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	rome_n	17,242	5	7.2290	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17962	A treatise, vvritten by M. doctor Carier, vvherein hee layeth downe sundry learned and pithy considerations by which he was moued, to forsake the Protestant congregation, and to betake himselfe to the Catholke Apostolike Roman Church. Agreeing verbatim with the written copye, addressed by the sayd doctor to the King his most excellent Maiestie.	Carier, Benjamin, 1566-1614.	1614 (1614)	STC 4623.5; ESTC S115898	33,947	58

which hath not yet bin iudicially condemned by the Church of Rome They all seemed to abhorre the fact as much as the best subiects in the world and much more to fauour and defend the authoritie of their Kings and Princes then the Heretikes doe And they said that althoug your Maiestie were out of the Church yet they doubted not but if complaint were made in a iudicial proceeding that fact should be iudicially condemned In the meane time it was sufficient that all Catholike writers did condemne it and that the Pope by his Breue had condemned it exhorting the Catholikes of England to all Christian patience and obedience As for any other authority or superiority of the Pope then such as is spirituall and necessary for the vnitie of the Church I haue met with none that doe stand vpon it 14 So that whereas my hope was that by finding out the corruptions of the Church of Rome I should grow farther in loue with the Church of England and ioyfully returne home and by inueighing against the Papists both enioy my present preferments and obtaine more and more I saw the matter was like to fall out cleane contrary It is true indeed that there are many corruptions in all States God hath no Wheat-field in this world wherein the Diuell hath no Tares growing and there are no Tares more ranck then those that grow among the Wheat For optimi corruptio pessima and where grace aboundeth if it be cōtemned there sin aboundeth much more But seeing both my reading experience hath now taught me that the truth of Christian Religion taught and practised at this day in the Church of Rome and all the obedient members thereof is the very same in substance which was prefigured and prophesied from the beginning of the world perfected by Christ himselfe deliuered to his Apostles and by them and their Successors perpetually and vniuersally in one vniformity practized vntill this day without any substantiall alteration And that the new Religion of England wherin it doth differ hath no ground but either the pleasure of the Prince and Parliament or the common cry and voice of the People nor no constancy or agreement with it selfe what should I now doe It is not in my power not to know that which I doe know nor to doubt of that which I haue spent so much time and taken so much paines and bestowed so much cost and made so many trials to find And yet I know if I should yeeld to be reconciled to the Church I should be for this world in all likelihood vtterly vndone and that which grieued me more I should be reiected of your Maiesty my most redoubted Lord and Master and despised by all my deare friends and louers in England 15 These were my thoughts at the Spaw which did so vex and afflict my soule as that the waters could doe my bodie no good at all but rather much hurt Neuerthelesse I auoided the company of Catholikes abstained from the Church and did both dispute write against the Church of Rome as occasion was offred I still hoped that time would giue me better counsell and therefore resolued to goe from the Spaw to Heidelberg to doe my duty there In the mean time I thought with my selfe It may be God hath moued his Maiesties heart to think of peace and reconciliation I know his disposition was so in the beginning and I remember Master CAVSABON tould me when I brought him out of France that his errand was nothing else but to mediate peace betweene the Church of Rome and the Church of England Therefore I thought before I would submit my selfe to the Church of Rome I would write vnto Master CAVSABON such a letter as he might shew vnto your Maiestie containing such conditions as I thought might satisfie your Maiesty if they were performed by the Church of Rome The copy of which letter is too long heere to set downe But when Master CAVSABON answered me that he knew your Maiesty was resolued to haue no society with the Church of Rome vpon any condition whatsoeuer and that it would be my vndoing if those my letters should come to your Maiesties hands or of those that bare the sway I began to despaire of my returne into England vnlesse I would ouerthrow both the health of my body and the quiet of my minde and either vtterly damne mine owne soule or greatly endanger not only my liuing and credit but my life it selfe also by reason of your Maiesties displeasure and the seueritie of the Statutes made and in force against Catholikes and Catholike Religion 16 There is a Statute in England made by King HENRY the eight to make him supreame head of the Church in Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall causes which Statute enioynes all the subiects of England on paine of death to beleeue and to sweare they do beleeue that it is true And yet all the world knowes if King HENRY the eight could haue gotten the Pope to diuorce Queene KATHERINE that he might marry ANNE BOLEINE that Statute had neuer beene made by him and if that Title had not enabled the King to pull downe Abbeyes and Religious houses and giue them to Lay-men the Lords and Commons of that time would neuer haue suffered such a Statute to be made This Statute was continued by Queene ELIZABETH to serue her owne turne and it is confirmed by your Maiesty to satisfie other men And yet your Maiesty yeeldeth the Church of Rome to be the Mother Church and the Bishop of Rome to be the chiefe Bishop or Primate of all the Westerne Churches which I doe also verily beleeue and therefore I doe verily thinke he hath or ought to haue some spirituall Iurisdiction in in England And although in my yonger dayes the fashion of the world made me sweare as other men did for which I pray God forgiue me yet I euer doubted and am now resolued that no Christian man can take that oath with a safe conscience neither will I euer take it to gaine the greatest preferment in the world 17 There is another Statute in England made by Queene ELIZABETH and confirmed by your Maiesty that it is death for any English man to be in England being made a Priest by authoritie deriued or pretended to be deriued from the Bishop of Rome I cannot beleeue that I am a Priest at all vnlesse I be deriued by authority from GREGORY the Great from whence all the Bishops in England haue their being if they haue any being at all 18 There is another Statute in like manner made and confirmed that it is death to be reconciled by a Catholike Priest to the Church of Rome I am perswaded that the Church of Rome is our Mother Church and that no man in England can be saued that continues wilfully out of the visible vnitie of that Church and therefore I cannot choose but perswade the people to be reconciled thereunto if possibly they can 19 There is another Statute in

with the light of the Gospell held in extreame ignorance are not yet so vncapable but they will be glad to heare of the truth when it shall be simply and euidently deliuered by honest men and then they will plainly see that their light of the Gospell which they so much talke of is but a counterfeit light in a Theeues lanterne whereby honest mens eyes is dazeled and their purses robbed And it will also appeare that there is not indeed any such irreconciliable opposition betwixt the Church of England and the Church of Rome as they that liue by the Schisine doe make the world beleeue there is neither in matter of Doctrine nor matter of State 21 For matter of Doctrine there is no reason that your Maiesty or the Kingdome should be molested or burthened for the maintenance of Caluinisme which is as much against the religion of England as it is against the religion of Rome and will by necessary consequence ouerthrow not only the Catholike Church the Communion of Saints and the forgiuenes of sins but also all the Articles of the Creed sauing only so much as the Turke himselfe will be content to beleeue which will be easie to proue vpon better leasure The Doctrine of England is that which is contained in the Common-prayer booke and Church Catechisme confirmed by Act of Parliament and by your Maiesties Edict wherein all English-men are Baptised and ought to be confirmed and therefore there is some reason that this should be stood vpon But this Doctrine in most of the maine points thereof as hath bin touched before and requireth a iust treatise to set downe in particular doth much differ from the current opinions and Catechismes of Caluinisme or doth very neere agree with or at least not contradict the Church of Rome if we list with patience to heare one another And those points of Doctrine wherm we are made to be at warres with the Church of Rome whether we will or not do rather argue the corruptions of that State from whēce they come then are argued by the grounds of that religion whereupon they stand and the contradiction of Doctrine hath followed the alteration of State and not the alteration of State bin grounded vpon any truth of Doctrine 22 For when the breach was resolued vpon for the personall and palticular ease of King HENRY the eight and the children of his latter wiues it was necessary to giue euery part of the Common-wealth contentment for which they might hold out in the heat of affection and studie to maintayne the breach otherwise it was likely that in the clearnesse of iudgement it would quickly haue growne together againe then the Authors therof must haue been excluded and giuen account of their practise 23 Therefore to the Lords and Fauorites of the Court were giuen the lands and inheritance of the Abbeyes and Religious houses that hauing once as it were washed their hands in the bowels and bloud of the Church both they and their posteritie might be at vtter defiance therewith And so hauing ouerthrowne and prophaned the good workes of the Saints it was necessarie for them to get them Chaplains that might both dispute preach and write against the merits of good Works the Invocation of Saints the sacrifice of the Altar praier for the Dead and all such points of Catholike doctrine as were the grounds of those churches and religious houses which they had ouerthrowne and prophaned And it was not hard for those Chaplains by some shew of Scripture to proue that which their Lords and their followers were so willing to beleeue 24 To the Commons was giuen great hope of reliefe for their poucrtie ease of Subsidies and of the burden of so great a Clergie and many other goodly gay Nothings And for the present they should haue libertie and the benefit of common law that is leaue to liue by such Lawes as themselues list to make and to contemne the authority of the Church which although it were for their benefit euery way yet because it crossed their affections like way ward children they could neuer abide it And was not this reason enough for them to hold out the breach and to studie Scripture themselues that they might be able to confute Confession Satisfaction Penance and to declaim against all that Tyrannie of the Church of Rome whereby themselues and their forefathers had beene kept in awe and obedience vnto God and their Kings 25 To the Clergy men that would turn with the times besides the possibilitie of present preferment by the alteration was giuen shortly after leaue to Marrie and to purchase and to enioy the profit and pleasure of the World as well as the Laitie And what carnall minded Monke or Priest would not with might and maine keepe open the breach after he was once plunged in it rather then be in danger to forgoe so pleasing a commoditie Hence did arise a necessitie of speaking and writing against Vowes Virginitie Pouertie Fasting Praying Watching Obedience and all that austeritie of life which is by the Lawes of the Church required in a Monasticall and Priestly conuersation 26 Vpon these conditions the Lords the Commons and the Clergie were content to beleeue that the King was supreme head of the Church of England not that they did thinke so indeede or that they desired to augment his authoritie but that they might be protected by him and freely enioy those commodities which they thought Schisme had brought vnto them and feared the vnitie of the Church might againe take from them Hence did arise a necessitie of inveighing against the Pope and the Church of Rome as against Antichrist and Babilon and the greatest Enemies of the state of England In so much that that Clergie man was most acceptable to them and in their opinion most worthie of prefermēts that could most confidently preach and write the most foule and monstruous assertions of the Pope and the Church of Rome though they were neuer so false These and such like are those temporall respects which would faine seeme the daughters of those doctrines which them selues haue brought forth and to bee diuided from the Catholike Church by doctrine when they themselues haue caused the doctrine of diuision 27 In all these and all other doctrine of diuision Men haue receiued great countenance encouragement from Geneua For although M. IOHN CALVIN were neuer any good Subiect or Friend to Bishop Duke or King yet he did so fit the Common people with new Doctrine that no Gospell can be so pleasing to them nor so lightsome as his For finding Geneua to be fallen out both with their Bishop who was their ancient Prince and their Duke to whom they pretended against their Bishop and to be all in a combustion among themselues for want of gouernment although he were then a stranger and a very yong man of some six and twenty or seuen and twenty yeares old at the most yet he thought good vpon the oportunity