therein euen vnto the ende of my life that I may neuer swarue from his heauenly trueth vnto blindnesse and errour Psal 125.5 wherewith once seduced by false prophets I was holden captiue But nowe hauing the assistance of Gods holy Spirit the trueth of his sacred worde and perfect loue of the faithfull on my side I passe not what wicked Papistes speake or do against me their immoderate and vnciuill bitternesse proceeding from the furious and stormie passions of their poysoned heartes I may well lament but restraine I can not therefore I say Let the Papists here in England fret and fume and say of my name what euill or slaunder they can deuise let them write their letters to Rheims in Fraunce and from thence to Rome with the poste and certifie all the English Scholers there that the Popes scholer their owne companion and fellow student is reuolted from papistrie hath left the Pope in plaine fielde and quite denyed him protested against his blasphemies and renounced the deuilish dregges of all his Idolatrie So soone as these letters shal come to viewe Robert Parsons sometimes of Bailyol Colledge in Oxford they will name one Father Parsons Iesuite a Prophet or Southsayer for that he at Rome in the English Seminarie in a certaine exhortation made to the schollers prophecied that one or other of that company my selfe being then present amongest them shoulde degenerate from their faith and be the ouerthrowe of that colledge he confirmed also the profe thereof by example beginning with Christ and his Apostles Mat. 26.16 Luk. 22.4 Ioh. 6.71 pyking out Iudas one of the colledge of Christ that forsooke his master and then from the colledge of the Apostles he named Nicholaus that reuolted Actes 6.5 Apoc. 2.6 Nowe will their diuines declayme in the refectory pulpit of my sudden sequestration and estranging from their brotherly societie The triall and experience of their rash iudgement hatred and enuie mocking scoffing had pronounced against others giueth me sufficient notice that I shall incurre their like rayling and misreport I knowe that I cannot be voyde of their imagined slaunders in iudging me to be the first begotten sonne of the deuil I cannot escape their sinister exposition of all things to the worst wherefore I must arme my selfe with patience and seeing through Gods goodnesse I am reduced from the miserable captiuitie of blindnesse and errour to the true vnderstanding and knowledge of Gods holy trueth I neede take no great thought for their conceiued choller slaunderous speach and rayling wordes of Sathans prompting sithens they haue dealt so maliciously with my betters And as for their holy father the Popes curse with booke bell and candell it shall not grieue me at all neither will I take one vnquiet nappe for al his banning and cursing and seeing I haue renounced his Popish church wherein I neither heard the worde of God syncerely taught the Sacraments rightly administred nor the Name of God duely called vpon Seeyng that I say I forsooke the idolatrous church of Rome and haue so gone from it Dan. 6.23 3.26 as Daniel went out of the lyons denne and the three children out of the furnace and am come to that Church wherein the most earnest Papistes them selues can not deny if they will say truely and as they thinke in their owne conscience but all things be gouerned purely and reuerently in this true Church of Christ I haue a desirous minde to profit my louing countreymen according to the Talent which God of his bountifulnesse shall giue vnto me in preaching vnto them his holy word in exhorting them vnto watchfulnesse and prayer against Romish doctrine which is builded vpon false miracles and traditions of men beeing the fantasticall deuises of their busie braine for lucre and ambition sake fynally in warning them vnto amendement of life that both by their faith and conuersation Gods name may be glorified If thou art a member of that church the spouse of Christ whereof he is head and not Antichrist the Bishop of Rome it needeth not then good christian Reader much to entreat thee to take in good part this vnlearned declaration of my reconcilement made as it were ex tempore my selfe being in prison and wanting bookes to the great impediment and hinderance of this my discourse The beneuolence of the Papistes I seeke not for if I shoulde it were but in vaine I can not obteine it for that I haue with vpright conscience made a true rehearsall of such thinges as I haue seene at Rome yet not all nor the twentyeth part thereof but here one thing and there another and so fewe thinges in all and this I adde in the ende if they can not afforde one good worde by mee yet for good fellowshippe sake let them then say Requiescat in pace but let it be a solemne dirge for Aristotles soule who neuer knew the true God but euer liued in gentility blindnes of the trueth that he may be deliuered out of Purgatory where they hold him to be so that we may haue conference with him know of him whether it be substantiall true diuinitie such as he taught and set forth in writing or els whether it be Plato his diuinitie who was an Heathen or Gentile and which of them is best and as for the diuinitie which Christ preached and was deliuered by the Apostles and receiued of the faithfull they are not acquainted with God euermore enflame and direct me with his holy Spirit that the zeale of his trueth may throughly pearce and possesse my heart that I may safely walke in the wayes of righteousnes holines al the dayes of my life vtterly abandon detest all hypocrisie idolatrous superstition I. N. A declaration of Gods benefites towardes me a wretched sinner HOwe prouident a patrone and bountifull a father the Lorde of life hath bene vnto me his vnthankeful and rebellious childe his sundry and manifolde benefits doe testifie and this my vnfeyned reconciliation to the true Church doeth verefie the same yea the continuance of his louing kindenesse was herein principally declared for whereas mine owne natural corruption wrought dayly in me the banishment out of his fauour and the danger of reprobation he notwithstanding in consideration of my frailtie neuer withstoode to helpe me in all dangers both bodily and ghostly and to plucke me out of the pit of perdition whereinto the haynousnesse of my offences haled me by violence Oh gratious God howe shall I a sinner conceiued in sinne and brought vp in iniquitie worthily aduance the excellencie of thy loue who shal giue me a heart to conceiue this thy kindnesse whence shal I haue vtterance to sound out thy mercie Of my self because I am a vessell of wrath subiect to sinne death hel condemnation I can not conceiue so perfect a worke thou therefore which art the euerlasting fountaine of all goodnesse Ier. 2.13 Iam. 1.17 giue it me oh giue
equus mula quibus non est intellectus Psal 32.9 They are like horse mule who haue no vnderstanding If I should recite all those Idolatrous practises which I haue seene at Rome a whole day were not sufficient to tell them but by these few things layd downe you may gather the rest to be as bad or rather worse Now I will speake a litle of the wickednesse of Rome which you count holinesse and make our Englishmen that were neuer there beleeue so First I wil begin with your Cardinals the pillars of your Church Haue they not beautifull boyes with whom they commit the sinne of Sodom Gen. 19.5 as I haue heard by the Romanes and by a Gentleman who serued to Cardinal Sforsie who trauayled by land with me from the citie Ancona to Venice Haue not these yong Cardinalles pretie wenches in their palaces whom in the day time they cal either their sisters or cousins in the night time make them either their bedfelowes or cōcubines And do you not knowe howe that there was a yong Cardinall a Prince burnt at Rome not long since by a common queane of the stewes toke from her the french disease wherwith he dyed miserably Do not your priests at Rome without shame punishment openly in the sight of all men goe to the stewes I haue seene them with mine eies as I walked the streets embracing the Queanes O if a minister heere in England should commit such abomination and scape vnpunished howe woulde you cry out against him and against the Magistrates Yet to see your owne priests so to doe your Magistrates to suffer it you holde your peace you seeme to allowe it What shall I speake of your Monkes Was there not at Rome a whole monastery of such as beare a siluer crosse in their hands are apparelled in blewe full of women that went in habit of those monkes and were they not spied at the last and escaped vnpunished Be these the holy mē that haue renounced the world and haue vowed chastitie Now of the lay men because I will not stand to discourse vpon euery thing that I recite How doe the citizens liue Was there not lately a great rich citizen that had a place to the which resorted many yong Romane Gentlemen who committed the sinne of Sodom one with another and were they not spyed out at the last and did not they all scape punishment except one poore man which dyed for all And did not the Romanes saye that he dyed wrongfully for that the sinne of Sodom was but a tricke of youth Count you me that a light offēce Gen. 18.20 19.13 that cryeth vp to heauen to God for vengeance Moreouer haue not the Romanes sixe streetes full of Curtizants and harlots who pay a yeerely tribute to the Pope And be there not throughout al Rome Queanes who lay out of their windowes carpets and their gownes which is a signe to them that passe by that there they may haue a woman for money At Shrouetide what horrible abuses are there practised at Rome without punishment Doe not men go in womens apparell and women in mens apparell The Gentlewomen out of their windowes throwe rosewater which is a token to them that passe by that there they may defile their bodyes one with another What murther is there insomuch that no mā can sit in his wagon without daunger of his life These words of Petrus Bembus are true Roma est sentina pessimorum hominum Rome is the sinke of pestilent varlets I would not for a great deale of money but that I had seene Rome otherwise I should haue stood in doubt lest I had misreported ought of them but what I sawe that speake I and testifie and cry with Mantuan Viuere qui sancte cupitis discedite Roma Omnia cum liceant non licet esse bonum Ye that desire to liue godly depart frō Rome for when al things are lawful there it is not lawful to be honest Peraduenture nowe you wil say that the Pope is a holy man Although I am indebted vnto him 50. or 60. li. in money yet wil I not neither can I but speake the trueth of him vnlesse I should sinne which God forbid Hath not this Pope at his hauen citie Ancona prised taken away the marchandize of the Turkes marchants for that one of the Turks had offended one of his seruants The Pope perceiuing the marchandize to bee of great valewe tooke an occasion thereby to depriue the marchants of their marchandize The emperour of the Turks wrote a letter to the Pope desiring him to restore the goods againe to his marchants the Pope refused so to doe Wherefore the Christian marchants were in like sort dealt withal at Constantinople At Macerata the Pope put a County out of his possession and gaue it to his own sonne Iames whom of a begger he hath made a Marques able to spend by the yeere thirty thousande crownes and is richly maried to a Dukes daughter He gaue the countie for his possession not halfe so much as it was worth There was also a monke who came from the Indians who at Venice refused a hundred thousand crownes for two precious stones which hee brought with him who thinking to please this Pope now liuing to get a greater rewarde presented the precious stones before this Pope Gregorie who taking the gemmes or precious stones in steade of reward committed the Mōke to prisō alledging nothing against him but this that hee forsooke his cloyster or monasterie Master Alet whom you know hath reported this to bee true for he knewe this sayd Monke as he reported to two Gentlemen of the North that had byn at Hierusalem and to mee and to three other scholers Thus much touching his iniquitie Nowe I will not speake of the Popes pontificalitie howe hee is caryed on mens shoulders how the people kneele before him howe the trumpets sound how the ordināce or double canons are discharged and howe the people cry out Viuat papa Gregorius Let our dissembling Antichrist Let Pope Gregory liue and reigne ouer vs. You faine my brethren that there is a purging place for the soules after this life wherein they abide and suffer the selfe same punishment which is in hell and are in no better case to speake of the torments then they of hel But herein they are farre happier then the damned for that they of purgatory are sure to be saued and they of hell are sure neuer to finde end of their miserable condition You say that such as be in purgatorie may be released and deliuered to heauen by the praiers and dirges of such as be on earth That there is such a place named as Purgatorie you seeke to proue by the Scriptures First out of the booke of the Maccabees where it is read that good and profitable it was to pray for the dead From hence you go to Zacharie the Prophet where it is said in the
father of lights You see in these places of scripture God telleth vs playnly we cānot be saued by any other neither by this Saint nor that Saint saue onely by Iesus Christ Thus much out of the scriptures Now let vs see what the Doctors speake against your praying vnto Saints First I wil begin with Augustine in his second booke and 8. chap. against the Epist of Parmenian Saint Paul maketh not himselfe a mediatour betweene God and the people but requireth that they pray all one for another being all the members of Christ If Saint Iohn would saye This haue I written vnto you that you sinne not and if you sinne you haue me your mediatour before God and I will intreate for your sinnes as Parmenian the heretique in a certaine place made the Bishop a mediatour betweene God and the people what good and faithfull christian man could abide him Who would looke vpon him as the Apostle of Christ or rather who would not thinke him to bee Antichrist Also vpon the 108. Psal All praier that is not made vnto god by Christ not only doth not put away sin but also is turned into sinne Item in his 3. booke of freewil Wee are not cōmanded to goe to any creature that we may be made blessed but to the creator maker of al things of whom if we be perswaded otherwise then the trueth is we are deceiued with a damnable error Itē in his booke of the spirit the soule 29. cha The soules of thē that are dead are there where they do not see neither heare what thinges are done or chaunce in this life Such is their care for the liuing that they know not what we do euen as our care is for the dead that wee knowe not what they doe Item in his tenth treatise vpon Iohn My mother whome you haue called blessed therefore is blessed because she hath kept the worde of GOD and not because in her the word was made fleshe Item in his booke of the remission of sinnes the 14. chap. The Apostle said truely Bee you folowers of me as I am of Christ He neuer durst saye Bee you iustified of mee as I am iustified of Christ None is iust but Christ iustifying Therefore he sayd He that beleeueth in him that iustifieth the vngodly his fayth is counted for righteousnes Who is so bolde therefore to saye I iustifie thee which may not bee said of the Saints but of the holy of holiest that said Beleeue in God Ioh. 14.7 beleeue also in me Againe in his first treatise vpon the Epistle of Iohn From hence commeth schismes when men say We are righteous we make holy the vnholy we doe iustifie the wicked we doe pray we do obtaine Item in 84. treatise vpō Iohn Though we dye brethren for brethren yet the blood of no Martyrs is shed for the forgiuenesse of sinnes which thing Christ hath done for vs. Ambrose vpon the 1. chapter of the Romanes But we obteine Gods fauour from whome nothing is secret as knowing what euery man is meete to haue wee neede no spokesman but a deuout minde for whatsoeuer such a one speaketh vnto God God wil answere him Chrysost in his 2. hom of the woman of Canaan Tell mee woman sith thou art a wicked and sinfull woman how durst thou go vnto him I know sayth shee what I do Beholde the wisedome of the woman she prayeth not vnto Iames she entreateth not Iohn she goeth not vnto Peter shee did not get her selfe to the company of the Apostles shee sought for no mediator but for all these things she tooke repentance for her companion which did fulfill the roome and place of an aduocate and so shee did goe to the high fountaine Item in his sermon of going forward of the Gospel There is no neede of a Porter of a Mediator or minister no neede of Aduocates with God nor of any running and gadding about for to speake fayre vnto other for although thou be alone and without an aduocate and praye vnto God by thy selfe thou shalt obteyne thy petitions Cyrill in his booke of right faith He was taken vp into heauen but as God he is shewed to graunt the petitions of them that worship him if they make their prayers in his name For why is it more meete to giue Saints their asking and to graunt them their petitions then for him which is onely by his owne nature truely God Leo Bishop of Rome in his 81. Epistle Although the death of many Saintes hath bene precious in the sight of the Lorde yet the killing of no Innocent hath bene the propitiation for the worlde The righteous receiued but gaue no crownes and out of the valiantnes of the faithful are grauen examples of patience not giftes of righteousnesse For their deathes were euery one singuler to himselfe and none of them did by his ende paye the debt of another forasmuch as there is our Lord Christ in whom all are crucified all dead and buryed and raised vp againe Erasmus in his booke called the Preacher If any man lacke wisedome let him aske it of God and not of the Saints So much against praying vnto Saintes Here in the first parte of my declaration I haue as you knowe declared a true report of the wickednesse of Rome I beganne with the Cardinals liues proceeded to the Priestes Monkes and citizens and ended with the Pope Seeing you know these reportes to be true for your owne saluation returne to the trueth Bee not obstinate and frowarde in your false opinion You are courteously and gently intreated yet are you neuer the better but rather the worse like Frogs that keepe a great crooking sturre against the light of the Sunne so do you against the glorious and comfortable beames of Christ his Gospell Be satisfied with trueth and abuse not the mercifull lenitie of our gracious Soueraigne lest that the Lordes discipline be restored which shall restraine your spreading poyson and auoyde the hazard whiche otherwise should happen not onely to the church of God amōg vs which might not thriue amidst such pestilent cōbersome weeds but euen to the endāgering which the Lorde of glorie turne from vs of this florishing common weale her Maiesties most royal person crowne dignitie Your malicious cursed practises as cocatrices haue brought forth hatched great dangers to the cōmon weale already If you should be set at libertie without recantatiō escape vnpunished winked at fauoured and spared greater mischiefe shal insue your treasonable practises to the ruine and desolation of this blessed lande which God of his mercie turne awaye from vs. What pestiferous bookes haue our English fugitiues thrust foorth vnto vs defacing Gods holy trueth the Queene her royall Maiestie many of her honorable counsell and sundry of her louing and faithfull Subiects Haue thei not also procured Antichrist Pope Pius Quintus to excōmunicate our Redoubted Soueraigne al thē that cōtent themselues christianly quietly to liue vnder
her gouernment But an vnderserued curse hurteth not About Midsōmer last was twelue-month they renued these bulles of excommunication graūted by this Pope Gregory vnder the color name of Pius Quintus published There were fiue hundreth copies printed at Rome as two of you my brethrē can verifie the same and how they were published as I heard at Rome in the Englishe Seminarie at Rheames and were put fast to pillars in the citie These Bulles of excommunication were scattered throughout all Italie Spaine parte of Germanie In these buls of excōmunicatiō forsooth they haue discharged if their discharge shoulde bee credited her highnesse Subiects from their loyaltie obedience to her Maiestie their natural Prince Haue not their Bulles pronounced her Maiestie to be no lawful Queen whom God hath placed ouer vs Haue not their attemptes bene the seede of rebellion and haue they not caused and doe cause to this day many to practise secretly her graces destruction The loyaltie of Papists One of your Readers in Diuinitie positiue I am certayne before two hundreth scholers and not so fewe as one of you may testifie the same most impudently and deuilishly spake that it was lawfull for any man of worship in Englande to giue authoritie to the vilest wretch that is to seeke the death of our soueraigne Queene But God who hath defended her still preserue her And then let K. P. who threatneth and Antichrist Pope Gregory an Italian borne in the citie of Bolonia who prouoketh ioyne their powers together yet shee shall preuayle to their shame to her honour Father Pais a Spaniard borne reader in scholastical diuinity in the Romane colledge at Rome said in the presence of three hundreth scholers at least these were his woordes Bona Papae voluntas trita manifesta est eius crumena parata sed R. P. aut metus subtrahit aut potestatis defectus vetat vt suū in Angliam exercitum ducere non audeat That is the Popes good will is tried and knowne and his purse ready but K. P. either feare withdraweth or power forbiddeth him that hee dare not venter to bring his Army of Souldiers into Englande But least that I be too tedious to my hearers of this first part I wil make an end beseeching you my brethren to become loyall and faythfull to your naturall Prince forsaking your superstitious Idolatrie and cursed religion your pompous glorie and prowde hierarchie and thus much for the first part The second part Qui veniunt ad vos vestitu ouium c. Which come vnto you in sheepes clothing c. In this place being the secōd part of my diuision whē the holy Ghost biddeth vs Beware of false prophets he addeth also a note or marke to know them by in these words Which come vnto you in sheepes clothing In the first words which come vnto you there is also giuen vs one mark of a false prophet that is to go before he be sent in the last words In sheepes clothing is shewed that when false prophetes come it is but with flatterie dissimulation For to come in sheepes clothing is nothing else but to feine himselfe a sheepe that is to make thy selfe holy whereas thou art nothing lesse to name thy selfe a follower of Christes holy worde wheras thou art obedient to the traditiōs of mē to name thy selfe a Prophet whereas thou art not to name thy selfe a teacher of the trueth wheras thou art a maintainer of lies to resemble a sheepe in outward shew but in wardly to be a Foxe What a false prophet is you may know if ye reade these places of scripture that follow to witte Esa 56. Ierem. 6.23 Ezech. 22.34 Philip. 3.4 and the 2. to Timoth. 3. Titus 1.2 Pet. 2. Luk. 16. Rom. 16. For whiles they giue themselues vnto couetousnesse and that vnder a colour of godlinesse what can otherwise fall out then that which S. Peter sayth With fained wordes they shoulde make marchandize of Gods people 2. Pet. 2.3 So did the false Prophetes amongst the Iewes so did their sacrificers Matt. 15.5 with them as our massemōgers haue done with vs. What maner worshipping of God haue they feyned what snares haue they laide namely Indulgences purgatorie watchings masses for the dead workes of supererogation in fine to that passe they brought it that obscured the grace of our redemption wherewith al such as beleue by Iesus Christ are freely redeemed and get eternall life No man thinketh amongst the Papistes but they either deserue eternall life by reason of their owne workes or els if their outward workes fayle to be damned for euer This is that same diabolicall perdition with the sway whereof a great part of Christendome is caried headlōg And the cause hereof is that men haue ytching eares and therfore procure vnto themselues heapes of teachers 2. Tim. 4.5 to feede their fonde humors men are highminded self willed louers of themselues beyng wedded to their owne wayes and marryed vnto their owne deuices they leaue the law of God and follow after the traditions of men What I praye you is the cause that there be so many papistes in England is it not because the true preachers are not beleeued The trueth offendeth them the Scriptures mislike them they are delighted with falsehoode and content to staye themselues vpon mens inuentions Preceptes are giuen yet the precepts of God are not regarded ensamples abounde and yet the ensamples of the constant faithfull martyrs of God are derided and scoffed at the wholsome counsels of the godly eyther are lightly contemned or else heard with so small profite that they enter in at the one eare and goe out at the other Is it then to be maruayled if Christ suffer these pretensed prophetes the Papists I meane to seduce them from his trueth reade 1. of the kings 22.22 In Achab the like hath bene done before and in Ezech. 13.10 22.28 we reade of them that buylded with vntempered morter Seeing then that they will not giue credite vnto Gods worde and therewith be contented God is not to be blamed if that these false prophetes deceyuing them with an outward shewe of holinesse he giue them vp to strong delusions 2. Thess 2.11 that they fall from the trueth to error from light vnto darkenes from heauen to hell Such as teach them the trueth are despised and others that instruct them in the dregges of idolatrie are esteemed and had in great reputation These false prophets that they may bring these carnal men vnto perfection they tell them how their forefathers liued whē they embraced papistrie howe that in comming to Churches they were very diligent in worshipping of images they were deuoute howe paynefull in visiting holy places howe liberall vnto the poore howe mercifull to the afflicted and lastly howe carefull they were to keepe Gods commandements Where be all these good workes saye they what is become of them Nowe one man seeketh to beguile another