either grounded upon or warranted by the Instruction left by S. Peter to his fellow Pastours in these words 1 Pet. 5. Feed the flock of God which is among you providing not by constraint but willingly according to God neither for filthy lucre sake but voluntarily neither as over-ruling the Clergy but made Examples of the flock from the heart From these words some gather this difference betwixt the Spiritual and Temporal Power that the one is accompanied with the power of Constraint the other not I know the word Coacte is sometimes expounded otherwise and that some and in particular V. Bede understand by it the exclusion of that Mercenary interest which in service some propose to themselves while others serve for Love And this sence is without doubt a good and a true one but I know not whether the Apostle meant it though peradventure he or rather his Inspirer might according to S. Austin's Rule That all the Truth was meant by God which is contained in the words he Inspired Otherwise that seems to be the import of the Second Branch Not for lucre but voluntarily and this Interpretation with a needless tautology makes the two branches signifie but one thing which the Apostle seems nevertheless to distinguish However it be considering that before S. Peter Christ himself puts Dominion and non-dominion for the difference betwixt Secular and Spiritual Power The Kings of the Gentiles have dominion over them but you not so Luke 22.25 And that S. Paul tells the Corinthians The arms of his warfare are not carnal Cor. 10. I conceive that whatever S. Peter meant this doctrine is very true that Force and Constraint belong only to the Civil Magistrate and not to the Spiritual I mean in vertue of his being a Spiritual Magistrate for these Formalities of which you profess'd so much dislike return again in spight of my teeth and there is no discoursing without them Otherwise the man who is a Spiritual Magistrate may upon other accounts justly have and justly use Constraint nay it may be his due in consideration of his Spiritual Magistracy but not originally deduc'd from thence but annexed to it or accrued by other means According to S. Bernard mentioned in my last Not by right of Apostleship Now if I can make out to you that it may irreprovably be held in our Church that this Spiritual Power of which you are so jealous cannot use Force or Constraint upon any man I hope you will have no cause of complaint against it nor fewel for those fears which still disquiet you For certainly a Power which cannot use Force is a little dangerous If it can perswade you to what it would you then act by your Inclination or Choice but if it cannot you are free to do what you will And I think you would not wish to be more safe Consider then what men they are whom they must reprove who will reprove this Doctrine And first S. Hierom delivers it very plainly Epitaph Nepot Ep. 3. We must obey the Bishop as the King nay the Bishop less than the King for he is over the unwilling the Bishop over the willing One subjects by Fear the other is given to Service One imprisons the Body to death the other preserves the Soul to life S. Greg. Nazian Apologet We ought not to constrain by Force or Necessity but perswade by Reason and Example of our lives Again Our Law and Law-maker have especially provided that the flock be fed not by constraint but freely and willingly And Orat. 1. cont Jul. Apost These things Julian had in his mind as those who were privy to his secrets discovered but he was restrained by the clemency of God and the tears of the Christians whereof many and by many had now been shed since this was their only remedy against a Persecutor S. Jo. Chrysost in Act. Hom. 3. comparing the care of a Bishop with the care of a Father makes that of a Bishop much more heavy as having more Children and less Power What saies he will not the Bishop endure who has so many not of his houshold Family but whose Obedience is in their own power Again The Emperour has command over the whole world the Bishop is Bishop only of one City and yet he has as much more care as there is difference betwixt a River stir'd with the wind and the Sea swelling and raging Why so because there are there more helps since all things are perform'd by Laws and Commands here is no such thing for it is not lawful to command by Authority Hom. 10. in 1. Thessalon A Father both by Natural and Civil Laws uses his Child with much freedome If he instruct him against his will if he strike him none hinders him nor dares the Son himself look up A Priest has much difficulty for first he must rule those that are willing to be ruled and whom by his government he is to please Again We domineer not over your Faith Beloved nor order these things by the right of command and dominion To us is commended the speech of Doctrine not the Authority of Power and Principality We hold the place of Counsellors and Exhortors He who counsels when he delivers his opinion forces not the hearer to accept it but leaves in his power the free choice of what is to be done And Hom. 1. in Ep. ad Tit. I omit to say that a Bishop cannot with truth be called a Prince Why Because it is in the Power of their Subjects to obey or not Again De Sacerdot L. 2. External Judges when they find wicked men who have transgrest the Laws shew themselves endued with great Power and Authority and force them to change their manners whether they will or no. But here we must not use force but only perswade and by that means make him become better whose cure we have undertaken For neither have we any Power given by Law to force Delinquents and if we had we have not whereon to exercise this force and Power since Christ gives an eternal Kingdom to those who not by force but by a firm resolution of the soul abstain from sin Wherefore there is need of much art that Christians who are ill-affected will perswade themselves that they ought submit to the cure of Priests Again upon these words in the last to the Heb. Hom. Ult. Obey your Prelates that they may do this with joy not lamenting c. You see that when an Ecclesiastical Prince is contemned he ought not return revenge but all his revenge is to weep and sigh And upon Isa 6. Hom. 4. The King forces the Priest exhorts He with necessity this by counsel He has sensible this spiritual arms c. S. Aust de fide oper C. 2. says The material sword used in the Old Testament by Moyses and Phinees was a figure of the degradations and excommunications to be exercised in the New when in the discipline of the Church the visible sword should cease Origen
of the Learned Men who Write in favour of the Pope stick to that way As Bellarmin is the most famous amongst them and most at hand I choose his Arguments believing as he was a Man of great Reading he fail'd not to make use of all that was considerable in those who Writ before him and seeing those who Write since borrow most from him He has Five in his Book De Rom. Pont. and Four in his Answer to Barklay The First are Answered by Barklay and better by Withrington and every one who Writes of this Subject takes notice of them In Answering I make use chiefly of Withrington inserting only upon occasion what I find in others Only to indulge something to my fancy and ease it of the grievous pain of Transcribing I neither tie my self to the order nor preciseness of the Arguments but make entire Arguments of themselves what the Author meant sometimes a proof of some part of an Argument going before While you have the Substance I hope you will allow me a little Variety for my own ease Bellarmin then After he had taught against the Canonists That the Spiritual and Civil Power are in themselves distinct and have different Offices different Ends c. yet when these two meet together then he affirms they make but one Commonwealth in which the Spiritual Power is superiour to the Temporal For saies he there cannot be two Heads and therefore one Power must of necessity be subject to the other when they both Club into one Commonwealth But this they do where the Law of Christ is receiv'd For we being many are one Body in Christ Rom. 12. And in one Spirit we were all baptiz'd into one Body 1 Cor. 12. And because the Members of the same Body must depend one of another and Spirituals cannot be said to depend on Temporals Temporals must depend on Spirituals and be subject to them To this they Answer differently Some granting the Spiritual and Temporal Power make but one Commonwealth affirm the Members independent one of another as the Hand depends not on the Foot nor the Foot on the hand but each free and absolute in their proper Functions are subject only to the Supream Head Christ Others in my opinion more rationally deny the Two Powers club into one Commonwealth and say The Spiritual makes one and the Temporal another and to many others as there are Independent Heads of this Power That the same men in different respects make both these Bodies and that as Clergy and Laity and all not excepting the Prince himself in as much as they are Faithful are subject to the Spiritual Power according to the nature of Spiritual Subjection so the same Laity and Clergy not excepting the Pope himself in as much as they are Citizens and parts of the Temporal Commonwealth are subject to the Temporal Power that is for as much as concerns the Law of God purely and abstracting from Humane Constitutions and such Changes as time has brought into the World For now the Pope is himself an absolute Prince and other Clergy Men have Priviledges and Immunities justly belonging to them When therefore 't is assumed that the Church is one Body they distinguish this word Church and say if it be taken Formally that is the Faithful under the notion of Faithful then indeed they make but one Body but neither doth this Body include both Powers for 't is only the Spiritual to which they are subject as Faithful as Citizens they belong to the Temporal But if the word Church be taken Materially for the Men which make up the Church an Acception something improper but yet such as comprehends both Powers then say they In this sence the Church is not one Body but two or if you vvill twenty as many as there are several Supream Temporal Powers in Christendom One Spiritual in relation to the Spiritual Power and which is properly the Church The rest Temporal in relation to their several Temporal Heads And this Answer as it seems fair in it self and justified by the sence and apprehension of Mankind for France and Spain for example both acknowledge the Pope and are both parts of the Church and that one Body of which the Apostle speaks but he that should therefore think them not to be Two distinct Bodies and Independent Common-wealths would be thought something extravagant so 't is a little more strongly inforc'd against Bellarmin by other parts of his own Doctrine For he teaches elsewhere That Church-men besides that they are Church-men are also Citizens and parts of the Civil Common-wealth and that all Members of every Body must be subject to their respective Head That the Civil and Spiritual Power are in their nature distinct Powers and have distinct Offices and Ends c. and that Christ did distinguish the Dignities and Offices of Pope and Emperour that one should not presume upon the Rights of the other That Christian Princes as well as Infidels acknowledge no Superiour in Temporals since Christ took not away the Rights of any and a King by becoming a Christian loses no Right he had before and the like Besides this Answer seems wonderfully strengthned by some Authorities mentioned in the former Letters Such as Gelasius to the Emperour Anastasius The Prelates of the Church owe you all Obedience And again The Bishops themselves are to obey your Laws and that because there are Two principal Powers by which the World is Governed the Sacred Authority of Bishops and Regal Power Likewise Pope Anastasius to the same Emperour Bishops are subject to the Laws of the Prince in what concerns Public Discipline and Princes to Bishops in the dispensation of the Mysteries and Sacraments according to the famous Canon of Leo the IV. Nos si incompetenter It is to be noted that there are Two Persons by which this world is governed The Regal and Sacerdotal as Kings are Chief in Worldly so Priests in Divine matters Therefore David though by his Regal Vnction he were over Priests and Prophets in affairs of the World yet was under them in those of God Much more might be alledged on this Subject but this I conceive is enough to shew the Answer given to Bellarmin has the support of Authority as well as Reason A Second Argument is from the ends of both Powers whereof one being Eternal the other Temporal happiness because the Eternal happiness is the Supream and Last end of all things Temporal happiness must be subordinate to it And because according to Aristotle where the Ends are subordinate the Faculties likewise are subordinate the Civil Power which aims only at Temporal happiness must be subordinate and subject to the Spiritual which looks after Eternal This Argument they Answer likewise two waies First by granting the whole which they say concludes nothing against them For admitting the Temporal Power to be subordinate to the Spiritual nothing follows more than than 't is under the other according to the Order which the other
equality or else they make the Disturbance and Hazard of the Commonwealth no mischief which that Bellarmin should go about to perswade them argues he had more confidence in his Logic than they have Opinion of his Judgment 'T is great pity this Doctrine if it be true was not in fashion a little sooner the Ignorance of it cost the life of many a good Christian and the Bloud of abundance of Innocent Men shed in Ten Persecutions might have been saved if the first Masters of Christianity had Instructed People a little better and made them understand the convenient use of their Power For it had been but Antidating a little the course of Providence and setting up a Christian Emperour in the place of Nero or Dioclesian and all had been well And 't is a little strange those Primitive Christians whom none suspects of want of Zeal either understood or practis'd their duty no better Neither the one nor the other saies Bellarmin but the Reason why they Depos'd not Nero and Dioclesian and the Apostate Julian and Valens the Arian was because they wanted Force For that they wanted not Right nor the Knowledge of it is apparent by the Apostle who 1 Cor. 16. bids the Christians appoint New Judges and if they could make New Judges they might as well have made New Kings if their Force had been equal to their Justice But certainly some body is extreamly out Bellarmin or his Adversaries for they affirm very confidently that the Primitive Christians were not so weak and helpless as he pretends S. Peter himself liv'd in Nero's time and he had power to restore the dead to life and cast the living into sudden death A body would think this was Power enough in conscience and that Nero with all his Guards and Legions was not more secure of his Empire against this miraculous and unresistable Force than Ananias of his life It was not then for want of Power that he taught Christians to be subject to the King as most excelling c. and choose to lay down his own life amongst the rest rather then practice an expedient which Bellarmin thinks so necessary and which to him had been easie enough if he had been of Bellarmins mind But to speak only of Humane Power Tertullian liv'd in those daies and Writ what he saw and knew He affirms the contrary to what Bellarmin thinks very plainly Apologet. C. 37. Should we want Numbers or Forces if we had a mind to be open Enemies not secret Revengers Are the Moors and Marcomans and Parthians and whatever Nations of one place and confin'd to their own Limits more than those of the whole World We are but Men of yesterday and yet have filled all the places you have your Cities Islands Castles Burroughs Councels and Camp it self your Tribes Courts Palaces the Senate and the Market We have left you only the Temples For what War are not we fit and ready even though we were Inferiour in Number who endure death so willingly if in this Discipline it were as lawful to Kill as to be killed c Eusebius L. 8 c. 1. Writing of the times before Dioclesian Who shall describe saies he the numerous Congregations and multitudes of meetings in every City and the open concourse to Oratories for which not content with the Ancient Buildings they in every City set up spacious and Large Churches from the very Foundations A thing testifi'd by Maximinus himself who saies to Sabinus that Dioclesian and Maximinian commanded Christians to be proceeded against because they saw Omnes ferè mortales All men generally leaving the Worship of the gods Euseb L. 9. C 9. unite themselves to the Christians The Army of Julian too was almost all Christian say Historians in so much that when Jovinian chosen Emperour after his death shew'd a backwardness to his Election as being himself a Christian and unwilling to take the Command of Men accustomed to Wickedness under Julian Theodor. L. 4. C. 1. they all cry'd out He should not doubt and refuse a Command not Wicked That he should be an Emperour of Christians and Men brought up in Discipline and Piety which the Elder of them learnt of Constantine and the Younger of Constantius and that if Julian had circumvented some he liv'd not long enough to settle the Mischief S. Austin too testifies of them In Psal 124. that They could at their pleasure have deposed Julian but would not because they were subject for Necessity not only to avoid Anger but for Conscience and Love and because our Lord so commanded And abundance more they alledge in this kind To the Proof which Bellarmin brings from 1 Cor. they Reply That since the Christians had Force enough to Create New Judges they see not why they had not Force enough to Create New Kings too And the truth is if the Judges meant by the Apostle were such as could claim and exercise the Authority invested in those who were appointed by the Prince it was little less than to set up New Kings or at least deprive their Old of a good part of the Subjection due to them For he that refuses to submit to a Magistrate Commissionated by a Prince makes more bold with the Prince himself than is consistent with the duty of a Subject For since the Inferiour Judge has his Authority from the Prince to refuse it is in plain terms to refuse the Authority of the Prince Which the Apostle they think was far enough from Authorizing or even perswading Christians to do They conceive then that what the Apostle did in this case is no more than what Good Judges ought to do at this day it being no unusual thing for them to wish the parties not to expect the Rigour of the Law but compound their Differences fairly amongst themselves to which purpose they either Assign or leave them to choose Umpires themselves Yet all this while never intend by their Charitable Compassion to forfeit their own Right or debar the Parties from having recourse to them again if the other Method proves not to their satisfaction Such say they was the Apostles meaning in that place He desired to prevent as much as might be all Contentions among the Faithful at least the Scandal of their breaking out and being taken notice of in the Courts of Heathens To this purpose he wishes them to keep their Frailties from becoming public and if they could not avoid Contentions at least to end them by the Judgment of Men chosen amongst themselves but never intended to invest the Men so chosen with an Authority any way prejudicial to that of the lawful Magistrate Even now say they the Apostles whether Counsel or Command is still in force and People do ill who expose their Frailties to the knowledge of Public Courts notwithstanding if they will needs go to Law Courts have their full Power now as they had then and as much as if S. Paul had never written any such thing
He has besides a second sentence of the Popes against the Barons of England by name wherein he speaks in this manner We would have you know that lately in a General Council we did excommunicate and anathematize the Barons of England moreover we do excommunicate and anathematize We aggravate our hand more strongly against them c. This bears date 17 Calend. Jan. the 16 Decemb. of the same year and 't is clear by the Pope's expressions that before this time the Council was ended and it may be had been a good while If these 60 Canons were all examined with that maturity which becomes a Council and so decreed Councils at that time were much nimbler then now a dayes If proceedings then had one quarter of the flegm we use now their suspicion is not altogether without ground who think the consultations then on foot were interrupted by the breaking out of suddain wars and nothing brought to conclusion Withrington takes another exception to this Canon which he says comes not home to the purpose nor can by the rules of Law be interpreted to extend to Soveraign Princes because as he says in construction of Law such Princes at least in penal or as they call them odious matters are never understood to be included in general words as Lords Magistrates and the like no more then the Pope when only Bishop is named or Abbot by the word Monk If it had been meant of Soveraign Princes it had been as easy to have named them expresly as temporal Lords and they were so named in other Decrees even of this Council Besides this very Decree in the very same words changing only spiritual punishments into temporal was publisht within 5 years by the Emperor and it cannot be imagined he meant to make Soveraign Princes subject to his Laws or had power so to do though he meant it These and several other things may be say'd but in my opinion they need not for there is another answer free from the intricacies whether of Law or History and which to my apprehension is both easy and plain Every body knows that Decrees of Councils are of two sorts Some declare what is to be believed others prescribe something to be done And every body knows that these two are of very different natures To refuse Decrees of Faith is to renounce the communion of that Church whose Representative the Council is that is the whole Church if the Council be general unless there be a just exception against their proceeding For Faith is that by which a Church is a Church and if you be of a different Faith you cannot be of the same Church But for the other sort of Decrees when they concern civil matters because those whose business it is to manage them are supposed to be better acquainted with them then spiritual men whose business it is to attend to spirituals neither reason nor custom allows them any force till they be received by particular Countries and by that reception made binding For it were very unreasonable one Law should bind all Countries when that which is convenient in one place may be and often is prejudicial in another We in England acknowledg no Law but by consent of Parliament In France they require Verification as they call it in their highest Courts of Justice Every Country has its particular method but what has not past this test is currant no where And this is a notorious thing for default of which there is none who knows not that these kind of Decrees of the Council of Trent are not obliging in France to this day Again t is equally notorious that the Canon in question is of this second sort Wherefore 't is as plain as can be that unless it can be made appear It has been duly receiv'd and by such reception become binding of itself it is not binding any where I mean where both powers are not united to command it For where the Pope has the Authority of a temporal Prince there both powers concur I forbear to touch several things mentioned pertinently enough As how Bishops in Council should order temporal penalties who out of Council unless they have a share of temporal power communicated otherwise to them cannot go beyond spiritual A Congregation of Bishops is but so many Bishops nor is it easy to conceive how their meeting together should invest them with an authority of another kind and such as is not proper to Bishops To which purpose a famous Canonist upon occasion of temporal penalties inflicted by a certain Canon inquires what the Pope had to do with temporals and answers truly nothing but he ordered that penalty in vertue of the Emperors consent who was present and approv'd it So that when Councils make such kind of Decrees 't will be hard to make out any other Authority by which they make them than the consent of Princes concern'd But these considerations and several other I pass by the former being plain in it self and plainly doing the business The Decree in question is of that kind which all the world knows is not binding but where and only where t is receiv'd Either produce this reception or t is to no more purpose to urg it then to alledg the authority of a Bill thrown out of one of the Houses or not assented to by the King Upon the whole if there had gone a little more knowledg to Bellarmin's zeal 't would have been so much the better He undertakes to prove that general Councils teach evidently that Princes may be depos'd by the Pope and brings in proof a Decree which teaches nothing but orders that which none is bound to obey unless he live in a Country who have made it a Law to themselves if any such Country there be And if this be his evident teaching it will be concluded that his Doctrine in this point can be taught no otherwise then by a teaching which evidently is no teaching Bellarmin concludes with the Council of Lyons under Innocent 4. in which there was publisht a sentence of deposition against the Emperor Frederick 2. This as Art requires at a close he sets forth as gloriously as he can Having related the later part of the sentence This says he is the sentence of the Soveraign Bishop with approbation of the whole Council that is with the consent and praise of the Vniversality of Christian Prelates And yet one I know not who dares dispute against it and publish his Book and cast a mist before the eyes of the simple and so goes on to the end of the Chapter amplifying the boldness and rashness of standing in opposition to so many and so learned and so holy men whom for the greater solemnity he gathers all into one great Council excommunicating and deposing by Apostolick Authority Heretical Princes or Patrons of Hereticks And upon this fancy of making one Council of all ages he is so intent that he quite forgets that Heretical Princes were no part of the
Melchisedech That when Christ being a King and a Priest received all judgment of the Father that is most full judicial power He joyning the same with his Priesthood did institute in the Church a regal Priesthood translating in suos I conceive he means St. Peter and his Successors all the power he had of his Father This new coronation of King Peter so long after his death and the mystery of King and Priest meeting in Melchisedech which St. Paul never dreamt of though he treat the subject particularly and something to better purpose and the admirable expedient to avoid dissentions by taking away Regal power are pleasant matters and deserve to be reflected on but that I have so much of this divertive stuff to produce that I cannot stay every where Thomas Bozius tells us Tho. â—ozias de jure stat praefat ad Aldobrand that if Christ be King of Kings and Lord of Lords in like sort the Church must be Queen and Lady that all temporal Regal power doth reside first in the soul of Christ and then in the Church his Spouse the Queen of the World and from her is deriv'd to others Faithful or Infidels as out of a fountain Isid Moscon de Majest militant Eccles P. 96. Isidorus Mosconius sayes to the same purpose That not only all faithful people but likewise Infidels and every natural creature is subject to the commandment of the Pope he is to be worshipped of all men and for this cause he receiveth of all the faithful adorations prostrations and kissing of his feet What pretty truths there are in the World which negligent men overslip by inadvertence who would have thought the Mogul and King of Pegu and Chinese Tartar had deriv'd their little streams of power from the great Channel of the Church Ungrateful men who so little acknowledge their Benefactors But since all natural creatures are subject to his commands I wish some body that has credit would prevail with him that Lyons and Bears and Adders and such naughty natural creatures might be forbidden to do us any harm for the future For as simple as he seems to sit at Rome and though he is pleased to make but little shew of any such power he can stop the mouths of Lyons and quench the violence of Fire So that had we not been Hereticks he might have done us a greater kindness here at London in the time of the fate dismal Fire then we are aware of I warrant you he could have whisper'd down the wind and with one grave Nod have cool'd the courage of the Fire But let us return to Mosconius P. 91 teaching us farther that the Pontifical and Regal power and all other powers are most plentiful in the Pope and do reside in the Pontifical dignity That all dominions whatsoever depend upon the Church P. 656. and upon the Pope as Head of the Church That in the Pope Authority is consider'd in Emperors and Kings power P. 670. and thence it is that power doth depend upon Authority P. 27. That the Pope is call'd universal Judge King of Kings and Lord of Lords P. 677. That Emperors and Kings may be compell'd to keep their oaths taken in their Coronation and Confirmation in that by virtue of such oath they are made the Popes Subjects P. 80. That all temporal Jurisdiction must be exercised not at the Popes command but at his Beck Princes will charge command God who is Lord of all doth by his beck command according to that Dixerat nutu totum tremefecit Olympum That Christ had full Jurisdiction over all the world and all creatures P. 85. and therefore the Pope his Vicar hath so In truth these Authors of yours are considerative men and as careful as they are able They reflect that Popes are generally old men and have often weak lungs and 't was charitable to exempt them from the painful trouble of commanding and make a nod serve the turn Carrerius in his zeal against impious Politicians and Heretics teaches us That true just ordain'd by God Alex. Carrer de Potest Rom. Pont. p. 9. and mere dominion as well in spiritual things as in temporal was brought forth by Christ and the same was committed to St. Peter and his Successors That Christ was Lord over all Inferiors P. 111. not only as God but likewise as man having even then Dominion in the earth and that therefore as the dominion of the world was in Christ both divine and humane so it must be confessed that it was in the Pope his Vicar That the mystery of Redemption being accomplisht Christ as a King gave unto Peter the administration of his Kingdom and St. Peter did execute that his power against Ananias and Saphira That Ghrist as he is man is directly Lord over all the world in Temporalities P. 124. and that therefore the Pope is so likewise in that he is Vicar That the supreme power of judging all and the top of dignities P. 126. and the height of both powers are found in Christs Vicar That as the divine and humane dominion were in Christ P. 150. so in Christs stead the dominion of the world in the Pope is both spiritual and temporal P. 151. divine and humane That the unremovable Truth doth design by Peters only coming by water to Christ that the whole dominion which is signified by the Sea is committed to St. Peter and his Successors 'T is quaint that and surprizing but yet this water me thinks is something an unstedy foundation That as the Pope cannot say he is not Christs Vicar so he cannot deny but that he is Lord over all things because the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof whereby all things heavenly earthly and infernal are subject unto Christ the Lord and thence it is that he did commit unto the Pope who doth supply his place upon earth the right of the Heavenly and Terrene Empire That he should forget the infernal Empire the famous Purgatory power which for all it be under ground time has been when no glebe above ground has been more fruitful Elsewhere he teaches that there are divers Powers of men given by God P. 142. and divers Authorities all which do depend upon the highest Authority meaning I suppose the Popes and thence as the stars from the sun receive their light That the Imperial power concerning the administration of temporal matters doth proceed from the Pontifical power P. 145. as the light of the Moon from the light of the Sun P. 161. That the Empire of Rome before it was converted to Christ was a dominion usurpt and tyrannical because the true dominion was in the line of Christ That the Emperor is the Popes Minister for God did appoint him tanquam summi Sacerdotis Ministrum That no King or Emperor hath jurisdiction or dominion but from Christ and by consequence can have none at all but from his
Vicar I understand now the reason St. Peter commands Christians to be obedient to the Authority of Heathen Princes and Governours because he knew very well how they came by it For though all their power before was usurp'd and tyrannical yet after they had deriv'd it from him it became a lawful Authority If our wicked Politicians be not confounded with this I know not what will do it I am sure I am to meet with such stuff in a Church which boasts of purity of her doctrine and which cherishes the Authors not only as good Christians but learned men and Masters of Christianity Lael Zecch Tract Theol. P. 81. Laelius Zecchius tells us that the Pope by the Law of God hath power and temporal dominion over the whole world That the same is prov'd by the words Luk. 22. Behold here are two swords which signifie the power spiritual and temporal and because Christ whose Vicar the Pope is hath both powers according to the words Matt. ult All power is given me in heaven and in earth that thence it may be deduced that the Pope is absolutely Lord of all the Christian world and Kings and Christian Princes are to acknowledge that they hold of him their Empires and Kingdoms and all that are faithful ought to be subject unto him and that as oft as such Princes do any great hurt in the Church the Pope may deprive them of their Kingdoms and transfer their right to others Franciscus Bozius Fran. Boz de temp Eccle. Monarch l. 1. c. 3. p. 52. C. 7. p. 98. That the supreme temporal Jurisdiction throughout all the world doth belong to S. Peter's Successors so as one and the same is the Hierarch and Monarch in all things That Christ left the Church to be govern'd by the best form of government but the best form of government is absolute Monarchy even in all temporal things therefore Christ left his Church to be so govern'd That the Keys of Heaven were given to Peter L. 2. c. 14. L. 3. c. 1. p. 894. therefore of all the earth That the right of dominion and relation of Infidels may justly by the sentence and ordination of the Church be taken away because Infidels by reason of their infidelity deserve to lose their power over the faithful C. 14. p. 530. c. 14. p. 530. That the Church hath receiv'd that power over Nations which Christ according to his humane nature reciev'd of his Father but Christ receiv'd absolutely of his Father all power in temporalibus therefore the Church likewise receiv'd it by participation of his fulness c. 16. p. 537. That the supreme coactive power in all temporal things belongeth to Ecclesiastical persons by divine Law revealed and expressed in the Scriptures That Kings P. 676. annointed with holy Oil are called as Vassals of the Church That by reason of the supreme Monarchy in all things L. 5. p. 823. temporal laws may be made and Kingdoms taken away for just causes Henricus Gandavensis if Carrerius cite him truly Car. p. 28. That by the Law of God and nature the Priesthood doth over-top the Empire and both Jurisdiction over Spiritualties and Temporalties and the immediate execution likewise of them both depend upon the Priesthood both by the Law of God and Nature Carr. p. 130. Antoninus That they who say the Pope hath dominion over all the world in Spirituals but not in Temporals are like the Counsellors of the King of Syria who said the Gods of the Mountains are their Gods and therefore they have overcome 〈◊〉 let us fight with them in the Plains and Valleys where their Gods dwell not and we shall prevail against them Carr. p. 130. 3 Reg. 20. Augustinus Triumphus That the Son of God hath declar'd the altitude of the Ecclesiastical power being as it were founded upon a Rock to be above all principality and power that unto it all knees should bend of things in heaven in earth and under the earth or in hell 'T is come at last this infernal power 't was only long of a bad memory we had it not before P. 131. That Secular Powers were not necessary but that Princes might perform that through terror of discipline which the Priest cannot effect by power of doctrine and that therefore if the Church could punish evil men Imperial and Secular principality were not necessary the same being included potentially in the principality Apostolical And why cannot the Church punish evil men if both Jurisdictions and the immediate execution of both be in her But we understand him well enough when time serves the conclusion shall be that Princes are unnecessary because the Church by her double power can do the business of the world without them And so farewel useless Princes Aug. de Anc. de Potest Ecc. Q. 39. a. 2. Farther he tells us that Imperial or Regal power is borrowed from the Papal or Sacerdotal for as much as concerneth the formality of dignity and recieving the authority Pretty formalities those Q. 45. a. 2. That the Pope hath Jurisdiction over all things as will temporal as spiritual through the world That he may absolve Subjects from the Oath of Allegiance Q. 46. a. 3. That upon just cause he may set up a King in every Kingdom L. Conr. in templ om judic l. 2 c. 1. S 4. for he is the Overseer of all Kingdoms in Gods stead as God is the Supervisor and maker of all Kingdoms Lancecelot Conradus That He may appoint Guardians and Assistants to Kings and Emperors when they are insufficient and unfit for government That he may depose them and transfer their Empires and Dominions from one line to another Celsus Mancinus Cel. Manc l c. 1. That in the highest Bishop both the Powers and Jurisdictions are spiritual and temporal and that as he is the most eminent person of all men in spiritual power Th. Boz de jur stat l. 1. c. 6. p. 37. P. 52. so he is in temporal Thomas Bozius That Kings and principal Seculars are not immediately of God but by the Interposition of Holy Church and her chief Bishops That warlike and military compulsive power is given to the Church over Kings and Princes That if it be found sometimes that certain Emperors have given some temporalities to the highest Bishops as Constantine gave to Silvester this is not to be understood that they gave any thing which was their own but restor'd that which was unjustly and tyrannically taken from the said Bishops Ap. Carrer P. 132. Rodoricus Sancius That there is one Principlity and one supreme-Prince over all the world who is Christ's Vicar according to that of Dan. c 8. He hath given him power and honour and rule and all people and tongues shall serve him and that in him therefore is the fountain and spring of all principality and from him all other powers do flow P. 131. 132 That
and men of several qualities The same person is both a man and a Rich and Proud man a Powerful and an Angry man and we see Wit and Ambition Goodness and Ignorance Learning and Fantasticalness often coupled together and a hundred several mixtures of several qualities united all in one material Man Now consider what fine work there would quickly be if every one of these useless formalities as you call them must be chargeable with all actions if Riches must be taken away because the Rich Proud man has scorn'd and Power because the Powerful Angry man has wronged his Neighbour if Wit must bear the blame of Ambition and Goodnesâ— the miscarriages of Ignorance and Learning the Errors of Fantasticalness Reason is our very Nature and yet I think there are few to whom Nature has not given Logick enough to see that we do not always act as reasonable and who are not learned enough to separate the Animal from the Man To speak yet plainer a severe Father a harsh Master do they not sometimes use their Children and Scholars unreasonably and so as utterly to spoil them A corrupt Judge does he not pervert Justice and render those Tribunals from whence men expect the relief of Injuries the seats of Oppression What then Must the Father and the Master and the Judge be condemned for the faults of the Man and none of these powers left in the world because they have been and daily are abused I think you and every body will confess that this were unreasonable and yet your Argument spares none of them For 't is all one to Children and Pleaders if they be materially opprest and misus'd whether this be done by the fault of the Office or the Officer and small comfort it is to tell them that their Judges and Masters acted in their case as passionate men not as Judges and Masters for they remain opprest still and the formality relieves them not Kings themselves are men too and not exempt from the failings of Mortality Our Country indeed has this amongst other things to thank God for that she has been extraordinarily blest with good Kings but History affords examples of such elsewhere as have been unjust and cruel and tyrannical And if you will not allow the King and his sacred Function to be free from the aspersions to which the Man is sometimes liable let me tell you Friend your Doctrine will be more dangerous and more inconsistent with Government than the Papal pretensions Now as in all these cases and a hundred more which happen every day and every where Nature teaches us to examine the formality from whence the mischief proceeds and endeavour to provide against that and let the rest alone so I think it ought to be in the case of the Church We condemn not Learning because some learned men are fantastical nor Riches for the pride of rich men why must the Church be condemned for the fault of Church-men Authority and Goodness and Wit are not blemisht by the errors of those who have them the Power of Fathers and Masters and Judges is and must be preserved in the world however Severity and Covetise daily abuse it and if this be so in all the rest of the world can you think it reasonable the Church alone should be exempted from the general rule and be more answerable for the faults of those who live in her communion than Authority for the faults of bad men in Authority The faults indeed should be taken away but the Church let alone And truly had your Reformation as you call it gone no farther than to retrench abuses such as these you mention and who knows but there may be other I might peradventure have call'd it so too But instead of abuses to take away Office and all and defie the supreme Pastor of the Church and alter the whole face of Religion there by your favour you reformed a little too far For the same Logic which makes the Church responsible for the errors of Church-men makes the Office responsible for the faults of the Officer and that is to take all Offices out of the world where men will be men and liable to be reduced from the path of vertue in spight of all preventions possible in such a nature as ours I hope by this time that distinction does not appear so airy and useless as you imagined you shall permit me to add that possibly you are no less concern'd in it than We. For we are not the only men amongst whom Principles inconsistent with Government may be found Remember who they were that ruin'd England by the late War and were guilty of things which to dilate were as unsavoury as needless They were so far from Popery these men that fear of Popery was a chief Engine employed in the mischief Sad fate by the way and preposterous wisdom to destroy our selves for fear of being destroyed and run into Fire and the Sword for fear of Ink and Paper Neither is England the only example Scotland and the Netherlands and Germany and France have felt lamentable effects from the Doctrines of men who would take it for an imputation to have learnt any thing of the Pope So that it is very plain that the Papal is neither the only nor the only dangerous King-deposing power in the world 'T is as plain that these men are neither Infidels nor of our Church so that you must even exercise your Pity too and take them into yours Or if pity will not prevail I hope at least you will take care so to defend your Allegiance a not to overthrow your Church And unless you make your Creed consist but of Eleven Articles I see not how you can disown the Communion of these men for 't will be a strange Catholic Church which communicates neither with the Church of Rome nor her Adversaries Wherefore if your Argument be good and Religion must answer for the faults of those who profess it there is no remedy but Princes to be secure must banish all Religion and People turn Atheists to be honest men and good Subjects Now whatever answer you would give to one who should charge such wicked principles upon your Church because they are maintained by numerous and learned and famous men amongst you the same I give for mine I believe for all your Pique to formalities you would go near to distinguish your Church or Believing men from the Erring men and say you communicate with the Men but not with the Errors So you shall permit me to say for mine and this farther that whatever you say you must of necessity either condemn your selves or absolve us 'T is not that the force of your Argument drives me to that way of answer which I have chosen it being easie to shew the Churches innocence even in your own way and without the help of your disliked formalities Your Argument in short is this Learned men in the Church hold wicked Doctrines therefore the Church
holds them If that Argument be good this likewise of necessity must be good Learned men in the Church hold those Doctrines false and wicked therefore the Church does so too for the same authority cannot but have the same force either way and the Deniers have as much power to remove the imputation from the Church as the affirmers to fix it upon her You have cited if not all yet the most considerable of those who maintain them and they make some ten or twelve 'T is pretty odd that the judgment of ten or twelve men must needs be taken for the judgment of the Church But let that pass by the same rule the judgment of ten or twelve of the contrary must conclude the judgment of the Church for the contrary Wherefore if I produce as many and as famous men for the Negative as you have done for the affirmative 't is without more a do a drawn match and nothing being proved either way the Church is absolved by the Law of nature by which every one is innocent who is not proved nocent But what will become of your Argument if for one of your side I produce two if ten peradventure twenty on the contrary Either you must confess the Argument has no force or the Church innocence efficaciously proved by it unless peradventure you can find some subtile formalities by which you will maintain your single man is stronger than my ten or twenty Now all this is not only possible but already done to my hand by Caron the learned defender of the Irish Remonstrance who in his Loyalty asserted what betwixt Canonists and Divines Schoolmen and Fathers Popes Councils Universities Kingdoms c ' has made a Catalogue of more than two hundred and fifty Defenders of the contrary Doctrine You see then I had no necessity of flying to Formalities to answer your Argument For by your own Rule and Method the Church is proved not to hold the Doctrines you mention and not only so but plainly to hold the contrary nothing being more unreasonable in the world than to give it with the ten against the two hundred or to think that ten is a sufficient number to engage the Church one way and two hundred not sufficient to engage her the other But looking a little nearer unto it me thinks it is of kin to Boccalin's Age pargeted four fingers thick with appearances Strip off the gay Jacket of pretty smartness in which you have drest it and there will remain as little substance and less soundness Learned men say you say such things therefore the Chureh says them What if you be as much mistaken in your Antecedent as Inference and that they prove not learned who say them Words you know are slippery things and you have well exemplified in divers I fear this term Learned men and Learning is no less slippery nor less abused than those which are most so But not to be too severe a Divine is a Learned Man can he therefore prescribe Physic The Metaphysician the Natural the Moral Philosopher the Mathematician the Physician the Lawyer are all esteemed learned men but their learning is confin'd every one to his proper profession out of that their authority is of no moment and they may with all their learning be very ignorant in matters which belong not to them Now consider a little The men whom you have cited are excepting one or two all Canonists and esteemed able men in that profession but every one knows their profession consists in declaring what the meaning of the law is and what the intention of the Law-maker and if they go beyond this they exceed the bounds of their profession Our Question now whether the Pope have or have not such a power to what skill does it belong To the Law Plainly nothing less What the Pope has Commanded and what he meant by the words in which he has exprest his commands is as far as the Lawyer can go but what power he has to command and how far that reaches is quite out of his Sphere If I mistake not for 't is a study in which I have no skill the power of the Lawmaker is a Principle supposed not proved in the Law for if a Lawyer go about to prove it keeping without the limits of his own Art he argues a posteriori thus He has commanded such and such things therefore he has power to command them And this is a proper and good law proof where the first Maxim is that the Law is just and the power of the Law-maker still supposed If the Lawyer venture upon other proof he intrenches upon anothers skill in which possibly he may be very ignorant And he that will not be satisfied with this nor admit his other Maxim Lex non facit injuriam but excepts against Law and Power and all has no remedy but to seek satisfaction elsewhere In fine what the Pope claims from Christ belongs to the Divine what from Reason and the force of Nature to the Philosopher only what he claims to the agreement of men belongs to the Lawyer and in this he ought to be heard in other things he is Sutor ultra crepidam Your discourse therefore which appears so trim and gay in the dress you have given it has no more strength than the authority of a few men in a matter wherein they have no authority and if they had is overpowred by a greater and this methinks you needed not have thought so unanswerable Were you now an Adversary with whom I should think fit to use the Right establisht by the Laws of disputation I should say no more for an Answerer has fully discharged his part who has shewn his Opponents Argument concluding But since we are Friends and write not to convince but inform one another I shall return to my old way which I take to be the way of Nature and endeavour to shew you more minutely how unreasonable it is the Church should be charged with those errors Church signifies a Congregation of Faithful and Faithful Men who have Faith And since Men cannot be without Reason nor Reason without working in them 't is unavoidable that besides the perswasions lodg'd in them by Faith men will have others which proceed from their Reasons to say nothing of Passion and the Animal Nature which has its efficacie upon the Faithful as well as all the rest of mankind Now as in the rest of the actions of men Nature forces us to look into the Principles from whence they proceed and attribute every one to his proper cause which if we did not all would presently turn into confusion So we must here and consider in the actions of the Faithful Whether they act as Faithful or as Men. And those Actions which proceed not from Faith but Reason or Passion are no more to be charg'd upon the Church than the Covetise or Cruelty or whatever faults of men in office upon their Offices And in all this there is
so little subtilty that every body does the like almost in every occasion There remains only to examine upon what Principle those who assert these errors proceed whether upon Faith or some other Faith is a reliance upon some Authority and in our case the Authority of Christ who alone is acknowledged the Author and Revealer of all which we are to believe Wherefore of any point in question it must either be pretended that it was revealed by Christ or it cannot be pretended that it belongs to Faith and if any maintain it upon other grounds so far he acts not as a believer but as otherwise qualified Now there are in the world two principal ways by which claim is made to the Authority of Christ for that which we maintain is Faith and that wherein we do not engage his Authority neither of us say is Faith or that they act as faithful who upon reason or experiment for example maintain any thing The World hopes from the learned industry of the Royal Society the sight of many truths yet hidden from her but all their endeavours can never make Faith of them nor concern your Church in them as considerable members of it as some of them are For they go not your Church-way of Faith They look not into Scripture but Experiments and act as Learned not as Church-men What they shall discover to the World will be revealed not by Christ but by them and if any believe them they will have no Christian but Society-Faith Such is the case of our Church Tradition in her known method by which she pretends to the Authority of Christ If any will run upon their own heads and discourse and maintain things and never look into her Rule She can be no more concerned in their proceedings than the Church of England in those of Gresham Colledge For since Faith is that by which she is a Church and Tradition that by which she comes to Faith people must engage Faith if they will engage the Church and Tradition if they will engage her Faith Wherefore whoever goes about to prove any thing otherwise than by Tradition uses not the method to come to Faith I mean the method approved by our Church and this conclusion whether true or false neither reaches Faith nor aims at it and by consequence cannot belong to the Church or Congregation of the Faithful Now reflect a little upon your Authors and see if they go this way to work and the first thing is the consent of the present Age for Tradition signifying the consent of all Ages 't is a madness to pretend it for that which is not believed so much as by the present Do they or can they even offer at this while they see themselves contradicted by men as learned and farr more numerous While all the Universities of a great Kingdom disapprove and condemn their Doctrine and their Books are burnt in the face of the World by public Justice and the men who do this acknowledged good Catholics all the while Do they or can they pretend the consent of former Ages while they know all Antiquity agrees that for many Ages Popes were so Supreme in Spirituals that in Temporals they were Subjects Such they acknowledged themselves and as such the Emperours treated them When and how and upon what occasion they came to be temporal Princes is known to all who are knowing in History A condition by the way which he who envies them little understands or little loves the good of the Church with which 't was much worse when Popes were hindred from doing their duty by the unjust violence and oppression of powerful men amongst whom they lived Do they alledg the undoubted Testimonies of the Fathers of the Church assembled in a general Council Nothing of this appears in what you have produced The men themselves are most of yesterday All many Ages since Christ and there needs no second Argument to prove any thing that it is not Faith if it can be proved that it began in any Age since the first as these opinions plainly did But consider their Arguments They are either grounded upon some odd interpretation of Scripture as the order of Melchesedech the two Swords St Peters walking on the water and the like or else upon some deduction and reasoning as weak as the water which they mention And this methodt though per impossibile it could prove the thing true yet could never prove it to be Faith There are many things in the world which are so acknowledged to be true that they are withall acknowledged not to be Faith Was it taught by Christ Was it believed by Christians Semper ubique ab omnibus Till this appear it neither is nor can be Catholic Faith But that which I insist upon is that this method is plainly resolved into Reason and can no more engage the Church of Rome than the experimental learning of the Royal Society the Church of England The Authors you produce rely not upon the Authority of Christ testified by an uninterrupted conveyance down to us but upon the strength of their own discourses which if they be weak and fail the Church never undertook that all in her Communion should discourse strongly Neither can she herself do more then testifie of the truths delivered to her and they are such and were so delivered This testimony is all which can be expected from her as a Church speaking of what concerns us to speak of her power to make Ecclesiastical Laws and the like are no part of our case if she fail in this and either testifie that to be delivered which was not so or suppress any thing which was delivered blame her but for this that some Members in her Communion have weak Reasons or strong Passions if you blame her consider the confusion you will bring into the World which I have so much dilated before that to repeat it would be tedious here But will you have a taste of the Churches sense of these things Consider the Hymn made in the first Ages of the Church inserted since by public Authority into her solemn Office received by all the Faithful and used on the Feast of the Epiphany Non eripit mortalia qui Regna dat coelestia Can the Church which prays thus be thought to favour the deposing power Or can her sense appear more plainly than in the consent of an universal practice But let us look upon her in a Council Wickleff amongst other errors had advanced this Proposition Populares c The people may at their pleasure correct their offending Lords Con. Const Sess 8. And this amongst the rest was condemned by the Council of Constance To the same Council was offered another Article worded in this manner Quilibet Tyrannus c. Every Tyrant may and ought lawfully and meritoriously be killed by any of his Vassals or Subjects even by secret plots and subtle insinuations or flatteries notwithstanding any Oath or League made with
to satifie them all And as the Schools go now it is not hard to say almost any thing As men are of several tempers I will not deny but some may be truly perswaded of your Doctrines and defend them with an upright conscience thinking that to exalt the Pope is truly advantageous to Religion and beneficial to the World But I believe you will not find many so qualified Those you have named are some the Popes own Subjects most Italians or Spaniards upon whom He is known to have particular influence and if we judge that in this exalting the Pope they might have an eye to the preferment of themselves I think it will be no rash judgment Of latter times those have appeared the chief sticklers in this quarrel who are thought to have the greatest dependance upon Rome So that of all produced and produceable in behalf of those opinions I deceive my self if the number be not shamefully inconsiderable against whom there lies not a just suspicion of interest and of whom it may not reasonably be judged that Hopes or Fears or something besides pure Conscience swayed their judgments And Interest you know is a just exception against a Witness in all Courts As for private men what would you have them do Consider that all Catholics look upon the Pope as the chief Bishop in God's Church and supreme Pastor of the whole Flock If they hear any thing said over-lashingly of him can it be expected they should be forward to speak what they think til a due occasion urges them Or have less respect for him than common civilitie uses to every body For when any thing is said advantageous to a person with whom we converse if we believe it not we keep our thoughts to our selves and think it rudeness to oppose it to their faces Besides as I said at first this medling of private men with the concern of Princes is the Flies playing with the Candle Withrington quite burnt his wings Walsh has fairly sing'd them and if people learn wariness by the harms of other men I conceive they are not blameable As frightful and threatning as the Idea is which you have made of this danger no Prince that I know thinks it great enough to deserve that they should interpose and I think the man very foolishly wise who will pretend to understand their concerns better than themselves or better know what is fit to be done People of our private Sphere see but one thing Princes see that one thing in likelihood better than we and a hundred more of which we never dream and till they stir themselves for private men to obtrude their politic Ignorance upon them is so far from laudable that it is well if it be pardonable neither will their forwardness signifie more than an over busie diligence and peradventure saucy unquietness The old Monks wise counsel Sinere res vadere ut vadunt is as necesiary in the world as a Cloyster Besides for English Catholics in particular they have somewhat more reason to keep silence while their speaking is sure to be discountenanced on the one side and not sure to be protected on the other You may perceive by Caron's Collection that Catholicks are so much mealy mouthed men towards the Pope when there is fit occasion to speak what they think and God forbid that Forreiners should be better Subjects than English men I am sure they were Catholics who declared in Parliament that the imperial Crown of England is and at all times has been free from all subjection to the Pope And provided the Statute of Praemunire against such abuses as were then found inconvenient And they were Catholicks who refused to repeal this Statute in the days of Queen Mary when other Laws made against the Popes Authority were taken away But if you will have a touchstone of the fidelity of English Catholics look a little upon the year 88. The Pope had stretched his Authority as far as it would go and proceeded to Excommunication Deposition and Absolution of his Subjects from Obedience to her down right Commands to assist her Enemies and this Authority was backt by the Power of a great Prince in their thought and language invincible Besides the Title of the Queen born in time of a Marriage declared lawfull by the Pope was not free from dispute which carried the inclination of Catholics to the Title of Scotland since happily introduced and which I hope will long happily continue and this was if I mistake not the true reason of the jealousie and severity of those times against them Notwithstanding the unusual concurrence of so many and so great temptations They stood firm in their Allegeance and both our own and forrein Writers testifie that neither the subtil Arts of the Politic Spaniard or the enforcement of the Popes Authority could prevail to make any Party here but that the most learned and esteemed of the Priests by a solemn and authentic Writing acknowledged the Queen notwithstanding she was excommunicated and deposed by name to have still the same Authority and power as before and as much as any of her Predecessors and the Layty chearfully and universally offered to hazard their lives in defence of their Prince and Country and that as private Souldiers ther being too much suspicion in the jealousie of those times to pretend to commands In fine the Spaniards were so ill satisfied with them that the Duke of Medina Admiral in that expedition at his return plainly told the Dutchess of Feria an English Woman of the Family of the Dormirs that had he prevailed no difference had been made betwixt Catholics and others more than what the Sword could have found Of later times the whole Nation is obliged to bless God for the happy fidelity of some of them and we had still been groaning under our late miseries if this traiterous Religion had not principled even poor men into a fidelity stronger than the temptation of Gold And 't is not like the men who act thus would refuse to speak in fit occasion Things have been written even since the return of his Sacred Majesty which have been peradventure more zealous than seasonable but however which sufficiently discover the inclination of Catholics to say all that can be expected with reason from them when the conjuncture is proper In the mean time to consider the Dilemma you so earnestly recommend to me I must tell you it concludes not We are inexcusable say you if we renounce not those Positions when without injury to the Churches Authority or our own conscience we may Why so F A is there no excuse for an action but this that 't is unlawful People before they do any thing use to consider the Why as well as the What and examine not only whether the action be allowable but whether it be convenient But not to insist on this I will offer you a fair bargain Do you your part and I will do mine make it reasonable make
very pleasant Reformation into the World But I forget that I am to say nothing of my self I must therefore undertake a needless labour and shew from other men that Princes are the Vicars of God and though the unanimous consent of every body might well excuse me for none that I ever heard of either doubts they are so or boggles to call them so when the phrase comes in their way yet I must not break my bargain Let us then consider what this word Vicar signifies and in such plenty or rather such a multitude for I wish the plenty were as great as the number as we have amongst us we cannot sure be ignorant what a Vicar is We see he is one who supplys the place of another who not able for other respects to attend to his proper employment delivers it over to be executed by him whom we call his Vicar Kings we see govern the World and the Government of the World being the proper work of Providence they do the business which properly belongs to God But the nature of God being of that unsociable excellence that we are not able to bear the immediate Rays of divine brightness and converse with him whose Face none can see and live our nature requires he should do this by such substitutes to whom we may address our selves and have recourse for what we need Since Kings then supply the place of God or do that which he should do and which he truly does by them they want nothing to the perfect notion of his Vicars but this that they be appointed and impowr'd by God for that end With this difference notwithstanding that Vicars are necessary for other men from the imperfection of their natures who make them because they cannot attend to two employments at once but are necessary for God from the superexcelling perfection of his nature and imperfection of ours which cannot bear an immediate converse with him Now that they are immediately substituted by God to govern the World under him or in his place since t is not likewise to be deny'd I hope a few Authorities will serve to prove And yet I cannot tell whether that hasty word Immediately will down with all For some Divines put this difference betwixt the Spiritual and Temporal Power that the first is immediately from God the second by mediation of the People subjecting themselves by way of Election Succession or such other means by which Governments are either introduc'd or establisht And for my part though I were not ty'd from dogmatizing irritare crabrones is a thing from which I have much aversion especially in a question which I conceive of an extraordinary importance For whether the power be from God immediately or mediately so it be from God I conceive it extends as far and is as much to be obey'd Saul and David were immediately appointed by God and yet I think as much obedience was due to Solomon as either of them and that St. Peters Successour whether Clemens or whoever else was as much Pope as he And if election made the power mediate we see Popes are not Popes till they be elected There are indeed who by this mediation understand a reserve in the people to reassume in certain cases the power which they have given But this I must needs think very abominable and shall not stick to say whoever reproves me for it is himself more reprovable St. Paul has taught there is no power but from God so I believe and if any think they have found better Masters of Faith I for my part mean to stick to those which Christ has given me But let us see what is said by those whom no Catholick I suppose will reprove The Council of Paris speaks methinks to purpose when it says L. 2. c. 5. No King must think his Kingdom left him by his Progenitors but truly and humbly believe 't was given him by God And that earthly Kingdoms are not given by men but God the Prophet Daniel testifies Dan. 4.14 5.25 Hierom. 27.5 But to them who think their Kingdoms given them by Succession from their Ancestors and not rather by God agrees that which God reproves by the Prophet They have reigned but not by me Osee 8.4 they have been Princes and I knew them not Wherefore whoever Reigns temporally over other men L. 5. l. 21. let him believe his Kingdom was given him not by men but by God St. Austin de Civit. Dei Let us not attribute the power of giving Kingdoms and Empires to any but the true God Tertullian They Empeperours know who gave them the Empire Apoleget adv Gent. c. 30. They know 't was he who made them men and gave them souls They are sensible 't was God alone under whose power alone they are second to him and after him first before all men Again From thence is the Emperour from whence the man before he was Emperour from thence the power from whence the spirit or breath I am not good at subtletys but methinks 't is hard to make that power mediate which is not from Ancestors and Succession not from men but from God alone More refin'd wits perhaps may make it hang together that Kings have their power from God alone and from something else too and that their power is mediate in which none interposes but himself and prove a gift from the people of that which God himself gives as if his power were under Age and could not make a valid donation without them and when they have done such fine things we are still just where we were for 't is acknowledg'd of all hands even by those who least favour the temporal power that it is from God and if it be so those who have it from him are his Vicars But yet you shall not take my word even for so much He was a Vicar of Christ himself who speaks thus to the Emperour Anast 2. Ep. un The brest of your clemency is Sacrarium the sacred depository of publick felicity that by you whom God has commanded to preside as his Vicar on Earth And before him Eleutherius in an Epistle to King Lucius our and I think the Worlds first Christian King preserved in our Antiquities tells him 't was needless to send him the Roman Laws which the King desir'd but wishes him to take the Law of God and the advice of his own Nation and frame such as were proper for his Country as being himself the Vicar of God After him another uses these terms to the Emperour Steph. 6. ap Baron an 885. n. 11. Although you similitudinem geras which I know not how otherwise to English then represent the person or are the Vicar of the Emperour Christ himself The same phrase is found in Pope Hermisda In Ep. ad Rom. c. 13. St. Ambrose speaks plainly Let them know they are not free but under the power which is from God for they are subject to
Emperour receive Baptism from the Bishop the Sacraments Penance desire their Prayers their Benediction lastly you administer humane he dispenses divine things to you Greg. the 2d Ep. 13. to the Emperour Leo As the Bishop has no power to look into the Palace and meddle with regal dignity dignitates regales deferendi so neither has the Emperour to look into the Church c. Bishops are therefore set over Churches abstaining from the business of the Comwonwealth that Princes in like manner may abstain from Ecclesiastical matters Leo 4. 2. q. 7. c. Nos si incompetenter It is to be noted that there are two Persons by which the World is governed the Royal and the Sacerdotal As Kings preside in the affairs of the World so Priests in what belongs to God It belongs to Kings to inflict corporal to Priests to inflict spiritual punishment He Judex carries the Sword for punishment of the bad and praise of the good these Preists have the Keys to exclude the excommunicate and reconcile the penitent Nicolas 3d. C. Inter haec 32. q. 2. The holy Church of God is not govern'd by worldly Laws she has no Sword but the Spiritual with which she doth not kill but quicken Adrian the first in the Council of Franckfort seems to me with one little word to explain very well the Commission given to St. Peter Peter sayd he in reward of his confession was made Porter of Heaven and had power to bind and loose so much we already know 't is recorded in Scripture but what was it he could bind and loose Souls says the Pope These Popes understood and us'd their power as well as most of their Successours and they knew nothing of Temporal power but confin'd what was given them to spiritual and divine things and care of the Soul And that this too is the sense of the Church I think will appear by the Prayer us'd on the Feast of St. Peters Chair which antiently ran thus O God who by giving the Keys of Heaven hast deliver'd to Peter the Pontifical dignity of binding and loosing Souls This last word Souls is left out of the latter Editions I suppose to render the Prayer more conformable to the expressions of Scripture and peradventure to keep more close to antiquity of which they are very tenacious at Rome for Platina in the Life of Leo 4th delivers the rude draught of this Prayer whence 't is likely the Prayer was taken without that word But the meaning with the word and without is the same Words may alter but the Churches sense alters not But let us hear some other of the Fathers Hosius Bishop of Corduba who presided in the Council of Nice and was counted in his time the Father of Bishops writes thus to the Emperour Constantius God has committed the Empire to you Vid. Athan. Ep. ad Solicitarios and entrusted us with what belongs to the Church And as he who looks upon your Empire with envious Eyes contradicts the divine Ordination so do you take heed that by drawing affairs of the Church to you you incur a great crime It is written give what is Caesars to Caesar and what is Gods to God Wherefore neither is it lawful for us to take an Empire on Earth neither does the Power of Sacrifices and holy things belong to you S. Jo. Chrysost hom 4. in verb. Isaiae Bodies are committed to Kings Souls to Priests He has material those spiritual Arms. S. Hierom. in cap. 16. Mat. The Spiritual Key extends not it self to Temporals without Arrogance Theophylac upon John 21. Our Lord makes Peter not a Prince not a King but commands him to be a Pastour Feed says he not Kill c. S. Anselm upon Mat. 26. There are secular Officers by whom Temporal things and Spiritual Officers by whom Spiritual things are managed Wherefore the material Sword is given to carnal and the Spiritual to Spiritual Officers and as what belongs to the Church is not proper for Kings so neither ought the Bishop to meddle with what belongs to Kings Which because Peter who represents spiritual men did when he us'd the material Sword and cut off our Servants Ears he deserv'd to be reprehended by our Lord. Hugo de san Victor de sacr fid l. 2. p. 3. c. 4. Earthly Power has the King for Heads Spiritual Power the Pope Earthly things and all ordained for earthly Life belong to the power of the King Spiritual things and all belonging to Spiritual life to the Pope Again l. 2. p. 2. c. 3. It is given to the faithful Christian Laity to possess Temporals to the Clergy onely Spirituals are committed St. Bernard speaks thus to the Pope De consid l. 1. c. 6. Your Power is not in Possessions but in Crimes and for these not for them you have received the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven Consider Hugo's onely Spirituals and St. Bernards not for Possessions or Temporals and judge whether a Catholick is like to be reproved for not extending the Popes power beyond Spirituals And in his 2d Book speaking of Temporals Be it says he that you may some other way challenge these things but not by the right of Apostleship for he Peter could not give what he had not himself what he had that he gave the care as I said over Churches Rupertus Abbas upon these words nor a Rod Mat. 10. speaks thus But now there are two Rods one of the Kings of Gentiles another of the Disciples of Christ The Rod of of the Kings of Gentiles is the Rod of Dominion the Rod of the Disciples of Christ is the Rod of Direction the Rod of Pastoral duty solicitously watching over the cure of Souls The Rod which is of Dominion is not granted to the Ministers of the Gospel of Peace and that is forbidden here nor a Rod c. Cardinal Damianus L. 4. Ep. 9. ad Olderic Episc Firman Between the Kingdom and Priesthood the proper Offices of each are distinguisht that the King may make use of the Arms of the World and the Priest be girt with the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God If any Object that Pope Leo engaged himself often in War who nevertheless is a Saint I say what I think that neither Peter obtained the Apostolical Principality because he denied Christ nor David deserved the Oracle of Prophecy because defiled another mans Bed Schoolmen as they speak more plainly are a little more severe Almain de Authorit Eccles c. 2. puts this difference betwixt Ecclesiastical and Lay power that by this onely corporeal punishment is inflicted by other Spiritual precisely Joan. de Parisiis c. 10. de potest Reg. Pap. Granting that Christ had temporal authority and plwer yet gave it not to Peter c. 15. Answering the Objection from Quodcunque solveritis c. I answer with Chrysostom and Ravanus by this is not understood any power given but Spiritual to absolve from the bond of Sins and it were foolish
nor governed as Worldly Kingdomes are by Treasuries and Officers and Armies To omit that a Kingdom of this World though received and governed another way then usually Kingdomes are is still a Kingdome of this World for the World is the World let it be governed how 't wil this seems to me to say that the Kingdom of Christ is no Temporal Kingdom For temporal Kingdoms can not subsist nor go on without such things and he that says his Kingdom had them not says plainly his Kingdom was such a Kingdom which needed none of those things Which in other words I think is to say it was not a Temporal Kingdom Again say they the Kingdom of Christ is therefore said not to be of this world because at that time most worldly Kingdomes were got by injustice and governed by wicked and idolatrous Laws and such the Kingdom of Christ was not But pray the Kingdomes now a days establisht with Justice and governed with equity are they not Kingdomes of this World Or did Constantine forfeit his worldly Empire by abolishing those Idolatrous Laws and making better in their places Strange Interpretors of Scripture Who would make worldly Kingdoms inconsistent with vertue and Kings cease to be Kings when they turn good men and most deserve to be so Besides if the world were divided into Kingdomes however unjustly got and wickedly governed t' was yet divided into Kingdomes and what Room was then left for Christ Would they have him a King and give him no Kingdome or a Kingdom no where Farther what can be said why he did not establish his just Kingdom in the place of those wicked ones and take so much injustice out of the World I think nothing but only this that his Kingdom was of another nature made to take away injustice from all Dominion from none I say nothing of the impertinence of alledging injustice in the beginning of Empires a position which would shake the Foundations of the most setled Governments and leave few Princes secure of their Titles A third answer is that his Kingdom is not of this World because not onely of this World but of Heaven and Earth and all Creatures as if this World and more were not this World Besides it mistakes the question too which is not of the extent of his Power to which every Body knows that every thing is subject but of the manner whether besides the omnipotence of his divine nature and the spiritual Regality of his humane there were in him a Temporal power and he were appointed by his Father as Saul to judge the People and go before them 1 Reg. 21.8 and fight their battles This is what the Scripture tells us People expect from their Kings and who speaks not to this speaks not to the question Farther they say that Christs Kingdom is not of this world because worldly Kingdomes are over Bodies his over Souls worldly Kingdomes require obedience to a Temporal Prince his knowledge of and obedience to the Prince of Heaven worldly Kingdomes are extinguisht by death or War c. his is perpetual and immortal c. And this is to say as plain as can be said that 't is spiritual and not temporal For Temporal Kingdoms are over Bodies and if Christs Kingdom be only over Souls 't is not temporal again 't is not temporal if it can not be extinguisht for no temporal thing is immortal Farther to contra-distinguish the temporal Prince from the Prince of Heaven is directly to yield the question and change sides That prejudice should be so strange a blindness and men think to answer by saying the very same with their Adversaries To that of the division of the Inheritance they answer that what Christ refus'd was to be made Arbitrator betwixt the two Brethren But besides that to understand the place of Arbitration seems a little violent for Arbitration requires the Consent of both Parties and there appears nothing but the complaint of one against the injustice of the other His answer imports that medling with Inheritances was a thing with which he had nothing to do and that whether he thought fit or no to become an Arbitrator temporal Matters belonged not to him Again they say his signify'd he was no Ordinary Judge whose Duty and Obligation it was to determine civil Controversies but that his Jurisdiction was Voluntary and Arbitrary And if this be not to say he was not a temporal King I understand nothing for a temporal King is oblig'd by his Office to do Justice and determine civil Controversies and his power is not Voluntary and Arbitrary but Coactive and Obligatory Thirdly They answer that Christ meant his judicial power was not by humane concession as if he could not have done the business as well by Authority from Heaven as from Earth and had not been that way more empowered and more oblig'd to perform his duty Fourthly That Christ came not into the World to judge temporal things though he had full power so to do which is just what the other side says that he was not sent or empower'd by his Father for that purpose though as God he might do what he pleas'd What a pleasant folly this unresolvedness to maintain a thing is which makes people bring for answer the very position they oppose Lastly He is said to have refus'd dividing the Inheritance because Division is the work of the Devil Division of hearts indeed is so but division of possessions is a work of peace and a necessary means to Union of hearts 't is a command from God and a duty in Kings This is chiefly what is said on both sides you will judge as you see cause I for my part believe none better acquainted with the truth then Christ himself and I mean to take his word and believe his Kingdom is not of this World and I care not who knows it If I mistake his meaning and that the Kingdom which he says is not of this World prove yet to be a worldly Kingdom I shall at least have the comfort to err in very good Company and good Company you know is a thing I love sufficiently St. Cyril of Alexan. speaking of the Hyacinth in the Mytre of Aaron The Hyacinth says he De ador in spir l. 11. signifies Heaven remember therefore Christ saying my Kingdom is not of this World for Christ is not an Earthly but a Heavenly King and has all creatures under his feet St. John Chrysostom Christ says he Hom. 87. in Mat. acknowledges himself a King but a Heavenly King ' which elsewhere answering Pilate he says more clearly my Kingdom is not of this World And in another place Hom. 39. in 1 Cor. 15. Stripture knows two Kingdoms one of Adoption and Familiarity another of Creation by the Law of Making and Creating he is King of all Jews Pagans Devils Adversaries by familiarity and care he is King of the Faithful and those who willingly commit and subject themselves to him
doing so they judge he is to be opposed and if they be the Judges they are no longer Rebels but exercise a Power due to them then which nothing can be more pestiferous and destructive of Government and ruinous of the advantages mankind receives by it Of which people may think as they please but I believe the private men are they who reap the greatest benefit by it and are more happy then Princes whom many crosly envy and might peradventure more justly pity For certainly to be ty'd to perpetual labour and care and un-intermitted sollicitude for the benefit of others is a condition not much to be envy'd and he who secure of his life and fortune by the pains of other men has nothing to do but freely to pursue that course to which his inclination or advantage leads him is in a condition much more desirable Wherefore not only Princes and all honest men with them but all who are not stark fools ought seriously to joyn to the preventing a mischief so ruinous Now as it is obvious and easily foreseen so there are several remedies which men have provided against it Some affirm that when the People have once parted with their Power and chosen to themselves a Form of Government and Governours they part with it for ever and have no more to do but obey for the future without any right of intermedling in any case with commanding and this is pretty well and renders the Government stable and the Governours secure Others think that they make all safe by excluding the People from a capacity of being their own Judges and reserving that Prerogative to the common Father of Christendom who they think will take that care to which he is obliged for the good of his Children But this is a little more and in truth too much suspicious and does not take away the harm but transfer the power of doing it into other hands For the same Inconveniences may be fear'd from the Pope as from the People especially where Princes are his enemies as many professedly are and all may be even those of his own Communion And comes so near that universal Temporal Monarchy which some have attributed to him that I do not think that any of his Adversaries will admâ—t it or that his Friends will know how to maintain it At least for my part I do not Others and I think the most both in number and Authority take away all interposing of the People farther than to design the person as in Elections or however they concur but make the Princes power flow immediately from God and so make it Sacred and exclude both Pope and People and all but God himself from medling with it And because this is the thing of which you desire I should discourse to those Authorities already mentioned in my former Letter I shall add as many more as I think may serve for your satisfaction In the first place those words of S. Paul seem decisive of the question Rom. 13.1 There is no power but from God For certainly it cannot consist with them that Power should be from the People or any else but him That exclusive word Nisi excludes all besides Conformably speak the Fathers Some I have mentioned before I add Epiphanius Haeres 40. You see that this Worldly power is by God or rather ordinata ex Deo orderly and from God and has the power of the Sword and not c. from any other but God to revenge S. Greg. Naz. de Beatid Absolute Empire and highest full power subject to no other pleasure or dominion belongs to Kingdoms Optatus L. 3. cont Parmen Above the Emperour is only God who made the Emperour c. Bruno Carthus in Rom. 13. There is no power whether good or bad but from God Hincmarus Ap. Bochel in Decret Eccl. Gall. speaking of King Lotharius He ought to be subject to the principality of God alone from whom alone he could be placed in his own principality These more ancient Authors speak all as the Apostle with a phrase of exclusion plain enough yet later speak plainer Card. Cusanus L. 3. Concord C. 5. First I presuppose what is known even to the Vulgar that the Imperial Cessitude is independent of the Sacerdotal power having an immediate dependence on God Dante 's Aligh de Monarch has a whole Book to prove this position and concludes Wherefore 't is plain that the Temporal Authority of a Monarch is derived to him without any mediation from the fountain of Vniversal Authority Joan. de Parisiis de Potest Regal Papal Both Powers proceed from one Supream power viz. the Divine immediately Anton. de Rosell Monar part 1. p. 37. Whence is inferr'd that Caesar depends of God immediately Theodoric à Niem de Schism L. 3. c. 7. That Empire depends principally and immediately of God appears by evident reasons de Offic. Princ. c 5. If the People were obliged to Obedience only in vertue of the consent to the Prince their Disobedience would be said to be a breach of their agreement and promise but not properly and directly of the Divine Ordinance which according to S. Paul by Resistance is properly and immediately broken For the Power which is resisted is ordain'd by God so that now Rebellion ought not to be lookt upon as against Man but against God Tho. Waldensis Tom. 1. l. 2. ar 3. c. 78. after a whole Chapter to this purpose concludes thus This we say that the Power of a King is only of God given him immediately by God Victoria Relect. de potest Civ n. 8. Kings have Power by Divine and natural Right and not from the Commonwealth Those who write in behalf of the Venetians in the Quarrel betwixt them and Paul the Fifth laid this Doctrine for a ground-work That the Power of temporal Princes the Pope too amongst the rest as he is a Temporal Prince is given them by God immediately and without exception Bellarmin Answers and reprehends that word immediately but is pretty severely reprehended himself for his pains and the expression justifi'd by the Authority of divers Catholic Doctors as Navar Durandus Joan Paris Almain Gerson c. In fine he was so Answered that he thought it better to have recourse to the Inquisition than to more Arguments and so caused the Authours to be cited to Rome But his Patrons deserted him not and the Inquisition of Venice protected him against that of Rome and the Doctrine remain'd not only unblemisht but countenanc'd by the Protection of a very wise Commonwealth Permit me to conclude this Point with an Authority which with an English man may peradventure sway more than all the rest It being a Declaration of Parliament and that in Catholic times That the Crown of England is and alwaies has been free and subject immediately to God and no other in all that concerns the Regality thereof 16. Ric. 2. Forreigners may talk as their fancy or Interest leads them but I suppose a
But if they will not and become bad there is none according to S. Thomas who has power to condemn them Alex. Alensis in Psal 50. I have sinn'd to Thee alone because there is no other above me who can punish me For I am a King and none is above me but you alone And Part. 3. A King is above all and therefore to be judged by God alone since he has not any man who can judge his actions nor is to be punisht by man But if any of the People sin they sin both against God and the King Nicholaus de Lyra. I have sinn'd to Thee alone as my Judge and who has power to punish for he had sinned against Vrias and others slain upon this occasion Yet because he was a King he had no superiour Judge to punish him but God Otho Frisingens Ep. ad Frederic before his Chronic. Whilst no person is found in the world who is not subject to the Laws of the world and by that subjection kept in awe Kings alone as being above Laws and reserved to the Divine Judgment are not aw'd by the Laws of the world Witness that both King and Prophet I have sinned to Thee alone Joan. de Turrenm in Psal 50. I have sinn'd to Thee alone as my Judge and who has power to punish me because Thou alone art above me who canst judge my Crimes Dio Vega in conc Vespert super Psal 50. con 2. Wherefore leaving them we must go the common way with the Fathers of the Church Hierom Austin Ambrose Chrysostome and Cassiodorus who say that David therefore us'd these words because being a Soveraign King he was subject to none but God accountable to the Laws of none and none but God could punish his sin For a King though he be subject to the Directive power of the Law yet is not to the Coactive Joan. de Pineda upon 34. Job For if a King or Prince will not willingly obey the Law who can oblige or by force constrain him Yet let Princes understand at last that if they do not of their own will keep the Law they shall render an account to the Supream King and be punisht for the Violation of Justice I conclude with a Jesuite Lorinus upon Psal 50. I have sinn'd to Thee alone viz. as alone knowing or having power to punish his sin who was a King and had no Superior None can say Apostate to a King or call Judges wicked unless he will be thought wicked himself as Chrysostom and Nicetas and Cyril in this place note I hope by this time you will acknowledge it was a superfluous care of yours for the security of Princes if that were your reason which made you so sollicitous for the immediate power For whatever become of that this is universally fixt That Kings are accountable to none but God And I think you need not much care what people say in a question disputed amongst Learned men when that for whose sake you desire it should be resolv'd is it self so fully resolv'd to your hand To deal with sincerity I should acquaint you what shifts they make to escape the weight of this Authority who undertake to abett a Power paramount in the Pope But they are such plain shifts that in truth I have not patience to insist upon them Some say this held among the Jewish Kings who were above the Priesthood but holds not among Christians who are subject to it as if Christian Princes were less absolute than those of the Jews or Christianity took away the Right of any body much less Princes I alwaies thought that much good had come to the world by Christian Religion and the concerns of Mankind went on more sweetly and more strongly but that it should be guilty of so great a mischief as to shake the foundations of Government so beneficial and necessary to humane Nature is a scandal which methinks a Christian ear should not hear with patience And Bellarmin give him his due as much a favourer of the Pope as he is in this yet is more a friend to Truth and tells us De Rom. Pont. L. 1. c. 29. That the Gospel deprives no man of his Right and Dominion but gets him a new right to an eternal Kingdom Nor have Kings less power in the New Testament than they had in the old And yet He with his distinctions betwixt Fact and Right Power direct and indirect with one whereof he still endeavours to ward all blows makes as mad work and reduces things to as much confusion I shall say nothing to them more than to entreat you to be Judge your self and consider whether in what I have alledged there be any room for those Inventions and whether the Doctrine be not delivered too plainly to be put off with such evasions And so I come to your Second Point and for the fear you have of Bellarmin's Argument peradventure it were Answer enough to say That S. Bernard understood what was meant by the word Feed as well at least as Bellarmin and he notwithstanding all the Cardinals acuteness tells Pope Eugenius L. 4. c. 3. that to Feed is to Evangelize Perform saies he the work of an Evangelist and you have fulfilled the duty of a Pastour Again Serm. de Resurrect Feed with your Mind with your Mouth with your Actions feed with prayer of the Mind exhortation of the Word proposal of Example I suppose no good Catholic but will side with S. Bernard rather than Bellarmin for as great a Schollar as Bellarmin was he is not yet thought a match for S. Bernard But neither is he alone of this mind Petrus Blesensis saies almost in the same words Ep. 148. What is to Feed the Sheep but to Evangelize to render the People acceptable to God by Word by Work by Example And thus Innocent III. and a great many more are cited by Caron to interpret this word Feed so that all the Cardinal 's subtle speculations upon the metaphor us'd in the Gospel hinder not the Argument from being as insignificant as you and more besides you to my knowledge think it And if I have not yet said enough to it hearken a little to S. Chrysost de Sacerd. L. 2. It is not lawful for a man to cure a Man with the same Authority with which a Shepheard cures his Sheep For here it is free to bind and restrain from pasture and burn and cut There the Medicine and power of the cure is not in him who Administers but in him who is Sick But we shall hear more of him anon Mean time since the Point you have propos'd besides your recommendation deserves in it self more consideration than this Argument Let me tell you for your satisfaction That those who treat these things put many differences betwixt the Spiritual and Civil power from the manner of Institution the ends at which they aim the means they use to their several ends c. That which I conceive most to your purpose is
worse obliges you to conceal the Mischief she teaches that by the reputation of a fair Outside you may preserve your selves in a condition to appear to purpose vvhen time and opportunity make it seasonable for her to discover her injust designs If this happen I must needs profess I shall have a worse opinion of your Church than ever I had For to maintain a false or bad Doctrine which you think to be true or good is but Errour a fault which unless other Circumstances aggravate the case is very pardonable because very natural Men were not men if they were not subject to it But to teach Wickedness and keep this wickedness conceal'd from those who are not as wicked as themselves to pretend a sound Outside and carry a rotten heart has so much Malice joyn'd to the Errour that 't is abominable in a private man and I have not a name abominable enough to say what 't is in a Church After all your brags of Sanctity I hope you vvill not fall into the woe which the Gospel pronounces against Whited Sepulchres beautiful without but within full of dead mens bones and filthiness In fine if you think Bellarmins Doctrine true you have the liberty to make it consistent with Civil Government if you can I 'le promise you to consider what you can alledge as fully and impartially as you can desire and give every Argument its full weight But if you say nothing or dodge it off which is as good as saying nothing being well enough acquainted with your nature to know you are not backward to communicate any thing you can to the satisfaction of your Friends especially when it tends to the justification of your selves I shall know how to set the saddle upon the right horse and without putting you to the confusion of revealing the shame of your Mother conclude you are forbidden to speak and though you were not allow you do wisely to say nothing where nothing is to be said that can make for your justification The Jesuite Fisher was commanded by King James to deliver his Sence of this amongst other Points propos'd to him And he Answered the rest but past this over with this plain Confession for his excuse That he was forbidden to speak of that Subject If you follow his Example I shall believe you have one Religion vvhich you publish for your Reputation and another vvhich you conceal for your Interest I shall expect your Answer vvith impatience and in the mean time remain Your c. FRIEND I Must confess I should have thought my self oblig'd to you if you had dispenst with me in the Question you now propose so pressingly Hitherto I have said nothing but what the Fathers have said for me and hope if any man dislike any thing he will consider before he condemn it what it is to slight and oppose an Authority so venerable But now I am not only without the support of Authority for 't is not to be expected a peremptory decision should be found in the Fathers of a Question which entered not into the world till a good while after they had left it but the face of Authority is on the other side not but that I conceive the Question fully decided to those who mind Sence not Words For it appears very plainly in what I have already produc'd That the Temporal Power moves in its own sphere both Supreamly and Independently which is in truth the whole business But yet because this word Indirect is not found in the Fathers 't is still pretended that the Question is not decided by them and those who have appeared against that Power are for the most part discredited by Censures and rendred so unfit to support others that they have not been able to uphold themselves In my judgment not without partiality For they were Men of Learning and Vertue nor is any thing that I know laid to their charge more then that they thought otherwise in this Point than they think at Rome And yet they at Rome at the same time freely communicate with some who think the same and publish their thoughts and own them in the face of the vvorld However it be I so much value the content of thinking my thought quietly to my self and letting others think as they please of going unregarded on my own road and let others stray as much as they will without thinking my self bound to set them right that I know not any task you could enjoyn me to which I have a greater aversion And I must tell you frankly that were there no more in the case than the bare satisfaction of your curious humour I would intreat you to satisfie it at some other rate than the quiet of your Friend and putting him out of his easie road and setting him to strive against the stream But since with a kind of malicious importunity you profess to interpret my Silence to the disadvantage of the Church I must run the hazard of being perhaps traduc'd my self rather than suffer her to be so and think my self oblig'd to sacrifice my Humour and inconsiderable Concerns to Her honour and service Wherefore since there is no remedy but I must swallow this ungrateful Pill I pray God make it as wholsome as I find it bitter To begin then 'T is too much known that there is a Power attributed to the Pope by some more than is thought due by others and more than some Popes themselves believe for 't is written of Pius Vth. that he blam'd the groundless flattery These Favourers of the Pope are divided into two branches Some giving him an absolute Direct Power over all both Spirituals and Temporals Others restraining his Direct Power to Spirituals but extending it to Temporals too in as much as they have reference to Spirituals The former is call'd the opinion of the Canonists they being most of that Opinion who hold it the later is the opinion of Divines who generally go this way Now if there were nothing in the case but the Authority of the Maintainers and strength of the Reasons by which they maintain it People might dispute with freedom and let the strongest Argument carry it But Popes have taken part and own'd this Power and though they have not determin'd either the way or the thing yet they take it for granted they have it some way and proceed upon it By this means it has got the face of Authority and the universal Reverence we bear our Chief Pastour as it inclines many to think well of all that is favourable to him so it awes the rest who do not into a shiness of contradicting it So that of Learned Men those who write of this Subject write generally in favour of it those who think otherwise chuse other Subjects to write of as in truth there is but little reason to disgust Higher Powers meerly to shew there Learning But this reservedness has been so much taken notice of that long since it has been
thought necessary Learned Men should be constrain'd by Oaths and fear of Penalties terribilibus comminationibus to declare their thoughts of this matter Possibly Interest may have had some share in this backwardness Men of this sort of Learning belong most to the Church and may peradventure consider that If they displease him who carries the Keys he may perhaps make use of them to shut the Gates of Ecclesiastical preferment Besides they have been diligent to discountenance and suppress all Books written against the Popes Power so that a Private man cannot write without the hazard of a Censure on his Book and possibly on his Person These I think are the true Reasons I am sure they are good ones of the backwardness which you phansie proceeds from a prohibition of the Church and with a great deal of injustice and no truth heighten into malice and the execrable hypocrisie of teaching two Religions one to be published the other conceal'd and I know not what when all this while I assure you there is no such thing as a Prohibition of the Church at least that I know of for any man to speak what he thinks what Fisher mentions was a private Order made amongst the Jesuites and concerns only themselves but wise men are not forward to speak what may turn to their prejudice nor quiet men to interpose in the concerns of higher and the Highest Powers as I conceive they are not therefore blameable However it be He who from the Sence of those who have vvrit would infer the Sence of all Learned Men concludes in my opinion very fallaciously Those who Write not and whose Sence we know not being much more Numerous and every jot as Learned as those who Write But to let that pass this Doctrine has found a different reception in the world The French as their natures are frank and open without more adoe plainly deny it and besides a great many reiterated Arrest of Parliament have solemnly condemn'd it in all their Universities In other Countries they are more reserv'd and rather oppose the Execution of the Power than the Power it self They let the Pope and any for him talk as they please but when it comes to Practice it alwaies proves unjust in that particular and I believe alwaies shall do In Brabant the Custom is That all Bulls are understood of course to be Subreptitious till they be approv'd by the Prince In other places they have other expedients but as far as I see by several means they all compass the same end and admit no more than they think stands with their Profit Only the French bluntly tell the Pope You cannot others use softer words but their Actions say You shall not farther than we think fit Now for the Opinion of the Canonists since Divines universally reject it I may without more adoe reject it with them Of the other it may be enquir'd Whether it be of Faith and Whether it be True which are very different Questions And for Faith I positively and freely disclaim it both because the Maintainers of it themselves confess it is not and though some are unwary enough to heighten it to that degree yet they are but few and their rashness is generally condemn'd as ill grounded and carried too far And besides I see the contrary is openly maintain'd by as numerous and considerable a Member as any belongs to the Catholic Church and while at Rome they condemn Withrington and Barklay at Paris they condemn Bellarmin and Suarez The Pope and the rest of the vvorld knows and sees this and yet Communicate freely with them and account them all the while good Catholics Which is plainly to acknowledge it is no point of Faith in which they differ for if it were they could no more Communicate with them than with Arrius or Pelagius neither is any consideration of their Power or concern of Policy able to justifie or dispense with acknowledging him a Catholic who persists to maintain an Heresie All the difficulty is Whether it be true or no. And who am I that I should undertake to dogmatize in an Age so Antidogmatical and where no vanity is thought greater than that of Dogmatizing and this in a Question which has exercised the Wit and Learning of Men esteem'd so great that to oppose them may chance be counted Arrogance The most I can do is to tell you what I think and what I think is even in my own judgment so inconsiderable that I think it a great deal better to play the Historian than the Disputer and hope you will be satisfied if I inform you as much as I know of this Question and relate the Arguments hitherto produc'd on both sides at least as far as I am acquainted with them and leave you to judge as you see cause By this means as you will have all the Information I can give you so none can rationally blame me for barely relating what every body either knows already or may know that will take the pains to look upon what is publickly and every where extant But before I begin the Arguments it will not be amiss to look a little into the Origin of this Dispute and consider when and how it came into the vvorld Gregory the VIIth was the first that brought it on the Stage Till his time the Independent Power of Princes was never questioned They not only quietly dispos'd of Civil matters without controll except where any notorious Injustice happened and then both Popes and other zealous Prelates took the liberty to reprehend and sometimes Excommunicate them but had no small share in Ecclesiastical matters so far as to make Laws concerning them to invest the Persons duly chosen to Benefices and confirm the Election even of Popes themselves which was not held valid without their approbation Take it in the words of Onuphrius no enemy to this Pope Onuph de var. Creat Rom. Pont. L. 4. Though formerly the Bishops of Rome were respected as the Heads of Christian Religion the Vicars of Christ and Successors of Peter yet their Authority extended no farther than either to assert or maintain the Doctrines of Faith For the rest they were subject to the Emperours all things were done by Their appointment Themselves were Created by them neither did the Pope dare to judge or determine any thing concerning them Gregory the VIIth was the First of all the Bishops of Rome who relying on the Arms of the Normans and Wealth of the Countess Mathildis a Woman of great Power in Italy and inflam'd by the discord of the Princes of Germany opprest with Civil Wars contemning contrary to the Custom of his Predecessours the Imperial Power and Authority after he had obtain'd the Pontificate durst not only Excommunicate but deprive the Emperour by whom he had been if not Elected at least Confirm'd of his Kingdom and Empire A thing to that Age unheard of for as for the Fables which go about of Arcadius and Anastius and Leo the
Iconoclast I value them not Thus then stood things in the vvorld when Hildebrand Archdeacon of the Church of Rome was chosen to the Papacy in the year 1083 and called Gregory the VIIth The Contests which in his daies began betwixt the Spiritual and Civil Power are the reason I suppose why he is so differently represented by those who vvrite of him His Enemies give him the Character of an Imperious Tyrannical and several waies Wicked Man his Friends on the other side praise him as much and affirm he was a man of great Prudence and Vertue and so far that it hath been attested by several Miracles And for my own part I must confess I incline to believe well of him For he had been the support of the Papacy during the time of several Popes his Parts and Industry having drawn upon him the greatest weight of all business and was so far from aspiring to that dignity that if Baronius say true He treated with the Emperour not to consent to his Election assuring him before hand that if he did He would be very severe against the Abuses practic'd in his Court. Besides if Sigonius may be believ'd and the passages he relates vvhich can hardly be read vvithout horrour the Emperour was a very Wicked Man but that which concerns this matter was That all Benefices were with all the Licentiousness of a depraved Court expos'd to sale and He that could Fee a Courtier was vvithout Merit or even Capacity possest of the most considerable Preferments of the Church As this vvas a mischief palpably destructive to all Goodness so 't is not incredible from the irregularity of a debauch'd Court. And if the Pope desir'd to have it remedied the end he propos'd was but what became him if the means had been so too I am the more inclin'd to believe this true because the Germans in a great measure took part with the Pope forct the Emperour to comply and after several Traverses at last took the Crown from him and plac'd it on his Son However it were the Emperour notwithstanding the Popes Remonstrances gives consent to the Election and confirms him and the Pope was as good as his word And first Excommunicates those who should receive Investitures of Benefices from Laymen afterwards the Laymen who should grant them and lastly provok'd by the Emperour who in a Synod at Wormes had forbidden Obedience to him Excommunicates and deposes the Emperour himself And this iâ— the first unquestionable Example of this kind which has appear'd in the Christian World Bellarmin indeed and his Followers would make us believe there are Examples more Ancient but in my opinion he proves them not well and you see Onuphrius counts them but Fables and those of that Age at least those vvho favoured the Emperour exclaim'd against it as a Novelty unheard of not to call it Heresie as one faies But though the thing were now done it appears not yet in vertue of what Power 't was done As that Age was not I think extraordinary subtle the distinctions of Direct and Indirect Power were not yet found out and the Pope himself speaks in common That the care of the Christian World and Authority to bind and loose was committed to him confiding in the Judgment and Mercy of God and Patronage of the B. Virgin and supported by the Authority of SS Peter and Paul c. but descends not to particulars So that it appears not whether he acted in vertue of a Spiritual or Temporal Power Directly or Indirectly and 't is likely he speculated not so far One thing is pretty remarkable in his second Sentence for he made two which ends in this manner After he had commanded all concerned to withdraw their Obedience from Henry and yield it to Rudolphus speaking as he does all along to the Apostles SS Peter and Paul You then See the words in Platina saies he most holy Princes of the Apostles confirm what I have said by your Authority that all men at last may understand if you can bind and loose in Heaven we likewise on Earth may give and take away Empires Kingdoms Principalities and whatever mortals can have Let Kings and all Princes of the World understand by his Example what you can do in Heaven and what power you have with God and hereafter fear to contemn the commands of the Holy Church And shew this Judgment upon Henry quickly that all Sons of Iniquity may perceive that he falls from his Kingdom not by chance but by your means This nevertheless I desire from you that by Repentance he may at your request find favour of our Lord at the day of Judgment For my part I cannot imagine but a man who speaks thus must needs mean uprightly and think at least he does well Notwithstanding the Apostles did not do as he desir'd them For this Rudulphus after he had fought twice upon equal terms with the Emperour was overthrown in the third Battle and so wounded in the right hand that he dy'd of it and dy'd full of Repentance and acknowledgment of his own fault and the Justice of God who had deservedly punisht him in that hand with which he had formerly sworn Fealty and Service to his Lord. So that though I believe the Pope thought himself much in the right yet the Court of Heaven thought not fit to grant his Request but ordered things quite contrary to his expectation and desire The next famous Example is of Frederic the IId a Prince of great Power and Parts who falling out with several Popes as resolute as himself after several breaches at several times made up and several Sentences publisht and recall'd and renew'd again was at last with the astonishment and horrour of all present saies M. Paris solemnly Excommunicated and depos'd in the Councel of Lions And this made both Princes and Prelates begin to look about them foreseeing that if this deposing Power should go on a slight Pretence might at last serve turn to unthrone perhaps an Innocent Man and bring the vvorld into confusion which possibly was the cause the Popes Sentence was not executed For this Frederic notwithstanding those proceedings kept the Empire till his death which happened long after But still I see not any ground to judge whether the Power were yet thought Direct or Indirect and in likelyhood People had in common a great Veneration for the Supream Pastour and his Decrees and thought them wicked men vvho submitted not to them but what kind of Power he had and hovv far it extended as far as I can perceive they little considered 'T is observable both in this Sentence and the former of Gregory VII that the Emperour is first Deposed and afterwards Excommunicated in aggravation as it were of the former Penalty The business was a little more discust in the Contests betwixt Boniface the VIIIth and Philip the Fair of France As this Pope is Recorded for a man of more mettle than Vertue his proceedings were
Violent but having to do with a Prince both Resolute and Prudent he found but bad success The Pope perswades the King to an expedition into the Holy Land to promote vvhich business He exacts the Tithes of Church Livings in France and reserves the Collation of all Benefices there to himself The King excuses the one and plainly denies the other The hot Pope sends the Bishop of Apamea to threaten him with Censures and Deposition unless he yielded to him The King calls the States and upon Consultation with them resolves the Legat deserv'd to be imprisoned but for reverence to the See Apostolic banishes him and for his Threats contemns them The Legat not content to scape scot-free falls a new to Threats which the King resenting commits him to custody to the Metropolitan The Pope complains of the breach of Ecclesiastical Immunity and commands his Legat should be immediately return'd These Letters being read in an Assembly of the States the Count of Arras as hot every jot as the Pope throws them into the fire This put the Pope quite out of patience Wherefore he Cites both King and Bishops to Rome where he had appointed a Synod and in the mean time declares the Kingdom of France for Contumacy Felony and Violating the Law of Nations devolved to the Apostolic See writing thus peremptorily to the King We would have you to know that you are subject to us both in Spirituals and Temporals and who thinks otherwise we repute Heretics The King upon the receipt of these Letters calls the States again and by their Advice frames an Answer every jot as smart and something more homely We would have your foolishness know we are subject to none in Temporals and who thinks otherwise we take for mad men And withal appeals to a future General Councel and objects several Crimes to the Pope to be made good when the Councel should sit and in the mean time forbids all intercourse vvith Rome This Answer being brought to Rome by three Bishops deputed for that purpose the Pope began to be startled and at last confesses That to usurp the Kings Jurisdiction belonged not to him nevertheless that in respect of Sin the King could not deny but he was subject to the Pope This put them to examine how far and in what manner he was subject to him and one of the Cardinals in a Consistory in which the French Embassadours were present resolves the case in this manner That Supream Dominion belong'd properly to the Pope but the Administration to Kings and therefore all Christian Kings vvere subject to the judgment of the Pope even in Temporals in regard of his Supream Dominion But this satisfi'd not the Embassadours at Rome and the States in France resuming the Debate declar'd positively the King in Temporals vvas subject to God alone and ow'd his Crown and Power only to him Nevertheless this Subjection on the account of Sin seems to be the ground of the distinction betwixt Direct and Indirect Power though I conceive it borrowed from Innocent the IVth some time before upon occasion of a Contest betwixt John King of England and Philip Augustus of France vvho prosecuting the King of England for default of Homage for some Dukedoms in France c. King John appeals to the Pope Philip maintained that being a Temporal business he had nothing to do vvith it The Pope was vvilling to favour the English and therefore assumes cognisance of the Cause upon pretence that there was an Oath in the case the violation of vvhich being Sin belong'd properly to his Tribunal And this Resolution having been put into a Decree and that Decree into the Canon-Law seems the principal foundation of Indirect Power I must confess I do not well understand how either this Canon which is in the Decretals C. Novit Ille de Judiciis or the other C. per Venerabilem Qui filii sint legitimi which are the two usually cited both of Innocent III. make to the purpose The former was made upon the occasion now mentioned and in it the Pope speaks thus We intend not to Judge of the Fee whereof the cognisance belongs to him the King but to decree of the Sin whereof the Censure without doubt pertains to us which we may and ought to exercise on every one None of sound Judgment is ignorant that it belongs to our Office to correct every Christian for any mortal Sin and if he despise Correction to constrain him by Ecclesiastical punishment c. Where the Pope saies Correct the Gloss adds Indirectly which single word and that not explicated is the main Authority for the distinction of Direct and Indirect Power now in question The other Canon per Venerabilem was made upon this occasion Philip Augustus of France had put away his Wife and taken as I remember the Countess of Anjou and had Children by her These Children at his request the Pope Legitimates while the suit yet depended of the validity of his former Marriage For the King alledged it was invalid But as the Example of Kings is apt to be follow'd Some body leaves his Wife too and has Children by another Woman and then sollicites the Pope to Legitimate them as he had done the King's The Pope refuses to yield his Request but withal owns a Power to have granted it if he had found it reasonable and proves it by several Arguments and amongst other passages has these words We exercise temporal Jurisdiction not only in the Patrimony of the Church where we have full power in Temporals but in other Countries also casually upon inspection of certain Causes These certain Causes the Gloss interprets to be when He is required Now both these Cases seem to me far enough from the inferring the Deposing Power which was not at all in question but Legitimation in the one and Cognisance of a Temporal business in the other And though the Pope assume both yet he is very sollicitous to prove they are within his Sphere as both may be and yet nothing follow in behalf of his Indirect disposing For he may Legitimate Children in order to Spiritual capacities and leave them in the same condition in which they were before as to Inheritance and other Temporal concerns Again He may Judge of Sin and punish it in his own Court with Spiritual punishments and let Temporal punishments alone to whom they belong the Temporal Magistrate And since he expresly limits himself to Ecclesiastical punishments methinks it is to strain Logic a little to far to infer out of them a right to Punish by Deposition However in my opinion this difference in the manner of Explicating this Power sometimes Casualiter sometimes Indirecte sometimes Ratione peccati which differ sufficiently though they Cite the Authorities indifferently as if they were all one is a sign they were at first not very cleer in this business in Explicating which they hit it no better Notwithstanding the Indirect Power has at last got the Vogue and most
has over it which is by the way of Instruction and Perswasion and Direction not by way of Compulsion For that belongs not to Spiritual Power Let the Prince say they in Gods name be Instructed by the Prelate to do well and Admonisht and if it be seasonable even vvith Spiritual Censures be Corrected if he do amiss all this may be and is done by zealous Prelates without prejudicing the Authority of the Prince But if they proceed to Authorise his Subjects to throw off their Obedience then they exceed say they the bounds of their Spiritual Power and intrench upon another which belongs not to them but the Prince and in which he is subject neither to them nor any body but God Another way they Answer by denying the Ends of those Two Powers to be subordinate one to the other For the Last end of every Power is its proper act as Sight is the last end of the power to see and Relish of the power to taste and so Temporal Happiness of Temporal Power Indeed he vvho has Temporal Power ought to have and has if he be a Christian a farther end and aim at Eternal happiness both in the use of his Temporal power and all the Actions he does But the end of the Power is one thing and the end of Him that has the power another Wherefore though the Man be subject his Power is not Eternal happiness is indeed his own last end but the last end of Power is Peace and the quiet security of his Subjects nor is there any other end to vvhich his Power is ordained Bellarmin against Barklay endeavours to make this Argument good by the Subjection which all Arts in a Commonwealth have to the great Art of Governing where the Painter the Musician the Mariner and the rest are all directed so to use their several Arts as is most fitting for the end of the Prince and good Government vvhich is Superiour to them all And as these are subject to the King and must obey vvhat he prescribes even in the Use of their Arts so King and all saies he is subject to the Pope as He who professes the highest of Arts the bringing Souls to Heaven by vvhich all inferiour Arts and their Use is to be regulated They Reply that this rather confirms than opposes what they say Those Artists are indeed all subject to the Supream Artist the Prince but as Citizens not as Artists The Men are subject to him and obliged to obey his Commands even in the Use of their Arts but their Arts have not therefore any subordination to his Art The Ends of Arts or Faculties say they are then subordinate when one is designed for the service of another As the Brick-maker to the Mason the Sadler to the Horse-man and the like For if there were no Houses nor Riding Bricks and Saddles would be useless In these cases the Faculties are subordinate because the Ends are so and the Brick-maker must receive directions from the Mason how to make his Bricks and the Sadler from the Rider what kind of Saddle to make But that a Painter should be instructed by the Governour how to manage his Colours or a Musician his Proportions or that these things have any dependence on the Art of Governing they think a fancy a little unsuitable to Bellarmins Learning Aristotles Rule then say they is very true And Faculties are subordinate where the Ends of them are ordained one for another but vvhere the Ends are Ends of the Men and not of the Faculties there is no colour to alledge it And so it happens in this case For though Eternal happiness be the Last end of all men yet 't is no more the end of Temporal Power than Taste is the end of seeing or Sight of tasting both which the man makes use of to his own good but they are independent and unsubordinate one to the other So as the Painter and Musician are subject to the King as Citizens not as Artists so the King is subject to the Pope not as King but as Christian and no otherwise subject than as Christianity obliges him with vvhich it may very vvell stand That vvhile He is subject to the Pope in Spirituals the Pope may be subject to him in Temporals Another Argument is from the Perfection of Commonwealths and consequently the Church in as much as it is a Commonwealth Every Commonwealth saies Bellarmin must have Means sufficient to attain its end and the End of this Spiritual Commonwealth which we call the Church being the Salvation of Souls the Church were not perfect in her kind if She wanted sufficient Means to bring men to Salvation And because Wicked Princes may be a great obstacle to the Salvation of Souls the Church would want sufficient Means to attain her End if She had not Power to remedy this inconveniency and Depose them when they are Incorrigibly obstinate This Argument to say the truth they handle a little severely And first they make Bellarmin himself answer it putting instead of Wicked Princes Wicked Popes and then making use of it vvith as much efficacy to conclude that the Church has a Power to Depose Wicked Popes But this he will by no means admit and can therefore tell us L. 2. de Concil c. 19. It is no wonder if in that case there be no efficacious Humane remedy in the Church since its safety principally depends not on Humane industry but the Divine protection Its King being GOD Wherefore though the Church cannot Depose the Pope yet it can and ought pray that God will provide a remedy And 't is certain that God will take care of her safety and either Convert or take away such a Pope before he have ruin'd the Church Now they conceive People may as well have recourse to God for remedy against a Wicked King as a Wicked Pope and that He can as vvell hear them However want of efficacious Humane remedies in some eases is acknowledged by Bellarmin to be no Argument of Imperfection in the Church and therefore they think he might well have spared his pains in this particular And since the safety of the Church depends on the Protection of God they conceive it in very good hands and that there is no great danger the Wickedness of any Prince will prove more powerful than his Goodness to which the safety of the Church may very securely be trusted without any necessity of a Remedy worse than the Disease But they go farther and ask if this Power of the Church be so fully sufficient to bring men to Salvation how it happens that there is so much Ambition and so much Covetousness and so much Gluttony and so much Concupiscence of the Flesh and of the Eyes so much Pride of life still left in the vvorld For these things are great hinderances to Salvation and the Church seems deficient in her Duty if She take them not away when she can Again Why does not the Church with her
sufficient Power cleer the World from Mahumetism and Infidelity and Idolatry which likewise are main obstacles to Salvation and provide for the safety of so many Millions as are lost by them Farther Amongst Christians A man commits a mortal Sin and runs mad upon it Has the Church sufficient Power to restore this man to his Wits that he may Repent and be saved Can She hinder Abortions and bring all Children alive to Baptism And twenty other such Cross Questions they put But to Answer the Argument more precisely They consider this sufficient Power in the Church either in order to it Self or in order to all things necessary to the Effect Considering the Power in it self it is abundantly sufficient for as much as is required on that side but because to the Effect many things are required besides sufficient Power or Efficacy in the Cause as that the Subject be fitly disposed the Cause duly apply'd c. they say a Defect in these things argues no insufficiency in the Power and the Power may be very sufficient for as much as belongs to the Nature of Power and yet the Effect not follow for want of some disposition in the Subject For Example The Sun has sufficient Power to enlighten the whole World the Fire has sufficient power to burn that stack of Wood though the Sun cannot level a Mountain which intercepts the course of his beams nor the Fire has hands to bring the Wood to it or legs to carry it to the Wood. Wherefore they say The Church has Power abundantly sufficient to bring Men to Salvation for as much as is requisite on the part of Power but 't is a wild conceit to think She can remove all obstacles which Nature or Chance casts in her way to hinder the exercise of that Power And if one of those Obstacles happen to be the Wickedness of a Prince the Churches sufficient Power to Save men can no more take Him away than the Suns sufficient power to shine level a Mountain What her sufficient Power or Means to Save men are we may learn from those who certainly best know the end of the Church and Means to attain it the first Planters of Christianity who by there Example have instructed us That efficacious Preaching and more efficacious Living according to the Holy Doctrine they Preach'd Charity and Patience and humble Zeal are the sufficient Means which have prevailed upon the Converted vvorld and when they are in Gods fit time duly apply'd vvill be as sufficient for the rest In the mean time we may learn of Bellarmin that God vvill have a care of his Church and whatever he think must think our selves That Prayer is as good a remedy against a Bad Prince as a Wicked Popes And therefore that Proposition which assumes that a Deposing Power is necessary or that the Churches Power would be Insufficient without it they flatly deny From the same Head Bellarmin Argues again Every Commonwealth because it has Power sufficient to preserve it self and bring its Subjects to Temporal happiness may command another Commonwealth which is not subject to it to cease from doing injury to her and hinder her from the prosecution of her just Ends and if it refuse to Obey may Depose the Prince of it and set up another who will be more Just in case there be no other way to avoid wrong from it Therefore much more may the Spiritual Commonwealth command the Temporal which is subject to it and Depose the Prince in case She cannot otherwise compass Her End the Salvation of Souls And this Argument they treat not more favourably than the former For they say first It assumes plain Contradiction vvhen it puts two Commonwealths both independent and free and yet puts a Power in the one to command the other which is to make that other Subject and not Free Again It assumes without any reason and against all Truth That the Temporal Commonwealth is subject to the Spiritual which they will by no means admit unless perhaps of a Spiritual Subjection and that too of the persons as Faithful not as a common-wealth in which respect every absolute Commonwealth is absolutely free from all Subjection to any but God Farther they retort it as the former and say It concludes as well a Power in the Temporal Commonwealth over the Spiritual as in the Spiritual over the Temporal For say they The Temporal is a perfect Common-wealth too and has Power sufficient to attain its End Wherefore if the Spiritual hinder her in the prosecution of Her ends She may command the Spiritual Commonwealth to surcease and if the Spiritual Prince prove Disobedient depose him and set up another since the Spiritual Commonwealth is as subject to the Temporal in Temporals as the Temporal to the Spiritual in Spirituals But to Answer the Argument more directly they deny that this forcible proceeding of one Independent Commonwealth with another argues any Superiority or Subjection in either What they do in this kind if it be well done being justified by the force of Nature and light of Reason and lawless Law of Necessity vvhich teaches Force to be then fitly us'd when nothing but Force will compass an End otherwise necessary Otherwise this kind of Power is no other than a Strong man has to take away the Purse of a Weak one and there is no doubt but whoever has it may if he vvill make use of it and so the Pope if he be strong enough may certainly Depose a Prince as a Prince may a Pope But they wonder Bellarmin should be so little considerative as instead of a Power of just Authority to talk of a power of Strength in which they think he has done the Church but little service for if She come to vye with Princes in this kind of Power the Material Sword which belongs to them will in all likelyhood wound the Spiritual Outward-man more sensibly than the Spiritual Sword will the Carnal man Mean time they conceive he take a bad Method to conclude an Authoritative Power in the Church by the example of a Power in Commonwealths which is not Authority but Strength Another Argument Bellarmin makes from the obligation of Christianity in this manner It is not lawful for Christians to endure an Infidel or Heretic Prince of that Prince endeavour to draw his Subjects to Heresie or Infidelity But it belongs to the Pope to judge whether he be guilty of so drawing them or no wherefore to the Pope it belongs to Judge whether he ought to be Deposed or no. Because he could not but foresee his first Proposition would be deny'd him he provided Proofs which before I meddle with I must inform you what they say to thus much of the Argument for they are no where smarter This say they is without more adoe to put all Kingdoms into the Popes hands and make him as Absolute as the most extravagant of Canonists can fancy him For since there are but two things considerable
a form of Imprecation not a Legal Decree as when he saies a little after And let him be damn'd in the lower Hell with Judas the Traytour c. or as the stile of Bulls now is Let him know he shall incur the Indignation of God c. For they think that for the Pope directly to command People should be damn'd is not very commendable in him nor very wise in any who should think he does so Wherefore to look upon these kind of expressions as other than Threats by which men may be frighted from Wickedness they conceive is both against S. Gregory's Sence and Common Sence too The next is the Example of Gregory the Second who forbad Tribute to be paid to Leo the Iconoclast and this is one of those Stories which Onuphrius reckons amongst Fables and Platina expresly denies for he saies the Italians were so exasperated against the Emperour that the Pope was feign to interpose his Authority to keep them from choosing another Emperour So that till the matter of Fact be agreed 't is an uncomfortable and useless Employment to busie our selves with thinking what will follow out of it There follows the Deposition of Childeric King of France by Pope Zachary with vvhich they make quick work and positively deny it not that the King was Depos'd but that he was Depos'd by the Pope The French indeed consulted him as they might have done any other whose Credit they had thought useful to their purpose vvhether were more truly King He who managed all the Affairs of the Kingdom or he who had the bare Title but medled with nothing And He answered the former And this was all he did for the rest what was done was done by the French themselves Not but that 't is likely he understood well enough the meaning of the Question and was inclin'd to favour Pepin all he could but he did no more and those who did have long since given account to God of their action I know not of what humour the French were in those times but he that should at this day maintain in France The Pope has Power to Depose their King would go neer to be confuted with a Halter The Seventh and Eighth Examples are The Translation of the Empire to the Germans and setling the Electours who are to choose the Emperour This is a Question of vvhich Bellarmin has written Three entire Books and is of more both importance and labour than to be treated with any exactness in a Letter That which Withrington Answers is in short That the Pope concurred to the Translation of the Empire and Nomination of the Electours not as acting by his own sole Power but as one who for the place he held had much and perhaps more Interest in the business than any other To which purpose he Cites Mich. Coccinius saying that The People of Rome and the rest of the Nations of Italy opprest by barbarous People and not only not protected by the Grecians but ill used too and afflicted by their Avarice and Imperious humour transfer'd the Empire from the Grecians to the Germans in the person of Charles the Great And 't is not to be doubted saies he that this Translation was made and had its force and efficacy from the Consent and Authority of the People of Rome and the rest of Italy And whereas Innocent the Third Writes to Bertoldus That the Apostolic See transfer'd the Roman Empire from the Grecians to the Germans We do not grant the Apostolic See transfer'd it otherwise than by Consenting to those who did or by declaring it ought be transfer'd but the Translation had its force and strength from the Consent of the People To which purpose he alledges also Card. Cusanus speaking in this manner Whence the Electours ordain'd in the time of Henry the Second by common Consent of all Germans and Others subject to the Empire have their Radical Power from this common Consent of all who by the Law of Nature could choose themselves an Emperour not from the Pope in whose Power it is not to give a King or Emperour to any Country in the World without its Consent But to this concurr'd the Consent of Greg. the Fifth as of the single Bishop of Rome who for the Degree in which he is has an interest in Consenting to the Common Emperour And rightly as in General Councels His Authority concurs in the first place by Consent with all the rest who make the Councel the force nevertheless of the Definition depends not on the first of all Bishops but on the common consent of all both of him and the rest This is what they say How far it is to be allow'd is another Question The Origin of Empires and Rights of Princes are things I have more disposition to admire and reverence then Dispute In the mean time here are Eight of his Twelve Examples which you see are all Contested how rationally you will judge Those which follow are of Gegory the Seventh who Deposed the Emperour Henry and Three Popes more who followed his Example to which he might have added several other it being acknowledged that after Gregory the Seventh had once begun many have imitated him and almost all claim'd a Power to do so But as He was the first unquestionable Author of that till then unknown Fact so they maintain that Fact was unjust in him and not allowable in any of his Successours They Answer then first with Jo. Paris That Arguments are not to be drawn from such singular Facts which proceed sometimes from Devotion to the Church or from some other Cause and not from Order of Law And with Greg. Tholos From hence I gather only that 't is a difficult Question Whether Popes can Depose Emperours or Kings who formerly had Power to make Popes Besides there are found divers Depositions of Popes by Emperours as well as of Emperours by Popes so that there has been a great Vicissitude in these things Whence 't is a bad way of Disputing to argue from Fact and the Examples of Deposition Out of all which Ambitious disturbers of the Commonwealth Vsurpers of Kingdoms and Rebels to their Lawful Princes may gather first That every Deposition of Princes is not therefore Just because it has been done for all Facts are not Just and secondly That no such Consequence ought to be made there is an Example of such a thing therefore the like may be attempted again And in the words of Bellarmin himself De Rom. Pont. L 2. C. 29. speaking to the Instances in which Popes have been Depos'd by Emperours Such things saies he have been done but how justly let them look to it 'T is plain that Otho the First Depos'd John the Twelfth with a good Zeal though not according to knowledge for this John was one of the worst Popes that ever was And therefore no wonder if a Pious Emperour as this Otho was but not so skillful in Ecclesiastical Affairs conceiv'd he might be Depos'd
new For 't is not with doctrines as with fashions A new doctrine can never grow old nor an old doctrine new To fix antiquity on what was not heard of in the Church for ten ages is with the confidentest and he must trust much to his Rhetorick who goes about to perswade it In the mean time John Barclay in defence of his Father has reason to say that this leaving the common consent is not to be objected to him but to those who spring up in later ages teach against the torrent of the Ancient Church But to his Argument Of the 70 Authors which he produces out of Italy France Spain Germany and Britain and all since Greg. 7. with whom he begins a great part are Canonists many such Divines who go their way and only use their Arguments some are not for him and others plainly against him At least John Barclay says so who examines them all particularly For my part I intend not to take so much pains To read threescore and ten depositions and sift them one by one is beyond my patience A man would sooner loose an ordinary cause then carry it at the expence of so much toyl But if I mistake not satisfaction may be had at a cheaper rate The Topick is Autority and that to my apprehension is efficacious but in two cases One vvhen the point in question is beyond the reach of reason as in Mysteries of Faith which because the shortness of human understanding cannot comprehend there is no means for men to lay hold of but by relying on such an understanding as can and does Thus Religion is believ'd because much of it cannot be seen and our security is the Authority of our first Teacher God and Man who we are sure saw himself what we could not and brought good evidence that he did so And so upon the matter we see with his eyes what we cannot with our own The other case which requires Authority is from a contrary ground not from the abstruseness of the points propos'd but weakness of the understanding to which they are proposed As when I press something upon another whereof I could bring proof good enough but his dulness cannot take it Here again Authority is all the Argument which can be used If I have not credit enough to perswade him to believe me there is nothing to be done You may say if you will there is the same reason in both cases viz. Weakness of Understanding only in the first the weakness is general and extends to all mankind in the second particular and belongs but to some But which soever you say I do not remember that Authority is otherwise conclusive Wherefore this point of the Pope's Power must either be of a Nature too sublime for any understanding to reach or it cannot be prest by Authority but only upon the weak and dull I know not which of the two Bellarmin fancied when he chose this Argument but in my opinion they are wild fancies both If he thought it so sublime how came he by it himself And to what purpose does he bring so many reasons to prove what is above reason and not attainable by it There is no way to climb to such a height but by immediate steps of one to another whereof the first had it with the rest of the Mysteries of Religion from Christ himself But as this way is neither endeavoured nor pretended so it would place the point in the same degree of obligation with the belief of the Trinity Incarnation and the rest which to omit the known untruth and what else might be said would leave no excuse for communicating with those who openly disavow it Then to think all men weak and dull and none able to look upon the dazling lustre of those reasons by which the point may be prov'd and upon that account descend to Authority is as much on the bow hand on the other side and a fancy which seems hardly credible in so modest a man as Bellarmin was And yet one of the two must be sayd or I know not what place there is for Authority Of a thing which can it self be seen and to those who can see it it seems to as little purpose to talk what others say of it as if to perswade men that this ribond is green and the other blew I should spend time in numbring how many thought so when 't is but shewing the ribonds and every body can tell what their color is To my apprehension therefore the whole Topic seems improper and ill chosen Notwithstanding let us see what it will do And in the first place methinks it were convenient to take along with us what Authority means and how they ought be qualified who can pretend to it And because I intend not to make a common place of it and swell my Letter by delating farther then is necessary I shall mention but one qualification but such an one as in my opinion is very requisite viz. That those by whose authority others are to be perswaded do themselves know that to which others are to be perswaded For I observe the world is a little resty and unwilling to be led by those whom they account weak and shallow And then this Authority is an Argument which does not render the truth apparent to the eyes of those who accept it upon Authority but suppose it seen by Authority and in vertue of that sight to be believed by other folks But if it be not seen by those whose Authority is prest upon me I can not imagine what title they can pretend to Authority nor in vertue of what I can be prest to follow it For certainly if I be blind my self it is very unreasonable I should take for a guide one who is as blind as I am When one blind man leads another we know what becomes of both Now because a conclusion is not seen till it be rightly prov'd among those seventy men of Authority whom Bellarmin alleadges there must be some one or more who has severely prov'd the point in question or neither he nor any man else can say that any of them saw it If there be no full proof among them all there can be no Authority nor reason why others should take them for Guides who for any thing we know are themselves blind as well as those whom they would lead If there be shew the ribond without more ado and never amuse us with what other people say of the colour It is a much shorter and much easier way for him to produce and us to see one good proof then to stand sifting the depositions of 70 men whereof 69 perhaps speak little to the purpose And after all too this proof must needs appear at last for till it do as I come from saying there is no reason we should believe those who for ought appears know no more than we who are required to believe them But to make this matter as plain as
Doctrine which they are commissionated by Christ to teach but as found out by their own or other mens whether industry or luck For these Pastors and Doctors cease not to be men by becoming Pastors and Doctors and men cannot be hindred from doing like men and using their reason and discoursing as well as others and now and then as ill In which cases though the material men be Pastors and Doctors yet now they act not as Pastors and Doctors but barely as men Daily conversation furnishes us with a hundred examples of the like nature A Judg for example is a Judg as long as his Commission lasts but how few of the mans actions belong to the Judg He governs his Children as a Father his Servants as a Master he discourses as a Scholar he eats and drinks and sleeps as a meer man 'T is the Judg who does all these things But certainly if he have a bad palate for example and chuse unwholesom food for sophisticated wine none will think he makes that choice in vertue of his Commission or that the Prince or State are concern'd in the errors of his Palate So 't is with Pastors and Doctors In what they act by vertue of the Commission given them by Christ so far they are Pastors and Doctors in other things meer men which men are indeed Pastors and Doctors but extend not that Authority to things not included in their Commission When they tell us this Doctrine we have receiv'd from our Predecessors and they from Christ and tell us this with an universality of consent both for time and place we must hear and obey Christ in them whose commission they execute But when they discourse lay down their assertions and bring their proofs by Bellarmin's favor we have no more obligation to be led by them then the strength of their proof layes upon us For now they are no more Pastors and Doctors then the Judg is a Judg when he tells a story or delivers his opinion in a point of Law by way of discourse and without giving sentence For my part I conceive the Church so far from being engaged by the opinion of 70 men though they be all Pastors and Doctors that I believe it very possible that all the material Pastors and all the Doctors in the Church and all the Sheep and Scholars too may be perswaded of a thing which the Church taken as a Church neither believes nor has any thing to do with And I think that such a case not only possibly may be but actually has happened as in the belief of the Antipodes the motion of the earth and perhaps twenty such things even at this present The truth is if any one should put me to it I do not well know how to prove it But let us for once suppose there was a time when there was no man in the Church more knowing than S. Austin and that the consent against the Antipodes was so common and universal that there was not so much as any one who held otherwise I conceive it would be a very false inference if any should from thence conclude that the Church at that time held there were no Antipodes For 't is a plain case that Church imports Faith and Faith a derivation from Christ and since 't is known that he taught nothing of the Antipodes 't is clear that no opinion concerning them can belong to Faith or the Church Whoever they be who hold for or against them or however they may belong to the Church in other respects in this particular she has nothing to do with him nor they with her For now they act not as believers but as Schollars and 't is only as believers that they belong to the Church for the Chuch is a Congregation of faithful T is true these believers are many of them Schollars too but when they play the Scholars have no priviledg nor security against error from Christ or the Church but must look to their discourses and stick to their Learning in which if they fail as they very well may and often do 't is at their own perils for the Church is no farther engaged than in what they take from her and she warrants to be received from Christ But this point is already discourst at large in my first letter and the little I have said here peradventure is more then needs For this Authority which Bellarmin would pin upon the Church is no more then the sayings of so many men whereof one half he recites and disproves himself the other half depend upon the strength of their Arguments which are the only means by which other men can judg whether they deserve more credit then their fellows and when all is done are contradicted by twice as many as learned and as famous And this I should think so far from the Authority of the Church that 't is well if it be any Authority at all And so much for the first Argument The second is this We prove it secondly by the Extrav Vnam sanctam de Major Obed. Where we are taught the sword is under the sword and temporal authority subject to the spiritual power and that if the earthly power deviate it shall be judged by the spiritual an inferor spiritual by a superior and the supream spiritual only by God Neither does it make against this that the definition of this Decretal seems revok'd by Clemen 5. in the Extrav Meruit de Privileg For Clement did not revoke the extravagant of Boniface but informed us that it defined no new thing but declared the ancient obligation which men have to obey and be subject to the Apostolick Sea Now I should think whether one Pope made a Decree and another did not revoke it matters not much unless this Decree determine the point in question And 't is a clear case there is not a word of deposition in this extravagant of Boniface 8 neither has Bellarmin remembred to tell us how 't is implyed which yet seems a material circumstance That which he says we are taught by it is that temporal authority is subject to spiritual power may be judged by it if it do amiss but the supream spiritual Power by none but God All this may be very true and the Doctrine of deposition very false When the temporal Sword is drawn by passion and strikes with in justice as to instance in an example us'd by himself when Theodosius caused a number of innocent people to be slain at Thessalonica a less man than the Pope had spiritual power enough to judg and punish this temporal power or in plain English to shut the Church doors and not admit the Emperor to a fellowship in Christian duties till he had done what became a good Christian repented and made satisfaction Here the temporal Sword was under the spiritual Sword judg'd and punisht by it and all this while no deposition nor thought of any such thing Of all who had their share in
bolt Those who were Actors in these matters have long since given account to an Impartial Judg nor have I to do with their intentions but Bellarmin's argument which in two words I conceive little efficacious both because the concurrence of the Council seems questionable farther than as it happens sometimes in consistories where matters are propos'd in some cases for forms sake and shall be executed as they are preresolved however the Cardinals vote And though it were not the Council at most is but a particular Council which according to Bellarmin himself is of no irrefragable and binding authority For the rest 't were strange if the Pope should not find Bishops enough to joyn with the spiritual power when the Emperor wanted not who stuck as fast to the temporal And so much to 8 of the 10 Councils We are now at Paulo majora canamus The two Councils which remain are propos'd with more pomp and in truth challenge a greater respect as being general Councils both The first is that of Lateran under Innocent 3. out of which is urged the famous Canon known by every one and which for as much as concerns us runs Thus But if a temporal Lord required and admonisht by the Church neglect to purge his land from this Heretical filth let him be excommunicated by his Metropolitan and Com-provincial Bishops And if he stand in contempt and make not satisfaction within a year let the Pope be made acquainted that he may from that time declare his Vassals absolved from their fealty to him and expose his lands to be seiz'd on by Catholicks who chacing away the Hereticks may without contradiction possess and preserve it in the purity of Faith saving the right of the principal Lord provided he bring no obstacle nor hindrance to the Premises observing nevertheless the same rule with them who have no principal Lords Bellarmin is wonderfully agog with this What says he would Barclay say here If this be not the voice of the Catholick Church where shall we find it and if it be as most truly it is he that out of contempt as Barclay hears it not is he not to be esteemed a Heathen and a Publican and in no manner a Christian and pious If the Pope have not power on earth to dispose of temporals even to the deposition of those Princes who either are Hereticks themselves or any way favour Hereticks why at the setting out this Canon did none of so great a number make opposition Why of so many Embassadors of Emperors and Kings not one who durst so much as mutter These Parasites to temporal Princes were not yet sprung up who under pretence of establishing temporal Kingdoms take away the eternal Kingdom from those whom they flatter I marry here 's a fit of triumphant zeal But I suppose if he had cast a little water on the flame it would have been hot enough for the occasion This Parasites and Flatterers Heathens Publicans and Impious are expressions a little too zealous In what a case are they who condemn'd all this zeal and had they not had more respect to his Purple then his argument in all likelyhood had burnt it too and yet had as good ears in the opinion of the world as Bellarmin and could hear the voice of the Catholick Church as soon But to be serious what Barclay would have said here I cannot tell but I suppose if Death had not stopt his mouth he would have said something For this Canon is no such secret that he could be imagin'd ignorant of it or unprovided against it At least his son did find something to say for him to which I can no more tell what Bellarmin would say then he could what Barclay would say to the Council I shall have occasion to mention part of what he says by and by In the mean time as this Council never fails to be layd in the way of all who travel this road people have several turns to avoid it There are who question whether any thing at all was defined there at least in a Conciliar way or if any thing were defin'd that the world was duly made acquainted with the business For which besides that some Historians expresly say nothing was concluded they have these presumptions The Canons which we have discover by their stile that they were not made in the Council They run some of them in this manner It was piously provided in the Lateran Council 'T is known 't was forbid in the Lateran Council c. which are phrases very unlikely to have been used by the Council if that fram'd the Decrees Again the whole authority of this Council rests as far as I see upon one Cochlaeus The Councils had been set out and this omitted either not known or not procurable by him who managed the business Against another Edition this Cochlaeus furnisht the Press with the Copy which we now have Whence he had it himself I know not but methinks the credit of a private man is a weak support for a matter of this consequence Besides how much time ought in reason be allow'd to a Conciliar discusion and determination of threescore Canons Carenza has threescore and ten and somewhere I have heard of another number which disagreement by the way is a suspicious thing M. Paris tells us the Council was summoned for the first of Nov. and met I suppose at the day The Pope first makes an exhortation afterwards causes 60 Chapters to be read and concludes with a second exhortation concerning the H. Land All this as far as can be gather'd by him past in one day which if it did the Council could not possibly contribute more than the hearing to any thing Besides he plainly says these 60 Chapters to some appear'd easy to others burthensome which is very far from a Conciliar approbation Now he says not precisely when the Council ended but 't is apparent by him that it lasted not long The Pope in this Council at the Kings instance suspends the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury This suspension bears date pridie nonas or 4th Nov. Besides he vacats the election of his Brother Simon Langton to the Sea of York and excommunicates the Barons of England These sentences are not recorded as the other but in liklyhood past at the same time M. Paris mentions immediately the end of the Council Quo facto after which says he two of the three Agents which the King of England had there returned to bring him the good news They found him at Rochester from whence he marched to St. Albans and came thither time enough to have the suspension of the Arch-Bishop attested by the seal of the Convent 13 Calend. Jan. or 20 Decemb. By this account how long could the Council last Or how much time could be spent in duly weighing so many Canons some of such importance when men who had seen the conclusion of the Council which began not before Nov. were in England by the 20th of December
submission from every body And though I suspect this Gathering will go near to take the business out of the hands of Scripture yet since it is no great matter who does it so the Miracle be done let us only observe at present how he gathers this plain inference of his and how it follows if the Pope be invested with the Power belonging to Ecclesiastical Primacy he is invested likewise with the Power of deposing Kings It is worth while to attend a little to a matter of this consequence and a little attention will serve turn where things are so plain Pray how does this follow so plainly why thus says Bellarmin Because the Pope by his spiritual Power can bind even Kings with the bond of Excommunication Suppose he can what then And by the same he can loose people from their Oath of Fidelity and Obedience and oblige them under excommunication not to obey the former excommunicated King but chuse them a new one How He can absolve subjects from the duty of Obedience and oblige them to chuse a new King Why this is the very thing call'd Deposing and if he can depose undoubtedly he can depose But whether he can do this is the thing in question and what he undertook to prove by a plain collection out of Scripture and does he offer us for proof the very thing to be prov'd This it neither proving nor gathering but saying twice over what they who deny once will deny as often as it is or can be repeated till it be prov'd T is in plain terms to say he can loose the band of Allegeance therefore he can loose the band of Allegeance or he can Depose therefore he can Depose In good earnest I should not easily have believed that such a man as Bellarmin should have over-seen himself so much But I perceive the greatest men that are are men and have their failings And though I should not have run proud of my own wit if I alone had observ'd a defect so palpable yet I must needs confess I am not the first discoverer Jo. Barclay has been before me and it may be as many as have considered the Argument as the truth is I say almost nothing which I have not from others If you remember I engaged no farther then to acquaint you what others say and I am as good as my word But it is so tedious and hobling a labor to be alwayes going over and over again with This man says that and t'other man the other that I cannot endure alwaies to cite my Authors But to return to our matter All we have here in proof of the deposing power is that the Pope has it which he that will take for a proof may but I fear that who believs it for that reason had as good believe it for no reason at all And how much soever there may be of Reason I verily think there is little of Scripture in it There follows the subordination of the two Powers from the subordination of their ends which is one of the 5 Arguments related in my former Letter and which to repeat again I suppose would be as ungrateful to you as tedious to me But there Bellarmin alledg'd it as an Argument from Reason and how he comes here to intitle it to Scripture I cannot guess The truth is I am wholly to seek why these two together and these two are all which belong to this Head should be called proof from Scripture when no place of Scripture is so much as alledged He assumes indeed that Ecclesiastical Primacy is founded in Scripture and Tradition But this is part of the question No Catholick disputes it with him The question is whether the Scripture teach the deposing Power is joyned to that Primacy I would fain see that place of Scripture which teaches this When Bellarmin undertook to prove his doctrine by Scripture I expected as I think any man would he should produce some place which teaches it either expresly or so that it might plainly be gathered from it And instead of this he brings us one reason such as it is and another which is not so much as a reason but a bare saying over what he was to prove and this he calls proof from Scripture He cites indeed in the Process of his discourse Mat. 16. and Jo. 21. but does not go about to shew how they are to his purpose only by way of History tells us that two Popes alledg'd them to shew that they dealt justly and that the power they challenged is not founded on uncertain opinions but divine Authority Undoubtedly these Popes had reason to desire it should be thought they dealt justly and that this power of theirs was not founded on uncertain opinions And every body knows they have alledged those places and more But every body is not satisfied with those allegations nor can perceive by them that divine Authority does indeed warrant their deposing claim neither does Bellarmin contribute any thing to their satisfaction They find in S. Hierom that the spiritual Key extends it self not to Temporals without arrogance and some body else from S. Jo. Chrysostom has told them that by the Keys is not understood any power given but spiritual to absolve from the bond of Sin and that it were foolish to understand it of a Power to absolve from the bond of debt And if they think it as wise to understand it so as to understand it of a Power to absolve from the bond of Allegeance they may do so for Bellarmin But you have a great deal to this purpose cited formerly and much more might be added if it were necessary by which it may be gather'd something more plainly then Bellarmin gathers that the Church understood not the power of the Keys as those Popes would have us understand the 16 of S. Mathew The like is of the other place of Feeding of which you observ'd unhappily that to understand it of Deposing is to think Christ meant his Sheep should be fed with knocks Upon that occasion you know I brought you S. Bernard affirming that to feed is no more then to Evangelize Fac opus Evangelistae Pastoris munus implesti I could easily produce Authority enough for the right sence of this place But another of the 5 Arguments mention'd in my last being drawn from hence you see there are all that Bellarmin could make of it which I have no mind to say again Several other Arguments there are scattered up and down by several Authors But I take these to be the principal At least they are those which Bellarmin chose and he being look'd upon as the Principal Patron of this opinion I think it needles to look after more and in his judgment worse It is now time to acquaint you with the arguments produc'd on the other side and the answers to them You shall permit me to contract them into as little room as I can for my Letter swells and I am weary both of
and yet he would perswade us that these cases are alike and that St. Gregory thought so But let the Similitude be what it will what is it to us What have we to do with Powers who are talking of men It will be time enough to inquire how the Powers are to one another when it is our business At present we have other work in hand Bellarmin saies the Clergy are exempted from Punishment and Tribute This Clergy are men and we are examining whether what he says of them be true Let him not amuse us with Powers Powers do not pay Tribute or appear at the Bar. Nor does the Secular Magistrate or power pretend to judge or restrain the Spiritual power Marry to the man who has it when by criminal Actions he becomes unworthy of it the Secular Magistrate does pretend he has something to say And he may say what he will for Bellarmin For he takes no further care than for the Power which no body offers to touch but leaves the poor man in the lurch And so this similitude which so much pleases Bellarmin that he has it up at every turn is as bad an Argument as can be It is neither proved nor any thing to purpose if it were The truth is here is a plain business clouded with learned handling Take away the Scholastical appearances of Authority of Fathers similitudes and Arguments and who can tell ten can see all that is in it Every body knows there are two powers in the World the Spiritual and the Temporal and every body knows men are subject to both This is no news Now we must needs be told that the Spiritual power is to the Temporal as the Spirit to the Flesh Which if it signifie that the Spiritual power is as Bellarmin phrases it naturally superiour to the Temporal and so the Temporal acts with the leave and according to the pleasure of the Spiritual it is manifestly false For the Powers are both supreme and independent of one another as we have discours'd formerly Nor can St. Gregory of all men be thought to mean so who if Caron cite him right says the Temporal power is supreme Summa and full and liable to the pleasure or command of no other Besides that elsewhere he expresly includes himself in the number of those who are to obey the higher powers for conscience and in force of a Law clearly promulgated by the Holy Ghost But if it signifie that all men even those who have the greatest Temporal power are subject to the Spiritual it is very true The Sword which Kings bear exempts them not from the Keys In this sense I guess St. Gregory meant it because the similitude though not altogether exact yet is not amiss nor misbecoming his learning For the Secular man is as the Flesh ignorant in the waies of the Spirit and though he were knowing the power of the Keys is not given to him Indeed he is not altogether guided as the Flesh by the Spirit but similitudes must not be search'd too near All this goes well But why so much cacling for this Egg Balk them not with the crack of learning and men will croud into this toyl of their own accord This subjection to the Spirit is but in the waies of the Spirit And all the story in two words of plain English is but this In Spiritual things men are subject to the Spiritual power And who needs St. Gregory or Bellarmin to tell him that With all this ado we are but just where we were The Secular man is indeed subject to the Spiritual power in Spirituals but why is not the Spiritual man subject to his power in Temporals Because says Bellarmin the Flesh never governs the Spirit and the Secular man is as the Flesh Yes in Spirituals but in Temporals He and He alone has the knowledge The Spiritual man is as ignorant in them as he in Spirituals He too and He alone has the power For the same hand which gave the Keys to Bishops gave t he Sword to Kings Wherefore He is now the Spirit and the Spiritual man the Flesh And so the very similitude which was brought for exemption does in truth prove subjection I have been the longer upon this point because the same clew will guide us through all the Labyrinths Here the Clergy are the Spirit afterwards Fathers and Shepherds and the Lot of God And all this is but the same stuff cut into several fashions which makes not the Web the stronger He says then for a third Argument that 't is against nature for Children to rule their Parents or Sheep their Shepherd and the Clergy are Fathers and Shepherds True but as they were the Spirit before in respect of Spirituals in relation to Temporals the Magistrate is the Father and Shepherd And so we ordinarily call good Princes the Fathers of their Country Isay 44 45. and a Temporal Prince is called by God himself his Shepherd and his Christ too Sure Bellarmin will not perswade many that a man is a Father and a Pastor when he breaks the Laws and refuses to contribute to the necessities of his Country To do so is not to feed and keep the Wolf away but to starve and let the Wolf in to devour the Flock And that we should be obliged to look upon and treat a man as a Father and Pastor when he is not so but the quite contrary whoever may teach nature does not This Argument like the former flies in his face who makes it We need Spiritual food and Spiritual direction and to be preserved from the Spiritual Wolf the Devil We need also Temporal food and direction and safety from the Temporal Wolf the Enemy The Clergy needs all this as much as other folks and therefore as they are Fathers and Pastors in as much as they supply our Spiritual wants so they are Children and Sheep in as much as they receive Temporal things from others and so by nature obliged to obey their Temporal Fathers and Pastors Bellarmin Objects this very thing against himself and Answers That a Prince is indeed a Spiritual Child and Sheep of the Priest but the Priest can in no wise be called the Child or Sheep of the Prince And that for a very strange reason because Priests and all Clergy-men have a Spiritual Prince of their own by whom they are governed not only in Spirituals but in Temporals too But can the Notion of Father and Shepherd be apply'd to that Spiritual Prince in respect of Temporals Does he provide Temporal Pastures for the Clergy Is it from him they have safety and quiet when they feed Does he drive the Wolf away We see with our eyes those things are done by the Temporal Prince and these and the like being the things which ground the Notion of Father and Shepherd in Temporals these Notions as evidently belong to the Prince as the Actions This which Bellarmin says is extremely absurd and intolerably pernicious on other
by making them believe They should have obedience from All to cajole them into the Church there to be taught a new lesson and find there was no such matter Is it not to say They did not dispence the Gospel with that Fidelity which they profess For they included every one within the command of obedience and yet meant a good part should not be included They taught that Kings and Magistrates were Higher powers in respect of all and that it is the Will of God that all be subject to them and know for all that it is not the Will of God and that They are not higher Powers in respect of the Clergy In short it is to make them speak plain non-sence For if this Comment pass their discourse will be this People have no reason to think any Christian disobedient to Civil Authority For we tell you some must obey it and the rest Ecclesiastical Then for St Chrysostome he contradicts not him he says The Saint says That All the Clergy as well as the rest and the highest degrees of them are subject to those Higher Powers of which St. Paul speaks Bellarmin says Princes can meddle neither with their Persons nor Goods Is not this to say They are not subject and is not subject and not-subject contradiction How can he avoid contradicting St. Chrysostome and the rest who speak as he does Why though he make the Pope alone the proper Judge yet he allows the Prince to be King of the Clergy c. What is this but a new contradiction For how can a King be a King and not a proper Judge To determine differences is one and an essential part of a Kings Office 'T is true between a Judge by Commission and a King there is a difference And yet even such a one represents the King But to be a proper Judge without Commission by an inherent right of his own is inseparable from a King The truth is 't is all contradiction from first to last Secular Princes are not lawful Superiours and yet Kings of the Clergy is contradiction They have Kingly that is Supreme Power and yet the Ecclesiastical is to be obeyed in case of contrary commands is contradiction They are Kings in respect of those who are not Subjects nor formally parts of the Common-wealth is contradiction c. And yet this happens not by Bellarmin's fault He has but one fixing on the wrong side which whoever does let him be never so learned can no more avoid contradiction than He can falling let him be never so dextrous under whom the ground founders But to return to our Road People may speculate themselves out of Common sence if they will and do more often than every body thinks The truth is whoever takes a wrong Principle and will pursue it must come thither at last Yet though he may so disguise the matter with learned subtilties that he perceive not where he is himself Nature will be too strong for Artifice and shew it self through all disguises Arguments have been made against the possibility of Motion and whiteness of Snow but the World could never be perswaded they could not go about their business or that Snow look'd like Jet We have found the point in question rooted in Nature and cultivated by the great Labourers in the field of Grace the Apostles Either way it must needs grow and appear in the hearts whether of men oâ— Faithful And so it evidently does Let a man go to a Bishop or Priest in any Country of Christendom and ask him seriously Do you belong to the Common-wealth in which you live Are you a subject of the Prince He would not be thought well in his wits Such they own such they call and write themselves for such the Prince and People and every body takes them nor is it more known that there are Clergy very where than that where-ever they are They are Subjects of the Prince of the place both in the esteem of all besides and their own constant profession Take for a curiosity For the clearness of the thing does not endure proof the Oath which the Bishops in France make to their King I swear and promise to your Majesty Sire that as long I live I will be to you a Faithful Subject and Servant that with all my power I will procure the good of your Service and Estate that I will never be present at any Council or Assembly held to the prejudice of them and that if any thing come to my knowledge I will presently give advice to your Majesty So help me God and his Holy Gospels It is so palpable a Truth that Bellarmin as contradictory as it is to his Doctrine cannot but acknowledge it For this reason he is forc'd to confess that Kings are Kings in respect of the Clergy as well as Laity that the Clergy besides their Spiritual capacity are also parts of the Common-wealth and in that quality oblig'd to obedience c. For the light of Nature however it may be obscured in particulars cannot be put out generally and we for our parts you know think as much of what is written in our hearts by the Apostles But to let that pass This is in truth the whole business To your Question whether the Clergy are Subjects or no all Christendom answers they are Now 't is evident that Subjects remaining Subjects can have nothing inconsistent with subjection And 't is as evident that the Exemptions in question in the latitude in which Bellarmin proposâ—s and you understand them are inconsistent with subjection 'T is therefore evident They belong not to the Clergy by Divine or any Right Neither can those whâ—ch they have be Exemptions from subjection but in the manner of subjection as Priviledges put a difference between Subjects requiring either different duties or the same duties in a different manner from some and others And since the difference betwixt them and the Laity as to subjection is not from their state and where the Laws put no difference all are alike subject there can be no Title nor Pretence to the difference which is but from the Laws and the pleasure of the Power which made them What Reason tells us must be unquestionable Records assure us actually was For the Laws are still extant among the rest which make up the Body of the Civil Law by which the Clergy obtained now one now another Priviledge till the whole number was compleated by many Emperours and in a long time I had once resolved to set them down but my Letter being long and that Book common I thought it not convenient to increase it with copying what who has the curiosity may as well see in the Original Besides that our Country not being subject to the Imperial Laws the priviledges of the Clergy here are to be regulated not by them but our own Yet 't is not amiss to set what Bellarmin says to them He objects them against himself as a proof that the Clergy