the third Heaven gives this plain Advice to Inquisitive Spirits Non plus sapere quam oportet sapere sed sapere ad sobrietatem Which Doctrine if receiv'd by the more speculative sort of Christians with the same lowliness of mind wherewith the Apostle writ it would undoubtedly free the minds of men bewildred in those perplexities wherein even the most learned have been inextricably intangled by too nice and curious Contemplation But so deeply rooted in our Nature is the Insatiate Desire of Knowledge that we are continually climbing above our own Level though besides the trouble of the Endeadeavour we run a hazard of falling from the Precipice and of loosing the eyes of our minds by tyring them in a prospect of things Invisible Nature hath allotted to Birds a light body fit for flying to Oxen a heavy one accommodate to the slower motion of progression the former being design'd to adorn the Region of the Air and the latter for Labour and Service on the Earth Mankind not content to enjoy the Measure of Understanding given them by Divine Providence seek to raise their heavy clods beyond their assigned Sphere by speculations of things incomprehensible as if it were free for them to out-do Nature and make a new Creation of Spirits Many admire and amidst the confusions of their admiration ask why God speaks no more to men since the Incarnation of our Saviour as he did in old time to the Israelites But for my part I wonder more that Men in these times cannot understand the Language of God as the Israelites did in times past and this wonder makes me sometimes pour out very pathetical complaints To the Israelites God spoke seldome few were the words and many times 't was on the tops of very high Mountains from amidst thick Clouds and darkness sometimes in profound sleeps cloath'd with Robes of invisible Air and sometimes with a Voice only deliver'd by some Celestal Messenger Now this Seldomness enhanc'd the wonder and Surprise in the Israelites themselves whilst they observ'd how they were favour'd at times and places by measure and proportion and they were not a little proud of these favours Those who doubt at present whether it be true that God speaks no more to Men have all the reason of the world to change that doubting thought if they will but seriously consider that God speaks now not from Mountains but from Pulpits not by Night but by Day not in Sleep but to men Awake not in the Air but in the Church not seldome but often not at some definite times but continually So that if they hear him not they are either deaf to the Voice of God or else nautiateth the great plenty of Celestial favours The Israelites boasted that God writ the Divine Law in Tables of Stone in order to the better preservation of the same and why should not Christians glory of the H. Charter written by the Apostles and Evangelists by the assistance of the H. Ghost for the propagation of Christianity God Almighty writes every day in Characters so legible that those who cannot read them may deservedly be called blind But which is worst those that are thus blind are the very same that take up a belief that in these dayes God neither speaks nor writes as he did in former Ages Whoso would understand the Divine Speakings and Desires to read the Characters of Heaven let him not be at distance with the H. Scripture inasmuch as this is the Key of Paradise and the H. Ghost hath left the same to us to declare to men what the Language of Heaven is in the New Testament The H. Scripture is the Book wherein God spoke to the Israelites and speaks still to Christians And 't is so replete with sweet expressions and wholsome discourses that 't is not possible to go away hungry from so plentiful a Table nor sick from so efficacicious a Medicine That wretched Impostor Mahomet who to blind others made himself blind forbad the Translation of the H. Scripture into the Turkish Language under severe penalties as doubting lest the Doctrine thereof being so pure and holy as it is should purifie and sanctifie the minds of such as should read it And the Roman Church permit it not in any other Language but the Latin as if the Apostles Evangelists and Prophets had written for a few and not for all men for some peculiar persons and not for the Universal Church Where can Christians of all sorts and conditions better spend the most precious Laws of the day where refresh themselves in afflictions where enrich themselves in poverty than in reading of the Volume of Divine Laws The Political Books of the Heathens which contain nothing but Secular Maximes cannot furnish us with other than Worldly Knowledge But the H. Volume which descended from Heaven brings Celestial Instruction with it whence those that read the same with great ardor find consolation in it amidst their greatest calamities end miseries The holy pure clean and simple Doctrines of Christian Religion give solace and comfort not only the most ignorant who live by direction but even the most learned who give directions to others or to express my self better they refresh and relieve not only the most learned who teach but even the most ignorant who are taught The Catholicks think to be sav'd by going to Maâ—s and the Hereticks by hearing Sermons Some of these to appear good Christians read the H. Scripture sing Psalms and say Grace at Table and divers Catholicks make Confessions to a Priest go in Pilgrimage and receive Indulgences and all this to avoid being pointed at by others by which manner of living they intimate the difference of Religion consists in nothing but in an outward and as I may say constrain'd appearance The Protestants deny not but that there are many in their Communion who lead Atheistical Lives making every thing lawful to themselves and stretching liberty of Conscience to a liberty of Sinning So likewise the Catholicks confess that many of themselves too live as if there were neither God nor Christ nor Law nor Faith in the World In this matter of Religion I find one Evil of which the Catholicks are more to be blam'd than the Protestants themselves and 't is this When Catholicks go into the Country of Protestants they not only accommodate themselves to live with the liberty of the place but assume a greater liberty of Conscience and abstain as well from some Exercises of Religion which are not forbidden as from such as are In like manner the Protestants in Catholick Countries not only abstain from reading the H. Scripture singing of Psalms and frequenting Sermons but besides making a medley of Omissions they forbear to pay their Devotions to Almighty God both when they go to sleep in the Evening or rise from bed in the Morning 'T is true the Protestants well knowing the extreme rigor of the Inquisition find themselves necessitated to dissemble their Religion for avoiding the
with a horn The Cappuchins will needs have it that St. Francis wore a Cap with a horn upon his head the Coventuals on the other side will have it a Hood or Cappuce like theirs in short these Schismaticks are so Religious in these trifles they Preach and Inculcate them into their Disciples that they may be ready upon all occasion to rifle the Arguments of the other whilst the People either out of ignorance or partiality run up and down the Streets sometimes crying up the Hood and sometimes the Horn as their affection to either side leads them The Popes by several Decrees as their Conscience or Passion directed them endeavour'd to reconcile them but all to no purpose they rather exasperated than appeas'd them Vrban the eight in compliance with his Brother Cardinal Saint Onofrius his humour set forth several Bulls in favour of the Cappuchins upon which the Franciscans took occasion to defend themselves in Print And accordingly a certain Father call'd Catalanus writ a large Volume against the Cappuchins that put all Italy into a Convulsion so as it seem'd as if the dayes of the Guelphs and Ghebelliâ—s were return'd again the Cardinals as well as common People falling into Parties The Cappuchins also though the book was prohibited to be bought or read under penalty of Excommunication publish'd several Manifesto's against it though it was Dedicated to a Cardinal Now can there be a greater or vainer Schism in the Church Yet these Venerable Schismatical Fathers of the Church will perswade you that all this is no Schism but a Virtue a laudible and necessary Vindication of their Rights under which Title they comprehend all their Schisms and Heresies The Hereticks that are now in Europe in such great numbers or in any other part of the World have not separated themselves from the Church out of any Fundamental Exception as if the Foundation of that Building was not good Oh no! They will not say so themselves on the contrary they acknowledg'd them Excellent but observing Corruption and Scandal increasing dayly in the Church they conclude the Edifice cannot stand long but by a precipitate destruction must of necessity fall and bury its Foundation in its own Ruines thereby taking occasion to insinuate into the People that God Almighty will prosper the Reformers and make their Labour and Industry instrumental in re-clearing the Foundations and re-establishing the Church He that is so curious to trace out the Original of Heresie especially those which abound in these dayes he shall find that from idle and impertinent Fewds and Disputes amongst the Ecclesiasticks which nobody regarded or if they did they look'd upon them as inconsiderable came Schism and from Schism Heresie which has multiplyed like Corn. The least spark of fire meeting matter proper for combustion kindles immediately and if not timely extinguish'd will hazard the whole City The Scandal the Ecclesiasticks give is like such a spark it seems yet inconsiderable but if not seasonably quench'd for ought I know it may put the whole Church into a Flame One of the greatest miseries I have observ'd in the Church is that in spight of our own reason and judgement we are forc'd and compell'd to applaud the Impieties of the Clergy and if any persons Conscience be so tender and so true to the Religion he professes as to refuse it he is pronounc'd a Heretick immediately and accordingly condemn'd to the Flames The Popes think they do a great matter when they raise three hundred thousand Crowns upon the people under pretence of extirpating the Hereticks in Germany and yet send the Emperour but thirty thousand of them and in the mean time they entertain such multitudes of Schismaticks in Rome whose scandalous lives disturb the peace of all Christendome Would the Pope with his Authority and the Cardinals with their Advice instead of Persecuting the Hereticks reform not only the general Abuses in the Church which are numerous but the innumerable Scandals committed by the Prelats in their Pallaces and the Fryers in their Cloisters in the face and defiance as it were of all Christian people the Church would be not only in a better condition but the Hereticks that cannot now be reduc'd with force nor perswasion would humble themselves come into the Church and throw themselves into her Arms. Some Popes are zealous for the Persecution of Hereticks but Hereticks do but sport themselves at the Persecution of the Popes and indeed the Hereticks have more reason to jeast at it than the Popes have to Persecute for in the punishing of one they do but raise up a thousand if they burn one in some place that is remote from Rome there will twenty turn Hereticks for it in Rome in short if they chastise one a thousand will be awaken'd to inform themselves of the reason and turn Hereticks too This one thing I may say that perhaps there is not a man in Christendome better acquainted with the Juglings of the Roman Catholicks or the Impieties of the Hereticks than I am I have weigh'd and consider'd them both and will boldly averâ— there is not any way more ready for the Conversion of Hereticks than the good example of Catholicks and especially the Churchmen nor better means to restrain those that in Rome it self do write against the iniquities of Rome than to take away those iniquities once for all What I say I can speak with confidence my own experience having evinc'd it Let Rome but Persecute one Tongue and she shall raise up a hundred let her but put one good Heretick to death and she creates a hundred perverse Hereticks in his place But some may ask me the difference betwixt a perverse Heretick and a good one I will declare my self by a perverse Heretick I mean those the Catholicks calls good and by a good one him that he thinks perverse The perverse one praises and flatters the Clergy in Rome and Rome in the Clergy the good Hereticks on the contrary condemn the defects both in the one and the other not out of malice but zeal not to foment wickedness but to remove it When the Ecclesiasticks do meet with any Treatise that checks and rebukes the Exorbitancy of their Lives they think not of any Reformation of themselves but cry out presently 't is the invention of Hereticks but the good Catholick that with sorrow observes the Ecclesiasticks Conversations know too well it is otherwise The Hereticks abhor me to death and why Because with Gentleness and Charity I rebuke the Extravaganâ—es of the Churchmen of Rome for they making their advantage of the disorders there would be glad to have all things run to ruine and indeed had I any design to do Rome a prejudice I would let them go on in their own wayes without giving them any notice of the Precipice A Chyrurgeon that hates his Patient troubles not himself about his recovery but he which loves him will put his Probe to the Wound to remove the Corruption I
not observing the rules of the current Stile I confess I thought the trouble unnecessary to apply my self to those niceties and punctilioes to which the writers in this age are so much addicted and it preceeded from an inclination I had to the common not a particular benefit to the Publique and not to any private Party Those who writ with so much glory in this age do it to gain applause amongst the learned because they are learned themselves For my part I am conscious of great insufficiency and that I have nothing to recommend me but an immense and insatiable desire to make my self intelligible to the most illiterate people in the world for this reason being unable to arrive at that pitch of satisfaction which is natural to all writers to see my self favour'd by the learned and receiv'd by them though as the meanest of them all I endeavour to gain the acceptance of the commoner sort by framing my self to the capacity of every body and the rather because those strangers who are most curious of learning our tongue venture not but upon such books as are easie and familiar Thou wilst not deny but the learned do understand what is easie and that the common-people abhor what is difficult He therefore who writes smoothly end plain writes to every ones understanding whereas he that is abstruce designs only to please a few Such books as these ought to be read by many rather than by particular persons though but few of the Commonalty are acquainted with such things the rigour and severity being so great in Rome no books are permitted but Encomiums and Panegyricks Many will blame me for writing with that freedom of persons of so great quality and now living and not unworthily yet I am not the only man if I were I should not I hope deserve to be condemn'd writing nothing but the truth for it would be cruelty against nature it self and the right of reason and History if verity should be persecuted If the good Catholicks will look impartially upon what I have written of the Church of Rome they will find my aim is no other than to admonish them of the errours into which the world imagines they are fallen and ought therefore to incourage and commend the piety of my design there being no greater expression of kindness than for one to advertise his friend of a Precipice which he sees not himself Neither have the Cardinals more reason to complain the whole drift of this Cardinalismo being nothing but the elevation of their authority too much depress'd by the Popes and although they perhaps will despise such advertisements as Satyrical yet have their Eminences no reason to be offended if they be made acquainted with what the world sayes of them And if from the variety of Pens which co-operated in this work they meet with any thing netling and pungent they are in all humility desired to gather the Rose with such artifice as not to prick themselves with the Bryars The Princes on the other side are most humbly beseech'd and their Ministers of State with them that they would peruse this book intentively and not make any judgement upon the information of any prejudic'd Ecclesiastick and I am of opinion if they vouchsafe to read it themselves they will rather applaud than explode it You are desir'd likewise kind Reader to excuse the Errors of the Press they are too numerous indeed yet in respect of your judgement they are the fewer for I am confident there is nothing but what your learning will correct as you read and by that means cover those defects as well as the Errors of the Author who promises for the future to write nothing but in generals without any particular reflections either upon Rome or any other place The Books which I intend to publish are L'Europa Morta and Il Christianismo Universato Farewell A Catalogue of some Books lately Printed for John Starkey Bookseller at the Miter in Fleet-stteet near Temple-Bar THE Voyages and Travels of the Duke of Holsteins Ambassadors into Muscovy ' Tartary and Persia begun in the year 1633. and finish'd in 1639. containing a Compleat History of those Countries whereto are added the Travels of Mandelsloâ— from Persia into the East-Indies begun in 1638. and finish'd in 1640. the whole illustrated with divers accurate Maps and Figures Written Originally by Adam Olearius Secretary to the Embassy Englished by J. Davies of Kidwelly The second Edition in Folio Price bound 18 shillings The Present State of the Ottoman Empire in three books containing the Maxims of the Turkish Politie their Religion and Military Discipline Illustrated with divers Figures Written by Paul Rycaut Esq late Secretary to the English Ambassador there now Consul of Smyrna The third Edition in Folio Price bound 10 s. The History of Barbado's St. Christophers Mevis St. Vincents Antego Martinico Monserrat and the rest of the Caribby Islands in all twenty eight in two books containing the Natural and Moral History of those Islands Illustrated with divers pieces of Sculpture representing the most considerable rarities therein described Written by an Ingenious hand In Folio Price bound 10 s. A Relation of Three Embassies from his Majesty Charles the Second to the Great Duke of Muscovy the King of Sweden and the King of Denmark performed by the Right Honourable the Earl of Carlisle in the years 1663 and 1664. Written by an Attendant on the Embassies In Octavo Price bound 4 s. Il Nipotismo di Roma or the History of the Popes Nephews from the time of Sixtus the 4th 1471. to the death of the last Pope Alexander the 7th 1667. Written in Italian and Englished by W. A. Fellow of the Royal Society In Octavo Price bound 3 s. The Present State of the Vnited Provinces of the Low Countries as to the Government Laws Forces Riches Manners Customs Revenue and Territory of the Dutch Collected out of divers Authors by W. A. Fellow of the Royal Society In Twelves Price bound 2 s. 6 d. The Art of Chymistry as it is now practised Written in French by P. Thybault Chymist to the French King and Englished by W. A. Dr. in Physick and Fellow of the Royal Society In Octavo Price bound 3 s. Basilia Chymica Praxis Chymiatricae or Royal and Practical Chymistry in three Treatises being a Translation or Oswald Crollius his Royal Chymistry augmented and enlarged by John Hartman To which is added his Treaties of Signatures of Internal things or a true and lively Anatomy of the greater and lesser World As also the Practice of Chymistry of John Hartman M. D. augmented and enlarged by his Son with considerable Additions all faithfully Englished by a Lover of Chymistry in Folio Price bound 10 s. Accidence Commenc'd Grammer and supply'd with sufficient Rules or a new and easie Method for the learning the Latin Tongue The Author John Milton In Twelves Price bound 8 d. In the Press this 5th of November 1669. The Jesuites Morals faithfully
contempt of their Soveraigns and inslav'd by a blind obedience of the Church For my part I think those kind of delinquencies no less than Treason and that though such expressions appear at first sight but trifles and rhetorical ornaments yet 't is not to be imagin'd what influence they have upon the people how much they inflame and enamour them with the service of the Church and how much they lessen their devotion to their Prince whilst they perswade them that their Princes are inferiour to themselves That Race of Incendiaries is fit for nothing but the fire or to be banish'd out of every Kingdom as unworthy to dispense the Oracles of God that their Pulpits may be supply'd by sober and learned men and such as will preach the Word of God and not the Policies of Man the Doctrine Christ hath left us in the Gospel and not such Insinuations and Inveglements as they make use of in their Pulpits that thereby the affection of the people may not be perverted from their Prince but that they may be inflam'd and excited to a more cheerfull Obedience Had the Priesthood no designs against the Authority of Princes their proceedings would be with more sincerity than they are and they would give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars I have known contention in more than three or four Cities in Italy betwixt the chief Magistrate and the Bishop and the occasion was that the Bishop pretended to the presentation of the Preacher and the Prince would allow none of them to preach without his License So as by reason of these controversies Lent has several times past without any News from the Preacher I call it News because their preaching is now adayes little else but Novelties or which is worse Trifles or Sacrilegious Speculations unworthy to be publish'd in any Christian Church Amongst the Protestants also there are the same differences The Clergy pretend to the Election of their Ministers and that they can do it at their pleasure which notwithstanding is not conceded by the Civil Magistrate who will not suffer any to preach in his presence but such as he chooses himself so as in a certain City I could name there have some Cures been void above two years together because they could not agree in the Election of their Preacher But from whence I would fain know does their pretension proceed If the Clergy be Subjects upon what grounds is it they would behave themselves like Princes The privilege of Licensing or Electing of Ministers is in my judgement absolutely politick and therefore pertaining to the Civil Magistrate and not to the Church to whom the power of Ordination belongs indeed but not the power to Present and in this case it is of very great importance that all Princes and Magistrates be vigilant For the end of the Clergy in preferring their Preachers in the Cities is nothing else but that seeing themselves excluded from all secular jurisdiction they would this way take their Liberty and publish what Doctrines they please It is convenient therefore that all Soveraigns should consider that the people are at their dispose and that such Ministers are to be put over them as are suitable with the Genius of the people Moses could not readily resolve to go and speak unto Pharaoh till it pleas'd God to constrain him by the force of his power Now therefore go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say However in these times the Prelats presume to put what Preachers they please upon their Princes and such sometimes as are ignorant in the Fundamentals of Christianity and that fall upon discourse nautious and unpleasant to the Palats of their Princes But of all Nations France is the happiest for preserving intirely the privileges of that Church it will by no means admit of that Ecclesiastical Grandeur and Authority which the Clergy have usurp'd in other Countries and which with great arrogance they do still exercise as if they were Princes and not subordinate at all And for conservation of the privileges of the Gallican Church the King of France loses no opportunity in the year 1626. as soon as news arriv'd at Paris that there was a Scandalous Book printed at Rome the year before intituled Antonii Sancterelli Jesuitae de Heresi Schismati Apostasiâ— c. in which he spake to the disparagement of the Power of Princes but magnity'd and exalted the Authority of the Pope The Parliament was immediately call'd by his Majesties Order and every period of the book strictly examin'd and having deliberated as was fit in a business of that importance at last by an Arrest of the whole Parliament it was Decreed that these following Articles should be Seal'd Subscrib'd confirm'd and Sworn to by the Jesuits in the presence of the whole Court of Parliament to the no small disgust and dissatisfaction of that Order The Articles were these That the King of France holds not his Kingdom from any thing but from the bounty of God Almighty and the power of his Sword That the King in his own Dominions had no Superiour but God That the Pope cannot upon any occasion whatsoever Interdict or Excommunicate either the King or his Kingdom nor in any case dispence with the Allegiance and Fidelity his Subjects were oblig'd unto him These Articles were receiv'd with no small compunction by the Jesuits whose design being alwayes to aggrandise the Pontifical Authority by the diminution of the Regal they could not advance the one but by depression of the other The President of the Parliament having demanded of the said Fathers if they did approve of that book of Santerelli's they answered no they did not being ask'd again why then their General at Rome had approv'd it they made answer That those who were at Rome could do no less than comply with the Court of Rome The President to entrap them perchance as indeed it fell out demanded immediately If you had been at Rome what would you have done to which they reply'd We would have done as they have done that are there which being heard by a Grave Person of the long Robe he spake out these words aloud I believe our Father Jesuits have two Consciences at their Command one of them for Rome and the other for Paris Venice is a place as eminent for Devotion in Religion for Piety and Zeal in the Service of God and the Church not only as any Republique in Christendome but as Rome or the Pope himself Yet when any thing is in agitation about the Popes Authority or the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction they will by no means permit the Clergy of their Dominions to Intrench or Usurp upon their Supremacy which they acknowledg'd only from Heaven and the Conduct and Valour of their Ancestors In Venice the Churchmen are Subjects not Princes 't is the Senate that Governs all with an effectual and Independant Authority as well in Spiritual things as Temporal insomuch that the Introduction of any
When Christ came down from Heaven for the Redemption of man-kind he acknowledg'd with his own most holy Lipps that he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it Now that Kings and Princes have been been alwayes acknowledg'd as Gods Ministers by the people there are a thousand places of Scripture that prove whereas the Popes can hardly produce one Text to confirm that Authority they challenge over Princes And to speak impartially and without interest what reason have the Romanists to withdraw themselves as they do from their obedience to their Soveraigns are they more holy than the Apostles are they more zealous than St. Peter or more politique than St. Paul Yet these who were the founders of Christianity as I may say and the propagators of our Faith paid tribute to Kings obey'd their Magistrates never enterpris'd any thing without leave of the Governours of places whether they went and in short have not only left us their Examples to walk by but this express praecept and command That we give Obedience to all powers for there is no power but from God The Abbot was touch'd to the quick he fix'd his eyes upon me repeated my words one after another and gave me so many tokens of his indignation that I was very well satisfy'd he could have wish'd me in the Inquisition however I took no notice and he thought fit to change the discourse and I in compliance with him took occasion to commend the Countrey through which we travell'd By this relation it is manifest what is the principal thing that the Churchmen drives at namely the ruine of the Authority of Princes and the exaltation of the Pope who is their Prince and Supreme Nor indeed can I see with what policy I had almost said Conscience Princes suffer books to be printed and sold in their Territories which speak with that liberty or rather insolence in behalf of the Majesty and Jurisdiction not only of the Pope but of all Ecclesiasticks against their own Soveraignty and such books as these are the great Volume of Sorbou Bellarmine Toletus Diana Candidus Palavicino and the aforesaid Santerelli with hundreds of other Ecclesiastical Writers whose preferrment depending upon the Church they are by their own interest prompted to such expressions whilst on the other side they prohibit books which directly offend not the Church they profess but only the Authority of the Pope and that too in nothing but what respects their incroachments upon the Civil power And in this manner the Jurisdiction of the Pope and the Ecclesiasticks and the Majesty and Soveraignty of Princes stand as it were in a ballance the Subjects of each party contending with might and main to gain upon the other and to make their own side preponderant the former endeavour daily to lighten the latter and 't were good that the Ministers of Princes would use the like diligence to diminish the Papal power lest in time it swallow up both Princes and Principalities too That the Pope should be Reverenc'd as first Minister in the Church That he should be acknowledg'd Superior to the rest of the Bishops That he should be esteem'd as Christs Vicar in Spirituals and respected as Successor to the Apostles I do hold very reasonable but that he should impugne the Soveraignty of Princes justifie Rebellion exempt four pittiful Ecclesiasticks from Obedience to their Soveraigns and excite others to the same height of disobedience is in my judgement intollerable St. Peter receiv'd the Keys of Ecclesiastical power from the hands of our Saviour and his office was acknowledg'd independant in Spiritual affairs Yet whilst he had the Government of the Church both at Rome and at Antioch he was imprison'd and several times persecuted by Temporal Princes and yet he never threatned any Temporal Minister with his Censures and Excommunications all which notwithstanding the Popes at present do not only make no scruple of menacing with their Bulls and Arms the lesser Princes that are near them but with their Armies and Excommunications they have the confidence to infest the greatest Monarchs in Europe and such as have deserved very well of the Church But the most Reverend Casuists of the Church of Rome will tell me the Pope may lawfully and with a good Conscience dispence with the Obedience a Subject owes to his Prince What has he Authority to invert the order of Nature I am certain he that fears God will not say so When Pope Vrban at the instance of his Nephews Excommunicated Odoardo Farnise Duke of Parma a Prince that had deserv'd very well of the Church he was not content to interdict him the Sacrament but he Excommunicated all such as paid him the ordinary obedience and respect that was due to him as a Duke decreeing expresly that he should be look'd upon as an Enemy and not as a Prince by this means subverting his Authority and to the universal scandal of Christendome making a Prince a Subject and his Subjects Princes Paul the fifth did no less to the Senate of Venice by the fulminations of his Interdict pronouncing all people Excommunicate that should any wayes obey them All the Historians and all the Orators in the world shall never perswade me that there can be any thing more barbarous and Tyrannical than to forbid a Subjects Obedience to his Prince to restrain the people from communicating their interests to their Prince to prohibit to a Magistrate the protection of his Subjects to chase the Judges from the Throne of Justice to shut up the doors of Churches and give Liberty to Vice to imprison Princes and put their Subjects in confusion Oh God what greater barbarity and injustice can be thought of amongst men than to bring a State to be without Justice a people without a Prince and a Prince without a people Nero Heliogabalus Tarquin Caligula and Dionisius who were in a manner the Founders and Contrivers of Tyranny never arriv'd at that perfection of wickedness as to divide betwixt the Subject and his Prince and yet this Cruelty which was too great to be practis'd amidst Barbarism is familiar now where Holiness reigns And perhaps the Divine providence has order'd that Christians should suffer more now in the time of Christianity than formerly under all the Tyranny and Iniquity of Heathenish Ages Whence it is that so many Kingdoms have been lost from the Christian Faith so many Nations have revolted from the Papal Obedience and so many Provinces have deserted the Roman Church but from these practises and actions of the Court of Rome The Protestants make no scruple to deny both the Spiritual Authority of the Pope and his Temporal too and for what reason but because they observe with what audacity and arrogance under pretence of his Spiritual power he Usurps upon the Temporal as if Christ had given him Spiritual Dominion for nothing else but the subversion of the Civil Though for my part I am far enough from thinking as they do It is one thing to
profligating and confounding those Heresies that were over-running the Church for which reason the Popes of Rome are in gratitude oblig'd to acknowledge the greatest part of their Grandeur from the munificence of that Emperour And indeed the Popes are bound in Conscience daily to pay their Tribute oâ— respect to the memory of that Emperour that gave them their Grandeur and to the present State of the Venetians that with so much pains and expence has preserv'd it and indeed were the Popes obligations to both of them compar'd I am of opinion with Reverence be it spoken to the memory of so great a Monarch they would appear greater to that Republique because though Charles indeed gave them their Grandeur and Wealth yet they could not have injoy'd either without their Liberty which Liberty they owe only to that Commonwealth All Christendome was in tears at the death of Charles the Great but the Pope above all who had lost as he thought whatever had been given him by the liberality of that Emperour nor was it without reason he was lamented for within few years the Enemies of the Church finding no impediment and the Christians grown curious of novelties there began new Heresies and Schisms to spread more fierce and dangerous than before even the Popes differing and quarrelling among themselves for the Papacy insomuch that the Church was constrained as it were to keep Councels constantly open Leo the ninth having call'd four one in Rome call'd the Lateran Councel the Councel of Pavia in Lombardy of Reimes in France and of Munster in Germany In Antioch where by the pains and vigilance of St. Peter and where he was Bishop for ten years together the Cross of Christ was set up and flourish'd with so great a number of Christians that they became emulated by their Neighbours yet after the year 400. Christianity began to stagger and the Flock of Christ to wander by degrees so as where before it was a hard matter to find an Infidel it was then much more difficult to meet a Christian to so small a number were they reduc'd and in this condition did they stand till the Christians of the West put the Eastern Saracens to flight and restor'd Antioch to her Primitive Liberty and all this under the command of Godfrey of Bollen who refus'd to be Crown'd King with a Crown of Gold where our Saviour had been Crown'd with Thorns in the year 1098. Great was the Schism in the Church in the time of Alexander the third as shall be more particularly and more properly express'd in my third Book and all of them reconcil'd either by Councels or Congregations only that which gave him the greatest trouble was an Assembly of Bishops at Pavia congregated by orders from the Emperour but by the zeal and valour of the Venetian that was dissolv'd and Alexander restor'd to the Chair in despight of the Emperour who having lost his Army was constrain'd by the Venetian to come in Person to Venice to kiss the Popes Toe So as God knows what condition the Church would have been in had not the valour of the Venetian interpos'd It would not be an easie matter to make an end of this History nor would it be easie for the best memory that is to retain them should I enumerate every particular Schism and Heresie every Dispute every Persecution every piece of Cruelty and every Mutation in the Church and the Remedies that were so seasonably and so miraculously apply'd as it were from Heaven to her afflictions And if it should be done it would be only a renovation and revivement of the memory of the antient sorrows and afflictions of the Church yet I am perswaded that as the relation and repetition of their suffering would inforce tears from the eyes of many a Christian so am I satisfied on the other side the remedies and deliverances sent down to them from Heaven would be a great comfort and corroboration to the Godly For which reason I have in my third Book in larg'd upon the miseries of the Church not so much to commemorate the unhappy and scandalous Schisms wherewith several Anti-Popes had infested it as to evince and make the Divine Providence more conspicuous to the understanding of the Devout The Clergy of Rome as well the smaller as those of greatest Dignity do believe that they endure all the troubles and burthens of the Church but those burthens as they call it are accompany'd with so much Honor and Grandeur 't is not possible to discover the trouble they pretend to lye under And forasmuch as the Faithfull do suffer most commonly by the Churchmen it may be said it is the Clergy that enjoy and the Laity that suffers and indeed one of their greatest troubles is that they are constrain'd to endure silently the insolences of the Ecclesiasticks which they commit with as much confidence and security as if Honesty and Justice and Christianity were intended for other people and not for them According to my natural inclination I had the curiosity a while agoe to read over the Ecclesiastical History and I made this observation that all the Schisms and Heresies in the Church arose either from some profound and undeterminable Disputes betwixt the Governours and Pastors in the Church or from the Envy that is too frequent amongst them or from the Scandalousness of their Lives or from the Exaltation of their Kindred or from some blind passion that precipitates the people in general and the Clergy in particular and reigns most especially in such persons as are dedicated to Divine Offices not that the Priesthood communicates any such thing to the Priest but that the Priest prophaning the Priesthood lives as he were under no such charge And this being the true Mother and Original of Schism it behooves every good Christian to apply what remedy he is able not of Councel and Admonition only because so obstinate is the nature of the Ecclesiasticks they will sooner adhere to their own wicked opinions than be perswaded by the best advice in the world but with Arms in their hands to struggle and contend in preservation of the just prerogative of the Church But since we have had occasion to speak so frequently of Schism and Heresie to prevent confusion in such as have not been well instructed it will not be amiss in this place to give some description by the bye of the difference betwixt them and not without reason for it is not two months since that a certain Franciscan Preacher a Missionary against Hereticks being ask'd what the difference was could not make him an answer Schism it originally a Greek word and signifies in our Tongue a cutting separation or division and indeed though there appears some little difference betwixt Heresie and that it is not much both of them importing such a division as tares and distracts the Body and Members of the Church that was formerly united with so much order and decorum Notwithstanding all this if we consider
the explinariness of his life than all the rest with their Religious formalities When first I saw the picture of St. Francis with a Church upon his Shoulders and this Inscription about it Vade Francisce repara domum meum quae labitur I was amaz'd especially when having the reason of it from a Father of that Order he told me that St. Francis had seen our Saviour one night in a Dream who admonish'd him in the same words to go and repair his Church And in this the cunning of the Fryers wherewith they lull and cajole the Popes and the Cardinals is seen This I may boldly affirm that that Inscription is a dishonor to them all to what end serve the Pope the Cardinals and the Bishops If this be true the Pope cannot deny but his Government is naught because he has suffer'd the Church to fall into those Errors Upon the day that is dedicated to St. Francis Saverius in the presence of four or five Cardinals and in Rome it self I heard a Jesuite Preach in praise of that Saint among the rest of his Elegies this was one That he had Baptiz'd a million and a hundred and eight thousand Souls in the Indies I wonder'd not so much at the Priest that Preach'd this as at the Cardinals that stood gaping to hear him To believe that Saverius did not Baptize more into the Faith of Christ than the whole Colledge of Apostles may I hope is no Heresie and indeed if I speak my judgement I am of opinion he scarce Baptiz'd any and my reason is because at this time there is not a hundred thousand Christians in the whole Indies So that had it been true that St. Francis Saverius had Baptiz'd so many the number would have been increas'd especially the way having been open since that time to the Spaniard Portugal English Hollander and all other Christians whatsoever But for my part I dare affirm 't is but a politick Stratagem of the Fryers to besot and inveigle the Pope and Cardinals into an opinion of their Piety and to shut their ears against the report of their Wickedness The Church is to be supported by the Zeal and good Government of the Popes and their Cardinals who are absolute Governours of the Flock of Christ and no others the Saints are to honour and respect them as Servants of God but the consequence will not hold that out of respect to St. Francis the Church should be fill'd up with thousands of Franciscans in which they do more mischief than good And if it were true that St. Francis Baptiz'd so many thousand Souls as they pretend it would be unfit to give the Jesuits that great liberty to inrich themselves as if St. Francis his Voyage to the Indies had been to have brought the Indies back to the Colledge of Jesuits But why these multitudes of Religions Why these numbers of Priests Half a dozen good Christians would do more towards the Conversion of Infidels than thousands of such as devour up the bread from the people and impoverish Princes for the inrichment of themselves Pope Innocent the tenth suspended the Superiours of all orders from investing of Fryers but the intention of that Pope not being seconded by his Successors it was not executed long before the Gate he had open'd was shut up again and it may be it was out of fear of their railing for being naturally vindicative they have more sting than honey in their tongues If the Cardinals Projectors of the several orders about Rome would take the pains but to Visit the Covents under their Charge in five and twenty Fryers they would scarce find fifteen that could read nor three amongst them that were fit to converse with an honest man To what purpose then is this loss of bread upon an unprofitable Generation To what purpose does the Church despoil her self of her own Garments to cover the shoulders of a race of people that do nothing for her interest It is the Pope is the greatest gainer by these multitudes of Clergy the Princes in the mean time lose so many of their Subjects and so much of their Revenue giving out of their own Stock to the Church whilst the Pope sucks up at long run whatsoever they give I shall conclude this Book with a Jew that was baptiz'd in Rome to whom I ask'd this Question If there were many more of his Nation converted to the Faith to which he reply'd The Jews might be easily made Christians if the lives of the Churchmen were not so scandalous I answer'd If you that are now a Christian do retain still such good thoughts of the Religious 't is a sign your Baptism has no profound root in your heart The Jew smil'd and leaving that discourse it was all the answer he gave me In the mean time let him that pleases imagine the rest I shall proceed to discourse more nearly of the Cardinals who are the Legal Supporters of the Church of Christ Il CARDINALISMO di Santa Chiesa OR THE HISTORY OF CARDINALS In III. Parts PART I. BOOK III. The Contents Which is treated of the sweetness of that Fortune that receives its original from the Riches of the Church Of the contemptibleness of Ecclesiastical dignity in the Primitive times the reason why the wealth of the Church is the sweeter now for being bitter at first That the Court of Rome is the most capable of inriching their Families and by what means Of the diversity of degrees in Rome Of the Cardinalitial dignity and its Grandeur Of the immoderate desire of Prelats to become Cardinals How much the Popes have exceeded in aggrandizing of Cardinals Of the illustrious name of a Cardinal Of the original of the Cardinalitial dignity and the Etimology of the word Of the Assistants Saint Peter had in the Execution of his Charge Of the first Titles given and conserv'd to the Cardinals Of the distribution of Orders and Degrees in the time of the Papacy of Higinus Of the distinction at first betwixt Bishops Priests and Deacons Of some reasons that prove there were Cardinals in the Infancy of the Church and that in good veneration and esteem Of the Opinion of those that would have Cardinals to be no more than simple Curats in the beginning of the Church That Religion is made by men and not by places Of the Division of Offices in the Republiques of Greece Of the manner in which the Ministers of the Church were formerly order'd Of the name of Cardinal given first to the place where they serv'd and afterwards to the person that serv'd Of the Ecclesiastical Ministry exercis'd in Caves in the beginning of Christianity for fear of the Tyrants Of the great esteem they had formerly of the Title of Brother and the correspondence that past betwixt the Ministers of the Church Of the strange Tragedies that fell often-times out in the Councels and in the Election of Bishops and the cause Of the number of persons kill'd in Rome upon a
or the Churchmen of Rome are accustom'd to call their Church sometimes the Roman and othertimes the Catholick Church the greatest part of them being unable to show any reason at all for this distinction Now the word Catholick importing universal and Roman on the other side particular it cannot be Catholick and Roman too for if 't is Roman then 't is particular and if so then not Catholick To take away this Confusion therefore and bring things to a consistence one of the two names is to be laid aside and the other retain'd and in my judgement that of Universal Church will be best to be kept and that of Roman left The Roman Divines are so troubled and perplex'd to find some new argument for proving the Popes Infallibility which I have sufficiently discours'd in my first book and have so twisted and intangled themselves in that opinion that they have no time to consider whether the Church it self be Infallible or not which would be a great ease to the scruples of the Faithfull If the Church were deriv'd from the Pope it might with great reason be question'd whether the Pope be Infallible but since the Pope hath his being and existence from the Church the question must be concerning the Infallibility of the Church There is a saying so common amongst Christians that it has past into a Proverb I know not upon what reason If a person at any time be of a lame Conscience and inclin'd to some false belief the common saying is that he has the Conscience of a Divine as if Divines had no Consciences at all which I fear is too true for they write as they think good and teach what they please but believe not themselves what they write or teach And if there were not this latitude amongst them 't is not probable they would assert the Pope to be the Churches Elder Brother and in respect of his primogeniture to be the more venerable A Prodigy I could not have believ'd had I not known it by experience for the irreverences committed against the Church being punish'd with some ordinary Correction and those against the Pope with death it is plain his Authority is the greater and he has been no ill husband of his Prerogative But this opinion is not only ridiculous as several other of their tenents are but so weak and unstable that it threatens the whole Fabrick with destruction true it is they do fortifie themselves very much with that expression which our Saviour us'd to Saint Peter Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church From whence they argue that the Church being built upon St. Peter St. Peter as its foundation supported the Church inferring and upon pain of sinning mortally injoyning the people to believe that Christ by that expression had pronounc'd the Pope chief Shepherd of his Flock and absolute Bishop of all Christian people that from that time he began to build up his Church upon the Shoulders of St. Peter and he might lawfully claim his prerogative as if the rest of the Apostles had been laid aside and had not unanimously cooperated to the common good That St. Peter was the foundation of the Church I can easily grant nor do I think there is any will deny it provided the same prerogative be allowed to the rest of the Apostles who were comprehended also in that expression and to those other Pastors and Rulers that succeeded and are still subservient in the Church And to this our Saviour alludes when he says if the Shepherd be smitten the Flock is dispers'd intimating that the care of the Church lyes upon the Ministers without which they would be but like a Flock without any body to look to them But that the Pope should usurp to himself the Primogeniture and instead of raising the Church upon himself abase it destroying the Apostolical manner of proceeding and making for himself a particular Apostleship and asserting the Church to be made for him not he for the Church is a subject worthy the consideration of all Christians because it gives occasion of so many Scruples and Schisms What should be the reason that the Roman Divines find it much easier to prove the Popes infallibility than the Churches I cannot imagine unless that observing the difficulty of finding arguments for either and yet being oblig'd to write something of Ecclesiastical matters they choose rather to indulge that vanity in the Pope who is able to reward them than to speak any thing of the Churches infallibility which would conduce so much to the ed 〈…〉 of the Faithfull who are ignorant of the matter Now every good office requiring a reward and every reward a publique acknowledgement the Divines therefore taking notice with what slowness and difficulty those that promote the interest of the Church though with never so much zeal are advanc'd and on the other side how free and prodigal the Popes are in their remunerations to such as drive on their designs hence they choose not the Churches side which is poor but the Popes who is rich and hath the disposing of all Bishopricks Abbeys and Cardinalships in his power I am of opinion and I think no body but some Sycophant Friar will deny it that if the Election into Ecclesiastical preferments depended upon the universal body of the Church or else upon each particular Member of it for example the dignity of a Cardinal upon the Consistory of Cardinals the Office of Bishops upon the Synod of Bishops and so thorough all Offices and that with the order of the same secret votes as is us'd in the Senate at Venice I am confident there would be few Divines found even of those that now with so much vehemence exalt him that would flatter the Pope but apply themselves intirely to the service of the Church And unless the antient zeal for Religion which at present is not to be found in the breast of a Cardinal do revive or Secular Princes do suddenly apply themselves to the finding out a remedy it is most certain things can never proceed but with great scandal to the Church not only amongst Hereticks who are alwayes prying and observing the actions of the Catholicks but of the Heathens also who as yet have but little knowledge of the Roman transactions Were the tongues of people restrain'd were all innovations exploded and things honestly restor'd to the Primitive way that fugitive Flock that is dispers'd at present in the Wilderness of Heresie would return to its Fold Schismatical controversies would cease the differences betwixt Christian Princes would be compos'd and their united forces be directed against the Turk In short were that absolute and despotical power in the Pope restrain'd or taken away or at least the right of Election which for five ages was observ'd constantly in the Church restor'd to the Congregations Synods and Consistories Christianity would be advanc'd Heresie depress'd and things reduc'd again to that Primitive Sanctity when every mans whole
business was the salvation of his Soul In the Primitive Church the Popes as may be seen in their lives did not intermeddle or pry into any bodies actions but for the advantage of the Church that the Bishops might be holy in their conversations as their function was holy and the Sacraments administred with decency In those dayes the Bishops made the Election to vacant Bishopricks and by degrees came in Cardinals who also had the creation of Cardinals There was no discourse then but of the miraculous Sanctity of the Popes No importunity of their Kindred pressing and soliciting them to turn out such a good man and advance a much wickeder to his place It was then the Glory of the Pope to be call'd the head of the Christian Common-wealth and indeed the Counsels Consistories and Synods having the Election of all Officers and the disposal of all Dignities it was no other but a Commonwealth but how the present Writers in their Volumes can call Christendom a Republick I cannot understand whilst it is enslay'd to his Holiness and under the Tyranny of his Arms Excommunications and Inquisitions and forc'd by the irrational opinions of Priests to an adoration of the Pope in Rome as if he were a God in Heaven It were much to be desir'd and would be much to the advantage of the Church if that motu proprio or Arbitrary power of the Pope were taken away Christendome reduc'd again to a Republique and the Church set once more at Liberty I mean if the Election of Cardinals were performed as secretly as possible in the Consistory by the Cardinals themselves and so that of Bishops by a Provincial Synod to be call'd upon the death or translation of any of them or if that should be too expensive by the Consistory of Cardinals and not left to the single disposition of the Pope who regards nothing but the interest and satisfaction of his Family When Judas his place amongst the Apostles became void St. Peter from whom the Popes derive the power of the Keys proceeded not to the nomination of another himself or declar'd his Successor without more adoe but he call'd the Colledge of Apostles together by whose Lots St. Mathew was chosen to succeed him without any mention of St. Peter or of any bodyes Preceedency there The Apostles were all first and all last without any difference of priority But this Chapter is left out of their Bibles they will read nothing but for their own advantage And this is manifest because when a Cardinal dyes the Pope calls not the Colledge of Cardinals together to create a Successor but in spight of the example of the Apostles in spight of all Justice and Equity he chooses one himself and declares him Cardinal usurping in this manner the right of the Cardinals who are Successors to the Apostles also and to whom that right of Election doth belong This inconvenience seems at first sight very hard to be remedyed but upon serious consideration it will be easie For in the vacancy of the Chair when they are Absolute and Supream when the Church is a kind of Republick and all the Jurisdiction is in their hands what should hinder them if they had any regard to their lawfull and just Privileges from resuming that power which they have been robb'd of and constraining his Holiness to confirm it Would the Cardinals but once undertake this those Princes that have any zeal for the liberty of the Church would not fail to undertake it too and second them with Arms upon occasion as the Emperours both of the East and West have formerly done then they might new model the Laws settle the preceedency of the Synods and Consistories before the Pope as it was in the Primitive dayes renounce the Popes Decrees and establish their own declare him as an Apostle indeed amongst the rest of the Apostles but not as a God and in short clip the wings of his Authority so as to leave him Head only of a Commonwealth Nor indeed were this well executed would the Popes have any reason to complain for what can they pretend but that they be allow'd as much Authority as St. Peter had and why should not the Cardinals have as much as the rest of the Apostles whose true Heirs they are if the Pope therefore be as St. Peter why should not they be as the rest of the Apostles I have said before that to fill up the vacancy that was made by the Treason of Judas St. Peter did not by his Papal Authority make Election of another but by the Prayers and Assembly of the rest of the Apostles who were as it were the Pilots and Steers-men in the Ship of the Church Moreover Christ being dead St. Peter could not hope for any greater Authority than he had left him in these words What thou bindest on Earth shall be bound in Heaven so as from that time he had power to exercise his authority which say they was to preside in Elections to command in their Assemblies and to exercise over the Apostles the same authority which the Popes do now over the Cardinals But in those dayes things were well manag'd however they go now Then the Church was truly Apostolical and obedient exactly to the Laws of the Apostles now it is Roman and conformable only to the Interest or Capriccio of the Pope St. Peter then had no money to distribute nor no offices to bestow and therefore there were no books nor no Authors to be found that flatter'd him or attributed more to him than Christ had given him now they are so rich and have so many preferments to bestow that they can debauch their Divines and make them write as they please In that age there was nothing but poverty and piety in this there is nothing but craftiness and wealth then there was nothing but Christ in the thoughts of St. Peter and the Apostles and now in the Popes minds there is nothing but their Nephews It is not to be found in any place of the Scripture that St. Peter commanded the rest of the Apostles or that they acknowledg'd him head of the Church or Superior to themselves Whereas on the contrary 't is to be seen in the Acts of the Apostles that Peter was sent by the rest of the Apostles in the company of St. John to preach the Gospel in Samaria and St. Paul not only writes that he was not esteem'd inferiour to the best of the Apostles but he went up and down ordering all things as he thought necessary for the advantage of the Church without communicating any thing with St. Peter of what he judg'd convenient to do Things being so upon what grounds is it that the Popes keep the Cardinals at that distance Christ recommended his Church to the Apostles in general without any exception as appears by those words in St. John As my Father sent me so have I also sent you and whose sins soever you pardon shall be pardon'd and again in
the examination of New Bishops was instituted by Clement the eight of happy memory who examin'd several persons himself especially if they were towards the Law for the Professors of Divinity were examin'd by Bellarmine only This Congregation is held alwayes before the Pope in the presence of eight or ten Cardinals a certain number of Prelates and some Theologists of several Opinions in which all persons the Pope intends to promote to Bishopricks are examin'd but it is to be understood the Bishopricks belonging to the Church in Italy for the rest are not subject to the jurisdiction of that Court The Person examin'd kneels upon a Cushion before the Pope and all that are present in the Congregation have power to examine him after he is examin'd and approv'd it is entred into a Book that the Secretary of that Congregation keeps that that person has been examin'd and if it happens he be remov'd to any other Church he need not be examin'd again If one has been Bishop in some Foreign Province never so long and by accident is translated to some Bishoprick in Italy he must submit to the examination of that Congregation except he be a Cardinal for they are exempt from all examination when they are admitted to any Church But here it is to be understood that though they be examin'd and approv'd they are not immediately Bishops The person design'd makes profession first of the Catholick Faith before the Cardinal chosen by his Holiness to propose him to the rest of the Cardinals that done they give an Oath to the Witnesses that are to be examin'd about the State of that Church and about the quality extraction and custom of the person design'd to be Bishop of that Church that past the Cardinal gives order to his Auditor to make Protess which is presently drawn up either by the Cardinal Vicars Notary or the Auditor of that Chamber whilst they are drawing the Process the person recommended is to produce the Testimonies of his Doctorship and after that what other privileges he has as Patents Depositions or Testimonials from him that Ordain'd him which are very proper and will much facilitate his dispatch After the Testimonies they are to swear they were born in lawful Marriage and that their Parents were not suspected for Hereticks and that he is above thirty years of age according to the Canons of the Councel of Trent After this there are other Witnesses examin'd about the State Revenue and quality of the Sea in what Province the City is whether it be immediately subject to the Apostolick Sea or the Suffragan of some Arch-bishoprick what Lands or â—owns there are within its Diocess how many thousand Souls how many Monasteries there are how many Reliques of Saints how much the Church yeilds yearly how many Clerks how many Canons how many Colledges or Schools how many Covents of Monk how many Priests how many Steeples Bells and such like things The Presentation being finish'd the Cardinal Ponente which is he the Pope chose to present the person subscribes it and then gives it to the three principal Cardinals of that Order who having perus'd it subscribe it in like manner and return it to the Cardinal Fonente where it remains In the next private Consistory he publishes it and in the next he presents him and recites in a short Latin Speech the whole contents of the Process but before the Cardinal Ponente assigns his Church the Provost gives two blanck Schedules to the Auditor of the Sacred Colledge at the instance of the person Elected in which he promises to pay the Cardinal Ponente the Sacred Colledge the Reverend Chamber and all the Officers of the Chancery all that is due to them for the dispatch of that business The day before the Consistory for determining the Cardinal Ponente sends a memorial to all the rest of the Cardinals in which he succinctly recites the manner of the whole Process to the end that if any Cardinal could make any exception he knew against whom he was to speak and as soon as the Presentation is over by the Cardinal Ponente the Pope turns to the Cardinal Deacon and demands if he has any thing to say to the contrary if he has any he declares it if not he rises up sayes no and approves what the Cardinal Ponente has done and so his Holiness decrees and gives the person that Church which is enter'd immediately into a Note by the Cardinal Vice-Chancellor and Seal'd with his Seal Upon this Decree the Cardinal Ponente draws up a Schedule Subscribes it with his own Hand and Seals it with his own Seal and by virtue of this Schedule and another which they call the Counter-part under the Hand and Seal of the Cardinal Vice-Chancellor the Bull is immediately dispatch'd The Cardinal Ponente receives ordinarily as his Right fifteen Ducats per Cent. out of the Chamber of all the Revenues of that Church that person is recommended to if he be presented by the Pope himself the said sum is to be paid to the Colledge of the Apostolick Secretaries if one be presented by a Cardinal that has not been formerly in Rome the Cardinal is to pay the fifteen per Cent but if the Cardinal be present or has been in Rome he is freed from that payment The person presented stirs not out of his house that morning but shaves his head and after Dinner puts himself into his Pontifical Habit like a Bishop with his black Hat Hat-band and a green welt about the brims After this he is to go into the Popes Pallace where introduc'd by the Master of the Chamber he is to kiss the Popes foot who with his own hands puts his Rochet over him such a one as the Bishops are wont to wear of their own The new Bishop is then to visit the whole Colledge of Cardinals and without any order or precedence he may visit them next he thinks most convenient provided he begins with the Cardinal Deacon Those that are presented to any See out of Italia are oblig'd to all these things but examination and if they be absent they do all per procuratorem The Cardinal Deacon is head of the Congregation de negotii Consistoriali but having no particular business only such things as his Holiness particularly refers to them which are usually renuntiations of Bishopricks the Taxes of the Church and such things they meet but seldome This Congregation is call'd by the Cardinal its head and held in his house In all the aforementioned Congregations there are several Cardinals sometime more sometime fewer as we have said but the greatest number of all is in the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars where there are sometime four and wenty present Every Congregation has its particular Secretary whose care it is to draw up the Orders exactly to the Decrees that are made in full Congregations every Cardinal Subscribing them and Sealing them with his own Seal But it is to be understood that when
in the Sacred Colledge it must of necessity be granted that the Popes are inferiour to that Councel so that the Cardinals as Members of a Supreme Councel and depending only upon the power of God and the protection of Princes are oblig'd to constrain the Popes to an obedience of those Councels that proceed from that Councel that indeed is natural But the Cardinals will not understand this but turning the Natural Councel into a Bastard they advise nothing that in their Consciences they think necessary for the Service of God for the Honour of the Church or the Repose of the Faithfull but only sift out the Councels Advices Sentences and Opinions of their Popes and then making their Decrees as they desire them they take but little care of the rest not that they want good will but courage and audacity to put that good will in execution which is a thing so prejudicial to their Grandeur that it detracts and lessens their dignity This I am sure of that would they once take up a resolution of resuming that authority they formerly injoy'd and renounce the Tyranny of the Nephews the greatest Princes of Christendom would take their parts and provide them with all manner of assistance But let us see the Cardinals Answer to the Kings Letter which in my judgement will not improperly be inserted in this place Most Christian and most Royal Sir I Am very sensible of the transcendant favour your Majesty has done me in vouchsafing to impart to me your resentment for the unhappy accident betwixt the Corses and certain of the Duke of Crequy's train besides the honour you have done me by the benigne confidence express'd in your Letter and by the mouth of Mr. Burlemont your Majesty has also given me occasion with all reverence to represent the great displeasure conceived by our whole Court but more especially his Holiness in whose heart there is already so great an impression of esteem and so tender an affection for your Majesty produc'd and augmented by so many glorious actions so many perpetual testimonies of your Valour and Piety in demolishing the Garrisons of the Hereticks and shutting their Churches in places under their command so that his Holiness could not evidence with more paternal demonstration the disgust that action has given him which he has not only declar'â— publiquely in his Briefs upon that occasion but in the Consistory also and in his private discourse but much more in his actions bending all his thoughts to your Majesties satisfaction as he has alwayes designed I hope therefore your Majesty with your wonted generosity will reflect upon the just motives and remain satisfied even for the intire quiet and consolation of your Servants amongst which I being not inferiour to any in point of observance neither have nor will fail in my obedience to your Majesty nor in imploying my self to the utmost of my abilities in your Majesties Service On the other side likewise I shall rejoyce if in your Majesties resolutions your Majesties Royal Bounty and Prudence does more and more shew So that to make me perfectly happy there remains nothing but your Majesties fresh commands which I most obsequiously do beg of your Majesty and make my most humble Obeisance Rome the 24. of Sept. 1662. Had these Cardinals have been to write in Paris as they were in Rome the Letter would perhaps have been otherwise and not have flatter'd his Holiness as it did and indeed in any publique Conflagration people run with water and not with wood Yet it is no such wonder to me that the Cardinals sided with the Pope as that they rob themselves of their authority and make show of certain independency giving the world to understand that the composure and accommodation of the business belong'd wholly to the Pope There would not so many scandalous offences be committed in Rome there would not be so many Murthers in the State the Church would not be haâ—raâ—'d as it is nor thousands of Families run away from the Tyranny of the Popes the Court would not swarm so much with dissolute and ignorant persons nor the people be so deplorably miserable Virtue would not be banish'd the Vatican nor Flattery received into the Capital Miters would not be bestow'd upon Asses nor Monkeys introduc'd into the Colledge Caps would not be sold at that rate nor Offices conferr'd upon him that bids most in short all things would go well if the Cardinals would exercise the authority that God has given them and not depend upon the Humour and Capriccio of this Nephew or of that did the Popes see the Cardinals vigilant over their actions were they sure of their diligence and sincerity towards the well governing of the Church they would consider of it a hundred times before they would call their Kindred to Rome and put their whole Dominion into their hands they would make many a serious reflection before they would disoblige any Prince and not suffer themselves to be drawn by their Nephews into the displeasure of one or the other But in short if they meet no impediment if they see the Cardinals loytering and asleep why should they go about to satisfie their wills Whilst the Popes are sure to have the Cadinals Canonize their errours why should they forbear to commit them I shall tell one Story very lamentable for the Catholick Church though in this only that it makes sport for the ignorant and pragmatick Hereticks for those of better judgement are troubled at any misery that befalls the Catholicks and which is more do give God thanks when he delivers them from any extraordinary calamity but because what I am about to say is sufficient to break a mans heart I shall for this reason accompany it with such examples and arguments as I have been able to draw from the discourse of some persons it was my fortune to be amongst and particularly two Divines but both marry'd which is enough to prove they were no Catholicks These two reading of a Gazet one day do not wonder kind Reader if I say they were reading a Gazet for we live in an age in which the Ecclesiasticks spend more time about the affairs of the world than about their Sermons and of this sort I knew one my self that in publique was reserv'd and grave and in company a very honest man however he privately translated out of Italian into French a book so Prophane and Satyrical that even the worst of Christians are afraid to read it these two Preachers then being reading a Gazet in the time of the vacancy of the See they found in it That the Cardinals had concluded upon certain Ordinances and Rules to be observ'd by the Pope when he shall be created and that they had propounded in the Vestry of Saint Peter the abolishment of the Nipotismo One of the two which was he that was attending with a grave voice that seem'd to proceed from a heart full of zeal said God Almighty remove those good thoughts