For which Joseph Stevan ‖ Ioseph Stevan Epist ad Gregor XIII de osculo pedum Papae Iure meritoque in Religionis Ecclesiae infensissimum hostem Fredericum Barbarossam non ut in salem insatuatum quem jubet Christus pedibus proterere sed potius ut horrendam belluam calcibus insultavit who writ at Rome to Gregory the XIII of kissing the Popes feet checks Duarenus saying that Pope Alexander the III. trod the Emperour Frederick under foot not onely as salt which hath lost its savour but as an horrible wild beast And Otho Frisingensis both relates it and commends it * Otho Frising lib. 5. cap. 14. Quod sactum summis liberum est sacerdotibus cum Principum tyrannidem aut violatam fidem aut Ecclesiae imminutam dignitatem vident and saith That the Popes have the power to do so much when they see the tyranny of Princes or that faith is violated or the dignity of the Church imbezelled So though the History were not as it is most undoubtedly true the approving and exalting of the fact in the Court of Rome makes that Court as guilty as if it had been done But it was done and as bad was done by other Popes Pope Celestin the III. gave Constantia a Nunne in marriage to the Emperour Henry the VI. and gave him for her dowry the Kingdome of both the Sicilies upon Platina Uspergensis condition he should expell Tancred who was possess'd of the Kingdome Hence a bloody War between Henry the VI. and Tancred It is ordinary to the Pope to give that which is none of his When the Pope giveth a Kingdome from a Prince that enjoyeth it he commands together the people to resist him making a sport to spill their blood and damn their souls Baronius commends very much that Popes behaviour Annal. Roger. an 1191. Sedebat Dominus Papa in Cathedra Pontificali tenens coronam auream inter pedes suos Imperator inclinato capite recepit coronam imperator similiter de pedibus Domini Papae Dominus autem Papa statim percussit cum pede suo coronam Imperatoris dejecit eam in terram significans quod ipse potestatem ejiciendi eum ab Imperio habet si ille demeruerit in the Crowning of the Emperour Henry the VI. and his Wife thus related in the Annalls of Rogerius The Pope was sitting in his pontifical chair holding an Imperial golden Crown between his feet and the Emperour bowing his head received the Crown and the Empress likewise by the feet of the Pope And the Pope presently hit the Emperours Crown and kick'd it down to the ground thereby signifying that he had power to cast him down from the Empire if he deserved it Baronius having related this amplifieth it with this morality ‖ Baron Tom. 12. Anno 1191. sect 10. Ut fixum menti Caesaris haereret nempe dare custodire conservare auserre si causa exigeret imperium esse in voluntate Romani Pontificis ejusmodi voluit commenere eum exemplo That it might remain fixed in the Emperours mind that it lieth in the Popes pleasure to give keep preserve and take away the Empire if there be cause for it he would admonish him with such an example Could the Devil have set up pride to a higher pin to put the Emperours Crown at his feet as a foot-stool for him to tread upon put the Crown on the Emperours head with his feet as an office too low for his hands and then with his foot kick'd it down as having a quarrell against the Imperiall Crown and together a contempt for it This and the treading upon the Emperours neck were significant ceremonies with a witness And what more effectual course could have been taken to raise rebellion in all the States of Christendome then thus to blast the respect of Majesty For thereby all Nations were taught that their Princes were not Sovereigns but the Popes Vassalls and Liegemen That themselves were not their Kings Subjects but the Popes who could kick down their Crowns when he listed and that when that supreme Head shall command it the Feet that is the inferiour Members of the State must make Foot-balls of the Crowns of Emperours and Kings After Celestin the III. came Innocent the III. as proud but more active then he England hath reason to remember this Pope For he excommunicated King John deposed him absolved his Subjects from their allegiance to him and cast an Interdict upon England which lasted six years All which time no Divine Service was said in the Kingdome but in some priviledged places no Sacrament was administred and no corps buried in Consecrated Ground The Kingdome of England he gave to Philip August of France if he could take it and that by a formal order thus related by Matthew Paris The Pope by the counsell Matth. Paris in vita Reg. Johan Papa ex consilio Cardinalium Episcoporum aliorum vivorum prudentium sententialiter definivit ut Rex a solio deponeretur Ad hujus quoque sententiae executionem scripsit Dominus Papa potentissimo Regi Francorum Philippo quatenus in remissionem peccatorum suorum hunc laborem assumeret of the Cardinalls Bishops and other prudent men gave a definitive sentence that the King should be put down from his Throne For the execution of that Sentence the Pope writ to the most potent King of the French Philip that for the remission of his sins he should take that labour upon him A new way for that King to get the remission of his sins to invade his neighbours estate As in the age of our Fathers Pope Sixtus the V. gave nine years of true indulgence to all the French that would bear Arms against their King Henry the III. Thus the remission of sins purchased by the blood of the Son of God and presented by his Gospell to all that repent and believe is by the Pope given as a reward of Invasion and Rebellion Matthew Paris writes that The Pope having gotten the Kingdome of England to himself to his thinking sent to Philip August to enjoyn him to be reconciled with King John else he would put France to Interdict Philip answered that he feared not his sentence and that it belonged not to the Church of Rome to pronounce a sentence against the King of France It is a long and a sad story how King John was persecuted by Pope Innocent the III. his Barons made to rise against him his Neighbours to fall upon him his Clergy to revile him and his people to despise him till that unlucky King was brought to such an extremity that to buy his peace he gave his Kingdome to the Pope and yet could not get his peace that way The Gold which he laid at the Legats feet in sign of subjection the Legat trod under his feet in scorn yet took it in his hand after so great was his clemency What a cruel tyranny did the
following Popes exercise over his Son Henry the III. in his long and unfortunate Reign insulting over his weakness and superstition How licentiously did these Wolves tear and raven in England while the publick cry of the oppressed Matth. Paris in vitae Hen. III. people represented unto the King that his Kingdome was become like a Vine whose fence is pulled down and rooted out by the wild Bear These Histories which make the usurpations of the Roman Court to be abhorred yet are set forth by the Jesuite Petra Sancta as examples for all Princes And Petra Sancta Not. in Epist ad Balzac he would have all Kings to imitate King John and Henry the III. of England in their subjection to the Pope He could not have chosen more frequent examples to dehort them from it considering the gulf of miseries which they sunk into by their stooping under the Popes tyranny But they have more reason to follow the example of the next King brave Edward the I. who recovered his own and his Kingdomes liberty by expelling all the Roman Exactours out of England and by his contempt of Rome reigned peaceably and glorious For the Pope who in the Reigns of his Father and Grandfather was thundering continually and cudgelling both King and people never spake a word against this stout King Pope Innocent the III. played with his Spiritual Sword in Germany as well as in England for he excommunicated the Emperour Otho the IV. Platina in Innocent III. Otho iram Pontificis in se concitavit à quo anathemate notatur Imperii titulis privatur and deprived him of the titles of the Empire as Platina speaks warily for Popes cannot take away Kingdomes but onely deny to acknowledge the titles The Emperour Fredericke the II. was worse used by the Popes though much deserving of the Roman See to which he had given the County of Fundi For he was excommunicated and deposed by Pope Honorius the III. and again by Gregory the IX for that Monster Platina of pride and greedinesse when the Emperour was gone on his errand into Palaestina anathematized him raised him enemies in Germany by his preaching Friars Matth. Paris in Vita Hen. III. Reg. Angl. Vspergensis Trithemius and taking advantage of his absence sent an army into Appulia and seised upon the Emperours Lands Twice he shewed himself reconciled with the Emperour and twice again broke with him and excommunicated him but with ill successe to himself For by all these Excommunications and Depositions the Emperour thrived who after a long patience fell upon the Pope made his Interdicts laid upon the Empire to be hissed out and so distressed the Pope by his armies that he died for wrath and sorrow The same Emperour was also excommunicated and Platina Matth. Paris persecuted by Pope Innocent the IV. And when after the Emperours death the armes of his Son prospered in Italy he gave the Kingdome of Sicily to Richard brother to Henry the III. of England Richard not acquainted with the Popes giving of Kingdomes asketh that the Forts and the Treasure and Hostages be given to him Herein wiser if he had stayed there then others who accept that which the Pope cannot deliver I will passe by many Popes that came after who sent their Excommunications no further then the Kingdome of Naples and Sicily and filled Italy with factions that they might fish in troubled waters Let us fix our contemplation a little upon that high pattern of Pontifical vertues Boniface the VIII upon whom Platina bestoweth this Character That Boniface Platina in Bonifacio Bonifacius ille qui Imperatoribus Regibus Principibus Nationibus Populis terrorem potius quam religionem injicere conabatur Quique dare regna auferre pellere homines ac reducere pro arbitrio conabatur aurum undique conquisitum plus quam dici potest sitiens who studied to give terrour rather then religion unto Emperours Kings Princes and Nations and laboured to give and take away Kingdomes drive men away and bring them again according to his pleasure One that was thirsty of goods scraped up from all places more then can be exprest The passages between him and the French King Philip the Fair are known yet perhaps not to all This is the History in short This Pope having a grudge against him about the Collation of Benefices and desiring to pick a quarrel sent to him the Bishop of Pamiers Stella Histoire de France to command him to undertake an expedition to the Holy Land and to threaten him if he refused The Bishop did that errand so malapertly that the King offended committed him to prison The Pope angry demanded the Bishop again and had him and sent this Letter to the King Fear God and keep his Commandements We will have thee to know that thou art our Subject both for the Spiritual and the Temporal That no Collation of Benefices and Prebends belongs to thee And if thou hast the custody of any of them that are vacant we will have thee to reserve the fruits for their Successors And if thou hast granted any Benefices We declare all such Collations null and as far as they are executed de facto We revoke them Those that believe otherwise we hold them for Hereticks These goodly Letters being brought to Paris by a Legate were pluckt from him by the Kings Council and Judges and cast into the fire by the Earle of Artois And to them the King returned this Answer Philip by the Grace of God King of the French to Boniface calling himself Sovereign Pontife but little greeting or rather none at all Let thy most egregious folly know that in temporal things we are subject to no man That the Collation of Churches and Prebends belongs unto us by Royal Right and converting the same to our use during the vacancy That the Collation by us made and to be made shall be valid and that in vertue of the same we will couragiously defend the possessors Those that hold otherwise We hold to be idiots and bereaved of their sense The Pope inraged excommunicates the King but none durst be the publisher or bearer of that Bull. The King assembleth at paris his Knights Barons and Prelates and asketh them of whom they hold their Lordships and the temporal of their Ecclesiastical preferments All answer that they hold them of the King not of the Pope whom they charge with heresie and many crimes The Pope assembleth a General Council as Platina calleth it though it was gathered out of few Platina Countries and by a Decree of that Council depriveth Philip of his Kingdome and giveth it to the Emperour Albert and laboureth to arme Germany and Netherlands against France But that vigorous King sent Nogaret into Italy who by the help of Sciarra Columna whose Family Boniface had cruelly opprest got two hundred horse and surprised the Pope at Anagnia whom they mounted upon a poor jade and brought him prisoner
III. and absolved his subjects from all Allegiance to him in consequence of that Bull many of the French rebelled against their King and he wasslain upon that account by a Dominican Friar Which when this Pope heard he commended the action highly in a full Consistory at Rome and forbad that any funeral rites should be celebrated for him Which funeral rites usually celebrated at Rome for departed Princes consisting most in prayer for their souls it appeareth that his Holinesse was not contented that he had slain that King by his Bull but would also damne his soul Gregory the XIV excommunicated by his Bulls Henry the IV. of France forbidding all Peers Nobles Cities and Commons to yield him obedience and declaring him incapable of the Crown as an Heretick and relapse But that Bull was by the Court of Parliament then sitting at Tours condemned to be torn and burnt by the Hang-man Clement the VIII did the same over again and excommunicated Henry The Bull was condemned as the other to be burnt by the hand of the Hang-man But the effect of these Bulls appeared by the attempts against the Kings life which soon after followed first by a woman next by Peter Barriere and again by John Chastel all denying him to be King because he was not absolved by the Pope Neither did the effects of these Bulls cease after that the King was absolved by his Holinesse For by them the King got his death Ravilliac who killed him could alledge them when he was examined and say that the King was an Heretick in his heart and deserved to be slain as an enemy of the Church Paul the V. was as turbulent as his predecessors as he shewed it in his insolent and impertinent quarrel with the Venetians because they had stopt by Edict the giving of Lands to the Church whereby the State lost many tributes and services He threatned them of Excommunication if they did not recal that Law And upon their maintaining of it he excommunicated them and put their State in Interdict But it took no effect for none of their Clergy would or durst obey it the Jesuites onely excepted who therefore were expelled out of their dominions They condemned the Popes Bull by Edict and forbad the bringing of it into their Territory upon pain of hanging Neither did they give any satisfaction to the Pope when the businesse came to an Arbitrement but forced him to make amends to himself and to come to their terms In the beginning of this Popes reigne was detected that Treason not to be matcht in any age for cruelty and depth of villany the Gunpowder-plot to have destroyed in one blow the King the Parliament the Judges of the Land and all the flowre and strength of the Kingdome of England This horrid Treason was the effect of the several Bulls of the Pope before the Reigne of our gracious King James of glorious memory who coming into his Kingdome of England found it lying under a Papal Interdict and himself excluded from the Crown by a Bull sent into England a little before the death of Queen Elizabeth whereby all that are not Roman Catholicks are declared incapable of and excluded from the Succession of which his Majesty complains in his Apology And that Bull was produced in the Indictment of the Jesuite Garnet as the principal motive of the Gunpowder Treason This gave occasion to the Oath of Supremacy set forth by the King and his Parliament then sitting for the security of his Majesties Life and Dignity wherein it is required of all to whom it is administred to acknowledge his Majesty to be the lawful King of the Realmes of England Scotland and Ireland and that the Pope hath no right to depose him of his Kingdoms or dispense his Subjects from their obedience to him Also that they abhorre as impious and heretical this doctrine That Princes excommunicated by the Pope may justly be deposed or slain by their owne Subjects This Oath being presented to the Roman Catholicks some of them made no difficulty to take it among others Blackwell the Arch-priest Whereupon the Pope sent Apostolical Letters into England declaring that Dated Sept. 22. 1606. this Oath could not be taken with a safe conscience and exhorting the English to suffer all kinds of torments and death it self rather then to offend Gods Majesty by such an Oath To imitate the constancy of other English Martyrs To have their loins girt about with vertue to put on the Brest-plate of righteousnesse and take the Buckler of Faith He tells them that God who hath begun in them that good work will perfect it and will not suffer them to be Orphans c. And he injoyneth them to observe diligently the precepts contained in the Letters which Clement the VIII his predecessor had written a little before to Mr. George Arch-priest of England By which Letters all Princes of a Religion contrary to the Roman are excluded from the Crown of England These Letters whereby the English were exhorted to be Martyrs of the Popes Sovereignty in England and to make it an Article of their faith which they must signe with their blood that the Pope hath power to depose Princes and expose them to be expelled and slain by their own subjects did not receive that entertainment which he expected among the English of his Religion For some rejected them as supposititious forged by the Hereticks to draw persecution upon them and kindle their Kings wrath against them he being already justly provoked to revenge by the late conspiracy The Pope hearing of this sends other and more express letters Dated Aug. 23. 1607. into England to expostulate with the Roman Catholicks saying That he wondred at their doubting of the truth of the Apostolick letters to dispense themselves upon that pretence from obeying his commandments And therefore he declareth That those Letters were written by himself not only motu proprio ex certa scientia by his own motion and certain knowledge but also after a long and grave deliberation enjoyning them again to obey those Letters because such is his pleasure To these letters which set up rebellion with a high hand as an Article of the Roman Faith were joyned letters of Cardinal Bellarmine to Blackwell the Archpriest wherein he chides him bitterly for taking the Oath which under colour of modifications had no other end but to transport the Popes authority to a Successor of Henry the VIII And by the examples of his Predecessors he exhorteth him to defend the Popes primacy whom he calleth The Head of the Faith Of this Oath thus prohibited by the Pope and cryed down by Bellarmine the Jesuite Becanus saith That both of them the Pope and Bellarmine Beean de dissidio Anglic. Vterque negat salva conscientia praestari posse hoc juramentum quia abnegarent fi-Catholicam deny that it may be taken with a safe Conscience because by taking it the Catholick Faith is denyed Is it then an
York Squire Hesket Lopez Babington with his associates and how many more All were assisted and prompted by Jesuites as the judicial examinations will justifie And now we speak of Babington and his associates I find two brothers Bellamy's both apprehended for hiding them after they were openly proclaimed traitors in their house neer Harrowhill where they were kept ten dayes and clothed in rustical habits There they were all taken and thence carried to prison where one of the Bellamies strangled himself the other was executed with the conspirators his name Hierome Bellamy From which of the two brothers our Adversary Thomas Bellamy is descended and whether from either or neither himself best knows But it seems by his behaviour that the crime of hiding and disguising traitors runs in the blood For what is his covering of the parricidial doctrine of Jesuites with falfe constructions but hiding and disguising traitors whose doctrine is declared treasonable by sundry Acts of Parliament Let him take warning by the crime and the ill successe of these men of his name and apply to himself that Sentence of Tully which he misapplyeth to the Protestants of Integrity Mirror te Antoni quorum facta imitere corum exitus non pertimescere Since you imitate the actions of men of your name Sir Bellamy I wonder you are not frighted with thinking of their ends The Devil and the Jesuites having been so often disappointed of their attempts against England in the end contrived the foulest plot that ingenious cruelty did in any age imagine the Gunpowder-Treason which shall be to the Worlds end the wonder of succeeding ages and the shame of ours This was the godly product of the English Seminaries abroad and the Roman education It is easie to judge that the plotters of it had been bred long in another Climate then the middle aire of England for it looks like one of the feats of Caesar Borgia Non nostri generis monstrum nec sanguinis Of that attempt to cut off King and Kingdome with one blow none could be capable but such as had many years breathed the same aire where he reigned who wished that the Romans had but one neck that he might cut it off with one stroke But a Jesuite is capable of devising and the Romish zeal of executing any mischief though never so prodigious to promote the Papal interest And they have law for it even the Roman Decree the Oracle of the Pope himself We do not account them for Causa 23. qu. 5. Can. Excommunicatorum Non enim eos homicidas arbitramur quos adversus excommunicatos zelo Catholicae Matris Ecclesiae ardentes aliquos eorum trucidasse configerit murtherers saith his Holinesse who burning with the zeal of our Catholick Mother the Church against exmunicate persons shall happen to kill some of them Now England was lying under many excommnnications when the Gunpowder-Treason was plotted and lyeth under them still for they never were repealed Truly so far we must excuse Campian Garnet Hall Hamond and other Jesuites who have plotted or incouraged rebellions and treasons in England They have done no more then they were commanded or allowed by the Pope And here I must be a suitor to all the conscionable Roman Catholieks who abhorre these wicked wayes to acknowledge ingenuously that the Actors were grounded upon the fundamental Laws of the Court of Rome And that the Pope the Head of their Faith is he that commands by his Canons and Bulls the slaughter of those that displease him the breach of faith the deposing of Kings and the rebellion of the people as I have sufficiently demonstrated before If after that they adhere to the other points of the Roman Religion upon this main ground of the Roman Faith That the Pope cannot erre they blinde themselves wilfully and building their faith upon an unsafe ground they may come short of the end of their faith the salvation of their souls This power of deposing Kings and exposing them to the attempts of their enemies so peremptorily assumed by the Pope and so boldly executed by his zealous agents ought to be grounded upon some proof out of holy Writ In all the passages which I have alledged out of Jesuites books I finde but two of those proofs The one of Bellarmine who proveth Bellarm. lib. cui Titulus Tortus p. 19. Rex Anglorum subjectus est Papae jus omnibus Christiadis communi ratione Apostolicae potestatis juxta illud Ps 4. 4. Constitues eos Principes super omnem terram that the King of England is subject unto the Pope by a right common to all Christians by reason of the Apostolick power according to this Text Psal 44. Thou shalt make them Princes over all the earth In that Psalm which with us is the 45. this promise is made to the Kings Spouse which is the Church the Spouse of Christ our King Instead of thy Fathers house shall be thy children whom thou mayest make Princes over all the earth Answerably to that we learn Rev. 1. 6. That God hath made us Kings and Priests unto God our Father That blessing then to be understood and fulfilled in Gods good time belongs to all the true children of the Church The ingrossing of it to the Pope alone to the exclusion of all Christians is a bold and indeed a ridiculous inclosing of Commons without any warrant Suarez brings a proof of the like validity After that horrid assertion alledged before that after that a Prince is excommunicated he may be dispossess'd or slain by any persons whatsoever He prevents the objection out of Rom. 13. 1. Let every soul Suarez adversus sect Anglic lib. 6. c. 6. sect 24. 〈◊〉 Paulus his verbis Omnis anima potestatibus sublimioribus subdi a sit Rom. 13 nunquam addidit etiam potestatibus excommunicatis vel deprvatis a Papa omnes subditisint be subject to the higher Powers and saith that the Apostle never added Let all be subject also to the Powers excommunicated and deprived by the Pope A recreative proof which would make but a poor enthymema The Apostle addeth not that we must be subject also to the higher Powers deprived by the Turk Ergo if the Great Turk pronounce a sentence of deprivation against a Christian Prince the Subjects of that Prince are free from their allegiance and may dispossess and kill him when they think good But what These proofs are as concluding as those that the Popes themselves bring to prove their power Nicholaus 1. Epist ad Michael Imp. Constant Petro specialiter ostensum est ut ea mactaret manducaret Illi soli jussum est ur rete plenum piscibus ad littus traheret as when Pope Nicholas the I. proveth the Papal power because it was said to Saint Peter Kill and eat and because to him alone was granted that power to draw a Net full of Fishes to Land Likewise Bonifacius the VIII proveth his primacy Bonifac. VIII
all his false turns But both my Readers and I have better businesses then to heap up dung or search all the Impostures of a Novice of the Iesuites For the end he brings some rules of Law concerning the nature of the English Monarchy which if he had studied well he had never taken upon him to defend the doctrine of the Iesuites which is inconsistent with them For they allow not that which he affirmeth That the Monarchy of England can do no homage having no superiour and that the Crown of England is independent and his jura Regalia are holden of no Lord but the Lord of heaven Bellarmine saith the clean contrary and makes the Pope Sovereigne of England by double right as we heard before Yet this Scholar of the Iesuites may give Bellarmines sense to that assertion that the Crown of England is independent for holding with his Masters that the Crown of England belongeth to the Pope he will say also that it is independent and oweth homage to none but God meaning that the Pope the right Sovereigne oweth homage for it to none but God The man being evidently a Scholar of the Jesuites cannot but be instructed in the doctrine of equivocations about which Tolet Tolet lib. 4. Instruct Sacerd. cap. 21. Aliquando uti licet aequivocatione decipere audientem ut cum Iudex petit juramentum ab aliquo ut dicat crimen vel proprium vel alienum si omnino est occultum jurare cogatur utatur aequivocatione puta Nescio intelligendo intra se ut dicam tibi vel simile Et lib. 5. c. 38. lib. 4. c. 21 22. gives large instructions in his book of the Instruction of Priests saying expresly That it is lawful sometimes to use equivocations and to deceive the hearer And Sanchez tells us in what case it is lawful to equivocate There is a just cause saith he to Sanch. oper Mor. l. 3. c. 6. num 19. Causa jure utendi his amphibologiis est quoties id necessarium aut utile est ad salutem corporis honorem tes familiares tuendas use these equivocations whensoever it is necessary or useful for the preservation of body honour or estate Since then the sect and Religion of the Jesuites which subjecteth the Crown of England unto the Pope cannot subsist in England without palliating that criminal doctrine with equivocation They finde it necessary for the preservation of body honour and estate to profess that the Monarchy of England can do no homage having no superiour and that the Crown of England is independent but to whom that independant Crown belongs that they will reserve in their thoughts Or if they say they will be true to the King they will by the King understand the Pope or the King of Spain to whom the Pope gave the Kingdome of England fourscore years ago and never recalled that gift since Wherefore if this Gentleman appear in Print again or any of his confreres for him about this point of obedience we must desire him to speak more home before he can justifie himself to be a true Philanax Anglicus and a good English subject of his Majesty To that end let him declare that he acknowledgeth the following Articles as true and just and is ready to subscribe unto them I. The Kings Most Excellent Majesty Charles the II. hath no superiour on Earth de jure in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland and other His Majesties Dominions II. All Roman Catholicks born in these His Majesties Dominions are his subjects de jure and of none else although they have taken the Orders of the Church of Rome or have a General of some Religion to whom they have sworn obedience III. The Doctrine of Cardinal Bellarmine is false that the King of England is subject to the Pope by double right besides his pretended subjection in matters spiritual IV. The Pope hath no power to deprive Kings of their Kingdoms or any way to dispose of their Crowns or their Lives V. The Pope cannot absolve the subjects of His Majesty King Charles the II. or of any of His Successors from the Oath of their Allegiance Neither are they now absolved from it by any precedent Decree from the Popes VI. A King declared heretick or excommunicate by the Pope is not thereby disabled from exercising his Kingly jurisdiction VII The excommunicating or depriving of a King by the Pope doth not exempt that Kings natural subjects from the duty of their Allegiance VIII King John had no power to give his Kingdome to the Pope without the consent of his Peers and Commons Neither is that Contract of any validity IX A Priest having learned in Confession a Conspiracy against the Kings life ought to discover it to the King or his Councel X. The Peers and Commons of England and other His Majesties Dominions have no power to judge their King much less to depose him or put him to death or to choose another King or to alter the Government of the State He that will refuse to subscribe these Articles and openly profess his consent unto them cannot justifie his love and fidelity to the King and is altogether unfit to charge the Protestants with rebellious tenets Vacuum culpa esse decet qui in alium paratus est dicere He that is in an error cannot justifie himself but by forsaking it That yeilding is glorious and to be overcome by the truth is a great victory Without such a justification lessons of loyalty given by a Iesuite are unsuitable and of as little effect as a Lecture of Chastity preach'd by an allowed Curtizan of Rome JOH VIII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CAROLE qui Latias artes fulmina bruta Et Capitolini contemnis Vejovis iras Macte manumissus coelesti lumine Princeps Lumine Romuleas tibi dispellente tenebras Assertamque sacro capiti firmante coronam Dum trepidi Reges sancti luminis orbi Serva Quirinali submittunt colla tyranno Tu liber specta stantes ad fraena Monarchas Stratorum officio succollantesque cathedrae Augustos lixas mox flexo poplite curvos Turpia purpureo libantes oscula socco Erige tu curvos rectus fratresque doceto Quos Regum Pater agnoscit Natosque Deosque Quà m male prostituat divum Rex sanctus honorem Tarpeiam lambens crepidam solosque pudendum Excussisse jugum libertatique litasse Gnaviter amplexos coelestia lumina Reges FINIS ERRATA PAge 8. line 17. Galileo p. 9. l. 5. put out which p. 11. in the margent l. 10. tenerentur p. 19. l. 12. matter p. 24. l. 14. Popes p. 26. l. 10. by the preaching l. 12. oppressing l. opposing p. 30. l. ult Francis the II p. 31. l. 7. Iesuites p. 33. l. 20. Henry the IV. l. 22. because p. 3â— l. â—4 the ordinary l. 13. any of five Kings p. 49. l. 28. unequitable l. equitable p. 53. l. 13. stonie the just p 87. l. 13. frequent l. pregnant p. 113. l. 24. Pope p. 115. in the margent 1. 6. non sine manibus p. 124. l. put out persons put letters p. 128. l. 25. Mutius p. 137. l. 26. depose
armes with the Kings you may easily judge what loss and what weakning of the party that will be How many of our Nobility will forsake yâ—u some out of treachery some out of weakness Even they who in an Assembly are most vehement in their votes and to And so it proved shew themselves zealous are altogether for violent waies are very often they that will revolt and betray their brethren They bring our distressed Churches to the hottest danger and there leave them going away after they have set the house on fire If there be once fighting or besieging of our towns whatsoever the issue may be of the combat or the siege all that while it will be hard to keep the people animated against us from falling upon our Churches which have neither retreat nor defense And what order soever the Magistrates of contrary Religion take about it they shall never be able to compass it I might also represent unto you many reasons out of the state of our Churches both within and without the Kingdome to shew you that this stirring of yours is altogether unseasonable and that you set sail against wind and tyde But you are clear-sighted enough to see it and to consider in what posture your neighbours are and from whence you may look for help whether among you the vertue and the concord and the quality of the heads is grown or diminisht Certainly this is not the time when the troubling of this pool can heal our diseases And certain it is that if any thing can help so much weakness it must be the zeal of Religion which in the time of our fathers hath upholden us when we had less strength and more vertue But in this cause you shall find that zeal languishing because most of our people believe that this evil might have been avoided without breach of conscience Be ye sure that there will be alwaies disunion among us every time that we shall stir for civil causes and not directly for the cause of the Gospel Against that it is objected that our enemies have determined our ruine that they undermine us by little and little that it is better to begin now then to stay longer Truly that man should be void of common sense that doubted of their ill will And yet when I call to mind our several losses as that of Lectoure Privas and Bearn I finde that we ourselves have contributed to them and it is no wonder that our enemies take no care to remedy our faults and that they joyn with us to do us harm But hence it follows not that we throw the helve after the hatchet and set our house on fire our selves because others are resolved to burn it or take in hand to remedy particular losses by means weak to redress them but strong and certain to ruine the general God who hath so many times diverted the counsels taken for our ruine hath neither lost his power nor altered his will We shall find him the same still if we have the grace to wait for his assistance not casting our selves headlong by our impatience or setting our mind obstinately upon impossibilities Take this for certain that although our enemies seek our ruine they will never undertake it openly without some pretence other and better then that of Religion which we must not give them For if we keep our selves in the obedience which subjects owe to their Sovereign you shall see that while our enemies hope in vain that we shall make our selves guilty by some disobedience God will give them some other work and afford us occasions to shew to his Majesty that we are a body usefull to this State and put him in mind of the signal services that our Churches have done to the late King of glorious memory But if we are so unfortunate that while we keep our selves in our duty the calumnies of our enemies prevail at least we shall get this satisfaction that we have kept all the right on our side and made it appear that we love the peace of the State Notwithstanding all this Gentlemen you may and ought to take order for the safety of your persons For whereas his Majesty and his Counsel have said often that if you separate your selves he will let our Churches enjoy peace and the benefit of his Edicts it is not reasonable that your separation be done with the peril of your persons And whenever you petition for your safe dissolution I trust it will be easily obtained if you make possible requests and such as the misery of the time and the present necessity can bear In the mean while you may advise before you part what should be done if notwithstanding your separation we should be opprest that order your prudence may finde and it is not my part to suggest it unto you If by propounding these things unto you I have exceeded the limits of discretion you will be pleased to impute it to my zeal for the good and preservation of the Church And if this advice of mine is rejected as unworthy of your consideration this comfort I shall have that I have discharged my conscience and retiring my self into some foreign Countrey there I will end those few daies which I have yet to live lamenting the loss of the Church and the destruction of the Temple for the building whereof I have laboured with much more courage and fidelity then success The Lord turn away his wrath from us direct your Assembly and preserve your persons I rest c. From Sedan Feb. 12. 1621. When this Letter was read in the Assembly some arose immediately and left it others continued to sit and by their sitting turned these warnings into prophecies This Epistle will give to the judicious Reader an insight into the affairs of that time and State and together into the present question which is altogether of fact whether and how far the French Protestants may be taxed of disobedience against their Sovereign For it is justified by this relation that when some of them resisted they had the greatest temptation to it that a just fear can present unto flesh and bloud and yet that even then they were disavowed by the best and the most of their Church and exhorted to their duty by their Divines which in points of conscience are the representative persons of a party when they are solemnly met and this was the sense of the National Synod of which this eminent Divine was President but two moneths before Here every wise and charitable Christian should lay David's doctrine to heart Psal 41. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessed is he that considers with intelligence and judgement him that is in a low condition It is easie for us that enjoy prosperity under a gracious King to determine the point of passive obedience not so for them that groan under the sad burden of the Cross Christian equity ought to pity those that are exposed to the sad counsels of terrour and despair I
shed in Christendome by the meanes of that plague of mankind Pope Julius the II. that it is thought that he was the death of two hundred thousand Christians in seven years time In a Synod of the Gallican Church at Tours it was Nicol. Cilles in Vita Ludov. XIII Thuan. lib. 1. declared that the Pope hath no power to make warre against a Christian Prince and if he do so that the Prince hath power to invade the Popes Territories This the King signifieth to Julius and cites him to answer to a General Council which both the Emperour and he had called to be held at Lyons The Council was held there but soon removed to Pisa where the Council cited Julius to appear and he not appearing was condemned as an Incendiary unworthy to sit at the Helme of the Church and declared deprived of the Papal Dignity There also Lewis coined golden Crownes with this Motto Perdam nomen Babylonis I will destroy the name of Babylon For it is observable that all that have quarrelled with the See of Rome these thirteen hundred years have called it Babylon and Saint Hierom ad Marcellam Hierome was he that began We cannot charge the Successor of Iulins Leo the X. to have stirred Wars abroad he loved too much his ease at home for that But I could not pass by him for indeed his memory is precious to all Protestants for giving occasion to the Reformation by his Indulgences And he is worthy to be recorded for his sentence spoken to his Secretary Cardinall Bembo Quantum nobis Crispinus nostrisque ea de Christo fabula profuerit satis est omnibus saeculis notum an anxiome of too high a nature to be Englished After him came next but one Clement the VII the Fomenter of the quarrell between the Emperour and the French joyning sometimes to the one sometimes to the other and playing false with both whereby he gave occasion to the taking and sacking of Rome The thundering of this Pope and of his Successor Iovius Paul the III. against Henry the VIII did him no harm but to themselves and to the Roman See very much Of the following Popes till Pius the V. the Protestants have much to say as of men that sought their own pleasure and wrought their ruine Hence so much blood split in horrible Massacres But these are besides my subject which is to make the Popes to appear Authors of rebellion But now in a good time we are come to Pius the V. that Pope whom the English Protestants have most reason to remember For without admonition or citation Cambdens Hist of Qu. Elizabeth premised he pronounced a sentence of anathema against that blessed and glorious Queen Elizabeth to raise rebellion in the Kingdome against her Authority and Life and caused the same to be published and set up upon the Pallace Gate of the Bishop of London the Title was this A sentence declaratory of our holy Lord Micolaus Sanderus de schismate Anglicano lib. 3. Pope Pius against Elizabeth Queen of England and the Hereticks adhering unto her Wherein her Subjects are declared absolved from the Oath of Allegiance and every thing due unto her whatsoever and those which from thenceforth obey her are innodated with the anathema In that Bull Pope Pius having first styled himself Servant of Servants declareth that God hath made the Bishop of Rome Prince over all people and all Kingdoms to pluck up destroy scatter consume plant and build Then he calleth Elizabeth the pretended Queen of England the servant of wickedness And having declared her crimes which are to have taken upon her self that supremacy which his Holiness pretended to and to have establish'd the true Catholick Orthodox Religion in her Kingdomes he doth thunder out this seditious Decree against her and all her loyall Subjects We do out of the fulness of our Apostolick power declare the aforesaid Elizabeth being an Heretick and a favourer of Hereticks and her adherents in the matters aforesaid to have incurred the sentence of anathema and to be cut off from the unity of the body of Christ And moreover we do declare her to be deprived of her pretended Title to the Kingdom aforesaid and of all Dominion Dignity and Priviledge whatsoever And also the Nobility Subjects and People of the said Kingdome and all other which have in any sort sworn unto her to be for ever absolved from any such Oath and all manner of duty of Dominion Allegiance and Obedience as we also do by authority of these presents absolve them and do deprive the same Elizabeth of her pretended Title to the Kingdome and all other things abovesaid And we do command and interdict all and every the Noblemen Subjects People and others aforesaid that they presume not to obey her or her Monitions Mandates and Laws And those which shall do to the contrary we do innodate with the like sentence of anathema This Bull was the fire and the roaring of the Canon and the bullet came forth immediately which was the rebellion in the North for which Chapino Vitelli was sent into England from the Duke of Alva under pretence of compounding some controversies about commerce And Nicholas Morton was sent from the Pope to knit the rebellion Which he did denouncing from his Master that Queen Elizabeth was an Heretick and thereby had forfeited to the Pope all her dominion and power At the same time a rebellion broke out in Ireland kindled or blown by a Spaniard Iuan Mendoza And when the Rebells of England were defeated they found refuge among the Papist Rebells of Scotland who set up again the English rebellion All these in vain by the gracious assistance of God to poor England as if his compassion had been stirred up by his jealousie after that the Pope had declared himself so insolently Prince over all People and all Kingdoms to pluck up destroy scatter consume plant and build And God would shew that to himself not to the Pope belongeth the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever Neither did Pius the V. fight onely by Bulls but at the same time that the Bull was published he laid down a hundred thousand Crowns to raise the rebellion and promised fifty thousand more yea and to bear the whole charge of the War That money was distributed by one Ridolpho And how active that Pope was to stirre Spain France and Netherlands against the Queen and to put her Kingdome in combustion is related by Hieronymo Catena an Authour of great credit at Rome in his life of Pius the V. Gregory the XIII succeeded Pius the V. in all his plots against England He gave to Thomas Stukely an English Rebell a Commission to help the Rebells of Ireland and get that Kingdome for the Bastard-Son of his Holiness Iames Boncompagnon and gave him the command of eight hundred Italians to joyn with King Sebastian of Portugal who had engaged his word to the Pope to serve him
with his whole power against Queen Elizabeth and had raised a great Army for that expedition But when Stukely came to Sebastian he found him possess'd with a new project to help a Moor King of Fez against another King who kept him out of possession and to get the Kingdome from them both To that War he invited Stukely promising that presently after that work done which he represented to him most easie they should go together to the War against England and Ireland So they sailed over into Africa where Sebastian and his whole Army were destroyed and with him Stukely and the Popes Italian Souldiers were cut in pieces A deliverance of England ever to be remembred with praise and admiration So let thine enemies perish O Lord. This Pope had a great hand in that unparallelled villany wrought by the marriage of Henry King of Navarra with the Sister of Charles the IX of France A marriage which Pius the V. would never consent unto by reason of their difference in Religion But when his Successor Gregory the XIII was told by the Cardinall of Lorrain that this marriage was intended as a trap to destroy Henry and his Protestant party he presently gave his dispensation for the celebrating of it and encouraged the design The horrible massacre which attended the jollity of that marriage was received at Thuanus Rome with triumphant expressions of publick joy And Cardinal Vrsin was sent Legat into France to praise the Kings piety and wisdom in that great action and to bestow blessings and spiritual graces upon the King and the Actors of that fearful Tragedy The Court of Rome might well praise what themselves had procured if not contrived and truly the plot hath an Italian garb and looks not like a production of the French soil Not long after this Pope sent to Henry the III. of France and to his people Indulgences for millions of years which were to be obtained by making processions to four Churches in Paris and by being zealous and diligent in the extirpation of heresies that is in his style to extermine the Protestants The male line of the Kings of Portugal being extinct this Pope laid a claim to the Kingdome as depending from the holy See and would have the Nation to have taken Arms for him against the heirs from the females But his claim was hissed out with great scorn In the year 1580. this Pope sent an Italian called San Iosepho with some Italian Troops into Ireland to joyn with the Irish Rebells When they were demanded by a message from the Lord Deputy who they were and what they came for they answered Some that they were sent by the most holy Father the Pope and some from the Catholick King of Spain to whom the Pope had given Ireland because Queen Elizabeth had justly forfeited her Title to Ireland by her heresie A doctrine which at the same time was preach'd in England and Ireland by Jesuites and other Seminary Priests with great boldness and vehemency till the Queen and her Councell perceiving what danger the State was running into by these mens activeness and impunity Campian and some others sent by the Pope on that errand were apprehended And being examined they obstinately defended the Popes authority over the Queen and maintained that she was no Queen as being lawfully deposed by the Pope upon which they were condemned and executed That Crown of Martyrdom the Pope procured to his Confessors And the greater the number is of those Martyrs that the Papists muster the more they exaggerate the Popes cruelty to his truest Vassalls For could the Pope expect that persons sent to perswade the people to dispossess and kill their Sovereign should have other dealing from the hand of Justice The principal Article of the late Papal Creed is that which Pius the V. sets forth in his Bull against the Queen that God hath made the Bishop of Rome Prince over all people and all Kingdoms But the English Papists are taught that besides that general right over all Kingdomes the Pope hath a peculiar right over England and Ireland as his proper Dominions This is Bellarmins doctrine which he hath made bold to maintain unto King James himself The King Bellarm. lib. cui Titulus Tortus pag. 19. Rex Anglorum duplici jure subjectus est Papae uno communi omnibus Christianis ratione Apostolicae potestatis quae in omnes extenditur juxta illud Ps 44. Constitues eos Principes super omnem terram Altero proprio ratione recti dominii of England saith he is subject to the Pope by double right The one by reason of his Apostolick power which extends over all men according to that Charter Ps 44. Thou shalt establish them Princes over all the earth The other proper by a right dominion Then he pleadeth that England and Ireland are the Churches dominions the Pope the direct Lord and the King his Vassal This then being become an Article of Religion in which the English Papists are instructed and this in consequence that if the Pope disallow the King he is no more King of England but an Usurper and must be used accordingly Let any man judge who hath some equity and freedome of judgement left whether a prudent Prince and Council of State ought to suffer such an instruction to be given to the people Truly the more Religion is pretended for that doctrine and the practice of Rebellion obtruded as a commandement of the Church the more it concernes the loyal Magistrate to oppose it vigorously Pope Sixtus the V. to favour the enterprise of Philip the II. upon England renewed the Excommunication of Queen Elizabeth pronounced by Pius the V. deprived her verbo tenus of her Kingdome absolved her subjects from all Allegiance to her and published a Croisada against her as against the Turk giving plenary Indulgence to all that would make warre against her But the Popes Curses provoked Gods blessings upon the Queen who might say as David when Shimei cursed him The Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day All the storms raised against England were blown over without harme The great preparations of Spain served onely to disable it and secure England And the many attempts against the Queens life upon that Bull contributed to her safety by manifesting to the World the wickednesse of Rome and the pernicious effects of the Roman principles For which I might produce the Examinations and Confessions of many that suffered for attempting to murther the Queen but I will bring but one for all William Parry acknowledged that he had promis'd at Rome to kill the Queen about which he was most troubled in his conscience till he lighted upon Dr. Allens book which taught that Princes excommunicate for heresie were to be deprived of Kingdome and life Which book saith he did vehemently excite me to prosecute my attempt This Popes Excommunications had more effect in France for after that he had excommunicated King Henry the