Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	bishop_n	church_n	holy_a	3,606	5	5.0095	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26314	Actes of the General Assembly of the clergy of France, Anno Domini 1682, concerning religion translated into English for the satisfaction of curious inquisitors into the present French persecution of Protestants.; Actes de l'Assemblée générale du clergé de France de 1682, concernant la religion, retorquez contre ceux qui les ont faits. English	Catholic Church. Assemblée générale du clergé de France.	1682 (1682)	Wing A457; ESTC R6538	20,579	46

hitherto the unwilling and above what what can be expressed sorrowful Church of Christ by a severe but yet legitimate Judgment had dissinherited exauthorized proscribed voluntary Exiles as degenerate Sons renegade Soldiers rebellious Citizens but now at last by our voice it speaks to the dissinherited the exauthorized the proscribed and lovingly sollicits them who have already too long sustained the Punishment of a bitter Exile and with a Maternal affection and desire treats with them of correction of Return of Concord which if they would have retained then when they departed from us she for her common Piety to all her Children would never have broken Wherefore we admonish and exhort with all the weight of Charity inclining to the Reconciliation of Peace that they return to us We ask again and again why they have departed why they have forsaken Catholick vnity we give them to understand how easie it will be the wound of Schism once healed to cure the rest which shall seem to want a Medicine And we farther promise if they will seriously grow wise again they shall be received by us even with some as it were inconvenience to our Mother the Church And least peradventure they may take an occasion of flattering themselves and their adherents with a vain Hope of future Dissunion amongst us for that there have lately risen some Differences between the Roman and Gallican Church we thought fit to advertise them first That it is not about the Doctrine of Faith which ever was one and the same in both places nor about the institutions of manners which both Churches in each place will have most pure and refined but about some Matters of Discipline alterable by time concerning which we contend with the Ministers of the chief Bishop the Peace of fraternal Charity still remaining Besides things may be disputed by Catholicks against Catholicks without danger of harm so it be done after a Christian way and manner within the Bowels of the Church and not renting her Womb. And lastly this very dispute which we have undertaken ought to be a Motive ●o them of flying Schism by our Example and to us of inveighing against the same For by how much the more moderate and amicable our Contest shall be with so much the more confidence may we reprove Schismaticks and denounce them guilty of breaking Unity throughout the whole Church Because seing we are often though unwillingly brought to that exigence that we must act sometimes in making complaints to the Roman Bishop sometimes in vindicating the Rights of the Kingdom or Priviledges of our Church we have hitherto comported our selves with that Moderation Reverence Religion in debating and deciding any matter that we have not caused even the least suspicion of infringing Charity much less have we afforded a place for deceit or given Occasion for divorce And this is the whole Model of our Design for recalling of Schismaticks to Concord and the same drawn according to the Pattern of the Affrican Church For as those Fathers received from our Ancestors the means whereby they more easily overthrew the Hersies of old growing up amongst them so we by their Example at this time reassume the means whereby we may defend our Sanctions against the Hereticks of these Days which that it may be perfected according to our as well as your desire we again and again beseech you and for that Ardor of Charity wherewith together with us you are enflamed towards the Church of Christ we expect you will as soon as you shall receive these Letters and a Copy of this Admonition to Schismaticks take care immediately to have it notified to all and singular the Consistories of Calvins Sect which are any where in your Diocesses and publick Fasts Almesdeeds Supplications being appointed you will furthermore ordain Catechyzings Sermons Exhortations pacifick Discourses and other things of this sort proper for uniting the differences of minds And thus we hope it will be effected that God by his infinite Goodness assisting our Counsels for the Peace and Reconciliation of the whole Christian world there may at length be made as formerly one fold and one shepherd Given at Paris in the General Assembly of the Gallican Clergy the First of July 1682. Franciscus Archiepiscopus Parisiensis Praeses By the Command of the most Illustrious and most Reverend arch-Arch-Bishops Bishops and whole Ecclesiastical Synod in the General Assembly of the Gallican Clergy congregated at Paris Courcier Theol. Eccl. Paris àsecretis Mancroix Canonicus Rhemensis àsecretis The gallican-GALLICAN-CHURCH by the Kings Authority congregated at PARIS To the BRETHREN of CALVINS Departure wisheth CORRECTION RETURN CONCORD THe Universal Church of Christ Brethren doth continually lament and with most intense grief a Parent full of holy and sincere Piety beholds you by a Voluntary divorse abstracted from her Womb from her Breasts from her Bosome and still wandring in a Wilderness For can a Mother forget the Children of her Womb or the Church not remember her Charity towards you unmindful though you are yet still her Children whom the contagion of Error from Catholick verity and the Tempest of Calvins defection hath drawn from the Sanctity of the antient Faith and torn from the Head of Christian Unity Hence it is Brethren that she groaneth and as well most heavily as lovingly complaineth of her divided Bowels She seeketh her lost Children She calleth as a Partridge She is busie to gather as an Hen She provoketh to fly as an Eagle And anxious with maternal Pangs she labours O little Children to bring you forth again till truly and Catholickly Christ may be reformed in you We then the whole Gallican Clergy whom the Holy-Ghost hath placed to govern the Church in which you were born and who by an uninterrupted Inheritance hold the same Faith and the same Chair which the holy Bishops held who brought the Christian Religion into France do summon you and in virtue of the Embassage which for Christ we exercise as God exhorting by us we enquire of you why you have made a Schism For verily as your Affairs stand whether you will or no you are our Brethren whom formerly one Father of us all who is Heaven had received into the Adoption of Sons and whom one Mother the Church had brought up unto the hope of an eternal Heritage Yea even he himself who first bewitched you not to obey the Gospel of Truth The Ringleader of your Profession did he not formerly live with us a Brother of one mind did he not converse in the same House did he not eat the same spiritual Meat did he not practise the mutual Offices of Christian fraternity with us Excuse if you can to your Father to your Mother to your Brethren the infamy of so flagitious so abrupt and precipitate a flight The dividing of Christ the Rescinding the Sacraments of Christ the impious War against the Members of Christ the criminating the Spouse of Christ the denying the

been upon the very place where these Tragedies were said to be acted Besides I was really ashamed of the Kings Evidence as they call them against the Papists the Infamy of their Lives The Exorbitance the Nonsence the Inconsistency of their Oaths The Severities vsed on their sole Testimony the Reflections hereupon made by other Nations gave me some trouble and I almost wished for the Vindication of my Native Country to find a solid Proof of any thing done by the Papists in other places might seem to counterpoize our late Transactions and look like the sad Catastrophes practised by us against them here but I laboured in vain the more I sought the less I found of truth in these pretended dismal French Cruelties nothing appeared to me abating the forementioned efforts could give the least vmbrage of ground for such rueful Stories Yet I would not though well I might rest here I heard there had been a general Assembly of the Clergy of France convened at Paris I knew very well the said Clergy lay under no restraint which could hinder them from venting their malice if they had any against Protestants on the contrary the rigours and cruelties which they should express might seem the only means to ingratiate them into the Favour of the King and Pope according to the vsual Idea and Character we have of both They had now a fit opportunity if their Principles led them to it to establish or promote sanguinary Laws and retaliate the Wrongs done as they conceive to their fellow Members the Roman-Catholicks of England Wherefore now thought I now if ever is the time for me to find out the springhead and original of these French Persecutions So then I immediately sent to Paris for all the Resolves made and Directions given by that Assembly in matters relating to Protestants And in this I succeeded very fortunately for just as my Letters arrived there were printed and published by the express Authority and Command of the King and Clergy the Acts of the said general Assembly concerning Religion These Acts therefore coming to my hands I not only read them for my own satisfaction but have here rendered them into English for the use of others who not understanding the Latine and French Tongues might yet have the same thoughts and curiosity with me If to the more literate the Original 〈◊〉 by this Translation to have lost much of its Lustre and Eloquence in point of stile It must be imputed partly to my acknowledged Inability of doing better and partly also to the precise Exactness and even nicety I observed in keeping close not only to the substance but to the very words and manner of expression as near as I could bring our English to the Propriety of these Languages Thus much for a preface now to the work TO ALL THE Bishops in France The Assembly of the gallican-GALLICAN-CHURCH congregated at PARIS by Authority Royal GREETING WHat was long since by the Fathers in the first Council of Arles well and wisely ordained and accomplished That the business for the performing of which they chiefly convened being compleated they should then apply their minds to other things which they might understand to be advantagious to the good of the Christian Republick The same also we in the Name of the gallican-Gallican-Church and and by Authority Royal congregated at Paris have determined to practice and in this to adhere to the footsteps of our Ancestors Wherefore the affairs for which we judged it necessary to meet being constituted and transacted we thought good that those things should be next procured which might seem beneficial to the encrease and defence of the Christian Name And because in these three heads as solid foundations are wholy contained the peace and strength of the Church Faith Manners Discipline And in establishing of them the Father 's of the Council of Arles placed their endeavors We therefore to the same end have bent all our study that we might contribute our care and sollicitude in illustrating of Faith regulating of Manners and corroborating the force of sacred Discipline in France least by any Contrivance hereafter that triple Cord by the firm and wonderful context of which the Catholick verity is consistent may by any one be weakned or dissolved And seing amongst these Faith is the chief and nothing brings a greater help to the defence of it then if by the light of Truth Heresies and by the Ardor of Charity Schisms be overcome we esteemed it worthy our labour presently to set upon Calvin's heresy and to impugn it as the main and strongest fortress of Schism In this truly the Charity of Christ inclined and vrged us For when we beheld not without a most sharp sense of grief there was of one Church of Christ by the Schismaticks made two contrary to what Christ himself taught by his Example who of Two had made One we begun wholy to burn with desire of Vnity especially seeing every one of us was daily more and more enflamed with these voices of Christ Other sheep I have which are not of this fold and them must I bring and there shall be made one fold and one shepherd Moreover the life and manners of Innocent the 11th Bishop of Rome excited us which are so composed to the Form of the Antient and more austere Discipline that the Adversaries of our Faith ought not to refuse to agree with him in Judgment whose deeds they confess if they will speak true they must wish to imitate Lastly Lewis the Great man his daily Merits towards the Church yea rather his wonders of Royal Fortitude and Christian piety hath stirred up and augumented our courage who as many Heretical Cities as within the Limits of France he hath reduced to the antient Faith of our Forefathers so many unbloody Victories hath he purchased to his Mother Church a Son as well in Birth as Virtue the Greatest his Brethren after a long divorse being partly by entreaty partly by good deeds reconciled to the common Parent of all Moved by these Examples and only not conscious to our selves of negligence in performing our pastoral Charge we have at length applyed our selves to the impugning of Heresie But seing we understood this Warr to be such as ought to be waged with the weapons of charity to be managed in the sole Peace of Christ our Lord we determined not to use Threats not to cast Terrors not to strive with Contumelies but by Exhortations Wishes Prayers to invite our Adversaries and bring them to concord For although we are not ignorant it hath sometimes happened that those who had refused to be drawn by the Lenity of Mercy were compelled as it were by the wholesome Rigour of Charity yet we thought it both more proper and agreeable to the Christian Society which is amongst us and to the Affection of our Catholick Mother that those who have fled from the Bosome of Apostolical Peace should by Paternal admonitions be recalled And truly