A QVARTRON OF REASONS OF CATHOLIC RELIGION, WITH AS MANY BRIEF REASONS OF REFUSAL: By Tho. Hill.   depiction of the Crucifixion 
Imprinted at Antwerp, with Privilege. 1600.   

A COPY OF A LETTER SENT FROM TWO CITIZENS of London, to their friend remaining beyond the Seas for cause of Religion.  
WE had great hope (dear friend) that you would have been a stay and comfort to us all, and an ornament to your kindred and Country, and therefore no costs nor charges were spared in bringing you up in learning, but all was thought well bestowed, not doubting but if God spared you life, you would in time be able, not only to provide well for your own self, but also to pleasure the best of your friends. But we see all to fall out quite contrary, to our great grief & endless anguish: for the blind opinions, and self-willed conceits which you have taken, have overthrown the good fortune which otherwise lay before you, they have discredited you with your kindred, disgraced you in your country, caused you to have your native soil, and to lead a poor life in a straying land. And yet all these might in some sort be borne, were they not accompanied with the endless moan of your Parents. If you well remember, you were long since told, that if you persevered to take, & to hold such opinions as you then began to do, your burning would stand you in small steed, and consequently your kinsfolks and friends should have little joy, or comfort of you. And so we see it is come to pass. Your aged Parents never cease to urge us to write to you, to move you yet at the length to remember yourself, and either by returning to amend all which is amiss, or else by showing some Reasons to purge yourself, and so to yield them some satisfaction. We therefore pray you in all kindness to write unto us, & if by no means you will be drawn back from this doleful course, yet vouchsafe to set down some reasons of your Religion, to the end you may clear and purge yourself of the suspicion of sottishness, and selfe-wilfulnesse. For you are mightily condemned, and of your kinsfolks here, thought to be, 
Bud. ex Cicer.  Opinator vehemens, one very opinative, for that you stick so stiffly to the old, which here in a manner of all sorts is utterly condemned as a gross and a palpable error. Yet have not we your loving friends so base conceit of you, but we rather think that you have great and weighty Reasons (at the least in your own judgement) to move you to take so hard a course as you do. Our desire therefore is, that we may have them written, and sent us in as brief manner as you possibly may, (for to return we will not move you, except we thought you would conform yourself to the Laws and Religion of your Country) thereby to show and to declare to them who wish you well, that you are no such opinions companion, as some would have you to be. Thus hoping you have a care to accomplish our request, and not to reject our Letters, and neglect the answering of them, as your wont and custom hath been heretofore, with our most hearty commendations, we commit you to God Almighty. London this 13. of September. 1599  
Your very loving friends, R. & G.H.   

A COPY OF THE ANSWER TO THE LETter aforegoing.  
MY DEER AND loving friends, the 23. of Octob. Ann. 1599 I received your Letter, dated the 13. of September of the same year. In it you give me to understand, how that my Parents, with other of my kindred, as also you yourselves do greatly grieve for that you are frustrated of the hope, and expectation, you had of my worldly ability in time to come, with many other profess, of my blind opinion, self-willed conceits, crossing my good fortune, of disgrace among my kindred, banishment, poverty, and of other such like. All which words I count but as wind, or as vain flourishes, the more for that I see all your affection towards me to be mere carnal, and that you love me, Amore concupiscentiae, rather than Amore amicitiae, seeking your own good thereby, as may appear by your own writing, yet do I construe all in the best manner. And whatsoever you writ or say, I know doth proceed from love and affection, and from true amity, but yet savouring merely of flesh and blood. I know my Parents to be kind and loving, according as nature giveth to them the instinct so to be, and I for my part am ready, & ever have been to yield to them all duty of an obedient Son, as also to you the offices required in a kind friend. But this I must entreat both them and you, to give me leave to serve and to honour God Almighty, who is Father of all Fathers, and therefore more to be hearkened unto than any kindred, yea or creature whatsoever. Which thing I cannot do but by cleaving to this Religion, wherein I was Borne, baptized, and Confirmed, and which I am most strongly persuaded in my understanding and conscience, to be the only true Religion. Which settled persuasion and assurance of Faith is not removable by any human means, & therefore in vain do you write such letters unto me, and in vain do my Parents grieve at my course, for I more lament your state and theirs, than you do mine. Assure yourselves that I can never be persuaded but that I take the only way to gain Heaven, and so to save my soul, and only for that end do I take this course of life, as God Almighty best knoweth, and me thinketh you should not deem it to be any discredit or disgrace so to do, considering I cleave to the Religion of all our Ancestors and Forefathers, which hath been Universal over all Christendom, for above these thousand years, and therefore cannot disgrace me, but it must disgrace the whole Christian world also. Indeed if I took or held any new opinions, as of Puritanisme, Brownisme, Martinisme, or of Family of Love, or such like newe-sprung conceits, you might both justly condemn my course, & be utterly ashamed of such a brainsick fellow as should cross his worldly welfare by such sottishness, and selfe-wilfulnesse. To satisfy my Parents and your request, I have here written and sent you a Quartron of Reasons of Religion, not intending thereby to persuade you or others there, to this religion which I profess, because I know that to be dangerous, as prohibited by the laws of the land wherein you live; but only to show to them who wish me well, what grounds, and reasons I have for my doings. I could have yielded you so many (if I had thought it fit so to have done) as would have made up a just volume, and yet have left behind me infinite more: but I thought these to suffice, for that I know you have not leisure, or at the least are unwilling to trouble yourselves with reading overmuch of such matter. I term them a quartron of reasons, because that number is usual here in this Country, signifying the fourth part, or quarter of an hundred; for when they will name any number, as we usually do when we say a dozen, a score, etc. they say unquartron, and by that number they commonly buy buttons, lace, etc. as we do by dozen in England. Take them in good part my dear friends, and assure yourselves that wheresoever I live, I will still carry a true English heart with me, by ever bearing a sacred & reverent respect towards my Sovereign Princess, and my dear country; as also a dutiful and obedient mind to my loving Parents, and a friendly affection towards you: for I would not have you to think, that living out of my Country for my conscience, doth any way hinder the duties aforesaid: for I call God to witness, who is the searcher of all hearts, that (my Religion reserved) I be are all loyalty, affection, & fidelity, which a poor Subject ought to do, towards our Sovereign Queen Elizabeth, (whom I pray God bountifully to bless, and allave affection towards my native Country, with duty to Parents, and love to kindred as is aforesaid. And thus desiring my father & mother's blessing, with many humble commendations to them, and no fewer to you, I leave you to our Lord, who send us all of his heavenly grace. From my Chamber at Phalempyne this 16. of February Anno 1600.  
Your very loving friend. T. H.   

THE I. REASON. If the Prophecies of the Holy Bible be true, (as they be most true) then must the Religion of the Protestants needs be false.  
BEFORE the coming of the MESSIAS, there was not any people, or nation which did serve the true and living God, but only the jews, all others whatsoever being overwhelmed in a Sea of blindness, & worshipping false Gods, which indeed were Devils, and thereupon the Master Devil LUCIFER was termed Princeps huius mundi: that is, 
joan. 12.  Prince of this world, for that he was honoured and worshipped in all Lands, & Kingdoms, jewrie, and that in part, only excepted: which miserable state & condition God of his infinite mercy greatly pitying, promised in time to send a Saviour, which should Redeem all nations & people, free them from that pitiful servitude and blindness, and bring them to the knowledge of true and right Religion, by suffering death, and consequently by planting a Church, to the which all nations should repair. This he did foretell by diverse & sundry Prophets, as by Esay, 
Cap. 2.  who said the Church should be as a mountain, to the which, All Nations should flow. And many people shall go and say: Come and let us ascend to the mountain of our Lord: and after, Idols shall utterly be bruised, and to be brief, all this Chapter, yea all the rest in a manner foreshow the same matter, declaring most plainly the conversion of all Nations to the Church of the Messias, 
Cap. 49. & 60. Dan. 2. & 7. I●sal. 47. Mich. 4.  and how Kings and Queens should come and do homage unto it, & that it should ever continue without interruption, and that it should be most ample & large the Prophet David most manifestly foretelleth, 
Luc. 1. Psal. 71.  saying that it should extend, From Sea to Sea, and from the river to the ends of the world, and how the Aethiopians should fall down Before the Messias, with the kings of Tharsis, Arabia, and Saba, and to be short, all kings, and people should acknowledge this Church, as innumerable propesies of the old Testament do plainly foreshow. Hereupon it was that good men thirsted, & longed so greatly for the coming of the Messias, knowing that by him all people which sat in darkness, and in the shadow of death, should be lightened, delivered, and set in the right way to Heaven. And so our Saviour himself being now in the way to jerusalem to suffer, said. Now the Prince of this world shall be cast out: 
joh. 12.  and If I shall be exalted from the earth, I will draw all to to myself; meaning by his Passion to draw all people from heathenish Idolatry to serve him. Now if the Religion of the Papists (as these new men term them) be false and erroneous, then is it against the Messias, and consequently it is a Religion of the devils own invention, and he the master & inspirer thereof, and so by it he is served and worshipped, and then must it needs follow that the Prophets were false, yea Christ himself said not truly, in telling his Disciples, That the Prince of this world, that is, the devil should then be cast out, and that he would draw all to himself, for that since his Passion, the devil hath had a more large and ample dominion than he had before. For before the coming of the Messias, the people of the jews, and Gentiles, and almost all Nations, tribes, and Kingdoms, have been ever in Lucifer his thraldom until this our age, in which Luther came to expel Lucifer, and to rid all the world out of his captivity. And so the Passion of our Rendeemer availed little or nothing at all for the space of these fifteen hundred years, & for a thousand years together he was not so far from drawing all unto him as he said he would do, 
joh. 12.  that he drew not so much as one person, that any man can name. And in our own Country there of England, it is most manifest that all were Papists, without exception, from the first Christening thereof until this age of King HENRY the eight. 
Luther. in postil. Gerard 1537. part. 2. fol. 141.  And so the Protestants affirm of other Countries, and boldly say, that until this age, the Gospel lay in the dust, and was hidden under the bench, & CHRIST was unknown. Which to say (as the protestants must needs say, & blush not so to say indeed) is mere madness, & flat infidelity, and a plain denying of Christ, & no small establishment of Mahomet's religion. For the Protestants & mahometans agree in this, that the Church which Christ founded, fell some five or six hundred years, after his Ascension, into most horrible errors, and then (say the Turks) the Angel Gabriel was sent from God to Mahomet, to teach him how he should reform the said Church, because it would not stand with the wisdom, and goodness of Almighty God, to suffer his Church to vanish away through errors, & superstitions, without sending in time to reform it. And in this out of doubt the Turks have far greater reason than the Protestants have, which Protestants by their Doctrine make Christ the most simple, and most improvident Lawegiver that ever was in the world. For neither Plato, Solon, Lyeurgus, nor any other Lawemaker whosoever, was so simple and improvident, as to fashion and plant a common wealth, which before it were well settled, should vanish away, and come to nothing, having no sufficient means to prevent errors, and such abuses as would overthrow their Laws, and destroy their common wealths. And therefore if Christ be God, and the Holy Bible true, the religion of the Papists, must needs be that religion which he ordained, and left to all generations, and consequently, the only true and right religion.   

THE II. REASON. The name of Catholics.  
NO man can justly deny, but that they who ever have holden the name of Catholics, and have been known thereby, were undoubtedly of true religion, for that they had ever on their side the Scriptures, Miracles, Fathers, councils, and Martyrs, and for that every one which was against them, was ever accounted, & reputed for an Heretic. And the same Catholics were ever taken as the trounke, or as the body of the tree, and all others bearing the name of Christians, as branches, or boughs cut off the same tree. Now all the world knoweth, that whosoever in any age, was a member of the Roman Church, & under the obedience of the high Bishop thereof, he was ever taken for a Catholic, and so termed, although in these our days it hath pleased the protestāns, to call such by the name of Papists, which indeed is all one with the name Catholics, for that it signifieth such as follow & embrace the Doctrine of that Church which hath for her head under Christ the Pope. And it is not amiss as Saint Chrysostome saith, 
Hom. 33. in acta.  to be named of them who govern the Church in Christ's steed, so that they take not their name of any particular man, as Heretics do. But yet the Catholics are not called Papists, but only of a few Lutherans in Germany, and of some others their adherents in other countries near about, for in Greece, Asia, Africa, & in the Indies, as in Italy, Spain, Sicily, and in other countries of Europe, the name of Papists is utterly unknown. The name therefore of Papists is no name commonly used, but only of a few, and never heard of before Luther invented it, for that he could not call them after the proper name of any one man, because there was never any such in the Church, which either brought up any new Doctrine, or changed the Religion of his Predecessors, whereas contrariwise, heretics have ever taken their names of some one who began that heresy: as the Nestorians, of Nestorius, the Pelagians, of Pelagius, Lutherans, of Luther, Caluinists, of Caluin, etc. And although Luther termed them Papists, yet knew he so well in his conscience, that they ever had been, and aught to be called Catholics, as that he caused his followers to change their Creed, in saying: 
Brist. Mo. 1  I believe the Christian Church, and not: 
☜  I believe the Catholic Church: for fear lest they should be thought to confess that they believed in the Church of Rome, which ever was called Catholic. And it seemeth that the Protestants know in their own consciences, the name of heretics to be so proper to themselves, as that in their translations of the Bible, where the name Heretic occurreth, they put in place of it, a man that is the author of sects: assuring themselves that the Reader finding the word Heretic, or Heresy, would presently judge it to be meant of them. As for their own name, whereby they term themselves protestants (which name they take from certain Lutherans in Germany, who first named themselves so, differing, and disagreeing altogether from these Protestants in Doctrine) it is new, and never heard of before in the world, and of the same quality and condition, that the name Zwinglians is of. And therefore I conclude with the saying of Saint Hierome. 
Adverse. Lucif. Chrysost. in act. hom 33. & just. in Tryph.  If any where thou hear, them, which are said to be of Christ, to be termed, not of our Lord jesus Christ, but of some other, as Marcionites. Valentinians, Hil-brethrens, or Fielde-breethrens, be thou sure, that they are not the Church of Christ, but the Synagogue of Antichrist.   

THE THIRD REASON. Unity and Consent.  
THE Catholic Roman Religion being received by so many Nations, in Africa, Asia, & Europa, & in this last age in both the Indies, hath notwithstanding such variety of wits, such diversity of manners, such multitude of tongues and languages, such distance of places, such numbers of matters to be believed, yet ever kept Unity, & Concord in such peaceable and consonant manner, as never any one in England or Ireland, which are the uttermost parts of the west-world, dissented, or disagreed in any point of Doctrine, concerning Faith, from him which lived in the utmost parts of the East. But whosoever they be, or in what place, or region soever they remain in all the world, if they be catholics or papists (if you will call them so) they all have one Faith, one Belief, one Service, one number of Sacraments, one Obedience, one judgement in all, with other like points of Union, and Unity, which maketh a general uniformity also in the peace of men's minds, and to be brief they have all one heart, and one soul: But on the other side, 
Act. 4.  if you look into the doings of Protestants, you shall see such dissensions, such divisions, such schisms, such contrariety of opinions; as the like was never among the Arrians, among the Eutychians, among the Donatists, among the Nestorians, among the Valentinians, no nor yet amongst the most jarring Heretics that ever were. So as you may plainly behold in Luther his seed the self-same thing that the Poets feign of Cadmus his sowing; you may see the Madianytes & Amalekites in one tent against the people of God; 
ovid. Metam. lib. 3. judic. 7.  builders of the tower Babel, accusers of chaste Susanna: for they are not only different, and divided from the general body of Catholics in Christendom, with whom they were united heretofore: but amongst themselves they have implacable wars. I would you did but see, what I have seen in these Countries, as concerning the deadly hatreds, contentions, and dissensions of Luther his offspring: as of the Muntzerans, Anabaptists, Adamites, Steblerians, Sabbataries, Clancularians, or Gartenbrijder, Manifestarians, Daemonians, Commonholders, Byslipers, Howling Anabaptists, Davidgeorgians, Memnonites, Polygamistes, Signifiers, Figurers, Valewers, Pledgers, Presentaries, Metamorphists, judaists, Neutersacramentaries, Image breakers, Zealous Lutherans, Soft Lutherans, or Interimistes, New-Arrians, Trinitaries, Hell-maisters, Hell-tormentors, Antidaemonians, Amsdorfians, Antadiaphoristes, Antosiandrians, Anti-Swenckefeldians, Anti Caluinists, Hand-impositors, Bisacramentarians, Sacerdotales, Inuisibilists, Scripturians, Adiaphorists, Trisacramentarians, Quadrisacramentarians, Luthero Caluinists, Semiosiandrians, Maiorists, Penitentiarians, Novi-pelagians, Politicke-Lutheranes, Swenckefeldians, Osiandrians, Stancarians, Antistancarians, New-Manichees, Sternbergers, and of such like: all which have sucked their errors out of the dregs of Luther's Doctrine, and yet forsooth, will be sound Protestants all. And what divisions you have there in England you may in some sort know, who do (as I think) now and then hear preachers of different doctrine. What combats your Bishops, councillors, & moderate sort of Protestants have to defend their Parlimentarie Religion, and the Queen's proceedings as they term it, against Puritans, brownists, & other suchlike good fellows, that by show of Scriptures impugn it, you can not but know & see with your eyes. Neither can it be answered, that the Sects here rehearsed differ one from another only in matters of small moment, for they differ and disagree in weighty points of our Salvation, as might here easily be declared, but that it would not benefit this mine intended brevity so to do.  
This Unity of CATHOLICS, and discord of PROTESTANTS, most manifestly showeth, that as the Apostles were they, for whom our SAVIOUR prayed to his FATHER, and was heard of him: Holy Father, keep them in thy name, whom thou haste given me, that they may be one, as we also be one, john seventeen: so they of the CATHOLIC ROMAN Religion, be they, for whom in the words following he prayed, and was heard: Not for them do I ask only, but also for them, which shall believe, by their preaching in me, that all may be one, as thou Father in me, and I in thee, that also they in us, may be one: and hereof it necessarily followeth, that they be of the true CHURCH, for that none but they observe and keep the Unity which he obtained for them of his Heavenly FATHER. 
Aug. l. 18. de civit. dei. C. 41.   
And surely it can not proceed but from the HOLY GHOST, that all Sacred writers of the CATHOLIC ROMAN CHURCH, although being men of divers Nations, Times, and Languages, yet have so wonderfully consented, and agreed amongst themselves, as we see they have done.  
And lastly, it is wonderful to behold, how all decrees of lawful Counsels, and of Popes do agree in all points of Doctrine, one with another, although they were made by divers men, in divers places, at sundry times, upon divers occasions, & against Heresies, not only most different, but oftentimes contrary one to another. This, no doubt, is the finger of God.   

THE FOUR REASON. Conversion of Countries.  
IT is most plain and manifest, that all Countries, which ever believed in Christ, were first converted to his faith by such, as either were precisely sent, or at the leastwise had their authority from the Pope, which lived in the time, in which they were converted. This thing is so openly set down in the History of the first conversion of every Country, as no Protestant, were he never so impudent, can without blushing deny it. True it is, that Heretics have corrupted such as were Catholics before, but that they ever converted any Heathen Nation to Christianity can never be showed. I know very well that john Caluin to get glory, sent certain of his Ministers into newfound lands, but I never could hear that any of them ever converted so much as one silly woman to their Gospel in those parts. The truth is, their agreement in doctrine was so great, that one destroying another's buildings, they became laughing stocks to the Heathens, & so were glad to departed with shame. But who knoweth not that the Catholics, as they have converted all to Christianity that ever were Christians: so in this age they have brought infinite numbers to the Christian faith in the East and West Indies, by the means and labours of the most happy & holy Fathers of the holy Order of S. Francis, of S. Dominick, & of the blessed Society of JESUS, which blessed Religious men in our own Country there of England, only in regard of their Sacred function, are executed as Traitors. And have not these I pray you their authority from ROME? I will not here speak of the infinite number of Miracles wrought by Catholics in the conversion of countries, & namely of those which are now done in both the Indies by the Holy Father's aforesaid, for that I reserve that matter for his proper place, but I would advise you here diligently to weigh the sequel of the Assertion of the Protestants; how that if Papists be not true Christians, & of the right religion, then doth it necessarily follow, that neither Spaniards, nor Portugese's, nor Sardinians, nor Sicilians, nor Italians, nor Germans, nor Transyluanians, nor Hungarians, nor Polonians, nor Danes, nor flemings, nor Scots, nor Irish, nor English, no nor any Nation under Heaven had ever true Religion, before Friar Luther married Nun Bore, before john Caluine run away to Geneva, before Peter Martyr with his Fustelugges came to teach at Oxford, and before a number of such like good companions, led only by sensuality, & carnal zeal dishodded themselves, and became such spectacles to the world as every man knoweth. Which thing to affirm, is flatly to deny Christ, & all Christianity, as I showed in my first Reason. And surely I am greatly confirmed in the Catholic Religion, beholding the Heavenly manner used by the professors thereof in gaining souls to Almighty GOD, for that I see them neither to spare goods, nor labours, no nor their own lives, so that they may win people to Heaven.  
GREGORY the thirteenth Pope of that name in these our days, spent all the renennewes of the Popedom in founding SEMINARIES & COLLEGES in divers Lands and Provinces, thereby to restore the Catholic religion.  
Many Holy and Religious Priests do go daily into Germany, into Hungary, into Greece, into Palestina, into Egypt, into Syria, into Aethiopia, into Africa, into Moscovia, into Ireland, into Scotland, into England, and into other heretical & heathen countries, yielding themselves to all dangers by sea, and land, and to all worldly miseries, having mortified all their carnal affections, renounced all riches, honours, and kindred, and having made themselves most ready for their grave, and consequently for another world, moved only by the zeal of saving souls. And it moveth me not a little to see what patience, mildness, and quietness these men use in all their doings. And I see also on the other side, that no protestant ever had so great zeal of his Religion, as that he would for spreading abroad the same, forego any worldly commodity, either by founding Seminaries, or Colleges in Countries, or by going, or sending where any difficulty or danger was, but as one wholly respecting this world, he walloweth in wealth, & pleasures at home, or if by any accident he be compelled to fly into foreign Countries, he may not travail except his pretty parnell go with him; but such a one to go simply, & as they say, bona fide, to convert others was yet never seen. And if by any occasion offered unto such, they go about to plant their Gospel any where, they do it in such a turbulent, and mutinous manner, and not by Epistles after Saint Paul's use, but by Pistols as Beza did, as every one may see what spirit pricketh them forward. Neither do they take any other course in their proceedings, but to destroy States and Kingdoms, & to displace lawful Monarchies and Magistrates, as the Low-Countries, Germany, and Scotland can sufficiently witness, and ever their beginning is of Pride and Envy, as Luther's was; or by abusing themselves in their former estate, as Sir john Caluin did, or by yielding themselves slaves to ambition, as they did in Scotland, or by following Lust and Lechery, or of some such like brutish occasion, and never indeed upon any good ground, using their religion only as a serueturne, when other means fail to achieve their unlawful desires. It is plain therefore in my judgement, that the catholics are they, who ever fished simply and sincerely, with Saint Peter Net, and therein have enclosed miraculous multitudes of fishes, and that the Protestants, by their extraordinary, and late angling have caught none, but such as were in a better, and more sound manner taken before. And although Freculphus writeth, 
In Chron. tom. 2. li. 4 cap. 20.  that the Arrian heretics converted the whole nation of the Goths from Paganysme to the Faith, in the time of Valens the Emperor; 
socrates. lib. 4. cap. 27. sozom. l. 6 cap. 37. Theodoret. lib 4. cap. vlt.  yet it appeareth by Socrates, Sozomenus, and Theodoretus, that the greatest part of those Goths were Catholic Christians before, and afterward seduced by the Arrians: for Heretics cannot possibly convert any to such faith as may make the converted better than they were before, for that they having indeed the Scripture in some sort, yet have not the true sense thereof, which properly is the sword of the spirit, and the words are rather the scabbard, in which the sword is sheathed. And therefore they fight only with the scabbard, without the sword, cannot wound the hearts of Infidels. And no marvel though they pervert Catholics, for that men are prone to liberty, and to looseness of life, which by such doctrine is permitted. So that they are indeed most aptly by S. Augustine likened unto Partridges, 
lib. 13. contra faust. cap. 12.  which gather together young ones which they begot not; whereas contrariwise the Holy Church is a most fertile Dove, which continually bringeth forth new Pigeons.   

THE FIFT REASON, largeness of Dominion through the multitude of Believers.  
THE Church which the Messias was to plant, must be (as is aforesaid) dispersed throughout all nations & kingdoms, as the Holy Prophets most plainly foreshowed, and namely the Royal Prophet, speaking of the Apostles, and Preachers, which should Succeed them, saith: 
Psal 18.  Their sound went forth into all parts of the Earth, and their words unto the ends of the circle of the earth. And most manifestly doth he foretell the largeness of Christian Religion in the 71. Psalm. And S. john saw the four beasts, 
Apoc. c. 5.  & the four and twenty Elders fall down before the Lamb, singing thus: Thou art worthy Lord to take the Book, and to open the seals thereof, for thou hast been slain, & hast redeemed us to God in thy Blood, 
Cap. 7.  out of every Tribe, & people, & Language, & Nation: & in another place: After these things, saith he, I saw a great company, which no man was able to number, of all Nations, & Tribes, and Peoples, and Tongues. These things with many such like in Holy writ are no wise verified in any Religion under Heaven, but only in the Roman Catholic Church; for that none but it (as every man knoweth) hath had any large scope to account upon in any age. And it hath been for these thousand years at the least throughout both the Hemispheres, in such sort as the sun stretcheth not his beams further than it doth, and hath done: yea, there is no tongue nor people, nor climate in the world, which hath not heard of, & in some measure received the Catholic Roman Religion. Neither can the Protestants say, that the Church now beginneth to flourish, and to dilate itself in the world after so many ages; for that now it is grown old and aged, as is most plain, & to say that she increased not in her young years, but now in her old age is to make her a monster. She must therefore of necessity, have grown, & increased, & occupied, if not all the world, yet no doubt the greatest part thereof, and so hath the Catholic Roman Church, and none but she done: 
Colloss. 1.  for in the Apostles time she began to fructify in all the world. And in S. Irenaeus his time, 
Irenaeus. l. 1. cap. 3. Tertul. li. contra judaeos. ca 4. Cyprian de vuit. eccles. Athanas. lib. de humanit.  she was spread all over the world then known, as she was afterwards in Tertullian his time, and in the days of S. Cyprian, Athanasius, Chrisostome, Hierome, Augustine, Theodoretus, Leo the great, and Prosper, who in his book De Ingratis hath these words.  


verbi Chrisost. & Hieron. in Mat. 24. Aug. in Epist. 78. & 80. add Hesychium. Theod. lib de legibus Leo. Mag. ser. 1. de S S. Petro & Paulo.  Sedes Roma Petri, quae pastoralis honoris,  
Facta caput mundo, quic quid nos possidit armis,  
Religione tenet. Which thus may be Englished.   

Rome, Peter's seat, whose Bishop is of Prelates Peerless Lord,  
Religion Lady makes of all, which arms do not afford.   
But the Protestants peradventure, will grant that the true Church flourished in those days, but not afterwards until this age, in which they have reform the same: yet is it most manifest, that it flourished afterwards even until this our time, no less than it did before, if not more: for in Saint Gregory his days it was spread all over the world, as appeareth by his Epistles to the Bishops of the East, of Africa, Spain, France, England, Sicily. And by Saint Bede in cap. 6. cantic:: 
In vita S. Bernardi. lib. 2. ca 7.  as also by Saint Bernard, who disputing before Rogerius King of Sicily, avouched that in those days, the East, all the West, France Germany, England, Spaniards, and many barbarous nations obeyed the Bishop of Rome. And in these days, it is all over Italy, all over Spain, and in France, in most parts of Germany, in Poleland, Boheme, besides England, Hungary, Greece, Syria, Aethiopia, Egypt, in which Lands are many Catholics; and in the new world it flourisheth mightily, in all the four parts of the world; Eastward in the Indies; Westward in America: Northward in japonia, Southward in Brasilia, and in the uttermost parts of Africa. And to name somewhat more in particular some Countries, in which it is happily received of many, if not universally of all, but yet in many lands it is received of the greatest part of the inhabitants, in Goa, in Malabar, in Cochin, in Bazain, in Colan, in Tana, in Daman, in Ciaul, in Coranto, in Salsetta, in Pescaria, in Manar, in Trauancor, in Cogiro, in Bugen, in Cicungo, in Cicugne, in Oian, in Gomotto, in Gensura, in Xichi, in Ormuz, in Ternate, in Momoia, in Ambonio, in Macazar, in Cerignano, in Siligan, in Butuan, in Pimiliran, in Camigu, in Supa, in Sian, in Bacian, in Solar, in Malacca, in Tidor, in Selebi, and in the Islands of S. Thomazo, S. Domingo, Madera, and in all those innumerable Islands, which the King of Spain there possesseth: So that the Catholic Roman Religion hath had, and hath yet a far greater sway in the world, than any other religion ever had, or hath. And worthy it is to be noted, that in no land nor country under Heaven ever was, or is, any persecution, of any moment against Papists (as you term them) or against the Priests of that religion, in regard that they be Papists, or Priests made by authority from the Sea of Rome, but only in England. And in very deed, the whole world doth wonder, that little England dare, and is not ashamed to do that, which never was seen in the world before: for let a Seminary priest (as they call him) keep him out of England, and he is safe enough in any region under heaven. This I say by the way, for that it grieveth me at the very heart, to hear that my dear country doth persecute that religion, which all the world hath joyfully embraced, or at the least, doth willingly tolerate, as though she were wiser than all the world beside is, or ever hath been, or then all her Elders. Or, as though English Protestants knew, and saw more, than all the whole Learned men of Christendom have done for so many ages together. And I pray you, tell me, if an herb should be presented to you to eat, that all learned Physicians for a thousand years together, have judged to be rank poison, & only some one or two of later years, have begun to teach the contrary, without actual experience whether it be so or no, but only by discourse, and new arguments, of their own brain, would you abstain to eat it or no? Or if an action should be offered you there in England, which by all old Lawyer's judgement of former times hath been taken for high-treason Ipso facto, & consequently loss of life, and lands, though some newer lawyers were of contrary opinion that now it is not, would you not look twice before you would leap, except you were out of your wits? But in this other case, although all ancient Divines, and Doctors, for above a thousand years together, have taught the Catholic Roman Religion, to be true indeed, and only Friar Luther a lose Apostata, and Sir john Caluin, a seare-backt Priest for Sodomy, have begun in our days to teach the contrary, for fear of being punished by the Magistrates of the said Catholic Religion, for wicked, and bad life, yet will they Protestants rush out, & cast at all, and will hazard Hell, and all Eternity of torments thereon depending. Who will deny this to be headlong, and harebrain dealing? Surely this universal consent of Christendom, against two or three so contemptible authors of novelties, are more than sufficient to induce any man of reason to look about him, and to consider what he doth, and whether he may adventure his soul upon such inequality of testimonies, as this is between two, or three Novellants, and twenty millions of holy & grave ancients, and no doubt in Westminster hall this difference of witnesses would prevail with any equal, and discreet judge or jury. Neither may the Protestants now at length glory in their great number, as some of them have done, for that their Religion, is there in England, & in scotlan, and some thereof in Ireland, 
Apol. Eccles. Ang.  and in the Lowe-countries, & in some parts of Germany, and a few of them in France, for they never yet passed into Asia, nor into Africa, nor into Greece, nor into many places of Europe, much less into the Indies. But indeed if you rightly scan their Doctrine, you shall find that your Religion Protestantine of England, is no where in the world else, & that English service contained in your book of Common prayer is unknown, & condemned of all other Nations, and people under the cope of Heaven. So that in very deed the doctrine of your Protestants is taught, or received, no where but in England, and the Puritan Doctrine of scotlan (the contrariety thereof duly considered) is no where but in scotlan, the Lutheran Doctrine taught in Denmark, is no where but in Denmark, and in a few places of Germany, the libertine Doctrine taught in the Low-countries, is no where but in the Low-countries, and the like may be said of other sects.  
Lastly, I do here consider with myself, if I should refuse the Catholic Roman Religion, so universally taught, received & professed through out all the world so many ages together, and embrace any of these new silly sects, adventuring my soul thereupon, what all my progenitors & ancestors, if they were here again, and saw me do so, would say unto me, I guess they would use such speeches as these: what dost thou condemn all our judgements, and doings? Dost thou malign that Religion, which we so highly esteemed and sought to advance? Dost thou send us all to hell and damnation? Wilt thou judge thyself wiser and more in God's favour than any of us were? And many such like speeches I think they would use.   

THE sixth REASON. Miracles.  
True miracles were never wrought but by them, who were of true religion, for that they are done only by the power of God. Now it is so manifest that there hath been almost an infinite number of miracles wrought by those who were of the Catholic Roman Religion, and never any by them who were not of that Church, since Christ's time, as he who shall deny it, may be proved no less impudent and shameless, than he who shall deny, that ever there was any Mass said in times passed in England, or that ever there were any wars between Turks and Christians, or that there be any such countries as the East & West Indies. Which things if a man should deny, would he not of all men be deemed, not only impudent, but mad, drunken, or a fool? And surely the one is no less known by all approved writers, and eye witnesses than the other. For as in the Gospel, and in the Acts, the holy Scriptures witness, that miracles were wrought by Christ and his Apostles, so do most approved authors of every age until this day testify and record the continuance of the working thereof in the Catholic Roman Church, the which Authors for the most part were eye-witnesses of the said miracles, as for example. In the second age were wrought those wonderful miracles by the Christian Soldiers in the army of M. Antonius, 
Tert. in lib ad Scap. & in apol. c. 5 Euseb. lib. 5. hist. c. 5. Oros. lib. 7. hist. c. 15  which Tertullian, Eusebius, Orosius, & the Emperoor himself have recorded. In the third age were the miracles of Gregorius Thaumaturgus, witnesses S. Basil lib. de spiritu sancto Cap. 29. Gregory Nyssen in vita eius. Hierom de viris illustrib. Ruffinus lib. 7. hist. cap. 25. In the fourth of S. Anthony, Hilarion, Martin, Nicolas, and of others. In the fift, those which S. Augustine setteth down lib. 22. de civit. Cap. 8. In the sixth, those which S. Gregory maketh mention of, lib. 3. dial. Cap. 2. & 3. In the seventh, those which were done in England, in the conversion thereof, written by the same Greg. li. 9 ep. 58. And by venerable Bede. l. 1. hist. Ca 31. In the eight, the miracles of S. Cuthbert, & S. john in England, also Bede. lib. 4. hist. & 5. In the ninth, the miracles of Tharasius, written by Ignat. Nicen. & of others. In the tenth, the miracles of S. Romuald. recorded by S. Pet. Damian: of S. Wenceslaus, & of others which Surius writeth. In the eleventh, the miracles of S. Edward k. & vir. of S. Ans. & of others In the twelfth, the miracles of S. Mal. S Barn. & of others. In the thirteenth, the miracles of S. Fran. S. Dom. S. Bonavent. S. S. Celestina. & of others. In the fourteenth, the miracles of S. Bernardine, S. Kather. of Sieuna, & of others. In the fifteenth, the miracles of S. Vinc. S. Ant. & of others. And last of all in this our sixteenth age are the miracles of the glorious S. Fran. de Paula, of the holy jesuit Zaver, 
Aug. de util. cred. cap. 17. & lib. cont. ep. fund. cap. 4.  in the Indies, & of many more. And therefore I say unto you out of S. Ang. I am bound & tied in the Catholic Church by the band or chain of miracles. And I am bold considering, and most steedefastlye believing these infinite glorious miracles of all times and ages in the Catholic Roman Church, to cry out to Almighty God, with Richard de S. Victore lib. 1. de trin. cap. 2. Lord, if it be not true which we believe, thou hast deceived us: for these have been confirmed in us by such signs and wonders as could not be wrought but by thee. But on the contrary part, never any Protestant could work any miracle at all, but assaying to make some show thereof, to make their Doctrine the more probable to their followers, felt the just revengement of God, who turned all to their shame and confusion, as he did by Simon Magus, 
Egesippus lib. 3. de excid. hierosol. ca 2.  by Cyrola the patriarch of the Arrians, as witnesseth Grego. Turones. lib. 2. hist, Franc. cap. 3. by the Donatists. Optatus lib. 2. contr. Parmen. And in our days by Luther, endeavouring to dispossess a wench, and by Caluin going about to delude his disciples, as you may read in Hierom Bolsec. in vit. Caluin cap. 13. 
Vid. Staph in abs. resp  And therefore they are most foolish and miserably inconsiderate, who believe these new fellows, not being able to quicken a flea, & leave the doctrine of the Catholic Church confirmed with innumerable miracles.   

THE VII. REASON. Visions, and the gift of Prophecy.  
AS TRUE Miracles never were wrought but by them who were of the true Church, so heavenly Visions, and the gift of Prophecy, were never found to be but in the same. And therefore the holy Apostle amongst other things which he useth to commend his Doctrine, & himself to the Corinthians against Heretics, 
2. Cor. 12.  and false Apostles, he bringeth in this as one saying. Now will I come to Visions and Revelations of our Lord, etc. 
2. Pet. 1.  And S. Peter allegeth for confirmation of his preaching the transfiguration of our lord in the mount which he saw, 
Mat. 17. Act. 10. & 11.  & calleth it a Vision, he had a Vision of a sheet with all kind of beasts in it, when he was to deal with the Gentiles. And for the truth of Religion, and confirmation of that which they did, Act. 2. he allegeth the prophecy of joel, 
joel. cap. 2  who sayeth amongst other things: Your young men shall see Visions, and to be brief, of this sort is the whole book of the Apocalyps. So that to see these kind of heavenly Visions, and thereby to foretell things most certainly, is only amongst them who are of the true Church. For although there have been prophecies amongst the Heathens, yet were they not undoubtedly true, as the Oracles of Apollo, & such like illusions, except they were for the confirmation of right Religion, as the prophecies of the Sibyls, 
Euseb. lib. 5. hist. cap. 16. & 18.  and of Balaam. And the same may be said of heretics, as of Montanus, of Luther, of Muncer, and of such like, who look upon them to prophecy some to their utter shame, & some to their own destruction. But the Catho. Roman Church hath had in it in all ages those which had true Visions, 
Cochlaeus in acts Lutheri.  and the gift of true prophecy, as Agabus. Act. 11. Gregory Thaumaturge, so Basil. li. de spiritu sancto Cap. 29. S. Anthony, the abbot john, of whom, see S. Aug. lib. 5. de civit. Cap. 26. S. Monica, see Aug. lib. 3. Confess. Cap. 11. S. benedict see Gregor. lib. 2. dial. Cap. 15. S. Bernard, see in eius vita. lib. 4. Cap. 3. S. Francis, see in eius vita Bonaventura, with many others, for seldom was there any who had the gift of miracles, but the same had this gift also. And in these days, I know diverse and sundry Papists, (as you call them) who have seen undoubtedly wonderful Visions, which perhaps you may see recorded hereafter, with sufficient and irrefragable testimony.   

THE VIII. REASON. Scriptures.  
NEither may here the Protestant reply, and say, that the Papists build upon Miracles, Visions, Prophecies, and upon such like, but not upon the word, for all that they allege are most agreeable to the word of God. Neither do they teach any Doctrine but such as is derived out of the holy Bible, & for the maintaining thereof, they are not compelled to deny certain parts of Gods holy Book, as the Protestants, and their predecessors, heretics, have been enforced to do. The Manichees, for that their heresies were so manifestly confuted by the Gospel of Saint Mathewe, 
Aug. l 28. con Faust cap. 2. & de util. cred. cap 3.  and by the Acts of the Apostles, as they could coin no answer, nor other shift, they denied them to be Scripture. The Ebinites, because the Epistles of Saint Paul disproved most plainly circumcision, which they maintained, denied them to be Scripture. Luther rejected the Epistle of S. james, because it was so plain against the doctrine, of only Faith. His offspring refused the books of Tobias, of Ecclesiasticus, of the Maccabees, and of some others, because in them is plainly taught the Doctrine of the custody of angels, of Free-will, of Prayer for the Faithful Souls departed, and of Prayer to Saints, all wh●ch they deny, and therefore must they needs deny those parts of the holy Bible. For heretics ever framed the Bible to their opinions, chainging, wresting, paring, & sometimes flatly rejecting, all which made overplainely against such Doctrine as they devised, and so do most impudently the Protestants now. Whereas the Catholics ever squared their Doctrine by the line and the level of the word of her Spouse, and therefore never had cause to reject the least ●otte of the holy Bible, and at one word, the Catholics follow the Bible, but the Protestants force the Bible to follow them.   

THE IX. REASON. councils.  
THe Church of God hath ever been accustomed, when any heresy did spring up therein, to gather a Council of Bishops, Prelates, and of other Learned Men, in which the truth was approved, and the heresy condemned. And whosoever were condemned by such councils, confirmed by the See Apostolic, were ever deemed, and in very deed, were heretics, & for such at length were taken of all men, & in the end vanished away. So were the Arrians condemned in the Nyceene Counsel, the Macedonians in the Council of Constantinople, the Nestorians in the Ephesyne, the Eutychians in the Chalcedonian, & others in other Counsels. All which heretics, although they flourished for a time, and drew many people, yea Emperors, Kings, States, & Countries after them, yet in time they came to nothing, & the counsels which condemned them, were universally embraced. And no doubt the late famous council of Trent, which by the same authority & order hath condemned the Protestants & other sectaries for heretics, will in time be every where received, and these new fellows by it anathematized, will utterly vanish away. For indeed if a man consider the matter thoroughly, he shall plainly perceive that these sects have no likelihood of continuance, by reason they have no means to gather a Council, & much less to decide matters therein, if it were gathered, being without an head as they are, & every one cleaving only to his own private opinion, & therefore can never all meet together, or if by any power they were compelled thereunto, they have no means to agree in one, for that they will not yield to any judgement, but what is framed of their own brain, & therefore it must needs be amongst them, as we see it to be, Quot homines, tot sententiae; So many men, so many opinions. Lastly I would have you here to mark the dealing of heretics, who play by general Counsels even as they play by the scriptures, for they take & leave as they lust, & as best serveth their turn. There have been in all, general Counsels 18. All gathered, allowed, & confirmed by one & the self-same authority, of which the Greeks receive only 7. the Lutherans, 
Concil. Florent. sess. 5. & 6. Magdebur cent. 8. cap 9 & cent. 9 cap. 9  the first 6. the Eutychians which are in Asia only the first 3. the Nestorians which are yet in the East, only the first 2. the Trinitaries which are in Hungary, and Poleland, receive none at all: Behold the liberty of your Gospel.   

THE X. REASON. Fathers.  
THE Catholic Roman Religion is most plainly taught by all the ancient Fathers of the first, second, third, fourth, fift, and sixth hundred years after Christ, and hath been ever, (without all controversy) taught of the Fathers of every age since until this day. That religion did Dyonysius, Areopagita, Saint Paul his Scholar, so manifestly teach, 
Causaeus' dialogue. 5 & 11.  as Causaeus a french Protestant called him for his labour, a doting old man, much like as his Father Luther had said before him, that, Areopagita his works were like to dreams, 
In Capt. Babilonica  and most pernicious. The same faith was taught of saint Ignatius, Clemens, justinus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Irenaeus, and in one word all the ancient Fathers not one excepted. This is very plain in that the Catholics are put, & compelled by the Protestants to defend, maintain, and uphold the credit, and authority of the said Fathers; for the Protestants rail at them, the catholics defend them: the Protestants refuse their authority, the Catholics hold it for good: the Protestants will not be tried by them: the Catholics appeal to their judgement; and to be brief, the Protestant's make no more account of them, longer than they can wrest them to serve their turn, than thy do of Bevis of Southampton, or of Adam Bell. And in naming the Protestants, I include all the Puritans: for I am not ignorant how the said Protestants are driven by the said Puritans, to defend the Fathers, and also are called papists for their labour. And hereby it is manifest that the Fathers are with the Catholics, and neither with the Protestants, nor Puritans. And whether all those ancients, being men of excellent wits, of continual study, of wonderful learning, fervent in prayer, holy in conversation, greatly in God's favour, mighty in working of miracles, & adorned with many such like gifts, were more like to understand the Scriptures freshly delivered unto them from the Apostles themselves (who also no doubt, taught their scholars the true sense thereof, and they theirs, from one age to another,) or these late foolish, unstudied, unlearned, profane, and arrogant fellows, be judges yourselves But indeed it is no marvel though the protestants do contemn, yea revile the Fathers, 
Luther in Capt. Bab. Causaeus, ubi supra. Centuriat. centur. 2. cap. 10. Caluin instit. cap. 13 num. 29. Centur. 2. cap. 5. Causaeus' dialog. 8. & 11. & 6 beza in act Apost. ca 23.  in saying they taught things most like to dreams; they were doting old men; they had foul blemishes, and told trifling tales; they had weeds and dregs, blasphemies, and monsters: they were childish, dull, and destitute of God, & babbled they knew not what: they were bewitched of the Devil, as damned as the Devil, blasphemers, naughty, wicked: for they who cannot endure certain set times to fast in, no marvel though they revile S. Basil, S. Gregory, Nazianzene, S. Leo, S. Chrisostome, which wrote such notable Sermons of Lent, and of other fasting days, than used as they are now in the Catholic Church. And they, who be given to Lust, to Gluttony, to Ambition, to Covetousness, and do teach such doctrine as necessarily bringeth forth such fruits, must needs contemn S. Basil, S. Chrisostome, S. Hierome, and S. Augustine, who have written so excellently of the Order, Rule, & Virtues of Monks. And generally whereas the Doctrine of the ancient Fathers is clean contrary to the Doctrine of Protestants, no marvel though they be rejected by them, as they ever have been of Heretics. And although Iwell in his Sermon at Paul's Cross, most impudently challenged the catholics to bring any thing for certain points of their Religion out of the Doctors of the first six hundred years: yet Laurence Humphrey his pew fellow, 
Humfridus in vita Iwelli.  confessed that he gave, and granted to the papists more than was meet, and was to himself injurious, etc. and so he confessed against his companion, that the FATHERS of the Primitive Church were on the Papists side, and consequently not on theirs. And yet because they have found by experience, that to teach Doctrine contrary to the ancient Fathers, soundeth but badly in the people's ears, in their Sermons they gladly now & then allege the authority of some Doctor or Father, when they can by any means wring, or wrest any piece of a sentence so, as it may seem to make for them And indeed he who allegeth the Doctors most, is most praised of the audience, as you well know, which is a pitiful thing in them, and ridiculous in the Preacher, who cannot but know, (if he have read any of them himself) that the Fathers detest utterly that Doctrine which he wresteth them to confirm, and in the mean time the poor audience thinketh that they were of this new Religion, whose simplicity therein is most pitifully abused, by the Preacher.   

THE XI. REASON. Trial of Truth.  
IT is manifest by the Holy Scriptures that it appertaineth to the Church to try & to discern spirits, as also to determine & to decide doubts. And agreeably thereunto she hath in all ages mastered, overruled, & captivated the understanding of every one, were he never so wise, never so learned, or had he never so extraordinary gifts, except he obstinately defended an error, which if he did, he was condemned for an heretic, & so came to nothing. The Catholic Church, I say, directed by the Holy Ghost, hath ever separated from the truth, all moles, all singular opinions, all errors and corruptions in every man's works and writings, in such sort as that easily and securely every one may know the truth. And certainly the Protestants although they say that they give no credit to the CHURCH, but so far forth as they find in their Scriptures, do, & can not otherwise but receive the same Scriptures upon the Catholic Roman Churches credit, & also the three Creeds of the Apostles, of Athanasius, and of Nice, and some Articles of belief, as, the Holy Ghost to proceed from both the Father & the Son, & yet as from one beginning, and many terms, as, Person, Trinity, Consubstantial, Sacraments, etc. which none could ever have invented, but only the Catholic Church. Neither is it possible for any man to know whether this Bible, which is used amongst Christians, be the true word of God indeed, or some feigned thing, but only upon the Catholic Roman Churches credit. And Saint Augustine confesseth plainly, that he would not believe the Gospel, but that the authority of the Catholic Church moved him thereunto. 
Con. Epist Manich. c. 5. lib. 2. de doct. Chr. cap. 8.  And by the same Church's authority he was moved to believe the books of Toby, judith, Canticles, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Maccabees, etc. as he himself sincerely affirmeth. And surely it is wonderful to see, how the Church of God receiving the Old Testament from the jews, and manifesting to the world the Canon of the Holy books of the new Testament, hath in all times, in so many alterations, and changes, kept from the destruction, & corruption of Heretics, jews, and paynim the whole authentical corpse of Holy Scripture, in such manner, as no Heretic in the world can charge her with adding, or diminishing the least jot thereof. judge you here whether the madness of these new fellows, be worthy to be wondered at, or no, who do credit and believe the Church in this point, and will not do the same in others? Why should they rather trust the Church in this, than in other things. And I would every man would here consider the wonderful integrity of the Catholic Roman Church, in keeping the Holy Bible so entire, and uncorrupted these fifteen hundred years together at the least, and the atheistical treachery of these of the the new Religion, who occupying no Bible, nor having to do with the holy scriptures for a thousand years together (as they themselves confess) have after the unjust wresting it out of the hands of the just possessors thereof, rob the Church of so many whole books, & beside of so many parts, and particles of the same. What these fellows would bring the Holy Bible unto in time, if they should hold on, they may easily guess, who know their manifold corruption thereof in so few years. And yet forsooth, they will have all controversies to be tried by only scriptures; which if they were not by them corrupted, & falsely translated, yet could they never find out any secure truth by them only, for that none of them alloweth any other man's exposition but his own, and in so dealing they can but have a guess, or an opinion, or fantasy, but no faith at all. Which thing to declare more plainly; I ask the Protestant how he relying upon only scripture, can show me certainly which books be Scripture, and which not? And if he be unlearned, how knoweth he that the translation which he useth is truly made out of Hebrew, Greek, & Latin? And then how is he sure of the sense, & exposition? And if he be never so learned, & have never so many helps, all that he can search and find out, is but a private man's opinion, and consequently, his Faith which he seemeth to have, is grounded upon his own particular judgement, and so indeed is no faith at all, but an opinion only, as I said before: for faith must have God's express authority for her foundation. Here you may consider the miserable state, and condition of your new gospellers: in that forsaking the Catholic and universal faith of Christendom, delivered to them by the universal Church, as founded upon Scripture (which Church Christ and his Apostles gave them express Commission to believe) which was properly Faith, & founded upon a rock which could not fail; in that forsaking (I say) that fortress, they cast themselves into the waves of new opinions, whereby they have no certainty at all, but every one chooseth what he liketh to himself, which choice is properly called Heresy, and so the word signifieth. And let any Protestant in our Country of England tell me, why he doth rather believe his own judgement in points of Religion, than the judgement of Luther, Caluin, and Beza, whom he thinketh were so excellent men? for every one that hath any learning knoweth that they taught otherwise then now is taught in England. This you may plainly see the only touchstone of truth, to be the Catholic Church, which cannot fail, and that they who cleave to her judgement, have most undoubtedly the truth; whereas on the other side, they, who ground only upon Scriptures, expounding them according to their own fantasy, and brain, playing the Masters, and Pilots, and Boatswaines themselves, & admitting no judge, no interpreter, no antiquity, nor any other manner of trial, (which is the greatest madness, and malediction that can be) must needs be destitute of all certainty, and of all Religion, and of all stay, and of all foundation, and of all rule, and of all order, and must needs wrangle and jangle without end, and without means to make an end, and must needs cause Novelties without number, and liberty of life without fear or force of Ecclesiastical Discipline to restrain them; and to conclude, they have no means to rest, until the end in Atheism.   

THE XII. REASON. The use and custom of the Church.  
THE use, custom, and practise of the Church, hath (as it was in the prime thereof.) been always an infallible rule to direct and order things by.  
This the Apostle, after many arguments, to prove that women should not be beareheaded in Churches, applied as a Fort most strong, and invincible to bear down the gainsayers thereof: If any man (saith he, notwithstanding mine arguments) do seem to be contentious, 
1. Cor. 11.  we have no such custom (as women to pray uncovered) nor the Church of God. And agreeably unto this Saint Augustine saith: If the whole Church throughout the world do use any thing, 
Epist. 118. cap. 5.  only to call in question, whether that thing should be so done, is a point of most proud, or most strange madness. And for this cause against the Pelagians, he argueth ordinarily out of the Church's custom, proving Children to be borne in sin, 
Epist. 105.  because the Church doth Baptize them for Remission of sins. And because the Church useth to exorcize them, and to blow upon them, therefore the Devil hath power over them, and that by sin. And to this saith he, the Pelagians with all their craft could not answer: for they durst not say, (as the Protestants say) we care not for the Church's custom, we weigh not thereof. 
De bono pursue. ca 23.  Many such like arguments hath the same Saint Augustne else where: But in few words the custom of the church was a thing so undoubted, as never any Heretic before this our age durst adventure to stand against the same altogether: But Heresies ever consisted only in some matter of erroneous judgement, and false opinion, but the teachers thereof never went about to change the face of Religion, as to take away the Sacrifice of the Church, as the Protestants are bold to do. And surely in this point the malepeartnesse, and desperate boldness of the new gospellers is wonderful, who durst not only attempt to change divers points of the Church's use, & practise, which in all ages, of all men, was accounted so heinous an offence to do, but also made no bones to take all quite away, Customs, Ceremonies, Orders, yea and the Holy Mass itself, placing instead thereof in some places Chapters and Psalms ill translated into the Vulgar tongue, & in some other places, Ballads made of Psalms, commonly called Geneva Psalms, with railing Sermons, and in other places other stuff, as best pleased the humours of the devisers thereof. And to these new inventions (forsooth) must the common people be compelled to come, and to forsake & renounce the Service and Sacrifice of the Catholic Church, left by God Almighty, and continued ever through out all Generations, as it must do (manger all Protestants heads) even unto the world's end.   

THE XIII. REASON. Doctrine.  
THAT Church whose Doctrine tendeth to Mortification, and Holiness of life must needs be the true Church, and consequently directed by God's holy Spirit; and contrariwise, that Sect or Congregation, which teacheth the contrary, is most undoubtedly false, and consequently guided by an evil spirit.  
This is so manifest, as it needeth no proof: for every man knoweth that the Catholic Church is called Holy, because it professeth or teacheth, nothing but that which is Holy. Now if a man consider duly the Doctrine of the Roman Church, he shall find it to be of the former sort, and easily he may perceive the Doctrine of this new religion to be of the latter. But I will not here speak of the fruits of CATHOLICS, and Protestants, (although indeed there be no comparison in life, for that every one seethe and easily confesseth the Catholics to live most uprightly, & Saintlike) but I speak of that which their religion teacheth them to do: for of that especially our Lord meant when he said: 
Math. 7.  You shall know them by their fruits. First, therefore to declare this point, if you compare the clergy of the Roman Religion, with these new Clergy men, you may see the Orders, and Institutions of the one sort to move them to mortification, & to the contempt of earthly things, and the institution of the other to prick them forward to all vanity, & to carnal liberty: for a Priest of the Catholic Church, receiveth in a most solemn manner seven Orders, whereof three are called Holy, because they are about Sacred and holy things, as the Body & Blood of our Saviour, holy vessels, etc. And every thing which the said priest must use, is holy, and therefore there is required in him the greatest purity possibly to be had, so as he must have and thoughts free from all carnality, and worldly things, and for such like causes he is restrained from marriage, although it be in itself honourable, & instituted by God himself, but yet who so is yoked therein must needs apply himself to worldly affairs, and so is divided as the Apostle saith. 
1. Cor. 7.  And because he is restrained from marriage & bound to live Chaste or continent, he may not use any trimming, or tricking up of himself in amorous attire, nor use any dalliance, or fondness with women, but ever remembering that he is as a dead man, in regard of such things, he must be far from such lightness, but on the other side, the Protestant Minister having received no Orders, but a certain kind of deaconship, and Ministershippe, of their own invention, and having no Holy or Sacred things to deal withal, but left to all liberty of winning & rewinning, which he cannot ordinarily do without wooing, woe he cannot handsomely, without he something trick & trim up himself to allure, & please the eye of his sweet heart, must needs go trickly with fair starched ruffs, fine mousaches, trim tuscalonians, use amorous glances, yea & that sometimes when they are reading their Chapters in the Church, with a thousand suchlike fond & foolish inconveniences, which ensue thereupon. Furthermore, the Roman Religion teacheth Restitution of goods wrongfully taken, and of all wrongs whatsoever, which bridleth and restraineth people from bribery, extortion, theft, usury, simony, & from such like: But the Protestants meddling little with such doctrine, leaveth all at large to his followers, without restraint of any such crime. The Catholic religion teacheth observation of vows & promises which must needs cause great trust & fidelity in the professors thereof, the Protestant teacheth, that they bind not in conscience, which openeth the door to distrust, and maketh the people that one will not trust another, but must have him in bands, with sureties & with all fastness possible to be devised. The Catholic religion teacheth abstinence & fasting, which mortifieth our bodies, & enricheth our country, the Protestant teacheth to eat flesh & all kinds of meats every day, as often as the belly desireth, which causeth plenty of lust in the carcase, & dearth & scarcity in the commonwealth. The Catholic Religion forbiddeth Landlords to raise their rents, except urgent occasion drive them so to do, by which prohibition infinite numbers of people be benefited & holp, the Protestant teaching the Landlord to do what he list with his own, ruineth, and utterly beggereth thousands of poor people. The Catholic religion teacheth Marriage, to be indissoluble, so as they who be once lawfully Married, can never be so divorced, as either party may ever Marry again, whilst the other liveth, which causeeth Man and Wife to bear much one with the other, knowing there is no hope of changing, but the Protestant teaching that they may Marry again, yieldeth them occasion, one easily to dislike of the other, being both in hope to marry again, and to change as oft as they list. The Catholic religion teacheth that all Laws of magistrates, which be not expressly against the word of God, do bind the subjects in conscience▪ to obey them, not only openly, but also in secret, whereupon do follow peace, quietness and obedience to Superiors, but the Protestant teaching the contrary, bringeth Magistrates into contempt, and causeth all disorder in the Commonwealth. The Catholic religion teacheth differences of sins, some to be more grievous than others, some Mortal, some Venial, and that Concupiscence or natural inclination to lust of itself is no sin, whereupon Catholics are taught to strive against this motion, knowing it to be no offence except they yield unto it, and also they manfully fight against greater sins, although they cannot easily avoid dat, or Venial offences: but the Protestant teaching, that every sin, be it never so small doth deserve damnation, and Concupiscence to be sin, which no man can avoid, maketh people, to leave all to God his mercy, but never to resist sin, nor motion thereunto, for that in his opinion it is but lost labour so to do. The Catholic Religion teace, reward of good and bad life in the world to come, which causeth people to endeavour to do all good works, and to avoid all evil as far forth as possibly they can: but the Protestant teachching the contrary, giveth the people occasion to be negligent in doing of good, and little or nothing fearful to do evil. The Catholic Religion teacheth Confession to a Priest of all deadly sins which we can remember, under pain of damnation, which restraineth people from sin, & causeth them particularly to be well instructed and counselled: but the Protestant taking that away, setteth open a door to all wickedness, and to looseness of life, as also to ignorance. The Catholic Religion teacheth Satisfaction to be done either in this life, or in Purgatory in the next, which causeth people to undertake willingly penal works, as fasting, prayer, almese-deeds, etc. & upon the consideration of this, & of reward in Heaven, they builded so many goodly Churches, Colleges, Monasteries, Hospitals, Schools, etc. they gave such large Alms, they punished their bodies with Fasting and wearing of hair-cloath, they watched, they prayed, they Married poor & fatherless children, & did a thousand kinds of such like good works: but the Protestant denying Satisfaction, and taking away purgatory, robbeth the poor of their Alms, children of their education, the sick of their relief, & maketh men unwilling to do any good work at all. The Catholic Religion teacheth free-will, which causeth people to endeavour to do good, & to fly from evil: the Protestant taking it away, discourageth men utterly from doing good works, for who will go about a thing which is not in his power, or for the which, if he did it, he shall have no recompense. The Catholic Religion teacheth the holy Mass, to be a Sacrifice in which the very Body and Blood of our Saviour is offered up, which maketh people so devout, & reverent at the service thereof, as that they kneel altogether, pray continually, give attendance to no other thing for that time, & thereupon it cometh that they bear such respect & reverence to Priests: but the Protestant, allowing nothing but certain chapters, psalms: and collects, to be read in the vulgar tongue, giveth the people occasion to be undevout, irreligious, & unreverent for that they see nothing worthy of reverence. Hereupon you may see the people at the Protestants service, some staring about them, with out Book or Bead in their hands, some walking, some talking, some ●angling, but none kneeling, or praying, or using any reverence at all, either to service, or to minister, & no marvel when every one of them, if he can but read, can play the minister at home as well as the best curate of them al. Many such differences of doctrine might be set down, ●● are the publishers, and maintainers, & Heretics & Protestants the destroyers, and deniers thereof: for the Catholic affirmeth Baptism of children to be necessary, the Protestant denieth it. The Catholic affirmeth men to be justified by inherent justice, the Protestant denieth it. The Catholic affirmeth certain preparations to be necessary to justification on the behalf of man, the protestant denieth it. The Catholic affirmeth good works to be necessary, and to have their reward, the Protestant denieth it. The Catholic affirmeth that we have free will, the Protestant denieth it. The Catholic affirmeth that we may keep the Commandments, the Protestant denieth it. The Catholic affirmeth human Laws agreeable to GOD'S WORD to bind in conscience, the Protestant denieth it. The Catholic affirmeth seven SACRAMENTS, the Protestant denieth five, if not all. The Catholic affirmeth Priesthood, the Protestant denieth it. The Catholic affirmeth single life of the Clergy, the Protestant denieth it. The Catholic affirmeth Penance, the Protestant denieth it. The Catholic affirmeth Contrition, the Protestant denieth it. The Catholic affirmeth Confession, Satisfaction, Indulgences, Prayer for the dead, exequies, Anniverssaries, the Protestant denieth them all. The Catholic affirmeth the Real Presence, the Sacrifice of the holy Mass, Altars, and all things belonging thereunto, the Protestant denieth them all. The Catholic affirmeth worshipping of Saints, prayer unto them, feasts of them, adoration of their Riliques, and Images, the Protestant denieth all. The Catholic affirmeth trimming up of Churches, Ceremonies, Singing, Pilgrimages, Supremacy of Saint Peter, Monastical vows, choice of meats and fasting, the Protestant denieth all. The Catholic affirmeth all the Bible to be Canonical Scripture, the Protestant denieth divers parts thereof. The Catholic affirmeth the perpetual virginity of our blessed Lady, the Protestant denieth it. The Catholic affirmeth the Church to be visible, the Protestant denieth it. And many more such like points of Christian Doctrine the Catholic Church delivereth to her Children▪ as she hath received them from her Spouse Christ, which the Protestant utterly denieth, and indeed affirmeth, or putteth down nothing more than he found before in the said Catholic Church: whereby you may see their Doctrine to be altogether nothing, but mere negations, & flat denials; and so I see plainly that by their Negative Doctrine they have profited the Christian world nothing at all, but have taken away from it much of that which it had; and in this manner as they are, any horse, or ass, if he could but speak as Balaams' Ass did, so it were but one word, that is, Nego, might be as good a Protestant as the best of them all. Neither can it be said, that they do as the first Christians did, which denied and destroyed the false and superstitious religion of the Heathens: for that the Christians did that by manifest Commission from God himself, by working of Miracles & by planting Christian religion in place thereof: but the Protestants neither do that which they do, by any authority from God, nor ever could work any one miracle, as is aforesaid, and instead of that which they reject & pull down, they place just nothing.   

THE XV. REASON. Divinity.  
IF you look into the Universities of the catholics, & of Protestants, you shall see in the one the whole corpse of Divinity, and of Christian truth most pithily and profoundly taught: but in the other nothing but a number of pelting objections taken out of Caluins' Institutions, or out of the Magdeburgenses, or out of some Heretical Pamphlet, together with wrested interpretations of the new Testament, which they have learned of Beza, or of some such like fellow, & in some they trouble themselves with nothing, but only with the Controversies of this time, & that is all the Divinity which they have, or meddle withal. But the Catholic Divines study, and teach in their Schools most exactly, all things which man may in this life know of God ALMIGHTY, of his Simplicity, Perfection, Goodness, infinity, of his being in his creatures, of his immutability, Eternity, Unity, knowledge, and seeing of him, of his names, Science, Idees, Life, Will, Love, justice, and Mercy, Providence, Power, Felicity, of the Blessed Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, of their Equality, Unity, Consubstantiality in one godhead, of the Creation of things, of Angels, of their substance, Incorporcitie, local motion, Knowledge, Will, Love, Production, Goodness, and Badness, of man's Creation, of his Body, Soul, of all the powers, and parts thereof, of his Propagation, of the end whereunto he is created, of Virtue, and Vice in general, and in particular, of the Incarnation of God's Son, joining two most different natures of God, and Man, both entire, both complete, without commixtion, or confusion into the unity of one person, of the perfections & defects assumpted by him, of the Resurrection & judgement, and of many other profound points, which the Protestants never beat their brains about, and indeed they cannot possibly study these things throughlie, being somuch occupied about wooing, wenching, and wiveing, taking upon them to be Doctors of Divinity, and Husbands also.  
And therefore if the learnedst amongst them should appear in Catholic Schools, or Universities abroad, he would not once dare to open his mouth in matters of Learning, among the great number of most excellent learned men, which there are found, as we have well proved by such of your Protestants as now and then go abroad to foreign UNIVERSITIES, and are very quickly brought to Confess their inequality in this kind, for that they scarce understand the very ordinary terms of the learned sciences, which the others do fully possess. And I pray you, what a learned Clergy was there in Queen mary's time in our Country of England, in respect of these poor creatures, that occupy now their Prebends, and sit in the sunshine of their new pretended Gospel with their Wives and Children round about them? Were not one Tonstall, one Watson, one Christopherson, for learning, one Fecknan, one Gardener, one White, for wisdom & learning together, able to set to School all your ruffed Clergy at this day, for term of life, and after, as by their works & writings yet extant doth well appear. This gross ignorance of these new gospellers is the cause that the people do remain utterly void of the knowledge of mysteries, which they are bound to believe upon pain of damnation, and they cannot otherwise be, when as their Leaders & Doctors are altogether unskilful of the points aforenamed: But if they can speak a little Greek, and a few words in Hebrew, and use some Ink horn Eloquence, with railing against Pope and Papists, then are they forsooth deep Divines. Take the most learned Doctor of them all, and set him to reason with an Heathen, or with an Atheist, and you shall see what goodly arguments he will make, nay you shall see him betray the truth for lack of learning, for that he is utterly ignorant (as they are all) of School Divinity. And hereupon it is that their Preachers coming to reason with the Turkish Priests have been driven to yield, and have become Mahometans: for indeed one who taketh upon him to be Doctor of Divinity, aught to be so instructed & furnished with Philosophy, Moral, Physical, and Metaphysical, with Logic, and with all human helps, with Counsels, Fathers, Histories, and such like, and not only with the bare text of the Bible, as that he may be able to defend the faith of Christ in all points, against jews, Turks, Heathens, Atheists, & not only against heretics. And here I cannot but admire the providence & goodness of God towards his Church, in furnishing it with all kinds of learning, & sciences, whereby it may defend, and maintain itself against all sorts of enemies, be they jews, Turks, Heathens, Atheists or Heretics whatsoever: for in the Universities thereof, you may see most learnedly, substantially, orderly, and universally taught all Christian truth, and that in short space: for in 4. or 5. years the whole course of Divinity is taught under two or three readers, & in the same time the Controversies by another reader, by another all the new Testament is learnedly, & fondly expounded, besides an 100 public Disputations every year of some whole matter, as of Baptism, of the Eucharist, of the Trinity, of the Incarnation, of Angels, of the Supremacy, etc. and withal, the whole Bible read over at Table every year, & always after Dinner and Supper, two Chapters of it, one of the new, and another of the old testament diligently examined, with familiar conference between the learned, and the younger sort. And besides all this there are taught Cases of Conscience, in which is set down, what is sin, and what not: the differences of sins, which great, which lesser, etc. which is a most fruitful & a most profitable kind of knowledge, and therefore is much studied, and practised by Catholic Priests, & Divines, who teach the people thereby to rule, and to order their lives and actions. Neither doth the Protestant meddle with these matters of Conscience, but fraighteth his ship only with Faith, and never beateth his brain about sins, for that he thinketh none to be imputed to such Predestinated, as they all ween themselves to be, which causeth the people their followers to be utterly ignorant of the nature, differences, and quality of sins, and consequently nothing fearful, or stayed by any conscience to commit the same.   

THE XVI. REASON. Holiness of Life.  
ALthough upon external & outward holiness we may not infallibly infer true Religion, for that among jews, Turks, and other Infidels, some make great show of piety and devotion, yet we may truly argue that amongst what company or congregation soever, there is not generally, any piety, devotion, mortification, or holiness of life, but contrariwise, impiety, irreligiosity, carnality, and looseness of life, universally to be seen, and that necessarily issuing out of the bowels of their doctrine, that there possibly can be no true Religion: For that the spirit of God, who guideth, directeth, and as it were informeth true Religion, will not suffer it to be universally fruitless, and of no efficacy: For otherwise it should be frustrated of it end, which is to make the embracers thereof Holy, & good. And besides it was foretold by the Prophet, 
Esa. cap. 11  that CHRIST his Doctrine should alter men's conditions, and natures, so as such as were most fierce, savage, and wicked before, should by it become most humble, kind, & gentle, which can no way be applied to the Protestants, as their bloody tragedies raised in France, Flaunders, Scotland Switzerland, and in other parts of Germany sufficiently do witness, where were slain above an hundred thousand people within one year, by the rebellion and wars of the countrymen against their Lords for the controversy of Religion, such humility, 
Sledan.  obedience, and meekness of heart, this new Doctrine imprinted presently as it came. And albeit external holiness doth not (as is aforesaid) necessarily infer true religion, yet doth it give a great presumption thereof, especially if there be inward zeal, and above all, Charity. Now it cannot be but most plain to every one, who knoweth both, that the lives of Catholics, in all lands, and that in all ages, and namely of our ancestors, and predecessors there in England were, & are of those who now be, for the most part most Holy, most Innocent, most Religious, and most Godly: and the lives of the Protestants ordinarily most lewd, lose, and void of piety. And first, if you take a view of the Clergy, & of the Religiousmen, & women of the Catholic church, you shall find infinite numbers to have lead Celestial and Angelical lives here on earth, free from all worldly, carnal, & earthly desires, with contempt of all human & transitory things, as S. Paul the first Eremite, S. Anthony, S. Hilarion, S. Greg. S. jer. S. Aug. S. Bern. S. Fraun. S. Dom. S, Bened. S. Thom. Aquinas, S. Bonaventure, with innumerable others suchlike, whose lives were most heavenly, together with millions of professed Virgins, vowed Widows, poor by will and promise, persons of both sexes dedicated to God by renouncing the world with the delights thereof, some living in Deserts, or Caves of the earth, some in Cloisters in community under obedience; with infinite numbers of secular Priests, most godly and devout. And although I will not deny, but that some there were among the Clergy, and Religious people in this latter age, which lived not according to their Orders, & Rules, but scandalised the Church of God: yet may I truly say, that they who did so, were not the hundredth part so many, as the Protestants most falsely make them: But the truth is, that among a great number (for there were of Priests and Religious men, at the least five times so many, as there be now ministers) a few were bad, and now the ministers being but few in respect of them, are all nought. And no marvel: for the Catholic Clergy, and Religious persons, were by their Orders bound to sundry & divers hours of prayer, as to seven in the day & night, the religious to rise every night at midnight, to pray & sing laudes to God, when others sleep two or three hours together, besides other Exercises, Contemplations, and Meditations in the day time, and never to have so much as one whole hour void of some godly employmentes. I would you did but see the manner of the lives of the blessed Capucynes, which here to recount would be so long, and hardly could I reckon up all their holy Exercises of mortifications, or of the happy Fathers of the Society of jesus, or of others such like. Oh what Fasting, what Prayer, what Meditation, what Contemplation, what wearing of Haircloth, what whipping, of themselves, what watching, what visiting of the sick, what teaching of the ignorant, what rebuking of Sinners, what comforting of the afflicted should you behold? These pray, whilst your ministers play: These taste, whilst they feast: These meditate the Contempt of the World, whilst they beat their brains, to compass worldly commodities: These Watch & sing Praises to God in the Night, whilst they in a warm bed hug their Sweet heart in their arms. Who is he amongst you which seethe not, and is not ashamed of the lives of your ministers? Are not some of them almost in every circuit hanged for robberies, for rapes, imprisoned for Zodomie, for having divers wives at once, for debt, and for other knaveries. The law bindeth them to have but one Wife at once, and she must be viewed by two justices of Peace, to see that she be a maid for sooth. But do they not now & then take their wives from colman's hedge, 
Fron thence had the vicar of wearam his trul by his own confession.  and some, other common strumpets? and do not their wives prove thereafter? An hundred examples I could here allege to prove these things, but I will not pollute my paper at this time with such filthy matter. Look into the Laity of the Protestants, and tell me weather there ever was such Pride, especially in apparel? Did not all these new-fashioned attires, come in with your new religion? Your lose Gowns, your Trains, your Verdingales, your Borders, your Peringles, your Coronets, your Wires, your Ruffs starched, white, blue, etc. your Show me whom this Gospel hath made of a ravenous glutton, a sober abstainer: of cruel gentle: of covetous, liberal: of a slanderer, a good reporter: of an unchaste sinner, a virtuous liver. I will show thee many that have been made worse than themselves. Thus far Erasmus. And no marvel though the followers be such, when as their very first Apostle, Ringleader, and Reformer of all, who first broke the ice, & was indeed the Author, and founder of their Religion, led a most brutish life: for was he not a lecherous Friar? took he not a Nun to Wife, if so I may term it? An act not only forbidden by holy writ, but by the Civil Laws, 
L. Si quis non dicam. cap. de Epist. Cop. & cleric.  and by jovinian the Emperor above a thousand years ago, and that under the pain of death. Surpassed he not all other in Pride? Confesseth he not that he had conference with the devil about the Mass? Was not Envy and Covetousness the causes of his revolt? Read his life, and see whether he was a man fit to Reform the Christian World, or rather sent to shame all his followers? Good Lord, that men can be so blind, and so bewitched, as to think that the truth from Heaven should be revealed to such a one; or that such should have grace to know the truth, and to follow it, who never fast, seldom, or never pray to obtain the same, never punish their bodies, never mortify their earthly members, etc. rather than to a number of quiet, modest, & harmless men, who by prayer, by fasting, by alms deeds, by works of mercy, by all virtuous means labour to attain the knowledge of the truth. And who is he that can deny, but that in our ancestors days when Catholic Religion flourished, bravery in apparel was unknown, and instead thereof innocent plainness was to be seen, & that there was no change, no new devices, little lawing, for when any strife fell out, the Priest their Ghostly Father decided the matter, and made them friends; seldom any single woman miscarried in any parish, no Simony, no Usury, little fraud or deceit, each one trusted other without bill or bond, and to be brief, that every where reigned simplicity, & innocency? Oh how many thousands then left the world before it left them, dedicating themselves wholly to the service of God, and that of all Estates: many Kings and Queens not only of other Countries, but divers even of England, gave over their Kingdoms and became Religious men, and women. And the like did innumerable of inferior degrees: whereas the Protestants provide by waist, desolation, destruction, and (as it were) by law, that no such orders of holy men and women be amongst them: they will have no Maids, but such as can get no matches, no man is poor amongst them but with grudge, and much against his will, no vow is made to God, but if it should be, it must not be kept, fasters with them are pharisees, Monks mad men, & those which mortify themselves, they account Hypocrites, & in in one word they are in their lives, as they be in doctrine, Libertines. And in nothing more doth the difference of the efficacy of their doctrine, & the Catholics appear then in this; that if for fear of troubles, or for any other cause, one who was a Cath. is become in outward show a Protestant (for in his conscience such a one seldom or never thinketh the Protestants religion to be true) the same is so far from bettering his former life thereby, (according to Erasmus his saying before alleged) as that you may see him wallow in all kind of sins. Set before your eyes any one there in England, who hath left the Catholic Religion, & is become a Protestant, & mark whether he be not as a young calf let out of his crew, or as a colt leapt out of his enclosure? How many may you see there amongst you of such good fellows, which show plainly that they have, Conscientiam cauteriatam, a seared Conscience. If you turn any Seminary Priest to your side, doth he live more unspottedly with you, than he lived before in his own profession, or doth he not rather than drink up any kind of sin as easily as a Dog lapeth water? But on the other side, if any do leave the Protestants, & become a Catholic, doth he not forthwith leave all his vices? I wish you would but consider a little the wonderful change of such a one, whom I may more easily leave to your consideration, then describe him: but surely if you did see into it, you would say: Digitus Dei est hic, this is the finger, or power of God.   

THE XVII. REASON. Constancy in Doctrine.  
THE Doctrine of the Roman Church hath ever remained settled, and stated without change or innovation, howsoever time ever fleeting, altereth many things to disadvantage, and no man will deny but that it had the truth, when the Apostles said to the Romans: 
Rom. ca 1.  I give thanks to my God through jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is reported in the universal world. Therefore until it be showed that it hath swerved from that Faith which the Apostle then spoke of, I cannot but judge it to have the true Religion. And I think that no man can prove, that ever any Pope, or Bishop in any See did at any time change in any point the Religion of his predecessor. For example sake, if you look but into the See of Canterbury in your own Country, & reckon from him who was Archbishop thereof in King Henry the eight his days, before he changed Religion, you shall find that that Archbishop taught the same Religion in all points, which his next predecessor had done before him, and he the same that his next predecessor, and so from one to another even until the first that sat in that See. The very same may you see in other Bishops Sees, and especially in the Apostolic See, the See of Rome, for never was any man able to prove that the successor at any time changed the doctrine of his predecessor, & so it must needs be all one & the same that was immediately before this new religion, and at the first beginning, or in the Apostles time. For I ask the protestants (for examples sake) when Italy, France, or Spain, changed their Religion? I am sure they never changed, but kept still the same, which was delivered to them by their first Apostles. But contrariwise the Protestants beginning but some fifty or threescore years ago, have in this small time so chopped & changed, so altered, and transformed their Religion, as you may well say Proteus, in regard of them to be constant in shape: wherein they show themselves like their Fathers the old Heretics, 
Greg. lib. 3 mor. expo sit. in job. cap. 19  who also in inconstancy of doctrine were very notable: and no marvel, for when they be once forth of the right way, they take every path which offereth itself unto them, but never can happen upon the right way again, except they go back from whence they came, but run still further, 
2. tim. 3.  and further out of the way, ever learning, but never coming to the knowledge of the Truth. This inconstancy & change in Doctrine was so great in Luther his followers, 
Rivander in lupo excoriato fol 73.  as that they themselves complained thereof. And hereupon it is that the Lutherans are so easily changed into Zwinglians, or calvinists, calvinists into anabaptists, or Arrians, Anabaptists into Libertines, Frankistes, or into the Family of love. And this lenity they have (as they have all their other Capricches) from their grandsire Luther, whose inconstancy in Doctrine is most notable. For at his first beginning, he protested that he only misliked the abuse of Indulgences, and in no wise the Indulgences themselves. A little after he plainly despised the Indulgences themselves. 
Vlemberg. causa 12. pag. 391.  Then he began to call in question the authority of the Pope, afterwards Ceremonies, and by little and little going forward, at the length, he denied Free-will, & rolling up and down as it were a snowe-ball of heresy, made the same bigger and bigger, in such sort as he came to that audacity, that he burned openly at Wittenberg, the books of the Canon Law, affirming the Pope to be Antichrist, & the catholic church to be the Synagogue, and stews of Satan: yet stayed he himself not so, but still played the Proteus even unto his end: for at Worms before the Emperor, although he professed himself an enemy to the Church, yet he maintained the sacrifice of the Mass, & said it still himself, as also prayer to Saints for the dead, Purgatory, Communion under one kind, & many such like Catholic points, all which 9 years after, before the same Emperor he utterly denied. The same inconstancy was in his Disciples Melanchton, Caluin, Bucer, and in them of Wittenberg, in the anabaptists, and in such like, as also in your Protestants there in England. And I pray you what a changing, and turning in and out was there of your COMMUNION Book? For first the devisers thereof highly commended it, and affirmed it to be agreeable to Christ's institution, & to the service of the Primitive Church; and a while after they utterly misliked it, and disauthorising it, they set forth another in principal points quite contrary to the former, & yet they affirmed that also to be according to Christ's institution, & jump as the use was in the Primitive Church. And yet how this is approved, & liked of your Preachers, & ministers, you cannot but know, who see & behold such carping, and finding fault thereat, and such contempt thereof, as that the Minister who doth observe duly the order thereof, is accounted a temporizer, or a cold Protestant (I might say an Atheist) for his labour. And he who can most contemn it, and can wed, bury, baptise, minister the Communion, and do such like, after some other new fashion of his own inventing, is accounted a jolly fellow, & a man of zeal. What stir is there (I pray you) in every shire, yea almost in every parish, about the Ministers observing the order of this their book of COMMON PRAYER? What hold and tie is there between the Parishioners and their Curate? What a do is there, and hath been from the beginning about the Communion? One while it must be done in common, & leavened Bread: by and by not so, but in unleavened Bread, after in loaf Bread, although your cup ever had wine in it, till now of late that some do begin to take instead thereof good nappy ale: the like inconstancy you might see in placing the communion table: for first it must be placed in the middle of the choir, then in the body of the church, after in the chancel again as the altar was: one while the minister must turn his face towards the south, another while towards the north, and another while towards the east: whereby all wise men may see, that then your religion first began, and never was in the world before: for if ever it had been before, you might surely have had some precedent, by which you might have ordered these things. And to speak plainly what I observe, I find a great cause of your inconstancy in Doctrine to be advantage, and disadvantage: for your religion is framed only to serve turns, & times: for when they were but few in number, by wresting the Scriptures, they taught that Christ's flock was but little, 
jewel in Apol.  and therefore they gloried much in their small number: but after that their opinions were spread through Germany, France, England, Scotland, and in other Countries they vaunted much, and argued that their Doctrine must needs be true, because it was spread so largely. When it served their turn they stoutly defended with tooth and nail, 
Goodman Knox.  that a woman might not lawfully govern a realm, no not in civil, or temporal matters: but within a while after, when it fitted their purpose, they taught as they yet do, that a woman may rule a realm, not only in temporal things, but the Church also in spiritual causes. When it served their turn, 
Luth. tom. 3. Ger. Ien. fol. 115.  they taught that it was a horrible thing to put me to death for Religion, and expressly against the word of god: but when they had gotten the sword, they cried out in sermons on the contrary side, & never left off, until it was decreed by public authority, that those who were not of their religion, should suffer death therefore. When it fitted their purpose, 
Tom. 5. I●. Ger. f. 157. a & f. 444. & 159. & 491. Tom. 1. Germ. fol. 537. Colloq. Mens. f 4. in fine lib. ses. 3. b  they taught that none ought to preach, but he who was allowed, and licenced by the Magistrate, afterward upon other occasion; they wrote that a Christian man may without leave of any person take upon him that function. One while they taught that the BIBLE was the plainest, and the most easiest book in the world to be understood, anotherwhile they wrote upon advantage, that it was unpossible for any man to understand thoroughly any one word in the Bible, for that it was so obscure & profound. One while they taught that no Commentaries of SCRIPTURES written by men, 
Melancth. in Loc. con. ann. 1524.  must be received, yea that they must be shunned as a plague or pestilence, anotherwhile they themselves set forth Commentaries and Postilles, and obtruded them to the people. 
To. 2. Ger. fol. 255. a & f. 404. a  One while they teach that all men ought to be judges of doctrine & religion, anotherwhile they teach that no man, no not an Angel, must judge thereof. And a thousand such like contradictions & proofs of unconstancy, and change may you find in their doctrine, which here further to account would be over tedious. I will therefore end with the saying of Gregory Duke of Saxony: We do know what these fellows do teach this year, but what they will teach the next year we cannot guess.   

THE XVIII. REASON. False Prophets and Teachers.  
THe Prophets, Apostles, & Christ himself foretold that in the latter days there should come false Prophets, and to the end we should take heed of them, they painted them forth in their colours, whereby they might easily be known. Now it can not be denied, but that we be in the latter days, and therefore we must be very vigilant, and watchful to discern, & to know these seducers when they come. And conferring the Preachers aforesaid with the manners of these Protestants, we do plainly se● that they be the very same which were foretold, and as it were, pointed at by the finger of God: for first they come unsent, 
Ierm. 13.  as jeremy foretold in these words. I did not send them, and they did run: for certain it is, that they neither have order, as they ought to have, nor any Consecration, or right calling: for they were not sent by the Catholic Church as is manifest, but utterly condemned for Heretics, and when any of them is converted to the Roman Religion, they plainly see that they have no more to do with any spiritual function than other lay-men have. But on the contrary side, if any Priest of the Catholic Church become an Apostata by forsaking his religion, if he profess himself a Protestant they account and esteem such a one, very fit for their Ministry, yea and more worthy than one of their own making: for that they assure themselves, & so confess, that the catholics have ordinary calling most lawful: but they neither have ordinary calling as is most plain: nor extraordinary, for that they can work no miracle to prove the same: Ergo no calling at all, but they come of themselves unsent for. Then are they, as it was Prophesied of them like their Fathers, smooth tongued fellows, 
Rom. 6.  which with sweet speeches, & pleasant clawing deceive the hearts of innocents' and have a show of godliness, 
2. Tim.  but deny the virtue thereof: for they cry out. The word of the Lord, the light of the Gospel, the only Passion of our Saviour, 
3. Reg. 22.  no sin to the Elect, 
jer. 5.14.23. & 27. Isay. cap. 3  all are clean which believe their Doctrine: with a thousand such like plausible speeches, as the false Prophets did in times past. But consider them well, & you shall find them to be lying masters, and deceivers, 
2. Pet. 2. & 3.  who do not only themselves walk after the flesh in concupiscence of uncleanness, but do also draw others in the desire of lust, and lechery, promising liberty, whereas they themselves are slaves of corruption, 
Math. 7.  and in few words they lead the people the broad way to perdition.  
This you may plainly see by that which hath been said before, & therefore I would have you to judge whether it be like that the Protestants be those false teachers which were foretold, or no. Surely in mine opinion, there are all things in them which were foreshowed to be in the false prophets, and seducers of the latter days. 
jer. 29.23.  They come unsent, they teach plausible things to flesh and blood, they teach their own fancies, and say they be the words of the Lord, 
Ezech. 13.  wresting & wreathing the Scriptures as they list, they colour and set out their cause in such brave terms, and with such fraunde and deceit, as if it were possible the very Elect might be drawn into error, 
Math. 24.  they make a show as they were the Apostles of Christ, 
2. Cor. 11.  and thereby they seduce the innocent, they know not that God useth them as a scourge, 
Rom. 16.  and that he tempteth his people by them, 
Deut. 13.  they make an outward show of humanity, of peace and concord, and of such like, putting upon them the clothing of sheep, 
Mat. 7.  but they are indeed, according to the Flemish Protestants proverb Bares in wolves places.   

THE XIX. REASON. Liars, slanderers, & revilers.  
IT seemeth that the Protestants have either no conscience at all, or else that it is seared with an hot iron, for that they make no bones to bear so manifestly false witness against their neighbours, in charging the Catholics, & all their Elders with so plain untruths, and in slandering and reviling they care not whom in a most injurious, and opprobrious manner. And a most pitiful thing it is, to see the simple people drawn away from the true Religion of their Elders by such shameful means: for every man of understanding may easily see how they make lying their help, 
Esay. 28.  and defend themselves thereby. And yet do their miserable adhaerentes believe every thing to be gospel which they say, never going about to try out the truth thereof. To this shameful shift are they driven (as they be to many others) for that they cannot otherwise excuse their departure from the ancient Church: for if they had little or nothing to say against it, every simple man might marvel why they left it. They feign therefore, & make upon their own fingers many horrible things concerning the doctrine, ceremonies, & condition of the said Church. And this they do in places where they domineer & reign, where they know no man dare show his face to defend the cause of the christian world. And no marvel though they deal thus with the Catholic Church, when as they slander & tell lies of each other, as the Luherans bear witness against the Sacramentaries, the Maiorists, against the Flacians, 
Vlenbergius causa. 10.  and both these against the Lutherans, & other Sectaries one against another. And to give you a little taste of their dealings I will put down a few of their sayings, but briefly for that I doubt I be over tedious. 1 They say that Christ was unknown before their coming, 
In postilla Germ. An. 1537. part. 2. fol. 141.  & that the Gospel lay in the dust, & was hidden under the bench, & Luther doubteth whether Germany ever heard the word of God before he preached it. Which thing if it were true, then undoubtedly infinite people, yea all Christendom was deceived under the name of Christ, for 1500. years together, and consequently were all damned. And how impudent a lie is it, that Christ was not known before their coming? whereas all churches throughout Christendone did by pictures, and external ceremonies set before the eyes of people the Death, blood, Cross & Passion of our Saviour? was there not in every road fit the picture of Christ crucified? And did not the very stones, walls, & sumptuous buildings declare, that the erectors thereof were men, not only believing in Christ, but also most zealous, & forward to set forth his honour, by furthering his religion, & 10000 manifest proofs might here be brought forth against this shancles lie of theirs. 2. They inculcate, and even dull the ears of the people, with often telling them of the Idolatry of their elders, & affirm it to be more abominable than the Idolatry of the jews, or Heathens: And although they be so divided among themselves, as that they accuse one another of that crime, yet in this they all agree, as Pilate & Herod did in putting Christ to death, but otherwise being mortal enemies, the one to the other. But until they prove this Idolatry, which they never could, nor never will be able to do, I cannot but deem it an intolerable lie and cavil, the which is more than sufficiently proved by almost innumerable arguments, which are to be seen in many learned writers. 
Aug. conf in artic. de Missa.  3. They say that the Catholics hold, that Christ satisfied only for Original sin, and that he ordained the Mass for other sins; which to be a most manifest lie, all the books written of this matter by Catholic Divines do plainly testify. 
Aug. conf. tit de delectu ciborum.  4 They affirm that the Catholics do teach, that by choice of meats, and by other human constitutions, remission of sins, & salvation is obtained, & that thereby the doers are justified. Which is a lie so manifest as it needeth no confutation. 5. They say how the Papists hold that if a man be Contrite, Confessed, and have done Satisfaction for his sins, 
In artic. Smalcal. dic. in artic 3. fall paenit. papist.  that he is thereby just before God without Christ, or faith, which is a lie no less shameful than the other. For the Catholics teach, that no justice is had, no sin forgiven, no good thing obtained, but by the Passion of our Saviour Christ. 6. They affirm, that the Papists do worship Saints in steed of Christ, & do honour them as Gods, which is a gross impudent lie as every man knoweth. 
Had cont Osorium.  7. They are not ashamed to write, that Religion was not changed in England but by the consent of the Bishops, & that the lands, & goods of Abbeys & Religious houses, were distributed to Godly uses, as to Schools, Universities & Hospitals. And that the Pope for an ordinary tribute to him yearly paid, giveth free leave under his great seal to Priests, to keep concubines openly without controlment. And the like lies they lay upon the ancient Fathers, as Melancthon said of S. Austen, 
In Apol. tit. de pec. orig.  that he taught Original sin to be taken away in Baptism, not that it was not any more, but that it was not imputed. Whereas S. Austen spoke not there of Original sin, but of concpiscence. So they say S. Bernard recanted monachism at his later end, 
Luth. tom. 5. jen. ger. fol. 457. Teleman. Heshus. l. 1. de vera ec. p. 60.  & that most of ancient writers, & Fathers retracted, & revoked before they died the Doctrine which they had written; or else, that they thought otherwise than they wrote, & spoke. By this means to defend their new doctrine, & to shift off the ancient Fathers, which are altogether plainly against it, they are constrained to lay two notable lies upon the said fathers, the one that they recalled their doctrine before their death, the other that they wrote, & spoke one thing, but thought another. And no marvel though they slander, & wrong in this Atheistical manner the Holy Fathers, when as some of them spare not the Apostles themselves. If the three Apostles Peter, Paul, & Barnabas, 
Tom. 3. jen. Ger. fol. 261.  (saith Luther) had not held their tackle, about Faith without works, all the multitude had failed therein, & james stumbled in it. But of this kind of stuff I will not here allege any more; he who desireth to hear more of their lies, & slanders, may find them abundantly set down by diverse & sundry authors at this day, but yet take with you this saying of your M. Luther, He who once lieth, 
Tom. 1. Germ. fol. 423.  (saith he) certainly is not of God, & is worthily suspected in all things. And as for reviling, & railing, I think that Lucifer himself could little have exceeded the Protestants therein, & especially their first Apostle, the said Martin Luther, who with filthy, beastly, scurvy, & opprobrious speeches, so be daubeth the Catholic church, & the magistrates thereof, as every one may see what spirit possessed his heart, the same out of all doubt which delighteth in filthiness & scurrility. And to the end you may have some aim what kind of fellow this Arche-apostle of your protestantisme was, I will here briefly set down a few words of his filthy mouth. He calleth the Archbiship of Ments, being a Prince Elector, & descended of the Princely Electoral family of Brandeburge, 
Tom 3. Germ. fol. 533. a. b. & f. 326. 360. col. mens. f. 342. 343.  a fraudulent, a most shameful liar, a shifting Bishop, a filthy shitten Priest, an hellish Cardinal, a great, & a notable Epicure, an impudent and evil worm, a damned and lost man, a crafty scoffer, the greatest knave that ever was except Nero, & Caligula, etc. He revileth the Princes of the Empire, 
Tom. 5. Germ. in glossa. super edictum imperat.  which did meet at the Diet at Angusta, Anno. 1530. calling them, traitors, wicked men, the devils servants, knaves, mad hogs, great and gross asses. He calleth the Princes of Germany, fools, 
Tom. 3. fol. 195. b. & fol. 200 & 190. Tom. 2.  scales, and bubbles of the Pope, God's Isbeers, and hangmen, German beasts, the devils puppies, etc. He braggeth that he esteemed the King of England, and other Catholic Princes as miserable beggars, dizzards and fools, which make him pastime, and as new n●ttes, which he would have to glory and to sing in this manner. Here we nits do sit upon the head of the noblest beast in the earth in his hair, we are of a base lineage, lice are our Parents, those great Giants, which killed even Scylla the Roman Emperor, 
Tom. 3. Ien. Ger. f. 331. & f. 334. a.  and many others. What have we to do with Luther a beggar, it is true you are nits, but yet you are not louse. And in his infamous libel against the said King of England, he hath great store of opprobrious titles and names, as: Henry by the inclemency of God, King of England, King of lies. etc. So dealt he with that most famous Prince, George Duke of Saxony, 
Tom. 2. Ger. fol. 206. a. & Tom. 6. f. 6.  calling him a Tyrant, frenetical, mad, possessed corporally of the devil, the devils Apostle, etc. And in his infamous libel entitled: Wider hans, worst, he calleth Henry Duke of Brunswick, a gross ass, a stock, a trunk, an impudent liar, a mad man, lunatic, damned, the thief on the left hand, ass of all asses in Wolfenbutell, a pudding, a sausage, an house-firer, who stuffeth himself not by drinking wine, but by devouring and drinking devils, a fearful & fugitive knave, a doting eunuch, Prince of cut throats, a broudy dog, & by a thousand such like names. But against the Catholic divines, yea, and against his own offspring the Sacramentaries. jesus, what terms useth he, where he hath so often that malapert interjection▪ Trotz, Swinglius setting forth the said Luther in his colours, bringeth him in this manner reviling: 
In resp. a. v. a.  Swe●mer, a knave, a devil, a thief, an hypocrite, Trotz, Botz, Plotz, Plitz, tonitru, po, pu, pa, plump, etc. And when he had put the word (Sola) of his own brain into the text, Rom. 3. being admonished by some of it, he brayed out & said, 
Tom. 5. Germ. fol. 141. & fol. 144.  Doctor Martin Luther will so, & affirmeth, that a Papist, and an ass are all one, I will have it so, I command it so, & again, Luther will so, & saith, that he is a doctor, above all the doctors in the Papacy. Yea afterward it repent him, that he had not corrupted the text of the Apostle worse in putting in more of his own head, and that he had not made the Apostle to say: We suppose a man to be justified by faith only, without all works of all Laws. And many more such like outrages I could here set down of his, but I hope these may suffice to make you to know what a mild and modest man this reformer of the christian world was, and what a notable ring leader you have in your Religion.   

THE XX. REASON. Keeping in memory God's benefits.  
GOd almighty having bestowed infinite benefits upon man, beginning even at his creation, demanded chiefly at his hands, as a sign & token of gratitude and thankfulness that he would be mindful of them, and never by any means suffer them to departed out of his memory. And this was the cause of so many Ceremonies & of the Celebration of so many Feats amongst the Israelites. The like hath the Catholic ROMAN Church done, by ordaining divers & sundry feasts for the due worshipping of God, in yielding thankful, & lively remembrance of special benefits received at his hands, & namely of the benefit of Redemption, (which without comparison surpasseth all the rest) by calling yearly to mind, & by setting before the eyes of her children in a most uniform manner all that our Saviour did & suffered for us, as his Conception, his Advent, his Nativity, his Circumcision, his Manifestation, his Presentation, his Baptism, his Fasting, his Preaching, his Miracles, his Passion, his Death, his Burial, his Resurrection, his Ascension, his sending down of the Holy Ghost, his second Advent, etc. The which are Celebrated, Solemnized, and recalled to memory in a most solemn, and decent manner, with lystories most apt & fit for every sason, and with exact application of all Shadows, Figures, Promises, Prophecies, and with such like out of the old Testament, as may testify and confirm the Christian faith, at Chrst-Masse, at Candlemas, at Shro●etide, at Lent, at Easter, at Whitsuntide, and at other seasons of the year. And I would to God that you were but once present here upon Christmas Eve at night, and upon Christmas Day, to behold the lively representation of our Lord's Birth. Oh what Torches, what Tapers, what Lights, what Singing, what Sensing, what Mirth, what Melody, what playing upon Organs, and other Instruments, what praying upon Books & Beads, what weeping for joy and devotion, and what a number of goodly Ceremonies should you see? And as great solemnity is at other times of the year befitting the season. Whereby all that our Redeemer did for us is most lively, and most freshly renewed in the memory of mankind. Besides all this, there are also celebrated, and that very solemnly the birth days, (not into this world, but into heaven) of his Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins, and the feasts of his blessed Mother. By all which there is a kind of heaven upon earth, Christ with his Saints and Angels being continually seen here after a sort as he is there, in face and fruition. Thus is he honoured in himself, thus is he worshipped in his Angels, thus is he praised in his Saints, And to all this may be added the Dedication of every particular material Church, which Feast in England you usually call the Wakes, being a most solemn Feast, to put the Parishioners in mind of that triumphant Church in heaven, which they daily travail towards, & to recall, & refresh in memory the day that their parish church was first dedicated to God, or to some one of his Saints, who in particular sort hath the protection thereof, declaring thereby their gratitude, and thankfulness to God for his benefits of Redemption, and calling. All these Feasts, and solemnities (I say) do renew and retain in the memory of man the acts and benefits of his Redeemer, and do move and stir up his stony heart to love him, praise him, and to serve him; they do set before his eyes, the holy lives, and happy deaths of his blessed Saints, thereby to make us to imitate them, to honour GOD by them, and to pray to them to be a means to him for us, that we may hereafter enjoy their blessed company for ever. Many other things hath the Catholic Church ordained, thereby to keep continually in the mind of man the matters aforesaid, as Crucifixes, Pictures, Images, and Crosses, in every common place, & highway, which people beholding, may presently convert their mind to some heavenly mystery represented thereby. And by these means the most unlearned amongst the people, were they young Maidens, or old Wives, knew more of the Mysteries of Christian religion, than many of your Ministers daughters, or their wives, yea or some of the Ministers themselves do know. And no marvel, when as they have abolished, and abrogated in a manner all Ceremonies, and after a sort, all feasts, and those who hold themselves the purest, do altogether lay away all Ceremonies, & Feasts, in such sort as you may see them do all kind of work, yea upon Christmas day itself, & to make no more account thereof, then of any work day in the whole year. And they all have abolished generally all Shrines, Pictures, Images, Crucifixes, Monuments, and every thing which might present to the mind of the beholder any Mystery or Document of Christian Faith, or any good example to be followed, & they have left their churches as fit to move people to piety and devotion, as their barns are, when all the corn and hay is out of them, and nothing left to be seen besides the roofs, walls, and sills. Consider here with yourselves, whether Iewes, Turks, or Heathens, if they had gotten any Catholic countries, could have made greater spoil in the churches, or have left them more bare, than the Protestants have done? Or whether Christians, if they had vanquished Heathen countries, could have dealt otherwise with the churches of their Idols, than the Protestants have done with Catholic Churches? And besides this, they have defaced & thrown down Crosses in Market places, & in high ways, as though they would not suffer, nor endure, that people by beholding any such thing should remember and call to mind the Passion of their Saviour. This out of all doubt, was no small subtlety of the Devil to move them, under some other pretence, to make & rid all away, that should retain and keep in people's minds that, which chiefly they ought ever to have before the eyes of their mind. And very ridiculous it is to see them keep such a stir about keeping Holy the Sabbath, rejecting all other holy days: whereas they have no more warrant for the solemnizing of the Sondaie, than they have for S. Laurence his day, or for any other holy, or festival day in all the year: for other reason or warrant they have not, but the authority of the Catholic Roman Church, which instituted, and ordained all Festival days by the same Commission, that it changed the Sabbath of the jews, which was upon Saturday, into the Sabbath of the Christians, which it ordained to be upon Sunday. And in time, I assure myself, if they should proceed on, the Devil would bring them to lay away Sunday also (as he hath caused some to do already) and consequently the Word and all: and so drive them to plain Atheism, to which many of their brethren are driven to already.   

THE XXI. REASON. The Protestants beginning, and proceeding against then consciences.  

In colloq. mens. Ger. fol. 458. b. & 369. b.  I Know that no man can see into another man's heart or conscience, (although Luther, and his followers bragged that they could so do) and therefore we cannot judge thereof by suspicion only; but yet we may be bold to give our censure of them, by the plain words, and manifest deeds of the parties. We dare not be so rash in this matter as the Protestants are, who by only conjectures judge the hearts of one another, and stick not to write, 
Tom. 1. Ien. Ger. fol. 4. coll. mens. fol. 244. a. Tom. 2. Ger. jen. fol. 9 b.  that they speak and write against their consciences & knowledge: whereby we may gather that they use so to do: for otherwise how could they suspect such a detestable fault in others, for commonly a man thinketh others to be as himself is. 
Col. mens. fol. 10. b.  Luther confesseth that he began this Tragedy against his conscience, & therefore he thought others to do the like. Zwinglius saith, that he believed not the Real Presence for many years together before he broke off from the Catholic Church, but yet he warily dissembled his mind, & outwardly showing himself a Papist, 
Collo mens. fol. 53.  and in his opinion others do the like. Nenno openly telleth that before he was an Anabaptist, he sought after nothing, but his belly, 
In admonition ad do  & the desires of the flesh, and therefore he thought that all Catholic Priests did the like: but you may ask me, if Luther, who first began the protestants Religion, had at his entry such repugnance of conscience, why did he not leave off that course, & return to his Cloister again. I answer; for that he had proceeded so far, as he himself thought, that by desperate necessity he must go on, howsoever the matter would fall out. Even as Iu. Caesar, 
Suetonius in vita Caesaris.  who doubted much, and had divers Combats with himself, whether he should march forward with his army against the Romans or no: but at the length when he had proceeded so far, as that he had passed over the river Rubicon, he burst out into these words: Now is the chance thrown, 
Col. mens. fol. 241.  now must we needs proceed whether we will or no. In like manner Luther, after he had gone further than his conscience would have suffered him to have done, he utterly despairing the recovery of his credit (much like as one Thomas Bell who yet liveth, in England, hath done) justified his actions, 
Col. mens. fol. 158. b. 273. b.  and so began his hell in this life, having his conscience ever after unquiet, and still reproving him, & causing him to repent, as judas did, for that he had proceeded so far, and to wish all his Books buried in the earth, 
In praefat. in tom. 1. Germ. jen.  and was so troubled in disputations that as one ready to die, he would go out into the next chamber, and there throw himself upon a bed. And yet for all this, 
Melanct. in vita Luth. pag. 13.  the Devil at the last grew so big with him, as that he made him in all desperation to break out into all malice against the Catholic Church without any regard of conscience, 
Tom. 3. Ien. Ger. f. 274  or honesty; as you may see by that he flatly sayeth, that if the Council of Trent would allow Communion under both kinds (which he then taught to be instituted by Christ, and therefore of necessity must so be done) yet he and his followers, would in despite of the Council, either use but one only, or none at all, and would plainly account them accursed, which should use both kinds by the authority of the Council. And in like manner he saith, that if the Catholic Church, should by any Council decree that Priests, and Ecclesiastical persons might lawfully marry, (which Doctrine he himself not only taught, 
Tom. 2. Ger. f. 214.  but even practised the same by marrying a Nun) he would rather dissemble & believe, that that man was more in God's favour who all his life long, should keep one or two, yea or three whores, than he who after the decree of the Council should marry, yea he would command under pain of damnation, that no man by permition of the Council should marry, but either live chaste, or if he cannot so do, by keeping a who are he should not despair. So played he about the Eucharist, for although he taught that the Elevation of the Blessed Sacrament was wicked and horrible Idolatry, and therefore would have it abrogated, 
Tom. 3. jen. Germ  yet after that he had understood that his adversary Carolastadius did teach the same, he to contradict & to oppose himself against him, retained & kept the Elevation in Wittenberg, whole twenty years together, maugre the head of his said emulator Carolastadius. Yea he openly protested, that rather than he would yield an hairs breadth to him, he would go and be a Friar again, and observe all orders in his Monastery, as duly as ever he had done before. The like course he took about other things, and namely, about Transubstantiation: Because the Papists (saith he) do urge Transubstantiation, 
Tom. 2. Germ. fol. 225.  we only that we may be contrary to them, & insult against them, will believe that true Bread, & true Wine do there remain together with the Body & Blood of Christ. Yet said he of Transubstantiation against the Sacramentaries, that he would rather believe it with the Papists, than he would deny the Real Presence with them. This may you plainly see, that this your first Apostle and general Captain of all you Protestants, had no conscience, nor Religion at all, but led by a spirit of contradiction, he sought to be singular in himself, and contrary to all others. Neither did he only in this manner against his conscience, but his companions and Scholars were also in the same predicament, and had the same repugnance in themselves.  
For Melancthon in the diet at Aspurge was so troubled in conscience, 
Chytraeus in hist. Aug. conf.  that he was altogether sad, pusillanimous, and doubtful in mind, and gave himself so to weeping, as that no comforts, nor encouragements could prevail, or do him any good.  
And Carolastadius openly confessed that what he did was clean against his conscience. 
Col. m●…ger. f. 1 & 517.  The like repugning conscience had Zwinglius in expounding the words of our Saviour of the B. Sacrament, 
Lib. de cae na. page. 216. a.  as witnesseth Kemnitius, and the Lutherans writ, that he openly showed, and declared in his manners, gests, and in all things that his conscience accused him of errors: 
joannes Shutz in serp. antiq. fol. 19  but yet he had liefer forsake the truth, then to lose his honour in yielding to Luther. The like write the same Lutherans of Oecolampadius. And as for Bucer it is well known, that he had no conscience, nor religion at all: for at Wittenberg he was a Lutheran, at Colone half a Catholic, in England a Zwinglian, & every where of every Sect. I could easily show the like dealing against their consciences, and knowledge in divers other principal Protestants, & namely in your countryman I well, who in citing and coating Scriptures, Doctors, Counsels, and other Authors, doth so rend and tear in pieces the text, invert the sense, change and alter the words, and pull out of the sentence by piece meal some little parcel, which is forced to sound for his purpose, when as he cannot but see plainly, that the Author speaketh clean contrary, as any man may wonder to see a man so desperately and damnably shameless, as openly, & in the view of the whole world to show himself without God, or conscience: but mine intended brevity will not admit any more allegations in this place. When I had found out the Premises to be most true, and had duly weighed with myself the dealings of these new Gospelers, I thought it better to adventure my soul with all the whole Christian world of all ages who had their consciences most quiet, calm, and joyful, then with a few desperate fellows, who thus deal against their own knowledge, and consciences, and so show themselves most impudent, & shameless to the whole world.   

THE XXII. REASON. unreverent dealing.  
THE Catholic Roman Church hath ever both in doing, & speaking, and every manner of way borne great respect, and reverence towards God's holy Saints, and towards all holy things in regard of him, from whom proceedeth all holiness, as in reverent entering into the Church, in reverent taking of holy-water, in reverent behaviour towards the holy Altars, towards pictures, & images of the saints of God, in reverent and meek kneeling, in reverent & devout praying, in all reverence and attention at the holy Mass, and in every action, and jest which Catholics use in the Church, you may see great reverence, & humble veneration: But contrariwise amongst the Protestants as all things are profane, so are they most profanely used. They enter into their Churches with no greater reverence than they enter into taverns, they bow or make reverence to nothing therein, for that they have made all Sacred things away, if any of them kneel, it is but upon thorns, for full soon are they up again, & then with their hats upon their heads they either jangle, or talk, or walk, or sit staring about them, as if they waited to see when the players would come forth upon the stage, or else the good fellows go to the alehouse (where now & then they find their minister drinking his morning draft before he go to his service) to drink a pot or two of nappy ale, that thereby they may the better hold out the service time; during which space they stand gazing & staring upon their Minister, as a Country clown which never was in London before, doth gaze when he goeth down Cheapside, at the Goldsmith's stauls, or else they stare one upon another, like as thieves do when they are taken in a robbery, or else some of them walk without in the warm son, & make their bargains, and generally you do see no more devotion there, than you do in a Fair or Market; no man nor woman saying one prayer, but all waiting for (that which they can never have in that state) the peace of God. The which being hastily chopped up, they rush and gush out of the Church as water doth out of a mill pole, when the flood years are suddenly plucked up, no man moving lip, or leg, but striving who shall be soon at his pottage. Neither do they use any reverence to their Minister, no nor yet to his wife, but account of them (as they are indeed) most abject persons. And no marvel, when as their superintendents, whom they term Bishops, are little esteemed of among their Diocesanes, & especially among Gentlemen, & are least accounted of among Barons, and other Noble men, who disdain their company, & contemn their presence: whereas amongst Catholics, Priests have ever been greatly reverenced, Bishops and Prelates highly honoured, & all Clergy men much esteemed, and their company & presence, of all sorts desired, & reverently accepted of. The same reverent respect have Catholics ever observed in speaking, & in making mention of God's Books, Angels, Saints, or of such like holy things: for speaking of such they usually say: The holy Bible, or the holy Scriptures, the holy Gospel, the blessed Sacrament, the holy Sacraments etc. And of Angels & Saints: the holy Angels, S. Michael, S Gabriel, etc. And the French more reverently use to say: Mounsieur S. Michael, Mounsieur S. Pierre, etc. Our blessed Lady, or the holy virgin S. Marry, or the mother of God, S. Peter, S. Paul, S. Amb. S. August. S. Greg. S Hierome, S. Bernard, etc. and generally in speaking of Holy things, they use Holy terms: But the Protestants show as little reverence & devotion in speaking, as they do in doing: for they speak no more reverently of such, than they do of the profanest things they have. They term all, as if they were in puris natalibus: The Bible, the Word, the Testament, the Communion book, Baptism, Bread, the Supper, Angels, Michael, Gabriel, Peter, Paul, Marie, or Marie the virgin, Ambrose, Austen, Gregory the Pope, Hierome the monk, Bernard the abbot, etc. with as great incivility, irreverence, and want of good manners, as if rude Countrymen in talking of her majesties Nobleses should say; the Keeper, the Treasurer, the Admiral, Essex, Southampton, Monjoy, etc. or instead of naming men of worship by their Christian names should say: Tom, Dick, Will, Robin, jacke, Hodge, etc. Which diversity of dealing when I considered it with myself, I could not but think, & deem the Protestants profession void of all impression of piety and devotion; & contrariwise in the Catholic Church to be all sincere affection, and celestial humility towards almighty God, and towards all things appropriated to his service, as also towards those, who are the greatest partakers of his heavenly favour.   

THE XXIII. REASON. Resembling in Doctrine, and deeds, old Heretics.  

Irenaeus l. 1. cap. 20. Theo lib. 1. Heretic. fab. Aug. heres. 54. Hist. trip. l. 8. cap. 9  I HAVE conferred the Doctrine, deeds, & manners of Protestants, with those of the old Heretics long since condemned by the Catholic Church, & I find them little or nothing at all to differ: for as touching Doctrine, the protestants hold with Simon Magus that good works are not meritorious: they renounce the Pope with Novatus: they refuse to fast on such days as the Church hath prescribed, 
Hierom in prae. in dia. adver. Pelag. Aug. de her. cap 45. Epiph. l 3 her 75 Hier. lib. 1. con. jovin. idem coa. vigilant. ad Exuperium.  and deny free-will with the Manichees: they deny sacrifice, and prayer for the dead with Aeriu: with jovinian they put no differences of sins, nor make virginity any better than marriage: they permit no tapers, nor lights in their churches, & they speak against worshipping of Saints, and despise holy relics of blessed Martyrs with Vigilantiu: they take away the oblation of the sacrifice, & the hallowing of Chrism with Eutyches: 
Leo Epist. 75. Aug. heres 88 & de pec. merit. lib. 3. cap. 5. loa. Shut● lib. 50. causarum cap. 18.  they teach that children may be saved without baptism, & therefore that it is not of necessity with the Pelagians: they brag with the Donatists that all the world hath swerved from the right faith, and they only are the true Church. And all the rest of their doctrine in a manner is borrowed thus of old heretics, which here particularly to set down my brevity will not permit. The like cobaerence & agreement they have with the old heretics in deeds & manners: for I have found by experience that the Protestant preachers expect, 
Euseb. l. 7. Hist. c. 26.  and desire great applause of their hearers, as Paulus Samosatenus did of his followers; they overthrow Altars, 
Opt. lib. 6 contr. Do.  abuse the blessed Sacrament, handle despitefully Holy Chrism, as the Donatists did; they feign causes, and come excuses why they will not go to General Counsels, 
Aug. lib. 3. con. Crescon. Gram mat. ca 45. & hist. trip lib. 5. c. 34.  as the said Donatists, Macedonius, and Dioscorus did. The Donatists also feigned that divers Bishops who were absent, and that one who was dead did take their part against Catholics, thereby to make their number to seem greater: and there in England, when not somuch as one Catholic Bishop could be induced by any persuasions, promises, gifts, or honours, to consent to their Protestancy, yet were not the Protestants ashamed to abuse the Queen's Highness with this feigned Supplication: 
Anno. 1. Reginae Elizabethae.  Most humbly beseech your most excellent Majesty, your faithful and obedient Subjects, the Lords spiritual and temporal, etc. The same Donatists, did torment most cruelly Catholic Priests, plucking out the eyes of some, 
Aug. Pon. come. Epist. 50.  and of one Bishop they cut out the tongue, and hand, and murdered many. And the Protestants of late in France did the like to Catholic Priests, and besides tying haulters about their necks, they drew them despiteously after their horses, that done, they cut off their ears, noses, & privy parts, they ware their ears in their hats instead of brooches, and finally they either hanged up their carcases, 
Claud. de Sanctis in lib. du Sacrament des eglyses.  or else shot them through with Pistols: of others they hackled and mangled their faces: of othersome to try force & strength, they did cleave in two at one stroke their heads: and of an old Religious man at Man's, they first cut off his privy parts, than they fried them, after they forced him to swallow them down, and last of all they did rip his stomach; being yet alive, and see what was become thereof. At S. Macharius they buried the Catholics quick, they cut Infants in two, they ripped the bellies of Priests, and drew out their entrails by little & little, winding them about a stick, or tree. At Pat a village, some 6. leagues from orleans, they burned catholics & threw infants into the fire there to perish with the rest. And many other like outrages, and barbarous cruelties they committd, which who so desireth to know, 
Victor de persec. van- l. 1. cap. 3. & l 1. cap. de office praef. praetor lib. 3, Episc. Egipti Epist. ad Marcum Papaem.  may find them set down by Claudius de saints in his book noted before i● the margin. The Arrian heretics troadeth B. Sacrament under their feet, they overthrew the churches in Africa, & made of them stables for their horses, of Altars clothes, & vestments they made shirts and breeches, they burned the books, and carried the ornaments of the Churches away. And how the Protestants have abused the B. Sacrament, spoiled churches, burned books, and have not only made breeches, shirts, & cushions, but even coats for players, & dizzardes of holy vestments, & Altar clothes, you cannot but know. 
Theod. lib 1. cap. 6  julian that wicked Aapostata, rob Churches, spoiled the Clergy of their privileges, banished the Priests, overthrew Altars, caused the sacrifice to cease, reproved the Christians for doing reverence to the Cross, 
Cyrill lib. 6. contra julian. & l. 10 coa. eundem.  and for making the sign thereof in their foreheads, for painting it upon the doors of their houses, and for worshipping the Relics of Mattyrs, for visiting their tombs, for praying to them at their graves, 
Zozom. li. 5. cap 12.  and Sepulchres, and termed them deadmen: he overthrew & destroyed the images, & pictures of Christ, he broke open the sh●ne, wherein the bones of S. john Baptist were religiously kept, 
Theod. lib 5. cap. 6.  burned them, & dispersed abroad the ashes. Now whether the Protestants have jumped just into the steps of this wicked Apostata in doing the like or no? I leave to your judgement, knowledge, & consideration. 
Zozom li. 5. cap 21 Athan. lib. de passion. imag. Chr.  The paynim or heathen men broke the image of christ: the jews crucified it, as their Elders had done Christ himself: the jew in in whose house it was found, was troubled for it, & brought before the high priest, for that he seemed by keeping that picture, that he was a Christian. And do not the Protestants even as the Heathens and jews did? The jew was thought to be a favourer of Christ, because he kept his picture in his house: and why should not Catholics by the like reason, be judged favourers, and lovers of Christ, for having his Image in their Churches, houses, and chambers? Or why should not Protestants be deemed adversaries and enemies to Christ, as the jews and Heathens were, seeing they can no more endure his Picture or Cross than they could? The old Heretics, as Nestorius, 
Socrat. lib. 7. hist. cap. 23. Eus. lib 6. cap. 55. & lib. 7. c. 24. Nicephor. lib. 6 cap. 30. Theodor. lib. 1. cap. 4  Novatus, Paulus Samosatenus, the Arrians & others were out of measure proud, arrogant, and wonderfully conceited of themselves, contemning the Doctors of the Church, which had writttn before them, and preferring themselves before all others whatsoever: the very same do the Protestants in a most proud, and arrogant manner, and the ringleader, and Father of them all is not ashamed to break out into these speeches: 
Lutherus col. mens.  I have Excommunicated Origine long ago, there is nothing singular in Athanasius, 
fol. 474. & 460. & 932. & 476 & 477. & 17.  Tertullian is very superstitious: I make no count of Chrisostome, for he is but a prattler: Basil plainly is nothing worth, he is altogether a Monk: Cyprian the Martyr is a weak Diviner: Hierome ought not to be numbered amongst the Doctors of the Church, for he was an Heretic: amongst all the Doctors scarcely one, except Augustine, 
Tun. 2. ger. fol. 443. & 449.  understood what the spirit & the letter were: in all their books there is great darkness of Faith: Gregory's Sermons are not worth a deaf nut, the devil deceived him grossly in his Dialogues.  
Thus do they censure the ancient Fathers, but of themselves they speak far otherwise: for the same Arch-Protestant saith that he himself is a faithful Prophet, an Apostle, an Evangelist, 
Tom 2. Gerard fol. 522. & fol 79. Tom. 3. f. 334. Coll. mens. fol. 488.  a living Saint, etc. And further he said of himself, that he is Esay the Prophet, & Philip Melancthon, jeremy. Was there ever any Thraso so impudent, as thus to brag of himself. And yet his followers were not ashamed to extol and praise him in such sort, as I cannot without shame and offence to Christian ears declare the same: but yet to give you a little taste thereof, I will here set down a distichon, which his Disciples made in praise of him, 
In part contra Stephanum Agricolam ca 4. b. 9 a.  and which Cyriacus Spangenbergius one of his principal followers stoutly maintaineth to be true, and allowable the distichon is this.  
Christ is habet primas,  
habeas tibi Paule secundus,  
Ast loca post illos  
proxima, Luther habet.  

¶ Which thus may be Englished.  The chief of all is Christ himself,  
the next is Paul by grace,  
Back Saints, Apostles, Angels all  
for next is Luther's place.  

Col. mens. fol. 159.  And Luther himself in another place coupleth himself with the same holy Apostle Saint Paul: But to see what staff his adhaerentes use in his commendation and praise, is too redicu-to behold, 
Col. mens. her fo. 354 & 159. & Beza in lib Icom r 4. a & in praef. in nowm test. f. 144. a. & Luth. in praefati. in comen. Phill. in Epist. ad Rom. p. 2. & tom 2. jen. fol. 79. & in li. coa. regem. ang. & tun. 2. Ien. f. 119 & col. men. f. 144. & f. 474 & tun. 2. Lat. Witten. f 457. & in l. de●eruoarbit. & Stigel. l. 2. Poemat. n. 4. Amsd. desc. Luth. & Ab. con. Carola. an. l. 7. b. Eus. l. 7. cap. 24 Soc. li. 6. c. 8. Zozon. li. 8. c. 8. Nicph. l. c. 16. idem li. 11. cap: 12. Tertul. in lib. de preser adverse. hers. Epip: her: 49. & 79: Aug: her: 27: Hieron: ad Etesiph: adverse. pelagianos: Euseb  which you may see at large in their writings, and thus they do not only write of their master & captain, but even one of another and of themselves in a most shameful & lying manner.  
They follow also the fashion of old heretics in that they disagree so greatly in Doctrine, & are so contentious, & do affect & seek after eloquence, and smooth speeches, more than after the truth, as they did. And never any arch-heretic among them is converted, as there never was in the ancient time: for that their sin was over heinous, & against the Holy Ghost; neither do they put any difference between Ecclesiastical persons and civil, as they old heretics did not. And they season their errors with songs, & ballads in the vulgar tongue, to the end that the common people delighting to hear and sing them, might thereby suck their errors, as you see them do by the Geneva Psalms, which women, children, and all sorts confusedly sing, & so did the old heretics, as historiographers make mention. The women among the heretics in times past were so shameless, & malapert, that they took upon them to dispute, and to reason of matters of religion: & they helped forward the Heresy, by teaching, preaching, prating, wrangling, jangling, prophesying, and by all means possible. 
5.  And do not, 
p. 14. Niceph. l. cap. 22. Tom 1. Ien. Ger. f. 336 & f. 17. & 341.  I pray you, the women amongst the Protestants the like, following therein their Father Luther's advise, who licenseth them to do such things, & namely to preach?  
The old Heretics were very inquisitive, and desirous to hear of the sins, and faults of Priests, and of other Ecclesiastical persons, 
Aug. Epist 137.  and when they heard any such, they greatly rejoiced thereat, and blazed it abroad with great exaggerations, and additions: and do not the Protestants the same? Yea it were more sufferable if they blazed abroad only things which were true: but they most impudently feign, & make upon their own fingers the greatest part of such tales as are told of Ecclesiastical persons. Wherein they show how far they are from the spirit and mind of that most Religious Emperor Constantine the great, 
Zozom▪ li. 1. cap 6. Niceph. li. 8. cap. 16.  who would not in any wise hear the faults of Bishops & Priests, but affirmed that if he should chance to find such an one violating wedlock, he would cover him with his purple cloak, for fear of scandal.  
I could here allege many more things both of doctrine and manners, in which the Heretics of old, and the Protestants of these days, do agree, and jump together, and because of brevity I will surcease, praying you warily to weigh whose steps you tread in, and whose examples you follow.   

THE XXIIII. REASON. Peace and tranquillity.  
THE Catholic Roman religion (according to the prophecies of the old Testament) began with meekness, mildness, and with all quiet, and peaceable means, by which it also increased, and dilated itself: the teachers, and professors thereof, using all patience and humility, but never any violence, or force in the planting thereof; whereas the Protestants both have begun, and hold on their course with seditious tumults, wars, cruelties, and other outrageous Tragedies: as with overthrowing noble families, making away honourable personages, & with destroying all before them, where they set foot, as Germany, where they begun, can sufficiently witness, where were slain within one year by rebellion & war for this new religion, 
Sled●n  above one hundred thousand people, countrymen taking arms against their Lords, & subjects against their Princes for the same. And what rule, and revel they have kept about their Gospel in France, in Flaunders, in Poland, in Switzerland, & in Denmark, is well known where they have gathered sundry armies, pitched many camps, fought many battles, made many insurrections, destroyed Countries, Cities, Towns, Villages, caused such slaughter, and havoc of Christian blood as every man abhorreth to hear of. And what tragedies I pray you have they raised in scotlan? Have they not murdered their Princes, and overthrown Noble houses, and lineages, as the houses and lineages of Hamiltons, of Duglasses, of Stewards, and of others? Neither hath Ireland escaped scot free. But to speak of our own Country, I cannot without tears recount sommarily the troubles, calamities, destructions, & utter ruins of noble families, honourable & worshipful personages, & of the commonwealth itself caused by the Protestants, or for the controversy of religion In k. Henry the 8. his time, two, the chiefest of the whole Realm, for virtue & learning were put to death, with great numbers of others, both spiritual & temporal, & many noble families were quite overthrown. King Edward being crowned King: new Lords, new Earls, new Marquises, and new Dukes took the places of the old: new fellows were called out of Germany, to wit, Peter Martyr, and Martin Bucer two Apostates Friars, waited on by two Fustelugge wenches, which had been Nuns, who came to teach a new religion: but with express condition to be indifferent to teach what sect, or opinions, either of LUTHER, ZWINGLIUS, or CALVINE, or of any other whatsoever, which the Parliament then in gathering should agree upon. The poor irreligious Apostates with their sacrilegious lasses were content so to do, and upon that condition they were sent, the one to Oxford with his wench at his tail, and the other to Cambridge accompanied with his lass. Then might you have seen jolly holding & drawing about Religion, placing, and displacing, prisoning, and setting at liberty, all men forced to swear to a form of service drawn out in haste by certain of the L. Protectors chaplains, (which service was never heard of in the world before) but the Clergy refused so to do, and therefore were deprived, and imprisoned. The Duke of Somerset was head, and ruler of the new devised Church, (for the Childe-King, was a playing him, & could not once think of any such thing) and attended to his own advancement by purchasing good old land, whilst the two silly Apostates kept the people occupied with new doctrine, and with not trobling of him. And then began such revel, and hold, and tie in the land, as that the Protector first of all cut off the head of his brother the Admiral: the Earl of Warwick beheaded the Protector, and divers others of his friends, making himself Duke of Northumberland, and complotting with the Duke of Suffolk to cut off all king Henry's children, & to bring in Suffolk's daughter, and Northumberlands son as they did: for the which both their heads were afterwards cut off by Queen Marie. And in her majesties time, that now is, all the Sacred Bishops were deprived in one day, & all, or the most of them imprisoned during their lives. Many noble houses abused, & disgraced, and divers overthrown, many both of honour and worship intolerably afflicted, many thousands of inferior sort grievously persecuted, above an hundred Priests tortured, hanged, and quartered, the most of them being Gentlemen of worshipful descent, of rare wit, learning, and of other parts incomparable. The Realm is divided, and shivered into a thousand pieces, the old friends and allies thereof, made enemies to it, new friends few and weak, the natural inhabitants most pitifully divided amongst themselves at home, & tossed and turmoiled abroad, every man of what state, conditon, or religion soever he be of, hath felt the smart of this new Gospel, either in himself, in his friends, children, servants, kinsfolks, goods, honours, & most of all the Realm, and Commonweal in itself, with ten thousand other troubles, and afflictions, which the Protestants Religion carrieth with it, whether soever it goeth. Ever expelling & driving away Peace, and tranquillity, which find harbour, and entertainment only in Catholic realms, and commonweals. When I weighed, and considered these things diligently with myself, I could not but dislike your new Religion, ever accompanied with Tumults, Insurrections, Ruins, Desolations, and with all manner of Tragical miseries, as is aforesaid, and cleave unto the old Catholic Religion, ever bringing with it peace, quietness, love friendship, plenty, and all kind of happiness, as we see in Lands & Countries which ever have kept the same.   

THE XXV. REASON. All kind of witnesses against one and that only in show, or in very deed none at all.  
EVERY man knoweth that the Protestants can bring forth nothing to witness their religion, but only the Scriptures, and how they make for them, I have partly showed before: for in every deed they being rightly examined, & truly interpreted bear witness most of all other things against them: for out of all doubt, God's word is not contrary, but most consonant to all things before alleged, & practised through the whole christian world for so many ages together. And whereas they will admit no expositors of holy Scriptures, but the Scriptures themselves: for that (as they say) one place expoundeth another; I ask than then, how their chief master M. Luther, when as he would most gladly have denied the Real Presence, thinking thereby to wreak his teen the more on the Pope, confessed that he could not do it, because the words were so manifest for it? And why hath that text been so tossed & wrested in this age, as that sundry sectaries have wringed out of it, above fourscore different opinions, or expositions; and yet every one defendeth with tooth and nail his interpretation to be sound, and right? So that in fine they have no witness at all of their new invented doctrine, but every one his private fancy, or conceit: whereas the Catholic Religion, besides all the reasons before alleged, hath all things in the world witnesses of it: for if you look up to Heaven, you may there see amongst innumerable Martyrs, which all gave their lives for the said Religion, three and thirty which were Popes of Rome. And to speak some what in particular, 
In Epist. ad Smyr.  the zealous Martyr S. Ignatius, who in Ecclesiastical affairs would have no man, no not the King equal to a Bishop, and who wrote Apostolical traditions, which he himself had seen, sealed his religion with his blood. 
Lib. 3. c. 3.  Irenaeus who declared the true Faith by succession in the See of Rome was of this religion. S. Victor, 
Euseb. 5. hist. 24 Euseb. 4. hist. 14.  who by his pontifical power, kept in subjection all Afrique, was of this religion. S. Polycarpe who went to Rome about the question of Easter, was of this religion. S. Cyprian, S. Sixtus, S. Laurence, with infinite others, both Doctors and Saints do witness the Roman Religion. thousands of Virgins, which defended their virginity against devils, & men, 
Euseb. 8. hist. 17. Aug l. 9 conf. cap. 7. us. ad 3.  were of this religion. Saint Helen, who went to jerusalem, to find out the Cross of our Saviour was of this religion. The mother of S. Austin. S. Monica, who at her death requested that she might have Mass said for her, & to be prayed for, was out of all doubt a Papist: So were S. Paul the Eremite, S. Hilarion, S. Anthony, S. Nicolas, S. Martin, S. Benet, with millions of such like, who were fed with fasting, clothed with sackcloth, and enriched with all manner of virtues. And to be short, were there, I pray you, any Saints in heaven, before this our age, which were not Papist? I am sure that either heaven was empty until Luth. shook of his hood, or if there were any there they were Papists.  
Now if you look down into hell, you may behold the Heathen persecutors, jews, Turks, and Heretics, in perpetual torments for persecuting, and striving against the Catholic ROMAN CHURCH To this Constantine the great brought peace, and quietness. In this Church there hath been continual succession of Bishops without any interruption. All bishops and Pastors of particular Churches, in what land or country soever they were in under the cope of heaven, were members of this Church. As for example, S. Ignatius, at Antioch, Peter, Alexander, Athanasius, Theophilus, at Alexandria: Macharius, and Cyrillus at jerusalem: Proclus at Constantinople: Gregory, and Basil, in Cappadocia: Thaumaturgus in Pontus: Polycarpas at Smyrna: justinus at Athens: Dyonisius at Corinth: Gregory at Nysa, Methodius at Tyrus, Ephreem in Syria, Cyprian, Optatus, Austin in Africa, Epiphanius in Cyprus, Ambrose, Paulinus, Gaudentius, Prosper, Faustus, Vigilius in Italy, Irenaeus, Martin, Hylarius, Eucherius, Gregory, Saluianus in France: Vincentius, Orotius, Hildefonsus, Leander, Isidorus, in Spain, Fugatius, Damianus, justus, Melytus, Beda in England, were Bishops and Pastors of this Church. In brief, whatsoever deeds or works, signs or monuments, fragments, or relics remain yet in any land or country of them, who planted the Christian Faith there, do testify the Catholic Roman Religion. All Princes, Kings, & Emperors, all States and commonweals which ever were christened: the Theodosians in the east, the Charles in the west, the Edward's in England, the Lewesses in France, the Hermigildes in Spain, the Henry's in Saxony, the Wenceslaes in Boeme-Lande, the Leopoldes, in Austria, the Steeuens in Hungary, the josophates in India professed, and protected the Roman Religion, they builded Churches, founded religious houses, & erected many other Monuments of piety, not for Protestants Iwis, but for the professors of the Catholic Roman Religion: which Faith and Religion S. Pattricke brought first into Ireland, Palladius into Scotland, S. Augustine into England, and other Apostles into other countries: witnesses of this Religion are all Universities, Colleges, Hospitals, Monasteries, Churches, Chapels and innumerable other monuments: Witnesses their foundations, their ordinances, yea and the very buildings themselves: witnesses all Revestryes, Chancels with steps up, Altars, Rood lofts, Cross-buildings, all Crosses in Church and Church-yeardes, Market-places, and Highways: witnesses all bishoprics, Deaneries, archdeaconry, Prebends, Parsonages, Vicariages, & such like, ordained trow you, for women, & children to make them gentles? Witnesses all tithes, and other livelihoods so religiously lotted out, not for ministers wenches, & their brats, but for Sacred anointed Priests. Good Lord, what would the founders of all these premises say, if they might come but to see how their lands and goods, which they so religiously bestowed to honour God withal, are by Protestants employed? Witnesses spiritual Courts, Visitations, Convocations, Excommunications, & Suspensions: witnesses probations of dead men's wills: witnesses bidding and forbidding of banes: witnesses partitions of Diocese & parishes; all ordained, and instituted by Papists. Witnesses ancient laws and customs: witnesses the vulgar manners of people, the Election, and Inauguration of Emperors, the rites of anointing & crowning of kings, the dubbing of knights, etc. witnesses coins, windows, towne-gates, town-houses, all rules, and to conclude, all things in the world witness the Catholic Roman Religion.  
Thus have I briefly my dear friends set down some plain reasons of the religion which I profess, & for the enjoying of which, I am content to forego my native soil, my dear Parents, you my dearest friends, with all the rest, and all those commodities and pleasures, which you account in your letter. I wish you not to think evil of me for so doing, for it is the religion wherein I was borne, baptised, and confirmed: it is the religion which from time to time hath been universally received throughout all Christendom: it is the religion which there in our own country of all others is the first, the ancientest, the most beneficial of all the rest, the mother, and begetter of the others, & the religion of all our Christian Predecessors, and therefore bear with me I pray you, in that I will not yield up my title, and interest of that which I have received from mine Elders, by lineal and lawful descent, no man for these thousand years at the least seeking to put me, or any of my predecessors out of it. Yet if any Protestant or other whatsoever, can show me any good evidence, why I should not possess the same, I am ready to give it up: but hitherto they promising and vaunting to show good evidence, have brought forth nothing but words, and forgery. And therefore by God's grace, I purpose to hold the same, even until my dying day, except such evidence come against my title, as is not to be showed, no not by an Angel, if he should come from heaven. God bless you in the abundance of his mercy, who send us joyful meeting, either in this world, or in the next, or in both.   

A COPY OF ANOTHER LETTER WHICH THE TWO Citizens of London wrote to their friend beyond the Seas, shortly after that the other was sent.  
DEAR AND Well-beloved friend, after that we had sent the last Letter dated the 13. of September Anno. 1599 we consulting, and weighing the contents thereof, with some what more deep considerations then before we had done: it was thought good to write unto you this second Letter, to let you understand that we will not receive, nor meddle with any grounds or reasons of your faith and religion, & therefore you need not to trouble yourself with writing any: for we assure ourselves that you can bring forth none, but such as Papists use to allege, which are now grown very stolen, & out of request. Only this is the desire of us all, that you would return without delay: but yet so, as you may show yourself obedient to her Ma. laws in coming to the Church as other good dutiful subjects do: for surely what Religion soever you profess, we think you may with safe conscience come to hear Divine Service, or a Sermon, being no further urged, but that you may think, and pray as you list. And what Scripture, authority or reason can you show, or pretend for refusing so to do? For we know the common answer, which women, & such silly souls are accustomed to make in saying: It is against my conscience, I may not with a safe conscience so do: is too foolish for you, who seem to have more knowledge. We supposed at the first, that your refusal proceeded of a timorous & over scrupulous conscience, but now we begin to suspect, that because you have gone so far in that course, you think it would be some discredit, as to be deemed unconstant, and a turncoat, if you should in any sort relent, and come to conformity, and therefore you mind still to be obstinate: but we friendly advise you to beware of such peevishness, proceeding indeed from the root of pride, & we wish you to submit yourself to your gracious Princess, her honourable Council, & to the laws of your native Country, and weigh with yourself, what you are to stand against a whole Realm, and we see no reason, but that you may as well come to Church, as you did once (if we be not deceived) eat upon some occasion, flesh upon a friday, a thing so opposite to your religion. If you can master your mind, so as you may come home in this sort, we shall be all most glad of you: for if you do, neither Parents nor friends will entertain you, nor speak one word in your cause, for if they should it were but in vain, & beside might bring them into some suspicion & discredit. God give you grace to be wise in time, for if you hold on in this your wilful folly, we fear much, that you who should have been most comfort to your friends, will become their greatest grief, & give them occasion to wish that you never had been borne: whereas being tractable in this our request, you may salve all sores past, benefit yourself, pleasure many, do great good in your country, comfort your kinsfolks, prove yourself wise in deed, gain credit amongst the best, and live pleasantly many an year. Which thing your Parents, and we most earnestly desire to see. And thus, they with paternal blessings, and we all jointly with millions of commendations, commit you to the Almighty. London this 2. of October. an. 1599  
Your most kind and loving friends. R. and G.H.   

AN ANSWER TO THE LETTER AFORE GOING.  
MOST loving friends, I had written the reasons of Religion before I received the countermand in your last letter, which came to my hands very late, for being dated the 2. of October Anno 1599 it came not to me until the 20. of December of the same year. Perusing the same, & weighing the contents thereof, I find that you little care what religion I retain in my mind and conscience, so that I be conformable to the Laws of our Country, in hearing Service, as it is now set forth, or a piece of a Sermon, as it is now there preached. Many circumstances and surmises you use, but all drive to the final scope by you intended, which is to drive me to your Church. And indeed as worldly friends, for an especial kind of such love towards me, you labour very much, for the which I heartily thank you, but alas your counsel and desire is no other than S. Peter was to our Lord Christ, 
Mat. 16.  or those pitiful friends was to Eleazarus, 
1. Mac. 6.  for you build all upon our present safety, & welfare in this world. And if I thought that I might follow your counsel, & nevertheless save my soul, surely than I were the most miserable fool that ever was in the world, if I would not so do For to speak of my fellow Catholics in England, as well as of myself, can there I pray you any man be more mad, than to suffer loss of goods, and living, to be discredited, contemned, and trodden under every man's foot that listeth to spoil them, to lie in prison, in dungeons, to be racked, reracked, hanged, bowelled alive and boiled, and after all this, to go to hell, there to be tormented eternally with Fire and Brimstone, and all for Religion, whenas being conformable to the Laws of their country: in going to Church, they may enjoy livings, liberties, & lives, feed at large, and live gallantly, aloft in all delicacy, mirth, pastime, & pleasure in this world, & after all this, in the end to be sure of joy in the next. If you could prove this to me, than I say, you might condemn me for the wretchedst miscreant that ever lived, if I did not yield to your advice and desire. But until you can prove it, I hope you will construe my course in charitable manner, and judge better of me, than that I do it of obstinacy, or for fear of discredit, or for any worldly respect, for I call God Almighty (before whom we are sure to meet one day, and to receive according to our thoughts, words, & deeds) to witness that I do refrain & refuse to go to your service, only for conscience sake, that is, because I think it not lawful: for in so doing I should offend God Almighty greatly, which I must not do for a million of worlds: But because you writ, that you suppose me to have more knowledge, then to answer with silly women, it is against my conscience, etc. and ask, what Scripture, authority, or reason I have for my refusing? I thought it good & convenient to show you briefly some arguments & reasons, which I know not how to answer if I should follow your counsel: But I will not amplify or explain them at large, for so I should be long and over tedious for you, who (if I be not deceived) can hardly endure to read through any prolix discourse: but I will only point as it were at them with my finger, for I know your wits to be ready enough to conceive the whole by a part, or parcel. To begin therefore, I tell you plainly, that the reasons, why I being a Catholic, and most steadfastly believing the Catholic Religion to be most true, and consequently all other Sects and religions false, and damnable, will not go to hear your service, or a sermon of your religion, are these which follow.  
1 In so doing, I should furnish the Camp of the enemies of the Catholic Church with my visible presence, which may not be done without offence, for: 
Prover. 14  In the multitude of his people is the kings dignity, and in the small number of his folk, the ignominy of the Prince; I lessen thereby the number of Catholics, and increase the number of Protestants, at the least in open show.  
2 I should yield to an act of a contrary religion, exacted of me as a denial of mine, which may not be done without great offence: for although you inculcate, and ingeminate obedience, and dutifulness to our Prince, & that it is but an act of obedience: sure lie I cannot see but that it is an act of religion: for albeit the Statute bear this title: An act to retain her majesties subjects in their due obedience, yet is not mere obedience the mark intended in the Statute: for the ordinary way to exact obedience is by oaths of fidelity, and homage. And why should this law be made for obedience, and none else? or why should obedience be rather showed in the Church then in other places? or why by joining with protestants in their service, rather than by other manner of ways? And I pray you, is not obedience included in every law as well as in this? for it is very plain, that every precept or law besides obedience to itself, intendeth some act of some other virtue. And in this law none can be intended but about religion: and so in going to your service I should make outward profession of your religion, which in my conscience I judge to be false.  
3 I should deny my Faith by so doing: for before the law of going to the Church was made, there was no such bond for Catholics to profess their faith in refusing the Church, as after there was, although I do not deny, but that it was unlawful even before the Statute, as being a thing evil in it own nature, to go formally to their Service: but now every Catholic is bound to profess his faith in refusing to go to the protestants Service, when it is exacted of him according to the Statute, which intendeth to draw him from Catholic Religion And we see by experience, that what Catholic soever goeth to their Service, be he never so zealous in mind in Catholic Religion, yet is he of every man reckoned in the number of Protestants, and of all Catholics utterly disclaimed. And such a one is in very deed a flat partaker of Protestantisme, and is incorporated ipso facto with the members of the same, & utterly excluded from the participation of the Mystical Body of Christ our Saviour. 4 You might by the same reason urge me to receive your Communion, by which you move me to go to your Service: which I hope you will not do, knowing it to be so opposite to my faith, & religion: for I may show my obedience to my Prince's laws as well in the one as in the other. And I know well enough that the Communion is but a piece of bread, and a sup of wine, which are things no less indifferent of themselves, than my presence at your service is. And as I know that your minister would give me that bread and wine instead of a far better thing: so would he buzz, and sound in mine ears your service, I am sure, in lieu of a far more holy thing. And as I little esteem your service, so make I small account of your bread and wine: But indeed the true cause why I will do neither the one, nor the other, is because they be both a like acts of religion, used in things which I deem most untrue: yet might obedience excuse them both in your opinion.  
5 I should ipso facto be Excommunicated, 
Calet. 2.2. ●. 12. ar. 1. & q. 94. ar. 1.  and cut off from the Catholic Church of Christ: for she excommunicating generally all heretics, comprehendeth me in the number of them, because in exterior court or show, I am an heretic by going to any other service, then that of the said Catholic Church, & she not knowing the mind or affection, judgeth according to the outward show, and so reputeth me for an absolute heretic, although keeping my Faith inviolable, I be not so inwardly, and in very deed. By this means I should be used as an excommunicate person, altogether cut off from God's visible church, barred from holy service, & sacraments: for no Catholic Priest could lawfully admit me to any such, so long as I would continued in that miserable state.  
6 I should be contrary to my conscience, a favourer, and a furtherer of Protestants Religion; for I by my presence increasing your number (as I said before) must needs somewhat augment the credit of your congregation, and so make your sect to flourish the more, and encourage others by mine example to help forward the same.  
7 I should lose that peace, which coupleth us to God, and maketh us of one heart, & soul amongst ourselves: 
Act. 4.  and which was so much sought for by the penitent lapsed Christians of the Primitive Church. Their admission, or reconciling again to the Church after their fall was termed giving of peace: 
Cyp. lib. 1. Epist. 2.  for GOD knoweth how little peace, rest, or quietness of mind a Catholic going to your service hath. And no marvel, when as his body goeth one way & his mind another, yea he a member rend off from the whole body.  
8 I should be adjudged by the Catholic Church both a Schismatic, and an Heretic in so doing. A Schismatic, because I go to a Congregation separated from the church of God: an Heretic, in that I couple myself to them who teach heresy: for being by that deed (as I said before) an exterior Heretic, I am consequently a schismatic, because that every heretic is withal a schismatic, but every schismatic is not an heretic: for a schismatic only is he, who holding the same opinions, 
Lib. 20 con. Faust. c. 3. & con. Crescon.  and using the same ceremonies of worshipping God with others, yet only is pleased with a several congregation.  
9 I should in so doing make a greatly in profession of my faith, which must needs be a great sin: for a lie is as well committed in deed by dissimulation, 
Ambr. ser. de Abra.  as in speech. And my presence at protestants service telleth that I am a protestant, whereas in my heart & conscience I am a Catholic. This kind of lying (as saith S. Augustine) ought most chiefly to be avoided, for that it is made in the most noblest of all moral virtues, I mean Religion.  
10 I should give great scandal, & occasion of fall to others; for that they seeing me do against my conscience in this, may think that I will as easily do any thing else which I know to be nought, upon hope of repentance, and so by mine example may be moved to do the like: for he who knoweth or thinketh in his conscience your Service to be unlawful, and yet will be present at it, why will he not as easily do any other thing which he knoweth to be evil? Besides, others would by this mine example, be Confirmed in Schism, and Heresy, thinking the service either to be good and godly indeed, or at the leastwise that it may begun unto without any scruple. As those who saw others eat Idolothytes, 
1. Cor. 8.  were confirmed, and encouraged to do the like.  
11 I should endanger myself to be infected with that doctrine, which I judge to be damnable. And I am told that: 
Eccl. 13.  he who loveth danger shall perish therein. And if I will not be bitten with a Snake, I must not sleep nigh an hedge: neither ought I to touch pitch, lest I be defiled by the same. And if David had not adventured to gaze upon Bethsabee he had not fallen into so great liking of her, as to commit such horrible sins as you know. And if no Catholic would have heard Luth. to have preached, when he began this new doctrine, there had been at this day neither Lutheran, Zwinglian, Protestant, Puritan, nor any such late sprung up fellows, to trouble and molest the Catholic Church. 
Rom. 6.   
12 I should disobey S. Paul his commandment, bidding me avoid an Heretical man. 
Tit. 3 2. Tim. 4  And far should I be from the mind of the holy Apostle, and Evangelist, S. john, who durst not so much as stay in the bathe to wash in the company of Cerinthus the Heretic. 
Euseb. li. 3 cap. 22  What would the same Holy Saint have said think you, if he had been requested by his dear worldly friends, to have been present at the prayers, service, & sermons of Cirinth. for the Apostles, 
Lib. 3. c. 30  and their scholars (as witnesseth Nicephorus) were so wary in this case, that they would not so much as once reason the matter with any of them that endeavoured by their leasings to corrupt the truth. And holy Ignatius boldly affirmeth that, 
Epist. 6. ad Philadelphenses.  who so flieth not from a false preacher shall be damned into Hell.  
13 I should be partaker of all their wickedness, & consequently in danger of all the punishment & mischief which may befall them, especially being present with them at the deed, wherein principally they offend God: from which thing I am discouraged by the terrible death of all them which were in company with the Schismatics Chore, 
Num 16.  Dathan, and Abiron: which example (as saith Saint Cyprian) ought to move us not to assist, or further Heretical oblations, 
Cyp. Epist 76.  prayers, sermons, and errors.  
14 I should contrary to the judgements of the learned of all Religions: for the Gentiles thought it not lawful to enter into the jews Synagogues, 
Lactantio lib. 4. & 5. divin. instit. cur. Senec de hist. mahom. chronic. Wolsang Drisl. Eus. lib. 3. & 4. Aug. li. de unit. Ecl. & lib. 2. coa. Petilian. joh. Gard. in his Cat. art. 86.  or into Christian Churches The Turks at this day refuse to do the same, the Arrians, Donatists, and such like, would not one go to another's conventicles, nor to the Catholics service, nor the Catholics to any of theirs. The anabaptists will not go to the Lutherans, Churches, nor the Lutherans to the Trinitaries. The Puritans will hardly be drawn to Protestants service: neither will the Protestants in Catholic Countries come to Catholic Service. And the jews will not go to any Service but their own. Those Protestants which in Queen Mary's days had any conscience, refused to go to Mass. And therefore in reason you should not move me, much less urge me, to do the thing, which the learned on your side in their own case would not do, because they judge it unlawful.  
15 I should do evil to go to your Service because I cannot, but in mine own conscience judge it to be dishonourable to God, and consequently nought. For to omit to speak how, it is devised by yourselves, and how your fellow PURITANS do utterly condemn it. I know your Translations of Holy Scriptures to be false & shameless, so as if my scholar should translate one of Tully's Epistles in such corrupt manner, I would soundly breech him for his labour. Then your Ministers are no Priests, but mere Lay-men, & consequently have no authority to deal in such things. Besides you have in your Service diverse false and blasphemous things, & put them to the people for Scripture; as in a Geneva Psal you pray to be defended from Pope, Turk, & Papistry, etc. And to speak what I think, you have left out all good things, & have chosen to yourselves just nothing of Catholic service, although the people were made to believe that it was the old Service put into English.  
16 I should go to that Service which never was heard of in the world before these days: nor yet is in any place else in all the world, but only there in England.  
17 I should go to that Service, which you amongst yourselves cannot agree upon, or decree to continue. And it had by all likelihood been changed again before this day, if the graver sort had not made some stay, for fear of incurring the note of inconstancy: for how many bills I pray you, have there been put up in Parliaments about the changing of your Service? Agree therefore amongst yourselves first what service you will have to continue, and then I will answer you reasonably to your demand.  
18 In so doing my soul should go one way, and my body another; which ought not to be: for if they should go two ways in this world, they could not be joined together after the resurrection in the next life, but the one should go to heaven, & the other to hell; which cannot be: for if the body serve not God together with the soul in this life, why should it enjoy heaven in the next? And if it be with Protestants at their Service in this world, why should it not be where the Protestants be in the next?  
19 I should loof all the benefit of Catholic religion, & so either leave off all conscience, or else live in continual torment of mind; and if I should die in that state, I should be utterly cast away for ever. Besides I should lose the merit of all the good works that I ever did in all my life; because I give over working before evening, & so lose my penny, & wages which otherwise would be truly paid me. 
Mat. 20.   
20 If I should so do, either to gratify you, & other of my friends, or by commandment of any power under her Majesty: neither you, nor they, could take it well, or account of me, better than of a traitorous caitiff, for that you must needs think that I, who will violate my faith to God almighty in doing contrary to my conscience, & judgement for any worldly respect, will easily break my faith & promise with man, according to the judgement of Constantius the Emperor: 
Eus. de vit. canstant. l. 1. cap. 11.  for how can he be true unto man, that is convicted of perjury to God? verily such must needs be deemed of the wise, to be flatterers, turne-coates, and great hypocrites.  
21 And now to come to the answer, which you say women, & such silly souls are accustomed to make; I should do contrary to my conscience: which thing in no case is lawful to be done. Yea if your service were good, & godly indeed, & the very true Service of God, yet so long as I think otherwise of it, I may in no case yield to go to it: because an erroneous conscience bindeth a man to follow it, & never to do any thing against it, according to judgement of all learned men, of what sect, or religion soever they be. And therefore you may not request me, much less urge me to go to your service, before I be persuaded in my conscience that it is lawful so to do. Greatly therefore do you offend God there in England, in forcing people to go to the Church, contrary to their consciences, and in imprisoning those, who refuse so to do: for no man is able to master his own conscience, & knowledge, and to do against it he ought not, & therefore it is not in his power or will, to go to your Service without offence.  
22 I should do contrary to the Camnons' & custom of the Catholic church, and against the examples of all Holy Saints, & learned Fathers. Contrary to the 63. Canon of the Apostles, and against Concil. Carth. 4. cap. 71. & 72. Concil. Antioch. cap. 2. & 5. Con. Laodicen. c. 9 32. 33. 37. Con. Mag. Later. cap. 70. and against divers other Counsels, as also against the late Council of Trent, where the matter was put (English Catholics making suit that it might be covertly discussed, & decided) to 12. learned Fathers; whose judgement in this matter is yet extant, and it had been superfluous to have in any public Canon there condemned the same, which by so many Counsels before that was plainly forbidden. Against the examples of Saints, & learned Fathers, as of S. I. evang. which I recited before, of S. Polycarpe, of S. Denis Bishop of Alexandria, of S. Anth, of Origen, of Beniolus, S. Amb. S. Athan. S. Chrisost. and of many more.  
23 I should in so doing show myself a Neuter, that is, such a one as is not affected to either religion, & consequently of no religion, 
Apoc. 3.  but an Atheist or neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm, & therefore to be spewed out of the mouth of God: 
3. Reg. 18.  for he who haulteth on both sides, is on neither side, but a traitor to both. And from the one, and the same fountain there runneth not sweet & sour water: 
jacob. 3.  neither can any man serve two contrary masters: as he can not blow with an Ox & an Ass, 
Mat 6. Deut. 22.  nor wear garments of linen & woollen, nor sow his field with two manner of seeds.  
24 I should in so doing be (as is said before) one of your congregation, and yet I should be but the very excrements, or chip of your Church: for receiving no life from Catholic religion, in the corpse of Protestantisme I should serve for no necessary use, because I could not be there, but for some worldly respect, & so in body only, & by that means but as the hairs of a man's body, or nails, or evil humours: which although they be within the body, yet are they not animated by the soul, but void of sense, & lost without pain, & by nature not fit to be quickened: for from the Protestant spirit I hope I should suck no zeal of that sect, & from the soul of the Catholic Church I could receive no life, because I cut myself off from it, by yielding to your service, and so I should remain void of sense, life, and soul, and should be nothing but Caluins excrements.  
25 I should show myself a cold Catholic, & indeed to have no zeal at all, for that deeming you to be God's enemies, yet I can find in my heart not only to be in company with you in civil affairs, but also in your service, far from the spirit of the Prophet David, 
Psal. 16.  who hated the congregation of such, and was even eaten with the zeal of God's Church, and greatly loved the beauty thereof. Yea, I should do quite contrary, for when I see a thief, I should run with him, & take part with the adulterers. And to conclude with answering your demand, why I will not as well go to your service, as eat flesh upon a friday, when urgent occasions drive me thereunto: I say, that Religion being a virtue which giveth honour & reverence to God, doth sometimes command other virtues, & directeth their actions to God's honour. 
Theod. 22. q. 85. art. 3  As fasting is a virtue that subdueth man's body, and may be commanded by religion to serve God withal. Other acts there are, which only belong to religion, & not to other virtues, which have no other praise, but that they are done for the reverence of God: of which sort are sacrifies, kneeling, knocking on the breast, & such like. And of this sort is the ceremony of going to such a place more than to another. Hereupon it is that one may eat flesh upon a friday, or other fasting in divers cases, and yet in no case go to service with those who are of a false religion: for to abstain upon certain days, is not a proper, or immediate act of religion, but commanded by religion, being indeed an act of temperance, & so intended by holy Church, although it may be used to honour God with all. And because none use to fast on such days but Catholics, it doth oftentimes betoken a Catholic, & distinguisheth him from Protestants: yet because the immediate end of the law is temperance, & the act of eating of flesh or of other forbidden meats, hath other natural ends besides religion, therefore it doth not necessarily contain any signification of religion: but the act of going to the Church doth of it own nature, & by common acceptation of all betoken devotion and religion.  
Thus have I briefly yielded you some reasons and authorities, why I may not satisfy your request, & condescend to your desires in going to your service. I could have yielded many more, but I thought these might suffice you, and cause you to surcease from your worldly, & carnal persuasions: for hereafter I mean not to answer you any more such letters, but only to say unto you, go behind me Satan's for you are scandals to me. And so desiring our Parent's blessing with humble commendations to them, and hearty to you, and to all the rest of our kinsfolks and friends, I leave you all to our Lord and Saviour, who send us his grace in this world, and his glory in the next. From my Chamber at Palempyne this 18. of February. 1600.  
FINIS.   

✚ A brief & short declaration made, whereby e●… christian man may know, what is a sacrament. Of what parts a sacraments consisteth and is made, for what intent sacraments were instituted, and what is the principal effect of sacraments, & finally of the abuse of the sacrament of christian body and blood.  
Imprinted At London by Robert Stoughton Dwelling within Ludgate. at the sign of the bishops Mitre.