Parsons’ claim to these two memorable tracts has been impugned. My ingenious friend Dr. Bliss has referred to two letters of Dr. Ashton, Master of Jesus College, and Dean Mosse, on the subject of “Leicester’s Commonwealth,” which he considers “fully prove” that it was not the work of Parsons. I give these letters.
Dr. Ashton to Dean Mosse.
“There is nothing in the book that favours the Spanish invasion, and all the treason is only against Leicester. Parsons has been esteemed the author of it; but I can’t yet believe that ’twas his, for several reasons.
“First; there’s nothing in it of the fierce and turbulent spirit of that Jesuit; but a tender concern for the Queen and government both in church and state.
“Secondly; the book makes a papist own that several of the priests and others were traitors, and often commends Burleigh, who was the chief persecutor, and ordered the writing of ‘The Book of Justice,’ &c., which certainly Parsons would not have done, whose errand into England not long before was to renew the excommunication of the Queen, and declare her subjects freed from their allegiance, nay bound to take up arms against her; especially since Campian, his brother missionary, was one of those martyrs, and he himself very narrowly escaped.
“Thirdly; when Parsons and Campian came into England in ’80, it was to further the designs of the King of Spain, and persuade the people that upon the Queen’s forfeiture he had a right to take possession of her crown. But there’s nothing looks that way in the book, unless defending the title of the Queen of the Scots and her son be writing for the invasion. There was a book written a little before this, for the Scotch succession, by Lesly, bishop of Rosse, under the name of Morgan, even by the connivance of Queen Elizabeth, as Camden tells us; but the seminary priests and Jesuits were all upon the Spanish right by virtue of the Pope’s bull of excommunication; and upon this foot Parsons afterwards wrote his ‘Andr. Philopater,’ and ‘Book of Titles,’ in the name of N. Doleman.
“Fourthly; I can’t think Parsons capable of writing this book; for how could a man that from ’75 to his dying day (bating a few months in the year ’80) lived at Rome, be able to know all the secret transactions, both in court and country, in England, which perhaps were mysteries to all the nation except a few statesmen about the Queen?
“Lastly; I can’t believe that Parsons, who was expelled (or forced to resign his fellowship in Baliol) for his immoralities, and then pretended to be a physician, and at last went to Rome and turned Jesuit, would tell that story of Leicester’s management of the University of Oxford. There are several other improbabilities.
“The book seems to be written by a man moderate in religion (whether Papist or Protestant, I can’t say), but a bitter enemy to Leicester—one that was intimate with all the court affairs, and, to cover himself from the bear’s fury, contrived that this book should come as it were from abroad, under the name of Parsons.”
Dr. Mosse’s Notes on the above Letter.