may look back upon the persecution of the church of Christ, by reason of that cruel Spanish inquisition.

Upon the whole, let us consider, if that religion should be set up amongst us, which allows of such cruelty and tyranny, whether or no we have not cause to fear the worst, and to prepare for it. Fore-warned, fore-armed.

APPENDIX.

The institution of this Spanish inquisition, at first, was not only necessary, as the condition of affairs then was, but exceeding laudable, had it been kept within the bounds, at first, intended; but, instead of being used on the Jews and Moors, it hath been turned on the Protestants, and that with such violence and extremity of torture, that it is counted the greatest tyranny, and severest kind of persecution under heaven; insomuch that many papists, who would willingly die for their religion, abhor the very name and mention of it, and, to the death, withstand the bringing in of this slavery amongst them. This was it which caused the irremediable revolt of the Low Countries, the greatest part of that nation, at the time of their taking arms, being Roman Catholicks; yet it is planted and established in Spain, and all Italy, Naples and Venice excepted; the management thereof is committed to the most zealous and rigorous friars in the whole pack; the least suspicion of heresy, as they call it, affinity or commerce with hereticks, reprov ing the lives of the clergy, keeping any books or editions of books prohibited, or discoursing in matters of religion, are offences sufficient; nay they will charge men's consciences, under the pains of damnation, to detect their nearest and dearest friends, if they do but suspect them to be herein culpable. Their proceedings are with great secrecy and seve rity: for,

1. The parties accused shall never know their accusers, but shall be constrained to reveal their own thoughts and affections.

2. If they be but convinced of any error, in any of their opinions, or be gainsayed by two witnesses, they are immediately condemned.

3. If nothing can be proved against them, yet shall they with infinite tortures and miseries be kept in the house divers years, for a terror unto others.

And lastly, if they escape the first brunt, with many torments, and much anguish; yet the second question or suspicion brings death remediless. And, as for torments and kinds of death, Phalaris and his fellow. tyrants came far short of these blood-hounds.

The administration of this office, for the more orderly regulation and dispatch thereof, is distributed into twelve courts, or supreme tribunals, for the several provinces of Spain; no one depending upon another, but, in a sort subordinate, to the general inquisition, remaining in the court, near the king's person, which hath a kind of superintendency over those tribunals. In all which, those of the secular clergy sit as judges, the friars being only used as promoters, to inform the court, and bring more grist unto the mill of these inquisitors; every one hath the title of lord, and are a great terror to the neighbouring peasants. Certain it is, that,

by this means, the people of this kingdom are so kept under, that they dare not hearken after any other religion, than what their priests and friars shall be pleased to teach them; or entertain the truth, if it comes amongst them, or call in question any of those palpable and gross impostures, which every day are put upon them; for, by this means, the people of this kingdom have been, and still are, punctual followers of the church of Rome; and that too in the very errors and corruptions of it, taking up their religion on the pope's authority, and therein so tena. cious or pertinacious, that the king doth suffer none to live in his domi. nions, which profess not the Roman Catholick religion; of which they have been, since the time of Luther, such avowed patrons, that one of the late popes, being sick, and hearing divers men to bemoan his approach. ing end, uttered some words to this effect: My life, said he, can nothing benefit the church; but pray for the prosperity of the king of Spain, as its chief supporter. And thus you have the original of the inquisition.

A COPY OF A LETTER SENT BY E. B.

AN EMINENT QUAKER IN LONDON,

TO THE POPE AT ROME,

Transmitted thence by Cardinal Bromio, to a Person of Quality in

England.

WITH A COPY OF THE FACULTIES

GRANTED TO JOHN LOCET, ENGLISHMAN AND PRIEST AT ROME, 1678,

For England, Scotland, and all the King's Dominions, Ireland excepted. Printed in 1680. Folio, containing two pages.

FRIEND,

AM moved, at this time, by the spirit, to speak to thee a few words, which plainly proceed from the light within, and may prove for thy edification and conversion. I will not revile thee, nor call thee antichrist, the whore of Babylon, the scarlet whore, nor the beast, the dragon, or the serpent, titles frequently bestowed on thee, and which if thou deservest thou best knowest: but I come to thee in the meekness, and the words of truth and light, to speak to thy soul, as thou art a man, and pretendest to have lordship and dominion over both the souls and bodies of men. But by what authority dost thou usurp the title of Papa, father of the whole church of Christ? Who first conferred that title on thee? Was it from above, or from men? Jesus, when he was on

earth, commanded Peter to feed his sheep, and, as a servant, to administer to them; he gave them no authority to slaughter them, or to fleece them, or to use any tyranny towards them. Thou pretendest to sit in Peter's seat; have a care, I warn thee, that it be not Satan's chair, for it is very doubtful if the man Peter was ever at Rome, and it is for certain he never had any authority there, and was neither lord, master, or pope, but a servant to the servants of Jesus Christ, which title thou also ownest in words when in deeds thou art as proud as Lucifer, and wouldest set thy feet on the necks of kings and princes, and proudly trample on the people of God. Thou pretendest to the spirit, shew it by thy works; to infallibility, but thou hast failed in thy doctrine, and in thy practices. I hold with thee, that the spirit is to be the guide of the saints, and that the spirit is infallible, and can never be mistaken; but it is not to be confined to thee, and to thy cardinals; for, I tell thee, our pope, George Fox, hath as much of the spirit as thou hast, and it is as infallible; and therefore thou oughtest not to ingross it to thyself, since it is communicated to all the children of God, and to all the saints that observe and hearken to the light within. But thou hast done wickedly; thou and all thy predecessors, for several hundreds of years, have been build. ing a very Babel of confusion; thou hast made religion the devil's stalking-horse, to drive souls into his snares; thou hast set up the calves at Dan, and in the mount; thou hast polluted religion with idolatry, and made of it a mere piece of art, policy, and legerdemain; I tell thee plainly, thou hast set up a pompous outward religion, only full of gaudy outsides, without any truth or sincerity, and without the spirit, the light, or the life of God. Look, therefore, I advise thee, as a friend and brother, to the light within thee, which shineth in thy darkness, that will teach thee better things; thou canst not but see and know the vanity of thy religion, which thy sons and thy daughters follow; and thou thyself laughest at the ignorance and folly of most of thy adherents and followers, who zealously follow thy dictates, without sight or knowledge. Thou actest against thy own conscience, and against knowledge, and against light, which is the sin against the Holy Spirit; and for this thou shalt be condemned, unless thou timely repent thee of, and reform thy errors. It is to maintain thy pride, thy lust, and thy covetuousness, that thou strivest to kick against the pricks, and to establish thy abominations in the sight of the Israel of God; but the day will come, and is even at hand, that thou and thy Ishmaelites, which are become the sons of the bond-woman of sin, shall be cast out into utter perdition. Thou and thy gor-bellied cardinals, that live like princes, and fatten themselves up in their abominable-lusts, against the day of slaughter, are very unlike the apostles, and disciples of Christ, who taught and preached the word with pains, care, and travel, in meekness and poverty, from the true light and spirit shining within their souls; and, were the primitive Christians on earth again, to see the shop of confusion, thou and thy hierarchy have made out of their simple spun thread, they would not be able to know or believe this to be any part of the reli gion they taught or begun, with so great labour, travel, pains, and martyrdom. Thus hast thou made all their labours of little or no effect; and still takest care to keep poor souls in the snares of sin, and in the

bonds of ignorance. I tell thee plainly, thy conscience does witness against thee, and thou dost see these truths; but it is thy pride that makes thee, tyrant-like, to exercise lordship and dominion over others, and to maintain this lordship and tyranny; thou art fain to exercise cunning arts and policies of the carnal man, and even to fly to the subtleties of the serpent, and the wicked one, leaving no stone unturned to maintain thy vanity, and to fulfil thy lusts. Thou knowest well enough there is no purgatory, such as thou hast invented to affright and delude poor ignorant people out of their money; but the execrable gain, which thou makest by indulgencies, will not let thee reform that wicked and abominable error. Thou also knowest the vanity of praying to saints, and to carved idols, express against the word of God.

Yet, because of the gain and reputation these bring to thee, and the means to delude the ignorant, by false miracles, and pretended reliques, thou still keepest it on foot with all thy ridiculous shews, processions, jubilees, holy water, exorcisms, altars, copes, mitres, crosiers, surplices, and other trinkets, invented by the devil and his instrument, the vain mind of subtle man, to draw the eyes and ears, but not the hearts of the calvish multitude, who bleat after these things, and understand them not. Thou knowest the unnaturalness and impossibility of thy breaden God's real presence, and yet, for the great respect it begets to thee and thy priests, with the rabble of monks, friars, nuns, hermits, and such like, thou still most stifly, against religion, sense, and reason, maintainest that idle opinion. Think therefore, before it be too late, of repentance and reformation; do the work thoroughly. The light hath formerly shined, with some glimmering, in the times of the Albigenses in France, and of Wickliff in England, and of Jerom and Husse in Prague, and afterwards of Luther in Germany; they caused some reformation from the grossest of thy superstition, and filthiness of idolatry; but yet too much of the dregs remains, and the carnal-minded man yet retains much of thy pride, vanity, pomp, and shew in their outward worship; and much of thy ambitious lordship and dominion; but we, the simple and harmless sheep of God's fold, called by the people, in scorn, quakers and shakers, from the strong actuating of the spirit within, have reformed ourselves to the pattern of the apostles and primitive teachers and preachers, and, being filled with the spirit, speak from the light thereof. And from this light I plainly write to thee, being stirred up to warn thee of the wrath to come, and to tell thee, that, unless thou makest a thorough reformation, according to our holy pattern, and come into the community of the saints on earth, thou shalt never have communion with those in heaven. I am to denounce judgment against thee, and thou shalt be overthrown, and thou shalt be scourged for thy abominable practices against the people of England, in the plottings, underminings, murthers, and wicked contrivances of thy ban-dogs, that call themselves Jesuits, but are Judasses, that betray kingdoms, and worry the people. Thy time is but short, and thy reign of a few days; for either the King of France, if ever he gets the monarchy of the west, will unnest thee, and remove thy see to Paris, and have a pope of his own, or else God will let loose the rage of the Turk against thee, and

suffer him to plant his half-moons in Rome as well as in Jerusalem, for a scourge and vengeance of all the filthiness and abominations acted in that place. Look to it, I give thee this friendly warning, take it to heart, for I tell it thee in plainness and sincerity, and from the light which shiaeth in

1

Thy Friend in the Love, and in the Truth,

From London, the 7th day of the 4th

month, in the year 1679.

E. B.

Faculties granted at Rome, 1678, to John Locet, Englishman and Priest for England and Scotland, and for all the King's Dominions, excepting Ireland.

1. Power to absolve from heresy and apostasy, all both ecclesiasticks and laicks.

2. To absolve in all cases of the Bulla canæ.

3. Power of dispensing marriages within the third and fourth degrees of consanguinity and affinity, and to declare them lawful, and such issue legitimate.

4. Power of administering all the sacraments.

5. Power of restoring the just right of asking being lost.

6. Power of celebrating mass in all decent places above or under ground, on portable altars twice a day, if necessary, and if it cannot be otherwise celebrated for fear of hereticks.

7. Of laying up of holy things in secret, without lights, if there be danger.

8. Power of reciting the rosary, or other prayers, if they cannot have a breviary, or other office.

9. Power of keeping and reading any prohibited books, besides those contained in the Bulla cana, besides those of Charles Moline, Nicholas Machiavel, and books of judicial astrology. As also of giving licence to others to read the Scriptures faithfully translated into English, and to the laicks English books against hereticks, as need shall be.

10. Power of dispensing and commuting simple vows for a reasonable cause, that of chastity and of religion being excepted.

11. Power of blessing the sacraments, and other holy utensils necessary for the mass, where there is not unction.

12. Power of dispensing the eating of flesh, eggs, white meats, also in the time of Lent.

13. Power of granting a plenary indulgence for those converted from heresy, and to those who cannot be confessed in the article of death.

14. Power of granting, every Lord's-day, and on holy days, an indulgence for ten years to those that assist at those meetings, and a plenary indulgence to those that confess and receive the sacrament on certain feast-days.

15. Power of having the benefit of these indulgences themselves.

16. Power of celebrating the mass ad requiem for any one on a portable altar, for the freeing a soul out of purgatory.