis populi Diaboli how euer he durst come at Gods holy Altar after his blasphemies and outragious speeches and writing against the secular Priests and Students most falsly irreligiously and Pharisaically laying his owne sinnes and the rest of the Iesuits seditious vprores and more then heathenish impietie vpon the innocent most cruelly persecuted by them all and by him in speciall aboue al the rest as most cruell Iewish harted vnnaturall His words are these Lo this wretch There is no true humilitie obedience nor other vertue but in a Iesuite or his bondslaue Baconius saith he and that was one of the Cardinals that came comport him at his lodging often told me that our youthes bragged much of their Martyrdome but they were refractarij that was his word had no part of Martyrs spirit which was in humilitie and obedience His Holinesse oftentimes told me that he was neuer so vexed with any nation in the world For on the one side they pretended pietie and zeale and on the other shewed the very spirit of the Diuell in pride All the world knoweth these things rightly to simbolize with Parsons and the rest of the Iesuits contumacie and contradiction c. and euer now and then his Holinesse would put his finger vp to his braine signifying that there stood their sicknesse and so would most of the Court when they talked of them saying the English were indiauoluti and like words His Holinesse added also that he knew not what resolution to take for on the one side to punish them openly would be a scandall by reason of the heretickes and if he should cast them foorth of Rome some had told him that they would become heretickes c. Lo what a long lowd lye this Puritane Iesuite hath brought to a loose end falsely fathered on his Holinesse against the seculars all the world knowing the Iesuits to be the men most like of any other in the world this day to fall into the most blasphemous heresie and apostacie as these that are become alreadie incorrigible of any Prince Prelate or people And againe he saith that I haue heard his Holinesse often and diuerse Cardinals more often report with exceeding dishonour to our nation the headinesse and obstinacie of our youthes So as now many great and wise men begin to suspect that the sufferings of our blessed Martyrs and confessors in England was not so much for vertue and loue to Gods cause as of a certaine choller and obstinate will to contradict the Magistrates there c. O monster of all other for so I may well tearme thee because I imagine thou art an irregulate Priest by reason of thy aspiring hart which probably wold neuer permit thee to seek for dispensatiō of thy bastardly base bloud Sundrie mischieuous practises of impiety are amōg the Iesuites yet of all their maximes this is one of the most inhumane bloudy cruell and mercilesse to wit that whosoeuer doth not approue and aduance Fa. Parsons and some of his fellowes conceits and courses touching our country nation though they be neuer so foolish rash furious scandalous dangerous nay though men be desirous to sit stil and meddle nothing with them nor against them one way or other yet if he do not ayde assist thē yea be currents of their fatall course in al things it is lawfull yea meritorious to haue such persons infamed by casting out any calumniation against them that may discredite them the practise wherof how many poore Priests in England haue tasted nay who hath not there being not one secular Priest whō lesse or more they haue not defamed yea no Prince Prelate Lord