it to the world that no other sect of heretikes not excepting Turke Iew nor Pagan no not euen those of Calicute who adore the deuill did euer maintaine it by the grounds of their religion Marke by the grounds of their religion that it was lawfull or rather meritorious as the Romish Catholikes call it to murder princes or people for quarrell of religion And although particular men of all professions of religion haue beene some theeues some murtherers some traitours yet euer when they came to their ende and iust punishment they confessed their fault to be in their nature and not in their profession these Romish Catholikes onely excepted And if that be your religion which we finde maintained by the chiefe pillars and Doctours of your Church and determined to bee Catholike by your Popes and Cardinals surely we haue as litle reason to entertaine your doctrine as wee haue good reason euer to be iealous of your practise Your doctrine is That the Pope if hee thinke good may excommunicate and depose kings and dispose of their kingdomes by absoluing their subiects from their allegeance and setting forraine princes to inuade there dominions as if they held not their Crownes from God but from him and as if they were to write no more in their stiles by the grace of God but by the Popes grace king of such or such a kingdom Your doctrine is that treason deliuered vnder the seale of cōfession is not to be discouered though it be to the indangering of your Soueraigns person the subuersion of the whole body of the State Your doctrine is That as many Churchmen as are in the Kingdom which in most is a third part in some more they are all exempted from the coertion of the ciuill Magistrate being for punishment whether in bodie or in estate onely lyable to the censures of Ecclesiasticall courts which haue both dependance vpon the Popes authoritie and direction from his Canon Law Your doctrine is That as many Bishops and arch-Arch-Bishops as are any where consecrated ought to take their oath to bee true and loyall to their good Lord and holy Father of Rome to the vtmost to execute and further his Commaunds without any limitation or reference to the authoritie of their Soueraigne Lord the King as may appeare by the tenour of the oath here ensuing which I haue annexed to the end the Reader may iudge whether this be the onely Religion as Mr. Doctour pretendeth to keepe Subiects in obedience to their Kings I Iohn Bishop or Abbot of A. from this houre forward shall be faithfull and obedient to S. Peter and to the Holy Church of Rome and to my Lord the Pope and his Successors Canonically entring I shall not bee of counsaile nor consent that they shall lose either life or member or shall bee taken or suffer any violence or any wrong by any meanes Their counsaile to mee credited by them their messengers or Letters I shall not willingly discouer to any person The Popedome of Rome the rules of the holy Fathers and the regalities of S. Peter I shall helpe retaine defend against all men The Legate of the Sea Apostolike going and comming I shall honourably intreate The rights honours priuiledges authorities of the Church of Rome and of the Pope and his Successors I shall cause to bee conserued defended augmented and promoted I shall not bee in Counsell Treatie or any act in the which any thing shall be imagined against him or the Church of Rome their rights states honours or power And if I know any such to bee mooued or compassed I shall resist to my power and assoone as I can I shall aduertise him or such as may giue him knowledge The rules of the Holy Fathers the decrees ordinances sentences dispositions reseruations prouisions and commandements Apostolike I shall keepe to my power cause to be kept of other Heretikes Schismatikes and Rebels to our Holy Father and his Successours I shall resist and persecute to my power I shall come to the Synode when I am called except I bee let by a Canonical impediment The lights of the Apostle I shall visite personally or by my deputie I shall not aliene or sell my possessions without the Popes Councell so God mee helpe and the holy Euangelists No meruaile then that Henry the eight when he commaunded the forme of this Oath to bee publikely reade in Parliament complained to the Speaker Sir Tho. Audely and some others whom for that purpose he sent for that he had thought the Clergie of his Realme had bene his Subiects wholly but now we haue well perceiued sayeth hee that they are to vs but halfe Subiects or indeed scarce Subiects at all Finally your doctrine is that the Christians in the Primatiue Church abstained from taking armes not so much for conscience sake as because they wanted strength which must needs open a wide gappe to the people vpon any humorous discontent when they once feele their owne strength like an vntamed horse to cast their rider if they may and that I may speake in your own phrase to make no bones of violating the Maiestie of the king and his children and is this a Religion fit to keepe Subiects in obedience to their Soueraignes Whereas our doctrine on the other side is That the persons of princes are sacred and by Gods ordinance priuiledged from all violence and for their actions that they are onely accomptable to God their Crownes and Scepters not disposeable by any but by him who set the one vpon their heads and the other in their hands who hath the name written on his thigh King of Kings and Lord of Lords who as Iob speaketh leadeth Princes away spoiled and ouerthroweth the mightie and againe he powreth contempt vpon Princes and weakeneth the strength of the mightie Lastly our doctrine is that the Subiects duetie is not by any dispensable but by him alone who by his diuine prouidence subiected them to that power Now whether of these doctrines ours or yours is most likely to keepe men in obedience euen our enemies shall bee our Iudges Yet this to bee your doctrine your bookes witnesse and no man of learning and ingenuitie among you will denie But for our doctrine you pretend the opinions of Caluinists and those countrey Caluinists and those met in an Ale-house not in plaine termes but by consequences gathered not by sober or setled braines vpon iudgement but by working heads of greater libertie at their pleasure and that not in their bookes or speeches but in their liues and practises Thus the mountains swell as if wee should haue a giant borne but at length after much expectation wee haue a little mouse brought into the world What Mr. Doctour are there no principles in the Romish Catholike Religion from whence working heads of greater libertie doe at their pleasures draw the like dangerous consequences in their liues and practises If there bee none how comes it to passe that there are so many
to wit Westminster Chester Peterborough Oxford Bristol and Gloucester whereof the fiue last are yet in being at which time hee also erected at Canterbury a Deane with 12. Prebends at Winchester another with 12. more at Worcester another with ten at Chester another with sixe at Peterborough another with sixe at Oxford another with eight at Ely another with eight at Gloucester another with sixe at Bristol another with sixe at Carlile another with foure at Durham another with twelue at Rochester another with sixe and lastly at Norwich another with sixe so that wee haue good reason to thinke he returned againe to the Church much out of the Abbey lands and if notwithstanding all this God blessed him not in his thriuing wee haue nothing else to answere but that of Salomon It is a snare to the man who deuoureth that which is holy and after vowes to make inquiry But in his wiuing hee so blessed him though in this too hee shewed himselfe a man and consequently subiect to humane passion and frailty that three of his children successiuely wore the Crown after him of which the first was renowmed for his vertue beyond his age and the last beyond her Sexe of the one and his mother it was written Phoenix Ianaiacet nato Phoenice dolendum Saecula Phoenices nullatulisse duas And to the other might bee applied Non decor effecit fragilem non sceptra superbam Sola potens humilis sola pudica decens And though they all died without issue yet doth his honour still liue in theirs Henry the II. of France died in the vnitie of the Church of Rome yet three of his sonnes reigning after him left the Crown to a neighbour Prince as the children of Henry the VIII heere with vs did yet none that I haue met with hold him in that regard accursed of God and if in that respect God cursed Henry because hee renounced the pretended authoritie of the Church of Rome then should hee by vertue of that reason haue blessed Henries eldest daughter with issue who with great submission and deuotion reconciled her selfe to that Church and married to the most Catholike King and though the world were for a while so borne in hand yet in the end the great and solemne expectation thereof vanished into smoake Now that Henrie was wearie of his title of Supremacie before he died it appeares not and that hee wished to bee reconciled to the Pope which you call being in the Church againe is as vnlikely since no doubt is to bee made but vpon notice giuen of his Contrition and desire of Satisfaction hee might as easily haue beene absolued as wished it But certaine it is that hee wished it not if we may make coniecture of his wishes from those speeches which a little before his death hee deliuered to Mounsieur de Hannibault Lord Admirall of France and Ambassadour to the French king being then at Hampton Court in the moneth of August and in the yeere 1546. in the hearing of Cranmer Lord Archbishop of Canterburie concerning the reformation of Religion and afterwards more neere his death and more openly to Bruno Ambassador of Iohn Frederike Duke of Saxonie vnto whom the King gaue this answere in the hearing of these foure sufficient witnesses the Lord Seymer Earle of Hartford Lord Lisley then Admirall the Earle of Bedford Lord Priuie Seale and the Lord Paget That if the quarrell of the Duke of Saxonie were nothing else against the Emperour but for matter of Religion he should stand to it strongly and hee would take his part willing him not to doubt nor feare and with this answere dismissed him Besides the manner of his sonne and heire Apparent Prince Edwards education the qualitie and disposition of those persons whom he named as the principall ouerseers of his Will from which number hee excluded the Bishop of Winchester the most busie and forward instrument in those times for the maintenance of the Romish Religion though hee had once admitted him and was earnestly solicited by some of his bed chamber to readmit him are to mee so many euident demonstrations that hee was so farre from wishiug reconciliation with the Church of Rome that hee rather desired and intended if God had spared him life a while longer some more full and perfect reformation of Religon But the secret working of Gods holy prouidence which disposeth all things after his owne wisedome and purpose thought it good rather by taking that King away to reserue the accomplishment of that worke as he did the building of his Temple to Solomon to the peaceable time of his sonne Edward and Elizabeth his daughter whose hands were vndefiled with any blood and life vnspotted with any violence or crueltie Lastly not content to rippe vp the disgraces of his life you dogge him to his very graue bearing vs in hand that he was accursed of God in as much as hee wanted a Tombe which was the want also of Queene Mary his daughter But if the want of a Tombe be a token of Gods Curse vpon Henry then the hauing of it must consequently be a token of his blessing vpon Elizabeth whom notwithstanding you wrappe in the same Curse Nay how many of your Bishops of Rome then are Cursed of God of whom a number are not onely without Tombes but some in the first age of the Church by the fury of their persecutors and some in latter times by the malice of their Successors without Graues also Indeed wee reade of Dauid a man after Gods owne heart His Sepulchre is with vs vnto this day But of Moses a faithfull seruant in all the house of God No man knoweth of his Sepulchre vnto this day And yet in my remembrance we read it no were that either Dauid was more blessed of God for the one or Moses cursed for the other the heathen Poet could tell vs Coelo tegitur quinon habet vrnam And S. Augustine that these kinde of Monuments and Memorials are Solatia viuorum not suâ—sidia mortuorum comforts only for the liuing no helpes for the dead and many noble spirits may be of Catoes minde desirous rather that after their deaths it should be demaunded why they haue no statue erected to their memory then why they haue one This I speake onely to shew that had hee had no Tombe yet were it no great dishonor to him But if we may credite the last but not the worst compiler of the Historie of our Countrey hee was with great solemnitie buried at Windsor vnder a most costly and stately Tombe begun in copper and guilt but neuer finished In the inclosures of whose grates is curiously cast this Inscription Henricus Octauus Rex Angliae Franciae Dominus Hiberniae Fidei defensor And that it might appeare to posteritie how Artificiall and Magnificent this worke was intended he there sets downe the seuerall parcels and pieces of the Modell thereof as he found it described in a Manuscript receiued from Mr. Lancaster
him whereas wee euery where teach with S. Peter that as noe prophecie-in the Scripture is of priuate motion so neither is it of priuate interpretation the originall word signifies both Wee cannot take from any Christian man in expouÌ„ding of Scripture a iudgement of discretion in weighing the drift of the Text and conferring it with other passages of like nature though to the guides of the Church and Pastours of mens soules we reserue the iudgement of direction but the iudgement of iurisdiction to the representatiue Church it selfe assembled in Synode for as the spirits of the people are in this case subiect to the Prophets who sit in Moses chaire so the spirits of the Prophets are subiect to the Prophets if not to conuince the conscience at leastwise to impose silence for God is not the authour of confusion but of peace and they which thinke otherwise for mine owne part I thinke of them that the way of peace they haue not knowen I will conclude this point with his Maiesties most graue and godly aduice When ye reade the Scripture reade it with a sanctified and chaste heart admire reuerently such obscure plases as yee vnderstand not blaming onely your owne capacitie reade with delight the plaine places and studie carefully to vnderstand those that are somewhat difficile presse to bee a good Textuary for the Scripture is â—euer the best interpreter of it selfe but presse not curiously to seeke out farther then is contained therein for that were ouer vnmannerly a presumption to striue to bee further vpon Gods secrets then hee hath will bee for what hee thought needefull for vs to know that hath hee reuealed there and delight most in reading such parts of the Scripture as may best serue for your instruction in your calling reiecting foolish curiosities vpon Genealogies and contentions which are but vaine and profit not as Paul saith If these then bee the opinions of the Church of England which you call Caluinisme maintained aswell by the pens as the tongues of those Church-men who sit at the Sterne and in the most eminent places of the Church there will easily appeare a reason to the Parliament if it be demanded why so necessary a partie as the Clergie should at leastwise peaceably enioy that allowance which they haue allotted by Gods ordinance the piety of deuout mindes and the ancient constitutions of the Realme and sure wee are that a great deale lesse reason there is of maintaining so chargeable a Clergie in the Romane Hierarchie where the Popes plenary Indulgence may in a trice effectuate that about which they make so much a doe But at length the Asses eares appeare through the Lions skinne before he haue told vs in generall that those opinions forged for the most part out of his owne braine were too much faâ—ored maintained by Clergie men themselues here he comes at length to open his splene tels vs in plaine termes that the Clergie men he meanes are such who can be content to be Lords and to go in Rochets being indeed the greatest enemies of the Clergie now had the same men who long since did smell his hypocrisie and inclination toward Rome fauoured Dr. Cariers Popish doctrine and designes or endeuoured to haue put him in a Rochet and to haue made him a Lord whereof he thought himselfe worthy though no man else did they had doubtlesse bene in his account the Clergies best friends but for that they discouered and discountenanced his slie purposes and practises they are now become the greatest enemies the Clergie hath they are therefore become enemies because they tell the trueth yet whatsoeuer they are to the Clergie whome they loue and tender as their brethren sure I am they haue proued themselues more loyall to his Maiestie and more faithfull to the State more diligent in their calling and more vnblameable in their wayes then the accuser it being a thing full of commiseration and compassion to see that by these false and wicked suggestions of mutinous and discontented persons the deuil the father of these and all other lies doth daily take possession of the soules of some of his Maiesties subiects both of the Nobles and Commons But another sort of Clergie men you say there are good schollers and temperate men who cannot but in their iudgment approue the trueth of the Catholike religion These that you may the better satisfie you desire two things and by way of counterchange or retribution promise three hauing assurance as you pretend from some of the greatest The first thing you desire is no lesse then the Bishop of Româ—s Supremacie in England which you vaile vnder the title of the subordination of the Church of Canterbury vnto that Church by whose authority all other Churches in England at first were and still are subordinate vnto Canterbury Wheâ—ther Rome may properly be called the mother Church of England I haue already in another place considered but vndoubtedly as the case now stands she being become vnto vs worse then a stepmother we cannot in common reason entertaine vnâ—on with her much lesse acknowledge subiâ—ction vnto her for shall we thinke that the head of the Papacie being in the body of Poperie will bee long behind no no if that one poâ—nt were once yeelded vnto all the rest controuersed betweene vs and them would quickly follow after as a necessarie traine The Frier in Chaucer would haue nothing be killed for his sake only he desired the liuer of the capon and the braine of the pig So the Pope would bee contented there should bee no innouation in England vpon condition his Supremacie and the Masseâ— the second thing you desire were readmitted vpon which two in a manner the whole frame of Poperie is built and therefore in the reformed Churches of France not without good reason in my iudgment such as forsake the fellowship of the Church of Rome and betake themselues to their profession are bound before they bee admitted into their society publikely in the Congregation as to renounce the errours of that Church in generall so in speciall and by name to abiure these two The vsurped authority of the Bishop of Rome and the â—dolatry of the Masse as may appeare in the late declaration of the admittance of the Earle of Candale into their Church in Ianuary last he being sonne and heire to the Duke d'Espernon a chiefe Patron of the Iesuits and their faction and the Lord himselfe as he is stiled in the declaration printed at Rochel 1616 Prince of Busch Duke and Peere of France gouernour and Lieutenant generall for the king in the Prouinces of Xaintongâ— Aâ—goulmois high and low Limosin principall gentleman of the kings chamber in this declaration he also protesteth before God the searcher of hearts and iudge of soules that his change proceeded not from the motions of flâ—sh and blood oâ— from worldly respects but from the meere sencâ— of consâ—ience But to returâ—e to our purpose the latter of
his Arguments sometimes beyond the extent of the Letter such extrauagant matters as he drawes in vpon the bye I thought it sufficient to reply vnto in my marginall notes so that in one of the two nothing I thinke worth the answering hath escaped vnanswered and I shall craue that curtesie of the Reader if he receiue not satisfaction in the one to haue recourse to the other and this I take to bee faire and iust dealing without exception once I am sure I haue dealt with him as my selfe in like case should desire to be dealt withall which I take to bee the safest rule of iust dealing Surely a matter it is of little labour and credite but lesse honestie to deale as Fitz-Simon hath done with Mr. Mason whose learned and painfull booke of the lawfull Consecration of our Bishops he pretends he read ouer and confuted in 15. dayes but his chiefe confutation as may eaâ—ily appeare to the Reader stands in denying acts vouched out of the publike Register or as Eudaemon the common packehorse of Rome hath lately dealt with my Lord of Salisburie answering his Antilogie a booke of about 60. sheetes full of varietie of learning and â—uident proofe with a Libel of some three or foure sheets at most which he hath also rather stained with rayling at persons and catching at words then made offer to answere so much as one materiall point and to speake a trueth I haue good reason to thinke he rather wrote it that the title might be seenâ— in the common Catalogue then that the Booke it selfe might commonly bee read in regarde that the worke is so slender and the copies so few that as it is scarce to be had so is it scarce worth the reading being had himselfe professeth that he wrote it Ne magni aliquid latere in â—o libro putarent queÌ„ nemo confutasset Lest men should thinke some great matter lay hidden in that booke which no man had confuted but hee that shall compare both may well say notwithstanding his answere that no man hath yet confuted it Somewhat more wisely and warily hath he dealt with Casaubons Exercitations answering onely the fourth chapter of his first Exercitation and promising a whole volume to follow after against the rest in imitation belike of Richard Stanihurst who hath published his flourish to a future combate with his Nephew Mr. Dr. VSher but I thinke wee shall see the full encounters both of the one and the other by leasure Pollicitis diues quilibet esse potest but Tarda solet magnis rebus inesse fides An easie matter it is to promise great matters but not so easie to performe them being promised For mine owne part I must confesse I haue made a larger answere then either the treatise answered deserued or the state of my bodie and my leisure being to make so often returnes from a remote part of the Kingdome to mine attendance in Court could well permit or indeed my selfe at first proiected but I haue now found it true in mine owne experience which I haue often heard obserued by others to fall out many times in writing as it doth in building many alterations and additions present themselues besides and beyond the first designe It was written of Fame but it may as truely be said of this kind of writing Vires acquirit â—undo It gathers strength in going as in eating a man sometimes gets a stomack which was the reason together with an expectation that either some more able pen would haue vndertaken this encounter or some matter of greater importance promised by the Author himselfe and Pelitier would ere this haue beene published to the world that mine answere hath beene differred till now but if it be well enough it is soone enough how well it is let the reader iudge whom notwithstanding I shall desire to suspend his iudgement till hee haue heard both parties speake which request mee thinkes is but reasonable considering I haue dealt so fauourably with the aduerse party as to set downe all at full that hee could say for himselfe With whom if I deale in mine answering as if hee were still aliue it is to bee ascribed to himselfe who in the conclusion of his Letter professeth hee sent his soule therein neither is that I haue done herein without example of those by whose greatnesse if need were small faults might be countenanced it is I hope sufficient that I neither intend thereby to wrong the dead or deceiue the liuing Neither let it bee thought blameable that being by profession a diuine I haue medled so much in matters of state it was rather out of the necessitie of the arguments to bee replied vnto then any desire or disposition of mine owne farther then to make it appeare to the world that the Religion by vs professed is more sutable to the preseruation of the ciuill power and in speciall the forme of policie established among vs then that religion which dares accuse ours of the contrary of which I may truely say that in the termes it now stands it doth not so much vphold temporall policie as it is vpheld by it and yet like the iuie which riseth by clasping the oake hath it at length ouertopt the oake of Soueraignetiâ— it selfe whereas on the other side ours hath hitherto had none other supports but the meere euidence of trueth and diuine assistance and so according to that receiued principle of nature being still nourished by the same meanes as it was first bredde it makes vs confident that it will both grow the better and last the longer Thus commending thee to Gods grace the worke to thy charitable censure and my selfe to thy Christian prayers I rest Thine in our Common SAVIOVR George Hakewil ⧠The Publishers Preface to the Reader before Dr. CARIERS Booke HAuing exactly perused good Reader this Treatise here presented to thy view and finding it both in stuffe and stile to be learnedly and eloquently contriued I tooke my selfe in some sort obliged in Christian duty to divulge it in print to the world vnwittingly I confesse to the Author howbeit encroaching vpon his charitable consent who I am well assured is most forward to defray his talent in ought wherein the Catholike Romane religion may be aduanced Of this firme and full resolution he hath made effectiue proofe not onely in words but also in workes The Author as it is notoriously knowen hath gained name and fame among the Protestants hauing beene a Teacher in their Colledges a Preacher in their Pulpits a Doctor in their Schooles a Canon in their Churches Chaplaine to the King his most excellent Maiestie flowing in wealth supported with the credit of the Court most likely in short time to aspire to higher Ecclesiasticall preferments had hee persisted in the course of his former profession Yet notwithstanding all these worldly allurements which are in good sooth wondrous inticing baites to hooke and to hold an vnstayed soule Mr. Doctor
minde and either vtterly damne mine owne soule and greatly indanger not onely my liuing and credit but my life it selfe also by reason of your Maiesties displeasure and the seueritie of the Statutes made and in force against Catholikes and Catholike Religion G. H. 16. The better counsell which you expected and held you in suspense was in all likelihood soâ—â—â—â—ewes of a Bishopricke or a Deanry for the quieting of your perplexed thoughts and therefore it may be thought you resolued to goe to Heidelberge to doe your duetie there that so you might procure letters of recommendation for otherwise I cannot imagine what errand you should haue thither being scarcely knowen for any thing I can learne to the Prince Palatine or the Princesse except it were out of the like gadding humor as you had of going into Scotland as being publikely imployed though it had been vpon your owne priuate charge What his Maiesties disposition in the affaires of religion might well bee presumed to bee at his first entrance if we should iudge by reason not by affection I haue already touched in the 9. Section of this chapter so far as I presumed it might suffice to content any reasonable man yet for further satisfaction because you harpe still vpoÌ„ the same string and presse the same point afresh I will relate his Maiesties own words touching that businesse as hee vttered them in Parliament the first day of the first ParliameÌ„t of his Maiesties reigne â—As for mine owne profession saith he you haue me your head now amongst you of the same Religion that the bodie is of as I am no stranger to you in Blood no more am I a stranger to you in Faith or in the matters concerning the house of God and although this my profession bee according to my education wherein I thanke God I sucked the milke of Gods trueth with the milke of my nurse yet doe I here protest vnto you that I would neuer for such a conceite of constancie or other preiudicate opinion haue so firmely kept my first profession if I had not found it agreeable to all reason and to the rule of my conscience and againe in the next leafe for the part of the Clerickes I must directly say and affirme that as long as they maintaine one speciall point of their doctrine and another point of their practise they are no way sufferable to remaine in this Kingdome Their point of Doctrine is that arrogant and ambitious Supremacie of their heâ—â— the Pope wherby he not only claimes to be spirituall head of all Christians but also to haue an Imperiall ciuill power ouer all Kings and Emperours dethroning and decrowning Princes with his foot as pleaseth him and dispensing and disposing of all Kingdomes and Empires at his appetite The other point which they obserue in continuall practise is the Assassinates and Murders of Kings thinking it no sinne but rather a matter of saluation to doe all actions of rebellion and hostilitie against their Soueraigne Lord if he be once our sed his Subiects discharged of their fidelitie and his Kingdome giuen a prey by that three Crowned Monarch or rather Monster their head and a litle after hauing wished it would please God to make him one of the instruments for effecting a generall Christian Vnion in Religion if they would leaue and be ashamed of such new and grosse corruptions of theirs as themselues cannot maintaine nor denie to be worthy of reformation he turneth his speach againe to the Papists vnder his dominions willing them to bee admonished that they presume not too farre vpon his lenitie because saith hee I would be lothe to bee thought a Persecutor as thereupon to thinke it lawfull for them daily to increase their number and strength in this Kingdome whereby if not in my time at least in time of my posteritie they might bee in hope to erect their Religion againe No let them assure themselues that as I am a friend to their persons if they bee good Subiects so am I a vowed enemie and doe denounce moâ—tall warres to their errours and that as I would bee sorie to bee driuen by their ill behauiour from the protection and conseruation of their bodies and liues so I will neuer cease as farre as I can to tread downe their errours and wrong opinions for I could not permit the increase and growing of their Religion without first betraying of my selfe and mine owne Conscience secondly this whole Isle aswell the part I am come from as the part I remaine in in betraying their liberties and reducing them to the former slauish yoke which both had casten off before I came amongst them and thirdly the libertie of the Crowne in my posteritie which I should leaue againe vnder a new slauerie hauing found it left free to mee by my Predecessours and therefore would I wish all good Subiects that are deceiued with that corruption First if they find any beginning of instinction in themselues of knowledge and loue to the Trueth to foster the same by all lawfull meanes and to beware of quenching the spirit that worketh within them and if they can find as yet no motion tending that way to bee studious to reade and conferre with learned men and to vse al such meanes as may further their resolution assuring themselues which by the way is worth our obseruation that as long as they are disconformable in Religion from vs they cannot be but halfe my Subiects nor be able to do but halfe seruice and I to want the best halfe of them which is their soules And here I haue occasion to speake to you my Lords the Bishops for as you my Lord of Durham said very learnedly to day in your Sermon Correction without instruction is but a tyrannie so ought you and all the Clergie vnder you to be more carefull vigilant and diligent then you haue beene to winne soules to God aswell by your exemplarie life as doctrine And since you see how carefull they are sparing neither labour paines nor extreme perill of their persons to diuert the deuill is so busie a Bishop you should be the more carefull and wakefull in your charges Follow the rule prescribed by Saint Paul Bee carefull to instruct and to exhort in season and out of season and where you haue beene any way sluggish before now waken your selues vp with a new diligence in this point remitting the successe to God who calling them at the second third tenth or twelfth houre as they are alike welcome to him so shall they be to me his lieutenant here â— Hitherto his Maiestie Now would any man of common vnderstanding Mr. Dr. excepted from hence gather or thinke it gatherable that his Maiestie had a disposition at his entrance to become a Papist or to tolerate the exercise of Poperie or to be reconciled to Rome or to submit himselfe and his Realmes to the yoke of the Bishop thereof if these or the like inferences may from so many and plaine
words so many and forcible arguments to the contrarie be deduced I must confesse I know not what belongs to Logike and for other passages in the same speech which seeme to fauour your cause you must either iniuriously wrest them from the authors meaning or make them by reasonable construction sutable to these Howsoeuer your selfe being a Churchman and one of those whom he sharpely taxeth for changing their coats through curiositie affectation of noueltie or discontentment in their priuate humours cannot possibly be ranked amongst them to whom as to minds only retaining the liquor they first dranke in out of his speciall clemencie he proposeth more fauourable conditions and yet among these too he hath since discouered an vnnaturall disposition whom he hoped to find by moderate gentle vsage in the matter of naturall subiection quiet and well minded men and therefore no marueile if his Maiestie be since more exasperated and farther off from any reconciliation with that Religion then before But Mr. Casaubon you say tolde you that his errand hither was nothing else but to mediate peace betweene the Church of Rome and the Church of England It is certainely false that Mr. Casaubons errand was by his Maiestie intended to bâ— such and most vnlikely to be true that it was by Mr Casaubon so reported to you considering his direct and expresse writings both before his comming ouer and since against the chiefe Patrons and controuersed points of the Church of Rome and among the rest in the conclusion of his Epistle to Cardinall Perron where hee assures him from his Maiesties mouth and in his name that his constant purpose and full resolution was as long as the Church of Rome yeelded not to antiquity and trueth to entertaine no society with her at all which you might haue read before your departure and spared the paines of writing to M. Casaubon whome that I may yet more fully cleare from this imputation being not able now to speake for himselfe I will here set downe his Letter written with his owne hand to my Lords Grace of Canterbury vpon this very occasion in which hee termes the report no better then the slander of a wicked Apostate Illustrissimo Reuerendissimo Praesuli Domino Cantuariensi totius Angliae Primati Domino meo summa obseruantia colendo Illustrissime Reuerendissime Domine HEri quum essem in Aula ostendit mibi Regia Maiestas librum à Carerio sibi missum in quo mira quaedam de me narrantur puto Serenissimum Regem tuae Reuerentiae illa ostendisse Ego Dei gratia puto me sic vixisse priusquam in hoc regnum venirem postquaÌ„ veni in Angliam vt curare non debeam quid perditus apostata deâ—me garriat aut scribat apparet ipsum grauissimâ— iratum esse mihi propter Epistolam quam illi scripsi vt ab hoc insano consilio eum reuocarem propterea id agit vt meum nomen apud Regiam Maiestatem tuam Reuerentiam infamet Sedspero meliora de Regesapientissimo de te Illustrissime Presul apud quem si mihi opus esse apologia crederem omnia omisissem vt tuae Reuerentiae praesens me purgarem Sed non puto adeo infoeliciter mecum agi vt inâ—andi apostatae calumniae aliquid apud te contra existimationem meam valeant Si iusseris statim adero et ad omnia tuae Reuerentiae satisfaciam Interim quam sim occupatus in colophone imponendo operimeo narrabit tuae Reuerentiae Vederburnus noster verè pius iuuenis tua beneuolentia Presul Illustriss non indignus Deus immortalis te seruet Ecclesiae suae In Musaeo XIV Kal. Ian. MDCXIII Tuae Illustriss Reuerentiae obseruantissimus cultor ISA. CASAVBONVS Right Reuerend my Gracious Lord YEsterday being at Court the KINGS MAIESTIE shewed mee a booke sent him from Carier wherein certaine strange things are reported of me I thinke his MAIESTIE hath shewed them vnto your Grace I hope I haue by the grace of GOD so liued both before I came into this Kingdome and since I came into England that I ought not to care what a forlorne Apostate pratleth or writeth of me It appeares he is very angry with me for a letter I wrote him to reclaime him from that mad course thereupon he goes about to traduce me to the KINGS MAIESTY and your Grace But I hope better both of that most wise KING and of you most renowned Prelate Vnto whom if I thought there were need of Apologie I would laying all other things aside in person purge my selfe vnto your Grace But my case I trust is not so vnhappy that the slanders of a lewd Apostate should be of any force with you against my reputation If you command I will forthwith repaire vnto you and satisfie your Grace vnto the full In the meane time how busily I am occupied about the conclusion of my worke my friend Vederburne a very religious yong man and not vnworthy of your Graces fauor can shew your Grace God Immortall preserue you vnto his Church From my study Decemb. 19. 1613. Your Graces most respectiue Obseruer ISA. CASAVBON And that it may appeare how auerse hee was from vnion with that Church I will hereunto adde a former Letter written likewise to my L. Grace of Canterbury touching the same businesse before he was thus prouoked by D. Carier vpon occasion of a Letter written to the same effect from the Doctor to him Illustrissime Reuerendissime Domine MItto Reuerentiae Epistolam de quâ inaudiuisti Ego acceptam Epistolam vt Regi communicaretur putaui premendam neque ostendendam cuiquam mortalium Non enim possum probare consilium viri illius eruditi qui epistolam scripsit Quare respondi illi statim multis cum illo egi vt ab eo proposito desisteret Multas rationes ei attuli cur certò crederem amentiam esse aut potiâ—s furorem boni aliquid sperare à Romano Phalari nam hoc verbo vsus sum qui nostra mala si quae sunt inter nos ridet Proposui ei ob oculos quà m essent alieni proceres Romanae Ecclesiae ab omni aequitate imprimis Bellarminus de cuius impietate plura ad eum scripsi Posui illi ante oculos quanto cum suo periculo patronum Papae videretur agere Attuli testimonia Matthaei Paris de summâ Angliae infoelicitate quando Papae Ro. paruit Addidi exemplum illius Narbonensis qui nuper ad Ser. Regem similis argumenti librum miserat me iussum à Rege loqui eum librum detestatum esse D. Regem voluisse in latere libri animaduertere Posthaec quid factum sit Carerio nescio Hoc ego volui Reuerentiae tuae significatum Sed expectabam donec ad vrbem redijsses nam me libri mei editio domi tenet Sunt alia quaedam grauia de quibus acturus sum cum tuâ Reuerentiâ post vnum aut
alterum diem Deo volente Qui te seruet Illustrissime Domine Londini VIII Eid Sept. MDCXIII Tuae Reuerentiae obseruantiss cultor IS CASAVBONVS Right Reuerend my Gracious Lord I Send vnto your Grace the Letter whereof you haue heard The Letter was sent me with intent it should be communicated vnto the King but I thought it fitter to bee suppressed and to be shewed vnto none For I cannot approue the drift of that learned man who wrâ—te the Letter Wherefore I answered him forâ—â—with and with many words aduised him to desist from that purpose I brought him many reasons why I certainely beleeued it was folly or rather frensie to hope for any good from the Romish Phalaris for that very terme I vsed who laughs at our euils if there be any amongst vs. I laid before his eyes how auerse the Peeres of the Romish Church are from all equitie specially Bellarmine of whose impiety I wrote at large vnto him I set before his eyes with how great danger to himselfe he seemed to become the Popes Patron I alledged testimonies of Matthew Paris of the great misery of England when it was vnder the Popes obedience I added the example of that Narbonois who of late sent vnto the Kings MAIESTY a booke of the like argument that being commanded by the KING to say my mind I professed my detestation thereof and that it was his MAIESTIES will to haue some animaduersions set in the margent of the booke After which what became of Carier I know not This I thought good to signifie vnto your Grace but I expected vntill you were returned vnto the Citie for the publishing of my booke stayes meat home I haue other weighty matters whereof to aduise with your Grace within this day or two God willing who preserue you my gracious Lord. London Sept. 6. 1613. Your Graces most respectiue Obseruer ISA. CASAVBON B. C. 17. There is a statute in England made by King Henry the VIII to make him supreame head of the Church in spirituall and Ecclesiasticall causes which Statute enioynes all the subiects of England on paine of death to beleeue and to sweare they doe beleeue that it is true and yet all the world knowes if King Henry the VIII could haue gotten the Pope to diuorce Queene Katherine that he might marrie Anne Bullen that Statute had neuer been made by him and if that title had not enabled the King to pull downe Abbeys and religious houses and giue them to Lay men the Lords and Commons of that time would neuer haue suffered such a Statute to be made This Statute was continued by Queene Elizabeth to serue her owne turne and it is confirmed by your Maiestie to satisfie other men and yet your Maiestie yeeldeth the Church of Rome to be the mother Church and the Bishop of Rome to bee the chiefe Bishop or Primate of all the Westerne Churches which I doe also verely beleeue and therfore I doe verely thinke he hath or ought to haue some spirituall iurisdiction in England and although in mine yonger dayes the fashion of the world made me sweare as other did for which I pray God forgiue mee yet I euer doubted and I am now resolued that no Christian man can take that oath with a safe conscience neither will I euer take it to gaine the greatest preferment in the world G. H. 17. The Statute here intended can be none other then the Sâ—tute 26. of H. VIII Cap. 1. for that is the first Statute that medleth with the Supremacie which Statute is as the Common Lawyers terme it Statutum declaratiuum not introductiuum noui iuris as doth clearely appeare by the Preamble which hath these words Albeit the Kings Maiestie iustly and rightfully is and ought to bee taken and accepted supreame head of the Church of England and so is recognized by the Clergie in their Conuocation yet neuerthelesse for corroboration and confirmation thereof Be it enacted that the King shall bee taken and accepted Supreme head c. So that the Doctor is fowly mistaken to say that there was a Statute made by K. Henry the VIII to make him Supreme head for it was his ancient right that made him so and it was his Clergie that had acknowledged him to be so before the making of this Statâ—te nay the very phrase and letter of this Statute it selfe doeth purposely renounce the power of making and assumes onely the authority of confirming Whereby it is cleare that Henrie VIII made not a statute to make himselfe Supreme in Ecclesiasticall causes as Mr. Doctor affirmeth but to confirme those Statutes and Rights which his noble Progenitors as iuâ—tly challenged to belong to their Crown as the Bishops of Rome vniustly pretended to be annexed to their Myter And where he sayes that the Statute which according to his vnderstanding made him Supreme head did also enioyne the Subiect to beleeue and sweare it tâ— bee true it is manifest that there is not any mention at all of any oath in that Statute but it is true indeede that in the 28. of Henry VIII chap. 10. there is an oath of Supremacie ordeined the refusall whereof by some certaine persons enioyned by that Act to take it was made high Treason And herein againe is the Doctour deceiued nay which is worse seeketh to deceiue others for onely some certaine persons were bound by that Statute to take the oath and not all the Subiects of England as he falsely surmiseth Anno 35. Henry VIII cap. 1. the oath of Supremacie ordeined by 28. was repealed and a new forme of oath prescribed and extended to more persons but neuer to all in generall The same Parliament Cap. 3. enioyneth that the stile of Supreme head be receiued and vsed and this was all that was done by Henry VIII in the point of Supremacie by way of Statute So that to say as Master Doctor doth that all the Subiects in England are bound vpon paine of death to beleeue the Supremacie is a malicious fiction in two respects First touching the persons enioyned to take the oath and lyable to the punishment and then againe as touching the offence for that beliefe alone which is a secret inclination of the minde knowne onely to God the searcher of the heart and not issuable nor tryable by any Law humane should be made an offence punishable by death is in it selfe so absurde as it cannot but appeare to bee a false imputation to charge our Law-makers therewithall Lastly whereas hee sayes that Henry the VIII would neuer haue made that Statute if he could haue gotten the Pope to haue diuorced Queene Katherine that he might haue married Anne Boleine it is cleare and all the world may know that if King Henry would haue ioyned with Francis the French King in the warre of Naples against Charles the Emperour the Pope would not haue stucke to haue giuen way to that diuorce for the better procuring of which Combination hee did not onely
referre this Matrimoniall cause to the hearing and determining of his Legates but gaue Campeius a secret Bull in his bosom as witnesseth Francis Guicciardin in the 19th Booke of his Historie a Catholike in his profession no man more a reporter of things hee sawe no man truer and a creature of the Popes imployed in honourable charges the Copie of it is to be seene in Anti-Sanders dated in the yeere 1527. the 17th of December and the fifth yeere of Clement the seuenths Popedome wherein hee infringeth the former dispensatioÌ„ affirming that the King could not continue in such Matrimonie without sinne whereupon hee decreed that after the delaration of the nullitie of the former mariage and the Kings absolution it should bee lawfull for him to marrie another This Bull he forbad him to shew to any saue onely to the King and Cardinall Wolsey his fellow Commissioner in that businesse and though openly he commanded him to handle the cause with all expedition yet secretly hee willed him to protract the time promising that himselfe would watch an opportunitie to publish the Decree so the King and Queene were cited to appeare before them in May following at which time after some debating of the cause they protracted the sentence till the beginning of August and after many delayes finding that King Henry could not by hope of the diuorce bee drawen to side with the French the Pope commanded Campeius to burne his Bull and to returne home whereby it appeares that King Henry might easily haue had the nullitie of his mariage with Queene Katherine ratified at Rome without taking the title of Supreme head if hee would haue yeelded to the Popes conditions But the Lords you say and Commons would neuer haue suffered such a Statâ—te to bee made had not that title inabled the King to pull downe Abbeys and Religious houses and giue them to Lay men I would faine know then what mooued the Bishops to giue way to it who had no share in that diuision yet had they with the consent of the Clergie passed it in Conuocation before it was so much as proposed in Parliament and for the Commons a very little share fell out to their parts And if â—he assuming of that title were indeed so needfull as you pretend for the supressing of those houses by what authoritie did Cardinall Wolsey dissolue some and the King by his example more before that title was by him publikely assumed Now for Queene Elizabeth it is true that she reuiued those Statutes of Supremacie enacted by her father and repealed by her sister but not without diuers exceptions as may appeare by the bookes in so much as a new forme of Oath was established by her which is the Oath at this day in force the refusall of which vpon a second offering by such as stand conuicted of a former refusall is by the Statute of 5â— Eliz. cap. 1. made high Treason and it is none otherwise Nay further by an expresse prouiso in that Statute none are compellable to take the Oath the second time but Ecclesiasticall persons and some few others especially named in that Statute neither doth shee take to her in that or any other Statute the title of Supreme head but of Gouernour by which what shee vnderstood herselfe expressed in her Iniunctions and her Clergie in their 37. Article confirmed in two seuerall Conuocations where they thus speake Where wee attribute to the Queenes Maiestie the chiefe Gouernment by which title we vnderstand the mindes of some slanderous folkes to be offended wee giue not to our Princes the ministring either of Gods word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Iniunctions also lately set foorth by Elizabeth our Queene doe most plainely testifie but that onely prerogatiue which we see to haue beene giuen alwayes to all godly Princes in holy Scripture by God himselfe that is thâ—t they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiasticall or Temporall and restraine with the ciuill sword the stubburne and euill doers neither doe I see how Osorius in his Epistle to her can be interpreted to affoord her lesse where he professeth that all Kings are Pro parte suaiuris diuini Vicarij Vicars of Gods Law in their places From Queene Elizabeth you passe to his Maiestie and tell him that he confirmed the same Statute to satisfie other men arguing therein his Maiestie of great weakenesse either as being not able to iudge what he did or as being caried by others against his owne iudgement But that his MAIESTIE did it aduisedly and rather to satiffie himselâ—e then others appeares by this that hee was inuested with the same power which that Statute giues him before his receauing of the Crowne of England and since himselfe with his owne penne hath thus both iustified and explained it if these examples saith he sentences title and prerogatiues and innumerable other in the olde and new Testament doe not warrant Christian Kings within their owne dominions to gouerne their Church aswell as the rest of their people in being Custodes vtriusque tabulae not by making new Articles of Faith which is the Popes office as I said before but by commaunding obedience to bee giuen to the word of God by reforming the Religion accâ—rding to his prescribed will by assisting the Spirituall power with the Temporall sword by reforming of corruptions by procuring due obedience to the Church by iudging and cutting off all friuolous questions and Schismes as Constantine did and finally by making decorum to be obserued in euery thing and establishing orders to be obserued in all indifferent things for that purpose which is the onely intent of the Oath of Supremacie if this office of a King I say doe not agree with the power giuen him by Gods word lâ—t any indifferent man void of passion iudge But yet his Maiestie you say yeeldeth the Church of Rome to be the Mother Church and the Bishop of Rome to bee the chiefe Bishop or Primate of the Westerne Churches Indeed his Maiesty in his first speech in his first Parliament called after his entrâ—nce to this Kingdome is pleased to acknowledge the Romane Church to be our Mother Church this M. Doctour is content to vrge but to conceale that which he addeth defiled with infirmities and corruptions as the Iewes were when they crucified Christ and as I am none enemy saith he to the life of a sicke man because I would haue his body purged of ill humours no more am I an enemy to their Church because I would haue them reforme their errours not wishing their throwing out of the Temple but that it might be purged and clensed from corruption otherwise how can they wish vs to enter if their house bee not first made cleane Herein Mr Doctour dealing with his Maiesty as the deuill did with our Sauiour hee pressed that out of the Psalme which made for himselfe Hee will giue
and receiuing life and strength vnto and from the other yet true religion medleth not so much with the temporal state as to hinder or further the proceedings of it otherwise then by the force of the word and the power of Ecclesiasticall censures but that which you call the Catholike religion hath like the Iuie that growes into the wall so incorporated and intwisted it selfe into the bowels of those States where it is setled that it can hardly bee rooted out or remooued without endangering the bodies of the States themselues which cannot but giue vs iust occasion to suspect that it is for the most part in the points controuersed betweene vs nothing else but a policie inuented of men to serue their owne turnes And consequently according to your owne rule set downe in the second Section of your first chapter a false and counterfeit religion And in trueth when wee shall come to examine the rules of that Church wee shall finde that they are not so consonant to the Maiestie and greatnesse of temporall Princes as you pretend but rather tend to the trampling of their Maiestie vnder foote and laying their honour in the dust and to the aduancing and raising of the greatnesse of the Bishop of Rome to the vtmost pitch and possibilitie of height Some of these rules which make so much for the Maiestie of Kings are brought by Bellarmine and by his Maiestie truely obserued and quoted in the latter end of his Apologie for the Oath for Allegeance which because they are so pat to this present purpose I will craue pardon to borrow and annexe hereunto they are twelue in all a fit number for the Iesuites Creede or to make vp a full Iury to passe a verdict vpon Mr. Doctors Assertion That Kings are rather slaues then Lords That they are not onely subiects to Popes to Bishops to Priests but euen to Deacons That an Emperour must content himselfe to drinke not onely after a Bishop but after a Bishops Chaplen That Kings haue not their authority nor office immediatly from God nor his Law but onely from the law of nations That Popes haue degraded Emperours but neuer Emperour degraded the Pope nay euen Bishops that are but the Popes vassals may depose Kings and abrogate their lawes That Churchmen are as farre aboue Kings as the soule is aboue the bodie That Kings may be deposed by their people for diuers respects But Popes can be deposed by no meanes for no flesh hath power to iudge of them That obedience due to the Pope is for conscience sake But the obedience due to Kings is onely for certaine respects of order and policie That those very Churchmen that are borne and inhabite in Soueraigne Princes countreys are notwithstanding not their Subiects and cannot bee iudged by them although they may iudge them And that the obedience that Churchmen giue to Princes euen in the meanest and meere temporall things is not by way of any necessary subiection but onely out of discretion and for obseruation of good order and Custome His Maiesties inference hereupon is this These contrarieties saith hee betweene the Booke of God and Bellarmines bookes haue I here set in opposition each to other vt ex contrarijs iuxta se positis veritas magis elucescere possit and thus farre I dare boldly affirme that whosoeuer will indifferently weigh these irreconciliable contradictions here set downe will easily confesse that Christ is no more contrary to Beliall light to darkenesse and heauen to hell then Bellarmines estimation of Kings is to Gods by whom they are called as his Maiestie noteth before The sons of the most High nay Gods themselues The Lords annointed Sitting in his throne The angels of God The light of Israel The nursing fathers of the Church with innumerable such stiles of honor wherwith the old Testament is filled and as for the New Testament Euery soule is commanded to be subiect vnto them euen for conscience sake All men must be prayed for but specially Kings and those that are in authoritie The Magistrate is the minister of God to doe vengeance on him that doth euill and reward him that doth well yea we must obey all higher powers but specially Princes and those that are supereminent Giue vnto Caesar what is Caesars and to God what is Gods So that wee may iustly conclude out of his Maiesties true collections and iust inferences that the rules of holy Scripture which wee make our principall and onely infallible leuell aswell in matter of manners as of doctrine are indeed most consonant to the maiesty and greatnesse of Kings but the rules of that religion which you call Catholike as they are reported by Bellarmine next his Holinesse the chiefe pillar and Proctor thereof this age hath aforded most disconsonant and repugnant thereunto I cannot but wonder then what Mr. Doctor meant to write thus to his Maiestie who hauing so particularly and exquisitely published his mind to the world in this point it must needs argue grosse ignorance and negligence in him not to haue read or obserued what was by him written or a strong presumption of his owne abilitie with one breath of his mouth or blot of his pen to perswade his Maiesty to the contrary B. C. 11. I knowe well that the Puritans of England the Hugonots of France and the Geuses of Germany together with the rest of the Caluinists of all sorts are a great faction of Christendome and they are glad to haue the pretence of so great a Maiestie to be their chiefe and of your posteritie to be their hope But I cannot be perswaded that they euer will or can ioyne together to aduance your Maiestie or your children further then they may make a present gaine by you they are not agreed of their religion nor of the principles of vniuersall and eternall trueth and how can they be constant in the rules of particular and transitory honour where there is nullum principium ordinis there can bee nullum principium honoris such is their case there is a voyce of confusion among them as well in matters of State as of Religion their power is great but not to edification they ioyne together only against good order which they call the common enemie and if they can destroy that they will in all likelihood turne their fury against themselues and like deuils torment like serpents deuoure one another in the mean time of they can make their Bourgers Princes and turne old kingdomes into new States it is like enough they will doe it but that they will euer agree together to make any one Prince King or Emperour ouer them all yeeld due obedience vnto him further then either their gaine shal allure them or his sword shall compell them that I cannot perswade myselfe to beleeue and therefore I cannot hope that your Maiestie or
of that profession by whose deedes a man may safely guesse they say in their hearts there is no God If there be any why doe you so pathetically exclaime against Caluinists as if they stood single in this bill of inditement Shall we accuse our Blessed SAVIOVR because he is to some a rocke of offence or his precious Word because to some it prooues a sauour of death vnto death and if wee must acquit him and lay the fault where it is on them who draw poison to hurt themselues out of the sweetest flowers and dazell their owne eyes by looking on the comfortable beames of the Sunne surely you haue no reason in my iudgement in this case as by your selfe it is opened to accuse our doctrine I am not ignorant that all the Popes chiefest Proctors lay it confidently to our charge That wee make God the author as well of sudas his treason as Pauls vocation aswell of Dauids adulterie as Iosephs chastitie as namely Vasquez Feuardentius Campian Hayus Panigirolla Bozius Ignatius Armandus Kellison Posseuin Bellarmin But I will be bold to say it there is none of our writers of note euen among them who are reputed the most zealous followers of Caluin haue written any more in this point then Occham Hugo de Sancto Victore Gregorius Ariminensis Cardinall Cameracensis Medina Durandus Bannes Scotus Thomas and Bellarmine himselfe who as his Maiestie rightly obserueth in the Catalogue of his contradictions set downe in his Apologie manifestly opposeth himselfe touching his opinion in this point in the Booke and Chapter before quoted in as much as hee affirmeth in the 3. Section thereof that God doth not incline a man to euill either naturally or morally and in the tenth Section of the same Chapter auoucheth the cleane contrary namely that God doth not incline to euill naturally but morally and in the same place hee is bold to say that God not onely permitteth wicked men to doe many euils but that by a figure he commandeth it and exciteth men vnto it as a huntsman setteth the dogge vpon the Hare by letting goe the slip that held the dogge Nay hee further addeth hee fits as president ouer the willes of wicked men hee ruleth and gouerneth them he boweth and bendeth them by working inuisibly in them and that positiuely as hee acknowledgeth within a few lines though before hee denie it These very wordes of Bellarmine doth Kellison reprehend in Caluin in the 1. Chap. of his booke of his Suruay the same man maketh Caluin to teach that God is the onely sinner in as much as hee doubteth not to say that the will of God is the necessitie of things whereas indeede they are S. Augustines words de Gen. ad lit lib. 6. cap. 15. and so rightly quoted by Caluin though Kellison professe S. Augustine haue no such thing in the place by him alleaged So that if they had the charitie to interpret the speaches of our men as gently and fauourably as they doe their owne there would appeare little difference or none at all and I will vndertake to shewe if I bee put to it that many speaches and passages goe for currant and Catholike doctrine among them which if they should bee alleaged out of Caluin would be censured as heresie but it seemeth the ground of the song which Mr. Doctor here descanteth on was taken out of Kellison in the forenamed booke and chapter where hee alleageth Caluins words to be these but falsly quoted out of his 37. Booke I grant that theeues and murtherers and other euill doers are the instruments of Gods prouidence whom the Lord doth vse to execute those iudgements which hee hath himselfe determined as if Caluin said any more or so much herein then S. Peter hath giuen him warrant for in the 4 chap. of the Acts where he thus speaketh Of a trueth against thy holy child IESVS whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and people of Israel were gatherâ—d together for to doe whatsoeuer thy hand and thy counsell determined before to bee done or Ioseph in the 45. of Genesis comforting his brother God did send mee before you to preserue life or Iob when the Caldeans had robbed him of his cattel and flaine his seruants The Lord hath taken away or the Prophet Esay where hee likeneth the King of Assyria to an Axe to a Sawe to a Rod to a Staffe moued and directed by the hand of God for the execution of his iudgements wherefore let Kellison either accuse these holy penmen of God and teach them to correct their manner of speaking or let him cease to accuse Caluin for this passage who there in affirmeth no more nor so much as they doe To conclude what wee maintaine in this poynt touching the will or cooperation of God in sinne or with sinners is among many others fully and cleerely deliuered by the pens of the most Reuerend father in God the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury his Grace now being in the last of his sixe solemne Lectures read in the Vniuersitie of Oxford for his degree of Doctorship of Doctor Abbot now L. Bishop of Salisbury in his answere to Doctor Bishops preface to his second part of Doctor Morton Deane of Winchester in the first Booke and 25. Chap. of his Cath. Apologie of Doctor Feild Deane of Glocester in his third Booke and 23. Chapter of the Church and lastly of my late worthy Colleague Doctor White in the 41. Digression and 50. Paragraph of The way to the Church The summe of all is this that about and concerning sin God doth three things first as a cause vniuersall hee sustaineth and vpholdeth the beeing and moouing both of the nature and actions whether good or bad of all mankind Secondly by withdrawing his grace which should lighten the vnderstandings and soften and mollifie the hearts of men Thirdly by giuing way to Satan to worke vpon them and no way either strengthening them against him or weakning his force Fourthly by ordinating sinne which is nothing else but the disposing and directing of it in such maner and measure as to him seemeth best that it stretcheth it selfe no further or otherwise either for time or place or persons then his good pleasure willeth sometimes he turneth it to another end then the person doing it thought of somtimes he maketh way for it by shutting vp and stopping all other passages by which it might breake foorth sometimes hee punisheth one sinne with another as pride is punished with enuie he being not the author of enuie as it is sinfull but as is it carries a sting with it implying a contrariety betweene it and the soule of man which maketh it bitter and afflictiue Fiftly and lastly by occasioning sinne accidentally as when God doeth that which in it selfe is good and yet knoweth through the euill disposition which is in men it
if they had the like dispensations or Kings to Kings or Subiects to subiects And if this be not to make a meere mockery of oathes which should be made in trueth in iudgment and in iustice and consequently of religion as if indeede there were no punishment of Hell no reward of heauen I conceiue not what is and by your owne rule this contempt of religion cannot but in time drawe on the destruction of those States which thus vnder pretence of religion and obedience to their holy Father neglect and contemne it Lastly if they esteeme so little of oathes made one to another what should we expect at their hands to whom they hold Faith is not to bee held bee it neuer so solemnely plighted whereas Abraham made conscience of his oath taken to Abimelech and Iacob to Laban both Idolaters and so did they againe though Idolaters or Infidels to Iacob and Abraham But let such as maintaine that position That faith giuen or sworne to Heretikes or Infidels is not to bee held call to minde what successe it tooke at the battaile of Varna in Bulgaria in the yeere of our Lord 1404 what time Ladislaus the yong King of Polony by the dispensation of Pope Eugenius and the perswasion of Iulianus his Nuntio broke his Oath and League made with Amurath the second Emperour of the Turkes in which battell the King his horse being first killed vnder him was stricken downe and slaine the Popes Bishops that were in the field to incourage the souldiers fleeing to saue themselues fell into Bogges and Marishes and there perished Iulianus the Cardinall which with the Pope was the chiefe doer in breaking the League was found dead in the way being full of wounds and spoyled to his naked skinne and all the ditches and trenches were filled with the blood of Christians A memorable spectacle of Gods vengeance vpon the breach of oathes made euen to Infidels Discite iustitiam moniti non temnere Diuos B. C. 15. The deuill that intendeth the destruction aswell of bodies as of soules and of whole States as of particular men doth not commonly beginne with mens bodies and with matters of State but being himselfe a Spirit and the father of lies hee doth first insinuate himselfe into mens vnderstandings by false principles of religion whereunto hee hath the more easie entrance because hee hath perswaded their gouernors to beleeue that it is no great matter what opinions men hold in matters of religion so that they looke well into their actions and keepe them in obedience Which perswasion is all one as if the enemie that besiegeth a citie should perswade the garison that they might surrender the Castle to him well enough and keepe the base towne to themselues But when the deuill hath preuailed so farre as by the matters in the first truth that is of religioÌ„ to get the vnderstanding in possession which is the Castle as it were and watchtower of both the soule and bodie and state and all hee will peraduenture dissemble his purpose for a while and by slandering of the trueth and pleasing them with the trifles of the world which by Gods permission are in his power make men beleeue that the world is amended For nemo repentè fit pessimus but shortly after when hee seeth his time hee will out of his arsenale of false apprehensions in the vnderstanding send foorth such distorted engines of life and actions as will easily subdue both bodies and states and goods and all to his deuotion G. H. 15. This Section together with your former for any thing I can gather serue onely to make a large Portall to a little Cottage and wide Gates to a Citie that may runne out of it you fetch a great swinge to strike a litle blow and a full carriere to leape ouer a straw It is throughout a meere flourish rather intended as it seemes to amaze the reader as Mountebankes doe their hearers with arsenals of apprehensions and distorted engines of actions then to teach him the plaine and simple trueth scarce so good as a Metaphor which I haue heard tending to the contrary of yours that if the Faux of our concupiscence should once giue fire to the powder of our appetite it were likely to blowe vp the Parliament house of our reason The scope you driue at as I conceiue is this that the vnderstanding being misinformed in religion produceth answerable effects in the coÌ„uersation which we as easily grant as you vnnecessarily goe about to proue The heathen Philosopher could tell vs Si cui intueri vacet quae faciunt quaeque patiuntur superstitiosi inueniet tam indecora honestis tam indigna liberis tam dissimiliasanis vt nemo fuerit dubitaturus furere eos si cum paucioribus furerent nuncsanitatis patrocinium est insanientium turba If a man had the leisure to looke on those things which men possessed with superstitious opinions both doe and suffer hee should find theÌ„ busied about matters so vnbeseeming honest minded men so vnworthy of free ingenuous spirits so vnlike the effects of sober and setled braines that a man would sweare they were starke mad were but the number of them lesse that went a madding whereas now the onely cloake to palliate and patronize their madnesse is the multitude of mad men Which words sound to me as if the marke they shoot at had been the practise of the present Church of Rome issuing from their false and superstitious opinions touching Gods worship In which whether we consider the things they doe in the administration of their Sacraments about the reliques of dead men in setting foorth the feasts of our Sauiour and the Saints or what they suffer in Pilgrimages in Penances and the like if the same things were acted but by fewe in number which now by long custome and common consent are growen familiar to them being practised by multitudes I cannot iudge them so vnwise but themselues if they stood by and looked on would iudge them mad I haue heard of a Turke who comming to Rome and beholding their most abominable and licentious disorders at their Carneuals and presently vpon it their counterfet sadnesse and hanging downe their heads like a bulâ—ush vpon Ashwednesday so named for the ashes which they tooke he conceiued that the sprinkling of ashes had bene a speciall remedie for the curing of madnes but to the matter It is true indeed that where Idolatrie and vngodlinesse goeth before there a giuing vp to a reprobate sence and worldly lusts follow after as S. Paul rangeth them in his first to the Romanes and his second to Titus Yet on the other side it is as true that vpon the putting away of good conscience in the entertainement of worldly lusts as often ensues a shipwrake of Faith in opening a gappe to vngodlinesse as we learne of the same Apostle 1. Tim. 1. I haue obserued it in mine owne experience and so I thinke
doctrine bee as opposite to our Religion as to the Romish then must it needs follow that either ours and the Romish agree in one or that ours is as distant from Caluins as Caluins is from the Romish both which to bee vntrue appeares aswell by the testimonie of all other Romish writers and the authority of the Pope himselfe in his Bull against Queene ELIZBAETH as those whome they terme Lutherans who euer range vs among the Caluinists as also of our owne writers and those of forraine Churches by you termed Caluinistical because with him they ioyne in profession of the same trueth the manifold Letters by them written and Bookes dedicated to our late blessed Queene our Bishops and Noble men by French and Heluetian Diuines specially of Zurich and Basil testifie to the world that they then held their religion to bee the same with ours and ours with theirs and for any thing I know neither theirs nor ours is since changed saue onely some such neutrals as your selfe labour to drawe vs neerer to Rome then they can bee drawen or the trueth it selfe will permit that wee should Among many other testimonies I will onely instance in two the one an Heluetian touching our conformitie with forreine reformed Churches in former times the other a French man touching the present the Heluetian is Bullinger who dedicating his Commentaries vpon Daniel to Horne Bishop of Winchester Iewell Bishop of Salisbury Sandes Bishop of Worcester Parkhurst Bishop of Norwich and Pilkington Bishop of Durham in his Epistle Dedicatory professeth hee did it chiefly to this ende that posterity might vnderstand their indissoluble knot of friendship and the mutual consent betweene England and Suisserland in matter of Religion howbeit they were remooued farre asunder in situation of place The French is Peter Moulin who in defence of his Maiesties Booke against Coffeteau acknowledgeth that wee had enough sufficient men of our owne to defend the Cause but that hee vndertooke the worke to let the world knowe that the same Confession which his Maiestie had made was also theirs and that they and the trueth were assailed in his Person and Writings But what neede I stand vpon the particular testimonies of priuate men since the Confessions of our Churches are extant to be compared as well in the Booke intituled The Harmony as in that other termed The bodie of Confessions In the meane time to giue the Reader some satisfaction I will set downe the doctrine of the Church of England in points of difference together with Caluint on the one side of it and the Romish on the other that so wee may make some estimate whether Caluinisme bee as opposite to the Religion of England as to that of Rome Now for the doctrine of the Church of England I will not extend it so wide as to the Bookes and Lectures of our Bishops and publique professours the lights and guides of our Church and Vniuersities nor yet contract and confine it as Mr. Doctor doeth within the narrow compasse of the Common prayer Booke and Church Catechisme the booke of Canons and therein Nowels Catechisme Can. 79. being confirmed and allowed by publike authoritie But aboue all I very much maruell Mr. Doctors memory should so farre faile him as quite and cleane to forget the Booke of Articles solemnely agreed vpon by the Reuerend Bishops and Clergie of this kingdome at two seuerall meetings or Conuocations of theirs in the yeeres of our Lord 1562 and againe 1604 and lately againe confirmed by two seuerall Canons the 5 and 36 in number since himselfe subscribed to them at the taking of his Orders if not of his Degrees and liuing a long time as Chaplen in house with Archbishop Whitegift and since keeping his ordinary turnes of waiting at Court and residence at Canterbury he could not bee ignorant of them nay I can shewe it vnder his owne hand which argues hee fought against the light of his owne conscience that setting downe the differences betweene the Olde English and New French diuinitie as he calles it hee quotes diuers of those Articles for the doctrine of the Church of England and besides professing himselfe so skilfull in the Statutes he could not but knowe that The Booke of Articles and Iniunctions is by them aswell confirmed and authorized as The Booke of Common Prayer in which Articles are also allowed and ratified The second Booke of Homilies and holy Orders so that whatsoeuer is doctâ—inally deliuered in any of these may safely bee called The doctrine of the Church of England But for the present I will content my selfe with the Booke of Articles onely and for the doctrine of the Church of Rome with the Canons and positions of the Tridentine Councell and Catechisme and for Caluines doctrine with that specially which hee hath deliuered in his 4. Bookes of Christian Institutions Here followeth the Table of differences B. C. 22. For when the breach was resolued on for the personall and particular ease of Henry the VIII and the children of his later wiues it was necessary to giue euery part of the Common-wealth contentment for which they might hold out in the heate of affection and studie to maintaine the breach otherwise it was likely that in the clearenesse of iudgement it would quickly haue growen together againe and then the authours thereof must haue beene excluded and giuen account of their practise G. H. 22 Howbeit Henry the VIII actually indeed made that breach with Rome which continues at this day and is like to doe till Rome by her reformation endeuour to make it vp yet they certainely erre who seeke the cause of it onely in him and in his times or fixing their eyes vpon his person quarrel looke not vp to the state and course of former ages for as no wise man would assigne the cause of death to some accident falling out in the last point and period of life but to some former distemper or intemperancie so the reasons of vnhorsing the Pope and reiecting his authoritie with the generall applause of all the estates of the Realme hauing beene so long anâ— so deepely rooted in mens minds are not to be searched for in the personall and particular proceedings of Henry the VIII but in the ancient Records and euidences of our Histoâ—ians who all complaine of the spurring and gauling and whipping of our land by those Italian riders vntill like Balaams asse shee turned againe opened her mouth to complaine and being out of all hope of reliefe by complaint cast her rider As many witnesses we haue hereof well neere as Writers since the last 600. yeres as many cleere testimonies as there be leaues in Mat. Paris the most learned and sufficient Writer vnlesse you will except William of Malmesburie that those times afforded It was a memorable speech of Robert Grosteed Bishop of Lincolne who liued 358. yeres since in the time of Gregory the IX Caelestine the IIII. Innocent the IIII.
and Alexander the VI. who lying vpon his death-bed the very night of his departure making a lamentable and bitter complaint to the Priests and Monkes that stood about him of the miserable estate of the Church and laying the burthen of so great a mischiefe vpon the Popes shoulders whom therefore he called Heretike and Antichrist at length hee yeelded vp his soule vnto God with these words in his mouth Non liberabitur Ecclesâ—a ab Egiptiaca seruitute nisi in ore gladij cruentandi The Church will neuer bee freed from this Egyptian slauery but by the point of a bloodie sword Thus did this holy man foresee and foretel as it were by a Prophetical Spirit that which we see accoÌ„plished So that Henrie the VIII serued onely as a midwife to bring to the world that birth wherewith our countrey had bene in trauell many yeres before and had not he bene borne some other meanes would haue beene found out for the doing of that which he did and what we see already done in England will also vndoubtedly be brought to passe in other Nations when their measure is full and God will In the meane time that the trueth of this assertion may the better appeare I will adde to those examples and instances brought to this purpose by his Maiestie in his Premonition two others in my iudgment very obserâ—able the one of William surnamed the Conquerour the other of Henrie for his learning surnamed Beauclerke his third sonne and second Successor in the Kingdome both out of the Manuscripts of that noble Antiquarie Sr Robert Cotton knight Barronnet The father thus writes to Gregory the VII commonly knowen by the name of Hildebrand vpon notice giuen him from his Legate Hubert that he was to doe him fealtie and â—o pay him money as his ancestors had done Hubertus Legatus tuus Religiose Pater ad me veniens ex tua parte me admonuit quatenus tibi successoribus tuis fidelitatem facerem de pecunia quam antecessores mei ad Romanam Ecclesiam mittere solebant melius cogitarem vnum admisi alterum non admisi fidelitatem facere nolui nec volo quia nec ego promisi nec antecessores meos antecessoribus tuis id fecisse comperio Hubert your Legate Religious Father comming vnto me aduertised me as from you that I was to doe fealtie to you and your Successors and that I should bethinke my selfe better of the money which my Predecessors were wont to send to the Church of Rome the one I admitted the other I admitted not The fealtie I would not performe neither will I because neither my selfe promised it nor doe I find that my Predecessors performed it to yours Vpon which occasion as it may well be supposed the Pope returned this answer to his Legate Hubert after signification how little he esteemed money without honour giuen him hee comes to the person of the King in these termes Multa sunt vnde Sancta Romana Ecclesia aduersus eum queri potest nemo enim omnium Regum etiam Paganorum contra Apostolicam sedem hoc praesumpsit tentare quod is non erubuit facere There are many things whereof the holy Roman Church may complaine of against him in as much as none of the Pagan kings haue attempted that against the Sea Apostolike which hee hath not blushed to put in execution Now for Henry the sonne who in this regarde swarued not from his fathers steppes part of Pope Paschals letter vnto him runnes thus Paschalis seruus seruorum Dei dilecto filio Henrico illustri Anglorum Regi Salutem Apostolicam benedictionem Cum de manu Domini largiùs honorem diuitias pacemque susceperis mir amur vehementius grauamur quod in Regno potestateque tua beatus Petrus in beato Petro Dominus honorem suum iustitiamque perdiderit Sedis enim Apostolicae nuncij vel literae praeter iussum Regiae Maiestatis nullam in potestate tua susceptioneÌ„ vel aditum promerentur nullus inde clamor nullum inde iudicium ad sedem Apostolicam destinatur Paschal the seruant of the seruants of God to our beloued sonne Henry the most renowned King of England health and Apostolicall benediction Sythence you haue plentifully receiued honour riches and peace from the hand of the Lord We exceedingly woonder and take it in ill part that in your Kingdome and vnder your Gouernment S. Peter and in S. Peter the Lord hath lost his honour and right in as much as the Nuntioes and Breues of the Sea Apostolike are not thought worthy entertainement or admittance in any part of your Dominions without your Maiesties warrant No complaint now no appeale comes from thence to the Sea Apostolike To which the King after termes of complement replies in in this manner Eos honores eam obedientiam quam tempore Patris mei antecessores vestri in Regno Angliae habuerunt tempore meo vt habeatis volo eo videlicet tenore vt dignitates vsus consuetudines quas pater meus tempore antecessorum vestrorum in regno Angliae habuit ego tempore vestro in eodem regno meo integrè obtineam Notumque habeat Sanctitas vestra quod me viuente Deo auxiliante dignitates vsus regni Angliae non minuentur Et si ego quod absit in tanta me deiectione ponerem Optimates mei imo totius Angliae populus id nullo modo pateretur Habita igitur Charissime Pater vtiliori deliberatione ita se erga nos moderetur benignitas vestra ne quod inuitùs faciam à vestra me cogatis recedere obedientia That honour and obedience which your predecessors had in the Kingdome of England during the Reigne of my father my will is you should haue in my time with this condition that my selfe fully and wholly enioy all the Dignities Prerogatiues and Customes which my father enioyed in the sayd Kingdome in the time of your predecessors and I would your Holinesse should vnderstand that during my life the digninities and prerogatiues of the Crowne of England by Gods grace shall not bee minished and if I should so farre abase my selfe which God forbid my Lords and Commons would by no meanes endure it wherfore most deare Father vpon better aduice let your gentlenesse be so tempered toward vs that I bee not enforced which I shall vnwillingly doe to withdraw my selfe from your obedience Whereby it appeares that Henry the first began to hammer and beate vpon that which Henry the last by Gods appointment in the fulnesse of time brought to perfection and though these two Kings the Father and the Sonne gaue way to some part of the Popes iurisdiction as I shewed before Yet hereby it appeares it was a burthen vnto them B. C. 23. Therefore to the Lords and fauorites of the Court was giuen the lands and inheritance of the Abbies and religious houses that hauing once as it were washed their hands in the bowels and bloud of the Church
themselues and their forefathers had bene kept in awe and obedience vnto God and their kings G. H. 24. The Commons might haue beene disburdened of their Subsidies had those reuenues and treasures which came or might haue come to the Crowne by the downefall of monasteries bene imployed as they might haue bene the plates and wires of gold of Beckets onely shrine together with the pearles and precious stones of inestimable value filling two great chests But God so ordered the matter for their laying of sacrilegious hands as it may be thought vpon those tenths which by himselfe were consecrated to himselfe that neither it nor the rest prospered neither was the king thereby much inriched nor the Commons relieued it beeing like the dead flie in the boxe of oyntment or the Colloquintida in the Prophets pottage Now for the peoples liberty in making lawes at their own pleasure to liue as they listed it is a matter fondly surmised and published of you not promised by the State nor demanded or expected by them The Lawes Ecclesiasticall were in King Henries time and by his authority appoynted to be compiled and digested by a certaine company of Bishops and other diuines ioyned in Commission with Ciuill and Canon-Lawyers to the number of 32. but this worke being leâ—t imperfect by the death of that king was afterward finished in the dayes and by the command of his sonne Edward which my selfe haue seene though by the vntimely death of that king also it neuer yet receiued publike allowance And for other lawes as the world knoweth they neither could nor can make any without the consent of the Lords spirituall and temporall and the approbation of the king And lastly how the lawes of your Church crossed their affections let their often and dangerous rebellions for the restoring of them testifie there beeing none in trueth more fitting to the humour of a natural minded man as may appeare by this that a man of no religion and like white paper or sponged tables apt to receiue any impression will sooner imbrace yours then any other in the world From this you digresse to their studying of the Scriptures that they might be able to confute confession satisfaction penance and to declaime against that tyranny of the Church whereby themselues and their forefathers had bene kept in awe and obedience to God and their king For their studying of the Scriptures it is indeede a great eye-sore to you because thereby your malice in withholding your followers from reading them and withall your burdensome traditions thrust vpon them for your owne honor and gaine but to their paine and grieuance are clearely discouered and discerned from that which before you call eternall trueth but to them nothing can bee more profitable or to their guides more comfortable so it bee done with reuerence and â—obriety and as our Preface to the Bishops Bible exhorts not so much to dispute and contradict as to learne and obey as being a practise which both our Sauiour himselfe and his Apostles and the holy Fathers of the Primitiue Church specially S. Chrysostome in diuers homilies often and earnestly exhort their heares vnto And for the confutation of those poyntes you name I am of opinion and I thinke not without reason that many of our people are better able by Scriptures to confute them as they are now held and vsed amongst you then your greatest Bishops and Cardinals are from thence able to proue them of whom some haue not sticked to professe that they thought that time which they passed in reading the Scriptures to be of all other the most vnprofitably spent preferring Tullies Orations before Pauls Epistles and Aristotles Ethikes before Solomons Prouerbes B. C. 25. To the Clergiemen that would turne with the times beside the possibilitie of present preferment by the alteration was giuen shortly after leaue to marrie to purchase and to enioy the profit and pleasure of the world as well as the laitie and what carnall minded Monke or Priest would not with might and maine keepe open the breach after he was once plunged in it rather then to be in danger to forgoe so pleasing a coÌ„moditie Hence did arise a necessitie of speaking and writing against Vowes Vrginitie Pouertie Fasting Praying Watching Obedience and all that austeriâ—ie of life which is by the Lawes of the Church required in a monasticall and Priestly conuersation G. H. 25. Little hope was there giuen for the present to the Church-men that yeelded to the King for matter of preferment since the Abbots and Priors were not onely turned out of doores but their houses rased and their goods and lands confiâ—cated And for the Bishops none of their places thereby fell voide they all Rochester onely excepted ioyntly concurring with the king in casting off the Romish yoke and for their marrying purchasing neither of theÌ„ were permitted during the reigne of king Henry who liued reigned somewhat aboue 14. yeres after the breach with Rome Howbeit if wee may credite Mr. Cambden an vnpartiall Antiquarie Churchmen were not forbidden mariage in England till the yere 1102. then Anselme Archbishop of Canterburie sayeth hee offered violence both to nature and to the Scriptures which he writes vpon occasion of one Ealphegus a Priest famous for his learning who was married and dwelt in the South part of Deuonshire And further he alledgeth the words of Henry of Huntindon touching that act of Anselme He forbadwiues to the English Priests being neuer before forbidden which to some seemed a thing very decent to others as dangerous least whiles they aimed to a puritie aboue their reach they might fall into horrible impurities to the dishonour of CHRISTS Name and their profession Those words of Cambden before quoted together with these of Huntindon by him alledged are commaunded to be rased by the Spanish Index But they might aswell haue rased those of theâ—I â—I in Platina auouching that hee saw great reason why Priests should be restrained of mariage but greater why it should be restored them or those of Cassander by that ouer rigorous and vnseasonable constitution speaking of restraint of marriage in Churchmen wee see much grieuous and abominable scandall to haue arisen in the Church or those of Mantuan touching S â— Hillary Bishop of Poictiers in France Non tibi progenies nocuit non obfuit vxor Legitimo coniuncta toro Or lastly those of the same Poet speaking of the father of Nazianzen Praesule Patre satus nam tunc idiura sinebant non horruit illâ Tempestate Deus Thalamos cunabula toedas And in another place of the father of Basil and Gregorie Nyssen Tutius esse volunt qua lex diuina sinebat Isse viâ veterumque sequi vestigia patrum Quorum vita fuit melior cum coniuge quam nunc Nostra sit exclusis Thalamis coniâ—gis vsu. And if marrying be allowed them I see no reason but they should withall be allowed purchasing as they are and alwayes haue
beene in the Easterne Church hee being worse then an Infidell that prouideth not for those of his owne houshold To conclude wee neither speake nor write against lawfull Vowes but the rashnesse of them and impossibilitie in performing them Not against true Virginity but the fained shew of it and the preferring it by so many degrees before the honourable estate of mariage Not against necessary Pouertie but the voluntarie choise of it when more good may be done by possessing and vsing those meanes God hath sent vs Not against Fasting but the pharesaicall vse of it and making it part of diuine worship Not against Praying but the performance of it in a strange tongue rather for custome then for conscience rather by number then by weight in drawing neere vnto God with our lippes when our hearts are farre from him Not against Watching but the pretended apish imitation and merit in it Not against Obedience but the abuse of it in the enterprising of damnable and desperate attempts Lastly not against austeritie of life but inciuilitie and that shew of wisedome which S. Paul censureth in the second to the Col. Consisting in voluntary Religion and humblenesse of minde and not sparing the bodie You doe well to adde that all these are required in a Monasticall conuersation but how they were or are performed God knowes and the world not vndeseruedly suspects B. C. 26. Vpon these conditions the Lords the Commons and the Clergie were content to beleeue that the King was Supreme head of the Church of England Not that they did thinke so indeed or that they desired to augment his authoritie but that they might bee protected by him freely enioy those commodities which they thought schisme had brought vnto them and feared the vnity of the Church might againe take from them Hence did arise a necessitie of inueighing against the Pope and the Church of Rome as against Antichrist and Babylon and the greatest enemies of the State of England Insomuch that that Clergie man was most acceptable to them and in their opinion most worthy of preferments that could most confidently preach and write the most foule and monstrous assertions of the Pope and the Church of Rome though they were neuer so false These and such like are those temporall respects which would faine seeme the daughters of those doctrines which themselues haue brought foorth and to be diuided from the Catholike Church by doctrine when they themselues haue caused the doctrine of diuision G. H. 26. Vpon these conditions you say that the Lords and Commons and Clergie were content to beleeue that the King was supreame head of the Church of England whereas your selfe before confesse that these conditions were afterward graunted to the Clergie who notwithstanding were the forwardest in perswading the King to accept and assume that title as may appeare by the booke set out by the whole Conuocation of England intituled The Institution of a Christian man besides the Treatises of diuers particular Bishops to the same purpose as namely Stephen Gardiners discourse of true obedience together with Bonners Preface annexed to it Longelands Sermon and Tunstals Letter to Cardinall Poole all which are extant to be reade and seene at this day and surely he that shall obserue their vehement protestations specially of Gardiner whom I hold the most sufficient among them for learning and withall the soundnesse and weight of the reasons which they enforce against the Popes pretended iurisdiction will easily beleeue that they thought in very deede as they wrote that their minds and their pennes concurred in one But from hence you say arose a necessitie of enuying against the Pope and the Church of Rome as against Antichrist and Babylon as if his Holinesse had neuer beene graced with the title of Antichrist before Henry assumed his title of supreame head nor Rome called Babylon before England was freed from that Babylonish captiuity Whereas your famous Cardinall hath none other proofe from Scripture that S. Peter was euer at Rome but by expounding Rome to be the Babylon from whence he dated his first Epistle And when the seuerall markes of Antichrist shall be applied to any so properly as to the Bishop of Rome I will confesse he is iniuriously so styled in the meane time I can hardly imagine any so foule and monstrous assertions which some of your Popes haue not deserued euen by the confession of your owne Writers it being enough to make a modest man blush in reading and relating that which they blushed not to act nay boasted of being acted in so much as I doubt not but I may confidently affirme that neither the Catalogue of Emperours taking in the Heathenish among the Christians nor any one succession of Kings in the world since the first creation of it to this present age euer afforded so many monsters of men so many incarnate deuils so expert in all kind of villanies as that of your Popes neither can any one King or Emperour be named whom some of your Popes haue not out-stripped And what needed then any imitation of your side in faining false assertions where true were so plentifull B. C. 27. In all these and all other doctrine of diuision men haue receiued great countenance and encouragement from Geneua For although M. Iohn Caluin were neuer any good subiect or friend to Bishop Duke or King yet hee did so fit the common people with new doctrine that no Gospel can be so pleasing to them nor so light some as his for finding Geneua to be fallen out both with their Bishop who was their ancient Prince and their Duke to whom they pretended against their Bishop and to bee all in a combustion amongst themselues for want of gouernment although he were then a stranger and a very young man of some sixe and twenty or seuen and twenty yeeres olde at the most yet he thought good vpon the opportunity to giue the venture and to step in himselfe to be founder of a new Church and state amongst them And for that purpose hee found them such a Catechisme as they might easily contemne all ancient learning and authority and saue themselues by a strong fancie which hee called faith And this pleased the Bourgers of Geneua so well that they called a meeting and caused all the Citizens to sweare that that Catechisme was true and all Popery false as may appeare in Caluins life written by Beza and prefixed to his Epistles And although the ministeriall Presbitery of Geneua haue lost much of M. Caluins greatnesse yet the Citie hath had the fortune euer since by the helpe of their neighbours to hold out against their Bishop and the Duke and all their ancient gouernours G. H. 27. You passe on in this Section and the next to passe your censure vpon Geneua and Caluin in as much as from them wee haue receiued great countenance and encouragement whereas neither Geneua nor Caluin were
one example for all may be that lewd libeller who in the very entrance of his libell exclaimeth That the Protestants haue no Faith no Hope no Charitie no Repentance no Iustification no Church no Altar no Sacrifice no Priest no Religion no Christ. What shall we say to these intemperate Spirits if they speake of malice then I say with Michael the Archangel The Lord rebuke them But if they speake of ignorance then I say with the holy Martyr S. Steuen Lord lay not this sinne to their charge or with our blessed SAVIOVR Father forgiue them they wote not what they doe Now for our slandring the doctrine of the Church of Rome when you or any other shall produce the like Assertions out of any Writer amongst vs of note and credite I shall be content to yeelde farther credite to your Assertion then as yet I finde reason I should for the residue of this Section I referre the Reader to my marginall notes as deseruing in my iudgement no better or other answere B. C. 30. But perhaps there is so great opposition in matter of State that although the doctrine might bee compounded yet it is impossible to heare of agreement and if there bee the same reason of State which there was in beginning and continued all Queene Elizabeths dayes there is as little hope now that your Maiestie should hearken vnto Reconciliation as then was that King Henry the VIII or Queene Elizabeth would but when I doe with the greatest respect I can consider the State of your Maiestie your Lords your Commons and your Clergie I do see as little cause in holding out in reason of State as I doe in trueth of doctrine G. H. 30. From the matter of doctrine you passe to thereason of State in which if your reasons be of no greater waight or truth then in the former his Maiestie his Lords his Commons his Clergie haue no more reason to hearken to reconciliation with Rome then King Henry or Queene Elizabeth or the Subiects in their times had which hee that lookes not through the spectacles of a preiudicate opinion will as easily discouer as you confidently affirme the contrary B. C. 31. King Henry the VIII although hee had written that Booke against the Schisme of Luther in defence of the Sea Apostolike for which he deserned the title of Defensor fidei yet when he gaue way to the lust of Anne Bullen and the flattery of his fauorites and saw hee could not otherwise haue his will he excluded the Pope and made himselfe Supreame head of the Church that so hee might not onely dispence with himselfe for his Lust but also supplie his excesse with the spoyle of the Church which was then very rich But when hee saw God blessed him not neither in his wiuing nor in his thriuing hee was weary of his Supremacie before he died and wished himselfe in the Church againe but hee died in the curse of his father whose foundations he ouerthrew and hath neither childe to honour him nor so much as a Tombe vpon his graue to remember him which some men take to bee a token of the Curse of God G. H. 31. King Henry the VIII wrote a Booke indeed or at least a Booke was in his name written in defence of the seuen Sacraments against Luther as Mr. Doctor might haue learned if no where else yet out of Cardinall Bellarmins Apologie But in defence of the See of Rome which hee cals Apostolike I haue not mette with any and it should seeme by his mistake of the subiect handled in that booke himselfe neuer mette with it as for the Title which King Henry receiued the world is not ignorant how liberall his Holinesse is in bestowing Titles where hee expects some greater aduantage sticking down a feather that hee may quietly carrie away the goose Thus did hee giue Charles the Emperour neere about the same time the Title of Defensor Ecclesiae for directing a Writ of Outlawrie against Luther whereupon at the Emperours beeing here in England those verses were set vp in the Guildhall in London ouer the doore of their Councell Chamber where they yet remaine Carolus Henricus viuant defensor vterque Henricus fidei Carolus Ecclesiae And in the Bull by which Leo the tenth confirmed this Title to the King subscribed with his owne name and the names of fiue and twentie Cardinals and Bishops it appeares that their chiefe scope of honouring him with this Title was to tye him and his posteritie faster to that See But as a learned and graue Prelate of our owne hath well obserued being the high Priest for that yeere not so in the next he foretold by way of prophecie what the King of England should bee which we find to the honour of CHRIST and the glory of our kingdome most truely and happily accomplished in our Gracious Souereigne now reigning who hath to the vtmost defēded the truly Christian and Catholike faith by his Pen and will no doubt bee as ready to doe it when occasion shal serue with his sword and yet were it not for feare of crossing your imaginarie reconciliation you would with Bellarmine tell vs that his Maiestie in present as vndeseruedly retaines that Title as King Henry receiued it deseruedly who afterward notwithstanding as deepely incurred his Holinesse disfauour aswell by calling into question that Title which the Bishops of Rome had assumed to themselues of Pastours vniuersall S. Peters successours and Christs Vicars as by resuming to himselfe that Title which some of the Popes had yeelded his predecessours as may appeare in the Letter of Eleutherius Bishop of Rome to Lucius King of Great Britaine in which Eleutherius attributeth to the King the Title of Gods Vicar within his kingdome which letter howsoeuer the Authour of the Threefold conuersion labour to staine with the blemish of forgery yet is it to be found inrolled in the Copie of King Edward the Confessors Lawes Neither is it true that Henry tooke this Title to himselfe it was giuen him by the Parliament of his Lords and Commons and Conuocation of his Clergie not as a new thing but as renewed And if he were desirous to change his bedfellow in hope of heires male as you tell vs before it was not to giue way to the lust of Anne Bulleine as here you affirme and if hee might haue had his will in being dispensed with by yeelding to the Popes will in ioyning with Francis the French King against the Emperour Charles as before it is proued then did he not exclude the Pope take that Title to dispence with himselfe especially being mooued with the approbation of so many Vniuersities and learned men But if thereby he made himselfe a way for the supply of his excesse with the spoyle of the Church wee haue not wherein so iustly to excuse him howbeit hee conuerted much of it to good vses namely to the erecting of sixe Bishoprickes
haue stirred mee either to robbe the Pope of any thing due vnto him or to assume vnto my selfe any farther authority then that which other Christian Emperours and kings through the world and my owne Predecessours of England in especiall haue long agone maintained Neither is it enough to say aâ— Parsons doth in his answere to the Lord Cooke that farre more kings of this Countrey haue giuen many more examples of acknowledging or not resisting the Popes vsurped authority some perchance lacking the occasion and some the ability of resisting them for euen by the ciuill Law in the case of a violent intrusion and long wrongfull possession against me it is enough if I proue that I haue made lawful interruption vpon conuenient occasions Hitherto his Maiesty And I cannot but wonder what Mr. Doctour meant if he had read it not to take any notice of it or if he reade it not how he durst presume thus to write to his Maiesty without so much as the reading of his writings From whence we may gather that what Henry the VIII acted in that regard was but a manifestation of the intents and desires of his predecessors which they durst not fully expresse and what they enacted a preparatiue to the roundnesse of his proceedings Besides I see not but if his Maiesties predecessors granted that to his Holinesse which was indiuidually annexed to the Crowne as being a speciall branch of their prerogatiue Royall his Maiestie stands none otherwise bound to maintaine that graunt then they held themselues obliged to make that good which King Iohn had yeelded vnto him and if they did part with their authoritie as your selfe speake then was it their owne before they parted with it and not the Bishops of Rome as your Romane Catholikes would haue it by Diuine right and consequently beeing their owne as they vpon occasion best knowen to themselues conferred it so vpon a contrary occasion I see no reason but either themselues or their successours might as lawfully resume it But the trueth is that it was not giuen by them but stollen by the Bishop of Rome and by him held vnder colour of prescription yet your selfe by discourse of reasâ—n and force of trueth are driuen to confesse that our bodies and goods are at his Maiesties command either forgetting 〈◊〉 whom you wrote or not remembring or it may bee so much as knowing what the Church of Rome whose defence you vndertake defends touching the exemption aswell of the bodies as the goods of Churchmen from the iurisdiction of the secular though Supreame power and how his Maiestie in diuers parts of his writings hath most sufficiently prooued the nouelty of this doctrine so that what you write herein can bee imputed to none other but to grosse flattery or palpable ignorance flattery of his Maiestie in that which he truely holds or ignorance of that which is falsely held by the Church of Rome but like a shrewd Cow that hath yeelded a good meale oâ— milke and then ouerthrowes it with a spurne of her foote so hauing subiected our bodies and goods to his Maiesties commaund you exempt our soules from his charge but by way of protection in Catholike Religion as if you meant purposely to crosse that of the Apostle Let euery soule be subiect to the higher powers But I would â—aine dâ—maund if his Maiestie should not protect vs in that Religion which you call Catholike whether our bodies and goods shall then bee at his commaund Surely if his Holinesse whom you cannot but vnderstand by those that supplie Christs place in ijs quaesunt iuris diuini and to whom you would haue vs subordinate haue the command of our soules and his Maiestie onely of our bodies the later may command what hee list but men will execute his commands no farther then the former will be pleased to giue leaue whereof we haue had often and fresh experience aswel in the Bulls of Pius Quintus and in the Breuâ—s of Paulus Quintus and in trueth â— cannot but commend his wit though not his honestie that hee intitleth himselfe vnto and interesteth himselfe in the more actiue and noble part the bodie without the soule being as the shales without the kernell or the scabberd without the sword Those Kings that out of their Regall authoritie purged the Church of corruptions and reformed the abuses thereof brought the Arke to her resting place dedicated the Temple and consecrated it with prayers proclaimed fastes caused the booke of the Lawe new found to bee read to the people renewed he Couenant betweene God and his people bruised the brasen Serpent in pieces which was set vp by the expresse commandement of God and was a figure of Christ destroyed all Idols and false Gods make a publique reformaâ—ion by a Commission of Secular men and Priests mixed for that purpose deposed the high Priest and set vp another in his place they that lawfully called Generall Councils for the suppressing of heresies as Constantine did the Nicene Theodosius the elder the first at Constantinople Theodosius the yonger the Ephesin Valentinian Martian the Chalcedonian they that made Lawes for the ordering of Church-men and Church-matters as Iustinian and Charlemaine cannot in the iuâ—gement of any indifferent man be said to haue no charge of the soules of such aâ— are committed to their charge but onely by way of protection Neither doeth it follow that his Maiestie in taking the charge of soules vpon him according to the qualitie of his office and Gods appointment whose officer hee is should therfore be himself a Priest or be the author of his owne Religion as you would maliciously inferre from the custom of the heathen Emperors no more then the Kings of Israel or the Emperors of the Christian Primitiue Church were Priests or authors of that religion which by diuine ordinance they tooke care of aswell in the Priest as in the people aswell in confirming and countenancing what was in order as in censuring and restoring what was amisse neither was it in the time of the law of nature held vnlawfull that both the Regall and the Ecclesiasticall the princely and the priestly power should reside together in one person during which Law wee haue not many examples of Kings that gouerned a people where the Church of God was planted there is onely mention to my remembrance of Melchisedecke King of Salem and of him it is sayd withall that hee was a Priest of the most High God so that in his person these two offices the principalitie and the Priesthood were ioyned both which followed the prerogatiue of the birth-right and to this double dignity was answerable a double portion the like do we reade of Anias that he was Rex idem hominuÌ„ Poebique Sacerdos and it was the speach of Diogenes the Pythagorean that to make a compleat King hee had need bee a Captaine a Iudge and a Priest of which two
of these were ioyned in Ely and Samuel and the other two in Moses The name of Presbyter Iohn seemes to import that they haue beene or should bee Priests and at this day the Kings of Malabar in the East Indies are all of them Bramenes that is Priests whereby it appeares that the Office of a King and a Priest are not incompatible in the same person but as they are not incompatible so neither among the Heathen was the Priest-hood essentially annexed to the Regall power as M. Doctor affirmeth Romulus indeed ioyned them but Numa disioyned them and Augustus againe reioyned them aswell for the safetie as the honour of the Emperour yet not so but that they might and afterwards did fall asunder Indeede the Bishop of Rome now as he succeedes those Emperours in place so doth he in that chalenge assuming to himselfe but in another sense then hee spake it whose Successour hee pretends himselfe Regale Sacerdotium a royall Priest-hood And being Christs Vicar he cannot for shame take to himselfe the title of Emperour or King but a power aboue them all as you truely tell vs CHRIST had but to none other purpose as I conceaue but from him to deriue it to his Vicar he being not only that Spirituall man who iudgeth all things himselfe being iudged of none by which hee is inabled to depose Princes but a Spirituall Prince himselfe which is the most fauourable construction that possibly can be giuen of those words Hunc vnum super omnes Gentes omnia regna principem constituit where Christ vnto whom all power was giuen both in heauen and earth is made to make the Bishop of Rome his Vicar the Soueraigne Lord and graund Commander of all the Nations and Kingdomes in the world applying that as properly meant of himselfe which was figuratiuely spoken to the Prophet I haue this day set thee ouer the nations and ouer the Kingdomes to roote out to pull downe to destroy to ouerthrow to build and to plant but in that hee makes himselfe a Prince he goes beyond euen the literall Commission of the Prophet The vse hath beene that the Christian Emperours at their Coronation should administer to the Pope in place of Subdeacon should put on a Surplis be admitted as Canonicks not onely of S. Peters Church in Rome but of St. Iohn Laterane which argues their acknowledgement of some Ecclesiasticall power to haue beene in them Nay Maximilian the first a Catholike Emperour went so farre as to attempt the vniting of the Papacie to the Empire The Pope neuer yet attempted so much in open shew and plaine termes but hath effected no lesse nay more indeede and in trueth in making the Papacie the Substantiue and the Empire the Adiectiue But among Christians saith our Dr. the Spirituall and Temporall authoritie haue two beginnings as if hee who gaue his Apostles Commission to preach the Gospel did not also proclaime in the eight of the Prouerbes By me Kings reigne it is there deliuered in the person of wisedome by which no doubt is to be vnderstood the second person in Trinitie the wisedome of the Father It may be his meaning is that the Spirituall authority is from the good God and the Temporall from the euill god distinguishing as the Manicheans did Or that the Spirituall is from God and the Temporall from the people or the Spirituall from Christ and the Temporall from Antichrist Howsoeuer from a double beginning he inferres a double Supremacie whereas to speake properly that is onely Supreme which giues beginning and not that which receiues howbeit in themselues since the institution of the Leuiticall Law wee must confesse them distinct and independant the Priest depending on the Prince in regard of externall coactiue iurisdiction but not of inward vocation or outward ordination Power of the keyes of administring the Sacraments of preaching the Word in himselfe hee hath not and consequently cannot confer it vpon others and therefore was Saul reproued by Samuel for sacrificing a burnt offering and Vzziah plagued with leprosie for burning incense in the Temple Yet by special dispensation Moses the Supreme ciuil Magistrate consecrated Aaron the high Priest and is in regarde of preheminence termed his god and Iehoshaphat King of Iudah by his ordinary power gaue instructions aswel to the Priests as to the Iudges how to administer their seuerall charges himselfe being as it were the head and these two as his two eyes or armes Indeed before the Kingdome was erected I take the high Priest and the chiefe Iudge among the Israelites to haue bene as two heads without any appeale either from each to other or to any Superior But when once they had a King appeales lay to him from both Thus did Saint Paul appeale from the high Priest of his owne Nation to Caesar though an Heathen Emperour and from him was there no appeale at all So that the Spirituall authoritie was then subordinate to the Temporall but when once it began to interpose it selfe in Temporall affaires and within a while after to oppose it selfe against the Temporall power it made a ready way to the destruction of both B. C. 35. As for your wealth it is true that the Crowne hath more pence payed vnto it now then in the Catholike times it had but it hath neuer the more wealth It is but the gaine of the tellers to haue more money True wealth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee is the richest Prince that hath meanes to maintaine the greatest armie and to doe most magnificent workes both in warre and in peace wherin the facts of your Catholike ancestors doe appeare vpon good Record your Maiesties are but yet hoped for and if euer you haue the helpe of Catholike Religion to assist you I hope you shall excell them all otherwise I assure my selfe the Schisme will doe what it can to make you poore and then complaine that you are not rich It was indeed one of the maine pretenses in the statutes of Henry the VIII that the Schisme might inrich the King and maintaine his warres but God did not blesse it for notwithstanding all the Church lands and goods and tenths and fruits and premuniries King Henry the VIII was faine to abase his coyne more then once and yet he died not so rich as his Catholike father left him And since his time what is become of the Court of Augmentation what benefit doe you receiue of all the Church lands more then your Progenitors did when they were in the hands of the Clergie what ease haue your Subiects of Subsidies thereby or in briefe how much your Coffers are inriched you may be pleased to bee informed by those that haue to doe in those offices and can readily giue you an account for mine owne part I haue diligently read ouer the Statutes made by Henry the VIII and doe finde that
Kings Henry the VIII and Edward the VI. who by their Letters Patents haue warranted the same of which landes and possessions if the owners should now be dispossessed the King should be bound to repay vnto them all their money which would arise to such a huge masse that it would be a hard matter for the Crowne to restore it 3 The Nobles and Gentry of this realme most of whom haue sold and aliened their ancient inheritances to buy these new cannot liue according to their degrees if these possessions should be taken from them 4 The purchasers or owners of such lands and possessions in as much as they came to them by iust title according to the ordinance of the Kings of this kingdome haue held and doe still hold a good and iustifyable course in obteining them 5 The enioying of such landes and possessions is so common vnto euery State and condition of men Cities Colledges and Incorporations that if the same bee taken from them there will necessarily follow thereupon throughout the whole Kingdome a suddaine change and confusion of all Orders and Degrees 6 Seeing that the goods and possessions of the Church euen by the authority of the Cannons may bee aliened for the redemption of captiues and that the same may bee done by that Church onely to whom such possessions doe belong It is fit and reasonable that such dispensations should bee granted for continuing of possession already gotten for so great a good of publike concord and vnity of the Church and preseruation of this State as well in body as in soule Those possessions indeed in many places I speake specially of Tenths which by reason of Popish dispensations were first caried from the Church are as the flâ—sh which the Eagle stole from the Altar carying a coale of fire with it to the burning down and quite consuming of the nests of many of them that held them and in this respect Mr. Doctor may well say that the most part of them who now enioy them haue payed well for them in asmuch as the first owners were enforced or their posteritie within a generation or two to sell that which others purchased Now this curse of God I can impute to none other thing then to the alienation of Tenths from their proper vse to which they were and still should be ordained or at leastwise the bare and scant allowance which is made to the Minister of the greatest part of the fattest Impropriations so that commonly no Parishes are worse prouided for then those that pay most the redresse wherof if it should please God to put into his Maiesties heart and the assembly of the Estates in parliament it would bee a worke no doubt honourable in it selfe acceptable to CHRIST and beneficiall to his Church for which he would the rather blesse their other proceedings I speake not for the restoring of Impropriations though that were rather to be wished then hoped their value being little or nothing inferiour to the Benefices but the making of a coÌ„petent allowance out of them for the maintenance of a preaching Minister and I am sory to heare that some of them should be so backward in the former who most vrge the later the rather for that I would not haue it thought our Religion cannot stand but by the spoyle of the Church liuings though the Pope as it seemes by Mr. Doctor cares not who loseth so that himselfe may winne The vertue of the Sacraments expressed in holy Scripture wee preach not against but as for merit of workes and inuocation of Saints they were preached against and that in England long before the lands were taken from the Abbeys and though they are still preached against yet with vs are the Saints reuerenced with the honour due vnto them by our obseruation of the dayes consecrated to the memorials of their glorious and precious deaths And some Churches are built among vs as occasion serues and necessitie requires but more Hospitals Schooles almeshouses Colledges Libraries and the like charitable workes since the beginning of Queene Elizabeths reigne to this present time then in the space of any three score yeeres successiuely taken since the Conquest which I speake not to boast of the fruits of our Religion but to giue God the honour and as for the Hugonotes of France as you are pleased to terme them if they bee guilty of pulling downe Churches wee neither incourage them to it nor defend them in it as neither doe wee the Papists in their barbarous massacres but onely say of them as the parents of the blind man they are of sufficient age let them answere for themselues Lastly because you addresse your discourse in particular to the Nobles in this Section I craue leaue to put them in mind of a peece of a letter written by their predecessors to the Bishop of Rome during the reigâ—e of Henrie the III. I will recite it in the words of Matthew Parris translated The great ones sayth hee by writing to the Pope complained of the scandals bred out of the rapine and auarice of Rome and spread not onely in England but through the Christian world that themselues would not endure that their countrey from thencefoorth should bee so rudely handled no though the King himselfe should winke at it and vnlesse say they these matters bee speedily redressed by you let your Holinesse know for certaine that it may not vniustly bee feared that such a danger is likely thereby to ensue both to the Church of Rome and to our Lord the King that no remedie will easily bee found for it My hope then is that our Nobles being now farther enlightned by the beames of the Gospell and the cleare discouery of the trueth in the writings of learned men then their predecessours who liued in those times of darkenesse will like the Noble Theophilus to whom S. Luke dedicates his Gospell and The Actes of the Apostles and those noble Bereans who the more noble they were receiued the word with the greater readinesse hold fast the profession which they haue vowed themselues vnto by resisting the vsurpation and tyranny of that man of sinne and maintaining the libertie and freedome of their countrey In the first Parliament held by Queene Mary after her Comming to the Crowne the Nobilitie of England though they gaue way to the administration of the Sacraments and other doctrinall points as they were vsed and held in her Father Kings Henries time yet could they hardly be induced either by her importunitie whom it most concerned in regard of her birthright made good by the Popes dispensation or by the perswasions of Cardinall Poole her Cosin and by her made Archbishop of Canterbury who had beene for many yeeres maintained for the most part at the Popes charge to yeeld that the Queene should surrender her title of Supreme head of the Church of England or that the Pope should bee suffered to exercise his wonted iurisdiction within her dominions how much more then at
themselues might haue liued and died in the seruice of God without posteritie and haue helped to maintaine the rest of their families which was so great a benefit to the Common-wealth both for the exoneration and prouision thereof as no humane policie can procure the like The Farmer and Husbandman who laboureth to discharge his payments hath little or nothing left at theyeres end to lay vp for his children that increase grow vpon him may remember that in Catholike times there were better penny-worths to bee had when the Clergie had a great part of the Land in their hands who had no neede to raise the Rents themselues and did what they could to make other Lords let at a reasonable rate which was also an inestimable benefite to the Commons so that whereas ignorant men carried with enuie against the Clergie are wont to obiect the multitude of them and the greatnesse of their prouisions they speake therein as much against themselues as is possible for the greater the number is of such men as be mundo mortui the more is the exoneration of the Commons and the more the land is of such as can haue no proprietie in them the better is the prouision of the Commons for themselues can haue no more then their food and their regular apparell all the rest either remaines in the hands of the Tenants or returnes in hospitalitie and reliefe to their neighbours or is kept in a liuing Exchequer for the seruice of the Prince and Countrey in time of necessitie so that the Commons doe gaine no wealth at all but rather doe lose much by the Schisme G. H. 41. You proceede and assure the Commons that our separation from Rome makes much against their wealth and libertie for proofe whereof you beginne with the Puritan vnthrift who lookes for the ouerthrow of Bishops and Churches Cathedrall hoping to haue his share in them Now I denie not but some such vnthrifts there may bee shrouding themselues vnder the vizard of those whome you call Puritans but their power is not so great God bee thanked as wee neede feare them nor I hope shall bee whiles his Maiestie and his posterity sway the Scepter who is so farre from pulling them downe or giuing any way vnto it that hee hath not onely to his immortall fame bound his hands from withdrawing any thing from them but restored them in Scotland and both often and openly professed No Bishop no King and as for them which looke for that ouerthrow let their eyes drop out of their sockets with looking and the yong rauens deuoure them I haue heard of a platforme of our Church gouernment deuised by Parsons if the Pope should once againe recouer his footing amongst vs in which one especiall piece of his proiect is the pulling downe of the Bishopricks Churches Cathedrall that his Holinesse and the Padres may bee all in all so that the Iesuites may most properly bee termed those Puritan vnthrifts And I make no doubt but if his Holinesse could dispence with those who withhold the Tenths of the Church he might as well dispence with the pulling downe of Bishoprickes and Cathedrall Churches Now for those honest Protestants who for matter of religion could be content it were as it was conditionally themselues might receiue more benefit their heads may bee in England but sure their hearts are in Rome deceiuing themselues aswell in vndervalewing the benefit they haue as in expecting that they haue not nor are euer like to haue the faire pretexts and promises made them from Rome being like the Apothecaries boxes haâ—â—ng Catholicon set on their front in capitall letters as if they conteined a soueraigne medicine for all diseases but within are full of deadly poison or like the apples of Sodome which are to looke to beautifull buâ— being touched onely with the finger presently are turned into dust The first apple you present the Commons if they yeeld to the reentertaining of Popish religion is increase of wealth But before we goe any farther in the triall of this point I shall desire all ingenuous Papists rightly to informe both themselues and others what the two Monkes Matthew Paris and Matthew of Westminster haue left vpon record touching the Bishop of Romes most intolerable exactions in this kingdome whiles his authority here preuailed and then to iudge indifferently whether by submitting our neckes to that yoke which our fathers were not able to beare it be likely the wealth of our land should be increased That which one of the Popes pronounced touching our Countrey was doubtlesse the opinion of them all I speake of latter times Verè hortus noster deliciarum est Anglia verè puteus inexhaustus est vbi multa abundant de multis multa possunt extorqueri England is our Paradise of pleasure a well neuer to bee drawne drie and where much abounds much may be taken It was the speach of Innocent the IV. reported by Maâ—thew Paris anno 1245. about which time S. Edmond Archbishop of Canterbury vndertooke a voyage to Rome to complaine of the great vexations and extortions offered the Clergie and people by Caâ—dinall Otho his Legate who hiding himselfe in the tower of Ousnie Abbey for feare of a tumult of the Schollers of Oxford they termed him Vsurer Simonist rent-racker money-thirster peruerter of the King subuerter of the kingdome enriching strangers with the spoiles of the English but Edmund returning home without successe in his complaint and weary of his life in England by reason that hee could not redresse the Popes oppressions made choise of a voluntary banishment at Pountney in France where hee died with the honour and opinion of a Saint Not long after his Holinesse desirous to see England caused his Cardinals to write their letters to the King that it would be a thing tending much to his honour and safety and to his kingdomes immortall glory to enioy the Lord Popes presence who did long to view the rarities of Westminster and the riches of London but the Kings Counsell told him plainely that the Romane rapines and simonies had enough stained the English puritie though the Pope himselfe came not personally to spoile and prey vpon the wealth of this Church and kingdome the like deniall of entrance hee had found both in France and Arragon it being said that the Pope was like a mouse in a sachell or a snake in ones bosome who but ill repay their hosts for their lodging and the infamies of his Court deserued none other whose filth saith our Monke sent foorth a steame and stench as high as the very cloudes These and worse were the effects of the Bishop of Romes vsurpation here in England by imposing continuall taxes and tallages being sometimes the tenth sometimes the fifteenth sometimes the third sometimes the moity of all the goods both of the Clergie and Laity vnder colour of maintaining the Popes holy warres against the Emperour and the Greeke Church who were then
how hath their multitude intangled the Christian world yet must no man dare open his mouth to complaine of that We reade of Luther that when he heard his books by publike order were burnt in Rome he as solemnely burnt the Canon law at Wittenberge We haue not proceeded neither thinke wee it fit to proceed so farre but haue rather chosen out of that dunghill to seeke for a pearle which hauing found we are content to keepe and as occasion serues to make vse of We haue not wholly abrogated the Canon law but wee retaine it in part though not as receiuing strength from the Popes authoritie who for any thing I know hath no more right of making lawes for vs then wee haue for him but from the gouernours of our owne Church Neither did the Kings of France in the erection of their Vniuersities receiue it any otherwise then to vse at their own discretioÌ„ not to oblige them as a law or if it did the power of it was deriued from their owne approbation not from Romes imposition and therefore haue they expresly and by name forbidden the 6th Booke of the Decretals to bee read in their Vniuersities as lawe as being expresly against the lawes and liberties of the Gallican Church Now if they refuse one part they might in my iudgement by the same reason if they found it inconuenient or disagreeable reiect the whole and I thinke they would not stand much if occasion serued vpon the casting off of the Canon lawe who could by no meanes yet bee induced to the receiuing of the Canons of the Council of Trent A notable instance hereof wee haue euen in the depth of Popery in our owne Countrey At the Parliament of Merton it was proposed that children borne before marriage might bee adiudged legitimate according to the rule and practise of the Canon law They all made answere with one voice Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari we wil not yeeld to the change of the lawes of England by which it appeares that they receiued not in those very times all the Popes Canons as lawes and those which they receiued they had not the force of lawes because the Pope imposed theÌ„ but because themselues entertained them in that nature and to that purpose ratified them Mr. Doctor need not marueile then if our Parliament now make lawes to the same purpose and by the same authority as they ratified those The Summons of Parliament euer since the time of King Henry the V. and how long before I know not haue in one constant forme and tenour made mention that the Parliament is summoned to consult de negotijs statum defensionem Regni Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae contigentibus of businesses concerning the State and defence of the Realme and Church of England Among other Kings S. Edward begins his lawes with this protestation that it was his Princely care Vt populum Dei super omnia Sanctam Ecclesiam regat gubernet To rule and gouerne Gods people and aboue all the Church of God And before him Ina kâ—ng of the West Saxons professeth that hee called a Councill of his Bishops and Senators that they might consult of matters De salute animarum Statu regni touching the saluation of their soules and the State of the kingdome And therefore doeth our chiefe Antiquarie rightly distinguish our Courts into Ecclesiasticall Ciuill and mixt which hee makes the Parliament as beeing compounded of both and consequently capable to determine of matters of both natures though I must needes say the case is somewhat altered from â—ormer times when not onely the Arch-bishâ—ps the Bishops the Abbots and Priors whose number was double to thâ—t which now it is and litle inferiour to the â—eâ—porall Lords sate in thhe igher House of Paâ—liament and had conâ—luding voâ—ces but the bodie of the Clergie and Cathedrall â—hurches had their Proctours amongst the Commons as may be câ—llected by diuers of our Statutes in print but noâ— that the number of the Lords Spirituall in the higher House is â—essened and the others are cleane excluded the lower House mee thinkes it should stand with reason and equitie that thâ— liâ—ertie of making of lawes or Canons in Church-matters should bee referred and reserued by his Maiesties gracious fauour and with his Royall assent to Church-men assembled in their Conuocation who are presumed to be most able and willing to establish good and wholesome Constitutions and to reforme what is amisse Thus in the yeere 1603 at his Maiesties first entrance into this kingdome by vertue of hiâ— Prerogatiue Royall and Supreame authority in causes Ecclesiasticall did hee graunt licâ—nce and free power vnto them to treate and agree vpon such Ordinances as they should thinke necessary and conuenient for the honour and seruice of Almighty God and the good and quiet of the Church and afterward being by them agreed vpon and throughly considered by his Maâ—estie out of his princely inclination to maintaine the present estate and gouernment of the Church of England hee not onely coâ—firmed them by his Royall Assent but by the same authoritie commaunded the entertainement and execution of them through the Realme Another matter you fling at is the multitude of Lawyers at this day as iâ— they were exceedingly increased but if you had read and well obseâ—ued Foretescues obseruation in this behalfe who wrote about 200. yeeres since being then Chiefe Iustice of England and had compared this time to that you would haue found that the number of that Proâ—ession in those dayes was litle lesse then at this day certainely their colledges were then more then now His words are Sunt namque in eo decem hospitia minora et quandâ—que verò plura quae nominantur hospitia Cancellariae ad quorum quodlibet pertinent centum studentes ad minus et ad aliqua eorum maior in multo numerus licet non omnes in eis semper conueniant MaioruÌ„ quatuor sunt ad minimuÌ„ eorum pertinent in forma praenot at a ducenti studentes aut propè They haue ten lesser houses which they call Innes of Chancerie to euery of which belong one hundred students at least and to some many more though they be not all continually resident in them of the bigger houses they haue â—oure and to each of them in like manner belong two hundred students or thereabout Whereras at this present in some of the Innes of Court there are not 260. and in the greatest little aboue 300. in commons at one time and for the â—nnes of Chancerie they are but eight in number and in most of them not aboue 50. in commons together But if they are increased it may well be imputed not so much to our multitude of statuts as to our long peace the nurse of homebred quarrels or to the dissolution of our Monestaries and that as I conceiue for foure reasons First for that whereas in those dayes when the Monasteries stood many yonger brothers did