THE ANATOMY OF THE ENGLISH NUNNERY AT LISBON in PORTUGAL. DISSECTED AND laid open by one that was sometime a younger Brother of the COVENT: Who (if the grace of God had not prevented him) might have grown as old in a wicked life as the oldest amongst them.  VIRG. Lib. 1. AENEID. 
— Caecumque domus scelus omne retexit.  
Published by Authority.  
LONDON, Printed by GEORGE PURSLOWE, for Robert Mylbourne, and Philemon Stephens: and are to be sold at the great South door of Rauls. 1622.   

TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL Mr THOMAS GURLIN, MAYOR OF THE NO LESS ancient than loyal and well-governed town of Kings-Lynne in Norfolk, and his Worshipful Brethren the Aldermen of the same, etc.  
THE industrious and painful Seaman, Right Worshipful (that I may go no farther for an example than mine own profession, because quod supranos, nihil ad nos) being a long time crossed with unfavourable winds, persisteth notwithstanding in attempting to attain to his desired Port: which not being able to achieve directly and upon a precise rhomb or point, he maketh his way by diverse Maeanders and crooked turnings, lying sometimes East, and anon West, so near his course as the wind will permit, and by this means at length he ankoreth in the wished harbour. Even so myself having of a long time desired to recover some fit occasion or means (as my most wished port) to express a thankful mind unto your Worships, for no small benefits formerly conferred upon me, (& benè apud memores veteris stat gratia facti) could never through contrary winds of adverse fortune arrive there in safety: but have had a long traverse to and fro, with little likelihood of fairer weather, till now at length with my bowlins sharp haled (pardon I pray you my ruder Sea-phrase) I have doubled the Cape of good Hope: from whence I am bold to send you this first return of what I long since took up of you upon interest, it being notwithstanding no way of worth to countervail any (though the least) part of the debt I owe you. For it is now some years agone that I set sail from the Haven of your help, bound for the Port of Prudence, (the University of Cambridge) being fully fraughted with your favour & friendship: where, through mine own negligence, (let me ever sigh to remember it) having foreslowed my best market, and letting go my most precious commodity, (my Time) at an undervalue, I remained a great loser by my voyage; not being able to make unto you (my Worshipful creditors) such satisfaction as you might justly expect. And now entering into a consideration of your gentle forbearance of me, I doomed myself worthy to bear the brand of Ingratitude, if I should forget you. Whereupon, not as any part of payment, but as a recognizance and acknowledgement of that debt and duty, which I owe to your W ps, I presume to send you this ensuing discourse, being not more plain in the manner, then true in the matter. If you shall deign to give it favourable acceptance, I have what I desired, and in the hope thereof (always praying for your prosperity and welfare) I rest  
Your Worship's dutiful debtor, THOMAS ROBINSON.   

To the indifferent Reader.  
READER, if the Title of this Book, being The Anatomy of the English Nunnery at Lisbon, do make thee expect some v mysteries, or profound Lecture upon a dissected body, let me satisfy thee, and save thee a labour of reading it; for thou art much deceived: the Author hereof is a man of no such Science; being better skilled in Tacks, Sheats, Braces, Bowlins, etc. (strange words perchance to thy understanding, and yet no canting) then in veins, sinews, muscles, and arteries. Yet what he promiseth by the Title, he hath performed in the Treatise, and hath truly anatomised this handmaid of the Whore of Babylon; laying open her principal veins and sinews in such sort, that he is bold to challenge the proudest Doctor of her acquaintance to traduce his work, or to tax him of the least untruth in what he hath written: for here is no thing published, but what his own experience, being optima magistra, hath taught him, and whereof he hath been oculatus testis. Only the phrase he useth is like himself, blunt and unelegant; for ex quolibet ligno non fit Mercurius: wink therefore a little at the method, and survey the matter itself with the wide open eyes of thy understanding, and spare not. And if thou be not already addicted too much to Popery, thou mayst peradventure find a preservative against it. Howsoever, here it presenteth itself to the view of the world; be it well or ill accepted, it maketh not much matter: for the Author will always carry this comfort about him, A good Conscience is a continual feast. Vale.  
T. R.   

THE ANATOMY OF THE ENGLISH NUNNERY, AT LISBON IN PORTUGAL.  
HAVING by reason of my Calling been oftentimes occasioned to travel beyond the Seas: it so chanced that I was once (through diverse accidents) driven to have some conference with father Seth, alias, joseph Foster an English Friar in Lisbon, and the sole Confessor of a Covent of English Nuns residing in the same City; who by his subtle and wily fetches enticed me to abide with him in the house, employing me daily in copying out certain Treatises of Obedience, which he had composed for the Nuns. And after a while having deprived me of means to depart from him, by taking away my apparel, and putting me into a disguized foolish habit (of which I was heartily ashamed) both he and the Abbess, with some others of the sisters (as they call them) never ceased to urge me by deepe-dissembled entreaties & persuasions, until I had given consent to become a holy Brother and Mass-priest in the house, for I had soon attained to more skill in the Rubric, than every shaveling is ordinarily accustomed to have, and could readily 
a There are not a few Friars and Priests that have no other means to find their Mass; and when they have found it, (if you would hang them) they are not able to construe two lines of it.  find out and know any Mass by the great Letter at the beginning of it; and more than that, I could sing Aue regina, & Salue Sancta parens, which is learning enough in conscience for any Abbey-lubber, unless he be too unreasonable. So that now there wanted nothing to my taking of Orders, save only that my minority and want of years hindered it; wherefore in the mean time I continued in writing over diverse books for them, and amongst the rest, the Register of their House, whereby I came to some understanding of their estate, beginning and success until this present, which for the satisfaction of the Reader, I thought good to set down as briefly as I could, before I proceed any farther, or speak of their manners and conversation.  
First therefore for the House. The Nuns thereof do challenge (and indeed truly) a succession from the Abbey of Zion in England, now belonging unto the Earl of Northumber land, 
b See Stows Chronicle at large.  which house, together with another Monastery of Carthusian Monks, called Shine, being both situated upon the Thames, were erected and built by King Henry the 5. at his return from his famous Conquest in France. In which two houses, he established an Order, that to the end of the world there should be an alternate course of Prayer; so that when the one had finished their devotions, the other should instantly begin. And being thus founded, that of Shine was peopled with Carthusian Monks, & the other with Nuns and Friars of St Brigets Order.  
But when it pleased the Lord of his infinite mercy to disperse and scatter those thick clouds of ignorance and Superstition, which had a long time bedimmed the eyes, and darkened the understanding of our forefathers, and that the glorious light of the Gospel began to be more and more resplendent in the latter end of the Reign of King Henry the 8. then as well these Houses, as all other of the like superstition were subverted, and abolished, and the people of them either dismissed and sent home to their friends, or else continuing more obstinately in their blind zeal, exiled; save only some few who for withstanding the King's Supremacy, received the reward of Traitors. Amongst which Father Raynolds the Confessor of these Nuns was executed. In memory of whom, they have painted his Picture & manner of execution upon their Church walls, esteeming him as a holy Martyr amongst them, as good as either 
c Althongh that Campian, Garnet, and such other of the Jesuits as died for Treason, are no canonised Saints; yet are they beatified by the Pope, which is the highest step to canonisation: and every one of them is painted up in the Jesuits Churches, with the Title of Beatus Pater.  St Campian, or Beatus Pater Henricus Garnet, although that amongst the Jesuits these are little less than Saints.  
After the death of this their ghostly Father, both they and the Carthusians of Shine, translated themselves, and diverse of their 
d If they carried no relics with them, it maketh not much matter, for little worth is that scull or dead man's bone, which will not by becoming a holy relic, add something to the Pope's Exchequer.  Relics and trinkets beyond the Seas into Flanders. And the successors of these banished runagates, are now the only stump which remaineth of that huge tree, that whilom endeavoured and shadowed our whole Country: which the Papists (in regard these two houses had both one foundation, and were as it were linked and tied the one to the other) do hold as miraculous, and do take it as a sure sign and token of their future return from banishment; 
e The Register book of their bouse, telleth of many of these prophecies which were spoken by sundry of the Sisters upon their deathbed.  nay, some of the holiest of our unholy Sisters, have not doubted (I think in imitation of the old Sibyls) to prophesy of another golden age, when they shall again be installed in Zion: but Admiranda canunt, sed non credenda sorores.  
I know my Sisters at Lisbon for false prophets in more things than one. In the mean time they of Shine remain at Macklyn in the Low-Countries; and the Nuns of Zion, after many transmigrations from Sierick-zee to their brethren at Macklyn, and from thence to Rouen, do now reside at Lisbon. And this shall suffice for the foundation of the house, and the success thereof till this present. And now (by the way) it shall not be likewise much amiss for the satisfaction of such as have not been acquainted with Friar's business, in a word or two to declare the original of both these Orders, and from what Patrons they first descended. For in the Catholic Roman Church, amongst all the disordered orders of swarming Locusts, which are almost innumerable, there is none but take their beginning from one supposed Saint or other: and as the rest, so these.  
For the Carthusians sprung up from 
a Read Surius upon the life of Bruno.  one Bruno in the kingdom of France, who is said to have been present at the Funeral of a certain Priest reputed for a holy man in his life: but when they were executing the office of the dead for him, (according to the use of the Papists) it seemed they had been deceived in their imagination. For when the Deacon was come to the Lesson which beginneth Respond mihi quantas habeo iniquitates, etc. the dead man suddenly start up, and said, Vocatus sum, or accufatus sum, choose you whether; whereupon they deferred his Obsequies until the next day, being all amazed at what had happened; when proceeding the second time, and coming to the same words again, the dead body made answer, judicatus sum. Then the third time they began their Service, and at the same Respond he sat up and said, Condemnatus sum: wherewith this Bruno being stricken into an extreme fear, and much troubled, to think, that a man so generally reputed for holy, should yet be damned; determined to lead a most austere and solitary life: and to that end being accompanied with a few others, whom he had made privy to his purpose, he departed to a desert stupendious mountain called Carthusia, where he lived (as they say) in great regularity, and from the name of that hill, they came to be called Carthusians; and to this day they pretend more severity and strictness of discipline, than any other Order of Monks or Friars what soever. Howbeit they remained not long in such solitary and unfrequented places, but by little and little obtained their houses in every great City and town, as magnificent, yea and more sumptuous than their fellow-Locusts, witness the Charter-house in London, which was once a Cage of these unclean birds.  
Now for the other house of Zion: the Nuns thereof take their beginning from their holy mother's 
a Read the revelations of Saint Bridget.  Saint Bridget, and her daughter Saint Katherine. This Saint Bridget was of the blood Royal of Suetia; a woman (questionless) of a good understanding and singular memory, howbeit miserably seduced and led away by the subtle allurements of her ghostly father, by whose persuasions and counsel, she went to Rome as a Pilgrim, and coming before the Pope, she pretended to have diverse revelations from God; amongst which, one was for the founding of this Order of Nuns, which was indeed the chief mark, that both her ghostly father and she aimed at. The rest of her pretended inspirations, were for the reforming of sundry abuses in the Church. Yea, she spared not to tell the Pope's holiness of many faults in himself: but he (like a good bloodhound) quickly scented her, and followed her footing, till he plainly perceived from whom she was sent: who (being a fellow that might upon distaste prove a schismatic, and make some revolt in those remote Countries, from the Roman Church) he thought best to be winked at; and thereupon condescended unto her request, touching the erecting of a house of this Order, and so dismissed her. But she lived not long after, (whether his Holiness had procured some modicum to be ministered unto her or no, it is doubtful) yet in her daughter's days the business came to perfection: and the first House of this Order was at a place called Watsteen in Swethland, from whence certain Nuns were procured into England, to propagate their Rules and Ceremonies in Zion house, at the time when it was first built.  
The magnificence of this Covent in former times hath been by the report of the now-living Nuns very admirable: at this present it is not of any extraordinary repute; neither are the people of it for birth and parentage equal to their predecessors, who were wont to be of good descent: whereas now (save only a few) they are Recusants daughters of the meaner sort, and silly tenderhearted chambermaids, who have had the custody of such Seminaries and jesuits, as resorted to their Master's houses in England, at such times as they have been mewed up for fear of Cross and his 
a A perilous Cur to smell out a jesuit, or a Seminary, though they had been never so closely cooped up.  Dog, and durst not adventure abroad in any of their ruffling disguises, to seek out for more change of pasture; (like father's Strange the jesuit) where, making a virtue (or rather a vice) of necessity, the ghostly children have ministered to their spiritual fathers in all things. And by such means having gotten a clap, diverse of them 
b It is no great miracle for a whore to become a Nun; nor for a Nun to become a whore.  become Nuns. And with a rabble of such like stuff, is this house of Zion much replenished, there being of them in all between 40. and 50. whereof only five are strangers, and the rest all English. The names of so many of them as I can at present remember, I have at the end of the Book set down, for the satisfaction of such as desire to know them.  
There are likewise three Friars, the Confessor and two more; and a simple besotted fellow, who hath the title of a familiar. And well may they call him so: for he will be drunk familiarly four or five times every week; by reason whereof he is not apparelled in any religious habit, but goeth like an ordinary secular man, to the end the House should be the less scandalised by him: for now so many do not take notice of his drunkenness as would, if they should see him in a religious habit.  
And this is the whole company of the House at this time: but now if any man demand, how and by what means they are brought thither; and by whom they are maintained: let him know, that there lurketh in England an arch-traitor, one 
a This Flood caused the Jesuits at Lisbon to spend a great deal of money upon Powder, on a Festival day, a little before the Powder-treason in England should have been effected, thereby to make experience of the force thereof. And also persuaded one john How (a Merchant whom be had perverted) and diverse other Catholics, to go over into England, and to expect their redemption there (as be called it) awhile.  Henry Flood a jesuit, who is the chief Agent for the transporting of Nuns, both to 
b In all these places there are English Nunneries, but none that hath continued ever since the suppression of Abbots in England, save only that at Lisbon.  Brussels, Greveling, Lisbon, or any other place; and whither he pleaseth to send them, thither they must go. If they have no portion, and perhaps some little honesty, they are not for the jesuits tooth, Aquila non capit Muscas, they must pack to Greveling, to the poor barefooted Clares. If they have a small portion, that likes not the jebusite neither: a pound of butter is nothing amongst a cure of hungry Hounds; nec vacat exiguis rebus adesse lovi: then away they trudge to Lisbon, where they are allowed daily five crowns, and their bread, and many a good alms beside is often bestowed upon them. But if they have a good round sum for their dowry, ab Inferno nulla est redemptio, there is no plucking them out of the Jesuits jaws; they are stamped for Brussels, and thither must they go; where Fitz-herbert and his fellow-Iesuits will quickly dispossess them of all worldly cares and vanities, and (like subtle Alchemists) refine them out of their silver and golden dross, into a more sublime estate and condition, and will cherish and nourish them, even in their own bosoms: such a burning zeal have they towards them.  
And this is the manner after which our Recusants daughters in England are translated into other Countries, to take upon them the profession of a solitary life, and to live in poverty, chastity, and obedience: which how well they perform, I shall now (God willing) in part declare.  
First therefore for their poverty, I mean of these Nuns of Zion, and they profess themselves the poorest of any English, except them of Saint Clares Order. It is well known, that they have ten thousand pounds at use in the Town-house of Antwerp; a great part whereof hath been given them by sundry deceased Gentlemen in Flanders and Portugal; and beside their yearly pension. Likewise when they remained in France, they had the custody of no small sum of money, which was sent to them to keep for Doctor Lopez the Portugese, as his reward for poisoning our late Queen Elizabeth of famous memory, which after that Traitor (having miss of his intent) was executed, was remitted unto them as an alms, as the Register-booke of their house, (from whence I had it) shameth not to make mention.  
They have likewise of late years, through the politic plodding of their Confessor, 
a Sic figulus figulum, sic & fabrum faber odit.  given the Jesuits noses a wipe of two thousands pounds, being the portion of the two daughters of Sir A. B. Viscount M. whom a Nun of the house (sometimes a Chambermaid of their fathers) had enticed from the Jesuits. For which, and some other like tricks about a Portugese Gentlewoman, the posterity of lame 
b Ignatius Loiola, a lame soldier, a Spaniard, the glorious Patron of the Pope's janissaries, the jesuits  Ignatius could almost find in their hearts to reassume their Patrons first profession, and vi & armis to take revenge upon that old hypocritical Friar, which durst presume to be better studied in Nic. Machiavelli then themselves: yea they so threatened him once, that he durst not go abroad, lest they should work him a mischief. Moreover, they have a daily pension of 5. crowns, and wheat more than sufficeth for to spend in the House. They have Vineyards, Olive fields, corn-ground and houses, to the value of four hundred 
c Every mil-reis is twelve shillings and six pence.  mil-reis by the year, which was the portion of the Portugese aforesaid, whom (being sole heir to her father, a man of great wealth) they persuaded to become a religious sister in their Covent. What should I speak of the sale of their Masses. I mean the revenues in general of the Sacristia or Revestrie? where, though there be but three Priests of them, and therefore but three Masses; and that never but upon Festival days, for the Confessor himself will not say Mass upon a workday, yet they will take money of twenty men, and tell every one they will say for him. Then have they their boxes sent forth in the Indian and Brasilian ships, with S. briget's image upon them; to which, in a storm the poor blinded people will contribute liberally; and seamen that go on such long voyages will take up a months pay or two aforehand, and give it for Masses to be said for their good success. I have known this in one year worth six hundred mil-reis unto them. diverse other means they have to get money: as by putting a good sum into the hands of a couple of young Merchants, whom they have perverted to their Religion: and these men deal for them under a colour. So that I may boldly say, (for I have heard Foster himself speak it, and I have partly seen it) that all charges and expenses of the House being paid, they do yearly lay up 
a And it is no small sum of money that he sendeth to his kindred in Yorkshire, that are Papists: but he will acknowledge none of them that are Protestants.  six hundreth pounds. For the silver that inshrineth their Relics, and for their Church-plate, I know not how to value it; but it is without doubt both plentiful and massy; for there be few of their rotten Relics but are set in silver. They have two arms of Thomas of Canterbury, notwithstanding all his bones were burned in England, when Popery was suppressed; so that they will make of him a Briareus, or a centimanus Gygas, as doubtless he was in his life, a very obstinate Prelate to his Prince. And for Saint Ursula, she must needs be a diua triformis, or a triceps Hecate; for they have one of her heads; and there is another of them at Collen, and the third at Rome. Then have they the bones of S. Bridget and her daughter, and sundry Relics of Saint Augustine, from whose rule theirs is derived. There is 
a Believe it who list.  the milk of our Lady, the blood of Hales, which was held so precious in England; and (sir reverence) there is a piece of old 
b Although they cannot abide the jesuits, yet they love their Gallows, because thereby they get money.  Tyburn, which the Jesuits stole away out of England, because it had been honoured by so many of their brethren, which is had in little less esteem than the holy Cross: for (say they) as the Master died on that, so his Disciples died upon this. And these are all set in silver, and richly adorned. Then have they a little child's leg, which I think they may truly call as they do; for they say it is a leg of the Innocents; and doubtless so it is, for I could (if I were in the house) go very near 
c Saxa ipsa trabésque loquentur.  a place in a wall, where I could fetch out both legs and arms of poor innocent bastards, which might evidently prove, that there is knavery in daubing.  
And having hereby given a sufficient instance of their poverty, I will now proceed to speak a little of their chastity, which is as scarce and penurious, as their poverty is plenteous. Neither can it be otherwise; for they have Sodoms' provocations to sin, Pride, Fullness of bread, and abundance of Idleness. As for their pride, though it be not outwardly in gorgeous and curious attire, yet are they possessed with a vainglorious pride of hypocrisy, and dissembled sanctity. For their fullness of bread, who knoweth not that they (like the Caterpillars of Egypt) do eat up the fat and best fruits of the Land? for what the purveyors of the Vice-rey have forsaken in the Market, (as too dear) I have known the Cator of this house to buy at unreasonable rates for their ghostly father's Table, and for such of his Chickens as he most affected: whose greatest (and indeed only) care is, to prove skilful in the confection and dressing of such dainty cates as may best please their wanton palates. And well do they manifest the abundance of idleness that is in them, when at sundry times playing upon their instruments for their father's recreation, they sing him ribaldrous Songs and jigs, as that of Bonny Nell, and such other obscene and scurrilous Ballads, as would make a chaste ear to glow at the hearing of them, and which I would scarce have believed would have proceeded out of their mouths, had I not heard them with my own ears.  
And now again for the House. Whereas all other Religious Houses are under the jurisdiction of Provincials of their own Order mediatè, and under the Bishop of the Diocese immediatè, yet this is not subjected to either: For as for a Provincial they have none, in regard there are no more Houses of that Order; neither would the Archbishop of Lisbon take them into his jurisdiction at their first coming into Portugal, fearing lest that being stranger, and at that time pretending want and poverty, he should afterward be driven to sustain and relieve them; they being forbidden to beg by their rule. And so he put them off with a non novi vos, telling them he never knew or heard that 
a At their first coming into Lisbon they were little set by. And every one marvelled at their order, and living so together. But now their dissembling hath won them a little more credit.  frayles y freiras Friars and Nuns should keep & dwell together all, sub eodem tecto, under the same roof. Whereupon they were constrained to entertain that famous Arch-Iesuite Father Parsons to be their solicitor to the Pope, who then took them into his protection, and appointed his nuncio apostatico, resident in Lisbon to have the care and charge of them. And he again being bribed and presented with gifts by Father Foster, and dwelling far from the house, is satisfied with what he telleth him, and never cometh to visit the Nuns, as he ought, and to inquire and demand their grievances; but permitteth him to play rex over them at his own pleasure. Whereupon it is pitiful and miserable to behold the condition of these silly seduced women: for they neither dare nor can complain to any body, being seldom permitted to speak even to them that are of the house as well as themselves, but only at such times when the Abbess is present: except it be she that keepeth the Grate, and some others that are in office amongst them: and these are all the younger and more personable Women, being by this Fosters politic contriving so placed of purpose, that by and with them he may the more freely enjoy the scope of his lascivious and sacrilegious desire. And these women having predominance over the others whom want of beauty and favour hath made despicable in the eyes of this old Sinon, do (according to the passionateness of their minds) more and more vex their poor fellow-prisoners. For it is the subtlety of this perfidious wretch, to set them at variance among themselves, and to cause them to accuse one another, to th'intent they should not dare to trust one another with the complaint of their griefs; and so whilst they remain in a jealousy of each others secrecy and aid, they should never be able to contrive any means to free themselves from his thraldom.  
At this slay doth he keep them: and not so content, he will make them to Article one against the other in writing. It was my chance one day to find a paper of these Articles in a walk in the Friar's Garden, which had unawares fallen from him; being drawn by one Sister Anne, alias josepha Bingham, against Sister Suzan Bacon: Wherein the said Sister 
b If these silly oppressed women were examined by men of authority, and were assured to be free from such a tyrannous Confessor, they would tell of horrible abuses,  Susan stood accused, for blaming her ghostly Father, and the Abbess and Prioress of partiality to some of their children more than to others. Also that she had upbraided this sister josepha (being a dear darling of Father foster's) of too much familiarity with Father Garnet the Powder Traitor, 
c This Sister josepha is a stout defender of the miracle in the Wheat Straw, which happened as was said at Garnets' execution, although it be now proved a very counterfeit and a falsely.  whose careful keeper she had of a long time been, when he lurked in England at her Mrs house. Also that another of her ghostly Father's minions had a Bastard by a Priest in England (whose name because she is lately dead, I will pass over in silence) and that if she had been a little more honest, & a little less personable, she should not have been one of the upper Regiment. With this and a great deal more of such like stuff was this paper farced; and with these and the like accusations one of another are these silly women daily busied. So that I have generally observed in the superiors of this house, an egregious neglect and contempt of their rule and vowed profession: and in the rest, an extraordinary maligning and envying against one another. And so much the better could I observe this and all other my Narrations, by how much I grew to be a more near and daily attendant about the Confessor; for at length, what with my long continuance in the house, and the small suspect they had of my forsaking them, and what for want of one to serve him at all occasions, I became to be oftentimes admitted even into his private house of iniquity, where he useth to sit and hear the Confessions of the Nuns. In which house being very dark, there is a grate of iron that looketh into the Nun's partition or side; and this grate (howsoever it seem substantial and firm) may be, and is with a sleight easily taken out, whereby the sisters have free egress and regress into his chamber when they list, and he to them: for the Abbess hath her bed not far from this Grate, where there is also a chimney so convenient that he may take the benefit of the fire into this his room, in which he useth to dine and sup, having his meat served him by the Nuns through a Wicket in the wall. And when he is merrily disposed (as that is not seldom) then must his darling Kate Knightley play him a merry fit, and sister Mary Brooke, or some other of his last-come Wags must sing him one bawdy song or other to digest his meat. Then after supper it is usual for him to read a little of Venus and Adonis, the jests of George Peele, or some such scurrilous book: for there are few idle Pamphlets printed in England which he hath not in the house, being either brought over to his son Peter, the drunken Familiar aforesaid, by Seamen: or else happening into the hands of Father Newman an English Priest, who hath an office in the Inquisition house to peruse all English books that are brought into Lisbon. And he, I trust, shall have the sight of this, wherein if he use a good conscience, he must needs testify with me the truth of many things herein contained; for he is one that knoweth more of these people than any but themselves, or some that have lived amongst them.  
If I should repeat all their unchaste practices, I should make the Christian Reader blush at them: or if I should tell of all the obscene bawdry which I have seen, I might recount as many irreligious pranks as would fill a great Volume: but it shall suffice for the skilful by the length of their foot, to judge of the proportion of their whole body.  
And now for their Obedience, being the third and last part of their Vow; I will not go about to use any Theological Definitions or proofs to tell what Obedience is, and how it ought to be performed; for it is beyond my element, and the Cobbler's check shall be my warning, I will not go ultra crepidam: but as I first determined, so I will proceed; that is, to declare in what sort they perform their vow of obedience; referring it to the censure of the judicious, whether they do well or no.  
It is certain that these silly women thus muzzled in blindness, do live in very servile obedience unto their Superiors; and, in such sort, that without standing to discuss or examine the thing that is commanded them whether it be lawful or no, they will readily perform it. For their ghostly father hath composed sundry Treatises for them of Obedience, wherein he pronounceth no less than damnation for the least scruple or hesitation in the performance of their Superiors commands. And here let me tell the aforesaid 
d It behooveth father Newman for his own credit to look to this. The like also hath he done with certain meditations upon the Passion, which he requested Father john Kensington an English jesuit at St Rocks in Lisbon to peruse and approve; being gelded likewise as the other books of Obedience were.  Father Newman what a trick his old friend Foster hath put upon him, which is this: Having made these books of Obedience, he caused me to write them out fair, omitting in many places a Leaf, and in some two or three together, which contained any false doctrine and unallowable persuasions to draw them to obedience in unlawful things; and being finished in this sort, he bringeth them to Father Newman to be signed with his approbation and testimony, that there was nothing in them repugnant to the Catholic saith; which being done, he than interserreth and soweth in the aforesaid omitted Leaves, and so delivereth them to his daughters to be practised, who take the approbation at the end of the book for a sufficient warranty of all the doctrine therein contained. And this is a principal furtherance to his sacrilegious lusts: for I am verily persuaded that not one amongst them will (for fear of being disobedient) refuse to come to his bed whensover he commands them: and that they do so, I have manifestly seen and known. For when I have been his Chamberlain in the absence and times of drunkenness of the familiar aforesaid; having a Key to the Chamber door, 
e They forgot the old caveat, Cauté si non casté.  I have come sometimes unawares early in a morning, when one might have seen as great a miracle as Scoggin spoke off when he took a Friar a bed with a Whore, & called out to see a wonder, viz. a Friar with four legs. And now I will a little digress to ask a question of my Ignatians, who are the chief teachers and allowers of equivocation and mental evasion; whether these kindhearted souls being professed Nuns, and having vowed never to come over the threshold, did break their Vow or no, in coming thorough a grate? If they say they did: why, their ghostly father will dispense with their Vow: but if they say they did not; (as I think they will) what then? Marry I think that when their black Synagogues at Rome, Valladolid and Seville do send forth their Locusts into England, and they chance to bait by the way at Lisbon, as they do oftentimes: they deserve to enter commons with old father Seth for their legitimation of the action. And to the end that no man should doubt, but a jesuit hath a carnal affection, as well as a spiritual, to any of his ghostly children, it shall not be amiss to intersert a merry Tale for the Readers recreation of one father Strange an English jesuit, as it was reported for 
f Inter caenandum bilares este.  tabletalk by a Nun of this house to her ghostly father; she having then been a chambermaid in the place where it was done.  
This Father Strange was a young man, and had been lately before professed and priested among the Jesuits: and being come of good friends, and tenderly brought up in England, he fell very sick shortly after his profession, perhaps by reason of the unwholesomeness of the air which neither at Rome nor Valladolid is very pleasant: whereupon he obtained licence of the Rector to go into England, where he hoped both to recover his health, and to employ his talon of Priesthood, for the reducing of Heretics to the Catholic Church of Rome. And being arrived, he took up this Nun's Ladies Chamber for one of his places of rendezvous: where it so fell out, that as this sister Anne (for that is her name) sat sowing with her back to her Lady's back and the Jesuits, who were sitting by the fire, she chanced to look upon a great Looking-glass which hung right before her, wherein she espied what pains the late sick jesuit took to shrive her Lady: neither had he ended his shrift, before he also espied her looking in the Glass; and suspecting that she had seen all, (as indeed she had) 
g She might have known by this, what she should trust to when she was a Nun: but it seems she was as good as her Mistress: and I am sure that her Father Foster is a good as the jesuit.  he took her aside in private, and told her that he was flesh and blood, and could abstain no more than another man, although at his profession he had vowed chastity: and using many persuasions to win her to be secret, he promised her, that if she stood in need of a ghostly father to absolve her from any of her sweet sins, (as he called these) he would be the man should do it; neither should her penance be over-burthensome unto her.  
By which may appear both the carnal affection of a jesuit, and the chaste and sober conversation of a professed Nun, and her ghostly father: of the jesuit in doing it; of her, in not shaming to tell it as a tale for recreation; and of the old fornicator, in making himself merry at the hearing of it; yea, and reporting it again in his jolly humours to myself, and one Father Vivian a Friar of the house; among a great sort of such like invectives which he used against the jesuits, because, a little before I came away, they went about (if it had been possible) to extrude the succession of any more Friars in the House, and to bring it under their government; which I believe they will ere long effect. For I was told by an English jesuit at the Court of Spain, that father Foster is bound unto the Jesuits, never to ordain any more Friars in the house, that so for want of successors it may of force fall into their hands; and upon this condition the Jesuits permit him to live quietly; which, if he should not observe, they would quickly inform against him of sundry of his pranks which they know well enough. And if this be so, (as like it is) the Nuns have no knowledge thereof, for he feedeth them with hope of making new brothers, which they seem earnestly to wish for: 
a The Nuns thought surely it should be so, and if he did not mean so, yet I was loath to trust to it, in regard of his daily earnestness with me concerning that matter.  and they would often tell me, they hoped ere long to see me a professed brother of the Covent: but it pleased God to dispose better for me, and not to suffer me to be any longer lulled in sin and superstition: for after I had been two years and an half with them, I found a means to free myself from them, before I had made any profession or vow of religion either to that or any other Order: for I plainly saw, that these were led by a wrong guide, who was so deep plunged, and had continued so long in all wickedness and dissembling, that he was grown insensible of sin; according to that saying, Consuetudo peccandi, tollit sensum peccati. For he shamed not, under pretext of Religion, to persuade a young man, a Merchant in Lisbon (one How do you call him) to defraud his 
b These two brethren are both living in Lisbon at this present, and well known to most Englishmen that use Portugal.  own elder brother of his estate; which matter was thus effected.  
These two brethren were by profession jewellers, and adventured their stock jointly together: the younger brother (for that he was a Bachelor) being Factor for it beyond the seas. At length having made many good returns, he took up his abode in Lisbon, as a place most convenient for his Trade; and falling into familiarity with this Father Foster, and Father Flood a jesuit, who then lived in Lisbon, they persuaded him to become a Roman Catholic, and so soon as he could get his brother's Stock again into his hands, to profess himself such; which he accordingly did: and so (being instructed by them, that it was meritorious to cousin an Heretic, as they account all Protestants) defrauded his brother, and would come to no accounts with him, relying upon the supportation of these Hypocrites, on whom he bestowed liberal alms; giving them many fair pictures for their Church, and a horse of twenty mil-reis price, to fetch home their provisions to the House, besides diverse other things: whilst in the mean time his brother was undone, and could get nothing at his hands by Law, in regard he was a Protestant. Whereupon he was fain to petition in England for redress many times, and yet could not prevail to recover any thing: yea, he refused to come into his own Country, or to obey the command of the Council, in giving satisfaction for what he had in his hands. At length the Lord Rosse coming Ambassador into Spain, and staying by the way at Lisbon, (where he landed) decided the matter betwixt them; and articles of agreement were drawn by Father Newman, which myself afterward wrote out fair for them: the tenor whereof was this in effect: That either of the brothers should by a day prefixed, bring in a just account of all debts due unto them, as likewise of all debts which either of them ought: also that they should bring in all such moneys and goods as did any way as their own belong unto them: and that they should both depose and swear, that they had truly laid open their estates. And this being done, their debts which they ought, were to be paid out of the whole sum, and the debts which were owing to them, were to be added unto it; and so they to share equally betwixt them whatsoever remained, that by this means their estates might be both alike. Now a few days before this was to be put in effect, the younger brother knowing his estate to be far better than the others, cometh very pensively to his ghostly Father old Foster for counsel; who instructed him to come to the Abbess, and some other of the sisters at their Grate, where they use to talk with strangers, and there to tell them that he was weary of the troubles and vexations which attended a Merchant's life, and therefore he would renounce the world, and become a religious man: and seeing that God had bestowed sufficient wealth upon him, he could not do better, then to impart it to them; being such holy Saints as had preferred that kind of life in a strange country, before all worldly contents in their own. And thereupon at his feigned request, they sent their horse to his house, and had him laden back with plate, jewels and money, which myself helped to take from the horseback, and carry into Foster's Cell. He had likewise at that time a great quantity of Cochenill in sundry bags, being at least fourteen or fifteen hundred weight, amounting to no small sum of money, which he had a little before bought of the Indian Fleet, who that year, and about that time put into Lisbon; and this was brought into the Nunnery by night out of the ships, to defraud the King of his right, and was under a colour, together with the other things, given to the Sisters of the House. By which dealing he so imbezeled his estate, that when his brother and he came to an account, there remained little or nothing for him to receive; being by this means defrauded of all he should have had. When as presently after this conclusion was made between them, Father Foster and the Abbess send for their ghostly child, giving him thanks for the good will he had to bestow his estate upon them: but they told him, (as was before determined) that so much money and wealth was an hindrance to their devotion; and therefore they requested him to have it away again: to which he soon condescended; telling them, that now also his chiefest troubles were overpast, (meaning, because he had done with his brother) and that he perceived it was not Gods will to make him so happy, as (such another youth) Father Nicholas Price, who awhile before, of a Merchant, became a Dominican friar: and therefore he would live as aforetimes; and when he died, he would bequeath all he had to the Church: and thereupon took home all his estate again, after he had by these equivocations and evasions, defrauded his brother.  
And now lest this Treatise should rise to an over-bigge Volume, I will hasten to an end, after I have in a few words set down the manner of my departure from them, which was thus:  
After I had continued with them for the space of two years and an half, and had plainly perceived, that all their outward show of holiness was nothing but dissimulation, hypocrisy and lustful sacrilege, I began to consider in what a miserable estate I should be, if God should at that time call me out of the world; for I could well say with the Poet, Video meliora, proboque, deterior a sequor, I saw and allowed of the best way, yet followed the worst: at length the fear of my soul's health, and a natural affection to my kindred and country so wrought with me, that I waxed resolute in my determination of forsaking them: but not knowing how to effect my purpose without hazard of my life, (for they would have poisoned me, if they had known I would have gone from them, because I should not bewray their secrets) it came in my mind to draw out certain Articles in manner of an information against them, which I thought to exhibit to the chief Inquisitors of the City. And this might have been very dangerous unto me, if they should not have proceeded according to Equity; of which I was doubtful, fearing that 
a Read Musgrave his Motives, for forsaking the Carthusian Monks, and Romish Religion after he had been 20. years professed.  many great men of other Monasteries (being perhaps in the same predicament) would have stopped the course of justice, propter honorem Monastica vitae, for the credit of a Monastical life, as is many times done: yet notwithstanding I was resolved to undertake this course, and had provided my Articles, which were these:  
1. That Father Seth, alias joseph Foster, the Confessor of the English Nuns of Saint Brigets Order in Lisbon, did compel diverse youths his countrymen, against their wills to remain with him in the house: who if they had any good affection to the Romish Catholic faith before they came there, were soon brought into dislike of it, by reason of the ill government which is used in the house. And of this sort I could have instanced in twenty, who within a few years have been recorded in their Register book, for Apostate runaways.  
2. He would daily without any companion go into the Nun's Cloister or Side, and remain there half a day together, yea and sometime, sit and dine at their Table with them: but every day in their sight, which is expressly against their Rule. And this I could have proved by the testimony of diverse Portugeses our neighbours, who frequenting the house, have oftentimes observed and seen him going in, and coming forth; and have spoken of it to myself and others. Also the Nuns themselves would have avouched it upon their examinations.  
3. He hath in his Cell, where he heareth their confession, a Grate, which I can show how he useth to take down with a sleight, thorough which the Nuns pass to his bed by night. And for the further avouching of this, I would have brought in the drunken familiar aforesaid, who will many times in his drink, tell how he helped to make it firm, against a time when there was a Visitation intended by the Pope's Nuncio, and expected by them of the House, although it was not performed.  
4. That in many years passed there never came any Visitor to the House, to examine and understand their grievances: neither have they any Confessor extraordinary, as all other Religious have, to whom they might freely complain of their Superiors oppressions. And this needed small proof, for it would soon have been apparent enough of itself.  
5. Through his politic plotting, he causeth whom he list to be elected Abbess, (for they hold their places but three years) and her to dispose of the House as he thinketh good. This also the Nuns themselves would quickly complain of, if they had one to hear their complaint.  
6. That myself (being diverse times called into the Nun's partition or side, to help them to nail up boards, set up their Vines in the walks of their Garden, and do such like things which women could not so well do) did chance to make a hole in a hollow place in a wall, (which had been latelier daubed up then the rest) to set up a Sparre to underprop the Vines; out of which hole I pulled sundry bones of some dead children, and left many more remaining behind. And this the place itself would have testified to be true.  
Having thus provided my Articles in a readiness, I absented myself from helping the Priest at Mass that day, who being ready to go into the Church, and missing me, was fain to take another Clerk, whilst I walked up and down my chamber, with a resolute mind to depart the house. At length cometh Father Foster, (for he used every day to visit me at unawares, to see if he could find me writing of any thing that disliked him) and espied upon my table (which I had negligently forgot) a blotted Copy of my Articles, being the first draught of them: which when I saw him take up, I proffered to snatch out of his hand, but miss of my purpose; and thereupon went down the stairs, and so took my way out at the gates: but he (having soon perceived to whom they were intended) followed me amain, and quickly overtook me, yea, even before I was past his own walls; and demanding of me what I meant by such doings, I told him my intent; and bade him peruse the Articles at large, giving him a fair copy of them out of my bosom, where I had three or four more.  
But as soon as he had read them, he waxed pale as ashes, and was so terrified, that he began earnestly to entreat me that I should not proceed with my purpose, and told me that if I would be secret, I should have his good will to depart; whereof being glad, I not only promised, but performed secrecy, (although indeed I ought not to have done it) not bewraying any of his pranks to my nearest acquaintance and friends; until such time as having occasion a few months after to be at Lisbon again, he suspected me unjustly of telling tales of his house; and meeting me one day in the street, he called me to him, and told me, that if I did not presently depart the City, he would have my throat cut. Upon which his devilish speech I could not refrain any longer, but in the open street I told him of many of his ungodly actions, which came to the hearing of diverse of our Nation, being men of good quality, whereof some have testified in England to Honourable Personages in my behalf, how ready and willing I was to avouch and maintain whatsoever is herein contained, and much more: which (although it be here omitted) I am ready at all times truly to declare and set forth for the satisfaction of all that desire it: but especially for such as have either Daughters or Kinswomen in that house, in whose behalf I am bound to entreat their friends to enter into a further search of their miserable estate and condition; and (having found my words true) to use means, if it be possible, to free them from such horrible and sacrilegious rapine and spoil; themselves not being able to send any word thereof, because all their Letters must be given to him to be sent into England; which if they contain any thing contrary to his mind, shall never be sent; for he will peruse them all. And likewise when their friends send to them, the Letters must first come to his hands, wherein also if there be any thing that he misliketh (for he will break them all up) they shall never know of it. And here I will conclude, hoping that the friendly Christian Reader will be no way scandalised with any thing herein contained. But as for the curious and captious (especially Romanists) if they tax me for any thing I have written, let them know I have done neither them not any of their sect any wrong in publishing the truth. If any of them amongst these ensuing names find either a Sister or Kinswoman, or Friend, let him sigh to think on their misery, and use his best endeavours to free them. I have not set downe-all their names, because I cannot well call them to remembrance; neither are many of these christian names the same which they had in England, it being usual at the Bishop's confirmation to take what name they will: as also some of the surnames are not their true names indeed; for the Papists do many times change their names: but there are few of these which are not right; and howsoever, they are known to their friends by these.  

The Friars of the House.  
Seth, alias joseph Foster, Confessor.  
john Vivian. Nicholas Barrowes. two Priests.  
Peter Consul, a Familiar, that is, a Lay-Brother, but a drunken one, God knows.   

The Nuns of the House.  
Barbara Wiseman, Abbess.  
Anne Wiseman Prioress.  
Elizabeth Heart, Chantresse.  
Anne Wharton, Treasuresse.  
Anne, alias, josepha Bingham, Portresse.  
Lucy johnson, Notaresse.  
Dorothy Fowler, Keeper of the Relics & Church stuff.  
Bridget Browne, Lucy Browne, Daughters of St Anth: Browne, Visc. Montacute.  
Elizabeth Preston, sometime Abbess, but now in disgrace with old Foster.  
Anne Martin.  
Anne Markenfield.  
Susan Bacon.  
Sisly Arundel.  
Margaret Smith, alias Becket, and her Sister.  
Mandlyn Shelly, Katherine Dendy, Elizabeth Cole, three of the Kitchin.  
Martha.  
Clara Dowman, indeed Anne Foster, the Confessors Kinswoman.  
Kath: Knightly. Marry Brooke. two merry singing wags.  
Anne, A Chambermaid of St Anth: Browne.  
Marry Barnes, a well-beloved friend of foster's.  
Marry Dimmock, a discontented young Nun.  
M. Blinksop, falsely reported by Father Foster, to be allied to diverse of the Nobility.  
Agatha.  
Elinor and Angela: two Dutch-women.  
Bridget Mandanha. Maria Suarez. Maria Rodriguez. three Portugeses.   
FINIS.