Reproof of Howlets Untimely Shrieking, Part 1 · Section 8
14 AND to tell your Maiestie more in particular, there hath beene diuers earnest meanes made, and most humble petitions exhibited by the Catholikes: that, seeing those men, which first challenged at Poules Crosse, al the learned of our side that might be found, eyther to writing, or disputing: afterwarde procured your Maiesties prohibition by proclae mation, that no bookes should be written or read of that parte in England: their petition was (I saye) that at the least, there might some publique disputation be admitted, whereby … doubtes might be resolued. This petition, hath beene exhibited by dyuers men, in the name of the whole, both in writing and in print, & they hauehave beene vrged by sundry meanes, by al kinde of friendship that we could make, by humble request, by earnest letters to diuers preachers to further the matter: & (if I bee not deceiued) to my Lord of London himselfe, for the bringing of the matter to your Maiesties vnderstanding, and to the consideration of the Lordes of your highnes priuie coū sayle. And if by any mischaunce, these former supplications, came not to light, or expressed not fully the Catholikes plain & simple meaning es: I beseech your most gratious Maiestie, An humble demande of disputation.that this may serue, eyther for a replication, or explanation of the same: wherein I, in their names, most humblye on my knees, euen for Gods cause, and the louelove of his truth, aske at your Maiesties handes, that some such indifferent tryal may be had, by publike disputation or otherwise.
YOU tel further of meanes made, of challenges, petitiōs, writing, disputing, prohibitiō, & I wot not what, neyther truly nor to purpose greatly (writing vponupon the occasion of chalenge at Paules Crosse, that ye mencion) hath since geuen your side such a woūd as I think you wil neuer be able to recouer it. Notwithstanding any prohibition of her maiesties by proclamation &c, yee can and doe write. print, publishe, and scatter your bookes and sedicious libels still although with little vantage, and I hope shall with lesse still eueryevery day then other, for now you beginne to take in hand not so much to improue our religion, or to proue your owne, as to inueigh against the ciuill state, to confute her Maiesties lawes, Actes of Parliament, proclamations &c. These be fit argumēts for your wise politike head to treate of. Such is the respect ye hauehave to her maiesty, ye state & your dutie of obedience herein. Thinke not (M, Howlet) they be afrayde of you without all cause nowe, that when the time was, if euer, offered your side disputation, which your men then refused, as I sayde howe and vponupon what occasion not they onelyonly but her Maiestie, the state, and honorable here, can very well tell, the thing was not done in hucker mucker. It seemeth now aboue twentie yeres after that time out of season to craue disputation: yet tel me I pray you (M. Howlet) one thing, whether, if your request and your fellowes were graunted of Disputation before her Maiestie, or such as her highnes should please to appointe thereto, if it should so fall out, by Gods prouidence, that yee should take a fayre fall in the wrestle at your aduersaries hands, her maiestie or the other appointed, geuing sentence against you, would yee acknowledge yee had a fall, no nor yet that yee were foyled, would yee yeelde and geue ouer your romish profession; it is no parte of your meaning, I feare me you would plaine of disorder, and want of indifferencie and competent iudges, &c. Some thing or other you would finde to shift of the matter, as yee did in the former conference, would yee, or would yee not; What gayned you by that; you say, You knowe you cannot bee vanquished herein, you make no doubt but that Gods truth is clere on your side. Indeede there is the matter; it is easier to cast you downe than to stop your mouthes: If yee cannot dispute, yet can you braule and wrangle; that is not harde to be done, it is an arte easily learned among you, For disputation,Almar. sirs, to leaue the disputation in the happie dayes ofPhilpot. her maiesties raigne and other: long ago, to note onelyonly oneHaddon. time, were they not of our side, that in conuocation in queenElmer, &c. Maries dayes disputed with the greatest clarkes of your side, when your men ruffled and ruled the rost; was not the like agayne done at Oxenford by those reuerende fathersCranmer. of our side which neuer came thence after, but sealed in yourRidley. vniuersitie, after disputation that truth with their bloodes,Latimer. which they had before preached and taught, why set you vsus not out these disputations truely, that the worlde maye see them; You are ashamed, as seemeth, Seeing you write and printe dayly, If Gods truth be so clere on your side, Why hauehave ye not al this while, set it vsus downe in steed of your seditious pāphlets; Or why doe ye not yet set it vsus downe in your books ye sēd so fast ouer amōg vsus? cōtaining in maner now a daies nothing but braules, grēning, groining & snarring against the state, and her … wholesome lawes, proclamations &c, for repressing of poperie, superstition, sedicious and rebellious vsage and dealing, that we might hauehave some fit matter for our profession to answeare more than hath beene alreadie seene, wayed and answered, furbushing nowe and then vp as hādsomely as you can your rusty stuffe, you geue vsus but woordes onelyonly without matter, your coine that carrieth the Popes marke being brought to the touch and waightes, is by long and often triall found to bee a counterfaited coine, in steede of good siluer it is knowne to be baser than copper, when we waigh and trie by Gods truth, that you would hauehave vsus takefor good gold, in al the offers yee make vsus, we finde nothing but drosse. Let vsus not bring guilefull ballances (sayth your cannon Lawe out of Ierome) where to weigh that we wil after our owne pleasure, saying this is heauie, this is light, but let vsus bring gods ballance of holy scriptures as out of the Lordes treasures, and let vsus therein weigh what is heauier. &c. Your reasons,24. Q. 1. Non afferamus ex Hiero. in sumine thus waied, are nothing but colourable wordes and shewe, which in this cleere light of the Gospell, wil not satisfie nor serue. In vaine therefore seemeth to be your petition, your replication, explanation, supplication, your earnest vrging by frendship, by request, by letters to diuers preachers, &c. which I thinke is as false as that you report here, of the dealing therin, with the Byshop of London, and thereupon you did well to put it in that parenthesis (Ifye be not deceiued) As in little or nothing yee be otherwise. You forget greatly M. Howlet with whom you deale, and to whome you write: You make great vauntes, and in words offer much, you perfourme in deed nothing. In your margin is quoted An humble demande of disputation. You bring vsus that foorth often; we know this geare so well at the first sight now, as we cannot easily be deceiued. It is not the setting on of a fayre glosse or glosing the matter, that will nowe serue. Is the trueth cleere on your side; Why call you it in controuersie then; why so earnestly demand and seeke you for disputation for resolution of mens doubtes, &c. If yee demand conference for your satisfaction, or to resolue your doubtes; you hauehave not beene refused, nay you hauehave beene and are still offred it, yee are sought vponupon, and the best of your side here refuse it. That may be priuately done, if that be your end, and some good come thereof.
But ye demaunde publike disputation, yee are earnest therein ye demaunde it againe and againe: what is the reason; Why woulde you so faine hauehave publike disputation; There must be some honest and necessary end alleadged, there must be also by her … appointmente, some Moderators, and some order lawefully to proceede therein First, hauehave you talked with the rest of your side; are yee all ageed vponupon the sute to her Maiestie, humbly to desire publike disputations; Next, if this bee the ende of disputation (as you say) for the tryall of Gods truth, that mens doubtes may bee resolued, most necessary for you all, to your eternall saluation? Will ye then being required: yeelde to Gods truth when your doubtes shall bee resolued, and sufficiently resolued by the Scriptures, and yt in the iudgement of her …, who by Gods appointment hath the moderating of the whole in this realme. And in the iudgement of the State here: wil you of that side, not stand any longer obstinat in your former opinions, but giuegive ouer as Gods faithfull seruants to his truth & become professors of the Gospell of Christ, abiuring all erroneous, and Popish fancies; Rearing your religion out of Gods holy booke, the sacred scriptures, directing & ruling your consciences thereby; On the other side againe, wyll you, as honest dutifull Subiects, renouncing all forraigne power of Prelate, Prince, or Potentate whatsoeuer, betake your selues hence forwarde to bee gouerned by her Maiestie, and the temporall lawes of this lande, and such Statutes, as for the good and peaceable guiding thereof be by her Maiestie, & the State, made & agreed vponupon in the high court of …, according to the order of this Realme? What say you to this condition; I aske you because I am in doubt, whether you will in the ende stand to the resolution and iudgement of her Maiestie, & the State herein. Nor to any in deed but vntounto your Pope, & your selues, and yet had yee neede I tell you, resolue & be resolued in this point before you make sute to her maiestie, & so earnest sute to hauehave publike disputation, as wherevpon your eternall saluation dependeth, &c. And to this point answere hardly in your next writing: for in this Epistle DEDICATORIE, your wordes hetherto, seeme to imploy som cōtradictiō in this matter, or els your sute seemeth, yf not hollowly, yet cunningly made to your vantage, but preiudiciall, and perillous to this quiet and peaceable state, setled nowe aboue these xxii. yeeres together in this kind of gouernement, of reiecting the authoritie of the Pope of Rome, and Popish religion, and receiuing the profession of the Gospel, and acknowledging her Maiesties Royall soueraigntie ouer all States and degrees: All which is wel and sufficiently warranted, and maintained, by the expresse testimonie of Gods holy worde, and the wholesome lawes of this Realme, as hath beene and is still both for the one & the other by proofe published to the viewe of all the worlde. You (M. Howlet) and your late start vp Iesuites, and other English Romanistes, or Rhemistes, to be plaine with you, are too weake in the shoulders (God hauehave the glory) to take in hande by disputation, or otherwise to vndermine or shake this Godly State, or to prooue your owne cause good. Yee are but princockes and babes for the most part, in comparison of those of your side aforetime, that stoode in the front of the battaile, whose force yet God be thanked, hauehave beene well tryed and met with all. It is vntounto you a harde … of the decay, and vtter ruine shortly to fall vponupon your huge Antichristian kingdome, as that was an after demonstrationCicero in … Maior. Proueniebant Oratores noui, …, …. in the Poet Naeuius, that Tullie mencioneth: when newe Oratours, foolish young men arise and take in hande the administration of the common wealth, who were wont so to bragge of gray haires, olde men, &c. Yea, … is that, that hath alreadie beene a great part of the vndoing ofit on your behalfes. Young men (I speake not to reproch age, nor to touche towardly youth) may hauehave good heades, fresh memorie, quicke sight, sharpe wit, ioly art, and prompt and readie tongues, and wordes at will: which thinges if they bee well applyed, wherein is all, hauehave their commendation as in young men: But in heauenly matters Gods truth reuealed in his written worde, his feare, a setled vnderstanding and iudgement, framed by Gods holy spirite, ioyned with simplicitie and sinceritie in Christes religion, and a reuerent humble minde to Godwarde, directed alwayes by the sacred Scriptures, in young or olde, are a great deale more worth, and yet by your vaunt, you seeme to trust much to the other, and thereupon are you so earnest for disputation. Of your vaine Scholasticall disputations and arguments pro & contra, that can make quidlibet ex quolibet, or as wee speake Make men beleeue that the Moone is made of greene cheese: or that the Crowe is white by your sophistrie. The Churche of God, to the hurt thereof hath had too great experience afore time, and the faithfull at this day see but too muche of this stuffe in your subtill Doctor Scotus, your Angelicall Doctors Quodlibetal questions, and in numbers of bookes of that stampe.
We hauehave beene faithfully warned by the holy ghost to take heed of admitting that kind of dealing, a great while since,1. Tim. 1. 4. & 6. 4. 5. & 4. 7. 2. Tim. 2. 16. 23. &c. namely in Saint Paules Epistles to Timothie. And in deed by tryall we find dayly that by wrangling, iangling, and vaine disputiug, the truth commonly goeth to wracke and is lost, besides other inconueniences that arise thereby: There be other meanes to try out the truth by, then this: This kinde of exercise, vnlesse it bee very soberly kept, and vsed with great moderation is very dangerous in matters of diuinitie. And yet God be thanked for his gifts you may be and are euen in this exercise matcheable, and to bee matched, if neede were, with your equals heere at home. You that make these great bragges, were but yesterday to talke of in Oxeford, you hauehave left your fellowes and your betters too, behind you in Oxeford, Cābrige, & abrod also; if you will giuegive other, besides your selues, leaue to iudge: but let vsus heare what you tell vsus more of ye particulars: for you offer also of your liberalitie two other wayes of dealing besides publike disputation. These are your wordes.