Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	apostle_n	church_n	rome_n	3,116	5	6.8909	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01395	The glory of England, or A true description of many excellent prerogatiues and remarkeable blessings, whereby she triumpheth ouer all the nations of the world vvith a iustifiable comparison betweene the eminent kingdomes of the earth, and herselfe: plainely manifesting the defects of them all in regard of her sufficiencie and fulnesse of happinesse. By T.G.	Gainsford, Thomas, d. 1624?	1618 (1618)	STC 11517; ESTC S102803	192,041	344

to Monsier de Plessis discourse wherein he proueth with sufficiencie that all the customes of the world concerning diuine adoration come short of Christianity but if you will conuert it thus Religio est cultura veri Dei then may you both diuide subdiuide and diuide againe allowing of three Religions the Iewes Christians and Mahumetans all maintaining the omnipotency of God and pretending obedience toward the high Creator of all things But because we hope for our established saluation in the merits and mercies of Iesus Christ and know that the excellency of the Trinity is described in the old Testament when God said Let vs make man when the great King saw the image of one like the sonne of man in the furnace when Iob knew that his Redeemer liued when the mysterie of the Trinitie is reuealed in many places let vs leaue the vanitie of the Heathen with their obstinacie the abomination of Idolaters with their grosse abuses the antiquity of the Iewes with their stiffneckednesse the innouation of the Mahumetans with their errors and impossibilities and be onely proud of our liuery of Christians But now we must subdiuide againe and say that amongst Christians there is a tripartite separation For the Greeke Church runneth one way with the title of East the Latine Church rangeth another way with the denomination of West and the reformed Church spreadeth a modest glory with the liberty of Protestants Concerning the Greeke Church I will be bold to tell you that I haue heard some of their Protopapans and Archimandritans maintaine their greatnesse precedency and truenesse of Religion before the Latine and thus they assume the defence For greatnesse it containeth most parts of Armenia Georgia Mengrelia neere the Caspian many places in Natolia or Asia minor the Countries of Aethiopia in Affricke which may equall them of the West Indies of whom the Pope doth now boast so much In Europe all Grecia many great Ilands except such as are diuerted Papists incurring the scandall of Heretickes Muscouia or Russia some parts of Poland Lithuania Bogdonia and the shores of the Euxinum much more ground then the Pope can challenge where he is the most offen siue Vsurper For Precedency it claimeth likewise the prerogatiue both waies First by priority in regard they were first Christians and the Apostles planted Churches amongst them before either Paul preached at Rome or Linus was appointed Byshoppe Secondly by authority as by translation of the Empire from whence Rome challengeth hers For when there was no such ambition thought vpon Iohn Patriarch of Constantinople vsurped the title of vniuersall Byshoppe and practised the supremacy ouer all other Churchmen by reason the Emperour Constantine had so enobled and enabled the great Citie where hee would haue the Byshoppe to be principall in regard of the maiesty of his person and the brauery of the place and therefore not onely graced him with the elated title of Patriarch but inuested him with many roialties and pallaces and temporall iurisdictions to which the Byshoppe of Rome did then intercede interposing a negatiue euen against the very title disprouing it as Antichristian and traduced Iohn the Patriarch as a wicked and malicious man for practising such ostentation nor desisted he so but writ whole volumes of letters tending to a manner of defamation some entreating him to disclaime such elation of heart some disalowing the presumption as exorbitant in a Byshoppe who should rather imitate the humilitie of Christ some thundring the cursed prediction of Antichrist by such apostacy and all of them disswading the true Ministers of Gods word from poysoning their preciously redeemed soules with the venome of pride and vaine-glory then followed the fearefull history of Nauclerus a strong papisticall writer on whom they lay the imputation of a fable But he saies plainely that that very instant in which Constantine the great enfeoffed the Church with temporary lands and sumptuous edifices the heauens seemed to frowne the aire was thickned with a cloude the earth troubled with a tempest and after great thunder and lightning a voice was heard now is poyson throwne into the pure streame of Gods truth Vpon this the matter was a while respited with a grant only of sitting downe first at generall Councells naming in Commissions and the binding voice in equality of censuring all which if they were priuiledges enlarged first the precedency of the Patriarch of Constantinople Afterward when the sinnes of the Empire like a fluent streame ouer-spread the bankes of his enclosures and that God determined the vtter subuersion of all two wicked men contriued the most lamentable desolation both of the gouernment of the Empire religion of the Church which were Phocas and Bonifacius the one conspiring thus with the other against God and Angells against heauen and earth against men and Deuills that to establish Phocas in the Empire of Constantinople he would be contented that Bonifacius of Rome should be consecrated with the title of Vniuersall Byshoppe whereupon Phocas by the murther of his Master Mauritius and other inhumane treacheries was inuested Lord of the Easterne Monarchy and Bonifacius by the cousoning his Predecessor Siluester and other religious practises obtained the papacy insomuch that Platina and diuers of their owne writers amongst other pasquills and satiricall inuections exclaime that he came in like a fox raigned as a lyon and died like a dogge so that all premises considered if there be a necessitie in any such precedency the Roman Byshoppes be but vsurpers For Constantinople had it at generall Councells and was permitted all the fauour of titles which the Church and most Christian Emperour collated at that time Concerning the truth it is well knowne that Peter of whom they boast so much was Byshoppe of Antioch 20. yeares and those of Asia the first reputed Christians in the world so that euen from Scripture it selfe and Pauls perigrination many plentifull collections enlarge his history and life with warrantable knowledge of what we must trust vnto As for his visiting of Rome howeuer Eusebius adhereth to some formall discoueries and other Authors produce instances of his owne death and daughters Martyrdome vnder Nero it is both fanaticall imaginary and vnwarrantable by Scripture nay I will say more neither by collected circumstances probable coniectures or authenticall Authors is there any inducement to beleeue it But say he did visit Rome and conferred with Paul what sense reason or honesty can allow the translation of his owne Byshopricke out of Asia into Europe an intrusion into another mans iurisdiction For Paul was constituted to be the light of the Gentiles and lost his head at Rome in iustifying his innocency how then could Peter be condemned of so functory a negligence that being appointed to the dispersed Iewes of Asia hee would vilipend them and intrude himselfe into the gouernment of the Gentiles of Italy so then considering Antioch and the 7. Churches spoken of in the Apocalips were the