FRATRES SOBRII ESTOTE. 1. PET. 5.8. OR, An admonition to the Friars of this Kingdom of Ireland, to abandon such heretical doctrines as they daily publish to the corruption of our holy faith. the ruin of souls, and their own damnation which steepeth not.  
By PAUL HARRIS Priest.  GALAT. 4.16. 
Am I then become your enemy, telling you the truth?  
Printed MDCXXXIV,   

TO POPE VRBANUS VIII. The Epistle of Paul Harris Priest.  
MOST blessed Father, in these later and worse days are risen up among us from the Orders of the Begging Friars, men speaking perverse things, and drawing many disciples after them, not only in the matter of the Eleven Propositions, but profiting unto the worse, they labour to transfer us from him who hath called us unto the grace of Christ, unto an other gospel, teaching the people as well in public assemblies as private houses, these wretched and profane doctrines: 

1. Whosoever shall dye in the habit of S. Francis shall never be prevented with an unhappy death.  
2. Whosoever shall take the Scapular of the Carmelites, and dye in the same, shall never be damned.  
3. Whosoever shall fast the first Saturday after they have heard of the death of Luissa a Spanish Nun of the order of S. Clare, shall have no part in the second death.    
The first of these lewd positions is taken out of the Chronicle of the Friar Minors, (for so are the Franciscans called) tom. 1. and fathered upon S. Francis as one of those Legacies bequeathed by him unto his Order, and by the Friars of his Order indifferently to be communicated to so many as shall before their death desire to be put into their habit, which that it may be the better known and notified unto the world, it is commonly printed under the Image of S. Francis, and placed at our Altars, as both myself and many others have beheld with our eyes in this city.  
The second is recorded in a certain sheet of paper, not much unlike unto a Ballad, printed by the Friar Carmelits: The title whereof is, An abridgement of the Privileges of the holy Scapular granted by the most gracious Queen of Heaven, MARY, unto the Order of the Carmelites. In which Compendium or Brief, the institute of the holy Scapular (for so is it called) is laid down in these words.  
S. Simon Stoc the sixth General of all the Latins of this Order, did receive not without a manifest sign of the Divine favour, this most sacred Scapular; for when as he had along time with much earnestness besought of Almighty God, that by some manifest token it might appear that the Friar Carmelites were in the undoubted protection of the blessed Virgin, behold upon a certain night he saw the Mother of God in great glory, who reached down unto him this divine Scapular with these words: Dilectissime fili, hoc recipe tui ordinis scapulare, meae confraternitatis signum, tibi, et cunctis Carmelitis privilegium, in quo quis moriens, non aeternum patietur incendium. Ecce signum salutis, salus in periculis, saedus pacis, et pacti sempiterni: Most loving son, receive this Scapular of thy Order, a token of my confraternity, to thee and to all Carmelites; a privilege, in which who so dies shall not suffer ever lasting fire, Behold the signe of s●lvation, safety in dangers, a league of peace and an everlasting covenant etc. If more can be ascribed unto him who died for mankind upon the Altar of the Cross, I leave it to holy Church to determine. And such was the vision of S. Simon Stoc exhibited by the Carmelites unto the Estate, in the castle of Dublin in the month of August 1633. by the hands of Edmund Doyle Priest. And if any doubt hereof, they shall find the very original with me when ever they shall be pleased to demand the same. And such is the authentication of the Scapular of the Carmelites evangelized everywhere by the Friars of that Order, and represented unto the eye at many of their altars by tables of picture. Now if any desire to know what thing this Scapular is, and have not seen the same, behold this description. The Scapular is only two square pieces of cloth of the bigness of two trenchers, 
The form of a Scapular.  the one before pendant upon the breast, the other behind upon the shoulders, from whence it hath the name of Scapular.  
The third Proposition as touching the saturdays fast of Donna Luissa the Nun of S. Clare, is much insisted upon and most carefully taught by the Cordeliers or Franciscan Friars, and particularly by Friar Thomas Babe, who published the same the 29. of April, being the feast of S. Peter Martyr, and S. Catherine of Sienna, in the year of our Lord 1631. in the Cook-street of Dublin in a public audience, whose exhortation to the people was to this purpose. That forsomuch as a certain holy. Virgin called Luissa of the order of S. Clare 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 Friar Thomas Babe persuaded the people then present, to undertake so holy a penance, moved wherewithal very many (and I say signanter very many) as they did be loeve his doctrine, so did they most carefully observe the same fast, among whom as chief of all the rest, Thomas Fleming alias Barnwell Archbishop of Dublin for exaniple unto his flock, and as a prime man of the same order observed most devoutly the same, as himself hath not been ashamed divers times to acknowledge: Neither was that doctrine only then, but sundry other times also taught by that false Apostle Friar Babe and his fellows in divers other places of this City and Diocese.  
Most holy Father, I meddle not with the matter of Indolgences, neither do I intend, or ever did, to discourse of that argument. I only complain of these wicked doctrines; and I do adjure your sanctity, in the Name of the crucified, that you confirm your flock in these parts, that they be not led away with these new doctrines from that faith in which our holy Mother the Church hath bred us from her breast. I say that we be no longer misled by these Mendicants who seek to persuade us these carnal fancies, more serviceable I confess unto the belly, than any ways behooveful unto the soul, but rather as the Apostle willeth us, that we abide in those things which we have learned, and have been committed unto us, in no sort admitting these new Apostles as sent from heaven, but rather avoiding them as seducers come from hell. For we fools do verily believe, That he who was borne of the blessed and immaculate Virgin God and Man, jesus and Emmanuel, who suffered so many and so grievous torments upon the Cross under Pontius Pilate, who arose glorious from the death, and ascended into Heaven, that he and no other redeemed us from the curse of the Law, that he and no other hath cleansed us from our iniquities, and wrought our reconciliation for us. And that neither Paul, nor Apollo, nor the habit of S. Francis, nor the Scapular of the Carmelites, nor Dame Luissa the Nun of S. Clare, order (be she never so holy a woman) hath washed us with her blood, or was crucified for us.  
Most holy Father, you have given unto us for the Pastor of our souls, a Friar of the Order of S. Francis, by name Thomas Fleming alias Barnwell, consecrated Archbishop of Dublin; to him our Diocesan were presented our complains and grievances in the behalf of the Clergy of Dublin, against the most horrid and blasphemous tenants beforementioned. I say two R. Priests in the name of the rest personally appearing before our Archbishop, did present him not only with the names of the delinquents, but a catalogue also of their witnesses and proofs which passed on the 7. of March in the year 1631. in this City of Dublin. But what answer received the two Priests from their Ordinary? Truly none at all, neither to this day have they profited in that suit. For verily it is to be feared that this disease (whose nature is to fret like a canker) hath invaded and infected the head no less than the rest of the body. And we are the rather enduced to believe the same, for that we see these errors and corrupt doctrines day lie more and more to prevail, & to enlarge themselves especially among the ignorant and common people, alas too easy and flexible to be led astray: for there are a number of Regulars, especially of the Franciscans and Carmelites, false Apostles, who not only in pulpits preach these ertors, but as the Apostle saith, going from house to house, subvert whole families, teaching what they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. For no small profit doubtless doth arise unto these Poets and Inventours of fable, insomuch as they may truly say with Demetrius the silver-smyth, Act. 19 De hoc artificio nobis est acquisitio: Sirs you know that our gain is of this occupation. For (say me) who in the world is there that believes any thing to remain after death and ashes, who will not be glad to avoy the the pains of hell? who desires not to enjoy a blessed eternity in Heaven? And I call Heaven and Earth to witness, what thing is there more easiethen before death to creep into a Friar's habit? or what more tolerable then to fast one day, which is no more than having one competent repast at noon, to for bear a supper at night? Or what is there less troublesome than to carry two square pannicles or clouts, the one upon his back, the other at his bosom, under his garments (I wis) a carriage not so burdensome, nor comparably so painful, as was that heavy became of the Cross which sweet In sus carried upon his back to mount Calvary, and on which the salvation of the world did hang. Doubtless if future glory in the world to come, & the assurance thereof in this life might with so small a labour be purchased, who is so much an Euclio or strait handed? Who so much a Lucian, or an Atheist, as would not willingly admit these blessed Friars bringing such abundance of spiritual richesses with them, into his treasury, into his garnell amongst his herds and flocks, yea into his whole substance and means, not a sad or an unwilling, but a most joyful giver? Or what woman careful of her soul's health, will make spare of whatsoever is in her custody or under her hands? her bracelets, her rings, chains, jewels, her chests of linen, her arkes of meal and malt in exchange of such immortal benefits, and to have so propitious and present gods, albeit our Saviour hath said: Quid commutationis homo dabit pro anima sua? Mar. 8. What exchange shall a man give for his sold? The same truth hath also said Math. 7. Angusta est porta & via arcta quae ducit ad vitam aternam etc. Narrow is the gate and strait is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. And our Saviour foreseeing that there would come in the last times of the world such as would endeavour to enlarge that way, and to make that gate more wide, he presently addeth. Attendite a falsis prophets, etc. Take you heed of false prophets that come to you in the clothing of sleep, but inwardly are ravening wolves, by their fruits you shall know them. And what are the fruits sweet jesus) of these falso prophets among us at this day, but to make the gates of Heaven to gape as wide as the gates of hell itself. For albeit the Apostle hath excluded from celestial glory not a few, saying, Hoc enim scitote intelligentes etc. For understanding know this, that no fornicator, nor unclean or covetousiperson, which is the service of Idols, hath inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God: yet will our Friar's admin them all, if they once fast Dame Luissaes' saturdays fast. And albeit Christ our Lord excluded the man who had not a wedding garment from his Kingdom, yet will the Franciscan Friar let in any who is clothed with his habit, and so the Carmelite such as are found with his Scapular about their shoulders. I say, all these so qualifved shall be accepted of, and be admitted as well unto the Dinner of the great King as unto the Supper of the Lamb. Who then can marvel (these doctrines supposed as orthodox, yea as oracles) that we day lie see so many to be buried in Friars weeds, so many men & women day lie to take the Scapular, witness the register of the Friars Franciscan and Carmelices', in which their names are carefully recorded, as perpetual Benefactors unto their Orders. Nay, who is there especially among the Laity (O triste verbum!) who dare so nurch trust to the sufferings of our Saviour, and to the merits of his death & passion, as they dare be found in the hour of death without that thrice holy Scapular, that sign of salvarion, that safety in dangers, that league of peace, & of aneverlasting covenant, in which who so dyeth, shall never suffer eternal fire. All which attributions are incorporated unto the said Scapular by the blessed Virgin, if Simon Stoc his revelation be authentic; yea many among us nor trusting to the habit alone, or unto the Scapular alone, or to the Nuns fast alone, will before their death be furnished with them all three together, having wisely understood that of Solomon, Proverh. 4. Funiculus triplex difficile rumpitur: A triple cord is not easily broken. In which their proceeding me seemeth that yet they show some weakness of faith; for if they did constantly believe every one of these three promised salvations to be assured by divine revelation, as their teachers be are them in hand, surely either any of them is sufficient, or all of them together insufficient.  
Neither doth it boot the Friars to cloak these their errors by saying, That these doctrines rightly understood, do not import every sinner by keeping such a fast●, by taking such an Habit, or Scapular to be favied, but such only as be contrite with all for their fins, and are washed in the blood of the Redeemer. For neither do our Friars, in their Semons and exhortations, mention any such condition, &c if they did, yet notwithstanding the whose doctrine of the Sabbaoth fast, the Habit & the Scapular, (no lesseblazed by the Friars, then superstitously believed of the people) would utterly vanish into smoke. For why? a person so disposed and qualifyed, that is penitent for his fimes, and relying upon the redemption of In sas CHRIST is apt for the Kingdom of God, and to receive an inheritance among the Saints and Elect, say he be naked of Habit & scapular, and not at all acquainted with Donna Luissa her saturdays fast: yea a man ending his days in the service of God, and as the Divines say in the estate of grace can not miss of his salvation, had he but a couple of Hawkes-bells about his neck, or if he died in his old boots as well as in scapular or habit. If then the Friar thus expounds himself. He that dyeth in the habit or scapular, shall undoubredly be saved, always provided that he bein the love and favour of God, verily he might as well have spared so much breath to have cooled his broth, I say, as to spend it upon such a gloss as corrupteth and quite over-throweth the text. No no, Mors in olla, There is poison in the pot. For these preachers desire no thing less than to be so understood in their sermons when they make their Panegyrics of the habit and scapular unto the people, for by that means they might be in danger not only to lose their offerings at the Altar, but that great authority and place which they have in the hearts and affection of the Laity. No rather with all possible endeavour they labour to be believed, that by the virtue of these rags, either as causes instrumental or infallible signs, salvation is to be acquired. And hence it is that the Carmelite Friars dedicate yearly a day of great festivity, namely the 16. of july. unto the honour and reception of the Scapular, as the Franciscans also do to that parcel of their habit which is the Cord or Girdle. Are which festival times it is lamentable to behold how much the Divine Majesty by these beggars & their devotoes is profaned in his creatures: yea truly the world might less admire in these dismal days the Sun to be eclipsed, & the rocks to rent, then at the time of our Saviour's passion, beholding the benefit thereof so miserably defaced by these false Teachers who in these days cannot be contented to rob the people of their purses, but of their souls also.  
And to the end, they and all those that read these my writings may understand, that I will not inveigh without just cause or reprove in words what I am not able by good Argument to confound: I seriously demand of our Friar, what ground they have either from the divine Oracles, Ecclesiastical tradition, or monuments of the Fathers, to promise this security and certitude of Salvation, or to determine of the Sons of Adam in particular and by poll that their names are written in the book of life. I say, while yet we are viatotes, et non in statu, Pilgrims from our Lord, and not arrived at our country. I hear Solomon one of the Secretaries of the Holy Ghost saying, Prov. 20. Quis potest dicere mundum est cor meum? Who can say my heart is clean? I hear job saying, Etiamsi simplex fuero, etc. Job. 9 Albeit I be innocent, yet shall my soul be ignorant thereof. I hear the Apostle saying, Philip. 2. Cum meta & tremore vestram salutem operamini. Work your Salvation with fear and trembling. I hear S. August. upon the 40. Psal. saying, Scia quod justitia Dei mei maneat, verum an justitia mea maneat an non, ignoro, terret me enim Apostolus inquiens. Qui existimat se stare, videat ne cadat. I know that the justice of my God remains, but whether my justice do remain or not, I am ignorant. For the Apostle doth terrify me saying, he who thinks he stands, let him look to it he fall not. So S. Hierome in his 3. book upon the Prophet jeremy. Man seeth in the face, God in the heart, and that which unto us doth some times seem clean, in God's eyes is found filthy. Add hereunto the testimony of S. Ambrose in his 5. Sermon upon the 118. Psal. S. Chrysost Homil. 87. upon john. S. Gregory lib. 6. epist: 22. S. Bede in his Comment. upon the 20. cap. of the Prov. But I may not ommit to set down at large what S. Bernard that pillar of God's Church in these later Centuryes hath left written of this argument, as in many other places, so especially in his 1. Sermon de Septuagesima in these words; Who can say I am one of the Elect? I am one of those that are predestinated unto life: I am one of the children of God? Who, I say, can say this? When as the Scripture cryeth out against him. Man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love or hatred. Certainly therefore we cannot have, but yet we are comforred with the trust of hope, that we may not by anxiety of this dubitation be tormented above measure. So he. Lastly to this cloud of testimonies out of the ancient fathers, I will add the uniform consent of the modern Fathers of the Council of Trent, condemning & anathematising this certitude of Salvation Can. 15. in these words. Si quis dixerit hominem renatum & justificatum teneri ex side ad credendum se certo esse in numero praedeslinatorum Anathem asit. If any shall say a man regenerate and justified to be bound by faith to believe himself undoubtedly to be in the number of the predestinate, let him be accursed: and in the Can. following, Si quis magnum illud usque in finem perseverantiae donum se certo habiturum, absoluta & infallibili certitudine dixerit nisi hoc exspeciali revelatione didicerit) anathema sit. If any shall say, that by absolute and infallible assurance he hath that great gift of perseverance unto the end, unless he hath learned the same by special revelation, accursed be he. So the Council.  
And sure no marvel. Since this presumption of Salvation is the very food and fuel of all wickedness and impiety, the provocation and incitement to all shameless lusts and pleasures, with which the soul once possessed what further care is to be taken in matters of conscience: For say, That now I have either gotten the habit of the Franciscans upon my back, or the Scapular of the Carmelites hanging about my neck, (a most present antidote against hell and damnation) what have I henceforth to do with the commandments of God and Holy C●●rch? Why should I fear for the time to come to lose the reynes unto my unbridled passion, or to set sail which way the stream of my misplaced desires do carry me headlong? I say what cause have I further to wage war with vice, or longer to resist the sweet allurements of Evil. Yea what should hinder me to say with Solomon (having run the same courses with him) Eccles. 2. All things which my eyes have desired, I denied them not: neither did I forbid my heart to enjoy all manner of pleasures.  
These be the thoughts, these the labours of the mind, these the discourses of the understanding which do often burst out into the lips and tongues of men entangled in these intricacyes of error. And what Moses have we among us to put himself as a wall and a bulwark for the house of Israel? Who shall pacify these congregations of Abiram? Who shall consume and burn up this new fire of the sons of Aaron with a better flame? Where is Elias, or where is Micheas to reprove these false Prophets, of pleasing but perilous lies. Where is that Apostle of Christ? Who should confound these false Apostles with an Apostolical zeal? Scarce is there one Peter to be found among us to oppose himself to these Simons. Scarce one Paul to deliver up these Hymeneus and Alexander's unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. For tell me, who is there among the Clergy, at least in this our Northern Island, divided from the rest of the world, that is either willing or able to go against these Regulars, moving so irregularly out of their own proper spheres? Nay rather, who is there among us not carried headlong by these their raptand violent motions, into the aforesaid errors? If not in express terms of approbation, at least by a shut up cye, and a sealed lip, of a silent connivance? One circumvented by fraud, another detained by fear of displeasure, the third won by benefits, the most or all of us drawn to a far more penicious dissimulation than was that of Barnabas condemned by the Apostle. For albeit the Priests of the Clergy in these parts are less refractory unto Ecclesiastical discipline, yea truly far more obedient unto the laws and behests of holy Church than the Regulars, yet not much more learned I confess, and in number far inferior unto them, as may be seen in this principal City of Ireland, in which there be only six pastors, but of Regulars not much sewer than a hundred, albeit by reason of their ebbing and flowing, their frequent excursions caused by their manifold negotiations in every corner of the Kingdom, their out-gates beyond the seas, and back again returns, it is as hard to desine what number they be of, as to count how many frogs there were in the second plague of Egypt, yea to such a potency they are grown, and that in a short space in this Kingdom of Ireland, that what cause soever they take in hand, be it just or injust, Ecclesiastical or Temporal, they will, nay they must be Conquerors; so united among themselves, so backed with powerful friendships, so animated with foreign correspondencyes, not to speak of ordinary consanguinityes and affinityes, foster-ships, and gossip-fhips, so entailed not only to the Commons, but unto the greatest Families, by taking in of Youths into their Convents, May des into their Cloisters, furnishing Merchants with custom, purchasers with monies upon mortgages & rend charges, absolurely ruling in all matters of Contracts and matrimonial causes, managing the assay res of rich Widows, but seldom (I confess) helping them to husbands. 
* For so they might be debarred from Estates, Legacies, and Executorships  At the pillow of every rich man, especially when he is about to make his Will, serving in that business both for ghostly Fathers, Council, and Clerk, by reason of which employments, & what else may either be honourable or profitable unto them, they are ascended unto that height of authority, that if they should tell us, the crows were white, and the swans black. (though we could not believe them) yet should we not dare to gainsay them, or to contest with them.  
For as it is the nature of plenty to beget prosperity, and this, pride, so our Regulars at this day are arrived at such an unmeasurable greatness, through plenty and popular estimation, as they are not only a terror unto the inferior Pastors of God's Church, but even unto Bishops and Cardinals. Nor will I except thee O Pope Vrbanus! who not once (as we are credibly informed from the city) hast complained of their insupportable pride and insolences, saying to such as complained of their injuries: I marvel not that they wrong you, for they wrong myself. And as these Regulars are awful unto the Clergy, so no less fearful are they unto the Laity, who therefore yield them such attribution, as either they hope their friendship to be an advantage unto them in the prosecution of their ends, or they providently foresee how much the malice of a powerful enemy may be prejudicial unto them in the same kind. So as be who thou wilt, friend or foe, the Friar will benefit himself by thee. If thou be his friend and well-willer; he gains by ●hy. love. If his adversary, than also for fear of displeasure and offence, like unto those Lawyers whom Cassiodorus upon the 73. Psal. saith, Apud causidicos etiam ipsum silentium venale est, ac lingua corum damnifica nisi funibus argenteis ligetur. With Layers their very silence is vendible, & their ongues are harmful unless they be tied with silver chains. But truly as in the natural body, when any one part or member groweth into an exorbitant bignesfe beyond due symmetry and proportion, the rest of the members become sick and feeble, & the whole body 〈…〉 in the Ec●l●sihft●call or Politic. Sody may instant with the safety thereof to permit so great a party, and so intrinsical a faction as are our Regulars in Ireland, to swell to such a bulk, as exceeding the bonds of due proportion, they draw unto their selves the humours of the fest of the body to the destruction of the whole.  
Neither in writing these things most holy Father, is my meaning other, than was the soup of that thrice renowned Archbishop of Armagh, & Primate of all Ireland, commonly called by Writers, Armachanus; by the Inhabitants of this Country, S. Richard of Dundalke, in his oration at Avinion, made before Pope Innocentius Sci his Cardinals in these words: Pater sanctissime etc. Most holy Father, in the beginning of my Speech I do protest that I do not intend to aver, or rashly affirm any thing which may be contrary unto the Christian Faith, or Catholieke doctrine; & that my meaning is not to press or persuade the destruction of the Mendicant Orders approved by holy Church & confirmed by the See Apostolic, but rather to persuade, that they may be reduced & brought ●acke again unto the purity of then first institution; always minded to submit myself unto the censure of your Holiness. So Armachanus.  
And so Imindefull of my duty & obforvance unto the thayre of sl●●●●, am bold to speak ●nnco my: Lord of such affay es us may conc●●●● the w●ll●●áre) of souls, & the good of this Church of Ireland, in which I now have almost lived for the space of these ●●●my years! And the rather I hold myself bound so to 〈◊〉, fo●●●at ●●mnot ignorant, but know right we blow your How living among so many protectors of R 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dear, so muny Generals, so many Patrons, pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c agents for them; scarce shall you hear a word of sincere truth, without many glosses & Commentaries of most corrupt additions; yea & for one verity, a mass of forged & devised fables, especially from these remote Regions, & as you call them in Rome Tramontane Provinces. Yea such is the misery & calamity of Princes & great Personages, as well Ecclesiastical, as Politic, that seldom by the care do they conceive that birth which with all their hearts they desire not to be vital & long-lived, that is, seldom hearing what they would not hear. Such multitudes there are of parasites & flatterers, who suggest unto their senses nothing but what is rare, glorious, & above measure grateful, who for to please, they hold it but little inferior to immortality.  
Nevertheless such hath been my breeding and education from mine infancy, which together with my years hath grown up with me, and is now confirmed in more than a declining age, that I rather desire to live poor with the Philosopher, and feed on coleworts in this my tub, then to act the flatterer with Aristippus, and surfeit on pleasures in the Court of Alexander. And forsomuch as now for many years we have had your Ho. amost vigilant pastor, & a lover of truth. I held it not so much to concern myself, as the whole Church of Ireland, to intimate these no small or trivial matters unto you. For as it is our parts to open, if not the imperfections & smaller excesses of our brethren, (which, charity would rather have concealed, then revealed) yet certes so soul, so into be rabble, so manifest adulterations of our holy faith, we can not, we ought not, woe dare not smother, which happily if we should, the very stones would cry & roar them out in your ears. So doubtless to you holy Father it belongs to apply wholesome remedies to these diseases, to pour wine and oil into these wounds, to assuage the tempest of these raging Seas, to chastise with your pastoral staff these butting rams, which lead the following flock astray unto hurtful and uncouth pastures, orif they contemn to hear your voice, to cut them off from the rest of the fold, by the Ecclesiastical Sword of your censures, that the good be not infected by the fellowship of the bad, the sound by the diseased.  
These things are expected by the Church of Ireland from so great a Pastor, by him to be governed, to be cherished, to be defended, to be enlarged. And so the Prince of Pastors to his Vicar and to his flock on earth be ever propitious, whose power over him and his writings is willingly acknowledged by  
PAUL HARRIS.   

A FAMILIAR DISPUTATION WITH THE FRIARS, PROPOUNDED BY THE AUTHOR  

CAP. I.  
AND thus gentle Friars, having (as you see) made my moan to Pope Vrbanus 8 of your false and seditious doctrines, the pillars of your pride and ambition, and no small revenue unto your Garnells, Cellars, and Kinchins'. Give me leave to ventilat and dispute the aforesaid case of the Habis, Scaputar, and Fast, a little more familiarly with yourselves as my equals. The end and butt I shoot at (if God so bless my endeavours) is to undeceive such poor souls among us, as hitherto have been inveigled and besotted with these your dreams and pleasant fantasies: since it is my part no less to confute orror, then to teach true doctrine, and to discover: such false: apostles, as seek to transtorme themselves into the Apostles of Christ. And albeit some happily will hold it a labour needless, to oppose these senseless tenants, which like unto ill plastred walls, threatening their owner nine, dan not long subsist: yet others, (and peradventure with more reason) will also judge my endeavours bootless, and to no purpose, for that in most men's opinions, these: doctrines are so fastened, or rather (as I may say) so riveted, and wedged into the heads and hearts of the people, as it may rather become the labour of the Apostie, than any other Paul to dissolve, and to remove the same, according to that of divine Petrarch, alte radicates errores nonfacile est extirpare. De vi●sol. lib. 1. Errors deeply rooted, are not easily pulled up. Forsomuch then as these supernatural prerogatives ascribed unto the Hubit, Seapular, and Donna Luissa her fast, are all of them built upon visions and revelations, and we are taught by the holy Ghost from the mouth of the Apostle, 2. Cor. 11. That Satan can transfigure himself into an Angel of light, and therefore are admonished by the same Apostle not to be circumvented by him, whose operation consisteth in all power and lying signs and wonders, and in all sedmong of Iniquity. I demand then of you O Regulars, and especially of you Grey Friars and Carmelites, how you come to know, that forsomuch as S. Fraugis, and S. Simon Stec, might as well as many other Saints have been deluded, and abused by Satan in this kind: that not withstanding these revelations of theirs, were heavenly and divine, and for such, to be taken and believed, and not rather illusions of that enemy of mankind, Cui mille sunt nomina, & will nocendi arts, Who hath a thousand names and means of deceiving. For say, that S. Francis, and S. Simon Stec be canonised Saints, yet not all that is written by them, or of them is canonised truths. And therefore as wicked men and women in the Scriptures have been honoured with divine visions, and revelations, as Balaam, Pharaoh, Saul, Nebuch aduczar, Pelats wife, and the Sibyls, so have many of God's servants been deceived by strong illusions to believe lies. Examples whereof we have store as well in the Dialogues of S. Gregory written above a thousand years ago, as in that more ancient legend of the holy men and Eremites of Palestina, Egypt, and The●ais, written by Palladius within the first four hundred years after Christ, to omit infinite others in histories of later times. Nay S. Francis himself seems not to have been privileged in this kind, I say, from being abused with false revelations. For as we read in the Chronicle of the Friar Minors: He having under him a Vicar general whose name was Helias. It was revealed unto him by Almighty God, that the aforesaid Friar should both dye out of the Order, and be damned, in respect whereof the holy Faaher S. Francis did ever after so dis affect the aforesaid Friar, that he could not endure to behold him. Yet not many linesafter in the very same sap. it is reported how the same S. Francis had a revelation from heaven, that the aforesaid Friar Helias should do penance for his sins, and not be damned at all. This shall you read in the Chronicle of the Friar Minors, tom. 1. cap. 118. And such as will take pains to peruse S. Brigids' revelations, & conserre them with our legends of Saints lives, shall find innumerable examples of like kind. One Saint having a revelation directly contrary to what hath been revealed unto another. Notwithstanding that there is but one God, one truth. And we may be enduced or rather enforced to believe, that these revelations, visions, and apparitions of S. Francis, and Simon Stoc (if any such were) were mere satanical illusions, & no divine revelations, for that they promise that certitude and assurance of salvation in this life, which is repugnant to sacred Writ, the uniform consent of the Primitive Fathers, the uniform consent of General Counsels, and the belief both of our holy Mother the Church, and all her obedient children even unto these times, as I have abundantly proved in my Epistle to Pope Vrbanns, and not necessary here to be repeated again. And therefore I will conclude this first point with that of the Apostle, Golat. 1. That if an Angel from heaven shall come and preach unto us contrary to what we have received, Anathema sir.  
But yet to give scope to a more full and ample discourse of this Argument, let us admit for the present that S. Francis, and Simon Stoc had received by divine revelation: That whosoever shall dye in the habit of the one, and the scapular of the other, should undoubtedly be saved, (for it may not be denied but such certitude may be had by divine revelation) Examples we have of the Scriptures of the two glorious Apostles, S. Peter & S. Paul, of S. Mary Magdalen, & some others, for the arm of our Lord is not shortened, nor his power abridged. Yet (say I) conformable to the doctrine of holy Church (as afterward shall be proved) that this can be no assurance, or security unto others, who are not partakers of the said visions, and revelations to believe that doctrine; because what is of divine authority unto one, is but of humane and sallible authority unto another. For say that Peter knoweth a thing to come by certain & divine revelation, yet the same shall be to Patrick but only a humane relation, received from the lips of Peter a mortal man, subject to error and mistaking, to deceive, and to be deceived, and being but in via, & none in termine, peccable in thought, word and deed: and therefore we see the Church (whose wisdom is from the holy Ghost) never to canonize any person, though reputed never so holy, while they are in the flesh, and till such time as their sanctity be attested by signs, and wonders from heaven. As then S. Francis before his conversion was of life & conversation like unto others of his rank, & quality, & not much scrupulous of the offence of God, till he came unto the age of twenty five, as may appear both by the first words of his Testament. Quia cum essem in peccatis etc. as also by his life written by Bonaveniure. So albeit I confess the a d and better part of his life, after his conversion, & dedicating himself unto the service of God, was as a thread more evenly ipun, than the former, yet not altogether without some knotes, as may be known by his own confession, when on a time so journing in the palace of the Cardinal De S ta Cruse and in the nighttime being beaten of the Devils, he repaired in the morning to the presence of the aforesaid Cardinal, to whom he related what he had endured, and then added, Men that know me not, repute me as a Saint, but behold how the devils who know me well, do handle and chastise me for my sins. So he. Chron, fras, minor, toni, ay, cap. 13. Out of all which I do infer, that a vision, or reuclation is not therefore authentical, or to be believed, because such a person, who after ●is death was canonised for a Saint, did in his life-time avouch the same, either by word, or writing, because it is necessary for my p●ucent assent unto such visions or revelations, that the same be canonised for supernatural & infallible truths, which cannot be but by authority of holy Church, which hath canonised for certain and infallible verities, no other men's works, sayings, or writings, than those of the Prophets and Apostles, as that Angelical Doctor S. Thomas hath in these words, Innititur fide: nostra rev Lationi Apostolis & prophetis factae qui canoric●s linos scripserunt, non autem revelationi si qua fuit aliis doctoribus facta, 1 2 q. 1.8. 2d. 2 dum. Our faith is grounded upon revelation made unto the Apostles, and Prophets, who wrote the canonical books, not to revelation (if any such was made) to other Doctors. For which doctrine he cities also S. Aug. in his Epistle unto S. Hierom Epist. 14. in these words: Solis enim scripturarum libris qui canonici appellaneny, didici hune honorem defer, ●t unllum autherum corum in scribendo errasse aliquid firmissime credam. Alios autem it a lego ut quantalibet fanctitato, doctrinaque prepolleant. non ideo verum putem, quod ipsi it a senserunt vel scripserunt. Only to the books of Scripture, which are called canonical, I have learned to give that honour, that I most firmly believe, that none of the Authors thereof have erred in writing, but other writers I so read (that with how great sanctity, or learning so ever they do excel,) I do not therefore believe a thing to be true, because they have so judged, or so written. So S. Aug.  
Now future glory in Heaven being a supernatural object, cannot by humane knowledge or moral certitude be assured unto us, but either not all, or by divine faith, which though not clear and evident, yet excelleth in certitude and infallibility all scientifical knowledge whatsoever. And this I say to answer those who happily in defence of their errors, in the aforesaid revelations, will say, that albeit indeed they be not to be believed by a divine and a supernatural faith, yet may they be certain unto us, exáio tapite, that is, from some other topical argument, which in truth is as much, as if they said nothing, preaching an infallibility of the aforesaid visions, and revelations, then brought unto cheir justification, they answer us with nothing but historical legends (and I pray God not rather fabulous) and mere humane possibilityes. When the poor soul in the mean time trusting unto habits and scapulats, as Oracles of truth, & rocks of a sure foundation, at the evening and perclose of life, finds itself irreparably deceived, & in puncto descondit in infernum: in a moment for misbelief siukes down to hell, whence neither the habit of S. Francis, nor the scapular of the Carmelites, nor the saturday fast of Dame Luissa shall be able to fetch it our. And because that Dives can not obtain of Abraham that one should come from the dead & signify unto his brethren what entertainment these habit & scapular wearers, finde in the next world; Our Friars do the less regard what Moses & the Prophets, what the Apostles, Fathers, and General Counsels teach, for not being convicted of their errors by experimental knowledge of the dead, they less reck on of any other proof, demonstration, or argument, which not withstanding we will not spare further to urge against them, or whatsoever else may confer to the demolition of this so desp●rat an error, possessing the last act of man's life, and making the same most tragical. For as it is truly said, Quoth in bello non bis peceatur, A man shall never offend the second time in war, and why? because by c●●ath the second error is prevented. So with much more reason, yea with ruth and compassion may it be said of a Christian dying in mi● belief of a matter of such consequence, as concerns his eternal woe or welfare, non bis peceatur. He cannot twice offend. An error concluded in death 1● singular, is solitary, and unaccompanyed, no reparation by repentance to be hoped for, the door of life being also the door of mercy, which once shut is never more to be opened.  
Marvel not (good Reader) that I labour in confronting so horrid a doctrine: for if by all my endeavours I draw but one soul by the ears out of this sink and pit of error, it shall well become my profession, & the disciple of him who sought the stray sheep, and finding it. brought it home into the fold upon his shoulders, or at least I shall avoude that censure of S. Bernard, saying, Cadit asinno, & invenit qui sublevet: sadit anima, & non est qui man 'em apponat: The ass falls into the ditch, and there is one ready to pull him out: the soul falls, and there is none to put to his helping hand. Bernard super Cantica.  
The absurdity then of this doctrine of the habit and scapular (besides what hitherto hath been said) may in this also appear. That if they perform what they promise, and what their revelations do import. That is certitude and assurance in this life of glory, & salvation in the next, they surpass in esticacy all the Sacraments of the Church, what soever have been or dayned by divine authority, and practised by Christians since the Primitive times, until the second coming of Christ. For the Sacraments of the New Testament by our Saviour's institution, do only confer grace & predent justification, (having all their virtue, & e●ticacy from the merit of his passion) ex opere operato, & non ponenti obicem, only as instrumental causes conferred on such partakers of them, as through their indisposition either of misbellefe or complacency in sin, do put no impediment or bar unto their spiritual and supernatural operation. They who desire to see the proofs of this doctrine, from Scriptures, from Counsels, the Greek and Latin Fathers, & the Schoolmen, I remit them among many others, unto the second tome of Tho-Waldensis, or William Lindanus his Panopli●, or The. Stapleton his Doctrinalia, or Cardinal Bellarmine de sacramentis lib. 2. cap. 3.5. etc.  
Now then (say I) albeit this be very much that our Saviour hath done for us in the Institution of the Sacramonts', yet far more hath S. Francis & Sirnon Stoc done for us by the habit & scapular, because he who this day is cleansed from his sins, & justified by the virtue & divine operation of the Sacraments, may after again fall into the like, or more grievous sins, & for the fame be damned, as of the, contrary: he who at this time abuseth the Sacraments by reason of the indispositions above mentioned, may afterwards be penitent for the same, and by the comfort and help of them attain his salvation, as may clearly appear by the Apostles doctrine and admonition unto the Corinthians as touching the use and abuse of the Eucharist, 1. Cor. 11. Now I say that by our Friar's doctrine, the habit & the scapular are far more effectual unto salvation, than any one of the 7. Sacraments, or all of them put together. can be. For whether the habit & the scapular work in the nature of the Sacraments, by couferring the first or second grace ex opere operato, they do over and beside confer the grace of perseverance, & the perfection of all grace, which is glory. And this neither the baptised, nor the conformed, nor the houselled, nor the ordered, nor the penitent, nor the married, nor the anointed can promise unto themselves, by which it is manifest; that in these men's doctrines the Babis & the scapular infinitely excel all the virtue of the Sacraments, and so accordingly to be held & estermed, as indeed in many men's eyes and opinions at this day they are.  
But now happily these patrons of the habit & scapular pressed, or rather oppressed with the weight of these arguments, and being ashamed to ascribe the divine work● of the Sacraments unto shadows of no greater authority, or antiquity, than the visions of S. Francis, & S. Simon Sto● will happily tell us by way of a qualification of these their absurd assertions. That the habit & the scapular do indeed resemble the Sacraments: But how? only so far forth as they are signs of future beatitude in the next world, without having any virtue or efficacy of effecting what they do signify. For whereas the 7. Sacraments of the Catholic Church are indeed signs, yet not base, & naked, but withal operative, that is as secondary & instrumental causes working that grace which they signify, and signifying that grace which they work. The habit & the scapular (will these men say) are signs of another kind only foreshowing & signifying beforehand that happiness & glory which shall befall all such as shallbe found in the hour of death invested with them, albeit they no way concur to the production of the aforesaid glory, either by supernatural, physical, or moral influx. And of this kind of signs, we have examples in the Scriptures not a few.  
Such was the Rain bow Genes. 9 placed by Almighty God in the clouds after the Flood, for a sign unto Noah and all mankind, that he would never more destroy the world by water, albeit the Rainbow was no cause of any such effect at all.  
Such was the Fleece of Gideon both wet and dry. judg. 6. a sign unto him from God, that the Madianites & Amalekites should be conquered by his hand.  
Such was the Sun 4. Reg. 20. going back ten degrees in the dial of King Ez●chias a sign given unto him by the Prophet Elias, that he should recover of his infirmity.  
And to omit many other signs like unto these, of which the Scriptures are plentiful, such was that sign of victor that appeared unto Constantin the Great, being to encounter with Maxentius the tyrant when in the sky he saw a most bright Cross with this circumscription, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. In this overcome. Euseb. lib. 1. de vita Constant. Albeit not that sign of the Cross, which appeared unto Constantin, but he in whose hands all victories are, seconded by humane means, was the cause of gaining that battle.  
And so indeed it is said of the divine scapular in that sayned revelation of Simon Stec, Ecec signum salutis, salus in periculis, foedus pacis, & pacts sempiterni: Behold the sign of salvation, safety in dangers, a league of peace, and of an everlasting covenant. Say then, that we admit of this qualification of theirs, and take it for granted, that the habit & scapular be but bare signs only significative & not operative, and only of the nature of those four signs last mentioned. Yet must we needs confess them to be signs of far more excellency, & of a greater importment, in respect of their supernatural object, which is glory, I mean then either the Rainbow in the clouds, or Gideo●s Fleece upon the sloore, or the retrograde Sun in Ezechias horologe, or Constantin his Cross with the Emblem thereof, In ●oc vince, In this overcome. For that these were but signs and pledges of temporal blessings, as security from inundations, victory in war, bodily health, and the like.  
But S. Francis legacy bequeathed unto his Friars is, that whosoever dies in their habit, shall not perish of any unhappy death.  
Simon St●● of the scapular is, That whosoever dies therein, n●nquam patietur incendium sempiternum, He shall never suffer eternal fire.  
Dame Luissa her Saturday fast is, That who so performs it, shall not end his days in mortal sin.  
These (I wis) are signs not of any worldly benefits, or temporal blessings, but of that Crown of immortality which attends all such as have been victorious in this our Christian warfare. For if the soul that better part of Man be of a divine being, and immortal as the best Philosophers have taught: and if it be of that precious esteem with God, as he is said in the Scriptures to be amator animarum, a lover of souls. And our blessed Saviour the Redeemer of souls, could say, Mar. 8. Quid enim proderit bomini? etc. What shall it boot a man to ga●ne the whole world, and to lose his own soul? And if King Ezechias was so tender of his corporal health, as he desired that the same should be confirmed unto him by a sign from Heaven, which was a pledge far more lief and dear unto him than was that plastet of figs applied unto his sore, a secon●lary cause of his health. No marvel then though a poor sinner should prise a sign from Heaven, an assured pledge of eternal salvation, before all other treasure upon earth, yea before all other helps and means conducing thereunto.  
Alas then, if it be true that these men tell us, Why was not S. Francis, and Simon Stoe no sooner with us? Why did poors sinners miss these so precious signs and pledges of their salvation for a thousand & two years since Christ? Or why since there have been habits & scapulars from the days of S. Basil, & S. Augustine, & S. Benedict, that none of them had that divine influence, or signification as the grey habit of the Minors, & the two square patches ex quolibet panno of the Car●●clites, the former not five hundred years old, and the later not so much. But not to lament the times of greater antiquity. Alas, & well away. Where was this blessed habit & scapular the day wherein S. Bernard died, in which it is reported that of 30 thousand persons, who then departed this life, only S. Bernard & two more were saved, for so S. Vincentius the Dominican informeth us in his 6. sermon de Septuag. fró a vision made unto an holy Ermite, sometime Deane of Langres in France, as also Martinus Polonus in his promptuary of examples, cap. 18. Or after that time again, and within the date of these so mystical weeder, where were these helps & divine comforts so far transcending all sacraments, and sacramentals, when as in the year of grace, 1343. a holy Ermite saw in a vision the souls of men & women falling as fast into hell as ever snow came down from the clouds, and only three to mount up to Heaven, namely the soul of a Bishop & of a Charter-house Monk, and of a Roman Widow. This shall you read lib. de ●rt● Carthusiensi in the time of Innocentius the sixth of that name, Surely it seems that either in those days there wanted Preachers to publish these miraculous graces of the habit and scapular, or people to believe them. Or else we must say, that the shops wanted frises & woollen cloth to make them of. Or Tailors to cut them out, which for my part I will as soon believe, as the woods of Arden in Germany to want thiefs & Freebooters, or the Gardens of Egypt to want Leeks & Onions, which some of the Egyptians worshipped as their gods, as may appear by that verse of Invenal. Sat. 15.  
Porrum & cepe nefas violare, ac frangere morsu:  
O sanctas gentes, quibus bac nascuntur in hor tis  
Numina.  
To chaw an Onion or a Leek is held a foul offence: O holy people whose gods do grow, but wot you whence? Their gardens.  
And I pray God, That many among us, who would be esteemed very good & perfect Christians, yield not more honour unto the creatures (albeit they make them not their gods) than they ought, or may stand with the integrity of our holy faith.  
But to return to our Argument: (For I purpose to leave no reason pro, or contra indiscussed, which may serve to discover the vanity of these aforesaid Revelations, with which so many souls both have been, and are at this day abused.) And first for that Legacy of S. Francis, grounded upon a vision, or Revelation. That whosoever dyeth in his habit, shall never be prevented with an unhappy death. I persuade myself, besides what already hath been said, that it is a mere fiction & an lmposture of his Friars of later times, untruly fathered upon the Saint, for the maintenance of their bellies.  
And first it is held as most probable, That S. Francis had no certain or particular habit at all, either of this or that cloth, or colour: but only course and of small price, such as might best sort with poverty, & penance, as may appear by his rule cap. 2. in these words, Fratres omnes vestimentis vilibus induantur, & possint eis repeciare de saccis & aliis pecijs cum benedictione Dei. Let all the Friars be clad with course clothing, & they may patch them with sackcloth, & other patches on God's blessing. And this which our Friars do hold to be a precept of the rule, or equipollent to a precept, may seem to be confirmed by the practice of the Order, for see we not the Capuchins to wear a distinct habit from the Cordeliers, agreeing in nothing but only in colour? The Capuchin having a large frise coat to the foot, with a piece of course canvas square, one half yard upon the back, girded unto him with a rude massy rope, with a great knot before, & unto this coat sowed a steepled hood, or ca puch, from whence they have the name of Capuchins, of well-near two foot long, from the basis to the conus, & over this coat they have a cloak of the same frise, coming little below the waste.  
When as the Cordelier professing the same Order of S. Francis, & the same rule, hath a coat of much better frise, without that square canvas on the back, with a hood or a capuch not steepled at all, but round, & fitted unto his head, a girdle of a cord, from whence he hath his name of Cordilier, the same handsomely wrought with many artificial knots, orderly placed by equal distances, a sleeve, O heavenly wide, which besides the arm will well contain a couple of Cheeses quartered, or a Gammon of bacon apiece, or as many Puddings as would well near serve a whole Convent of Friars for their breakfast, & over all this they have a cloak of the same frise descending almost unto the foot. Observe then how different these habits be, & yet those Franciscans again which are of the reformation of S. Diego, they have a distinct habit both from the Capuchin & Cordelier. Sith then each of these deny the other to have the habit of S. Francis, I then demand of our Friars, which of these habits? or is it all of them that hath the blessing, that whosoever dies in them shall never be prevented with an unhappy death? But what was the true habit of S. Francis, or which of the reformations have got it, I make account they will agree upon it when my fingers grow all of one length, & then happily myself will be as credulous as others to believe them.  
Now again it is to be observed, That this revelation of the habit is not to be found in the life of S. Francis at all, notwithstanding his life was written by many & most of them of his own family & order, as first & soon after his death by S. Bonaventure, neither is it in the Bull of his canonisation of Pope Greg. 9 nor yet in the Roman Breviary or any other Legend of later time, either of Lippolo, or Lippomannus, or Villiegas, or last of all by Friar Luke Wadding, a Cordilier, living this day in Rome. In all which Legends of the aforesaid authors, matters of far less consequence (I wis) are not forgotten, & yet not word of this great benefit of the habit to be read in them.  
Besides, is it not a thing to be admired & wondered at, that S. Francis leaving such a golden legacy unto the world, that whosoever died in the habit of his order should be saved, that himself was not careful to dye in the same, as well for example unto posterity, as also to be partaker of that security of salvation with other Christians. For we read in the first tome of the Chronicle of the Priars Minors, cap. 71. That S. Francis when he perceived the hour of his death approaching, stripped himself all naked, and then cast himself upon the ground, making an exhortation to his brethren to persist constant in the love of God, & the profession of holy poverty, till such time as the Guardian (whom he obeyed) understanding the desire of the holy Father, taking presently an habit with the cord & linnea breeches, brought them unto him, saying: Father, take this habit which I lend you with the cord and breeches, that you may be buried there with to cover your nakedness. And it is there said, that S. Francis contentedly took the breeches, but not the habit, for that he desired to conform himself unto our Saviour, who died naked upon the Cross.  
Lastly, how can this aforesaid revelation of the habit stand with any truth, or probability, when as daily experience condemn ●eth the same of crrour & falsehood, & therefore more like to be some belly-invention of his disciples, apostating from the rule and discipline of their Founder, than any wise authorixed by S. Francis, who doubtless was a holy man, & who in his life-time did see, & did both condemn & lament with great grief of mind, the manifold disorders of his followers, and the prevarication of his rule, as may appear by sundry passages of the history of the Friar Minors, whosoever will take the pains to peruse the same.  
I say then, that setting aside all other reasons, sense itself & experience doth sufficiently confute & convince of most into lienable falsehood that doctrine of our Friar Minors, namely that whosoever dies vested with their habit, shall never be prevented of an unhappy death. For first if it be understood of temporal duasters, & calamities in death, these frail bodies of ours having so many windows to admit them, according to that of the Tragedian, Eripere vitam nem● non homini potest, at nemo mortem, mille ad hane aditus patent. Seneca in Hippol. Every one may deprive us of life, but none can debar us of death, which hath a thousand gates. Among which calamities attending our ends, if sudden death be reckoned for one, (as it seems by the doctrine of holy Church to be) we being taught to pray: A subitanea & improvisa morte libera nos domine: From sudden and inexpected death deliver us good Lord, What shall we say of that subtle Doctor among the Franciseans, Johaunes Duns Scotus, who being Apoplecticus, or subject to the palsy, and supposed in one of his fits to be dead, was buried alive, as appeared at the return of his absent companion, who being acquainted with the nature of his disease, caused his body to be taken up, which was found all broken & bruised with striving to recover himself from his sepulchre, whose fate is reported by Paulus I vi●● in these words: Apoplexiâ correp●us Scot us panas persolvis It a qu●dem at nimis festinato funere promortuo tumulatus, cum redeubte vita soro morbi impetum natura discuteret, frustra ad petendaw opem mi●era●il● mugitu adito pulsatoque din sepulchri lapide eliso tandem capite pe●ier●t. Scotus taken with an Apoplexy, had his punishment. so as buried for dead too hastily, when as nature too late had digested the force of his disease, and life returning, in vain desiring holp, & yielding a miserable roaring, & often beating the store of his grave, at length his head being violently bruised, he perished. So jovius. Whose fate wanted not also a Poet to express the same in verse, as followeth: 

Quod nulli hominum un quans accidit viator  
Hic Scot us jaceo semel sepultus,  
Et his mortuus: omnibus sophistis  
Argutus magis, at que captiosus.  
janus' Vitalis apud lovium.   

What chanced before to none,  
I am forced to bemoan:  
O thou that passest by,  
Lo Scotus where I lie,  
Who twice though being dead,  
Was once but buried,  
Of me some (doubt not) say,  
And sure I think they may.  
Each Sophist I outwent  
In captious argument.    
This and much more as touching the fate of Scotus may you read in Bzovius in his continuation of Cesur Baronius his Annals in the years 1494. But not to wade into any further sea of examples. Spain will tell you how many Friar Minots have been cast away by sh●pwrack in their voyages unto the Indieses, Myself in the year 1610, in the territoryes of Lerma in Cantle, with many othors (the whole town in a manner going forth to the same) beheld the murdered body of a Franciscan Friar, a stranger to that place, who was supposed to have had monies, & being robbed of them, was also slain, & his body hid among the standing corn near unto the gate of the town of Le●ma. But some peradventure will say, that sudden death is not to be numbered among unhappy, or disastrous fates at all. For so much as we read, that julius Caesar disputing of that argument the day before he was slain in the Senate-house, was of opinion, that an inexpected death was to be preferred before any other. Sueton, in julio. And a Princely writer of these times, in his exposition upon the Lord's prayer, seems not to disallow of that death which yields least trouble unto the sense. So as in these men's opinions, not a sudden, but an unprovided death is that which is to be misliked, conformable to that of Sapient 4. justus si morte praeoccupatus fu●rit, in refrigerio e●it. The just man though he be prevented by death, he shall be in a refreshing. And by their leaves, I would say, that the death which is inexpected, may well be suspected, & feared to be unprovided. And therefore (for my part) I pray God that death may knock at my door along time before he enter, still leaning unto the old Intanyes, A subitanea & improvisa morte libera nos Domine: From a sudden, & an unlooked for death, good Lord deliver us. But to leave this point to those who have more leisure to dispute it: whether a sudden death is to be numbered among miserable deaths or no?  
Let us come unto a second, wherein I demand, whether a death ins●icted by the hand of justice, may not justly be numbered among unhappy deaths. And I think none will deny it, forsomuch as Peter hath said, Nemo autem vestrum paetiatur ut homicida, aut fur, etc. Let none of you suffer as a murderere or a thief, etc. If then we find Friars of the order of S. Francis, who for their crimes & demerits have been sentenced at the bar of Tribunals, to in famous & dishonourable deaths, How then have their habits privileged them? Or where is that legacy of S. Francis, that who so dyeth in the habit of his Order, shall never be prevented with an unhappy death? If any be so curious as to inform himself in this affair. I shall not need to send him either unto the Italian Guittiardin, or to Spanish & French History, or further then unto the Annals of England, & for no larger a time then betwixt the Norman Conqueror, & King Henry 8. Where he shall find examples more than a good many, of that kind. I say of Friars of the Order of S. Francis who have been put to shameful deaths by the hand of justice. And the same neither for building of Churches, nor ministering of Sacraments.  
But some will say. That still I come short of the mark, & of what was intended, so long as I insist only in these temporal calamities that accompany the death of the body, which with how terrible a countenance soever they look upon their patients, by any misery, or casualty deprived together with their lives, of the benefit of the, Sacraments, yet we know not but ev●n in their last agony, or before continued unto their end through the abundant mercy of God they might be found penitent, & truly contrite for their fins, & so as (in that despicable & wretched a passage unto the eyes of the world) they might be able to say, Transivimus per ignem & aquam, & eduxisti nos in refrigerium. We have passed through fire & water, & thou hast brought us into a refreshing. So as still to make good that prophetical prediction fathered upon S. Francis by his Friars, such as dye in their habit, whether by death sudden, or deserved, they shall always dye happily. Since no death is to be held absolutely miserable, excepting that one which carries with it, Peccatum ad mortem. Of which the Apostle S. john. Est peccatum ad mortem, non pro illo dico ut roget quis. 1. ●oh, 5. There is a sin unto death, I say, that for it no man ask. Which sin by S. Augustine's judgement is final impenitency. I affirm (saith he). That a sin to day his to leave faith working by charity, even till death. Decorrept. & gratia, cap. 12. And the same doctrine he teacheth De civicate Deilib. 21. cap. 24. So then the last refuge of our Friars is, that setting apart ●ll other kinds of death, of which none can be defined to be absolutely miserable, such as dye in their habit shall never dye impenitent, but truly contrite for their sins, by which they sh●ll be secure from the second death, & the eternal separation from the blessed vision of God. So S. Francis his supposed revelation of the habit, & Simon Stoc of the scapular, do concur in this. In quo quis moriens, non patietur incendium sempiternum, In which whosoever dies shall never suffer eternal fire.  
As than we have hitherto proved & instanced by many exaples, that notwithstanding the habit of S. Francis, there hath not wanted such as have perished both by sudden, & infamous deaths. So now in the last place it remains (to take away all tergiversation) to manifest unto the world (which some will say is a hard tax,) That diverse Friars ending their days in the habit of S. Francis, have been subject even unto this last & worst kind of death, joined with final impenitency & obdurateness in sin, & consequently according unto the doctrine of holy Church, can no ways be held to have died happily. And albeit no man in this life may judge another man's servant, for that as the Apostle saith, he stan●s or falls unto his own Lord, to whom all judgement both of quick & dead is reserved. And that ordinarily none comes back from the next world to tell us, how they fare, according to that of job. 16. Ecte enim brevi anni transennt, & semitam per quam non revertar ambulo. Lo our years pass swiftly, & I walk the path by which I shall not return. Notwithstanding in our Writers of the Acts & Monuments of Saints. we find nothing more common, or familiar than visions or apparitions made unto the living, as touching the estare & condition of the desunct: somerev ealed to be in glory, some in Purgatory, others damned: As whosoever will peruse that large vo umt of S. Brigids' revelations, or Casarius, or Speculum exemplorum, or Capgravins, or the Chronicle of S. Francis, or any of our later legendary collectors, will witness with me. But setting all these aside, which for mine own part, as I do not wholly reject, depriving them of all credit & authority. So neither is my faith so strong, as to admit into my Creed very much of what I read of that kind. Considering that if the belly hath in all times been a great Master of Art, according to that of the Poet, Venture magister artis, ingenijque largitor: The belly is a Master of Art, & a supplyer of Invention. So above all other in the school of our Monks & Mendicants hath the same been not only a Master of Art, but even Doctor Cathedrations, A Doctor of the Chair, pablishing both by voice & writing whatsoever might be serviceable unto the Genius of the place.  
Omitting then all Visions, Revelations, & Apparitions. I hear our Saviour saying, that there is Spiritus blasphemia, there is a sin against the Holy Ghost which shall never be forgiven, I hear the voice of the same truth saying john 3. Such as believe not, are judged already. I hear the beloved Disciple saying, 1. john 5. Est peccatum ad mortem, there is a sin unto death, for which I say that none do pray. I hear S. Aug. saying De Civitate Deilib. 21. cap. 24. If there be any that persist till death in impenitency of heart, doth the Church now pray for them, that is, for the souls of them that are departed? I hear also Concilium Braccarense primum cap. 34. forbidding to pray for such as dye in desperation, or misbelief, or kill themselves. Tell me then you who pretend to be observantes, and the most strict imitators of S. Francis, what shall we say of such of your order, as have been mnrdered in flagranti delicte? you know my meaning. Of so many as have been executed for judaism by sentence of the Inquisition? especially in Spain & Portugal, of which sort in Lisboa, there was a Friar Minor in the year 1610. who was burned in his habit upon a stage, & dying obstinate in his infidelity till the last breath, cried loud & often in a lamentable, & dying voice, Deus, Deus mens, ad te de luce vigilo. O God, O my God, from the light do I wake unto thee. What say you to others of your Order, who preventing the course of nature have murdered themselves? Have you forgotten? or can you ever forget that woeful spectacle which happened in the person of 
† Excuse me that in my Arcte. mastix I called him George Barnwell,  Thomas Barnwel a Franciscan Friar, who upon S. john day in Christmas, in the year 1630, hanged himself in the Orchard of Temple Og, scarce two miles distant from the city of Dublin, upon the bough of an appletree, not only in the habit of his order, but using for that execrable service, the cord of his habit, with which he girt his loins? What voice is there then so wicked? or pen so profane as to publish these men & the like to have dved happily? No rather may they say, Quid profuit nobis habitus aut scapulare? What hath the habit or the scapular prosited us? or wherein have they helped us? for save that in our life-time they were beneficial unto cur bellies, the confidence that we had in them after death, hath deprived both our bodies of Christian burial, & our souls of the prayers & suffrages of the Church, and of all faithful people.  
Now then to conclude this Chap. with are capirulation of such argunents, as have been alleged in the precedent discourse, against the doctrine of certainty of salvation by Habits, Scapulars, & the Luissian fast. First then (gentle reader) thou hast scene the same refuted à priore from authority of the Church, Scriptures, Counsels, & Fathers. Secondly à posteriore thou hast beheld the absurdity & falsity thereof laid open before thee ad oculum, by very sense & experience in all such kinds, sorts, & varieties of death as by Christians in all times have been held miserable, unhappy & ignominious: of all which, Friars in their Habits have been sensible, & sufferers. And therefore that doctrine of theirs must needs remain void of all truth. That whosoever dies in their habit, shall never be prevented with an unhappy death.  
And yet these be our Apostles, & Missionaryes sent from Rome to convert Nations, and to reduce them to the Catholic faith. Such Apostles & Preachers, as doubtless shall never turn any, unless it be fools into mad men. Truly Friar Missionaryes, if these be the signs of your Apostleship, & this the Gospel you preach, sooner shall you catch a Hare with a Tabor, then convert a Protestant into a Roman Catholic. If among the savage Indieses you preach these doctrines, I know not what credulity you may purchase: but if in these parts you seek to gain souls, & to bring such as are astray into the right way, doubt less it must be by other doctrines, than Habits and Scapulars.  Non obtusa adoo gestamus corda Britanni. 
We Britan's live not in so gross anayre, though much unto the North, but that we can discern of colours, who preacheth Christ, & who themselves: and if the former had been till this day, as well applied as the latter, happily that lapis scandali, that rock of offence, at which so many have stumbled, had been before this time removed. You Mendicants enter here among us, with specious & glorious titles of Legantine, & Missionary power. You tell us, you are sent to labour in the Vineyard, to work in the harvest, but what says the Protestant? when he sees all you labour is but to eat the grapes, & to cull out the best sheaves, when they find all your preaching turned into begging, or at least there unto tending. Marry (say they) These be those who preach themselves, and not Christ jesus. And say they not truly? You tell us you are sent from Rome to assist the Priests and the Pastors ingoverning and feeding of their flocks, but verily in all parts of this Kingdom, it is well understood what slockes you look after. O how well it becomes the Francisean & the Dominican, after they have shamed the poor people on a Sunday morning out of their means, the week after to gadd through the Parishes, & to gather in their muttons, and heard them together.  
Compulerantque greges Coridon & Thirsis in unum. and after to expose them to sale one with another at 12. pence the head, in every Barony of this Kingdom. Gentlemen expecting when the Friars sheep pass by, or where they keep the market, hoping what they got so easily, they will not rate too highly. And as dextrous as they be in bringing home the strayed sheep, so no less diligent are they in seeking the lost groat. It is a laudable custom of the Church commanded by express Canons, that all Christians should communicate at least once a year, & the same at Easter at the hands of their own Pastor, & this is called the Paschall Communion, at which time as by the precept of holy Church, all that are come to the years of discretion do participate the blessed body & blood of our Saviour in the holy Eucharist, so commonly doth every one according to their devotion & ability, make their offering: which offering the good people in this Country commonly lay down upon the Altar, & it is indeed the chief maintenance that the Pastor hath for all the year after. But think you this poor groat can escape the Friars gripe No, for now the holy week approaching, the Friar Limitour beftirs himself, & the week commonly before, & after Easter, he visits all the Parishes of his limits, & he either addresses himself unto the Oratory of the Parish Priest, or else himself makes a Rande●●us in some principal part of the Parish, where he says Mass, hears confessions, receives all he can procure to make the Paschal Communion with him, having all the year before prepared and persuaded the people, that by reason of their Indults & privileges from Rome, they shall as well satisfy the precept of the Church in communicating with him, as at the hands of the I'astor. Neither dare the Parish Priest contest with him, for the Friar is not unprovided of his friends, who will make good all his pretensions, so as if the Priest give but the least opposition, he shall not only not prevail, but he shall have the frown of the best of his Parish happily all the year after. And thus the groat lost by the Priest, is found by the Friar, & where was it all this while, but upon the Altar, close by the Candlestick. This is that good assistance, & this the help which the Parish Priest at Easter gets by the Friar's industry, who having found the groat, returns home, & there rejoyeeth with his fellows, who in other Parishes have done the like service, putting the surplus of their gettings into the hands of their syndieus or Treasurer (of which every Convent hath one) and I pray God such Treasures be reserved for good purposes.   

CAP. II. The Author's Apology, and a defence of his Writings.  
BUT now I wot well what our Mendicants with all their faction both in private & public speeches, will thunder out against me. Is it well done for a Catholic man to discover the faults of Church men? A Priest of his brethren? Were it not better that these enormities were covered with Constantius his purple robe, themto be ascan dal & a byword unto so many Atheists, & misbelieving Sectaryes as these times do yield ●o Did not the Prophet David when he heard of the overthrow of Saul & lonathar, & their slaughter upon the mountains of Gilbon, cry out with great lamentation, Nolite enunciare in Gath, neque annuncietia in compitis Ascalon, 〈◊〉 fortè latentu filin Philistin, n● exulten●ili● incircumci sorum, O pisblish it not in Gath, nor preach it in the streets of Ascalon, left peradventure the daughters of the Philistines doerejoyce, and the daughters of the incircumcised triumph.  
To all which & what else they can say against these my proceedings, I answer with S. Gragary, Melius hast ut scandalum, or●●tur, quam ●t veritas relinquatur. Better it is that scandal should arise, than that truth should be forsaken. And is it possible (say I) to refixe error, & not to name it? to reprove vice, & not to tell what colour it is of? Have I done otherwise in these my proceedings, than the Prophets of God, who opposed themselves unto such Prophets, as for a piece of bread would prophesy pleasing things in the cares of the people? Or then the Apostles of our Saviour, who both by word & writing did confound the false Apostles, who entered in among them to corrupt the truth, & to adulterate the Gospel of the Kingdom? And hath not this been the practice of the Pastors of God's Church in all times? Did not S. Athanasius, S. Hilary, & S. Aug. most bitterly inveigh against the Arian Heretics? S. Hierom against lovintan & Vigilantius? S. Beruard against Abaylardus? Nay, not against false teachers only, but against vicious, & corrupt livers also, have the aforesaid Fathers lanced out into the depth of most sharp reprehensions, not sparing the vices either of Church, or Laymen, of their days? And why should I in a like cause be fearful to imitate so great examples? to rebuke such false Prophets as sacrifice not unto the Creator, & his providence, but unto their own fishing-nets, lines, & hooks, the fancies & inventions of their own brains? To oppose such as call themselves Apostles & are not, but are found liars? And why should I more fear the face, and frowns of a Friar, then S. Antony of Padna, a principal Preacher among the Friar Minor? or S. Bondventure some time general of their order, than S. Francis himselso in stitutor of the same Order?  
Of whom the first hath these words. Heu quant ● scissura, etc. Alas, how great divisions, how great schisms, how great dissensions are there in Religion! & truly where these be, there is nothing but contention in the Chapterhouse, dissoluteness in the Choir, murmuration in the Oloyster, & wantonnossein the Dormitary. So Antony de Milan in his Sermon upon Sexagesima Sunday.  
S. Bonaventure. Cùmsecundùm patres laudantur wonachis in casollis, etc. When as, according to the Fathers. The Monks are praised to have dwelled in cotts, & poor habitations, What is the matter now, that you build high & stately, houses, sumptuous Monasteryes, you purchase large & spacious Courts. When as being poor & beggars you ought to be contemners of all worldly things. So S. Bonaventure q. 6.  
S. Francis was so far out of love with his own Friars, as seeing them in his own days no less a bound in wickedness, then in number, he left off to be thein general Minister, gave them over (as his words are) to the devils to be their tormentors both in this world, & in the other for the prevatication of that rule he instituted, & the transgression of the vows of their profession All which & much more to the same purpose shall you read in the 1. Tom of the Chronicle of the Friar Minors, the last Chap.  
What shall 1 say of johannes Lanspergius, the Carthusian Monk, who in a certain Sermon which he preached unto the Congregation of Friars, relating the miserable condition of Regulars, he utrereth such things as are hardly to be beloeved that a Catholic man would publish. I will report his words as they lie, and they be these: Perijt religio, perijt reguluris bon●s, parumque abest hodie apud nonnullos, ut monachum non recenseant inter Christiants. Religion is perished, Regular honour is perished, & many are not far from accounting a Monk searce among Christian men. So Lanspergius. & not many lines after: Non absque gemitu lo quendum hast, etc. It is not to be spoken without grief, & with the licence of you & all good men. So great hath been, & is at this day the coldness of the most in religious Orders, so great their dissoluteness, so great their discord, so great their faction, & to be short, such self love, & so little mortification of their evil passions, that it hath obscured the very name of all good men; for if you look into their lives, setting aside certain exterior signs & badges of religion in their habits, nothing may you find or hear in them, wherein they go beyond worldings, What marvayle then is it, if ou Lord hath given us up to an hiss, to a mock, a wonderment & laughingstock to all Nations? I say what marvel is it if we be accounted inforiour both in name, & estimation to men of the world, since what Monk is there who goes beyond them either in devotion, piety, or moral honesty. So Lanspergius with much more to that purpose in the place above alleged.  
Laurentius justinianus sometime a Canon Regular, afterward Patrick of Venise, De Obedientiacap. 19 Saint mute● oenobia● & utinam non numer osior pars) que non sanctor 'em habitacula, sed latronum dicenda su●● spelunce, spectacula demonum, & officine vitiorum. There be many Convents, & I would to God not the greater part, that are not to be called the habitation of Saints, but the denns of thiefs, the haunt of devils, and the shops of vices.  
S. Brigid (not the Virgin of Ireland, but the widow of Swedland, lib. 4. Revel, cap.) much lamenteth the deformation of Religion in her time, I am tristitia est, religiosorum Regulas setnore mutatas in detestabiles abusiones, & minime teneri sient Aug. Dominicus, & Franciscus ex inspiratione spiritus sancti dictaverunt. It is a heaviness to behold the rules of religious to be changed into detestable abuses, & not to be observed as S. Aug. Dominick and Francis have by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost stayed them down. The same S. Brigid condemning the avarice of Regulars, bringeth in our Saviour detesting the same in these words: Recepetunt decem mandata mea, & composucrunt in hos unum verbum: Quid est hoc anum verbum? Porridge mann●, & a● pecuni●m. I●o nunquam sitiantur do obtentis. They have received ten commandments from me, & they have reduced them all into one word, & what is that one word? Forsooth stretch forth thy hand, and give money, yea they are never satisfied with what they get. So S. Brigid.  
And Thomas Walsingham a Monk of S. Benet's order, and of the abbey of S. Albon, setting forth the condition of the Friar Mendicants in his time, a most pious, & a learned Author, hath these words: The begging Friars unmindful of their profession, have forgot to what end their orders were instituted, because their Lawgivers, & Founders (most holy men) would therefore have them poor, & altogether free from the possession of temporal things, that they might have no impediment to hinder them from speaking the truth, or any thing they might sear to lose for the same. But now while they envy such as have possessions, approving the faults of greatment, nourishing the common people in error, & eating the sins of them both, in seeking of possessions, who have ●●nounced 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, and drawing both of them with themselves astray, they have in such fort stained that their profession of truth, by their unhappy lives, 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, and therefore a Lyar. Even as true as that, This thing is white, and therefore hath a colour. But that we may not be thought to have written these things of malice, let all of us acknowledge ourselves to be in fault, & let us amond what willingly we have done amiss, & beseech the God of peace and love, most devoutly, that peace & truth may be in our days. So that holy Monk Thomas Walfingham in the reigns of Richard 2. fol 226. he lived in the days of Henry 6. and died in the year 1440.  
Atmathanus that glory of the Irish Church both for sanctity & learning, Archbishop of Armagh, & Primate of all Ireland, commonly known by the name of S. Richard of Dundalks, speaking of the great disorders of the begging Friars of his time, especially of the Franciscans, hath these words, by which may be understood how soon & even in those primitive & better times of their observance, they deflected from the vowed rule of their Founder. When as the rule of S. Francis (saith Armachanus) commands after this manner, Pracipio formiter fratribus universis etc. I do firmly command all Friars, that they have not any suspected fellowships, or counsels with women, neither that they once enter into the Monasteryes of Nuns, excepting those to whom especial licence is granted from the See Apostolic, neither that they be gossips of men, or women, lest by such occasion among the Friars, or of the Friars, scandal may arise. But of the contrary (saith my Author) The Friars have gotten licence to hear the most secret counsels of women, of Ladies, & of others without distinctiò, yea with their heads very submissively bowed unto the women heads, not following the footsteps of holy job, who said, Pepigi f●dus cum oculis m●●ne cogitarem de virgine: I made a covenant with mine eyes that I should not think of a Virgin. So as now-a days through such familiarity they can play the Philosophces with most beautiful Dames in their chambers, by occasion whereof such seandalls through the world are risen of the Friars, as I will not declare the same. So Armachanus in his Defensorium Curatorum, about the midst, with much more to the same purpose: he deceased in the Papal Court of Avignion, with opinion of great sanctity, in the year 1360. Cal. Doce●b. But I must not omit what the said Author setteth down in that his Oration which he pronounced before Pope Innocentius 6. & his Cardinals, against the Friars at Avignion as touching the abuse of their privileges, making them an instrument of Covetousness in these words.  
The Parishioner may reasonably judge, that as concerning due & profitable penance to be enjoined him for his sins, the Pastor or Parish priest is a judge less to be suspected, & more indifferent than the Friar. For that the penitent cannot suspect, nor hath any, ground to imagine, that his Pastor by hearing his confession doth expect any temporal lucre, or profit unto himself, for so much as all things necessary for his maintenance according to the Law of God, & holy Church, are annexed unto his office, But as for the Friars it is not so, because as in that appellation which they made against me in England, it is contained according unto their foundation, as they avouch, that not withstanding they are privileged to hear the confessions of all such as will confess unto them, they are bound to most strict poverty, & begging, whereupon the Parishioner may probably suspect, that verily the hope of gain, & of the relieving of his poverty, is the cause why the Friar hears his confession, & thus he may reason with himself in his mind. Wherefore should that beggar that sits there, hear my confession? & so defist from seeking things necessary for his maintenance, unless he expected from me such a supply? And forsomuch as poverty is a motive to sin, by means where of his want may be supplied, according to that of Solomon, Prov. 30. Poverty and riches give me not, but only so much as shall be necessary for my maintenance, lest happily being full I may be emised to deny thee, & to say, who is the Lord? and forced by poverty should steal and forswe are the name of my God. It followeth that forevery kind of sin, the Friar will impose upon, me almsdeeds, by which his poverty may be relieved, & so shall not I be spiritually cured. For our Saviour, when as his Disciples asked him: Why could not we cast him out I (speaking of the devil) he answered: This kind of devil is not thrown out but by prayer and fasting, Math. 17. Whereupon it is inferred, that as to every corporal disease, a particular medicine is to be applied, which kind of medicine that beggar attending only his necessities (as I may well think) will never minister unto me. And this reason is thus confirmed. For that it sufficiently appears, that since the Friars have obtained a privilege of hearing confessions everywhere through the world they have builded beautiful Monasteryc●, and Princely Palaces. The cause whereof seemeth to be their grant of hearing Confessions: for that before such power given unto them, they were not able to build such houses. Again it is never heard, that though Friars either for building of bridges, or repairing of highways, or Parish Churches, do enjoin alms upon their penitents. Neither do the Friar Minors impose alms to be bestowed upon the Dominicans, nor the Dominicans upon the Minors. Every one applying all unto themselves & unto their own order. Wherefore it may be probably judged, that private lucce & gain is the cause why such a begging Friar is so careful to hear the confession of the Layman, that he neglects his time of begging, etc. So Armachanus.  
Cardinal Bellarmine (for learning & piety in this age not infetiour to many, & I know not whether to any) lamenting the miserable face of religious orders of these times, in a most devout treatise which he composed but a little before his death, called Gemitus Columba, lib, 2. cap. 6. hath these words: Multiplicari coeperunt Regulares sine numero etc. Regulars have begun 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, & that of Esay is fulfilled: Thou hast multiplied the Nation, but not increased their joy. Hence so many, so 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 themselves, as they be at this day. So the Cardinal.  
Ichannes Petrus Camus Bishop of Bellay, that great omament of the French Church, both for piety & learning, in his book called The ●●●ltua● Director, part 4. cap. 7. in showing the difference 'twixt Pastors & mercenaries plainly demonstrateth ou● of the words of our Saviour: That the Regulars who in these times would be esteemed the only Masters in Israel, advancing themselves above the ordinary Pastors of God's Church, assuming unto themselves the first parts, as in perfection of life, so in ruling & feeding that flock which our Saviour hath purchased with his own blood, are in truth no Pastors at all, but plain mercenaries, & hirelings, & for such only to be held & reputed: his words are these, which proceeding from so grave an Author, are worthy both to be read and pondered.  
Pastors as well Bishops as Curates, are by state obliged to expose their lives for the sheep committed unto their charge. Let us concerning this point give care unto the divine sentence, which cannot be denied without impiety, nor contradicted without blasphemy. There is no greater charity then to give his life for his friends. Let us now add here unto the description of the true & good Pastor delivered unto us in the 10. Chap, of the Gospel of S. john, from the lips of our Saviour himself: Bonus pastor animam sua●● dat pro vibus suis: The good Pastor or shepherd giveth his life for his sheep, which is as much as to say, is obliged to give it. Mercenarius out 'em, & qui nonest pastor: But the hireling, & he that is not the shepherd. Behold how our Saviour distinguisheth the Mercenary or hireling from the Pastor, & how he makes it apparent that the Mercenary is not the Pastor, & that he who is Pastor is not Mercenary: He addeth, Mercenarius autem, & qui non est Pastor, cujus non suut oves propria: The hireling, & who is not the shepherd, & the owner of the sheep. In which words the Mercenary or hireling is plainly described to be the party to whom the sheep appertain not. So as he who hath no sheep of his own, & serveth notwithstanding the sheep, is no Pastor at all, but only a servant, a mercenary fellow, & a mere hireling, without any flock of his own. Let us follow the Text. Mercenarius videt Inpum venientem, etc. He that is the Mercenary seeth the Wolf coming, & flies, & the Wolf devours & disperseth the sheep. Now I would fain know who is he that flieth? Whether the Pastor & he that hath curam animarium, the care of souls, or the Friar who hath no charge. He who is obliged by state & condition, & by divine law to an actual resid●n●●? What storm soever happens, be it of plague, of war, of famine, of persecution, of heresy, or any such like? Or he that is not typed to any cure, or charge, & not having any obligation, may retire himself from those afflicted places, may forsake his country, the place of his abode, & live where he likes best, yea & who peradventure may think with himself, that it is but to tempt God, to expose himself rashly to the hazard of his life without any necessary obligation, according as it is written, Qui amat periculum, peribit in illo. He who loveth danger, shall perish therein. Let us now put the last finger to this Evangelicall description of a Shepherd, and of an hireling. The mercenary or hireling (saith S. john) slyes, & he giveth a reason of his flight, Quia mercenarius oft, because he is an hireling, and that the safety of the sheep concerns him not, because he is not charged with them. But the true Pastor who understands that the blood of his sheep must be required at his hands, and that their salvation becomes a part of his own, amazed with so many threats uttered by the Prophets against the bad Pastors, who abandon their flocks in time of necessity, he awakes his solicitude, he revives his courage, he exposeth himself to labour, and danger, inclining his heart to all the justifications of our Lord, for the retribution which he expects from him alone. Let us now observe how our Regulars behave themselves, who are sent unto this work only by delegation, by mission, of assistance by extraordinary commission, as troops of relief, and voluntary labourers. This last sufficiently declares. Mercenarius autem fugit etc. The hireling flies, because he is a hireling, & hath no care of the the sheep. So as if he do labour in feeding of them, his labour is but voluntary, & mercenary, & accordingly (as it often happens) most pitifully performed. For as the Regulars only govern such souls as of their own election, without any obligation commit themselves unto their conduct, so on their part have they the choice in this great harvest, of what ears of corn they please, in this great draught of fishes, which they like best, casting the reft into the water, to send them back unto their proper Pastors. In so much as the people do make use of them so long as they please, so do not they serve the persons of the world, but so long, & in such sort as they think best, the place of their residence being that which is conformable unto their liking, like unto wand'ring stars, (to use the phrase of the Apostle) whose influences work not so strong impressions, forsomuch as they cast not their beams, but by way of passage, whereas the sixed stars are the aim whereby all Mariners direct their Navigations. So this most learned & holy Bishop.  
Well then, understanding reader (Odi enim prophanum vulgar & weceo) Thou seest what authors, how many, and of what quality, who all flourished since the coming in of the Mendicants) have sharpened both their tongues & pens, against their disordered and wicked lives. Whereas then some (& those not of vulgar apprehensions) have taxed me of indiscretion for inveighiug in my books against the faults of Ecclesiastical persons, myself being of the same rank & profession, for my part I undersland not their language. For I have always heard that the maintaining of pubsique errors in doctrine, & not the refuting of them, the committing of manifest impieties, and not the reproving of them, to be scandalous. And the Apostle gave this charge unto Timothy: Peccantes coram omnibus argue, ut et caeteri timorem habeant, I. Timoth. 5. Such as sin publicly reprove, that others may fear. These men (I see) do wish me much good, for they would have meo more wise, more learned, & more virtuous than S. Bonaventure, then S. Vincent, then S. Anthony of Milan, then S. Richard of Dundalke, than Thomas Walsingham, than Lanspergius, than Laurentius Instinianus, then Cardinal Bellarmine, than Petrus Camus, Bishop of Bellay, than many others, who have laboured in this kind, and whom for brevityes sake I am forced to omit. Might these then make to the life pictures of our deformed Regulats, with their black pencils of a deep reproof, & shall not I be permitted to draw one small line in their tables? Shall these to the face of the world, & in the eyes of this sun, strip & whip the Friar at their pleasure, & shall not I be licenced to lay on one single lash? Or is it that they have received already their 40. stripes save one? Might these spiritual Physicians make deep incisions, & launce them with words more piercing than any two-edged sword, & may not I be allowed to rub their galled backs with one dram of vinegar? Might these Prelars & Priests thunder in every pulpit against their errors, & abuses, & not so contented, leave their invectives in their works & monuments to be read of posterity? Mene mutire nefas? And may not I utter one little word, but presently I shall beserved with a citation from the spiritual Court, the Court of conscience? Nolite annunciate in Geth, neque annuncietis in compitis Ascalon, etc. O publish it not in Geth, nor preach it in the streets of Ascalon, lest peradventure the daughters of the Philistines do rejoice, & the daughters of the unci. cumcised triumph. For Lord, who sees not how mistaken, & misapplyed that text is to the purpose that these men would draw it. Witted not David that the death of Saul & Lonathas, & that victory in which the Philistines prevailed against the house of Israel, could not be concealed from Goth, nor Ascalon, or any other City, or habitation of the Church's enemies? But David the more emphatically to express his grief in that desolation & heaviness of the synagogue, in the slaughter other Princes & people, useth that manner of threane or lamentation, aggravating that day's calamity in consideration of the great content, joy, & triumph that it would minister unto the Philistines their victorious enemies.  
So let us never persuade ourselves, that our public errors either in doctrine, or manners can be concealed from those who are of a divers belief from us, neither theirs from our knowledge, so long as we live together in the same commonwealth, or border one upon another. I speak of public & notorious excess●s, for I never was of opinion that any personal or private delict, the concealment whereof is neither prejudicial unto the Church, Commonwealth, or a third person may be manifested or disclosed, to which doctrine all divines applaud, grounding the same upon diverse texts of holy writ, among which this is one, Prov. 11. Qui ambulat fraudulenter, revelat arcana, qui autem fidelis est celat amici commissum. He who walks fraudulently, reveals secrets; but he that is faithful conceals the fault of his friend. And in the Gospel, Math. 18. Si peccaverit in to frater etc. If thy brother shall offend fend thee, go & rebuke him between thee & him alone etc. See for this S. Thomas 2 2 2ae. q. 68.1.3. & q. 70.1.2. And in this sense no donbt it was that Constant in the Great, that first Christian Emperor, most Christianly said: That if he saw an Ecclesiastical man to do what was indecent, or amiss, he would cover him with his purple robe, meaning he would so conceal his faults, as neither the delinquent should receive dishonour, nor the Church scandal thereby. As for manifest & known offences, we hear what almighty God hath said by his Prophet Esay 58. Clama, necesses, quasi tuba exalta vecem tuam etc. Cry out & cease not, advance thy voice like a Trumpet, declare unto my people their wickedness, and unto the house of jacob their offences: still by his Prophets complaining of such Pastors, who like unto dumb dogs either could not, or would not open against the manifest vices & corruptions of those to whom they were sent. And the Apostle exhorteth his scholar Timothy as to exhort, entreat, and beseech, so to blame, reprove, & correct, & that by his own example, who so little feared the face of man, as to comply with his Apostleship, he would freely & publicly reprehend such as were manifest sinners, & especially false teachers he would rouse out of their dens, & place the in the sight of the sun. So 2. Tim. 3. having made a long Catalogue of public offences & offenders, which than infested the Church, concludes, Et hos devita ex his enim sunt etc. And these avoid. For of these there be who rush into men's houses, & lead away silly women into thraldom, loaden with sins, & drawn away with many desires, always learning, & never attaining the knowledge of the truth etc. And this not only, or always in general, but sometimes he would descend unto particulars, not sparing to rebuke notorious sinners by name. For example in the Chap, following. Demas hath for saken me, and is gone into Macedonia. Alexander the Copper-s●●yth hath she Wed me much evil, our Lord will reward him according unto his Works.  
And this I thought fit by way of an Apology to allege in my defence, as well for this present Treatise now penned, as also for such other books, as I have heretofore written against the most known, & notorious errors, & abuses of the Mendicants, especially of this Country, and Kingdom, with which I will conclude this Chapter.   

CAP. III. The power of the Scapular and Habit ever the souls in Purgatory.  
IF blessedness be the end & summum bonum of the reasonable creature, consisting in the clear vision & full fruition of the Creator, as our holy faith teacheth us. Two ways after this life may a man be deprived of this blessed vision through his own default: Either eternally, which is a full separation of the creature from the blessed vision of God the Creator. Or a suspension for some time. The former hath with it an abdication unto eternal punishment. Discedite à me maledicti in ignem aeternum. Depart from me ye cursed into hell fire. The second hath only a deputation unto the purging fire. Si cujus opus arserit, detrimentum patietur: ipse enius salvus erit sic samen quasi per ignem. If any man's work burn, he shall suffer detriment, but himself shall be saved: yet so as by fire. Now if the doctrine of our Friars be good divinity, all matters of the soul after this life are most sweetly accommodated. First, for hell we have seen in the former. Chapter, the fire thereof quite extinguished only by dying in the Carmelites Scapular, or the Franciscans Habit, so as a soul furnished with either of those commodities, may say with the Poet: Contempt aeque jacent, & sine luce faces.  
Now in this Chapter it is considerable whether they be not as forcible to quench the flames of Purgatory, which if they do, I am labour in fine est. We have no more to do, but like jovial lads to pass our days Lucanicè in all pleasures, & delights, & a fig for what may betide us after death. The second doctrine then of our Carmelites is, that whosoever dies in the Scapular, he is not only freed ab incendie sempiterne, from everlasting fire, but also ab igne Purgateris, from the purging fire, at leftafrer his departure within eight days after inclusiuè, & that is the longest term. For these be the words of their pretended indulgence (I say pretended) for undoubtedly it was never authorized by the See Apostolic. The works are these, as they lie in that former abridgement of their privileges cited in the beginning of this work, and falsty fathered upon Clement 7. Pope of that name. Die quo à saeculo hujusmodi purgatorium accesserint ipsa virgo gloriosa Dei genitrix Maria sabbatho sequenti post illorum confratrum, seu religioserum ac sororum obitus visitando, à poenis Purgatory hujusmodi corum animas liberabit. By reason of this double Hujusmodi, I confess I am not so good a scholar, as to make any sensible construction in English of these words, notwithstanding that I have both learned my Grammar, & have myself composed one. But yet we find by their sermons, conferences, books, & disputations, that upon those words the Friar Carmelites conclude that by the benefit of the Scapular, every soul that is adjudged unto Purgatory, whose body in death was invefted therewithal, by the ministry & visitation of the blessed virgin, & under her conduct shallbe delivered thence the next saturday after their decease, which (as I said before) must needs be at the longest term within eight days after death. Yet sith the pains of Purgatory are so grievous, happy (say I) be they who die on Friday night, because the day following they shall be delivered thence. Now you must know that none have authority to give you this so holy a Scapolar, but such a Priest as is of the Order of the Carmelites. They have also in the aforesaid Treatise, another privilege granted (as they say) by Pope Nicholas the 4. & Pope Innocentius the 4. (but it is not to be believed, but rather what Thomas Walsingham writ, cited in the former chap. That to be a friar and a liar is all one.) The privilege is this: That whosoever shall give an alms, or an night's lodging unto a Carmelite, shall have a plenary indulgence of all their sins.  
Another privilege they father upon Pope Vibanus 6. & Nicholas 5. That whosoever shall call the Friar Carm●lites, the brethren of the blessed virgin of mount Carmel, shall have ten years of Indulgence. Here is no ambition to be called the brethren of the blessed Virgin the Mother of God, & Uncles unto our Saviour? To the imitation of which spiritual kindred & alliance, it is very like that our Ignatian Friars, or Jesuits, albeit with more modesty, do call themselves the fellows or companions of our Saviour. And of all Friars, I know none of so conspicuous descents, & of so great a blood & houses, as these two, the Carmelites to be the brethten of the blessed Virgin: The Ignatians to be the companions of jesus. But why not? since our Saviour hath said, Math. 12. Whosoever shall do the will of my Father that is in Heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother. Sith then our Saviour is contented to admit into his kindred such as shall do the will of his Father without exception of persons of what quility soever, from the Cedar to the Hyssop, from the Pope to the Sexton, from the Prince to the Beggar. To what end are these restrictions? these singularityes of styles & titles importing a limitation, or rather a kind of an exclusion of their brethren from such spiritual prerogatives, especially our Saviour having left them to the general extent of a Quieunque fecerit voluntatem patris mei: Whosoever shall do the will of my Father, he is my brother, sister, & mother. For tell me, why should not a cobbler under a stall, or a poor woman selling her bunch of radish about the streets, who have a care to live in the fear of God, assume these stately & honourable styles, as well as either Carmelise; or jesuit? Albeit (I confess) it would nothing become them so to do. Our Saviour bids us, when we have done our best endeavours, say we are unprofitble servants. The Pope calls himself servum servorum dei, the servant of God's servants. The Publican is commended for not lifting his eyes to Heaven, but knocking his breast, and calling himself a sinner. The Prodigal Child hold it too much to be called his father's son. The invited Guest is commanded to take the lowest place at the table. And we know who said to the Apostles, contending which of them should be the greatest. Quicunque voluer is inter vos maior fieri, sit vester minister, etc. Math. 23. He that would be the greatest among you, he shall be your servant. And he that exalteth himself shallbe humbled, and he that humbleth himself shallbe exalted.  
And albeit it pleaseth our Saviour sometimes to grace his followers with high styles, and terms full of love & honour, as he who knoweth the worth and merit of all his servants: as for example, to call them his friends, his brethren, his fellow-heires, his children, his disciples, his servants. Yet it becomes not poor silly & wretched man, who either knows his own misery in this valley of tears or is more miserable in being ignorant thereof, to approach nearer unto his Creator, than the Portall of Pulvis & cinis. Shall I speak unto my Lord being but dust & ashes? not knowing whether in this life he be worthy of love, or hatred, a vessel of honour or dishonour, but that whatsoever good he hath, is by grace from Heaven, & not of himself.  
And so much for the power of the Carmelites Scapular in matters of Purgatory. The sum of all whose doctrine in this point is: That the blessed Virgin the Mother of God, descends from Heaven every Saturday (but whether before noon or after, it is uncertain) to deliver all such as have died in the Scapular the week before. The occasion of which supposed privilege (as far as I can conjecture) was this: The Carmelite Friars hearing that the Franeiscans did preach and publish unto the people: That S. Francis every year upon his feast day (which falls upon the 4. of Octob.) comes down from Heaven, and descending into Purgatory, carrieth away with him all those who the year before died in his habit, and desiring by all means that their Scapular might not be inferior, but rather in greater request & estimation then the habit, & thinking a year too long a time for poor souls to be tormented in those flames, they obtained a privilege (as they tell us, but most falsely) from the Sea Apostolic, that their scapularists should stay no longer than a week at the most, but every Saturday should be delivered thence. So as I do not a little wonder wherefore the Friars of S. Francis Order in Limericke of late, should with so great vehemency, and as it were with a new heat, set on foot that former pre●ended indult of a yearly manumission upon S. Francis day of all such as died in their habit be●o●e. The particulars of which history, curious Reader, if thou desire to under stand, I will not spare to impart unto thee, and that in such man as was related unto me by them who were eye, and c●re-witnesses of the whole business, with all the circumstances thereunto belonging.  
Philip Horrow Parish Priest of S. john Baptists in the South part of Limerick, second Vicar general unto the Bishop of Limericke, whose name is Ri. Arthure, preached upon S. Francis his day, the 4 of October, namely 1633, in the house of the Franciscans, and among many other praises of S. Francis, said, that the Saint did every S. Francis day descend from heaven to Purgatory, and deliver from thence all the souls of such as have taken S. Francis habit in their life-time. This was contradicted by the Dominitans and the Jesuits of Limericke, & thereupon the Vicar general Philip Horrow was called before the Bishop, & before his adversaries, & being questioned about that doctrine which he had delivered, He said, for his part he did not firmly believe it, but yet he cited two authors of the Franciscans for it. These were Onuphrins Mariscal, & Bartholomens' Pisanus, whereupon he and his adversaries were reconeiled, & by the Bishop enjoined not to speak any more of that opinion. But the Guardian of the Franciscans in Limericke Friar Francis Wolf hearing this, prepared himself to preach of that subject on the 29, of December last, which is the Sunday infra oc●avan● Nativitatis Domini, but the Bishop hearing thereof (being most vigilant & careful of the peace & concord of his flock) sent his archdeacon Father jordan Bourk, & Father William Sauvegan his Chantor first to entreat the said Guardian, not to speak any word of that controversy, & next to command him not to preach thereof. The which message they delivered unto the said Guardian upon Saturday night before his Sermon, and he with some coloured speech made them believe he would obey: yet the next morning, he preached the same opinion with great vehemency, & cum sale mordicante against the other Regulars. Hereupon the Bishop called all his Clergy of the City, and the Regulars together, the 15. of jan. very late at night, & there the Regulars, especially Friar Terence O Brian, Prior of the Dominicans, in Limerick, and Friar William Crah, superior of the Jesuits also in Limerick, accused the said Guardian of the Franciscans, aswell for that opinion, as also for his unseemly language against others that gainsaid that doctrine, whereupon the said Guardian, after some frivolous excuses given by him, was commanded by the Bishop, not to preach any more within his Diocese, without his especial licence. He cited no more Authors for the same opinion but those which were cited by the Vicar Philip Horrow.  
And thus have you the true relation of such troubles as happened among our Churchmen of Limerick this last Winter about the privileges of the Franciscan habit, in which as in a map, you first behold the ventures & broachers of false doctrines in the person of the Vicar general, & the Guardian of the Franciscans. In the second place is presented unto you the office of a good Pastor, & the careful performance of his duty in the Bish. of the Diocese. Thirdly you are to observe the còmendable obedience of the Vicar general unto his Ordinary, being admonished of his fault. Fourthly you may note & detest the intolerable pride & schismatical disobedience of Friar Francis Wolf, Guardian of the Franciscans, who being praadmonished by the Diocesan not to preach such doctrines; and countersayting a feigned obedience, did notwithstanding transgress his commandment, to the notable scandal of God's Church, & the ruin of his own conscience. Lastly you may observe some laudable opposition made againsterror, & false doctrine, by the accusation of the Prior of the Dominicans, and the superior of the Jesuits.  
Now I would know of our Friars, and especially of Friar Francis Wolf Guardian of the Franciscans of Limericke, what privilege or indult they have from the Pope to preach such doctrines as are inhibited them by the Bishop in whose Diocese they live, contrary to the decree of the Council of Trent, sess. 5. cap. 2. Si vero. And both the rule of S. Francis cap. 9 and the aforesaid Council forbidding them at all to preach contradicente Episcopo, the Bishop not giving way thereunto, sess. 24. cap. 4. But experience from time to time hath taught us, that they be too violent and headstrong to be ruled by any Church law. Neither let the Reverend Bishop of Limericke be troubled with their disobedience unto him. For the Pope himself shall not be able to command them further than stands with their own good liking. To which purpose, it shall not be from the purpose to set down what that reverend, pious, and learned Bishop of Bellay in France, johannes Petrus Camus observed at his being in Rome in the late days of Clement 1. And I will use his own words as they lie in the 32. Cap. of his book De operibus Monachorum.  
Being on a time in Rome in the days of Pope Clement 8. whose memory is in benediction, and in a sweet odour of sanctity, for his verity, equity, and mansuetude, who being much urged, (not to say importuned) with many questions and disputes touching the Habits and Beards of Cloystermen, he had a resolution to bring unto the razor, and unto the hood, all such as call themselves Regulars, and who live in communityes, & observe Monastic vows. This gave such an Alarm to them who had taken the Cap & the Habit of secular Clergy, the Jesuits, and Theatines, & an other sort who had made choice for their character the long Beard, I mean the Conventualls, Carthufians, and Capuchins, that it was much to be feared, that the good Pope (whose name is in veneration through all Christianity) had not felt the effect of those mortal Litanyes, with which some Monks do threaten those who are not favourable unto them. For sure had he but touched the checks of the one with the razor, & had thrust the heads of the other into an hood, he had tried their resignation & obedience to the quick. but to avoid troubles, & jealousies, the good Pope held it better to let that business sleep, then to taste the humours of his froward & discontented children. So the Bishop.  
But of much more terrible consequence was that other case which happened in the same most blessed Pope's days, myself being then in Spain, in Sevil of Andalusia, about the year 1600, for Pope Clement 8. being to determine the Controversy De Anxili●s, so long debated, and yet depending undecided 'twixt the Dominicans and the Jesuits. The Jesuits to give a disturbance to that work, & to cast it quite from off the Hingells (lest it should be judged against themselves) cause it to be disputed through all their Colleges of Spain & Portugal, and that in printed and public conclusions. Quod non erat de fids: Quod Clement Papa octa●●● cra● caput Ecclesiae: That it was no point of faith, That Pope Clement 8. was head of the Church. And because the Spaniards in their disputes make use of their own language, yea much more than of the Latin: and there being many Cavallero's, aed men of great fashion then present, as well as of the vulgar, according to the manner of solemn disputations, there went a tumultuous buzz among the Laity in their meetings and conversations, Qu● Diabolo, El santo padre no es Cabeza de Iglesia? What the devil, is not the holy Father the Head of the Church? So as the Inquisition held it necessary under pain of Censures, to inhibit those questions and disputes. And in truth the good old Pope fearing by such disputations, to be disputed out of his chair, was contented to surcease from any further process in that assayre.   

CAP. IU. That the Regulars of this Kingdom are neither Roman Catholics, Protestants, nor good Subjects, and therefore neither by the Church nor commonwealth to be permitted to live among them.  
FIrst that the Regulars are no Roman Catholics, it may appear by what hath already been disputed in the matter of the Habit, Scapular, and the Luissian Fast, ascribing salvation unto them, contrary to the faith of holy Church, besides the maintenance of the Eleven Propositions, of which they have been both convicted & judged in their book lately made by Edmundus Vrsulanus, censured & condemned at Rome, contrary to which censure the said book is allowed & approved of by all the Friars of this Kingdom. And for so much as the Friars are not conformable on the other side unto the Protestant Religion established in this Kingdom. And I could never learn that his Majesty was pleased to allow of any third Religion within his Dominions, I say, more than the approbation of the Protestants, and some gracious toleration of the Catholic, no more than he is pleased to allow of Arianisme, Nestorianisme, Pelagianisme, and the like heresies. In consideration whereof whensoever it may seem good unto the King and the State, what cause can be imagined, why the Friars of this Kingdom may not be prosecuted as most pestilent heretics and seducers? Neither is there want of precedents and examples in the Protestant Churches, of such proceedings against infamous heretics. For so in Berne of Helvetia was Valentinus Gentilis an Italian heretic adjudged unto the fire. Servetus a Spaniard in Geneva. In the days of Queen Elizabeth, Hacket & Legat executed in London for Arianisme: others in Norwich, Penry hanged at Th●●ford. Greenwood and Bar● in Lincolnes-Inn-fields; all of them for maintaining and publishing of Brownisme. But if it be thought better to those that sit at the helm of Government to show more mercy, then may they be sent out into exile after their predecessors those false Monks Prebinus, Milianus, Probinianus, who by Pelagius the Pope were banished into remote Lands, as we read in Gratian'ss decres. 16. q. 1. Prebinum. For one way or other it seems necessary that the Kingdom should be purged of them, who to enrich themselves and make-up their Monarchy, regard not what sliding stairs they make the people to descend from Christianity, to Atheism. And albeit the beginnings have been marvailously neglected, and neither the cookarice crushed in the egg, nor these Harpies in their first hatch, yet better late than never, before they grow to a stronger head, and not so easy to be suppressed. And so much briefly for the exorbitant heresies of our Regulars, condemned both by the Catholic and Protestant, by which separation from both, they have framed a new no. Church unto themselves, worthy no where to be admitted.  
In the second and last place I am to prove according unto my promise, That the Friars of this Kingdom are no good subjects, & so also in that respect rather deserving punishment, than either favour or protection from the State under which they live. And so I argue. In those better and more religious times of our Ancestors, and when the Catholic faith did most flourish in Great Britain, ta●ne, and the Isles adjacent, cum terra ●rat unius labij, when our Kings, Bishops, Nobles, and Commons were all of one heart and lip in the worship and service of God; when the Canons, Laws, and behests of holy-Church were in most rigorous observance, yet even then and in those days, no Archbishop, Bishop, or Prelate took upon him, or might by virtue of any Ecclesiastical calling or dignity, to banish either out of the Land, or any one district Dioccesse, or County, any of the King's subjects of what calling so ever, or for what cause so ever. And albeit Metropolitans, Bishops, Arch deacons, & other Prelates were of as great power, & as ample jurisdiction in those times, as any of their successors have been since; yet notwithstanding all suits against ecclesiastical persons, of what quality or degree soever, in civil and secular causes, as debts, rents, revenues, leases, inheritances, and the like, were both commenced & determined in the King's temporal Courts, & not at all in the Bishop's Consistoryes, as appeareth both by the ancient Laws of these Kingdoms, & the consent of the learned professors thereof, who all with one voice, as well Catholics as Protestants, do at this day agree in the premises.  
Notwithstanding all this, our new titulary Bishops, especially so many of them as are sent unto us out of the Friaryes' beyond-seas, together with the whole Regularism● of this Kingdom, do stoutly maintain, both by doctrine & practice the contrary. First, that they have power to banish; if they be Archbishops, out of their Provinces; if Bishops, from out their Dioceses, not only for offences, but even ad nutum, & indicta causa, at their own will and pleasure, without either examination or determination of cause, any of the King's subjects, aswell of the temporal, as ecclesiastical estare. Secondly, they teach, & practically maintain, that whensoever the Defendant is a Clergy man, not only in ecclesiastical hanses; but as well in temporal & civil, as debts, mortgages, leases, rents, etc. they are to be impleaded before the Bishop of the Diocese, in which they live, & not in any of the King's Courts at all. In defence and justification of both which paradoxes, Tho. Flemwing, titulary Archb. of Dub in, stiffly persisting, (for that indeed within the Diocese of Duklin, he had practised both those points) notwithstanding that his error was with much mildues and learning, both out of the Canon, & Common-Lawes opened unto him by one of his Majesty's Privy Council, yet can he not to this day be reclaimed, but remains most wilful & obstinate in his former practised error. His Friars persuading him to offer himself a sacrifice in defence thereof, laying an imputation upon all such as complain of this his tyranny, that they seek his blood. Not doubting but one way or other to prevail in this his usurpation, notwithstanding what opposition soever of the higher powers against him.  
And like unto this our Archbishop Fleming is another Franciscan, the present Bishop of Down, of the house of Maggennes, a man in his behaviour more like an Italian Bannito, or some debauched Ruffian, than a sacred Bishop, as may well be seen by his fantastic accoutrements coupled to his Vltique manners, having his locks hanging over his rich face, & down his shoulders, even to the centre of his back, strutting himself at every third word upon his tiptoes, as if he were angry at his parents for not making him a foot longer. And if any think my pen hath wronged him in this rough draught, let them make a pilgrimage unto him, he lives not above two days journey from Dublin, & if they find him not as I have presented him, let them come unto me, & tell me of it, & I will congratulat with them his reformation. This Hugh Magennes transformed first into a Friar, & after into a Bishop, retaining still the first savour & seasoning of the pot, meeting lately witha Clergy man of these parts, asked him: Now, what doth Cadde● & Harris? do they live still in Dublin? Yes. Were I their Bishop, concutiens illustre capus, (as if every hair of his head was able to transport them beyond the Equinoctial,) I would send them further off. O ne savi magne sacerdos. by your favonr my Lord, caddel & Harris are civil men, & as they be Catholic Priests, so are they the King's liege subjects, & may live in Dublin, or where else they think good, within his Majesty's Dominions, so long as it pleaseth the State to permit them, being far from yielding to the new usurped tyranny, which your Friar Bishops have of late brought into this Kingdom, contrary both to the Common & Canon Law, as hath been demonstrated unto them, not only in my late Treatise against The. Fleming his Excommunucation, but since that again most learnedly viuâ voce in the Castle of Dublin, by such as had the examination of the cause. Neither is it to be thought that his Majesty will endure such a diminution of his honour by any one Friar, or the whole pack of them together. In the mean time God help the poor Priests who live under the Friar Bishops, to whom if they do not yield in these & the like practices, they shall presently hear. Veteres migrate coloni: you shall no longer live in my Diocese, which thunderclap was first heard in Dublin, but afterward roared into other Dioceses, yea such vexation they find (especially Priests of the best parts & deseres) under the Friar Bishops, as to redeem their vexation, & to purchase their peace, they are contented to forsake their Parishes, & poor entertainments, and to betake themselves unto other Dioceses, where the Clergy-Bishops govern, leaving all to the Friar, who desires to do all, and have all. And for this cause is it, (together with ambition, and an unbridled lust of domineering) that so many Friars at this day do hunt after Bishoprics, as wear credibly informed both from Paris & Rome, no fewer than eight of them, to the admiration of strangers, & deteslation of all modest men, importuning the Pope to be made titulary Bishops of this Kingdom, there being searce so many places vacant, which if they do obtain, the utter ruin of the Clergy in those Dioceses can not be prevented, whom they will not fail to supplant, & to furnish their places with Friars, each one of his own order, as we hear daily to be practised in the next Diocese of Kildare, whose Bishop being a Dominican Friar, creates his Friars, Parish Priests, contrary to the Law of holy Church, and continued practice thereof till these times. But see the policy of this tyrant Bishop, or rather Tyrones' Bishop of Kildare, for at Tyrones' intercession was he nominated, (as himself canno: deny) having first written unto the Pope, as is credibly reported, & believed by us, that no Bish. should be named by his holiness in this Kingdom, but such as by Tyrone from Flanders should be commended unto him. I say, this Ross Magogean, titulary Bishop of Kildare, in excuse of making his Friars Pastors, & Parish Priests, contrary unto the Laws of the Church, tells such as expostulate the matter with him, that of necessity he is enforced so to do, for that out of the body of the Clergy he wants Priests of sufficiency for those places. O blessed God having first discontented, banished, wrangled, and clampered all Priests of worth out of his Diocese, & having first procured that desolation, makes afterward his own fact an excuse of his own wickedness. Shall Machiavelli ever be dead so long as this Friar is alive?  
To such miserable terms is the Clergy of this country brought, That if the Pope perseveres as he hath begun, to send us either Bishops made of Friars, or of the Friars creatures, there is an end of the Secular Priesthood, which is of Christ's institution, and hath continued in the Ch●rch since the Apostles times, till this unhappy tyranny of the Friars hath corrupted both the doctrine and government of the Church, & hath turned all things topsy-turvy among us. If any desire to know the names & number of our present Friar Bishops of this Kingdom, they be as follow: Them. Fleming alias Barnwell, alias White Archbishop of Dublin Franciscan. Boethius Igan Bishop of Elfin, Franciscan. Hugh Magenues Bishop of Down, Franciscan. Ross Magoghagan Bishop of Kildare, Dominican. Patrick Cumberford Bishop of Waterford, Augustin, which last is the only indifferent Friar Bishop unto the Clergy, of all that ever yet were sent into this Kingdom. Some others we have, who albeit they were elected out of the body of the Clergy, yet because standing upon their own feet, they were not able to reach the apple of Episcopal promotion, they mounted upon the Friars shoulders, & by their alone means have obtained the same, and for that cause are little more loving unto the Clergy, or less beloved of the Friars than the former, holding it a point of gratitude, & the least kind of remuneration for so great a benefit, to be at the beck and command of that Friar, whether it be Wadding the Cordelier, or any other, by whose solicitation they received their nomination unto a Bishop rick, bound ever after to tread in their steps, & to run their courses. But sure for my part I should think the same Church-pollicy, which is practised in Rome, in debarring Friars these 50. years & upward from the Apostolical Chair, might be observed through the whole Church, as best beseeming the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, & the government thereof: I mean the Clergy to be governed by the Clergy, the Friars by the Friars, without making such a mixture of governments, as we see at this day: one Diocese ruled by a Clergy Bishop, another by a Franciscan, the third by a Dominican etc. which is rather to lay a corner stone of dissension, than any foundation of unity, to plant a seminary of discord & contention, than a nursery of peace & concord, & the same not only for the present, but even descending unto posterity.  
For example in this Diocese of Dublin we have for the present Thowas Fleming Archbish. a Friar by all means suppressing and persecuting h●s poor Clergy, wearing out all the most ancient, & sufficient I'riests of his Diocese; & to the end he might with more facility at chieve his ends, he hath jately procured a Bull from Rome, the ground of this Bust is, for that all benefices of this Kingdom, for want of due collation, are held to be in the lapse, & devolved thereby unto the gift of the Pope, by which is conferred unto him the right of patronage & presentation, of all the Benefices, Rectoryes, Vicaryes, Capellania's, yea not them only, but the collation of all Digaityes, places of Channons, Prebends, or what else belongs unto the Cathedral, or Collegiate Churches, within his Diocese, all at his disposition, will, & command, either to confer, or to be vacant, as he doth the Dignities of S. Patrick's and Trinity Church, for fear of creating a Chapter, which one time or other might look into his game. Some Parishes he confers (especially upon his white disciples in titulum, others, & the most with amovibility ad nutum, to the end they may be more serviceable unto him. All to give a free scope & an uncontrollable licence unto his galloping Friars to command all, among whom there is not a Lay brother, who was but yesterday an horseboy, but will threaten the gravest Priest of his Diocese with a removeall from his place, if he distaste him.  
And verily the present government of the Clergy in this, and such Dioceses, as the Friar Bishops do rule, makes me call to mind that tyranny of the Danes, as well here in Ireland as in England, to whose violence, not only the Republic in general, but every private family was obnoxious, having their espials and intelligencers in every place & corner of the country, in so much as unto the basest groom among them, for fear of his displeasure, the honest subject was in such thraldom, as he would be glad to give him the best place at his table, & to feed him even ex adipe frumenti; with the best morsels he had, & to call him at every word, My Lord Dane, whence it comes to pass, that in these days, we call by contraction every idle vagabond, a Lordan, borrowed I say, from that lubber of a Dane who was appointed to domineer in every man's house. Yea (if my memory fail me not, which is the first faculty of the mind that decays in old-age) it is written in some of our Chronicles, that if an English man had been upon the midst of a bridge, & had seen a Dane make towards the same, though a musket shot before him, the Saxon would have returned back again, & have left the bridge unto the Dane to have passed over. And even such Lordanes for all the world be our Irish Friars, helping to devour the fruits of the earth, for which most of them never swear't in any lawful vocation, absolutely commanding the whole households in which they live, & all too little to do them service, respect, & honour. Those that be housekeepers do more feelingly then myself understand the discommodities of the saucy and malapert carriage of these sturdy beggars among them.  
It was on a time, when a Friar of S. Francis Order coming to a Gentleman's house, seated within the smoke & prospect of Dublin & finding the gate shuts for why? the Goodman of the house with all his family were set to dinner, neither was there written over the gate.  Porta patens esto nulli, clauderis honefto. 
The Friar seeing-himselfe thus prevented, & his stomach persuading him that he was in extremeinecessity of his dinner, he betook himself unto the hammer of the gave, & so belaboured the broad pail, as I know not whether Brontes the great Smithy man, with his biggest hammer fetched from his right care, could lay weightier strokes upon his anvil. But so it was, as the Friar found the proverb true. Venture non babet aures, the belly hath no cares; and no admission or answer could he get, notwithstanding that propter improbitatem, by reason of his importunity he persuaded himself, had they been all in bed, & fast in sleep, they would have risen & ministered unto him. And no question but as his hands did labour at the hammer, so did many a cogitation hammer in his brains, sometimes bewailing the declining of hospitality through the Kingdom, the hardness of rich men's hearts: sometimes again bethinking him of the virtue of perseverance, comforting himself with these & the like promises: Petite & accipietis, pulsate & aperietur vobis: Ask & you shall receive, knock & it shall be opened unto you. But nothing did more trouble the Friar's mind, then when he fell into consideration of that Legacy of S. Francis, written under his Image commonly at their altars. That in what place so ever his Friars should be, they never should want necessary food, or raiment, the truth of which Legacy he found his stomach now to call in question. O how often did he examine the gates, whether the weather, or worms, or time more consuming than either worms, or weather, had made any little windows, by which he might espy some blessed body to pass over the base court within, but all in vain, for as soon might he have looked through the ribs of the Trojan horse. What will you have of it? Lasa patientia sit furor, wronged patience turns into fury: the Friar gathers up a number of stones, as David did when he went to let fly at Goliath his head, though far bigger, for this Friar is alufly bouncing Cordilier, & not such a shrimp as David was, these he throweth against the gates of Droncondran with many a vengeance upon all those who keep their gates so close shut against Friars: but alas, as Priam's darts rebounded back when they arrived at Pyrrhus his armour of proof, accusing the weak & feeble arm of the thrower: So did the stones which Friar john Preston sent against the aforesaid gate, leaving some few dints of his doughty choler, but nothing which might relieve his hunger. At last the Friar all malcontent, betakes himself unto his palfrey, and with a froward kind of patience, pursued the rest of his journey. But time passing on with swift, though silent paces, not long after he meets with old john Bath, (whose soul God pardon,) he relates what a challenge he made him, what documents he gave him, among which I remember, this was one: What wist you, but that the best and dearest friend you have might have been at your gates at that hour? It is against the laws of hospitality, & the custom of Ireland to shut their doors at meal time &c, but betwixt us both, he either forgot to tell me, or I to demand, what satisfaction was made for that error. And now I wot well, what the Friar will say, or others for him: Alas Mr Harris, is this all you have to say against that ancient Guardian, and now a definitor of his Order. It seems if you had worse, it should out. O no, I keep the rest for my Book De illustribus viris & fuminis S. Francisci per Hibernian, which I hope ere long shall see the light, If they amend not. And now betaking myself unto a more serious discourse, I will conclude this Chapter.   

CAP. V. Whether it be true Martyrdom to dye in defenes of the two former Tenants, held both in Theory and Practice by our Archbishop Tho. Fleming, and his Friars.  
Much doth our Archb. Fleming glory, that in and for the defence of the libertyes of the Church, he is persecuted both of the State, & some of his own profession: But for his part, as they seek his blood, so is he most ready and willing with S. Thomas of Canterbury, for the immunityes & privileges of the Church, to lay down his life, that so he may aspire unto the glorious Crown of Martyrdom, And sure if the Pope & Cardinals in Rome were as forward as he & his Friars be here, I perswede myself he would be canonised before his death, & so be a second S. Thomas. But then how a Martyr? There indeed would be the difficulty. And therefore the State may do well in the mean time to make him a Confessor; That is, to acknowledge his fault, & presumption, in violating such laws, as both Church & Commonwealth in all ages from our very cradle of Christianity in these Kingdoms have maintained, conformable to the Law of God, & fittest for government, as I have abundantly declared in my Book against the Archbishop Fleming his Excòmunication. And this I speak in excuse of his first error, the mother whereof had it been iguorance, might by an humble submission been made pardonable. For indeed Thomas Fleming was taken from his Friary of Lovayn at the age of 30. years, & so was suddenly advanced unto the second Primacy of Ireland, humane negotiation of interposed mediators, Erigens e stercore pauperem, ut sedeat cum principibus, cum principibus populi sui: raising him from the dunghill, even to sit with Princes, with the Princes of his people; to whom if that power which could in a moment elevat & set him aloft, had also furnished him with parts befitting government, there had been no cause of complaint. But the man was taken as he was, & in a new mould could not now be cast. A Friar he was, and to have a Friar Archbishop of Dublin was the ambition of all the Friars in Ireland, whom they presumed, & therein were not deceived, that he would ever smell of the first humour with which he was seasoned. Notwithstanding David taken from the flocks, & from behind the bagged ewes, as himself confesseth, Psal. 77. Sustulit cum de gregibus, & de post foetanies accepit cum: & advanced unto the sceptre of Israel, did not after look back, either to the Rams, or to the Ewes, or their young ones, he left behind him, but as Solomon saith of a Wise man, he had always his eyes in his head, he looked before him, forgetting what was past, endeavouring to perform with that present estate to which he was called, having (I con fez) this advantage, that he who raised him, had both the power & will to bestow upon him the spirit of wisdom, and all other gists & graces necessary for so high a calling. By which we may take knowledge by the way of that distinction: Inter voluntatems: boneplaniti & permissionis handled by the Schoolmen, & in particular by S. Tho. 1a. 2ae qi 19 q.  
Now then Tho. Fleming by God's permission raised unto the second See of Ireland at the age of 30. & as it was determined by his brethren & Cameradoes in the Friary of Louvain, to extirpate the Clergy of the Diocese of Dublin, & in their place to bring in the Friars, a plot though not very ancient, yet before him invented by an VIster Friar called Hugh Cavall, residing in Rome, & designed by this present Pope Vrbanus 8. about ten years ago, Archbishop of Armagh, & Primate of Ireland, & to which purpose the aforesald Hugh Cavall obtained a Bull by most sinister information, to make his Friar's Parish Priests through the Diocese of Armagh, but being prevented by death before he could pay his way, & bid his friend's farewell in Rome (albeit not two hours before his death he writ a letter unto the Pope, beseeching him to nominat in his place Friar Rob. Chamberlain, for so they call him, albeit a most Irish & a tyronicall Friar of Louvain) a successor was designed in his place, a Priest of the Clergy called Hugh O Reyly the present Metropolitan of Armagh, & Primate of all Ireland, who being a man not so wedded to Friarly plots against the Clergy (albeit in many respects obnoxious unto them) that policy of making Friars Pastors, either ended in the first Hugh, or at least hath taken a time of breathing in the second Hugh.  
But our young Friar Fleming an Archbishop of 30. years, (though now near 40.) nothing doubted to under-go that burden, which Milo himself was scarce able to bear, & in a preposterous zeal he would, yea that he would, without either Bull or Breve, banish the Secular Priests out of his Diocese, which to perform, (little seen in the Canons of the Church, & less in the common Laws of England) not distinguishing the Keys from the Sword, nor Regal power, from Episcopal jurisdiction, like a Prester john King of the Aethiopians, he presently banisheth 3. Priests, in his opinion the most fussicient of all his Diocese, & these living in Dublin, the mother City of all Ireland, not doubting but they once sent away, all the rest would be glad to kiss his hands, and to depart with his benediction. Upon such lofty terms stood our Archbishop, leaning his head upon the elbow of his Regulare brachium, his Friarly arm, an Arm, or rather an army always ready & pressed to second such attempts, as Episcopal jurisdiction could not support, yea to such an overweening presumption did he and his Friars at last arrive, relying upon their own conrage & strength, as they doubted not to complain unto the temporal Magisttate, & bring their matter unto the Castle of Dublin, confident that the State would join with them, to the ratification of the banishment of the Priests, for which cause, after that a Layman had first broken they ce, & made the way for them, there appeared plaintiffs William Malone, alias Morgan, alias Brown, jesuit; john Preston Franciscan: Patrick Brangan, & Edmund Doyle a pair of Priests adhering unto the Friar's faction, all these (I say) presented themselves before a grave Counsellor of State (for as then the Lord Deputy was not arrived) before him they accuse Mr Doctor caddel, & myself Paul Harris, (for the third whose name is Doctor Cabil, had made his peace before with the Archbishop) they lay to our charge facta & infecta, but all in the clouds of generality, as those usually do, who mean to calumniat, & to deceive, alleging that we were disobedient, turbulent, seditious, facticus, of unquiet spirits, enemies to peace. In conclusion, such as did trouble all Israel, and therefore not to be tolerated, or longer endured. But it was their chance (good hap for us) to come before such a judge as held it necessary to keep one ear for the Defendants, & first to hear our answers before he condemned us, having understood that of the Moral Philosopher, elegantly expressed by the Tragedian: Qui statuit aliquid, parte inandita altera; aquumlicet statuerit, hand aquus fuit: who determines any thing, either party unheard, though what he determines be just, yet himself is not just. Seneca in Medea. Wherefore it pleased that honourable Gentleman, after he had given audience unto our Adversaries, first to send for me Paul Harris, to understand what I could answer in my defence, not having in nine years before been within the Castle-gates of Dublin, and next after he sent for Peter caddel, who (as I take it) before that time had never seen the in fide of the Castle, and having heard our Apology, the Bells for the present were stayed, & that great heat of hasty exile began to coole-Soon after this, was the happy arrival of the present Lord Deputy, before whom (upon petition) both the Archbishop Fleming, & we the Priests were commanded to appear, and our grievances propounded, were grationsly heard. And for that time dismissed with grave advice, how to frame our obedience unto the Laws of God & the Kingdom, and the Archbishop Fleming in particular was most seriously required to reform his errors, but he standing upon his justification, & wanting at that rhyme, (as it seemed unto us) the gift of utterance; & expression of himself, whether not acquainted with such an audience, or that he was not provided of his Answers, he desired again to be heard, and soon after by the Lord Deputy his command, we were remitted unto the hearing of the now Lord Bishop of Derry, & Sir George Radotiffe Knight, before whom all our causes were examened at full, according unto the Canons of the Church, and the ancient and immemorable Laws of these Kingdoms. And the Archbishop Fleming convicted, partly by his own confession, & partly by witness, that he had offended in these two points.  
First in taking upon him to banish the King's subjects by Episcopal authority out of his Diocese.  
Secondly, in erecting a new Tribunal, and drawing all causes of Eccelesiastical men, though merely civil and temporal unto his Consistory, there only under pain of Excommunication to be heard and determined.  
Neither can the aforesaid Thomas Fleming parallel his cause with S. Thomas of Canterbury, I appeal to all such as have written the Legend of his life and death, whether it be Capgravius, the Breviary, or our English Chronicles, neither out of any other History shall our Friars ever be able to prove, that in both, or either of those two points, there was any controversy at all betwixt King Henry the second, and Thomas Becket. Thomas Fleming the Friar, being the first & only Bishop, since the conversion of these Nations to Christianity, that ever was bold to teach, maintain, or practise the same, for which ause if he should suffer death (notwithstanding all the ruissian-like boasts of him, & his Friars) he should dye a malefactor, & not a martyr. But the little fear of any such punishment to befall him, causeth him & his Fryats' so to triumph over those who to their power have, & always will endeavour to maintain that harmony & concord, which time out of mind hath been 'twixt the Laws of the Kingdom, & the Canons of holy Church. And verily our hope is in God, and next in those to whose hands the Sword of justice is committed, that they will not see the Church in her ancient Laws, the King in his honour, or the subject in his right any longer prejudised by such our Circumcelliones & wand'ring limitours, as are able by their busy insinuations, persuasions, negotiations, if they be no sooner suppressed &c. towards whom to use lenity would be but cruelty, and the severity of justice the greatest benefit of Mercy.   

CAP. VI An Apology of the Author for the sharpness of his style.  
SOme say, there is too much gall in my Ink, especially writing against those that be domestici fidei, of the household of faith, who albeit they had wronged me, my friends, or the Clergy, yet ought not I to exceed moderamen incul patae tutela, the moderation of a faultless defence, that is, so defending myself, as not unnecessarily offending others, etc.  
Alas, & will not these men yet understand, that I write not at all against any of the Church's children or family, but only such as S. Peter inveigheth against in his 2. Epist. 2. allwing, unstable souls, having their hearts exercised with avarice, the children of male diction leaving the right way, have erred, following the way of Bal●am of Bosor, which loved the reward of iniquity, etc. Such wand'ring stars of which S. jude speaketh, who retain nothing but their erratical motion, having lost both light, heat & influence. Such as S. john in his first Epist. chap. 2, discovereth, saying: They went out from us, but they were not of us. Search the Scriptures, and tell me, were not the Prophets of the Old Testament sharp, even to scoffing and bitter taunting against the false Prophets? Did not our bleffed Saviour in the Gospel, reproying both the doctrine, & lives of the Seribes and Pharisees eight times in one chapter, cryout: Vae vobis Scriba & Pharisei hypocritae! Woe be to you, Scribes & Pharisees hypocrites: calling them serpents, and generation of vipers. Read the Epistles of S. Paul & the rest of the Apostles unto the Churches, consider what style they used, against the enemies of the Faith which they planted, how edgy, how galling, how biting I Come down to the Fathers, peruse S. Aug. against the Mantschees, Calestius or jovinian, S. Hierom against Vigilantins, Helvidius, and Ruffinus & tell me: Whether they bang them not, with a style more stinging than a whip of Scorpions? Alas gentle reader. What I have brought in this, or any other of my books, is but ale, and cakes, to what the Fathers, and other champions of the Church, even to these times have written against the enemies of our holy faith.  
But some will say, That all the Friars are not such as I have reported them to be, for which cause I ought to have made a distinction 'twixt the good & bad, the corn, & chaff, the sheep, & wolves etc. And not send them all to the devil together in one bag, as I have done. For God forbid say these men, (& then they think they speak very wifely) but there be some good, holy, & virtuous men among them, both orthodox in belief, & irreprehenfible of life. No, by the rood (say I) not one, there is not a right believer among them, & consequently not a good liver: for if virtue and fall worship can walk together, then both Turk & jew may be good & holy. I confess there are indeed a number of smooth fellows to be tound among the Regulars, who have nothing but Euge Obelle in their months, such as can dexterously act G●●to the Parasites part on every stage, praising what you praise, & disliking what you mislike, who in the presence, or in the procuring of a benefactor, si dixerit astuo, sudant. If he, by whom they expect a benefit, shall say, he is very warm, the Friar will swears by his hood, that for his own part he sweats downright, knowing that a benefactor is a most delicate piece, & must be tenderly handled. I confess also some of them to be very moral, & in the outward man not to be reproved, and yet being infected with heresy, are far from true piety. Neither herein do they go beyond Ari●s and thousands of his sect. What vice or corruption of manners can be laid to the charge of Novatus, or his disciples? Pelagius, Vigilantius, and many more, whose lives we find little or nothing taxed by such as in their writings have condemned them, yet were they most vile & wretched heretics notwithstanding what morality or seeming holiness so ever appeared in their outward conversations according to that of S. Aug. in Psal. 4. Vbi sana fides non est non potest esse vera justitia: where there is not a sound faith, there can be no true justice. And it hath been the custom of heretics from time to time (observed by the Fathers) under the veil of formal sanctity to shadow their wicked doctrines. Now our Friars be of two sorts, both naught, and both misbelievers. Either the Inventors and publishers of those damnable doctrines above refuted, or such as being their disciples do adhere unto them partakers of the same misbelief. For if I could find but one Friar among them, that would disclay me those errors, that would either write, or preach, or any way publish in his perambulations, the errors of his fellows: Oh how I would struck his head, and embrace him! how I would exempt him from the leaven, & corruption of his fellows, & would glory in his conversion! But O fearful is that saying of the Apostle S. john in his second Epistle speaking of the doctrine of the Church. Si quis venit ad vos, & hanc doctrinam non affert etc. If any man come unto you, & bring not this doctrine, receive him not into thy house, nor say, God save you, unto him. For he that saith unto him, God save you, (Note the consenting unto others in sin) communicateth with his wicked works. Now experience teacheth us, that not only the learned Friar, but the unlearned, and the lay-brother: yea the more unlearned, the more zealous, itchy, & busy are they in divulging among the ignorant people these salvations of habits, & scapulars, hawks bells, and hobby-horses. How then can the one be more excused than the other? Or why should they not all be put in one faggot, and sent to the fire together?  
So much then for the Friar. But yet my scrupulous reader desires to be further satisfied, and that is in a second point, demanding as thus. How can you Paul Harris be excused for being so harsh in your writings, and so disrespective unto your Ordinary, as may appear by sundry passages both of this, and other of your Books, especially being a Priest of his Diocese, & living within the compass of his jurisdiction. Ought not a good Priest with all reverence & respect, both in his words and writings, to show duty and obedience unto his Bishop? according to that of S. Paul, Ohedite praepositis vestris: Obey your superiors and such as be set over you. And S. Hierom ad Neopotianum. Esto subjectus Pontifici tuo, & quasi parentem animae tuae ama. Be obedient unto thy Bishop, and love him as the parent of thy soul.  
To which I answer. That indeed such is the privilege of Bishops by the Laws of holy Church, that none may either censure them, or publish & declare them to be heretics (speaking of such declaration as is intended by the Canon but only the Pope, neither before such declaration, according to the common opinion doth a Bishop lose his jurisdiction or the power of a Pastor over his flock, or in any of his three Censures; Excommunication, Suspension, or Interdiction. Yet notwithstanding all this, if a Bishop should obstinately maintain, and publish any doctrine condemned by the Church in a General Council, the least Priest in his Diocese might be so bold to call him an heretic, & both preach and write against him, for example of Arianisme, Donatisme, Pelagianisme, & the like, & yet remain subject to his jurisdiction notwithstanding. For the voice of the Church, which is the voice of God, is to be first heard and obeyed, and to be preferred before any other. And it is the rule of S. Aug. Ser. 6. de verbis Domini. Vbi duo superiores mandant opposita, inferiori non est obede●ndum. Where two superiors, for example, a General Council, and a Bishop, command opposite things, the Inferior is not to be obeyed. And conformable to this, is that conclusion of S. Thom. 2.2. q. 104.5. Subditiiu●●s tantummodo superioribus suis obedire tenentur, in quibus ipsisuis superioribus subjiciuntur, & in quibus ipsi superiores sublinior is potestatis praecepeo non adversantur. Inferiors in such things alone, are bound to obey their superiors, in which they are subject unto their superiors, and wherein those their superiors, go not against the precept & command of a power higher than is theirs. So S. Thom. And in the corpse of the aforesaid conclusion, he illustrateth the same doctrine out of S. Aug. ser. 6. de verbis Domini. by example of the Captain, the Proconsul, the General, and God. Where neither the Captain against the command of the Proconsul, nor the Proconsul against the precept of the General, nor the General against the command of God is to be obeyed by the subject.  
But now ex abundanti. What will you say? If The. Fleming Archbishop of Dublin did first exempt himself from all power & pastorship over his Priest Paul Harris? Is Paul Harris then any longer his subject? Sure by the rule of Relatives: If he be not my Pastor, I am no sheep of his pasture, I have either forgotten my Logic, Orby the same rule & reason, that he dischargeth himself of all cure, care and command over me, he exempts me also from all obedience and subjection unto him. Read then what followeth, witnessed by the firmes, and subscription of these two Reverend and grave Priests, both living at this day within the Diocese of Dublin.  
We whose names are here under subscribed, do testify: That in our presence, Tho. Fleming Archbishop of Dublin did renounce all correspondency either by word or writing with Paul Harris Priest, celling us plainly, that thence for ward be never would receive either letter or petition from him, or would meddle in any matter of his, for him, or against him: but wholly disclaimed all jurisdiction and power over him, wishing us to signify so much unto therefore said Paul Harris, which accordingly we did.  
May 24. anno 1631. PETER caddel Priest. WILLIAM SHER GOLD Priest.  
After this again, two of his Friars having threatened violence unto my person: I sent a petition unto Tho. Fleming Archbishop by the hands of two worshipful Aldermen my friends, beseeching him that he would by his authority, and the Laws of holy Church, provide for my security. His answer unto them was, That he would have nothing to do with me in any cause whatsoever, which Aldermen will not refuse at this day to justify the same. Lastly, having certain books detained from me by a Parish Priest, & a Friar Carmelite, I sent my complaint again unto him, by the hands of a Friar of his own order, (for unto his own presence he would not admit me) whose name is john Parry, but after he understood than the petition came from me, he neither would read or touch it, but did grow into choler with the Friar for presenting it unto him. Behold the equity, the mildness, the longanimity of a Friar Bishop, his charitable & prudent government, his care of administering justice unto a Priest of his charge. But I was a stranger, & must be strangely used, & in place of protection made a prey, not only to the wild beasts of the forest, but even unto the petulant and sturdy rams of the flock; by all which it appears that I may truly say & complain, as Almighty God did of the Ifra elites unto Samuel, 1. Reg. 8. No●●te abjecerant, sed me. They have not cast off thee; but me, that I should not trule over them. I have not cast off my Bishop, or withdrawn my obedience from him, but he hath cast off me: of which sort of desertion I persuade myself he will not be able to allege a precedent in the whole Church of God. Well, the Vine being thus forsaken of his stay, the sheep deprived of the care of his shepherd, as if with Daniel I had been thrown into the Lion's den. Lord, whose tongues were not untied? whose teeth not sharpened against me? Imo & in me psallebant qui bibebant vinum. Well, I then found by experience what formerly I had heard: That a man may live without father or mother, but not without justice. So than it happened. As concerning my books unjustly detained from me, no other remedy appearing, I repaired for justice unto the present Lord Chief justice of the King's Bench, to him I addressed my petition. And by means of his honourable command, I recovered them out of the hands of the injust detayners. But what follows upon this. Verily as the Poets feign, that in some storms all the winds have blown at one time, according to that, una curusque, Notusque ruunt, etc. So now all the whole Regularisme of this Kingdom from the four corners thereof; Monk, Dominican, Franciscan, Augustine, Carmelite, Capuchin; jesuit, with all their followers, God knows what an hideous tempest they raise against one poor Priest, how they rage, how they storm? And now the Friar Thom, Fleming who before had disclaimed me for a sheep of his flock, & would intermeddle in no cause of mine with me, or against me, begins to assume afresh his Episcopal jurisdiction over me, and divulgeth me both in public and private assemblies, to be excommunicate, and why forsooth? for bringing the Priest Brangan by a warrant (in the cause of my books) before a secular Tribunal: Upon this, no man hence forward must eat or drink with Paul Harris, no man may converse with him, no man must salute him, or bid God save him. For why? Incidit in canonem. He is fallen within the penalty of the Canon. Nay rather, Incidit in latrones, He fell into the hands of a company of the eves, who wounding him, and leaving him half dead, he had utterly perished, had not the good Samaritan taken compassion of him. Now albeit I have handled this matter in my late answer unto Thom. Fleming his Excommunication, yet for that this discourse draws me so aptly into the same controversy (a point of such debate at this day 'twixt the Clergy and the Regulars) it shall not be from the purpose to enlarge myself with some few additions, to what in my former books hath been delivered upon this Argument, as in the Chap. following.   

CAP. VII. The state of the Question is this: Whether in these Kingdoms under the government of the King of Great Brittainy. A man conventing an Ecclesiastical person in a cause merely civil before the tempotall Magistrate, hath ipso facto incurred Excom, De jurc.  
THe Bishop, (I will not say) with all his Clerks, but with all his Friars maintains, the Artirmative. In confirmation whereof they all●dge those known texts of the Canon and Counsels, cap. sivero lo. primo de sont, excom. e, si Index leisus co tit. Lib. 6. in extr. Martim ad reprimendum, 11. q. 1. where it is said that no Clerk may be convented before a secular judge either for cause civil, or criminal. So Concil. Chalcedonsan. 9 ●dgathènse can, 32. Carthag. 3. can. 9 etc. Bulla cene.  
For answer herennto I say that those and divers other texts out of the Canon may be alleged to that purpose. For I acknowledge (as in my book unto the Excommunication) that regularly speaking no ecclesiastical person may be convented, or empleaded before a temporal judge in any cause ecclesiastical, civil, or oriminall. Yet since humane laws are not obligatory till such time as they be received, according to that. Leges institnuntur cum promulgantur, confirmantur, dum approbantur Distinct in istis § prox. Laws are then ordained when they are published, but confirmed, when they are approved, yea and being received, and approved, may not only by the Lawmakers be repealed, or by privilege dispensed withal, but also by a contrary custom abrogated, according to that Dilect. 4. de Arbitris, cap. 2. Extra. de Consuetudinibus. Locorum consuetudines ubirationabiles sunt juri scripto derogare possunt. The customs of places being reasonable may derogate from the law written, and such is the doctrine of S. Aug. in his epistle ad Casulanum cited by S. Tho. 1.2. q. 97. ar. 3. Mos populi Dei, & instituta majorum prolege sunt tenenda, & sicut prevaricatores legum divinarum, it a & contemptores consuetudinum ecclesiasticarum coercendi sunt. The custom of God's people, and the ordinances of our ancestors are to be held for a law, and as the transgressors of divine laws, so the contemners of ecclesiastical customs are to be punished. They who desire more reason and authority for the confirmation of this point, let them read the Angelical Doctor, 1. 2. q. 97.3. Also 2.2. q. 79.2. and q. 100 2. and it hath the consent of all Divines.  
First then since it appeareth by the Registers of spiritual courts, that ecclesiastical persons from time to time have been convented in cases ecclesiastical before ecclesiastical judges, as in matter of doctrine, sacraments, benefices, tents. etc.  
And secondly since it appeareth by the Registers of the same courts, to such as will look into them, that ecclesiastical persons have usually been convented in causes criminal before the said Tribunals, as felonies, rapes, murders; etc. and either found innocent cleared, or guilty punished, and in crimes capital degraded, and so delivered unto the secular arm.  
And thirdly since it doth not appear by any Register or other testimony to be produced for these thousand years and upward, that any civil cause, as matter of lands. In heritances, debts, leases, sales, rents, purchases, etc. have been sued, or sentenced in any court of Bishops, Archdeacon's, or their officials, by virtue of any ecclesiastical power, or jurisdiction whatsoever. But of the contrary is manifest, and will well appear by the records of the King's Courts, by books of the common law, and their reports in every King's reign, that in the cases above mentioned, both Bishops, Priests, Abbots, Priors, Superiors of Convents, in behalf of their subjects, and all sorts of ecclesiastical persons, both male, and female, have had their trials in the aforesaid cases before the secular Tribunals: (witness both the Canonist, and the Common Lawyer) I say, these grounds considered, It is evident to any man of common sense, and understanding, that either that Canon which in these civil actions draws the plea unto the ecclesiastical court of Bishops, or any other spiritual judges, was either in these kingdoms never received: or if it were at any time in observance, by custom beyond all memory was abrogated. Neither need we to marvel thereat, for so much: as there wants not examples as well as doctrines leading us thereunto.  
For first, not to speak of the Canons of the late counsel of Trent. We see the Bull of Pius quintus de Censibus in few places besides Italy, and Spain, in viridi observantia, in due observance. And why? because it is not received.  
What Canon or Law of the Church more general, then that diparitas cultus derimit matrimonium. Difference of religion, that is where one party is a true believer, the other an Infidel or heretic dissolveth matrimony. And yet 
* Lib. 1. é 9 A●or. lib. 8. Mor. s. 11. ●. 5.  Becann● the jesuit tells us, that the Catholics of Germany marrying with the Lutherans incur no such impediment, neither before nor after matrimony, And why? Because (saith he) that law of the Church was either among them never received, or if so, by contrary custom abolished.  
Again Panor with Felinus in e, univer sitabis. As also Decius in e. dilectis num. 3. de Appell. tells us, that such lay men as by command of the Ecclesiastical ludge shall torture those whose persons are privileged from violence by that Canon, Si quir suadome diabola, etc. or for correction and punishment of their offences, shall beat such Monks, or Friars with rods, staves, or clubs, as well the ecclesiastical judge so commanding, as the lay persons executing his sentence, do both of them incur the Canon, and are excommunicated ipso facto de jure, And yet Graphius a grave writer, and a monk of S. Benet's order in his decisionibus aureislib. 2. cap. 49. excuseth as well the one, as the other, the judge as the executioners, by reason of a contrary custom practised in France and now of late brought into Italy, and maintains this custom contrary to the law, yea to be more reasonable than the law itself, namely that men of the laity, rather than of the Glergy, should be used as executioners in the aforesaid cases. Those who desire to set more examples of this nature, let them read Sotus de jure & justitia, Suarez, or Lessius of the same Argument.  
Now then to come home unto our case in hand, I mean, of civil causes commenced, pleaded, and determined in the King's Courts, the defendants being as well ecclesiastical, as lay persons in these Kingdoms of Britanny. May we not persuade ourselves that a custom so universally received, and without interruption continued since the Conversion of the Saxons under Pope Gregory the great, and King Ethelbert of England, for the space of a thousand years and upward, may not take place of the Canon that saith, Priests in all causes must be presented before ecclesiastical judges. Cap. Qualiter de judicijs? especially it being no less a law, and a Canon of the Church (as hath been before observed) That the customs of places being reasonable, may derogate from the law written, Ext. de consuetudinibus, declared above by some examples. Now then must I needs be foreed to beleev●● that all our Kings, Bishops, Nobles, judges, and Magistrates, by whose authority Ecclesiastical persons were convented in civil causes before secular Tribunals for a thousand years and upward, did all live and dye excommunicated, thrown out of the Church, as perished members, without hope of salvation, when as among our English Kings themselves, six of them were canonised Saints, of which honour no other kingdom of the earth can glory, namely, King Oswald, Etheldred, Edmund, Richard, Edgar and Edward the Confessor, many Bishops, as S. Augustine, S. Anselm, Dunsta●, Thomas all Archbishops of Canterbury, Richard of York, Cutbe●t of Duresme, Thomas of Hereford, etc. Alas while these and the rest of our country men were bound in the setters of Excommunication, where were our grey and black Friars? and the other zealous Regulars, whose parts it was at the least after their arrivellto have anmonished both prince, and people of their errors, to have preached and published books, condemning that practice, so conary to the laws (as these maintain) of holy Church, was the Pope and Roman court also asleep, for so many ages? and would not inform their spiritual children of so great a violation of the Canon had they misliked thereof? Nay rather is it not the universal consent of all divines, together with the Canon itself. That the permission of the Pope in any Church law, seeing the same either from the beginning not to be observed, or by contrary custom antiquated, and notwithstanding is silent, and makes no opposition thereunto excuseth the subject from sin, as presumed to approve and allow of the said practise. See for this glan cap. in ist is §. leges dist. 4. & in c. de treu. & pace, & in cap. cum multi 15. q. ult.  
For so much then, as it is certain, that as well ecclesiastical as secular superiors may oblige their subjects (albeit never so unwilling) to obey their just laws, so often then as they see the same laws not to be observed, and pass it over in silence, they sieme thereby contented therewithal, and such silence, and taciturnity of the Lawgiver may by the subject according to the former rules be expounded a full consent and approbation of his practice. Add hereunto the observation of a late English Franciscan, whose true name I understand is Dampart, and his usurped Franciscus à sincta Clara, in his late book Deus, Natura, Gratia, in which as my country man Edmund Bunny laboured in his treatise tending to Pacification, to reconcile the Roman Catholics to the Protestant profession. So this Friar of the contrary, by his glosses and paraphrastical expositions, labours to draw the Articles of the english confession, to the Catholic and Roman doctrines. But let the Friar wring, and wrest till he be weary, he shows himself but a time server, a slatterer, and a mere Alchemist, adulterating both the doctrine of them, and us, and seeking to please both, (a inst reward for such a work) contenteth neither, of whom it may be said, as of the dead serpent stretched all along upon the grass. Amo sic vixisse oportuit, yea so thou shouldest have lived. The serpent all his life long lives crooked, only after death is strait, so are many at this day both in their lives and doctrines very crooked, only death teacheth them how they ought to have lived themselves, and how to have taught others, to the example of the Apostle, 2. Cor. 2. Non enim sumus sicut plurimi adulterantes verbum Dei, sed ex sinceritate, etc. For we are not as very many adulterating the word of God, but of sincerity, and as of God, before God in Christ we speak.  
Well I must not forget for all my digressió wherefore I brought the Friar upon the stage namely for a testimony against his fellow Triars of this kingdom to show how unlike to untuned Virginalis their wires do jangle: these maintaining that civil actions against a Priest must be heard, and determined in the Bishop's consitory, the English Friar in the King's courts, for which he produceth his authors. His words are as follow in his paraphrase upon the 27. article, Confess. Anglicana. Regibus autem nostris fursse sic eoncessum jus nominand●, & providendi, de beneficies testatur post alios Harp●feldius seculo 14 fursse etiam aliam consuct●●dinem ex privilegio ort am immemorialem causas Clericorum cognoscendi, patet ex decisione Rotae, 804. ut communiter citatur. To our Kings was granted the right of nomination, and provision of benefices, as after others witnesseth Harpsfeild in the 14. age. As also another custom time out of mind sprung from a privilege of taking knowledge of the causes of Clergy men, as appear by the decision of the Rota, as it is commonly cited. So the English Friar. This Do. Harpsfeild, as I take it, was Archdeacon of Canterbury in Queen Mary her days, and continued the ecclesiastical history of England from Venerable Bode his time to his own. Decisiones Rota are the very life, and quintessence of the Canon law, so called from a known office in Rome called the Rota. But neither of these books are with me, for which I use the Friar's quotation.  
And now the infirmity of my body not permitting me to proceed further, which for the space of these 2. months hath much afflicted me, and daily increasing upon me, I am forced thus abruptly to break off rather then to make an end. Beseeching almighty God of his infinite mercy to grant me, and all my Adversaries, and all those who profess the name of jesus Christ to live and dye in true faith, hope, and charity. And so hoping to see the good things of our Lord in the land of the living, I take my leave of the world.  
Mundus non mundar, sed mundus polluit. Ergo  
Qui manet in mundo, Quomodo mundus erit!  
But how truly may I say with old Tobias, Great art thou, O Lord, who dost wound and heal, who brings unto the gates of death, and back again, Tob. 13. And so while yet we have time, operemnt bonum ad omnes, let us do good to all, especially to the domestics of faith, as the Apostle adviceth us. It being the office of a good pastor, as well to seek the stray sheep, as to feed the ninety and nine.   

CAP. VIII. An Objection answered.  
THere remains then a difficulty to be removed, for some will well allow of my precedent discourse, were it not for one block which lies in their way, confessing indeed, that in all causes merely civil Clerks were anciently empleaded in the King's temporal courts. Neither (say they) was this to be misliked, so long as these kingdoms did stand constant in the profession of the Catholic and Roman religion, but since they have declined therefrom; and that the Magistrates are now of an other opinion, and profession in the service of God, then in those times they were. That of the Apostle seems to take place writing to the Corinthians who having received the law of our Saviour, did notwithstanding in their worldly controversies draw one another unto the heathen tribunals, Sic nonest inter vos sapiens quisquam? etc. So is there not among you any wiseman that can judge between his brother? but brother with brother contendeth in judgement, and that before unbeleivers. 1. Cor. 7. Now therefore (say these men.) It is not lawful in these countries (rebus sic stantibus) to draw clergy men to the secular tribunals of Protestant judges.  
To which I answer. That the Argument which concludes more than it ought, is always vicious, and that reason which may be retorted upon the arguer, is ever inconsiderately propounded. For if that passage of the Apostle were a precept, and so binding under sin to obedience, than not only the Ecclesiastic but the lay Catholic might not be compelled to answer before such Magistrates, forsomuch as S. Paul speaks generally of all the faithful without any distinction. And therefore our Rhemists according to the universal consent of the fathers do understand the words of the Apostle in the nature of a Council, and not of a command. And happy (I confess) it were, if that Apostolical council and advice were followed, namely that controversies and suits 'twixt parties, which are many times commenced for light causes, and more out of stomach, malice, and revenge, then of good conscience, might be composed at home by friends, and neighbours, sine strepitu forens●, without this lawyerly pleading at the Bar, the benefit whereof is commonly small and uncertain, but the discommodities both great, and apparent, as loss of time, expense of money, with much disquietness and vexation of mind. But this is a happiness rather to be wished, then ever to be expected among such variety of wills, hnmours, and dispositions, as the world more than ever abounds withal. But to hold it absolutely unlawful for Christians to wage law before public tribunals as it is at this day the heresy of the Anabaptists. So to deny that the Roman Catholics may convent or be convented in the courts of such magistrates under whom they live, notwithstanding what difference soever in matter of religion, smells very strong of the heresy of Wicliffe condemned in the Council of Constance. Forsomuch as it is the consent of all divines, that no variety of opinion, no error in faith, no infidelity destroys or takes away the power of the civil magistrate, either supreme, or subordinate. Such obedience then as heretofore was due unto Catholic princes by their subjects, the same is no less due unto their successors of what opinion in matters of faith soever they be. Religion being but accidental and not at all essential unto civil principality ordained by God for the politic and peaceable government of mankind, according to that: Per me Reges regnant, & legam conditores justadesernunt. Prov. 8. By me King's reign, and those who make laws determine just things. If then clergy men were lawfully convented in civil actions before Catholic princes, and Magistrates, in times past (as hath been proved) so no less also may they be before Protestants at this day, and the contrary doctrine of our Friars and their followers, is but a corner doctrine, and of no good subjects. And if not of their own choice and free election, it were both good for the Church and common wealth and also for themselves, that they might be forced both to live and teach conformable to their holy institutes, and so happily there would be an end of all Controversies 'twixt the Clergy and them.   

An Epistle of the Author unto Thomas Fleming alias Barnwell Archbishop of Dublin.  
AS I began with an Epistle unto Pope Vrbanus 8. now sitting at the helm of S. Peter's Bark. So it will not be impertinent by reason of some late occurrents to conclude with an Epistle unto Tho. Fleming Archbishop of Dublin in the behalf of the poor distressed Clergy of his Diocese. If any marvel wherefore I do address my letters unto him rather in print, then in private, the cause is, (as I have declared in the 6. chap.) That upon what humour, or by whose persuasion I know not, he refuseth to receive any letter from me, sent unto him by any private messenger. Yet what I publish in print, I find that he most diligently peruseth. Now for that my desire is, he should read what I write, whether I be his friend, (as I persuade myself I am.) Or his Adversary (as he supposeth,) yet even from an Adversary some benefit may be reaped. Else had Plutarch never writ his book, Deutilitate ab inimico capienda. Of the commodity to be made of an enemy. Nor ever had S. Monica the mother of that great S. Aug. been taught to drink water, had not her shrewd may the in her anger called her a wine bibber, as S. Aug. himself tells us in the 9 book of his Confess. chap. 8. You see then how I endeav our to comply with the Archbishop's humour, and that to the example of divers holy, and learned men, who have divulged unto the world those very same Epistles which they have directed unto particular persons without any private mission, or signature sometimes commending their good actions, sometimes reproving their bad. So S. Hicrom, so S. Bernard admonishing not only Bishops, and Abbates, but even Popes, and princes of their excesses. But it will be said that they were Saints, and I a poor sinner: yet (say I) they were not known by that style, when they wrote those Epistles, but with much more humility then doubtless is in me, they confessed themselves to be sinners, and so of sinners became Saints. But to our purpose.  
S. Paul writing unto Titus whom he had made Bishop tells him, that therefore he left him in Crete to place Priests by cities as he appointed him. Tit. 1. 5. and in the same chap. he showeth of what quality and condition those Priests should be. Me thinks in S. Paul I hear the Apostolical father Pope Vrbanus 8. commanding Tho. Fleming whom he made Archbishop, and sent into Ireland, that he should make and constitute priests in his dio esse. And so indeed, it cannot be denied but he hath done, for besides what hath passed in the country, we observe that in this city of Dublin in place of F. Tho. coile Pastor of S. Michaells', and in place of F. Luke Rochfort, sometimes pastor of S. Andeons he hath constituted F. Patrick Brangan and F. Edmund Doyle (I say) upon the decease of the 2. former, who in their life time conversed with such commendations in the house of God, which is his Church, as they have left behind them a sweet odour, as well of their pastoral, as personal virtues among us, insomuch as their names and memories remain grateful to posterity. Now if those their successors before mentioned do in all vigilancy, charity, chaslity, sobriety, and longanimity, emulate their predecessors, than neither will the Archbishop I know, who designed them unto those eminent places the 2. eyes of his episcopal See, nor the present Incumbents themselves be offended with me, for inserting their names into this my Epistle, neither need they to blush, or be ashamed thereof, for so much as the Apostle saith that such Priests as govern well their flocks are worthy of double honour especially they who labour in the word and doctrine, and to whom, no doubt it shall be said in that day, Euge serve bone & fidelis quia in pauca fuisti fidelis, etc. Well done good and faithful servant, for that thou hast been faithful in small matters, I will set thee over great, enter into the joys of thy Master. And so much for those 2. Rectories or pastorships, conferred as we have seen by the Ordinary, and upon what persons.  
Now so it happened again as within these few weeks a third parish also became vacant by the decease of the late Incumbent Fa. William Donagh in S. Thomas street the suburbs of Dublin. And it is worthy our consideration to observe how our Archbishop ever like himself proceeded in the collation thereof. We find that Popes sometimes by way of provision, as the Canonists term it, to places of great dignities, as Archbishoprics, and the like have in the life time of the Incumbents nominated their successors, who upon the vacansie, were to take possession of them. So (I take it) that Anselmus, and after him Lanfrancus was preferred to the See of Canterbury. To which imitation happily Tho. Fleming. Diocesian of Dublin (either to show the superaboundance of his pastoral care, or else to let the world understand how little he regards what opinion his clergy conceives of him) made a designation of 4. several Priests to that one Pastorship, the profit whereof will hardly pay for a man's chamber and diet by the year, and this he did during the life of the Incumbent, who deceasing, one of the 4. enjoys it, the other 3. are frustrated, and what conceive they of this their Archbishops dealing, but that they were merely deluded, and gulled by him, pretending great care of their preferment, and minding no thing less. Sure if a farmer of Fing all shall pass his promise in any matter of moment unto 4. of his neighbours, which can be made good but unto one, I wot well he shall be called but a cozening churl. If a Gentleman or a noble man shall do the like, men's censures happily may be more civil in terms, but their opinions not a whit the better. For as their equals will disrespect them, so their inferiors will be sure to set their black marks upon them. But for a man not only of a noble family, but a Priest, and an Archbishop whose persons are held sacred, to be found either with guile in their lips, or gifts in their hands, What can we say? but listing up our voice with our Saviour in admiration. Filius hominis veniens putas inveniet fidem in terra? Luke 18. The Son of man coming do you think he will find Faith upon earh.  
It is not I. It is not I who reveiles pudenda mei patris. No, no I would be sorry so to do, but even Sem and japhet, no less than Cham have done it. Decantant●r per urbem in trivies & compitis, in all conversations, his letters, his firmes, his seals, his subscriptions are read, are perused, are seen, are censured, For so it followeth.  
To his loving friend, M. james Archbald these be delivered.  
Dear father, Send for Fa. De lamar, and deliver him this enclosed, and let him by his friends labour to get the good Will of the best of the parish, in case Fa. William dyeth, as you write he is like to do, but let none see the enclosed until he dies, and let not Fa. William know of it, fearing to trouble the good man, whom God comfort, as wisheth your assured. Tho. Barnwell. This present Sunday.  
The Letter enclosed in the former, is, as followeth.  
To his very loving friend, M. Martin Delamar. these at Cromlin be delivered.  
LOving Fa. To my great grief, I understand, Fa. William Donough to be dangerously sick, I pray you look to him, and his parish, and if God do call him to himself, I do hereby give your R. in that parish the same power to minister pastoral sacraments, and use pastoral function, as he formerly had, but I hope God will lend him a little longer unto us. His holy will be done. Recommend the next pare of your parish to Cromlin to Fa. Ri. Glackney the rest near Palmerston to Fa. Quin, until I think further of the matter. So desiring God to assist good Fa. William, I rest your assured. Tho. Barnwell. April 20. 1634.  
Notwithstanding the Priest Dela Mar, forall these fair promises made unto him in his letter, was disappointed of the Parish, and another placed therein. And it seemeth albeit the Archbishop subscribed the letter he writ him. Your assured Thomas Barnwell yet it was but a complemental and a ceremonious assurance. For the good priest found it nothing real at all, as the event proved. Some are of opinion that when the Archbishop intends otherwise then he writes, he than subscribes Tho. Barnwell, but when he writes as he intends, than he subscribes his letters, Tho. Fleming, Is ne animis calestibus astus? May we think such heathenism to rule in heavenly minds? O no! charity would make a more pious construction of such a prelate's actions. Wherefore I am rather persuaded that the Archbishop never fails to make good his word or promise unto any (of which from time to time I confèsse, he is more challenged than all the Bishops in Ireland) (I say) that he never violateth or breaketh the same, either as he is Tho. Fleming, or Tho. Barnwell, or as he is of a noble house, or as he is a Priest, or as he is an Archbishop, but only as he is a Friar, to which sort of people, either lying is essential, or sure in many men's opinions proper, quarto mode, and even in the judgement of that most pious and learned Monk Tho. Walsingham speaking of the Friars in these words (not now first by me alleged) In tantum etenim illam veritatis professionem suam perverse vivendo macularunt, ut in dicbus ist is in one cujustibet bouwn set argumentum, teneus tam de forma, quam materia. His est frater; Ergo mendax. sicut & illud. Ho est album: Ergo coloratum. 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, Ergo a liar. Even as to say. This thing is white, and therefore hath a colour. So Tho. Walsingham in the reign of Richard 2. fol. 266.  
But some will say Cuibonam? To what end should the Archbishop use such doubling, or to whose benefit in conferring of benefices are the waters always so troubled among us? I answer, therein lies a mystery not yet reveiled unto babes. You know S. Paul wisheth that in the Churchall things be done Ad adificationem, I. Cor. 14. and so it is with us, but how? Ad adificationem Regularium, to the building up of the Friars Monarchy, and destruction of the Clergy, for this is the common Antiphona sung in the Irise Church in these days, Up with the Friars: and, Down with the Priests. Now for our Archbishop albeit unto strangers, & such of the laity as take no notice of his proceedings, these things are hidden and obscure, yet the Priests of the Hierarchy who have summered and wintered him now these ten years, do feelingly understand the drice of his designs. Neither in any thing doth he more service unto the Regular orders then to make these embroylements in the conferring of pastorships.  
For first by these anticipate promises of one parish unto many (none suspicious of any promise made unto other than himself) our prelate observes, which of them is most serviceable and dutiful unto his Friars, which of them is the best benefactor with their friends to him, & his order, which of them is likest to prove â Iohannes ad oppositum to the rest of his own body, and to prove the most factious against the Clergy, in siding with the Friars on whom henceforward he is to have his whole dependence.  
Secondly, by this precollation of benefices unto many, sede nondum vacant the Ordinary finds which of them is like to prove the most gracious unto the parishioners and which of them is the most like to draw the good liking, love and affection, of the laity unto him. For that priest shall be assured (notwithstanding all his golden promises) to go without the parish. For it is against the Friar's greatness that any should be more pleasing unto the people than their selves.  
Thirdly, by this conferring of Cures aforehand unto diverse parties ignorant one of another. It may be expected that every one of them armed with a promise from the Bishop and he happily a far off in some friary in the country when they fall void, that these competitors may enter into some scandalous contestation one with another, every one thinking himself wronged by the other, an occasion which the Friars will not omit to take hold of, to traduce them both in private and public assemblies, and for their sakes the rest of the Clergy as men seditious, factious, contentious, covetous, especially to and before the laity, and all to alienate their minds from them, like unto greedy millers every one striving to draw the grise unto their own mills, notwithstanding that the same Friars have been the plotters and incentors of all those differences.  
Lastly, let it be always remembered as a golden rule and the most principal maxim of their policy, that the most insufficient pretender of any cure be the man that shall be ever preferred: experience by induction of examples hath furnished us with that knowledge, for a Priest whom God hath blessed with talents of learning & good parts is an Aristides, not fit to live in Athens, but rather to be banished per ostracismum, For it is concluded by our Regular Bishops that the Friars must shine amidst such blind curates, Tanquam lunainter minora sidera, like the moon among the lesser stars.  
You see my Lo. I am no flatterer, neither is the discontent of missing a benefice under you that makes me so plain with you, for notwithstanding that I have lived in this kingdom now very near these twenty years, you know neither myself, nor any other for me, did ever motion such a business unto you. And albeit (I hear) some have wished you to thrust a steeple into my mouth, and thereby to silence me, yet (I ingenuously confess) sooner should old Eleazarus eat swine's flesh, then that I would swallow the same; Not but that to be a pastor of souls is an honourable vocation in God's Church, but that I am now too old, to be a Friar's horseboy. No, no let us have no new fashions in church government, the old is the best, & such as was ordained by our Saviour. Let us keep our old priests, & send back these swarms of friars over unto their monasteries where they may live according unto their holy Institutes, & not here to vagabundare per tabernas & popinas, selling their merits, their prayers, their penances & mortifications, yea not only of their own persons, but of their whole orders, and that under large sealed patents, unto Cooks for diet, to merchauts for broad cloth suits, to gentlemen for horses, etc. besides oppressing a poor country with such shameless begging, as little differeth from mere rapine & extortion. The church may subsist, yea, flourish without friars, but not without priests, as for many ages it hath done. For be they white, black, or grey, they are of a latter institute then the priests, these being the successors of the Apostles, & the 42. disciples, they of S. Francis, Dominick & Ignatius. & of a distinct hierarchy. If I be a john Baptist & preach in the wilderness without profit: That is not my fault, but the fault of them that will not amend their faults. It were more pleasing & contentful to me to come in spiritu lenitatis, in the spirit of mildness, then in the rod of correction. If the subject were so disposed. Let those for whose good I take all these pains both in health & sickness, reform their manners, & I will soon alter both my voice & style, & I wish with all my heart that I had cause to say with th'Apostle, If I have made you sad, either by my books, or by my Epistle, it repenteth me not, for that you were so made sad unto repentance. Well to conclude all in oneword. Paul may plant & Apollo may water, but God is he, who gives the increase, to whose blessings I humbly commend these my poor endeavours, myself, my friends, my persecutors.  
From the Cell of my solitary recollection, who wisheth your-Hon: all-happinesse PAUL HARRIS. Pr.    

I Hear, that some of our divines (if worthy that name) take great exceptions unto me, for calling the Catholic Bishops of Ireland, Titulary Bishops, by which term they understand no true Bishops at all. But sure if I had been able to have put wit into their heads as well as a book into their hands, they had been freed from that error. Let them then consult with the Canon, or if they have it not, let them look into Bellar. de Clericis lib. 1. cap. 17. And they will find this to be a good argument, teneus tam de 〈◊〉 qua● de materia. Hic est episcopus titularis. Ergo verus: even as that. Hic est parochus. Ergo presbyter. But I am no better than my predecessors, as many as have exposed themselves to public consures by their writings. For all of us may say with Terentianus Manrus.  
Pro captu lectoris habene sua fata libelli.   

PAge 28. lin. 2. read a thousand owo hundred. pag. 29. lin. 20. for cis, read ea. pag. 49 for Patrick, read Patriarch. pag. 88 lin. 21. for unlike, read like.