cause which persons do also preach divers matters of Slander to engender Discord and Dissention betwixt divers Estatés of the said Realm as well Spiritual as Temporal in exciting of the people to the great peril of the Realm Which Preachers cited or summoned before the Ordinaries of the places there to answer of that whereof they be impeached will not obey to their Summons and Commandments nor care for their Monitions nor Censures of the Holy Church but expresly despise them And moreover by their subtle and ingenious words do draw the people to hear their Sermons and do maintain them in their Errors by strong Hand and great Routs It is ordained and assented in this present Parliament That the King's Edmmissions be made and directed to the Sheriffs and other Miuisters of our Soveraign Lord the King or other sufficient persons Learned and according to the Certifications of the Prelates thereof to be made in Chancery from time to time to arrest all such Preachers and also their Faitors Maintainers and Abettors and to hold them in Arrest and strong Prison 'till they will justifie them according to the Law and Reason of Holy Church And the King wills and commandeth That the Chancellor make such Commissions at all times that he by the Prelates or any of them shall be certified and thereof required as is aforesaid This was the first pretended Statute that ever was in England for imprisoning Christians for Religious opinions and by colour thereof the Bishops committed great Cruelties I call it pretended Statute for tho it be enter'd in the Parliament Rolls yet it was no Legal Act for it never pass'd the Commons And therefore at the next Parliament in Michaelmas Term following the Commons preferr'd a Bill â—eciting the same and constantly affirmed That they never assented thereunto and therefore desired that the said supposed Statute be annull'd and made void for they protested That it was never their intent that either themselves or such as shall succeed them should be farther subject or bound to the Prelates than were their Ancestors in former times And to this the King gave his Royal Assent in these words Il plaist au Roy The King is pleas'd that it be so Cook 3 Instit fo 40. Foxes Acts and Monuments fo 406. But that you may more fully understand the fraud and subtlety of their Reverences in this Affair you must understand That before the invention of Printing the usual way of publishing Acts of Parliament was to engross them in Parchment and send them with the King 's Writ into every County commanding the Sheriff to proclaim them Now John Braibrook Bishop of London being then Lord Chancellor of England he by a Writ dated 26 May Anno Regni Regis R. 2. quinto sent down the before recited Ordinance of the King and Prelates amongst the Statutes that were then lately pass'd But no less knavishly left out in the next Parliamentary Proclamation the said Act of Revocation whereby the said supposed Statute was made void by which means afterwards the other still pass'd as an Act and was printed continually as such but the Act that disannull'd it was by the Interest of the Prelates from time to time kept out of the Prints the better to give colour to their imprisoning of the Laity at their pleasure And farther to make sure work Henry the Fourth having usurp'd the Crown to gratifie the Clergy who had chiefly assisted him therein in the second year of his Raign he at their Instigation procured the following cruel and wicked Law to be Enacted commonly call'd The Statute Ex Officio which that the Reader may the better observe the Spirit of Popery and Persecution and compare the Times and Actings of Men in past and more modern Times I hope it shall neither be thought tedious nor unuseful to recite the same at large Verbatim it not being now extant in Kceble or any of our Common Statute Books ITem Whereas it is shewed to our Soveraign Lord the King on the behalf of the Prelates and Clergy of this Realm of England in this present Parliament That altho the Catholick Faith builded upon Christ and by his Apostles and the holy Church sufficiently determined declared and approved hath been hitherto by good and holy and most noble Progeniâ—ors of our Soveraign Lord the King in the said Realm amongst all the Realms of the World most devoutly observ'd and the Church of England by his said most noble Progenitors and Ancestors to the honour of God and of the whole Realm aforesaid landably endow'd and in her Rights and Liberties sustain'd without that that the same Faith or the said Church was hurt or grievously oppressed or else perturbed by any perverse Doctrine or Wicked Heretical or Erronious Opinions Yet nevertheless divers false and perverse people of a certain new Sect of the Faith of the Sacraments of the Church and the Authority of the same damnably thinking and against the Law of God and of the Church usurping the Office of Preaching do perversly and maliciously in divers places within the said Realm under the colour of dissembled Holiness preach and teach these days openly and privily divers nâ—w Doctrines and wicked Heretical and Erronious Opinions contrary to the same Faith and blessed Determinations of the holy Church And of such Sect and wicked Doctrine and Opinions they make unlawful Conventicles and Confederacies they hold and exercise Schools they make and write Books they do wickedâ—y instruct and inform people and as much as they may excite and stir them to Sedition and Insurrection and maketh great strife and division among the people and other Enormities horribly to be heard daily do perpetrate and commit in subversion of the Catholick Faith and Doctrine of the holy Church in diminution of God's honour and also in destruction of the Estate Rights and Liberties of the said Church of England by which Sect and wicked and false Preachings Doctrine and Opinions of the said false and perverse people not only most great peril of the Souls but also many more other hurts slanders and perils which God prohibit might come to this Realm unless it be the more plentifully and speedily holpen by the King's Majesty in this behalf namely whereas the Diocesans of the said Realm cannot by their Jurisdiction Spiritual without Aid of the said Royal Majesty sufficiently correct the said false and perverse people nor refrain their Malice because the said false and perverse people do go from Diocess to Diocess and will not appear before the said Diocesan but the same Diocesans and their Jurisdiction Spiritual and the Keys of the Church with the Censures of the same do utterly contemn and despise and so their wicked Preachings and Doctrines doth from day to day continue and exercise to the hatred of Right and Reason and utter destruction of Order and good Rule Vpon which Novelties and Excesses above rehearsed the Prelates and Clergy aforesaid and also the Commons of the said Realm being in
and False Doctrines then obtruded in the Church which much Incensed the Prelates with Rage and particularly observing that Sir John Old-Castle a valiant Religious Knight of Kent and who in the Right of his Wife was Lord Cobham to be a great Favourer of that Doctrine they resolve to take him to task but first of all Complain of him to the King in the first Year of his Reign who sent for and discoursed him to whom the Lord Cobham declared his Loyalty and Obedience but added That as touching the Pope and Prelates he ow'd them neither Suit nor Service for that by the Scriptures he knew the Pope to be Antichrist c. Upon which the King would talk no further with him Then Arundel the Arch-bishop began to Cite him before him and not being obey'd Pronounc'd him guilty of Contumacy at last the Lord Còbham drew up a Confession of his Faith being an Explanation of the Apostles Creed and very Orthodox with which he repaired to the Court and humbly tendred it to the King but he refused to receive it and by the Kings Commandment he was sent to the Tower and in the 23 d. of Sept. 1413. Conven'd before the Arch-bishop and the Bishops of London and Winchester The chief Objections against him were That he held Erroneous and Heretical Opinions in these Four Points viz. Touching the Sacrament Touching Pennance Touching Images And touching Pilgrimages Therefore he delivered in to the said Bishops a Writing Indented containing his Opinion in each of these Particulars which not being long we shall here recite Verbatim I John Old-Castle Knight Lord of Cobham Will That all Christian Men Weet and Vnderstand that I Clepe Almighty God into Witness that it hath been now is and ever with the help of God shall be mine intent and my will to Believe faithfully and fully all the Sacraments that ever God Ordain'd to do in Holy Church and moreover to declare me in these four Points I Believe that the most Worshipful Sacrament of the Altar is Christs Body in the Form of Bread the same Body that was Born of the Blessed Virgin our Lady Saint Mary done on the Cross Dead and Buried the Third Day Rosâ— from Death to Life the which Body is now Glorified in Heaven Also as for the Sacrament of Pennance I believe that it is needful to every man that shall be Saved to forsake Sin and do due Pennance for Sin before done with true Confession very Contrition and due Satisfaction as Gods Law limiteth and Teacheth and else may he not be Saved which Pennance I desire all Men to do And as of Images I Vnderstand that they be not of Beleeve but that they were Ordain'd sith they beleeve was zewe of Christ by sufferance of the Church to be Calenders to Lews Men to Represent and Bring to mind the Passion of our Lord Jesu Christ and Martyrdom and good Living of other Saints and that who so it be that doth the Worship to dead Images that is due to God or putteth such hope or trust in help of them as he should do to God or hath Affection in one more than in another he doth in that the greatest Sin of Maumetrie Also I suppose this fully That every Man in this Earth is a Pilgrim towards Bliss or toward Pain and that he that Knoweth not ne will not Know ne Keep the Holy Commandments of God in his Living here albeit that he be go on Pilgrimages to all the World and he die so he shall be Damned he that knoweth the Holy Commandments of God and Keepeth them to his End he shall be Saved though he never in his Life go on Pilgrimage as Men now use to Canterbury or to Rome or to any other Place The COURANT. Papist and Tory. Tory. WEll and how go Cases now Papist Not altogether so well as we expected The heat against Dissenting Hereticks in many places begins to Cool not can we get the people to believe That Godfrey Murder'd himself Tory. Murder'd himself Why Thompson Num. 131. talks as if he were still alive and expected next fair Wind. For he says the Truth of his Two Sham-Letters will be as effectually prov'd as the Appearance of the Viscountess Cambaen's Steward did clear that business Which can no otherwise so effectually nor indeed at all be done without Sir Edmund Bury's appearing alive again and indeed I have often wonder'd that the Church which boasts of Miracles for one of her Notes hath not all this while wrought One by raising that Gentleman again to Life which undoubtedly would destroy the suspition of the Plot for ever Pap. Tush I may tell you as a Friend we are better by half at Raising of Lies than at Raising the Dead This Godfrey's Ghost always haunts us and all the skill of the South-sayer Gadbury the Hagg Celier or our Saterdotal Conjurers cannot tell how to Lay it How many Devices have we started to Evade not the Guilt but the Scandal of having Murder'd him Once we would have put it upon the Earl of D. to which purpose we scatter'd about a Libel call'd Reflections c. But that not taking comes in Macgrath and his Crew and they were for Swearing That he hang'd himself and his Man Mr. Moor cut him down This being likewise Confuted we revive our first story and Now we would make the World think he Murder'd himself with his own Sword Tory. If you had left the Management of this Intrigue to Roger he would have dispatcht it better by half than Natt for to speak Truth all the Priests are but Bunglers to him Pap. O but he had formerly given it under his hand That he did not in the least doubt but Sir Edm. Godfrey was Murder'd by Papists Tory. No matter for That He shall unsay it again for Two pence and prove that they were Presbyterians kill'd him and then we will have a new Setâ— of Abhorrencies go about to Abominate Detest and Defie John Calvin and all his Works This were somewhat to â—he purpose but to come as Natt does with Ifs and ands If Sir E. B. Godfreys Body were full of Blood If his Nostrils c. were fly blown If his Body stunk and Cakes of putrified Blood were found in his Cloathes c. Well what then Why then if all this were true Natt Thompson is a Lyer for Printing in October 78. a Narrative upon his own personal view quite contrary to all these Assertions But Friend Natt the Whiggs have often told you That these Suggestions are All notorious Lies forg'd out of a devilish Design to Conceal Murder and stifle Treason c. and they have Challeng'd you to produce the Witnesses that you boast of and you have not been able to name One except it be Mr. W. and him the very next Week you uâ—braid with Tankard stealing Pap. Well! well a little patience we have a parcel of Witnesses on the Stocks and as soon as we can Equipp and Rigg them something may be done
to express their Abhorrence of such Popish Shams and Lies and to Address to the Right Honourable the LORD MAYOR That Thompson be call'd to Account for 't Printed for Langley Curtis 1681-2 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY March 17. 1681-2 Plangunt Anglorum gentes Crimen Sodomorum Paulus fert horum sunt Idola Causa malorum Surgunt nigrati Gierzitae Simone Nati Nomine Praelati hoc defensare parati Qui Reges estis populis quicunque praeestis Qualiter his gestis gladios prohibêre potestis Versic Parl. exhib Anno 18. Rich. 2. The Proceedings against Dissenters in the Raigns of King Richard the Second and King Henry the Fourth WE have told you the severe Laws made against all those that in these dark Times durst open their Eyes and see farther than Popery the Church then as by Law establisht thought fit to permit them such Hereticks were generally call'd Lollards they were the Puritans the Fanaticks the Whigs the Brummingham's of those days and how busie the Magistrates especially of the Clergy were to put the said Laws in Execution against them will appear in the following account 'T is true during the Raign of King Richard the Second we do not find any burnt to Death for the profession of Religion but many were imprison'd harrass'd and in great trouble and especially William Swinderby a Priest and Walter Brute a Lay-man but Learned and a Graduate of the University of Oxford the several Articles against whom and their Answers thereunto you may read at large in Foxes Acts and Monuments too tedious here to recite I shall therefore only note That John Bishop of Hereford having by solemn sentence denounced the said Swinderby to be an Heretick Schismatick and a false informer of the People and to be avoided by all faithful Christians He the said Swinderby did thereupon Appeal from such the Bishops Sentence to the King and Council by an Instrument under his hand which both in respect of the Matter and of the English wherein it is written being such as was then current now above 280 years ago I shall trespass so far on the Readers patience as to repeat it verbatim IN nomine Patris Filii Spiritûs Sancti Amen I William Swinderby Priest knowledge openly to all Men That I was before the Bishop of Hereford the Third day of October and before many other good Clerkâ— to answer to certain Conclusions of the Faith I was accused of and mine Answer was this That if the Bishop or any Man couâ—hâ— shew me by God's Law that my Conclusions or my Answers were Errour or Heresie I would be amended and openly revoke them before all the people but they sayden singly with word That there was Errours in them and bidden me subject me to the Bishop and put me into his Grace and revoke mine Errour and shewed me nought by God's Law ne Reason ne proved which they weren And for I would not knowledge me Guilty so as I knew no Errour in them of which I should therefore the Bishop sate in Doom in mine absence and deemed me an Heretick a Schismatick and a teacher of Errours and denounced me accursed that I come not to correction of the Church and therefore for this unrightful Judgment I appeal to the King's Justices for many other Causes One Cause is For the King's Court in such matter is above the Bishop's Court for after the Bishop has accursed he may not fear by his Law but then mote he sech succour of the King's Law and by a Writ of Significavit put a Man in Prison The second Cause For in cause of Heresie there liggeth Judgment of Death and that doom may not be given without the King's Justices For the Bishop will say Nobis non licet interficere quenquam that is It is not lawful for us to kill any man as they sayden to Pilate when Christ should be deemed And for I think that no Justice will give sodenly and untrue Doom as the Bishop did and therefore openly I appeal to hem and send my Conclusions to the Knights of the Parliament to be shewed to the Lords and to be taken to the Justices to be well adviset or that they given Doom The third Cause is For it was a false Doom for no Mâ—n is a Heretick but he that Masterfully defends his Errour or Heresie and stifly maintains it And mine Answer has always bene Conditional as the people openly knows for ever I say and yet say and alway will that if they cannen shew me by Gods Law that I have erret I will gladly bene amendet and revoke mine Errours and so I am no Heretick ne nevermore in Gods grace will ben en no wise The fourth Cause is For the Bishop's Law that they deme Men by is full of Errours and Heresies contrary to the truth of Christ's Law of the Gospel For there as Christ's Law bids us Love our Enemies the Pope's Law gives us leave to hate them and to sley them and graunts Men pardon to werren again Heathen Men and sley hem And there as Christ's Law teach us to be merciful the Bishop's Law teachs us to be wretchful for Death is the greatest wretch that 〈◊〉 mowen done on him that guilty is There as Christs Law teaches us to blessen him that diseazen us and to pray for him the Popes Law teacheth us to Curse them and in their great sentence that they usen they presume to Dam hem to Hell that they cursen And this is afoue Heresie of Blasphemy There as Christ's Law bids us be patient the Pope's Law justifies two Swords that wherewith he smitheth the Sheep of the Church and he has made Lords and Kings to swear to defend him and his Church There as Christ's Law forbideth us Letchery the Pope's Law justifies the abominable Whoredom of common Women and the Bishops in some place have a great Tribute or Rent of Whoredom There as Christ's Law bids to minister Spiritual things freely to the people the Pope with his Law sells for Money after the quantity of the Gift as Pardons Orders Blessings and Sacraments and Prayers and Benefices and preaching to the People as it is known amongst them There as Christ's Law teaches Peace the Pope with his Law assoiles Men for money to gader the People Priests and other to fight for his Cause There as Christ's Law forbids Swearing the Pope's Law justifies Swearing and compels men thereto Whereas Christ's Law teacheth his Priests to be Poor the Pope with his Law justifies and maintains Priests to be Lords And yet the fifth Cause is For the Pope's Law that the Bishops demen Men by is the same unrightful Law that Christ was demet by of the Bishops with the Scribes and with the Pharisees for right as at time they gaven more credens to the two false Witnesses that witnessed against Christ then they deden to all the people that witnesseden to his
by the Clergy or some of their Agents during the Kings Absence in France at which time the Notion of setting up for a Regent might be probable But when this supposed Insurrection happened the King was not gone but lay at Eltham 2. The number of the Rebels are said to be Twenty Thousand and Array'd in Warlike manner now 't is very strange and improbable how so great a Number could get together and more strange that they should all be routed and disperst meerly by the Kings coming to them into the Thickets for we do not read of any Army leavied by the King to oppose them Nor do we hear of one person kill'd nor so much as a Broken Pate or a Bloody Nose in all this terrible Insurrection had there been such a Forces their designs so horrid against the Kings Life he would have hardly ventur'd himself amongst them so ill provided 3. It would seem by this Indictment that these Twenty Thousand Rebells were all Horse men for it saith proditoriè modo Insurrectionis contra Ligeanceas suas Equitavêrunt they Treasonably after the manner of an Insurrection came Riding c. Now this increases the Miracle for 't was a work of great time and vast Expence to raise an Army of Twenty Thousand Horse But besides if they were Horse what did they do in St. Gileses Thickets Sure that was none of the best places to Randevouz in again if they came Riding thus in Battel Array Twenty Thousand strong how does the other part of the Indictment hold water where 't is said Privatim Insurgentes Privately Rising a Clause which shrewdly intimates that some of the Clergy have been tampering with this Indictment and that it was not drawn with much Advice of the Kings Learned Council at Law for they would never have thus contradicted themselves or inserted such impertinent words as Privatim Insurgentes 4. Nor is it less pleasant to consider that there should be Twenty Thousand Horse levyed in open Rebellion to perpetrate the most horrid Treason that could be Imagined and these should be all discomfited and such vast Numbers of them taken that our Monkish Historians talk of all the Prisons about London being fill'd with them and yet none of all their names known but Sir John Oldcastle whâ—â—at the same time by the general Current of History seems too to have been at the same time in Wales Sir R. Actoâ— Mr. Brown and Beverly the preacher for so the Indictment sayes Quam pluribus Rebellibus Ignotis c. 5. A most material exception to this pretended Indictment is that therein the Kings Brothers are stiled John of Lancaster and Humphrey of Lancaster whereas in truth they then were and ever since the 13 th year of their Father Henry the 4 th had been Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester as you may read in Caxtons Chronicle now can any wise man imagine that the Kings Council if they had drawn this Indictment upon so great an Important an occasion would have been so negligent aâ— sto omit those Princes Titles and only with an unpardonable Rudeness call them John and Humphrey Credat Judaeus Apella 6. If the matter had been Treason why were not the offenders executed in such manner as in cases of Treason the Law requires but we do not find that they were Hang'd drawn and quarter'd but only Hang'd which is not the Judgment in Treason 7. As for Sir John Oldcastle himself after he was taken and brought upout of Wales which was about the year 1417. There being then a Parliament sitting the Records thereof do give this following account viz. That Sir John Oldcastle of Cowling in the County of Kent Knight being Out-lawd in the Kings-bench and being Excommunicated before by the Arch-Bishop for Haeresy was brought before the Lords and having heard his Convictions It seems the Haeresy was charg'd upon him there as well as the Outlawry answered not thereunto for his Excuse upon which it was Adjudged that he should be taken as a Traytor to the King and the Realm and carried to the Tower of London and from thence drawn through the City unto the New Gallows in St. Gileses without the old Temple Barr and there to be Hanged and burned Hanging In which Proceedings we may note 1. That he was never try'd by his Peers that is by any Jury for he was but a Commoner not a Peer of the Realm and suffered upon the Outlawry and Excomunication and therefore when we said in our last p. 123. That without any farther Tryal or Judgment he was Hang'd and Burnt we desire to be understood intended of any Legal common or ordinary Trial or Judgment according to the Course of the Laws For 2. If he were duly Out-law'd for Treason upon his being taken there was no need for carrying him before the Lords in Parliament For by the very Out-lawry he would have been Attainted and without more ado should have had Judgment in the Kings Bench as a Traytor But it may justly be suspected that the Judges of that Court perceiving what kind of practises there had been in this case declined to be so far concern'd therein and therefore Certified the Record into the Parliament which they did together with the Bishops Sentence of Excommunication filed to the Record A method very strange and unpresidented 3. 'T is observable that after all this the Lords did pass such Judgment on him as was not due to a Traitor and though it be true the Parliament might by Act have Attainted him and thereupon Ordained a special Judgment as they should have thought good yet since they did not so proceed since he was before Attainted by the Out-lawry and thereupon or else without any Colour of Law suffered I conceive their Lordships could not lawfully vary from the common Judgment of Treason 4. It is further to be noted that in the Records of the said Parliament it is added that a motion was made that the Lord Powis one of the Ancestors no doubt of that Popish Lord now in the Tower for High Treason might be thanked and Rewarded according to the Proclamation for his great pains of taking of Sir John Oldcastle Knight Haeretick But the Roll there does not mention Traitor so that it seems pretended Haeresy was his greatest indeed for ought we can perceive main and probably Except breaking Prison his only Crime Yet we are not ignorant that the Old Monks and the Modern Jesuite Parsons bring several other most false Accusations against him as that he was an Anabaptist and would have had all things in common but this Calumny seems to have no other grounds than his complaining of the superfluity of the Clergy in those timer and wishing that their abundance had been distributed to better uses nay they blush not to write Tantâ praeditur fuit dementiâ ut putaret se post tridâ—um à morte Resurrecturus He was so madd that he perswaded himself that he should Rise again the Third day as another
the Rivers or as the Branches of the Frankincense-Tree in the time of Summer Touching Wickliff's Parentage all we can find is That he was born about the farthest part of York-shire and Mr. Birckbek who was Minister of Gilling in those Parts in his Learned Treatise Entituled The Protestants Evidence printed 1632. Centur. 14. assures us That some of the Family remain'd there then and probably may continue to this day his words are these Our Country-man John Wickliff was born in the North where there is near to the place where I live an ancient and worshipful House bearing the name of Wickliff of Wickliff But in what Year he was born is not Recorded only 't is certain that he was liberally Educated and became Learned beyond that Age and flourished about the year of our Lord 1371. in the Reign of King Edward the Third being then Fellow of Merton-Colledge in Oxford A happy Foundation Illustrious for breeding many most famous Men as Friar Bacon Burley Scotus Occham Peccham Bradwardine c. He was afterwards Master of Baliol-Colledge in Oxford where he commenc'd Doctor and was chosen Reader in Divinity In which public Lectures he shew'd himself a deep Schoolman as in his ordinary Sermons a faithful Pastor of the Church for whose Edification he spar'd no pains for he Translated the whole Bible into the vulgar Tongue one Copy whereof written with his own hand is or lately was extant in St. John Baptist Colledge in Oxford He was beloved of all good Men for his holy Life and admired even by his Adversaries for his Learning For we find Walden his profess'd and spiteful Enemy in a certain Letter to Pope Martin the Fifth forc'd to acknowledge That he was wonderfully astonish'd at his most forcible Arguments the various and pertinent Authorities he had gathered with the vehemence and smartness of his Reasonings Nor was he unacquainted with Humanity or polite Civil Learning especially he is observed to have been well read in our English Laws and wrote so many large Volumes as well in Philosophy as Divinity as the same is almost incredible He seem'd to follow in the course of his Studies the method of the Schoolmen and amongst them was a profess'd follower of Occham by reading of whose Works and sundry others who lived about the same time or not long before as Bradwardine Marsilius St. Amore Abelardus Armachanus and that great and godly Learned Man Rob. Grosthead and especially and above all by diligent perusal of the Holy Scriptures God gave him grace and understanding to see the truth of his Gospel and by seeing it to loath all superstition and the ill precepts and practises of the then pretended Rules of the Church In particular by Occham and Marsilius he was informed of the Popes Intrusions and Usurpations upon Kings their Crowns and Dignities Guido de S. Amore and Armachanus shew'd him the sundry abuses of Monks and Friars in upholding this usurped Power By Abelard and others he began to have a right Apprehension touching the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Bradwardine taught him the Nature of a true sole justifying Faith against Meritmongers and Pardoners Finally by Grosthead's Work with which he seem'd most conversant he descried the Popes to be the very Antichrist by hindering the Gospel to be preached and placing unfit and unworthy Men in the Church and in making all Religion subservient to his damnable Policy Being thus enlighten'd 't is no wonder if in his Writings and Preachings he delivered many things against the then corrupted Doctrine of the Church but his Positions were chiefly directed against the several Orders of Begging Friars who were his professed Persecutors and all Foreign usurped Jurisdiction of the Pope By which he purchased some favour or at least connivance at Court and got his other Complaints against them for other matters the more easily heard and regarded for at that time the Friars Orders by their manifold and notorious Disorders were become exceeding odious and the Popes pretences of Jurisdiction by Provisions Reservations and Collations not only grievous but utterly intollerable This made way unto those excellent Acts of Parliament of Praemunire against any that should appeal to Rome or draw the Subjects of England ad aliud Examen To any Foreign Jurisdiction as also against Provisors and the Abuses of Begging Friars which fobridled and restrained the Pope's Authority that he could but little prevail in England during the Raign of King Edward the Third or Richard the Second Towards making which Law Wickliff had no small Interest by disposing several of the Nobility and the Body of the Commons thereunto maintaining no less Loyalty and Magnanimously than Learnedly the King's Jurisdiction Crown and Dignity by the Laws Civil Canon and Common For which reason the Learned Dr. James in Wickliff's Life tells us That he was by one King sent Ambassador into Foreign Parts and by another consulted here at home But amongst all his Arguments he most insisted upon those drawn from the common Municipal Laws of England the best Bull-works for the Prerogative and Imperial Right of our Kings against all the Usurpations and Encroachments of any Exotic Claim for the maintenance of his Opinions and the better to enable him therein he had good Directions and Advice from time to time from the Reverend Judges and Sages in the Law He was not so much hated of the Monks and Clergy out of Self-interest because he opposed their lewd Practises but he was much indulg'd and favour'd by the Temporal State for his Piety Learning and Virtue For not only many of the Nobility but the City of London and the University of Oxford were his Friends which makes Walsingham the Monk angry who upon all occasions vomits out his Gall against poor Wickliff that that famous Academy where as he saith was the very height and top of Wisdom and Learning should so kindly entertain him Nor were they Freshmen or younger Fry of Students there that were his Admirers but even the Heads and Chief of the University for Mr. Robert Rigge Vice-Chancellor and the two Proctors took part with him as also Nicholas Herford John Ashton of Merton Colledge John Ashwarby of Oriel Colledge Minister of St. Maries Church these all being Preachers and Batchelors of Divinity joined with him and were put to Trouble for the same THE COURANT. Tory. NAY now I think you are met with what say you to that ingenious Piece publish'd last week Entituled A Postscript of Advice from Geneva Truem. I shall not say much to it let my Lords the Bishops look after it for as Governours under His Majesty of our Protestant Church I humbly conceive it concerns them abundantly more than me since 't is plain the Libel is the â—pawn of some rank invenom'd Popish Priest and whether Nat. Thompson or Gammer Turner a profest Papist or a masqueraded one Midwif'd it into the World is not much material It pretends indeed to fall soul on the Calvinists which possibly Striplings in
which in hast was left or forgotten running with it to carry it to the rest in the Bonefire brake his Leg. Here was Lex Talionis Bone for Bone And to this day for a perpetual Monument in the very place where they burnt his Bones tho the Townsmen for their own profit have often essayed to bring the Water that way it never holds but still makes a Bank Thus far the Doctor I shall conclude this Weeks Task with a Copy of John Wickliff's Answer or Resolution to King Richard touching the Right and Title of the King and Pope which was as follows It being demanded whether the Kingdom of England may lawfully in case of necessity for its own defence detain and keep back the Treasure of the Kingdom that it be not carried away to foreign and strange Nations the Pope himself demanding and requiring the same under pain of Censure and by vertue of Obedience To which Wickliff return'd this Answer Setting apart the Minds of Learned Men what might be said in the matter either by the Canon Law or by the Law of England or the Civil Law It resteth saith he not only to persuade and prove the Affirmative part of this Doubt but the Principles of Christ's Law And first I prove it thus Every natural Body hath Power given it of God to resist against his Contrary and to preserve it self in due Estate as Philosophers know very well in so much that Bodies without Life are endu'd with such a kind of Power as it is evident unto whom hardness is given to resist those things that would break it and Coldness to withstand the Heat that dissolveth it For so much then as the Kingdom of England after the manner and phrase of the Scriptures ought to be one Body and the Clergy with the Commonalty the Members thereof it seemeth that the same Kingdom hath such Power given it of God and so much the more apparent but how much the same Body is more precious unto God adorned with Vertue and Knowledge For so much then as there is no Power given of God unto any Creature for any end or purpose but that he may lawfully use the same to that end and purpose it followeth that our Kingdom may lawfully keep back and detain their Treasure for the defence of it self in what case soever necessity do require the same Secondarily the same is proved by the Law of the Gospel for the Pope cannot challenge the Treasure of this Kingdom but under the Title of Alms and consequently under the pretence of the Works of Mercy according to the Rule of Charity But in the Case aforesaid the Titel of Alms ought utterly to cease Ergo the Right and Title of challenging the Treasure of our Realm shall cease also in the presupposed necessity For so much as all Charity hath his beginning of himself it were no work of Charity but of meer madness to send away the Treasures of the Realm unto Foreign Nations whereby the Realm it self may fall into Ruine under the pretence of such Charity It appeareth also by this that Christ the Head of the Church whom all Christian Priests ought to follow lived by the Alms of Devout Women Luke 7. 8. He hungred and thirsted he was a Stranger and many other Miseries he sustained not only in his Members but also in his own Body as the Apostle witnesseth 1 Cor. 8. He was made poor for your sakes that through his Poverty you might be made rich whereby in the first endowing of the Church whatsoever he were of the Clergy that had any Temporal Possessions he had the same by form of a perpetual Alms as both Writings and Chronicles do witness Whereupon St. Bernard in his second Book to Eugenius that he could not challenge any Secular Dominion by Right of Succession as being the Vicar of St. Peter writeth thus That if St. John should speak unto the Pope himself as Bernard doth unto Eugenius were it to be thought that he would take it patiently But let it be so that you do challenge it unto you by some other way or means but truly by any Right or Title Apostolical you cannot so do For how could he give unto you that which he had not himself That which he had he gave you that is to say Care over the Church but did he give you any Lordship or Rule Haâ—k what he saith Not bearing Rule saith he as the Lords in the Clergy but behaving your selves as Examples to the Flock And because thou shalt not think it to be spoken only in Humility and not in Verity mark the Word of the Lord himself in the Gospel The Kings of the Gentiles rule over them but thou shalt not do so Here Lordship and Dominion is plainly forbidden to the Apostles and darest thou then usurp the same If thou wilt be a Lord thou shalt lose thine Apostleship or if thou wilt be an Apostle thou shalt lose thy Lordship for truly thou shalt depart from the one of them If thou wilt have both thou shalt lose both or else think thy self to be of that number of whom God doth so greatly complain saying They have Reign'd but not through me they are become Princes and I have not known it Now if it do suffice to Rule with the Lord thou hast thy Glory but not with God but if we will keep that which is forbidden let us hear what is said He that is the Greatest among you saith Christ shall be made as the least and he which is Highest shall be as the Minister and for Example set a Child in the midst of them so this then is the true form and institution of the Apostle's Trade Lordship and Rule is forbidden Ministration and Services commanded Thus far St. Bernard as cited by Wickliff upon this occasion THE COURANT. Tory. NAY now all 's out I thought this 't would come to at last for D me if I did not always suspect as much I ever lookt upon Catholics as fine civil Gentlemen and for their Church I have a great Veneration because she is a true Church and a Mother Church and their Worship is very glorious and decent What an absurd thing 't is to imagine that ever such Holy Loyal Men as their Priests are should be guilty of Treason Yet I did but say a Twelve-month ago there was no Popish Plot and a Whiggish Son of a Whore gave me a slap i' th' Face and threaten'd me with Newgate for presuming to give the King and Three Parliaments the Lye But it should seem Tempora mutantur I hope e're long a Man may say and swear too That there never was any such Plot at all with Impunity and without Controul Truem. Prethee what makes you so merry about the Gills this Morning Hast thou been at Breakfast with the Painter at Aldersgate on his Whig-Pye whose Crust was made of Gammer Celier's Meal and baked in the red hot Oven of Dr. Tantivy's Skull Tory. No no but on a better
superiour Lord in whose presence the King could not punish any Noble-Man without his consent And so the Criminal for this horrid Act escap'd the reach of Justice Quia sic placuit Papae says Theodoric of Neym because it so pleas'd the Pope to have it THE COURANT. Tory. WHat says little Harry as the great Heraclitus calls him Does he not Triumph about Friday's work Truem. Not at all as I hear of tho if some people might have their will it would be almost matter of wonder to see Right at any time take place But still I think tho the Turky-Printer bustled as much as the best Powder-monkey Extortioner Soap-Chandler or Splitter-splutter Suborner in the Pack yet your Gang had no great cause of boasting for some of the forlorn White Friars Troops I hear were cut off by the Shoulder-dabbers in their Retreat But prethee what hast got in thy paw there Thou art always like the Observator sumbling of Papers Tory. 'T is an odd thing I took up in the Street and I know not what the Devil to make on 't However for once I 'le read it just as Parson Whip-spur does his Sermon which he never perus'd before he came into the Pulpit The Copy of a Letter from a Roman Catholic in Albania to a Popish Priest in Albionia May it please your Reverence WHat is every where admir'd I joyfully congratulate the wise and a live Conduct of our Vice Master who by his unwearied pains and care hath gain'd such a Senate as unanimously hath recogniz'd his pretensions and tho never so much a Papist he shall be so far they declare from being opposable that he must not be question'd which gives us great confidence if our Friends could at last procure such a complying Assembly in your parts we may once again have in prospect the Advancement of the Romish Catholic Religion tho poor Ned our grand Agitator were most wretchedly Sacrific'd to the Glory of the Design over this whole Island without much opposition But we are even now startled besides the late indignity of burning our Holy Father in Essigie at some Rumours which are spread amongst us for 't is averr'd the greater assurance we have of the Gentleman 's faithful Adherence to his Holinesses Supremacy and the See of Rome the less hopes we have of his coming to the Imperial Dignity or getting such a Senate as will bring our holy Enterprize to perfection in your Nation For 't is diffus'd as a Maxim and generally receiv'd That no resolv'd Papist can be admitted as a lawful King there according to the Rules of their present Government They pretend to prove it thus Every King of Albionia according to the Law is to be in all Causes and over all persons as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal Supream Head and Governour Therefore no resolv'd Papist can according to Law there be King for be that owns the Popes Supremacy disclaims his own Supremacy consequently hath already renounc'd his Title and agreed an Act of Exclusion against himself And as for procuring such a Senate by the Laws establisht which are and have graciously been declared to be our Rule every Popish Recusant must be question'd discover'd repress'd and debarr'd from any Office and no man is to conceal maintain abet aid or assist a Popish Recusant in advancing him to any place of Trust Authority or Government but it shall be construed to signifie his consent to overthrow King Religion and Government establisht in so much that he shall incur the dangâ—â— and penalty of a Praemunire if not of Treason So that it cannot reasonably be suppos'd that ever the more considerate part of the Commons can be surprized unwarily to chuse such Men as lye under the suspicion of the Guilt beforementioned or that have been Abhorrers Anti-petitioners or Addressers against Legal Senates to be their Representatives in any future Assembly of the States To these gauling Objections of the Heretics which obstruct our hopes I humbly implore of your fatherly Wiâ—dom some Salâ—e and Satisfaction that so at once we may silence our Adversaries and confirm our Friends Thus doing you may contribute much to the carrying on the holy Design which hath been and will be the Desire and Endeavours of Paradisopolâ—s Dec. 5. 1681. Your most obedient Son c. Tory. Now would I give a Guinney to have this Priest's Answer for tho I don't understand what this Letter is about yet I love Replies extreamly For certainly he that has the last word must be the wisest Man Truem. For that very reason Sir I tell you I am Your Servant Printed for Langley Curtis 1681-2 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY Jan. 20. 1681-2 Asperius nihil est misero cum surgit in Altum The Cardinals vote That if a Pope be negligent or unfit to govern he may have Curators plac'd over him Pope Vrban the Sixth drowns five Cardinals in Sacks He dies Boniface the Ninth succeeds him POpe Vrban the Sixth being seemingly reconcil'd at Naples with his Hector Charles the Titular King of Sicily did with his precious Nephew Pregnan retire to Lucera between Naples and Salerno a place no less pleasant than safe for their persons where he devoted himself to Sloth and all kind of sensual Voluptuousness whilst the Affairs of the Church every day ran to wrack and the Cardinals were continually alarm'd and in danger between the Forces of the said Charles on the one side and those of Lewis of Anjou who we told you was with a great Army enter'd into Italy on the behalf of the other Pope call'd Clement the Seventh Therefore at the instance of Cardinal Reatino their Eminencies held a Consult together where after a long debate it was resolv'd by the opinions of many Doctors That if a Pope should happen to grow negligent or be found unfit to govern the the Church or to be one so self-will'd and conceited as to refuse all wholsom Advice and thereby brought the Church St. Peter's Bark into danger or were so ungovernable a Cockscomb That without the counsel of his Cardinals he would rashly do all things according to his own Fantasy and Lust that then and in such case it was lawful to substitute by the Election of the Cardinals some fit Curator or Curators Governours or Guardians by and with whose direction and advice the Pope should be obliged to manage all affairs of moment in the Church This was concluded by the Conclave as you may see in the History of Theodorie a Nyem l. 1. c. 24. whose Testimony is so much the more to be valued for that he was Secretary to this very Pope Now was not this a hopeful most holy Infallible Ghostly Father fit for a Bib and Muckinder that must have Tutors and Curators to direct him Did these Cardinals think you believe That their Pope was not subject to Error when they conclude him such a Natural as to need Managers and Guardians But
most Sacred Ties besides those of Interest and present opportunity are no more than Sampson's Bands Dissolvable whensoever their own Humour or their Ghostly Fathers Conveniency shall require it The COURANT. Tory. HOw Hodge concern'd in the Burning of London and Godfry's Murder Trum. No I never said he was nor do I believe it but this I say such a wild suggestion might be maintain'd by as good Logick as any he uses to make out the Protestant Plot. Tory. As how prethee a touch for Example I 'le engage not to believe the Consequence Truem. I take it for undeniable That London in Sixty six was designedly burnt by Papists the Law hath determined it in the Execution of Hubert who own'd the Fact and that he was hired thereunto by Piedelon a French Papist The Body of the City have Recorded it in the late Inscription of the Monument and that great and sagacious Minister of State the Right Honourable the Lord Chancellour in his Speech before Sentence on the late Lord Stafford makes no doubt on 't Tory. But you may remember that Hodge was a little disgruntled at That Inscription and has endeavoured to persuade the World that they were the Fanaticks caus'd that Fire But what if the Papists did do it and Kill'd Godfry too what 's that to him Trum. Nâ—thing that I know on But this one might infer according to Mr. L'Estranges modes of Arguing If they were Papists and Hedge should happen to be a Papist too then he may altogether as fairly be Charg'd with both these Exploits as all and every the Dâ—ssenters are by him Tax'd with all the Villanies of Forty odd when the greatest part of them were not born Tory. Well but what Colour is there for Hodges being a Papist Truem. As many Colours as there are in the Rain-bow 1. Two of the Kings Evidence have sworn his haunting of Mass and another Gentleman deposes That he own'd himself to be of that Church whereof the Pope is Head Now you that Rail and Ranâ— at Juries if they won't believe any lousie Witnesses though they swear Dâ—ggers and Impossibilitie ought methinks to Credit such unexceptionable Evidence 2 ly The Gentleman has been oft Challeng'd to prove that for Eighteen years after the Restitution of the Liturgy viz. till after the Discovery of the Popish Plot and that he was question'd as a Papist he ever usually frequented his Parish Church or receiv'd the Sacrament Tory. Oh he Answers that in his Preface to his first part of Dissenters Sayings referring people to one Mr. Gatford of St. Dionis Back Church for proof of his Receiving c. Truem. Call you that Sham an Answer 'T is but his nude Averment he produces no Certificate from that Gentleman Besides 't is known Mr. L' liv'd many years in St. Gileses Parish before the Plot why does he not produce some Testimony in all that time from thence can it be imagin'd so intelligent a person had he been so zealous for the Church of England as he now pretends would ever have liv'd Eight or ten years together without her Ordinances and in disobedience and despight to her Laws and Canons Tory. But in particular as to the Fire-Jobb Truem. Mr. L'Estrange some time before the Fire Printed a Pamphlet call'd A Memento wherein Chap. 6. speaking of some people put to death under Cromwel He uses these words London was made the Altar for these Burnt Offerings God grant that City be not at last Purged by Fire I mean before the general Conflagration Now since Roger I think pretends not to be a Prophet and no body takes him for a Conjurer Ill will might on this occasion suggest him to be a Conspirator for it has been prov'd That the mischief was intended long before it was perpetrated and if one would talk of him as he does of the Dissenters one might say his Prayer God grant is only to Cloak his Malice That here 's a plain Prediction It must needs be therefore that he was acquainted with the Design and so bigg with Expectation that he could not forbear Blabbing on 't and warming his fancy with the very Conceit of the Flames just as Del Rio the Jesuit in his Magical Disquisitions could not forbear giving a dark hint of the Gunpowder-Treason several years before it happen'd Tory. These are unjust and inconsequent Descants on such an Innocent Accidental passage Truem. I grant it But yet 't is at this very rate that L'Estrange Treats others wresting the most harmless Passages to odious and horrid meanings Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri ne feceris Printed for Langley Curtis 1681-2 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY March 2. 1681-2 Vmbrâque errabit Thynnus inultâ Of the first pretended Act of Parliament that ever was in England against professors of Religion how it was forg'd by the Prelates and soon after Repeal'd The bloody Statute of 4. Hen. 2. ca. 15. for Burning of Hereticks WE have pursued the Papal History beyond the Seas down to the Council of Constance and burning of Hus and Mr. Jerome that is to about the year of our Lord 1415. which answers to the Third year of the Raign of our King Henry the Fifth 'T will therefore now be necessary to look back and gather what Observables occurr'd in England relating to our Subject not already mention'd during the Raigns of King Richard the Second and Henry the Fourth We gave you before the Relation of Wickliff whose Doctrines spread so fast that the incens'd Prelates finding their Spiritual Thunders unable to repress them bethought themselves to pray in aid of the Secular Arm and to that purpose the King being young and dissolute so extravagant to his Favourites that he always wanted Money the Bishops either by fair words or the Bait of a Benevolence to be given him by the Clergy prevail'd with him in the Fifth year of his Raign to consent to an Ordinance of their framing in these words following For as much as it is openly known that there be divers evil persons within the Realm going from County to County and from Town to Town in certain Habits under dissimulation of great Holiness and without the License of the Ordinaries of the places or other sufficient Authority preaching daily not only in Churches and Church-yards but also in Markets Fairs and other open places where a great Congregation of people is divers Sermons containing Heresies and notorious Errors to the great emblemishing of the Christian Faith and destruction of the Laws and of the Estate of the holy Church to the great peril of the Souls of the people and of all the Realm of England as more plainly is found and sufficiently proved before the Reverend Father in God the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops and other Prelates Masters of Divinity and Doctors of Canon and Civil Law and a great part of the Clergy of the said Realm especially assembled for this
the same Parliament praying our Soveraign Lord the King That his Royal Highness would vouchsafe in the said Parliament to provide a convenient Remedy the same our Soveraign Lord the King graciously considering the premises and also the laudable steps of his most noble Progenitors and Ancestors for the Conservation of the said Catholick Faith and sustentation of God's Honour and also the safeguard of the Estate Rights and Liberties of the said Church of England to the land of God and merit of our said Soveraign Lord the King and prosperity and honour of all his said Realm and for the eschewing of such Dissentions Divisions Hurts Slanders and Perils in time to come and that this wicked Sect Preachings Doctrines and Opinions should from henceforth cease to be utterly destroyed by the Assent of the States and other discreet Men of the Realm being in the said Parliament hath granted stablished and ordained from henceforth firmly to be observed that none within the said Realm or any other Dominions subject to his Royal Majesty presume to preach openly or privily without the License of the Diocesan of the same place first required and obtained Curates in their own Churches and persons hitherto priviledged and other of the Canon granted only except Nor that none from henceforth any thing preach hold teach or instruct openly or privily or make or write any Book contrary to the Catholick faith or determination of the holy Church nor of such Sect and wicked Doctrines and Opinions shall make any Câ—nvenâ—â—cles or in any wise hold or exercise Schools And also that none from henceforth in any wise favour such Preacher or maker of any such or like Conventicles or holding or exercising Schools or making or writing such Books or so teaching informing or exciting the people nor any of them maintain or any wise sustain and that all and singular having such Books or any Writings of such wicked Doctrine and Opinions shall really with effect deliver or cause to be delivered all such Books and Writings to the Diocesan of the same place within 40 days from the time of the Proclamation of this Ordinance and Statute And if any person or persons of whatsoever kind estate or condition that he or they be from henceforth do or attempt against the Royal Ordinance and Statute aforesaid in the premisses or in any any of them or such Books in the form aforesaid do not deliver then the Diocesan in the same place in his Diocess such person or persons in this behalf defamed or evidently suspected and every of them may by the authority of the said Ordinance and Statute cause to be arrested and under safe custody in his Prisons to be detained 'till he or they of the Articles laid to him or them in this behalf do Canonically purge him or themselves or else such wicked Sect Preachings Doctrines and heretical and erronious Opinions do objure according as the Laws of the Church do require so that the said Diocesan by himself or his Commissaries do openly and judicially proceed against such persons so arrested and remaining under safe custody to all effect of the Law and determine that same business according to the Canonical Decrees within three months after the said Arrest any lawful Impediment ceasing And if any person in any case above expressed be before the Diocesan of the place or his Commissaries canonically Convict then the same Diocesan may do to be kept in his Prison the said person so Convict for the manner of his default and after the quality of the Offence according aud as long as to his discretion shall seem expedient and moreover to put the same person to the Secular Court except in cases where he according to the Canonical Decree ought to be left to pay to our Soveraign Lord the King his peculiar Fine according as the same Fine shall seem competent to the Diocesan for the manner and quality of the Offence in which case the same Diocesan shall be bound to certifie the King of the same Fine in his Exchequer by his Letters Patents sealed with his Seal to the effect that such Fine by the King's Authority may be required and levied to his use of the Goods of the same person so convict And if any person within the said Realm and Dominions upon the said wicked Preachings Doctrines Opinions Schools heretical and erroneous Informations or any of them be before the Diocesan of the same place or his Commissaries after the Abjuration made by the same person pronounced fall into Relapse so that according to the holy Canons be ought to be left to the Secular Court whereupon Credence shall be given to the Diocesan of the same place or to his Commissaries in this behalf then the Sheriff of the County of the same place and Mayor and Sheriffs or Sheriff or Mayor and Bayliffs of the City Town or Borough of the same County next to the same Diocesan or the said Commissaries shall be personally present in preferring of such sentences when they by the same Diocesan or his Commissaries shall be required And they the same persons and every of them after such sentence promulgate shall receive and them before the people in an high place do to be burnt that such punishment may strike in fear to the minds of others whereby no such wicked Doctrine and heretical and erroneous Opinions nor their Authors and Fautours in the said Realm and Dominions against the Catholick Faith Christian Law and determination of the holy Church which God prohibit be sustained or in any wise suffered in which all and singular the premises concerning the said Ordinance and Statnte the Sheriffs Mayors and Bayliffs of the said Counties Cities Boroughs and Towns shall be attending aiding and supporting to the said Diocesans and their Commissaries The COURANT. Tory. I Have read that passage we talkt of t'other day in Mr. L'Estranges Memento by the same token in the same page he gives an account of Addresses in these words And now from all parts are to be procur'd Addresses Sweet London leads the way The Commission Officers of the Militia in Suffolk Leicester Sussex and my Country-men of Norwich c. These numerous and pretending Applications were but false Glosses upon his Power and Cromwell was too wise to think them other gain'd by Contrivement Force or at least Importunity half a score pitiful wretches call themselves the people of such or such a County and here 's the Total of the Reckoning Thus far L'Estrange Momentop 30. Truem. I marry and he talks like a South-sayer But hang 't let 's prorogue the Discourse of him and his Atchievements Have you seen Father Dowdal's just and sober Vindication Tory. No what 's he Truem. Even a worshipful Roman Catholick Priest very lately if not still a Prisoner in the Gate-house for Religion forsooth 'T is a small Treatise of five or six sheets bound printed 1681. and to be sold by William Downing in Bartholomew Close The design on 't is
unto Him all the Kingdoms of the World if he would fall down and worship us but he would not saying My Kingdom is not of this World and went his way when the Multitude would have made him a Temporal King But to You truly that are fallen from the state of Grace and that serve us in the Earth is that my promise fulfill'd and all Terrene things by the means which we have bestow'd upon you are under your Government For he hath said of us ye know The Prince of this World cometh c. and he hath made us to Raign over all the Children of Unbelief Therefore our Adversaries before-recited did patiently submit themselves unto the Princes of the World and did teach Men so to do saying Be you subject to every Ordinance of Man for the Lord's sake And again Obey ye them that are made Rulers over you c. For so their Masters commanded them saying The Kings of the Heathen have Dominion over them c. But I on the contrary think it long 'till we have poured out our Poison upon the Earth and therefore fill your selves full with the enjoyments thereof and be you not only unlike those Primitive Fathers but also clean contrary to them in your Lives and Conditions Neither give you to God that which belongeth to him nor yet to Caesar that which is his but exercise you the Power of both the Swords according to our Decrees making your selves doers in worldly Matters fighting in our Quarrel intangled with Secular Labours and Business and climb ye by little and little from the miserable state of Poverty unto the highest Seats of all Honours and the most Princely places of Dignity by your devised Practises and false and deceitful Wiles and Subtlety that is by Hypocrisie Flattery Lying Perjury Treasons Deceits Simony and other greater Wickedness than any which our Infernal Furies can devise For after that ye have by us been advanced thither where ye would be yet that doth not suffice you but as greedy Stravelings more hungry than you were before ye oppress the Poor scratch and rake all together that comes to hand perverting and turning every thing topsy-turvy so swoln that ready ye are to burst for Pride living like Letchers in all Corporal Delicateness and by fraud directing all your doings you challenge to your selves names of Honour in the Earth calling your selves Lords Holy yea and Most Holy persons Thus either by violence you Ravage or else by ambition subtlely ye pilfer away and wrongfully wrest and by false Title possess these Goods which for the sustentation of the poor Members of Christ whom from our first fall we have hated were bestowed and given consuming them as ye your selves list and therewith ye cherish and maintain an innumerable sort of Whores Strumpets and Bawds with whom ye ride pompously like mighty Princes far otherwise going than those poor beggerly Priests of the Primitive Church For I would ye should build your selves rich and gorgeous Palaces that ye fare like Princes eating and drinking the daintiest Meats and pleasantest Wines that may be gotten that ye hoard and heap together an infinite deal of Treasure not like to him that said Gold and Silver have I none For why should you not serve and fight for us according to your Wages O most acceptable Society of Fellowship promised unto us by the Prophet and of those Fathers long ago reproved Whilst that Christ called thee Synagogue of Satan and liken'd thee to the mighty Whore which committed Fornication with the Kings of the Earth the adulterous Spouse of Christ and of a chast person made a Strumpet Thou hast left thy first Love and hast cleaved unto us O our blessed Babylon and our Citizens which from the Transmigration of Jerusalem come hither we love you for your deserts we rejoyce over you which contemn the Laws of Simon Peter and embrace the practises of Simon Magus our friend and have them at your Fingers ends and exercise the same publickly buying and selling Spiritual things in the Church of God and against the Commandment of God Ye give Benefices and Honours by Petition or else for Money for Favour or for filthy Service and refusing to admit those that are worthy to Ecclesiastical Dignities and preferring those that are unworthy you call into the Inheritance of God's Sanctuary Bawds Lyers Flatterers your Nephews and your own Children and to a childish Boy ye give many Prebends the least whereof ye deny to bestow upon a poor good Man ye esteem the person of a Man and receive Gifts ye regard Money and have no regard of Souls ye have made the House of God a Den of Thieves all Abuse all Extortion is more exercised a hundred fold in your Judgment Seats than with any Secular Tyrant ye make Laws and keep not the same and ye dispense with your Dispensations as it pleaseth you you justifie the wicked for Rewards and you take away the just Man's desert from him and briefly ye perpetrate all kind of mischief even as it is our will ye should and ye take much pain for Lucre's sake in our Service and especially to destroy the Christian Faith for now the Lay-people are almost in doubt what they may believe because if ye preach any thing to them at some times altho it be but seldom seen and that negligently enough even as we would have it yet notwithstanding they believe you not because they see manifestly that ye do clean contrary to that ye say whereupon the common people doing as ye do which have the Government of them and should be an Example to them of well-doing Now many of them leaning to your Rules do run headlong into a whole Sea of Vices and so continually a very great Multitude flocketh at the strong and well fenced Gates of our Dungeon and doubtless ye send us so many day by day of every sort and kind of people that we should not be able to entertain them but that our insatiable Chaos with her thousand ravening Jaws is sufficient to devour an infinite number of Souls And thus the Soveraignty of our Empire by you hath been propt up and our intolerable loss restor'd Wherefore most especially we command you and give you most hearty thanks exhorting you all that in any wise ye persevere and continue as hitherto ye have done neither that ye slack henceforth your Enterprize For why by your helps we purpose to bring the whole World again under our Power and Dominion Over and besides this we commit unto you no small Authority to supply our places in the betraying of your Brethren and we make and ordain you our Vicars and the Ministers of Antichrist our Son for whom we have made a very fair and expeditious way and passage Furthermore we counsel you that possess the highest Rooms of all other that you work subtlely and that you outwardly and feignedly seem to procure Peace between the Princes of the World but that you cherish and
true Preaching and his Miracles So the Bishops of the Pope's Law geven more Leven by their Law to two Hereticks and Apostates or two comen Wymen that woulden witnesseden againes a Man in the cause of Heresie than to thousands of people that were true and good And for the Pope is this Antichrist and his Law contrary to Christ's Law fully I forsake this Law and so I reed all Christen men for thus by another point of this Law they mighten conquer much of this World For when they can they by this Law present a a man an Heretick his Goods shulen be forfet from him and his Heirs and so might they lightly have two or three false Witnesses to Record an Heresie again what true man so hem liked Herefore me thinks that whatsoever that I am an Christen man I may lawfully appeal from a false Dome of the Law to be Righteoâ—sly demet by the trouth of God'd Law And if this Appeal will nâ—â—serve I appeal openly to by Lord Jesu Christ that shall deme all the World for he I wot well will not spare for no man to deme a trouth And therefore I pray God Almighty with David in the Sauter Book Deus Judicium tuum Regi da Justitiam tuam Filio Regis judicare populum tuum in Justitiâ pauperes tuos in Judicio That is O God give thy Judgment to the King and thy Justice to the King's Son to judge thy people in Justice and thy poor ones in Judgment c. What afterwards became of this Swinderby we find not in History but as for Walter Brute having worried him a long time they at last prevail'd with him to submit himself in a Scroll under his hand in these words following I Walter Brute submit my self principally to the Evangelie of Jesus Christ and to the determination of Holy Kirk and to the General Councils of the Holy Kirk And to the sentence and determination of the four Doctors of holy Writ that is Augustine Ambrose Jerome and Gregory And I meekly submit me to your Correction as a Subject ought to his Bishop Fox fo 461. Touching the Deposing of King Richard the Second and the Ill-Favourites and Mis-government which originally occasion'd that Princes Misfortunes being foreign to our Subject we shall say nothing here Those that desire to be satisfied therein may read an excellent tho short Discourse Entituled The Life and Raign of King Richard the Second printed not long since for the Publisher hereof wherein a more full and true account is given thereof than in any of our Histories extant in English As King Henry the Fourth who was the Deposer of King Richard was the first of all our English Kings that brought into mode the cruel burning of Christ's Saints for opposing the Pope and his wicked Doctrines so as far as I can find the first Martyr in that kind was one William Santre Priest whom elsewhere I find mention'd by the name of Sir William Chatris Parish-Priest of the Church of St. Scithe the Virgin in London who was consumed by the Flames in the year of our Lord 1400. The Articles or Heretical Conclusions which he was charged to hold were these 1. Imprimis That he should say That he would not worship the Cross on which Christ suffered but only Christ that suffered on the Cross 2. That he would sooner worship a Temporal King than the foresaid wooden Cross 3. That he would rather worship the Bodies of the Saints than the very Cross on which he hung if it were before him 4. That he would rather worship a Man truly contrite than the said material Cross of Christ 5. That if any Man would visit the Monuments of Peter and Paul or go on Pilgrimage to the Tomb of St. Thomas or elsewhere for the obtaining any benefit he is not bound to keep his Vow but may distribute the Expences that such a Journey would cost him in Alms to the Poor and it would do as well 6. That every Priest and Deacon is more bound to preach the Word of God than to say the Canonical hours 7. That after the pronouncing of the Sacramental words the Bread remaineth of the same Nature it was before neither doth it cease to be Bread Are not these Christian Reader mighty Crimes And yet for these this poor Man was first very solemnly Degraded from all their pretended Holy Orders and then most barbarously burnt as aforesaid Ought not such Examples make Protestant Englishmen fond of a Popish Successor who must infallibly act over again the same Barbarities when ever his bloody Clergy shall instigate him thereunto upon themselves or their Posterity The next dying Witness to truth was one John Badby a Taylor of the Diocess of Worcester who was burnt in Smithfield Anno 1409. His only Crime was for asserting That the Sacrament consecrated by the Priest is not the very Body of Christ but that still the Bread remained and that when Christ sat at Supper with his Disciples he had not his Body in his hand to the intent to distribute it to his Disciples c. And 't is remarkable that when he came to dye and was put in a Tun or Vessel and Fire put to him he crying out to the Lord not to Men as by the Sequel appear'd Mercy Mercy the Prince King Henry's eldest Son being present caused the Fire to be stopt and made him large Offers not only of Life but of Preferment too if he would change his Opinion but he with a glorious Constancy refused those Temptations and chose rather to Seal the Truth with his Blood than betray it by a base Compliance with such worldly Allurements King Henry to confirm his ill got Soveraignty resolving in all things to gratifie the Clergy the Empire of the Pope and his Party became so strong in this Realm that scarce any durst oppose them the Bishops having got such an Ascendant on the King and besides being Arm'd with the Statute we formerly recited and with additional Constitutions of their own power of Imprisonment Temporal Sword Fire and Fagot Reigned and Ruled as uncontroulable so puft up with Pride that they thought all things subject to their extravagant Power and daily boasted how they would utterly extirpate Heresie as they call'd the Profession of the Truth out of the Land And indeed to the Eye of Humane Reason nothing seem'd more easie to effect under such advantageous Circumstances But 't is the nature of Truth to flourish by opposition Premi potest non suppremi It may be opprest but never supprest All their kicking was against the Pricks Providence supported That which they with united Councils and Force and Fraud and Policy and Power thought to overthrow as will appear in the Sequel of this History A fair warning would Men but be so wise as to heed it of the vanity of such or the like attempts to all succeeding Generations The COURANT. Truem. YES I do aver L'Estrange refusing on the 18 th
Hundred Authors as any unbiass'd Learned Reader cannot but observâ— Thirdly He notes several Passages in the Two last Pacquets that are in Foxe 'T is very true What then Do not I there Cite Foxe for them where is the Plagiarism I Write to the Common People and Publish it thus in Successive sheets that so it may fall into the more Hands I pretend not to Instruct the Learned but to give the Vulgar such as perhaps never read Foxe and know nothing of the Magdeburgh Centuries a general Prospect of Popery that they may know and Abhor it Those things which in Foxe are tediously told I abridge what is less material I omit Remarkables I Transcribe and fairly tell the Reader where I have them and what Felony and Treason is there in all this Fourthly Why may not I furnish my Matter from Foxe and the Centuriators I doubt the Observator has some particular spite at them The first continues the Memory of many Glorious English Martyrs barbarously Butcher'd even since the Reformation under a Popish Princses of excellent Vertues setting aside her Blind Bloody Zeal which perhaps the Observator would have had forgot And the Second's Learned Labours and Industrious Researches into Antiquity have wrested one of the Church of Romes boasted Weapons out of her hands and taught us to distinguish the real Testimonies of the Fathers from Spurious Suborn'd Knights of the Post though in Gray Perriwiggs and Venerable Names I wonder what Authors the Gentleman would Advise us to perhaps his friend Father Cressy's Church History or the Golden Legend But he that regards every bark of Cerberuâ— may quickly be Deaf Let us proceed in our intended Work and let Mr. Observator be never so angry at it we will again make use of Mr. Foxe and from thence observe to the Reader That though the Church was already over-burthen'd and almost suffocated with a vast Mass of vain Superstitious Ceremonies yet Tho. Arundel Bishop of Canterbury in the days of King Henry the 4 th about the Year 1410. took upon him to encrease them by Commanding That in all Monasteries and Collegiate Churches there should every Morning be Bells Rung in Honour of the Virgin Mary which commonly was call'd Toling of Aves For the promoting of which he sent his Mandate stuft full of Wicked and Blasphemous Expressions to the Bishop of London and towards the Close thereof used these Words We therefore desiring more earnestly to stir up the Minds of all Faithful People to so devoâ—â— an Exercise c. do grant to all and every Person that shall say his Pater Noster and the Angels Salutation Five times at the Morning Peal with a Devout Mind as oft as he shall do it for each time forty days of Pardon by these Presents Given under our Seals in our Manner of Lambeth the 10th of February in the 9th Year of our Translation Now we appeal to the Reader if this were not a Lumping Pennyworth to have Forty days Pardon of all Sin whatsoever Villany a man should in that time Commit meerly for Muttering over Five Pater Nosters and Five Aves what a kind good humour'd pleasant delicate inviting Religion is Popery Yet now I think on 't my Country-men of Wengham did not find it so under his Predecessor William Courtney Archbishop of the same Province when they were forc'd to do a scurvy scandalous Pennance for the horrid Sin of not bringing Litter for his Graces Horses decently and in order The Sentence against whom being very notable I shall here Recite it and to spight the Observator it shall be out of Fox too Erroris Mater Ignorantia c. Ignorance the Mother of Error hath so blinded certain Tenants of the Lord of Wengham viz. Hugh Penny John Forestall John Boy John Wanderton William Hayward and John White That at the coming of the Lord Archbishop to his Pallace at Canterbury on Palm-Sunday-Eve in the Year 1390. being warn'd by the Bailiff to carry Hay Straw and Littor Foenum Stramen sive Literam 't is in the Original which may be noted from an Archi-episcopal Elegancy to the aforesaid Pallace as by the Tenure of their Lands which they hold of the See of Canterbury they are bound refusing and disdaining to do their due Service as they were accustomed brought their Straw not in Waines and Carts publickly and in sufficient quantity but sneakingly in Sacks and hugger-mugger to the undervaluing of the Lord Arch-bishop and derogation of the Rights of his See of Canterbury For which being call'd and personally appearing before the said Lord Arch-bishop on Thursday in Easter week sitting on his Tribunal in his Castle of Statewode they did humbly submit themselves to his Judgment devoutly craving Pardon and Mercy for those Crimes which they had committed in this behalf And then having sworn them to stand to the Commands of Holy Church and to perform the Pennance that should be Enjoyn'd them his Grace did Absolve them imposing on them and each of them a wholsom Pennance after the manner of the Fault viz. That on the Sunday next the said Penitent should leisurely go bare-footed and bare-headed in an Humble and Devout Manner a Procession to the Collegiate Church of Wengham each of them bearing on their shoulders openly a Sack full of Hay and Straw with the mouthes of the Sacks open so as the Hay and Straw may appear hanging out And to perpetuate the Memory of this Foolery the Pictures of these poor men doing this Ridiculous Pennance were entred in his Graces Register a Copy of which taken from the Original you have in Foxe with this Superscription being as 't is probable the Words they were to say in their Procession This Bagful of Straw I bear on my Back Because my Lord's Horse his Litter did Lack If you be not good to my Lord Grace's Horse You are like to go Bare-foot before the Cross In the 11 th Year of King Henry the 4 th The Commons of England in Parliament perceiving how abominably the Clergy Monks Fryars c. abused those vast Revenues which they Enjoyed to all kind of Pride and Licentiousness Preferr'd a Bill to the King to take away their Temporal Lands and to Imploy the same to the better Advantage and Safety of the Kingdom Alledging that the Temporailties then in the Possession of Spiritual Men amounted to Three hundred and twenty three thousand Marks by the Year But as the Clergy had mainly Assisted that Prince to Usurp the Crown so he did not think it safe to disoblige them at that juncture and therefore put off this Bill with a Le Roy S'avisera And about Two Years after the said King Henry dyed viz. the 2 d. of March 1413. in the 46 th Year of his Age to whom succeeded his Son then near 30 years of Age by the name of Henry the Fifth By the Preaching of Wickliff and his Followers the Eyes of great numbers of the People were in some measure enlightned to see the Errors
Baker in his Chronicle fo 177. says but Twenty eight were Executed for the pretended Treason And to push home the matter in a Parliament held the next Year They obtain an Act of Parliament 2 Hen. 5. Ca. 7. with this frightful Preamble For as much as great Rumours Congregations and Insurrections here in the Realm of England by divers of the Kings Liege-people as well by them which were of the Sect of Heresie commonly call'd 〈◊〉 as by other of their Confedracy Excitation and Abetment now of late were made to the Intent to Annul Destroy and Subvert the Christian Faith and the Lâ—w of God and Holy Church within this same Realm of Eâ—gland and also to destroy the same our Soveraign Lord the King and all other manner of Estates of the same Realm of England as well Spiritual as Temporal and also all manner of Policy and finally the Laws of the Land The same our Soveraign Lord the King to the Honour of God and in Conservation and Forâ—ification of the Christian Faith and also in Salvation of his Royal Estate and of the Estate of all his Realm wâ—â—ling against the Malice of such Hereticks and Lollâ—rds to provide a more open Remedy and Punishment c. hath Ordainâ—d That the Chancellour Treasurer Iustices of each â—ench Iustices of the Peace Sheriffs c. shall take an Oath to Root out and Destroy all manner of Heresies and Errours commonly called Lollardries And that all persons Convict of Hâ—â—esie by the Ordinary shall forfâ—it all their Lanâ—â—s and Tenements Goods and Chattels So that by this Law the poor People were in as bad ease for Heresie as if they had Committed Treason or Murder they must lose both 〈◊〉 and â—state only here was no Corruption of 〈◊〉 and 't is oâ—sâ—rvable that pursuant to this Act there waâ— even since the Reformation this Clause in the Sheriff Oath viz. Ye shall do all your pain and diligence to Destroy and make to Cease all manner of Heresies and Errours â—â—mmonly call'd Lollers within your Bayliffwick See Book of Oathes p. 27. And so it continued to the beginning of the Reign of King Charles the First and then viz. the Fourth of December 1625. it was by direction of the Kings Council Reformed and that Clause omitted But now 't is time to return to speak of Sir John Old-Castle he had now sheltred himself about Four years in Wales and though the King at the Prelates Instigation had set forth A Proclamation Promising a Thousand Marks to any that should bring him in yet says Baker so generally was his Doctrine favour'd that the Kings offer was not much regarded till at last he was taken by the Lord Powis and sent Prisoner up to London and being in the Interim Outlaw'd for the aforesaid pretended Treason he was drawn to the Place since call'd Tyburn and as his Crime was represented double so likewise was his Punishment being both Hang'd and Burnt the first as a Traytor and the last as an Heretick and 't is said several others in those times were serv'd in like manner insomuch That some have deduced the Etymology of Tyburn from those two Words Ty and burn the Necks of Persons being tyed thereunto whose Leggs and lower Parts were Consumed in the Flames Having given this Succinct Relation of this Affair of Sir John Old Castle I am not Ignorant what rubbs have been thrown in the way and Scandals raised upon his Memory by Parsons the Jesuit and others which are reducible unto Two sorts viz. 1 st That he was a Traitor to his Soveraign 2 ly That he was a Drunken Companion or Debâ—uchee As to the First being a very material and heinous Charge we shall refer the Confutation thereof to our next Pacquet But this last being as groundless as Trivial wee 'l dispatch it at present That Sir John Old-Castle was a Man of Valour all Authentick though prejudic'd Histories agree That he was a Gentleman both of goâ—d Sense sober Life and sound Christian Principles is no less apparent by his Confession of Faith delivered under his own hand Extant in Foxe and his Answers to the Prelates But being for his Opinions hated by the Clergy and suffering such an Ignominious Death Nothing was more obliging to the then Domineering Ecclesiastick Grandeeâ— than to have him represented as a Lewd Fellow in Compliance thereof to the Clergy the Wits such as they were in the succeeding Ages brought him in in their Interludes as a Royster Bully or Hector And the Painter borrowing the Fancy from their Cozen Poets have made his Head commonly an Ale house Sign with a Brimmer in his hand and so foolishly it has been Tradition'd to Posterity Nor is this our private Conceit but the Observation of that Learned and Ingenious Divine the Reverend Doctor Fuller who in his Church History of Britain Lib. 4. fol. 168. has these words Stage-Poets have themselves been very bold with and others very merry at the Memory of Sir John Old-Castle whom they have fancied a Boon Companion a Jovial Royster and yet a Coward to boot contrary to the Credit of all Chronicles owning him a Martial Man of Merit The best is Sir John Falstaffe hath relieved the Memory of Sir John Old Castle and of late is substituted Buffoon in his place but it matters as little what petulent Poets as what malicious Papists have Written against him The spightful Calumnies of the Latter we shall wipe off in our next The COURANT. Truman and Tory. Truman THe Business I was about to tell you was this After the Discovery of the late Popish Plot a Gentleman at the desire of an Eminent Bookseller in Fleet-street Wrote a Brief History of all the Papists Bloody Persecutions Plots and Massacres throughout Europe This Manuscript was carryed by the Bookseller to Mr. L' Estrange to License which being unwilling to do he Cavill'd at it after he had kept it some time in his hands that the Author had not Quoted the Authors or Books whence he had taken the Relations and unless that were done he would not License it The Gentleman at the Booksellers desire made all the Quotations punctually and set them in the Margent and the Copy was again carried to L'Estrange who nevertheless Resolving not to License it put off the Bookseller with many delays near Three Months and at last told him in plain termes It was not fit to make the Breach wider betwixt the Papists and Vs and there were too many of such kind of Books already Neither could he get the Copy out of his hand Tory. Perhaps L'Estrange kept it that he might prevent its being Licens'd by any body else Trum. This I 'm sure The Bookseller lost his Season Copy and Charge of Writing it for this Man 's Aâ—britary Pleasure Tory. But what then did the Author of the Book do Trum. The Gentleman followed the business so Close threatning to take his course at Law that at last he got the Copy and without any Alteration
Fact and so being taken 4 or 5 years after was upon that outlawry without any further Tryal or Judgment Hang'd and Burnt This is the Tale The Credit of which depends partly upon the Testimonies of Historians and partly upon that of the Records of the Commission and Indictment We shall consider each of these whereby the Reader will more clearly perceive how Improbable it is in all its parts and how ill laid together in the whole 1. As to the Historians Thomas of Walsingham is the first whom all latter Authors follow as a Flock doth the Bell-weather and when we have told you that he was a Benedictine Monk of St. Albans you may easily make Judgment of his Sincerity and what truth there is in those who take matters from him upon trust Amongst the rest I observe the Jesuite Parsons makes great use of John Stow's Testimony and indeed take notice of any Popish Author speaking of modern English History you shall find commonly Stow's Chronicle strutting his Margin this made me wonder why they should make choice of him who was but a mean Mechanic being by Trade a Tayler and ignorant of the Latin Tongue rather than so many other Learned Authors till I suppose at last I hit upon the reason in a Treatise of Dr. Matth. Sutclife afterwards Dean of Exeter Intituled A Threefold Answer c. to Parsons 3 Conversions Printed Anno. Dom. 1606. where p. 3. That Reverend Author who no doubt being Contemporary with Stow had good grounds for his Assertions saith John Stow is a simple Story-writer and a worse Protestant For 't is well known that certain crafty Companions and enemies of Relion were too much Conversant with him to write truely in these matters And p. 24. Stow hath the most part of his Lies concerning the Lord Cobham alis Sir John Old castle out of Walsingham which understanding he understood 〈◊〉 being Latin and he a meer English Tailer Now it was no difficult thing if he Imployed persons Popishly Affected to Translate for him for them to Impose upon his Ignorance what would make for their Cause and then twit us with the noise and pretended Testimony of a Protestant Author Secondly that which might lead some Historians into an Error was that in the second year of this King Henry the 5. an Act was made part of this we recited in our last That all Convicted of Hâ—resy should forfeit all their Lands and Goods wherefore since they were to lose both Life and Estate the noise went that Haeresy was then made Treason tho indeed it was not so I will give an Instance or two of such misled Authors Thomas Walden in the Prologue of his first Tome to Pope Martin has these words speaking of this very business Nec Mora Longa processint qui Statutum c. Nor was it long but it was publickly Enacted by a Statute that all the Wicklevists as they were Traitors to God so should also be accounted Traitors to the King So Roger Wall of the Acts of King Henry 5. Statuit et decrevit ut quot quot Illius Seâ—tu quae diciâ—â—r Lollardâ—rum invenirentaer aemuli et fautores eo facto Rei Proditorij Criminis in Majestâ—tem Regiam haberenter He establisht and Decreed saith he That all that should be found Embracers or favourers of the sect which is called Lollards should for that only Fact be Adjudged Guilty of the Crime of Treason against the Kings Majesty And Polidore Virgil in the 22 Book of his History harps upon the same string declaring that all the Followers of Wickliffes Doctrine were deemed Hostes Patriae Enemies of their Country which is all one as to say Traitors And yet all this while the Statute does not make them Traitors nor speak any thing of putting them to Death for in case of being Convict of Haeresy and refusing to Abjure they were already to be burnt by the Statute of 2 H 4. Ca. 15. But it being so vulgarly taken as appears by these Examples 'T is no wonder that knowing Sir John Old-castle to be convicted for what they call'd Haeresy and that he was Executed they delivered to posterity that he was Executed for Treason as Imagining Haeresy to be Treason by the Law In the next place as to the Records I willingly acknowledge there is no kind of humane Testimony that ought to challeng a greater Reverence Probant et non Probantur yet even Records themselves are liable to be falsisied and whether sometime of that kind is not to be suspected here may still be a question there being not a few Symptomes of Fraud and ill practice As 1. The Commission issued to Indict and Try them bears Date the 10 th of Jannuary 1414. which was on Wednesday next after the Epiphany or Twelfth day And by the Record of the Indictment it not only appears that they were the very same day Indicted and the Bill found which is very much that a Court should sit the very same day the Commission Authorising them bears date for what time was there then for summoning a Jury c. But also in the same Indictment it is averr'd that the very same 10 th of January too was the day on which the aforesaid Conspirators to the number of Twenty Thousand were so in Warlike manner assembled in St. Gilses-fields See both the Records in Foxe fol. 529. Which being so one would expect rather to hear of Commissions Issued not so much to try them as to raise Forces to suppress them Inter Arma silent Leges twenty Thousand Rebels got together where not like much to value a Commission of Oier and Termener 2. In the Record of the Indictment it is said per Sacramenta duodecim Juratorum exstitit presentatum by the Oaths of 12 Jurators it is presented But the names of the Jurors are ommitted whereas I humbly Conceive if any such Indictment had been really and bona fide framed and found the Jurors names as in all other cases would have been here particularly Inserted in the Record 3. The Crimes alleaged in this pretended Indictment are of several sorts some of them Extravagant and all very observeable for tho there be some matters Treasonable to colour the process yet the bottom of all appears to be that they were Enemies to the Church But take the very words of the Record and Judg of them your selves By the Oaths of 12 Jurors 't is presented that John Oldcastle of Coulingin the County of Kent Chevaleir Note tho he were styled Lord Cobham in Right of his Wife yet he was no Peer of the Land and others vulgarly called Lollards who long have rashly held diverse Heritical Opinions contrary to the Catholic Faith and other manifest Errors repugnant to the Catholic Law to maintain such their Errors not being able to Accomplish their design as long as the Royal power and Regal State of our Lord the King as well as the State and Office of the Prelatick dignity within the Kingdom of England
should continue in prosperity falsly and Treasonably Contriving as well the State of the Kingdom as the State and Office of Prelates and the Religious Orders within this Kingdom utterly to Annul and our Lord the King his Brothers the Prelates and other great men of the Realm to Kill And to compel the Religious Orders to leave divine Worship and the Observation of Religion and to follow worldly Occupations and demolish both Cathedrals and Religious houses and spoil them of their Goods and to appoint the said Sir J. O. Regent of the Realm and to set up many Governments in the Realm as a people without an Head to the final destruction as well of the Catholic Faith and Clergy as of the State and Majesty of the Royal dignity did falsly and Trayterously order and propose that he with many other Rebells unknown to the Number of 20000 men from diverse parts of England Arrayed in Warlike manner should Privately Rise and on Wednesday next after Epiphany in the first year of the King at the Parish of St. Gileses c. in a great field they unanimously came together and met to fulfill such their wicked Intent persevering therein to Kill the King and his Brothers viz. Tho. Duke of Clarence John of Lancaster and Humphrey of Lancaster and also the Prelates and great men aforesaid as likewise to disinherite the King of his Realm they came Riding into the said Field Array'd after the manner of an Insurrection against their Allegiance to subdue our Lord the King unless by him with a strong hand they had Gratiously been hindered These are the very words of the Indictment which we the rather have repeated because the same was not Translated by Mr. Fox The COURANT. Truman and Tory. Tory. And how fares our Friend Nat Truem. Why truly the Lords of the Council to use his own insolent Expression have put him in a way to prove his Letters about Sir E. B. G. murdering himself Tory. As how prethee Truem. By justly sending him and his two Vouchers to Newgate Every thing you know naturally tends to its Center hence no doubt the impudent lie first came begot by the Stallion Popish Priests and Midwif'd by Dame Celier and thither 't is now return'd Tory. I 'l tell you this is a great disappointment There were Te Deums intended to have been Sung by our Catholic friends and Hundreds of us were got to the Tavern to be drunk for joy and now to be thus Balkt verily as Monsieur Coleman said There is no Trust in Man Will not this fadg then what shall we do now What sham is next O Roger where art thou Truem. Never trouble thy head with Roger he is playing at Cross purposes For Example The Question is Mr. L'Estrange why did not you for eighteen years together come to Divine service and receive the Sacrament according to the Establisht Church of England The Answer is the Parson of Dionis Backchurch The Question is M. L'Estrange why did you refuse to License a Narrative touching the manner of Sir Edmundbury Godfreys being found and say you did not know but you might offend some great people at White-hall The Answer is 't is not the first time The Question is Mr. Le' Estrange is you are no Papist why did you go to Mass and own your self to be a Member of that Church whereof the Pope is the Head The Answer is Brass Screws The Question is Mr. L'Estrange why did you refuse to Licence an Innocent Copy of Verses meerly because therein it was said That from the Cells of Jesuits and Monks there proceeded a brood to Riffle Subjects and to Murder Kings The Answer is Original Copy The Question is Mr. L' Estrange why did you refuse to Licence both an harmless and usefull Historical Collection of Popish Massacres and Cruelties and say 't was not fit to make the breach between us aud the Church of Rome wider and this since the Discovery of the present Plot The Answer is Forty Eight and pordage The Question is Mr. L'Estrange with what face could you affirm such a notorious lie that there were never above 50 Quakers at a time in the noisome Little-Ease of Bristol The Answer is Sir John Knight and 300 Horsmen The Question is Tory. Prethee leave thy fooling I wonder you dare talk at this rate at this time of day a Catholick friend of mine sent me a Copy of Verses last post out of Lancashire I 'l read a stanza or two of them We must not Blabb but only hint If all things fail the Divel 's in 't Wait but a little longer Our Plot will prove that 't is no wonder For Bones well sett if broak asunder After do grow the stronger For mark ye well altho our Plot In its first Tract succeeded not Yet much we have got by 't The Haereticks by shams and fears Are set together by the Ears Whilst Whigg and Tory fight The Tory he Swagâ—gers and Sings Drinks the Dukes health before the Kings And damns to be Emphatick When he expresseth wish and hope To Kiss the Gouty Toe of Pope Ere he 'l endure Fanatick Then for our hot Tantivy Boys That more with Oaths than pray'rs make noise They 'r Birds deâ—ile their Nest Whose Priest-Craft is preferment meerly Which or to get or save they clearly Will pass through any Test Our Friends are numberless to think on The Dammee Blades and those that drink on And Whore without all shame The Crack-farts Hectors Atheists Bulleys The Bankrupts Poets Sots and Cullies And some I dare not name Printed for Langley Curtis 1682 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY April 14. 1682. Livor post Fata quiescat Tum suus ex merito quemque tuatur Honos Some further Remarks on the Story of Sir John Oldcastle An Epitaph offered to his memory The miserable death of his persecutor Thomas Arundel Archbishop of Canterbury who made a Constitution against Reading the Scriptures LEt us go on to Examine the Matter of Treason charg'd on Sir John Oldcastle c. And must request the Reader to Remind the Record of the Indictment recited in English in our last in which besides the unaccountable omission of the Jurors names and the improbability that the supposed Fact should be Committed and Commission to the Judges and their Session and the Conviction should all bear date and happen upon one and the same Numerical day there are these other Observables that present themselves 1. 'T is therein alleadged that the design of these Imaginary Traytors in St. Gilses Thickets was to make Sir John Oldcastle Regent and why not rather King since the same Indictment charges him with design to kill the King And yet if he had a mind to be Regent why should he design to kill the King for then presently his Regency must needs expire The truth is this very expression renders it suspicious that this pretended Indictment was â—obbled up afterwards
Saviour of his Sectaries as Parsons 2 d. of his 3 Conversions p. 250. relates from Walsingham or as Stow botches up the story The last words that he spake to Sir Tho. Erpingham Adjuring him that if he saw him Rise from Death to Life again the Third day he would procure that his sect might beat peace and quiet Now let any man read his papers and discourses in Fox savouring of such firm piety prudence and sobriety of mind and then judge how unlikely he was to be Guilty of such a phrensical Extravagance But possibly he might at his Execution say that though they so severely persecuted those Truths which he bore Testimony to and sought by all means to suppress and bury the same yet they would Rise again and his Doctrine be Reviv'd And from some such true words the Father of Lies and his Journy-men the Monks might take occasion to raise that wicked scandal And now having thus fairly represented Sir John Oldcastles Case to posterity we take leave of his Manes but that we may do it civily tho the prejudice of those times would afford him neither Tombstone nor Grave yet certainly we my be allow'd to offer an Extempore Epitaph to his Memory On Sir John Oldcastle Lord Cobham who suffer'd Decem. 1417. Rome's Old new fraud in Cobhams Fate we view The Hereticks must still be Traitors too All Popish Sham-plots are not hatch'd of late Long since their Int'rest Culli'd in the State For God and for the King the Prelates Cry'd But only meant their own Revenge and Pride Had the sly Meal Tub fadg'd or Irish Oathes Been Jury-proof old Churches hated Foe 's Ere now had been Old-Castled Hang'd and Burn'd And Loyalst Patriots into Rebells turn'd But Midwife Time at last brings Truth to Light For after Death each man receives his Right Then sleep brave Hero till last Judgments day Raising to Glory thy twice-martyr'd Clay Romes malice and thy Innocence display But here we may note that before the Execution of this noble-man viz. in the year 1414. his bitter Persecutor Tho Arundel Archbishop of Canterbury who originally caused his trouble and Condemn'd him for Haeresy and who in a synod had forbidden the Scriptures to be translated into or read in the English Tongue was taken away by a strange death His own Tongue being so swell'd that for many days he could swallow no sort of sustenance and so was starv'd to death A most remarkable Judgment that he who by his Canons forbad the Food to the Soul and had pronounc'd Sentence of Condemnation on many Innocents was now both famish't and struck Dumb together Thomas Gasconous in his Theological Dictionary thus plainly tells the story Tho. Aruudel Cant. Archiepiscopus sic Linguâ Percussus erat ut nec deglutire nec Loqui per aliquot dies ante mortem suam potuerit et sic tandem obiit Atque Multi tu nofieri putabant quia vâ—rbum Alligasset ne suo Tempore praedicatur Tho Arrundel Archb. of Canterbury was so smitten in his Tongue that he could neither swallow nor speak and so died which was thought by many to come upon him for that he restrain'd the word of God from being preached in his days The COURANT. A CHARM against ROGERISM Triceps est Cerberus tèr ego te Despuo Triplex est Eumenis tèr te ego Despuo Vomas dico vomas tèr vome Improbam Pectore purgato Rabiem ad Phlegetonta Remitte Enter Jesuit solus NOW shall I turn Heraclitus Ridens and split my sides with laughing to see how sweetly matters go on 'T is the hopefullest Spring I have known or read of above 100 years and all our Projects are blythe and blooming How kindly do our Councils work and cully in the hood-wink'd crowd the French Monarch our mighty Patron plays a Game at Tick-tack with his Holiness and the World stares and gapes as if they were at Sharps What if he clip the Wings of the duller Orders Let him go on and prosper Roma interim crescit Albae Ruinis No matter for those swarms of Drones our active Society if the Fools prove peevish and stubborn may beg their Lands Nor need we fear the gripes of his Talons since we have twisted our Interests inseparable with his for Campanella has shifted the Scene and 't is resolv'd in spite of Providence one Monarch and one Religion shall govern the Europaean World They are pitifully read in School craft that cannot modelize Divinity to each complexion of Affairs there lies a little spot on the Northwest corner of the Map that has cost us many a pangful Thought Father La-Chese long since undertook the Conversion of those Infidels and tho he met with some rubs despairs not in time to accomplish it If one Broad-side does not sink a Vessel another may the Needle 's in and the Thread must follow O Beata Maria into what Confusions have we put the Hereticks amongst themselves Well! let Whig and Tory scuffle 'till their Hearts ake whilst we tour aloft like the Vulture hovering over the Lion and Wild-boar in their Combatings as hoping to devour the Carcases of them both O the Church the Church the Church by Law establish'd There 's Musick enough in that very sound to supersede the office of the Organs But then not one in forty Dreams what those words signifie in our Dictionary Pshaw Pshaw you Dolt-heads Verity is Vnity there is but one Church in the World and that 's the Catholick and Catholick is Roman and there 's the Riddle unfolded But how is this Religion by Law establish'd We 'l make That out I 'le warrant you you shall have enough of Magna Charta Is there any prescription against the Church Shall any Laws prevail against St. Peter's Right Or indeed what power have Excommunicated Hereticks to make any Laws at all All such Provisions are still-born Ipso facto void as errant Felo's de se as we would make Sir Edmondbury Godfrey and holy Mother-Church unjustly disseiz'd may lawfully make a Re-entry Let 's first down with the Dissenters crush them maul 'um hang 'um if we can or ruine them at least and then their Church of England shall have Polypheme's courtesie O Bristol Bristol thou hast done gallantly I could not but snicker the other day to see a parcel of Wooden-shoe'd French Hereticks that had fled thither for shelter how sillily they look'd when they saw a parcel of English Calvinists dragg'd out of their Meeting and hurried to Gaol But we have a greater work in hand 't is a Protestant Plot must do our business and a Protestant Plot we 'l have if it cost us as much as we got by burning of London There are a fresh Cast of Beuk-blawers listed spick and span new ones never yet baulkt or blasted by an Ignoramus they only want a little Documentizing as to matter persons times and places for all the rest they remember right well I must away and Discipline them and if they prove
is not again affixed but the Evidence of saving Faith and Testament of the Gospel being written in his heart is now added to the Seal and so it becomes compleatly authentick as not being bound necessarily to outward means Nor do we here exclude Gods free Agency in Baptism who in the Party Baptized in that Heretical Church may if it please him work Grace finding his own Water and his own Words finding I say his own Seal he can add his Covenant of Grace unto it yet no Child there Baptized coming to the years of Discretion unless he Renounce the wicked Faith and Relinquish the Idolatrous practices of that Romish Church can have benefit by his Baptism but to him it is Penal and Pernicious as Augustine speaks And now I proceed to another Argument That the Church of Rome is not a Church of Christ Argument 7. That Church which hath not a lawful Ministry is not a true visible Church of Christ But the Church of Rome hath not a Lawful Ministry Ergo. I know this to many will seem a Paradox but 't is a certain Truth for if the Church of Rome hath not a Lawful Ordination how can it have a Lawful Ministry But it has no Lawful Ordination 1. In regard of the Efficient Cause either Remote as the Pope as Head whence all their Ministerial Power is deriv'd or immediate as the Ordainer on whose Intention their Gratia gratis data dependeth So that here is a Nullity in the very Foundation of the Papal Priest-hood It is deriv'd from the Pope as Head of the Clergy and Church a Title Anti-christian and Usurp'd and so their Ministry is Anti-christian And if the Pope being Antichrist and an Usurper and Consecrating Bishops by vertue of his Papal Supremacy as Christ's sole Vicar and Peter's Successor cannot convey any power of Order upon his Bishops and Clergy what lawful Ministry can we expect in that Apostolical Synagogue So that Calvin an Author whom for Honour's sake I mention in a lewd Age when thousands decry him that either for Learning and Piety are no ways comparable to Him was in the Right in his Book called The Method of Reforming the Church Nego sub toto Papatu unum esse verè Episcopum I deny that under the whole Popedom there is one truly a Bishop and what then shall we say of their Priests neither have they any Ministerial Grace because it depends according to their Belief upon their Ordainers Intention and not upon Christs Ordinance Grace and Promise But 2 ly They fail too in the Formal and Fixal Cause of Ordination They have quite altered and Corrupted the Form and so the End thereof adding a New Form which overthroweth the Old and imposeth a New End viz. making the whole Essence and use of their Ministry to consist in Priesthood that is in Sacrificing of an Idol and so turning the Office of a Minister of the Gospel into an Idol-Sacrificing Priest For in the Form of their Ordination set down in their Tridentine Catechism Part the Second after Imposition of Hands with the sign of the Cross on the Party that is to be Ordain'd The Chalice with Wine and the Paten with the Host is delivered into his hands with these Words Accipe potestatem offerendi Sacrificium Deo Missásque Celebrandi tam pro vivis quam pro defunctis c. Receive thou Power to Offer Sacrifice to God and to celebrate Masses as well for the Living as the Dead c. And this praecipua Sacerdotis functio existimanda est is to be esteemed the principal Office or Function of a Priest Ad Extremum verò c. In fine Imposing hands again he says Receive then the Holy Ghost Whose sins soever ye Remit c. Eique Coelestem illam c. And thus the Bishop giveth unto the Priest that Heavenly Power of Retaining and Forgiving of Sins which the Lord gave to his Disciples Thus the very words of their Ordination Now we know that this power of Remitting and Retaining of Sins the Church of Rome placeth not in the Dispensing and Preaching of the Word of God but in their Sacrament of Pennance Thus they have wholly perverted their Ordination both for the formal and final End Nor do they less fail in the Material Cause ignorant unqualified Persons being ordinarily made Priests and such as only are able to Mumble over the Mass and Matins But it may be Objected That in Popish Ordination there is a Power Confer'd to Preach the Word of God 'T is true they do use these words of our Blessed Saviour which the Church of England useth viz. Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins ye Remit c. Which we do indeed understand of the dispensation of the Word and Sacraments But the Church of Rome otherwise meaning thereby the Priests power of Binding and Loosing in their Sacrament of Pennance And it is in vain for them to say That their Priests in their Ordination have any Power confer'd upon them to Preach the Word of God when their Practise is far otherwise Neither indeed is it lawful for them so to Preach the Word of God as it behoveth faithful Ministers of the Gospel viz. purely and soundly to the saving of Mens Souls For the pure and sound saving Doctrine of the Word of God is branded for Heresie in the Council of Trent Nor may their Bishops or Priests deliver the sense of it otherwise than according to those Canons and Decrees In a word See the Conc. Trid. Sess 14. Can. 3. Si quid dixerit c. If any one shall say That those words of our Lord and Saviour Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins ye Remit they are Remitted and whose sins you Retain they are Retained are not to be understood of the power of Remitting and Retaining sins in the Sacrament of Pennance but shall wrest them contrary to the Institution of the Sacrament to the authority of Preaching the Gospel Let him be Anathema Well therefore does the pious and judicious Calvin conclude Totum Sacordotium Papisticum non solum impia est vera Ministerii profanatio sed Execrabilis in Christum comumelia quisquis est sacerdos Papalis dâ—nec titulum illum abjecerit Christi Servus esse nequeat The whole Popish Priesthood is not only an impious Profanation of the true Ministry but an execrable Reproach against Christ So that whosoever is a Popish Priest until he renounce that Title he cannot be the Servant of Christ True Ordination is a sacred Institution of Christ whereby the Person Ordain'd is Invested with a Power to Preach the Word of God and to Administer the Holy Sacraments according to Christ's Ordinance But the Ordination used in the Church of Rome is not according to Christ's Institution to wit whereby the Person Ordained is Invested with a Power to Preach the Word of God and to Administer the Holy Sacraments according to Christ's Ordinance Therefore in the Church of Rome there is no true Ordination therefore no
some of the Inferiour Clergy may take him for Guide the Inns of Court scorn to be his Pupils for all he stiles himself Observ Numb 84. Roger L'Estrange of Grays-Inn Labourer The Man is as much out in his Law as he uses to be in his Divinity For tho God forbid any should be so wicked to imagin the Death of a collateral presumptive Heir to the Crown is not Treason by this Statute Coke 3 Instit fol. 8 9. speaking of the same words Before this Statute some did hold that to compass the Death of any of the King's Children was Treason but by this Act it is restrained to the Prince the King's Son being Heir apparent If the Heir apparent to the Crown be a collateral Heir apparent he is not within this Statute Roger Mortimer Earl of March was Anno Dom. 1487. 11 Rich. 2. proclaimed Heir apparent Anno 39 H. 6. Richard Duke of York was likewise proclaimed Heir apparent and so was John de la Poole Earl of Lincoln by R. 3. and Henry Marquess of Exeter by King H. 8. But none of these or the like are within the purvieu of of this Statute But since Roger will be dabbling with Statutes prethee read to him the following Clause of the Act of the 3d of King James c. 4. And further be it enacted That if any person or persons at any time after the tenth of June c. shall either upon the Seas or beyond the Seas or in any other place within the Dominions of the King's Majesty his Heirs or Successors put in practice to absolve persuade or withdraw any of the King's Subjects or to reconcile them to the Pope or See of Rome or if any person shall be wilfully absolv'd or withdrawn as aforesaid or willingly reconciled or promise obedience to any such pretended Authority every such person and persons their procurers and counsellors aiders and maintainers shall be to all intents adjudged Traitors and shall have judgment suffer and forfeit as in Cases of High Treason From whence 't is plain that every English Subject that has bin brought up in the Protestant Religion and afterwards revolts and turns Papist and so is reconcil'd to the See of Rome is ipso facto guilty of High Treason Printed for Langley Curtis 1682 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY May 12. 1682. Nunquam satis dicitur quod nunquam satis discitur Popery is a kind of Atheism proved in many particulars OUr Two last have contain'd some Arguments proving the Church of Rome not to be a true visible Church of Christ which will further appear if we can Demonstrate the same to be Guilty of the horrid sin of Atheism To know whether she be or no we must distinguish the several kinds of Atheism Atheisme is Two-fold Open and Colour'd Open-Atheisme is when men both in Word and Deed deny God and his Word Colour'd Atheisme is not so manifest and hath two Degrees 1. When men acknowledge a God a First Cause of Causes or Infinite Being that made and Governs the World but yet deny or are Ignorant of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Thus the Ephesians before they Believed the Gospel are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 2. 12. and said to be without God when yet no doubt in their natural Judgment they acknowledged because they deny'd Christ And in like manner though the Samaritans Worshipped the God of Abraham yet our Blessed Saviour saith They Worshipped they knew not what John 5. 46. And the Psalmist saith of all the Gentiles that their Gods are Idols The second Degree of this Colour'd Atheism is when men do rightly acknowledge the Unity of the Godhead in the Trinity of Persons yet so as by necessary Consequences partly of their Doctrine and partly of the Service of God they overturn that which they well maintained And in this Respect I say That the very Religion of the Church of Rome is a kind of Atheism 'T is true every Papist is not so shameless as one of their Popes who shewing some of his Confidents his Vast Treasures Hellishly said Quantas divitias nobis peperit haec Fabula Christi What a world of Riches has this Fable of Christ brought us in Yet the very Doctrines of their Church if understood and believed directly tends to lead all those of her Communion to the like or as desperate Impiety For 1. Whereas the Church of Rome maketh the Merit of the works of men to Concur with the Grace of God it overthrows the Grace of God If it be of works it is no more Grace Rom. 11. 6. whereas in words they own those glorious Attributes the Justice and Mercy of God to be Infinite do they not by Consequents deny both For how can that be Infinite Justice which may any way be appeased by humane satisfaction And how is God's Mercy Infinite when we by our own satisfactions must add a supply to the satisfaction of Christ 2. He that hath not the Son hath not the Father John 21. 23. and consequently is an Atheist Now the present Roman Religion hath not the Son that is Jesus Christ God and Man the Mediator of Mankind but hath transformed him into a feigned Christ For instead of one Jesus Christ in all things like unto us in his Humanity Sin only excepted They have framed a Christ to whom they Ascribe two kinds of Existing one Natural whereby he is visible touchable and Circumscribed in Heaven The other not only above but also against Nature by which he is substantially according to his Flesh in the hands of every Priest in every Host and in the mouth of every Communicant invisible untouchable and uncircumscribed and thus in effect they abolish his Man-hood 3. They Degrade our blessed Lord of his Offices and have Committed High Treason against the King of Glory and will you contend that such Arch Traitours are still true Subjects For one Jesus Christ the only King Lawgiver and Head of the Church They joyn unto him the Pope not only as a Vicar but also as a Companion or Equal in Government In that they give unto him power to make Laws binding Conscience To resolve and determine infallibly the sense of Holy Scripture c. For one Jesus Christ the only real Priest of the New Testament they joyn many Secondary Priests who pretend to offer Christ daily in the Mass for the Sins of the Quick and the Dead For one Jesus Christ the All sufficient Mediator of Intercession They have added many other Companions to Intercede for us And for the only Merits of Christ in whom alone the Father is well pleased they have devised a Treasury of the Church containing besides the merits of Christ the Over plus of the merits of Saints to be dispensed to men at the Popes discretion By all which we see That Christ and consequently God himself to be worshipped in Christ is changed for a Fantasie or Idol of mans
shall Eccho in his Ears that Christ shall disown all those as unworthy of his Kingdom who have here been ashamed to confess him before men But how fond are we to indulge our sins and what sorry Shields will men make use of rather than not have some colour of patronage for their crimes These Nicodemites these colloguing Hypocrites who think they can make a match between Light and Darkness and at once pass Homage both to Christ and Belial that they may seem cum ratione Insanire to offend God with warrant from his own word plead Scripture the Divel did so of old for their practice and alleadge the example of Naaman the Syrian 2. Kings 5. who being Miraculously Cured of his Leprosy came to acknowledg the true God of Israel and resolv'd not to Worship any other Deity for so saith he to the Prophet Elisha v. 17. Thy Servant will henceforth Offer neither Burnt Offering nor Sacrifice unto other Gods but unto the the Lord. But then in the next verse he comes with this Reserve In this thing the Lord Pardon thy Servant that when my Master goeth into the house of Rimmon to Worship there and he leaneth on my hand and I bow my self in the house of Rimmon the Lord pardon thy Servant in this thing And the Prophet said unto him depart in Peace Which say these men implies an approbation or leave for him so to do if therefore it were permitted for him rather than lose the favour of the King his Master to wait on him into an Idols Temple and bow down and pay the external signs of Worship there still keeping his heart upright to the Lord why may not we for like reasons assist at Mass since in our hearts we contemn and abhor it This is the full force of the Objection To which I answer 1. My friend thou that makest use of this Plea I cannot but admire since in the word of God thou hast a general road the Kings High way plainly set forth by commands and hedg'd in with Prohibitions not to depart from it and trackt by all the Troops of Pilgrims to the new Jerusalem wherein thou canst not err why dost thou rather chuke to decline and start aside after this particular Example as into a By-path rarely troden where easily thou may'st go astray How comest thou so Eagle ey'd to discover theâ—e private passages and small Chinks and Crevises and yet art so blind thou canst not see the Door Canst thou be ignorant that 't is a very dangerous thing to follow particular Examples without some other Warrant For sometimes to some persons God as by a singular priviledge hath permitted that which to all in general he hath forbidden And many things he suffers which he does not approve We do not read nor is it credible that this Syrian General was ever Circumcised will you hence raise an excuse to avoid your own being Baptized what if we should say thou art more bound to confess publickly thy Faith and abstain from all appearance of Idolatry than Naaman was because God has vouchsafed unto thee a greater measure of understanding because somewhat was indulg'd to his ignorance will you who are many degrees beyond him in knowledge claim the save priviledge How absurd how rash is this be not deceived God is neither a Sophister nor will suffer his glory to be fullfilled or his Justice eluded by any Sophistical tricks or evasions But 2. This Scripture is by them abused and being rightly interpreted gives not the least countenance to their practise who alleadge it For first you must note that this noble Syrian as long as he liv'd in Idolatry and Superstition with great cost and pomp was wont to Sacrifice to his Idols for the meanest men would strain themselves upon such occasions But now what does he resolve that henceforword he would only Sacrifice to the God of Israel Now what was that less than to make a publick notorious Profession of his having abandon'd the false Gods and only to cleave to the Lord whence the world might as easily perceive that he was no longer an Idolater as if he had proclaim'd it with the sound of a Trumpet For how could they doubt but he had cast off those Gods to whom he paid no more Offerings as he was wont to do be hesides loads away two Mules with the Earth of Canaan whereon he might adore the living God least otherwise by the contagion of profane Earth his Sacrifice should be polluted which was another solemn testimony of his Profession But afterwards he beggs pardon if he go into the Temple of Rimmon if he did this that he might counterfeit a worshipping of that Idol it would be some pretence indeed for them But the matter is quite otherwise for the words import only thus much If the King my Master shall happen to go into the Temple of Rimmon and leaning upon my â—oulder shall worship there though I bow down in civil respect to my Prince and Master let not the Lord impute it to me as though I worshipped the Idol The bowing of his body here intended was no simulation of Idolatry but a civil duty which he was wont to pay the King Those therefore that will defend themselves by this Example must first purge themselves from all suspition of Idolatry and openly show that they renounce superstition and then we shall have no controversie with them but till then 't is vain and ridiculous for them to think to shelter their impiety under this president Another excuse they would raise out of that pretended Epistle of Jeremy in the Book of Baruch chap. 6. where in v. 4. are these words Now shall ye see in Babylon Gods of silver and of gold and of wood borne upon shoulders be not afraid of them 〈◊〉 but say you in your hearts O Lord we must worship heeâ— I answer 1. This Epistle is Apocryphal and so not of sufficient authority and 2. the words are nothing to the purpose the Text only admonisheâ— them when they see them they should not be afraid of them but instead of joyning with them in their Idolatry should pay their Devotions to God That of Paul Acts 21. is somewhat more colorably yet well considered makes as little for their turn Paul say they though he knew the Ceremonies of the Law to be abolish'd yet to gratify those of his own Nation shaved his head according to Law Numb 6. 18. and vow'd and perform'd a purification after the manner of the â—aw â—f this were lawful for Paul to do we conceive we ought no more to be forbid the frequenting of Masses and other Popish mysteries 1. I answer 1. They are grievously reproachful first to God in comparing a Ceremony instituted by himself with abominable Idolatry and in the next place to Paul unjustly loading him with this infamy for was it a Ceremony condemn'd by God which Paul used or rather was it not yet an indifferent thing 'till the Light of
quâ sine maculâ peccato processisti c. Blessed be St. Anne thy mother of whom without spot or sin thou didst proceed c. Where are now the Dominicans who Preached the contrary Doctrine the most Holy most infallible Monster you see has concluded the point against them Next came Pius the 3 d in the year 1503. he was an Old decripite fellow and lived not above a month then upstarts that Hector Julius the second for before ever the Cardinals met he had made his Party by Bribes and fair promises and so without ever shutting the doors of the Consistory was declared Pope his first business was to Marry a Bastard Girle he had named Felix to one of the Vrsini and his next was to drive the French out of Italy he took Cesena and Forolivio from Caesar Borgia the Son of Pope Alexander the 6 th Expell'd the Family of Bentivogli with their Wives and Children out of Bononia Excommunicated the Venetians and gave their Lands to the first that could take them Interdicted Alphonso Duke of Ferrara and made open War against him because he took part with the French and went in person to the seige of Mirandula And passing once over the Bridge of Tyber with a naked sword in his hand he flung the Keys into the River which gave occasion to that Epigram Hic Gladius Pauli nos nunc defendit ab Hoste Quandoquidem Clavis nil suvat ista Petri. Since Peter's Keys with Foes can not prevail This sword of Paul to save us shall not fail And Monstrelet the Historian thus describes him He left the Chair of St. Peter and took upon him the Title of Mars the God of War displaying in the field his Triple Crown and spending his Nights in the Watch. What a goodly sight was it to see the Mitres Crosses and Crosier staves Flying up and down the Field sure no Divels could be there where Benedictions were sold so cheap Upon this Lewis of France and Maximilian the Emperour resolve to call a Council at Pisa and to summon this Pope thither as being notoriously scandalous incorrigible a Fomenter of Wars and altogether unfit for the Popedome and though the Pope used means to take off the Emperour yet Lewis persisted and caused certain Medals to be Coyned upon which was Inscribed these words Perdam Babylonem I will destroy Babylon and on some of them perdam Babylonis nomen I will destroy the Name of Babylon By which 't is evident he meant Rome so that the notion of its being Babylon is neither new nor set on foot by Protestants though 't is true his Holiness was herewith so much offended that by his Bull he took away from the French King the Title of Most Christian and offer'd the same to Henry the 8 th of England then one of the Popes white Boy 's on whom afterward was bestow'd that of defender of the Faith but God be thanked our Protestant Brittish Monarchs as they yet usually retain the one so they may justly when they shall think fit assume the other without being beholding to a raskally Divels Priest for either of them In opposition to the Council of Pisa Pope Julius sets up a Conventicle under that name in the Lateran at Rome who Excommunicate the other folks and damn all their proceedings but â—n the heat of their Carier Julius dies on whom those that knew him bestow'd these Epigrams Fraude capit totum Mercator Julius Orbem Vendit enim Caelos non habet Ipse tamen By fraud that Huckster Julius scrapes up pelf For Heaven he sells yet hath it not himself And again Genui tui Patrem Genitricem Graecia Partum Pontus unda dedit nunc Bonus esse potest Fallaces Ligures mendax est Grecia Ponto Nulla fides in te haec singula Jule tenes From Genua and Greece his Parents blood At Sea he had his Birth can he be good The Genoe's alway false Greeks Liars be Faithless the Sea all Julius meet in thee In a word the Popedome of Julius was so imperious and barbarous that the Cardinals were upon the point of â—â—â—ding the next that should sucâ—eed in that See to the good behaviour and prescribing certain Râ—les whereby â—e should Act but what a pretty Torisme is it to hedge in a Cuckow guide Infallibility and bound the perrogative of the Chair which according to modern Casuists is unliâ—iâ—table he dyed in the year 1513 in the 10 th year of his pontificate and the greatest Enology that Ouuphrius himself can bestow on him is that he was Bellicâ Gloriâ plusquam pontificem deceret Clarus More famous for war like Glory than became a Pope The next was John de Medicis a very pretty forward Child for he got to be an Archbishop almost before he had left his Go-Cart and at Thirteen years of age was made a Cardinal and at 37 arriv'd at the Popedome by the name of Leo the 1â— th On his Coronation day he spent an Hundred Thousand Dâ—â—â—tes and in one morning the Colledge of Cardinals câ—nsenting say our Author for fear not of free will he Created one and Thirty Cardinals amongst whom were two of his Nephews He continu'd the Council of Lateran conven'd by his Predecessor and extinguisht that of Pisa he exacted great summs of mony throughout all Europe by his Legates under pretence of making War against the Turks and his Prodigality causing continual want he used saith Guiccardine very licentiously the Authority of the Holy See and spread abroad throughout all the World without any difference of times and places most ample Indullgences not only to succour the Living but also to deliver the Souls of the departed out of the pains of Purgatory And it being notorious that such Indulgences were granted only to rook people of their mony there arose thereby many scandals especially in Germany where his Ministers for a very small price sold these braided Wares and in Taverns play'd away at Dice the power of delivering Souls out of Purgatory and the money thus raised he gave to his Sister Magdalene who appointed the Bishop of Arembauld her Commissary for that business which place he executed with exceeding great Covetousness and Extortion so that Preachers were not asham'd to publish in their Pulpits that at the sound of the mony as it was cast into their Bason the Souls skipp'd for joy amidst the flames and presently flew out of Purgatory and that whoever gave 10 Soulz might deliver thence what Soul he pleased but if there was but one farthing less they would do nothing These horrible abuseâ—s being thus daily without all shame committed it pleased God to raise up Martin Luther who first began to inveigh only against such exorbitant Indnlgences about the year 1516. but afterwards the Pope instead of Reformation sending forth his Thunderbolts against him he grew more wearily to scan the Doctrines of the Roman Church and so open'd a way for the Reformation which hence may properly bare date and therefore here as an happy and very proper period we shall give a Conclusion to this 4 th Volume SOLI GLORIA SOLA DEO The COURANT. Tory. THe truth is 't was a great disappointment and has utterly spoil'd the wit of an Health to Blewcap but are not your Whiggs at Chichester most abominable Varlets to Massacre our Reverend Father's Jades at this rate Truem. Yes indeed Nat Thomson and L'Estrange I see resolve to make Martyrs of the poor Beasts one of the Roman Emperours made his Horse Lord Mayor and an Ass you know tutor'd the Prophet why then may not an Episcopal Steed be Sainted We men of Kent I remember got long-tails by being uncivil to Bishop Beckets Nag and who knows what heavy Judgments may befall these Clowns of Sussex for such a damnable Plot against Old Roan or sorrell Ecclesiastick but the truth is all the whole story is a Ly the Phanaticks kill'd my Lord the Bishops Horses no more than they burnt London and yet Roger L'Estrange has charg'd them with both Tory. Well! let the Horses go to the Dogs oâ—ly as long unburied as the fellow did a few years ago but in the mean time what can you say touching the man that was slain there the other day Truem. There was a fellow fit for the Imployment that took upon him to be an Informer but staying too long after the Brandy bottle the Meeting it seems was broke up this loss of a Jobb and the Liquor together enrag'd him to that degree that he must needs break a worthy Gentleman's Windows whose Coachman going out to enquire the cause of that Burglary the Informer not only abus'd his Master with vile Language but assaulted the Coachman who in his own defence laid him in the Kennell but no sooner had he recover'd his Leggs but away he runs to the Man 's you wot on to make his sad Complaint how he had suffer'd by the Whigs for serving the Church Into the Celler he is carryed for a Cup of Benediction and Consolation and being Drunk before adds to the debauch and so good Night Now this accident is to be fill'd to the Dissenters account and you must needs believe that he dyed by means of the scuffle between him and the Coachman But pray tell us what makes Squire Hodge so desparately mad with the Parliaments and fall so foul on their priviledges at this juncture I hope we are not like to have one this Winter Tory. No no Hang 'um we all hate the very name the Popes Holiness himself would be as well pleas'd to hear of a General Council as we of a Parliament You see Roger aforesaid makes it Rebellion and half seas over to Forty one to expect an annual Parliament though there are a Brace or two of as fair laws for it as any in the Statute Book Truem. I never wonder to hear naughty Boys rail against Birch no doubt the Gentleman's Journey to Holland cost him Mony and he may be allow'd now to swagger don't you remember how the Collier huffâ— against the Mayor when he was got out of the Liberties Tory. Yes but his saying 'tother day that Rebellion always attended the Reformation was a little to broad I left a note last Night at Sam 's to caution him to more prudence for if he go on at this rate the people will conclude him a Papist though Prance should never make a word on 't Printed for Langley Curtis 1682.