plaintiffs or defendants in criminall cases inhibits Churchmen to runne that course to the end they might avoid the danger of running into the state of irregularity Non permittente Episcopo when the Bishop gives no way to the said course This practise I grant is still in use and to this day goes currant But what force what vigour what sinew is in this moderne practise to prove distinction of Court in the Primitive ages and times Nay it rather inferres the contrary that doubtlesse then there was not any other Court authorized besides that of the secular and temporall Magistrate unto which in as much as Churchmen were to have recourse in criminall cases for feare of incurring irregularity the said Councell hath taken due care and order for the Bishops good care and free consent And this jarres not with my doctrine but jumpes with it hand in hand besides the said ancient Councels were called and held alwaies with consent of the secular Prince and yet all this here spoken is no demonstrative proofe of your pretended distinction 7. The Câ—non of the third Councell held at Carthage speakes not in your language affords no such matter as you insert and inferre makes no distinction of the judiciall Court It layes inhibition upon Bishops and Churchmen after the controversie once is on foot before secular Judges or christian Arbiters at no hand to cast off and relinquish the said Aâ—biters but rather to labour for the deciding and knitting up of such controversie without seeking to any other competent Judge not agreed upon by both parties to rest in their finall determination and arbitrement for the better averting and avoyding of scandall or offence For the better conceiving of this Canon it is to be understood that Christians in the Primitive Church came to agreement in certain controversies growing betwixt parties and with reciprocall or mutuall consent made choise of Infidell or unbelieving Arbiters a fault for which the Apostle Paul somewhat roundly and sharply tooke up the Corinthians in these words Secularia igitur judicia c. If then yee have judgemènts of things pertaining to this life set up such in the Church as are contemptible or at loast esteemed to give judgment I speake this to your shame is it so 1 Cor. 6. that amongst you of the Church there is not one wise man Not one that can judge the causes of Bretheren These words are not very many as all men see and yet do minister diverse matters to be considered As that Paul here speakes of secular busines and temporall causes item of such Judges as by any one might be chosen and appointed of indâ—fferent arbitrators men without any Presidentsh p or commission in tribunals or Courts for he saith Hes constituite set yee up such c. Item the Apostle speakes not of chusing and setting up Bishops in these cases but of such as were of no great ability or sufficiency for the discharging of the said good office men whom there he calls Contemptibiles men of no speciall regard or estimation of which Apostolicall text Chrysostome hath given this excellent exposition Apostoli talibâ—â— non vacabant c. The Apostles themselves never troubled their heads never busied their braines they were at no leisure to deale or to take any paines about litigious occurrents between party and party or about secular judgements their whole Ministery was imployed and spent altogether in travailing through all Nations and teaching in all places where they went but men of the more discreet sort and ranke howsoever otherwise they were men of the meaner condition and lesser merit had the managing or working upon things of that nature And so S. Gregory according to the glosse Terrenas causas examinant c. I advise that men of discretion in outward matters may fift and bolt out causes of worldly nature as for men of endowment with spirituall and heavenly gifts of another element and more transcendent efficacy and power they are not by any meanes to intangle their mindes or to be taken like wild and untame Deere in the strong toyles of terrene matters too farre out of their proper element Item S. Paul what power and authority soever he was armed withall and by some it is thought with Papall power saith not I set up or I appoint but referring such matters to the parties interessed themselves he saith see that yee set up be it your own act and ordinance Nor speakes he of Priests or of priestly orders or of Bishops but in a generall comprehension he speakes of the faithfull who had no exemption from the Princes Tribunals at least seculars according to the opinion of all were not exempted Now this was practised in Africa but whereas many Prelates Bishops and Church men when they first practised this course commenced a new course afterwards by recourse to secular and competent Judges the Councell therefore to meet with so great a mischiefe made that ninth Canon by you cited before in this tenour and stile Item placuit ut quisquis Episcoporum c. Wee moreover appoint and ordaine That whensoever a Bishop Deacon or Cleric charged with any crime and sued in any civill cause shall decline and forsake the Court ecclesiasticall or shall seeke to purge and quit himselfe in any other Court of public judgement he shall then be deprived yea though he carry the cause and winne the day by sentence of his dignity and place if the judgement be criminall but in case it be civill he shall then loose the cause if he mean to preserve and keepe his dignity For he that hath free liberty to make choise of his Judge where he lists himselfe and best likes declares himselfe to be unworthy of the ranck and fellowship of Christian bretheren when he carries a sinister partiall and prejudicate opinion of the Church not forbearing to crave the helpe and favour of secular judgement whereas the Apostle commands the causes of private Christians to be brought to the cognisance of the Church and there to have both full and finall determination which words make evident demonstration of diverse points First of all that you Hetrodox have slily sought to put out mine eye with a text or Canon of this councell which you make but a plain Curtall with a Manâ— undecently shorne with a â—â—it nose and cropt eares as if it had stood upon some Pillory lime and limping besides of the neâ—re lâ—g before Secondly That in this Canon there is no mention at all of any public Court of any competent Judge or of any Prelate but only of Arbiter Judges of seculars and of private judgement Thirdly That by the said Councell it is carefully provided and ordained that whensoever Churchmen shall give any public offence or open scandall then they are to be punished with deprivation and lossâ— of their Free-hold Fourthly and lastly that in the Canon there is couched no expresse precept or direct charge for chusing the said Arbiters when the
civill Court thus farre Iustinian In which first part of the Emperour Iustinians Novel I may not passe diverse points untouched this for one That Menua is glad to come on his knees and to make humble suite for this priviledge then surely his Churchmen had no such exemption before from God himselfe or Iure divino by Gods law for had the good Patriarch had that string to his Bow by Gods holy Ordinance or constitution doubtlesse his humble begging and earnest Petition for this humane priviledge had been by his leave and yes too Hetrodox no better then direct and voluntary rushing into sinne This for another that Iustinian grants not Menua the Court in any absolute straine or terme but only allowes him to give judgement or sentence without any clamorous noyse and without any formall instruments in writing a course clean contrary to modern practise in our Ecclesiasticall Courts where commonly more clamour and noyse more Advocates Proctors Notaries more Offices and Ministers more chargeable Fees are paid for Transcripts breviats Bookes and such like instruments then are in Courts of secular justice This for a third that Iustinian puts down the reason whereby he was induced to grant such priviledge to wit that Clerics not disquieted nor disturbed with clamours and noises of Courts might more diligently and freely attend upon their divine offices and Ministeriall Functions This for the fourth and last Iustinian grants no absolute but only conditionall priviledge The second point observable in the Novell that in criminall causes of civill nature and kind meerely temporall without any smack or rellish of spirituals which Couaruvias expounds in these words Quae spiritualia non attingunt such as touch not the hemne of the spirituall garment Church-men within the City of Constantinople shall be tryed and judged by competent secular Judges and through the whole Empire besides by the Prefects or L. Presidents in their severall Provinces and that moreover with a certain limitation or stint of time namâ—ly that within the tearm and space of two moneths the matter shall be drawn to a head and shall come to a finall issue or end and that sentence being once sped or passed against a Cleric by the L. President of any Province the President shall not proceed to execution before the said Cleric is degraded and quite divested of his priestly or sacerdotall dignity by the Bishop according to the laudable custome and usuall manner in such cases The Emperours own words are thus directly couched in the Novell Si tamen de criminalibus conveniantur c. but if a Church-man be convented or brought Coram nobis upon some criminall cause of a civill nature that is to say such as no way hath dependance or correspondence with Ecclesiastic Regiment or Church-discipline in such a case he shall come to tryall within this imperiall City before competent Judges and in all the Provinces before the most honourable Presidents of the same provided the suite depend or hold not above two months after the Actor hath put in his Declaration and the Reus his Answer or defence that so the suite may have the shorter cut and the more expedite dispatch And in case the President shall find the party impleaded to be guilty in the action and thereupon shall adjudge him to undergo and suffer the punishment ordained and inflicted by Law then the party so judged shall first be deposed from his Priestly Orders and Church dignities by the Bishop beloved of God and after that he shall come under the hand or suffer the penalty of the Lawes In which words likewise divers points are to be observed viz. That some offences criminall are meerely civill meerely politic no way within compasse of spirituall respect or consideration that crimes and offences of such nature are tryable and punishable by temporall Magistrates that Churchmen for the said offences may be sentenced and condemned to death by a temporall Judge that Justinian bindes not himselfe or his LL. the Judges within the City of Constantinople to cause a Priest or Cleric first of all to be degraded and after to be transmitted over into the hands of civil Ministers of justice but in such case he binds only the provinciall Presidents himselfe as the Soveraign and the Judges in Constantinople as his Commissioners Delegates or Subaltern Magistrates remaining exempt and free from such obligation to give order for the degrading of such Delinquents before execution that sentence of the secular Judge must precede and then degradation is to follow before execution for Manus legum the hand of the lawes is the executioner of haut justice from whence it is directly to be deduced that Hetrodox hath drawn but a sinister left handed untoward and perverse construction of Iustinians Novell in bearing us in hand that Churchmen for offeâ—ces and crimes of this nature are first forsooth to be judged and withall to be degraded by the Bâ—shop and after to feel the weight of the secular arme for faith Hetrodox Et tâ—nc sub legum fieri maâ—â— and then to undergo the deadly stroake of the law whereas without all ambiguity the great and learned Emperour speakes in perspicuous tearmes and sayes that a definitive sentence of the secular Judge shall precâ—de degradation by the Bishop shall second execution of the sentence shall follow in the Reare and yet withall that such course of proceeding shall be only held in the Provinces and not in the imperiall City The third point or branch of the said Novell that in case a Clerics offence be of Ecclesiasticall nature namely such as requires and calles for justice by some ecclesiasticall censure or penalty thâ—n the punishment shall be inflicted and the penalty awarded according to the divine and sacred rules or Canons which in such cases the lawes imperiall do not hold it any abatement or disparâ—gement of their honour to follow The Emperours proper words runne precisely thus Si vero Ecclesiasticum siâ— delictum c. But when the offence is meerely Ecclesiastic such as requires the censure and correction of the Church then shall the Bishop beloved of God take due contemplation of the nature quality and merit of the offence the right honourable Judges residing and exercising their charge in the severall Provinces shall beare no hand and strike no stroake in the busines neither as head nor foot for it is not our pleasure or mind at any hand that civill Magistrates take any cognizance at all of such cases because they are to be sifted scanned and tryed by ecclesiasticall proceedings and the faults of delinquents in that kind are corrigible only by Ecclesiastic censures according to the sacred Canons which our lawes imperiall do not disdaine to imitate In which branch or context of the Novell these few heads come in like manner to be observed that some offences are meerly ecclesiasticall and annexed to the clericall order that when the holy Canons and sacred Scripture make it lawfull for Prelates to inflict and
partly Excommunicate to reduce and bring them unto the lap of the Church and now behold they departed from the Faithfull unjustly excommunicated and interdicted Fiftly that if all the Religious had followed the example of those few in abandoning their Pastorall charges the Venetian Dominion should have beene left for a Country of Paganisme without any Priests that Woolves at pleasure might have run together on heaps to woorrie and to glut their paunches with the blood of the silly sheepe and Lambs of Christ Last of all the occasion of this great scandall was augmented by some temerarious and over-confident Bravodoes in speech cast out by the said Religious that his Holinesse the Pope is the Monarch of Christendome and ought in all things whether Temporall or Spirituall to be obeyed by whomsoever These are scandals to speake truth inexcusable which in case they doe not spring from the blindnesse of those by whom they are given it may well and truly be averred their Actions are so much the more culpable and the more to be condemned 4. You grant obedience to the Naturall Prince and concurrence in his Defence is by Gods Law and the holy Fathers sentence by mans Law and neverthelesse without any reason you denie the consequence that Subjects have done well and taken the right course in obeying their Prince rather then the Sentence of the Pope The instance which you induce is of no more force or weight then your first Answer For thus you inferre If it be according to Gods Law for Subjects to defend the Liberty of their Naturall Prince on Earth much more it is according to Gods Law to defend the liberty of the Church the Spouse of the Prince in Heaven It is a true Inference I confesse but nothing pertinent or proper to the present case because the Lords of Venice never pretended to rob the Church of any Right or Libertie whatsoever For the Lords leaving all things in their entire strength doe enact most just Lawes and ordinary judgements touching Delicts and Goods which are subject unto their power This they have alwaies done time out of mind and yet never anie of this present Popes predecessors hath taken stomack against our Lords for such their Acts but rather by connivance or tacite silence hath yeelded gracious consent to their just operations So that in Venice there being none that goeth about or seeks to deprive the Church of anie Libertie how can the Ecclesiastics there have anie occasion to defend the said Libertie 5. You againe confound the word Duke and the word Prince The Duke doth not anie thing of him selfe in the Venetian State the Prince that is the Republic sets downe all Orders the Prince makes all the Lawes To what purpose then should you seek to draw the person of the Duke into any odious hatred by putting the Duke to be the Author of those Acts which are to be attributed unto the whole Republic as unto the true Father and Mother of the said Acts. 6. You affirme the Prince of Venice commits to prison such as have ho ranke amongst his owne Subjects The contrary hath been already proved that Clerics in grievous Delicts which touch not so much as the hemme of Spirituals are not exempted so that by consequence they are in the ranke of Subjects as also it hath beene shewed before that the liberty left by Christ our Lord unto the Church is the libertie of the Spirit and from the bondage or slaverie of sinne 7. The Lawes now in question made by the Lords of Venice you say are against Justice and Pietie For this Opposition I will turne you over and referre all indifferent Judges to Antonius Quirinus a most noble Senator of the State in his Aviso and to F. Paulus of Venice in his Considerationi 8. You put us in mind that Ecclesiasticall Sentences as touching power are by Gods Law This will not be denyed or gaine-said so long as they marshall themselves within their own bounds and territories but when they fall to range out of their owne Religion or Limits and to lash those who justly stand upon the practise of their owne Temporall and lawfull power then they are not onelie by Gods Law in respect of their power but directlie opposite unto the Law of God and flat against all reason 9. You grant and confesse the present Controversie stands not in point of Faith but in matter of Manners Then you subjoyne that which neither your selfe nor anie other hath not proved nor shall ever by Gods grace be able to prove that in the Bookes written by such as hold and maintaine the opinion of the Republic there are to be found sundrie Errours in Faith An Error in Faith is when one affirmes a point of Doctrine contrarie either to sacred Scripture or to the definitive judgment of the Church which cannot erre tanquam de Fide This no man living shall be able to prove hath at anie time been taught by such as have defended or now doe maintain the cause of the Republic When matters are debated of so great importance it is not lawfull to hang a Priest in generals If the Disputant seeke or think men should give him Faith and Credit without all hesitation he must come to the particulars In the meane time so long as the parties offended are reproved by others and no just cause at all shewed of the said Reproofe they have reason to believe the said Reproofe will result and turne to their favour 10. You confound the Principles and the Conclusion which is virtually contained in the Principles The Principle from which the opinion of the Republic is derived is touching Faith and in St. Paul Omnis anima c. Let every Soule be subject unto the higher Powers but the Conclusion is a certaine opinion grounded upon all that hath beene said before I have not said the Principle taught by St. Paul is an opinion but have onely said that opinion is most certain which is grounded upon a Principle of Faith taught by the Divine Apostle And so the sharpe subtiltie or subtle sharpnesse of this your opposition vanisheth like smoake in the vast Region of the Aire 11. St. Pauls text Obey them that have the over-fight of you and submit your selves for they watch for your Soules as they that must give account for your Soules you understand to enjoyne obedience unto Spirituall overseers in all things or matters whatsoever whereas the Apostle by whom this lesson had been taught before concerning Temporall Princes Let every Soule be subject unto the higher Powers to the end he might not goe crosse or speake in termes of contradiction that former Principle is understood by all writers on that place to the Hebrewes to treate of Spirituall power and over Soules This appears by the account which the said Prelates must render unto God namely an account for the Soules of the people not for their Goods or other Temporall matters 12. I never speake of the Head in
received it of men 5. All Subjects that live say you Hetrodox within a Kings dominions are not his lawfull Subjects immediately by Gods holy ordinance but all christians are immediately the Popes vassals Now you know and no man better that Correllatives are simul natura in a condition of relation by their proper nature the one to the other If therfore the secular and laic Prince have any power to command his naturall Subjects to live in the state of Subjects immediately from God then Obligation of all his naturall Subjects to yeeld their due Prince all due obedience of lawful Subjects is in like manner imediately from God And as the title of a subject to this dominion or breaking of some penall Statute or committing some notorious offence within this dominion makes me subject unto my Soveraign Lord the King or the State So the character of a christian makes me a subject unto the Pope at least as we Catholics believe and teach And as this man is not my King or Prince but by his inheritance election c. So none can be saluted and stiled Pope but by Canonicall and authenticall election of the Cardinals Now then as the character of Baptisme say we markes a man for the Popes lawfull Subject in spiritualibus Even so for a man to be born or to break a penall Statute for example within the Venetian dominion and State markes a man for the Venetian Republics lawfull Subject and to be born or to break a penall Statute within the Kingdome of France marks a man for the French Kings lawfull Subject 6. Again you have put down and vouched one point for positive and certain which is by catholic Doctors held to be dubitable and questionable namely whether the Popes power and authority when he is gone the beaten way of all flesh doth rest in the Church or whether the Church remaines void of such authority and power so soon as the Pope breathes out his last gaspe Surely those who stand tooth and nayle for the Romish opinion that I may take up the Stile of Navarrus C. Novit will have all power whatsoever in the Roman Bishops to be wholly derived from the Pope so that when the Pope dyes all the Bishops are at a stand or non-plus rather not able to break nor so much as once to bend or bowe the point of this pressing consequence ergo when the Pope dyes the Prelates of the Roman Church are cut off and barred of all their former authority whereupon they wheel and go round about the Bush maintaining with might and main as if Hanibal the Carthagenian Generall were ad Portas in Leaguer before the very gates of Rome that in the Church the foresaid Power is not inherent and yet is inherent in the Church which is to utter and poure out darke riddles or Delphian oracles and to broach mysteries not intelligible Yea it is cleer that Cardinall Bellarmine holds very firm and stiffe that when the Pope dyes the said power vanisheth like smoak out of the Church for he contends that when the Prince dyes the regall authority lives and rests in the community or whole body of Peers and people at least for those Princes who are mounted to Kingdomes or other States by election but when the Pope dyes then the papall authority lives not in the Cardinals by whom the Pope is elected nor yet in the Church This opinion howsoever defended and maintained by Cajetane and those of Rome is encountered and crossed with a contrary opinion held tooth and nayl by the Parisians by the whole Sarbone in generall and in particular by Johan Maior Ja. Almanius Gerson Cap. Novit de Iudi. Notab 3. as it is testified by Navarrus yea Navarrus himselfe marshals this opinion in the rancke of doubtfull Assertions howsoever Cardinall Bellarmine there sets it down for certain whereas in other passages he leaves it as doubtfull 7. You stand much for the word pasce oves feed my sheep as expresly and personally spoken to Peter alone and not likewise to the Church or by name to the rest of the Apostles But I must now tell you Hetrodox that many Doctors do stand not onely for the said words pasce oves feed my sheep but also for the words dabo claves I will give thee the Keyes to be spoken both alike without all question unto Peter howbeit in the person of the whole Church as the Parisians doe both strongly and perspicuously prove Nor can it be a good consequence that because feed my sheepe and I will give thee the Keyes were both spoken to Peter therefore the same words were not spoken to the rest of the Apostles for it is generally confessed and granted of all that all the Apostles were of equall authority howsoever Peter for his faithfull confession made of Christ as also for bearing a most remarkable excesse of love and affection to the person of Christ might seem perhaps to deserve some title of preheminency and prerogative of dignity above the other Apostles The plain verity hereof appeares by that famous passage in the Gospell where Christ having most gracious and heavenly communication with all the Apostles together Mat. 18. and as it were in a knot vouchsafed to use the very same words unto them all that he had used unto Peter before Quaecunque ligaveritis whatsoever yee shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven Lib. 1. de Rom. pont C. 12. and whatsoever yee shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven of which passage the most illustrious Cardinall Bellarmine himselfe hath advisedly been pleased to afford this fayre exposition est igitur communis c. It is the common exposition of S. Jerome Anselmus Hilarius with diverse other writers upon this passage Tract 22. 49. in Ioh. as also of S. August that our Lord there speaks concerning the power of the Keyes whereby the Apostles and other successors of Christ do bind and loose sinners which power a little after the same Lord Cardinall affirmes to be understood both concerning the power of order Mat. 18. and also concerning the power of jurisdiction promised to the Apostles in the foresaid passage but fully and actually given to all the Apstoles by Christ when he said to them all Joh. 20. Peace be unto you As my father hath sent me so do I send you whereas the power of order was given in the last Supper Now that pasce oves feed my sheepe and tibi dabo claves I will give thee the Keyes when both were spoken to Peter Tract 50. in Joh. were in like sort addressed to the Church S. Augustine makes it manifest by his luculent authority and testimony worthy of all credit Si in Petro non esset Ecclesiae Sacramentum c. If the Church was not in Peter sacramentally for certain the Lord Iesus would never have said to Peter I will give unto thee the Keyes of the Kingdome of heaven And if these
words were personally spoken to Peter alone then the power and use of the Keyes rests not in the hand of the Church the action of binding and loosing is no action belonging to the Church but forasmuch as this power is exercised and this action is lawfully used by the whole Church therefore Peter signified the Church when he received the Keyes and then he received the Keyes when Christ said unto him pasce oves feed my sheep S. Augustine takes up the same conceit again in the very same Tract And Leo expounding the passage of I will give thee the Keys concurres with S. Augustine transivit in alios Apostoles c. The vertue and efficacy of this power was conveyed unto the rest of the Apostles it was past over in Peter to the principall and chiefe rulers of the Church S. Cyprian hits the bird in the right eye Erant caeteri Apostoli quod fuit Petrus c. De simpl Praelat The rest of the Apostles had equall share and portion with Peter in the participation as well of dignity as of power but because every beginning springs out of unity the honour of precedence or the primacy was therefore conferred or cast upon Peter as upon one for all to declare the unity of the Church or the Church to be but one By all these passages with many more in the ancient Fathers and Catholic Doctors it is cleare concerning the authority given to S. Peter that in a like and equall degree it was conferred upon all the Apostles and the Church It shall suffice thus briefly to have touch'd that you argue not upon a certain and infallible ground when you have thrust upon us the words pasce oves to have been spoken only to S. Peter and not also to the Church because aswell the promise of dabo claves I will give the Keyes as the fulfilling of the promise in pasce oves feed my sheepe is no lesse applyable and appropriate unto the other Apostles and unto the Church then unto Peter himselfe in the judgement of the Fathers But I proceed to point out more of your palpable errors 8. The Pope saith Hetrodox hath no power to alienate any one Province from his Papall and spirituall jurisdiction Why sir the Pope is not Lord over the people of this or that Province as they are Inhabitants of the said Province he is onely their Pastor as they are Christians In regard whereof he hath no power to alienate any one province or anyone single person First because all provinces are not belonging to Christians neither in Freehold tenure nor in sockage tenure nor in any other lawfull tenure Secondly because howsoever a large part of Christendome takes knowledge of the Pope as of their superior and lives within the vergerie and precinct of his papall power neverthelesse that superiority of the Pope is not founded nor grounded upon any right of dominon And where no dominion there no alienation I speak of such Princes as are not subject unto the Pope in Temporalibus And is the chief Bishop no Lord when he parteth stakes with Christ himselfe in the honourable Title of our Lord and without addition is called our Lord even as Christ himselfe is called our Lord No doubt he is a great Lord according to the opinion sense and service of his devoted creatures But let his height and elevation be taken by the staffe of that common Title and ordinary style that he honours himselfe withall in his letters pontificiall when he writes himselfe Servus servorum the servant of those that serve God and where then is his Lordship or what is then become thereof What dominion in the servant of servants No we are to hold and beleive the contrary because our sweet Saviour Jesus hath delivered and taught us the contrary Said he not unto his Disciples and Apostles once upon a time at contention Luk. 22. which of them should be the greatest The Kings of the Gentiles doe raigne over the Gentiles but amongst you my Disciples there shall be no such matter but let him amongst you that is greatest be as he that serveth To the same purpose he said to his Apostles John 20. As my Father hath sent me so send I you and how that forsooth not in great power and pomp not in any altitude or excesse of high majesty as he shall appeare himselfe at his second comming but in great humility as himselfe came at first as Saint Bernard speaketh Ser. de Ad. Yea S. Peter himselfe teaching the office of Pastors in the Church commands them to feed the flock of Christ which dependeth upon their charge caring for the Flock 1 Pet. 5. not by constraint but with a willing mind not for filthie lucre but of a ready mind not as Lords over Gods heritage but as fair ensamples to to the Flock of Christ Vpon which passage Ad Eugen. p. p. that good Father hath built and founded this Aphorisme Apostolis interdicitur dominatio indicitur ministratio The Apostles are prohibited to lord it over the Flock and are expresly charged to walke in the state or quality of servants to the Flock Hence it is that when the Lord Christ spake to Peter he said not Pasce oves tuas Feed thy Flock but Pasce oves meas Feed my Flock For Christ alone is the chief Pastor the onely high Priest having as the Apostle speaks Heb. 7. an everlasting Priesthood He alone is the soveraign Judge There is but one Law-giver and Judge who is able to save and destroy Jac. 4. As for the Pope himselfe and other Ecclesiasticall Prelates they are dispensers or disposers of the secrets of God 1 Cor. 4. the Pope therefore who hath nothing of his own and proper or essentiall to his Chaire Jure pontificatus only and simply as Pope or in right of pontificall Priesthood hath no power at all to make alienation of any thing whatsoever but rather forasmuch as his power is a spirituall power and over soules he can make no alienation of soules from the dominion of Christ who is the head of the Church but by making them Apostates and Run-agates from the faith of Christ for the Pope hath none other power over soules but spirituall power to convert and to direct soules unto life eternall Which kind of superiority howsoever it is of spirituall jurisdiction and of the greatest eminency yet forasmuch as it is not indowed with dominion the Pope for that reason and in that sole respect if there were no more hath no power to make alienation of any one Christian soul or sheep belonging to the Fold of Christ whereas the secular Prince hath power to dispose of his own Teritories Crown Lands Demeasnes and other possessions by way of alienation because he holds them as things alienable howsoever he hath no power to take any such extravagant and exorbitant courses in cases of hault importance and consequence Nisi in evidentem utilitatem
c. except it be for some evident benefit and most honourable acquist unto the Crown and State 9. You contend that secular Princes may suffer losse of their Subjects whereas the Pope lyes not obnoxious or obvious to hazard in that kind Oh that I could here truly say There speakes an Angell but see see how many Countries Nations Tribes and Kindreds have quitted their obedience to the Roman Church A word shall suffice that most beautifull flourishing nobilitated renowned Cedar of Libanus which in former ages hath spread it selfe both farre and wide over the face of the universe is now reduced to such pight and pickle that she hardly hath two or three Arms left growing to ward much lesse to beautifie the whole aged Trunke 10. Your tenth errour layes it selfe open and perspicuous in a most pernicious nice and tickle assertion That neither by the Generall Councell nor by the whole Corporation and body of Cardinals the chiefe Bishops power can suffer the least diminution and yet by the Subjects the secular Princes power may be plumed of the bravest feathers Touching the former branch of this assertion I have signified my mind before that I have no humour to draw into dispute whether Papall power when death seizeth upon the chiefe Bishop his mortall body doth remain in the Church or whether the Councell be above the Pope only this I hold to be indubitable that In causa haeresis est supra Papam in case of Heresie the Councell is above the Pope and that in case of scandalous offences the Church never wanted requisite and convenient remedies for the maintenance of her own rights and priviledges against Popes themselves But what shall I say to the other branch of your assertion Let us measure the truth thereof by the standard of common reason tell me then what People hath power to crow over the authority and power of any Soveraign and absolute Prince Surely none for by what authority Who dares now shew himselfe upon the Stage to broach and to draw the vessell of such pestiferous and scandalous doctrine What Is there a power in any people to depose their lawfull and Sovereign Prince To pare the nayles of his power To make a Soveraign Prince In esse no Prince De facto but a meer Subject To pull the Imperiall Crown from his head the royall Scepter out of his hand the purple robe or mantle royall from his shoulders and to kick him after a sort or to tumble him down from his Regall Throne Can there be a more desperate device more dangerous and forcible Bellows to blow the coales and to kindle the flames of most detestable rebellions of odious and insupportable Seditions of dreadfull conspiracies of Absolom-like or Judas-like treasons in the very bowels of the State I am loth to be a medler or a stickler and to have any hand in choaking or drowning the venemous seeds or in quenching the pestilentiall sparkes of these horible combustions with inke of Pen It is for noble and heroicall Princes themselves in these cases interested In Capite to rowse up their brave spirits and if the matter must needs come to blowes to draw the Sword in defence of their own so just and honourable a quarrell I must confesse it sorts well with a Princes honour to rule out his absolute power by his grave Councell of State and the wholsome Lawes of his Realmes and Kingdomes as it concernes and beseems the chiefe Bishop himselfe no lesse to square and to compasse out his power by the councell of his Cardinals provided they be no way interested or ingaged and overborn with passion but still have an eye to reflect upon the good of the Pope and the good of the Church alwaies directed by the laudable Canons and the venerable Councell For howsoever the absolute Prince perhaps Non tenetur suis legibus quoad obligationem is not liable to the conserving of his own lawes by plain termes of obligation tenetur saltem quoad directionem yet without perhaps or peradventure he stands bound to the conserving of his own Lawes at least for the office and duty of direction 11. You assume or presume rather that Monarchicall Rule of Laic Princes is changed sometimes into free States and free States of Laics are sometimes changed into Monarchies But as for the Church you affirme that she is not subject like the Moon unto the like mutation and change First if the case be put concerning Christ himselfe who is the supream soveraign Pastor of the Church there is no question but his Monarchie shall stand remain and endure for ever without all change Because of his Kingdom there shall be no end which comes not by reason of Title or no Title as you seem to inferre but by reason that Christ himselfe is not subject unto the least inward or outward violence the proper cause of all such mutation and change But make the case to concern Christ his Ministers and who can deny the Church was governed at the first after the form of a republick Let men read the fifteenth of the Acts there Peter proposes the case he puts down the Proposition he makes the Declararation Simeon hath declared as proloqutor then Iames gives the sentence or determination as President of the Councell wherefore my sentence is Lastly the Decree is ratified in the name of the whole Assembly or holy Convocation The Apostles Elders and Brethren unto the Faithfull send greeting It hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us c. Whether S. Peter was then installed in the primacy like the Venetian Duke who holding a most honourable preheminence and ranke in that most illustrious and renowned State is neverthelesse restrained and kept in a State of Subjection to the whole body of that Republick I leave the matter to be discussed and sifted by those whom it may or doth chiefly concern It sufficiently makes for my purpose that whereas Decrees were published in the Primitive Church under the name of the republick or whole Assembly now edicts and constitutions are published under the name and authority of one alone And whether any mutation or change is imported thereby speak your selfe Hetrodox by whom it hath been denyed before 12. Your last errour is palpable in inferring this for a reason of difference between the two powers The rule of the one is immediate from God whereas the title of the other hath no such immediate derivation here I say you misse the marke and erre from the sense two manner of wayes For if by Title you meane the Power there is no such matter because neither is the Title the power nor the power the Title And if by Title you understand the means or manner of reaching to the height or top of power the one is no lesse humane or of men then the other The Conclave it selfe shall never be able to prove me a lyar in this point but I here put on a step further The power
the judgement and authority of Chrysostome of Thomas of Augustine of Theophilact expositors of the same text who agree not in consent like harpe and harrow but jump and accord all in this one cleere exposition that Paul there speaks of subjection to secular Princes What mean you then Hetrodox to deny this Orthodox exposition and to contend that S. Paul there speaks of power in generall and of papall power in particular which in S. Pauls time was hardly crept out of the shell at least not crept up to any degree of sublimity but lay lowly couched and louting after a sort if it was then at all in the person of one poor one simple one lowly Apostle Moreover if S. Paul there speaks of power in generall how can these words following in the same context Give tribute unto whom yee owe tribute for he doth not beare the Sword for nought be dexterly and aptly applyed or fitted to power in generals The husband I trow hath power over his own Wife the father over his own child the pedant over his own Schollars what Have these also power to exact lawfull tribute and to condemne their Subjects unto corporall death Our Saviour to shew that his Kingdome was not of this world as he spake to Pilate and that his power was none of those higher powers meaning no terrene or worldly Power was pleased to use this argument Joh. 18. If my Kingdome were of this world then would my Ministers fight without all question but now because my servants fight not in my quarrell that I might not be delivered to the Jewes for certain my Kingdome is not from hence Exacting of tribute and bearing the Sword to take vengeance on those that do evill is directly so proper to the secular Prince and to his Ministers that by no meanes it can or may be applyed to any other power S. Paul therefore speaks there in particular and not in generall And howsoever it may seem that some things there spoke and taught by the Apostle may by Allegory and in a spirituall or mysticall sence be applyed to the spirituall Prelate as by name that he beares the Sword viz. of Gods word or the Sword of Excommunication and that he exacts tribute viz. of Teares and repentance yet whensoever any dogmaticall point is handled it is needlesse to seek a knot in a rush needlesse to hunt after Allegoricall constructions and sences most of all needlesse to pick out contrary senses as in our present case This doctrine makes very much for the firm establishing of the secular Princes authority thorow all Christendome therefore in this argument or subject we neither ought nor need to runne and fly unto allegories but are to stand firme and to hold us fast by the proper and litterall sense of Scripture Hetrod Hitherto you have argued and wrought upon the matter by reason I will not say how good or how strong Let me now see how you can back and strengthen the same point with solid authorities Orthod The interlinear glosse upon the former passage of S. Paul thus Potestatibus sublimioribus id est Secularibus bonis vel malis To the higher powers i. e. To secular powers whether good or evill A little after thus In hoc quod sublimet id est mundanis to higher powers i. e. to worldly powers Irenaeus thus Non diabolus determinavit hujus saeculi regna c. The Kingdomes of this world are not disposed by the devill but by God for the Kings heart is in the hand of God Prov. 8. By me Kings raign S. Paul thus Be subject to the higher Powers Thus farre Irenaeus Tertullian thus Quod attinet ad honores regum c. Lib. de Idolol c. 25. Touching honour due to Emperours and kings we are commanded to carry our selves in obsequious obedience at all times according to the Apostles rule Be subject unto Princes and Magistrates S. Augustin thus Quod autem ait omnis anima c. In expos quar propos ep ad Bon. And whereas S. Paul saith Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God He therein deales and workes by holy and wholsome admonition that none be puffed up with pride in this regard that God hath called him to Christian liberty that no man be perswaded to runne out of his ranck and to quit his assigned station in the peregrination of this life that none be of this false beliefe that he ought not stoop to submit his neck unto the yoake of higher powers ordained for the time to beare the chiefest swaie in the mannaging ordering and governing of temporall affaires For whereas men consist of soul and body so long as we continue in this life temporall and have use of temporall things as good stayes and supporters of this life We ought in matters pertaining unto this life to be subject unto powers that is unto men by whom humane affaires are ordered and administred with some degree of honour thus farre S. Augustin In which passage I observe these three things The first S. Paul as he is there expounded by S. Augustin speaks for the particular of secular Princes and not for the generall as you pretend The next S. Augustin himselfe a Bishop of Episcopall authority and jurisdiction there saith Nos Wee even wee Bishops must be subject unto the powers The last S. Augustin useth an emphasis in the word Oportet we ought which word implyes a necessity of subjection By all the fore-alleadged authorities it well appeares how great difference large distance there lyes between your assertion and the doctrine of the holy Fathers by name of S. Augustin the very light and bright shining Sun of all Divines And what say you to that of Thomas Circa primum c. Touching the first we are to consider that some Christians in the primitive Church denyed at least in word and assertion subjection to terrene powers They pretended and stood upon their Christian liberty obtained and purchased in Christ according to those words of Christ himselfe If the Sonne shall make you free you shall be free indeed Now the liberty granted by Christ is that spirituall liberty by which we are freed from sinne as it is written The law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath freed me from the law of sin of death whereas the flesh yet remaines in bondage and under the law of sin The man therefore once freed by Christ shall never be obnoxious to subjection either spirituall or carnall when Christ hath delivered up the Kingdome unto God even the Father and hath layd aside or put down all rule with all authority and power In the mean time so long as wee are clothed with corruptible flesh we must be subject unto Lords carnall as it is written Servants be obedient unto your Masters according to the flesh which is the very same that S. Paul saith Let every soul be
award the said penalties they alwaies intend it of ecclesiasticall offences that such judgements and penalties are to be passed without stâ—p or impeachment by any corporall voices and to reflect or to tend onely to the reformation of delinquents Per Paternam correctionem by a fatherly chastisement or corrâ—ction a kind of ecclesiastâ—c censure and by such like penalties which are not corporall Now Sir for as much as this distinction of delicts faults offences judgements punishments and Courts is not read in written Monuments before Iustinians time upon this ground I have affirmed and am perswaded that herein I have not plaid the blind and unskilfull Cobler in seeing beyond my Last and Latchet that no such distinction of Court for which you fight and contend with so much heat and alacrity had got any the least footing in the primitive Church And because this word Court intends or implyes the civill Court it is very certain that before Iustinian granted this gracious priviledge to the Patriarch Menua no man had recourse in the foresaid cases unto Prelates as unto publique Magistrates but only unto secular Judges It is high time now to lay open your palpable errors Hetrod Well remembred hold you to your method and therein use your best skill to turne my Argent into Subtes my Whites into Blacks Orthod My chiefest aime shall be bent unto none other white Is it not first a grosse error to wrest S. Pauls words written to Timothy with a wrench of wrong and idle supposition For you suppose that godly Timothy Lorded it in some publique Tribunall or solemne seat of judgement sitting upon offences that were not ecclesiasticall and spirituall whereas you cannot chuse but know that Paul there treats not of any judiciary forme but only of ecclesiasticall and paternall correction his words are evident Against an Elder receive no accusation but under the testimony of two or three Againe Them that sinne rebuke openly that others may fear where the word rebuke armes not young Timothy with any authority to attach the body to lay in close prison to send into banishment to condemne either to the Gallies or Gallowes but onely to give private admonition for private offences and public reproofe for public scandals The text is expounded by S. Augustine according to the glosse after this manner Aliquando debes corripere c. sometimes thou shalt rebuke him that sinneth betwix your selves in private sometimes thou shalt not spare to pay his coat as it were and to chastise him with open rebuke that others may be the more affraid to runne or to chop into the like snare S. Paul therefore in that place speakes not of any Tribunal as you very fain would make us believe but of ecclesiasticall correction proper to an Evangelâ—st and to no Judge according to the same Apostles words Improve rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine do the worke of an Evangelist make thy Ministery fully known Howbeit I do not deny that mens qualities degrees and the enormities of their offences being weighed in just and equall scales it is lawfull for those unto whom authority for such purpose is deputed and committed to practise Ecclesiasticall correction cum omni imperio with all Mâ—jesty and power that is without all feare as the same Apostle speakes But whosoever shall so beare himselfe in his lawfull authority hath need to be endowed furnished besides the former qualities with all those abilities conditions complements of a good rightworthy Prelate which are mustered rancked by the same Apostle Oportet autem Episcopum esse irreprehensibilem c. A Bishop therefore must be unreproveable c. For between one that fits upon the seat of justâ—ce as a Judge upon the Bench and one that hath authority to rebuke here lyes the main odds The sentence of the Judge is profitable though the man himselfe be as bad as Barabbas but he that reproves or gives verball correction seldome or never workes any deep impression or good effect in his hearer if he teach that a man shall not steale and yet steales himselfe 2. By witnesses you understand such as are juridically to be sifted by examination deposition and such other juridicall courses of Court whereas to give a fatherly admonition or paternall correction who doth not know that a Bishops bare and simple word for such purpose is held sufficient and will serve the turne to the end he be not induced to passe against a Priest by way of correction but when with great reason his conscience is duely certified and informed that the accusation or presentment hath been materially confirmed and substantially veryfied by the testimony of two or three Thus Ambrose in the glosse to the same purpose Quoniam vero non facile c. And because accusations against Priests are not hand over head to be admitted with easy credence the crime or accusation pretended and objected must clearely be proved or in case the matter be manifest otherwise that a Priests deportment or demeanour in his orders hath been very scandalous and notoriously unreverend the Apostle layes his charge upon Timothy to rebuke the party before the face of others that others may feare to runne the like scandalous and unreverend courses which manner of proceeding is very profitable not onely for such as are in orders but likewise for the common sort of People when they shall see one of the long robe a man of such Priestly marke and ranke so roundly taken up for his misdemeanors by which the holy Father S. Ambrose meanes offeâ—ces of a conversation mis-becoming the estate condition and calling of a religious person all this tends not in any wise to point at any Court much lesse at any distinction of Court but beares a reflecting eye and gives ayme with a kind of nod and bending of the head only to paternall correction 3. You argue upon a vaine supposition that even by Pauls own testimony there it is necessary for Churchmen in all temporall causes and offences to have recourse and refuge unto the ecclesiasticall Judge that were doubtlesse to approve a distinction of Court But be not you Hetrodox wilfully blind to close or to seal up your own eyes from beholding the cleare light of truth For Canon by the helpe of your own spectacles and none other You maintain that by the same Canon Church-men are barred from the benefit of recourse unto secular Judges whereas the Councell presupposes the contrary viz. That Clerics may take the benefit of that course howsoever not before they have put in practise the meanes to have the matter taken up and ordered by their Prelate whom the Councell even by the averrement of your own mouth termes the competent Judge of their cause whereas in the text or body of that Canon Point des paroles not one such word 6. The Councell held at Agatha upon your supposition that Clerics for criminall delicts fled for their lawfull reliefe to the secular Tribunals as
Aâ—bose now say for those Princes who take nothing away from the Church when he grants and yeelds the Prince a power to take away and make appropriate unto himselfe at his pleasure the lands of that Church whereof himselfe was Arch-bishop or chiefe Prelate and grants this obedience is to be yeelded unto the Emperour at his pleasure and without all resistance on his part In a word the Church at all times and in all ages hath been so far sensible of the publique good and tranquility even to the great losse and many times to the excessive expences and exorbitant charges of Ecclesiastics that in the Lateran Councell wee read these words Tamet si Clericus à tributo c. Albeit Clerics are discharged and exempted from all payment of tribute yet in cases of necessity and times urging pressing and inforcing thereunto they shall make no spare of their proper means and private estates to provide for the safety of the present State and Common wealth 3. But what meane you Hetrodox to arme the Pope with a materiall sword yea with a naked and drawn sword was not Peter himselfe reproved by Christ with a Mitte gladium put up thy sword into the sheath Item wherefore would not Almighty God give way that David should build the Temple Was it not because David had been Vir sanguineum one that had spilt much bloud and put many soules to the sword whereas the Lord made choise of Solomon to build the Temple because he was a peaceable Prince or a man of Peace This was to let us understand that certes the drawing exercising of the materiall sword hath no manner of congruity nor holds any due correspondence with ecclesiasticall profession and again that such ecclesiastics as challenge to themselves the swaying or weilding of the same sword re-in state of irregularity and again that for this reason the litle shepherd young David a type of every true Christian might not go in the compleat Armour of Saul on his back to fight against Goliah that mighty Giant and uncircumcised Philistine but with a sling and a few pebble-stones in his hand or scrip which is the word of God And for this purpose makes not a litle not only the common practise of Christians approved by your selfe Hetrodox Tradatur brachiâ— seculari let him be passed over to the secular power but also that Godly speech of S. Ambrose Dolere potero well I may afflict my heavy soul with sorrow well I may utter the voice of lamentation well I may mourn like a Crane or a Pellicane in the wildernesse well I may send forth grievous groanes against goatish soldiers in Armes my weapons are bitter teares a priest hath none other weapons or Armes for defence I neither can resist nor ought in any other manner to make resistance where the word Nec debeo nor ought strikes and payes home as a word of great force and efficacy 4. At last Hetrodox you raise a strong Bulwarke with a suteable Parapet and main flankers for the strengthning of your cause and yet but imaginary Castles and Forces out of S. Bernards text which methinkes is a great disadvantage and weakning to your mock-building That holy Father there speakes of the Church in counter-point straines and tâ—rmes I meane by the Figure Antithesis Namely As the Church is compounded of seculars and priests of soldiers and Clerics or as it hath an opposite composition of imperiall and temporall power with Papall and Spirituall power Now saith S. Bernard Vterque c. both swords materiall and spirituall belong to the Church albeit both swords are not for every one to handle neither do both belong to every one How then Hic quidem the one by name the materiall sword pro ecclesiâ is to be drawn in defence of the Churches priviledges liberties and rights Ille vero the other that is the spirituall sword is to be taken up shaken ab ecclesiâ by the Church it selfe this by the hand of the priest and that by the hand of the soldier So the priest bears not in his hand the materiall sword which neverthelesse is used ad nutum sacerdotis when the Priest hath once given a beck or a signe jussum Imperatoris and when the Emperour hath once given the command These two distinct words here stand in a kind of opposition and serve to shew That he who commands execution or putting to death is not sacerdos the Priest but in very deed the Emperor who therefore hath Potestatem gladii the power of the sword which the Priest may long seek and never finde So that ad nutum when the Priest gives a nod doth not signifie or import ad jussum when the Priest commands How then Forsooth it imports that when the Priest hath once degraded a criminall Delinquent or malefactor by delivering him to the secular power he gives the world to understand what deadly punishment the merit of his cause hath justly brought upon his head according to the Law As for Boniface who as you say hath made Bernards doctrine more authenticall if he teach no more in this article then Saint Bernard himselfe who gave Boniface this light for his hint or quâ—u it shall ever like me well to give him the right hand of fellowship for this matter But whether S. Bernard or S. Ambrose be Heretics whether the Arguments and Scriptures produced before for proof and confirmation of my first Proposition be heresies I leave it howsoever you are more famous for a great grounded Catholic of the right stamp and haire to your own judgement reduced to the termes oâ—â—ight and sound information To be short whereas the LL. Ecclesiâ—sticall stand very st ffe and make a strong head or party for a larger size and greater ex ent of authority then in truth may stand proportionable to their degree and calling in case any such auâ—hority fâ—r the materiall sword by them to be drawn and put in practise were essentiall to their State and rank or therewith compatible doubtlesse they might and would bring the same into common practise and therefore it belongs not of right unto their spirituall function and profession This Argument is framed and taken by seculars and in very deed is full of pith Frustra est potentia c. Vain and idle and of no efficacy is that power which is never nobilitated with any act or practise at all especially by those who boast and pretend themselves to be armed with such authority Now Sir to end this first dayes quarrell I have sufficiently argued for my first Proposition to prove the doctrine thereof Catholic sound oecumenicall and uncontrouleable so that you have not been able to supplant it with all your Engines nor to blow it up with all your Mines and Fire-workes Hetrod I never thought I must confesse that any ranke heretic whom like a Roscius or some othâ—r famous actor you have so cunningly personated in this dayes conference was able to
as a Publicane where our Saviour gives Authority to Excommunicate but with a supposition of sin and of obstinate persisting in sinne Hetrodox Verily Orthodox you seeme to paire the nailes of Pontificiall power so near that you give me just cause to suspect you believe that our holy Father the Pope is but simple Priest or Curate without any lawfull Jurisdiction and that hee can doe no more but exhort to the obedient keeping of Gods Law as every ordinary Preacher doth or Baptise and confesse the people as every common Curate doth And so it seems you seek to revoke and to renew the Heresie of the Valdenses or Lionists of Wickliffe Mansilius of Padua and Iohn Huss which blind and pestiferous Heresie is caressed or embraced by all moderne Heretiques But I must come to a more narrow sifting of your words First You say the Popes power is meerly Spirituall To what end serves your meerlie was it not enough to say it is a Spirituall power was it not better to say it is principally Spirituall Navarrus whom you so highly commend Cap. Novit de judiciis and exhort all men to reade with diligence and great attention saith vâ—ry well that surely the Popes power is not meerly Temporall but he never saith it is meerly Spirituall as if the Pope could not in any sort shuffle and cut the Cards of Temporall affaires Nay hee further termes it a most eminent power which in it selfe being Spirituall and by consequence far Superiour to the Temporall both can and ought also to set the Temporall strait when it growes crooked or goes out of the right path And whereas our Saviour Christ said I will give thee the Keyes not of any Terrene Kingdome but of the Celestiall Kingdome or the Church of Christ hath said he that gives the Celestiall Kingdome takes not away Earthly Kingdomes or your selfe Orthodox hath said the Temporall Monarchie was founded of old from the beginning of the World surely none of all this makes either for the fortifying of your Sconce or to the weakening of my Campe For herein you affirme thus much and no more The Kingdome of Christ whereof Peter the Apostle received the keyes is no Temporall Kingdome which one cannot acquire but some other must lose but it is a Kingdome which governes all other Kingdomes without spoyling any man of that Dominion which by good just and lawfull right he holds Otherwise you might say as well that God himselfe hath no power over Temporall matters because God himselfe the giver of Heavenly Kingdomes is no robber and spoiler of mens Earthly Inheritances Againe you say Christ gave his Apostles and Peter a power but yet restrained Ioan. 20. and not without limitation that is a power over sinnes because he breathed on them all and said Receive the Holy Ghost c. This you cannot be ignorant is the Heresie of those who rob the Pope and the Church of all Jurisdiction an Heresie condemned by Christ himselfe in the very same place a little before the words now cited For before the words Quorum remiseritis c. whose sinnes ye shall remit shall be remitted he saith Sicut misit me Pater as the Father hath sent me into the World so doe I send you forth in which words he gave them absolute power and without limitation to governe the Church in his owne roome Hereupon Divines teach that in these words he gave the power of Jurisdiction in the other the power of Order And when afterward he said to Peter in the Chapter next following Pasce oves feed my sheepe doubtlesse he restrained not power to Absolution from sinne but hee gave a most ample power to rule and governe the whole Church For the word Pasce Feed is the very same in the Greeke language wherein St. Iohn did write his Gospell which is used in St. Iohns Revelation he shall rule them with a rod of Iron Apoc. 19. Mich. 2. as also in the Prophet as is translated by the Septuagint Ex te mihi erit Dux qui regat populum meum Israel out of thee shall come a Captaine unto me that shall rule my people Israel Mat. 16. So that by the usuall phrase of Scripture to make St. Peter a Shepheard or Feeder was to make him Ruler Governour and Prince of the whole Church So when Christ said to Peter whatsoever thou shalt loose or bind he restrained not the power unto sin nor unto the persons for he said not Quemcuuque but Quodcunque not whomsoever but whatsoever thou shalt binde or loose His meaning was to signifie and expresse an universall power of Binding and Loosing that is of commanding of making Lawes of Dispensing as it should be found needfull for the leading and bringing in of the Faithfull into the Kingdome of Heaven with most full and ample authoritie to enjoyne every man what he should believe and likewise to labour and to remove all the rubs blocks and impediments whereby they might be crossed in the way of Salvation as Cardinall Bellarmine hath declared at great length You give me thirdly to understand that our holy Father the Pope hath power onely over Soules and this you draw from that Prayer of the Church Deus qui Petro animas ligandi c. O God who hast given Peter the power of Pontificiall Dignity to bind and to loose the Soules of men If this Reason hath any force then secular Princes must have no power but over the Soules of their Subjects because Paul saith Let every soule be subject unto the higher powers And so either you make your selfe too simple as one who doth not consider that in Scripture the soule is taken for the whole man or else you seeke to catch the simple with words of holy Church not right understood And therefore perhaps the Divine providence to take away the like deceitfull sleights and flie shifts hath inspired the Reformers of the Breviarie to lib and geld the said Prayer of the word Soules which of old neither was found in the said Prayer nor ought at all there to be read because that Prayer was founded and formed upon the foresaid words in the Gospell whatsoever thou Peter shalt binde and whatsoever thou shalt loose Last of all you contend that power to excommunicate is conditionall presupposing sin and obstinacie in sin This Doctrine is both new and false you are not able to produce any Author that ever so taught Sinne I confesse must be presupposed for Excommunication is a punishment and the most grievous the most dreadfull of all other so that no sinne committed no punishment by Excommunicarion can be inflicted Disobedience also otherwise called contumacie is I confesse againe presupposed a sinne and to Excommunicate every sinne gives not sufficient warrant but only that sinne which is cloathed or clogged rather with Contumacie For Christ saith Si Ecclesiam non audierit If he will not heare the Church The censure therefore of Excommunication cannot be denounced against
any man because he is a Thiefe or an Adulterer except first he be admonished and then he wilfully denies obedience But betweene disobedience and obstinacie there is a great difference For a man may stand stubborne and obstinate in some sin whereof he hath never beene advised never admonished by the Church This man for all his obstinacie cannot be stricken with a Thunder-Bolt of Excommunication On the contrary a man may be disobedient and for his disobedience may be Excommunicated albeit afterward he persist not obstinate in Disobedience The words of Christ if he will not heare the Church do signifie disobedience and to speake properly not obstinacie Orthodox Fie Hetrodox that a man of your deepe learning should be so shallow I will not say idle in a matter so serious So clear is the light of this fourth Proposition that I much wonder how you have devised and raised any matter against it whereby to make opposition Now to frame the sounder answer it will be necessary to make some Explication of the Proposition it selfe I speake not here of all the powers which Peter had from Christ our Lord as his Vicar in Earth for they were two the one of Order the other of Jurisdiction In this place I meddle not with power of Order I onely define the power of Jurisdiction and this power I say is meerly Spirituall First because Christ our Lord never practised any Temporall Jurisdiction but this jurisdiction which Christ gave to Peter is part of the same Jurisdiction which was practised by Christ himselfe Ergo it is no manner of way Temporall but meerely Spirituall The Major as it is called hath beene proved before at large the Minor is cleere by the words of Christ himselfe As the Father hath sent me so I send you the consequence therefore or conclusion remaines indubitable Ioan. 20. that this Jurisdiction is no manner of way Temporall Secondly This Jurisdiction or Power is not all that Power which Christ himselfe had as Head of the Church For he never according to all the Doctors communicated to his Apostles the Power of his Excâ—llencie much lesse the power of his Spirituall Kingdome which by Cardinall Bellarmine is called his Power Eternall yet such as had a beginning though it shall continue and last for ever with which Power by secret meanes he governes his Church For that power he practiseth and exerciseth in Heaven by himselfe alone It is therefore a Branch of that power whereof our Saviour saith Data est mihi omnis Potestas All power is given unto me the power of Christ whether as high Priest or as King is meerely Spirituall Ioan. 20. as it is proved by the Authority of St. Augustine and of all the best Divines the Branch therefore of the same power namely that Branch which was given to St. Peter is meerly Spirituall Thirdly The power given to Peter is to Loose and to Binde that is to absolve and not absolve sinne the power to absolve or not absolve sinnes is meerely Spirituall Ergo the power of Binding and Loosing given to Peter is meerly Spirituall Fourthly Hee that defines a Habit from the end thereof drawes the best Definition Thus hath Aristotle defined vertue virtus est quae â—onum faecit habenteâ— vertue is that which betters her owner and possessour the end of the Popes power according to all is life eternall and that end is meerly Spirituall Ergo he that affirmes the Popes power is meerely Spirituall produceth a right affirmative because he defines the Popes power by the right and proper end thereof Lastly If the power of Jurisdiction which Christ gave unto Peter had not beene meerly Spirituall but Temporall doubtlesse he would have taken up materiall Kâ—yes and would have said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles take ye these keyes whose sinnes c. But Christ having done that Spirituall work breathed on them all and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost and saying these words receive ye the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit he undoubtedly declared it was no Temporall power that hee then bestowed but a power meerly Spirituall And this Hetrodox is that which before I have pronounced that as well by the Act which our Saviour did as also by the words that hee spake it is aptly gathered that for certaine the said power is meerely Spirituall Now I purpose to draw a Picture of your particular Errours 1. You argue from the Genus to the Species in this manner The Popes power as Orthodox affirmes is meerely Spirituall Orthodox therefore hardly believes the Pope to be some simple Priest or common Curate just as if I should frame this Reason Hetrodox affirmes that a Lion is a creature therefore Hetrodox affirmes that a Lion is a little Ant or Pismire or this Argument Hetrodox affirmes the power of the most Christian King is Temporall therefore Hetrodox affirmes the most Christian King is the Father of a private Familie with power oeconomicall were it not a very abusive straine a wrong intollerable if I should make Hetrodox the Father of so ridiculous Ergoes worthy to be hissed knocked and stamped out of all Theologicall and Philosophicall Schooles If Orthodox pretends and avouches that Papall power is meerly Spirituall he doth not forsooth thereby avouch that Papall power is restrained to a private Familie and without all Jurisdiction like the power of every simple and common Curate but Orthodox grants it is a power over all the Soules that are subject unto the Popes power 2. Againe Sir you are pleased to terme it Heresie for any to affirme that Papall power is meerly Spirituall and I must make bold to tell you Hetrodox the contrary Doctrine hath no great conformity or congruity with divine Scripture and by name is not conformable to that faire Text Sicut misit me c. As my Father hath sent me Ioan. 20. so I send you my Apostles the power which our Saviour himselfe being sent of his Father exercised in this world was meerly Spirituall Ergo the Popes power being a Branch of the same power which Christ himselfe exercised is likewise meerly Spirituall True it is that his power as we must hold extends and spreads it selfe Jure Divino by Gods Law over all his owne Subjects which Article being denied by the foresaid Authors whom you have remembred before they were thereupon condemned but not because they maintained the Popes power to be meerely Spirituall For it is one thing to maintaine the Pope hath no Jurisdiction and another thing to affirme that his Jurisdiction is meerely Spirituall 3. You alledge Navarrus to this purpose That Papall power is not meerly Temporall as if he had said the Popes power is Temporall but accessorily Spirituall Thus much is noted by these words is not meerly Temporall But know Hetrodox that Navarrus was never so much overseene to suffer so grosse an Errour to drop out of his learned braine or painfull quill Navarrus affirmes the full contrary take the file
word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but once Hee thereby expounds that one word with two words which without all doubt signifie Pasce Feed Nay the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies to feed and by a Metaphor to rule and governe as in the aforesaid Text as in this Text of St. Johns Revelation All this makes much against you Hetrodox and nothing at all to favour your cause Will you now give mee leave to make good my Exposition of the word Pasce Feed with Authority of the holy Fathers Hetrodox Proceed at your pleasure Orthodox Ter dictum est Pasce c. Three times over the Lord Christ repeated the word Feed to St. Peter And wherefore thrice Forsooth to intimate that all such as are charged with cure of soules are bound to feed their People triplici Pastu with a three-fold Dyet namelie with the Food of Gods heavenly word with Food of good Example in life and with Temporall Aid so far as their meanes are not wanting But alasse this three-fold Feeding is now adaies changed by unconscionable shepheards into a three-fold polling and pelting of their Flocks by pilling and pinching their Subjects with intollerable burthens of exactions without anie due regard at all to the said three-fold Feediâ—g Thus Chrysostome Hom. 87. Perpende verba Pasce agnos meos c. weigh these words of Christ well Feed my Lambes that is Feed my faithfull Flock not thine use them not as thy proper Possession but as mine I therefore asked if thou lovest mee O Peter because I have a purpose to recommend my little Flocke to thy Feeding and to bee kept of thee as mine owne Goods and Cattells that love which thou bearest my selfe in profession I would have thee shew and practise towards my tender Lambes Fat not pamper not up thy selfe like those unfaithfull Shepheards of whom the holy Prophet cryed Ezech. 34. Vae Paestoaibus woe to the Shepheards of Israel that have fed their owne bellies That man that feeds himselfe who gapes after his owne gaine who hunts after his owne glorie who removes every stone for his owne commodity never sâ—eking for the benefit of the Faithfull over whom hee beares rule never aiming at Gods glorie in exercising the state and office of a Ruler Tract 132. in Ioannâ—m Thus far St. Augustine Qui hoc animo pascunt ones c. Such as feed the Flock with a mind to make the sheep their owne and none of Christs doubtlesse beare no love at all to Christ himselfe St. Augustine againe Ibid. Sicut oves meas Pasce non sicut tuas Feed the Flock as my sheepe and not as thine owne Cattle in them seeke my Glory my gaine and neither thine owne gaine or thine owne glorie This Peter himselfe hath also taught Feed the Flock of God which dependeth upon you 1 Petr. 5. caring for it not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind not as if ye were Lords over Gods heritage but that ye may be examples to the Flock These be the exercises of the true Shepheard and thus the words Feed my Lambes are to be understood and not that the Popes Feeding should be a Temporall reigning over all Temporall Kings The holy Fathers you see Hetrodox teach the contray namely that hee ought carefelly to shun and avoid all filthy Lucre Acquists Glory Dominion c. 13. Againe by Quodcunque solveris whatsoever thou Peter shalt loose you understand every thing And by this means the Pope shall have power to untie all knoâ—s to set open all prisons to transferre all Kingdomes to deliver all the slaves in Turkie at his pleasure nay to solve all difficulties in all matters whatsoever What man doth not perceive the fâ—lsity of this Doctrine Our Lord Christ câ—me to deliver Soules from sinne and as the onely Redeemer So teach all Divines The Pope by like shall worke the same effects hee shall cooperate in this great worke of Redemption he shall bind and loose the sinnes of 〈◊〉 you have no reason Hetrodox to cast such colours on your false opinions whereby to make the Pope Lord and Patrone of every thing with a Quodcunque whatsoever For â—â—ere is no such matter as you conceive in your dreames 14. Againe the word Soule is understood and taken sometimes for the whole man and sometimes for the Spirit of man above according to the matter handled Now your Argument is drawne from one place to another For St. Paul speaks of Temporall Dominion The word Omnis anima every Soule in understood of power over mens bodies and in Temporality But because our Lord Christ gave Spirituall Power to Peter the word Animas Soules which is used in the Prayer of the Church doth signifie the Spirit or Soule of Man and not his Body in Spirituality forsooth and not in Temporality 15. Those who wiped the word Animas out of the Breviâ—rie were inspired as you believe by the Holy Spirit of God I never yet read or heard that Gods owne Spirit is the Author of Dissention strife or Discord But well I wot Peace is one of the Gifts or Fruits of the Holy Spirit The makers of the foresaid Prayer aymed at the Exposition of these words Quodcunque ligvaeris whatsoever thou shalt bind by the word Animas and by that other Text Quorum remiseritis peccata whose sinnes ye remit as a just exposition of the word Animas because all sinnes to speake properly are bred and hatcht up in the Soule not in the Bodie And this they did to a speciall end and purpose namely to drive certaine Opinastres from their Tenent or hold That Popes are Domini in Temporalibus Spiritualibus the absolute Lords over mens goods their Bodies and Soules with a power to bind and loose all things as it seemes your selfe Hetrodox is of the same opinion This Exposition they made by the word Animas and by the same exposition they produced an excellent remedy against all Discords which might grow betweene the Pope and other Princes about Meuâ—â— Tuum about Mine Thine whereas on the other side those who last spung'd the Breviarie by taking away the word Animas have ministred new Tinder and Match to kindle the Coales of great contention discord and litigious quarrels Besides it is not unknowne to the World that in the Bookes of the Councels of the Canons and of other Doctors yea downe so low as to the very Breviaries and Missals many matters recorded and registred in favour of Layick Princes have beene blotted and still are scraped out of the ancient Rolls and all to make experiment if after long travaile and sore labour that huge mountaine of opinion de illimitatâ Potestate Pontificis in Temporalibus touching the unboundable power of the Pope in Temporals might be brought forth reared up and established in the Church of God Conferre the Bookes printed in 30. and 50. with Bookes printed in these daies as well the Bookes of
Councels as of others and the notable evidence of a goodly vintage will manifestly appeare so as it may be reckoned for a wonder that after so great a vintage there be found some few clusters or bunches of Grapes which make for the honourable Rights and Titles of our most gracious Princes This way if it shall be followed long will prove the high way to crack the credit of all Scripture and to bring the whole Church of God to finall Ruine 16. Againe In the text of the ancient Breviaries you tell us the word Animas was never extant These eyes of mine have seene Manuscript Breviaries of more then 200. yeares antiquity with some Breviaries printed of more then an 100. The word Animas is extant in both and were it not extant yet I say it ought for the removing of all occasions of discord there to have a place 17. Last of all you confound the word of Disobedience with the word of Obstinacie This I hold for a certaine Position the man that disobeyeth a Law cannot incurre the censure of Excommunication This likewise for no lesse indubitable the man obstinate in sinne cannot be excommunicated when he hath not beene admonished of his fault or offence before But I never so much as dreamed to affirme the one or the other of these Positions I have hitherto onely affirmed that for the enwrapping of anie man within the most sore bands of Excommunication two things are of necessity to be presupposed the one that hee hath fallen into some sinne the other that being admonished thereof divers and sundry times hee hath not repented And what else is that but obstinacie in sinne For if any man shall commit some sinne and afterward being thereof admonished shall truly repent he ought not at any hand to be Excommunicated but for his persisting after he hath beene duly admonished he may and must beare the most heavy Censure of Excommunication So that obstinate persisting in sinne is the last cause of Excommunication of which obstinacie it is a manifest signe that being admonished he hath not beene reformed and become a new man So that all Disobedience is not a materiall cause of Excommunication nor yet all obstinacie but onely that obstinacie which presupposes Admonition Of this I speake of the same speake all the Doctors and therefore this Doctrine is neither new nor false But now Hetrodox t o insist over long upon matters most cleare and manifest it is but a manifest folly let us for this time part good friends after so sharpe a fray and prepare for the next encounter to morrow morning Hetrodox It pleaseth me right well The fifth daies Conference upon the fifth Proposition Orthodox YOu are later arrived this morning worthy Hetrodox then at any of our former meetings Hetrodox Not in any weakenesse of Spirit want of courage or disposition of mind to avoid this daies combat but as constrained by extraordinary impediment and unexpected restraint For in good and sober sadnesse my fingers have itched ever since peepe or breake of day to have your fifth Proposition by the eares Orthodox In good time you shall have not onely your Fingers but also your Hands full of skirmishing this day and yet shall not be able to draw one drop of the blood of my fifâ—h Proposition though I know you to be a most expert and skillfull master at the shâ—rpe Hetrodox Well Sir let us leave complementall prefacing and fall roundly to the matter Your fifth Proposition goes upon these same legs if I well remember the termes That aâ—â—â—it some Authors you know not upon what good ground be of opinion that as well the persons as the goods of Ecclesiastics are by Gods Law exempted from the secular Princes power neverthelesse the contrary opinion that such exemption is grounded upon mans Law is the sounder the more agreeable and consonant unto Divine Scripture unto the writings of the holy Fathers and to the file and thred of Histories Orthodox I have no reason to except against your memory you have hit the naile on the head my fift Proposition runs in the very same straines and forme of termes What exception have you to make against it in whole or in part Hetrodox If you did beare the least sparke of reverence to holy Church you surely would never have this used lavish and absolute affirmative that as well the Persons as the goods of Ecclesiastics have obtained Exemption and Immunitie from the Sâ—cular arme only by mans Law Sess ult cap. 30. In the Generall Councell of Trent it is cleerely declared That Immunitie of the Church and of all Ecclesiasticall Persons was instituted by Gods Ordinance and by Ecclesiasticall Decrees What Christian is he that dares give the affront or contest against so high so sacred Authorit e Par. 9. cap. 20. Before the Tridentive the Councell of Câ—lâ—y'â— declared the same in these words Ecclesiasticall Immuniâ—â—e pleads upon termes of great Antiquity and got good footing in the Church Jure divino pariter humano as well by Gods Law as mans Law Sess 9. In the Laterane Councell under Leo X. it is determined that Laics have no power over Ecclesiasticall persons neither by Gods Law nor by mans Law which words are directly and properly contrary to your Assertion that Layick Princes by mans Law have power over Ecclesiasticall persons Must not you Orthodox be some new Goliah who in the height of your tenâ—erity dare set your face and foot against so many Squadrons of the Lords Armie that is against so many Vniversall Councels Cap quamque de Consibus Before the said Counsels Pope Boniface left in good Record as a matter notorious and of none denyed that Church-men and Church-goods are not within the Circle but free and exempt from the reach yea from all touch of Secular Power and that even by Gods own divine Ordinance Before Boniface John VIII hath testified That Priests and other Cleries might neither be admitted into Orders Gratia Dist 96. Caâ— si Imperator nor judged by anie Secular Power but only by Popes according as Almighty God himselfe had appointed and ordained And the verie same that John left written of the persons Pope Simmachus long before together with all the III. Councell held at Rome in his presence hath witnessed of their goods That which I tell you Orthodox hath not anie stitch of Inconformitie with sacred Scripture The Patriarch Joseph exercising the Office of Vicar Generall to King Pharoh Gen. 47. exempted the Priests and freed them from the burthens which the rest of the people were enjoyned and enforced to beare 1 Esâ—r 7. Artaxerxes King of Persia exempted likewise all the Priests of the Hebrewes because the light of Nature which immediately shineth and cometh from God plainelie declares it is a thing most convenient Pope Alexander III. upon this ground uttered this worthy Sentence in the Later an Councell Cap Non minu s de Immun Eccl. It
qui liberiùs aliis locuti sunt in medium protulerunt objiciunt enim primò nullam extare legem divinam quâ Clerici eximuntur à Jurisdictione Principum laicarum c. It shall not here be amisse to frame some briefe answer unto the Arguments produced by Conarruuias and Medina who have suffered their tongues to walk range more freely then other writers For they first alledge that Exemption of Clerics from the Jurisdiction of Laick Princes is not warranted by any one tittle of Gods Law c. The L. Cardinall answers their Arguments as Arguments of Catholique Doctors and otherwise by his leave he suffers the knots of their Arguments to hold untyed and without any Doctor-like resolution And iâ— is no marvaile that our side is not overshadowed with any great cloud or heap of authenticall witnesses because likewise the Authors who stand for the contrary opinion are very thin sowen Besides this doubt is but new crept into the Schooles and again if any man write with a free and full penne upon that subject he is put unto his Recantation like the Lord Cardinall or that which is written to purpose is cancelled and rased or else he is charged with sore threatnings Sotus indeed had freely delivered his mind of this matter but in the end subjoyning a certaâ—â—â— casâ—le without any foundation which mar'd all that upon a good foundation he had built before being not able otherwise to avoid some blow he concluded the whole with Servum 〈…〉 multa decet sentire pauca loqui men that stand obvious to the lash of the whip may debate of many matters in their judgments but should not be too free of their tongues And for my particular I had never taken the liberty so freely and so faâ— to imbarque my peâ— in the faire ship of these eight Propositions but as Necessitate coactus propter evidens periculum â—â—â—â—iarum as enforced by necessity in a desperate case of most evident danger of many Soules and in the lawfull defence of my most Catholique and lawfull Prince his quarrell In times of peace â—any things are shut up under the hatches of the tongue which in times of contentions and quarrels learned men are enforced to write if they have any spirit or courage to defend the truth And howsoever I have now followed the free'st course both in writing and speaking my mind to the full though I be reproved and hated by such as your selfe Hetrodox who â—â—ve deeply interessed and engaged themselves in the maine yet I shall never by Gods grace repent me of my paines as if in so doing I had committed any evill that of the Comicall Poet will ever stand good and true Obsequium amicos veritas odium pâ—riâ— Obsequious Flattery finds many friends but plain-dealing Truth may go shake her Eares 4. My opinion is the better founded the more true and the more infallible because it is confessed by Cardinall Bellarmine that no Scripture no Councell no Canon and none of the holy Fathers hold the contrary as in the Defence following it shall well appeare and as before hath been shewed out of Thomas Augustine and Jerome cited for the contrary opinion which indeed hath no approbation but only of some few Canonists who howsoever they affirme and maintain that Exemption of Clerics is grounded upon Gods Law doe not understand Gods written Law and lesse the Law of Nature neither by necessary consequence but only by a certaine probability As thus King Pharoh exempted all the Idolatrous Priests of Egypt from all Tribute and Artaxerxes freed the Priests of Israel from the like burthens It may therefore seeme in probability à Simili from the like agreeable to Decency That Christian Princes ought in like manner to exempt Christian Priests from payment of Tributes and other Taxations of like nature This Argument I must confesse is drawn from holy Scripture which is Gods Law But it strongly makes against our Adversaries in their Tenent because it concludes that Secular Princes and not God himselfe ordained the said Exemption the very Assertion which I maintain Besides Arguments drawn from a similitude are of small force or none at all For by the same reason it might be thus argued In the old Law which is Gods Law Priests were permitted to marry Ergo it is by Gods Law that Priests are now married in the Evangelicall Law And that de Jure Divino by Gods Law is understood by the fore-named Authors according to this my Exposition I appeale to the Lord Cardinall Bellarmine himselfe in the place before alledged 5. The new opinion of the Lord Cardinall and newly brought into the Church without any reason or authority concerning this matter hold by three strings 1. That Exemption of Clerics from Secular power is not built upon Gods written Law because it is no where commanded in holy Scripture much lesse upon the law of nature or the law morall which Divines likewise call the Law of God as the Docalogue or ten Commandements c. wherein the Lord Cardinall Medina Conarruuias and my selfe doe all agree 2. By Gods Law again he understands a certain Decencie and Conformity with the examples of K. Pharoh and K. Artexerxes and from their Examples he collects that Christian Princes are t do the same but dares not say they are bound to that strain of Benignitie whereupon he confesseth in a manner that doubtlesse it appertaineth unto Princes to grant such Immunity or Exemption but yet Princes are not bound to shew such Grace by those Texts of Scripture for as much as in the said passages there is not so much as the least umbrage or shadow of any such obligation to be seen or found 3. By Gods Law is as much to say as by the Law of Nations A new device and never heard of before And that his Lordship proves thus The Law of Nations is derived from Gods Law naturall Ergo it is Divine or the Law of God Then again that it is by the Law of Nations he assumes that all Nations have exempted their Priests but shewes not in what matters whether in their Tributes or in other Causes nor proves the universall nor is able to prove the same that all Nations have exempted their Priests for that is false nor alledgeth for his opinion any one Doctor that by Gods Law signifies by the Law of Nations nor finally shewes that Exemption is grounded upon the Law of all Nations Lib. de Cler. cap. 19. Let him be searched This opinion as new and hanging by loose gimmals is ready to nod to totter and to ruine of it owne accord yet shall it not be amisse to touch in briefe divers things concerning the same 1. There is great difference between Gods Law written the Law of Nature and the Law of Nations For howsoever the Law of Nations is a Secondary Law of Nature according to the great Master Thomas Aquinas by reason it is derived from Principles both of Natures Law and of
subject unto the higher Powers Now higher powers are men placed in high and honourable dignities to whom by law and order of justice we owe subjection Submit your selves to al manner of Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be unto the King as supream or unto Governours as unto them which are sent of God And whereas S. Paul saith To the higher powers it is a kind or manner of speech indefinite meaning that we must be subject unto all such persons Ratione sublimitatâ— officii in regard of their high office and place though the men themselves are evill Servants be subject unto your masters not only to the good and courteous but also to the froward Thus farre Thomas Aquinas a Religious who for all his religious orders made no bones to say Oportet nos c. We must be subject His words doe neither admit nor need any comment or glosse he speakes not with a Barre in his throate but with a clear voice and like himselfe the Prince of scolastick and catholique Doctors And who dares deny S. Chrysostome to be a catholique Doctor His clear verdict upon this passage of S. Paul is extant with generall aprobation and applause Facit hoc ideo c. It is the Apostles purpose here to teach that Christ hath not brought his Lawes into the Church of any intent or purpose to repeale to reverse to annull or abolish the lawes and rules of politick government but rather to reduce the order and frame of civill government unto a better forme of institution S. Paul therefore speaks there of politick or civill power not of all power in generall as you Hetrodox are pleased to avouch comprehending therein the Popes power and I wot not what powers besides but only of secular power And how foule an errour it is to expound holy Scripture according to a mans own private spirit or fancy yea contrary to the unanimous consent of the Fathers I referre you to the councell of Trent Session 4. And whereas you strive for the Popes power to be immediate from God and not mediate by election of Cardinals but in a certaine correspondence to the immediate power of Moses Aaron from the Lord If you can shew and prove that God at any time hath spoken to the chiefe Bishop elected by the Cardinals face to face in a fiery-bush or in a rod as he hath spoken of old to Moses and Aaron it shall be subscribed and confessed for my part that not only the Popes power but also his election is immediately from God But if God in former times hath spoken and yet speaks to the chiefe Bishops when they are elected as you Hetrod would bear us in hand let me be answered to this one question How then are the Conclaves necessary What need so many ambitious plots and practises What need so many hot and vehement canvases What need mighty Princes by their Agents to intercede to mediate to shuffle and cut with Cardinals for the election of some one or other of their own Subjects Patriots Favourites or Creatures What need many other strange devices and stratagems to be so pragmatically and preposterously coined as instruments to hasten the untimely birth of many partiall and precipitate Elections In a word what an idle and superfluous convocation of Lord Cardinals is that wherein the Popes election is made when his Holinesse is immediately elected of God just to an hayre forsooth as Moses and Aaron were elected What new doctrine is this Almighty God as the prime and supream cause permits the second causes to act and worke in their kind and according to their efficacy And howsoever in the election of Popes and other Princes he is assistant after a more speciall and particular manner for a common and generall good yet he never violents or enforces the liberty of elections Nay rather he expresly shows and makes known I speake of Gods ordinary course Quando de revelatione non constat when there is no manifest and apparent revelation that his divine will and pleasure is to have this or that individuall person to win the spurres and to prevaile in the election before all others as it pleased him to provide and take order in the case of Moses and Aaron yea sometimes for the punishment of our sinners Almighty God suffers a wicked Prince and as wicked a Pope if not much worse and more wicked to be advanced by course and order of election but when the election is once consummate God then gives the Pope as we Catholiques professe a Vicars power of Christs own institution and gives the Prince that power which was instituted by the author of mans nature with nature it selfe nor can I here see any such difference as you Hetrodox do seem to inferre That Princes are elected by men and the Pope is not elected by men but by God as Moses and Aaron were elected And whereas Chrysostome speaks clearly of Princes and politick Magistrates of whom also S. Paul himselfe speakes which I have sufficiently explained before you spare not Hetrodox which is your next grosse errour to affirme that Chrysostome there handles not power of the said Princes and Magistrates in particular but speaks only of power in generall Now Sir can it stand with any probability or possibility that where S. Paul himselfe treats of secular Princes and their power in particular there S. Paul's most faithfull expositor doth make the subject of S. Pauls discourse to be of power in generall Secondly those powers whom S. Paul tearms higher powers Chrysostome thorow his whole Sermon calles by the name of Princes and Magistrates I mean such Princes and Magistrates as enact politick lawes bear the weighty burthen of the Common wealth to whom Tribute is due and by the Apostles precept is to be given upon what ground of reason Forsooth because they are the chief workers and preservers of peace and plenty to the whole land they make and maintain warres in the Subjects defence they see and cause due punishments to be inflicted upon all seditious and disordered breakers of the Kings peace debaucht and wicked persons Tell me Sir who are those by whom thâ—se worthy workes and the like are done but secular Princes and the civill Magistrate Thirdly Doth not Chrysostome directly testify that whereas the Apostles were famed and defamed rather to be seditious to preach disobedience unto Princes and to the common lawes S. Paul therefore by way of precept hath delivered all the dogmaticall points couched in the said Chapter Fourthly Chrysostome affirmes that aswell here as in other places S. Paul commands every subject and servant in the whole State to be subject no lesse unto his lawfull Prince then servants in Families are subject unto their private masters Fiftly what meanes Chrysostome by those words Facit autem hoc ideo c. It is the Apostles purpose and scope to teach That Christ hath not established his lawes in the Church thereby to nullifie civill States
and Regiments but rather to ground and establish them upon a more perfect and rectified forme these words do plainly testifie that he speaks of secular Princes in particular unto whom all Subjects owe their obedience according to the politick lawes of the State Lastly Chrysostoms conclusion so stops up all passages that you are not able to take your heeles and make any faire escape Ostendem quod ista imperentur omnibus c. S. Paul doth teach that all sorts or degrees of Subjects not only seculars but also Priests and Monks are lyable to this Apostolicall charge yea so much is punctually set by the Apostle at his first entrance into the matter when he saith Let every soule be subject Supereminentibus potestatibus unto the higher powers And who those higher powers be over and besides all that hath been delivered by him before the same Father declares in tearming them sometimes Princes and sometimes Magistrates At last he doubles his files re-inforces the argument and payes it home with etiamsi Apostolus c. Be thou Apostle Evangelist Prophet or what may be else for such condition degree or state of subjection is no engine to worke the subversion of piety or christian religion Thus Chrysostome to stop the mouth of all such as conceived in mind or gave out in speech that obedience to secular powers Princes was out of the square the rule the levell of christian professors where the holy Father doth not affirm that Princes are in any state of subjection to the Apostles In temporalibus and yet makes no bones of the matter he is nothing squeamish to determine that the Apostles who were all in one and the same height and altitude of power were in state of subjection to secular Princes And let me Hetrodox tell you more to prove that subjection to lawfull Princes is exceeding profitable unto all sorts of Subjects the same Father after his usuall manner and method of teaching makes demonstration to this purpose that generally subjection of inferiors to their superiors is never without speciall benefit and singular fruit As for instance and by name The subjection of the wife to her husband of the sonne to the Father of the scholer to the instructer of the younger People to their elders of which remarkeable profit and benefit not only the Foules of the ayre which fly after one guide as he comes in his vicissitude and turne to make the flight but also the Fishes in their streames are partakers after their severall kinds And it is not unworthy of observation that whereas the holy Father in the said enumeration might have taken into his tale the Subjects unto ecclesiastical Prelates yet he advised himselfe to leave them out of his list perhaps thereunto induced upon the same ground of S. Bernard inspired by the holy Ghost Apostolis interdicitur dominatio indicitur ministratio the Apostles are forbidden to exercise rule and enjoyned to serve Howbeit Chrysostome takes not up the said enumeration to shew that S. Paul there treats of power in generall as you Hetrodox are pleased to give it for indubitable but only to signifie that subjection of inferiours to their superiors being so profitable as appeares by all the former particulars forasmuch as the Prince is the superior and the Subjects are his inferiors the Prince is faithfully to be served and obeyed of his own Subjects in all things You aleadge that Clerics are not bound Vi legis by force of law but only Vi rationis by force of reason to yeeld subjection and obedience unto secular Princes or unto their wholsome lawes But how great untruth lyes in this your distinction which as it seemes you have borrowed of Cardinall Bellarmine let S. Paul be judge in these words Whosoever he be that resists the power he resists the ordinance of God then do well thou shalt have the praise of well doing but if thou do evill feare For he is the Minister of God to take vengeance on him that doth evill Here S. Paul speaks of all Subjects without exception of any one whereas you quit and free from subjection whom you list as if you had a better patent or warrant from Almighty God then the divine Apostle Paul himselfe but for my part I give more credit heare me with patience to S. Paul to the tongues and Pennes of the holy Ghost then to all other Pen-men and Writers in the world Produce but one cleane authority out of the holy Evangeli or out of the canonicall Epistles or out of any other like Bookes and writings for the disobliging of Clerics in temporalls from due obedience to the Lawes of civill Magistrates where the said Clerics have not first obtained some priviledge of exemption from the civill Magistrates as I have in a manner stricken you stone blind with a cleer and punctuall text of S. Paul to the same sence expounded by S. Chrysostome by S. Augustine by S. Thomas and others that is to say Clerics are bound to such obedience as they all affirm and teach dabo manus and I will yeeld up my weapons with open confession that you have driven me not like a right bred Cock of the game but like a ranck bastard or dunghill Bird out of the Pit That Clerics are to be freed and exempted in spirituall and ecclesiasticall causes we Catholics do maintain it stands with reason but in secular and civill causes I see not with what force of reason it can be born out Is it because Clerics have received the Clericall and Priestly character Surely no such matter no more then a man that receives the Sacrament of Baptisme the caracter thereof is thereby freed quitted from the subjection of his Prince a pure Pagan or a man who standing in the state and condition of a slave is freed from subjection and vassallage due to his absolute Lord so that a fortiori all such as are naturally born or otherwise Ratione delicti for some notorious crime or grievous offence committed become as it were accidentally the Subjects of some Forraign Prince are not loosed and set at large from their subjection by any reason or in any regard of their clericall character For this old axiom stands without all controule Si non de quo magis ergo neque de quo minus where the More is not consequent and firme the Lesse is never good and valuable The reason whereof is grounded upon these words of Chrysostome Neque enim pietatem subvertit ista subjectio This degree and state of subjection is no Ramme or other Engine to batter and beate down the Walles or Bulwarks of Religion It stands moreover without check upon the former doctrine of Thomas That Christian liberty is altogether spirituall and against Sin it is not carnall or of the flesh it is no freedome or exemption from secular jurisdiction But be it said though not granted that Cleries owe subjection obedience not by force of Law but by force of