I conclude both out of the Scripture and out of the fathers that Antichrist was to sit in the Temple of God that was in the Church And therefore that Antichrist was not to sit in the temple of Ierusalem Hierome with many other Fathers haue determined And yet this Pythagoras who thinks that his he said so will satisfie fooles doth boldly affirme that he shall sit in the Temple of Ierusalem to be builded againe by him Bellarmine fighteth with himselfe Wherein see I pray you how hee fighteth with himselfe The temple reedified of Antichrist is the Temple of the Deuill But Antichrist shall fit saith he in a Temple reedified by himselfe Therefore he shall sit in the Temple of the deuill not therefore in the Temple of God Vnlesse happily he will change the temple of God into the temple of the Deuill Besides that Antichrist shall sit at Rome as the Rhemists themselues confesse Not therefore at Ierusalem vnlesse peraduenture Ierusalem moued out of her place shall passe ouer to Rome Which perchance they can bring to passe who change the three wisemen of the east into 3. The Papists alter east from weast Kings of Sheba in the west For Sheba stands west from the citie Ierusalem and Chaldee whence they came stands east I cannot see therefore but by the same power they may as well carry Ierusalem to Rome as turne the east into the west I haue euicted before euen by the confession of the Aduersarie That Rome is the seat and citie of Antichrist and yet they proue by a strang kinde of Logicke that Ierusalem is the seat of Antichrist For where Gods two witnesses saith he are killed of Antichrist there is the seat of Antichrist But those two witnesses shall be killed by Antichrist at Ierusalem Apoc. 11.7 Therefore Antichrist his seat is at Ierusalem He takes the proposition for granted which for all that standes in great neede of proffe For wheresoeuer Antichrist shall kill 2. witnesses of God that there he shall haue his seat No more then if some great Prince such an one as they would haue Antichrist to be should there be said to haue the seat of his Empire wheresoeuer his authoritie was of power to kill his enemies Do you not know that Kings haue stretcht-out hands Tiberius hand stretcht out it selfe as farre as Ierusalem to crucifie Christ though he sate at Rome Antichrist hath a long hand whose hand reacheth farther to kill Gods two witnesses then where he sits not euer where Antichrist rageth there he sitteth The proposition then generally taken is false particularly vnderstood is a paralogisme The assumption also is very false for the holy Ghost doth call not Ierusalem but Rome or rather the Rom Empire that great Citie in whose streets the bodies of those two witnesses shall lye slaine and that great Citie is called spiritually Sodome and Egipt where our Lord was crucified Hierusalem aboue is called the holy Citie after Christ his passion how then here is it spiritually called Sodome and Egipt Apoc 11.8 Ierusalem in the Apocalyps taken for the holy Citie alwaies as Hierom writes to Marcella Ierusalem is alway taken in the Apocalyps for the holy Citie Rome for the great Citie which hath the gouernment ouer the Kings of the earth which cannot agree with Ierusalem Besides the word spiritually toucheth Rome very neere for as Rome is mystically Babylon so it is spiritually Sodome and Egipt Sodome for her pride and vncleannesse Rome compared to Babylon Sodom and Egypt ☜ Egipt for her idolatrie and crueltie against the Saints for who is so blinde that can not see that Rome is the chappell of Idolls the stewes of lust the queene of pride the shambles of Saints and the den of King-killers and therefore shee is truly spirituall Sodom and Egipt But where our Lord was crucified there Gods two witnesses were murthered by Antichrist Christ how crucified at Rome But not at Rome but at Ierusalem he was crucified Therefore not at Rome but at Ierusalem those two witnesses shall be killed We denie the assumption At Rome in that great Citie that is in the Romane Empire our Lord was crucified First because by the commandement and authoritie of the Rom Empire Christ himselfe was crucified Apoc. 17.18 as the Rhemists doe confesse Secondly because Christ in his members is often crucified at Rome Thirdly he was not crucified within Ierusalem but without as S. Paul witnesseth to the Heb cap 13. v. 12. Lastly because Ierusalem before the Apocalyps which was extant about the end of Domitian being vtterly ouerthrowne together with their Temple was neuer to be built againe as we haue formerly euicted out of the prophecie of Daniel who saith that the desolation of the Temple and Citie shall continue vntill the end of the world as Hierom expounds out of the words of Christ Neither doe the friuolous answers of Bellarmine much trouble me wherewith he presumes as he writeth that Daniel would haue said something that he doth not say as if hee could not say what he would and therefore he faines that the Prophet spake thus Either that the Temple should not be reedified till a litle before the end of the world or else as it was desolated before it was reedified so the abomination of desolation i. Antichrist should remaine in the same re-edified to the end of the world or else that it should neuer be fully built againe Ierusalem the figure of the Christian Church but that Antichrist should sit in the Temple begun and not finished Ierusalem is wholy the figure of the Christian Church which after it was built vp by the preaching of the Gospell among the Gentiles there was an end both of the Citie and Temple of Ierusalem Matth 24.14 as Christ prophecied Daniels best Interpreter who foretold the abomination of desolation that is the abominable and desolate winges What is ment by the abomination of desolation vnderstanding the Eagles and the Legions of the Romanes as Luke expoundeth should bring a finall destruction to the Citie and Temple so that the desolation of them both should continue to the end of the world as Christ explaineth foreshewing that Ierusalem being ouerthrowne of the Romanes Luc 21.22 23 24. shall be troden vnder foote of the Gentiles till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled i. till hee shall come to iudgement which is described in the next words So that the bounds of the Christian Church being enlarged the Citie and Temple should haue their last end by the testimonie of Christ for the truth appearing the type faded away So that the primitiue Church beleeued that Ierusalem was turned into eternall ashes Ad Marcel and Hierom calleth the opinion of some who thought the Temple should be restored a meere Iewish fable Therefore Bellarmine in Hieroms iudgement who dreames of the restoring of the Temple is not a Christian Doctor but a Iewish Babler Vnlesse hee be worse to be
sense whereby the Prophets doctrine doth vnderstand that the kingdome of sinne should be rooted out and destroyed and the kingdome of vertue should bee planted and aduanced in the conscience § 44 We haue examined your examples whence you inferre a conclusion that ill hangs together first that Kings rightly created and annointed may rightly be put downe I answer that one of the Kings you named was put downe and that was Ahab not by Elias not by Elizeus but by Iehu whom God by his owne mouth raised vp by name The deposing therefore of the King was not effected by the Prophet but by a Prince by name appointed to that purpose What doth this helpe your cause Saul was not deposed it is manifest that his posteritie was cut of from the succession of the kingdome and not his person from the present possession Ierobâ—am was by the Prophet sharpely reproued not violently expelled Ozias as a Leper was remoued from the gouernment not the right of his kingdome Athalia was neuer rightly created and for the cruell murthering of the Kings of-spring was put to death not by the Priests but the Kings authoritie The second conclusion is very idle for what causes the Kings in fact are to be secluded What shall you neede to enquire for what causes they be deposed when you doe not proue they should bee deposed Athalia was taken away neither for apostacie nor heresie but because shee vsurpt the Crowne against the lawfull heyre apparant God commended the acts of Ozias but detested his pride Ieroboam both an Apostata and an Idolater and yet neuer set beside the cushion Achab the Idolater was cast of with all his race but by the Magistrate not by the Priest The causes therefore which you alledge helpe your cause no whit at all The last conclusion which concernes the persons of § 45 the deposers is very lame You say that God vsed the ministerie of the Prophets and the Priests to that purpose either ordinarie or extraordinarie as iudges and executors of Gods will God did vse the tongues as I said of the Prophets and Priests to foretell and denounce those plagues which God decreed to bring vpon those Kings and sometimes hee vsed their hands to annoint those whom by name he appointed to be the successors of the kingdome but hee neuer vsed them either ordinarie or extraordinarie either iudges or executioners of his will in deposing them He vsed them as messengers who with their liuely voice did deliuer Gods decrees to Kings either deposed or appointed by God other execution or authoritie they had none which is very farre from that power of the Pope whom you challenge to be the ordinarie Iudge Tutor and Corrector of Kings And doe you endure his ferula ô yee Kings will you kisse the rodd that hath so often paid you and by this your patience make your Tutor more curst and whip you the more But I come now to you Saturaine § 46 You haue not of my word you haue not one Priest or Prophet vnder the old Testament that deposed a King Kings deposed Priests but I haue a King that deposed a Priest Whom you will say Abimilech I speake not of Saul who slew Abimelech for taking part with Dauid I passe ouer Ioash the King who commanded Zachariah Zacharia Iehoidas sonne to be stoned to death forgetting his fathers virtue and dutie What say you to Salomon who displaced Abiathar the high Priest from his primacie and dignitie Abiathar because he followed Adoniahs faction being the elder brother When it would haue followed by your conclusion that Salomon was rather to be deposed because the High Priest thought Adoniahs right to the kingdome to be better then Salomons § 47 But whereas you added that Princes hold their soueraigne dignitie and authoritie receiued from God because truth drew that speech from you which falls out very seldom I accept it willingly and thence conclude that God alone hath the power of putting downe Kings who alone set them vp and that Kings are bound to giue accompt to God alone from whom they receiued that honour But whereas you make the end of supreme princely maiestie receiued of God to be the promoting of the true worship and honor of God and the reteyning of the people in the faith and feare of the Lord I maruell what it ment that when alwaies you denie that a King should meddle with spirituall affaires and busines now as if you were forgetfull of your owne minde Alanus you direct the chiefe end and scope of the Kings dignitie to set forward the worship of God to stirre vp others to honor his high Lord and to preserue the people in the faith and feare of God We accept of your grant but that which you adde that Priests and Prophets haue opposed them-selues against Kings in all those matters How Priests ought to oppose Princes which may bring either dishonor to God or ouerthrow to religion or damnation to soules I am affraid vnlesse you expound your selfe more plainly wee may not grant it vnto you For if you say they opposed themselues as men of God and did earnestly admonish them by word and counsell or else did sharply reproue such Princes we doe willingly acknowledge the freedome of their holy vocation but to take vpon them to be Iudges ouer Kings by their rule and authoritie and do either iudicially depriue them or violently inuade them we detest the pride of such a turbulent spirit But betweene God and the King there is a certaine § 48 couenant which alwaies is of force either openly or secretly Be it so The couenant between God and the King And what if the King do breake some article of the league who shall accuse him before what iudgement seate before what Iudge shall hee be endighted shall it be in the Court of the common people who for fashion sake haue made choice and accepted of the King or in the consistorie of a Bishop who hath annointed and consecrated him I see what you meane to answer a Bishop who hath conditionally annoynted him if he breake the condition and couenant made with God hath againe depriued him and hath shewed iustice against him in the name of God who hath abused his supreme authoritie The Scripture recites nineteene Kings of Israel and § 49 fourteene of Iuda No bad King of 33 deposed by a Priest who brake the couenant made with the Lord and worshipped strange gods and draue the people to apostasie shew me any one of them to be depriued by a Priest or a Prophet because they had broken their first couenant and take the cause if you cannot leaue of to tell an vntruth and to crosse your own speech whom wee euen now heard confessing that Kings doe hold their supreme authoritie receiued from God not then from a Priest not from the people and that therefore they are not bound if they breake their couenant to giue
accompt either to a Priest or to the people but to God For he holds his Crowne by the right of blood and inheritance not by the virtue of invnction or consecration or of election and acceptation as you were wont to say that you may giue some authoritie of deposing and depriuing to a Priest whom you make to be the first mouer and some to the people whom you make the remouer So you make Kings hypotheticall and the people conditionall but Priest absolute and categoricall being herein very simple because that power which you say they haue receiued of God to depose Kings that was neuer brought into practise vnder the whole old Testament Your argument therefore from the stronger falls to ground and comes to nothing that if the priestly excommunication vnder the old Testament was of such force of how greater and larger force is it vnder the new But we haue euicted it that there was none at all vnder the old Popish blasphemie At last you returne backe againe and repeat that former blasphemous argument of yours that God was not prouident enough but left the Church in a miserable case like a widdow cleane forsaken if hee had not giuen the chiefe Priest to hir either as a Tutor forsooth or a Husband That is like as if the father husband of the Church were not aliue or tooke care of another daughter and wife or else would appoint in his place such a one to be a Tutor for his daughter whom he foretold to bee an aduersarie or prouide such an husband for his daughter who would proue an adulterer Lastly as if Peter and Paul had dissembled and had commanded obedience to bee shewed to Nero so long till Christians could make head and other Christian Bishops had so many ages consented to the like dissimulation you doe not blush to affirme that Bishops could of right excommunicate their Princes and depose them being excommunicate if the Church had then power to resist True sayd Saturnine for Christ his Preistly prerogatiue § 51 wherewith he was able to breake in peeces such kings as earthen vessels beeing granted by large and precise charter to the Bishop of Rome the chiefe Preist which reason brought by vs you past by as a man vnknowen gaue power to the first Bishops and right to the thing it selfe as the Lawyers speake to depose Kings excommunicate being infidels apostataes heretickes and tyrants but the Church did neuer practise that authority till she gathered strength in processe of time For that commandement of Christ alleadged by you Giue to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods doth he not submit Caesar to be kept vnder by the Vicar of God when hee denieth to God those those things which belong to God And whereas Christ did thâ—â—ce speake to Peter Feede my Lambes feede my sheepe feede my sheepe did he not commit all Christians little and great lambes and sheepe subiects and princes to be fed and ruled without exception to Peter and Peters successour And when as he had committed the keyes of heauen to Peter and Peters successour to let in and shut out doth he not shew that diuine and admirable power of excommunication which you forfooth would haue so weake and feeble for whereas you sayd that Prelates and Bishops ought to be subiect and obedient to Kings Heb. 13.17 I did much maruell that you were so forgetfull of another commandement no lesse Apostolicall whereby hee bound Kings as well as subiects to obey their Prelates and their Pastors and to submit themselues as to them by whom accompt is to be giuen to God for their soules wherein what Christian Prince can exempt himselfe if hee doe thinke that he haue a soule § 52 Then Patriotta I past by that your reason Saturuine of the prerogatiue of Christ communicated with the Bishop Christ ouer-ruling Kings not as a preist but as a king not as vnknowen but as very idle For that prerogatiue whereby Christ doth bruise and breake in peeces kings and kingdomes the Prophet shewes not to bee his Preistly but his Princely power I haue set my king saith God not therefore as a Preist but as a King he hath broken and beat in peeces wicked Kings with his iron Scepter As a Priest he beares the Crosse as a King he bears the Scepter as a Preist he offred vp himselfe vpon the crosse and suffered his blood to bee shed for the remission of sinnes as a King hee vanquished his enemies shed their blood weakned and ouercame their power with the sight of this so great glorie that resides in him so you went about to blind our eies while you did closely subiect the scepter of a King to be trampled on by the Popes feet § 53 For you say that this prerogatiue of Christ is communicated with the Pope What else And that with large and precise charter where be those words point at the place shew the charter where Christ imparted this his prerogatiue with the Bishop of Rome Heb. 7. v. 23.24.25.26 For there bee many others appointed Preists saith S. Paul who by reason of death cannot continue but this because hee abides for euer hath an immutable Preisthood whence he can perfectly saue those who come vnto God by him alwaies liuing to make intercession for vs. For such a Preist was fit for vs holy innocent immaculate separated from sinners made higher then the heauens who hath no neede euery day as the Preists of Leui to offer sacrifices first for their owne sinnes then for the sinnes of the people for that he did once when he offered vp himselfe the onely sacrifice for sinne that hee might obtaine for vs eternall redemption The Bishop of Rome let him packe and bee gone and let him bragge of Christs Preistly prerogatiues granted to him by a large charter that all men may spit in the blasphemous face of this impure wretch But if hee haue not all yet hee hath imparted with § 54 him some of his prerogatiues at the least Which I pray you the keyes of the kingdome of heauen to open shut heauen the power of binding and loosing the power of feeding and ruling by all which you doe more then insinuate that the Bishop can rightly by the power of excommunication wrest from Caesar his scepter his crowne sword subiects kingdome and life For these belong to Caesar Therfore when Christ spake to Peter feed my sheep he meant this depose Princes I will giue you the keies of the Kingdome of heauen that is I will giue you the thrones of earthly kings that you may let into the kingdome whom you will and whom you will exclude that you may loose subiects whom you please and whom you please binde that you may punish whom you will and may forgiue whom you will We must I thinke learne not onely a new Diuinity but a new Grammer and a Logicke also To feede Christs sheepe The popish
Bishops vnlesse happily any other course seeme better to you Then Calander I promise you said he that nothing § 67 is more acceptable to vs that I may make answer for Argentine my friend I neuer doubted of ciuill obedience to be rightly performed to good Kings by Catholikes I thought to confesse the truth I was absolued from the oath of obedience to Heretikes and Tyrants after once they were denounced excommunicated by the Pope and now lawfully deposed from their kingdome Now seeing I perceiue that Christ Peter and Paul not only taught but shewed ciuill obedience to Tiberij and Neroes and to be so farre from taking from them with their diuine power as they might their scepter sword and Crowne that vnder them they laid downe their life to confirme their faith and obedience You haue said that which makes me begin to doubt of such force of excommunication and such power of the Pope For when I did diligently obserue euery passage of your disputation Patriotta out of that perspicuous and short exposition as it were consisting of those three texts I must needes confesse that the sparkes of this vnknowne and vnhard of truth did first cast them selues into mine eyes wherewith the authoritie of Aquinas Toletane and Laterane Councell for their power of excommunication and the authoritie of the Pope alleaged by Saturnine presently brought a mvst ouer them But light was brought out of the myst by Fristugensis Vrshergensis Sigebert and Vincentius and all the ancient and sincere Catholikes and graue witnesses of those times as I heare my Velbacellus affirme at what time Gregorie the 7. did first attempt to driue Henry the 4. Emperor by his excommunication out of his kingdome Here Saturnine being driuen from humane authorities betooke himselfe to diuine But whatsoeuer he tooke Patriotta straight-way caught it out of his hands where hee said that the Apostle forbad wee should not salute an heretike and commanded to auoide him after one or two admonitions Patriotta made answer that hee forbad voluntarie societie not necessarie subiection priuate familiaritie not publike obedience And when he prest that a gangrene was to be cut of he instantly replyed that it was not an heretike but heresie was compared to a gangrene and with a religious kinde of charitie as it seemde sparing the heretike thought good the heresie should be rooted out And from thence in my iudgement concluded not amisse when no heretike was to loose his inheritance or his life that a King much lesse was to be depriued either of his life or inheritance by reason of heresie Here Saturnine bent all the force of his wit and betaking himselfe into the fortifications of the old Testament from euery place gathering the forces of examples with arguments drawne from thence fought very valiantly so that when I heard him alone he made me consent almost vnto him But this heretike Patriott shrunke not a foote but presently buckled hand to hand He had said that Saul was deposed Patriot as the truth was distinguished that the person of Saul was not remoued from the possession of the kingdome but his of-spring from the succession But by whom euen from GOD not from Samuel whom hee proued to be not a Iudge but a messenger nor to haue inflicted the punishment of deposing but to haue published the decree and that not by the right of his generall vocation but by speciall instinct and reuelation from God not as Prophet but as a Prophet appointed to that end to annoint Dauid for the succession of the kingdome whom God had named with his owne mouth So that nothing can accrue to the Pope from hence vnlesse he can proue he haue receiued a reuelation to depose a Prince When hee contended that Ieroboam was cast aside § 68 by the Prophet he againe denied it confessing hee was greeuously reproued by the Prophet not violently remoued Saturnine assaults againe that Ozias a Leper was by force driuen out of the Temple by Azaria and 80. Priests and that he was separated from the societie of men and the gouernment committed to Iothan his Sonne Here Patriott a better Text-man as it seemeth denied that the King was put out of the Church forceably but being strooke with a leprosie was enforced by his owne accord to depart out of the Sanctuarie not out of the kingdome the right whereof hee reserued to himselfe to his dying day and put ouer the gouernment to his sonne as to his Vicegerent And that a Leper neuer lost his priuate inheritance much lesse his publike And when as heresie is a leprosie nor euer any was depriued of his kingdome for leprosie and therefore for heresie none was to be depriued Which reason must needs satisfie me in this businesse vnlesse it can be proued that the leprous Iewes lost their inheritance And when Saturnine affirmed that the lepers were separated from the company of men by the Priests Patriotta excepted against it that it was their duty to discerne the leprosie but the Magistrates were to put them apart So that the iudgement of the businesse belonged to the Preists the parting of the person to the Magistrate Whence he concluded and retorted it vpon Saturnine who sayd that heresie was a spirituall leprosie that it followed from this figure that the King ought rather to separate an hereticall Pope then the Pope an hereticall king So that this figure was more hurtfull to the Pope then to the King § 69 One thing there was which both Patriott did shrewdly re-enforce against you Saturnine and did likewise mightily offend vs all when you concluded out of Azarias example that it was lawfull for Preists to take armes to represse the wickednesse of Kings for the Preist resisted the King not with arms but with words vnlesse perhaps you will take a greeuous admonition reproofe and reprehension for armes Azarias did not cast the king out of the temple much lesse out of the kingdome And doe you thinke of corslets swords and lawnces wherewith a warlike Preist may remooue a King from his throne fie vpon this proud vanitie A Bishop ought not to bee a striker much lesse a warriour It was not lawfull for Dauid to build vp Gods materiall Temple because he was a man of bloud and will you build vp Gods spirituall Temple with bloudy hands But I referre you to the canons and goe forward For where you sayd that Athalia was lawfully deposed § 70 by Iehoida the Preist it was first answered that shee was neuer rightly created and crowned Againe that she was deposed by Iehoida not as hee was high Preist but cheife Prince of his tribe and next allie to the king nor by himselfe alone but ioyned with all the Nobles of the kingdome not with the authority of the Preist but by the authority of Ioash being first annoynted and crowned by him that whatsoeuer he did he seemed to doe by the power of the king with the common consent of the Peeres and Nobles against the wicked
the order to the spiritualties as very learned and holy Catholicke fathers haue deliuered I am not ignorant what was attempted lately by George Blackwell the Archpriest with certaine answeres of his to weaken and cut in sunder all the sinewes of ecclesiasticall excommunication Neither that onely Blackwell accompted an Apostata but hath broken and cut off as it were the ioyntes of the Popes two armes not that of his supreame authoritie spirituall and ecclesiasticall but of his ciuill and imperiall power which the Romane Byshop hath receiued from Christ and hath exercised vpon the earth vnder Christ But the timerous old man and wretched Apostata did not so much hurt by his fact as by his example which gaue occasion of a very foule schisme to you the Catholicke laickes whose constancie the Christian world did much commend Heere Calander you are too testie said he Saturnine § 75 who strait-way call me a Renegate when I neuer fell from the Catholicke faith onely because I refused and reiected certaine false Catholicke errors brought in by a companie of factious fellowes certaine claubackes of the Pope But because your heate hath carried you so farre to accuse the reuerend old man George Blackwell as a wretched Apostata and a Captaine of schisme I will intreat Velbacellus that hee answere somewhat not for mee only but much more for our Archpriest his antient friend Then Velbacellus Truly said hee when I am vnwilling § 76 at any time to dissent from my brethren then neuer more vnwilling then at this time when ill happe hath made our aduersaries beholders of our disorders But because I thinke it not fit Calander to neglect your authoritie and withall haue purposed to satisfie both your conscience and mine in this worthy businesse of religion I will doe as you aduise me Two popish meanes to ouerthrow Princes These are as you say Saturnine the two ingines the Romane Byshoppes haue vsed to ouerthrow Princes the one ecclesiasticall excommunication the other ciuill and imperiall authoritie What was the force and nature of excommunication they were not Ignorant they knew it was giuen to binde sinnes not scepters as Patriotta did truely dispute out of our own men Which first when Gregorie the 7. was Pope as he did rightly obserue out of Frisingensis Sigebert and Vincentius all ours brought foorth those monstrous effectes the deposing of Kings the absoluing of subiectes and the styrring of them vp to take armes against their Prince with which this present Oath of allegeance doth meete Whose successours fearing that ecclesiasticall excommunication in processe of time would loose not that natiue and inherent power but that vnnaturall and borrowed in the opinion of men they assumed that ciuill as you call it and imperiall power giuen by the Canonists for the increase of their owne authoritie as if it had beene bestowed by Christ himselfe § 77 For the old Canonists did first make them Lords of all the temporalties and sayd that the supreame iurisdiction not in spirituall things onely but in temporall things also did belong to Peters successours whose worme eaten assertions and such as long agoe were hist out by the more sober Papists certaine men not vnlearned haue lately renued and haue set them out publikely in printed bookes for found and Catholike doctrine and haue very stoutly defended them Whereof some a Franci Bozius de temp eccles monarch lib. 1. cap. 3. fol. 98. as you say defend the Bishop of Rome to bee directly Lord of things temporall one and the same to bee the Ruler and Monarch of the world That b Baron annal tom 1. ann 57. pag. 423. 433. Christ as hee receiued all Iudiciall power from the Father and vnited it with his Preist-hood when he meant to settle a Kingly Preist-hood in the Church put it ouer to Peter and his successours and that as Christ was King of Kings and Lord of Lords so the Church ought to be Queene and Lady of all and if the husband must be Lord of all the temporalties the spouse must be Ladie of all likewise that all temporall Princely power did first reside in the soule of Christ then in the Church the Queene of the world and from thence it did flow to others that were faithfull or vnfaithfull as from a fountaine c Thom. Bozi de iure statu praefat ad Aldobran That this spouse of Christ Queene of the world as often as the order of the vniuersall doth require it can transferre the proper right of one to another as a secular Prince for the adorning of a city may plucke downe priuate mens houses and may doe it by Law although hee haue not erred by whom such rights were translated to others So the Pope gaue the Indies to the Spaniards d Isodor Mosco de maiest mili Eccles pag. 670 All dominion do hold of the Church and of the Pope the head of the Church And that authority is to be considered in the Pope power in Emperours and Kings for power doth depend of authority that true e Care de potest Rom. Pont. pag. 9. Difference betweene power and authority Idem pag. 111. iust and ordinate from God and meere dominion as well in spirituall things as in temporall is fetcht by Christ and the same is committed to S. Peter and his successours that Christ was Lord of all these inferiour things not onely as hee was God but also as he was man hauing at that time dominion in the earth and therefore as the dominion of the world both diuine and humane was then in Christ as man so now it is in the Pope the Vicar of Christ As God may be called by a secondary meanes the temporall Gouernour and Monarch of the world though in himselfe principally hee bee neither temporall nor of the world Idem pag. 112. so the Pope may bee sayd to bee the temporall Lord and Monarch although his power be a certaine spirituall thing That Christ when hee had performed the mysterie of our redemption as a King gaue Peter the gouernment of his kingdome and that holy Peter did vse that power against Ananias and Sapphira That Christ as he is directly the Lord of the world in temporall things and therefore that the Pope Christs Vicar is the like that hee set out an immutable truth by the sole comming of Peter to Christ vpon the water Pag. 151. and that the vniuersall gouernment which is signified by the sea was committed to Peter and his successors that diuers powers and authorities were giuen of God but that all did depend vpon the supreme authority of the Pope and that they take their light from thence as the starres doe from the Sunne § 78 And as God is the supreme Monarch of the world productiuely and gubernatiuely Pag. 145. although of himselfe he be neither of the world nor temporall so the Pope although originally and from himselfe hee haue dominion ouer all things temporall yet he hath
to the spirituals Carerius a Doctour of Padua Carerius against Bellarmine a sharpe witted and earnest fellow hee is of a contrarie opinion and doth not only striue with argument but laies a curse vpon the aduersaries sparing none no not Bellarmine himselfe whom he taking in hand of purpose to refell in a whole booke written as the Preface importes against the wicked Polititians and Heretickes of our time did a little too plainely touch the Cardinall So farre are they from agreeing in the manner of diriuing so great authoritie to the Pope from Christ Here Patriotta your Doctours saith hee § 83 seeme praeposterously to wrangle among themselues of the manner to deriue such authoritie from Christ when as yet it appeareth not that he hath any at all and in vaine do they argue whether the Pope receiued directly or indirectly such gouernment when it is doubtfull whether he receiued any or no. But I easily grant them by their dissenting about the manner to ouerthrow the thing it selfe that the confusion of tongues may againe seeme to happen in building their tower of Babel § 84 Then Velbacellus somewhat more gently I pray Patriotta Although that I ingenuously confesse while they thus egerly striue among themselues about the manner and ouerthrow their owne opinions with mutuall contradictions they seeme to leaue the Pope very small or no authoritie at all in temporalties For Carerius saith the Pope hath either ordinarie and direct authoritie to depose Kings as he is Pope or he hath no authority at all But he hath none direct and ordinarie as he is Pope by Bellarmines assumption Therefore hee hath none at all by Carerius conclusion It were long to set downe all the reasons drawne from Scripture whereby Bellarmine hath vtterly ouerthrowne the direct and ordinarie authoritie of the Byshoppe neither were it necessarie because they may bee had in his fift booke he set out so that men may thinke hee spake one thing and thought another Which when he might not touch openly for offending the Pope he did with sleights and deuises impugne that he might by any meanes deliuer the truth For he seemeth indirectly that I may vse his owne aduerbe to take away all power of the Pope of depriuing Princes For if the Pope as hee is Pope cannot directly and ordinarily depose Princes though the cause bee iust as Bellarmine saith and yet as hee is the chiefe spirituall Prince may dispose of kingdomes taking them from one and giuing them to another if it be necessarie for the sauing of soules that is indirectly in order to spiritualls as hee affirmeth what other thing did he closly insinuate but that the Pope had no power at all to displace Princes For Saint Peter neither did or could transfer any power but ordinarie Besides it is plaine that the Pope is no otherwise the chiefe spirituall Prince but as he is Pope so that what he cannot do as Pope he cannot do as he is the chiefe spirituall Prince Which Carerius concludeth against Bellarmine and doth vrge it with this grant that the Pope is properly called Gods Vicar Either he is not saith he the Vicar of Christ or else he deposeth inferiour powers as Pope But he deposeth them not as Pope by the witnesse of Bellarmine He is not therefore the Vicar of Christ by the conclusion of Carerius So Bellarmine gaue Christs Vicar so greiuous a wound if we beleeue Carerius that he could neuer cure with all the remedies of his distinctions And Carerius while he deckes him with strange fethers spoiled him of those were his owne Whom while hee ordeined Lord of the temporalties hardly left him Lord of the spiritualties In the mean time when neither the direct nor indirect power bee a matter of faith formally determined by the publicke sentence of the Church as Alanus and Couarruvias confesse there was no reason why Saturnine should call my friend Blackwell wretched Apostata who neuer swarued from the Catholick faith vnlesse by inueighing so bitterly against Blackewell he vaunt himselfe to be of the contrarie faction Then Patriotta I willingly behold Bellarmine and § 85 Carerius as Cadmeyes brethren or the Madianites cutting one anothers throate But I could more willingly behold the Pope as a iacke-daw dispoiled of his Egles and Doues feathers which he hath stolne which is of all his regall and Byshoply ornaments wherewith hee hath so long ietted so proudly and terribly vp down but I leaue this cause to God to be mended by him at his due time But truely Baronius and Carerius with all their faction doe flatter the Pope more grosly but Bellarmine with his cunning opposition flatters him more smoothly being the more dangerous enemie to Kings because the more cloase But that I often obserued the witty old fellow crossing of himselfe with his owne trickes and coyning those distinctions whereby hee vnweaued those things which he had weaued before O Penelopean skill of disputing But while he doth touch kings crownes indirectly and tels vs that it is all in the Pope so that he thinkes it meete to belong to a spirituall end he bewraieth lesse malice but greater craft Here Argentine who had kept silence from the beginning looking earnestly first on Saturnine then on Velbacellus Saturnine saith he seemes to me to bee more strickt in this matter then is requisite and Velbacel more loose and remisse because he gaue too much authority this none at all to our most holy father to suppresse Kings when neede requires This great Doctour of the Church therefore Bellarmine tooke a middle course who first ouerthrew that infinite power of ordinarie and inherent gouernment then retained that extraordinarie and borrowed authority in the Pope least Kings like vntamed coultes as it were not hauing bitte and bridle should waxe too lustie whom the most holy Pope might bring againe into the circle of religion and iustice if once they began to start out first with his counsell and after if that were relected with some other moderate chastisement Which would be the most safe course for Kings and very auaileable for subiectes § 87 Then Carolus Regius this moderate chastisement of Kings Argentine as you call it is their vtter ruine and rooting out if you vnderstand Bellarmine aright For there lurkes vnder those Aduerbes certaine deceites which subiectes haue found to be as damnable to them as Kings haue For he bringeth in your Pope whom one doth well tearme Satans Asse with this his extraordinarie and borrowed power which he bestowed vpon him curbing of Kings with a bridle when the raynes lay on his owne necke turning and ouerturning kingdomes at his pleasure taking them from one and giuing them to another Meanes of the Popes greatnesse when he thinketh good that it is for the order tending to spirituall good And by what counsells he alwaies vsed to take from Kings both their kingdomes and their liues all histories do shew them to haue beene by the emulation of
Byshoppe of Rentzburge when he deliuered the bull against the prince All of them scoft at the mans impudency and disdainefully askt what that light headed and superstitious French man what the Rome-pope himselfe did in Germanie without the consent of the Germaine-byshops his colleagues They disdaine that discordes should be sowne that the libertie of Christians should bee opprest that the flocke of Christ redeemed by his blood should bee brought into slauerie by false Teachers And when the Legate would not giue ouer the Germane Byshoppes did not onely dispise his commandements but denounced a curse against him in all their Churches as an enemie to Christian peace and an Arch hereticke and pronounced him to be worse then any Turke Saracene Tartar or Iew. They did publickly likewise accuse the Byshoppe of Rome for attempting such matters among Christians which were against reason and the law of nations against the doctrine of Christ and which were not at any time done among the most sauage Tartars And as the Byshops so the nobles of Germanie did take in foule scorne so great a wrong offered by the § 116 Pope to the Emperour their Master to repell it conuented all the States wherein Eberhardus the Archbyshoppe of Salisburge a godly olde man when hee had knowne ten Romane-byshoppes and had diligently markt their practizes and dispositions vnder Fredericke the first Henry the sixt his sonne and Fredericke the second his Nephew for fifty yeares together that the chiefe byshoppe was wholy compounded of auarice luxurie contention warres discordes and desire of rule and so did decipher him for a rauenous wolfe in each part vnder a Shepheards weede and so liuely paint him out that although in other matters he were not a Lutherane in this one you would haue said he had beene almost Luther himselfe The old Catholicke fathers Oration is extant in Auentine a Catholicke Writer Auenti annal lib. 7. fol. 683. there you may haue it if you will read it § 117 That which the Byshoppes and Nobles of Germanie with the whole commons did with common consent against Innocent the fourth in the quarrell of Fredericke the Emperour the very same they did in the like quarrell of Lewes the fourth Emperour against Iohn the 22. that although they were released from the Oath of Obedience they did notwithstanding take the Oath of obedience to be faithfull to Lewes though hee were remooued and that they did by the iudgement of all the Doctours in both lawes Philip the faire the French King in a councell with full consent of the Nobles and Byshoppes did not only set at nought and despise the iniust sentence of the Popes depriuation sent out against him but brought all the kingdome from the Popes obedience and that hee might the better tame his pride he laid hold of the Pope kept him in durance so that within sixe weekes after in great anguish of soule hee gaue vp the Ghost Popes crossed by the French The pragmaticall sanction is well knowne which did of old infringe the Popes authoritie and all the canons of the Church of France that part which maintaineth the popish religion and all the decrees of the Kings parliament do so disanull the Popes power in excommunicating Kings and releasing their Subiectes from the Oath of obedience Tract inscript le Franc. Discours an 1600. that the very body of Sorbone and the whole Vniuersitie of Paris doe condemne the doctrine of the Iesuites as schismaticall and pernicious Neither Henrie the 8. onely Edward the 6. and § 119 Queene Elizabeth English practise against Popes whom you tearme Caluinists and Heretickes did by their lawes expell this vsurped authoritie of the Pope and punished by death the Abetters thereof but other Kings of England who raigned in the midst of poperie thought good to contemne the Popes censures and to suppresse the Actors therein by your Lawes The law of Edward the 3. 25 Edwar 3. doth it not seeme to bee made by a Caluinist which makes it treason to attempt and go about the death of the King to mooue warre in his Kingdome against the King or to ioyne with the Kings enemies in his kingdome or to giue them aide and comfort either within the Kingdome or without Doe you not see how that two hundred yeares before Queene Elizabeth was borne the Priests treason couered with the habite of religion by the Statute of Edward the third in euery branch of it as it were with lime twigges is met with and suppressed If to attempt the death of the King be treason therefore Greenway and other Iesuites who tooke counsell to destroy the King and kingdome had beene Traytors by Edward the thirds Law although Queene Elizabeth had made no such law If to raise warre against the King in his kingdome were then treason the priests were Traytors who stirred vp papists to take armes and to ioyne themselues with Catsby and Persie in the rebellion If to ioyne with the Kings enemie in his kingdome were then treason how can you then ye Iesuits auoide the sharpenesse of King Edwards law who being the instruments of sedition doe adheare to the Pope the Kings deadly enemie vnder the colour of religion If to aide and animaâ—e the Kings enemies either within his kingdome or without was treason at that time truly whosoeuer at this day vnder pretense of religion whatsoeuer do either solicite foraine Kings to inuade this Kingdome as Garnet Creswell Baldwine and others haue done or perswade the people to take armes to depose their King as Greenwell Hall and others haue vndertaken were Traytors although Elizabeth with her Caluinists had neuer made any law against them § 120 But King Edwardes law you will say doth not touch the people by name True But when the noble King remembred that the French King was stirred vp against Iohn King of England who had contemned the Popes censures that the Subiectes were incensed against their King the Barons and Byshops fell from him and were the Ministers of the Popes wrong that thereby hee might the better confirme his subiects in their obedience against the French the Spanish and the Romane and all others whatsoeuer froâ— whom he foresaw danger might come to himselfe and his kingdome and that he might decline the enuy of naming the Pope particularly made a generall Statute with the consent of the Byshoppes Baron and Commons without any exception of person or cause whatsoeuer wherein hee made him a Traytor whosoeuer did adhere to the Kings enemy in his kingdome or did aide or animate any either within his dominions or without who should moue warre against the King including by his generall word aswell the Pope as the Popes factours as if hee had expressely named them § 121 But in the 26. of Richard the second the Prelates Dukes Earle Barons and aâ—l the Commons of England the Clarkes and Lay people named the Pope when they all ioyned in a couenant of association with the
Byshoppe and by the power and authoritie of the King § 180 There are some who foolishly compare these two together there are other who doe wickedly mingle them together so that one doth destroy the other which God hath most wisely ioyned together that one should helpe the other Now this spirituall power if you respect Christ Ephes 4. is monarchicall vnder him alone if men it is aristocraticall vnder many as wee shewed out of Paul The ciuill is of three sorts Either belonging to the People Princes or cheife King Which last when wee set foorth wee disgrace not the rest The duty of a Byshoppe It cannot be denied but that the byshoppe in his spirituall perfection and comfort doth excell the King for God doth not appoint the King but the byshoppe to bee the seedsman of his word the Messenger of his grace the disposer of the mysteries of his kingdome But in the outward authoritie and power of compelling the King doth excell the byshoppe while hee commandes that which God alloweth Neither do I so preferre the ciuill gouernment before the spirituall but do affirme that the same God who teacheth those that be simple and draw such as be willing by the mouth of the minister doth draw those that bee negligent and constraine such as be retractory by the sword of the magistrate whom the spirit and God of the spirits hath ordained to that purpose Yea truly they who set the ciuill gouernment behind the spirituall simply as the body behinde the soule and the flesh behinde the spirit do make a very fleshly comparison betweene Kings and Byshoppes vnlesse they imagine Byshoppes to be without bodies and Kinges without soules And who so inferre thereupon that a godly king cannot inflict a punishment vpon a wicked Priest doe deface holinesse in the King as a matter temporall and aduance wickednesse in a Priest as a matter spirituall And who thence conclude that a Christian King cannot promote holy rites by his lawes as well as a minister can by his doctrine and censure giue more without cause to the shauing of a Priest then to the character of Baptisme and do foolishly preferre priestly annointing before the Princely And they seeme not wel to vnderstand what those excellent lights of the world Constantine Iustinian Theodosius Valentinian Gratian Zeno Charles the great Lâ—wes his sonne and Lothary his nephew and many other Kings and Emperors did out of Gods word iustly commaund Byshoppes in causes ecclesiasticall and wherein they did obey Byshoppes as was made manifest before But the Byshoppe hath power from God to gouerne § 181 the Church as is before said therefore aboue the King in the gouernment of the Church I distinguish of the gouernment One was Inward Outward It is one thing to administer the inward another thing to order it In the administration of the inward gouernment a Byshoppe doth excell a King in the ordering of it a King doth excell a Byshop I confesse a Pastor is superiour in feeding so Carpenters in building and Mariners in sayling are aboue a Prince A Priest not aboue a Prince What then are they simply better It is a fallacy from that which is in part to that which is simply But the actions of a Byshoppe are more excellent then the workes of a King as the preaching of the word the administration of the Sacraments the remitting and retaining of sinnes Therefore a Byshoppe doth excell a King But the working and perfection of these things doth depend not vpon the arbitrement of the Byshop but the commandement of God August cont Cres lib. 4. c. 6. Ambros There is a double spirituall power 1 Ministeriall of men 2 Imperiall of God Therefore the credit of these actions must serue the glory of God not the honour of the Priest The spirituall worke is of God A Byshoppe great not in respect of his person but doctrine the bodily seruice is of the Minister Men in the remission of sinnes doe not exercise the right of power but doe exercise their Ministerie They pray God doth grant The ministerie is from men the gift from an heauenly power The reason therefore drawne from the perfection of heauenly graces in the Church to preferre the person of a Priest before the person of a Prince is very weake because the subiection due to the sword is annexed to the person of the Prince the worthinesse and power due to the key is not annexed to the person of the Byshoppe but to his doctrine § 182 By Gods law obedience is due to each For hee that saith keepe the commandement of the King saith likewise obey your Prelates who watch ouer your soules But we are to hold this that here are not to be vnderstood by Prelates Popes and Cardinalls who obtrude their owne inuentions vpon vs but holy and Christian Byshops and Pastors who deliuer the word of God vnto vs as the Apostle addeth for wee are not tyed to the decrees of Doctours but to the oracles of God Therefore the obedience required is not the outward subiection to the person of the Priest but an inward submission to the doctrin of Christ and an allowance and practise of the same For in respect of the person Byshoppes are called seruantes and their function is called a Ministery as I said Therefore the greatest King is bound to beleeue and obey the least seruant of God deliuering his Lords will And he oweth that subiection to the Lord not to his Messenger to his doctrine not to his person For hee commeth not in his own but in the Lords name which may be as truely said of the meanest Minister as of the greatest Byshoppe What a Byshop may do A Byshoppe therefore may teach a King that is ignorant may reproue him being an Hereticke as the Prophet did Ieroboam king of Iuda may admonish him being of a bad life as Iohn did Herod may correct him being a Tyrant as Elias did Ahab may reprehend him being otherwise good if hee doe openly and greeuously trangresse as Nathan did Dauid and depriue him of the sacrament of grace while he repent as Ambrose did Theodosius But whether he can remoue him from the companie of his faithfull subiects by excommunication it is a great question and diuersly discussed by the Fathers They who hold it may be done by the Byshop do denie for all that that the King by him may bee put from the obedience of his subiectes much lesse being excommunicated bee abandoned by his subiects and killed either by open force or secret treacherie as certaine of the popish sort doe hold I say certaine for the honester sort decree otherwise and commit the King to the Byshoppes cure submit him not to his Court. For the King is the Lords seruant and the Byshoppes Lord as I said before subiect to the Byshoppes pulpit not his consistorie that he may be directed by him not iudged by him A Byshoppe is appointed to perswade not compell not to gape
reuelations naked names of Fathers hired testimonies of Scholemen which she I must confesse hath furnished with fine words and well polished and with a curious composition of sentences attiring the Romaine harlot with all her trimmings with the entisements whereof the vnstable and vnwary young age of many may be caught and deceiued Vpon the Fauorers of which bookes who either bring them ouer to vs or by reading defend them or giue them to other to be read with allowance of them I wish that punishment might be inflicted D. Ed. Cok. do com place in his Epistle prefixed before the case of Postnati which a most Reuerend Iudge declareth to be prescribed by law The authors of these bookes assoone as the Italian ayre hath blowne vpon them do thinke the northerne people to be scarce men who write against them though they write with a better conscience and greater faithfulnesse then themselues For they hold themselues to the true Canon they trust wholy to the writen word they go to the originall The discription of a Protestant they haue the same text and commentarie but that they bring in the Apostles breaking the way and the Fathers following after as witnesses of their owne times as those that iudge the Apostles in a matter of faith are to hee harkened vnto without the Fathers and not the Fathers without the Apostles So they doe not play with reedes in their hands like the Aduersaries but strike thorow with their dartes neither doe they alleage arguments without testimonies or testimonies without argumentes which they doe not reckon vp for number but consider for the weight neither do they deceitfully vrge parcells taken out of the body of the Scripture as the Aduersaries who read them reported out of some magistrall booke or other but alleage them being furnished with all circumstances that from thence they may inferre and vrge the truth neither doe they follow after types and allegories but search out the inward substances and natures of things neither doe the vse any whorish trimmings but such sound and sober ornaments which become the cause of God Fearefull opponents great Orators such as many more are to be esteemed who doe not write whose stinges if any shall thinke are lost because they lye close he is much deceiued By hearing of whose learned Lectures and Sermons and reading their bookes I ingenuously confesse I come better instructed and prepared to defend the cause That as we read the familie of the Scipios were borne to the ruine and ouerthrow of Carthage so me thinke I may hope that our Clergie is borne againe of God and sent into the world to the vtter ruin and destruction of Rome Whom therefore may I better desire to be the Patrone of my labors then that Clergie that is the fatall vanquisher of Rome I may adde thereto that seeing my selfe in the former course of my life haue beene ioyned with many notable men in the Vniuersitie either in the fellowshippe of studies or in the Court in the dutie of preaching or in conuersation in the bond of friendship I thought by this my dutifull Dedication I should renew the memorie of our acquaintance in Christ Last of all who is ignorant that our writers when once they haue stirred vp more earnestly the God of this world and haue touched Antichrist to the quicke with what virulent calumniations the professed enemies will traduce them And it is not to be wondered at if they spare not their bookes whose throates they would cut and detract from their good names whose liues they seeke after who when they cannot doe mischiefe to good men by themselues will attempt to effect it by false brethren If this were done in the greene tree how much more in the withered and if they deale thus with the tale Cedars how will they presse downe the meane trees and lower shrubbs The greater is my hope that it will come to passe that they who write being moued with the sense of their iniurie and they that do not write being moued with the goodnes of the cause will by their authoritie maintaine another that offers himselfe to danger for the glory of Christ For the Doctors and writers in the cause of the Gospell as they be most odious to such as bee wicked so should they be most deare to them that be well giuen For these causes Fathers and Brethren I haue thought good to haue these my small labours to be most humbly and dutifully dedicated vnto you in whose religion I thought faithfulnesse in whose doctrine assistance in whose loue comfort and in whose authority helpe did consist You haue seene as I said at the first the insolencie of the Papists your Fathers haue felt their crueltie you cannot neither ought you to forget the powder or rather the Iesuits treason which threatned the Kingdome the massacres of Paris and the Church the fires of Queene Marie whose imbers the Pope your old friend O ye Clergie of England doth hide and couer he doth well remember your dutie he forgets not your loue toward him Against your argument drawne from the Scripture he fetcheth his drawne from the fagots You passe ouer the fire couered ouer with false ashes Therefore that which ministreth occasion to many to write the same must be an occasion for all to take heed And that which was cause to me to seeke for your patronage and helpe the same should be the cause of stirring vp our zeale and watchfulnesse GOD preserue the KING and Kingdome GOD defend the Clergie the most flourishing of the whole world being the eye of the Kingdome from the iniuries and treacheries of all their enemies Your Lordships and Your worships most deuoted in Christ LEONEL SHARPE THE EPISTLE to the Christian READER Wherein the glasse of Christ and Christianitie is conteyned YOV are not ignorant Christian Reader that the hatred of the Synagogue of Rome hath been a long time very deadly and open against the reformed Church and that it hath been secret against the Scripture and couered ouer with a shadow of outward Religion and a vayle of deuotion For although shee be much moued with the enuy at our florishing Church and with the iniurie of her owne beauty so despised yet because shee feeleth hirselfe so wounded in her head with a weapon from heauen cast by the hand of man shee is no lesse angry with God that gaue the weapon than with man that cast it Which if it were not so truly shee would neuer haue endured so many a Aesops fables a nose of waxe a shipmans hose a Delphian sword blacke and inkie Diuinitie Scripture men inckie Diuines slanders so wickedly prophanely vtterd against the holy Scripture to haue been published in print shee would neuer haue furthered such deuises in her inward Laterane Conclaue which should haue framed b Matth Paris in Hen 3. pag 104. a new Gospell c Liâ—â— consor Franâ—isi pag 304. a new Iesus d The Bull of Pius
Pauls authoritie one of them that S. Peter without doubt was a Catholike but Paul if he be not warily expounded seemes to smell of heresie Thother that places out of Paul by the testimonie of Peter were hard to be vnderstood and had need of a Romish Commentarie Peter I said made mention of the hardnes but not of the commentarie In whose Epistle say they whatsoeuer soundeth against the Romane faith therein wee do not attaine to the true sense that which the Rhemists haue obserued Rhem testam argument epist in gene For he in the first chapter say the Fryers did commend the faith of the Church of Rome whereto Cyprian denieth that vnfaithfulnes can haue accesse But in the 11. chapter I say Epist 50. he warned the same Church that if it departed from the bountifulnesse of God it should take heed lest as the Church of Israel was cut off so shee were not cut off also It may therefore be cut off be it spoken by Cyprians leaue For it is in act cut off when it is fallen from that foundation which is placed in the only mercy of Christ apprehended by faith That faith therefore of the Church which Paul the Apostle so much commended and taught by his writings is one and the faith of this Church which Paul the Pope hath left so deformed with his vnwritten traditions is another And yet shee glorieth much as I said that Paul is hir founder I had rather they would vse him as an author But she will neuer doe it Shee maketh more accompt of Pauls Bulls than Paules Epistles which the ancient Fathers did rightly tearme the key of the Scripture Which most of the popish sort do so feare that they cannot reconcile Paul and S. Iames together but oppose them one against thother The reconciling of Paul and James as if Iames the Apostle had concluded that a man is iustified by his workes before God not with faith alone against the Apostle Paul when as Paul doth not vnderstand the same faith and the same iustification which Iames doth For hee requireth faith placed in the heart this reiecteth faith bragged on in the tongue Hee requireth a liuely faith this reiecteth a dead faith Hee doth enforce a heauenly faith which layeth hold on the promise this casteth of a diuelish faith which doth onely acknowledge Christs historie without application hee doth commend and extoll fruitfull faith working by loue this doth rightly condemne a barraine faith voide of the duty of holinesse he doth set forth the iustification before God which Aquinas calleth the righteousnes of imputation Iames the iustification before men whom the same Aquinas calleth the righteousnesse of declaration Moses from whom either Apostle drew his testimonie doth expound ech and doth take vp the controuersie begun by the Aduersarie The imputation of righteousnesse whereof Moses maketh mention Gen 15.6 went thirty yeares before that worke for which they dreame that Abraham was iustified before God Which circumstance of time Paul most earnestly weighing concludeth that faith was imputed to Abraham to obtaine righteousnesse before God 15 yeares as Moses noteth before hee begat Isaac and other 15 yeares at the least before he would haue sacrificed him They know not well how to loose themselues out of this indissoluble knot whosoeuer thinke that righteousnes was imputed to Abraham before God because he killed his sonne who was not as yet borne when as the Holy Ghost doth pronounce him to be righteous which S. Iames himselfe v 23 seemeth to vnderstand as Oecumenius gathereth out of the place that Abraham was the image of iustification which is wrought by faith alone when it was imputed to him for righteousnesse ver 23. ver 21. that he beleeued and of that iustification also which is by workes when hee would haue offred his sonne Isaac vpon the Altar Therefore faith did make perfect the person of Abraham and the worke did iustifie the faith and declare ech to be perfect Is this a fight is this an opposition especially betweene two holy Apostles who writ their Epistles with the instinct of the same spirit But no one thing doth more neerly gaule the Synagogue then that Paul the Apostle by the direction of the spirit writ the commentarie of the mysterie Apoc 9. 2 Thess 2. 1 Tim 4.1 which S. Iohn afterward set forth of that great Antichrist whom hee maketh to be the falling starre i. an apostata from the faith or rather the prince of the apostacie as Paul expounds it Iohn calls him the Angell of the bottomlesse pit the key-keeper of hell the beast arising out of the earth and counterfeyting the lambe with two hornes and in his voyce resembling the Dragon Therefore in shew the Vicar of Christ in deed his aduersarie in ambition aboue Kings Gods emulus as Paul explaines it Iohn in order the 7. King of the Romane state Apoc 13. the reviued image of the former beast to be after reuealed within the Empire decayed as Paul doth interpret it Iohn sitting in the common place Lord of the seauen hill'd Citie in the speciall place in the temple of God A description of the Pope that is in the Church of God as Paul doth expound it for Kings thrones are called Bishops seates Therfore he is in office a Bishop in name Romane or Latine in his disposition a great hypocrite and a notable dissembler by his cunning an inchanter and bewitcher of soules by his worship an Idolater by his malitious practise a murtherer giuen ouer to sinne sold ouer to destruction as both of them define Water is no liker water than Antichrist to the Pope But S. Paul being not therewith content defineth Antichristianitie to be not iniquitie but the mysterie of iniquitie And doth after diuide it into three parts 1. Curious speculations 2. Absurd superstitions 3. Iewish ceremonies whereof it is wholy compounded which who so holdeth doth not hold the head as the Apostle speaketh I beseech thee Christian Reader tell me what is more like than old and new Antichristianitie What is become of them who deny that Poperie hath his beginning from the antient heresies which being of the same age with the Apostolike truth in many things as Tertullian saith was wounded with the Apostolike style as shall be made manifest in the discourse following I do therfore more disdaine than admire that the Apostle Paul doth so exceedingly displease the Romane synagogue who did foreshew that Poperie should be patcht together of Paganisme Idiotisme and Iudaisme A little Glasse of Christ and Christianitie BVt I purposing to set out all the force and nature of Antichrist and Antichristianitie in latine I thought good to set before it a liuely and short forme of Christ and Christianitie which the Apostle defineth to be the mysterie of godlines that the truth of the Gospell being brought into light out of the labyrinth as it were of discoursing might put to flight with her authoritie and countenance
Gods commandements by mans traditions For as the Iewes had the vnwritten Cabala to interpret the old Testament so the Pope hath brought in his vnwritten traditions as the Iewish Cabala whereby hee doth bring a sense of his owne what pleaseth him of the written commandements of God But with the same argument that Christ did refute the Iewish we doe briefely refute the Popish traditions The obseruation of humane traditions is the abrogation of Gods heauenly commundements Matth 15. witnesse Christ But Poperie is the obseruation of humane traditions witnesse the Decretalls Here Duarenus said pretily that it fared ill with mens affaires since the decrees had gotten winges that is since the Decretalls were so sawcie as to flie into the Church ouer the Scriptures Therefore Poperie is the abrogation of Gods heauenly commandements I will bring one example wherein it appeareth that Bellarmine the Popes sweet-heart hath by his exposition ouerthrowne one of the greatest commandements of the Law Bellarmines lewd dealing with the second commandement God said Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any likenesse to worship Here Bellarmine distinguisheth Thou shalt not worship an Idoll But thou shalt worship an Image A distinction of the word not of the thing Far an Image is an Idoll when it is worshipped But the worshipping of an Idoll is Idolatrie and in the Commandement there is no mention made of an Idoll but of a likenes and that of euery likenes which as it were the genus or generall doth comprehend equally both Image and Idoll But Idolatrie is to worship the Creature for the Creator yea by your leaue with the Creator too for the worship of any likenes is absolutely forbidden in the law whether it be worshipped for God or with God And the reason of the prohibition is absolute Idolatrie is compared to fornication and God to a iealous husband who by no meanes will haue the likenes of any thing to be worshipped either before him or with him Bellarmine seemeth to alledge the same excuse for his idolatrie which the harlot doth for her adulterie for shee telleth her iealous husband I tooke not this Letcher for my Husband but for my Friend I tooke him with you not for you So this adulterous minde of Bellarmine answereth to God that is full of iealousie I do not worship the image for God but with God not for the Creator but with the Creator But God as a most iealous husband doth absolutely forbid any worship of an image as the lewd imbracing of an adulterer Ioh 9. v. 20. and therefore S. Iohn calleth the worshipper of an Idoll the worshipper of the Deuill Now it is plaine that the Pope is a worshipper of an Idoll therefore the worshipper of the Deuill The Pope oweth me a good turne for saying he is an Idolater wherein I feare I shall seeme to prevaricate and dissemble that while I giue him the name of an Idolater I take from him the name of Antichrist For Antichrist is not an Idolater as Bellarmine would haue it The Pope is an Idolater as truth it selfe would haue it Therefore the Pope is not Antichrist I counsell the Pope that if he giue credit to Bellarmines proposition he graunt our assumption so while he take to himselfe the name of an Idolater hee may happily lay aside the name of Antichrist But he will resume it so giddie headed and wauering is Bellarmine By whose confession Antichrist doth worship Maozim that is as he saith the Deuill But the worshipper of the Deuill is an Idolater Antichrist therefore is an Idolater But the Pope hath taken to him the note of an Idolater from holy Iohn let him therefore take againe to him the note of Antichrist From hence ariseth that which I intended to proue that the Pope doth nothing else but abrogate and annihilate a principall commandement of God with his tradition and opposition What is it to denie the Prophecie of Christ if this be not what as though hee hath not only corrupted but also peruerted the Gospell of Christ The Popes fift Gospell while hee hath suffered a fift Gospell to be coyned by his Dominicans as Matth Parisiensis doth witnesse They called it the Gospell of the Holy Ghost Anno 1254. Math. in Hen. 3. and the eternall Gospell wherein they taught that Christ is not God nor his Gospell the true Gospell and that compared to their Gospell his was the shell and theirs the kernell O blasphemie to be punished with hell fire Hereof they be the Neptunian or rather Vulcanian Fathers who in that Tridentine furnace haue by their fiering and hammering shap't out that prophane Gospell anew but without the name of the fift Gospell Although Clement the eight did of late gladly and willingly take vnto him the name of the fift Euangelist put vpon him by crouching Gâ—briel that detestable Parasite as though Clement had finished the fift Gospell which doth not onely giue a blow to the foure Gospells but a deadly wound The authors whereof doe incurre Pauls curse which is denounced not only to Popes but to Apostles and Angells if any shall bring in not a contrarie but another Gospell Not if any contrarie but if any besides that which the Galathians receiued of Paul that is besides that which they had receiued out of the legall and euangelicall Scriptures as Augustine did expound the place if they doe not only preach or ouerthrow the whole Gospell but if they doe neuer so litle preach beside the Gospell or doe thwart any thing as Chrysostome hath explained the place For another Gospell doth not only corrupt but peruert the Gospell of Christ The Pope of Rome doth not onely bring in another but a contrarie wherein hee doth not onely adde many things but oppose many things against the Gospell of Christ In the one hee doth weaken the Gospell in the other he destroyeth it for euery addition doth import an imperfection euery opposition a falshood And therefore Poperie is to be deemed not only a corruption but a subuersion of the Gospell Out of that fift Gospell is their new Creed of their faith taken which conteyneth twelue articles of the faith to be discussed in the Dialogue following For the making whereof diuers Popes heretofore tooke great paines and euery one added a peece of his owne till it came to full perfection by Pius the fourth and hath been lately printed by your authoritie Paul the fift that the great glory of your omnipotent power in the Papacie might appeare As likewise the conformities of S. Francis are lately brought to light and by your commandement published in print I thinke that typicall Iesus being brought againe into the world by you might remoue the true Iesus out of his throne Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered Let true Iesus vtterly confound the typicall Iesus Do not these things Paul the fift manifestly proue that thou art that great Antichrist who althogh thou do openly in word confesse that
Images The Popes imagine that they be Masters of abstinence and continencie when for conscience sake they forbidde meates and marriages when as in truth they bring in the doctrine of deuills as S. Paul teacheth They doe not intend so you will say The murtherer doth not intend to kill his Father but his enemie but in stead of his enemie hee killeth his Father in the darke shall we say hee killed not his father but his enemie because he intended not his fathers but his enemies death which if it be absurd to speake in this outward darknes do we not thinke it as absurd in this inward darknesse of the soule if any man say that he doth worship God when hee doth worship the Dragon because hee doth intend to worship God not the Dragon Therefore the Emperours and the Popes doe agree in a third that is in worshipping the Dragon from whom they haue receiued their power Adde hereto that the Pope in whom the image of the first beast doth reuiue and liue againe as shall appeare afterward while he driueth men to worship himselfe it may be said that he doth compell them to worship the image of the first beast from whence thus I dispute He that compelleth men to worship the image of the first beast is Antichrist The Pope doth compell men to worship the image of the first beast The Pope therefore is Antichrist CHAP. XV. The decayed Emperour reuiued by the Pope 5 FOR shee is said to cure and heale the deadly blow of the former beast and to restore to him a spirit and a voice That I may not be longer about those things which are so copiously vnfolded by others the Empire tooke a deadly wound in Augustulus The Empire dead which was the last Emperour of the East from whom the Empire lay as it were dead for 325 yeeres till it was restored againe by the Pope and receiued as it were new life in Charles the Great as Bellarmine doth vauntingly confesse For he saith That the Pope did translate the Empire first from the Greekes to the French reuiued afterward to the Germaines and appointed that the choice of the Emperour should be made by seauen Electors on that condition that the confirmation and inauguration of the Emperour so chosen should belong to the Pope that by this meanes that dead head might seeme to liue and flourish againe by the spirit of the Pope But reseruing to himselfe the power of the Empire hee left the title to the Germaines Cap. 15. de mira Anti as Bellarmine doth vnaduisedly confesse that Antichrist shall be the last that shall enioy the Romane Empire without the name or title of the Romane Emperour The Emperor but titular And therefore the Germane Emperour in respect of his power is only Titular for the Pope hath not only deriued to him the spirituall power but the temporall also therefore the state of Antichrist is the liuely image of the old Empire The Germaine Empire is not now the Empire but the title and dead ghost of the Empire to whom the Pope giueth spirit that is authoritie and a voice that is his Edicts when he giueth life to the Emperour by his confirmation To what end I pray you â— that it may sustaine and vphold the Popes Seate wherein the power of the Empire doth reside without a name according to Iohns Prophecie Hence the Germane Emperour is called the Procurator and protector of the Apostolicall See I dispute then thus Antichrist is the restorer of the old Romane Monarchie witnes S. Iohn The Pope of Rome alone is the restorer of the old Romane Monarchie Bellarmine not onely witnessing it but glorying in it The Pope of Rome therefore alone is Antichrist CHAP. XVI Of bringing downe fire from heauen BVt Bellarmine doth expound this place according to the letter as that likewise of bringing downe fire from heauen Antichrist saith he and the Antichristian Church doth make the image of the Beast to liue and speake But the Pope and the Popish Church did neuer make the image of the Beast to liue and speake Therefore the Pope is not Antichrist Besides Antichrist saith he doth cause fire to come from heauen in the sight of men The Pope did neuer bring downe fire in the sight of men The Pope therefore is not Antichrist The proposition of the former syllogisme taken literally is not S. Iohns proposition for not the image of euery beast is to take life from Antichrist but the image of the first Beast that is of the Romane Empire which the Pope in name and title renued in the Emperour in strength and power retained in himselfe And therefore hee peruersely collecteth out of Iohn that power is giuen to Antichrist to giue life and frame speeches to Images which may seeme as credible to sober men Popish false miracles as that the picture of Memnon being enlightned by the Sunne beames spake very plainely as Tacitus reporteth But grant it be so the assumption literally taken agreeth with the Pope and the popish Synagogue if ye beleeue the Legend How often by them are images counterfeited to moue to sweat to nodd to speake in the sight and opinion of simple people that they may be allured to the worship of those Saints whose images they be There was some wonder toward as oft as the image began to speake Martialis The Deuill did often speake in the images of the Ethnicks but a Priest in the images of the Papist that hee may seeme to take the Deuils turne in deluding of men I retort therefore this argument Whatsoeuer Church doth make images to speake in the opinion of men is Antichristian But the popish Church doth make images to speake in the opinion of men Therefore the popish Church is Antichristian 6. Now I come to Bellarmines latter syllogisme if first I shall explaine the sixt action of the Beast Shee worketh great signes so that she maketh fire to descend from heauen in the sight of men The Beast that is Antichrist doth worke great miracles v 13. which blessed Paul calls lying signes and wonders 1. in respect of the end because they serue to seduce men Ioh 14. 2. in respect of the matter for they be either the counterfeytings of lying men or the wonders of deceitfull spirits as Augustine speaketh 3. In respect of the forme for whereas true miracles doe exceede nature and are wrought by the omnipotent power of God false wonders are they which are partly effected by naturall causes partly by the power of Sathan Bellarmine doth well agree with vs in all False miracles The miracles of the first and second kinde haue been infinite in the darke kingdome of Antichrist the apparition of Spirits the visions of Angells our Ladie how often hath shee come gliding out of heauen how often haue the miserable soules crept puling out of Purgatorie besetting high-wayes and recounting their torments to procure men to pittie them hence the market of
truth and power to be ouercome by errour and wickednesse Assuredly hee will neuer suffer it The Christians therefore haue no cause to feare the Pope hath no cause to insult For the Pope alone hath all the markes of Antichrist The Pope alone therefore is Antichrist CHAP. XLII The scope and conclusion of the whole worke I Haue finished the Glasse Paul the fift set before you to see your selfe before others to look on themselues wherein Antichrist is fully set downe as in preface Heere you may see contained his right and true marks the false being reiected and cast by Euery of them in seuerall and all of them ioyntly together doe prooue the Pope to be that great Antichrist Hence it followeth that Popery is Antichristianity What hee is and who he is appeares out of the preface What he doth and what he teacheth out of the Dialogue diuided into three bookes First comes vpon the stage Antichrist pragmaticall In the two other bookes Antichrist dogmaticall There he carries himselfe like a Rebell heere like a Sophister there he doth impaire the glory of the Empire heere the truth of the Gospell there hee doth vndermine the faithfulnesse of subiects heere the faith of Christians The first booke doth propound the rules and grounds of Christian fealty and obedience toward Kings against Christian rebellion shadowed ouer with a shew of Catholike religion The other two doe erect the foundation and pillers of Christian doctrine and faith against the Antichristian heresie compacted of twelue new articles of the faith brought into the forme of a creede by Pius the fourth whereupon I call it the Popes creede I doe solemnely professe that I am afaithfull seruant of Christ and the King I doe not take vpon me being the meanest and the least of all other to giue warning vnto Kings once already warned by the great King not therefore to bee warned of any but of Christ the King of Kings Let Iesus Christ therefore bee in our thoughts a while who although he be absent in body yet present in spirit hath an interest and being yea and a gouernment also in the spirits of all Christians and chriefly of all Princes his bountie is to be loued his maiesty is to be dreaded euen of Kings for as the powerfull gouernment of Kings is to be dreadfull to their owne subiects so the most powerfull gouernment of God is to bee dreadfull to Kings of God I say manifested in the flesh who being present with them in spirit seemeth thus to speake and complaine CHAP. XLIII THE PROSOPOPEY I AM not ignorant who am ignorant of nothing ô yee Christian Kings and Princes that the Byshop of Rome my Vicare as he calles himselfe my Aduersarie The Pope both an hereticke and traytor as he carries himselfe hath beene a Teacher of heresie in the Church and a Practiser of treason in the common-weale for these many yeares For euer since hee was made the vniuersall Byshop he hath done nothing else but corrupted my Gospell and peruerted your Empire And no maruell for out of the corruption of the Gospell doth follow the dissolution of the Empire For whereas I haue erected by the Gospell a twofould pillar of gouernment Authoritie in Magistrates and Allegeance in Subiects it is strange to see the Gospell peruerted in the mindes of men how each pillar of gouernment falles to the grounds The greatest fault whereof is in the Byshops treacherie and in your slothfulnesse that whereas I had submitted all Byshops vnder your power and iudgement you haue suffered one to fly out so farre aboue the rest that he dare not onely rebell against yours but against my Maiestie also That therefore the ancient dignitie of the Empire may be recouered being lost and for euer maintained being recouered my counsell to you is that the truth of the Gospell shaken and long weakened by the Popes tyrannie may at last be restored by your princely authoritie For what is more reasonable then that I should haue you defenders of my glory whom I haue appointed Ministers of my power And if it were in question heretofore whether that Byshoppe were that Antichrist He is so prophetically described by my beloued Disciples Iohn and Paul that now it is out of question seeing that euent hath laid open and made cleare the prophecie For all the partes of the prophecie are so plainely interpreted All notes of Antichrist agree with the Pope of the succession of the persons the nature and disposition of the King and kingdome the acts of the beast the impression of the Character the number of his name the scituation of his seate the time of his reuealing the cuppe of the whore the kind of his marchandise the fall of Babylon lastly the comming in and going out the birth and death of Antichrist the last answering the first and the middle answering both with such a consent and barmonie inferring things to be fulfilled by things that are fulfilled that I could not haue made it clearer if I had named the Byshop of Rome himselfe And Antichristianity is well defined by my Apostle to be not iniquitie but the mysterie of iniquitie For if Antichrist had appeared to you in his owne likenesse you needed not to haue beene so carefull about the businesse Now that hee doth insinuate himselfe with a counterfet holinesse and a dissembled sanctity how many millions of innocent men hath he cosoned and deceiued with his hidden mysticall wickednesse But let the visard be taken off from this hidden Antichrist then none can hereafter be deceiued but he that will wittingly and willingly be deceiued Beware therefore that the old trickes and stratagemes being laid open beguile you no more He faineth himselfe to be the Prince of the couenant and yet he hath altered my couenant Hee pretendes himselfe to be a Keeper of my will and testament and yet he hath not only raced and defaced my testament The Pope hath altered Christ his Testament and brought in a new but hath foysted in one of his owne He termes himselfe the foundation of the Church and chalengeth to him my peculiar title and yet hee doth with cunning deuises subuert and ouerthrow my Church He makes a shew of great zeale to my crosse and yet doth annihilate the power of the crosse The holy Scripture makes mention of Gods double gouernment the Legale and Euangelicall The legale which hath the condition of working annext vnto it do this and thou shalt liue Ierem. 31.31 Heb. 8.5 ad finem The Euangelicall requireth the condition of beleeuing Beleeue and thou shalt be saued But it requireth faith not as a worke but as an instrument whereby you may receiue the promises of the spirit therefore that is called a conditionall this a free conuenant Where there is no couenant there is no faith and where there is no faith there is no saluation Humane faith doth rest vpon an humane couenant heauenly faith vpon a heauenly couenant Heauenly faith is
vsurper of the Kingdome which had murthered all the Kings Progeny What is this to the Pope that hee may depose a lawfull Prince with his Bishoply authority And whereas you propounded Elias zeale to bee imitated by you Patriott answered truely that your zeale was too fiery and would proue too preposterous vnlesse you could prooue you had Elias speciall instinct And when you said that Achab was remooued from his Kingdome by Elias or Elizeus it is partly true partly false It is true that you say he was remooued but by Iehu whom one of the sonnes of the Prophets did annoynt by Gods speciall commandement which God gaue to Elizeus that Iehu should roote out all the posterity of Achab. Hee was not therefore deposed by Elias or Elizeus but by Iehu whom God had raised vp by name extraordinarily for that purpose Neither did the sonne of the Prophet when hee annoynted Iehu beginne thus thus sayth Elizeus but thus saith the Lord. This doth no whit help the popes cause that Patriott did somtime scatter abroad your arguments as brooms that are not bound together and enforced him as a cripple with a broken legge to halt now vpon one leg now vpon both both in his antecedent and consequent as if the antecedent retained neither truth in the matter or Law in the forme and the consequent had lost all the necessity of proofe So that you neither did helpe the popes power or satisfie our consciences For it was to no purpose as he rightly said to seeke for causes at the last why princes should in fact be deposed by preists and prophets when you cannot proue that any was deposed § 71 You therefore as it seemes could not alleadge that any king was deposed by a priest but Patriott did alleadge that a preist was deposed by a king one especially Abiathar by Salomon This did not onely not help but hurt the popes cause Heere when you did enforce the couenant between God and the King your ready aduersary did demand if the King breake any of the articles of agreement who would enter suite against him or in what court or consistory were hee to bee accused And out of your owne grant hee concluded when you said that the king held his supreame authority taken from God and therefore the king was to yeeld account to God alone in the heauenly court for his gouernment Two pillers of gouernment ouerthrowen And where there are two pillers of gouernment Authority in the King and obedience in subiects which for all our good we are to keep safe sound you seemed Saturnin to ouerthrow them both when you made the king as it were an hypotheticall propositiō and the subiects conditionales but when you made the Popes categoricall and absolute although I reuerence them as most holy fathers yet I will speake truly you haue dealt herein as an vnskilfull Phisition who gets a more greeuous disease to the body by curing one that is easier Being repelled from the old Testament you fled into § 72 the strength of the new and here I had great hope that that your feede my sheepe and I will giue you the keyes had well strengthned the Popes authoritie and sharpned the edge of ecclesiasticall excommunication But it fell out otherwise For the aduersarie proued that by the first wordes diligence was enioyned the Byshoppe to feede the flocke and by the second were committed the keyes of the heauenly not the earthly kingdome And he brought for proofe not onely Augustine and Bernard as common witnesses but Aquinas Pope Vrbane Dominicus à Soto and Ludouicus Rycheomus all of them being on our side who thought the force of the keyes to be not in possessions but in crimes not in binding Scepters but sinnes and iudge it not to be a rooting vp but a meere discipline What you doe you thinke these to be Heretickes as lately you tearmed Sigebert and Vincentius what maruell is it if strangers accuse the Pope when his owne condemne him if his enemies set vpon him when his friends forsake him if the late Catholickes leaue him when the ancient forsake him The first foundation therefore of our obedience laid by Patriotta vpon the perpetuall and vnchangeable commandement of Christ and his Apostles standes firme and sure vnlesse you thinke that it be lawfull for the Vicar of Christ an holy man though a sinner to plucke downe the sacred tables of the Testament to violate the heauenly lawes of Christ and to abrogate the eternall decrees of God Forwhereas in the end you say that the Apostles and their Successours might lawfully haue deposed Nero Dioclesian Iulian Constantius Valens and the rest if the Church had had power to resist you would neuer haue said it as your aduersarie rightly obiected vnlesse you thinke the holy Apostles and fathers were dissemblers who obeyed those euill Emperours for feare not for dutie for times sake not for conscience sake wherein we heard that not the holy Scripture only but the antient historie was directly against you § 73 That we may greatly lament that Bellarmine and Alan so great wittes brought forth so wicked an vntruth And that we may omit Symancha Creswell Reynoldes Parsons and others of our side who brought all their wit and eloquence to patronize so wicked a cause with Alan trumpets not of the word but of warre and we must needes confesse that they haue brought an ouerthrow to many Catholicke families and a plague to their Countrie but also a torture to our consciences and an euerlasting infamie to the Catholicke religion Wherfore leaue off I pray you any more to solicite vs in this cause Saturnine vpon whose head wee see your first argument to be retorted by Patriotta who confest that subiection reuerence honour fealtie and obedience is due to a King while the King is a King But the King is king and we be subiects notwithstanding any excommunication or authoritie of the Pope whatsoeuer as Patriotta hath proued against you as it seemes to vs not only with common but with proper arguments of our owne Catholickes It followeth therefore by your owne confession that all subiection reuerence honour fealtie and obedience is to be performed of vs to our King § 74 Then Saturnine I am right heartily sorry most honourable Calander and am much vext with all that you whom wee euer held a deuout sonne of the Romaine Church now to finde a Renegate in the Heretickes tents and not onely doubting of the supreame authoritie of the Byshoppe but that which is farre worse and more dangerous to your soule oppugning it For not onely the excommunication of Princes which to diuers seemes to be the soueraigne censure of the ecclesiasticall and spirituall power of the Pope belongeth vnto him but their ouerthrow also and rooting out which proceedes not from the power of excommunication but from the power of a certain supreame authoritie in the Pope either as he is directly the Lord of the temporalties or indirectly in
it not by an immediate execution and committeth that to the Emperour by an vniuersall iurisdiction That the Romane Bishop is the cheefe father and man in the world and that all hang on him as on the cheife workeman he should haue sayd foundation otherwise if any should appoint an Emperour by himselfe I thinke he should say a substantiue in respect of his temporalties should make two principles which heresie that he might auoyd he makes the Emperour an adiectiue Isodor Mos pa. 22. de maiest mil. Eccles As another saith that the holie writer in the olde Law made the Priest-hood an adiectiue to the kingdome but that S. Peter made the kingdome an adiectiue to the Priesthood g Tho Boz de iure sta lib. 1. cap. 6. fol. 137. That kings are not immediately from God but by the interposing of the Church and the cheefe Preist thereof That there is a warlike and compulsiue power giuen to the Church aboue Kings and Princes that Constantine gaue nothing that was his owne but restored what was vniustly and tyrannously taken from the Bishops § 79 That Christ committed to Peter the key-keeper of eternall life Isido Mos de maiest pag. 27. the right of earthly and heauenly gouernment and that in his place the Pope is the vniuersall Iudge the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and therefore that hee is consecrated as a cheefe Bishop and crowned as a King Because hee hath each power that hee vseth that power either absolutely or ordinarily absolutely when he doth abrogate such lawes as he please ordinarily when hee vseth lawes When he will liue vnder lawes to vse the counsel of Cardinals when he will not to rule without counsell because his power is from God not from the Colledge of Cardinals I thinke not onely Asses but Lyons also That all the faithfull and the vnfaithfull and euery naturall creature for so he speaketh is subiect to the Popes gouernment and that therefore the Pope doth all men to worship him prostrate themselues before him and kisse his feete that the adoration of Dulia seruice is giuen to him as to Images and Saints in respect of his kingdome hee hath a crowne of his Preisthood a myter That Emperours and Kings may bee compelled to obserue their oathes taken at their coronations and confirmations because by the vertue of their oath they bee made the Popes vassals That by the Law of God and nature the Preâ—sthood is more eminent then the Empire That secular powers are not necessarie but that Princes should performe that by the terrour of discipline August triump apud Carer p. 130. 132. which a Preist cannot doe by vertue of his doctrine And if the Church could punish offenders the Imperiall and Kingly gouernment should not be necessary because potentially it is included in the Apostolicall gouernment Celsus Mancinê° ib 3. cap. 1. Et Care p. 133. That it may bee auowed of Christs Vicar by a certaine similitude which Plato in Time us spake of God for being demanded what God was answered he is not man he is not heauen nor good but somewhat that is better if a man shall demand whether the cheefe Bishop be a Duke a King or an Emperour Isodor Mosc pag. 80. hee shall answer warily if he shall affirme by denying that the Pope is something more excellent something more eminent That all temporall Iurisdiction is to bee exercised Fâ—e vpon flattery not at the Popes commandement but at his becke Princes will and command God the Lord doth all things with his becke agreeable to that He spake and with his becke made all Olympus quake And that Christ had all plenarie iurisdiction aboue all the § 80 world and all creatures and that therefore the Pope Christs Vicar hath it To what end I pray you to what end As they make Christ Leli Zeâ—h tract Theol. pag. 81. Franc. Bozius lib. 2 cap. 14. so they make the Pope the absolute Lord of the world out of those wordes Behold two swordes which signifie the power spirituall and temporall and from them I will giue you the keies The keyes of heauen are giuen therefore of the whole earth And from those wordes all power is giuen to me in heauen and in earth therefore the right both of the heauenly and earthly Empire is committed to the Pope who is Christs Vice gerent vpon earth To what end say I But that Christian Kings and Emperours should acknowledge that they hold their kingdomes and Empires of him forsooth and that as oft as they doe any great hurt to the Church they may be depriued by the Pope and the right of their kingdome may rightly be conueied ouer to others or if they doe not acknowledge it they may be constrained by armes either of their owne subiects or of outward Catholicke Princes if the Pope will haue it so to part with their kingdome and life § 81 Here Patriotta I beleeue truly said hee that your Doctours did striue among themselues by aduancing the dignitie of the Popes and suppressing Emperours and Kings whether of them with a more grosse or with a more spruisse kinde of flatterie might set foorth the pride of the Popes court But the very naked recitall of these toyes seemes to bee a sound refutation of them Then Velbacellus I doe said hee and haue much greiued that the withered and decayed opinion of the Canonists disproued long since and reiected of good Catholickes should bee now taken vp againe and brought in as a thing forlorne by so many excellent wittes the chiefe whereof both for place and learning was Cardinall Baronius who did very stubbornly and obstinately defend the direct ordinarie and inherent authoritie of the Pope whereby as a Lord of the world in temporall matters hee may at his pleasure depose Emperours and Princes Is it not necessarie to adde his many other reasons They are extant in his bookes that are in many mens hands there they may fetch them that will haue them There is sprung vp on the other side Cardinall Bellarmine § 82 a man of no lesse credite with our men Bellarmine and as well deseruing of the Church who did ouerthrow that ordinarie direct and inherent gouernment of the Pope in temporalties as left by Christ with so sound arguments of scripture that in my minde neither the aduersaries nor himselfe afterward could with his most exquisite skill of distinctions dissolue them But that hee may seeme somewhat to gratifie the Pope although saith he he be not the Lord of all temporalties directly neither hath inherent and ordinarie authoritie as hee is Pope to disthronize temporall Princes yet bee is Lord of the temporalties indirectly in order to the spiritualles as hee vsually speaketh and hath an extraordinarie and a borrowed authoritie as he is chiefe spirituall Prince to alter kingdomes to take them from one and giue them to another if it be necessarie to the saluation of soules i. in order
plainely shewed against Tortus or rather counterfet Bellarmine that the Apostles Creede was set foorth whereto Iames the Apostle before his martyrdom had added the Article of Christ before the departure of the Apostles from Ierusalem and therefore before S. Peter came to Rome by the testimonie of Baronius himselfe Anno 44. and had concluded necessarily from thence that the Catholike faith was fully finished before the Apostolike See was begunne hence it is said there arose a doubt in that right honourable Calanders conscience a Papist but very moderate and honest not onely of the supremacie of Peter and of that depriuing power annexed to the supremacy but of all the whole Romish Catholike faith which he saw was contained in the popish not Apostolicall Nycene or Constantinopolitane Creede § 125 Therefore when those former learned men together with William Argentine came againe to visite him It is very well sayd Calander that you are met againe to discusse before vs a verie difficult controuersie of the popes new creede which Pius the fouth had formerly compiled Paul the 5. comanded it lately to be printed my good freind Argentine hath lately recited it and I hope by and by he will recite the same to you This being prescribed by the Church vtterly to reiect it I doe as yet to speake truely make a conscience and to admit it wholly vnlesse it bee ratified by the testimonies of the holy Scripture I cannot admit without scruple of conscience For I haue lately learned to giue attendance to the holy Scripture which holy S. Peter doth directly affirme to bee as a candle lightned in this life to vs wandring in darknesse 2. Pet. 1. Which holy Paul doth likewise make the foundation of the Church Ephes 2.20 1. Tim. 3.15 and yet I cannot depart rashly from the Catholike Church whereto I haue beene accustomed which the same S. Paul calles the piller and ground of truth by which there is a creede of faith set out for me So I hang doubtfull betweene the Scripture the Church which God hath giuen vnto vs as the Sunne and Moone the two great lights to giue vs light to life Then Patriott you say right Calander said he in the § 126 generall that as the Sunne and Moone so the Scripture and the Church as two lights shew light vnto vs The Scripture and Church compared to the Sun Moon but that you erre in the speciall as after it shall better appeare But the holy Scripture hath light in it selfe as the Sunne the Church is a light but borrowed from the Scripture as the Moone from the Sun these two I confesse are giuen vs of God to direct vs vnto eternall life But the Scripture directs vs with masterly authority the Church with her ministery for the holy Scripture is the wisdome of God in Christ inspired from aboue into holy men for the eternall saluation and perfection of the Church as the Apostle hath defined it God hath commended the Scripture to the Church The office of the Church as an heauenly charge that it may discerne expound keep and publish it to men the Scripture is therefore mens master but the Church is Gods minister Therefore the Apostle calles the truth the foundation of the Church and the Church the piller of truth as Salomon made his chariot to haue a golden axtree and pillers of siluer vnderstanding by the axetree the sound doctrin of the Messias by the pillers the faithfull teachers of the same § 127 It is a wicked thing therefore to detract from the maiestie of the holy Scripture and it is vniust to derogate from the ministery of the true Church for the Scripture is the truth of God The office of the Scripture and the Church is the house of God the truth is the golden foundation of this house and this house is the siluer piller of this truth that is cut out of the truth as out of the rocke as Chrysostome obserueth So if the Scripture be the base of the Church then the Church is the piller of the word as he spake very wittily Now reason teacheth that the foundation is not sustained by the house but the house by the foundation And religion concludes from thence that truth makes the Church not the Church the truth For the approbation of the truth is the working cause of the Church For before it do approue the written word of God it is but a company of Infidels and Idolaters after it hath approoued it it beginneth to be the familie of the faithful worshippers of God that is a Church Further although the Church by the Spirit doe discerne the true Scripture from the false yet the Scripture being once knowen and acknowledged as before it made so after it sheweth the Church For what more certain note can there be of shewing a thing then the working cause of the thing Againe what priuiledge soeuer the Church doth rightly challenge to it selfe it receiued from the Scripture as that which calleth the Church the piller of truth Therefore the truth of the Scripture is more ancient in time more perspicuous for the light and greater for authority then the Church which when it once receiueth her essence light and power from the Scripture then at last as a piller it vpholdeth with her ministery the truth in respect of men and reueales it to the inhabitants of the earth and it is that ground whereon men both may and ought to leane and rest Lawes vpon pillers so the Scriptures on the Church Whereupon the Propheticall and Apostolicall doctrine is said to bee the foundation of the Church the Church is the strength of doctrine not the foundation It is euident therfore that the Church is founded and sustained by the truth and that the truth is sustained and reuealed by the Church once founded as it were a watch-tower for trauellers to direct them into heauen The Heathens were wont to write their lawes in tables and hang them vp vpon pillers to bee read of the people The Apostle describing the Church compareth it to such a piller the vse wherof was to shew the Law when it selfe was not the Law So the true Orthodoxe and Catholike faith being written in the tables of the Scripture is fastned to the Church as it wereto a most beautifull piller as a most strong prop which resteth vpon it not with its owne but a borrowed strength Wherefore the Apostle in the second to the Ephesians defines the Church when in the second to Timothie hee describes it For there hee argueth from the causes heere from the effects in each place he vnderstandeth the Church of Ephesus that is a particular Church In the first place he teacheth what made that in the second what that did nor so much what it alway doth for of necessitie the foundation being taken away the Church must fall as it happened first to the Church of Ephesus and afterward to the Church
that he commanded warre to be raised wherein hee might be slaine he answeres in Tortus How the Papists may kill a King how not that Bellarmine spake not of murther which may happen in battaile but of that murther which may be committed by a royster A very honest distinction As though hee bee not as well a murtherer who at the command of the Pope doth kill the King by open force Cardinall Comensis incited Parry to kill Q. Elizabeth as he that shall doe it by secret treacherie That this Cardinall threatning warres armes is no honester then Cardinall Comensis whose letters are extant wherein he encouraged Parry with promise of reward and pardon from the Pope that hee should bring to good effect the purpose of his good spirit those were his wordes that is that he should murther Queene Elizabeth with his dagger Bellarmine proued no better to our excellent King Iames but somewhat the closer Did Peter feede the Church after this manner This is not foode but poyson Did he so guide the flock of his Master as if the chiefe belweather of the flocke went astray he would take care that he should either closly or openly be slaine Giue a Shipheards crooke to a Shepheard What hath a Shipheard to doe with a sword Yes forsooth saith he when Christ made Peter a Pastor hee made him a Prince For when hee commanded him to feed he commanded him to rule And he gaue him not only a ministery but a magistracy But good Sir the inward and spirituall gouernment is one thing which Peter exercised ouer soules by the worde the Sacraments and the keies the earthly and outward gouernment is another thing which Paul the 5 doth practise by fraude and force against crownes I pray you tell mee Calander what difference you make betweene these two and the Commentaries of the Fathers and their owne popish writers Marke the consequencies depending on this interpretation partly foolish partly wicked Peter is commanded to feede the flocke of Christ § 150 Therefore none but Peter Vpon Peter is laide the charge of feeding and teaching Therefore the honour of ruling and reigning is bestowed on him Peters dutie is to teach Kings Therefore to depose Kings To instruct Kings therefore to destroy Kings To Peter is granted a spirituall regiment therefore an earthly gouernment Whether doth hee that knits together such consequences and these are necessarily gathered out of Bellarmines interpretation seeme to be sent to the schooles or to the Anticira for a purge Charge is laid Calander vpon all true Pastors in Peter to feede and rule the flocke of Christ committed to their charge but so that they feede them with the spirituall foode of wholesome doctrine and rule them with the staffe of wholesome discipline But if Paul the 5. doe not feede the flocke but feede vpon it and doe not order the steppes of his sheepe but breake their legges and their heades truly he doth giue food and vse his shepheardes staffe otherwise then Christ appointed Wherefore I thinke King Iames would rather fast then bee fed by such a Shepheard who feedeth to that end that hee may kill and eat What other Kings doe let themselues looke to it let them laugh in their sleeues as they please when they read these foolish quiddities of Schollers but let them take heede of such wicked baites of rebellion which lurke in Bellarmines new Dictionarie Wherein To feede and to rule are 〈◊〉 To teach a King and to depose a King all one The excommunication of a King and depriuation The absoluing of sinners from sâ—â—e is the absoluing subiects from their duty § 151 Doe they not perceiue that this is the Grammer of that proud and bloody Antichrist Therefore King Iames doth willingly forsake the popish flocke that hee may betake himselfe to Gods flocke which is knowne of Christ and followeth him and flieth from a stranger For he doth not regard these carnall Cardinalls so leaden-pated in their arguing Peter is the Porter of heauen Therefore the Lord of the world Peter is a Pastor therefore a Prince Peter is a Fisher of men therefore of kingdomes A net was giuen him wherewith he may take fishes as well great as little Therefore he hath gouernment aswell ouer Kings as subiects Peter is charged to feede the sheepe therefore he is charged to feede the rest of the Apostles He is twise charged to feede Lambes therefore the Iewes and Gentiles and by consequent all Christians Do not these hange together as a sickmans dreames Doth not Bellarmine seeme to expose the Scripture to mockery when he reasoneth after this fashion against Aquinas rule who doth plainely deny that symbolicall diuinitie Bellarmine buildeth his Church gouernment vppon tropes hath any force to argue whereon for all that hee hath built the whole supremacy and doth pronounce it to be a doctrine of the Catholicke faith most plainly founded vpon the Scriptures The Philosophers doe laugh at Epicure for making the world of moates And will not Diuines hisse out Bellarmine that frameth the ecclesiasticall gouernment of tropes For truely you shall assoone finde Moores Vtopia in the world as Peters Monarchy in the text Which Article notwithstanding is fained to bee the cheefe article of the Popes Creede wherein are contained many articles aswell of superstition and Idolatrie as of conspiracie and rebellion So that Poperie is nothing else but a plaine catechisme of false faith toward God and the King For that double power ecclesiasticall and temporall § 152 which you faine to bee so inwardly ioyned to the supremacy that it cannot be separated from it you haue erected as a double engine to ouerthrow the truth of diuinity and the Kings dignity For you haue translated each of them as it were from Peter to the Pope and the Popes successour which you assume and proue not Ecclesiasticall whereby by excommunication he may binde Kings and absolue subiects not only from sinnes but from vowes lawes and oathes So by excommunication the Pope stealeth away crownes from Kings and soules from subiects while he taketh away authority from the one and obedience from the other In both he breaketh Gods will wherby the ciuill power of the Prince though he be euill and the obedience of the subiect is soundly established as I haue fully and at large satisfied you in the former Dialogue and I haue no lesse infringed the Popes temporall iurisdiction where you alleadged it In the meane while there was no reason this insolent Cardinall should tearme Kings Catholike in the faith if once they began to bee wicked vnruly râ—mmes Bellarmines sawcinesse iustly reprooued and Protestant Kings and Princes rauenous wolues himselfe being a goate and a foxe he durst not I say call them so but that hee thinketh Kings to be very patient Who if they remembred themselues to bee Kings would teach this sawcy and busie Cardinall to follow his holy studie and not to trouble himselfe with Kings affaires Neither would they
doth witnes which said my kingdom is not of this world From a possibilitie to a deed the argument is not of force in Christ much lesse in Peter O pleasant madnes of Bellarmine wherby he dreameth that the temporall power in possibilitie as hanging in the ayre is bestowed vpon his Bishop § 204 But marke the mans reason God hath appointed Christ to be heyre of all things How the temporall rule forsooth descendeth vpon the Pope Therfore if he would he could haue cast Tiberius out of his throne and Pilate out of his iudgement seate for he was the heyre of all things Peter could if hee would haue wrested Nero's scepter out of his hands for he was heyre to Christ And the Pope can if he will cast of the Crowne from the head of any King heretike or catholike if he begin to go astray for he is Peters heyre For all comes to this at last that the temporall dominion of the whole world descends from Christ to Peter from Peter to the Pope That the Pope forsooth might haue and exercise power ouer Kings which Christ had but vsed not but might haue vsed if hee had been so pleased A vant with all these foolish quiddities which inferre such dangerous consequences Austin and Maldonate against Bellarmine But if hee had consulted not only with Austin but also with Maldonat on of his owne side hee should haue vnderstood that that place was to be interpreted of the spirituall not temporall inheritance of the world granted to Christ by the Father For what he that refused the iudgement of diuiding a priuate inheritance would he take to him the publike inheritance of the whole world And he that willingly submitted himselfe to the authoritie of Pilate giuen from aboue euen to the death of the Crosse did hee shew himselfe a temporall Lord both ouer Tiberius and the whole world The power of Pilate saith Bellarmine was not ordeyned § 205 but permitted And this is the sense of the place that Pilate could do nothing against Christ if God had not permitted it As that place is also vnderstood this is your houre and power of darknesse Luc 22. but because S. Thomas saith he vpon the 13 to the Romanes vnderstandeth the place of the ordinarie power we do not disagree But that this power did extend it selfe to Christ we thinke that to be done out of Pilates ignorance who not knowing the worthines of Christ iudged him as some priuate Citizen of the country As if in our dayes a Clergie man were brought to the bar of a Secular Iudge vnder the name and habite of a Lay-man hee may be condemned by that power wherewith a Laicke may out of the ignorance of the Iudge yet it doth not follow thereby that Clarkes by law are subiect to the iudgement of Lay-men or that Christ was subiect to the iudgment of Pilate Thus far Bellarmine But Christ said that Pilates power was not permitted § 206 but giuen from aboue The permitted power was that power of darknes whereby God suffred that the Iewes should kill the Lord of Glory wherein they sinned most greiuously And therefore it is called the power of darknesse not giuen from aboue as was Pilates the Iudge which Austin called not an vsurped but an vniust power Which place saith he when I heard it to be expounded by S. Thomas of a lawfull power I do not withstand it Bellarmine contradicteth himselfe It is well that which before you did wickedly affirme being instructed by Thomas you honestly deny The man speakes out of a boate now enclining to this side now to that neither doth he somtime contradict others so much as himselfe But marke how by turning himselfe into all parts he hath found a starting hole to escape by Whereas Pilate did stretch out this power against Christ it was out of Pilates ignorance that knew not the worth of Christ As if a Clerke vnder the habite of a Lay man should bee brought before a lay-Iudge he might by the ignorance of the Iudge be condemned as a Lay-man which notwithstanding the Law doth not allow c. That which he imputes to the ignorance of Pilate Austin imputes it to his feare lest he should offend Caesar in loosing of Christ. But this may be ascribed to his ignorance that he beggeth the question Bellarmine begs the question For he takes it as granted which is in question that a Clerke may not by law be condemned by a secular Iudge though out of the Iudges ignorance he may being attired like a Layman As if he should say that Alexander the 3. being in his pontificalibus might not rightly be iudged by Fredericke the Emperor Alexander 3. but being in his cookes apparell he might by ignorance or that Bishop who bare armes against Richard the first King of England An English Bishop in K Richard the first dayes Odo brother to W. Conqueror could not be hanged in his Bishops attire but being found in a coat-armour hee might by ignorance Or that Odo the brother of William the first a very wicked traytor could not be committed to ward as Bishop of Bayon but as Earle of Kent Or that some trayterous Iesuite imagine some Garâ—et or Oldcorne could not bee hanged in his massing robes but might by ignorance being clad in a Courtiers attire I could wish rather that such Clerkes were vnknowne than knowne But he doth very vntowardly make Christ his innocencie a cloake for a harmefull Clerke that because Christ could not be rightly condemned by Pilate therefore euery Clerke is exempted from the iudgement of a secular Iudge It is as I said a manifest begging of the thing in question For I can better dispute after a contrary manner There was no exempting of the person of Christ from the iudgement of Pilate Therefore there is no exempting of Paul the fift from the iudgment of the Emperor For if Christ the chiefe Bishop was not exempted from the iudgment of the Emperor whose power was from aboue then certainely the Bishop of Rome ought not to be exempted from the iudgement of the Emperors power The actions of Christ are rules for the Pope the actions of Popes are not rules for Christ But whereas the Cardinall brings in his Clearke in § 207 a Lay-mans weede before a secular Iudge hee doth very ill apply it to his purpose For he hauing got this freedome or exemption as is taught he should not say to the Iudge that hee hath power from heauen against him but the contrary you haue no power against me froÌ„ aboue for I am a Clerke but when Christ said not this but the cleane contrary you haue power against me froÌ„ aboue he allowed not the exeÌ„pting of a Clerke vnles the prerogatiue of a Clerke be greater than the prerogatiue of Christ But you haue brought in a very dull-pated Clerke who being endowed with a priuiledge as you call it cannot vtter it that he may be safe from danger being
limitation of the ciuill to him the bond of the spirituall obedience is the disioynting and loosing of the ciuill Is not Bellarmines deceit euident enough who vnder the pretence of spirituall obedience hath taken the ciuill cleane away So he playeth the iugler Ciuill obedience taken away to deceiue the Papists sight and that with a twofold tricke One whereby he perswadeth that for the shew of ciuill obedience they thinke the spirituall may bee abiured by them the other whereby vnder the shew of spirituall obedience he cleane taketh away the ciuill Hence ariseth those new and strange interpretations § 177 of Bellarmine in the schoole of Diuinitie Bellarmines new and strange interpretations Let not obedience be shewed to man contrary to the obedience of God that is let not obedience be shewed to the King contrary to the obedience of the Bishop And we must rather obey God than men that is we must rather obey the Pope than Kings I appeale to your owne consciences ye Papists whether you thinke this to be the Apostles commentarie that in respect of spirituall obedience which consisteth in faith deuotion loue and feare of God a sinfull mortall man should be aduanced into the seat of God What if the Pope command which God forbiddeth that wee take from Caesar the things that are Caesars by Gods owne gift his sword scepter crowne subiects and life is not this vnder the shew of spirituall obedience to forbid ciuill obedience And to command that obedience be giuen to the Pope commanding vniust things against Gods obedience who hath enioyned your subiection to the King Rom 13. This ought not to appeare spirituall obedience to you but spirituall cousenage whereby vnder the cloake of spirituall obedience which the Pope hath gotten by the gift of men he loose the bond of ciuill dutie which is due to the King by the gift of God § 178 I beseech you ô yee Christian Kings and Princes whether you thinke it be for your good A caue at for Kings that such positions as these be setled into your subiects mindes That such a catechisme as this not only lye close hidden in books but be openly taught in your Vniuersities Churches There be none so dangerous trecheries to Princes as those which are hid vnder the cloake of duty and coloured with the name of catholike religion Vnder the pretence whereof Bellarmine hath cherished rebellion in the subiects of the Venetian common-weale which professeth Popery as hee hath done at this time in the subiects belonging to the most excellent King of Great Britaine A Troiane or a Tirian to him are all alike Beware ô yee Kings lest the mischiefe intended to one fall vpon all the rest Saturnine is an ill egge of an euill bird as in the proofe of the article of supremacie he is a corrupter of Gods will so in the practise of it he is an enemy of princely gouernment And as you had him ere while a manifest forger so now you haue him an open traytor § 179 Here Calander both your discourses said he the one against the Pope the other for the King giue me iust occasion of two doubts one how the spirituall and ciuill obedience is distinguished in the word of God the other whether the former Councells did cast of this spirituall power which the Pope doth generally vsurpe Which two points being briefely and plainly discust will cleare the whole controuersie and satisfie any man that is not contentious Then Patriott You do wisely Calander saith he to call euery thing to her beginning for euery thing as it is first so it is true and that which is right sets out both â—â—lshood and it selfe First therefore I answer about the distinction of the double power the Spirituall and Ciuill Chrysost de verbis Esa Vidi Dâ—m hem both which Christ ordayned I call that Spirituall which concernes the soules and that Ciuill which rules the bodies That 4. Power distinguished Christ committed to his Minister this to his Magistrate somtime to more somtime to few often to one That is called Episcopall gouernment this Princely or that is spirituall this ciuill Each as I said is of God To whom it is committed and how performed The Holy Ghost hath appointed Bishops to rule the Church of God Act 20. and Wisdome saith By me Kings doe raigne and Law-makers appoint iust things Therefore Kings doe rule by God as Bishops do feede Gouernment belongs to them Ministerie to these But these you will say haue Gouernment also I confesse it Bernard de consid ad Eug But these haue an inward gouernment ouer mens soules they haue an outward ouer mens bodies Bishops haue the key of the word and sacraments to be exercised not in the name of the King Matth 16. but in the name of Christ nor the key only of knowledge The difference of gouernment between Princes and Bishops Rom 13. Chrysost ex Paul ibid. but of discipline and that not after their owne pleasure but after Gods will Kings haue the sword to be drawne in defence of godlines and iustice whereby they command those things that be true and good forbid such as be false and euill and punish the wicked of what calling soeuer and defend the righteous The weapons of Bishops are spirituall of Kings corporall Therefore Bishops ought to teach to admonish to reproue to depriue of the seales of grace and to driue from the communion of the faithfull those that grieuously and publikely offend till they repent Chrysost ibid. Kings ought to restreyne them according to the qualitie of the offence either of libertie or goods with losse of limmes or of life it selfe Therefore the gouernment of Bishops is by perswasion of Kings by compulsion of a Bishop directing of a King constreyning A King rules men a-against their will a Bishop with their wills Jerom. al Heliâ— in Epitap Nâ—potiani Hee doth gouerne by feare this bringeth to libertie He reserueth the bodies for death this keepeth the soules for life Either of them doth punish not only theeues murtherers adulterers periured men traytors but also blasphemers Idolators Heretickes Schismatickes whether they be of the Laity or Clergie but he with the corporall sword the byshoppe with the spirituall Either of them haue equally a care of holinesse and honesty the one that he may teach by precepts the other that hee may ordaine by lawes Either of them is practised about holy things but not vpon holy things For they are not subiect either to the wil of the Pastor or gouernment of the King The King is conuersant about holy and diuine things not in the administration and execution thereof as Vzias but in appointing and ordering them as Ezechias A byshoppe is conuersant about holy things in the doing and executing of them to preach the word to Minister the sacraments and vse the keies Good lawes are made to settle truth by the counsell and faithfulnesse of the