the end they might subscribe to his wicked passion Act of Parl. an 1. Mariae c. 1. and because the Pope refused to doe the same Henry declared himselfe Pope in his owne Dominions and all others to be Traitors that refused to sweare his supremacy And because many refused to damne their soules by knowne perjury he tooke away their lives amongst others that suffered death for refusing the oath were two Cardinals three Bishops thirteen Abbots Priors David Camer Scot. lib. 4. c. 1. Monkes and Priests five hundred Archdeacons fourteen Canons threesoore Doctors fifty Dukes Marqueses and Earles with their children twelve Barons and Knights twenty nine Gentlemen three hundred thirty six Citizens a hundred thirty foure Women of quality a hundred and ten In this Ocean of innocent and noble bloud was laid the first stone and fundation of the English Protestant Church it s no mervaile that it thrived no better 2 Notwithstanding Henry the VIII wickednesse he never permitted any new Sects to be professed in England during his reigne though many crept in by Cranmers negligence and connivance In the latter end of his reigne he felt the remorse of his guilty conscience and did often resolve with himselfe to be reconciled to the Church of Rome but know not how it might be done with his honour which he preferred before that of God and the salvation of his soule even in his last sicknesse for sending to Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Wâ—…ester who was the onely man that durst speake truth to the King for his advice he exhortâ—d him to declare and recant his errour in Parliament if God would give him life if not to testifie repentance with his hand and seale assuring him that God would accept his good will if time were wanting to performe what he desired This was resolved upon but as soone as Gardiner departed he fell of from his pious resolution and within a short time dyed despairing of Gods mercy because quoth he I never spared man in my wrath nor woman in my lust His last words were All is lost The greatest Policy and Majesty upon earth comes at length to be nothing and repentance differed doth commonly end in despaire and damnation 3 To King Henry the VIII succeeded in his Kingdome and Headship of the Church his sonne Edward the VI. a child of 9. yeares old His tender age was a faire oportunity for heresy and policy to conspire against Catholick Religion which had never beene suppressed in England untill that time His Uncle and Protector Seamor declared himselfe a Zwinglian and established that Sect in England by Act of Parliament but could not exclude the name of Bishops that had beene so much reverenced in the Nation since it was converted to Christianity though they looked upon the Ordination both of Priests and Bishops as upon a superstition of Rome and badge of Antichrist Witnesse their translating in the Bible Ordination by imposition of hands as Saint Hierome D. Greg. Martin in his Discovery of the corruptions of holy Scriptures by English Sectaries chap. 6. and all the Fathers doe the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ordination by election and for the word Priest they alwayes translated Elder for Priesthood Eldership Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury who ought to have opposed these wicked practises did accommodate himselfe to the times and prevailing party in King Henryes time he writ a booke in defence of the reall presence and now in King Edwards time he writ another against it both which bookes Bishop Bonner of London produced to his face Fox pag. 1200. col 1. num 2. Persons cap. 7. num 32. when Cranmer and Ridley were sitting in judgement against him to deprive him of his Bishoprick 4 After that the Zwinglian Clergy of England had corrupted Scripture and wrested both words and sense to their owne hereticall and mad fancies they composed their book of Common prayer and instituted a new forme of making Priest and Bishops which was rather a declaration and protestation against holy Orders then a manifestation or the Ordainers power and intention or of the effects of that Sacrament It s a received principle amongst all men who knowe any thing that a Bishop or Priest cannot be validly consecrated without words involving the name or at least the particular power and authority of a Bishop or Priest in the English forme of Ordination the names are not mentioned and the power or authority is not so much as insinuated The power and authority of a Priest must involve power to make Christs Body and Blond really present as our English Protestant Doctors now confesse whether with or without Transubstantiation is not the controversy let them examine whether any such power be mentioned in their forme which is this Receive the holy Ghost English Rituall printed at London 1607. whofe sinnes thou doest forgive they are forgiven and whofe sinnes thou doest retaine they are retained and be thou a faithfull Dispenser of the Word of God and his holy Sacraments in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost To dispense ot minister â—he Sacraments come farre short of declaring power to consecrate the elements or make present Christs Body Deacons did minister and dispense the Body of Christ to the people in ancient times but were never thought to have power to consecrate or make present Christs Body and Bloud They have no reason to cite Santa Clara in their behalf Franc. à S. Clara in exposit paraphr Confess Anglic. artic 36. I knowe not his intention but I am sure his words favour not their Ordination and much lesse these of Innocent the IV. Sussiceret Ordinatori dicere sis Sacerdos vel alia aequipollentia Be thou a Priest or some words equivalent but they who blotted the word Priest out of Scripture never thought to make use of it in the forme of their Ordination and they who denyed the reall presence were farre from expressing in their forme of making Priests any power to consecrate or make present Christs Body and Bloud in the Sacrament and Sacrifice of the Altar 5 Their forme of making Bishops is no lesse deficient then the former The words are Take the holy Ghost and remember that thou stirre up the grace of God which is in thee by imposition of hands for God hath not given us the spirit of feare but of power love and sobernesse This advertisement of Saint Paul to Timothy after he had made him Bishop doth suppose 2. ad Tim. 1. and not give the Order of Episcopacy it is an admonition to exercise the function and not the ordination it selfe because it doth not declare in particular the name or authority of a Bishop Take the holy Ghost is said to Priests as well as to Bishops and the spirit of love power and sobernesse is communicated also by Priesthood Here is nothing peculiar to Episcopall Ordination But the truth is
lives in attempting an imagined liberty due to them by Luthers reformed Dutch Ghospel Whereby our Polititian may learne how ordinarily speaking Gods providence doth chastise wicked men by the same instruments they employ against the Church and Clergy in compassing their politick ends Luther was the occasion of the destruction of the Franconian Nobility which had made him an instrument to destroy the Clergy and dissuaded him from retiring into Bohemia promising they would protect him We may see also how dangerous it is not onely to Religion but to the interest of Princes that liberty which Protestants have of reading the Scripture without any obligation of conscience to submit their judgements in the interpretation thereof to any of their owne Churches When a Religion is made to comply with as many contrary humours and interests as Luthers was we must expect no other fruit of it but sedition and rebellion it is the apple of discord and the occasion of all mischiefs in Christian Commonwealths 6 From Germany this plague of Lutheranisme went into Swethland Swethland perverted Ioan Magnus in Pontif Psal lib. 6. by meanes of one Olaus Peters a Deacon and Luthers Scholler who in the yeare 1523. returning from Wittemberg to his own Countrey became acquainted with Laurence Andrewes Archdeacon of Stronghen an ambitious man the Bishop of that See dying Laurence Andrewes pretended and failed of the Bishoprick which was given to another farre inferiour to him in his owne opinion Olaus Peters tooke this occasion to make him a Lutheran and declare to him that all Christians were Priests by Baptisme and that there was no difference between a Priest and a Bishop but the revenues Whereupon they both declared their errour to Gustavus King of Swethland which he approved of as advantagious to that poore Crowne Therefore he declared to all his Subjects as a learned Scholler of Luthers teaching that Priesthood and Episcopacy were but formalities and privileges depending upon the Prince his will and favour and that it was his pleasure to take all their authority and lands into his owne hands he did not onely deprive the Bishops of their dignities and revenues but imprisoned them all because they opposed the change of Religion and their owne destruction Whereby we may perceive that poverty and coveteousnesse in a King and ambition in a Subject was the ground of Swethlands Reformation 7 In the yeare 1537. Iohn Bugenhagius who had beene a religious Priest put Christierne the Third King of Oenmarke in minde of what advantages his Neighbour Gustavus had made of Luther Doctrine and he upon the same grounds followed so meane an example deposing and imprisoning all the Bishops of his Kingdome who were but seven and made Iohn Bugenhagius Pope of his Northerne climat because he gave him authority to name seven Superintendents that succeded in the Bishops Seas but not in their ordination or revenues which were forfeited to the Crowne and was the greatest fault that the King found in Catholick-Religion It s great pitty that so many millions of soules doe perish through the coveteousnesse of those two Northerne Princes but the people may curse their Ancestors as much as their Kings who did not attempt the innovation of Religion before they felt the pulse of their Subjects consciences and perceived their soules to be as full of vice as their Countrey is of pitch and tarre and as disposed for heresy and hell as their woods are for fire Luther the Incendiary of all these Countries lived untill the yeare 1546. and died at Isleb where he was borne the 18. of February betweene two and three in the morning after that he had feasted himselfe and beene very merry that same night in the house of his death he pronounced these words to his Disciples Pray for our Lord God and his Ghospel that it may have good sucesse because the Council of Trent and the abominable Pope are great enemies Whether this blasphemy proceeded from Atheisme or drunknesse let Protestants determine my opinion is that Luther was both Atheist and Drunkard though Lutherans call him the Saint and Prophet of Germany Iustus Ionas de morte Lutheri notwithstanding that they acknowledge his last prayer to be the aforesaid blasphemy But now let us goe to the branches of his pretended Reformation SECT II. Of Anabaptisme 1 IN the yeare 1523. Nicholas Stork one of Luthers Schollers saw no reason why he might not invent a new Religion as well as his Master and at length resolved to goe to Switzerland where by counterfeiting revelations communicated to him by Saint Michael the Archangel he gained much credit amongst the simple people and persuaded them what he pleased confirming his mad fancies with texts of Scripture fondly applyed and by the Sermons of one Thomas Muntzer from both these Apostles the Sect of Anabaptists had its beginning their principall errour is grounded upon the words of our Saviour misinterpreted Whosoever will believe and be baptised shall be saved Therefore say they children ought not to be baptised before they come to yeares of discretion and capacity of beliefe or at least they ought to be rebaptised whereas it is cleare by the Scripture and not onely by the practise of the Church in all ages that children ought to be baptised seeing they are reasonable Creatures because Christ commanded his Disciples to baptise all Creatures but the continuall tradition is that whereby this errour hath beene and must be confuted which is the best explication of doubtfull texts of Scripture as Oecolampadius who formerly rejected Tradition as Roman superstition was forced to confesse Lindan in Dubit Prateol Methon Hist Anabap. lib. 5. when he disputed with the Anabaptists at this very time in Switzerland from whence they were banished by proclamation for their Doctrine against the obedience due to civill Magistrats and many other mad fancies whereby they practised bloody practises upon others and even upon themselves they were divided into many Countreys and Sects and in few yeares had more then 44. different Religions as Sebastian Francus doth testify in his history and is very credible because they are a people much given to believe dreames and to take fancies for revelations None is more dangerous then that assurance they pretend to have of themselves alone being Saints and the elect of God excluding all other men not onely from heaven but even from all right to lands or inheritances here upon earth according to the Doctrine of their booke which they intitle Restitution composed at Munster when their Prophets and Kings did domineere in that City Iohn Mathews gave himselfe out sometimes for Moyses sometimes metimes for Enoch and celebrated a Synod at Amsterdam breathed the spirit upon his twelve Apostles and sent them to preach his Ghospel to the world whereof some repented their madnesse others were punished and himselfe was killed at Munster his royall Seate 2 But after him succeeded for Prophet and King of the Anabaptists in the same City Iohn
out of the Netherlands The prudent King not doubting that to grant this was to betray himselfe and his posterity and bestowe his inheritance upon rebells declared that he would give as little encouragement to new Religions as Charles the V. his Father Whereupon Henry Bredenrod Lewis of Nassau Orange his brother and others of the Nobility headed the Hereticks who profaned Churches sackt Monasteries abused the Clergy and Religious and trampled under their feet the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar Lind. de fug idol Neare Ruremond they were cutting in pieces Saint Authonies image and going to burne it on a suddaine all were toucht with wild fire and dyed the next day They tooke Antwerpe then Orange declared himselfe for them and with all Governour of that famous and rich City 2 Before the Hereticks had committed these outrages they made a procession in Brussells wherein every one carried a medall hanging upon his brest with King Philips image on the one side and on the other two hands joyned with a beggars wallet with this motto Fidi Regi usque ad bisaccium In this manner they presented themselves to Margaret of Parma that then governed the Low Countries for her Brother Surius in Comment Schardius in reb gest sub Maximil Belear lib. 30. alij at which sight when her Highnesse seemed to be frighted the Earle of Barlamont a zealous Catholick told her that nothing was to be feared from such Geuses which is a word of contempt in Walloun and signifies Vagabond Beggars This was the occasion whereby the Hereticks of the Netherlands came to have so honourable a denomination as their brethren the Hugonots in France The Catholicks to be discerned from Hereticks or Geuses wore also medalls about their necks or tyed to their beads with the Image of Christ our Saviour on the one side and on the other his blessed Mother If Hereticks thought it was a profession of fidelity and devotion in themselves to their King to weare and worship his image I see no reason why they should finde fault with Catholicks for wearing medalls or worshipping the images of Christ his Mother and Saints I am sure we meane better to God in doing it then they did to their King when they were called Geuses The King of Spaine was not jealous that they would rebell with his image or make it King there was no danger of such a foppery It s a foppery and madnesse in Hereticks to imagine that God is jealous of Catholicks worshipping his owne or his servants images and as for the pretended danger of Idolatry it is no greater then that which the Geuses did incurre of setting up their medalls for their King or Earle of Flanders The difference betweene our medalls and theirs is that ours is a profession of love respect and devotion which we beare to God and his Saints because they are his servants theirs was a pretext of treachery and rebellion against their Soveraigne who was as farre from their hearts and effections as his image was neare their brests 3 There was never any Prince that did more to humour his Subjects then Philip the Second did for his in the Low Countries First he removed from thence the Duke of Alba because he was thought to be over severe and sent in his place Requesens one of a mild disposition After whose death he was content to confirme the Governours themselves had chosen untill he was advertised that the first act of their government was a league made against the Spaniards at the instance of Orange whose ambition could be satisfied with nothing but the whole Countrey at his owne disposall to which end he caused himselfe to be named Admiral of the Sea turned Don Iohn of Austria out of the Countrey had Brabant joyned to his government of Holland and Zealand imprisoned the Duke of Arschor and two Bishops because they sent for Mathias the Archduke who being arrived was but a cifer Orange being named his Vicar did governe all and obtained liberty of conscience for the Hereticks in all the 17. Provinces that thereby his friends and faction might encrease after Mathias his departure he sends for the Duke of Anjou a cifer also but thinking by his meanes to engage France in the quarrell was content to let him have the title of Governour and Master keeping all the power in his owne hands 4 All those things were done by Orange with that ordinary and specious pretext of rebellion the liberty of the Subject and of conscience whereby many Catholicks were deceived and joyned with him and his Hereticks But they perceiving at lengthy that nothing would satisfy Orange and that he aymed at making himselfe Master of his Confederats and to that end promoted heresy thereby to engage the people more against their Catholick King endeare them to himselfe and that many insolences were committed by the Geuses and countenanced by their Protector Orange Hannonia Artois and some other Provinces declared against him and his ambitious hereticall proceedings The King also seeing that Orange would be contented with no lesse then the propriety and dominion of all the Low Countries promised great rewards by proclamation to any person that would kill him Whereupon in the yeare 1584. this Rebell was sent to the other world by one Gerard a Burgundian If he had lived longer perhaps the United Provinces had beene a Kingdome not a Commonwealth for its certaine his designe and desire was not to make them a free State though he freed them from their obedience to the King of Spaine And albeit by his policy he made them cast of one yoke he oppressed them with another farre more intolerable that is with heresy whereby they became slaves to the Devill and rebells against God and the Church Thus we see how the multitude hath beene misled by one politick head that concealed his ambition with the zeale of a new Religion and the ancient liberties of his Nation SECT VI. Of the Protestant Church of England in King Edward the VI. his time 1 IT s now time to drawe homeward and examine whether the Protestant Church of England be also a branch of Policy That luxury and covetcousnesse was the occasion of denying the Popes jurisdiction and supremacy is evident by our Chronicles in the life of Henry the VIII who being weary of Queene Catharine of Spaine and despairing or issue male by her as also enamoured of Anne Bullen desired the Pope to declare null a marriage that no person living called in question for the space of 20. yeares but now forsooth it was against Seripture because Saint Iohn Baptist told Herod that it was not lawfull for him to keepe his brothers wife in the lifetime of his brother and himselfe being also married If Prince Arthur were living the text had made as much for Henry the VIII as for Herods brother Yet King Henryes tender conscience could not be quiet untill Anne Bullen were Queene of England therefore he bribed Universities abroad and threatned those of his owne Kingdome to
attributed to an incapacity of learning even by experience the art of governing Therefore it concerns not onely the state but also the honour of Princes to condemne sometimes their owne first choice and judgements by second thoughts and reflections least the world should thinke that they are more wilfull then understanding more besotted upon an unhappy Favorite then attentive to the common good their owne interest and reputation This lesson was inculcated to the late King Charles by his Father when he charged him to beware of Master Laud whom King Iames did foresee to be as unfit for government as afterwards he proved by treating the English Nobility and Gentry with such scorne as if they were borne to be no lesse under his command then de facto they were at his disposall by reason of the Kings favour and commission Had his late Majesty beene as fortunate in taking his Fathers advice as his Father was prudent in giving it their posterity and the poore Cavalleers had beene in a better condition Princes are not so frequently ruined by their owne faults as by their Favorits unlesse you will reckon amongst their owne whatsoever is owned by them to excuse their Ministers Yet politick Princes are more apt to father their owne oversights upon others then adopt those of others to themselves and are seldome so constant in their affection to Favorits as for their sakes to bring their owne judgements in question either by owning their defects or defending their misgovernment 5 Heresy that could not get footing in Scotland during Iames the V. his reigne assaulted the same Kingdome in his daughter Queene Mary Stewards infancy borne but 8. dayes before her Father departed this world Iames Hamilton Earle of Aran taking upon him the government was solicited by Henry the VIII to send the young Queene into England that she might be married to his Sonne Edward Aran condescended but the Queene Mother and Cardinal Beton Chancellor of Scotland opposed Henry the VIII designe as destructive to Catholick Religion and by consent of the three States of the Realme sent the yong Queene to France to be espoused to the Delphin But before her departure Henry the VIII had gained some of the Nobility of Scotland to himselfe who preferring their private interests before Religion encouraged one Friar Williams a Dominican to preach against the Popes supremacy and to exhort all people to read the English Bible not doubting by these meanes to embroyle the Kingdome in such a manner that Henry the VIII sending an Army might not onely have the yong Queene but the whole Kingdome at his command Though the Queene escaped her Kingdome was all wasted with warre Paul the III. Bishop of Rome sent the Patriarch of Venice to comfort the Scots in their affliction exhorting them to be constant in that Faith which they had inherited from their Ancestours 6 By the sermons of Friar William and the liberty of reading the Bible many of the vulgar sort and also of the Nobility were perverted and because Cardinal Beton being Archbishop of Saint Andrews and Chancellor of Scotland was an obstacle to their intended rebellion and destruction of the Catholick Religion they did assassinate him in his owne chamber and hanged his body out at the window in his Cardinals robes It s certaine that his bloud could not be washed of from the stone of the window though great diligence was used to that purpose This murther was revenged by the King of France whose forces tooke the Castle to which the Hereticks retired punished them and suppressed their novelties But in the yeare 1558. when the Queene of Scots married the Delphin of France the Hereticks raised another rebellion The Ringleaders were Paul Meffinus a baker Harlaus a taylor and Iohn Duglas alias Grant who had beene a Carmelite Friar On the first of September the feast of Saint Giles had beene alwayes celebrated very solemnly in Edinburg as being Patron of that City The Saints Image being carried in procession according to the ancient and Catholick manner the Hereticks snatcht it away and committed many other abuses and sacrileges and spared not to exhort all sorts of people to rebell against the present government 7 Iohn Knox an Apostata Religious Priest being accused formerly of too much familiarity with his mother in law of witchcraft and of many other crimes was fled from Scotland into England and from thence to Geneva where he learnt Calvins doctrine and discipline This wicked man having by his Letters and Emissaries perturbed all in Scotland came in person in the yeare 1559. to compleat the worke he rallied all the dispersed Hereticks persuaded them to profane all Churches and Altars pull downe Monasteries banish all Bishops Priests and Religious deny obedience to the Queene Regent to whom Knox gave the lye divers times and to choose a new Councell whereof the chiefe was Iames Steward base sonne to Iames the V. who afterwards was Earle of Murray and liked well to see this confusion not doubting that his ambition might fish in the troubled water Calvin ep 285. Calvin writ to Knox congratulating with him the good successe and progresse of the Ghospel exhorting him to carry on the worke of the Lord like a valiant labourer in Christs Church But by succours from France the rebells were quieted and by the endeavours of Nicholas Pellevins the Popes Nuntius afterwards a Cardinal and of three Sorbon Doctors their heresie did not spread over the whole Nation though every day their number encreased Knox never omitted any opportunity afterwards to plant his Genevian Ghospel in his Countrey which at length by the helpe of the Devill and Iames Steward and other Polititians he perfected When King Iames came first into England being at dinner in a noble mans house he said Knot in his Protestancy condemned fol. 166. edit 1654. at Doway that God thought fit to set a visible mark of reprobation upon Knox even in this life before he went to the Devill which was that being sick in his bed with a good fire of coales by him and a candle light upon the table a woman or maid of his sitting by him he told her that he was extreamly thirsty and therefore willed her to fetch him some drinke She went and returned quickly but found the room all in darknesse for not onely the candle but the cole fire also was utterly extinct and she by that light which her selfe brought in immediatly after saw the body of Knox lying dead in the middle of the floor and with a most gastly and horrid countenance as if his body were to shew the condition of his soule Let Polititians reflect upon this horrid spectacle and consider whether they can invent a plot whereby Gods just judgement may be deluded What did it availe Knox in his last houre to have beene as powerfull in Scotland as Calvin was in Geneva and what will it availe any Polititian or Courtiour to have embroyled Kingdomes and made factions in this
have evidence that his Law or Statute doth not contradict the Law of God his legislative power must be subordinate to Christian Religion Henry the VIII Edward the VI. and Queene Elizabeths penall Statutes are evidently against the Law of God and Christian Religion if we may credit antiquity and stick to the Faith and practise of the Church and Catholick Princes that went before them not onely in England but in all other Christian Kingdomes No persons living have any other evidence for the Law of God and Catholick Religion but the test mony of the immediatly precedent age confirmed with supernaturall signes all former ages speake to us by the mouth of the last with which we conversed we must cake their word for all the rest and for the sense as well as for the letter of Scripture The 14. age delivered to the 15. the Roman Catholick Faith which we now professe assuring that it was the true sense of Scripture which they had learned from the 13. age and so forth to the Apostles What evidence had Henry the VIII or his daughter Queen Elizabeth to oppose against the testimony of all former ages confirmed with so many miracles and to make Statutes against the knowne and practised Law of God and Christianity His luxury and his daughters bastardy are the onely evidence which Protestants can produce for the ground of penall Lawes against the Popes supremacy and other points of the Roman Catholick Religion an excellent foundation of Protestant Lawes Justice and Judicature 3 To pronounce sentence of death losse of goods or banishment against persons without any proose is rather tyranny then injustice The greatest crimes even that of treason require at least one lawfull witnesse let Protestant produce but one lawfull witnesse against the Religion of Catholicks and their sense of Scripture and we will not murmure against their penall Lawes and rigourous proceedings Antiquity affords them none because though in divers ages some odde men did testify sometimes one errour of theirs sometimes another they were in those very times contradicted by the whole Catholick Church and declared infamous Impostours and Hereticks In this present age no Protestants can be lawfull witnesses for their owne Religion or against ours because their testimony cannot be valid against so constant and universall a tradition as we Catholicks have for our Doctrine and sense of Scripture It s as ridiculous and unjust in a Judge to pronounce sentence against Roman Catholicks for their Religion upon the evidence and testimony of Protestancy as if he had in open Court condemned men to forfeit their estates and ancient inheritance upon the word of a mad fellow that produceth no other evidence to confirme his claime but interiour motions of the spirit of coveteousnesse and ambition or some obscure text of the Law appliable to all cases and subjects for all the Protestant evidence is reduced to the private spirit and the pretended clearnesse of Scripture If this be not to destroy the foundation of Justice and the forme of Judicature Protestants have a different way of proceeding from all other Nations and have altered the stile of naturall reason humane nature and the practice of all antiquity 4 They cannot excuse their persecution against Catholicks with the example of Christian Emperours and Kings that both for zeale of Religion and humane Policy to avoid the danger of rebellion made Lawes and Statutes against Hereticks and Innovatours of the ancient Faith and sense of Scripture which descended to them by tradition from the Apostles Protestants take the quite contrary way they make Lawes and Statutes against the ancient Religion and knowne sense of Gods Word and persecute Catholicks for professing it whereas their Predecessours Emperours and Kings punished new Religions and Novelists This last was lawfull in secular Princes but the practise of Protestants is unjust and wicked because it destroyes Justice and the true Religion confirmed by the publike testimony and practise of the Christian world since the Apostles time to this present If the Roman Catholick Religion were not the true Apostolicall Faith but as new as Protestants pretend how is it possible that in history there should be no mention made of any person that suffered as an Heretick for broaching or maintaining any one point which we now professe If any Doctrine of ours were judged an heresy or a novelty by antiquity without doubt we had not all escaped the rigour of penall Lawes made against Hereticks and Novelists I am sure Protestants cannot brag nor say so much for their owne Doctrine many if not all the points whereof have beene condemned as heresy by the Church in ancient times and punished as novelties by Christian Kings and Emperours which was the onely reason that moved the first English Protestants to cause the young child Edward the VI. when he knew not what he did to repeale all the Lawes and Statutes that any Christian King of England and the Kingdome had made against Hereticks being convinced that themselves and not Catholicks were comprehended in that number All who suffered persecution or death for any point of the Roman Religion were looked upon by the Catholick Church in all ages as glorious Confessours and renowned Martyrs Amongst the most pretious jewells of the Easterne Church were accompted such as were put to death for defending the worship of Images against the Iconuclasts Baron an 723. Conc. Nicaen 2. Act. 5. who were the first that persecuted Christians for that Doctrine at the instance of one Serantapicus a Magician and a Jew that promised to Gizedo Prince of the Saracens he should live 30. yeares if he would command all Images to be taken away and not worshipped in his Dominions by the Catholicks But Gizedo dying within a yeare and a halfe his sonne Vlidus condemned the Jew to death as a perfidious lmpostour and the Images were worshipt as formerly untill three yeares afterwards Leo Isaurus the heretick Emperour at the instance also of Jewes Concil Nicaen 2. Baron an 726. raised that most terrible persecution against the Catholick Church for practising so pious a custome which had continued amongst Christians without the least danger of idolatry since the time of the Apostles to that present and t will not be interrupted untill the day of judgement notâ—ithstanding the clamours endeavours and vaine pretended feares of Protestant zealots in behalfe of Serantapicus their Patriarch and his Hebrew tribe their loving brethren 5 Their persecution against Catholicks can be no more excused by the proceedings of the Spanish and Italian Inquisition Of the Inquisition then their penall Statutes have beene by the Lawes of ancient Kings and Emperours against Hereticks 1. Because the Inquisition proceeds according to the rules and forme of Justice none is declared an Heretick or guilty by a new Law or oath made onely to the end that by them men may be intrapped both in soule body and estate it was no crime in England to be a Catholick before