THE Holy Inquisition, Wherein is Represented What is the RELIGION OF THE CHURCH OF ROME: And how they are dealt with that Dissent from It.  
LONDON, Printed for Joanna Brome, at the Gun at the West End of St. Paul's Churchyard. 1681.   

TO THE Right Honourable AND Right Reverend Father in God, HENRY Lord Bishop of LONDON; One of the Lords of his Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council.  
My Lord,  
THough with great zeal and prudence, you use all the power which your Birth and Dignities have given you, for the defence of the true Christian Religion, as it is amongst us professed, and established: yet I hope this short account of what is most contrary and most destructive to it, will not displease you. I know your Lordship understands what is here treated of far better than I do, but so doth not the Common People: they may receive information from these Papers, and will likely do it the more freely, if you shall permit them to go abroad under your Name; For it is generally acknowledged that we own much of our preservation to your Care and Christian Courage: and that you did stand in the gap, when our Enemies were pressing to come in upon us.  
My Lord, the watchfulness and labours of your Sacred Order, to preserve the face of a Church, and as much Order and Discipline among us, as the iniquity of the times can permit, is a greater service to the Protestant Interest than many are apt to believe: For our Adversaries expect not to prevail, but by breaking of us, and dissolving those bonds of Government, which keep us united: well knowing that those sheep are an easy prey, when scattered abroad, which under the guidance of their proper Pastors are safe and impregnable.  
I have therefore endeavoured by what I have said of the Superstitions and cruelties of Rome, to persuade such as are averse to them, that their duty and interest oblige them to join with our Church: which professing nothing but the pure and Primitive Religion of our blessed Redeemer, makes use of none of those bloody and violent Methods, wherewith the Papal Religion and Authority, are preserved: and whose dangers and persecutions on both hands, are for the best Cause in the world, even for her faithful Allegiance to God and the King.  
I shall rejoice, if what I have designed for the common good, be beneficial to any. And if the humble offer I make of it to your Lordship, be favourably accepted. However I shall ever pray for the peace and prosperity of our Jerusalem. And that God would long preserve you, to advance his glory, and be an Ornament and Support to this Church: Remaining,  
My Lord, Your Lordship's most dutiful and obedient Servant L. B.   

THE PREFACE.  
IT cannot but grieve every Lover of peace, that is, every good man to see our distractions. We fear many things, and have reason to fear yet many more; especially when we consider how grievously God is provoked to bring upon us the worst of evils. I design not to represent those crying sins that call for destroying vengeance upon us, or to make declamations against them: but it is for my purpose to note, that the deforming a most pure and pious Reformation; and the disturbing and weakening an equitable and happy frame of Government, doth not only call for ruin, but actually brings it; breaks down the fence of our safety, and so makes way for those Erroneous and Tyrannical impositions we fear and foresee.  
There is cause enough to believe, that the Romish Party hath all along, since the Reformation, and doth still continue to widen our breaches, and to foment our divisions; there are many instances of it related by several credible Witnesses, and some of them sworn too: but that which most of all confirms it, is, that it is much their interest to keep us from ever having a happy, peaceable, and well-setled Church, a constant and beautiful Order amongst us: and that they certainly will not s●●ck at dissembling and acting the part of zealous and sc●●pulous Dissenters, to promote the ruin of them, whom they would out right massacre and burn, had they power so to do.  
Some of our Separatists are so ungrounded, and have so poor an interest in the w●rld, that they must of necessity yield and fall, were they not supported by the power and policy of a stronger Party: and the moderate sort of them are so near us, that we could not but join and unite together, were it not for their interposition, whose great concern it is to keep us asunder, that they may have room to come in, at the void, urguarded space betwixt both.  
Whether or no it shall succeed as they would, God alone knows; they have great hopes, and we cannot but have a dread upon us: but however by breaking us to pieces, they revenge our breaking of Communion with them; and they likely tempt some to believe, that we separated from the Church of Rome upon the same grounds, as the Separatists have, to leave the Church of England. They will now and then draw a parellel betwixt both Cases, and confidently assert that we can urge nothing against our Schismatic, but what they may urge with as much reason against our Reformers.  
It is no small advantage to their Cause, if they can work in Dissenters as great an abhorrence for our Liturgy and Divine Service, as for the Latin Mass: and so bring them to an indifference, as though there were hardly any choice betwixt both. This will lessen the Odium under which they lie, deriving part of it upon our Church, and withal is a preity sure way to bring men bach again to Rome. So that if I were a Jesuit, I would, as Lewis Moulin, and some such as he, so cry out upon the Superstitions, bloody Persecutions, and Idolatries of the Church of England, and by that means drive men so far from it, that when things tend towards a change, the people might either be undetermined what Party to take, or even prefer Popery to so deform a Reformation, as they should believe ours to be. And accordingly it is easy to observe, that those Sectaries are not far from Rome, which are farthest from the Church of England.  
The Jesuits Schools abroad, are full of our Youth, in the Low Countries, in France, in Spain, and at Rome, the English Seminaries are perpetually fitting up young men to carry on the great work of reducing this potent Island to the See of Rome. Once every year they are sent over in numerous Shoals from those Colleges, not directly and openly to preach Popery, (they are too wise to go that way to work) but by other means to promote its restauration; acting such parts bare-faced or in a disguise, as they are enabled by their Genius and interest; such to be sure, as shall conduce to the disturbance and destruction of that Church and Government, which now keeps them out.  
Hence, I make no question, proceeds the beginning, or the continuance of our divisions; and the frequent insulting over us upon this account, and upbraiding us with our many Sects, shows that Rominists are not a little proud of their success in begetting or maintaining of them. A man in a Vizard robs his Neighbour, and having pulled it off, reproacheth him for his beggarliness: this is very disingenuous. But very strange it is, that the same man should yield himself a prey, every time the Thief shall put on his mask.  
The mischief is, that Faction, not Conscience, makes the great differences in the Christian Church. Opinions are embraced and asserted, upon design, to promote worldly interests. Those Doctrines in the Romish Church we say and prove to be Innovations, are such as tend to advance the power and greatness of those that brought them in, and now impose them on others. And it is not to be denied, but that some are enemies to the Tyranny of that Church, because they themselves would govern, or be under no Government at all. Factions, like errors and sins may clash and fight one against another: but it is not the property of true Religion to multiply Controversies, or to be fierce in lesser contentions.  
But then there are some things so bad in themselves, so much against Divine Commandments, and the duty every man owes to God, that there he may not, and must not comply. Let who will enjoin what is dishonourable to God, or forbidden by him, the first and greatest Obligation ought to take place, God must be obeyed above all, though in the discharge of that obedience we expose ourselves to great dangers and sufferings. Glad should I be that Popery were the true Religion, that our Blessed Lord had constituted the Pope his Vicar, and made him infallible, and commanded us to believe and obey all he should speak from his Chair. It would supersede all our inquiries, and the pai●s we are at, to examine whether Papal Decrees agree well with our Master's w●ll; It would have spared the blood of Millions of Christians, who rather chose to die in flames and tortures, than comply with those Injunctions which they judged contrary to their Saviour's Laws. And it would free all meek good men, (who would buy peace, and submit to any thing that were not sinful) from the dread of Massacres and Inquisitions, and what else may be feared from the formidable Principles and Persecutions of the See of Rome.  
We are abundantly satisfied that the Bishop of that City hath no just right to that Power and Dominion he claims over all Crowns and Mitres; nay, we clearly see by the Records of ancient times, that every where he used very ill means to usurp that Authority. Yet I believe most Protestant's would easily be brought to recede from their right, and for peace sake to give him more than is his due. Precedency, Honour, even Money to maintain his Greatness, I could afford him, if that engaged me to nothing contrary to the duty I own my God and Saviour: But if yielding so far, must oblige me to embrace a new Creed and false, and to practise an unlawful Worship, than I am bound to assert my liberty, und to bear faith and allegiance to God, whatever I suffer for it; we might if we would part with our freedom, but we may not give up God's truth and honour.  
The Case is this; we may not live in the Communion of Rome but as the Pope's Subjects, and that would make us in many things rebels against God. We are not obliged to live in that Communion, and we dare not do it, for then, except we yield in all things, we are proceeded against as Heretics, as accursed Traitors to God and the Pope, and the greatest severities are inflicted on us. So that, as we would preserve our Consciences and our lives, we must withdraw from Rome, and live asunder. All Christians are obliged to worship God alone, and in all things to obey their Saviour; and all men would live and enjoy their own. Now I shall make it appear that if we are in the Communion, or in the power of the Roman Church, we can do neither. We must believe and worship otherwise than God's Word hath commanded, or we must live under infamy and persecutions, and expire in flames.  
Whilst I give an account of these two things, it will appear that there is a very great difference betwixt the case of the Reformation, and the case of them that separate from the Church of England. That, as necessary and Just as that was, this is as needless and unjust: and that, as much as Religion and self-preservation obligeth us to break communion with the Church of Rome, so much the same bonds tie all Dissenters to unite with the Church of England, and to live quietly, like good Christiane, and loyal Subjects, in its Communion.   

A Prayer to be said by them that are solemnly admitted into the Fraternity of the holy Virgin Mary, wherein the devout Officers of the Inquisition are Commonly listed.  
SAncta Maria Mater Dei & Virgo, ego N. N. te hodie in Dominam patronam & advocatam eligo, firmiterque statuo atque propono, me nunquam te derelicturum, neque contra to aliquid unquam dicturum aut facturum, neque permissurum ut à meis subditis aliquid contra tuum honorem unquum agatur. Obsecro te igitur, suscipe me in servum perpetuum, adsis mihi in omnibus actionibus meis, nec me deseras in hora mortis. Amen.  
Holy Mary, Mother of God and Virgin, I N. N. choose thee this day for my Lady, Patroness, and Advocate, firmly resolving and engaging myself that I will never forsake thee, nor yet ever say or do any thing against thee, nor suffer any thing to be done against thine honour, by any that are subject to me. I beseech thee therefore let me be thy Servant for ever, and own me for such, assist me in all my actions, and forsake me not at the hour of death. Amen.   

The Holy Inquisition.  
IF the Church of Rome had kept to the Primitive Creeds, and still retained the Ancient purity of Divine Worship, and used her strength and policy only to maintain true Christianity, it might have been said that too great a Zeal had transported her, and made her too fierce against erroneus opinions. That might have made some abatement of the censure she lies under of being too cruel, but withal it had been a prejudice against that Religion that had occasioned the shedding so much blood, and destroying so many lives; and it would have been thought that the Christian Faith had disposed its Professors to be merciless and unnatural. Now if in both cases it be quite otherwise; if Christianity inspires and recommends nothing but meekness and the greatest charity; and if it hath not been to maintain the Doctrines of our Blessed Lord, or the Worship of the True God that Rome hath persecuted and slain so many. Nay, if the Gospel forbids nothing more than to be hard and severe, to take away men's lives, or the comforts of them: And if Rome by flames and tortures hath sought to impose on the Christian World only false Doctrines and superstitions; if the case be so, it will wholly clear the Institution of our Blessed Redeemer, and make their guilt most heinous and crying, who under pretence of preserving the purity of Christ's holy Religion have destroyed millions of its Professors.  

CHAPTER I. Of the Roman Faith, as distinct from the Christian and truly Catholic. And first of the New-Creed.  
I Shall not in this place represent how distant from all cruelties, how averse to them is the Christian Religion: But first I shall give some account of those Doctrines and that Worship, peculiar to the Church of Rome, which for being opposed, or not received, in whole or in part, have oceasioned those persecutions of which we complain. I shall begin with the Doctrines as they are contained in the New Creed of Pope Pius IU. who, as was appointed by the Council of Trent, framed and imposed a Profession, or Confession of Faith to be taken as an Oath by all the Secular Clergy, by all Military Orders, by all sorts of Friars, all that should be required, and all that should come to their Communion, in this wise:  
Ego N. firma fide credo & profiteor omnia & singula quae continentur in symbolo fidei quo Sancta Romana Ecclesia utitur, videlicet.  
Credo in unum Deum patrem omnipotentem, etc. I N. steadfastly believe and profess all things contained in that Confession of Faith which is received in the holy Roman Church, as follows: I believe in one God the Father Almighty, etc. So the Nicen Creed throughout; and then follow the new Articles of the Roman Faith.  
Apostolicas & Ecclesiasticas Traditiones, reliquasque ejusdem Ecclesiae observationes & constitutiones firmissimè admitto, & amplector, etc.  
In English thus.  
I most steadfastly embrace and admit the Apostolical and Ecclesiastical Traditions, with the Constitutions, and all other things used in the Roman Church.  
I also receive the holy Scriptures according to that sense, which our holy Mother the Church (whose it is to interpret it) hath held, and still holds, neither will I ever understand or explain otherwise than according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers.  
I also profess that there are seven true and proper Sacraments of the New Covenant, instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ, necessary to men's salvation, (though not each Sacrament to every singular person.) These are Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Peance, Extreme Unction, Orders, and Matrimony, all which do confer grace, and whereof Baptism, Confirmation, and Orders; cannot be repeated without Sacrilege.  
I likewise own and admit all the approved and customary Rites which the Catholic Church useth in the solemn administration of all the foresaid Sacraments.  
All and every particular defined and declared by the most holy Council of Trent, about Justification and original sin, I receive and embrace.  
Likewise I profess that in the Mass a true and proper propitiatory Sacrifice for the living and the dead, is offered to God, and that in the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, there is really and substantially the Body and Blood, with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that there is a conversion made of the whole substance of the Bread into his Body, and of the whole substance of the Wine into his Blood, which conversion the Catholic Church calls Transubstantiation.  
I also confess that under either kind or species, whole Christ is entirely contained, and the true Sacrament received.  
I constantly hold that there is a Purgatory, and that the Souls therein detained are helped by the good Works and Prayers of the Faithful.  
As also that the Saints which reign with Christ pray for us, and are to be worshipped and prayed to, and their Relics to be venerated.  
I most firmly assert that the Images of Christ, of the Blessed Virgin, and of the other Saints are to be had and retained, and that due honour and worship is to be imparted to them.  
Also I affirm that the power of granting Indulgences, was left by Christ to his Church, and that the use of them is most salutary to Christian people.  
I acknowledge that the holy Catholic Apostolic and Roman Church is the Mother and Mistress of all Churches, and I promise and swear true obedience to the Pope of Rome, who is Christ's Vicar, and Successor to St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles.  
I also without doubt or scruple receive and profess all other things, delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred Canons, and General Councils, especially by the most holy Council of Trent, and all things contrary to them, with all heresies whatever condemned, rejected, and cursed by the Church, I likewise reject, and condemn, and curse.  
This holy Catholic Faith which I now truly hold and profess, and without which no man can be saved, I shall (by God's help) constantly keep and confess, whole and undefiled, until my last breath, and to the utmost of my power shall in my Place and Calling endeavour that the same shall be taught, preached, and professed by all my Subjects, and all under my care. I the foresaid N. promise, vow, and swear it, so help me God, and these holy Evangills.  
The Bull which appointed and framed this new Oath or Confession of Faith is dated from St. Peter's in Rome the _____ of November, in the year of our Lord 1564. and is concluded in the usual manner. Nulli ergo omnino hominum liceat, etc.  
Let no man whatever dare to infringe this written Declaration of Our Will and Command, or by a temerarious Presumption any ways oppose it; which if any one shall attempt, he must know that he shall incur the indignation of Almighty God, and of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.  

SECT. II. General Reflections on this Roman Creed.  
IT seems they that framed and imposed these new Articles, were afraid they should not hold fast enough the Consciences of men, and therefore Pope Pius obliged them to swear; a simple Profession would not be sufficient to enslave the Minds of Christians, and bind upon them this heavy Burden, a formal Oath, as we see is contrived, and so the Bull calls it, forma juramenti. And whereas men make Confession of the Christian Faith freely and out of choice, as that that will be infinitely beneficial to them: They must swear to the Roman Faith to secure themselves from persecution.  
I know that some of the opinions of this Roman Creed were pressed before upon the Western World by Inquisition and Fire and Sword, and that most of them had been gaining ground upon the persecuted opposers, about five or six hundred years: But they never became a Creed imposed with an Oath, necessary to all men's salvation, till this Council and Pope did make them so. And we find about the beginning of this Council under Paul III. in the year 1546. that when the Fathers made profession of their Faith, according to the Roman Creed as they call it. Symbolum quo sancta Romana Ecclesia utitur. Sess. 3. that they said nothing but the Nicen Creed, this new one not being yet hatched. Nay, even now in their public Worship, and when they Baptise (as conscious of the Novelty of the Tridentine Faith) they only use the three Catholic Creeds; the new one is not mentioned, but reserved to persecute Heretics withal, that is to damn and to destroy the Enemies of the might and grandeur of Rome.  
For it is to be noted, that all these New Articles are so contrived that they all manifestly make for the advantage of the Roman Church. They establish its uncontrollable dominion over men's Consciences; they stretch and assert its power over all persons and in all cases; and they bring great profit to the Roman Clergy. Here you find nothing that glorifies any of God's Attributes; nothing to magnify or explain the Mysteries of our Redemption; nothing that can engage men to serve and love God better; nothing to increase the hopes or settle the peace of Christian souls: All of it is nothing but the founding of the Roman Empire, the Canonising of those Means whereby the Pope and his Clergy should reign and abound in wealth.  
Accordingly this Faith is not propagated or maintained (as the Christian was) by the humility, meekness, and patiented sufferings of its Preachers and Professors, but by craft and policy, by might and violence. Not by the demonstration of a a divine power in the working of Wonders and Miracles openly before all the world: But by such pretended feats, as many among themselves are ashamed to mention and to own. These 500 years and upwards they have filled their Books with wondrous Stories to back those their new devices which are neither Primitive nor universally received, neither contained in Scripture, nor the ancient Creeds. And these their Miracles are for the most part so ill contrived, so absurd, so private and obscure, so ill attested, that they confute themselves, and prove nothing but the ungroundedness of those Doctrines, and badness of that Cause whose interest they are brought to maintain.   

SECT. III. That this New Creed makes the distinction betwixt Papists and other Christians.  
THis Creed is the unpassable Gulf fixed betwixt Popery and the Reformation, and hath widened the breach, never to be made up, betwixt the Roman Church and all other Christian Churches. It is not now, as before the Council of Trent, when many lived in the Roman Church, hoping and endeavouring to rectify what was amiss, and without owning its errors; Now those errors are become Articles of faith, declared necessary to all men's salvation, and men must make a public profession of them, and solemnly swear to them. And it is become a common Maxim, and a Principle on which they ground their proceed against Dissenters. Dubius in fide censetur haereticus, that he is counted an heretic that doubts in matters of Faith. You may not question; not so much as hesitate about any Point in the New Articles; neither may you interpret them, or seek to give them a commodious sense, as the Bishop of Condom hath endeavoured to do, to make them plausible; the whole Creed and Oath must go down, in the Pope's sense that imposed it, be it what it will. So that except a man truly and thoroughly can believe all this, he cannot, with any Conscience, any ways comply with the Church of Rome, or remain in its Communion: And all the guilded words and promises of the Popish Clergy to them they would seduce about tolerating different opinions, and leaving them to themselves; are (as appears by this Bull and Creed) but pious Frauds, and downright lies.  
Upon these New Articles of Faith is grounded the Worship now used in the Church of Rome: Whoever believes them not, must needs look on the Mass and other Popish devotions with great horror and abhorrency, and own it his duty to die, rather than join with them in what is so contrary to true Religion, and so dishonourable to his God and Saviour. So that the Points of this New Creed are the touchstone and trial of a Papist, and stand as a Partition-wall betwixt him and a Protestant. Whence I desire it may be considered, how unjust and injurious they are to the Church of England and its Conformable Clergy, that charge It and Them with being Popish, and Popishly affected. Some, no doubt, (as we have seen by experience) do it with evil designs, and will do it in spite of all evidence to the contrary; and to them nothing is to be said, but God convert them. Others that may be imposed upon, will perhaps be satisfied when they consider, 1. The constancy of our Clergy in professing that Worship and Doctrine for which our Reformers died Martyrs, even in those days when they themselves were persecuted, exiled, and ruined for it, and had all the provocations imaginable to pass over to Rome, if they had had any inclination towards it. 2. Or when they acquaint themselves with the many and most learned Writings of our Doctors of all Ranks, against Romish Errors and Superstitions, so strong, so convincing, that none can read them with any attention, and remain unsatisfied in any Point wherein Protestants do differ from Rome. 3. Or lastly, If they will but compare the declared and avowed Doctrines of our Church, as they are contained in the Common-Prayer-Book, and the 39 Articles, with either the Canons of the Council of Trent, or in short with this Roman Creed. For than they shall see, not only, that we hold none of these Tenets, peculiar to the Church of Rome, and contrary to God's word: But that our Doctrines and Persuasions are directly opposed to them.  
As for those that make Popery to consist in two or three Ceremonies or indifferent Rites, they much mistake the matter; and they must be mightily in love with Ignorance and Scruples, that cherish such thoughts, and will not read what will inform them better. Any Reformed Church might as well be charged with what any man shall please, for some of their Customs and Orders will be found to resemble those of the Jews, Pagans, Mahometans, or Socinians. And where the differences are so many, so great, so just, and material, as betwixt us and the Church of Rome, it is strangely unreasonable to expect that we should go naked, or walk upon our heads, for fear of doing any thing that the Papists do.  
It is much more to be feared lest the want of Order and Decency, of Creeds and Forms of Divine Worship, and administering the Holy Sacraments, should open an easy entrance for the Roman Innovations to come in, where there is a great confusion, and a great latitude, and nothing fixed and established in opposition to them, than that we, who in the Conformity of our Confessions of Faith, and of a pure and holy Worship of God alone through our Lord Jesus Christ, hold a constant and avowed Communion with all Reformed Churches, and all Christians that keep to the Primitive Rules, should break our ties, and break over those bars and enclosures wherewith we have separated ourselves from Popery, and excluded it from mixing with us.  
The Church of England hath not made any thing necessary to Salvation, but what God hath declared so to be, and hath imposed upon the People no controverted or doubtful Doctrines, nothing but what all true Christians owned in all places, and all times, so that it hath given provocation to none, but to such as own the New Creed of Pius iv to separate from her Communion: But the Church of Rome hath made to be Faith absolutely necessary to Salvation, that which was not so before, that which God no where revealed in his holy Word, and that which is in many things contrary to it, and to the true Catholic saith of all Christians.  
And who that believes Jesus Christ to be that Great Prophet who revealed to us the whole Counsel of God, and is alone to be heard as the only Author and finisher of our Faith, can swear an indefinite obedience to the Pope, and make it part of his belief that he embraceth all the Traditions of the Church of Rome, (which they themselves cannot number) and receives all the definitions and declarations of her Councils, especially that of Trent, and believes her to be the Mother and Mistress of all Churches, which is apparently false? Who that believes them accursed that shall add any thing to that Faith which our Blessed Lord and his Apostles preached, can now make part of it, that Christ is truly sacrificed in the Mass for the Living and the Dead; that he is wholly contained under either species in the Sacrament; that there is a Purgatory, where Souls are relieved by what the Living do here for them; That the Saints must be prayed to, and that due Worship must be given to their Relics and Images; and that Christ left to his Church a power of granting salutary indulgences to such as would purchase them, as we see by their practice? This is a Faith so new, so strange, so different from the Christian, so contrary to it, that any man that shall compare both, and be persuaded, that it is part of that highest honour which belongs to God alone, that all his Dictates and Declarations should be received with an humble submission of our understanding, and an entire faith, will die (as Millions have) rather than make profession of this Roman Creed, Joh. 2.9. Whosoever transgresseth, (or goeth beyond) and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. The Doctrine of Christ we have in the Gospel, of which the sum is contained in the Christian Creed. It declares the glorious Attributes of God, his wonderful works of power and mercy; what great things he hath done for us, what more he will have us to expect from him; and all to engage us Religiously to serve and love him alone, and own him for our Supreme Lord by an holy Worship and Obedience. The Doctrine of Rome doth only set forth the unlimited power and dominion of the Pope and his Church over the souls and consciences of men, and the means of seizing on their Wealth, by selling the Mass Sacrifice, and the indulgences, by taking the Offerings of the Images and Shrines, and drawing Souls out of Purgatory. The Pope's Crown and the Monk's Belly is the sum of all, and the crime of us Heretics is the speaking against either, or the not believing what makes for them, as much as we believe in God.  
For this were the Cruelties and Inquisitions of the Roman Church invented, and exercised against all Christians, whose knowledge and Conscience would not permit them to profess this new and unchristian Faith: But from this it is apparent we descent, not out of peevishness or humour, or a stubborn temper, but upon the account of obligations and duty to our God and Saviour, whose true Religion (I hope) we shall constantly own and profess, whatever we suffer for it.    

CHAP. II. Of several parts of the Roman Worship, and first of their Exorcisms.  
IT is not to be expected that where the Doctrines are so corrupted the Worship should be pure; men's Actions commonly are worse than their Principles; and so here it is to be observed that those Articles of the Roman Creed on which is grounded any part of their Worship, are not so bad in the Notion as they are in the Practice. Their customs, usages, and outward Acts of Religion which are the true Interpreters of their Doctrines, make them uncapable of those fine Glosses some of their Missionaries would put upon them, and withal are so superstistitious, so idolatrous, that all men that fear God, and are concerned for the honour of the Blessed Jesus must needs judge themselves absolutely obliged, rather to die, than to join and comply with the Popish Worship.  
As far indeed as their Worship proceeds from that Christian Faith they have common with us, the Apostles Creed, they may have Prayers very good, and very devout: But as far as it proceeds from their new Roman Faith, it is a strange Medley of conjuring, consecrating, abusing Gods holy Name, and giving to Creatures the love and praises due to our Blessed Redeemer.  
I shall give some instances of it, and first begin with their conjuring, 
Part. 1. chap. 2. sect. 10.  of which they have Treasures and Manuals Printed, besides what is in their Rituals, and other Books of public use. Of the first, Bishop Tailor in his dissuasive from Popery gives us some account how they assault the Devil with Holy Water, Incense, Sulphur, Rue, little Papers containing holy words, Relics of Saints, and notable Railing. How the Priest with his Stole about the Neck of the Possessed very imperiously commands the Devil, using many names of God Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, very many signs of the Cross, adjurations in the name of St. Ann, St. Michael, etc. especially of the Blessed Virgin, all whose Names, Epithets, Merits, and Titles, are very effectual; the Form in the Ritual is not much better, and all of it is a heap of things very absurd, and very dishonourable to true Religion.  
But in their daily Ministrations, there are so many of these Exorcisms for to drive out Devils out of every thing, that one would think they are Manichees, who believed most of the Creation to belong to those evil Spirits. In the Office for Baptism they Exorcise the Salt which they put into the Infant's mouth, with nine signs of the Cross and a Prayer whereby they beg it may become Salutare Sacramentum, a salutary Sacrament, and a perfect Medicine to all that receive it. And even the Child is Exorcised with the Priests blowing three times in his Face, and anointing it with his Spittle, saying. Exi ab eo immunde Spiritus, & tu autem effugare diabole, appropinquabit enim judicium Dei. Come out of him unclean Spirit; and thou Devil be gone, for the Judgement of God is at hand. Together with this Prayer: Exorcizo te immunde spiritus in Nomine Patris, etc. I exorcise thee unclean Spirit, in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that thou mayst come out of this servant of God, and departed from him, thou damned accursed, for so he commands that walked upon the waters, and stretched out his hand to Peter when sinking; therefore cursed Devil own and receive thy Sentence, and give honour to God, and come out of this his Servant, etc.  
Other Exorcizing there are for the baptising of adult persons; so for the baptismal water itself by blowing upon it three manner of ways, and pouring some of it towards the four parts of the world, and a long Prayer, whereby the Priest very imperiously commands, Omnis Spiritus immunde, omne phantasma, omne mendacium, eradicare & effugare ab hac creatura aquae. All unclean Spirits, phantasms, and lies to be rooted out of the water, and driven away from it.  
So are their Salts, and Oils, and many other things of common use powerfully conjured, and the lurking Devils ferretted out of them. And what is all this but the disgrace of Christianity, and profanation of God's Sacred name?  

SECT. I. Of their many Consecrations.  
THeir Consecrations are much to the same purpose, they mightily abuse the holy duty of Prayer, and attribute to every toy they have a fancy for, as much sacredness and virtue as to any divine Ordinance or Christian Sacrament. With their holy Water, they sanctify every thing, and are blest themselves perpetually with it, living, and dying, and even after their death, when betwixt the hands of a deceased man they put a Cross upon his breast, and every foot dash him with holy Water, as is appointed in the Ritual. And no wonder, for it is consecrated, to drive away devils, diseases, and all evils; to have the virtue of divine benediction, and the effects of divine grace. And they pray that the holy Salt, which is its great ingredient, may procure to them that receive it, perfect health of soul and body, and freedom from the wiles and temptations of the devil. Every thing, and more than we can expect from the holy Communion.  efficiaris sal exorcizatum in salutem credentium, & sis omnibus sumentibus te sanitas animae & corporis, etc. Their holy bread, pain benit, they bless, to be likewise to them that taste of it the salvation of soul and body, and a safeguard against all dangers. And even the blessed Candles, where ever they are lighted, are to fright and expel away the Prince of darkness and all his Angels. The same is to be done by their holy Oil and Incense. All their holy Garments and Church-Utensils are blest much in the same manner, and to the same purpose.  
We find them praying, that the little Boxes for Relics, or other consecrated things, may receive the dew of heavenly grace. Also that their Bells may do great feats, and that the dew of the Holy Spirit may be poured on them. Hoc tintinabulum sancti spiritus rore perfunde. They also Exorcise the Chrism for their many Unctions, and having purged it from the Devils that were bathing in it, pray that it may become to all that are anointed therewith, the adoption of Sons by the Holy Ghost, and that the mixture of it may be to them a sure and salutary defence and propitiation for ever.—  omnis virtus adversarii, omnis exercitus diaboli, omnisque incursio & omne phantasma satanae eradicetur & effugetur à te, ut fias omnibus qui ex te ungendi sunt in adoptionem filiorum per spiritum sanctum, etc.  
Much more as bad or worse might be transcribed out of their Pontificals and Rituals, but it would be endless; and endless to show all their Ceremonies for the Apparel and Ornaments of their Priest, Altars, Images; for their various Postures and Motions, for all their Ablutions and Purifying, and the consecrated tools and toys they employ in their ministrations, all which far exceed what was appointed by Moses in the Worship of the Jewish Tabernacle. This is only that they who are not acquainted with their Books may see how contrary is the Roman Worship to the simplicity and spirituality of true Christianity; how much Gods holy Name and Religion are abused by the absurd Prayers and impious Exorcisms and Consecrations of the Popish Liturgies; and how thankful we ought to be that we can worship God in the beauty of holiness, without such heaps of Superstitions.   

SECT. II. Of their Mass.  
THeir way of celebrating the Lords Supper is become so unlike the sacred institution of it, and so dishonourable to its blessed Author, that Christians of other Communions tremble, and are seized on with horror when they consider the Blasphemies and Idolatries contained in the Doctrine and Worship of it. And accordingly they of Rome have pressed it these four hundred years with the greatest rigour, and made it the touchstone and gin, whereby to know and to catch Dissenters. To have a Christ made of Bread, as their Creed and Tridentine Canon absolutely declare, against the evasion of Bellarmine and others, who ashamed of it, would make it to be a a Transubstantiation adductive. Contrary to what their Church hath determined, that the whole substance of the bread is changed into the whole substance of Christ's body: is a strange account of the Hypostatical Union and of the Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour, and much to his dishonour. As also to have their Christ appear, notwithstanding all the Pageantry of the Mass, in circumstances of the greatest weakness and destitution. So that he must be carried, and locked, and cleansed, being in danger of falling to the ground, of being lost, of being mouldy and corrupted, of being eaten by Dogs or Vermin, and even abused at the Devil's pleasure to Sorcery and Witchcraft. What a contempt doth this reflect on the Lord of Glory, who once indeed abased himself for us very low: But now fitteth on the right hand of the Majesty on high.  
The Consecrated Wafer, which they call the good God, their Creator, and their Saviour, they daily adore as such, and that with a most profound and solemn Worship: both at the Altar, the Priest, and all the people; and abroad when it is carried about, to the great terror and danger of all that are not of their persuasion. And this they constantly do, when even according to their own Principles, they never have any certainty that Christ by Transubstantiation is present, under the species. For, want of Intention in the Priest that consecrates, or in them that ordained him, mars the efficacy of the consecrating words, frustrates the expectation of the Worshipper, and makes them all Idolaters.  
It is further intolerable in this one part of their Worship, that they sacrilegiously take the Sacred Cup from the People, who are put away with a sip of the ablution Wine, wherein the Priest washeth those fingers of his that touched the Host.  
And then, that their eating of Christ in the Mass they make to be a true propitiatory Sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead, as is at large asserted in the sixth Session of the Council of Trent; wherein ends the whole design of all their impious absurd devices in this Point. They make Christ to sacrifice him; and they sacrifice him to gain Money by it. And how much this derogates from that all-sufficient never to be repeated Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, (as St. Paul shows at large in Epist. ad Hebr.) is sadly apparent. But on these things I am not to enlarge. This is enough to show the irreconcilableness of our conscience (persuaded as it is) with their way of daily Worship.   

SECT. III. Of their Worship to Images and Saints.  
WHerein is also very offensive to us, that notwithstanding God's express command of not worshipping any Images of any thing in heaven, or under heaven, they publicly and confessedly render to the Cross, and to the Images of the ever Blessed Trinity, that highest worship of Latreia, which they themselves own to be due to God alone. And that to the Images of Saints, they give such Religious respects and services, as that nothing more of outward Worship can be paid to God himself. They carry them about in pomp with Hymns and high Celebrations; they burn Candles to them, and to them make Offerings; they kiss them, they burn Incense to them; they kneel and prostrate themselves before them, and before them make their Vows and Prayers; going to visit them in long Pilgrimages: and from them, and what they represent, expecting all sorts of blessings. All this is to be seen, not only in the practice of vulgar superstitious People: But also in their Rubrics and Liturgies, and their daily public Worship, performed by their grave and devout Clergy. And that the evil of this may not be seen by the common sort of people, they keep under a Bushel, under severe restraints and prohibitions, the light of God's Word, which in many places would show them, how provoking and odious such a Worship is to God, who declares Isa. xlii. 8. I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven Images. And in such Books of instruction and devotion, as are used by the People, they take out of the Ten Commandments the second, wherein God expressly forbids their practice, appropriates to himself all Religious Worship, and declareth himself highly Jealous of it.  
Further, Whereas God who is infinitely exalted in a Throne of Glory and Dominion, above the highest creatures, is also infinitely good and beneficent, and so not only requires, but also infinitely deserves all the Religious love and services our hearts are capable of, having given us our being, and all things that we either enjoy or hope; and even given us his own dear Son, when no Saint sued for it in behalf of Mankind, and made him do all that was to be done for us, even die, and bear the sorrows and shame of the Cross, that we might say with the Apostle, Rom. viij. 32. He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? When God hath done all this; and his blessed Son our dear Redeemer hath merited for us all that we can want, and commanded us to bring to him all our Requests and Petitions; Telling us, that it is by him alone we must have access unto the Father, and that he alone can save them to the uttermost that come to God by him, being ever living to make Intercession for them. When thus God hath done all that could be done, that we might be obliged to none but to him, and have dependence on none else, is it not strangely ungrateful and provoking, to see men seek for thousands of Mediators, and Friends in the Court of Heaven to speak and plead for them? As if either God were averse to hear their Prayers, or the Intercession and Merits of our Blessed Saviour were not sufficient to prevail, but in conjunction with those of the Saints.  
For so we find in most of their public Prayers that they offer them in the name of all, or of some particular Saints, and expect for their sakes to be heard, confiding much in their Merits and Mediation: And very frequently mentioning them to God, as motives why he should grant their Petitions. Numberless are the places where these, or the like expressions are used.  ejus sancti cujusdam fulti patrociniis ad coelestia regna mereamur pervenire.  sanctis tuis intervenientibus, digneris, etc. ut cujus natalitia colimus, ejusdem protectione gaudeamus, etc. Beatorum N. N. nos festa tueantur, & corum commendet oratio, etc. Ejus intercedentibus meritis, ab omnibus nos absolve peccatis, etc. The absolution of Penitents on Maundy Thursday may serve for all. Precibus & meritis Beatae Mariae semper virgins, Beati Michaelis Archangeli, etc. In English thus: God Almighty pity, pardon, and save you, by the Prayers and Merits of the blessed Virgin Mary, of St. Michael the Archangel, of St. John the Baptist, of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and of all the Saints. Amen.  
And so according to these great benefits they receive (as they think) by means of the Saints, they make to them suitable returns: having invented many ways to requite their obligations, and making them sharers with God in all their religious respects; of which take these instances. In their daily Masses they make their Confession to the Saints as to Almighty God, (see their Confiteor) they frequently mention the merits of the Saints, especially of those whose Relics are under the Altar; they profess in the Communion to venerate the memory of all Saints, and for their sakes, in the Postcommunion desire in several forms, that their oblation of Christ may be acceptable to God; or salutary to them, or the like. And whereas they declare that the honour of a sacrifice is peculiar to God alone, and is by them reserved for him: Yet we find that they cannot forbear to bring in the Saints for a share. In the form of Intention, before the Mass, The Priest professeth to offer that, and all other Sacrifices, with all the good Works, Merits, Prayers, and Praises in Heaven and Earth, in memory of our blessed Saviour's Passion, and to the honour and exultation of the blessed Virgin, and of all heavenly Angels and Saints.— Ad laudem quoque & exultationem Beatissimae Virginis Mariae, coelestiumque Angelorum, sanctorum atque sanctarum, & signanter, N. N. & aliorum sanctorum.— Nunc & semper, hoc & omnia alia sacrificia, officia, orationes.— Sacrificare intendo & propono, etc. And to be as good as his word, in the Celebration itself afterwards, the Priest hath this Prayer: Suscipe sancta Trinitas hanc oblationem quam tibi offerimus in memoriam passionis, resurrectionis & ascensionis Jesu Christi Domini nostri, & in honore beatae Mariae semper virgins & beati Johannis Baptistae, & sanctorum Apostolorum Petri & Pauli, & istorum, & omnium sanctorum, ut illis proficiat ad honorem, nobis autem ad salutem, & illi pro nobis intercedere dignentur in coelis, quorum memoriam agimus in terris.— Amen.  
Receive, O holy Trinity, this Oblation which we offer to thee, for the remembrance of the Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ: and in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary, of St. John the Baptist, of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, of these, and of all Saints, that it may advance their honour and our salvation, and that they may vouchsafe to intercede for us in heaven, whose memory we celebrate on earth, by the same our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. After this, their offering of Christ in honour of the Saints, we may well think that they judge nothing is too good, or too much for them.  
And so when they bless the Images either of Christ, or of any Saint, they serve them alike, sprinkle them with Holy Water, burn Incense to them, and pray for all in the same manner. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, etc. O God, who dost not dislike that we should paint or carve Images or semblances of thy Saints, we beseech thee that this Image, made for the honour or memory of thy Son, or of such an Apostle or Martyr, may by thee be blessed and sanctified, and that thou wouldst grant to all that shall supplicate and serve such a Saint before it, that they may by that Saint's mediation obtain Grace here, and Glory hereafter. Amen. But to the Image of the blessed Virgin there are more Prayers, and amongst them this is said or sung by the Bishop and assistants, whilst he sprinkles it. Sub tuum praesidium confugimus sancta Dei Genitrix, nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed à periculis cunctis libera nos semper, virgo gloriosa & benedicta. We flee to thy protection, holy Mother of God, despise not our Prayers in our necessities: But deliver us from all dangers at all times, O glorious and blessed Virgin.  
So at all occasions, and in all parts of their public Worship, God hath nothing peculiar to himself: And every where with our blessed Saviour some Saint or other is joined. They excommunicate, and they absolve, Auctoritate Dei omnipotentis & Beatorum Apostolorum, etc. By the authority of God and of his Saints. And it is so in all their Ministrations while they live: And when they are dying, Holy Water is plentifully sprinkled, and the Image of that beloved Saint they had most devotion to, is set before them, as the Ritual appoints; and the Soul is bid to go forth in peace in the name of Angels and Archangels, of Patriarches and Prophet's, of Apostles and Martyrs, of holy Monks and eremites, and of all the Saints. And the weak man is taught to say with heart or voice, Sancie Angelo Dei, mihi Custos assist, omnes sancti, etc. Holy Angel that art my Guardian, assist me, and pray for me, and secure me, all ye holy Angels and Saints. And then to the blessed Virgin, Maria mater gratiae, mater misericordiae, tu nos ab host besiege & hora mortis suscipe: Marry Mother of grace and of mercy, protect us from our Enemies, and receive us when we die.  
And as in their Prayers, so in their Glorifications, the Saints must be partners with Almighty God every where, as this one instance proves enough: Sacrosanctae & individuae Trinitati, etc. Eternal praise, honour, virtue, and glory, be by all Creatures evermore rendered to the holy and individual Trinity:— To the Fruitfulness and integrity of the most blessed and glorious Virgin, and universally to all Saints. This Magnificat hath an Indulgence annexed to it by Pope Leo X. and is daily said by all that recite the Breviary.  
By what hath been said, and much more which is to be seen in their public and most authorized Books, and daily practice, may appear what credit is to be given to those Romish Emissaries, who very confidently deny their praying to Saints, or giving them any Worship, in the Church of Rome. But that I may not be tedious, I forbear to give any more proofs to the contrary, and conclude with this, which is in their ordinary and allowed Manual of English devotions. Thus, O holy and glorious Virgin Mary! I commend my soul and body into thy blessed trust and singular custody, and this night and ever, especially in the hour of my death, I commit to thy merciful charity all my hope and consolation, all my distress and miseries, my life and the end thereof, that by thy most holy Intercession all my works may be directed according to the will of thy blessed Son. Amen.  
It is now clear, that no Christian that fears to offend God, by imparting to others that honour and worship due to him alone, can join with the Church of Rome in their public Worship. Nor possibly live in a Communion where such a new Creed is imposed, (as hath been seen before.) But therefore they make use of Inquisition, that where Conscience keeps men from assenting and complying with such Errors, Superstitions, and Idolatries, there Terror may make them submit. This is that Popish Religion, without which (as they say) no man shall live in heaven, and without which, if they can, no man shall live upon earth.  
Here it appears, that it was not a few tolerable abuses, that made a great part of the Christian world, so long wish and attempt, and at last with great trouble and danger, effect a happy Reformation, here in the Western Churches, wherein the Pope's Tyranny had set up and imposed his Religion. Their indispensable duty and allegiance to their God and Saviour obliged them to do it. The terms of Communion with the Church of Rome were hardly consistent with the profession of Christianity, and were most injurious to God, and repugnant to that Faith and Worship revealed and appointed in the Gospel, by our blessed Saviour. God must be obeyed, rather than Man: And no compleasance, no consideration whatever obligeth any man to destroy or venture his own Salvation. This was their warrant, and upon this they might well expose themselves to those cruel persecutions they endured, for being counted Rebels to the Pope.  
But what is there, can oblige any man, enlightened with the knowledge of the truth, to separate from this Church? Whereof the Faith is not a new and disputable Creed: but that pure, Primitive and Catholic Doctrine which is contained in the New Testament; and wherein God alone is duly worshipped, the Sacraments of Christ rightly administered; wherein there are holy Prayers, conformable to God's Word, humbly offered to him in the name of his blessed Son; wherein the Ceremonies are few, and grave, and decent, fit to express and to increase our Reverence and Devotion; and wherein the great design appears plainly to be, God's glory, and men's salvation. What man that loves Goodness and Piety, and in the profession of Christianity seeks only to serve God, and save his own soul, can break Communion with this Church, if he be within its Precincts? Or will not rather judge it as much his duty, to join with it, as to separate from Rome? A Government and Order, and a Liturgy of necessity there must be; all Christian, all Reformed Churches have and maintain them, to prevent Confusions, Profaneness, and Innovations, such as are here amongst us established oblige to nothing that God hath forbid; under them we may be virtuous and Religious in the highest degree, and aught therefore to be meek and peaceable; thankful to God that he hath graciously freed us from those Romish impositions before mentioned. They that would break those Rules that are now fixed and established, either have little value for true Christian Religion; or are willing to make way for Popish Innovations, or will make it appear that some tempers are so ungovernable, that nothing can hold them, but that Yoke and Tyranny of which I am now to speak.    

CHAP. III. How the Inquisition came to be established; and first of the Oaths and Excommunications wherewith they tie the Consciences of men.  
IT is not for denying any Article of the Christian Faith, that we, like our forefathers, are bloodily persecuted, wherever the Pope's power can reach: Neither is it that we worship a False God, or are any ways impious against the True one, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It is for rejecting that Romish Creed and Worship, whereof I treated before. And it was not to maintain Christianity, but those corruptions, that Inquisition was invented, and used with so much rigour. Any one that hath read the Life and Doctrine of our blessed Lord, will easily judge that cruelties are destructive of her Religion, and cannot be fit Instruments to propagate or maintain it. But the maintaining of that formidable Empire and Dominion the Pope and his Clergy have got into their hands, requires they should proceed with that inexorable severity they practise against them that descent from those Doctrines, on which is grounded their power; therefore they oblige all that have any Jurisdiction among them by a strict Oath of Allegiance, to be the Pope's Subjects, and to endeavour all possible ways to make others be so. Thus: Ego N. electus Ecclesiae vel Monasterii N. ab hac hora in antea, fidelis & obediens ero, Beato, etc. I N. elect of such a Church or Monastery, from henceforth will be faithful and obedient to blessed Peter the Apostle, and to the Holy Roman Church, and to our Lord Pope N. and to his lawful Successors. I will give no counsel or consent that they should lose Life or Limb, or be any way injured upon any account. I will never, to their detriment, reveal to any what counsel they shall trust me with, by their Nuncios, or themselves. I will help them against any man (saving my Order) to keep and maintain the Roman Papacy, and the Regalities of St. Peter, I will assist their Legates going and coming, and contribute to their necessities. I will endeavour to preserve, defend, and increase the authority, rights, honours, and privileges of the Holy Roman Church, and of our Lord the Pope, and of his Successors, And I will no way contribute, but rather detect and hinder any thing that should be to their prejudice. With all my strength will I observe, and cause to be observed by others, all the Rules of the Fathers, and all Apostolic (i. e. Papal) Decrees and Commands, Provisions, and Reservations. All Heretics, Schismatics, and Rebels to our said Lord the Pope, and to his Successors, will I oppose and persecute. I will come, when called, to Synods, and once in three years come to Rome. And I will give an account to our Lord the Pope, of my Pastoral Office, and of all things that pertain to the state of my Church and Clergy. All Papal Injunctions I will humbly receive, and most diligently execute, etc. So help me God and these holy Evangils.  
Here is a good hold already, whereby all Secular and Regular Prelates are enslaved to the Papacy, and to the Roman Doctrine and Worship. From which if they, or any other swerve, then are the direful thunderbolts of Excommunication lanced against them, with extinguishing of Candles, and, in the name of God and of his Saints, shutting them out of the Church in heaven and in earth: denouncing them to be cursed and anathematised, and adjudging them to be damned in eternal fire, with the Devil and his Angels, and all Reprobates. As is to be seen in their form of Excommunication.  
All we reputed Heretics, and all others that fall under this severe doom, are good for nothing afterwards, but to be destroyed any way possible, (as will be seen in what follows.) But if any, by terror, or hope, or any other inducement, are brought into their Church, from among Heretics, he must climb over a high and difficult partition-wall, and be tied so short, that he shall hardly ever think of a return. It is not, as they represent, to deceive the simple, only going amongst them, and be within the Pale of the Church, and do what you will: But after they have drawn you so far that you cannot go back, than you must in earnest be reconciled to the Church. And this is the manner of it, as is prescribed in the Pontificale.  
The penitent Schismatic or Heretic must kneel before the Church-door, and there make a Confession of his Faith, and have the Devil Exorcised out of him. And being brought in, and kneeling before the High Altar, renounce all heretical pravity, and promise to live in the unity of the Roman Faith, and have some Prayers and Grosses made over him, and then swear obedience to the Pope, imprecating damnation to himself if ever he departs from the Communion of his Church; and if he were a noted Heretic, he is thus kneeling, to damn all Heresies, that especially which he leaves, and pronounce all that still hold it, worthy of an eternal Curse, and upon his Oath profess to believe from his heart that Faith which is taught by the Roman Church: and promise if ever he quits it, to submit himself to the severity of the Canons.  
This, one would think, should be judged sufficient by the Church of Rome, to keep men in her obedience: But she dares not trust to it; as indeed experience hath shown, that long agone the exorbitant greatness of the Papacy had been reduced, and a general Reformation effected, if nothing but ties of Conscience, or Excommunications had been used; other means therefore have been found, more violent, but more effectual. Inquisition, managed with great rigour and great policy, hath been (as Pope Sixtus Quintus called it, in a Bull I shall cite afterwards) Firmissimum Fidei Catholicae propugnaculum; The best and strongest Supporter of the Catholic Faith. A truth which will manifestly appear when we have seen, how it was at first established, and hath proceeded ever since.  

SECT. I. Of the beginning of the Inquisition.  
THe origin of the Inquisition, if we may believe Lud A Paramo, is as ancient as the World. He himself, in Sicily for many years, was employed about the Holy Office, 
A Paramo de orig. etc. Matriti. 1598.  (as they commonly call the Inquisition) and was much in love with it. And he in good earnest tells us, that God was the first Inquisitor, who when our first Parents were fell into Heresy, came and made Inquisition about it: But finding them disposed to repent, mitigated their punishment, and had them not racked and burned: but only deprived them of their estates, casting them out of Paradise: Sent them, as it were, to the Galleys, adjudging them to hard labour and sorrow; put upon them a kind of San benit, making them Coats of skins: All which merciful proceed the Holy Inquisitors do now imitate towards Penitents. Afterwards (he tells us) the Patriarches were appointed Judges in the case of Heresy, and amongst them he puts Abraham, whom he calls praeclarum Inquisitorem, a famous Inquisitor; though when the Jews sought to kill our blessed Saviour, he told them, they could not be his Children, for that did not Abraham. 
Joh. 8.  But however (as he goeth on) the Prophets afterwards succeeded in the office: and at last it came to our blessed Lord, who is now the Head of the Roman Inquisition, but delegated it to St. Peter, from whom the Pope hath it.  
This my Author tells us, in very good earnest, and I make no doubt, believed it. But the true origin of the Inquisition by delegation from the Pope, as it is now managed, was about the year 1216. when Pope Innocent III. appointed St. Dominic to be the first Inquisitor, to repress the growing Heresy of the Albigenses. Before that, the Bishops were the sole Judges in the ease of Heresy. And though before Dominic there had been, by the power or Instigation of several Popes, many Persecutions raised against such as dissented from the Church of Rome, and many Princes and Bishops, by interest or inclination, had been very severe against them: yet that was not enough to uphold the Roman Errors and Tyranny; some Princes did favour the Reputed Heretics, some Bishops were tainted, and most of them too remiss; they generally would not exercise such cruelties over their own Sheep, as were requisite to secure the Papal Interest: And the Popes, who were glad to depress them as much as they could, and draw all their power to themselves, found it necessary and expedient, to appoint Commissioners by their own Authority, who should depend wholly upon themselves, to punish and exterminate all that would not submit to bear the Roman Yoke. These they called Inquisitors, and, as I said, Dominic was the first.  
Before him indeed, Charles the Great, anno 805. had appointed Judges to punish such as turned Heathen, after they had professed Christianity: And they put many to death, in those furthest parts of the Belgic Provinces which that Emperor conquered: But that lasted not long, and differed much from the now-Inquisition.  
Ildefonsus also, a Spanish King, permitted by a public Edict, anno 1154. to persecute the Waldenses throughout his Dominions, Praeter tamen laesionem mortis, aut membrorum detruncationem; yet so, as that they should be neither maimed, nor killed, as A Paramo himself relates it. But all this comes very short of the Inquisition, and neither came from the same Authority, nor proceeded by the same Methods; so that still it remains true, as my Authors have it, that Pope Innocent III. was he that erected the Holy Tribunal, as they call their Hellish Barbarities against poor Christians.  
That Pope was he who first made Transubstantiation an Article of Faith, in a Council he called at Lateran at Rome, or rather under the name of it, as Matthew Paris relates, who gives such an account of this Pope, as also Platina, as makes him a worthy Inventor of such a device as is the Holy Inquisition, His Pride, Ambition, and Covetousness were in extreme, as those Authors have it, and what his Kinsman and Successor Gregory IX. records of him, in his Decretals, sufficiently detects his cruelty, and proves against those Popish Traitors, who of late have denied it dying, That the Church of Rome maintains and teacheth the most bloody and traitorous Principles; though possibly, some particular persons in it may not approve them.   

SECT. I. Of Dominic the first Inquisitor.  
THis Innocent III. the year after his Lateran Council, anno 1216. authorized St. Dominie to be his Inquisitor at Tholosa, where he had caused the Croisadoes to be preached against the Albigenses, as also in the Neighbouring places, and in Lombardy, for many years before; having granted the same Privileges and Indulgences, to such as should Arm against those Heretics and destroy them, as to those that went to the Holy Land; as is to be seen in the foresaid Council and Decretals, cited by Grotserus the Jesuit, in his Edict of Reinerius. His verbis, Catholici qui crucis assumpto charactere ad Haereticorum exterminium se accinxerint, illa gaudeant indulgentia, illoque sancto privilegio sint muniti, quae accedentibus in sanctae Terrae subsidium conceduntur. Dominic himself in preaching and prosecuting these persecutions, which destroyed many thousands, was very busy and very zealous.  
He was born in Spain anno 1170. and his Mother Johanna Daza, sometime before she brought him forth, dreamt that she was big of a Whelp, 
A Paramo. p. 95.  who when born should awake and terrify all the world with barking, and set it all in a flame with a burning torch which he carried in his mouth; which the event did prove a very ominous dream: For he, as many more since, got his Saintship by teaching and exercising most inhuman cruelties against such as would not approve the corruptions of the Church of Rome. He being yet but young, was by the interest of his Father Felice de Gusman, made one of the Canons of Osma. And soon after when the Bishop of St. See was sent Ambassador into France by Alfonsus, King of Castille, Dominic accompanied him, and passing thorough Tholosa, found that great and stately City and the parts adjoining almost all infected with the Heresy (as they count it) of the Albigenses; which mightily kindled the zeal of this great Roman Champion, and set him to barking, and kindling with his breath (as his Mother had dreamt) that terrible fire which burned so long and so fiercely. 
Tom. 3. p. 613.  St. Antoninus saith, that a very bright Star was seen upon his forehead when he was asleep: And that he raised to life again nine persons, three whilst he lived, and six after his disease; so brave a thing it is to be a zealous propagator of the Roman Faith, which Faith he asserted (as A Paramo saith) by this notable Miracle: Having long disputed in vain, he got two Books in his hands, one of them written by the Heretics, containing their Errors; another writ by himself, containing the Doctrines of the Roman Faith: Then having assembled great numbers of people, and caused a great Fire to be made, he threw both the Books into it, and immediately that which contained the Heretical Doctrines was consumed, and the other nimbly leapt out of the fire, and being thrown in again the second and third times, did not like the warmth of it, but still came out safe and sound out of the devouring Flames.  
But this would not do, and it was found requisite to throw the Heretics themselves into the fire, for their further conviction: Wherefore Dominic having obtained from the Pope a power and delegation to be Inquisitor, an. 1216. fell to work in good earnest, to butcher such stray Sheep as the proper Shepherds could not, or would not reduce. Nature seemed to be afraid of those horrid cruelties which were now coming to be exercised at the Tremendous Tribunal of the Inquisition, there being about this time many Prodigies seen, to the great affrightment of many Nations; Monsters, Inundations, and Earthquakes, in Italy, Savoy, Germany, and elsewhere, as is to be seen in the Authors that treat of this Century: But Dominic, and the other Bigots of the Roman Church, took it another way, and would have these to be expressions of the wrath of God against Heretics; and so came with great zeal and fury to be executioners of that wrath, and to destroy them.  
Pope Innocent had seen a Vision, as Bzovius reports, to this purpose: Christ appeared in great anger, ready to cast down upon wicked men the exterminating Thunderbolts of his Indignation, but that the blessed Virgin interposed, and assured him she had two men, two valiant Champions, who would reduce all things to right if he would but be patiented, and then shown him St. Dominic and St. Francis, and he became pacified.  
These two, whatever the Tale be, offered to God many humane Victims, as though they had indeed designed thereby to appease his wrath; the Franciscans became Inquisitors in Italy, in honour of their Founder, there born: And the Dominicans had the same Office in Spain, and elsewhere.  
But to return. Dominic worked very many Miracles, and had very free intercourse with heaven, as is to be seen in Bzovius, who is very prolix upon that subject, (ad anno 1211. & deinceps.) But that which makes for my purpose is his coming with Didacus' Bishop of Osma, and with twelve Abbots to preach the Croisadoes; that is, to levy Soldiers, that would engage against the Heretics, and to make an Army of zealous men, who should have a Cross for their Badge, and should be in perpetual War against the Enemies of Christ, as they called the Albigenses, and other Dissenters from Rome. He himself would carry a Cross in his hand, when she went to fight, and all the Arrows that were thrown at him, did only pierce the Cross, but never touch him: Whereby his Fellow-soldiers were wonderfully encouraged, (as they report it.)   

SECT. II. Of the first making of Familiars, or armed Officers or Bailiffs for the H. Tribunal.  
BUt the having, as it were, a standing Army, to back and enforce the Proceed and Decrees of the Inquisition, was that which at length quite destroyed his Enemies, and blotted even the name of Waldenses and Albigenses from under heaven. This was it hath preserved the Inquisition, and made it formidable and irresistible, the having a great number of men, the most cunning, potent, zealous, and vigorous, sworn Servants, and Officers; who have power to bear what Arms they please, to enter where they will, who are of all trades, and all conditions, and are always ready to execute the commands of the Inquisitors.  
This Dominic instituted, he chose out the most fierce, bloody, implacable Zealots of his numberless Cross-bearers, and made of them a select Company or Fraternity, which he called Christ's Familiar Soldiers. Familiares Christi milites.  accerime haereticos insectarentur, & impetu quam possent maximo, in illorum perniciem irruerent. So A Paramo words it, That they might persecute Heretics with the greatest violence, and endeavour their destruction and ruin, by all possible means. These Familiars, being mighty useful to the design of the Sacred Tribunal, are highly favoured by the Popes. Innocent III. began to pour his blessings upon them, and upon all that should any ways be aiding the newly-erected Court of Inquisition. But the Familiars had a double share of Indulgences and Immunities. In Italy they were called Crucigeri, Cross-bearers, and St. Petri Martyris Scholar's, the Disciples of St. Peter the Martyr, who was a holy Inquisitor. And Honorius III. and Gregory IX. made a kind of Order of them, which they named, Fratres Militiae Jesu Christi; The Friars of the Militia of Jesus Christ. But now, saith my Author, they that serve the Inquisition are all such Familiars as Dominic instituted. They used to have a Cross of coloured Cloth upon their breast, fastened to their upper Garment, but now I suppose they have left it, because I find, in several occasions, since the Reformation, that they were not known, not so much as one to another.    

CHAP. IU. Of the first that suffered the rigours of Inquisition.  
DOminic having erected his Court, and got power enough, what from the Pope, what from his Familiars, to make it so strong as to do that work it was designed for, proceeded against Heretics with as much severity, as the bloody Religion of Rome can inspire. He added to all the former rigours and cruelties; and though he made use of several forms and ways of judging and punishing Heretics found out before him, yet he tied himself to none, but with such a certain method, which hath not been much changed since; he followed no other rules, but his own pleasure in inflicting punishments upon guilty or suspected persons. And so it remains to this day, most dreadful and arbitrary.  
Those Heretics, against whom the Pope and his Friends were so angry, have a very ill name given by such as put them to death, and, if we may believe their Enemies, were very vile and wicked: But when we find full as bad said of us, in many late Writers, we have great reason to suspect that then, as now, they painted Heretics like Devils (as they do when they burn them) to justify their hatred and their cruelty against them.  
The Beguinis and Beguardi, the poor men of Lions, or Minorits de tertia regula Sancti Francisci. The Stadingenses, and others in the twelfth and thirteenth Century, were most likely of the same Religion, as to the substance, as the Waldenses and Albigenses, men that sighed and endeavoured for a Reformation, and could not hold Communion with the Church of Rome, by reason of its great corruptions, but that held the same Primitive Faith as we do. There is enough in Reinerius, even as it is set out by Grotserus the Jesuit, to justify this. He had been one of them, of the Waldenses, and changed, and became Inquisitor against them: but together with the expressions of his malice, gives such an account of them, as makes it most clear that they are highly injured, as well in their Names as in their Persons.  
What cruelties were exercised against them, by the urgent instigation of this Pope Innocent, who by Bulls, swarms of Preachers of Croisadoes, and the bloody and traitorous Decrees of his Lateran Council, excited and forced many Princes to butcher in most parts of Europe those sheep appointed to be slain; what faint resistance they made for a while, assisted by several great Princes, the Counts of Tholosa, Foix, Beam, and others, with Peter King of Arragon; how many lying Miracles, but truly bloody Executions were acted by Simon Monfort, and other Generals of the Pope's Gros't-Souldiers? All these are to be seen in Petrus Valissarnensis the Monk, who then lived, and writ the History of those Albigenses, whom he terribly hated. Spondanus also hath enough of those matters add an. 1200. & deinceps.  
I know that he makes Petrus de Castro novo, a Cistercian Monk, and Arnoldus Abbot of that Order, to be the first Founders of the Inquisition: and observes that that Peter, being killed by Count Raimond, blessed and consecrated that holy Tribunal he had erected in his own blood. But A Paramo will have it that Peter acted as the Pope's Legate, and as such deputed a power to Dominic to proceed against Heretics, many years before he had the Pope's Commission. There may be some truth of both sides: and it matters not how much, or how little; only I will remark, that when Dominic came to Rome to have his Order confirmed, Pope Innocent was very averse to it, till he saw in a Vision his Lateran Church and Palace ready to fall, but that it was born up and supported by Dominic, who indeed by his Inquisition hath upheld that Popish Religion which else had failed long ago.  

SECT. I. Of the Waldenses, and the proceed against them.  
I Have been favoured with the sight of a Manuscript which was in the hands of the now Reverend Dean of St. Paul. It is the Register of the Inquisition of Tholose, genuine and authentic, containing the proceed of that Court for about 80 years, against many hundred Heretics. Therein I saw that the forms of the several sorts of Sentences against Delinquents, were much the same as they are now. And that the account it gives of the Crimes or Heresies of the Waldenses, agrees very well with what is found in Reinerus, and others, for the justification of those persecuted good Christians, of whom I shall give a short account.  
These be the offences of one that was fled. Transcribed ex Fol. 191. Culpa unius Fugitivi, Johannes Aimonius oriundus & habitator de Alzona, etc. anno 1320. In English thus: John Aimonius of Alzona, etc. it appears by his Confession, taken in due form of Law, that some thirty years before his said Confession, his Mother Perotta had as it were bewitched him with certain strangers who used to come to his Father's house in Alzona, that he might not reveal them to any, they being of that sort of men, who were called Waldenses, and who in Burgundy were apprehended by the Inquisitors, and burned, as many as could be found. She commended them to him as good men, and he promised he would not disclose them. Also, that much about that time, Geraldus, Provincial of the Waldenses, did often resort to his Father's house, sometimes alone, sometimes with a Companion, and once with Robert the Valdensis, and there lie and eat and drink of what the house afforded; and that he heard his words and admonitions, and amongst other things, that a mortal sin to swear, or kill a man, in or out of judgement. Also, that he saw the said Gerardus, and others of the same Sect, bless the Table when they dined and supped, and that he did eat with them, and pray with them, according to their way of praying, kneeling, and bowing themselves, and saying the Lords Prayer. Item, That some three years after, one John de Cernone, sometimes alone, sometimes with other Waldenses, came many times to his Father's house, and there lay, and eat of any thing freely, & that he heard them say grace at Dinner, and at Supper, and did eat at the same Table, and pray with them, kneeling, and bowing himself upon a form, as their manner is; and that three or four times he confessed his sins to the said John de Cernone, and from him received Penance and Absolution, although he knew that he was not a Priest ordained by a Bishop of the Roman Church. Also, that some twelve years before his Confession, and some three years after, he saw many times at his Father's house one Bartholomeus de Caiarco Valdensis, and did eat and drink, and pray with him according to their manner, and confess his sins to him; and from him receive Penance and Absolution, although he knew that he was not a Priest ordained by a Bishop of the Church of Rome. And that he heard those Waldenses teach that there is no Purgatory, and that the Prayers of the Living do not profit the Dead. And that he did believe those Waldenses were good men, and might be saved in their Religion, though he knew that they were persecuted by the Church of Rome.  
For these Crimes, and for his running from their Cruelties, this man must have been burnt like a Relapse, had he been taken.  
Now here is a specimen of their Sentences against such as were to be immured, p. 14 In nomine Domini N. Jesus Christi, Amen. Quum nos, etc. In English thus: In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Whereas we, etc. appointed Inquisitors in the Kingdom of France by the Authority of the Pope, against heretical pravity, have found by an inquisition duly made, that you N. N etc. have all so many ways, and so grievously offended in the crime of damned heresies, as it hath been intelligibly read and recited to you in the vulgar tongue, you appearing here and at this time personally before us, according to our peremptory Command, to receive Penance and definitive Sentence: and you affirming that you will unfeignedly and hearty return to the unity of the Church, and that you do now entirely abjure every Heresy whatsoever, and all favour to it, and every rite and Doctrine, any ways relating to Heretical pravity, and that you will hold, keep, and defend the Catholic Faith, and in all things obey, according to your Oath, the Commands of the Church and our Injunctions: We having granted you the benefit of Absolution, and released you from those bonds of Excommunication wherewith you were bound for your faults, if so be that you return from your heart to the unity of the Church, and truly observe what we shall enjoin you, having set before us the most holy Evangils, that our Sentence may come from the presence of God, and our eyes may look to the thing that is equal, and sitting upon this Tribunal, do now decree, with the advice of good men, and learned in the Law Civil and Canon, that you shall be finally and perpetually imprisoned betwixt bare Walls, there to perform a salutary Penance with Bread and Water, the bread of sorrow, and the water of tribulation: and that you N. and you N. because you have more grievously offended, shall be kept perpetually in Chains and Irons, in a more narrow and uneasy place; charging and requiring every one of you, upon the Oath which you have taken, that without delay you transport yourselves to the Walls of Tholose, which is appointed to such Criminals as you, and that therein you descend and shut up yourselves. And now if you shall neglect to fulfil what we here appoint you, by not entering within those Walls, or by coming out of them without our licence, or the licence of our Successors, in this holy Office, or if at any time hereafter you any ways transgress against what you have sworn and abjured, and show yourselves impenitent, and that your Confession was but feigned, you shall be thenceforth taken for perjured and impenitents, and shall return under your former Chains of guilt: And by our foresaid Apostolic Authority, we Excommunicate you, and all them that shall knowingly receive, defend, counsel, or favour you, decreeing by these presents, that you and they shall for ever after be uncapable of the benefit of Absolution. And we reserve to ourselves, and to our Successors in this Office, full and free power to change what we shall think fit, in this our Sentence, by making it more grievous or easy.   

SECT. II. Of the Crimes of the Waldenses.  
THe Sentences against relapsed and impenitent Heretics who were delivered to the Secular Power to be burned, have the same form, mutatis mutandis. So have also the Sentences against such as were to wear only the Sanbenit, a certain kind of Coat with yellow Crosses upon it: But I do not find by what tortures they made their Inquisitions, nor how they dealt privately with their Prisoners: we have only in this Register what the Inquisitors did publicly in the Cathedral Church of S. Stephen, before the general Assembly of the Clergy and people. I shall therefore at present, out of this Manuscript observe only that the Crimes of such as were to be put to death, or otherwise punished, were only such wicked heresies and deeds as these.  
That they were obstinate; or that they returned as the dog to their vomit; or that they had not persecuted and detected Heretics, as they were obliged by their Oaths, that they had been made to confess with great difficulty, or not till they were accused by others, and taken and detained in Jail; or that when they came to their Pastors, or went away from them, they had kneeled and craved their blessing, Ter adorabant eos, dicentes benedicite; and to some, Rogate Dominum pro nobis, quod perducat nos ad bonum finem, pray God to bring us to a happy end; or that they believed those whom the Church of Rome called Heretics to be good men, and Professors of the truth, and that they had commended their good lives to many, believing for so many years, that they might be saved in their way; or that they had fled or endeavoured to flee into Lombardy; or that they had concealed some that were fled from the Inquisitors; or privately buried some Heretics in their Gardens; or that when they were sick, some Heretics had been brought to comfort them; or else that they had comforted, or promised to comfort some dying Heretics; or that they had heard them, or read some of their Books, or eaten of their blessed Bread; or that they believed themselves descended from the Apostles of Christ, and that their Pastors had from them that power of binding and losing which Christ gave to blessed Peter, and afterwards to the other Apostles; that they did believe there were but three Orders in the Church, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons; (the Church of Rome makes seven;) That they thought the Excommunications of the Church of Rome would not be their damnation; That they did not believe themselves to be subject to the Pope and Prelates of the Roman Church, because they persecuted them unjustly; or that they had attempted to flee, or had not come to confess, lest if they came into the Inquisitors hands their Children should starve and perish.  
One, or two, or more of these were the most abominable Crimes, which with many cruelties they made those poor Waldenses to confess, and for which they burned, immured, or otherwise punished them. And nothing can more clear the Innocence of those persecuted people, than the accusations and convictions, which were then brought against them in the Courts of the Inquisitors, their professed and implacable enemies, wherein we see nothing of those either silly or impious Errors, which many of the Romish Writers are pleased to impute to them.  
So much I thought fit to say concerning those pretended Heretics who first felt the merciless barbarities of the Papal Inquisition.    

CHAP. V Of the restoring of the Inquisition.  
NOw I shall give you some account of the setting up, or restoring the Sacred Tribunal in several places. The Inquisition was so successful in Tholosa, and it so well agreed with the principles of the Popish Religion, and the genius of the Roman Popes, that Friar Lambertus was authorized to be St. Dominic's Coadjutor, to help him to promote that work which so well prospered in his hands. And that holy Father Innocent III. and his Successors used all their strength and endeavours, and watched all opportunities to erect in all places such a Court as holy Dominic did manage. In many Cities of France, and even in Paris it was erected, as appears by a Bull of Pope Alexander, 47. 1258. In Hetruria, and other parts of Italy the Franciscan Friars were made Inquisitors, and appointed to proceed, anno 1258.  
Gregory IX. some twenty years before had in Navarra and the adjacent parts, committed the judging and punishing of Heresy, by way of Inquisition, to the Dominicans. In Lombardy also, which was the refuge of the Waldenses, Dominic had at the very first taken care, that they should be duly prosecuted and destroyed. In the Belgic Provinces Friar Robert and other Inquisitors did burn very many of the Albigenses. In many parts of Germany also, the like was done by times. In Spain and Portugal it is more uncertain when the Inquisition began, and some are of opinion there was none in those parts before King Ferdinand: But A Paramo tells us, that in some Cities in Castille, there are extant Bulls of Clement IV. 1267. whereby the Provincial of the Dominicans is impowered to appoint out of his Order Inquisitors against Heretical pravity, in all the parts of that Kingdom which the Christians possessed: And that Boniface IX. granted by a Bull the same power to Vincentius Lisboa, and to Tostatus Abulensis, who in his works mentions Inquisitors among the Spaniards.  

SECT. I. The erecting of the Spanish Inquisition.  
BUt if Spain was free for some time of the Inquisition, it had since that its turn to some purpose. When Clement V commanded the Inquisitors every where, to inquire into the Crimes and Heresies of the Knight Templars, and to destroy them, about the year 1314. No mention, saith A Paramo, is made of their proceed in the Kingdom of Castille. And likely it is that the Bishop's jealous of their power, had there and elsewhere much abated the credit and authority of the holy Tribunal, which for some Ages had not much to do, Heretics being grown less numerous, or less known, by reason of the severity of the Inquisition at first. But about the year 1480. and so forward, the Inquisition regained its first vigour and power, not only in Spain, but every where else. The occasion of it is said to be this.  
Alphonsus Hojeda, Prior of St. Paul, a Dominican house in Sevil, being mighty zealous against those Jews who sought to corrupt the Christian Faith, was informed by a noble and credible Citizen, of the Family of the Gusmans', that on Thursday before Easter, some Jews and Apostates had met in a certain house and uttered Blasphemies, and performed impious Rites, of all which the Prior immediately certified their Catholic Majesties, Ferdinand and Isabel, who much grieved at it, appointed him and others to make what inquiries they could into that horrid fact, by which means six of the Criminals were found out, apprehended, and cast into Prisons. This being famed throughout that great City, awakened the Zeal of Christians, and induced many to inform against Apostates, and such Jews as were active in persuading Christians to observe the Old Testament. Petrus Gonzalez a Mendoza, Archbishop of Sevil, and and Thomas a Turrecremata, a Dominican, Confessor to their Majesties, and Favourite, were both most notorious for their zeal and fierceness. This last took great pains to persuade their Majesties, that to secure Religion, the Laws and and Decrees of the Popes should be put in execution against all Heretics whatever, without any difference or mercy, and obtained leave and power for himself and the Archbishop to proceed, and see what they could do in that weighty matter. They shed much blood, and tried many ways, and at last did resolve that the restoring and better ordering of the Inquisition was that alone that could preserve the Catholic Faith. Upon this therefore they did spend all their Interest and their Industry, and with much ado persuaded the King and Queen to assent to it, and to obtain of Pope Sixtus Quartus the setting up again of the Inquisition. To this his Holiness readily assented, and by a gracious Bull impowered their Majesties to make Inquisitors in the Kingdoms of Castille and Leon. But lest Inquisitors made by Royal Authority should not do their business thoroughly, he appointed seven Censors of Faith in Sevill, elsewhere he himself appointed Dominicans to look to the Sacred Office, and in a manner revoked that power he had granted the King; and in the year 1484. Innocent VIII. constituted Turre Cremata Inquisitor General, who should depute others, under him, as he should think fit, and as appears by his Bull, subjected the Inquisitions of Arragon, Valentia, Cathalonia, and Sicily to the supreme Inquisitor of Castille and Leon, who is now authorized both by Pope and King.   

SECT. II. The settling of the Inquisition in Portugal, and elsewhere.  
THis Spanish Inquisition hath a power so irresistible, and unlimited, and is so fierce and rigorous in its proceed, that it is altogether framed according to the Pope's liking, and is become the Model of a true Papal Inquisition, such as his Holiness would establish every where, if he could. It goeth quite through the Spanish Dominions, and was once established even in their Fleets at Sea under the Reign of Philip II. Pope Pius V made Rodericus a Mendoca Naval Inquisitor, because about the year 1571, there were found men of several Religions, in those Galleys that assisted the Italian Princes against the Turks.  
This Inquisition thus shipped and got to Sea, was soon transported into the Canary Islands, and into both the Indies, in all the Dominions of Spain and Portugal. But into Portugal itself it was resettled by a crafty Knave, as is related by some, and believed by my Author, 
A Paramo. p. 228.  who gives a large account of the pranks he played, to effect by his wits, what the earnest desires and endeavours of several Popes had not been able to do. His name was Sahabedra, an inconsiderable and daring Villain, who about the year 1536. came into that Kingdom as being a Cardinal, Legat, and Inquisitor of Pope Paul III. He had some Money, and borrowed more by the help of some Confederates, and having gotten a good Retinue, and brave Ornaments, and forged Bulls and Seals, he began to use his power in Spain, and to play the Inquisitor. This he did so neatly, that every body took him to be one indeed: And when he came into Portugal, well furnished with Moneys he had gotten from Spanish Heretics, he struck a terror into the Country, as he passed along, and by his Officers had many Jews and Heretics seized and imprisoned, whom he several ways punished as became an Inquisitor. King John amazed and astonished at the zeal and courage of this stout undertaker, gave way to his proceed, who would have done, no doubt, most memorable feats, had he not unluckily been discovered by some that came from Rome, and apprehended, and condemned to no severer doom than to the Galleys, though by his pretended authority he had maimed and destroyed many persons. No death would have been too bad for such a Villain, in any other case: But this went for a witty cheat, as long as it was against Heretics, and proved the happy occasion of restoring the Inquisition. Pope Paul III. interceded in his behalf, and his bowels yearned over him, and his Successor Paul iv did redeem him from the Galleys.  
As bold an attempt, but not so successful, the same Author relates of Eight Dominican Friars, who went into the Dominions of Presbyter John, and erected by degrees an Inquisition among the Christian Ethiopians, but were themselves torn to pieces, and so could only show their good, will. Such is the desperate zeal of Roman Bigots.    

CHAP. VI Of several Tumults and Oppositions against the Inquisition.  
BY thus settling the Inquisition in so many places, we may see, what a formidable and lawless power the Popes of Rome had here in the West, for some hundreds of years, before the Reformation. No Yoke could be heavier or more unacceptable to Princes and People than that bloody Tribunal, and yet they were forced to be willing to be slaves to it. In Portugal and Spain some Kings have struggled against it, but to little purpose. Religion, in spite of all endeavours to the contrary, will ever have a mighty influence on all humane affairs, and the Religion of Rome being so contrived, as to make its Professors submissive Subjects to that Court, the Impositions of it must be submitted to, though tyrannical, unreasonable, and against the liking of such as must bear them. A Paramo himself relates many Complaints, Tumults, and bloody scuffles against the Inquisition, of such as either had suffered and sighed under its intolerable oppression, or of such as trembled at the thoughts of its being settled among them.  
In Arragon, anno 1484. there were loud and piteous clamours of the People against the Confiscations and proceed of that dreadful Tribunal. In Valentia and Catalonia, about the same time, there were insurrections and mighty endeavours to have shaken off that heavy yoke. In the Baleares Insulae, in Majorca and else where, the Holy Tribunal became most hated, it was persecuted bitterly, many Inquisitors were driven away, and the People made such tumultuous and violent endeavours against it, as were hardly allayed. In Sardinia, about the year 1498. there were also many quarrels and disturbances by reason of the Inquisition, and the King's Lieutenant, with the Archbishop of Callary did by main force break into the Prisons of the Inquisition, to deliver a man condemned for Heresy. In Sicily, where the Inquisition is most formidable, there have been frequently long feuds and contests betwixt the Inquisitors, and Secular Judges. Even at Rome, when Paul iv was dead, anno 1559. the People gathered together, and with great fury broke into the strong house of the Inquisitors, tore down all the doors, committed many outrages, loaded with blows and indignities Thomas Sacotus General of the Inquisition, and his Adjutant Seraphinus Cavalli, and almost burned the stately Monastery of St. Mary super Minervam, because it had expressed much respect and good will for the Inquisition. But the worst thing of this nature did happen at Naples, whereby it was almost destroyed. King Ferdinand had in vain endeavoured to set up again an Inquisition in that populous City, but the People so strongly opposed it, that it took no effect, till that potent Emperor Charles V at the earnest solicitation of Pope Paul III. effected it with great difficulty. The Pope gave good words and large promises to the Citizens, and assured them by a Bull, that their own men should be the Judges of the Inquisition: but for all that they knew and did dread what the event would be, if once that black Tribunal were set up, therefore they bond themselves by Oaths that they would never suffer it, but would rather choose to lose their lives, as they did also, many of them, at several occasions: Especially when two men being carried to Prison, by the Officers of the Inquisition, cried as they went along, that they were apprehended by the power of the Inquisitors. and were led to die in their Dungeons; whereat the people incensed, rise in great tumults, and filled the Town with blood and confusion, and had their houses battered about their ears, by the great Guns from the Castle, which played upon them. But after all they were fain to admit what was so fearful and odious to them.  
Almost the like had happened long before in the City of Parma, in the time of Martin IU. there was a long and bloody Tumult, occasioned by the burning of a woman for Heresy, and Florius the Inquisitor was killed by the People; as many more have been, of those Ministers of cruelties, whom therefore the Pope hath Sainted or declared Martyrs.  
But all this resistance the People made in so many places against Papal Inquisition, could avail nothing. The Pope held them partly by the Conscience, and partly by external force; having, as he hath, numerous Armies, in all Popish Countries, of Friars and Monks, who can handle both Swords, the Spiritual and Temporal, and can engage many Zealots to side with him, who is believed to be Christ's Vicar, and the infallible Head of the Church, to whom every soul must be subject, under pain of damnation: having so great and united a strength, he must needs carry it, at long run, against the scattered Forces, of unheaded Multitudes. France indeed hath cast off long ago the yoke of the Inquisition, and preserved some more liberty: but it hath been upon condition, that Heretics in it should be massacred, persecuted, and destroyed by some other means. And even the Republic of Venice, as jealous as it is of its liberty, and apprehensive of the Pope's ambitious and tyrannical designs: even Venice with all its policy, hath been fain to admit of an Inquisition. In the year 1378. Ludovicus Donatus, a Franciscan, was there appointed by the Pope, though with lesser power, and therefore lesser severity than elsewhere. For there the Patriarch and some Senators, who are Venetians, always sit with the Inquisitor. And when Pius Quintus, anno 1564. would have brought in the Spanish Inquisition, it was so strongly opposed, that he was fain to give over.  
But now by the rise of the Jesuits, whose Order Paul III. confirmed, there is come so great an accession of Forces to the Pope, that if but this Protestant Kingdom can be ruined, and brought under him again, it will be easy for him to regain all the power he hath lost, and to make the Inquisition of as large an extent as his Religion. Which if God should ever permit, and by that means punish our unquiet, ungovernable spirits, and our contempt of Religion and Order, it is not to be doubted but the Pope with his Friars and Jesuits would take care so to settle the Holy Tribunal, as to cut off together with our Religion, all hope of ever being free from that Romish Tyranny.   

CHAP. VII. Of the ordering of the Inquisition.  
HAd the Inquisition at first been modelled and looked after, as it hath been since the times of Ferdinand, and since the Reformation, it would not have decayed and been neglected, as it was in most places for about two hundred years. Dominicus and his Successors for about an hundred years proceeded vigorously, and in that time destroyed so many Millions of such as dissented from the Church of Rome, and struck such a terror in the rest, that they were fain to lie close and concealed; and where they appeared, the Bishops alone could easily destroy them: or other means were used to keep them under.  
They had no sure Methods at first to proceed by, and there occurred now and then such difficulties that the Inquisitors were fain to repair to His Holiness, to know his pleasure, which was the great Rule they went by, and mean while the concerns of the Holy Tribunal were much hindered or neglected by reason of their absence. Indeed Vrban IV. 1260. endeavoured to remove this inconvenience, by creating a General of the Inquisition, to whom Inquisitors from all parts might freely send for assistance or direction, as appears by the Bulls which constituted Cardinal Caetan, who afterwards was Nicolas III. the first General, wherein the Pope tells the Inquisitors: Periculosa & gravia Impedimenta quae praedicto negotio vobis emerserint, dilecto Fr. Joh. S. Nicolai in Arce Juliano Diacono Cardinali quem eidem praefecimus negotio, significare curetis, etc. That in all cases wherein they should be unable to proceed, or doubtful what to do, they should acquaint the General, who instructed by him, would find to every evil a proper remedy.  
So far it was well, and this might have done much; but afterwards Celestine V let it fall, and made no General, and the Office became very uncertain, many after-popes' neglecting it, as Celestine had done, till at last Paul III. who died in love with the Inquisition, and in commending of it, annexed the Generalship to certain Cardinals, and so fixed and appointed it, that it hath never been discontinued since. And now in spite of all former cruelties and oppositions, the Reformation of Religion having appeared and made great progress, Inquisition was to stand in great stead. Heresies did spread far and near, and even in Spain and Italy were like to prevail, wherefore it behoved the Pope to ply hard his powerful Engine; when all lay at stake, and no other means could prevent what he so much dreaded, the restoring of things to their Primitive state: The Court of Rome therefore did then study to make the Holy Tribunal as useful and serviceable as might be.  
To this purpose the Canonists were set upon, to state the Case of Heresy, and show what ways the Inquisitors might best find it out, and most severely and compendiously punish and exterminate it. And in this they became very prolix, and a world of them about that time in Spain and Italy writ Volumes upon this subject. Then also came out many Bulls for the ordering and encouraging of the Inquisition, to enlarge its power and privileges. Bariola and Pegna, famous for their skill in those affairs, reckon above 110, for about the space of thirty or forty years, from the time of Hadrian VI who was Pope anno 1522. till their own time, all which Bulls were for the welfare of the Inquisition, and the ruin of Heretics.  
To the same end it was appointed by the said Paul III. that the most important concerns of the Inquisition should on Thursdays in every Week be debated in presence of his Holiness, that his blessing and direction might prosper them the better;  faciliorem exitum habeant negotia Inquisitionis. This continues to this day from the year 1539. and contributes much to the great honour and esteem of the Inquisitors, and to the quick and happy success of their proceed. As also, that afterwards Sixtus Quintus having divided the College of Cardinals into fifteen Congregations to expedite the various Affairs of Christendom, assigned to the first and chiefest of those Congregations which consisteth of six or seven Cardinals, one Commissary General, and a General Assessor of the Holy Office, the care of such things as relate to it; but this he rather restored than instituted, as appears by his Patent to this purpose, which contains many things remarkable, and so I set it down at large.  

SECT. I: The Bull of Sixtus Quintus about the new Modelling of the Inquisition.  
ANno 1587.— In primis igitur, quoniam fides, sine qua impossibile est placere Deo, totius spiritualis aedificationis fundamentum est, cupientes hoc praeciosum depositum quod nobis potissimum à Christo Domino in Beato Petro Apostolo est creditum, adversus omnes inferorum portas, integrum inviolatumque custodire, Congregationem sanctae Inquisitionis Haereticae pravitatis, magna praedecessorum nostrorum providentia, tanquam firmissimum Catholicae fidei propugnaculum in Vrbe institutum, cui ob summam rei gravitatem Romanus Pontifex praesidere solet: Nos quoque confirmamus & corroboramus illius omnia instituta omnesque & singulas facultates à Romanis Pontif. Praedeces. nostris, Cardinalibus, ad eam congregationem pro tempore delectis Concessas. Omnemque authoritatem & potestatem eis communicatam, scilicet inquirendi, procedendi, sententiandi & definiendi in omnibus causis tam haeresim manifestam quam schismata, Apostatiam à fide, Magiam, sortelegia, divinationes, sacramentorum abusus & quaecunque alia quae etiam praesumptam haeresim sapere videntur, concernentibus, non solum in Vrbe, & statu temporali nobis & huic sanctae sedi subjecto, sed etiam in universo terrarum orbe, ubi Christiana viget Religio, super omnes Patriarchas, Primates, Archiepiscopos, Episcopos & alios inferiores, ac Inquisitores, quocunque privilegio illi suffulti sint, quorum ac aliorum praedictorum series his nostris literis ad verbum expressa censeatur confirmamus: Ea denique omnia quae per eosdem praedecessores circa candem Congregationem, illius jurisdictionem & authoritatem decreta fuerunt, nos itidem statuimus atque decernimus: Exceptiones quoque, immunitates, privilegia atque indulta etiam ejusdem officii ministris, vel in hunc usque diem concessu usuque recepta, pariter approbamus, obnixe in domino hortantes, & per viscera misericordiae Jesu Christi, & per ejusdem tremendum judicium obtestantes charissimos in Christo filios nostros in Imperatorem electum, omnésque Reges ac dilectos Filios Nobiles viros Rerum-publicarum, aliosque deuces, illisque regendis & administrandis praepositos, ac singulos orbis terrarum principes & magistratus quibus gladii saecularis potestas ad malorum vindictam à Deo est tradita, per eam ipsam quam se tueri promiserunt Catholicam fidem, ut sic suas quisque parts, sive in praestando ministris praedictis auxilio, sive in criminum post ecclesiae sententiam animadversione interponat (quod eos pro eorum pietate libenter facturos confidimus) ut eorum quoque praesidio ministri ipsi tantum munus tamque salutiferum, pro Regis aeterni gloria ac Religionis incremento feliciter exequantur, cujus pii Christianique obsequii principes ipsi & Magistratus amplissimum à Domino praemium recepturi sunt in aeternae beatudinis Consortio, Catholicae Fidei assertoribus & defensoribus praeparatum. In his autem omnibus nostra est intentio, ne in officio sanctae Inquisitionis, in Regnis & Dominiis Hispaniarum, sedis Apostolicae authoritate superioribus temporibus instituto, ex quo uberes in agro Domini fructus indies prodire conspicimus, nobis aut successoribus nostris inconsultis aliquid innovetur.—  
In English thus: Sixtus Quintus, etc.  
First, because that Faith, without which it is impossible to please God, is the foundation of the whole spiritual building, we desiring to preserve entire and inviolable against all the gates of Hell, that precious depositum which our Lord Christ hath committed chief to our trust, in the person of holy Peter the Apostle, do therefore confirm and corroborate the Congregation of the Holy Inquisition against Heretical Pravity, which Congregation, by the wisdom and great prudence of our Predecessors hath been instituted in this City, as the strongest Bulwark of the Catholic Faith, and over the which the Roman Popes are to preside, by reason of the great importance of the matter: As we also confirm and strengthen all the several rights and faculties granted by our Predecessors to those Cardinals that are chosen for this Congregation; and likewise all the authority and power communicated to them: viz. to inquire, proceed, define, and give sentence not only in all causes about manifest Heresy, Schism, Apostasy, Witchcrafts, Divinations, abuse of Sacraments, but also in all other causes any ways suspect of Heresy: And this not only in this City, and the Temporal state subject to this holy See, but also throughout all the world, where ever there is any thing of Christianity, above all Patriarches, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, Inqusitors, and all other inferiors, as though here expressed by name, whatever privilege they may have or pretend: And whatever hath been decreed by our Predecessors about this Congregation, and the jurisdiction and power belonging to it, we also decree, and approve, and renew all the Exemptions, Immunities, Privileges, and Grants, which hitherto have been granted to the Officers of the Inquisition, or by custom enjoyed by them; In the name of the Lord earnestly exhorting and adjuring by the bowels of the mercies of Jesus Christ, and by his dreadful Judgement our most beloved Sons in Christ, the Emperor Elect, and all Kings, with our beloved Sons all, Nobles, Magistrates, Princes, and Potentates of the Earth, to whom God hath given the Sword of Secular power, to take vengeance of the wicked, by that Catholic Faith they have promised to defend; that they would every one of them so fully do their part, (as we hope they freely will, out of their pious disposition) either by seeing the Sentence of the Church executed against Criminals, or in so assisting the foresaid Officers, that by their help they may duly and happily discharge their weighty and salutary Office, to the increase of Religion, and to the glory of the eternal King: And of this their pious and Christian obedience and service those Princes and Magistrates shall receive that most ample reward, prepared to the Asserters and Defenders of the Catholic Faith in the enjoyment of heavenly bliss. Now by these presents, it is not our Intention, that any thing, without our special leave, should be changed, in that Office of the Holy Inquisition, which hath brought, and still brings a most plentiful harvest in the field of the Lord, established heretofore in Spain by the authority of this Apostolic See.  
Hereby we see how well affected the Pope is towards the Holy Office, and how firm, how well ordered, how honourable he hath made it; how earnest, how solicitous he is to have it preserved and made universal, if all Christian Princes would but be his dutiful Children: and how in the name of God, of his Religion, and even of the mercies of our most charitable and gracious Redeemer, we are all devoted to the merciless cruelties of the Inquisition, of which as we see the Pope is the Head, and the most careful Director.    

CHAP. VIII. Of the proceed of the Inquisition.  
THe proceed of this dreadful Court being terrible and odious, much maligned by the People, and against the very propensities of humane nature, are therefore secret and silent, there is nothing that makes a noise, or that appears abroad, except it may be once a year, when they make a brave show and Pageant of the act of Faith, which is the day of public execution; all the rest is remote from witness and observation, saving what is previous to the imprisonment.  
There is, with some difference in every Kingdom or State where Inquisition is set up, a General of it, who in his Precinct is supreme, but is accountable to the great General of all, who resides at Rome, and to that Congregation wherein the Pope presides, (as is before said.) This Inferior General with other Inquisitors, deputed and authorized by the Pope, manageth all the affairs within his District, that belong to the Cognizance of the Holy Tribunal, which is erected but in few places, though it commands all the Country.  
Here and there in the great Cities some of the Inquisitors reside, in the Monastery of their Order, which is commonly a strong and stately House for the purpose, half a Castle, and half a Goal, fitted with all conveniences requisite, Dungeons, instruments of torture, Officers of all sorts, and two or three of the Holy Fathers, Dominicans, Franciscans, or Jesuits of late, who are the Judges of the Court, and many other Friars of the same Order.  
Herein men are brought several ways; by a Citation, which they call Verbalis, when the party hath a good Estate, (which sometimes is his guilt) and being really no Heretic, is not likely to run away. Then they send to him one of their Officers, to tell him that the most Reverend the Inquisitors, will speak with him, about some things that concern his soul; and this is the verbal Citation. But if he be really tainted, or strongly suspect of Heresy, and like to abscond, than they begin by a Citation which they call real; that is, by seizing upon him. The Captura, or apprehension, is that which they call Realis Citatio; as Caesar Carena, a late Author, and many others before him, tell us.  
When they appear who are brought in either way, the Inquisitors, who always look and speak grave and serious, tell them with a demure countenance, and in soft and godly language, that they are obliged by the duty of their holy Office to search into the Truth of some things which much concern the honour of God, and his eternal happiness; and then after several questions, and grave exhortations that they would examine themselves, and find out and confess wherein they are guilty, they commit them to custody; or it may be, he that had the Verbal Citation is sent home, and ordered to return within so many days, and soberly admonished to look to himself, and to do what becomes a good Catholic.  

SECT. I. Of the Accusations:  
IT is to be supposed, before a man be thus cited, that he hath been accused, and sometimes it is true, though by some other means he may be brought into that evil net, out of which no man can ever wholly free himself: But accusations are the most frequent beginnings of the Tragedy, and whether true or false, there is no fence against them. It is not here as in the Secular Tribunals of Princes, where you make your legal defence, and know what witnesses and accusations are against you, and are confronted before your Accusers, and every thing is transacted publicly: But in the Inquisition your Judge generally is your enemy, who designs you an ill turn; your defence signifies nothing, you can have no friend in that horrid Den, to hear or see what is said or done; and you never know who accuseth you, or of what. It is a rule in the practice of that Court, Nunquam sunt publicandi testes. That the Witnesses must never be published or declared. And A Paramo tells us, p. 159. that when Charles V yet young, was mightily pressed to interpose his authority, that the Witnesses in the Court of Inquisition might be known and confronted, as elsewhere, and 800000. Pistols were offered him by the Spaniards to do it, Cardinal Franciscus Ximenius, the then General of the Inquisition, withstood and hindered it, because it would bring danger and discouragement to the Witnesses, and in a great measure hinder the proceed of the Holy Tribunal.  
The accusations then, are all clancular, no man knows whence the deadly blow comes; and there is this further mischief in it, that the Witness is not to prove the truth of what he chargeth upon another, but the Judge is to make it out, by tortures, or by what means he can; Non subit onus probandi qui denunciat, sed judici onus remittit; so their Directories tell us, The Judge, and not the Accuser is to make proof of the accusation. And whether proof be made or not, still the Inquisitors may proceed, for according to one of their Rules, any indicium, likelihood, or suspicion warrants all their prosecutions; Non est necesse ad procedendum probari corpus delicti. And so we need not marvel if there have been so many attempts to shake of this Tyranny, for no man is safe under it, no not the most zealous Romanist.  
The Accuser is at no trouble, nor no charge at all; if he comes by way of Denunciation, as they call it, that is, by naming them that know the Fact. That such and such know that N. N. said or did such heretical things. The Inquisitors takes some of his Servants to be Witnesses of this, and then the Denunciator hath no more to do.  
Or if the Accuser speaks as of his own knowledge, after his Information taken he is free, and were it never so improbable or false, it lies in the Inquisitors breast to proceed as he shall please afterwards. And whether the proofs be weak or strong, or none at all, as soon as a man any ways is deferred as guilty, the Fiscalis, who is a Civil Officer, and as it were the King's Solicitor in the holy Office, or more properly a Confederate with the Inquisitors, enslaved to their pleasure by Oaths and Interest, comes and undertakes the quarrel, & petit capturam Rei, as the Canonists say, demands that the real or pretended Criminal may be apprehended, and gins the prosecution in this manner:  
Ego N. N. Fiscalis sanctissimae Inquisitionis, coram te Revendo Inquisitore contra Haereticam pravitatem judice delegato in causis fidei, criminaliter accuso N.N. qui cum sit Christianus baptizatus & velut talis apud omnes habitus, à fide Catholica recessit, & ad pestiferam haeresim Calvinistarum vel Luther. impie accessit, praedicans, scribens, firmiterque asserens multa dogmata haeretica, scandalos●, & valde suspecta in approbationem & laudem praectorum Haereticorum, quos velut magistros imitatur. I N. N. Solicitor of the most holy Inquisition, accuse before thee Reverend Inquisitor against Heretical Pravity, judge delegat in matters of Faith one A. B. of such a place, etc. who being a Christian baptised, and as such generally esteemed, hath receded from the Catholic Faith, to follow the pestilent Heresies of the Calvinists or Lutherans, and hath preached, writ, and asserted many Doctrines heretical, scandalous, and very suspect, for the praise and approbation of the foresaid Heretics, whom he owns for Leaders.  
The Accusation thus put in form, and prosecuted by this Fiscalis, it is great odds but the unhappy man is utterly undone in this world; and happy were it for him if he could go out of it without the tedious miseries of a hard imprisonment, and the exquisite pains of cruel tortures; for if he be indeed infected with what they call Heresy, ●hough he knows nothing of his being detected, and perhaps fears it not, ●et it is ten to one but that the Inquisitors by their many arts and subtleties will search it out so far as to proceed ●gainst him with the utmost rigour, One of them uses this Distich to this purpose.  
Sed quoniam variant animi, variabimus arts,  
Mille mali species, mille salutis erunt.   

SECT. II. Of proceeding by way of Inquisition.  
THere is another Modus procedendi, which they call per Inquisitionem, when there is no direct Accuser nor Deviator, Sed quis fama laborat, as they speak, but a man hath an ill fame; then ●hey inquire into the public report, ●nd begin the action thus:  
In nomine Domini Amen, anno 1660. die etc. ad aures venerabilis & Religiosi viri domini Fratris N. o. p. in Tali Dominio Inquisiteris haereticae pravitatis à sancta sede specialiter delegati, pervenit pluries, fama publica referente, quod N. de tali loco, dixit vel fecit talia contra fidem; acta sunt haec anno, etc. in praesentia Testium vocatorum & mei notarii.  
In the name of God Amen, In the year etc. it being reported by common fame, came often to the ears of the venerable and religious Father N. Dominican, Inquisitor against Heretical pravity by a special delegation from the holy See, within such a Province, that A. B. said and did such things, contrary to the Faith; in token whereof these presents were drawn in presences of Witnesses and of my Notary.  
This Record entered, the party is sure to hear of it one time or another, except he soon dies or escapes; for now he is become suspect, he shall next opportunity without fail receive by an  Messenger, such a Citation as this.  
Frater N. ordinis praed. In— Inquisitor Haereticae pravitatis, Dilecto in Christo N. N. solutem, & mandatis nostril, imò verius apostolicis firmiter obedire; quia de persona vestra Talia à fide dignis ad nostram notitiam sunt deducta, quae si vera essent, de fide redderent vos suspectum, ideo ex debito injuncti nobis officii vos monemus peremptorie per presents, quatenus curetis ante nos personaliter comparere, die, etc. & loco, etc. modo debito responsurus. Datum, etc.  
Friar N. of the Order of St. Dominic, Inquisitor against Heretical pravity in such a place, to our Beloved in Christ A. B. we wish health, and that he may constantly obey our Commands, or rather those of the Holy See. Because some creditable persons have reported to us such things concerning you, which if true would make suspect the soundness of your Faith: therefore, as we are obliged by our Office, we admonish you peremptorily by these presents, that you fail not to appear personally before us, such a day, in such a place, then and there to answer duly about the premises. Given, etc.  
This Summons received, the man must consider what to do, and there is great danger in every thing he can resolve upon. The attempting to escape by Flight is not without great difficulty, for the Inquisitors have Spies upon them, whom they are resolved to have in their power, and if he be taken, he comes under the notion of a Fugitive, and must expect nothing but severity. The appearing according to the Citation exposeth him to a certain ruin, if he hath done or said any thing in favour of the Modern Heresies of Luther or Calvin; for though he should recant, yet his Estate is forfeited, and he is either condemned to the Sanbenit, or to be penned up betwixt four Walls to live upon bread and water: and if according to his persuasion he persists in the confession of the True Faith, he must resolve upon the patience of Primitive Martyrs, and comfort himself with the hope of a reward in heaven.   

SECT. III. Of the Inquisitors Visitation.  
BUt before I give an account of the farther poceeding of the Holy Tribunal against such as are brought before it, I must say something of its perambulations; for now and then when the Judges think fit, it takes a walk into the Country, and visits those parts that are remote from the place of its constant abode. This Visitation of the Inquisitors was wont to carry great terror wherever it went, when before, and about the time of the Reformation, there were many every where, who liked and promoted the design of Reforming, and had secretly imparted their thoughts to such who were of the same mind. For if but two or three were taken, and in the midst of Tortures, or for fear of them, did speak all they knew, they caused many others to be apprehended, and whole Monasteries and Villages were sometimes taken and destroyed, and a great dread and consternation fell upon the whole Party: So that when the Clemency of the Kings of Spain caused Edicts of Grace to be promulged, promising impunity to all Heretics and Apostates that should return to the Catholic Faith within thirty days, A Paramo tells us, that it hath sometimes brought in seventeen thousand men and women, who rather than venture to fall into the hands of the Inquisitors, would say and do any thing, though never so contrary to their persuasions.  
Those Edicts of Grace were to be published the first time that the Inquisitors visited any Province, whether they are still used, I am not able to tell: But sure I am, he Pope never spoke any thing more infallibly true than when he said that the Inquisition had brought in a plentiful Harvest, as we have seen in the Bull of Sixtus Quintus, for indeed there were Vberes fructus, if Blood, Confiscations, and hypocritical Converts may be called a fruitful Income.  
As soon as the Inquisitors, one or more, are arrived in any place, they send for the greatest Bigots, the most furious haters of Heretics, and ask them who they are that are counted suspect in the Country. They send for whom they will, and question and swear them upon what Articles they please; and they make them that are most cunning and zealous their special Baylisss or Familiars, and oblige them by oath to inquire and inform against all Offenders. Then they publish their Monitories, and with dreadful formalities excommunicate and curse all that shall not reveal whatever they know that hath been said or done against the Pope, and Church, and the Catholic Faith; and some have been so terrified by these, that to discharge their tender Conscience they have accused themselves for wand'ring thoughts or dreams that were heretical, and have done for it a severe penance, in the Inquisitors Jails.  
In these rural Visitations the whole process against Heretics is seldom made an end of, the judges commonly go no further in it than to what may serve to detect the accomplices, and the Criminals are carried to that principal City where the Inquisition is seated, there to be proceeded against according to the grave and formal Methods of the Holy Tribunal, of which I shall proceed to give an account.    

CHAP. IX. Of the intermedial proceed betwixt the apprehension and the Torture.  
WHen the Citation Verbal or Real, hath brought a man within the doors of the Inquisition, there is always cause for his detention, if the Friars that are Judges think fit: and if he be indeed any ways tainted or guilty in the matter of Heresy, he to be sure is laid up for a good while, except God in mercy release him. Indeed Padre Paolo makes mention of some who by the Interposition of the Republic of Venice, or of some Princes have been set at liberty: And A Paramo brings the example of Laurentius Valla, who by the King's command was brought out of the Inquisition, where he had been condemned to be burnt, and was only whipped with rods in the Dominicans Convent, at Naples. But these cases be rare, and generally when a man goes in, he may bid adieu to the world; he must meddle no more with the concerns of it, no friends must visit or comfort him, nay, they may not mediate for him, where the Pope is supreme, as appears by a Bull of Pius V cited by Padre Poalo; so that he is left to the mercy of them that think themselves obliged to have no mercy on him.  
His fare is sufficient to make him live to feel his misery. And as Tho. del Bene, a very learned Author in these matters citys one of the Clementine Constitutions and other Authors, the Prison must be durus & arctus, straight and uneasy, so full of hardship and affliction, that it may serve magis ad poenam quam ad custodiam, rather to punish than to secure the Prisoner: Yet with this wise and most gracious caution,  vita incarcerati non abbrevietur notabiliter, sed tantum aliqualiter, that the life of the Prisoner be not notably, but only indifferently shortened. Indeed very few bodies are strong and vigorous enough to bear long with the Calamities of those Dungeons, and most perish in them with grief and misery, especially since so many Countries shook off the Papal Yoke, and prudence and interest required it, that the severities of the Inquisition should not appear bare-faced, as they did do before.  

SECT. I. Of the being brought to the Bar.  
BUt for all this, whatever he suffers, who deprived of all his former comforts is confined to that most grievous restraint, he can do nothing to hasten his doom, and release by death or penance. If the Inquisitors please he shall lie many years (if he can live so long) without being so much as examined, or allowed to speak one word for himself. Caraena is express, and hath authorities for it, that it is, In arbitrio Inquisitorum quoties & quando reos examinent & constituant; In the choice of the Inquisitors when and how often they shall examine and call the Criminals before them.  
When they do, the Register sets down what is said to them, and what they answer; and the first thing the Friars do, is to swear them upon certain ensnaring Interrogations, from which if they ever recede afterwards, by forgetfulness, or sharpness of pain, they are perjured, and supposed guilty of all that is laid to their charge.  
Those Interrogations are such, that no man that is not a thorough-paced Papist, can answer without betraying himself, and his Conscience must hold no Laws but the Pope's Will, that can clear himself by satisfying the Reverend Inquisitors. Indeed I find that Ignatius Loyola came off with great applause, when being brought and questioned in the Holy Office at Complutum, and at Salamanca, he very bravely and clearly acquitted himself. It was about the year 1534. when the Reformation had prospered in many been Kingdoms, and kept out of others, only by vigilant and stout cruelty. The Inquisitors every where were then very sierce and very jealous, and the Founder of the Jesuits leading a strange unusual kind of life, and preaching with great vehemence, and very little skill, and no licence at all, became suspect to them; they took him twice, and the last time did press him so home, with about thirty inquiries, and he answered so positively, to their hearts content, that he removed all suspicion of his not being a dutiful and true Son of the Roman Church.  
But to return, the Delinquent brought to answer, hath in some cases towards the latter end, a kind of a mock-Advocate, who excepts at formalities, and pleads in the behalf of the Prisoner some Decretals or Canons that can do him no great good. He himself, let him answer what he will, can neither move his Judges with pity, nor persuade them to change their usual way of proceeding. After they have sworn him upon those Articles that concern his Faith and constant adherence to the Roman Church, they will question him about various things, and without taking any notice of it, hear him sometimes deny that stoutly of which they have sufficient proofs; such is the weakness of man, such is the terror of that bloody Court.  
Here the Friars with their composed gravity make long and religious exhortations to the Prisoner at the Bar, protest of their good intentions towards him, and that all they do is for the good of his soul; tell him they have clear evidence of the whole matter he is charged withal, only that it may profit him, they would have from his own mouth the whole truth in a full and free confession. And when they have said what they will, and heard what his Fears or his Conscience suggest him, they send him back to his Prison.  
But if a man at first, resolved to save his Soul whatever his Body suffers, tells them plainly he is a Protestant, and resolves to die so. Then their promises and their threats are all used to make him change his mind, and regain him to the Church, and as they see cause they will hasten or delay his doom, and still so order their Methods, as to proportion their rigours to the heinousness of the Crime of Heresy.   

SECT. II. How the Prisoners Estate is seized upon.  
IT is a Maxim in the Jus Pontificium, Haeretico nihil est licitum possidere, and this is as good Law as the Pope can make it, That it is not lawful for a Heretic to possess any thing. Accordingly when Papal Inquisitors have judged any man to be so, his Estate is wholly forfeited. When once he is taken and imprisoned, the Fiscalis, who prosecutes him, demands an Order for the securing of all his Estate. If he be the Father of a Family, his Wife and Children can claim nor detain nothing; nay, if it be the Wife that is accused, and detained in the Inquisition, her Husband is deprived of part of what she brought, and must be at charge to maintain her, and it is well if it doth not involve him into the suspicion or guilt of Heresy. Nay, Alphonsus de Castro, is of opinion that a Heretic is bound in Conscience to give up all his goods to be confiscated, before he is accused or convicted, and that he is unjust, and sins, if he doth not.  
However all the Inquisitors and Canonists are agreed that the Possessions of a Heretic are all forfeited. Carrorius, Jacob. Septim. Gundiss. de Vill. Franc. Squil, and many more you may see cited by Gazaros, who all cite Pope's Decretals for it. Et hoc merito contra Haereticos statutum fuit, ut in egestate haeretici laborent, & alii terreantur, etc. And this is a just Law, (saith Roïas an Inquisitor) that Heretics may be beggarly, and others may be deterred from that crime.  
The Holy Office therefore sends an Order to attach the Heretical goods, and then they become Sacred. No man, for the world dares touch any part of them; then if a man be declared to be an Heretic, whether he recants or persists, whether he be burnt or not, his Estate is forfeited, and that even from the very hour that he first committed the crime of Heresy; and this breeds many learned questions in the Canon-Law. Nay, though the man have been dead many years, and never whilst he lived questioned about his Faith, yet he may be declared to have been an Heretic, and his Estate seized, and by the Pontifician Law declared forfeited. Post Haeretici mortem, declarari potest eum haereticum fuisse ad finem confiscandi. Cap. accusat. 8. §.  
We need not seek far, to find whence some fanatics took their Tenants of Dominion being founded in grace, and the wicked being Usurpers of what they possess, there is enough to this purpose among the Decretals and Extravagants. And the Gloss, which is approved notes in utroque Jure, speaks it thus plainly; That Heretics may justly be spoiled of what is theirs, and that it is lawful to take from them what they have, though better it were to have it done by the authority of a Judge. Haeretici recte possunt spoliari rebus suis, & licitum est auferri Haereticis ea quae habent, melius tamen est si authoritate judicis id fiat. Gl. 1. sum. 23.4.7.  
This is very punctually observed by the Inquisitors, who are accountable to none but to the Apostolic Chamber, Benedict XI. appointed it anno 1303. and that the Bishops should have no share, and no power to demand any account of the Inquisitors, for what they take from Heretics: yet in the Dominions of Spain, the King hath one third part, the Inquisitors one third part, and the other third part is laid by ad usus fidei, for the depressing of Heretics, and advancing the Pope's power. This brings to him and to his Oficers an Vberes fructus in the literal sense, a very plentiful income, and the King, for giving way to have his Subjects plundered and destroyed, is also allowed a dividend, though with many defalcations. When above five thousand houses in one Citiy have been emptied of goods and inhabitants, as Hieron. Zurit. l. anal. 20. hath it, this must have been a brave booty; and this makes some say, that only Covetousness keeps Inquisition on foot, in Popish Countries; which is as true as that Covetousness and Ambition cause the Papacy to hate the Reformation, and to endeavour to destroy it and all Protestants. That is, though it be so, Inquisition is never the less formidable to us, and intended for our ruin.   

SECT. III. Of the tedious and sad condition of the Prisoners.  
WHoever reads those Books which give us an account of the Inquisition, will liken it in his thoughts to nothing but hell upon earth; out of it there is no redemption, and in it there is no comfort. We have seen before that the Prisons are Magis ad Poenam quam ad custodiam, designed more to afflict than to secure the poor Prisoners. If the sense of their misery can suffer their thoughts to look out, they see what havoc is made in their Houses and Estates, what ruin, what danger is brought upon their Families! they themselves have no consolations but what they receive from heaven! they are absolutely in the power of them, who in cold blood, seriously and conscientiously will use them as barbarously as they can, and think they can never exceed in their severity! The struggle of flesh and blood against such bitter sufferings, tempts many to wound their Conscience, and staggers, no doubt the most resolute and the most sincere! Those Ministers of cruelty, who look to them, and deal with them according to the Orders of the Inquisitors, dare not favour or pity them, though they had a heart to do it; for than they should be used as Favourers of Heretics, and hinderers of the Holy Office: And that is very bad.  
We see by Arnoldus and Julius Clarus that sometimes the Prisoners are exposed naked to the cold airs, or hindered from sleep, and oftentimes allowed so little bread as to be almost starved. But at the best they are in a very ill case, and the Friars make it as long and tedious and as intolerable as they can, having this Saying, or this Rule for it, That vexatio & calamitas carceris frequenter aperit intellectum; The vexation and calamity of the Imprisonment, do oftentimes open the Understanding: i. e. make them see what an ill thing it is to be an Heretic.  
A Paramo, one that was many years a Judge in that Court, where many ill and barbaraus things are kept from coming to the knowledge of the world, who know nothing of their do, but what they themselves are pleased to reveal, speaks it in the commendation of the Holy Tribunal, Odio, Favori, intercessionibus aliisve humanis respectibus omnis aditus praecluditur, tantaque Religione, aequitate & justitia geruntur omnia, tanto silentio & taciturnitate causae aguntur, tacitis & occultis judiciis, ut vel summum illud silentium mirentur— parietes illi interiores atque tecti recessus, intra quos privata & remota luce communi, procul à conventu & srequentia mortalium Inquisitores ipsi de rebus querunt, ut de criminibus delatis in Judicium Inquisitionis injiciant metum hominibus, & Religionem afferent incredibilem in illo silentio. That in it no regard at all is had to love or hatred, to intercessions, or to any humane respects; they cannot so much as find an entrance into that sacred enclosure, wherein all things are transacted with the greatest Equity, Justice, and Religion; wherein Causes are debated and judged, by occult unspeakable ways, with so deep a silence and taciturnity, that even those interior Walls and secret recesses wherein all is acted, wonder at such an amazing silence. Therein the Inquisitors, in privacy far from the common light, and noise, and observation of the world, search out the truth, and cast in the souls of men an incredible awe and terror, about those crimes which belong to their cognizance.  
By this Encomium of the Inquisition, we may in some measure understand how they pass their time that are forced to dwell for some years in those Regions of Horror; and that this is yet more grievous than that fourfold penalty which the old Pontifician Law assigned to the crime of Heresy. Haereticorum poena quadruplex, excommunicatio, depositio, bonorum ablatio & persecutio militaris; which was to be punished in the Soul by Excommunication, in the Body by the Sword, in the Estate by Sequestration, and in the Dignity by Deposition.    

CHAP. X. Of the Tortures, and what relates to them.  
THis is yet more grievous than all that hath been said. If Heretics by so being have forfeited their Lives and Estates, let them be taken away from them. But why should the unhappy Wretches be tormented with ingenious cruelty: and why should they that judge for God (as they say) delight themselves in the shrieks, and groans, and contortions of humane Creatures?  
Indeed I thought that here the Inquisitors vizard should have been pulled off, and that they would have used no longer their godly, or rather canting discourses and formalities, but would have gone about this bloody work in a bloody furious manner. But they are still the same serious godly formal men as before; they seem to go about this with as much freedom of thoughts, and as good an intention, as ever the Jewish Priests went about slaying of a Calf or Lamb. And I am persuaded many of them mean well, being commonly great Casuists, and the most eminent, the most virtuous and religious of the Societies of Friars or Jesuits, that have that great honour and power conferred upon them, of being entrusted by the Pope with the management of the Holy Office.  
Thus then after the Criminal hath been kept as long, and examined as often as they please, the Inquisitors send for him, and having magnified their patience and long bearing with him, and rehearsed what pains they have taken to make him sensible of his guilt, and to bring him to Confession, and to Conversion, they tell him plainly, that now they are resolved to have the truth from him, and that being he puts them to it, they must use the last means for that, and come to extremities with him; and that let him look to it, they are resolved to put him to the torture, such a day and hour, and so send him back. Let him have said, or let him say what he will, it altars not the case, he must smart for his Heresy, and no doubt he is now upon the Rack, his frighted thoughts anticipate the cruel Officers: as no doubt his Judges design it, Laur. Arnol. and generally those Lawyers who treat of that part of the Canon Law, and are many of them Friars and ecclesiastics, make it a common Rule, Judex prius excusatori debet denunciare diem instituendae torturae; That the Judge is obliged to let the Defendant know what day he is to be tortured. Which torturing they commonly call the Question, and define it, Tormenta & corporis dolor ad eruendam veritatem; Torments and pains of the Body to get out the Truth.  

SECT. I. Of some preparations previous to the Torture.  
TO tell you the Truth, there must be some grounds of suspicion, according to their Printed Rules, before they rack a man: But Th●del Bene, a late voluminous Author, whose Books are printed at Lions, with the approbation of the sacred faculty of Paris, 1666. treating at large of the Office and Excellencies of the Inquisition, tells us that lesser indications or suspicions of guilt will serve in the Case of Heresy, Leviora indicia sufficiunt in crimine Haeresis. And yet those indicia are so light and comprehensive, that by them hardly one man shall escape the stretch. These six are commonly numbered in their Directories, 1. Mala fama, an ill fame, as it is here with us to be Popishly affected, whereby certain men would bring all that are not of their Faction under the odium of the People. 2. Tentata fuga, if a man hath attempted to flee, which any man would, rather than come into their hands. 3. Locus suspectus, a suspected place, to have dwelled or been born in a City or Province infected with Heresy. 4. Tempus, the time, as when there are great endeavours to oppose the Romish Worship and Tyranny, than they are to be more cautious, and more suspicious. 5. Conversatio prava, a depraved conversation, that is, frequenting such as are tainted or suspect. 6. Spes commodi alicujus, the hope of some advantage, as if a man hath heretical Friends or Relations able to do him good. If a man falls under one or more of these suspicions, than he may be proceeded against, and urged to confess by the Rack; and that especially in the Crime of Heresy, wherein they all agree that the Inquisitor must be more prone to torture, because that Crime is more secret, and lies deep in his heart, or in his understanding, and because the confession of it is mighty profitable to the Heretic, In crimine Haeresis proniores esse debent ad torquendum, quod illud sit occultum, & quod confessio multum prosit confitenti.  
Those things duly weighed, and the Inquisitors having decreed in due form that the man shall be put to the question, send for him, and very gravely reprove him for his shufflings, and reservations, and abusing their patience, and putting them to great trouble; and then they afresh exhort him to unbosom all his secrets, and for the love of his soul and body, to keep back nothing. They tell him how grievous is that which he must suffer, and that if he should lose life or limb by it, he must thank himself, for their part they must do their Office, and it is much against their will they are necessitated to use such means to bring forth the Truth, which he will not confess. Such as this and much more to the same purpose is to be found in their Directories.  
After that they pronounce this Sentence, which their Register writes down; Nos Fr. N. Inquisitores Haereticae pravitatis, etc. attendentes meritis processus facti per nos contra N. N. de etc. diligenter examinat is quod tu es varius in confession, & quod sunt indicia multa, eapropter ut veritas ab ore proprio habeatur & deinceps aures judicum non offendas, interloquendo declaramus, judiciamus & sententiamus die praesenti & hora tali, te supponendum tormentis & quaestionibus; Lata fuit haec sententia, etc. This they call, Sententia interlocutoria ad torquendum; an interlocutory Sentence in order to the torture.  
We N. N. Friars, Inquisitors against Heretical pravity within this Kingdom of N. duly considering the merit and circumstances of the whole process by us made against thee such a one, of such a place, having diligently examined that thou art various in thy confessions, and that there are many presumptions against thee; For that reason, that truth may be had out of thine own mouth, and that henceforth thou mayst be kept from offending the Judge's ears, we before we define the matter, declare, judge, and sentence thee to be put to torments and questions, this day at such an hour. This Sentence was given such a day, in such a place.  
This done, the Prisoner is carried into a low, secret, and remote place, that none may hear the cries, nor what is said or done, but such as are appointed; every thing is prepared to begin the Tragedy, and then thither the Bloodhounds follow their prey; and fiercely fall upon it.   

SECT. II. The ways of Torturing.  
THe first thing that is done is the Denudatio, the stripping them naked, be they men or women; the Holy Friars the while sitting on their Tribunal, look and are attentive to see that every thing be done according to due course of Law, and as they shall appoint. I find in some of their Law-books and Directories mention made of fustigation, beating the Criminals with Cudgels upon the bare flesh. Of tying their hands very straight, immittendo virgas inter digitos, putting sticks betwixt their fingers. Of driving an Iron Peg into a certain part of the foot very sensible, so as to go though a bone which they call Losso Pazzo. Of putting them into a certain Instrument, wherein they are enclosed all but the head, and wherein a sharp thing presseth hard upon their Navel. Of pouring in through their Nostrils water mixed with Lime. And of some other kinds of cruelties which I need not mention. But the Pulley or stretching Rack is that which is most generally and frequently used, and which their Writers most approve. I praise God I never saw it, but in general they describe the manner of it, thus:  
After his  are pulled off, who is to be tortured, (which is good as they say against incantamenta, Spells and Witchcrafts, which are very frequent in Popish Countries, and which are pretended so to numb some Criminals that they feel not the Torture) they put afterwards upon him or her a thin garment of linen very straight to his limbs. Then with small cords they tie his hand behind him, Wrist and Thumbs, so hard that the blood gusheth out, and put them upon a hook, which a rope draws up, and hangs him into the air. Then they put weights to his feet, less at first, and bigger afterwards, till they almost dismember him. Then they pull him up as high as the Judges, who sit by, are pleased to appoint; they shake him and pull him down, as the Inquisitors direct, and keep him thus stretched and hanging as long as they command. The while they put questions to him, and the Register sets down his Answers. But in the Books that treat of these matters, I find this caution inserted, that in questioning the Tortured, they should not at all be particular, nor ever ask him expressly what they would have him say: But insist only upon generals, that he would speak the truth, and reveal all he knows, lest (say they) the greatness of his pain extort from him a false confession, and his impatience make him say any thing, that the question should prompt him to.  
Jul. Clarus and Laur. Arnoldus direct that the Prisoner should neither eat nor drink for ten hours together before he be tortured, that being more faint and sooner tired, he may sooner confess, and that clear from fumes, he may remember and speak his mind more plainly. For what he speaks in the Torture is a good proof in Law against himself or others, except he presently retract it, which as soon as he is took down they read his confession to him.  
I find by cautions in several Authors that some weakly, tender Heretics, not able to bear the pain of it, die in the torture, and some of them find great fault with it, and in that case accuse those Tortures of cruelty. But however they all own, that it is much worse to endure the torture, than to have both hands, or any part of the body cut off.   

SECT. III. Of repeating the Question.  
IT is seldom that once serves the turn, and therefore the Judges must not be satisfied with what the Prisoner saith the first time he is racked. They have taken great care that Heretics should not go so peaceably out of the world. And therefore the same Rules of theirs, that appoint that in the case of Heresy the Inquisitors should be prone and ready to use the torture: appoint also that he should frequently repeat it. Heretical pravity is a subtle and secret poison, which lies in the closest recesses of the Soul, and is apt to stick, one bitter potion will not fetch it up, they must repeat the Doses. Therefore when the man is taken down, and they are clothing him again, they must insert this clause into the Process of what hath been done, Animo tamen illum torturae iterum subjiciendi, quatenus opus sit; that now they release him with a design to put him again to the same torments, as long as there is need.  
And so the poor Wretch, not able to move himself, is carried to his Den with this comfort, that as soon as his disjointed bones are knit again, and he is capable of relishing the same pain, he shall be sure to hear of the good Fathers, who now will let him alone, but not forget him. But I must not forget to say, that whilst he hangs in the Sling with his weights at his feet, those great searches of truth, the Inquisitors, Positis coram eo dirioribus instrumentis torturae, having set before him more direful Instruments of torture, give him to understand by this formal sentence, that they will make use of them the next time. Nos Inquisitores, etc. assignamus tibi N.N. diem talem, ad quaestiones continuandum, ut ex tuo ore proprio, veritas ulterior eruatur, etc. We N. N. Inquisitors, etc. do assign to thee A.B. such a day to continue to torture thee, that from thine own mouth we may get more of the truth.  
Indeed in some of these Sentences I find the name of the Bishop inserted: but that is only a pro forma, for properly it is his substitute, who is, or is supposed to be then present, and who being sworn to secrecy, and to obedience to the Inquisitors is altogether their Servant and their Officer, as are all the rest of them that attend the Holy Office. But for all Padre Paolo's moderation, and his blaming the exorbitancies of that Court, I doubt not but at Venice itself Lutherans or Calvinists would be as hardly dealt with, as any where else, and that their mixed Inquisition half Ecclesiastical and half Secular would be near as severe to real Heretics, though likely Roman Catholics be not so much endangered and oppressed by it, as in other places. I am sure that with public allowance the most bloody Directories of the Inquisition, and the cruelest Books against Heretics are Printed at Venice. And that for all their own Patricians be said to be impowered by the Republic to inquire against Heresy, the Canonists on all hands make it a maxim, Inquisitores à quocunque eligentur, semper ab Apostolica sede habent authoritatem immediate. That whoever chooseth or nominates Inquisitors, they always have their authority immediately from the Roman See.  
However where the Pope is powerful enough Inquisition is in full force, and there he hath taken care that Heretics shall find little of mercy, but that they shall suffer as much as possibly they can. And therefore let them acknowledge or invent what they will, still they may be tortured further, in caput alienum, to discover other Heretics, or still to say more than they have said. There are Decrees of Paul IU. and Pius V Quoscunque reos, convictos, & confessos de Haeresi, pro ulteriore veritate habenda, & super complicibus fore torquendas, arbitrio dominorum judicum. That all that were guilty, convict of Heresy, or had confessed it, should at the pleasure of the Judges be tortured again and again, to reveal their Accomplices, and make a further confession. And this is enforced and pressed by a Decree of the Congregation of the Inquisition, July 28. 1569. And thus the misery of their unhappy Prisoners, is prolonged as long as they please.    

CHAP. XI. Of reconciling and dismissing Penitents.  
BUt the comfort is, that at last there is an end of their sufferings. After all the cruel and tedious Formalities of the Holy Office, the Process comes to be fully form, and the Inquisitors to be willing to determine the whole matter, and to give a definitive sentence, and then such as have proved themselves to be sound Catholics, and to have only been indiscreet, and failed in lesser matters, are to be acquitted by being put to Penance. For it is observed, that never none come out without some infliction; if they are not tortured within, yet when they are released they must suffer something grievous, and bear some marks of the just severity of that strict and inflexible Court, who must not be supposed ever to have proceeded against any, without very good grounds. And it is hard if they should want them, when their Repertories and Rules appoint that they shall not go without punishment, who act or speak any thing that hath a smack of Heresy, though it were by anger, or a slip of the tongue, in a fit of drunkenness, or even in a dream. Proferens haereticalia per iram vel ebrietatem, per somnum vel l●bricum linguae, puniendus, etc. And A Paramo tells the Story of a melancholy Hermit, who came and confested to the Inquisitors some Idle Heretical fancies that had come into his head, for which they made him do a very strict Penance.  
But for them that were really infected with Heretical pravity, and have been converted by the convincing reasons of sharp Tortures, and a hard imprisonment, the mercy shown them commonly is to immure them, sometimes send them to the Galleys, or make them wear the San benit; But the Law is, where the Pope is Master, Haereticus rediens ad Fidem non evadit nisi poenam mortis. That by returning to the Catholic Faith, an Heretic avoids only the punishment of death. All other Penalties appointed for Heretics may be laid upon him, only he is not delivered up to the Secular power to be burnt; he is taken in again into the Lap of the Church, and remains under the kind direction of the Inquisitors, who will take great care that he may not relapse into Heresy.  

SECT. I. Of the Cautions of the Friars when they absolve an Heretic.  
WHen the day comes that the Friar Inquisitor is pleased to give decisive sentence in favour of a Prisoner, which is commonly done at the Act of Faith, or their public Assizes. Then is he brought forth, and an Officer of the Court reads his charge and his conviction, which is what they please to say, for the Prisoner must not dare to speak one word for himself. After that it is declared how it hath pleased God to bless with success the Inquisitor's endeavours in bringing back the stray Sheep into the Fold, and how that the repenting Heretic, who had been held in the chains of Satan, doth now see and bewail the greatness of his crime, and begs to be untied from those bonds of Excommunication, and all other Censures, wherewith he was tied, and to be, upon any terms readmitted to be a member of the Church, which request of his they readily accept and grant, out of their great inclination to mercy, they never desiring the death of a sinner, but only that he may be converted and live.  
After this, or such a fine Preface, he is absolved in form, if he was not before he came out of their Cloisters; and then they pronounce his Sentence, and after the public solemnity ended, bring him to the Monastery back again, that he may have his Penitential Letters, and be fully instructed how to behave himself for the future.  
For by their Pope's Bulls, and by the Inquisitors Laws, a man that hath once come into their hands, is never wholly freed from them but by death, they may still aggravate his Penance or Punishment as they please, they may at any time take his cause in hands again, and have him brought back into their Prisons. They may swear whom they please, to have an eye upon him, to see that he wear his Sanbenit, and that he attempt not to go out of the Country.  
And this they fail not to do, if they suspect the man. And however before his dismission into the World, the Galleys, or the four Walls, they strictly swear him to secrecy, that he will never reveal to any creature any thing he hath seen or known within the Inquisition, nor any thing that hath been said or done to him. And the Inquisitors tell him the danger of it, that if he doth, he shall be taken for a relapse and Apostate, and be dealt with accordingly. Further they swear him to the Romish Faith, with some curses and imprecations, and many grievous threats, if ever he swerves from it, in any one point; and make it part of his Oath, that he shall ever discover and persecute Heretics to the utmost of his power, and in his Sentence and Absolution insert this conditional clause, Si de cord bono & de fide non ficta redieritis ad Ecclesiae unitatem, & si servaveritis illa quae vobis injuncta suerint & mandata. That they are not to receive any benefit by being absolved, except they (the penitent Heretics) return to the unity of the Church with a good heart, and an unfeigned faith, and obey what shall be enjoined and commanded them.  
All these Cautions and Securities duly observed and taken, out goeth the trembling Wretch, resolved to be so zealous a Roman Catholic, as never to come there again by being suspected. But some, if before they had known the truth, and cowardly denied it, become so perplexed and uneasy, that they relapse into Heresy, and venture the severities of the Inquisition, and think it easier to be racked and burnt, than to bear the accusations and reproaches of their Consciences, and venture an eternal Hell.   

SECT. II. Forms of Sentences.  
THe Forms of Absolution and Reconciliation you have in the Pontificale, and of them I have said enough already; there is only this difference, that here the Inquisitors make more use of the Rod, they have in their hands, and that the Penitents the day before the Act of Faith, were shaved beard and hair, and that at the solemnity, they in Sicily are clothed in black; every where they hold lighted Torches in their hands, and are mightily sprinkled with Holy Water, have hanging Ropes about their Necks, and that sleeveless Coat on, with Crosses before and behind, which they call the Sanbenit.  
I set down before, treating of the Waldenses, a form of Sentence against such as are immured, or laid up to live and die upon bread and water in a Dungeon betwixt bare Walls. As for them that are enlarged, and only must wear the Sanbenit, they are thus sentenced. Nos N. N. Inquisitores Haereticae pravitatis, etc. vobis ad unitatem Ecclesiae reducere volentibus, abjurata prius omni haeretica pravitate, imponimus & injungimus pro poenitentia duas cruces crocei coloris, duorum palmorum in longitudinem, unam anterius, alteram posterius, in omnes vestes praeter Camisiam, in & extra domum portandas, renovandas si rumpantur vel desiciant; item injungimus vobis peregrinationes & visitationes Ecclesiarum N. W. & alia quae literae poenae vestrae, quae vobis concedentur, plenius continebunt, etc.  
We N. N. Inquisitors against Heretical Pravity, etc. willing to reduce you N. to the unity of the Church, you having first abjured every Heretical Pravity, do appoint and enjoin you for penance to wear upon all your garments behind and before two Crosses of yellow colour, one foot in length, and that within or without doors you never appear without them, that when they are worn out or broke, you take care to renew them. That in Pilgrimages you visit such and such Churches; and duly perform all other things contained more at large in that Letter of Penance which we shall give you, etc. still reserving to ourselves, and to our Successors in this Office, full power to increase, to lessen or to change the Penance here imposed to you. Given, etc.  
Those Letters of Penance which are given to the reconciled Penitents, and which they are sworn to observe, & ever to carry about with them, that they may know what they must abstain from, and what they must do, differ according to the several restraints or impositions which the Friars are pleased to lay upon their Converts. Thus St. Dominic their Founder set them their Copy, which they still follow.  
Omnibus Christi Fidelibus ad quos praesentes literae pervenient, Fr. Dominicus Oxoniensis Canonicus, praedicator minimus, salutem in Christo. Authoritate Domini Ab. Cistercien●s Apost. sedis Legati, qui hoc nobis injunxit officium, reconciliavimus praesentium latorem Pontium Rogerium, ab Haereticorum secta Deo largiente conversum, mandantes in virtute praestiti Juramenti ut tribus Dominieis vel festivis diebus ducatur à Sacerdote nudus infemoralibus, ab ingressu villae usque ad ingressum Ecclesiae verberando. Injungimus etiam ei ut à carnibus & ovis & caseo, seu omnibus quae à carn●bus trahunt originem abstineat omni tempore, excepta die Paschae & Pentecostes, & die Natalis Domini, in quibus ad abnegationem erroris pristini praecipimus ut eis vescatur. Tres quadragessimas anno faciat, à piscibus abstinens; tribus diebus in hebdomada semper à piscibus & ab oleo & vino abstineat & jejunet, nisi corporalis i●firmitas vel aestatio laboris exegerint dispensationem. Religiosis vestibus induatur tum in forma, tum etiam in colore, quibus in directo utriusque papillae singulae cruces parvae sint assutae. Quotidie si opportunum fuerit Missam audiat, & diebus Festivis ad vesperas in Ecclesiam pergat; alias horas tam diurnas quam nocturnas, ubicunque fuerit, Deo reddat, scilicet septies in die decies Pater Noster dicat, media nocte vicesies. Castitatem observet, & mane apud Cererim villam, chartam istam Capellano suo, per singulos menses ostendat. Capellano etiam praecipimus ut de vita ejus curam diligenter habeat, quod si ea observare contempserit, tanquam perjurum & haereticum & excommunicatum ipsum habere praecipimus, etc.  
Friar Dominic the least of Preachers, to all Christ's faithful people to whom these presents shall come, greeting in the Lord. By the authority of the Cistertian Abbot, who hath appointed us this Office, we have reconciled the Bearer of these presents Pontius Rogerius, converted by God's blessing from his Heretical Sect, charging and requiring him by the Oath which he hath taken, that three Sundays or three Festival days he be led by a Priest naked from his Shoulders down to his Drawers, from the coming into the Town unto the Church-doors, being whipped all the way. We also enjoin him, that he abstain at all time from Meat, Eggs, Cheese, and all things that proceed from Flesh, except on the days of Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas, on which days we command him to eat flesh for a denial of his former error. We Will that he keep three Lents in one year, abstaining even from Fish. And that he fast three days every Week always, refraining from Fish, Oil, and Wine, except bodily infirmity, or hard labour in Harvest-time, require a dispensation. We will have him wear Friar's Coats with two small Crosses sown on his two breasts. Let him every day hear Mass, if opportunity may serve, and on Holy days let him go to Vespers to Church. He shall observe all the other Canonical hours, by day and by night, where ever he be, and shall then say his Orisons, that is, seven times a day he shall say ten Pater Nosters together, and twenty at Midnight. Let him altogether abstain from his Wife, and every first day of the month, let him show these our Letters to the Curate of his Town of Cererim, whom we also command to observe diligently what kind of life this Bearer leads. Whom if he should neglect to observe these our Injunctions, we declare to be perjured and Excommunicate, and will have him taken for such, etc.  
The Penitent thus dismissed, where the Pope's Canons are in force, loseth all that he had, his Family is disgraced, and his blood is tainted, as though he had committed High Treason. And if it be enquired, why they that in other cases are so indulgent to Sinners, give them Absolution upon such easy terms, should in this tie upon them such hard Penances, and be so severe. The answer is plain and easy, that the Crime of Heresy goeth very far beyond all others, in heinousness and enormity, as by good authorities I shall soon make appear.    

CHAP. XII. Of the Condemnation of Heretics that are to be burnt.  
IF a man prosecuted by the Inquisition, or thus reconciled by it, attempts to flee and be taken, he is a fugitive, by a great mercy they may immure him: but if they smell out any Heretical Pravity in the case, then must he be burnt, he is taken for obstinate or relapse. And so likewise if he lets his tongue lose, and doth tell tales out of the School; if he disobeys the Commands of the Inquisitors; if he again by word or deed declares he hath still some inclination towards Heretical Pravity; or if, notwithstanding all their pains to instruct him better, he still persists in the profession of what they call Heresy; in all these cases where they judge a man Relapse or Contumace, he never comes out of their Dungeons but to be tied to the Stake.  
Nothing is more displeasing to him than the constancy of a true Christian, who hearty makes confession of all the Articles of the Christian Faith, and declares his resolution to die in and for that Catholic & Primitive Faith against the errors and Innovations of the Church of Rome. After they have as much and as long as they could exercised their cruelties against him, and end avoured thereby to bring him to an abjuration of his Faith; then if that doth it not, his Wife and Children and nearest Friends are to be sent for, to try whether they can move him and soften his heart, (as their Directories appoint.) If this also be ineffectual, than he is declared convict, and must die without redemption.  
Yet saith Carena and others, Promissio impunitatis Relapso, non tenet judicem qui promisit: They may tempt him with promises of life and impunity, to make him discover or renounce, without being obliged to performance. His present life being forfeited, they may do and say what they will for the benefit of his soul.  
But it is a judged case, as Nich. Eimericus proves, that when a man hath persisted so long in his Heresy, he is never to be trusted, and that though he would profess himself a Roman Catholic, yet he is to be delivered to the Secular power. And Dell Bene is very express, Nec debet ad poenitentiam admitti qui convertitur jam prolatura sententia, etc. That he that is converted when sentence is ready to be given, must never be admitted to any kind of Penance: and that after his Sentence his fate is yet more irreversible. They may release him of his Excommunication, but yet he shall burn.  
All Relapse and Impenitent Heretics are excommunicated and devoted to damnation before they be delivered up to the Secular power. And afterwards, when the great day comes, which they call the Act of Faith, and the People are to see the sport, and to be made sensible how vile and odious Heretics are in this world, the Prisoners are brought out into a public place, commonly into a Cathedral Church. The Penitents bedecked as I have said before. The Relapse and Impenitents in a more horrid dress, with Devils painted upon them, and blasphemous expressions writ about their head, which the crowd is to think they have said. Their tongue is tied, that they may not say one word, and that by a prudent provision, lest they should offend the Ears of the bystanders with their impious Blasphemies, as their Doctors have it; Alligata lingua, ne impiis blasphemiis offendat astantes. But we could give another reason for it, that know what we Heretics would be apt to speak in that case.  
However in those Countries, it goes down with the ignorant Vulgar, who are taught, above all things, to have the greatest abhorrence and detestation for what their Guides call Heresy, and to believe the worst of things of those that are called Heretics. So that they that are brought to die find little pity among the People, and the Inquisitors may lay to their charge what they please, without fear of being disbelieved or disproved. One of the Inquisitors makes a discourse, wherein is summarily rehearsed the Crimes of the Prisoners, and the Proceed of the Holy Tribunal, and that being ended, they are degraded that were Priests, or of any inferior Order, according to the Form in the Pontificale, and then Sentence comes to be pronounced; the condemned Heretics are delivered up to the Secular Judge; and for a conclusion the Inquisitors very bountifully give Indulgences to the good Catholic people who assisted at the solemnity, and then return to their Monastery, to prepare sport for the next Act of Faith.  

SECT. I. A Sentence in some Relapses.  
— Tanquam Canes ad vomitum redeuntes, culpis veteribus novas superaddere non verendo, nec divinum juramentum metuendo, & in abjuratam haeresim relabendo, per hoc se falso & ficte conversos & impenitents ac de tam incorrigibili crimine incorrigibiles se ostenderunt , necnon omni gratia, misericordia & audientia tanquam Relapsi fecerunt se indignos, ita ut promissis & juramentis suis nulla sit de caetero fides penitus adhibenda. Nos praefati Inquisitores N.N. etc. communicato consilio multorum bonorum virorum peritorum tam jure Canonico quam civili, & Religiosorum plurimorum discretorum, Deum habentes prae oculis, & orthodoxae Fidei puritatem, sacrosanctisque Dei evangeliis positis coram nobis, ut de vultu Dei nostrum prodeat judicium, & oculi nostri videant aequitatem, praedictos N. N. etc. in hac die praesenti ipsis ad audiendum sententiam peremptorie assignata, dicimus & per sententiam in his scriptis declaramus Relapsos esse in Haeresim abjuratam, & cum Ecclesia ultra non habeat quod faciat, Relinquimus eosdem N. N. Curiae seculari, candem affectuosè rogantes, prout suadent Canonicae fanctiones, ut illis vitam & membra illibata conservet. Data, etc.  
After a Rehearsal of the former Process, Reconciliation, and Penance, and the usual formalities, than it follows, Returning like Dogs to their vomit, without fear of their sacred Oath, or of adding new crimes to the former; falling again into the Heresy they had abjured before, they have made it appear that their conversion was false and feigned, and have declared themselves Impenitents, incorrigible of the most incorrigible crime of Heresy, and have rendered themselves unworthy of all grace and mercy, and of ever being heard, so that henceforth no faith at all can be given to their Oaths and Promises. Wherefore we N. N. Inquisitors, etc. with the counsel and advice of many good men learned in the Law, and of many discreet Friars, having set before our eyes the glory of God, and the purity of the Orthodox Faith, and having put before us the holy Evangils, that our Sentence may come forth from the presence of God, and our eyes may look on the thing that is equal, do say and declare by this Sentence here written, that the foresaid N. N. (to whom we have peremptorily assigned this day to receive their Sentence) are Relapse into Heresies abjured by them before; and now the Church having no more what to do to them, we leave the said N. N. to the Secular Court, begging of it affectionately, as we are directed by the Canonical Sanctions, that it would so deal with them, as to preserve them sound life and limb, etc.  
This Sentence pronounced, the condemned Prisoners are delivered up to the Civil Officers, who for all the hypocritical Prayer of the Inquisitors, are obliged to burn them, and without fail ever do it. And if they should not, they would be excommunicated, and prosecuted with the utmost rigour. Del Bene, and all their Doctors prove it even by Papal Constitutions, That the Church hath power to put obstinate Heretics to death. Sed Ecclesia non solet hanc potestatem exequi per ministros ecclesiasticos, sed per saeculares. Nec debet nec potest Judex saecularis Haeretico damnato poenam remittere, sed omnino debet illi statim infer, juxta Text, etc. alias ut haereticorum fautor punire potest. But the Church useth not to execute that power by Ecclesiastical, but by Secular Officers. And the Secular Judge neither should nor may remit the penalty to the condemned Heretic, but is obliged forthwith to inflict it upon him, according to the Texts— of the Canon Law. Else he may be punished as a Favourer of Heretics. Nay, they ingeniously bring a Scripture Text why Heretics should be burned, and that is because our blessed Saviour said, Joh. xv. 6. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. And Canonists are very prolix in proving that Heretics are to be punished with death, and not only with death, but with fire, which is the most cruel, and not only to be burnt, but to be burnt alive.  
Padre Paolo tells us whence proceeds this custom of interceding for the condemned Heretics, when they are going to be burnt. Mean while it may be observed how much their kindnesses & good words to Heretics are to be trusted, who constantly pray that they may not lose blood or life, when they are going to murder them with the greatest barbarity.  
For as it appears, the Civil Magistrate is but an inferior Officer, a Hangman to the Ecclesiastical Tribunal; he is obliged to execute the irreversible Sentence; and accordingly when the Inquisitors are pronouncing it, the fires are kindled, and all is in readiness for execution, which immediately follows.  
Those Religious men and learned in the Law, whose advice is taken (as the Sentence mentions) are some Friars of the same House, who expect to be promoted one day to sit on the Holy Tribunal, and are trained up to it, by being sometimes Assessors. And some Canonists that are Consultors of the Holy Office, who by their skill in the Canon and Pontifical Law, are able to inform the Inquisitors, how far in any case they are warranted to proceed against Heretics, suspected or proved.   

SECT. II. A form of delivering a stubborn Heretic to the Secular Power.  
NOs, etc. attendentes quod tu N. fuisti nobis delatus accusatus— quod tu in illis Haeresibus perstiteras multis annis in tuae animae detrimentum, Nos Inquisitores quibus ex officio incumbebat pravitatem Haereticam extirpare, volentes prout tenebamur, in & super his certius informari, & videre an ambulares in tenebris an in luce, diligenter inquisivimus de praedictis, teque citantes & efficaciter interrogantes reperimus te praedictum N. infectum Haeretica pravitate, ac eandem defensantem coram nobis animo pertinaci. Sane cum prae cunctis mentis nostrae desiderabilibus cordi nostro insidat sidem Sanctam Catholicam & Apostolicam in Populorum praecordiis complantare, omni eradicata haeretica pravitate, modos diversos, varios, & congruos tam per nos quam per alios adhibuimus, quatenus resilires ab Haeresibus & erroribus antedictis, in quibus steteras atque stabas, prout nunc stas contumaciter ac pertinaciter animo indurato; Verum cum humani generis inimico tuis praecordiis assistente, teque in dictis erroribus volvente & involvente, nolueris neque velis à saepe dictis Haeresibus resilire, plus eligens mortem animae incurrere gehennalem & corporis temporalem quam antefactas Haereses abjurare & ad gremium Ecclesiae advolare & animam lucrari, in reprobum sensum datus: eapropter cum sis ab Ecclesia sancta Dei excommunicationis vinculo innodatus, & merito, imò à grege domini separatus, ac participatione bonorum Ecclesiae privatus, & Ecclesia non habet circa te ultra quod faciat, cum ad te convertendum fecerit juxta posse: Nos, etc. Judices in causa Fidei antedicti, sedentes pro Tribunali more judicum judicantium, Sanctis Evangeliis positis coram nobis, ut de vultu Dei judicium nostrum prodeat, & ut oculi provideant aequitatem: habentes prae occulis solum Deum, & sanctae fidei veritatem ac extirpationem Haereticae pravitatis, hac die, hora, & loco, tibi in antea assignatis ad audiendum sententiam definitivam, condemnamus ac sententialiter judicamus te esse veraciter Haereticum impoenitentem, & ut veraciter talem tradendum & relinquendum brachio saeculari, & sicut Haereticum impoenitentem per hanc nostram sententiam de foro Ecclesiastico te projicimus & tradimus seu relinquimus brachio saeculari, ac potestati curiae saecularis; dictam curiam saecularem efficaciter deprecantes, quod circa te citra sanguinis effusionem & mortis periculum sententiam suam moderetur.  
We, etc. considering that thou N. hast been accused before us for, etc. and that thou hadst for many years persisted in those Heresies to the great detriment of thy Soul, we Inquisitors, to whom by our Office it belongs to extirpate heretical pravity, willing, as in duty we are bound, to be more certainly informed about the premises, and to know whether thou dost walk in the light or in darkness, have made a diligent inquisition into those matters, and having cited thee, did find by efficacious interrogations that thou the foresaid N. wert infected with Heretical Pravity, which thou didst maintain in our presence with an obstinate mind. And also we desiring above all things, after the eradication of all Heretical pravity, to plant in the hearts of men the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Faith, have by ourselves and others used, and caused to be used divers various and proper means to bring thee off from those the foresaid Errors and Heresies, wherein thou wert, and still continuest to be with an obstinate, incorrigible, and hardened heart; But now whereas at the instigation of the Devil, who possesseth thy heart, and doth more and more involve and plunge thee into the said errors, thou hast refused, and still dost refuse to departed from the said Heresies, choosing to endure the damnation of thy Soul, and the temporal death of thy Body, being given up to a reprobate mind, rather than to abjure thy Heresies, and save thy Soul by fleeing into the Lap of the Church: for this cause, thou being justly excommunicated from the Holy Church of God, separated from the Lords Flock, deprived from the participation of all Church-advantages, and the Church, after all her endeavours to convert thee, having no more what to do towards thee: We N. N. the foresaid Judges in causes of Faith, sitting upon a Tribunal as absolute Judges, having laid before us the Holy Evangils, that our Sentence may come forth from God's presence, and our eyes may look upon the thing that is equal, having also before our eyes nothing but the glory of God, the truth of the Holy Faith, and the extirpation of Heretical pravity, and having before appointed thee this day, hour, and place to receive thy final doom, we now by this Sentence judge and condemn thee to be truly an impenitent Heretic, and as truly such to be left and delivered up to the Secular Power: and according as an impenitent Heretic, we by this our Sentence cast thee out of the Ecclesiastical Court, and leave and deliver thee up to the power and judicature of the Secular Court; earnestly beseeching the said Court, so to moderate her Sentence towards thee, as that thou mayst lose neither blood nor life.    

CHAP. XIII. Of the Enormity and further punishment of the Crime of Heresy.  
POssibly some that have frequented persons of the Communion of the Church of Rome, and have found them courteous and obliging in their Converse, as many of them are: or some that have traveled through some Popish Countries, and have observed nothing of what I here relate, may be tempted to think that these cruelties of which we complain are Fables, or were only in the days of old, and now laid aside: and so, that our lives and fortunes would not be in such great danger under a Popish Government, as some are apt to think.  
But the answer is easy and plain; that in many persons of that party, humanity and natural good dispositions outweigh the cruel principles of their Religion, which are not approved or followed, not so much as known by numbers of them. That however, here amongst us, whatever they think, and whatever they would do, if they had power, it is not fit nor prudent they should now threaten and tell us the worst. That abroad, their greatest cruelties are acted secretly, or under a disguise; in some Kingdoms where the Popes have long reigned, they cannot now find Heretics; and in others they are protected by secular Princes from the worst prosecutions of the Papal power. And that whatever any man may have seen or not seen, yet the decrees are fixed and in full force, and as they themselves tell us, have been executed with the utmost rigour, at all times and in all places, when and where the Popes have had power and opportunity.  
It is not what this or that man knows or says, that is to be heeded, where there are Laws and standing Rules. Our danger lies in this, that by the Church of Rome we are declared Heretics; that by the same Church, Heretics are declared to be the greatest, the most wicked and vilest Criminals, who are neither to be pitied nor spared. That so, that Church disposeth her Members to hate us mortally, and to effect our destruction by all possible means, nay, and enjoins it, under severe penalties; and that it is so, still to this day, both in her Laws, and her practice.  
What hath been said hitherto, of their proceed against Heretics, is sufficient to show that they account Heresy a most heinous and unpardonable Crime, which they can never punish with too great severity in them that are guilty of it, who are not only to suffer in their persons by Racks and Fire, as hath been showed before: but also in their Names, Goods, and Posterity, and all that belonged to them. Even the Houses where they dwelled and taught, are to be thrown down or burnt to ashes. Del Bene and former Canonists are very express in it, and have Papal Decrees for it. And their Sentences in this case are of this tenor.  
Nos Fr.— Inquisitores, etc. attendentes constitutionem Apostolicam super hoc editam, necnon & facti enormitatem— habito super hoc cum sapientibus & peritis consilio, authoritate qua fungimur, praedictas domos cum suis appendiciis pronunciamus in his scriptis per definitivam sententiam & mandamus funditus diruendas, & ipsarum domorum materiam, nostro arbitrio comburendam, seu alias, piis usibus applicandam. Itaque de caetero nulla habitatio, seu reaedificatio aut clausio ibi fiat, sed loca inhabitabilia, inculta & inclausa semper existant, & sicut fuerunt receptacula perfidorum, sic ex nunc sordium perpetuo loca fiant. Quoscunque autem contradictores seu rebels, necnon eos qui reaedificare seu colere, aut claudere presumpserint dicta loca, vel ad hoc scienter praestiterint consilium vel favorem, in his scriptis excommunicationis vinculo innodamus, etc.  
We Friars N.N. Inquisitors against Heretical pravity, etc. Considering the Pope's Constitution about this matter, and the enormity of the fact, and having conferred about it with learned and skilful men, do now by our authority, in a definitive Sentence, by these presents, pronounce and command that the said houses, houses, with all their appendages, shall be utterly ruined and leveled with the ground, and that the Materials of them shall, according to our pleasure, either be burnt, or otherwise bestowed upon pious uses. Therefore let henceforth no dwelling house, building, or enclosure be made there, but let them be wild and desolate places, receptacles to the world's end of dung and nastiness, because they have been the Mansions of  persons. And here by these presents we excommunicate all that shall oppose or infringe this our Sentence, and all that shall presume to rebuild, inhabit, or enclose the said places, or that shall any ways promote or advise it. Given, etc.  

SECT. I. Of the vileness of Heretical pravity.  
SEveral Authors have observed with Padre Paolo, who gives many instances of it, in the first Chapter of his History of the Inquisition, that the Pope makes a gin of the notions and definitions of Heresy, and makes his Laws and Declarations about it serve the ends of his ambition and covetousness; giving the name of Heretics, not where it is really due, but where he is displeased, desirous to conquer, or to ruin his enemies. Heretical pravity in the Romish sense, is a thing of which a man may be guilty without his will, and without his knowledge: and yet a thing which makes him the worst of Traitors against the Majesty of Heaven; which exposeth him here (if the Pope's power can reach him) to all the misery that a human Creature can suffer, and hereafter to damnation. It is not to be thought what Popes and Papalins have said on this subject: and had they not declared us Heretics, we should have been tempted by what descriptions their Writers generally make of Heretics, to believe them to be the most horrid and pernicious Monsters in the world.  
A Paramo p. 333. having rehearsed some of the wicked pranks of the Anabaptists in Westphalia takes occasion from thence thus to describe all Protestants. Vides plane, Lector, qualia esse soleant haereticorum opera, qui semel exuti Catholicam fidem, omnem cum ea humanitatem, & quod proprium est hominis rationem pariter abjecisse videntur, super induentes cum impietate saevitiam, prae se ferentes imaginem ejus cujus afflantur spiritu, & quo geniti esse noscuntur, diaboli.— Praeter infinita damna quae exitiosa sta prodigia in orbem terrarum invexerunt, illud certe haud minimum est, quod ipsam naturam corruperunt, & laudabiles quarundam nationum mores ita perverterunt atque in pejus permutarunt, ut multi qui ante casti & pudici erant, temperati ac pene frigidi, ex istorum doctrina flagitiosissima atque profligatissima, sicut quibusdam libidinis facibus inflammati.— Enimvero sic inter Haereticos impura libido & nequitia plerumque pervenit ad summum ut audeant per impudentiam summam pro virtutibus vitia venditare, quod à protestantibus fieri palam videmus, etc.  
Such use to be the deeds of Heretics, who with the Catholic Faith cast off all humanity and reason, and becoming most cruel and impious, bear the image of the devil, of whom they are born, and by whose spirit they are acted. And this is none of the least mischiefs which Heretics, those pernicious Monsters have brought into the world, that they have corrupted nature itself, and so depraved and changed for the worst the good manners of some Nations, that they have made them infamous brutes in all lasciviousness, who before were exemplary for their chastity and temperance.— for generally among Heretics, impure lusts and base villainies reign in such a degree, that by the highest impudence, they own and commend their own vices, as virtues, as Protestants do publicly.  
There is so much of this in most of their Writers, especially in them that treat of Heresy or the Inquisition, that I need not multiply quotations. Only I shall add from the same Author, p. 268. that upon this he grounds the mighty usefulness and necessity of the Holy Tribunal. Quae eo magis necessaria, quo majores calamitates atque majorem perniciem affert horrenda & detestabilis haeresis, quae adeo funesta ac perniciosa est, ut non solum Beatitudinis jure sieut caetera peccata lethalia, privet, sed etiam in causa sit, cur haeretici capite & bonorum jactura plectantur, atque tam ipsi quam eorum posteri officiis & honoribus priventur, libri ab eyes compositi prohibeantur, & infami veste à caeteris distinguantur.  
The greatest of calamities and ruins brought in by that horrid and detestable plague which we call Heresy, demonstrate how necessary Inquisition must be. For such is the guilt of Heresy, such the funest and pernicious nature of it, that it not only deprives men of eternal happiness, as other mortal sins, but also is the just cause why Heretics are punished with loss of goods and life, why their Books are forbid, they and their Children are deprived of all honours and dignities, and they are distinguished from others, by that infamous Vest which they call Sanbenit.  
Now if any man should ask, what is then an Heresy, which they make so wicked and so criminal, after all these hard words and hard usages, they will say, that it is an error in the Understanding, with obstinacy in the Will. That is, that a man will adhere to what he is persuaded to be truth, though others deny it. This, one would think, should not be so heinous, nor so dreadful as they make it: but then the matter is that which offends them most. Haeresis est circa pertinentia ad fidem, vel contra determinationem Ecclesiae, de rebus ad fidem vel ad mores pertinentibus. This is their usual definition of an Heresy, That it is about matters of Faith, or against the determinations of the Church, concerning what we should believe, or what we should do. And so here comes their Romish Creed, which you have p. 4. And here they bring in, (as they have strength and opportunity) all Papal Constitutions and Decrees. And their Canon Law saith, Haereticus reputatur qui statutum summi Pontificis justum, venerabiliter non recipit; That he is reputed an Heretic who doth not reverently obey the just Laws of the Pope. And that they are all so, the Jus Pontificium is very peremptory and plain. Papa si aliquid facit quod videtur injustum, ubi nos non possumus rationem assignare, nihilominus justum est. And the Gloss. Papa quod approbat, non licet alicui reprobare. That whatever the Pope doth is just, though it seems otherwise, and we can give no reason for it: and that it is not lawful for any to reprove what he approveth.  
So that the great Heresy of all, is to oppose the Pope's Will in any matter, or upon any account; hence comes the great malignity of Heretical opinions and practices. And for all they charge Heretics with such vile immoralities, that one would think the very sight of them should create horror in the Beholders, yet they tell us plainly, That though they live well, yet they shall be damned; and that they are the more to be shunned and hated. Institut. Cathol. de extirpandis Haer. p. 227. etc.  
The same Author propounding a learned doubt, 
Jac. Simanc.  Cur non liceat haereticis tutos esse in provincia ubi crimen non admiserunt, cum id caeteris facinorosis liceat? Why Heretics are safe no where, whereas other Malefactors are not prosecuted in those Kingdoms where they have not committed their crimes? gives an answer to it which fully enough declares the pravity and deformity of the crime of Heresy: but it is too long to be transcribed. I shall only add at present, out of him and others, how Heretics are to be handled according to their demerits.   

SECT. II. Of several Inflictions upon Heretics.  
THe Wit and Invention and Policy of Rome hath appeared in nothing more than in her methods and proceed against such as have disputed her absolute sovereignty in all things. Nothing is left unattempted that can depress and ruin them: and her making them Heretics, i. e. most impious Prevaricators against Religion, hath been an effectual means for the destroying of them. This hath engaged the zeal of the Vulgar, (all men counting Religion most Sacred) and hath been the white Veil, wherewith she hath covered her blackest Designs. So we find the Romish Party, when they treat of these matters, laying all possible Aggravations upon what they call Heresy: and making it the greatest Treason and Rebellion against Heaven, infer from thence, That it being the most public and most heinous crime, all Christ's Subjects, who are concerned for his honour, are bound to prosecute and revenge it. The Jus Pontificium and the Canonists have this frequently: Illius dissimulare non debemus opprobria, qui probra nostra delevit: & si contra homines illatae blasphemiae impune non transeunt, multo magis qui ipsum salvatorem nostrum blasphemat, dignus est supplicia sustinere.  
Accordingly they have writ, decreed, and inflicted on those whom they have pleased to call Heretics, that even after their death their bones should be took up and burnt with this preamble in the Sentence, Attendentes quod crimen haeresis propter suam immanitatem & enormitatem, non solum in vivis, sed & in mortuis, per jura promptissima debeat vindicari, Nos N. Inquisitores, etc. Considering that the crime of Heresy is so vast and enormous, that with the speediest justice it ought to be punished, not only here on the living, but even in the grave on them that are dead, We therefore N. Inquisitors, etc. As Heretics have no shelter when dead, so living every man is bound to accuse them. Quisquis tenetur Haereticum non tantum denunciare, sed etiam accusare; which they prove out of Deut. Chap. 13. Ver. 6, 7, etc. without any exception of Parents, or nearest Relations, as may be seen at large in the Authors I shall cite; who go yet further, and prove by holy Scripture, and other Authorities, even by Pope's Constitutions. Propria authoritate cuilibet Catholico licet haereticos capere, & bonis suis expoliare, & impune occidere; That every Catholic may lawfully apprehend Heretics, spoil them of their goods and kill them.  
So many of them say, that a Priest may break the Seal of Confession, to reveal an Heretic, Quia ille non agit poenitentiam, & quia tali non est fides servanda; Because no faith is to be kept to an Heretic, and because, he remaining impenitent there is no Sacrament of Penance.  
Item, Civitas tota potest igne destrui, quando in ea plures Haeretici. That a whole City may be burnt down, when Heretics in it are too numerous, which is proved by Deut. 13.16.  
Item, Contractum aliquem vel pactum validum Haereticus celebrare non valet, & obligatus haeretico etiam cum juramento ipso facto liberatur. An Heretic can make no Contract of any worth, and any engagement or promise made to him, is void and of no force, though it were confirmed with an Oath.  
Item, Haereticus, excommunicatus majori excommunicatione, & quilibet infamis, contra haereticum admittuntur in testes, in fidei favorem. Heretics, excommunicated persons, and the most infamous, are admitted to be Witnesses against an Heretic, in favour to the Faith.  
Item, Qui sepelit mortuum excommunicatum, in excommunicationem incidit, ctiamsi tantum syndone tegat. He falls under Excommunication that buries an excommunicated person, or but puts him up in a Winding-sheet.  
Item, Haereticus ipso jure est excommunicatus, traditus Satanae ut ab eo torqueatur, & eandem potestatem habet diabolus in excommunicato, quam rusticus in pecore suo. An Heretic is excommunicate by the Law, without a Sentence, and is delivered up to Satan to be tormented, and the devil hath the same power over him, as the Farmer over his .  
Item, Haeretici sunt deterioris conditionis quam Juaedi. Heretics are in a worse condition than Jews.  
Item, Papae neutiquam obediendum si aliquid praecipiat, quod sit in favorem Haereticorum. The Pope is not to be obeyed, where he commands any thing in favour of Heretics.  
Item, Sola voluntas vel cogitatio punitur in crimine Haeresis. The Will alone, or but the Thoughts, without any outward Act, is punished in the Crime of Heresy.  
Item, Quamvis sit Haeresis crimen Capitale, & poenam sanguinis irroget, in eo tamen neutiquam transigere vel pacisci licet, quod talem offensam nemo nisi solus Deus remittere possit.  
Though Heresy be a Capital Crime, which incurs the shedding of blood, yet there is no pardoning of it, nor no treating about lessening of its punishment, for it is such an offence as none but God can remit.  
Item, Quia Haereticus est hostis communis, ideo licet cuique illum propria authoritate occidere, à fortiori capere. An Heretic being a common enemy, it is lawful for every one to kill him, much more to take him.  
Item, Delictum Haeresis etiam ignoranter prolatum gravius est quam dolosum homicidium. An Heretical word spoken through ignorance is a more grievous crime than wilful murder, murder, because the Heretic sets his face against heaven.  
Item, Haeretici tanquam animalia venenosa & pestifera, antequam virus evomant sunt puniendi. Heretics, like Serpents and Toads, must be punished before they spew their venom.  
And saith the Pope's Extravagants, Haeretici primo sunt admonendi, post occidendi; & Haeretici utiliter patiuntur quod Catholici utiliter inferunt. Heretics must first be admonished, and then killed. And it is profitable for them to suffer, what of duty Catholics inflict upon them.  
Volumes of Collections might be made of this. That Heretics may enjoy nothing of those rights and privileges that belong to human Creatures, and that they must be afflicted and destroyed all manner of ways. But 〈◊〉 shall conclude this, with one instance o● the mighty zeal wherewith they thu● prosecute Heretics. A Paramo tell● us, that when the Inquisition destroye● many thousands in all parts of Spain● some at Court represented to Ferdinan●● and Isabel what a great loss and weakening it was, to have so many of thei● Subjects killed in that manner, and tha● then great sums of money were offered to their Majesties to stop or moderate the proceed of the Inquisition against Heretics; But that whilst moved with pity, the King and Queen were considering whether they should take the money and stop the Torrent of blood, Turrecremata that famous Friar, who had heard of what was in agitation, came in with a Crucifix hid under his Coat, and drawing near pulled it out, and held it to them, with these words, Ecce Salvatoris crucifixi effigiem, quem perditissimus Judas vendidit, etc. Here is the Image of our Crucified Saviour, whom wicked Judas sold to his Enemies for thirty Pieces of Silver; if you approve of that Fact, do ye sell him for more, here you have him. And having said this, he laid down the Crucifix, and went out.   

SECT. III. That in the Case of Heresy Princes far no better than Subjects.  
EXcommunication in the Church of Rome, may be incurred upon so many accounts, that there is hardly one of Ten, among the best Romanists, that is not ipso facto, or ipso jure excommunicate. It is true, that commonly in their Absolutions they take off those bonds indefinitely: but yet the danger is so great of coming any ways under the direful Sentence, that it mightily exposeth Magistrates to be thus smitten like others by the Papal Fulminations. The Council of Trent hath provided Sect. ult. that whoever after admonition, remains for a whole year excommunicate, shall be reputed Heretic, and proceeded against as such. Here Sovereign Princes have no exemption. They may be the Pope's eldest Sons, but they must be as dutiful and obedient as others, else they shall smart under his correction without partiality. The Council in that last Session, Can. 5. obligeth them under pain of Excommunication to back the Church Censures with their power. In Can. 19 if they suffer Duels within their Dominions, they are excommunicated and deprived of those places where the offence is committed. And Pius iv in his confirmation of that Council commands them amongst all the Faithful to receive and obey inviolably all the definitions and decrees of Trent.  
But what then? What if they are excommunicate, and reputed Heretics? Then it is at their peril, and the Pope will make the best use he can of these Laws Canon and Pontificial. Papa dicitur habere coeleste arbitrium, & tenet locum Christi in Terris. The Pope hath the place of Christ upon earth, and his will is said to be the will of heaven. Item, Papa est super omnes homines, & ei obedire est de necessitate salutis. The Pope is above all men, and without obedience to him there is no salvation. Item, Papa obtinet principatum totius mundi, & habet utrumque gladium. The Pope hath dominion over the whole world, and hath the power of both the spiritual and the temporal sword. Item, Papa potest transferre imperium de gente ad gentem ex maxima causa: & potest principes seculares dignitate privare, ex causa, vel propter eorum iniquitates. The Pope may give the Empire from one to another: and may, when there is cause, or when they are faulty, deprive secular Princes of their dignity. Some one of these, or many more of the same nature, which he hath in store, will reach the highest Throne on earth, and sometimes have overthrown it.  
Then the Canonists will prove and bring forth out of their Magazines of Treasonous Principles; Pro crimine Haeresis aequaliter puniuntur omnes, nullo habito respectu ad gradus & dignitates. That the Crime of Heresy is equally to be punished in all men, without regard to their degrees or dignities. Imperator puniri & deponi potest per summum Pontificem, propter crimen Haeresis, ut fuit Imperator Fredericus. That for the crime of Heresy the Emperor may be punished and deposed by the Pope, as was Frederick. Also, Si parents sunt Haeretici, à filiis suis optime possunt exhaeredari, nam patria potestas tollitur propter crimen Haeresis. That for the crime of Heresy the Paternal power ceaseth, and that then Children may disinherit their Parents. And then to come home to the case, Haeretici nullam prorsus jurisdictionem habere possunt, That Heretics can have no power nor jurisdiction at all. Accordingly they all agree, Vassalli liberantur ab omni fidelitate & obsequio suorum dominorum, si ipsi domini in haeresim manifestam sint Capti. That Vassals and all Subjects are free from all allegiance and duty to their Lords or Sovereigns, if they are fallen into manifest Heresy.  
Nay, It is proved by many Authorities, and good Decretals, and Reasons, Quod digni sunt majori supplicio Reges & Principes Haeretici quam caeteri homines. That Kings and Princes become Heretics, deserve greater punishments than inferior persons. And not only if they become Heretics, but also, Si domini temporales, constitutiones Pontificias contra Haereticos latas servare noluerint, excommunicentur, & omni honore & officio priventur. If they do not execute the Pope's Laws against Heretics, they forfeit their Crowns and Dignities.  
This is so often repeated, Si Reges & alii Principes Christiani facti sint Haeretici, protinus subjecti & vassalli, ab eorum dominio liberantur. And this, De Haeresi damnatus non debet vocari sub nomine dignitatis pristinae. A King who is an Heretic, is no King, and ought not to be called by that name: That one that hath truly and fully embraced Popery, might act and intent any thing against Charles Stuart, and all the while, in a sense which he believes true, profess himself a loyal and obedient subject to the King of England.   

SECT. iv Of the Authorities and Authors used in this Book.  
MOst of what hath been said of the proceed of the Popes and the Inquisition against Heretics and Heretical Princes, is to be met with in so many Authors, and with so little variation, and recurrs so often, that to bring quotations for every particular, would have swelled and crowded my Margin to no purpose at all: when it may do as well here to name those Books which will prove what I have alleged. Indeed most of it is so unreasonable, so strange and inhuman, that to men of a good temper it will look like the Fiction of a malicious and a melancholy brain. Did many that are in the Church of Rome believe it to be guilty of such unnatural Principles, and bloody Practices, as are here mentioned, they would be mightily staggered in their belief of its being the pure and only Church of Christ, and some would forsake and even detest the communion of that merciless persecuting party, who now with a good zeal follow it, and think to go right.  
Many Protestants also would be mightily confirmed in that Profession of the Christian Religion which is established among us, and would be more thankful for being delivered from under the Roman yoke, if they knew how heavy and intolerable it was to such of our Forefathers, as saw the Truth, and desired to follow it.  
I know it is objected, that we have those amongst us, who are very froward and seditious towards their Governors, and upon Rebellious Principles have done very vile things: But it is our unhappiness and our grief; our established Church and Religion are hated and persecuted by them, and were by them altered and ruined when they had power; and it is clear as the light, that they have their ill Principles out of those very Roman Schools which they seem so much to abhor. In them are taught at large those opinions which make Dissenters bad Subjects, and those which countenance the usurpations of the Popes, and the cruelties of the Inquisition.  
I profess that what I have laid down as their Tenants or Practices, I have had from their own Authors: and that in them I have consulted, there is vastly more, and sometimes worse than what I have extracted. I shall be amply justified, as to the faithfulness of what account I give of the Papal and inquisitory proceed against Heretics, be they Princes or Plebeians, by them shall read the Canon Law, or but seek under proper Titles in the Extravagants, Clementines, Sexte, and even in the Decretals of Gregory IX. But in that vast Collection of the Pontificial Law, Printed at Venice, you have many Authors inserted, who treat at large of all things relating to Heretics, wherein a man may fully inform himself of those Writers I have but lightly touched.  
I cite some Bulls that are in the Bullarium of Laërce Cher. and other Collections since. But to save the labour of searching into great Volumes, Alois. Bariola and Franc. Pegna have made a Collection in quarto of above an Hundred Bulls, since the beginning of the Reformation, to enjoin, direct, and encourage the extirpation of Heretics, all manner of ways, but especially by the Inquisition.  
And because some might say, Who regards old Bulls or Decretals? And what do most of them signify that have been long out of date? We must know, that every thing is in force, that makes against Heretics. That we may not flatter ourselves, Canonists frequently tell us, Extravagantes in corpore juris non clausae, contra haereticos editae, sunt validae, si constitutionibus in corpore juris registratis, contra haereticos, non obvient. That is, That all those Laws and Papal prescripts new or old, some forged, some of uncertain Authors, that are not digested into order, and have no proper place assigned to them in the Body of the Canon, are of force, as far as they make against Heretics, and moderate or oppose none of the more Canonical Constitutions that are against them. And we know how strictly they are executed where the Pope is obeyed: and how general that execution would be if he might have his will. There is a Bull of Pope Paul IU. anno 1558. whereby he very straight commands, Renovari & inviolabiliter observari omnes leges, decreta sive statuta à Romanis Pontificibus, sacris conciliis & sanctorum Patrum decretis, in haereticos & schismaticos quovis tempore edita, etiamsi in literis Pontificum extravagantibus contineantur, etc. That all Laws, Decrees, and Statutes, made at any time by Roman Popes, sacred Councils, or holy Fathers, against Heretics and Schismatics, should be renewed and inviolably observed, even such as are among those Decretals which they call Extravagants. And he commands further, that if they have been upon any account disused or neglected, they should now be revived, and brought into use again; and that they should be strictly obeyed and executed against all persons whatsoever, without regard to their greatness or dignity. If we believe him to be in earnest, we see what would become of us, and of Protestant Princes, had he those that could or would put his Sentence in execution.  
These public, and in the Church of Rome, highest Authorities, give greater force and credit to those lesser one's of private Writings, which are licenced and allowed: and are, as it were but Comments upon the Text; Declarations of the practice of the Church, that her Laws are taught and obeyed, so that all those Inquisitors, Fiscalis', Consultors of the Holy Office, and Canonists, which have written about the Crime and punishment of Heresy, are to be looked upon as the Sentences of the supreme Roman Tribunal, or the executions of them.  
Lud. A Paramo and Th. del Bene will give any men sufficient information about these matters in general. But about particular subjects, de fide, or de Haereticis, or de indiciis, or de modo procedendi, or de quaestionibus & Torturis, etc. there are very many Authors. Nichol. Eimericus his directorium Jacobi Simancae Intitut. Cathol. Alvarez Guerrero Thesaurus Religionis Christian. Caesar Carene de off. Inquisit. Repertorium Inquisitorum. Franciscus Brunus de Torture. & indiciis. Jacobus Arenas de quaest. Gundissalvus de villa Diego de Haeret. Julius Clarus. Joannes Roias'. Lud. Carrerius de Haeret, Alphonsus de Castro de justa Haeret. punit. Laurent. Arnoldus. Robertus Cenalis de compescenda Haeret. ferocia, etc. They that shall consult these Books will be fully satisfied and tired. But numberless are the Authors that treat of these matters, and with little variation repeat the same things over and over.    

CHAP. XIV. Of several things that conduce to make the Inquisition powerful and glorious.  
Heresy being so vile, so execrable a thing, and Heretics so mischievous and odious, accordingly the Church of Rome hath mightily magnified those persons and instruments that serve against them. The Pope who is the great keeper and maker of their Faith is exalted above all right and Laws, and all created things. In his quae vult, pro ratione voluntatem habet, 5. the Gloss. His Will stands for Reason, and a sufficient one, in whatsoever he hath a mind to do. And so absolute and uncontrollable is his Dominion that he cannot be tied to any thing, not so much as by himself. Papa non potest legem sibi imponere, à qua sibi recedere non liceat; his own word hath no power to bind him. And as for others the Text saith, Papa à nemine judicari potest, nec ulli contra eum sententiam proferre licet. There is on earth no Judge, nor Tribunal above the Pope.  
Inquisition by the same Rule, is placed next to him, for it is, saith the Law, Inventum in augmentum fidei, d. Clem. 1. found out and set up for the preservation and propagation of the Faith. And it is a maxim in their spiritual Courts, Citatus ab Episcopo & Inquisitore, prius Inquisitori pareto. That the Inquisition must be obeyed before the Bishop. But how should Prelates be regarded, when even sovereign Princes, who under God should be Masters of the world, are, as far as lies in the power of the Roman Court, made to truckle under the Papal and Inquisitory Empire, in all cases wherein Faith and Heresy are concerned.  
So Spondanus ad ann. 1460. tells us, that there is a Bull of Pius II. whereby he damns as Traitors and Heretics, all that should presume to appeal from the Sentence of the Pope, to the next Council, though they were Kings or Emperors. And there is a Decree of Julius III anno 1551. against them that should any ways hinder the proceed of the Inquisition, or that admit Laymen to be Judges in the Case of Heresy, which he concludes thus bravely: Quicunque monitis his nostris non obtemperaverint, noverint se, non solum per sacras praedecessorum nostrorum constitutiones, verumetiam per hanc nostram sanctionem sive sententiam & declarationem perpetuo duraturam, quam auctoritate omnipotentis Dei ac Beatorum Apostolorum Petri & Pauli, ac nostra, in ipsos non obtemperantes, quacunque illi praefulgeant dignitate, in his scriptis proferimus, communione Fidelium & omnium sacramentòrum perceptione privatos ac maledictionis, ac execrationis aeternae ligatos, Anathematisque & majoris excommunicationis mucrone percussos. Whoever shall not obey these our Precepts, whatever dignity they are of, let them know that, by the Constitutions of our Predecessors, and by the Sanction and Sentence which we bear in these presents, to endure for ever against all disobedients, by the Authority of Almighty God, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and of our own, they are deprived of the Communion of the Faithful, and of the receiving any Sacraments, and are bound over to eternal Curse and Execration, and struck with the piercing anathemas of the greater excommunication.  
And Pius V anno 1569. hath a long Bull against all persons whatever that should do any wrong or injury to any thing or person belonging to the Most Holy Office, (as he calls it) which he mightily magnifies and strengthens, giving this reason for it. Si de protegendis caeteris omnibus Ecclesiae Ministris— quanto majore studio eam nos solicitudinem capessere necesse est, ut qui in sacro Inquisitionis Haereticae pravitatis officio versantur, sub tutela inviolatae auctoritate hujus sedis, periculorum omnium expertes quaeque munera ad exaltationem fidei Catholicae exequantur, etc. If we are obliged to protect all the Ministers of the Church, with how much more zeal and carefulness ought we to endeavour, that they that belong to the Sacred Office of the Inquisition against Heretical pravity, should be inviolably defended from all dangers under the authority of this See, that for the exaltation of th● Catholic Faith they may execute freely all that belongs to their Office. They being the most expert and valiant Champions against Heretics, who best convert them into Catholics or Ashes are therefore to be defended and exalted by that Faith which they protect and advance. And therefore besides this Hectoring of the Pope in their behalf, wherever Inquisition is set up, all Secular Officers are obliged to swear, that they will persecute Heretics with all their power, and will be obedient to God, to the Roman Church, and to the Inquisitors.  
This is the Form in the Directorium: Nos N, etc. Tenebimus & teneri faciemus fidem Domini nostri Jesu Christi & sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae— haereticos, eye credentes, fautores & receptatores eorum prosequemur & capiemus, & capi faciemus quomodocunque poterimus, & accusabimus & denunciabimus Ecclesiae & Inquisitoribus st alicubi noverimus eos esse, administrationes nullas, neque officia publica alicui de praedictis personis suspectis vel diffamatis de Haeresi committemus— erimus obedientes Deo, Romanae Ecclesiae & Inquisitoribus, sic nos Deus ad●uvet, etc.  
We N. N etc. will hold, and cause to be held the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the holy Roman Church, we shall prosecute and apprehend, and cause to be apprehended all Heretics and their Followers, Favourers and Receivers, all the ways we can, we shall denounce and accuse them to the Church, and to the Inquisitors, if we can know where they are; we shall commit to them, or to any suspect or defamed of Heresy, no Administrations nor public Offices, and we shall be obedient to God, to the Roman Church, and to the Inquisitors. So help us God, etc.  
And the Canonists tell us, Quod si tale juramentum non praestiterint, eorum sententiae irritae sunt & inanes. That the Sentences of all Judges and Magistrates, that do not take such an Oath, are void and insignificant.  
The Civil Magistrates, as we see, are made Officers of the Holy Tribunal; even in Venice, Padre Paolo tells us, c. 6. the Inquisitors would oblige the Assistants, who represent the State, to swear secrecy to them, making it a great. Case of Conscience to reveal any of their proceed without their leave, and backing it with this Maxim, Checause di fede evono restarappo i Giudici● della fede. That matters that concern the Faith must remain with the Judges of the Faith.  

SECT. I. Some Privileges of the Inquisitors, and Cruelties committed or occasioned by it.  
INquisitors are called, Defensores fidei & Ecclesiae, ad gloriam Dei & augmentum fidei deputati. Defensors of the Faith of the Church, deputed for the glory of God, and the increase of holy Faith. They have power at any time to grant Indulgences of forty days, and of three years to them who any ways are assistants against Heretics. They themselves have granted by three Popes as Aimericus in his Directorium tells us, Plenary Indulgences and a full Pardon of all their sins both living and dying. So that if they are exorbitant in the use of their power, and chance to wound their Consciences, here is a sure Plaster near at hand.  
They being accountable to none but to the Pope, whose Delegates they are, and having power to proceed against all sorts of persons, even against the Secular and Regular Clergy, notwithstanding all exemptions, as Villa-Diego citys the Canon Law. Pro crimine Haeresis possunt procedere contra omnes etiam exemptos, etc. have therefore a mighty influence over all Confessors, and by their means over all people, who either living or dying, are so awed by them that can give or deny Absolution, that where the Inquisition prevails, the Pope's Edicts are of more force, than any Civil Laws or Evangelical Precepts. Padre Paolo, chap. 26. gives an instance of it very observable. And A Paramo p. 623, etc. saith, that in their Visitations, when the Inquisitors publish their Edict of Justice, they command all Confessors to make what inquiries they please, and forbidden them to absolve any penitents from any thing that concerns Heresy. And they enjoin all under severe penalties, to declare who they are that have, or have read any Bibles in the Vulgar Tongue, or any Heretical Books, or have revealed any secret of the Inquisition, or spoken any thing against it, or not obeyed their Injunctions. Which makes their Dominion more formidable and absolute, than that of Turkish Emperors.  
We have seen before how they have a numerous train of armed men, who have power always and in all places to wear all sorts of Weapons, and are devoted to their service and obedience. Now these men as well as their Masters are sacred and inviolable, as appears by the  Bull of Pius V But Leo X. had before that, anno 1515. ordered that whoever should kill, beat, or strike any of them, should be delivered up to the Secular Power to be burnt as a Heretic.  
It would be endless to rehearse all their privileges and powers which make the Tribunal of a few (in outward appearance) contemptible Friars, higher, more firm, more irresistible and dreadful, than that of any Potentate upon earth. Their Mystic Coat of Arms represents much of this, as some make it out very ingeniously. A green Cross in Field Sable, on the right side a green Olive branch, on the left a naked glittering Sword and a Brier; round the Cross this Motto, Exurge Domine, judica causam tuam, which is ver. 23. of Psal. 74.  
But Torrents of Blood and devouring Flames had been more proper, to represent what use they make of their might. Out of their own Writings, and other Authors, since the time of Ferdinand and Isabel, a man might gather a dismal Catalogue of men of Fame, Learning, and Piety, whom they have by various torments murdered in several Kingdoms for being Heretics, besides Millions known only to themselves, whom they have likewise destroyed. A Paramo tells us of more than thirty thousand burnt in Sicily in less than 150. years, under pretence of being Magicians. That in Portugal, Didacus de Sylva being supreme Inquisitor, so many, and some even of the principal men, were miserably harassed, imprisoned, bound, tortured, condemned, that about the year 1535. the King was mightily affected with pity, and with much ado stopped and reversed those bloody proceed. And the same Author citys Hieronimus Zurita to witness that in a few years, more than one hundred thousand in Sevil alone, were several ways put to death, and that more than five thousand houses remained empty, for a great while.  
But it would no doubt exceed much all other accounts, and be the astonishment of the world, if the Registers of the Inquisition for the two last hundred years should come to public view, and we could see in them the numbers of men they have slain, and the sorts of tortures they have made them endure, that were, or were suspected to be, such Heretics as we.  
Thuanus in l. 3. giving an account of the great prevalency of the Lutheran Doctrine, even in Italy, and how the Tyranny of the Inquisition was let lose upon all that but looked towards it, gives this short account of that Holy Tribunal, Ejus horror & odium ingens— augebat horrorem perversa & praepostera judiciorum forma, quae contra naturalem aequitatem & omnem legitimum ordinem, in jurisdictione illa explicanda observatur; tum etiam immanitas tormentorum, quibus plerunque contra veritatem quicquid delegatis judicibus libebat, à miseris & innocentibus reis, ut se cruciatibus eximerent, per vim extorquebatur. That is, That it is the object of the greatest dread and hatred, because the method of its proceed is against all Order, and Justice, and natural Equity, and because by direful unnatural tortures, the Judges make innocent Criminals suffer and say what they please.  
I know there have been Massacres and bloody Executions in many places where there is no Inquisition. In France many Towns of the poor Waldenses were destroyed, and the Inhabitants, Men, Women, and Children most barbarously murdered, Thuan. l. 6. The Parisian St. Bartholomeo some years after, is also sadly remarkable; what happened since here and elsewhere upon the same account, cannot be forgotten. The Jesuit Strada l. 2. saith, that besides those that suffered under Queen Mary, the severities she used to purge this Kingdom of Heresy, drove away no less than thirty thousand persons out of it. How many in lesser numbers, endured great persecutions, and died at the the Stake, for many years, in most places of Europe where the Popish Religion and Power had the prevalency, is known only to that God who hears the voice of Innocent blood, and is the Revenger of it, though many Authors have transmitted to Posterity large memorial of those cruelties, some in detestation, some in commendation of them.  
What happened in the Low Countries, where Philip II. by fire and sword and great violence for the establishing of the Spanish Inquisition provoked the People in their own defence to undertake that long and bloody War which cost him seven Provinces. 
Thuanus.  What was done in France against the two Henry's, by that rebellious League, which the Pope abetted, and which undertook to set up his authority, Inquisition, and Tridentine Council: These two memorable attempts in the behalf of Papal Inquisition against Heretical pravity, have shed so much Christian blood, that nothing but that very power and Tribunal, they were designed to promote, have ever made greater effusions of it. And I am of opinion, that were all things duly considered and compared, it would clearly appear, that there have been as great slaughters, outrages, inhumanities' committed, as many Martyrs made by Rome Papist, since Dominic and the Inquisition appeared, as was done by Rome Pagan, in the Ten Persecutions for three hundred years. Rev. xvii. 6. And I saw the Woman drunken with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.   

SECT. II. Of the prohibiting of Books, and the Indices expurgatorii.  
AMong the many privileges of the Inquisitors, it is none of the least, that the Censure of Books belongs to them, wherever they have a Tribunal; by which means they keep the People in as much ignorance as they please, and furnish the learned with none but such Books as tend to establish the Roman Faith, and their own Authority. For these two, there being in those Popish Countries so very many Books, so fierce and positive, and none appearing to contradict them, it is no wonder if persons of all ranks lie under great, invincible prejudices in those Points that are disputed betwixt us and the Church of Rome, whether such as concern the Faith, or the Power of the Magistrates, or those common Rights of humanity which belong to all mankind; where we and our opinions are represented as very monstrous and pernicious, and there are public Schools and Lectures of cruelty against us, and a great part of the learning is to know the accurate and established methods of destroying Heretics; and men are acquainted with nothing but what makes for the Papal Power and Dominion, and these things are inculcated and taught with great assiduity and great industry, and a very strict watch is had against all Persons, Books, or Opinions that could any ways thwart or oppose those received Maxims: it must needs have a mighty influence upon the minds and persuasions of men. The Officers of the Inquisition, who have nothing else to do, are so numerous, powerful, inquisitive, and diligent, that it is matter of the greatest danger and difficulty to print or import any Books, that should savour of what they call Heresy, or maintain the just rights of Temporal Princes against the Spiritual Monarch.  
For this last, saith the Judicious Padre Paolo, When a Potentate hath not the favour of him that commands in Ecclesiastical causes, Religion is made a pretext to oppress him. Of which he gives instances Chap. 1. and amongst them, that when the Pope was fallen out with the Venetians, any Books that came out in Favour of the Republic, were forbidden by the Papal Inquisitions, under colour of Heresy. It is but giving any thing hard and terrible names, and forbidding all things that can be said in the defence of it, and then it will be easy to impose on the People.  
Relating to this I shall transcribe out of the last mentioned Author part of Chap. 29. The matter of Books seems to be a thing of small moment, because it treats of words; but through these words come opinions into the world, which cause partialities, Seditions, and finally Wars; they are words, it is true, but such, as in consequence draw after them Hosts of armed men.— By forbidding Books which at Rome are not liked of, although they be good and godly, because they maintain Temporal Power, great wrong is done to Sovereign Princes, to such especially as would rule with the Arts of Peace, who use Books as a chief Instrument to cause people to believe as a firm truth, that the Prince is Ordained by God, and Ruleth with Divine Authority, and the Subject consequently in Conscience is bound to obey him, and not doing it offendeth God, because that the Prince, by the Law of God, is above every person that is within his Dominions, and may lay burdens on men's Estates, as public necessities require. Where these things, which are most true, are believed, a State may easily be governed: but where contrary opinions are held, great disorders must needs happen. But as there was always in God's Church, those who made use of Religion for worldly ends, so the number of them is more full. These under a spiritual pretence, but with an ambitious end, and desire of worldly wealth, would free themselves of the obedience due unto the Prince, and take away the love and reverence due to him by the people, to draw it to themselves. To bring it to pass, they have newly invented a Doctrine, which talks of nothing but Ecclesiastical greatness, liberty, immunity, and jurisdiction. This Doctrine was unheard of, until about the year 1300. Neither is there any Book concerning it, before this time, then did they begin to write of it scatteringly in some Books, but there were not above two Books which treated of nothing else but this, until the year 1400. and three until the year 1500. After this time the number increased a little, but it was tolerable. After the year 1560. this Doctrine began to increase in such manner, that they gave over writing, as they used before, of the Mysteries of the Most Holy Trinity, of the Incarnation of Christ, of the Creation of the World, and other Mysteries of the belief, and there is nothing Printed in Italy, but Books in diminution of Secular Authority, and exaltation of the Ecclesiastical; and such Books are not Printed by small numbers, but by thousands: Those people which have learning, can read nothing else; the Confessors likewise know none other Doctrine, neither need they any other Learning to be approved of. Whence comes in a perverse opinion universally, that Princes and Magistrates are human Inventions, yea, and Tyrannical, that they ought only by compulsion to be obeyed; that the disobeying of Laws, and defrauding the public Revenues doth not bind unto sin, but only unto punishment. And contrariwise, that every beck of Ecclesiastical persons, aught to be taken for a divine Precept, and binds the Conscience; and this Doctrine is perhaps the cause of all the inconveniences which are felt in this Age.  
Here we may see (as I noted before) whence the disloyal and factious Principles of our Dissenters come; and by whose instigation they likely have been moved to act as they have done.  
Our Author adds, That as they condemn and persecute Books that come out in the behalf of Kingly power, so they geld the Books of ancient Authors, by new Printing them, and taking out of them all that which might serve for Temporal Authority.  
What he saith of Books that concern the Government, is most true also of them that concern their Religion or new Creed. Not one Book, Ancient or Modern, is suffered to speak one syllable against any thing that the Church of Rome doth teach or practise, though they be such as are acknowledged even by learned men of their Communion to be corrupt or superstitious. And Book that might open the eyes of the People is, without fail, either prohibited or gelded: Even the Holy Bible, as a dangerous Book, that favours Heretics, is straight forbidden the People, as we have seen before in the severe Edict of the Inquisitors.  
There are now great variety of those Indices, or Catalogues of Books forbidden, or of things to be taken out of them. Every year likely their comes out one, commanded to be admitted and obeyed in all the Christian world. Where there are Inquisitors those Indices are sent to them, who enjoin all Confessors to take care about them in their confessing and absolving their Penitents. And by this means they not only keep from the people all instructive good Books: but they so mangle and alter those Books which they cannot keep out of their hands, that at present, in reading of a Book, a man can no more find what the Author's meaning was, but only what is the meaning of the Court of Rome, who hath altered every thing, as famous Padre Paolo complains and shows at large.  
In those Indices published first by Junius, and afterwards even by authority and licence we have this acknowledgement speaking of bertram's Book. In old Catholic Writers, we suffer many Errors, and extenuate and excuse them, and by some device we feign some convenient sense, when they are opposed to us. Excogitato Commento, sensum iis affingimus. And we have these Corrections in Indices, Text or Marginal Notes of several Authors, which were to be purged and left out in the next Editions, as being heretical or dangerous Doctrines. Deus solus adorandus, God alone is to be worshipped. Alienis meritis & operibus nemo juvatur; No man is benefited by the merits or good works of another. Habitat Jesus per fidem in cordibus nostris; Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith. Credens Christo non morietur in aeternum; He that believeth in Christ shall not die eternally. Justus coram Deo nemo; No man is just before God. Vxorem habeat unusquisque, confitendo Deo peccata non homini, sine scriptura divina nihil asserendum. Sancta Dei Ecclesia creaturam non adorat; The Holy Church of God worships no Image. A Deo solo omnia petenda; every thing is to be demanded of God alone by Prayer. These, and many the like, some whereof are in the Authors themselves, and some in holy Writ expressly, yet are to be blotted out, as not agreeing with Roman Catholicism.  
Padre Paolo observes, that they not only take away what they like not, but that they also add what makes for their purpose. I am sure by the Instructions of Clement VIII. if they be duly observed, Books, that pass through the hands of the Inquisition, must become as correct and infallible as his Holiness himself. He directs and enjonies the Inquisitors, and those whom they should appoint, to repurge Authors that want it, ann. 1596. Qui negotium susceperit corrigendi atque expurgandi, circumspicere & attente notare debet, non solum quae in cursu operis manifeste se offerunt, sed si quae in scholiis, in summariis, in marginibus, in indicibus librorum, in praefationibus, aut Epistolis dedicatoriis, tanquam in insidiis delitescunt. That is, That they that undertake the work, must not only look foreright, but round about on all sides, that no Bugbears lurk and lie in ambush in any corner, in Annotations, Summaries, Margins, in the Epistles Dedicatory, Prefaces, or Tables.  
And these are some of the things which he saith want a purgation of Ink. Positiones erroneae, schismaticae, haereticae, haeresim sapientes.— quae contra sacramentorum ritus & ceremonias, contra receptum usum & consuetudinem sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae, novitatem aliquam inducunt. Prophanae etiam novitates vocum ab haereticis excogitatae & ad fallendum introductae. Verba dubia & ambigua quae legentium animos à recto Catholicoque sensu, ad nefarias opiniones adducere possunt. Verba sacrae scripturae non fideliter prolata, vel à pravis haereticorum versionibus deprompta, nisi forte offerentur ad eosdem Haereticos impugnandos, & propriis telis jugulandos & convincendos. Expungi etiam oportet verba scripturae sacrae, quae ad sensum detorquentur abhorrentem ab unanimi sententia Catholicorum doctorum.— itemque Epithet a honorifica, & omnia in laudem Haereticorum dicta, deleantur.— Expungendae sunt etiam propositiones quae sunt contra libertatem, immunitatem & jurisdictionem Ecclesiasticam.— Explodantur exempla quae Ecclesiasticos ritus, Religiosorum ordines, statum, dignitatem, & personas laedunt & violant. Positions heretical, that have a smack of Heresy, erroneous, schismatical,— whatever is introductive of any novelty repugnant to those Rites and Ceremonies that are used about the Sacraments, or to any of the customs and usages of the holy Roman Church. Also new expressions and ways of speaking, invented by Heretics to deceive others. And all such doubtful and ambiguous words as may draw the minds of Readers from the right Catholic sense to naughty opinions. Words of Holy Writ not well rendered, or taken from heretical versions, except they be intended to serve against Heretics, to cut their throats with their own weapons. Also those sacred Scriptures that are wrested to a sense differing from the unanimous consent of Roman Doctors be blotted out.— All honourable Epithets also, and whatever is said in praise of any Heretics, must be taken away.— As likewise those Propositions which are any ways contrary to the Ecclesiastical liberties, immunities, and jurisdictions.— And let nothing remain that may hurt or violate Ecclesiastical Rites, Religious Orders, or Persons, or their state and dignities.  
Heretical pravity must needs be mighty stubborn and incurable in those Authors that will not be purged and made sound Roman Catholics by these and the like Prescriptions, of which there are good store, made since by other Popes. Whereby we may see how we are to trust the faith and ingenuity of the infallible Church, and what credit is to be given to Writers of that Communion, when they treat of any matters that concern Heretics.  
Now in the Rules of the Sacred Congregation, anno 1667. published by the Authority of Pope Alexander VII. the former Injunctions are confirmed, and they expressly set down in the Index of prohibited Books, Biblia vulgari quocunque idiomate conscripta; All Versions of the Bible in any vulgar tongue, and in the Rules make this sanction, Qui absque facultate Episcopi aut Inquisitoris sacra Biblia vulgari lingua habere praesumpserit, nisi prius Bibliis ordinario redditis peccatorum absolutionem percipere non poterit. That whoever shall presume to have the Holy Bible in the vulgar tongue, without he have obtained for it a faculty or licence in Form of the Ordinary or Inquisitor, shall never have absolution of sins till he have returned the Bibles into the hands of his Superiors. This Licence you may be sure is very sparingly granted, and sometimes to prevent danger is recalled, as was done by urban VIII. 1631. and not one of ten thousand, in those Countries where the Inquisition reigns, dares ask for it, be he never so true a Roman Catholic, or so desirous to see what that Book can have in it, which is so kept from the People, because it is sufficient to make a man of the Vulgar suspect of Heresy, if he but speaks of that dangerous Book, which hath made so many Heretics.  
As for those Books whereof the subject is judged to be good and useful, but that they have here and there things that border too much upon Heresy, after the faults are amended by the Inquisitors or their Deputies, they may be permitted to be read. So saith the Eighth Rule. Libri quorum principale argumentum bonum est, in quibus tamen obiter quaedam inserta sunt quae ad haeresim spectant, à Catholicis Theologis Inquisitionis generalis auctoritate expurgati, concedi possunt.  
These Cautions and Edicts of Popes and Inquisitors, extend also to them that buy or sell any forbidden Books, and where the Roman Tribunal is potent enough, the penalties against Transgressor's are exacted with great rigour. And Bzovius himself tells us of one Casper Tauberus, 1524. who was adjudged to be burnt at Vienna, because, after having forsworn the reading any more of Heretical condemned Books, he transgressed again.   

SECT. III. Of the Honour of being employed in the Holy Office, and the praises of it.  
WE have seen before what mighty privileges and immunities are granted to all that belong to the Inquisition. The Bull of Pius V Octob. 13. 1570. confirms them all, and all Grants and Indulgences given by his Predecessors to all such Societies as undertook Croisadoes, to assist against Heretics the Inquisitors of Heretical Pravity. The Officers of the Inquisition are Heirs at Law of all those spiritual Riches. A Paramo saith, That were the Holy Office well understood by pious Catholics, they would be so far from being frighted with it, that they would mightily rejoice, to see the holy Catholic Faith so stoutly and effectually defended, and to see the stray Sheep brought again to the Fold so powerfully, p. 268.  
Sixtus V as we have seen, calls it, Firmissimum Fidei Catholicae propugnaculum; The strongest shield and support of the Faith. And Paul IV. would freely own, that it was praecipuum nervum & arcanum pontificatus, the strongest nerve and deepest mystery of the Papacy. Padre Paolo, Hist. Con. Trent. l. 5. And as my Author citys the Acts of the Creation of Pius IU. this Paul breathed out his Soul in commending to the Cardinals about him, that holy Tribunal, which he thought, would do more than a Council; Sanctissima Inquisitio unum nunc remedium labenti Religioni. The most holy Inquisition is now the only remedy to our staggering Religion. A Paramo p. 278. The same giving some account of the burning of several great Spanish Doctors, Constantinus, Aegidius, Cazalla Chaplain to Charles V and many Lutherans with them, declares to the great commendation of the Holy Office, that had it not been for the great vigour and diligence of the Inquisitors, the Catholic faith had been lost in Sqain, as it is in the Northern Kingdoms for lack of an Inquisition, p. 272.  
There he tells us also, how much Ignatius Loyola used to commend it, which well became him, for he had passed through it, and know what it was. Out of a Sermon of Lewis of Granada he citys these words, Sanctae Inquisitionis Officium nurus est Ecclesiae, columna veritatis, fidei custodia, Christiana Religionis Thesaurus, arma adversus Haereticos, contra omnes daemonum fallacias & technas lumen fulgentissimum, lapis lydius ad doctrinae veritatem dignoscendam & examinandam.  
The Office of the Holy Inquisition is the Nurse of the Church, and the Pillar of Truth; the Storehouse of Christian Religion, and the Keeper of the Faith; the Touchstone of true Doctrine, the best Armour against Heretics, and the clearest light whereby to discern the illusions and frauds of the Devil.  
Accordingly several Writers about this subject, make great brags of the great virtues and sanctity of many Inquisitors, and are so enamoured with the incomparable beauty of that most sacred Function of butchering Men, and with the exemplary goodness of them that faithfully discharge it, that they spend upon it and them the greatest lauds and praises they can find. That many of them have been patiented Confessors for the Truth; that many others have gained the Crown of Martyrdom; that many by their Devotions and Charity have obtained the title of Blessed; and many been Sainted and Canonised by the Pope, Qui nunc in aliquot provinciis, summa cum pietate coluntur, who now are in some Provinces worshipped with the greatest piety.  
Multis miraculis maximis claruerunt, A Par. 108. Many Inquisitors have become famous for working most wonderful Miracles. Those of St. Dominic are past number. St. Peter the Martyr, the first and fiercest Inquisitor at Milan, would easily drive away Devils when they came to make a noise and disturb him in his Preaching. A Boy that had cut off his foot by kicking at his Mother, he with few words in Confession made whole; which may be Emblematical of such as had kicked against Holy Church, and were by him converted and absolved. St. Anton. Tom. 3. is here and there very ample upon this subject.  
But what can be said more for the eternal credit of the Holy Office, than what A Paramo relates, p. 138, etc. that about the year 1500. when many thousands of Heretics were sent to the Galleys, as many immured, and many more burnt, that this severity, just and holy as it was, yet having somewhat of a resemblance to what men call cruelty, staggered a little some soft-hearted Spaniards, even Inquisitors, and made them doubt whether that Religion and Office which reduced so many human Creatures to so great miseries, and shed so much blood, were acceptable to God, and whether such proceed did please him; whereupon having made their humble addresses to the blessed Virgin, they demanded a sign of her, to be resolved in this matter: and behold Miracles appeared of all sides; not an Image in Town, nor hardly an Officer of the Inquisition, but were enabled to do wonders and feats, so great and so many that the scruple was quite removed, and they became persuaded that the Roman Faith and severe justice upon Heretics are most dearly beloved of God and all his Saints, and Franciscus Sanctius de la Fuente Inquisitor and Scribe was tired with writing down what miracles happened. So that henceforth, we may suppose, they will rest satisfied, as to this inquiry.  
And it is no small proof that the Court of Rome, as well as that of Heaven, hath great veneration for the Holy Office, when more than an hundred years ago, more than forty Inquisitors had been made Cardinals, and five had obtained the Triple Crown of Pope, A Paramo tells us. Nay, Franciscus Ziletus tells the Cardinal Gambara, who was of the Congregation of the Inquisition, and makes it the superlative degree of his commendations, Summis tuis meritis in supremum hunc ordinem & cooptatus, in quo tam praeclare te gessisti, ut dignissimus fueris judicatus, qui in sacro isto Magistratu Inquisitionis sederes: cujus ea est dignitas, meritum ac auctoritas, ut summi Pontifices ex eo fere deligantur. That his great merits having brought him him to the high honour of being a Cardinal, he had in that station so nobly behaved himself, as to be raised to the sacred Magistrature of the Congregation of the Inquisition, whereof such is the dignity, merit, and power, that for the most part the high Pontiffs or Popes are chosen out of it. Than which nothing upon earth can exalt higher the honour of the Holy Office.    

CHAP. XV. The Conclusion.  
A Few Reflections on what hath been said, shall conclude all at present upon this subject. And first, if those of the Communion of the Church of Rome that live amongst us, by reading this Book, or consulting the Authorities I have cited, remain satisfied that the faith and worship peculiar to their Church, are such as I have described in the two first Chapters, and that such severities, as I represent afterwards, are used by her against all that dissent from her, than I would have them consider, whether that part of their Religion which occasions the breach betwixt them and us, depend not more on the Papal authority, and be not more doubtful and suspicious, liable to more objections than that common Christianity which we hold all together? They may believe themselves to be in the Right, mankind may be abused, we see the greater part of the world are Turks and Pagans: but they cannot that have conversed with us, think that either our Lives or Doctrines are so abominably impious and wicked as the Papal Decrees and proceed of the Inquisition make them. Nay, I expect from their Candour, that they will believe we are in earnest, when we protest that we have no other design in professing what we do, but to please God, and make our Souls happy; that we would with our hearts and souls be amongst them, if we thought truth were there, but that after our best inquiries, remaining persuaded we have it of our side, we think ourselves obliged under peril of damnation, to own and follow it, though thereby we expose ourselves to the greatest extremities.  
But if we are mistaken, and they are pleased to call us Heretics, yet I would desire them to consider further, whether such cruelties as their Church commands and executes against us, be a likely means to make us have a better opinion of it, and change our former persuasions? I believe many of them have too much knowledge and humanity to approve of those violent and bloody proceed which we complain of: But then, what do they think of a Religion that doth enjoin, practice, and commend them, as the greatest service that can be done to God? Can it be thought that the Institution of the merciful Saviour of the world allows of Croisadoes, and Massacrees, of Dungeons, and Fetters, of Tortures and Flames, of all that can create horror in the minds of men, and pain in their bodies: and that he hath left his Vicar power to make use of them, for to propagate and maintain his Faith.  
If all the Bloody Laws and Edicts the Church of Rome hath made against Christians of other Communions; if all the means she hath used to make them miserable in the world, and to send them out of it; if all the Racks and Gibbets, and Instruments of cruelty used by her Inquisitors, if all those human Creatures she hath with great inhumanities' slain and burnt alive, in behalf of her Religion, and to gain and maintain her Wealth and Power; if all these could be seen altogether at once, it would be the saddest object of pity that ever eyes beheld, and an Argument which few could resist, that sure Rome is not his Church, nor holds not his Religion whose Kingdom was not of this world; who came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them; and who commanded his Disciples to be meek and lowly, to forgive Injuries, and render good for evil: and by all the methods of Patience, Charity, and Beneficence, to win mankind to the belief and profession of his most merciful and heavenly Doctrine.  
Here also those of the Roman Persuasion may see why now lately the belief of a Popish Plot hath been so generally entertained amongst us. Some of them seem to take it very unkindly that we of the Church of England should believe any thing of it, and they wonder much that we do not see, how that it was an invention of the Dissenters to involve them and us into a common ruin. But though it must be confessed, that the Dissenters have made a very ill use of the discovery of the Plot: and that many particular persons of the Roman Communion, that protest of their innocence, ignorance, and abhorrence of it, are to be credited; yet it is most true that such a Plot there may be, and warranted by all the Laws of their Church; they themselves may have generous and merciful dispositions, I will not deny it: But that their Religion is very cruel, as to what concerns Heretics, they must not deny. When their late Councils, and Popes, and Doctors have made Declarations and Laws, that Heretics, Princes and all, may and must be destroyed by all means possible; That no Pact, no Promise made to them, doth any ways oblige; that whatever Roman Catholics can say or do to them, in order to their Ruin, is lawful and commendable; that what in other Cases would be Perjury, Treachery, and Murder; when used against Heretics, is Justice, and an holy Zeal; that the Crime of Heresy is so crying, so enormous, such a High Treason against God, that all that love him, are authorized and ●ound to prosecute and revenge it; that accordingly the Church, for the propagation and defence of the Faith, hath used, with great success, those methods, against Heretics, and where she had power, erected Tribunals and Commissioned Officers for their punishment and extirpation: When we see this in their Books, and all the world may read it there, are we to be told there is no such thing? or may we not believe that they that profess obedience to ●at Church, would easily engage themselves to venture their lives for the extirpation of a Pestilent Northern Heresy, as Coleman calls it.  
Whether or no, they that are accucused, have designed and attempted such things as hath been deposed by persons from amongst them, is not mine to determine; that belongs to Magistrates and Judges: But I am confident it is easy to be made out more demonstrably, (if what I have said be not sufficient to prove it) that for what is laid to their charge, they have as ample and full encouragements and authorities as their Church in any case can give. And that supposing they had (as is said) undertaken the Deposition or Murder of his Sacred Majesty, and others that stood in their way, in order to bring in the Roman Catholic Faith, it was only the executing the often repeated Sentences of the Sovereign Tribunal of Rome, against such as are guilty of the unpardonable crime of Heretical Pravity: Having also the same power, as well to forswear and deny, as to act any of the Premises.  
I am a Witness against none of them, and for aught I know they may be Innocent: but it is proved that their Religion is guilty, and would countenance and reward the destruction of Heretics, however effected. And then, it should not be much wondered at, that we think it possible some of them may be led by the Principles of their Church: and in compliance with the Sacred Sanctions and Decrees of it might, consult and contrive how to do justice upon us; for so they call in the Roman Language, what in ours is Treason, Murder, and Cruelty.  
The Jesuits are charged with all these, and there are commonly loud clamours against them, as if they alone were the cause of our miseries and dangers. But I say, though they may be more zealous for the Papacy, and more obsequious to it, obliged by their fourth Vow, yet the Inquisition was erected, and had done great execution, long before their Order appeared: and most of those Canons, Bulls, and Decretals, that devote us to destruction, were enacted, published, and executed, before their name was heard of in the world: so that, if they outdo others in being more active and more fierce against us, this is all can be said; that they are most true to their Church and Religion, and best deserve the name of downright Roman Catholics.  
Lastly, Here our Neighbours of the Roman Communion, may see, why we also of the Church of England, are so afraid of them and their Religion. They may observe that we join not with popular factions; that we do not instigate the Vulgar to be violent against them; that in our converse with them, they find us courteous and kind; and that we declared, when there was danger on all hands to do it, that if God, after that most excellent Prince under whom we live, should suffer another of their Persuasion to succeed, we would own and obey him; and whatever dangers and persecutions we might be exposed to, be dutiful and loyal, as becomes true Christians. But then we know, that their Religion obligeth them to deal very ill by us, that are declared Heretics: and we know not how far they may think themselves bound to comply with those obligations. We know that a Prince of their Communion would have the same, and stronger ties upon him, to endeavour the extirpation of Heresy: and we know not how far the pressing importunity of the Roman Court and Clergy, or the fear of undergoing the Fate of the two Henry's of France, might prevail upon him. We know that what interest they have had here at Court, hath been used for the depressing of our Clergy; for the weakening the settlement and Constitution of our Church; for the encouraging of the Sectaries against us; for bringing our Peace and established Religion into confusion and contempt: and that, that we are not yet ruined, is altogether owing to God's infinite Mercy, and to the King's Goodness. And we are persuaded upon very good grounds, that if the change were brought about, and their Church had here that Power, which it hath wherever their Religion is uppermost, that we should be in a most miserable condition; forced to abjure what in our Conscience we believe to be the true and saving Religion of our dear Saviour; forced to embrace and practise what we believe to be altogether false and superstitious; or forced by the prosecution of those Laws against Heretics, which they count Sacred and Divine, to be poor, despised and persecuted, or to lie in Goals, and burn at the Stake.  
Some of these things we have had occasion to know, and the others we have very just cause to fear: and therefore, though we would not do any thing unjust or illegal to preserve ourselves, yet we would be very glad to be more secure, and would have been very well satisfied, and very thankful if it had pleased the late Parliaments, to have made Laws, according to his Majesty's most gracious offer, for the limiting the power of a Popish Successor, if ever such a one there should be, and putting the administration of the Government into Protestant hands, for the preserving the Established Religion without destroying Monarchy. I say, for this we would have blessed God, and the King, and our Representatives, had they thought fit to have done that for us: and we would have thought ourselves much safer and happier than we are, as they have left us, exposed naked to all that may happen.  
Our Consciences and Persuasions oblige us, by Reason, and Argument, and all Christian and Equitable ways, to oppose the Papal Religion, which we believe to be highly dishonourable to God, and prejudicial to the souls of men: therefore though we rail not, and make not such out-cries, as some are apt to do, yet by serious Writings and Discourses, we think ourselves bound to confirm our people in the Protestant Religion.  
We are not apt to start at Bugbears and shadows, nor to fill the heads of the People with Panic and groundless terrors: yet we have very sad apprehensions of what we must be, if we should come under the Power of Rome, and will do what justly we may, to preserve our Religion and Freedoms, and prevent what to us appears, upon all accounts, most dreadful and terrible, the Roman Catholic Faith and Inquisition.  
As for them that are Protestants, I desire them to observe, how afflicted hath been the Condition of millions of our Christian Brethren, whilst they were exposed to those severe Roman Tribunals, of which I have given some account: and to think with pity, on the great oppressions and sufferings of many, who still in many Countries, groan under Papal Tyranny. And then to pay their hearty thanks and acknowledgements to God, for that liberty, those immunities, and those great blessings we enjoy, by living according to the Rules of that pure and holy Reformed Religion which is here established and professed among us; by hearty joining with the Church, in offering up with devout affections those Prayers and Praises, and acceptable Services, wherewith she worships God daily; and by having a Reverend esteem of those Orders and Constitutions which our Reformers established in opposition to Popery, and which cost many of them their lives.  
We see how great is our danger from the Church of Rome, that she hath made Sacred and Religious the most severe and unnatural means that can be used to destroy us: and that therefore we must expect no quarter from them that live in subjection to her, who the more zealous and devout they are, the more implacable and fierce they are against us, being persuaded that by the punishing and extirpating Heresy, they mightily endear themselves to the whole Court of Heaven, and merit the highest rewards. We see further that, though there were not that danger, yet we are in duty bound to avoid and oppose the Romish Religion, which greatly wrongs the truth and honour of our God and Saviour, and puts men out of the plain Primitive and safe way to Heaven: and to endeavour the preservation and advancement of true Christianity, as we have it, by God's blessing and the great sufferings of our Predecessors, restored to us.  
Therefore, let me desire the good people among us, who really have a love and value for the true Protestant Religion, to consider, that Popery is not what every one dislikes, or is pleased to call so. We have a sort of men, who brand with as black names the innocent Ceremonies, and necessary Decencies, and Orders of our Church, as they can do the worst Corruptions in the Church of Rome; nay, and all men that make Conscience of being conformable to the Laws under which we live, and that are Friends to the Government Ecclesiastical and Civil, are presently Popishly affected. This palpably appears to be a design of them who once before, under the same pretence, did ruin King and Church, and enslave their Country; for these very men upon occasion, when it is to serve a turn, or to get an Office, will freely Conform, even receive the blessed Sacrament in our way, which generally they had never done before, but much slighted and spoken against: and our present Constitutions in Church and State, are so far from favouring Popery, that they were made in opposition to it, and have effectually kept it out above a hundred years: and it is now clear by the Depositions upon Oath of the chief Discoverers of the Plot, and by Colemans' Letters, that Popery is to be brought in (if it can be) by means of these very Sectaries, who now would run us down for Papists, and by weakening and abrogating those Laws and that Establishment, which many Dissenters clamour at, and fain would pull down.  
This may suffice to show well-meaning people the Snare that is set for us; and to induce them, as good Christians, and good Subjects, to help to maintain and defend the Established Religion, in the profession whereof they may be as godly, and as virtuous and good, as it is possible for men to be here below, in our state of imperfection. Herein lies our Safety as well as our Duty, that there may be a National Constitution, and we may be united together in Religious Bonds, under our lawful Governors. It adds much to the strength and credit of the Church of Rome, that the Members thereof are governable, or at least governed, and kept under one Rule: whereas it brings disgrace, and threatens ruin to the Reformation, to have some that would be called Protestants, perpetually contending with their Governors, endeavouring to shake off their Yoke, always objecting and struggling against Laws and public Orders, and entertaining such Principles of Libertinism, as divides them into Sects and Factions. This is so contrary to the common notion of true Godliness, and to that meek spirit which the Gospel so much recommends, that I hope God will open the eyes of such as truly fear him, and have no ill designs, and make them see how much it is for the interest of their present and future happiness, to join with our Church, to defend it, and live in it like good Christians, and loyal Subjects, as all the ties of Religion and Conscience oblige them to do.  
They that now aim at a change, brought one about, within these forty years, most fatal and infamous to the Protestant cause; and the good people were infinitely cheated, and paid very dear for the overturning that Government in Church and State, under which they might have lived very innocent, and very happy, in comparison to what they did, in that bloody and unnatural War and Usurpation, which I hope is not yet forgot: but will ever be a caution to all good men amongst us, to endeavour for the preservation of our peace and settlement. That having such a truly Christian Religion as we have, and so gracious a Government, we may not use our liberty for a cloak of Maliciousness: nor abuse by a froward and unthankful humour, those great and special mercies we enjoy: nor provoke God to bring upon us and our Land the Superstitions and Cruelties of the Roman Church. From which, good Lord deliver us, and all thy Servants for ever. Amen.   
FINIS.   

THE CONTENTS.  

THe Introduction p. 1   

CHAP. I.  
Of the Roman Faith, as distinct from the Christian, and truly Catholic; and first of the new Creed p 3  
Sect. 2. General Reflections on this Roman Creed p. 9  
Sect. 3. That this new Creed makes the distinction betwixt Papists and other Christians p. 12   

CHAP. II.  
Of several parts of the Roman Worship, and first of their Exorcisms p. 20  
Sect. 1. Of their many Consecrations p. 24  
Sect. 2. Of their Mass p. 27  
Sect. 3. Of their worship of Images and Saints p. 30   

CHAP. III.  
How the Inquisition came to be established; and first of the Oaths and Excommunications wherewith they tie the Consciences of men p. 44  
Sect. 1. Of the beginnings of the Inquisition p. 50  
Sect. 2. Of Dominic the first Inquisitor p. 54  
Sect. 3. Of the first making of Familiars, or armed Officers or Bailiffs for the Holy Tribunal p. 59   

CHAP. IV.  
Of the first that suffered the Rigours of the Inquisition p. 62  
Sect. 1. Of the Waldenses, and the proceed against them p. 66   

CHAP. V  
Of the restoring of the Inquisition p. 76  
Sect. 1. The erecting of the Spanish Inquisition p. 78  
Sect. 2. The settling the Inquisition in Portugal and elsewhere p. 81   

CHAP. VI  
Of several Tumults and oppositions against the Inquisition p. 84   

CHAP. VII.  
Of the ordering of the Inquisition p. 90  
Sect. 1. The Bull of Sixtus Quintus, about the new modelling of the Inquisition p. 95   

CHAP. VIII.  
Of the proceed of the Inquisition p. 101  
Sect. 1. Of the Accusations p. 104  
Sect. 2. Of proceeding by way of Inquisition p. 109  
Sect. 3. Of the Inquisitors Visitation p. 113   

CHAP. IX.  
Of the intermedial proceed betwixt the apprehension and the torture p. 116  
Sect. 1. Of the being brought to the Bar p. 118  
Sect. 2. How the Prisoners Estate is seized upon p. 122  
Sect. 3. Of the tedious and sad condition of the Prisoner p. 126   

CHAP. X.  
Of the Tortures, and what relates to them p. 130  
Sect. 1. Of some preparations previous to the Torture p. 132  
Sect. 2. Of the ways of Torturing p. 137  
Sect. 3. Of repeating the question p. 140   

CHAP. XI.  
Of reconciling and dismissing Penitents p. 144  
Sect. 1. Of the Cautions of the Friars when they absolve an Heretic p. 146  
Sect. 2. Forms of Sentences p. 150   

CHAP. XII.  
Of the condemning of Heretics that are to be burnt p. 156  
Sect. 1. A Sentence in some Relapses p. 160  
Sect. 2. A form of delivering a stubborn Heretic to the Secular Power p. 166   

CHAP. XIII.  
Of the Enormity and further punishment of the Crime of Heresy p. 171  
Sect. 1. Of the vileness of Heretical Pravity p. 175  
Sect. 2. Of several Inflictions upon Heretics p. 182  
Sect. 3. That in the Case of Heresy Princes far no better than Subjects p. 189  
Sect. 4. Of the Authorities and Authors cited in this Book p. 193   

CHAP. XIV.  
Of several things that conduce to make the Inquisition powerful and glorious p. 200  
Sect. 1. Some Privileges of the Inquisitors, and cruelties committed or occasioned by them p. 206  
Sect. 2. Of the prohibiting of Books, and the Indices Expurgatorii p. 213  
Sect. 3. Of the honour of being employed in the Holy Office, and the praises of it p. 227   

CHAP. XV.  
The Conclusion p. 133    

ERRATA.  
PAge 5. line 6. after explain add them. p. 44. l. penult. for her read his. p. 55. l. 25. for St. r. that. p. 56. l. 13. r. decease. p. 64. l. 3. r. were. p. 64. l. 17. r. Bearn. p. 66. l. 7. for 80. r. 30. p. 67. l. 23. after that r. it is. p. 76. for 47. r. 4th. p. 119. l. 26. been is transposed. p. 155. l. 3. r. sowed. p. 157. for him r. them. p. 170. l. 16. r. accordingly. p. 206. in tit. Sect. 1. for it r. them. p. 219. l. 21. for and r. any.