you what my Judgment is but as another saith as far as I know and may which I doubt not will give you an intire Satisfaction 3. WE wonder say you that no Ambassadors from England are come to the Council I beseech you Sir are the English the only Nation who have not come to the Council Have you Sir been at the Council your self Have you taken an exact Account Have you told them exactly by Poll Did you Sir see there all the other Nations come together from all Parts of the World except the English But Sir if you are so mightily in love with Wondering why did you not admire this too that neither any one of the three great Patriarchs of Constantinople Antioch nor Alexandria nor Presbyter John nor the Grecians Armenians Medes Persians Egyptians those of Barbary Ethiopia or the Indies did not come to the Council too for is there not many in those Nations who believe in Christ have they not Bishops are they not by Name and in reality Christians And Sir did Ambassadors come from all these Nations to the Council or will you rather say the Pope did not call them or that they are not bound by your Ecclesiastical Sanctions 4. BUT Sir we have much greater reason to wonder that when the Pope hath beforehand condemn'd us and publickly pronounc'd us excommunicated as Hereticks without ever hearing us make our Defence or alledging any thing against us he should afterwards call us to the Council for to condemn and punish men first and then to call them to Judgment is a very absurd way of Procedure a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Cart before the Horses But Sir I would very gladly be inform'd if the Popes Intentions be to consult with us concerning Religion in this Council whom he has condemn'd for Hereticks as I said or if he intends we shall stand at the Bar and be obliged forthwith to change our Minds or be immediately condemn'd again one of these things is new or without Example and stiffly denied to those of our Perswasion by Pope Julius the third and the other is ridiculous if he thinks the English so silly as to come to the Council for no other purpose but to be accused and make their Defence as well as they can and before his Holiness especially who is long since accused himself not only by us but by his own party of many great Crimes 5. BUT Sir if England only seems so stubborn to you where are the Ambassadors of the King of Denmark the Princes of Germany and the King of Sweden of the Switzers of the Grisons of the Hanse Towns of the Realm of Scotland and of the Dukedom of Prussia and now when so many of the Christian Nations are absent from your Council it is a most foolish thing to speak of none but the English but why do I speak of them the Pope himself will not vouchsafe to come to his own Council and did you not wonder at this too for what Insolence is this for any one man at his Pleasure when he will to call together all the Christian Kings Princes and Bishops and to require them to yield Obedience to him in it and in the mean time not meet them there himself Sure I am when the Apostles call'd a Council at Jerusalem St. Peter the Apostle of whose Chair and Succession the Popes glory so infinitely would not be absent But I suppose the Pope Pius the 4th who now sits in that Chair remembers very well what betided John XXII that he had no good Fortune at his Appearance in the Council of Constance for he came thither a Pope but returned a Cardinal and therefore the Popes ever since have very wisely taken care of themselves and kept out of reach and at home and have stoutly withstood all Councils and free Debates for above forty years since when Dr. Martin Luther was assaulted with all manner of Curses and Thunderbolts by the Pope because he had begun to preach the Gospel and reform Religion by the Word of God and with all Humility begged that his Cause might be reserved to the Hearing and Determination of a General Council he could not be heard for Leo the X. saw very well if the thing had been refer'd to a Council that his own Concerns would be brought in danger and that he might hear what he would not 6. THE Name of a General Council sounds well if it be conven'd as it ought and Men would lay by their Passions and refer all things to the Word of God submitting to the Truth only but if Piety and Religion are openly oppress'd if Tyranny and Ambition are confirm'd if Factions Gluttony and Luxury are encouraged there can then be nothing thought of that is of worse Consequence to the Church of God And all this I have said upon a Supposition that there is such a Council somewhere as you mention and yet I heartily believe there is none at last but if indeed there be any where any Council at all it must be a very obscure private Council for tho we are at no very great distance from the Place yet we could never hear what Bishops were met nor what was done nor indeed whether any Bishops at all would meet And about twenty months since when this Council was first call'd by Pope Pius Ferdinandus the Emperor made answer that tho all other things were agreeable yet the Place the Pope had chosen did very much displease him for that tho Trent was a fine City yet it was not convenient for all the Nations and besides could not possibly entertain that great Number of Persons who did usually follow a general Council And almost the same Answer was generally given by all the Christian Princes and some of them answered much more sharply and therefore we thought all these fine Shews would together with the Council end in smoak 7. BUT I pray Sir who call'd this Council and assembled the World together you will say Pope Pius the IV. and why he rather than the Arch-bishop of Toledo by what Authority and Example of the Primitive Church and by what law hath he done this did Peter Linus Cletus or Clemens thus put the World in commotion by their Edicts this during the Integrity and Prosperity of the Roman Empire was a sole Prerogative of the Emperor but now that the Power of the Empire is diminished and that the several Kingdoms in Christendom have shared the Imperial Power amongst them this Power is devolved to all the Christian Kings and Princes Now Sir search all the Annals and gather together all the Memoirs of Antiquity and you shall find that all the ancient Councils as those of Nice Ephesus Chalcedon and Constantinople were call'd by the Emperors of Rome Constantinus Theodosius the First and Second and Martianus and not by the Popes of Rome 8. POPE Leo a Man sufficiently kind to himself and who did not in any thing neglect the Authority of his
might thereby reap some benefit by it but they that the People may never understand them whisper their Divine Service not only in an obscure and low Tone but also in a strange and barbarous Tongue 10. The old Carthagenian Council forbad any thing besides the Canonical Scriptures to be read in the holy Assemblies of the Church but they read in their Churches what they themselves do not doubt to be meer Lyes and silly Fables And now if any man thinks these things are of no great consideration because they were decreed by Emperors and small Councils consisting of Bishops of less esteem and not in full Councils and therefore are more fond of the Authority and Names of Popes 11. Julius expresly forbad the Priest in the Celebration of the holy Communion to dip the Bread in the Calice but they contrary to this Decree do divide the Bread and dip it 12. Clemens the Pope saith it is not lawful for a Bishop to bear both the Spiritual and Civil Swords and saith he if thou wilt have both thou deceivest thy self and those that hear thee but now the Pope claims both and bears both and therefore the Wonder ought to seem the less if that hath followed which Clement foretold and he hath accordingly deceived himself and those which have heard him 13. Pope Leo saith it is not lawful to celebrate more than one Mass in one Day in one Church they say every day sometimes ten at others twenty and at other thirty and sometimes more in the same Church at the same time so that the miserable Spectator knows not which way to turn him 14. Gelasius the Pope saith that if any man divide the Sacrament and when he has received one part refuseth the other he doth act Wickedly and Sacrilegiously but they contrary to the Word of God and the Decree of this Pope command only one part of the Eucharist to be given to the People and by so doing have made their Priests guilty of Sacriledge 6. BUT now if they shall pretend that all these things are antiquated and worn out of use and so are in a sort dead and do not concern our times yet that men may see what Faith is to be given to these Men and with what Hope they call Councils let us consider in a few instances how well they observe those things which have been ordained of late years and which are fresh in Memory by Councils which they pretend were lawfully called and in which they themselves decreed those things I shall mention to be Religiously observed In the last Council of Trent not much above fourteen years since it was decreed by the common Vote of all Orders there present that two Benefices should not be committed at one time to the same Person Where is that Sanction now Is that so soon antiquated and dead too for they do frequently give not only two Benefices but sometimes also several Monasteries too and sometimes two three or four Bishopricks to one Man and he too sometimes not only unlearned and consequently thereby unfit for them but a Soldier In the same Council it was decreed that all Bishops ought to preach the Gospel but they never Preach nor ever come in a Pulpit nor do they think it in the least any part of their Duty What then is the meaning of all that shew of Antiquity Why do they glory so in the Names of the Fathers and of the ancient and modern Councils Why would they so fain seem to rely upon their Authority whom as occasion serve at their Pleasure they despise 7. BUT I have a great desire to have a little discourse with the Pope himself and to tell him some things to his Face Be pleased then O Holy Father who so often boastest of Antiquity and pretendest that all the Ancients are intirely addicted to thy Service to inform us which of all the ancient Fathers ever call'd your Holiness the chief Pontif or the Universal Bishop or the Head of the Church Which of them ever said that both the Swords were given to thee Which of them ever said that you have the Right and Authority to call Councils that the whole World was your Diocess Which of them ever said that all Bishops had received of your Fulness That all Power both iâ— Heaven and Earth was given to you That you could not be judged by Kings nor by the whole Clergy nor by all the Peopleâ— Which of them ever said that Kings and Emperors by the Command and will of Christ derived Authority from you Which of them ever affirmed with a Mathematical Exactnesâ— and Certainty that your Authority was preâ—cisely seventy seven times greater than that oâ— the greatest Kings Which of them ever saiâ— that you had a greater power than the otheâ— Patriarchs Which of them ever said you werâ— the Lord God or not a meer Man like otheâ— Mortals or stiled you a certain Hotch-potch a Mixture or Concrete of God and Manâ— which of them ever said that you were thâ— fountain of all Law that you had an Empireâ— and Dominion over Purgatory and that yoâ— might at your pleasure command the Angels of God Which of them ever said that you were King of Kings and Lord of Lords And now we are in we may inquire of a fow other things of the same Nature What one Man of all the ancient Bishops and Fathers ever taught you to say a private Mass whilst the People did nothing but look on or to lift the Eucharist above your Head in which you now place all your Religion or to curtail the Sacrament of Christ and contrary to his Institution and express Command to deprive the People of one half of it And that we may conclude what one of all the ancient Fathers taught you to dispence the Blood of Christ and the Merits of the Martyrs and to sell your Indulgences and all the Apartments and Lodgings of Purgatory like Commodities in the Market for Money They are wont often to celebrate their own wonderful secret Learning and their manifold and various Readings Now let your Partizans at last produce something of it if they can or let them at least shew they have read and do know more than or dinary for they have often made hideous Outcries amongst their Hearers that all the parts of their Religion are ancient and approved not only by the number but also by the Continuance and Consent of all Nations and Times 8. WELL then let them at least shew this their boasted Antiquity let them make it appear that what they so much extol is indeed of so vast an Extent let them prove that all Christian Nations have imbraced their Religion But alass as I said before they flee from their own Decrees and have already pluckt up those Canons which but a very few years since they made to last for ever Why then should we trust them in relation to what they pretend concerning the Fathers the
Right is devolved to all Princes in common yet has so unjustly usurpt it to himself alone and thinks it sufficient to communicate his design of holding a Council to the Greatest Prince in Christendom as to his Servant But if the Modesty of Ferdinand the Emperor be so great perhaps because he doth not thorowly understand the Papal Arts that he can digest this Injury yet the Pope who pretends to so much Sanctity ought not to have offered him this Affront and thus to have arrogated to himself another Mans Right 12. BUT some of his Party may reply that the Emperor then called the Councils because the Bishop of Rome was not then arrived to that height of Greatness and yet he did not even then sit with the Bishops or at all interpose his Authority in their Deliberations and Consultations Yes as Theodoret acquaints us Constantine the Emperor did not only sit with the Bishops but admonished them to determine the Controversie then depending out of the Prophetick and Apostolical Writings In this Disputation said the Emperor concerning Divine things there is set before us which we ought to follow the Doctrine of the Holy Ghost for the Books of the Evangelists and Apostles and the Oracles of the Prophets do sufficiently shew us what we ought to think of the Will of God Theodosius another Emperor not only sat amongst the Bishops as Socrates saith but also was Moderator of the Dispute and rent the Papers of the Hereticks and approved the Sentiments and Doctrine of the Catholicks And in the Council of Chalcedon the Civil Magistrate who under the Emperor governed that Council condemn'd three Bishops Dioscorus Juvenalis and Thalassius by his Sentence for Hereticks and gave judgment that they should be deposed from that degree In the Third the Constantinopolitan Council the Civil Magistrate not only sate with the Bishops but also subscribed the Canons with them We have read said he and subscribed them In the Second Council of Orange the Ambassadors of the Princes being Noble-men themselves sate and not only voted concerning Matters of Religion but also subscribed amongst the Bishops for thus it is written in the end of that Council Petrus Marcellinus and Felix Liberius two Noble and Illustrions Praefecti Praetorio of Gaul and Patricians have consented and subscribed Syragrius Opilio Pantagathus Deodatus Cariatho and Marcellus honourable Men and Magistrates have subscribed But if the Praefecti Praetorio and Patricians or Noble-men could then subscribe the Councils may not Emperors and Kings do it now There were no need to prosecute so plain and apparent a point as this is but that we have to do with a parcel of Men who use to deny the clearest things oven those things which lye plain and open before their Eyes out of a contentious Disposition and a desire of Victory The Emperour Justinianus made a Law for the correcting the Manner and curbing the Insolence of the Clergy and altho he was a most Christian and Catholick Emperor yet he deposed Sylverius and Vigilius two Popes Successors of St. Peter and Vicars of Jesus Christ as they are now called 13. AND now seeing that Princes have imployed their Authority upon Bishops received commands from God concerning Religion brought back the Ark of God composed Sacred Hymns and Psalms governed the Priests made publick Discourses concerning the Worship of God purged the Temple demolished High Places burnt Idolatrous Groves and have admonished the Priests concerning their Office and given them Laws of Living have slain wicked Prophets deposed Bishops called Councils of Bishops and sate with them and taught them what they should do have punished Heretical Bishops have taken cognizance of Religion subscribed Councils and given Sentence in them and done all this not by the command of another but in their own Names and that rightly and piously shall we say after all this that the care of Religion belongs not to them Or that a Christian Prince who is pleased to concern himself in these things acts ill immodestly and wickedly In all these Affairs the most Ancient and most Christian Kings and Emperors have intermeddled and yet were never accused of Impiety or Immodesty for so doing and will any pretend to find either more Catholick Princes or more Illustrious Examples 14. BUT now if they might do all these things tho they were only Civil Princes and governed their several States Wherein have our Princes offended who tho they are in the same Authority may it seems not do the same things Or wherein consists the wonderful force of their Learning Wisdom and Holiness that contrary to the Custom of all the Ancient and Catholick Bishops who have heretofore deliberated with Princes concerning Religion they should now reject and exclude Christian Princes from the cognizance of the Cause now depending and from all Participation and Congress with them in their Councils But yet it cannot be denied they have taken a prudent care for themselves and the upholding their Kingdom which they foresaw otherwise would soon have perished For if they who are placed by God in the highest Station had once seen and understood these Mens Arts that the Commands of Christ are contemned by them that the light of the Gospel is obscured and extinguished by them that they play tricks with and delude them and shut up against them the entrance into the Kingdom of God They would never so patiently have suffered themselves to be so proudly despised and injuriously scorned and abused But now on the other hand they have rendred all Princes obnoxious and subject to them by their blindness and Ignorance 15. WE as I said before have done nothing in the changing of Religion either insolently or rashly nothing but with great deliberation and slowly Nor had we ever thought of doing it except the Will of God undoubtedly and manifestly opened to us in the most Sacred Scriptures and the necessity of our Salvation had compelled us so to do for altho we have departed from that Church which they call the Catholick Church and thereupon they have kindled a great envy against us in them who cannot well judge of us yet it is enough for us and ought to be so to any prudent and pious man who considers seriously of his Salvation that we have only departed from that Church which may enr which Christ who cannot err so long since foretold should err and which we see clearly with our Eyes has departed from the Holy Fathers the Apostles Christ himself and the Primitive and Catholick Church And we have approached as much as possibly we could to the Church of the Apostles and ancient Catholick Bishops and Fathers which we know was yet a Perfect and as Tertullian saith an unspotted Virgin and not contaminated with any Idolatry or great and publick Error Neither have we only reformed the Doctrine of our Church and made it like theirs in all things but we have also brought the Celebration of ☞ the Sacraments and the
to me by Letters or by Messengers I will discover to man to his Damage I will be a Helper to defend the Papacy of the Church of Rome and the Canons of the Holy Fathers and to retain them against all men Of old when the Priests of Apollo Pythius spoke plainly in favour of Philip King of Macedonia there were some who facetiously said that Apollo began 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Philippize And now we see plainly that nothing is decreed in the Council but by the Will and Consent of the Pope why may we not say that the Oracles of the Councils do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Papize that is speak nothing but what the Pope please Verres of old acted wisely of whom it is reported that being plainly guilty of many Crimes he would not commit his Reputation and Fame to any but confiding men of his own Flock and Party But yet the Pope is many degrees wiser for he will not have any Judges but such as he knows will not determine any thing against his Will because they have the same Interest he hath and esteem all things by the relation they have to their Pleasures and Bellies and yet if they would they could not do otherwise because they are bound to him by an Oath too indeed they place the Bible in the midst of the Council because they would seem not to act any thing against the Prescription thereof and yet they only look upon it at a good distance but never read one word of it in truth they bring with them a prejudicated Sentence and never attend what Christ saith or determine any thing but as it best pleaseth them 24. AND thus is all that Liberty which ought to be in all Consultations and especially in those which concern holy things and which doth best befit the holy Spirit and the Modesty of Christian Men wholly taken away St. Paul saith that if any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his Peace but these men command him to be forthwith taken and hurried to Prison and burnt who shall but mutter any thing to the contrary as the cruel Death of the two holy and stout men John of Hus and Jerome of Prague is an excellent Witness against them which two men they murthered contrary to the publick Faith and were thereby false both to God and Man So the false Prophet Zedechias when he had made himself a pair of iron Horns smote Micaiah the Prophet of the Lord and said hath the Spirit of the Lord left me and come to thee thus having now excluded all others they reign in Councils alone and have the sole Right of Suffrages and so make and divulge such Laws as the Ephesians did of old Let no man said they who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wiser than the rest presume to live here upon pain of Banishment and Transportation for these men will hear none of us About ten years since in the late Council at Trent the Ambassadors of the Princes of Germany and of the free Towns who came thither that they might be heard were excluded out of the Assembly and denied the Liberty of Speech for the Bishops and Abbots said they would suffer no free Debate of the Cause nor would they determine the Controversies by the Word of God and that those of our Side were not to be heard except they would recant which if they refused they were to expect no other terms in the Council but to be condem'd for Julius the III. in his Brief by which he call'd that Council publickly declared that if they did not change their Minds they should be condemned for Hereticks without ever hearing their Cause And Pius the IV. who hath now resolved to call again that Council hath by the prejudice of his own single Judgment commanded all those who have made defection from the Authority of the Church of Rome that is the greatest part of Christendom without ever seeing or hearing them to be taken and reputed Hereticks They are wont to say and that upon all occasions that all things are well and that they will not suffer the least part of their Doctrine and Religion to be altered Albertus Pighius saith that without the Command of the Church of Rome the most plain place of Scripture is not to be believed Now is this their way to restore the Church to her Integrity Is this their seeking Truth Is this the Liberty and Moderation which beâ—its a Council 25. AND altho these things are most unjust and most contrary to the Practice of the ancient Councils and the Usage of modest and good Men in their Deliberations yet it is much more unreasonable that whereas the whole World complains of the Ambition and Tyranny of the Pope of Rome and is perswaded that until he is reduced to a better Order all their Labours for the Reformation of the Church of God will be in vain and nothing will be done yet at last all things are referred to him alone as to the most equal Arbiter and Judge But O good God! to what Man I will not now say any of these things against him that he is an Enemy of the Truth an Ambitious Covetous Proud Man who is already become intolerable to his own But I say that it is the utmost pitch of Folly and Injustice to make him the sole Judge of all Religion who commands all his Dictates to be had in the self same Honour and Esteem as the Words of St. Peter are and saith that in case he should Mislead a thousand Souls and carry them with himself to Hell yet no man ought to reprehend him for it Who saith he can make Injustice to become Justice Whom Camotensis confesseth to have corrupted the Scriptures that he might have a Plenitude of Power And why should I use more words whom his own Companions and Ministers Joachimus Abbas Petrarcha Marsilius Patavinus Laurentius Valla and Hieronymus Savanarola have not obscurly hinted to be the Antichrist To the Judgment and Will I say of this one Man are all things submitted that this very Criminal may be both the Party accused and the Judge of his own very Case that this guilty man may sit aloft upon a Throne and his Accusers stand beneath whilst he gives Sentence for himself for Pope Julius had given us these just and reasonable Laws There is saith he no Council which is valid nor ever shall be unless supported by the Authority of the Church of Rome And Bonifacius the VIII saith that every Creature ought to be subject to the Church of Rome and that as they tender their Salvation And Pope Pascal useth this Expression as if any Councils had given Laws to the Church of Rome when in truth all the Councils have been held and received their Force from the Authority of the Church of Rome and in all their Statutes the Authority of the Pope of Rome is plainly and apparently excepted And another saith
receive them But if that Expression to thee will I give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven be to be understood as spoken to all the rest as well as to Peter why then should not all that was spoken as well what went before as what follows after tho spoken to St. Peter yet be common to all the Apostles There is saith Hillary one happy Rock of Faith which Peter confessed with his Mouth and again upon this Confession of Peter's is the Church built and not much after this Faith is the Foundation of the Church And after the same manner the other Fathers also Jerome Cyril and Bede say the Church is built not upon Peter but upon the Faith of Peter that is on Jesus Christ the Son of God whom Peter by an Heavenly instinct confessed Peter saith St. Augustin was so call'd from the Rock not the Rock from Peter nor did Christ say I will build my self upon thee but I will build thee upon me And Nicholas Liranus tho he is not always a good Author for you know in what Age he lived yet he rightly took this upon this Rock saith he that is upon Christ and therefore the Church cannot depend upon any man by reason of his Dignity and Ecclesiastical Power for many Popes have proved Apostates 28. IN what then is this Papal Authority placed In Teaching but they teach nothing in administring the Sacraments but they do not administer them in feeding but they feed none Now this is all the Power which Christ bestowed upon the Apostles Go ye said he into all the World and preach the Gospel c. hence forward ye shall be Fishers of Men and as the living Father sent me so I send you But as to these whither go they what do they teach what do they preach what do they fish for from whence go they or by whom are they sent their 's is nor Apostolick Authority but Pride and an intolerable Lordship usurped by Force and Tyranny None of us saith Cyprian calls himself Bishop of Bishops or compells his Partners to a necessitated Obedience by a Tyrannical Terror Seeing every Bishop may use his Liberty and Power according to his own Discretion as he cannot be judged by another so neither can he judge another And as the other Apostles saith he were the same which Peter was so all Bishops are endowed with this equal Partnership both of Honour and Power And St. Jerome saith greater is the Authority of the World than that of any City Why then do you produce to me the Custom of one City Why do you vindicate that Paucity from which this Pride arose against the Laws of the Church Where-ever a Bishop is setled whether at Rome or Eugubium whether at Constantinople or Rhegium he is of the same Worth and of the self same Priesthood the greatness of Riches and the Humility of Poverty makes not one Bishop superior or inferior to another And St. Gregory saith Peter was a principal Member in the Body John Andrew and James were the Heads of particular People and yet all of them are Members of the Church in one Head yea the Saints before the Law those under the Law and those under Grace and all those who make up the Body of our Lord the Church are to be accounted Members and no man ever yet desired to be call'd an UNIVERSAL 29. THIS is that Power which some men defend so stoutly in this Age so that whatever they think of the Popes Life or Religion yet they would have this Authority Sacred and untouched as if the Church of God could not be safe without it or as if without the Popes Will and Consent a Council could be no Council and that if the whole World should think contrary to what he doth it would be nothing And therefore when you see Sir that these things are thus ill managed you ought not to wonder that when nothing is now sincerely and truly acted in Councils our Men had rather stay at home than travail so far to no purpose to a Place where they are sure to lose their Labour and their Cause too 30. BUT Sir you say in the next place it is a Sin to change any thing in Religion without the Consent of the Pope and a Council Why Sir the very Popes themselves have changed almost the whole State of the Primitive Church without any Council and tho this is indeed a very specious and winning Proposition yet it is made a Cover and Defence for most foul Errors for they only seek to delay the Minds of Men with a tedious Expectation that by lingring and weariness they may take off their Edge and Keenness and so by degrees make them cast off all Hopes of a Reformation For what would they have the People of God be deceived err be deluded and involved in Error and in the Ignorance of God and be led into eternal Ruine and Destruction whilst the Pope calls a Council and the Abbots and Bishops meet debate settle things and then return home Is it not lawful for any of us to believe in Christ to prosess the Gospel to worship God rightly and truly to fly from Superstitions and Worship of Idols except these men please to give us leave In truth the state of the Church of God were very deplorable if in the midst of so many far spread gross blind foul apparent and manifest Errors so that our very Enemies themselves cannot deny them nothing could be done for her Relief without the Concourse of the whole World and a General Council or at least of such a Council as we cannot hope for with any certainty and the event of which if we now had it is much more uncertain When of old the Persians invaded Greece and began to destroy all before them and the Lacedemonians whose valour was then much famed amongst the Grecians and therefore it was but reasonable they should have been the first in the defence of their Country yet because they had an ancient Custom and a Superstitious conceit that had possessed them from the time of Lycurgus that it was ominous and unfortunate to begin a Martial Expedition at any other time than that of the full Moon therefore they sat still and suffered their Enemies to plunder and burn their Country whilst they were foolishly expecting that period of the Moon which was most opportune and fitting to begin their defence in But at last they bethought themselves and cried There is equal danger in the delay The safety of the Church is in danger the Devil like a ramping and a roaring Lyon goes about seeking whom he may devour simple men are easily drawn into the snare and tho they are very often touched with a Zeal for God yet out of Ignorance and Misperswasion they persecute the Son of God And as Nazianzen saith When they think they are in Arms for Christ they do really fight against him And the Bishops who ought in the first place to
and Men of great Estates and Esteem This Version was made soon after the Piece was first printed tho I cannot tell precisely in what year for Mr. Humfrey tells us Mr. Harding answered the English Book and it is so well done that I profess I could never have made so good a Version as I have if I had not been assisted by it but then our Language is so much refin'd and exalted since that time which is above an hundred years that it was perhaps necessary to put it into a more modish dress in order to recommend it to the reading of those who do not much admire excellent Sense in a harsh and obsolete stile and for this reason only have very many Books of late been new turn'd and they of France who put out the Elegant Mons Version of the New Testament give no other Reason for it than this The Epistle to Seignior Scipio was written soon after the Apology and to a private Venetian Gentleman in a more free and friendly way as not being at all intended for the Publick It was first Printed in English and Latin at the end of the Council of Trent who made that Version I know not but it is a very good one and if I might have had so much liberty I would only have altered a very few words in it and so have Re-printed it again But not daring to take that liberty with what belonged to other men I have done it over again as well as I could and perhaps the Reader will not be displeased to see it in the same stile with the Apology in English as well as Latin But now who can enough deplore the Blindness Pride and Partiality of those Men who being led by Interest and hood-wink'd by Ignorance did at first imploy all the disingenuous Arts that spite and prejudice could furnish them with to ruine this most Excellent Apostolical and Primitive Church or force her to return back to the State of Corruption out of which with so much labour difficulty and danger she was then rising But there is some allowance to be made for the misinformation of Strangers who being separated from us by the Ocean were forced to take such Accounts as were given them by others and 1. being too apt to believe the reports of their own Priests whose Interest it was to blacken her what they could And 2. those of our own Fugitives who made the case much worse than they themselves thought it that they might obtain the more pity and consequently the better Relief and Provision abroad which is wont to be afforded to all those that fly for Religion amongst those of the same Faith 3. And also suspecting the Fidelity of the Relations made by our Ministers in foreign Courts 4. And of all our Travellers who stuck to and imbraced the Religion established by Law But then what can be said for those Roman Catholicks as they will needs be called who living at home here in England and consequently having better means of informing themselves concerning the truth of things cannot pretend to excuse themselves by those Topicks Strangers may It was both their Duty and Interest to inform themselves of the Affairs of their own Country and to submit to the Laws and Customs of it whilest Strangers that are not under those Obligations may excuse themselves if they do not make so diligent an inquiry into things or happen at last to be mistaken in them Besides in the Settlement under Queen Elizabeth All the care imaginable was taken to unite the whole Nation in one Religion if it were possible and whatever was in the former Liturgy that might exasperate or offend them was taken out by which Complyances they are the words of the Learned Dr. Heylyn and the expunging of the Passages before remembred the Book was made so passable amongst the Papists that for ten Years they generally repaired to their Parish Churches without doubt or scruple as is affirmed not only by Sir Edward Coke in his Speech against Garnet and his charge given at the Assizes held at Norwich but also by the Queen her self in a Eetter to Sir Francis Walsingham then being her Resident or Leiger Ambassador in the Court of France the same is confessed by Sanders also in his Book de Schismate And there is a report recorded by Camden that the Pope offered to his Envoy Parapalia to the Queen Liturgiam Anglicam sua Authoritate confirmaturum usum Sacramenti subutraque specie Anglis permissurum dummodo illa Romanae Ecclesiae se aggregaret Romanaeque Cathedrae primatum Agnosceret c. That he would confirm the English Liturgy by his Authority and grant the English the use of the Sacrament under both kinds provided the Queen would unite her self to the Church of Rome and acknowledge the Primacy of the Roman See Since that time nothing has been added that might in the least offend them Why then do they act contrary to their Ancestors Why do they pretend more Conscience than either their Fore-fathers or the Pope ten Years was a sufficient time for them to have found out the Heresie in if there had been any in the Establishment And we all know their Separation was not upon any scruple of Conscience they had but in obedience to the Popes Bull. The Pope in the mean time did what he did purely out of worldly Interest and Policy to advance his own Grandure and Wealth at their cost and trouble If he could have secured this the Liturgy and Doctrine of the Church of England should have been own'd for Catholick and have been confirm'd by his Holinesses Authority But what is this to them Are they bound to promote his Temporal Interest with their Ruine and the disquiet of their Country Or how come they to be more obliged to separate from the Church than to Rebel against the Crown seeing the same Pope commanded both and for the same ends and is as infallible in the one as in the other But this is not our only Calamity about the same time another sort of Men separated too upon direct contrary Pretences Why 't is our Antiquity our Decency our too great resemblance to the Church of Rome that offends them We are not sufficiently purged for these Pure Men to joyn with we have too little of the Primitive Church cryes the one too much says the other too few Ceremonies too much simplicity say the Papists too many of the first too little of the latter cry the Dissenters Thus was truth ever persecuted on both sides Christ crucified betwixt two Thieves the Primitive Church persecuted by the Pagans on one side and the Iews on the other I venerate thy Truth and Moderation O dear and Holy Mother who dost so exactly resemble thy God and Saviour and the Primitive Church both in thy Truth and Piety and in thy Sufferings too which are thy Glory But what shall I say for our Dissenters who have run into such
to read the word of God in their own Tongue 16. Or that it was then Lawful for the Priest to pronounce the words of Consecration closely or in private to himself 17. Or that the Priest had then Authority to offer up Christ unto his Father 18. Or to communicate and receive the Sacrament for another as they do 19. Or to apply the vertue of Christs Death and Passion to any Man by the means of the Mass 20. Or that it was then thought a sound Doctrine to teach the People that Mass Ex opere operato that is even for that it is said and done is able to remove any part of our sin 21. Or that any Christian man called the Sacrament of the Lord his God 22. Or that the People were then taught to believe that the Body of Christ remaineth in the Sacrament as long as the accidents of Bread and Wine remain there without Corruption 23. Or that a Mouse or any other Worm or Beast may eat the Body of Christ for so some of our Adversaries have said and taught 24. Or that when Christ said Hoc est Corpus meum the word Hoc pointed not to the Bread but to an individuum vagum as some of them say 25. Or that the Accidents or Forms or shews of Bread and Wine be the Sacraments of Christs Body and Blood and not rather the very Bread and Wine it self 26. Or that the Sacrament is a sign or token of the Body of Christ that lieth hidden underneath it 27. Or that ignorance is the Mother and cause of true Devotion The Conclusion is that I shall then be content to yield and subscribe This challenge saith the Learned Dr. Heylyn being thus published in so great an Auditory startled the English Papists both at home and abroad but none more than such of our Fugitives as had retired to Lovain Doway or St. Omers in the Low-Country Provinces belonging to the King of Spain The business was first agitated by the exchange of friendly Letters betwixt the said Reverend Prelate and Dr. Henry Cole the late Dean of St. Pauls more violently followed in a Book of Rastal's who first appeared in the Lists against the Challenger followed herein by Dorman and Marshall who severally took up the Cudgels to as little purpose the first being well beaten by Nowel and the last by Calfhill in their Discourses writ against them but they were only Velitations or preparitory Skirmishes in reference to the main encounter which was reserved for the Reverend Challenger himself and Dr. John Harding one of the Divines of Lovain and the most Learned of the Colledge The Combatants were born in the same County bred up in the same Grammar School and studied in the same University also Both zealous Protestants in the time of King Edward and both relapsed to Popery in the time of Queen Mary Jewel for fear and Harding upon hope of Favour and Preferment by it But Jewel's fall may be compared to that of St. Peter which was short and sudden rising again by his Repentance and fortified more strongly in his Faith than before he was but Harding's like to that of the other Simon premeditated and resolved on never to be restored again so much was there within him of the gaul of bitterness to his former standing But some former Differences had been between them in the Church of Sarisbury whereof the one was Prebendary and the other Bishop occasioned by the Bishops visitation of that Cathedral in which as Harding had the worst so was it a Presage of a second foil which he was to have in this encounter Who had the better of the day will easily appear to any that consults the Writings by which it will appear how much the Bishop was too hard for him at all manner of Weapons Whose learned Answers as well in maintenance of his Challenge as in defence of his Apology whereof more hereafter contain in them such a Magazin of all sorts of Learning that all our Controversors since that time have furnished themselves with Arguments and Authority from it THUS far that Learned man has discoursed the event of this famous Challenge with so much brevity and perspicuity that I thought it better to transcribe his words than to do it much worse my self WHEN Queen Mary died Paul the Fourth was Pope to whom Queen Elizabeth sent an account of her coming to the Crown which was delivered by Sir Edward Karn her Sisters Resident at Rome to which the angry Gentleman replied That England was held in Fee of the Apostolick See that she could not succeed being illegitimate nor could he contradict the Declarations made in that matter by his Predecessors Clement the Seventh and Paul the Third he said it was a great boldness in her to assume the Crown without his Consent for which in reason she deserved no favour at his hands yet if she would renounce her Pretensions and refer her self wholly to him he would shew a fatherly affection to her and do every thing for her that could consist with the dignity of the Apostolick See Which answer being hastily and passionately made was as little regarded by the Queen But he dying soon after Pius the Fourth an abler man succeeded and he was for gaining the Queen by Arts and Kindness to which end he sent Vincent Parapalia Abbot of St. Saviours with courteous Letters to her dated May the fifth 1560. with order to make large proffers to her under hand but the Queen had rejected the Popes Authority by Act of Parliament and would have nothing to do with Parapalia nor would she suffer him to come into England In the interim the Pope had resolved to renew the Council at Trent and in the next year sent Abbot Martiningo his Nuncio to the Queen to invite her and her Bishops to the Council and he accordingly came to Bruxells and from thence sent over for leave to come into England but tho France and Spain interceded for his Admission yet the Queen stood firm and at the same time rejected a motion from the Emperor Ferdinando to return to the old Religion as he called it Yet after all these denials given to so many and such potent Princes one Scipio a Gentleman of Venice who formerly had had some acquaintance with Bishop Jewel when he was a Student in Padua and had heard of Martiningo's ill success in this Negotiation would needs spend some Eloquence in labouring to obtain that Point by his private Letters which the Nuncio could not gain as a publick Minister and to that end he writes his Letters of Expostulation to Bishop Jewel his old Friend preferred not long before to the See of Sarisbury Which Letter did not long remain unanswered that Learned Prelate saith my Author was not so unstudied in the nature of Councils as not to know how little of a General Council could be found at Trent And therefore he returned an answer to the proposition so
heard the Gospel O my little Children of whom I travel in Birth again until Christ be formed in you For there is no need of speaking how fearfully the Church of Corinth was corrupted And now could the Churches of Galatia and Corinth fall and is the Church of Rome the only Church that can neither fall nor err Certainly Christ long since foretold concerning his Church that there should be a time when the Abomination of Desolation should stand in the Holy Place And St. Paul saith that Antichrist shall sit in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God And the time will come when men will not indure sound Doctrine but in the Church shall be turned unto Fables And St. Peter saith there shall be in the Church false Teachers and Daniel the Prophet saith of the last times the Days of Antichrist the Truth shall be cast down and trodden upon in the Earth And Christ saith there shall be such great Calamities and Confusions upon the Earth that the very Elect if it were possible shall be deceived Now all these things are to come to pass not amongst Pagans and Turks but in the Holy Place the Temple of God in the Church the Assembly and Society of Christians 23. AND altho these things alone are sufficient to forewarn a wise man not to suffer himself easily to be imposed upon by the Name of the Church so as not to examine it by the Word of God yet besides all this many of the Fathers and pious and learned Men have oftentimes grievously complain'd that there Predictions were come to pass in their times For God in the midst of that Darkness would that there should be some men who should as Sparks be observed by Men tho they could not give them a very clear and bright Light Certainly Hilarius when things were in some sort sincere and uncorrupted tells them that they did ill in doating upon Walls that they were mistaken in venerating Houses and Buildings as if they were the Church of God and offering them to us instead of Peace Is it doubtful saith he whether Antichrist shall sit there The Mountains Woods Lakes Prisons and Gulphs to me seem safer because the Prophets of God remaining willingly or being forcibly put into them prophecied by the Spirit of God Gregory the Great as if he then perceived and foresaw the Ruine that was near at hand wrote thus to John Bishop of Constantinople who first commanded himself to be call'd by the Name of the Universal Bishop If the Church should depend upon one man it would certainly fall And who is there that hath not observed that this is come long since to pass It is a great while since the Bishop of Rome would have the whole Church depend upon him only and therefore it is no wonder if it be long since fallen St. Bernard above four hundred years agon said there is nothing sound in the Clergy now therefore there is nothing remaining but the Revelation of the Man of Sin and in his Sermon on the Conversion of St. Paul he expresseth himself thus It may seem perhaps to some that Persecutions are ceased No saith he they now begin from them who have obtained the Primacy in the Church thy Friends and thy Neighbours have approached and stood against thee from the Sole of the Foot to the Crown of the Head there is no Soundness Iniquity is proceeded from thy Elders Judges and Vicars who seem'd to govern thy People We cannot now say as the People are so is the Priest because the People are not so bad as the Priests Alas alas O Lord God! they are the first in persecuting thee who seem to love the Primacy and exercise a Principality in thy Church And upon the Canticles All my Friends and all my Enemies all my Acquaintance and all my Adversaries the Servants of Christ serve Antichrist Behold in my Peace my Bitterness is encreased And Roger Bacon a man of great Name when he had in a sharp Discourse represented the miserable State of his own times concludes thus those many and great Errors require Antichrist as near at hand 24. GERSON complains that in his times all the force of Theology was degenerated into a meer contest of Wit and Sophistry The Lugdunensian Brothers a sort of men which were not ill as to their Lives used to affirm that the Church of Rome from whence alone the Oracles of Faith were then fetched was the Whore of Babylon concerning which such clear Predictions were in the Revelations and that she was the Assembly of Hell I know that the Authority of these Men is in no esteem with them but what now would they say if I should produce Witnesses which are of the highest Value with them What if I say that Pope Adrian ingenuously confessed that all those Mischiefs fell upon the Church from the top of the Papal Power Pighius confesseth that they erred in this that they suffered many Abuses to be brought into the Mass tho they would have it esteemed most Holy Gerson that the multitude of light foolish Ceremonies had extinguished all that Power of the Holy Spirit which should have flourished in us and all that was truly Pious All Greece and Asia complained that the Popes of Rome by their Doctrines of Purgatory and Sales of Indulgences had both offered Violence to the Consciences of Men and robb'd their Purses 25. Laurentius Valla Marsilius Patavinus Franciscus Petrarcha Hieronymus Savanarola Abbas Joachimus Baptista Mantuanus and before them all St. Bernard have very often grievously complain'd of the Tyranny and Persian Pride of the Bishops of Rome and have not obscurely hinted whether true or falsly I will not inquire that the Pope was Antichrist not to mention a number of others who because they have freely and ingenuously reprehended the Vices of the Popes will perhaps be numbred by them amongst their Enemies but all these I have named lived either at Rome it self or under the eyes of these most Holy Fathers and were intimately acquainted with their way of living and did never depart from their Catholick Faith Neither can any man object that these were Lutherans or Zuinglians for they lived not only some few years but some intire Ages before the Names of these Men were heard of in the World and they saw also even then that Errors were crept into the Church and desired they might be amended And where was the Wonder if the Church fell into some Errors in those times in which neither the Bishop of Rome who alone had the chiefest Management of Affairs or almost any other Persons either did or indeed understood what was their Duty for it is not credible that in that time in which they were so idle and drowsie the Devil was perpetually a sleep or idle too For what kind of men they were and with what fidelity they took care of the House of God
ancient Councils and the Scriptures They have not O good God! they have not on their sides what they pretend to have they have neither Antiquity nor Universality nor the consent of either all times or all Nations And of this they are not ignorant themselves tho they craftily dissemble their Knowledge Yea at times they will not obscurely confess it and therefore sometimes they will alledge that the Sanctions of the ancient Councils and Fathers are such as may lawfully be changed for different Decrees say they will best suit the different State of the Church in different times And so they hide themselves under the name of the Church and by a wretched sham delude Mankind And in truth it is a great wonder that Men should be so blind as not to see these things or if they do see them so patient as to bear and indure them with that stupidity and unconcernment they seem to have 9. BUT tho they have abrogated the Canons of the ancient Councils as too old and overworn yet perhaps they have settled neâ— and more useful Rules in their place for they have the confidence to say that if Christ himself or his Apostles should arise from the Dead they could not administer the Affairs of the Church of God better or more piously than it is now administered by them Indeed they have put others in the place of the former but as Jeremias saith Chaff instead of Wheat or as Isaiah saith What God never required at their Hands for they have stopped up all the veins of Living Waters and have hewen for the People of God broken and polluted Cisterns being full of mud and dregs which neither have in them any pure Water nor can hold it if it were put into them They have torn from the People the Holy Communion the word of God from which all true Comfort could only be expected the true Worship of God the right use of the Sacraments and Prayers of the Church and they have given us to please our selves withall in the mean time of their own pure invention consecrated Salts Waters Oyls Spittle Palmes Bulls Jubiles Indulgences Crosses Censings and an infinite number of Ceremonies And as Plautus calls others of the like nature Ludos Ludificabiles Shews and Pageants that are very divertising and good for nothing else In these things they have made all Religion to consist and they have taught the People that by these things God is rightly appeased and that by these things Devils are put to flight and the Consciences of Men quieted and confirmed For these are the Paints and Perfumes of Christianity these are the grateful and acceptable things to the All-seeing God these are to be had in honour that Christ's and his Apostles Institutions may be taken away And as heretofore the wicked King Jeroboam when he had taken away the true Service of God and perswaded the People instead of it to accept the Golden Calves for fear they might change their minds and fall from him and return to the Temple of God at Jerusalem made a long Oration to them exhorting them to Constancy saying to them These are thy Gods O Israel thus did your God command you to worship him But it would be very grievous and troublesome for you to take so long a Journey and to go up every year to worship and adore God at Jerusalem Even so our Adversaries when they had once by their Traditions quash'd the Laws of God lest the People should afterwards open their Eyes and fall off from them and seek a better way of assuring their Salvation O how often have they exclaimed that this is the true Worship of God which he is pleased with and hath required of us and by which he will be appeased when he is angry and that it is grievous and troublesome to the People to have recourse to Christ and the Apostles and Fathers and to attend perpetually what they require of them Is this their way of bringing the People of God off from the weak Elements of the World from the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees and from humane Traditions Are the Commandments of Christ and his Apostles to be taken away that these goodly things may succeed them O most righteous Cause why should an old Doctrine which hath been approved for many Ages be antiquated and a new Form of Religion be brought into the Church of God! Ay but say they be it what it will nothing ought to be changed the minds of Men are wonderous well satisfied with these things the Church of Rome has so decreed and she cannot err for Sylvester Prierias saith That the Church of Rome is the Rule and Model of Truth and that the Holy Scriptures have received from her all their Faith and Authority The Doctrine saith he again of the Church of Rome is the infallible Rule of Faith from whence the Holy Scriptures have all their strength For Indulgences were not made known to us by the Authority of Scriptures but they were made known by the Authority of the Church and Popes of Rome which is greater than the Scriptures Pighius doth not fear to say that without the command of the Church of Rome we are not to believe the most clear place of Scripture Which is just as if one of those who cannot speak good and pure Latin and yet by use and custom has got the faculty readily and fluently to blunder on in the Lawyer 's Latin should therefore stand stoutly to it that all others are bound to speak it after the same manner that was many years since in use with Mammetrectus and the Catholicon which they still use in their Pleadings because by that means men might very easily be understood and their Humours might be gratified but on the other side that it were ridiculous to trouble the World now with a new way of speaking and to reduce into practice again the old Purity and Eloquence of the Latin Tongue used in the times of Cicero and Caesar 10. SO much are they indebted to the Ignorance and blindness of the former times that as one saith Many things are often had in great esteem because they were once dedicated to the Service of the Gods So now we see many things are magnified and applauded by them not because they judge them worthy of this Esteem but only because by Custom they were once received and thereby in a sort dedicated to the Service of God But they pretend that their Church cannot Err. I suppose they speak this in the same sense as the Lacedemonians were wont to say there was no such thing as Adultery in their Common-wealth when in truth they were all Adulterers and used an uncertain sort of Marriages and had their Wives in common Or as the Hungry Canonists now say of the Pope that he being Lord of all Benefices altho he sells Bishopricks Monasteries and Livings and suffers nothing to go from him without Money yet because he claims all
qualified for the making of a Church of God for certainly they are neither lawful Abbots nor genuine Bishops But suppose they are the Church suppose they are to be heard in Councils and that they have the sole Right of Voting yet in ancient time when the Church of God was well governed especially if it be compared with their Church as St. Cyprian acquaints us the Presbyters and Deacons and some part also of the Laity were then call'd to assist at the hearing of Ecclesiastical Causes 4. BUT what now if those Abbots and Bishops know nothing What if they know not what Religion is nor what they ought to believe of God What if the Law hath perished from the Priests and Counsel from the Elders What if as Micah saith the Night be unto them instead of a Vision and Darkness instead of a Divination What if as Isaiah saith the Watchmen of the City are all blind they are all ignorant and what if the Salt as Christ saith hath lost its Force and Savour and is become good for nothing not fit even to be cast upon the Dunghil for they defer all to the Pope who cannot err but then this in the first place is ridiculous that the Holy Ghost should be sent by a Carrier from the Holy Council to Rome that if any Doubt or Stop happens which he cannot expedite he may take better Instruction and Counsel from I know not what more learned Spirit for if it must come to this at last what need is there that so many Bishops should with such great Expence be called from very distant places at this time to Trent It had certainly been more prudent and much better a shorter and an easier way to have at first turn'd over all this Business to the Pope and have gone directly to the Oracle of his sacred Brâ—ast besides it is unjust to devolve our Cause from so many Bishops and Abbots to the Judgment of any one man and above all others to the Judgment of the Pope who is accused by us of many very great Crimes and though he hath not answered for his own Misdemeanors yet hath presum'd to condemn us before we were call'd and that without any Tryal Now do we invent all this or is it not now the manner of our late Councils Are not all things referr'd to the Pope by the Council so that as if nothing were done by so many Sentences and Subscriptions he alone may add diminish abrogate approve relax and restrain whatsoever he please Whose Words are these Why did the Bishops and Abbots in the end of the late Council at Trent put in these words as a part of their Decree Saving in in all things the Authority of the Apostolical See Or why did Pope Pascal write thus insolently of himself as if saith he any Councils could prescribe a Law to the Church of Rome when all Councils are held by the Authority of the Church of Rome and derive their Force from it too and whereas they do patiently in their Decrees except the Authority of the Pope of Rome If they will confirm and approve these things why are Councils call'd but if they are indeed repeal'd and abrogated why are they still left in their Books as if they were in force 5. WELL but suppose in the next place that the Pope tho one is above all Councils that is that he is a part greater than the whole has more Power yea and more Wisdom too than all his Party besides and that in spite of St Jeroms Judgment the Authority of this one City is greater than that of the whole World What if he has seen none of these things and has neither read the holy Scriptures nor the ancient Fathers nor so much as any of his own Councils What if like Pope Liberius of old he becomes an Arrian or like Pope John who lived not many years since thinks very leudly and wickedly of the Immortality of the Soul and of the Life to come or as Pope Zosimus heretofore corrupted the Council of Nice so he for the enlarging of his own Power should corrupt the other Councils and aver that those things were deliberated and constituted by the holy Fathers in them which were never so much as thought off and that as Camotensis saith the Popes do frequently he should offer Violence to the holy Scriptures that he may thereby possess himself of a Plenitude of Power What if he renounce the Christian Faith and becomes an Apostate as Lyranus saith many Popes have done What will the holy Spirit for all these things knock at the Cabbin of his Breast and obtrude such a Light upon him contrary to his Inclinations and against his Will that he shall not err though he would Or shall such a Pope as this be the Fountain of all Laws and all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge be notwithstanding found in him as in a Cabinet Or if these things be not in him can he nevertheless judge well and conveniently of things of this great weight Or if he be not qualified to judge of them does he yet desire that all these things should be refer'd to him alone What now if the Popes Advocates the Abbots and Bishops dissemble nothing but declare themselves openly to be the Enemies of the Gospel and will not see what they do see but wrest the Scriptures and knowingly and willingly deprave and adulterate the Word of God and do foully and impiously transfer to the Pope what is perspicuously and properly spoken of Christ and cannot be applied to any other Mortal What if they say the Pope is all and above all or that he can do all those things which Christ can do or that the Tribunal and Consistory of the Pope is the same with Christs or that the Pope is that Light which came into the World which Christ spake of himself only and that he that doth Evil hateth that Light and fleeth from it or that all other Bishops have received of his Fulness Or lastly what if they do without dissimulation or obscurity clearly and manifestly determine contrary to the Word of God Shall whatever they say nevertheless presently become Gospel Shall such as these be the Army God Will Christ be present with such Men Will the Spirit of God move upon their Tongues or may they say truly it seems good to the Holy Ghost and to us 6. Pâ—trus a Soto and his Voucher Hosius make no sâ—ruple to affirm that that very Council which condemn'd our Saviour to death had then the Spirit of Prophesie and Truth and the Holy Ghost with them and that what those High Priests said was not false or vain when they said 〈◊〉 have a Law and by that Law be ought to die that in this according to Hosius they gave a true Judgment and that their Decree was perfectly just by which Christ was adjudged worthy of Death It is a wonder in
Hercules made it his Business to rid the World of bad Men but saith he you make all the good men you can bad And when the Pharisees boasted of their Succession and Linnage that they were of the Blood of Abraham Christ replied ye seek to kill me a Man that hath told you the Truth which I have heard of God this did not Abraham ye are of your Father the Devil and the Lusts of your Father ye will do But now suppose we should grant something to Successions doth the Pope only succeed St. Peter In what Thing in what Religion in what Function in what part of his Life What one thing ever had St. Peter like the Pope or the Pope like St. Peter unless they will say that when St. Peter was at Rome he never taught the Gospel he never fed the Flock that he took away the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven hid his Lords Treasure that he only sate in the Lateran and with his Finger pointed out all the Spaces of Purgatory and the several sorts of Pains there presently and at his Pleasure dismissed some Souls for Money and sent other miserable Souls into Torture that he taught them the use of private Masses which might be mumbled over in every Corner that he muttered the sacred Mysteries in a low soft Voice and in a strange Language that he hanged up the Eucharist or consecrated Bread in every Church and enshrined it on every Altar and carried it before him whither-ever he went on an ambling Jennet with Lights and Bells That he consecrated Oyl Wax Wooll Bells Calices Temples and Altars with his sacred Breath that he sold Jubilees Graces Immunities Expectancies Preventions first Fruits Palls the use of Palls Bulls Indulgencies and Pardons that he call'd himself the Head of the Church the High Priest the Bishop of Bishops and the only most Holy that he usurp'd Authority over other Churches that he exemped himself from all Civil Power that he made Wars set Discord amongst Princes that he was carried upon the Shoulders of Noble men in a gilded Chair with a Crown full of Labels or Tassils with a Persian Gallantry adorned with a royal Scepter and a golden Diadem glittering with Jewels Did St. Peter heretofore do all these things at Rome and as it were from hand to hand deliver them down to his Successors for all these fine things are now done at Rome and that in such manner as if nothing else ought to be done 21. UNLESS perhaps they would be better pleased with turning the Table and saying that the Pope does all those things which we know heretofore St. Peter did that he travails into all Countries preacheth the Gospel not only publickly but privately from House to House that he insisteth opportunely and inopportunely in season and out of season that he doth the Work of an Evangelist and performs the Ministry of Christ that he is the Watch-man of the House of Israel that he receives the Oracles and Word of God and delivers them as he received them to the People that he is the Salt of the Earth the Light of the World that he feeds not himself but the Flock that he doth not intangle himself with the Civil Affairs of this Life that he doth not exercise Lordship and Dominion over the People of the Lord that he doth not so much seek to have others minister to and serve him but rather that he may serve and assist others that he thinks with St. Peter that all Bishops are his Companions and Equals that he submitteth himself to Princes as to them that are sent by God that he renders to Caesar the things that are Caesars and which all the ancient Bishops of Rome without exception have done calls the Emperor his Lord. Now unless the Popes at this day do all these things or that St. Peter did all the other which we have set forth in the foregoing Paragraph there seems to be no reason why he should so strangely value himself upon the Account either of St. Peters Name or Succession 22. THERE is much less cause for them to complain so dreadfully as they do of our departure from them and to recal us back again to their Society and Faith There is a Story that one Cobilon a Lacedaemonian being sent to make a League with the King of Persia and sinding by chance his Courticrs playing at Dice he return'd forthwith without dispatching or mentioning the Business he came about Being examined upon his return home why he had not executed the publick Commission they had given him he replied that it seemed to him to be a great Dishonour to their Common-wealth if he had made an Alliance with a parcel of Dicers Now if we should return to the Pope and the Popish Errors and make a League not only with Dicers but with men infinitely more debauch'd it would not only bring an ill Report upon our Fame and Reputation but would be pernicious and destructive to us by incensing the Wrath of God against us and burthening and wasting our Consciences for we have only left him who we saw had for many Ages blinded the Nations of the Earth and departed from him who with too much Insolence useth to pretend that he cannot err and that whatever he doth he cannot be judged by any mortal man no not by Kings nor Emperors nor all the Clergy nor all the People tho he should carry a thousand Souls with him to Hell from him who assum'd Dominion not only over Men but over the Angels of God commanding them when he pleased to go and come and carry Souls to Purgatory and bring them back again as his Holiness thought fit Whom Gregory the Great stil'd plainly the Fore-runner and Harbinger of Antichrist and an Apostate from the Faith from whom those Champions who now so vigorously opposed the Gospel and that Truth they are very well satisfied of have every man of them heretofore fallen and would now again freely and willingly leave him if the Note and Shame of being thought too too inconstant and their Credits with the People did not hinder them from it Lastly we have departed from him to whom we were no way bound and who hath nothing to pretend for our Submission to him but I know not what Genius of the Place and the Succession he possesseth 23. AND we of all the Nations in Christendom have had the greatest reason to desert the Pope for our Kings even those who followed the Faith and Authority of the Bishops of Rome with the utmost observance and deference a long time since sufficiently felt the weight of their Yoke and groan'd under the Tyranny of the Papal Kingdom for the Roman Bishops pluckt the Diadem from off the Head of our Henry the 2d and compell'd him to wait upon their Legate in a private Habit without any of the Insigns of Majesty that he might be exposed to the Contempt of all his Subjects And another Bishop of Rome armed
but a Sword 5. WHEREFORE if the Pope does indeed desire we should be reconciled to him he ought first to reconcile himself to God for as St. Cyprian saith Schisms arise from hence that the Head is not sought and a Return is not made to the Fountain of the Holy Scriptures and the Precepts of our Heavenly Master are not kept for else it is not Peace saith he but War neither can any man be united to the Church who is separated from the Gospel But these men with whom we are concern'd do use to make a base gain by the Name of Peace for the Peace they seek is only a Peace of idle Bellies for all these Controversies betwixt us and them might with great facility be ended if Ambition Gluttony and Luxury did not hinder it and from hence proceed all their Tears their Souls are in their Dishes and all their loud Clamors and Noise are only that they may basely and wickedly keep what they have acquired knavishly 6. IN these times the Pardoners Dataries Collectors and Pimps of the Court of Rome make the greatest Complaints against us who with others of their Trade think that great Gain is Godliness and serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own Bellies for in the foregoing Ages this sort of men had a very profitable imployment but now whatever is gain'd to Christ turns as they think to their Loss Yea his Holiness too complains sadly that Piety is grown cold and his Revenue is become much smaller than heretofore it was and therefore the good man does his utmost to make us hated loads us with Reproaches and condemns us for Hereticks without any mercy that they who know not the real cause of all this may thereby be induced to believe us the very worst of men and yet in the interim we are not therefore ashamed nor indeed ought we to be so of the Gospel of Jesus Christ because we esteem the Glory of God more than the good Opinion of Men. We know that all we teach is true and we cannot offer Violence to our own Consciences or give Testimony against God for if we deny any part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ before Men he will in like manner deny us before his Father and if there be any that will be offended and cannot bear the Doctrine of Christ they are blind and the Leaders of the Blind but the Truth is still to be preached and owned and we must patiently expect the Judgment of God 7. AND in the interim our Adversaries should do well to bethink themselves seriously of their own Salvation and to put an end to their Raging Hatred and Persecution of the Gospel of the Son of God that at last they may not find him the Vindicator and Revenger of his own Cause for God will not be had in derision and men too now see what is doing that Flame the more it is repress'd with so much the greater Violence doth it break out again and display it self Their Infidelity and Unbelief shall never be able to frustrate or put a stop to the Faith of God and if they shall still persist in the Hardness of their Hearts and refuce to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ The Publicans and the Harlots shall go into the Kingdom of God before them The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ open all their Eyes that they may see that blessed Hope to which they are called that we may altogether glorifie the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent down to us from Heaven to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be rendred all Honour and Glory to all Eternity Amen Amen AN EPISTLE Written by the Reverend Father in God JOHN JEWEL Lord Bishop of SARUM TO SEIGNIOR SCIPEO A Venetian Gentleman In Answer to a Letter of his in which he complains of the Kingdom of England for their not appearing in the Council of Trent nor excusing their Absence by Letters SIR YOU are pleased to write to me with much freedom according to the great Acquaintance which hath been between us ever since we lived together at Padua where you were imployed in the publick Service of your Common-wealth and I in the Pursute of Learning that both your self and many others with you in those Parts do much admire that seeing there is at this time a General Council call'd by the Pope at Trent for the composing Controversies in Religion and the extinguishing all Contentions that have arisen on that account and that whereas all other Nations are assembled there the Kingdom of England alone has neither sent any Ambassador thither nor excused their Absence by Envoys or Letters but in the mean time without the Consent of the Council hath chang'd almost the whole Order of their Ancient and Paternal Religion that one of these things hath the appearance of a proud Contumacy and the other of a pernicious Schism for it is a great Wickedness for any man say you to decline the most holy Authority of the Pope of Rome or to to withdraw himself when he is call'd to a Council by him And that Controversies in Religion ought not to be determined any where but in such Conventions for there are the Patriarchs and Bishops and the most Learned of all Orders of Men in the Church at their Mouths the Truth is to be sought there are the great Lights of the Church and there the Holy Ghost is ever present and accordingly pious Princes have in every age referr'd all those Doubts which have happened concerning the Worship of God to such publick Consultations That neither Moses nor Joshua nor David nor Ezechia nor Josias nor any other of the Judges Kings or Priests did ever deliberate of the Affairs of the Church any other way than in a Council of the Bishops That the Apostles of Christ and the Holy Fathers held Councils that so the Truth was discovered so Heresies were suppress'd so Arrius so Eunomius so Eutyches so Macedonius and so Pelagius were overcome and so at this time the Dissentions of the World may be composed and the Ruins of the Church repair'd if Men would be pleas'd to lay by their Animosities and Partiality and come to this Council but without a Council it is utterly unlawful to attempt any Change in Matters of Religion 2. THIS Sir is almost the whole Sum of your Letter and as for me I will not now presume to give you in Answer on the behalf of England an exact Account of the reason of all our publick Transactions nor do I think it is your Will or Expectation that I should the Counsels of Kings are conceal'd and secret and so they ought to be and this you Sir know perfectly well that they are not to be reveal'd at random to every body or any body and yet in compliance with that old and intimate Acquaintance that has been between us because I see you so earnestly desire it I will shortly and friendly tell
See did yet most humbly supplicate Martian the Emperor that he would be pleas'd to call a Council in Italy because that Country did then seem most convenient for that purpose his Words are these All the Priests do most earnestly beseech your Clemency that You would be pleased to command a General Synod to be celebrated in Italy But this Emperor that he might shew that he had the Right of calling Councils and none but he commanded the Council to meet at Chalcedon in Bithynia and not in Italy where the Pope did most violently desire it should have been held And when Ruffinus in the Contest which he had with St. Jerome alledged a Synod tell us said St. Jerome what Emperor commanded it to meet St. Jerome did not think a General Council of any great Validity except some of the Emperors call'd it Now I do not inquire what Emperor commanded the Bishops to meet now at Trent but only whether the Pope who takes so much upon him hath consulted with the Emperor about holding this Council and what Christian King or Prince has he prae-acquainted with his Will Now to break in upon the Rights of another and to assume to a mans self what belongs to another man by Fraud or Force is injurious and for him to abuse the Clemency of Princes and to command them as if they were his Servants is a superlative and intolerable piece of Injury and contumely and it would be an equal Injustice in us to confirm and allow that Injury and Insolence of his by our Compliance and therefore if we should only reply That this Council of yours at Trent is not lawfully call'd and that nothing relating to it has been rightly and orderly managed by Pope Pius no man can with any Justice blame our Absence 9. I shall not here trouble you with an exact account of the Injuries our Nation hath received from the Popes of Rome that they have snatch'd the Scepters out of the Hands and plucked the Diadems from off the Heads of our Kings that they pretend that this Kingdom is theirs that it is possess'd in their Right and that our Kings are their Beneficiaries of Homagers These are old Injuries but of late years they have stir'd up at one time the King of France and at another the Emperor and what this Pope Pius has consulted spoken done contrived and threatned against us need not be remembred here for his Words and Actions are not so close and secret but they may be known and his Will thereby be discovered And as to the means by which he acquired the Popedom and the steps by which he climb'd to that heighth of Dignity I shall say nothing I do not say that he corrupted the Cardinals by purchasing their Votes and by Bargain and Purchase as by Mines and Ambushes aspired to the Popedom I do no say neither that very lately when he was not able to pay the Cardinal Caraffa by whose Assistance he purchased the Votes of the other Cardinals and to whom upon that Score he ow'd a very considerable Sum of Money he cast the poor man into Prison and there basely murthered him I leave these and such other things as these are rather to you who being nearer to them must needs see them more clearly and understand them better than we do at this distance And now Sir do you wonder that we should not come to this bloody man this Purchaser of Votes this Bankrupt and this Simonaical Heretick It becomes not a wise man believe me to throw himself into the Chair of Pestilence and to consult concerning Religion with the Enemies of all Religion My Mother said one commanded me not to approach to the Infamous and St. John the Apostle durst not remain in the same Bath and wash himself with one Cerinthius a Heretick lest he should perish with him by a Thunder Clap from Heaven I have not sat said David in the Council of the Wicked neither have I walked with the Workers of Iniquity 10. WELL but be it so for this time let it be granted that the Right of calling Councils belongs to the Pope and that he can in this point command the World and let whatever we have said concerning the Power of the Emperor and the Right of Kings be taken for false and vain and let Pius be supposed too to be a good man that he was rightly and lawfully chosen Pope that he has not sought the Life of any man that he has not murthered Caraffa in Prison yet it is fit that Councils should be free after all this and that who pleaseth may be there who cannot conveniently may on the other side be absent this was the equity and moderation of better men Princes then were not treated with so much Violence and Rudeness so that if any person happened to stay at Home or did not send Ambassadors to the Council he should presently be noted by the Eyes and Fingers of all men I beseech you Sir what Observer kept count who was absent from the Councils of Nice Ephesus Constantinople and Chalcedon but there was in none of these any Ambassadors from England Scotland Poland Hungary Spain Denmark nor any part of Germany See read and consider the Subscriptions and you will find what I say is true And why do you not rather wonder that the Britans did not come to those full famous celebrated and frequented Councils Or that the Popes then were so wonderful patient that they did not presently censure them for Contumacy But this Papal tyranny was not then grown up it was then lawful for Pious Bishops and the Holy Fathers without any Prejudice to stay at Home Paul the Apostle would not trust himself to the Council of Jerusalem but appealed unto Caesar and tho St. Athanasius the Bishop was call'd to the Council at Caesarea by the Emperor yet he would not come and he also when he perceived the Arrian Party the strongest in the Council of Syrmium would not stay but presently withdrew and went away and the Bishops of the West following his Example refused to come to that Council St. John Chrysostom did not come to an Arrian Council tho he was invited both by Letters and Messengers sent by Arcadius the Emperor When the Arrian Bishops in Palestine were met together and had the greatest part of the Votes on their side Paphnutius an old man and Maximus Bishop of Jerusalem departed out of the Convention and went away Cyrillus a Bishop appealed from the Council of the Patropassians Paulinus Bishop of Treves would not come to the Council of Millan because he saw by reason of the Favour and Power of Constantius the Emperor every thing plied under and was over-rul'd by Auxentius an Arrian Bishop The Bishops who came to the Council at Constantinople would not afterwards come to that which was holden at Rome to which they were call'd also which yet was no prejudice to them tho they were commanded to attend there by Letters from