I. BOOK "the pleasures of the world, or yielded in any one little "point against the truth, it had been lawful to have lived Anno 1581. both in favour and credit. This cannot come of flesh ❝ and blood, but must needs be an argument of God's mer"ciful meaning towards us, if we be humble and patient "under this his fatherly rod and chastisement. 66 "Again; what can be more forcible to encourage us to "all virtue, and imitation of these men's fortitude, than to "see children to go into heaven before us. You know who "used this argument, when he said, Regnum Christi vim patitur, et v. [i. e. violenti] illud, &c. Which if ever it "were fulfilled, now it is, where the tenderest and frailest "flesh passeth violently to heaven, through wrackings, hang❝ings, drawings, and quarterings; and through a thousand "miseries more, which are laid upon them. "Wherefore let other men follow the pleasures of the "world and lewd life as much as they will, now is the time "for us to make ourselves everlasting princes, by gaining "of heaven. Qui nocet, noceat adhuc, et qui in sordibus "est, sordescat adhuc, saith our Saviour. And on the other "side, Qui justus est, justificetur adhuc, et qui sanctus est, "sanctificetur adhuc. Ecce! venio cito, et merces mea mecum "est, reddere unicuique secundum opera sua. "Now for this time, my dear good friend. From R. in "L. this present 26th of November, 1581. "Your own bounden in most hearty good-will "for Christ and his cause." 37 By way of postscript, this followed: "The cross appears, Christ doth approach, "A comfort for us all: "For whom to suffer or to die, "Is grace celestial. "Be therefore of good courage now, "In this your sharp probation, "And mighty consolation. "If you persevere to the end "Of this sharp storm indeed, "You shall confound both foe and friend, "God make us mindful of all his sweet promises, and "our own duty: which is sufficient armour for all assaults ❝of our enemies. Commend me heartily to my daughter "Cr. and your little family, and the rest of your good com"pany: willing them all to be of good comfort, and to pray "for us, as we shall for them. Weakness now is come to "such a head, that the festered sores thereof must needs “break out, whereby, I hope, all infirmities will be healed. "In the mean time they intend to do us a good turn against “their wills. I hope we shall so disclose the fond forgery "of our enemies, God willing, this week, as it was never "since the queen came to her crown. God, for whose cause "we suffer, defend the truth. I have saluted your friends, "who re-salute you. Our Lord be with you and yours; " and all the faithful (Christian) afflicted flock." СНАР. Anno 1581. priests un duct. Dr. Concerning this Campion, I have one thing more to add, Young which a learned man that lived in that very time related of der Camhim that there were despatched into the realm, under the pion's conconduction of one more presumptuous than learned, [mean- Bils. True ing this Jesuit,] a whole swarm of boy-priests, disguised, Subject. and provided at all assays with secret instructions how to deal with all sorts of men and matters here; [in England;] and, with commission from Rome, to confess and absolve such as they should win, with a pretence or policy, to mislike the state, and affect novelty; and to take assurance of them by vow, oath, or other means, that they should be ever after adherent and obedient to the church of Rome, and to the faith thereof, &c. Religion sounded often in their mouths, and the faith of their fathers. And yet that poison they carried covertly in their hearts, and cunningly in their books; that her majesty's beguiled and deceived subjects, by the very sentence of their Romish faith and absolution, were tied to obey the pope, depriving her ma BOOK jesty of the sword and sceptre, and bound to assist him, or I. whom he should send, to take the same by force of arms Anno 1581. out of her hands. 38 with by the Ubi supra. But when some of these were taken up, and brought to their trials, they denied this, and earnestly protested, in open audience, that they had no such meaning; but for their parts did acknowledge her majesty for their lawful Dispensed and true princess, and taught all others so to do: having pope for ly- first obtained, like wily friars, a dispensation at Rome, that, ing. to avoid the present dangers, they, and all others their obsequents, might serve and honour her highness for a time, until the bull of Pius V. might safely be executed. [This was the dispensation of Campion and Parsons.] And that this was the resolution of them all, appeared by their examinations. And that conclusion stood in their written books as a ruled case, that they must rather lose their lives than shrink from this groundwork, that the pope may deprive Their cases her highness of her sceptre and throne; because, they say, it is a point of faith, and requires confession of the mouth, Artic. 55. though death ensue. of con science. Their dangerous doctrine. One Atkins put into the inquisition This dangerous, if not devilish doctrine, (saith the foresaid learned writer,) was not printed or published in the sight of the queen's subjects, until the time of some of the chief procurers and kindlers of this flame, for these and other enterprises of like condition and quality, were by the just course of the laws adjudged to death. But there happened this year an example of papal persecution at Rome, upon an Englishman, which exceeded much any persecution complained of in England; which was executed upon one Richard Atkins, an Hertfordshire man who seemed indeed to be somewhat disturbed in his head: but however that hindered not the Romanists' rigorous dealings with him. I relate it from one that was in the English college at Rome; and there either saw or heard it from some that were present. This Richard Atkins, out of his zeal, travelled to Rome, at Rome: and coming to the English college there, knocked at the and why door; and being let in, told the students there, that he Engl. Rom. III. came ovingly to rebuke the great misorders of their lives; CHAP. which he grieved to hear, and pitied to behold. And that he came also to let their proud antichrist understand, that Anno 1581. he did offend the heavenly Majesty, rob God of his honour, poisoned the whole world with his abominable blasphemies; making them homage stocks and stones, and the filthy sacrament, [as he called it;] which was nothing else but a foolish idol. Upon this, one Hugh Griffin, a Welshman, and one of the students, caused him to be put into the inquisition. But, however it came to pass, he was, after certain days, dismissed. Afterwards, one day going in the streets, he met a priest carrying the sacrament, and being offended to see the people so crouch and kneel to it, he caught at it, to have thrown it down, that all people might see what they worshipped. But missing his purpose, and it being (luckily) judged by the people, that he did but catch at the holiness that they say comes from the sacrament, upon mere devotion, he was let pass, and nothing said to him. Few days after he came to St. Peter's church, where divers were hearing mass; and the priest being at the elevation, he, using no reverence, stepped among the people to the altar, and threw down the chalice, with the wine; striving likewise to have pulled the cake out of the priest's 39 hands. Presently divers rose up, and beat him with their fists and one drew his rapier, and would have slain him. In brief, he was carried to prison, where he was examined wherefore he committed such a heinous offence. He answered, that he came purposely for that intent, to rebuke the pope's wickedness and their idolatry. Upon this he was condemned to be burnt; which sentence, he said, he was right willing to suffer. And the rather, because the sum of his offence pertained to the glory of God. During the time he remained in prison, sundry of the English came to him, willing him to be sorry for that he had done, and to recant his damnable opinions. But all the means they used was in vain; and he confuted their ways by divers places of scripture: and willed them to be sorry BOOK for their wickedness, while God did permit them time. For the manner and cruelty of his execution, a while after, I reAnno 1581. fer the reader to the Appendix. No. VII. creep into CHAP. IV. The seminaries busy. Sir Francis Knolles's letter concerning them. Search for papists. Proclamation against harbouring Jesuits, and such as went hence to Paris, Rheims, Doway, or Rome, for education: and for their revocation. Conferences with Jesuits. One of them reclaimed. Recusants in the diocese of the bishop of Coventry and Litchfield. Schismatics. A libertine; his doctrines. Endeavours of some puritans. Their prayers. Seminaries THESE seminaries were now very busy in London, as houses, and well as in other places, creeping into houses, to pervert the say the mass. Sir Francis letter to be them. people, and keep mass-saying: insomuch, that sir Francis Knolles, a courtier, and treasurer of the queen's chamber, thought fit to put the two great statesmen about the queen in mind of it; and to stir them up to look to them; and to let the law take its course against such of them as were taken, the safety of the queen and the whole nation depending so much upon it. And now going into the country, to the quarter-sessions at Oxford, in the month of September, he left this remembrance in a letter to them both, viz. the lord treasurer and the earl of Leicester. "The papists' secret practices by these Jesuits, in going Knolles's "from house to house, to withdraw men from the obediwatchful of "ence of her majesty, unto the obedience of the false ca"tholic church of Rome, hath and will endanger her ma40" jesty's person and state more than all the sects of the "world, if no execution shall follow upon the traitorous "practisers that are for the same apprehended: or at the "least, if execution shall not follow upon such of them as "will not openly and plainly recant. Thus desiring their lordships, that are the two heads of the two universities of "England, to pardon my boldness herein; because that I, |