and Seditious Book to Exhort all the English and Irish Papists to joyn with the Spanish Forces against their Queen and Country under the Prince of Parma and Pope Sixtus V. sends Allen with that Book and his own Bull into the Low-Countries and there a great number of those Books and Bulls were printed at Antverpe to be sent into England Were it necessary many things now might be said pertinent to this purpose but I suppose the Instances already given will be sufficient to convince Intelligent and Impâ—â—tial Persons That Pope Pius V. was neither the first nor last who usurped this Extravagant Power to Depose Princes seeing several of his Predecessors and Successors for above 600. years have owned approved and as they had opportunity put that Power in practise This in General premis'd I come now to consider the Bull of Pius V. wherein he damns and deposeth Queen Elizabeth wherein two things occur very considerable 1. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Title prefix'd to the Bull. 2. The Particulars contain'd in it For the first the Title prefix'd to the Bull is thus The Damnation of Elizabeth c. where though Damnation may seem a very hard word as indeed it is in the sense they use it as shall by and by appear yet it is not unusual but occurs in other Bulls of the like nature So we find it in the Bull of Pope Innocent IV. wherein he Excommunicates the Emperor Friderick II. For the Lemma or Title of that Bull is thus The Damnation Deposition of Friderick II. So in the Bull of Pope Paul III. Excommunicating Henry VIII the Title prefix'd to it is The Damnation of Henry VIII and his Favourers c. So that Pius V. Damning Queen Elizabeth was not singular though Impious he had some of his Predecessors Forms to follow I say his Predecessors for I do not find that any Bishops in the World save those of Rome ever used such Unchristian and indeed Anti-christian Forms of Excommunicating and Damning Kings and Emperors And it is observable and well known to those who diligently read and consider the Papal Bulls now extant of which there is a vast number that the Popes of later Ages when they go about to justifie some extravagant Act of their unsurped Power they usually cite the Bulls and Constitutions of their Predecessors who had done the like not for matter of fact barely but to prove a Right that because their Predecessors had done so formerly therefore they who succeeded in the same Power might do it too Now although to Argue thus à Facto ad Jus be evidently inconsequent and irrational no better than this Peter de facto deny'd and forswore his Master Ergo His Successors de jure may do so to Yet if their Principles were true as I suppose they may think them such Arguing would be more concluding For Pope Leo. X. expresly affirms and publickly declares in one of their General Councils that it is more clear than light it self That None of his Predecessors Popes of Rome Did ever Err in any of their Canons or Constitutions Now if this were true as it is evidently false and his Asserting it an Argument not only of his Fallibility but of his great Error and Folly That none of his Predecessors ever Err'd then they might with more Security follow them for certainly it can be no great fault or danger to follow an unerring Guide Especially if it be true which they tell us For 1. In their Laws and Canons approved by their Supream Authority and retained in publick use in their Church we are told That all their Papal Sanctions are so to be received as if the Divine Voice of Peter himself had Confirmed them This as Gratian there tells us was Pope Agatho ' s Sentence is Received into the Body of their Canon Law Revised Corrected and Purged from all things Contrary to Catholick Verity So Gregory XIII says and confirms it Whence it evidently follows that in Pope Gregory's Judgment This Sentence of Agatho is not repugnant to Catholick Verity And in the same place it is farther declared for Law Pope Stephen I. is cited as Author of that Sentence That Whatever the Church of Rome does Ordain or Constitute it is without all Contradiction perpetually to be Observed 2. Though this be beyond all truth and reason highly erroneous yet the Jesuits of late have gone much higher and in their Claromont Colledge at Paris publickly maintain'd these two Positions 1. That our Blessed Saviour left Peter and his Successors the same Infallibility he himself had so oft as they spoke è Cathedra 2. That even out of a General Council He is the Infallible Judge in Controversies of Faith both in Questions of Right and Fact This as to the main of it though Erroneous and Impious is maintain'd by others as well as Jesuits F. Gregory de Rives a Capuchin Priest tells us and his Book is approved by the General and several others of his Order and by Father D. Roquet a Dominican and Doctor of Divinity c. That as the Authority of Christ our blessed Saviour if he were now on Earth were greater than all Councils so by the Same Reason the Authority of the Pope who is Christ's Vicar is greater than all Councils too That the Priviledge of Infallibility was given to the Pope not to Councils and then Concludes That the Church of Rome he means the Pope is Judge of Controversies and all her Desinitions and Determinations are De Fide Thus De Rives And three or four years before him Lud. Bail a Parisian Doctor and Propenitentiary expresly affirms That the Word of God is threefold 1. His written Word in Scripture 2. His unwritten Word in the Traditions of the Church 3. The Word Declared or Explain'd when doubtful passages in Scripture or Tradition are explain'd and their meaning determin'd by the Pope whether in or out of Councils and this he says is the most approved way in which men acquiesce and think they need look no further And hence he Infers That seeing this is so we ought not to be affraid to follow the Pope's Guidance in Doctrines of Faith and Manners but acquiesce in his Judgment and submit all our writings to be Corrected by him I neither will nor need Cite any more Authorities to prove the aforesaid Particulars That Their Popes may Damn and Depose Kings and Emperors especially if they be Hereticks and think they have as Christ's Vicars a just Prerogative and Power to do it Sure I am that these Positions though Erroneous and Impious are generally maintain'd by the Jesuits Canonists Schoolmen and their Followers which are very many receiv'd into the Body of their Canon Law of their best and as they themselves say their most Correct Editions and approved and when they had opportunity practis'd by their Supream Powers their Popes and General Councils I
his Feeding or Ruling them So they and Peter too are Sheep in Respect of our blessed Saviour the great Shepherd of the Sheep but not in respect of Peter they are Shepherds as well as he and never Committed to his Care or Cure that as his Sheep he should feed and govern them And as all the other Apostles in Respect of Peter were Foundations Shepherds of the Church coordinate with and equal to him So all other Bishops the Apostles Successors were Equal to Peter's pretended Successor the Bishop of Rome and no way bound to give any Reason of their Administration to him as to their Superior much less as to a Supream Prince and Monarch of the Christian World as the Canonists Jesuits and the Popish Party do now Erroneously and Impiously miscall him This was Cyprian's Opinion in the Place but now Cited And Rigaltius a Learned Roman Catholick though he seem to say much for Peter's and the Popes Supremacy yet he Confesseth as upon a serious Consideration of several Passages in Cyprian and the African Councils well he might That Cyprian's Opinion was That all Bishops were equal and were bound to give an Account of their Administration to our blessed Saviour Only and not to any Superior Bishop no not to Peter ' s Successor the Pope Nor is it any way probable that a Person so Excellent and Knowing as Cyprian should think otherwise seeing in his time as is notorious and well known to all who know Antiquity there was no Patriarch or Archbishop Superior by any Law of God or Man to the Ordinary Bishops as may and when there is an Opportunity shall be made Good It is true Cyprian if it be he and not the Interpolator of that Tract says That the Primacy was given to Peter and that the Church of Rome was The Principal Church Now this Primacy and Principality Cyprian speaks of is by me before and now freely granted A Primacy of Order and Precedency not of Jurisdiction or that Monarchical Authority which Anciently was not pretended to by themselves they now contend for And this Primacy which anciently was allowed to the Bishop of Rome was not from our blessed Saviour's gift but the greatness of that Imperial City Non à Petro sed à Patribus as the Canon of Chalcedon tells us And that which makes it more probable that I have given the true Sense of Cyprian is That Rigaltius a Learned Roman Catholick in his Dissertations and Notes on Cyprian Explains Cyprian's meaning just as I have done reducing the Primacy and Principality of the Roman Church not from any Prerogative given to that Bishop or Church by our blessed Saviour but from the greatness of that Imperial City And then Cites the Canon of the General Council of Chalcedon which in Terminis and when Translated in plain English says the very same thing I have done And indeed that Canon made by Six hundred and thirty Fathers Synodically met in a legitimate General Council confirm'd by Imperial Edicts and received into the Codex Canonum Ecclesiae Vniversae does Authentickly and utterly overthrow that vast Monarchical Supremacy which the Pope and his Party for some Ages last past without any just ground contend for If any of our Adversaries think otherwise as possibly they may I shall make them this fair offer Let them bring me any Canon of any General Council of equal Authority and Antiquity with this of Chalcedon by which they can prove the Popes pretended Supremacy or any one Article of their own new Trent Creed And for the future I shall acquiesce and they shall have my Thanks and Subscription 6. Pius V. in his Bull says further That our blessed Saviour Committed the Care and Charge of the Vniversal Church with a plenitude of Power to govern it to one only that is to Peter the Prince of the Apostles And His Successors Here I consider 1. That although it be certain from Scripture and evident Testimonies of pure and primitive Antiquity that Peter never had nor Executed any such Monarchical Supremacy over the other Apostles and the whole Christian Church as is now vainly pretended to yet 't is as certain that the Pope and his Party cry up and magnifie St. Peter's Power that he as his Heir and Successor may possess the same Power For this they say and without any just proof say it only That it was our blessed Saviour's will that Peter ' s Successor should have The Very same Power Peter had and this because he was Christ's Vicar though every Bishop in the World as shall God willing appear anon be Christ's Vicar as well and as much as he and sat in Peter ' s Chair as his lawful Successor 2. But admit dato non Concesso which is absolutely untrue That Peter had such a Supremacy and Monarchical Power as they Erroneously pretend to yet it might be Personal to himself and for his Life only as his Apostolical power was as to that part of it which was properly Apostolical and not Hereditary to be transferred to any Successor So that the Hinge of the Controversie will be here and our Adversaries concern'd to prove two Things 1. That Peter's Power be what it will was not Personal but Hereditary and to be Transmitted to his Successor 2. And that the Pope and Bishop of Rome was his Legal Successor For if they do not upon just Grounds make both these good good night to their pretended Supremacy For the First That the greatest Power St. Peter and the Apostles had was Extraordinary and Personal not to be Transmitted to any Successor what Power they did transmit I shall anon shew will be Evident in these Particulars 1. Peter and the Apostles had Vocationem à Christo Immediatam Our blessed Saviour call'd them all except Matthias Immediately as is evident from the Text. And sure I am that the Pope cannot pretend to such an Immediate Call 2. The Apostles every one as well as Peter had a Power given them to do Miracles to Cast out Devils and heal all manner of Diseases and Sicknesses Nor can Peter's Successor whoever he be pretend to this 3. The Jurisdiction which was by our blessed Saviour given to every Apostle to James and John and Paul as well as Peter was Universal the whole World was their Diocese Not that every one could possibly be in every place but where ever any of them came they had Authority to Preach Administer the Sacraments Constitute and Govern Churches So Paul did at Antioch and Rome as much and more than Peter though they pretend that Peter alone and not Paul was first Bishop of both those Places That every Apostle as well as Peter had Universal Jurisdiction and Authority over the whole World is in Scripture Evident by the Commission our blessed Saviour gave them Go and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father
was 25. years Bishop of Rome and actually transferred that Power to his Successor there or that our blessed Saviour ever had or exercis'd such a terrene and temporal power as they pretend the Pope as his Vicar has from him I say let them make all or any one of these Pariculars appear from Scripture and I will confess and retract my error Nor is the Condition unjust or unequal when I require Scripture proof For they themselves constantly affirm that the Pope has Right to his Monarchical Supremacy Jure Divino by the Constitution of our blessed Saviour and Divine Right and this their Popes Canonists and Divines with great noise and confidence but no reason endeavour to prove from Scripture miserably mistaken and misapply'd I know that their late Jesuitical Methodists so much magnify'd by their Party require of Protestants to confute their Popish Doctrines Transubstantiation the Sacrifice of the Mass Purgatory c. by express words of Scripture not admitting of Consequences however deduced from plain Texts as Premisses This method of theirs being irrational and demonstrated so to be I shall not tye them too But if they can prove any of the aforesaid Positions by the express words of Scripture or by good Consequences deduced from it or what they pretend to Vniversal and Apostolical Tradition I shall admit the proof Nay I shall make our Popish Adversaries two further and if that be possible fairer offers 1. Let them prove by any just and concluding reason whatsoever that any Christian Church in the World acknowledg'd or the Church of Rome her self assumed and publickly pleaded for such a Papal Supremacy as now they pretend to for 1000. years after our B. Saviour and for my own part I will confess and retract my Error 2. Let them prove by any such concluding reason that any Church in the World Eastern or Western Greek or Latin did acknowledge what now the Pope and his Party so earnestly and vainly contend for the Popes Infallibility and his Supremacy over all General Councils for 1500. years after our blessed Saviour and for my part Cedat Jülus Agris manus dabimus captivas I will retract what here I have affirmed and be what I hope I never shall be their Proselyte To Conclude I have no more to say my Adversaries will think I have said too much save only to desire the Readers who sincerely and impartially desire truth and satisfaction to read and consider the Margent as well as the Text. In this they have my Positions and the proofs of them in plain English In the Margent the Authorities and Authors I rely upon in their own words and the Language in which they writ and I have for the Readers ease not my own cited not only the Authors and their Books but the Chapter Paragraph Page and mostly the Editions of them That so the Reader may with more ease find the places quoted and judge whether I have cited and translated them aright It is notoriously known that our Popish Adversaries have published many forged Canons and Councils many spurious Decretals and supposititious Tracts under the names of Primitive Fathers and ancient Bishops that they have shamefully corrupted the Canons of Legitimate Councils and thousands of other Authors making them by adding and substracting words or Sentences say what they never meant or not to say what indeed they did both mean and say and this they themselves have without shame or honesty publickly own'd in their Expurgatory Indices and after all this fraud and falsification of Records these Apocryphal Books and supposititious Authors are continually produced by them for proofs of their Errors against Protestants who well know and as many sober men of their own Communion justly condemn such impious Roman Arts Nec tali auxilio nec defensoribus istis Christus eget Truth needs no such forg'd and false Medium's to maintain it nor will any honest man use them Sure I am I have not in this Discourse built the truth of my Positions upon the Testimonies of our own Protestant Authors knowing that our Adversaries would with scorn reject their Testimony nor of any supposititious or spurious ones The Testimonies and Proofs I have quoted and rely upon are drawn from Scripture the genuine Works of the ancient Fathers and Councils or which ad hominem must be valid from their own Councils the Popes Bulls their Canon Law their Casuists Schoolmen Summists the Trent Catechism the Book of the Sacred Ceremonies of the Rom. Church their approved and received Publick Offices such as their Missal Breviary Ritual Pontifical c. which Authorities if I do not misquote or mistake their meaning are and to them must be just proofs of those Positions for which I have produced them But let the Evidence of the Testimonies and the Authority of the Authors quoted be what it will I have little hope that they will gain any assent from our Adversaries so long as they believe the Infallibility of their Pope and Church and their Learned Men are solemnly sworn firmly to believe their new Trent Creed the whole Body of Popish Errors to their last breath and to Anathematize and Damn what Doctrine soever contradicts it For while they are possess'd with these Principles it may be truly said of them what was said of the Luciferian Hereticks in St. Hierome Facilius cos Vinci posse quam persuaderi you may sooner bassle then perswade them They will in despite of Premisses hold the Conclusion nor shall the clearest demonstration overcome their blind Zeal and Affection to their Catholick Cause However that God Almighty would be graciously pleased to bless us and them with a clear knowledge of Sacred Truth with a firm belief and in dangerous times upon undanted and pious profession of it is and shall be the Prayer of Oct. 3. 1680. Thy Friend and Servant in Christ T. L. The Damnation and Excommunication of Elizabeth Queen of England and her Adherents with an Addition of other Punishments Pius Bishop Servant to God's Servants for a perpetual memorial of the matter HE that reigneth on High to whom is given all Power in Heaven and in Earth committed one Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church out of which there is no Salvation to one alone upon Earth namely to Peter the Prince of the Apostles and to Peter's Successor the Bishop of Rome to be governed in fulness of Power Him alone he made Prince over all People and all Kingdoms to pluck up destroy scatter consume plant and build that he may contain the faithful that are knit together with the band of Charity in the Unity of the Spirit and present them spotless and umblameable to their Saviour Sect. 1. In discharge of which Function we which are by God's goodness called to the Government of the aforesaid Church do spare no pains labouring with all earnestness that Unity and the Catholick Religion which the Author thereof hath for the trial of his Children's
Vsu namque verae Religionis quam ab illius desertore Henrico VIII olim eversam Clarae Mem. Maria Regina legitima hujus Sedis Praesidio reparaverat potenti manu inhibito secutisque amplexis Haereticorum erroribus Regium Concilium ex Anglicâ Nobilitate confectum diremit illudque obscuris hominibus Haereticis complevit Catholicae Fidei cultores oppressit improbos Concionatores atque Impietatum Administros reposuit Missae Sacrificium Preces Jejunia Ciborum delectum Ritusque Catholicos abolevit Libros manifestam Heresim continentes toto Regno proponi impia Mysteria Instituta ad Calvini Praescriptum à se suscepta observata etiam à subditis observari mandavit Episcopos Ecclesiarum Rectores alios Sacerdotes Catholicos suis Ecclesiis Beneficiis ejicere ac de illis aliis Ecclesiasticis rebus in haereticos homines disponere dâ—que Ecclesiae causis decernere ausa Praelatis Clero Populo ne Romanam Ecclesiam agnoscerent nâ—ve ejus Praeceptis Sanctionibusque Canonicis obtemperarent Interdixit plerosque in nefarias leges suas venire Romani Pontisicis Auctoritatem atque obedientiam abjurare seque solam in Temporalibus Spiritualibus Dominam agnoscere jurejurando coegit poenas supplicia in eos qui dicto non essent Audientes Imposuit easdemque ab iis qui in unitate sidei praedicta Obedientia perseverârunt Exegit Catholicos Antistites Ecclesiarum Rectores in vincula conjecit ubi multi diuturno Languore Tristitia Confecti Extremum vitae diem miserè siniverunt Quae omnia cum apud Omnes Nationes perspicua notoria sunt gravissimo quamplurimorum Testimonio it a comprobata ut nullus omnino locus Excusationis Defensionis aut Tergiversationis relinquatur Sect. 3. Nos multiplicantibus aliis atque aliis super alias Impietatibus facinoribus praeterea fidelium persecutione Religionisque afflictione impulsu Operâd Elizabeth quotidie magis Ingravescente quoniam illius animum ita obsirmatum atque induratum Intelligimus ut non modo pias Catholicorum Principum de sanitate conversione preces monitionesque contempserit sed ne hujus quidem sedis ad ipsam hac de causâ Nuncios in Angliam trajicere permiserit ad Arma Justitiae contra eam de necessitate conversi dolorem lenire non possumus quod Adducamur in unam animadvertere Cujus majores de Republicâ Christianâ tantopere meruêre Illius itaque Auctoritate suffulti Qui Nos in hoc Supremo Justitiae Throno licêt tanto Oneri Impares voluit Collocare de Apostolicae potestatis plenitudine declaramus praedictam Elizabeth Haereticam haereticorumque fautricem eique adhaerentes in praedictis Anathematis sententiam incurrisse esseque à Christi Corporis unitate praecisos Sect. 4. Quin etiam ipsam praetenso Regni praedicti jure necnon omni quocunque Dominio Dignitate Privilegioque privatam Sect. 5. Et etiam Proceres subditos populos dicti Regni ac caeteros omnes qui illi quomodocunque juraverunt A Juramento hujusmodi ac omni prorsus Dominii Fidelitatis obsequii debito perpetuo absolutos prout Nos illos Praesentium Auctoritate absolvimus privamus eandem Elizabeth praetenso Jure Regni aliisque Omnibus supradictis Praecipimusque Interdicimus Vniversis singulis proceribus subditis populis aliis praedictis ne illi ejusve monitis Mandatis Legibus audeant obedire Qui secus egerint eos simili Anathematis Sententiâ innodamus Sect. 6. Quia vero dissicile nimis esset Praesentes quocunque illis Opus erit perferre volumus ut eorum exempla Notarii publici manu Praelati Ecclesiastici ejusve Curiae Sigillo Obsignata eandem illam prorsus fidem in Judicio extra illud ubique Gentium faciant quam ipsae Praesentes facerent si essent exhibitae vel ostensae Dat' Romae apud Sanctum Petrum Anno Incarnationis Dominicae 1570. 5. Cal. Maij Pontisicat ' nostri Anno 5. SOME ANIMADVERSIONS AND OBSERVATIONS Upon the Impious Damnation Excommunication OF Q. Elizabeth BY PIUS V. Anno 1570. BEfore I come to a particular and distinct Examination of the several parts and paragraphs of this Impious Popish Bull I shall in general observe 1. That Pius V. was not the first or only Pope who usurped this Extravagant and Antichristian power over Kings and Emperors to damn depose and deprive them of all their Royal Rights and Imperial Jurisdiction for both his Predecessors and Successors approved and with prodigious pride and impiety exercis'd such power That this may appear I shall give the Reader some Instances extant upon Record in their own Popish Annals and Histories 1. Pope Constantine in a Council of Italian Bishops it was about the Year 711. Anathematises all who deny'd the worshipping of Images and particularly and by name damns the Emperor Philippicus to the Torments of Hell So Carolus Sigonius tell us and Martinus Polonus and the Fasciculus Temporum concur with him 2. After Pope Constantine Gregory the second and Gregory the third succeed and both of them Excommunicate the Emperor Leo Isaurus for this only Crime because he was against worshipping of Images and though the Italians had sworn Allegiance to him yet they null that Oath And the Historian commends these Actions of those two Popes as excellent Examples for Posterity And Platina says that Gregory the third Excommunicated the Emperor Leo and deprived him of his Empire 3. To Gregory the third succeeded Pope Zachary and if Gratian say true he deposed Childericus King of France and absolves his Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance and gives his Kingdom to Pipin And this he did not for the great crimes of Childeric but because he was unprofitable and unfit for the Government not that he was Insufficient says the Gloss but because he was Effeminate and dissolute with Women And from this Canon Joh. Semeca the Glossator infers That the Pope may depose the Emperor and proves it by citing other Canons And by the Authority of Pope Gelasius who tells Anastasius the Emperor That he had power to Depose him and proves it from the Example of this Pope Zachary I know that what Gratian and the Canonist say of Pope Zachary's Deposing Childeric is evidently untrue and by many demonstrated so to be yet it stands uncensur'd in their last and best Edition of the Canon Law which Pope Gregory XIII approved and publish'd as most correct And they further tell us That Clement VIII published an Exact Correction of all the Glosses and Additions to the Canon Law and yet this of Pope Zachary's deposing Childeric and what the Gloss says of it is neither left out nor any way censur'd Whence it is evident that they approve the Doctrine of deposing Kings and having no just reason for it forge Instances to
that what Erasmus Observes out of Hierome is true is this The Spanish Inquisitors have damn'd it and in their Index Expurgatorius Commanded it to be blotted out But Erasmus adds further That it cannot Logically and firmly be concluded from the Order wherein the Apostles are number'd which of them is to be preferr'd before the rest because where many are number'd there is a necessity we begin with some one and 't is not material which we begin with And This the Inquisitors let pass without a Deleatur they do not condemn it to be blotted out and so seem to approve it otherwise it had not pass'd so that even by our Adversaries consent all that can be rationally Inferr'd from that Text where in numbering the Apostles Peter is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first is only a Primacy of Order which we willingly grant but no Primacy much less a Supremacy of Authority Dominion and Jurisdiction over the rest of the Apostles which the Pope and his Party desire and we justly deny 2. And as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Primus so Princeps or Prince amongst the best Latin Authors usually signifies Order Only or some Excellent Quality in those who are call'd Principes without any Authority or Jurisdiction over those in relation to whom they are so call'd And that the Rest of the Apostles were call'd Principes as well as Peter I have Authentick warrant even the Roman Breviary restored according to the Decree of the Council of Trent publish'd by Pius V. The very Pope who publish'd this Impious Bull a-against Queen Elizabeth and then Revised by the Authority of Clement VIII and Vrban VIII and Printed at Antverp 1660. In this Breviary we have this Hymn in the Office for the Feast of St. Peter and Paul Ecclesiarum Principes Belli Triumphales Duces Coelestis Aulae Milites Et vera Mundi Lumina c. Now in this Hymn Peter and Paul too are call'd Ecclesiarum Principes Princes of the Churches For being a Hymn for the Feast of those two Apostles Ecclesiarum Principes cannot relate to less than two nor Properly to any but them two in that Place Though elsewhere it relates to all the Apostles as in the Place cited in the Margent when after the Invitatory as they call it Come let us adore the Lord King of the Apostles it follows thus Aeterna Christi munera Apostolorum Gloria Palmas Hymnos debitos Laetis canamus mentibus Ecclesiarum Principes Belli Triumphales Duces Coelestis Aulae Milites Et vera Mundi Lumina c. So that if we may believe their own Authentick Breviary Publish'd and Carefully Revised by these Popes according to the Decree of the Trent Council All the other Apostles under our blessed Saviour and by his Authority were Princes of the Christian Church as well as Peter Now I desire to know how these things will Consist Pius V. in this Bull against Queen Elizabeth says That our blessed Saviour Committed the Government of his Church to One Only to Peter and Constituted him Only a Prince over all Nations and Kingdoms so he in his Bull and yet the same Pope in this Roman Breviary for it was Approved and Published by him and the Hymn here cited says That all the Apostles were Ecclesiarum Principes and if so then Peter was not the Only Prince to whom the Government of the Church was Committed no the Commission of every Apostle given by our blessed Saviour was as unlimited and as large as Peters This will appear in all the Particulars of it equally given to all as they are expresly set down in Scripture from whence alone we can surely know what their Authority and Commission was Our blessed Saviour tells them and us 1. As my Father sent me so send I you There we have the Author and Authority of their Commission The same blessed Saviour of the World sends them all 2. Then he breath'd upon them and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost There we have the Principle inabling them to discharge that great Office and Trust reposed in them It was that Holy Spirit which gave them 1. Infallibility in their Doctrine 2. Power to work Miracles for Confirmation of it 3. Then he adds whose sins ye retain they are retained c. Here we have the great Spiritual Power given them for the calling and governing the Church which is elsewhere called The Power of the Keys which Consists in binding and loosing retaining and remitting sins For so 't is Explain'd by our blessed Saviour in the Place last cited and is by our Adversaries confess'd So that 't is Evident that the Power of the Keys the Power of binding and loosing of retaining and remitting sins is Equally given to all the Apostles to every One as well as Peter 4. He Assigns them their Place and Province where and the way how they were to Exercise their Apostolical Power Go and Teach All Nations baptizing them and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have Commanded you Their Diocese was the World Go ye into All The World and preach the Gospel to every Creature every man And the administring the Sacraments and teaching men to believe and observe the whole Goâ—pel was the business they were to do in that their Diocese 5. And to incourage them to this great and difficult Work he graciously promises his Presence and Divine Assistance Lo I am with you Always even to the End of the World These are the Powers and Promises given to the Apostles and which to me seems Evident without difference or distinction Equally to all to Simon the Cannite for so it should be writ as well and as much as to Simon Peter If any think otherwise if he can and will by any Cogent Reason make it appear either 1. That the foregoing Powers and Promises were not Equally given to all the Apostles 2. Or that some other Power or Promise was in Scripture given peculiarly to Peter whereby he had an Authority and Dominion over the other Apostles and the whole Church to make him Only a Prince over all Nations and Kingdoms as Pope Pius V. in this his wild Bull confidently affirms I say he who can and will make both or either of these appear shall have my hearty thanks for the Discovery and I shall for the future have a better Opinion of Peter's Supremacy which at present I take to be a groundless Error without any proof or probability I know that the Popes in their Constitutions and their Party usually urge that place in Matthew to prove Peter's and thence their own vast and Monarchical Supremacy over the whole Church even the Apostles themselves not excepted the words These Thou art Peter and upon This Rock I will build my Church And I give unto thee The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven From this Place most
shall be bound in Heaven we declare and denounce the said Friderick deprived of all his Honour and Dignity absolve his Subjects from all Oaths of Allegiance and Excommunicate all who shew him any favour or obey him as Emperor And to the same purpose their Trent Catechism tells us That the Pope has by Divine Right not by any Human Constitutions that Supream Degree of Dignity and Jurisdiction over the Vniversal Church as Peter's Successor sitting in his Chair and as Vicar of Christ. 5. But that which they press with most Noise and Confidence is That our blessed Saviour gave Peter the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven They seem to be in Love with these words Dabo Tibi Claves c. For in their Offices for only two of St. Peter's Festivals they are repeated almost Twenty times But how Impertinent this is to prove any Supremacy much less their Papal Monarchy will evidently appear in that this Power of the Keys which they would appropriate to the Pope was given to the rest of the Apostles as well as to Peter as is proved before nay to every Bishop and Priest in the World For 1. So their own Roman Breviary published by the Authority of Pope Pius the Fifth and afterwards revised by Clement the Eighth and Vrban the Eighth expresly says for having told us that our blessed Saviour gave the Keys to Peter it follows That this Power did pass to the other Apostles and Princes of the Church 2. Their Trent Catechism having spoke of the Power of the Keys afterwards tells us to whom our blessed Saviour gave and concredited that Power before he Ascended into Heaven And it was To the Bishops and Presbyters So that Catechism publish'd according to the Decree of the Council of Trent by Pope Pius the Fifth And 3. Their Roman Pontifical gives the Authentick Form how they Ordain a Priest in which the Power of the Keys is given to every Priest in the very same words our blessed Saviour did give it to the Apostles Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins you remit they are remitted And whose sins you retain they are retained 4. Lastly The Trent Fathers are yet if that be possible more express For speaking of the Sacrament of Pennance and Absolution They declare all their Opinions to be false and erroneous who think that the Exercise of the Ministery and Power of the Keys belong to any save The Bishops and Presbyters and who think those words Whatsoever you shall bind on Earth c. And whose sins you remit shall be remitted c. to be spoken indifferently to all the Faithful and so think that any of the faithful may bind and loose remit and retain sins In which words the Council does I suppose Infallibly Declare at least in our Adversaries Opinion 1. That those two Texts which are cited in the Margent of the Council are to be understood of the Power of the Keys though in one of them that of John the Keys be not expresly named 2. That the Exercise of that Power of the Keys belongs To the Bishops and Presbyters but to none else neither to Lay-men nor any Inferior Orders By the Premisses I think it evident and confess'd by our Adversaries that every Apostle had the Power of the Keys as well as Peter and since they left the World every Bishop and Priest as well as the Pope Whence it further and manifestly follows That 't is impossible that the Bishop of Rome or any of his party should as they vainly indeavor prove his Supremacy from his Power of the Keys which is common and really possess'd by so many thousands beside himself For this is just as if Titius should brag that he is far richer then Sempronius because he has Five hundred pounds per Annum when Sempronius has an equal Estate and of the very same Value Or as if Sejus should say he had far greater Power then Cajus when the Power given them by the Emperor was equal and the same And yet such is the vanity and folly of their pretended Infallible Judges that in their Bulls and Papal Constitutions received into the Body of their Canon Law Dabo Tibi Claves this Power of the Keys is laid as a Sandy and Insignificant Foundation on which they build the vast and Insupportable Fabrick of their Supremacy I shall Instance only in two though I might in many more 1. In that famous Decretal of Innocent the Third before cited wherein he impiously and ridiculously indeavors to prove that the Papal Dignity is as much greater then the Imperial as the Sun is greater than the Moon And amongst other wild and ridiculous Arguments to prove his equally wild and extravagant Position he comes at last to this Dabo Tibi Claves to the Power of the Keys as the most known ground of his Supremacy 2. The second Instance is that of Pope Innocent the Fourth in his Impious Excommunication and Deposition of the Emperor Frederick who had been before Excommunicated by his Predecessor Gregory the Ninth in the Council of Lions It is Extant in the Canon Law and two things there prefix'd to that most Impious Decretal 1. That he depos'd Frederick in the Council for a perpetual memory of it And so it stands for a perpetual memory of his Antichristian Pride and Impiety 2. That the Pope can Depose the Emperor for lawful Causes And then in that Impious Decretal he grounds his Power to Depose the Emperor principally upon the Power of the Keys which he says was given to him in Peter when our blessed Saviour said Whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth should be bound in Heaven c. so he and his Predecessors and Successors generally for this Six hundred years last past applies that Power of the Keys which is purely spiritual to carnal and temporal ends and impious purposes And here it seems to me Considerable and I believe will seem so to pious and dis-interessed Persons that in former Roman Breviaries as also in our Portiforium or Breviary of Sarum and in the Missals of Salisbury and Hereford we have this Prayer 1. Deus qui Beato Petro Apostolo tuo Collatis Clavibus Regni Coelestis Animas Ligandi atque Solvendi Pontisicium tradidisti Concede ut Intercessionis ejus Auxilio c. O God who by giving the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to thy Apostle Peter hast concredited and delivered to him the Pontifical Power of binding and loosing mens Souls grant that by the help of his Intercession c. Where it is evident that in the sense and plain meaning of this Prayer and Scripture too the Power of the Keys is spiritual to bind mens souls if Impenitent and if Contrite and truly Penitent to loose them I say spiritual for edification and saving mens souls and not temporal for Deposing Kings and Emperors and absolving their Subjects from their Oaths of
Vniverse of the whole World it follows That all Kings and Emperors are his Subjects and he their Supream Lord and Sovereign and so far greater in Power then any one or all of them together And least we should mistake and undervalue his Papal Greatness Pope Innocent the Third told the Emperor of Constantinople and has told us in the Body of their approved and received Law That the Pope is as much greater then the Emperor as the Sun is greater then the Moon And here the Author of the Gloss Bernardus de Botono a great Lawyer but no good Astronmer tells us That the Sun is 47. times greater then the Moon and so by that Computation the Pope is 47. times greater then the Emperor This is pretty well and gives so vast a Magnitude to the Pope above the Emperor that a man would think it might satisfie his Ambition so that he needed not ask nor his greatest Flatterers give him more Yet they do give much more For in a Marginal Note on the said Chapter in their most Correct Editions of their Law we are told That the Sun is greater then the Moon Quinquagies Septies 57. times and so the Pope so much greater then the Emperor But this is not all Laurentius a Canonist in the same place tells us That it is evident that the Sun is 7744 ½ greater then the Moon and so the Pope omitting the Fraction Seaven thousand seaven hundred and forty four times greater then the Emperor This is so prodigiously erroneous and impious as none save their most Holy and Infallible Guide could be guilty of such Error and Impiety But a Learned Roman Catholick who understood Astronomy and the Magnitude of the Sun much better then the Pope or his Parasites seriously tells us that the Sun is greater then the Moon 6539. times And so by the Popes Logick and Decretal Definition and the Computation of his best Artists he must be 6539. times greater then the Emperor Monstrous Pride and Ignorance which is so far from proving him to be our blessed Saviours Vicar that it evidently proves him to be that Man of Sin the great Antichrist who exalts himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above all Kings and Emperors Certainly Antichrist cannot exalt himself more then to declare to the World as the Pope here does in his Publick Laws and Constitutions that he is 6539. times greater then any King or Emperor So that although St. Paul and Peter too acknowledged the Emperors Power Supream and required that all men even the Pope if he were a man should conscienciously obey them though St. Paul appeal not to Peter but to Caesar as Supream Though Athanasius say That there lay no Appeal from the Emperor but to God and though Tertullian say That the Emperor was Solo Deo minor and the Bishops of Rome for almost One thousand years after our blessed Saviour acknowledged the Emperors their Sovereign Lords yet Hildebrand and his Successors have as above exalted themselves far above all that is call'd God and have that indelible Character of Antichrist Q. E. D. 2. And they further say That this Vniversal Monarchy is given him by God himself and so he has it not by any Human Right or Injust Usurpation but Jure Divino by the Law of God and a Right derived from him and this is said not once only nor by any private Person whose Authority might be question'd but many times in their Authentick Roman Breviary restored according to the Decree of the Council of Trent and revised and publish'd by the Authority and Command of three Popes successively so that we may be sure they approve it That Breviary has it thus speaking of Peter Thou art Prince of the Apostles And God hath Given Thee All the Kingdoms of the World These are the words of that Authentick Breviary approved and confirm'd by the Authority of those three Popes before mentioned as appears by their Bull prefix'd to the Edition and is now in publick use in their Church So that he Exalts himself as Universal Monarch over all the Kings and Kingdoms in the World and that as he impiously pretends by a Divine Right and the Donation of God himself And hence it is That not only the Canonists the constant and great Parasites of the Pope but even the Learned Divines of the Roman Church give the Pope and he Approves and Assumes such Extravagant and Blasphemous Titles as none but the Man of Sin who Exalts himself above all that is called God would approve To pass by many hundreds of the like nature I shall Instance only in one Stapleton an English man and a very Learned Professor of Divinity at Doway in his Dedicatory Epistle to Pope Gregory the Thirteenth calls that Pope The Highest Top and Prince of the Catholick Church The Master of the whole World and on Earth The Supream God or Deity Certainly â—he who approves and admits such Titles to be given him Exalts himself above all that is called God and so has the Character of Antichrist mention'd by the Apostle 2 Thess. 2. 4. And here though I intended it not I shall crave leave to add two or three Passages more which casually come in my way and memory and are very pertinent to our present purpose 1. The Gloss on their Canon Law tells us That the Pope is neither God nor Man but something more then Man And though this Impious and Blasphemous Gloss was Censured to be left out by the Master of the Sacred Pallace Yet Clement the Eighth thought otherwise and those words are still in the best Edition of the Canon Law only with this Note in the Margent Haec verba sunt sano modo intelligenda prâ—lata enim sunt ad Ostendendum Amplissimam Pontificis Rom. Potestatem But this Gloss is something modest though it make the Pope more then Man and being in Verse may have some Poetical Licence allow'd 2. But another Gloss in plain Prose expresly says That it is our Lord God the Pope For although in some Old Editions of the Canon Law it was only Our Lord the Pope yet now in the most Correct Editions of that Law confirmed by Gregory the Thirteenth it is without any Qualification in the Margent our Lord God the Pope 3. And to make the Blasphemy full and evidently Antichristian Ant. Puccius in an Oration made by him in their General Lateran Council speaking to Pope Leo the Tenth says That the Rayes of His Divine Majesty did dazle his Eyes Impious and Antichristian Pride and Blasphemy yet approved at Rome and by themselves to their shame published to the World Nor is this all He pretends to and assumes an Infallibility and that of so high a Nature that all his Definitions and Determinations of Doubts whether è Cathedrâ or not whether in a General Council or out of it to be the
That the Pope could not Depose or Kill such Protestants But when this was heard at Rome the Pope and his Sacred Congregation as they call it Condemned that Negative Proposition as Heretical and Summon'd the Subscribers to Rome where Prisons and Censures as Father Caron tells us were prepared for them Whence it is Evident that to deny the Popes Power to Depose and Kill Protestant Princes is at Rome declared Heretical and therefore that he has a Power to Depose and Kill is a part of their Catholick Creed and believ'd three Whence it further follows that they do think such Killing of Protestants to be no Murder nor those who kill them out of Zeal to the Catholick Cause Murderers 5. When Raymundus Lullus a man famous in his time and after it had said and in his Writings published That it was unlawful and impious to kill and murder Hereticks for he had seen and heard of the bloody Persecutions of the Waldenses and such as at Rome were call'd Hereticks in and before his time Nic. Eymericus Inquisitor of Arragon complains of him and his Writings to Pope Gregory the Eleventh who in full Consistory with the Council of his Cardinals damns the Doctrine of Raymundus Lullus and declares for the Lawfulness and Justice of Killing Hereticks 6. And Lastly Pope Leo the Tenth in his Oecumenical so they call it Lateran Council Sacro approbante Concilio with the Consent and Approbation of that Council declares That our blessed Saviour Did Institute Peter and his Successors his Vicars to whom by the Testimony of The Book of Kings it was so necessary to yield Obedience that Whosoever would not as no true Protestant ever would or could was to be punished with Death The Pope was not pleased to tell us what Book of Kings for in their Vulgar Latin Version there are four Books of that name nor what Chapter or Verse he meant and he did wisely to conceal what Place in those Books he intended for had he nam'd any particular place though he pretended to Infallibility his folly would have much sooner appeared It is indeed ridiculous for any man to think that any thing said in those Books of Kings can prove that our blessed Saviour Constituted a Vicar General over his whole Christian Church with power to kill all who would not comply with him and that Peter and his Successors the Popes were the men seeing there is not one Syllable of all or any of this in any of the four Books of Kings Nor any Text from which it may with any sense or probability be deduc'd Nor have the Publishers of that Lateran and other Councils Peter Crab Surius Binius Labbe c. supply'd that defect and told us what place Pope Leo meant and from which he or they could prove the Popes Power to kill all who comply'd not with his Commands I know that Crab Surius and Binius though Labbe has omitted it as Impertinent have in their Editions of the Councils cited in their Margents Deut. 17. for a proof of that Erroneus and Impious Position it seems their Infallible Judge mistook Kings for Deuteronomy or that they could find nothing in any Book of Kings for the Popes purpose But they name not the Verse though I believe it is the Twelfth Verse of that Seaventeenth Chapter they mean Where 't is said That he who will not hearken to the Priest or Judge That Man shall Dye This I say is altogether impertinent as to the proof of the Popes Position For admit which is manifestly untrue that by Priest here the High Priest only was meant yet it will neither be consequence nor sense to say Whosoever disobey'd the Sentence of the High Priest in the Jewish Church must be put to death Ergo Whoever disobeys the Pope in the Christian Church must be so too This I say is Inconsequent for the Priests in the Jewish Church not only the High Priest but other Priests and Levites by the express Law of God had as Judges in many Cases Power of Life and Death but in the Gospel our blessed Saviour left no such Power to his Apostles and their Successors Excommunication is the highest Punishment Peter or any or all the Apostles could inflict by any Authority from our blessed Saviour in the Christian Church and this Power succeeded Intersection or putting to death in the Judaical Church So St. Augustin expresly tells us and to him I refer the Reader By the Premisses I think it may appear that if after the Popes Damnation and Deposition of Queen Elizabeth any of her Popish Subjects Laity or Clergy Regular or Secular had by taking Arms publickly or by Poyson or Pistol Privately taken away her life according to their approved Principles it had been no Rebellion Treason or Murder but in their Opinion an Action Just and Innocent But this though too much is not all their Error and Impiety rises higher For 4. Had any of Queen Elizabeths Subjects after the Popes Excommunication kill'd her that Execrable Fact had been so far from being Murder that in their opinion it had been an Action not only Indifferent or Morally good but Meritorious In the year 1586. which was the Nine and twentieth of Elizabeth in the Colledge of Rhemes Giffard Dr. of Divinity Gilbert Giffard and Hodgson Priests had so possess'd the English Seminaries with a belief of this Doctrine That John Savage willingly and gladly vowed to kill the Queen The Story is in Cambden an Historian of unquestionable truth and fidelity After this Walpoole the English Jesuite perswades Edward Squire that it was a Meritorious Act to take away the Queen tells him it might easily be done by Poysoning the Pomel of her Sadle gives him the Poyson Squire undertakes it Walpoole blesseth him and promises him Eternal Salvation and so having sworn him to Secresie sends him into England where notwithstanding all the Jesuits blessings he was taken confess'd all this and was Executed in the year 1598. And Camdben there tells us That a Pestilent Opinion as he truly calls it was got amongst the Popish Party even amongst their Priests That to take away Kings Excommunicate was Nothing Else but to Weed the Cockle out of the Lords Field It is true none of those impious and damnable Designs had their desir'd Effect God Almighty protecting that good Queen it being impossible that any Power or Policy should prevail against his Providence yet the Matter of Fact confessed by themselves or evidently proved by Legal Witnesses manifestly shews that they thought killing the Queen for the benefit of their Catholick Cause was a Meritorious Work which they designed to do and had their Ability been Equal to their Impiety would have done 2. Nor was this the private opinion of some Priests and Jesuits only but the definitive Sentence of several Popes their Infallible and Supream Judges publickly declared and that we may be sure they are obligatory
at Rome amongst other Papal Decrees referr'd into the Body of their Canon Law confirm'd by Gregory the Thirteenth and by their General Councils the fifth Lateran and that of Trent Commanded to be obeyed Tanquam Divina Inspiratione Edita Tanquam Dei Praecepta Now the Papal Sentences or Decrees I mean are 1. That of Pope Nicolas to the French Army wherein the Pope tells them That if any of them were slain in that War against the Insidels that is as Cardinal Turrecremata explains it against the Hereticks Heaven should not be deny'd them They should be sure of that But the Lemma or Summary prefix'd to the Canon says That those Souldiers who faithfully fought against the Hereticks if any one of them were slain in the sight He should merit Heaven Murdering Hereticks was in the Popes Opinion a meritorious Work and if the Souldiers could kill them and take away their Temporal Life here they should for that good Service to the Pope gain to themselves an Eternal Life hereafter 2. Pope Leo to the same purpose and almost in the same words Incourages a French Army to sight stoutly against the Enemies of the Faith and of the Church you may be sure he means the Roman Church and tells them that they need not be any way affraid to kill Hereticks and the Churches Enemies for God knew that if any of them died in that Service it was for the true Faith for which Heaven should be their Reward So the Pope in that Canon And because some of those Souldiers might fear as there was great reason they should that the Persecuting those poor Christians whom the Pope call'd Hereticks with Fire and Sword might rather deserve punishment then a Heavenly Reward John Semeca the Glossator tells us That the Popes meaning was that being secured from Punishment Heaven should be their Reward These and such other Principles must of necessity be a great Incouragement to the Popish Party who believe though without and in contradiction to Truth and Reason the vast usurped Papal Power and Infallibility to Execute the Popes Damnatory Bulls and Excommunications and kill all Hereticks even Kings and Emperors having Heaven promised for doing it This is very much but there are more and greater Promises made by the Pope for killing Hereticks For 5. The Pope out of his great Ability and Bounty promises such Impious and Bloody Murderers of Hereticks not Heaven only but a higher Degree of Glory in it and many other great Priviledges to be injoy'd here before they came to Heaven and this Promise the Pope makes not singly by himself but in and with the consent of the greatest General Council Rome ever had Innocent the Third is the Pope and the fourth Lateran is the Council I mean in which there were above Twelve hundred Fathers By the Authority of this Council an Army was to be raised for the Destruction of Hereticks the poor Wabdenses and they were to have the sume Priviledges which were granted to those who fought against the Turks to recover the Holy Land What those Priviledges were Pope Innocent in his Bull tells us 1. They were to be freed from all Taxes Impositions and all Burdens whatsoever 2. They were to be received into the Protection of St. Peter and the Pope there is nothing of God's Protection mention'd The Pope who sits in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God thought and would have them think so too that he was sufficient to protect them 3. If they had borrowed any Money upon Use and had solemnly sworn to pay it yet the Pope Commands that they shall be freed both from their Oath and paying any Vse 4. If they went to kill and exterminate Hereticks in Person and at their own Expences then A Full and Plenary Pardon of All their Sins here and A Greater Degree of Glory hereafter is by the Pope and that great General Council promised them By the Premisses I think it evident that if any of Queen Elizabeths Subjects after her Damnation and Excommunication by the Pope had by raising Arms against her publickly or by Poyson or Pistol privately taken away her Life it had neither been Rebellion Treason nor Murder but an innocent Action And that not one of those which Aristotle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naturae Mediae and Indifferent which are morally neither good nor bad but in the Judgment of the Church of Rome and upon those her approved Principles it had been an Action Morally Good nay which is far more Meritorious For which they should have Remission of All their Sins here and not only Heaven but in it A higher Degree of Glory hereafter And if it happened that any of them miscarried in this their meritorious Act of killing Heretical Kings and were according to their desert hang'd for Treason then with the Pope and his Party they pass for Martyrs and as such shall be honour'd and highly commended to Posterity I wrong them not Ribadeneira the Jesuit to omit many others in a Book Licenced by the Vice-Provincial of Toledo approved by the Bishop of Antverp and other Grave and Learned Men as they are there call'd I say in this Book he has a Century of Martyrs of his Society and amongst them reckons Campian Walpoole Southwell Garnett Oldcorne c. and calls them Martyrs who were Legally Convict here and Justly Executed as Impious Traitors God Almighty preserve our Gracious King from the Traiterous and Pernicious Conspiracies of those men who by a strange delusion believe such Principles and call Impious Traitors Holy Martyrs The Premisses consider'd there can be little reason to doubt but the Popish Party as ever since the Reformation they constantly have so they always will indeavour by secret Plots and Conspiracies by Poyson Pistols or when they have Ability by open War to ruin and utterly extirpate and destroy all the Protestants of this Nation King and Subjects who are by the Pope Declared and Excommunicated Hereticks seeing there are such exceeding great Rewards aforemention'd assured to them for doing it not only by private and fallible persons but by the Constitutions of their Popes and the Canons of their greatest and approved General Councils their Supream Judge and Infallible Guide which all Papists by the Principles of their Religion are bound to obey and act according to such Canons and Constitutions And were they indeed what they pretend to Infallible it were great folly and midness not to do so For he is certainly a Fool who having a Journey to go on which the Eternal misery or felicity of his Soul depends will not follow an Infallible Guide And which is further very considerable All their Dignitaries in all Cathedral and Collegiate Churches All who have Cure of Souls All who are provided for and preferr'd
Faith and for our amendment suffered to be punished with so great Afflictions might be preserved uncorrupt But the number of the ungodly hath gotten such power there is now no place left in the whole World which they have not assayed to corrupt with their most wicked Doctrines Amongst others Elizabeth the pretended Queen of England a Slave of Wickedness lending thereunto her helping hand with whom as in a Sanctuary the most pernicious of all men have found a Refuge This very Woman having seized on the Kingdom and monstrously usurping the place of Supream Head of the Church in all England and the chief Authority and Jurisdiction thereof hath again brought back the said Kingdom into miserable destruction which was then newly reduced to the most Catholick Faith and good Fruits Sect. 2. For having by strong hand inhibited the exercise of the true Religion which Mary lawful Queen of famous memory had by the help of this See restored after it had been formerly overthrown by Henry the Eighth a Revolter therefrom and following and embracing the Errors of Hereticks she hath removed the Royal Council consisting of the English Nobility and filled it with obscure men being Hereticks oppressed the Embracers of the Catholick Faith placed impious Preachers Ministers of Iniquity abolished the Sacrifice of the Mass Prayers Fastings choice of Meats unmarried Life and the Catholick Rites and Ceremonies Commanded Books to be read in the whole Realm containing manifest Heresie and impious Mysteries and Institutions by her self entertained and observed according to the Prescript of Calvin to be likewise observed by her Subjects presumed to throw Bishops Parsons of Churches and other Catholick Priests out of their Churches and Benefices and to bestow them and other Church Livings upon Hereticks and to determine of Church Causes prohibited the Prelates Clergy People to acknowledge the Church of Rome or obey the Precepts and Canonical Sanctions thereof compelled most of them to condescend to her wicked Laws and to abjure the Authority and Obedience of the Bishop of Rome and to acknowledge her to besole Lady in Temporal and Spiritual matters and this by Oath imposed Penalties and Punishments upon those which obeyed not and exacted them of those which persevered in the Unity of the Faith and their Obedience aforesaid cast the Catholick Prelates and Rectors of Churches in Prison where many of them being spent with long languishing and sorrow miserably ended their lives All which things seeing they are manifest and notorious to all Nations and by the gravest Testimony of very many so substantially proved that there is no place at all left for Excuse Defence or Evasion Sect. 3. We seeing that impieties and wicked actions are multiplied one upon another moreover that the persecution of the faithful affliction for Religion groweth every day heavier heavier through the instigation and means of the said Elizabeth because we understand her Mind to be so hardned and indurate that she hath not only contemned the godly Requests and Admonitions of Catholick Princes concerning her healing and conversion but also hath not so much as permitted the Nuncios of this See to cross the Seas into England are strained of necessity to betake our selves to the Weapons of Justice against her not being able to mitigate our sorrow that we are drawn to take punishment upon one to whose Ancestors the whole State of Christendom hath been so much bounden Being therefore supported with his Authority whose pleasure it was to place Us though unable for so great a burthen in this Supream Throne of Justice we do out of the fulness of our Apostolick power declare the aforesaid Elizabeth being an Heretick and a favourer of Hereticks and her Adherents in the matters aforesaid to have incurred the sentence of Anathema and to be cut off from the Unity of the Body of Christ. Sect. 4. And moreover we do declare Her to be deprived of her pretended Title to the Kingdom aforesaid of all Dominion Dignity and Priviledge whatsoever Sect. 5. And also the Nobility Subjects and People of the said Kingdom and all others which have in any sort sworn unto her to be forever absolved from any such Oath and all manner of Duty of Dominion Allegiance and Obedience As we also do by Authority of these presents absolve them and do deprive the same Elizabeth of her pretended Title to the Kingdom and all other things abovesaid And we do Command and Interdict all and every the Noblemen Subjects people and others aforesaid that they presume not to obey her or her Monitions Mandates and Laws And those which shall do the contrary We do innodate with the like Sentence of Anathema Sect. 6. And because it were a matter of too much difficulty to convey these presents to all places wheresoever it shall be needful our will is that the Copies thereof under a publick Notaries hand and sealed with the Seal of an Ecclesiastical Prelate or of his Court shall carry altogether the same credit with all people Judicial and Extrajudicial as these presents should do if they were exhibited or shewed Given at Rome at St. Peters in the Year of the Incarnation of our Lord 1570. the Fifth of the Calends of May and of our Popedom the Fifth year Damnatio Excommunicatio Elizabethae Reginae Angliae eique Adhaerentium cum aliarum poenarum Adjectione Pius Episcopus Servus Servorum Dei ad perpetuam Rei memoriam REgrans in Excelsis cui data est Omnis in Coelo in Terra Potestas unam Sanctam Catholicam Apostolicam Ecclesiam extra quam nulla est salus soli in terris videlicet Apostolorum Principi Petro Petrique Successori Romano Pontifici in Potestatis plenitudine tradidit Gubernandam Hunc unum super omnes Gentes omnia Regna Principem constituit qui evellat destruat dissipet disperdat plantet aedisicet ut fidelem populum mutuae Charitatis nexu constrictum in unitate Spiritus contineat salvumque incolumem suo exhibeat salvatori Sect. 1. Quo quidem in munere obeundo Nos ad praedictae Ecclesiae gubernacula Dei Benignitate vocati nullum laborem intermittimus omni operà contendentes ut ipsa Vnitas Catholica Religio quam illius Auctor ad probandam suorum fidem correctionem nostram tantis procellis conslictari permisit integra conservetur Sed Impiorum numerus tantum potentia invaluit ut nullus jam in Orbe locus sit relictus quem illi pessimis doctrinis corrumpere non tentârint adnitente inter caeteros flagitiorum servâ Elizabeth praetensâ Angliae Reginâ ad quam veluti ad asylum omnium infestissimi profugium invenerunt Haec eadem Regno occupato supremi Ecclesiae capitis locum in omni Angliâ ejusque praecipuam Auctoritatem atque Jurisdictionem monstruose sibi usurpans regnum ipsum jam tum ad Fidem Catholicam bonam frugem reductum rursus in exitium miserum revocavit Sect. 2.
they could not have been saved And therefore they also are his Sheep 2. Yet they were Shepherds too sent by and subordinate to the great and chief Shepherd Jesus Christ in respect of the Church and Christians over which the Holy Ghost had set them 3. Our blessed Saviour is such a foundation and Founder of his Church as does not find but make these Lively Stones which are the Materials with which he builds it He gives his Spirit and by it Grace and a Lively Faith which things alone make men Lively Stones and fit for that Building This no Apostle not Peter much less any succeeding Pope ever did or could do nor without great folly and impiety can pretend to 4. Our blessed Saviour is such a Rock such a Foundation and Founder of the Church as was and is Proprietary and the sole true Owner of it 't is his House purchased with his precious Blood and he ever had and still hath a Magisterial and Imperial power over it to rule and govern it He is King of Saints 'T is true the Prophets and Apostles are called Foundations and Founders of the Church Those of the Judaical Church before our blessed Saviour's Incarnation these of the Christian Church after it But the Power and the Authority the Prophets or Apostles had even the greatest of them Moses or Peter was only Ministerial the Authority of Servants deriv'd from our blessed Saviour and Exercised under him So the Apostle tells us That Moses was faithful in all his House i. e. in the Judaical Church As A Servant but Christ as a Son over his Own House whose House Are We c. So in the Christian Church the Apostles All of them were Prime and Principal Ministers from and under Christ to call and build the Church They were Servants of Christ and for his sake of the Church they had Ministerium but not Imperium Neither Peter nor any other had that vast Monarchical Supremacy over the whole Church which is not without great Error and Impiety pretended to when they blasphemously say That Peter was our blessed Saviours Successor and by him Constituted the Head of the Vniversal Church with the very same Power our blessed Saviour had But this they say only without any Proof or Probability and so transeat cum caeteris erroribus 2. But although we say and have evident Reason and Authority for it That our blessed Saviour was the one and only prime and chief foundation and founder of the Church and all the Apostles Peter as well as the Rest Superstructions in respect of him yet we know and acknowledge that both in Scripture and Antiquity they are called Foundations and Founders of the Christian Church in respect of the Churches call'd Converted and Constituted by them but all Equally so Peter was no more a foundation then Paul or James or John For 1. They were all immediately call'd by our blessed Saviour without any dependence upon Peter or any body else as is Evident in the Text it self And this is generally Confess'd by the Popish Commentators even the Jesuits such as Tirinus Menochius c. I say all the Apostles had this immediate calling to their Apostleship from our blessed Saviour except Matthias and he was not chosen by Peter who neither knew nor had any such Supremacy as without all reason is now ascribed to him but the Colledge of the Apostles and consent of the faithful there present And though a Learned Jesuit zealous for Peter and the Popes Supremacy would have Peter to be the Directior in that business the Election of Matthias yet he cannot deny but it was done by the Common Consent of the Apostles and Brethren 2. As the Apostles all of them Matthias excepted had their call Immediately and Equally from our blessed Saviour without any dependence upon St. Peter so they had their Commission immediately from him and in it the very same Power equally given to all The same power given to any one even St. Peter was given to every one This is Evident 1. From those plain Texts where their Commission and Apostolical Power is given them by our blessed Saviour before the Resurrection when they were sent to the Jews only and the very same Power equally given to all 2. And from those other as clear and plain Texts wherein after the Resurrection they had Commission and Authority given them by our blessed Saviour to preach to all Nations where it is As my Father sent me so I send you and Go ye c. All equally sent no difference or distinction of the Persons as to any Priviledge or Precedence no Degrees of Power more or greater in one then every one Their Commission and Authority given in it was the very same and equally given to all the Apostles These Truths are so evident in the Text that some sober Popish Writers do both profess and industriously prove them Franc A Victoria prime Professor of Divinity at Salamanca in Spain and as they esteemed and called him an Excellent and Incomparable Divine Proposes and proves these two Conclusions 1. All the Power the Apostles had was by them received Immediately from Christ. 2. All the Apostles had Equal Power with Peter And then he Explains his meaning thus That every Apostle had Ecclesiastical Power in the whole World and to do Every Act which Peter had Power to do But then to please the Pope and his Party he Excepts those Acts which were proper and belong'd peculiarly to the Pope as Calling of a General Council But this is gratis dictum without any pretence of proof or probability from Scripture and evidently contradictory to the known Practise of the Christian World after the Emperors became Christians who alone and not the Pope call'd all the Ancient Councils as is fully proved by a late and Learned Sorbon Doctor 5. But to proceed That Place in Matthew is urged in the foregoing Objection to prove the Monarchical Supremacy of Peter I Give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven c. Now that I may give a short and distinct Answer to this place I consider 1. That this Text is generally urg'd though most Impertinently to prove Peter's and the Popes Power over Kings and Emperors So Innocent III. Cites it to prove that the Emperor is subject to the Pope To the same purpose Pope Boniface VIII produceth it in his Impious and as to the Nonsense and Inconsequence of it ridiculous Extravagant which Bellarmine approves and Leo. X. and his Lateran Council which they call a General one Innovates and Confirms and yet a late Jesuit expresly tells us and you may be sure with the Approbation of his Superiors That the Keys were given Only to Peter These and many more quote this Place to the
same purpose 2. It is certain and Confess'd that our blessed Saviour in this place of Matthew does not Actually give St. Peter the Power of the Keys be what it will but pro futuro promise that he will give it For it is in that Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dabo I will give not I have given or do give and therefore they must shew some other place in Scripture where that Power is Actually given to Peter and that to him alone else if it be given to the other Apostles as well as to him it will be Impossible to prove his Prerogative and Supremacy over the other Apostles from that Power which they have as well as he 3. But it is certain that the Power of the Keys bâ— what it will was by our blessed Saviour afterwards given to all the Apostles as well and 〈◊〉 much as to Peter So it evidently Appears bâ— St. Matthew in the place Cited Where ouâ— blessed Saviour speaking to all his Disciples aâ— well as Peter hath these words Verily I say untâ— You 't is all of them he speaks to whatsoeveâ— you shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaveâ— and whatsoever you shall loose on Earth shall loosed in Heaven Here his Promise made beforâ— to Peter Chap. 16. 19. is made Good to him and the Power of the Keys given him but ' tâ—â— manifest that it is in the same time and Placâ— equally given to all the Apostles as well as 〈◊〉 Peter Their own Authentick Offices noâ— and heretofore in Publick use in the Church Rome do attest this truth In one of which they are taught to Invocate the Apostles in thâ— Form Orate pro eo Omnes Sancti Apostoâ—â— Quibus à Domino data est Potestas Ligandi Sâ—â—vendi The Power of Binding and Loosinâ—â— and so the Power of the Keys was given to the Apostles as well as to Peter This the Manual of the Church of Salisbury acknowledgâ— that the Power of binding and loosing was given Paul as well as Peter and further adds Thâ— Every Priest is Vicar of Peter and Paul and 〈◊〉 Petri Pauli ligat solvit binds and looseth their stead and place The Ancient MS. Mâ—â—sal belonging to the Abbots of Evesham says the â—ry same thing So does their St. Anselme aâ—â— the Old Ordo Romanus expresly says That the Power of the Keys or the Power of binding and loosing was by our blessed Saviour given to all the Apostles and in them to all their Successors Vide Bandinum Lombardum c. Sent. lib. 4. Dist. 18. 19. and the rest there Their Trent Catechism published by Pope Pius V. according to the Decree of the Trent Council assures us That every Bishop and Priest has the Power of the Keys given him by our blessed Saviour Hence it is that in their Roman Pontifical in their Ordination of a Priest this Power of the Keys of remitting and retaining sins is given to every one Ordain'd to that Office and which may seem strange in the very same words our blessed Saviour used when he gave that Power to Peter and the other Apostles Nor is this all Their Oecumenical Council of Trent approves and by a Synodical Definition and Decree confirms all this And says further That our blessed Saviour before his Ascention left All Priests His Vicars as Presidents and Judges who By the Power of the Keys should Pronounce Sentence of the Remission and retaining of Sins And this they there prove out of this very Place of Matthew from which they would and generally endeavor to prove the Popes Absolute Monarchical Supremacy And Power to Depose Kings and Emperors To omit all other Instances which are too many sure I am that Pope Innocent IV. builded his Power to Depose the Emperor Friderick upon this one Text We saith that Pope being Christ's Vicar and it being said to us in the Person of Peter whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven c. do Depose that Emperor and Absolve all His Subjects from their Oaths of Allegigance c. From the Premisses and Authorities above Cited I think 't is Evident 1. That in that Text Matth. 16. 19. The Power of the Keys was only promised but not Actually given to Peter 2. When it was really and de facto given him Matth. 18. 18. It was as well and as much given to all the other Apostles as to him as besides what is aforesaid is attested and expresly affirmed by Pope Gregory the Great in his Book of the Sacraments published by Hugo Menardus a Learned Benedictine Monck where Pope Gregory and he as Wise and Learned and as Infallible as those who follow him teaches them to pray thus O God who hast Committed the Power of Binding and Loosing To the Apostles c. He knew not it seems any Supremacy given to Peter by our blessed Saviour when he gave him Potestatem Clavium The Power of the Keys seeing the same Power was given to other Apostles who never claim'd any such Supremacy 3. Lastly I desire then to know by what Logick they can prove St. Peter's Supremacy over all the Apostles for having a Power the Power of the Keys which every Apostle had as well as He. 4. There is one place more and but one wherein the Power of the Keys is Actually given to Peter The words are these As my Father sent me so send I you And he breathed on them and said Receive the Holy Ghost whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted and whose sins ye retain they are retained Where 1. It is certain and confess'd That though the Power of the Keys be not here expresly nam'd yet to retain and remit here in John signifies the very same thing That to bind and loose in Matthew where only the Power of the Keys is named This the Trent Catechism and the Trent Fathers themselves must and do acknowledge as will manifestly appear by the Places cited in the Margent and the most Learned Commentators on this Place in John allow it and tell us truly That remittere here in John is the very same with solvere to loose in Matthew and so retinere here the same with ligare in Matthew 2. And 't is as certain from the express words of the Text and the undoubted meaning of them that the Power of the Keys is here given Equally to all the Apostles as well as Peter For so the words of their Commission I send You mine Apostles and he Breathed on Them his Apostles whose sins Ye my Apostles retain c. The Authority and Power here mention'd is without distinction or difference of Degree Equally given to all to James and John and Jude as well as Peter 3. Nay more it is Confess'd and positively and truly affirm'd by a very Learned Popish Author That all the Apostles as well as Peter are by this Commission
Party have no better ground in Scripture then the Places above mention'd to prove and support that vast Papal Supremacy they most vainly and irrationally pretend to the whole Fabrick must of necessity fall It being impossible that so vast a Superstruction as their Popish Monarchy should be so sustain'd by such Reasons which are so far from being Cogent that they are altogether Impertinent Well but if these will not prove what they are produc'd for the Popes Supremacy other Texts they bring with as much Noise and Confidence as they did the former and if that be possible with less Reason or Consequence For Instance they Ciâ—e to prove the Pope's Supremacy over the whole Church even over all the other Apostles Joh. 21. 15. 16. 17. Pasce Oves meas Feed my Sheep And tell us That our blessed Saviour leaving the World did create Peter his Vicar and highest Priest and Prince of the Vniversal Church which he had promised before Matth. 16. 18 and now perform'd that promise And again they say It appears from this place That Peter and his Successors Popes of Rome is Head and Prince of the Church and that all the Faithful even the Apostles are made Subjects to him to be fed and ruled by him This place is urged by Pope Innocent the Third to the like though God knows little purpose who would have us understand by those words Feed my Sheep that our blessed Saviour meant all his Sheep all good Christians That he might shew says that Pope that they were none of our blessed Saviours Sheep who would not Acknowledge Peter and the Popes of Rome to be their Masters and Pastors And to name no more Pope Boniface VIII indeavours to prove that our blessed Saviour by those words Feed my Sheep meant Vniversally all his Sheep because he does not say singularly these or those but generally Feed my Sheep And from this Place so Expounded they would prove Peter ' s and so the Pope's Monarchical Supremacy over all Christians even the Apostles Kings and Emperors 1. Were it not certain that there is no possibility that any man should bring a true and concluding Reason to prove an erroneous and false Position it would hardly be credible that otherwise Learned men furnished with great Parts of Art and Nature should bring such miserable Stuff such misapply'd and misunderstood Scripture to prove that great Article of their Popes Supremacy which being a manifest Errour without any Foundation in Scripture or Primitive Antiquity I cannot blame them for not bringing what they neither have nor can have better Arguments but that they bring any at all to establish that which they ought and with evident and cogent Reasons might confute 2. As Antiquity did so we do grant all that with any Reason or Just ground they can desire that Peter had a Primacy of Order but not of Power or Jurisdiction amongst the Apostles For the Evangelist naming the Apostles says The First was Peter First in Order or if you will first respectu vocationis as first call'd by our blessed Saviour not to be one of his Disciples for so Andrew was call'd before him as is evident in the Text but in respect of his Call to be an Apostle For when out of his Disciples he chose Twelve to be his Apostles Matthew in the Place Cited saith The first was Peter So we grant to the Bishop of Rome what anciently was given him a Primacy of Order and Precedency before all the Bishops in the Roman Empire But not Jure Divino by Divine Right which without all Reason they pretend to but by the Consent of the Ancient Fathers and Councils And for this we have the Synodical Definition and Declaration of Six hundred and thirty Fathers in an Ancient and received General Council who said That because old Rome was the Imperial City therefore the Fathers had rightly given Priviledges to the Episcopal Seat of that City Where it is evident that in the Judgment of that great and good Council and of the General Council of Constantinople too which they there Cite 1. That the Priviledge and Precedency the Bishop of Rome had was not Convey'd to him by any Divine Right as they now pretend non à Christo vel Petro sed à Patribus it was the Fathers who gave them 2. And the Reason why they gave him such Priviledge and Precedency was not because he was Christ's Vicar and St. Peter's Successor but because Rome was Vrbs Imperialis the great Metropolis of the Roman Empire I know the Popes Legats in that Council did what they could to hinder the passing that Canon and Pope Leo out of it when the Canon was passed did oppose it as much as he was able but in vain For the Canon was Synodically passed by the Concurrent Consent of the whole Council the Popes Legats excepted which was acknowledg'd by the Judges and then Confirm'd by the Emperor and Received into the Codex Canonum Ecclesiae Vniversae That which troubled the Pope was that Constantinople should have Equal Priviledges with Rome Precedency only expected even in all Ecclesiastical business and that by the Canon of that great Council and Confirmation of the Emperor the Patriarch of Constantinople should have so vast a Territory under his Jurisdiction to wit Three whole Dioceses Thracica Asiana Pontica more then by any Law of God or Man the Pope ever had under him And 't is here observeable that although this Canon giving Equal Priviledges to the Bishop of Constantinople as to him of Old Rome Precedency only excepted absolutely deny'd that Monarchical Supremacy and Jurisdiction over all Patriarchs which the Popes were then nibling at and have since openly own'd yet Leo in his Epistles to the Emperor Anatolius Pulchoria Augusta c. wherein he writes fiercely against this Canon never pretended as afterwards and now they do That the Bishops of Rome had by Divine Right as Vicars of our blessed Saviour a Supream Jurisdiction over all Bishops and Patriarchs in the whole World but complains of Anatolius his pride Catalina Cethegum the Violation of the Nicene Canons and the wrong done to the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch To talk of such a Monarchical Supremacy then as the Popes have since pretended to Pope Leo neither did nor durst it was a Doctrine unheard of in those purer times and had he challenged it then as due to him by Divine Right as he was Christ's Vicar he would have made himself Odious and having no ground for such a Challenge ridiculous to the Christian World But when notwithstanding all his Legates could do in the Council or he out of it the Canon pass'd by the Unanimous Consent of the Council and was Confirm'd by the Imperial and Supream Power of the Emperor for the Pope does Petition and Supplicate to him as his Superior though the Pope in a
Private Epistle to Pulcheria Augusta with great Insolence and without any Ground pretends to Cassate and null that Canon by the Authority of St. Peter who never had any such Authority to Null any Just Imperial or Synodical Constitutions yet that Canon was approved received and as de Jure it ought Obey'd by the Eastern Churches both then and ever after When these Pretensions of the Pope and his Legats prevailed not nor were regarded by the Council or Emperor or the Eastern Church other Arts were used at Rome to Conceal that Canon which they could not Cassate from the knowledge of the Western Church And to this end 1. They Corrupt the Codex Canonum Ecclesiae Vniversalis the most Authentick Book next to the Bible the Christian Church has or ever had Dionysius Exiguus a Roman-Abbot begins that Impious Work and in his Latin Translation of that Code amongst other things leaves out that Eight and twentieth Canon of the Council of Chalcedon and others of the Popish Party follow him 2. They Corrupt the Canon it self and by putting in other words in their false Translation they make it contradict the Greek Canon and the certain Sense of the Council that made it So in Gratian the Corruptions of this Canon are thus 1. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aequalia Privilegia in the Original Greek Gratian has Similia Privilegia like but not equal Priviledges 2. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Senior Roma Gratian has Superior Roma Old Rome must be Superior to New Rome or Constantinople if Forgery and Falsification of Records can do it for better Grounds they have none 3. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 etiam in Ecclesiasticis magnificetur ut illa Gratian impudently reads Non Tamen in Ecclesiasticis c. But notwithstanding all that Pope Leo or his Legats could do and all their other Indirect Arts afterwards this Eight and twentieth Canon of the Council of Chalcedon was received in the Christian World and long after Confirmed by General Councils not only by the Synodus 6. Generalis which was held Anno 681. of which a little before But the Eighth General Council under Pope Adrian II. about the Year 870. gives that Precedency to the Patriarch of Constantinople which the Canon of Chalcedon before gave him And this acknowledged and referred into the Body of their Canon Law in the best Editions of it Revised and Corrected by Pope Gregory XIII And 't is to be observed that this Synodus 8. was Subscribed by the Pope or his Legats there and was then and still is approved and received at Rome Nor need we wonder at it For what it did was carried chiefly by the Popes Authority who was by that Council basely and servilly flatter'd they Calling him Most Holy and Oecumenical Pope and Equal to the Angels c. This Title Oecumenical the Pope took kindly then though his Predecessor Gregory the Great abhorr'd it as Antichristian But to return to the Objection 3. And here before I give a Particular and Distinct Answer to this Place of John Feed my Sheep on which they commonly and vainly build the Popes Supremacy I shall crave leave a little to Explain the nature and measure of that Power which they give the Pope under the name of his Supremacy And here they say That our blessed Saviour gave His own Power to Peter made him his Vicar Head and Pastor of all the Faithful in the World and that in most ample Words when he bad him Feed his Sheep and that it was our blessed Saviours Will that all Peter ' s Successors should have the very same Power which Peter had so the Trent Catechism tells us And this is that Plenitude of Power by which they Erroneously and Impiously Depose Kings and Emperors and as Pius V. does in this Bull we are now speaking of against Queen Elizabeth absolve their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance and sworn or natural Fidelity This premised I shall proceed to a direct and I hope a full and satisfying Answer to that place in John Feed my Sheep c. And here I consider 1. That if the Supremacy was first given to Peter in those words Pasce Oves Feed my Sheep as is confess'd and by our Adversaries positively affirm'd in the Objection which was after our blessed Saviours Resurrection then it is Evident he had it not before It being impossible he should have it before it was given him And then it will as Evidently follow that all those Places in the Gospel spoken of or to Peter before our blessed Saviour's Passion are Impertinently urged to prove Peter's Supremacy which he had not till after the Resurrection And yet Innocent III. Boniface VIII and other Popes in their Bulls and Papal Constitutions the Canonists School-men and Commentators usually Cite many places in the Gospel besides this Pasce Oves to prove that Peter had the Supremacy before our blessed Saviour's Passion which here they Confess was not given him till after the Resurrection That they do urge many such Places is known to all Learned men vers'd in these Controversies but if any man doubt of it and desire Satisfaction I shall refer him to what a Learned Popish Writer and Capucine has said in the Margent where he tells us how many places are Cited for the Supremacy 2. When our blessed Saviour says Pasce Oves Feed my Sheep and Feed my Lambs he useth two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Both which words the Vulgar Latin renders Pasce feed my Sheep and Lambs Now their Commentators on this place to very little purpose make a great stir and pudder to shew what none denys that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to rule and govern But let the word signifie what it will in the Civil State yet in the Ecclesiastical and Scripture Sense of the Word where our blessed Saviours Lambs and Sheep that is the Faithful are to be fed every Bishop and Presbyter as well as Peter are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pastores and may and ought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to feed the â—lock of Christ. So 1. St. Paul tells us who from Miletum sends for the Presbyters of Ephesus I say Presbyters for Timothy who was their first Bishop was with Paul at Miletum and so was none of those he sent for and when they came he Exhorts them to take heed unto themselves and the Flock To feed the Church of God c. where St. Paul when he bids the Presbyters feed the Church useth the very same word our blessed Saviour doth when he bids Peter feed his Sheep 2. So Peter himself who little dream'd of any Supremacy given him by those words Feed my Sheep writing to the Asiatick Dispersion of the Jews and Exhorting the Jewish Elders or Presbyters to a diligent care in feeding the Flock he useth the very same word to them our
purpose give some short Account of the Contents of it The Bull I mean is that of Pope Paul the Fourth next Predecessor save one to Pius the Fifth and is dated eleven years before that of Pope Pius the Fifth Now concerning this Bull I observe 1. That it was no rash Act of that Pope but if he say true made with Mature deliberation by the Counsel and unanimous Consent of himself and the Cardinals 2. And it is further Confirmed by his Successor Pius the Fifth who Approves and Commands it to be Inviolably kept and observed Nor is this all but that we may see how such Doctrine is approved at Rome This Bull of Paul the Fourth and that of Pius the Fifth which so fairly confirms it are now both of them referr'd into the Body of their Canon Law Now in this Bull of Pope Paul the Fourth thus confirm'd approved and received into the Body of their Law 1. He does Approve Innovate and Confirm All the Censures and Punishments due to Hereticks and Schismaticks by any Constitution of any former Pope or those who were Reputed Popes Howsoever those Constitutions were made and promulgated and Commands them to be kept in fresh Memory and perpetually Observed 2. And then he declares with as little Charity as Infallibility that All Hereticks which are or For the Future shall be do Incurr All these Censures and Punishments and 't is his express Will and Decree they should do so And that we may not mistake his meaning as if All those Censures and Punishments were by him Inflicted and Denounced only upon and against some Inferior Persons and Hereticks he does seaven or eight times expresly name Counts Barons Marquesses Dukes Kings and Emperors And further says That as Heresie and Schism in them is more Pernicious to others so ought their Punishment to be more severe and then by his Constitution which he declares to be perpetually and for ever Obligatory he actually and totally Deprives them of their Counties Baronies Marquisats Dukedoms Kingdoms and Empires and leaves them to the Secular Power to receive Due Punishment that is Death as is evident by the Consequents in that Constitution Nor is this all He damns them to an Incapacity and Perpetual Inability of being restored to their Honours or Possessions No not if they seriously and truly repent and become good Catholicks For in that case of their true Repentance and forsaking their Heresie they shall save their Lives yet they must be Cast into Perpetual Prison and there be fed with Bread of Sorrow and Water of Sadness and to have no Comfort or Humanity shew'd them by any no not by Kings or Emperors And though this be the height of Impious and Antichristian Tyranny yet it must be Imputed as he tells us to the Popes Clemency and Benignity By the Premisses it may evidently appear That Queen Elizabeth was by many Papal Bulls and Damnatory Constitutions actually Excommunicate before this Bull of Pius the Fifth I desire then to know Whether those Anathema's of former Popes which they Declared and Commanded to be in force against all Hereticks For ever and Perpetually Obligatory were valid and did Actually and as they Intended Effectually Exclude that Queen out of their Church or not If not then 't is certain the Pope has not that Supream Power he pretends to For when so many Popes in their Damnatory Bulls and that Ex Plenitudine Potestatis Apostolicae declare the Queen and all such Hereticks Excommunicate and as their Phrase is cut off from the Vnity of the Body of Christ and Eternally damned If this be not Effectually done then all those Bulls are Bruta Fulmina Inefficacious Null and Insignificant But if those Anathema's and Excommunications of former Popes were valid and the Queen by them Actually put out of the Church as will I suppose and must by them be granted then Pius the Fifth his Excommunication is a nullity and indeed a ridiculous Impossibility It being impossible he should take from her what she had not and deprive her by any Excommunication of that Ecclesiastical Communion of which the stood Actually deprived before by his Predecessors especially by Pope Paul the Third who Excommunicates and Curses not only Henry the Eighth but particularly all his Children Male and Female born or to be born of Ann Bolen Mother of Queen Elizabeth declares them deprived of all Power and Dominion and of all their Goods and Patrimony and Incapable of restitution to that Power and Patrimony and of Acquisition of any other for the future And that we should not doubt that this was the Popes meaning they have added a Marginal Note to that Bull in the Roman Edition which tells us That the Pope in that Bull did deprive the Children of Henry the Eighth and his Adherents of All their Goods and Dignities and declared them Incapable of any other for the future By the Premisses I think it may be and is Evident that Queen Elizabeth by most Papal Bulls and Constitutions stood Actually Excommunicate and Depos'd before this Bull of Pius the Fifth Sure I am the Popish Party never own'd her as their lawful Sovereign but call'd her an Usurper of the Crown to which as a Declared and Excommunicate Heretick she had no right at all And it seems Pope Pius himself was of the same Opinion For in this very Bull he speaks of her only as Pretended Queen and of her Pretended right to the Crown And hence we may with Reason and good Logick Infer That when Pius the Fifth in this his Bull Excommunicates and Deposes her he does notwithstanding his Plenitude of Power and Infallibility ridiculously undertake what he could not do an Impossibility For as it is impossible to turn Sempronius out of a House in which he never was or deprive him of a Dominion which he never had turning out of a House necessarily presupposing his being in it and deprivation presupposing Right and Possession so it is a like Impossibility for the Pope by any Excommunication to turn the Queen out of the Communion of the Popish Church in which she never was being born baptiz'd and always bred in the Protestant Church and Religion or deprive her of those Dignities and Dominions which according to their own Principles she never had any right to nor ever could have any being by their Law and many Papal Anathema's and Decretals utterly disabled and made incapable of any such Dominions or Dignities 11. It is evident that the Pope in this Impious Bull does by his usurp'd Antichristian Power Depose and Deprive Queen Elizabeth of all her Royal Authority Dominion and Dignity and so puts her into the Condition of a poor private Person without any Power or Jurisdiction over all or any of her Subjects Whence these damnable Doctrines and Impious Conclusions evidently follow 1. That if any Jesuit any Villanous Raviliac or through pac'd