behalf of Kingly power so they geld the Books of ancient Authors by new Printing them and taking out of them all that which might serve for Temporal Authority What he saith of Books that concern the Government is most true also of them that concern their Religion or new Creed Not one Book Ancient or Modern is suffered to speak one syllable against any thing that the Church of Rome doth teach or practise though they be such as are acknowledged even by learned men of their Communion to be corrupt or superstitious And Book that might open the eyes of the People is without fail either prohibited or gelded Even the Holy Bible as a dangerous Book that favours Hereticks is streightly forbidden the People as we have seen before in the severe Edict of the Inquisitors There are now great variety of those Indices or Catalogues of Books forbidden or of things to be taken out of them Every year likely their comes out one commanded to be admitted and obeyed in all the Christian world Where there are Inquisitors those Indices are sent to them who enjoyn all Confessors to take care about them in their confessing and absolving their Penitents And by this means they not only keep from the people all instructive good Books but they so mangle and alter those Books which they cannot keep out of their hands that at present in reading of a Book a man can no more find what the Authors meaning was but only what is the meaning of the Court of Rome who hath altered every thing as famous Padre Paolo complains and shews at large In those Indices published first by Junius and afterwards even by authority and licence we have this acknowledgment speaking of Bertrams Book In old Catholick Writers we suffer many Errors and extenuate and excuse them and by some device we feign some convenient sense when they are opposed to us Excogitato Commento sensum iis affingimus And we have these Corrections in Indices Text or Marginal Notes of several Authors which were to be purged and left out in the next Editions as being heretical or dangerous Doctrines Deus solus adorandus God alone is to be worshipped Alienis meritis operibus nemo juvatur No man is benefited by the merits or good works of another Habitat Jesus per fidem in cordibus nostris Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith Credens Christo non morietur in aeternum He that believeth in Christ shall not die eternally Justus coram Deo nemo No man is just before God Vxorem habeat unusquisque confitendo Deo peccata non homini sine scriptura divina nihil asserendum Sancta Dei Ecclesia creaturam non adorat The Holy Church of God worships no Image A Deo solo omnia petenda every thing is to be demanded of God alone by Prayer These and many the like some whereof are in the Authors themselves and some in holy Writ expresly yet are to be blotted out as not agreeing with Roman Catholicism Padre Paolo observes that they not only take away what they like not but that they also add what makes for their purpose I am sure by the Instructions of Clement VIII if they be duly observed Books that pass through the hands of the Inquisition must become as correct and infallible as his Holiness himself He directs and enjonys the Inquisitors and those whom they should appoint to repurge Authors that want it ann 1596. Qui negotium susceperit corrigendi atque expurgandi circumspicere attente notare debet non solum quae in cursu operis manifeste se offerunt sed si quae in scholiis in summariis in marginibus in indicibus librorum in praefationibus aut Epistolis dedicatoriis tanquam in insidiis delitescunt That is That they that undertake the work must not only look foreright but round about on all sides that no Bugbears lurk and lie in ambush in any corner in Annotations Summaries Margins in the Epistles Dedicatory Prefaces or Tables And these are some of the things which he saith want a purgation of Ink. Positiones erroneae schismaticae haereticae haeresim sapientes quae contra sacramentorum ritus ceremonias contra receptum usum consuetudinem sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae novitatem aliquam inducunt Prophanae etiam novitates vocum ab haereticis excogitatae ad fallendum introductae Verba dubia ambigua quae legentium animos à recto Catholicoque sensu ad nefarias opiniones adducere possunt Verba sacrae scripturae non fideliter prolata vel à pravis haereticorum versionibus deprompta nisi forte offerentur ad eosdem Haereticos impugnandos propriis telis jugulandos convincendos Expungi etiam oportet verba scripturae sacrae quae ad sensum detorquentur abhorrentem ab unanimi sententia Catholicorum doctorum itemque Epithet a honorifica omnia in laudem Haereticorum dicta deleantur Expungendae sunt etiam propositiones quae sunt contra libertatem immunitatem jurisdictionem Ecclesiasticam Explodantur exempla quae Ecclesiasticos ritus Religiosorum ordines statum dignitatem personas laedunt violant Positions heretical that have a smack of Heresie erroneous schismatical whatever is introductive of any novelty repugnant to those Rites and Ceremonies that are used about the Sacraments or to any of the customs and usages of the holy Roman Church Also new expressions and ways of speaking invented by Hereticks to deceive others And all such doubtful and ambiguous words as may draw the minds of Readers from the right Catholick sense to naughty opinions Words of Holy Writ not well rendred or taken from heretical versions except they be intended to serve against Hereticks to cut their throats with their own weapons Also those sacred Scriptures that are wrested to a sense differing from the unanimous consent of Roman Doctors be blotted out All honourable Epithetes also and whatever is said in praise of any Hereticks must be taken away As likewise those Propositions which are any ways contrary to the Ecclesiastical liberties immunities and jurisdictions And let nothing remain that may hurt or violate Ecclesiastical Rites Religious Orders or Persons or their state and dignities Heretical pravity must needs be mighty stubborn and incurable in those Authors that will not be purged and made sound Roman Catholicks by these and the like Prescriptions of which there are good store made since by other Popes Whereby we may see how we are to trust the faith and ingenuity of the infallible Church and what credit is to be given to Writers of that Communion when they treat of any matters that concern Hereticks Now in the Rules of the Sacred Congregation anno 1667. published by the Authority of Pope Alexander VII the former Injunctions are confirmed and they expresly set down in the Index of prohibited Books Biblia vulgari quocunque idiomate conscripta All Versions of the Bible in any vulgar tongue and in the Rules
justice upon Hereticks are most dearly beloved of God and all his Saints and Franciscus Sanctius de la Fuente Inquisitor and Scribe was tired with writing down what miracles hapned So that henceforth we may suppose they will rest satisfied as to this inquiry And it is no small proof that the Court of Rome as well as that of Heaven hath great veneration for the Holy Office when more than an hundred years ago more than forty Inquisitors had been made Cardinals and five had obtained the Treble Crown of Pope A Paramo tells us Nay Franciscus Ziletus tells the Cardinal Gambara who was of the Congregation of the Inquisition and makes it the superlative degree of his commendations Summis tuis meritis in supremum hunc ordinem cooptatus in quo tam praeclare te gessisti ut dignissimus fueris judicatus qui in sacro isto Magistratu Inquisitionis sederes cujus ea est dignitas meritum ac auctoritas ut summi Pontifices ex eo fere deligantur That his great merits having brought him him to the high honour of being a Cardinal he had in that station so nobly behaved himself as to be raised to the sacred Magistrature of the Congregation of the Inquisition whereof such is the dignity merit and power that for the most part the high Pontifs or Popes are chosen out of it Than which nothing upon earth can exalt higher the honour of the Holy Office CHAP. XV. The Conclusion A Few Reflections on what hath been said shall conclude all at present upon this subject And first if those of the Communion of the Church of Rome that live amongst us by reading this Book or consulting the Authorities I have cited remain satisfied that the faith and worship peculiar to their Church are such as I have described in the two first Chapters and that such severities as I represent afterwards are used by her against all that dissent from her then I would have them consider whether that part of their Religion which occasions the breach betwixt them and us depend not more on the Papal authority and be not more doubtful and suspicious liable to more objections than that common Christianity which we hold all together They may believe themselves to be in the Right mankind may be abused we see the greater part of the world are Turks and Pagans but they cannot that have conversed with us think that either our Lives or Doctrines are so abominably impious and wicked as the Papal Decrees and proceedings of the Inquisition make them Nay I expect from their Candor that they will believe we are in earnest when we protest that we have no other design in professing what we do but to please God and make our Souls happy that we would with our hearts and souls be amongst them if we thought truth were there but that after our best enquiries remaining persuaded we have it of our side we think our selves obliged under peril of damnation to own and follow it though thereby we expose our selves to the greatest extremities But if we are mistaken and they are pleased to call us Hereticks yet I would desire them to consider further whether such cruelties as their Church commands and executes against us be a likely means to make us have a better opinion of it and change our former persuasions I believe many of them have too much knowledge and humanity to approve of those violent and bloudy proceedings which we complain of But then what do they think of a Religion that doth enjoyn practice and commend them as the greatest service that can be done to God Can it be thought that the Institution of the merciful Saviour of the world allows of Croisadoes and Massacrees of Dungeons and Fetters of Tortures and Flames of all that can create horror in the minds of men and pain in their bodies and that he hath left his Vicar power to make use of them for to propagate and maintain his Faith If all the Bloudy Laws and Edicts the Church of Rome hath made against Christians of other Communions if all the means she hath used to make them miserable in the world and to send them out of it if all the Racks and Gibbets and Instruments of cruelty used by her Inquisitors if all those human Creatures she hath with great inhumanities slain and burnt alive in behalf of her Religion and to gain and maintain her Wealth and Power if all these could be seen altogether at once it would be the saddest object of pity that ever eyes beheld and an Argument which few could resist that sure Rome is not his Church nor holds not his Religion whose Kingdom was not of this world who came not to destroy mens lives but to save them and who commanded his Disciples to be meek and lowly to forgive Injuries and render good for evil and by all the methods of Patience Charity and Beneficence to win mankind to the belief and profession of his most merciful and heavenly Doctrine Here also those of the Roman Persuasion may see why now lately the belief of a Popish Plot hath been so generally entertained amongst us Some of them seem to take it very unkindly that we of the Church of England should believe any thing of it and they wonder much that we do not see how that it was an invention of the Dissenters to involve them and us into a common ruin But though it must be confessed that the Dissenters have made a very ill use of the discovery of the Plot and that many particular persons of the Roman Communion that protest of their innocence ignorance and abhorrence of it are to be credited yet it is most true that such a Plot there may be and warranted by all the Laws of their Church they themselves may have generous and merciful dispositions I will not deny it But that their Religion is very cruel as to what concerns Hereticks they must not deny When their late Councils and Popes and Doctors have made Declarations and Laws that Hereticks Princes and all may and must be destroyed by all means possible That no Pact no Promise made to them doth any ways oblige that whatever Roman Catholicks can say or do to them in order to their Ruin is lawful and commendable that what in other Cases would be Perjury Treachery and Murther when used against Hereticks is Justice and an holy Zeal that the Crime of Heresie is so crying so enormous such a High Treason against God that all that love him are authorized and â—ound to prosecute and revenge it that accordingly the Church for the propagation and defence of the Faith hath used with great success those methods against Hereticks and where she had power erected Tribunals and Commissioned Officers for their punishment and extirpation When we see this in their Books and all the world may read it there are we to be told there is no such thing or may we not believe that they that profess
Ecclesia utitur Sess 3. that they said nothing but the Nicen Creed this new one not being yet hatcht Nay even now in their publick Worship and when they Baptize as conscious of the Novelty of the Tridentine Faith they only use the three Catholick Creeds the new one is not mentioned but reserved to persecute Hereticks withall that is to damn and to destroy the Enemies of the might and grandeur of Rome For it is to be noted that all these New Articles are so contrived that they all manifestly make for the advantage of the Roman Church They establish its uncontrolable dominion over Mens Consciences they stretch and assert its power over all persons and in all cases and they bring great profit to the Roman Clergy Here you find nothing that glorifies any of Gods Attributes nothing to magnifie or explain the Mysteries of our Redemption nothing that can engage men to serve and love God better nothing to encrease the hopes or settle the peace of Christian souls All of it is nothing but the founding of the Roman Empire the Canonizing of those Means whereby the Pope and his Clergy should reign and abound in wealth Accordingly this Faith is not propagated or maintained as the Christian was by the humility meekness and patient sufferings of its Preachers and Professors but by craft and policy by might and violence Not by the demonstration of a a divine power in the working of Wonders and Miracles openly before all the world But by such pretended feats as many among themselves are ashamed to mention and to own These 500 years and upwards they have filled their Books with wondrous Stories to back those their new devices which are neither Primitive nor universally received neither contained in Scripture nor the ancient Creeds And these their Miracles are for the most part so ill contrived so absurd so private and obscure so ill attested that they confute themselves and prove nothing but the ungroundedness of those Doctrines and badness of that Cause whose interest they are brought to maintain SECT III. That this New Creed makes the distinction betwixt Papists and other Christians THis Creed is the unpassable Gulf fixt betwixt Popery and the Reformation and hath widened the breach never to be made up betwixt the Roman Church and all other Christian Churches It is not now as before the Council of Trent when many lived in the Roman Church hoping and endeavouring to rectifie what was amiss and without owning its errors Now those errors are become Articles of faith declared necessary to all mens salvation and men must make a publick profession of them and solemnly swear to them And it is become a common Maxim and a Principle on which they ground their proceedings against Dissenters Dubius in fide censetur haereticus that he is counted an heretick that doubts in matters of Faith You may not question not so much as hesitate about any Point in the New Articles neither may you interpret them or seek to give them a commodious sense as the Bishop of Condom hath endeavoured to do to make them plausible the whole Creed and Oath must go down in the Popes sense that imposed it be it what it will So that except a man truly and thoroughly can believe all this he cannot with any Conscience any ways comply with the Church of Rome or remain in its Communion And all the guilded words and promises of the Popish Clergy to them they would seduce about tolerating different opinions and leaving them to themselves are as appears by this Bull and Creed but pious Frauds and down-right lies Upon these New Articles of Faith is grounded the Worship now used in the Church of Rome Whoever believes them not must needs look on the Mass and other Popish devotions with great horrour and abhorrency and own it his duty to die rather than joyn with them in what is so contrary to true Religion and so dishonourable to his God and Saviour So that the Points of this New Creed are the touch-stone and trial of a Papist and stand as a Partition-wall betwixt him and a Protestant Whence I desire it may be considered how unjust and injurious they are to the Church of England and its Conformable Clergy that charge It and Them with being Popish and Popishly affected Some no doubt as we have seen by experience do it with evil designs and will do it in spight of all evidence to the contrary and to them nothing is to be said but God convert them Others that may be imposed upon will perhaps be satisfied when they consider 1. The constancy of our Clergy in professing that Worship and Doctrine for which our Reformers died Martyrs even in those days when they themselves were persecuted exiled and ruined for it and had all the provocations imaginable to pass over to Rome if they had had any inclination towards it 2. Or when they acquaint themselves with the many and most learned Writings of our Doctors of all Ranks against Romish Errors and Superstitions so strong so convincing that none can read them with any attention and remain unsatisfied in any Point wherein Protestants do differ from Rome 3. Or lastly If they will but compare the declared and avowed Doctrines of our Church as they are contained in the common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book and the 39 Articles with either the Canons of the Council of Trent or in short with this Roman Creed For then they shall see not only that we hold none of these Tenets peculiar to the Church of Rome and contrary to Gods word But that our Doctrines and Perswasions are directly opposed to them As for those that make Popery to consist in two or three Ceremonies or indifferent Rites they much mistake the matter and they must be mightily in love with Ignorance and Scruples that cherish such thoughts and will not read what will inform them better Any Reformed Church might as well be charged with what any man shall please for some of their Customs and Orders will be found to resemble those of the Jews Pagans Mahometans or Socinians And where the differences are so many so great so just and material as betwixt us and the Church of Rome it is strangely unreasonable to expect that we should go naked or walk upon our heads for fear of doing any thing that the Papists do It is much more to be feared lest the want of Order and Decency of Creeds and Forms of Divine Worship and administring the Holy Sacraments should open an easie entrance for the Roman Innovations to come in where there is a great confusion and a great latitude and nothing fixt and establisht in opposition to them than that we who in the Conformity of our Confessions of Faith and of a pure and holy Worship of God alone through our Lord Jesus Christ hold a constant and avowed Communion with all Reformed Churches and all Christians that keep to the Primitive Rules should break our ties and break over those bars and
sanctorum Apostolorum Petri Pauli istorum omnium sanctorum ut illis proficiat ad honorem nobis autem ad salutem illi pro nobis intercedere dignentur in coelis quorum memoriam agimus in terris Amen Receive O holy Trinity this Oblation which we offer to thee for the remembrance of the Passion Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ and in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary of St. John the Baptist of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul of these and of all Saints that it may advance their honour and our salvation and that they may vouchsafe to intercede for us in heaven whose memory we celebrate on earth by the same our Lord Jesus Christ Amen After this their offering of Christ in honour of the Saints we may well think that they judge nothing is too good or too much for them And so when they bless the Images either of Christ or of any Saint they serve them alike sprinkle them with Holy Water burn Incense to them and pray for all in the same manner Omnipotens sempiterne Deus c. O God who dost not dislike that we should paint or carve Images or semblances of thy Saints we beseech thee that this Image made for the honour or memory of thy Son or of such an Apostle or Martyr may by thee be blessed and sanctified and that thou wouldst grant to all that shall supplicate and serve such a Saint before it that they may by that Saints mediation obtain Grace here and Glory herafter Amen But to the Image of the blessed Virgin there are more Prayers and amongst them this is said or sung by the Bishop and assistants whilst he sprinkles it Sub tuum praesidium confugimus sancta Dei Genitrix nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus sed à periculis cunctis libera nos semper virgo gloriosa benedicta We flee to thy protection holy Mother of God despise not our Prayers in our necessities But deliver us from all dangers at all times O glorious and blessed Virgin So at all occasions and in all parts of their publick Worship God hath nothing peculiar to himself And every where with our blessed Saviour some Saint or other is joyned They excommunicate and they absolve Auctoritate Dei omnipotentis Beatorum Apostolorum c. By the authority of God and of his Saints And it is so in all their Ministrations while they live And when they are dying Holy Water is plentifully sprinkled and the Image of that beloved Saint they had most devotion to is set before them as the Ritual appoints and the Soul is bid to go forth in peace in the name of Angels and Archangels of Patriarchs and Pâ—ophets of Apostles and Martyrs of holy Monks and Eremits and of all the Saints And the weak man is taught to say with heart or voice Sancie Angele Dei mihi Custos assiste omnes sancti c. Holy Angel that art my Guardian assist me and pray for me and succour me all ye holy Angels and Saints And then to the blessed Virgin Maria mater gratiae mater misericordiae tu nos ab hoste protege hora mortis suscipe Mary Mother of grace and of mercy protect us from our Enemies and receive us when we die And as in their Prayers so in their Glorifications the Saints must be partners with Almighty God every where as this one instance proves enough Sacrosanctae individuae Trinitati c. Eternal praise honour vertue and glory be by all Creatures evermore rendred to the holy and individual Trinity To the Fruitfulness and integrity of the most blessed and glorious Virgin and universally to all Saints This Magnificat hath an Indulgence annext to it by Pope Leo X. and is daily said by all that recite the Breviary By what hath been said and much more which is to be seen in their publick and most authorized Books and daily practice may appear what credit is to be given to those Romish Emissaries who very confidently deny their praying to Saints or giving them any Worship in the Church of Rome But that I may not be tedious I forbear to give any more proofs to the contrary and conclude with this which is in their ordinary and allowed Manual of English devotions Thus O holy and glorious Virgin Mary I commend my soul and body into thy blessed trust and singular custody and this night and ever especially in the hour of my death I commit to thy merciful charity all my hope and consolation all my distress and miseries my life and the end thereof that by thy most holy Intercession all my works may be directed according to the will of thy blessed Son Amen It is now clear that no Christian that fears to offend God by imparting to others that honour and worship due to him alone can joyn with the Church of Rome in their publick Worship Nor possibly live in a Communion where such a new Creed is imposed as hath been seen before But therefore they make use of Inquisition that where Conscience keeps men from assenting and complying with such Errors Superstitions and Idolatries there Terror may make them submit This is that Popish Religion without which as they say no man shall live in heaven and without which if they can no man shall live upon earth Here it appears that it was not a few tolerable abuses that made a great part of the Christian world so long wish and attempt and at last with great trouble and danger effect a happy Reformation here in the Western Churches wherein the Popes Tyranny had set up and imposed his Religion Their indispensable duty and allegiance to their God and Saviour obliged them to do it The terms of Communion with the Church of Rome were hardly consistent with the profession of Christianity and were most injurious to God and repugnant to that Faith and Worship revealed and appointed in the Gospel by our blessed Saviour God must be obeyed rather than Man And no compleasance no consideration whatever obligeth any man to destroy or venture his own Salvation This was their warrant and upon this they might well expose themselves to those cruel persecutions they endured for being counted Rebels to the Pope But what is there can oblige any man enlightned with the knowledge of the truth to separate from this Church Whereof the Faith is not a new and disputable Creed but that pure Primitive and Catholick Doctrine which is contained in the New Testament and wherein God alone is duly worshipped the Sacraments of Christ rightly administred wherein there are holy Prayers conformable to Gods Word humbly offered to him in the name of his blessed Son wherein the Ceremonies are few and grave and decent fit to express and to encrease our Reverence and Devotion and wherein the great design appears plainly to be Gods glory and mens salvation What man that loves Goodness and Piety and in the profession of
domini in haeresim manifestam sint Capti That Vassals and all Subjects are free from all allegeance and duty to their Lords or Sovereigns if they are faln into manifest Heresie Nay It is proved by many Authorities and good Decretals and Reasons Quod digni sunt majori supplicio Reges Principes Haeretici quam caeteri homines That Kings and Princes become Hereticks deserve greater punishments than inferiour persons And not only if they become Hereticks but also Si domini temporales constitutiones Pontificias contra Haereticos latas servare noluerint excommunicentur omni honore officio priventur If they do not execute the Popes Laws against Hereticks they forfeit their Crowns and Dignities This is so often repeated Si Reges alii Principes Christiani facti sint Haeretici protinus subjecti vassalli ab eorum dominio liberantur And this De Haeresi damnatus non debet vocari sub nomine dignitatis pristinae A King who is an Heretick is no King and ought not to be called by that name That one that hath truly and fully embraced Popery might act and intend any thing against Charles Stuart and all the while in a sense which he believes true profess himself a loyal and obedient subject to the King of England SECT IV. Of the Authorities and Authors used in this Book MOst of what hath been said of the proceedings of the Popes and the Inquisition against Hereticks and Heretical Princes is to be met with in so many Authors and with so little variation and recurrs so often that to bring quotations for every particular would have swelled and crowded my Margin to no purpose at all when it may do as well here to name those Books which will prove what I have alledged Indeed most of it is so unreasonable so strange and inhuman that to men of a good temper it will look like the Fiction of a malicious and a melancholy brain Did many that are in the Church of Rome believe it to be guilty of such unnatural Principles and bloudy Practices as are here mentioned they would be mightily staggered in their belief of its being the pure and only Church of Christ and some would forsake and even detest the communion of that merciless persecuting party who now with a good zeal follow it and think to go right Many Protestants also would be mightily confirmed in that Profession of the Christian Religion which is established among us and would be more thankful for being delivered from under the Roman yoke if they knew how heavy and intolerable it was to such of our Forefathers as saw the Truth and desired to follow it I know it is objected that we have those amongst us who are very froward and seditious towards their Governours and upon Rebellious Principles have done very vile things But it is our unhappiness and our grief our established Church and Religion are hated and persecuted by them and were by them altered and ruined when they had power and it is clear as the light that they have their ill Principles out of those very Roman Schools which they seem so much to abhor In them are taught at large those opinions which make Dissenters bad Subjects and those which countenance the usurpations of the Popes and the cruelties of the Inquisition I profess that what I have laid down as their Tenents or Practices I have had from their own Authors and that in them I have consulted there is vastly more and sometimes worse than what I have extracted I shall be amply justified as to the faithfulness of what account I give of the Papal and inquisitory proceedings against Hereticks be they Princes or Plebeians by them shall read the Canon Law or but seek under proper Titles in the Extravagants Clementines Sexte and even in the Decretals of Gregory IX But in that vast Collection of the Pontificial Law Printed at Venice you have many Authors inserted who treat at large of all things relating to Hereticks wherein a man may fully inform himself of those Writers I have but lightly touched I cite some Bulls that are in the Bullarium of Laërce Cher. and other Collections since But to save the labour of searching into great Volumes Alois Bariola and Franc. Pegna have made a Collection in quarto of above an Hundred Bulls since the beginning of the Reformation to injoyn direct and encourage the extirpation of Hereticks all manner of ways but especially by the Inquisition And because some might say Who regards old Bulls or Decretals And what do most of them signifie that have been long out of date We must know that every thing is in force that makes against Hereticks That we may not flatter our selves Canonists frequently tell us Extravagantes in corpore juris non clausae contra haereticos editae sunt validae si constitutionibus in corpore juris registratis contra haereticos non obvient That is That all those Laws and Papal prescripts new or old some forged some of uncertain Authors that are not digested into order and have no proper place assigned to them in the Body of the Canon are of force as far as they make against Hereticks and moderate or oppose none of the more Canonical Constitutions that are against them And we know how strictly they are executed where the Pope is obeyed and how general that execution would be if he might have his will There is a Bull of Pope Paul IV. anno 1558. whereby he very streightly commands Renovari inviolabiliter observari omnes leges decreta sive statuta à Romanis Pontificibus sacris conciliis sanctorum Patrum decretis in haereticos schismaticos quovis tempore edita etiamsi in literis Pontificum extravagantibus contineantur c. That all Laws Decrees and Statutes made at any time by Roman Popes sacred Councils or holy Fathers against Hereticks and Schismaticks should be renewed and inviolably observed even such as are among those Decretals which they call Extravagants And he commands further that if they have been upon any account disused or neglected they should now be revived and brought into use again and that they should be strictly obeyed and executed against all persons whatsoever without regard to their greatness or dignity If we believe him to be in earnest we see what would become of us and of Protestant Princes had he those that could or would put his Sentence in execution These publick and in the Church of Rome highest Authorities give greater force and credit to those lesser ones of private Writings which are licensed and allowed and are as it were but Comments upon the Text Declarations of the practice of the Church that her Laws are taught and obeyed so that all those Inquisitors Fiscalis's Consultors of the Holy Office and Canonists which have written about the Crime and punishment of Heresie are to be looked upon as the Sentences of the supreme Roman Tribunal or the executions of them Lud.
of them What hapned in the Low Countries where Philip II. by fire and sword and great violence for the establishing of the Spanish Inquisition provoked the People in their own defence to undertake that long and bloudy War which cost him seven Provinces Thuanus What was done in France against the two Henries by that rebellious League which the Pope abetted and which undertook to set up his authority Inquisition and Tridentine Council These two memorable attempts in the behalf of Papal Inquisition against Heretical pravity have shed so much Christian bloud that nothing but that very power and Tribunal they were designed to promote have ever made greater effusions of it And I am of opinion that were all things duly considered and compared it would clearly appear that there have been as great slaughters outrages inhumanities committed as many Martyrs made by Rome Papist since Dominic and the Inquisition appeared as was done by Rome Pagan in the Ten Persecutions for three hundred years Rev. xvii 6. And I saw the Woman drunken with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus and when I saw her I wondered with great admiration SECT II. Of the prohibiting of Books and the Indices expurgatorii AMong the many priviledges of the Inquisitors it is none of the least that the Censure of Books belongs to them whereever they have a Tribunal by which means they keep the People in as much ignorance as they please and furnish the learned with none but such Books as tend to establish the Roman Faith and their own Authority For these two there being in those Popish Countries so very many Books so fierce and positive and none appearing to contradict them it is no wonder if persons of all ranks lie under great invincible prejudices in those Points that are disputed betwixt us and the Church of Rome whether such as concern the Faith or the Power of the Magistrates or those common Rights of humanity which belong to all mankind where we and our opinions are represented as very monstrous and pernicious and there are publick Schools and Lectures of cruelty against us and a great part of the learning is to know the accurate and established methods of destroying Hereticks and men are acquainted with nothing but what makes for the Papal Power and Dominion and these things are inculcated and taught with great assiduity and great industry and a very strict watch is had against all Persons Books or Opinions that could any ways thwart or oppose those received Maxims it must needs have a mighty influence upon the minds and persuasions of men The Officers of the Inquisition who have nothing else to do are so numerous powerful inquisitive and diligent that it is matter of the greatest danger and difficulty to print or import any Books that should savour of what they call Heresie or maintain the just rights of Temporal Princes against the Spiritual Monarch For this last saith the Judicious Padre Paolo When a Potentate hath not the favour of him that commands in Ecclesiastical causes Religion is made a pretext to oppress him Of which he gives instances Chap. 1. and amongst them that when the Pope was fallen out with the Venetians any Books that came out in Favour of the Republick were forbidden by the Papal Inquisitions under colour of Heresie It is but giving any thing hard and terrible names and forbidding all things that can be said in the defence of it and then it will be easie to impose on the People Relating to this I shall transcribe out of the last mentioned Author part of Chap. 29. The matter of Books seems to be a thing of small moment because it treats of words but through these words come opinions into the world which cause partialities Seditions and finally Wars they are words it is true but such as in consequence draw after them Hosts of armed men By forbidding Books which at Rome are not liked of although they be good and godly because they maintain Temporal Power great wrong is done to Sovereign Princes to such especially as would rule with the Arts of Peace who use Books as a chief Instrument to cause people to believe as a firm truth that the Prince is Ordained by God and Ruleth with Divine Authority and the Subject consequently in Conscience is bound to obey him and not doing it offendeth God because that the Prince by the Law of God is above every person that is within his Dominions and may lay burthens on mens Estates as publick necessities require Where these things which are most true are believed a State may easily be governed but where contrary opinions are held great disorders must needs happen But as there was always in Gods Church those who made use of Religion for worldly ends so the number of them is more full These under a spiritual pretence but with an ambitious end and desire of worldly wealth would free themselves of the obedience due unto the Prince and take away the love and reverence due to him by the people to draw it to themselves To bring it to pass they have newly invented a Doctrine which talks of nothing but Ecclesiastical greatness liberty immunity and jurisdiction This Doctrine was unheard of until about the year 1300. Neither is there any Book concerning it before this time then did they begin to write of it scatteringly in some Books but there were not above two Books which treated of nothing else but this until the year 1400. and three until the year 1500. After this time the number encreased a little but it was tolerable After the year 1560. this Doctrine began to encrease in such manner that they gave over writing as they used before of the Mysteries of the Most Holy Trinity of the Incarnation of Christ of the Creation of the World and other Mysteries of the belief and there is nothing Printed in Italy but Books in diminution of Secular Authority and exaltation of the Ecclesiastical and such Books are not Printed by small numbers but by thousands Those people which have learning can read nothing else the Confessors likewise know none other Doctrine neither need they any other Learning to be approved of Whence comes in a perverse opinion universally that Princes and Magistrates are human Inventions yea and Tyrannical that they ought only by compulsion to be obeyed that the disobeying of Laws and defrauding the publick Revenues doth not bind unto sin but only unto punishment And contrariwise that every beck of Ecclesiastical persons ought to be taken for a divine Precept and binds the Conscience and this Doctrine is perhaps the cause of all the inconveniences which are felt in this Age. Here we may see as I noted before whence the disloyal and factious Principles of our Dissenters come and by whose instigation they likely have been moved to act as they have done Our Author adds That as they condemn and persecute Books that come out in the