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 PRINCETON, N. J. 
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 OF PHILADELPHIA, PA 
 
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RE MARKS 
 
 UPON THE 
 HISTORY of the LIFE 
 
 O F 
 
 REGINALD POLE. 
 
 By EDWARD STONE, Clerk, A.M. 
 
 And late Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford. 
 
 The SECOND EDITION, 
 
 Revifed, Corrected, and Enlarged, 
 
 Out of thy own Mouth will I judge thee^ Thou wicked Servant, 
 
 Luke xix. 22. 
 
 — Vidct Hunc omnis Domus, ct VIcinia tota 
 
 Introrfum Turpem, Formofum Pelle decora. 
 
 HoR. Lib. I. Epif. xvi. 
 
 OXFORD, 
 
 PRINTED BY W. JACKSON, 
 
 For J. Fletcher, in the Turle; and J. Fletcher, in 
 St. Paul's Church-yard, London. 
 
 M.DCC.LXVI. 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Archive 
 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/remarksuponhistoOOston 
 
[ iii ] 
 
 TO THE 
 HON. AND RIGHT REVEREND 
 
 RICHARD, 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF DURHAM. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 SINCERE endeavours, how- 
 ever indifferently executed, to 
 vindicate the Reformation, and 
 the noble and reverend perfons who pro- 
 moted it, from the virulent invedives 
 with which they have been afperfed by 
 a profeffed Papift, and to expole the 
 grofs corruptions of the Church of 
 Rome, are the only merits I can lay 
 claim to ; and the fole apology I can 
 pretend to make, for taking this liberty 
 of dedicating thefe Letters to your 
 A 2 Lordfhip, 
 
[ i^ ] 
 
 Lordfliip, and imploring your pro- 
 tedion of them. Thefe, My Lord, 
 are impertinences, which your high ec- 
 elefiaftical ftation, your inviolable at- 
 tachment to the Proteftant Religion, 
 and your well known candour and 
 condefcenfion to all mankind, necefla- 
 rily fubjedl you to ; and which I 
 flatter myfelf will be excufed in me, 
 for the fake of the Caufe I have un- 
 dertaken to defend : And though it 
 deferves an infinitely better advocate, 
 and I have fallen far fhort of doing 
 it juftice, yet I fhall always efteem 
 it an honour to have pleaded in its 
 behalf; and be proud of fo favourable 
 an opportunity of fubfcribing myfelf, 
 
 Your hoKDsni?' s'moji dutiful, 
 j4nd mojl devoted hmnbh Servant^ 
 
 EDWARD STONE. 
 
[ V ] 
 
 THE 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 To the READER. 
 
 ■^ H E S E Letters were written 
 immediately upon the publi- 
 cation of the fecond part of 
 the Hiftory of the Life of Reginald 
 Pole, and printed in a common news- 
 paper, after the manner defcribed in 
 the introdudion prefixed to the firft 
 of them ; but that being a daily paper^ 
 it did not circulate far in the country, 
 nor meet with fo many readers, as 
 the Author could wifli, or the fubjed: 
 feems to require ; and many who did 
 read them complained that their at- 
 tention was too much taken oflF, and 
 the thread of thefe Remarks too long 
 interrupted by the interval of feven 
 
 days 
 
[ vi 3 
 
 days between the perufal of each of 
 them. But the principal reafon which 
 induced the Author to reprint them, 
 was the defects in the firlt Edition, 
 occafioned by an unavoidable and un- 
 forefeen avocation towards the latter end 
 of his Epiftolary Correfpondence ; for 
 having promifed his Printer to fend him 
 a Letter every week, till the whole was 
 finifhed, he was obliged in order to 
 fulfil his engagement to abbreviate his 
 Work, and leave out the greateft part 
 of Pole's character, which render- 
 ed it extremely imperfed: : He hath 
 therefore found it neceffary to fupply 
 this deficiency, by compleating his ori- 
 ginal defign, with the addition of two 
 or three Letters upon that Head, and 
 by revifing and correfting the reft* 
 The Author doth not pretend to be 
 much converfant in the Writings of 
 Pole's cotemporaries, and Italian friends, 
 or in the Hiftory of thofe times, ex- 
 cept of his own Country, and other 
 Nations fo far as they are conne£led 
 
 with 
 
[ vli ] 
 
 with it : but he is of opinion that Mr. 
 Phillips may in a great meafure be re- 
 futed from his own Books, as they will 
 afford fufficient matter to an attentive 
 examiner for condemning Him, his 
 Hiftory, his Hero, and his Religion : 
 But if the Reader would fee this 
 Biographer convided of and expofed for 
 Plagiarifms, Anachronifms, Mifnomers, 
 Quotations from Books he hath never 
 read, the Adoption of the Blunders 
 of Copiers, Slanders of his own inven-- 
 tion or borrowed from infamous and ex- 
 ploded Writers, for mutilating paffages 
 in fome Authors to make them fpeak 
 his fentiments, and producing others as 
 unexceptionable vouchers for fads of 
 which they have given dired ,contrary 
 teftimony ; let them read two excellent 
 Treatifes lately compofed and publifhed, 
 one by the Reverend Dr. Neve^ the 
 other by the Reverend Mr. Ridley^ per- 
 fons of great integrity and abilities ; who 
 by their intenfe application, arid exten- 
 five reading, have made themfelves 
 
 mafters 
 
mafters not only of the tranfadions 
 at and fince the Reformation, but of 
 all Ecclefiaftical Hiftory. And it hath 
 been the peculiar felicity of the Pro- 
 teftant Religion, that when it hath 
 been attacked, worthy and learned 
 men have always rofe up in its de- 
 fence, and by their fuperior erudition 
 have put to filence the ignorance of 
 its petulant and malignant adverfaries. 
 
 To 
 
[ V] 
 
 "To the Printer of^ &cc. 
 
 F it be not inconfiftent with the plan 
 of your paper, I fhall be obliged to you 
 if vou would infert in it fome Remarks 
 or Animadverlions upon the Kiflory^ of the 
 Life of Cardinal Pole. They will indeed be 
 long, and the fubjecls of many Letters, the 
 firir of v/hich I have fubjoined as a fpecimen 
 of the reft, in which the General Heads are 
 propofed, with the method of treating them j 
 fhould you approve of them you will receive 
 a Letter every week, about the fame length, 
 or perhaps a little longer, till the whole be 
 finiflied ; and as your paper is generally read, 
 it appears to me at prefent the beft and moil 
 publick way of anfwering thcfe Books ; and I 
 cannot but flatter myfelf, it will be an agreeable 
 entertainment to your readers, to fee the Pro- 
 teftant Caufe vindicated from the rcfledlions 
 thrown upon it by a warm Advocate of the 
 Romiih Cliurch. 
 
 B Letter 
 
[ ^ ] 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 THERE hath been very lately pub- 
 lifhed, in two books, the Hiftory of 
 Reginald Pole, who was fecond coufin, by the 
 mother^s fide, to Henry the Eighth, and lived 
 in his and the two fucceeding reigns. His 
 firm attachment to the Church of Rome, the 
 high dignities he was promoted to in it, the 
 part that he adled in the ever-memorable Re- 
 volutions of the Ecclefiailical ftate in this 
 kingdom at thofe times, and his exercifing 
 the office of Legate from the See of Rome to 
 Queen Mary, afford this author, Thomas 
 Phillips, an ample field for difplaying the 
 doctrines of that Church, and fetting before 
 his readers as circumflantial a detail of the 
 Reformation as beft fuited his purpofe in 
 decrying it. 
 
 His principal defign, as appears to me from 
 the whole fcope of his hiftory, is to extol the 
 Romifti, and inveigh againft the Prqteftant 
 Religion. But whatever fuccefs his vanity or 
 bigotry may have flattered him with, it requires 
 no extraordinary penetration to difcern what it 
 will be, both with Papifts and Proteftants. 
 
 As 
 
[ 3 ] 
 
 As to Paplfts it hath been the policy of the 
 Church of Rome, not to fuffer any of its 
 members to be too curious in prying into its 
 Myfteriess it hath by long experience been found, 
 that an implicit faith, and abfolute fubmiffion, 
 are the only effectual means for preferving a 
 profound veneration for them. For which 
 Reafons it hath always endeavoured to keep 
 the Laity in as much ignorance as poffible ; 
 the reading, writing, and difputing upon any 
 controverted points of Religion have by all 
 means been difcouraged, and even the Holy 
 Scriptures themfelves have not been fubjefted 
 to a vulgar infpeftion : As this then is the 
 cafe, what can our Author mean by expofing 
 the Docflrines of His Church to publick view ? 
 Is not this tempting her fons to an illicit famili- 
 arity v/ith them, and to affert their Right of 
 private judgment : is it not alfo enhancing 
 the difficulty of tying up their underflandings 
 and their tongues in this free country, and of 
 maintaining that total filence and acquiefccnce 
 that are required from them ? Whatever tcfti- 
 mony therefore this doughty performance may 
 bear of its Author's zeal, yet the moft fen- 
 fible part of the Romifli Hierachy muft look 
 B 2 upon 
 
[ 4 ] 
 
 upon it as an unfeafonable and injudicious Ef- 
 fort to ferve their Caufe. 
 
 Whilft they, who are of a different Com- 
 munion will never be brought over by weak 
 and fallacious arguments ; they are not to be 
 impofed upon by fpecious glofTes, nor borne 
 down by dogmatical affertions, or the pre- 
 tended antiquity of Doctrines which contain 
 the groffeil abfurdities, and fly in the face of 
 common fenfe. They cannot help indeed 
 being offended at the bitter acrimony with 
 which the Reformation is traduced, and they 
 muft be exafperated at the extreme prejudice 
 which blackens the charafter of every Refor- 
 mer, and at the blind partiality which draws 
 every oppofer of it as an Angel of Light. 
 Bat v/ith whatever indignation every fincere 
 Proteftant may refent this treatment of his 
 Religion and its Friends, yet no one will be 
 difpleafed at having the Tenets of the Church 
 of Pvome fet forth by its own members ; for 
 the fubjedts in difpute being thus afcertained, 
 the objeftions againfl: them may be produced 
 with greater certainty, and matters brought to 
 a fpeedy conclution. 
 
 Since Mr. Phillips then hath given this fair 
 opportunity of joining ilTue with him, let his 
 
 caufe 
 
[ 5 ] 
 
 caufe be tried by a candid and ftrift exami- 
 nation ', and if, Sir, you will give me leave, I 
 will communicate to the Publick, through the 
 channel of your Paper, fome Obfervations upon 
 His Hiftory and Religion. 
 
 And that they may be digefted into fome 
 order, it will be proper to begin with Remarks 
 upon his Defcription of the Reformation, and 
 a particular Difcuffion of the two Great Oc- 
 currences that dlftinguiihed the Reign of 
 Henry the eighth, viz. the transferring the 
 Supremacy of the Church from the Pope to 
 the King 3 and the diiTolution of the Religious 
 Houfes in this Kingdom : Then to examine 
 fairly and freely fome of the principal Doftrines 
 of the Church of Rome, which this Biogra- 
 pher hath advanced and maintained. 
 
 And laftly, to expofe his prejudice and par- 
 tiality, in drawing the characters of the per- 
 fons he hath introduced into his books. 
 
 But before thcfe Remarks are entered upon, 
 it will be neceffarv to fet before the Reader 
 a brief account of the State of the Church of 
 England before the Reformation. 
 
 February 5, 1765. Your's, 
 
 C A N D I D U S. 
 
[ 6 ] 
 LETTER II. 
 
 IT is well known to all who are the leaft 
 converfant in the Hiftory of England, that 
 the Popes before the reign of Edward the 
 firft, and indeed for a long time after, con- 
 fidered this Kingdom as a conquered Coun- 
 try, and exercifed their Ecclefiaftical Power 
 over it in the moil delpotick manner : They 
 collated to almoft all the Church Preferments, 
 not excepting the Bifliopricks and Arch-Bi- 
 fhopricks ; mod of the richeft benefices were 
 conferred on foreigners, particularly the Cardi- 
 nals and their relations, who enjoyed the pro- 
 fits by virtue of the Pope's difpenfations, with- 
 out any refidence upon them : Frequent Taxes 
 were impofed on the Clergy under pretence 
 of a Croifade ; the Popes had alfo the firft 
 Fruits and Tenths of all the livings ; the 
 Clergy were obliged to maintain their Legates 
 and Nuncios at a great expence, to pay them 
 procurations, and to make large prefents to 
 them ; which continually drained the kingdom 
 of its money. 
 
 The Supremacy of the See of Rome 
 in the Church of England was the occa- 
 
 fion 
 
[ 7 ] 
 
 fion of perpetual contefts between the Pope 
 and the King, and between the Ecclefiaftical 
 and Civil Migiftrates -, the boundaries of their 
 feveral rights could never be fettled ; they 
 both laid claim to the fame things, and their 
 powers were always interfering. 
 
 The Clergy not only infifted upon the pri- 
 vilege of being exempted from the cognizance 
 of the Civil Courts and the Trial of Lay Ju- 
 ries, but they extended their own jurifdidtion 
 to matters purely Civil, under the pretence of 
 there being no caufe where Religion was not 
 concerned. They were fure of being fupported 
 by the Pope, and in return they confidered 
 him as their only fovereign, and always joined 
 with him in his encroachments upon the Pre- 
 rogatives of the Crown : Thefe were the ne- 
 ceflary and fatal confequences of having two 
 independent abfolute heads to the fame bodv, 
 or what is called Imperium in Imperio -, the 
 kingdom was diflradled for feveral centuries 
 with their mutual contentions ; the Papal 
 Power triumphed over the Regal till the reign 
 of Edward the firft. But the ufurpations of 
 the See of Rome daily encreafing, the People 
 grew weary of them, and the King, with the 
 Parliament, refolved to take effectual mcaflires 
 
 to 
 
[ 8 ] 
 
 to reilraln them. They began with the ftatute 
 of Mortmain, which was enadted in Edward 
 the firft's time, and gave a fevere check to 
 the growing riches of the Hierarchy ; Some 
 efforts hkewife were made to deprive the Pope 
 of his Collations to the Bifliopricks in this and 
 the fucceeding reign, which were perfected by 
 Edward the third, when the ftatute of Pro- 
 vifos took place, which cut the Pope off from 
 all Collations to Benefices, and prohibited the 
 Clergy, under very fevere penalties, from 
 fuing for Refervations or Provifions from the 
 Court of Rome : In this reign alfo the famous 
 ftatute of Praemunire was paffed, which for- 
 bid the carrying any caufes into Foreign or 
 Ecclefiaftical Courts which belonged to .the 
 King's Courts ^ the offenders againft this AS: 
 were imprifoned and all their lands and goods 
 confifcated to the King. Thefe laws were 
 confirmed and enlarged in feveral fucceeding 
 reigns. 
 
 On the other hand, the Pope and the Clergy 
 were not idle in their own defence; they ex- 
 erted their whole ftrength againft the civil 
 power ; inhibitions were iffued out from the 
 Court of Rome ; the Laity who fubmitted to 
 thefe ftatutes, were laid under an Interdiction, 
 
 and 
 
[ 9 ] 
 
 and when they continued obftinate were ex- 
 communicated, the King and the Parhament 
 v/ere fometimes included in this fentence : 
 The Popes aifo proceeded fo far as to aflume 
 a power of diffohing fabjedls from their alle- 
 giance to their Sovereigns, and obliging them 
 to depofe and murder them -, nay, fome of the 
 Popes, through the phrenfy of their ambition, 
 thought themfelves invefted with all Temporal 
 as well as Spiritual Powers ; and confidered 
 Kings and Princes as vafTals to the See of 
 Rome ; one of them in particular, by his 
 fole authority, publifhed firft a truce between 
 the two kingdoms of England and Scotland, 
 when they were at war with one another, and 
 then commiffioned his Legate to prefcribe the 
 terms, and proclaim a Peace between them, 
 without the confent of either party, and againft 
 the will at leaft of One of them, and compel- 
 led them pundlually to keep it under pain of 
 excommunication : During thefe contefls be- 
 tween the Ecclefiaftical and Temporal Powers, 
 which lafted above two hundred years, the peo- 
 ple of England lay under the dreadful neceffity 
 of ferving two Supreme Governors, whofe com- 
 mands were indifpenfable and contradidory, 
 and confequendy they lived in a perpetual 
 
 C {late 
 
[ lO ] 
 
 ftate of difobedience, and were never fecure 
 either in their perfons or their properties. 
 
 This was the ilate of the kingdom with re- 
 iped: to the Supremacy. 
 
 In the year 1377, which was the laft of 
 Edward the Third, Dr. John Wicklifr, Redor 
 of Lutherworth, in the diocefe of Lincoln^ 
 began to preach and write againft the Do6lrines 
 ^nd Tov/ers of the Church of Rome -, his prin- 
 cipal fubjedls were Tranfubftantiation , the 
 Pope's Supremacy ; his Exercife of the Keys 
 of Heaven and Hell above other Bifhops 3 the 
 Lawfulnefs, and even Duty of Temporal Ru- 
 lers to deprive Ecclefiafticks of their Endow- 
 mentSj when they made an ill ufe of them, 
 or when their greatnefs is inconiiflent v/ith, or 
 injurious to, the welfare of the State -, that the 
 Holy Scriptures are a perfed Rule of Life -,. that 
 Monaftick Severities are unnecefTary^ that no 
 Ecclefiaftick, as fuch, hath power to imprifon or 
 punifli offenders, either in their perfons or eflates. 
 Here was properly the beginning of the Re- . 
 formation in England, or, as our Author is 
 pleafed to call it, of the Defecftion of one of 
 the faireft portions of the Catholick Church ; 
 for thefe Articles were publickly maintained 
 by Wickliff, and received by all degrees of 
 
 people. 
 
[ " ] 
 
 people, by men of letters, and perfbns of 
 quality : They were efpoufed by many ftu- 
 dents at Oxford, among, whom were fome 
 Bohemians, who carried his dodtrines into 
 their own country, where they foon ipread over 
 great part of Europe. They were favoured 
 likewife by the great men at Court, efpeci- 
 ally by John of Ghant, Duke of Lancafter ; 
 and Lord Percy, Earl Marflial, who perfo- 
 nally appeared in the behalf of Wickliff, and 
 proteded him from the profecutions of the 
 Pope and the Clergy. This great man, who 
 hath indifputably the honour of being the 
 Firft Protefler againft the docSrines of the 
 Church of Rome, and to whom not only the 
 Church of England but all Chriflendom are 
 indebted for their Reformation, was endowed 
 with a clear underftanding and folid judg- 
 ment, accompanied with a ftrong memory and 
 lively imagination, which he improved by 
 intenfe ftudy and application, fo that he had 
 no equal in his time ; and indeed he became 
 fo eminent for his parts and erudition that 
 none of the Prelates or Pillars of the Romifli 
 Church dared to write againft him for fear of 
 having their ignorance expofed, and their 
 caufe more injured by his fuperior learning^: 
 C 2 He 
 
[ 12 ] 
 
 He had alfo fuch an unblemiflied character 
 as to his life and converfation, that his moft 
 avowed enemies never charged him with any 
 immoralities ; even our Biographer, who went 
 much farther out of his way to abufe Henry 
 the fecondj for oppofing his great Saint and 
 Martyr Thomas a Becket, did not care to 
 foul his pen with any ilandcr upoil this 
 Arch Apoftate. 
 
 LETTER IIL 
 
 ^Pv. John Wickliff died a natural death 
 in the year 1384, but his dodrines 
 did not die with him ; his difciples were fo 
 numerous, that even in his life-time, it was 
 a proverbial faying, " Two men could not be 
 *^ found together, without one being a Lo!- 
 *' lard or Wickliffian ;" and they continued 
 to increafe after his death ; fo that in the fpace 
 of four or five years, they began an adual 
 feparation from the Church of Rome, and 
 had Priefts among themfelves to perform di- 
 vine fervice, agreeable to their reform^ed opi- 
 nions 5 thefe pretended Schifmaticks or he- 
 reticks, finding themfelves fupported by an 
 infinite number of friends, endeavoured to get 
 
 their 
 
[ u ] 
 
 their principles approved of by Parliament ; 
 and in the year 1395, prefented a remon- 
 ftrance, containing twelve articles againft the 
 dodrines of the Church of Rome, to the 
 Houfe of Commons. Anathema s and Excom- 
 munications, the then Ratio ultima Pontifcis 
 Romania were thundered: out againft them ; 
 but this fpiritual artillery proving ineffedual, 
 the Clergy v^ere refolved to make ufe of car- 
 nal weapons, and in the reign of Richard the 
 fecond, they procured a general licence to im- 
 prifon Hereticks 3 this indeed was foon revo- 
 ked 3 but in the year 1405 they had greater 
 fuccefs, r'for through their influence upon 
 Henry the fourth, they obtained the famous 
 fanguinary ftatute T)e Heretico Comburendo^ 
 which v/as no fooner pafied but William 
 Sawtre was apprehended and condemned by 
 the Eccleliaftical Court for being a Lollard ^ 
 he was then delivered over to the Civil Ma- 
 giftrate and burnt, by virtue of a writ di- 
 rea:ed to the Mayor and Sheriffs of London : 
 This man was the firft that fuffered death 
 for Religion in England by a legal procefs, 
 and ftands foremoft in the Proteftant Mar- 
 ti'rology of this kingdom : The civil wars 
 between the Houfes of York and Lancafter 
 
 breaking 
 
[ '+ ] 
 
 breaking out foon after, religious difputes 
 were in a great nieafure fuppreffed, and wc 
 hear but little of them till the reign of Henry 
 the feventh, when they revived, and were 
 carried on with greater heat than ever through 
 the three fucceeding reigns j and in the fourth 
 terminated in the total overthrow of thb 
 Papal Power, and the eftablifhment of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 Befides thcfe ufurpations and fuperftitious 
 dodlrines of the Romifli Church, there was a 
 third caufe which raifed great clamours againft 
 it, and this was the general depravity and 
 corruption of the times : the church in the 
 14th and 15th centuries had been miferably 
 diftraded by contentions between the Pope 
 and a General Council, between two General 
 Councils, and between two Popes. During 
 thefe fchifms all difciplhic was loft, and fpi- 
 ritual wickednefs prevailed in high places ; 
 perfons of the moft profligate chara6lers were 
 advanced to the papal dignity; they were in 
 general illiterate, proud, ambitious, rapacious 
 and cruel : And of one of them in particular a 
 celebrated Roman Catholic Hiftorian fays, 
 that he would have been the moft wicked 
 man in the world, if his baftard fon liad not 
 
 been 
 
[ M 3 
 
 been more wicked than himfelf : the diflblute 
 manners of the Ecclefiafticks of all orders 
 and degrees, of the fuperior and inferior, of 
 the regular as well as fecular Clergy, brought 
 them into extreme contempt, gave infinite 
 offence to the people, and tempted them to 
 fufpeft the principles of their religion, which 
 had no influence upon the prad:ice of its 
 profelTors. 
 
 Our Author, Mr. Phillips, acknowledges 
 that a Reformation was neceflary at thefe 
 times, and that it was loudly called for by the 
 true friends of the Church : but then he takes 
 care to explain himfelf upon this head. " It 
 muft be obferved, fays he, that not one of 
 thefe great men, who (6 earneftly defired the 
 Reformation of the Church, ever entertained 
 a thought of changing a fmgle Article of her 
 Faith, or abolifhing any part of her Woriliip , 
 and when turbulent and feditious fpirlts pre- 
 fumed to cenfure her Tenets, or difpute the 
 Authority of her Paftors, and particularly of 
 her chief Biihop, they rofe up in defence of 
 what an uninterrupted Tradition had delivered 
 down to them, and looked on a breach with 
 the Catholic Church, as the greateft of all 
 evils. All their zeal was to correft abufcs 
 
 which 
 
[ ^6 ] 
 
 v/hich had vitiated the Primitive Difcipllne, 
 and recal the Piety and Purity of Manners 
 from which Chriftians of all orders had uni- 
 verfally fallen." Book I. Page 320. 
 
 The want of a Reformation is a point in 
 which we are both agreed, and our author is 
 very full and explicit upon it ^ but fince his 
 reafons for it are not fo general as mine, it 
 would not be doing juftice to him, nor per- 
 haps give equal fatisfadlion to the Reader, if 
 they vvtvQ not fet forth in his own words ; 
 this therefore I will do in as brief a manner 
 as the fubjedt will permit. 
 
 " The eafe and opulence, fays Mr. Phillips, 
 which the Clergy had long enjoyed, brought 
 on thofe inconveniencies which always attend 
 immoderate wealth, though lodged in confe- 
 crated hands : On whatever motives the Croi- 
 fades or Ploly Wars were undertaken, they 
 had a mifchievous efFed: on the morals of the 
 greateft part of Europe ; and the age we are 
 now to enter on, had drained all the dregs 
 which the abfence of Bifliops from their 
 diocefes, the relaxation of canonical penitence, 
 and the importation of foreign vices, added 
 to the evils of war in general, had left behind 
 them. A gloomy, unproiitable, and litigious 
 
 kind 
 
[ ^7 ] 
 
 kind of learning had taken poffeflion of the 
 fchools which anfvvered no purpofe of Re- 
 ligion or Reafon. 
 
 ** To thefe difadvantages under which 
 Chriftianity then laboured, the Fifteenth Cen- 
 tury had likewife the misfortune to fee moft 
 of the Popes, during that period, altogether 
 unworthy the fupreme place they held ; and 
 their Court, iaftead of giving that example 
 which the world had a right to expedl from it, 
 was infed:ed with vices, which, like a torrent, 
 fpread themfelves over all nations. 
 
 " The fcandalous traffick of the Grants of 
 Indulgencies, was the glaring diforder of thole 
 times, and had raifed fuch a general difcon- 
 tent in all orders, as endangered the Grace 
 itfelf, and the Authority which conferred it, 
 to fall into contempt. Leo X. had caufed 
 Indulgencies to be publifhed throughout the 
 Chriilian world, for all perfons who contri- 
 buted to the building St. Peter's Church, on 
 which magnificent ftrudture he was wholly in- 
 tent, and towards carrying on a war he had 
 projected againft the Turk. It muft be con- 
 feffed, that fome of the Dominican Friars laid 
 themfelves open to cenfure, by the exorbitant 
 propofitions they advanced concerning the 
 
 D cfficz^y 
 
[ i8 ] 
 
 cflicacy of thefe Pardons, and Luther was a 
 proper perfon to avail himfelf of fuch an ad- 
 vantage ; he began by blaming the abule, and 
 then proceeded to condemn the thing, and to 
 fpeak of the Papal Power in fuch a manner, 
 as feveral Catholic Divines thought them- 
 felves obliged to oppofe him ; this refiftance 
 irritated the haughty fpirit of Luther, and he 
 continued to make frefh Attacks on different 
 Articles of the ancient Dodtrine, and to dif- 
 credit it in the minds of the people." Book L 
 Page 321, 322, 324. 
 
 T 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 H U S the Roman Catholic Divines 
 themfelves acknowledged that thefe 
 Abufes had broke the peace of the Church, 
 and been ufed as a pretext for an open defec- 
 tion from it ; they alfo judged it neceffary to 
 apply fomc remedy to thefe evils which they 
 faw daily increafing upon them, but it was 
 fbmc time before they could agree what that 
 remedy (Iiould be j at laft they refolved upon a 
 General Council, which was foon after held at 
 Trent, and, according to our Author, " was 
 one of the moft illuflrious Afiemblies man- 
 kind 
 
[ 19 ] 
 
 kind had ever beheld, and met on an occafion 
 well deferving the attention of fiich a Senate, 
 viz. the Reformation of the Chriftian world :" 
 But however important the end might be, the 
 means were very inadequate, and the prefcri- 
 bed remedy totally unavailing ; as will plainly 
 appear if we confider the nature of this x^^ffem- 
 bly, the temper of the Perfons who compofed 
 it, the manner of their Proceeding in it, and 
 the Effects it produced. 
 
 " Several German Princes and States, fays 
 our Author, would have it compofed not of 
 Biiliops and Priefts only, as had hitherto been 
 the pradice of the Church, but of Lay Per- 
 fons alfo. The general ignorance of the com- 
 mon People, v/ith refpecfh to Religion, and 
 the little regard they paid to what they knew 
 of it, difpofed them to the fame perverfenefs." 
 Book I. p. 326. But however prefumptuous 
 this motion was deemed, or however fcornfuUy 
 it was rejected, it doth not appear to have any 
 thing in it cither unreafonable or improper; 
 for Laymen are a part of the Church as well as 
 the Clergy, and equally concerned in the fub- . 
 jefts of Faith and Pradice to be treated of. 
 And there always were Perfons among the 
 Laity as much difintercfted, and as well qua- 
 D 2 lified 
 
[ 20 ] 
 
 lified in all refpeds for refloring ancient Dii- 
 cipline, and correding abufes in Religion as 
 any of the Clerical Order ; fo that there could 
 be no reafon alledged from thefe points, why 
 they fhould not be admitted as the Reprefenta- 
 tives of the People into thefe Religious Afiem- 
 blies 5 and necefiity upon this particular occa- 
 fiOn feemed to require it, for the purpofes of 
 this Council could not be properly anfvvered 
 without them : Great part of the grievances 
 which called for redrefs were univerfally ac- 
 knowledged to be Oppreiiions which the Peo- 
 ple fuffered from the Pope and the Hierachy, 
 the Corruptions in the Court of Rome, and 
 the enormities of the Clergy, with feveral 
 other Inch like religious abufes : now it is an 
 eflabliihed maxim in all judicial proceedings, 
 that no one, if it can be poffibly avoided, 
 fliould fit as a judge in his ov/n caufe, or 
 ijirhere there is reafon to fuppofe he may be 
 prejudiced or partial to either fide : according 
 to this rule, therefore, it was very unfit for 
 the Clergy to be the fole Arbitrators in things 
 which purely concerned themfelves, or between 
 themfelves and the Laity, or between the Pope 
 and the Laity, becalife it might be reafon ably 
 
 prefumed 
 
[ 21 ] 
 
 prefumed they would be under an undue in* 
 fluence in all thefe cafes. 
 
 Our Author here acknowledges that the 
 Clergy were too opulent, or that immoderate 
 wealth was lodged in confecrated hands, and 
 the Inconveniences (a very foft Term) which 
 always attend it, were to be redrefled by this 
 Council : But were they in whofe hands this 
 confecrated wxalth was lodged proper perfons 
 to redrefs them ? Could it be expedled that 
 they would pafs any fuch felf-denying Ordi- 
 nance, and deftroy the EfFefts by removing 
 the Caufe ? Or were there any Propofals made 
 for divefling themfelves of their enormous 
 Riches, or the lead Meafures taken to pre- 
 vent the future increafe of thefe Inconveni- 
 ences ? It v/as indeed impoffible there could 
 be : for it is an avowed principle among the 
 Romifh Hierachy, which they never depart 
 from, and this is Hrenuoufly infifted on by 
 the Author of this Hiftory, that what is given 
 to the Church cannot be taken back again. 
 This Grievance therefore however loud it 
 might call for Redrefs, could not be heard by 
 the members who compofed this Council, as 
 they difclaimed all fach Power, though it was 
 pretty efFedtu ally cor redled in -thefe Kingdoms 
 
 about 
 
[ 22 ] 
 about this time, by a Lay Aft, or an A6t of 
 Parliament, for the fuppreffion of the Reli- 
 gious Houfes. 
 
 The cafe was the fame with refped to their 
 exadlions on the Laity : there were none to re- 
 mind the Clergy of them, and it was the lead 
 of their thoughts to remind themfelves, for like 
 the Pharifees of old. They bind heavy burdem 
 and grievous to be born, and lay them on mem 
 JImdders, but they themfelves will not move them 
 with one of their fingers. Mat. xxiii. 4. 
 
 But as the fcandalous Traffick in the Grant 
 of Indulgences was the glaring diforder which 
 haftened the calling of this Council, it might 
 naturally be imagined that great part of their 
 time would be engroffed in healing it. This 
 flagrant evil gave fuch univerfal offence, that 
 the Clergy themfelves were afliamed of it ; and 
 one of them before this General Meeting, pro- 
 pofed a fcheme for reforming it, but it was not 
 approved of 3 and the expedient which was ufed 
 for evading this, and every other amendment, 
 was a notable inftance of the Artifice and Chi- 
 canery of the Court of Rome : The paffage in 
 our Author which fets it forth, is too curious 
 not to be repeated. 
 
 *^ As thefe Linovations had began by fome 
 
 abufes 
 
[ ^3 ] 
 
 abufes In the Grant of Indulgences, Adrian, 
 who was an able Divine, thought of fetting 
 forth the doftrine relating to them in fuch a 
 manner as to remove whatever had given of- 
 fence 5 and having laid afide this defign, he was 
 advifed to re-eftablifh the ufe of pubHc Peni- 
 tence, as it had been praftifed through many 
 ages with great profit 3 but was informed by 
 thofe he confulted, that the depraved ftate of 
 Chriftianity rendered the execution of it abfo- 
 lutely imprafticable. He complained to Sode- 
 rino, his friend and confident, of the flender 
 dilpofition he found even in the Officers of his 
 own Court, to reform feveral unwarrantable 
 pradices, which caufed the Innovators to fay, 
 that every thing was venal at Rome. The Car- 
 dinals, who had been employed under the 
 three laft Popes, Alexander, Julius, and Leo, 
 reprefented to him, that in the fituation things 
 then were, thofe meafures, which in other cir- 
 cumftances might be advifeable, would then 
 only ferve to malce the difturbers of the 
 public tranquility more infolent, and heighten 
 their credit with the people : that they would 
 look on the intended Reformation as a concef- 
 fion of the abufes they had complained of; 
 and inflead of being fatisfied with what he 
 
 fhould 
 
C H ] 
 
 fhould do in order to remedy evils, which 
 length of time had never failed to introduce, 
 would go on to demand other eflential changes, 
 and thus throw every thing into confufion." 
 Book I. p. 327. 
 
 The Roman Catholicks held that this 
 Council was infpired, and Mr, Phillips ex- 
 prefsly declares, that the members were af» 
 fured of a fupernatural affiftance at this high 
 Tribunal : how then could there be any con- 
 fufion ? or why were they afraid of this, or 
 any other effential Change ? If the Grant of 
 Indulgences had been fcandaloully perverted, 
 this was certainly the feafon for reffifying it, 
 and reftoring Religion to its primitive Purity, 
 when they were under the direction of the 
 Holy Spirit. The refufing therefore to make 
 this conceffion of abufes, which all the world 
 exclaimed againft, and thefe members them- 
 felves were alliamed of, was a plain indica- 
 tion that they did not care to trufi: to their 
 boafted infallibility : They were confcious to 
 themfelves that the corruptions of their Church 
 were fo many, that if they once began there 
 would be no end of reforming, and that the 
 depraved ftate of Chriftianity rendered the 
 execution of it imprafticable -, for w^hich rea- 
 
 fons 
 
[ 25 ] 
 
 fons they thought the fliorteft and fureft me- 
 thod would be not to admit of any abufe at 
 all. The Pope likewife was extremely tenaci- 
 ous of his Claims, and would not give up 
 the leaft part of them ; and this unerring Af- 
 fembly was aware that if they fhould offer to 
 difpute any of them, he would retaliate upon 
 the Clergy, by fetting his Legates upon their 
 Exadlions ; whilft Apoftates would be availing 
 themfelves of their altercations : It was there- 
 fore agreed that there fhould be no Inquifition, 
 or alteration on either fide, but things fhould 
 continue in fiatu quo. 
 
 Thus the pretended Ends of this grand 
 Council, which continued for eighteen years, 
 were entirely fet afide, and inftead of any Re- 
 formation, all the errors that had ever been 
 adopted into the Church were perfifted in 
 and ratified ; and the evils which length of 
 time had never failed to introduce, were 
 left for length of time to carry out again : 
 The Lutherans and Calvinifl:s v/ere indeed 
 highly exafperated at thefe proceedings, and 
 the breach in the Church, inftead of being 
 clofed, was made wider; but the Council 
 cared not for thofe things, their whole drift 
 was to vindicate their erroneous Doftrines, to 
 E palliate 
 
[ 26 ] 
 
 palliate their Ufurpations, and aiTiUfe their own 
 people with fome fpecious fiiew of a Refor- 
 mation 5 for which reafons it was defervedly 
 called a Solemn Banter upon Religion, and 
 though our Author is grievoufly offended at this 
 impious fneer, as he is pleafed to term it, yet 
 I think it would be doing this Council more 
 juftice, if it was reprefented as a Pompous 
 Exhibition of Ecclefiaftical Arrogance, and 
 an infamous infult upon the common fenfc 
 of the Laity. 
 
 LETT E R V. 
 
 TH E exclufion of the Laity from the 
 Council of Trent was not only incon- 
 fillent with natural juftice, but alfo contrary 
 to the pracftice of the Church in the firft 
 Council held at Jerufalem 5 as may be infer- 
 red from the brief account which is given of 
 it in the 15th chapter of the Ads of the 
 i\poftles 5 upon which plan our Author fays 
 this general one at Trent proceeded -, for there 
 we find that Paul and Barnabas were fent by 
 the brethren at Antioch to Jerufalem, to con- 
 fult with the Apoftles and Elders, whether it 
 was needful to circumcife the Gentile Con- 
 vert?, 
 
[ 27 ] 
 
 verts, and command them to keep the law 
 of Mofes : When they were afiembled at 
 Jerufalem, and there had been much difpu- 
 ting, Peter rofe up and fpoke, ver. 7 -, then 
 all the 77inltitude kept filence, and gave audi- 
 ence to Paul and Barnabas, ver. 12 ; after 
 they had fpoken, James delivered his opinion, 
 ver. 13 ; then it pleafed the Apoftles and 
 Elders, with the ''ji^hole Churchy to fend cho- 
 fen men of their ovvn company to Antioch, 
 with Paul and Barnabas, and wrote letters 
 by them after this manner : The Apoftles, 
 Elders and Brethren fend greeting unto tlie 
 Brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch 
 and Syria and Cilicia^ ver. 22, 23: Though 
 it is not exprefsly faid that all the Chrifiians, 
 who were then at Jerufalem, were convened 
 to this Affembly, yet it is im. plied in two or 
 three pafTages, viz. when there had been much 
 difputing, the whole multitude, <uja.v to tta^i^os, 
 gave audience ; that is the whole Body of 
 Chriftians, Bifhops, Prefoyters, and the Laity. 
 And again, the whole Cknrch, as it ftands con- 
 tra- diftinguiihed from the Apoftles and Elders, 
 muft mean all the Converts to Chriftianity. 
 The Brethren alfo are diflinguiilied in the 
 fame manner ; which term mud include the 
 E 2 Lay 
 
[ 28 ] 
 
 Lay-Brethren, becaufe the letters which were 
 fent to all the Gentile Converts wxre di- 
 reded to the Brethren, 
 
 Mr. Phillips aflerts, that St. Peter was the 
 Prince and Chief of the Apoftolic College, 
 and prefided at this meeting at Jerufalem, 
 and that he opened it, b. i. p. 421. He 
 produces likewife a quotation from Cardinal 
 Pole's differtation on General Councils, where 
 he fays, that St. Peter, as Vicegerent of the 
 Son of GOD, exerted the offxe of Father of 
 the future age, of Guardian and Paftor of 
 the Church, in the firft Council held at Jerufa- 
 lem, b. IV. p. 345. But this confident affer- 
 tion of Mr. Phillips is fupported by no kind 
 of argument, nor any authority of the Holy 
 Scriptures 3 for in the relation of this Council 
 there is not the leaft mention of St. Peter's 
 prefiding at it, or having any pre-eminence 
 over the other Apoftles ; and for ought that 
 appears, they were all upon an equality s but 
 if there was any difference betw^een them, or 
 if any one was fuperior to the reft, it was 
 St. James, who was Bifhop of Jerufalem, and 
 clofed the debate with his Speech : And 
 though Peter was the firft of the Apoftles 
 that Ipoke, yet it cannot be faid with any pro- 
 priety 
 
L 29 ] 
 
 priety that he opened this Council ; for there 
 had been much difputing before he gave his 
 opinion. 
 
 From all which It is manifeft, that this 
 Council at Trent was conftruded upon a plan 
 far different from that at Jerufalem : the Lay- 
 Brethren here were fo far from being admit- 
 ted to debate and difpute upon the fubjedls 
 laid before it, that whatever orders were made 
 it was expeded they fhould not prefume to 
 hefitate upon or fcrutinize, but to receive and 
 obey them with an abfolute fubmiffion. The 
 Church, fays Mr. Phillips, in his explication 
 of Pole's fentiments concerning the decrees 
 of General Councils, is not a popular fbte in 
 which things are to be decided by the multi- 
 tude, but a ftate in which the people are to 
 affent to, and execute what is ordered by 
 their rulers. Thus St. Paul, explaining the 
 fam of his Embafly or Apoillefhip to the He- 
 brews, who wxre united to the new people 
 of the Gentiles, and become a part of the 
 Church, fays. Obey (Heb. xiii. 17.) thofe 
 who are placed over you, and foew all fub- 
 miffion, becaufe they are appointed to watch 
 over you, as being accountable for your fouls. 
 
 B. i. p. 341. 
 
 This 
 
[ 30 ] 
 This text in the original Greek is as follows, 
 Tl€i2rB(r^e toTo- ^y^jjihois vjmcov jcal VTrsiTceTB ' oLuto) 
 yctp dypvirvBaiv VTrep tcos -^u^UfV VfJL^v^ c^; Xoyov 
 aTToS'coa-ovTes ' which is literally tranllated in our 
 Englifli Bibles ; " Obey them that have the 
 rule over you, and fubmit yourfelves, for they 
 watch for your fouls, as they that mull give 
 account." In all the Greek manufcripts which 
 Mills and Kufter collated, there is hardly any 
 various readings upon this text, and not one 
 that makes the Icaft alteration in the fenfe 
 of it. I dare fay, therefore, that Mr. Phil- 
 lips hath no authority for his verfion of it, 
 which is not only wretchedly bad, but alfo 
 falfe in a very material part of it ; and which 
 he defignedly made fo to give a fand:ion to 
 his prefent argument, without conlidering that 
 he is in a Proteftant country, where people 
 have the liberty of reading the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, and are not obliged to take up with 
 what he is pleafed to pafs for them : There is 
 a wide difference between fiew all fubmijjionj 
 and fubmit yourfelves. It is evident that Mr. 
 Phillips intended to prove from hence the en- 
 tire iubjei^ion of the Laity, and it is as evi- 
 dent, that the Apoille only meant a fubjec- 
 tion in things which are reafonable^ and who 
 
 are 
 
[ 31 ] 
 
 are to judge of this reafonablenefs ? Mull; it 
 not be they who are to obey ? For otherv/ife 
 how are they to diftinguifli what they are to 
 be fubjeft to, and what not ? Or how elfe can 
 they give a reafon of the hope that is in 
 them ? This then is all that St. Paul enjoins ; 
 but the Church of Rome goes infinitely far- 
 ther : that requires the moil abjed: fubmiffion. 
 It is not as Pole or Phillips obferves, a popu- 
 lar ftate, neither doth it conftitute an Arif- 
 tocracy ; but it is the moft extraordinary 
 defpotifm that ever was ereded, imponng a 
 flavery more oppreffive than what the wretch 
 at the oar or in the mine is condemned to ; 
 a flavery not of the body, but of the will, 
 confcience, and all the intelledual powers of 
 the mind. 
 
 There is no occafion to warn Proteftants 
 from being carried aw^ay by fuch imperious 
 treatment -, they are not to be talked out of 
 the ufe of their underftandings, neither will 
 they be borne dow^n by round ipfe dixits^ or 
 mere didatorial or dogmatical affertions : No 
 man, with his eyes open, and in broad day- 
 light, will ever be perfuaded that he cannot 
 fee, though his Holinefs, with all his College 
 of Cardinals, fliould magiflerially pronounce 
 
 him 
 
[ 32 ] 
 
 him to be ftark blind, and doom him to eter- 
 nal perdition if he did not believe it. 
 
 I will therefore addrefs myfelf to the Laity 
 of the Church of Rome, and crave their at- 
 tention to what I have farther to offer upon 
 this head. 
 
 *> LETTER VL 
 
 C"^ ENTLEMEN, you are rational Beings, 
 T capable of thinking, deliberating, and 
 difcourfing as well as your Clergy: they are 
 not more, nor you lefs than Men ; why then 
 do you fuffer yourfelves to be treated as per- 
 fons void of underftanding, as brute creatures ? 
 who authorifed them to impofe this hard con- 
 dition upon you, of unmanning yourfelves, 
 and tamely furrendering up your reafon to 
 them ? He who endowed you with reafon, 
 expecfls a reafon able fervice from you j and no- 
 thing is more impious than to offer the facri- 
 fice of ignorance upon the altar of the God of 
 Wifdom : When he condefcended to expof- 
 poftulate with the people of Ifrael concerning 
 their idolatry, he appealed to their underiftand- 
 ings, and called upon them to confider and 
 {hew themfelves men. Judge for yourfelves ; 
 
 do 
 
[ 33 ] 
 
 do not your fenfcs and your rcafon tell you, 
 that the image you worfliip is a mere log of 
 wood, as fenlclefs inanimate matter as the rc- 
 fidue which you have put into the fire and 
 warmed yourfelves with ? Come, fays the great 
 Jehovah to the Ifraelites, let us reafon toge- 
 ther : are not my v/ays equal i are not your 
 ways unequal ? Bring them to the rule of 
 equity which I have fet before you, and fee 
 which of us a<fls moft agreeable to it. Thus 
 God, the Fountain of Power, and to whom 
 alone all fubmifilon is due, gracioufly permits, 
 nay calls upon his creatures, whom he had 
 formed after his own image, to reafon upon 
 his proceedings. But how different is this 
 from the treatment you ir^et with from your 
 Ecclefiaftical Governors ? Do they not tell you, 
 that you have no bufinefs to canvafs, enquire, 
 or examine into their decrees; your whole pro- 
 vince being to affent and obey : You are to 
 give up your reafon to thefe fpiritual guides, 
 to pin your faith upon their lleeves, and to be 
 all fubjection to them ; they are the phyficians 
 of your Souis, and therefore you mufl take 
 their prefcriptions v/ithout any fcruple, and 
 Avallow their pills without chewing. This is 
 the plain meaning of one of your Romifli 
 
 F Priefts, 
 
[ 34 ] 
 
 Priells, though he expreffes himfelf in an af- 
 fededly perplexed, and obfcure flile, when 
 fpeaklng of the Council of Trent, he fays, 
 '' This High Court of Judicature contemplates 
 the moft fliblime myfteries without being loll: 
 in their blaze : flie propofes them without am- 
 biguity, being affured to find in thofe to whom 
 file fpeaks, a readinefs to captivate their un- 
 derftanding to the obedience of the faith, and 
 a flrength of mind capable of fupporting the 
 weight of the divine fecret." B. i. p. 424. 
 That is, if I underfland him right, the weight 
 of its decifions : a prodigious weight indeed ! 
 which no flrength of mind can fupport but 
 what contains a mountain of Bigotry ; or in 
 the fulnefs of its faith can fay, Credo quia 
 impojjibile ejl. 
 
 I am fenfible that your Church pretends to 
 be infallible, your Clergy alTert that it cannot 
 err either in its Dodlrines or its Praftice ; 
 fhould this infallibility be admitted, and that 
 by the Church w^as meant the Pope with his 
 Cardinals, or a General Council of Divines, 
 yet this fupernatural Gift would not authorize 
 them to deprive others of the ufe of their rea- 
 fon, or deftroy their right of private judg- 
 ment ; and indeed they do not direftly and 
 
 profefTcdly 
 
[ 35 ] 
 
 profefledly aflume this power over Proteftants, 
 but treat them with a little more ceremony 
 than they do you of their Communion ; even 
 this Author, when he addreffes himfelf to 
 Proteftants, vouchfafes to colour over his Doc- 
 trines with fome (hew of argument, as if he 
 appealed to their underftandings -, but he ob- 
 trudes them with a very Magifterial Air upon 
 his own People, as if they had no underftand- 
 ings to be appealed to. 
 
 But how do your fpiritual rulers prove this 
 infallibility which they lay claim to ? can they 
 demonftrate every Doclrine and Article of 
 their Faith, or juftify every Decree or Injunc- 
 tion which they have made ? w^ill not one 
 fingle error overthrow all their pretenfions ? 
 Give me leave then to point out one, from 
 many that might be produced, of which, pre- 
 judices apart, ye are very competent judges ; 
 and as this fubjedt properly belongs to you, 
 and moft nearly affeds your pradice, both 
 your Duty and your Intereft call upon you 
 
 •to give it a fair hearing and ftrid: examination. 
 Your Church hath always acknowledged 
 the Holy Scriptures, and efpecialiy the cano- 
 nical Books of the New Teftament, to be 
 written by infpiraticn, and to be at leafl of 
 F 2 equal 
 
[ 36 ] 
 
 equal authority v^^ith any of its Decrees or 
 Traditions. Now in the Gofpel of St. Mat- 
 thew it is written, that when Jefus Chrift inr 
 ftituted the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharift, 
 " He took Bread and bleffed it, and brake it, 
 and gave it the Difciples, and faid, Take, eat, 
 this is my Body ; and he took the Cup and 
 gave thanks, and gave it to them, faying 
 Drink ye all of it, for this is my Blood of 
 the New Teflament, which is fhed for many, 
 for the Remiffion of Sins." Mat. xxvi. 26, 
 27, 28. St. Mark fays the fame, and very 
 nearly in the fame vv^ords, Mark xiv. 22, 23, 
 24. St. Lukes defcription of this Inflitution 
 differs very little from them ^ as may be (ctn 
 in Luke x^n, 19, 20. We read in the Gof- 
 pel of St. Job?!, c. vi. v. 53, 54, " Jefus faid 
 unto them, (that is the jews) verily, verily, I 
 fay unto you, except ye eat the flefli of the 
 Son of Man, and drink his Blood, ye have no 
 Life in you ; vv^hofo eateth my Flefh, and 
 drinketh my Blood, hath eternal life 5 and I 
 will raife him up at the laft day. As thefe 
 words were fpoken long before the inflitution 
 of the Lord's Supper, it is the general re- 
 ceived opinion among Proteftants, that they 
 have no reference to it, and are only flrong 
 
 metaphorical 
 
L 37 ] 
 
 metaphorical expreffions of the DocSrInes of 
 Chrift J but fmce your Church always pro- 
 duces them as a proof of Tranfubftantiation, I 
 may take it for granted that you admit them as 
 alluding to this Sacrament, and may ufe them 
 as Argiitnentum ad Romanos, St. Faul like- 
 wife makes mention of this Sacrament, in his 
 firft Epiftle to the Corinthians^ x. i6. " The 
 Cup of Bleffing which we blefs, is it not the 
 Communion of the Blood of Chrift ? and the 
 Bread which we break, is it not the Commu- 
 nion of the Body of Chrift ?" And again, 
 chap. xi. 23, 24, 25, " The Lord Jefus, the 
 fame night that he was betrayed, took Bread, 
 and, when he had given thanks, he brake it, 
 and faid, Take, eat, this is my Body which is 
 broken for you ; this do ye in remembrance 
 of me. After the fame manner alfo he took 
 the Cup, when he had fupped faying. This 
 Cup is the New Teftament in my Blood : 
 This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remem- 
 brance of me." 
 
 Thefe I think are all the places in the New 
 Teftament where this Inftitution is fully, de- 
 scribed y and the receiving the Cup is as ex- 
 prefsly, and, if there be any difference, more 
 emphatically enjoined than the Receiving the 
 
 Bread : 
 
[ 38 ] 
 
 Bread : I a/k, therefore, for what reafon doth 
 your Church with-hold the Cup from you, 
 the Laity ? Is it not diredly contrary to the 
 exprefs words of Scripture ? " Drink ye all of 
 this," is a Command given by our Lord him- 
 felf, in the moft folemn manner ; it is his laft 
 Will, which he made jufl: before his death. 
 Upon what authority then doth your Church 
 dare to contradid: it ? or upon what aflurance 
 doth it take upon it to declare that the obli- 
 gation which our Lord hath laid upon all, 
 doth not extend to the Laity ? This prohibi- 
 tion is inconfiftent with the nature of this Sa- 
 crament, and fubverlive of one of the funda- 
 mental Articles of the Chriftian Religion ; and 
 what ftill aggravates this prefumption is, that 
 it is contrary to the conftant pradice of the 
 Primitive Chrillians, and a late innovation, 
 introduced but a few centuries before the Re^ 
 formation. It is amazing to me, therefore, 
 that you, the Laity, can fo quietly fubmit to 
 it, and thus paffively difobey fuch an exprefs 
 and important Command of our Saviour him- 
 feif. It is juftly to be queflioned, and in my 
 opinion a fcruple which every confcientious 
 Chriftian ought to make, whether this omif- 
 fion in one kind, doth not only render the 
 
 other 
 
[ 39 ] 
 
 Other inefFedual, but even ofFenfive to the 
 Deity ; and farther, the receiving the Cup in 
 this Sacrament, from your own interpretation 
 ot the Texts in St. Johns Gofpel, is made a 
 Condition neccffary to eternal Life. " Verily, 
 verily, I fay unto you," fays our Lord, " ex- • 
 cept ye eat the Flefli of the Son of Man, and 
 drink his Blood, ye have no life in you." 
 This defeft therefore is of extreme dangerous 
 confequence ; your Salvation is at ftake, and 
 calls upon you to confider v^ell this Text of 
 Holy Scripture. If this then be not an Error 
 in your Church, I do not know what an Er- 
 ror is. If our Saviour is to be obeyed, if he 
 be in the right, then your Church muft be in 
 the wrong ; and if it be in the wrong in one 
 point, it may be in a hundred ; and what is 
 ftill w^orfe, when it hath once adopted an Er- 
 ror, during the retenlion of this principle of In- 
 falHbility, it will hold it faft ; it may accumulate 
 Errors, and every day gather Corruptions -, but 
 it can never get rid of them. 
 
 Letter 
 
[ 40 ] 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 THIS Sacrament is a pofitive inftitution 
 of Chrift. He himfelf adminillered it 
 to his Apoftles, and by his example gave them 
 a fpecimen of the manner and method he 
 would have obferved in the future admini- 
 ftration of it : how then can it be wholly re- 
 ceived in either kind, when our Saviour hath 
 fo particularly ordered it to be received in 
 both ? and lince your Clergy themfelves receive 
 it in both kinds, why are you prohibited from 
 them ? Are they not as neceffary for you as 
 for them ? I do not pretend to know the mo- 
 tives for denying you the ufe of the Cup, but 
 whatever they are the confequence is the 
 fame to you. You have wilfully violated our 
 Saviour's ordinance ; and when ye fhall appear 
 before him, and he iliall afk, why did you 
 not celebrate this my inftitution as I ap- 
 pointed ? Did not I tell you abfolutely, that 
 except ye drink my blood ye have no life in 
 you ? Were not my commands as clear, pofi- 
 tive, and full, as what were given to your 
 firft parents, when they were ordered not to 
 eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good 
 
 and 
 
[ 41 ] 
 
 and Evil ? — What anfwer will ye make ? will 
 ye offer to excufe yourfelves by faying, that 
 our Priefts beguiled us, and that in the Coun- 
 cil of Trent it was unanimoufly decreed, " the 
 obligation of receiving the Eucharift in both 
 kinds did not extend to the Laity ? That in 
 the difpenfatlon of the Sacraments the Church 
 had a power to eftablifh fuch rites as do not 
 affed: their nature and fubftance ? and that the 
 Eucharift is wholly received in either kind ?'* 
 Book i. p. 396. and we thought that they were 
 to be obeyed fooner than you ^ — But this will 
 but exaggerate, rather than extenuate your 
 crimes. That you may not therefore be found 
 fpeechlefs, or worfe than fpeechlefs at this high 
 Tribunal, let me advife you to fly as faft as 
 you can from that Church which obliges you 
 to live in a continual tranfgreffion of our Sa- 
 viour's exprefs command, and in which you 
 run fo great a rifque of your falvation j and 
 join yourfelves to the Church of England, 
 where you may receive this Sacrament in both 
 kinds, according to our Saviour Chrift's Holy 
 Inftitution, and do every thing elfe that is ne- 
 ceffary for your foul's health. The vifible 
 Head of this Church is a Lay Brother, who 
 is zealous of the liberty, wherewith his mafter 
 
 G hadl 
 
[ 42 ] 
 
 hath made you free j under the prctedion of 
 his aufpicious government you will enjoy your 
 birth-right, and all the privileges v^hich your 
 underftanding entitles you to ; and in every 
 refpedl ye will be honoured as rational intel- 
 ligent Beings. His Clergy will embrace you 
 as their Equals and their Brethren, will perfed: 
 you in every good work, and make you wife 
 unto falvation. But to return to our Author. 
 
 The Reformation, fays he, as it was every 
 where termed, '' though purfued through end- 
 lefs changes, was fo far from producing any 
 amendment, that the morals of thofe who 
 relinquifhed the old Religion became vifibly 
 more degenerate. And its rapid progrefs was 
 foon reprefented by Luther, and fome of his 
 followers, as an argument of its truth, and 
 even as a declaration of Heaven in its favour : 
 but it foon found encouragement enough in all 
 the paffions of the mind of man, without ex- 
 ception, to make its fuccefs as little wonderful 
 as its original was honourable 5 though caufes 
 could not be more natural, and nothing was 
 lefs requifite than a miracle to give vogue to 
 Do6lrines which coindded with all the cor- 
 rupt inclinations of human nature." B. i. 
 pag. 330. 
 
 Is 
 
[ 43 ] 
 
 Is it credible, that the morals of thofe per- 
 fons, who relinquifhed their old Religion, 
 ihould become vifibly more degenerate when 
 their motives for relinquifliing it were the 
 total decay of Chriftian Piety, and the Profli- 
 gacy of the Court of Rome, which, like a de- 
 luge, had ipread itfelf over all Chriftendom ? 
 Thefe Corruptions naturally led them to fuf- 
 pe6l and enquire into the Dodrines of that 
 Church, which had either contributed to, or 
 at leafl: could not prevent thefe overflov/ings of 
 Ungodlinefs : and from hence they propofed, 
 by reducing their Religion to its original ftan- 
 dardj to reftore the purity and fimplicity of 
 manners which diftinguifhed the Primitive 
 Chriftians : Thefe Reformers were fo far from 
 encouraging mens paffions, or coinciding with 
 all the corrupt inclinations of human nature, 
 that they cut off every occafion for giving a 
 loofe to them, and laid all poffible reftraints 
 upon them. They had no Pardon-mongers, 
 nor Dealers in Licences to Sin : they did not 
 traffick in Remiffion of paft Offences, nor 
 truck with Indulgences for future Crimes. 
 They did not lead their people through the 
 abfurd rcund of Sin, Confefs, and be Ab- 
 folvedj nor encouraged men to begin new 
 G 2 fcores 
 
[ 44 ] 
 
 fcores by wipeing off the old ; their Churches 
 were no fandtuaries to Paricldes, Affaffins, or 
 atrocious Ruffians 3 it was their opinion, that 
 all men had fallen fhort of perfedtion, and the 
 beft were but unprofitable fervants 5 from 
 whence they inferred, that no one's deficien- 
 cies could be fupplied by the redundancy of 
 another's merits. Thefe Reformers, indeed, 
 difapproved of unnatural vows, and retrenched 
 unreafonable feverities -, but it was an Ar- 
 ticle of their Religion, '' that Faith without 
 good Works was dead, and even without Cha- 
 rity was nothing worth :" That an innocent 
 and a virtuous life was the neceffary qualifica- 
 tion of a Chriilian, and that a fincere Re- 
 pentance, a total Converfion of the Heart, and 
 an adtual departure from iniquity, were the 
 indifpenfible terms of Salvation., for which there 
 was no fubftitution, or fuccedaneum. 
 
 Thefe principles of the Reformation were 
 fo confonant to the Holy Scriptures, fo agree- 
 able to the practice and difcipline of the pri- 
 mitive Church, and to the common fenfe of 
 Mankind, that nothing could be more natural 
 than the rapidity of their progrefs ; and though 
 nothing was iefs requifite than a Miracle to 
 give vogue to them., yet it required fomething 
 
 more 
 
[ 45 ] 
 
 more than a Romifh Miracle to render them 
 unacceptable. It happened indeed at a very 
 favourable crifis ; the Chriftian v^orld was 
 juft awakened from a trance, in which it 
 had lain fome hundred years, by the op- 
 preffions of the Hierarchy, and had their 
 eyes open, when thefe Reformations, which 
 recommended themfelves by their felf evi- 
 dence, were held up to them : they were 
 fo natural and fo clear, that every man was 
 immediately ftruck with the fenfe of them, 
 and wondered at his not being the author 
 of them. This general acknowledgment there- 
 fore was a ftrong prefumptive proof of their 
 truth, and defervedly looked upon as a decla- 
 ration of Heaven in their favour. 
 
 When I refiecl upon the feeming incon- 
 fiilency between Mr. Phillips^s defcription of 
 the influence of the Reformation, and the 
 real effedis it produced upon the m.inds of 
 men, I cannot help thinking that I have 
 mifapprehended his meaning, and that he 
 mufi: take a degeneracy in morals in a far 
 different fenfe than what I do ; for I have 
 all along fuppofed it to be a defedlion in 
 the great duties of Morality, in Piety, Juf- 
 tice and Temperance, the fam and fubftance 
 
 of 
 
[ 46 ] 
 
 of all natural and revealed Religion. But I 
 fufpeft that Mr. Phillips underftands by de- 
 generacy of morals a defection from the 
 rules which the Church of Rome hath drawn ; 
 and by corrupt inclinations, a non-conforming 
 temper to the orders and decifions of its 
 fp ritual Guides ; for in other places of his 
 Hiftory an implicit obedience to them is 
 apparently his Canon of Piety, Virtue, Rec- 
 titude, Liberty, Probity, &c. Should this 
 then be his meaning, he may poffibly evade 
 my objedions; but then I muft beg leave 
 to obferve, that Vv^hen he ufes thefe vene- 
 rable terms in this narrow Romifli knfcy 
 without explaining himfelf, he is playing the 
 Jefuit with his Reader, and through the 
 moft equivocal Expreffions impofing upon 
 him a falfc and fcandalous CharacSer of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 Letter 
 
[ 47 ] 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 TH E next thing to be confidered is the 
 Diffolution of theMonafteries, and other 
 Reh'gious Houfes, which was the offence that 
 irritated Pole to fly in the face of his royal Re- 
 lation, Benefadtor and Patron, and to publifh 
 his book, De Unitate Ecclefiajlica ; in which he 
 abufes the King, and exhorts the Emperor, and 
 other Princes of Europe, to turn their arms 
 againft him. Our Author, therefore, hath made 
 this Diffolution a principal fubjedl of his Hif- 
 tory, and given a prolix and circumftantial 
 account of feveral particulars concerning it, in 
 which he endeavours to juftify his Hero in 
 this part of his conduct, and draws up a vi- 
 rulent charge of Rapine and Sacrilege againll 
 the King, and all the Perfons who were con- 
 cerned in giving this fatal blow to his Religion; 
 *' which, he fays, had made England a Thea- 
 tre of as various and deep a Tragedy, as that 
 or any other nation had ever been fpedators 
 of under the wildeft and moft frantic of their 
 Tyrants." B. i. p. 102. 
 
 Again, " All the vigor which the fpirit of 
 deftrudion can give, v/as exerted by him who 
 
 had 
 
[ 48 ] 
 
 had aflumed the Headfliip of the Church of 
 England. Henry exhibited a fcene of Rapacity 
 and Sacrilege, which till then had wanted a 
 precedent, and, for the honour of human na- 
 ture, has not been copied fince. An incredible 
 treafure, which the plunder of 700 Religious 
 Houfes had brought in, being now as laviflily 
 fquandered as it was fhamefully acquired; and 
 the cravings of Avarice and other Paffions, being- 
 only irritated by a perpetual condefcention to 
 them, he caufed the Parliament to make over to 
 him the Revenues, Churches, and Buildings 
 belonging to all the Colleges, Seminaries, Chan- 
 teries and Brotlierhoods, throughout England, 
 with full power to difpofe of all facred Obla- 
 tions and Funds, appropriated to all fuch like 
 purpofes. — Of all thefe Donations, only the 
 Colleges within the two Univerfities ; thofe of 
 Winchefter and Eton, the Chapel of St. George 
 at Windfor, and a few others, upon earneft ap- 
 plication, efcaped being reformed 5 or in other 
 words, fuppreffed." B. i. p. 336, 337, 338. 
 
 I fhall not take upon me to determine upon 
 what principle the King aded in the fuppref- 
 fion of the Monafteries, whether it was ava- 
 rice, ambition, revenge upon the Pope, anger 
 at the Monks, or zeal for the public good; 
 
 or 
 
r 49 ] 
 
 or whether it was a compofition of fome or 
 all of them. It is like wife foreign to my pur- 
 pofe to confider in what manner Henry dif- 
 charged the trufi: his Parliament had repofed 
 in him for the application of the monies he 
 had received from the fale of the real and per- 
 fonal eftates belonging to thefe Religious 
 rioufes ; or what proviiion he made for thofe 
 he turned out of them ; and for the fame 
 reafon I {hall pafs over in filence the monftrous 
 diforders, both moral and religious, which the 
 Commiffioners, upon their vifitation, had dif- 
 covered amone them. It is not fair to aro;ue 
 againft the ufe of things from the abufe of 
 them, or againft what might have been done 
 from what was done. I ihall therefore pro- 
 ceed upon a more general plan, and fhall exa- 
 mine into the nature, purpofes, ufes, and 
 xfteds of thefe eftablilliments, and from thence 
 {hall fet forth how far the diiTolution of them 
 at the Reformation, or any other time, might 
 be ju{lifiable or expedient 5 for v/hich end, it 
 will be proper to enquire, what number of 
 perfons thefe houfes then contained, what their 
 finances were, and in what manner the State 
 was afFeded by them.. 
 
 ^ H It 
 
[ 50 ] 
 
 It IS agreed by all Hiftorians, that the leffer 
 Monafteries fuppreffed, were about 376, and 
 the number of perfons they contained was 
 about 10,000. There is fome little variation 
 concerning the greater Monafteries ; but not to 
 differ w^ith our Author for trifles, we will take 
 up with his account of them. " There were, 
 fays he, about this time, 700 Religious Houfes 
 in England and Wales; (p. 213.) befides thefe 
 Religious Houfes, which may be looked upon 
 as Capital Meffuages, there were feveral leffer 
 Tenements, fuch as Colleges, Churches, Hof- 
 pitals, Chanteries, Free-Chapels, Guilds, and 
 feveral other Foundations of the like import ; 
 the number of thefe eftablifhments at the 
 time I am fpeaking of, is faid to have been 
 
 2734-" P- 337- 
 
 The number of perfons in thefe Capital Mef- 
 
 fjages ', or in the Leffer Tenements, is no 
 
 where precifely afcertained; only, in general, 
 
 Mr. Phillips fays of the firft, B. i. p. 218, 
 
 that there were fome Hundred Thoufands of 
 
 perfons in them ; the leaft, therefore, that can 
 
 be fuppofed, is 200,000 ; and in the other he 
 
 tells us, there was a competent number of 
 
 Priefts ', one of which had two, another fix : 
 
 the 
 
[ 5x ] 
 
 the whole therefore may be reaibnably fup- 
 pofed, upon a very moderate computation, to 
 be lOjOOO : hence the fum total of the Reli- 
 gious Perfons in the greater and lefler Monaf- 
 teries, and other fuch like foundations, was at 
 leaft 22O5OO0, exclufive of the Secular or Pa- 
 rochial Clergy : A prodigious body of people ! 
 and which, if it be coniidered how the king- 
 dom had been lately depopulated by the long 
 and bloody Civil Wars between the Houfes of 
 York and Lancafter, could not be lefs than a 
 tenth part of its Inhabitants : and what ren- 
 dered it the more alarming was, they were 
 under the immediate protection of the Pope, 
 coniidered him as their Sovereign, and always 
 took his part againft the Crown and the Civil 
 Power. Hence the firft public ftep that Henry 
 took againft the Monafteries, was a Reprefen- 
 tation to his Parliament 3 in which he fet forth, 
 that the great number of them in the king- 
 dom was a burden to the State, and earneftly 
 defired them to remedy the evil by fuch means 
 as they fhould think proper. This was a very 
 popular plea, and adapted to the general fenfe 
 of the nation, who had long fince looked upon 
 the daily increafe of thefe Houfes as a grow- 
 ing evil which wanted greatly to be redrelTed. 
 PI 2 Thefe 
 
[ 52 ] 
 
 Thefe Religious Perfons likewife were pro- 
 tected, and enjoyed all the privileges and 
 emoluments of the Community, with an ex- 
 emption from the labours, fervices, perfonal 
 attendances, and duties of it. Some mighty 
 Benefits thei-efore might naturally be expeded 
 from fuch an immenfe number of Perfons, 
 with fuch fpecial immunities : but what were 
 thefe fervices ? Some of our Pious or Superfti- 
 tious Ancejflors, had ereded large 4\nd ftrong 
 Edifices, and endowed them with Lands or 
 Eflates fufficient to maintain a certain number 
 of Priefts, whofe fole bufinefs fhould be to ce- 
 lebrate folemn Mafles every day for the repofe 
 of the Souls of their Founders, and their de- 
 liverance out of Purgatory. 
 
 This was the original defign of many of 
 thefe inftitutlons ; and thefe Priefts were im- 
 mured and fequcftered from the world and all 
 the concerns of it, that they might wholly at- 
 tend upon Divine Worlliip in thefe perpetual 
 Sandiuaries. Their principal ufe therefore was, 
 not fo much to the prefent or future Mem- 
 bers of the Community, as to thofe Vvho had 
 been, and v/ere gone out of it. To this prin- 
 cipal ufe our Author, in vindication of thefe 
 Monafteries, adds feme few fiibordinate ad- 
 
 van tastes 
 
 o 
 
[ 53 ] 
 
 vantages accruing to the PubJick from them, 
 one of which indeed feems to be peculiar 
 and eiientiai to them ; but whether it was a 
 real advantage or not depended entirely upon 
 the nature of the Inilitution itfelf : the other 
 were only incidental, and might be had equally 
 if not better without them. 
 
 '' The firft, that he mentions, is the eafe 
 and conveniency w^hich our Gentry and Nobi- 
 lity enjoyed, of providing for younger Chil- 
 dren, who w^ere difpofed to retire from the 
 world with the opportunity of ftudy and re- 
 colleftion, and an eftabliihment for life fuited 
 to the rank their families held ; the charge 
 of which was by this means leffened, and 
 the perpetuity of their eflates better fecu- 
 red." pag. 219. 
 
 Now if thefe Foundations w^erc a real Nu- 
 fance to the State, or if it would be infinitely 
 better for the Society in general, or thefe 
 young men in particular, to be bred up either 
 in one of the three profeffions, Law, Phyfick, 
 or Divinity, as now eftablilhed, or employed 
 in Merchandize or Trade, or fent into the 
 Army or Navy, or to ferve their Country in 
 any other public or private capacity, then this 
 difpofal of them in Monafteries, would be a 
 
 difadvantage 
 
[ 54 ] 
 
 diladvantage to the Community : and this re- 
 tirement from the world would be a kind 
 of artificial death to thefe younger branches, 
 and afford no other eafe or conveniency to 
 their unnatural Parents, than what their real 
 death would give to them. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 THE next ufe which this Author afcribes to 
 thefe Religious Houfes is, " the / bbeys 
 were public Schools for Education, each of 
 them having one or more perfons fet apart to 
 inftrud: the Youth of the Neighbourhood, with- 
 out any expence to the Parents ; and young 
 Perfons of the other Sex had the fame ad- 
 vantage from the Convents of Women, where 
 they were taught Needle-work, to read 
 their Mother-Tongue, and had fometimes a 
 tindure of the Latin." pag. 219. 
 
 But this was not according to the original 
 inllitution of Monafteries, and was volunta- 
 rily undertaken by thofe whofe fpirits were too 
 a6tive to fubmit to the indolence which their 
 profeflion inclined them to ; and I do not fee 
 how thefe Abbies could be called publick 
 Schools, when there was not more than one 
 
 perfon 
 
[ 5S ] 
 
 pcrfon out of three or four hundred, who would 
 troubk themfelves with them : As the women 
 in the Convents could not officiate at the Altar, 
 they were of no fervice to their friends in ano- 
 ther world, and they mufl have been entirely 
 loft to this, had not this employment of teach- 
 ing to read and work been contrived for them : 
 But though the Monks might be Schoolmafters, 
 and the Nuns muft be Schoolmiftreffes ; yet 
 there was no neceffity that School mailers fliould 
 be Monks, or School miftrelTes Nuns, 
 
 It is no wonder, indeed, that among fuch a 
 multitude of perfons who lived in theie retire- 
 ments, fome of them fliould apply them- 
 felves to Letters ; they may boaft of two or three 
 Hiftorians, and as many natural Philofophers, 
 but there were very few others whom the world 
 is obliged to for any kind of literary improve- 
 ments ; the generality of them confined them- 
 ielves to School Divinity, or the Study of Can- 
 non Law or Ecclefiaftical Conflitutions ; their 
 ignorance in moil other things was fo notorious 
 as to be almofh proverbial, and the few compo- 
 litions which cruel time hath fpared, are fufii- 
 cient proofs of their extreme dullnefs and vitia- 
 ted talle. 
 
 It 
 
[ 56 ] 
 
 It is likewife added, that thefe Monafteries 
 were made the Repofitories of Learning; that 
 many Records and valuable Manufcripts were 
 lodged in them, and that at the diilolution of 
 thefe houfes, many of them were loft or de- 
 ftroyed : probably they were, but what then ? 
 Is it any vindication of the monaftick order, or 
 any proof of its utility, that their houfes were 
 proper receptacles of books and archives ? 
 
 Thefe I think are the chief if not all the ufes 
 which this warm Advocate imputes to theft 
 Religious Houfes y let us now turn ourfelves to 
 the confideration of the evils that attend them, 
 and in the firft place let me afk, whether the 
 number of thefe fequeftered Perfons increafmg 
 by continual endowments, might not at length 
 be difproportionable to the other parts of the 
 Society, and demand fuch large draughts from 
 the people, as to leave the refidue infufficient 
 for the exigencies of the ftate ? Is it not 
 poffible for the fwarms of labourers in this 
 fpiritual Harveft to be fo large as to breed a 
 fcarcity of Hands for the temporal Harveft, 
 or for the procurement of the neceflaries and 
 conveniencies- of Life from Agriculture and 
 Paftorage ? May not Trade and Commerce 
 
 languifli. 
 
[ 57 ] 
 
 languiih, mechanick Arts and Manufadlures be 
 loft, for want of perfons to proted; and pre-^ 
 ferve them* Andj laftly, might not the 
 kingdom, from a redundancy of defencelefs 
 members, be fo exhaufted of its ftrength as 
 to be incapable of protefting or fecuring it- 
 felf from infurreclions or invafions ? Thefe 
 queftions are fo plain, that even thevj who 
 believe a purgatorial irate, and the efficacy of 
 MaiTes In delivering the Souls of the deceafed 
 out of it, vi^ill not hefitate to anfwer in the affir- 
 mative. For the fame reafon, like wife, it 
 muft be acknowledged, that the number of 
 Religious Houfes, for the prevention of thefe 
 grievances, fliould be limited, or when it be- 
 comes exceffive fhould be reduced -, It Is felf- 
 evident alfo that the power of this limitation 
 and redudlion muft be vefted in the State, and 
 flows from the very principles of Self Pre- 
 iervation ; the State like wife muft be a proper 
 judge of thefe numbers, for when they are an 
 evil, it is to that alone, and not only its 
 welfare but its very being depends upon the 
 redrefs of it. 
 
 Thus far then I prefjme, that the Roman 
 Catholick and the Proteftant are agreed. 
 They both will admit a poffibility of an ex- 
 
 I cefs 
 
[ 58 ] 
 
 cefs in thefe cloyftered numbers, which the 
 State is to prevent, and correft, when it hap- 
 pens : but they may differ widely about the 
 number which forms this excefs : the firff, 
 from his attachment to thefe Religionifts, 
 may think that one tenth part, or perhaps a 
 quarter, or a half of the community might 
 not be too much to wait upon the urgent nc- 
 ceffities of Souls in another world, and from 
 thence conclude that there was no occafion 
 for any reformation in the i6th century. 
 
 But the Proteftant hath no Purgatory in his 
 Creed, or in the Articles of his Religion -, he 
 believes that this whole Dodtrine is unnatural 
 and abfurd, and that it hath no foundation in 
 the Scriptures, or primitive Chriflianity, but 
 is a recent invention, a chimera fprung from 
 the fruitful imagination of Romifh. Priefts, 
 and fupported by the fuperftitious credulity of 
 the populace ; and therefore he concludes, that 
 dl the Maffes and Prayers for Souls in Pur- 
 gatory are idle and vain, and the inftitution 
 of Monafteries abfolutely unneceffary : With 
 this perfuafion, he looks upon the whole or- 
 der of Monks and Friars as a fuperfluous 
 Corps, of no kind of fervice to the dead, 
 and of differvice to the living 5 not only afford- 
 ing 
 
C 59 ] 
 
 ing no fupport to the State which fupports 
 them, but hanging Hkc a dead weight upon it^ 
 and finking it into contempt and penury. 
 The ftrength of a nation is eftimated more 
 from the number of its fubjeds than the ex- 
 tent of its territories ; but then it is fuppofed 
 that thefe fubjeds are efFedive men, jointly 
 exerting their powers for the pubUc good, and 
 through their induftry contributing to the in- 
 creafe of the common flock on which they 
 fubfift ; for {hould they be inadJtive idle per- 
 fons, they are a double lofs to the fociety, be- 
 ing lefs than cyphers, a kind of negative quan- 
 tities or numbers, that tell en the contrary 
 fide 3 as drones, therefore, they lliould be ex- 
 pelled from the hive, for incommoding the 
 working Bees, and living upon their labours, 
 without making any returns : Or, to vary the 
 metaphor, they are in the body politick what 
 wens, or white fwellings are in the natural 
 body, which draw the vital nourifhment from 
 every part, and by their enormous increafe 
 emaciate the whole conftitution, and admit of 
 no other cure but amputation. 
 
 Thus the Proteftant is of opinion, that 
 
 there is no moderating the number of Monks ; 
 
 but, whether it be a tenth or a ten thoufandth 
 
 I Z part 
 
[ 6o ] 
 
 part of the community, it is exceflive, and. 
 that the whole tribe is the peft of Society, 
 and a fcandal to Religion and Human Nature ; 
 and from thence he thinks, that he and the 
 Society to which he belongs, would be greatly 
 defective in their duty to God and themfelves, 
 if they ihould fufFer any fuch eftablilhments 
 to take place, or if they had taken place, not 
 to exert their utmoft ftrength for their total 
 extirpation, 
 
 Let us fuppofe, for the farther illuflration 
 of this fubjecl, a perfon of an enthufiaftick 
 turn believing that his foul, after its fepara- 
 tion from the body, will be fufpended in the 
 air, and for its entertainment or repofe there, 
 to leave by his v/ill an eftate for the main- 
 tenance of three or four hundred men, on 
 condition that they fecrete themfelves from the 
 world, and fpend their whole time in making 
 fpap-lather, and blowing up bubbles into the 
 air with it 3 doth not this inftitution appear 
 fo extremely ridiculous, and the futile em- 
 ployrnent of fo large a number of hands fuch 
 a manifcft detriment to the public, that the 
 Rulers in w^hom the fupreme power is lodged, 
 would be deemed as much out of their fenfes 
 as this Founder, if they did not fet afide his 
 
 will, 
 
[ 6i ] 
 
 will, and apply his eftate to fuch ufes as fhould 
 be judged moft conducive to the common 
 weal ? But doth not every Member of the 
 Reformed Churches firmly believe, that the 
 donations for the relief of Souls in Purgatory 
 are as fruitlefs in themfelves as this legacy, and 
 as prejudicial to the community ? And do not 
 fuch Prayers feem as empty Bubbles, and like 
 them to evaporate into air : There is indeed 
 this difference between them, one is a mere 
 inanity, or childifh amufement 3 but the other 
 is fcmething more, it is an impious mockery 
 of the Deity, and therefore calls louder for a 
 fuppreffion. 
 
 LETTER X, 
 
 TH E next objedlion againft the mo- 
 naileries is the immenfe riches they 
 poffelTed. 
 
 Mr. Phillips fays, " that the yearly value of 
 thefe places, exclufive of their moveable goods, 
 which muft have been beyond any eftimate, 
 was computed at 135,522 pounds. This in- 
 come, however, great as it is, bore a much 
 lefTer proportion to the wealth of the nation 
 than is generally imagined 3 the produce of 
 
 the 
 
[ 62 ] 
 
 the Lands and PoflejQions of England, fomc 
 time before this period, had been rated at 
 three millions ; and thus what the Monafte- 
 ries poffeffed did not exceed one twentieth 
 part of the national Revenue ; a fum much 
 below what a defign to deftroy them firft 
 gave out, and Credulity hath flill retained." 
 Pag. 214. 
 
 And Credulity hath very juftly retained it, 
 if there be any truth in Hiilory ; and I cannot 
 but think, Mr. Phillips could not be igno- 
 rant that the Monafteries had much larger In- 
 comes J for a very few pages after, fpeaking 
 of the generofity of the Monks to their Ten- 
 ants, he fays, that the referved Rents of thefe 
 Landlords were low, and their Fines eafy : 
 pag. 222, The yearly Rents as appears from 
 Stevens's Hift. of Taxes, pag. 2 1 5, were given 
 in at 152,5171. 18 s. 10 d. but it had ever 
 been the cuftom of thefe Houfes for feveral 
 political reafons, to let out their Eftates upon 
 Leafes, with fmall referved Rents and large 
 Fines ; and a little before their diflblution the 
 Abbots and Priors forefeeing the impending 
 ftorm, and willing to provide againft it by 
 an extraordinary fupply of ready money for 
 their future fubfiftence, ftill lovvered thefe 
 
 Rents 
 
[ 63 ] 
 
 Rents and raifed thefe Fines ; and from thefe 
 laft Leafes, it is fuppofed, that Stevens's cal- 
 culation of their yearly Rents was taken ; 
 moft of our Hiftorians, who have treated of 
 this fubjeft, agree that thefe referved Rents 
 were not more than a tenth part of their real 
 Income, which muft therefore be very nearly 
 1,525,1701. a year 3 and this account will ap- 
 pear to be no ways exaggerated, if it be con- 
 fidered what the Eftates were which only two 
 of thefe Houfes were endowed with : Stevens, 
 in his Hiflory of Taxes, fays, pag. 188, and 
 216, that the Lands belonging to the Abbey 
 of St. Alban's are worth, at this time, about 
 200,000 1. a year, and thofe that belonged to 
 GlafTonbury- Abbey above 300,0001. a year ; 
 fo that if thefe Eftates were at their dilfolu- 
 tion worth but a fourth part of what they are 
 at prefent, yet even then the yearly value of 
 only tv/o of them would not fall greatly fliort 
 of what our Author makes the Income of the 
 whole feven hundred amount to : from all 
 which it is manifeft, that if the produce cf 
 the Lands and PoiTeffions of England, about 
 this period, had been rated at three millions, 
 thefe Religious Houfes had above one half of 
 it. But how fliall we account for Mr. Phillips's 
 
 mentioning 
 
[ 64 ] 
 
 mentioning only the referved Rents, and 
 dropping the Fines, which were nine parts in 
 ten of their Income, and from thence infer- 
 ring, that it was not more than a twentieth 
 part of the national Revenue? Was not this 
 afting the Jefuit with his Reader ? He knew 
 that fines were paid to the Monks, and he 
 muft know that they bore no inconfiderable 
 fhare in their annual profits, and produces 
 them as fuch for proofs of their kindnefs to 
 their tenants : but he was confcious to himfelf, 
 that if he did not fink them in his Account 
 of their wealthy they would amount to fuch a 
 prodigious fum, as would furnifh the Refor- 
 mers with a fpecious pretence for their fup- 
 preflion 3 for that reafon he there takes no 
 notice of them, or rather infinuates, and, in 
 effedt fays, that none were received : thus, 
 right or wrong, he is determined to make the 
 beft of his caufe, and when truth doth not 
 ferve his turn, he can have recourfe to falfe- 
 hood, and fo play the whole game ; but he 
 doth not confider, that no good can come 
 from it in the end. A weak or a wicked de- 
 fence will hurt the caufe it labours to vindi- 
 cate ; and he that pradtices falfiiood or deceit, 
 always expofes his fubjeft and himfelf} for he 
 
 not 
 
[ 65 ] 
 
 not only betrays the want of fomething better 
 to fupport it, but by his Hypocrif;'' blackens it, 
 and blafts his own credit. 
 
 But to return to thefe revenues. The State 
 might well be jealous of the Monafteries, when 
 they had larger polTeiiions than the whole Le- 
 giflature, viz. King, Lords, and Commons ; 
 and had more than one moiety of tne lands 
 of the kingdom, befides their moveables and 
 perfonal eftates, which our Author affures us 
 was an mcredible treafure^ and beyond any ejii^ 
 mate : And though the Statutes of Mortmain 
 had laid fome reftraints upon their appro- 
 priating more lands, yet means had been con- 
 trived to evade thofe A6ls ; how elfe could 
 they have accumulated fuch an amazfng quan- 
 tity of freeholds within the fpace of one or 
 two centuries ? But the influx of goods and 
 money v/as unlimited 5 thefe were continually 
 increafing, without controul and without end ; 
 and were then, or would foon have been, fuf- 
 ficient to purchafe the other m.oiety of the 
 kingdom, and were hoarded up for fome fa- 
 vourable conjuncture 5 or till feme weak So- 
 vereign, fuch as Mary or James the Second, 
 fhould open the way for them by removing 
 the obflacles of Mortmain, and perfaading the 
 
 K Nobilitv 
 
[ 66 ] 
 
 Nobility and Gentry to lay up treafures in 
 Heaven, by affigning over their eftates on earth 
 to the Church. 
 
 Every Government ought to have a watch- 
 ful eye over perpetuities, of whatever kind 
 they are ; for they caufe a flagnation of pro- 
 perty, throw it into a few hands, and tend to 
 defpotifm and flavery. Where the perpetuity 
 is fmall, there is indeed but little or no dan- 
 ger to be apprehended from it -, but where it 
 is large, it becomes an alarming circumftance 
 to the State, becaufe it is not only a growing 
 evil, but is continually increafmg in propor- 
 tion to its bulk. 
 
 In this or the preceding reign there was a 
 great reform made in the tenure of temporal 
 freehold eftates -, for the Legiilature, finding 
 great inconveniencies from perpetuities, ftruck 
 at the very root of them, by fuffering lay pro- 
 prietors of lands to difpofe of them by will or 
 fale, and no entail was permitted to be made, 
 but what the firft Tenant, born after it was 
 made and in poffeffion of the entailed eftate, 
 was empowered to cut off, by obferving feme 
 forms in law prefcribed for that purpofe: by 
 which means there was a free circulation of 
 property j every fubjed: enjoyed the privileges 
 
 which 
 
[ 67 ] 
 
 which his natural equality entitled him to : 
 Credit was enlarged, Commerce promoted, 
 Merit, Induftry and Oeconomy met with ade- 
 quate rewards, and Sloth, Luxury, and Ex- 
 travagancy their proper punifhments : And 
 from this time it became an eftabliflied maxim 
 in the Courts of Juftice, that the Law abhors 
 a Perpetuity, as tending to fubvert the con- 
 ftitution. 
 
 LETTER XI. 
 
 AN Adt of Parliament, fays Mr. Phil- 
 lips, was framed to fettle Rapine and 
 Sacrilege, as Lord Herbert terms them, on the 
 King and his heirs for ever. — It doth not ap- 
 pear to have been debated in either Houfe, 
 whether they had a power to difpoffefs fome 
 hundred thoufand perfons of their dwellings 
 and fortunes, whom a few years before they 
 had declared to be good fubjedls ; they feem 
 to have as little conlidered whether fome 
 things were not above the reach of Legiflature, 
 and if a ftatute can unconfecrate a church, and 
 make Sacrilege no crime. All Religions, na- 
 tural and revealed, true and falfe, have con- 
 ftantly fuppofed Confecrations made to the 
 K 2 Supreme 
 
[ 68 ] 
 
 Supreme Being to be of a real and perpetual 
 nature ^ the confequence of which is, that 
 whatever is thus transferred, and, as it were, 
 vefted in them, cannot be taken back, without 
 his confent fignified to thofe he hath appointed 
 Interpreters of his will, and Delegates of his 
 power." Pag. 217, 218. 
 
 A modeft perfon would have been very well 
 aiTured of his premiffes before he had drawn 
 Hich a bold conclufion, as that the dijSolution 
 of the Monafteries and the alienation of their 
 Eftates were Rapine and Sacrilege ; but Mr. 
 Phillips, without the leaft fliadow of a proof, 
 arrogantly fuppofes that the Legiflature had no 
 kind of right or power over them, and upon 
 this prefumption jfliigmatizes the King, Lords, 
 and Commons, for a pack of Thieves and 
 lawlefs Plunderers. Both Ploufes of Parliament 
 had frequently and lately debated in the moft 
 folemn manner, v. hether they had not a power to 
 alter or change that courfe of Property which 
 Law or Cuftom alone had eftablillied, and whe- 
 ther it was not more agreeable to the nature 
 of Society in general, or the Englifli Conftitu- 
 tion in particular, to enable Tenants in Tail, 
 or Tenants in Fee Simple, to alienate or tranf- 
 fer their eftates, by whatever means and to 
 
 w^hatever 
 
[ 69 ] 
 
 whatever perfons they pleafed ; and, upon the 
 matureft dehberation they conferred this power 
 upon them 5 and no one ever difputed their 
 authority, or branded them for Plunderers of 
 the Public, or Robbers of Pofterity. There 
 was, therefore, very little occafion for much 
 more confultation on this fabjedl 3 but they 
 might very well take it for granted, that if 
 they could impower individuals to alienate their 
 cftates, and to difpoffefs themfelves and their 
 families of them, where the accumulation of 
 riches was not likely to rife to any greater 
 grievance than to incommode the common 
 wealth, they muft have the fame power over 
 large bodies of people, where it tended to the 
 fubverfion of it ; and efpecially thofe who were 
 fetting up an independency on the flate, ac- 
 knowledging a different head, and were in- 
 vefced with an enormous quantity of wealth, 
 fufficient to maintain thefe pretenfions ; here 
 their imminent dangers called for an immediate 
 redrefs, and a defperate difeafe required a def- 
 perate cure. The Monafteries had already got 
 poffeffion of one half of the lands of the king- 
 dom, and if their progrefs was not fpeedily 
 flopped, they mufl ioon have the other half, 
 and then the confequence would be a total 
 
 fupprefficn 
 
[ 70 ] 
 
 fuppreffion of the temporal power ; the civil 
 ftate would be fwallowed up by the ecclefiaf- 
 tical, and the people muft have been Vaffals to 
 the Pope and the Hierarchy. 
 
 There is nothing above the reach of the 
 Legiflature that comes within the province of 
 Self-defence. The adjufting the boundaries of 
 Property, infcituting the feveral modes of its 
 Tenure and Conveyance, and the terminating 
 difputes concerning it, are the pecuhar privi- 
 leges of the civil Power, as they are neceffary 
 for the fecurity and peace of Society. My 
 writings are the Title to my eftate, becaufe the 
 Laws of my Country have made them fo -, but 
 they would be no better than wafte paper, if 
 they had not the authority of the Courts of 
 Juilice ftamped upon them, and were not exe- 
 cuted according to the directions prefcribed 
 by them. And what other Title hath the 
 Church to its Revenues ? Were not the firft 
 Grants of them made by the Legiflature, or 
 under its authority, and are not the poiTeflion 
 of their Eflates fecured by it ? Deeds of Gift, 
 Wills and Purchafes, would have had no vali- 
 dity in them, if they had not received their 
 fandion from the civil magiftrate : and as he 
 was originally inverted with the power of 
 
 making 
 
[ 7r ] 
 
 making or allowing thefe Grants or Charters, 
 fo he hath continued to exercife it, by confirm- 
 ing and enlarging them when he thought them 
 too little, and prohibiting their increafe when 
 he judged them fufficient : and Mr. Phillips 
 himfelf can make ufe of this human authority, 
 when it ferves his purpofe, to ftrengthen the 
 Rights of the Church. This property, fays 
 he, had been allured to the PoiTeiTors by every 
 Title on v/hich Right can be founded, by a 
 Prefcription of many centuries, and by the 
 repeated Ads of above thirty Parliaments. 
 Pag. 214. 
 
 Now the prefcription of many centuries Is 
 the common law of the land, and confequently 
 their whole right was founded upon common 
 and ftatute law: but thefe are entirely dependent 
 on the will of the Legiflators, who can con- 
 tinue, alter, or repeal them at pleafure. As 
 therefore the civil pov/er firft allowed of and 
 eftabliflied thefe Deodands, as it afterwards 
 confirmed, encreafed and reilrained them, . fo it 
 muft have the fame authority to diminiili or 
 fubtraft from them, when they (hould prove 
 incompatible with the welfare of the ftate ; 
 and one ACc of Parliament can refcind, or 
 
 annul, 
 
[ 72 ] 
 
 annul, what thirty or three hundred Adls have 
 made, or confirmed. 
 
 Mr, PhiUips very dogmatically afferts, that 
 <* all Religions, Natural and Revealed, True 
 and Falfe, have conftantly fuppofed, that Con- 
 fecrations made to the Supreme Being to be of 
 a real and perpetual Nature ;" meaning, I fup- 
 pofe, all Gifts or Offerings to the Church or 
 Clergy. All Religions have undoubtedly ac- 
 knovv^ledged them to be of a real, that is, of a 
 pofitive and fubllantial Nature ; but, for my 
 part, I know of no Religion except the 
 Romifh, that ever acknov/ledged them to be 
 perpetual, or unalienable. None of the re- 
 formed Churches ever pretended to fuch an 
 independency on the Civil Magiftrate : the 
 Church of England, in particular, hath in 
 none of her Articles, Canons or Conftitutions, 
 ever maintained or fuppofed fuch a perpetuity. 
 The Clergy hold their Benefices, and are pro- 
 tefted in them by the Laws of the Land 5 
 and they have conftantly fuppofed that the Par- 
 liament hath an abfolute power to change, or 
 transfer, the Church Revenues, to fuffer the 
 Alienations of the Patronage of Livings, or 
 prohibit, by a Statute of Mortmain, all Legacies 
 
 of 
 
[ iz ] 
 
 of freehold Eftates to any corporate, or nnali- 
 enating Body, by Will ; neither do I know, 
 that theyaffume any right or clain:^, feparate 
 or diftind: from the fccular power. 
 
 It is a very ambiguous and equivocal ex- 
 preffion, and could comeTrom none but a rank 
 Papift, that what is transferred to the Church 
 or the Clergy, is verted in the Supreme Being. 
 Allow Mr. Phillips this propofition, and let 
 him put what fenfe he pleafes upon it, which 
 he takes for granted that you will, and he will 
 make it an eafy confequence from the nature 
 of this inveftiture, that it cannot be taken back 
 without the confent of the Supreme Being, fig- 
 nified by thofe he hath appointed Interpreters 
 of his Will, and Delegates of his Power. Thus 
 a Perpetuity is proved in a very concife man- 
 ner : but it is too concife not to need an Expli- 
 cation 3 for if Mr. Phillips means, that who- 
 ever makes over any Lands or Goods to the 
 ufe of the Church, or for the benefit of the 
 Clergy, gives up not only his own Right and 
 Title, but all the Power or Jurifdidion the 
 State hath over them, and puts them direclly 
 and immediately into the hands of the Deity, 
 who hath been pleafed to fignity his acceptance 
 of them, then he is alluming the very thing 
 L 'he 
 
[ 74 ] 
 he ought to prove, and which never can be 
 proved : but if he hath any other meaning, 
 then his conclufion v^'ill not follovv^. 
 
 The Pope, I fuppofe, is intended for the 
 Delegate, who is to fignify the confent of the 
 Supreme Being ; but I fhould be glad to be in- 
 formed, how this confent is communicated to 
 him. Did he receive any particular inftruc- 
 tions from Heaven in Queen Mary's reign, 
 when his Legate, under his Dire(5tion, pre- 
 tended to confirm the alienation which the 
 J^arliament made in Henry the Vlllth's time ? 
 -If he did, he executed them with a very ill 
 Grace, and moil unbecoming a Plenipoten- 
 tiary of the Mofl High, who could never com- 
 million him to deal in fuch equivocal expref- 
 -lions as implied a feigned or a forced confent. 
 The Commons foon found, from the Pope's 
 illufive refervations, that there was no depen- 
 dence upon him -, and when a propofal was 
 made to them for repairing and re-endowing 
 the old Mon arteries, they laid their hands 
 upon their fwords, and laid, they knew 
 how to defend their property : and therefore 
 this fcheme was then deferred till a more fa- 
 vourable opportunity fliould offer 3 and every 
 prefent or future Proprietor of thefe alienated 
 
 Lands, 
 
[ 75 ] 
 
 Lands, will always have the greatefl: reafon to 
 fufped, that a favourable opportunity will 
 offer for difputing their Titles, and ejeding 
 them out of their PofTeiTions, whenever the 
 Pope fliall be reftored to the Supremacy of 
 the Church, and the Plenitude of his Power 
 in England. 
 
 But fmce Mr. Phillips hath miftaken the 
 Delegate of the Supreme Being, I will en- 
 deavour to fet him right, and jfhev/ him whom 
 He hath delegated his Power to in this affair, 
 and in what manner He hath affured them of 
 his confent, in taking back what hath been 
 confecrated to his Service. 
 
 E 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 VERY man hath a natural Right of 
 J Self-defence; it is given him by the 
 Deity, who inverted him with it at his Cre- 
 ation ; and on this Right the authority of the 
 Civil Magiftrate is founded. All the members 
 of his community are his Conftituents ; they 
 have commiflioned him to adl for them, and 
 delegated to him their powers of Self-preferva- 
 tion. He is therefore their Attorney, or Re- 
 prefcntative, and derives his power immediately 
 L 2 from 
 
[ 76 ] 
 
 from the people, and mediately, or tli rough 
 them, from their Creator. For this reafon 
 I apprehend the Apoflle to the Gentiles fays, 
 that thefe rulers are of God, and ordained by 
 him ; and whoever refifteth them, refifteth the 
 ordinance of God. Rom. xiii. i, 2. Hence 
 their power is, ftridtly fpeaking, a jus Divi- 
 num : vox Poptili vel vox Magijli^atus eft 'vox 
 Dei ! But the right of Self-defence is a right 
 which may be delegated, but cannot be abfb- 
 lutely or without a power of revocation given 
 up, either by the People or the Magiftrate, 
 and nothing can be done which implies a total 
 furrender of it; hence the Parliament itfelf 
 cannot create an abfolute perpetuity, or an un- 
 alienable pofieiTion : neither can they fuffer 
 any one to do it under them. But whilft this 
 principle of Self-Defence remains, the power of 
 revocation muft remain vv^ith it : falus Popidi 
 ejl Suprema Lex -, the Self-prefervation of mil- 
 lions is the firil: law of nature, or of the God 
 of nature, who hath engraven it in fuch deep 
 ch.iraders in the hearts of Men, that it can- 
 not be erafed. Whenever, therefore, the ftatc 
 is endangered, or its intereft fmking under a 
 heavy load of Deodands, then the Supreme 
 Being fignifies by this natural law not only 
 
 his 
 
[ 77 ] 
 
 his ccnfent, but his orders, to the fupreme 
 Civil Magiftrate whom he hath appointed in 
 this cafe the fole Interpreter of his Will, and 
 Delegate of his Power, to take them back 
 again, and apply them to the emolument of 
 the common-wealth* And the Princes, in 
 every Roman Catholick country, are either ig- 
 norant of their own power, or afraid to exert 
 it, otherwife they vv'ould take more effedual 
 means for fecuring the common-wealth, and 
 not fuffer the fruits of their lands, and even 
 their lands themfelves, to be devoured by fuch 
 a pitchy cloud of locufts. 
 
 Before I clofe this head, it will not be im- 
 proper to take fome notice of the Charity of 
 thefe Monafteries, becaufe our Author lays 
 great flrefs upon it, and magnifies it far be- 
 yond the truth, though it doth not affed: this 
 principal objedtion againfl: them. 
 
 " An eftimate, fays Mr. Phillips, m.ay be 
 made of their AlmiS from the following in- 
 flance : V/hilft the Religious Houfes fabfifted, 
 there w^ere no provifions made by Parliament 
 to relieve the Poor, no alTelTment upon the 
 Parifli for that purpofe : but at prefent this 
 charge on the kingdom am.ounts, by a low 
 computation, to above 8oc,ccol. a year; now 
 
 if 
 
[ 78 ] 
 
 if we compare the annual income 135,522!. 
 18 s. lod. which was the appraifement of the 
 Monaflick Lands, with the Poor's Tax, we 
 fhall fee what the nation hath gained by the 
 DifTolution, nor doth the different valuation 
 of money, in thofe and the prefent times, make 
 any difference in the nature of the burden, 
 as the Polfeifors of the Abbey-Lands would 
 find, if this Rent-charge, which is drawn on 
 the whole nation, was levied on them only." 
 Pag. 223. 
 
 In order to make out this eftimate, Mr. 
 Phillips infinuates, firft, that the afieiTment for 
 the Poor, by a Parliamentary Parifl:i-rate, was 
 ^neceffary confequence from the diffolution 
 of the Monafteries. Secondly, that thefe Mo- 
 nafteries voluntarily maintained all the Poor of 
 the kingdom : And, laftly, that the prefent 
 charge of 800,000 1. was the fame, or fome- 
 thing very like it, at this difiolution. 
 
 It is very evident, that the Pariih Provifions 
 for the Poor, were no neceilary confequence 
 from the diflblutlon of the Monafteries, be- 
 caufe if it had, it muft have been the fame in 
 other countries where thefe Religious Houfes 
 underwent the fame fate, and the Poor was as 
 numerous: But there are no fach provifions 
 
 in 
 
C 79 ] 
 
 in Scotland, Ireland, Holland, or any Pro- 
 teftant country, except England 5 and evxn 
 here there was no general Poor's Law enafted 
 till the 43d year of Elizabeth, which v/as more 
 than fixty years after the demolition of the 
 Monafteries. The true ftate of the cafe, with 
 refped: to thefe places and the Poor, I take 
 to be this. The Poor had anciently no other 
 provifion but voluntary Alms : and whether 
 thefe Religious Orders were not fo munificent 
 as the people, or whether they imagined what 
 was given in Charity to them, was not to be 
 diverted to any other ufe, I will not take 
 upon me to determine ; but from the public 
 tranfadlions it looks as if the neceflities of 
 the Poor were chiefly relieved by the voluntary 
 Alms of the Laity -, for through the great en- 
 groffment of Lands by thefe Religious Orders, 
 and their appropriation of Church Livings, 
 the wealth of the Laity not being fufficient for 
 this purpofe, the Legiflature, in the 15th year 
 of Richard the Second, thought it expedient, 
 by an A61 of Parliament, to oblige thefe im- 
 propriators to contribute their fhare of Alms, 
 and ordered their Diocefan to afcertain the 
 Sum which every houfe f]:iould pay yearly, as 
 well for the relief of the Poor in their refpec- 
 
 tive 
 
[ 8o ] 
 
 live Parifhes, as for the maintenance of the 
 Vicar who did the Parochial Duty. They 
 were taxed only in proportion to their pof- 
 feffions, and by their Bifliop, who we may 
 reafonably prefume did not over-rate them 5 
 and the diflribution of this Sum among their 
 Poor was left to their own difcretion -, fo that 
 the only difference betvv^een them and the Laity 
 was, they did by compulfion what thefe did 
 voluntarily. 
 
 At the time of the dilTolution of the Mo- 
 nafteries, when their poffeffions and impropri- 
 ations of Livings went into Lay hands, this 
 onus was ,not taken off, but continued till 
 the twenty-firft year of James the firft, and 
 the Poor was fuppcrted by it, and by chari- 
 table contributions as they were before ; till 
 through the increafe of trade, the influx of 
 refugees from other countries, and the taking 
 off the embargo upon matrimony, the king- 
 dom began, in the latter end of Queen Eliza- 
 beth's reign, to be very populous, and confe- 
 quently the poor to be more numerous : Then 
 and not till then, the Parliament, in juftice 
 both to the rich and poor, thought proper to 
 appoint officers in every parifli, whofe bufinefs 
 (hould be to provide materials, and fet the 
 
 poor. 
 
[ 8i ] 
 
 poor, who were able, to work upon them, 
 and to reheve thofe who were unable, and 
 impower them to raife money for thefe pur- 
 pofes, by a fair and equal affeffment upon 
 all the parifliioners, in proportion to their 
 fubftance. 
 
 To prove the boundlefs generofity of the 
 Monks, Mr. Phillips fays, that while their 
 Houfes fubiifted, there were no provifions made 
 by Parliament to relieve the poor ; whereby 
 he gives his reader to underftand, that all of 
 them were maintained by their free donations ; 
 which is notorioully falfe : for there Vv^as an 
 A(fl paffed in the 15th of Richard the Se- 
 cond, another in the 4th of Henry the Fourth, 
 a third in the 39th of Henry the Sixth, and 
 two or three in Henry the Seventh's reign, 
 for the relief of the poor. It is true indeed 
 .that they extended only to thefe Religious 
 Houfes, and obliged them to aid the poor in 
 proportion to their income ; which I fuppofe 
 they did, and the Laity fupplied the reft : 
 from whence it may be feen, that the nation 
 neither got nor loft any thing in this refpedl 
 by the fuppreftion of the Monafteries, only the 
 Mendicant trade was reduced, induftry en- 
 couraged, the poor better provided for, and 
 M the 
 
[ S2 ] 
 
 the nation more equally taxed. I much quef- 
 tion, whether the prefent annual charge of 
 keeping the poor amounts to a quarter part 
 of 800,000 1. but fuppofing it to be as much, 
 why are we to compare this fum with the 
 rents of the Abbey-lands at the Reformation ? 
 Or why doth our Author fay, that the diffe- 
 rent valuation of money in thofe and the pre- 
 fent times makes no difference in the nature of 
 the burden ? unlefs he would palm upon us 
 the moft glaring abfurdity in the world, viz. 
 that an income of 135,522 1. defrayed the an- 
 nual expence of 800,000 1. How is it poflible 
 for perfons of one hundred pounds a year, to 
 beflow in alms fix hundred pounds a year, un- 
 lefs they have the fame miraculous power of 
 multiplying loaves and fiflies as our Saviour 
 had, when he fed five thoufand perfons. 
 
 To conclude this head, our Author's Apo- 
 logy for the Monks refls entirely upon the 
 fuppofition, that they freely maintained all 
 the poor of the kingdom ; for which he hath 
 tio kind of authority from hiflory or tradition : 
 but according to his ufual method of arguing, 
 hath prefumed upon the very thing which 
 ought principally to be proved, and hath ar- 
 rogantly taken for granted what no one will 
 
 allow, 
 
C 83 ] 
 
 allow, and what every one who is the leaft 
 converfant in the annals of thofe times, or 
 hath taken any pains to examine the Ad:s of 
 Parliament relative to the poor, or to inform 
 himfelf of their maintenance, muft know to 
 be falfe. 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 AFTER what hath been faid in vin- 
 dication of the diffolution of the Reli- 
 gious Houfes, from their exceflive numbers and 
 revenues, fome perhaps will think it needlefs 
 to add any thing more concerning them ; but 
 fince there ftill remains a heavier charge againft 
 them, I might incur the imputation of partia- 
 lity to them and to our Author, if I did not 
 fet it forth in its proper light : the charge, I 
 mean, is the Celibacy of the Clergy, and the 
 prohibiting the Nuns to marry. 
 
 " About this time, fays Mr. Phillips, the 
 Queen ifl'ued out a commiffion, by which all 
 the married Clergy were deprived of their be- 
 nefices, as being difqualified to pollefs them. 
 This inability, as extraordinary as it may now 
 appear, was founded on the conftant pradice 
 of the weftern church, ever fince the eflablifli- 
 M z ment 
 
U 84 ] 
 
 ment of chriftianity, and on the unanimous 
 authority of the canons." B. ii. p. 139. 
 
 And again 3 '' The example of the Apoftles, 
 the ancient ufage of the whole weftern church, 
 the councils and canons, had made the mar- 
 riage ftate unlawful to the fecular Clergy, and 
 befides the obligations arifing from thefe heads, 
 the moft folemn engagements had rendered it 
 utterly inconfiftcnt with the profeifion of the 
 Regulars." B. ii. p. 58. 
 
 The celibacy of the Clergy was not efta- 
 bliflied by the Holy Scriptures, for they in 
 very exprefs terms, licence them to marry. 
 " A Bifhop, faith St. Paul to Timothy, muft 
 be blamelefs, the hulband of one wife. Let 
 the Deacons be the hufbands of one wife, 
 ruling their children and their own houfes 
 well.". I Tim. iii. 2, 12. And again in his 
 Epiftle to Titus i. 6. " Ordain ciders in eve- 
 ry city, as I had appointed thee, if any be 
 blamelefs, the hiifnand of one wife, having 
 faithful children."-—*' Have we not power, fajs 
 the fame Apoftle to the Corinthians, to lead 
 about a fifter, a wife, as well as other Apof- 
 ties, and as the Brethren of the Lord and 
 Cephas." 1 Cor. ix. 5. From this lafl: Text 
 it is evident, that either Paul or Barnabas, 
 
 or 
 
[ 8s ] 
 
 or both, were married, and fome of the Apof- 
 tles. It is very probable likewile, as moft of 
 the fathers think, and our own liturgy in the 
 form of matrimony exprefsly aiTerts, that the 
 Apoftle himfelf, from whom the Pope derives 
 the power of the keys, was a married man. 
 
 All hiftorians agree, that the Britons em- 
 braced the Chriftian Religion, foon after our 
 Saviour's death, though there is a very great 
 uncertainty concerning the perfon from whom 
 they firfl received it. In the beginning of the 
 fifth century, the Saxons, who were then Pa- 
 gans, invaded England, got a fettlement there, 
 and at length drove all the natives into Wales. 
 At the clofe of the fixth century, forty Bene- 
 diftine Monks, with Auftin at the head of 
 them, w^ere fent by Pope Gregory the Firft, 
 to propagate Chriftianity in England 3 and 
 thefe Miffionaries had the good fuccefs to 
 convert the Saxons, and to re-eftablifh the 
 Chriftian Religion there ; but there is no 
 mention made by any Hiftorian, ecclefafti- 
 cal or other, of a reftraint upon the Clergy 
 from marrying, either among the Britons or 
 Saxons, for near 300 years after this conver- 
 fion. The firft account we have of it is in 
 the year 970, v/hen Dunftap, who had been 
 
 Abbot 
 
[ 86 ] 
 
 Abbot of Glaftonbury, and was promoted to 
 the See of Canterbury, attempted, through 
 the inftigation of the Pope, to introduce celi- 
 bacy among the Clergy, in the reigns of Ed- 
 gar and Edward the Second and Martyr : but 
 though this affair was vigoroufly profecuted by 
 him and the Partizans of Rome, yet it was 
 in a great meafure prevented by the Daniili 
 wars ; and the Englifh Clergy continued in a 
 ftate of Matrimony till the Norman conqueft ; 
 when Pope Gregory the Seventh became more 
 determined than any of his PredecefTors upon 
 cftablifhing this prohibition, and called a 
 Council at Rome, in the reign of William the 
 Conqueror, where a decree was made, forbid- 
 ding the Clergy to marry, under very feverc 
 penalties. 
 
 It is faid that the Italians, French, Spani- 
 ards, and Germans at length fubmitted to it, 
 after long ftruggles; but the Englifh conti- 
 nued to oppofe it : for which reafon Lanfranc, 
 Archbifhop of Canterbury, a warm advocate 
 for the Pope, convened a national Synod at 
 Winchefler to debate upon this fubjed:, where 
 he met with a flrong oppofition. He procured 
 indeed a decree, which obliged the Clergy in 
 cities to put away their wives, but it did not 
 
 extend 
 
[ 87 ] 
 
 extend to country Curates : and through his 
 influence the Synod commanded, that none 
 for the future fhould be admitted into orders 
 without a folemn declaration againft Matri- 
 mony y but even this was not ftridtly infifted 
 on. ^ Anfelm, the fucceffor of Lanfranc, both 
 in his Bifhoprick and Principles, fummoned a 
 Synod at London, which condemned the mar- 
 riage of Priefts ; but this did not efFe<ftually 
 rcdrefs the pretended diforder : he would have 
 done much more towards it, had not his 
 contefts with Henry the Firfl:, and Death, pre- 
 vented him. But it was not yet every where 
 fully eftablifhed, as appears from the laft Canon 
 in the Council of Lateran, which was held 
 in King John's reign, and decreed, that the 
 Priefts who were addl'fled to debauchery in 
 countries where marriage was allowed, (hould 
 be more feverely punifhed than thofe who 
 lived in places where they were obliged to 
 celibacy. Again, long after Anfeim's time, 
 Richard, a Biihop of Litchfield, was fon of 
 Robert, Bifhop of Chefter. A Pope likewife 
 about the fame time complaining, that the 
 Bifhop ele«ft of Ely was not come to Rome 
 for his confirmation, the Engliih AmbaiTador 
 merrily replied, that the Prelate had a very 
 
 lawful 
 
[ 88 ] 
 
 lawful excufe taken from the Holy Scriptures^ 
 for he had juft married a wife : In Baronius's 
 Annals it appears likewife, that a Legate, 
 fent by Pope Innocent III. into Poland to fet- 
 tle the celibacy of the Clergy, did at laft 
 carry his point : but attempting the fame in 
 Bohemia, he was In danger of his life. Thus, 
 upon the whole, it is manifeft, that this pro- 
 hibition againft Matrimony, from the firft 
 commencement of it in England, was very 
 ftrongly oppofed for near three hundred years, 
 and was not fully accomplifhed till the middle 
 of the thirteenth century, or In Henry the 
 Third's reign. 
 
 I have been the longer and more particular 
 upon this head, that I might refute and ex- 
 pofe thefe daring aflertlons of Mr. Phillips ; 
 and is It not amazing to fee with what confi- 
 dence he declares, that the prohibition of the 
 Marriage State to the Clergy was founded up- 
 on the example of the Apoftles and the con- 
 ftant pradice or ufage of the whole Weftern 
 Church, ever fince the eftablifhment of Chrif- 
 tianity, when the ftrenuous efforts of Dunftan, 
 Lanfranc, Anfelm, the Pope's Legates, and 
 his Abettors for Introducing and enforcing 
 the celibacy of the Prlefls, and the long op- 
 
 pofition 
 
[ 89 ] 
 
 pofitlon it met with from the greater part of 
 the inferior Clergy, are recorded by every Eng- 
 llfli Hiftorian that hath wrote upon the eccle- 
 iiaftical Tranfadions of thofe times ? This 
 fliews what httle dependence there is upon 
 the arguments which he frequently makes ufe 
 of, viz. the authority of all antiquity, and the 
 dodlrines and difcipline of the Primitive Church, 
 being on his fide ; and how cautious his rea- 
 ders ought to be in admitting any propoiition 
 in his books, though delivered in the moft pe- 
 remptory manner, unlefs it be fupported by 
 fome better teflimony than his own. 
 
 The two great objedls w^hich the Church of 
 Rome has always in view, are Riches and 
 Power. For thefe they would compafs Sea 
 and Land j and with thefe keys it is eafy to 
 unlock their cabinet councils, and account 
 for all their abfurd tenets. It is impofTible to 
 conceive what prodigious fums of money that 
 filly dodrine of a Purgatory hath brought into 
 the Romifli Clergy; and whilft it continues 
 mod: profitable, it will appear moft plaufible to 
 them. It might feem ftrange at firft fight that 
 the inftitution of the Celibacy of the Clergy 
 ihould be moft zealoufly efpoufed, and moft 
 violently perfifted in by a f^iccefilon of Popes 
 
 N and 
 
[ 90 ] 
 
 and Cardinals ; but the wonder ceafes, when 
 we confider the effed: of it ; how it cuts off 
 from the Clergy all feparate interefts and con- 
 nedtions with wives and children , and how it 
 tends to alienate the whole body of Ecclefiaf- 
 ticks from the Civil Magiflrate, and attach 
 them to their fovereign Pontiff, confining 
 thereby all their views to the enriching and 
 aggrandizing the Church. 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 TH E inffitution of Nunneries was fub- 
 fequent to, and confequent from the 
 celibacy of the Priefts, for by preventing a 
 great number of males from marrying there 
 was of courfe a redundancy of females -, and 
 therefore it was neceffary either to allov/ poly- 
 gamy to the Lay-Brethren, or to tie up a pro- 
 portionable number of women from marrying 
 by vows of chaflity. This laft was judged m.oft 
 expedient, and confequently put in execution. 
 From hence came the religious order of Nuns, 
 an excrefcence that ncceffarily fprang from the 
 inftitution of the Monafteries, and thus one 
 abfurdity was in labour with, and brought 
 forth another. 
 
 But 
 
[ 9^ ] 
 
 But how much foever thefe projedls may 
 flatter the avarice and ambition of the Church 
 of Rome, yet they are in themfelvcs moft 
 
 Lanti-chrlftian^ unnatural, and, I may v/ith juf- 
 ^ tice add, moft inhuman. Appetites and af- 
 fe(5tions are natural inflinfts, and implanted 
 in us for the moft ufeful purpofes. They have 
 indeed their proper bounds which they fliould 
 not pafs, and may err both in excefs and de^ 
 fedt ; but the total extindion of them, or the 
 audacious attem.pts towards it, are counter 
 working the defigns of divine Providence, and 
 fighting againft God -, it is pretending to be 
 wifer than infinite wifdom, and charging our 
 omnifcient Creator with having made what is 
 fuperfluous or unnecefiary in the human frame. 
 When God formed man, he faid it is not 
 good for him to be alone, that is, to herd 
 only with perfons of his own fex. He is im- 
 perfedl and infufiicient for himfelf. I will 
 therefore provide a help-mate for him, who 
 {hall be his companion, his affiftant, and fo- 
 lace, through every ftage of his being. Hence 
 the depriving him of this help-mate is redu- 
 cing him to that incomplete ftate he was in 
 before his creation was finiflied : It is robbing 
 his aftedions of their natural objedls, and 
 N 2 eftranging 
 
[ 92 ] 
 
 eftranging him from thofe tender fympathies 
 which none but hulhands and parents can feel 
 or exprefs; and without which life itfelf will be 
 infipid and irkfome to him. Was I not an 
 utter enemy to perfecution, and averfe to every 
 kind of violence which felf-defence did not 
 extort from me, I fliould think that whenever 
 any Monks or Romifli Priefls were convidled 
 of propagating thefe doftrines of celibacy and 
 anti-marriage vows, in countries where they 
 are forbidden, th.e [ unifliment beft adapted to 
 their crime, would be the preventing them 
 from any poffibilitycf breaking their own vows, 
 by a total excifion of thofe parts which they 
 have made fuperfluous and troublefome to them. 
 
 Non lex ejl jujlior 9tlla, 
 
 ^iam Jiecis artifices arte perire fiia. 
 
 The woman was made for man, for his ufe 
 and fervice : the whole frame both of her 
 body and miind is peculiarly formed for the 
 breeding, nurturing and rearing of children, 
 or for the continuation and prefcrvation ot 
 iier fpecies. The fhutting her up therefore in 
 cloyfters, and excluding her from his com- 
 pany for whom flie Vv^as made, and from whom 
 
 flic 
 
[ 93 ] 
 
 ihe was taken, is defeating the very end of her 
 being ; it is taking her as it were, out of her 
 element, and rendering her abfolutely ufelefs in 
 her generation : and as fhe is thus become 
 dead to her better half, to the world in general, 
 and all the pleafures of it, it would be better 
 for her if fhe was dead to all the miferies of it, 
 and to herfelf in particular. 
 
 Should it be faid for the inhibition of mar- 
 riage, that the curfe which was pafled upon 
 our firll parents and their pofterity is in fome 
 meafure mitigated by it ; for the Monks do 
 not eat their bread by the fweat of their face ; 
 and the Nuns have not their conception mul- 
 tiplied upon them, they do not bring forth 
 children in forrow, their defires are not to 
 their hulbands, neither do they rule over 
 them. The anfwer is obvious, that this is 
 no general mitigation of this doom ; the 
 taking it off from one part, is only laying it 
 the heavier upon the other : but God will not 
 be mocked in any part, and there is no efcaping 
 his judgments without incurring greater. If 
 the ground doth not bring forth thorns and 
 thiftles to the Monks, their minds will pro- 
 duce them in greater abundance, and floth- 
 fulnefs itfelf will prove more toilfome than 
 
 the 
 
[ 9+ ] 
 
 the getting bread by their labour. The Nuns 
 like wife will conceive and bring forth forrow 
 in their imaginations ; deipair and melan- 
 cholly will rule over them, and they v/ill ap- 
 pear both to themfelves and to the world, 
 the moft deplorable and folitary objeds in 
 the creation. 
 
 And again, if this be avoiding the curfe of 
 God, it is alfo fruftrating his blefhng, and dif- 
 obeying him in the firft command he gave 
 to mankind : for when he had created them 
 male and female, he blelTed them and faid, 
 " Be fruitful and multiply, and replenifli the 
 earth." But doth not the Church of Rome 
 fay to their Priefts and their Nuns, be barren, 
 multiply not, and depopulate the earth : And 
 the earth indeed would be depopulated, if 
 all were to follow their example, as all have 
 as much right ; neither is the crime the lefs, 
 that all do not follow it, for they do what lays 
 in their powxr towards it : And this, when 
 duly confidered, is a great deal ; for the num- 
 ber of both fexes which thefe Religious Houfes 
 contained at the time of their fuppreffion, 
 from the loweft of Mr. Phillips's computation, 
 as mentioned under our firft: head, was 220^000. 
 To this fum muft: be added the number of fe- 
 
 cular 
 
[ 95 ] 
 
 ciilar clergy or parochial priefts, which was 
 at leaft 10,000, the fum total therefore that 
 had declared for a fmgle life was 230,000. 
 Now if it be fuppofed that thefe perfons, from 
 the time they made this engagement, live, one 
 with another, or upon an average, twenty-five 
 years, (which is fetting the term very high) 
 then it will follow, that by keeping this num- 
 ber continually full, 230,000 perfons of them 
 will die in that period. Let it be fuppofed 
 alfo, that thefe perfons had been under no re- 
 ftraint, but left at large, to marry or not, as 
 inclination prompted them, then the confe- 
 quence would have been that though fome 
 might not enter into this Hate, and Ibme v/ho 
 would, might have no children, yet the others 
 would have fjpplied their deficiency, and left 
 a generation at leaft equal to their whole num- 
 ber : (for other wife the world would have de- 
 creafed in its inhabitants) and this generation 
 in like manner begetting another, down to the 
 prefent times, there muft have been now ex- 
 ifting 230,000 perfons deriving their pedigree 
 from this original ftock, even fuppcfmg there 
 had been no increafe upon it. 
 
 Again, if 230,000 perfons had died in the 
 firft tv/entv~five years, there muft have been 
 
 as 
 
[ 96 ] 
 
 as many taken in to have fupplicd their va- 
 cancies : and thefe in the next twenty-jfive 
 years, had they the fame hberty to marry, 
 would alfo have had as many children, and left 
 at this prefent time as numerous a pofterity 
 as the former. 
 
 And the like would have happened to every 
 other fucceffion. But from the general diifolu- 
 tion of the Monafteries, which was about the 
 year 1539, or 1540, to the prefent time, is 
 22 J years, or nine times 25 years, which 
 would have made nine compleat fucceffions of 
 230,000 perfons in thefe Religious Houfes, 
 had they been continued as they were, and 
 confequently the prohibition of marriage being 
 taken off from thefe numbers, they have at 
 this day as many Reprefentatives, that is, there 
 is an increafe of nine times 230,000, or two 
 millions and feventy thoufand perfons to the 
 nation, by the dem.olition of the Monafteries, 
 and leaving matrimony free to all ; and alfo as 
 there hath been an increafe of two hundred 
 and thirty thoufand births every twenty-five 
 years, from the diffolution of thefe Monafteries 
 to the prefent time, it follows that ten mil- 
 lions three hundred and fifty thoufand births 
 would have been prevented if thefe Religious 
 
 Houfes 
 
[ 97 ] 
 
 Houfes had been continued. A prodigious 
 number indeed ! but prodigious as it is, it is 
 rather fet too low than too high, if our Au- 
 thor's account of the perfons rcfiding in thefe 
 places be near the truth. With what grati- 
 tude then ought the prefent generation to look 
 back upon the Reformers, when fo great a 
 fhare of it is indebted to them for its exiflence ; 
 and who knows but even Mr. Phillips himfelf, 
 may owe his Being to this very fuppreffion, 
 which he fo bitterly exclaims againft, Confider 
 alfo, what mighty advantages have accrued to 
 this nation from it : Have not all its gra- 
 dual improvements in ftrength and riches from 
 the Reformation down to the prefent times, 
 flowed in a great meafure from this continual 
 multiplicaiion of its inhabitants ? and is it not 
 from the prefent increafe of above two millions 
 of fubjedts, that England makes fo confide- 
 rable a figure in Europe ? Doth it not from 
 this fl:ock fupply its Fleets and its Armies, 
 fill its Factories and Colonies in all parts of the 
 world, and people immenfe territories on the 
 continent of America, without any fenfible di- 
 minution, or want of hands at home ? 
 
 But what this kingdom hath gained by the 
 
 difiblution of the Monafteries, France muft have 
 
 O 1q(1 
 
r 98 ] 
 
 loft by the continuance of them ; for the num- 
 ber of them was as great there, as it was here. 
 The addition of two millions of inhabitants, 
 would have fet this fpacious and fertile country 
 in the moft flourifhing condition ; and from 
 this defeft alone we may account for this nor- 
 thern hive not pouring forth fuch fwarms of 
 people as it did in the time of the Old Ro- 
 nians^. If France was duly fenfible of her 
 barren plight, flie would fit like Rachel " weep- 
 ing for her children, and refufe to be corn- 
 formed, becaufe they are not.'* 
 
 The number of Priefts and Nuns in all other 
 Roman Catholick Countries, where Marriage 
 is prohibited to them, muft at the Reforma- 
 tion, and lince, have been five times more 
 than it was in France, and confequently there 
 muft be at this inftant 10,350,000 people lefs 
 in thofe countries, with France included, than 
 there would have been without any prohibition 
 of marriage ; and likewife as the number of 
 births would have incre^fed, had the prohibition 
 of marriage been taken off from one million 
 one hundred and fifty thoufand perfons, every 
 twenty-five years for nine fucceffions, or 
 from the Reformation down to the prefent 
 time, there muft have been fifty-one millions 
 
C 99 ] 
 
 feven hundred and fifty thoufand births pre- 
 vented in thofe places by the continuance of 
 it : however incredible this calculation may ap- 
 pear, yet it is founded upon as clear and ftrong 
 proofs as any propcfition in Euclid. 
 
 Laftly, if to this infinite multitude which 
 have been hindered from coming into the 
 world, we could add the number which have 
 been drove out of it, by the perfecutions of the 
 Romifh Church, it would ihew, that the 
 countries under this eflablifhment, have been 
 more depopulated by it, than by all the wars, 
 plagues, pefiilences, famines, and every other 
 judgment with which they have been afflidted, 
 from the inftitution of celibacy to this prefent 
 day. All mankind therefore fhould look up- 
 on thefe Religious Houfes as the pefts and 
 bane of human fociety, and arc bound, by the 
 principles of felf-prefervation, to prevent and 
 fupprefs them. 
 
 O z Letter 
 
[ 100 ] 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 UNDER the three laft heads, viz. the 
 number, revenues, and celibacy of the 
 Regular Clergy, fome of the moil material ob- 
 jedlions againft their Religious Inftitutions have 
 been fet forth, " a threefold cord, fays the 
 Preacher, iv. 12, is not quickly broken •," and 
 as each of them contains arguments fufficient 
 of themfelves to juilify the fuppreffion of the 
 Mon arteries, their ftrength muft be proporti- 
 onably increafed, and rendered irrefragable by 
 their union, by which means a principal fub- 
 jedl of Mr. Phillips's book is fully anfwered, 
 and the vindication of His Hero, in refpecl to 
 this part of his Conduit, with the heavy 
 charge of Rapine and Sacrilege upon the 
 Reformers, falls to the ground. 
 
 'I proceed nov/ to confider and examine the 
 RomiiTi Doclrlnes v/hich this Author hath 
 advanced in his Hiftory : but as it would be 
 endlefs to follow him through all his errors, 
 and entering into the whole Controverfy be- 
 tween the Church of England and the Church 
 of 'Rome -, it will be fuiiicient to fmglc out 
 thofe Dodrines and Pofitions which he hath 
 
 enlarged 
 
[ 'OI ] 
 
 enlarged lipon, or endeavoured to prove by 
 fome fhew of argument ; and the firft that 
 offers itfelf to me is, the prohibiting the com- 
 mon people from reading the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 ** I am very fenfible, fays Mr. PhiliipSj the 
 generality of this nation is fo far prejudiced 
 againft Pacheco's opinion (who moved in the 
 Council of Trent, that all tranflatiens of the 
 Scriptures into modern languages fiiould be 
 prohibited) as to condemn the Catholick 
 Church for having ever with-held a full liberty 
 on this head ; but, without taking upon my- 
 felf to decide on either fide of the queftion, I 
 fliall briefly propofe what may be alledged to 
 juftify this reftraint. And firft, in times fo 
 diftant from the faith and teachable difpofi- 
 tion of the primitive Chriftians, it may not 
 perhaps be expedient to put indifferently into 
 the hands of all the world thofe facred oracles 
 of which God has given the underftanding to 
 pure fouls, and which the ignorant, accord- 
 ing to St. Peter, wreft to their own deftruc- 
 tion. It may be farther urged, that it is in- 
 herent to low minds to undervalue what they 
 have always before their eyes, and to reve* 
 rence what is lefs obvious ; that the wifeft 
 nations have always removed the myfteries of 
 
 religion 
 
[ 102 ] 
 
 religion from tlie approaches of the vulgar; 
 and Jefus Chrift himfelf, who is the wifdom 
 of God, had fo often fpoke in parables to 
 conceal from grofs underftandings what he 
 defigned to reveal in particular to his difci- 
 ples, that in the Old and New Teftament 
 there are feveral paffages which require great 
 attention, knowledge and ibbriety of thought, 
 and which it were better to leave in the learned 
 languages ; for otherwife they become a means 
 of fedudlion to carnal men, who do not under- 
 ftand the things that are of God 3 and to 
 proud and prefumptuous fpirits, who imagine 
 they underftand what they are ignorant of." 
 
 B.i. p. 356, 357- 
 
 It muft be always expedient to put into 
 the hands of all Chriftians, their rule of life, 
 and what all ought to believe and praftice. 
 The Scriptures were wrote in the languages 
 then moft in ufe, and beft underftood. Mofes 
 ufed all prudential means to make his Statutes 
 and his Laws as public as poffible ; he com- 
 manded the people to have them in their 
 hearts, to teach them diligently unto their 
 children, to talk of them when they fat down 
 in their houfes, and when they walked by the 
 way, when they laid down, and when they 
 
 rofe 
 
[ 103 ] 
 
 rofc up ; they were ordered to bind them for 
 a fign upon their hands, to be as frontlets be- 
 tween their eyes, to write them upon the pofts 
 of their Houfes, and on their Gates. Deut. 
 vi. 6, 7, 8. Our Saviour himfelf commanded 
 the Jews to fearch the Scriptures, and exa- 
 mine the Law and the Prophets, whether 
 they did not teftify of him ? The Bereans we 
 are told were more noble than the people of 
 Theffalonica, becaufe they fearched the Scrip- 
 tures daily, whether Jefus was not the Chriil^ 
 and therefore many of them believed. Ads 
 xvii. II. All Scripture, faith St. Paul, is 
 given by infpiration, and is profitable for 
 dodlrine, for reproof, for inftrudlion, for 
 righteoufnefs, that the man of God may be 
 perfedt, thoroughly furnifhed unto all good 
 works. If Scripture then be profitable for 
 thefe things, why {hould not all men reap 
 thefe profits, and prepare themfelves for good 
 works from them ? and if it be able to make 
 me wife unto Salvation, why fhould I be dif- 
 abled and reftrained from this wiidom ? Jefus 
 Chrift came down from Heaven to reveal the 
 will of his Father to all Mankind, to publifli 
 to the world the doftrines of redemption, re- 
 pentance, and forgivcnefs. His errand was 
 
 to 
 
[ 104 ] 
 
 to bring life and immortality to light, to fet 
 Heaven and Hell, infinite rewards and punifli- 
 ments, before men, and to promife eternal 
 life to them who patiently continue in well 
 doing, and threaten indignation and wrath, 
 tribulation and anguiih, upon every foul of 
 man that obeys not the truth, and doth evil. 
 But to what purpofe are thefe rewards and 
 punifhments fet before me, if I am kept in 
 ignorance of the means to obtain the one, and 
 avoid the other ? or how can I obey the truth, 
 if it be concealed from me ? If the terms of 
 falvation are propofed to me, and propofed by 
 infpiration, they are certainly delivered in the 
 beft manner poffible : they are plain, eaiy, and 
 adapted to my underftanding -, for I can never 
 fuppofe, that infinite wifdom would fet things 
 above my capacity, which are neceffary for me 
 to know, and to do ; and it is a fcandalous 
 refledtion of Mr. Phillips's upon the Holy 
 Scriptures, when he fays, that the ftudy of 
 them often betrays perfons into errors, or con- 
 firms thofe they have already imbibed. B. ii. 
 p. 36. For it implies, that they were written 
 with a view to deceive more than inftrudl 
 mankind • and fince our Saviour hath vouchfa- 
 fed to difclofe the fprings of eternal life, and 
 
 called 
 
[ ^05 ] 
 
 called upon me to quench my third at them, 
 it is my duty to inform myfelf what thofe 
 fprings contain -, and I will fliew more refpe6l 
 to him and to myfelf than to take what is of 
 fuch infinite concern to me from another's cif- 
 tern 3 but I will go as near as I can to the 
 fountain-head, and draw thefe living v/aters 
 from the fpring itfelf. 
 
 The great Phyfician of our Souls hath given 
 us infallible receipts for all fpiritual maladies ; 
 but they are medicines, and not charms, to be 
 taken and digeiled ; for if they are laid by us, 
 or kept in the hands of another, they will be 
 of no more fervice to the lick mind than a 
 prefcriptioti on the Apothecary's file will be to 
 the diftempers of the body. And he that 
 thinks the Bible, which his Prieft hath in his 
 cuftody, will entitle him to an inheritance in 
 the kingdom of Heaven, may as well lay claim 
 to the whole world, becaufe his neighbour hath 
 a map of it in his houfe. 
 
 Our Saviour preached publickly : " He that 
 hath ears, fays he, to hear, let him hear." 
 His Difciples were mean illiterate perfons, and 
 he fuited his difcourfes to them. He fpoke 
 indeed fometimes in parables, but it was to 
 the Scribes and Eiders of the Jews, who were 
 P prejudiced 
 
[ io6 ] 
 
 prejudiced againft him, and wanted to enfnare 
 him in his talk : but he always explained 
 them to his Difciples ; not to a part of them, 
 but to all who believed in him, and kept no- 
 thing fecret from them ; ''I thank thee, O 
 Father, fays he, that thou haft hid thefe things 
 from the wife, and revealed them unto babes." 
 It by no means follows, therefore, that the 
 people fhould not be permitted to read the 
 Holy Scriptures, becaufe Chrift talked in pa- 
 rables to the Pharifees. There are no parables 
 in them without their explication : the hiftory 
 of his life ^nd dodrines, as recorded in the 
 four Gofpels, was wrote in the plaineft ftyle, 
 in the vulgar tongue, fubmitted to the perufal 
 of all perfons, and ordered to be publickly read 
 in all the churches. Though there may be 
 feveral paffages in the Old and New Teftament 
 which require great attention, knowledge and 
 fobriety of thought, yet, what then ? Is that 
 any reafon why it fhould be better to leave 
 them in the learned languages ? Do they there 
 require lefs attention, or lefs knowledge or 
 thought r Is not this enhancing the difficulty 
 and the pains to get at the fenfe of them ? 
 May not carnal minds learn thefe languages as 
 well as others, and will they not then prove as 
 
 much 
 
[ I07 ] 
 
 much a means of fedudlioii as if they had 
 been tranflated into the modem languages ^ 
 But if there be paffages requiring great atten- 
 tion and knowledge, then let them be com- 
 mented upon by fkilful perfons ; and by a na- 
 tural folution rendered intelligible and eafy to 
 perfons of all capacities. 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 
 IN St. Paul's Epiftles there are fome things 
 hard to be underftood, which they that 
 are unlearned and unftable wreftj as they do 
 all the other Scriptures, unto their own de- 
 ftrudion ; but yet the Apoftle made no excep- 
 tion to his readers, his Epiftles were general, 
 and to be communicated to all the members 
 of the church they were diredled to. "I 
 charge you by the Lord, fays he to the Thef- 
 falonians, that this Epiftle be read to all the 
 holy Brethren." i TheiT. v. 27. There is no 
 arguing againft the ufe of a thing from the 
 abufe of it : Our Author himfelf can fee this 
 in other cafes, and hath obferved, " that if 
 fome learned men have been juftly charged 
 with the abufe and mifapplication of their 
 talents, and other more capital diforders, thefe 
 ^ P 2 can 
 
[ ^o8 ]• 
 
 can with no more equity be imputed to learn- 
 ing than the wanderings and wreclcs of wilful 
 and obftinate Pilots to the invention of the 
 compafsj and the art of navigation." B. i. p. lo. 
 And by analogy of reafon, as the ufe of the 
 needle and quadrant, and the obfervation of 
 the celeftial luminaries, (hould not be prohi- 
 bited to Mariners, though fome have been caft 
 away through their mifmanagement of them ; 
 fo the ufe of the Bible, and the ftudy of the 
 Holy Scriptures, fhould be left free to all who 
 v/ould jfteer their courfe by them, through the 
 waves of this world, to their defired haven in 
 the next, though fome have made ihip wreck 
 of their faith, and have perillied through the 
 perverfion of them. 
 
 The great book of nature is laid open to 
 all the world, wherein are both great and 
 fmall charaders, things eaiy, hard, and incom- 
 prehenfible ; yet every man hath full liberty to 
 look into it, to examine and make what ob- 
 fervations he pleafes upon it. Why then 
 fliould not the book of Revelation be laid as 
 open before us ? There is an abfurdity in the 
 very fuppofition of a revealed fubje(ft being 
 hidden from us : It is thwarting our Saviour's 
 intentions in his publication of the Gofpel, 
 
 and 
 
r i°9 ] 
 
 and fuppreffing the tidings of great joy which 
 were proclaimed by his Angel to all people. 
 If reading the Holy Scriptures be fo pernici- 
 ous to the lower clafs of mankind as to endan- 
 ger their falvation, the moft effectual means to 
 prevent it would be to hinder them from learn- 
 ing to read at all 5 and as eternal happinefs is 
 the one thing needful, and to which all other 
 are to give way, the purfuit of it will certainly 
 juilify the prohibition of whatever interferes 
 with or obftrucls it : This perhaps the Romifli 
 Clergy would be glad to do, was it not too 
 grofs an impofition for the Laity to fubmit to ; 
 and indeed I am al a lofs how to account for 
 their fubmitting to be kept as they are in the 
 dark with refped: to the Holy Scriptures 3 un- 
 lefs cuftom hath the fame influence over them 
 as I have heard it hath over the inhabitants 
 under or near the Pole, w'ho having been inu- 
 red to night half the year, w^ould willingly 
 have it continued the other half, and regret 
 the return of the fun. This puts me in mind 
 of a ftory which I have fomewhere met with, 
 and as it is fhort and pertinent to the prefent 
 fubjecl, I will take the liberty of troubling my 
 reader with it. A Clown, feeing a fellow 
 ftanding in the pillory, afked the perlbn next 
 
 to 
 
[ no ] 
 
 to him, what that was in black and white 
 on the top of the pillory ? Being told it was 
 forgery, the crime for which he was put there. 
 Forgery, continues he, what's that ? It is 
 counterfeiting another man's hand-writing, re- 
 plied his neighbour. There now, fays he, 
 this comes of your writing and reading : I 
 thank God and my friends, for keeping me 
 from fchool, and preventing this crime from 
 
 hanging over my head. When the Laity 
 
 of the Church of Rome fliall fee thofe who 
 have wTeiled the Holy Scriptures to their de- 
 ftruvSion affigned over to their proper punifh- 
 ment, they may perhaps hug themfelves, and 
 blefs their fpiritual guides for faving them from 
 this danger. But fhould they turn themfelves 
 to the other fide, and behold thofe faithful 
 ftewards who have learned from the Scriptures 
 to be wife unto falvation,' they will find more 
 reafon to curfe their Priefts for depriving them 
 of the opportunities of improving their talents, 
 and entering with their fellow fervants into the 
 joy of their Lord. 
 
 The abfolute intrinfick worth of any thing 
 is never increafed by being concealed, and 
 where its worth flows from its utility to man- 
 kind, it becomes the more valuable for being 
 
 the 
 
[ III ] 
 
 the more known : Whilft a reputed charadler, 
 if it exceeds the truth, is not to be defired, 
 and if it falls fliort of it, is to be contemned. 
 If men will make a falfe eftimation, the fault 
 IS in them, and not in the things ; and though 
 it be inherent in low minds to undervalue what 
 they have always before their eyes, and to re- 
 verence what is lefs obvious, yet we mufl: not 
 think of raifmg the im.aginary value of any 
 thing, by finking its real ufe, nor mind incur- 
 ing undeferved contempt, when the avoiding it 
 eclipfes native glory. The iun continues to 
 fhinc, however the birds of night may be 
 offended at it : and gold without ufe is no 
 better than drofs -, but it lofes nothing of its 
 intrinfick worth, and feldom any thing of its 
 reputed value, by its general currency. Our 
 Saviour did not fecrete himfelf from the world 
 to create a reverence for him.felf, but he went 
 about doing good, he frequented public places, 
 and converfed with perfons of all conditions : 
 And though his difcourfes and his works were 
 undervalued, and even blafphemed by low 
 minds, yet he did not defifr from their publi- 
 cation. The real myfteries of Relio:Ion . are 
 above our comprehenfions, and by their own 
 nature removed from the approaches of man- 
 
 kind 
 
[ 112 ] 
 
 kind : But no wife nations ever made myfteries 
 in true Religion, which were not fuch of 
 themfelves. Sacred and moral truths are not 
 of that glow-worm nature to fliihe only in the 
 dark, but like diamonds they will fparkle in 
 the fun-fhine, and be the more efleemed for 
 being the more feen. Some crafty Politicians 
 indeed have conlidered Religion only as an 
 engine of State, and through its means have 
 endeavoured to impofe upon the credulity of 
 the populace ? but it is the part only of weak, 
 fuperftitious, or defigning perfons to deal in 
 myfleries, and the offerings of the wife are 
 infinitely more acceptable than the adoration of 
 fools. What is there that the Prieft knows 
 which is not fit to be communicated to the 
 People, unlefs it be delufion and impofture ? 
 The Egyptian Priefts kept their Gods from 
 vulgar infpe^tion, becaufe they had deified 
 the moft contemptible things -, the moft offen- 
 five and noxious animals, and the meaneft ve- 
 getables and minerals were enfhrined in their 
 temples. The Pagan Oracles amufed the 
 people with ambiguous anfwers, and kept them 
 at a diftance, left by too near an approach 
 their impofitions fliould be difcovered, and 
 their ignorance expofed ; and moft of the Hea- 
 then i£h 
 
C "3 ] 
 
 thenifh RiteSj which the Adepts were Initiated 
 into, and have been fince difclofed, were abfurd 
 or ridiculous, or a fcandal to human nature : 
 It is a fhrewd fign that things, efpecially of a 
 religious kind, are worthlefs in themfelves, 
 ^hich muft be beholden to ignorance for their 
 valuation. If the Canons and Conftitutions 
 of the Church of Rome 3 if the deciiions of 
 councils, and the decrees of their Italian Ora- 
 cle, are confonant with the written Oracles of 
 God, why is not their harmony difplayed, and 
 thefe original authorities produced, as colla- 
 teral confirmations of their dodtrines ? If thcfc 
 pure fouls, who have the gift of underftand- 
 ing the Scriptures, don't care to fubmit them 
 to the perufal of the common people, is there 
 not great reafon to fufped: that they bear hard 
 upon their ecclefiaftical Inftitutions ? And we 
 who are converfant in the infpired Writings 
 know this to be the truth. They are afhamed 
 of their unfcriptural traditions, and are afraid, 
 left the Laity fhould find them contradidled by 
 the Word of God. They have forbid the 
 reading of the Bible, becaufe impure fouls v.^ould 
 there fee the fecond Commandment prohibit- 
 ing, to their grofs conceptions, the woriliip- 
 ping of Images and RelidSp as pradticed in 
 Q^ the 
 
E "4 ] 
 
 the Church of Rome: they would alfo fet 
 the with-holding the cup from the Laity 
 to be diredly contrary to our Lord's inftitu- 
 tion of that Sacrament, and that no Ucences 
 to fin fhould be granted, nor any reftraints laid 
 up©n the Clergy from marrying ; and laflly, 
 they would fee their High Prieft brought down 
 on a level with other Bifliops, and feveral cor- 
 ruptions and abominations in their Church 
 condemned in the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 LETTER XVIL 
 
 THE next fubjefl: that offers itfelf to 
 our examination from this Hiilory is the 
 Right of Private Judgment, and the Unity 
 of the Church. " Poland, Mr. Phillips fays, 
 was fo giddy with a continual Rotation, that 
 the Synod of Scrinia came to this wild rcfolu- 
 tion, of allovv'ing every one to believe as he 
 thought proper." And again, '' The Profe- 
 lites of the new fedls were allowed to be arbi- 
 trators of their own Belief; and though no 
 pretenfion could be more abfurd, yet it flattered 
 their vanity, and left them at large to prophecy 
 fmooth things to every corruption of their 
 hearts." B. i. p. 329, 331. 
 
 However 
 
• [ "5 ] 
 
 However wild this relblution might appear 
 to our Author, yet a refolution of not allow- 
 ing every one to believe as he thought proper 
 would have been infinitely more extravagant : 
 for by what means fhall he be hindered ? 
 Belief is the perfuafion of the mind, founded 
 upon convictions and whatever a man is con- 
 vinced of, that he will think moft proper to 
 believe : now how will this convidion be 
 prevented ? The mind is . not the objed: of 
 compulfion -, there is no looking into it, nor 
 knowing what- pafles there but by what comes 
 out of it ; and if there was, it is out of the 
 reach of all .' external power. Thoughts are 
 both fecret and free, and every one may think 
 as he pleafes ; and confequently liis conviction 
 and belief will depend upon his ple^fqre. This 
 is the Prerogative of a Rational . and Intelli- 
 gent Beir^g : Man was endowed wi^fe Under- 
 ftanding, and inverted with Liberty and Free- 
 will, on purpofe that he fhould be mailer 
 ofhimfelf, and exert thefe powers chiefly in 
 things which moftly concern him, in fenti- 
 ments of Piety and Gratitude to his Maker, 
 of Juftice arid Benevolence to his Neighbour, 
 -and of Temperance and Moderation to himfelf. 
 0^2 The 
 
[ ii6 ] 
 
 The right therefore of Private Judgment, 
 of chufing and determining for one*s fclf in 
 Religious and Moral Subjects, is a Natural 
 Privilege exempt from all external violence, 
 abfolute and uncontroulable 3 and as we are 
 dependent only upon ourfelves, it is incum- 
 bent upon us to take care of ourfelves, and to 
 maintain this freedom, by fearching into the 
 Scriptures and uiing all proper means for the 
 knowledge of the Truth, that we may eftablifh 
 iuft principles within us, and dired: our con- 
 viftion right. Since God hath made us men, 
 it is our principal duty to confider and fhew 
 ourfelves men, to appear the moft like Reafon- 
 able Beings before the God of Reafon, to 
 aflort this natural Liberty towards our fellow 
 Creatures, and to approve ourfelves to our 
 own minds. 
 
 The Profelites of the new Sedls, fays our 
 Author, were allowed to be the Arbitrators of 
 their own Belief. It would be hard indeed if 
 men would not allow this Arbitration to one 
 another, which God hath given to every man, 
 ^nd is infeparable from him : and even fup- 
 pofing the Romlfli Church had the gift of In- 
 fpiration, and the Governors of it were infal- 
 lible, 
 
[ "7 ] 
 
 lible, yet this would not cancel or abridge 
 the right of private Judgment, becaufe it is an 
 eflential property flowing from our underftand- 
 ing, and cannot be taken from us without 
 deftroying our very nature. He who is the 
 Fountain of Infallibility and Power, and con- 
 ferred this right upon us, doth not offer to 
 withdraw or fufpend it, when he himfelf con- 
 defcends to converfe or expoftulate with us ; 
 but he expedls us to affert it, and even appeals 
 to human Arbitration for the Juftice of his 
 proceedings with mankind. 
 
 If therefore any Members of the Church of 
 Rome be Infallible, they fhould prove their 
 Infallibility, not by attempting impoffibilities, 
 but by adapting themfelves to the capacities 
 of their inferiors, and by laying before them 
 fuch clear demonftrations of knowledge, and 
 ftrong arguments for convidlion, as would over- 
 power their judgment, and force their affent. 
 This is the only violence that can be offered 
 to rational minds, and is confident with their 
 natural privileges. But no pretenfion can be 
 more abfurd than for fallible and frail mortals 
 to claim more power than what the Almighty 
 hath thought fit to take upon himfelf; and 
 furely nothing can be more prefumptuous than 
 
 for 
 
[ II8 J 
 
 for men to deny their Fellow Creatures their 
 Rights of Thinking, Reafoning, or Judging, 
 and to engrofs them to themfelves. And laftly 
 every man muft be proud of being delivered 
 from the tyranny of fuch Ufurpers, reftored to 
 the free exercife of the Powers v/hich God 
 hath inverted him with, and left accountable 
 to him alone for the hard or fmooth things he 
 might prophecy to himfelf from them. 
 
 Since then it cannot be fuppofed, that the 
 Synod of Scrinia fliould only intend to allow 
 what was out of their power to refufe, the 
 refoiution they came to muft be, to tolerate 
 a public profeffion of every one's belief. And 
 where was the wildnefs of this refoiution ? If 
 every one had a power to believe for himfelf, 
 why ihould any one be debarred from the de- 
 claration of his faith ? The free communica- 
 tion of our thoughts to one another, is the 
 beft method of mutual inftrudlicn -, this is the 
 proper ufe of fpeech ; and the natural right 
 of believing for ourfclves, entitles us to the 
 application of all the means of perfediing this 
 belief: and as this is the one thing needful, 
 we may, nay we ought to converfe, confer, 
 and argue upon points of faith and practice, 
 in feafon and out of feafon -, with the learn- 
 ed, 
 
[ "9 ] 
 
 cd, and with the unlearned ; and it Is incum- 
 bent upon all, to be aiding and aflifting each 
 other with their informations on thefe fubjeds. 
 Did not our Saviour appeal to mens fenfes and 
 underftandings, with the proofs of his divine 
 miffion ? Did he not fuppofe the right of 
 private judgment, when he preached to per- 
 fons of all conditions, and endeavoured to fa- 
 tisfy them of the truth of his Dodrines ? 
 Though he had all power given him, in 
 heaven and in earth, yet he did not pretend to 
 be the arbitrator of any man's faith, without 
 convincing his judgment -, neither did he deny 
 the privilege of believing as every one thought 
 proper ; but by the power of his wifdom he 
 brought them to believe as he thought proper, 
 and by fpeaking as never man fpake, and with 
 arguments that no one could anfwer, he com- 
 pelled their affent, and drew all men after him. 
 In like manner, the i\pofl:les addrefled themfelves 
 to mens underftandings : Their loins were girt 
 about with truth, and they had on the breaft- 
 plate of righteoufnefs : None were able to refift 
 the wifdom of St. Stephen, nor the fpirit by 
 which he fpake : And when St. Paul made Fe- 
 lix tremble, it was by the force of his reafoning 
 upon righteoufnefs, temperance, and judgment 
 
[ I20 ] 
 
 to come. The Chriftian Religion made its 
 way in the world by the purity of its doc- 
 trines, and the fimplicity of the manners of 
 its profeflbrs. And how do even the prefent 
 Miffionaries of the Church of Rome propagate 
 their Religion among the infidel nations, when 
 they are not armed by the fecular power ? Or 
 how did their famous Jefuit or Saint, Francis 
 Xavier, convert the Indians in the Eaft ; or 
 their Miffionary and Saint, Lewis Bertrand, en- 
 lighten the Indians in the Weft ? Was it not 
 by laying before them the plaineft truths of 
 the Gofpel, fuch as are fuited to the lovi^eft 
 capacities, and endeavouring to convince them 
 from the firft principles of morality of the er- 
 rors of their ways, and of the truth of the 
 Chriftian Religion ? and had they had nothing 
 more to communicate to them they might 
 have fafely refted their caufe here, and could 
 not have failed of fuccefs j but as they built 
 upon this foundation, hay and ftubble, or the 
 traditionary rubbifli of their Church, they 
 found it neceffary to have recourfe to artificial 
 expedients, and attem.pted to betray the In- 
 dians into a belief of their Dodrines by falfe 
 miracles, yet ftill this was an appeal to their 
 fenfes : and thefe miffionaries were obliged to 
 
 open 
 
[ 12' ] 
 
 open the eyes of thofe people by the natural 
 light which was ftill retained, becaufe they 
 were deftitute of all compuliive power. Force 
 therefore was impradlicable, and would it not 
 have been a moft prepofterous method of making 
 profelites, to have told them that they were a 
 pack of blockheads and fools, without fenfe 
 or underftanding ; that they muft not be talked 
 to as men, but drove like brute creatures into 
 the church, and there muft believe whatever 
 their Prieft fliould diftate to them, and do 
 whatever he fhould command them ? Thefe 
 would have been fuch grofs infults upon the 
 common fenfe of mankind, that the moft bar- 
 barous nations would have fpurned at fuch rude 
 treatment : Men are not to be ftript of their 
 reafon at once ^ it muft be craftily and gra- 
 dually taken from them. They, who have any 
 fuch defign, fhould take vice for their ex* 
 ample ; they fhould firft make ufe of reafon 
 itfelf, and gently lead it on from one infatu- 
 ation to another : Men muft not be let into 
 thefe profound fecrets till they are prepared 
 for their admiflion, and are become adepts fit 
 to be initiated into the myfteries of their Re- 
 ligion. It was therefore moft impolitic in our 
 Author, and nothing but bis zeal can excufe 
 R his 
 
[ 122 ] 
 
 ais temerity, in divulging thefc private articles 
 to a free people, who are extremely zealous 
 of their. natural rights : and furely no Prote- 
 fkant in his fenfes will ever be prevailed upon 
 to quit his Religion, when he mufl lofe his 
 underftanding by the change, furrender up the 
 ufe of his judgment, extinguifh the light of 
 his mind, and blindly follow fpiritual guides 
 more blind than himfdf. 
 
 L E X.T E R XVIII. 
 
 TH E Pretence of the Romiih Hierarchy 
 for difallowing private Judgment, and 
 exafting an implicit Faith in, and an unlimited 
 Obedience to all their decrees is, the Unity 
 of the Church. 
 
 ^ " The Chriftian Faith, fays Mr. Phillips^ 
 which has the fource of truth for its Author, 
 partakes of the unity of its Divine Origin, 
 which cannot be divided, and that any difcord 
 would be the deftrudlion of the whole. And 
 again, the members of her ov/n Communion 
 will, above all others, find motives of acquief- 
 cence in the guidance of a church which they 
 perceive to be fliil the fame, amidft all thofc 
 changes which furround and pafs before her, 
 
 that 
 
[ 123 ] 
 
 that her unerring light is at once clear, un- 
 changed, and univerfal, and has in every age 
 imparted the rules of belief and action to all 
 who have any claim to a fucceflion from the 
 Apoftles, and been the fource and teft of every 
 rightful tenet, that, like the foul which feeds 
 the whole frame with fpirits, fupplies it with 
 vigour, directs each motion, and fuftains every 
 nerve 5 this divine diredicn has provided not 
 only nations and provinces, but individuals, with 
 fpiritual fupplies fuited to all their neceffities." 
 B. i. p. 422, 423. 
 
 Every Proteftant acknowledges a perfedl rule 
 of faith and practice, as well as the Papifts ; 
 the difference between them is, the firft alTerts 
 the Holy Scriptures to be that rule, and the 
 other fuppofes it to be framed in a great mea- 
 fure by his church, which he believes to be 
 c®ntinually infpired by the Holy Spirit and di- 
 recfted into all truth. 
 
 The uncertainty among the Romanifts them^ 
 felves where to place this infallibility is a de- 
 monftration of there being none ; for if there 
 was any, it would foon manifeil; itfelf, and 
 among the moft fallible creatures u'ould im- 
 mediately diftinguiih thcfe who were endowed 
 with it. The contrary decrees of their Coun- 
 R Z cils. 
 
[ 124 ] 
 cils, and their Popes, and the palpable errors 
 adopted by their Church, are undeniable proofs 
 of its fallibility. But waving this confideration 
 at prefent, and fuppofing, if it could be, that 
 both Churches have a perfedl rule, with the 
 fource of truth for its Author, it would moft 
 certainly partake of the unity of its divine 
 origin, and any difcord in it would be the de- 
 ftrudlion of the whole j that is, if there was 
 any inconfiftency in it, it could not be a perfeft 
 rule. And it alfo follows that all men ought 
 to fubmit to, and walk by, this perfed: rule. 
 But the queftion ftill returns, How fhall they 
 be brought to this fubmiffion ? Is there any 
 other way than by inflrudtion, perfuafion and 
 conviftion ? Chrift, who was both Omnifcient 
 and Omnipotent, prefcribed only this, and per* 
 haps it is impoffible to ufe any other confift- 
 ently with the liberty of a Rational Being. 
 But this was far from being fufficient to pro- 
 cure, or preferve, an uniformity of opinions, 
 for from the different tempers, inclinations, in- 
 firmities and corruptions of mankind, there 
 could not but be an infinite diverfity of fenti- 
 ments, and endlefs deviations from this perfedt 
 rule. I hear, faith St. Paul to the Corinthians, 
 that there be divifions among you, and I partly 
 
 believe 
 
[ ^25 ] 
 
 believe it, for there muft be herefies among 
 you J that is, it cannot be otherwife, it is impof- 
 fible in the nature of things to prevent them ; 
 and though our Saviour, his Apoftles, and the 
 Primitive Fathers, never attempted to brmg 
 men to one mind but by convincing their judg- 
 ments, yet contrary to all thefe examples, and 
 to the impoffibility of the thing itfelf, the 
 Church of Rome hath undertaken by other 
 methods to compafs this unity of opinion : in 
 the firft place they fet themfelves up as the ar- 
 bitrator's of every man's faith, and came to a 
 refolution of not fuffering any one to have any 
 judgment of his ow^n, or to believe as he thought 
 proper : then they publifhed canons or rules of 
 faith, and under the fevereft penalties extorted 
 an outward profeffion of them ; but here their 
 pov^er ended, they could go no farther tow^ards 
 deftroying private judgments, they could not 
 reach the heart, nor eftablifli any faith there. 
 They might therefore bring men to diffemble 
 their thoughts and make them hypocrites, but 
 they did not make them chriiiians : external 
 Religion might by this means become a fub- 
 jed; not of choice but of compuliion, and 
 every perfon was in feme manner obliged to 
 t^ke what wa$ prefcribed him, but this was 
 
 not 
 
r '26 ]; 
 
 not properly his own, it was the Religion of his 
 Country ; and for the fame reafpn that he pro- 
 feffed Chriflianity, he would have profefled the 
 Jewifli, Mahometan, or Pagan Religion, had 
 either of them been thus forcibly eftabliihed 
 where he was born. But though the Church 
 of Rome could not bring men to think or 
 judge as they would have them, yet they 
 brought them not to think or judge at all ; 
 for their reftraint upon the tongue cut off all 
 the means of information ; and as difcourfe 
 upon religious topicks was extremely dange- 
 rous, it became at length a general maxim 
 among ail ranks of people, not to trouble 
 themfelves with, or to have any thoughts con- 
 cerning it. Thus the Church prevented a di- 
 veriity of opinions by leaving none, and inftead 
 of bringing all men to one mind, they fup- 
 preffed all minds : the very life and foul of Re- 
 ligion was deflroyed, and nothing rem.ained 
 but the bare profeffion, the mere outfide 
 tinfel fhew, and the glittering pomp and pa- 
 geantry of it. 
 
 The means likewife which they ufed were 
 no lefs unnatural and anti-chriftian than inef- 
 fectual, for preferving unity of opinion. *' The 
 members of her Communion, fays our Author, 
 
 will 
 
[ 127 ] 
 
 will above all others find motives of acquJef- 
 cence in the guidance of a church which they 
 perceive to be ftill the fame.'* They will find 
 indeed motives of acquiefcence with their 
 church which are not in any other ; motives 
 from dungeons, inquifitions, racks, tortures, 
 fire, and all the direft cruelties that defperate 
 revenge or malice can furniih incenfed avarice 
 and arnbition with. Motives of acquiefcence 
 which operate, not as Circe's wand did, by a 
 charm upon the companions of Ulyfies ; but 
 by terrors, fuch as Erynnis ne'er could raife, 
 nor fear conceive. Men were deprived of 
 the ufe of their underftandings j which they 
 could not but defpair of ever recovering, as 
 they perceived their church always preffing 
 thefe motives with the fame unrelenting fury, 
 Herein was our Saviour's prophecy verified, 
 when he faid, think not that I am come to 
 fend peace on earth, I am not come to fend 
 peace on earth, but a fvvord. He preached 
 indeed the Goipel of peace, and his principal 
 errand was to reconcile God to Men, and men 
 to one another; and to eftablilli the doflrines 
 of univerfal benevolence. The difringuiflnng 
 charaderiftic of his difcipies, was love ; they 
 were not to refift their adverfaries, but rather 
 
 to 
 
 # 
 
[ 128 ] 
 
 to turn their cheeks to the fmiter ; and Inftead 
 of putting a fword into the hands of the De- 
 fenders of the Faith, he came to put meek- 
 nefs, forbearance and forgivenefs into their 
 hearts, and to order that no difference in opi- 
 nions fliould make any breach in their affec- 
 tions. But he knew, that in after ages fome 
 = men would fet themfelves up as his vicegerents, 
 and others as the fucceffors of his apoflles, 
 who would change his fpiritual into a tem- 
 poral kingdom, and transform his whole fcheme 
 of benevolence into a plan for monopolizing 
 wealth and power, and aggrandizing them- 
 felves. He faw with the eye of prophecy his 
 pretended vicars come forth with power and 
 ligns, with lying wonders and all the deceive- 
 ablenefs of unrighteoufnefs -, having myflery 
 wrote in their foreheads, and a cup in their 
 hands, full of abominations. He faw them 
 drunk with the blood of the faints -, and un- 
 der colour of peopling heaven, making the 
 earth defolate ; his prophetic fpirit fet before 
 him holy leagues giving fandtion to the mofl 
 horrid maffacres ; and croifades undertaken 
 for the recovery of the Holy Land ; he faw 
 an order of Knights-errant fighting under his 
 banners ; who were fworn enemies to peace, 
 
 and 
 
[ 129 ] 
 
 and had vowed perpetual war with infidels, 
 he faw likewife another religious order of men 
 profeffing the fimplicity of the Gofpel, and 
 under the veil of his Holy Name pradlifing 
 all kinds of diffimulation, perfidy, and cunning 
 craftinefs to deceive 3 ftruck vnth thefe mon- 
 ftrous fights, he declared that the Prince of 
 Peace was come to fend a fword upon earth : 
 and if a judgment v/as to be formed of Chrif- 
 tianity from thefe propagators of it, it muft 
 be inferred, that a fpirit of perfecution was the 
 fpirit of his religion 3 that his inj unions, 
 like Draco's laws, were wrote in blood, and not 
 with ink ; that malevolence to all, but m.oft 
 efpecially to one another, was the mark of his 
 difciples, who appeared to breathe nothing 
 but threatnings and daughter, and to be fent 
 to deftroy mens lives, and not to fave them. 
 
 Letter 
 
[ ^Z^ ] 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 THOUGH violence was abfolutely nc- 
 celTary for the prefervation of the unity 
 of the RomiOi Church, and the whole polity 
 of that Ecclefiaflical State was founded upon 
 it ; and though it hath been conftantly prafti- 
 fed in every country, where this hath been the 
 eilabliihed Religion, and for its fake alone, for 
 many centuries -, yet our author hath the affu- 
 ranee to declare, that his church never made 
 any ufe of it, and that her punifhments ex- 
 tend no farther than to the fpiritual ftate 
 pf th^ oitender. The fads indeed in Queen 
 Mary's reign, and during the ti^Tie that Pole 
 \vas Legate and Archbifhop, were too gla- 
 ring to be denied : but he endeavours to pal- 
 liate them, and to throw them entirely off 
 from the church upon the ftate. " The 
 bifliops, he fays, were men of great modera- 
 tion, and averfe to fuch meafures, except Bon- 
 ner, and a very few more : fome leading perfons 
 about the court feem to have countenanced 
 thefe meafures, as neceffary to fecure the go- 
 vernment : Philip's behaviour afterwards in 
 the Low Countries^ where the Duke of Alva 
 
 by 
 
by his orders put fuch numbers to death, make 
 it not improbable, that he favoured proceed- 
 ings which for political reafons he would be 
 thought to difapprove 5 as for the Queen, no 
 one wilt wonder that her fondnefs for a hujf* 
 band twelve years younger than herfelf, and 
 her attachment, not only to his perfon but his 
 family, from which fhe was defcended by htt 
 mother, fliould caufe her to aflent to what he 
 was inclined to ; fomething likewife muft be 
 given to the times/' b. ii. p. 165, 166. 
 
 The Queen, Gardiner, Bonner, and the 
 greater part of the Miniftry, were furious bi- 
 gots, all principals, and nearly equally con- 
 cerned in thefe violent proceedings : But when 
 they found them to be exceedingly unpopular, 
 and that the nation in general was difgufted 
 at them, every one denied that he was the 
 author of them, and endeavoured to fhift them 
 off from himfelf upon the others. Our au- 
 thor acknowledges, that there were 270 per- 
 fons burnt for herefy, during this reign : But 
 the leaft number that all our Hiftorians men- 
 tion is 284 ; and fome of them affert, that 
 there were no lefs than 800 who underwent 
 this fiery trial. Our author's account of the 
 perfons burnt in the diocefes pf York, Wells, 
 S 2 Exeter, 
 
[ 132 ] 
 
 Exeter, Lincoln, Peterborough, Ely, Briftol, 
 Saliibury, Oxford, Gloucefter, Worcefter, and 
 Hereford, and in the four Welch diocefes, is 
 copied from Heylin ; but there is not the leaft 
 authority, that I can find, for his faying, that 
 not one was put to death in the diocefe of 
 Canterbury, after Cardinal Pole was promoted 
 to that fee -, and I here call upon him to pro- 
 duce his authority for it ; for it is generally 
 agreed, that the perfecution, after Cranmer's 
 death, chiefly raged in Bonner's diocefe and in 
 Kent : And Fox affures us, that five perfons 
 were burnt for herefy, in the city of Canter- 
 bury, about a week before the Queen's death. 
 It is allowed alfo, on all hands, that the Queen 
 herfelf was of a gloomy and zealous temper, 
 and was doubtlefs the principal caufe of all 
 thefe flaming meafures, which Mr. Phillips 
 here feems to allow, and endeavours to apo- 
 logize for ; yet in the character which he 
 gives of her afterwards, he fays, that fhe was 
 far from a fanguinary difpofition, and would 
 have been worthy of the higheft commen- 
 dations, had as few adts of cruelty been done 
 under her reign as were done by her. B. ii. 
 p. 209. though they could not be /done with- 
 out her approbation, and were chiefly done by 
 
 her 
 
[ 133 ] 
 
 her fpecial order and commiffion. And far- 
 ther to extenuate thefe cruelties, he adds, they 
 neither began nor ended with this Princefs : 
 But far from retaliating this objection on her 
 fucceffor, who made aclions of mere religious 
 import, treafon and felony, and puniilied thofs 
 who performed them accordingly; I would 
 choofe to treat this fa bje^t in fuch a manner, 
 as to cover heats, not fpread and perpetuate 
 them, p* 1 66. And well he may choofe it, 
 when he cannot but be fenfible, that this is no 
 feafon for him to blew up flames, and that his 
 caufe muft be greatly prejudiced by being in- 
 volved in fuch an unequal comparifon ; for 
 there were not above two or three perfons 
 w^ho fuffered death upon account of religion in 
 Edward the Sixth's time 3 and even thefe mufl 
 be attributed more to the rage cf an exafpe- 
 rated party, than to the principles of the lie- 
 formation, which difclaims all violence. And 
 Queen Elizabeth took direct contrary mea- 
 fures to what her Siiler had done, in that lonir 
 and peaceable reign ; her fubjedis were gently 
 led into the Church of England 3 the Iioufe cf 
 God was filled, not by compulfion, but by 
 perfuaficn and argument. The Proteiiant Re- 
 ligion w^as ejftabliiiied with no other ccnfiraint. 
 
 than 
 
f ^34 ] 
 
 than by obliging the Clergy to quit their Be- 
 nefices, who would not conform to the new 
 Liturgy J and by punifhing thofe malecon- 
 tents, who fomented fedition and infurredtions 
 in the State, according to the nature of their 
 crimes, with as much lenity as the order and 
 fecurity of the Kingdom would permit. When 
 therefore the reign of Mary ftands fo re- 
 markably diftinguifhed for its fires and fag- 
 gots, between the two mild and pacifick 
 reigns of Edward and Elizabeth, is it any 
 wonder, that our fathers, and our father's fa- 
 thers, have tranfmitted to us, or that we fhould 
 deliver down to our children the bloody reign 
 of Queen Mary ? or that it fhould continue, 
 to the lateft poflerity, to be the difmal ditty 
 of every nurfery ? Well therefore might Mr. 
 Phillips be willing to draw a veil over it, 
 and to v/ave the confideration of thefe fa^ls, 
 by putting the iflTue of his caufe upon fpecula- 
 tive points ; but here he will meet with no 
 better fuccefs. 
 
 I muft afk the reader's leave, fays he, to add 
 a few refledtions, which will elucidate the ftate 
 of the queftion, and belong to this part of 
 Cardinal Pole s Hiflory no lefs than the fafls 
 themfelves. I have already fliewn, that what 
 
 gave 
 
[ ^35 ] 
 
 gave occafion to ena6t penal laws agalnft here- 
 ticks in former reigns, and to renew them in 
 this, was the open rebellion againft the go- 
 vernment to which this licentioulhefs of opi- 
 nions gave birth, as well as to the manifefl 
 fubverfion of the Catholick Dodrine, p. i66. 
 
 It is very manifefl: indeed, that the allowing 
 every Chriftian the free ufe of his Bible, to 
 judge for himfelf, and to make a public pro- 
 feflion of his faith, would fubvert the Roman 
 Catholick Doctrine ; but it is very far from be- 
 ing manifefl:, that this Liberty, which our Au- 
 thor is pleafed to fl:igmatize with the oppro- 
 brious name of licentioufnefs, gave birth to 
 open rebellion againfl: the government. 
 
 There is nothing in the nature of the 
 Chrifl:ian Religion, as profefl^ed by the Pro- 
 tefl:ants, that hath the leafl: tendency to fl:ir 
 up faction, or rebellion in the State ; and in 
 general, long experience hath confirmed to 
 them this political maxim concerning Reli- 
 gion, that the only effedual way of maintain- 
 ing the peace and profperity of the kingdom 
 is, a free toleration for all perfons to choofe 
 and profefs whatever Religious Dodtrines they 
 think proper, provided they are not inconfiA 
 tent with the fundamental principles of fociety, 
 
 Of 
 
[ 136 ] 
 
 or the civil Rights and Liberties of its Mem- 
 bers : and Proteflanifm in particular ftrengthens 
 the natural obligations of humanity, and dif- 
 tinguiflies its Difciples for the moft peaceable 
 and ufeful fubjeds. We are commanded by 
 our rule of Faith, to fubmit ourfelves to every 
 ordinance of man, for the Lord's fake, and to 
 look upon the Civil Magiftrate as the Minifter 
 of God to us for good, and a Revenger to 
 execute wrath upon him that doth evil 5 where- 
 fore we muft needs be fubjed:, not only for 
 wrath, but for confcience fake -, and as the be- 
 haviour of the primitive Chriftians was exadly 
 conformable to thefe precepts, fo might the 
 Proteftants, as Proteftants, both before and in 
 the days of Queen Mary, have pleaded with 
 St. Paul, " that they were no movers of fedi- 
 tion, nor found to raife up the people, but 
 only in the way which is called Herefy 3 fo 
 worihip they the God of their Fathers, believing 
 all things in the law, and in the Gofpel." 
 
 Letter 
 
[ ^37 ] 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 IT is well known that the Bifhops and 
 Clergy were the firft contrivers and promo- 
 ters of the penal laws againft Hereticks ; they 
 had fet their hearts upon them, and were re- 
 folved to leave no flone unturned to carry them ; 
 and as they were an exceeding large body of 
 people, poffefled of half the lands of the king- 
 dom, granted their fubfidies to the King, and 
 had their Reprefentatives in Parliament, they 
 could not but have a mfghty influence upon 
 the Legiflators, which they never ceafed to 
 exert with all their power. The iiril: violent 
 ftatute againfl: Hereticks, in Richard the Se- 
 cond's reign, was enad:ed by their interefl 
 alone ; and Henry the Fourth, wanting fome 
 favour from the Clergy, paffed that famous, 
 or rather infamous Statute, " De Heretico 
 mnbui'endo^' purely to engratiate himfelf with 
 them, who were not to be fatisfied without 
 it, and were more importunate with him for 
 burning Wickliflians, than the Jews were for 
 crucifying Jefus Chrift, with Pontius Pilate : fo 
 that though thefe (latutes were the laws of 
 the Realm, they were properlv ilie ads of the 
 T Hlerarchv, 
 
[ ^38 ] 
 
 Hierarchy, who were the primary and effi- 
 cient caufes of them. The Civil Magiftrates 
 were no other than their inftruments, whom 
 they ufed as their Cats-Paw, not to take things 
 out, but to^ them into the fire ; and when 
 their ends were anfwered, they left the Magi- 
 {Irates to bear the whole charge of perfecution, 
 and with a moft Jefuitical evafion, denied that 
 they had any hand in it. — " This Licentiouf- 
 nefs, fays our Author, caufed the Legiflaturc 
 to confider Herefy not only as a grievous fin 
 againft Almighty God, but as a heinous crime 
 againft the State ; and as the cognizance of it 
 belonged to the Church, Biihops were requi- 
 red to examine thofe who were accufed of it, 
 and if they were found guilty, to deliver them 
 over to the fecular power -, but it muft be ob- 
 ferved, that thefe Statutes are Laws of the En- 
 glifh Realm, not Canons of the Catholick 
 Church, and no more make part of her Faith 
 and Difcipline, than the hardfhips Debtors un- 
 dergo in our common goals, or the fame pu- 
 nifhment being afllgned to murder, and to the 
 larceny of five {hillings can be imputed to the 
 Church of England." B. ii. p. 167. 
 
 Though thefe fanguinary laws were never 
 made but in Roman Catholic countries, and 
 
 ther® 
 
[ 139 ] 
 
 there only where the Clergy bore the chiefeft 
 fway, yet fuch is their gratitude to the tempo- 
 ral Magiftrate, that when he hath done, or 
 rather been compelled to do, their dirty work 
 for them, they accufed and pelted him for it ; 
 and the comparifon which our Author makes 
 ufe of between Herefy, and Debts or Larceny, 
 is very improper and unfair, for he allows He- 
 refy to be a fit fubjedl for an Epifcopal Inqui- 
 fition J the whole procefs is of an ecclefiaflical 
 nature, the imprifonmcnt likewife of the Here- 
 tick, with his other Punifhments, makes a part 
 of the difcipline of the Church of Rome, and 
 therefore they have a very clofe conneftion with 
 it 'y but Debts or Larcenies are purely temporal 
 caufes, wholly appropriated to the civil Courts, 
 and confequently have no kind of relation to, 
 or connection with, the Church of England. 
 
 Again, the Catholick Church, he fays, is fo 
 far from adjudging Hereticks to corporal punifli- 
 ment, much lefs to death, that all her criminal 
 proceedings againft fuch as are accufed of He- 
 refy ceafe, when the caufe is cleared up ; and 
 her punifhments extend no farther than the fpi- 
 ritual ftate of the offender. I fhall exemplify 
 this in as folemn an inftance of the Church's 
 Jurifdidion as the cafe admits, and exerted by a 
 T 2 Pope 
 
[ I40 ] 
 
 Pope as zealous of his prerogative as ever 
 filled the Pontifical Throne ; this was Paul the 
 IVth, who in his decree of Crann^er's con- 
 demnation, which is direded to Philip and 
 Mary, only requires them to deal with him af- 
 ter he is delivered to the fecular court as the 
 law diredls. B. ii. p. 167. 
 
 Mr. Phillips may alTert what he plcafes, or 
 what he thinks will heft make for his caufe, 
 but he will never convince any Proteftant, 
 that violence and perfecution make no part 
 of the faith and difcipline of the Church of 
 Rome ', and I believe no Layman, even of that 
 communion, will have the aillirance to join 
 with our Author in declaring, that the Catho- 
 lic Church is far from adjudging Hereticks to 
 corporal puniihment. Have not their chief 
 pontiff, and ' the whcle college of Cardinals, 
 with the concurrence of all their Clergy, fet 
 up an inquifition in every country where it was 
 in their power ? Is not this an entire ecclefiaf- 
 tical court, under the fole or principal diredion 
 of the Pope ? Perhaps our author may quibble 
 upon the word adjudging, but if the inquifitors 
 do not adjudge, they do what is worfe, they 
 put Plereticks without judgment to corporal 
 punifiiments, and faoh cxquilite punilhments 
 
 as 
 
[ '41 ] 
 
 as the moft furious bigots have tortured their 
 imaginations to invent, and fteeled their hearts 
 to iniiicl. The whole procefs of that iniqui- 
 tous court feems to be founded upon maxims 
 diredlly contrary to all the rules of natural juf- 
 tice : the criminal neither knows his accufers 
 nor his accufations 3 he is puniihed before he 
 is proved guilty -, he is forced to accufe him- 
 felf; and to extricate himfelf from the extreme 
 mifery which he fuffers from this force, he 
 frequently confefTes crimes which he never 
 committed -, and from this extorted confeffion 
 is delivered over to other tormentors to be 
 burnt to death. 
 
 The ecclefiaflical ftate was the center of 
 perfecution, there the Pope, armed with all 
 the terrors of the Inquiiition, fuffered no apof- 
 tate to touch that holy ground with impuni- 
 ty ; and when Luther, or any other fufpeded 
 Heretick v/as fummoned to Rome, to anfwer 
 the charge laid agai nil him, he faw *' vefiigia 
 nulla retrcrfumy' and too well knew in what 
 manner his caufe would be cleared up by that 
 court, to venture himfelf within the precinds 
 of it. This Paul IV. who in his condemna- 
 tion of Cranmer, is faid to proceed no farther 
 than to his fpiritual ftate, was, from our au- 
 
 thors 
 
C 142 3 
 
 thor's own^ account, one of the moft cruel ty- 
 rants that ever fat upon the Pontifical Throne ; 
 when he was Cardinal, he was placed at the 
 head of the Inquifition, where he exercifed 
 feverities with inextinguifliable fury; and when 
 he was made Pope, the prifons were continu- 
 ally crouded with miferable wretches of all 
 forts, and the barbarity which his mind had 
 been long inured to, did not leave him when 
 he was leaving tlie world ; for he fpent his 
 laft moments in a recommendatory panegyrick 
 upon the inquifition : the jurifdiclion of his 
 church was indeed fufficiently exemplified by 
 the decree of this Pope againft Cranmer, 
 which commanded Philip and Mary to deal 
 with him as the law directs, for he knew 
 full well what that was, and alfo that they 
 would not, and dared not difobey his man- 
 date. The Pope feldom failed to inflifl: all 
 kinds of corporal punifhments which were in 
 his powder 3 and where they were out of it, 
 he made what ufe he could of the Civil Ma- 
 giftrate for that purpofe, whofe orders or in- 
 ftrudlions were generally unlimited for the 
 extirpation of herefy j and an abfolute obedi- 
 ence to the Pope was the principal and neceffary 
 qualification of his minifters : This appears 
 
 from 
 
[ ^43 ] 
 
 from the rcfolutions of Sadolet, Bifhop of 
 Carpentras> whom Mr. Phillips produces as 
 an extraordinary inftance of moderation ; and 
 moderate indeed he was, when confidered as 
 a Papift, but of a narrow and uncharitable 
 fpirit, when confidered as a Chriftian ; for when 
 the Pope had fent him a commiffion to feek 
 after and punifh the Lutherans, he thought 
 himfelf greatly honoured by this fingular mark 
 of his Holinefs's favour, and was determined 
 to put it into execution : only he propofed to 
 try firft what a mild afpedl, with perfuafion, 
 would do, but where thefe failed, he would 
 then put on a countenance armed with terror, 
 and proceed to the application of racks and 
 gibbets, p. 301. 
 
 Though Mr. Phillips fays, that the eccle- 
 fiaftical proceedings were extended no farther 
 than to the fpiritual ftate of the offender, yet 
 if it be confidered what he underwent, even 
 in countries where there was no inquifition, 
 and before he was delivered over to the civil 
 Magiftrate, he will be found to be not a little 
 affefted in his temporal circumftances ; for 
 upon flight information, he was apprehended, 
 loaded with irons and caft into a difmal dun- 
 geon, when he could fuq out no writ of Ha- 
 beas 
 
[ 144 ] 
 
 beas Corpus to be admitted to bail, or to 
 haften his trial ; but he was kept in durance 
 at the will of the Bifhop, or ecclefiaftical 
 judge ; and half of fuch prifoners languiflied 
 and died from the noifome flenches of their 
 cells, and their long and clofe confinement in 
 them ; and when the other half were tried 
 and found guilty, the ecclefiaftical fentencc 
 extended to the confifcation of all their real 
 and perfonal eftates, which was always put 
 in execution before the fpiritual rulers parted 
 with the criminal out of their hands. 
 
 Mr. Phillips clofes his arguments for the cle- 
 mency of his Church with the fpeech which 
 the bifhop, or officer, who delivers the delin- 
 quent over to the civil Magiftrate, concludes 
 the proceedings of his court, viz. we befeech 
 you with all earneflnefs, that for the love of 
 Almighty God, and on the motive of com- 
 paflion, and becaufe we afk it of you, that 
 you will not condemn this miferable perfon 
 to death, or the lofs of his limbs, B. ii. p. 167. 
 What a folemn farce is this ! and what an am- 
 ple proof of the diffimulation and perfidy of 
 the Church of Rome ? which, after it had in- 
 flided upon their convifl: all the feverities 
 which lay in their power, and given him to 
 
 the 
 
[ '45 ] 
 
 the temporal officer, on purpofe that the ri- 
 gour of that fiery ftatute, " De Heretico com^ 
 burendo^' v/hich they weie the authors of, 
 fliould be executed upon him, they infult over 
 him with a feigned petition for compaffion : 
 thus their tender mercies are cruel ; and woe 
 be to thofe proteftants who fall into their 
 hands, and have no other dependence for their 
 deliverance, but thefe infidious prayers of their 
 ecclefiaftical judges, who weep for their prifoner 
 with the tears of the crocodile, the emblem of 
 fuperftition ; w^ho is faid to cry over his prey 
 before he devours it. 
 
 LETTER XXL 
 
 HAVING treated at large of the pre- 
 judices and violences of the Papifts 
 againft the Proteftants, I w^ill now proceed to 
 confider their Credulity and Superftition, and 
 more particularly of our Author, with refpedt 
 to the dodtrines of their own Church. 
 
 Speaking of the Myfteries of Religion, he 
 faith, " Though they are propofed to our un- 
 derftanding with all the evidence of light and 
 truth, they mail always be the objecft of faith 
 rather than knowledge, as being little con fo- 
 il nant 
 
[ h6 ] 
 
 nant to reafon, and to the experience of our 
 fenfes." And again, in the fame page : " The 
 facred obfcurity in which the Eucharift is veil- 
 ed, was particularly marked out (that is by the 
 JeBaries) as an impofition on human reafon, 
 and the doctrines concerning it were brought 
 down to the tefl of our fenfes." B. i. p. 331. 
 
 If the Myfteries of Religion be propofed to 
 my underftanding, and yet are not confonant 
 to my reafon, or to the experience of my 
 fenfes, they cannot pofTibly be the objedl of 
 my faith y for how can I believe that to be, 
 which is contrary to my underftanding, and 
 which m.y reafon affures me cannot be ? Faith 
 is a rational convidion, and that belief which 
 is not founded upon reafon is not faith, but a 
 thoughtlefs credulity, or a feigned affent : but 
 this whole fubjedl of Faith and Credulity may 
 be fet in the cleareft light, by a comparifon of 
 Natural with Religious Myfteries. Let it be 
 fuppofed then, that Kepler, or Sir Ifaac New- 
 ton, or any celebrated Aftronomer, fhould de- 
 clare that all the primary planets move in 
 eliptical orbits, having one common focus 
 where the Sun is placed, and that the law 
 of their tendency to it is reciprocally as the 
 fquares of their diftanccs from it. I perfedly 
 
 underftand 
 
[ H7 ]' 
 
 undcrftand what an eliptical orbit, its focus, 
 and this centripetal law are : but not being an 
 adept in Aftronomical Studies, I am no com- 
 petent judge how far thefe things are appli- 
 cable to the fun and planets. Thefe Decla- 
 rations, therefore, are myfteries to me; but 
 though they are above my underftanding they 
 are not contrary to it. I fee no abfurdity in 
 them, and they may for ought I know be 
 true. The Sun indeed appears to move, and 
 fo do the fhores, and all things upon them, 
 when I am failing in a fhip at fea. If then 
 this earth on which I ftand be itfelf a moving 
 objedl, the fun, ftars, and all detached objedls, 
 will, I am fenfible, from the nature of vifion, 
 feem to recede from, or approach to me, juft 
 in the fame manner as if they had been mo- 
 ving, and I had been placed upon a fixed objeft. 
 This objeftion therefore vaniflies, and this 
 earth may, for ought that appears, be moving 
 in its orbit ; and upon confidering how much 
 more commodious it is for it to turn round its 
 own axis in twenty four hours, than for the 
 immenfe body of the fun to run fuch prodi- 
 gious lengths in fo fmall a time, it feems to 
 me mofl probable that it doth fo ; and if it 
 hath a diurna), why not an annual motion ? 
 U 2 Hence 
 
[ 148 ] 
 
 Hence the more I enquire into thefc Aflrono- 
 mlcal Paradoxes, or Myfteries, the lefs diffi- 
 culties they feem to labour with. 
 
 This then being the ftate of thefe things, 
 with refped to my underflanding, my faith 
 from thefe principles alone is in fufpenfe : but 
 when I confider what chara^ler thefe Aftrono- 
 mers have for their fkill in this fcience, how 
 univerfally their declarations are received, and 
 efpecially by all thofe who I have the greateft 
 reafon to think are judges of their demonftra- 
 tions ; how exadlly they predidl Lunar and 
 Solar Eclipfes, with the return of Comets, 
 and how well they account for all other phe- 
 nomena of the heavenly bodies -, then thefe 
 teilimonies turn the balance, and incline me to 
 believe them. Thus thefe natural myfteries 
 which are propofed to my underftanding, 
 appear confonant to it, and to the experience 
 of my fenfes, v/hence my faith is founded upon 
 a rational convicflion, and I fliould offend 
 againft the greater light if I with-held my af- 
 fent from them. 
 
 But fliould any Mathematician afiert, that 
 the three angles of a triangle are more or lefs 
 than two right angles, from the little know- 
 ledge I have in Geometry, this would be no 
 
 myftery 
 
[ '49 ] 
 
 myftery to me, nor any objeft of my faith, 
 becaufe it^ is diffonant to, and an impofition 
 upon my reafon ; for I have as clear an idea of 
 its falfity as I can have of the plaineft truths. 
 
 Again, whoever dogmatically affirms, that 
 fagar is bitter, fnow black, or brandy a folid 
 fabflance, propofes things contrary to the ex- 
 perience of my {crkfcs^ which are the proper 
 and fole judges of them* Thefe therefore are 
 no mylleries : they are impudent infults upon 
 my fenfes ; my tafte, my fight, my touch tell 
 me they are falfe ; and it might with as much 
 propriety be faid, that I have neither reafon 
 nor fenfee, as to contradidt thefe manifeft re- 
 ports of them. 
 
 From thefe natural myfleries let us now turn 
 to religious myfleries : The refurre61:ion of the 
 body, a future judgment, the rewards of the 
 righteous, and the punifhments of the wicked 
 in another life, are dodtrines of revelation ; 
 they are propofed to my underflanding, and 
 1 know what they mean ; but how, or where, 
 or when they will be, are above my compre- 
 henficn ^ the particular circumilances of all 
 thefe things are myfleries to me ; they are not 
 diffonant, nor contrary to my reafon, which 
 by itfelf is almofl in the dark, and neutral 
 
 upon 
 
[ ^50 ] 
 
 upon thefe points; but there is no apparent 
 impoflibility to deflroy, nor improbability to 
 detradt from the teftimonies of the revealer. 
 My faith therefore refts upon the external and 
 internal proofs of his divine miffion, and if 
 thefe are fatisfadory and perfecS, my convidion 
 is juft, and my faith is rational. 
 
 But when it is confidently aflferted, that the 
 fame corporeal fubftance, is in two or many 
 different places at the fame time, or that the 
 fame Elements are this minute Bread and 
 Wine, and the next are hocus-pocus'd into 
 Flefh and Blood, without the leaft fenfiblc 
 change of the elements themfelves. That is 
 fuch a flat contradiftion to my reafon, and 
 this fuch a grofs impofition upon my fenfes, 
 that I know they cannot be true : here are no 
 obfcurities, no myfteries ; I have as clear an 
 idea, and am as fully affured that the fame 
 body cannot be in different places at the fame 
 time, as that two and two do not make five : 
 and the Church of Rome may as well infift 
 upon my believing that the fun doth not fhine 
 at mid day, and that this obfcurity ought not 
 to be brought down to the teft of my fight, as 
 that which is proved to be Bread and Wine, 
 by the experience of all my fenfes, is the Body 
 
 and 
 
and Blood of a perfcn who was killed feven- 
 teen hundred years ago. 
 
 Thefe I take to be the true diftinftlons be- 
 tween what is above, and what is diffonant 
 to my reafon -, and between what is a myftery 
 and a contradiftion ; or what is an objed; of 
 Faith, of Credulity, and of feigned affent : 
 and as thefe are too clear to need any farther 
 explication, I will haften to other points of 
 our Author's credulity, which are the Miracles 
 his Church pretends to perform. I will not 
 take upon me to determine, neither will I en- 
 ter into the difpute, when the powers of work- 
 ing niiracles ceafed in the Chriflian Church ; 
 all that I fhall attempt to fhew is, that we 
 have no fatisfaftory proofs of any fupernatural 
 works done cither fince, or at the time, or 
 for fome centuries before the Reformation. 
 
 America, fays Mr. Phillips, was enlightened 
 by the labours and miracles of St. Lewis 
 Bertrand : and St. Francis Xavier fliewed the 
 fpirit and wonders of an Apoftle in the Eail- 
 Indies, B. i. p. 429. And again, there was at 
 Canterbury a celebrated monaftery of St. Au- 
 . ftin, by whofe Preaching, Labours and Mira- 
 cles, our Saxon Anceftors had received the be- 
 nefit of Chriilianity, and by a quotation from 
 
 BolTuct 
 
[ '52 ] 
 
 Boffuet, he lays, that it hath pleafed the wif- 
 dom of the Almighty to declare in the favour 
 of the caufe of St. Thomas Becket, by won- 
 ders which were fb frequent and fo well attefted 
 by the unanimous agreement of all authors of 
 thofe times, that they cannot be contefted, 
 without calling in qucflion whatever hiftory 
 hath tranfmitted to us, B. i. p. 225, 227. 
 
 I cannot find in any authentick memoirs of 
 Auftin, or his fellow Miflionaries, that any 
 particular miracles were wrought by them in 
 their converfion of the Anglo-Saxons : I am 
 likewife a ftranger to the records in the Romifh 
 Legends of the wonders which Bertrand or 
 Xavicr did in their travels through the eaftern 
 and weftern regions of the world : but moft of 
 the miracles, which were attributed to the re- 
 liques of Thom.as Becket were of the fame 
 kind with the recovery of the Dauphin's health, 
 when his father, Lewis VII. of France, offered 
 up his fupplications for him at Becket's tomb > 
 the phyficians who had been confulted in this 
 cafe, and appHed their medicines, had doubt- 
 lefs fome pretentions to this cure s and after 
 all it was very uncertain whether nature or 
 ftrength of conftitution did not contribute more 
 
 to 
 
[ ^53 ] 
 
 to It than either the phyiick of the one, or 
 the prayers of the other. 
 
 LETTER XXII. 
 
 BUT fince the Romifh Church ftill claims 
 this power of working miracles, they have 
 the prefent manifeftation of it to offer for a 
 confirmation of the above-mentioned fads, and 
 the convidion of Proteftants 3 who objed that 
 all thefe miracles were done before the mofl 
 ignorant and credulous people, who might be 
 eafily irnpofed upon by falfe and deiigning Mif- 
 lionaries : unbelievers likewife are very apt to 
 fay that if Thomas Becket could proted them 
 who venerated his remains, and avert injuries 
 from them, why could he not defend the re- 
 mains them.felves from ravagers, and chaftize 
 them for their infolence ? or why fhould not 
 the fame virtue continue after their removal in 
 the place where they had been for a long time 
 depofited ? or why fhould fuch power be given 
 into the hands of facrilegious wretches as to 
 break thefe charms with impunity, and put a 
 total flop to all thefe miracles, only by burn- 
 ing a few bones and fcattering their afhes in 
 the wind ? Thefe are fair queiclcns and deferve 
 X a ferious 
 
[ *54 ] 
 
 d ferlous anfvver, and as truth will bear th^ 
 ftrid:efl: examination, and rejoices in the light, 
 why do not the Romanifts refute the gainfay- 
 ings of their adverfaries by a full difplay of their 
 miracles ; if therefore they will now heal difeafes, 
 make the blind to fee, the deaf to hear, the 
 dumb to fpeak, and raife the dead to life in 
 as publick a manner as our Saviour and hi^ 
 Apollles did, they will find no perverfenefs nor 
 hardnefs of heart among the Proteftants, the 
 greater part of whom are competent judges of 
 iupernatural gifts, are capable of diftinguifliing 
 true from falfe miracles, and where they find 
 them, are moft open to convi<ftion, fo that 
 the moft expeditious and fureft way of reconci- 
 ling them to their Church would be by thefe 
 manifeft demonftrations of their power : biit if 
 they refufe to exhibit publickly fuch neceffary 
 proofs of it before them, and only perform 
 their wonders in dark or diftant places, or be- 
 fore fuch perfons as dare not or will not difpute 
 them, then the Proteftant will be ftrengthened 
 in his defection from the Romiih Religion, 
 and his fufpicions of a fraud in the pretended 
 miracles of their prefent or former Saints. 
 
 Again, the members of the Church of Rome 
 are not more affuming of thefe fupernatural 
 
 powers 
 
[ 1^5 ] 
 
 powers than they are fuperftitious in their 
 conftrudlons of divine judgments. Though 
 the righteous in this promifcuous ftate are fre-^ 
 quently involved in the fame calamities v^'ith 
 the wicked, and though in moft cafes it is im- 
 poiTible to knovi^ whether the difpenfations pf 
 the Almighty are in judgment or in mercy, 
 yet men of all perfuafions, but moft remark- 
 ably of the Romifh Communion, are fo pre- 
 fuming upon the goodnefs of their caufe, as 
 to engrofs providence to themfelves : they are 
 ftrangely apt to fuppofe, that all the proceed* 
 ings of the m.oft High are direded to their 
 fervlcc, , and confequently interpret them either 
 as fpecial favours to them, or as fignal judg- 
 ments upon their oppofers. There are nume- 
 rous inftances of this kind in Mr. Phil]ips*s 
 Hiflory ; fome of which it will not be improper 
 to lay before the reader,, as fpecimens of his 
 bigotry and fuperftition. 
 
 He begins with Cardinal Wolfey, who had 
 the Pope's decree for the fuppreffion of fome 
 religious houfes, for the founding of two col- 
 leges ; yet he, and all that were concerned in 
 it, our author fays, were obierved to be re- 
 markably unfortunate, the Fope himfelf not 
 excepted j and as to the two foundations in 
 X 2 favour 
 
C ^56 ] 
 
 favour of which the monafteries were fuppref- 
 fed, the college at Ipfwich became a ruin al- 
 moft before it was built, and the other at 
 Oxford was never linifhed, B. i. p. 27. 
 
 Speaking of Ann Bullen's death, he faith, 
 her fate was confidered not merely as a punifh- 
 ment, but as a divine judgment. P. 124. Mr. 
 Phillips and many of the Papifts might con- 
 fider it as fuch, but there was nothing in it to 
 diilinguifh it for a divine judgment, more than 
 was in the firft Catharine's divorce, or the other 
 Catharine's fim.ilar fate, or the execution of 
 Fiflier and More. 
 
 Again, " The complicated and national 
 guilt which was incurred by dilTolving them, 
 that is, the Religious Houfes, hath induced 
 fome to look on thefe calamities which trod 
 on the heels of this iniquity, as fo many in- 
 dications of a provoked and avenging God : 
 of a hundred families of note and fortune 
 which were in the county of Norfolk before 
 the difiblution all that had enriched them- 
 felves by thefe fpoils of facrilege, were either 
 extind or much impaired in Sir Henry Spel- 
 man*s time." P. 224. 
 
 As the monafteries were poffelled of more 
 than half the lands of the kingdom^ we may 
 
 fu ppofe 
 
[ ^57 ] 
 
 fuppofe that half of the families of diftindtion 
 were enriched by them. How can our author 
 then be fo prejudiced againft Norfolk as to 
 confine his juv-igments to that county ? Why 
 doth he fingle that out and facrifice it to the 
 divine difpleafure, when the reft of the nation 
 were equally guilty in making thofe purchafes, 
 fome of which have continued in the fame fa- 
 milies to this day 5 and I don't find that they 
 bear a lefs value, or fell for a lefs price than 
 any other eftates in the kingdom, notwithftand- 
 ing the curfes which our author or his Church 
 hath entailed upon them, or the judgments 
 which he afferts trod upon the heels of, or fol- 
 lowed at any diftance from, this alienation. 
 But the anger of heaven it feems, exercifed on 
 the nobility a ftiil feverer vengeance than in 
 permitting their pofl"effions to m.oulder away, 
 and their families to fall; more of that clafs 
 having been attainted and died by the hands 
 of the executioner within twenty years after 
 the dififolution, than during the preceding five 
 hundred. P. 224. 
 
 The fuppreflion of the leffer Monafteries 
 was in the year 1536, and of the greater in 
 1539 ; fince which times Cromwell was the 
 only Peer of the Reformed who was executed 
 
 in 
 
[ X58 ] 
 
 in that reign, the others of that elafs who 
 fufFered were rank Paplfts, and principal op- 
 pugners of this diflblution y (o that our Author 
 here gives a fair opportunity of retaliating judg- 
 ments upon thern for this oppofition. The 
 Duke of Somerfet and his brother, were the. 
 only two of the Nobility who were put to 
 death in Edward the Sixth's Reign. Lady 
 Jane Gray with fome of her relations were be-r 
 headed in the beginning of Queen Mary'^ 
 Reign ; and afterwards there were four Billiops 
 burnt for what the furious zealots of the 
 Church of Rome called Herefy, whom I fup- 
 pofe Mr. Phillips reckons as inftruments in the 
 hands of the Almighty for inflifting his Judg- 
 ments upon thefe apoftates. The confining 
 the Divijie Judgments to Bills of Attainder, 
 is fo weak and fuperftitious a fuggeftion, that 
 it would be ridiculous to enter into any par- 
 ticular difcuffion of it, therefore I fhall only 
 make this general remark, that he was obliged 
 to limit his judgments to executions upon the 
 fcaffold; for there wTre twice as many of the 
 Nobility who fell by the fword, and came to 
 untimely ends in the Reigns of Henry VI. and 
 Edward IV. and during the fliort Regency and 
 Reign of Pvichard III. than there were in a 
 
 century 
 
ff 159 ] 
 
 century after the diffolution of the monafteries. 
 But this diffolution, it feems, was fuch an 
 unparalleled and unpardonable a crime, that 
 the very day which gave commencement to it, 
 as our author obferves, was thought a hundred 
 years after to be ominous -, for on the meet- 
 ing of the long Parliament, from which the 
 Church of England dates her misfortunes, fe-' 
 veral perfons, almoft as fuperftftious as Mr. 
 Phillips, entreated Archbifhop Laud to move 
 the King to have it adjourned for a fhort time ; 
 it being the fame day on which the Legilla- 
 turc in Henry the Eighth's Reign began the 
 diffolution of Religious Houfes, which was the 
 3d of Novem,ber, 1640 ; from which our au- 
 thor feems to imply, that fuch an adjourn- 
 ment might have .prevented all the fubfequent 
 evils. P. 224. The 5th day of the fame month 
 hath likewife proved as ominous to the Ro- 
 man Catholicks, as the 3d was to the Monaf- 
 teries ; fo that thefe two days fhould be ex- 
 punged for ever out of their calendar, and 
 nothing fliould be done upon them. 
 
 Another remarkable inftance of our author's 
 bigotry and fuperflition is, his obfervation upon 
 the buildiug of Somerfet Floufe, on the ruins of 
 the deanrv and clofe of Wcftrr.inffer, of the 
 
 parifli. 
 
[ i6o ] 
 
 parilli Church of the Bleffed Virgin Mary, and 
 of three epifcopal houfes, with fome others : 
 this pile of facrilege, he fays, was reared in the 
 very year that England was afflicfted with a 
 peftilence, that fwept away thoufands. B. i. 
 p. 444 ; and he. might with as much reafbn 
 have added, that in lefs than the fpace of one. 
 hundred and twenty years after this facrilegi- 
 ous building, London was vifited with a plague, 
 which carried off fome ten thoufands, and ths 
 whole city was almoft confumed by fire. But 
 thefe applications of divine judgments are fo ' 
 riianifeftly abfurd, that the bare mentioning 
 of them will be a fufficient refutation. I fhall 
 therefore conclude this head with a brief re- 
 cital of two or three fuperftitious anecdotes of 
 our author, viz. B. ii. p. i. Nature put an 
 end to the life of Edward the Sixth, the 6th 
 of July 1553, which was obferved to be the 
 fame day of the fame month that his father 
 had put Sir Thomas More to death. 
 
 Again, an incident happened, which was. 
 remarked by every one there prefent, and in- 
 terpreted as a declaration of heaven in his fa- 
 vour, and which, in whatever light it may 
 now be looked on by the reader, I muft not 
 omit ; the w^Ind, v/hich for feveral days had 
 
 been 
 
[ i6i ] 
 
 been fo contrary as to make the paflage to 
 England imprad:icable, and Teemed as if it 
 would continue fo, on the very night of the 
 Legate's arrival, became on a fudden fair, and 
 in a few hours conveyed him and his retinue 
 to Dover. B. ii. p. "jj. 
 
 And laffly, the third day after his arrival. 
 Cardinal Pole went to Court, where the King 
 delivered into his hands a packet of letters he 
 had juft then received. It was a difpatch from 
 Rome, and brought the Legate the mofl am- 
 ple powers, in order to accompliili the great 
 work of the nation's reconciliation with the 
 Catholick Church : and the incident of its ar- 
 riving at that critical jundlure (being dotibtlefs 
 as Jiupendoiis a miracle as the wi^id turniitg at 
 Calais) was interpreted as a declaration of 
 heaven in favour of a caufe, which then enga- 
 ged the attention of all Europe. B. ii. p. 80. 
 
 To which it might be added with as much 
 propriety, and more probability of truth. That 
 the Death of Queen Mary and Cardinal Pole, 
 happening foon after, and almoft in the fame 
 hour, and before this reconciliation could be 
 thoroughly finifl^jed, might be interpreted as a 
 declaration of Heaven in disfavour of a Caufe, 
 which Providence would bring to nought ; 
 Y which 
 
[ l62 ] 
 
 which extraordinary events, together with the 
 fucceffion of EHzabeth to the Crown, and the 
 eftabUfliment of the Proteftant ReHgion in 
 thcfe Kingdoms, againft which the Gates of 
 Rome have never fince prevailed, did then and 
 do to this day, engage the attention of all 
 Chriftendom. 
 
 LETTER XXIIL 
 
 FROM this defcription of our Author, we 
 are naturally led to make fome remarks 
 on his Charaflers of the Perfons introduced into 
 his Hiftory, which are given in fo partial a 
 manner to all who are of his Communion and 
 fo prejudiced to all who differ from it, that it 
 is very evident a Papiftical Orthodoxy is the 
 ftandard which he meafures them by; for 
 the more the Romanift hath merited of his 
 Church, the nearer he approaches to the fum- 
 mit of perfection, and the more the Reformer 
 hath adied againft it, the deeper he is funk in 
 vilenefs : The Lady Jane Grey is the only Pro- 
 teftant to be met with in his Hiftory whom he 
 fpares, and that is upon account of her youth, 
 though he is afraid flie had hurt herfelf by her 
 
 application 
 
[ '63 ] 
 
 application to the ftudy of the fcriptures, which 
 though undertaken, he fays, by the fex on the 
 ipecious principle of feeking the truth, yet too 
 often betrays them into errors, or confirms theni 
 in thofe they have already imbibed. B. ii. p. 36. 
 Pope Paul IV. is almoft the only Papift he 
 cenfures, and the reafon for it was his enmity 
 to Pole. 
 
 We will begin with examining his Charac- 
 ters of the Roman Catholicks, and then pro- 
 ceed to thofe of the Reformers. 
 
 At the head of the firft Clafs ftands Car- 
 dinal Pole, whom our Hiftorians, for his being 
 excluded from the perfecuting councils in Queen 
 Mary's reign, have fpoken of liim much more 
 favourably than he really deferved, and his fail- 
 ings would have been buried in oblivion had 
 not Phillips officioufly brought them out to 
 publick View 3 for thinking to take the advan- 
 tage of this indulgence, he hath attempted to 
 raife Pole's Character upon the ruins of the Re- 
 formation, and for his oppofition to the mea- 
 fures for advancing it he hath produced him as 
 the moft difinterefted patriot, the mofl illuftrious 
 hero, and the moft accompliflied churchman, 
 that exifted in his or any other age. 
 
 y 2 As 
 
[ i64 ] 
 
 As therefore this Biographer hath made Pole 
 his inftrument for throwing a load of infamy 
 upon the Reformation, it is become necelTary 
 in its vindication, to fupply the defefts of our 
 hiftorians, and to fet Pole's charader in its juft 
 and true light. 
 
 Burnet and Godwin have faid but little more 
 in the general character of him, than that he 
 was a Prelate of a fweet and amiable temper, 
 who would have been glad to have brought 
 back the Englifh Nation by fair and lawful 
 means to their anticnt Belief, but approved not 
 of the m.ethod of fire and fword : As a fupple- 
 ment to this partial defcription, it muft be ad- 
 ded, that he was a perfon of a weak under- 
 ftanding, extremely fuperllitious, a violent Bi- 
 got to the Supremacy and Power of the See of 
 Rome, of an ambitious ijDlrlt, guilty of the foul- 
 er!: ingratitude to his Royal Benefactor, and a 
 Rebel and Traitor to his King and Country. 
 
 Ail which articles w^ill be clearly proved 
 from a brief detail of his Life, extracted from 
 the moft authentick record?, and from Phillips's 
 and Pole's own writings. 
 
 Reginald Pole was fecond Coufin to Henry 
 Vlll. and lineally defcended by his Mother from 
 
 the 
 
[ ^65 ] 
 
 the Houfe of York : the King took him very 
 foon under his patronage, and made him be- 
 fore he was 1 5 years old. Prebendary of Sarum, 
 and Dean of Winbourne-Minfter in Dorfetfhire 
 and of Exeter J in his 17th year Pole went to 
 the Univerfity of Padua, where the King al- 
 lowed him a large annual penfion fuitable to 
 his rank, or 500 1. which is equal to 5000 1. 
 at prefent. His mother, the Countefs of Sa- 
 lifbury was an intimate friend and confident of 
 Queen Catharine, and was alfo entrufted with 
 the education of her daughter the Princefs 
 Mary; who being bred up in the fame fa- 
 mily with Reginald, became very early ac- 
 quainted with him, and their acquaintance 
 foon grew into a mutual affedlion, which on 
 his fide was quickened by ambition 3 for the 
 Princefs was then heir apparent to the Crown, 
 and her Mother not likely to have any more 
 children ; it is very natural therefore to fup- 
 pofe that Pole flattered himfelf with the prof- 
 pedl of being one day hufband to a Queen 
 of England, and perhaps a partner with her 
 on the Throne : His whole future condudt con- 
 firms this fuppofition, and without it, it is 
 impoffible to account for his behaviour to his 
 Royal Patron. 
 
 When 
 
[ i66 ] 
 
 When the affair of the King s Divorce from 
 Catharine of Arragon was in Agitation, it is 
 no wonder that Reginald in his heart was 
 violently fet againft it, for it tended to baftar- 
 dize her Daughter, and opened a way to a fe- 
 cond marriage, which might produce a male 
 heir to the Crown, who though younger would 
 take place of a female : but the fear of incur- 
 ring the King*s difpleafure kept Pole upon the 
 referve in this point, till Henry wanting him 
 to take his part, offered him the Archbiflioprick 
 of York, which was then void by Wolfey's 
 death, upon condition that he would pub- 
 lickly declare for the divorce 5 Pole deferred 
 his anfwer as long as he could, but being at 
 length obliged to give it, he refufed the offer 
 on thofe terms, and though he did it in the 
 moft fubmiffive manner, yet the King was 
 highly provoked againft him, and conferred the 
 Archbifhoprick upon another ; however he 
 was foon after appeafed, and continued his 
 penfion to him. 
 
 The Pope*s oppofition to the Divorce fet the 
 King upon claiming the Supremacy in the 
 Church of England 5 Pole not approving of 
 Henry's defign, but yet being afraid to appear 
 openly againft it, defired leave to go abroad, 
 
 which 
 
[ i67 ] 
 
 which the King ailented to ; he was now about 
 thirty three years old when he left England, 
 and retired to Avignon, a City of Provence, 
 where he ftaid about a twelve-month, and 
 then went to Padua y at this place after fome 
 time he received the King's orders, by which 
 he was commanded to fend him his opinion, 
 in writing, concerning the Supremacy. Pole 
 had kept his fentiments upon it fo clofe, that 
 the King prefumed upon a declaration in his 
 favour, feveral of Reginald's acquaintance alfb 
 had the fame expedlation, and indeed it ap- 
 pears from his own account of himfelf that he 
 was for fome time in fufpenfe which lide he 
 fliould take ; but the executions of Fiiher and 
 Moore, his intimate friends, exafperated him 
 againll: the King ; the preffing folllcitations 
 likewife of the Court of Rome, which he well 
 knew had great influence on the principal 
 powers of Europe, and the difaffedion of the 
 people in England, awakened his ambition, 
 ^nd not only turned the fcale in favour of the 
 Pope, but prevailed with him to write a trea- 
 tlfe, De Vnitate Ecclefia^ in which he firft 
 attempts to difprove the Regal, and eftablifh 
 the Papal Supremacy, in the Church of Eng- 
 land ; and then proceeds to abuie the King 
 
 in 
 
[ ^68 ] 
 
 in the moft fcurrilous manner, upbraiding him 
 with the murder of Fifher and Moore, and 
 for the injuries he had done to his Queen and 
 her Daughter 3 making him worfe than Nero 
 or Domitian for his cruehies, he calls him one 
 of the Giants that waged war againft Heaven, 
 a double-headed Cerberus, Head of the Devil's 
 Church, and the Devil himfelf j and pours 
 forth a Torrent of fuch infamous abufe as 
 was never exceeded even in Billingfgate. If 
 Pole had delivered his opinion modeftly and 
 difpaffionately, he might have pleaded Convic- 
 tion and Confcience, but nothing could juftify 
 thefe virulent invedlives ; his faftcfl: friends con- 
 demned him for it, and it was very evident 
 to all the world, that they were not the lan- 
 guage of pure lincerity, but the foam of rage, 
 malice, and difappointed ambition. The ar- 
 guments likewife which convinced him of the 
 Papal Supremacy, fhew the weaknefs of his 
 head, as much as thefe flanders do the depra- 
 vity of his heart. 
 
 I was confirmed, fays he, in thefe fenti- 
 ments, not fo much by the many and cogent 
 reafons which I had gathered from the writings 
 of others, or from what my own thoughts had 
 fuggefted in the long and repeated refledions 
 
 I had 
 
[ 169 ] 
 
 I had made on the affair, as by that fingle ar- 
 gument, with which the blood of thefe Cham- 
 pions, fhed in this caufe, furniilied me j that 
 the divine veracity hath always manifefled it- 
 felf by fiich evidence, we are affiired firft by 
 his death, who was truth itfelf, and afterwards 
 by thofe legions of witneffes, who have a t- 
 tefted the fame Do6lrine in all parts, and 
 through all ages of the worlds I beheld, 
 therefore, the hand -writing of God in thefe 
 Sufferings, whofe paft life was a fufficient proof 
 of the favour they had found with him, and I 
 could not but reverence the fign and fubfcribe' 
 to it, B. i, p. 115. 
 
 The Suffering of Death is indeed a convin- 
 cing proof of the perfon's belief of the Doc- 
 trines, for which he fuffers, but it is no in- 
 fallible proof of the truth of the Dodtrines 
 themfelves -, for there is hardly any religi- 
 ous tenet, however abfurd it be, but what 
 may boaft of its Martyrs. It was the hu- 
 mour of the times, which Pole gave into, to 
 take the teftimony of an opinion fealed with 
 blood for an inconteflable demonftration of 
 its truth 3 though this kind of proof had been 
 lately refuted and expofed by a very remark- 
 
 Z able 
 
[ I70 ] 
 
 able fad:, related by the author of the life of 
 *Pope Alexander VL where a Dominican Friar 
 is faid to have offered himfelf to the flames, to 
 verify the Dodrines efpoufed by Savanorola, 
 which was accordingly admitted as an unde- 
 niable argument for their truth, till another, 
 as frantic an Enthufiaft as the former, made 
 the fame oflfer for the eftablifhment of the 
 direcft contrary opinions : Here then was de- 
 monftration againft demonftration, the fubjeds 
 in diipute were reduced to their former uncer- 
 tainty, and nothing could be inferred, but 
 the madnefs of thefe Monks, and the weak- 
 nefs of their proofs 5 but weak as they were, 
 they were fufHcient to convince Pole of the 
 Pope*s Supremacy. 
 
 Letter 
 
[ 171 ] 
 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 THE King was greatly furprifed and en- 
 raged at thefe ungrateful returns of his 
 Kinfman and Dependant, who had received 
 not only no Provocation from him, but was 
 under the higheft obligations to him : Pole 
 therefore had forfeited all title to the Royal 
 Bounty, and the King who had been the beft 
 of friends, finding himfelf treated as the worft 
 of enemies, had abundant reafon to withdraw 
 his penfion, which had hitherto been con- 
 ftantly returned to him, and put an end to all 
 favours : This indeed was no more than what 
 Pole from the confcioufnefs of his deferts ex- 
 pefted, and had been providing againft by 
 making his addrefles to the Court of Rome, 
 where he had fent his Book, De Unitate Ec- 
 clefia, for the Pope and his Friends* perufal, 
 and had received their approbation v/ith affu- 
 rances of protedion and fupport : for Pole 
 being nearly related to the Royal Family in 
 England, and having great friends and intereft 
 there, he was confidered as a proper perfon 
 to be employed in the recovery of this fair por- 
 tion, and the refloration of a revolted people 
 Z 2 to 
 
[ 172 ] 
 
 to their obedience to the See of Rome : the 
 Pope with his College of Cardinals therefore 
 was determined to get him over to his fide, 
 and foon after he had drawn him into this 
 breach with the King, he commanded him to 
 repair to Rome -, Henry being informed of it, 
 and apprehenfive what ufe was defigned to be 
 made of him there, endeavoured to prevent his 
 journey, by threatening meffages fent by Crom- 
 well, and alfo by gentle perfuafions from his 
 relations 5 but neither the loud menaces of the 
 Englifh Miniftry, nor the fofter entreaties of 
 his Mother the Countefs of Salifbury, and of 
 his Brother the Lord Montague, could prevail 
 with him to defift from taking a ftep fo dif- 
 pleafing to the King, and perilous to them. 
 
 Having thus broke through all the ties of 
 gratitude, loyalty, and affedtion, to his King 
 and Country, Pole had no reftraints to hinder 
 him from running the greateft lengths in his 
 oppofition to them : he had not been long at 
 Rome before the Pope offered him a Cardinal's 
 Hat, this promotion not fuiting with his fa- 
 vourite fcheme, he at firft declined it, but the 
 Pope infifling upon it, he was obliged to ac- 
 cept it. The King about this time fuppreffed 
 the lefler Monafteries in England, which caufing 
 
 great 
 
[ '73 ] 
 
 great difturbanccs among the Papifts, there 
 were feveral infurredlions , and our Author af- 
 firms that no Icfs than 20,000 male-contents 
 took up arms in Lincolnlliire, and 40,000 in 
 the Northern Counties, who got poflefiion of 
 York and Hull -, and were joined by the Arch- 
 bifliop of York, Dr. Lee, and Lord Darcy : 
 the firft of thefe formidable bodies difperfed 
 themfelves of their* own accord; the other re- 
 tired to their own homes without coming to 
 an engagement, upon the approach of the 
 Duke of Norfolk, with a far lefs number. 
 However thefe infurrecftions, which fame had 
 not leiTened at Rome, feemed there to indicate 
 a revolution in favour of the Papal Supre- 
 macy 'y the Conclave therefore was refolved to 
 fupport them as much as lay in their power, 
 and embrace this feafonable opportunity of turn- 
 ing his own Relation againft the King, and 
 making him their tool for fomenting fedition 
 and rebellion in England. For thefe purpofes 
 Pole was ordered to go into the Low^ Coun- 
 tries in the quality of a Legate, where, from 
 the nearnefs of his iituation, he might have 
 early and full intelligence of the ftrength and 
 progrefs of the Rebels, and when occafion of- 
 fered might foon crofs the Britifli Channel and 
 
 join 
 
[ 174 ] 
 
 join them. And here I cannot but obfervc 
 that Mr. Phillips never calls them Rebels, but 
 diftinguifhes them by the milder appellation of 
 Infurgents, becaufe he confiders them I fup- 
 pofe as the body of the People engaged in a 
 , juft caufe, and the King as an Ufurper and his 
 Party the Rebels : the Pope had no money 
 nor men to fupport his caufe, but he fitted out 
 Pole with all the means he had in his power, 
 he gave him an ample and difcretionary com- 
 miffion to do every thing which might diftrefs 
 Henry, and be of emolument to the See of 
 Rome ; he armed him likewife with Creden- 
 tials to the feveral Powers of Europe : his firft 
 letter our Author fays was addreffed to the Eng- 
 lish nation, and declared the fatisfaftion his 
 Holinefs had received from the late proof they 
 had given, that their revolt from a faith and 
 obedience, by which they had till then diftin- 
 guifhed themfelves, had been conftrained and 
 forced, he required them to pay due deference 
 to the Legate, and affift him in the execution 
 of his orders, which had been didtated by 
 Piety, and were direded to the glory of GOD, 
 and their welfare. 
 
 His fecond letter was to the King of Scot- 
 land, James V. who was exhorted and entreated 
 
 to 
 
[^75] 
 
 to fupport the Legate by favouring the difpo- , 
 fitions the Engliih had fhewed to return to 
 the Faith of their anceftors, as their neigh- 
 bourhood gave him a facility to affift them s 
 and at the fame time the Pope fent him a 
 fword and a cap of maintenance, with another 
 letter explaining the typical reprefentation of 
 each prefent. 
 
 The other Letters were to the moil Chriftian 
 King, and to Mary Dowager Queen of Hun- 
 gary, Sifter to Charles V. and Governefs of 
 the Low Countries, and were of the like im- 
 port, p. 175. Befides thefe Credentials, it is 
 upon good grounds fuppofed, that Pole had in 
 his pocket the Pope's Excommunication and 
 Depofition of Henry ; which was drawn up 
 about this time, and to be publifhed upon the 
 firft fair opportunity : for thefe and other rea- 
 fons Pole is charged, by feveral of our Hifto- 
 rians, with having a defign upon the Crown 
 of England ; and though his Biographer takes 
 much pains to clear him of it, yet he feems 
 to me, even in his laboured apology, to make 
 fuch conceffions, and allow fuch teftimonies, as 
 indifputably confirm it; and if Pole's princi- 
 ples may be judged of from his condu6l, he 
 muft have had fome fuch ambitious views, for he 
 
 could 
 
[ 176 ] 
 
 could not have done more as times and cir- 
 cumftances then were, had he any fuch inten- 
 tions, and he would certainly have done much 
 lefs, if he had none : he appeared to offer him- 
 felf for this commiffion when he tells the 
 Pope, that fome proper perfon fhould be ap- 
 pointed to keep up the refolutions of the In- 
 furgents in England, and a fufficient fund al- 
 lowed for that purpofe : and his apologift 
 acknowledges that Pole had entered into a kind 
 of offenjive flate with his Sovereign by his 
 journey into the Low Countries, for he went 
 there with an hoflile intention -, his fole buli- 
 nefs was to fuppoit the Rebels, and upon any 
 profpedt of their fuccefs, to join them : it is 
 eafy therefore to guefs what would have been 
 the confequcnce if the King's forces had been 
 defeated, and it is as eafy to guefs v/hat Pole 
 imagined the confequence would be from the 
 reafons he alledges for his motives in his 
 letters and other works, w^herc this part of 
 his condufl: is the fubjed:. For he reprefents 
 the original contrad between the King and 
 People as no longer fubfifting, having been vio- 
 lated by the former in many concerns of the 
 higheft and moft weighty importance, that the 
 King had broken their Grand Charter, had 
 
 made 
 
[ 177 ] 
 
 made the acknowledgment of the Pope's fu- 
 premacy high treafon ; had fubftituted a flrange 
 Head in its roomj and punlfhed thofe who re- 
 fufed to iubmit to it as traitors and felons ; that 
 he had made exam,ples of Fiiher and Moore, 
 and outlawed him, the Pope's Legate; had 
 ejefted thoufands out of their poffeflions, and 
 delivered them over to vagrancy and want, and 
 that the Parhament had joined with him in 
 thefe outrages, and were become the joint op- 
 prefibrs of the People ; and laflly, the Nation 
 had declared their fenfe of its wrongs, by the 
 infux^reffions they had made to redrefs them. 
 
 Now for what other purpofe doth Pole pro- 
 duce all thefe arguments, and make the voice 
 of a licentious rabble the fenfe of the nation, 
 but to vindicate his own condud, and prove 
 the lawfulnefs of his and their attempts to pull 
 down Henry, and place him the Legate upon 
 the throne ? The Englifh Miniflry had early 
 intelligence of Pole's commiffion, they were in- 
 formed of his inftrudlions, and the fteps he 
 was to take for executing them ; they fufped:ed 
 likevv^ife what his real intentions were, and 
 took effe(5lual meafures to prevent them, the 
 King of France was prevailed upon through 
 their infligation, to fignify to the Legate, upon 
 
 A a the 
 
[ ^78 ] 
 
 the day of his arrival at Paris in his way to 
 the Netherlands, that he would not treat with 
 him upon the buiinefs he was charged with, 
 and ordered him to quit his dominions without 
 delay 5 upon the receipt of this meffage Pole 
 immediately fet out for Cambray, where he 
 fent to the Governefs of the Low Countries 
 for leave to pafs through them to Liege, but 
 Henry was there alfo before-hand with him, 
 and had engaged her not to fuffer Pole to pro- 
 fecute his journey through her territories. The 
 Pope hearing of thefe obftacles, and alfo of 
 the difperiion of the Infurgents in England, 
 fent to his Legate to return to Rome, but he 
 not knowing the miferable fituation of his af- 
 fairs in England fo well as the Pope, or not 
 willing to give up the fair profpecft his ambi- 
 tion had fet before him, in fo abrupt a manner, 
 interceded to continue a little longer in the 
 place he then was; alledging for his reafons, 
 that the caufe which he had undertaken feemed 
 at firft to promife fuccefs, from the great num- 
 ber of perfons who had taken up arms in Eng- 
 land, and the quality of their commanders; 
 and though it was now beginning to grow def- 
 perate, yet in his opinion, it was not to be 
 entirely abandoned, till it farther appeared that 
 
 nothing 
 
[ 179 ] 
 
 nothing more could be effected, for his preci- 
 pitate departure would difpirit their friends, 
 and all would be inevitably loft ; while on the 
 contrary, the zeal of their well-wifhers w^ould 
 be kept alive, if they had one of their own na- 
 tion in their fight, a Chief whofe reputation 
 had been unblemifhed, and whofe example 
 and authority might have influence on them, 
 and who was fuch a one as no dangers could 
 intimidate when the good of his country was at 
 ftake. The Pope through thefe fuggeftions 
 permitted Pole to ftay as long as he thought 
 proper, and he continued at Liege about three 
 months longer, when every glimmering hope va- 
 niihing, and his dangers daily increafmg upon 
 him, he was obliged to yield to the necefiity of 
 the times, and returned in the utmoft defpair 
 to the place from whence he came : From 
 hence it is very evident that Pole did not deny 
 his oppofition to the King, but laboured to 
 juftify himfelf in it. The tumults in England 
 being quite fupprefied, the King and Parlia- 
 ment proceeded againft Pole, they had him at- 
 tainted of High Treafon, confilcated all his 
 goods, fet a revv^ard of fifty thoufand crowns on 
 his head, and made it Treafon for any Subjed: 
 of Britain to hold any correfpondence with 
 A a 2 him : 
 
I ^80 ] 
 
 him : Mr. Phillips exclaims mod vehemently 
 againft this treatment of his Hero ; prefuming, 
 I fuppofe, upon the ftanding maxim of the 
 Romifh Church, that whatever was done for 
 the Pope and the Hierarchy was jufi: and right, 
 and whatever was done againft ihem was ini- 
 quitous and wrong : but in the judgment of 
 common fenfe Henry did no more than what 
 fclf-defence, and the truft repofed in him by 
 his Subjects, required him to do ; and what 
 every Sovereign in Europe would have done 
 had they been in his place and circumftances. 
 Pole as a relation, a dependant, and a natural 
 born fubjeft of the King of England, w^as un- 
 der the ftrideft obligations of affedtion, grati- 
 tude, and loyalty to him ; yet he undertook, 
 by the Pope's Legation, to difTolve himfelf and 
 all Henry's Subjects from their allegiance to 
 him ; to incenfc his neighbouring powers agairift 
 him, to blow up tlie flames of civil war in 
 the bowels cf his fCingdom, to afiift the male- 
 contents at the hazard of his life, ijnd if occa- 
 fion ferved to head them in depofing and mur- 
 dering their King. Having thus proved him- 
 felf a Rebel and a Traitor to his Sovereign and 
 his Country, Henry would have been wanting 
 to himfelf and his people, if he had not treated 
 
 him 
 
[ ^8^ ] 
 
 him as fuch. His EmbaiTadors v/ere ordered 
 to infift upon the French King's feizing the 
 Cardinal, when he entered into his dominions, 
 and delivering him into their Mafler's hands ; 
 and it is amazing to fee what refledtions Pole 
 and his Panegyriu m.ake upon this demand, 
 and with what affurance they both comment 
 upon it, as if no kind of provocation had ever 
 been given to the King of England, and as if 
 Pole was perfecftly innocent, and engaged in 
 fuch a righteous caufe, that the King of France 
 was in honour and confcience bound to proted: 
 and fupport him in it, and that neither Henry, 
 nor any of his Subjedls, ought to be offended 
 at it, or ftir in their own defence againil: him ; 
 but no reader of common fenfe can be impofed 
 upon by fjch manifeftly abfurd fuppofitionc. 
 And if there was any offeniive or defenfive 
 league fubfifting at that time between the two 
 Kings, it is feif evident, that the ftrongeft law 
 of nature, that is, the law of felf prefervation, 
 authorized Henry to make this demand upon 
 his ally, and that the law of juftice and friend- 
 fhip obliged Francis to deliver up Pole, as a 
 perfon who had entered into, and was going to 
 execute, a mofi: deiperate confpiracy againfl his 
 King and Country, and had made his fafety 
 
 and 
 
[ i82 ] 
 
 and welfare incompatible with the fafety and 
 welfare of the King of England. But to con- 
 clude this letter, though Pole could not attain 
 to the heights he afpired after, yet as his will 
 was not wanting, and he had laid in his heart, 
 I will exalt myfelf above the King, I will mount 
 his 'throne, he was therefore juftly entitled to 
 Ambition's motto, Afcendarn. Ifaiah, xiv. 13. 
 
 LETTER XXV. 
 
 IN the beginning of the year 1539, the 
 greater Monafteries were fuppreffed, which 
 was betv/een two and three years after the 
 diffolution of the leiTer monafteries ; about this 
 time the Pope had an interview with the Em- 
 peror, and the King of France, at Nice, where 
 he endeavoured as a mediator to reconcile them 
 to one another : And though he could not 
 bring them to an abfolute peace, yet he pre- 
 vailed with them to enter into a truce for ten 
 years ; at this time it is faid they both pro- 
 mifed the Pope to break off all communication 
 with Henry, and join their forces in reftoring 
 the Papal Supremacy in England, and affift a 
 once fiouriiliing kingdom, which had now no 
 refource but from the good offices of her allies. 
 
 The 
 
[ »83 ] 
 
 The Pope had long fince dcfpaired of re- 
 covering, by gentle means or menaces, fo fair 
 a portion to his Church (or in a homelier but 
 truer phrafe, of filling his coffers with immenfe 
 funis of money, as his predecefTors had done, 
 by their exadlions and plunder of fo rich a 
 kingdom) and was determined to proceed to 
 extremities ; his excommunication and depofi- 
 tion of Henry had been drawn up near three 
 years ago, and only waited a favourable con- 
 jundure for their publication, which now 
 feemcd to offer itfelf, from the union and pro- 
 miffes of thefe two Potentates. They were 
 therefore now openly declared, and, as Mr. 
 Phillips fays, with the formalities, and in the 
 ftile ufual upon fuch occafions ; that is, the ex- 
 communicated perfon is cut off from the com- 
 munion of the Faithful, deprived of the parti- 
 cipation of the Sacraments, forbid to enter the 
 Church and join in the exercife of any a6l of 
 religious worihip : and all Chriftians are like- 
 w^ife prohibited all commerce and communion 
 with him, in any of thefe Articles, Which lafl 
 words are an addition of ?vlr. Phillips, in order 
 to foften the fentence : for the Pope's excom- 
 munication was alv/ays abfolute and uncondi- 
 tional, and forbid all communion or commerce 
 
 with 
 
[ i84 J 
 
 with the excommunicated perfon : fo that an 
 abfolution of the Subjeds from their allegiance, 
 and confequently a depofition of their Sove- 
 reign, was virtually implied in it ; for if 
 chriftians were cut off from all communion or 
 intercourfe with their King, all connedions be- 
 tween them muft be entirely broke ; and in 
 fuch cafes, it is very plain there could be no 
 practical medium betv/een not being with him, 
 and being againfl him j had the fentence there- 
 fore went no farther, it could not be juftified. 
 Mr. Phillips*s additional claufe like wife v/as 
 liighly equivocal and unneceffary j for this, and 
 indeed all other excommunications from his 
 own account, where Princes were the perfons 
 excommunicated, had for above five hundred 
 years before proceeded to deprive therrj of their 
 Kingdoms, and abfolve all their Subjects from 
 their duty to them, and require them to take 
 up arms agalnft and deilroy them as the de- 
 tefled enemies of GOD and Man. This Bio- 
 grapher, indeed, doth not pretend to vindicate 
 this part of the fentence, but condemns it as 
 an ufurpation of the Pope's i and I hope he 
 ijjeaks his real fentiments, but evafions, dif- 
 limulations, and refervations, have been fo 
 much in vogue among the Romiih Clergy, 
 
 that 
 
[ ^^5 ] 
 
 that I am forry to fay, they have almoft loft^ 
 ail credit with Proteftants, and given them • 
 juft grounds to queftion their fincerity even in 
 an open dilavowal of the Papal Power to de- 
 pofe Kings ; but If our Author doth not dif- 
 femble his own, he certainly doth his Hero's 
 principles, and even againft fuch ftrong pre- 
 fumptions that it is not in the power of fo- 
 phlftry to palliate or excufe them. 
 
 The Pope having now the promifes of the 
 Emperor and the King of France for adling 
 againft Henry, thought no time was to be loft, 
 and immediately commiffioned Pole to go to 
 them with this Excommunication and Depofi- 
 tion ; and excite them to turn their arms 
 againft the King of England. The Cardinal 
 gladly accepted of this office, as it raifed in 
 him frefli hopes, and foothed his ambition : 
 Mr. Phillips aiTerts that he made no ufe of the 
 depofing part ; it cannot, fays he, be objefted 
 sgainft him that the negotiation was in fome 
 part founded on the fuppofition that Henry, in 
 virtue of the Papal fentence, had forfeited his 
 right to the Kingdom, fince whatever the Le- 
 gate's private opinion might have been of the 
 Pope's depofing power in general ; certain it is 
 B b that 
 
[ i86 ] 
 
 that he never inftigated the Courts, to which he 
 was fent to ad in confequence of it : for the proof 
 of which certainty he appeals to a folcmn de- 
 claration of Pole to Edward the fixth, which 
 he fays is a voucher above exception. Flere 
 this Author takes it for granted that whatever 
 Pole faith muft be true, and fhould be admitted 
 by all the world as fuch, though his whole 
 conduft in this affair direftly contradifts it ; but 
 fhould Pole's veracity be ever fo unexception- 
 able, yet it feems he only fpeaks in this de- 
 claration to Edward the Sixth of his firft em* 
 baffy to the Low Countries, and not of this 
 laft 5 fo that this Biographer's certainty hath no 
 voucher at all to fupport it, and he might have 
 afferted with as much confidence that Pole 
 omitted any other part or the whole of his in- 
 ftrudtions. There can be likewife no doubt 
 what the Cardinal's private opinion was con- 
 cerning the Papal Power ; for his Holinefs 
 would never have made choice of him for his 
 Legate, had he not been very well aflured of his 
 real fentiments upon it ; neither can it admit of 
 the leaft difpute whether Pole aded agreeable to 
 thefe fentiments, if it be confidered what he 
 had in charge from the Pope. His inflrudions, 
 
 it 
 
[ '87 ] 
 
 it fecms, were to lay before his Imperial Ma- 
 jefty the whole condufl: of the King of Eng- 
 land, in order to prevail on him to ufe his beft 
 endeavours for bringing back his Kingdom to a 
 worfhip it had been conflrained to forfake, 
 and putting an end to enormities not lefs de- 
 jftruftive of mankind than hateful to GOD; 
 that the Emperor would find a conformity of 
 fentiments in the King of Scotland, and the 
 new Cardinal Beaton, on whofe ability and cre- 
 dit great ftrefs might be laid ; and in conclu- 
 fion, that all farther communication with 
 Henry fhould be broke ofFj and that the leagues 
 againft the Turk, and all other bufinefs fliould 
 be entirely laid afide for the prefent, that they 
 might have nothing to divert them from ex- 
 erting their confederate Powers againft the 
 King of England. 
 
 Thefe inftrudlions, Mr. Phillips acknowledges 
 were penned in a very loofe ftile, for which the 
 importance of the matter coniidered it may be 
 hard to account : and if it be added, that this 
 Excommunication had been drawn up, revifed, 
 and corredled, for feveral years before, it would 
 be ftill harder to account for the particular in- 
 ftrudions upon them, if they had not been 
 perfedly conformable to the principles and 
 : B b 2 practices 
 
[ i88 ] 
 
 pracfliccs of all who were concerned in them : 
 they have like wife, continues our Author, an 
 hoflile air with refpeft to Henry, fo that it 
 may fcem extraordinary, the Legate {hould 
 take upon him fuch a commiffion. They had 
 indeed an extreme hoftile air when they ab- 
 folved all Henry's Subjects from their allegiance 
 to him, and commaiided every power in Eu- 
 rope to aid and affift them in depofing and 
 murdering him by whatever means it could be 
 done. But to whom could this undertaking 
 of the Legate feem extraordinary, when all the 
 , -world knew how agreeable it was to his af- 
 piring temper, and that it fet before him fo 
 flattering a profped of afcending the Englifli 
 Throne ? 
 
 Though Phillips had but a few pages be- 
 fore dogmatically allerted, that Pole never 
 infligated the Emperor to a<ft according to that 
 part of his inftruftions which related to Henry's 
 depoiition, yet he now feems to queftion his 
 own authority, or at Icafl the credit of others 
 upon it, and feeing fa6is fo very ilrong againft 
 him, he proceeds to clear up the diiiiculty of 
 the Cardinal's engaging in meafures to dethrone 
 his Sovereign, by attempting to juflify him in 
 it : For he fays that Pole had the precedent 
 
 of 
 
[ i89 ] 
 
 of the Barons, who called over the Dauphin of 
 France to free them from the frantic tyranny 
 of King John, and that which happened in his 
 own times of Henry VII. who though an alien 
 to the crown, was chofe by the unanimous 
 confent of the nation to refcue them from the 
 oppreffion of Richard III. The evils which 
 oppreffed his country with refped: to property, 
 confcience, and life itfelf, perfuaded Pole of the 
 lawfulnefs of having recourfe to limilar means, 
 in order to redrefs WTongs which had no other 
 profpedl of remedy 5 the near alliance he had 
 to the Crown, and the obligations which thi$ 
 laid him under of being particularly vigilant 
 for the welfare of his Country, feem to have 
 left him more at large as to the expedients 
 which were to refcue it from fach opprcffions. 
 B. i. p. 242, 243. 
 
 The far greater part of the Lords and Com- 
 mons, and more than one half of the Gentry 
 and Commonalty of the Kingdom were Prote- 
 'ftants, and many of the Roman Catholicl-cs 
 approved of the alterations which had been 
 made in Religion -, even Tunflall and Gardiner, 
 with feveral other Romifh Bifhops, wrote in 
 defence of the Regal Suprem.acy ; and the 
 Duke of Norfolk commanded the King's army 
 
 againfl: 
 
C ^90 ] 
 
 againlT: the Rebels, who had taken up arms 
 upon the fuppreffion of the lefler Monafterles. 
 Yet all thefe were as nothing in the eftima- 
 tion of Pole or Phillips ; the Proteftants were 
 dead as to fpirituals, and therefore were to be 
 looked upon as cyphers in temporals, and to 
 be exterminated as foon as poflible -, the other 
 were ftrays, and wanted their chief fhepherd 
 to recall them to their fold -, thus the whole 
 nation was unanimous for depofing Henry, and 
 joined in one voice to call over Pole to fupplant 
 and fucceed him, in the fame manner as it 
 was for calling over the Dauphin of France, 
 and the Earl of Richmond : And this indif- 
 putable unanimjty had convinced Pole of the 
 lawfulnefs of having recourfe to iimilar means, 
 that is, to plunge the nation into a civil war, 
 and to cut of all its dead and rotten members. 
 The near alliance Pole had to the Crown is 
 a very equivocal expreffion ; if Mr. Phillips 
 means by it his affinity to the crowned Head 
 and his Family, then his near relation to him, 
 and the many fignal favours he had received 
 from him, obliged him (Pole) in a mod par- 
 ticular manner to prote6l and defend him from 
 all Rebels, Traitors, and Depofcrs, and not to 
 be the Rebel, Traitor, and Depofer himfelf 
 
 But 
 
[ '91 ] 
 
 But if this Author means by Pole's allunce, 
 his right to the Crown, then the obligation 
 which this right laid him under, left him it 
 feems at large to ufe any violent expedients, 
 not only for extirpating and murdering Henry, 
 but his Son Edward, and his Daughter Eli- 
 zabeth, with all the Heirs that flood before 
 him to the Crown ; that after the example of 
 his great uncle Richard III. he might clear the 
 way, and wade through feas of blood to the 
 pinnacle of his ambition. 
 
 Pole went with his inftrument of Excom- 
 munication and Depofition to Spain, in order 
 to excite the Emperor to a declaration of war 
 againft England, in conjundlion with France, 
 for the dethroning of Henry : But though 
 there had been a truce concluded between thefe 
 two Potentates, yet they were jealous and 
 afraid of each other, and both refolved within 
 themfelves not to break with Henrj'. The 
 Emperor therefore received the Legate very 
 coldly, and lignified to him that the prefent 
 jundture was unfeafonable for the execution of 
 what the Pope required ; and to get rid of his 
 follicitations, he advifed Pole to go to the 
 French Court and found their difpofitions j for 
 
 bv 
 
[ '92 ] 
 
 by them he fhould regulate his own. Pole 
 was thoroughly mortified at this difappoint- 
 ment, all his hopes were again blafted in 
 the bud, and he could not help reprefenting 
 to the Emperor, that as he was the Prince 
 particularly marked out by Heaven to affift 
 England in her day of diftrefs, and had refu- 
 fed to give her any fuccour, he muft expeft 
 the divine vengeance to fall upon his head. 
 And fome time after in a letter to his friend 
 Contareni, he attributed the Emperor^s defeat 
 by the Turk to a judgment of the Almighty, 
 for not falling upon Henry, and flighting 
 the Pope's Excommunication and Depofition 
 of him. 
 
 Letter 
 
C ^93 ] 
 LETTER XXVI. 
 
 LORD Herbert affirms in his Hlilory, 
 that Cardinal Pole laboured with all his 
 power, by means of his correfpondents in Eng- 
 land, to alienate the hearts of the Subjeds 
 from the King, and to foment a civil war in 
 the Nation, by pubhfhing every where that 
 Henry had fubverted all Religion to fet up his 
 own fictions. And Burnet in particular afferts, 
 that feveral have thought the Cardinal had 
 fome private views, which concerned not Re- 
 ligion ; he was of the Houfe of York by his 
 Mother, and is faid alfo to have had an incli- 
 nation for the Princefs Mzry, and to beftir 
 himfelf thus in order to marry and fet her on 
 the Throne in the room of her Father ; at leaft 
 there is reafon to fufped his extraordinary zeal 
 was fortified by fome hidden views, and that in 
 acfling for the Pope he was labouring his own 
 advancement. B. i. p. 221. 
 
 Sir Jeffrey Pole, the Cardinal's own Brother, 
 privately informed the King that he held a 
 correfpondence with Henry Courtney, Marquis 
 of Exeter, Grandfon of Edward the Fourth -, 
 Lord Montague ; Sir Edward Nevil 3 and Sir 
 C c Nicholas 
 
[ t94 ] 
 
 Nicholas Carew, Mafter of the Horfe : and 
 that Pole's agents v/ere a Pfieft and a Mariner. 
 All thefe were upon this information apprehen- 
 ded) condemned, and executed : but the in- 
 former was pardoned, as a reward for his intel- 
 ligence : foon after the Cardinal's Mother, the 
 Countefs of Sahfbury, was apprehended, and 
 after two years imprifonment, executed for the 
 fame offence. But notwithflanding the hoftile 
 meafures, which Pok had entered into, and 
 the expedients which he thought himfelf at 
 large to make A3& of for depofing his Royal 
 Patron, as have been above related, yet his 
 Biographer roundly afferts that gratitude was a 
 cardinal virtue in this illuftrious perfon ; that he 
 had been declai^d a Traitor, for caufes which 
 in their own nature did not feem to come up 
 to the article of Treafon ; and that the only 
 crime of the afore-mentioned perfons was (not 
 their correfpondence with, but) their affinity to 
 him. Pole likewife always prefumes upon his 
 own and their innocency j he afferts, that no one 
 ever queftioned the duty and allegiance of thefe 
 accomplices (though his own brother had in- 
 formed againft them for their treafon able cor- 
 refpondence with him) -, that their whole con- 
 duct was faultlefs, unlefs in too great obfequi- 
 
 oufnefs 
 
[ '95 ] 
 
 oufncfs to Henry's councils y that a refolutioxt 
 to deliver their Country from evils was falu-:, 
 tary, and would have juftified fuch an enter- 
 prize ', but even this charge which was brought 
 againft them was not made out, for if it had, 
 it would have been publiihed in vindication of 
 the murder of fome of the noblefl and beft 
 men of the Realm s but as he (Pole) could find 
 nothing of that Kind, he could only difcover, 
 what he had long fufpedled, the Tyrant's ha- 
 tred to virtue and the nobility. 
 
 Now from a review of the whole of Pole's 
 condud, with refpedl to his King and Country, 
 as fet forth by himfelf and his Biographer, 
 nothing can be more evident than that both 
 their vindications of it neceflarily fuppofe and 
 are founded upon fuch like principles as thefe, 
 viz. that 
 
 Whoever ads for the good of the Church,: 
 or the advancement of the Papal and Hierar- 
 chical Power, is difcharged from the obligations 
 of honefty, honour, confcience, and allegiance 
 to Hereticks and Schifmaticks 3 that all fuch 
 pious intentions will give a fandion to ingrati- 
 tude, hypocrify, treafon, rebellion, confpiracies, 
 and aifafinations of every kind : and that who- 
 ever ads in oppofition to the Pope and the 
 C c 2 Hierarchy 
 
[ '96 ] 
 
 Hierarchy, hath forfeited all his right of felf 
 defence, is a Devil incarnate, an outcaft of 
 Heaven, and by any means to be extirpated 
 from the earth. 
 
 It is amazing to fee the heights which the 
 bigots of the Romifh Church have carried 
 the authority of their Pontiff and Clergy : 
 They oppofe and exalt them above all that is 
 called GOD, or that is worfhipped 5 attribu- 
 ting Powers to them which even Omnipotence 
 itfelf difclaimeth ; fuppofing them capable of 
 performing impofiibilities, reconciling contra- 
 dictions, dilTolving all moral duties, converting 
 good into evil and evil into good -, fandifying 
 falfhood and fraud, and cancelling the laws of 
 natural and revealed Religion : Bifliop White 
 afferts, that when men depart from the Church, 
 they lofe all ciitcrion of truth and falfhood. in 
 matters of Religion, and muft neceflarily be 
 carried about with every wind of Dodtrine. 
 Cardinal Cufanus in his epiftle to the Bohemi- 
 ans fays, that the word of G O D is moft 
 worthy when it is farthefl removed from all 
 Scripture, that the Scriptures muft be explained 
 by the prevailing rites of the Church, and that 
 when the Church changes her decrees the will 
 of G O D is changed with them. And 
 
 Bellarmine, 
 
[ ^97 ] 
 
 Bellarmine, that renowned champion of the 
 Church of Rome, Cardinal and Archbifliop, 
 affirms, that flaould the Pope declare virtues to 
 be vices, and vices virtues, good Chriftians 
 are In confcience bound to believe him. And 
 thefe are the Dodlrines, not of a few indivi- 
 duals, but of the whole Romiih Church, 
 maintained by Popes, and confirmed by Ge- 
 neral Councils : And in particular the Emperor 
 Sigifmond gave a fafe conducfl to John Hufs 
 for paffing through his dominions ; and the 
 Council at Conftance folemnly and publickly 
 promifed Jerome of Prague fafety and protec- 
 tion, if he would come to Conftance , in their 
 engagement indeed they had inferted this con- 
 dition, without prejudice to juftice, and as far 
 as the Catholick Faith required it. But when 
 they had got thefe two perfons into their 
 power, the Fathers of the Council unanimoufly 
 decreed, that they were fcditious, obftinate, 
 incorrigible followers and defenders of Wick- 
 liff*; hardened, crafty, malicious, and convided 
 Hereticks ; that they could not protedl them 
 without violating juftice ; and the Catholick 
 Faith required that they fhould be cut off 
 as corrupt m. embers of the Church, holding 
 impious, horrible, and damnable Tenets -, and 
 
 therefore 
 
[ igS ] 
 
 therefore the Council condemned them to be 
 burnt alive, and had them executed accordingly. 
 From whence it is evident that this was an 
 enfnaring condition, added with a premeditated 
 defign to betray the confidence that ihould be 
 placed upon it ; and that the Romifli Church 
 requires its members to pradtice hypocrily, to 
 keep no faith with Proteftants, and to grant 
 every appearance, but not the leail fubftance 
 of a protediion. 
 
 As thefe principles are inconfiflent with the 
 fundamental maxims of government, and fub- 
 verfive of the very nature of fociety, the per- 
 fons who efpoufe them, have no title to be to- 
 lerated in it. And that Community which is 
 fo indulgent as to take fuch Rattle-fnakes into 
 its bofom, muft fuppofe that they from the 
 badnefs of their conftitution, will never ga- 
 ther ftrength fufficient to give a mortal bite; 
 or if they lliould, it will be by fuch a gradual 
 increafe, that timely notice will be given for 
 fliaking them oil: but where errors are of fuch 
 fatal confequence, and knowledge and circum- 
 fpeclion are the only fecurity, the duties which 
 felf-prefervation lays upon fociety, call loudly 
 uf 01 every member of it, to have an extreme 
 
 watchful 
 
[ ^99 ] 
 
 watchful and Jealous eve over fuch a dange-" 
 rous and defperate Generation of Vipers. 
 
 But to return to Pole's Charafter. The bi- 
 gotr\' which had rivetted him to the See of 
 Rome, rendered him exceffively credulous and 
 fuperftitious, and he was addicted no lefs than 
 his Biographer, to engrofs Providence to him- 
 felf, and interpret natural occurrences into di- 
 vine judgments upon his adverfaries, which are 
 prefumptions peculiar to Miracle- mongers and 
 Religioniib ; the defeat of the Emperor by the 
 Turk, iuft now mentioned, is a remarkable in- 
 ftance of this kind \ and the Cardinal's own 
 narration of what occurred to him in his vilit 
 to the Ca\^rn near the great Road between 
 Aix and Marfeilles, called Sainte Beaume, is lb 
 full a proof of his weaknefs, credulity, and fu- 
 perflition, that no other confirmation will be 
 wanted on this head. 
 
 An ancient tradition, he fays, had fuppoied 
 that Mary Magdalene, Martha, and Lazanis, 
 vfZT^ in hatred to our Lord, ihipped off in a 
 tattered veffel, after his afcenlion, and condudcd 
 by providence to the Coaft of Pro\*ence,. where 
 the Women are laid to pafs the remainder 
 of their days: This florj^ is fo romantick, that 
 it even exceeds Phillips's faith, for he thinks 
 
 that 
 
[ 200 ] 
 
 that the fitnefs of the place for penitential exer- 
 cifes, gave birth to this opinion : But the Car- 
 dinaVs credulity was capacious enough to con- 
 tain it, for he went out of his way on purpofe 
 to vifit this Sanftuary, in which he exprefsly 
 aCerts that the remains of the holy Penitent 
 were depofited ; here he fent up an earnei't fup- 
 plication for the King, and fell into a long fit 
 of weeping, but he felt not the inward com- 
 fort he de^.red, as a pledge of his requeft being 
 granted, but rather feemed to hear a voice 
 which increafed his afflidlion, and was the fame 
 which faid to the Prophet, who was likewife 
 fupplicating for his Sovereign, why dofi: thou 
 lament a Perfon whom I have caft off? B. i. 
 P. 272, 273- 
 
 The Cardinal's zeal for the Pope had fre- 
 quently fuppreffed his remorfe of cdnfcience for 
 his ingratitude to the King ; and here the place 
 and circuinftances prompting him to indulge 
 his fuperftition, it was no wonder that it tri- 
 umphed over his allegiance to his Sovereign, 
 and vented itfelf in that fuberb llyle, Why doft 
 thou lament one whom I have cafl: off? Such 
 is the nature of Enthufiafm, that when it has 
 once got compleat poffeffion of the mind, it 
 prefumptuoufly perfonates the iuprcme Being, 
 
 and 
 
[ 201 ] 
 and delivers itlelf as His Oracle, whilft the 
 Enthufiaft himfelf is verily perfuaded, that its 
 blalphemous dictates proceed from the Holy 
 Spirit of God: As Pole through its influences 
 gave credit to the wild tradition concerning this 
 Cavern, fo he miftook the tranfports of his 
 over-heated imagination, for divine energies, 
 and believed the perfons whom his frantic zeal 
 had ejected from his own favour were the real 
 outcafts of Heaven. 
 
 The laft thing propofed to be confidered 
 in Pole's charaifter, was his temper in re- 
 fpect to the Proteftants : and here it h to 
 be obferved that the commendations which 
 moft of our Hiflorians have befliowed upon 
 him for his moderation, are to be underflood 
 only in a relative fenfe, or in comparifon with 
 the fury of the flaming Bigots of thofe times, 
 who are faid to have excluded him from their 
 Councils for Perfecutions ; for the fame may be 
 applied to him as was to his friend Sadolet, 
 that he was moderate for a Papift, but uncha- 
 ritable as a Chriitian ; and for the proof of it I 
 appeal to his own declaration and behaviour : 
 For in his letter to the Biflicp of Aufljourg he 
 acknowledges, that the cafe fuppofed of any 
 one's opinion being extremely pernicious, and 
 D d he 
 
[ 202 ] 
 
 he no Icfs indudrious to corrupt others than 
 depraved himfelf, I might fay fuch a one might 
 be capitally puniflied, and as a rotten member 
 cut oflF from the body. B. ii. p. 164. 
 
 Mr. Phillips, as a proof of the CardinaFs 
 lenity, fays, that only two perfons were put to 
 Death for their Religion when he was Go- 
 vernour of Viterbo, a principail city in the Pope's 
 patrimony. Thefe executions, fuppofing them 
 to be as related, were probably very few in 
 comparifon to what were at that time in other 
 parts of the Pope's dominions ; yet it is with 
 religious lenity as with juflice, for as tv^o or 
 three iniquitous adls are fufficient to denomi- 
 nate a man unjuft, fo as few executions at the 
 flake will conftitute the Charadler of an into- 
 lerant perfecuting temper. 
 
 This Author likewife acknowledges, that a 
 commifTion was iffued out from the Cardinal, 
 on occafion of feveral pernicious Dodrines 
 taught and propagated in the Diocefe of Can- 
 terbury, to apprehend the perfons accufed of 
 them, to excommunicate, and if the atrociouf- 
 nefs of the Crime required it, to deliver them 
 over to the Civil Magiflrate 5 in confequence 
 of which commiffion he informs their Majefties 
 
 of 
 
[ 203 ] 
 
 -of fome who had been convidled, and leaves 
 them to be punifhed as theydelerved. b.ii. p. 165. 
 
 But all commiffions for perfecuting Hereticks 
 in this Kingdom, at that time, came from him 
 as the Pope's Legate ; and it is faid that in 
 order to purge away the fufpicion of Hetero- 
 doxy, and the fcandalous charge of favouring 
 Lutherans, which Pope Paul IV. had laid to 
 him, he was more than ordinarily zealous for 
 extirpating the Proteftants. 
 
 Some of our Hiftorians affirm, that the per- 
 fecution in Mary's reign raged chiefly in the 
 Diocefe of London and in Kent ; and Fox in 
 particular afferts, that five f erfons were burnt 
 for herefy at Canterbury not many days before 
 the Cardinal's death. 
 
 Mr. Phillips mentions Cardinal Pole's being 
 chofen Chancellor of the Univerfities of Oxford 
 and Cam.bridge ; and he farther adds, concern- 
 ing the former, that he revifed and corred:ed 
 their ftatutes, B, ii. p. 172. But he pafies over 
 in filence his viiitation of both thefe places. 
 What his reafons were for fuppreffing thefe 
 remarkable occurrences of his life, when he was 
 fo very minute in every other particular, are 
 beft known to himfelf ; but he gives room 
 for fufpefting that thefe vifitations reflcdted no 
 D d 2 great 
 
[ 204 ] 
 
 great honour on his Hero, and that fome of 
 his tranfadiions there, if fet in their true hght, 
 might caft a fliade upon the other parts of his 
 character 5 for whilft he, or his Deputy, was 
 at Cambridge, Hiftorians inform us, that Bu- 
 cer and Fagius, two German Divines, dead 
 fome years before, were ridiculoufly cited before 
 the Commiffioners, to give an account of their 
 Faith : and upon their non-appearance, were 
 ordered to be burnt. This Sentence was fol- 
 lowed by a warrant from the Court to execute 
 it, and the two bodies in their coffins were 
 tied to flakes and confumed to afhes. 
 
 At Oxford, the wife of Peter Martyr was 
 dug out of her grave, by order of the Cardi- 
 nal, and buried in a dunghill, becaufe, having 
 been a Nun, flie had broke her vow; and in 
 all appearance, the permitting Peter Martyr to 
 go out of the Kingdom was heartily repented 
 of, for if the body of his wife was thus treated, 
 what might have been expelled, had he been 
 in the hands of his perfecutors ? 
 
 Though the Proteftants did not venerate 
 the remains of thefe perfons, yet mofl of them 
 thought the perfons themfelves as good Saints 
 as the Papifcs did Thomas Becket, and might, 
 in the fame words, apply the like contrafr 
 
 between 
 
[ 205 ] 
 
 between the behaviour of the Turks in the 
 Illand of Rhodes and the Cardinal's violations 
 of thcfe honourable reliques, as he had made 
 between the fame Turks and Henry's impiety. 
 Thefe conquerors, fays he, though under all 
 the prejudices of Mahometan fuperftition, had 
 not removed any of the monuments of the 
 Saints, which they found in the ifland, nor of- 
 fered the leaft infult to them ; they had even 
 allowed the Chriftians to take away feveral of 
 thefe venerable remains, and had behaved 
 throughout the whole affair, with the greateft 
 decency and humanity. B. i. p. 227. 
 
 As thefe Mahometans had almoft as con- 
 temptible a notion of thofe Saints, as the Car- 
 dinal had of thefe Lutherans, Bucer, Fagius, 
 and Peter Martyr, it follows from his own 
 reafoning, that he had lefs humanity than they : 
 befides, what the Proteftants did to Thomas 
 Becket's tomb, was from a principle of remo- 
 ving the objedl of idolatrous worfhip, and 
 convincing the people of their idle credulity ; 
 but what he and the Papifls did to the bodies 
 of thefe Proteftants, w^as from the fpirit of re- 
 venge and perfccution. 
 
 Letter 
 
[ 206 ] 
 
 LETTER XXVII. 
 
 CARDINAL Bembo is introduced into this 
 Hiftory, and eminently diftinguiflied in 
 his character, for being an acquaintance of 
 Pole 5 though in his youthful days, according 
 to Mr. Phillips's own account of him, he had 
 wrote very licentious verfes, had alfo debauched 
 a young Lady of Venice, and had three na- 
 tural children by her : This love intrigue 
 caufed him to rcjeft the foUicitations by which 
 his family prefled him to marry ; and this 
 averfion likewife to matrimony might probably 
 be a recommendation tq Pope Leo X. for mar- 
 king him his Secretary of State, and to his 
 Succcffor Paul III. for advancing him to the 
 Purple : The furprize of this laft unexpeded 
 promotion had put him, it is faid, on the point 
 of refufmg it -, but a circumftance intervened, 
 which difcovered his real inclination for acr- 
 cepting it; a circumftance which confirms the 
 general charge of Superftition upon the Ro- 
 manifts, and alfo of the influence of that Su- 
 perftition through which they are wonderfully 
 prone, inftead of fubmltting their will to the 
 will of God, to bring his will to theirs. Bembo, 
 
 in 
 
[ 207 ] 
 
 in the words of our Author, going to church, 
 the morning after he received the news, in or- 
 der to aik a fuperior direction in the ftep he 
 Was to take ; as he approached the Altar, the 
 Prieft being come to thofe words of Jefus 
 Chrift to St. Peter, whofe name Bembo bore, 
 Peter follow me, he took them as addrefled 
 to himfelf, and no longer oppofed a dignity 
 which he had not fought, and now interpreted 
 It was the will of Heaven he fliould accept. 
 B. i. p. 279. 
 
 After this, he was honoured by perfons of 
 the higheft diftinftion, and particularly by Re- 
 ginald Pole, who lived with him in the greateft 
 intimacy, and had the higheft value for his 
 many and excellent qualities. P. 279. Upon 
 which characHier I iTiall only make this Remark, 
 that Orthodoxy in the Papift, like Charity in 
 the Chriftian, will cover a multitude of llns, 
 and that high promotions in the Church, and 
 a firm attachment to the Whore of Babylon, 
 will fuffidently atone for an attachment to a 
 Venetian Courtezan. 
 
 Where there is little or no regard to truth, 
 there ought to be a very ftrcng memory, for 
 the prevention of inconfiftencies and contra- 
 didions. Our Author, in one part of his 
 
 Book, 
 
[ 208 ] 
 
 Book, fays, that the Author of our Holy Re- 
 ligion left the government of human affairs to 
 human inftitutions ; when on earth he refufed 
 to interfere with the fettling a private inheri- 
 tance, though at the requeft of one of the par- 
 ties, and left it to the legal proceedings in 
 fuch cafes 3 that he even rejeded the propofal 
 with a kind of indignation, as foreign to the 
 purpofe he came on : nor do we any where 
 find that dominion was founded on Grace. But 
 Pope Gregory VII. confounded fpiritual jurif- 
 didlion with temporal, and attempted on the 
 rights of the latter, which are derived from 
 human inftitutions, and depend on the laws 
 and conftitutions of the refpeffive States in 
 which they have force. B. i. p. 238, 240. 
 
 And again, the punifhments of the Catho- 
 lick Church extend no farther than the fpiri- 
 tual ftate of the offender; that the fecular 
 judge every where proceeds on this fuppofition, 
 and the Church neither had nor ought to pro- 
 ceed any farther. B. ii. p. 1 67. 
 
 But Thomas Becket is celebrated by our Au- 
 thor for a Hero, a Patriot, a Guardian of the 
 liberties of his country, a Saint, and a Martyr, 
 for an unwarrantable difobedience to his So- 
 vereign, and an obiliuate contention for the 
 
 immunities 
 
[ 209 ] 
 
 immunities of the Clergy, from the laws of 
 the land, and their exemption from the power 
 of the Civil Magiftrate, and the jurifdiclion of 
 the common Courts of Juftice. Thomas Becket 
 was the fon of a Citizen of London, and bred 
 to the Law -, he was made Archdeacon of Can- 
 terbury, and afterwards, by Henry IL High 
 Chancellor -, in which office it is faid he beha- 
 ved with intolerable pride and infolence to all 
 but the King, whom he ferved with the moft 
 abjecft fubmiffion, till he was preferred to the 
 Arch-biilioprick of Canterbury ; and then he 
 ever after treated him as his inferior. The 
 Hierarchy in thofe days claimed an abfolute 
 power over their own body, and maintained, 
 that they were fubjed; to no other but Ecclefi^ 
 aftical Courts, where their offences of every 
 kind were to be tried, and from whence there 
 was no appeal. And thefe trials were car- 
 ried on with fjch lenity, that the mofi: heinous 
 crimes were generally puniflied only Vv^ith de- 
 gradation ; and others with a fhort fufpenfion, or 
 confinement. It vv^as proved before the King, 
 that more than an hundred murders had been 
 committed by Ecclefiafticks fince his acceffion 
 to the Throne, and not one of them puniflied 
 even with degradation 3 and the Biihops gloried 
 E e in 
 
[ ^io ] 
 
 in this Indulgence, whilft the Liity fuftered 
 the rigour of the Common Law. About this 
 time Philip de Broc, a Clergyman in the 
 Diocefe of Sarum, comniitted a murder, fbt 
 V^hich he was tried in the Arch-bifhop's Goiirti 
 atid was deprived of his Benefice, and confined 
 to a Monaftery, or banifhed. The King 
 thought this punifhment inadequate to his 
 crime, which was capital by the law df the 
 land, and remonflrated v/ith Becket againfl it, 
 declaring at the fame time his intention of 
 having all fuch crimes as Murder and Rob- 
 bery, tried in the temporal Courts. To which 
 Becket replied, that he would riever fuffer it : 
 This was the occafion and principal caufe of 
 all his violent bppofitioh to the Kihgj during 
 the remainder of his life. He collated one 
 Lawrence, a Pried:, to the Redlory of Aineford, 
 without regarding the Patron's right of pre- 
 sentation ; but the Patron, who was a Baron 
 of the Realm, not willing to lofe his right, 
 hindered Lawrence from taking poffeffion of 
 the Benefice ; for which offence Becket ex- 
 communicated him ; who immediately applied 
 to the King, and the King was extremely pro- 
 voked at this daring infolence df th'e Arch- 
 bifhop, for from William the Conqueror's time, 
 
 it 
 
[ ^^I ] 
 
 it had been the Royal Prerogative that no 
 Tenant in Capite fhould be excommunicated 
 without the King s knowledge ; but Becket 
 would pay np regard to it : And from that 
 time, he proceeded to excommunicate perfons 
 without the King's privity or confent, and dif- 
 puted other Prerogatives of the Crown. Nei- 
 ther fmcoth nor rough meafurcs could check 
 the arrogance of this haughty Prelate. 
 
 Henry got the fixteen articles of the Cla- 
 rendon conftitutions, containing the chief pre- 
 rogatives and privileges of the King and Clergy, 
 to be ratified by Parliament ; which Becket 
 with the Biiliops, though with great reludlance 
 fubfcribed to: The feccnd article of thefe con- 
 iiiitutions was, that no Tenant in Chiefe, or 
 any other of the King's officers, fliould be ex- 
 communicated, or his LandjS put under an in- 
 terdict, withput the King s confent. The Pope 
 refufed to confirm tjiem ; upon which Becket 
 repented of his figning them, and fufpended 
 himfelf for a time from his Archiepifcopal 
 fundion, for being guilty .of fo atrocious a 
 crime ; but the Pope fopn abfolved him, and 
 ^ured him of his fupport in his contention 
 with the King. 
 
 E e 2 Soon 
 
[ 212 ] 
 
 Soon after this, he was accufed of fome 
 abuies of his truft during his Chancellorfhip : 
 to v/hich he anfvvered, that he was not bound 
 to plead before Laymen, having the firft Eccle- 
 fiaftical dignity in the Kingdom ; being there- 
 fore above all law, he refufed to acknowledge 
 the jurifdidlion of the Court, and was there- 
 upon judged contumacious, and a rebel to the 
 authority of the Lav/s 5 for which contumacy 
 his goods were confifcated, and his accufation 
 farther aggravated with the Charge of Perjury 
 and Treafon. 
 
 But all this could not humble his proud fpi- 
 rit ; for the Peers being affembled to give fen- 
 tence on his Treafon, he came into the prefencc 
 of the King, with the moft unparalleled auda- 
 cioufnefs, and infulted him with a menace of 
 excommunication : and when he was ordered 
 to ftay to hear his Sentence, he ftill protefled 
 againft their Authority, and feemed to challenge 
 his accufers to a fingle combat. He left them 
 in an abrupt manner, and went that night in 
 difguife to Flanders, and continued in exile for 
 the fpace of fix years 5 when, by the mediation 
 of the King of France, and the Pope, and 
 moft efpecially by the influence of the Clergy 
 
 at 
 
[ 213 ] 
 
 at home, the King thought fit to pardon him, 
 and reftore him to his former dignities and 
 powers, fuppofmg that he would for the future 
 behave in a more fubmiffive manner. But no- 
 thing could tame his revengeful temper; for 
 he was no fooner landed in England than he 
 fufpcnded the Archbifhcp of York, and excom- 
 municated the Bifhops of London, Durham, 
 and Exeter, becaufe they had taken the King's 
 part againft him. Thefe Prelates complained 
 of this treatment to the King, vi^ho was then in 
 Normandy, and threw themfelves at his feet ; 
 upon which the King, being highly exafpe- 
 rated at the infolence of a Subjeft whom he 
 had raifed from the duft, dropt that expreffion 
 which fome of his domefticks made an handle 
 of for entering into a confpiracy to deflroy the 
 Arch-bifhop, and which they foon after effedted. 
 Thus Becket fell a Martyr to his own haughti- 
 nefs and obftinacy, and to the independency of 
 the Clergy upon the civil Courts of Juftice, 
 and the laws of the Land. He did not faffer 
 for any article of the Chriftian Faith, or doc- 
 trine of the Chriflian Church ; he was only 
 a pertinacious vindicator of thofe pretended 
 immunities and privileges which w^ere incon- 
 fiftent with the peace of the community, and 
 
 fubverfivc 
 
[ 214 ] 
 
 fubverfive of the very principles of govern- 
 ment ; and though this Biographer here calls 
 them legal claims, and dogmatically aflerts, 
 that they bore no lefs a part of the conftitution 
 than any other inmiunities in the great char- 
 ter ; yet in other places of his book already ci- 
 ted, he acknowledges, that the jurifdiftion of 
 the Ecclefiaftical Courts reached only to fpiri- 
 tuel things ) that all temporal caufes be- 
 longed to the temporal Courts, were to be 
 tried by the civil Magiilrate, and were cogni- 
 zable only by him. The whole merit there- 
 fore of Becket's heroifm and patriotifm con- 
 fiflcd in a malignant and turbulent temper, 
 which fliewed itfelf in an invincible refolution 
 of maintaining an exemption of fome members 
 of the fociety from the fupreme powers of that 
 fociety, and an cxtenfion of the Ecclefiaftical 
 jurifditlion to every caufe wherein the Clergy 
 were concerned ; for this, and this only, he 
 was canonized by the Pope and the Hierarchy, 
 and was celebrated by our Author, as one of 
 the moft venerable Martyrs upon earth, and 
 the highefl Saints in heaven. 
 
 Letter 
 
C ^^5 ] 
 LETTER XXVIII. 
 
 GARDINER, Bifhop of Winchefter, 
 and Chancellor, was one of the princi- 
 pal perfons in carrying on the. Divorce of 
 Henry from Catharine of Arragon ; he had 
 been alfo a ftrenuous aflerter of the King^s Su- 
 premacy, h6 wrote a book in vindication of it, 
 in anf\Ver to Pole's Treatife, D^ Unitate Ecclefice^ 
 and had run inio ait the meaiures of the Court, 
 ■to ingratiate himfelf \vith King KenrJ^ Thefe 
 things were great provocations to the Pope and 
 the Church of Rome, and would have fet him 
 on a level with Cronh.vvell, Cranmer, Ridley, 
 and other Herefiafchs, of thofe times, had he 
 ■not made ample amends for them by his vio- 
 lent proceedings againft the Reformed, as well 
 in this as in the fucceeding reigns. 
 
 Hence Cardinal Pole fays of him, in his 
 Letter tc the Univerfity of Oxford, that he, 
 having bi:en a part of the common fall, was 
 permitted to live ; and when the time of raifing 
 the ruins Was come, had more than any one 
 elfe contributed to fo laudable an undertaking. 
 B. ii. p. 171. 
 
 For 
 
[ 2X6 ] 
 
 For the fame rcafon he is charadterized by 
 Mr. Phillips, as a perfon of great eloquence 
 and univerfal knowledge, with abilities equal to 
 each ftation to which he gradually rofe, and 
 always filled fo as to attradl the publick obfer- 
 vation ; that he was clear in a great meafure 
 of the imputation of cruelty on account of Re- 
 ligion 3 that he advifed the Queen to ads of 
 lenity 3 his attention alfo to the fpirit of the 
 conftitution, and his care to exclude foreign 
 influence from Britifh Councils, except in the 
 inftance of the Queen's Marriage with the 
 Prince of Spain, can never be too much com- 
 mended : to the abundant proofs of his being 
 an able Magiftrate and Statefman, we are, 
 fays he, to add thofe of the Scholar and the 
 Writer, which, though neither many nor vo- 
 luminous, fufficiently fliew the Author's abili- 
 ties. B. ii, p, 120, 121. 
 
 Though Gardiner had gone thefe lengths to 
 preferve his intereft with the King, yet he was 
 ftill a Romanift in his heart, and was the head 
 of that Party, with the Duke of Norfolk, and 
 others. He was almoft the only perfon who 
 framed and advifed the famous fix Articles, as 
 tefts of the Romifh Religion, or what was 
 
 called 
 
[ 217 ] 
 
 called the Bloody Statute -, and well it deferves 
 that title, for it was more fevere than the Sta- 
 tute De Heretico comhurendoy and many Pro- 
 teftants, even in that reign, were burnt for 
 their non-compliance with it : Gardiner like- 
 wife vigoroufly oppofed the Reformation in 
 Edward's minority, and was imprifoned the 
 moft part of that reign. But when Mary af- 
 cended the Throne, he was reftorcd to his 
 Bifhoprick, and made Chancellor. In his 
 Speech to the Parliament, which met in order 
 to make due fubmiffion to the Pope before his 
 Legate, for their revolt, and to receive Abfo- 
 lution from him, he acknowledged himfelf to 
 have been of the number of the delinquents, 
 exhorted them to rife from their fallen ftate, 
 and difpofe themfelves to a reconciliation with 
 the common parent of all, who are entitled 
 to the promifes of the Gofpel. B. ii. p. 82. 
 
 He affected an exccflive zeal for the Romifh 
 Religion, and perhaps greater than he really 
 had, to compenfate for his former defedls, and 
 to recommend himfelf to a bigoted Queen ; 
 by which means he became her Favourite and 
 lirft Minifter ; and when his power was fully 
 eftablifhed, he then took his revenge upon his 
 enemies, who had proceeded no farther againft 
 F f him 
 
I 21 8 ] 
 
 liini than confining and detaining him in pri- 
 fon ', but he could not be fatisfied without 
 burning them alive. The Bifhops, Ridley, 
 and Latimer, with many others, felt the ter- 
 rible ..efFedls of his vengeance ; whofe execu- 
 tion he impatiently waited for, and deferred 
 going to dinner on that day, till the news of it 
 was brought him by a fpecial meffenger : And 
 here, if I was as prefumptuous as Mr. Phil- 
 lips, or dared to make as free with the Divine 
 Judgments, I might with as much reafon 
 apply them to Gardiner updn this occafion, 
 as he hath upon any other; for the Bi (hop 
 had hardly dined, when he was feized with 
 a fuppreffion of urine, which in a few days 
 put an end to a life of ambition, craft, and 
 perfecution. 
 
 The charader v/hich Hiftorians give of 
 Henry VIII. is almoft as bad as what Mr. Phil- 
 lips hath drawn for him, though not alto- 
 gether for the fame reafons. For though he 
 had been the principal perfon in the fuppref- 
 fion of the Religious Houfes, and had afTumed 
 the Supremacy of the Church in thefe King- 
 doms, by which means, as our author obferves, 
 he, like an unfkilful pilot, had run the veffel 
 on thofe rocks, which tore away the rudder, 
 
 and 
 
[ 219 ] 
 
 and disjointed the whole frame, p. 436. yet 
 ftill he continued of that {hip's crew, he was 
 always a Roman Catholic, and died a Member 
 of that communion : and the fix articles, 
 which contain the fundamental dodlrines of 
 that Church, and were enforced by him under 
 the fevereft penalties, are inconteftable proofs 
 of his being no Proteftant. I fhall therefore 
 make only one obfervation upon what our 
 Biographer hath been pleafed to fay of him. 
 " No fingle inftance, fays he, can be produced 
 where the Supreme Being, when he was about 
 to reveal to men any important truth which 
 had been unknown in all paft ages, or to re- 
 claim them from an exemplary degeneracy, 
 had ever chofen fo fcandalous a King as Henry 
 VIII. or fuch ferviie and corrupt Minifters, both 
 in Church and State, as that Prince made ufe 
 of." B. i. p. 432. 
 
 By this he would infinuate, that there was 
 no exemplary degeneracy in the Church of 
 Rome, and feems to apply the wickednefs of 
 the King and his Minifters as an argument 
 againft the Reformation. In like manner he 
 thinks to calumniate, and even refute the Pro- 
 teftant caufe, by giving credit to that idle ftory 
 of Luther's familiarity with the Devil, and 
 F f 2 prodiicing 
 
[ 220 ] 
 
 producing his own confeffion of his conference 
 with, and converfion to Protcftantifm by, the 
 Ipirit of deftrudtion. The ftory is fo ridiculous 
 in itfelf, that our Author expofes his own 
 weaknefs and prejudice, by giving it a place in 
 his books, and any attempts to difprove it 
 would render it lefs trifling than it really is ; 
 and if it was true, it would prove nothing 
 agalnft the Reformation. It is a very fallacious 
 way of difproving any religious tenets, by the 
 morals of thofe perfons who have efpoufed 
 them ; becaufe there are good and bad pro- 
 fefTors of all religions : and Mr. Phillips might 
 with more reafon argue againft the Chrlfllan 
 Religion in general, becaufe the traitor Judas 
 was made an inftrument for the bringing about 
 the redemption of mankind, than he doth 
 againft the Reformation, from the charadlers 
 of Henry VIII. and his Miniflers. It is pre- 
 fumption to determine the methods of God*s 
 providence, or to alTert what he cannot do, or 
 never did, unlefs it be manifeftly abfurd in 
 itfelf, or derogatory of his divine perfedlons : 
 and if I may be allowed to ufe argument urn ad 
 bominem^ it is eafy to refute our Author in 
 his own way, or to turn his own reafoning 
 againft himfelf. For the defedlon of the 
 
 Proteftants 
 
[ 221 ] 
 
 Proteftants was in his eftimation an exem- 
 plary degeneracy from the Catholic Church : 
 he will alfo very readily grant, that Queen 
 Mary and her Minifters, Gardiner and Bon- 
 ner, were chofen by die Supreme Being for 
 reclaiming her Subjects from this degeneracy j 
 but I appeal to the records of both reigns, and 
 to the fadts which all Hiftorians agree in, whe- 
 ther there were not many more ads of barba- 
 rity and bloodjfhed committed by this Queen 
 and thefe Bifhops, than there were by her Fa- 
 ther and his Minifters ? and whether the ge- 
 neral charadlers of the former are not more 
 fcandalous, more abominable, and more cor- 
 rupt than the latter ? 
 
 The fame kind of argument might be 
 urged from the example of the Emperor 
 Charles V. who about thefe tim^es deflroyed 
 multitudes of Lutherans in Germany ; and 
 alfo from that of his Son Philip, King of 
 Spain, and his General and Plenipotentiary, 
 the Duke of Alva, who, by our Author's own 
 account, put incredible numbers of Proteftants 
 to death, in the Low Countries. 
 
 But to conclude this head, Mr. Phillips 
 would not fcruple to acknowledge Fernando 
 
 Cortes, 
 
[ 222 ] 
 
 Cortes, with the Miflionaries that accom- 
 panied him, to be inftruments in the hands 
 of Providence for revealing the important 
 truths of Chriftianity to the natives of South 
 America, w^here by killing fome hundred 
 thoufands of thefe defencelefs Indians with 
 his fire-arms, he conquered Mexico, con- 
 vinced the refidue of the people of their 
 Idolatries, and converted them to the Chrif- 
 tian Religion. 
 
 All thefe were perfons who lived near the 
 times of the Reformation, and whofc charac- 
 ters were more vile than that of Henry VIII, 
 or any of his Minifters. 
 
 Letter 
 
[ 223 ] 
 
 LETTER XXIX. 
 
 CROMWELL and Cranmer were the 
 two principal Miniilers of State to 
 Henry VIIL who advifed and conduced the 
 Reformation, and confequently they were moft 
 obnoxious to the Papifts ; who charged them 
 with all the crimes that incenfed malice could 
 invent, or the mouth of fcandal could bellow 
 forth againjft them. I will begin with fome 
 ftridlures on the charafter which is drawn for 
 Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Eflex -, " who 
 our Author fays, inftruded Henry in the 
 arbitrary extent of Prerogative, and became 
 the inftrument by which he exerted it." 
 B. i. p. 42. 
 
 " Henry had no fooner aflumed the Supre- 
 macy of the Church, but he thought of ma- 
 king it as lucrative as poffible, and appointed 
 a Vicar in his fpiritual capacity, every way 
 fuited to fuch a principal and fuch purpofes. 
 This Minifter, Thomas Cromwell, had taken 
 care to inform the King of his talents for 
 deflrudiion, and being unreftrained by any 
 principle, human or divine, and the brutal 
 favagenefs of his mind equal to his vile extrac- 
 tion. 
 
[ 224 J 
 
 tlon, he was alike qualified to plan and execute 
 his Prince's worft defigns." B. i. p. 164. 
 
 And again, " The execution of Cromwell 
 was attended with every aggravation of guilt 
 that can fill up the meafure of wretchednefs, 
 and make the criminal feel the whole weight 
 both of his guilt and punifliment. From a 
 birth as fordid as can debafe even the dregs 
 of the common people, he had been fuccef- 
 fively raifed to the higheft dignities : his Ad- 
 miniftration from the beginning had been hate- 
 ful to the Commons on every account, which 
 could make the exercife of his public ftation 
 unpopular and odious 5 and the Nobles had 
 their particular reafons of averfion in feeing a 
 Blackfmith's fon fet above them all ; and 
 deem.ed their honours vilified, by being com- 
 municated to an Upftart. He was one of the 
 worft of Men, and moft pernicious Minifters 
 that ever dire<5led the Councils of a Tyrant, 
 or opprefied a nation ; nothing was undertaken 
 or thought on to the emolument and honour of 
 England, during his whole Adminiftration 5 and 
 the tranfaftions of thcfe ten years amount to 
 no more than a tale of woe, which blends 
 the Monarch's and the Minifter's crimes with 
 th« nation's mifery. B. I. p. 291, 293, 
 
 There 
 
[ 225 ] 
 
 There is nothing which jGievvs the abilities 
 of this celebrated Statefman more than the 
 furprizing progrefs he made in the Reforma- 
 tion, by fuch artful mieans as could induce 
 the moft bigotted and ftrenuous Defender of 
 the Roman Catholick Faith as ever fat upon 
 the Throne of thefe Kingdoms, to remove the 
 mightieft obftacles that impeded it, without 
 being fenfible that he contributed any thing 
 towards it. The means he applied were the 
 Regal Supremacy of the Church, and the fup- 
 preffion of the Religious Houfes ; the greateft 
 benefits that could be conferred upon this 
 Nation ; for bv the firil its Peace was entirely 
 reftored, and the Nation was at unity in it- 
 felfi and from the other, the Commerce, 
 Wealth, and Populoufnefs of it commenced, 
 which have gradually rifen to that amazing 
 height which they now are ; fo that not only the 
 Proteftants, but the whole body of the People 
 in all fjcceeding ages, are indebted to this 
 Minifter, and ought in gratitude to place him 
 in the firft rank of Eritifh Worthies. 
 
 Henry had been fully initiated in all the 
 
 principles of arbitrary power, when Cromwell 
 
 came to the Adminiftration, and had too long 
 
 indulsied himfelf in the ur.bcunded excrcife 
 
 G g of 
 
[ 226 ] 
 
 of it in all civil affairs, to need an inftrudor, 
 or to brook any oppofitlon. The fortunate 
 circumftance of the King's quarrel with the 
 Pope, concerning the divorce from his Queen, 
 afforded a fair opportunity to the Leaders of 
 the Proteflants, for fuggefling to him, how in- 
 confiftent it was with the nature of Govern- 
 ment to have two independent fupreme powers 
 in the fame Kingdom, which could not but 
 foment endlefs diftradlions 5 that the only way 
 to prevent them was to have but one Sovereign, 
 and to make the Head of the State the Head 
 of the Church. This was fo agreeable to his 
 ruling pafiions, that he readily liftened to it ; 
 and though he was firmly attached to the 
 P^omifh Religion, yet his pride and ambition 
 got the afcendant of his zeal ; and he did not 
 perceive that he was weakening that building, 
 by puUing down the main pillar, when he fub- 
 flituted fo great a fupporter of it as himfelf in 
 its room : he therefore immediately deprived 
 the Pope of his Supremacy in thefe King- 
 doms, and invefted himfelf with it. The af- 
 fairs of Europe were at that juncture in fuch 
 a critical fituation, that every State courted his 
 alliance, and England was alfo within itfelf io 
 equally ballanced between Proteftants and Pa- 
 - . pifts, 
 
[ 227 ] 
 
 pifts, that he could turn the fcale to which 
 ever fide he inclined. Hence both parties 
 were extremely follicitous of gaining him ; for 
 which reafon he met with lefs oppofition than 
 could be imagined , and what rendered it ftill 
 lefs, was the violence of his temper, which 
 could not bear the leaft contradidion , fo that 
 few, even of the moft bigotted Romanics, 
 thought it either prudent or fafe openly to 
 oppofe him, and indeed it proved fatal to moft 
 of thofe who did. The Monks v/ere faft 
 friends of the Pope, and were continually in- 
 veighing againft this ufurpation of the King, 
 and alienating the affedtions of his People 
 from him : Thefe provocations, together with 
 the lure of their wealth, were generally fup- 
 pofed to be his principal inducements for their 
 fuppreflion. But the Leaders of the Refor- 
 mation had other reafons : for they were fen- 
 fible, that the Proteftant Relieion could never 
 be effectually eftabliflied while thefe Religious 
 Houfes continued, and therefore they prompted 
 the King to dilTolve them 5 and were glad to 
 have Cromwell appointed Vlfitor, to enquire 
 into, and report the abufes of them to the 
 King ; and though he was probably not inclined 
 in this office to flievv them much favour, yet 
 G g 2 there 
 
[228 ] 
 
 there is no realbn to charge him with any 
 falfe or unfair reprefentations of them. Some 
 of thefe abufes indeed were fo very Shocking, 
 that feveral of the Monks, ftruck with the con- 
 fcioufnefs of guilt and fear of punifhment, 
 were glad to compound the affair, by a volun- 
 tary furrender of their Houfes and Eftates to 
 the King, to avoid a farther difquifition : and 
 the other being afraid to difpute the power of 
 the Legiilature, quietly fubmitted to the De- 
 crees of the Parliament concerning them ; and 
 however the Papifls in general were exafpera- 
 ted at thefe proceedings, they dared not fliev/ 
 their refentment to the King ; but the whole 
 w'eight of their difpleafure fell upon his Mi- 
 nifters, and moil: efpecially upon Cromwell, 
 
 who had been bv thefe two nev/ offices of Vi- 
 
 •I 
 
 car and Vifitor General, raifed to the moft 
 confpicuous and dangerous eminence ; for the 
 firft being the highefl dignity of the Church, 
 lie was entitled to a rank next to the Royal 
 Family. This Precedency to all the Nobility 
 excited the envy of many of them, who could 
 not bear to fee a nerfon of fo low extraction 
 fet above them : and both thefe polls marked 
 him out for the peculiar objed: of the indig- 
 nation and malice of the Papifls, who at 
 
 length, 
 
[ 229 ] 
 
 length, through the influence of a Roman 
 Catholick Queen and her Relations, prevailed 
 over him, and triumphed in his fall. When 
 thefe enemies had perfuaded the King to have 
 him committed and brought to his trial, they 
 had no particular crimes to alledge againft him, 
 and were therefore obliged to profecute him 
 by a Bill of Attainder, and had him condemned 
 without any proof or liberty of defence. Our 
 Author violently exclaimed againft this method 
 of proceeding, in the cafe of the Marchioncfe 
 of Exeter, and the Countefs of Salifbury s and 
 faid, that it was contrary to all right, and 
 that even the farce of juftice was fuperfeded : 
 but the cafe was altered with refped: to Crom- 
 well ; here it was no more than what he de- 
 ferved, and his crimes, though not fpecified, 
 called for the moft capital punifhments. There 
 was alfo no one circumftance at his execution, 
 which could juftify Mr. PhilHps's affertion, 
 " that it was attended with every aggravation 
 of guilt, that could fill up the m.eafure of 
 wretchedneis, and make the criminal feel the 
 whole weight both of his guilt and punifli- 
 ment \' for he betrayed no fign of the one^, nor 
 fear of the other. And that nothing might 
 be omitted which could blacken his character, 
 
 he 
 
[ 230 ] 
 
 he produces a detail of a private converfation 
 which paffed between him and Pole, in Wol- 
 fey*s Palace, which ftands entirely upon the 
 fingle teftimony of Pole, who was his invete- 
 rate enemy ; and if there was any fuch con- 
 verfation, it cannot be fuppofed that Cromwell 
 delivered his real fentiments in it, becaufe it is 
 not confirmed by his future conduct ; for the 
 Hiftorians of thofe times defcribe him as a per- 
 fon of wonderful moderation, condefcenfion, 
 affability and gratitude ; and affert, that Henry 
 loved both Cranmer and Cromwell, arid be- 
 lieved them to be men of folid virtue and piety s 
 who were for preferving the effentials of Re- 
 ligion, though they were defirous of reform- 
 ing fome abufes in its and indeed the King 
 feemed to repent of putting this Minifter to 
 death ; for he endeavoured to make what fa- 
 tisfadion he could to his injured family, in 
 creating that very year his fon Gregory a Peer 
 of the Realm, by the title of Lord Cromwell. 
 
 Letter 
 
[ 231 ] 
 LETTER XXX- 
 
 ARchbifhop Cranmer afted jointly with 
 the Earl of Effex, in carrying on the 
 Reformation during the reign of Henry VIIL 
 and was one of the Regents who forwarded it 
 in Edward's minority : for which reafons Mr. 
 Phillips hath culled from every Author what- 
 ever he thought could villify him, and by 
 heightening it with his own colouring, and 
 blending it with fome fcandals of his own 
 raifing, hath drawn a charafter of him, which 
 every perfon of the leaft difcernment muft per- 
 ceive to be the compofition of a Romifh Bigot, 
 and which none but the moft Prieft-ridden 
 Laymen of that Church can approve. Was 
 a contrail to be drawn of this character, by 
 colleding, enlarging, and adding to whatever 
 hath been faid in his praife, it would be diffi- 
 cult as well as troublefome for the Reader to 
 form a true judgment of him from two fuch 
 different reprefentations. I will therefore en- 
 deavour to give a jufl: character of this Re- 
 former, by exhibiting his real failings, refu- 
 ting, what this Author hath falfely or fooliihly 
 
 charged 
 
[ 232 ] 
 
 charged him with, and fairly defcriblng his 
 perfedions. 
 
 When Henry offered Cranmer the Arch- 
 blflioprick of Canterbury, upon Wareham's 
 death he delired to be excufed from accept- 
 ing it; and continued in the refafal of it for 
 more than fix months -, but the King was 
 determined, and would take no denial ; and 
 finding his principal objedlion was the taking 
 the cuflomary oath of obedience to the Pope, 
 at the confecratlon, he permitted him to take 
 it upon what conditions, and in what manner 
 he thought proper ; whereupon he made a 
 proteftation, that, by obedience to the Pope, 
 he only ir.eant fuch as was confident with the 
 laws of God, the ftatutes of the Reahm, and 
 the prerogatives of the King ; that he did not 
 intend, by this oath, to bind himfelf from 
 freely fpeaking, confulting, and confenting to 
 all and every thing which concerned the Re- 
 formation of the Chriftian Religion, and the 
 Government of the Church of England, or 
 from ordering or reforming thofe things in it, 
 which feemed to him moft proper to be re- 
 formed ; and that he took this oath in this 
 fenfe, and no other. This is the iubflance of 
 
 the 
 
[ 233 ] 
 
 the Proteftation or Explication of the oath, 
 taken from Fuller^s Church-Hiftory ; where he 
 fays, that Cranmer publickly made it three 
 feveral times, in the Chapter-Houfe, before 
 authentic v/itneffes, on his knees, at the High- 
 altar, at his confecration ; and alfo when he 
 received his pall, at the fame place. Now, if 
 it be confidered, that the King was not to be 
 denied, when he infifted upon Cranmer's ac- 
 ceptance of this preferment 3 and that thefe 
 were very natural limitations, and feemingly 
 implied in the oath, I cannot fee how he could 
 be charged with any clandeitine equivocation, 
 or mental refervation, contrary to the plain 
 meaning of the oath 5 or with what juftice one 
 of our bell Hiflorians could obferve upon it, 
 that this was by no means one of Cranmer's 
 moft commendable adlions. Mr. Phillips, in- 
 deed, confidently afferts, that he retired into 
 a private place, and entered a Proteft againft 
 the oath he v/as going to take, and then took 
 it ', though he faw this refuted at large by Ful- 
 ler, whom he quotes juft afterwards upon this 
 very charge. B. ii. p. 154. 
 
 I wifh I could fay as much in Cranmer's de- 
 fence, concerning the execution of Joan Bo- 
 cher, and George Van Parr, a German, who 
 H h faffercd 
 
[ 234 ] 
 
 fuffered as Anabaptifts for Herefy ; though 
 thefe Se6laries were very turbulent and fac- 
 tious in the State, and great allowances ought 
 to be made for the violence of the times, yet 
 it did not become a Proteftant Bifhop to be 
 concerned in fuch profecutions, and the Pa- 
 plfts indeed availed themfelves mightily of it ; 
 and though thefe were the only inftances of 
 perfecution in this reign, and thefe were per- 
 fons whom the Romanifts would have firft fell 
 upon, yet they made as much clamour about 
 them as if they had been Martyrs in their 
 own Church, or if as many had been burnt in 
 this reign as were in the next. Mr. Phillips 
 in particular fays, that the Archbifliop s beha- 
 viour on this occafion was attended with an 
 aggravation which creates horror, becaufe he 
 urged the King to fign the v/arrant -, though 
 had Gardiner, or Bonner, or any of his Ro- 
 mifh Bifhops done the fame thing againft thefe 
 very perfons, whom they looked upon as 
 much Hereticks as Cranmer could do, it would 
 have created no horror, and they would have 
 done no more, in his account, than their duty 
 required them to do. It is to be obferved far- 
 ther, fays this Author, thefe proceedings were 
 
 carried 
 
[ 235 ] 
 
 carried on three years after the ftatutes againft 
 Hereticks were repealed. B. ii. p. 153. 
 
 The ftatutes againft Hereticks of the fifth 
 of Richard II. and the fecond of Henry V. with 
 that of Henry VIII. commonly called the 
 Bloody-ftatute, were indeed repealed by the 
 firft of Edward VI. but it doth not appear, 
 that the famous ftatute de Heretico comhiirendo^ 
 pafled in the fecond of Henry IV. was then 
 repealed ; and Rapin exprefsly aflerts that it 
 ftood unrepealed till the year 1677. See Ra- 
 pin's Hift. of the reign of Henry IV. P. 491. 
 Folio Edition. 
 
 The fentence likewife, fays Mr. Phillips, was 
 pronounced with all the pomp in which feve^ 
 rity and oftentation could drefs it up. P. 153. 
 That is, it was much in the fame manner as 
 was given in the preceding reign, and with a 
 lefs infulting air than was generally ufed in 
 the fucceeding reign \ but this Author's preju- 
 dice to the Archbifliop fets his aftions in a far 
 different hght to him, and draws fuch unguarded 
 expreffions from him as might be retorted 
 upon him, and the perfecutors among the Pa- 
 pifts with infinite advantage. 
 
 Peter Martyr, the Divinity Profeflbr at Ox- 
 ford, retired in the beginning of Queen Mary's 
 H h 2 reign 
 
[ 236 ] 
 
 reign to the Archbifliop's Palace, to fcreen 
 himfelf from the infults of the Papifts ; but 
 finding that Cranmer was not able to proted 
 himfelf, he, with feme hundred Proteftants, 
 withdrew out of the Kingdom, forefeeing the 
 impending ftorm ; and indeed it appears, at 
 this diftance of time, a weaknefs in Cranmer, 
 that he did not accompany them, and feek 
 protedlon among his wife's relations, and the 
 Lutherans abroad, that he might avoid the 
 fury of Mary and her zealots, as Pole had be- 
 fore done, to get out of the reach of Henry VIII. 
 and Becket, of Henry II. for he could not but 
 be fenfible, that as he had been the chief pro- 
 moter of the Reformation in England, he was 
 moft obnoxious to the Papifts : And though 
 the Queen in Council had declared, that {he 
 would ufe no force upon confcience in affairs 
 of Religion, and that none fhould be com- 
 pelled to embrace the Catholic Religion ; yet 
 one would imagine, that he having fo many 
 years experience and obfervation of the temper 
 and equivocations of the Papifts, could not 
 but know, there was no trufting to their pro- 
 mifes ', that his innocence would but inflame 
 their malice ; and that he could exped: no- 
 thing but the qxtremeft infolence and feverity 
 
 from 
 
[ 237 ] 
 
 from them. It is furprizlng, therefore, that 
 he did not make a timely and prudent retreat 
 from them. 
 
 The dudile confcience of Cranmer, fays our 
 Biographer, allowed him, in hopes of faving 
 his life, to abjure all the tenets he had hitherto 
 profefled ; and when that profpedt failed, and 
 he was brought to execution, to revoke that 
 very abjuration, and to declare it was all a lie. 
 B. ii. p. 157. It is acknowledged, that, in 
 hopes of faving himfelf from being burnt aiive^ 
 he did recant ; and as the Queen had not 
 thought proper to have him executed for gi- 
 ving his vote for excluding her from the throne, 
 and the Statute de Heretico comburendo was only 
 to be inflicted upon obftinate Hereticks, he 
 flattered himfelf with the hopes of being de- 
 livered from this fiery trial \ but he fcon found 
 his mifliake, and as foon repented of what he 
 had done 5 and to prove the fincerity of his 
 repentance, he expofed his right hand, which 
 had figned the recantation, to the flames, and 
 held it extended in the fire till it dropped off. 
 This is the charge againft Archbifliop Cran- 
 mer ; and to which we fliall only farther re- 
 ply, that he was a human Being, and as fuch 
 was fubjed: to human frailties, and let him v/ho 
 
 is 
 
[ 238 ] 
 
 IS free from them fling the firft ftone : And if 
 all his accufers who were lefs innocent than 
 himfelf had, like thofe of the adulterous wo- 
 men mentioned in the Gofpel, withdrawn 
 themfclves, he would have been left to God 
 and his own confcience : but inftead of that, 
 they, without the leaft fenfe of their own in- 
 firmities, or compaffion for his, baited him 
 with infamous fcurrilities, and dragged him to 
 a moft barbarous death : and his enemies fince 
 have continued to blacken his charadter with 
 the foulefl: calumnies, among whom none have 
 appeared more forward than our Author, who 
 hath given vent to his rancour, by coUeding 
 and loading him with all kinds of fcandals, 
 fomc of which are abfolutely falfe, and others 
 only relatively bad, that is, what might give 
 offence to a Papift, but w^ould be approved by 
 every Proteftant and impartial perfon. 
 
 Dr. Fuller, fays this Biographer, who has un- 
 dertaken Cranmer's defence, is at a lofs how to 
 reply to any of the nine articles w^hich Mr. 
 Prinne lays to his charge ^ moft of which he 
 gives up, and fays, in a homely phrafe, he will 
 leave him where he is guilty to fink or fvvim 
 by himfelf. B. ii. p. 158. Here I cannot but 
 obferve, that the more accurately our Author's 
 
 Hiftory 
 
[ 239 ] 
 
 Hillory be examined, the greater number of 
 prevarications and falfl^ioods will be found in 
 it; and he hath fo little regard to truth or 
 decency, that there is hardly a fingle Author, 
 or the leaft paffage mentioned by him, that he 
 doth not mifquote, or wreft from its meaning 
 to a fenfe favourable to his own caufe. Fuller 
 hath amply refuted feven out of the nine ar- 
 ticles that Prinne had drawn up againft him ; 
 he is entirely filent upon one, and of the other 
 he only fays that he leaves him to fink or fwim 
 where he was guilty ; but Mr. Phillips here 
 infinuates, that he had faid this of him in ge- 
 neral, upon all the articles ; and though Fuller, 
 in his anfwer to one of them, proved that 
 Cranmer had taken the oath of obedience to 
 the Pope in the mon: public manner, and 
 particularized the places where he took it, yet 
 Mr. Phillips, without the lead refiitation or 
 notice of it, coufidently afferts, that Fuller was 
 at a lofs how to reply to any of thefe nine Ar- 
 ticles, and wilfully perfifts in charging Cranmer 
 with retiring into a private place, and there 
 entering a proteft againft the oath. 
 
 Letter 
 
p 
 
 [ 240 ] 
 
 LETTER XXXI. 
 
 H I LLI P S charges Cranmer with con- 
 fenting to the death of Lambert and Anne 
 Alkew, who were executed for denying the 
 Dodrine of Tranfubflantiation. ruller, indeed, 
 acknowledges this confent, but I cannot fee for 
 what reafon, as it is not authenticated by any 
 Hiftorian that I can meet with. Henry had dif- 
 puted with Lambert upon that fubjedt, and or- 
 dered him to be burnt, or retradl his opinion : 
 and Chancellor Wriothefley profecuted Afkew 
 and put her to the rack. It is generally faid 
 alfo, that he demeaned himfeif fo low as to 
 fet his hand to the rack, and to {krew it tighter 
 when he thought the Executioner favoured her, 
 and then ordered her to be burnt ; but it no 
 where appears that Cranmer's advice or con- 
 fent was afked upon either of them. 
 
 Our Author upbraids him likewife, but with- 
 out any Authority, with fubfcribing to the fix 
 articles, commonly called the Bloody Statute. 
 Cranmer had been Archbiiliop fome years be- 
 fore it was ena6ted, and he argued flrenuoufly 
 againft it for three days fucceflively ; and when 
 the King defired him to go out of the Houfe of 
 Peers, and defift from oppofing it, he had the 
 
 courage 
 
[ 241 ] 
 
 courage to fay, that it was againft his confclence, 
 and he thought himfclf obliged to ftay and vote 
 againft it. It was not likely, therefore, that he 
 ihould fubfcribe to iu 
 
 Again, he fays, his confcience, (that is Cran- 
 msr's) in a very different Senfe from that of the 
 Apoftle, became all to all, and accommodated it- 
 felf without diftindtion, to every thing. — This per- 
 fon, who, Proteus like, put on all appearances, 
 was then only taken when he returned to his own 
 form. B. ii. p. 156, 157. 
 
 He never appeared in any other form than that 
 of a Reformer, he fet out with that charadler, 
 continued invariably, except in the fingle inftance 
 of his recantation, and died in it : When the 
 Duke of Norfolk, Gardiner, and others, had 
 plotted his ruin, and accufed him to the King of 
 being an Heretick, and the King charged him 
 v^ith it, he frankly acknowledged and avowed his 
 principles. Henry was charmed with his lince- 
 rity, and had a real affedion for him, becaufe he 
 was convinced that he had a6led with ingenuity, 
 and from motives of confcience, and therefore al- 
 ways protecfted him from his enemies : The Pa- 
 pifts knew him to be what he was, and were not 
 deceived in him ; he v/as not taken when he re- 
 turned to his own form, for he was always in it; 
 but he wa.s then only taken, when the Papifts re- 
 
 l i t'lpned 
 
[ 242 ] 
 
 turned to the plenitude of their power, and their 
 fpirit of perfecution was armed with the fword of 
 the Magiftrate, and they could bring their plots 
 to bear againft him, which they had been con- 
 triving for more than twenty years. 
 
 Our Author's charge is admitted, that Cranmer 
 fubjedted (but not enflaved) the Church to the 
 Secular Power, and fubmitted its authority to 
 earthly Potentates ; that he acknowledged Henry 
 VIII. to be fupreme Head of the Church in thefc 
 kingdoms, fuffered Cromwell, as the King's Vice- 
 gerent, to prefide at all Convocations of the 
 Clergy ; that he diffolved two of Plenry's mar- 
 riages, and on Edward's acceffion to the throne, 
 took out frefh grants for his Archbiftioprick 3 and 
 that he alfo took to himfelf a wife, and accepted 
 one of the firft Sees in the Chriftian World : But 
 it doth not follow from it, that he was obliged to 
 Celibacy by the moft folemn ties. How far he 
 conformed to the Rules and Canons of the Romifh 
 Church in Henry's Reign, and when he was Arch- 
 biihop, is very uncertain: But it is prefumed, 
 from his general charadler, that he did no more 
 than what he could juftify. Thefe things indeed 
 are fuch high crimes in the opinion of the Roman- 
 ifts, that I wonder how fo zealous a Member of 
 that Communion, as our Author feems to be, 
 fliould reprefent his confcience only as ipotted like 
 
 a leopard. 
 
f 243 ] 
 
 a leopard, and not, iEthiopian-like, blackened " 
 all over. But however he may appear to him and 
 to his party, he will ever be honoured as a Saint 
 and a Martyr by the Proteftants, for he was at the 
 head of the Reformation, indefatigable in the pro- 
 motion of its intereft, and voluntarily expofed 
 himfelf for its fake to the hatred, malice, and 
 outrages of the furious Bigots of the Romifli 
 Church : He was refpedted and loved by the King 
 for his integrity, and honoured by all impartial 
 and good men for his fanftlty of manners, learn- 
 ing, gravity, and innumerable excellencies of 
 mind : and as his candour, generofity, hofpitality, 
 and other moral qualities, gained him univerfal 
 efteem, fo his zeal for the Chriftian Religion, his 
 inceffant labours for reftoring it to its primitive 
 purity, and his courage in his Martyrdom, ren- 
 dered him the hero of the Proteftant Church. 
 
 The Duke of Somerfet was a Reformer, and 
 confequently falls under the cenfure of our Au^. 
 thor, whom he charadterizcs in the following 
 manner. The young Prince's uncle v^^as inverted 
 with the whole power of the Regency : But the 
 difcontents which the changes in Religion, of 
 which he was known to be the principal Abettor, 
 and the infolence and rapacity, with which he 
 exerted an almoft fovereign fway, caufed the peo- 
 ple to rife up in arms in different places of the 
 
 I 2 kingdom, 
 
[ 244 ] . 
 
 kingdom. And again, this haughty Ufurper of the 
 Royal Authority had left his nephew juft as much 
 of it as was neceflary, to enable himfelf to exert 
 It to its full extent ; whom I cannot difmifs with- 
 out obferving that an adminiftration only of a few 
 years was long enough to make the nation expe- 
 rience that woe which is denounced againft a 
 land whofe King is a child, and whofe Nobles 
 are luxurious : B. i. p. 447, 448. As this charge 
 is founded upon no fad:s, or upon facfts which 
 will not lupport it, fuch as the building of So- 
 merfet houfe upon the ruins of Religious houfes, 
 and the profecution of his brother, I fhall make 
 no other reply than by oppofing to it the charac- 
 ter which is given of him by Fuller, and other 
 reputable Hiflorians. 
 
 The Duke of Somerfet, fays he, was religious, 
 and a lover of all fuch as were fo ; a great pro- 
 moter of the Reformation, valiant, and beloved 
 of martial men. Fuller's Church Hifi:. B. vii. 
 Sec. 45. 
 
 He loil: his life for a fmall crime, and that upon 
 a nice Point fubtlely devifed, and packed by his 
 enemies. Cambden's Brit, in Somerfetfhire. 
 
 To which it will be fufficient to add, v. hat 
 Rapin hath extracted from Burnet, Dugdale, and 
 Heylin concerning him, viz. Ke was humble, 
 affable, civil, courteous, and guided in all the 
 
 tranfadlions 
 
[ 245 ] 
 
 tranfadtions of his life, by the principles of honour, 
 virtue, and religion ; in a word, he had many no- 
 ble qualities, and few faults ; he always fliewed a 
 very great zeal for the Reformation ; and to him 
 and Cranmer is properly due the glory of every 
 thing that was done in favour of Religion during 
 the reign of Edward VI. Rapin's Hift. vol. ii. 
 fol. edit. p. 14. 
 
 The laft characfler that I fliall examine, and 
 with which I fliall conclude thefe Remarks upon 
 the Hiftory of the Life of Cardinal Pole, will be 
 of Ann Bullen, the Mother of Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 Ann Bullen, fays our Author, had been educated 
 at the Court of France, which was then a fchool 
 of gallantry, and had returned to England a great 
 proficient in it — She had imbibed the doctrine of 
 Calvin ; and the Broachers of thofe Novelties had 
 found no readier method of fpreading them, than 
 by infmuating themfelves into the good opinion of 
 the Ladies about the Court : But on her coming 
 to England, fhe fecretly favoured the tenets of 
 Luther, and indeed the latitude which the Patri- 
 arch of that fedl allowed his followers, could not 
 but appear very commodious to the general tenor 
 of her life. As am.bition was her ruling, though 
 not her only paffion, that had fcarcely gained its 
 end, when other inclinations, cf a lefs fpiritual na- 
 ture, began to foliicit their proper gratification, 
 
 and 
 
[ 246 ] 
 
 and make her overlook the dangers with which 
 jfhe was threatened from his temper, who had put 
 away a lawful wife to make room for her. Some 
 writers have aflerted, that like Agrippina, who pro- 
 voked her own fon to inceft,. with a view to fecure 
 her power, when fhe perceived the unweildy habit 
 of the King s body to be but ill fuited to his impa- 
 tience of having a male heir, ihe judged hci bro- 
 ther's vigour moft proper to fecure this tye of her 
 hufband's affedions, without any riilc of difcovery. 
 
 Her fate was confidered not merely as a punifh- 
 ment, but as a divine judgment, when fhe finiihed 
 a life of levity, error, and lewdnefs. B. i. p. 123, 
 124. And in his note upon this laft fentence he 
 fays, that Stowe, Fuller, Burnet, Collier, Echard, 
 and our Hiftorians in general feem to agree in this 
 charafter of Ann Bullen. Sanders adds more and 
 Gratiani confirms all. 
 
 It is indeed univerfally agreed, that Ann Bullen 
 favoured the Reformers : but every one of thefe 
 authors whom this Biographer hath the audacity 
 to produce agalnft her, vindicate her moral cha- 
 rader, with refpeft to the crimes here laid to her 
 charge, except the two Roman Catholick writers, 
 Sanders and Gratiani ; the firft of whom is fo no- 
 torioufly fcandalous, that I wonder Phillips himfelf 
 is not afliamed to mention him. The King had 
 conceived a violent paflion for Jane Seymour, a 
 
 Maid 
 
[ 247 ] 
 
 Maid (i>f Honour to the Queen, and from thence 
 was prepared to liften to the hafe infinuations of 
 Lady Rochford, who hated her Hufband, and had 
 a mod infamous character. This wicked woman 
 whifpered into the King's ear, that his Queen was 
 unfaithful to him, and had a criminal converfe with 
 her Hufband, the Lord Rochford, though he was 
 the Queen s brother. The King being inclined 
 to believe thefe fuggeftions, the Queen's enemies, 
 on account of Religion, finding it a favourable 
 opportunity, backed this charge, with accufmg her 
 of feveral intrigues with her domefticks. The 
 King's paffion for his new miftrefs enflamed hi» 
 jealoufy, which burnt with unextinguifhable fury. 
 Four perfons, befides Lord Rochford, were appre- 
 hended, convided, and executed, without any 
 proof or evidence, for criminal familiarities with 
 the Queen ; All of them protefted their innocency, 
 only Smeton faid he had well deferved to die, 
 which gave occafion to many refledions j but it 
 was generally faid, and as generally believed, that 
 he was bribed to fay thus much 5 and had his life 
 promifed him ; but he was never brought to con- 
 front the Queen upon her trial, for it was feared 
 he would retrad what he had faid ; and therefore 
 he was executed lell he fhould tell tales. Burnet, 
 vol. i. p. 201. voL ill. p. 120, and Rapin, vol. i. 
 Folio, p. 810. 
 
 The 
 
[ 24-3 J 
 
 The King married Jane Seymour the day after 
 the Queen's death, which plainly fhevved his eager- 
 nefs to get rid of Ann Bullen ; and what confirmed 
 the world ftill more in the belief of her innocence 
 was, the fatal end of Lady Rochford, her principal 
 accufer, who was condemned and executed for in- 
 troducing one Culpeper into Queen Catharine's 
 bed-chamber, and being an accomplice of her 
 lewd pratflices. 
 
 I will cJofe this head with the iliort charadter 
 of Ann Bullen, taken from Fuller, one of the Hif- 
 torians, who Mr. Phillips fays agree with him in 
 his defcription of her ; viz. She was accompliflied 
 with an acceptable behaviour to all qualities and 
 conditions of people : She was a great patronefs of 
 the Proteftants ; protector of the perfecuted ; pre- 
 ferrer of men of merit ; a bountiful reliever of the 
 Poor; and the happy mother of Queen Ehzabeth. 
 Fuller's Church Hiflory, B. V. Sec. 20. 
 
 THE END, 
 
^2, 
 
 ««jiliiifllHi. 
 
:t!