Subiects are absolued froÌ„ their oath of fealtie allegeance and those that obay her are accursed What though all Catholiks are not priuie to your Popes reasons informations may it not be concluded necessarily notwithstaÌ„ding that that such as acknowledge the Popes supreme authoritie ouer Prices and hold it for a maxime that in a definitiue sentence he cannot erre are enemies to Queene Elizabeth the State I know in deed some as Master Hart may deny that the Pope hath any thing to doe with disposing of kingdomes deposing of Princes and so the Bull may not any waie concerne them but I doubt there be but a few that will affirme the Popes supremacy in teÌ„poral things to be vsurped But because you post ouer this matter to other treatises esteeming of me in matter of dispute as Goliah did of Dauid whoÌ„ he scorned I wil also referre the ChristiaÌ„ reader to such learned treatises as are extaÌ„t for this Pandora her box descrying the hurtful and vnholsome euils that lye in the bowels of the seditious Bull. And because in this place before you consider further of this Bull you take exceptions against a proposition of mine which you terme ridiculous to proceede from deepe ignorance and a base breast I will a little fortifie my saying and make it apparant to the indifferent reader either your grosse mistaking or wilfull and malicious peruerting of my said speech as for your Lucyfer-like pride it is more then apparant alreadie my words are these As though it were in the power of any one mortall childe of man to dispose of Kingdomes to depose Princes or to dispense with subiects for not onely disobeying but rebelling against their lawfull Soueraignes c. Is this such a ridiculous proposition Sir Encounterer or doe these words either make temporall Kingdomes matters of Godhead and immortalitie or necessarily conclude that wicked Princes such as Nero and Caligula must bee obeyed in all things with which flourishes and false gloses you seeke to discredite my sayings Your malice did master your reason and your will did ouerrun your wit in this your lewde construction That which I said I may lawfullie still vphold that Princes are not depriuable by any mortall man neither can any man dispense with subiects for refusing to yeeld that obedience which the Lorde requireth them to yeeld The Prophet Daniel acknowledgeth that it is God that hath this power to take away Kings and to set vp Kings and to giue the kingdome to whom hee will and saieth that the Lord ordereth the States and Princes of the world at his pleasure Marie the blessed Virgine reserueth this honor wholie to God He putteth down the mightie from their seate and exalteth the base reade ouer the bookes of Kings none euer disposed of kingdomes but the Lorde of Lordes neither were any throwne from their thrones but by the Lords speciall appointment as in the deiection of Ieroboam Baasa Elah Achab and Ioram is apparant There was neuer any King of Israel or Iudah remoued from the Crowne by any Priest or Prophet though all the Kings of Israel were open Idolaters as also the most part of the Kings of Iudah euen fourteene of them But it may be you thinke because the Prophets denounced Gods iudgements annointed some to be Kings and some others by speciall commandement and authority did execute Gods iudgements as Iehu vpon Ioram and Achabs children that therefore my proposition is infringed which cannot be Sir Encounterer for it was done by Gods speciall appointment as Iudge and superiour ouer Princes and not by their owne motions or in their owne name No Priest no Prophet no Apostle no Bishop euer had authoritie to depose Princes Hee that saith By mee Kings raigne doth challenge this power to himselfe and it is plaine blasphemie to giue it to any other Saint Augustine expressely resolueth that Kings neede not to feare to lose their Kingdomes or that their Kingdome shall bee taken from them as wretched Herod feared and therefore out of all question there is no such authoritie giuen to any mortall child of man to depose Princes But although I thus confidently and vpon good grounde doe pleade against the Popes vsurped authoritie yet I am neither so seruily sottish or so superstitiouslie conscienced as either to adore earthlie Princes or to denie that any Prince established may be touched or disobeyed in any matter for as I haue learned to giue to Caesar that which is Caesars and to God that which is Gods worshipping the Lord onlie with Religious worship so I know vsurpers may be suppressed by rightfull inheritance as Athalia by Iehoiada and in our land Richard the third by Henrie the seuenth and to our Princes wee must yeeld such obedience as the Lorde alloweth obeying them in the Lord chusing rather with the Disciples to obey God then man when man commaundeth wicked and vnlawfull things And so leauing you Sir Pope-Idolater to your palpable flatterie and to please and defend your Nero and Caligula as a more fit fellow to flatter seriouslie and to adore such saints then my selfe I stand as becommeth me in loyaltie for my Christian and religious Soueraigne and so will doe by Gods grace whilest I liue to my last breath Your three points which you would haue to bee considered vpon my speech of the Bull come next to be handled by which you would gladlie proue that not the malignitie of the Pope and Papists against our Prince brought forth this roring Bull but some dealings of ours and that the Popish Recusants are not to be accused for it or inforced by meanes thereof to change their olde beleefe about the Popes authoritie The first point to be considered is that the Bull of Pius Quintus camâ—â—â—rth in the thirteenth yeare of her Maiesties raigne and not before as by our owne Chronicles you say appeareth Let it bee so Sir N.D. though the Bull was set vp in the thirteenth yeare of her Raigne and dated 1567. 5. Calend. Martij what conclude you hereupon Must it therefore needes follow that the Bull proceeded not from any malignitie of the Pope and Papists but of some other cause as out of mine owne words you would seeme to proue Your argument is verie weake your conclusion cannot bee inforced vpon such slender premisses The malignitie of the Papists is most apparant by their consulting to excommunicate her Maiestie as before I shewed out of Cardinall Allyn by Doctor Stories words by informations giuen against her which you confesse whereupon the Pope in his Bull chargeth her with many things most vntruely and falselie The hatred of the Pope is most euident calling her a pretended Queene and an vsurper euen in the title and beginning of the Bull. And though the Bull was not published till the 12. yeare being yet concluded vpon about two yeares before as the date sheweth yet both the Pope and his adherents might as well fret
AN APOLOGIE OR DEFENCE OF THE WATCH-VVORD AGAINST THE VIRVLENT AND SEDITIOVS WARD-VVORD published by an English-Spaniard lurking vnder the title of N.D. DEVIDED INTO EIGHT SEVERALL Resistances according to his so many Encounters written by Sir FRANCIS HASTINGS Knight PSALM 122. O pray for the peace of Ierusalem let them prosper that loue thee PSALM 109. Though they curse yet thou wilt blesse they shall rise vp and be confounded but thy seruant shall reioyce LONDON Imprinted by FELIX KYNGSTON for Ralph Iacson 1600. TO THE CHRISTIAN READER I Haue obserued gentle Reader from the words and writings of the learned that it is a Maxime or Rule in Philosophie Finis est primus in intentione The end aymed at is first setled in the intention of man And finding this Romanist to boast and brag much of his learning it is not vnlike that like a cunning Clerke whatsoeuer his learning be the ende of this his worke was the first ground of his writing He proclaimeth Temperance in his title he pursueth the Art of Rayling in the whole processe following and in the end of all he perswadeth ruine both to Church and Common-wealth In the first dissimulation in the second scurrilitie and the third trecherie is contained for he shakes handes with Temperance at the verie first and leaueth her to rest and remaine with his title and the leafe being turned he plungeth presently into his vaine of rayling which if he had affected Temperance he would neuer haue done and the end sheweth his intention to be to bring in either a tolleration or flat alteration of Religion But wilt thou know Christian Reader what forced this fellow to become so suddenly distempred My Watch-word presented vnto thee to prepare thee with a couragious heart and readie hand to resist forraine malice and home treason plotted and purposed by Rome and Spayne against our Soueraigne and Countrie hath wakened him before his time and out of the lightnesse of his braine through ouer-watching of himselfe to deuise and worke mischiefe he tearmeth this my booke in the beginning of his Preface an iniurious Pamphlet and a biting Libell my labours therein he calleth a base exercise of calumniation and rayling and in the matter thereof it pleaseth him to say I spare neither God nor man So farre forth as they concerne the Catholike cause or the cause of them and for this I must receiue my checke and refutation at his pleasure The iniurie he chargeth me to haue done is to his Catholikes of whose doctrine and dealing I confesse in my former booke I warne thee to beware as for the tearme of a byting Libell thou wilt say gentle Reader when thou hast perused him and me both ouer that it is a more fit addition to the title of his temperate Ward-word which is byting because it is full of rayling and is a Libell because it is slaunderous against her Maiestie and the seat of her Iustice and is thrust out without name as for the basenes of the exercise imputed to me for writing and publishing that booke and the cause thereof indeed it is a verie base thing to calumniate and rayle as he doth but to lay before Subiects the doctrine and deeds of disloyaltie and to warne them to take heed thereof as I haue endeuoured therein to doe will proue neither calumniation nor rayling If any simple seduced Catholike stand free from subscribing to the disloyal doctrine of Rome from doing that it directeth and teacheth he is not touched by me therefore this Champion that draweth all Catholikes within the compasse of my words wrongeth them more then I doe but he might haue spared to name the God of heauen as a partie in his Catholike cause till he can proue the cause warranted from God and his truth which he shall neuer do yet I must receiue this worthie Gentlemans checke for my labour but he shall find it is farre from a mate and that his Bishops are too weake to bring it to that The Gentleman saith he is verie loath to be ouer eager and sharpe with me in his Encounters not onely in his owne worshipfull disposition but also for the reuerent respect he carrieth to the house and family I come of and the particuler affection he feeleth towards some of my name and linage but this is no sooner vttered then that he breaketh out presently into these words Who will not confesse but that lying forging and falsifying ignorant vaunting odious scoffing malicious calumniations seditious interpretations bloudie exaggerations barbarous insultations ouer them that alreadie are in affliction and calamitie ought to be farre from the nature pen and tongue of a Knight or Gentleman And who would haue thought that so temperate a title could haue afforded so vntemperate a stile Againe who would haue expected such raging and rayling Rhetoricke against me from one of so milde a disposition as he professeth to be of and that caried so reuerend a respect to the family whereof I am a braunch and such a feeling affection to some of my name as he would perswade But he hath cut the throate of his temperate title and proclâ—imeth intemperance in his whole booke and I doubt 〈◊〉 breake the strength of his chiefe wards for all his fencing skill if he meane to play the fencer and to leaue him altogether to his hanging-ward which proueth alwaies a dangerous ward if it be sharpely followed by the assaylant but for his reuerent respect to my family and his affection to some of them which surely I thinke it verie slender and scunt sounde to any of them I would aduise him not to lie so open but to betake him to a stronger and sounder ward least be catch a double venue for his labour But he is prouoked by me to breake out into choler for that I not onely saith he Touch the honours states and liuings of home-borne subiects and bring them into question vniustly being no waie tollerable but rush further to the open assault of forraine Monarchies also their honours fame and reputations which is lesse tollerable and consequently hath neede of some more sharpe and forcible reiection The former persons meant by him are made apparant before and therefore of them I onely say this in this place I wish them all from my heart that as they are home-borne so they may be home-hearted Subiects that their Soueraigne and countrie may enioye them sound English Subiects indeed as for his Monarches of Rome and Spayne hee hath no cause to carpe at me but to blame themselues for it is they and not I that haue teinted their honours fame and reputations the first of them hauing long sought to depose her Maiestie from her regall and supreame right within her owne Dominions the other hauing made attempts to inuade and make a conquest of her land and both of them hauing conspired the death of her Maiestie by setting on both bastard borne English and bâ—â—â—h strangers to depriue her of life this I confesse
vnder his Father and Grand-father and for their affections declining to Idolatrie and not truly esteeming the blessings in Iosiah their king powred vpon them the Lord threatneth to bring euill vpon that place and the Inhabitants thereof Which he did by suffering Iosiah to be slaine by the souldiours of the king of Egypt and within few yeares after his death selling his owne people into the hands of the idolatrous Babilonians For as darknesse naturally followeth light and night the day so do great punishments accompanie rare blessings when they are not duely esteemed as they ought Blessed was Ierusalem by the testimonie of the Lords owne mouth when he said My beloued had a Vineyard in a very fruitfull hill and he hedged it gathered out the stones of it and he planted it with the best plants and built a Tower in the middest thereof and made a wine-presse therein But when he looked for grapes and it brought forth wild-grapes the Lord threatned from the height of this blessed estate to cast them into the gulfe of miserie to take away the hedge from his Vineyard that it might be eaten vp and breake downe the wall thereof that it might be troden downe c. The Lord hath not therefore been lesse beneficiall to vs in placing so gracious an head vpon the bodie of this Realme because you and some such as your selfe are doe yet remaine to God ingrate and to your Prince and Countrey vnnaturall Onely I beseech God that whereas by his appointment the Oliue is yet ouer vs with her fatnes and the Figge with her sweetnes and the Vine with her fruitfulries that amongst many other sinnes of our land for our vngratefull contempt of so great a blessing a Bramble be not set ouer vs which is good for nothing but to burne and consume vs and so much concerning my supposed contradiction Now Sir N. D. it is your pleasure to heare my manner of speech in these words If I should take vpon me to enter into the enumeration of all the benefits and blessings that from the Almightie haue beene powred vpon this little Iland of England c. And hauing thus vnperfectly repeated them you passe the ouer with this sleight exception saying That in mentioning our little Iland I must take Scotland with me else I erre in Cosmographie as though England were not deuided in gouernment from Scotland though both rest vpon one continent and as though your selfe did not tearme this Realme an Iland euen where you do distinguish it from Scotland Therefore Nodum in scirpo quaeris and to this shift you are put very often for want of matter But if seemeth that Scotland was named here by you chiefly to make way for your purpose to giue a glaunce at battels murders destruction of Countries Prouinces Townes Cities Houses and particular men that haue beene in Scotland within these fortie yeares as though Scotland had neuer tasted these or any of these before and then you come in with Ireland wherein you seeme to bewaile the death of the noble Desmons whose treasons yet liue by succession in one of the same name who it is said wrote â— treason full letter stuffed with most intolerable opprobries and slaunders against her Maiestie and the state to the King of Spaine And this I hope is no great proofe of your sonâ—dnes to Queen or State France and Flaunders follow to fill vp the number But had you any respect of truth or care of modestie you would neuer haue made the true Religion wee professe the cause of murders tumults and garboyles which teacheth dutifull obedience and condemneth all mutinies seditions and rebellions You should do well to haue told vs who murdered the King the Lord Iames the Lord Russell in Scotland In France who murdered the Prince of Conde after he was taken prisoner which I thinke the law of Armes will not well beare Likewise who they were that laidâ— bloudy hands vpon the Admiral Chattilion being first shot in with a Pistoll with three bullets in the streetes and afterwards slaine in his chamber And so of Marlâ—ret slaine in his garden and of the famous learned man Ramus who hauing paid monie to ransome his life was beyond all humanitâ—e most cruelly quelled And generally who were the Authors not onely of the bloudie massacre in Paris but also of the like vprores in other Cities and quarters of the Realme principally at Lyons Orleans Roan Tolouse in which Cities within the space of one moneth there are numbred at the least thirtie thousand godly Protestants to be slaine your holy father at Rome to shew with what spirit he is led and with what meanes he sticketh to maintaine his Religion which otherwise would fall to the ground so soone as he heard of this bloudie tragedie maketh great ioy with his Cardinals with their procession with their gunshot and singing Te Deum Yea in honour of that Act proclayming a Iubile with great indulgence and solemnitie For Flaunders tell vs who murdered the noble Prince of Orange against whom it was proclaimed that who soeuer could bring him aliue or dead or slaie him should haue fiue and twentie thousand crownes You shall finde that such a Catholike-faith as yours is hath still sought to maintaine it selfe by such Catholike means as these are treasons tumults seditions secret murders and such like As for our true Christian Religion it is so cause of tumults garboyles and murders as Christes birth was of the murther of the poore infants in which neither Christ nor the infants ought offended the madnes was in Herod and all Ierusalem to be for this cause in an vprore In a word it is Herods Religion which seeketh to murther Christ and the Christes and annoynted of the Lord. I proceed to your aduertisement for a better direction to mens iudgements that all blessings of a Common-wealth may be reduced to two heades the one spirituall belonging to the soule and conscience the other temporall concerning the bodie and weale publike and that the Lord hath richly blessed this land since her Maiesties Raigne I doubt not to proue to all that haue iudgement and indifferency following your owne methode And first there hath beene in England since this happie alteration change from popish superstition to Christian veritie One God worshipped in spirit and truth one faith one belief one forme of seruice in praier and praises to God one number of Sacraments which are onely two by the word of God one head of the Church which is Christ the Lord as the holy Ghost testifieth by the Apostle Him hath God appointed to be the head of the Church And his substitute annointed appointed ouer vs is our Soueraigne and Queene who is to commaund and be obeyed in Christ and for Christ in all causes aswell ecclesiasticall as ciuill and not your proud vsurping Priest at Rome and if you can like to looke vpon the harmonie of confessions you shall find all the
to giue ouer their olde impudent proposition That ignorance of the Scriptures is the mother of Popish deuotion For what meant the so strict forbidding to laye men the reading of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue but that their deuotion should not growe of the knowledge but of the ignorance of the Scriptures flat contrarie to our Sauiours commandement giuen to the vnlearned multitude of the Iewes Search the Scriptures for in them you thinke to haue eternall life and they are they that testifie of me where the reason annexed to the Commandement sheweth to whom the Commaundement appertaineth euen to as many as it concerneth to seeke after eternall life and to know Iesus Christ and him crucified which is the laytie no lesse then the Cleargie contrarie also to the Apostles exhortation to the Colossians being laye men Let the word of Christ dwell plenteously in you Whereupon Chrisostome noteth Audite seculares omnes comparate vobis biblia animae Pharmaca c. Heare you secular or laye men euery one get vnto you Bibles the Phisicke of your Soule if you will nothing else at the least get you Testaments the epistles of Paul the Gospels the Actes to be daily and diligent instructors to you In a word contrarie to the spirite of the same Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrewes who reproueth them that they were like vnto Children and vnexpert in the word of righteousnes whereas they ought to haue their wits exercised therein But ignorance of the Scriptures better pleaseth you in the people and shall leade them to such deuotion as maketh more for your aduantage Hence hath growne your deuice of fides Implicita a faith wrapped and folded vnder the obedience of the Church namely that it is sufficient though they knowe not distinctly what they ought to beleeue but obediently submit their vnderstanding to the Church beleeuing as the Church beleeueth though what the Church beleeueth they knowe not This Carbonaria fides is highly commended by Cardinall Hossius who farther teacheth the simple laye man that he should thinke it went very well with him if he could say by heart the Lords praier the Articles of beliefe and the ten Commaundements though he knew not the meaning of the words As for other knowledge if any asked him a question hee should answere that hee did beleeue the Catholike Church And this ignorance of the Scriptures as a fruitfull mother hath brought forth many a blinde daughter of gainfull deuotion to your kitchin what greater deuotion was either then esteemed to be or indeed what acte more for your aduantage then the building of Monasteries and Nunneries and the endowing them with great lands and reuenues And this deuoute daughter mother Ignorance of the Scriptures brought forth which as for the most part they were builded by Kings and great States vpon some great murder either by wane in the field or priuately committed at home so the cause was as in stories may be seene Pro remedio animae meae pro remissione redemptione peccatorum meorum c. For the reliefe of my soule for the redemption and forgiuenes of my sinnes c. Which blasphemous derogation to the death and passion of Christ Iesus the knowledge of the Scriptures would haue quicklie discouered Yea how Deuotion hath been separated from knowledge not in your laye people alone but in your Priests too whilest deuotion hath been so tyed to their daily saying of their Maâ—tins and euensong which without deadly sinne they may not leaue vnsayd whiles in the meane time they vtterly cast aside the Apostles commaundement Giue attendance to reading exhortation and doctrine in the answer of Iohn Lambert to the 25. Article to him obiected may partly appeare I will onely adde this one testimonie that by the confession of some of your owne coate which haue made any conscience of their carriageâ— may appeare how carefullie your deuoutest Fryers haue been to couple knowledge with their imagined deuotion Franciscus Sampson generall of the order of the Friers Franciscans reprouing both their ignorance and carelesnes hath these words Pratres mei dilectissimi à primordio nostrae Religionis floruit conscientia c. My beloued brethren in the beginning of our Religion there flourished conscience but our beauty by little little sliding away the first sillable was taken away and there remained Scientia science or knowledge but now our sinnes so deseruing the first sillable is againe taken away and we remaine Pura entia stipites statuae meere things which haue a being euen very stockes and blockes To adde further proofe in a case so manifest were to light a candle at noone day yet this I will adde ex abundanti If publike praier in the Church and congregation of the faithfull be a chiefe and principall part of Deuotion made you not Ignorance the mother of their Deuotion when as ye would not allow their publike praiers in a tongue that the people vnderstoode Yea your Cardinall Hossius vseth this reason to proue that the Church seruice should be in the Latine tongue rather then the vulgar because saith he since some vsed the vulgar and knowne tongue in Church seruice Deuotion hath not onely not been increased but diminished And our Countrey man but the Popes Champion D. Stapleton in an English booke that he writeth against Bishop Iuel confidently affirmeth that Deuotion is not furthered but hindered by a tongue that is vnderstoode In a word D. Cole Deane of Paules and one chosen not onely to maintaine the Papists assertions against the Protestants in the disputation at Westminster but appointed by the Bishops and other his Colleagues to be the mouth for them all whose speech in the end they all being asked did auow to be the mind and saying of them all euen he in that honorable assemblie of the Councell and Nobles and frequent concourse of the Commons did with great vehemencie maintaine this proposition in these words I say Ignorance is the mother of Deuotion And so Sir Encounterer you must be forced to take it both for a maxime minime though minimè tibi placet to confesse a truth The second fayned position wherewith it pleaseth this deepe Clerke to charge me is because I say your Syde holdeth that it is not for lay men to meddle in matters of Religion c. And for this after your olde railing fashion you charge me with subtiltie and impudencie my subtiltie you say I shew in this word meddle which may either signifie that lay men must not determine or define of matters of Religion or else not to meddle or care for Religion at all And surely Sir though I may giue you good leaue to take it in which fence you will for in the former sence you will not deny but that euen Princes are restrained to doe any thing in causes of Religion within their own dominions without
durst protect felons and murtherers against the King and Iustice of the land neither reuerencing King nor obeying his lawes passed ouer without licence to the King of France Further being adiudged to prison by the King for refusing to giue accounts of great summes of money receiued by him and Reignold Earle of Cornewall and Robert Earle of Leicester being sent to him to tell him of the iudgement set downe against him this meeke Martyr and holy Saint was so farre from the obedience of a subiect that he told the earle of Leicester in these words That how much more precious the soule is then the bodie so much more ought he to obey Becket then his terreine King So notorious and euident was the rebellious opposition of this Popish Prelate against his lawfull Prince that he was openly by the king and his Nobles called Traitor in that he refused to giue earthly honour to his King as he had sworne to do and therefore they generally agreed that he was wel worthy to be handled as a periured Traitor and rebell and therefore most impudent is this Ward-worders assertion that neyther the King nor his Officers did charge him with treason If you please to adde hereunto the arbitrement of this controuersie put into the French kings handes with king Henries large offer and Beckets proud refusall there is no man I hope that knoweth what it is to be an obedient subiect but will condemne him for a rebellious Traitour The kings offer in that arbitrement was this There haue been saith he Kings of England before me both of greater and lesse puissance then I am likewise there haue been many Bishoppes of Canturburie both great and holy men what the greatest and most holy of all his predecessours before him hath done to the least of my predecessors before me let him doe the same to me and I am content Which offer though it were in it selfe and so deemed by all that stood by not onely reasonable but more then reasonable so that they all cried with one voice the king hath debased himselfe enough to the Bishop yet the rebellious spirit of this Archbishop would not yeelde vnto it nor accept peace with his King vpon so fauourable a condition What a Giant-like pride traiterous presumption is this to refuse to yeelde so much obedience to his Prince and Soueraigne as the greatest and holiest of his place haue alwaies yeelded to the meanest kinges of this land what needeth any further proofe of Beckets treason Yet if you will you may remember the letter of Maud the Empresse to him Wherin she chargeth him that in as much as in him lay he went about to disinherit the king to depriue him of his crown and if the Empresse might be thought to speake partially on the King her sonnes behalfe yet the two Cardinals sent by the Pope to heare all this controuersie out of question will not condemne him without iust cause And yet in a letter sent from them to the Pope they do condemne him of exciting stirring vp forraine Potentates to make warre against his naturall liege Lord the words of which letter were these William and Otho Cardinals of the Church of Rome to Alexander the Pope c. comming to the land of the king of England we found the controuersie betwixt him and the Archbishop of Canterburie more sharpe and vehement then we would for the King and the greater part about him said that the Archbishop had stirred vp the French King grieuouslie against him as also the Earle of Flaunders his kinsman who was verie louing and kind to him before he made his open aduersarie readie to wage warre against him as is by diuers euidences most certain c. Now for a subiect to stirre vp forraine States to make warre vpon his Soueraigne and countrie was at all times high treason but that Becket did so by the Cardinals confession was by diuers euidences most certaine therefore Becket not now his enemies but his breâ—hren the sonnes of his owne mother being Iudges was a traitor Who then but such a one as hath sold himselfe to all impudencie and shamelesse gainsaying the truth would seeke to couer Beckets rebellions by the facts of Iohn Baptist Ambrose Hillarie of Athanasius Chrysostome which haue as much agreement with the cause of Becket as hath light with darkenes good with euill sweet with sower concerning whose Saint-being I will say nothing sith my purpose is not to search what he is with God after his death but what he was towards his Prince in his life neither am I priuie to his repentance which might be secret at the last gaspe or to Gods iudgements into which I presume not to presse Yet you may remember that long since it was a generall Prouerbe of your Pope-made Saints That many are worshipped for Saints in heauen whose soules are burning in Hell and that in particular concerning Becket great doubt was moued as is by writers alleadged out of Caesarius the Monke whose words are these Quaestio Parisijs inter magistros ventilata fuit vtrum damnatus an saluatus esset ille Thomas c. There was a question debated amongst the masters at Paris whether Thomas Becket was saued or damned To this question answereth Roger a Norman that he was worthie death and damnation because he was so obstinate against Gods minister the king Peter Cantar a Parisien disputed on the contrarie that his miracles were great signes and tokens of saluation and of great holines in him c. Which argument this Encounterer likewise vrgeth But behold what strength is in it For one of these we shall find to be true that either they seemed only and were no miracles indeed such as many by the craft and conueiance of idle Monks haue been shewed to the people as namely those miracles of the Dominicke Friers in their hot contentions with the Franciscans about the conception of our Ladie who thinking by sleight to worke in the peoples heads that which by open preaching they durst not now attempt deuised a certaine Image of the Virgin so artificially wrought that the Friers by priuie gynnes made it to stirre to make gestures to lament to complaine to weepe to grone and to giue answeres to them that asked c. vntill the Franciscans seeing by this meanes their credits to decay and all the almes to be conueyed to the Dominickes boxe and not being vnacquainted with such cousening practises espied their iugling and discouered their feined fraudulent miracles For which cause foure of the chiefest actors in this iugling miracle were burned at Bernâ— Or secondly if they were not counterfeite but done in deed they were not wrought by God but by the power of Sathan to draw men from Christ to Antichrist Of these the Apostle foretelleth vs that whensoeuer it commeth to passe it might not trouble vs That the comming
the State of Christian Princes you cannot defend your selues by so sleight a reason Those troubles that were in King Henrie and King Edwards raigne proceeding chiefely not from your onely suffering with groaning as you say but from the treacherous disloyall hearts of Papists who were the chiefest actors therein doe conuict you of such crimes as I haue charged you with And euen these rebellions so often attempted in the latter end of King Henrie the eight and the raigne of King Edward the sixth doe testifie of your admirable patience and loyaltie I maruaile with what face you can commend your Catholikes and compare them with Protestantes for loyaltie and willing subiection to Princes when with your owne penne you shew your forwardnes in euerie Princes raigne to rebell and yet cannot trulie charge vs with any one rebellious practise in the maintenance of true Religion As our doctrine is farre different from yours in the honouring of Magistrates so are our behauiours loyall and obedient what doctrine did euer attribute so much to publike authoritie of Magistrates as doe the Protestants or who euer attributed lesse to Magistrates or deposed moe Princes then you Papistes you may crie with Athalia treason treason but wise men know who be the traitours indeed You would faine perswade your reader that in Queene Maries time we shewed our disposition and forwardnes to rebell and to this purpose you compare her short bloudie raigne with the long and peaceable gouernment of our gracious Soueraigne But as both Wyat and the rest were carried by other perswasions then the maintenance of true religion to deale so rashly and vnsoundly as they did so there is no reason that some priuate actions and opinions generally condemned by our doctrine should preiudice all Protestants You haue great cause to complaine of our rebellions when you can recken vp but one poore insurrection and that vpon other grounds then religion and such a one as was suppressed without the spoile or hurt of anie of the Queenes side But you that blush not to affirme that our chiefe Protestants in Queene Maries time were not troubled when our soueraigne that now is was then much vexed and that none were then forced to renounce their olde Religion when scarce anie suspected of true Religion could be suffered to liue quietlie though they shewed publikely no dislike of Popish Idolatrie no maruaile though you slaunderously doe charge vs with rebellious disposition As for your commotions and reuels you say haue been made in other countries by those of the Religion I leaue both you and them to their Apologies in print wherein you shall finde that none of them did holde that eyther Pope or other might depose Princes or dispence with Subiectes for their obedience to their lawfull Soueraignes And because it pleaseth you to disport your selfe after your gybing manner with me Sir Francis and your not Saint Francis let me in earnest tell you that Sir Francis would not for all his worth that you could proue him to carrie so turbulent seditious and traiterous a mind against Queene and Countrie as this your Ward-word sheweth you to doe and so well instructed is he in the doctrine of the Gospell which teacheth obedience as if his dearest friend in affection or the neerest of kinne to him in bloud should lift vp an hand of disloyaltie against his Soueraigne they are neither friends nor kinsfolkes to him and hee professeth himselfe a mortall enemie to them And for your blasphemous Saint Francis seeing it delighteth you to name him let me call to your remembrance what you may finde in the booke of conformities of him in which he is made another Iesus in type and figure and is matched with Christ from point to point and his miracles with Christes miracles of whom it is there also written that he repented him for deuising of his habite because God had reuealed to him that out of his order Antichrist and his sect should come and so Sir Francis leaueth you to honour your Saint Francis at your pleasure as a fit Saint for you to adore in your Pope-holie worship Your last colour and excuse for defence of your Rebels and Traitors is as simple as the rest you would gladlie perswade vs that the two Earles did but defend themselues when there was no force they needed to feare if they had feared God and continued to liue like good subiects and had not disloyallie intruded themselues not onely to controule but to correct the godlie gouernment of the Queene and State But they were set on by the Bull of Pius Quintus and Doctor Mortons peswasion seeking by force to set free the Catholikes and to restore Catholike Religion Doctor Saunders confesseth no lesse They fled presently you say without blowes or bloud shed but that might be thought the badnes of their cause and the feare that God did strike into their hearts at the sight or hearing of the Queenes Armie and not for want of desire to proceede further but as I lament their fall so I wish from my heart they had neuer been so misled As for the two next Traytors by you mentioned Francis Throgmorton and Charles Paget whom you labour likewise to excuse the first receiued his iust censure by the course of Iustice and that is a iust proofe to all honest men of his treasons yet seeing you seeke so shameleslie and vnhonestlie to extenuate his fault I heartilie praie the reader to way your owne confession against him You say he had the description of certaine Portes found in his Chamber that hee had some intelligence with the Queene of Scots with Barnardin Mendoza the King of Spaines Ambassadour Why Sir Encounterer haue you forgotten that Mendoza in steede of performing the honorable parts of a well accepted Ambassadour did most treacherouslie seeke to betraie both the Queene and State by practising all that he could to set vp the Queene of Scots and doe you not remember that it was high time to cut off this Scottish Queene who ceased not dailie to practise the death of our deere Soueraigne and doe you thinke there could bee any good meaning in Throgmorton to collect Plots and descriptions of our Portes hauing intelligence with the Queene of Scots and Mendoza and an Inuasion being plotted and purposed against vs from Spaine And if nothing else had been proued against him can the height of your wit and iudgement in State matters whereof you so much glorie cleare him from being a Traitor But it is well known to the Honorable of our land and those whom they employed to examine him that his owne confession conuinceth him of more then it pleaseth you to set downe and by this all the world may see and perceiue your disloyall and dishonest meaning both to Queene and State in thus colouring treasons and defending Traitors But you will needes free Charles Paget also another traitour and whose fault you say was nothing but that
and Achaia and that from them sounded out the word of God not to Macedonia and Achaia onely but that their faith was spread abroad in all quarters Thessalonica was but is not and those quarters of the world that receiued the faith from thence must not follow Thessalonica as it is now And this I leaue to the godlie and faithful Reader to determine and iudge of whether because we haue receiued Christianitie and benignitie from Rome in ancient times we ought to embrace the heresie that in these latter times Rome teacheth and submit our neckes to that yoke or tyrannie which it now practiseth Resistance to the eight Encounter touching the Spanish Nation and the King CHrist Iesus our supreame Soueraigne and Lord that hath the Key of Dauid which openeth and no man shutteth shutteth and no man openeth hath made the Ward of his truth so strong as neither papisticall nor satanicall force can preuaile against it so that your counterfaite Ward is too weake to keepe in safetie and strength your Romish Babell or the Bishops thereof being not onely shaken by the wisedome of our watchman who keeping our Israel doth neither slumber nor sleepe but beaten downe by the power of his might Therefore you vaunt before the conquest and triumph before the victorie As for the bickering you begin now about your Spanish King placed as your second great Monarch before spoken of it consisteth rather of the ordinary blowes of your biting and rayling tongue then of anie sound matter of defence for your Kings clearing which your foule mouthed Rhetoricke I haue spared hitherto to encounter and so will I still carrying the same mind that Cato senior did who being abused by one of a like intemperate spirit with slaunderous and reprochful tearmes made this answer Impar mihi tecū est certandi cōditio nam vt malè audire malè dicere tibi facillimū simul promptissimū est sic mihi malè dicere insuaue est insuetum i. My encountring with you is not on euen ground for as to you it is verie facile and prompt both to be euill spoken of and to speake euill so to me to speake euill is both vnpleasing and vnusuall This second Monarch of yours I acknowledge of farre more regarde in his place then your former without comparison and of such persons bearing the iust titles of Monarches I desire in mine owne disposition to speake and write with all reuerence but when I found how Rome had incited this Monarch to take holde of Ambition and vpon this humour to seeke the ruine of our Soueraigne and Countrie and that he bent himselfe accordinglie to giue his attempts daily to that end both by fraude and force and when I saw how dangerouslie their practises and platformes had preuailed in the hearts of many simple superstitious Subiects I thought it high time to possesse my Countriemen with a true taste of her Maiesties worthie parts of the many blessings we had from God by her and of the infinite wrongs done to her both in person profession and gouernment as also to collect somewhat for their warning of the nature of the Spanish Nation whensoeuer and wheresoeuer they attained the Soueraigntie to commaund that both the profession person and gouernment of our liege Ladie might be imbraced honoured and obeyed and the peoples hearts might be held free from forsaking their loyaltie to a lawfull Queene and betraying the libertie of their natiue Countrie to the making way for an vsurping stranger and the bringing of this our noble nation into perpetuall thraldome And if by this occasion I haue been drawne to lay this Monarches parts more plainelie and sharplie open then is either your desire to heare or my delight to vtter yet my hope is that the wisdome of euery true English heart will either wholie cleere me or else censure my fault veniall and pardonable seeing the iust defence of my Soueraigne did perforce draw me to taxe this potent enemie with vniust dealing towards her and the tender care of my Countries good enforced me to put our men in minde of the Spaniards humours that they might be armed against the plots and perswasions of Iesuites sent to seduce them which being hearkened vnto and obeyed might leade them to expose themselues to a most certaine and irrecouerable miserie It is not vnknowne that the Iesuites generally are agents for the King of Spaine and their arrants commonly tend to the raising of sedition and treason as their practises haue shewed many waies amongst vs to the hazard of our Prince and daunger of our state and to this end hath hee called into his Seminaries too many of our English youthes qualified with fine naturall wits to their lamentable downefall Notwithstanding this iust and important occasion drew mee to set downe that short admonition or cautele of the Spaniards nature and Spanish Kings intention this Encounterer whom all men may see to carrie a Spanish heart in an English bodie not onlie seeketh to holde the Spaniards credite vpright among the simpler sort of our Country men whose further fetch therein the godlie wise and politike of our Land will I doubt not more easilie find out then I can conceiue but belcheth out against mee from his malignant stomacke all manner of spitefull and iniurious opprobries thinking thereby to lay a blot of disgrace vpon mee But welfare the Poet whose olde verse is verified in this new Rayler Non semper feriet quodcunque minabitur arcus The marke forsooth whereat your ayming is You hit not still but shoote full oft and misse And therefore whereas the wiser sort of our nation haue learned by the lawes of morall ciuilitie that a man must speake moderatelie of his enemie a lesson which Papists haue not learned no though it be their naturall Prince whome they account their enemie yet he that speaketh truly speaketh moderately especially where the enemies carriage is so immoderate and outragious as if a man had an hundreth tongues hee were neuer able sufficiently to set it sorth That this moderation I haue kept in speaking truly that I haue said and saying farre lesse then the enemie deserued I will shew with all conuenient breuitie first in the Spanish Nation generally then particularly in the Spanish King himselfe It needeth not to be so strange to you to haue your Spanish nation noted to be proude ambitious bloudie tyrannicall rauening and voluptuouslie giuen all which properties are imputed to them by sundrie imprinted bookes and yet that concerneth not euery particular person in that nation to bee infected withall and euery of those faultes as you absurdlie collect for in it I rest assured God hath his remnant reserued to himselfe as in other nations but that these humours are in the generalitie of them France Italie Germanie the Low-Countries Portugale England and the very Indiaes are by experience witnes and of this many proofes might be yeelded but for a taste so as it