I heard from you saith one Blake of the state of the Church of London Another By M. West M. Browne you shall vnderstand the state of the Churches wherein we are A third If my offence may not be passed by without a further confession euen before God and his Church in London will I lie downe and licke the dust at your feete and confesse c. A fourth I receiued a letter from you in the name of the rest of the brethren whereby I vnderstand your ioyning together in choosing of my selfe vnto the seruice of the Church vnder the Earle of Leicester c. I am ready to runne if the Church command me according to the holy decrees and orders of the discipline By these their speeches it appeareth that as they haue cut off themselues from the fellowship of the rest of the Christians in England by ioyning themselues into a seuerall brotherhood so haue they already seduced her Maiesties subiects by gathering them together into a new societie whereunto they doe appropriat the name of the Church as though all other Churches in the realme were but as Iewish Sinagogues or heathenish assemblies This is not you shall see my bare collection heare the witnesses what they hereof haue deposed In these brethrens speaches of the Church or Churches it is to be vnderstood that by the Church of England they meane the Church according to humaine lawes and the Popes which is ruled as they terme it by an Antichristian gouernement And by the Godly Churches or the Churches of God in England they meane such places congregations or assemblies as doe embrace the reformation and haue such a minister as is of some Classis Sometime also by the Church as the Church of God in London is meant the Classis of the brethren or their Synods And so maister Edmondes when they vse these or the like speaches in their writing or otherwise vz. the Church or Churches of God heere with this or that or the Church in London hath done this or that they by they especially meane the Ministers thēselues But for the further clearing of this matter because the chiefe Rabbies of this conspiracie do themselues preach in our material Churches it is to be obserued that the parish where they preach being assembled is not the Church properly in their sence but as many thereof onely as are ioyned vnto them with that inuiolable bond mentioned vz. the desire of the godly discipline and those furthermore who leauing their owne parish Churches doe come vnto them As for example The Church of God forsooth in the Black Fryers doth consist besides that parish of a number of men and Marchauntes wiues dispersed here and there throughout the whole Citie Be content to hear the depositions that are taken to like purpose Maister Snape affirmed as Richard Holmes and Richard Hawgar haue deposed that here one there one picked out of the Prophane and common multitude and put a-part to serue the Lord maketh the Church of God and not the generall multitude Maister Iohnson saith that the brethren of the laitie doe seldome come to their owne parish Churches nor receiue the communion there otherwise then they are compelled for feare of trouble For they account those their pastors onely whom they do so choose And maister Edmonds vpon his experience in London The people of this brotherhood do seldome come to their owne parish Churches otherwise then for feare to incurre some daunger of lawes neyther do they accompt the minister of their parishes to bee any of their pastors properly except he be some one of the brethren Ministers before specified or very effectually inclining that way It is likewise to bee obserued that if any of this faction brotherhood or sisterhood do lie dangerously sicke they do seldome or neuer send for their owne pastors to visite them nor moue them to pray for them publikely in their owne parish as neglecting their praiers but do send to the Readers abroad whom they haue chosen for their pastors both to come vnto them to pray with them and for them in their assemblies This also is to bee obserued that the stricter sort of this crue when they lie at the point of death will haue no bell tolled for them and many of them do take order before their death that afterwardes they be not buried in any Church that there bee no sermon nor any wanner of buriall vsed which is prescribed CHAP. XVI A ridiculous pretence of laws with a recapitulation of the summe of this third booke AS they countenance these their conuenticles vnlawful assemblies before specified with the name of the Church so with the like boldenesse to the same purpose some of them are not ashamed to affirme that by the doctrine of the Church of Englād and by the lawes and statutes of this Realm the present gouernment of the Church of England vnder her Maiestie by Archbishops and Bishops is to bee accounted wicked and vnlawfull and withall in effect that by the saide doctrine lawes and statutes all the former proceedings decrees c. of the brethren are to be maintayned and iustified As by the particular proofes following it will appeare The offices of Lord Archbishops and Bishops c. saith Martin Iunior are condemned by the doctrine of the Church of England The doctrine that condemneth the places of Lorde Bishops is approoued by the statutes of this Realme and her Maiesties prerogatiue royall To be a Lord Bishop is directly against the Statute 13. Elizab. According to the doctrine of the Church of England our Prelates haue no authoritie to make Ministers or to proceede to any ecclesiasticall censure their citations processes excommunications c. are neither to bee obeyed nor regarded Men ought not to appeare in their Courtes a man being excommunicated by them ought not to seeke any absolution at their hands And in the behalfe of the brethren he doth also further affirme that by the said doctrine of the Church of England c. all Ministers bee of equall authoritie that the godly ministers ought to ordaine those that would enter into that function without any leaue of the prelates and not so much as once to suffer them to take any approbation of the prelates that euery minister is bound to preach the Gospell notwithstanding the inhibition of the Bishops that a man being once made a minister is not to be kept backe from preaching by the inhibition of any creature and that by the saide doctrine c. all ministers are bound by subscription c. to disauow the Hierarchie of Bishops When you shall reade these strange assertions so farre passing any ordinary bounds of common modestie think with your selues that it is no maruaile to see their writinges so full of authorities For I do assure you that euen in the like sort and with the same sinceritie
King that such Commissioners as they should sende to the Parliament and Councell might from thence forth be authorized in the Bishops places for the estate They also directed their Commissioners to the Kings Maiestie commanding him and the Councell vnder paine of the censures of the Church meaning excommunication to appoint no Bishops in time to come because they the brethren had concluded that state to be vnlawfull Hereof as it seemeth they writt to Geneua their newe Rome or Metropolitane Citty From whence they were greatly animated and earnestly perswaded to continue in that course Beza the Consistorian Patriarche assureth them that they had done well and mooueth them ne vnquam illam pestem admittant quamuis vnitatis retinendae specie blandiatur that they would neuer admit againe that plague meaning the calling of Bishoppes although it might allure them with colour of keeping vnitie After they had discharged the Bishops as it hath beene noted they agreed amongst themselues to haue their Superintendents But that deuise continued not long for in the ende it was determined that needes all Ministers of the word must be equall And then especially their Presbyteries began to flourish They tooke vpon them with their adherents to vsurpe the whole Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction They altered the lawes after their owne appetite They assembled the Kings subiects and enioyned Ecclesiasticall paines vnto them They made Decrees and put the same in execution They vsed very trayterous seditious and contumelious words in the pulpits schooles and otherwise to the disdaine and reproch of the King and being called to answere the same they vtterlie disclaimed the Kings authoritie saying he was an incompetent Iudge and that matters of the Pulpit ought to be exempted from the iudgement correction of Princes They prescribed lawes to the King and State They appointed Fasts throughout the whole Realme especially when some of their faction were â—o mooue any great enterprise With these manner of proceedings the King there and the State finding great cause of iust discontentment and danger after diuers consultations and good deliberation order was taken about the yeare 1582. for the checking redressing of them His Maiesty began to take vpon him his lawfull authoritie belonging to all Christian Princes in causes Ecclesiasticall Wherupon he caused the foresaid courses held by the Ministers to be examined and looked into And they were found to be such as that some of them were remoued from their charges some were imprisoned some indighted Commaundement was also giuen that they should not proceede in the execution of their Ecclesiasticall censures as they had done A Proclamation was made in diuers of the chiefest places in the Realme for discharging the Ministers of their foresaid conuentions and assemblies vnder paine to bee punished as Rebels They were published in that Proclamation to be vnnaturall subiects seditious persons troublesome and vnquiet spirites members of Sathan enemies to the King and the Common-wealth of their natiue countrey and were charged to desist from preaching in such sort as they did amongst other matters against the authoritie in Church causes against the calling of Bishops for the maintenance of their former proceedings But the issue of the Kinges good intention to haue refourmed these disorders was this In August 1582. his Highnesse being drawn vnto a certain Noble mans house to be feasted in Rutheuen there he was surprised restrained Which attempt was qualified and tearmed in a Declaration set out 1582. to iustifie the same to be onely a repaire of the Kings faithfull subiects to his Highnes presence and to remaine with him for resisting of the present dangers appearing to Gods true religion c. and for the remouing from his Maiestie the chiefe authors thereof After a time the King deliuered himselfe out of their hands that so had restrained him and by the aduise of his three estates assembled in Councell notwithstanding the saide qualification or pretence of repayre the action in it self was iudged and published in December 1583. to be Crimen lesae Maiestatis the Offence of Treason and some were executed for it others fled and diuers of the Ministers that had bin dealers in that matter pretending they were persecuted escaped into England With this his Maiesties course for Reformation the Disciplinarian faction was greatly displeased and did proceede in their Consistorian humour accordingly In an assembly of Ministers and Elders forsooth at Edenburgh shortly after the State of the Realme was stoutly encountred For although the King with the aduise of his estates had resolued the saide fact of surprising his Maiesties person to be treasonable yet the brethren did not onely authorise and avow the same but also esteeming their owne iudgements to be the soueraigne iudgement of the Realme did ordaine all them to be excommunicated that would not subscribe vnto that their iudgement About the same time or not long after vz. in Aprill 1583. there was another most treasonable conspiracie and rebellion attempted at Sterling and intended to haue beene further executed and prosecuted against his Highnesse person and all vnder pretence of Religion and chiefly in shewe for the Consistorian or Presbyteriall soueraignetie With these and many more such vnduetifull insolencies the King and State there beeing greatly mooued a Parliament was called and held in May 1584. wherein order was taken for a generall Reformation in causes Ecclesiasticall throughout the whole Church of Scotland The Kings lawfull authority in causes Ecclesiasticall so often before impugned was approued and confirmed and it was made treason for any man to refuse to answere before the King though it were concerning any matter which was Ecclesiasticall The third estate of Parliament that is the Bishoppes was restored to the auncient dignity it was made treason for any man after that time to procure the innouation or diminution of the power and authority of any of the three estates The foresayd iudgements Senates and Presbyteriall iurisdictions were discharged and it was enacted in these words that after that time none should presume or take vppon them to conuocate conuene or assemble themselues together for holding of Councells conuentions or assemblies to treat consult or determine in any matter of estate ciuill or Ecclesiasticall excepting the ordinary iudgements without the Kinges especiall commandement It was further then ordayned that none of his Highnesse subiects in time comming should presume to take vppon them by worde or writing to iustifie the most treasonable attempt at Ruthuen or to keepe in Register or store any bookes approouing the same in any sort An Acte was also made for the calling in of Buchanans Chronicle and his booke de iure regni apud Scotos Lastly sayth the Acte of Parliament it selfe Forasmuch as through the wicked licentious publike and priuate speeches and vntrue calumnies of diuers his Highnesse subiects to the disdaine contempt and reproach of his Maiestie
soueraignety kingdome and lordship were no where acknowledged or to be found but where halfe a dosen artizans Shoomakers Tinkers and Tailors with their Preacher and Reader eight or nine Cherubins forsooth do rule the whole parish But I haue noted vnto you out of these few places omitting many other this their wonderfull dotage to this end that it may be considered whether it be likely that our English Consistorians hauing ouerrunne the Scottish ministers or at the least ouertaken them in their opinions of the necessity of this Discipline will be left behind them in their practises according to the Geneua resolution for the attayning of it or no CHAP. III. Our pretended English reformers doo imitate or rather exceede the Scottish Ministers in rebelling and rayling against all that doo encounter them WHen in Scotland they first had in minde to reforme religion and after to erect their Discipline according to the Geneua resolution they spent their wittes and all their deuises by railing and slandering to bring the Bishoppes and the rest of the Clergy with the whole course of their gouernements into detestation and hatred with the people They write their owne pleasures of them and to them and that in the name of the people They stirred the Nobility by their writings against them they had their supplications to their Parliaments and to the Queene Regent they had their appellations from their Bishops their exhortations to the Nobility to the Estates and comminalty and many such practises they had to that purpose yea after their Bishops and Clergy had receiued the Gospell But in this course our reformers in England haue not onely imitated them but as ready Schollers and apt for such mischiefe haue very farre exceeded both them and as I thinke all others that hitherto haue dealt that way They haue renued ouer againe applied to our Church gouernours two or three of the most bitter Treatises that euer were made against the Popes Cardinals Popish Bishops Monkes and Friers c. in King Henry the eight his dayes They haue foure or fiue very diuellish and infamous Dialogues likewise their complaints and petitions to her Maiesty and Parliament in the name of the comminalty their appellation their exhortation and diuers other most lewd scurrilous Epistles and Letters When they are called before any Magistrate and dealt withall for their factious proceedings they vsually afterward doo take vpon them to write and publish vnder the name of a conference what wordes and arguments haue passed which they perfourme with all reproch disdaine vntruth and vanity and so do pester the Realme and their fauourers closets with infinite such shamelesse and slaunderous discourses as is most intollerable They haue had fiue or sixe supplications to seuerall Parliaments penned altogether according to Knox his stile and violent spirit in many places word for word besides Martin and his two sonnes their holy imitations of Beza his Passauantius that all things might proceede Geneua like in their sixe bookes of Consistorian grauity And now vpon better care taken by her Maiesty that no such libels should be hereafter printed in England at the least without some daunger to the parties if it may bee knowne they haue founde such fauour as to procure their chiefe instrument and old seruant Waldgraue to be the King of Scots Printer from whence their wants in that behalfe shall be fully supplyed For hauing obtained that place as hee pretendeth in Print they haue published by hundreths certaine spitefull and malicious bookes against her Maiesties most honorable priuy Councell Also their humble motion to their LL s. with three or foure other very slanderous Treatises And now it seemeth for feare that any of all their sayd Libels rayling Pamphlets that haue bin written in her highnesse time should perish being many of them but triobolar chartals they haue taken vpon them to make a Register and to Print them altogether in Scotland in two or three volumes as it appeareth by a part of the sayde Register all ready come from thence and finished which containeth in it three or foure and forty of the sayd Libels In all which courses taken more then heathnish this is their drift and especiall end that hauing by their forged lies their poysoned tongues and their hypocriticall outcries procured a generall mislike of her Maiesties reformation the present gouernment of the Church the chiefest defender thereof the Lords that fauour it the Archbishops and Bishops that haue authoritie in it the rest of the Clergy that doe submit themselues vnto it they might come at the last to attaine their purpose and by fishing in our troubled waters according to the Geneua resolution set vp and establish their glorious scepter and kingdome Out of these bookes because some might otherwise charge the premises herein with slander of the godly brethren I haue thought it very conuenient to lay downe before you particularly some most lewd and wicked speeches in maner and order as in tenne of the next Chapters following is specified CHAP. IIII. The speaches of the said pretended reformers concerning England the state the present reformation and gouernment of the Church ENgland with an impudent forehead hath sayd I will not come neare the holy one And as for the building of his house I will not so much as lift vp a finger towardes that worke nay I will continue the desolations thereof England hateth them to this day that faithfullie doe their office Of all the nations that haue renounced that whore of Rome there is none in the world so farre out of square as England in retaining the Popish Hierarchy We in England are so farre off from hauing a Church rightly reformed that as yet we are scarse come to the outward face of the same We are neuer the better for her Maiesties reformation seeing the walles of Syon lie euen with the ground that is seeing their discipline is not established Your reformation as it standeth will be little better then that of the Samaritanes who feared Iehouah but worshipped their owne Gods Men belike doe thinke no more to be required at their handes then the rasing of Babell the diuell as yet contenting him selfe with Bethel Your gouernment is that which giueth leaue to a man to be anie thing sauing a sound Christian. Omnia cum liceant non licet esse bonum We lacke a right gouernement of the Church In stead of the ordinance of God in the gouernment of his Church the marchandize of shamelesse Babylon is maintayned The gouernment now vsed by Archbishops Bishops c. is both Antichristian and diuelish Rome is come home to our gates Antichrist raigneth amongst vs. The established gouernement of the Church is trayterous against the maiestie of Iesus Christ it confirmeth the Popes supremacie it is accursed It is an vnlawfull a false a bastardly gouernement In the state of
saide articles which herafter shall be likewise declared It appeareth also by the said parties depositions that diuers others did subscribe at the same time or at the least within a short time after but they might not forsooth by reason of their owne consciences name them Howbeit the matter is otherwise plaine inough who they were by a note taken with Maister Litleton vz. Iohn Oxenbridge Edward Gellibrand Hercules Cleuely Anthony Nutter Leonard Fetherstone Mathew Hulme Edward Lord c. This booke hauing thus at the last receaued this great allowance more authentically was carried farre and nere for a generall ratification of all the brethren It was offered to the Dauentry side Classis as Master Sharp and Master Walker haue deposed and likewise at Northampton by Penry as Maister Litleton affirmeth But that which Maister Iohnson hath set downe is worthy the remembrance The effect of it is this that when the booke of Discipline came to Northampton to be subscribed vnto there was a generall censuring vsed amongst the brethren there as it were to sanctifie themselues partly by sustaining a kinde of penance and reproofe for their former conformity to the orders of the Church established by her Maiestie and other matters of conuersation and partly to prepare their mindes for the deuout accepting of the foresaid booke In which course of censuring vsed at that time there was such ripping vp one of anothers life euen from their youth as that they came vnto great bitternes with many reuiling tearms amongst themselues one growing thereby odious to another and some did thereupon vtterly forsake those kinde of assemblies CHAP. VII The booke of the pretended Discipline is made perfect at Cambridge certaine Synodes are kept and of their estimation IT might haue beene deemed that after so many viewes Synodes and subscriptions this worthy draught of discipline would haue growne to great perfection but it falleth out otherwise For as it is confessed vppon othe at Sturbridge Fayre-time the next yeare after the sayd Classicall counsell of the Warwicke-shire brethren vz. in the yeare 1589. there was another Synode or generall meeting helde in Saint Iohns Colledge in Cambridge Where saith M. Barber they did correct alter and amend diuers imperfections conteined in the booke called Disciplina ecclesiae sacra verbo Dei descripta and as maister Stone affirmeth did not onely perfect the saide forme of Discipline but also did then and there as he remembreth voluntarily agree amongst themselues that so many as would should subscribe to the saide booke of Discipline after that time The persons that met in this assembly were as these two last deponents affirme maister Cartwright maister Snape maister Allen maister Gifford maister Perkins maister Stone maister Barber maister Harrison with others c. I finde mention also of another Synode 1589. held as I take it at Ipswich Thus one Iohn Warde did write that yeare to certaine at Ipswich I thinke not to come ouer till the Synode which is as I take it a moneth after Michaelmas It hath beene obserued before out of maister Edmonds deposition cap. 2. who were the Classicall brethren of London It is also fit to be vnderstood who they are that most commonly met there also at their more generall prouinciall or nationall assemblies or Synodes And this both maister Barber and maister Stone doo sufficiently declare For the space of about foure yeares last past saith maister Barber and since the last Parliament saith maister Stone there haue bin seuerall meetings in London at the houses of maister Gardiner maister Egerton maister Trauers and maister Barber The persons that vsually mette in these assemblies saith maister Barber were maister Cartwright maister Charke maister Trauers maister Egerton maister Gardiner maister Oxenbridge maister Gelibrand maister Culuerwell maister Browne of Oxford maister Allen maister Gifford maister Sommerscales and himselfe Maister Cartwright maister Trauers and maister Egerton were at sundry times chosen Moderators or Presidents in the said assemblies And afterwardes generally of the office of the Moderators The resolutions conclusions and determinations of such matters as were disputed-of and agreed-vpon by the more number of them that so disputed in the said assemblies were by the saide Moderators or Presidents before named at the times and places of the saide seuerall assemblies summarily and briefly either written in a booke or otherwise set-downe in loose papers as to the saide Moderators or Presidentes should bee thought meet or conuenient As the Classicall assemblies of London were of greater estimation then those in the Country so these more generall meetings or Synodes last mentioned were of highest authoritie and indeed the grand test of all the rest It may be said truely of them both that they haue been the kindling sparkes of all those flames which are in the Church What was there ordered went as perfectly currant From thence the brethren of other places did fetch their light As doubts did arise thither they were sent to be resolued The Classicall and Synodicall decrees in other places were neuer authenticall indeede as it seemeth till there they were ratified The chiefest directions for all the brethren else-where were sent from thence It is wonderfull to consider how men so obstinate and wilfull in their owne waies against the Church of England established by her Maiestie should be brought to submit themselues in such sort as they did to be led by these assemblies as elswhere it doth appeare CHAP. VIII Vpon some detecting of the premisses some were called into question they refuse to be examined all they were charged which is in effect confessed IN the yeare 1590. vpon the detecting before some of her Maiesties Commissioners in causes Ecclesiasticall of the most of these things wherof I haue hitherto spoken Interrogatories were drawen containing in them the effect of all the premisses and diuers such Ministers were sent for as were sayde to haue beene the chiefe ringleaders in all those actions Accordingly they appeared but in the place when they shuld be examined they refused to answere vpon their othes Diuers pretences therof were made as one that first they would see the Interrogatories whereof they should be examined The generall summe of them was imparted vnto them and it was likewise told them that they should bee charged to answere no further then by the lawes of the Realme they were bound to doo But all this would not serue Whervpon the Interrogatories themselues were shewed vnto some as namely to Maister Snape who stood most at the first vppon that point and did pretend that if first hee might see them hee would then aunswere vnto them But the issue was accordingly as it was expected For hauing perused them he was further-of then he was before and writ to his friends what was the summe of them to the intent they might be forewarned and so as he sayd become better armed Which course taken by him was not without the great prouidence of God For thereby their whole plot
determined Non dum solicitandum esse publicé vniuersum caetum ad praxim Disciplinae donec meliùs instituantur homines in eius cognitione that is As yet the whole multitude are not to be allured publikely to the practise of the Discipline vntil men bee better instructed in the knowledge of it As though for the answering of Payne they had said that when by that means they had gotten a sufficient number to assiste them then his counsaile should be followed For you must vnderstand that their chiefest trust is reposed in the people as it may be further made more plain vnto you by the deposition of maister Edmonds whose wordes I will set downe as they remaine in record I doe well remember saith he that after I had left that company meaning the London assemblies meeting with Master Field I talked with him what harme was already done by inueighing against the present state of the Church and by their proceedings in beating this their new reformation into the heades of the common people because they were alreadie growen thereby amongest themselues into great diuisions very contemptuous insolent intractable c Whereunto hee answered tush holde your peace seeing we cannot compasse these things by suite nor dispute it is the multitude and people that must bring them to passe But I will leaue their endeuours a while how they may seduce the people and enter into a discourse to their further proceedings CHAP. III. They would haue the nobility and the inferior Magistrates to set vp their discipline of their supplication with a 100000 hāds IT is here to be considered what course they take to bring the Nobility and inferior magistrates of England to the before said stifnes mentioned in the first Chapter that was in them of Scotlād Maister Penry exhorteth the Lord President of Wales by the examples of Moses Iehosuah Dauid Salomon Iehosophat Hezechiah Iosue Nehemiah c. to take in hād their pretended reformation in that countrie prouing that he hath authority therunto because hee is a gouernour vnder God and that if hee refused so to doe he could haue no commission to rule there in that therby Christ being reiected he was become but the Lieutenant of Sathan Here you haue Allobrogical and Consistoriall stuffe able of it selfe if it were receiued to fill all Christian kingdomes with all kinde of mutinies sedition and rebellion They would make the inferior Magistrates vnder their Soueraigne to beleeue that they had for their times and within their limittes as absolute authority as if they themselues were fully Princes there and were not manie waies restrayned by the supreme Magistrate Surely if they shall bee able by these and such like perswasions to draw vnto them the Iustices of Peace the Shirifes or Lieutenants of euery Shire and so make them the executioners of their good pleasures and platformes without any further Commission or warrant from her Maiestie they shall not neede to expect eyther Prince or Parliament but may throwe downe and set vp as greate builders doe whatsoeuer shall be most agreeable to the mutabilitie of their owne affections And whereas an obiection might haue beene made that if either the Noblemen Gentlemen or people shold take vpon them to cast downe the Bishops and to reforme the church according to their raigning frēzy without her maiesties commandement that in so doing they shold greatly disturbe the state of the Realme and highly offēd her most excellent maiestie these points are both of them passed ouer with a snuffe with great disdaine as being no such impediments as ought to hinder the valiant corages of Consistorian subiects I tell you true saith one of their Captaines I thinke it a greate blessing of God that hath raised vp Martin to hold tackling with the Bishops that you may haue some time of breathing or rather a time to gather courage and zeale c. to set vppon these ennemies c. For if as hitherto you haue you bee so loth for disturbing of our state forsooth and the offending of her Maiestie not onelie to speak against but euen vtterlie to reiect this Hierarchy of our Bishops euen to haue no more to doe with it then with the seate of the beast you shall declare vnto our children that God can set vp but a company of whiteliuered souldiers c. Forsooth if this exhortation be according to their Discipline it ought no longer to be tearmed Christs as they tearme it but the Diuels Discipline And yet because they would not haue her Maiestie altogether neglected an other of their Lieutennants can be content that before their souldiers mentioned shoulde beginne the skirmish there might bee first as it were for a parlee some little ouuerture of duetie signified that if as yet her Highnesse woulde bee ruled by them they would desist To this purpose hee moueth all the Puritanes as hee tearmeth them in England both Lordes Knightes Gentlemen Ministers and people to offer a supplication to her Maiestie in effect for the full obtayning of all their desires To this saith he an hundred thousand hands would be gotten c. and then thou speaking to his reader may well thinke what a stroke so many would strike together c. It should appeare that they are not few and of small reputation but in a manner the strength of our land and the sinow of her Maiesties royal gouernment which our Bishops do falsely note with the names of Puritanes The consideration whereof I tell thee euen in policie would make that this their suite should not bee hastily reiected especially in such a time as wherein we now liue in daunger of our enemies abroad and therefore had need of no causes of discouragement at home I like it well when men will deale plainelie You see indeede their hearts And is it not then euident whereat they ayme In such a time no pollicy Indeede the returne of the Spaniard was then expected No neede then of discouragement at home Why wanting your desires wold you haue taken no part if the Spaniard had come or purposed you to haue made a more readie passage for him by rebelling at home before he should haue come or would you haue ioyned with him if he had come or meant you thereby through terror to haue enforced her Maiestie to your purposes least you should haue taken some of these courses Chose which of them you list the best is seditious CHAP. IIII. Presuming vpon some vnlawful asistance they vse very violent wordes HOw true it is that they haue a hundreth thousand ready at their direction I know not but they haue surely too many if the companion of the brotherhood that sent his humble motion abroade may be herein beleeued Thousands he saith do sigh for this discipline and ten thousand haue sought it and approued and worthy men of euery shire haue consented vnto it But certaine it is such is their hope to thrust the people with the rest of
remembrd vnto you what was disclosed amongst themselues in their owne discourses and prophesies as since it appeareth cōcerning the meanes whereby they thought to haue preuailed for their discipline c. by those their most lewde seditious and trayterous attempts Her Maiesties course helde for the maintenance of the present gouernement of the Church was their chiefe grief which course they tearmed the defence of abhomination the bearing of the beasts marke the thrusting of Iesus Christ out of his own rule gouernment and the arraignement of some with the imprisonment of Cartwright others If the Starre-chamber day before mentioned had held some of her Maiesties most honourable priuy Counsaile whom they supposed to stand most in their light should neuer haue departed thence aliue After that plot fayling they deuised how by their imprecations and cursing of themselues they might perswade the people that certaine of the Lordes of the saide most honourable Counsaile were traytors Wherein how they preuailed I know not but this I find that they had not onely determined to haue remoued them all from her Maiestie to haue placed others in their roomes whom they had already named particularly but likwise to haue proceeded against their LL s. with very hard censures The Lord pardon their soules saith Copinger for in their outward man they must be punished though they repent Nay in their own conceits they had likewise already depriued some of the chiefe of their LL s from their greate places of honor so as when they tooke occasion to speake seditiously of them they vsed their bare names without any of the honourable titles belonging vnto them as such a man lately such an officer Chancellor or Treasurer c. Besides when the time of their said intended insurrection grew nigh they sent to haue her Maiestie moued for the committing of her saide Councellors least in the vprores which they meant to stir their LL s. might haue beene violently surprised c. they hauing peraduenture some purpose to bring them afterwardes to some of their own more publike courtes of iustice I do aduise saith Coppinger that euery one of her Councell be commanded to keepe their house or chamber for feare of stir danger and that such and such c. be appointed to waite vpon her and that maister Wigginton in more fauour with God then any man of his calling whosoeuer be commanded to be neare her highnesse to pray to God and to preach priuately c. But that which is especially most horrible although they might seem by this last prouision for her Maiesty to haue indeede some good regard of her safety yet is it cōfessed to haue bin affirmed amongst them that her highnes was worthy to be depriued for giuing credite and countenance to the Bishops and such other wicked persons and for misusing her good subiectes I think they ment the imprisonment of Cartwright and the rest It is also further confessed by Arthington that his fellowes refused to pray for her Maiestie and in his second examination he acknowledgeth that hee verily thinketh that Hacket meant her Maiestie should haue beene depriued and in his long Apologie vnto the LL s. thus In my conscience Hacket meant to murther those noble men that hindered his purpose one way or other c. and after c to haue done that which my heart and hand for trembling cannot expresse Agreeable hereunto are Hackets wordes both before he was condemned and after If saith he Copinger one Catiline late of Oundell Wigginton were straitly examined they could vtter and declare matters of treason And at an other time If these fellowes meaning Copinger and Wigginton c were wel sifted they could declare al the treasons And the morning before his death It was a gratious and an happie turne that these treasons were in time reuealed for otherwise it would haue cost a number of innocent men their bloud hut now I trust in God that they will reueale their treasons And thus you see the end and drift of the foresaid extraordinary callings for the setting vp and establishing of the pretended holy discipline CHAP. XII That of long time some such attemptes as Hacket made for Discipline were of greate likelyhood purposed MY purpose was not from the beginninge eyther to set downe or to prosecute the full hystorie of these desperate reformers which is most effectually performed already by another otherwise then they doe concerne some other persons and especially those not of the meanest of our Disciplinarian Ministers and are therby verie pertinent in my opinion to shew the point I haue in hand of the brethrens imitation of the Scottish ministers reformation For I trust as I said in the entrance to this part it wil not now be denied but that great many threatning speaches are published One telleth vs that great troubles will come of it if that brethren may not be suffered to do what they list another that they can no longer endure to bee vsed as they are another in effect that our Bishops shalbe vsed as they were in Scotland and that there are moe of this confederacy then can be suppressed another that it is more then time for the hottest brethren to set vp the Discipline themselues without any further staying for Parliaments a Synode that the people being first instructed are then to bee thrust into the publike practise of the Discipline another man that seeing the brethren cannot obtain their wils by sute nor dispute the multitude and people must worke the feat another that inferior Magistrates of their owne authority within their limits are to make this new reformation another that it is a shame for all the fauorers of this faction in that for feare of disturbing of our state for sooth and offending of her Maiestie they had not before this time cast out our Bishops another that there are a hundred thousand of this brotherhoode in England who if they come with a petition for the discipline to her Maiestie cannot in pollicie be reiected without danger another that approoued and worthy men of euerie shire haue already consented to this Discipline that the Eldership is at hande that the people are inflamed with zeale that it is impossible to stand against it another that there is a deuise amongst them how to obteine their desires all in one day another that Bishops are to be packing after the Fryers and Monkes another that they will haue their Discipline in spight of all the aduersaries of it another that it is dangerous to the state if they haue not their willes in regard of the discontentment which wil ensue thereby in the heartes of her Maiesties subiectes another in effect that the Discipline is like to come into our Church by such a meanes as will make all the Bishoppes heartes to ake and another that he is of this minde that reformation wil not be had without bloud Now if any
greate store of gold and siluer plate besides no small quantitie of treasure in ready coine Some amongst vs in Englande haue laboured very earnestlie to qualifie Copingers words where he said that God would throw some fearefull iudgement amongst the Lordes so as some the chiefe of them should not goe aliue out of the place as though there had beene no violent course intended by him his associates but that in his fond conceit he had imagined that God himselfe from heauen should haue shewed that iudgement for the deliuerance of Cartwright and the rest And in my conscience one gentelman of good credit not acquainted at all with the Consistorian doctrine in these such like matters thought so in his hart But here this maske is pluckt from such faces as could not be ignorant what was ment in that the same spirit which Was in Copinger speaking before in Iames Meluin or rather as I thinke in Knox and his fellow-ministers according to whose humor he penned that history doe tearme the saide cruell murther of the Cardinall to bee the worke and iudgement of God that for the manner of the executiō of it Besides in the margent of the Booke ouer against the Stabbers blasphemous wordes this note is set downe vz. the godly fact and wordes of Iames Meluin But that which mooueth me most and for the which I haue troubled you with this historie is this that men are animated to commit the like murthers and the doctrine thereof is stoutely iustified according to the heathenish conceit of a certaine tyrant whom Cicero also a heathen man but yet of better iudgement doth confute Dionisius hauing spoiled the temple of Proserpina at Locris of Iupiter in Peloponesus of Aesculapius at Epidaurus because Proserpina drowned him not as he sayled to Syracuse nor Iupiter stroke him in peeces with his thunderboltes nor Aesculapius made an ende of him by some long miserable consumption both he himselfe and many others accounted such his sacrilege to be both iust and lawfull And euen so it falleth out for the murther I speake of He that hath eyes to see let him see After the foresaid Castel was surprised and the Cardinall was murthered Lesly with his company Knox and the rest kept the same Castel by force against the Gouernor But at the last they were compelled to yeeld it vp and being thereupon sent as prisonners into Fraunce they were by directions there committed some of thē to the Gallies and some to other prisons Howbeit in the ende they all escaped with their liues by one meanes or other sauing the saide Iames Meluin who dyed in prison wherevpon commeth in this notable Consistorian doctrine borrowed of the said heathenish conclusions This we write vz. how all but Meluin escaped to let the posterities to come vnderstand saith Knox and his fellowes how potently God wrought in preseruing and deliuering of these that had but a smal knowledge of his truth for the loue of the same hazarded all That if that eyther we now in our dayes hauing greater light or our posterities that shall follow vs shal see a fearefull dispersion of such as oppone themselues to impiety or take vpon them to punish the same otherwise then lawes of men will permit if wee say we or they shall see such left of men yea as it were despised and punished of God yet let vs not damne the persons that punish vice and that for iust cause nor yet despaire but that the same God that deiects for causes vnknowen to vs will raise vp againe the persons deiected to his glorie and their comfort Againe if our said seditious persons had preuailed with the multitude in their other plot concerning their purposes of remouing some of her maiesties most honorable Priuy Councell from her seruice in that place and in appointing others to succeede them whom they fancied to be fauourers of their Discipline you should haue heard I warrant you no cries of the brotherhood nor complaints in your streets of any of that faction It would haue beene saide as Goodman taught at Geneua that seeing the saide Councellors were enemies to Christes kingdome and did seduce her Maiestie now that God had raised them vp an Othoniel or a Ionathan to assist them why should they not haue ioyned themselues vnto him Oh would some haue said the holy discipline the holy discipline the holy discipline what Prince or Potentate may resist the holy discipline and prosper Others See the hand of the Lorde when men do faile what God can doe Others the greatest workes that euer were done in the behalfe of the Church haue beene brought to passe by the basest meanes Others this is the worke of God and it is admirable in our eyes Others thus Iosuah being extraordinarily strengthned by God threw thirty kings out of the land of Canaan Others sufficient warning was giuen what would they haue had men to haue done Then should you haue had such a declaration or proclamation as you haue before heard of penned no doubt by some of the Consistorian ministers in Scotlād vz. of the iust and necessary causes mouing them and their assistantes her Maiesties faithfull subiects to repaire to her Maiesty for resisting of the present daungers appearing to Gods true religion and professors thereof c. and to seeke redres and reformation of abuses remouing from her Maiesty the chiefe authors therof c. that with common consent redresse and remedy might bee prouided Or termed The repairing towards Greenwitch to the Q. Maiesty as else where such attempts haue been colored Likewise if yet thinges had not squared to their likings and that they had gone further with good successe in any violent course against her maiesty as it is confessed they purposed to haue done then also the Geneua-diuinity must haue borne the brunt for the iustification of such extraordinary iudgementes of God And thus you should haue had these matters smoothed ouer as partly it may appeare by the assault mentioned at Sterling wherein the king was present in person and partly by the Consistorian propositions before set down touching this point with many other things both to be noted in the premises and also in those bookes out of the which the saide propositions are drawen I will not trouble you any further with Ifs although I could adde that if the said traitors had proceeded on forward with their confessed purposes to haue touched her maisties estate there wanteth no lesse defence by Disciplinarian learning for such a matter then for the premises You may remember the seditious intollerable propositions before mentioned as they are truely collected out of our own countrey mens books infected at Geneua with that pestilent doctrine Many examples also would haue beene brought for that purpose out of Buchanan Beza Knox and the rest of that humor especiallie the graue resolution giuen by Knox and Wollocke generally against all Princes but particularly then vrged and
page 446. k ibid Thinn l The Proclamation is there also set downe This appeareth by Iames Gibsons conference with the King penned by himselfe and deliuered abroad in many Copies Gibson hath penned this matter as Cōsistorianly as Catiline himselfe could haue done it The coppie of these articles was deliuered abroad by some of her Maiesties priuie Counsell Bullinger a Epistle to the king of Scots before his booke de iure regni c b De iure regni pa. 17. c Ibid. pa. 34. * Melancton e Dauison in the name of the rest in a booke of his lately published Page 2. f pag. 29. g pag. 28. h pag. 28. i pag. 12. k pag. 3. l pag. 21. m pag. 20. n pag. 29. o pag. 20. p pag. 21. Buchanan The historie of the church of Scotland Knox. Goodman Page 73. ibid. pag. 74. ibid. pag. 77. ibid. pag. 196 ibid. page 30. ibid. page 63. 43. 59. 72. ibid. page 87. 88 89. 90. ibid. page 90. ibid. page 34. page 35. Obedience page 107. Obedience 25. ibid. pag. 105. Goodman pag. 190. ibid. pag. 119. 139. Obedience pag. 111. Goodman 144. 145. Obedience 110. Obedience 99 103. Goodman pag. 99. Obedience pag. 113. ibid. pag. 114. ibid. pag. 115. Goodman pag. 185. ibid. pag. 180 ibid. pag. 184 ibid. pag. 185 Obedience pag. 115 Obedience pag. 116. ibid. 18. Goodman 199. 200. 201. Obedience pag. 110. Goodman pag. 106. Goodman pag. 111. Obedience pag 47. Goodman 12◠Goodman 119. 120. Goodman 125. 126. Goodman 138. 139. Goodman 202. 205. Page 203. Page 206. Page 207. Page 137. Pag. 218. 219. 220. 221. In his preface to Goodmans booke Knox hist. pag. 185. Knox hist. pag. 201. Ibid. pag. 185. Harmonia confess Cal. Epist. c. Bertram pa. 15 Mornay p. 37. Caluin instit lib 4. Cap. 1. sect 9. Beza in colloquio Possiaceno Conuict de statu Gall. pasto fol. 122. This appeareth by their letters sermons and by Gilbies most rayling Dialogue betwixt a lame souldier of Barwicke and an English Captaine Confes 5. 7. T. C. Second replie pa. 53. Epist. before the demonst Epist. before the sup a Practise of Prelats D. 2. b Motion pa. 46. c T. C lib. 2. in the Epist. d T. C. lib. 1. page 3. e T. C. lib. 1 pa. 6. and 48. f Motion 84. g Ibid. 84. h Register p. 68. i Epi before sup A. 2. k Martin Iunior Thes 14. l T. C. lib. 1 pag. 3. m T. C. lib. 1. pag. 220. n T. C. Table preface to the demonst o Motion to the Lordes page 22. p Ibid. pa. 49. Knox hist. pag 234. ibid. pag. 213 214 216. ibid. pag. 256. ibid. pag. 304. Sathan prince of hell to the Pope Cardinals Bishopes c. Practise of Prelates 1. Gilbies 2 lB. 3. Vdals 4. That which came from Throgmor Martins Epi. His Epitome Hay any wor. Martin Iuni. Martin Senior Martin Prote Refor no enemie a Penries Epistle before the humble motion b Gilby p. 77 c Epistle before the demonst B. 3. d 1. Adm. p. 4 e Supplica to the Parliament pag. 67 f Supplica 62 g Supplica 6◠h Preface to the demonst A. 4. i 1. Adm. pa. 2. k Epist. before the supplica l 1. Adm. p. 25. m Gilbyes dial 151. n 1 Adm. p. 33. o Suppl to the Parlia 56. P Hay any pa 5 6 8 12. q Martins Epistle 33. r Hay any pa. 13. a Martins Epistle 10 53. b Hay any page 5. c Ibid pag. 13 15 23. d Register pa. 48. e Gilbyes preface to his dialogue of the souldier of Birwicke f Martin Iunior Thes. 22 g Motion our of Scotland to the Lords pag. 41. h Gilbie 66. 68. 142. Motion p. 31. 32. 33. i Regist. p 33. Wil. Why. Tho. Rowlād Ro. Hawkins k Demonst. of Discipline pag 75. l T. C. 2 part of his 2 replic pag. 65. ibid. pag 92 m 2. Admonition pag 3 n Supl. pa 18 o Sup pa 25 q Ibid pag 7 r Ibid pag 43 1 Of the kings 22. s Sup pag 75 76. t Martin iunior Thes. 28 u ibid Th. 46 x Motion out of Scotland pag 20 y Epistle to the suppl A 3 a Epist to the Sup. A 4 b Register out of Scotland pa. 71. c Epi before the supl. d Exhort to the BB. B 1 e Penry in his Epi. from Scotl. before reformat no ennemie f Epist. from Scotl. before reformat no ennemie A. 3. g Ibid. A. 3. 4 h Ibid A 4 i Ibid A 4 k Ibid B 1 l Ibid B 1. m Ibid B 1 n Epist. from Scotl. before reformat no ennemie A. 3. o Ibid. A. 3. p ibid. A. 3 q Maitin Iunior Thes. 34. r ibid. Thes. 38. s Fenner against Bridges p 5. t Sup. pa. 59 u Sup pa 24 x Epistle before the demonst B. 4 a 1. Adm. 32 b ibid pag 2. c Gilby p 29. d ibid. pag. 90 e 2 Adm p. 6 f 1. Adm p. 17 g ibid pag. 24 h ibid. pag 16 i Martin senior C. 2. k 2 Admon pag. 42. l Gilby pag. 2 m 1 Admon pag. 21. n Gilby p 40. pag. 41. Pag. 1. pag. 5. pag. 12. pag. 14. pag. 91. pag. 96. pag 95 pag. 150 o 2. Admon pag. 59 p ibid. q 1 Adm. p. 2 r Practise of Prelates D. 8 s ibid B. 2 t Mart protest 13. u Vdal dialogue F 1 a Exhorta to BB. A. 1 b 2 Admon pag. 1. 2. c pag. 59. d Dialog that came from Throg D. 2 e Martin protest pag. 5 f Snape to his father 1590. g Wight before he was imprisoned to a frend h Lord in his papers i Fen of Lords imprisonmēt l Sup. pa. 47 Pag. 48 pag 49. pag. 53 pag 55. m Mart Epist n Dialogue that came from Throgmort D. 4 o Hay any p 15 34 c. pag. 20. pag. 21 Idid 28. p Martins Epist. 37. q Epist pag 6 pag. 33. pag. 21 pag. 4 r Vdals dialogue c. 1 s Martins protest 27. t Martins protest pag. 4. pag 8. pag. 12 pag 21 pag 21 u Vdals dialogue D 2 x Martin sen. B. 4. c. 1 a Epist to the epitom b The Dialog that came from Throg mort D. 3 c Ibid c. 4. Mart sen. C. 1 d Mart sen. e Epistle out of Scotl. before reforma no ennemie f Practise of Prelates C. 6. g Supp 37. h 1 Adm. p. 2 i Ibid pag. 4. k Mar Iu C 2 l Exhort to BB◠B. 2. m Gilby p 50 Ibid. pag 3 n Gil p. 11◠pag. 53. pag. 32 pag. 89 pag. 112 Epist. from Scotl. before reformat no ennemie A. 3. Hier. lib. 2. con Rufin The Motion pag. 40. 42 T. C. ◠reply page 38. 2. Admonition pa. 60. 61. Tho. Ed. both before the Commiss and in the Starre Chamber Pig to Field 16. of May 158◠Pig to Field ibid. Philip. 1. Gelibrand to Field 26. Ia. 1584. 2. Febru 1584. 29. Nouemb. 1584. Field to Trauers 3. Iulie 1585. Gelibrand to Field 9.