harpiarum more immundo contactu conspurcarent that is to say lest they should diminish and abase the reuerēd maiestie of philosophie by their foolish and doting expositions How soeuer it is in that facultie of Philosophie sure it is that the written vvord of God is full of profound mysteries yet is confidently bouldly and malepertly expounded now in England as vvel priuatly at euery table and tauerne as in the pulpits and common assemblies of simple and vnlearned artificers so that the lay people prentises especially and yong schollers assone as they can bid Caesar good morrow in Greeke or reade th' English Testamēt yea the women dare presume to dispute with the Clergie of the cheefest points of Religion and bouldly condemne the cheefest clercks in the vvorld Is not this I pray you a great abasing of th'excellēcie of the vvord of God surely if I had fauored heresies this would haue ben a sufficiēt motiue to haue reuoked me I could bring many moe strong reasons to this purpose but because I am a yong nouice in learning and because I thinke this vvhich I haue brought will suffice to proue that there vvas no cause of my invvard defection in respect of my particular knowledge I vvil here end this first point For the second that I had no cause to seperate my self from the Catholick church for the euel life of the Catholicks and to come to be a Protestant for their holynes I vvil shew it manifestly and yet no great profe vvil be loked for at my hands therein First suppose the Catholicks liued very euel as ill as their aduersaries purposely to deceiue the people faine them to do if I thinke the Religion to be good their euel life should neuer cause me to for sake it if a man should measure truth faith by the elle of vertu and innocencie in the professors follovvers of any sort in mans frailtie miserie of this life God should haue no people nor part in this world al being subiect to sin and danger in this mortal state But surely if wee should docide the matter by the difference of life behauiour and conuersation of both sides I vvere vvorse then an asse to determine for the Protestants against the Catholicks amongest whom the first Professors vvere Saincts and the cheef leaders and teachers aftervvard most holy and al these follovvers though fraile and sinfull men yet finding remedy by the medicinable Sacraments penaunce and discipline of the Church for their daily offences Where contrary vvise the very first authors of this Protestancy Luther Caluin Beza and the like or as them selues call them the restorers reformers of Religion vvere not onely vulgarly nought but of notorious infamous wicked life as their Ministers be in al coūtreies and their zelous followers not good in any place specially in Englād where they haue notoriously betraied their false faith by their foule fruicts Yea and vvhere it is knowne that their doctrine it self hath só altered to the vvorse al kinde of States and that their pulpits are nothing els but a schoole of sinne licentiousnes lust and liberty that al wisemen wonder at it and good men lament the case Who knoweth not that vertue deuotion godly life it self is bourthenous and hateful to the Protestants so far surely that they seeke as I haue seene not onely to abolish deface and destroy the bookes now or of ould written for defence and proofe of the Catholick faith which they may do vpon some pretence of errors conteined in the same but they burne vp al godly treatises and bookes of contemplation meditation and instruction of Christian life and manners conteining no dispute of religion at al as long sith they vsed a deuout treatise of the life and Immitation of Christ and now of late they openly burned a number of the bookes of prayer and meditation of prayer made by Levves of Granado together with the new Testament Assure your selues that they cānot abide such bookes of al others knowing that deuout praier onely penaunce and amendement of life vvill easily bring men from their pretēded Religion in which no such deuotions are found Neither if you marke vvell shall you euer finde that the learned of the Protestants writ or treat of any such argument al their doings are in pugnis verborum in strife emulation contention contradiction destruction They stand vpon quick dispatch and attribute al to Christ his passion without ether much meditation of it or conforming them selues vnto it Finally they haue turned the grace of Christ into carnal lust and licence To see these things which in England are so open and euident not so much profound learning is requisite as due consideration and some experience of other places vvhich if our Gentlemen students and others ether of the ynnes of Court or vniuersities or of what other place or calling soeuer might haue as diuers by trauelling ouer the seas to ether of the Seminaries or other Catholick schooles haue happely proued they should see vvhat difference of life manners education and behauiour there is betwixt the one and th' other This one thing I dare be bould to say for the Seminary of Rome where I most liued in mine absence from my countrey which therefore I knew best and vvhich the vvicked calumniators haue most sought to slaūder the youthes and students al there be as vertuous as any be in Christendome And let both Oxford and Cambrige giue me one such for hollynes of life and conuersation so long as they be there vnder the Protestants regiment as there be a number in the said Seminary and I promis you I vvill say in S. Peters in Rome al that I said at Paules crosse in London Not vvithstanding as I said al euel life maketh not nor proueth one to be an heretick for I am an offendor as other men and perhaps the cheef of many sinners but I haue found remedy mercie saluation in the Church in vvhich onely the holie Passion of Christ the cause of al remission is profitable and out of the same nothing but damnation though mans life seeme neuer so iuste and holy For this his blessed passions sake I trust he vvill nether now remember the sinnes of my youth nor this my exterior reuolt from his holy Church vvhich I professe as before to haue ben of frailtie against mine owne conscience and knowlege God that knoweth al things knoweth that I did it not for any liking I had of the Protestants either life or religion knowing both to be starke nought onely the Diuel by false and subtil persuasions vvas the cause of my outward defection First I had a seruent desire to see my parents and freends and because I vvas afraid they neither durst nor vvould receiue me for seare of the statuts I thought it good to play the hypocrite if that may be called hypocrisie to put on the habit and resemblance of wickednes with the Bishop of London that is to faine
singularitie delite and loue of mans selfe that driueth downe persons laden vvith sinne to this heresie of the Protestants and that the next dore yea the next steape of this staire is atheisme and no beleefe at al. A fevv vvordes vvil serue a vvise man Wel when I had thus entangled my self for some daies proued that such as I had vttered my euel heretical speaches vnto kept al things close I bouldly aduētured vpon their familiaritie and secrecie to vtter diuers horrible blasphemies in plaine termes against the principal points of religion specially to one person of myne owne calling vvho aftervvard as I must needes confesse to the shame of th'ennemy godly and trewly for both our good and saluations vttered the vvhole matter vnto our superior vvhich vvas Gods great mercy to me for othervvise I had doubtles perished for euer more For a moneth space or there abouts I delt vvith my said fellovv bouldly not only by arguments and often communication to drawe him to heresie but also vttered to him my intention to goe into England there to preach heresie and to annoye the common cause of Christs Church and specially this Seminary the President and superiors thereof as much as I could possibly discoursing with him and declaring that there vvas no remedy but the counsel must needes seeke the dissolution of the Seminary or els sustaine their state to be ruyned in time by it Therevpon I vttered sondry meanes vnto him how first the president him self might be made avvay and if that missed how the vvhole company might easely be poysoned or othervvise dispersed further more offering my hand to gage that the president should not be a liue that daie tvvo yeres that I spake it one of the yeres being now gone and yet he aliue as I desire God he may be many This vvas often my deuilish communication and whether I should not haue giuen this ouerture to the counsel vvhen I came into England for dispatch of him and the said Seminarie my derest nurce my self knovv not to say he lest hovv farre the deuil vvould haue driuen me vvho novv holy occupied my hart in hope of aduauncement in England by these practises For vvhich purpose I had also fraudulently discouered certaine points of secrecie set them dovvne in vvriting with intent to giue the note of the same to the counsel vvherein I rather detected my ovvne malice then any other thing for the matters vvere of no importance in deede In breefe this I must needes acknovvledge that I vvould haue done any of these impious iniuries rather then haue fallen from the preferment I hoped gaped after so inordinatly our Lord of his infinite mercies for giue me that detestable treason against him and his Church and the abhominable periurie dissimulation fiction vvhen for a vvhole moneths space after I had discouered my minde to my fellovv yet I said Masse daily sought for leaue and viaticum of M. President to goe home to encrease by preaching and al endeuours the Catholick cause and toke an oth vpon the Euangelists that I beleeued al points of the Catholick faith and had no other purpose of going into England but for the aduancement of the same And I desire good M. Presidēt the whole howse euen for the blessed death and vvoundes of our Sauiour for vvhose sake they sustaine al this contradiction of me and other sinners to pardon and healp me by their praiers to true repentāce and remission And that good Priest my deare louing fellovv whom I vvould haue had partaker of my vvicked and damnable reuoult I cry him mercy euen vpon my knees and thanke him though to the carnal vvordly man it might be compted an iniury that he discouered al my counsel vnto his superiors and myne for els I had been vvith out doute damned for euer more But al this came of the sweet mercies and dispositions of our Lord God and Sauiour vvho ouertooke and ouer raught me happely in the very course of my malice and damnable designements and hath by his vnspeakable wisedom caused not onely my imprisonmēt and other my bodely afflictions vvhich he procured for me at the very same time that I had thought to haue been in my ruffe and iolitie amongest his ennemies but turned my very sinnes and vvickednes to the good of his honor and my saluation at the same time both deliuering his trevv and innocent seruaunts of the Seminarie and others vvhom my malice might haue annoyed and me also in most gracious miraculous sort his name be blessed therefore for euer more And it is his goodnes that hath deliuered me from the accomplishment of my vvicked desires as powrably and miraculously al most as he did Saul persecuting the Christians but vvith much more mercie then him for that he found grace because he did it of ignorance in incredulitie vvhere I did al against my ovvne skill and conscience neuer doubting but the Catholick Romane religion vvas the onely true Christian auncient and Apostolick faith and vvorship of God though I fained my self for the atchiuing of my detestable designemēt to doubt thereof and to haue some reasonable motiues against the same and sought by al meanes possible to haue enformed my conscience against that truth vvhich othervvise I in hart beleeued Novv therefore for the poore amends that lieth in me to make vnto Gods Church I protest before the blessed Trinitie and al the glorious company in heauen and by this publike vvriting vvhich I voluntarily make and subscribe vvith mine ovvne hand That I beleeue in al points the holy Catholick Apostolick Romane Church submitting my self to her and the cheefe gouernor thereof our Lord and Maister Gregory the xiij Christs supreme Minister in earth and do Detest Accurse Anathematize and Condemne from the botome of my hart al Heresies Schismes and Sectes and specially the heresies of Luther Caluin and al others vnto vvhich I might seeme by my outvvard wicked behauiour and dissimulation to haue been enclined vnto Desiring God and our holy mother the Church no othervvise to haue mercie on me to saluation then so long so farre as I keepe professe and mantaine to my povver the said faith of our holy forefathers taught set furth by the See Apostolick Giuen in my chamber at Rhemes the xiij of May 1583. in the presence of M. Thomas Bailly Priest M. Humphrey Ely Doctor of the Lavves and M. Seth Foster Priest I acknovvledge this to be mine owne act Richard Baines Priest THE SATISFACTION OF EDWARD OSBERNE PRIEST TOVCHING his frailties and fall from the Catholike Church at his being in England IT is almightie Gods great wisedom mercy that he hath besides his other iuste iudgements either tēporall or eternall vpon sinners ioyned also for most parte some great affliction and torment of minde for a continuall inward checke and chasticement of their offences euen in them selues and in this life which caused a great Clearke to saie Thou haste commaunded
faith it vvas abruptly in three howers donne by me beside none at Paris either helped me or saw it as yet therefore it must needes be childishe I pray you let it come to light both for the honor of the Church and my credit also and for the discharging of my conscience besides I made a solemne oth that there is nothing but that it is true euery good Christian vvill thinke so and I vvould you could learne his name that was in prison neere me in the Gatehovvse aske him c. as for the resolution of entring into religion I haue chosen meaning thereby to worke by Gods grace my saluation I do it not for neede for first I might may be but I vvill not a Carthusian although I neuer offred my self besides going vvith a good Religious Father to Says in Normandie there in an Abbey of Sainct Martin I vvas requested of most of the Brethren as this Father can testifie to enter into their order but I neither offred my self there or to any other order but this Nor minde to be of any but this of the Carmes which I trust I haue made choise of by Gods suggestion not condēning any other order al doublesse being of God neither yet enter I into religion for neede or for desperation for I know that if the number of my sinnes were more then the litle sandes of the sea if I vnfainedly repent by Contrition Confession and Satisfaction as much as I can that God will be mercifull vnto me to be short I vvill neither in any calling dispaire or presume for if in any thing in this it is truely said In medio consistit virtus Briefly I will either attempt it vvith zeale deuotion and full desire of working my saluation and the seruice of God or els Manum de tabula that is I will leaue of betime and not take the habit and afterwards Valedicere habitui conuentui As for the rest in your letter if I study not to put them in execution to th'vttermost of my power surely my hart is more hardened then euer Pharoes hart was seing that one not much inferiour to Moyses doth both by word of mouth and by writing speake vnto me so louingly effectually Thus leuing of to trouble you I request al your prayers for me and as my bound dutye is I will whiles I liue be your beades man At Paris Your daily Oratour Laurence Caddey THE CONFESSION OF RICHARD BAINES PRIEST AND LATE STVdent of the Colledge of Rhemes made after he vvas remoued out of the common gaile to his chamber AS my miserie vvickednes vvas greate which I vvill now set downe to the publishing of my ingratitude to God the Church and my superiors so vvas Gods iustice mercy and prouidence meruelous towards me to saluation as I verely hope Of al vvhich to the glory of Christ and satisfaction of the holy Church and all her children whom I haue offended or scandalized to mine owne vvorthy confusion temporall I intend to make this my publike confession that al that stand may by my exāple beware of a fall and such as be fallen may thereby make hast to aryse againe The very ground of my fall and of al the wickednes ether committed or intēded was my pride which droue me to a lothsomenes to liue in order and obedience to conceipts of mine owne vvorthines and manifold discontentement of the schollarlike condition vvherein I liued to an immoderat desire of more ease welth and which I specially also respected of more delicacie of diet and carnal delits then this place of banishment was like to yeld vnto me though vvo vnto me that could not see so fare before the studēts state in the Seminarie vvhere I vvas in very honest compt and calling is in all points so good and happy that most vvise men wonder at Gods so mercifull and plentifull prouision for the competent maintenance of so many in such a blessed trade of life and education Besides this though I vvas not onely a student in diuinitie but also a priest though many vvaies I shewed and made my self most vnworthie of that high degree pretēding in dede in the sight of my superiors the study of holy scriptures as dewly required yet in truth I most delited in prophane writers and the vvorst sort of them such as ether wrot against the truth or had least tast of religion vvhereby the holy vvriters of my Christian profession priesthood began daily to waxe more and more tedious and lothsome vnto me in so much that in the doing of such publike exercises as by my course of study or my superiors appointmēt I often made I had a delit rather to fil my mouth and the auditors eares with daintie delicat nice and radiculous termes and phrases then vvith vvholsome sound and sacred doctrine Whereby at leinght I had such a liking of my self that through nouelties of wordes ioyned vvith pretty prouerbs termes and mocking taunts wherevnto by natural inclination and by my said prophane vsage I vvas much giuen I found meanes to insinuat my self to the familiaritie of some of the yonger sort that me thought might easely be caried into discontentment to mislike of rule and discipline and of subiection to their maisters and gouernors for vvhich purpose I vsed ordinarily some prety skoffes against euery of the elders of our howse Vndermining by art also but in pretence of great playnnes and holy simplicitie certen very honest men vvhom I thought knevv somewhat of my superiors secrecie the knowledge whereof our lord God forgiue me I purposed to abuse as occasion afterward should be giuē to the annoyance and great hurt as wel of the Catholike cause as of the Seminaries our President and other principal persons to whom by the lavv of God nature and by singular benefits donne to me I ovve all duety With this I began by litle and litle to the scandal ruyne of diuers of the youth and other my fellovves if God had not preserued them by his singuler grace as vvel by my example of licentious life as by vvicked words to shew my mislike of fasting and praying calling for flesh pies or pasties in my chamber on fry daies at night and omitting the diuine seruice prescribed to men of my calling often iesting and skoffing thereat before some of my companions in vvhose secrecie loue toward me I had some affiāce And then proceding farther and farther in vvickednes I began to mocke at the lesser points of religion vvhich is the high vvay to Heresie Infidelitie Athisme as to my great daunger I haue experience in myne owne case so lamentable desiring al Christian people to take head by my example Protesting to al the vvorld that it is not reason nor scriptures nor the spirit of God which are so much pretēded by protestants that leadeth any man to that damnable sect by vvhich one countrey is perished but it is voluptuousnes sensualitie pride ambition