her royall Maiestie hath receiued life being hir crowne kingdome and diademe won and conuerted vnder Kings Ethelbertus Adelwaldus Kingylsus Edwine Peda or Wiferus Sygebertus and Redwalde her most noble and renowned christian catholike Predecessors Kings of England vnited by king Egbertus augmented and enlarged by so many Henries Edwards and others known Catholike Kings by whome so many immunities fauours and priuiledges were graunted to our religion So many altares churches chappels monasteries and places of professing Papistry as Protestants name it were founded and prouided in the first time of our conuersion from Idolatry and the very Primitiue dayes of christianitie in England The Churches of saint Paul in London of Canterbury Winchester Lincolne Westminster and others the common Schooles of Cambridge by king Sigebert the vniuersity of Oxford by king Alfrede the monastery of Gloucester by king Ofricus the monastery of Hetesey by king Oswye who assigned possssions for twelue more monasteries in Northumberland the monastery of Saint Martine in Douer by king Whitred the abbey of Lestingey by king Oswalde sonne to Saint Oswalde the abbey of Abington by king Cyssa the monastery of Ely by Queene Etheldred wife to king Elfride the monastery of Chertsey by king Edgar the abbey of Peterborow by king Ethelwalde the abby of Bardney by king Etheldredus Glastenbury by king Iâ—a the monastery of Winchcombe by king Kenulfus the abbey of Saint Albons by king Offa the abbey of Ethelingsey and nunnery of Shaftersbury by king Alfrede and fortie monasteries by king Edgar all which were edified and founded in the time of our Primitiue Church and within two hundred yeeres of our first conuersion as Fox himselfe acknowledgeth What donations and free giftes were graunted to the English Clergy by those first christian kings the donations of king Ethelwulfe Ethelbalde and others were to be free in their lands and territories from secular seruices and payments tributes and taxations to Kings c. that all churches and monasteries should be absolued from al publike vectigales works and burdens that they might therby more diligently serue God by how much they were more alleuiated of those seruices Such likewise were the graunts of Kings Sigebertus Cissa Edgar Etheldredus Offa Aluredus for the praying to God and Saints for the soules of them and their posteritie So that no man can doubt of what faith they were except it bee a question whether hee that prayeth to Saints prayeth for the dead offereth sacrifice of Masse graunteth church liberties honoreth the See of Rome buildeth altares monasteries and nunneries for Monks and Nunnes and foundeth these things be a Papist or a Protestant And it is so manifest that these holy and sanctified kings were popish and moonkish men as they tearme them and of our religion that presently vpon their beleeuing in Christ the greatest care and study they had was to prouide ornaments and necessary furniture for that profession And among the Saxon Kings within the space of two hundred yeeres as Foxe himselfe with others reporteth in the English Primitiue church nine Kings at the least King Kingylsus Iue Colulfus Eadbertus Ethelredus Kenredus Offa Sebbi and Sigebertus voluntarily forsooke their kingdoms professed monasticall life and liued monkes in vow of pouertie chastity and obedience and for that most religious action as our ennemies themselues acknowledge were most highly honoured and commended of all historians and still to this day for that cause are more glorious both to themselues and our nation then the other of our Kings how honorable soeuer The wordes of that history which Foxe in his Monuments citeth to that end are these Religion did most clearely shine insomuch that Kings Queenes Princes and Dukes Consuls and Barons and rulers of Churches incensed with desire of the kingdome of Heauen labouring and striuing among themselues to enter into monasticall life into voluntary exile and solitary liuing forsooke all and followed God And no man can deny it to bee true all Historians report it all Monuments Antiquities auouch it Wherefore my assurance is that my gratious Soueraigne and prudent Princesse clayming all things by their title cannot be offended for defence of the faith of all her noble christian progenitors and ancestors vntill now Besides so many christian kings of the Brittons about thirty in number from Lucius the first to Cadwall ader and of the English or Saxon Danish and Norman nation a hundred and fiftie kings from the conuersion of Ethelbertus Adelwaldus or Ethelwaldus Kingilsus Edwine Peda or Weda or Wiferus Sigebertus and Redwalde the first christian Kings of rhe Saxonish Septarchie most wise prudent vertuous and triumphant Princes which both they themselues embraced and maintained with all zeale and deuotion and promulged and deliuered by al lawes and constitutions to their posteritie Kings and subiects to be beleeued Which her Maiesties father K. Henry the eight although denying the Romane iurisdiction obserued in all his life and of denying that iurisdiction at his death repented of king Edward the sixt an infant more needing to be taught than to teach I say nothing and my Soueraigne that is in the time of her sister Qu. Mary professed with much deuotion and after her death at and after her owne coronation in the fidelitie oth and promise of a Prince according to our antient lawes and titles of Kings of England hath obliged and indebted her selfe to protect and defend And for defence whereof as appeareth by the statute of Westminster the first and other authenticall Recordes all those regall and princely prerogatiues which were graunted by the free subiects of England to their Kings her Catholike predecessours and which she still enioyeth by that title were granted and confirmed as euery one may reade in the kings prerogatiues and statutes in the titles of such principalities as were then and for that reason and intent giuen vnto them as the priuiledges of alienations auowsons citations corporations escheats fooles forfeitures franchises deodands intrusions mort dauncestries partitions pateÌ„ts primer seisins prouisions tenures wards seruices releefes wrecks and other preeminences Therefore this defence of those holy and euer most honorable kings can not be offensiue to my wise and prudent Princesse hauing clayming and pretending all tide and interest shee hath either to temporall or spirituall dignitie as heire and successor to their regall right and authoritie And to descend lower to those which haue bin benefited by those Princes you first my noble Patrons that possesse those honourable offices and dignities you enioy them by their institution they the first donors and founders of those preferments that life and beeing which you haue I meane not onely your honorable orderly and peaÌ„ceable life and liuing in gouernement of their prouision but that very naturall life it selfe wherein you communicate with all other reasonable men in some sort you possesse by them for if those Princes had not aduaunced your auncestors to honours and nobility
those parents of whom you are discended and haue receiued being had not bin matched together for so great disparitie betweene them and so you had neither enioyed honour dignitie life or any being at all So that howe much or whatsoeuer you can chalenge to haue you are indebted vnto them And the rest of the nobilitie of England though not chosen to that high credite and fauour of our Princesse yet whatsoeuer it is they haue landes castles mannors titles of dignitie they possesse it by their ordinance as euery Cittizen his priuiledge and immunitie euery countrey vplandish man his quiet and orderly gouernement and protection And that miserable people of England that vntruely challengeth the name of Cleargie among Protestants whatsoeuer honour Archbishop Bishop Deane or inferior order or degrees and titles in Schooles as Doctors Bachilors and Maisters and places of learning Vniuersities Colledges or Learning it selfe or their Bishoppricks Benefices Churches Houses Donations Priuiledges or any other thing they can name was deriued from our Catholike Kings Princes and those that were of that Religion Sigebertus Kingylsus Ethelbert Ofricus Wiferus Etheldredus Oswye Wbykred Oswalde Cissa Edgar Ethelbalde Iua Kenulfus Offa Aluredus Ethelwulfe Edwarde and others before the conquest and such as raigned after to the Protestant regiment no Protestant Prince enriched many spoyled churches Wherefore seeing all estates in England Soueraigne and subiects of euery condition and calling haue receiued and doe enioy so many and irrecompensible fauours from those Catholike Kings and by as many obligations are bound and endebted to so honourable and immortall benefactors no person can be so vnmindfull of duty or irregardfull of gratitude to be displeased with my defence of them which euery English-man is so much obliged to defend And if it appertaine to the title and iurisdiction of christian Kings such as no man can denie them to haue beene to determine matters and questions of Religion as the English Protestants maintaine then if I should bring no other argument but the decrees and constitutions of those holy and learned Kings to proue my entent it ought to be admitted especially ioyning therewith the authority and consent of the still forcible lawes of my euer honored Princesse for in so dooing I shall prooue my Religion by that ground whereby onely it is impugned by the Protestants of England assigning the temporall prince for the time being to haue supreame authoritie in that cause and of what credite soeuer the Statutes of the Protestants are in this question touching her Maiesties catholike predecessors it was in all vpright iudgement vnpossible they should be deceiued For if God giueth ordinary or extraordinary assistaunce to Kings and Princes either for their owne vertuous endeuours and sanctity or for the pietie learning and number of them by whome they are counsailed and aduised there is no comparison but rather Protestant princes should erre then they the zeale and deuotion of those Kings catholike I haue cited before and Protestant writers Pantaleon Foxe and others acknowledge many of them to be glorious Saints in heauen whither false Religion could not bring theÌ„ And to giue example it is written not onely by English both Catholike and Protestant but forraine Historians that king Aelfred builded the monastery of monkes in Ethelingsey and that of nunnes in Shaftesbury he founded the vniuersitie of Oxford hee translated the lawes into our English tongue and diuerse other profitable Bookes for the instruction of his subiects hee diuided the foure and twenty houres of the day and night into three equall partes eight houres he spent in writing reading and praying eight houres in sleepe and other bodily prouision and the other eight houres in hearing and dispatching the causes and complaintes of his subiectes Such was the exercise of Kings in those catholike times as all Historians and Registers are witnesse and their constitutions themselues contained among the Lawes of Saint Edwarde reported by Foxe and yet to be seene in Guilde Hall giue euidence wherein is contained that King which dooth not such things in his owne person is not woorthy the name of a King and that hee ought to take his solemne oathe vppon the Euangelists and blessed Relickes of Saints before the whole state of his realme to execute such things and maintaine the holy Church with all integrity and libertie according to the Constitutions of his Auncestors and Predecessors before he be crowned of the Archbishops and Bishoppes and that he ought to haue vnder him three seruants as vassails fleshly lust auarice and greedy desire This was the integritie exercise and profession of those Princes so that if these â—ters must bee referred to Princes iudgements in regarde of themselues it is not likely they were permitted by God to bee in errour which performed all things both for the aduauncing his honour and the publike peace which was the rigorous execution of their duetie If wee considder what counsaile and aduise they vsed as in matters of warre they consulted with such expert and valiant captaines as were both a securitie at home and a terrour to forraine Nations and in causes of peace and publike gouernement with the most prudent wise and sage men iudges and others of our nation as the wordes of the auntient donations of our Kings Cum consilio Episcoporum Principum by the counsaile of Bishops and Princes and as all Monuments and the teste of euery Writ in law to this day wil declare so concerning matters of practicall conscience the greatest offices as Chancellor priuie Seale and Treasurer which be the chiefest places of confidence and conscience were alwayes executed in those dayes as Maister Fox reporteth by the Claergie and Bishoppes of England And touching matters of Faith and Religion they had alwayes of their priuy Councel the most holy vertuous and learned Bishops of their time such were Saint Cedde Saint Anselme Saint Dunstane Saint Thomas of Canterbury Saint Thomas of Hereford Lanfrancus and others to their Kings and whatsoeuer any publike decree of religious causes was to be enacted or receiued in parliament the whole Cleargie of England in their Cardinals Archbishops Bishops Suffragans Abbots Priors and other chiefe ecclesiasticall persons ten to one in number to the parliament ministery of this time was alwayes present and no decree of faith euer concluded but by the generall consent of the whole christian worlde generall councells and the vniuersall Church of God which can neuer be seduced so that no possible place of errour was left for those kings except God would which he could not permitte the whole world to be deluded To which if wee adde so many supernaturall signes and miracles as are written confessed by Protestants themselues in the liues of Saint Oswable Saint Edmunds Saint Edwards Lucius Kingylsus Iua Ceoluisus Offa Sigebertus and other knowne catholike kings of England shewed by God to testifie the trueth of their Religion in earth and
haue beene are entred in So seeing contraries are and must be cured by contraries and certaintie and true vnitie in religion is the onely remedy of such intollerable and prophane abuses as haue proceeded from want thereof I haue written a cōpleate confutation of all enemies to true reuerence of what condition soeuer Atheists Epicures and such as be deniers of all worship or externall infidells and aduersaries of Christ Pagans Iews Mahumetanes or internall ennemies as the heretikes of all ages eyther past present or to be heereafter which I haue named A Resolution of Religion because therein not onely all doubtes and difficulties eyther pretended by any of those misbeleeuers or by any means to be imagined or conceiued are loosed and resolued but euery article and question of that most holy and approoued Religion which I defend is solued from all errours and resolued to the most assured and infallible word and reuelation of God which by no possibilitie can either be deceiued in himselfe or be cause of errour vnto others Whereby euery point and proposition of religious duety will be prooued to be so certaine that no infidell or false beleeuer can make it doubtfull So certaine as Saint Chrysostome writeth as any naturall demonstration is or to folow saint Augustines phrase so vndoubted that a man in iudgement should sooner doubt whether himselfe doth liue than call any article of that faith into question So that as nothing can be more holy credible and woorthy to be beleeued then that doctrine which I am to teach so nothing can be more irreligious obstinacie and wilfulnesse than to deny and not embrace it and as great madnes to follow any other false profession being as resolutely proued that they are all most vaine false erroneous and resolued to the lying spirite of the Diuell and wicked deceiuers and seducers SECT V. The certaintie excellency and dignity of Catholike Religion AND lest any Reader should maruaile that in a time of so great question and vncertainty of true Religion I should so peremptorily vndertake to so great personages and with so much securitie to shew any Religion so vndoubted and certaine as I haue assumed I do not meane thereby any of those erroneous professions either affirming or denying reuerence Not the blasphemous impietie of Diagoras Lucretius Epicures and Epicurians impugning all Religion to whose sacriligious liues and sentences God and all creatures are so repugnant to which all reasons dissent to whom no Argument or authoritie of any Country Citty Towne Villadge or particular man not mad with passions or frantickly distracted by pleasures in so many thousands of yeares as the world hath beene and in so many kingdomes and countries thereof yet agreed Neither any of those Infidelities of Iewes Mahumetanes Brachmans and Pagans so often by that Religion I will defend both miraculously and otherwise confuted and condemned by their owne confessions and withall maintaining either pluralities or corporeitie mutation change and dishonourable imperfections in God to whom Religion is belonging haue in all reason spoyled him of all worship and reuerence for none can be due to such a God or Gods as they imagine besides so many irreligious errours against the light of nature it selfe which are vnpossible to be taught of God and yet be rewarded in the chiefest Rules of these Religions Neither any of so many hundreds of expleaded or nowe raigning heresies or any that shall arise hereafter not the Religion of Martine Luther so often professed and both priuately and publickly recanted altered changed doubted and redoubted by himselfe as his owne workes and all protestants doe witnesse neither of licentious Caluine and a few artificers of Geneua or of Knekes that gally slaue of Scotland or of Edward Seymer duke of Somerset or King Edward the sixt a child of nine yeares old without any assent or assembly either of parliament or other as Fox himselfe is witnes the wil and testament of K. Henry the eight being violated and his Bishops and Clergy committed to prison or depriued Neither of the Protestants of this time which without disputation or aduise of any learned or parliamentall diuine all such then depriued by the consent of some vnlearned Noble men Knights of Shires and Burgesses of the townes of England was enacted and decreed Nor any other builded vpon the deceitfull deduction of any priuate man or framed vppon any such feeble and false foundation for so I should committe my selfe and bring my Readers to the same pittifull danger whereof I complained in those professors But I defend that Religion and Worship which all most learned and vertuous men of the whole christian worlde as well priuately by themselues as twenty times gathered together in generall Councells haue euer concluded out of holy Scriptures which many thousandes of nationall and prouinciall Sinodes euerie one of far more authoritie than any Protestant assembly all vniuersities colleges schooles and places of learning the Lawes of all christian Princes spirituall and temporall haue decreed For although wee ordinarily defend the infallible definition of POPES in controuersiall questions of Religion when Councells and such Remedies cannot be called and vsed as in temporall yea spirituall causes the Queenes Maiestie by her new taken prerogatiue proceedeth without Parliament yet all doubts and difficulties betweene Protestants and vs we defend as defined in general Councels out of holy Scriptures and yet the definition of any Pope in such cases by al moral iudgement is vnpossible to be false for neuer any did or doth or will define any sentence but that that was or shal be the cōmon opinion of al schools vniuersities with the assent of the best learned of the world such examination as the difficulty to be adindged requires I defend that Religion which only is ratified by all authoritie all Scriptures Traditions Prophets Apostles Euangelists Sybils Rabbins before Christ all holy learned Fathers Historians Antiquaries and Monum al Sinodes Councels Laws Parliaments Canons and Decrees of Popes Emperors Kings and Rulers all Martires Confessors holy witnesses by al friends enemies euen Mahumetans Iewes Pagans Infidels al former Heretikes Schismatikes these Protestants themselues when they were most probable to speake the truth and al testimonies that can be deuised not only in this world but of God of Angelles and glorified soules whose euidence cannot be vntrue of Diuels and damned soules in hell condemned for their contempt or negligence therof of soules in Purgatory whatsoeuer can be cited for witnes in such cases as wil be most euident in my particular arguments not onlie of the Titles heere recited but many others I defend that Religion which hath confuted al forreine aduersaries Atheists Epicures Iewes Pagans Mahumetans Magicians Philosophers which hath conquered left without memory aboue foure hundred Sects of internall and domesticall heretikes subdued all nations and brought to subiection all that haue opposed themselues against it
Nobilitie COncerning you my honorable Patrons that wisedome and prudence which hath exalted you to that tipe of dignitie dooth tell you that you are not wiser in these causes than thousands of so wise learned vertuous and honourable predecessors in that place councellors to those holy kings suppose you might contend in politike gouernment with many or most that went before you let it be some might be admitted fellowes in armes with so many martiall and victorious men because in such cases you haue beene experienced yet to that which is most or onely materiall in this question and controuersie of learning religion and diuinitie you are too wise to make so vnequall a comparison to ballance your selues vntrained and vnskilfull in such faculties with so many Saints most holy learned and professed Diuines Bishoppes and others famous in the whole christian world such as great numbers of the councellors of those Princes were Therefore seeing it is the same vertue of prudence which teacheth and directeth what to doe and admonisheth what we are not able to performe it must needs put you in minde of the place you possesse the charge you haue vndertaken promise and fidelitie you haue giuen and I remaine assured the pietie mercie iustice and heroical munificence which be the vndiuided companions of that virtue the naturall gratitude you owe to so many descents of your noble predecessors benefactors and most zealous professours of the religion I defend will both conquer your wittes and mooue your willes As I haue prooued of the Kings of England in all former times those that were our greatest friends still enioy the greatest honor both in heauen and earth those that frinded vs least haue the least interest therein and those which were our enemies heauen earth are still at enmitie and variance with them so it was with your predecessours in that place and the auncestors of our whole nobilitie the examples are too many to be cited if any man desireth the view he may haue it in the catalogue of our vnfortunate Nobles and for Protestant councellors let him call to minde what an Agent Thomas Lord Cromwell was in these affaires how he was aduaunced thereby what spirituall lands yea offices hee hadde what fauour with Prince howe potent ouer subiects yet by that law which he had prouided for others himselfe was first that was thereby condemned not admitted to the presence of his Prince What was the tragicall and mournfull enterlude of the two Protestant Protectors of king Edward the sixt the chiefe pillers and first originalles of English Protestancie the Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland so basely disgraced put to death Who in the time of her Maiestie that is so violent an enemy against vs as Robert earle of Leicester yet the professors of that faith doe liue and he at the very time when hee hadde designed the most bloudy persecution against vs miserably died terrified with monstrous visions of diuels and now his name is not aliue Sir Francis Walsingham his deere friend was the mast cruel aduersarie for his degree which this time hath maintained against vs yet his miserable death his despairing wordes Lay me aside and let me be forgotten the illusions hee had at the same time and the filthy stinke and corruption of his body wanting all funerall pompe basely buried in the night will be an eternall infamy against him I coulde easily exemplifie in others both of the peaceable and martiall condition but I will not be offensiue to any of their families these which I haue recounted haue left few heires either of honour or their names behinde them Wherefore most honourable Patrons and you the rest of the wise and noble gentry of England Honor is the crest of your endowments Glorie is that you desire true honor and glory are onely or chiefly belonging to that honorable state which I defend this glory is truely in him that is religious hee is honoured heere of God by grace and in heauen by glory other honors be rather in men that honour than in them that be honoured And yet if your immortall appetites must needes possesse these mortall honors there is none you now enioy none you can desire which euer any of our Nation had but was deriued from the gifts donations and bounties of our Catholike Popes and Princes to your auncestors and predecessors and so to you by inheritance from the one and succession from the other It was neuer hitherto accompted dishonourable to any to be professor of that religion which made him glorious There haue beene many renowned families in England which haue brought foorth many glorious men and yet they which were most religious in our profession alwayes were and euer will be the chiefest honour of their houses Saint Guthlach the poore Eremite of Crowland was sonne to the noble Penwalde of the linage of king Ethelred and yet farre more honourable for his religion than natiuitie and nowe chiefly honoured for that cause So S. Suitbert sonne of the Earle of Nottingham and his Lady Berta whome Saxonie honoureth for the Apostle of that nation So S. Thomas Bishop of Hereford Chauncellour to King Henry the third sonne of the noble Cantilupus and Millicent Countesse of Yorke and Saint Ceadda councellor to King Alchfride Saint Dunstane and other religious councellors to our catholike Princes before named are nowe in all Histories and memories more honorable than any of that place that were not of their profession The only order of S. Benedict so renowned in our Nation hath had about twenty Kings and Emperours aboue an hundred great Princes many Popes sixteene hundred archbishops foure thousand bishops fifteen thousand famous men and fifteene thousand and sixe hundred most honourable canonized Saintes And such was the continuing and neuer fading honour that our religion gaue that our Kings Queens and greatest Princes thought it more honorable to bee religious than to seeke honour in temporall regiments It will be no easie thing for any Protestant to single foorth one auntient family of England of which there haue not beene many Bishops Abbots or religious rulers in our Countrey and yet those by all Recordes and Monuments are and euer will be more renowned than the others of their descent And to exemplifie these names and houses following either still now are or heretofore haue bene great in England Baldwine Hubert Kylwarby Peccam Stratford Offord Braidwarden Islepe Langhton Witlesey Sudbery Courtney Arundell Chichelsey Burchier Morton and yet those Archbishoppes of Canterbury which were of these names and families when they liued were the most honorable of their linage their place of dignitie highest among subiects and next vnto our Kings and now so long after their deaths they are more honoured and remembred with glory than any of their lines Thus I might alleadge of other persons and places And it is written in the life of that noble Saint Suitbert that the children of the greatest Princes and
all those Schooles by institution offer weekely or daily sacrifice for our nation where prayer is continually made by deputed persons for her Maiestie where so many publike prayers processions fasting disciplines and austerities are vsed to that end The rules and gouernement there consent with the auntient foundations of our Cambridge and Oxford the Religion there vsed the doctrine there taught the Priesthoode and other Orders there taken sacrifice offered prayers that bee made Sacraments that be frequented Lawes that bee obserued all things there practized be the same which so many renowned Kings of England euer professed and defended as conformable to their temporal regiments and to which our Qu. Elizabeth by the fidelitie of a Prince by solemne oath and all greatest security an absolute Ruler can giue hath indebted her selfe to obserue at her Coronation And what disobedience or want of duety can it be to deny to her or any temporall Prince Supremacy in ecclesiasticall causes a preeminence so distinct and independing of the ciuil gouernement And it euer was so far fro treason to deny it to any of our Kings or Queenes that not onely all English subiects but our Kings themselues euer approoued it in the Roman See And neuer any temporall Turke Tartare Goth Vandall or impious ennemy of Christ heretike or infidell challenged it as belonging to their temporall stile and no Protestant Prince at this day except in England eyther claimeth to him selfe or maketh it treason to giue it to the Pope of Rome Neyther dooth or euer did any or these professed ennemies to that See condemne for a temporall disobedience to appeale thither in spirituall causes or maketh it a matter of state to goe on pilgrimage to Rome or bring a Crucifix Picture or any halowed thing from thence which can be no busines of a commonwealth But all other Christians of the worlde euen such as bee vnder the Turkish regiment or any other whether they be Iacobites in aboue forty kingdomes Nestorians Maronites in Libia and Phoenitia Armenians Georgians Suryans Mozarabes Indians vnder Peter Iohannes in seauentie and twoo kingdomes or any others besides all Catholike and Christian kingdomes in this or other partes of the world haue free accesse without prohibition of their Princes either to Rome Ierusalem or any place where Christ is or hath beene reuerenced And in the dayes of the greatest temporall honour and renowne of England vnder the most glorious English Princes it hath beene so farre from disturbance or indignitie to our temporall state to goe that iourney and fetch or receiue such things from thence that our most puissant and triumphant Kings themselues haue performed those offices in their own princely and royall persons as our Protestant Writers be witnesses Howe honourable those Princes were for those and such offices as also how dishonourable with men and strangely punished of God not only al Kings of England but of other nations which practized any thing offensiue to that Roman iurisdiction I haue declared before If wee should enter into comparison of this kingdome now Protestant eyther with it selfe vnder Catholike regiment or with forraine Catholike kingdomes my sentence is true whether wee consider the glory of king Henry the eight and this kingdome before his fall or their infamie and dishonours after or the short or turbulent season of king Edward the sixt or for this present time what it is and what like to be which duety to her Maiestie chargeth me to leaue to the lamentable consideration of all men now and the pittifull experience of those which shall prooue it heereafter When contrariwise if wee enter into conceipt of Catholicke kingdomes ruled by that Religion and law which we defend they will be named the flowers of the worlde our neighbouring countries Fraunce Spaine Italie and others may be giuen for instance And to particularize in them that be most hated of English Protestants the Pope of Rome for a spiritual person and the Spanish King for a temporall Prince Is not the power and iurisdiction of the first extended by many degrees and whole kingdomes further and more glorious than euer was the Regencie of any spirituall superiour high Priest in Iewrie Caliphe of the Turkes Archflamine of the Pagans Archbishoppe of the Protestants or any their supreame head or gouernor in Ecclesiasticall causes in this or any other Nation neuer allowed further than one countrey and no man can question but the kingdomes riches and reuenews of the king Catholike are the greatest of any Monarch or Emperour in the worlde How the glory of all kingdomes was euer most when they most religiously embraced and maintained our doctrine I haue demonstrated at large in my Resolution no Article we defend prayer and adoration to Saints prayer for the dead restitution for wrongs and iniuries to those that liue obedience to Princes their iust and equall regiment the validitie of their lawes the force of good woorkes and their working the number grace and reuerence of Sacraments other holy things penance and punishment for sinne both in life and after with the rest being all affirmatiue positions teaching duety to God honour to Magistrates equalitie to all iniury and oppression to none the chiefest points of true regiment cannot be offensiue to a well ordered kingdome What quarrelles and contentions betweene Princes Kings and Subiects Nobles and Nobles and all estates haue beene comprimitted in England by the spirituall Romane authoritie now so hateful amōg vs which could by no other meanes be appeased the turbulent dealings in the time of King Henry the second so pacified the Barons warres quieted rigorous onerations imposed by Princes eased contentions and vnappeaseable warres of this kingdome with France and other Nations the like appeased and brought to end will witnesse What peace concord amitie and agreement in all estates the Protestants deniall of Restitution and Confession hath taken away what wrongs enmities and abuses it hath wrought the auntient loue neighbourly friendship christian charitie and peaceable agreement generally since then exploded among Protestant people are euidence for those bridles beeing broken what so conuenient meanes is either left or inuented by this generation to tame the inordinate passions of vnruly people How can the beginning of sinnes first inwardly hatched in the mind before they proceede to outwarde action to bee controlled by ciuill Lawes be stayed and preuented How can secret offences the mother and nurse of publike disorders be punished and destroyed Who can keepe Subiects from deuising against Soueraignes these from plotting against Subiects Subiects against themselues Who can now vmpire so many quarrelles euen with extraordinary and intolerable charges and abuses which the Consistory of Confession in euery parish so freely without bribe trouble or contention decided and rooted out For want whereof so many suites and actions in lawe such multitudes of Lawyers and their lately obtained riches haue ensued What abuses in their proceedings what vniust causes defended What iust and
bee defiled by false accusers whose bodies many yeeres after their death to witnesse the innocencie of their Religion and life remained vncorrupted nor those whome so many testimonies from heauen and earth haue confirmed to be most happy Saints to be reiected as impious I am out of doubt no Protestant Lady of England will or dareth to compare her selfe with the meanest of many which for the loue and honour of our Religion forsooke all temporall pleasures and princelie honours and preferring the poore chaste and obedient religious life before all dignities became sacred and consecrated Nunnes such as Foxe is enforced to consecrated were Queene Edelburge wife and Queene to King Edwine and daughter of King Anna. Saint Etheldrede wife to King Elfride and married before and yet a perpetuall Virgine as Saint Bede Fox and others do witnesse Sexburga daughter of King Anna and wife to King Ercombert Kineburga wife to King Alfride daughter to King Penda sister to king Ofricus Elfloda daughter to King Oswy and wife to King Peda and Alfritha wife to King Edgar Hylda daughter to the nephew of King Edwine Erchengoda and Ermenilda daughters of King Ercombert Werburga daughter to King Vlferus Kinreda Kinswida his sisters Elfrida daughter to King Oswy Mildreda Milburga and Milginda daughters of King Mirwaldus Saint Editha daughter to King Edgar and others most holie religious and miraculous Princesses the glorie of our English Ladies Or if the glorie and happinesse of Catholicke Princes will not mooue yet let the fearefull examples of the principall Protestant Ladies of England chiefe Agents in this quarrell greeuously afflicted of God and made dishonourable to the worlde putte vs in minde what wee ought to doe which though Stowe and Grafton haue too bluntly sette downe my selfe for some reuerent respects will heere omit Thinke it you Protestant Dames of England no disparagement in honor to be followers of those renowned Princesses which in all Antiquities are recorded to be the glory of your kinde and the supreame womanly honour of our Kingdome That RELIGION the greatest honour which hath giuen to them such eternitie of honour in Heauen can not make you dishonourable in Earth It is the nature of your sexe to immitate and in some things you will sometimes immitate too much If you that liue in Courte didde but knowe the guise of attires which those holy Queenes and Ladies vsed before they were Religious you would follow it in the highest degree although therein you should consent with the Dames of Italy France Spaine and Rome it selfe or any other place or person to which you professe your selues most distasted And in such things though neuer vsed of Queene Sexburga Etheldreda Edelburga or any of those or other Saintes your daily and new deuises are euidence against you that you esteeme it not dishonourable to learne of the Ladies of those Nations These agreements are not so worthie praise and yet therein you will not be at variaunce Then seeing the Religion of those Countries whose Ladies you allowe in matters so little deseruing immitation is that which maketh so honorable with God and man and not for a short courting but an euer-continuing time feare not to bee French Spanish Italian and Roman in that wherein the tipe and diademe of true honour consisteth or if you haue chosen to bee wedded onelie to terrene and debased honour yet you may not thinke so basely of that Religion I defend to disallowe it For all your earthly honours titles names and ensignes of dignitie were eyther first founded or after allowed and confirmed to your auncestors and in them to you by the Popes Emperours Kings and Regents in Catholike reuerence England Protestant wanteth many degrees of chiefest place which England Catholicke enioyed England Protestant hath diminished and added none to those which were before And those Countries I named and whose Religion I commend vnto you haue many of that condition which neuer any England hadde Catholicke Religion neuer denied any thing vnto you which was truely honourable it gaue you your dignities honourable places and priuiledges it gaue you credite with our Princes and for their and your honour ordayned you estates it defendeth your marriages to be honorable and a sacrament by that Religion your matrimonie was not in the pleasure of your Lordes repudiations and deuorcements at their willes were not knowen remarrying to a second wife the former liuing was euer most vnlawfull Concubines could not possesse the maintenaunce of your honours their bastardes might not enioy the inheritaunce of your legittimate for feare of offence I will be silent in most honourable fauours which your Catholike ancestors had and you might haue by that Religion and Protestancie cannot giue and referre that cause to your more serious examination and fauourable construction which for my promise of writing nothing offensiue to our English state I must willingly in this and other places leaue naked and vnfurnished of many and greatest arguments of defence SECT X. The Authors defence to all inferiour subiects IF I shoulde entreate what benefites and preferrements so many diuerse orders and conditions of inferiour subiects enioyed by enioying our Religion and what they lost by losse thereof as I should make my cause too popular and pleasing vnto them so I feare I might be offensiue to some to whome I haue promised to giue no occasion of offence Therefore I will onely put them in minde that as all their auncestors and predecessors were of the same RELIGION with vs so an innumerable company of their kinsfolks were religious men and women and in them the care of their parents ended and they became Fathers and mothers to their parents and families others were attendant instructed and maintained by pensions corrodies farmes annuities leases and tenements of our religious houses the poore were releeued in our Hospitalles and by our almes others liuing vppon our landes without fines or enhaunced rents euery temporall man and woman enioying more for them and theirs by howe much so many hundred thousandes of religious persons claimed and needed lesse by their poore and single life No wife to prouide for ioynture no daughter to endowe and giue in marriage no elder sonne to enrich with new inheritance and spared purchases no yonger sonne to be aduaunced by emprooued rents toyles or turnings out of Farmes no tenaunt chaunged no fines no forfeitures taken no woodes destroyed no priuiledge or freedome withdrawne many new and greater graunted by Kings and Noble men to religious persons their tenaunts and tenures not so many iarres and quarrelles in lawe contentions and debates of the poore subiects comprimitted by ghostly confessors religious persons and kings themselues SECT X. His defence to the Ministerie of England LAstly to come to the Protestant Ministery of England whose anger and displeasure as I esteeme it least so I name them last I appeale to all those estates I haue recounted for iudgement whether in accusing them of ignoraunce or
wilfulnesse in errour I offer them wrong or no It is more agreeing to the lawe of God of nature nations reason humane ciuilitie conscience or whatsoeuer may bee termed and taken for a lawe when it dooth so chaunce that either all learned and holy men in the christian worlde that euer were in so many hundred yeeres in all times and places should bee condemned or else a few neyther learned nor vertuous but ignorant and wicked should be reprooued and disallowed that the most and first must be freeed and the least and last condemned Then lette the Ministeriall Cleargie of England yeelde mee patience for I defend the doctrine and opinion of all godly and famous professors of Diuinitie all Popes Fathers and Doctours that euer were in the Church all Councelles particular and generall all forren domesticall Vniuersities Schooles Colledges and places of christian learning since the time of Christ to Martine Luther where so many thousandes or millions of miraculously approoued holy Saintes haue liued and died in this profession and onely impugne a new poore lewde licentious and vnlearned company of Ministers of one Kingdome or age and such as in particular reasons I will demonstrate to be euident wilfull and ignorant mis-expounders false translators and alleadgers of holy Scriptures liars deceitfull hereticall maintainers of olde condemned heresies actually erring and reerring in greatest questions and matters of Faith ensigned and marked with all tokens and badges which holy Scripture purtraiture Heretickes Seducers and Reprobate persons by that they learned their religion of the diuel himselfe that it was first deuised and after maintained for carnall libertie and wicked endes that they teach they know not what themselues contrary to holy Scriptures although we expound them by their owne rules of exposition contrary to their owne proceedings contrary to all authoritie humane and diuine contrary to all Lawes of God of nature nations particular Countries of all ciuill and politicke gouernement hauing nothing conducing to mans saluation or that can bring to heauen that by all iudgement of Christianitie those that died in that state without repentaunce except inuincible ignoraunce coulde excuse some simple Soules are condemned in hell yet seeing in this I shall dispute chiefly against the priuate Religion of one Nation in one onely time if I should leaue out the rest of the christian worlde in all ages and because England nowe hath a particular Religion to it selfe compare the sanctitie learning and authoritie of former Catholicke English Bishoppes and Diuines with our present Ministers I shall iustifie my cause to their great confusion As to giue example in our chiefest Metropolitane See Whether is it more equall and consonant to reason to giue credite for either the one or the other must be vtterly discredited to Thomas Cranmer the first Protestant Regent there Parkar and Grindal notoriously knowne not onely to haue beene of three diuerse Religions in substantiall poynts one against an other but euery one of them at diuerse times to please their Princes often in the greatest questions to haue differed from him selfe and they to haue beene of seauen or eight diuerse Religions for none of them was eyther burned for Protestancie or quartered for denying Supremacie or a Saint for life to speake the best renowned for learning for any monument or argument I coulde euer finde And to exemplifie in Cranmer their first and principle that was to condemne so many learned and holy Saints that had beene in that Archiepiscopall See and be a patterne to all his successors hee was condemned of high treason against his Prince prooued publikely periured and to haue counterfaite the handes and consents of fifty Cleargy men for the aduantage of his cause hee recanted his errour was in case of relapse and for ignoraunce was hissed and exploded in the common Schooles of Oxforde in publike disputations all which Foxe himselfe is enforced to graunt and can not deny Then whether is it more equall to giue credit to these than to Saint Augustine the Monke first archbishoppe there Saint Laurence Mellitus Iustus Honorius Deusdedit Theodorus Berctualdus Tacuinus and others three score and eight in number almost twenty to one many or most holy and learned men miraculously approoued of God and for pietie and learning admired of the whole worlde If they pretende the decrees of any Protestant Prince for exposition of holy Scriptures and proposition of Religion I haue cited almost twoo hundred to one before and in the lawes of that Prince which soeuer any Protestant will assigne eyther King Henry the eight King Edward the sixt or our Queene Elizabeth I will ouerthrowe them and prooue how euery one of them hath defined false and contradictory things to themselues which in some parte already appeareth in my last citations of Statutes If they alleadge their Vniuersities they are ouermatched in Catholike times at once Oxford hath had thirtie thousand Students all euer of the same minde with vs. For other Clergie men England Catholike had at the least if wee will coniecture by Fox his computation aboue a hundred thousand more than England Protestant is able to shew If they speak of sinods our sinods were greater in number of men tenne to one in number of assemblies two hundred to one If they speake of Parliaments and Lawes decreed there the excesse is more in both respectes If they vrge Scriptures and true sence of them by deduction by resorting to the originall tongues the Hebrew in the olde and Greeke in the new Testament comparing of places and examining circumstances which be their owne rules of exposition and the ground of their profession or howsoeuer the comparison is made the victory is ours Wee vse more Scriptures for numbers of Bookes more for diuersities of tongues than they and yet refuse none which they admit All our expositours of Scriptures haue beene continuall professed Students in diuinitie expert and acquainted with all Rules and meanes of true exposition diuerse of them most excellent Linguists and many naturall borne Greekes and Hebrewes and wee neuer receiued or beleeued any thing as a matter of Faith but that which the whole Catholicke Church which cannot erre had defined and receiued Their expositors of Scriptures were neuer to bee compared vnto these and at that time when their Religion was decreede and established out of Scriptures they must say there was not one person present which eyther vnderstoode Greeke or Hebrew or coulde vse any other of their Rules For their religion was first approoued in the first Parliament of our Queene Elizabeth where not one man learned in Diuinitie was present and had parlamentall voyce That wee Catholikes would wilfully erre is too wilfull impudencie to affirme it the profession of that Religion we defend is seuere and strict in regarde of that wee doe deny the punishmentes and penalties we vndergoe for our profession are many and greatest the temporall preferrement is none at all The contrary