when he speaks of the commotions of a Party yet here I am accused to think Rebellion no crime and to excuse their faults because I tell you what Papists in those days said for themselves The Minister can call himself a Loyal Subject and yet defend the Hugonots who were the most notorious and insolent Rebels that any History can shew nor had they any other pretence for the Massacres and continual ravages committed by them but Mr. Calvin and Mr. Beza's telling them God said thus and thus and therefore unless their respective Kings would suffer them to destroy a Religion in quiet possession since the Reign of Clouis they would bring Armies into the field and fortifie Towns against their Liege-Lords as every body knows they did till subdued in the time of Lewis the XIII I think good Mr. Parson I am as well known in England as your self and am sure can find more Protestants of Quality that shall engage for my Loyalty thē you can people of any sort 'T is not this Minister Reader only but others have called my narration of the matter of fact a questioning of Queen Elizabeths Title judge you by my words in the Apology whether it be so or no nor could I omit in honour the Plea of the foregoing age their misdemeanours being every day thrown in my dish But suppose I had questioned her Title there is no Treasonable intention in it I am sure because the Title of our King has no dependance upon that Princesse nor was she the first of our Monarchs against whose right Posterity has argued No body is blamed for saying King Stephen was an usurper or that Edward the Fourths Title was better then that of the three preceding Henry's What is 't then I beseech you were the fact proved against me I have committed that Protestant Authors have not done and worse Sr. Walter Rawley in his Preface of the History of the world has not only something to say against almost all the Kings of Englād but Buck in his Ric. 3 has bastardized Hen. 7 and all his offspring and thereby invalidates theire title to the Crowne either as Yorkists or Lancastrians Nor does Speed refraine from questioning the right of most of our Princes from the Conquest till Henry the fowrth's Reigne Yet none of these have been branded with the Character of ill Subjects 'T is he that is to be accounted wicked who sedititiously descants on Titles to breed Commotions and Disorders The Minister says I defend the calumny of those Catholicks in saying 'T was a very hard question whether the right to the Crown lay in Queen Elizabeth or in the Queen of Scots Reader that which I said was That this was a harder Question then the Dispute of York and Lancaster which cost so much Blood and Treasure and because I would know your opinion I will state these two Questions to you York had the interest of a third brother by Marriage Lancaster that of a fourth Brother and these two dispute about the Crown of England which women are capable of The second Question is this Henry the eighth married his brothers wife who was said to be a Virgin for Prince Arthur was but fifteene and a little more wen he died By this Princess K. Hen. had our Q. Mary and after he had lived with her 20 years he fell in love with a handsome young Lady whereupon he had in short time a scruple of Conscience that it was unlawful to live longer with his old wife because she had been-married to his brother His Conscience being still tender he caused the Scriptures to be searched and found not only there the Marriage to be void but that the Pope himself had no power in England and besides that rich Abbies were also contrary to the word of God Being thus truly informed he threw away Wife Pope and Monks and married the other by whom he had Queen Elizabeth while his first Wife lived 'T was thought by many curious wits that there could be but one of the daughters legitimate because both Mothers were contemporaries and that to Christians the Scripture permits but one wife at a time After the death of this King and his Son 't was put to the Kingdom to decide which of these children were lawfully begotten both Lords and Commons acknowledged Mary for their Queen which was as much to say she was born in true Wedlock Nor did Luther himself fail to disapprove of Queen Elizabeths birth I doubt not but the people were informed of the cause of the Kings scrupule as also that this brother Arthur had never known his wife Nay before K. Henry married Queen Katherine she protested she was a Virgin and offered to be tryed by Matrons The Bishop of Ely also deposed That the Queen whom all even the King himself esteemed for a Saint had often in confession told him she never carnally knew the Prince Nor in the whole examination was there any colourable pretence produc'd but the common vanity of all boys to be thought men before their time For 't was affirmed Arthur should say the next morning after Marriage that he had been in Spain that night Besides this there were those I believe that told the People that though St. John forbad Herod to take his brother Philips wife because his said Brother was then alive for Josephus sayes Herodias parted from her husband Philip in his life time and in contempt of the lawes married Herod yet he never prohibited by those words a Christian to marry his sister in-law if her Husband were dead The Case being thus fancied by the Papists in the time of Queen Elizabeth they argued that if Mary was the true Child then the other was the Natural but Mary was owned Legitimate And my Lord Bacon say's the ligitimation of Queen Mary and Elizabeth were incompatible Ergo the Kingdom not being Elective Mary Stuart the next Legal Heir must necessarily succeed her Yet suppose these Papists were wrong in their conclusion I am sure nevertheless I am still in the right viz. That it is a harder Question to resolve whether the Marriage be Null if a woman marries two Brothers then whether a third or fourth brother has the better Title to the Crown for that was the contest betwixt York and Lancaster But the Minister urges if the Papists thought Queen Elizabeth an Usurper why did not they stir sooner for there was no Rebellion he says in ten years and when after ten it broke out in the North there was not the least mention made of the Q. of Scots or her Title I wish the Catholicks had not only sat still ten years but forty five years also yet to shew you that this Minister will be wrōg in every thing I shall give you a most succinct account of this business Queen Mary of England in the latter part of her Reign was in open war with France and the Qu. of Scots was
followed the method of his Predecessors and would have continued it had not the barbarous usage of the Queen of Scots provok'd him to an Excommunication and all hostile endeavours His Bull I know speaks not of Bastardy in plain terms yet with our Ministers good leave the Pope in that very Bull calls our late Queen Mary Legitimate which saying was as much against Q. Elizabeth as if he had spoken in a bolder phrase For as I urged before my Lord Bacon says That the Legitimations of Q. Mary and Queen Elizabeth were incompatible In this manner the Popes acknowledged her and for the Marriages which were offered her to very much purpose forsooth urged by the Minister from forreign Monarchs it proves no more right then that Mrs. Cleypole had been truly our Queen if France Spain or the Emperor had made love to her and I believe no body doubts but Suiters would have flockt had she been unmarried and sole Heir to her Father Though Gregory XIII sent to invade Ireland and Sixtus V. gave England to the Spaniards yet I do not see that this can touch us Catholicks in the least though the Minister thinks it a mighty Argument For if the French King may invade St. Christophers or any part of our Dominions without drawing the Name of Villain on him or his people Why may not the Pope being a Temporal Prince send forces to subdue what Country he pleases The Bishop of Munster for his smart endeavours against the Hollanders was never blamed but on the contrary commended by us and certainly the Pope is as absolute and as good a man as he Kings you see may fall upon their Neigbours themselves and without breach of Morality incite others to do the like and while Popes are free Princes they cannot be reproach'd for using that liberty without great partiality and malice This Minister foolishly handles all things and you may see his intent is only to make a noise for 't is no advantage in our present Dispute to him to shew what Kingdoms Popes over-run or give away That which he ought to prove was That it is Article of Faith amongst us to assist the Pope in every such invasion or Gift That this is not so you may plainly see for one fifth of the Turks Army are of his Christian Subjects and yet none of them are ever blamed as heritiques for defending the grād Seigniors Territories In the next place whē was it heard that any English Catholick was fain to do pennance like an accurst persō for assisting the Queen against the Spanish Invasion for there was no◠Papist then in England for the Spaniard Or who in Ireland in her Reign thought himself given to the Divel for fighting against San Joseph who came for the Kingdom upon his Holiness account For the Bishop of Armath confesses The English Papists in Ireland were faithfull in all the invasions by Spaine or Pope Now whether Pope or Spaniard intended after Conquest to restore the Kingdom to the Queen of Scots or her Heirs I know not but this I am sure of that 't was as probable as that the Hollanders who were assisted by the Arms of some Caualiers and the good wishes of us all would have given King Charles the Second possession of England had they got it from the Rump If Clement the Eighth earnestly strove that Queen Elizabeths Successours should be Catholiques I suppose no body can blame him for it but I would fain have it shewed me that King James's admission to the Crown a Protestant from his Childhood was opposed by the Catholiks of this Kingdom If they stickled not after his Mothers death for him as they did for her this answer is sufficient That he was not used like her nor did he for fear of prejudicing his future admittance ever desire any body to stir in his behalf I suppose Reader you wonder why I should challenge any man to shew me how the English Catholicks opposed King James his Succession when as this Minister tells us out of Cambden That the Papists negotiated the Spanish Invasion That afterwards they perswaded the Earl of Darby to pretend to the Crown That Doleman alias Parsons writ in the behalf of the Infanta's Title and to conclude his Accusation de declares That the Catholicks of Scotland Huntly and others raised a powerful Rebellion against this Prince First Concerning the Invasion the Minister says more then the Author himself whom he quotes for Cambden only says that some English Fugitives did promote it and who knows not that Fugitives in all ages and in all Religions machinate against those whom they call their Oppressors and on the other side who is ignorant that many Papists more considerable far then a few fugitive Priests for most of the chiefest were so assisted the Kingdom in that War and in all its other contests abroad Secondly If some of these Fugitives did perswade my Lord of Darby it was I say again done like Fugitives nor had they ever the consent of the Catholiques for it It was certainly a very rediculous Plot in them to make a Protestant Nobleman that had so poor a Title their Soveraign and if it were really designed It must I am sure have been performed by the Protestants themselves for the Papists had no power not being able so much as to set up the Qu. of Scots who had so plausible a right though they wanted not the assistance of the Pope Spaniard and all the Guisard Faction And by the way this Earle was not poison'd as the Minister would have it for Stow has a Diary and the Particulars of his sicknesse and say's The causes of all his deseases were thought by Phisitians partly a surfet and partly distempering himselfe with vehement excercise 4. days togeather in Easter weeke Thirdly For Dolemans Book who writ it God knows Parsons denied it at his death and I believe he was not the Authour because in some of his works he speaks so much to the advantage of K. James Moreover he was a man of far more wit then to write so foolish a thing for was not that man strangely simple that would dedicate his Book to my L. of Essex as the Minister would have it to prick forward an ambitious man and yet the whole matter of the Treatise is to prefer the Infanta's Title before all persons whatsoever But Reader if this kind of arguing be lawful that the errours of some unknown men must be laid to a whole Party how miserable would the Protestants themselves be when we come to try them by the same Touchstone I will not stoop to so mean and insignificant a Topick but tell you what Protestants still alive can testifie viz That in the latter end of the Queens Reing My Lord of Hertfords Title was often cried up to Tumult in the streets Nor had that a slight impression he being esteemed next to the Stuarts in blood on many a wellmeaning man
then private men can be conceived to do But yet it were severe to indite this man for a Libeller or say because he begs that he mutinies against Obedience and Rule Niniveh might call for mercy without affronting Heaven even after sentence was given nor has ever the King of Kings when he punishes forbad his children to cry Remember Abraham Remember Isaac Remember Jacob O Lord remember the promises that thou hast made of old My second Reason was as a Subject to keep the Peace and to the utmost of my power to prevent all strife and division This is an obligation which no son of Adam can plead exemption from for seeing all men are under somme Government or other and Quiet the sole end of that everybody must use the best means he can so it contradict not Laws to preserve the thing for which Magistracy it self was established No Creature I am sure can be ignorant of the distraction then in England for he that was in the City fled to his Farm frightned with the noise of a new fire and he that got into the Country poasted again to Town to escape the Massacre which designed whispers dayly threatned If this disorder was amongst Protestants what dreadful confusion must you imagine amongst Catholiques who are but a handful comparatively to the whole and yet the famed Authors of these two Conspiracies Was it unbeseeming then an English Christian to wish a better understanding among his Countrymen and to desire the Royal-Party should not be disjoyned especially when an Invasion was menaced by our Confederate Neighbours and a Rebellion newly broke out within the Circuit of our own Island If remedies were needful what Medicament could be better applied then the gentle balm of true perswasion By this men saw the Tares which the Enemy sowed whilst they slept and thus they began to reknow their often tried friends descended according to Nature and Grace from those Ancestors who like so many Atlas's upheld the Grandeur of our Kings whilst the whole World from East to West admired their Victories Consider then I beseech you Great Patriots in whom the Prince of darkness reigns whether in me that am termed a Jesuit and would banish all discord from among my Brethren or in this strange Minister who to sow Sedition plows with perverted Storie and then harrows with downright falsities and untruths How does this poor man rip up old tales of Popes and by discovering his passion and fancy infer that it is a check to the Glory of Kings and utter loss of Soveraignty to be under the spiritual Jurisdiction of this Universal Bishop Why do not the Kings of France Spain Portugal and Poland see this How comes it to pass also that the Emperor who is Absolute Monarch of Hungary and Boheme and the other great Princes of Germany are ignorant of a thing of so much concernment This I much wonder at indeed especially since their Countries have so swarmed with these Reformed Evangelists But it may be they are carelesse of their interest and so is the simple Florentine who with the Duke of Savoy and the rest of the Italian Regulets want as much wit as they do Authority and Power These Princes even these very last live as I may say just under his Holiness his Nose and yet when they please dispute about Temporals not only with Sword in hand but are so absolute and arbitrary in their DominioÌ„s that England would groan to bear once in many ages what their Subjects daily suffer Reflecting thus on the premises might not I well wonder in our Apology how so wild a calumny could be laid to our charge as that our Principles are destructive to Soveraignty Truly I did wonder and that not a little especially since our fore-fathers were so eminent in Religion and yet our Kings rather Monarchs of Europe then of half an Isle giving Laws wheresoever they pleased If some Popes have been exorbitant 't is no more our Faith to believe their actions iust then that humane transgressions are the true Precepts of Christianity As some wicked meÌ„ dealt ill with Gods Anointed so on the other side who defended these Princes against pretended illegal impositions of Rome were they not Papists Yes and so fervent for that Truth that the next day they would take the Croisado next against any forreign Hereticks 'T is no breach in our Religion to say that Popes in their private Determinations may erre much less that they sin like men A Pope and Council in matters of Faith I confess Infallible and therefore I look upon the Decrees of Trent as divine as those of Nice nor were there I am sure more tricks against Protestants pretended in this then in the former against the strong and numerous Arrians No man abominates Prelatick insolencies more then I Bring out then the Glorious Roll and upon examination you will find that our bravest Catholique Princes have been the best sons of the Church nor is yet a King by our Tenets the worse Child for defending his Rights and Priviledges Caesar must have what is Caesars and to God we must â—â—nder what is Gods Shall Notions then convince Experience when as Demonstration it self often gives way to Practice Let us now summon for witnesses to this great Truth the present Kings of our Profession and though their thoughts towre far higher then Eagles they will not only deride the contrary but unanimously proclaim that their people are not rebellious by reason of Ecclesiastical dependence abroad nor do they think themselves less absolute then that very Prince who cries There ought to be no other Pope then Me. What shall I say then to such a man who will yet affirm our Principles inconsistent with Obedience To advise him to Anticyra is vain for no Ellebore can purge that madness which first taking root by ignorance has afterward been quite transformed through interest into an obstinate and selfdeceiving wilfulness My Lords and Gentlemen As malice has forced the Answerer thus ill to apply his reading so also it hath stained his face with so deep a dye that now he blushes at nothing nor regards any more whatever he says Well might I have pardoned him his rude upbraiding That our sufferings were but Duties because it is a real Truth yet no Subject takes pleasure in the sound when in rancour and despite it is used against him I say well might I with silence have swallowed this seeing afterwards I was to hear him with impudeÌ„ce proclaim That Papists were forc'd to their bravery and like a hard-hunted-Deer we threw our selves into the Herd glad to be sheltered under the Royal covert Glad we coÌ„fess as Loyal men grasp the occasion of expressing zeal but that we could not sit quietly at home I flatly here deny nay day is not clearer then this that had not our Loyalty forbad we might with triumph have been received even into the very embraces of the Enemy Had this Minister perused Books any farther then their
Indices against Catholiques he would have seen that let Rebels declare what they will they 'll soon find excuses and publickly make use of those very things when t is for their advantage against which in the beginning they openly profest Was not Godliness Godliness the cry of all the Saints yet because dexterity was needful they admitted into their league H. Martin and others who were then as notorious for their Vices as afterwards eminent in all the abominations of the Land Again if the Papists were pursued against Bishops there was as fierce a Chase and ever after Popery and Prelacy were continually plac'd in the same Parenthesis For my part I believe the English Episcopacie stuck more in their stomacks then we because Hereticks hate most that Religion which is but one remove above them and from which they are ever iustly taxt rebelliously to have gone out Besides the Catholikes being of a Faith for which the People had a prejudice could no ways obstruct the Reformation which they so earnestly intended 'T is plain then against Prelats they had as great if not a greater Pique yet when it conduced to the reducing of North Wales and subduing of Sir John Owen they made commander of their Forces not onely a Bishop but an Arch bishop also I mean that real Chimaera his graceless Grace of York But why do I trouble you with these probable arguments to prove the possibility of our reception when as the matter of fact is certain not done in a corner but in the Palace of a King and in the sight of all his Nobles Sir Arthur Aston a Catholick of Quality and Experience offered our late Souveraign his service and the service of many more upon the first preparations of War The good Prince sincerely gave him thanks but told him that by reason of their Religion he durst not admit them into the Army for the Rebels who never omitted a pretence would make use of this to discredit him among the people This Knight being refused thus rode in all haste to London and made the like tender to Essex The Earl upon the proposal consults the Cabal who presently advised him to accept the offer and so a formal Commission was given Sir Arthur He immediately posted back to the Court and there shewed the Commission to his Majestie which when he saw and together with it the Intrigue of these Juglers he not onely gave Sir Arthur a Command but from that time declared all Catholicks welcome who thereupon from every Quarter hastned to his help and succour The Designes which the Rebels had herein were many for by this they not onely hoped to get to themselves a Party well versed in War great in Bloud and of Estates answerable to that Bloud but also were sure at the same instant to weaken as much the King as they brought strength to themselves and besides they farther considered that this might adde a gloss to their proceedings abroad because all Neighbouring Princes being Catholiques would then probably look on their actions with a more partial eye Scripture also which is the stalking-horse of all Sects could not be wanting to them who had already with a Curse ye Meroz invited all to Rebellion That very Example might have been a Warrant that the Godly Profane may joyn in a Confederation At least 't was evident that the children of Israel who went to fight the battels of the Lord used Rahabs assistance a Harlot of Jericho for which service they shew'd favour to all her fathers house And why then might not the Elect when the Cause required it receive aid from us though children of the Whore of Babylon Doubtless in Conscience this advantage could not have been omitted by the Saints since it might have been a means towards our Conversion as Cromwel afterwards urged when he so passionately stickled to bring in the Jews My Lords and Gentlemen Thus stood our Case and thus are we now reviled by a Minister after such true and faithful Services Yes so Loyal have we been that I defie all mankinde to shew one that was false unless perchance those that renouncing their God and shaking hands with Religion were owned as Converts by the people Nay let any man read but the Account of the Pyrenaean Treaty printed by the Dutch and others and there he shall see that Cromwel esteemed us the greatest of his enemies for so he told the Duke of Crequi when he desired him as a request of his Mistress the Queen Mother of France to cease his notorious persecutions against us Certainly nothing can more fully proue the sincere and disinterested meaning of the Catholiques then the Kings miraculous Escape from Worcester for he fell not there into the hands of men of Qualitie onely but among Papists of all ranks and conditions There were Priests there were Trades-men there were Labourers there were old women there were young fully acquainted with his misery and though at the same time death was proclaimed to the Concealer and to the Discoverer a reward able to make a poor man Emperour in his own thoughts yet no danger no gain could make them betray him whom by their Faith they were commanded to conceal Men of education and parts may sometimes have by designes even in the best of their doings but they of low degree being unacquainted with the artifices of the World declare the full reality of their hearts having nothing lodged there but the religious Principles which from their youth they received from their Ghostly Father My Lords and Gentlemen I must here conjure you not to put any forc'd interpretation upon my words for I do not now Apologize for any Extravagancies done by our Predecessours in the beginning of the Reformation onely let me beseech you to look on their Case at that time with the gentlest aspect that may be Height of temptation may perchance move pitie in Magistrates though not pervert their Justice and let me desire him that will judge to lay his hand on his owne brest and truly examine there what he himself would do in this condition Suppose he were of a Religion which he thought the visible Church from age to age delivered which he knew his ancestors to have happily lived under and which he saw profest by all the Kingdoms about him suppose then on a sudden by the preaching of two or three men base in their rank and taxt in Moralities obyne another a flame should break out through all Europe and turn topsie-turvie this venerable Building to make way for divers unlike Fabricks every on of which each Architect affirmed was according to Gods own Word and Model I ask him then in such a devastation which to use Camden's own phrase The world stood amaz'd and England groan'd at what would flesh and bloud move him to 'T is an Article of my Faith that neither Heresie nor Turcism because ill must not be done that good may come of it can be opposed by
Rebellion though many of the Reformed Divines are as I shal shew you of another sentiment Yet even those that do agree with me will nevertheless confess that by reason of carnal passions Grace must be predominant to resist so strong a torrent Was it not strange in the beginning to behold Abbies destroyed Bishopricks gelded Chanteries Hospitals and Colledges turned to profane uses Nay after a change of Liturgies and Rites to see people renounce their pious Vows and out of Godliness grow more licentious and loose These and the like unexpected alterations it being a pitiful thing as Stow says to hear the lamentations in the Country for Religious houses spurred men forward to resist for people saw the Conflagration and none knew in what it would determine or end But now Noble Country-men the Scene is quite altered for now we know the full scope of your designe now we are inured to the gentle Yoak of Protestant Kings and now we are so incorporated by our long acquaintance and joynt sufferings that all humane proneness to contend which our Enemies called Principles of Faith is wholly eradicated and taken away Having thus shew'd you that our Principles are not dangerous to Kings that our actions have been zealous for Kings and moreover that it is impossible we should again fall into those misdemeanours into which natural frailtie and misusage drove the foregoing age I will now with your permission examine the Answer of our Minister to each particular Paragraph and by it shall still farther let you see as well his pernicious ill nature as his detestable Positions and Designes But my Lords and Gentlemen I shall beseech you first throughly to peruse the Apologie it self it being the ground of the whole Dispute and because it hath been mangled by him into many imperfect Sections I have thought fit to print it here entire to the end you might run it over with the more ease and that by the whole connexion and dependance which mutilation spoils you may the better consider the real integritie I had in putting out that true and submissive Vindication TO ALL THE ROYALLISTS that suffered for HIS MAJESTY AND To all the rest of the Good People of ENGLAND The Humble APOLOGIE of the ENGLISH CATHOLICKS My Lords and Gentlemen THe Arms which Christians can use against Lawful Powers in their Severity are only Prayers Tears Now since nothing can equal the infinity of those we have shed but the Cause viz. to see our dearest Friends forsake us we hope it will not offend you if after we have a little wip'd our eyes we sigh out our Complaints to you We had spoken much sooner had we not been silent through consternation to see you so enflam'd whom with reverence we honour and also to shew our submissive patience which used no slights or tricks to divert the debates of Parliament For no body can imagine where so many of the great Nobility and Gentry are concern'd but something might have been done whenas in all ages we see things of Publick advantage by the managers dexterity nipt in the bud even in the very Houses themselves Far be it from Catholicks to perplex Parliaments who have been the Founders of their Priviledges and all Ancient Lawes Nay Mâgna Charta it self had its rise from us which we do the less boast of since it was not at first obtained in so submiss and humble manner We sung our Nunc dimittis when we saw our Master in his Throne and you in your deserved Authority and Rule nor could any thing have ever grieved us more then to have our Loyalty called into Question by you even at the instigation of our greatest Adversaries If we must suffer let it be by you alone for that 's a double death to men of Honour to have their Enemies not onely Accusers but their insulting Judges also These are they that by beginning with us murthered their Prince and wounded you And shall the same Method continue by your approbation We are sure you mean well though their designe be wicked But let it never be recorded in Story that you forgot your often Vows to us in joyning with them that have been the cause of so great calamity to the Nation Of all Calumnies against Catholicks we have admired at none so much as that their Principles are said to be inconsistent with Government and they themselves thought ever prone to Rebellion My Lords and Gentlemen Had this been a new Sect not known before something perchance might have been doubted but to lay this at their doors that have governed the Civilized World is the Miracle of Miracles to us Did Richard the First or Edward Longshanks suspect his Catholicks that served in Palestine and made our Countries Fame big in the Chronicle of all Ages Or did they mistrust in their dangerous absence their Subjects at home because they were of this Profession Could Edward the Third imagine those to be Trayterous in their Doctrine that had that care and duty for their Prince as to make them by Statute guilty of death in the highest degree that had the least thought of ill against the King Be pleased that Henry the Fifth be remembred also who did those Wonders of which the whole World does still resound and certainly all History will agree in this that 't was Old Castle he feared and not those that believed the Bishop of Rome to be Head of the Church We will no longer trouble you with putting you in minde of any more of our mighty Kings who have been feared abroad and as safe at home as any since the Reformation of Religion We shall onely adde this that if Popery be the enslaving of Princes France still believes it self as absolute as Denmark or Sweden nor will ever the House of Austria abjure the Pope to secure themselves of the fidelity of their Subiects We shall always acknowledge to the whole World that there have been as many brave English in this last Century as in any other place whatsoever Yet since the exclusion of the Catholick Faith there has been that committed by those who would be fain called Protestants that the wickedest Papist never dreamt of 'T was never heard of before that an absolute Queen was condemned by Subjects and those stiled her Peers or that a King was publickly tried and executed by his own people and servants My Lords and Gentlemen We know who were the Authors of this last Abomination and how generously you strove against the raging Torrent nor have we any other ends to remember you of it but to shew that all Religions may have a corrupted spawn and that God hath been pleased to permit such a Rebellion which our progenitors never saw to convince you perchance whom for ever may he prosper that Popery is not the only Source of Treason Little did we think when your Prayers and ours were offered up to beg a Blessing on the Kings Affairs ever to see that
their Treason in his Majesties absence have been convicted since his return when as no Papist could ever yet be suspected for the least defection from our Soveraing Can this man think himself Canon of Canterbury and dare say that the Priest is known who flourisht his Sword at the fatal stroke when as no body knows him no not he himsef Doubtless he means some Hugonot Minister for what Cavalier was ever in France and knows not how those Saints adored Cromwel hating from the beginning to the end both our King and his Party Let the World judge of this Story concerning this nameless Priest by him whom he names viz. Mr. White whose Book of Obedience and Government he lays as a blot on all of our Religion when as this Mr. White has not only been sharply used by the Catholicks of England but he and this very Book were openly condemned by the Pope himself nor durst he since shew his head in any Catholique Countrey Thus may be seen the Conscience of this Monsieur who would charge us with a crime which at the writing he knew was false from this son of Darkness has my Minister and others owned to have received their light and what kind of light it is pray be pleased farther to observe He tells us That a year before the Kings death a select Company of English Jesuits were sent from their whole Party to consult with the Faculty of Sorbon who you must know Reader are the greatest Catholick Enemies the Society has in France whether they might lawfully make away the King The Doctors answered affirmavely to the Question being then stated in writing but afterwards when the Pope saw that the Kings Murther was decried by every body he commanded tha Jesuits to burn all the Papers about the Question but one of them was shewed by a Papist to a Protestant Yet for all this secrecy commanded by the Pope Du Moulin tells us p. 58. that at Roan many Jesuited persons told a Protestant openly on the news of the Kings death That they having often admonished the King from time to time to remember his promise at Marriage of becoming a Papist were forc'd to take these courses for his destruction After this History he says p. 61. That the Friers at Dunkirk and by the way there was never in that Town a House of English Scotch or Irish Friers told a Protestant Gentleman that had a mind to pump them That the Jesuits would fain engross the Honour of the Kings death to themselves but the truth was they had laboured as effectually as the Jesuits to compass it Then he tells pag. 60. That thirty Jesuits neer Diep met a stranger a Protestant Gentleman on the Road and told him that they were going into England to be Agitators in the Independent Army Good Protestant Reader I am quite tired with this senceless stuff and if you think it false consider what a jewel you have got from France but if you can deem it true let me entreat you hereafter never to fear Jesuite or Priest for I am sure such prating fools can never do you harm Besides I wonder how it came to pass that all the Great Cavaliers caress't the Jesuits and always employ'd them in much business during the Kings exile neither were they then or the rest of the Popish Priests less welcome to the Royallists of England But pardon me I beseech you Reader if I use so many words about a matter that deserves so little yet I cannot but confess I am engaged to the Frenche Divine for being so notoriously malitious and foolish nor did I ever think that Sir Walters discovery of the Plot in 1641. of blowing up the Thames to drown the City could ever be parallell'd but here I now find it outdone Have we not seen Good Reader that such ridiculous Stories as these have lately ruined the Kingdom and can any man believe if they once come in fashion again they will end with Papists No doubtless for both Church and Court will soon find the smart as by experience we begin to feel For my own part I should never have taken notice of Sieur du Moulin or his Book had not my Minister owned him as I said for his informer and now I see he has imitated him also in his method for my worthy Answerer calls me a Jesuite and so the Dr. does Philanax though I am confident he knows him to be a Lay-man and a married man also But now Reader it will not be amiss to tell you why this Mr. du Moulin is so angry with the Jesuites You must know that Petra Sancta a famous Writer in the Society taxes the Drs Father for jugling viz. for being in France a Presbyterian and in England Episcopal and so complying for gain with those Ceremonies which his Calvinistical Brethren abominated as superstitious This old du Moulin his reverend father as the Dr. calls him writ a Letter forsooth as his son says to the Rebels at Rochel to exhort them to obey the King in breaking up their Assembly which was then hatching the Rebellion that presently after broke out and yet though it has been lickt and amended I doubt not by the Doctor you may find That a ground of his perswasion was because they were not strong enough to resist the King and besides the Reverend Divine in that perswasion to Loyalty concludes Notwithstanding all he had said they ought to look after their safety fort'was unreasonable for them to separate their Assembly with the peril of their persons Of the same Loyal judgment also I find the Dr. himself for after all his rayling against Jesuites for Sedition he confesses the Term was expired of the grant of the strong Places to the Hugonots Nevertheless he says they seem to be justified for keeping those Towns by the reason of the first Grant which was to preserve them from their bitter Enemies This was the Doctrine you see of this worthy Divine who also vindicated the actions of the Reformed in Geneva Holland Germany c. and therefore I wonder not at his aspersing us for our service to our King and Country 'T is not my business to run over all his Book in order having one of his Disciples already to deal with but this I must tell him and the rest of his Tribe That since they steal one from the other none of their Fopperies shall go unanswered and this they may find in some part or other of the present treatise SECT V. APOLOGY Nor could any thing have ever grieved us more then to have our Loyalty called into Question by you even at the instigation of our greatest Adversaries If we must suffer let it be by you alone for that 's a double death to men of Honour to have their Enemies not only accusers but for their insulting Iudges also ANSWER IV. His Objection here is Men of Honour have no cause to fear either single or double Deaths
Neighbours This Prince Protestant Historians conclude to be the least deserving of all our Governours for passing by his youthful Rebellion the Murthering of his Nephew his Atheism c. which they record 't is he that lost our whole interest either by Conquest or Matches in France and discontenting all his People never obliged any body that I heard of unless the Mayor and Corporation of Lynne This yet is no excuse to the Pope but shews only the unhappiness of the Nation that it had not a more generous Prince for Sr. Rob Cotton call's him a licentious soueraigne to defend our Rights and Priviledges Now for Transubstantiation it is true that in this Councel the word was first made Authoritatively use of as in the Councel of Nice the word Trinity but the sence and meaning of both Trinity and Transubstantiation was in the Scripture and held from age to age Nay the word Transubstantiation it self was used by grave Authors in Writings before Object 2. Concerning the Decrees and Bulls of Popes he says that from Gregory VII they made such a trade of deposing Kings that no weak King could wear his Crown but at the Popes curtesie and that Boniface VIII declares in these words We say and define and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary to salvation for every creature to be subject to the Bishop of Rome To this I answer that in the next Century or a little more after K. John there were more weak Kings in England then eiher before or since viz. Hen. 3. Edw. 2. Ric. and yet the Popes did not offer to take away their Crowns or ever stirred to perplex them though their wicked Subjects gave the Pope opportunity enough Nay though Hen. 3. denied any acknowledgment upon the gift of King John yet the Pope assisted him against the Rebellious Barons And for the composition of Edward the Seconds troubles his Holiness sent him two Cardinals but the Rebels would not accept of their Mediation as knowing them too much of the Kings Party Besides I told you again and again that the Popes Decrees and Bulls are not alwayes held infallible and may be opposed as they often have been by stiff and Religious Papists nor will good Catholiques scruple to do it especially about Temporal affairs And if Popes should speak in such a Dialect as the Minister urges they mean subjection in Spiritual matters 3. Object Among the Divines that agree to the deposing of Kings he mentions some Jesuites as Bellarmine Suarez Valentia Parsons or Creswel Mariana also he names though he confesses him cōdemned Out of these he cites several places to this purpose viz. As Jehojada deposed Athaliah so may Popes deal with Kings To this I say Let the Jesuites answer for their own Doctrine for I am sure they are of age and able also neither did they ever tell me otherwise but that I might reject such and the like opinions they being only the private fancies of some of their Order It has never been my study to pore upon Schoolmen nor is it worth my pains now to search Libraries whether they have said so or no which truly I do very much doubt of For my part I cannot think Jesuites such King-haters because Kings would then hate them when as on the contrary we see all Princes caress them and make them their Confessors At this time the Jesuites are in this Office to the Emperor the Queen of England the King of France the Queen Regent of Spain the King of Poland and as I take it to the now King of Portugal for they belonged thus to the late old King and Queen of that Kingdom the Dukes of Bavary Newburgh and many other great Princes of Germany are also their Penitents all which considered I must look upon Jesuites in general to be faithfuller Subjects then Protestants imagine for Kings though Papists are not always fools But suppose Jesuites were Villains what is that to the Catholick Faith must Cambridge be Babylon and the English Religion false because the Mēbers of one Colledge suppose Emanuel were thought knaves and hypocrites The other Divines and Canonists whom the Minister urges are Baronius Bertrand Lancelotus Peron Rossaeus who say according to his citations things to the same purpose about deposing of Kings All this put together Reader is the force of his Argument The Objection about Councels and Bulls you see is nothing about Divines I have already given you a touch but now I will handle it a little fuller You must know the Soul of man being so sublime and towring there is no profession in the world but that the wits of it aim to resolve all difficulties that can be proposed in the Science This makes Philosophers Metaphysicians and Schoolmen run into those seeming odd subtleties with which their writings are cram'd In the like manner Casuists thinking it a disgrace not to be able to answer something to whatever can be proposed treat in their Books about all Cases which their nimble fancies can start Among many impertinent niceties and curious Questions this of deposing Apostatizing Princes comes to be handled some perchance are for it others in may be against it Now because some have adjudged That upon a notorious falling away the Church may give to the sound the Dominions of the infected sheep lest the whole slock might be tainted immediately the Minister and other Protestants declare that the dethroning of Kings is the Catholique Doctrine I am sure this was not so absolutely agreed to by the English Protestāts themselves at least in discourse that there could be none found among them who have favoured the opinion which we are said to hold how many well-meaning men fought against Charles the I only because they falsely thought him a Papist and I my self have heard those of condition say when the King was abroad that should the Pope and his crew peruert him they would oppose his return There was no danger of this because his Majesty like his Father and Grādfather has so great a veneration for Protestantism but yet this that I urge was frequently spoke of and no body that reads this but has heard such discourses often What has been done about Religion in this our Country I shall tell you hereafter and at present I shall shew you that we Papists are not the only Rebel-teachers but that there are Reformists that profess this Divinity also Luther says You complain that by our Gospel the World is become tumultous I answer God be thanked these things I would have be and wo me miserable if they were not Zwinglius If the Roman Empire or what other Soveraignty soever should oppress the sincere Religion and we negligently suffer the same we shall be charged with contempt no less then the oppressors themselves whereof we have an example in 15. Jer. where the destruction of the people is Prophesied because they suffered their K. Manasses being ungodly to be unpunisht
bold as Hectors in their denials that has affirmed the Church of Rome never governed the civilized World But since this Minister mentions here Popish ignorance I must desire the Reader if he knows any of our Profession in the Country to tell me whether generally speaking they are not esteemed more learned then their Neighbours of the same rank and degree I am sure they that live at London are thought by their Protestant Acquaintance as well bred and as greate scholars as any of their condition with whom they usually converse Concerning our Priests consult their Books and tell me then whether they have been out done or no and if any English man would know how they are abroad let them go but to his next Neighbours the French and there in every Diocess he shall find a Clergy not only learned to admiration but so far outgoing the Hugonot-Ministers that one would think they lived not in the same Clime or Region Nay what is yet more there is neither private nor publick Library in this very Island but seven of ten of the choice Books in all Sciences were writ by Catholicks Is not this Good Reader strange ignorance for Protestants to be thus deceived and implicitly led on by their Pastors contrary to what they hear and see This I must say is incredible blindness and exceeds that of the silliest Papists who if they are cozened it must be in things beyond their capacity or by distance far remote from them But now in England nothing is more common then to have wise Protestants run into this and the like fond fancies and at last when they can say no more they are fain to shift it off with this Phanatical evasion That it is true Papists are carnally but not spiritually learned SECT V. APOLOGY Did Richard the first or Edward Longshanks suspect his Catholicks that served in Palestine and made our Countries Fame big in the Chronicles of all ages or did they mistrust in their dangerous absence their Subjects at home because they were of this Profession Could Edward the third imagine those to be Trayterous in their Doctrine that had that care and duty for their Prince as to make them by Statute guilty of death in the highest degree that had the least thought of ill against the King Be pleased that Henry the fifth be remembred also who did those Wonders of which the whole World does still resound and certainly all History will agree in this that 't was Old-Castle he feared and not those that believed the Bishop of Rome to be Head of the Church ANSWER VIII To this he says the Reigns of these Kings were in the dark times of corruption yet that Richard I. bequeathed his Pride and Lechery to the Clergy and Monks That Edward I. outlawed the Clergy for obeying the Pope in not paying Taxes That Edward III and Hen. V. made good Laws against the Popes usurpation and Becket vext Hen. II more then Hen. V feared Oldcastle Moreover that all these Kings did not differ so much from Protestants as the Papists now do and to conclude he asks did not the Pope force K. Iohn to do homage for England wrestle with Edward the first for Scotland and often lay claim to Ireland REPLY 8. Certainly Reader the Minister is besides himself since he can say the English differed not so much from the Protestants then as we do now Has the man railed all this while against the Tyranny of Popes and urged those times as the height of their Authority and then comes to this evasion I would fain know if the Clergy and Religious were since ever more in power then in those days was there ever more of Pilgrimages and all sorts of Devotion which Protestants call Superstitious were not Schoolmen then most in their splendor And lastly could any Publican Lollard Wickliffian or new Sect stir but the whole Kingdom presently detested them Who then will ever believe a word more he says when he is so strangely impudent to no purpose But these are the worthy tricks used to keep the poor people in ignorance and just with as much truth are the Fathers called defenders of the Protestant Religion for the Fathers stiled them always Hereticks that ran out of the visible Church For the Laws that have been made by any of our Kings if they made any against Ecclesiastical usurpations God reward them and to this all Catholicks will say Amen Concerning K. John we have already spoke enough And for the Popes claim to Scotland judge Reader whether any man can be fuller of falsity and malice then this Minister my Adversary For here he would have the World think by his placing this Accusation after King Johns business and by calling it the Popes wrestling with Edward I. for the Soveraignty of Scotland there was some notorious injustice done by the Sea of Rome In short the business was only this as you may find in Hollingshead the most violent English Historian against Papists that ever yet writ The Scots having always an animosity against the English and not knowing how to resist the Victorious Arms of Edward who was again coming with a great Army against them surrendred the Kingdom or so pretended to Boniface 8. He thereupon sent to the King to desist because the Crown belonged to the Church Edward immediately returned an Answer and so did all the Barons of England to manifest the Kings right and the invalidity of the new pretence The Pope says Hollingshead when he deliberately pondered the Kings Answer with the Letter from the English Barons waxt cold in the matter and followed it no farther Thus Reader you see how the case stood and how Catholiques are wronged by ill men nor is there any difference between a false aggravation and a downright lye In the same manner are we used in this Accusation of Ireland for the Pope never medled with Ireland but since the Reformation and so invaded it in the time of Queen Elizabeth of which you shall see farther in the Section of Popish misdemeanors in her Reign The parity between S. Th. Becket and Oldcastle is doubtless very odd the last being a Rebel with Complices in arms against Henry the fifth the other disputing only about Priviledges which he said were grāted to Priests Just as if our Peers should stād upon the freedome of their Persons were there a design to have them imprisoned as other Subjects or tried by a common Jury Besides all Princes of Christendome then owned Becket for a Saint when as no body unless such a man as Fox thought Oldcastle deserved any thing but the Gallows SECT IX APOLOGY We will no longer trouble you with putting you in mind of any more of our mighty Kings who have been feared abroad and as safe at home as any since the Reformation of Religion We shall only add this that if Popery be the enslaving of Princes France still believes it self as absolute as Denmarck or Sweden ANSWER IX He
run counter to his Royal inclinations when he punishes the weak and harmless ANSWER XXXVI He says he desires only to be safe and against our dangerous Principles neither our affability nor hospitality can defend them for the Irish never treated Protestants better then the year a fore they cut their Throats The best means of security is the execution of the Laws by which those that renounce their disloyal Principles will be distinguisht and the disloyal and seditious only kept weak REPLY XXXVI I have sufficiently treated the Irish Rebellion in the first Reply neither have I bin wanting to shew you that a Protestāt Author viz. Heath lays the cause of it on the English Long-Parliament which occasioned so many mischeifes by their wicked beginings against that good Prince encouraged the designes of the rest of his seditious subjects Nor had the Scots themselves bin then wanting by their actuall levying warr against their King corresponding with his forrain Enemies to prick forward seeing they were successefull all those who studied commotions disorders Judge then whither they were the Papists of England or the Reformed in both Kingdomes of Great Brittain that farthered the Irish Rebellion But now that the Irish never treated Protestants better then the yeare before they curt theire throats is a foolish invention of this shamelesse Minister nonsense in it selfe Nor was it practicable unlesse the English had like the Israelites in Egypt bin sojournours at will had nothing to doe with the Government For would it not be a mad expression to say that the Hugonots of France better treated this yeare the Papists there then they had done before or that the Round-heads treated the Cavaliers more kindly then they had done since the Kings Restauration But this is un Coup d'esprit a peice of witt of the Worthy Minister truely so great a one that I admire it should doe it much more were it not soe common SECT XXXVII APOLOGY Why may not we Noble Country-men hope for favour from you as well as the French Protestants find from theirs A greater duty then ours none could express we are sure Or why should the United Provinces and other Magistrates that are harsh both in mind and manners refrain from violence against our Religion and your tender breasts seem not to harbour the least compassion or pity These neighboring people sequester none for their Faith but for transgression against the State Nor is the whole party involved in the crime of a few but every man suffers for his own and proper fault Do you then the like and he that offends let him die without mercy And think always we beseech you of Cromwels injustice who for the actions of some against his pretended Laws drew thousands into Decimation even ignorant of the thing after they had vastlie paid for their securitie and quiet ANSWER XXXVII He says he has answered our instances of French Protestants and Dutch Papists When we governed the civilized World he says we hanged and burnt men for no cause but Faith which proves Protestant Barbarity better then Popish civility yet these were little for their credit unless they could say that none of us suffered but by the known and necessary Laws of the Kingdom 'T is necessary to maintain the Kings Authority and Peace of the Nation and if we call Religion any thing contrary to these whether ought they to alter their Laws or we our Religion He says as Inquisitors bedress one with Pictures of Devils that is to be burnt for an Heretick so I put Cromwel on any thing I would render odious but they are weak that see not the difference betwen Cromwels Edicts that ruined men for Loyalty and Laws that restrained them from Treason and Rebellion REPLY XXXVII How childishly rediculous is this Ministers Allegation That none of us suffered but by known Laws What does he mean Did we ever when we governed England put any to death but by the known Laws established many hundred years before the Malefactors were born and which are still on foot and used to this day by Protestants against Hereticks But fully to reply to this Answer I cannot better do it then by beseeching you to read over this short Section of the Apology again and then tell me whether any request can be more reasonable and Christian or whether this way of involving the whole in the crimes of a few be not exactly the Procedure of Cromwel SECT XXXVIII APOLOGY We have no studie but the Glory of our Soveraingn and just libertie of the Subjects ANSWER XXXVIII Sir If we may judge by your works there is nothing less studied in your Colledge SECT XXXVIIII APOLOGY Nor was it a mean argument of our dutie when every Catholique Lord gave his voice for the Restauration of Bishops by which we could pretend no other advantage but that 26. Votes subsisting wholly by the Crown were added to the defence of Kingship and consequently a check to Anarchy and confusion ANSWER XXXVIIII This is no argument of your Duty for sure you are it no Lord. Nor is it likely that these Lords followed your direction in the doing of this Duty REPLY to ANS XXXIX Good Mr. Parson 't is more then you know but that I am a Lord yet whether I am or no the Catholick Lords and I are of the same Loyal Principles and what they did any other Catholick would have done had he been Member of their House SECT XL. APOLOGY 'T is morally impossible but that we who approve of Monarchy in the Church must ever be fond of it in the State also ANSWER XL. If you mean this of Papists in general that which you mean morally impossible is experimentally true For in Venice Genoa Lucca and other Popish Cantons of Switzerland they very well approve of Monarchy in the Church yet they are not fond of it in State also But if you mean this of the Jesuitical Party then it may be true in this sence that you would have the Pope to be sole Monarch both in Spirituals and Temporals REP. to ANSW XL. I think I have been as lately at Lucca Genoa and Venice and know the places as well as the Minister 'T was not therefore my meaning that there were no Popish States but that generally Popery tends to Monarchy and on the contraty Calvinism from which the Church of England differs only in Bishops leans altogether to a Democratical Government Heretofore in the Civil Wars of our Country there was never the least mention of a Commonwealth but still the Rebels would have a King and rather then fail one of another Kingdom I beseech God that the present Principles have no other tendency but to Monarchy for Reader you must know that Principles may blindly lead men to a thing which not only their judgments but their inclinations loath as for example the Reformed both in judgment and inclination desire unitie but their Principles in spite of all endeavours will