A Looking Glass for Princes and Peoples Delivered, Book 2 · Part 4 · Chapter 39
CHAP. XXXIX. Their cruell attempts in great BRITAINE.
THeir other attempt was in great Britaine: TheyTheir diverse assayes against great Brittaine. assayed it with all sorts of weapons. First, by the wind of cursing Henrie the eight, and Elizabeth: But that proved evill wind to the blower: Next, by VVater and Rex Phil. Pont. sui instituti fecit certiorem: qui illud quam maxime lau▪ davit, Regiq. animum addi▪ dit cum promissione se ubi classis in Insulam esset appulsa certam pecuniae summam ad bellū continuandū suppeditaturum▪ Cicarel. Vir. Sext. 5. Plat 391. Onuph. Iuli. 3 Cicar… Greg. 13.Sea, by their great Armado, wherein Sixtus the fifth (a) had his hand, but God scattered them, and made the winds & Seas fight for this Yland: Therafter they pressed to barre K. Iames entrie by Brieues perindiciall to his Succession, but when they saw they prevailed not, they pressed to flatter him, at least to feede themselues with hope of toleration: And when that failed, they turned to their wonted practice of treason, and laboured to kill him before his Coronation: And when God disappointed them therein, and all hope of toleration was lost, they went to extremitie and fetched from hell the devyce of the powder-plot. Some thing lik was attemped in Florence, and Lisbone & latelie in Genua, but they are nothing to this, for these were Papists against Papists, & their groūd was civill miscontentments, but heere Religion was the cause, & that against a King, a Queene, Prince and flower of all the Estates of a Kingdome, and many Papists also. These were against some few foes onelie, but this was to blow vp friends with foes, and not to giuegive them leaue to thinke of God at their death, but in one instant to bee Breathing, dead, and evanished without Buriall. But GOD turned this Mine vponupon the Miners to discover and overthrow the depths of Rome.
This brought the matter of vsurpation againe on theKing Iames his Royall pleading. Stage with a new and singular sort of acting: Before, it was disputed by Divines and Lawyers, but then by the pen of a King, and while other Kings were either killed in the question, or beeing aliue durst not or could not debate it, God set vp a living and learned King on a throne to plead his cause. Strangers acknowledged his furnishing with wisedome and learning, as farre as any King since Solomon. Iacobus 1. Mag. Brit. Rex omni laude maior eminet, adeo ut cum Solomone sapientissimo certare posse videatur. aAngel. de Polit▪ Discip.And that our Age hath seene him onelie among Princes, plenished with all knowledge, & beloved of them for his most learned works. bNov. hom. E… ist. dedicator.Cum autem nostra aetas te solum augustissime Princeps incomparabili felicitate sortiatur, qui excelsamente—doctissi mis lucubrationibus omnium Principum animos tibi conciliasti. And himselfe, professeth that God had raised him from an obscure Kingdome to a greater, that from so eminent a place the world might heare him pleading for the trueth. cKing Iames against Cardinall Perron. Fol. 1Two glorious Titles concurred in him: First, the title of Defender of the Church, from the Crowne of Scotland: And the title of Defender of the Faith from the Crowne of England. And God gaue him a double measure amongst Kings, to bee one of his Worthies, and to lift vp his penne against many hundreth Papists.
That royall Premonition dedicate to Princes was easilie His premonition vnanswereable.vshered, comming from a Prince, but it cast the Iesuited Papists in a plunge: Manie of them railed against it, as Bellarmine, Becane, Suarez, Cofteau, Schioppius, and others, to the number of fourtie fiue, But it stands yet vnanswereable, because they brought nothing against it, but their owne preiudicate and ran…ide Paradoxes. And the worthy Divines of England, vnderunder such a Chiftane, hauehave so tortured them in that argument, that they hauehave left the field. And whereas the Parliament and Sorbone censured some Bookes written against it, they allowed it as a trueth: And it was so welcome to the popish Cleargie of France, that they were readie to subscriue it all, except that one point concerning Antichrist: And yet that is the most important point in it all, and their scruple was onelyonly because then they were not so farre inlightned as to see that mysterie, which in Gods time they will subscriue as well as the other.
The event of this attempt was their shame, as wee mayThey reported shame. see by their proceedings: Beside, the Parliament of Paris censure against these forenamed Bookes. Claud. Aquaviva the generall of the Iesuits, condemned Becanus Book of the controversie of England So soone as that Book Aquaviv Ep…d Baltas Pro …in…ial. Fran. Ann, 1613.(saith hee) came hither, and some thing was found in it which might better beene otherwise spoken or else omitted, wee sent vntounto you these Notes of our censure, that it may be mēded, &c. Cum primum huc liber ille pervenit idque in eo deprehensum est—censurae notas remisimus. And in his Epistle to P. Cotten a…rrore factum est quod vehementer doluimus, &c Id. Epist. …a… P. Cott.Wee are sorie that it is so evill fallen out, that Becans booke was not sent hither to bee corrected—but wee hauehave caused such things to bee noted, and sent to him, as ought either to bee delete or corrected.
Pope Paul the fifth with his Cardinals, bIn quo nonnulla falsa, temeraria, &c Censur. Paul 5. in lib. Becan. Ann. 1613. Claud. aqua. vi…. Epist. Aug. 1614.giuegive their censure, that in Becans booke are many things false, temerarious, scandalous, and respectiuelie seditious. But Aquavivas mandatorie Epistle to his order discovereth their minde more fullie (which the Iesuite fisher makes the ground of his Tergiversation in refusing to giuegive direct answere concerning loyaltie to Princes) VVee command our order (sayeth hee) by the vertue of holy obedience, and vnderunder paine of excommunication—that none of our order publicklie or privatlie by Lections and Councell, farre lesse by writting bookes presume to affirme that it is leasome to kill Kings, &c. Praecipitur in virtute S. obedientiae—ne quis nostrae Societatis—affirmare praesumat licitum esse Reges occidere. And in another place cIn virtute▪ obedientiae ne▪ …vulgari Pacia…turqui… quam in quo de potestate, &c Id. Epist. 2 Aug. 1614.By the vertue of obedience it is inioyned to the Provincials, that they suffer nothing to bee put out by Iesuits, concerning the Popes power aboue Kings, &c.
These censures was extorted from them by force of Conscience and out-crying of the world, wherein may beeTheir Palinodie: seene their policie, in that they condemne respectiuelie such Bookes, and not simplie: And their mocking of Princes, that while they condemne these Bookes, they allow the Doctrine & honour them who maintaine the like: For Bellarmine Baronius aFrustra aliquid moderationis ab il la Civitate expectari, in qua Illus. Card Bell. & tot al… m… norum gentiū &c. Casaub. Epist. Front. Duc. p. 59.Bozius, Marta, &c, were in great respect at Rome, and daylie venting their treasonable Paradoxes, while these Censures were framing there: And Sixtus the fifth, in the Consistorie allowed the deede of Iaques Clement. But out of these their Censures, wee may raise three necessarie conclusions. The first is. That they vtter their owne diffidence, and the weaknesse of their cause, as their owne Lessius obiecteth bEo ipso diffidentiam▪ &c. Less. apud Withring. discuss p. 279.to them in a passion, because hee durst not put to light a Booke hee had written of that argument, and that for feare of punishment. The second, They are either selfe-condemned Heretickes, carying their conviction in their Conscience, or else damned Hyporites, condemning solemnelie in write what they approue in the heart. The third, That they yeelde the cause to vsus, and confesse that victorie is on our side: When the Pope with his Cardinals and generall of Iesuits, call their Souldiers from the fields, and chyde them for vsing such weapons as they put in their hands.
This was the end of their Powder-plotte, and the disputs The powder plot hath shaken Romeof the authoritie of Kings occasioned thereby. So long as the fire of that powder was in their head, they vexed the World with Bookes and Disputs. But when their mines went wrong, and the fire and fume of that powder turned on themselues, then the generall of the Iesuits, and the Pope himselfe sounded a foule retreate. Such a fearefull silence is a palinodie in Print.