Doctor Hills Reasons for Upholding of Papistry Unmasked, Dialogue 5

Doctor Hills Reasons for Upholding of Papistry Unmasked · Dialogue 5

p. 177THE FIFTH REASON. Largenesse of Dominion, through the multitude of Beleevers.

T. HILL.

THE Church vvhichwhich the M…ssias vv… to plante, must bee (… is aforesaide) dispersed through all nations and kingdomes, … the Holy Pro…ts …st pl…ly fore-shewed, and namely the Royall Prophet speaking of the Apostles and Preachers, vvhichwhich shoulde succeede them, saith Their sound went forth into all parts of the Psal. 18.Ps 18Earth, and their wordes vntounto the ends of the circle of the earth. And …st …festly … …sse of Christian domi… in th… … Ps…. And S. … the … beasts, and the f…e …d twenty El… … before the L…be …ging thus: Thou art worthy Lord to take the booke, and to open the seales therof, Apoc. c. 5:Rev 5for thou hast bin slaine, and hast redeemed vsus to God in thy bloud, out of every Tribe and people, & Language and Nation. and … her pl… After these things saith he, I saw a great company, which no man … able to number, of al Nations & Tribes, and Peoples and Tongues.Cap. 7.

p. 178G. ABBOT.

IT was long since saide, that whereas our blessed … Saviour whc̄ he was takē vp to an exceeding high mountaine, and shewed all the kingdomes Math: 4: 8:of the world, and the glory of thē, did refuse that offer of Satā, Al these will I give thee, if th… wilt fall downe & worship me, the Pope cōming long after, & hearing that such a liberal profer was made, tooke the Devill at his word, & in hope of such a wide extēded dominiō, did fal down and adore him. You come in this place to plead for your Grand-maister the Bishop of Rome, by the validity of this Donatiō: but forgetting that he who first mētioned the match, is the … father of lies, & so cōsequently may promise that, which is not in him to Iohan. 8. 44.perform, you gladly would chalēge the cōpleting of the bargain, that your master vnderunder Sathā may have so large a kingdome. And that you may the better prove it; as that cūning deceiver alleaged & mis-alleaged the ccLuk. 4: 10:Luke 4:10Scripture it selfe, so you doe to your Auditours; yea so strictly you do follow him, that wheras he cited what he had to say, out of a Psal. of David, you also begin in that sorte, labouring to evict a false Cōclusiō, frō a right & true Propositiō. That the Church of the Messias, must be throughout al Nations, David you say foretelleth, & you cite vsus for that purpose a verse of the 18. Psal. as you reade it after the Septuagint, of the 19. as we more truly account it out of the Hebrew. ddPsal: 19. 4:Th… … is gone forth through all the earth, & their words into the …ds of the world, which sē tēce whosoever cōsulteth that text, shal se properly & originally to meane the course of the heavēs, which being in cōtinuall motion, & being whirled about the Cēte… the earth, do testify to all nations that there is a supreme power guiding & governing the whole world. And this doctrine, to wit, that from the ordering of the Creatures, the being of a God may be collected, S. Paule doth also teach. But that saying of David, the same eeCap: 10. 18Apostle as ffRom 1. 20.Rom 1:20you suppose, extendeth farther to the doctrine of the Apostles & Preachers. Verily the words also cited by S. Paule, do ca… the same sence for the Creatures & no otherwise, if you naturally & p. 179literally do take thē: & then I may truly say that you cānot ggBellar de verb. Dei lib: 3. cap: 3invincibly & demonstratively, inferre that out of them which you desire. Notwithstāding because S. Paule!, per spiritum Apostolicum, by the Apostolike spirit which was in him, & which is not to bee foūd but in the compilers of the New Testament, might adde & alter, & explicate & apply places of the olde Testament, to that which the words did not literally cary at the first: & because our Saviour Christ himself did so, being ful of that spirit which spake by the Prophets: & because also some of the olde … fathers alluding heerevnto, have not properly but by allusion, referred this Chrysost: in Mat: 24… August: Epist, 80.Scripture to the preaching of the Apostles, wee will not stande with you, but accept it for the generality, as you here wold hauehave it, & as it is to some such purpose formerly alleaged by mee. It is therefore condescended vntounto, that immediately almost after Christs ascēsion, the Gospel was divulged East & West, & North & South, in very many countries; but whither in every particular Nation vnderunder heaven we dare not say, since all is in the Scripture taken for a great part, as hhMath: 3: 5:then went out to Iohn, Hierusalem & allud…, & all the region round about Iordon, which is to say, very many inhabitants of those places, and they persons of all qualities. And else-where iiLuk. 2: 1:Luke 2:1all the world being a most general speech, yet is so restrained, that it must imply no more, then so much therof as was subiect to the Romanes. Which was much at that time, but farre from the whole earth. It is also truth, that in another Psalme, the Roial Prophet vnderunder Salomōs person who was a figure of Christ, doth foretell that the kkPsam: 72: 10: 11:Kings of Th… fit & of the He… shall bring presents, the Kings of Sheba & Seba shall bring gifts, …ea all Kings shall worship him, all nations shall serve him, intēding the Messias. But will any man so take this according to the letter, that there should never be King, not Agrippa, not Domitian, not Sapores, but should be Christiās, & al natiōs at al times should entertaine the faith? This extent must be so cōsidered, that at one time or another, before the day of iudgement, Christ Iesus should bee preached, in some part of all …uine regions, & here and there Kings and Queenes whc̄ God should be pleased to call thē, should submit their scepters vntounto the Lord of heaven. But you might well perceive that these thinges are spoken by an An… he sit, betweene the lewish p. 180Church, which was restrained within the compasse of one lande, and so cōtinued for many ages; and the Church vnderunder the New Testamēt, which should at one time or another, be variously diffused through all general places of the world. And what else do those two texts out of the Revelation insinuate vntounto vsus, but that Christians should be picked from many nations & people, farre otherwise thē while the lewish Synagogue did flourish: but you will not I trust inferre, that all nations at all times, or all people of all Nations, should belong to the true sheepe-folde; but there may be ebbes and flowes; the Church in the llApoc. 12. 6.Rev 12:6wildernesse at the time appointed, mm2. Thes. …; 3.Apostasy & revolting; nnLuk. 18: 8:Luke 18:8faith (cant to be found among men, since there is nothing fore-tolde by the Spirite of God, but must have his accomplishment: And therefore since we are warned of both, there must be an age of paucity, as well as of plenty; a waning of the Moone, as well as a full or waxing. But what vrge you heere-vponupon?

T. HILL.

THese thinges with many such like on Holy write are no wise verified in …y Relegion vnderunder Heaven, but onelyonly to the Romane Catholike Church, for that … but it (as every man knoweth) hath had any large s…pe to account vponupon in any age. And it hath bin for these thousand yeeres at the …east throughout both the Hemispheres, in such forte that the S…nne stretcheth not his b…s further then it doth and hath done: yea there is …, nor people, nor climate in the world, which hath not heard of, and … some measure received the Catholicke Romane Religion.

G. ABBOT.

2. IF you take Religion heere for the true service of God, we deny Popery to be Religion. If you take it for devotion in what sence soever, then vvhat say you to the Sarac…nsfaith; which for many hundreds of yeere, while it possessed so much of Asia, as Persia, with Media, Arabia with the countrie, p. 181adioyning, besides what is added within these 300. yeares by the raigns of the Ottomā …: in Africa al the Northren part frō Aegypt to Marocco, alonge the Mediterrane Sea; and in Europe some thing, as the kingdome of Granado in Spaine, and diverse times more then that, there, was nothing inferiour for circuite of land, to the boundes of the whole Westerne Church, wherin only the Pope dominered. And shal Mahumetisme herevpō be cōcluded to be that faith which must save mens solus. But good Sir, when the Primitiue Church did reach so wide for diverse hundreds of yeeres without any maine corruption; & when the truth afterward though eclipsed yet was not extinguished in the Easterne, Indian, & Africane Churches; as also in very many poore men in West ooSee the answere to the 1. Reason.Europe throughout the worst ages, & when nowe of late it is spreade so wide againe, these thinges doe plentifully satisfie all the speeches afore named, & Rome by thē shal have no more possessiō of piety, thē a grosse harlot hath of honesty. You would gladly draw all Prophecies to you, and appropriate them to your selves, whereas (those fewe excepted which living amonge you loathed your abuses) you had & have the least part of Gods congregation to be found with you. And heere gentle Doctour, according to your custome, not your mouth but your pen doth exceedingly runne over, while you speake things incredible, improbable, impossible, and your Geography is iust as sound as your Divinity. Hath your Romanishe beleefe for a thousand yeeres togither, beene as largely difused as the beames of the Sunne? Before I goe farther, I vvoulde gladlye knovve, whether you can blush at all or no? Heere your dreaming doth farre exceed the doating of Hannibals Phormio. You must have a face of brasse on, when you doe but come foorth, to make good the least parte of this proposition. Cosmographers nowe divide the worlde into the olde knovvne Countries, and into the nevve founde Landes. And first doe you thinke that in the Landes lately discovered, vvhichwhich in quantitie are more then one halfe of the vvorlde, the Sunne did not shevve his be…s till vvithin these sixe-score yeeres. And can you bringe any mo… or presumption in the vvorlde, that euer Christian man did knovve them, or they knevve anie Christian man, but p. 182especially that they heard of your Bishop of Rome, till Christopherus Columbus did discover them in the yeare of our ppPo…. Martyr. Decad. …. Benzo. Nov…orb. Histor. …. 1. 6.Lorde 1492? And if you cannot do this, much lesse wil you evince, that they accepted of his faith for a thousand yeares togither. And as for the South Cōtinent, that was discryed but about or since the time of finding of America. As for the olde knovvne worlde, that consisteth in Africa, and Asia, and Europa, in every part of all which the Sunne shineth some times in the yeare, yea even to the very Pole, as the rules of Astronomie (vvhichwhich it seemeth you never vnderstood) vvill tell you. Vntill that of late the Portingales attempting qqOsor. de gest. Emanucl. lib. 1.to goe to Calecut, found the Cape of B…na …, and since that time have straggingly gotte heere a towne, and there a petye Castle vppon the Sea coast, all vvhichwhich vvas but a little before the going out of Columbus; vvhat vvas there within the whole compasse of Africa, vvhichwhich knewe ought of the Romishe doctrine, vnlesse peradventure you will name rr…dem.Septa, and a towne or two in Barbarye, where some Portingales before that time did dwell, or else perhappes that it was possible, that some Merchants of Europe, might goe to Alexandria in Aegypte for wares, and there while they resided keepe their owne superstition? But the country it selfe was vnderunder the Saracent, either Sultanes or Turkes for seaven or eight hundred yeares. And as you spedde in Africa, so did you in Asia, the whole compasse of that huge region taking no notice of your Pope & of his Idolatry. For the Christians which were there, were either of no dependance vppon Europe, I speake for the greater parte of these last thousand yeares, or were of the Greek Church. The only thing which can be pretended, is that ssMalmisb. in Gulielm. a. lib. 4: Girusalē me del Tasso.Godfrey of Bullion, and other Christians of the Westerne p…s, did for a time conquere and keepe thr holy land, which is scant the hundreth porte of Asia, and this was holde but by the sword, and that but for ssH…veden. …rt … in Henrie ….fourescore & seaven yeares, but long before that time, & so since againe the Saracens ever had it. What shame is there the in this mā, who so asseverantly protesteth such grosse falshoods? At the world thē in a miner is shrunke into our Europe; & there againe is cut of the Eastern Gr… church, who could never be brought to ioine with the Pope of Rome; no not p. 183at the ttPlatina in Eugan. 4.Councel of Florence, when Italie had thought to have intangled them in her net, And all the dominion of the Muscovite, which could not be caught by the baite of uuPossevin. de vebus Muscovit.Possevinus; Besides the Northren parts of Scythia Europaea, nowe inhabited by some of the Tartars. So that setting aside religion and common honesty among men, if you had but a compet… wit, you would never so audaciously hauehave pronoūced of this matter. Yet I make you the largest allowance vvhichwhich in any probability you can crave.

3 But since your hand is in, you will not so give it over. There is no tongue, nor people, nor climate in the world, which hath not hearde of, and in some measure received the Catholike Romane religion. Should you not heere be answered rather … …stibus then with words? VVhat saye you to the South Continent, which is so huge a country, that if the firme land do hould vntounto the Pole, as it commonly is received and beleeved, it very neere equaleth all Asia, Africa and Europ…; And vvhat part in all that world, is throughly discovered as yet by any Christian? and I doe not capitulate with you, touching all of it, but what part at all is there of the same, that hath received the faith of …ome? How much is there in Peru, yea of the maritime partes of Brasile, and downe toward… the straightes of Magellanus? hovve much is there in the inlande, as that Terra Patago… or of Gi…es, yea hovve much toward the North from thence is there, all vvhichwhich remaineth yet in the possession of meere Infidels, who neither have beene yet subiected to the heavy yoke of the Spanyards, nor have once tasted of their religion; Indeede for Hispania Nova, and vp as high as M…xice, the Spanishe have incroched very much into their handes; but if vvee looke higher into the Northren and colder partes of America, which are not so fitte for the breeding of golde the s…m b…m of Spaine, what huge countries be there of incomparable bignesse, which have nothing of Christianity in them? Looke either on the farther side, as men passe through the South Sea, in that uuHacklan the viage of S: F: Dr:Nova Albion touched on by Sir Frauncis-Drake, and all the parts adiacent; or on the neerer fide by the North sea, in Florida, Virginia Norimbega, Estotilant, with all whatsoever is within the straightes, togither with the maine p. 184Mediterrane countries, being more then the kings of Englande and France with divers other Princes of Europe hauehave vnderunder all their dominion; & these remaine yet meere Ethnikes, not knowing of Christ Iesus or Christianity, much lesse the trinkets of spot ted Popery. The who regi… toward the North-pole, as Groneland, and Nova Z…la, and I cannot tell what besides, remaine in the same taking. The top of Scandinaviasas, as L…ppia, B…ia, Seriefi…ia, and Finland, are so meerely Gentiles, as that xxOl… …agn lib. 3. 2. vide Dam. …goes de Lappij….lately they adored for God, whatsoever they did first see of any living thing, at their comming forth of dore every day. The mighty lande of Tartaria, which containeth in it so many millions of men the dominion of Russia which extendeth in length aboue yyAeg. Fletche. de …uss. cap. 1.foure thousand miles, as far as Astrac… and the Caspian sea? hauehave nothing more to doe with the Romane religion, then with that which is farthest from them. Who ever did heare that the Great Cham one of the mightiest Princes on the Earth, did admit ought of Popery. As for China and divers portions of the East Indies, …alfo the Southerne part of Persia, and the maritime coasts of Africa and Aethiopia; these hauehave indeede some Portingales in them here and there vponupon the Sea cost: but what hauehave the Princes of those countries, or their whole states to doe with the Bishop of Rome And what Monarkes Prester Iohn, & the Sophy or Shaw of Persia be, men of learning know well enough, although you vnderstand it not. To say no more, what is there of the Romane religion received in all Turky, vnlesse you will say that there be some few Venetian or French marchants, in Constantineple, A leppo, Alexandria or such mart townes, who vponupon permission, hauehave their Liturgy in some one set place; or vnlesse you wil name those few Italian Friers, who paying a tribute to the Turke for it, doe lie at Hierusalem, that there they may shew the counterfeite sepulchre of Christ, to such superstitious Christian Pilgrime…, as in their blind devotion travaile to the holy land Thus grossy & absurdly, and ignorantly, and audaciously, you write you knowe not what. But if lying will prevaile, you are resolved to hauehave it. Miserable are out Papists who read such bookes as these be, and esteeme them as Iewels, and beleeue them, and dare not looke on any mans writing which displayeth the falshood of them, for p. 185feare least they shoulde learne the truthe, or catch some goodnesse by them. God open their blinded vnderstanding.

T. HILL.

NEither can the Protestantes sait, that the Church … begins …th to flowrish, and to dilate it selfe in the worlde after so manie age…t for that nowe it ss growne olde and aged as is most pl…e, Colos. …. Ireneus l. 1. cap. 3. Tert. li. cōt. Iudens c. 4. Cypr. de vnitat. Eccl. Athana. lib. de humanit verb. Chris. & Hier. in Mat. 24. Aug in Epist. 78. & 80. ad He sychium. Theod. lib. de legibus. Leo M…g. ser. 1. de S. Petro & Paulo.Matt 24and to saie that shee … her young yeares, but now in her olde age it to make her a Monster. Shee must therefore of necessitie hauehave gravv… and increased and occupied if not all the worlde, yet … doubt the greatest part thereof, and so hath the Catholike Romane Church, and … but shee done: for in the Apostles time shee beganne to fractifie in all the vvorlde. And in Saint Iren… his time, shee was spreade all ever the vvorlde then knownne, as shee vvas afterwardes in Tertullian his time, and … the dayes of Saint Cyprian, Athanasius, Chrysostome, Hierome, August…, Theodoretus, Leo the great and Prosper, who in his looke De Ingratis hath these words,

Sedes Roma Petri, quae pastoralis honoris

Facta caput mundo, quic quid non possidet armis,

Religione tenet.

Which thus may be Englished

Rome Peters seate, whose Bishop is of Prelates Peerelesse Lord

Religion Lady makes of all, which armes doe not afford.

G. ABBOT.

4. The obiectiō which here you frame in our name, is of your own inventiō, & shallow like your selfe, & so is your cō parisō, that the Church …st not breed now at this time, least she should be like a mōst …. And yet you wil hauehave your Church now within these hūdred years, spread her selfe into the East & West Indies, where shee never was before. I wil not here remēber you that, zzGen. 18. 11.Gen 18:11Sata in her younger yeares did never conceine, but in het old age …ote a sonne, & yet she… … monster. But howsoev… p. 186ordinarily women in their younger yeares doe breed most children, and it were a monstrous matter as you would insinuate vntounto vsus, that in old age they shold hauehave many, yet this maketh nothing for your purpose, nether hath it any affinity with the spouse of Iesus Christ. For women til convenient age breede no childrē at al. And wil you thinke that the Church was ever at that passe? And womē after a time leaue bringing forth altogither: & wheras the age of some of thē hath extended to a hūdred, for the latter halfe therof they hauehave cōtinued childles. Will your wit serue you to think, that so it is with Christs beloved? Then the later generations of the world should be in a fearful state. You may therfore vnderstand, that the fruitfulnes of the Church, is nether tied to the first age, nor middle age, nor the last age, but to such times as the Lorde hath appointed, who decreeth that at some times there should be balcyons daies, but some other seasons great tempests, in which the Church shal hauehave a being, but yet be reduced to straights, and to a smaller number. Let any man look into this before the comming of Christ, at which time, the Church was in her youth, for almost 2000. years, being contained in the houses of a very few of the Patriarkes. After aaExod. 1. 1. 7Exod 1:1Exod 1:7Iacobs comming into Egypt, & the multiplying of the Israelits, her brāches were spread wider. And so did shee continue vponupon reasonable tearmes, vntill bb1. King. 12 28.1 Kgs 12:28Ieroboams time. But when the Princes of Israel vtterly forsook the Lord, & the kings of Iuda also many times turned from the way, both thēselues & their people; were not the good broght to a great paucity? Yet when cc2 King. 18 …. Cap. 22. 2.2 Kgs 18Hezechias came, they were more a sloat againe: but after him they went as fast downe. Then ^d Iosias once more very admirably did put life into thē againe, yet when he was dead, till the cōming of Christ which was well-neere fiue hundred years, there was great scarsity of the faithfull, saving about the time when the ee…r. 2. 1.temple was re-edified. In that state did our Saviour finde it: & then nor many of the Iews were reduced to the faith, but the maine harvest was of the Gentiles. Now if any of the false Priests, either in the daies of Iosias, or of the Apostles, would hauehave bin of your mind, he might hauehave argued as you do, that if the Church thē should be said to bring out more children, thē formerly shee had done, shee must hauehave gone for a mō ster. p. 187So it is since the time of Christ. God hath his appointed seasons which himselfe hath fore-told, somtimes promising that his spouse should flourish, and some other times be obscured. So in the daies of Constantine, the hew of her, not for purity but for extent, was more glorious then vnderunder all the former Emperours. VnderUnder Constantius & Iulian her territory was abridged: yet vnderunder the Theodosij and some other blessed Emperours, shee grew againe, & notwithstāding was no monster. After ward her beauty was dimmed, the authority of Antichrist spreading it selfe in the worlde, as it was before hand ffApo. 13. 14prophecied that it should bee. But God at last did determine, that whē other things should be accomplished, the gg2. Thes. 2. 8.2 Thess 2:8wicked man should be reveiled, as all the worlde may see that in our time he is, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, that is with the preaching of the word, vvhichwhich who doth not se to hauehave diminished the kingdome of the Pope, and shall abolish with the brightnes of his comming, so that Antichrist albeit much maimed shalbe til the last day of iudgment, & therfore his Ministers must striue to keep his kingdōe vpright, as our Iesuits & Seminary Priests do. But his Babylon in part & by degrees must fall, & so it is already. The Church was ever somwhat, but of late shee is more glorious then in some ages before. What will you therfore say farther?

5. Shee began in the Apostles time to fructifie in all the world. That we do not deny but the questiō is, whither the Gospell did spread otherwise, then every way, towarde all the coasts of the world, in such sence as formerly I hauehave shewed. It was towarde the East and West, and North and South, but not in every particular province vnderunder heaven. The words of hhLib. 1. 3.Ireneus are, The Church having gotten this faith, although shee be dispersed through the whole world, doth diligently keepe it. Wherout if you wil gather, that in his time the Church was in all the knowne worlde, you will make vsus of Britaine very ancient partakers of the faith, since iiEuse. Eccl. Histor. 5. 19Ireneus was the scholler of Polycarpus, whose Maister was Iohn the Evangelist. And this excellentlie fitteth your report of king Lucius & Pope Eleutherius. Tertullian saith thus: kkContra Iudaeos c. 4.The kingdome & name of Christ is every whither extended, is every where beleeved, is embraced by all the nations aboue named, raigneth every where, is every p. 188where adored. The countries before named are from India to Aethiopi…, Germany, Britaine, Mauritania and some few other. Cyprian saith llDe simplicit. prelato. vel de vnirat. Eccles.The Church with store of fruitfulnesse doth stretch foorth her bowes into the whole world. The speech of Athanasius is, mmDe incar. nat. verbi.As many nations as bee any where, abiuring th…r countries rites, & the wickednesse of their Idols doe now place their hope on Christ, and doe give their names, vntounto him, as even by the verie eyes a man may deprehend. Chrysostome writeth thus: nnIn Mat 24Matt 24That before the overthrovve of the Cittie of Hierusalem, the Gospell vvas spreade through the vvorlde; heare Paule, Their sounde is gone out into all landes. And Hierome commenting on the same texte, ooHier in Matth: 24:A signe of the Lordes comming is, that the Gospell should bee preached in all the vvorld, that no man may bee excusable, vvhichwe see already fulfilled, or shortlee to bee completed: For I do not thinke that there is any nation remaining, which is ignorant of the name of Christ. And although it hath not had a Preacher, yet by the bordering nations it cannot be ignorant of an opinion of the faith. S^t, Austen being enquired of, concerning the end of the world, saith that before it come, the Gospel must be preached to al nations, which in as much as he supposed not to be done in his time, he resolveth that the day of iudgment was not presently to follow. Heare himselfe, ppEpist. 78:But if by reason of certaine places, vvhichwhich are inaccessible and in hospitall, it is not beleeved to be possible, that the vvorlde should bee traveiled over by the servaunts of GOD, and it shoulde bee faithfullie reported, how many and how great nations there bee yet without the Gospell of Christ; muchlesse doe I suppose, that by the Scriptures it may be comprehended, how longe times there shall be vntounto the ende, in as much as in them we doe reade, No man can knowe the times vvhichwhich the Father hath put in his own power. In the second Epistle which you cite out of Saint Austen, the best words that I can finde for your purpose are these, qqEpist: 80.The Prophet sheweth, h…vve there is no parte of the vvorlde lefte, vvhere the Church is not, since there is … of the Ilands left, but that it doth adore him. VVhat more is in this place you shall heare by and by. Theodoret hath thus much; speaking of Antichrist, rrIn divino. decretor. Epitome.by the prediction of God, the Gospell must bee preached amonge all Nations, and then hee that is Antichrist, must bee so seene. The words of Leo are, ssLeo serm. …: in Nat iv. Petr. & Paul.To the ende that the effect of this vnspeakeable grace of CHRISTS taking flesh vponupon him, might be spreade p. 189through all the vvorld, the providence of God did prepare the kingdome of the Romanes. Prosper writeth howe Pelagius the heretike beeing sprung vp in Britaine was oppugned.

ssProsper do Ingratis.Talia cum demens latè diffunderet error

Commentisque rudes traheret let halibus aures,

Adfuit exhortante Deo provisa per orbem

Sanctorum pia cura patrum, non dispare …otu

Conficiens diros taculis coelestib… hostes.

Hisdem namque simul decretis spiritus vnus

Intonuit, pestem subeuntem prima recidit

Sedes Roma Petri, quae Pastorales honoris

Facta caput mundo, quicquid non possidet armis

Relligione tenet; non segnior inde Orientis

Rectorum cura emicuit.

6 These wordes if you wil vrge for the Primacy of Rome, they doe in substaunce import no more, then that which was decreed in the first Nicene Councell, where the Bishop of Rome was termed ttVide Gratian part: 1: Distinct: 99. 3:Primae sedis Episcopus, and the vvordes poetically serte out by caput pastoralis honoris doe signifie no more. Therefore you goe to farre, vvhen you saye the Bishop of Rome is of Prelates peerelesse Lord, which your selfe may see, since Prosper in cōfuting Pelagius, ioyneth many other Bishops as equals in care with the Pope. But then he reckoneth him vp first, secōdly the Bishops of the East, afterward Hierome. And wheras he termeth Rome the seate of Peter, that was according to atradition much received among the Anciēt, but for the māner therof much differed vpō by all. Besides Prosper lived in the daies of Pope Leo the first, with In vita Leonis Mapni.whō he was very familiar, & with uuIn vita Prosp. Aquitan.whō he was at Rome, receiving many favours from Leo, and therefore might more easily incline to the opinion of that Pope, who began to arrogate too much to his See, and to magnify it so farre as that his Successours, but especially. xxLib. 3. Epist. 76.Gregory woulde not stande to it. This doth often appeare in the vvorkes of Leo, but I vvill cite by name one place, whence Prosper might have the prose of that, which heeturned into verse. Speaking vntounto Rome, as concerning Peter & Paule, hee saith thus: yyLeo Serm. 1. in Nativit. Petr. & Pauli.These are they who brought thee to this glory, that thou shouldest be a holy natiō, a chose people, a citie of Priests & Kinges, and that by the holie seate of Saint Peter, thou beeing made the p. 190head of the worlde, shouldst more largely rule by divine religion, then by earthly dominion. Whē Prosper heard this from Leo as an Orator, he might set it a strain higher as a Poet, who in his amplification would leaue out no word, which might grace the place whō hee would honour. And then he could not see the inconvenience, that afterward did arise by too much magnifying that Episcopal or Patriarchical city. And these things are especially to bee remē bred, if you would vrge his words to that purpose, which in this place principally cōcerneth you, that is to say, that the faith was spread over al the world. Truth it is that much of the world ioyned in the same beliefe with the Clergy & city of Rome, & from thence as being one of the Imperiall residences, they had great light; & many also repaired to the Bishops there, as being for a long time eminent persons, in respect of their holines of life; but if we wil speak exactly, neither did they take their religiō from thence, more then frō Hierusalē, Alexandria & Antioch, neither did, I wil not say the fai…h of Rome, but that faith which vvas in Rome, as wel as in other places, possesse the whol world. For first the zzLoco cita…o.words of Leo himselfe, do signifie the Christian Religion to be no farther spread over the earth, then the Roman Empire had bin, or little more; & we know that albeit vnderunder that Empire was much of the old knowne world, yet there was also a very greate deale which never came vnderunder their subiection. And secondly even at that time, being about 450. years after Christ, neither by the Apostles, nor by their successours had the Gospel bin mēcioned in many parts of the old world, which is it that seemeth here to ly on you to proue. And for this we neede no better testimony then his whom before you cited, S. Austen I meane, who was an old mā living when Prosper was younge. Besides I wil choose no other place, but one of those whom yourselfe cite, which being throughly scanned by the Reader, will evidently shew that you D Hill do take vp your wares at trust. Or else, had you looked and knowne the place your selfe, you would never hauehave cited that, which so expresly confirmeth the point by mee taught, and over-turneth your assertion, of the Gospell being spreade in all countries of the world, taking countries and Nations, particularly and specially, and strictly as you doe in your discourse.

p. 1917 Saint aaEpist, 78:Austen then being asked by Hesychius, concerning the n…enesse of the day of iudgment, had in a former Epistle given reasons out of the holy Scriptures, why that time was not likely to be very shortly: and among other that was one, that the bbMat. 24. 14Matt 24:14Gospel of the kingdome had not yet bin preached throughout the whol world. Hesychius is not yet throughly satisfied, & thervpon S. Austen so advertised setteth to him againe in a second Epistle, and farther prosecuting that point of the faith not yet received every where, he vttereth these words: ccEpistol. 80.Whereas your Reverence doth thinke that this is already done by the Apostles themselues, I hauehave proved by certaine arguments that it is not so. For there are with vsus, that is to say in Africa; innumerable barbarous nations, among whom that the Gospell is not yet preached, we may everie daie read… learne, by those who are brought captiues from thence, & are now mingled with the servants of the Romanes. Then he addeth that some of the African people, being lately subiected to the Romanes, had given their names to Christ But those more inward who are vnderunder no power of the Romanes, are not at al possessed with the Christiā religion, in any of theirs. Yet he saith it was not to be doubted, but that more and more woulde come in, that the Prophecies of the Scripture might bee fulfilled. But that the Western part of the world had the Church thē already. Afterward, looke in what natiōs therfore the Church yet is not, it must be not that atwhich shalbe there must beleeue, for al natiōs are promised, but not all men of all nations. And yet againe, Howe then was this preaching fulfilled by the Apostles, in as much as yet there be nations (which is vntounto vsus most assured) in whom it lately began, and in whom not as yet it is begun to be fulfilled. Hee sheweth that it was and must be performed in the Apostles and their successours, to the end of the world. And to that purpose hee expoundeth that speech, ddPsal. 19. 4.Ps 19:4Their sound is gone out into all lands, by the future tense as well as by the time past. He shutteth it vp thus, It is fructifying and growing in all the world, although the Gospell did not yet possesse the whole: but hee did say that it did fructifie in the whole world & increase, that so he might signifie how farre it should come by fructifying and increasing. Novve who doeth not see that the same which this vvorthy Father said in his time, of innumerable nations in Africa not yet called to the faith, might then & many hundreds of years afterwarde, yea in p. 192some till our time, be verified of the Northren partes of Europe, and of the North and East countries of Asia, to say nothing of all the new-discovered lands, toward the North, South & West, of which before I hauehave spoken. And this togither with Hieroms owne words before mentioned, Or else we see shortly to be fulfilled, In Mat. 24Matt 24doeth shew that the speeches of the auncient Fathers aboue named, are not strictly and precisely to be taken, but that all is to be vnderstoode, for much and many, and for all the generall coasts lying to the East and West and North and South, not including each speciall. And so consequently such a multitude of authorities is but very idly brought: for we wil & ever do grant so much, as any man can in truth wish to bee collected out of them. But what is all this to the purpose, since neither then nor since, they do agree with the polluted doctrine of your Sinagoge: and the faith which olde Rome spreade or mainetained, is no more consonant to this infidelity which our new Rome maintaineth, then an apple is like an oyster. Which one answere although it cut of al your cavils, which you fetch from antiquity in praise of Rome, and we frequētly inculcate it vntounto you, yet because it so biteth, you will in no sort remember. It is a tricke in Rhetorike, but it is withall but a base shift, to slippe by that, or to seeme to forget that, which woundeth to the hart and vtterly destroyeth.

T. HILL.

BUt the Protestants per adventure will grant, that the true Church flourished in those dayes, but not afterwardes vntill this age, in which they hauehave reformed the same: yet is it most manifest that it flourished afterwardes even vntill this our time, no lesse then it and before, if not more: for in Saint Gregory his daies it was spreade all over the worlde, as appeareth by his Epistles to the Bishops of the East, of Afrike, Spaine, France, England, Sicily. And by Saint Bede in cap. 6. Cantic. as also by Saint Bernard, who disputing before Rogerim King of Sicily, avouched that in those daies, the East, all the West, Fraunce, Germany, Englande, Spaniardes, and many barbarous nations obeyed the Bishoppe of Rome.

p. 193G. ABBOT.

8. The Protestāts not fearing that you shal gaine any thing by that which is truth, wil refuse to yeeld you nothing that is true. In the first Church, that is while the Apostles lived, the spouse of Christ for doctrine was most glorious, & for some hundreds of yeares afterwards, her honor flourished not a little: yet so that some pety superstitions began to creepe in heere and there. But about six hundred years after Christ, shee for the outward face did more & more droupe in doctrine. ff1. Ioh. 2. 181 John 2:18Antichrists began to peepe vp in the Apostles time, but then they coulde not properly be called the great Antichrist. And that which was thē, was not so eminently, as that the followers of the Apostles did much obserue it, being then more troubled with persecution or heretiks, then with superstition. In processe of time matters grew to a worse state, evil opiniōs creeping in, & at last the maine gg2. Thes. 2. 32 Thess 2:3Apostasie followed. But in this Apostasie & very great declining, there were who yeelded not to the time, but kept thēselues vnspotted of the world, especially for mainest points of salvation. And it being thus whē things were at the worst, God in this later age, hath suffred that truth which was more hidden, to illustrate the Christian world again. Yea but you wil proue, that since the Primitiue Church, faith florished more thē before, or at the least it was not diminished vntill our time. You can do wonders Sir, or els your own reason would informe you, that nothing beene added til these lare navigations of the Portingales & Spaniards, Christianity must needs be exceedingly diminished, when the Saracens & Turks for so long space, hauehave devored so much of Asia, Europa, & Africa, as is or hath bin vnderunder thē. You are but a simple man for story, & weaker for Cosmography, or els you would not so improbably talke at randon. But any thing serveth your turne. Well, the faith was in Gregories times over all the worlde. How proue you this? Forsooth he wrote Epistles to Bishops of Spaine, France, England, Sicely, yea & of the East, & of Afrike, Ergo the faith was over all the world. A young man of the age of sixteene yeares hath by his diligence learned without booke, the Epistle to Philemō, & that to the Colossians, yea the book of p. 194Ruth and the Prophecy of Aggeus, therefore he can say all the Bible by hart. This is Logike for the Seminaries, but not currant elsewhere. VVhat wrote he into Tartaria, or India, or Manicongo, what to Finland, or Iseland, or a thousand places more? And what saith Bede? hhIn Cantic. 6.Song 6The summe of the citisens of that celestiall countrey doth exceede the measure of our estimation. But this is spoken of all the faithfull that are, were, or ever shall bee in the world? As also that following vponupon the texte, Adole scentularum non est numerus, There are saith hee young maidens vvhereof there is no number, because there are sound innumerable cōpantes of Christiā people. Which within seaven lines after he maketh most evident, The vniversall Church which in the same her faithfull members, from the beginning even vntounto the ending of the vvorld, from the rising of the Sunne vntounto the setting, from the North and the Sea doe praise the name of the Lorde. Doth this shew any extraordinary thing in the time of Beda, or any flourishing of the Church, or more thē that there were faithfull toward al parts of the world? Such is that which was brought touching S. iiIn vita Bernard. L…. 217:Bernard, who vpō a great schisme in the Church of Rome, betweene Innocentius, and the Antipape Petrus Leonis, being sent for to compose this strife, and to see whether he could winne over to Innocētius, Robert the King of Sicely who stood for Peter, in his Oration saith, that if Peters side were good, they who acknowledged Innocentius for Pope should bee in very ill case: And these hee nameth, Then the Easterne Church shall perish, vvhichwhich at that time coulde comprehend no more but those fewe Christians, vvhichwhich were vvarring in or about Palestina: for the Greeke Churches did not then acknowledge the Popes Iurisdiction, the whole West shall perish, Fraunce shallperish, Germany shall perish, the Spanish and English and the Barbarian kingdomes shall be drowned in the bottome of the Sea. Where he doth not adde these special countries over and aboue the VVest, but signifieth vvhat was meant by that generall name, that is to saye, Fraunce, Germany, Spaine and England vvith some inferiour Kingdomes. So that now if S. Bernard doe say any thing heere, your all the worlde is vvonderfully shrunke in the vvetting. So you strive against the streame, and the farther you goe, the worse you goe.

p. 195T. HILL.

AND in these daies it is all over Italie, all over Spaine, and in Fraunce, in most partes of Germany, in Poleland, Boheme, besides England, Hungary, Greece, Syria, Aethiopia, Aegypt, in vvhichwhich Landes are many Catholikes, and in the newe world it flourisheth mightily, in all the foure partes of the world, Eastward in the Indies, VVestward in America; Northward in Iaponia, Southward in Brasilia, & in the vttermost partes of Afrike

G. ABBOT.

9 AS many as be disposed to knowe the Popes strength, harken now to his muster-maister. Al, Italie commeth first as being neerest the Popes nose; then all Spaine is the second legion. But how would it be in these lands, if your Inquisitours did give scope; when doe what you can, with all your bloudy torments, you cannot roote religion out of those places? Yea it seemeth that some where in Italie it beareth a prety shew, when your Cardinall Bellarmine to the cold comfort of his olde hart, could complaine that Lutheranisme (for so he calleth it) had kkIn praefat. Generali:at last passedover the Alpes, and pearced even vntounto very Italie. But is your Pope come to that poverty, that now of all the firme lande of Europe you can single out but two countries, which stande wholy for him? Yea and one of those also liable to so evident an exception? This is a good steppe within one hundred of yeeres. In the next age God Almighty may plucke many of these from him also. But his will must be done. In other Realmes there bee Catholikes, as in Fraunce. It is not so farre from vsus, but we know how the world goeth there. It is possible within that Kingdome to finde more then seaven ll1. Reg. 19. 18.1 Kgs 19:18thousand who never bowed their knees to Baal. And be they such Papists in the most partes of Germany? I am sure you have heard of one Luther, whose scholers and himselfe hauehave not lost much time there. I know you have great ioy to remember him. For Polonia & Bohemia, I beleve that you heard some body say, that there be both Nobles and of p. 196other sorts, who have a religion besides Popery. Those who love Hus and Luther are not all deade in the one: And in the other, somewhat there is in it, that in the open assemblie of the States or mmPrefat. Ap…log. I…. In …ui. …Parliament, it hath bin dared to be proposed, that the Iesuites & their Colleges shold be extirpated thēce. That in Englād there be some whō we pity & pray for, we cannot deny, that is especially the weake & beguiled ones, As also that there be some more obstinate ones left, to be like the Canaanits nnNumer. 33. 55.prickes in our eies and thornes in our sides: but surely you can make no great boast of the Popes tyrannizing heere. Nay it is to be hoped, that his number is likely day by day to be diminished, since many indifferently affected returning to their owne iudgmēt, wil see that they have beene abused by the Priests, who never ceased to inculeate into their eares, that if once the ere of her late most Christian Maiestie were out, England would be nothing but as a feelde of bloude, to the Professours of our Religion; and what by the strength of the vnited Romanistes within the lande, and of the assistance of some Popish Princes from beyonde the Seas, Papistrie would heere flourish in maine magnificence: VVhichWhich vaine tales many of them in their weakenesse beleeving, thought is was best to betake themselues to their congregation betimes, least such multitudes comming in afterward, there would no notice be takē of thē or perhaps no roome be left for thē. That in Hūgary true religiō is not vnknown, may b… gessed by those oo… Sleidan. lib. 14 & 26.manifold petitiōs almost of the whol Realme, to have the Gospell countenāced by law, even so long agone as in the time of Ferdinandus afterward Emperour. But for the state of diverse of these countries, I had leifer you should heare Bellamine thē me. Thus the he choaketh your assertiō: ppIn presat Generali.Who is ignorant that the Lutherane pestilence, which a little before did begin in Saxony, did presetly possesse almost all Germanye then that it went to the North & to the East: that it wasted Denmarke, Norway, Sueden, Gotheland, Pannonia, Hungary: then that with the like spead being caried to the West & South, it did in short time destroy Fraūce Englād, Scotland, vvhichwhich ere-whiles were most flourishing kingdomes; at last passed the Alpes, & pearced evē into very Italy? For the rest which you doe name, you are in worse case then pitifull P. What many Catholikes have you in Greece? Some fewe Venetian marchants p. 197which trade to Cōstantinople, or some other of like quality. For the professed Religion through Greece is Turcisme: & the Christians there inhabiting as being of the Greekish Church, doe decline your Pope as the Cockatrice of the world. And is it not thus in Siria, where the people are also Turks; only you have a few Friers lying at Ierusalem to shew some coūterfeit Reliques, & either forged or suspect places, to pilgrims. To furnish vp this little bād, I pray you put to, your marchāts lying at Aleppo, & for Aegypts sake, foget not those also at C…iro or Alexādria, for if you should take these away, you wil not leaue your selves a mā there. So that while you mētiō such stuffe, do you any thing els thē dally with your Reader? And what have you in Aethiopia vnderunder Prester Iohns dominiō? In religion he differeth far frō you as qqLib 9 de gest is …manuel.Osorius & ^t Damianus a Goes shew: he never heard of your Pope til of late, & he wil hold nothing frō him. Perhaps you have some one or two Friers there, who are sēt to learne the lāguage, or may serve to do rrDemoribus Aethio. pum.some turnes for your Portingale Merchāts, dwelling on some maritime places of the farther side of Africa. Or some of those traffiquers do go with their wares to some townes of Aethiopia. This is a worthy matter to be cited for the honor of your holy mother.

10 I do wōder that being heere in this sweete enumeratiō, you tell vsus not out of ssContr Machiavel. Lib. 3. 4.Bozius, that of purpose to acknowledge the Popes prerogative, & to sweare obediēce to him, there came out of Africa to Clemēt the 7. the Legates of David the King of the Aethiopiās, & of the Princes of Mexico, from the most remote Kingdōes of the Western Indres: & to Iulius the 2. Embasladors out of Africa frō the king of Mantcōgo: & lately to Gregory the 13. frō lapona in the East Indies, & frō the mighty kings of the Tartars in Asia. Such cūny-catching tricks have bin practised a great while, to magnify the Bishop of Rome. Sometimes there hath bin no body at all: some other times some hūgry cūning slave put into a straunge coate, and two or three beggers after him, (who like rogues have wandred vp & downe, or rūne away frō their countrey, or come frō some great ones as spies) hath bin the Legate or Patriarke, without penny of maintenāce, or ship to bring them, or ought to grace thē. ssGentillet, in examin. Concil Tridentin Self, 1.Engenius the 4. to give credite to his Cō venticle at Florēce, against the Synode held at Basile, giveth out p. 198that Iosippus the Patriarke of Cōstantinople, came to submitte himselfe & his coūtry vntounto him: & when Iosippus was deade, an Epistle was published, which he was said to writ in his death bed, signifyīg to al those that were within his Patriarchate, that he approved the doctrin of the Papacy, & acknowledged the Pope to be the Vicar of Christ. This was about the yeer 1439. And to shew his facility in this kind of invention, the same Eugenius provided some to come, not into the coūcel for feare of the pack being discovered, but about the ending of it, who said that they were the Legats of the Patriark of Armeni…, who also professed to allow the faith of the Pope, & to approue that which was concluded in the Cōvēticle of Florēce. And because such fine trickes as these shold not grow cleane out of vse, at the last meeting at Trēt, ttIdem in Session. 21.Pope Pius the 4. had such a Pageāt. For he caused Amulius the Cardinal thē abiding at Rome with him, to write a solemne letter to the Fathers at Trēt, that one Abdisu the Patriarke of the Assiriās in the East, dwelling neere the river Tigris, was by the advise of his people come to Rome the yeare before, accōpanied with some Priests & a Deacon: That the Pope in a full consistory of his Cardinals, had pronounced him to be the Patriarke, & Pastour of that people, & yet not so, but that first he did heare him make the cōfession of his faith, and tooke an othe of him to keepe obedience to the See Apostolike: That departing away, hee desired to have sent him a copy of the Decrees of the Tridentine coūcel, whē all there shold be accōplished. But in the meane while he did testify, that the same faith which is nowe helde in the Church of Rome, had without any variatiō bin among thē, since the daies of the Apostles. All this was divulged after that Abdisu was gone from Rome: to the end that no mā might disprove it. What a wrōg did you to your cause, that you did not put these in, especially since the Iurisdiction of this Patriarke was so large, that hee had vnderunder him in the Great Turkes dominion, seaven Archbishoprickes; all Metropolitans, & thirteene Bishoprickes; vnderunder the Sophy of of Persia five Arch-bishoprickes Metropolitane, & thirteene Bishoprickes, …yea vnderunder the dominion of the Portingals in India, three Arch-bishoprickes & one Bishopricke. VVould not this have made a faire shewe when your troupes vvere in the fielde? p. 199you have done your Lord and Maister the Pope wronge, so to oover-skippe these in such a fashion. For our part we must winke at such simple trickes as these bee. Yet these will serve to abuse the children of vnbeleefe, and to gulle many a good silye Papist.

11 Some kind harted man wil pity me, that whē you leade me such a daunce over all the world, as you doe, I must bee bound to follow you. But let my friends take no care, for if you make not very good hast, I shall bee in some of the places as soone as you. Now we come to the new worlds, whereof our great Grand-fathers never heard, and there we must thinke that Popery springeth by thousands. In what countrey are you Sir, when to make vp your foure quarters, you put Iaponia in the North? It is within lesse then ten degrees of the Tropicke, and more Southward then Spaine, yet with you it must bee North. So Brasilia is South-ward, when yet the vpper parte thereof, is verie neere to the line. If you had named the South Continent for South, and the Iles tovvard the Northerne Pole for North, or else Cathay, vvee had better allovved thereof. But vvee must take what you give vsus, and you must give vvhat you gette. VVee vvill for the while doe you the favour, as to imagine you to stand iust vnderunder the Aequinoctial. But the cōmon bragge which is agreed vpō amōg you, is that you have large harvests in the new world. Bristowe uuMotiv. 2….saith that the Church hath in those partes vvonne more incomparably, then i… hath lost by Heretikes in these our partes. Stapleton goeth as farre beyond him, as hee goeth beyond the truth. Thus then hee talketh: … Though in very deede through the A Discourse vpō the doctrin of the Protestantes.pernicious persuasions of that wedded Frier, certaine places and couers of Christendome, have svvarved from the Catholike Church, and authority of the Apostolike Se…, in these North partes of the world, yet it hath thousands folde more beene enlarged, in the West parts and the new lands, found out by Spanyards and Portingales in these late yeeres, as the letters of the Iesuites directed from those countries into these partes doe evidently and Miraculouslie declare. Hee who wrote the Apologie of the Seminaries, harpeth vponupon this string, but with a lower tone, zzChap. 6.The Iesuites in the East Indies, have brought countries which were very barbarous, and the most potent Princes of them, togither vvith the provinces p. 200and people subiect vntounto them, to the Catholike & Romans faith. yyCon. Davidem Chytraeum.Possevinus your great States-man proclaimeth, that in these lāds lately discovered, it is a miracle of al miracles, to see how many be cō verted, mē going through so many seas to do it, & then without weapō or force alluring thē to Christ. But al these great clamors not withstanding, they who will read either your own writers or other, know how it standeth wel enough. Then briefly to open the truth. In the yeare Pet. Mar. Decad. 1. 1.1492, Colūbus the Genoway with some Spanyards, at the charge of Ferdinandus & Elizabeth king and Queene of Castile, did faile so far to the West, that he came to the Ilands since called Cuba & Hispaniola. The matter vvhichwhich there they aimed at, was store of gold and silver, which the coū try did yeeld, & afterward they did light also there-about on aboundance of pearle, all which were sweet baites for the greedy & needy Spanyards. The fame of this stirred vp both the Princes to send, & the subiects to goe in huge numbers thither: when not long… after the maine lande of America was descryed, and after that, Peru, the South sea, & the kingdome of Mexico. aaBenzo in nova novi orbis h…st… ria. li. 1 & 2.In all these rich Provinces did these Spanyards set footing, and finding them litle better then naked men, without armour, yron or steele, having only for their weapons, clubs and simple bowes & arrowes, they without leaue or liking of the inhabitants, built at first Castles in divers places, & afterward at their pleasure townes & citties. Some of the ancient people there they slew downe in war…some other of them they caused to destroy one another, either raysing new discords among them, or cunningly perpetuating their olde: thousands of them did these new commers slay taking them single and alone: such as lived they inforced to bee their slaues, causing thē to worke like brute beasts in their mines, without any compassion of them: where if they were slacke, they were chastised with intolerable torture: which made many of thē drown thēselus, some others throw thēselus frō rocks or into the mines: yea generally they so loathed their in human cruelty, that thousands of women great with child either destroied thēselues, or the childrē in their bellies, that they might not bring into the world any creatures, to be slaues to so vile & outragious persons. In the meane while they go on with rebellion against Columbus p. 201their governour, who for recompēce of his honest service was by some of thē tumulting, thrust out of his cōmāding charge, & sent bound into Spaine, to the dislike of the K. & Q. they fel to murther one another, they spēt their time in dieing, swearing, cu…sing & blaspheming God, in rapes & violēt deflourings of the wiues & daughters of the Americanes, & in al such incogitable & execrable vilainy, as if they had bin Divels and infernall spirites, let loose and sent from hell, to the desolation of those countries.

12 These matters grew so horrible, that the Captaines who were more civil, cōplained of it first to K. Ferdinandus, & afterward to Charles the 5. Emperor, & K. of Spaine: the poore Friers that had bin there, ran with open mouth to divers of the Popes, desiring their mediation, and that for Christianities sake it might be amêded. The writers, as bbDecad. 3. 8. & 5. 9. & … 4. Benzo. li. 1. 25.Pet. Martyr of Millaine, Benzo, Bartholomeus de Casa & other, hauehave never done in reproving it, & crying out vponupon it. All this while heere is scant any speech of baptizing any, or bringing thē to Christ: that which was done, was only by the Friers: & it being hastily administred, & without al soūd vnderstāding of the misteries of salvatiō, did so litle prevaile in truth with the ignorāt Infidels, that they oftentimes ccBenzo. l. 1 c. 13.reviled the God of the Christiās, affirming that he must needs be a wicked God, which kept such naughty servants: & therevpon renounced & reneaged their Christianity. So that the Spanyards should bee so far, frō making any boast by themselues or their friends, that they hauehave there converted soules, that if there do remaine any sparke of grace in them, as in charity we hope there doth, they may iustly feare, that the everlasting destruction there of innumerable soules, will be laid to their charge, and the bloud of them will be required at their handes, either by some severe punishment on them or their posterity in this worlde, or by the cōdemnation in another world, of the souls of as many as hauehave bin gilty thervnto, & hauehave dyed without repētaunce. Wheras at the first, with their Christian behavior, & mālike vsage, they might hauehave won many frō their Gētilisme, & if they had not infected thē with Antichristiā superstitiō, they might hauehave bin means to help thē to heavēs what store of those Ethnicks ofspring is left in those parts, which the Spaniards do posses, may be gathred frō a proportiō takē out p. 202of Hispaniola, which is one of the biggest Ilands be hither America. Benzo a great traveiler was there, and spent much time in those partes. Heare then what he saith: ddNova novi orbis historia, l. 25By the intolerable cruelty of the Spanyardes it is brought to passe in Hispaniola, that of two millions of the Indians, that is twenty hundred thousand persons, by whom that Iland was inhabited, some being slaiue by their owne handes, and some beeeing killed and wasted, by the cruelty of the Sp…yardes and the bitternesse of their workes, there are scant remaining at this day a hundred and fifty. The words are somwhat obscure in the close, whither he meaneth a hundred and fifty persons, or a hundred and fifty thousand; although I rather take it to be the former. I finde also elsewhere by a eeAdditā 9. partis Americ…. pag. 44travailer mentioned, that in one city of those Westerne parts, the name wherof is Imperiall there were before the comming of the Christians thither, three hundred thousand Indians inhabiting, of whō about 20. armed Spanyards by such devises as they had, did kil 2. hundred thousand. And what is since become of the rest we may iudge. If these should be thought to be partial, harken to the Iesuit who cōpiled the book called Nona pars America. This then is his relation: The principall cause wherfore Nova Hispania is very much vn inhabited, is this, that very few escaped Lib. 3. 22.whē it at first was possessed by the Spanyards. Our M. Watson speaketh as plaine as the best ggQuod. 8. 6The treatise of that worthy Bishop Bartholomeus Cusaus (a Spantards borne) dedicated to the last king of Spaine, hath laide the Spanish proceedings amongst the West Indians, so plainely out in their colours: how many millions of men, womē, & childrē, they hauehave there murthred: & that with such inhumane barbarensues, & much more thē Phalerical cruelty, as vntil they do repent thē, & are become a new generatiō, all kingdomes & countries in the world are to pray at the least to bee delivered frō thē. By al which it is plain, that the now. dwellers in those parts of America which are said to be Christiā, are few others but Spaniards, who taking thither their wiues & daughters, are much multiplied within these hundred years; the men making no spare to beget children any way, after the Spanish fashion. But as touching the naturals of the Country, first there are few left among them. Secondly those who be there, being in truth no better thē vassals, slaues & drudges to the Spanyards, come on slowly to be baptised. And thirdly they who for feare or fashion come, doe in p. 203hart hate them & their religion, & lacke but opportunity to revolt hhQuod. 5. 4frō thē: And this is the propagating of the faith which they hauehave made in the West Indies. Looke what they hauehave there Spanish, so much hauehave they Popish. In the vpper part of Peru they hauehave somwhat, in the like sort as before I hauehave shewed; but down toward Magellanes straights, as also in Brasile which properly belongeth to the Portingales, they hauehave only here & there a castle, or little towne standing on the sea coast; but in the In-land they hauehave very litle. And in these Castles, looke what devotion their owne people hauehave, that is papisticall: but the men of those parts, meddle not with them more then they must needes, and vvith their religion not at all.

13 And for the East Indies thus the matter stādeth. The coūtry of the Portingales being but dry and barren, & the people more then well could be maintained thervpō, iiOsor. de gest. Emanuel. lib. 1.Henry their king who dyed in the yeare 1460 was willing to imploy some of his mē, to discover by Sea the West side of Afrike down toward the South. And having done somewhat that way, the next king succeeding him but one, that is to say Iohn the son of Alphonsus proceeded yet farther, & opened even to the Promontory or Cape by him called Caput Bonae Spei. King Emanuel the Great Portingale who succeeded Iohn, did sēd out kk1497.Vascus Gama with some few ships, to compasse this Cape, & passing toward the East, to salle as far as Calicut in India. Where arriving, & not long after pretending an earnest desire to enter trafficke betweene the two nations, to the inriching of thē both, the Portingales intreated, that for their safeties sake they might hauehave leaue to build them a little Castle; giving out that they werein much danger otherwise, as partly frō the subiects of the king of Calicut, so especially from the Saracēs who envied their trading into those partes, as preiudicial to their former cōmodity. This Castle they furnished with armour & ordinance, which was then scant knowne in those parts, & therfore was lesse able to be resisted. And to this place every yeare they sent new supplies of mē out of Europe. As they did at Calicut, so proceeding in time, on more and more to the East, they every wher erected their castles & fortresses, the drift wherof the kings of the coūtries at the first did not perceiue: but afterward to their p. 204cost finding howe themselves were annoyed, they desired to remedy it whē it was too late. Besides this, the Portingales finding discord betweene the pety Princes of those partes, they secretely stickled that forward, as between the Kings of Calicut, Cananor, Cochimum & other: & where they saw advantage, they gave open assistāce to one party: by which meanes they wasted the Indians, & procured to thēselves much reputatiō of valure, mē stā ding in dread of them for their suttlety, ordinance & good shipping. Their incrochments so encreased, that they got into their hands some cities, as Goa, which now they have made their Metropolis, or imperial residence for their Vice-roy; yea they have set footing into some of the Iles of the Moluccoes. And since the time that al these, togither with the crown of Portingale it self, is come into the possessiō of the Spanish King as cheefe Lord, Spanyards have come about frō the West side of America through the South sea, & they giving assistance to the Portingales they betweene thē hauehave grasped yet more, although still the managing of al about Goa & those coasts, be by Portingales, vnlesse the King of Spaine have prevailed lately so much, as to gaine in that power frō thē But all this was first gottē, & since it is kept by the sword; howsoever that cogging lesuit llContra Chytraeum vt supra.Possevinus to make a miracle of it, do avouch the contrary. Their owne stories writen by mmDe gest. Eman.Osorius & nnHistor. rerum Indicar.Masseus, do make it plaine, & he who wil but reade the ooDiensis oppugnatio.Seege of D…um, written by Damianus a Goes, wil be satisfied for ever. Their manner is in their townes and Castles to stand on their gard against sodaine assault: and if any by open hostility do in vade them, (as the great Turke & some of the coūtry hauehave done) they doe not only strengthen themselues, with such helpe as they cā get out of Europe, if the time do permit, but they send to the Vice-roy, who draweth aide frō all places within his regiment, & with the readiest diligence that he can releeveth them.

14 This course having cōtinued now full out a hūdred yeeres, & they being there seated so long with their wiues, & with their children (whom aftter the Spanish & their owne country fashion they be get a paces and the King yeerely sending to them out of Europe, to no small commodity of his, by the bringing home of spice and other rich commodities of the Indies… yea and aide not p. 205wanting to them from America, and the Iles beyond it, as the Philippinas, Manilla and some more thereabout, they are stronge in those partes, especially against the attemptes of any small and pety Prince, as they all are who bee in the East Indies; some king having not forty miles over in all his dominion, and no one having very much. But heere the Portingales themselves have little or nothing vp into the lande: but what they have is on the sea coast, and some little way about it: farther they dare not offer. Now the wōderful extent of the Romish faith thus spokē of, cō sisteth in these Portīgals & the Spaniards that come to thē: for as for the naturals of the coūtry, they keep close to their heathenish beleife: some worshipping the Sun, some adoring other Idols of their own. But such a fācy they cary to the religiō of the Portingals, whose mischievous suttlety & incrochīg rapine is odious vntounto thē, that scant any of them do participate of their devotiō; but wold gladly if they could tel how, be ridde of their cōpany, yea if they might do it by cutting al their throats. And wheras boast also is made of the vttermost parts of Afrike, that is much lesse then the Indies; the Spaniards & Portingals having only here & there, a castle stāding vpō a cōveniēt watering place, to vitaile & refresh their sea-faring men passing to & frō the East Indies. These pety fortresses stād in divers regiōs indeed, as in Mosābique, Melinde, Magadoxe, Manicōgo, yet they are but very triflles in cōparison, al the people of the coūtries being either Infidels, or such Christians as hold the faith of ppOsor. lib. 9. Damian. a Goes de morib. Aethiop.Prester Iohn, but cōsort not with the cōmuniō of the Bishop of Rome. As for Iaponia how the Iesuits hauehave circū vēted their simplicity I have shewed before. They boast much of their cōversiō there, & many Epistles are by qqSelect … pistol. ex India.Maffcus collected to that purpose. But he was one of thēselves; & how vain-gloriously they vse to lie touching their own acts in Europe, we are wel instructed: therfore of those far-distāt places they may tel vsus what tales they wil, as also of their miracles there (which in the nexte chap shalbe discussed) & every mā may beleive his part. Certaine it is that in Iapā or Iapania, by their cūning & cousēing shews of casting out devils, they have more rrAdditam. 9: part. America….prevailed vponupon the governmēt of the country, thē in any other place of the world; & yet I may say, what mā, I say not Prīce or great personag, but what one p. 206hath appeared in Europe, out of all the company of the Iaponians or other Easterne Indians, who might publikely yeelde an account of his faith, & giuegive testification by an orderly acknoweledgement of his hope, that he belongeth rightly to the flock of Christ Iesus? It is not sufficient to salvation, for an ignorant persō to be baptised into he cannot tel what, or to be taught by rote to mumble vp a few praiers, wherof he vnderstandeth no part, or to vse a paire of beads with nothing but superstition: or to fal down before a Crucifixe: when the manner of our Redemption, & the course of our Iustification, is no more knowne to him thē to very beasts. And how their care is to instruct their pretended cōverts, in those far distant regions, may well be cōceived by that, which they informe to their own countrymen living there-about, who are much more furnished with wicked devises, leading them the ready high way to dānation, then with ought which belongeth to true Christianity. For example sake within these three or four yeares, ssIbid. p. 75.some Hollāders passing the South sea, came neere to the Iland Manilla, where certaine Spaniards then inhabiting, would needs entertaine them with an eager fight at sea. Divers of these warriours entring the Hollanders ship were slaine, & among thē there were fiue found, who had about them certain boxes of silver. Which being opened, there were in thē little rowles or schedules beset with charmes or diabolicall consecrations, whereby they supposed themselues safe frō all weapons. For, saith the Author, they are oftentimes instructed by their Priests concerning suching…ing trickes, whereby it commeth to passe, that by their divelish superstitions, such as hauehave sworne faith to the Pope in these places, are much more defiled, then very they who line in the middle of Rome or Spaine. With what acornes are these Nuoves Christianes fedde, when in these remote regions Spanyards thēselues are dieted with such husks? This is the propagation of Christianity whereof you speake; the abusing and profaning of the Sacrament of Baptisme, by communicating it to them, whose best profession is ignorance, superstition, idolatry, & wilfull obstinacy against the truth, if it should be reveiled vntounto them.

p. 207T. HILL.

ANd to name somewhat more in particular some Countries, in which it is happily received of many, of not vniversally of all, but yet in many lands it is received of the greatest part of the inhabitants, in Goa, in Malabar, in Cochin, in Bazain, in Colā, in Tana, in Damā, in Ciaul, in Coran, in Salsetta, in Pescaria, in Manar, in Travācor, in Cogiro, in Bugen, in Cicungo, in Cicugne, in Oian, in Gomotto, in Gensura, in Xichi, in Ormuz, in Ternate, in Momoia, in Ambonio, in Macazar, in Cerignano, in Siligan, in Butuan, in Pimilirā, in Camigu, in Supa, in Stan, in Bacian, in Solar, in Malacca, in Tidor, in Selebi, and in the Ilands of S. Thomazo, S. Domingo, Madera, & in al those innumerable Islands which the king of Spaine there possesseth. So that the Catholike Romane religion hath had, and hath yet a far greater sway in the world, then any othar religion ever had or hath.

G. ABBOT.

15 Our Papists do imagine that they hauehave to do with none but fools, & therfore they think to serue thē therafter. They beleeue that if we heare a few great words lustily būbasted we wil stoope saile, & … sently come in, as ships vnderunder a Castle, for fear of a peale of ordinance. Such a devise was that, when to credit Abdisu the Patriarke before named, and in him the Popes prerogatiue, ssGentill. in exam. Concil. T…dēt. Sess, 21.they gaue strange & formidable names to the Bishopricks & Arch-bishopricks fained to be vnderunder him, as Sirava, Hancava, Meschiara, Chiarucbia, Cuchia, Durra, Goa, Salamas, Baumar, Schiabathan, Vastan, Calicuth, Mac…hazin, Carangol, and other such braue appellations, which being like coniuring words when any one should heare, he durst not for one daies space come with in forty foote of the stake. Is not this somewhat like that of the bragging souldiour, ttPlautus in Milite glorioso.in campis Gurgustidonijs

Vbi Bombomachides Cluninstaredysarchides

Erat Imperator summus, Neptune nepos.

I tel you D. Hil, such devises as this of yours, is but for children, when out of some Portingale merchants remembrances, or from p. 208the Index of some writer, or some such other mocke, matter, you tel vsus what towns, or angels of the maine, or what litle Ilands, the Portingales hauehave thēselues in the East Indies, …or some of the Iesuits hauehave gone thither, or some pedlers hauehave bin in the markets there. A towne with you is a city, a city a coūtry, a skirt of some li. tle province, is a land or a kingdome, an Ilande like Garnesey or Gersey, is a matter as much as Sicely or great Britaine: one in the quality of a gentlemā is a Prince; a pety cōmander like a meane West-Indian Cacike, is a potent king or Emperour. You begin with Goa as if it were some huge region, wheras it is but a uuMaffcus Hist. Indic. li. 4.city, appointed indeed by Albuquercius, to be the Impettall chāber for the dominion of the Portingales in the East Indies. It standeth on the hither side of India, some thing North frō Calicut, on the Westerne side of that great Promontory, which is neerest of al India to Ormus, and to the Persian bay or Gulfe. uuIdem lib. 1 Osor. lib. 2.Malabar is the general name of the Coūtry toward the bottome of the Promontory before mēcioned, the chiefe city wherof is Calecut. xxMaf. lib 1.Cochin is the city of a poore Prince by Calecut. yyLi. 9.Bazain a towne of Cambaia, 5 or 6. daies iourny Nothward frō Goa. zzLib. 2.Coian a city distant frō Cochin 24. leagues toward the South. aaLib. 9.Tana or Tanaba a litle towne nere Bazain. bbLib. 11.Daman another town nere it, being on the coast of Cābaia; ccLib. 4.Ciual, or Chanla a city fast by those last spokē of. ddLib. 14.Corā is the temple of Ma…met at Ormus: but you mean eeLib. 2.Coromandel in India, where it is said that S. Thomas the Apostle did long agoe preach. ffLib 11.Salsetta is a little Iland lying neere Bazain. It should seeme that there is more then one of thē. ggLib: 3. & 12Pescaria or Piscaria is a little sea coast about the bottome of Malaca, & lyeth more toward the East. hhLib. 12.Manar a little Iland nere therevnto. iiLib. 12.Travācor a small kingdome on the west side of the lowest part of Malaca. Of Cogiro, Bugen, (vnlesse you meane kkLib. 12.Bunge a pety kingdome in Iapan) Cicungo & Cie…gne I finde no mention, euhere there be no such places, or they be so base, that no good Au…hour doth mention them, or els you hauehave mis-written them. llLib. 3.Oia or Oian is a meane city neere Melinde in Africke. Your Gomotto perhaps is put for mmLib. 12.Goto, or Gotum a small Ilande nere Iapan. So I take your Gensura to bee, and the rather because it is put nexte. Xich…, or nnIbidem.Xich…cum, one of the three p. 209chiefe parts of Iapan. ooLib. 3.Ormuz we know to be an iland and city, neere the entrance into the gulfe of Persia. ppLib. 5.Ternate is one of the fiue Molucco Ilands, and so is qqLib. 10.Tidor also which anone followeth. Momoia is a towne in a little Ile called Morum, Ambonio or rather rrLib. 5.Amboinus is a small Ile neere the Moluccos. So it ssLib. 10.Macazar. Not far from thence is ssLib. 10.Cetigano, you terme it Cerignano, one of the Ilands called Celebes, Siligan is a town, Butuan, Pi…iliran, and Camigu three things called kingdomes, but all these ttIbidem.foure within the Ile Mindanaus. uuLib. 12.Supa is a small place nere … Sian, and that is an Iland & towne beyond the Promontory of Malaca, turning vp farre to the North. uuLib. 8.Bacian, is one of the Moluccos. Solar or rather xxLib. 16.Solor is an Ile about 300. leagues frō Malaca, being 8. degrees distant from the Aequator, toward the South. yyLib. 1.Malacca is a citty in that Promontory of India, which was wont to be called Aurea Chersonesus, & is now tearmed Malaca of the city. Selebi or rather zzLib. 8.Celebes is principally one Iland nere the Equinoctial, but other adioining hauehave that name cōmunicated to thē. Thus hauehave we ended all that be nere to the East Indies. The Iland of S. aaOsor. Hist. li 3.Thomazo or S. Thomas, lyeth directly vnderunder the Aequinoctial line, over against that part of Africa which is tearmed Manicongo, or rather a little higher thē it. That which you name S. Domingo is it which in Latin is called bbPet. Mart. Decad. 1. 2.Dominica, having that appellation given to it, because it was discovered on a Sunday, which in Latin is named Dies Dominicus. It lieth toward America but much neerer vsus then Hispaniola doth: and it was one of the Ilands where the Caribes or Canibals did dwell, before the comming of Colūbus toward the West Indies. cc…d. Decad. 1. l. 6.Madera is one of the fortunat or Canary Ilāds, lying some few daies iourny South-west ward frō Spaine. You might if it had pleased you, hauehave added the rest of the Canaries, and the Azores, as also all that lie neere America, as Cuba and Hispaniola, and many about them; also the Philippinas, and I cannot tell what. But my conceite is that you went no farther, because the Author or Copy which you followed wēt no farther. For I deale plainly with you, I do not hold you gilty of the knowing where al these places be. And yet it were no huge labor, in the reading over of such an Authour, as the ddHist. India aut select. Epistol.Iesuit Maffeus is, to take the wordes heere and there as hee relateth p. 210the comming in of the Portingales, or the pretended labours of his felowes. But I smell it to be borrowed from some other man, as your eeRatiō, 3.enumeratiō of Heretikes was from Staphilus. In which respect I call to minde howe once on a New-yeares day in the morning, a Parish-Clarke in Oxford brought to the Minister of that Parish, certaine Latin verses as a token for the Newe yeare. The Minister seeing them, before he reade them said, that hee thāked him for his paines, but added that he did not thinke, that he could hauehave made a Latin verse. The Clarke with an humble smile looking on, did no way deny but that the verses were his owne. But when the other had reade them, he altered his opinion, and tolde him that they were taken out of a Printed booke. It is true indeede saith the Clarke, but Sir, I tooke the paines to write them out for you. Even so much paines have you taken, ignorantly from some ignorant fellowes collections, to write these names out for vsus.

16. I am induced to think so, not only because you have played such pageants before, but much rather because a sober man may wel thinke that if you had known what you did, or had had any true vnderstāding of the matter, you wold never have made such a clatter to so small a purpose. For it may well be supposed that there be no such places, as some are named by you: some other of them are so meane, as that to this day they never could finde place in any mappe whatsoever published to the worlde. OnelyOnly they are mentioned by one Iesuite, who cannot lye; and he maketh every meane man a King: if he once parled with a Iesuite he shall want no title. You have reckoned vsus vp heere one and forty names, many of them in themselves small base and inferiour things, & if diverse of them be ordinarily tearmed Kingdoms, yet the whol coūtry is not so great as a prety shire in England, & some of the Ilands are as meane as the Ile of Wight is. If you will stand on it that these be kingdomes, yet wee can make you answere, that very many of the Kings of the East coūtry, are Lordes but as over moale-hils, and so it was some thousands of yeeres agone. ffGen. 14. 2.Gen 14:2You may reade of the King of Sodome, and of the Kinge of Gomorah, as also of the Kinge of Admah, and of the Kinge of Zeboim, and yet all these lived vvithin a small p. 211compasse of ground. For the one and forty names which you note vntounto vsus, you may reade of ggIosu. 12. 9.Josh 12:9one and thirty Kinges indeede, with whom Iosuah had to deale, and yet all their dominion was so within Canaan, that the territories of all their regiment, was not so much as England alone, without Scotland ioyned to it. And yet if an ignorant man shoulde heare the names of all those Kinges, as they are set downe by Iosua, he would looke as much about him, as one of your silie Papists doth at those heere in your booke. To let them therefore know how you egregiously abuse them, you hauehave said as much as if I should speake in this sort. His Maiesty of England hath a great many good subiects (I begin to give the instance in Suffex, because I heare that this Pamphlet is much in request among backward people there) as in the great city of Chichester, in Arundel, in Rye, and in many other good places there about. Also in Sandwich with all the Cinque portes and the liberties of the same, yea in the Iles of Shepy, and Tenet, with other lying at the landes end fast by Essex, yea adde herevnto Hul & New-castle vponupon Tine & the strong towne of Barwike. And if a man should tel this to some vnlettered Italian who lyeth a great way hence, he might be made to wonder: but the truth were no very high matter. Thus it is with these places named, which are onelyonly cities, townes or angles standing along the sea coast, vponupon the shore of the Indies, and interrupted or intersorted with heathenish dominions, or else they are Ilands in the selfe same quality. And in many of these, if there were some said to be baptised 20. or 40. yeares agone, or if there be now but 5. Portingales or Spanyards, which keepe a shop or ware-house, yet there is the Romish faith. Which our Author who never vseth but to cast at All, as it seemeth doth acknowledg, whē cōtrary to his custome he hath an extenuation, It is happilie received of many though not vniversall of all, And whē he saith in many lands it is received of the greatest part of the inhabitāts, he meaneth not that the naturals do accept of it, but the Spanyards & Portingals have killed the greatest part of them, and now they themselves do make the maior part. This advantage you have for your words D. Hill, but yet notwithstanding all your fraud and facing, we conclude that your Poperie is not predominant as you make it, for put it altogither p. 212(if I should say nothing of that which we teach, but leave it wholy to God and his good blessing) Gentilisme is yet by many degrees more then all the Papisme in the world, and Mahometisme in Barbary, in Turky, in Persia, and in the dominions of all those who hold for that false Prophet doth exceede it. And yet the great propagatiō of Ethnicisme or Saracenisme doth not make them to bee in the right; neither doth the same evince in behalfe of your Romane fancies, but that only must go for truth which hath warrant out of the Scriptures.

T. HILL.

AND vvorthy it is to bee noted that in no land or countrey vnderunder heaven, ever was or is any persecution of any moment against Papists (as you terme them) or against the Priestes of that Religion, in regard that they be Papists or Priests made by authority from the Sea of Rome, but onelyonly in England. And in very deede the vvhole vvorld doth wonder, that little England dare and is not ashamed to doe that, which never vvas seene in the vvorld before: for let a Seminary Priest (as they call him) keepe him out of England, and he is safe inough in any region vnderunder heaven. This I say by the way, for that it grieveth mee at the very hart, to beare that my deare countrey doth persecute that religion which all the vvorld hath ioyfully embraced, or at the least doth vvillingly tollerate, as though shee were wiser then all the world beside is, or ever hath beene, or then al her Elders. Or as though English Protestants knew and saw more, then all the vvhole learned men of Christendome have done for so manie ages together.

G. ABBOT.

17 IT should seeme that by this time in the shewing of your mē, you have spēt al your powder: for frō hēce to the end of this presēt Reasō, you talke like a good fellow, in more familiar sort, leaning on the nose of your peece, somewhat angry, but will not fight. Howe your Pseudo-Catholikes in England live afflicted and persecuted, not onelyonly our bookes hhExecution of Iustice. A Letter to Mendoza.declaring a truth, but the matter it selfe sensiblie doth speake. p. 213They lye well, and they farewel, and many of them do purchase and encrease their lively-hood, yea some by your leave finde meanes to extraordinary lasciviousnes. The bigger sort of them are by the monethly mulct vponupon them so punished, that besides that they have for much idle expence, they can by bribes keepe spies about great personages, they can give large giftes to winne their private purposes, they cā hauehave their cursetors al the Realme over to give and take intelligence, they can releive Prisoners, they can maintaine diverse Iesuites, like such gallants and swaggerers as requireth for each some hundred pounds by the yeare. And yet in searches sometimes more ready mony and good golde is, founde in their custody, then ordinary men of their quality can be maisters of. To these thinges they attaine by keeping no house or very little, vnderunder a shew that for their conscience they pay all away. I thinke that you your selfe wil confesse, that in Queene Maries daies men of our Religion could not live so quietly, although they had nothing to obiect against them, but that they beleeved not the article of Transubstantiation. Now for Priests, that they have bin more looked vntounto, the reasō is sppatant. The examples of ii1. Reg. 18. 40.1 Kgs 18:40Elias ill intreating Baals Priests, & of kk2. Reg. 23. 20.2 Kgs 23:20Iosias so serving other of like disposition, as also of llCap. 10. 25Iehu proceeding in the same course shewe that wolves and destroying foxes if they will not keepe from the flocke, must be woorried: that is, must be cut off by the sword of the magistrate. Otherwise shall the perishing soules of the flocke bee required at the civill shepe-heards hande, as well as they are exacted of the spirituall pastour for negligence. But howe rough the state generally hath bin to such, may be coniectured by their hasting hither, fiftye in a mmD. Elyes notes on the Apology fol. 211.yeare out of Rhemes alone. Also by the sending away of Harte, Pilcher and many other, where of some were already condēned, & other by law were to suffer: yet their lives were granted vntounto the & they only were banished their coūtry, frō whēce they had volūtarily exiled thēselues for divers years before. thirdly by the keeping of so many of thē at Wishbich & Framingl…ā, some for 10. years, some for 20, wher al was so to their wil, that they had leysure to fall out who shold be nnRelation of stirres at Wisbich.greatest amōg thē, & sit highest at table, yea to ooApolog, cap. 6.feast, to bowze, to game, to fight, yea as since it is p. 214expressed in plainer wordes, to fall top dicing, drunkennes yea and whoredome, fit exercises for men who would be taken to be designed martyrs. And if some few of them have suffered, let all sober men iudge, whither the state had not cause to proceede so with them, whose minds were discovered so plainly beyond the seas. The excōmunication of Pius the 5. was procured at Rome by the instigation of some of our own countri-men, & thervpō a rebelliō was raised. qqSander. lib. 7. de visib Monar. Concertat. li…cle Cathol. in Angl. Part 1.Felton is cōmended for fastēing vp the Bul at the Bishop of Londons gate. And it is held as his praise, that hee called the Queene no otherwise but by the name of the pretended Queene. Sanders also ordinarily vseth that phrase against her. And it is held as a glory in Doctor Story, that writing to his wife he bestowed no other title on her. Such as suffered for the rebellion in the Noth are tearmed rrIbidem.Martyrs, & so is ssBrist. Motiv. 1….Felton also. These matters are compiled togither in the booke called, ssEdit. Anguste …reviror. 1588.Concertatio Ecclesiae Catholica in Anglia, out of which I will gather two or three flowers more. It is saide as a praise; of Everard Hanse, that being asked of the Bull of Pope Pius he answered, I hope hee did not erre in his sentence. Hee saide I hope, because that declaration was not doctrinal, and therefore there might be an errour. Speaking of Iames Laborne executed at Lancaster, it is related as a Catholike acte in him, that ttE. Sander. de Schism. Lib 3.he tooke two exceptions, why Lady Elizabeth was not Queene, one by reason of her birth, the other for that she was deprived by the Pope. Mentioning the story of one Fenne, it is vrged that the dignity of S^t. Peters successour was conferred vponupon a profane woman. Afterward these verses are set on her sacred Maiestie.

Sathanico praesul Calvini imbuta veneno est

Elizabeth, diraquè impietate tumet.

And lastly this is bestowed vponupon her, Elizabetha scelerum caput. These thinges being writen by diverse of them beyond the seas, do argue what spirit was among our Divines there. If we wil have more proofe of the faithful harts of our male contented fugitives, toward our late Princesse, let vsus looke on the words closely couched of the Rhemists in diverse places: As that about uuAnnot, in 2. Ioh. 10.2 John 1:10Heretikes excōmunicated by name, what things men are to withdraw from thē. And let the traiterous actions of thē in our Realme, expoūd p. 215that covert speech of Iezabel uuIn Apoc. 2. 20.Rev 2:20elsewhere. But in steed of al, let the Action attempted against this kingdome heere in the yeare 1588, speake, which was vehemently vrged by our Priestes abroade, and the people to the beste of their povver fitted for it at home.

18 If these generalities do not yet satisfy, thē let it be remēbred, where these Seminary Priests are brought vp, & how, flying frō their native soile in the highest discōtentment, they goe into the dominiōs of the Pope & King of Spaine, to whō howmuch England hath bin beholding, a blind mā may almost see. At their expēce they are maintained, who in behalfe of their charges looke for some service again. And vnderunder whō have they their educatiō? VnderUnder men Iesuited as nowe D. Worthington the Rectour of the College at Doway is, or vnderunder the Iusuits thēselves, of whose vertues I have before spokē. To their Governours by othe they owe obediēce, & of liklihood at their returne they take their directiō frō thē. Now what maner of mē these be, Allen who was long the Rectour of the College at Rhemes, & Persons now Governour of the Seminary at Rome, may declare. Cōcerning Allē, our Secular Priests of late displaying the Iesuites, do labour to extenuate the malice and poisonful behaviour of that hungry Cardinal, but his works are extant, testifying that there was never any man more virulent in hart against the state of England thē he was. xxApolog. cap. 11.Persons reckoneth vp four of his bookes, The Answere to the English Iustice, The defence of the twelve martyrs in one yeare, The Epistle allowing Sir VVilliam Stanleyes delivery vp of Daventry, And the Declaration against her Maiestie and the State in the yeare 1588. In the first of these, the yyChap. 2.protestatiō of Laborn before mētioned, is remēbred; that by other Papists, as occasiō should serve, it might be imitated. And the whol treatise howsoever it seeme to be more closely cō veied then ordinary, is forced with pestilent calūniations: Of the same nature is the whole subiect of the second, pēned of purpose to direct mēs affectiō frō the state. The third is a litle Pamphlet, short but not sweet, maintaining the treasōful actiō of Sir William Stāley by many an vn-Christiā cēsure, & most slaūderous imputatiō. As for zzAllens answere 1584:exāple, That our country is fallen into Atheisme. That the Queenes confederacies were only & alwaies with Christs enemies. That p. 216the warres of the English in the low Countries were sacrilegious warres, and of a hereticall Prince. And because he wil be like himselfe, hee goeth on, That all the actes in this Realme since the Queene was excō municated and deposed from regall dignity are voide: therfore shee can denotence no warre, neither may her subiects there serve her, when a Prince is become an open Rebell to the See Apostolike He wish…h that the rest of the English souldiours would doe as they with Sir VVilliam Stanley did. He saith that the English take no quarrels in handes, but for the dishonorable defence of Rebels, Pyrates and Infidels. I doe of purpose heere omitte many vile and execrable speeches by him added, least the very rehearsing of them might iustly be offensive. But the wicked man did make no cōscience to staine his whole coū trey with horrible defamations. I would heare any Secular in the vvorlde vvho can excuse this cursed fellovve. The fourth was printed in Englishe, and should have beened vulged, if the Spanyardes coulde have sette footing in England in the yeare 1588. Hee vvho list to see it, may finde it vvorde for vvorde in aaBelgic. Histor l. 15.Meterranus. Amonge other matters there are these. Our Soveraigne then beeing, is called the Pretended Queene, and the present vsurper. Shee must be deprived of the administration of the kingdome. Shee is an Heretike, a Schismatike, excommunicate, contumacinis, vsurping the kingdome against all right as for other causes so because shee had not the consent of the greate Bishoppe of Rome. Shee mooved the Turke to invade Christendome. Shee hath sette at sale and made a ma… of Lavves and rightes. Some of her factes make her vncapable of the kingdome, some other make her vnvvorthie of life. Therefore Pope sixtus the fifth doth renew the excommunication against her, and doth deprive her of her title and preteaces to the kingdomes of Englande and Ireland, declaring her illegitimate and an vsus…per, and absolving all her subiectes from the …th of sidelity toward her. Then he chardgeth all to withdraw their …de from her, that worthy punishment may be taken of her, and that they …e themselues with the Duke of Parma. Also it is proclaimed lawfull …y hands vponupon vponupon the Queene, and a very great reward is promised to those who do so. A safe conduct is then given to as many as wil bring …ny w… like provision to the Spanish campe, and to all who woulde assist that enterprise, the Pope doth by Indulgence giuegive full pardon and plenary p. 217remission of all their sinnes. If these things doe not sufficiently shew the viperous minde of this lewde Cardinall against his Prince & Country, nothing in the world can manifest it. His dis Englished woolvish desire was, that his naturall place of educatiō, for which the old heathēs would hauehave lost ten thousand liues, should hauehave beene in the everlasting bondage of the Spanyard. Our Seculars then commending and excusing him to their powers, are pitifully out: but the error of them, and of some English gentlementravailers was this, that they imagined him in his latter yeares to be altered; when indeede it was nothing else, but that after the yeare 88, his hopes being deluded, and neither Pope nor Spaniarde nor all their adherentes knowing how to remedy or recover that inestimable losse, and incomparable dishonour vntounto them, his hart was as good as broken; and he would seeme more desirous to shew all tolerability, to single men of our English nation, that he might hauehave some grace with thē, since he began to hauehave so little with the Spanyard. But doubtlesse venime had so putrisied him, that although he were willing to paint himselfe without, he was quite rottē within. And whither for wāt of his prety staruling pensiō frō Spaine, after that illustrious foile, he might not be much humbled in the heigth of his prowd thoughts, it is hard to tel. Such a māner of man was one of the fathers of the Seminary.

19 As for Persons the present Rector, his mind is nothing inferiour to the others, albeit his degree be in a ranke behinde him. But that is his owne fault too, for his bbThe copies of certaine discourses extorted fol. 116.fellowes here tell vsus, that it vvas reported heere in Englande that all the boyes at Saint Omars had conspired to make Persons a Cardinall, and had vvritten such effectuall letters to the Pope for it, that hee, the Generall of the Iesuites, and all his friendes in Rome, vvere little enough to keepe him from beeing a Cardinall. VVell his hearte for Englande is as good, as any of his Predecessours. ccAnswere to thinges cōcerning him in the Apology.Doctour Bagsh…vve sayeth directly that hee perswaded the Students at Rome, that they should have at state and all; for vvith state-medling they coulde but die: and die they shoulde vvithout state medling, if they were taken. If vvee vvill not trust that Doctor, as one professing some hostility toward him, let his Greene-coate concerning the Earle of Leicester, & another Common-wealth of his touching another greate and vvorthy p. 218man that dead is, speake in their masters behalfe. His Doleman sheweth him to hauehave nothing in him, but bastard English bloud. And that is the more manifested, by his labouring the Students in Spaine, and at Rome, to consent to the title of the Lady Infanta. What affection he cariyed to our late most blessed Soveraigne, his short but substantiall approving of the iudgement of Allen, Sanders, Bristow and Stapleton touching the Bull of Pius the 5. in his ddCap. 4.Ward-word doth declare. It is also laid to his charge, that he sollicited a man of eeQuodl. 7. 2high place in this kingdome, to be a close Pensioner to the late king of Spaine to further his invasision. He ffApol. c. 12.challengeth to himselfe these bookes, The reasons of refusall of going to the Protestants Churches, the Epistle of persecution both in Latin and English, the defence of the Censure against M. Charke: and these shew that all his wits and study were then bent, on the one side to supplant the religion that we professe, but on the other side to defame the honour of his Prince, and country, and of all the chiefe officers of Iustice in the same, and with such suttletics to steale away the harts of many subiects from them. His resolutions ggSolutiones …. & P.in his pretended Cases of conscience, as they are impious, so are they most pernicious to the state. But the lesse they are there to be wondred at, since he openly laboureth in hh…. …. 1….his Apology, to mainetaine falshoods and lying dissembling A quivocations, with little lesse then blasphemy to our most holy Saviour. His Manifestatiō hath many proper things in it, as being that where he sheweth himselfe without a vizarde. This is hee who hath had in Spaine, and nowe hath at Rome the training vp of those vvho are and must bee our Seminarye Priestes; the only Arch-traitour now remaining aliue, and to be balanced by none vnlesse peradventure, & it is but peradventure, D. Gifford may be the man. I might adde to these, as great men at Doway in their times, Bristow and Stapleton. The one sheweth himselfe a rebell in hart by his iiCap. 15.Motiues, which booke D. Allen did allovv to the Presse. And how far the other that is old chollerike & bitter Stapleton, (the kkApol. c. 9.learnest man living of our Countrey, if vve will beleeue Fa. Persons) was engaged in these matters, his manifold virulent aspersions scattered in his bookes, against his naturall Prince and some personages of high worth, do abundantly p. 219testifie. Such are the teachers, Readers, and Governours of the Seminaries, and such an honest man is Weston at Doway nowe if he be yet at Doway, where no doubt they traine vp their Students in good meditations. Which I may the rather say, if that be true which llColliar.one of their owne company delivered to me to bee so of his own knowledge, while he was there in D. Barrets time. As our Students in our Colledges hauehave vsed to make verses, and to fixe them vp on the skreenes or elsewhere publikely, on the day of her late Maiesties comming to the Crowne, so they had sometimes at Doway when they made verses in like sort, & whither on the day before named I do not remember. In this case, the invention of one of their gracious strudents was, to speake of the three furies in hel, Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, whose vertues when with his Poetry he had described, hee addeth at last that there was nowe of late a fourth come in, Furiarum Quarta, whose description he maketh accordingly. And this lewd devise was much commended by the Superiours there, albeit he plainly designed her, for whom by the laws of God & man, they vvere rather bound to hauehave spent their best bloud, then that the least dishonourable thought concerning her should hauehave entred into their h…t. And who will wonder that the fruites of such persons doe shew what the roote is whervpon they do sit. We may adde to these things abroad, the experience which wee hauehave had at home, of Babingtons, Somerviles, Squires and such vngodly miscreants, who incited by Ballard, and other sent from the Seminary, hauehave attempted most horrible treasons, to the hazarding of the happines of this whole kingdome. And were not our state blind, if they could not gesse the minde of the souldiors by such captaines, the disposition of such scholers by their tutours, the affection of the Priests by such Superiours, especially since they dayly saw in our owne land, that such as had to doe with these emissaries and secret creepers, did testifie that they had touched some mmEccl 13. …Sir 13pitch, being quickly alienated if not in open action, yet in apparant affectiō from therest of the Realme? And might not all religious folkes hauehave groaned in their soules, & all good subiects hauehave lamented in their harts, if some severe proviso had not beene made, to restraine the audacious comming in, and the ravenous p. 220dissipations of persons so intending mischiefe? It should hauehave beene an vnrecompensable weakenesse to hauehave permitted such incendiaries to bring all to combustion, and our magistrates in the meane time, to hauehave stood by the houses of themselues & their neighbours being on fire, and to hauehave thought it a pretty thing to stand and warme themselues by the flame. But they being inspired by a better spirit, did make good & wholsome lawes, inhibiting the approaching of such dangerous guests, or if they would not forbeare, paying them the wages due for their worke. Ex malis moribus bonae nascuntur leges. Ill manners breede good lawes. And if England alone have received such bad measure from vnnatural bredde English, who can blame the Magistrates and law-makers of England, if by speciall ordinances they provide for the safety of that charge, which is committed to them, which cannot be but by cutting off such malefactours. When other kingdomes have beene so much burnte, they wil dreade the fire: when other nations have beene so bitten, they will beware of dogges teeth. What other countries would doe if there were cause, you may gesse by Fraunce, which standing yet on termes of Popery, have removed the Iesuites, so that if they wil come there it is on hazard of their life. I will sette downe the wordes; as they bee in the Decree of the Parliament of Paris against thē, that no man may doubt in that case: nnIesuits Ca …h lib 3. cap. 18.The Court doth ordains that the Priests and Students of the College of Clai…mont, and all other calling themselues of that Society of Iesus, as corrupters of youth and disturbers of the common quiet, enemies of the King and State, shall avoide within three daies after the publication of this present sentence, out of Paris and other Cities, and places where their Colleges are, & fifteen dates after out of the Realme, vponupon paine, wheresoever they shall be found, the said terme expired, to be punished at guilty and culpable of the crime of high Treason. And afterward, It forbiddeth all the Kinges subiects to send any scholers to the Colleges of the said Society being out of the Realme, there to bee instructed, vponupon the like paine to incurre the crime of high ooThis decree was made … …mb. ….treason. Thus the Papists of Fraunce deale with the Iesuits, who are the bringers vp, brethren and cousin germaines of our Seminarians. If they keepe them out of Fraūce they are not touched or reached after, and so heere it is with the Idolatrous massing Priestes sent from p. 221the Pope of Rome who loueth vsus vnmeasurablie, and from the dominions of the Kinge of Spaine, or those who depend vponupon him. We neede them not, we send not for them, and therefore if they come, it is vponupon their owne perill.

20 Yet because this proceeding seemeth to you to be so hard, & in your bookes in England & elsewhere published, you so exclaime of the rigorousnes of our kingdome in this behalfe, I will a little remēber you, what milder mē of your own Seminaries have published in this matter, acknowledging that iustly by bookes & enterprises the State hath bin exasperated against you. I confesse that they lay al the blame on the Iesuits, & Iesuited: but those we cā hardly distinguish frō mē otherwise minded▪ And if we could it were to smal purpose, since the followers of the Arch-priest are al Iesuited, & as M. Persons saith they are ppApolog. cap: 8:300. to 10. of the other. Since thē the sway & sweepe goeth the other way, & for the adverse part we have no warrant but that they may leave their best goodnes whē thēselves wil, which Watson & Clerke have lately ex emplified, it is best to let the lawe stand against all, leaving the forbearance of stricte execution to the wisedome of those in authority, who incline to mercy vvhere it is fit to bee extended, One, qqA: C▪ in his 2: letter: pag. 42:who although he be not a Priest, yet was brought vp in the Seminary, saith thus: At the Queenes comming in many of vsus were too soone turned so Iesuitish and Spanish, to the attempting of disloyall plots against her State & person, that shee was driven to trust wholy to her Protestants holding vsus all suspect. And rrIbid. p: 29:againe: The Iesuites outrage Princes, as murthering the last Frēch King, & had done our deare Soveraigne sundry times if Gods hand had not beene the stronger. Another ssReply to the Apology: cap: 17:telleth vsus, that in the Colledges erected by the meanes of Parsons, Priests & other have bin induced to subscribe to forreine titles, yea & to come in person against their own coūtry. He who answereth the manifestatiō supposed to be the writing of Persōs, acknowledgeth that D. ssFol. 35.Saūders his works De visibili Monarchia, & De schismate Anglic, cōtain so many erreverēt speeches, & the divulging of such odius matters against her M^r. & her noble …genitours, as the vntruths of some & the incertainty of others cōsiderd, could not but irritat the most Christiā Catholik & patiēt Prince in the world. A ttFol: 3…litle before he telleth vsus, Neither for ought I se, doth the State wake shew of persecutiō quoad vitā et necē, for matter p. 222meerely of religion and conscience, but vponupon pretence of treason, or attēpts against her Maiesties person or state, or (at the least) vpō the feare therof. But yet more directly he proceedeth, uuFol. 31. & 32I would but aske Fa. Persons (because I know him to be a great Statist) this one question, whither in his conscience he did thinke, there be anie Prince in the world, be he never so Catholike, that should hauehave within his dominions a kinde of people, amongst whom divers times he should discover matters of treason, and practises against his person, and state, whither he would permit those kinde of people, to liue within his dominions, if he could be otherwise rid of them, & whither he would not make straight lawes, and execute them severely against such offendours, yea and all of that companie and qualitie, rather then he would remaine in anie danger of such secret practises and plots? I thinke Fa. Persons will not for shame denie this. Then the fault is not in the Prince and State for being cautious, but in the Romanists for being pragmaticall in dangerous attēpts. I will ioine to these the testimony of M. Watson who is copious in this point. He saith that the uuIn the pre face to the Quodlibers.Seminaries at first, made the Iesuits cause, attempts, intentes, practises and proceedings their owne in every thing: their plots and practises they seemed at first to defende, or at least to winke at. Hence they were intangled by penall laws iustly made against them equally as against the Iesuits. In another xxQuod. 8. 9place thus: At the affliction of Catholikes in England hath beene in very deede extraordinary, and many an innocente man lost his life, so also hath the cause thereof beene extraordinary, and so farre beyonde the accustomed occasions of persecutiō givē to any Prince in Christēdome or monarchy, that is, or ever was in the world to this hower as rather it is to be wondered at (all things duely considered) that any one Catholike is left on liue in Englande, then that our persecution hath beene so great: for name one nation (I know none can) vnderunder heaven, where the subiects (especially if they were Catholikes) ever sought the death of their Soveraigne, (though of a different religion from thē) the conquest of their natiue land, the subversion of the state, the depopulation of the weale publike, the alteration and change of all lawes, customes and orders, and in few the vtter devastation, desolation and destruction of all the ancient inhabitants of their land, &c. Now if this may be saide of the laity of the English Papists, what censure may bee given of the Priests, the vrgers and instigatours of all these things? He speaketh elsewhere more particularly of the Seminary Priests: yyQuod. 9. 4Howe can they p. 223expect any favor when they are taken? none can deny that their comming over is to increase the number of Catholikes: and that Fa. Persons raigneth, and hath the whole direction at this day for all the missions that are for England. How then (alas) how may her Maiestie and the state conclude against them? What lawes can bee too extreame to keepe them out of the land? Or if they will needes come in, what severity for the execution of lawes against them can bee more then sufficient? Into what gulfe are we plunged? Nay into what an obloquy are we plunged? Nay into what an obliquie must the Catholike Church of Rome grow, in that the execution of Priesthood and treason are now so linked together by the Iesuits in England, as we cannot exhort any to the Catholike faith, but dogmatizando, in so doing, we draw him in effect to rebellion? You see that this writer doth not sumble nor doubly budgen, but delivereth his opiniō roundly. And if any one should except that these be the assertions of private and single men, hee may see a treatise put out by ioint consent of divers Seculars, and written of purpose to cleere the proceedings of the State in England from bloudy cruelty, or vn-advised rigorousnes in cutting of such rotten members. You may iudge the contentes thereof by the Title which is this zzEdit: An. 1601.Important considerations, which ought to mooue all true and sounde Catholikes, who are not wholy Iesuited, to acknowledge without all equivocations, ambiguities or shiftings, that the proceedings of her Maiestie and of the State with them, since the beginning of her Highnesse raigne, hauehave beene both milde and mercifull. By this time if there bee any wit or sence left in you, you may put vp your pipes for complaining of the hard vsage of Priests sent hither from the Seminaries. I hauehave beene the more large in this argument, partly to stop your clamorous mouth, and partelye to satisfie weake persons either on our or your side; and not least of all to free the honorable Parliamentes and Magistrates taking order against such venimous vermine, from the forged imputations and scandalous defamations in this particular laid against them, & by name of him aaSupposed to: bee D. Worthington.who falsly reporteth the suffering of sixteene pretended martyrs in one yeere, that is the yeere of Iubily, 1600. Now I follow your steps againe where I left.

21. When you fall to daring, you shewe your selfe but a simple man. There is one by whose helpe David did dare leape bbPsa. 18. 29 34.Ps 18:29over a p. 224wall, and to attempt with his armes to breake a bow of brasse, by whose protection in a righteous cause, that England which by a diminution you call litle, doth dare to stand against the strongest enemy that it hath. What should hinder it good Sir, to cut of lewde persons, (wherewithall God is well pleased) when the late Queene thereof at her entrance to the Crowne, did not feare all the Potentates in the world, nor the backwardnesse of many of her owne subiectes, nor the combining almost of all her owne Cleargy, but that in the name of God, and in the vndanted confidence of his maintaining of his owne truth, shee did spread the banner of the Gospell, and without discouragement did persist in that resolution till the day of her death, the English fugitiues, and the Irish Male-contents, yea the Pope and Spaniard contriving to the vttermost to impeach it? Why shoulde not this our country dare to doe well, when by the singular favour of God blessing his true religion in it, it hath beene able to repel that invincible Navy, to sacke many of the kings townes in the West Indies, to batter his Groine in Galitia, to march with ensigne displayed almost an hundred miles in the heart of his countrey, to knocke at his gates of Lisbone, to sinke his fleete at Cales, and to burne that towne at pleasure, the Spanyards looking on, & scant offering to strike one blow. The time hath beene that this England which is such a little more in your eie, hath sent ccHolinshed in Rich. 1 & Edw. 3. & Hen. 5. & 6.a mightie army as farre as to Palestina, hath had two kings prisoners in it at once, and two of her owne Kinges crowned in Paris. And hee is blind who seeth not▪, that at this time it hath decayed no part of her ancient valure or worth; Then do you never feare but it may dare to execute such companions of yours, as will heere disturbe the peace of the Church & Common-wealth. Now that it grieveth your pretty heart that you hauehave not your will among vsus, I doe verily beleeue: and do not you thinke that wolues & beares doe much grieue, that they cannot come at the sheep-folds, but the shepheards will meets with them? As our ddLuk. 23. 28Luke 23:28Saviour somtime said to the women of Hierusalem, that they should not weep for him, but for themselues and their children, so wee may bid you not to grieue for the evil case of England, but to be sory & weep for your sinnes and most malicious blindnesse, that God without p. 225his more future mercy should giuegive you over to a reprobate sence so as to fly truth and to hate it, to barke against the light, to cary vndutifull thoughts to your Superiours, and vn-natural to your countrey, where the Lord be praised for it, there is nothing vnhappy, vnlesse it bee that it hath hatched into the world such vipers & such monsters, who care not what become of her, so that Sathā may be king, & Antichrist may be general. How your brethrē are persecuted with plenty ease & aboūdance, not lōg since I told you. The wiser sort of thē cannot but acknowledge, as evē now you heard, that no Prince vnderunder the heavē, being so zealous in Gods cause, & having sustained such indignities at the hands of many of that factiō, as our late most Christiā Queen had done, would hauehave proceeded with that mildnes. For the māner of your speech you are now returned to your old custome again. Here is nothing but all'all. How al the world hath embraced your profession, I hauehave shewed you before. The ancienter part of the Primitiue Church knew almost nothing of it; the latter part of the first 600. years had some weeds cōming vp in it, but the good corn over-topped it. Afterwards it grew faster, but the Greeke Church did balāce it, Mahomatise did emulate it, Gētilisme did infinitly exceed it: in the West, true religiō had faut ours, in thēselues many; but cōpared with the Antichristian troupe but few, & now of late the vizard of her holines is pulled of, & a maine part of Chri stendōe do see that it is but a painted ee2. King: 9. 30.Iezabel. That some where it is tolerated we deny not: but it may be where the ff2. Sa. 3, 39.2 Sam 3:39sons of Zarvia are too stronge for David, or for other speciall reasons best known to the governours,: but of all likelyhood it is where the embracers of it hauehave learned to be so temperate, as not to complot for desolatiō of those countries where they are tolerated, & vpō a hope that those who are now perverted by errour, may be converted to truth. But our Princes hauehave learned to walk in the waies of gg2. King: 18Hezekiah & Iosiah, & know that they are not cōmēded by the holy Ghost, who suffred the high places to stand in their dominions. That Englād while she followeth the prescript of the God of wisdō, should think that she doth more wisely, thē some other who are drūkē with the harlots inchantments, is no greater a fault thē that of Davids was, who could say, By hhPsal: 119: 98 99: 100.thy cōmādemēts p. 226thou hast … vviser th… … enimies, And I have bad … vnderstanding th…n all my teachers, And againe, I vnderstand more then the auncient, because I kept thy precepts. The same obiection which you make, was made longe agone by the proude Scribes▪ and Pharisees, that they thought one way, and the simple iiIoh. 7: 48: 4…:John 7:48John 7:4accursed people were of another minde. For our Elders wee shall hauehave time to come to you toward the ende of this Chapter. And what you saye of all the learned men of Christendome: for so many ages togither is a Popish bragge; for as before I have shevved, there were men of singular learning, vvho savve the horrible abuses of the Synagogue of Rome, and mourning in their soules to behoulde them, wrote against them, taught against them, prayed against them: and many vtterly seperated themselues from the kkNumer: …6: …26:tentes of Core and Dathan, labouring to keepe their conscience vndefiled, although for so doing, they endured contempt and torture, and imprisonment, & losse of life. Your owne bookes beare witnesse of them, as formerly I hauehave shewed.

T. HILL.

AND I pray you tell me, if an hearb… should be presented to you to …, that all learned Phisitions for a thousand ye…res togither, hauehave iudged to her …, and onelyonly some one or tvvo of later yeeres hauehave begun to teach the contrarie, vvithout actuall experience whether it be so or no, but onelyonly by discourse and now argumentes of their owne braine, vvould you abstaine to eate it or no? Or if an action shoulde bee offered you there in England, vvhichwhich by all olde Lawyers iudgment of former times hath beene taken for highe treason Ipso facto, and consequentlie losse of life and laudes, though some nevver Lavvyers vvere of contrarie opinion that now it is not, vvould you not looke tvvise before you did leape, except you vvere out of your vvittes? But in this other case, although all auncient Divines and Doctours, for about a thousand yeeres togither, hauehave taught the Catholike Romane religio… ▪ …ee true indeeds, and onelye F…iar Luther a loose Apostata, and Sir Iohn Calvin… a seare-backe Priest for Sodo…ye, hauehave begunne in our dayes to teach the contrarie, for feare of being punished by the Magistrates of the saide Catholike religion, for vvicked and badde life, yee p. 227vvill the Protestantes … ou… and cast at all, and vvill hazard He… and all Etornity of tormentes thereon depending. UUho vvill deny this to bee head-long and hare-braine dealing? Surely this Vniversall consent of Christendome against two or three so … …hours of novelties, are more then sufficient to induce any … of reason to looke about him, and to consider vvhat hee doth, and whether he may adventure his soule vppon such inequalitie of testimonies, as this is betvveen tvvo or three Novellantes, and twenty millions of holy and grave auncients, & no doubt … West minster hall, this difference of witnesses would … vvith a… equall and discreete Iudge or ….

G. ABBOT.

22 SImilitudes are familiar: but if you had ever reade any thing touching the Principles of Rhetorike, they are of no force at all, where men hauehave to doe, with a renitent Auditour, of which sorte per adventure you may take vsus bee. But as learned Physitians as any who gaine▪ saide it, founde this that you speake of, to bee Mithridate, and an Antidote or especiall preservatiue against poyson. And nowe there bee more then one or two, who have studied this point, and that not only for the Theorike, but for the Practike also▪ and their argumentes are not newe, but fetched from the Patriarkes and Prophets and Apostles. Our Physitians hauehave observed that rule of the llDiod. Si…: Antiquit: lib: 2: 3:Aegyptians, who in all their cures looked to their booke, and by that they did heale or pronounce incurable. Yours lefte the booke: and thereby as they destroyed their patientes, so it is to bee feared, that after the manner of the Aegyptian Lavve, they lost their owne liues for their labour. And that which you mention concerning Lawyers is iust of the same quality: for verie great Lawyers did differ about this title in question: and then it appeered that those of our side did looke to the law-giver, and had recourse to his words; wheras your mē locked vp the booke, and professed that they could say by heart so much as was expedient. But there their memorie did faile them. Novve as the former vvere out, so such as came after, and beleeved their blinde maisters, vvere more out then their predecessours. p. 228The Romish Dictatour tooke the advantage by this, and finding that his best profitte was to bee his owne …arver, and make lawes for himselfe, added what hee would, and intrepreted as hee list, and if hee would goe astray, (wherevnto hee was most ready) his pety-foggers must not question it, but they must admire him and adore him, since this stoode as an Oracle, that if the mmGratian… part. 1. Distinct. 40. Si Papa.Pope should leade innumerable soules to hell with him, hee must not bee capitulated with; neither might the question bee once asked, Domine cur si… facis? there was store of such Lawyers vvhen CHRIST came into the worlde: but they had a nnLuc. 11. 46.Luke 11:46VVo by him denounced against them. And yet when our Saviour turned all their constitutions vpside-dovvne, and gaue newe interpretations of the Lawe, one might before the people have vsed the same argument which is heere made: All the great Clerkes, the Scribes and Pharisees, for so many ages hauehave taught you one way, and this man teacheth you another way, whom therefore will you beleeve? our Saviour woulde in this case hauehave bidden men looke to the Originall: ooMath 19. 8Matt 19:8from the beginning it was not so. VVhen the Saracens possessed ppC…l. Aug. eurio. Sarrac: Histor. lib: 1.Granado and that parte of Spaine which is about it, for seaven hundred yeeres … if a Christian should hauehave come to hauehave pleaded the title of that Kingdome, they might hauehave produced Lavvyers who should have advouched, that for so many descents, & that time out of minde their Auncestors had enioyed it. But Kinge Ferdinand who expelled them thence, might better replye, that the Christians had a more auncient righte vntounto it: that the Saracent were but encroacher and vsurpers▪ and there were bookes of authenticall record, vvhichwhich vvoulde vvithout partialitie assigne everie man his ovvne. Thinges goe much by opinion, till truth bee displayed. Hovve many learned men did erre in that conceite, th… a qqBodin: Method: cap 4:Svv…nne before his death did singe most svveetelye? The rrPetr: Martyr. D…ad: …: 3:Castilians vvhen they came first into the VVest Indies thought it had beene poyson to have eaten of rosted serpentes and yet aftervvard they found it to bee most daintie meate. VVhen matters for a longe space have beene mistaken, and at last they be discovered, it is no commendation to dwell in olde oversightes, but it is p. 229best vvith advise to reforme them. ssAd Pomp…ium:Custome vvithout truth, is a…nesse of errour …aith Saint Cyprian. Touching your Lawyers then vvee saye, that if they take truth to bee treason, they are more afraide then hurte. And as for your Physitians, they are but like the ss… Chron: 16. 1….Physitians of Asa: for while more trust is reposed in them, then in GOD, many a good patient dyeth vnderunder their handes. That vvhichwhich they reporte to be poyson, would saue and restore the sicke o…ll affected person.

23 VVhen you hauehave a little raunged among Lawyers and Physitians, because wee shoulde thinke that you hauehave heard of all the three faculties, you returne to your owne profession, and and there as a man who say all, but indeede knowe little of auncient. Doctours and Divines, and smally acquainted with the monumentes of the Church▪ you professe that for a thousand yeeres nothing hath beene …aught but the vn-Catholike Romane Religion, till Luther and Calvines time; vvhichwhich is as true a speech, as you are a truth-speaking man, and that is never a vvhit; all the Popes Prentice beeing bounde but to a lying occupation. Your slaunders against these holy men are so well knovvne vntounto vsus, that in respect of you wee thinke them rather to bee laughed at, then to bee refured; albeit in regard of other simple soules vvhome you vvoulde abuse, vvee are otherwise minded. VVhen our Saviour had longe before lived, and dyed, and ascended into heaven, Iulian Libanius, and Porphi…y had inventions mough against him, and hee coulde not escape vvithout that slaunder that hee was a ttAugustin. in Iohan. Tract. 3….Magitian VVhen Narcissus a godly vertuous person lived, hee was by three false witnesses speaking against him, and vsing uuEuseb Eccle H…stor: 6. 8.grievous imprecations toward themselves if they spake not truth, accused of a hainous crime. It was constantly given out of uuSocrat: …. …0: lib. 2▪ 1…: Theodor: 1: 26: 28: 30▪ Soom▪ 2: 2…: 22: 2…: Athans… Apolog…Athanasius, that hee was an adulterer, a Necromancer, a murthe…r: & this was so assevered by the A…ians, that although many did see Arsenius whō hee was reported to hauehave slaine, or caused him to bee made away, yet they woulde scant beleeue their owne eles: but it was not once to bee doubted, but that by the meanes of Athanasius vvho intended to vse it in Coniu…tion, one of the hands of the p. 230saide Arsenius was cut off, although he himselfe stood before them, and had both his handes whole and vntouched. Yea a harlot was brought face to face, which chardged him to hauehave cō mitted fornication with her: & yet shee was so farre frō knowing him, that when another tooke on him to be Athanasius, shee not being therein mistresse of her crafte, chardged him to hauehave done that, which shee purposed to lay on Atanasius. Since these & the like matters hauehave bin in times past, it is no marveile that the Devill of late shoulde stirre vp Cochleus or B…lsec or Staphilus, against two such lampes of the Christiā world as Luther & Calvine were, who made such breaches into his strongest fortresses, and freede so many prisoners from him. Hee whome you tearme an Apostata, was no otherwise such a one for leaving your Babylon, then Saint Paule might have beene saide to be, for relinquishing the xxPhil. 3: 5:Phil 3:5Pharisees, whom a long time he had followed. And whereas you call him loose, his behaviour all his time was strict and severe, industrious and studious in penning and preaching much. The heathen yyOrat pro: M. Caelio.Tully could hauehave toulde you, that he who would be an Oratour must cut of all licentiousnesse, yea his needefull recreations with his most entier friendes, Iudge if Luther did not so, who hath lefte remaining after him such volumes of bookes, as few men in any age hauehave lefte more. But hee rubbed the Pope to the quicke: and a horse which is gawled will wince. And it was another of his faultes, that hee touched the Monkes bellies, as zzCarion: Chr…ucts a Melan. l. 5.Eras… said, and therefore blame not them & their friends, if they doe their best to lash him. One while with aaLib 4. Chronograph.Genebrard… hee shall bee the grand Antichrist, or the nexte member to him, because Luther (as hee saith) in Hebrew, maketh 666. yet by & by afterward, the bbIn Apoe. 13. 1….Rhemists of their gracious bounty and singular integrity, professe to discharge him, and quitte him of that honour. VVhile hee was a Frier at Witemberge, hee was a man without exception, passing towardly and learned, yea fit to take the highest degree in that Vniversity, that is to say, a Doctourshippe in Divinity; but since he came out of Sodome, it is now writen of him, that ccPersons censure on M Char…e.before he was a Frier, he was striken in a medowe with a thunderbolt, and being so frighted hee put himselfe into a Monasterie. And there aftervvard reading in the p. 231Church the Gospell of the thirde Sundaie in Lente, of the deafe and dumme Devill throvvne out by CHRIST, he sodainely fell downe vppon the pavement, and the Devill cryed horriblie out of his mouth, saying, I am not, I am not dumme; I will speake yet vntounto the vvorlde. So shamelesse are men in their improbable detamations, vvhen they once make it their summum bonum, to drawe people after them they care not in what manner. There is no measure of lying: there are no boundes for vntruth, whereof Luther hath vvell tasted, if ever any experimented it for doing GOD good service.

24 Your scorne at Sir Iohn Calvine may bee easily returned on the best of your side, as Sir William Allen, Sir Robert Bellarmine; but wee must allow you a great deale more then this. Your slaunder against Calvine, you take word for word, from Persons his ddCap. 7.Ward-word against Sir Frauncis Hastinges, to which if you please you may reade the aunswere, discovering that odious calumniation. eeO. E. to N. D: Cap 7:There you may finde, first that Calvine was never Masse-Priest, and therefore that Baals servauntes did falsely obiect Priest-hoode vntounto him. Secondly that Bolsecus the authour of this slaunder, did in an open Synode confesse vvith teares, that vvithout any grounde he had laide that slaunder on him. Thirdlye that the tale is not onelye an vniust imputation, but a sottishe and improbable Narration. For first there vvas never any such legall punishment by any lavve decreede; and secondlie no Recorde or testimonie is of any such matter, ever done or suffered by Calvine. You may there also finde how truly that crimination, doth fall on the Romish generation▪ concerning which pointe my meaning is to forbeare you for a while, and nowe to followe you in the present. That then these men should leaue the Papacye, for feare of censure from Popish Magistrates, for that whereof they were no wayes, no not so much as in shevve guiltye, it your foolishe collection: and so much the more absurde, because Calvine by your lying reporte had beene punished alreadye. Anyethinge yvill serve the turne, to keepe this slaunder going. You might rather hauehave saide in behalfe of Luther, that since hee vvas so esteemed by the vvhole Vniversitie, vvhere hee abode for a great parte p. 232of his time… since his name after his death is honourable amonge them; since he was so protected to the hazarde of all his estate, by that Noble and wise and vertuous Duke of Saxony, it is certaine that no exception can bee taken to his life. And for Calvine that since for manye yeares, hee lived in so reverende reputation at Geneva, vvhere they are so strict against sinne, that by the testimony of ffMethod. hist: cap. 6:Bodine a Papist, no open wantonnes, no lasciviousnesse is once permitted there, by reason of the austerity of their discipline, and that they hauehave (as travellours reporte) so sterne a law against lewde malefactours, as is scant to be found in all the worlde againe, that an offendour flying out of any countrey thither, shall there bee subiect to as grievous punishment, as he was in his owne land (if he be convicted of the crime) vntounto which severity they are forced, least their citty standing neere the dominion of so many Princes and States, shoulde bee the common receptacle and sanctuary of all fugitiues and runnagates, therefore Iohn Calvin vvas a man of singular honesty of life, and every waye vntouchable in his conversation. They who are generally so strict, woulde not with such high acceptation hauehave admitted, and for so many yeares retained a person notoriously defamed, to be the chiefe standdard bearer of their profession, vvhereas they might hauehave had many other vvorthy men and vvithout exception to hauehave supplyed that roume. This tale then commeth… from Sathan the father of lyes…. Now it is not vponupon these persons that vvee doe repose our selues, but on that which they bring out of the holy Scripture, which being the word of truth, and inspired from the Spirit of God, we feare not to adventure vponupon it, our selues, our salvation, our hope of everlasting blessednesse. Neither do wee this headlongly or hare-brainedly as you suppose, for we are ggAct: 26: 25not madde O noble Festus, but with our maturest iudgements and most sober vnderstandings, we study, wee conferre the Scriptures in many languages, we pray to God to inlighten vsus, we looke into the Fathers, the Histories, the Councels, wee compare old things with new, we leaue no good meanes vn-attempted to sift and found the truth: and stil the farther wee looke, the lesse ground we finde for Popety. Divines most auncient amongst vsus, doe p. 233more loath it in their olde age, then they did in their young. Yea we turne the bookes of your writers, and exemine their reasones and much adoe wee see they hauehave to set vp the tower of Babell, and yet it cannot be at they would ha…e it. Nay we hinder not your learned Papists, freely at our book-seller… to buy all bookes of controversies in religion, so they bee not mingled with state cause…; which course cōcerning the writings of our men you permit not to your learned disciples, but interdict them evē to many of your Seminary Priests. And aboue all this, wee are so farre from longing to be in hell, that all who are rightly instructed among vsus, take as great care of the saving of their soules, as the deepest Romanist of you, with all your Pharisticall and counterfeit hypocrisie.

25 When then you make comparison betweene an vniversall consent, and that also auncient on the one side, and a fewe contemptible authours of novelties on the other side, and you double it againe that here be but two or three Novellants, and there twenty milliōs of graue & holy auncients, which inequality, say you, would sway much with Iudges or with Iuries in Westminster hall, we reply that you do but talke at randō after your fashion. For first Westminster hall is no place for the triall of religion. Secondly your men consent not in such sort as you speake; their agreement is not so generally spred, as a man may see throughout all Bellarmines workes, where almost in every question hee citeth different opinions and iudgements of writers in the Papacy: and many things wherein Romanists agree are but falshood: and you much mistake the number of those who hauehave and doe oppugne you. Thirdelye what you say is anncient, is but vpstarte and crept in, as a worthy hhD. Sutclifs challendge c. 2.man hath of late most learnedly shewed, in a tract for that purpose: and for the triall of our differences vvee lay the Bible before you, then which I trust you will not offer to bring ought more aucient. Hee who out of that book can win it, in Gods name let him weare it. We say with Tertullian, iiDe praescript contra haere…that that is of the Lord & true, which was first delivered. And fourthly vvee doe tell you, that multitude is not it vvhichwhich must decide vvhat is trueth. Amonge heathen men one kkPlutari in Phocyone.Phocyon standing single, spake more advisedly then all the Atheniens. p. 234Should Elias be overborne because he was but ll…. King. 18. 25.one, when the Priests of Baal were many? Who was the greater company, mmIer. 2. …. 4.Jer 2Ieremy, or all Hierusalem, with the whole land of Iuda? If you had beene present at the erecting of the image of nnDan 3. 1.Dan 3:1Nabuchodonosor, and had seene all the great Princes fall downe before that Idole, and the three children stand vp, you would hauehave laid freely at them, Dare you strangers and captiues, and boyes, and vpstart companions, set your selfe against a million of wise men, Princes and Counselours? They should hauehave had your voice, to hauehave gone to the fiery Furnace. Doe you not pity your selfe when you reason in this fashion? Among them that be wise pendenda sunt suffragiapetius quàm numerāda, voices are to be weighed rather then to be numbred. I can say no more vntounto you, but that when this is your best Divinity, Lorde hauehave mercy vponupon you. Saint Austen would hauehave tolde you, for ooEpist. 19.all these and aboue all these, we hauehave the Apostle Paule.

T. HILL.

NEither may the Protestants now at length glory in their great number, as some of them hauehave done, for that their Religion is there in England, and in Scotland, and some thereof in …aland, and in the Lowe Countries and in some partes of Germany, and a few of them in Fraunce, Apol. Eccl. Anglic.for they never yet passed into Asia, nor into Africa, nor into Greece, nor into many places of Europe, much lesse into the Indies. But indeede if you rightly scanne their doctrine, you shall finde that your Religion Protestā tine of England is no where in the world else, and that English service contained in your booke of Common praier is vnknowne, and condemned of all other Nations and people vnderunder the cope of Heaven. So that in very deed the doctrine of your Protestantes is taught or received no vvhere but in England, and the Puritant Doctrine of Scotlande (the contrariety therof duely considered) is no where but in Scotlande, the Lutherane Doctrine taught in Denmarke, is no where but in Denmarke, and in a few places of Germany, the Libertine doctrine taught in the Low Countries, is no …here but in the Low Countries, and the like may be said of other sectes.

p. 235G. ABBOT.

26 YOV are mis enformed that the Protestants doe glorie in their great number: they know that truth is truth, be i… in more or few. As for M. Iewell whose Apologie you quote in your margent, hee hath no such matter. OnelyOnly where as it is obiected that our Religion overturneth kingdoms and governmentes, hee answereth there vntounto, that there ppApol. Eccl. Anglican.doe remaiue in their place and ancient dignitie, the Kings of England, Denmarke, Sweden, the Dukes of Sa…cony, the Cunties Palatine, &c. This is to answere to an obiection, by giving many instances to the contrary, and not to glory of any multitude. And if any other of our Church do note in breefe, that the Gospell hath taken roote in some large nations, that is to stop the mouth of the clamorous adversary, and to satisfie the weake, as also not least of all to praise God, who so spreadeth the beames of his compassion; but it is not to boast vainely as you ignorantly imagine. Yet who doubteth but a good Christian may ioy in his hart exceedingly, and thankfully expresse it in his tongue, that many who sate in darkenesse may now behold the light, and the sheepefold of Christ is more and more filled. But if we would be too forward, you will plucke vsus backe againe. Although it be, say you, in some places of Europe, yet in some other it is not. As who should say your Popery is generall in all. Where I pray you in Greece is your Papistry? It is not in Asia, and Africa, and much lesse in the Indies. The East Indies are part of Asia, if you could think vponupon it. By what means your Idolatry came into those Countries, I hauehave shewed before, and how plentifully there it is. If we would talke idly, as you for the most part doe, we might say that in every place where the Marchants of Holland trade, and hauehave people residing, our religion is accepted. But since the English Merchants hauehave companies & houses in Russia, in Constantinople, in Aleppo, in Alexandria sometimes, in Barbary, in Zacynthus, in Venice, and Legorne, we might say after the fashion of your boasting, that our religion is in those parts. But we desire to make no more of things then indeede they are. Yet we tell you for those remote provinces, p. 236that as now one hundred and twenty yeeres agone they knewe not one whit of your faith, so it may please God, before one hundred and twenty yeeres more bee passed (if it so seeme good to his most sacred wisedome) to plant the truth which we reach, in the East & Westerne world, especially if a passage by the North ende of America, or that by Asia beyond Ob may bee opened, vvherein our qqM. Haclui… vnges:Nation hath much adventured, and speng good summes of treasure, vvhichwhich also the Hollanders hauehave done. But the issue of this whole matter must bee leste to the divine providence, which is to bee magnified therefore, if hee adde this blessing to his Church, And if he deny it either there or in any other place, we must not be caried too farre with griefe or pitty, since it doth not please him who is the father of merciemercy to condescend vntounto it. Nowe vvhereas you avouch, that our doctrine is onelye in England, I knovve not vvhither I shoulde put that in your ignoraunces, or rather in your malicious cavils. Truth it is our common prayer booke is vsed onelye by those who are of Englishe allegeaunce, but is there anie pointe of doctrine in it, vvherevnto other Churches reformed, in Europe, doe not condescend? The Catechisme of the Councell of Trent doth differ in words from the Catechisme of Canisius, and both of them from that of M. Vaux: yet you would thinke it a wronge if anye man should tell you that they disagree in pointes of doctrine. So the service of the reformed Congregations in Europe, as in England, Scotland, Fraunce, Switzerland, in the dominion of the Palsgraue, in the Regiments and free cities of Germany which are of the Pallsgraues confession, as also in a good parte of the low Countries, is the same in all pointes of moment, not differing one int…: their Professions are the same. There is no question among these in anie one pointe of religion. The Ecclesiasticall policy being different, as in some places by Bishops, in some other w…thout them, doth not alter ought of faith. The Apostles in that they were Apostles had a kinde of governement, vvhichwhich the Church had not afterward in the very same particular. In the auncient Church, some cities and Countreyes vvere immediately ruled by a Patriarke, Grande Metropolitane, some other by an inferiour Bishoppe vvho was subiected to the greater: p. 237yet they all might agree in the faith. The cheefe at Rome immediately is the Pope, at Millaine for spirituall thinges the Arch-bishoppe, in some places bee but Suffragaines, in some other Iurisdictions, a Deane or Priour by Privilege hath almost Papall auctoritie, vvhichwhich also in times past vvas in the Chauncellours or Vice-chauncellours of our English Vniversities, some fewe thinges beeing excepted and reserved. Yet will you say that these doe differ in religion, or retaine not the same doctrine? Even so it is touching the beleefe of the Protestantes in England, of those which you in spite call Puritaines in Scotland, and of them whome you tearme maliciously, Libertines in Holland and Zeland. They teach no other libertie then what the rrGalat. 5. 1.Gal 5:1Apostle teacheth, and biddeth vsus to stande fast in it. For the shewing of your skill, I entreate you to let your scholers heare one pointe of moment, or materiall, vvherein all those Churches which before I named, doe differ. Speake it out, if you can tell what. Touching the Lutheranes in Denmarke and many places of Germany, I hauehave toulde you before that in one pointe of the Eucharist they disagree from the rest of the Churches, which the LORD in time may sende to bee reconciled; and wee pray vntounto him for the same. But your comfort vppon that discorde is small. For as Anthonie sometimes Kinge of Navatre, and father to the most Christian Kinge of Fraunce now raigning, ssCommenta…. Relig. & Reip. in Gall. lib.saide to the Embassadour of the Kinge of Denmarke, exhorting the reformed French to bee of Luthers doctrine, There bee fortie points wherein Luther and Calvine doe differ from the Pope, and in nine and thirty of them they agree betweene themselues, and in that single one they dissent. Their followers therefore should do well, to ioyne in the greater number against the Pope, till they had ruinated him; and vvhen his heart is broken, they should fall to compound that last single difference. God in his good time may graunt this to bee done, although in the meane while, hee doe exercise his spouse asseemeth good to himselfe.

p. 238T. HILL.

LAstly I doe bore consider with my selfe, if I should refuse the Catholike Romans religion so vniversally taught', received and professed throughout all the world so many ages togither, and embrace any of these new sillie sects, adventuring my soule there-vponupon, what all my progenitours auncesters of they were here againe and sawe mee die so, would say vntounto mee. I gesse they woulde vse such speeches as th…se: vvhat doest then condemne all our iudgementes and doings? Doest thou maligne that Religion, which we so highly esteemed and sought to advance? Doest then sende vsus all to hell and damnation? Wilt thou iudge thy selfe vviser, and more in Gods favour, then any of vsus were? And many such like speeches I thinke they would vse.

G. ABBOT.

27 I doubte not but in this Reason you hauehave borrowed of your neighbours, as well as you did in others before, although it be not my hap to trace you heere, as formerly I hauehave done. But the reckoning vp of those your places in the Easterne parts of the world, are by me certainly held not to be your own, which I conceiue by the complexion of all the rest of your book. For your phrases and appellations bestowed on Luther and Calvin. Father Persons is your schoole-master. But because you are devoted vntounto blinde Bristowes Motiues, if you hauehave beene sparingly with him in all this Chapter before, yet heere you conclude with ssMotiv. 36.him about our Predecessours. VVhere you might hauehave remēbred that (to speake properly) neither our auncesters shall iudge vsus, neither shall we iudge our auncesters, but Iesus Christ shall iudge both, and hee will not take for good payment, that which we follow by imitation of our parents, but what wee doe or hauehave done after his owne commandements. How often in the Scripture are men blamed, for walking in the waies of tt1. King 15 34. cap. 16. 19. 26.1 Kgs 15:34Ieroboam, & of other their Auncesters? How often do the uuPsa 106. 6 Dan. 9. 6. 16Ps 106:6Dan 9:6Dan 9:16godly confesse and deplore their fathers sinnes before God? What precepts be there to that purpose, as that Salomons wife, vvho p. 239representeth the spouse of Christ, should uuPsal: 45: …1forgot her owne people, and her fathers house? What a praise is it to xxa: Kin… ▪ 8…. ….Hezekiah, & to yyCap. 21: 24Iosiah, and divers other, that having idolatrous parents, they did rather looke to their father which is in heaven, then to flesh and bloud vponupon earth? If this instruction of yours should hauehave gone for currant, the Iewes should scant hauehave received the doctrine of Christ, but the Gentiles without all question shoulde hauehave kept them to Iupiter, to Apollo, to Aesculapius, because if they had done otherwise, they had condemned the way of their forefathers. By this rule our auncesters heere in Englande should not hauehave received baptisme, and the Indians and Iaponians whome you say so fast without booke, should hauehave worshipped their old Idoles. The complaint which you here make in the person of our predecessours, was made before by Symmachus to the Emperour Valentinian, in the daies of Saint Ambrose, speaking thus in the name of the city Rome, zzAmbro Epist: lib: 5:Most noble Princes, you fathers of the Countrey, reverence yet my yeares, vntounto which my rootes of devotion hauehave brought me. I will vse my ceremonies which I received from my grandfathers, for I repent not my selfe of them. I will liue after mine … fashion, for I am free. But Saint aaIbidem.Ambrose comming afterward to answere all these obiections, teacheth that there is one who in matters of religion, is rather to be beleeued then all the world besides. Concerning God, whom should I rather beleeue then God himselfe? But of this argument I may hauehave occasion to speake more at large.

28 OnelyOnly now thus much I adde, that if any of our parents offended God, and dyed in damnable ignorance, who woulde say that for their sakes and company, we should thrust our selues into hell' If any of them were right, they will not grudge, that wee should hauehave more light opened vntounto vsus, then they in their time saw: even as those holy Iewes vnderunder the law, fore-seeing what would be vnderunder the Messias, envyed not to the Apostles and other of that age, the more perfect & liuely knowledge of Christ. But leaving the definition and determining sentence of all, vntounto the Lords secret iudgement, into which we must not ofter to prease or intrude, we do hope that many of those who lived in the time of darkenesse, had that mercy shewed vntounto them, that p. 240their soules doe rest in peace. Such is Saint Cyprians opinion in the like case, bbDe sacr… mento dominici cali…: Epist: 68And see most deare brother, if any of our Predecessours either ignorantly or simply did not obserue and holde this, which the Lorde taught vsus to doe by his owne example and ministery, by the favour of the Lorde there may bee pardon given to his simplicitie. If any of them did holde the foundation, concerning their being iustified by the bloud of Christ alone, and besides that did repent of all their errours, knowne and vnknown, committed by ignorance or wilfulnesse, we feare not, but that the same God who gaue vntounto them some measure of knowledge, and would require of thē according to that which they had, and not according to that which they had not, would receiue them into the number of his blessed and elect. And that the knowledge of the truth was not extinguished in England, may easily be seene by that which is mentioned ccRation: 1:before touching the VViclevists, and many other who confessed Christ, yea some of them vntounto the death. That noble L. ddDe Ecclesia cap 9.Du Plessis handling this argument for his countrey Fraunce, doeth giuegive instaunce in Saint Bernard, in vvhose workes wee finde hay and stubble, and some drosse, which the fire of Gods spirit in trying would burne away. He was swayed with the streame of the time, and received many matters indiscussed, from other who were some body in the outward face of the Church. But when this excellent man recutreth and retyreth himselfe vntounto his owne vnderstanding, how doth hee eeDe cōve…s ad …: 29: Epist. 4… … …Word. ad cle… Cō …: Rem… ▪lament the disorders and almost Apostasie of the Cleargy of his time? How doth he inveigh against their negligence and security? But for the point of Iustification by Christ, how ffEpist: 190 se…. 50. in Canti…a:sincerely doth hee speake, that nothing bringeth satisfaction vntounto the wrath of God, but his owne mercy in the Saviour? How doth he expound that place, gg2. …: 4. 8hence-forth is laid vp for me the crowne of righteousnesse, hhDe gratia & lib. arbit:explicating it, that it is iust that we should hauehave it, not because we deserue it, but because God hath promised it to all beleevers, & it standeth with his iustice that he should performe his promise? How doth he say of good works that they are iiIbidem:via regn…, non causaeeg…ands, the way of, or to the kingdome, but not the cause of our raigning? How confident is he in the Lordes adopting of him, when he saith, I kkDe sep… … 3.consider three things wherein my p. 241hope consisteth, the love of his ad…tion, the truth of his promise, the power of his performance. Now let my foolish thought murmure as much as it will saying, for who are thou, or how great is that glory, or by what merites dost thou hope to obtaine it? And I confidenthe will answere, I knowe whome I have beleeved,' & I am assured that in very much louelove he adopted me, that he is true in his promise, that he is potent on his performance, for he may doe what he will. But most sufficiently and effectuallie of all other did he speake to this pupose, when hee lay llIn vita Ber. nard. l. 1. 12.vppon his death-bedde, which place that French noble man doth cite. As it was with this holy person who had an extraordinarie talent of knowledge, so we doe not distrust, but diverse other in their life time, and many at the houre of death did thus apprehend Gods mercy, renouncing all their merites, and the merites of other men, which in our time so stiffe a Papist as Sir Christopher Bloūt did, of vvhome notwithstanding because hee dyed obstinate in other Romishe opinions, wee doe not too much hope, but leave him vntounto the censure of the highest Iudge. They which betooke themselues to faith in Christ alone (neither directlie, not indirectly crossing that ground) and also in generall repented, and asked forgiuenesse for all slips knowne and vnknowne, those we iudge to have died in Gods favour. And of this sort we trust that many of our Auncestors and Predecessours were.

29 HEERE to turne to the Reader, this Chapter as you see, is reduced to this heade; That which is largest spread is most true: But the Romish faith is so, Therfore the Romish faith is truest & most Catholike. What exceptiō may be made to the Minor Propositi… it is intimated before. But how far the Maior is frō truth in Divinity, what Christiā doth not see? For albeit that sometimes God permitteth his Gospel, to have a very large scope at once, as in the first Church, and vnderunder Constantine, and graciously in our age, & otherwise successiuely and by vicissitudes doth scatter it heere and there, so that at one time or other, al great places and quarters of the world, hauehave, doe, or shall heare the sound thereof, yet ordinarily the number of the godly compared with the wicked, ar… …t like to a little flocke of kids, opposed to a huge hearde of great cattaile. That this was so before Christs cōming, it is so evident that no man can doubt it. p. 242And when hee first shewed himselfe, is not his speech to those that followed him, mmLuk. 12. 32.Luke 12:32feare not little flocke. Doth not hee say that fewe nnMatth. …. 13: 14:enter into the narrow gate, but many into the wide passage, which as it intendeth the finall standing or falling of men, so it noteth the state also of thē which are abiding here on earth. In the ooCap. 13: 3.Parable of the seede, it is but one of foure partes which lighteth in the good ground. And howe infinite are the places, where for many ages togither, the seede never came? there was nōe sowed at all? I here the people are but Ethnicks & infidels, without all sparke of vnderstāding. And where the word is preached, what store is there of heretikes, what multitude of hypocrites, what plenty of worldlings and Atheists, men who delight in security? Are we not put in mind by our Saviour ppLuk. 17: 26Luke 17:26else-where, that when the Sonne of man is to appeare vponupon earth, it shall bee as in the daies of Noe, and in the time of Lot, when the most part of persons shall eate and drinke, and buy and sell, and plant and builde, mary and be maried. And howe fewe there were vnited vntounto Noe in faith, we know by the small number of them who were saved in the Arke: & how few ioyned with Lot is as plaine, when none but his daughters would follow him out of Sodome. And of this sorte it must be toward the ende of the world, The faithfull in comparison of the carnall and reprobate, shall be but a little company.

30 Then it is no marveile if the olde fathers have not taken for any argument of verity & right, the greatest & widest multitude; a… qqHomil: 12. in Genes.Origene whē he said, There are alwaies more evill persons thē good, & vices are of a greater number thē vertues. And as they are more in tale, so their dwelling & spreading is much more lardge. Doe rrLib. 1. Epist. 3…not respect saith Cyprian the number of thē, for better is one mā fearing the Lord, then a thousand wicked children, as the Lord himselfe hath spoken. That worthy man Ludovicus Vives in his bookes De veritate fidei, bringeth the obiections which the Mahumetanes make for themselues, wherefore their profession shoulde be truth, and among them, this is one: ssLib. 4:Yea but you do see the admirable increase of that sect …hich is ours, so that it is apparant that it is augmented even by the helpe of God, which is the selfe-same reason that is here vrged for the Papacy. But Vives doth make answere, p. 243The multitude doth not argue goodnesse. There were more Gentiles i… time past. And what can be more true, then that in times past even frō the beginning of the world, there were more Ethnickes, then are Saracens since the daies of Mahomet, or true Christians since Christs time? So Hierome Savanarola who was a learned man, & of an excellent spirit, as appeareth by his workes, (howsoever the Romanists afterward tooke his life away from him) in his booke ssLib. 4. c. 7.De Triumpho Crucis, beeing opposed by a Mahumetane, that Mahomets profession is truth, because so many doe follow it, he answereth first that men are inforced by the sworde so to doe: and secondly that if multitude should beare the palme away, then the devils religion were the best of all other, because he hath possessed incomparablie more, then either Christ or Mahomet. Such a Reason as this is, doth the writer of this Pamphlet heere bring for his Romish doctrine, which if it prove any thing, is most substantiall fo Sathan the great Antichrists graunde maister. For there is not any portion of the habitable world, but the Devil hath his crew in it. In enquiring thē for verity, we should attende, what the solide rule of perfection, that is Gods Sacred word, doth lay out before vsus, and not what the hugest multitude directed by humane fancy shal prescribe vntounto vsus. ttExod. 23. 2Exod 23:2Thou shalt not follow a multitude to doe evill. The most walke the worst way. Sapiendum est cum paucis. A wise man, as Seneca telleth vsus, uuLib. in sapientem non cadere iniuriam cap: 14.doth not goe that way which the people goeth, but as the Planets doe goe a contrary course to the world so he goeth against the opinion of them all. Thus wee must doe in Divinity, not looke howe many saye, but on what ground it is spoken. If many agree in that which prooveth to be iust, we are to ioy that many give consent to that which is right, but the truth is it which must trie them, and not they inforce a truth. Sounde religion is not the worse when it is but in a fewe: and the multitude which doe hould it, or the wide spreading thereof, cannot make the false to be otherwise.