Earl of Worcester with others Rebelled in the year 1406. Henry Percy Earl of Northumberland R. Scroope Arch-Bishop of York with others Rebelled and were Beheaded in the Year 1414. Sir John Beverley an Anointed Priest with others conspired the death of H. the 5th other Conspiracies there were in the Year 1416. and 1417. against the same King by the like Generation of Men. And by such also several other Rebellions were raised against H. the 6th in the year 1433. 1442. 1447. 1450. 1451. and so against Edward the 4th in the Year 1461. 1472. 1478. his Two Sons were after his death murdered by the contrivance of Sir James Tyrrel by the appointment of the Duke of Gloucester their Uncle who then procured himself to be Crown'd King by the name of Rich. the 3d. but both the Duke of Gloucester Sir James Tyrrel and Miles Forrest one of those that smothered the Innocents came all to untimely and shameful deaths according to Psal 55. The Blood-thirsty and deceitful Men shall not live out half their days King Richard himself Slain in Battle hacked hewed and hurried on Horse-back dead most ignominiously being tugged torn and dragged like a Dog They were Priests and Friars that 1. Ed. 4 conspired with Jasper Earl of Pemhrooke for which they were Executed There were likewise several Treasons and Conspiracies against H. the 7th in the Year 1494 1497 1498 1499. Asa a Priest of Ireland was a chief Complotter against the union of the Two Roses So Two Priests Greenwell and Garnet would have destroyed that Blessed Vnion in King James During the Reign of H. the 8. many were executed for several Treasons as 29 April 1536. The Prior of the Charter-house at London the Prior of Bevall the Prior of Exham Reignolds a Brother of Sion and John Haile Vicar of Thissleworth were Condemned and Executed the 4th of May following 18 Junii Three Monks of the Charter-house at London named Exmew Midlemore and Nidigate were Executed for Treason and that without any exclamation in those days that they were executed for Religion a late trick taken up only since the days of Queen Elizabeth though no more reason for that Calumny now than was then § There were also Two Rebellions raised in the North the same year against the King and one in Lincolnshire 1537. for which Twelve were Executed 29 March whereof Five were Priests one Abbot a Suffragan Dr. Mackerel the Vicar of Louth in Lincolnshire and Two Priests In the Year 1538. there was another rebellious commotion in Somersetshire Lawrence Cooke a Prior of Dancalfe William Horne a Lay-Brother of the Charter-house with six others were Executed for Treason The same Year there was a new Rebellion in Yorkshire Many more such good Works have we done for which of them will you stone us or deny us a tolleration or liberty to do more By this short Survey witout travelling beyond Seas which would fill Volumes of like Presidents it s abundantly apparent to all that are not wilfully blind that Papists themselves even before Jesuitism was hatched made it their usual practise to Rebel against their Princes though of the same Faith and Religion with themselves and can it then be reasonably expected that they will ever be Loyal and Faithful to Protestants in their account Heretick Princes especially now Jesuitisme is founded established nay vastly increased and advanced so that indeed they are the only great Apolloes in the See of Rome whose Doctrin it is to Excommunicate depose nay destroy Princes quacumque arte and that uncontrollably for that several Popes have decreed that the Jesuits are Immediate Subjects only to the See of Rome free and exempt from all other Jurisdictions whatsoever and that the Institutions and Doctrins of the Jesuits must not be oppugned nor contradicted directly or indirectly no not by way of Disputation or otherwise Spec. Jesuit 27. However let us see what have been their practises since Jesuitisme first sprung up wkich was about the 31. Year of of H. the 8th in whose time several Papists submitted to death rather than they would quit the Popes Supremacy and acknowledg the Kings which yields certain demonstration of the impossibility of such so principled being faithful Subjects to Protestant Caesars that own the Pope to be his and their Superiour In the Reign of King Edward the 6th which was very short and he himself a Minor there were Rebellions and Commotions in Somersetshire and Lincolnshire for which many were Executed then in Cornwall and Devon where above 4000 were Slain and taken Prisoners by John Lord Russel Lord Privy Seal Then they Rebelled in Norfolk and Suffolk against whom Sir John Dudley Earl of Warwick went with an Army and slew above 5000. and took their Ring Leader About the same time 3090 rose in Rebellion in the North and East-riding of Yorkshire but were suppressed by the Lord President Amongst those Western Rebels Humphrey Arundel was Chief Leader who amongst others with 8 Priests were taken and Executed therefore What were those but Church-men that by their Doctrin in the Pulpit and subscription of Hands to Traiterous Decrees Embassed the Two Daughters of H. 8. both before and after the death of Ed. 6. for satisfaction to the Pride and Ambition of an aspiring Humour In the days of Queen Mary though there were few Treasons committed yet was there much Innocent Christian Blood shed Concerning which I shall make this Observation and Comparison between the Marian and Elizabethian days § In Queen Elizabeths days the Papists put out many traiterous infamous and lying Libels in sundry Languages and reported in other Princes Courts that she put a multitude of persons to torments and death only for professing the Roman Catholick Religion when in truth none of them were questioned for matters of Religion but justly by order of Laws openly condemned as Traytors for treasonable practises against Her Person and State maintaining and adhering to the Pope the Capital Enemy of Her Majesty Camb. 213 214. and her Crown who was not only the cause of several Rebellions in England and Ireland but in one of Ireland did manifestly maintain at his own charge Commanders and Souldiers under the Banner of Rome against the Queen so as no Enemy could do more and that not not by force of new Laws either for Religion or against the Popes Supremacy as the slanderous Libellers would have it seem to be but by the Ancient Laws of the Realm made in Edward the Third's time about the Year 1330. above 200. Years before even when the Popes were suffered to have some Authority-Ecclesiastical in this Realm as he had in other Countries They gave out also that they dyed because they would not acknowledg Her the Supreme Head of the Church which was a most apparent untruth visibly to be contradicted by the very Acts of Parliament For at the beginning of Her Reign that very Title was omitted in Her Style And to make the matter seem more horrible and
infatuated as ever to put power into their Hands who have so often given such palpable Demonstration and Testimony how they have used it already and such pregnant presumptions how they would use it again could they obtain it Even they that run may read what the Papists like Jehu drive so furionsly at even to make England once more Issachar like to couch and carry the Saddle Vah Papae shall it ever be again the style and reproach of England Glorious England that is scituate among the Rivers whose Rampart is the Sea and whose God is the Lord to carry the Saddle again God forbid But if so unhappy so unfortunate I 'le prophesie that not the Pope only but the Devil will ride her Pardon these Expressions I have encouragement from St. Jerome Neminem volo patientem esse in causalaesae fidei and from Moses the Mirror of meekness who knows no patience in Israels Idolatry Numb 12.3 Exod. 22.19 26 27. Idem manens idem semper facit idem THE REAL MERITS OF THE PAPISTS SUch hath the Confidence of the Papists of these latter times been as to claim a Right unto the Kings Majesties favour for a tolleration of their Religion upon the account of their great Merits as having best deserved of His Majesty because of all they were the most faithful to him and his Father The purport of this hath not only been averred by the generality of them in their ordinary discourses but also set out in print by several of them P. W. R. P. J. S. H. M. and others At which confident Assertion of theirs when I consider how boldly and feircly the contend for meritorious works nay for works of super-errogation even with God himself I do not so much wonder that such Merit-mongers broach it so confidently now as that they have not done it all this while § He that is first in his own Cause seemeth just but his Neighbours cometh and searcheth him Prov. 18.17 Which that we may the better do we will only a little look back into our own Chronicle without cloying the Reader with like Foreign Stories which would fill Volumes and first see how true and trusty Trojans the Papists have been to the Kings of England no Protestants but Papists and if they shall be found to have been neither true nor trusty but Traytors and Rebels to the Kings of their own Religion can it then ever be believed or hoped that they ever will be Loyal and Faithful to Protestant Princes when a neat opportunity offers the contrary and that Maugre all Roman Mandates to the contrary what Prince or other Sovereign foberly considers the new founded Society of Jesuits erected by Pope Paul the 3d. about 1540. who although at first but 10 in Number yet so wonderfully encreased since that they bragged not a few years ago that they were 1300010. they lived in Colledges and places of residence besides those that trotted up and down that they had 359. Colledges or Schools 18 Domus professae 40 Domus probationis 8 Seminaries 1010 Residentiaries Vide speculum Jesuiticum Runninge Register And what their Principles and Doctrins are and what their practices have been for the destroying of all Princes quacumque Arte that will not become Vassals to the See of Rome and and acknowledg a Spiritual Monarchy in that Roman Chair paramount all temporal Crowns and Scepters and how strict and of what extant their vow of Obedience is to the Roman Bishop and how it is decreed by several Popes that the Institutions and Doctrins of the Jesuits must not be contradicted or disputed by any Ordinary Delegate Judg or Magistrate and how vastly that society is enlarged both in their Clergy and Layety since these great brags of theirs will be sufficiently convinced that neither their persons or their Kingdoms can ever be secure where either one sort or other are suffered to flourish § Let us now see matter of Fact Did not Pope Alexander the 3d. by violence and tyranny force King H. the II. to surrender his Crown Imperial into the hand of his Legate and afterwards be content with a private Condition for a while to the great regret and Indignation of his Subjects Did not Innocent the 3d. stir up the Nobility and Commonalty of this Kingdom against King John and gave the Inheritance and Possession of all his Dominions unto Ludovicus the French King What were those 52 000. but Papists that rebelled against Richard the I. Anno 1196. And all those that rebelled against Edward the II. Anno 1316 1317 1321 1322 1326. Amongst whom was Robert Baldock Bishop of Norwich and Lord Chancellor of England And all those that consented to the Murder of Edward the Third's Father and fought to kill john of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster Edward the Third's Son Anno 1330.1372 And those in Richard the Third's time Anno 1381. Annimated by John Ball a Priest who at his Execution refused to ask the King forgiveness and despised him so peremptory was he Jack Straw confessing that when he sent for the King to Black-Heath they purposed to have murdered all Knights Esquires and Gentlemen that should have come with him and when they had got sufficient force they would suddenly then have put to death in every County and Lords and Masters of the Common people in whom might appear to be either Council or Resistance one Argument used by some of the late Protectorians for the death of our Glorious King and Martyr that he was too knowing and too intelligent to be suffered to live and especially they would have killed the Knights of St. John and all Men of any Possessions only Begging Fryars should have lived that might have Administred the Sacraments throughout the Realm and lastly the would have killed the King himself and made Kings in every Shire Thomas Arrundel Arch-Bishop of Canterbury traiterously practiced the deposing of the said Richard his lawful Sovereign § It were no very mild conjecture to Divine that our late Generation of Levellers Major Generals Quakers and Phanaticks were spawned from them and that they are still but Badgers plotting and digging Holes for Romish Foxes to lie couchant and covertly in for their more subtile contrivances § What were those but Papists that rebelled against H. the 4th designing to Murder him under the colour of Justinge and other pastimes pretended 1399. And also those who raised Arms against him among whom was John Madelyn a Priest who had been Chaplain to King Richard and impudently personated the King They were Priests and Friars that suborned a False Richard whereof 8 being Miners were hanged at Tyburne Oswald Bishop of Galloway was the chief Plotter against Richard the 2d in the Year 1403. A Priest of Warwick and also Walter Waldock a Prior of Laud in Leicester-Shire and one Richard Freseby a Dr. in Divinity was Executed in his Religious Habit and Weede and not long after 10 Grey Fryars were executed all for Treason In the year 1404. Tho. Percy
holden amongst the English Catholicks for a lawful Sentence and a sufficient discharge of her Subjects fidelity and so remaineth in force but in some points touching the Subjects it is altered by the present Pope Greg. XIII For where in that Bull all her Subjects are commanded not to obey her and she being Excommunicate and Deposed all that do obey her are likewise Innodate and Accursed which point is perilous to the Catholicks for if they obey her they be in the Popes Curse and if they disobey her they are in the Queens danger Therefore the present Pope to relieve them hath altered that part of the Bull and dispensed with them to obey and serve her without peril of Excomunication which dispensation is to endure but till it please the Pope otherwise to determine By the same reason that one Pope may receive and dispense with a former Popes Bull and ratifie one Paragraph thereof and make another void and make what Interpretation thereof he pleaseth pro re nata to serve a turn He may also by the same Reason declare the same Bull to be still in force and may at this very Nick of Time and Juncture of Affairs dispence with all our Catholicks by any ways or Arts to evade this last Act and where are we then and how the more secure § Edmund Campion that Arch-Traytor deeply designing and covertly as well as diligently preparing for the perpetrating of his Treasons against Queen Eliz. most cunningly before he came from Rome procured Tolleration for such other prepared Rebels to keep themselves Covert under pretence of temporary and permissive obedience to her Majesty the State standing then as it did but so soon as there should be sufficient force whereby the Bull of her Majesties deprivation might be publickly Executed they should then joyn altogether with that force upon pain of Damnation ex pede Herculem By this you may guess what kind of Obedience and Allegiance Papists swear to Protestant Princes viz temporary and permissive i. e. during their will and pleasures of their Lord God the Pope or until they shall be strong enough to cut our Throats whose Nails desire to pare § It is likewise observable that her Majesties Ministers in their Examinations of Papists suspected Traitors and those only which were first known and evidently probable by former Detections Confessions c. had a full purpose to follow the Example of the Queens most Gratious Disposition and never tormented any Innocent or extorted Confessions at adventure upon uncertainties nor ever demanded any question of their pretended or supposed Conscience as what they believed in any point of Faith or Doctrin as of the Mass Transubstantiation c. but only with what persons at home or abroad and touching what Plots Practises and Conferences they had dealt about attempts against her Majesties person or to alter the Laws of the Realm for matters of Religion and how they were perswaded themselves and did perswade others touching the Popes Bull and pretence of Authority to depose Kings and namely for deprivation of her Majesty and to discharge Subjects from their Allegiance civily without mentioning or meaning therein any right that the Queen as in right of the Crown had over persons Ecclesiastical being her Subjects In all which Cases Campion and the Briant Sherwin Kirby Cottam Richardson Fords Short Lewis Filhee Bosgrave others rest never answered plainly but sophistically deceitfully and traiterously restraining their confession of Allegiance only to the permissive tearm of the Popes Tolleration As for Example If they were asked whether they did adknowledg themselves the Queens Subjects and would obey her they would say Yea for so they have leave for a time to do but being more narrowly interrogated if they would so acknowledg and obey her any longer than the Pope would so permit them or notwithstanding such Commandement as the Pope would or might give to the contrary then they either refused so to obey or denyed to answer or said they would not answer to those Questions without danger which Interpretatively was a plain Acknowledgment that they would be no longer true Subjects nor perswade others to be so than the Pope gave them Licence so to be And yet such was their Impudence that at their very Arraignments they would ad captandum populum cry out that they were to dye not for Treason but for matter Faith and Conscience in Doctrin touching the Service of God without any attempt or purpose against her Majesty and that they were true Subjects and did and would obey and serve her Majesty whereas in truth there was not the least Syllable in their Indictment of Faith or Doctrin and consequently not possible to be Arraigned or be Executed for any such thing And to try whether such their Hypocritical and Sophistical Speeches and Answers did extend to a perpetuity of their obedience or to so long time only as the Pope so permitted or no they were immediately and publickly even in the very place of their Arraignment asked by her Majesties Council whether they would so obey and be true Subjects if the Pope commanded the contrary they plainly discovered themselves in their Answers saying by the mouth of Campion that this place thereby meaning the Court of Her Majesties Bench hath no power to inquire or judg of the Holy Fathers Authority and other Answer they would not make For the better satisfaction of all people and that they may the better and more plainly understand how in what manner and for what all the Papists dyed in Queen Eliz. days who most falsely have since been reported to have dyed for Religion when in truth they dyed for Treason and nothing else Hereof take one Example and Instance for all the Indictment and Arraignment of William Parry that wicked perfidious faithless ungrateful Traytor sworn Her Majesties servant Anno Domini 1570. And as was his Indictment so were all the other Indictments Mutatis Mutandis Superlatively wicked in that he became twice reconciled to Rome and in that he boasted That for 22 Years past he having been a Catholick had never received the Communion and yet before he travelled beyond the Sea at Three several times within those 22 Years he voluntarily take the Oath of Obedience to the Queen made 1. of her Reign Faithless and ungrateful in that after many obligations conferred on him by loan of several Sums of Money and otherwise by Hugh Hare of the Temple he contrived his death by breaking open his Chamber assaulting and wounding and leaving him for dead for which being Convicted of Burglary and Condemned to dye the Queen most gratiously pardoned for which he most gratefully requited her according to the old Proverb Save a Thief from the Gallows and he 'l cut your Throat He was Indicted of Treason 22. Feb. 1584. by Commission of Oyer and Terminer held at the Kings-Bench Westminster before Sir Christopher Wray Lord Chief Justice of England and others where Miles Sands Esq then Clerk
of the Crown read the Indictment viz. William Parry thou art here Indicted by Oaths of Twelve good and lawful Men of the County of Middlesex before Christopher Wray alias for that thou as a Traytor against the most Noble and Christian Princess Queen Eliz. the most Gralious Sovereign and Liege Lady not having the fear of God before thine Eyes nor regarding the due Allegiance but being seduced by the Instigation of the Devil and intending to withdraw and extinguish the hearty love and due obedience which true and faithful Subjects should bear unto the same our Sovereign Lady didst at Westminster in the County of Middlesex 1. Febr. in the 26. Year of Her Majesties Reign and at divers other times and places in the same County malitiously and traiterously conspire and compass not only to deprive and depose the same our Sovereign Lady of Her Royal Estate Title and Dignity but also to bring her Highness to death and final destruction and sedition in the Realm to make and the Government thereof to subvert and the sincere Religion of God established in her Highness Dominions to alter and subvert And that whereas thou William Parry by thy Letters sent unto Gregory Bishop of Rome didst signifie unto the same Bishop the purposes and intentions aforesaid and thereby didst pray and require the same Bishop to give thee Absolution that thou afterwards that is to say the last of March 26. Year aforesaid didst traiterously receive Letters from one called Cardinal de Como directed unto thee William Parry whereby the said Cardinal did signifie unto thee that the Bishop of Rome had perused the Letters and allowed of thine intent and that to that end he had absolved thee of all thy sins and by the same Letter did animate and stir thee to proceed with thine Enterprize and that thereupon thou the last day of August in the said 26. Year at St. Gyles in the Fields in the same County of Middlesex didst traiterously confer with one Edmund Nevil Esq uttering unto him all the wicked and traiterous devises and then and there didst traiterously move him to assist thee therein and to joyn with thee in those wicked Treasons aforesaid against the peace of our said Sovereign Lady the Queen her Crown and Dignity Which being Read and William Parry being asked whether guilty of these Treasons whereof thou standest here Indicted or not guilty He confessed that he was guilty of all that is therein contained both in matter and form as the same is set down and all the Circumstances thereof Which being Recorded and though confessed willingly by Parry yet because the Justice of the Realm had been of late very impudently slandered That such like Traytors were Executed for Religion and not for Treason the Justice of that Court deemed it necessary to satisfie the World more particularly that though his Confession in Court served sufficiently to have proceeded thereupon to Judgment yet Parry's Confession taken the 11 and 13. Feb. 1584. before the Lord Hunsdon Mr. Vice-Chamberlain and Mr. Secretary and Cardinal de Como's letter and Parry's Letter to the Lord Treasurer and Lord Steward should be openly read to which also Parry himself agreed so readily that he offered to read them himself for the better satisfying of the people All which Letters and his own voluntary confession written and subscribed with his own Hand he acknowledged to have Confessed freely without any constraint and that it was all true and more too And that there is no Treason that hath been sythence 1 Eliz. any way touching Religion saving receipt of Agnus Dei and perswading others wherein he hath not much dealt but he had offended in it And that he had demanded his opinion in writing who ought to be Successor to the Crown which he said to be Treason also All which Letters and Confession being first shewed to him Leaf by Leaf were openly and distinctly read by the Clark of the Crown Which done Parry having obtained favour of the Court to speak in discharge as he pretended of his Conscience assuring them that he would not go about to excuse himself and that he intended to utter more He said my Cause is rare singular and unnatural conceived at Venice presented in general Words to the Pope undertaken at Paris commended and allowed of by his Holiness and to have been Executed in England I have committed many Treasons for I have committed Treason in being reconciled and Treason in taking Absolution and yet never intended to kill Queen Eliz. Which said Mr. Vice-Chamberlain retorted upon him in that he both in Court and else where under his Hand voluntarily confessed That he did mislike Her Majesty for that she had done nothing for thee how by wicked Papists and Popish Books thou wert perswaded that it was lawful to kill Her Majesty how thou wert by reconciliation become one of that wicked sort that held Her Majesty for neither lawful Queen nor Christian and that it was Meritorious to kill her And didst thou not signifie that thy purpose to the Pope by Letters and receivedst Letters from the Cardinal how he allowed of thine intent and Excited thee to perform it and thereupon didst receive Absolution And didst thou not conceive it promise it vow it swear it and receive the Sacrament that thou wouldst do it And didst not thou there upon affirm that thy Vows were in Heaven thy Letters and Promises on Earth to bind thee to do it And that whatsoever Her Majesty would have done for thee could not have removed thee from the intention or purpose unless she would have desisted from dealing as she hath done with the Catholicks as thou calledst them And didst thou not confess besides that which thou didst set down under thine own Hand that thou hadst prepared Two Scottish Daggers fit for such a purpose Notwithstanding all these and more Demonstrations of his Bloody Intentions against the Queen by Sir Christopher Hatton Lord Hunsdon and others of the Lords Commissioners he thereupon in a furious manner cry'd I never meant to kill Her I will lay my Blood upon Her and you before God and the World and so fell into a great rage and rayling Which madness of his the Lord Hunsdon thus rebuked This is but thy Popish pride and ostentation which thou would have to be told to thy Fellows of thy Faction to make them believe that thou dyedst for Popery when thou diedst for most horrible and dangerous Treason against Her Majesty and the whole Countrey Thus you see what little Faith is to be given to such who flatter with their Lips and dissemble with their double Hearts These things rightly considered I do not doubt but that all good Subjects will clearly see and all deluded and wavering persons will perceive how they have been seduced to wander out of the right way and that all strangers especially Christian Princes having Sovereign Estates being hereby acquainted with the true just and necessary Grounds and Reasons of His Majesties late Act of Parliament for preventing dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants made purely for the defence of His Majesties Crown Religion and People and for prevention of Intestine Jars that otherwise might be occasioned through different Religions Religions as discrepant as light and darkness good and evil which naturally occasions disputes and sometimes btows that all the World perceiving upon how great Reasons of State and Grounds of Religion that Act was made may be satisfied that no prudent State could do less especially the concern of Religion being a considerable Ingredient therein which often sets variance between nearest Relations And I cannot doubt but that this His Majesties just Act will have the like happy entertainment and success as had King James of ever blessed memory his Monitory Preface unto his Apology upon the coming forth of which Book there were no States that disavowed the Doctrin of it in the point of the Kings power the Venetians justified it both by Pen and Practise the Sorbons maintained it and Bellarmine and Suarez their Books to the contrary were burnt in France with scorn and disdain Passus damna semel cautior esse solet Romam vade liber sed Nescis Heu nescis Dominae fastidia Romae Mujores nusquam Ronchi Juvenesque Senesque Et pueri Nasum Rhinocerotis habent I fuge sed poteras tutior esse domus ERRATA PAge 11. Line 16. r. potest l. 21. r. sentiamus p. 2. l. 19. r. that p. 18. l. 4. r. Domini p. 29. l. 2. r. against p. 37. l. 12. r. if it had taken p. 44. l. ult r. Houses p. 58. l. 15. r. stories l. 31. r. discretion p. 74. l. 3. r. thou shall not plough p. 112. l. 3. r. likes of one bread l. 28. r. and add 14 new p. 127. l. 5. for Confession r. profession FINIS