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A Defence Against "The Execution of Justice in England"

or

A True, Sincere and Modest Defence of English Catholics

that Suffer for their Faith Both at Home and Abroad, Against a False, Seditious and Slanderous Libel, Entitled:

The Execution of Justice in England

Wherein is declared how unjustly the Protestants do charge Catholics with treason; how untruly they deny their persecution for Religion; and how deceitfully they seek to abuse strangers about the cause, greatness and manner of their sufferings, with divers other matters pertaining to this pamphlet.

by

Cardinal William Allen
(1532-1594ad)

Roman Catholic Cardinal, Society of Jesus, Founder of the English Jesuit Colleges at Douai and Rome

2 Volume 1914 Edition
Originally Published in 1584

HAIL & FIRE REPRINTS 2009

	READ THE COMPANION VOLUMES Hail & Fire REPRINTS A Collection of Several Treatises Concerning The Reasons and Occasions of the Penal Laws. viz. (1675 Edition) CONTAINING THE FOLLOWING BOOKS: "I. The Execution of Justice in England, not for Religion, but for Treason: 17 Dec. 1583"  written by William Cecil (Lord Burleigh), Protestant Christian Counselor to Queen Elizabeth I of England. "II. Important Considerations, by the Secular Priests: Printed A.D. 1601." written by the Roman Catholic Priest William Watson (1559-1603ad, trained at Rheims) and others. "III. The Jesuits Reasons Unreasonable: 1662." written by a Catholic. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Rationes Decem or Ten Reasons Proposed to His Adversaries for Disputation in the Name of the Faith and Presented to the Illustrious Members of Our Universities (Originally published in 1581; 1910 Edition) by Edmund Campion (Jesuit Priest 1540-81) QUOTE: "What induced Luther's whelps to expunge off-hand from the genuine canon of Scripture, Tobias, Ecclesiasticus, Maccabees, and, for hatred of these, several other books involved in the same false charge?" "These people, if they want to have a Church at all, are compelled to crack up a Church all hidden away; and to claim parents whom they themselves have never known, and no mortal has ever set eyes on. Perhaps they glory in the ancestry of men whom every one knows to have been heretics, such as Aerius, Jovinianus, Vigilantius, Helvidius, Berengarius, the Waldenses, the Lollards, Wycliffe, Huss, of whom they have begged sundry poisonous fragments of dogmas." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The Jesuit's Loyalty manifested in three several Treatise lately written by them against the Oath of Allegeance (1677) by Edward Stillingfleet (1635-1699ad, Protestant Bishop) QUOTE: "I hope you will forgive me the not setting your Names before this Address, although I am not wholly a stranger to them: for however it be against the usual custom, yet you have reason to take it more kindly from me. I assure you, my design is, not to do any injury to your Persons, but only to let you and the world know, we are not altogether unacquainted with your present Principles, or Practices. And although, like the Plague, you walk in darkness, and do mischief; yet I intend only to set such marks and characters upon you, that when others see them, they may take the wind of you, and avoid the Infection. ... It may be you will be ready to ask me, if I account these Treatises such, why I venture to publish them. Because some Poisons lose their force when they are exposed to the open air: And it may do good to others, to let them understand what Doses you give in private to your Patients." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Rheims New Testament (1834 Reprint of the Original 1582 Jesuit Annotated Edition) The Rheims New Testament presented here is an 1834 Protestant reprint of the 1582 Rheims New Testament (annotated edition). It contains the original translation and preface, and the notes and annotation were included in the 1582 volume prepared by the English College at Rheims. The Testament is a translation made by the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), as a tool of the Counter Reformation. The Jesuit translation was provided under the direction of Gregory Martin, an Englishman and the chief linguist at Rheims, who was an outspoken Catholic apologist and controversialist. The annotations in the Rhemish Testament were provided under the direction of Nicholas Saunders (Jesuit), a controversialist dedicated to countering the historical and scriptural proofs of the Reformation. QUOTE: "ver. 6. Drunken of the blood. It is plain, that this woman signifieth the whole corp of all the persecutors that have and shall shed so much blood of the just: of the Prophets, Apostles, and other Martyrs from the beginning of the world to the end. The Protestants foolishly expound it of Rome, for that there they put Heretics to death, and allow of their punishment in other countries: But their blood is not called the blood of Saints, no more than the blood of thieves, mankillers, and other malefactors: for the shedding of which by order of justice, no commonwealth shall answer." (Annotation on Apocalypse 17:6) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The English Reformation and its Consequences by William Edward Collins QUOTE from The Bull of Deposition against Queen Elizabeth I of England: "We declare, in the fulness of the apostolic power, the aforesaid Elizabeth a heretic, and an encourager of heretics, together with those who abet her, under the sentence of excommunication, cut off from the unity of the Body of Christ. Moreover, We declare that she has forfeited her pretended title to the afore­said kingdom, to all and every right, dignity, and privilege; We also declare that the nobles, the subjects, and the people, who have taken any oath to her, are for ever released from that oath, and from every obligation of allegiance, fealty, and obedience, as We now by these letters release them, and deprive the said Elizabeth of her pretended right to the throne, and every other right whatsoever aforesaid; We command all and singular the nobles, the people subject to her, and others aforesaid, never to venture to obey her monitions, mandates, and laws. If any shall contravene this Our decree, We bind them with the same bond of anathema."

If you are unable to view content in the frame at right: A True, Sincere and Modest Defence of English Catholics that Suffer for their Faith Both at Home and Abroad, Against a False, Seditious and Slanderous Libel, Entitled: The Execution of Justice in England

VOLUME 1

PREFACE
To appreciate rightly the importance of this reprint of Allen's "A true sincere and modest defence of English Catholiques that suffer for their Faith both at home and abrode against a false seditious and slanderous libel intituled THE EXECUTION OF JUSTICE IN ENGLAND," it is necessary to recall the period and the circumstances of the time when it was written. Allen, born in Lancashire in 1532, had left England definitely in 1565. After a visit to Rome, which indirectly led to the fulfilment of a project long meditated of gathering together those who had been obliged to leave home in order to practise their religion freely, and at the same time of providing some means of preparing a succession of English Priests to keep alive the faith in England, he settled at Douai, and there, on Michaelmas Day, 1568, made a beginning of his College.

The first Seminary Priest to lay down his life was the Blessed Cuthbert Mayne, martyred at Launceston in 1577. In 1581 forty-three Priests were ordained at Douai, of whom no less than fifteen were ultimately put to death. And in the succeeding year each annual ordination prepared fresh victims for the hatred of the persecutors.

The coming of these companies of Priests ordained beyond the seas was a matter of deep concern and sore disappointment to those who were bent on separating England definitely from the Apostolic See, and of uprooting the Catholic Faith. They had treated the older clergy, survivors of those ordained under Queen Mary or earlier, with a certain clemency, looking forward to the day when these rapidly ageing men and the old belief would together die a natural death. And they now beheld descending upon the country younger men, full of zeal for the preservation of the older order in religion, and specially prepared and equipped to safeguard the faith of those who still believed, and to dissipate the errors and the prejudices of those who had been misled. A determined effort was made to exterminate the new-comers by death, if they dared to remain in the country. Such an outbreak of torture and bloodshed could not fail to excite astonishment and provoke hostile criticism on the part of Catholics in foreign countries; and, to justify the action of the Government, a pamphlet was issued entitled "The execution of justice," the whole object of which was to show that those who were suffering in England were condemned, not on account of their religious opinions, but solely because they were traitors to their Sovereign. The tract was issued anonymously, but it is known that it was written by William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Lord High Treasurer and principal minister to Queen Elizabeth. It is thus the highest authority for the contemporary official Protestant view of the position of the Seminary Priests.

Meanwhile political events had obliged Allen, in 1578, to leave Douai and to take refuge at Rheims, and it was there that, in 1584, he wrote the treatise which is now reprinted.

It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of this work. It takes us at once to the very heart of the controversies which then divided, and still, unhappily, divide our country; and it makes us see again those controversies as they appeared to the eyes of those who were nearer than we are, by more than three hundred years, to the source and origin of the religious strife. Then the matters in real dispute were not obscured as they have since often been, either by forgetfulness of the cause of the contention, or by indifference as to its subject; but men on both sides knew perfectly well that the differences between those who desired to maintain the old order and their opponents were fundamental, and no mere superficial discord easy of adjustment. It is a clear-cut contest between Catholic and Protestant, terms unhesitatingly accepted as true and adequate on either side, neither side using or caring for the modern euphemisms of Anglicans, or Anglo-Catholics, or non-Catholics. To be a Catholic was to recognize the authority of the "See Apostolique." To be a Protestant was to declare that the Pope of Rome has no authority within these realms. No one, then, would have ventured to assert that no radical change had taken place at the Reformation. It was felt that there was a conflict between the old religion and the new of so determined a character that the upholders of the new settlement of religion felt themselves compelled to inflict the penalty of death upon their opponents.

Allen, as the readers of his book will see, had a comparatively easy task in showing the futility of Lord Burghley's plea that our martyrs were put to death, not for their religion, but for high treason; and he bases his argument mainly on the fact that the practices now regarded and condemned as treasonable find no place in the old English law on treason, "so made and set down by Parliament in Edward the Third's time," but are truly Catholic customs and usages now for the first time in our history made treasonable by statutes passed solely in the interest of the new religion, and bearing no relation whatever to treason in its commonly accepted sense. It is an easy way of getting rid of an opponent to declare treasonable the ordinances of his religion, such as "ministering the holy Sacraments, obeying the Apostolic See, persuading our friends to be Catholics, the Priesthood and the like," and then to condemn him to a traitor's death simply because he has practised what his religion prescribed. But he does not become a traitor thereby. In addition to this general argument, applied in many different ways, Allen replies at length to the various implications of participation in treasonable attempts urged by Lord Burghley, and shows that, however these attempts may be characterized in themselves, there is no shred of proof that any of our Martyrs were in any way connected with them.

Incidentally we get glimpses of Allen's opinion of the condition of Catholics in England at the period when he wrote. In the Preface he tells us how men "do glorify Our Lord God, that all the Clergy . . . and so many of the laity of all sorts constantly persist in their father's faith . . . and that the whole state . . . may yet be rather counted Catholic than heretical." In the eighth chapter he declares that two-thirds of the nation are "Catholic in their hearts, and consequently are discontented with the present condition of things": and he speaks of the other "zealous and sincere Catholics" as being "marvellous many" and "the number by God's goodness daily increasing." In the concluding chapter he bears testimony "to the infinite number of all estates that never consented to this iniquity," i.e., the persecution. And he recalls the interest in the religious condition of England shown throughout the Christian world. "No Church, no Company, no Monastery or College of name in Christendom, that with earnest devotion and public fasts and prayers laboureth not to God for mercy towards us."

Thus, in a few pages, this treatise gives us an answer to the charge, still sometimes renewed, that those who gave their lives for the Catholic Faith in England in the sixteenth century were in reality men disloyal to Queen and country. More valuable still, in view of the attitude of so many among the most earnest of our fellow-countrymen at the present day, is the light thrown upon the recently-discovered continuity that, we are told, exists between the Established Church of England and the Catholic Church in England before the Reformation. To such a groundless theory the lives and deaths of our Blessed Martyrs are the best and most conclusive reply. They knew, and they gave their lives because they knew, that a fundamental change was being wrought in the religious condition of our country. To those who know their history, and this treatise is a fresh illustration of the real causes of their martyrdom, - continuity of the kind now so often asserted is a very grim travesty of fact.

FRANCIS CARDINAL BOURNE
Archbishop of Westminster
November 9th, 1913

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
THAT MANY PRIESTS AND OTHER CATHOLICS IN ENGLAND HAVE BEEN PERSECUTED, CONDEMNED, AND EXECUTED, FOR MERE MATTER OF RELIGION: AND FOR TRANSGRESSION ONLY OF NEW STATUTES WHICH DO MAKE CASES OF CONSCIENCE TO BE TREASON WITHOUT ALL PRETENCE OR SURMISE OF ANY OLD TREASONS OR STATUTES FOR THE SAME . . . . 10

CHAPTER II
THAT FATHER CAMPION AND THE REST OF THE PRIESTS AND CATHOLICS INDICTED, CONDEMNED, AND EXECUTED, UPON PRETENCE OF TREASON, AND UPON STATUTES MADE OF OLD AGAINST TREASONS, WERE NEVER YET GUILTY OF ANY SUCH CRIMES, BUT UNJUSTLY MADE AWAY . . . . 29

CHAPTER III
THAT WE NOW HAVE GREAT CAUSE TO COMPLAIN OF UNJUST PERSECUTION, INTOLERABLE SEVERITY AND CRUELTY TOWARDS CATHOLICS IN ENGLAND; AND THEIR PROTESTANTS NO REASON TO DO THE LIKE FOR THE JUSTICE DONE TO THEM IN QUEEN MARY'S AND OTHER PRINCES' DAYS, AND THE CAUSE OF THE DIFFERENCE . . . . 48

CHAPTER IV
THAT OUR PRIESTS AND CATHOLIC BRETHREN HAVE BEHAVED THEMSELVES DISCREETLY, AND NOTHING SEDITIOUSLY, IN THEIR ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS OF THE BULL OF PIUS QUINTUS; AND THAT THEY CANNOT LAWFULLY BE PRESSED NOR PUT TO DEATH AS TRAITORS BY THE TRUE MEANING OF THE OLD LAWS OF THE REALM FOR THE SAME; WITH EXAMINATION OF THE SIX ARTICLES PROPOSED ABOUT THE SAID BULL . . . . 76

THE PREFACE TO THE READER

Albeit the late pamphlet, entitled "The Execution of Justice," put forth in divers languages, for defence or excuse of the violent proceeding against (Catholics in England, and for accusation as well of them at home as of us their fellows in faith abroad, passing forth without privilege and name either of writer or printer (even thence where such matter is specially current, and might easily have been authorized); and moving indiscreet, odious, and dangerous disputes of estate, replenished with manifest untruths, open slanders of innocent persons, and namely with immodest malediction and seditious motions against the chief Bishop, the Prince of God's people; though (I say) it might rightly have been reputed an infamous libel, either to be contemned, or with such freedom of speech refelled, as that manner of writing doth deserve: yet considering the matter, meaning, and phrase thereof to be agreeable to the humour and liking of some in authority; and the book not only not suppressed (as divers others of that argument, seeming over simple to the wiser Protestants, of late have been), but often printed, much recommended, diligently divulged, and sought to be privileged in foreign places, where for shame they durst not publicly allow it at home, yes, and in a manner thrust manner thrust into the hands of strangers, and therefore like to proceed (though in close sort) from authority: we are forced, and in truth very well contented and glad it hath pleased God to give this occasion, or rather necessity, to yield (for the answer of the said book) our more particular account, in the behalf of our Catholic brethren dead and alive, at home and in banishment.

Which we will do sincerely, as in the sight of Christ Jesus, the just Judge of the world, and all His saints, in such humble, mild, and temperate manner as beseemeth our profession, and the audience; which audience we crave with tears of the whole Church and Christian world, and of all that are placed in power and sublimity over us in our own country or elsewhere; that so our cause may be discerned both by God and man, and our unspeakable calamities, either by the intercession of many, relieved, or by the general compassion of all our faithful brethren, made to us more tolerable. Loth we are, and odious it may be counted, to speak in such matter as must needs in some sort touch our superiors; but God's truth and man's innocency are privileged, and may in humble seemly wise be defended, against whomsoever. And our pen (God willing) shall be so tempered herein, that it shall displease no reasonable reader, nor surely scare them (if it may be), against whom in our inculpable defence we are forced to write.

We have in this case examples enough of Christian modesty in the ancient apologies of holy Fathers in Christ his Church, as of St. Justin, Tertullian, Athanasius, Hilarius and others, writing to their princes that persecuted, either

"To be right in everything, we ought always to hold that the white which I see, is black, if the Hierarchical Church so decides it" Saint Ignatious Loyola (Founder of the Jesuit Order, 1324-1384ad)

by error or infidelity, the faithful people. Whose style and steps no long as we follow, we shall be blameless in the sight of all wise and good men; and offend none to whom the plain truth itself is not odious. As on the other side we have in our adversaries' late books, for immodest railing, contemptuous phrase, slanderous speech, blasphemous words, false, reproachful, seditious matter, and all inhonest scurrility, what to abhor and detest, and what to avoid, in these our writings, which we would have most unlike theirs, and not only allowable to our friends, but (if it were possible, and so pleased our merciful Lord to give us grace in their sight) not ingrateful to our persecutors, whose salvation (as Christ knoweth) we seek in all these our endeavours, together with the maintenance of truth, more than our own defence and purgation.

Whereupon otherwise, for our own only honour and interest, we would not so formally stand against so honourable adversaries in this world, if we thought their hearts (which are in God's hands) were not upon evident reason and remonstrance of our innocence, inclinable to mercy and better consideration of their own state and ours; or that their accusation of us afflicted Catholics, were not joined to the general reprehension of the whole Church, and the principal pastors thereof, whom by the law of our Christian religion we ought to respect more than our own lives, and in causes of our soul and conscience, to obey above any earthly prince, by ...

VOLUME 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER V
OF EXCOMMUNICATION AND DEPRIVATION OF PRINCES FOR HERESY AND FALLING FROM THE FAITH; SPECIALLY OF WARS FOR RELIGION; AND OF THE OFFICE AND ZEAL OF PRIESTS OF THE OLD AND NEW LAW IN SUCH CASES . . . . 1

CHAPTER VI
THAT IT IS MUCH TO THE BENEFIT AND STABILITY OF COMMONWEALTHS, AND SPECIALLY OF KINGS' SCEPTRES, THAT THE DIFFERENCES BETWIXT THEM AND THEIR PEOPLE, FOR RELIGION OR ANY OTHER CAUSE FOR WHICH THEY MAY SEEM TO DESERVE DEPRIVATION, MAY RATHER BE DECIDED BY THE SUPREME PASTOR OF THE CHURCH, AS CATHOLICS WOULD HAVE IT; THAN BY POPULAR MUTINY AND PHANTASY OF PRIVATE MEN, AS HERETICS DESIRE AND PRACTISE . . . . 33

CHAPTER VII
OF THE LATE WARS IN IRELAND FOR RELIGION: HOW THE POPE MAY USE THE SWORD: AND THAT THE DIFFERENCES BETWIXT TEMPORAL PRINCES AND HIM, OR THEIR RESISTING HIM IN SOME CASES OF THEIR WORLDLY INTEREST, CAN BE NO WARRANT TO THE PROTESTANTS TO CONTEMN HIS CENSURES OR AUTHORITY IN MATTER OF FAITH AND RELIGION . . . . 53

CHAPTER VIII
THAT THE SEPARATION OF THE PRINCE AND REALM FROM THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH AND SEE APOSTOLIC, AND FALL FROM CATHOLIC RELIGION, IS THE ONLY CAUSE OF ALL THE PRESENT FEARS AND DANGERS THAT THE STATE SEEMETH TO STAND IN. AND THAT THEY UNJUSTLY ATTRIBUTE THE SAME TO THE POPE'S HOLINESS, OR CATHOLICS; AND UNTRULY CALL THEM ENEMIES OF THE REALM . . . . . 85

CHAPTER IX
THE CONCLUSION, CONTAINING A CHARITABLE MOTION, AND A JOINDER WITH THE LIBELLER TOUCHING SOME MEANS OF TOLERATION IN RELIGION, AND CEASING OR MITIGATING THIS CRUEL PERSECUTION . . . . . 141

CHAPTER V

Of excommunication and deprivation of Princes for heresy and falling from the faith; specially of wars for religion; and of the office and zeal of priests of the old and new law in such cases.

PRlNCES being not subject to superiors temporal, nor patient of correction or controlment by their inferiors, may easily fall to grevious disorders, which must tend to the danger and ruin of whole countries. In respect whereof great spirit, power, courage, and freedom of speech have been from the beginning granted by God, as well ordinary to priests, as extraordinary to some prophets and religious persons in all ages and times, both of the New and Old Testament. So by God's great providence (who by His prophet warned kings to take discipline, and to serve Him in fear, lest in His ire He should suffer them to fall to iniquity) the first kings of his peculiar people had lightly some prophets or priests in manner as overseers, that might from time to time charge them boldly, and as it were by office, with enormities, and namely with their fall from faith and the God of their fathers, to denounce His threatenings, yea and execute the same upon them, at sometimes if need so required. Which ministers of their Lord God all godly princes did hear, honour and obey; as contrariwise the kings that ...

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CATHOLIC APOLOGETICA:
These works have been placed online so that those of a Catholic as well as a Protestant and Gospel faith might become more familiar with the points of controversy, the resources and methods, the debate itself and the manner in which the Church and her theologians have historically managed the discourse in defense of tradition and Church law over the simple faith of the Gospel that was originally preached.

"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. ... Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness" 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10 KJV
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