Christendom, and hath written and described all had no other excellency; one that hath passed the his plots in blood. There follow the articles of a universal peace, which the libeller, as a commissioner for the estate of England, hath propounded, and are these: First, that the King of Spain should recall such forces, as, of great compassion to the natural people of France, he hath sent thither to defend them against a relapsed Huguenot. degrees of honour with great travel and long time, which quencheth always envy, except it be joined with extreme malice; then it appeareth manifestly to be but a brick wall at tennis, to make the defamation and hatred rebound from the counsellor upon the prince. And assuredly they be very simple to think to abuse the world with those shifts; since every child can tell the fable, that the wolf's malice was not to the shepherd, but to his dog. It is true, that these men have altered their tune twice or thrice: when the match was Secondly, that he suffer his rebels of Holland and Zealand quietly to possess the places they hold, and to take unto them all the rest of the Low Countries also; conditionally, that the Eng-in treating with the Duke of Anjou, they spake lish may still keep the possession of such port towns as they have, and have some half a dozen more annexed unto them. Thirdly, that the English rovers might peaceably go to his Indies, and there take away his treasure and his Indies also. And these articles being accorded, he saith, might follow that peace which passeth all understanding, as he calleth it in a scurrile and profane mockery of the peace which Christians enjoy with God, by the atonement which is made by the blood of Christ, whereof the apostle saith that it passeth all understanding. But these his articles are sure mistaken, and indeed corrected are briefly these : 1. That the King of France be not impeached in reducing his rebels to obedience. 2. That the Netherlands be suffered to enjoy their ancient liberties and privileges, and so forces of strangers to be withdrawn, both English and Spanish. 3. That all nations may trade into the East and West Indies; yea, discover and occupy such parts as the Spaniard doth not actually possess, and are not under civil government, notwithstanding any donation of the pope. V. Of the cunning of the libeller, in palliation of his malicious invectives against her majesty and the state, with pretence of taxing only the actions of the Lord Burleigh. I cannot rightly call this point cunning in the libeller, but rather good will to be cunning, without skill indeed of judgment: for finding that it hath been the usual and ready practice of seditious subjects to plant and bend their invectives and clamours, not against the sovereigns themselves, but against some such as had grace with them and authority under them, he put in ure his learning in a wrong and unproper case. For this hath some appearance to cover undutiful invectives, when it is used against favourites or new upstarts, and sudden-risen counsellors; but when it shall be practised against one that hath been counsellor before her majesty's time, and hath continued longer counsellor than any other counsellor in Europe; one that must needs have been great if it were but by surviving alone, though he honey as to her majesty; all the gall was uttered against the Earl of Leicester: but when they had gotten heart upon expectation of the invasion, they changed style, and disclosed all the venom in the world immediately against her majesty: what new hope hath made them return to their Sinon's note, in teaching Troy how to save itself, I cannot tell. But in the mean time they do his lordship much honour: for the more despitefully they inveigh against his lordship, the more reason hath her majesty to trust him, and the realm to honour him. It was wont to be a token of scarce a good liegeman when the enemy spoiled the country, and left any particular men's houses or fields unwasted.. VI. Certain true general notes upon the actions of the Lord Burleigh. But above all the rest, it is a strange fancy in the libeller that he maketh his lordship to be the "primum mobile" in every action without distinction; that to him her majesty is accountant of her resolutions; that to him the Earl of Leicester and Mr. Secretary Walsingham, both men of great power, and of great wit and understanding, were but as instruments: whereas it is well known, that as to her majesty, there was never a counsellor of his lordship's long continuance that was so appliable to her majesty's princely resolutions; endeavouring always, after faithful propositions and remonstrances, and these in the best words, and the most grateful manner, to rest upon such conclusions, as her majesty in her own wisdom determineth, and them to execute to the best: so far hath he been from contestation, or drawing her majesty into any his own courses. And as for the forenamed counsellors and others, with whom his lordship had consorted in her majesty's service, it is rather true that his lordship, out of the greatness of his experience and wisdom, and out of the coldness of his nature, hath qualified generally all hard and extreme courses, as far as the service of her majesty, and the safety of the state, and the making himself compatible with those with whom he served, would permit: so far hath his lordship been from inciting others, or running a full course with them in that kind. But yet it is more strange that this man should be so absurdly malicious, as he should charge his lordship, not only with all actions of state, but also with all the faults and vices of the times; as, if curiosity and emulation have bred some controversies in the church; though, thanks be to God, they extend but to outward things; as, if wealth, and the cunning of wits have brought forth multitudes of suits in law; as, if excess in pleasures, and in magnificence, joined with the unfaithfulness of servants, and the greediness of moneyed men, have decayed the patrimony of many noblemen, and others; that all these, and such like conditions of the time, should be put on his lordship's account; who hath been, as far as to his place appertaineth, a most religious and wise moderator in church matters to have unity kept; who with great justice hath despatched infinite causes in law that have orderly been brought before him: and for his own example, may say that which few men can say; but was sometimes said by Cephalus, the Athenian so much renowned in Plato's works; who having lived near to the age of a hundred years, and in continual affairs and business, was wont to say of himself; "That he never sued any, neither had been sued by any:" who by reason of his office hath preserved many great houses from overthrow, by relieving sundry extremities towards such as in their minority have been circumvented; and towards all such as his lordship might advise, did ever persuade sober and limited expense. Nay, to make proof farther of his contented manner of life, free from suits and covetousness; as he never sued any man, so did he never raise any rent, or put out any tenant of his own: nor ever gave consent to have the like done to any of the queen's tenants; matters singularly to be noted in this age. any attainted of any treason, felony, or otherwise; that he never had, or sought any kind of benefit by any forfeiture to her majesty; that he was never a factious commender of men, as he that intended any ways to besiege her, by bringing in men at his devotion; but was ever a true reporter unto her majesty of every man's deserts and abilities; that he never took the course to unquiet or offend, no, nor exasperate her majesty, but to content her mind, and mitigate her displeasure; that he ever bare himself reverently and without scandal in matters of religion, and without blemish in his private course of life. Let men, I say, without passionate malice, call to mind these things, and they will think it reason, that though he be not canonized for a saint in Rome, yet he is worthily celebrated as "pater patriæ" in England, and though he be libelled against by fugitives, yet he is prayed for by a multitude of good subjects; and, lastly, though he be envied whilst he liveth, yet he shall be deeply wanted when he is gone. And assuredly many princes have had many servants of trust, name, and sufficiency: but where there have been great parts, there hath often wanted temper of affection; where there have been both ability and moderation, there have wanted diligence and love of travail; where all three have been, there have sometimes wanted faith and sincerity; where some few have had all these four, yet they have wanted time and experience; but where there is a concurrence of all these, there is no marvel, though a prince of judgment be constant in the employment and trust of such a servant. VII. Of divers particular untruths and abuses dispersed through the libel. The order which this man keepeth in his libel, is such, as it may appear, that he meant but to empty some note-book of the matters of England, to bring in, whatsoever came of it, a number of idle jests, which he thought might fly abroad; and intended nothing less than to clear the matters he handled by the light of order and distinct writing. Having, therefore, in the principal points, namely, the second, third, and fourth articles, ranged his scattering and wandering discourse into some order, such as may help the judgment of the reader, I am now content to gather up some of his by-matters and straggling untruths, and very briefly to censure them. But, however, by this fellow, as in a false artificial glass, which is able to make the best face deformed, his lordship's doings being set forth; yet let his proceedings, which be indeed his own, be indifferently weighed and considered; and let men call to mind, that his lordship was never a violent and transported man in matters of state, but ever respective and moderate; that he was never man in his particular a breaker of necks; no heavy enemy, but ever placable and mild; that he was never a brewer of holy water in court; no dallier, no abuser, but ever real and certain; that he was never a bearing man, nor carrier of causes, but ever gave way to justice Page 9, he saith, That his lordship could and course of law; that he was never a glorious neither, by the greatness of his beads, creeping to wilful proud man, but ever civil and familiar, and the cross, nor exterior show of devotion before the good to deal withal; that in the course of his high altar, find his entrance into high dignity in service, he hath rather sustained the burden, than Queen Mary's time. All which is a mere fiction sought the fruition of honour or profit; scarcely at pleasure; for Queen Mary bare that respect sparing any time from his cares and travels to the unto him, in regard of his constant standing for sustentation of his health; that he never had, nor her title, as she desired to continue his service; sought to have for himself and his children, any the refusal thereof growing from his own part: pennyworth of lands or goods that appertained to he enjoyed nevertheless all other liberties and favours of the time; save only that it was put into the queen's head that it was dangerous to permit him to go beyond the sea, because he had a great wit of action, and had served in so principal a place; which nevertheless after, with Cardinal Pool, he was suffered to do. Page "eadem" he saith, Sir Nicholas Bacon, that was lord keeper, was a man of exceedingly crafty wit; which showeth that this fellow in his slanders is no good marksman, but throweth out his words of defaming without all level. For all the world noted Sir Nicholas Bacon to be a man plain, direct, and constant, without all finesse and doubleness; and one that was of the mind that a man in his private proceedings and estate, and in the proceedings of state, should rest upon the soundness and strength of his own courses, and not upon practice to circumvent others; according to the sentence of Solomon, "Vir prudens advertit ad gressus suos, stultus autem divertit ad dolos:" insomuch that the Bishop of Ross, a subtle and observing man, said of him, that he could fasten' no words upon him, and that it was impossible to come within him, because he offered no play: and the queen-mother of France, a very politic princess, said of him, that he should have been of the council of Spain, because he despised the occurrents, and rested upon the first plot: so that if he were crafty, it is hard to say who is wise. Page 10, he saith, That the Lord Burleigh, in the establishment of religion, in the beginning of the queen's time, prescribed a composition of his own invention; whereas the same form, not fully six years before, had been received in this realm in King Edward's time: so as his lordship being a Christian politic counsellor, thought it better to follow a precedent, than to innovate; and chose the precedent rather at home than abroad. Page 41, he saith, That Catholics never attempted to murder any principal person of her majesty's court, as did Burchew, whom he calleth a puritan, in wounding of a gentleman instead of Sir Christopher Hatton; but by their great virtue, modesty, and patience, do manifest in themselves a far different spirit from the other sort. For Burchew, it is certain he was mad; as appeareth not only by his mad mistaking, but by the violence that he offered afterwards to his keeper, and most evidently by his behaviour at his execution: but of Catholics, I mean the traitorous sort of them, a man may say as Cato said sometimes of Cæsar, "eum ad evertendam rempublicam sobrium accessisse:" they came sober and well advised to their treasons and conspiracies; and commonly they look not so low as the counsellors, but have bent their murderous attempts immediately against her majesty's sacred person, which God have in his precious custody! as may appear by the conspiracy of Sommerville, Parry, Savage, the six, and others; nay, they have defended it in thesi," to be a lawful act. Page 43, he saith, That his lordship, whom he calleth the arch-politic, hath fraudulently provided, that when any priest is arraigned, the indictment is enforced with many odious matters: wherein he showeth great ignorance, if it be not malice; for the law permitteth not the ancient forms of indictments to be altered; like as, in an action of trespass, although a man take away another's goods in the peaceablest manner in the world, yet the writ hath "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, an intention of subverting the state, and impeaching the majesty royal. Page 45, and in other places, speaking of the persecuting of the Catholics, he still mentioneth bowellings and consuming men's entrails by fire; as if this were a torture newly 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 despatching, of less torment far than either the wheel or forcipation, yea, than simple burning. Page 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 the First, 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 beholden 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 Mahometism entered. Page 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. This 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 | council, who hath neither wit nor experience; hath patronised the church of Rome so long, as he is become a right patron of it, in that he seek eth 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 narration. And those that know any thing of the 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 enterprizes 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. Page 55, and again p. 70, he saith, His lordship, meaning the Lord Burleigh, intendeth to match his grandchild, Mr. William Cecil, with the Lady Arabella. 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 that a private gentleman of Northamptonshire, that lived altogether in the country, was able to bestow his daughters higher than his lordship hath done. But yet it is not seen by any thing 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 fellow concluded between the same Lady Arabella and the Earl of Leicester's son, when he was but a twelvemonth old. Page 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 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 saved with some displeasure, at his return. Page "eadem" he saith, He hath brought in his second son, Sir Robert Cecil, to be of the which speech is as notorious an untruth, as 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, and 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, "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. 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 moveth me to give the reader a taste of their untruths, such as are written, 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 feast of the annunciation and the purification; omitting the other of the conception and the nativity; which nativity was used to be celebrated upon the eighth 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 there of the nativity of our queen: and, farther, that we | sing certain hymns unto her, used to be sung unto our Lady. It happened that, upon some bloodshed in the church of Paul's, according to the canon 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 King 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 beaten down, had now at last set 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 hymn, "Te Deum, O Lord, in thee have I trusted, let me never be confounded;" whereupon, suppressing the rest, they published, that the principal cham pion of the heretics in his very last words cried 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 villanously gloss, 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 so necessarily and pregnantly import lawfulness, as it had been indecorum, and uncivil speaking of the issues of a prince, to have expressed it. They set forth in the year a book with tables and pictures of the persecutions against Catholics, wherein they have not only 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 ago 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. VOL. II.-34 Z |