more honorable with them and more becomming good Christians then the Sword and Fortune of a Conqueror in comanding In which most Christian posture I leave them to proceed Titulus Tertius THe last and greatest tempest against poor English Catholikes was raised by Queen Elizabeth This not onely shook the foundations of the Church which had been so lately repaired by the most Catholike Princess Queen Mary but proceeded so far as humane policy and power could to extirpate the very name and memory of Catholike Religion in England Camd. in Elizab. And this as it were in an instant and without noise For as her own Historian Camdeu reporteth it was done Sine sanguine sudore No man unless perhaps it were Master Secretary Cecil did so much as sweat in the bringing in of New Religion nor was any mans blood I mean at the first beginning drawn about it The Christian world stood amazed at the first news of such a sudden alteration Both because Religion had been so lately and so solemnly restored by Parliament as also because the Queen her self that now was always professed her self so much Catholike during the Reign of her Sister She constantly every day heared Mass saith the same Camden and beside that ad Romanae Religionis normam soepius confiteretur went often to Confession as other Roman Catholikes did Yea saith Sir Francis Ingleseild when she was upon other matters sometimes examined by Commissioners from the Queen she would her self take occasion to complain that the Queen her Sister should see me to have any doubt of her Religion and would thereupon make Protestation and Swear that she was a Catholike The Duke of Feria's Letter to King Philip is yet extant to be seen wherein is certified that the Queen had given him such assurance of her beleefe and in particular concerning the point of Real Presence that for his part he could not beleeve she intended any great Alteration in Religion The same profession also she made to Monsieur Lansack as many Honorable Persons have testified and at her Coronation she was Consecrated in all points according to the Catholike maner and anointed at Mass by the Bishop of Carlile taking the same Oath to maintain Catholike Religion the Church and Liberties thereof as all other her Catholike Predecessors Kings and Queens of England had ever done Concerning the grounds which moved her to make this Alteration so much contrary to the expectation and judgement of Christendom we shall speak in due place This was manifest that the long sickness of Queen Mary gave her great advantage time both to deliberate and draw all platforms into debate to prepare instruments in readiness for all designs and to make choise of the fittest and surest Counsellors such as were most likely to advance her ends Neither did she seem to value her Honor overmuch in order to the bringing about of her chief design For in open Parliament after her intentions for a change began to be discovered she protested that no trouble should arise to the Roman Catholikes Horas Preface of Queen Elizab. for any difference in Religion Which did much abate the opposition which otherwise might probably have been made by the Catholike party and put the Clergy themselves in some hopes of Fair quarter under her Government She knew full well that a Prince alone how Sovereign soever could not establish a new Religions in his Kingdom but that it must be the work of a Parliament to give Authority and Countenance to a business of that nature Therefore to win the Bishops and the rest of the Catholikes in Parliament to silence at least she was content to use policy with them and promise them fair as Monsieur Mauvissieir hath well observed Les memoir de Mons. Mich. Castelnau who was a long time Embassador heer from the French King and curiously noted the passages of those times Add hereunto That when the Act for Supremacy was revived which was always the great Wheel of these Motions whereas by King Henry's Law both Bishops and Barons stood in danger thereof as the examples of Sir Thomas Moor Lord Chancellor of England and Doctor Fisher Bishop of Rochester had shewen in this Parliament the Queen was content to exempt the Lords and Barons absolutely from the Oath as they in King Edward the Sixths time had exempted themselves and to leave the Rigor of it onely upon the Clergy and Commons She also thought good to qualifie the Stile somewhat viz. from Supream Head changing it into Supream Governor which though it altered not the sence yet it abused some into a beleef that the Queen pretended not unto so much in matters Ecclesiastical as the King her Father had done Beside we are to remember that King Henry by pulling he Abbyes had much weakned the power of the Clergy in Parliament having deprived them of the Votes of no less then Five and twenty Abbots who constantly sat in Parliament in the quality of Barons And lastly it is well known The Lower House of Parliament it self as they call it was so calmly spirited in those times that they used not much to oppose what their good Lords of the upper House liked All which things considered and that too many of the Catholikes both Lords and others thinking it better wisdom to purchase their future security by present silence then to expose themselves to trouble and vexation afterward by opposing that which they feared they should not be able to hinder therefore either but faintly resist or quietly absent themselves who can wonder if the whole business were carried with ease upon such promises of the Queen and by the industry and craft of Sinon alias Secretary Cecil who had the chief Management of it in his hands By his advise it was thought fitting that the Noble Earl of Arundel should for a time be abused with some hopes of marrying the Queen who thereupon by the interest which he had in the house of Peers ingrosed into his own hands the Proxies or voices of so many of them who thought good to be absent as when time came served the Queens turn exceedingly well The duke of Norfolk Son in law to Arundel but now a Widower was already exasperated against the Pope because he might not have dispensation to marry his Kins-woman and therefore it was no hard matter to joyn him with Arundel The Queen had also against this time either made or advanced in dignity and consequently in interest certain new Lords whom she knew to be favorers of her design viz. William Lord Parr was made Marquis of Northampton a good Speaker and a Politick man Edward Seymour Son to the late Duke of Sommerset was made Viscount Beauchamp and Earl of Hartford Sir Thomas Howard was made Viscount Bindon Sir Oliver Saint John Lord St. John of Bletso Sir Henry Cary Lord Hunsdon She had also as much weakened the Catholikes party by discharging from the Counsel-Table many of the old Counsellors
the Boors who made such havock for a while in Germany by their conspiracies and especially against the Clergy did not onely pretend the Gospel and the Liberty of the Gospel for their doings but did even appeal therein to Luther himself Ad Lutheri judicium prâ—vocaverant They appealed saith he to Luthers judgement Not to urge what Erasmus hath to this effect Hyperaspist advers Lutherum nor what Menno Simonius an Anabaptist acknowledgeth in his Book De cruce Christi Quà m sanguinolentas seditiones Lutherani c. What bloody Riots and Murthers the Lutherans have committed for some years past to maintain theâ—r Doctrine And as to that part of the Objection that Luther did reprove yea write against the Boors it is the poorest fallacy of all He did it but how With such calumniating and taxing of the Princes themselves as they could be little secured by his writing and the Boors as little discouraged He did it but when When it was too late when he could forbear no longer when he found himself generally censured and murmured at by the Nobility and better sort of people as an occasion at least if not an Instrument and Fautor of those mischeifs Lastly He did it but when When he saw the Boors go down that they were not likely to maintain their quarrel nor to go through with their work then indeed he left them in the Bryers wisely enough though they appealed to him though they used yea alledged his own Homilies and Sermons for what they did though they were all for Reformation all for Liberty all against the Church of Rome and against Bishops yea and that their very word in the Field was Vivat Evangelium Let the Gospel flourish Hitherto we have discoursed cheifly of Luthers doctrinal extravagancies and touched upon the evil practises or fruits thereof onely in such men as either for the privateness and meanness of their condition being all of them Boors Peasants and rude Country people or for the unsuccessfulness of their designs are generally disclaimed Such as neither Luther nor any of his followers will readily own I come now to give a further instance of the mischief which the doctrine and doings of this man brought upon Germany in a business which was publikely owned not by Luther onely but by many of the Princes themselves who for the defence of his new Doctrine and protection of his wretched person bandied themselves against the Emperor their Sovereign Lord and against the general body of the Empire of which they were both Members and Subjects and by the Publike Laws whereof themselves in that relation ought to have been governed The beginning proceedings and issue of which confederacy was briefly thus Old John Frederick Elector and Duke of Saxony the Landsgrave of Hessen with some others already caught with the Liberty and other advantages which they made of Luthers new doctrine besides an old and inveterate emulation in most of them against the House of Austria which then was and still is Imperial first enter a League at Smalcald which is a Town of Hessia upon the Frontiers of Saxony onely as they pretended for their own defence and to maintain their Religion and Liberties against such men as would invade or persecute them We must observe here first That the Religion spoken of was a Religion but then newly and privately taken up of themselves contrary to that which was publikely received and acknowledged in the Empire and by vertue or rather pretext whereof they were obliged to do and suffer to be done many things which were expresly contrary to the Constitutions of the Empire which Constitutions the Emperor together with themselves were by oath solemnly bound to observe and see observed In this League were also comprehended the Duke of Wittemberg and some of the Imperial Towns They renewed it again at Franckfort and after that again at Auspurgh confirming it with a general and solemn Protestation of what their opinions were in matter of Religion which Protestation being then exhibited unto the Emperor in their names the Title or Sirname of Protestants became thenceforward appropriate to that party After this viz. Anno 1536. Suspecting some opposition would be made against them by the Emperor and other States of Germany for such proceedings and not willing to be taken at unawares by him they bring viz. themselves first of all an huge Army into the Field commanded by the yong Duke of Saxony John Frederick his Father being dead and the Landsgrave of Hessen with resolution by force of Arms to finde or make themselves right as they called it The Duke of Wittemberg the Imperial Towns Auspurgh Vlm Strasburgh and Franckfort sent them aid The Count Palaâ—ine of the Rhine had levyed Two hundred horse for them but upon better thoughts revoked them when they were upon their march The Duke of Brunswick and his sons the Duke of Luneburgh the yong Marquess of Baden the Prince of Anhalt the Counts of Furstenburgh and Mansfield joyned with them either in person or power Surius in Chron. Their Army consisted of about Seventy thousand fighting men and among them Seven thousand and seven hundred at least were Horse they had an hundred and twelve Cannon and Field pieces with such an infinite quantity of all sorts of Provisions as gave them an assured hope and confidence of Victory The eyes of all Princes were upon this action and Germany it self trembled in expectation of the event and success of such an Army prepared as they saw to swallow up the Emperor if they could and to subvert the whole Government and Religion of the Empire I mean that Religion and Government which was then established and had stood so established many hundred years before the Fathers or Grand-fathers of any of those Princes now in Arms to destroy it were born The Emperor had onely God and a just cause on his side for his friends those I mean who openly and avowedly appeared for him were few viz. The King of the Romans his Brother the Duke of Bavaria and the Duke of Cleve For though Duke Maurice of Saxony followed him yet in regard of his affinity with the Landsgrave whose Son in law he was as also for his Religion being a Lutheran he could not but be suspected However it pleased God notwithstanding this huge Army of the Princes that the Emperor became Master of the Field with a most compleat and signal Victory yea which was an accident more rare the two Generals Saxony and Hessen both of them became prisoners and their whole Army was defeated The yong Duke of Saxony a person much honored and pittied had his life given him with some connivence for his Religion yet his impregnable Fort at Gotha was demolished and the Electorate with all the Lands thereunto belonging were bestowed by the Emperor upon Duke Maurice The like mercy for life was shewed the Landsgrave who after some time obtained his liberty also The Duke of Wittemberg for Two hundred
Flanders and to take upon him the protection of the Low-Countries That Aldegund a great Incendiary was in Germany solliciting a party there with like eagerness So that they laboring on all sides to offend the King shall it not be lawful for his Majestie to provide for his own necessarie defence but he must be taxed with Tyranny Certainly it is a most unequal censure and argueth much more partiality then reason D' Alva could be no cause of those disorders which made his coming necessary for they all preceded his coming The Regent notwithstanding all her mildeness yet was at last forced to deal with them by Arms and having by that means once reduced them yet they are insolent and factious still and to bring their evil purposes to effect they seek to Forreign Princes for aid Who can wonder then if the Duke finding their distempers such as that gentle proceâ—dings did rather aggravate then allay the malady did make his War with some rigor It was no more then necessity and the general malice with which they had possessed the people against him compelled him to do for his own safety In the Passion week presently after his coming there was a Conspiracy to kill him whiles he was at his Devotions at the Monastery of the Green Vally in the Forest of Sauve not far from Brusels Monsieur Risot Carli Villars with Seven hundred Horse and Five hundred Foote were designed to do it when the Duke the Nobles and all his followers should be at Mass and with fire and instruments devised for the purpose to burn both men and Monastery and Church good and bad friends and enemies all together as the two Guidons confessed Such another business was intended also at Brussels against the Spaniards Mich. ab Isselt de bell Belg. as both Petit Mendoza and others testifie Neither did their malice much cease when he was recalled For as that Noble Lord the Duke of Areschot discovered and advised Don John there was a Plot to have surprized his person of which the Prince of Orange was reported to be the chief manager and another to kill him at Namur by Radcliff and Grey two Englishmen I enquire not who set them on work Latet anguis in herbâ it s a business not to be look't into too far And did not those Calvâ—nists at Antwerp as finely contrive to have blown up that famous Duke of Parma as he should be going along the High Street with all the chief State of the Country attending on him So that 't is cleer how strange soever they make of it Protestants may be charged with Assassinats and Treasons as well as others Thus were the occasions and first beginnings of the Nether-Landish tumults To discourse a little of the chief Author Actor and upholder of them we are to know The Prince of Orange who signally deserves that Character was a very popular and no less politick man and beside a great House-keeper which qualities especially the last very acceptable to that sort of people stood him in no smal stead in order to his designs The house of Nassau in Germany was Ancient and Honorable but advanced in this Country chiefly by marriages This William his Father falling to Lutheranism Charls the Fifth Emperor out of a Princely affection to him took from his Father and commended him to the care and Education of Mary Queen of Hungary his Sister Afterwards he admitted him to be of his Bedchamber Then made him General of his Horse and after that raised him to be Leivetenant General of the Army And yet further to endear his obligation to him when he was to â—â—nd the Imperial Crown to his Brother Ferdinand he made choise of him as a man of most Trust and commended him likewise very much to his Son King Philip notwithstanding diverse often warned him to take heed that he nursed not a Snake in his Bosom to these favors we may adde how much the Emperor favored his match with the Count of Burens Daughter and Heir who was his first Wife and by whom he was highly advanced and that he procured Rhenatus of Challon Prince of Orange to make this William his Heire when the President Schorus was wholly against him These things considered and also the many favors and great trust which King Philip also shewed to have in him committing so many and so great Governments to his charge and fidelity viz. Holland Zealand Vtrecht and Burgundy as hath been said it might seem impossible almost that any thing should corrupt his Loyalty The first visible disgust he took was upon the Kings going into Spain The Prince being then a Widower aspired to marry with the Princess Christerna Dutchess of Lorrain Cousin Germane to the King and labored also that she might be made Governess of the Provinces in the Kings absence to the intent that by such Alliance he might in effect sway the whole Government of the Provinces himself a thing indeed for which he had gaped a long time and stood competitor with Count Egmond But the King preferring the Dutchess of Parma he lost both his hopes and his Wife Upon this grew his first hatred against D' Alva and the Cardinal Granvellan by whose Counsels he supposed the Dutchess of Parma was preferred So as Ambition and Pride being indeed the true internal motives of his discontent Religion and the Common-wealths interest must be made the Mantle to hide it Hereupon he marrieth into the house of Saxony which was already Lutheranized and sets Brederode and his fellows to work as we have seen already Then labors to make a difference between Granvellan and Egmond although the former had been his good friend in many matters of importance practiseth what he can to hinder the coming in of D' Alva nor did he ever after that repulse concerning the Dutchess of Lorrain shew himself wel affected to the Kings affairs nor content with any favors But after all this that hath been already recited he invades Frizeland directs Lumay to possess himself of Brill and what else he could in Holland gives order to his Brother Scheremberg to make himself master of Zutphen and himself maketh Saras Governor of Flushing Wherein to note it by the way the World took notice of a great oversight in the Duke d' Alva to neglect a place of so great importance so long and to suffer it to be invested by the Enemy In a word I may wel conclude he was the great Wheel whereupon the whole State of the Confederates affairs turned It is true he did once seek to be reconciled to the King by intercession of the Emperor and Duke of Bavier but not being able to procure it modo formâ as he desired he grew desperate in his resolutions though he met with ill success in all things for a long time and could finde no harbor but Holland That Country indeed being now become through his means a receptacle for all Religions afforded him a place of retreat not
Honor and Strength of the Nation Titulus Secundus HItherto Schisme and Sacriledge annexed to it chiefly reigned but the second plague was the utter ruin and extinction of Religion For by abuse of the name and authority of King Edward the very Church it self was entirely subverted Religion absolutely changed Heresie introduced and established in the full open and publike profession thereof And we might say the craft and malice of the Devil whose work it is to corrupt true Religion confound States herein most perfectly appeared For though indeed the way to Heresie and all publike disorder were sufficiently levelled and made plain by King Henry the Eighth who onely by reason of his greatness and imperious cruelty was fit to begin such a work yet Religion it self was suffered to stand a while longer at least in the general and more visible parts of it he knowing well that all could not be effected at once and that it was necessary for him to seduce States as he doth souls gradatìm by degrees opportunity and succession of time And being also confident that if those forts of Piety and true Christian-Catholike Devoâ—â—on that is the Religious Houses were once-razed the Church in England brought under a Lay head and by consequence the sheep made Governors of their Shepherds he should easily upon a second attempt there and by some other hand overthrow Religion it self King Henry at his death had appointed by will sixteen Executors who during the minority of his Son King Edward should be as it were his Guardians and Counsellors for the better governing of the Realm Among these one who made himself afterward Principal was the Lord Edward Seymour Earl of Hartford who being the Kings Uncle by the Mother-side procured himself in a short time to be made Protector and by that means gat as he thought a dispensation from his Joynt Executorship with the others and demeaned himself now in all things concerning the Affaires of the Realm as their Superior A thing which King Henry least of all intended rather he had provided with as much caution as was possible against the encroaching of any one upon the rest under any title or pretence soever But this was the way to bring about some furthâ—â— designes intended by that Party which advanced the Protector to that dignity and which the other and more honest part of the Councel did not either so providently foresee or so faithfully resist as they ought to have done One of the first things which the Protector set on foot after the Protectorship was secured to him was Innovation of Religion abolishing the Old Catholike and introducing a New under the title of Reformation Not so much out of any great preciseness that was ever observed in him or devotion that he was thought to have more one way then another but because he was thirsty and desired to drink to the bottom of the Cup which in King Harries time it seems he had but onely tasted There was yet some Game in his eye which he intend-to bring into Toyls viz. some few remains of Church-Lands Collegiate-Lands and Hospitals which he could not compass or draw into possession by any Engine better then that pretence of reforming Religion Cranmer that unworthy Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was his Right Hand and chief Assistant in the work although but a few months before he was of King Harries Religion yea a Patron and Prosecutor of the Six Articles To this end viz. the more to amuze the people and as they thought to give some strength and countenance to what they meant to set up a couple of strangers Religious men indeed by profession but such as were long since run from their Orders that is Peter Martyr and Bucer must be sent for as far as Germany and placed in the Divinity Chairs at Cambridge and Oxford That the world might see how contrary not onely the Pastors of the Church and Clergy but even all the learned men in both the Universities and of the whole Kingdom generally were to his proceedings By these two Apostate Friers together with Cranmer Ridley Latimer and some others was a new Liturgie framed and the old abolished together with that Religion which had been so many hundreds of years observed in this Nation with great happiness and honour The Protector though powerful of himself by abuse and pretence of the Kings name in all things which he did although the King were but a Child of nine years old was yet well seconded by the Duke of Northumberland and by the Admiral his onely Brother by the Marquis of Northampton c. all of them persons seemingly at least much inclined to Reformation and by them he overbore all the rest that opposed him or were any thing contrary to his designs As there were many both eminent and wise men and equally intrusted in the publike affairs with himself could things have been carried rightly In particular the Lord Privy Seal the Lord St. John of Basing Bishop Tonstall Sir Anthony Brown and that wise Secretary Sir William Paget but most especially the Noble Chancellor the Lord Wriothsley a man of singular experience knowledge prudence and who deserveth to be a Pattern to his Posterity far to be preferred before any new Guides But being made Earl of Southampton though it neither won him to the Faction nor contented nor secured him yet he stood thâ— more quiet and made no great opposition to their doings All things now grew to confusion there remained no face nor scarce the name of Catholike Church in England and though there were great multitudes of men well affected to the old Religion and discontented that the Church should be thus driven into the Wilderness and forced to lurk in Corners Yet did they shew loyalty obedience and love to the publike Peace notwithstanding They took up no Arms they raised no Rebellion not so much as against the shadow of a King or the usurper of his Royal name The Protector in the mean time goeth on with his work which is principally to enrich himself with the Remains of the Church having long before as 't is said tasted the sweetness of such Morsels in the Priory of Aumesbury He now seizeth two Bishops houses in the Strand and of them buildeth Sommerset house which as the world saw quickly reverted and slipt out of his hands After this he procureth an Act to be made whereby all Colledges remaining all Chantries Free Chappels and Fraternities were suppressed and given to the King And how greedily he entered into the Bishop of Bath and Wells his Houses and Manors that Church will never be able to forget Notwithstanding that Bishop Bourn afterward by his industry recovered something but nothing to the spoiles and wast which was made Nor was he satisfied with this For shortly after contrary to all Law to King Henries will and against his own Covenants those I mean which he entred to his Advancers when they made him Protector He committed the Lord Chancellor