quare vi et armis; and if a man enter upon another's ground and do no more, the plaintiff mentioneth quod herbam suam ibidem crescentem cum equis, bobus, porcis, et bidentibus, depastus sit, conculcavit et consumpsit. Neither is this any absurdity; for in the practice of all law the formularies have been few and certain, and not varied according to every particular case. And in indictments also of treason it is not so far fetched as in that of trespass; for the law ever presumeth in treason an1 intention of subverting the state and impeaching the majesty royal. Pag. 45, and in other places, speaking of the persecuting of Catholics, he still mentioneth bowelling and consuming men's entrails with fire; as if this were a new torture devised. Wherein he doth cautelously and maliciously suppress that the law and custom of this land from all antiquity hath ordained that punishment in case of treason, and permitteth no other. And a punishment surely it is, though of great terror, yet by reason of the quick dispatching of less torment far than either the wheel or forcipation, yea than simple burning. Pag. 48, he saith England is confederate with the great Turk. Wherein if he mean it because the merchants have an agent in Constantinople, how will he answer for all the Kings of France since Francis I., which were good Catholics; for the Emperor; for the King of Spain himself; for the Senate of Venice; and other states, that have had long time ambassadors liegers in that court? If he mean it because the Turk hath done some special honour to our ambassador (if he be so to be termed), we are beholding to the King of Spain for that; for that the honour we have won upon him by opposition hath given us reputation through the world. If he mean it because the Turk seemeth to affect us for the abolishing of images, let him consider then what a scandal the matter of images hath been in the church, as having been one of the principal branches whereby Mahumetism entered. Pag. 65, he saith Cardinal Allen was of late very near to have been elected Pope; whereby he would put the Catholics here in some hope that once within five or six years (for a Pope commonly sitteth no longer) he may obtain that which he missed narrowly. That3 is a direct abuse; for it is certain in all the conclaves since Sixtus Quintus, who gave him his hat, he was never in possibility; nay the King of Spain, that hath patro3 This: B, H. 1 1 of an : B. 2 the court: B. nized the Church of Rome so long as he is become a right patron of it, in that he seeketh to present to that see whom he liketh, yet never durst strain his credit to so desperate a point as once to make a canvass for him; no, he never nominated him in his inclusive nomination. And those that know anything of respects of conclaves, know that he is not papable; first, because he is an ultramontane, of which sort there hath been none these fifty years; next, because he is a cardinal of alms of Spain, and wholly at the devotion of that king; thirdly, because he is like to employ the treasure and favours of the Popedom upon the enterprises of England, and the relief and advancement of English fugitives, his necessitous countrymen. So as he presumed much upon the simplicity of the reader in this point, as in many more. Pag. 55, and again 70, he saith his Lordship intendeth to match his grandchild Mr. William Cecil with the Lady Arbella. Which being a mere imagination without any circumstance at all to induce it, more than that they are both unmarried and that their years agree well, needeth no answer. It is true that his Lordship, being no stoical unnatural man, but loving towards his children (for charitas reipublicæ incipit a familia), hath been glad to match them into honourable and good blood; and yet not so but a private gentleman of Northamptonshire, that lived altogether in the country, was able to bestow his daughter higher than his Lordship hath done; but yet it is not seen by anything past that his Lordship ever thought or affected to match his children in the blood-royal. His Lordship's wisdom, which hath been so long of gathering, teacheth him to leave to his posterity rather surety than danger. And I marvel where be the combinations which have been' with great men, and the popular and plausible courses which ever accompany such designs as the libeller speaketh of. And therefore this match is but like unto that which the same fellows2 concluded between the same lady Arbella and the Earl of Leicester's son, when he was but a twelvemonth old. Pag. 70, he saith he laboureth incessantly with the Queen to make his eldest son deputy of Ireland. As if that were such a catch, considering all the deputies since her Majesty's time, except the Earl of Sussex and the Lord Grey, have been persons of meaner degree than Sir Thomas Cecil is; and the most that I which have been omitted in B, H. 2 fellowe: B. followers: C. is gotten by that place is but the saving and putting up of a man's own revenues during those years that he serveth there; and this perhaps to be sauced with some displeasure at his re turn. Pag. eadem, he saith he hath brought in his second son2 to be of the council, who hath neither wit nor experience. Which speech is as notorious an untruth as3 is in all the libel; for it is confessed by all men that know the gentleman, that he hath one of the rarest and most excellent wits of England; with a singular delivery and application of the same, whether it be to use a continued speech, or to negotiate, or to couch in writing, or to make report, or discreetly to consider of the circumstances, or aptly to draw things to a point; and all this joined with a very good nature and a great respect to all men, as is daily more and more revealed. And for his experience, it is easy to think that his training and helps hath made it already such as many that have served long prentishood for it have not attained the like. So as if that be true, that qui beneficium digno dat omnes obligat, not his father only but the state is bound unto her Majesty for the choice and employment of so sufficient and worthy a gentleman. There be many other follies and absurdities in the book; which if an eloquent scholar had it in hand, he would take advantage thereof, and justly make the author not only odious but ridiculous and contemptible to the world. But I pass them over; and even this which hath been said hath been vouchsafed to the value and worth of the matter and not the worth of the writer, who hath handled a theme above his compass. VIII. Of the height of impudency that these men are grown unto in publishing and avouching untruths, with a particular recital of some of them for an assay.10 These men are grown to a singular spirit and faculty in lying and abusing the world; such as it seemeth, although they are to purchase a particular dispensation for all other sins, yet they have a dispensation dormant to lie for the Catholic cause; which 1 saved: C. 2 brought his second son in: B, H. 6 or to aptlie to draw: C. to a point.) Here A begins again. handled them: C. 3 is omitted in C. (Perhaps it should be, or to apply and draw things 8 and worth omitted in C, B, H. moveth me to give the reader a taste of their untruths, especially such as are wittily contrived,' and are not merely gross and palpable; desiring him out of their own writings (when any shall fall into his hands) to increase the roll at least in his own memory. We retain in our calendars no other holydays but such as have their memorials in the Scriptures; and therefore in the honour of the blessed Virgin, we only receive the feasts of the Annunciation and the Purification; omitting the other of the Conception and the Nativity; which Nativity was used to be celebrated upon the seventh of September, the vigil whereof happened to be the nativity of our Queen; which though we keep not holy, yet we use therein certain civil customs of joy and gratulation, as ringing of bells, bonfires, and such-like, and likewise make a memorial of the same day in our calendar; whereupon they have published that we have expunged the Nativity of the blessed Virgin, and put instead thereof the nativity of our Queen; and further, that we sing certain hymns unto her, used to have been sung unto our Lady. It happened that upon some bloodshed in the church of Paul's, according to the canon3 law yet with us in force, the said church was interdicted, and so the gates shut up for some few days; whereupon they published that,-because the same church is a place where people use to meet to walk and confer,—the Queen's Majesty, after the manner of the ancient tyrants, had forbidden all assemblies and meetings of people together, and for that reason upon extreme jealousy did cause Paul's gates to be shut up. The gate of London called Ludgate, being in decay, was pulled down and built anew; and on the one side was set up the image of Lud and his two sons,-who, according to the name, was thought to be the first founder of that gate,-and on the other side the image of her Majesty, in whose time it was re-edified; whereupon they published that her Majesty, after all the images of the saints were long since beaten down, had now at last set 1 especially touching anie written contrived: A. especially such as are prittyest and most artificially confirmed: B. especially such as are precysist and most artificially contrived: H. In C a blank had been left between especially and contrived as for words which the transcriber could not decipher, which has been filled by another pen as in the text. 2 and nativity: C. the Assumption, Conception, and Nativity: B. 3 comon: B, C. 4 gate: C, H. 6 Here MS. A breaks off again. 5 voiced: B. up her own image upon the principal gate of London to be adored, and that all men were forced to do reverence to it as they passed by, and a watch there placed for that purpose. Mr. Jewel, the bishop of Salisbury, who according to his life died most godly and patiently, at the point of death used the versicle of the psalm, O Lord, in Thee have I put my trust, let. me never be confounded; whereupon, suppressing the rest, they published that the principal champion of the heretics (in his very last words) cried2 he was confounded. In the act of recognition of primo, whereby the right of the crown is acknowledged by Parliament to be in her Majesty (the like whereof was used in Queen Mary's time), the words of limitation are, in the Queen's Majesty and the natural heirs of her body, and her lawful successors. Upon which word, natural, they do maliciously and indeed villainously glose, that it was the intention of the Parliament in a cloud to convey the crown to any issue of her Majesty's that were illegitimate; whereas the word heir doth with us so3 necessarily and pregnantly import lawfulness, as it had been indecorum and uncivil speaking of the issues of a prince to have expressed it. a book with tables and pictures They set forth in the year of the persecutions against Catholics, wherein they have not only taken stories of fifty years old to supply their pages, but also taken all the persecutions of the primitive church under the heathen, and translated them to the practice of England; as that of worrying priests under the skins of bears by dogs, and the like. I conclude then that I know not what to make of this excess in avouching untruths, save this, that they may truly chant in their quires, Linguam nostram magnificabimus, labia nostra nobis sunt and that they who have long agone forsaken the truth of God, which is the touchstone, must now hold by the whetstone; and that their ancient pillar of lying wonders being decayed, they must now hold by lying slanders, and make their libels successors to their legend. |