Althogh it might haue bene in some sence a speciall point of vncharitable pollicy for the Iesuits to haue reiected that friendly offer to haue brought vp 30. of our English youthes as at Rome because that probably many of those would haue bin Benedictines and haue frustrat the Iesuits hope of hauing al here for themselues without copartners yet was it no pollicie in thē to beate a Priest almost to death for but making the motion of receiuing one into the Benedictines order for that foule fact did openly bewray their vnmortified passionate humours pride ambition malice auarice and other shamefull vices too too bad to be spoken of but most of all to be in any religious person that with the worlds weapons they make their vaunt that they can conquer the world Therefore dare they attempt to bid battell liuing in the world to religious men liuing out of the world and still themselues be no worldlings Herein then consists the miserie which being discouered any man may reade the riddle plaine scil that for asmuch as the Benedictines had all or the most part of the Abbey lands in England bequeathe vnto their Monasteries by sundry deuout holy and vertuous Catholike men and women in times past liuing in this Realme and for that the Dominicanes haue the chaire of authoritie for reading in the schooles especially in Salamanca in Spaine which grieues these pure spirited soules at the very heart and what banding brawling and quarrelling they haue made with them about it were too long to recite and also to them belongs of due right the soueraigne authoritie of the sacred Inquisition and withall to be called Predicatores preachers where euer they go with an higher prerogatiue then euer any Iesuite could or I hope euer shall haue for it were daungerous and great pitie that euer such ambitious men should obtaine such ample priuiledges And lastly for that the Scotists Franciscanes especially the Obseruants haue also had sundrie Frieries here in England as also the Carthusians commonly called the Charterhouse Monkes haue had the like in some sort Therefore was there bona causa cur none of all these or any other religious order that had euer enioyed either house or land in Albions Ile should euer come there again or any other religious order that might liue without the Iesuits for their sakes But all of them as reprobates and of God forsaken must be banished hence and a statute made in that high Councell that none such should euer come within this land after it is conquered by Spaniards and Iesuits sicut placuit Iesuitis The second Act enacted or statute made in that high infernall Consistorie was concerning the Church and Abbey lands scil That forasmuch as there be an hundred Bishoprickes great and small in these three kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland with well nigh 20000. Parsonages and Vicariges and how many Monasteries Nunneries Frieries and other religious houses it is hard to tell the number Notwithstanding there was a booke brought into Paules Churchyard in written hand to be bound vp and sent God knowes where into Spaine as it may be thought because the partie that brought it was a sideman of the Iesuits the collection wherof as it was there reported stood the party in foure hundred pounds In which booke of a huge volume in a small hand there were set downe all the religious houses that euer haue bene in this Realme what land was giuen vnto them where it yet lyeth who gaue it how long since vpon what condition and prouiso when by whom how much and wherein altered diminished or increased and in whose possession it is at this present These with other circumstances and particulars being set downe no man can iudge otherwise but it was a worke fit for that Synodicall court to haue the perusing and censuring of it And there if any where is their nūber of religious houses like these to be found All which as also nothing else belonging either to the Ecclesiasticall or Monasticall state must be any longer in the hands of Bishops Abbots or other secular or religious persons as heretofore they were accustomed and incorporated vnto their seuerall orders But all must be vnder the holy society of Iesus presently vpon the establishing of the spiritual monarchy Which done their father General or Prouinciall must call out foure Iesuits two secular Priests who must be also demy Iesuites else all were naught These sixe Vicars I pray God not of hell for of heauen they are not they smell so ranckly of Cartwrights and Bruses pure synodall ministery like sixe Dutch Peeres of whom the Prophecies talke or so many mighty Lords shall haue the lands mannors Lordships parsonages monasteries and what soeuer else belonged to Church or cloister resigned ouer into their hands allowing to the Bishops Parsons and Vicars competent stipends pensions to liue vpon according as Bishops Suffragans Montseniors haue allowance in other Catholike countries or rather as the Turkes Bassaes Ianizaries vnder him are maintained And all this sicut placuit Iesuitis as the Romanes in their leagues were wont to write or rather iuxta decretum Medorum atque Persarum à quo prouocare non licet as king Darius sayd Liuery and seisen thus taken by these sixe Tribunes or popular Nobles all the rest must be imploied in pios vsus as father Generall of Rome shall thinke good The Colledges in both Vniuersities must be likewise in the power of these mortified creatures No Bishop nor Parson nor Vicar nor fellow of any Colledge must be so hardy as once to demand an account what is become of their reuenues lands and Lordships If they do this shall be the answer mirantur superiores c. or in plaine tearmes how dare you seeme to inquire how a Iesuite disposeth of any thing being peculiarly guided by the Spirit c. The third Statute was there made concerning the Lords temporall and other of the Nobility Gentry of this land And this Statute did consist of this point especially sci That euery Noble or Gentleman of special account and liuing such as to omit others Sir Robert Cicill Sir Iohn Fortescue Sir Iames Harington Sir Robert Dormer Sir Iohn Arundell now his sonne maister Iohn Arundell called great Arundell of Cornwall Sir Iohn Peter Sir Mathew Arundell of Warder his sonne and heire Sir Henry Constable Sir Iohn Sauage with sundry other Knights and Esquires all which were there limited by that blind prophane Parliament what retinue they should keepe when time came of inhauncing how much should be allowed them to spend yearely and what diet they should keepe at their tables The fourth Statute was there made concerning the common lawes of this land and that consisted of this one principall point that all the great charter of England must be burnt the manner of holding lands in see-simple free-taile franke Almaigne c. by Kings seruice soccage or villanage brought into villanie scoggerie and popularitie and in
afterward lest he shold expect some extraordinarie fauor or benefit at their hands they haue twenty dog-trickes new waies deuises by detracting which by their maxime is called gaining or winning of time how to shake him off verie Iesuitically and he neuer the wiser of it Of this principle obserued amongst the Iesuits for winning of time father Cryton a Scot. Iesuit I thinke ouerslipping himselfe at vnawares in his words told the Lord Dacre being then in Spaine put in hope of great matters but impatient in delayes that it was their manner when they had one of his account and calling that although they could not or at least would not performe what they promised or put the party in hope of yet was it in pollicy for them to draw him on without giuing him any resolute answer to the contrary as the onely way to gaine time so that by keeping him there put off with lingring hope in delayes they might the easier either act some other action by him to serue their turns withall which vpon the sudden could not be in readinesse to be enterprised or else preuent some inconuenience which might happen vnto them by his present departure or absence in another place Notwithstanding the Lord Dacre hauing had sufficient warning giuen him before aswell by the Noble Dutches of Feria halfe sister to Sir Robert Dormer nephew to the sayd Lord by mariage who hath often shewed a true naturall English Ladies heart euen liuing in a Spanish soile against these vnnaturall Parsonian practises as also by the said father Criton who bid his Lordship in effect looke for none other then to haue father Parsons his mortall enemie for euer by reason of his refusall to fauour or further the title of the Lady Infanta and for his free and liberall speech on the behalfe of his Prince and countrey against all forraine pretenders c. expected no lesse as since he hath found then most iniurious calumniations against him euerie where Yet vsed Parsons often dalliance with his Lordship either to make him breake off friendship some with his dearest friends or else to feed him with hopes or gifts to colour other guiles or to remoue some old stooles to make him breake his shinnes vpon them c. It was a pretie iest to heare how they cogd with maister Cecill after he had gottē his protection here in England how by gaining time of putting him off with hope of present parley this day that day and at such a place now then at another they made him trudge course both tide Thames and time with crosse encounters vntill he was weary of it But of all the rest they vsed a faithfull seruant of theirs Doctor Barret president at Doway most vnthankfully which because it is the very Anatomy of all the Iesuits base gained time I will set it out word for word as it is in the originall wherein I found it yet very briefly there deliuered This maister Barret was for a long time one of the Iesuits chiefe darlings and a speciall instrument to many purposes whom they requited in the end with all manner of disgusts and disgraces euen to his last breath For being sent for vp to Rome about the breach of the students with the Iesuits Cardinall Tolet hoping he would haue taken part with the seculars intended to haue made him Rector there and to haue cast out all the Iesuites as he did cast out sixe of them But Maister Barret contrarie to the Cardinals expectation became wholly Iesuited and did what he could in fauor of them against the students Whereupon Cardinall Tolet reiected him as an vnworthy man The Iesuits afterwards sent him downe to Doway to his old charge and father Parsons the archcousiner craftily made him purchase a house which cost 1200. crownes and withall stopt at Rome the Popes pension for the Colledge the space of two yeares By these occasions Doctor Barret in behalfe of the Colledge fell in debt 3000. crownes the Iesuits all this while keeping from him the annuall pensions With this the Doctor at length being moued sending to Rome to cōplaine and require the mony gentle father Parsons went to the Pope and accused him of excesse and euill husbandry in disposing the Popes Pensions And so by this meanes through gaine of time suffering the house to fall in extremitie father Parsons gained two commodities thereby one was thereupon to send into England for collections to be made and that none should come ouer vnto Doway without twenty pounds or a good large sum in their purses by reason of the great want that the Colledge was in another that hereupon through tract of time he got aduantage of the poore President as though the Colledge had decaied through his default and so intended vpon that occasion to haue cast him out and haue thrust in Iesuits in his place sauing that his death preuented it But other matters falling out here in England contrarie to their expectation about their Atchpresbiter it was thought necessarie for gaining of time a while longer not as yet to place there the Iesuits but one Doctor Worthington for a time to be a stickler to gaine time by for them Thus you see the Iesuits axiome of winning redeeming or gaining of time is nothing else in effect then to runne withall times in altering their positions by three generall rules or propositions vsed now one way and thē another as a medius terminus for euery doubtfull argument one is tempora mutantur ergo nos mutamur in illis Another is omnia pro tempore ergo nihil pro veritate The last is diuide imperia at all times so as the deuision of the spoile being in thine owne hands thou mayst make it serue thy turne to win by time thy desires The practise of which ground is in no Iesuites affaire so manifest as in this verie point and platforme for their English gouernement labouring to outward shew to set vp now one then another intending it for none at all in very deed as by conferring of one thing with another may be easilie discouered in their practises For it is not vnknowne to all the Christian world as I verily thinke that in Rome in Spaine in Flaunders and euery where but especially here in England Scotland and Ireland they labour to stirre vp all men vnder colour of religion and zealous desire in them of our countries conuersion against our Soueraigne the present State and aboue all against the seculars accusing them to be fautors of heretikes furtherers of heretikes titles to the English Crowne and a faction forsooth we must be tearmed by a company of Montebankes that haue put this phrase into ignorant peoples heads that when they talke of any that is opposite to these seditious Iesuits damnable courses they must say ô he is one of the faction when like a company of asses if they knew what a faction meant they might easily discerne that these their new maisters did ride
duty and iustice had against him yet is the contrary course commended and amongst ciuill Gentlemen yea and Nobles generally more vsed viz. to place their guests as strangers and their friends in their own house at table before them vnlesse they be farre their inferiours And once being in companie where were foure secular Priestes at supper with a Noble person a Lord of high renowne I noted that his Lordship would not sit downe vntill they all were set and placed before him though it was not their place no not in his owne house so high to be exalted but such was his Noble mind merily iesting it out with these words How he had heard and seene it that Priests and women had all the preheminences in the land of peace and especially the first in the Church aboue Princes and both at the table aboue all others their otherwise equals but that in the field of war Captaines Coronels honorable souldiers went before them But now that a religious man in respect that he is a religious man should haue or looke for a place of honour or preheminence amongst men hauing by solemne vow renounced all earthly honours and dignities quite abandoned the company of all persons where states of honour or place-taking is of due right respected and wholly confined themselues to a priuate Cell Cloister or Monasterie there to be occupied onely with their bookes and beades for them to looke for places as the Iesuites do it was neuer heard of before this day religious persons hauing no place indeede at all abroad in the world because they haue or should haue quite forsaken the world and only in three times of publike assemblies or affaires they participate with the world and yet therein with the Ecclesiasticall or secular onely not with the temporall state whereunto the Iesuits are more neare incorporate by conuersation practise popular life then secular Priests themselues are one is in time of solemne processions at which it hath bin noted that the Iesuits wil seldome or neuer come because say some who call them Theatins they must take there the lowest place as inferiour to other religious orders Another is in time of general or prouincial Coūcel where how they haue shuffeled for place taking is not so openly knowne because there hath bin but one general Councel since their order first began then probably it being in the primitiues of their institutions they had better lowlier and more religious spirits then now they haue Marry notwithstanding for Prouincials father Heywoods Councell holden in Norfolke and father Westons contention in Wisbich declares what spirit they haue had long agone daily more and more do smell of in their humility for place taking yea and in all other respects of honor reuerence and esteeme in such high Courts and Councels The third and last is in times of Bishops visitations which of all things a Iesuit cannot endure to heare of to come amongst them And whereas all other religious orders do humbly obey their Bishops yeld to their Sūmons yea and seeke to haue visitations made amongst them the Iesuits quite cōtrary will acknowledge no superior but the Pope only no nor his Holinesse neither if he anger them Whereupon one of their great Rabbies in time of the Bishops visitatiō at Doway refused absolutly to come at his Lordship vpon summons or sending for him alleaging in plaine termes for his excuse that he had a superior of his owne order that he acknowledged no obedience due vnto his honor and that he would know his generals will and pleasure therein then he would giue him an answer But when the Bishop replied that both he and his Generall if they liued within his Diocesse should acknowledge an obedience vnto him or else get them both packing thence and that he would lay him fast by the heeles if he were so peremptory Then forsooth this haughty Rabby crouched hūbled himselfe craued pardō of error Let no man take exceptions at this my speech or thinke it needlesse to talke of Iesuits Priests Prelates and Bishops places forseeing England is become wild Priesthood had in contempt religion made but a matter of Atheall pollicie our gallants swaggerers and lusty Brutes neglecting their duty to God and man and a cōpany of new vpstart squibs vnder colour of zeale religion and holinesse fie fie take vpon them to ouertop Pope Prelate and Priest it is high time and very necessary as the times are to put the forgetfull in mind what things in times past haue bene what God and his Church exacteth at all our hands what hath bene by pontificall and imperiall lawes instituted and heretofore by sundrie Parliamentall acts and municipiall lawes of this land ordeined How by all lawes in all nations amongst all professions Priests and such as bare that name amongst Iewes Pagans and Christians of what religion soeuer were alwayes had in highest esteeme saue onely now brought in contempt by the Iesuits Amongst the Aegyptians a Priest was alwayes next in honour to a Pharoao amongst the Caules the Druides had the renowne amongst the Britons three Archflamines with thirty Flamines supplied the place of three Archbishops thirty Bishops throughout Logiers Cambre and Albanus now England Wales and Scotland with other Priests vnder them And sundry other Heathen nations had their Priests in stead of Princes as Kings to gouerne as Presbiter Iohn is at this present and to this day the high Courts of Parliament in England do consist by ancient custome of calling to that honorable Court of the Lords spirituall and temporall vnderstood by the Lords spirituall the Archbishops and Bishops as the most ancient inuested Barrons and some of their Earles and others Graces of this land and therefore alwaies first in place next vnder our Soueraigne King Queene Emperor Empresse Lord and Lady for there is no difference of sexe in Regall Maiesty This being so and that by the lawes Armoriall Ciuill and of armes a Priest his place in ciuill conuersation is alwayes before any Esquire There are 3. reasons of the contempt of Priestes one in that euery Gentleman of any reckening had his Chaplaine in house with him nimia familiaritas parit contemptum and an other in that some were but simple vnlearned god-wot not knowing their owne office nor the laities duty and a third in that many wanting patrimonies and meanes to liue were forced to sing placebo in applauding to all abuses These were the causes of religious fal Priesthoods dishonour which all feele smart of because all offended both Cleargy Laity therein as being a Knights fellow by his holy orders the third of the three syrs which only were in request of old no Barron Vicount Earle not Marquesse being then in vse to wit Sir King Sir Knight sir Priest this word Dominus in Latine being a nowne substantiue common to them all as Dominus meus Rex Dominus meus Ioab Dominus Sacerdos and
this as an ordinarie kind of blazon for their preferment or no or whether it be in them lawfull so to do or else only a Machiuilean sleight Atheall pollicie THE ANSWER WIthout all question it is a meere Atheall pollicie in their heads as their Prouincials Rectors and others directly and in their inferiour substitutes it is so too but indirectly as doing what so euer they do for obedience sake forsooth to bring great masses of mony multitudes of friends and other helpes vnto them for their better speedier aduancement by pulling downe all others that seek not their preferment or haue any fauor shewed them independeÌ„t vpon them a notable example wherof was a tragicall tricke of Fa. Parsons against one Maister Fixer a secular Priest This very great and reuerend man as good a linguist as the most were of our nation comming into England with one maister William Warford a busie and arrogant stirring headed body and therfore fittest to be a Iesuit as afterwards he became one together with Maister Cecill now a Doctor in Paris hauing all of them a protection from the Lord Treasurer Sir William Cecill Lord Bourghley that died last an odious speech going out against them all at the first for that cause at length they all fled out of the land By these innumerâ—ble the like examples a man may see how dangerous a matter it is to come within a Iesuits daunger for either must he be an impudent copesmate dâ—ponendo conscientiam to act anie thing that the Iesuits will haue acted yea besides this he must if out of credit with their masships do som desperate act or bring some gaine oâ— commoditie to them or theirs or some thing or other must he performe to their honour and credite in testimonie of his loyaltie towardâ— these high conceited perfectiues otherwise non introibit in requiem eorum as was manifest by all these This good Cardinall a worthier then whom they neuer had on in their societie being moâ—â— spâ—â—â—fully infamed by these three Priests though in one preâ—icâ—ment of spâ—eâ—e if any were yet the meanest of the three highly esteemed for his submission to theÌ„ swallowing vp the greatest gaâ—â—geâ—â— they could giue him vnder hand with out once gasping at a haust the other â—wo especially the chief Minister Fixer neuer able to come in credite againe c. mightily persecuted by the Iesuites Maister Cecill went into Scotland where he plaid on both sides as is thought he doth still like to one Maister Tilletson som others notwithstanding that Fa. Parsons had tearmed him a very base fellow a villaine a knaue a consiner and other like speeches he vsed of him of his fatherly zeale to an honourable Earle who told me it The other Maister Warford as ambitious as any which his actions as well in Wales as in sundrie places of the West countrey declared seeing the onely meanes to recouer his credite and thereby to aspire was to make the Iesuites his friends who then ruled the rost and did what they list throughout England He therefore insinuated himselfe so farre and became so officious on their behalfe especially in getting an annuall stipend from certaine Catholikes for Father Parsons mother and sister being otherwise not able to liue and by sundrie of my friends and mine owne furtherance and procurement therein much helped otherwise his accompts had come short that at length he became a young father forsooth pater minister at Rome and what a stickler he was in his new office I leaue it to another discourse how he went skulking in and out in the English Colledge about the time of Cardinall Tolleds death one while abroade with gloria patri when newes came that the Cardinall was dead another while retiring in mournefull wise with non sicut erat in principio when he heard he was againe reuiued whome the Iesuites tearmed an Apostata because this good Cardinal hauing bene earst a Iesuite sought to bring them into order which was thought to haue cost him his life the Rector and his companions denying the Students to come at funerall or come in place of publike prayers made for him And this for his part Well now to the third of that companie Maister Fixer was the man most hated of them because he had spoken most on his Prince and countries behalfe against the Spaniards and their gouernement and rebellious attempts and practises as by a letter of his may well appeare wherein he toucheth some pure spirited Iesuites fautors with infection of the Spanish pippe for these be his words here in England But in conclusion he was so vexed lacerated and calumniated by these Atheall Fathers that he became almost past himselfe he renounced his protection and in bitter teares often bewailing his hard fortune that his innocencie could not saue his credite amongst deuoute vertuous and true meaning Catholikes as holden no better then a spie for the State an Apostata from his profession and an Atheist in his religion yea the good Gentleman that kept him was so belaboured as inuitis dentibus ensibus he was forced to leaue him and yet for that which is past he hath not recouered his credite to this day with that Puritanian Iesuiticall faction In conclusion this reuerend Priest Maister Fixer was constrained to leaue the land went thereupon into Spaine and so into Portugall where he intended to haue bene a Reader in some religious house And being at Lisbon in good credit he procured the release of some fourteene or fifteene English men there taken prisoners willing them to thanke Maister Bluet and Doctor Bagshaw for their libertie Hereof Father Parsons hearing note well the Atheall emulation of this Machiuilean vpon speciall notice and information had of the daunger of impairing the Iesuites credite forsooth if this secular Priest should be in such high esteeme within the King of Spaines dominions he sent for him presently into Spaine vnder pretence of his preferment But when he came he no sooner had him in his cloutches but foorthwith procured him to be laid in prison for a spie where he still remaineth vnlesse he be dead THE X. ARTICLE VVHether then the Iesuites arrogating an immunitie and libertie of speech hand and pen against all the world vnto themselues may it be or is it excusable or otherwise to be holden as Atheall and irreligious in them to suffer their seditious faction and Iesuiticall followers that are lay persons as simple or busie headed men women boyes and girles to defame contemne and talke like ale-benchers at their pleasure of Princes Priests and all sorts of persons as they do and as in the two first generall Quodlibets we haue deliuered their impious dealings therein is it therefore Atheall pollicie in the Iesuits for their owne aduancement and in defence of themselues against all that are not currents of their fatall course to set downe principles and bookes or infamous libels of common places for their brothers to kon per
cause so hereafter also being stopt as if it be possible no doubt he shall from euer comming to know the sum of the seculars appeale he may no doubt both erre and be partiall therein THE X. ARTICLE VVHether seeing the Pope may without preiudice be sayd to be partial vpon wrong information giuen without hearing what the plaintife hath to say and thereupon iudging secundum allegata probata may also excommunicate c. the innocent and set the guilty free if any excoÌ„munication then should be gotten vtcunque against all the seculars and others that resist the Archpriest commanding all to side with the Iesuits either on the Spanish or any other inuadors behalfe or admit which is impossible scil that the Iesuits and Archpriest had right on their side in the pretended authoritie of and for maister Blackwell and that thereupon for the disobedience and contempt as the Iesuits tearme it the sayd seculars should be suspended with losse of all faculties c. And further hauing thus farre preuailed against them and that iustly as in the case proposed we must imagine If then and from thencefoorth an excommunication suspension interdiction or other Ecclesiasticall censure shold passe conceptis verbis from the Sea Apostolike with generall consent of the Cardinals or procurement of the greater part of them on the Archpriest and Iesuits behalfe against all their opposites in whatsoeuer were it to be obeyed or not or if it were in what sort and whether vsque ad aras or how farre c. THE ANSWER IN this Article are many crosse Interrogatories as scil First whether if an excommunication should be procured on the behalfe of an inuador as questionlesse it will if the Iesuits and Archpriest preuaile and as assuredly it will be stopt if the seculars may haue audience against all that should aide our Soueraigne and natiue countrey The point of forraigne conquest and inuasion vnder colour of restoring religion toucheth all English Catholikes as neare in effect for their liues as it doth the Protestants And by consequent both Catholiks Protestants haue iust cause to beare with and defend the one the other in these temporall and morall matters against the Iesuites and Puritanes who onely seeke to stir rebellions of subiects against their Soueraignes and vrge conquests inuasions of forreiners against their countrey both of them vnder colour of religion to cast a combustion mixt of sâ—te famine and sword vpon our countrey without sparing of any man woman or child as the doctrines and proceedings of both make it manifest that no Protestants life shall be saued if the Puritanes preuaileâ— nor any Catholike if the Iesuits preuaile yea questionlesse the Protestants shall sooner go to the pot then the Catholikes if the Puritanes preuaile and the Catholikes sooner then the Protestants if the Iesuites though in conclusion neither shal be fauoured not spared And this was plaine by the Duke of Medinaes words who being told that there were diuerse Catholikes in England answered I care not I will make the best Protestants in England as good Catholikes as they if once I have them vnder my sword c. This hath he spoken often in the hearing of maister Wencelâ—de a Deuonshire man and others So as this and other intelligences had of the Iesuitical deuotion and Spanish fauors towards our nation and vs Catholikes doth manifest their pretence of religion to be a bloudy presage of a massacring intended conquest were it to be obeyed or not the inuadour comming with hostile power vnder colour and pretence of restoring the Catholicke faith and religion in this land And to this I answere that it were not to be obeyed For that although euerie Catholike be bound to receiue succour releeue and aide to his power any one that should absolutely without any further intent come to restore plant and confirme the Catholike faith and religion in this land yet because intentio perficit actum and as I sayd in another Quodlibet before that act which in it selfe is good may both by circumstance and intention be made naught And further for that mans iudgement in humane actions whiles he liues vnder a mortall sword comes by senses obiects which are externall vt sonus obiectum auditus color visus c. and for that the outward obiect moues the inward sense then that outward presents it to the inward phantasie and imagination of man called sensus internus and that againe by office brings it into the Court of reason which reason reflecting vpon the primarie obiect iudgeth ex cognitione sensibili de intelligibili obiecto and so we say that Sacramentum est visibile signum inuisibilis gratiae Hereupon it cometh â—hat be the protestations neuer so great to the contrary morally without approuing the intention to be good by miracle yet if the externall signes be such as they implicate a contradiction verbi gratia as he that shold cast a fire-ball into a house yet protest he intended not to burne it or shoot off a peece at his supposed friend charged with powder bullet pellet or shot yet intended not to kill him or violentlie vrge and force a yeeld to rape yet protest his intention was onlie to trie that woman but not to rauish her no man will beleeue him And so in the case proposed the old Lord Mountacute of worthie memorie Sir Anthony Browne Vicount Montacute gaue a no lesse catholike then loyall answere to the like question saying to this effect That if the Pope himselfe should come in with crosse key and gospell in his hand he would be readie with the first to run vnto his holines to cast himselfe downe at his feete to offer his seruice vnto him in all humblenes of hart and what not to shew himselfe a dutifull childe But if in steede of comming in solemne procession with crosse booke praiers and preaching he should come in a sounding royall march with heralds of armes into banners of blood displaied trumpets alarum pikes harquebuse and men of armes all marshald in rankes set in battell aray then would he be the first man in the field armed at all points to resist him in the face with al his might and power he were able to make and what not would he doe to shew himselfe a dutifull subiect naturalized in an English soile on that behalfe To the like end did his brother in law the euer honorable Dacre his words tend euen in the middest of his prince and countries enimies And the same should be euery true catholike English mans resolution For let the colour pretence and protestation be whatsoeuer it be may yet for that one and the same person may come as an Apostle of Christ or knight of Mars and that the markes for others to know him by which of these two he is are not his intentions protestations or meaning but the signes and tokens he brings with him together with the manner of his outward actions and proceedings we iudging as
sadnes command me now to a sorrowfull silence and so concluding this long article that whatsoeuer the end of our countries calamities happen to be for subiection captiuitie bondage desolation or the like yet if Parsons say and affirme that they who were the originall cause and occasion of our heauie and iust downefall be sure to beare the greatest burden and to abide the sorest triall if he haue been that infortunate Saians iade vpon whom whosoeuer hath sitten haue come to a sorrowful and wretched end as all his tampering platformes with this and that noble haue declared if he haue hitherto euer ioyned most with those whom himselfe hath euer iudged most infortunate and iustly to haue merited these plagues which he threateneth on Gods behalfe to fall vpon them and their posteritie Then what mad man or woman is he or she that to second his owne sorrowes will consort him or her selfe with the Iesuiticall faction to side with those of whom their Polypragmon hath prophecied the destruction Therefore happy say I is he or she that setting all priuate respects aside for their owne gaine seeke the conuersion of their countrie as the seculars doe For that although there neither is neither can there be any assurance of either side to wit whether euer our countrie shall be againe conuerted all wholy to the catholike faith or no either by secular or Iesuit or any other yet more hope questionles there is of conuersion of it by the seculars then by the Iesuits course bicause the seculars is more apostolicall and directly tending to the preseruation of all c. THE X. ARTICLE VVHether any certaintie or possibilitie of conuersion of any of the Lords of her Maiesties honorable Counsell or other magistrates or officers in speciall authoritie vnder her highnes whom the seculars deale withall and if none then whether they may trust them in other matters and proceedings as D. Bagshaw M. Bluett and others doe or no without offence scandall or other danger either to themselues or their friends THE ANSWERE THis question is sufficiently debated before to wit That although all or any one appointed by her Maiestie to deale in these affaires meant fraudulently and with intent to intrap the seculars one way or other to worke their greater discredite disgrace and vtter ouerthrowe thereby which yet were very ingrateful vnciuill and inhumane for any so to iudge and censure without cause for as it is said it is sinne to lie of the diuell and sure this calumniation and slaunder raised of these men for their intercourse with those in authoritie vnder her Maiestie declares a most malitious Iesuiticall spirite there being no question to be made of it to the contrary bicause former examples of other Iesuites haue proued it true and led the seculars first the daunce in seeking of fauours at ciuill magistrates or others hands but that if either Master Blackwel or Father Garnet or any Iesuite of them all that deale now in hucker mucker and therefore more daungerously and pernitiously as I said before might haue free accesse and either were as cleere in their owne conscience as these seculars are or else might haue imputatiue iustice by conuiuence from her Maiestie on their side to obtaine so much fauour by as these haue obtained there is not the purest of them but would come with his hat in his hand to the Bishop of London or to any other in authority for to be shrowded vnder them and so by consequent to ingrate thus iniuriously both vpon her Maiesties officers the secular priests as the Iesuites doe bicause they haue not the like fauour deserues the challenge to a combat if they were other men then they are yet howsoeuer although as I said there were euill intended seeing notwithstanding that there is no way possible to worke any euill to the seculars or their friends thereby vnlesse they count it euill for a man condemned to the gallowes to be deliuered and set free and his life graunted him or for him that is condemned in a premunire or otherwise to perpetuall prison to be deliuered thence or for him that is in daunger to be searched and ransackt euery hower to haue a breathing fit of safetie and securitie to sleepe one weeke or fortnight a sounder sleepe then he had slept in twenty yeeres before or for him that hath by statute lawes forfeited his life lands goods and all he is worth to haue some mitigation and find an ease not onely in pardon of his life but also in releasement of the confiscation of his goods and sauing of his lands c. And if any litle ease to languishing harts be comfortable if lawfull it be for any redimere iniustam vexationem if all men be bound to cleere themselues and to liue without exasperating of any nor giuing offence no not to Infidels if for these and the like causes sundry secular priests haue vpon sufficient approbation and triall had of their innocency found extraordinary fauour and others also by their meanes And if a Sebastian could court it out with his Lord and Emperor and yet keepe a religious hart to God ward helpe and saue many a mans life that otherwise had died if a Daniell could obtaine so speciall fauour at a kings hands as not onely to be deliuered out of prison yea and from out of the lyons den but also to be made liefetenant generall princeps exercitus and Emperor of the field euen amiddest those amongst whome he and all his countrimen liued captiue If both a Peter and a Iohn could be like deerely accounted of to their Lord master Christ and yet euen he who was rather of the two yea or most of all the rest in greatest danger bicause by his royall blood and alliance to the king his maker and his master a iust cause of ielousie was to be had of him but notwithstanding this we finde that Saint Iohn found friendship when and where Saint Peter could not at the high priestes hands and amongst other inferior officers and yet none euer spake against it or thought the woorse of him for it Yea if S. Peter although he had better haue vsed his friend in another matter but that it was oracled so to be vsed Saint Iohns helpe to come in amongst the thickest of his masters enimies Then say I it is the most enuious malitious and pharisaicall part that these prowd disdainfull sycophants could possibly play and doth as much discouer their vile and base mindes as any one thing could possibly doe to maligne slaunder and backbite men of better deserts then themselues But the diuell is euer enuious An enuious man is alwaies murmuring grudging and repining at an others good fortunes and to heare of a Iesuitical fellow to giue a good word of any that is not Iesuited in faction or affection he sure by my consent shall be a king cipher to command the nine figures in algorisme with o rare amongst the rarest illuminates So then to
thing against any prince or king vnder what pretence soeuer yet necessitie will alwaies excuse their subiects for not obeying his holines buls in temporall duties and for performing their said duties and seruices vnto their soueraignes The Schoolemen doe make sundry kindes of necessities as necessitas adesse suppliciter adesse secundum quid ad bene esse c. which I will not trouble you withall You shall see the very point it selfe set downe in expresse termes concerning the catholikes of England that liue at this day vnder her Maiestie The faithfull of England and Saxonie saith Bannes are to be excused qui se non eximant à potestate superiorum nec bellum contra illos gerunt quoniam communiter non habent facultatem ad haec bella gerenda contra principes imminent illis grauia pericula who doe not exempt themselues from the power of their superiors nor beare armes against them bicause generally they haue no abilitie to wage such wars against their princes and great danger doth hang ouer their heads if they should attempt it And a little before he saith that subiects are not bound to warre against their soueraigne or to exempt themselues from their subiection cum periculo mortis amissione bonorum with the danger of their liues and losse of their goods and so endeth his resolution with an caetera as if he should haue said there are also many other such like exceptions to be allowed of And G. de Valencia agreeth with Bannes For saith he when the Popes holines doth absolue subiects from their othes of allegiance that they may not be bound to performe their duties to their Lords that are excommunicated and doe forbid them likewise so to doe they are thus to be vnderstood scil that they are not otherwise bound to obey them in those cases but si nimirum negare obsequium dominis suis possint absque notabili suo detrimento ita enim hoc est intelligendum sicut recte notauit Bannes that is When they may refuse to obey their Lords and masters without any notable hurt or losse to themselues for so these kindes of absolutions and forbiddings are to be vnderstood as Bannes hath well obserued And Master Parsons of his goodnes striketh this matter dead For in his said Admonition he is pleased to tell the catholikes of England and all other her Maiesties subiects in these words following that in cases of euident danger the censures of the Church so farre as they concerne onely temporall matters by the meaning of him that gaue the sentence doe not binde Now it might peraduenture prooue a very probable position as the world standeth at a gaze whether it may easily be conceiued by a man of a dull conceit that any king will be euer so negligent or carelesse of his owne estate or if he should whether any counsellors of any kingdome will euer be so improuident for the safetie of their soueraignes authoritie kingdome and life as that it shall not alwaies be dangerous for their subiects to rebell and take armes against them And then euery man may see what followeth that as Saint Paule said Multa mihi licita sunt quae tamen non expediunt so questionles I am of that minde that it will not be expedient for the Popes holines to intermeddle with the excommunicating of princes in these daies For assuredly it wil seldome fall out if euer that subiects without danger shall be able by rebellion to put such a sentence in execution besides the incertainties before specified that it cannot well be imagined how they should in these dangerous times take sufficient notice of it when so great and generall a iealousie on the one side is had of all princes and so manifest signes of intollerable abuses falshood and malepertnes on the other side in the Iesuiticall faction to procure whatsoeuer may serue their owne turnes for the time without all or any respect had of God or man Pope or prince church or common wealth catholike or heretike And sure it cannot be but that all princes as well spirituall as temporall will more narrowly looke into the Iesuits doings then heretofore they haue when they shall duly consider what daunger they all do stand in yea euen those that now fauour these seditious busie headed bodies most if these factious companions may procure excommunications at their pleasure and prouoke his holines to strike with ecclesiasticall censure whatsoeuer offendeth any of them nay whosoeuer doth not please and content them in all things nay more whosoeuer hath that which they haue a minde to and that they cannot otherwise haue their wish and vnlawful desire out goeth a slaunder that he or she are of lewd demeanour not established in the grace of God and in few are reprobates of God forsaken and then straightwaies must his holines strike them with excommunication c. or else shall he also be holden for a Lutheran or fautor of wicked persons and heretikes In confirmation of the premises here it offereth it selfe fitly to this purpose what father Criton the great Scots statist said to an honorable person in talke of these matters concerning the excommunication of his Maiestie king Iames. This noble Lord hauing heard some speeches against the Scots king blowne abroad by fa. Parsons his vnder Agents at Bruxels such be like as that base fellow Verstegen who hauing no more gentlemans blood in his body then in a coupers son nor scant so much of such a breed may the couper be yet tooke vpon him to cotize our English nobles and gentles there affirming that there were not past three or fower in those coastes of all our nation that were of any noble or generous blood coate armour and ancestrie scil the Earle of Westmerland the Lord Dacres and as I remember the next was himselfe or sir William Stanley I know not whether but either sir knight or sir knaue was in the third place Whereupon followed a fowle adoe in the Flemmish court for a while sundry of noble and generous blood being mightily disgraced by this base companions information giuen to the prince in derogation to our English gentrie And this vntriall gentleman was one of that nobleman father Parsons spies intelligencers and blazoners of what infamies as were to be conueyed thence abroad into Italie Spaine Fraunce and other countries adioyning Amongst other things that might be thought to indanger his royall person most one passage was this that father Parsons with others of the zealous illuminates and more resolute wise religious learned and graue fathers and other catholikes had dealt very seriously with the Popes holines about excommunicating of the said king which was expected euery hower to come foorth and to be promulgated against his highnes c. Whereof the foresaid Lord being desirous to knowe of father Criton whether any such thing were or not and withall whether his owne subiects or others that wished well vnto him might lawfully defend his
raigne rule and authoritie as containing in it all three sorts of gouernment scil Monarchicall Aristocraticall Democraticall in matters of counsell and managing of common wealths causes but not in points of regaltie honor inheritance For there shal be neither title nor name nor honor giuen taken or done to any Prince Duke Marquesse Earle Vicount Lord Baron or the like all the Iesuiticall gouernors being puritan like seniours elders prouincials rectors ministers c. neither shall there be any succession by birth or blood to any honor office or magistracy from the monarch Pater Generall to the minor Pater minister but all shall goe by election and choice neither shall any title clayme or right of inheritance be made chalenged pretended intended or diuolued from the father to to sonne but all shall rest in this Presbyter Iohn or Pope-Monarchiall-Generals gift No noble knight Esquier or swayne possessing more then the monarch shall bestow vpon him as tenant at will for the time nor for terme of life iust like to the Turkes distribution of lands and honors And if any thinke that this is but a surmise let them reperuse what here passantly is written in these Quodlibets and confer if possibly they can get them Fa. Parsons bookes of titles together with his high counsell of Reformation and other passages in manuscripts and then doubtlesse they will be of my minde THE X. ARTICLE VVHether then seeing their intended gouernment is most Antichristian Tartarian Turcicall and Tyrannicall do they maintaine this their paradoxall pragmaticall and stratagemicall doctrine by any law reuelation or other authority saue onely their owne bare word will and commaund to haue it so or what is the ground of all these their strange courses THE ANSWERE STabat pro ratione voluntas was the chiefe ground of the disciplinary lawe why poore Todde was beaten in Rome vntill his bones aked knowing no cause in the world for the Iesuits to haue vsed him so And if any seeme so peremptory as to aske a Iesuite what authoritie he hath either concerning these or any other exorbitant extrauagant exlegall and extra ordinarie lawes rules customes or orders set downe obserued and kept amongst them let him looke for none other but a thunderbolt of excommunication or sharpe censure irremissibly to bee throwne against him they being such Lords lawlesse Sirs and legifers as cannot erre in any act word or thought of a matter of fact to be formed framed and fashioned by them and therefore high blasphemy to contradict these Demigods in any thing But if you aske them why such a law doctrine or order is set downe by way of submission admiration or humble acknowledgement of their powerable dignitie and woorthines aboue all other persons liuing on earth then to breede a greater reuerence dutifull regard and respectiue feare in you towards them they may happily tell you that they haue it by reuelation that as by speciall commandement from God their order or societie was miraculously instituted for this end so father Parsons was and is the prophet appointed to prophecie vnto vs a dismall change that the time is come wherein all lawes customes and orders must be altered and all things turned vpside downe and that they being the onely men that haue the name office and authoritie of Iesus by them it is that this maruellous change and alteration shall be wrought in such sort as from the beginning of the world was the like neuer heard of before to this present of the Iesuits precedencie Mary yet if you aske other men dispassionate vnpartiall and not speaking of affection by what law or authoritie they doe attempt and teach these things they will tell you they haue neither law diuine nor humane so to doe but a law irregular made by an exlegall legifer father Parsons by name who hath preiudiced iniuried and wronged by his infamous libels all lawes and lawyers customes states and orders For first he hath preiudiced the lawes common pontifical of nations of nature of God himselfe as in the premisses of sundry precedent Quodlibets may appeere Then he hath preiudiced the lawes municipiall of this noble Isle laboring to foist in to outward shew the lawes ciuill Romane of Caesar abolished aboue a thousand yeeres agoe by authoritie of the See apostolike at the instant sute of king Lucius with the general consent of all his noble Lords the woorthy Britaines then peeres of these two realmes He hath abused the law custome and order obserued in humanitie in fawning vpon the Austrian line vnder pretence to bring in the imperiall lawes of Caesar into this land but intending in very deede to thrust a law vpon vs neuer heard of before throughout the vniuersall world nor I think euer shall be put in execution vntill the comming of Antichrist that all run vpon wheeles with alteration and change He hath preiudiced the lawe of propertie in instituting gouernment gouernors and hereditarie princes to be ad beneplacitum populi and all other priuate possessiants ad beneplacitum suum He hath preiudiced the lawes ciuill and imperiall of Caesar bringing them in falsly alleged and one thing for another as a comment for a corps a code for a digest a glosse for a text a memoriall for a principle and a note of some allegation vpon a sute past on the behalfe of a client for a maxime in the lawes either vnauthentically defined or remaining litigious pliable to any opinion or else interpreted as father Parsons pleaseth to the most disgrace he can deuise to all Ciuilians applied by him against proximitie of blood to breede a diuorce of friendship and kinred by disturbing the lawfull course of succession by birth and consanguinitie prouided by lawes for passage of lands and inheritance after the law of propertie began in all nations Which violent intrusion of Caesars lawes thus abused and bolsterd out to the vtter ruine of many noble families irreuocably he hath no shift to ratifie and get it allowed of but to delude simple people to confirme it by sundry examples of banckrupt common wealths or rather disordered multitudes He hath abused and preiudiced all states common wealths nobles and gentiles of this and all other Christian nations by a temporized popularitie thrust in vpon them accomodating himselfe as he saith to the conditions manners and minds of the common people which euer do delight in noueltie and change Otherwise as he seriously noted had the Iesuites neuer bene so admired at in England as they are at this day But omnia rara sunt preclara amongst the mobile vulgus who seising quickly vpon this popular doctrine it presently imprinted a fauourable opinion and liking both of the man and the matter in their wauering harts as all the world seeth it and perceiuing they might by this popular doctrine of father Parsons controul disthronize and ouerthrow their soueraigne the state their landlords and all other nobles and gentiles as they listed and liked best hereupon then they inferd