Pseudo-Martyr

CHAP. I. Of Martyrdom and the dignity thereof.

A S a Depositarie to whose [ I] trust some precious thing were committed, is not only encumbered and anxious, to defend it from the violencies and subtleties of outward attempters, but feels within himself some interrupt • ons of his peace, and some invasions upon his honesty, by a corrupt desire, and temptation to possess it, and to employ upon his own pleasure or profit, that of which he is no Proprietary: and never returns to his security, out of these watchfulnesses against other, and reluctations with himself; till he who delivered this Jewel, resume it again: So, till it please the Lord, and owner of our life to take home into his treasury, this rich Carbuncle our soul, which gives us light in our night of ignorance, and our dark body of earth, we are still anguished and traveled • as well with a continual defensive war, to preserve our life from sicknesses, and other offensive violences; as with a diverse and contrary covetousness, sometimes to enlarge our State and term therein, sometimes to make it so much our own, that we may vnthriftily spend it upon surfeits, or licentiousness, or reputation.

2 From thence proceeded that corrupt prodigality of their lives, with examples whereof all Histories abound; honor, ease, devotion, shame, want, pain, anything served for a reason, not only to forsake themselves, or to expose themselves to vn-euitable dangers, but also to be their own executioners • yea we read of the women of a certain town, that in a wantonness had brought it up for a fashion, to kill themselves.

3 Which corruption, and Ambition of being Lord of our selves, every sort of men, which contributed their helps to the preservation and tranquility of States, labored against • as first the Philosopher, who observing that honor and • ase did principally draw men into this inclination, because they were desirous to get a name of during, and of greatness, and to escape the miseries which every day in this life presents, and heaps upon us; did therefore teach, That nothing was more base and cowardly, then to kill ones self, so to correct that opinion of getting honor by that Act: and to overthrow the other opinion of ease, they taught Death to be the most miserable thing which could fall upon us.

4 And when the Spaniard in the Indies found a general inclination, and practice in the inhabitants to kill themselves, to avoid slauer • e; they had no way to reduce them, but by some dissemblings and outward counterfeitings, to make them believe, that they also killed themselves, and so went with them into the next world, and afflicted them more then, then they did in this.

5. The Emperors also by their laws and civil Constitutions, have opposed remed • es against this ordinary disease, by inflicting forfaitures and infamou • mulctes upon them which should do it. And the Church hath resisted it by her Canons, which deny them Christian burial, and refuse their oblations at the Altars. And with what severe laws, other particular States have labored against it, appears by the law of our nation, which esteems it not only Man • slaughter but Murder. And by that law in the Ea • ledome of Flanders, which reckons it amongst the heinous names of Treason, Heresy, and Sedition.

6 And yet it was observed, that this corruption was so inherent and rooted, and had so overgrown our nature, or that corruption which depraues it, that neither those imperial laws, nor that form of a State which Plato Ide • ted, nor that which Sir Tho. Moore did imagine and delineate thought it possible utterly to extirpate and root out this disposition, but only to stop and retard the general precipitation therein: And therefore in their laws they have flattered our corruption so much, as to appoint certain cases and reasons, and circumstances, in which it might be lawful to kill ones self.

7 And Almighty God himself, who disposes all things sweetly, hath been so indulgent to our nature, and the frailty thereof, that he hath afforded us a means, how we may give away our life, and make him, in a pious interpretation, beholden to us for it; which is by delivering our selves to Martyredome, for the testimony of his name, and advancing his glory: for in this we restore him his Talent with profit; our own soul, with as many more, as our example works upon, and wins to him. To deny him this, is not only to steal from him, that which is his, by many dear titles; as Creating, Redeeming, and Preseruing; but at such a time, as his honor hath use of such a service at our hands, then to withdraw our testimony from him, is as much a betraying and crucifying of him again, as it was in them, who by their false witness, occasioned his death before.

8 Saint John saith, that the Baptist was not that light, but (as though that were the next dignity) he came to bear witness of that light. And when our blessed Savior re • used to bear witness o • him • else; those, whom he reckons as his witnesses, are all of • o high dignity, as no ambition can be higher, then to be admitted amongst those witnesses of Christ; • or they are thus laid down; First the Bapt • st, then his Miracles, then his Father, and then the Scriptures.

9 How soon God began to call upon man for this service, by sealing his acceptation of Abel's sacrifice, in accepting Abel for a Sacrifice: for so saith Chrysostom, Abel, in the beginning, before any example, first of all Dedicated Martyredome. And as soon as Christ came into the world, after he received the oblations of the kings, presenting part of their temporal fortunes; the next thing wherein he would be glorified, was that Holocaust and Hecatombe of the innocent children, martyrd for his name.

10 And though we cannot by infinite degrees, attain to our pattern Christ, the general Sacrifice; yet we must exceed those Typique times, and Sacrifices of the old law; and be no more covetous of our selves, then they were of their beasts, when that Sacrifice is required at our hands: for when we sacrifice our concupiscences, by rooting them out we equal them, who sacrificed their beasts; but we exceed them, when we immolate our soul and body to God.

11 The blood of the Martyrs was the milk which nourished the Primitive Church, in her infancy, and shall it be too hard for our digestion now? It was the seed of the Church, out of which we sprung; and shall we grudge to Tithe our selves to God, in any proportion that he will accept? As Zipporah said to Moses, vere sponsus sanguinum es mihi ; the Church may well say to Christ, who looks for this Circumcision at her hands, and this tribute of blood, which he hath so well deser • ed • both by begetting the Church by his blood upon the Cross • and feeding her still wi • h the same blood in the Sacrament.

12 But those whom he hath pre-ordained to this supreme Dignity of Martyrdom, God doth ordinarily bring up in a nouitiate, and Apprentisage of worldly Crosses and Tribulations. And as I • stinians great Officer Tiberius, when out of a reverence to the sign of the Cross, he removed a Marble stone from the Pavement, and under it found a second stone, with the same Sculpture, and under that a third, and under all, great plenty of treasure, had not this treasure in his hope, nor purpose, nor desire before hand, but satisfied himself in doing that honor to that sign, which those first times needed: So is the treasure and crown of Martyredome seposed for them, who take up devoutly the crosses of this life, whether of poverty, or anguished consciences, or obedience of laws which seem burdenous, and distasteful to them; for all that time a man serves for his freedom, and God keeps his reckoning, from the inchoation of his Martyredome, which was from his first submission to these tribulations: which Chrysostom testifies thus; That when one is executed, he is then made a Martyr (that is, declared and accepted • or a Martyr by the Church) but from that time, when he begun to show, that he would profess that Religion, he was a Martyr, though he endured not that which Martyrs do.

13 Saint Paul • aith of himself, I die daily ; and Chrysostom of David, He merited the Crown of Martyrdom a thousand times in his purpose and disposition, and was slain for God a thousand times. And these persecutions are not only part of the Martyredome, but they are part of the reward: for so S ^t . Mark seems to intimate, when he expresseth Christ thus; No man shall forsake anything for my • ache, but he shall receive a hundred fold now at this pre • ent, houses Brothers, Sisters, Mothers and Children, and land, with Persecutions. So that Christ promises a reward, but not to take away the persecution; but so to mingle and compound them, and make them both of one taste, and indifferency, that we shall not distinguish, which is the meat and which is the sauce, but nouri • h our spiritual growth as well with the persecution, as with the reward.

14 For this high degree of a consummate Martyr, is not ordinarily attained to per Saltum, but we must be content to • erue God first in a lower rank and Order: for as much Kings, as come to the possession of a Kingdom, by a new, or a violent, or a litigious Title, do use at the beginning to sign their Graunts, and Edicts, and o • her publ • que Acts, not only themselves, but admit the Subscription and testimony of their Counsellers, and Nobility, and Bishops; but being est • blished by a long succession, and entering by an indubitate Title, are confident in their rights, and come to sign Teste me ipso: So doth our Savior Christ ordinarily in these times, when he is in possession of the world, seal his graces to us by himself in his word and Sacraments, and do • h not so frequently c • ll witnesses and Martyrs, as he did in the Primitive Church, when he induced a new Religion, and saw that, that manner of confirmation was expedient for the credit and conveyance thereof.

And if a man should in an immature and undigested zeal, expose his life for testimony of a matter, which were already believed, or to which he were not called by God, he did no more honor God in that act, then a Subject should honor the King by subscribing his name, and giving his T • stimony to any of the Kings Graunts.

CHAP. II. That there may be an inordinate and corrupt affectation of Martyrdom.

T He external honors, by which the [ 1] memories of the Orthodox Martyrs in the Primitive Church were celebrated and ennobled, (as styling their deaths Natalitia, observing their Anniuersaries, commemorating them at their Altars, and instituting Notaries, to register their actions and passions) inflamed the Heretics also to an ambition of getting the like glory. And thereupon they did not only expose and precipitate themselves into • ll d • ngers, but also invented new ways of Martyredome; with hunger whereof they were so m • ch enraged and transported, that some of them taught, That upon conscience of sin to kill ones self, was by this act of Justice, a Martyrdom • upon which ground Petilian, against whom Saint Augustine writes, canonized Judas for a Martyr. The rage and fury of the Circumcelliones, in extorting this imagined Martyrdom; brought them first to solicit and importune others to kill them; and if they failed in that suite, they did it themselves. And another Sect prospered so far in heaping up numbers of Martyrs, that their whole sect was called Martyriani.

2 And a zealous scorn to be overtaken, and • qual'd in this honor, provoked sometimes those who write the Acts of the Orthodox Martyrs, to insert into their Histories some particulars which were not true, and some which were not justifiable: for of the first sort of these insertions, which proceeded (as he saith) out of too much love to the Martyrs, Baronius in his Martyrologe complains; and by the Canon which forbids these Histories to be read publicly in the Roman Church, it seems they were careful that the people should not thereby be taught and encouraged, to bring such actions into consequence and imitation, as, (if the immediate instinct of God's spirit, did not justify them) would seem indiscrete and intemperate. Nor were they only, which corrupted the stories in fault, but out of Binius, the last compiler of the Councils, we may perceive, that even they which were Orthodox pro • essors, had some tincture of this over-vehement affectation of Martyredome: for he says, that the sixeteth Canon of the Eliberitane council (by which it is enacted, That those Christians which attempted to break the Idols of the Gentiles, and were slain by them, should not be numbered amongst the Martyrs ) was made to deter men from following such examples, as Eulalia, who being a maid of twelve years, came from her fathers house, declared her self to be a Christian, spit in the Judges face, and provoked him to execute her. To which they were then so inclin • ble, that as a Catholic Author hath observed, that state which inflicted those persecutions; sometimes made Edicts, that no more Christians should be executed, because they perceived how much contentment and satisfaction, and complacency some of them had in such dying.

3 And although these irregular and exorbitant acts be capable of a good interpretation; that is, that the spirit of God did by secret insinuations e • cite and inflame them, and such as they were, to pu • fervor into others at that time; yet certainly God hath already made his use of them, and their examples belong no more to us, in this part and circumstance of such excesses.

4 And though this secret and inward instinct and moving of the holy Ghost, which the Church presumes, to have guided not only these martyrs, in whose forwardness these authors have observed some incongruity with the rules of Divinity, but also Sampson, and those Virgines which drowned themselves • or preservation of their chastity, which are also accounted by that Church as martyrs; although (I say) this instinct lie not in proof, nor can be made evident; yet there are many other reasons, which authorize and justify those zealous transgressions of theirs (if any such were): or make them much more excusable, then any man can be in these times, and in these places wherein we live.

5 For the persecutions in the Primitive Church were raised either by the Gentiles or the Arians ; either the unity of the God-head, or the Trinity of the persons was ever in question: which were the Elements of the Christian Religion, of which it was framed and complexioned; and so to shake that, was to ruin and demolish all. And they were also the Alphabet of our Religion, of which no infant or Neophyte might be ignorant. But now the integrity of the belief of the Roman Church, is the only form of Martyrdom; for it is not allowed for a Martyrdom to witness by our blood, the unity of God against the Gentiles, nor the Trinity of persons against the Turk or Jew, except we be ready to seal with our blood contradictory things, and incompatible for the time past: (since evidently the Popes have taught contradictory things) and for the time present, obscure and irreuealed things, and entangling perplexities of Schoolmen; for in these, yea in future contingencies, we must seal with our blood, that part which that Church shall hereafter declare to be true.

6 This constant defense of the foundation, and this vndisputable evidence of the truth, was their warrant: And they had another double reason, of making them extremely tender, and fearful of slipping from their profession; which was first the subtleties and Artifices of their adversaries, to get them to do some act, which might imply a transgressing and dereliction of their Religion, though it were not directly so; and so draw a scandal upon their cause, and make their simplicity seem infirmity, and impiety: and secondly, the severity which the Church used towards them, who had done any such act, and her bitterness and a • ersenes, from re assuming them, even after long penances, into her bosom. For by the third Canon of the Eliberitane Counc • l, which I meant • oned before, it appears, that even they whom they called Libellaticos, because they had for money bargained and contracted with the State, to spare them from sacrificing to Idolles (though this were done but to redeem their vexation and trouble) were separated from the holy Communion. But none of these reasons can advantage or relieve those of the Roman persuasion in these times, because no point of Catholic faith, either primary and radical, or issuing from thence by necessary deduction and consequence, is impugned by us; nor their faith in those points, wherein it abounds above ours, explicated to them by any evidence, which is not subject to just quarrel and exception; nor are our Magistrates laborious or active to withdraw them by any snares from their profession, but only by the open and direct way of the word of God, if they would hear it nor is the Church so sour and tetricall, but that she admits with ease and joy, those, which after long straying, not only into that Religion, but into such treasons and disobediences, as that Religion produces, return to her again.

CHAP. III. That the Roman Religion doth by many erroneous doctrines misencourage and excite men to this vicious affectation of danger: first by inciting secular Magistracy: secondly by extolling the value of merits, and of this work in special, by which the treasure of the Church is so much advanced: and lastly, by the doctrine of Purgatory, which by this act is said certainly to be escaped.

CHAP. IIII. That in the Roman Church the Jesuits exceed all others, in their Constitutions and practice, in all those points, which beget or cherish this corrupt desire of false-Martyrdom.

T Ill the Jesuits have a Pope of their own, it will be (I hope) no Heresy, to doubt, or call in question their sanctity: they may be content yet to afford us (since our cause is safer) the same excuse which is allowed for Origen, Chrysostom, Jerome, and Cassianus, even for maintaining a lawfulness in lying, That the Church had not then determined the contrary. They may favor our weakness with the same help, which they apply to a Pope himself, That it was then lawful, without danger of Heresy, for him to believe in earnest, that our souls should not see God, till the resurrection, because there was no Definition o • the Church in that point.

Their Charity may relieve us with the same Indulgence, which they afford to Senensis, who rejects some part of the Canonical Scripture, after the determination of the Trent Council, Because he did not reach and attain to the force of that Canon, says Gretzer, who allows him all these escapes, That he did it either by negligence, inconsideration, a fore conceived persuasion, or some other cause, which is large enough.

2 But if ever a Jesuit come to be the Church, that is, the Pope, we shall so • e be precluded by the Churches Definitions. And as now to doubt whether the Pope without a Council, may teach an Heresy, is Haeresi proximum, and so is Semi-haereticum, when a Jesuit is Pope, it will be Hyper-haereticum, and Sesqui-haereticum : for we have been already taught, that something may be more thenheresie, when by a new Decretal of Paul the fourth, they say, That any great person falling into Heresy or Schism, shall for the first offense be esteemed relapsed, and be in the same desperate state, as if he had formerly iuridically abiurd the same heresy. At least, when a Jesuit comes to that Throne, as in this last volume of the Canon law, we have a new title presented, De Cardinalibus, which was in none of the rest, where they are called, The principal members of the Church, constituted by the holy Ghost, And the most noble part of the Popes body, And the clearest lights, and most special children of the Church ; where, to take anything from them is called Sacrilege, and to favor any which hath dis-favored them, or hurt them, is made Trea • on, so without doubt the Jesuits will be as indulgent to their own Order, and we shall have at the next crop, when there is a new Harvest of ripe Decretals, a title, De patribus Societatis Jesus.

3 As at their first institution they were thus near the Papacy, that the Order of the Theatines, of which Paulus fourth (who was at that time Pope) was either the author, or a principal man, desired to be united to them, by which means they might have compassed the Papacy in th • ir Cradle, so have they of late made suspicious approaches thereunto, by admitting Cardinal ships, and other Dignities.

4 Those of thei • Order, who heretofore refused offers of that Dignity (as you say Laynez did • rom Paulus the fourth, and Borgia from Julius the third) did it Constantissime: and, I beleeeue with such constancy in resistance, Tolet and Bellarmine might have prevailed. He which gives rules for the institution of Monks, forbiddes not only Bishopp • ickes, but all acquaintance with Bishops: By all means (saith he) let a Monk avoid women and Bishops, because both hinder Divine Contemplation ; which Rule when Iesui • es broke, and came to live in secular and Ecclesiastical Courts, they shown that they were not stubborn and inexorable against these preferments.

5 And if ever they attain the Papacy, they have already laid good foundations for the entailing thereof upon their own Family, by Azorius his disputation, what the authority of the Pope is in designing a Successor : for he delivers it, as the common opinion, that the form of electing the Pope being founded upon the Canons, it may at his pleasure be changed. So that the Pope may establish the Prouincials of the Jesuits to be the Electors.

And then descending to another question, whether the Pope himself may design his Successor, he says, that the Canons against it cannot prejudice him, because he is above them, and that it is not forbid Iure Diuino; and that for matter of fact, he believes S. Peter did choose Clement : but least the Popes should have nothing to avert them from this course, before any Jesuit were Pope, and so work an exclusion, he says, It is not lawf • ll, Iure Naturae: that is, says he, because natural reason informs, that it were inconvenient for the Church: And, but for that inconvenience, he says, they might cast lots for the papacy: But this inconvenience depends upon such reasons, and circumstances, as are alterable, and when they cease, this law of nature ceases too.

6 And though Laynez in the vacancy after Paulus the fourth, is said by you to have had twelve of the best voices for the Papacy, though he were out of the College of Cardinals; And in one Conclaue, Bellarmine also is said, to have had some, yet if any Jesuit had voices enow, would his Supe • iour allow him the Religion of his vow, by which he ought to refuse it, or his natural liberty, by which, any man that is chosen Pope, may, if he will refuse it?

7 If it were once come to that, as you are content yet, • o seem as modest as the Carthusian, who says, that he believes it to be a singular blessing of God, that no Carthusian hath been Pope: you would make good hast, to reckon with the forwardest Orders, how many Popes you had had: And quickly in these accounts ouergoe the Franciscans themselves, who reckon of their Order, not only Popes and Martyrs, and such po • sible things, but are so precipitate and transported with this fury, that they reckon, how many of the Apostles, Prophets, and Patriarchs they have had of their Order; So, as I thought, whilst I read it, they would never have stopped, till they had told us, how many Adams and Eve’s had been of their Order, and how many Jesus Christ's besides S. Francis: For I understand not by what other figure they use this anticipation, and call these ancients Franciscans then that by which Serarius the Jesuit says Herod was a great Machiauellian: and Gregory de Valentia, that Plato might learn the doctrine of Purgatory out of the book of the Maccabees, which was written after his de • th.

8 But besides that the Jesuits decay in the hearts of Princes (which Philip the second of Spain testified well, because though he had great use of their service, he never did anything for them) this also makes me doubt that they will never have Pope, because it is already reueil'd by Christ to S. Francis : that Antichrist shall come out of the family of the Franciscans.

9 This also increases my suspicion, that they could never compass, that which is much less then a Pope, which is a Saint, in their family. For the Authority of the Pope is greater, then of a Saint, says Cassanaeus : And in his Indulgences he doth as familiarly command Angels, as the younger Prentizes, the Exorcists, do devils: To whom they use this language, when any spirit possesses a body, I command Lucifer, and all the Furies in hell, to precipitate you into hell fire presently, indispensably and • ternally, till the day of judgment: And I forbid the Air to have any power to receive you.

10 And though Tortus say, That the time of the Canonizing of the founder of that Order is not yet passed, and therefore he may be Canonized in good time (which is a poor comfort, since I never found any such limitation, nor that a Saint apparent, as Ignatius is, may be superannated, and grow too old to be Canoniz'd) yet since those two great Princes, Philip the second of Spain, and Henry the fourth of France, either out of devotion to the Order, or for their own ends, have both pretended the solicitation of Ignatius his canonizing to belong to them, and both affected the honor of procuring it, the pursuit and effecting thereof hath been intermitted and retarded. And howsoever for Ignatius and for Xauerius, who was also a Nauarrois as well as Ignatius, it might please those Princes, for respect to one another to forbear any solicitation in their behalfes, yet the King of Spain had very many subjects in • hat Order, to whom no o • her Prince pretended any such precontract or interest: and yet he procured the canonization of D'Alcala a Franciscane, and Pennafort a Iacobin, and neglected the Jesuits. And though the present Pope Paulus the fifth, have been much solicited for the Canonizing of Gonzaga the Jesuit by the Princes of that Family (the memory of his exempler life being yet fresh, and his worthiness certified (as the custom is in preparing Canonization) by Cardinals which had commission to search therinto) yet he hath allowed him no other title then Beatus : which might have been given him without that Rescript of the Pope, as Ignatius and many other have it: since, as Serarius says, Custom gives that Title to those, of whose salvation there is a strong opinion, and yet are not adorned with the public testimony of the Church.

11 Nor do I perceive that they are in any great forwardness, to get a Saint, since in canonizings after the consideration of the truth of the miracles, they fall in the Consistory to another consideration, of the sufficiency of them. And besides that, your own Acosta makes us doubt of the truth of those miracles, which are related, because he spends a Chapter in giving reasons, why in our age, in preaching the Gospel in the Indies, there is not that strength of miracles, which was in the primitive Church, since, as he says there, It would prevail very much, if it might be, those which are said to be done by you, are for the most part so poor and beggarly, and silly things in respect of the Franciscans, as between yours and theirs there is as much difference, as between Iugling and Coniuring.

12 Me thinks you should offer no more to play at that game, after you have believed (as I hope you do, since so fresh, and so well approved an author as Sedulius gives new life to these miracles) That S Anthony when the heretics refused to hear him preach, went to the Sea side, called the fish, which came of all sorts, staide in peace, put their heads above water to hearken, and at the end of the Sermon, some spoke, and some did but bow their heads, and so the Heretics were converted : or that Frier Andrew to correct his appetite of eating birds, at the Table, by the sign of the Cross, commanded them to fly away, though they were roasted.

13 And how much more luxuriant of Miracles would their History be, if they had not commanded Friar Conrade to do no more Miracles after his death, because he was buried out of their College: And if Saint Francis had not enioyn'd Friar Peter, upon his Grave, Per sanctam obedientiam, that he should do no more Miracles, because they were thereby disquieted with concourse of people. Of which kinds there are many Commandments, which lessons their number of Miracles.

14 And this Philip Nerius, founder of the last Order, feared in himself, and therefore he told Baronius, that he had entreated God that he might do no Miracles.

15 You can therefore in nothing equal that order of Franciscans ; for if you think to overtake them in number, you will be far short. Saint Francis saw at the first Chapter or meeting, six thousand Friers, and eighteen thousand Devils, which Ignatius could never get near, except he made it out in Devils. For the whole number of his society, doeth not much exceed ten thousand yet.

16 But that which is truly proper and peculiar to you, you do earnestly and intensely, and you excel in it; which is, in kindling and blowing, begetting and nourishing ielowsies in Princes, and contempt in Subjects, dissention in families, wrangling in Schools, and mutinies in Armies; ruins of Noble houses, corruption of blood, confiscation of States, torturing of bodies, and anxious entangling and perplexing of consciences. And to facilitate your way to these effects, you are in your institution mixed and complexioned of all Elements, and you hange between Heaven and Earth, like Meteors of an ominous and incendiarie presaging. You pretend to forsake the world, and to look all upward; But, saith Cassianus, Such renunciation is threefold; Of all temporal fortunes, and of our manners and conditions, and of our minds from all present things. But all your labor is to understand the present state of Kingdoms, and where any ouerture is given for the Popes advantage, and where any interposition or hindrance is interiected against his purposes. And therefore that saying of Saint Basil to a Senator, that seemed to renounce the world, and yet retained part of his state, Thou hast spoiled a Senator, and hast not made a Monk, belongs almost to all of this Order. For you are but as Eunuchs ; you have lost your apprehension and capacity of worldly Estates, yet the lust, and itche, and concupiscence, to be conversant therein, remains with you still.

17 For this purpose you have care in admissions, That none be received whose Parents be poor, (which your Examiner hath in charge) least that should divert them from the integrity of this service. For this purpose it is, That the Superior himself cannot dispence to admit any deformed person, because you will have men sociable, acceptable, and agreeable to company. For this purpose your Superiors and Rectors must write every week to the Provincial, not only of their own state, but of all things done amongst strangers, by the service of this society. For this purpose you must have a Proctor general at Rome, who must buy and study all the Rules of that Chancery, and all t • e Breues, and Bulls, which the Popes send forth. And to this purpose was that attempt of the Jesuit, who (if a Catholic Historiographer relate truly) published at Rome, That Confession by letters was Sacramental and effectual. Into which opinion though some before had straied, yet it had received no such strength and authority as at that time, when it was so hotly pursued, that Clement 8. was forced to oppose a direct Decree against it, and to condemn it as false, rash, and scandalous at least. For if this opinion had been believed and authorized, the secrets of all states, and passages of all Courts, had had no other Register then the breasts of Jesuits; who are so wise Apothecaries of penances, and have so plentiful shops of those druggs of Indulgencies, that all those Princes, to whom any of them had been Confessor, would neither open their disease, nor seek their physic at any other place: when they might be delivered of the painefullest part of Confession, which is the personal shame of accusing ones self.

18 And that they may attend this service of Intelligencers: Fi • st, they have one Rule of State, which is, That they let no stranger understand their Rules and Privileges, And their Superiors have the prerogative to interpret and extend, and limit the constitutions; whereas, for the Rule of the Franciscans, Christ himself was heard in the air, saying to S. Francis, This Rule is mine, not thine, and I will have it observed, Ad literam, ad literam, sine glossa, sine glossa.

19 And then by one Bull they are enabled (for at their first institution they were not so) to hear Confessions, and to change vows; And by another Bull, they have privilege to absolve from all censures, except those of Bulla Caenae. And by another, they are licenced to practice Physique, which doth not only give them access to Death-beds, which is one of their chiefest Scenes, but excludes all others, because they are competent for all offices. And I wonder that they have not procured a Bull, that they might be Midwifes.

20 To this purpose also of spying, their constitu • ion binds them to no ordinary penances, nor disciplinary m • cera • ions of the body: yea, that which they are content to call Indiscretam castigationem • which o • hers magnify so much, is so much forbid amongst them, that they are bound to deliver it in confession, if ever they transgress into it. And the Rector is to provide, not only against these Mortifications, but against too much Devotion, as Impedimen • s which call them from their studies And the charge which is given to him who is president over their spiritual matters, is to see, That whilst they have too much desire of Devotion, they do not impair their strength : and therefore that Gonzaga of whom it is often said in his life, that he shortened his life with such discipline, laying sharp chips between his sheets, whipping himself with Iron chains, and putting spurs between his Dublet and his flesh, before he came into the Rules of the Jesuits ; won, and overcame his Father and Mother, to incline to his purpose of entering this Order, because they saw, That this Order would be wholesome for his body, and not allow him such severity.

21 For privileges of Addition, they ha • e by one Bull all the immunities of the Mendicants, which are very many and aduantageous, because thereby they must be received, as they travel into any religious house: And by another Bull, at one liberality, the privileges of all Orders, are extended to them.

22 And for Exemptions, they are delivered by one Bull from keeping their hours in the Chapel ; and by another from attending at Procession: and by another dispensed from fasts, and forbidden meats : and by their Rule bound to no habit • and by another Bull, licensed to read all books ; which is so great a liberty in that Church, that in the Septims, there is a Decree of Gregory the thirteenth forbidding even Arch-Bishops, and Kings, and all persons, but the Inquisitors, to read Heretical books, upon pain of Heresy.

23 If therefore, as in their Constitutions they call themselves, they be but Cadauera, they are either such corrupt and putrefied carcasses • as in • ect and enuenome all places where they reside, or such Carcasses, as evil spirits have assumed to walk about in: and if they be (as they say there) but Bacula senis, This old man is the pope, whon they cannot put off, and they are such staves, as have swords sheathed in them, and such as wound and bruise, even the inwardest marrow of Kingdoms.

24 For this purpose is that obedience to their Superiors, wherein Ignatius wills his Disciples to exceed ( Let us, says he, suffer our selves to be exceeded by others, in fastings, and in watchings, and such; but let our mark be, an abdication of the will, and judgment. ) And so he gives them good blind Counsaile, for their belief, and for their actions: As to believe what the Catholic faith teacheth, so be you carried with a blind violence of obeying, whatsoever your Superior commands. And though their Superior command nothing expressly, yet they are bound once in a week, to say one Mass, to the Intention of the General, though they know not what it is. And of this general intention the Center, and Basis is, the advancement of that Sea, about which these plane • a • y Mon • es, have their course and reuolutions.

25 Olde Monks were used heretofore to be but Coasters, hovering about their own Cloister ; fur • h • r then the Contemplation of Heaven, which was the Bible, and of t • e stars, which were the devout interpreters thereof, guided them, they did not easily venter: except some storm of dispu • ation or passion transported them: But the Jesuits in this laterage have found the use of the Compass ; which is the Popes will, and • ow they have not the patience to be Fishers of men • but they are Merchants of Kingdoms, and Pirates both of spiritual and temporal tree • sure. But the eyes of a fool, are in the corners of the world, saith Solomon. And even the desire of going • o the Indies (which is their best pretence) if we believe the life of Nerius, was corrected in him, by an apparition of S. John the Euang. who told him, That Rome was his Indies, for there was matter enough for his instruction, and his example to work upon.

26 And of four sorts into which they use to divide Monks, which are Caenobites, who keep their Cloister, Eremites who adventure into a Solitude, Sarabaits, who by their works keepi • g still their contract with the world, have dissembled with God, per tonsuram, and lastly, Gyrouagi, who all their lives wander through diverse Provinces, the Jesuits seem guilty of transg • essing in both the last ways. For, besides the Palaces, and abundant possessions, which they have as they are Corporations, Only they of all sorts, are not in their particular incapable of inheritances which deuolue upon them, by their triple vow made before the Governor of that Conuent, till they confirm it again in a general Chapter. Quod ita iudicatum, (says a French Lawyer) Mirabundus accepi.

27 The Franciscane Friar Giles, did so much abhor all temporal provisions, that he told Saint Francis, he did not like the Antes, because they took such pains to provide victuals for Winter. And when a Friar told Saint Francis, that he came, A Cella Tuâ, when he heard the word Tu • , he would lie no more there. But the Jesuits have not so much deuested themselves of Proprietie, but that they may have propriety in tempor • ll possession: Yea, they will have Proprietie in Treas • n; and will have proper and singular Plots of their own, and not join with your Priests, Watson and Clarke, in their Plot, nor be Traitors in common with them.

28 This is their arrand; and for this, like him, who employs them, They compass the Earth, too and fro. Nor are they more like the Circulatores, and Circumcelliones, a limb of the Donatists, in this their uncertain running about, then in that other quality of theirs, to urge and importune, and force men to kill them, and if they could not extort this from others, then to kill themselves, and call all this Martyrdom. For only of this vicious inclination of Jesuits to an imaginary Martyrdom, I purposed to speak in this Chapter; but that being occasioned by the way, to deal with men of a various uncertain Constitution and Nature, I have taken part of their fault, and as a Pysician coming to cure, sometimes receives some of the Patients infection, so spe • king of their running and wandering, I have strayed somewhat from the directnesse, and strictness of my purpose.

29 Therefore to pursue it now, they are so much more intemperate and importunate upon this Pseudo-Martyrdom, then any others; by how much they are more severe maintainers and encreasers of those Doctrines of the Roman Church, which we noted to beget this inclination. For when the spirit of God awaked certain Reformers of his Catholic Church, of which the Roman Church had long time been the head, that is, the Principal and most eminent, and exemplar member (for I am ever loath, to seem to abhor, or abstain from giving to that Church, any such St • les and Titles, as she is pleased and delighted in, as long as by a pious interpretation thereof, her desire may thereby be satisfied in some measure, our Churches not iniur'd nor prejudiced, and the free spirit of God, which blows where it pleaseth, not tied nor imprisoned to any place, or person) at that time, I say, these servants of God, and of his Church, had no pu • pose • o run away from her, and leave her di • eases to putrefy and • ester within her bowels. Nor did they uncover her nakedness • out of any petulancie of the • r own, nor proclaim her filthiness to defame or diminish her dignity. But with the li • ertie of a Midwife, or Physician, or Confessor, they survey'd her secre • est infirmities, they drew to the outward and visible parts, that is into consideration, her inwardest corruptions, and so out of that duty, were enfo • ced to look into and be conversant about her Ordures, and other foulenesses, and could not dissemble nor forbear, earnest, and bitter informing her of her own distemper and danger, which was a work of more zeal and humility, then those childish obediences, which you so much extol in your Disciples, of sweeping Cobwebs and washing dishes.

30 And they proceeded so wis • lie, and temperately, and blessedly herein, that in a short time many of her swellings were allayed, and her indurations somewhat mollified, as appears by the Colloquies, and consultations in many places, • or a moderate and mannerly way of purging her corruptions. For certainly her diseases were not then so much in question or doubt, as whether it were for her honor, to be beholden to so mean Pe • sons for health, as these beginners were: Or for her • afetie to trust her self in such Physicians hands; for now diverse secular • r • nces were come to give their ass • stance. And as some diseases produce so violent and desperate Symptoms, as the Physician must sometime neglect the main original Dise • se, and attend only to cure the Accidents: So, though the Doctrine of Purgatory, were at that time no member of the body: That is, no part of the Catholic faith • but seru'd that body only for Nayles to scrape and scratche together, Those spiritual Physicians busied themsel • es much, to pair those Nayles which defaced the beauty and integrity of the whole body, and so to slacken that griping hold, which they had taken upon men's estates and Consciences, by • he terror of Purgatory, and ver • ue of their indulgences.

31 And as to both sides, there appeared evidently in the Doctrine of Merits, as the Schoolmen (which then Gouern'd • n the Church, by reason of the discontinuance of Councils ) had sawced and di • guis'd it, many abominations, derogatory to the Passion of our Blessed Savior: So did they all confess, in • he Doctrine of Purgatory so many mixtures of conjectural, incredible, impossible fables, as might have scandalized and discredited any certain truth by • heir Addition. But when on the one side, the Reformers encouraged by this entrance, thought they might proceed fu • there, and so offered to dissect and anatomize the whole Church, and thought to fill every vein, and restore and rectify every Sprane and dislocation, and to take off every Mole, and pair away every Wemme, and to alter even the fashion of her clothes, so that all, both substance and ceremony came in question: And the Roman Church on the other side, foresaw her precipitation, that if they stopped not at the top, they could not at the middle of the hill, thought it better not to begin, then not to know where to end, and so mistaking the medicine to be worse then the disease, departed from further consultation, justified their corruptions, and by excommunications put away those servants, which had done them these offices, and whom now they call Schismatics and Heretics, for departing from that Church, which would afford them, not only no wages, but no other room, then a fire.

32 And then, as all recidiuations and relapses, are worse then the disease, upon this relapse, came the Council of Trent, which did cover and palliate some of these ulcers, and promised the cure of the rest, though they never went about it yet; And then the Jesuits, who cry that all there is health and soundness, and that there is none anywhere else yea that the Church was borne thus, and that she is as well, as she was in her Cradle, and that whatsoever she thinks, or says, or does is by a divine power, inherent in her; as though there had been sowed in her at first certain seeds of Iure Diuino, which now in our age, by the cultiuating, and watering, and industry of the Jesuits must fructify and produce in her, all these effects. For they will abate nothing; their consciences are as tender and delicate, as the ground at Coleyne, where some of S. Vrsulaes eleven thousand Virgines are buried, which will cast up again in the night, any that is enterred there, except she were of that company, though it be a child newly baptized: So the Jesuits stomaches cannot endure this, that the Popes should be great by Privileges of Princes, or Canons of Councils: but all must be Iure Diuino. So that that note, which the law casts upon some Advocates, will lie heavy upon the Jesuits, They are too careful of their cause, and therefore they are presumed to invent falsehood.

33 For though it be hard for any man to go further on the left hand, then the Council of Trent hath done, in these two doctrines of Merite and Purgatrry, and every Catholic be bound to that Council, yet as in most other Doctrines, so in these also, Pelargus hath noted the Jesuits to have gone beyond others, and therefore more then others, they incite, in these points, to a false Martyrdom.

34 But as the late invention of Artillery and Gunpowder, though it have much horror and aff • ightment in it, yet ha • h not done so much harm, as it threatened, because the fury and violence thereof, hath occasioned men to study more ways of defense and avoidance, so th • t we see the wars devour fewer men now, then before this invention came: so hath the impetuous rage and pertinency of the Jesuits, in oppugning everything which they find not to be at Rome encouraged other Churches to oppose strong defences against them, and superstition swallows fewer men now, then before these new Enginers labored to promote and advance her: And as those instruments of battery which the ancients used in the wars, were more able to ruin and demolish, then any which are made out of this new invention, but were left off, and dis accu • tomed only because they were not so maniable and tractable, and apt for transportation, as these are; So certainly the Arguments and books of the Friars, and Schoolmen of the Roman Church, which is the Arsenall from whence the Jesuits provide and • urnish themselves, have as much force against the truth, as the subtleties of the Jesuits, but that these men a • e by their Rule and Constitutions, apter for conveyance and insinuation, then the dull cloysterall Monks can be.

35 For there are diverse poisons which cannot work, except they be eiaculated from the creature it self that possesseth it, and that his personal and present lively malignity concur to it, and give it vigor; for which these vbiquitary Monks have the advantage of all others.

36 Nimietates sunt aequalitates, says Cassianus. And so, two extremities, have made the Schoolmen and the Jesuits equally valiant: for the Schoolmen out of an ignorance of danger, having never come to hand-blows, would venter upon any piece of service, and any employment, and pierce through and spy, even into God's secret Cabinet of his Essence, and of his Counsails, as a fresh Soldier will go with alacrity to any breach. And then because these sublime and airy meditations must have somebody to inhere in, they used to incorporate their speculations of God, in the Pope; as it were to arrest and conserve them the better, being else too spiritual and transitory. And so they have so much exemplified them, one in the other, that they have made them so like, and equal in their writings, as though they were but one.

37 And the Jesuits out of a desperate necessity must maintain their station, because if they yield one step, they will be the less able to stand in the next; but after they have confessed that the Church hath erred in one thing, thinking that will subject her in all, no place of Scripture is so abundantly and evidently pregnant, no reason or consequence so directly and necessarily deduced, and concluded, no History nor matter of fact so faithfully presented, and so certainly and religiously testified, but they will stand stubbornly, and desperately to oppugn and infirm it.

38 What wound so ever they receive in this battle, they disguise and hide from their Disciples, by • orbidding our books. And as Ribadeneyra says of their Father Ignatius, That he halted of the wound which he received at Pampelune, but so little, that the most curious could scarce discern that he halted, So by some evasions, or supplements, or concealings, they ever dissemble their maimes and deformities.

39 To which purpose they have one round and dispatching way, which is, not only to neglect, but to brag of all which we impute to them • for so one of them says, That it is the greatest Argument of Innocence, to be accused by us: And that he cannot be guilty of error in Religion, whom an Heretic condemns. For, as it was pa • t of the Oath of the Grecians, against Xerxes, that those Temples which the barbarous Army had demolished, they would not re-edify, that thereby there might be a continual testimony remaining of the impiety, So I think the Jesuits flatter themselves with some such resolution, by leaving unanswered the books and arguments of so many reverent persons, which have spoken plentifully and prosperously, of these points of Merit and Purgatory.

40 But of their other Doctrine, by which more then others, they provoke to this lavish, and contemptuous expense of life, which is, The auiling of the dignity of Princes, there can never enough be said. For all other Orders may consist, and execute and perform all their vows, without any iniu • ie to Princes: They may be as poor as they will, till they come to that state, if they desire it, which Nerius begged of God, That he might lack a penny, and nobody might give it him, They may be as chaste, as that Jesuit which Gretzer says he knew, who being not able to scape from a woman which tempted him, and held him, anointed his own face, retrimentis suis, that thereby she might abhor him, They may be as obedient as Cassianus says the Tabennentiotes we • e, who durst not presume, without leave of their Superior, Naturali necessitati satisfacere ; Or as that Friar John, who at his Abbats command, planted a dry withered stick, and twice a day, for a whole year, fetched water two miles of, to water it, sparing no festival day, nor apprehending any impossibility in it ; Or as Saint Francis his Nouice, who at his bidding set plants, with the head downward. These things they may do, and yet be good subjects. But the Supernumer • ry Vow of the Jesuits, by which they do especially oblige themselves to the Popes will, do • h in the nature, and Essence, and scope thereof, make them enemies to the digni • ie of all Princes, because their Soueraigntie cannot consist, with that temporal Supremacy which the Jesuits must maintain, by the obligation of that vow, by which they are bound, with expense of their life's, to penetrate any Kingdom, and instill Sedition into their Disciples, and followers.

41 How fast this infection works in them, as by many other Demonstrations, so by this also it appears evidently, that there are extant more Authors of that one Order, that have written of Secular businesses, and of Jurisdiction of Princes, then of all the rest, since their beginning. For, their Casuists, which handle Moral Divinity, and weigh and measure sin (which for all that perplexity and entangling, we may not condemn too hastily, since in purest Antiquity there are lively impressions of such a custom in the Church, to examine with some curiosity the circumstances, by which sins were aggravated or diminished) do not only, abound in Number, especially of the Spanish Nation, but have filled their books with such questions as these, How Princes have their jurisdiction, How they may become Tyrants, What is lawful to a private man in such a case, and of, like seditious nature. So that they have abandoned the stale, and obsolete names, of positive Divinity, or Controuerted, or School Divinity ; and have reduced all to Crown Divinity.

42 And yet they account the handling of these points, to be but a dull and obvious learning in their Colleges, as though any man were able to resolve questions against Princes • for they have a Rule, that they which are unapt for greater studies, shall study cases of conscience.

43 So also of the Immunity of the Church, out of which, if it be denied to be by the Indulgence of the Prince, issues and results presently the dimunition of the Prince, they have written abundantly, and desperately. So have they of the Institution of a Prince ; of which, one of them writing and presuming and taking it as vulgarlie known, that it is lawful in some cases to kill a King, is careful to provide, least when you go about to kill him, by putting poison in his meat or drink, you make him, though ignorantly, kill himself. So have they also of Militarie institution many Authors; and of as many sciences as concur to public affairs.

44 And with such books as these they allure and catch ambitious wits; which having had a lower and darker breeding in schools and universities, have some hunger of reading state learning, in any form, much more, where they shall find it more freely debated upon, then if they had had place at twenty Council Tables, or Conspiracies. And as Auerroes is said to have killed Auicen, by anointing the book which he knew the other would read, with certain poison: and as it is said, that what • oeuer flew over the Jews Targum, whilst the author thereof was compiling it, was scorched with the beams thereof, so do these books of theirs enuenome and catch hold of all such, as bring in themselves any desire to come within too near a distance of them.

45 And of all these kinds of books, without doubt we should have had many more, but that, as the gatherer of all the writers of the Carth • sian Order, not daring to slip and leave out the present General Bruno, and finding no books of his making, says, That since he hath an excellent wit, and singular learning, • e could write many books if he had leisure, and in the mean time, he took care that the missal should be printed in a fair character and delicate paper: So the Jesuits, since • hey have a vow to bind them to it, and a na • urall disposition to incline them, could wri • e more book • to this purpose, but that they are continually exercised in disposing actual plots: And yet in the mean time they take care, that the Popes Breues be procured, promulgated, concealed interpreted, or burnt, as the cause may be most benefited and advanced.

46 And I do not remember, that I have found in the Approbation of any Jesuits book, this clause which is so ordinary, in most of the works of other men, Nihil fidei contrarium, aut bonis Moribus, aut Principibus : And yet they say, that in printing their books, there is great caution and diligence used, and that they pass the hands of men most intelligent, and of mature judgment: but, as it seems by this remarqueable omission, no good subjects nor favorers of Princes.

47 If they do thus much when they are Serui papae, what will they do when they are famuli ? which diffrence I learned out of the Missal, where a Bishoppe must pray, vnd cum me indigno Seruo tuo ; but the Pope, Famulo : For he may well be said to be in Ordinary with God, since he is one Ordinary with him; for so says Aluares, God and the Pope have one Consitory: and in another place, All cases reserved to God, are reserved to his Vicar : so that by that Rule, what ever God can do, in disposing the matters of this world, the Pope also can do: for there he says, out of Hostiensis, that that direction, Dic Ecclesiae, if the Pope sin, who cannot be complained of, is meant, Dic Deo, vt conuertateum, aut Dic Ecclesiae Triumphanti, vt oret pro eo.

48 So when Bellarmine who had done sufficiently for the Pope, whilst he was but a Servant, that is an Ordinary Jesuit, came to his familiarity, and household service, by being a Cardinal in the Consitory, and so grew more sensible of the Papacy, being now himself, as they speak, Papabilis, he takes all new occasions, to extol his Master, and his Throne and Sea: And having many years neglected his own defense, and answered such great men as opposed him, only with such Proctors as Gretzer, and Eudaemo-Johannes, vnprouoked he rises up in the Venetian, and in the English cause, to establish by new books, the new Article of Temporal authority in the Pope. And since that, as Aeneas Sylvius, retracted all which he had written before for the Basil Council, when he came to be Pope: so Bellarmine when perchance he would be Pope, hath made a new • uruay and Recognition of all his works; in which, as though he had been too moderate before, in all those places, which concern this question, he hath expressed a supple and variable conscience, a deject slavery to that Sea, and a venomous malignity against Princes; of which it seems to me expedient to present a few examples.

49 I allow not now, says Bellarmine, that which I said before, That Infidel Princes may not be deprived by the Church, of that Jurisdiction which they have over Christians: for though Durand do probably teach so, against Saint Thomas, and I then followed his opinion, yet now the authority of S. Thomas prevails more with me. Yet he had seen and considered both their reasons before.

50 In another place he says, Now I allow not that which I said before, that Paul appealed to Caesar, as to his Judge. And after, Whereas I said, that Popes used to be chosen by Emperors, the word Emperor, potest & forte debet deleri: For (says he) I followed Gratians Canons, which, as I learned since, are not approved • And again, when I said That the Pope was subject to the Emperor, as to his temporal Lord, I meant De facto, not De iure : and this course he holds in that book of Recognitions.

51 And here we may conuen • ently conclude • this Chapter, of the Jesuits special advancing all those doctrines, which incite to this Martyrdom, after we have produced some of their own testimonies of their inordinate hunger thereunto, and of the causes for which they affect it.

52 One of their spiritual Constitutions is, That everyone of that Order must think that Christ spoke to him when he said, he that doth not hate his own life, &c. And so they make an obligatory precept, to bind at all times, of that which was but a direction for our preparation and readiness to suffer for his sa • e.

53 Ribadeneyra names two Jesuits in the • n • dies, which being sick in bed, when they might have escaped, came forth half naked, and voluntarily offering their throats, were slain. And he says that Simon Acosta (one of the five brothers, who were all of this Order) declared himself to be a Jesuit, when • e was not known, that he might be put to death. And so Aquauiua, being pursued, refused a horse, by which he might have scaped, and chose rather to die, then ride. And yet this was amongst Infidels, where the Harvest was great, and the work-men few: which kind of intemperance hath been formerly condemned out of their own authors.

54 But of this point it is enough to relate the words of him, who speaks in the person of all the Jesuits ; who calls himself Clarus Bonarscius, but is unmask'd and disanagrammatiz'd by his fellow, who calls him, Carolus Scribanius, he says, That the Scaeuolaes, the Catoes, the Porciaes, and the Cleopatraes, are nothing to the Jesuits: For they (says he) lacked courage, Ad multas mortes, And in a few years, he says, they have had three hundred Martyrs: Therefore he says, that they of that Order do violently tear out Martyrdom, rapiunt spontanea irruptione ; and, Crederes Morbo adesos: and for what causes do they this? Least the rest of their life should be barren of merits, and pass away empty of glory: and then he passes to them who have died in England ; and as in these men, this hunger of false-Martyrdom, goes ever together with blasphemy against Princes, there he heaps Eulogies upon Campian, and reproaches upon that sacred Prince, for treason to whom he perished, whom this wretch dares call Anglicanam Lupam, and after, Saeuientem Caluinianam lupam: and after this he says, That when they come to this Order, they bargain upon this condition, vt liceat prodigere animas, hostili ferro. In which, I think, he relates to that Oath, which they take in the College at Rome, by a Constitution of the Pope; that they shall return into England, to preach the Catholic faith publicly there: which Oath Nauarrus says binds them so strictly, that they are disabled to enter into any rule of stricter religion, though that were a further degree of perfection, but must necessarily return into England : Of which oath we will say no more, but only repeat Baronius his Panegyrique, and incitatorie encouragement, speaking thereof: The holy society in her safe sheep-folds hath fatted you, as innocent lambes for this Martyrdom, and she sends you forth to triumphs, and aduances you to Crowns. Be therefore courageous and valiant, you who have vowed and betrothed your blood by an Oath: for my part, I envy you, that are designed and apparent martyrs, and wish that my end may be like yours. And what he assigns for one cause of this Martyrdom, to which he provokes them, and congratulates their interest therein, we declared out of his words before in the shutting up of the last Chapter, which was Defense of Ecclesiastic immunity ; that is debasing, and diminishing of Princes.

And thus we have gone one step further: and to the former, which were, That the desire of Martyrdom might be vicious, & that, as the Roman authors observe in the first times, it had beeene so; and, That by the Roman doctrine it must of necessity be so, we have added now, that the Jesuits more then any, inflame thereunto.

CHAP. V. That the Missions of the Pope, under Obedience whereof they pretend that they come into this Kingdom, can be no warrant, since there are laws established to the contrary, to give them, or those which harbor them, the comfort of Martyrdom.

I N the end of the second Chapter, I mentioned a Canon of the Eliberitane Council ; And as in that place it had this use and office, to show that the intemperate and inopportune affectation of Martyrdom, needed a restraint in some, too aemulous thereof, by Eulalines Example, So may it very properly and needfully have a place here, because it shows the reasons, why certain men were not received for Martyrs, by the Church.

2 And the Authority of this Council is of great force, as well by reason of the purity of the time, in which it was celebrated, which was about three hundred and five years after Christ, and twenty year before the Nicene Council, as especially, in this point of Martyrdom, because it was held in continuing Persecution, and when the danger was imminent in those parts, in which the people needed direction and instruction • And also, because now there is no doubt of the genuine integrity of this Council. For, though Bellarmine imputed some errou • s to it, as being too severe against such as had slipp'd in time of Persecution, and Baronius spoke sometime of it, Somewhat freely au • sh • rpely, say • Binius, yet after that, he changed his opinion, and he, and Biniu • , have now redeemed all the Canons of that Council from any imputation.

3 Of which Canons, this is the sixtieth: That they which break the Idols of the Gentiles, and are sl • ine by them, shall not be received in • o the number of Martyrs. Because, this is not written in the Gospel, nor found that it was ever done by the Apostles. So that by the opinion of that Council, that only is a sufficient cause to entitle and interest a man in the Crown of Martyrdom, Which was found written in the Gospel, or practiced by the Apostles. And is there anything found in either of them, which may be a precedent to this mission? Christ appointed twelve, whom he might send to Preach; but what? The Kingdom of God. And as soon as Saul had an inward mission, the Text says • Straightwayes he Preached even in the Synagogue. But what? He Preached Christ ; And what did he Preach of him? That he was the Son of God ; And that it was he that was ordained of God, a judge of quick and dead : And • as himself says, of his practice after, We preach Christ crucified. But this mission from Rome, is not to Preach Christ, but his Vicar : Not his kingdom of Grace, or Glory, but his title to Temporal kingdoms: Not how he shall judge quick and dead at his second coming, but how his Vicar shall inquire, Examine, Syndicate, Sentence, Depose: yea, Murder Princes on earth: Not Christ crucified, languishing for us under Thorns, Nayles, Whippes & Speares, but his Vicar enthron'd, and wantonly groaning under the weight of his Keys, and Swords, and Crowns.

4 Christ said to those whom he sent, What I tell you in darkness, that speak you in light, and what you hear in the ear, that Preach you on houses, and fear not them that kill the body. And if no other thing were told you in darkness, and whisper'd into your ears, at your missions hither, then those which our Savior delivered to them, you might be as confident in your public Preachings, and have as much comfort of Martyrdom, if you died for executing such a Commission. But what your instructions delivered in darkness, and told in your ears, are, appears now enough, by Inspection, by Confession, by Testimony, by Practice, by Analogy of your doctrine, and by Baronius words, That you are sent hither to defend the immunities of the Church, which delivers you from all subjection to the King, and from being Traitors whatsoever you attempt: as also to defend the Catholic Faith, which first makes it heresy to depart from the subjection to Rome, and then makes it a forfeiture of all Jurisdiction to incur that heresy. Except this be written in the Gospel, or practiced by the Apostles, you cannot be Martyrs for this.

5 But to descend to reasons of a lower nature, of the law of Nations, and conueniency and decency; since all those which maintain the Spanish Expeditions, and proceedings in the Indies, by the strength of the Popes Donation, concur in this, That into what place soever the Pope, or any Princes may send Priests, they may also send Armies for the security of those Priests, and them whom they have reduced : and since it is evident by all your Writers, that the Pope hath more Jurisdiction over Christian Princes relapsed from Rome, then over Infidels, might he not for safe-guard of his Apostles, send Fleetes and armies hither? and is it not the common and received opinion, which Maynardus delivers, that in all cases where the Pope may enjoin, or command anything, he may lawfully proceed by way of war, against any that hinder the execution thereof. If then such armies and Fleets were sent to conduct you, and were resisted in their landing, or defeated in battle; had not they as good title to Martyrdom as you? and may not the Pope as well Canonize the whole Spanish Fleet, which perished in 88. for your Catholic faith, and Ecclesiastic immunity? since in many cases, as in the Innocent children (of whom Hilary says, that they were exalted to eternity, by Martyrdom ) one may be an implicit Martyr, though he know not why he died, so he have no actual reluctance against it.

6 And it is very probable, that their title was b • tter then yours, for this point of sending, because they were under the obedience of them which sent th • m: but for you, (not to dispute now whether the cause be enough for Martyrdom, or whether your obedience can give it that form, and life, and vigor) you are so far from being sent, or from exercising any obedience in this act, that your first step, which is going out of the kingdom, is absolutely and evidently disobedience to your Prince, before you have any color of having submitted yourself to any other superior; and then you enter into the College, upon condition that you may return, and you ta • e an Oath before hand that you will return: So that you return not hither in obedience of your Superior, but in performance of your own unjust, and indiscrete Vowes : both which, in all Vowes, are Annulling or vitiating circumstances. Neither doth this Oath so far bind you to return, (though Nauarrus say so) but that one of the learnedst of the Jesuits, thinks, If that be forborne, and some Order of Religion embraced instead thereof, the oath is better performde.

7 And, if these laws which take hold of you, when you return hither, had been made between the time of your vow, and your returning: and if they had been made directly to that end, to interrupt and preclude the performance of this Vow, yet naturally they would work the same effect upon this Vow of yours, and make it void, because something was now interposed, which may justly, yea ought to change your purpose: For if that law had been made before, your Vowe had been unjust from the beginning; which is the case of as many of you, as have gone since the making of those prohibitory laws. For a law which forbidds upon pain of loss of goods, death, banishment, or such, binds a man upon pain of mortal sin ; and therefore no Vow can justify the breach thereof.

8 All this, if the laws be just, is evident and without question, and how could it be evident to all those young Scholars which went over, and made this vow, that these laws were unjust? What infallible assurance could they have of this, to excuse them of disobedience in going, or indiscretion in swearing?

9 Their own men teach, that the laws of Princes are not therefore necessarily unjust and void, because the Prince had an ill intention in making them. As if the Prince propose and purpose particular gain, by exacting the penalty of the law, or revenge upon certain persons, by executing thereof; this makes not your law void, so that it be profitable to the body of the Common-wealth: much less were our l • wes in this case, subject to that • railty, and de • eseablenesse, because they were made (to omit in this place the principal inducement, for the glory of God, and preserving his Gospel i • purity and integrity) in such necessities, as without such defense, the person of the Prince, and the civil and Ecclesiast • que state, must have • uffered daily, and dangerous fluctuations, and perils of shipwreck; which dangers continue upon us yet; and therefore the same physic must be continued.

10 For Lawyers teach us, that the word Potest, doth often signify Actum: And what the Pope may do, their books threaten in every leaf: and then against such a man a • useth to do as much as he threatens: the Lawyers tell us, any defense is lawful, even to the taking away of the threatners life: For he which hath injured one, hath threa • ned many • And against such all ways of defense are just, when any danger (to use the extent of Lawyers) are Meditated, Prepared, Likely, or Possible, for it is a beggarly thing, rather to be beholden to others modesty and abstinence, then to our own Counsaile and strength for our security. So that, as when the three Emperors, Valentinian, Valens and Gratian, had made a law, that no Ecclesiastic person should have any capacity to receive from noble women, who were then observed to be profu • e in these liberalities, to the detriment o • their own estates, and of the public, Saint Jerome 〈◊〉 , He did not grieve that such a law was made, but that the covetousness of the Clergy had occasioned these most religious Princes to make that law : So you ought rather to lament, that the Doctrine and practice of some of your principal men, hath raised these jealousies and suspicions in a Prince, out of the conscience of his own equality naturally confident, then murmur at the law, or dis-council the obedience to it.

11 For in these cases of natural preservation, it is not only lawful to make new laws, but to break any other, which are not directly Divine. And if you impute the worst condition of these laws, which malignity can object to them, which is, that those Catholics, which are innocent, which merely out of conscience, abstain from communicating with us, in the Word and Sacraments, shall be utterly starved and deprived of all spiritual sustentation, if the laws which forbid all Priests to enter, should be still executed; yet that inconvenience will not annul and make void a law, so far, as that to do against it shall be a just cause of Martyrdom: for in making of laws, those evils which do occasionally or consequently a • ise from the execution thereof, must not be considered, but what the principal intention of the law-maker was: Which, in our case was, the preservation of the public.

12 And yet the Catholics in England shall for all this be in as good condition here, as they should be in any Catholic Country, which were by the Popes displeasure under a local Interdict ; which the Popes do often impose, with small respect to the Innocents • for in the late business between the Church and the State of Venice by the Popes Breues, the whole Dominion was Interdicted, because the Senate, which only was excommunicated, did not within three days do all those acts, which were so derogatory to the Soueraignty of that State. And so, that punishment, which is so severe, by the Canons, that as Boniface the eight observed, It occasions many Heresies and indevotion, and many dangers to the soul : And, as the Gloss says there, by experience it appeared, that when a place had lien long under an Interdict, the people laughed at the Priests, when they came to say Mass again ; was inflicted upon many Millions of innocent persons: all which, if that State had not provided for their spiritual food by staying the priests, had been in as ill case by that Interdict, and euocation of the Clergy, as the Catholics in England were by those laws of interdicting their entrance, considering with how much lenity in respect of their extreme provocations, they were executed. And if that relief which Vgolini gives to comfort the Venetians consciences, be of any strength, which is; that that which they loose in spiritual sustenance, they gain in the Merite of obedience, it may as effectually work upon English Consciences, as it could upon theirs.

13 No • is it so harsh and strange, as you use to make it, that Princes should make it Treason, to advance some Doctrines, though they be obtruded as points of Religion, if they involve Sedition, and ruin or danger to the State; for the Law says, That is Maiestatis crimen, which is committed against the security of the State ; and in that place, it calls Security, Tranquilitie: And whether our Security and Tranquilitie have not been interrupted by your doctrine, yourselves can judge, and must confess.

14 These Laws against which you complain, drew not in your Priests which were made in Queen Mary's time, though they were Catholic Priests, and exercised their Priestly function; and though they had better means to raise a party in England, because they were acquainted with the state, and knew where the seeds of that Religion remained: But in that Catholic Religion of which they were Priests, they found not this Article of Tumult and Sedition, and withdrawing Subjects from their obedience.

15 Is there not a Decretal amongst you, by which it Is made Treason to offend a Cardinal ? which is a Spiritual offense; For it is also Sacrilege. And is • here not another b • which A •• practicers by Simoney in a conclaue, though they be Ambassadors of other Princes, are punished as Traitors? And if their Masters seise not their goods, confiscate by this Treason, within a certain time, the Church may. Doeth not one of your own Sect v • ge a Statute in Poland, against a Gentleman of that Nation, That whosoever shall be infected or suspected of heresy, shall be apprehended as a Traitor, by any man though he be no Officer? And we Dispute not now whether your Doctrine be Heresy, but whether such points of Religion, as are no Articles o • Faith, nor derived from them, if they be Seditious, may not be punished as Treason, and properly enough called Treason. In which Pius the second ha • h cleared us and given us satisfaction, who says, That to appeal to a future Council, is not only Heresy, but Treason. And Simancha concurs to that purpose, w • en he says, That they which have been teachers of Heresy, cannot be received though they recant in Judgment, because it is enough to forgive one fault, but such are guilty of two deaths, and must be punished, as enemies to the State; And that therefore he whi • h attempts to corrupt the King or his Queen, or his Children with Heresy, is guilty of Treason.

16 And that there is a Civil trespass in Heresy, as well as a Spiritual, appears by confiscation of their goods in your Courts; which goods and temporal detriments, though the offenders be pardoned, and received into the bosom of the Church, and so the Spiritual • offense be remitted, are never to be restored • no • repai • d. If therefore the Canon Law can extend to create Treason in a Spiritual cause • If amongst you, as it is Heresy to believe, • o it is Treason to teach, that there is no Purgatory, shall it not be lawful to a Sovereign and independent State, to say by a Law; That he which shall teach, That a Priest cannot be a Traitor though he kill the King: and except a King profess entirely the Roman Faith, he hath lost all title and Jurisdiction, and shall corrupt the Subjects with such seditious instillations as these, shall be guilty of Treason?

17 The Parliament of Paris in that Arrest and sentence, by which it condemned • he Jesuits Scholar Cha • tell, who attempted to murder the K • ng, makes it Treason to utter those scandalous and seditious words • which he had spoken, and which he had received from False and damnable instructions (where • n it intim • tes the • esuites, whom the • entence in other pl • ces, name, directly) which words are expressed or impl • ed almost in all the Jesuits Boo • es of State matters: That sentence also pronounces all the Jesuits Cor • upters of youth, • roublers of the Peace, enemies of the King and State, And if they depart not within certain days, Guiltie of Treason. And this sentence pronounces, That if any of the Kings Subjects, should send his Son out of the Realm, to a Jesuits College, he should incur treason.

18 And though your Expurgatorie Index can reach into all Libra • ies, and eat and corrupt there more then all the Moathes and Wormes, though you have been able to expunge, yea euert, and demolish the Pyramis erected in detestation of you by this Arrest, yet your Deleatur will never stretch to the scar in the Kings face, nor your Inseratur restore his Toothe, nor your expunctions arrive to the Recordes which preserve this sentence.

19 And came it (think you) ever into the opinion of the Catholics of France, that if a man by virtue or example and precedent of this Arrest, had been Executed as a Traitor, for speaking those forbidden words, or for sending his Son to the Jesuits, he should have been by the Catholic Church reputed a Martyr ?

20 When the Jesuits were lately expel'd from Venice, and when other Priests which stai'd there, were commanded by Laws to do their functions, did either the Jesuits apprehend this opportunity of Martyrdom, and come back, or did the Priests find such spiritual comfort in transgressing this Law, that they offered to go out?

21 And in all our differences, which fell out in this Kingdom between our Kings, and the Popes, when so many capital Laws were made against Prouisions and Appeales, (not to dispute yet whe • her de Iure or de facto only, or whether by way o • Introduction, or Declaration ) do you find that the Catholics then used the benefit of those laws, to the procurement of Martyrdom ? or hath the blood of any men executed by those laws, died your Martyrologes with any Rubriques ? And yet those times were apt enough to countenance any defender of Ecclesiastic immunity, though with diminution of Civil and Secular Magistracy, as appears by their celebrating of Becket : ye • I find not that they afforded the title of Martyr to any against whom the State proceeded by the Ordinary way and course of law.

22 Why therefore shall not the French, and Italian, and old English laws give occasion of Martyrdom in the same cases, as these new laws shall? At least why should Campian, and those which were executed before these new statutes, be any better Martyrs then they? since they were as good Catholics as these, and offended the common law of England in the same point, as these. But if the Breach and violating of the later statutes, be the only or liueliest cause of Martyrdom, then, of Parsons, who every day of his life doth some act to the breaking thereo • , it is very properly said by one of his own sect, That he is per totam vitam martyr.

23 And this may suffice to remember you, that you intrude into this employment, and are not sent, and that our Laws ought to work upon your Oath, of returning to the annihilation thereof, because both the necessit • e of the making and continuing • hereof and the precedents of our own, and other Catholic Kingdoms, give us warrant to make seditious Doctrine Treason, and your own Canons and I • dica •• re give us example, and (if we needed it) Authority to proceed in that manner.

CHAP. VI. A comparison of the Obed •• nce due to Princes, with the several obediences required and exhibited in the Roman Church; First, of that blind Obedience, and stupidity, which Regular men vow • to their Superiors: Secondly, of th • t usurp • Obedience to which they pretend by reason of our Baptism, wherein we ar said to have made an implicit surrender of our selves and all that we have, to the Church; And thirdly of that Obedience, which the Jesuits by a fourth Supernumera • ie vow, make to be disposed at the Popes absolute will.

T Here hath not been a busier disquisition, nor subject to more perplexity, then to find out the first original root, and Source, which they call Primogenium subiectum, that may be so capable of Power and Jurisdiction, and so invested with it immediately from God, that it can transfer and propagate it, or let it pass and naturally deri • e it-self into those forms of Gouernement, by which mankind is continued and preserved; For at the resolution of this, all Qu • stions of Subjection attend their dispatch. And because the Clergy of the Roman Church, hath with so much fierce earnestness and apparance of probablenesse, pursued this Assertion, That that Monarchall form, and that Hierarchy, which they have, was instituted immediately from God; Many wise and jealous Advocates of Secular Authority, fearing least otherwise they should diminish that Dignity, and so preuaricate and betray the cause, have said the same of Regal power and Jurisdiction. And even in the Roman Church a great Doctor of eminent reputation there, agrees (as he says) Cum omnibus sapientibus, That this Regal Jurisdiction and Monarchy (which word is so odious and detestable to Baronius ) proceeds from God, and by Divine and natural Law, and not from the State or altogether from man. And as we have it in Evidence, • o we have it in Confession from them, that God • ath as immediately created some Kings, as any Priests. And Cassanaeus thinks this is the highest Secular Authority that ever God induced: For he denies That old or New Testament have any mention of Emperor.

2 But to mine understanding we injure and endanger this cause more, if we confess that that Hierarchy is so Immediately from God as they obtrude it, then we get by offering to draw Regal power within the same Priuiledge. I had rather thus far abstain from saying so of either, that I would pronounce no farther therein, then this, That God hath Immediately imprinted in man's Nature and Reason, to be subject to a power immediately infused from him; and that he hath enlightened our Nature and Reason, to digest and prepare such a form, as may be aptest to do those things, for which that Power is infused; which are, to conserve us in Peace and in Religion: And that since the establishing of the Christian Church, he hath testified abundantly, that Regal Authority, by subordination of Bishops is that best and fittest way to those ends.

3 So that, that which a Jesuit said of the Pope, That the Election doth only present him to God, we say also of a King; That whatsoever it be, that prepares him, and makes his Person capable of Regal Jurisdiction, that only presents him to God, who then inanimates him with this Supremacy immediately from himself, according to a secret and tacit covenant, which he hath made with mankind, That when they out of rectified Reason, which is the Law of Nature, have begot such a form of Gouernement, he will infuse this Soul of power into it.

4 The way therefore to find, what Obedience is due to a King, is not to seek out, how they which are presumed to have transferred this power into him, had their Authority, and how much they gave, and how much they retained; For in this Discouerie none of them ever went farther, then to Families ; In which, they say, Parents and Masters had Jurisdiction over Children, and Servants; and these Families concur'd to the making of Towns, and trans • erred their power into some Governor over them all.

5 But, besides that this will not hold, because such Sauadges as never raised Families, or such men as an ouerburdned kingdom should by lot throw out, which were pieces of diverse families, must have also a power to frame a form of Gouernement, wheresoever they shall reside, which could not be if the only root of Jurisdiction were in parents & masters ; This also will infirm and overthrow that Assertion, that if parents and masters had not this supreme Soueraignty, which is requisite in Kings, they could not transfer it into Kings, and so Kings have it not from them: And if they were Sovereigns they cold not transfer it, • or no Sovereign can deuest himself of his Supremacy.

6 Regal authority is not therefore derived from men, so, as at that certain men have lighted a King at their Candle, or transferred certain Degrees of Jurisdiction into him: and therefore it is a cloudy and muddy search, to offer to trace to the first root of Jurisdiction, since it grows not in man. For, though we may go a step higher then they have done which rest and determine in Families, which is, that in every particular man considered alone, there is found a double Jurisdiction of the soul over the body, and of the reason over the appetite, yet those will be but examples and illustrations, not Rootes and Fountaines, from which Regal power doth essentially proceed. Sepulueda, whom I cited before, says well to this purpose; That the soul doth exercise, Herile Imperium upon the body : and this can be no example to Kings, who cannot animate and inform their Subjects as the soul doth the body. But the power of our reason upon our appetite, is, as he says pertinently, Regale Imperium ; and Kings rule subjects so as reason rules that.

7 To that form of Gouernement thereof for which rectified reason, which is Nature, common to all wise men, doth justly choose, as aptest • o work their end, God instils such a power as we wish to be in that person, and which we believe to be infused by him, and therefore obey it as a beam derived from him, without having departed with anything from our selves.

8 And as to the end of this power, is always one and the same, To live peaceably and religiously, so is the power itself though it be diversely complexioned, and of different stature; for that natural light and reason, which acknowledges a necessity of a Superior, that we may enjoy peace, and worship God, did consent in the common wish and tacit prayer to God, and doth rest in the common faith and belief, that God hath poured into that person all such authority as is needful for that use; Therefore of what complexion soever the form of government be, or of what stature soever it seem, yet the same authority is in every Sovereign State: thus far, That there are no Civil men, which out of rectified Reason have provided for their Peaceable and religious Tranquility, but are subject to this regal authority, which is, a p •• er to use all those means, which conduce to those ends.

9 For those diffrences which appear to us in the diverse • ormes, are no • in the essence of the Soueraignty, which hath no degrees, nor additions, nor diminutions, but they are only in those instruments, by which this Soueraignty is exercised, which are ordinarily called Arcan • , and Ragion di st • to, as I noted before • and as the soul it self, hath as good understanding in an Idiote, and as good a memory in a L • thargique person as in the wises • and liueliest man; So hath this Soueraignty in ••• ry state equal vigor, though the Organes by which it works be not in all alike dis • osed. And therefore the govern • e • t amongst the Jews before Sa • le, was fully a Kingdo • e in this accep • ation: nor did they attend any new addition to this power, in their solicitation for a King: but, because they were a people accustomed to war, they wished such a Sovereign as might lead their Armies ; which office their Priests did not; and they grudged that their enemies should be conduced by better persons then they were.

10 And so, though some ancient Greek states, which are called Regna Laconica, because they were shortened and limited to certain laws, and some States in our time seem, to have Conditional and Prouisionall Princes, between whom and Subjects, there are mutual and reciprocal obligations; which if one side break, they fall on the other, yet that sovereignty, which is a power to do all things available to the main end • s, resides somewhere • which • if it be in the hands of one man, erects and perfects that Pambasilia of which we speak.

11 For God inanimates every State with one power, as every man with one soul: when therefore people concur in the desire of such a King, they cannot contract, nor limitte his power: no more then parents can condition with God, or preclude or withdraw any faculty from that Soul, which God hath infused into the bo • dy, which they prepared, and presented to him. For, if such a company of Sauadges, or men whom an ouerloaded kingdom • ad avoided, as we spake off before, should create a King, and reserve to themselves a liberty to revenge their own wrongs, upon one another, or to do any act necessary to that end, for which a King hath his authority, this liberty were swallowed in their first act, and only the creation of the King were the work of rectified reason, to which God had concur'd, and that reservation a uoide and impotent act of their appetite.

12 If then this give us light, what and whence the Kings Jurisdiction is; we may also discern by this, what our obedience must be: for power and subjection are so Relatiue, as since the King commands in all things conducing to our Peaceable and Religious being, we must obey in all those. This therefore is our first Originary, natural, and Congenite obedience, to obey the Prince: This belongs to us as we are men ; and is no more changed in us, by being Christians, then our Humanity is changed: yet hath the Roman Church extolled and magnified three sorts of Obedience, to the prejudice of this.

13 The first is, that which they call Caecam obedientiam : which is an inconsiderate & vndiscoursed, and (to use their own word) an Indiscreete surrendering of themselves, which profess any of the rules of Religion, to the command of their Prelate and Superior; by which, like the unclean beasts, They swallow, and never chaw the cudde : But this obedience proceeding out of the will and electio • of them, who apply themselves to that course of life, cannot be of so great authority and obligations, as the other which is natural, and borne in us; and therefore, farther then it agrees with that; it is not out of rectified reason.

14 And though it seem scarce worthy of any further discourse, yet I cannot deny myself the recreation of suruaying some examples of this blind and stupid obedience, and false humility, nor forbear to show, that by their magnifying thereof, and their illations thereupon, not only the offices of mutual society are uncharitably pretermitted, but the obedience to Princes preiudic'd and maimed, and the lively and active, and vigorous contemplation of God clouded and retarded.

15 For when a distressed Passenger entreated a Monk to come forth, and help his Ox out of the Ditch, was it a charitable answer to tell him, That he had been twenty years dead, & in his grave, and could not now come forth ? Yet it may seem excusable in them to neglect others, if this obedience make them forget themselves; as certain youthes whom their Abbot sent with Figs to an Ermit, loosing their way, sterued in the Desert, rather then they would eat the Figs, which they were commanded to deliver. Is it likely that when Mucius a Monk, at the command of his Abbot, who bid him cast his crying son into the river and drown him, did in the fervor of obedience obey it, God should reveal, That in that act, he accomplished Abraham's work ?

16 Are these wholesome instructions, That it is a greater pride to do a good work against the Superiors command, then a bad, because they are vices under pretence of virtue ? or this, That it is better to sin against God, then our spiritual Father, because he can reconcile us to God, but nobody to him ? Which doctrine it seems Heli had not accepted, when he said, If one man sin against another, the Judge shall judge it, bu if a man sin against the Lord, who will plead for him ? How many grea • er matters must they of necessity leave vndiscussed, that profess such tendern • sse and scrupu • osity of conscience, as the late Jesuit Gonzaga, w • o doubted that when he had said he would go, Ad Domum professorum, he had sinned in an idle word, since he might have been understood well enough though he h • d left out the last words? or that he had sinned in answering affirmatively to his S • periours question, whether he would go to a certain place, because he ought to have left it all to his Superiors will, without any affirmation? Was it due and necessa • y obedience, when desirous to be instructed in that point of Predestination, and his Superior turning to a place in S. Augustine, and bidding him read there, being come to the end of the page, but not of the sentence, he durst not turn over the leaf, because he was bid to read there ?

17 Sedulius seems glad that he had examples enough to furnish a Chapter, De simplicita • e Minoritarum ; and he seems to have much comfort that he is of the same order, as Friar Ruffin was, who out of simplicity cut off a living Ho • ges foot, to dress for a sick body, and • odd his Birds in the feathers: who also out of his humility, desired that he might stink when he was d • ad, and that he might be eaten with dogs. And he says that Friar Juniper was so simple, that a Doemoniaque possessed man, ran seven miles from him, because the devil could not abide Patientiam Iuniperi.

18 Was it not Prodigium Obedientiae, as Sedulius justly calls it, in Friar Ruffin to go preach naked ? And were there not some degrees of spiritual pride in Gonzaga, who is praised because he had a pair of patched hose in Delicijs ? and that he refused to put on a pair of old bootes, because a worshipful man had worn them ? and that when his hands did cleave with cold, he would put on no gloves ? Was there not some measure of stupid insensibleness in him, when he durst not spit in any necessity at his prayers; and that he knew not how many brothers he had ? And of desperate provocation, when he heard of a plague likely to be in those parts, to make a vow to visit those which were infected ? And of murmuring, when he grudged and grieved, That he could find out no venial sin in himself ? And of Inhumanity, when he was sorry, if anybody loved him ? And of a sear'd and shameless Stubornenesse, when he therefore desi • 'd to speak in public, because he had an vng • acious and ridiculous imperfection in pronouncing the letter R. And asked leave, E suggestu dicere, (which, I think, is to Preach) in Spanish, because he was sure to be laughed at by that means, being imperfect in that language ? And doeth it not taste of an unnatural Indolencie in him, to say no more at the news of his Fathers death, but that now nothing hindered him from saying, OUR FATHER WHICH ART IN HEAVEN ; As if it had troubled his conscience, to say so before?

19 Who would not have been glad, that such a Preacher should give over, as when Friar Giles a Lay man, called to him, Hold your peace Master, for now I will Preach, gave him his place? Who would wish S. Henry the Dane any health, that had seen him, When worms crawled out of a corrupted Vlcer in his Knee, put them in again ? Or who would have consented to the Christian burial of that Monk, which Dorotheus speaks off, if he had died of that Poison, which he saw his Servant mistake for Honie, and put it into his Brothe, and never reprehended him, before nor after he had eaten the Soppes: But when his Servant apprehended it, and was much moved the master pacified him with this, If God would have had me eat Honie, either thou shouldest have taken the Honie, or he would have changed the Poison into Honie. Who would ever have kept company with the Jesuit Barcena, after he ha • told him, as • e told another Jesuit, That when the devil appeared to him one night, out of his profound humility, he rose to meet him, and prayed him to sit in his Chair, because he was more worthy to sit there then he ? Who would wish Father Peter alive again, since being dead, he is so afraid of disquieting his fellows, that he will give over doing of Miracles, for their ease? Or who would not wish them all dead, who possessing and filling all good places in their life, will be content to give some room after their death; as Friar Reynold, who having been three years dead, when another Holy man was brought to be buried in the same Vault, rose up and went to the Wall, and stood upright there, that the other might have room enough.

20 This is that Obedience by which they say, If a man were dignified so much as to talk with Angels, if his Superior called him, he must come away ; Yea, one of them Being in discourse with our Lady, when an inferior Friar called him, unmannerly quitted her. And of this Obedience is Ignatius himself especially caref • ll, Least (says he) that famous simplicity of blind Obedience should decay. But this Obedience, and all other, are subordinate to that natural Obedience to your Prince, as Sovereign controller of all: For in all Obligations the Authority of the Superior is ever excepted.

21 And this Obedience must not be so blind, but that it may both look upward, what God, in his Lieuetenant appoints to be done, and also round about to see, wherein they may relieve others, and receive from them. They may be circumspect, though they must not be curious. For Abbayes, at first institution, were not all Chapels but Schools of Sciences, and Shops of manufactures. Now they are come to that, that they cannot work, Quia Officia longa. They have indeed so many Offices, and so many Officers, that they need not work. But this strict obedience was imposed upon them then, because they were great confluences of men of diverse Nations, Dispositions, Breedings, Ages, and Employments, and they could be tied together in no kno • so strongly, nor meet in any one Center so concurrently, and uniformly, as in the Obedience to one Superior; And what this Obedience was, and how far it extended: Aquinas, who understood it well, hath well expressed, That they are bound to Obey only in those things which may belong to their Regular conversation. And this use and office, that obedience which is exhibited in our Colleges, fulfils and • atisfies, without any of these unnatural, childish, stupid, mimique, often scandalous, and sometimes rebel • ous singul • rities.

22 Any resolution which is but new borne in us, must be abandoned and forsaken, when that obedience which is borne with us, is required at our hands. In expressing of which truth, Saint Bernard goes so exceeding far, as to say, That Christ gave over his purpose of Preaching, at the increpation, Mulieris vnius, & fabri pauperis: And because his Mother chid him, when she found him in the Temple, from twelve years to thirty, we find not, says he, That he taught or wrought anything, though this abstinence were contrary to his determination. So earnest is that devout father, to illustrate our Blessed Saviors obedience, to a iurisdicton which was Naturally Superior to him. And therefore this submission, by our own Election, to another Superior, cannot derogate from the Prince, nor infirm his Title to our Alleageance or obedience.

23 Another obedience derogatory to Princes, they have imagined, connatural, and congenite with our Christianity, as this is with our Humanity, and conducing to our Well-being, and ou • euerlastingnesse, as this doeth to our Being and temporal tranquility; which is, An obedience to the Roman Church, and to him, who must be esteemed certainly the Head thereof, though sometimes he be no member thereof.

24 Certainly the inestimable benefits which we receive from the Church, who feeds us with the Word and Sacraments, deserves from us an humble acknowledgement, and obedient confidence in her: yea, it is spiritual Treason, not to obey her. And as in temporal Monarchies, the light of nature instructs every man generally, what is Treason, that is, what violates or wounds or impeaches the Majesty of the State, and yet he submits himself willingly to the Declaration and Constitutions, by which some things are made to his understanding Treason, which by the general light he apprehended not to be so dangerous before; So in this case of spiritual Treason, which is Heresy, or Schism, though originarily, and fundamentally, the Scriptures of God inform us, what our subjection to the Church ought to be, yet we are also willing to submit our selves to the laws and decrees of the Catholic Church her self, what obedience is due to her. He therefore that can produce out of either of these Authentic sorts of Records, Scripture, or Church, that is, Text or Gloss, any law, by which it is made either High Treason, Heresy, not to believe, that in my baptism I have implied a confession, That the Bishop of Rome is so monarch of the Church, that he may depose Princes ; or petit Treason, that is Schism, to adhere to my natural Sovereign against a Bull of that Bishop, shall draw me into his mercy, and I will ask Pardon, where none is granted, at the Inquisition.

25 Else it is most reasonable (and that is ever most religious) to rely upon this, That obedience to Princes is taught by Nature, and affirmed and illustrated by Scriptures. If the question be, how much this obedience must be, I must say, all, till it be proved, either that Peaceable and religious being be not all the ends, for which we are placed in this world, or that the authority of Kings, exercised by the Kings of Israel and the Christian Emperors, is not enough to perform these ends. For, to say that a King cannot provide for means of salvation of souls, because he cannot preach, nor administer the Sacraments, hath as much weakness, as to say, he cannot provide for the health of a City, because he cannot give physic.

26 Till then, I shall be deter'd from declining to this second obedience, by the contemplation of many inconueniencies, and impieties resulting from thence; first, by the vastnes of that Jurisdiction: For since they have taught us to say so, we may say, Dominus non esset discretus, vt cum reuerentia eius loquar, if he had laid the cure of the whole Church and the judgment of all matters emergent, of fact and faith, upon one man; which he hath done, if Pesantius say true, That the Pope is, Iure Diuino, directly Lord of all the World: which book is dedicated to the present Pope, who by allowing it may justly be thought to favor that opinion.

27 How much it is, that they would entitle him to, appears by their expunction of a Sentence in Roselli a Catholic, though a Lawyer, That it is heretical to say, that the universal temporal administration is, or may be in the Pope: upon which book mine eye falls often, because you have been so lavish and prodigal in those expunctions, that a man might well make a good Catechism, and an Orthodox Institution of Religion, out of those places, which you have cast away. And by this one place we see what you would have, For if the universal administration of temporal matters be in the Pope, what need is there of Kings? You would soon forget kings, or remember them to their ruin; and look that kings should do to you, as condemned men are said to have done to the kings of Persia, to thank them that they were pleased to remember them. And Azorius will not pardon their modesty, that say, that the Pope in dealing with temporal matter • uses but a spiritual power (though this in effect work as dangerously) but he useth (says he) Absolutely and simply a temporal Jurisdiction.

28 And what can impeach this Universal Jurisdiction, since all matter and subject of Jurisdiction, that is, all men, may by their Rules be under him, by another way, that is, by entering into Religion: for first, Tannerus the Jesuit says, If Princes had their authority immediately from God, yet the Pope might restrain that authority of theirs, that it should fall only upon Lay-men: For, says another, He may take from the Emperor, all his Jurisdiction, therefore any part thereof. And as many as will (says Bellarmine) may without the consent of their Prince, yea though he resist it, thus deuest their Allegeance, as they might resist their parents if they should hynder them.

29 And in contemplation of this Universal Jurisdiction, which might be, if it be not, in the Pope; the Jesuit whom we first named, breaks out into this, congratulation: If at this instant all the Princes and all their subjects, would enter into Religion, and transfer all that they had into the Church, would it not be a most acceptable spectacle to God, and Angels, and Men? Or (as he says before) if their estates were so transferred to the Church, though not their persons, could not Ecclesiastic Princes rule and govern all these lay men, as well as they do some others already? But because, as he doubts in that place, Hoc in aeternum nunquam fiet, that all Laymen will come under them, they have provided that all Clergy men which be under them, shall be safe enough, as welll by way of Counsel (for so Mariana modefies his Doctrine, that the Prince should not execute any Clergy man, though he deserve it) as by positive way of Aphorisms, as Immanuel Sâ doth, That they are not subjects, nor can do treason : and by way of Fact, and public troubling the peace of all Christendom, as appeared by their late attempt upon Venice for this Exemption.

30 And as the immensnesse of this power auerts me from believing it to be just, so doeth this also decline me, that they will not be brought to tell us, How he hath it, nor How he got it. For as yet they do but stammer, and the Word sticks in their jaws, and we know not whether, when it comes, it will be Directly, or Indirectly. And they are as yet but surveying their Evidence ; they have joined no issue; nor know we whether they will plead Divine Law, that is, places of Scripture, or Sub divine Law, which is interpretation of Fathers, or super divine law, which is Decretals of Popes. But Kings insist confidently, and openly, and constantly upon the law of Nature, and of nations, & of God, by all which they are appointed what to do, and enabled to do it,

31 Lastly, this infames and makes this Jurisdiction suspicious to me, to observe what use in their Doctrine and Practice they make of this power. For when they have proceeded to the execution of this Temporal power, it hath been either for their own real and direct profit and advantage, as in their proceeding with the Eastern Emperors: And drawing the French Armies into Italy, and promouing and strengthening the change of the family and race of the Kings in France, or else the benefit hath come to them by whose advancement that Church grows and increases, as in the disposing of the Kingdom of Navarre ; Or at least, the example and terror thereof magnifies the dignity, and reputation of that Church, and facilitates her other enterprises, for a good time after, as a Ship that hath made good way before a strong wind, and under a full Sayle, will run a great while of her self, after she hath stricken sails.

32 When any of these reasons invite them, how small causes are sufficient to awake and call up this temporal Authority? The cause why Childerique was deposed, was not, says the Canon, for his Iniquities ; but because he was Inutilis. And this was not, says the Gloss, because he was Insufficient, for then he should have an assistant, and coadiutor ; but because he was Effeminate. So that the Pope may depose upon less cause, then he can give an assistant. For to be Insuficient for the Gouernement, is more directly against the office of a King, then to be subject to an infirmity, which concerns his humanity, not his office.

33 And when the officers and Commissioners of the Roman Court, come to Syndicate Kings, they have already declared, what they will call Enormities and Excesses, by inuoluing almost all faults, whether by Committing or Omitting in general words; As, When he doeth not that for which he is instituted; when he useth his prerogative without just cause, when he vexes his Subjects; when he permits Priests to kiss his hands; when he proceeds indiscreetly, and without just reason ; And lastly, For any such hunting as they will call intemperate. To which purpose they cite against Kings generally those Canons which limit certain men, and times, and manners: And which, as the Gloss says of some of them, are meant De venatione arenaria, When men out of vain-glory, or for gain, fought in the Theaters with wild beasts. And least any small error in a King might escape them, they make account that they have enwrapp'd and packed up all in this, That it is all one, whether a King be a Tyrant, or a Fool, or Sacrilegious, or Excommunicate, or an Heretic.

34 This obedience therefore which we neither find written in the tables of our Hearts, nor in the Scriptures, nor in any other such Record, as either our adversary will be tried by, or can bind us, must not destroy nor shake that obedience which is Natural and Certain. Cyril hath made this sentence his own, by saying it with such allowance, It is wisely said, That he is an impious man, which says to the King, thou dost unjustly. Much more may we say it of any, that affirms a King to be naturally impotent, to do those things for which he is instituted; as he is, if he cannot preserve his Subjects in Peace and Religion, which the Heathen kings could do; whose Subjects had a Religion, and Ministers thereof, who wrought upon men to incline them to Moral goodness here, and to the expectation of future blessedness after death, though not by so clear nor so direct ways as Christian Religion doth.

35 The king therefore defends the Liberties of the Church, as the nature of his office, which he hath acknowledged, and Declar'd, and sealed to his Subjects by an Oath, binds him to do, if he defend the Church of England from foreign usurpation. And a most learned and equal man hath observed well, That in the differences between Gregory the seventh, and the Emperors, the defense of the liberties of the Church, was the title and pretence on both sides • And since a Jesuit hath afforded us this confession, That the Prince hath this Authority over Bishops, that he may call them as Peers of • is Realm, And since their Clementines, or the Glosser, yields to us, That a Church Prelate may be a Traitor, because he holds some temporalities: how can they escape from being • ubiect in all other cases; since their natural and n • tiue obedience is of a stronger obligation, then the accepting or possessing of these Temporalities : for, if • ure Diuino, the Character of Order, did obliterate and wash out the Character of civil Obedience, and subjection, the conferring of any temporal dignity or possession, could not restore it; for under color of a benefit, it should endammage and diminish them, when a little Temporal honor or profit shall draw their spiritual estate and person to secular • u • i • d • ction: • or, as Azorius will prove to us, the king may call a Bishoppe as a Baron to the Parliament, and as the Canonist will prove to us, he may call him to the Barre as a Traitor.

36 To recollect therefore now, and to determine & end this point, the title which the Prince hath to us by Generation, and which the Church hath by Regeneration, is all one now. For we a • e not only Subjects to a Prin • e, but Christian Subjects to a Christian Prince, and members as well of the Church as of the Common-wealth, in which the Church is. And as by being borne in his Dominions, and of parents in his allegiance, we have by birth-right interest in his laws and protection: So by the Covenant of Almighty God to the faithful and their Seed, by being born of Christian Parents, we have title to the Sacraments ; which the king (to whom, as all the kingdom is his house, so all the Clergy are chaplaines) ta • es care, that they duly administer to us which are his sons, and • eruants.

37 Nor doth the king and the Church direct us to diverse ends, one to Tranquility, the other to Salvation, but both concur in both : For we cannot ordinarily be saved (which seems to be the function of the Clergy ) without the exercise of moral virtue here in this life, nor can Christians do those moral virtues (which seem to be the Princes business) without faith, and keeping the right way to salvation, because a Christian must do them Christianly.

38 For though Theologall virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity, are infused from God, yet all religious worship of God is moral virtue. As therefore the office of all Heathen Princes, was to conserve their subjects in the practice of moral virtue, so far as it was revealed to their understanding; So is it now the office of Christian Princes to do the same. For God hath now so far enlightened us to the understanding of moral virtue, that we see thereby, that after God hath infused Faith, we make sure our salvation, by a moral obedience to the kings Gouernement, and to their Ministry whō his providence appoints over us for our instruction. So that Christiā subjects need no higher power then kings are naturally endued and qualified withal, to direct them to Salvation ; but • because moral virtue is now extended, not in it self, but • o our understanding • or pe • chance perfected (for the Fathers deny often, that the Philosophers had any true moral virtues) Christian kings must now provide laws, which may reach as far in their d • rection, as moral virtue reaches now; and Ministers, that may teach us how far that is, and to conserve us in the observation thereof: For as, when all things are in such sort well composed and establ • shed, and every subordinate Wheel set in good order, we are guilty of our own damnation, if we obey not the Minister, and the Minister is guilty of it, if he neglect to instruct us, so is the Prince guilty of our spiritual ruin, and eternal perishing, if he do not both provide able men to give us spiritual food, and punish both their negligence and our transgressions: So that he is to account to GOD for our souls, and therefo • e must have natural means to discharge that duty well, or else could not be subject to such a reckoning for his transgressions therein.

39 The last Obedience which I intimated, as prejudicial to this of kings, is that which the Jesuits vow to the Pope; which is not the same blind Obedience, which I spoke of before for the Jesuits swear that also to their Superiors, before they come to the perfection of this: But, as that is blind out of darkness, so this is blind out of dazzling. For they must be instruments in matters of State, and disposing kingdoms.

40 When some Priests in England were examined, what they would think of the Oath of Alleageance, if the pope should pronounce that it were to be held De fide, that he might depose Princes, they desired to be spared, because they could not pronounce De futuris Contingentibus. But these votaries, the Jesuits are not so scrupulous; They can resolve to execute whatsoever he shall command: perchance they think the Pope so much God, (for Jesuits must exceed in euerything) that in him, as in GOD, there can be no Contingency. And therefore vowing their travel and labor, to the corrupting and aliening of subjects, to the combustion or translation of Kingdoms, to the auiling and eradication of Princes, they do not vow De futuris Contingentibus, but of things ever constantly resolved in the Decree, and Counsel, and purpose of the Bishop of Rome.

41 Though therefore Mat. Tortus: be no Jesuit himself, yet in respect of his Master, who was one, I wonder he durst say, That the Jesuits made no other vow of obedience to the Pope, then other religious Orders did ; which is such an excuse in their behalf, as no accusation could offend them so much; since their ambition is to serve the Pope by a nearer Obligation then the rest: which appears evidently enough, in the Bul of Paul the third, where this fourth vow is repeated.

42 And is it not a stange precipitation to vow their help to all his errors? of which they confess he may commit many in matter of Fact, by mis-information. So that they swear to execute that, which they are not bound to believe to be well commanded: yea they are not bound to believe, that he which commands them, is that person whose commandments by their vow they a • e bound to do, and yet they must do them. For though they be bound to obey the Pope, Yet they are bound to believe that Paul the fifth is Pope : because those Elections have many vitiating circum • tances, which annuls them. For if they could be certain, that the Election were free from all other corruptions, yet that Decretal in the Septimes, of Simoniacal Election, must of necessity keep all indifferent men in continual anxiety and perplexity. For, if anything by any Cardinal, were given, or promised before, though the Election be by way of Assumption and Adoration, when all concur in it, which they call, Viam spiritus Sancti, and therefore not subject to error, Yet there is a Nullitie in this Election, and the holy Ghosts confirmation works nothing upon it, And the Person elected, hath neither spiritual nor temporal Jurisdiction, but looses all the dignities which he had before, and becomes incapable ever after; And no subsequent Act • of Inthroning, Oaths of Obedience by the Cardinals, nor possession, though of long time, can make it good: And even those Cardinals, which were parties to the Simony, may at any time after, depart frō his obedience, & all the rest of the Cardinals, which do not, forfeit their dignities.

43 It is scarce possible to be hoped, that in Elections there should be no degrees of that corruption, which this Decree labors to preclude, & which, it takes knowledge, to be so clandestine, and secretly carried, that coming to the point of annulling all those promises which were so made • your Law expresses it thus, Cum quauis Inexcogitabili solennitate & formà iurata. And if ever it should break forth, that any such thing were committed at Paul the fifth his Election, then he was never Pope: Which, though perc • ance it will not make void all his Acts, for some civil and convenient reasons, doth yet show the injustice, and indiscretion of such a vow, as binds the Votarie to do some acts, which were not lawful for him to do, except an assured Authority of the commander did warrant it.

44 And if that measure which Aquinas gave before of Blind obedience, must also serve in this, which is; That they must obey in all things, which belong to their Regular conversations, that is, In all things to which their Rule, and Vowe obliges them, then as no Sea can wall any kingdom against their entrance: So no watchfulness can arm any breast against their violence, since the increasing of that Monarchy which they must advance, grows from the decay of others.

45 But I forbear Exasperation; and will here ende this Chapter; by which, I hope, it appears, that no latter band of Obedience, can slacken this first, which was borne with us. For, though amongst Lawyers, To commit myself or my cause, Liberae voluntati hominis, or to be used by him, Prout voluerit, amount ve • y far, and create a large power in him, yet th • y conclude, That, In nullo arbitrio, How large so ever, anything is included which was formerly prohibited. And of these three Obediences which we have handled, though all the three essential proper • ies o • all Oaths and Vowes be wanting in them all, yet the blind obedience to your spiritual Superior, doth especially want discretion, and the implicit Obedience, imagined to be vowed to the Church in Baptism, doeth lack Truth, and that seditious and servile Obedience vowed by the Jesuits to your Popes will, doeth want Justice.

CHAP. VII. That if the mere execution of the function of Priests in this Kingdom, and of giving to the Catholics in this Land, spiritual sustentation, did assure their consciences, that to die for that, were Martyrdom; yet the refusal of the Oath of Alleageance doeth corrupt and vitiate the integrity of the whole Act, and dispoyle them of their former Interest and Title to Martyrdom.

W E speak of Martyrdom now, in the proper and restrained sense and acceptation, that is, of Consummate Martyrdom, and so, as Aquinas takes it, when he says, Mors est de ration Martyrij. I know the Primitive Church denied it not to them, whom the lat • er Church hath called Confessors ; So Ignatius writes himself Martyr; and so doeth Saint Paul say, that he dies daily. And sometimes, when the Church enjoyed her ease, and was pampered with security and rest, to excite men to a public confession of their Faith, if there arose any case wherein it was needful, the Ministers of that Church, which was ever apter and forward • to suffer Martyrdom, when any long persecution had accustomed her to the expectation and patience and glory thereof, then in the times of dull abundance and tranquility, would afford the Title of Martyrs, to any persons who suffered any persecution for the testimony of Christ, though they died not: As the Church celebrates the Martyrdom of Pope Marcellus, who died in Prison. So also sometimes their indulgence allowed that Name, for some abstinencies and forbearings, if they conduced to the depressing of Idolatry. For so Saint Chrysostom says, If thou refuse to be cured by Magique, and die of that sickness, thou art a Martyr

2 Devotion is apt to ouerualew other men's actions; And Bellarmine confesses out of Sulpitius, That the people did long time deuoutely celebrate one for a Martyr, who after appeared, and told them that he was damned. So also were those men inclined, whom Alexander the third reprehendes, For giving the honor of a Martyr to one that died drunk. So doeth another Jesuit prove Hyrcanus to be an Heretic, whom Albertus Magnus hath put into his Litany, and so drawn into continual Invocation ever since. And when Gregory the thirteenth made Commissioners to suruay the Martyrologe, they found the Histories of Pope Felix the second, so various and repugnant, that they were determined to expunge his name, but that opportunely there was a Marble Coffin found, with such an Inscription as alterd them, and relieved the Popes fame. And one principal inducement to the Pope, to come to these solemn Canonizations, is, because before the people did often mistake.

3 And this medicine, as it was very late applied (for Bellarmine cannot find, that the Popes canonizd any in eight hundred years after Christ :) So neither hath it, nor can it naturally extinguish the disease. The most that it can work, is an Assurance, that they which are publicly canonized are true Saints: for Bellarmine says, That it is the opinion of Heretics, that the Pope can err in such Canonizations: and yet, to prove it, he argues but thus: If we believe that there was such a man as Caesar, why should we not believe that which God testifies by miracles? But how shall we believe that these miracles are from God, or that he doth them in testimony of that man's sanctity? For that miracles are done, is not enough to constitute a Saint, for wicked men may do them, say your Authors: And in this case they can proceed no farther, then to an Historical belief, that Miracles are done. And I had thought that Bellarmine had required a better faith at our h • nds, then Historical, and such as assures us, that Caesar was, to ground Invocation of Saints, and to constitute an Heresy.

4 And though not in Bellarmine, yet in the Pope himself, there appear some scruples of diffidence, and frailty, and fallibility in this act of Canonizing, because, after all his several Inquisitions and searches which depend upon matter of Fact, and after his diverse iteration of prayers, That he may not err, and That he may not be permitted to err, he makes at last a public protestation, That he intends not by that act, to do anything against Faith.

5 But if this can be certain, That those, and none but those, which are so Canonized, may be publicly Honoured as Saints, yet that disease, of which we spoke before, is not cured hereby. For it is still lawful privately to worship any, of whose sanctity I have an opinion. Nor is this private worship, so private in Bellarmine's account, that it may not be exhibited before others; but only so private as it may not be done, In the name of the Church, and as though it were instituted by the Church. So that whole Multitudes, and Congregations may err still: and this, by the authority of the Canon it self. For thus Bellarmine reasons, with more detortion and weakness then becomes the cause or his gravity: In the two Canons, says he, Audiuimus, and Cum ex eo, the Pope forbiddes public worship; and therefore, a Contrario, permits private. If then, that worship which in those two Canons he forbiddes to be publicly exhibited, may privately be given, and this priuatenesse exclude not whole Congregations, then whole Congregations may lawfully worship as a Saint, a man slain in drunkenness, which is the case of the first Canon, and lawfully worship venal and uncertain Relics, which is in the second Canon ; since the forbidding of this in public, hath permitted it in this large and open private, by Bellarmine's • ashion of arguing; who says also • or this, That the Doctors do commonly affirm it.

6 And whatsoever is said here of Saints, holds as well in Martyrs, for with the same faith, that I believe a man to be a martyre, I believe him to be a Saint: And so, it seems, doth that Catholic Priest, who hath lately published a History of English Martyrs : For that which in the Title he calls Martyrologe, in his Aduertisement he calls Sanctiloge. And therefore it becomes both our Religion and Discretion, to consider thoroughly the circumstances of their History, whom we admit to the honor of Martyrdom.

7 All Titles to martyrdom seem to me to be grounded upon one of these three pretences, and claymes. The first is, to seal with our blood the profession of some moral Truth, which though it be not directly of the body of the Christian faith, nor expressed in the Articles thereof, yet it is some of those works, which a Christian man is bound to do. The second is, to have maintained with loss of life, the Integrity of the Christian faith, and not to suffer any part thereof to perish or corrupt. The third is, to endeavor by the same means to preserve the liberties and immunities of the Church.

8 By the first way they entitle S. John the Baptist because he died for reprehending a fault against a moral Truth : and that truth being resisted, the Author of truth is despised: And therefore all truth is not matter convenient for the exercise of this virtue, as the conclusions of Arts and Sciences, though perfectly and demonstratively true, are not; but it must be such a truth, as is conversant about Christian piety, and by which God may be glorified : which cannot be, except he might be injured by the denying thereof. So, the Evangelist when our Savior spake of S. Peters Martyrdom says, He signified by what death he should glorify God : For all Martyredome works to that end. And this first occasion of martyrdom seldom falls out in Christian Countries, because in Christ, the great Mirrour of all these truths, we see them distinctly and evidently. But sometimes with Heathen Princes, before they arrive to this rich and pregnant knowledge, men which labor their conversion, begin, or touch by the way, some of these Moral duties ; and if they grow odious, and suffer for that, they are perfect Martyrs, dying for a moral Truth, and in the way to Christ.

9 By the second claim, which is the Integrity of Catholic Religion, the professors of any Christian Church, will make a specious, and apparent Title, if they suffer persecution in any other Christian Church. For the Church of Rome will call the whole total body and bulk of the points of their profession, Integrity of Religion, and the Reformed Churches call, soundness, purity, and incorruptnesse, integrity. The Roman thinks Integrity hurt by nothing but Maimes, and we, by Diseases. And one will prove by his death, that too little is professed, and the other, that too much. But this advantage we have, that by confession of our adversaries, all that we affirm, is True, and Necessarie : and upon good ground we assure our selves, that nothing else is so, and we think that, a propenseness to die, for profession of those points, which are not necessary, will not constitute a Martyrdom, in such a person especially as is of necessary use.

10 Amongst other things which our Blessed Savior warns his followers, this is one, That none of them suffer as a busy body in other men's matters, but if he suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but glorify God. And in another place, he calls them blessed: If others say all manner of evil of them, falsely, and for his sake. So that the prohibition forbids us, to suffer for those things which do not certainly appertain to us; And the instruction ties the reward to these conditions, That the imputations be false, That they be imputed for Christ's sake, that is, to dishonor him, and that we suffer because we are Christians.

11 Since therefore some of you, at your Executions, and in other conferences, have added this to your comfo • t, and glory of Martyrdom, That because the Kings mercy hath been offered you, if you would take the Oath, therefore you died for refusing the same, (Though your Assertion cannot lay that upon the State, who hath two discharges; One, that you were condemned for other Treasons, before that off • r; The other, that the Oath hath no such Capitall clause in it) yet since, as I said, you take it upon your Consciences to be so; Let us Examine, whether your refusal of the Oath, be a just cause to Die, upon this point of Integrity of Faith, by that measure which our Savior gave in his Prohibition, and in his Instruction.

12 Is it then any of your matters, or doeth it belong to you, by your Doctrine, and by your Example, in refusing the Oath, to determine against Princes Titles, or Subjects Alleageance? If this be any of your matters, then you are not sent only to do Priestly functions; And if it be not, then you suffer as busy bodies in other men's matters, if you suffer for the Oath.

13 And then, what is imputed to you, which is false (which is another condition required by Christ ) if you be called traitors then, when after apparent transgressing of such laws as make you Traitors, you confirm to us a perseverance in that Trayterous disposition, by refusing to swear Temporal Alleageance? Wherein are you less subject to that name, then those Priests which were in Actual plots, since mental Treason denominates a man as well as mental heresy ? You neither can nor will condemn anything in them, but that they did their treason, before any Resolution of the Church: and have you any resolution of the Church, for this, That the King may be deposed, when he is excommunicated ? If you have, you are in a better forwardness then they, and you may undertake anything, as soon as you will, that is, as soon as you can. For you have as good opinions already, and as strong authorities, That a King of another Religion then Roman, is in the state of an excommunicate person, before Sentence, as you have for this, That an Excommunicate King may be deposed ; And would you think it a just cause of Martyrdom, to aver, that the King is already under excommunication ?

14 And (to proceed farther in Christ's Instruction ) are these things said of you for Christ's sake? Are you (if you be called Traitors for refusing the Oath) reproved for any part of his Commandments? If it were for exercising your Priestlie functions, you might have some color, since all your Catholic Religion, must be the only Christian Religion. But can that state which labors watchfullie and zealouslie for the promouing of Christ's glory in all other things, be said to oppose Christ, or persecute him in his Members, for imputing traiterous inclinations to them, who abhor to confirm their Alleageance by a just Oath?

15 Lastly, can you say, you suffer as Christians, that is (as Christ there intended) for Christian faith, which is principally the matter of Martyrdom? Aquinas cites this, out of Maximus, The Catholic faith is the mother of martyrdom. And he explicates it thus, That though martyrdom be an act of fortitude, and not of faith, yet as a civil man will be valiant to defend Justice, as the Object of his valor, so doth a Martyr, faith. If then to refuse this Oath, be an object for a Martyrs fortitude, it must be because it opposes some point of faith, and faith is that, which hath been believed ever, and everywhere ; And how can that be so matter of faith, which is under disputation, and perplexity with them, and the contrary whereof we make account, that we see by the light of Nature and Scriptures, and all means conducing to a divine and moral certitude?

16 Leo the first, in an Epistle to the Emperor, by telling what hath been, informs • ummarilie and soundly, what should be a just cause of Martyrdom. None of the Martyrs, says he, had any other cause of their suffering, but the confession of the true Divinity, and true humanity in Christ. And this was then the Integrity of faith, in both acceptations; All, and sound. Which is neither impaired in the extent, nor co • rupted in the purity, by anything proposed in the Oath.

17 But as Chrysostom expounding that place of Jeremiah, Domus Dei facta est spelunca Hyaenae, applies it to the Priests of the Jews, as hardest of all, to be converted, so may we apply it to the Priests of the Romans, who abhor the Oath, and deter their Scholars. For, the Hyena, says Chrysostom, hath but one back bone, and cannot turn except it turn all at once. So have these men, one back bone, the Church; (for so says Bellarmine, if we were a greed of that, we should soon be at an end :) and this Church is the Pope; And they cannot turn, but all at once, when he turns; and this is the Integrity of the faith they talk of. And, as that Father, adds of the Hyena, Delectantur cadaueribus ; they are delighted with impious provocations to the effusion of blood, by suggesting a false and imaginary martyrdom.

18 The third and last just ground of martyrdom, of those which we mentioned, is Ecclesiastic Immunity, which is of two sorts; one inherent, and Natiue, and connatural to the Church, and the other, Accessory, and such, as for t • e furtherance and advancement of the worship of God, Christian Princes, in performing a religious duty, have afforded and established. Of the first sort are, preaching the word, administering the Sacraments, and applying the Medicinal censures. And if any, to whose charge God hath committed these, by an ordinary calling, loose his life in the execution thereof, with Relation to the cause, we may justly esteem him a martyr. And so in the second kind, if only for a pious and dutiful admonition to the Prince, to continue those Liberties to the Church, without which she cannot well do her offices, he should incur a deadly displeasu • e, he were also a Martyr.

19 And if the Roman Priests could transfer upon themselves this title to Martyrdom, due to defenders of either of these Immunities, yet by refusal of this Oath, which is an implied affirming of some doct • ine contrary to it, they forfait that interest by ob • ruding, as matter of Ch • istian faith, that which is not so: For Baronius himself (as once before we had occasion to say) distinguishes the defense of the liberties of the Church, from the Catholic faith; and yet he and many others, makes the defense of these immunities the object of Martyrdom: so various and uncertain is the doctrine of defending those privileges, whose ground and foundation they cannot agree upon.

20 And as all right to the crown of Martyredome, growing from any of these three titles, perishes by their refusal, for the reasons before expressed: so doth it also upon this ground, that he which refuses to defend his life by a lawful act, and entertains not those ouertures of escape, which God presents him, destroys himself, especially if his life might be of use and advantage to others. For when the Prison was opened to Paul and Silas, the learned Expositors excuse his stay there, by no other way, then that it appears, that he had a revelation of God's purpose, that he should convert the Keeper; for otherwise not to have hastened his escape, had been to abuse God's mercy by not using it.

21 Those laws from which these conclusions are deduced, that if a man receive a Corporal injury, and remit the offense, yet the state may pursue it against the trespasser, because no man is Lord of himself: and that a covenant from a man, that if you find him in your ground you may beat him, is void upon the same reason, Intimate thus much to this purpose, That no man by law of nature may deliver himself into a danger which he might avoid.

22 How many acts of good and meritorious nature, if they had all due circumstances, have been vitiated by Indiscretion, and changed from nourishment to poison? of which Cassianus hath am • ss'd many useful examples, and made all his second collation of them. Of which I will remember one h • pning about his own time. Herō which had lived fifty years austerely in a Desert, trusting indiscreetely an illusion of an evil spirit, threw himself down into a Well; and when he was taken out, and in such torment with those bruses, as killed him within three days, yet he believed that he had done well, though the rest believed him to be as Cassianus says, Biothanatum, a sel • e-murderer.

23 How deeply, and how irremediably doth this indiscretion possess many others, whom themselves only, and a few illuders of their weaknesses, esteem to be Martyrs, for provoking the execution of just laws against them? For what greater Indiscretion can there be, or what more treacherous betraying of hims • lfe, then to die in despite of such a Princes mercy, as at once directs him to understand his duty to himself, and to his Prince: and shows him, that his own preservation is a natural duty; and that he may not neglect it in any cause, but where it appears evidently, Catholiquely, and indisputably (amongst them to whose instruct • on he ought to submit himself) that God may be glorified in it; And that his obedience to the King was borne in him, and therefore was once, without all question, due, & could not be taken away, without his consent, who is damnified by the loss of a Subject; at least by such a li • igious Authority, as is yet in Disputation, What it is, whence it comes, and how it resides in him, and how it is executed.

24 For as a man may be felo de se, by destroying himself by our Law; And fur de se, by departing, and stealing himself away, from him to whō his service is due, by Imperial law: so he may be proditor de se, by the law of Nature, if he descend from the Dignity of humanity, & submit himself to an usurpation, which he ought to resist, which is; All violence and danger which he might avoid.

25 And since, if the King would pardon him, upon doing of any act, which depended upon his own will, he were guilty of his death, if he refused it, he is so also in this case, since he can propose to himself no such restraint as binds his will; For scruples, and things in Opinion and Disputation, do not bind in this c • se; Of which we shall have proper occasion to speak in the next Chapter.

26 Let us then proceed further, to that which gives the form, and measure, and merit, even to Martyrdom it-self, which is Charity. And this is not meant only of Charity, as it is a Theologall virtue, and unites us in an earnest love to God, which is, Charitas patriae, but also as from that fountain is derived upon all his creatures, which is Charitas viae : For so Saint John says, of this charitable act of which we speak, Greater love then this no man hath, when he bestoweth his life for his friend: Which also appears out of that History recorded of Nicephorus: who being brought to the place where he was to receive the Crown of Martyrdom, and seeing Sapri • ius, between whom and him, there had before some bitternesses and enmity broke forth, fall down before him, and beg a Pardon and reconcilement, was so much elated with this glory of Martyrdom, that uncharitably he disdained to admit any reconciliation. In punishment of which uncharitableness, he lost his whole hope and victory: For the spirit of God forsook him, and he Apostated from his Faith: So that Charity is justly esteemed the form of Martyrdom.

27 And is there any Charity in this Doctrine, or in this act of Refusall ? Is there any to yourself? (For, at least in spiritualibus, Charity begins at home ) when at once you divorce that body which your Parents prepared, from that Soul which God infused and married to it: and so lea • e, not only to be men, and to be Subjects, but to be Priests, and benefactors to that cause, which you hinder by this pretence of loving it. How much opportunity of Merit, even in advancing the Catholic cause, which to you is so certain, do you loose, by exposing yourself to certain ruin, upon uncertain foundations? Is there any charity to the Church, or party, or faction, which you have in this Kingdom? towards whom the King brought with him so much tenderness, that he cast in a dead sleep all bloody laws, and in a slumber all pecuniarie laws which might offend, & aggrieue them. Is it charitably done towards them, that by your unnecessary act, their peace be interrupted, his Majesty's sweetness distasted, his softness endured, and those fair impressions which he had admitted, That civil obed • ence might consist with your Religion, defaced and obliterated? And that to all these should succeed, jealousies in him, imputations upon them, and dutiful solicitations from his Parliament, & Co • nsaile, and Subjects of all ranks, to awaken his laws against these suspicious men?

28 Was it charitably done of that Priest, who apprehending a general inclination of taking the Oath, advanced it so far, as to make a Declaration that it was lawful, and never re • ract • ng that opinion, yet would die in the • efusall the • eof, because it seemed not expedient to him, to take it then ; and so to cast snares and tortures upon thei • consciences, who were before in possessiō of a peaceable, & (by his own testimony) a just • esolu • ion?

29 When S. Paul uses that phrase, he expounds the word Expedient, by Profitable and by Edifying : And hath the example of his death profited and edified that Church as much, as the perplexities certainly grown in Catholic consciences thereby, and those exasperations, and bitternesses occasioned, by all probability in the state, by that perverse and peevish behavior, may shake and tempest it?

30 I do not think that they would have denied him to have been a Martyr, if he had been executed upon the Statute against Priests, though he had before taken the oath. If therefore the taking of the oath cannot vitiate and annul martyrdom, the • efusing it cannot const • tute martyrdom.

31 And if you will make the difference on • lie by reason of the Popes Breue, which perchance came between his first resolution, and his last, then you reduce your Martyrdom to a more slippery and more dangerous • istresse then before: For as before you quitted all your benefit and interest to martyrdom, for having exercised Priestly functions, and procla • med and solaced yourself wi • h this, that you died for refusing the oath; so now you wa • ne • hat, and stick to a worse title, which is, obedience to an • ncertaine and suspicious Breue; For, for your first ti • le, which is preaching of the Catholic faith, you have the entire and vnamine consent and concurrence of the whole Christian Church; which always confesses, that the profession of the Catholic faith, is, a true and just cause of Martyrdom; though she do not confess, that that which you teach, is that Cathol • que Faith, but for that Title you had also the consonance and agreement of all the Roman Church. And for your second claim, which is, the defense of the Popes temporal Jurisdiction, by refusing this oath, you had some voices of great authority in that Church, to encourage you, though far too weak, either to blot out a natural truth, or to make an indifferent, or perplexed point so necessary to you, as to dy for it. But for this third title to martyrdom, which arises frō obedience to the Breues, which are matters of fact, & subject to a thousand infi • mities & nullities, whoever justly grounded a necessity of dying, upon thē, or added the comfort of martyrdom to such a precipitatiō?

32 Thus doth Aquinas argue against a far better Title to martyrdom, then this is: Though virginity be more precious then life, yet if a virgins should be condemned to be deflowered, Occasione fidei Christianae, because she was a Christian, though all those conditions, which we noted in our Sauiors prohibition, and instruction, concurred in her case, That she were no busy body in provoking, That she were persecuted, and that unjustly, And with relation and despite to Ch • ist, and so she suffered a • a Christian, yet, says he, this were no Martyrdom. Yet he assigns not the reason to be, because she died not, but because Martyrdom is a testimony, by which it is made evident to all, that the Martyrs love Christian faith above all things, and it cannot appear by this act of hers, whether she suffer this for the love of Christian faith, or for contempt of chastity. But in this act of dying for obedience to the Breues, there is by many degrees less manifestation, that they die for Christian Faith, which is not in question; and there appear evident impressions of human respects, which would vitiate a better title to martyrdom, and of such unnatural dereliction of themselves, as I do not see how they could escape being self-murderers, but that their other • reasons, and condemnations for them, make their executions just.

33 And besides that, Bellarmine makes this hard shift, and earnest propenseness to die, no good sign of a good cause, or of a true martyrdom (for thus he makes his gradations, That the Anabaptists are forwardest, and the Calvinists next, and the Lutherans very slack : So that he makes the vehemency of the p • ofessors, in this kind, some testimony of the ilnesse of the Religion) we may also observe, that all circumstances (except the main point, with which we intercharge one another, which is Here • ie ) by which they labor to deface and infirm the zeal of our side in this point • and to take from them, all comfort of martyrdom, do appear in them directly or implicitly, in this denying of civil obedience.

34 And because we may boldly trust his malice in gathering them, that he will omit none we will take them as they are objected against us in Feuardentius the Minorite: A man of such dexterity and happiness in conuer • ing to the Roman Faith, that all Turquy and the Indies would not be matter enough for him to work upon one year, if he should proceed with them in the same pace, as he doth with the Minister of Geneva : For meeting him once upon a time by chance, and falling into talk with him, in the person of a Catholic Doctor, he dispatches a Dialogue of some eight hundred great leaves, and reduces the poor Minister, who scarce ever stands him two blows, from one thousand four hundred Heresies : And as though he had but drawn a Curtain, or opened a box, and shown him catholic Religion, he leaves him as • ound, as the Council of Trent.

35 First therefore in this matter of Martyrdom, he takes a promise of the Minister, That he will be dilig • nt hereafter, from being amazed at the outward behavior of men which suffer death. By which d • rection & good counsel, the confident fashion and manner of any Jesuit at his execution, shall make no such impression in us, as to produce argu • ments of his innocence. After this, he says, that our men are not martyrs, Because they have departed from the C • urch, in which they were baptized, and have not kept their promise made in Baptism • , but are therefore Apostates and Antichrists. Another reason he assigns against them, because they have been put to death for conspiracies, rebellions, tumults, and civil Wars against lawful Princes, and that therefore they have been proceeded against in Ordinary form of Justice, as Traitors. And again, he says, They have been justly executed for making, and diuulging libels against Princes. And for Acts against a Canon of the Eliberitane Council, of which I spoke before. And lastly, this despoiles us of the benefit of Martyrdom in his account, Because we offer our selves to dangers, and punish • ents, seeking for honor out of misery, and blown up with ambition and greediness of vain glory. Thus far Feuardentius charges us.

36 And is it not your case also, to for • ait your Martyrdom upon the same circumstances? Are not many of youd parted • ro • your promise in baptism to our Chu • ch? or did those which undertook for you, ever intend this forsaking? and this act of depar • ing is by Feuardentius, made an Essentiall circumstance, abstract, and independen • and incohaerent with that of the Catholic Church, for that is another alone by it self.

37 And have not you been proceeded with, in Ordinary course of Justice, as Traitors, for Rebellions, and Conspiracies, and Tumults ? And after so many protestations so religiously deliue • ed, so vehemently i • erated, so prodigally sealed with blood, and engaging your Martyrdom upon that iss • e, that you never intermeddled with matters of state, nor had any other scope or mark of all your desires and ende • ours, but the replan • ation of Catholic Religion, hath not the Recorder and mouth of all the English Jesuits, confessed • (upon a mistaking, that the euennesse of his Majesty's disposition might be shaked by this insinuation,) That in the Sentence of Excommunication against Queen Elizabeth, the Popes relating to a statute in England, respected the Actual right of his Majesty's mother, and of him, and proceeded for the removal of that Queen, whom they held an usurper, in favor of the true inheritors oppressed by her, not only by spiritual, but temporal arms, also, as against a public Malefactor, and • ntruder. And having thus like an indiscrete Advocate, preuaricated for the Pope, doth he not as much betray all his own complices, when he adds, This doth greatly justify the endeavours and desires of all good Catholic people, both at home, and abroad, against her, their principal meaning being ever known to have been, the deliverance and preferment of the true heir, most wrongfully kept out, and unjustly persecuted for righteousness sake. Did you intend nothing else, but Catholic Religion, and yet was the desire, and endeavor of all good Catholiq • es at home, and abroad, to remove her, and plant ano • her, and that by virtue of a statute in England ? Did the Popes in their Bulls, intimate any illegitimation, or usurpation, or touch upon any such statute? Or d • d they go about to advance the right Heir in the Spanish • nuasion ? or was the way of the right Heir Catholiquely prepared by Dolemans book?

38 Or was the Author thereof no good Catholic? For these Conspiracies, and for the same Authors monthly Libels, which cast foul aspersions upon the whole cause in defense whereof they are undertaken, and published, are your pre • ences to Martyrdom unjust and inualid, if your Feuardentius gives us good rules. So are they also because you seek it against the Eliberitane Council; That is, By ways not found in Scriptures, nor practiced by the Apostles : And last of all, b • cause you see • e it with such intemperate hunger, and vain-glory, Cultum ex Miseria quaerentes (as your Friar accuses our Churches) and hunting and pursuing your own death; First, over the tops of mountains, the Popes Spiritual power, then through thick and entangling woods, without ways in or out, that is his Temporal power, and then through dark caves and dens of his Chamber Epistles, his Breues, ready, rather then not die, to de • end his personal defects, and human infirmities. And all these circumstances • are virtually and radically enwrapt in this one refusal of the Oath, which therefore alone doeth defeat all your pretence • to Martyrdom.

39 And though it may perchance truly be said by you, that all those persons which the Reformed Churches have Enregistred in their Martyrologies, are not certainly and truly Martyrs, by those Rules to which we bind the signification of the word in this Chapter, and in which you account, all which die by way of Justice, for advancing the Roman Doctrine or Dignity, by what seditious way so ever, to be true Martyrs, yet none of them hath ever transgressed so fa • re, as your Example would warrant them. For, not to speak of Baronius his Martyrologe, where very many are enrolled, which lived their Natural time, and without any external persecu • ion for their faith, and where very many of the old Testament are recorded, besides those which a • e canonized in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and many which are mentioned in that Epistle are left out by him, not only Enoch, Noah, and s • ch other as suffered not death in their bod • es, as Martyrs, but even Abel whom he might have been bold to call a Martyr • to omit him, I say, why doth our Countryman amongst you, which hath lately cōpiled an English Martyrologe, present a Calender • in which of almost 500 whom he names, scarce 6 • are Martyrs ; and of the rest, some were not of our Nation, as Constantine the Emperor, whose fe • stiuall he appoints • 1 of May; And some never saw this Country, as Pope Gregory, whom he celebrates 25 December. And of those which did suffer death the credit and estimation of as many as died, within 200 years of Gregory the I. is much impaired by one to whom I think, he will subscribe, who says, That in that 200 years, our Nation had no Martyrs, that commonly are known. And those whom he reckons, must of necessity be known to them, whom that knowledge concerns, as it did Parsons, when he writ that book, since the knowledge thereof was so obvious & easy, that this Author professes, that all their Histories are in Authors approved or permitted by the S • a Apostolic, & that he cites no Apocryphal legend, nor fabulous History, that may be suspected of the least Note of falsity, or error whatsoever. But he which shall suruay his Catalogue of Authors, will find it safer not to believe him, then to be bound by him, to believe all them to be free from the least note of falsity of error. For we shall be somewhat hard to believe this extreme innocence, and inte • gritie in Surius, and in Saunders, or in Cornelius Tacitus. And many of his own profession will hardly believe that Gregory, and Bede were free from all falsity or error, And himself, I believe, would not stand to this, if we should press him with some places, out of Parsiensis, and Westmonasteriensis, and Walsingham, and Polidore Virgil: all which have been tried in the furnace o • this Divine Critique, & are pronounced by him free from the least note of falsity, or error whatsoever. But if these Authors were known to Parsons, and that he pronounced truly, that that 200 years was without Martyrs, then, not only the Abbess of Eli's hear • sman, S. Alno • h, sla • ne abou • 670 in hatred of Christian Religion, and celeb • ated 27 Febru. but the first Christian King of the Northumbers, S. Edwyn, slain all • o in hatred of our Religion Anno 634. and observed 4. Octob. with diverse other after that time, must be expunged out of this new Martyrologe. So also must that Author confess himself to have been too forward, in canonizing S. Hugh for a Martyr, whom at 10 years of age, the Jews crucified at Lincoln, Anno 1255. since Parsons had told him before, that after Becket, which was An. 1171. our Church had no more Martyrs in 400 years.

39 But for all this, it is not your error, and vicious example which shall excuse us, if at any time we have inserted such, as Martyrs, which were not precisely so. For if we have committed any such slip in story and matter of fact, there is not that danger in our transgression, which is in you, because you, by giving them that title, assure the woe • ld of a certain and infallible present salvation, by virtue of that suffering, and that they have title thereby to our Adoration, and are in present possession of the office of Aduocation for us. Out of which confidence, I have seen at some Executions of Trayterous Priests, some bystanders, le • uing all old Saints, pray to him whose body lay there dead; as if he had more respect, and better access in heaven, because he was a stranger, then those which were familiar, had.

CHAP. VIII. That there hath been as yet no fundamental and safe ground given, upon which, those which have the faculties to hear Confessions, should inform their own Consciences, or instruct their penitents; That they are bound to adventure the heavy and Capitall penalties of this Law, for refusal of this Oath. And that if any Man have received a scruple against this Oath, which he cannot depose and cast off, the Rules of their own Casuists, as this case stands, incline, and warrant them, to the taking thereof.

S Ince by refusal of this Oath, which his Maiest • e hath rather made an Indulgence then a Vexation, by withdrawing some clauses of bitterness, and of strict inquisition into the whole Catholic party, which the • resh contemplation of the Powder-Treason, had justly urged the Lower-house of Parliament to insert therein: And studying to find a way by which he might discharge both duties to God and his Kingdom, would in his Princely and Pastoral • care, provide a trial, by which those which were corrupted with the poison which broke out in those Treasons, might be distinguished from Catholics of better temper and more due • ifull affections towards him, and our Peace, from which sort of Catholics, after so many provocations, by persons of the same persuasion in Religion, he seemed loath to withdraw those favors and graces, which he had ever since his coming expressed towards them. Since, I say, by refusal thereof, both the Catholics lay a heavy scandal, and dangerous aspersions upon the cause, and declare themselves more slavish to the Pope, and consequently apter to defection from the Prince, then the Subjects of foreign States now are, or the Subjects of this Kingdom were heretofore, And also his Majesty, and all those which affect his safety, which not only inuolues but procures and causes theirs, may justly incline at last to think, that the very ground, and principles of that Religion nourish these rebellious humors, and so find it necessary for preservation of the whole body, to apply Medicines more corrosiue and sharp to that member which appears so corrupt and dangerous, And every Catholic in particular, to whom this Oath is offered, by re • usall • orfaits his liberty, & by per • inacie therein, incurres other mulcts and penalties, It is therefore the duty of every Catholic, out of his religious zeal to the cause, drawn into suspicion thereby, and out of his Natural obligation for preserving his life, fame, and fortune, all which are endangered by this refusal, not to adventure the loss of th • se, but upon Evidence of much clearness, and grounds of strong assuredn • sse, and constancy.

2 And as it is certain, that at the first promulging of this oath, they had no such ground, nor Evidence (for then, that light must have been upon them all, and so many good and earnest maintain • rs of that Religion, would not have inclined to the Oath, if they had had such Evidence against it) so also after some scruples were iniected, and the tenderness of some consciences vitiated and distracted with some doubts, and that it had been submitted to Disputation, and consulting amongst themselves, and so passed all those furnaces of Examination, it was held lawful, and accordingly many took it. So that neither by the Euident and undeniable authority of Nature, or Scripture, nor by Deductions and conclusions necessarily derived and issuing from thence, any Conscience had su • ficient assurance, to incur these dangers.

3 If since, by some arguments of probability, and of Conueniencie, or by some propositions propagated & deduced from those first principles o • Nature, and Scripture, by so many descents and Generations, that it is hard to try whether they do truly come from that root, or no, any Conscience have slackened it self, and so be straied, and dissolved, and scattered, by this remi • nesse, and vacillation, it ought rather to recollect it self, and return to those first ingraf • ed principles, then in this dissolute and loose distraction, to suffer an anxious perplexity, or desperately to arrest it self upon that part, which their own Rules given to reduce men in such deuiations, and settle them in su • h waverings, cannot assure him to be well chosen, nor deliver and extricate him, in those laborinths.

4 For, let the first root and parent of all propositions in this matter of Obedience, be, that which we know by nature, That we must obey such a power, as can preserve us in Peace and Religion, and that which we find in Scr • ptures, Let every Soul be subject unto your higher powers ; And let us draw down a Pedigree, and Genealogy of reasons and conclusions derived from this. The eldest, and that to which most reverence will belong, will be the Interpr • tation of the Fathers upon this place, which is (as your own men confess,) That the Apostle speaks rather of Regal and Secular power, then of that which you call Ecclesiastic.

5 Let us then pursue the line, of which the first end is; Kings must be obeyed. It follows, Therefore they must be able to command justly; therefore they must have some to enable and instruct them; therefore they must do according to their instruction; therefore if they do not, they are subject to their corrections; therefore if they be incorrigible, they are no longer Kings; and therefore no subject can swear perpetual Obedience, to his person, who by his own fault, and his superiors Declaration, may grow to be no King.

6 Now, as no man can believe the last of these propositions, as roundly and constantly, as the first, because though it seem to be the child of the first, yet in itself, or in some of the mean parents by the way, there may be fallacies which may corrupt and abastard it; so is there no other certain rule to try it, but to return to the first principles, and see if it consist with them. For if it destroy the first, it degenerates and rebels, and we may not adhere to it. And if the first may still consist without it, though this may seem orderly and naturally deduced from thence, yet it imposes not so much necessity upon us, as the first doth; for that binds us peremptorily; this, as it is circumstanced and conditioned.

7 And though these circumstances give it all the life it hath, so that to make it obligatory, or not so, depends upon them, yet it is impossible to discern those circumstances, or vnentangle our consciences by any of those Rules, which their Casuists use to give, who to stengthen the possession of the Roman Church, have bestowed more pains, to reach how strongly a conscience is bound to do according to a Scruple, or a Doubt, or an Opinion, or an Error, which it hath conceived, then how it might depose that Scruple, or clear that Doubt, or better that Opinion, or rectify that Error.

8 For, That we may at once lay open the infirmity, and insufficiency of their Rules, and apply the same to our present purpose; What use and profit, can those Catholics, which doubt whether they may take that Oath, make of that Rule, that they must follow in doubtful points, that opinion which is most common and general ? For, though this be understood of the opinion of such men as are intelligent and understanding, and conversant in the matter in question, yet oftentimes, amongst them, both sides say, This is the common opinion ; and who can judge it? Yea many circumstances change the common opinion: For (says Azorius ) it falls out often, that that which was not the common opinion a few years since now is; And that that which is the common opinion of Divines in one Country, is not so in another ; As in Spain and Italy, it is the common opinion, That Latreia is due to the Cross, which in France and Germany is not so. And Nauarrus s • ies, That at Rome, no man may say, that the Council is above the Pope, nor at Paris, that the Pope is above the Council. Which division also there is amongst them, in a main point which shakes their Doctrine, of the Popes being immediately from God, since they cannot agree, Whether at the Popes death, his power remain upon the earth, or fly up to heaven. He is a Catholic, and a temperate discreet Author, which notes, That the writings of Catholic men, have something in them which must be allowed to the times when they writ, which being more diligently examined by them which follow, are found exorbitant from the soundness of faith: which he speaks of those that deny, that the laws of civil Magistrates do bind the conscience. And after, • peaking against them which think, That if we undergo the penalty of • he law, we do not sin in the breach thereof (he says) it was the opinion of some Schoolmen, who thought it a glorious matter, and fit to raise them a name, to leave the common and beaten ways; having perchance a delight saucily to provoke, tognaw, to calumniate, & to draw into hatred those powers and authorities which made those laws.

8 And if of late days, The opinion of refusing the Oath, become the more common opinion, it is upon some of these circumst • nees, that at these times, when Catholics are called to profess civil obedience, in this place, where Jesuits are in possession of most hearts, to get reputation, or to auile secular Magistracy, they have suddenly made it the more common : for they can raise the Exchange in an hour, and advance and cry down an opinion at their pleasure.

But to determine of mortal sin (as the taking of this Oath must be, if it be matter enough to adventure these dangers for it) the same Author says well, doth not so much appertain, Ad pulpita Canonistarum, as it doth ad Cathedras Theologorum: and therefore it ought to be tried by the principles of Divinity, not by the circumstanciall rags of Casuists.

But, to go forward with them, if this Common Opinion were certain, and if it were possible to discern it, yet it doth not so bind us, but that we may depart from it, when another opinion is safer : And from that opinion which is safer, we may also in many cases depart. For which • those examples, which Carbo a good Summist alleages, may give us satisfaction, which are, If I doubt of my title to land, I am not bound to restore it (though that were the safest way) because in doubtful matters, Melior est Conditio possidentis. And, but for this help, I wonder with what conscience, the Catholics keep the possession of such lands as belong to the Church ; for they cannot be without some scruples of an unjust title, and it were safest to restore thē. Another example in Carbo is, If my superior command a difficult thing, and I doubt whether he command lawfully or no, though it were safer to obey, yet I am not bound to do so. And he gives a Rule, which will include a thousand examples, That that Rule, That the safest part is to be embraced, is then only true, when by following this safer part, there ensues no notorious detriment. And Soto extends this Doctrine farther, for he says, Though yo • believe the precept of your Superior to be just (which creates Conscientiam Opinantem ) yet you may do against it: Because (says he) it is then only sin to do against your conscience, when to do according to your conscience, is safe, and that no danger to the state, or to a third person, appears therein. So that Tutius in a spiritual sense, that is, in a doubtful matter rather to believe a thing to be sin, then not, must yield to T • tius in a temporal sense, that is, when it may be done without notorious detriment; For when it comes to that, we shall find it to be the common opinion of Casuists, which the same Summist delivers, That there is no matter so weighty, wherein it is not lawful for me, to follow an opinion that is probable, though I leave the opinion which is more probable; yea though it concern the right of another person: as in our case of obedience to the King or the Pope. And then, wheresoever I may lawfully follow an opinion to mine advantage, if I will leave that opinion with danger of my life or notorious loss, I am guilty of all the damage I suffer. For these circumstances make that Necessary to me then, which was indifferent before: the reasons upon which Carbo builds this Doctrine of following a probable opinion, and leaving a more probable, which are, That no man is bound, Ad m • lius & perfectius, by necessity, but as by Counsel: And that this Doctrine hath this commodity, that it delivers godly men, from the care and solicitude, of searching out, which is the more probable opinion • show evidently, that these Rules give no infallible direction to the conscience, and yet in this matter of Obedience, considering the first native certa • ntie of subjection to the King, and then the damages by the refusal to swear it, they incline much more to strengthen that civil obedience, then that other obedience which is plainly enough claimed, by this forbidding of the Oath.

So that in these perplexities, the Casuists are indeed, Nubes Testium : but not in that sense as the holy Ghost used the Metaphor. For they are such clouds of wi • nesses, as their testimony obscures the whole matter. And they use to deliver no more, then may beget farther doubts, that so every man may from the Oracle of his Con • fessors resolution, receive such direction, as shall be fit at that time, when he gives the aunswe • e • Which Nauarrus expresses fully, when he confesses, That having been consulted fifty years before, whether they who defrauded Princes in their customs, were bound to restitution, he once gave an answer in writing: but haui • g recovered that writing back again, he studied twenty years for his own satisfaction, and found no ground whereupon he might rest: And all that while he counseled Confessors, to absolve th • ir penitents, upon this condition: That they should retain a purpose to do so, as they should understand hereafter to be just.

These spiritual Physicians are therefore like those Physicians, which use to erect a figure, by that Minute in which the pat • ents Messenger comes to them, and there • by give their judgment. For the Confessors in England, in such resolutions as these, consider first the Aspects, and Relations, and diverse predominancies of Superiors at that time; and so make their determinations seasonable • and appropriate.

But to insist more closely upon this point in hand, your Simancha speaking out of the law, says; That that witness which deposes anything upon his knowledge, must also declare and make it appear, how he comes to that knowledge. And if it be of a thing belonging to the understanding, he must make it appear by what means, and instrument his understanding was instructed. And that which he assigns for the reason, must be of that nature, that it must certainly, and necessarily conclude and prove it. If then you will subscribe with your blood, or testify by incur • ing equivalent dangers, this Doctrine upon your Knowledge, you must be able to tell the Christian world, how you arri • 'd to this Knowledge. If you will say, you have it Ex Iure Diuino, and mean by that, out of the Scriptures, you must remember that you are bound by Oath never to accept nor inter • rete Scriptures, but according to the vnanime consent of the Fathers. And can you produce such a consent, for the establishing this Doctrine, in interpreting those places of Scripture, which are off • ed for this matter? If you extend this Ius Diuinum, as Bellarmine doeth, not only to Scriptures, but to Natural light and reason, and the Law of Nature, (in which he is no longer a Divine, as he uses to profess himself, but a Canonist, who gave this large interpretation of Ius Diuinum, whereas Divines carry it no further, then to that which God hath commanded or forbidden, as Azorius tells us ) this cannot be so strong and constant, and inflexible a Rule, but that the diverse objects of sense, and images of the fancy, and ways of discourse, will alter and vary it. For though the fi • st notions which we have by the light of nature are certain, yet late conclusions deduced from thence are not so.

If you pretend common consent for your ground, and Criterium, by which you know this truth, and so give it the name of Catholic Doctrine, and say that Faith is to be bound to that, and Martyrdom to be indur'd for Faith, you must also remember, that that which is so called Catholic, is not only a common consent of all persons at one time, but of the Catholic Church ever. For, Quod vbique, quod semper, is the measure of Catholic Doctrine. And can you produce Authors of any elder times, then within six hundred years, to have concur'd in this?

And in these later times, is not that Squadron in which Nauarrus is, of persons and voices enow, to infringe all reasons which are grounded upon this universal consent? He proclaims confidently, That the Pope, take him despoiled and naked, from all that which Princes have bestowed upon him, hath no tempo • all power, Neque supremam, neque mediam, neque infimam. Do no • some Catholics confess, that they are ready to swear to the integrity of the Roman faith, according to the Oath of the Council of Trent, and yet pro • est against this temporal i • risdiction? And doth not another Catholic say, That when a lay man swears Obedience to the Pope, according to that Oath of Pius the fourth, it must be restrained, in his understanding, only to his spiriuall power ? Herein therefore is no universal consent.

And are not they which seem to maintain this temporal power, so divided amongst themselves, that in a mutiny, and civil dissention, they rather wound one another, then any third enemy, when they labor more, to o • erthrow the way, by which this temporal jurisdiction is claimed, then to establish the certainty of the matter it self? And though such things as appear to us, evidently, and presently out of the Scriptures, bind our assent, and belief, though we may dispute about the way and manner, (as no man denies the conception of our blessed Lady, though it be disputed, whether she were conceived with original sin, or without it) And though those things which appear to us out of the first intrinsique light of Nature and reason, claim the same authority in us (as no man doubts whether he have a soul or no, though many dispute whether • e have it by infusion from God, or by propagation from our parents) yet in things further removed, and which are directed by more wheels, and suggestion • , and deducements, we cannot know certainly enough (for so great a use, as to testify them in this fashion, as we speak of) that they are, except we know first how, and in what manner they are. As if a man be convented before a Judge, • especially when he is bound in conscience not to answer, except he be his competent Judge, as you teach when Ecclesiastic persons are called to Secular tribunals) he cannot be sure that man is his competent Judge except he know first, whether he have that authority, as Ordinary, or by special Commission. Though therefore in this point in question, for a pious credulity, and general intention to advance the dignity of the Church of Rome, a Catholic may have an indigested and raw opinion, that this power is in the Pope, yet when he examines himself, and calls himself to account, he must first know how it is, before he can resolve, that it is. And though he may err in the manner, by which he beleeeues it to be in him, yet certainly he must arest himself upon someone of those ways, by which the Pope is said to have that Jurisdiction, or else he doth not answer his conscience, that asks him how he knows it? and if his conscience do not ask him, he is in too drowsy and stupid a fit to be a Martyr.

Since therefore all his authority must be Direct or Indirect: Ordinary or Extraordinary : as he is Pope or not as he is Pope, whosoever will seal with his blood the auerment of this Jurisdiction, auerres one of these ways, how it comes to him: Which being so, he cannot justly be called a Martyr ; since he only is a Martyr, whom all the Churc • estee • es to be so. And he which should die, for maintenance of Direct power, should never be admitted into such a Martyrologe, as the favorers of Indirect power should compile; nor these, into the other. And if two should come to execution together, upon occasion of denying this Oath, of which one refused it, because he thought the Pope Direct Lord, the other Indirect, if they forbore hard words to one another at that time, doubtless in their consciences they would impute to one another, the same errors, and the same falsehoods, of which they inter-accuse one another in their books, and neither would believe the other to be a true Martyr. And might not a dispassioned and equal spectator apply to them both severally, that Rule of the law, That to that, which is forbidden to be had by one way, one may not be admitted by another? Especially since a Lawyer which hath written on that side, takes the advantage of this Rule, against Princes, when he says, That they have no Jurisdiction upon Clergy men's goods, because this were indirectly, to have jurisdiction upon their persons, which being, says he, forbidden to be had one way, may not be permitted another. It was said to Pompey, when he wore such a scarfe about his leg, as Princes wore about their head, That it was all one in which place he wore the Diademe, and that his Ambition appeared equally in either. And so ought this indirect power, though it pretend more tamenesse, and modesty, aue • t men, as much as the other: for Bellarmine can find as good an Argument for Peters Supremacy, out of Christ's washing his feet, as his appointing him to kill and eat, which is, says he, the office of the Head. So that from head to foot, all arguments serve his turn.

But to turn a little back to this point of knowledge, since the conscience is by Aquinas his definition, Ordo scientiae ad aliquid, and an Act by which we apply our knowledge to some particular thing, the Conscience ever presumes Knowledge : and we may no • , (especially in so great dangers as these) do anything upon Conscience, if we do it not upon • nowledge. For it is not the Conscience it self that binds us, but that law which the Conscience takes knowledge • of, and presents to our understanding. And as no • gnorance excuses us i • it be of a thing which we ought to know, and may attain to: • o no misconceiued knowledge binds our conscience in these dangers, if it be of a matter not pertinent to us, or to which we have no such certain way of attaining, that we can justly presume our Knowledge to be certain.

For though in the questions raised by Schoolmen of the Essence and Counsels of God, and of the Creation, and fall, and Ministry of Angels, and such other removed matters, to the knowledge whereof, God hath afforded us no way of attaining, a man may have some such knowledge, or opinion, as may sway him in an indifferent action, by reasons of conveniency, and with an apparent Analogy, with other points of more evident certainty: yet no man may suffer anything for these points, as for his Conscience, because, though he have lighted upon the truth, yet it was not by any certain way, which God appointed for a constant and Ordinary means to find out that truth.

And if this refusal of the Oath, and implication of a power to depose the King, be a matter pertinent to us, that we are bound to know it, ( As all men in general are bound to know the principles and elements of the Christian faith, and the general precepts of the law, And every particular man is bound to know, those things which pertain to his state and office ) Then every Subject which doth not know this, is in an inexcu • able and damnable ignorance; which was the case of as many, as did at first, or do yet, allow the taking of the oath • Or if it be not so immediate to us, as those principles of faith, or as the duties of every particular man (for though we know naturally that Princes must be obeyed, yet, you will say, some cases may occur, in which we may not obey) then there must be some certain way for us to a • taine to the knowledge thereof by discourse & industry, if we may adventure these dangers for it, and we may not adventure them, till we have by that industry sought it out. For, if we shall say, that some things are to be held by a man, De fide, of which he shall still be under an invincible ignorance, though he bestow and employ all possible diligence, (as it is said of Cyprian, that be did err in matter of faith, after he had used all possible industry ) then contrary opinions in matter of faith may be just ca • ses of Martyrdom, and yet one of these opinions must of necessity be Heretical. For if Cyprian were under an invincible ignorance, he was bound to do according to his erroneous conscience • since he had no way to rectify it. So that he must have died for his Conscience in that case, that is, for such an opinion, as all his Adversaries were bound to die for the con • rarie.

But since this seems incongruous and absurd, the other opinion will stand safe and vncontrouled, that our Conscience, whose office is to apply our knowledge to something, and to present to us some law that binds us in that case, cannot bind us to these heavy incommodities, for any matter, but that, which we therefore believe that we know, because there are certainly some means naturally and ordinarily provided for the knowledge thereof; and that we have used those means.

Now, in a man, in whom there are all these just preiudices and prescriptions, That Nature teaches him to bey him that can preserve him, That the Scriptures provoke him to this obedience, That the Fathers inte • prete these Scriptures of Regal power, That subsequent acts, and Experience teaches, Regal power to be sufficient for that end; what can arise, strong enough to defeat all these, or plant a knowledge contrary to this, by any evidence so near the first Principles, as this is grounded upon?

If it were possible that anything could be produced at last, by which all these rea • ons should be destroyed, yet, till that were done (which is not yet done) both the priority and birthright of the • easons and rules of nature, which are on that side (for Rules are elder then the excep • ion) and the dangers which would overtake, and entrap • and depress such as refused the Oath, must prevail against anything yet appearing on this part: for thus far the Casuists agree, as in the better opinion, That although th • t which they cal Metum iustum, which is, such a fear as may fall upon a constant man, and yet not remove his habit of Constancy, doth not excuse a man from doing any Euil, yet that is meant of such an Evil, as is Evil naturally, and accompanied with all his circumstances: for, though no such fear can excuse me in an absolute denial to restore anything, w • ich w • s committed to my trust, yet I maybe excused f • om delivering a sword committed to me, if I have s • ch a just fear, that the owner will therewith offend me or another. And th • y account not only the fear of death, to be this just fear, which may excuse in transgressions, in anything which is not naturally evil, but the fear of Torture, Imprisonment, Exile, Bondage, Loss of temporal goods, or the greater part thereof, or infamy, and dishonor. And not only when these are imminent upon our selves, but upon our wives and children: And not only when a law hath directly pronounced them, but when the State threatens them, that is, is exasperated and likely to p • oceed to t • ese inflictions. And though Canonists are more severe and rigid in the observation of thei • law, yet the common opinion of Divines is, That this just fear excuses a man from the breaking of any human law, whether Civil or Ecclesiastic: an • that none of those laws bind us to the observation thereof, in danger of death, or these distresses, except in this case, that these punishments are threatened to us, because we will not break the law in contempt and despite of that authority, which made the law : for then no fear can excuse us, because the obedience to Superior authority in general; is moral and natural ; and therefore the power it self may not be contemned; though in case of this just fear, I may lawfully think, that that power which made the law, meant not to bind me in particular, in these heavy inconveniences.

To apply this to our present purpose, since this Oath is not Naturally Evil, so as no circumstance can make it good (for then, it would have appeared so at first, and the Pope himself could by no Iudult or Dispensation tolerate it, which, I think, they will not say) nor offered in contempt of the Church of Rome, or in such sort as it should be a sign of returning to our Religion, or abandoning the Roman proof • sion, but only for the Princes security, certainly though the refusal thereof were commanded by any law of human constitution, and so it became Evil because it was Forbidden, yet in these afflictions certainly to be endured by the letter of an express law, by every Refuser, and in this bitterness and exasperation of the whole State, against that whole Partie, and the cause of Catholics, the taking of the Oath were so excusable, as the refusing thereof could not be excused. For in such a just Fear, even Divine Positiue Law looses her hold and obligation, of which sort • n • egrity of Confession is by all held to be; and yet such sins may be omitted in confession, as would either Scandalize the Confessor, Endanger the penitent, or Defame a third person. In which the Casuists are so generally concurrent, that we need no particular authorities.

And in the matter of the greatest importance, which can be in that Church, which is the Election of the Pope, and an assurance, that he whom they acknowledge for Pope, is true Pope, which Comitolius (a Jesuit as much more peremptory then the rest of the Jesuits, as they are above all other Friars) says, To be an Article of Faith, and that we are bound to believe the present Pope to be Christ's Vicar, with a Divine and with a Catholic Faith, and that all Decrees of Popes, which annul all Elections, if they appear after, to have been made by Simony, intend no more, but to declare that GOD will never suffer that to be done, or discover it presently (in which opinion, that matter of fact, should so bind our Faith, he is (for anything which I remember to have read) singular, and I had occasion before to name one grea • Doctor of his own Religion, directly contrary to him in the very point.) In these Elections, I say, which induce (by his Doctrine) a Divine • aith, and necessarily, such a probable, and moral certitude, that it were sin in them, who are under the obedience of that Church, not to obey the just Decrees of the present Pope, or quarrel at his Election • The Council of Constance, (as another Jesuit vrges it) hath decreed that this just fear of which we speak, Doth make void any such Election of the Pope. And that, If after the Cardinals are delivered of that fear, which possessed them at the Election, they then ratify and confirm that Pope, yet he is no Pope, but the Election void : So far doeth this just fear (which cannot be denied to be in your case) extend, and upon so solemn, and solid Acts, and Decrees is it able to work, and provide us a just excuse for transgressing thereof.

And in a matter little different from our case, Azorius gives the resolution; That if an heretical Prince commands his Catholic Subiectes to go to Church, upon pain of death or loss of goods, if he do this only because he will have his Laws obeyed, and not to make it Symbolum Hereticae prauitatis, nor have a purpose to discern thereby Catholics from Heretics, they may obey it. And the case in question falls directly and fully within the rule: For this Oath is not offered as a Symbole or • oken of our Religion, nor to distinguish Papists from Protestants, but only for a Declaration and Preseruation of such as are well affected in Civil Obedience, from others which either have a rebellious and treacherous disposition already, or may decline and sink into i • , if they be not upheld and arrested with such a help, as an Oath to the contrary. And therefore by all the former Rules of just fear & this last of Azorius, though there were an evident prohibitory act, against the taking of the Oath, yet it might, yea it ought to be taken • For, agreeable to this, Tolet city • Caietans opinion, with allowance and commendations, That the Declaration of the Church, that subjects may not adhere to their King, if he be excommunicated, extends not to them, if thereby they be brought into fear of their lives, or loss of their goods. For in Capitall matters, says your great Syndicator, it is lawful to redeem the life, per fas & nefas. which must not have a wicked interpretation; and therefore must be meant, whether with, or against any human laws; which he speaks out of the strength and resultance of many laws and Canons there alleged. And therefore it can never come to be matter of Faith, that subjects may depart from their Prince, if this just fear may excuse us from obeying, as these Authors teach; for that never delivers us in matters of so strong obligation as matter of Faith, from which no fear can excuse our departing.

To conclude therefore this Chapter, since later propositions, either Adulterine, or Suspicious, cannot have equal authority, and credit, with the first, and radical truth, much less blot out those certain and evident Anticipations imprinted by nature, and illustrated by Scriptures, for civil obedience, since the Rules of the Casuists • or electing opinions in cases of Doubt, and perplexity are uncertain and flexible, to both sides, since that Conscience, which we must defend with our lives, must be grounded upon such things, as we may, and do not only know, but know how we know them, since these just fears of drawing scandal upon the whole cause, and afflictions upon every particular Refuser, might excuse the transgression of a direct law, which had all her formalities, much more any opinions of Doctors or Canonists, I hope we may now pronounce, That it is the safest, in both acceptations, both of spiritual safety, and Temporal, and in both Tribunals, as well of conscience, as of civil Justice, to take the Oath.

CHAP. IX. That the authority which is imagined to be in the Pope, as he is spiritual Prince, of the Monarchy of the Church, cannot lay this Obligation upon their Consciences: first because the Doctrine it self is not certain, nor presented as matter of faith: Secondly because the way by which it is conveyed to them, is suspicious and dangerous, being but by Cardinal Bellarmine, who is various in himself, and reproved by other Catholics of equal dignity, and estimation.

W Ee may be bold to say, that there is much iniquity, and many degrees of Tyranny, in establishing so absolute and transcendent a spiritual Monarchy, by them, who abhor Monarchy so much, that though one of their greatest Doctors, to the danger of all Kings, say, That the Pope might, if he thought it expedient, contstrain all Christians to create one temporal Monarch over all the world : yet they allow no other Christian Monarchy upon Earth, so pure and absolute, but that it must confess some subjection and dependency. The contrary to which Bellarmine says, is Heretical ; And yet there is no Definition of the Church, which should make it so. And hereby they make Baptism in respect of Soueraintie, to be no better then the body in respect of the soul. For, as the body by inherent corruption vitiates the pure and innocent soul, so they accuse Baptism to cast an Original servitude and frailty upon Soueraintie: which, having been strong and able to do all Kingly offices before, contracts by this Baptism a debility and imperfection, and makes Kings, which before had their Lieutenancie and Vicariate from God, but Magistrates and Vicars to his Vicar, and so makes their Patents the worse by renewing & confirming.

2 Nor do they only deny Monarchy to Kings of the Earth, but they change the state and form of government in heaven it self; and join in Commission with God, some such persons, as they are so far from being sure that they are there, that they are not sure, that ever they were here. For their excuse, that none of those inuocations which are used in that Church, are so directly intended upon the Saints, but that they may have a lawful interpretation, is not sufficient. For words appointed for such uses, must not only be so conditioned, that they may have a good sense, but so, that they may have no ill. So that to say, That God hath reserved to himself the Court of Justice, but given to his Mother, the Court of Mercy, And that a desperate sick person was cured by our Lady, when he had no hope in Physicians, nor much in God, howsoever subtle men may distill out of them a wholesome sense, yet vulgarly and ordinarily they beget a belief, or at least a blind practice derogatory to the Majesty, and Monarchy of God.

3 But for this spiritual Monarchy which they have fancied, I think, that as some men have imagined, and produced into writing, diverse Idaeas, and so sought what a King, a General, an Orator, a Courtier should be, So these men have only Idaeated what a Pope would be. For if he could come to a true and real exercise of all that power which they attribute to him, I doubt not, but that Angel, which hath so long served in the place of being the particular Assistant in the Conclaue, (for, since they afford a particular Tutelar Angel to every College and Corporation, And to the race of Flies and of Fleas, and of Ants, since they allow such an Angel to every Infidel Kingdom, yea to Antichrist, yea to Hell it self, it were very unequal to deny one to this place,) This Angel, I say, would be glad of the room, and become a Suitor to the holy Ghost, to name him in the next Conclaue. For he should not only enlarge his Diocese, and have all the lower world under him, but he shall have those two principal Seraphim which ever attend the Pope, Michael, and Gabriel ; (for, that Gabriel is the second, Victorellus produces two very equal witnesses, The Roman Litanie, and Tassoes Jerusalem. ) And all the particular Angels of all spiritual Societies ; And (because also (as he says) he is Temporal Lord ) all the Archangels, and Principalities, which govern particular estates, • hall concur to his Guard and assistance.

4 As Nero had an officer A voluptatibus, So, it seems, have the Popes, A titulis. And flatterers have always a Complacencie and Delight in themselves, if they can bestow a style and Title upon a great Prince, because therein they think they contribute something to his greatness; since Ceremony is a main part of Greatness, and Title, a great part of that. And now they had observed, that all the chief Titles of the Pope had been attributed to others, and were in their Na • ure and use communicable; For all the Apostles, and all the Disciples of Christ, are called Vicarij Christi ; And this name will not serve his turn, if it were peculiar to himself. For, as his Victoria teaches us, This Vicariate doth not enable him to do all things which are not expressly forbidden him (as some do think) but only such things as are expressly granted unto him, and therefore his claim by that Title will be too strict. And the name of Universal Bishop, was given to Cyprian, when he was styled, Totius orbis Praeses. And in that sense it may justly be given; For as a Physician or Surgeon, which hath taken into his Cure any one part of a man's body, either corrupted, or in danger of being so, may justly be said to look to, and preserve the body of such a man; So that Bishop which governs well one Church, is therein a Bishop of the whole Church, & benefits the whole mystical body thereof, by reason of the strong relation, & indissoluble cōnexion of all the parts, with one another, and to the head.

5 And for that style of Pontifex Maximus, which either is not due to the Pope, or else is so sublime and transcendent a name, as Bellarmine could bring it within no Rule nor Predicament, when he makes up the Canon of the Popes fifteen Titles, by all and everyone of which, he says, his Primacie is evidently collected; They saw it given to At • ana • ius, in Ruffinus. And the name of Pope was so communicated, that not only every Bishop was called a Pope, but Cyprian, The Pope. Quem Christiani suum Papam vocant. In the estimation of which name, they have often fluctuated and wa • uered. For, almost for nine hundred years, they afforded it to all: Then they restrained it to the Bishops of Rome, to which purpose Biel upon the Canon of the Mass, cites diverse Canons, though far from the matter.

6 And ever since the Reformation of the Church was courageously begun, and prosperously and blessedly prosecuted, they having been called Papists for their implicit relying upon the Pope, lest their own Argument against us, That to be denominate from any person, is a mark of Heresy, should be retorted upon themselves, they have in all Dedications and public Acts, as much as they can, forborne, and declined that name Pope, and still usurped, Summus Pontifex, and Pontifex Maximus. And yet being still urged and followed, and having no escape, but that the name of • apists, sticks to them, and by their Rules imprints some marks of Heresy ; though Bellarmine, a little ashamed of the name Papist, say; That only the Lutherans, and a few neighbor Countries call them so: Yet that late Carmelite that hath defended Lypsius, says confidently. We are Papists; we confess it; and we glory in that Name.

7 And this name of Pope, they are the rather content to take to him again • because they think that we grudge him that name. For so that Counselor of the Parliament of Burdeaux, which in his History of the progress and decay of Heresy, hath taken occasion to speak of the affairs of England, in which, because no man should doubt of the truth thereof, he pro • esses to follow Sanders, and Ribadene • ra, (by whom a Moral man may as well be instructed for matter of Fact, as a Christian might be by Arius or Mahomet, for his Faith) says, That Henry the • ight, made it Felonie to call the holy Father Pope, or to read that name in any Book, and not to blot it out.

8 Having therefore found such easiness, and flexibility in all old Names, they have provided him now of this name spiritual Prince ; in a larger sense, then that great Prince, whom they call Praeste-gian assumes it (for that name signifies Apostolic, and Christ's Vicegerent, in his own kingdoms) or then Christ himself ever assumed, or the Holy Ghost, by the Prophet Isaiah, reckoning up his most glorious titles, ever attributed to him; and yet in that place of Isaiah, both his eternal Kingdom by his filliation, and his everlasting Kingdom of glory, inchoated in his resurrection, and his Kingdom of grace in our consciences, are evidently to be discerned: For, though there be mention o • Principality, yet it is said, Principatus super humerum eius, which your Doctor expounds of carrying the Cross; and that he shall be Princeps pacis, which is Intrinsicall, • aies the same Expositor & belongs to the Conscience. But this Doctrine which must so settle and affirm a Catholic conscience, that it must bind him to die, and entitle him to Martyrdom, hath no touch, nor tincture of either of these Principalities, of Patience, or of Peace ; bu • all therein is Anger and War, not only with that sword of two edges, of the Word and Censures, which is his, but with two swords; which now we shall see how he claims.

9 The Pope represents Christ to us (says Bellarmine) as he was, whilst he lived amongst men: nor can we attribute to the Pope any other office, then Christ had • as he was a mortal man. And in t • is Capacitie, says he, Christ neither had the execution, nor the power of any temporal Kingdom. And that therefore, if the Pope, as a King, can take from any King the execution of his place, he is greater then Christ; and if he cannot, then he hath no Regal power. Thus he disputes against those which entitle the Pope to a Direct, and Ordinary Jurisdiction over Prin • es.

10 And the same reasons and grounds, by which he destroys that opinion, will destroy his; which is, That as Christ was, so the Pope is, spiritual prince, over all men, and that by virtue of that power, he may dispose of all temporal things, as he shall judge it expedient to his spiritual ends.

11 For first, against that opinion of Ordinary Jurisdiction he argues thus; If it were so, it would appear out of the Scriptures, or from the Tradition of the Apostles: but in the Scriptures, there is mention of the keys of Heaven, but none of the Kingdoms of the earth; nor do our Adversaries offer any Apostolic Tradition. Will not you then, before you receive too deep impression of Bellarmine's doctrine, as to pay your lives for maintenance thereof, tell him, That if his opinion were true, it would appear in Scripture, or Apostolic tr • dition ? And shall poor and lame, and • lack arguments coniecturally and unnecessarily deduced from similitudes and comparisons, and decency, and conueniency bind your judgments, and your lives, for reverence of him, who by his example counsels you, to cal for better proof? will you so, in obeying him, disobey him, & swallow his conclusions, & yet accuse his fashiō of proving them? which you do, if when he calls for scriptures against others, you a • cept his positions for his sake, without scriptures.

12 Another of Bellarmine's reasons against Ordinary Jurisdiction, is, That Regal authority was no • necessary nor of use in Christ to work his end, but s • perfluous and unprofitable. And what greater use, or necessity can the Pope have of this Extraordinarie authority (which is a power to work the same effects, though not by the same way) then Christ had, if his ends be the same which Christ's were? and it appears that Christ neither had, nor forsaw use of either, because he neither exercised nor instistuted either. For, that is not to the purpo • e, which Bellarmine says, that Christ might have exercised that power if he would, since the Popes authority is grounded upon Christ's example ; and limited to that: For Christ might have done many things which the Pope cannot do; as converting all the world at once, instituting more sacraments, and many such: and therefore Bellarmine argued well before, that it is enough for him to prove, that Christ did not exercise Regal power, nor declare himself to have it which Declarion only, and practice, must be drawn into Consequence, and be the precedent for the Pope to follow.

16 The light of which Argument, that the Pope hath no power, but such as Christ exercised, hath brought so many of them to think it necessary to prove That both Christ did exercise Regal aut • ority in accepting Regal reverence upon Palme-Sunday, and in his corrections in the temple, And his judgment in the woman's case which was taken in Adultery. And that S. Peter used also the like power, in condemning Ananias and Sapphira, and Simon Magus.

14 In another place Bellarmine says, That S. Paul appealed to Caesar, as to his Superior Judge, not only de facto, but de Iure; and that the Apostles were subjects to the Ethnique Emperors, in all temporal causes, and that the law of Christ, deprives no man of his right, which he had before. And lately in his Recognitions he departs from this opinion, and denies that he was his Judge, de Iure. If his first opinion be true, can these consist together, that he which is subject in temporal causes, can at the same time and in the same causes be superior? Or that he over whom the Emperor had supreme temporal authority, should have authority over the Emperor in temporal causes? and what is there in the second opinion, that should induce so strong an Obligation upon a conscience, as to die for it; Since the first was better grounded (for, for that he produ • ed Scriptures) and the second is de • titute of that help, and without further sear • h into it, tells us, that neither the Doctrine, nor the Doctor are constant enough to build a Mar • yredome upon.

15 Thus also Bellarmine argues, to our advantage (though he do it to prove a necessity of this power in the Church) that every Common-wealth is sufficiently provided in it self, to attain the end, for which it is instituted. And, as we said before, the end of a Christian Common-wealth, is not only Tranquility (for that sometimes may be main • ained by unchristianly means) but it is the practice of all moral virtue, now explicated to us, and observed by us, in the exercise of Christian Religion; and therefore such a Common-wealth hath of it self, all means necessary to those ends, without new additions: as a man consisting of body and soul, if he come from Infidelity to the Christian Religion, hath no new third essen • iall p • rt added to him, to govern that body, and soul, but only hath the same soul enlightened with a more explici • e knowledge of her duty.

16 B • llar • ine also tells us, That in the Apostles time, these two powers were separated, and • o all the Temporal was in the Emperor, as all the Ecclesiastic in the Apostles and that Hierarchy. By what way then, and at what time came this Authority into them, if it were once out? For, to say, that it sprong out of Spiritual Authority, when there was any use of it, were to say, that that Authority at Christ's institution had not all her perfections and maturity, and to say, that it is no other but the highest act, and a kind of prerogative of the spiritual power, will not reach home • For you must believe and die in this, that the Pope as spiritual Prince, may not only dispose of temporal matters, but that herein he uses the temporal sword, and temporal jurisdiction.

17 But when Bellarmine says, That this supreme authority resides in the Pope, yet not as he is Pope, And that the Pope, and none but he, can • epose Kings, and transfer Kingdoms, and yet, not as Pope, I pro • esse that I know not, how to speak thereof with so much earnestness, as becomes a matter of so great weight. For other Princes, when they exercise their extraordinary and Absolute power, and prerogative, and for the public good put in practice sometimes some of those parts of their power, which are spoken of in Samuel, (which to many men seem to exceed Regal p • we • ) yet they profess to do these things as they are Kings, and not by any other authority then that.

18 And if there be some things which the Pope cannot do as Pope, but as chief spiritual Prince, this implies that there are other inferior spiritual Princes, which are Bishops : (for so Bellarmine says, That Bishops in their Dioceses are Ecclesiastic Princes. ) And have Bishops any such measure of this spiritual principality, that they may do somthings by that, which they cannot do, as they are Bishops •

19 All Principalities maintain their being by these two, reward, & punishment. How lame then and imperfect is this spiritual principality, which can afford but one half? For it is only then of use, when the Pope will punish, and correct a King, by Deposing him: for all Rewards & Indulgences in this life, and in the next, he confers and bestows, as he is Pope, and needs not this Title, to do any good which is in his power. And for corrections and punishments, all which we are sure he can lawfully do, which is, to inflict Church censures, upon those who are under his spiritual obedience, he doth as he is Pope, and needs not this principality for that use neither.

20 But for irregular actions, and such as occasion tumult and sedition, he must be a spiritual Prince. For, says Bellarmine, Though the Pope as he is president of a general Council, (and he is that, as he is Pope) ought to follow the greatest number of voices in making Decrees • yet as he is chief Prince, he is not bound to do so, but may follow the lesser number. And yet scarce constant to himself, he says, That this liberty belongs to the Pope, because he hath the assistance of the holy Ghost : Now the Pope, as Pope, hath the assistance of the holy Ghost, (for else his Determination in Ca • hedra, in matters of faith, were not by his Ordinary, and Direct power,) and therefore as Pope he may follow the fewer voices in a Council, and as Pope (or no way) he may depose Princes.

21 For as, though they seem to place more power, or dignity, in Pontificatu, then in Apostolatu, because the Popes date their Rescripts, from the time of their Election to their Coronation, thus, Anno Apostolatus primo, &c. and seal but with half the seal, but after their Coronation, they begin to call their government Pontificatum: yet all the authority which they have, is certainly in them from their • Election, because says the gloss, that confers praesulatum: so they have fancied & imagined a Principatum above all these, yet certainly all the authority they have, is as they are Popes. Which served them to do mischief enough, before this title was invented. And to say, that they have authority, as they are Popes, to do some acts, as they are not Popes, is such a dark, and misty, and drowsy Doctrine, as it is the fittest and most proportional Martyrdom in this business, for a man to dream that he died for it.

22 For it is strange that the • e men can discern and distinguish in the same office, between the Pope, and a spiritual Prince, when as Philip the last King of Spain, could not distinguish between the Person and the Office of the Pope • for being in so much forwardness, that he had given the D. of Alua Order to besiege Rome, because Paul the fourth had brought into Italy an Army of French, to infest the Kingdom of Naples, and being solicited by the Venetians, to desist from offending the Pope, though he answered, That his preparations were not against the Pope, but against Peter Caraffa his subject, and a Rebell, yet when the Venetians replied, that if he could separate Caraffa from the Pope, they would intercede no farther, else they would give the Pope their assistance, the King, says a Catholic writer, gave over, because he saw it impossible to distinguish them.

23 And as the Doctrine it sel • e is too inexplicable, for any man to adventure thereupon his li • e, or such dangers as the law esteems equivalent to this purpose, which are, all such damages as induce a just fear: So is the Channell and way by which it is derived to us, so various, and muddy, as that also should retard any man, from such a Preiudice, and such an Anticipation of the resolution of the Church herein as it is, to seal with life, that which no man yet knows, how the Church will determine. For, in Bellarmine, who hath got the reputa • ion to be the principal of t • is faction (though I confess he found the foundation of it, and his best Arguments for it, in our Countriman Sanders, out of whom and Stapleton and a few more, that Church hath received more strength, then from the late writers of all other Nations,) his authority and credit is not only infirmed and impaired, in that, Baronius, a man of as much merit of the Church, and rewarded by her, with the same Dignity, is of a contrary opinion, but also, because averring, that his opinion is the opinion of the Divines, and the other only of Canonists, Divines themselves, (for such Baronius and Bozius are) have more then others oppugned it.

24 And so that new Order of the Congregation, of which both they are, being (as I said before) laid for a stumbling block, that the world, which in such a rage of Devotion ran towards the Jesuits, might be arrested a lit • le upon the contemplation of an Order which professed Church-knowledge, as the other did state-knowledge, hath exceeded the Jesuits in their own Art, of flattering and magnifying the Pope. For they have maintained his Direct and Ordinary power, whereas the other have but provided him a new and specio • s Title. And so not only such as Carerius lays the imputation of Impious Politician upon Bellarmine and all his followers in this point, And bitterly Anathmatises Bellarmine by name, and maintains this power to be in the Pope, either as Pope, or not as Christ's Vicar, But Bozius also calls these men nouos Theologos, and says, They teach doctrine evidently false, and such as fights against all Truth. And another Catholic writer, though he impugn both these opinions, of Bellarmine, and Baronius, yet he protests, that the opinion which Bellarmine calls the Canonists opinion, is the more probable, and defensible: because, says he, that opinion is not against the order of Nature, that the Pope should exercise such a power, which they maintain to be directly granted to him: but that opinion, which they call the Divines opinion, is against Nature, since it admits the exercise of such an Authority, as is neither by name granted, nor necessary to the ends of the Church: And therefore, says this Catholic, though the Divines overthrow the Canonists, yet they prove not their own opinion. And in another place he says, That though Bellarmine have given as much to the Pope, as honestly he could, and more then he should have done, yet he was so far from satisfying the Pope herein, that for this opinion the Pope was very near condemning all his works, as, says he, the Jesuits themselves, have told me.

25 Which disposition of inclining to the Canonists opinion, appears still in the Popes, who accept so well the books of that purpose, that the greatest part of those Authors, which I have cited in this book, of that matter, are dedicated to the late Popes. So that, that Doctrine, which is so much denied in the substance and Essence thereof, that all ways of the existence thereof are peremptorily denied, hath not yet received concoxions enow from the Church, to nourish a conscience to such a strength, as Martyrdom requires. For that, which their great Doctor Franciscus a Victoria pronounces against his direct Authority, we may as safely say against that & the indirect, This is the strongest proo • e that can be against him, This Authority is not proved to be in the Pope, by any means, and therefore he hath it not. To which purpose he had directly said before, of the direct Authority, It is manifestly false, although they say that it is manifestly true; And I believe it to be a mere devise, only to flatter the Popes. And it is altogether feigned, without probability, Reason, Witness, Scripture, Father, or Divine. Only some Glossers of the law, poor in fortune and learning, have bestowed this authority upon them. And therefore, as that Ermit which was fed in the Desert by an Angel, received from the Angel withered grapes, when he said his prayers, after the due time, and ripe grapes when he observed the just time, but wild sower grapes when he prevented the time, so must that hasty and unseasonable obedience to the Church, to die for her Doctrine, before she her self knows what it is, have but a sower and unpleasant reward.

CHAP. X. That the Canons can give them no warrant, to adventure these dangers, for this refusal: And that the reverend name of Canons, is falsely, and cautelously insinuated, and stolen upon the whole body of the Canon law, with a brief Consideration upon all the books thereof; and a particular suruay, of all those Canons, which are ordinarily cited by those Authors, which maintain this temporal Jurisdiction in the Pope.

T O this spiritual Prince, of whom we spoke in the former Chapter, the huge and vast books of the Canon law, serve for his Guarde. For they are great bodies loaded with diverse weapons of Excommunications, Anathems, and Interdicts, but are seldom drawn to any press or close fight. And as with temporal Princes, the danger is come very near his person, if the remedy lie in his guard, so is also this spiritual Prince brought to a near exigent, if his title to depose Princes must be defended by the Canons. For, in this spiritual war which the Reformed Churches under the conduct of the Holy Ghost, have undertaken against Rome, not to destroy her, but to reduce her to that obedience, from which at first she unadvisedly strayed, but now stubbornly rebels against it, the Canon law serves rather to stop a breach, into which men use to cast as well straw and Feathers, as Timber and Stone, then to maintain a fight and battle.

2 This I speak not to diminish the Reverence or slacken the obligation which belongs to the ancient Canons and Decrees of the Church; but that the name may not deceive us; For, as the heretics Vrsalius, and Valens, got together a company at Nice, because they would establish their Heresies, under the name of a Nicene Council, (which had ever so much reputation, that all was readily received, which was truly offered under that name) so is most pestilent and infectious doctrine, conveyed to us, under the reverend name of Ecclesiastic Canons.

3 The body of the Canon law, which was called Codex Canonum, which contained the Decrees of certain ancient Councils, was usually produced in after- Councils for their direction, and by the entreaty of popes, admitted and incorporated into the body of the Roman and Imperial law; and ever in all causes, wherein they had given any Decision, it was judged according to them, after the Emperors had by such admittance given them that strength.

4 And if the body of that law, were but grown and swelled, if this were a Grauidnes, & Pregnancy which she had conceived of General Councils lawfully called, and lawfully proceeded in, and so she had brought forth children loving and profitable to the public, and not only to the Mother, (for how many Canons are made only in favor of the Canons ?) all Christian Princes would be as inclinable to g • ue her strength, and dignity, by incorporating her into their laws, and authorising her thereby, as some of the Emperors were. And had the Bishops of Rome maintained that purity, and integrity of Doctrine, and that compatiblenesse with Princes, which gave them authority at first, when the Emperors conceived so well of that Church, as they bound their faith to the faith thereof (which they might boldly do at that time) perchance Princes would not have refused, that the adiections of those later Popes should have been admitted as parts of the Canon law : nor should the Church have been pestered, and poisoned with these tumors, & excrescenges, with which it abounds at this time, and swelles daily with new additions.

5 In which, if there be any thing which binds our faith, and derives upon us a Title to Martyrdom, if we die in defense thereof (as there are many things derived from Scriptures and Obligatory Councils ) the strength of that band rises so much from the nature of the thing, or from the goodness of the soil, from which it was transplanted to that place, that though we might be Martyrs, if we defended it in that respect, yet we should loose that benefit, though it be an evident and Christian truth, if we defend it upon that reason, That it is by approbation of the • ope inserted into the body of the Canon law ; which is a Satyr, and Miscellany of diverse and ill digested Ingredients.

6 The first part whereof, which is the Decretum compiled by Gratian, which hath been in use above four hundred years, is so diseased and corrupt a member thereof, that all the Medicines, which the learned Archbishop Augustinus, applied to it, and all that the several Commissioners, first by Pius the fifth, then by Gregory the thirteenth, have practiced upon it, have not brought it to any state of perfect health, nor any degree of conualescence.

7 But though that Bishop say, That Gratian is not worthy of many words, though in his dispraise, yet because he tells us, That the ignorant admire him, though the Learned laugh at him ; And because he is accounted so great a part of the Canon Law, as even the Decretal Epistles of the Popes are called, Extra, in respect of him, as being out of the Canon Law, it shall not be amiss to make some deeper impressions of him.

8 Thus far therefore the Catholic Archbishop charges him, To have been so indiscrete and precipitate, that he never stood upon Authority of Books, but took all, as if they had been written with the finger of God, as certainly as Moses Tables ; And he is so well confirmed in the opinion of his negligence, that he says, He did not only never Judge and weigh, but never see the Councils nor the Registers of Popes, nor the works of the Fathers : And therefore says he, There is only one remedy left, which is, Vna litura. And in another place, That there can be no use at all made of this Collection, but that a better must be attended, out of the Originals.

9 But if his error were only in Chronologies, as to give Pope Nicholas a place in the Council of Carthage, who was dead before; Or in Arithmetic, as when purposely he enumerates all the Councils, to make the number less by four. If this weakness had only been, that he was not able to spell, and so in a place of much importance, to Read Ephesus for Erphesfurd, Jerome, for Jeremiah, and Heretic for Henry, and a hundred such; If he had stop'd, either at mistaking of true Authors, as to cite out of Saint Peter, that which Saint Paul says (which liberty his Glosser extends farther, and therefore cites a whole sentence, for Scripture, which is nowhere) Or if he had stai'd at imagining words out of false Authors, as to cite the Council of Geneva, and Macharius the Pope, which never were, (as he and the Palea do) there were an open way for him, as it is said in that Dialogue, to say with the Apostle, Quia ignorans • eci.

10 But we also find malignity and danger to our cause, in his Falsifications. For, to dignify the Sea of Rome, he cites Ambroses words thus, Non habent Petri haereditatem, qui non habent Petri sedem ; which in Ambrose is observed to be, Petri fidem. And to establish the exemption of Clergy men from secular Justice, he cites this out of a Council now a thousand years past, Clericum nullus presumat pulsare apud Iudicem Saecularem ; Whereas the words of the Council are Clericus nullus presumat. And so the Council lays a Commandment upon the Clergy, but Gratian lays it upon the Layetie.

11 Which falsity, Binius, citing the Council aright, and Gratians words also right in the Margine, forbears to observe or reprehend, and dissembles the injury done to the world therein. But Bellarmine hath dealt herein with more obnoxiousness, and less excuse, then Binius, because having no reference at all to Gratian, he cites the words out of the Council it-self; and having said, That Counsel pronounces in this point more clearly, in these words ; He cites the words, falsely, and corruptly as Gratian did before.

12 And as for such iniquities as these, we have reason to decline Gratian, as injurious to us: So all • o in Charity towards them, which are carried with an implicit Faith in Canons, in which name Gratian is enwrapped, we are bound to tell you how unworthy he is, to be relied upon by you. For in the point of the Emperors Electing the Pope, he hath spoken so dangerously, that Baronius is forced to give this censure upon him, Gratian, out of too much credulity, improuidently writ out a most manifest imposture, and inserted that, as a most strong Decree, all which, with the Author thereof, should rather have been hissed away, and pursued with execrations, which also he says of another place in Gratian, to the same purpose; and accuses him of mutilating the famous laws of Charles the Great, called Capitularia.

13 With like danger to the Roman Sea, he cites a Canon of a Greek Council, whose sense he apprehended not, in the matter of marriage of Priests; for he says, that that Canon was grounded upon the Apostles Canons ; and yet it is contrary to the Canons of the Roman Church. So that of this place, that Archbishop of whom I spoke before, exclaims, who can endure this ? and that by no means it may be received.

14 And not only in matters of fact (though that be the right leg upon which the Roman Religion, (especially in Crown Divinity) doth stand) doth Gratian deceive you, but even in such things as are matters of faith : both naturally, and so, common to all men, As when he allows that there may be perplexities in evil, and so in some cases a necessity of sinning, and then, says he, the remedy is to choose the less evil; as also of that which is matter of faith, especially to the professors of your Religion, which is the necessity of Oral Confession : for, having produced authorities on both sides, whether it be necessary or no, he leaves it as indifferent to the Reader, to allow & choose which opinion he likes best.

15 And because the Gloss is now by some thought, to be of equal authority with the Text, it is not an inconvenient way to enervate both, by presenting some of the vanities and illusions of that. And though I will not in so serious a business, insist upon such things, as might make sport and move laughter, yet these few I may be excusable to let fall in this place. When Gratian speaks of that Parable of the lost sheep, and says, out of the Gospel, that the 99 were left in Deserto, id est, says the Gloss, In Coelo, quod Diabolus per peccatum deseruit. Which, besides the detortion, destroys utterly the purpose of our Savior, in that Parable. And so when Gratian, out of a Council cites an Act to be done, in Ecclesia Romanorum, id est, says the Gloss, Constantinopolitanorum.

16 In many places Gratian says, that Dioscorus had not erred, in fide ; which being evidently false, for he followed and defended Eutyches his Heresy, the gloss remedies it thus, Non in fide, id est, non in fide tantum. And out of his favor to Priests, where Gratian says out of Bede, That Priests must always abstain from their wifes, the gloss says, Semper, id est, Horis debitis. And when out of the Nicene Council it was produced, That a Prelate might have in his house no women, except his mother, or sister, or such fit persons, as might avoid suspicion, that is, says the gloss, His men's wives. And when Lanfred a young lusty Bishop, and a great huntsman, was defamed also for immoderate familiarity with his own daughter, the gloss says, It was not for any evil, for they were too near in blood, but because he kissed her so much openly, and put his hand in her bosom.

17 And lastly, to stay you no longer, in this ill air, where the text says, Meretrix est, quae multorum libidini patet, the gloss brings this indefinite number to a certain, and says, that that name belongs to her, when she hath lain with 23000. men.

18 And as these Authors in whom there are these aspersions, and such weeds as these, are therefore unworthy, that either the Popes approbation should • all upon them, or that any obligation should be thrown upon our consciences, from their authority: so is it impossible, that any such approbation should include them both; for the gloss doth somet • mes (when no reconciliation can serve him) depart from Gratian with some disdain; as when he says, Superficialis est Argumentatio Magistri : and sometimes in c • oler • as one notes him to say, Fateor plane te mentitum, Gratiane: And sometimes he doth positively teach the just contrary to Gratian, in matter of faith; as in the Doctrine of perplexities, which we noted before.

19 How dangerous therefore it is to confide in Gratian, we see already, & may have further light, by observing, That Ballarmine says, that in a main point of Canonical Scriptures, Gratian was deceived, by trusting a false copy of Saint Augustine's works: And as Bellarmine says here • that Gratian was deceived, so Gratian deceived him; for in that Canon which we cited before, of the exemption of Clergy men, either Bellarmine was a direct falsifier of the Council, or an indiscreet & credulous swallower of Gratians errors; which in his Recognition he refuseth not to confess in another matter, whē he retracts some things which he spoke upon the credit of Gratian, & there repents & recāts thē.

20 But you and Bellarmine may easily be misled by him, since even a Pope himself was brought into a false persuasion by his error. For, till of late, all the copies of the Decretum, in that famous Canon, Sancta Romana, which distinguishes Canonical f • om Apocryphal writings, instead of the words, Sedulij opus, Heroicis versibus descriptum, had these words, Hereticis versibus. Which says a Catholic author, induced not only many wise men, but even pope Adrian 6. to a persuasion, that all Poetry was Heretical; since Gelasius a Pope, and Author of that Canon, though he praised Sedulius his work, in that place, yet because it was writ in verse, he c • ls them Hereticos versus.

21 Of them therefore which will bind their faith to the Canons, and aduentu • e these dangers for that faith (as the Canonists say, that Saturday and Sunday is all one, fictione Canonica so we may say, tha • they are but Martyrs fictione Canonica ; and that not only a Martyr, and a Self-murderer, but a Martyr and a Traitor, may be all one, Fictione Canonica. And by such fiction, that English Priest Bridgewater, which calls himself Aquipontanus, ouerturning and re • enuersing his name with h •• conscience, may be believed, when he says, That those Priests which were executed under Queen Elizabeth, died pro inficiatione pontificatus faeminei : But their malice was not because she would have been a Priest, but because she would not be a Sacrifice to their Idolatry, nor Ambition ; nor open her heart to their enchantments, nor her throat and sides to their poisons and swords.

22 The next limb in this great body of the Canon law, after the Decretum, is the Decretal ; set out by Grego • y the ninth, who was Pope about the year one thousand two hundred thirty. And as the Decretum pretends to bring to all purposes, sentences of Fathers, an • Canons of Counsels, So this pretends principally the Rescripts and De • retall letters of Popes. So also, do all t • e other books, which were set out after, in supplement of this: as that, which is called Sextus, set forth by Boniface the eight, who was Pope, An. one thousand three hundred: and the Clementines, which Clement the fifth set out, who was Pope within six years after • and those Extrauagants, which bea • e the name of John the two and twenty, within ten years of Clement : and those which are called common Extrauagants because they come from diverse Popes: and to these is added not long since the book called Septimus Decretalium.

23 And thus this fat law (for so Ciuilians say of that, that it is Crassa aequitas ; which is a praise beyond desert, though they speak it in diminution & scorn) grows daily so fast, that as any corruption can get entertainment in a gross body, so I doubt not but this, or the next age, shall see in their Octaues and future Volumes, not only many of their letters, yet for shame cōcealed, but at Henry the thirds death, canonized in the body of this law. For though they have denied it with some-earnestness, yet they have also confessed, that if it were such as it is said to be, it admits a good interpretation.

24 But for these books, though they have more credit with them then the Decretum hath, I will ease myself of that labor, which I took in that book, in presenting particular defects and infirmities, both because we have Bellarmine's confession, That there are many things in the Decretal Epistles, which do not make a matter to be De fide, but only do declare, what the opinions of the Popes were in those causes, and because a Catholic author of whom we spake before, hath observed, that the compiler of the Dec • etals, by leaving out a word, in a Canon of a Council of Car • hage, hath occasioned the Church ever since, to do directly against the purpose of that Council, in shaving the heads of Priests. For whereas the Council is cited by him, Clerici nec Comam Nutriant nec barbam, by occasion whereof, many subsequent orders were brought in, for Shauing, and transgressors severely punished, it appears that he left out in the end, the word Radant, which utterly changed the precept into the contrary. These Canons therefore, of so sickely and weak a constitution, that anything deiects them, cannot prevail so much upon our consciences, as to imprint and work such a confidence in them, and irremoueablenesse from them, as to maintain them with the same manner of testimony, as we would do the words of God himself.

25 For, howsoever they depart from them, and seem somewhat negligent of the Canons, when we make use of them to our advantage against them, yet they affright and enthrall the tender consciences of their own Disciples, with nothing more, then the name of Canons, to which promiscuously they ascribe all reverence and assent, without distinguishing to them, which are Gratians, and which are opinionate, and which Decretal, for all together are approved and confirmed. And therefore the Canons themselves not only inflict an Anatheme up • on any • ay-ma • , which shall so much as dispute upon, the text, or any one Yod o • the Epistle of Pope Leo, which is in the Canons, but also pr • nounce it blasphemy against the holy Ghost, to viola • e a Canon willingly, becau • e • hey are made by the hyol Ghost And Bellarmine also, writing against a Doctor which had defended the Venetian ca • se, against the Popes Censures, says, That it is a g • ieuous rashness, not to be lef • unpunished, that he should say, • he Canons, as being but Human laws, cannot have equal authority with Divine. For this (says Bellarmine ) is a contempt of the Canons, as though they were not made by the direction of the holy Ghost. And yet these Canons which that Doctor intimated, were but two, and cy • ed but by Gratian, and concerned only Exemp • ion of Clergy men from secul • r • udges.

26 And so • arsons when he is to ma • e h • s advantage of any Sentence in Gratian, uses to dignify it thus, That it is translated by the Popes into the Corps of the Canon law, and so not only allowed and admitted, and approved, but commended, and commanded ; and as he adds after, Canonized and determined for Canonical law, and authorized and set forth for Sacred and Authentical, by all Popes whatsoever • For they continue st • ll that practice which Frederic the Emperor observed in his time, when they interdict • d his K • ngdome of Sicily, Offundunt bibulis auribus Canon • s.

27 And when they list to urge a Canon, any little rag torn or fallen off from • hence, must bind the Church de fide, as a cathedral, and Decretal resol •• ion: for so says he, that made the Notes upon Cassianus, excusing Origen, Chrysostom, & some other Fathers, for inclining to Plato's opinion of allowing some use of lies, in wise men, That it was lawful till the Church had defined the contrary: But now, says he, the Pope hath decreed it. And how hath he decreed it? In a letter upon a question of Usury, the Pope says, Since the Scriptures forbid lies, even for defense of any man's life, much less may usury be permitted. But, if in this question of lying, the band did not a • ise out of the evidence and truth of the matter it self, but relied upon the authority of the Popes declaration, and decision, can such a rag casually and incidentally fall into a letter of another purpose, by way of comparison, bind the whole Church, De fide ? when as, though Sixtus 4. had so much declared himself to favor the opinion of our Ladies conception without original sin, that he had by one Canon instituted a particular Festival thereof, and appointed a particular Office for • hat day, with many Indulgences to the observers thereof; yet the favorers of the contrary opinion, forbore not for reverence of that Canon, to preach publicly against that Doctrine, till some years after, he forbad it under pain of Excommunication, by another Canon, that any should affirm that she was conceived in original sin ; and yet, this is not esteemed as yet for all this, to be decreed as a matter of faith in that Church: yea, it is so far from it, that after all these solemnities and preiudices of that Pope, yet the Commissioners of Sixtus the fifth, and Gregory the thirteenth (appointed to expunge all dangerous passages in the Canons ) in the Gloss upon that Canon, which reckons all the festival days which are to be observed, have left these words untouched, The Conception of our Lady is not named, because it ought not to be kept, though in England, and some other places it be; And the reason is, because she was conceived in original sin, as all but Christ, were. And after, the Jesuit, of whom I spoke before, had refreshed that Doctrine, That a Confession of a person absent, made by letters, was Sacramental, and Clement the eight, was so vehement against it, that by a solemn decree he condemned it, for false, rash, and scandalous at least, and commanded, that no man should speak of it but by way of condemning it, and excluded even dumb men from this benefi • , yet another Jesuit since, a great Doctor perplexorum, finds escapes to defend that Doctrine from being Heretical.

28 So that, though in truth there go very many Essentiall formalities to such a Decree as binds the conscience, De fide, yet these men when they need the Majesty of a Canon, will ever have fe • ters in all corn • s, to hold all consciences which off • r to slip or break from them, and still oppress them with weights, and with Mountain of Canons. Which way, the Canonists do no • only approve as the most convenient to hold men in that Religion, because the Canons are more easily v • ried, and flex • ble, and appliable to occasion • , then the Scriptures are, but also (because ordin • rily the Canonists have no other learning) they think the way by Canons, to be the fittest means, to reduce them whom they call Heretics. For so says one of them, in his book to the present Pope, (with m • ch a • u • enesse, certainty, and subtlety,) The Canons may well be alleged against Heretics; because they allege Scriptures, and they cannot know Scriptures, by any other way then Canons.

29 But besides, that I have given you sufficient light, to look into the deformity and co • ruption of the Canons, (which, GOD forbid any should vnde • stand me to me • ne of Canons, in that sense and acceptation, that the Ancients received it, which is, of the Constitutions of Orthodox Councils, for I take it here, as your Doctors do, & as your Confessors do, for the whole body of the Canon law, extant) before I ente • into the suruay of those pa • ticular Canons, which usually are obtruded in this point of the Popes temporal Supremacy, I will remember you briefly, of some of those re • sons and occasions, (such as may be fittest to vn-entangle your consciences, and deliver them from perplexi • ies) in which the Canons do not bind us to the • r observation.

30 O • which, one of the most principal and important is, That Canons do never bind, though they be published and knowledge taken of them, except they be rec • aued, and practiced in that Country. So says Gratian, Laws are instituted, when they are published, but confi • med, when they are put in practice. And therefore, says he, none are guilty of transgressing Telesphorus Decree, that the Clergy should fast fifty days, because it was never approved by practice. No more doth the Decree of A • exander the third, though under excommunication, That in Armies there should be abstinence, for reverence of certain days, bind any man • because it was not practiced: which op • nion Navarre also follows; and a late Canonist writing to this Pope, calls it, Singularem, et Magistralem, et a toto mundo allegatum. And upon this reason the Council of Trent binds not yet in some Countries, in neither Tribunal of conscience, or the outward censures of the Church, because it is not received.

31 And can you find • hat any such Canons, as enable the Pope to depose a Prince, have been admitted by our Princes, and practice • d as ordinary and currant law? Or can you find any Canon to this purpose, with the face and countenance o • a law, made by the Popes in reposed & peaceable times, delivered quietly as a matter of Doctrine and conscience, and so accepted by the Church and state? For if in temporal Scismes, and differences, for temporal matters, between the Popes and other Princes, the Popes to raise or maintain a party against their enemies, have suffered seditio • s Bulls, and Rescripts to pass from them, to facilitate and effect their enterprises then in hand, this is far from the nature of a law, and from being accepted and practiced, and so justified, as it may be drawn into consequence, and have power and strength to bind the conscience.

32 And as acceptation gives life to law, so doth disuse, or custom to the contrary abrogate it. And howsoever a superstition toward the Canons, may still be preserved in some of you, yet the general state, that is, the same authority, by which those Canons were received before, which ever had any strength here, hath disused them, & pronounced against so many of them, as can fall within this question, that is, Such as be derogatory to the Crown. For, if these laws be not borne alive, but have their quickening by others acceptation, the same power that gives them life, may by desertion withdraw their strength, and leave them inualid.

33 And thus much seemed needful to be said in the first part of this chapter, that you might see how putrid and corrupt a thing it is, which is offered to you under the reverend name of Canons ; And that though this Cannon law be declined, and extenuated when we urge it, yet every Sentence thereof is equal'd to Divine Scripture ; and produced as a definition of the Church, when it may work their ends upon your consciences, which, for diverse reasons issuing out of their own rules, should now be delivered from that yoke.