THE EXCOMMUNICATION Published by the L. Archbishop of Dublin Thomas Fleming alias Barnwell, Friar of the Order of S. Francis, against the Inhabitants of the Diocese of Dublin, for hearing the Masses of Peter caddel D. of Divinity, and Paul Harris Priests, is proved not only injust, but of no validity, and consequently binding to no obedience.  
In which Treatise is also discovered that impious plot and policy of the aforesaid Archbishop and his Friars in supplanting the Pastors and Priests of the Clergy, thereby to bring all into the hands of the Friars, of whose disorders and foul abuses (especially in this Kingdom) something is noted.  
The second Edition, enlarged.  
By me PAUL HARRIS Priest.  JOHN 7. 51. Doth our Law condemn a man before he be first heard, and known what he hath done? 
Printed MDCXXXIII.   

To the judicious Reader.  
EST tempus cacendi, & tempus loquendi, Eccles. 3. There is a time of silence, and a time of speaking. Eight months of silence have now passed since the following Censure was published, in which space as well Priests, as people have expected a redress of so great wrongs. But since so long a time hath not wrought that effect which was daily looked for, we thought it full time to expect no further time, but rather to break off so prejudicial a silence, and better late, then never, to manifest unto the world, as well the insufficiency of that sentence, as the innocency of the censured, and if it be possible to undeceive such as are possessed of the contrary. Our delay in this affair (I confess) hath bred us this Inconvenience. That the contrary opinion being so long sucked in, hath so seasoned the Potts, as hardly now will they smell of any other liquor. Three sorts of Readers (and so the most) I do exclude from this discourse.  

1. First, such as are careless how the matter passeth among us.  
2. Secondly, such as are obstinate in the contrary opinion.  
3. Thirdly, such as are not capable of reason when they see it laid down.   
Only to the fourth, anll the fewest sort of Readers is this Apology addressed. (I say) for their only sakes, who are willing to have satisfaction, and are capable thereof.  
If any be offended, That this our Apology or Defence of our Innocency is published, and made common to many. Let them consider, that so was the Archbishop's Censure: And that to many more, then into whose hands these writings can come. For we are persuaded, none will take the like pains to publish them unto hundreds, and thousands!, as the Excommunication was through all the Oratoryes of Dublin, 〈◊〉 well by the Parish Priests, as so many Orders of Friar's, yea republished again, and again, from time to time, le●t happily it might grow out of remembrance with the people.  
If any do except, That this our Answer is in the English tongue, Let them consider, that so was the Censure: They both speak one language. But you will say, That this is made common both to Catholics, and Protestants, whereas the Excommunication was only communicated unto Catholics. I say, in this also they are alike. For as a matter made public among the Protestants, can not be concealed from the Catholics; no more can any thing published among the Catholics be kept from the Protestants. Neither can any man of understanding conceive how it can f●ll out otherwise.  
If matters herein laid down be very fowl and odious against the Archbishop, and his Friars, and sound very harsh in men's ears; Oh then think how far worse it was for them to be the Authors thereof: unless we be arrived at those times of which Cassidorus speaketh, or rather prophesieth: That the days shall be, and such times come, as it shallbe a far more odious and dangerous matter to reprove injustice, and to reprehend vice, then to commit the same. Experience whereof we have had in our late Appeal. We the Appellants having received of the injudicious and partial multitude, more rebuke than they who were the Authors of all those injuries, & greivances, of which, and of whom, we made complaint unto lawful Superiors. But as the world commends many whom God condemns, and of the contrary: So I doubt not but many who are justified upon the benches of the multitude, shall 〈◊〉 be found in the Magistrates la●●full Tribunals.  
The thing that we demand is justice, we call for Justice, we cry for justice, and with our clamours will we fill both the Heavens, and the ears of all lawful Superiors on earth; Thoughts have voices sufficient for the Heavens, words and writings are necessary for the earth; by which if we do not prevail in our principal intent of attaining justice, yet at least in opening our innocency, & venting of our griefs, we shall give s●●e ease unto our minds. For so saith S. Gregory, Si illatas molestias lingua dicat, à conscientia dolor emanat, vulnera enim clausa plus cruciant. Hom. 6. If the tongue do utter sustained wrongs, grief passeth from the mind. For wounds shut up do more torment. Let then that text of the Prophet be verified of us. In omnem terram exivit sonus eorum. etc. Psal. 18. Their sound is gone forth through all the earth, and their words to the utter most bounds thereof, yea in the name of God say I 
Audiat has nostras, cleri, populique querelas,  
Et Tagus & Ganges, gens etiam Antipodum.  
Let the world witness our complaints, above, and under,  
As far as Tagus' sands, and Ganges lie asunder.    

¶ here followeth the Excommunication, published by the command of Thomas Fleming, alias Barnwell, L. Archbishop of Dublin, and Friar of the Order of S. Francis, through all the Chappells and Oratoryes of Dublin the 6. of March.  
COnsidering the obstinate disobedience and continual insolency, without hope of amendment, of Paul Harris, (notwithstanding that he hath been born● withal this long time past.) As also the like disobedience of Doctor Peter caddel, to the great scandal & disedification of many Catholics of this Diocese, and to no small dishonour of the Pastoral function and authority, and to the end that at length the current of their scandalous proceedings may have a stop, and not always go forward without correction. After mature consideration of their proceedings, being thereby forced to perform my duty for the good of the souls of this my Diocese, I have thought expedient to forbid: and hereby I do forbid all the Inhabitants of this Diocese, under pain of Excommunication, ipso facto to be incurred, to be present, or to hear the Masses of Paul Harris, and of Doctor Peter Cadell, and withal, from the date of this present I do recall, and take away from them, all power and jurisdiction of hearing confessions, or ministering, or doing any act or acts of the pastoral function, whatsoever, within the district of this Diocese, and hereby likewise I do annul and make void all absolutions henceforward, by them given in this Diocese, and do command henceforward all Catholics upon their perils to take notice of the premises, and strictly to observe the same.  
Dated 6. of March, 1631. Friar Thomas Fleming Archbishop of Dublin.   

THE EXCOMMUNICATION PUBLISHED BY THE L. ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN Thomas Fleming alias Barnwell, Friar of the Order of S. Francis, against the Inhabitants of the Diocese of Dublin, for hearing the Masses of Peter caddel Dr of Divinity, and Paul Harris Priests, is proved not only injust, but of no validity, and consequently binding to no obedience.  
FIrst then, gentle Reader, give me leave to lay down these few Principles of the Canon Law, as the grounds of my following Discourse.  

I. The first Principle is, That the Censure of Excommunication grounded upon an intolerable error, is both injust and invalide, and so, obliging to no obedience, neither in for o fori, or in foro poli, as much to say, neither in Law, nor Conscience. Cap. Per tuas de sentent. excom. Glossa ad cap. Licet de senten. Excom. in Sexto. S●tus in 4. sentent. distinct. 22. q. 1. art. 3. C●varruvius ad Cap. Alma matter. part. 1. §. 8. num. 7. And it is the common Tenent of all Doctors.  
II. The second Principle is, That no Excommunication just & valid can be fulminated but for a mortal sin, the same manifested, & aforehand forbidden under pain of Excommunication, & so always accompanied with contumacy. Sot. in 4. distinct. 22. q. 1. art. 2. conclus. 2. & 4. Vgolinus tab. 1. cap. 17. §. 7. num. 6. & 8. & cap. 27. Cap. Nemo Epis. 11. q. 3. Concil. Trident. sess. 25. de Reformatione cap. 3. And it is the common Tenent of all Doctors.  
III. The third ground is, That Priests of the Hierarchy or Clergy, are bound to no further obedience unto their Bishop or Ordinary, then Canonical. That is, such as the Laws of holy Church prescribe, and which they promise in their Consecration. vid. Ep.  
IV. The fourth is, That in all Legal and Canonical prosecution of cause or crime, the Defendant is to be called unto his answer, & convicted of what he is accused, before he be sentenced. Cap. Cum Paulis 191. Vantius de Nullit●ti●us & defectn pro●essus, num. 13. 14. 23. tom. 4. Clement. pastoralis dere judicanda. Alexauder Concilio 123. L. & si non defendantur. ff. De poenitentiâ. 1. §. finali. ff. in lege finali. §. Illud. C. de Tempore, & in cap. 2. de litis contestatione, lib. 6. And it hath the consent of all Doctors.  
V. The fifth ground is, That every man is to be taken, and to be held for a good, a legal and an upright man, till the contrary be proved against him. Regnla juris 8.   
These five Principles of the Canon Law, I place as so many lamps, or lanthernes in the entry of my following Discourse, to enlighten the Reader with more ease and facility to pass through the same. In which Treatise or Discourse, I intent by God's assistance to prove, That the aforesaid Censure of Thomas Fleming alias Barnwell, L. Archbishop of Dublin, & Friar of the Order of S. Francis, is of the worst rank of Excommunications, & of so defective a nature, as besides the Injustice thereof, it laboureth of a mere Nullity or Invalidity, and consequently can produce no other effect, then neglect, or contempt.  

CAP. I.  
The first Argument against the Excommunication.  
MY first Reason or Argument by which it is manifest, that the aforesaid Excommunication is not only injust, but invalid, is, for that it is grounded upon an intolerable error. But how say you is that proved? Marry as thus. A sentence published without any cause, or reason, containeth an intolerable error. So Sayr●● lib. 1. cap. 16, num. 32. Suarez dist. 4. sect. 7. num. 31. Ma●uale pralatorum art. 13. Conclus. 1. Alterius lib. 3. disput. ●. cap. 1. Bonacina tom. 1. de Censuris disput. 1. q. 1. puncto 10. num, 9 Reginaldus lib. 9 num. 106. and so commonly.  
But such is the aforesaid Censure published without cause or reason, as shall be proved.  
Ergo, it contains an intolerable error.  
Now for the Minor of this Syllogism; namely, That the precedent Censure was published without cause or reason, I thus declare. The cause of the Censure laid down, as appeareth by the Tenor thereof, is the insolency and obstinate disobedience of the two aforenamed Priests, & that without hope of amendment, to the great disedification of his flock.  
To which it is answered by the aforesaid venerable Priests in this their Apology or defence. That this cause was never proved against them, & therefore is no cause at all, by that rule of the law, Causa non probam, non est causa, A cause not proved, is no cause. 24. q. 3. de Illicita. and is manifest by the light of reason. For they allege that to this day they have never been accused, much less convicted of any such disobedience or obstinacy. Nay they say further, That as yet they never were cited before their Ordinary, to answer any matter of disobedience in all their lives whatsoever. Now then forsomuuch as the Canon itself tells us, Quod publicum judicium est institutum, ut innocentia protegatur, & culpa puniatur 2. q. 1. That public judgements are therefore ordained, that Innocence may be protected, & faults punished. And our wise Lawgivers observing, that this end and scope of the law could not otherwise be attained, but by citing & calling to their answer, the parties supposed to be delinquent, & admitting them to their defence. Therefore was it ordained by the Canons & laws of holy Church, that even in summary & most compendious proceeding, in which all solemnity of law may be pretermitted, yet no Bishop or Prelate should presume to sentence any of their subjects. These or either of these two main pillars of all legal & juridical proceeding being neglected; namely, Citation & Conviction, as is above proved in the fourth Principle. And that in omission of both, or either of these two essential parts of all lawful process all sentence & publication of sentence following, is to be held ipso fact, void, & so Invalid in law, as no appellation from such sentence shall be necessary to any other court or superior. For saith the Canon: Quae contra legem facta ●unt, pro infectis haberi debent. 25 q. 2. Imperiali. The things that are done contrary to law, are to be accounted as not done at all. Now then forsomuch as both these, namely Citation & Conviction, have b●n omitted by their Ordinary Thomas Fleming alias Barnwell, L. Archb of Dublin, and Friar of the Order of S. Francis. Tho setwo reverend Priests do allege, that the sentence of Excommunication following & fulminated against the Inhabitants of this Diocese, for hearing their Masses, is utterly void. For which so great a wrong both to Priest & People, satisfaction of honour and damages, in all law & conscience is due, they being in possession of a good name, of which they are not to be deprived, till the contrary be proved against them: according to that rule of the law, (which I placed in the beginning for my fifth Principle, & is also the very law of God & Nature:) That every one is to be held a good & a legal man, till he be convicted of the contrary, And so much for my first Argument or Reason, manifesting the Injustice and Nullity of the aforesaid Excommunication.   

CAP. II.  
The second Argument against the Excommunication.  
MY second Reason manifesting the Nullity & Invalidity of the afraid Excommunication, is: That all Censures of the Ecclesiastical judge or Prelate, are not only to be expressed in writing, 2. q. 2 juprimis. but also to contain the cause of such censure. Concil. Lug. ●ap. 1. ●od. in 6. which expression of cause, is not only to be observed in denunciation of Excommunications already incurred, but also to be incurred, in case the cause be not otherwise notoriously known. For example, The Archbishop of Milan excommunicates all such Officers & Waiters at the city gat●s, as als● all citizens, who shall admit into their houses, strangers, who bring not with them literas sanitatis, letters of health. This Excommunication in time of pestilence & mortality, is just & valid, although it express no cause. For why, the cause is apparent, the preservation of the City from infection in time of pestilence. Yet say I, in case there were no danger of infection, for that there is no fame or report of any ●iagues abroad, it were no valid sentence, for want of intimation and expression of a cause. And this happens so often, as ●uch things are prohibited under censures, which of themselves are not unlawful, but by some accident, or circumstance. And in this all agree.  
Now the afore-named Priests do allege in this their Apology, That there is no cause at all laid down in the sentence of the aforesaid Excommunication, nor yet otherwise manifest: for which want & defect, they doubt not to avouch it Invalid.  
But it will be said unto the Minor of this Syllogism, That there is a cause expressed & nominated, yea and very much insisted upon in the Censure, to wi●, obstinate disobedience, continual insolency, and that without hope of amendment, to the great scandal and disaedification of many Catholics, etc.  
To which I answer, That Disobedience is an universal cause, & hath many branches, spreading itself far & wide through the whole life of man. For example, there is disobedience unto God, and that in as great variety as there be sins & offences against the first & second Table. There is disobedience unto the laws of holy Church. There is disobedience unto the laws & edicts of Princes, to Prelates, to inferior Magistrates, to Parents, to Tutors, to Masters of families, to Pedagogues, & to all lawful Superiors, & that in an Ocean of matter & circumstances. Now then forsomuch as neither vice nor virtue can be exercised but in their proper particular & individual 〈◊〉 No act of the Priest's disobedience being here mentioned, no cause of the Excommunication is expressed, & no cause, no censure. For it is a saying as true as common, That qui ambulat in universalibus, intendit decipere; He that walketh in universalities and generalities, desires to deceive.  
You know in your Civil & Temporal Courts, If a man be to be punished either corporally, or by the purse, his particular fault is set before his eyes, yea and made manifest to so many as please to take knowledge thereof. Is Titius an offender? Is he a wicked man? This is not sufficient to doom him to punishment: And why so? because there be many kinds of offences, many sorts of wickedness. Is Titius a thief, & hath stolen? Neither is that sufficient to cause his punishment: And why? because there be many sorts of stealths & theeveries. But hath Titius stolen a piece of plate of so mavy ounces; an horse, or a cow of such a value, from such a man, such a time, & in such a manner: O when Titius is brought unto his trial in open Court, & is convicted of his particular act & crime, either by his own confession, or proof of witness, then is Titius subject to the sentence, and to the execution thereof.  
Even so say I, disobedience is a vice in universali, & therefore as not committable, so not punishable but in his particular Act. For they that know any thing, know this: that sins cannot be committed neither in Genere, nor in Specie, but in Individuo per judividuum. But here in the censure of the Archbishop, it is neither declared against whom, or in what matter this disobedience was, or of what nature, or colout it is. The punishment is declared to be Excommunication, but the cause of it hangs in the clouds of universality: and whether it will prove hail, rain, or snow, no man knows but by divination.  
Now let any indifferent man judge, whether it be not a most illegal, & an exorbitant course of proceeding, for a man to know his punishment, & not his offence; to feel the one, before he be convicted of the other? And such is the case of these R. Priests, who from time to time have demanded, urged, & required with all duty & due respect of their Archbishop, as also of his Council of Friars: What this their disobedience was, against whom it was committed, in what matter it consisted of, what nature it was of? And nothing answered, but sic volo, fit jubeo: or as sometimes it pleaseth him to say: That he doth these things for causes and reasons only known unto himself.  
But if it were lawful for Abraham, Moses, & job, to reason with God Almighty: let me also with due respect ask of you my L. Archbishop, whether this be not to open a gap, & to set wide the sluices of a full inundation to all injustice and impiety: I say, my Lord, to punish your subjects for causes & reasons only known unto yourself. For in so doing, you seem to erect a new tribunal, & to bring in such a form of judgement among us, as the world hath not yet taken knowledge of, contrary to all laws divine & humane, of God and man.  
For first we read in Genesis 3. when Almighty God was to cen●ure our first Parents for their transgression, he was not contented with his own knowledge, but he cited them in person to appear before him, saying; Adam, Vbi as? Adam, Where art thou? charging them with their particular disobedience, in eating the forbidden fruit, contented to hear what they could allege in their own defence, before he descended to sentence: yea, & as a grave Author writing upon that place, saith. Had not the devil been sentenced & damned before that time, he happily then had been admitted unto his defence and purgation.  
The like did God in the parricide of Cain, saying, Vbi est Abel frater tuus? Genes. 4. Where is thy brother Abel? The like he did in the destruction of the five Cities (notwithstanding his omniscience) no doubt, to prescribe unto man a platform of justice & judgement. Descendam & videbo, utram clamorem qui venit ad me, opere compleverint, an non est ita, ut s●●am. Genes. 18. I will go down (saith Almighty God) and I will see whether they have done according to the cry that is come unto me, or whether it be not so, that I may know.  
So our Saviour in the process of the adulterous woman, Mulier, Vbi sunt qui te accusabant? john 8. Woman, where be thine accusers?  
So hath he foretold us, what shall be the form & process of the last judgement, at what time the sheep shall be separated from the goats. Math. 25.  
And thus have you seen some few examples out of Scripture, of justice exercited in judgement by God himself. Now as touching humane judgements, who can make question, but as Moses made the Tabernacle according unto that pattern which was showed unto him by God himself in the mountain, Exod. 25. So ought all humane judgements to be squared according to the divine. Of many to rehearse some few examples.  
Such was the judgement of Solomon in the cause of the two Harlots, about the quick & the dead child. III. Reg. 3.  
Such was the judgement of Daniel in the case of chaste Susanna. Dan. 7.  
Such was the judgement of S. Peter in the matter of Ananias and Saphira. Act. 5.  
And our blessed Saviour & Redeemer in that his Arraignment, where Injustice most of all did triumph in the seat of justice yet was admitted unto his answer, saw his accusers, heard his forged crimes urged by his malicious enemies, & enforced against him by two false witnesses, & last of all received his sentence pronounced by the mouth of the unjust judge Pontius Pilate. Math. 27.  
But these two venerable Priests (〈◊〉 I confess not in a matter which concerns their lives) yet in a case which some will say, is more to be esteemed then life itself, to wit, their honour and good name in the world, were condemned, not cited to judgement, absent, and 〈◊〉, at what time it pleased my L. Archbishop and his Friars to sit upon the Bench. And that which in all judgements, & by the Law of Nature ought to be the last & the perclose of the whole process, was here the first, namely sentence. For neither themselves, or any in the place where they live, did so much as once suspect any proceeding in any cause with them, or against them, till sentence was proclaimed, and that as publicly as at the high Cross of Dublin: and themselves condemned of Disobedience; but how? As I have said, in terms of universality: Of a Disobedience wanting his existence or being of a particular act, or fact: Of a disobedience without father or mother, naked of all circumstances; as time, when; place, where; & person, against whom. A singular judgement I confess, and, not much unlike unto that which they say in some barbarous Countries is exercised: The man first hanged, and then his cause examined. O Nicodemus, Nicodemu●! Thou a jew couldst say, Numquid lex nostra judicat hominem? etc. john 7. Doth our law condemn a man before he befirst heard, and know what he hath done? But had Nicodemus lived in these days among Christians, he would sometimes have seen wrong, injury and oppression, to have sit in the seat of judgement.  
I will then conclude this point with that saying of Festus unto King Agrippa, in the behalf of that great Apostle S. Paul, when he was to be sent prisoner unto C●sar: Sine ratione mihi videtur mittere vinctum, & causas ejus non significare. Act. 25. It seems unto me a thing unreasonable, to send a man bound, and not to signify his cause. And is it not think you, a far more unreasonable thing to thrust the people into the spiritual bonds and fetters of Excommunication, and not to signify the cause thereof? And I wonder that our great Masters in Israel, and you only great Cowcellours of war against the poor Clergy; my Lord, I mean our Friars who profess so great Scholarship, would not advise your Hon: (who happily by reason of your other employments, cannot so well attend unto the study of the Canons) what punishment that Bishop incurs, who excommunicates before the cause thereof be proved. See then for this, the Council of Paris, with Gratian 24. q. 3. De Illicita. And I will for the ease of my Reader set down the words. De illicita excommunicatione lex justiniani Imperatoris Catholici, etc. As touching unlawful Excommunications, the law of justinian the Catholic Emperor (which law the Catholic Church doth approve and observe) in his 123. Constitution, cap. 351. hath decreed that no Bishop or Prelate excommunicate any person before the cause be proved, for which the Canons of the Church command this to be done, and for his unjust attempt he shall so long abstain from the sacred Communion as shall seem good unto his Superior. So that Council. And it appears by the Canon, that such Prelates incurve suspension. See Extrude sentent. Excom. Sacro. So S. Gregory the great absolved the Bishop Magnus, unjustly excommunicated by Laurence Archbishop of Milan. See S. Gregory lib. 2. Epist. 26. And the same Pope Gregory did punish john a Bishop, for inflicting of unjust Excommunications. See for this the place above cited, de illicita Excom. And let them consider of this who teach, that our Bishops cannot err in their censures. That they must be obeyed in right and wrong, etc. But I shall have occasion to speak of that point hereafter.  
Forsomuch then as you see the Law tells us, that no Excommunication can either be inflicted or incurred, before the cause thereof be proved. Let me humbly intereat your Hon: my very good Lord, for I suppose that you are neither too old to learn, nor myself too young to teach: Nor do I doubt, albeit I be inferior to you in place and dignity in God's Church, that it will either misbecome my profession, as being a Priest, nor my white hairs, as now being Paulus senex, even Paul an old man, to preach unto you. That as well for the security of your own conscience towards God, as to avoid the scandal and obloquy of the world, as also punishment from the higher powers. That hereafter you will either make the cause of your Censures as well known and approved unto the world, as you do your punishments, or else the punishments as private unto yourself as the causes thereof. And so hoping your Hon. will take the premises into your consideration, I will descend unto the next point; which shall be to satisfy some doubts, & to answer to certain objections which may be made in the behalf of the Ordinary against my two former Arguments, enforcing the Injustice and Invalidity of the Archbishop's censure.   

CAP. III.  
Certain Objections in behalf of the Archb. propounded, and answered.  
FIrst than it may be said in defence and excuse of the Ordinary: That the times are such, as our Prelates in this kingdom cannot observe any legal or canonical process or course of judgement with their subjects, and therefore are constrained to proceed as they may. And that albeit they neither call the Defendant unto his answer, nor admit of any proof of cause by witness against them, they are to be borne withal: Necessitas non habet legem, Necessity knows no law, etc.  
To which first I answer, That if the Catholic Prelates either have way by permission of the state, or take unto themselves so much boldness, as to publish their sentences of Excommunication in their Chapels and Oratories after Mass, as well by such Parish Priests, as are placed in the Cities and suburbs, as also by the Friars of so many Orders. Than say I, How can they be excused in the pretermission of ilegall proceeding in that former part of justice, going before sentence. Namely calling the parties unto their answer, examination of their causes, admitting of proof pro & contra. For so much as all this may be performed with much more privacy than the publication of sentence can be. The Canon is of holy Church requiring no greater a number even in their most public and solemn proceedings in court, than these 4. sorts of persons: 1. The judge 2. The Plaintiff: 3. The Defendant: and 4 lie the Witnesses: all which need not to be abo●e five or six persons at the most. That Prelate then who can be so bold as to command his sentence of Excommunication to be published in the hearing of so many hundreds, yea of thousands, as my Lord Archbishop Thomas Fleming, alias Barnwell hathdone, yea and from time to time 1. published the same sentence, lest it should grow stale, and out of request How can he in reason pretend any fear of persecution in granting a legal course of proceeding, in which the presence of so few (as hath been said) is necessary. And therefore to do the one, and to omit the other, is but to sleight justice, and to oppress the Innocent. And so much for the first answer.  
My second answer is, That in case the times be such, & the persecution so great, as that those essential parts of all legal proceeding must of necessity be pretermitted, (I mean Convention of the parties, & Conviction by due proof:) I say then with that common Maxim of the law, Better an Inconvenience, than a Mischief; & in such case all sentence of punishment, publication, and execution doth likewise cease, and the guilty is rather to pass unpunished in this world, than the very systema of all Tribunals to be ruinated, & justice deposed from her Throne; for than it seems to be a case of a common calamity & an inevitable necessity, putting silence unto all laws, & better the Nocent be spared, than the Innocent punished.  
But see, & note (gentle Reader) what use of the times, & what an excellent advantage the Ordinary makes unto himself to compass his own ends (I say, by fishing in these troubled waters.) For whereas in France, Spain, Italy, and those Countries where the spiritual sword hath his free stroke in all Tribunals (supported & maintained so often as is necessary with the aid & assistance of the secular arm,) yet all form of due justice is punctually observed. Id enim possumus, quod justè possumus; for that only can we do (saith the Law) which we may justly do. But here in this Diocese, all must be presumed for the Ordinary, because we live in a mixed people, near unto the State & Magistrate of an other profession in Religion from us, no juridical proceeding must be held necessary, but that our Ecclesiastical judge may lay about him at his pleasure, in his censures & punishments of his subjects, without calling the parties before him to their answer, without examination of their cause, without conviction, etc. So as what an Ordinary could not do where the Church is established, & in his full strength and vigour against the poorest Priest of his Diocese here, under pretence of a persecution, and obstacle of a free course of justice, he shall most easily effect (I say) under the name & cloak of persecution, more freely himself to persecute, as at this present, & for some years past, the Clergy of this Diocese hath both seen & felt, having endured a more bitter persecution from this their Bishop & his Friars, then from the temporal Magistrate, though divided from them in matter of Religion.  
Add hereunto a second advantage also, that this Archbishop of Dublin makes of these times by a seeming and a pleasing correspondency which he keeps (as he imagines himself) with the State. For he being a Friar, & seeking by all means to suppress the Clergy, and to bring all into the hands of the Regulars, I mean the Monks & Friars, as well Franciscans, Capuchins, Dominicans, Augustine's, Carmelits, & jesuits, (For scarce are there so many Priests of the Clergy left in all this City, as there be Orders of Regulars therein at this day.) And knowing that they of a contrary profession, can well endure that Priests either in their persons, or in their maintenance & lively hood should be straitened & suppressed. And knowing also that it will not discontent the Protestane Magistrate to have the people forbidden to hear the Masses of Priests. He upon these presumptions, supported by the Counceil of his Friars, who are of more strength in this City than men would imagine) is animated to pursue such designs as of late he hath undertaken, knowing that the lower the balance of the Clergy descends, the higher are the Friars advanced, & by driving of the people from the Clergy, the more of necessity must they & wild they depend on the Friars. But this wisdom (doubtless) is not spiritual, but carnal; not from above, but earthly; savouring not of the Holy Ghost, but of ambition, of temporal means, and of the belly. And so being a Council, not of God, will come to nothing, though for a time (by never so strong a faction) supported.  
A second defence of the Archbishops proceedings, is this, & which by our Friars is much put on foot, especially among the common people: That the Bishop is to be obeyed in all things, yea in right & wrong, as some teach: And shall the foot judge the head? the subject the Magistrate? the sheep the Prelate? etc.  
To the first part of this popular argument so much insisted upon, I answer, that if it be spoken merrily, it may pass for a jest; but if seriously, it is flat heresy; namely, that 〈◊〉 Bishop in right and wrong is to be obeyed.  
For the second part, which through the persuasion of the Friars, is in every old wife's mouth; & the second word of every Artisan & Tradesman, That the sheep are not to examine or question the sentence of their Pre●ate: the subject of the Magistrate. I answer, that albeit indeed the Inferior can not reverse or correct the judgement of his Superior, & much less may he punish him for the same (because he hath no jurisdiction or power over him.) Yet by the Friars good leave, the Inferior may examine, may question & discuss the judgement & sentence of his Superior, both in his own & other men's cases: yea & if the Inferior, or Subject, do find either by his own learning, or by help of such as are seen in the knowledge & profession of the Laws, that a subordinat Prelate, such as be all Archbishops & Bishops (who are as equally subject to the Canons, as the poorest Priest) have not proceeded according to the laws of holy Church, the Constitutions of the See Apostolic, the Decrees of general Counsels, the sacred Canons received, & of force in all Tribunals, but that such judges, whether Archbishops or Bishops have gone astray, contrary to the rules prescribed by the abovementioned Legislatours, all which are their superiors in jurisdiction, & as far above them in power & authority, as the common people are inferior unto their immediate Prelates & Pastors. It is plain, that in such case neither Priest nor People, is bound either in law or conscience to obey any such Archbishop, or Bishop, or their sentence, not grounded & founded on that law, according to which they precisely were bound to judge. For saith B. Aug. Ser. 6. de Verbis Domini. Vbi duo superiores mandant opposita, Inferiori non est obediendum; where two Superiors command opposite things, the Inferior is not to be obeyed. And S. Gregory Pope: Imperiali constitutione sancitum est, ut ea quae contra l●ges fiunt, non solùm inutilia, sed etiam pro insectis habenda si●t: It is enacted by Imperial constitution, that the things which are done against law, are not only unprofitable, but to be esteemed as not done at all. Gregor. in Regesto, lib. 7. Epist. 7. and inserted in the Canon, 25. q. 2. Imperiali.  
How idly then, or rather ignorantly, or rather maliciously do our Friars teach the people, & that as confidently, as if it were a point of their Catechism, that none may examine the doctrine of the Archbishop, or his sentences, as if he were a god, who neither could err in judgement, or sin in will, when as the law saith plainly, Non debet is poenam sustinere canonicam, in cujus damnatione non est prolata sententia canonica, 11. q. 3. He ought not to suffer a canonical punishment, in whose condemnation a canonical sentence is not pronounced: plainly thereby supposing that the Prelate may abuse the Keys, & err in his censures. And the gloss upon the same cap. saith, Si ergo constet tibi, quod sententia judicis est iniqua, potes judicis violentis resistere. If it appeareth unto thee, that the sentence of the judge be unjust, thou art not bound to obey his violence. Which is also confirmed Extra de Appellationibus cap. Significaverunt. And the Angelical Doctor S. Thomas, whose authority is such, as it is confessed, yea confirmed by the gravest judgement in the Church of God, that he never taught any error in Divinity, hath this Conclusion, 2. 2. q. 104. art. 5. Subditi in iis rantummodo superioribus suio obedire tenentur, in quibus ipsi suis superioribus subijciuntur, & in quibus ipsi superiores sublimioris potestatis praecepto non adversantur: Inferiors in such things alone are bound to obey their Superiors, in which they are subject unto their Superiors, & wherein those their Superiors go not against the precept and command of a power higher than is theirs. And in the corpse of the aforesaid Conclusion, he ●lustrateth the same doctrine out of S. Aug. ser. 6. de verbis Domini, by example of the Captain, the Proco●●●, the General, and God. Where neither the Captain against the command of the proco●sull, nor the Proconsul against the Precept of the General, nor the General against the command of God is to be obeyed by the Subject. Infinite are the Authors both ancient & modern, which might in this case be produced, if it were necessary. But how can it be necessary so to do, when Experience teacheth us, & we see daily before our eyes in all Tribunals, as well Ecclesiast: call as Civil, sentences upon better consideration, at the instance and motions of the parties & their learned Council sometimes reexamined, sometimes reversed, sometimes appealed from to higher Tribunals, and there corrected. For it fareth not in Christian Commonwealth, & much less in the Church of God, which is ruled by just & wholesome laws, as it doth among Turks & Insidels, barbarous & brutish nations, where there is no other law but the will, or rather the appetite of the Commander. And I would ask our Friars, grown so violent & imperious, rather through their multitude then their learning; To what end doth the law allow Appelles from the ●entence of Inferior judges, whether they be Ecclesiastical, or Civil, unto the supreme, in case it were not lawful for the parties sentenced, to examine their sentence according unto the rules of law, whether being justly condemned, they should so rest themselves contented; or finding it otherwise to seek their remedy? I would also ask our Friars, in case judges & Magistrates could not err, to what end Almighty God so often, & so seriously should exhort all judges, Magistrates, & Rulers of the people, to the administration of justice, & not to look after rewards, but to tender the case of the Widow, Stranger, & Orphan, menacing so many heavy threats & curses upon the heads of such as pervert judgement: Vae qui dicitis malum, bonum; ponentes tevebras lucem, & lucem tenebras: Vae qui justificatis impium pro muneribus, & justitiam justi aufertis ab eo. Esay 5. Woe be to you who call evil, good; placing darkness light, and light darkness. Woe be to you who justify the wicked for rewards, and rob the just man of his justice.  
I would also demand of our Friars, To what purpose are so many books of the Canon, Civil, Common, and Statute Law written? wherefore so many Studies, and Colleges of the laws founded and erected, witness Paris, Orleans, Bo●ognia, Milan, Salamanca, and our Inns of Court of London, and through all Christian Common wealths, but to teach both judge, Advocate & Client, rectum discernere iniquo, to distinguish betwixt right and wrong: that Church or Commonwealth ever best governed, where the fewest cases are left unto the breast of the judge, always preferring the silent before the speaking law, as less subject to error and corruption.  
Let then our Friars cease henceforward to teach that barbarous doctrine ambulantem in tenebris: I say, that corner, or rather tavern doctrine, which every Tradesman, Kitchen-maide, and threefooted old trot, have hourly in their mouths, rammed into their heads by their false teachers: That the Bishop is to be obeyed in right and wrong, & that no inferior unto him may examine or call in question his Censures, Decrees, or judgements, but rather let them learn that better lesson of the Orator, Amor, & odium, & privatum commodnm, sapè faciunt judicem non cognoscere verum, lib. 1. Rhetoricorum. Affection, Hatred, and private commodity, makes many times a judge not to know the truth. And who knows not, that in all ages, the world hath much halted on that leg, I mean of Injustice. And some will unhappily say: that this age wherein we live, is not much better than her predecessors.  
Now my last Argument in this case shall be Ad hominem: convincing my Adversaries by their own practice. As thus.  
If it be not lawful for the Subject or Inferior to question the sentence of his Superior: the Priest of the Bishop. I then demand: How came it to pass, that in England of late, our Friars do question the command of the Bishop of Chalcedon, that most reverend, pious, & learned Prelate, who was placed over the English Clergy by the See Apostolic? Wherefore did the Monks, as also the Ignatian Friars or Jesuits, write divers books and treatises against him, which books we have seen and read; surely these Monks were none of the Lord of Chalcedon his Superiors at all.  
Again, What is the cause, why that libelling Friar of S. Francis Order, (cloaking his infamous writings under the name of Edmundus Vrsulanus, in his book called, Examen juridicum Censurae Parisiensis,) is so bold not only to call in question, but absolutely to condemn the Excommunication of the most Illustrious Archbishop of Paris, published against such as shall defend & maintain the Eleven Propositions, commonly called the Irish Propositions; Vrsul●●us himself being but a seditious Friar, and I trow none of the Archbishop's judge or Superior at all.  
And to come nearer home: How came it to pass? That in Droghedah some ten years ago, certain of the Jesuits being excommunicated, & that by name by james Plonket, then Conservator juris for the Franciscans: And certain of the Franciscans on the other side, excommunicated by an other judge, at the procurement of the Jesuits; neither one or other yielded obedience to the aforesaid Excommunications, but both stood stiffly in defence of their own opinions, exclaiming against, and condemning each other in public Sermons, to the great scandal & disaedification of all good Catholics: And yet neither was the Franciscan, or Ignatian Friars Superiors unto those Prelates, who for their sakes fulminated those Censures.  
And lastly to come home, & unto our own doors: What say you gentle Friars unto this late example, & now in the mouth of every one, as well Protestant, as Catholic, I say, of our Archbishop of Dublin, Thomas Fleming, alias Barnwell, Friar of the Order of S. Francis, who stands at this day excommunicated, yea Excommunicatus nominatim, & denunciatus, Excommunicated by name, & denounced; & the same by a Papal Excommunication, legally, & for most just causes published against him; & he not able to give any reason either of the jujustice or Invalidity thereof, remains obstinately disobediant, unto the See Apostolic, to the great scandal & disaedification of all Catholics, not only of this Diocese, & Kingdom, but through the whole Christian World. So as he who most injustly, & contrary to all course of law censured others, himself is fast bound in the ties of an excommunication, & that from the See of Rome: So as it may truly be said of him: Incidit in lequeum quem fecit, & super caput ipsius descendet iniquitas ejus. He is fall'n into the Pit which he digged for others, and upon his head sh. Ill his iniquity descend. Psal. 7.  
To conclude then this point, and summarily to lay together what hath more largely been discoursed. I say forsomuch as the Archbishop our Ordinary hath not trodden in the steps of the ancient Fathers, not observed such Rules as the sacred Canons, Counsels and Decrees of the ancient have prescribed to him, and all other judges as their lawful Superiors, as in all other their Court proceedings; so in awarding their sentences & censures, but that the said Lord Archb. in the case of the aforenamed Priests, most illegally, exorbitantly & a●omolously, hath proceeded by publishing his sentence in the first place, which ought to be in the last, having omitted not only solemnia juris, but essentialia juris, not only the solmnities of the law, but even the very life, p●●hand essence thereof: As first a lawful citation or calling unto their answer, the examination and probation of cause against them: neither hath, as the law requireth, mentioned in his sentence the particular cause of the people's Excommunication in hearing the Masses of these two R. Priests, but only (as hath been said) in universali, in general, & in the air, to wit, disobedience not individuated; they therefore except against his proceedings as most illegal, & corrupt: & confidently avouch, that the aforesaid censure of Excommunication is nulla, irrita, & invalida; void, invalid, & of no force, & so to be held & esteemed of all. And such Regulars, whether they be Monks, or Mendicants, which (like unto Ephrain against Manasses, & Manasses against Ephraim, but both against judah) doc labour to extinguish the Clergy, & to draw unto themselves as well the dependence and countenance of the people, as their purses; & to that end do teach the Laity, that they ought to make great scruple of the aforesaid Excommunication. They are false teachers, & of the number of them, of whom the Apostle speaketh unto Ti●us. 1. qui universas domos subvertunt, docentes quae non oportet, turpis lucri gratiâ; who subvert whole houses, teaching such things as they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. For the Citizens can well witness with us, that they run from house to house, most seditiously incensing, and setting the people against us, not regarding justice, or injustice, but what may best serve for the erecting of their so long desired a Monarchy. And with such diligence do these apply their business in this matter of the ceusure, abusing the ignorance & credulity of the Laity, as if they cannot draw the good man of the house unto their strain, than they betake themselves unto the goodwife, from her unto the children, Apprentices and servants, not ceasing till they have put the whole family into a combustion & broils one with another. While we in the mean time with patience have endured all the wrongs & injuries of these their seducements: yea till with their importunity, and many a false corner lie, they have made us as odious unto the people, as any male factours. For what cannot such a multitude persuade? Kinsmen to these, gossips to those, matching these couples, bringing custom to that shop, giving here the Scapulare, there the cord, ascribing such virtue & protection unto them, as holy Church never taught, nay attributing such grace & merit unto one Satursdayes Fast, after they hear & take notice of the death of a certain Spanish Nun, called Luissa, as more can not be ascribed unto the Passion of our Saviour Christ; well worthy to be swayled with faggots in the Inquisition, for such pernicious doctrine. But of this point, if God spare me life, these seducers shall hear more from me ere long.   

CAP. FOUR  
A third Argument against the Excommunication.  
NOW then having answered unto such poor shifts & silly excuses as the Cordiliers, & the rest of the Friars make for the Ordinary. I will proceed to a third Argument or Reason, disabling the aforesaid censure of Excommunication: as thus.  
Such a fault as could not have been forbidden unto the Priests, as principals under pain of Excommunication, much less could have been inhibited the people, as accessary and participating with them in the same fault, under pain of Excommunication. But  
Disobedience could not have been forbidden the Priests themselves under pain of Excommunication.  
Ergo, neither unto the people.  
The Major of this Syllogism, is that rule of the law, Regula 42. Accessorium sequitur nat●ram principalis; The Accessary follows the nature of the principal. To make it familiar by an example, of which every one may be capable. If an Vs●rer be not punishable by the law, neither then the Broker, or the Clerk that draws the Bonds of the usurarious contract or bargain.  
As for the Minor, That Disobedience itself could not have been forbidden the Priests under any censure, is manifest by this. First (as hath been often said,) That Disobedience is a general vice, spreading itself into many branches, as a river dividing his streams into many brooks, And secondly, for that Disobedience may fall upon a matter so light and trivial, as will not bear the burden of so great a censure. For let me ask our Scotists, Whether the Archbishop can inhibit & forbid the Inhabitants of his Diocese, under pain of Excommunication, never to commit any sin. The thing is so manifest, that he can not, as till it be affirmed that he may. It will spare any further discourse about it. It remaineth then, that forsomuch as the people could not be excommunicated for the Priest's disobedience, it must necessarily follow, That the Excommunication falls upon them only for being present at their Masses: which how well it sorts with my Lord Archb. profession to inflict, I leave to consideration.   

CAP. V.  
A fourth Argument against the Excommunication.  
MY fourth reason manifesting not only the Injustice, but the Nullity & Invalidity of the aforesaid Excommunication awarded against the Laiety, in the case of hearing those two R. Priests their Masses, shall be this, which for brevity's sake, I will conclude in this Syllogism.  
An Excommunication inflicted for a virtuous act, contains an intolerable error, & so by the second principle is most injust and invalid.  
But to be present at the administration of Sacraments by Priests, who are free of all canonical censures, is a virtuous action.  
Therefore an Excommunication fulminated against such as be present thereat, is not only void of force, but also wicked.  
For declaration of the Minor, it is to be understood, That so long as the Priests are uncensured, they are supposed by the Church as men allowed, to whom all may have access in the administration of the Sacraments. For when the Church holds it not safe for the people to communicate with their Priests, or Pastors, whether Bishops, or Curates, or any other who have lawful ordination, & jurisdiction, It begins (as is most reasonable) first with the head, to cure the maladies & diseases thereof, with the medicinable balsamon of the Censures. (For the Censures of holy Church ought to be medicinable, & not vindicative, used for necessity, & serviceable to true Piety, & not to sinister ends. 2. q. 1, multi. 34. q. 3.) So as if the Pastor or Priest be not suspended, be not excommunicated, be not interdicted, nor the same published unto the people, together with the particular cause of such censure, in the sentence of the Prelate expressed, & mentioned. It is to be understood, that by the Church he is tolerated, neither can the people be censured for participating with him, either in divine, or civil actions. I say, so long as himself is not censured: For to illustrate this by a familiar example. Tell me, would it not be thought a strange reckoning, If the Magistrate did forbid under some heavy fine, that none should frequent the shop, or buy & sell, with such a Merchant in the High-street, the said Merchant neither punished, or punishable for any delict, or fault committed. I now it would be so held. Now (gentle Reader) if ●houperuse the Censure of the Archbishop, see down in the beginning of this Treatise, you shall find no censure at all inflicted upon the Priests, so as they (for any impediment unto the contrary) may lawfully say Mass: And yet the people under pain of Excommunication may not be present at the ●ame: This Logic I understand not, but I wot well what S. Gregory hath in his 27. Hom. Ipse ligandi atque folvendi potestate se privat qui hanc pro suis voluntatibus, & non pro subditorum juribus exercet. He deprives himself of the power of binding and losing, who exerciseth the same at his own pleasure, and not according unto the Laws of the subject.   

CAP. VI  
A ●ift Argument against the Excommunication.  
MY ●ift and last reason proving the Nullity & Invalidity of the aforesaid Censure, (which also may be gathered out of what hath been before noted in the precedent Chapters) is this:  
That none can be punished with the spiritual sword of Excommunication for the sin of another, not partaking in the same sin himself. And although this be manifest by the light of reason, as also by faith; yet I will not spare to add the consent of Writers the reunto, as also of the Canon. So Vgolinus de Censur. tab. 1. cap. 17. §. 8. num. 6. cap. per tuas. de sentent. Exc●●●. cap. solet, & cap. de venerabilibus §. penult. ●odem titul● in Sexto. And it hath the consent of all Doctors, wherefore in this case I will say unto my Prelate, as David said unto Almighty God, in the temporal punishment of his subjects by pestilence. 2. Reg. 24. Isti qui oves sunt quid fecerunt? These sheep what have they done? Let thy hand (I pray thee) be turned against myself, etc. If the Priests have offended, let them in the name of God be punished, but what hath the innocent people committed, that they should be censured, either for the Priests true, or supposed offences. Sure if that great Doctor of the Church S. Gregory may be judge, his sentence will be for the people against our Prelate. For these are his words: Non debet is poenam sustinere canonicam, in cujus damnationem non est canonica prolam sententia, TWO q. 3. That party ought not to suffer a canonical punishment, in whose condemnation no canonical sentence hath been pronounced.  
And thus (good Reader) having (I doubt not) convinced thy conscience of the Nullity & impiety of this Censure, I will proceed (Godwilling) one step forward. And as hitherto I have proved, that no obedience is due thereunto: so I will undertake (by God's assistance) to show, and upon good grounds, that in all conscience it ought to be disobeyed: And that whosoever yieldeth obedience unto the same (if he be not excused by invincible ignorance) doth not only sin mortally, but also continues in sin, so long as in obedience thereunto, he refuseth to hear the Masses of the aforesaid Priests.   

CAP. VII.  
Wherein it is proved, That none in Conscience may obey the aforesaid Excommunication.  
THus than I argue; Defamation or the taking away of a man's good name, is a mortal sin. So S. Thomas 2. 2. q, 73. 1. & all Divines. Yea & so much is that defamation or detraction greater, & more grievous, by how much it is more material, & the partyres against whom more honourable. And it is to be understood, That defamation or detraction is not only verbal, but also mental and real, that is, not only in word, but in thought also, and in fact. And because every thing is made more familiar by examples; I put the case, that myself, as also the whole neighbourhood, hath understood of some scandalous sin of one of our old friends and familiar acquaintance, whom we held, albeit a poor, yet an honest, & a very pious man, whereupon we withdraw our good opinions from him, our wont conversation, our familiarity, and such benefits as from time to time we were wont to bestow upon him, and still would have continued, if we had not heard such evils of him: well, it appears unto us not long after, that the party was wronged, and free from all such vice & wickedness, as he was charged withal, and so as in conscience we are assured of his innocence; yet notwithstanding we bear ourselves towards him, as formerly we did, when we believed those evils of him, to his great discomfort, to his discountenance in the world, and in fine to his great shame, & infamy: I say in this case we all sin mortally, and the black sin of Detraction, if not in thought, and in word, yet (which is as bad as the rest) really & indeed. So I say, these two R. Priests, so often mentioned, were charged by their Ordinary with disobedience, with continual insolency, etc. All this is manifested to be a malicious slander, notwithstanding are the people forbidden to be present at their Masses, & the same under pain of Excommunication. One Friar says, the Censure ought to be obeyed: Another says at least, it is the safest way. I say, they both err, & lead into error. For the safest way is, not to defame my brother, or to obscure his good name, nor yet to join and concur with such as do detract & withdraw from his just honour, and that especially in persons of so eminent a rank in the Church, as are anointed Priests, by which means their ministry is less respected, and themselves disenabled to walk in that vocation to which they are called.  
And first the Bishop who gave so impious a sentence, & next the Friar, who gadding from house to house, seeks to persuade the same, are guilty of most horrid sin, and as the Apostle calls it, blasphemy. And as well the one as the other obliged to satisfaction unto the Innocent so wronged, as also unto the Church of God. In the mean time let both Priest & people comfort themselves in that sweet blessing, pronounced by the month of our Saviour, Mat. 5. Beati est is cum maledixerint vobis, etc. Blessed are you when men shall revile you, & shall persecute you, & shall speak all evil of you lying for my sake: Be glad & rejoice, for great is your reward in heaven, for so did they persecute the Prophets who were before you. And forsomuch as it is the counsel of our sweet Saviour, to love our enemies, to do good to them that hate us, & to pray for them that persecute us. It willbe a work of mercy, & not (I trust) misbecoming me, to give a parcel of good counsel & advice unto my Prelate; & if with the Prophet Nathan, by setting his fault before his face, I convert him into a penitent David, he to the spiritual comfort of his soul, shall be reclaimed, and I to my great consolation, reap the fruit of my labours.  
O then, say I, if the Archbishop of Dublin, would but consider with himself, & set before his eyes, the practice of the ancient Prelates of God's Church, with what leaden paces they descended unto censures, never making use thereof, but in remediless occasions, where no admonition, no exhortation, no patience, no longanimity would prevail. As if they had said with the Poet.  
Cuncta prius tentanda, sed immedicabile vulnu●  
Ense recidendum; ne pars sincera trahatur.  
All first attempt, if nought prevail, its best.  
Cut off that part, which may infect the rest.  
All courses are first to be taken with the mist icallmembers of Christ's body, with the children of the Church. But that part (I confess) which admits no cure, must be separated from his fellows. The ancient Bishops did never fulminate their censures for trivial and light occasions, and much less for causes not manifest, and well proved.  Aug. in sermone de Quadragesima. 
Nos a communione quenquam prohibere non possumus nifis au● sponte confessum, aut in aliqu●, sive saeculari, sive Ecclesiastico judicio nominatum, atque, convictum. We can excommunicate no man, but him who either of his own accord hath confessed, or hath been named, and convicted in some saecular, or Ecclesiastical judgement.  Conc●lium Meldense c. 56. 
Nemo Episcoporum quemlibet sine centa, & manifesta peccatcausa, communione privet ecclesiastica. Let no Bishop without a certain and a manifest cause of a sin, deprive any of Ecclesiastical communion.  Concilium Aurolianense 4. cap. 2. & Wormaciense. cap. 13. 
Nullus sacerdotum quenquam rect● fidei hominem, pro parvis & levibus causis, à Communione suspendat, preter eas culpas pro quibus antiqui Patres arceri ab Ecclesia jusserun● contemnentes. Let no Priest excommunicate any, for small or light causes, besides those faults for which the ancient Fathers have commanded the contemners to be forbidden the Church. Again.  S. Ang. serm. 16. de verbis Domini. 
C●pisti habere fratrem tuum tanquam publicanam, ligas illum in terra, sed ut just● alliges vide. Name injust vincula disrumpit justitia. Thou hast begun to account thy brother as a publican, thou binds him on earth: But take heed thou bind him justly. For justice doth dissolve unjust bonds.  
Alas then, shall we think that this glorious St, sometime Bishop of Hippo in Africa, S. Augustin, brought with him his censures & his sentences in his pocket, as Th●. Fleming, alias Barnwell, Archbishop of Dublin useth & then to send for a Priest against whom he desireth to have a cause. And when he finds his opportunity, draws out his sentence of suspension from his pocket, as he did against that R. Priest, Fa. Patrick Cahil, suspending him from all priestly function, & the same so causelessly & so inconsequently, as he offered at the same time, to give him under his hand, a testimony of his learning and good life, yea and hath often, and to divers averred that he was both an honest and a learned man, which many of the. Inhabitants of this City, and Diocese, can, and do witness.  
Neither do I think S. Ambr●se Archbishop of Milan, came ever provided with his pocket censures of suspension, as our Archbishop of Dublin, Tho. Fleming, alias Barnwell did, when sending for Doctor, Peter Cadell, as to entreat with him, (as he pretended) upon some occasion of business, when he saw his time, pulled out of his breeches a written sentence of a suspension, reading the same against him. A man of whom malice itself cannot find what to speak amiss. And for no other cause, but that he refused to be banished out of his diocese by him, whilst the Archbishop himself confessed that he had no cause against him, but only that he had no use of him. And the good gentleman thinking it most unreasonable, & inhuman, to be putfi●om his friends, his small means, and those few Benefactors, which by his honest endeavours he had acquired. As especially making a great scruple to obey such a majestical & more than Regal Commandment of Exile, (desiring as always to be found faithful to God, so also a loyal subject unto his King) refused to obey that Banishment.  
Neither yet (I trow) did ever S. john Chrysostome, Archbishop of Constantinople, menace the Censure of Suspension in such a case, as Tho. Fleming alias Barnwell, L. Archb. of Dublin did unto Fa. Luke Rochfort of blessed memory, for not resending a letter back again unto him. which formerly he had sent him, witness Fa. Patrieke Brangan, and William Brown Priests, & at this day living in Dublin, who were messengers both of the letter, and of the threatened suspension.  
Neither yet I wot well, S. Basill Bishop of Caesarea, whe● a Priest came to complain of any wrong done him, did ever entreat him so irreligiously, as the aforesaid L. Archb. of Dublin did Paul Harris Priest, the 18. day of july 1631. in Dublin. (himself may well remember the place) after he had made such a complaint unto him of his Friars, as he was unwilling to hear: for redress of whose wrongs, he only had these words from his lips: I will excommunicate you if you come any more in my presence. A very sufficient cause (no doubt) of Excommunication, to come into a Bishop's presence.  
But truly as in the world, a wise and a discreet man will not upon every occasion have his hand upon his dagger, ready to lay about him, Much less becomes it a Prelate of the Church, for every trivial, & much less for only framed and devised matters, to draw out the spiritual sword of his censures, but rather let them remember, that they are placed over us, as S. Peter tells them, 1. Pet. 5. 3. Non ut dominantes in Cleris, sed ut forma facti gregis ex animo; Not as lording it, & domineering over the Clergy, but rather to be an example of all good conversation unto their flock. To which purpose S. Hierom in his Epistle ad Nepotianum. Episcopi sacerdot et sciant se esse, non dominos, honorent clericos quafi clericos, ut ipsis Episcopis à clericis quasi Episcopis honor deferatur. Scitum est ill●d Oratoris Domitij. Cur ergo inquit te habeam ut principem, cum tu me non habeas ut Senatorem? Let the Bishops know themselves to be Priests, and no Lords; Let them honour Clergymen, as Clergymen, that they again may give honour unto Bishops as Bishops. For elegant is that saying of the Orator Domitius; Wherefore should I regard thee as a Prince, when thou dost not use me as a Senator? Like unto which is that of the Council of Trent, Sess. 13. cap. 1. If then our Peter hath drawn out his sword rashly, and without cause: let Peter a God's name put up his sword again, as our Saviour adviseth him, saying: Converte gladium tuum in vaginam, Put up thy sword into his scabbard: That it be not said by lawful authority another day to such as abuse their swords, as our Saviour said unto Peter: Qui acceperit gladium, gladio peribit: He that smiteth with the sword, shall perish by the sword. And so much of the Reasons or Arguments, by which is manifested the Injustice and Invalidity of the Archbishop his Excommunication.  
Yet that no diligence or means might be neglected on our parts, to reclay me (if it were possible) our Ordinary from those violent proceedings against the Inhabitants of his Diocese: Mr D r Cadell in my absence (though not without my consent) did draw this Petition following, which was exhibited unto him in a meeting of Priests, by the hands of that R. & learned Clergyman, james Talb●t Dr of Divinity, ait what time the aforesaid Archbish. had made a most bitter invective Oration unto that assembly, against Dr Cadell & myself, to the end he might make us as odious unto them, as we are displeasing unto himself. But understand (good Reader) that all our Ordinaries invectives, as all his Friars detractions & obmurmurations against us, are ever in our absence, when as we are far enough off from hearing or answering them. Such was the Oration of Caesar the Dictator in the Senate-house; against Cneius Pompeius, to precure him the envy & hatred of the people, the famous Pompey being at that time many leagues from Rome: And such was the insinuation of Haman, in the ears of the great Assuerus, against Mardoche●s & his people, Esther 2. when there was none in place to answer for them. But now to the Petition.  

To the right Hon: Tho. Fleming alias Barnwell, L. Archbishop of Dublin.  
The humble Petition of Peter Cadell Priest, and Dr of Divinity.  
Humbly showeth unto your Hon: your suppliant, that whereas your Lo: the 6. of March last passed, caused a● Excommunication lata sententiae to be published against the Inhabitants of this Diocese of Dublin, prohibiting them to hear, or to be present at the Masses of Paul Harris, & of Dr Peter Cadell Priests, without any crime or cause ever proved against the afore-named Priests, to the great scandal of the whole Kingdom, the disaedification & ruin of many souls, & to the utter disgrace & defamation of the aforesaid Priests, being of good esteem & reputation in this city of Dublin.  
Your Suppliant therefore considering the censure of Excommunication to be the greatest and severest punishment with which the Church doth chastise delinquents, & notorious offenders, introduced & appointed by the same Church In medicinam, & none in ruinam animarum; and that the deliaquents should rather be punished, than the innocents. Your Petitioner in all due and canonical obedience submitting himself unto your Hon: as his Pastor, humbly desireth that your L. would be pleased to take the matter unto your mature consideration, & that you may be pleased by due course of law to cite before you. Hon: the abovenamed Priests, Paul Harris & Peter Cadell, & that they may be brought unto their answer, (which hitherto they never have been) of whatsoever crimes may be laid unto their charge; & being convicted & found guilty, that they be punished according to the quality of their faults; & in the mean time to release the innocent People from so heavy a punishment, undeservedly inflicted upon them, little knowing what it meaneth. But if on the contrary, the aforesaid Priests shallbe found to be innocent & guiltless, that then your L. will be pleased to restore them to their good name & fame injustly taken from them, to their great hurt & damage. And your Suppliant shall pray. Dated April 6. 1632.   
judge (gentle Reader) whether this Petition had not been enough to have mollified the heart of a Pharaoh, to have freed the children of Israel from the Egyptian servitude, & permit them to pass over th● red sea, into the land of Promise? And might not the same have prevailed (think you) with a loving, religious & a careful Pastor, to have released his Subjects from the bonds & captivity of so injust an Excommunication? But what answer had we of this Petition? truly an Answer answerless; for to this day we never received any.  
Well, for my part, I will not say of my Pastor (for the respect I owe him) as Moses said of Pharaoh, Induratum est cor Pharaonis, Pharaoh his heart is hardened. But surely I will say, Non vult dimittere populum ut sacrificent in deserts: He will not let the people go to sacrifice in the wilderness with Moses & Aaron. Yet as I doubt not but our Ordinary did foresee what errors he was to commit even from the very first entrance into this business, (though overruled partly by his own passion, & partly by the continual solicitation of his Friars) he gave way thereunto. So I doubt not also, but by this time he hath a desire (especially since the success was no better) by correcting of his mistakes, to bring matters into joint again. One great impediment I fear will be in his way, which is the restitution of honour & fame, which I tell you is a block that lies before many in the path that leads unto salvation. For albeit (I confess) it goes much against the hair to make restitution in temporal goods, in which a man hath damuified his neighbour; yet have we in the Old Testament a Tobias chap, 2. who commanded the same to be done: & in the New a Zacheus, Luke 19: who performed it himself, But in restitution of honour & fame, our proud corrupt natures have such an aversion to humble ourselves unto our equals, & much more to our Inferiors: I say in acknowledging a wrong & an injury done by us, unto them, & above all when the same requires a publicity, according to the circumstances of place and persons in & before whom the same was committed, as it requires more than an Heroical virtue, to overcome so great a difficultyt & I know not, whether in all the Scriptures we have an example thereof, as we had of the former: only I may say with S. Augustine, as well in the one case as in the other: Non di●ittitur peccatum, nisi restitnatur ablatum. The sin is not remitted, unless what is wrongfully taken away be restored, Aug. tom. 2. Epist. 54. And it is a Conclusion with S. Thom. Restituere quod injustè ●blatum est, est de necessitate salutis: It is of necessity unto salvation, to restore back what is injustly taken away. 2. 2. q. 62. art, 2. In which place (most learnedly as always) he showeth how a man's honour, fame and good name, may injustly be taken away two manner of ways, First in accusing our neighbour, or reporting of him a crime which is false, & then are we bound to restitution, acknowledging ourselves to have wronged him, in speaking of him what was untrue. Secondly, in manifesting his secret & unknown faults, not having respect unto the due course of law & justice. In which case also restitution is to be made, (yet without a lie) as in confessing we have defamed Titius injustly, or have wronged him in his good name & reputation. So S. Tho. & in these doctrines all divines agree with him.  
Only good Reader, give me leave further to enlarge myself, as touching the difficulty that all of us do ordinarily find in this kind of restitution, I mean of fame, more than of any other. To which purpose I will relate unto you a short History, & I believe neither unprofitable, nor unpleasant, which I find in an old book, & indeed so old, as it was printed above one hundred & fifty years ago. Albeit for a writer to be of that antiquity, is nothing. And this my book so ancient as appears by the date of the impression, as well also may witness the old Character, & the excellency of the Paper, is in a far bigger volume, than ever I yet beheld book, & it hath hitherto had so good a fate (of which also I am right glad) that it hath escaped the Indian leaf, the greatest enemy that this day I know, to the leaves of many a good book, I say in this our rheumatic & spitting age: for it neither wanteth the first nor the last pages, or any else through the whole volume. The name of it is Correctorium Vitiorum, but the Author it seems, meant not to favour us so much, as to give us his name, for in stead thereof, he is only yelepped. Fabri lignarij filius: The Son of the Carpenter, belike his father was free of S. Joseph's trade, but to our Story.  
This Author writing upon that commandment which S. Augustine accounts to be the 7. but S. Hierome the 6. Non furtum facies. Thou shalt not steal. Tells us of a certain Priest, who had a penitent, & this penitent he was an arrant thief, but not of money or goods, but of honour and fame, among other of his sins acknowledging at the feet of his ghostly father, that he had wronged a noble Gentleman in his name, & in his reputation, & that very grievously before many witnesses. The Priest his ghostly father tells him he is damned. He answers that he is very sorry, & were it to do again, he would not for the world commit the like fact. His Confessor tells him, he is damned. O saith the penitent, good father have compassion on me, you see my tears & my unfeigned sorrow & contrition of heart for my offence. Go thy ways, saith the Priest, for thou art damned. O father of my soul, saith the penitent, I come hither to seek comfort in the Sacrament, having been always taught never to despair of God's mercy, for what sin or offence soever: And for my part, I am willing to accept of what penance shall be enjoined me, though it were to go on pilgriinage to Rome or Compostella. Well then saith his ghostly father, my child, If thou wilt be saved, go thy ways neither to Rome nor to Compostella, but unto the very same party whom thou hast so slandered, seek out all those persons who at that time were present, when thou didst him that shame & affront, and there before them all upon thy knees confess thy fault, & humbly ask him forgiveness, & having so done, return hither to me again, & I will give thee absolution. And shall I, that am a Gentleman, a man of note, & a commander in my country, so abase, & disgrace myself, I will first be damned. Why, saith the Priest, & did not I tell thee so much before, and yet I could not make thee to believe me? So far my old book. And how far this may concern my L. Archbishop, let him consider of it, when he reads this Chapter.   

CAP. VIII.  
How all our Archbishop's endeavours, are, to supplant the Clergy, and to plant the Friars in their places.  
NOw it is a matter worthy our ponderation to consider upon what grounds the Archbishop presumes to do all these things so lawlessly, and yet with such confidence, as if no impediment could be given to these his proceedings. And this is a point which breeds great admiration in many, not only Catholics, but Protestants also; yea it seems to be a mystery, of which no reason can be assigned. And so I confess it is, yet only unto those who look upon our affairs as it were a far off, & not at hand, passing by the way, & not of set purpose, as not desirous to trouble themselves with what doth not so nearly concern them. But we who are the Patients of these his wrongs & injuries, are able both to satisfy ourselves & others in the premises: As having not only observed the ends he aims at, but the means also which he useth in the prosecution, & the compassing of his ends, which for the satisfaction of my Reader, I will set down, and the same in fewer words then a matter of so large extent can well be handled.  
First than it is to be observed, that our Anchbishop Tho. Fleming, alias Barnwell, was not elected at all out of the body of the Clergy; but from among the Regulars: (By Regulars I understand Monks & Friars) having been for many years (as he also is at this day) a Friar of the Order of S. Francis. And a● commonly those Prelates who are chosen from among the Friars, do not so much consider & look before them to what state and place they are called, namely to be heads of the Clergy, as what by long custom & education, they have been, still looking back unto their Order, their fellow Friars; whose glory to advance, they hold it no small glory unto themselves. So then our Archbishop Th●, Fleming, alias Barnwell, Friar of the Order of S. Franch, having by the Mediation of his great friends beyond the seas: (himself being also of an honourable Family,) obtained of his Holiness to be called unto the dignity of the Archbishop of Dublin, that suit being strongly seconded by the potency and sedulity of the Friars of his own Order, who by all means seek to effect, (as they have often done) to have Bishops made out of their Convents, accounting themselves as good as Lords of that Diocese, whose Bishop is a Friar: neither is this proper only to the Cordiliers, but to all other Orders of Regulars: Only the Ignatians, I confess, are not so bend to seek for these dignities, at least in Europe, though we hear that in the Indieses they shoot also at that mark.  
Yet this Episcopation of Friars, especially in the See Apostolic, is not held so convenient, and therefore by the wisdom of the Cardinals is either wholly taken away, or at least much discontinued. Forsomuch as now for these 60. years past, we have not had any Monk or Friar advanced unto that seat; I say, since the days of Sixtus quintus, who was a conventual Friar of the Order of S. Francis. And the said government might very well be observed (as the best) through the whole Church, & would also, no doubt, if it were not for the Importunity of them, who find that the easiest way to climb unto that greatness which they so much affect. And to this purpose you may call to mind the parable of him who went at midnight to his neighbour's house to borrow 3. loaves, Luke 11. But upon what necessity? Forsooth because, saith he: Amicus meus venit de via ad me, & non habeo quod ponam ante illum: A friend of mine is come out of his way, & I have not what to set before him. But who is this friend who is come out his way, & wants his supper? Marry a Friar, who hungreth after a Bishopric. For surely so often as a Friar, who hath by vow renounced all dignities, & advancements, as well spiritual, as temporal, hungers after a Mitre, & sends his friend to Rome to negotiate for him, he is, (no doubt,) out of his right way; for it is not unknown what path the Friar ought to keep. The path of a more than an ordinary humility, the path of austerity & mortification, the path of continual prayer & recollection. The path of abjection & denial, not only of preferments & dignities, and whatsoever may be pleasing unto his senses, but even of his own self, his will, his appetites, & desires, naked and without all interest and propriety of things in the world● 〈◊〉 follow our Saviour naked upon: the cross. So far from begging of Bishoprickes at the Pope's gate, as he by his rule & holy institution ought to beg a morsel of bread, & a mess of pottage at the Christian man's door, for his present & daily relief. And no doubt also, but the goodman of the house, and the head of the family would willingly be excused of his importunity, & rid of his ambitious demands, were it not propter improbitatem amici, by reason of the extreme importunity of his friend, this Prince, that Nobleman, this Guardian, that Provincial, these letters, those Ambassadors, & what not? yea & with great reason, & good manners also, might these unseasonable suitors ●e rejected, & sent home empty handed. For the goodman who hath the loaves might say, Noli mihi molestus esse, jam ostium elausum est: Be not troublesome unto me, for now the door is shut. The laws & canons of holy Church: The rules of your particular institute & orders; Your own free choice & election. Your vows of poverty and obedience in your profession, hath shut the door upon all these your ambitious pretensions. Noli mihi molestus esse, Good Friar be contented, & get thee home unto thy Cell: Take thy Beads, & thy discipline into thy hands, & fetch out this temptation of a Bishopric, that is upon thee, and leave hereafter to trouble me, thou seest the door is shut. Et pueri mei mecum sunt in cubili: & my children they are with me in the bedchamber. The Clergy my most lawful & legitimat children, to whom these dignities of right appertain, & do belong, mecum sunt in cubili, are with me in the chamber, of the same Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, as the most principal members thereof, the loaves are therefore theirs, & I may not take the children's bread & give it unto strangers. But what will you have of it? the Friar is constant in knocking, & will have no denial. So as at length the good old man overcome and wearied out with an obstinate & a never ending solicitation, he grants him his request: And the Friar comes home with a Mitre, but not always of best ability to undergo that charge, or to manage that place. For as Aristotle disputes it in his Politics: Quòd 〈◊〉 vir 〈◊〉 est 〈…〉 civis: A good man, is not always a good Commonwealth's man: So hath it been observed, not only in other Countries, but even in this Kingdom, that such Bishops as were made out of Monks & Friars, commonly proved not the fittest for the pastoral charge. So as many times in 〈◊〉 a Friar into a Bishop, you mar a good Friar, & yet make up no good Bishop. For that of Aristotle is also true, Magistrate as indicat virum: The sufficiency of a man is not so well known, as when he cometh to government. And this that great observer of the Irish conditions, in his 〈◊〉, Gira●●● Ca●brensis, witnesseth in his T●pagraphia 〈◊〉, cap. ●9. & 30. & 31. Noting how seldom out of Monasteries came good Prelates.  
Yet let no man so far mistake me, as to imagine that I intent in this discourse, to disparage the office, or diminish the dignity of such Bishops, as are assumed from among the Friars. Far be from me any such thought, for we thankfully acknowledge some of them, even in this Kingdom, to be very good heads of the Clergy, & zealous of their honour; neither yet to infirnate, that for any personal defect, either of judgement, learning, or discretion, their sacred office and Ministry is less to be esteemed. Forsomuch as S. Ambrose tells me in his Pastorali, Nihil in hoc saeculo excellentius sacerdotibus: Nihil sublimim Episcopis reperiri potest: Nothing in this world is more excellent than the Priests: Nothing more sublime than the Bishops. Yea, give me leave to illustrate this distinction of personal infirmities, & Episcopal dignities, by a speech proceeding from a certain Nobleman in England, in the time of King Richard the 3. for me thinks it reseuteth a very sound judgement. This Nobleman being solicited by others of his quality, to join with them in deposing that King, who was held both for a Tyrant, & an Usurper, made answer, That he in no sort would concur in any such action with them. For (saith he) let him be what he will, he hath now the Crown upon his head, and if you set the Crown upon a stake or a post, I for my part will follow it. What that Nobleman said of the Crown, the same say I of the Mitre, let it be placed either on the head of a deserving or an or an undeserving man, I for my part will honour and obey the same, as hitherto I have everdone. Now, what obedience is due unto the Mitre, I happily shall have occasion to speak hereafter. In the mean time after so long a digression, let us return to what in the beginning of this Chapter I proposed, & the Reader may help himself by looking back a page or two.  
So it happened, as our present Archbishop (his Predecessor being deceased at Rome) landed in Ireland about the year 1623. And scarce had he twi●t looked about him, but what before his arrival was plotted 'twixt him & his Friars beyond, he here beginner to put in execution. But what say you is that? Marry a Plantation upon the Clergy, and in their places to bring in the Monks & the Friars, which about those times, as also before in great numbers, & of all Orders hither ro●ayoed & are now grown into such a head (mainly strengthened by the Er●●ciscan Archbishop) as by the weak & well near minated Clergy, they are unresistable. Neither (when I speak of Monks and Friars) think that I forget the Jesuits, for them I range under t●e standard and colours of the Friars. Now the means to effect this Plantation wars, to make themselves strong, & the Clergy weak. To make themselves strong, was to take into their Orders by all manner of allurements and persuasions, such as may be thought any ways fit for their purpose: & to this end they induce gentlemen's second sons, as also Farmer's sons, & Merchant's Apprentices, among which they found (and still do) a plentiful harvest. For I have heard Merchants of Dublin complaining, that scarce could they have an Apprentice to serve out the half of his years, before he had a vocation to be a Friar. And among those they refused not also to ad●it. Servingmen, Soldiers, Tailors, & Horse-boyes, who are now become R. Fathers, though neither learned, nor civil men. And indeed by taking in such a multitude of rude, & licentious youths, of all sorts and conditions, many scandals have happened among them these years past. And no marvel, for when such a company of unbridled colts break loose from obedience of Parents & Masters, by whom they were formerly kerbed & kept in awe, and begin to taste that pleasant liquor of liberty, which under the Friars they suddenly enjoyed, they grew very insolent & terrible, yea and many times insupportable. For their new Superiors, not willing to distaste their novices (who many times in regard of the portions & means they brought with them, were indeed their Masters.) And partly for fear of losing them, of whom for a long time they could not be well assured, as also lest by offending and discontenting of them, they should not so easily draw in others. And lastly, for that in truth such Monastical discipline (as is requisite & commanded by the rule) could not conveniently be observed in this Country, so many abuses on a sudden did rush● in among them, as it moved some zealous of the common good, (true lovers of piety, & virtue; & not only of the specious names & glorious titles thereof) to move his Holiness for a Reformation, which accordingly was effected, & a direction came down; That no Novices should be received into any Order of Religion in these parts, where Regular discipline could not be observed. But this Inhibition took as much effect with our Friars, as if it had come from me. For the manner of our Regulars in these parts is: That if any thing from the City be obtained in their behalf; for example, any new privilege, or augmentation of authority, Exemption, Faculty, Indult, Grant, Dispensation, Immunity, which falls out to their content, and of which themselves by long fuit have been the procurers; O● it is received as an Oracle, it is published, it is proclaimed, it is urged, it is insisted upon. And what but the authority of the See Apostolic, Obedience, Obedience. But if on the contrary, by reason of my just complaint made against them by the Bishops & Preats of the Clergy, any restraint or limitation of their power be made, or diminution of their greatness, which may but eclipse the smallest glimpse of their accustomed splendour, then shall such Apostolical letters be viewed, & reviewed, they shall be searched, weighed, & pondered, they shall be construed, glossed, & interpreted, yea every point and iota shall be examined & pried into; if happily by any means they may be avoided. But if no such flaw can be found in them, then forsooth they were obtained by sinister & wrong information, & so subject unto obreption. or else their Generals have not signified them, & so no reckoning to be made of them. Example where of we have lately seen in the Bull of the Revocation of Faculties: And now since that again, in the Inhibition, De non admittendis Novitijs in Hibernia, I say then, since the time that our Friars began to give their habit, & to take in Probationers in the Kingdom (which before in much fewer numbers were bred for them beyond seas) they are increased to such a height, as they are become not only terrible unto the Bishops & Clergy, but whosoever shall oppose them shall find of what power they are of. And this may well be understood if we do but observe what Inwardness, or rather I may call it, a kind of Kindred & alliance they have contracted, not only with the common people, but with them also of best note and rank, by drawing unto them this son, that Daughter, this brother, that sister, this uncle, that aunt, this Nephew, that Niece, this Kinsman, that Apprentice: So as they are become fairy more dear & near unto the Inhabitants, than were ever in times past, foster's, or Gossips: So as by their own multitudes, & this intaylement of their Devotoes, they are now able in two hours to make the worthy est man either of our Clergy or. Laity (within the City of Dublin, or where else they reign) as odious and hateful unto the people, as any Malefactor whatsoever.  
What shall I say of that hereditary disease of lying, which reigns among our Mendicants, by which they compass their ends, & prevail marveilously in their designments, yea & beyond all expectation. I call lying an hereditary disease among Friars: For that Thomas Walsingham, sometimes a Cistertian Monk of S. Albon, a most pious, and a learned man. & among other writers most renowned in the Chronicle of such English Kings whose lives he writ, observed & committed the same to posterity: That it was a good argument in his days, in every man's mouth. Tenens tum de for●●a, quam de matonia. Hic est frater. Ergo m●ndax, ficat & illud. Hoc est album. Ergo ●oloratum. As much to say: It was in those times a very good reason to say, such a one is a Friar, & therefore a Lyar. Even as to say: This thing is white, and therefore hath a colour. This testimony of Walfinghams' shall you find in the life of Richard the second, of which author, who lived in the reign of Henry the sixth, john Leland in his book, De illustribus 〈◊〉 scriptoribus writeth of him: That he was in perscrutandis antiquitatib●s diligens, in conscribendis historijs industrius: in searching out of antiquities diligent, in writing of histories industrious. And Doctor john Pits a modern writer, in his book de illustribus Anglia script●●ibus, gives him this praise. Quòd vir erat, qui ita pietatem coluit, ut bonas literas intereà non negligeret, 〈◊〉 compilavit historias tanta fide, ut verax semper habitus sit. That he was a man who so loved piety, that he neglected not good letters, that he compiled many histories with that faithfulness, that he ever was held a true Writer. Well then what this true writer hath left recorded of Friar's untruths, and leaving, in his days, I am sure the Friars of our times will make good, being nothing degenerate or inferior unto their predecessors in this wind; witness this kingdom, but especially the City of Dublin; where, by their lying, backbiting, & detraction, they have purchased more belief, especially among the vulgar, than he that comes with the gospel of S. john in his mouth. For whensoever a Friar is disposed by lying and backbiting to take away the good name of a Priest, or any other man whosoever, he presently be takes himself unto his begging vocation, which is a sufficient colour to bring him to any man's house, and so very dextrously he can stop two shards with one bush, for he can both beg and slander at one time. For say, his principal business (& that which he chiefly intends) is to defame, & to backbite his neighbour, yet his begging shall be the stalking horse unto that foul business, so as the detraction shall only seem to come by way of discourse & communication, accidentally. And this advantage hath the Friar of all men in the world, who say they were maliciously minded, & intended never so much evil against their neighbour, yet are they to seek of an occasion & an excuse to bring them to this & that body's house, whereby they might vent the poison & malice of their hearts, of which pretext by reason of his begging, the Friar is ever provided, and therefore in flandering, backbiting & defaming, whensoever it pleaseth the Friar to be so wicked, (as I said before) he hath the advantage of all men upon earth. In consideration whereof I less muvaile at the speech of a certain Gentleman, who in a familiar discourse said, that he had rather have the displeasure of any Nobleman in the country, then of the meanest Friar of any order: being asked the reason thereof, he answered, he would keep that to himself. And whence may we think all these lies & tales with which this country (more of late then ever heretofore) is abused? I say from what fountain by all probability do they descend, but from these Friar limitours, who passing from parish to parish, from house to house, are lurking and scouting in every corner. For albeit I confess the needy beggar is also commonly a liar, yet neither hath he the wit, or the boldness to vent such lewd reports, neither (if he did) is there any so light of belief, is to give credit unto him. No, no: it is not the wanting beggar that sits at the gate with a mess of broth, and a piece of bread in his hand, who bruiteth all these lies and slanderous detractions of this, & that party, whom they disaffect, but it is the wanton beggar who sits above the salt, because he hath a better coat upon his back, & authorized by his profession, which in this kingdom is made too often a Pander to wicked abuses. And I am the rather induced so to think, for that in this City of Dublin, we never yet found any lie, or wicked slander made of a Clergyman, but when we got the end of the thread, and did wind up the same to the bottom (as sometimes we have done) the other end of it did always hang at a Friar's tongue. And this they are the more animated, & encouraged to do (I say, to offer any abuse or disgrace to a Pastor, or a Parish Priest, or any other of the Clergy) for that no remedy in the earth can be had against them. But why? Because it is provided by such privileges & indults, as they have obtained from the See Apostolic (which I doubt not but was at the first granted them upon good consideration) That upon all causes (excepting heresies, & such other enormous crimes reserved to the cognizance of the Ecclesiastical Magistrates) they shall be convented before no other judges in primo instanti, than their own Superiors; as Guardians, Priors, Rectors, Provincials, and the like. And you know it is a Proverb, that the clout will help the shoe. So as a man (though never so highly wronged by a Friar) had better fit him down contented then make a journey to the Friars Superior, happily 20 or 30 miles from him, & coming to his residence or Convent, his Guardian shall either be at home, or from home; within, or abroad; at leisure, or not at leisure; to be spoke withal, or not to be spoke withal, even as it pleaseth himself. And let the plaintiff do his best or his worst, he shall be sure his satisfaction shall never countervail his labour, and for one enemy he had before, he shall be sure to purchase a score. I could be content to make a Catalogue of some part of their lies and slanders, were it not to avoid prolixity, & that they are so incredible, as myself should also incur the name of a liar in relating them: wherefore I hold it better to say my prayers with the Prophet David: Domine liber. tanimam meam a labijs iniquis, & à lingua dolosa: O Lord deliver my soul from lying lips, & from a deceitful tongue.  
And thus have you the first means of the oppression of the Clergy by our Friars, which consists in making themselves strong. The second is, in making the Clergy weak, for upon these two Poles moves the Sphere of the Friars Monarchy. Now to weaken the Clergy there was held no better course, then upon the vacancy of any Parish, either by death, or otherwise, to annex that cure unto another, as we see at this day, five or six parishes within the walls, with us reduced unto two, or else in place of the dead (who was a man of good talents and parts) to substitute some Arcadian creature, who little can say more than his Matins, & he shall undergo the Cure. For you know, the greater the Ass, the greater burden is he able to bear, besides (none more pliable unto the humour of the Friar) than he that is guilty of little worth in himself. So 'twixt the one & the other, we see of ten Parishes within & without the walls, only remaining five, while (in the mean time) the Friars, in, & about the town, are multiplied unto five score: Besides what they have in the Country, & not one of these, but what by his own endeavours, the strength of his Order, the dependence of his Devoto's, the countenance of our Franciscan Archbishop, is able to prevail in right and wrong, against all our Clergy in Dublin. For (God help us) at this day both Parish Priests, & all others of the Clergy, aswell in the Suburbs, as City of Dublin, scarce are we so many persons as were in the Ark of Noah. Of which small number, some of them being called by the Ordinary, to have the care of Parishes (and as themselves know, and others can witness with them, neither for any desert of learning, or good life at all.) Others being the outcast of Regulars, and without all hope of reentrance, being thrown out as bran, (good enough in those men's eyes, to make parish Priests) entertained into the Archbishop's favour by humouring of his Friars, (who according to that rule of state policy commended by the Florentine divide et regna, make a faction among thy subjects & then be absolute) he is willing to make use of them, and to serve himself of them, to ruinate both themselves and their fellows, knowing by how much more these silly men are obnoxious unto him, and in his danger for some causes, he is the more assured of them, as the fittest instruments of opposition unto the rest of the Clergy.  
Charus erit Verri, qui Verrem tempore quo vult  
Accusare potest. juvenal. Sat. 3.  
Dear he is to Verres, (though not for love, but fear,)  
Who Verres can accuse, earth day, each month, each year. For who are more officious, or more violent in persecuting of the Clergy & their friends, than these men be, to whom in a manner is committed the managing of the whole war against the Clergy, while the Bishop and his Friars in the mean while, laugh, & look on, to see how industrious we be in supplanting one another, by whose division in the Interim, all the concourse of the Laity is unto the Friars, enjoying (to their great contentment) such maintenance as was accustomed to fall to the portion of the parish Priests. Thus like unto the wax Candles upon their Altars, wasting themselves to give light unto others, they make way unto the Friar's Monarchy, shortly upon their ruins to be erected.  
Now this Episcopal, or Friarly persecution of the poor Clergy of this City, & Diocese; began with the coming in of our present Archbishop, and the first tempest thereof, disburdened itself upon that worthy and most venerable Priest, Fa. james Talbot then Vicar general. A most learned, pious, & mild man, as all this City can witness, et ●ujus memoria fit in benedictione: about the same time it descended also upon Fa. Patrick Cabil, Fa. Luke Roch sort lately deceased, & a most worthy man: (For as any Clergy man was of more eminency & sufficiency, in learning, piety, & virtue, by so much always was he held more to stand in the Friar's light, for with these ever have been our Friars wars, and ●o● with others.) Till lastly i●fell foul upon these two Priests D. Peter Cadell, & Paul Harris, in whom finding nothing that he could reprehend; The Bishop (by the Council of his Friars) falls upon the most ingenious kind of persecution, & withal the most impious that ever in any age was practised, yea, I challenge all antiquity, since the Ascension of our Saviour; to give an Example of the like. For first attempting by Regal power, rather than Episcopal, to banish them out his Diocese, & that without alleging any cause against them, & finding this not to succeed with him, he than commands under pain of Excommunication, that none should be present at their Masses, knowing that nothing could be more prejudicial unto them, in regard of their temporal maintenance, nor nothing less troublesome unto the people. For what is it to forbear the Masses of two Priests (say they) when as with such ease they may supply that want among the Friars? So that upon the least scruple in the world, he wist well that would be obeyed. And so by this one command he serves himself of two notable purposes. For first he deprives the Priests of their accustomed maintenance: And by the same he brings what they should have, unto his beloved Friars. For it is the custom (which he well knew) both of the City & country in these parts, that where the good people hear Mass, that there one time or other, they leave some small alms or offering, according to their devotion. here, I confess, was a great deal of policy, but where was the Religion? Now happily if any of more understanding & judgement then the common sort did look into this practice, & condemning in their mind these their proceedings, so sinister & unjust: & so in compassion of the innocent Priests, did make less account of the Ordinaries censure, Then had he his Regular● br●chium, the strong assistance of his Eryars to do him service, & to negotiate with the people, & to accommodat that business. For the citizens can well witness with us, how like so many Bees our Friars did swarm about them, applying them sometimes with the honey, sometimes with the sting, as best might serve their turn: In Confession persuading such as repair unto them, & never giving them absolution, till they have promised not any more to frequent the Masses of the two Priests. Others who are slow in coming unto the Friar, the Friar comes unto them, he visits them in their houses, he tells them how such a good friend of theirs remembers their love unto them: he brings them a letter or a token from such a Friar of their kindred or acquaintance, and wishes them to be advised by him: He protesteth how well he loves them; how much S. Francis or S. Dominick is beholding unto them for their great charity & alms; & for their parts, they pray continually for their happiness & prosperity, both in this life, & in the next. If they prevail (as commonly they do) they have their intent. If they happen upon others that are of a better head-piece, & have a little more steel in their beards,, & will not so easily be drawn with their sweet words: If he be a Merchant, they tell him plainly he will lose his custom, & neither they, nor any of their friends will buy aught hereafter in his shop; and this they will not stick openly to declare unto their journeymen & Apprentices. The like they do unto the Tradesmen, Cooks, Tailors, & Shoemakers: Nay, they will threaten the very Taverns, that they shall have no sale of their Wine & their Beer, if they will adhere unto those two Priests. (I write nothing but what is well known through all the streets of Dublin.) Nay, & they will be as good as their words: for all our friends who wish us well, or gives us a meal's meat, or a lodging in their house, fares this day the worse for us, & are partakers with us of this Friarly persecution. And brother against brother, the husband against the wife, the children against the parents, & one neighbour against another, to the great disturbance & disquiet, not only of the Church, but even of the Commonwealth. And what do we in the mean time? neither persuade, nor dissuade, such as come unto us are welcome, and such as leave us, God speed them well. As for the Friars, I confess (if any of them durst debate the matter with us) we know what we have to say unto them. But they rather apply themselves to work upon other subjects, who are more easy to be deceived by them, so the great scandal of the Church, and perdition of souls.  
Well, to conclude this point; All had been well, had our Friars observed that wholesome exhortation of the Apostle, & made an application thereof unto themselves; A●divi●●● enim inter vos quosdam ambulare inqxietè, etc. We have heard some to walk among you unquietly, busy bodies, working nothing: but such we beseech in our Lord jesus Christ, that labouring in silence they eat their own bread, 2 Thess. 3. I say, all had been in peace & quietness with us, had the Friars and our Franciscan Archbishop observed the laws & Canons of the Church, & according to his place had been ready to minister justice unto such as wanted it, and so many times sought for it at his hands: For want of which justice, neither Church, nor Commonwealth can long subsist, much less flourish. justice the cement of all humane societies. justice the basis & foundation of all governments. justice the Queen of all moral virtues. justice which gives to every man his own. justice, which (as Cassiodorus saith) knows neither father nor mother, but only the truth. It accepteth no person, it imitateth God. justice, justice cries the Priest: Peace, hold thy tongue, says the Friar. The one still laying on, the other still crying out: as having more reason to cry for his beating, than the other to beat him for his crying. But never will the Music be sweet, betwixt them, till it be set to David's Harp: Misericordia, & veritas, obviaverunt sibi: justitia, & pax osculata sunt, Psal. 84. Mercy & truth have met one another, justice and peace have kissed each other. Which that it may, the God of Mercy and Truth, the God of justice and Peace grant unto us.   

CAP. IX.  
The latter part of the Censure answered.  
AS the first part of the Archbishop's censure consisteth in the excommunication of the Laity, for hearing the Masses of the abovenamed Priests: So the second is in taking away, from them all power & jurisdiction of hearing Confessions, or ministering, or doing any act or acts of the Pastoral function within the Diocese of Dablin, as also annulling and making void all Absolutions hence forward by them to be given. So the Censure.  
To which I answer out of S. Thomas 2. 2. q. 104. 5. That the Inferior cannot limit the power of his Superior: Not the Captain, of the Proconsul; nor the Proconsul, of the General. And it is a Rule of the Canon; Quòd par in par●m non habet imperium, & min i●s in superiorem. An equal hath no command over his equal, and much less over his superior. And it hath the consent of all Doctors. Forsomuch then, say the Priests, that they have received their power & jurisdiction in the premises, not from their Ordinary, but from the See Apostolic, & the fame power by the Archbishop acknowledged, & admitted for good & authentical, and so many years practised in his Diocese, he can not restrain their missionary power, till by the law & authority of the Church they be deprived thereof. And with this answer, the Archbishop may content himself, and desist further to encroach upon his superiors jurisdiction, to whom he hath as strict an obligation of obedience, as the Priests have: And this shall suffice to have spoken of the Archbishop's Censure, and the Nullity thereof.  
These Chapters following I ●as wished to add by such of my friends as are zealous both of the good of the Church, and of the Common wealth.   

CAP. I.  
Of the shameful Avarice, and scandalous Begging of our Friars Mendicant, especially in this Kingdom of IRELAND:  
surely, if our Archbishop had been so careful of the good of his flock, as in his Excommunication is pretended, it had been a very methodical charity for him to have begun at home with his own family, of his beloved Friars, and ●o have reform those horrible & infamous abuses among them, of which, not only this Diocese, but the whole kingdom complains, groaning under the insupportable burden thereof I say it had been very orderly for the Bishop to have begun his reformation at his own house, knowing what the Apostle saith. Si quis autem suae domni praesse nescit, quomodo Ecclesiae Dei diligentiam habebit. 1. Tim. 3. But he who knows not, how to govern his own house, how will he have care of the Church of God.  
For first: The rule of S. Francis commands, that his Friars should work, & labour with their hands, & such among them as know no trade or occupation, should learn the same, & when they cannot sufficiently maintain themselves by the labour of their hands, then that it should be lawful for them to beg: but how? not in Chapels or Oratoryes, but ostiatim from door to door. But to the end that none shall say, that I speak this of mine own head, I will set you down S. Francis his own words, as they eye in his Testament. §. 5.  
Et ego manibus meis laborabam, & volo laborare, & omnes alij fratres mei firmiter volo quod laborent, de laboritio quod pertinet ad bonestatem: & qui nesciunt, addiscant: non propter cupiditatem recipiendi pretium laboris, sed propter bonum exemplum, & ad repellandam otiositatem, & quando non daretur nobis pretium laboris, recurramus ad mensam Domini petendo elemosinam ostiatim. In English thus. And I (saith S. Francis) laboured with my hands, & will labour; & all my other brethren I firmly will, that they labour with their hands what pertains to honesty: & such as know not, let them learn; not for desire of receiving a reward of their labours, but for good example, & to avoid sloth, & when the price of our work is not given us, let us have recourse unto the Table of our Lord, ask alms from door to door. By which it is manifest, that the blessed S. Francis intends not the labour of the mind, in studying to become learned, but manual labour, & bodily work, propounding the same unto them by his own example: Et ego manibus me is laborabam, & I (saith he) laboured with my hands: neither can any say, that this is only advised them by way of counsel, but rather absolutely commanded, for so saith the Saint, & volo, & I will that all other my brethren labour de laboritio, by which word is ever understood bodily labour.  
Now, if the Friars in their own defence, say, that it may be so expounded, as extended unto the labour of the mind, as well as of the body: Then (say I) they violate another precept of their rule given them by S. Francis, which is, that they are to make no gloss, commentary, or exposition, upon his rule, but to understand the words plainly as they lie, & this is commanded them under obedience, in the last Paragraph saving one, of his Testament, in these words: Et omnibus fratribus meis Clericis & Laicis, praecipio firmiter per obedientiam, ut non mittant glossas in Regulam, nec in istis verbis, dicendo, Ita volunt intelligi, sed sicut Dominus dedit mihi simpliciter & purè dic ere & scribere Regulam, & ista verba, ita simpliciter & purè sine glossa intelligatis, & cum sancta operatione observetis usque in finem. The same in English is thus. And I firmly command under obedience, all my Friars, Clergy, and Laity, that they make no glosses upon the Rule, nor in these words, saying: So they will be understood; but as our Lord gave me simply & purely to speak, and to write the Rule, & those words, so ought you to understand them, without a gloss, & by holy operation observe them unto the end.  
Now if our Friars tell us, That the Testament of S. Francis is divers from his Rule, & so not of that authority as to bind them to that obedience and observation, as the Rule doth. Then say I, Let S. Francis answer for himself in his said Testament §. 6. in these words: Et non dicant fratres, Haec est alia Regula, quia haec est recordatio, admonitio & exhortatio, & meum testamentum quod ego frater Franciscus parvulus vester & servus facio vobis fratribus meis benedictis, propter hoc, ut regulam quam Domino promisimus, melius catholicè observemus. In English thus: And let not the Friars say, This is another Rule, for that this is a remembrance, admonition, & exhortation; & my will which I brother Francis, a little one, & your servant, do make to you my blessed brethren, to this end, that we may better Catholickly observe this Rule, which we have promised unto our Lord.  
Lastly, if the Friars say: That howsoever it be, yet they are dispensed by authority of the See Apostolic, from the observance of his Testament, & consequently, from any bodily work or labour, other than it please themselves. I answer: As the Pope cannot dispense with any command or Precept of Canonical Scripture; no more can he with the Rule of S. Francis. If it be true which S. Francis wrote in his Will and Testament, a little before his death: (And I trust our Friars will hold it a great sin to say, S. Francis lied) in these words, Dominus dedit mihi simpliciter & purè dicere & scribere regulam, & ista verba: Our Lord granted unto me, simply & purely to speak & write the Rule, & these words: Testament §. 11. By which testimony of S. Francis, it appeareth, that as well his Testament or Will which he made but two years before his death, as his Rule before given unto his brethren was indicted by the Holy Ghost, & so by divine authority given unto him. Notwithstanding the Friars of his Orders do exempt themselves from his Will & Testament, & the observance thereof, & consequently from all bodily labour therein commanded, & contrary unto the express command of the aforesaid Will, they take upon them to procure glosses & expositions upon the Rule as also dispensations & relaxations from the See Apostolic. And this by virtue of the Declarations of S. Gregory 9, & Nicolaus 3. who (as they say) have declared, that they are not bound to observe or obey that Testament or Will of S. Francis, or the thiugs therein contained. Those Popes (it seemeth) were not of opinion, That the Testament of S. Francis was of sacred authority, or canonical Scripture, or that it was from Heaven, & the Holy Ghost inspired into S. Francis. And so the Friars resting upon the aforesaid Declarations, are well contented that so it should be believed. And therefore (say S. Francis what he will, or what he can) beg they will, & labour they will not; for that is the more easy Trade of both; & aucupium longe questuofissimum, a most ready way to attain, not only to means necessary, but to such abundance, as we see them in all places to enjoy. For first our Mendicant Orders have two sorts of Begging, like two ploughs ever walking. For first, they pass through the Parishes, from house to house, not contented to ask their alms at the door, as S. Franeis' commands in his Will, & was practised in his days, and in the primitive times of his Order; for that is not Gentlemanlike, but boldly will they rush into the Hall, & from thence into any other part of the house, more like unto Officers, then poor Beggars: So haunting the richest sort of people for Money, Wheat, Muttons, Malt, Salt, Fish, Flesh, for nothing comes amiss; as they forget not the honest Farmer, neither shall the poor Cotter escape them. And as Arma●hanus noted in his time, so shameless, and importunate in their begging, as if there be but two Cheeses in the house, they will carry them both away, or they will shame the owners. And verily this which S. Richard of Dundalke writes in his Defensorium Curatorum, of the two Cheeses, puts me in mind of what lately we saw practised in the County of Wexford, where a Friar coming to beg Muttons, a poor Cotter, (having but only two,) out of his kind heart told the Friar, he should have one of them. Alas (quoth the Friar) my honest friend, and what wilt thou do with the other? It will but stray from thee; give them both to GOD Almighty. The poor man was content: And so GOD Almighty (by the Friars help) got both the Muttons. But far be it from me to say, That this Friar was either a bold Beggar, or avaricious at all.  
Their second kind of Begging, as it is far more compendious, so much more commodious: for as their former Begging seemed to, be but by retail, by visiting the good people in their houses; so this is altogether by wholesale, and (as it were) in gross. And it is after this manner, though used in no other Country (that ever I could observe) but only in Ireland.  
The Friar betakes himself on Sundays, on Holidays, or in Funerals of the Dead, Moneth-mindes, Anniversaryes, Weddings, Patrons, & the like, to such places as the people usually resort to Mass, & there (either before, or after Mass) he showeth himself in his habit; but (above all) he is very careful that he may beg before Mass; for he forseeth that after Mass the people will scatter, & so he shall fail of his purpose. And therefore to prevent that inconvenience, he commands that so soon as Mass is ended, the doors of the Oratory, or of the Gentleman's Hall be shut, so as none may pass forth, till such time as he hav● uttered and ended his Mendicatory speech, which commonly is taken out of the common-place of Liberality, Almsdeeds, works of mercy, and the like: for example, facite elemosynam, & omnia mund● font vobis. Luk. 11. Give alms, & all things are clean unto you. Peccata tua elemosy●is redime, et iniquitates tuas misericordijs pauperum. Dan. 4. Redeem thy fins with alms-deeds; and thine iniquities with pity to the poor. Beatus qui intelligit super egenum, et pauperem, in die malâ liberabit cum Dominus. Psal. 40. Blessed is he who understandeth the case of the poor & needy, our Lord shall deliver him in the evil day. This done, he expresseth unto them a catalogue of his wants, & there remembering, or at least practising, that saying of Seneca the Tragedian in Thieste. Qui timide rogat, docet negare; he that asketh faintly, teacheth how to deny; without any shame or modesty, he demands not as a Beggar, but rather as a Commander: who will give them the Barrel of Wheat, the Malt, the Muttons, etc. If they come off to his liking, he gives them his To giver lave, agus tuggi garo vanecht● then var ud. And turning himself unto the Altar, upon his knees he says an Ave Maria: If he find them tough and backward, than he falls a cursing them, accusing the hardness of their hearts, & their small devotion, telling them; that it is the very devil that possesseth their hearts, and stops their tongues, & will not suffer them to speak. So as what with his cursing, what with his blessing, what with the vainglory that many of them take among their neighbours to be held liberal, what with the confusion & shame that others are put unto, not to be thought so kind hearted (a great dishonour (I tell you) among the Irish) whosoever looseth the Friar he getteth. And thus hath the matter been carried these years past. But indeed of late I hear say, the case is altered, & no marvel if with continual blood-letting the body in time grow both cold & dry. For what through the multitude of Friars in this kingdom, who are grown, sine numero, pondere, & mensura, without number, weight, & measure, in which three all things were created, as also many other taxations from the state, the commons are so impoverished, and oppressed, as now they are as unwilling to see a Friar come among them to beg, as a Trooper to distrain, & to take up their pawns. Insomuch as in the Country the good people, (though never so Catholic & devout,) they will rather lose Mass upon Sundays & Holidays, than they will come within a musket shot of a Friar, so much they fear to be pounded up in a Gentleman's Hall, or in a parish Chapel, as their Cow's use to be, when they trespass upon their neighbour's corns. Thus are the Sacraments profaned: And that munda oblatio: that clean offering (prophesied of by Malachy. 1.) neglected, the service & ceremonies of the Church contemned. While in the eyes of the people, either nothing, or nothing more is sought after, than the belly. For who is either so patient by nature, or so irreligious for want of breeding, as he can endure a Friar limitour in a public audience, (when he finds the people sometimes, not to answer his expectation in giving of alms) to utter these words. Well and do you depart the the place, & give me nothing? From the richest to the poorest those who leave no alms with me, I will take from them the grace and benefit of that Mass which this day they have heard. This profane & simoniacal speech was uttered by a Franciscan in the Diocese of Meath, & the same very lately. And if any of his order will question the truth thereof, let him either come, or send unto me, & I will give him such satisfaction as he shall return assured of the truth, of what I have reported. For as old Eleazarus said, 2. Macab. 6. Non enim aet●ti nostrae dignum est fingere: It becomes not our years to forge, & much less my profession to slander. For let the world think or speak of me what they please I intent the reformation of what is amiss, which were I so happy as to effect, I would then offer up a silver pen, not to Apollo & the Muses, but to the honour of my Saviour, in this or the like verse.  
Consecrat hic Paulus calamum, calamique labores,  
(Ante arras) Domino lata trophaea suo.  
But this may not be done, till I have told another Friar of his fault, & it is a public fault (for I meddle with none other) who when the Priest in his sacred vestments is prepared to say, Introibo ad altare Dei, the Friar in a most undecent & rustical manner, will well secre justle him from the Altar, causing him to yield unto himself the first time and place of begging, on which both Mass, Priest, and People, must attend, as if the Friar should say, with the Satirist.  
O Cives cives quarenda pecuni● primum est,  
Virtue post nummos. I●●n.  
And so the divine & fearful mysteries being celebrated at no canonical hour, the people are dismissed at two a clock, to go home to dinner. And if the parish Priest seem to be displeased with the Friars behaviour, or give the least impediment unto his begging, he shall be threatened Excommunication, by virtue of his Privileges, or else by the Bishop of the Diocese, to be discharged of his place. As we have lately seen practised in the Diocese of Kildare, under their Dominican Bishop.  
The consideration of these our miserable times in Ireland doth often make me to think, & to reflect of the days of Heli the Priest, 1. Reg. 12. where the Scripture sayeth, Porrò filij Heli, filij Belial, nescientes Dominum, neque officium Sacerdotum ad populum. etc. Moreover the Sons of Heli, were the Sons of Belial, neither knowing our Lord, nor the duty of Priests unto the people, &c: by whose base greediness, as you may read in the place above cited, it is said. Quòd retrahebant homines à sacrificio Domini. They did withdraw the people from the sacrifice of our Lord, which example of Ophni & Phinees the two Sons of Heli, in preferring the flesh pots before the sacrifices of God, is set forth unto us a most lively type & figure of our Friar Mendicants, who in what abundance soever they live (whose apparel, horses, & foote-boyes, argues rather superfluity than poverty) yet beg they will, & beg they must, & that, (as before hath been noted) with such immodesty, as all present but themselves, are much ashamed of them, making the people either to loathe, or at least to forbear their duty to God, and in truth to conceive that all our▪ Religion is but to serve our own turns. Those who doubt of the truth of my speeches, let them but upon some Festival day, walk unto the next Villages, as Cromlin, Casticknock, Palmerston, or Lucan, etc. and they shall be both eye & ear witnesses of much more than I have said. But & if they will take the pains to make a journey so far as Connagh, than I will promise them that there they shall find our Friars rather latrones, then mendicos, more to smell of the Thief, then of the Beggar. For without any leave or liking of the honest Farmer, they will make bold to search his Arkes, & hutches of Corn, Meal, Malt, & thence to take away what they please, for who can control them? Moreover, I am credibly informed by diverse of very good note in those partest That many times they will drive together all their neighbour's sheep into one fold, & knowing every man's mark, they will choose out what Muttons they like (and I beshrew them if they take not the fattest) & who is he that dare say, they do amiss? To such a potency they are grown (even in a short time) in this Kingdom, that they are become not only terrible unto the people, but not to be ruled by the laws of the Church, and the institutes of their own Orders.  
And even as in the days of King Henry 8, of late memory, the manifold abuses not only of the Laity, but even of Church men, did cast them out of these Kingdoms, and brought that desolation upon them, which to this day their posterity doth inherit. So let us never think to repair our ruins, with those excesses, and disorders, which were the causes of those ruins. For doubtless the same causes, sooner or later, will have the same effects. Now certain it is, that as some of the Ecclesiastical order might be tainted with much pride & ambition, by means of their great plenty & abundance, & not free also from covetousness, yet the Mendicant orders according to the course of man's natural corruption, are more propense and inclined unto the dropsy of Avarice, & such vices, as follow thereupon, th●n either the Clergy, or any other estate & condition of men, who having a competency of some settled means, may well attend their vocation with tranquillity, & contentment of mind, (I say, their mediocrity of means under God, defending them from too much anxiety, and care of future wants.) When as the Friar Mendicant, being habituated in begging, & continual receiving of alms, & expectation of uncertain gifts, dwells ever in cares house, his wants as well imaginative, as real, like unto two fore-swarty forge-men, still beating, & hammering upon the head-piece of his imagination, permitting him not to take any rest, yea without a special degree of God's grace, the beggar is ever sad, melancholy, humorous & greedy, nor ordinarily so well provided as he ought to rely upon that providence, which ever takes place of humane diligence. For example, give a convent of Friars, though but of 20. persons, five hundred pounds in alms this day (which is a fair proportion) you shall see them to morrow as industrious in begging, as if you had given them but ten shillings. For even as Hawks half gorged are more eager of prey, than these which are kept fasting, so fareth it with the Mendicants, who look not so much to what they have already gotten, as what they have not yet obtained, nor what for the present they enjoy, as what in time they may come to want. Nay the Friar though never so well accommodated, abounding on every side, with rich kindred, friends & Benefactors, amidst his own nation where probably he can never come to look necessity in the face, & having also Dominus vobiscum, as a sure buckler (in the hands of a man of good comportment) to defend him also from want: yet compare this Friar Mendicant not now to a Clergy man (as we have already done) but even unto the needy beggar, who hath plenty of nothing, but of want, you shall see the one well contented with a piece of bread, to satisfy his hungry b●lly, or a pair of broken stockings, or an old shoe to his foot, when as the other beggar will not stick to ask you an horse of eight or ten pounds' price, & if you deny him, he will show much more discontent, than the other beggar who is denied a piece of pease bread, after which his hungry belly roars; but if it so fall out, as your horse which you refused to bestow on the Friar miscarry, or come to any mischance, & so perish, why then the owner is rightly served, since he denied him the Friar. Some reading these lines will better understand them than others. A Merchant of my acquaintance, and living at this day in this City of Dublin, refused to give a Friar a barrel of Beef, who of my knowledge was in less necessity thereof, than the Merchant himself, considering his charge of wife & children: soon after the Merchant (being his own Factor) embarked himself with his Beef, and other Merchandise for France, upon the seas he meets with a storm, & it was thought necessary for their safety to lighten the ship, & to cast overboard some part of the Beef, it pleased God (the temptest ceasing) they held on their voyage without any more hurt. But what said the Friar and his fellows when news came to town? forsooth, it was the just judgement of God that he should be forced to throw that Beef into the sea, which he would not bestow on them. So as in fear of these ensuing calamities incident unto our wretched mortality & uncertain estate of life, in this vale of misery. What man of trade or occupation, but especially what Merchant Venturer, or Seafaring man, dare deny these Mendicant Orders what they ask? for he shall be sure the next calamity or misfortune shall be set upon the score of that refusal. But since many an Agnus Dei, many a grain, & many a medal, & Relic lies buried in the bottom of the Sea, though many besides escape. No marvel then though we see their greatest Devo●oes, best benefactors, & friends to have their prosses, both in their lives, and fortunes, and come to as many heavy markets as those who adhere unto the poor distressed and innocent Clergy, notwithstanding what calendars of observations soever they make to the contrary.  
And verily in this Nation more liberal (I confess) and kind hearted, then may well stand with their means, albeit withal, more superstitious & credulous to believe fascinati●s, ey-bitings, & old prophecies, them well may stand with true piety & Religion, with which they are so overawed, that nothing (in a manner) dare they refuse, (I speak of the simpler sort) that the Friar casts an affection unto; for being once asked and denied, they are persuaded that it will perist from them, & never do them good. Neither stands it with the Friars profit to remove this & the like opinions from the people's minds; quaerentes magis quae sua sunt, quam quae sunt Christi Domini, rather seeking themselves, than what is our Lord Christ's; as daily experience teacheth, and as the Apostle spoke of some in his time, Philip. 2.  
Now as for their Prophecies: If any disaster or mishap befall to any man or woman, who is not so much devoted unto their order, or not so kind unto them, as they desire, presently the Friar divulges among the people, that either himself, or such another Friar of his Order, did prophesy such things to befall them: As likewise if any of their Benefactors receive any temporal blessing, profit, or emolument more then Ordinary, it shall be imputed either to the prayers, or prophetical predictions of some Friar, as if GOD Almighty would keep nothing secret from them, nor dispose either of his blessings or punishments, but by their ministry and dispensation. And among other of their prophecies, there is none stronger among the Friar Minors, then that in this Kingdom, the Church shall one day be ruled by their Order, which prophesy they well weened (about six years agone) had been fulfilled, when as (of the four Archbishops) three of them at one time were Franciscans▪ namely Hugh Cavall of Armagh, Tho. Fleming of Dublin, Florence of T●me; but two of them being soon after called out of this life, did frustrate their expectation for that time. As for their prophecies of the fates & destinies of such as oppose themselves unto their vices, (of whom among others, myself am now become a subject) I less regard their auguries, & divinations, for that I daily see, that themselves do not foresee their own disasters & calamities, forsomuch as diverse among them have not had so auspicious fates as they could have wished, & yet had not the skill to foretell the same. And albeit I am daily forewarned by my friends, to look carefully unto myself, & to be upon my keeping, lest such as aread my destiny, be also the Procurers of my destiny; yet the less diligence do juse therein: for that I have learned, Nisi Dominus custodierit civitatem, frustra vigilant qui custodit eam. Psal. 126. Unless our Lord preserve the City, he watcheth in vain who keeps the same. And as a great Prince in our time, (upon the murder of Henry 3. of France) being moved by his Council, to take unto himself a guard for the greater security of his person, answered; Bien esta guardado aquien Dios guarda: He is well guarded whom God protects. Almighty God of his infinite mercy grant (what fate soever befall me) that I may live & dye his servant, and the same I wish unto my greatest adversaries. And forsomuch as I am arrived (since I writ this book) unto the years of sixty, and am persuaded (both by reason of my age, & manifold infirmities,) that this old house of clay will (ere long) fall about mine ears: I will dedicat this following Epitaph unto my memory, which for want of a marble (which I trow none will be so foolish as to bestow upon my grave) I will here with my pen engrave upon this Paper monument: 
Si quaeras quis sim? Respondeo, & Anglus, & exul,  
Insuper & Cleri pars ego parva fui.  
Quàmque fidem docui, tenui, mea 〈◊〉 ina planxi,  
Omnis & in Christo, spesque, salusque mea.   
Neither let any body think that I am the first, or the only man, who have declaimed against the disorders & insolences of the Mendicants; for many most pious and learned men in former ages, have lanced their ulcers; yea and have not pared to search them to the quick, though withas little fruit (I confess) as I think these my writings will have. For it is not all one to reprove, as to remove scandals & bad customs either from Church, or Laymen. Those who with more freedom have prosecuted this argument in former times, is Aeneas Silvius, who afterward was Pope, & called Pius 2. john Gerson, Chancellor of Paris: S. Richard of Dundalke, & Primate, commonly called ●●machanus, for that he was Archbishop of Armagh, in his De●ensorium Curatorum: Thomas Walfingham Monk of S. Albon, in his History of the Kings of England. Such as in our days have not spared to note their open faults, and manifest corruptions, some in one kind, some in another, are Card. Bellarm. in his Gemitus Columbae; Philippus, Rovenius. Archbishop of Philippi, in his Treatise de Missionibus: john Petrus Camus Bishop of Bellay, in his Dialogue betwixt Nicephorus & Tristan: Camillus Caesar Censor of the books published in Rome, in his defence of the Archb. of Philippi. Et ego Paulus Veridicus in hoc stadio noviss●mus, sudavi.   

CAP. II.  
The doctrine of our Archbishop and Friars refuted, who maintain, That Civil actions against Clergymen, are to be determined by the Bishop of the Diocese.  
TRue it is that regularly speaking, the Canon & laws of the Church require, that all causes as well Ecclesiastical, Criminal, as Civil, 〈◊〉 determinable by the Ordinary, whensoever the Defendant is a man of the Clergy, Concil. Chalcedon. can. 9 Concil. Agathense can. 32. Concil. Carthag. 3. can. 9 Tolletan. 3. can. 13.  
But to this I answer, That as many other Canons & laws were never received in other parts of the Church, no more was this, at least for that last part of Civil causes in England or Ireland, since the first conversion of the Natious here by S. Patrick, there by S. Gregory. Neither let any think it strange, that a general canon & law of the Church, in some parts of the Church be received, in others not. Forsomuch as the Canon itself tells us, that a Law may lose his strength and force of binding three manner of ways.  
First, where the same was never approved or received: Because (saith the Law) Leges instituuntur, cum promulgantur; confirmantur dum approbantur. 4. dist. in istis ●. prox. Laws are then ordained, when they are published; but confirmed when they are approved.  
Secondly, if (by a later law) the former be disannulled e. 1. de Const. in 6. So S. Aug. posterior canon corrigit priorem: The later Canon corrects the former.  
Lastly, if by a contrary custom, which is reasonable, it be abrogated. Locorum consuetudines ubi rationabiles sunt, juri scripto derogare possunt. cap. Dilecti 4. de arbitris c. 2. Ext. de Cons●ot●dinibus. The customs of places (being reasonable) may derogate from the law written.  
Now than I say, That causes merely Civil, as Debts, Inheritances, Pawns, Mortgages, Leases, Rents, Annuities, Pensions, Purchases, Sales, and the like; so often as Priests and Clergymen were to be Defendants in all times, as well under the government of the Saxon, as Norman Kings, were determinable by the Common-law, & never in any Ecclesiastical Court at all. So as it seems unto me, that law of the Church was either never received, which in these Civil actions, draws the plea unto the Court of the Ordinary, (which I rather believe.) Or if it were at any time in observance, by custom beyond all memory, it was abrogated. Neither need we so much to marvel heereat, since it is the common opinion of Divines, that the exemption of Clergymen, as well in respect of their persons, as their goods, from saecular tribunals, was at the first introduced by humane, & not divine law. So S. Greg. lib. 11. epist. 54. doth no otherwise prove, that a Priest ought not to be impleaded before a temporal judge, but because justinian the Emperor had so ordained ●. Read Card. Bellar. tom. 1. Controversiarum, printed at Leon's in France 1587. lib. de Clericis cap. 28. But for the further clearing of this point: Forsomuch, as I am in the Negative, & our Archb. with his Friars in the Affirmative. If they will maintain, that the law above cited in the beginning of this Chap. was ever in viridi observantia, in due practice within these Kingdoms of England & Ireland: I say, it is their parts by examples of Cases pleaded, of judgements, & Sentences, in such & such Ecclesiastical Courts of Bishops, or their Vicar Generals, or their Chancellors, to show out of some ancient Records of the afore-named Courts & Tribunals, what may make for the confirmation of their cause, which I assure myself they shall never be able to do; no not so much as to afford us one only precedent, though nothing be more common in the Common-law, than Bishops, Abbots, Priests, etc. convented in the temporal Courts, in Civil causes, even in the best & most Catholic times, no less then at this day. Hence are those Writs of temporal Courts unto the Diocaesan Bishops, venire facies Clericum, as also the Writs of Prohibition unto Ecclesiastical judges, as ancient as our common-lawit self, which like unto Melchisedeck, knows neither father nor mother.  
Why then doth our Archbishop Thomas Fleming alias Barnwell, together with his Friars, noise it up and down both City & Country, That A. B. Priest, is excommunicated ● jure for calling C. D. Priest into the Court of the King's Bench, for detaining & withholding certain of his Books from him most injuriously, as was determined lately by the Lord Chief justice? (especially the aforesaid Priest A B. first having made his complaint unto his Ordinary, the aforesaid Archbish. & could not be heard.) Shall we say, That our Archbishop and Friars are either more wise, more learned & virtuous than the Bishops, Pastors, Priests, & the whole Clergy for so many hundred years past: so many Kings, judges & justices: in whose Tribunals that course hath ever been held? O no, I cannot be of that mind, but that these were as well seen in all Laws divine & humane, & as obedient children of the Church, and as respective of the Censures thereof, as we their posterity be. To conclude then this point, I confidently avouch, and will maintain against these our Innovatours, who labour to infringe the ancient Laws, & immemorable customs hitherto from our very cradle of Christianity received, allowed, and practised both by the Church and Commonwealth, in these his Majesty's Kingdoms; That they declare themselves by such their audacious attempts, neither to be good members of the Church, nor yet good subjects unto his Majesty.   

CAP. III.  
How the Archbishop Tho. Fleming, alias Barnwe●l, Friar of the Order of S. Francis, usurpet is a power never before heard of in this Kingdom, to wit, at his pleasure to banish the King's subjects, not only out of his Diocese, but out of his Province.  
IT is said, That Exilium est mors civilis; Banishment is a civil death: And therefore in all reason not to be inflicted but by lawful authority, and for very grievous offences. And first it is confessed by all Divines, that Episcopal power in punishments, is confined to the three Censures, of Excommunication, Suspension, & Interdict; according to that of the Apostle, Nam arma militiae nostra non car●alia sunt, etc. 2. Cor. 10. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but powerful to revenge all disobedience, etc. For which cause Excommunication the first & sharpest of all the censures, is called Mucro Episcopi, the Bishop's sword. Now if the Bishop will say with S. Peter. Ecce d●o gladij, behold two swords, It must be known from whom he hath that other, his own being spiritual, and it is acknowledged by Divines that he borroweth it from the civil Magistrate, from Princes & Temporal Governors, who as good children of the Church, were enduced to grant this temporal assistance, only in some cases, unto the Pastor, for the better government of his flock in his Spiritual regiment. And so it came to pass that prisons were allowed unto Bishops, wherein not only to detain, but also to chastise Herètickes, Simonists, Blasphemers, prophaners of the Sacraments, vow breakers, contemners of the fasts of the Church, & Holidays, violators of Ecclesiastical censures, and the like, as also for faults not of so bad a note, to inflict pecuniary mulcts & fines at their discretion, yet we find not that Bishops or Prelates (who besides their spiritual jurisdiction are not temporal Princes, either in whole, or in part) do corporally punish, either theft, or murders, or treasons, or rapes, or bloodshed, with infinite other offences, which are daily committed in all commonwealth. So never do we find by any record or register of any Ecclesiastical court. That in these Kingdoms either with cause, or without cause, it was permitted by the Church unto Archbishops, or Bishops, or ever did they exercise the pain of banishment, either out of their Provinces or Dioceses. It being a power merely temporal, and Regal, & never committed unto them, no more than punishments of death, loss of limb, forfeiture of house, & land, etc. Nay if it be law which Sir Edward Cook reports in his comment upon Littleton lib. 2. cap. Villinage sect. 200. No subject may be banished out of the Kingdom, but by Parliament authority, for what cause or crime soever. Shall then our Archbishop who borrows his temporal power, & jurisdiction, from the King, assume the like authority? But to this it will be said, That the Archbishop only exiles out of his Diocese, or at the most out of his Province, not out of the whole land. To which I answer, but in case the four Archbishops of this Kingdom should agree (as within these six years, three of them at one time were grey Friars) to banish a man each one out of his Province, is he not then banished the whole Kingdom of Ireland? and with less difficulty might this be done in England, where we have only two Provinces, & two Archbishops, Canterbury, and York. And (I trow) it is no hard matter for two to agree. But that which is most strange, & not to be believed, were it not that it was done in the hearing of many witnesses, & in this City of Dublin against parties living, and who at this day remain in this City, (albeit I spare to name them.) I say, so it was, & will be justified that this present Archbishop Friat Thomas Fleming alias Barnwell, did by sentence banish out of his Diocese, men of the Clergy, commanding them under Censures within 15. days to depart the same: & being demanded wherein they had offended, or what they had committed deserving such punishment. He answered, that he knew no hurt by them, but that he had no use of them, slbeit verily he had use enough of them, had he been pleased to make use of them, for they were of the most learned men of his Diocese. And whom a virtuous Prelate would have esteemed as his own eyes, & much less have banished. But so the times are, that learning, virtue, and good breeding, are so far from being stairs to honour and preferment, as nothing can sooner (with this Ordinary) work his disgrace, his dejection & utter overthrow: well then, the Archbishop stands stiff in this doctrine: That he can ad nutum, & ad libitum, banish any Priest out of his district; which doctrine were it true, what man (I pray you) would take upon him the vocation of a Clergyman, or of a Secular Priest, knowing that ever after he must be a perpetual slave to humour his Ordinary, or else not to live in the Church: for what one Bishop can do, another may do. And a Priest by this means may be banished out of all Christendom; when as a Miller, or a Baker, or a Porter, will ask never a Bishop in the land leave ro dwell in his Diocese. So much do our sacred Orders help us, as rather they help to undo us? Say, is not this to dominari in Clerum, to tyrannize over the Clergy? Is not this to encroach upon Regal authority? Is not this to confound all laws both of Church & Commonwealth? Wherefore for my part I allow very well of that Priest, my dear friend & Countryman, who being commanded above two years ago by the aforesaid Tho. Fleming alias Barnwell, to depart his Diocese, alleging no cause against him: He answered, My Lord, I will not banish you the Diocese, neither shall you me; for so long as the King & the State are pleased to permit me, I will here enjoy the four Elements, & if any give me ●piece of bread, or a night's lodging, I will take it, & be thankful for the same: & so saying, me thought he spoke as myself would have done in the like case. Neither by this do I intend to deny Exile to be a canonical punishment, but not used either by Ecclesiastical or Civil Magistrates in these Kingdoms, nor yet anywhere else, without some great & heinous offence. 16. q. 1. Probirum. 17. q. 4. Attendendum 24. q. 1. Qui contra.  
And now I will conclude this point with the conclusion of that Speech which myself lately made in a public audience, as followeth.  
Let me also signify unto you, That none of you presume or seek to maintain Tho. Fleming aliâs Barnwell, Archb. & a Friar of the Order of S. Francis, in his late usurped authority of Exile, or banishment, where in he takes upon him only at his pleasure, & at his will, omni indictâ causâ, to banish, and throw out of his Diocese any person whatsoever, either of the Clergy, or Laity, which doctrine he hath both publicly taught, as also of late practised on diverse persons, to the great disturbance both of the Church & Commonwealth: It being a mere usurpation, contrary unto the Canons and the ancient statutes of this Kingdom. And therefore it concerns us all (as good subjects) to maintain our King in his Right, against all innovation whatsoever; for in so doing we shall fulfil the command & will of our Saviour, saying; Give ●to Caesar what belongs ●●to Caesar, & unto God what is Gods. And so not doubting but you will always remain as obedient children of the Church, so loyal subjects unto ●is Majesty. I give you all my benediction.   

CAP. FOUR  
Of certain most dangerous Heresies, or rather Blasphemies, of late preached and published by ●riars, of, and within the Diocese of Dublin, to the perdition of many souls.  
Truly if our Archbishop had been so tender over his flock, & so careful of their souls, as in this his Excommunication is pretended, knowing, that as it is the part of a good Pastor, to feed the people committed unto his charge, with wholesome doctrine, & the food of the Sacraments; so also to chase away the Wolves, especially those Wolves which our Saviour foretold, should come in Sheep's clothing, which are the most dangerous Wolves of all other. I say, had these two points been well considered of, by our Pastor, he doubtless would have been more diligent & frequent in his Sermons and exhortations unto the people, as in persuading them unto good life, & observance of God's Commandments, (a doctrine very necessary) so in their faith confirming them against all tempests of persecution which may arise. If happily he allege in omission of this duty, That he leaves the charge of that office to his Parish Priests, & to his Friars. I answer with Cardinal Bellarmine in his book entitled Gemitus Columbae, lib. 2. cap. 4. It is not to be understood, that the assistants should so labour, as the principal should be idle & do nothing. Our blessed Saviour had his Apostles to help him, as learned (I trow) and as laborious, as either our Parish Priests, or Friars, & yet himself, as the principal Pastor, refused no pains or labour to comply with his missionary office of preaching, which he had from his Father, Luke 4. Spiritus Domini fuper me, propter quod n●xit me, evangelizare pauperibus misit me: The Spirit of God upon me, for which cause he anointed me, & sent me to preach the Gospel unto the poor, according to which mission from his Heavenly Father, he did so attend his Office of Preaching (as the Gospel reports of him) That he travailed from City to City, from place to place, preaching the Kingdom of God, & that not only in the Temple of God, but in the fields, in the deserts, in the mountains, upon the sea, in private houses, sitting at the table, walking upon the highway, at all times, & in all occasions remembering that he was sent to preach.  
So after him the Apostles, to whom Bishops succeed, they declare that this was their Office. The Apostle 1. Cor. 9 Vae mihi si non evangelizavero, Woe unto me, if I do not preach the Gospel. And admonishing Timothy a Bishop, he saith: Praedica verbum, insta opportune, importunè, argue, obsecra, increpa, in omni patientia, & doctrina, 1 Tim. 3. Preach the Word, be instant in season and out of season, convince, beseech, reproove, in all patience & doctrine. Such was the practice of S. john the Apostle; who frequented the Pulpit in his decrepit years, as witnesseth S. Hierom in the third Book of his Commentaries upon the Epistie unto the Galathians. And the same the 4. Council of Carthage declared, teaching that a Bishop should attend unto Prayer, to reading, & to the preaching of the Word of God. To which S. Gregory acordeth, lib. 2. Epist. 39 Episcopi est, de praedicationis ministerio ●ogitare: It is a Bishop's part to think of the ministry of preaching. And so it seems that our ancient Bishops did very well understand the same for many ages together. Forsomuch as most of the writings of S. Cyprian. S. Athanasius, S. Basil, S. Nazianzen, S. C●●ysostome, S. Ambrose, S. Cyrill, S. Augustinus, S. Maximus, S. Leo, S. Gregory, and others, were nothing else but Sermons preached unto the people. And if the same obligation did not always remain; wherefore to this day in putting into their hands a Bible is it said in the Consecration of Bishops? Accipe Evangelium, vade, praedica populo tibi commisso: Take the Gospel, go preach to the people committed unto thee. And if our Bishops in these days were not bound to preach, wherefore doth the late Council of Trent tell us, that among all Episcopal duties the office of Preaching is the chief? Sess. 5. & 24.  
But our Bishop will happily say, That his talon is not in preaching, and making, of Sermons. To which (I say) though he be not able to preach and make a formal Sermon, at least, why (as occasion offereth itself) doth he not in some short exhortations move the people to good life, setting before their eyes the reward of virtue, & the deformity of vice, as also its punishments: or at least, why teacheth he not the Christian doctrine, which in truth is the bestkinde of preaching, and most necessary in this kingdom of all other, where such ignorance reigneth among the common people, that if every hair of our heads, were preachers or teachers of the Catechism, it were little enough? But and if our Archbishop, be not either able, or not willing to preach, & to feed his flock, with the spiritual food of the word, wherefore then did he condescend to accept of a Bishopric, knowing himself so unmeet for the same? or what account will he give up to the Prince of Shepherds, when it shall be required at his hands? Happily they may have enough to do, to answer for themselves. He lays the burden upon their necks, they will say they were but assistants unto him: Now as that learned Cardinal saith, non adjuvari dicitur, qui nihil facit. He is not said to be assisted, which doth nothing himself. Again in his treatise de gemitu Columbae, lib. 2. cap. 5. Deni● (inquiunt) multi sunt hoc tempore praedicatores verbi Dei, ex ordinibus religiosis; verum est illud quidem, sed illi vocati sunt in adjutorium Episcoporum, non ut proprium munus ipsorum impediant. To conclude (saith he) they will say, that at this time there be many preachers of God's word among religious Orders, true it is, but they be called to be helpers to the Bishops, not hinderers of that which is their own proper duty to perform. But verily had Card. Bellar. lived in these countries he would not have said that at this day there be many Preachers of God's word among religious Orders, but rather many beggars & feeders of their own bellies, among religious Orders, who in begging from house to house can publish the benefit of the cord, the Rosary, the habit, & the Scapulare, & tell you a long story of the miracles of S. Francis, & can frame many a tale, and many a lewd lie of the parish Priest, to bring the people out of love with their Pastor, whereby the water may run more freely unto their own mills. But the healthful doctrine, the blessed life, the sweet example, the stupendious miracles of our Saviour & Redeemer of the world, in the Gospel are little taught, or insisted upon, witness those places & parts of the country which the Friars do chiefly haunt. Examine the people, & the penitents of those Friars, in the mystery of the Trinity, the incarnation of our Saviour, the articles of their creed, the use of the Sacraments: you shall find them so defective, as they scarce deserve the name of Catechumen. Not one of ten of them knowing wherefore they were baptised, what they adore in the Eucharist, or wherefore they go to Confession. Nay if you demand which are the persons of the blessed Trinity, they will be more ready to tell you our blessed Lady, S. Patrick, and S. Bride, than either Father, Son, or Holy Ghost, more ignorant than those of whom S. Paul speaketh Act. 19 who being asked whether they had received the Holy Ghost, answered: Sed ne● si spiritus sanctus est audivimus. Nay we have not yet heard whether there be a Holy Ghost, or no. And wherefore is all this? but that the doctrine necessary unto salvation, is not so necessary for the Friar's maintenance; For whether is it more easy to say with S. Paul, Operamini salutem vestram cum timore & tremore, Ephes. 6. Work out you● salvation with fear & trembling: then with the Car●●l● to say. Take the Scapulare, and thou shalt never be 〈◊〉. Or whether is the doctrine of our Saviour more easy. Qui persever averit us● in finem hic salvus erit. He that 〈◊〉 vereth unto the end h● shall be saved; or to say with the Cordilier, fast but such a saturday & thou shalt never die an evil death: besides many other doctrines of like nature, which walk in darkness: witness those Annulets, prayers, and verses hanging about the necks of the poor deluded people, men, women & children, in which more trust & confidence is reposed, then may stand with the purity & integrity of our faith. But if these good people thus taught should again feed with the like food of their bodies those their teachers, & in place of wholesome meat, should set before themsome stinking carrion; in place of butter & cheese, should give them a lump of Tallow, and for good bread, of Wheat, Rye, Oates, etc. should present them with a loaf made of bran, and bean husks, verily the Friar limitour would set his mark upon them, if not his curse: and the fairy folk (if any such be) should sooner haunt those houses, than either Monk or Friar. 
Something being here omitted accidentally makes the cohaerence not so goo●.   
I may remember since in England before the coming in of the Regulars, all spiritual offices were performed unto the Catholics, by the Priests of the Clergy, of which times it might be said, in respect of the great concord and unity which they enjoyed, as well the Priests among themselves, as with the Laity. That terra erat unius labij. The earth it was of one lip & language, and as it is said in the 4. Act. of those primitive times of the Church: Multitudinis credentium erat corunum, & anima una, the multitude of believers were all of one mind, & of one will. But no sooner came the Ignatians (for they were the first) and the Monks, & the Friars after them, & did grow to any numbers & strength, but then came in the confusion of Babel, & their tongues were so divided, as one spoke nothing but of Apollo, & another of Cephas, (not I confess in diversity of doctrines) but in variety of affections: where the Ignatian was in request, the Priest was neglected; where the Monk ruled the roast, there the Ignatian was disrespected; where the Friar could prevail, there neither one nor other was regarded. Till at length rather upon a sudden shuffling up, then composing any stable peace, they joined all in one with united forces to oppose the Ecclesiastical Clergy, and what tumults & hurlyburlies have ever since been on foot among them, & still continues (I wis, non ad aedificationem, sed ad destructionem, not to edification, but to destruction) the world can witness.  
Now in this Kingdom of Ireland what I have not only seen, but felt, it remains further to declare. For about some 18. years ago, you may well remember with me, that the Monks & the Friars being then but weak, & (as it were) in the cradle, the good Catholic people were ruled both in the divine office of the Church, as also in direction of their consciences wholly by the Priests of the Clergy their Pastors. Then was there such devotion & piety in the service of God, such frequenting the Sacraments, such love among neighbours, such fear of offence and wrong doing, as it might truly be said of those golden days: 
Flumina tum lactis, t●m flumina nectaris ibant,  
Flavaque de viridi stillabant illice mella.  Then streams of milk, than streams of wine did flow, Then on green oaks sweet honeycombs did grow.  
Then the Friar made scruple to encroach in the smallest matter upon the office of the Parish Priest, nay he was so humble, so gentle, so recollected, & so mortified, as truly you would have taken him for a very gay creature; but this was but in his infancy, & during the time of his nonage; for by too much petting & cockering of him, & that chiefly by the Parish Priests themselves in the beginning (not then foreseeing whom they did foster & harbour in their bosoms, or what rods they were in preparing for their own ribs) the Friar growing daily to further acquaintance with the Citizens, & gathering unto himself continually more numbers of his fellows, he began soon to go upon his own legs, & to perceive quod cornuta erat facies ejus, that his face had two horns, with which he began bravely to lay about him, A Pastor when he pleaseth, a Regular when he pleaseth, a voluntary when he list, a pressed soldier when he list, an assistant when he thinks good, and a principal when he will. So as now down must the Oak, & up must the Briar, under whose protection the sheep betaking himself for shelter and protection in every storm, his fleece shall be well pulled, & his skin surely scratched for his pains, as we daily see, & in part already have set down. But the Press calls so fast upon me, as I can hardly with equal paces keep company with it, & therefore must spare further to enlarge myself upon this argument. Only I will conclude it with the saying of that holy & learned Prelate Peter Camus, Bishop of Bellay in his Petronilla: That it is an admirable thing to see, that such as govern the people, will not take charge of them, & such as have charge of them, & are answerablo for them, can not have the government of them. So he. Which observation of his agrees with what a principal Friar of his Order lately said in this City, & that in the hearing of many, That for their parts they scorned to be Parish Priests or Pastors. According to the doctrine which Friar Thomas Strong, a Franciscan, laid down in his Manuscript entitled an Answer unto the fraternal correction of Paulus Veridicus Harris, in which he compares the Superiors of Regulars unto Shepherds, and the Parish Priests unto Swineherds, & consequently the Laity to Pigs & hogs. This writing of his is this day in my custody, under his own hand, which I am ready to impart to any who make doubt of the truth thereof. O S. Peter & S. Paul! yea, O S. Francis! How base and contemptible is that holy office of Parish Priests in thy Friars eyes at this day, who now bear themselves as the only Masters in Israel, and would be accounted the sole pillars of God's Church. So much then for the first office of a Pastor in the dispensation of the Word and Sacraments, together with some digressions (I confess) in which how defective our Ordinary hath been, in part is declared.  
Let us now consider of the second, which is in chase away the Wolves which come to kill, & to destroy; represented unto him in his pastoral staff, given him in his consecration, with words, declaring that thereby his office is to govern & to defend his flock from the jaws of all ravenous beasts, who seek to pray upon the same. Now let us consider how well our Ordinary hath used this his baculum pastoral, this his shepherds staff, or whether to any better purpose than he hath done his Bible before given him. And for proof hereof (good Reader) thou art to understand, that upon the 29. of April, being the feast of S. Peter Martyr, and S. Catheri● of Sienna, in the year of our Lord 1631. a certain Franciscan Friar, by name Thomas Babe, did in the Cookes-street of Dublin, in a public audience, publish this doctrine: That forsomuch as a certain Spanish Nun (called Luissa) of the Order of S. Clara, had a Revelation: That whosoever should fast upon the next Saturday after they heard of her death, should never dye in mortal sin, or of any evil death; The aforesaid Fr. Babe persuaded the people then present, to under-take so holy a penance: upon which, very many both in the city & country (as they did believe his doctrine, so did they keep very carefully the same Fast; among which our Ordinary Th●. Fleming alias Barnwell, to give example, did the like. Neither was that doctrine only then, but sundry other times also taught by that false Apostle, in diverse other places of this City & Diocese.  
Another Friar also of the discalced Carmelites, by name john Plonket, as well in public assemblies, as also in private conferences, hath endeavoured to persuade the people this damnable doctrine: That whosoever shall take the Sc●pulare of the Carmelites, & wear it upon his body, saying such prayers as thereunto belongeth, they should never dye out of the estate of grace, & the favour of God, but at the furthest, the next Saturday after their deaths, they should be admitted into the joys of Heaven. These I doubt not to call hellish doctrines broached by these false teachers in these later days to draw us from our salvation in Christ, & from the merits of his bitter death & passion, destroying, ● utterly subverting our holy faith, received from the mouth of our Saviour & his Apostles, & continued in all ages from those times, till these our days, in the Catholic Church. For remedy whereof, in zeal of God's honour, the preservation of our holy faith, & to prevent the danger of souls so abused, complaint was made unto the Ordinary, as our chief Pastor of this Diocese of Dublin, for to see correction had thereof, as may appear by a Petition made by two Priests, & in their names presented unto the aforesaid Tho. Fleming alias Barnwell, by two worthy Citizens, the copy whereof, is as followeth.  

The Petition of D. Peter Cadell, and Paul Harris, Priests.  
To the R. H●n. Tho. Fleming alias Barnwell, Archbishop of Dublin.  
H●mbly complaineth unto your Hon. your Petitioners, of divers most false & damnable doctrines, lately taught & published by Friars, as by Friar Babe Cordilier, and Friar john Pl●nket Carmelite, to the great scandal of the Church, & destruction of many souls; beseeching your Hon. as chief Pastor of this Diocese, to call the aforesaid Friars before you, as also us your Petitioners, whereby you may underst●●d what in the premises may be witnessed against them. And so your Petitioners shall pray.  
March 27. 1632.   
To which Petition no answer was ever yet given, neither do we expect that any ever will be given, but rather we fear that this canker hath also possessed the head. And the rather for that we understand, that these errors do more & more spread themselves through the bowels of this Kingdom: and by name that there is another Carmelite, called Patrick Donavan, native of the County of Cork, who persevers to teach the aforesaid errors and blasphemies among the people, to the great scandal of all good Christians, And forsomuch as we can not find that any Friars do oppose themselves either by word or writing, to these aforesaid pernicious doctrines, but only the Priests of the Clergy, Therefore it may well be inferred, that all the Regulars of this Kingdom are infected with the same leprosy, & therefore in time (if it be not already past time) to be separated from the rest of the body. The days were when Celestius, (a man of this Country birth) brought in Pelagianisme, and eclipsed with that foul cloud of heresy, the glory of the Church then in this Kingdom. After him again arose another false Prophet, and native of this Country, called johannes Scotus, about the year of our Lord 850. who introduced the Sacramentary heresy, both of them Monks, whose wicked doctrines (had the serpent been crushed in the egg) had never come to that growth or greatness, which afterwards they did. Where then (say you) was the pastoral staff of the Prelate? Marry (say I) where now it is, far from the back of the Wolf, but peradventure laid upon the loins of the Sheep, as at this day we see it under this our Archbishop, in whose ten years' government (for so long hath he possessed the Mitre) both error in doctrine, & dissoluteness of life, hath more prevailed in all estates, but especially among the Friars of his own Order, then in the days of many of his predecessors. O what Legends might be made of the unhappy lives of his Friars in this kingdom of Ireland, within the compass of these ten years! If either Christianity, Charity, or Civility would allow there of. I will only in general, which is lawful, & with Cardinal Bellarmine conclude this Chapter: In his Gemitus Columbae, lib. 2. cap. 6. Multiplicari coepernnt regulares sine numero, & multi non à De● vocati, ad statum perfectionis, sed aliis rationibus adducti, monasteria repleverunt: & impletum est illud Isaiae non●. Multiplicasti gentem, non magnificasti laetitiam. Ind nata sunt scandala gravia, & multiplicia omnibus nota, quae materiam uberem prebent columb●e gemendi & plangendi relaxationem, ne dicam corruptionem Ordinum religiosorum. Regulars have begu● to be multiplied without number, & many of them not called by God unto the estate of perfection, but enduced by other motives, have replenished Monasteryes: And that of Isay. 9 is fulfilled: Thou hast multiplied the nation, but not increased their joy. Hence so many and grievous scandals, known unto all, which yield plentiful matter unto the dove of bewailing the looseness, I will not say the corruption of religious Orders. So the Cardinal. In which words the Author seemeth unto me, not only to inveigh against the wicked, and scandalous lives of many in Religion, but even against the relaxation and corruption of Religious orders themselves.   

CAP. V.  
Of the prophecy of S. Francis, foretelling into how great sins of Avarice, Pride, and Contention with the Clergy, his Friars in time should fall.  
But why should I omit that testimony which of all other, should have the greatest force of Argument, to convict our Friar Minors, of their modern ungraciousness, & impiety? and if their hearts were not too rocky to convert them unto their ancient and primitive piety, simplicity, and humility; I mean the prophecy of S. Francis himself, the Founder of their Order, as it is laid down in the Chronicle of S. Francis, Tom. 1. lib. 2. cap. 28. in these words.  
A time will come, when the religious of my Order, by the malice of the Devil, shall leave the way of holy simplicity, indifferently receiving all sorts of money, and all such legacies, as by testament shall be bequeathed them; & leaving solitary, & humble places, will buiid fair & sumptuous houses in Cities, & towns, capable to entertain Princes, & Emperors: then by favour they will procure privileges of the Popes, through art, & humane prudence; and by thei● earnest importunity, they will obtain requests merely injust, though cloaked with truth; by this means they will not only abandon their rule instituted by jesus Christ against their solemn profession, but will also ruin, & alter the purity thereof, changing the good intention into perverse, and being armed by means of the said privilege, against obedience, against other Religious, and against all the Clergy, when they shall expect to get the victory, the wretches shall find themselves fall'n into the trench which themselves shall have made, gathering no other fruit of their Seminary, but scandals; which they shall offer to God in steed of the salvation of souls, who seeing the same, shall be no more hence forward their Pastor, but their ruiner, according unto their merits. And therefore he will leave them entangled in the nets of Avarice, and their vain desires, etc. So S. Francis in his aforesaid Chronicle, printed & published by his own Friars.  
And who can make question, but those times foretold by S. Francis, are now come, & that his prophecy in all points is fulfiled! And first for the prevarication of his Rule, in receiving of all sorts of money, we see it daily practised by his own Friats', in taking of Gold & Silver, & that as freely as any worldlings, always provided, that they touch it not with their bare hands: but alas! what penance or mortification is that? when as they may admit of it in a hander-kerchiefe, a glove, or lapped in a brown paper? for being given them in that manner, the Capuchin himself (who professeth most strictly to observe the Rule of S. Francis) will most gently accept of it, & place it in his pocket. But shall we think that S. Francis (so holy a man) had no deeper a consideration, in prohibiting his Friars so earnestly, and with so many words in that his short Rule, neither to ask, nor in any wise to receive money offered them, but only (forsooth) that they should not handle the same? But that you may the better understand this their prevarication of the Rule, I will set you down his own words, I say, in that very same rule, which himself avoucheth (both in his Testament above cited cap. 1. as also in these his words above alleged out of his Chronicle) to have been instituted by him.  
Quòd fratres non accipiant pecuniam.  
Pracipio firmiter fratribus aniversis, ut nullo modo denarios vel pecuniam recipiant, per se, vel per interpos●t●m personam. Tamen pro necessitatibus inf●rmor●●, et aliis fratribus indu●●dis per amicos spirituales. Ministri tantum, & custodes sollicitam curam gerant secundùm loca, & tempora, & frigida● regiones, sicut necessitati viderint exp●dire, eo semper salvo, ut (sicut dictum est) denarios vel pecuni●● non recipiant.  
That the Friars shall not receive money.  
I do command firmly all the brethren, that by no means they receive pence, or money, neither by themselves nor by another person; Yet for the necessity of the sick, and for the clothing of the Friars, by their spiritual friends, only the Superiors, and Guardians, shall have great care of them, according to places, and times, and cold Regions, as they shall see it to be necessary. This always remembered, that (as it is said) they receive no pence or money.  
And this is one of those 7. formal precepts, which they all confess to bind under mortal sin, strictly commanding them as you see, neither by themselves, nor by any other person, to receive any monies: Which precept now for a long time, by their common practice, is thus commodiously glossed, that only they may not touch Monies with their naked fingers. But may it not with good reason be verified of these our grey Friars, that which our Saviour said of the Pharisees, & of the Scribes: B●n● irritum facitis praeceptum Dei, ut traditionem vestram serv●●is. Mar. 7. Well you make void the comm●nndement of God, that you may observe your own Tradition. This precept (as S. Francis hath left written,) was commanded by jesus Christ, and vowed by his Friars, & yet in the sight of all men's eyes violated. Nay, that our Mendicant Friars may make it known unto the world, that they are veri philargiri, true lovers of money, they every year sell and turn into coin, many flocks of Sheep, Hogs, Geese, Turkeys, Hens, Cheese, Eggs; which through their shameless importunity, they have rather extorted, then begged, from the honest Farmer, charged with a great family, & a high rent, yea from many a poor man & woman, who might hardly have spared it from their own hungry bellies. These things are not obscure or dark, or done in a corner, but in the face of the world, & in the eyes of this sun, & which this poor Kingdom, can feelingly witness with me. And verily it seems the Friars mendicant were very little better conditioned in the days of King Henry the 6. in whose time Tho. Walsingham lived, a most pious and a learned author, whose words are as followeth, in the reign of Richard. 2.  
Mihi quo● videtur, tempora mala non tantum istis imputanda, sed generaliter cunctorum habitatorum terrae peccatis, inclusiuè ordines sumendo Mendicantium ad cumulandum causa● malorum. Qui suae professionis immemores, obliti sunt etiam ad quid ipsorum ordines instituti sunt, quia pauperes & omnino expeditos à rerum temporalium possessionibus eorum legislatores viri sanctissimi eos esse ideo voluerunt, ut pro dicenda veritate, non haberent, quod amittere formidarent: sed jam possessionatis invidentes, procerum crimina approbantes, commune vulgus in errore f●ventes, & utrorumque peccata comedentes, pro possessionibus acquirendis, qui possessionibus renunciaverant pro pecu●ijs congregandis, qui in paupertate perseverare juraverunt, dicunt bonum malum, & malum bonum, seducentes principes adulationibus, plebem mendacijs, & utrosqu● secum in dev●um pertrahentes, in tant●m etenim illam veritatis professionem suam perversè vivendo maculârunt, u● in diebus istis in ore cujustibet bonum sit argumentum, tenens ta●de formâ, quam de ma●eriâ. Hic est frater, Ergo m●ndax: Sicut & illud, Hoc est album, Ergo coloratum. Sed ne videamur livore scripsisse praesentia, fate●●ur nos omnes in culpâ, & emendemus in melius, quae scienter peccavimus, & Deum pacis & dilectionis deprecemur attenti●s, ut f●at pax & veritas in diebus nostris. Tho. Walsinghamus in regno Ricardi 2. fol. 266. The same in English.  
It seemeth also unto me, the wicked times not only imputed to those, but generally to the sins of all the Inhabitants of the earth, including the Orders of the Begging Friars, to heap up the causes of these mischiefs, who (unmindful of their profession) have forgot to what end their Orders were instituted, because their legislatours & instituters (most holy men) would therefore have them poor, & altogether free from the possessions of temporal things, that for speaking of the truth, they might not have any thing, which they might fear to lose. But now while they envy such as have possessions, approving the faults of great men, nourishing the common people in error, & eating the sins of them both, in seeking of possessions, who have renounced possessions, in hoarding up of money, who have sworn to persevere in poverty, they call good evil, & evil good; seducing Princes with flattery, the people with lies, & drawing both of them with themselves astray, they have in such sort stained that their profession of truth, by their unhappy living, that in these days in every one's mouth it is a good argument, holding as well in form, as matter: This fellow is a Friar: Therefore a Liar. Even as that: This thing is white, & therefore hath a colour. But that we may not be thought to have written these thigns of malice, let all of us acknowledge ourselves to be in fault, and let us amend what willingly we have done amiss, & beseech the God of peace & love more devoutly, that peace & truth may be in our days, So that holy Monk Tho. Walfingham, in the reign of Richard the 2. fol. 266. He died in the year 1440.  
But because (as our Saviour saith:) In ore duorum, 〈◊〉 trium testium, stat omne verbum, Math. 18. in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word is confirmed, & made good: Hark also (gentle Reader) what AEneas Silvius (who after was Pope & called Pius 2.) left written to posterity, in commentario de rebu● à se gestis, of the Avarice of the Mendicants, his words are as follow.  
Religiosos ●o●●unquam vidimus, quos Mendieantes appellant, & Auricontemptores videri volunt, dum vivendi finem fecissent, magnum peculium reliquîsse, è quibus unum novimus, qui a●r● nummum septem & dece● miilia veteri muro incluserat, quae paulatim mendicando, plorandoque intervetusas ingenio subtili corraserat. We have sometimes scene the Religious, whom they call Begging Friars, & would seem to be contemners of Gold, at their deaths to have left great riches, of which sort we have known one, who had hid 17. thousand pieces of gold, shut up in an old wall, which by begging, & weeping amog old wives by his crafty with had scratched together: Of this Author Card. Bell. ●. in his Book de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis, saith; that he was vir doctus, & prudens, a learned & a wise man, & died in the same age with Walsingham, about the yeate of our Lord 1460.  
What shall I say of Armachanus, otherwise called S. Richard of Dundalk, that holy Bishop of Armagh & Primate of all Ireland, who in his book called Defensorium Curatorum, did discover & lay open before Pope Innocentius 6. & his Cardinals at A●ignion in France, their notorious vices of Ambition, Disobedience Pride. Covetousness, Lecbery, & the like; which book of that famous Prelate, worthy to be written in letters of gold, I wonder that to this day it hath not found an English Interpreter. Among others of their vices declaring their covetousness and greediness in begging, he hath these words:  
I am enim istis temporibus, non poterit magnus out mediocris in cl●●o & populo vix cib●m sumere, ubi tales fuerint mena●●cantes, etc. For now in these days, no man neither great nor little among the Clergy, can scarcely take his meat where these beggars shall he, not ask at the door, after the manner of poor people, ●●bly an alms, as S. Francis commanded them in his will & Testament, & taught them to beg, but coming into the houses boldly without shame, & there guesting themselves, (albeit not invited) they eat & drink such as they find, & nevertheless carry with them. by extorting either Corn, or meal, or loaves. or flesh, or cheeses, albeit in the house there be no mo●: the● two: neither shall any body be able to deny them, unless he abandon all natural shame: & I wonder they stand not in awe of Pope Gregory his sentence, who in a certain privilege published, thus writes unto the Prelates of the Church. For that oftentimes vices do secretly enter under the show of virtues, & the angel of Satan doth oftentimes transform himself into an angel of light, we command you by authority of these presents, That if any confessing themselves to be of the Order of the aforesaid Friars, shall preach in your parts, converting themselves to the lucre of money, whereby it shall happen, the religion of those who profess poverty to be defamed, you apprehend them as counterfeits, and condemn them. So Armachanus a native of this country, borne in Dundalke, where also now in S. Nicholas Church his bones rest, being translated from Avignion in France, where he died An. 1360 whose singular learning, his Works this day do declare. Besides the testimony of Trithomius, in his Book de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis in these words: Ricardus Archiepiscopus Armachanus, & Primas Hiberniae, vir in divinis Scripturis eruditus, & secularis philosophiae, jurisque canonici non ignarus, ing●nio 〈◊〉, sermone scholasticus, in declamandis sermonibus ad po●●lum excellentis industriae. Richard Archbishop of Armagh, & Primate of all Ireland, a man learned in the holy Scriptures, and not ignorant of secular Philosophy, & of the Canon Law, of a singular wit, a schoolman in speaking, of excellent industry in making of sermons unto the people. So much for his learning. As for his life he both hath been, & at this day is held in the Church for a Saint, no less then S. Patrick, and S. Columbe, yea that his canonisation was proposed, and entreated of in the Pope's Consistory; Friar Luke Wadding doth testify, at this day living in Rome, which canonisation hath hit herto not happened unto any of the Irish, besides S. Malachias, Archbishop of the aforesaid seat of Armagh, and S. La●●ence of Dublin. Of whose sanctity, the common people by ancient tradition do cha●●● this Distich.  
Many a 〈◊〉 have I gone, and many did I 〈◊〉.  
But never saw a holier man, then Richard of Dundalk.  
Notwithstanding because ●●is Pri●at of Armagh, commonly called S. Richard of Dundalk (albeit his surname was Ralph) did much oppose himself unto the disorders of Mendicants, he by Genebrard, as also Alpho●sus de Castro, is branded with heresy, but Card. Bellarm. more learned the●●either of them, gives him no such note. And albeit Friar Platus the Ignatian (though by some it is rather held to be the Work of his General, Claudius Aquaviva) in his Treatise De bono scatu religionis, lib. 1. cap. 33. writeth, that the aforesaid Ricardus Armachanus, before Pope Innocentius 6, & his Cardinals at avignon, did spew out many things against the state of the begging Friars, & not long after, died. Yet is it manifest by that very same Oration, which then he made, that he spoke not at all against the institute of any religious order, but only that he inveighed against their manifold relaxations, corruptions, & abuses; neither did he dye soon after, for he lived three whole years after he uttered the same, & left behind him a greater fame both of learning & sanctity, then either Platus or Aquaviva, or any other of his adversaries hitherto have done. Armachanus made that Oration by Trithemius testimony de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis 1357. upon the 8. day of November, & deceased in the Papal Court of Avignion 1360. 17. Calend. Decemb. So Henricus Marlesburgensis in Chronico, to which the Irish Annals do agree. And so much of this Author & his testimony, as touching the Avarice of the Mendicant Orders in his time.  
But alas, why should I look behind me unto the times of yore, will not these our days, & this poor country yield us palpable examples of the Covetousness of Friars, not to speak of their other vices? Something I have spoken before of their two ploughs of Begging Cap. 1. the one by retail, the other by gross. Now I will speak a word or two of other 2 ploughs of theirs, no less working then the former. The first, of their Novices which they receive into their Order. The second of their cord, habit, etc.  
And first for the men Novices. It is well known that the Friar will admit of none among them, but such as either bring them in good portions, or else such as they guests will prove 〈◊〉 out Beggars, to recompense in their industry what they are wanting in means. So as what patrimony a father would leave his son, either upon his preferment, or at his death, that the Friar will have, he will not abate a smulkin. If the Father stumble at it, he shall be terrified with matter of conscience, as, Is not God Almighty worthy to have as much as the world? etc. or else with the authority of the Bishop of the Diocese, especially if that Bishop be a Friar. And do the Father what he can, he shall both part with his Son, & his money.  
As for their vowed Nuns, they bring with them 700. or 500 & at the lowest rate 300. or 200. & 50. pounds sterling, & yet if they live in such penance, & austerity, as the Friars persuade us, surely they cannot spend by the paul, omnibus vijs, & modis, 10. pounds per annum. And yet notwithstanding all these marriage goods, (for so they call them) those virgins have their agents, who beg in the country for them, to bring them in alms, for it is a rule with our Nuns, as well as with the Friars. Want, or want not, beg they must, besides what gifts the friends of those so rich maids, & so well descended, do daily present them withal. Now if a maid who is poor & hath no portion, or means at all, should offer herself unto their Nunneries, were she as devout as Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of whom it is said, that she never departed from the Temple serving God, night & day in prayer & fasting. Luke. 2. & were she as chaste as Susanna, ●●y had she the Virginity of S. Ursula and all her eleven thousand Virgins, yet should she be put back from the gate of the Monastery, as one of the 5. foolish Virgins, with nescio vos, I know you not.  
Another plough of our Mendicants, I will not say the last, (for they better know than I, how many they have) is the cord or the Scapulare, or the Girdle, or the Breads of S. Nicolas, or the Rofary, as also the habit of their Orders, which brings no small profit unto them. For by such indulgences, graces and pardons, annexed unto them, there is procured unto the Mendicants, infinite calms and perpetual Benefactors. For the people generally, whether through their ignorance, or misteaching, I know not, seem much more at this day to stand in fear of Purgatory, then of hell itself. And they are persuaded that these things, together with their alms unto the Friar, will save them from the flames of Purgatory. So as who among them now is so hard hearted, as in his life time is not girt with a Cord? or 〈◊〉 their deaths is not buried in a Friar's habit? which habit if of yourself you shall have no devotion to desire, the Friar will take occasion to visit you in your sickness, & although it be but 5. minutes before you decease, he will offer you to be buried in his habit; If you thank him it is enough, it is taken for acceptation, albeit you say neither yea, nor no. On goes the habit so soon as the life hath left you, & so you are exposed till burial, that all your neighbours may behold you. The great devotion of the party unto the order whose habit he took, is much advanced, his salvation is no whit doubted of, etc. Now you must conceive by all means that this habit is given you gratis, that is, of free cost, for else it were Simony, but yet I trust the friends of the party are not so unmannerly, but by all reckon be ended, they might as cheap have bought a piece of freeze of an hundred yards. You know what Marshal saith, Pauperum dona hami sunt, Cum daunt, tum maxime petunt. Poor men's gifts are hooks, when they give, than most of all they crave, & who poorer than the Friar, though little pinched with want. For they know well to distinguish, inter pauper tatem & indigentiam, 'twixt poverty & want, the first indeed they profess, but the second is without the compass of their vows, they leave that for the Clergy. And therefore johannes Rusbrochius himself a Monk, speaking of the Friar Mendicants of these times, in his book called Tabernaculum foederis, cap. 123. hath these words, Mendici, & pauperes dici volunt, & suam semper queri inopian, & tamen omnibus abundare rebus. Beggars & poor they desire to be called, & always to complain of their want; and yet to abound with all things. And me thinks a Friar when he is on horseback, with his hatched Rapier, and his wrought Spurs, and meets a parish Priest upon the way, in his fri●●, Stockings, and his brogges going on foot (happily twice as far as the other is to ride,) & that to minister unto some poor sick Creature in a Cot, he should be much ashamed of himself, especially when he calls to mind that precept of S. Francis in the 3. cap. of his rule. Non debeant equitare, nisi manifesta neoessitate, vel infirmitate cogantur. The Friars are not to ride, but compelled thereunto through manifest necessity, or sickness. So he, But verily in these parts it shall be much against the Friar's humour to travel two miles out of Town, not mounted upon an easy pased horse: Nay it seems that the Friars who live among us, are of opinion, that the world would be scandalised to see them go on foot. Well then let us leave the Friar on horseback, and return we a little back to our purpose of the habit, from which we have made this short digression.  
Were then our Friars really so charitable, & so liberal in bestowing of their habits. And did they so much thirst after the good of souls, yea and so tender hearted as they could not endure that a soul should remain some short time in Purgatory, but rather they would bestow upon the corpse the habit of S. Francis, or S. Dominicke, for their rellefe. I then wonder (as Armachanus did well observe,) why they do only address themselves unto the rich & to the great ones, and not unto the poor, for surely our christian faith teacheth us that the poor have souls as well as the rich. And who can otherwise judge, but that it is as meritorious a deed to cover a poor corpses with a habit, who many times hath scarce a rag of a course sheet to shroud them in, as to bestow it upon the carcase of never so rich a man, for here is a soul, & so is there: there is necessity, & the subject of an alms, & here is none. But as Armachanus answers well for them, in his book called Defensoriorum curatorum. Non more Thobiae ad sepelcendum rupiunt corpora pauperum defunctorum, sed instar vulturun● ultra m●re ad quingenta miliaria sua alimenta odorando sentientium qu●unt. Not as Thobias did, do they seek for the bodies of the poor deceased, to bury them: but like unto vultures, smelling out their carrions beyond seas five hundred miles do they seek food. So he.  
Neither are these Mendicants comented with such profit, as they make of their habits, and sepultures from the Larty, but they must encroach also upon the Pastors; or parish Priest of the place, claiming not only the honour of the funeral rites, & ceremonies, to be performed by themselves, but challenging all duties, offerings, and alms thereunto belonging. And here I may not forget what a late precedent of the Parliament of Aix in France, hath left written of the ambition of our Friars Minors in such occasions. I will give you his words.  
Fratres S. Francisci qui se appellant Minores; ut nomen consonet rei, debent esse minori loco, ideò tanquam humiliores, quia minores non debent praetendere contra aliquos de aliqua praecedentia, etc.  
The Friars of S. Francis Order, who call themselves Minors, as much as to say, the lesser; that their name may be agreeable unto the thing, they ought to be in a lower place, as more humble, for that the lesser ought never to pretend for precedency of place against any. Because in doing otherwise they should seem to go against their own Order, & estate, which is to be the lesser of all estates & Orders of the whole Universal Church; nay, which is more, since a certain time, they would have the name of minimi, that is, the lowest of all other, by virtue of a certain reformation. But I see that all this is but in word, not in deed. For that they will not only contend for equality with other Religious, but also with the Cathedral Church: As I have seen in the Funerals of a certain Noble & potent man, Francis Rollin: who for one only hour was depositated in their Church; & in carrying of the Corpse, they would not only be in the last place before the Canons of the Cathedral Church; but their Guardian said, That he ought to have the last place, yea after the Bishop himself then in place. Which how ridiculous it was, & aught to be, let all imagine. By which it may be seen what may be said of them, who when as they ought in all humility to strive with the lowest, yet will they contend for equality with the highest. Wherefore their pride can not more rightly be compared to any thing, then to the pride of Lucifer, who would be like unto the most High. Bartholomaeus Chassanaeus Praeses Senatus Aquaesextias in Catalogo Gloriae mundi parte 4. Consideratione 69.  
Thus (gentle Reader) I have given theea touch of those dangerous doctrines taught by our Friars, tending to the evacuation of that great benefit of our salvation in Christ. I have showed how far our Archbishop, with all the rest of his Friars are interessed therein. Moreover, both out of grave Authors, & lamentable experience of these times, I have discoursed of those manifold and manifest enormities of the Friar Mendicants, & more particularly of this Country: Their Avarice, Lying, Ambition, & Hypocrisy. Neither have published the secret faults of any. God forbid I should. It is not only against Christian charity, but humanity, so to do. If any say, It is not my part to handle these matters, & it concerns me not? I answer, I am one of those whom the Scripture calls barking dogs, I say 56. And whose office it is not only to bark at the wolf when I see him a far off, but if he come nearer me, to bite him too. Math. 7. And by God's grace so will I do, so long as I have either tongue or teeth in my head. And so had I ended, but   

CAP. VI  
A defence of our late Appeal.  
THat I was requested by a friend, to lay down the grounds & motives which enduced M. D. Cadell & myself to publish in Print our late Appeal unto the See Apostolic, from the gravamina or aggrievances of the Archbishop, & the rather, for that the Friars, & those of his faction (as it is said) take great exceptions thereunto.  
1. First then in defence of the aforesaid printed Appeal; I answer, That there is nothing therein published unto the world, which was not public before, either de jure, or de facto, or both, as by induction shall appear when time serves. Now to make a thing more public, which is already public, was always held most lawful. In confirmation whereof see these Authors following. Cajet. opuscuio 31. Respons. 9 Lessius de justitia & jure lib. 2. cap. 11. dub. 13. num. 35. Clavis regia, lib, 11. cap. 11. num. 30. & 31. Arragonius de justitia & jure q. 62. ●rt. 2. Reginaldus lib. 27. cap. 4. num. 82. & 85. ●●orius 3. parte. lib. 13 cap. 7. dubio. 8. S●t. lib. 4, q. 6. ar. 3. And all other Writers. If then to make more public what already is public, be lawful: it skils not whether that publication be written or printed, writing or printing being but accidental to publication.  
If you say; But those foul excesses laid unto the charge of the Archbishop, aught at least to have been concealed from the Protestants. I answer, (as in part I have done before in my Epistle unto the Reader) That as among us a mixed people, the manifest faults & excesses of Protestants, cannot be concealed from the Catholics: No more is it possible, that the manifest faults & excesses of our Catholics can any wise be hidden from the Protestants, of which nature & quality are those 8. aggrievances, which we laid down in our late Appeal.  
Besides, who seeth not, that it is the delinquents themselves, who first manifest & make public their own disorders, & by such manifestation they come to be known of others, who in their own just defence may make use thereof, by way of justice, to have the same reformed or corrected: how else could it be lawful to bring any person in question, upon crimes in courts & Tribunals? And how comes it to pass, that we have both heard 8● read of Prelates, not only excommunicated, or suspended, but sometimes deposed for Heresy, Schism, Simony, etc. I say, If their own faults might not be further published.  
2. Secondly in defence of Printing our Appeal, I say, that an Appeal is a juridical instrument, of his own nature, admitting publicity no less than all other court plead, as Bills, Answers, Orders, Sentences, judgements, Executions, & the like: All which processes of public courts, may be notified through the world, either by pen, or Press.  
3. Thirdly we committed that our Appeal, the rather unto the Press, for that we suspected our Ordinary would not accept it at our hands, having often before denied to receive any letter, or Petition, from such suitors as desired justice of him, & so de facto, it came to pass. For first personally, & in pen hand, we presented this self same Appeal unto our Ordinary, june 21. an. 1632. who refused to receive it of us. Wherefore that it might be sufficiently known that we did. Appeal from his manifold tyrannies, to a higher Tribunal, which benefit of the canon, for that he both hath & doth continually seek to deprive us of, and debar us of all audience, we held it necessary (and as by our learned council we were advised) to notify his manifold and manifest injustice: omnibus Chri. fidelibus.  
4. Fourthly, None can Appeal from the court of the Ordinary to a higher Tribunal, but of necessity he must lay down the causes & grounds, why he declines the judgement of his Ordinary, otherwise his Appeal is not only void in law, but he is punishable for the same. See 2. q. 6. cap. Quicun●, & cap. emaino, de appellationibus in 6. & ibi, glossam. Item Sayrus de eens. lib. 12. cap. 17. num. 34. with many Doctors by him cited: So than those 8. Gravamina laid down in our Appeal, being the causes why we declined his jurisdiction, we could not omit the same.  
5. Our fifth reason is Ad hominem, as thus: Our Ordinary Thomas Fleming, alias Barnewell, thinking good to prohibit the people our Masses, under Excommunication, he lays down for his ground, our disobedience & continual insolency, without hope of amendment, etc. as may appear by the first lines of his censure prefixed unto this work (which causes although above at large are proved to be merely his own inventions) yet true or false, he made no scruple to publish them in open Auditories & assemblies, when the greatest concourse of people might be had, to our great disgrace, shame, and infamy (as much as in him was.) If this (I say) was lawful for him to do against us in matters so false (as we daily challenge him to the proof of them) may not we do the like in our just defence, in his most notorious crimes, to which every day we offer ourselves to the trial and touchstone of proof, before any Tribunal which is pleased to take knowledge thereof?  
6. Lastly, our Archbishop's faction daily writes, and prints against us of the Clergy, witness that infamous Libel, called Examen juridicum censurae Parisiensis, under the saigned name of Edmundus Vrsulanus, not only scosfing the R. Bishops of France, with all the most learned Doctors of Sorbon, & that famous University of Paris, in most base & contumelious language traducing them: but also charging five R. Priests of this Irish Nation (& that by name) with lewd aspersions, of which himself dare neither give his name (by which he may be known) nor show his head to the justification. Nay, not sparing to blemish the fame of the most Ill: Archbishop of Paris, being himself (as is confessed by his own faction) a Friar Minor, (but more they neither will, nor dare give us of him,) which libelling Pamphlet of that Friar, is in such high estimation with our Archbishop, as it is made his only Vade mecum: may not we then in defence of our good names, print what we are daily provided to justify, firming it with our own proper names, by which every hour we may be known & challenged, as we did that our aforesaid Appeal, to so many persons as we did communicate the same unto? And as I myself the Author of this Book Paul Harris, do subscribe my name with mine own hand, offering myself to the justification of every word & syllable therein contained.  
The next work (gentle, judicious, & impartial Reader) which thou mayest expect at my hands, is a full refutation of those most impious & blasphemous doctrines of the Friars, abovementioned in Cap. 4. As also a compendious Treatise of the 6. Excommunications, 2. Exiles, 2. Suspensions, published & inflicted within the compass of a few weeks by our present Archbishop, Tho, Fleming, alias Barnwell, with the causes, motives, & subjects of them all. And so submitting myself & all my writings, to the censures of the See Apostolic, beseeching Almighty God of his infinite goodness and mercy, to grant us his grace, ro live and dye his servants. I here end.  
Qui ve●●●●s mutant ritus, legesque refigunt  
Quas ●●êre Patres, & nullo compede vivunt:  
High sunt qui patriae, clero, populoque minantur  
Excidium. Tu prisca fides borum agmina vitae.  
FINIS.