who liued among them many yeeres vpon whom the Emperour Charles the fifth bestowed the Arch-bishoppricke of Brundusium the which he refused to accept of chusing rather to leade his life among those religious men in praying fasting and contemplation than to trouble himselfe with any worldly promotion Within a short time after three other famous men in those daies ioyned with this Carrafa viz. Caietanus a Gentleman borne at Vicentia who was Protonotarius Apostolicus Bonifacius a Gentleman borne in Piemont and a noble man of Rome whose name was Paulus These foure men considering how the Roman Clergy men did then erre and go astray yea so absurdly degenerate from their ancient and primate sincerity and purity to the great detriment and scandal of the Christian Religion consulted together how they might preuent the future danger that houered ouer the Church and how they might restore the dignity of the Clergy to its ancient splendor and credit and afterwards keepe and preserue it and therefore they gaue and put all the wealth that they had to be spent in common among them as euery one of their society should haue need or occasion to vse the same with a full resolution hauing cast away all worldly cares to spend the residue of their liues in the seruice of God by fasting praying meditating singing of Psalmes and diuine Hymnes to the praise of God imagining that to be the best way to restore all things to their ancient purity and integrity and therefore they were called Presbyteri Regulares But because that this Carrafa had reiected that Arch-bishoppricke and vndertaken such a course of life to the great admiration and wonderfull amazement of all men they were called in the Italian tongue Theotini This Carrafa with his dignity and authority gaue them their first institution and did greatly increase this Society Afterwards this good man was created a Cardinall by Pope Paul the third which great dignity this great despiser of worldly wealth and refuser of Bishoppricks most willingly and gladly accepted and comming to Rome receiued the selfe same Arch-bishopprick which he had formerly refused And so this Fox refusing meane promotions because vnder colour or pretence of holinesse and austerity of Religion he aimed at greater first was created Senator of Rome and within a short time after Pope and called by the name of Paul the fourth Panauinus This egregious fellow of the Society of the Diuine Loue this contemner and despiser of the world and restorer of the splendor of the ancient order of the Clergy studied all the rest of his life no other thing but to hoord vp gold and siluer all his cares and meditations were how to extirpate and root out all peace and concord out of the world to moue wars betweene Christian Kings and Princes and to set all Christendome in a combustion To be briefe these Theatines doe differ very little in Habit from the Iesuits for their shirt bands are scarce to be seene so are the Iesuites and likewise in all the rest of their Habit they concurre one with another They are very rich for they heare Confessions as the Iesuites doe and thereby delude the people to giue them money and all things else that they want and yet they begge neuer or seldome publikely but haue all things necessary for prouision brought vnto their Couents Neuerthelesse this Order or Sect is as yet very obscure and not knowne in no other Country than in Italy for ought that euer I saw or heard of and therefore I will speake so much the lesse of them Of the Friers that are called the Fathers of the Congregation of the Oratory THese irregular Priests that call themselues Fathers of the congregation of the Oratory sprang vp of late yeeres and liued likewise very obscure vntill about some six or seuen yeeres agoe that they beganne to flourish in France In their Habit they differ but a little from the Iesuits and Theatins and in some townes where the Iesuits haue no College these Oratorians doe teach young children Their congregation doth for the most part consist of rich Rectors or Pastors of parish Churches vnlesse it be those that are the Lay-brethren yea I haue knowne some Bishops of this Congregation But most of their Priests haue Benefices They haue a maruellous great house in Paris not farre from the Kings Palace which did heretofore belong vnto one of the Peeres of France whither the King Queene and many Princes and Lords doe often repaire to heare Masse and Sermons in so much that they are very rich and in great reputation thorowout all France And therefore the Iesuites doe haâ—e them the more and not without a cause for since that they beganne to be so gracious with the King Prince and commons the Iesuits beganne to lose a great part of their former credit and reputation To conclude they are as superstitious and as idolatrous as any other Friers whatsoeuer yea they maintaine the selfe same position for murdering of Kings and Princes as the Iesuits doe and therefore no lesse dangerous than they are But howsoeuer vnder colour of humility sincerity and sanctity of life they deceiue the world cram their purses and enrich themselues There are both English Scots and Irish of this Order Of the Barnabists THese Barnabists or rather Barrabists are a company of poore Priests that wanting meanes gathered themselues together and called themselues Fathers of the congregation of Saint Barnabie they are as yet very obscure but in time I make no question but they will be as famous as the Iesuits or Oratorians But I wonder why they call not themselues Paulists of Saint Paul as well as Barnabists of Saint Barnabas seeing Paul was the great Saint in my opinion But the truth is all popish Priests loue not Saint Paul because his Doctrine is quite repugnant to theirs otherwise they had erected an Order of Friers vnder his name and patronage long agoe Their Habit differs little or nothing from the Oratorians Theatines and Iesuits and they keepe Schooles in some Townes as well as the Iesuits The vulgar people beginne already to dote vpon them for as I told you before euery new Sect of Friers or Nuns is at the first in great request Ouid lib. 3. de Ponto Est quoque cunctarum nouitas gratissima rerum This Sect is not yet often yeeres standing neither is their Order as yet confirmed Of the Fullians Friers THese Friers are called by the name of Friers of our blessed Lady of the Fullians They weare a course Habit of white cloth This Congregation beganne about that time that King Henry the third of France was murdered by Iacques Clement a Dominican Frier which was about the yeere 1587. they are of the Order of the Cistercensis whereof I formerly spake They liued very obscure vntill such time that King Henry the fourth of France was likewise murdered by Francis Rauillac in the yeere 1610. since which time they built them sumptuous Monasteries and
our Monks call themselues Monachus that is to say a solitary man but by little and little afterwards they began to gather themselues together as hereafter shall be shewed So that in those daies the Monks by their Prayers Fasting Watching Reading and studying of the holy Scriptures liuing hardly and far from the company or society of men working with their owne hands and getting their liuing with the sweat of their browes gaue a singular good example to all men to liue verruous and godly and afterwards those that were first gathered together into one Congregation for a long time following the foot-steps of their Predecessors instructed their Families and others that resorted vnto them to leade a godly and a Christian life and were admired and honoured of all good men for their doctrine integrity of life and godly zeale for as yet the Christians Common-wealth had but one Law and one Religion which now to the great griefe and sorrow of all good men is rent and diuided into so many Sects and Factions Superstitions and Ceremonies that it is a lamentable sight to see or thinke vpon the present misery and calamity of the Church There are some of our Moderne Monks and Friers which affirme that Elias and Iohn Baptist were the first that led a solitary life in the Wildernesse and were the Authors or Patrons of their Orders and therefore would perswade the world that they doe imitate them yea deriue their Rules and Orders from them of whom I shall haue occasion hereafter to speake in another place but as the one was greater than a Prophet so was the other more yea farre better than euer any Monk or Frier was as our Sauiour himselfe testifieth of Iohn saying That among the sonnes of men there was neuer any one greater than Iohn Baptist Neuerthelesse the Monks of the order of Saint Anthony hold it no lesse than Blasphemy to say that any order of Monks or Friers is more ancient than theirs and yet those of Saint Benets Order doe deny it flatly and in all Processions or solemne meetings doe take the vpper hand and place of them and of all other disordered Orders or rable of Monks or Friers whatsoeuer Others there be that think this kinde of Monasticall life to haue beene first instituted by a sort of religious men in Palestina called Essaei or Esseni a Sect in those daies very famous in great reputation among the Iewes as Philo the learned Iew cited by Eusebius testifieth saying Euseb li. 8. de Euang. Praepa Palaestinam maxima gens Iudeorum inter quos qui dicuntur Essaei c. The chiefest people of the Iewes doe inhabite Palestina among whom those that are called Essaei be as I thinke more in number than foure thousand they are called Essaei quasi Sancti that is to say Saints because they are the chiefest worshippers of God not in sacrificing of beasts but by offering vp their bodies and soules as an acceptable sacrifice vnto God There is neither boy or youth among them because of the instability of their age but all old men They dwell not in Towns or Cities imagining that as the contagion of the aire is hurtfull to the body so the conuersation of the people to be dangerous to the soule Some of them do till and manure the ground others doe exercise some peaceable and quiet trade to his owne profit and his neighbours good neither doe they lay vp in store any gold or siluer or possesse any great Farmes or Liuings but onely so much as is sufficient to maintaine them They of all other men doe contemne and despise Lands and Money holding themselues to bee richest in vertue and iudging a meane calling without any great want the greatest wealth in the world None of them doth make any kinde of weapon either Swords Helmets Bucklers or any other warlike Instrument Neither doe they exercise any Art or Trade that is noisome or hurtfull to any man they neuer trade or trafficke in Merchandise or keepe any Inne or Victualing house they know not what Nauigation meaneth they vse no manner of rapine or deceit They haue no seruants among them but all are equall and free men the one seruing and assisting the other The seuenth day they repaire to a holy place which they call a Synagogue the younger sort sit beneath the elder there they reade the Scripture diligently and expound it truly and sincerely They learne to liue godlily holily and iustly and haue a threefold rule or order the first to loue God aboue all things zealously the second to seeke after vertue diligently and the third to loue their neighbours feruently And that they loue God aboue all things we may alleage many Arguments as perpetuall chastity their hatred towards swearing and lying and especially that they confidently beleeue God to be the only Author and efficient cause of all good things and not of any euill thing And that they study Vertue may appeare because they neglect money despise honour and hate all voluptuousnesse And lastly their beneuolence society and equality are apparant testimonies of their brotherly loue and Charity for none hath a house that is not common to all the rest and their money and expences are common Moreouer their Apparell Meat and Drinke yea all that they haue is in common Hither are the words of Phylo cited by Eusebius Now let our Monks who liue like Kings who swim in all manner of delights and pleasures who affect nothing more than promotion and honour and whose chiefest care and study is to gather wealth and hoord vp Gold Siluer Pearles and precious Stones bee ashamed that their righteousnesse doth not now exceed those Essaeians or Essenians but doth rather come farre short of theirs But yet most of the learned yea they of the Church of Rome are of opinion that this Saint Anthony was the first that instituted this Monasticall life which was in Thebaica a region in Aegypt where he built a Monasterie and there together with Sarmatas Amatas and Macharius his Disciples liued many yeeres spending the residue of their time in fasting and praying their food being but Bread Herbs and Roots and their drinke Water He died in the Wildernesse in the yeere of our Lord God CCCLXI. being 105. yeeres old Whereby it seemes that this kinde of Monasticall or priuate life was very ancient and such as the time and estate of the Church required then but that which after in place thereof sprang vp among vs was of later time and being at the first farre vnlike the other the longer it stood did notwithstanding still degenerate more and more till at length it grew intolerable Of the Benedictin Monks AFterwards about the yeere of our Lord 567. being two hundred and six yeeres after the death of Saint Anthony one Benedictus Nursinus whom the English Papists vulgarly call Saint Benet a man borne in Vmbria a Region in Italy hauing led some certaine yeeres a solitary life in those desart places
at length retired to Sublâ—cum a towne distant forty miles from Rome whither many people by reason of the great fame of his integrity and holinesse of life resorted vnto him but within a while he departed thence and repaired to Cassinum an ancient City in that Region where he built a Monasterie and in a very short time gathered together all such Monks as then wandred here and there in the Woods and Desarts of Italy and gaue them certaine rules and statutes to obserue and keepe And withall bound them to three seuerall Vowes the which were neuer heard of before that S. Basil had ordained them in the East Country to his Monks which was about the yeere 383. for Basil was the first that gaue Rules or Orders vnto Monks Among other Lawes and Statutes hee ordained that after that a Monk had remained the space of one whole yeere in his Abbey if so be that he was willing to continue there still hee should make three seuerall solemne Vowes first to liue chastly but with this Prouiso Si non castè tamen cautè that is to say if he could not liue chastly he should goe about his bunesse warily Secondarily to possesse nothing And thirdly to obey his Superiours in what thing soeuer they should command him Which decree of Benet or rather of Basil but receiued and allowed of by Benet was ratified by the Church of Rome for an Euangelicall Law or Decree Againe Benet gaue his Monklings a new kinde of foolish habit appointing them also a certaine forme of praying allowing them but meane Commons and withall a new manner of Abstinence that was likewise neuer heard of before But now the world is altered with them for whosoeuer will suruay or view them well shall see that they liue like Princes and farre more like Epicures than Religious men as all those that are or haue beene acquainted with them can testifie This Congregation of Saint Benet grew by little and little to be so great that it is almost incredible Yet in the end there hapned such a Schisme among them that it was and still is diuided into many families as Cluniacenses Camalduenses Vallisumbrenses Montoliuetenses Grandimontenses Cistercienses Syluestrenses Coelestini and diuers others who are now adaies either vnited with other Orders or else quite extirpated and abolished All these seuerall Sects of Monks who apply their minds to nothing else but to sloth idlenesse gluttony idolatry whordome fornication and the like impietie vnlesse it be to inuent and bring in daily more new Sects of Monks and Friers are reported to haue proceeded from the first Family of Saint Benet Those that were first instituted by this Saint as they themselues confesse are those that now adaies weare a blacke loose Coat of stuffe reaching downe to their heeles with a Cowle or hood to couer their bald Pates which hangs downe to their shoulders and their Scapular shorter than any other of these Monks and vnder that Coat another white Habit as large as the former made of Stuffe or white Flannen They shaue the haires of their heads except one little round circle which they leaue round about their heads which they call Corona their Crowne forsooth because they would bee honoured as Kings and Princes By the rule that their Patron gaue them they are bound to abstaine perpetually from flesh vnlesse when they are sicke And therfore these immodest moderne Monks who doe eat Flesh daily except the time of Lent and other fish daies must of necessity be alwaies sicke vnlesse they will impudently confesse as indeed they cannot deny but that they obserue not the Lawes and Statutes of their Patron Saint Benet and therein haue infringed and falsified one of their vnlawfull Vowes Where you may obserue that this Monasticall Institution being but humane and not grounded or warranted by the Word of God did not continue long inuiolated the nature of men being inclined yea in the best things to wax daily rather worse than better And therefore the Benedictin Monks haue contaminated their former Piety and Deuotions with the Mammon of this world as Promotions Sloth Gluttony and all manner of Luxury which was the cause that this one Family was so rent and diuided into so many Sects and Schismes as daily experience teacheth vs. How religiously they haue liued heretofore and still liue those that are conuersant in their owne Histories and haue trauelled in forraigne Countries can best tell to their perpetuall shame although our new vpstart English Benedictin Monks would haue the world beleeue that their Order first planted the Christian Religion in this Land and that the Monks of their Order were euer godly and religious men and therefore not to be ranked with the Iesuites who are great Statesmen for they good Monks meddle not with matters of State or with Kings affaires but for all their counterfeit holinesse let me tell them in their eares that an English Benedictin of Swinsteed Abbey poisoned King Iohn for the which fact he was and still is highly honoured by all Papists in generall And one saith of him thus Iohannes Maior de gestis Scotorum lib. 4. c. 3. Cluniacenses Regem perimere meritorium ratus est he thought it a meritorious deed to kill the King The Monks that are called Cluniacenses being formerly of the Congregation of Benet were first instituted in Burgundie by one Otho an Abbot of that Congregation vnto whom William surnamed the Godly Duke of Aquitaine gaue a certaine Village called Mastick and other lands towards their maintenance which was about the yeare of our Lord DCCCCXVI Camalduenses Not long after the Camalduenses Monks started vp the Author of it was one Romoaldus who had beene formerly a Monk of Benets Order in a Cloister neare Rauenna in Italy from whence he made an escape to the Prouince of Hetruria which is now the Duke of Florence his Dominion where hauing obtained a coÌ„uenient place of one Modulus he built a Monastery on the top of the Appenine hills and there erected another new Family These Monks weare a white habite and professe to lead a very austere kinde of life but to say the truth all is but meere hypocrisie Vallis-vmbresenses In the other side of those former hilles at a place called Vallis-Vmbrosa in the yeare of our Lord 1060. one Iohn Gualbertus a Florentine instituted another new Family of Monks who did weare a purple habite Monteliuetenses The Monteliuetenses began to peepe out about the yeare 1047. at the same time when there were three seuerall Popes liuing who troubled all Christendome for the Papacie The Institutor of this Family of Monks was one Bernardus Ptolomeus they liued at the first at Sienna a Citie in Tuscan in Italy but afterwards hauing gathered their crummes together they built an Abbey on the top of an high hill not farre from thence they weare a white habite this Family was approued by Pope Gregory the twelfth Grandimontenses The Author or
started vp in England that the Common-wealth was so oppressed and exhausted by them that it was not able to releeue them or to say the truth to satisfie their exorbitant and greedy desires Idem ibidem The Robertin Friers WE reade that one Robert who had for a certaine time beene an Heremite forsooke that kind of life and erected an Order of Monks at Guaresburg or Waresburg in Yorke-shire about the yeare of our Lord 1137. Capgrauus Balaeus Centur. 2. cap. 63. de Script Brit. in Apendice The Heremits of Saint Paul THis Order of Heremits began in Hungary vnder the Rule of S. Austen about the yeare 1215. their first Institutor was as they say one Eusebius Strigonensis Panuinus in Chronich It was confirmed in the yeare 1308. by Cardinall Gentilis Legate to Pope Clement the fifth Idem ibidem The Canon Regulars of Saint Marke began at Mantua in Italy 1230. Of Ieromite Monks IEROME the sonne of Eusebius borne in the Towne of Stidonium in the Prouince of Dalmatia after such time that he had spent many yeares at Rome in study repaired to the Prouince of Iudea and there built him a Cottage neare Bethlem where hee liued many yeares in fasting praying and writing whose diuine workes are still extant Whereupon many other men afterwards by imitation indeuouring to lead that kinde of solitary life called themselues Hieronymiani or Ieronymiti but alas they were farre contrary to him ether in life discipline or doctrine From Saint Ierome or to say the truth from these Hieronymiani the Ieromite Monks doe borrow or vsurpe their first origine or beginning and doe pretend though most falsly that this great Doctor was the only man that first erected their Order and gaue them their Rule They weare a kinde of a sandy coloured habite downe to their heeles and a cloke of the same colour likewise to the ground some of them weare shooes and stockins and others that are more hypocriticall weare sandales They haue great Abbeyes and large possessions and abound in wealth wheresoeuer they liue And their chiefest dwelling is in Italy and Spaine for in other Countries they haue but a few or no Monasteries at all The truth is one Carolus Granellus a Florentine was the first Author of this Sect who liued many yeares after Saint Ierome and he was the first that built an Abbey for them in the hilles of Fessulana in Italy howbeit there are others that attribute this Institution to Redo Earle of Montegranello and that they obserued at the first the Rule or Order of Saint Austen of Fesula and that Pope Gregory the twelfth ratified and confirmed their Order There are others of them that brag that Saint Ierome instituted this Order when he liued in the wildernesse of Iudea and that Eusebius Cremonensis did increase and augment this family To conclude they themselues cannot tell who was their Institutor They are now diuided into two Sects that is to say Hieronymiani Eremitae and Hieronymiani Simpliciter England God be praised is not troubled with these Ieromite Monks and therefore I will proceed to suruey the rest of these disordered Orders making as much speed as I can to come to speake of the Mendicant or begging Friers with whom I am afraid I shall be more troubled than with these rich Monks and Friers Of the Canon Regulars of the Order of Saint Augustine THere are diuers opinions among the Papists concerning the first originall or beginning of these Canon Regulars and the Mendicant or begging Augustine Friers and therefore the question is not as yet decided for there are very many learned men which hold that Saint Augustine was neuer the Author or Founder of either of these two Sects or of any other Order of Friers Neuerthelesse these Canon Regulars doe not only affirme that Saint Augustine when he was Bishop of Hippo in Africa did reduce all the Canons of that Church to this order and discipline that they now professe to obserue But also some of them doe very impudently bragge that their Order was instituted by the Apostles before Saint Augustines time and that this holy man did but renew it and did neuer institute any other Religious Order besides theirs The Mendican Augustine Friers doe stoutly deny it and say that their Order and none other was instituted by this great Doctor as hereafter shall be declared These Canon Regulars doe weare long white cloth coats open before downe to their heeles vnderneath they weare doublets breeches shirts and white stockins shooes or slippers Ouer this coat which is bound with a girdle they doe weare a short surplice to their knees and ouer that a little short blacke cloake to their elbowes like a womans riding cloake with a little cowle or hood fastened to it and a blacke corner-cap or a broad hat when they walke or goe abroad and their crownes shauen like other Friers They haue great Monasteries like Princes Courts and great lands and reuenues and are very rich And haue many Cloisters in Italy Germany and Netherland but in France Spaine and other Catholike Countries they haue not so many Moreouer they are diuided into many Families as Canonici Saluatoris and Scopetini whose Authors were Iacobus and Stephanus Senenses This Order did Pope Gregory the eleuenth approue and confirme about the yeare 1408. Some report that one Franciscus Bononiensis was the first Institutor of this Sect in the time of Pope Vrban the fifth in the yeare 1366. and the other two did but renue it being almost abolished There is another Family of these Friers called Frisonaria neere the City of Luca in Italy which was erected and augmented by Pope Eugenius the fourth who gaue them many Priuileges Indulgences and Pardons they are called of some Lateranenses And withall there is another Family at Venice and another at or neere Cambray in the Low-Countries instituted by one Laurentius Instinianus Patriarch of Venice in the yeere 1407. and confirmed by Pope Iohn the two and twentieth these weare a purple Habit and a blacke Cloke ouer it These Canon Regulars had heretofore many Cloisters here in England whereof one was in that place which is now called Saint Mary Spittle But I neuer knew or heard of more than two English men of this Order that are now liuing and I thinke they are too many by two but howsoeuer there is neither of them guilty of much learning To conclude there were and still are diuers other Friers and Nuns that did and doe professe to liue vnder the Rule as they say of Saint Augustine as the 1. Dominicani 2 Serui Beata Maria Virginis 3 Brigidiani 4 Iesuati 5 Canonici Regularis Sancti Georgij 6. Montoliuenteses 7 Hieronymiani Eremitae 8 Hieronymiani Simpliciter 9 Cruciferi 10 Scopetini 11 Antoniani seu Hospitalarij Sancti Antoni 12 Trinitarij 13 Seruitae 14. Feruerij 15 Fratres B. Ioannis Hierosolymitani 16 Crucifericum stella 17 Fratres Sancti Petri Confessoris de Magella 18
Sepulchritae seu fratres Dominici Sepulchri 19 Fratres Vallischolariorum whereof some are as yet extant and some Orders quite dissolued and abolished 20 Victoriani 21 Gilbertini 22 Eremitae S. Pauli quos alij Augustinensibus annumerant 23 Fratres de Poenitentia 24 Coronati 25 Hospitalarij 26 Milites diut Iacobi de Spata And many more who doe differ both in Habit and Exercises as also in Rules and Precepts of life as Alfonsus Aluaris de Gueuarra one of their Writers witnesseth Of the Monks called Praemonstratenses THese Monks descended downe from Heauen as they themselues brag in the Bishoprick of Laudan at a place which they call Praemonstratum The Author of this Order was one Northbertus a Priest borne in Lorrain who patched vp an Order or Rule for his new begotten Monks out of Saint Augustines Rule which was afterwards approued and confirmed by Pope Calistus the second Bruschius Polydor. They weare a long white cloth Coat open before and a linnen Surplice ouer and ouer that a long white cloth Cloke a corner Cap or a Hat when they goe abroad of the same colour and vnderneath all Doublets Breeches linnen Shirts Shooes and white Stockins These Monks haue lands and reuenues to maintaine themselues and are rich wheresoeuer they liue This Sect began about the yeere 1170. and had Abbies likewise in England but at this instant I am perswaded there is not one English man of that Sect. Of the Cruciferi or Crucigeri or the Cruched Friers THis Order of Friers is more ancient than all the former Orders if ye will beleeue them For they say that Clitus Saint Peters Disciple and the third Bishop of Rome after him was warned by an Angell to build for them a house to entertaine all those that fled thither for the Christian Religion sake which he with all speed performed so that in a short time many godly men repaired thither and were entertained who for many yeeres afterwards bare a Crosse in their hands in memoriall of the death and passion of our Sauiour A thing vnlike to be true that Clytus should bee warned by an Angell to build a house for a company of lazie Friers to entertaine all those that fled to Rome for the Christian Religion sake whereas the very name of Monks or Friers was not then or many hundred yeeres after either knowne or heard of in the Church of God And withall the persecution was then so great in Rome that the Saints themselues were constrained to forsake the City and therefore it is not credible that other Christians should repaire thither for reliefe and succour in their distresse and persecution There are others of opinion that one Cyriacus Patriarch of Ierusalem and he whom they report to haue shewed S. Helen Constantine the Great 's Mother where the Crosse was whereon our blessed Sauiour was crucified was the first that instituted this order in memoriall of the inuention of the Crosse and that hee gaue order that these Monks should euer afterwards carry a Crosse in their hands And that this Cyriacus was afterwards martyred by Iulian the Apostata and therefore their Order became almost extinguished But Pope Innocentius the third about the yeere 1215. did reuiue it againe and euer since it hath flourished And Pope Pius the second commanded them to weare a skie colour Habit. But now this Order of Friers weare a Crosse of red cloth or Scarlet fixed to their Habit on their brest and weare blacke Matth. Westmonast Balaeus These Friers doe likewise liue by their Lands and Reuenues They had a Monastery heretofore at Tower-hill where you may see the ruines of it and that place is called by their names to this day Their first comming into England was in the yeere 1244. and their first Cloister was at Colchester Of the Trinitarian Friers Sabellicus Enne 9. l. 4. Polydor. l. 7. c. 4. IN the time of the same Pope Innocentius the third the Friers who are called Trinitarians began to shew themselues to the world One Iohannes Matta and one Felix Anchorita who liued a solitary life in France were warned in their sleepe as they report to repaire to Rome to the Pope to seeke for a place of him to build them a Cloister Is not this fine Iugling And this good Pope forsooth in the meane time was warned in a vision to entertaine them which he did and ordained that they should weare a white Habit with a red and a skie colour Crosse wrought on their brests in the same Their charge was to goe and gather Money to redeeme Christians that were Captiues vnder the tyranny of the Turks and Infidels and therefore they were called Monachi de redemptione captiuorum that is Monks of the redemption of Captiues But these good men so good forsooth were they they aimed at another kinde of redemption for they haue and still doe purchase Lands with the Money that they haue gathered and as for the poore Christian Captiues if they doe suffer for Christs sake they shall haue reward but let them expect no redemption from them These holy Friers scorne to haue any Saint for their Patron for they say that the blessed Trinity gaue them their Rule and Order as is to bee seene by these Verses which they write or paint in great capitall Letters in all their Couents Hic est ordo ordinatus Non à Sanctis fabricatus Sed à solo summo Deo That is Our Order was instituted By th' Eternall Lord of Host And not by Saints or mortall men As other Friers boast The first comming of these Friers into England was in the yeere of our Lord 1357. Of the Friers of the Order of our blessed Lady which they call in Spaine Los frayles de nuestra Señora de Merced ABout the yeere 1285. Martin the fourth being Pope one Philippus Tuscius a Florentine borne and a Professor of Physicke did erect this Order of Friers Pope Benedict the eleuenth and many other Popes after him did approue it and gaue them many Pardons Indulgences and Priuileges They haue many Couents in Italy and Spaine and are very rich but in France or any other Countries I thinke they haue few or none at all They weare a white Habit and are maruellously well deuoted to the blessed Virgin and haue many reuelations from her as they themselues report but all is but meere hypocrisie Sabellious saith That this Order increased so fast that within some few yeeres after their first institution they had in Italy 48. Cloisters wherein were more than 1500. Monks and Nuns Of the Order of Saint Briget SAint Briget a noble Princesse of Swethland being a widow did institute an Order of Friers and Nuns and comming her selfe to Rome obtained of Pope Vrban the fifth a confirmation of the same Order or institution that is that both Sex should liue together in one Cloister hauing a wall betweene them and that the Nuns should lie in the vppermost chambers and the Friers
another Quire below the other by themselues Of all other Orders of Monks and Friers these doe lead the solitariest life and are lesse troublesome or burthenous to that Common-wealth where they liue And withall I finde but few or none of them to haue beene Canonized Saints by the Popes for they are none of these Miracle-mongers I meane these Carthusian Friers do neuer as they themselues confesse neither aliue or dead worke any miracles And the reason is as they say because heretofore about the yeare of our Lord 1175. A lowd lye a certaine Monk of this Order being dead wrought many miracles at his tombe or sepulcher and therefore many people resorted thither The Prior perceiuing that the concourse of the multitude did much trouble and disturbe the Monks quietnesse and deuotion or rather that much wickednesse was daily committed as well by those people as also by the Monks and withall of the concourse of many beggers that resorted thither to preuent this mischiefe hee came to the place where the dead Monk lay and commanded him vpon paine of disobedience to obey him now being dead as he had formerly done in his life-time Bonifacius Ferrarius Antoninus Tit. 15. cap. 22. And withall afterwards not to worke any more miracles the which the dead Monk straight way obeyed And neuer since the Carthusian Friers wrought not any miracles either liuing or dead They haue a Chapter generall yearely in the moneth of May at Carthusia where the first institution of their Order was and where their first Cloister was built which is by report a famous thing To this Chapter doe two Monks out of euery Cloister that is of their Order in all the world repaire where they doe consult about the affaires and propagation of their Order and Family and after that they haue continued there some fortnight as I haue heard they returne home euery man to his owne Cloister There is a Couent of English Friers of this Order at Mechlin neare Bruxels they are very rich and were in great hope when his Maiestie was in Spaine to haue recouered their Cloisters and Reuenues in England But now of late I heare say the more is the pitie that they as well as others of our English Monks Friers and Iesuites yea the holy Nuns are fallen into a consumption or rather desperation if it be true I would aduise them to send for Don Diego Sarmientes Conde de Gondomar to administer physicke vnto them for he is if I am not much deceiued the best Doctor to touch their pulse and to purge their ill humors as for their purses he hath done it alreadie and to say the truth he is the man that is best acquainted with their diseases All these former Orders or Sects of Monks and Friers doe abound in riches and doe more resemble Princes than Religious men Their Monasteries are most sumptuously built and situated in the fattest ground and the most plentifull fields of the Countrey neare some pleasant Riuer Haue they not all the pleasures that the Country can afford Doe they not feed on the choisest meat and drink yea carouse of the purest wine in bowles and goblets of gold and siluer that can be got for money Haue they not their Orchards stored with the delicatest fruits that can be had Oh how are their Gardens contriued with pleasant walkes and furnished with infinite varietie of sweet and medicinable herbes and roots and with most curious and costly fountaines springs statues groues and thickets Doe they not rest vpon beds of downe and pure sweet linnen How are their Celles hanged with cloth of Arras and other curious and costly tapistrie Haue they not their white Island-dogges munkies parots and other prating birds to sport and recreate themselues withall With what statelinesse doe they ride abroad in their Caroches or vpon their great horses or mules in their foot-cloathes What reuerence doe they exact or at least-wise expect from all sorts of people Haue they not their Monasteries Orchards Gardens walkes groues fountaines and fish-ponds compassed about with a high thicke stone or bricke wall to the end that none may discouer their secret knaueries or participate of their pleasant walkes Are not their gates alwaies locked that none can come in except it be their speciall friends Haue they not whole Manors Farmes Granges Vineyards Dayries and great flockes of sheepe herds of cattell hogs and goats yea all kinde of poultries corne pastures and other prouision of their owne farre more than will serue their turne How costly are their Chalices Corporas Copes Vestiments and other Church-furniture In what pompe doth an Abbot sing Masse and his Monks assist and serue him To conclude wheresoeuer there is any Abbey or Priorie there doe Whores and Bawds dwell and resort by whole hundreds And that this is true all honest Trauellers that know Italy Spaine France Germany Netherland and other Catholike Countries can beare me record And is this iudge you to forsake the world to mortifie the flesh and to spend the time in holy meditations and prayers Or is it not to carry the world and all the pompe pleasures and concupiscences thereof with them into their Cloisters and Monasteries As their holy Father the Pope would haue Orbem in Vrbe Rome to containe all the World Hauing treated though briefly of the rich Monks and Friers it remains now for me to speake of the Mendicant or begging Friers and lastly of the Iesuites whom in regard they are such eminent men in the Church of Rome withall good souldiers and singular good miners well experienced in powder plots and fire-workes I will place in the reareward of this Regiment of Monks and Friers and in the latter end of this Discourse I will therefore according to their antiquitie begin with the Augustine Mendicant Friers because they challenge the first ranke or place among the Begging Friers wherein I shall not as I hope doe the other Friers any wrong seeing that they haue the first place of all these kinde of Friers in all Processions Burialls and other Assemblies whatsoeuer Of the Augustin Mendicant Friers THese Mendicant Friers doe challenge to be the first Order of Religious men that S. Augustine did erect or institute which was say they when he liued in the wildernesse and therefore are called Augustiniani Eremitani or Heremite Augustine Friers The Canon Regulars doe vtterly deny it in so much that the most part of their owne learned men do suspect that neither the one or other was euer instituted by that learned man S. Augustine as I told you before as appeares by these ensuing verses which were written many yeares agoe Mendici fratres induti vestibus atris Augustinus ego nomen habere nego These begging Friers that in blacke are clad Nor name nor habite from Saint Austen had Balaeus Cent. 7. cap. 89. in Appendice c. They came into England from Italy about the yeare 1252. At which time there began such a
grieuous plague at London and ouer all England that the like was neuer knowne before But now to the matter It is most certaine that these Canon Regulars and the Mendicant Augustine Friers were both of some other mens institution For many men in those daies vnder a counterfeit shew of piety did a long time after the daies of S. Augustine liue for some certaine time in wildernesses and solitary places and in the end gathered themselues together into one Family vnder the name of this holy man and called themselues Augustiniani Eremitani because they professed forsooth to imitate him in their Discipline and rule of life though indeed they were and still are meere Hypocrites and quite contrary to S. Augustine in sanctity of life learning and Religion And by this meanes these shauelings became to be the first Order of the rout of Begging Friers whereof they are not a little proud But truly I see no reason why these men should liue thus by the sweat of other mens browes for it is well knowne that S. Augustine whom they brag though vntruly to be their Patron and first Institutor did not liue idly by begging as they doe but was a very painfull man and a great Doctor or Teacher in Gods Church as his Workes doe testifie And withall it is most apparant that our Sauiour Iesus Christ did neuer beg neither did his Apostles or Disciples liue lazily and idly by othermens labours as Saint Paul testifieth of himselfe saying 1 Cor. 4.12 Et laboranimus operantes proprijs manibus We laboured working with our owne hands And S. Chrysostome saith that the Monks of Aegypt got their liuing with their owne hands as the Greeke Monks doe for the most part at this instant yea S. Francis whose Family or to say more plainly whose Sects are spread ouer the face of the earth would haue his Friers get their liuing by their handie worke as appeares by his last Will and Testament But alas now adayes it is no lesse than blasphemie to say that Monks and Friers must worke nay they hold them no better than Heretickes that would haue such holy men to follow the institution of the Apostle that is 2 Thess 3.10 That hee that would not worke should not eat These Mendicant Augustine Friers doe weare a long white coat of cloth downe to their heeles all loose with a cowle or hood of the same when they are in their Cloisters but when they goe abroad they weare another blacke coat ouer the other with another cowle both their coats are then bound close to their bodies with a broad leather girdle or belt which girdle is a very holy thing if you will beleeue them for they call it S. Augustines girdle and many lay people do weare it for pure deuotion sake because forsooth it hath some singular great vertue I haue seene many great Princes weare it namely Q. Margaret of France and others whom for breuitie sake I forbeare to name This leather Belt is giuen to none but vnto those that are their speciall good Benefactors and such as pay dearely for it which brings them in no small benefit Neuerthelesse these holy Fathers haue beene a long time not so well thought of because Doctor Martin Luther who was sometimes a Frier of this Order did reuolt from the Sea of Rome but yet of late they begin to flourish againe and are exceeding rich especially in Italy and Spaine The Augustine Friers in London which was built for them by Humfrey Bohum Earle of Hereford and Essex and many other Cloisters in England did heretofore belong to this Order of Friers and therefore some Englishmen of late tooke this holy habite whereof Father Thomas Witherhead alias Tomson alias Tom Poet alias Tom Tobacco a great Father and yet but a Homunculus a man a little bigger than a Dwarfe was the first A man of an extraordinary great knowledge in choosing of good Tobacco and no meane Actor as the Children of the Reuells could once tell and withall a peece of an English Poet for Latine he had neuer any This good father receiued this habite of the Prior of the Augustin Friers at Louain in Brabant and afterwards was made Priest and then sent into England to conuert as I thinke Ballad-makers Players Tobacconists and Tinckers His fatherhood being at Louain in his Nouiciatship or in the yeare of his Approbation wrote a letter secretly vnto a speciall friend of his that then liued at Bruxells requesting him of all Loue to send him an ounce or two of Tobacco and a few pipes The Gentleman willing to pleasure him tooke his iourney from Bruxells to Louain which was about twelue English miles and brought the Tobacco and pipes with him and vpon his arriuall to Louain repaired to the Augustine Friers Cloister to speake with Frier Thomas but alas it would not be granted because that he was a Nouice and for feare that the partie being an English-man was not a Catholike yet in the end Frier Thomas perceiuing that it was his friend commended him so highly to the Prior and the Master of the Nouices for a good Catholike Gentleman and with much adoe obtained leaue to speake with him The Gentleman being permitted to come into the Cloister saluted the Prior and the rest of the Friers with such complements that the Prior gaue Frier Thomas leaue not only to conuerse with him priuately but also to shew him the Cloister Garden the Church and the Reliques The Gentleman giuing the Prior many thanks walked together with Frier Thomas into the Church where Frier Thomas and another Frier that was the Sacristan or he that had the charge of the holy things shewed him among many other Reliques one that was the holiest of all which was a little bit of rotten flesh as big as a shilling inclosed in a siluer box couered ouer with a cristall-glasse which holy Relique as they said had wrought many miracles and had beene for many yeares in great honour in that Citie The Gentleman being very desirous to know the whole history of this holy morsell for his better edification requested them to certifie him of the truth The Dutch Frier told him that there was heretofore a young man dwelling in Midleburgh in Zealand who hauing bin at Cōfession on Easter-day in the morning with an Augustine Frier went home and did eat one morsell of Bacon and drunke too much and afterwards came to the Church to receiue the blessed Sacrament which was no sooner put into his mouth but the fellow did vomit it vp againe transubstantiated into flesh which the holy Frier perceiuing demanded of him what hee had done who confessed his great offence in drinking and eating before the receiuing of the Sacrament and asked God and our Lady forgiuenesse and afterwards became a Frier of that Order This Sacrament which was so miraculously transubstantiated into the visible body of Christ was put into the Reliquary And afterwards when these religious Friers were thence expulsed
by the Heretikes this holy Relique was miraculously preserued and conueighed to this Cloister at Louain where it hath beene euer since worshipped with no lesse adoration than the Sacrament of the Eucharist O admirable hoggish Relique a peece of Bacon worshipped for the Body of Christ Nay they haue not beene ashamed to print a little Treatise of the miracles it hath wrought From thence Frier Thomas brought this Gentleman to a Chamber in that Cloister where they did vse to entertaine strangers and puts a Fagot on the fire for it was in the winter time and then began to taste of the Tobacco but for feare that the other Friers should smell it his Fatherhood stood vpon a stoole in the Chimney to blow vp the smoke which came out of his Nosthrils like the smoke of a Brew-house Within a while the Gentleman departed and not long after Frier Thomas was found tardy taking of a Pipe of smoke and for feare of being put to some extraordinary penance his Fatherhood made such an eloquent Oration in commendation of this Indian herbe that he perswaded the Prior and the rest of the Friers to take a Pipe of Tobacco which they did and liked so well of it that they haue vsed it euer since and I make no question but Father Thomas will be had in a perpetuall memory in their Bookes for that his good instruction There is another famous English Father of this Order his name is Father Baldwin a man likewise guilty of no great learning This good Father was sometimes an Apprentise to a Goldsmith in London afterwards in the City of Antwerpe he became an Augustin Mendicant Frier I saw him there trauersing the street with another Frier but I did not speake with him for I was going in haste a Ship-boord towards Holland for it was the last day of the late Truce that was betweene the King of Spaine and the States of the Vnited Prouinces I was told that he is now in England and it may well be for I thinke the Friers of Antwerpe had rather haue his roome than his company At Grenoble a City in France there was a Frier of this Order who in his talke and gesture seemed to all men to be a very religious godly man But alas his fortune was bad for as he Sodomitically medled with one of his owne brethren a Frier of the selfe same Order he was taken doing the deed but this horrible fact being forgiuen him vpon his deniall he was at another time apprehended imprisoned and punished for being vnder a Rocke nigh the foresaid City of Gronoble too familiar with a queane Another Augustine Frier and a Confessor hauing heard the confession of a Flemming inioyned him in his penance to goe on Pilgrimage to the Idoll of Loretto to offer his gifts at her Altar and craue her intercession to her Son Christ Iesus and in the meane time this holy Father slept with his Wife and being taken naked in bed by the Officers of the City they let him goe to his Monastery without any further trouble or punishment because hee was a graue Father and an eloquent Preacher I haue read that a Frier of this Order was imprisoned in Rome in the yeere 1580. for the wilfull murdering of three seuerall persons at seuerall times and yet was neuer executed for he was a famous Preacher and a great Whoremonger These Augustine Friers haue a woodden Crucifix in their Monasterie neere Burgos in Spaine that yeelds them no lesse than six or seuen thousand Crownes yeerely This Crucifix as they themselues report was made by one of the Apostles and was afterwards found vpon the Seas neere the Coast of Spaine together with a Scrowle or Schedule written in good strong Parchment signifying the vertue and holinesse of this woodden Christ And from thence it was with great ioy and deuotion brought to this Cloister where it is set vp in a little Chappell and had in great honour See the iugling of these Friers and hath wrought as they say many strange Miracles and is much frequented by the Country people who offer very largely vnto it This Crucifix is as big as any reasonable man and most artificially carued and painted it hath a false Beard and a Periwig of a Chestnut colour haire and artificiall nailes set on both hands and feet They make the ignorant people beleeue that those artificiall haire and nailes of the Crucifix doe grow and that it doth sweat Water and Bloud euery Friday which drop downe into a great siluer Bason that is alwaies vnder the feet of the Crucifix Moreouer they set Wheat in their Garden which is a bigger graine than any other ordinary Wheat of this Wheat they report a wonderfull story For they say that when Adam was driuen out of Paradise he tooke a whole handfull of the Eares of the Wheat that did grow there and carried it away with him into the world and of this kinde of seed is there Wheat which they grind in a little Mill made for that purpose and of the Meale and the Water and Bloud that the holy Crucifix doth sweat they make little Cakes as big as a dry Fig which they sell for a quartillo a peece which is as much as three halfe pence in English money They haue the length of the Crucifix in blue silke Ribands with these words painted in siluer letters La Medida del Santo Crucifixo de Burgos that is to say The measure of the holy Crucifix of Burgos These Ribands they sell for twelue pence a peece for they say that they haue many vertues and are good for a hundred diseases and aboue all the rest they are a present remedy for the head-ach and for weomen that are in labour of child-birth Nay if all be true that these Friers report there is neuer a Quack-saluer in Christendome with all his Oile Salues and Waters that doth cure so many diseases as these Ribands doe And as for their little Cakes which they call Pañcillos they are precious things for all interiour Diseases and rare Antidots against all manner of poison and withall as long as any one doth carry one of them about his neck either in a clout or a siluer case the Deuill can haue no power ouer him The Chappell where this Crucifix is will scarce containe twenty persons and is made like a Chamber seeled ouer without any windowes at all and the Crucifix is made fast to a wall ouer the Altar hauing the head close to the feeling there hang three silke Curtaines before it of three seuerall colours viz. blue red and white They doe vse when they doe shew this woodden Christ great reuerence for they kneele all downe with great deuotion and silence and then one of the Friers very softly drawes the first Curtaine and afterwards saith a Pater and an Aue and in like manner the second but when he comes to the last and that El Santo Christo de Burgos The holy Christ of Burgos for so
nor the Rubricks yet hee can nose a Pipe of Tobacco as well as any Frier in England except Father Thomas Witherhead and threatens one day or other to be Dominus factotum in the blacke Friers at London which did heretofore belong to this holy Order of Friers for he and Father Simons doe claime to be the lawfull successors of the old Carmelite Friers that heretofore liued there If their congregation doe increase I make no question but these two Pillars will bee Prouincials here in England and share the Kingdome betweene them as the Benedictin Monks and Iesuits haue already done But in the meane time I will leaue them and returne againe to speake a word or two of their Order There was heretofore great discord among these Carmelite Friers about the obseruation of their Rule from whence there did arise a great schisme among them so that they were diuided into two Sects that is to say Obseruantes non obseruantes and great stirre there was betweene them as you may reade in the last Eglog of Baptista Mantuanus a Frier of this selfe same Order But in the end those that called themselues Obseruant Friers were put to silence vntill of late yeeres that a Spanish woman whose name was Tereza vndertooke to reforme this disordered Order and hauing gathered together a company of discontented lazie Friers and Nuns of this Sect shee gaue them a new Rule which they affirme to be their ancient Rule and called the Friers Carmelius and the Nuns Carmelinesses Their Habit in colour doth not much differ from the other Friers and Nuns sauing that it is courser and a little more reddish and that they weare neither linnen Shirts Smocks Shooes or Stockins but woodden Clogs or Sandals and neuer or seldome eat Flesh as yet but how long this pretended austerity will continue I know not They professe to lead a holy life and therefore are in great fauour with the vulgar people who out of their blind zeale doe dote vpon them as they doe vpon any new Order of Friers or Nuns for they partly know the hypocrisie of the old Order of Monks and Friers and doe hope that these and such new Sects will proue better and therefore they doe contribute to their reliefe so much the more willingly but before it be long they shall find them to be no better than the rest but rather farre worse and greater Hypocrites yet in the interim they will be sure with their counterfeit holinesse to cheat them of their money and to furnish themselues against a rainy day as the old Prouerbe is It is not many yeares agoe that this new Sect of Carmelin and Carmelinesse began and now they haue Cloisters in all the chiefest Townes and Cities of Spaine Italy France Germany and Netherland that are vnder the Catholike Dominion Neuerthelesse they could not haue their Spanish Patronesse sanctified though they made great sute to the Sea of Rome But I thinke it was because they had not Vnguentum Indicum to bestow vpon his Holinesse howbeit shee was Beatified many yeares ago which is the next step to be Sanctified And when lame Ignatius the Patron of the Iesuites was Canonized by Pope Paul the fifth these Carmelins were almost mad for anger and griefe that their Patronesse was not placed among the Saints as well as hee And therefore they printed a booke of her life and counterfeit miracles stufft with such detestable lyes and blasphemies that it would grieue any good Christian to reade it And then the Popes sweet Worship for quietnesse sake and at the Catholike King of Spains intreaty Sanctified this she creature to the no small ioy comfort and benefit of all these Carmelins and Carmelinesses Euer since which time the common people that are addicted to this Order doe so dote vpon this new sanctified Creature and her spirituall babes that they thinke nothing that they haue too good for these holy Carmelin Friers and Carmelinesse Nunnes Thus you may see how his Catholicke Maiestie of Spaine is constrained to play the broker betweene these Spanish shauellings and the Pope to haue his Spanish Machiauillians and their Patrons Canonized Saints when God wot it is to be feared that they are all damn'd in hell For if you wil well obserue the Popes haue for these forty years Sanctified none but Spanyards or at least the King of Spaines subiects as for example S. Carolus Boromëus Archbishop of Milan and sometimes a Capuchin Frier Ignatius de Loyola S. Tereza and some three or foure more haue beene placed into the Catalogue of Saints to the great honour of Spaine forsooth and to his Catholike Maiesties no small charges and the Popes great profit But truly I wonder that his Holinesse doth not Sanctifie Father Parsons Father Garnet and the rest of those Sulphurian-gun-powder Traytors yea Francis Rauiliac that murdered Henry the fourth of France seeing they were all his sworne babes and the King of Spaines Ministers and Agents Of the Dominican Friers IN the time of Pope Innocentius the third one Dominicus Calaguritanus a Spanyard borne and one Franciscus Afisius borne in Vmbria a Region of Italy did striue which of them should exceed the other in sanctitie of life but I may well say in hypocrisie This Dominicke was first a Canon or a Prebend of a Cathedrall Church in Spaine who afterwards forsaking that function together with some few companions as superstitious as himselfe did institute a new Sect of Friers and prescribed to them an Order and certaine Rules for discipline and manners and gaue them for their habite a long white coat downe to their heeles woman-like as all Friers weare and a blacke coat or cloake ouer that downe to the ground together with a round cowle or a hood to their coats of the same colour The maine point of his Order was as he then pretended to haue his Friers to preach the Gospell of Christ vnto all Nations throughout the world for preaching in those daies was out of vse What he or his Friers did then I know not but I am sure that now a dayes they preach not the Gospell but Legend of lyes Popish Traditions and foolish Ceremonies Inuent de la hist de France par I. de Seres Polyd. Virg. de rerum inuent Hospin histor Monach. There was in those dayes a sort of poore people called Albigeois gathered together about the Citie of Tholousa in France and were going to Rome to the Pope to sue for a reformation of many abuses that then were and still are among the Popish Clergie These poore people did Dominiâ—ke and his followers most barbarously murder and afterward repaired to Rome where Pope Innocentius receiued him with no small ioy and admiration But this Pope shortly after dyed and Pope Honorius that succeeded him approued Dominicks Order about the yeare 1110. and this the third Order of the foure principall Orders of Begging Friers These Friers came first into England in the yeare 1221. This holy man was canonized
Order soeuer they be of but especially the Franciscan Friers all that they weare about them is holy yea all that they eat drinke or touch is sanctified their greasie Cowle Habite Sandalls and especially their knotty girdles which they call S. Francis Cordon or Girdle hath many vertues and therefore they haue a fraternitie of this holy rope of the Lay people of both sex which brings them in yearely no small profit for all those that are of this holy fraternitie doe weare this Cordon and haue many graces and priuileges for their paines as I told you before But I pray you obserue what one wrote many yeares agoe of these Friers Habite Cordula nodosa pes nudus capa dolosa Hac tria nudipedes ducunt ad Tartara fratres The knottie rope bare feet deceitfull Cowle Bring bare-foot Friers into hell to howle And another saith Buchan En tunicam fluxam nodosa cannabe cingit Cùm melius fauâ—es stringeret illa suas The knotty rope that binds that Slouens coat Were better vs'd being ty'd about his throat They will neuer or seldome giue any of their broken meat or their superfluitie to any of their poore neighbours except it be a little peece of drie bread that is giuen them which they themselues scorne to eat but will giue it either to Whores and Bawds or to strangers and then they will make them eat it in their Cloisters because they would not haue their neighbours and benefactors to know that they haue any thing to spare but rather want than abound for if they did know how princely they fare they would not be so liberall vnto them as they are nor send them such presents of the best flesh fish or fowles that they can get for money when they themselues and their wiues and children are content to liue at home with courser and meaner diet I protest to you if I should relate vnto you all the impostures hypocrisies deceits and villanies that I haue my selfe both knowne and seene among them this pamphlet would be boundlesse and my labour endlesse but I am content to recite but a few for breuitie sake I had an Hostesse at Orleans in France that sent two great Carps in the Lent time which cost her two French crowns sod in wine together with a dainty delicious sawce for a present to the Capuchin Friers desiring them to pray for her for she was great with childe and neare her time And yet shee her selfe and her husband together with their children and family had but pease-pottage and a few salt hearings for their dinner But now what did the Friers send her againe Marie a very holy thing a little picture of S. Francis sewed in an old clout or peece of one of their old habits wishing her to weare that tyed with a tape or riband about her necke for it had some celestiall vertue and aboue all the rest it was exceeding good for women in the time of their labour of child-birth O the blindnesse of these poore people that cannot see themselues guld by these Impostors and Montebanckes Truly the Capuchin Friers and their Nuns or holy Sisters whom they call Capuchinesses yea all the whole rout of begging Nuns and Friers doe professe to liue very austerely nay and Angelically and to spend their time in watching praying fasting meditations and also punishing their bodies to bring them in subiection to the spirit But to say the truth they liue very dissolutely for they spend the time in banquetting quaffing whoring cheating begging and idlenesse for I dare boldly say there are no greater drunkards gluttons whore-mongers yea Sodomites beggers Impostors and Hypocrites in the vniuersall world than they are for they will eat vntill their panches are ready to cracke and carowse vntill they cannot see goe or stand and then they begin to quarrell and fight and breake one anothers pate as for whores alas they haue their choise and none of the meanest but rich mens wiues young virgins and votary Nuns wherof I could produce here no few examples but I will forbeare all And lastly their only profession is begging and cheating the simple people as all men doe know A Franciscan Frier lodging in the house of a Gentleman of Perigot in France found the meanes to lye with his wife vpon her purification See a book intituled A Looking glasse for Franciscan Friers in French the women thinking at the first that it had bin her husband but afterwards perceiuing it was the Frier for very griefe after that she had discouered all to her husband while hee was pursuing after the Frier who was fled hanged herselfe and in the mischance ouerthrew her childe downe dead to the ground Not long after her brother comming to see her found her dead who imagining that her husband had done the deed flings out of doores and meeting her husband returning home hauing not ouertaken the Frier drew his rapier vpon him and so wounded one another to death so that by this meanes this Frier committed shamefull fornication and was the occasion of the vntimely death of these foure persons The Franciscans of Argentinum or Strasburgh in high Germany heretofore accustomed to steale away mens wiues and keepe them in their Cloisters like young Nouices cutting off their haires and shauing their crownes Ibidem In the end a Butchers wife going along the street in the habite of a Frier together with another Frier her mate her husband met her and hauing well eyed her laid hands vpon her and the holy Frier and by that meanes recouered his wife and discouered the Friers knauery who were for these and other hainous crimes and offences banished that noble and famous Citie and neuer after receiued or entertained there againe Another good religious man of this Order and an English man who borrowed the name of Father Gray for these Monks Friers Iesuits and Priests are like our proud punkes of London who as they say are all Knights or great Gentlemens daughters who were vndone by their elder brothers that wilfully consumed and wasted their portions and therefore are the more either to be honoured or pitied albeit they are some poore Mechanicall mens daughters In like manner I say our English Monks Friers Iesuites Seminarie Priests and all other fugitiues doe change their owne names and assume vnto them the name of some noble or ancient family of England yea of those that are true professors of the Gospell and this they doe because vnder colour of that honourable name they would not onely walke securely and without any suspicion or trouble but also perpetrate any villany for euery generous spirit will loue and honour any man that is honourably descended especially if his behauiour and carriage be good and correspondent to his honourable name or family But now againe I will retreat to Father Gray from whom I am a little digressed Father Gray about fifteene yeares agoe lodging in one Mr. V. his house in Sheere-lane neare Temple-barre in
London grew so farre into his Land-ladies fauour who was then a young wanton gossip that he perswaded her to breake her vow of wedlocke and to forsake her wedded husband and that which is worst to yeeld to his carnall desires and in summe to forsake all her friends and kinsfolkes and to follow him Whereupon she by his perswasions very foolishly conueyed certaine plate and other goods in trunckes and chests priuately away out of her husbands house according to this Friers counsell and direction purposing to depart priuately away with this holy Frier vnknowne to her husband vnto whom she had formerly vowed both faith and loyalty But see the spight a Pursuyuant that had intelligence of this Father Grayes facultie though not of his knauery came and tooke him and his sweet Land-lady as they were priuately consulting about their iourney and brought him albeit he spared her for her husband or rather for her friends sake to Newgate and hauing well perused all his letters and notes he vnderstood all their knauery But yet for all this the honest woman would not forsake Mr. Gray neither beleeue that he was a poore begging Frier but a Knights brother of Northfolke whom for honour sake I will not name because he is none of their sect and one whom I honour and yet this good Frier afterwards confessed that he neuer knew that Knight or was any way allied vnto him but it was true that he told his Land-lady that he had fiue hundred pounds yearely in good lands in Northfolke and yet he confessed afterwards that he was neuer there but was borne in Duram Oh the chastitie and honestie of Monks and Friers All this I know to be true for I was an ocular witnesse of all this that I deliuered vnto you Another Franciscan Frier of Perigot in France hid himselfe in a Brides chamber and found the meanes to lye with the Bride before her husband came to her and yet escaped for all that the houshold could do when they heard of it and are not these holy and chaste Religious men iudge you Another holy Frier of this Order neare Lyons in France married his brother Frier in the habite of a Scholler to a rich widowes daughter making them beleeue he was an heire to great reuenues and sent to Lyons as it were vnder his tutelage but within a while after the mother and the daughter discouered his shauen crowne and so he was apprehended and sent to the Magistrates to be punished In the yeare 1607. at Madrid in Spaine it was my fortune to fall out with an Irish-man whose name was Master Iames Field This man in his anger hired two Picaros or Rogues to murder me And as I was going thorow a certaine street home to my lodging I met with another Irish Gentleman that loued me who told me that a friend of Mr. Fields one of those Picaros were pursuing after me that he and the other Picaro stayed at the vpper end of the street to murder me and therefore wished me to looke to my selfe or else I should hardly escape Whereupon giuing him many thankes for his friendly loue and warning I stept into a little Church that was belonging to a certaine Couent of Nuns of the Order of Saint Clare who weare the habite of S. Francis and sate downe in a darke corner of the Church for it was late and almost night thinking with my selfe that these my enemies would within a while be gone for they knew not as I supposed that I was there But within halfe an houre after there came into the same Church two Recollect Friers which in Spaine they call Frayles descalcios de San Francisco that is bare-foot Franciscan Friers and hauing said a Pater noster or an Aue Maria one of them rose vp and went vnto an Iron-grate that was in the lower end of the Church and there rang a little bell by and by there came a Nun vnto him and after two or three words of complements as the fashion is in those countries he sent this Nun to call another Nun who came presently who being no sooner come but this Religious Father began to hugge or embrace her thorow the grate and vpon a sudden the Church doore was with a pully which went thorow the wall into the Couent locked fast When I saw how the matter went and fearing hauing escaped one danger lest I should be discouered and so fall into a worse and be murdered by these Nuns and Friers or at least-wise accused of Sacrilege I threw my cloake ouer my head for feare they should perceiue my band and sate as quiet and as mute as a fish making as though I slept In the meane time both the Friers got into the Couent but which way I know not for there was neuer a doore for them to enter and besides my cloake was ouer my eyes that I could not see but this I am sure that I saw them both within the grate and foure or fiue Nuns whispering together for I could not heare their discourse From thence they went to some other place and what they did I know not but leaue it vnto others to consider For my part I was constrained for mine owne safetie to stay there vntill the next morning and as soone as the doore was open I departed and was neuer discouered In the moneth of August 1613. I was comming from Venice towards Netherland and at Padua I met with a young man named Cornelius Vander Brugg borne as he said neare Berg Saint Wenego in Flanders This man was trauelling the selfe-same way as I was and was very glad of my company and my selfe likewise of his and so trauelling on our iourney we came within foure or fiue miles of Trent and by reason the heat was so great that wee could not trauell any further vntill the coolenesse of the euening wee slept a little out of the way into a thicket of bushes to refresh our selues in the shade vntil the heat of the day was past where we had not bin very long but we fell both asleepe About two houres after I heard some people hard by in the same thicket quarrelling and railing as if they had beene so many Tankard-bearers at Holborne-conduit I wondered who they were and was halfe afraid they were Banditi or Robbers by the high way yet creeping vpon my hands and knees softly thorow the thicket I espied there six Capuchin Friers sitting downe vpon the ground with good meat before them and each of them with a great wine-bottle by him two of them were Germaines and the rest Italians The quarrell was about a bottle of sweet wine that was drunke vp by some of them while the others slept The Italians accused the Germaines and they stood vpon their Innocencie one of them a lustie tall Frier swore in the Dutch tongue by an hundred thousand Sacraments that he would beat two of the other Friers as soone as they came into Dutch-land for they were going
dealing liberally with them as being for euer to be remembred in their Masses as one of their Benefactors The Mendicant Friers especially the Franciscans and they haue beene in Law together in Spaine for many yeeres about this visitation of the sicke men in articulo mortis The Iesuites said that it appertained vnto them because their profession is actiue and to be alwaies stirring among the flocke and to doe good to the world abroad whereas that of the Franciscans and the other begging Friers was contemplatiue and so by consequence most decent that they should containe themselues within their Cloisters The Friers on the other side replied that their profession was Meeknesse Innocency Pouerty and to doe good vnto all men As for the Iesuites that they are proud ambitious aspiring entermedlers in matters of state men of great riches and couetous of more and therefore by no meanes to be admitted to such as lie at the point of death The matter hath beene much argued of and greatly debated in Spaine and Rome And all the other Orders of Monks and Friers were and still are vehemently against them and they haue beene openly inueighed against in the publike Schooles of most of the Vniuersities of Italy Spaine France Netherland and Germany yet notwithstanding they are so strongly backt by the King of Spaine whose turne they serue againe in other matters that howsoeuer the cry goe against them they preuaile and hold their owne still Moreouer they haue so cunningly wrought that wheresoeuer they are they onely are the generall hearers of all Confessions diuing thereby into the secrets and drifts of all men acquainting themselues as I said before with their humours and imperfections and making as time and occasion serues their owne vse and benefit And yet if some poore person come vnto them to confesse they will seldome or neuer heare his confession and if they doe they will hardly absolue him of his sinnes As for examples sake a certaine Gentle in Madrid in Spaine to try whether the Iesuites would confesse poore folkes sent his man vpon a time to their College in the night time to intreat them they would send one of their Fathers to confesse a poore man that lay a dying in the street albeit there was no such matter but the Porter told him that all the good Fathers were gone to take their rest and could not come by and by he sent another man to intreat them to come to receiue the confession of a great rich Cauallero whom they knew to haue laine sick for a long time whereupon two of them came forth presently but when they were a little from home his men by his appointment beat the two Iesuites soundly and tooke away their clokes from them But by the way seeing it comes so well to our purpose I wil tell you a pretty story that hapned heretofore in the Low Countries A Merchant whose name was Hamyel being sicke at Antwerpe of a consumption the Iesuits knowing him to be a man of great possessions and without children presently repaired vnto him vnder colour of spirituall consolation laying before him the vanity of this life and the glory of the world to come with sundry other perswasions as of all men liuing they haue their tongues most at will and commending vnto him their Order as of all other the most meritorious perfect and acceptable to God and to which their holy Father the Pope and his Predecessors haue granted more Indulgences than to any other order of Religion whatsoeuer In so much that they brought the poore man being of himselfe simple into their Society thinking there was no other way to be saued so as before hand he infeoffed their College with his land which was two hundred pounds a yeere giuing them much goods and rich moueables and when he had so done died within three moneths after the same His next heires by counsell of their friends put the Iesuites in suit against which though they opposed themselues with all vehemency yet to their great shame and reprehension sentence was giuen against them by the Royall Councell of Mechlin which Court hath authority to determine definitely both in ciuill and criminall causes without appeale Notwithstanding they would not so giue ouer but by the meanes aid and support of one Pamele a President chiefe Fauourite of theirs they appealed from thence to the Councell of Estate at Bruxels getting the cause after sentence giuen to be remoued a thing there vnusuall and scarcely euer heard of before where the processe was hanging for a long time yet afterwards the Iesuites to their great shame were constrained to compound with their aduersaries Another time a rich and wealthy Merchant of the same City whose name was Iohn Baptista Spinola a man then knowne in most Merchant Townes in Christendom but one in that point whose deuotion and scrupulosity ouerwent his wisdome comming to them to confession telling them of some vniust gaine with which he felt his conscience touched they presently with sundry terrifying speeches told him that he was in the state of damnation out of which he could not be deliuered vntill such time that hee had made restitution as well of that confessed as of all other money and goods that he had by vsury vnlawfully gotten laying before him Quod non dimittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum with sundry other such sentences whereof they haue good store In fine they put the man into such feare of conscience that he yeelded to make restitution if so the same might bee done without his vndoing discredit or shame Whereupon to comfort him againe but indeed fearing lest if they dealt too rigorously and roughly with him they should get nothing they told him that if in stead of all such interests and vsuries with which he found his conscience burdened hee onely would bee content to deliuer vnto them some such summe of money as without his vndoing he thought hee might conueniently spare they would take it vpon their soules to see the summe imployed vpon good vertuous and charitable vses to the greater merit and benefit of his soule and as a thing more acceptable vnto God and lesse scandalous to the world than if hee should make restitution to whom it appertained and had beene by his vsury interessed Whereupon the Merchant being well satisfied in conscience gaue them the money and they him their absolution The Capuchins afterwards made great suit vnto this Merchant to become a religious man of their Order and to make a distribution of his goods among them hee made great shew to be very willing for a while but in the and he deceiued them and falling to his old bias did not sticke to tell vnto some of his priuate friends this former tale and by that meanes the Iesuits iugling came to light They haue perswaded the last Duke of Bauaria this Dukes Father to become one of their Society and to make them a College of his owne Palace at Monachum
it shall please the holy Father the Pope and their Father Generall to send them yea though it were to the worlds end and murder Kings and Princes to merit Heauen And withall all other Monks and Friers doe make these three Vowes but once which is after that they haue beene in the Habit one whole yeere which they call the yeere of approbation or nouiceship at which time they make their profession yet the Iesuites will haue their Nouices to serue them two yeeres in their nouiciat before they make their Vowes which first Vowes they call Vota simplicia single Vowes because they can as they say dispence with them for after a man hath beene a Iesuit twenty or thirty yeeres they may if they please put him away and exclude him out of their society whereof I haue knowne many yea among our English Iesuites I haue knowne some namely one who went by the name of Master Floyd who liued at Paris not long agoe and is now but a Secular Priest albeit he was for many yeeres a Iesuite the reason is as I thinke because he and those that they put out of their society were not wicked enough to keepe them company or else doe put themselues out of the society of the Iesuites when they perceiue their villany But when one hath beene trained vp many yeeres in their Machauillian Schoole if he be for their turne then he makes those Vowes again and then he is a professed Iudaist which is not without a long proofe and triall of his integrity and deuotion to their Order and to the rearing vp of the Spanish Monarchie and then and not before they will acquaint him with the hidden mysteries of their Order For in some Colleges there are threescore or fourescore Iesuites and yet not aboue three or foure professed Iesuites yea albeit they weare all one kinde of Habite and fare all alike And in many great Cities they haue three Houses First their Domus Professa wherein liue none but professed Iesuites secondly their College where they haue their Schooles wherein the Rector and one or two more of them are Professed and none else And lastly their Nouiciate where all their young Nouices are kept and mewed vp vnder the gouernment of a Rector and two or three more professed Machiauills HAuing treated of all Monks Friers and Iesuites and of their beginning proceedings present estate in particular It remaines now for me to speak a word or two of their impostures cozenage in generall but more specially of the Mendicant Friers and Iesuites which may serue as a Caueat or Premonition to shew with what brasen faces and palpable lyes and grossenesse they proceed to subuert and ouerthrow True Religion and yet iustifie themselues to the world to countenance their wickednesse though neuer so foule and hainous I omit to speake of their Doctrines Schoole-questions Ceremonies the Popes Supremacie and many other such matters of controuersies which haue beene so often disputed by many and confuted by our learned Diuines But leauing those matters vnto others far more sufficient than my selfe I will speake no more than I haue seene and knowne of my knowledge to be true or can bring sufficient authoritie and then I will draw to a conclusion First I would haue you to vnderstand that these Monks and Friers doe most ambitiously and arrogantly bragge that this or that holy Saint was the first Institutor or Founder of their Order or Religion As the Ieromite Monks bragge of their pretended Patron S. Ierome the Benedictins of S. Benet the Austen Friers of S. Austen the Dominicans of S. Dominick the Franciscans of S. Francis and so of the rest Others more ambitious than they haue mounted vp a little higher as the Trinitarians who would make the world beleeue that their Order was first instituted by the blessed Trinitie who gaue them their Rule by a diuine reuelation whereof they brag not a little as may be seene by this Rithme which is written in capitall letters ouer the doore of their Cloister in the Suburbs of Arras in the Prouince of Artois in the Low Countries and many other places as I told you before Hic est ordo ordinatus Non à sanctis fabricatus Sed à solo summo Deo The Carmelite Friers doe boast that the blessed Virgin Mary gaue them their Habite vpon Mount Carmell together with a Scrowle wherein was written their Rule and Order of life and manners The Iesuites scorne to deriue their Order from any Saint no not from lame Ignatius their Founder but from Iesus whose Companions they are if you will beleeue them for they style themselues Patres Religiosi Societatis Iesu Fathers and Religious men of the Society of Iesus his companions and play-fellowes but they play foule play with him for they hitherto haue and do still play the theeues with him in robbing him of his honour and glory the which they attribute vnto the blessed Virgin Popish Saints Images and the like trash O horrible blasphemy Horresco referens These great titles serue them for a cloake to couer their hypocrisies and abominable impieties But let vs returne to the matter I doubt not but I shall make it yet a little more manifest vnto you how far the Iesuits do differ from the Lord Iesus likewise the other rable of Friers from their pretended Patrons for these borrowed titles of honours are none of their owne Ouid. lib. 3. Metamorph Nam genus proauos quae non fecimus ipsi Vix ea nostra voco Iuuenal Satyr 8. Stemmata quid faciunt quid prodest Pontice longo Sanguine censeri pictosque ostendere vultus Maiorum c. Si coram Lepidis malè viuitur Ausonius in Solonis Senten Pulchrius multò parari quam creari nobilem Senec. in Herc. furente Qui genus iactat suum Aliena laudat These Iuglers haue many wayes and trickes to cheat men of their money besides that which they get by begging as by sale of their priuate Masses Confessions lying Miracles Pardons and Indulgences Reliques Confraternities and the like And withall by perswading other men that are rich to become Friers of their Orders and sometimes they doe seduce young Merchants and shop-keepers to breake with their Creditors and vnder-hand to purloine and sell away other mens goods and to offer or giue them all the money which they haue or can borrow and then they will entertaine them into their Orders and perhaps send them away priuately vnto some other Monastery of their Order in some other Prouince to be taught and instructed in their Rule and discipline for one whole yeare which they call the yeare of Approbation or Nouice-ship for after that one hath beene a yeare in any Cloister either of Monks or Friers the Iesuites only excepted who haue two yeares of Approbation if he be willing to perseuere and to leade a Monasticall life he makes his profession and those three Vowes of Chastitie Pouertie
and Obedience but how well they performe and keepe these Vowes God and all those that are well acquainted with their Iuglings doe know full well Now if a man enter into any Order of Monks or Friers no man dare trouble him for all his debts are payed though he owed ten millions for then he is a holy man though neuer so wicked a knaue before and to arrest him is no lesse offence than sacrilege Now let vs speake a word of all these in order First of all these Monks Friers Iesuites and Priests doe get a world of money by their Masses for they haue men that sit all day long in some place in their Churches especially in Spaine and Italy with a great paper-booke like a shop-book vpon a table to write downe the names of all such that bring money to haue Masses said and how many Masses they would haue said and wherefore whether for the liuing or for the dead or for their good successe in their iourney or to obtaine their desire against their enemies or for their good intents or for their friends either liuing or for their soules in Purgatory or for their health or for their cattell heards or flockes or for the Popes Holinesse and the extirpation of the Gospell which they call Heresie and the exaltation of their Catholike Religion or for a woman that is great with childe that she may haue a speedie deliuerance and sometimes that the childe may proue to be a boy and a thousand such matters for they will say Masse or at least-wise they will promise to doe it for any thing if you will giue them money If your head doe ake or if you haue paine in your teeth or in your belly or if one be in danger to lose his eye-sight or his hearing or if you are troubled with the cholike the gowt the dropsey or the French P. or the like bring Monks Friers Iesuits or any other Popish Priests money and they will mumble a Masse for you nay they will doe you more good as they say than all the Doctors of Physicke Montebancks or Chirurgeans in the world can performe The price of the Masse is set downe by the Popes holinesse In Spaine and Italy it is two shillings in France a shilling in the Low Countries Germany and Poland eight pence or nine pence and in some poore Countries six pence for the Protestant Ministers haue spoiled their market In England now adayes the ordinary price is a shilling neuerthelesse none or few at all will offer them so little because that our Monks Friers Iesuites and other Popish Priests are in more danger than those forraigne Clergie men and withall haue no other maintenance but their Masse and breaden god vnlesse it be such as are entertained by noble and rich personages and therfore they do vse to giue them a peece or halfe a peece to say as many Masses for them as they please And indeed our English collapsed Ladies and others of their sex are more bountifull vnto these holy men for they giue these busie hornets ten or twenty pounds at a clap to say a Trentall or two of Masses for them and for their friends that are in Purgatory Secondly it is worth the obseruations vpon what sleight pretence they ground the necessitie of Auricular Confession deceiuing the ignorant people with their smooth and plausible impostures wherein they say the Priest cannot remit sinnes vnlesse men will confesse them vnto him Then which Proposition nothing can bee more false for the Priest may preach and publish Remission or Retention of sinnes to those whose faults he knowes not and those men by a faithfull application of what they heare may receiue the Remission of their sins who neuer reuealed them to the Minister but confessed them vnto God alone Ric. à Sancta vict de Clauibus Sola enim cordis confessio poenitenti ad salutem animae sufficit veraciter Which kinde of Confession is truly and only necessary vnto Saluation for as Cassander saith there had beene no controuersies about this point of Confession had not some ignorant and importunate Physitian corrupted this wholesome Medicine with their drugs of Traditions Est enim multis inutilibus traditiunculis infecta c. quibus conscientijs quas extricare leuare debebant laqueos iniecerunt tanquam tormentis quibusdam excarnificarunt By which meanes they haue made it only a snare to entangle and inuolue the simple and ignorant people and an engine to entrap and torment not to ease the conscience of all those that seeke vnto them And thereby they diue into the secrets and drifts of all men acquainting themselues with their humours and imperfections making as time and occasion serues their owne vse and best benefit And it is most certaine that manifold absurdities and abuses are committed vnder the colour of Auricular Confession It being a thing which the Church of Rome without any warrant of Gods Word and quite contrary to the practise of the Primitiue Church hath taken vp at her owne hand Distinct 5. de Poenitentia Petrus Oximensis sometimes Diuinity Reader in Salamanca And Bonauenture and Medina were of the same mind Histor Tripart lib. 9. cap. 35. Socrat lib. 5. c. 9. Zozom l. 7. c. 16. Niâ—…pher lib. 12. cap. 28. For their Canon Law in the Glosse saith That Auricular Confession was taken vp only by a certaine tradition of the Church and not by any authoritie of the old or new Testament Yea their owne Diuines haue taught that not many yeares agoe That Auricular Confession had the beginning from a positiue law of the Church and not from the Law of God And withall that the Primitiue Church did not vse it is most apparant as appeares by the act of Nectarius Bishop of Constantinople who when as Auricular Confession did first begin to creepe in put it downe in his Church and all the Bishops of the East did the like in theirs as being not only a Noueltie but also so far from being a soueraigne medicine for sin as the Papists doe hold it that it was found rather to be a nurse for sin Churches being conuerted into Stewes Confession playing the Pandor vnto the Priest and his Penitents there to parle and consult I meane vnder Confession how to effect and practise their carnall affections and designes which indeed was the chiefest cause that moued Bishop Nectarius to thrust it out of Constantinople to preuent such wickednesse For in truth there is nothing that openeth a wider gap or way vnto sinne than Auricular Confession because there are very many that care not what they doe or say but thinke it sufficient be they neuer so great swearers slanderers or blasphemers or whatsoeuer actuall sinnes they commit to goe once a yeare to Confession And moreouer all the villanies conspiracies which are either intended or practised against either Princes or Countries are for the most part opened and consulted vpon in Confession for men not daring
is to bee corrected in religious Orders because that very many of them are become so deformed in life and behauiour that they are a great scandall to the secular people and doe much hurt by their lewd and ill examples and therefore we thinke it meet that all conuentuall Orders be quite abolished and supprest not that we would haue any of them iniured but to prohibit them to admit any new men into their Orders so that by this meanes they may be all soone suppressed And wee thinke it fit that all boies who are not as yet professed Friers be expulsed out of their Monasteries And againe Alius abusus turbat Christianum Populum in Monialibus quae sunt sub cura fratrum conuentualium vbi in plerisque Monasterijs fiunt publica Sacrilegia cum maximo omnium scandalo auferat ergo S. V. omnem curam à conuentualibus eamque det ordinarijs aut alijs prout melius videbitur Another abuse doth trouble the Christian common wealth and that is in the Nuns who are vnder the custody and charge of the Conuentuall Friers who in most of their Monasteries doe commit publike Sacrilege to the great scandall of all men Let your Holinesse therefore take away this charge from the Conuentuall Friers and giue it to the Ordinaries or some others as you shall see best Now the names of these great personages that presented that Booke to the Councell of Trent and the Pope were these Gasper Cardinalis Contarenus Iohannes Petrus Card. Theatinus who was afterwards Pope Paul the fourth Iacobus Card. Sadoletus Reignaldus Card. Auglicus otherwise called Cardinall Poole Fredericus Arch. Salernitanus Hieronymus Arch. Brundusinus Ioh. Matthaeus Episcopus Veronensis Gregorius Abbas Sancti Georgij Venet. F. Thomas Magister Sacri Palatij Now you poore abused Romish Recusants vnmaske pull away the veile which the Monks Friers Iesuits and other Seminary Priests haue put before your eyes turne away your eares from their crafty illusions breake the bonds wherewith they haue captiuated you and purge your braines with some good Antidote against their charmes and then not till then shall you perceiue in what darknesse in what error and in what captiuity you haue beene so long detained whilest these cursed Hispaniolized Bald pates haue gouerned you then you your selues shall bee Iudges how much you haue lost of your beauty of your authority of your wisdome and of your lands reuenues and riches yea of your honour and estimation in the common wealth so that if you would I say looke backe vpon your selues you should see that your visages are so changed that you could not know your selues nay you would be afraid to behold your owne faces and withall your neighbours who were wont to pity your folly doe now hisse at you pointing with their fingers and mocking at your desperate rage and miserable stupidity which hath made you more sauage than Medea against your owne innocent children whom you most cruelly and without any humanity banish and transport ouer into forraigne Countries thereto be mewed vp like so many Hawkes in Colleges and Cloisters and withall wasting and consuming your lands and riches to maintaine these Impostors and cheating Copesmates who delude and deceiue you with their charmes and feed you with hope of the restauration or at least a toleration of the Romish Religion the which you haue long wished and expected for but I hope that you are as neere now to obtaine it as you and your fore-fathers were in Queene Elizabeths raigne Take patience a while and hearken vnto one that wisheth your welfare in the Lord and one who hath nor will relate vnto you any thing which shall be vnreasonable but wholly to your aduantage and profit Imitate therefore that vertuous Prince Antigonus who freely hearkned vnto a plaine country man whom he met with by chance reprehending the vices wherewith he was attached and albeit he felt himselfe pricked to the quicke yet he tooke all in so good part that it turned greatly to his profit correcting afterwards that which the good man had noted to be vicious in him and being returned home to his Court he said vnto his Minions that he had learned that of a Peasant which he neuer knew before namely the truth which his flatterers had kept hidden and disguised In like manner poore deceiued Country-men depart but a while from these fraudulous and traiterous Monks Friers Iesuits and Seminary Priests to learne not of your domesticall flatterers and deluders but of a stranger that is desirous for your owne good and safety to make you know the sincere verity which this long time you haue not heard of for that you would neuer giue eare to any discourse but those of your deceiuers who continually entertaine you with faire words and great hopes and all not worth a rotten Figge The King of Spaine seeing himselfe inriched with the spoiles of other Kings and Princes not contenting himselfe with the prey imagineth that it should serue him but as a Ladder to mount to the top of an absolute Monarchy And being as it were drunke with the greatnesse of his happy successe he beganne to plot higher attempts in his spirit as ambition neuer wants matter proposing England for the marke of his other enterprises but knowing well that hee might not attempt openly vpon it and that herein force of armes might turne rather to his damage than profit as it did in the yeere 1588. and likewise in the latter end of Queene Elizabeths raigne when he sent forces into Ireland to ioyne with the Rebell Tyrone he resolued to follow the aduice of Lisander namely Where the Lions skin is not strong enough to patch it with a peece of the Foxes But then he imagined that nothing could more securely and more soone eleuate him to the top of this greatnesse than a forcible Ladder of gold vnderpropped with a more than Punick subtilty and masked with a false semblance of integrity and religion First of all he had a recourse vnto a company of cunning Magicians who had beene ingendred here in England and other places of our Kings Maiesties Dominions but brought vp trained and instructed in the proud and Magnificent Palace of Rome at the foot of the sonne of Perdition or in some other of his Seminary Colleges or Cloisters whom hauing furnished in abundance with all that was requisite for for their affaires recommending vnto them all his designes but with this prouiso that they should especially keep themselues disguised and lurke vnder the maske of the Catholike Religion then he presently sends them into England And these are those mischieuous and traiterous brood which you call the holy Fathers the Iesuites a name truly fatall and pernicious to euery well ordered Monarchy and Common-wealth These Sorcerers together with a whole regiment of Monks Friers and Seminary Priests as their Coadiutors and fellow-helpers were presently receiued and entertained with great applause of you and all others the Partakers and Pentioners of