to free my countrie from all vsurpers they to fill their countrie with forraine gouernment I to preserue vnto vs the sincere truth of Gods Gospell they to thrust vpon vs a false worship by Poperie and superstition And this shall suffice to shield and deliuer me from being harmed or grieued by your slaunders and for all your malice to me I am sorie you should carrie so vilde and villanous a mind as not to be vexed to see your Soueraign so dispitefully and disloyally dealt withall But I haue now so good cause to guesse the vnsoundnes of your heart to my Soueraigne by this your wrangling and wicked Ward-word as I cannot expect or hope for anie good fruit of a loyall heart towardes her Maiestie from you And to confirme me and all true Subiectes in this opinion you close vp this your last Encounter with a doubt whether Lopus euer ment to kill our deare Soraigne and why you should doubt I see not but because it was not done and with a deniall that your Catholike King should be priuie thereunto and yet all the Agents in it doe plainely confesse so by the first whereof you lewdlie labour to taxe the seat of our Soueraignes Iustice and by the second you abuse her Maiestie and her people and by both you offer to discredit the honourable testimonie in print of the proofes and proceedings by examinations before the Lords of her Maiesties Councell In which you may finde how Lopus was first solicited by Andrada from Mendoza the King of Spaines Embassadour in France to poyson her Maiestie Secondly by the same Andrada he was solicited by a token from Christophero de Moro one of the Kings priuie Councell Thirdly by one Roderoquo Marques a Portugale vnto whom Lopus did vndertake to doe the abominable fact for which he was profered and promised fiftie thousands crownes which I hope cannot be taken to be the gift of anie Subiect fourthly for this purpose Lopus sent Andrada ouer to Callis to conferre with Counte Fuentes about this practise and caused Stephano Ferrera de Gomo another Portugale to write letters to Stephano Iberra the Kings Secretary at Bruxels to assure him Fuentes that the detestable fact should be performed if the 50000. crownes were paid which letter Lopus himselfe sent by one Gomes Dauila a Portugale But Andrada not being thought fit to follow so great a cause Ferrera was chosen to manage it by whom the Doctor did againe assure the performance of this villanie and then there were bils of exchaunge for the mony deliuered by the Counte Fuentes the one from Gonzalo Gomez to Pedro de Carreras the other from Gomez to Iohn Pallacios And if through the merciful prouidence of almightie God these had not been lingered and that in the meane time by the diligence and carefulnes of one of the Lords of her Maiesties priuie Councell the matter had not been discouered the villanie had been attempted and acted and so brought out of doubt as this Espaniolized champiō seemeth to haue wished to the vnauoydable hazard of ruine in mans iudgement to our Countrie and State So haue you here vpon honorable credence plainely proued that Lopus should haue been the Actor of this villanie that Andrada Ferrera Gomez Dauila and Manuell Lewes all Portugales were Agents and Messengers to him about it that Mendoza your Kings Embassador in France Christofero de Moro Count Fuentes and Secretarie Iberra all Councellors to your King were Directors to these Agents and Messengers and how farre your King himselfe did direct herein let the booke tell you And therefore haue you no cause to doubt of Lopus his bloudie meaning in this bloudie busines To returne to your selfe Sir I make no doubt but you desire to be beleeued in all that you haue scattered in your Libell and not least in this last part for if you could creepe into the secret bosomes of our English Nation and winne credit to be beleeued that all that you say is Gospell you might then hope of some likelihood to preuaile in your shameles sute for toleration or alteration in Religion tendered to the Lords in your Remission immediatly following But as it is well knowne to them all that we haue been much blessed of God by her Maiesties gouernment although you inuert all out of your popish and traiterous affection into cursings so I doubt not but they all see and will acknowledge that the true worship of God erected and established amongst vs by her Maiestie is the verie assured and principall ground-worke of all our blessings Religion and pietie must be our safetie and so long as wee keepe God by imbracing his truth without halting so long shall God keepe this land safe from all malice of all our enemies whatsoeuer Therefore farre shall it be from them so much as to lend an eare to so impudent and euill affected a Sutor as you shew your selfe to be in daring with shameles face to slaunder and scorne our Religion to depraue our seat of Iustice to harten disobedience to excuse traitors to darken and sometimes to defend the malice of your two Monarches of Rome and Spaine against our Soueraigne Queene contrariwise when her iust commendation was set out for being God his good instrument of many great blessings brought vnto vs you maliciouslie turne them as I said before into cursings when to the praise of almightie God mention is made of her wonderfull and happy deliuerances both in the time of Queene Marie and in her owne time you doe in derision call the first a miracle of Milne-wheeles and the second you shameleslie seeme to perswade they were things rather feared by vs then intended to her When I vrge Stories traiterous and bloudie words against her you cunningly seeke to turne his meaning to other persons and purposes When I condemne Cardinall Allin and Bishop Gardiners proude and pernitious dealing towards her you fall into extraordinarie high commendations of them as if the trumpet of their praises for so dealing had been worthie to bee blowne ouer all the world when I say that we should keepe these three things safe in our breast first our Conscience to God secondly our Loue to our Countrey thirdly our Loyaltie to our Prince you earnestlie labour to proue that wee are not bound alwaies to loue our Countrey and to beare Loyaltie to our Prince but that for Religions sake wee must hate them and warre against them and when I lay downe the many and manifold wrongs most vnchristianlie and vnkindly offered to her Maiestie by Rome and Spaine you bend your whole force to couer all and to proue wrongs offered by her Maiestie and our Nation to them such is your speciall loue to these your two Monarches and to all treasons and Traytors plotted and encouraged by them and so little and key-colde is your loue and dutie to her Maiestie to whom you owe all loue and obedience But this is the fruite of Pius Quintus his Bull the perill
Churches of Christendome where the Gospel and truth of Christ Iesus is embraced to be of the same iudgement and in this blessed vnitie grounded vpon veritie the Lord for euer keepe vs. And how scornefully soeuer you tearme this to be our Parliament Religion be it knowne to you that the reuerent assemblie of States and Commons in Parliament haue cause to praise God for their ioyning to present such lawes and for her Maiesties consenting to establish such lawes as tende to so holy a purpose as to hem in the ignorant that they may frequent the holy assemblies to learne to professe and obey the truth and to restraine the headstrong humors of Papistes and Atheists who are forward to runne astray from God and all godlines As for your tricke of cunning often grated vpon with a desire to disioyne our affections by calling some Puritanes other Protestants this malicious purpose of yours I hope the Lord of might mercy will turne to the good of his Church and I trust it will please him by his grace to direct the hearts of our Church-men to see how needfull it is for them to ioyne heart and hand together to defend the doctrine of faith which they all hold against the calumniations and slaunders wherewith you and men of your sort seeke to load the truth of our profession and to crosse the cunning and most dangerous plots laid also to mingle at the least our blessed and most holy profession with a toleration of cursed Poperie if not to alter all to Poperie to the rooting out of Gods true Religion wholly from amongst vs. And howsoeuer some dissent hath appeared about the toleration or abrogation of some things yet I doubt not it doth shall wel appeare that the dissention is not such as this turbulēt spirited fellow would faine haue it and that all sides will manifest to the whole world that howsoeuer they may in these outward things dissentire yet it shal be concordi discordia and so much for your cunningly deuised distinction of Puritane and Parliament Religion not without a setled and grounded malice to both But Sir your vaunt of a generall vnitie before alteration of Religion amongst vs if I had leasure to sift it would proue more boldly then truly vttered for how worshipped you one God when you serued so many Idols Or how glorified you the Creator when you gaue his glorie vnto creatures not onely to his true Saints as to the blessed virgin whom you call the Queene of Heauen as God is King of Heauen and one of your greatest pillars affirmeth as Doctor Raynolds alleadgeth him that the King of kings hath giuen halfe his kingdome to this Queene and of the chiefest treasures of this kingdome namely Iustice and Mercy hath reserued Iustice to himselfe but his mercie he hath granted to her but euen vnto vile base and dumbe creatures as when they pray for their crosse of mettall that as by Christ his crosse the world was deliuered from the guilt of sinne so by the merit of this crosse of mettall they that offer it may be freed from all the sinnes they haue committed and to the crosse they pray crauing that of a dumbe creature which the Creator onely can giue that is God blessed for euer O Crux aue spes vnica Hoc passionis tempore Auge pijs iustitiam Reisque dona veniam All hayle O Crosse our onely hope In this time of the passion In faithfull people grace increase And grant of sinne remission If Lactantius should iudge of your Religion he would scarce allow you to worship God at all who denieth that creatures may be worshipped with him yeelding this reason Si honos idem alijs tribuitur ipse omninò non colitur cuius Reltgio est illum esse vnum ac solum Deam credere If the same honour be giuen to others he is not worshipped at all whose Religion is to beleeue that he is one and the onely God The best that probablie may be made of your worshipping is that it is like the Religion that the Gentiles learned which were brought from Assiria to inhabite the Cities of Samaria who worshipped the Lord and Idols together Likewise of your owne faith and beliefe might be shewed how vaine a presumption it is when as you are so miserablie rent in sunder into so innumerable diuersities and sects of Friers and Munkes putting holines in diuers institutions of life some being white some blacke some wearing linnen some wollen some going shod some bare-foote with infinite diuersities more which are by learned men handled It shall be sufficient for me onely to remember you of the stirre betwixt the Franciscans and Dominicke Friers about the conception of the blessed Virgin the Franciscans or gray Friers affirming that she was neuer Subiect one moment in her conception to originall sinne the Dominicke or blacke Friers teaching that she was conceiued in sinne as are all the children of Adam which controuersie occupied all schooles and vniuersities almost throughout the whole Christian world which was at the length doughtelie decided by Pope Sixtus the fourth quite contrarie to that Word which shall iudge all at the last day Of your one head your vaunt is the like which being the Pope how can you haue one head vnles you reiect Christ If you meane one visible and ministeriall head how can that be when as Christ hath promised to be with vs to the end of the world And in the Reuelation Iohn saw him walking in the middest of the seuen golden Candlesticks if he be thus alwaies present with his Church by his spirite to guide the whole and euery member thereof how shall any presume to take vpon him to be a ministeriall head of the Church because Christ is not visiblie present Againe how haue you had one visible head when there hath been so many Antipopes So often Such tumults and schismes about the Papacie Which though your men would deriue vpon the Emperours intermedling with the election though very falsely yet as a learned man proueth of thirtie schismes in the Church of Rome so many as no Church can boast of besides the worst and the longest hath been since that time that the election was deuolued onely to the Cardinals euen the 29. which lasted for the space of 50 yeares first with two Popes at one time and then with three c. So that to cease any further to examine your assertions who intend onely a defence of mine owne by you carped at and traduced your great brag of vnitie in your Religion the like whereof you deeme is not amongst vs to be found is in deede nothing but meere vanitie But to returne from whence I digressed Secondly by the establishment of true Christian Religion amongst vs this great blessing we haue obtained that the Scripture and word of God which is the incorruptible seede whereby we are begotten to God the sincere milke that
wise they became fooles Arnobius sometimes an heathen afterwards a Christian saith of his former state Venerabar O caecitas nuper simulachra modò ex fornacibus prompta in incudibus Deos malleis fabricatos c. I worshipped of late O blindnes Images newly taken out of the fornace Gods forged on the Anuiles and framed with hammers so truly may it be said of the Papists they worshippe O blindnes Images newly taken out of the fornace crucifixes forged on the Anuiles and framed with hammers and to blocks and stocks without sense as if there were some power present in them they kneele they pray they craue grace of them Your vaunt of the peerles and vnmatchable learning on your side doth neither ouerthrow mine assertion if it were true and yet all men know it to be vaine and childish boasting Our ministers as you say dare not open their mouthes if they should appeare with you in schooles or matters of learning yea they scarce vnderstand the verie ordinarie termes of the learned sciences which you professe not onely our students and young men but our Doctors of Diuinitie yea our publike readers as some of you boast and crake as you can stoutly do no men better doe scarce vnderstand your course of Diuinitie what it meaneth Is it not thinke you a clowdie and Owle-like Diuinitie that is couered with such mistes of subtilties and sophistications as that professed deuines men richly furnished with deepe knowledge of tongues and artes are scarce able to vnderstand the ordinarie termes I will say more for you which in my conscience I am perswaded is true that if Peter and Paule those blessed Apostles were now aliue and should come into your schooles to heare your Lectures of scholasticall Diuinitie and the rest together with your other exercises and disputations they would maruel and be astonished at your strange Diuinity which they vnderstand not say as the Apostle speaketh of those which heare praiers preaching in an vnknown tongue that you are out of your wits surely they would neuer acknowledge it to be consonant to that diuinity which they in their diuine Epistles commend to the Church of Christ. For it is true that a learned man hath written that of two distinct good things Diuinitie and Philosophie your schoolemen haue made a third bad compound being neither sound Diuinitie nor pure Philosophie But Sir I haue granted onely by way of supposition that which in truth is not to be granted that your men are so superiour to ours in learning that a few of yours are able to hold at schoole all our sun-shine Clergie at this day as you please to terme them for terme of life and after A proud assertion without any shadow of proofe at all for reproofe whereof I will take a short view eyther of the depth of your learning or goodnes of your cause Iohn Hus commeth voluntarily to the Councell of Constance there to tender a reason of his Doctrine and to defend publikely his assertions How learnedly doe these graue Fathers refute him they clap him fast in prison load him with chaines and fetters not onely not being conuicted but not so much as heard yea though he came vnder the Emperors protection and had his safe conduct the Pope himselfe hauing likewise consented vnto it Martin Luther goeth to Wormes by disputation to defend his Doctrine aud though his friends perswaded that he should not expose himselfe to so manifest perill because the Papists had oftentimes broken their promise yet so assured he was of the goodnesse of his cause that he neither feared the learning nor might of his aduersaries though neuer so many but he answered his friends that he would enter that Citie in the name of the Lord Iesus though he knew there were as many diuels set against him as there were tiles vpon al the houses of the Citie Afterwards before the Emperor himselfe and the whole states of the Empyre he maintaineth his doctrine answereth the aduersaries and with the Emperors fauour departeth in safetie though full sore against the minds and wils of sundrie Papists Againe vnder safe conduct he goeth to Augusta there to render a reason of his assertions to Cardinall Caietan who on the Popes behalfe and at his commaundement proposeth three things to Luther First that he should be better aduised reuoke his errors secondly he should promise hereafter not to publish or repeate them thirdly he should abstaine from all things which might trouble the Church Luther standeth to iustifie his assertions offereth there and else where to defend them sendeth in writing a defence to the Cardinall iustifying his opinions by the Scriptures In a word the Cardinal would not heare Scripture but willeth him to come no more in his presence vnlesse he would recant yet staied he there fiue daies after expecting whether the Cardinall would call him to any further disputation whereof when he heard nothing in all that space he departed At the assemblie at Spire when Simon Grinaeus heard Faber Bishop of Vienna vtter sundrie absurd errors in his Sermon he goeth friendly to him and telleth him he was sory that a man of such learning and authoritie should openly maintaine such errours as were both contumelious against God and might be refuted by the manifest testimonies of the Scriptures and as he would further haue proceeded to the refuting of his errors Faber breaketh off his talke faineth as though he had been sent for by the King and had now no leasure to reason with him in the matter but maketh shew that he was desirous of acquaintance and longer talke with Grinaeus and to that end prayeth him the next morning to come to his Chamber Now what was the sequele of the disputation or conference appointed by this learned Bishop The Bishop complaineth to the King the Serieants were sent to apprehend Grinaeus and carrie him to prison whereof he being warned a little before by a reuerent aged man was by his friends immediatly conueyed ouer the Rhene and so escaped who if he had been taken as the Serieants were to search the house for him almost assoone as he was out of doores what would further haue ensued of this pretended conference is not hard to gesse To be short you may not forget in what a pittifull taking your Cardinall of Lorrayne was in the Colloquie of Poissy when he wished that either our side had been dumbe that day or all they deafe and these few examples either proue your vaunt of your learning to be so farre greater then our side to be but friuolous and vaine which you can hardly yeeld vnto or at the least our cause to be better then yours which we rather challenge The truth of the generall proposition concerning the darkenes of those times being thus opened I shall the lesse need to insist vpon the particular absurdities wherewith this fellow faith they are vniustly charged For
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