our time is there any Convocation where Laws be made for the order of our Clergy but such as by our authority is assembled And why should not we say as Iustinian said Omnia nostra facimus quibus à nobis impartitur aucthoritas Is any Bishop made but he submitteth himself to us and acknowledgeth himself as Bishop to be our subject Do not we give our Licence and assent to the election of Abbots And this is concerning the Persons and Laws spirituall As touching their goods it is in all mens opinions learned in our Laws Extra controversiam that debate and controversie of them appertaineth to our decision and Order And as for the living of the Clergy some notable offences we reserve to our correction some we remit by our sufferance to the Judges of the Clergy as murther felony and treason and such like enormities we reserve to our examination other crimes we leave to be ordered by the Clergy not because we may not intermeddle with them for there is no doubt but as well might we punish adultery and insolence in Priests as Emperours have done and other Princes ate this day do which ye know well enough so as in all those Articles concerning the persons of Priests their Laws their Acts and order of living forasmuch as they be indeed all temporall and concerning this present life only in those we as we be called be indeed in this Realm Caput and because there is no man above us here be indeed supremum Caput As to spiritual things meaning by them the sacraments being by God ordained as instruments of efficacy strength whereby grace is of his infinite goodness conferred upon his people forasmuch as they be no worldly nor temporal things they have no worldly nor temporall head but only Christ that did institute them by whose ordinance they be ministred here by mortal men elect chosen and ordered as God hath willed for that purpose who be the Clergy who for the time they do that and in that respect tanquam ministri versantur in his quae hominum potestati non subjiciuntur in quibus si male versantur sine scandalo Deum ultorem habent si cum scandalo hominum cognitio vindicta est Wherein as is before said either the Prince is chiefe doer r his authority proceeded to the execution of the same as when by sufferance or priviledge the Prelats intromit themselves therein wherefore in that which is derived from the Prince at the begining why should any obstacle or scruple be to call him Head from whom that is derived Such things as although they be amongst men yet they be indeed Divina quoniam supra nos sunt nihil ad nos And being called Head of all we be not in deed nor in name to him that would sincerely understand it head of such things being not spirituall as they be not temporall and yet to those words spoken of us adevitandam illam calumniam there is added quantum per legem Christi licet for interpretation of which Parenthesis your similitude added of homo immortalis est quantum per naturae legem licet is nothing like for naturae lex is not immortality as is lex Christi to superiority for lex naturae ne speaketh ne can mean of any immortality at all considering that the law of Nature ordaineth mortality in all things but Christs law speaketh of superiority admitteth superiority sheweth also and declareth obediendum esse Principibus as yee do alledge Wherefore if the law of God permitteth superiority and commandeth obedience to examine and measure modum obedientiae superioritatis there can to no other thing so good a relation be made For as yee understand the Scripture though it say nay to part it saith not nay to the whole whereas nature denieth utterly all immortality and so though in speaking of immortality of man it were superfluous to say quantum per naturae legem licet yet is not so speaking de superioritate modo Principatus referring the certain limits to the law or Christi ad cujus normam quicquid quadrat planum rectum est quicquid non quadrat pravum iniquum And as touching the doubt and difficulty you make to give a single answer yea or no for that the question propounded containeth two things whereof the one is true th' other false as yee say meaning as yee write that in temporalibus we be Caput and in spiritualibus we be not It seemeth that neither your example agreeth in similitude with that yee bring it in for nor is there in learning or common speech used the scrupulosity in answers yee write of Truth it is that the question in plain words containeth two parts expressly whereof the one is true th' other false our yea or nay cannot be answered for there should appear a manifest lye which Gods law detesteth and naturally is abhorred as if it should be asked Us if We were King of England and of Denmark our nay or yea should not suffice But it is farre otherwise both in matters of Learning and common speech where the words in the question may by divers interpretations or relations contain two things and yet in expression contain but one As if a man should ask Us An filius pater unum sunt We would not doubt to answer and say Yea as the Scripture saith for it is truly answered and to make a lye is but Sophistication drawing the word unum to person wherein it is a lye If one were asked the question Whether the man and wife were one he might boldly and truly say Yea and yet it is distinctione corporum naturalium a lie and to the question Vtrum Ecclesiam constet ex bonis malis Yea and yet as yee define Ecclesiam it it is a lie The reason of diversity is this for thâ—t it is not supposed men would abuse words but apply them to signifie truth and not to signifie a lie wherein the Arrians offending took occasion of heresies For that which is in Scripture written is a most certain truth and as it is there written so and no otherwise would Christ have answered if the question had been asked An Pater esset major illo he would have said yea as it is written And if the Arrians would have taken for a truth that of him that is truth and speaketh truth and from whom proceedeth but truth they would have brought a distinction with them to set forth truly and not disprove that it was truly written by sophistication of the word When S. James wrote Fides sine operibus mortua est he wrote truth and so did S. Paul Quod fides justificat absque operibus legis which it could not do if it were mortua Either of these made a single asseveration of a sentence by interpretation containing two trusting that the Reader would pio animo so understand them as their sayings might as they do indeed agree with truth It is
Infanta of Spain July 5. 1636. P. 257 FINIS King HENRY the 8. to the Clergie of the Province of York An. 1533. Touching his Title of Supreme Head of the Church of England RIght Reverend Father in God Right trusty and welbeloved We greet you well and have received your Letters dated at York the 6. of May containing a long discourse of your mind and opinion concerning such words as hath passed the Clergie of the Province of Canterbury in the Proeme of their Grant made unto us the like whereof should now pass in that Province Albeit ye interlace such words of submission of your Judgment and discharge of your duty towards us with humble fashion and behaviour as we cannot conceive displeasure nor be miscontent with you considering what you have said to us in times past in other matters and what ye confess in your Letters your self to have heard and known noting also the effect of the same We cannot but marvail at sundry points and Articles which we shall open unto you as hereafter followeth First ye have heard as ye say ye have the said words to have passed in the Convocation of Canterbury where were present so many learned in Divinity and Law as the Bishops of Rochester London S. Assaph Abbots of Hyde S. Bennets and many other and in the Law the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Bath and in the Lower House of the Clergie so many notable and great Clerks whose persons and learning you know well enough Why do ye not in this case with your self as you willed us in our great matter conform your conscience to the conscience and opinion of a great number Such was your advice to us in the same our great matter which now we perceive ye take for no sure counsel for ye â—earch the grounds not regarding their sayings Nevertheless forasmuch as ye examine their grounds causes and reasons in doing whereof ye seem rather to seek and examine that thing which might disprove their doings then that which might maintain the same We shall answer you briefly without long discourse to the chief points of your said Letters wherein taking for a ground that words were ordained to signifie things and cannot therefore by sinister interpretation alter the truth of them but only in the wits of perverse persons that would blind or colour the same by reason whereof to good men they signifie that they mean only doing their office and to men of worse sort they serve for maintenance of such meaning as they would imagine so in using words we ought only to regard and consider the expression of the truth in convenient speech and sentences without overmuch scruple of super-perverse interpretations as the malice of men may excogitate wherein both overmuch negligence is not to be commended and too much diligence is not only by daily experience in mens writings and laws shewed frustrate and void insomuch as nothing can be so cleerly and plainly written spoken and ordered but that subtile wit hath been able to subvert the same but also the Spirit of God which in his Scripture taught us the contrary as in the places which ye bring in reherse if the Holy Ghost had had regard to that which might have been perversly construed of these words Pater major me est and the other Ego Pater unum sumus there should have been added to the first humanitas to the second substantia And wherefore doth the Scripture call Christ primogenitum whereupon and the Adverb donec was maintained the error contra perpetuam virginitatem Mariae Why have we in the Church S. Pauls Epistle which S. Peter writeth to have been the occasion of errors Why did Christ speak of many words which the Jews drew ad calumniam and yet reformed them not as when he said Solvam Templum hoc c. meaning of his body where Templum with them had another signification And such other like There is none other cause but this Omnia quae scripta sunt ad nostram doctrinam scripta sunt And by that Learning we ought to apply and draw words to the truth and so to understand them as they may signifie truth and not so to wrest them as they should maintain a lye For otherwise as Heretiques have done with the holy Scripture so shall all men do with familiar speech and if all things shall be brought into familiar disputation he that shall call us Supremum unicum Dominum by that means and as goeth your argument might be reproved For Christ is indeed unicus Dominus Supremus as we confess him in the Church daily and now it is in opinion that Sancti be not Mediators The contrary whereof ye affirm in your Letters because of the Text of S. Paul Vnus est Mediator Deum hominum And after that manner of reason which ye use in the entry if any man should say This Land is mine own and none hath right in it but I he might be reproved by the Psalm Domini est terra For why should a man call terram aliquam onely his whereof God is the chief Lord and Owner Why is it admitted in familiar speech to call a man dead of whom the soul which is the chief and best part yet liveth How is it that we say this man or that man to be founder of this Church seeing that in one respect God is only founder We say likewise that he is a good man to the Church a special benefactor of the Church and that the Church is fallen down when the stones be fallen down the people preserved and living And in all this manner of speech when we hear them it is not accustomed ne used to do as ye do that is to say to draw the word Church to that sentence wherein the speech may be a lye but to take it in that wherein it signifieth truth Which accustomed manner if ye had followed you should not have needed to have laboured so much in the declaration of the word Ecclesia in that signification wherein it is most rarely taken and cannot without maintenance of too manifest a lye be applied to any man For taking Ecclesia in that sense ye take it S. Paul wrote amiss writing to the Corinthians saying Ecclesia Dei quae est Corinthi for by your definition non circumscribitur loco Ecclesia In the Gospel where Christ said Dic Ecclesiae must needs have another interpretation and definition then ye make de Ecclesia in your said Letters or else it were hard to make complaint to all Christendom as the case in the Gospel requireth Sed est candidi pectoris verba veritati accommodare ut ipsam referre quod eorum officium est non corrumpere videantur Furthermore the Lawiers that write how Ecclesia fallit fallitur what blasphemy do they affirm if that definition should be given to Ecclesia which you write in your Letters wherein albeit ye write the truth for so
never to be thought men will willingly without shame lye And therefore the sense if any may be gathered true or like to be true is to be taken and not that which is a lye And when we write to the Pope Sanctissimo we mean not holier then S. Peter though it sound so and he that in our Letters should object that should be thought ridiculous He that should say he rode beyond the sea were not conveniently interrupted in his tale by him that would object sailing upon the sea where he could not ride at all And rather then men would note a lye when they know what is meant they will sooner by allegory or methaphor draw the word to the truth then by cavillation of the word note a lye Hath not the Pope been called Caput Ecclesiae and who hath put any addition unto it Have not men said that the Pope may dispence cum Jure divino and yet in a part Juris divini viz. moralis naturalis the same men would say he might not dispence wherefore if in all other matters it was never thought inconvenient to speak absolutely the truth without distinction why should there be more scruple in our case The truth cannot be changed by words that we be as Gods law suffereth us to be whereunto we do and must conform our selves And if ye understand as ye ought to understand Temporalibus for the passing over this life in quietness ye at last descend to agree to that which in the former part of your Letters you intend to impugne and sticking to that it were most improperly spoken to say We be illus Ecclesiae Caput in temporalibus which hath not temporalia Queen Anne of Bullen to King Henry from the Tower May 6. 1536. SIR YOur Graces displeasure and my imprisonment are things so strange unto me as what to write or what to excuse I am altogether ignorant Whereas you send unto me willing me to confess a truth and so to obtain your favour by such a one whom you know to be my ancient professed enemy I no sooner received this message then I rightly conceived your menning And if as you say confessing a truth indeed may procure my safety I shall with all willingness and duty perform your command but let not your Grace ever imagine that your poor wife will ever be brought to acknowledg a fault where not so much as a thought ever proceeded And to speak a truth never Prince had wife more loyal in all duty and in all true affection then you have ever found in Anne Bullen with which name and place I could willingly have contented my self if God and your Graces pleasure had so been pleased Neither did I at any time forget my self in my exaltation or received Queenship but that I always look'd for such an alteration as now I find the ground of my preferment being on no surer foundation then your Graces fancie the least alteration whereof I knew was fit and sufficient to draw that fancie to some other subject You have chosen me from a low estate to be your Queen and Companion far beyond my desert or desire If then you find me worthy of such honour Good your Grace let not any light fancie or bad councel of my Enemies withdraw your Princely favour from me neither let that stain that unworthy stain of a disloyal heart towards your good Grace ever cast so foul a blot on your most dutiful wife and the Infant-Princess your daughter Try me good King but let me have a lawful trial and let not my sworn enemies sit as my accusers and Judges yea let me receive an open Trial for my truths shall fear no open shames then shall you see either my innocencie cleered your suspition and conscience satisfied the ignominy and slander of the world stopped or my guilt openly declared So that whatsoever God or you may determine of me your Grace may be freed from an open censure and my offence being so lawfully proved your Grace is at liberty both before God and man not only to execute worthy punishment on me as an unfaithfull wife but to follow your affection already setled on that party for whose sake I am now as I am whose name I could some while since have pointed to your Grace being not ignorant of my suspition therein But if you have already determined of me and that not only my death but an infamous slander must bring you the enjoying of a desired happiness then I desire of God that he will pardon your great sin herein and likewise my enemies the instruments thereof and that he will not call you to a strict accompt for your unprincely and cruel usage of me at his general Judgment-seat where both you and my self must both shortly appear and in whose just judgment I doubt not whatsoever the world may think of me my innocencie shall be openly known and sufficiently cleered My last and onely request shall be That my self may bear the burthen of your Graces displeasure and that it may not touch the innocent souls of those poor Gentlemen who as I understand are in strait imprisonment for my sake If ever I have found favour in your sight if ever the name of Anne Bullen have been pleasing in your ears let me obtain this last request and I will so leave to trouble your Grace any further with my earnest prayers to the Trinity to have your Grace in his good keeping and to direct you in all your actions From my dolefull prison in the Tower this sixth of May. Your most loyal and faithful wife ANNE BULLEN Queen Elizabeths Letter to the Lady Norris upon the death of her Son ALthough we have deferred long to represent unto you our grieved thoughts because we liked full well to yield you the first reflections of our misfortunes whom we have always sought to cherish and comfort yet knowing now that necessity must bring it to your ears and nature consequently must move many passionate affections in your heart we have resolved no longer to smother either our care for your sorrow or the sympathy of our grief for his death wherein if society in sorrowing work diminution we do assure you by this true messenger of our mind that Nature can have stirred no more dolorous affections in you as a mother for a dear son then the gratefulness and memory of his services past hath wrought in Us his Soveraign apprehension of the miss of so worthy a servant But now that natures common work is done and he that was born to die hath paid his tribute let that Christian discretion stay the flux of your immoderate grieving which hath instructed you both by example and knowledge that nothing of this kind hath happened but by Gods providence and that these lines from your loving and gracious Soveraign serve to assure you that there shal ever appear the lively characters of you and yours that are left in our valuing rightly all their faithfull
Lordships Arguments or else forsake mine own just defence wil force mine aking head to do me service for an hour I must first deny my discontentment which was forced to be an humorous discontent and in that it was unseasonable or is so long continuing your Lordship should rather condole with me then expostulate naturall seasons are expected here below but violent and unreasonable storms come from above There is no tempest to the passionate of a Prince nor yet at any time so unseasonable as when it lighteth on those that might expect an harvest of their carefull and painfull labours He that is once wounded must needs feel smart till his hurt be cured or the part hurt become sensless But cure I expect none her Majesties heart being obdurate and be without sense I cannot being of flesh and blood But you may say I may aim at the end I do more then aim for I see an end of all my fortunes I have set an end to all my desires In this course do I any thing for mine enemies when I was present I found them absolute and therefore I had rather they should triumph alone then have me attendant upon their Chariots Or do I lâ—â—ve my friends When I was a Courtier I could sell them no fruit of my love and now that I am an Hermit they shall bear no enviâ— for their love to me Or do I forsake my self because I do not enjoy my self Or do I overthrow my fortunes because I build not a fortune of paper-walls which every puff of wind bloweth down Or do I ruinate mine honor because I leave following the pursuit or wearing the false mark or the shadow of honor Do I give courage or comfort to the enemies because I neglect my self to encounter them or because I keep my heart from business though I cannot keep my fortune from declining No no I give every one of those considerations his due right and the more I weigh them the more I find my self justified from offending in any of them As for the two last objections that I forsake my Countrey when it hath most need of me and fail in that indissoluble duty which I owe to my Soveraign I answer That if my Countrey had at this time any need of my publick service her Majesty that governeth it would not have driven me to a private life I am tied to my Countrey by two bonds one publick to discharge carefully and industriously that trust which is committed to me the other private to sacrifice for it my life and carkasse which hath been nourished in it Of the first I am free being dismissed by her Majesty Of the other nothing can free me but death and therefore no occasion of performance shall sooner offer it self but I will meet it halfe way The indissoluble duty I owe unto her Majesty the service of an Earle and of Marshall of England and I have been content to do her the service of a Clerk but I can never serve her as a villain or a slave But you say I must give way to time So I do for now that I see the storm come I have put my self into harbour Seneca saith we must give way to Fortune I know that Fortune is both blind and strong and therefore I go as far as I can out of the way You say the remedy is not to strive I neither strive nor seek for remedy But you say I must yeild and submit I can neither yeild my self to be guilty nor this my imprisonment lately laid upon me to be just I ow so much to the Author of Truth as I can never yeild Truth to be Falshood nor Falshood to be Truth Have I given cause you ask and yet take a scandall No I gave no cause to take up so much as Fimbria his complaint for I did totum telum corpore accipere I patiently bear and sensibly feel all that I then received when this scandall was given me Nay when the vilest of all indignities are done unto me doth religion enforce me to sue Doth God require it Is it impiety not to do it Why cannot Princes erre Cannot subjects receive wrong Is an earthly power infinite Pardon me pardon me my Lord I can never subscribe to these principles Let Solomons fool laugh when he is stricken let those that mean to make their profit of Princes shew to have no sense of Princes injuries let them acknowledge an infinite absoluteness on earth that do not believe an absolute infiniteness in heaven As for me I have received wrong I feel it my cause is good I know it and whatsoever comes all the powers on earth can never shew more strength or constancy in oppressing then I can shew in suffering whatsoever can or shall be imposed upon me Your Lordship in the beginning of your Letter makes me a Player and your self a looker on and me a player of my own game so you may see more then I but give me leave to tell you that since you do but see and I do suffer I must of necessity feel more then you I must crave your Lordships patience to give him that hath a crabbed fortune leave to use a crooked stile But whatsoever my stile is there is no heart more humble nor more affected towards your Lordship then that of Your Lordships poor friend ESSEX Two Letters framed one as from Mr. Anthony Bacon to the Earl of Essex the other as the Earls answer My singular good Lord THis standing at a stay doth make me in my love towards your Lordship jealous lest you do somwhat or omit somwhat that amounteth to a new error For I suppose that of all former matters there is a full expiation wherein for any thing which your Lordship doth I for my part who am remote cannot cast or devise wherein my error should be except in one point which I dare not censure nor disswade which is that as the Prophet saith in this affliction you look up ad manum percutientem and so make your peace with God And yet I have heard it noted that my Lord of Leicester who could never get to be taken for a Saint yet in the Queens disfavour waxed seeming religious Which may be thought by some and used by others as a case resembling yours if men do not see or will not see the difference between your two dispositions But to be plain with your Lordship my fear rather is because I hear how some of your good and wise friends not unpractised in the Court and supposing themselves not to be unseen in that deep and unscrutable Center of the Court which is her Majesties mind do not only toll the bell but even ring out peals as if your fortune were dead and buried and as if there were no possibility of recovering her Majesties favour and as if the best of your condition were to live a private and retired life out of want out of peril and out of manifest disgrace And so
temperately governed for all immoderate successe extinguisheth merit and seareth up distaste and envy the assured fore-runner of whole changes of peril But I am at the last point first some good spirit leading my pen to presage to your Lordships success wherein it is true I am not without my Oracle and Divinations none of them superstitious and yet not all naturall For first looking into the course of Gods providence in things now depending and calling into consideration how great things God hath done by her Majesty and for her collect he hath disposed of this great dissection in Ireland whereby to give an urgent occasion to the reduction of that whole kingdom as upon the rebellion of Desmond there ensued the reduction of that Province Next your Lordship goeth against three of the unluckiest vices of all other Disloyalty Ingratitude Insosolence which three offences in all examples have seldome their doom adjourned to the world to come Lastly he that shall have had the honor to know your Lordship inwardly as I have had shall find bona extra whereby he may better ground a divination of good then upon the diffection of a Sacrifice But that part I leave for it is fit for others to be confident upon you you to be confident upon the cause the goodnesse justice whereof is such as can hardly be matched in any example it being no ambitious war of Foreigns but a recovery of subjects and that after lenity of conditions often tried and a recovery of them not onely to obedience but to humanity and policy from more then Indian Barbarism There is yet another kind of divination familiar in matters of State being that which Demosthenes so often relieth upon in his time where he saith That which for the time past is worst of all is for the time to come the best which is that things go ill not by accident but by error wherein if your Lordship have been a waking Censor but must look for no other now but Medice cura teipsum And although your Lordship shal not be the blessed Physician that cometh to the declination of the disease yet you imbrace that condition which many Noble Spirits have accepted for advantage which is that you go upon the greater perill of your fortune and the less of your reputation and so the honor countervaileth the adventure of which honor your Lordship is in no small possession when that her Majesty known to be one of the most judicious Princes in discerning of spirits that ever governed hath made choyce of you meerly out of her Royall judgement her affection inclining rather to continue your attendance into whose hands trust to put the commandement conduct of so great forces the gathering in the fruit of so great charge the execution of so many Councels the redeeming of the defaults of so many former Governors and the clearing of the glory of so many happy years reign onely in this part excepted Nay further how far forth the perill of that State is interlaced with the perill of England and therefore how great the honor is to keep and defend the approaches of this kingdom I hear many discourse and indeed there is a great difference whether the Tortoise gather her selfe into her shell hurt or unhurt And if any man be of opinion that the nature of an enemy doth extenuate the honour of a service being but a Rebell and a Savage I differ from him for I see the justest Triumphs that the Romans in their greatest greatness did obtain and that whereof the Emperours in their stiles took additions and denominations were of such an enemy that is people barbarous and not reduced to civility magnifying a kind of lawless liberty prodigall of life hardned in body fortified in woods and bogs placing both justice and felicity in the sharpness to their swords Such were the Germans and antient Britains and divers others Upon which kind of people whether the victory be a Conquest or a Reconquest upon a rebellion or revolt it made no difference that ever I could find in honour And therefore it is not the inriching predatory war that hath the preheminence in honour else should it be more honour to bring in a Carrock of rich burthen then one of the twelve Spanish Apostles But then this nature of people doth yield a higher point of honour considering in truth and substance then any war can yield which should be atchieved against a civil enemy if the end may be Pacique imponere morem To replant and refound the policie of that Nation to which nothing is wanting but a just and civil Government Which design as it doth descend to you from your noble Father who lost his life in that action though he paid tribute to nature and not to fortune so I hope your Lordship shall be as fatal a Captain to this war as Africanus was to the war of Carthage after that both his Uncle and his Father had lost their lives in Spain in the same war Now although it be true that these things which I have writ being but representations unto your Lordship of the honour and apparance of success of the enterprise be not much to the purpose of my direction yet it is that which is best to me being no man of war and ignorant in the particulars of Estate for a man may by the eye set up the white right in the midst of the But though he be no Archer Therefore I will only add this wish according to the English phrase which termeth a wel-willing advice a wish That your Lordship in this whole action looking forward set down this Position That merit is worthier then fame and looking back hither would remember this text That obedience is better then sacrifice For designing to fame and glory may make your Lordship in the adventure of your person to be valiant as a private Souldier rather then as a Generall it may make you in your commandments rather to be gracious then disciplinary it may make you press action in the respect of the great expectation conceived rather hastily then seasonably and safely it may make you seek rather to atchieve the war by force then by intermixture of practice it may make you if God shall send you prosperous beginnings rather seek the fruition of that honour then the perfection of the work in hand And for your proceeding like a good Protestant upon warrant and not upon good intention your Lordship knoweth in your wisdom that as it is most fit for you to desire convenient liberty of instruction so it is no less fit for you to observe the due limits of them remembring that the exceeding of them may not only procure in case of adverse accident a dangerous disadvow but also in case of prosperous success be subject to interpretation as if all were not referred to the right end Thus I have presumed to write these few lines to your Lordship in methodo ignorantiae which
Lordship once before my opinion that methought his Majesty rather asked counsell of the time past then of the time to come But it is yet early to be found in any setled opinion For other particularities I refer to conference having in these generals gone further in these tender arguments then I would have done were not the bearer hereof so assured So I continue your c. FR. BACON To Sir Edward Coke expostulatory Mr. Attorney I Thought best once for all to let you know in plainness what I find of you and what you shal find of me To take to your self a liberty to disgrace and disable my Law experience discretion what it pleases you I pray think of me I am one that know both mine own wants and other mens and it may be perchance that mine may mend when others stand at a stay And surely I may not in publike place endure to be wronged without repelling the same to my best advantage to right myself You are great and therefore have the more enviers which would be glad to have you paid at anothers cost Since the time I missed the Sollicitors place the rather I think by your means I cannot expect that you and I shall ever serve as Attorney and Sollicitor but either to serve with another upon your remove or to step into some other course So as I am more free then ever I was from any occasion of unworthy conforming my self to you more then generall good manners or your particular good usage shall provoke And if you had not been short-sighted in your own fortune as I think you might have had more use of me but that tide is past I write not this to shew any friends what a brave Letter I have writ to Mr. Attorney I have none of those humours but that I have written is to a good end that is to the more decent carriage of my Masters service and to our particular better understanding one another This Letter if it shall be answered by you in deed and not in word I suppose it will not be worse for us both else it is but a few lines lost which for a much smaller matter I would adventure So this being to your self I for my part rest Your c. FR. BACON To the same after Lo. Chief Justice and in disgrace My very good Lord THough it be true that who considereth the wind and the rain shall neither sow nor reap Eccles 9.15 yet there is a season for every action And so there is a time to speak and a time to keep silence there is a time when the words of a poor simple man may profit and that poor man in the Preacher which delivered the City by his wisdom found that without this opportunity the power both of wisdom and eloquence lose but their labour and cannot charm the deaf Adder God therefore before his Son that bringeth mercy sent his servant the Trumpeter of repentance to level a very high hill to prepare the way before him making it smooth and streight And as it is in spiritual things where Christ never comes before his Way-maker hath laid even the heart with sorrow and repentance since self-conceited and proud persons think themselves too good and too wise to learn of their inferior and therefore need not the Physitian so in the rules of earthly wisdom it is not possible for nature to attain any mediocrity of perfection before she be humbled by knowing her self and her own ignorance Not only knowledge but also every other gift which we call the gifts of fortune have power to pull up earthly Afflictions only level these Mole-hils of pride plough the heart and make it fit for Wisdom to sow her seed and for Grace to bring forth her increase Happy is that man therefore both in regard of heavenly and earthly wisdom that is thus wounded to be cured thus broken to be made straight thus made acquainted with his own imperfections that he may be perfected Supposing this to be the time of your affliction that which I have propounded to my self is by taking this seasonable advantage like a true friend though far unworthy to be counted so to shew you your true shape in a glass and that not in a false one to flatter you nor yet in one that should make you seem worse then you are and so offend you but in one made by the reflexion of your own words and actions from whose light proceeds the voice of the people which is often not unfitly called the voice of God but therein since I purposed a truth I must intreat liberty to be plain a liberty that at this time I know not whether or no I may use safely I am sure at other times I could not yet of this resolve your self it proceedeth from love and a true desire to do you good that you knowing the generall opinion may not altogether neglect or contemn it but mend what you find amiss in yourself and tain what your judgment shall approve for to this end shall truth be delivered as naked as if your self were to be anatomized by the hand of opinion All men can see their own profit that part of the wallet hangs before A true friend whose worthy office I would perform since I fear both your self and all great men want such being themselves true friends to few or none is first to shew the other and which is from your eyes First therefore behold your errors In discourse you delight to speak too much not to hear other men this some say becomes a pleader not a Judge for by this sometimes your affections are intangled with a love of your own arguments though they be the weaker and rejecting of those which when your affections were setled your own judgment would allow for strongest Thus while you speak in your own Element the Law no man ordinarily equals you but when you wander as you often delight to do you then wander indeed and give never such satisfaction as the curious time requires This is not caused by any naturall defect but first for want of election when you having a large and fruitfull mind should not so much labour what to speak as to find what to leave unspoken rich soils are often to be weeded Secondly you cloy your auditory when you would be observed speech must either be sweet or short Thirdly you converse with Books not men and Books specially humane and have no excellent choyce with men who are the best Books for a man of action and imployment you seldome converse with and then but with your underlings not freely but as a Schoolmaster with his Scholars ever to teach never to learn But if somtimes you would in your familiar discourse hear others and make election of such as know what they speak you should know many of these tales you tell to be but ordinary and many other things which you delight to repeat and serve in for novelties to be but
of your ancient fidelity a reputation hereditary to that our Citie of London being the Chamber of our Imperiall Crown and ever free from all shades of tumultuous and unlawfull courses We could not omit with all possible speed we might to give you hereby a Test of our thankfull mind for the same and withall assurance that you cannot crave any thing of us fit for the maintenance of you all in generall and every one of you in particular but it shall be most willingly performed by us whose speciall care shall ever be to provide for the continuance and increase of your present happiness desiring you in the mean time to go constantly forward in doing all and whatsoever things you shall find necessary or expedient for the good government of our said City in execution of justice as you have been used to do in our said dearest Sisters time till our pleasure be known to you in the contrary Thus not doubting but you will do as you may be fully assured of our gracious favour towards you in the highest degree we bid you heartily farewell Hallyrud-House March 28. 1603. JAMESR The Roman Catholiques Petition to King James for Toleration MOst puissant Prince and orient Monarch Such are the rare perfections and admirable gifts of wisdom prudence valour and justice wherewith the bountifull hand of Gods divine Majesty hath endued your Majesty as in the depth of your provident judgment we doubt not but you foresee what concerneth both the spiritual and temporal Government of all your Kingdoms and Dominions Notwithstanding your Graces most afflicted Subjects and devoted Servants the Catholiques of England partly to prevent sinister informations which haply may possess your sacred ears before our answer be heard partly as men almost overwhelmed with persections for our considences we are inforced to have speedy recourse in hope of present redress from your Highness and to present these humble lines unto your Royal person to plead for us some commiseration and favour Alas what allegeance or duty can any Temporal Prince desire or expect at his Vassals hands which we are not addressed to perform How many Noblemen and worthy Gentlemen most zealous in the Catholique Religion have endured some loss of lands and livings some exile others imprisonment some the effusion of blood and life for the advancement of your blessed Mothers right unto the Scepter of Albion Nay whose finger did ever ake but Catholiques for your Majesties present title and dominions How many fled to your Court offering themselves as hostages for their friends to live arid die in your gracious quarrel if ever adversary had opposed himself against the equity of your cause If this they attempted with their Princes disgrace to obtain your Majesties grace what will they do nay what will they not do to live without disgrace in your Graces favor The main of this Realm if we respect Religion setting petty Sects aside consists of four parts Protestants who have domineered all the Queens dayes Puritans who have crept up apace amongst them Atheists or Polititians who were bred upon their brawls and contentions in matters of faith and Catholiques who as they are opposite to all so are they detested of all because error was ever an enemy to truth Hardly all or any two of the first three can be suppressed Therefore we beseech your Majesty to yield us as much savour as others of contrary Religion to that which shall be publiquely professed in England shall obtain at your hands For if our fault be like less or none at all in equity our punishment ought to be like less or none at all The Gates Arches and Pyramids of France proclaimed the present King Pater patria Pacis restitutor that is the Father of his Country and Restorer of their peace because that Kingdom being well neer torn in peeces with Civil wars and made a prey to foraign foes was by his providence wisdom and valour acquitted in it self and hostile strangers expelled the which he principally effected by condescending to tolerate them of an adverse Religion to that which was openly professed Questionlessm Dread Soveraign the Kingdom of England through the cruel persecution of Catholiques hath been almost odious to all Christian Nations Trade and traffique is exceedingly decayed Wars and blood hath seldom ceased Subsidies and Taxes never so many discontented minds innumerable All which your Princely Majesties connivance to your humble suppliants the afflicted Catholiques will easily easily redress especially at this your Highness fisft ingress Si loquaris ad nos verba levia erunt tibi servi cunctis diebus 1 King 7.7 that is if you speak comfortable things unto them or if you hearken unto them in this thing they will be servants unto you or they will serve all their days say the sage Councellors of Solomon to Roboam For enlargement after affliction resembleth a pleasant gale after a vehement tempest and a benefit in distress doubleth the value thereof How gratefull will it be to all Catholique Princes abroad and honorable to your Majesty to understand how Queen Elizabeths severity is changed into your Royal clemencie and that the lenity of a man reedified what the misinformed anger of a woman destroyed that the Lyon rampant is passant whereas the passant had been rampant How acceptable shall your Subjects be to all Catholique Countries who are now almost abhorred of all when they shall perceive your Highness prepareth not pikes or prisons for the Professors of their Faith but permitteth them Temples and Altars for the use of their Religion Then we shall see with our eyes and touch with our fingers that happy benediction of Isa 14.7 in this Land that swords are turned into mattocks or ploughs and lances into sithes and all Nations admiring us will say Hi sunt semen cui benedixit Dominus that is these are the seed which the Lord hath blessed We request no more favour at your Graces hands then that we may securely believe and profess that Catholique Religion which all your happy Predecessors professed from Donaldus the first converted unto your late blessed Mother martyred a Religion venerable for antiquity majestical for amplitude constant for continuance irreprehensible for doctrine inducing to all kind of vertue and piety disswading from all sin and wickedness a religion beloved by all primitive Pastors established by all Occumenicall Councels upholden by ancient Doctors maintained by the first and best Christian Emperours recorded almost alone in all Ecclesiasticall Histories sealed with the blood of millions of Martyrs adorned with the vertues of so many Confessors beautified with the purity of thousands of virgins so conformable unto naturall sense and reason and finally so agreeable with the sacred Texts of Gods Word and Gospell The free use of this Religion we request if not in publick Churches at the least in private houses if not with approbation yet with toleration without molestation Assuring your Grace that howsoever some Protestants or Puritans incited by
Indeavours to appease the Bohemian tumults 113 Offers Conditions to the Emperour on the behalfe of the Palatine 114. his Propositions to the Palatine 143 144. acknowledged Protectour of the Germane Protestants 149. his directions concerning Preachers 183. makes Romano Martyrs 199 Janin President of the Parliament of Paris 195 Infantasque Duke 98 Inquisition of Spaine 97 Instructions to Sir John Perot Deputy of Ireland 15 16 By King Charles for the Vniversity of Cambridg 227 Ireland in what condition in Sir John Perots time 16 17 18 In the beginning of King Charles 235 236 237 238 239 Irish delight in change 17. barbarous 46. murder theft c. legall with them 51. renegadoes in Spaine 100 101 Isabella Clara Eugenia Infanta of Spain 127 128 Isabella Infanta of Savoy 243 Isidore Spanish Saint 125 126 Italians dangerous to France 195 196 Justinian made Lawes concerning the Clergy 5 K Kings no man above them 6. like the Sun 36. of France and Spaine 198 L Lady of Antiochia 125 Lawes of England most jealous for the safety of her Kings 85 Leicester Earle out of favour turns religious 31 Lecturers dangerous 186 Lerma Duke in the life of Phil. the third moves the Spanish Match 117 c. 121 Lincoln Bishop Lord Keeper 190 Lisle Viscount after Earle of Leicester governour of Vlushing c. 93 Loanes denyed the King 182 London sometime the chamber of her Kings 81 Louis the thirteenth in his minority 123 c. enters Rochel 203. see Urbane Pope Louvre of France the prison of her King 194 Low Countries 149 Luenza Don John 126 M Mac Frogh Phelim 237 Magick 75 Magog a renegado Irishman guilty of thirteen murders 101 Manchester Earle 225 Manheim besieged 127 Mansfield Count 116 131 Maried men seven yeares older the first day 71 Mantua Duke 204 234. defended by the French and Venetians 239 Maria Donna Infanta of Spaine 126 133 134. deserved well of the Prince of Wales 140 Gives over learning English 151 Match with France 117 118. with Spaine 117 118 119 120 121 122 123. never intended by the Spaniards 133 Mathews Sir Toby 67 May Sir Humphrey 226 Merchants in Spaine see Spaniards Merit is worthier them fame 47 Monmorencie Duke 195 Monpensier Duke 36 Montauban in rebellion 204 Monteri Spanish Embassadour 210 Mountjoye Lord after Earle of Devon 35 36 Munster in Ireland marked for the Spanish invasions 17 N Nevers Duke see Mantua Duke Newburgh Duke 147 Norfolk Duke sues to the Queen for his life 11 Norris Sir Thomas 17. Sir John 42. Sir Francis 89 Northumberland Earl 58 59 Nottingham Countess 95 O Oath of Supremacy why urged 39 Odonnel 44 Ognate Spanish Embassadour at Rome 240 Oleron Iland 203 Olivarez Conde 130 131 139 Contrives to compose the Palatine differences without the Match 135 Order submitting the Town of Cambridge to the Vniversity 223 See Charles King Ordination of Priests c. how to be 187 Ormond Earl 42 44 45 Ossuna Duke 125 126 P Palatinate a motive of the Spanish match 129 134. Without which the Kings of England will do nothing 136 138 141 143 151. Dismembred 147 Parliaments tumultuous 229 230 Pastrana Duke 142 Patent for the Admiralty of Ireland 90 Perez Don Antonio Secretary to Philip the Second of Spain 100 Perrot Sir John Deputy of Ireland 13. His care of that Kingdome 17 Philip the Second of Spain transplants whole Families of the Portugese 51 Philip the Third of Spain upon his death-bed 125 c. Philips Sir Robert 155. Francis his brother ibid. Physick modern 75 Pius Quintus his Excommunication of the Queen because of the Rebellion in the North 39 Polander defeats the Turks 198 Pope not more holy then S. Peter 8 Tyranny of Popes 29 Powder plot 67 Pretence of conscience 38 Preachers Licences to preach 183 Directions for preaching 184 Presbytery as mischievous to private men as to Princes 41. See Puritans Priesthood how to be honoured 4 5 Princes to be obeyed and by whom ibid. by Christs Law 7. Supreme Heads 5. Driven out must not give their Vsurpers too long time to establish themselves 147 Privy Seal for transporting of Horse 217 Puritans in the time of Queen Elizabeth 40. Would bring Democracie into the Church promise impossible wonders of the Discipline 41. Fiery Rebellious contemn the Magistrate ibid. Feared not without cause by King James 193 Q Quadrivials 75 R Ranelagh in Ireland 237 Rawleigh Sir Walter 85 86 Ree Iland 203 Rich Baronness sister to Essex writes to the dishonour of the Queen and advantage of the Earl 32 Richardson Chief Justice of the Bench 228 Richer forced by Richlieu recants his opinions against the Papal Supremacy over Kings 196 Richlieu Cardinal greatly solicitous for the English Romane Catholicks 197 Rochel 200. in what condition at the surrender 202 203. Fifteen thousand dye of the famine ibid. Rohan Dutchess in Rochel during the siege 202. Duke 204 206 208 210 Romish Priests seduce the subjects from their obidience their practices against the Queens sacred person 39 40 Roman Catholickâ—â— sue to King James at his entrance for toleration 82 83. great lovers of him the only good subjects witness the Mine then plotted 82 their Religion upon their own words 83 84 Russel Sir William 237 Ruthuen after Lord Ruthuen unhandsomely used by the Earl of Northumberland 106 107 S St. John Oliver against Taxes contrary to Magna Charta c. would not have Oathes violated in which the divine Majesty is invocated fearful of the Arch-Bishops Excommunication 160 Saxonie Elector 114 Scandal what 97 Scriptures how to be expounded 2 3 Seminaries blossom 39 in Ireland seditious appear in their habits 240 241 Serita Don John 125 Sin immortal to respect any of the English Church 101 Southampton Earl 58 Spaniards designe upon Ireland 17 spoil base Bologne 37. lose their Apostles 47. wrong and oppress the English Merchants 97 98 99 102 103. suits in Spain immortal ibid. give pensions to the Irish renegadoes 100 101. unreasonable in the businesse of the Match 127 137 146. swear and damn themselves yet never intended it 132 c. their unworthy sleights to make K James jealous of the Prince and others 152 153. oppose the rights and succession of the Duke of Nevers to Mantua and Montferrat 234 lose their silver Fleet poor 240 Spencer Edmund see Fairy Queen his worth and Learning 45 252 Spinola Marquess 198 199 Spiritualia how to be taken 5 6 Stanley Sir William 18 Superstition worse then Atheisme 160 Supreme Head the Kings Title 1 2 c. 39 T Tilly Count 131 Toirax Governor of the Fort in the I le of Ree 201 Toledo Cardinal 123 Toleration of Religion in Ireland necessary 52 Treason of the Papists in the clouds 40 cannot beget fâ—ir passions 86 Treaty with Tyrone 43 44. of Bruxels 127 128 Trimouille Duke 37 Turks against the Pander 198 Tyrone 43 44 101 V Valette Cardinal 197 Venetians side with the Mantouan 239 240 Villeroye Secretary of France 195 Urban the Eight encourages Louis the Thirteenth to fall upon the Hugonots 211 212. against the Spaniards 240 Usurpers exhalations 37 W Wallop Sir Henry has ill Offices done him to the Queen 19 Walsingham Sir Francis his reasons why the Queene sometimes restrains and punishes the Puritans 38 Warham Archbishop of Canterbury 98 Warrants of the Queen to the Lords of Ireland at the going over of Sir John Perot 14 15 Weston Sir Ridhard Chancellour of the Exchequer after L. Treasurer and Earl of Portland 128 Wilks Sir Thomas 36 37 Willoughby Lord 90 Winchester Bishop 189 Words are to be construed to make truth 8 Y Yelverton Sir Henry censured in the Starchamber 107 108 109 Ynoiosa Marquesse 152. his base carriage to King James 153 Z. Zunige Don Balthazar 109 112 c. 130 FINIS