of this Realm made in the 25. year of the reign of the King your Father be repealed and be it voyd and of no effect as also all and every such clauses Articles branches and matters contained and expressed in the afforsaid Act of Parliament made in the said 28. year of the Reign of the said late King your Father or in any other Act or Acts of Parliament as wherby your Highness is named or declared to be ilegitimat or the said marriage between the said King your Father and the said Queen your Mother is declared to be against the word of God or by any means vnlawful shal be and be repealed and be voyd and of no force nor effect to all intents constructions and purposes as if the same sentence or Act of Parliament had never bin had nor made and that the said marriage had and solemnized between your said most noble Father King Henry and your said most noble Mother Queen Catharin shal be definitivly cleerly and absolutly declared deemed and adjudged be and stand with God's law and his most holy word and to be accepted reputed and taken of good effect and validity to all Intents and purposes c. Notwithstanding that the force and fraud vsed by King Henry 8. Cranmer and others engaged in this divorce were so plainly manifested the Catholicks faith reestablished the folly and falshood of former schisms and heresies publickly acknowledged yet no sooner was Queen Mary deceased then Queen Elizabeth and her Protestant faction resolved to return to the former errours whervnto vicious persons who always are the greatest number were as vehemently inclined as men are to enjoy their liberty and to excuse the sensuality which they practised by the principles of that Religion And though it seemed a busines of great difficulty for Q. Elizabeth and her Councel to revive a Reformation which had bin so lately cryed down as schism and heresy by the vnanimous concurrence of a ful and lawful Parliament yet her Regal authority her sex and words wrought so strongly vpon the weakness of some and vpon the ambition of others that she gained the greater part of the house of Lords and yet but by on only voice for establishing Protestancy the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Arundel employing in her service all their interest with friends and relations against the Religion of their Ancestors And such Lords and Gentlemen saith D. r Heylin as had the managing of elections of their several Counties retained such for members of the house of Commons as they conceived most likly to comply with their intentions for a reformation Besids saith he the Queen was young vnmarried and like enough to entertain some thoughts of a husband so that it can be no great mervail not only if many of the nobility but some even of the Gentry also flattered themselves with possibilities of being the man whom she might choose to be her partner in the Regal Diadem Which hopes much smoothed the way to the accomplishment of her desires which otherwise might have proved more rugged and vnpassable c. Notwithstanding all these devices and compliances they never passed an Act in Parliament for the validity of her Mothers marriage on which saith Heylin her title most depended It seems the late former Act declaring the validity of Queen Catharins mariage deter'd her from attempting an other incompatible therwith and wherin men must have had contradicted themselves most imprudently as also the truth asserted by the many witnesses and confirmed with such individual circumstances that without infamy to the late Parliament they could not take from Queen Elizabeth the brand of bastardy Yet they resolved it should be no bar between her and the Crown and so they thrust her into the Throne which of right belonged to Mary Steward Queen of Scotland as is manifest to all that are not persuaded Catholick Religion doth make soveraigns incapable of Regal jurisdiction SECT VII Other effects of Protestancy after it was revived in England by Q. Elizabeth to exclude the Royal Family of the Stewards from the Crown of the nulity of her Clergy's caracter and jurisdiction By King Henry 8. his revolt from the Church of Rome not only the Religion but the realm of England was so embroyl'd that very many who had no right entertained hopes of ascending into the Royal Throne some by fishing in troubled waters others by marrying Q. Elizabeth others by their descent from the younger daughter of King Henry 7. all mention of the heires of the elder Sister having bin omitted or blotted out of the last will and Testament of K. Henry 8. and Q. Elizabeth having bin declared ilegitimat by three Acts of different Parliaments which never yet were repealed very few there were that did not hould their own title to be more legal then hers This confusion also made the Queen of Scots known right to be neglected But the French King who was concerned therin commanded her to be proclaimed Q. of England and quarter'd the Arms of great Britanie with his lilies Q. Elizabeth apprehended some daunger from a title so cleere seconded with the power of France and Scotland and therfore by the advice of Secretary Cecil and others resolved upon the chang of Religion and the destruction of the Catholick party and Clergy which favoured the Stewards claim The Protestant Reformation as being sutable both to her birth and interests was revived and a new caracter of Priesthood and Episcopacy devised not imprinted in the soule by imposition of Episcopal hands according to the Ghospel but in wax as if forsooth by the weight of the great seal and the vertue of a shee supremacy a woman or lay men might make Bishops This superficial formality was declared a sufficient caracter and ground of Episcopacy by a Junta of her Majesties lawyers and Divines as appeareth in their definitive sentence and her Commission to the Consecraters of her first Bishops D. r Parker and others wherin she dispenseth with all the inhabilities and incapasities even of their State and Condition because the true Bishops refused to ordain her Clergy and a Clergy she was resolved to have that would vote in Parliament and instruct the People as should be thought fit for her Succession and security And because the Roman Catholick Writers of those tyms laught at the Protestant Bishops Episcopacy and bid them shew the letters of their Orders not the letters patens of the Queen and tould them a secular Prince might give them the revenues of Bishopricks but not the Caracter of Bishops and that the same Catholick writers insisted much vpon their Adversaries not being able to name what Bishops did consecrat them and besids pleaded in the publick Court they were not realy nor legaly ordained and that afterwards it appeared so to the Iury appointed for the examination therof both the Queen and her Bishops found it absolutly necessary for her credit and their caracter to ratify all Acts and things
for her proued incest and adultery yet his pride and wilfulness was so excessiue that rather then acknowledg his former error by a formal recantation he continued to exercise his scandalous supremacy so violently that he devised Articles of Religion made Cromwel his Vicar-general in spiritual affairs took upon him to define what was heresy what Catholick faith permitted the Scriptures to be translated by heretiks and read in English and to vexe the Pope countenanced and connived at any novelties though afterwards he burn't the novelists for heretiks and prohibited when it was too late their Translations of Scripture and other Books which he had formerly permitted But seing that notwithstanding his severity the Sacramentarian heresy which he most of all hated did increase in his Kingdom and that the spiritual sword in his lay hand did not work those effects which it had don when it was managed by the Bishops of Rome by whose sole authority all the heresies of the first 300. years were condemned and suppressed without the help of a general Councel and that the Keys which he had usurped served rather to open the doors of the English Church to all errors then shut them out and perceiving his end draw neer he began to think of a reconciliation with Rome but such a one as might sute with his humor which he termed Honour Therfore he sent his favorit Bishop Gardener to the Jmperial Diet with privat instructions to endeavour in such a manner his return to the unity and obedience of the Church through the mediation of the Catholick Princes of Germany and of the Pop's Legat that on King Henrys side it might look more like a princely condescendâ—ncy then a penitent conversion wherunto he seemed to incline at the solicitation rather of others then moved by a detestation of his own errors But God with whom none must dally nor Princes capitulat summon'd him to an account sooner then was imagined Whether he repented or despaired at his death is vncertain Some say his last words were omnia perdidimus all is lost In his last will and Testament he named 16. Tutors for his Son to govern during his minority with equall authority charging them not to bring in the Sacramentarian Religion But God permitted his will to be broken before his body was buried who had changed the last wills of so many thousands deceased and that but three days after his death for upon the 1. of February Seamor Earle of Hartford brother to Ed. 6. Mother was made Protector of the King and Kingdom by his own ambition and privat authority of his faction which prevailed amongst the 16. Executors without expecting any Parliament or consent to the Realm for so great a charge or for the change of religion which immediatly followed And because Wriothesly Earle of Southampton Lord Chancelor the Earle of Arundel and Bishop Tonstall and some others would not betray their trust and opposed the new reformation they were disgraced and displaced SVBSECT I. Of the English Religion and Reformers in King Edward VI. reign THe Earle of Hartford newly created Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector of England was a man fitter to be governed then to govern his judgment was weak but himself very wilfull and so blindly resolut in commanding and executing the designs of others by whom he was guided that without perceiving it he was made the instrument of his own ruin as wel as of his brothers and of the yong King also by the chang of the ancient Religion Dudley Earle of Warwick was his director both in Church and state affairs and yet was his greatest enemy which Somerset had not the wit to see though all the world knew him to be his Competitor And albeit Dudly had bin always a Roman Catholick in his judgment yet as most Polititians do he dissembled his belief and yet â—oothed the Protector in his inclination to the protestant reformation not doubting but that having once intoxicated the people with the liberty and inconstancy therof he might lead them from the contempt of spiritual authority to rebel against the temporal and humor so well their mad zeale that for their new Ghospel's preservation and propagation they would fix vpon him for their Director and stick to whom he would appoint for their Soveraign He was not deceived in his expectation the Protector Seamour was destroyed Dudly himself made chief Minister of England the King poysoned the Princess Mary excluded the Lady Jane Gray declared Queen because she was a Protestant and marryed to Dudlys Son All which things he compased in a short tyme though by degrees as you shall hear No sooner was K. Henry 8. dead but Dudly Earle of Warwick advised Somerset to take vpon him the Protectorship and to make him odious by his privat authority to alter the publick profession of faith and because he knew so notorious a fraud could not be effected without force he devised with the Protector the journy of Musselborough field and the war of Scotland vnder pretence of gaining by force the yong Queene of Scots to marry K. Edward 6. but in reality to get the power of the Militia into his own hands and therby to settle in England a Religion wherby he might in due tyme vpon the score of a refin'd reformation vnsettle the government and alter K. Henry 8. Testament and persuade England that his Daughter Marys reign would eclipse the light of the ghospel which then began to shine After that he had made the Protector so odious that none could endure to hear his name or to live vnder his government he thought it a proper tyme to establish by Parliament that new profession of faith which he knew could not be effected without the consent and concurrence of that great Assembly And though he was not ignorant of the absurdities contained in the best of the new reformations yet because since the setlement of the spiritual headship of our Kings he perceived the common people might be led any way and that an Act of Parliament was held sufficient to make them believe the ancient Christian Religion was profane and that any protestant reformation was the primitive and Apostolick faith he wrought so much by the feare of the army and the Kings authority that albeit in the first Parliament and year of Edward 6. reign nothing more could be obtained in favour of Protestancy but an indemnity for the preachers therof from penalties enacted by the ancient laws against married Priests and Heriticks and a repeal of the English Statuts confirming the Imperial Edicts against heresies yet in the second year and Parliament of Edward the VI. It was carried though by few votes and after a long debate of aboue four months that the Zuinglian or Sacramentarian reformation should be the Religion of England The charge of framing Articles of this Religion as also of composing the Liturgy and a book of rits ceremonies and administration of Sacraments had bin commited to
to the Earl of Arundell that she would marry him and by promising other favours to the Duke of Norfolck had by their solicitations gained most of the nobility and the Lords and Gentlemen who had the managing of elections in their several Counties had retained such men for 〈◊〉 of the House of Commons as they conceived moâ—â— likely to comply with the Queens new design in reviving that Religion which but five years before them-selves and the whole Kingdom had rejected as damnable heresy and groundless novelty devised by some lâ—w'd revolted Friars and Priests and had observed how all sober and conscienâ—ious men weâ—â— troubled to see so shamefull a change introduced only for maintaining the weakness of a title against the cleer right of the Stewards and fearing least this scruple might spread and work vpon the consciences of the illiterat multitude it was thought fit to command Bishop Iewell the fittest man for so impudent an vndertaking to assert the antiquity of the particular Tenets of the New Church of England and so in forme of a Challenge against all Roman Catholicks he published at Paules Cross that the Religion which the Queen and Parliament had then established by Law was no novelty nor new invented sense of Scripture but the same which our Saviour and his Apostles delivered to the Church and all Orthodox Christians held for the first 600. years which thing he vndertook to demonstrat by vndeniable Testimonies of the Holy Fathers that lived in those six first Centuries The words of this Challenge we have set down heretofore as also the confutation therof One Rastal having writ against this challenge Iewell togeather with the rest of the Bishops and learned Protestant Clergy composed that famous Apology for the Church of England both in Latin and English it came out first in the name of their whole Church though I believe Iewell had the wording of it because afterwards his name was set to it and to the defence therof but without doubt all the able men of the English Clergy had their hands and heads in the work Against it divers appeared in print Stapleton Sanders and Harding whervpon saith Dean Walsingham in his search of Religion pag. 166. Mr. Iewel within few years after set forth the reply to D. r Harding which was esteemed to have bin made by joynt labours of the most learned men in England both in London and the Vniversities But in these their labours they were convicted of a thousand and odd falsifications and yet saith Harding of 26. articles only five have passed our examination Imagin then what number is like to rise of the whole work I will mention but one or two of every controversy I hope that is sufficient to prove that no one point wherin Protestants differ from Roman Catholicks can be maintained even by the most learned Protestants without frauds falshoods and impostures And do choose to instance particulars out of this Apology and defence of the Church of England because it is not only the work of their first Bishops and Clergy and the very bulwork of their Church but as D. r Heylin truly says the Magazin from whence all the Protestant Controversies since that time have furnished them-selves with arguments and authorities We will omit most of their corruptions of Scripture in the Apology because we have convicted them elâ—â—where of that crime but that they may not imagin we what matter even in this work of theirs let the curious read 〈…〉 Epistle to M. r Jewell set before his return 〈◊〉 vntruthâ— where he tells him you have falsifyed and mangled the very Text of Holy Scripture namely of Saint Paule in one Chapter nine times as the reader may see in the third article of his Book fol. 107. SVBSECT I. The Protestant Clergy convicted of falshood in their Apology concerning Communion vnder one kind BIshop Iewell and his Associats maintain with most Protestants that to receive the B. Sacrament 〈◊〉 one kind only is against the institution of Christâ— and therfore could not be allowed nor practised by the Church nor ever was during the first six hundred years So that the Controversy between the Church of England and Harding is whether in the first 600. years after Christ any Communion were ministred vnder one kind or no which they vnder the name of M. r Jewell deny against whom Harding giveth an instance out of the Ecclesiastical History of one Serapian that was Communicated in his death vnder one kind only Mr. Iewell seing him-self convicted replieth That it is not our question we vnderstand not of privat Communion but of publick in the Church and yet in the first proposing of the Question there was no mention of the Church or Publick and the whole controversy between Catholicks and Protestants is whether with out breach of Christ's Institution any man might communicat vnder one kind only Then Mr. Iewell is demanded whether if it may be proved that sick persons have received the Communion vnder one kind in the Church it will satisfie him wher to he answereth no saying the only thing that I denied is that yee are not able to bring any one sufficient example or authority that ever the whole people received the Communion in open Church in one kind within that time then he is vrged further whether if it can be proved that in closs chappels and Oratories in wilderness and caves in time of persecution the communion was practised vnder one kind this would satisfie him for so mucâ— as this proveth Christ's Institution not to forbid Communion vnder one kind But M. r Iewel leapeth also from this saying the question is whether the Holy Communion were ever ministred openly in the Church It being manifest that for the first 300. years vntill Constantin's time the Christians in most places particularly at Rome had no open Churches but privat Oratories and caves At length being demanded whether Infants receaving the Communion vnder one kind openly in the Church was a sufficient example Jewel answereth Mr. Harding maketh his whole plea vpon an Jnfant and yet of Infants as he knoweth I spake nothing Mr. Harding presseth him with the example of the two disciples to whom Christ our Saviour did give the Communion vnder one kind only at Emaus as by the Text of Scripture and Jnterpretation of ancient Fathers is plain he alledgeth also the examples of S. t Ambrose and S. t Basil who receaved the Sacrament vnder one kind though they were Priests Wherunto M. r Iewel answereth this is not to the purpose for the question is moved of lay people M. r Harding bringeth examples of Christ and two disciples who were of the number of 72. and therfore it may well be thought they were ministers and not of the lay sort I demanded of the layty M. r Harding answereth of St. Ambrose and St. Basil which were Bishops Which evasion is not only fraudulent but foolish as if forsooth Priests
Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury and to some other Protestant Divins who were all married friars and Priests lately come out of Germany with their sweet-hearts viz. Hooper and Rogers Monks Couerdale an Augustin friar Bale a Carmelite Martin Bucer a Dominican Bernardin Ochinus a Franciscan and Peter Martyr a Chanon Regular these three last were invited by the Protector and appointed to preach and teach in both the Vniversities and at London and were to agree with the rest in the new model and form of Religion which was a matter of great difficulty because the Tenets which vntil then they had professed were irreconciliable Hâ—â—per and Rogers were fierce Zuinglians that is Puritans or Presbiterians and with them was joyned in faction against Cranmer Ridly and other Prelaticks for that they opposed his pretension to the Bishoprick of Worcester Hugh Latimer of great regard with the common people Couerdale and Bale were both Lutherans and yet differed because the one was a rigid the other a mild or half Lutheran Bucer also had professed a kind of Lutheranism in Germany but in England was what the Protector would have him to be and therfore would not for the space of a whole yeare declare his opinion in Cambridg though pressed to it by his Schollers concerning the real presence vntil he had heard how the Parliament had decided that controversy at London and then he changed his opinion and became a Zuinglian The same tergiversation was used by Peter Martyr at Oxford and so ridiculously that coming sooner in the first Epistle to the Corinthians which he vndertook to expound to the words Hoc est Corpus meum then it had bin determined in Parliament what they should signifie the poore friar with admiration and laughter of the University was forc't to divert his Auditors with impertinent Comments vpon the precedent words Accipite manducate fregit dixit c. which needed no explanation And when the news was come that both houses had ordered they should be vnderstood figurativly and not literaly Peter Martyr said he admired how any man could be of an other opinion though he knew not the day before what would be his own But as for Bucer he was a concealed Jew or Atheist for being asked confidently his opinion of the Sacrament by Dudly Duke of Northumberland in the presence of the Lord Paget then a Protestant who testified the same publickly afterwards he answered that the real presence could not be denied if men believed that Christ was God and spoke the words This is my Body but whether all was to be belived which the Evangelists writ of Christ was a matter of more disputation Bernardin Ochinus dyed a Jew in his opinion he writ a book to assert the lawfulness of having many wives at once this together with his profession of the Mosaick law at his death proved that he was but a counterfeit Protestant Cranmer was a meer Contemporiser and of no Religion at all Henry VIII raised him from Chaplain to Sr. Thomas Bullen to be Arch-bishop of Canterbury to the end he might divorce him from Q. Catharin and marry him to An' Bullen afterwards by the Kings order he declared to the Parliament that to his knowledg Anne Bullen was never lawfull wife to his Majesty when he married the King to An of Cleves and when the King was weary of her Cranmer declared this marriage also nul and married and vnmarried him so often that he seemed rather to exercise the Office of a Pimp then the function of a Priest which to requite one courtesy for an other made the King connive at his keeping a wench and at some of his opinions though contrary to the Statut of the 6. Articles In King Henry VIII days he writ a Book for the Real presence in King Edwards 6. days he writ an other Book against the real presence He conspired with the Protector Somerset to overthrow K. Henry 8. will and Testament and afterwards conjured with Dudly to ruin the Protector He joyned with Dudly and the Duke of Suffolk against Q. Mary for the lady Jane Grey and immediatly after with Arundell Shreusbury Pembrouk Pageâ— and others against the same Duke Finaly when he was condemned in Q. Maries reign for treason and heresy and his treason being pardoned hoping the same favor might be extended to his heresy he recanted and abjured the same but seing the temporal laws reserved no mercy for relapsed hereticks who are presumed not to be truly converted or penitent he was so exasperated therby that at his death moved more by passion then conscience he renounced the Roman Catholick Religion to wich he had so lately conformed These were the men who framed the 39. Articles of Religion the Liturgy and the Book of Sacraments rits and ceremonies of the Protestant Church of England and though it may seem incredible that a Iew an Atheist a Contemporiser or meer Polititian a Presbiterian a rigid Lutheran half-Lutheran and an Anti-Lutheran or Sacramentarian should all agree to make one Religion yet when men do but dissemble and deliver opinions to please others and profit themselves and have no Religion at all they may without difficulty concurr in some general points of Christianity and frame negative articles impugning the particular truths therof This was the case of the Church of England For though Hooper and Rogers were prity obstinat in the Presbiterian or Zuinglian doctrin of the Sacrament and prevailed therin so far by the Protectors countenance as to reform the common praier-Book and to confound the caracter of Episcopacy with single Presbitery as if there had bin no real distinction between both nor no imposition of Episcopal hands required for either but only a bare election of the Congregation or Magistrat yet rather then loose the revenues of benefices and Bishopricks they were content contrary to their solemn confederacy to connive at the Episcopal disciplin and ceremonious decency of surplises square Caps and Rochets The names of Priests and Bishops they were content to admit of in the common praier-Book so the caracter were not mentioned in their new form of ordaining them but rather declared not to be of divin institution nor a Sacrament In like manner Hooper at length condescended to take the Oath of supremacy and conformed thervnto his conscience when the Bishoprick of Worcester was added to his former of Glocester though vntil then he agreed with Calvin in impugning the Kings ' spiritual headship As Hooper condescended to the Kings ' Supremacy to the Prelatick disciplin and ceremonies so Cranmer and his prelatick party condescended to the Presbiterian doctrin because they were indifferent for any that would alow them wenches and not deprive them of their revenues And as for Ochinus the Jew Bucer the Atheist and the rest of the protestant Divines their vots as wel as their livelyhoods depended of Cranmer his wil and pleasur Besids Cranmer perceived the Protector inclined to Zuinglianism and the Presbiterian
evidently followeth that if it be lawful to deal thus with spiritual Superiours it must be as lawful a fortiori to deal after the same manner and vpon the same grounds of every privat man's interpretation of Scripture with temporal Superiours To imagin therfore that by a particular article of Religion or by an Act of Parliament against Presbiterians Quakers Anabaptists c. in favour of the subject's property to temporal goods or of the King's prerogatives and soveraignty such mens minds or mouths wil be stopt from raising tumults and runing into a rebellion so cleerly waranted by the fundamental principle of the Protestant Reformation is but a fancy not to be rely'd vpon by any discreet person Dudly Earl of Waâ—vvick and afterwards Duke of Northumberland observing that by this foundation of Protestancy the very ground of Alegiance and Obedience not only to the spiritual but also to the civil Magistrat is vndermin'd resolved to make his son King of England and in order therunto marryed him to the Lady Jane Grey a Protestant of the bloud royal not doubting but that they who had renounc'd all subordination unto their spiritual Superiours vnder the pretext of a reformation would vpon the same score preferr the lady Jane to the Crown before the Princess Mary a Constant Catholick Therfore after that he had beheaded the Protector and poyson'd the King he crown'd his son's wife with the concurrence and applause of the Prelatick Clergy Cranmer Ridly c. and with the consent of the Protestant Nobility and Citty of London But Protestancy not being at that tyme so deeply rooted nor so largly spread in the nation the Catholick Gentry and Commons togeather with Q. Maries great courage and resolution quash't this Polititian's design and brought him to due punishment Vpon the scaffold he declared that he never had bin a Protestant in his judgment and only made use of it's profession and principles for temporal ends as to raise his family c. he advertiss't the people of the new Religion's inconsistency with peace and quiet that it's Clergy were but Trumpets of sedition The substance of his speech is set down by D. r Heylin in these words He admonish'd the spectatours to stand to the Religion of their Ancestors rejecting that of later date which had occasion'd all the misery of the foregoing thurty years and that for prevention for the future if they desir'd to present their souls vnspotted in the sight of God and were truly affected to their Country they should expel those tempests of sedition the Preachers of the reform'd Religion that for himself what soever had otherwise bin pretended he profess'd no other Religion then that of his Fathers for testimony wherof he appeal'd to his good freind and ghostly Father the Lord Bishop of Worcester and finaly that being blinded with ambition he had bin contented to make rack of his conscience by temporising for which he profess'd himself sincerly repentant and so acknowledg'd the justice of his death A Declaration saith D. r Heylin very vnseasonable whether true or false as that which rendred him less pittied by the one side and more scorn'd by the other This is a more Politick then pious observation of D. r Heylin would he not have men confess their faults and profess their â—aith when they are dying and would he have them preferr the vanity of the pitty or scorn of the world when they are to bid the whole world adieu before the satisfaction and salvation of the soule I feare too many of D. r Heylins principles not only deferr until the last houre the profession of the truth but even then dissemble thinking a Declaration and recantation of their errors at that tymâ— either vnseasonable or vnpardonable and preferr the vanity of the world's opinion before the necessity of a conversion vnto the true faith Q. Marys daunger ended not with Dudlys death it lasted as long as ther was any man to head the Protestant party and to put the people in mind of it's principles First the Duke of Suffolck and others plotted the setting up once more of the Lady Jane Grey and began the execution therof by their Proclamations against Q. Marys intended mariage with Philip of Spain this occasioned the Lady Jan's death Other zealots of the Protestant Religion concluded a mariage between the Lord Courtny and the Lady Elizabeth their plot was discover'd as also Wyats Rebellion suppress'd all these things were don by the advice and assistance of the Protestant Clergy that remained in England and were commended by such of them as liv'd abroad D. r John Poinet the last Bishop of Winchester was not only of Wyat's Councel but continued in his camp vntil he perceiv'd the design would not take then he departed telling the Rebels he would pray for their good success Goodman and Knox rayled in their Books against the Queen and Calvin in his Coment vpon Amos termeth her Proserpine Goodman hath this expression Wyat did but his duty and it was but the duty of all others that profess the Ghospel to have risen with him for the maintenance of the same His cause was just and they were all Traytors that took not part with him O Noble Wyat thou art now with God and those worthy men that dyed in that happy enterprise This was the primitive spirit these the first effects of our English Protestancy Not only the Queen out of a zeal to the Roman Catholick Religion but the Privy Councel and Parliament moved with a desire of peace seing it was moraly impossible to govern people protestantly principl'd resolved to restore the ancient doctrin wherwith their Ancestours had so long prosper'd and to suppress the Protestant novelties by the rigour of the laws formerly made against heresies which had bin repeal'd at the instance of the reform'd Preachers and Prelats in K. Edward 6. raign And therfore as D. r Bancroft Arch-Bishop of Canterbury confesseth in his book of dangerous positions pag. 63. though Q. Mary was a Princess of nature and disposition very mild and inclined to pittie yet she and her government is taxed with too much severity by them that consider not the nature and consequences of Protestancy If Tinkers Taylors Tapsters Tanners and Spinsters would needs run into the fier for defending the fond inventions of Cranmer and of other known Temporisers who could help it neither patience nor pains was wanting in the Catholick Clergy to reduce them to the truth but their obstinacy and the vanity of dying Martyrs forsooth made them preferr their own privat sence of Scripture before that of the whole visible Church So charitable were the Catholicks that they delay'd the penalties of such as they could not convert and connived at them who endeavored to escape by absenting or concealing themselves And as for Cranmer Ridly Latimer and the other Ringleaders of Protestancy they had liberty given them to maintain their cause in publick disputations with the tyme books and notaries
of the two parties are guilty of counterfeiting evidences that is of changing the ancient letter and sense of Scripture and of corrupting and falsifying the Catholick Fathers and Councells It is but matter of fact and may be soon resolved We have given our charge against our Adversaries long since in our printed Books and in this do renew the same Let the Court command them to put in their answer And because the Protestant Clergy hath alwayes endeavored to make vs odious and obnoxious to the state as vnnatural subjects and ill patriots and will strive now to persuade the world that our zeale in manifesting their frauds and falsifications proceeds not from a desire of manifesting the truth but from covetousness of possessing their lands we doubt not but that in case reason and equity appeareth to be on the Catholick side the Catholick Clergy will resign vnto his Majesty all their claim and right to the Church livings of the three Kingdoms to be freely disposed of in pious and publik vses as he and his Parliament will think most fit for the honor of God and defence of this Monarchy against forrein enemies and seditious subjects Wherin we do no more then duty and our Brethren did in the like occasion in Q. Maries reign And as our offer can have no design but duty so this Tryal can not be against conscience and may prove to be of great consequence both for the salvation of soules and satisfaction of his Majestyes subjects It can not be against the tenderness of Protestant consciences because Roman Catholicks who pretend to a greater certainty of doctrin as believing the Roman Catholick Church to be infallible have admitted of such a tryal in France an 1600. in presence of the King then a Catholick the princes and of all the Court and hath bin translated into English in the third part of the 3. Conversions In hopes that Protestants may be moved by such an example and follow the same Method I will set down the summe of the Tryal SVBSECT IV. A brief relation of a Tryal held in France about Religion wherof the Lord Chancellor of France was Moderator IN the year 1600. there came forth a book in Paris vnder the name of Monsieur de Plessis a Hugonot and Governor of Samur against the Mass which book making great shew as the fashion is of abundance and ostentation of Fathers Councells Doctors and stories for his purpose great admiration seemed to be conceived therof and the Protestants every where began to tryumph of so famous a work Iust as our prelatiks have don of late when Doctor Ieremy Taylor 's Dissuasive from Popery was published in Ireland printed and reprinted in England wherupon divers Catholick learned men took occasion to examin the sayd book of Plessis as others have don lately with Doctor Taylors Dissuasive and finding many most egregious deceits shifts and falsifications therin divers books were written against it and one in particular by a French Iesuit discovering at least a thousand falshoods of his part And the Bishop of Eureux afterwards Cardinal Peron Protested vpon his honor in the pulpit that he could shew more then 500. Falsifications in the Book for his part Hereupon the Duke of Bovillon Monsieur Rosny Mr. Digiers and other Protestant Lords began to call for a tryal of the truth for that it seemed to touch all their honors as well as that of their Protestant Religion It were to be wish'd that some of our English Protestant Nobility and Gentry did imitat the French Hugonots rather in this example of the sense they shewed both of honor and conscience then in the fashion of their cloaths cringies and congies The English Protestants have more reason to vindicat Doctor Taylor 's Dissuasive from the aspersions of frauds and falsifications layd to that Bishop's charge then the french Hugonots had to vindicat de Plessis his Book which was but the work of a Lay-man or at least not set out by order of the Hugonot Clergy as Bishop Taylor 's Dissuasive was resolved vpon and published by order of the Protestant prelatik Convocation of Ireland and both the book and Taylor the Author or Amanuensis so much applauded in England that the Dissuasive hath often bin printed at London and the Dissuader's picture in his Canonical habit placed in the beginning of his book with a stern and severe countenance as if he were sharply reprehending St. Ignatius and his learned Jesuits for cheating and selling of soules of which crime they are accused with Mottos set vnder and over their pictures after Taylor 's preface If you add to this insulting dress the impudent drift of the book which is to dissuade all the Irish and English Catholicks from popery you will find that the credit and Religion of prelatik Protestants is more deeply engaged in maintaining the truth of Bishop Taylor 's cause then the French Hugonots in vindicating Monsieur de Plessis and defending his book against the Mass. But to our story Though Plessis had challenged Peron to prove the falsifications that Peron had layd to his charge yet when he saw that Peron accepted of the challenge Plessis began to shrink and seek delayes but by the King 's express command both parties appeared before his Majesty at Fontainbleau where Plessis came with five or Six Ministers on his side to which sort of people it seems he gave too much credit and vpon their word took all his arguments as appeareth by the words of Peron After that Peron had offered to shew 500. enormous and open falsifications in his only book of the Mass he addeth and moreover I say if that after this our conference ended he will take vpon him for his part to choose amongst all his citations of his Book or Books any such authorities as he thinketh most sure against vs I do bind my self for conclusion of all to refute the whole choice and to shew that neither in his sayd Book against the Mass nor in his Treatise of the Church nor in his Common-wealth of Traditions is there to be found so much as any one place among them all which is not either falsly cited or impertinent to the matter or vnprofitably alledged c. neither do J hereby pretend to blame him for any other thing then that he hath bin over credulous in believing the fals relations and Collections of others that have endeavored to abuse the industry and authority of his pen. This disputation saith Peron in his answer to Plessis Challenge shall not be like to others in former times wherein were examined matters of doctrin and the truth therof c. In examination wherof the shifts and sleights of the Disputers and other disguising of the matters might make the truth vncertain to the hearers But all Questions in this disputation shall only be questions of fact whether places be truly alledged or no for tryal wherof it shall only be needfull to bring eyes for Iudges to behold whether
to have tasted any meat or drink for the space of fiveteen years together except only the B. Sacrament of the Altar which she received with great devotion and with extraordinary Ioy and Iubily of mind every Sunday And which was most admirable she was able to find out one only consecrated Host amongst a thousand that were not consecrated Thus he and without doubt this last was no less a miracle then the former because the consecrating of one Host among many depends vpon the intention and inward determination of the Consecrator which none but God can know But from Norfolk let 's pass to London I will now relate a story saith Waldensis wherof I my self was an eye witness in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in London where the venerable Arch-bishop Thomas Arundell of happy memory the son and Brother to an Erle sat in Iudgment in his Bishops chair assisted by Alexander the Prelat of the Church of Norwich and others At which time he propounded certain Interrogatories concerning the faith of the Eucharist vnto a Taylor of the parts of Worcestershire taken in the crime of heresy but when as the obstinat fellow could not be persuaded by any reason to embrace the right faith nor would believe nor call the consecrated Host any other thing but only holy bread he was at last commanded to worship the said Host but the Blasphemous heretick answering sayd verily a Spider is more worthy to be worshipped then it is when behold a Monstrous horrible Spider came sudenly sliding down by her thred from the top of the Church directly vnto the blaspemers mouth and endeavored very busily to get entrance even as he was speaking the words neither without much adoo could the many hands of the standers by keep her from entring into the wretch whether he would or no. Thomas Duke of Oxford and Chancelor of the Realm was there present and saw this wonder Then the Arch-bishop stood vp and declared to all that were present that the revenging hand of God had denounced the man to be a blasphemer Harpsfeild relates the same miracle out of the Register of Arch-bishop Arundell but we may doubt whether that old Register was not reformed as well as the old Religion by the Protestant Prelats Such cleer evidences are seldom preserved entire by the enemies of truth We see how frequently the very law books and ancient English statuts are corrupted by our English Protestants to favor the Kings spiritual supremacy as is largely proved by Persons against Sir Edward Cook and Bishop Morton in a particular book against Cook and in his Sober and quiet Reckoning with Thomas Morton wherin he discovers the vnworthy practises of Justice Cook and others falsifying the Charters of our ancient Kings c. As for example that of King Kâ—nulphus pleaded by Humphry Stafford Duke of Buckingham 1. Henry 7. for the sanctuary of the Monastery of Abindon which as it is printed by Pinson in Catholick times says that Leo then Pope did grant the said immunities and privileges c. and is yet so read in the Lord Brooks Abridgment tit Corone pl. 129. But since King Henry 8. spiritual Headship Pope Leo hath bin left out in most printed Statuts and Iudge Cook quotes them so corrupted as good evidence against the Bishop of Romes jurisdiction pretending that the Kings and not the Popes gave spiritual jurisdictions and immunities St. Optatus Bishop who lived before St. Austin the Doctor relates how the Donatists to vex the Catholicks who did worship the Blessed Sacrament cast the consecrated Hosts to their dogs But they escaped not Gods heavy Iudgment for the raging dogs with revenging teeth saith Optatus tore their own Masters in peeces as if they had bin strangers and enemies yea as if they had known them to be theeves and men guilty of our Lords Body Miracles of the Mass. ST Austin reporteth of his own time and Countrey how that one Hesperius having his house infested with wicked Spirits to the affliction of his beasts and servants desired saith St. Austin in my absence certain of our Priests that some would go thither c. one went and offered saith he there the Sacrifice of the Body and blood of Christ praying what he might that the vexation might cease and God being therupon mercifull it ceased The like miracle doth Theodorus who lived in the fifth Century write happened to Coades King of Persia who being desirous to enter into a Castle placed in the confines of his Kingdom towards India was hindred by many wicked spirits which haunted the said Fortress and notwithstanding that as well the Persian Sorcerers as also those of the Iews had employed all their magick art yet could not entrance be obtained At last a christian Bishop was called vpon who with once saying Mass and making the sign of the Cross put forthwith to flight the infernal powers and delivered vp the Castle to the King free from all molestation Miracles for Purgatory ST Gregory the Great telleth of a Monk called Justus who saith he was obsequious to me and watched with me in my dayly sickness this man being dead I appointed the healthfull Host to be offered for his absolution thirty days together which don the said Justus appeared to his Brother by vision and said J have bin hitherto evil but now am well c. And the Brethren in the Monastery counting the days found that to be the day on which the thirtith oblation was offered for him The same St. Gregory writes how Paschasius Deacon of the Roman Church was tormented with the pains of Purgatory after death for having adhered vntil neer his death vnto Laurence the Schismatick but at length was delivered from those pains by the prayers of St. German Bp. of Capua We will not her detain the Reader with more particulars but confirm the whole bulk of our Roman Catholick Doctrin with the vndeniable miracles of St. Bernard a known Papist against the Petrobrusians Henricians and Apostolici whom Protestants claim as members of their own Church for denying the real presence sacrifice of the Mass extreme vnction Purgatory prayer for the dead prayer to Saints the Popes authority worship of Images Indulgences c. Against these hereticks St. Bernard was commanded by the Pope to preach and accompany his legat Cardinal Albericus to the Countrey of Tolosa where he wrought innumerable miracles to confute and confound the aforesaid Hereticks as may be seen in the writers of those times in so much that the Saint in his return declined all Common roads to avoyd the multitudes of people that flockt to reverence him as an Apostle Though afterwards in his 241. Epistle to the Tolosians he saith to keep them constant to the truth as St. Paul did to the Thessalonians we thank God for that our coming to you was not in vain our stay indeed was short with you but not vnfruitfull the truth being by us made manifest