to the Universal Lastly J. Fr. Picus Mâ—randula 41 Christi tempore desicientibus in side Apostolis integra omnino persectissima fides in solae Virgine Domini matre remansit Pic. Theor. 13. saith that in the time of Christ the Apostles falling away from the Faith it remained intire and perfect in the Virgin alone The fourth Classis exhibits only Jandovesius of Minorca who by the relation of Banncs 40 Bann Comm. sus in 2.2 quaest 1. art 10. dub 1. taught about the year 1363. that in the time of Antichrist the Church should consist only of baptized infants all adult persons apostatizing from the Faith. Thus far these testimonies which occurred to me in a hasty search If I had time or opportunity to turn over the Writings of the XIII XIV and XV. Ages I doubt not but I should find many more However any one may see how utterly repugnant these which I have produced are to the Infallibility of Pope and Council Yet there is no sentence pronounced against these Writers no mark set upon them not the least censure inflicted on them How can this be if they had taught right down heresie Nay this opinion is not only not condemned but also many ways approved First in that the Defenders of it have been preferred to the greatest dignities of the Church some made Cardinals others Presidents of Councils one Antoninus Florontinus Sainted and at this day Worstripped Which surely would not have been done if he had taught Heresie But what is more express and which cannot be eluded is that Thomas Waldensis's work whence he produced the clearest passages was solemnly approved by Pope Martin V. This Trithemius 42 Quod Martinus Papa V. examinatum authoritate Apostolicâ confirmavit Trithem in Vald. assirms telling us that Martin V. examined this work and confirmed it by Apostolical authority The Bull of approbation also may be seen presixed before the third Volume with the Examination subjoyned which lasted above a month when the work being presented to the Pope it was by him confirmed in full Consistory So that after this strict examination and solemn approbation to imagine heresie is contained in this Book will draw the Pope who approved it and the whole Church which never opposed this approbation into the suspicion of heresie I have done with the first argument The second shall be drawn from the silence of the Council of Trent which alone proveth that they thought it not an Article of Faith since they condemned not the Protestants on that account although no less vigorously impugning it than any other Article of their Church This argument is so much the stronger in that our Adversaries frequently urge the silence of the Council of Trent to prove Articles by us objected to them not to be of Faith. So Veronus and the Valemburgian Brethren in the book above-mentioned So the Bishop of Meaux in that Famous Book which hath illuded so many If they reasoned well herein why may not we use the same Arguments And then the Infallibility of the Church cannot be of Faith because wholly pretermitted by the Tridentine Council Lastly that it is not of Faith may be proved hence that no soundation of such a Faith can be alledged For if any were it must be either Scripture or Tradition or some decree of the Ruling Church or the consent of the Universal Church That Scripture and Tradition cannot be produced in this Case we have already demonstrated for this reason especially because the certainty of both depends upon the testimony of the Church Yet Amicus 43 Sumi possunt Traditio Scriptura primo modo ut approbatae infallibili judicio ipsius regulae animatae quo pacto sunt authoritatis divinae credendae fide insusâ Hoc autem modo a nobis non sumuntur ad probandam infallibilem authoritatem regulae animatae Secundo modo sumi possunt ut testatae signis rationibus humanis ut qued c. quo pacto sunt authoritatis humanae credendae fide acquisitâ Atque hoc modo sumuntur ad probandam c. Amic de Fide disp 6. n. 52. slieth thither who after he had objected our argument to himself answers that Scripture and Tradition may be taken either as approved by the infallible judgment of the living Rule and so of divine authority and to be believed by infused Faith. That thus considered they cannot be produced to prove the authority of the living Rule Or they may be taken as only testified and confirmed by humane reason and so of humane authority and to be believed by acquired Faith That this way considered they are produced to prove the living Rule wanting indeed infallible divine authority but having such humane authority as by the accession of Christs Providence over his Church becomes infallible I wish the Jesuit in writing this had first objected to himself our whole Argument For that is drawn not only from the impossibility of knowing according to our Adversaries the Divinity of Scripture or Tradition without being first assured of the infallibility of the Church but also from hence that they teach it cannot be known which are the Canonical books whether received by us uncorrupted or faithfully Translated and is the true sense of them without the same previous assurance If he had objected all this to himself he must either have departed from all the rest of their Divines and denied their so much boasted of arguments or have yellded herein Yet let us examine whâ—â— he offers First therefore his joyning the provid 〈…〉 the yet human authority of Scripture and Tradition is 〈◊〉 and absurd For of that we are assured no otherwise then by Faith and consequently it cannot be a foundation to Faith. Now this being taken away the other Arguments of the Truth of Scripture and Tradition according to the Jesuits argumentation become fallible and so no sit foundation for infallible Faith. Besides I would know whether this acquired Faith carrieth with it indubitable Truth and be of the same certainty with Divine or infused faith or at least sufcient to found Divine Faith upon For if it be not our argument returns If it be why may we not have without the assistance of the Churches authority a Divine Faith of those things which Scripture or if you will Tradition also clearly and plainly teach at least as clearly as they are thought to teach that infallibility of the Church But Amicus hath a reserve for this He pretends 43 Ibid. num 49. that although the human Arguments of the Truth of Scripture and Tradition be self evident avd sufficient to create a Divine Faith yet that we are forbidden by God to believe them with a Divine Faith till his Vicar the Pope shall have confirmed them A miserable refuge which lyeth open to a thousand inconveniencies For to omit asking where this prohibition of God is to be found not to urge that hereby all their Arguments drawn from
For among Catholicks some affirm it because there is no promise found of the contrary Others deny it because the whole Church would be otherwise in great danger of error To me neither seemeth sufficiently certain Yet it is probable that it becomes the Providence of Christ not to permit it In these words two things may be observed First That Suarez speaks of the Infallibility of Bishops not in believing but in teaching For he saith this in answer to an Objection That if all the Bishops could err then the other part of the Church the Laity might also err because they ordinarily follow the Doctrine of their Pastors and are bound to do it Now the People are bound to follow their Pastors not in what they think but in what they teach This also appears from the reason why some denied the consent of all Bishops in any error to be possible because if that should happen the whole Church would be brought into great danger of error But if Bishops should teach rightly although they thought erroneously there would be thence no danger of Error to the rest of the Faithful Secondly Of this Infallibility of Bishops in what they teach unanimously he saith three things 1. That some Catholicks deny it 2. That neither part seems certain to him 3. That it is probable All which singly prove That he thought it not to be of Faith. But who can imagine so great a Doctor could be ignorant of what was of Faith Theoph. Raynaudus differed not much from the Opinion of Suarez That the visible Head saith he 3 Vt seposito capite visibili membra omnia possint infici aliquo errore materiali vix potest contingere verisimillimum est Deo semper cordi futurum ne id accidat Si tamen accideret incont aminato capite nibil decederet de perpetuitate verae fidei in Ecclesiâ Rayn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 punct 5. being laid aside all the Members should be infected with any material error could scarce happen and it is most probable God will take care it should not Yet if it should happen the Head being uninfected the perpetuity of true Faith in the Church would suffer no loss Where he determines not absolutely this cannot happen but looks upon the contrary only as most probable and denieth the Infallibility of the whole Church to depend thereon which is so much urged by the maintainers of the contrary Opinion Rhodius speaks more plainly who affirms 4 Mortuo pontifice non est in Ecclesiâ ulla infallibilis authoritas ad condenda fidei Decreta Nullam e◠tempore infallibilitatem actualem proximam habet Ecclesia Rhod. de fide qu. 2. Sect. 5. §. 5. That the Pope being dead the Church hath no Infallible Authority to make Decrees of Faith as having no actual and immediate Infallibility at that time Hence is manifest that we want little of a Confession from our Adversaries that the Infallibility of the Governours of the Church is not of Faith. And indeed it cannot be For no Foundation of such a Faith is to be found Not Scripture or Tradition For not to say that these to make any Article become of Faith ought according to our Adversaries most evidently to contain it which evidence even they will not deny to be here wanting It would be most absurd that Papists should believe this Infallibility of the Pastors of the Church for the Authority of Scripture and Tradition when they believe neither of these but for the Authority of the Pastors Take away their Testimony and they will deny it to be known whether Scripture or Tradition be the word of God or what is the sence of either The same may be said of the Decrees of the Church Representative For besides that no such express Decree of it can be produced the Infallibility of the Representative Church it self is believed by every single Papist only because they hear it taught by their Pastors As for the belief of the Universal Church that ought not be produced For that is the thing now inquired why the Universal Church believeth so Will our Adversaries therefore say they believe their Pastors cannot err in teaching unanimously what is of Faith because they so teach themselves This they must recurr to for they have no other reason left of believing so Yet nothing can be more absurd For first it is the constant Opinion of all Mankind and a received Law among all Nations that none should be Witness or Judge in his own Cause Secondly As we believe not any Man to be true and honest till we be assured of his veracity and honesty from some other Testimony than his own So it would be the highest imprudence to esteem those Infallible who challenge that privilege to themselves until their Infallibility be known to us from some other Argument than their own Testimony Certainly our Adversaries will not permit even the Scripture which is the word of God and hath so many illustrious Characters of a Divine Original to be believed for its own Testimony and Christ openly professed that if he bore Witness of himself his Witness was not credible Why then shall that be attributed to the Governours of the Church which Christ denied to himself and our Adversaries deny to the Word of God Thirdly The Question will return whence the Pastors of the Church know that they cannot err For they will not say they know it because the Faithful believe it since as Hallier 5 Non ideo vera docent Pastores quia vera credunt Auditores sed ideo vera credunt Auditores quia vera docentibus assentiuntur F. Hallier de Hierarch l. 4. c. 2. well saith The Pastors do not therefore teach truly because the Auditors believe truly but the Auditors believe truly because they assent to the Pastors teaching truly They cannot say that they know it from Scripture or Tradition For the truth of these without the Authority of the Church is no more known to learned than to unlearned persons Think not saith Bagotius 6 Cave existimes unumquenquam etiam Theologum Doctissimum posse quicquam eredere sine authoritate Ecclesiae independenter ab eâ Bagot Instit Theol. l. 4. c. 1. §. 1. that any one even the most learned Divine can believe any thing without the Authority of the Church and independently from it And Hosius 7 Hos cont Brent goeth so far that he maintains it to be the best way that even the most learned Men should recurr to implicit Faith and believe only in general as the Church believeth Shall the Pastors therefore believe that they cannot err for their own Testimony This is the natural consequence of our Adversaries Doctrine and that most absurd For first there is none of the Pastors which believeth so because he teacheth so but all teach so because all believe so Again The Question will recurr upon what Foundation do they teach so Here either nothing or only
is known by Faith. But to this I oppose the Opinion of those Divines who hold That all Christians may fall from the Faith except one single Woman Hence I conclude That the Infallibility of the Church cannot be of Faith because repugnant to the Opinion of these Catholick Divines Certainly we who deny the Infallibility of the Church go not so far as they We believe that God preserveth to himself even in the most difficult times a remnant according to the election of Grace and that there always remains at least an Invisible Church whose name being collective cannot consist and be restrained to one person Our Adversaries therefore cannot pretend their Opinion as it is at this day proposed to be of Faith And so much the less because they can assign no Foundation of this Faith. Not Scripture Tradition Decrees of Popes Definitions of Councils or Consent of Pastors For first I have proved in the preceding Discourse That none of all these can be rely'd upon at least according to our Adversaries Hypotheses and then it is the constant Doctrine of Papists That the Church is not believed for them but they for the Church Again it is certain that the Infallibility of the Church cannot be beieved for the Authority of the Church it self For that would be a manifest Circle and he that doubteth whether the Church can err doth for that very reason doubt whether she doth not err when she thinks that she cannot err Therefore Bannes 1 Non potest reduci ad authoritatem ipsius Ecclesiae hoc enim esset idem per idem confirmare Bann in 2. 2. qu. 1. art 1. dub 4. said truly That the Church is the Infallible rule of proposing and explaining truths of Faith cannot be reduced to the Authority of the Church it self for that would be to prove the same thing by it self Why then is it believed Our Adversaries commonly answer That it is a thing before all others to be believed and not for any other Rule for then the same Question would return about that Rule And because they commonly require three things to make up an Act of Faith. 1. The Testimony of God revealing as the formal Reason and principal Foundation 2. A Rule whereby this Revelation of God may be manifested 3. Motives of Credibility which may induce us to be willing to believe they think the first is here present and the third abundantly to be had in the Notes of the Church which are perceived and dictated by Natural Reason but the second wanting which they pretend not to be necessary in a matter of first belief such as this is But first if a Rule be not requir'd in forming this first Act of Faith Why is it necessary in others Why may not all the other Articles be believed for the Authority of God by the inducement of Motives of Credibility with which the Christian Religion is abundantly furnished Secondly Which is chiefly to be regarded it is absurd to boast of a Testimony of God revealing which no way can be known The Infallibility of the Church or any other Article of Belief can never be proved to have been revealed by God but by some Rule either living or dead whereby things revealed may be distinguished from not revealed otherwise the most foolish Opinion may intitle it self to Revelation and then cannot be rejected Here they fly to Motives of Credibility and by them undertake to supply their defect of a Rule and manifest the Revelation But if these Motives can confer upon the Church so sufficient an Authority that what she proposeth as revealed by God must be believed Why may not the like Motives give the same Authority to the Scripture and assure us of the Divine Original of it And that such Motives are not wanting to the Scripture Bellarmin 2 1 De verbo Dei ib. 1. cap. 2. Suarez 3 De fide disp 5. Sect. 2 3. Duvall 4 Duvall in 2. 2. p. 120. and Martinonus 5 De fide disp 7. Sect. 1. among many others expresly confess Why may we not then by these Motives first be satisfied of the Authority of Scripture and from thence learn all things necessary to Salvation which are clearly contained in it and be so saved without recurring to the Church Further How is it gathered from these Notes and Motives of Credibility that the Church cannot err whether evidently certainly and necessarily or only obscurely probably and contingently The first our Adversaries will never say for then it would necessarily follow That Faith is evident which they all contend to be false insomuch as Bellarmin 6 Ante approbationem Ecclesiae non est evidens aut certum certitudine fidei de ullo miraculo quòd sit verum mir aculum Et quidem quòd non sit evidens patet quia tunc fides esset evidens Bell. de Eccles l. 4. c. 14. disputing of Miracles the chief of these Motives hath these words Before the Approbation of the Church it is not evident nor certain with the certainty of Faith of any Miracle that it is a true one And that it is not evident is manifest for then Faith would be evident Besides if these Notes evidently prove the Church cannot err it would be most false what our Adversaries before delivered with so great consent that by these Notes the Church is not known as it hath an Infallible but only as it hath an Humane and Fallible Authority Lastly They acknowledge as we before shewed That a manifest and convictive Argument cannot be deduced from one or more of these Notes although fortified by the Authority of Scripture if any one be wanting How then will they afford evidence when perceived by the sole light of Nature and are much fewer For they allow more Notes to be pointed out by Scripture than taught by the light of Nature Do these Notes then only perswade probably If so I have gained what I was to prove For then it will be only probable that the Church cannot err and the Faith of Papists will have no certainty as not exceeding probability For whatsoever they believe they believe either for the Testimony or for the Judgment of the Church and so cannot be more certain or evident than is the Infallibility of the Church in testifying and judging Some to elude this make a twofold evidence Physical and Moral and grant the Arguments of the Infallibility of the Church not to be Physically evident but contend they are Morally So especially Aegidius Conink 7 De actib sup disp 2. dub 2. num 46. collat cum dub 3. num 71 72. But here in the first place this manifest absurdity occurrs That when they acknowledge these Arguments to be only Morally certain they yet maintain Faith which is founded solely upon them to be Physically certain for that degree of certainty all attribute to Divine Faith. Besides it hence also appears that this Moral Certainty doth not suffice because it
any of our Adversaries have assigned a Conjectural Certainty to the perswasion which they have of the Truth of the Rules of their Faith. And surely such Certainty would be too mean and inconsiderable for this place Belonging to Opinion rather than Faith as Bellarmine well notes and not excluding distrust which is absolutely destructive of Divine Faith. A Moral Certainty is rarely made use of by our Adversaries in this case being such as take place only in matters of fact and not all those neither but only such as are perceived by the senses of other men and those so many and so clearly as take away all suspicion either of fraud or errour Whereas those parts of a Papists belief which have most need of being backed by certainty and are subject to the greatest difficulties are matters of right or at least such as fall not under the senses either of himself or others There are some things indeed which they would have to be manifest by this kind of certainty such as the knowledg of a lawful Pope or a Canonical Council what the present Church teacheth or to which Society belong the notes of a true Church c. We must consider therefore whether in these cases this certainty be sufficient It would suffice indeed if the opinions of Bagotius or Huetius were admitted Of whom the first equals the second prefers Moral Certainty to Metaphysical and even that which is acquired by demonstration But few approve these excesses Many on the contrary depress this certainty too low However all agree that it is inferior to that of Divine Faith. For which reason alone I might reject it but shall notwithstanding be content only then to do it when it is falsly pretended As for an evident certainty our Adversaries neither do nor can glory in it For if the foundations of Faith had that No previous motion of the will by the Divine influence no supernatural assistance of grace would be necessary which yet all require and none but fools and stupid persons could be disbelievers Besides that those things which are of positive right and depend upon the free Will of God cannot be taught by nature but must be known only by Divine Revelation But herein our Adversaries consent to us as we shall see hereafter and presume not to boast of evidence in the Objects of their Belief There remains therefore only the certainty of Divine Faith which they can pretend to Wherefore I shall chiefly consider that not neglecting yet the rest whensoever it can be imagined that they may be made use of by our Adversaries omitting only the certainty of Theological Conclusions and that for the reasons beforementioned I shall now examine all the Foundations of Faith which our Adversaries are wont to produce beginning at the Holy Scriptures CHAP. II. That the Faith of Papists is not founded on Holy Scripture THAT the Scripture is most certain in it self and most fit to ground our Faith upon is our constant belief and profession But this cannot suffice our Adversaries unless they recede from their known Principles The Scripture may be considered and used for the establishing of our Faith two ways First as it is in it self and its own nature and Secondly as it is confirmed illustrated and assisted by the help of Tradition and the authority of the Church That Scripture the first way considered is not a fit foundation of our Faith our Adversaries not only freely confess but sharply contend maintaining that laying aside Tradition and the Church we cannot be assured either that Scripture is the Word of God or consists of such Books and Chapters or that they are delivered incorrupted to us or faithfully translated or that this or that is the sense of such a place Of these opinions and arguments their Authors are agreed their Books are full that should I recite but the names much more the testimonies of the maintainers of them I should become voluminous To this may be opposed that this is only the opinion of the School Divines and Controversial Writers that there are many in the Church of Rome who believe the authority of the Scripture independent from the judgment of the Church and dextrously use that method of arguing against Atheists as Hâ—etius in his Books of Evangelical Demonstration and the Anonymous Author of the Dissertation concerning the arguments wherewith the truth of Moses his Writings may be demonstrated that such as these may have a true and firm belief of those things which Scripture plainly teacheth which are all that are necessary to be believed Whilest I congratulate to the Church of Rome these more sober Prosylites and wish that by a general concurrence therein they would refute my Dissertation I observe first that there are very few among them of this opinion Secondly that it doth not appear that even these few are perswaded that their arguments suffice to found a Divine Faith upon the Scriptures demonstrated by them The Licensers and Approvers of the aforementioned Dissertation seemed to be afraid of this while they manifestly distinguish a perswasion arising from those arguments from true Faith. Lastly that it doth not appear whether they think that they can without the authority of the Church be obliged to believe either which are Canonical Books or what is the sense of those Books So that until they declare their mind herein they are not by us to be disjoined from much less opposed to the rest I may therefore take it for granted that according to our Adversaries the Faith of private men cannot relie upon the Scripture destitute of the assistance of Tradition since it is what themselves most of all contend for Now for what concerneth Scripture considered the latter way as it is fortified by the accedaneous help of Church and Tradition I might perhaps omit the handling of it here forasmuch as neither Church nor Tradition can confer a greater degree of firmness upon Scripture which that they have not themselves I shall in the proceeding of this Discourse more opportunely shew hereafter However because some few things occur not improper for this place I shall very briefly speak of them First then how little help there is for Scripture in Tradition appeareth hence that it can no otherwise teach what is the true sense of Scripture but by the unanimous consent of the Fathers which whether it be to be had in any one text of Scripture may be much doubted It was a hard condition therefore 1 Nec eam unquam nisi juata unanimem consensum patrum accipiam interpretabor which Pope Pius IV. prescribed in his Profession of Faith to all which desired admission into the Church of Rome and which may for ever silence all the Roman Commentators that they will never receive nor interpret Scripture any otherwise than according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers Now I would fain know how this Law can be observed since I may confidently affirm that there is no one
place of Scripture explained the same way by all the Fathers For there are many places which none of them have touched and none which all have interpreted Nor will it suffice to say that they agree who have interpreted it and that the silence of the rest is to be taken for consent as if they must be supposed to consent who were ignorant of such interpretations or dead perhaps before they were made or as if the Antients were wont expresly to reject all interpretations different from their own or these might not be rejected or at least others proposed in those Books of the Fathers which are lost It is not enough therefore to have the consent of a few unless we be assured of the concurrence of the rest But granting that it is it cannot be denied that our Adversaries can collect nothing certain out of any place of Scripture if any one of the Antients have interpreted it otherwise Hence Alphonsus a Castro 2 Itaapertum indubitatum ut nullus ex sacris probatis Doctoribus illud in aliquo alio sensu interpretetur juxta quem non possit talis propositio per illud de haeresi convinci Castr de justâ haeret pun lib. 1. cap. 4. requireth that among the necessary qualifications of a Text of Scripture to be produced for the conviction of Hereticks this be the chief that it be so plain and undoubted that none of the sacred and approved Doctors interpret it in some other sence according to which such a proposition cannot be thereby convinced of Heresie But if this be true how few places will there be of whose sense we may not doubt Certainly there are very few explained the same way by all antient Commentators This Christopher Gillius 3 Multa sunt in sacris literis quorum sententia neque ex Traditione neque ex Ecclesiae definitione habetur neque semper communis Sanctorum sententia reperitur vel quia diversa sentiunt vel quia pauci locum aliquem interpretati sunt Gill. de doctr sacrâ lib. 1. Tract 7. cap. 6. Professor of Conimbria acknowledgeth who affirms many places to be in Scripture whose sense can be had neither from Tradition nor from the Definition of the Church neither yet can a concurrent explication of the Fathers be found either because they were of different opinions or because few explained the place And the Anonymous Writer of the Treatise of the Liberties of the Gallican Church 4 Pauca sunt Scripturae loca que S S. Patres varii variè interpretati non fuerint lib. 3. cap. 11. maintains that there is few places of Scripture which the Holy Fathers have not differently interpreted As will also manifestly appear to any one who shall consult those Interpreters that are wont to produce the expositions of the Antient Writers Hence the Readers may imagine to what a streight our Adversaries would be reduced if they were tied up to their own Laws and allowed to urge no other places of Scripture against us than what are unanimously interpreted by the Fathers A Specimen hereof may be found in Launoy where he weigheth the Texts of Scripture produced by Bellarmine for the Popes authority and shewing that they are diversly explained by the Antients concludeth thence that they are wholly ineffectual That the sense of Scripture cannot be learned from Tradition hence appeareth but neither is it taught any better by the Church At least She hath not yet taught it For how many Decrees of the Church is there about the true sense of Scriptures Decrees I say for not every simple explication or allegation of a Text is to be lookt upon as an authentick interpretation of it but only that which hath an Anathema affixed to the deniers of it or dissenters from it Of this kind I find but four or five in the Decrees of the Council of Trent and in those of elder Councils none at all For 1500 years the Church delivered not the sense of so much as one place whence may be judged both what a faithful Interpreter She is of the Holy Scriptures and how small an assistance we are to expect from her in obtaining the true sense of them CHAP. III. That Tradition is no better ground for the Papists Faith than Holy Scriptures THUS have we taken from our Adversaries the first and chief foundation of Divine Faith. The Second will be as easily removed I mean Tradition which may be considered two ways as well as Scripture either as it is in it self or as it is confirmed by the authority of the Church That it hath no force the first way considered Bellarmine 1 Scriptura Traditiones omnia planè dogmata nisi certissimi simus quae sit vera Ecclesia incerta prorsus erunt omnia Bell. de Eccles lib. 3. cap. 10. expresly acknowledgeth affirming that till we certainly know what is the true Church Scripture Tradition and all matters of belief are utterly uncertain That Bellarmin is in the right herein at least as to what concerns Tradition is manifest by these two reasons First that taking away the attestation of the Church it cannot be known that there is any Divine Traditions For laying aside that how shall we know that there is any unwritten Word of God derived down to us From Tradition that cannot be since we are now doubting whether there be any Tradition From Scripture That favours not Tradition but if it did it would avail nothing since as we shew in the foregoing Chapter Scripture according to our Adversaries cannot obtain belief till it be it self confirmed by Tradition and the Church Thus doth the truth of Tradition remain uncertain unless it be sustained by the Churches authority Gregory a Valentia 2 Sicut de authoritate ipsius Scripturae necesse per aliquam aliam certam authoritatem constare ita etiam de auctoritate Traditionis si ea quoque revocetur in dubium Val. Tom. 3. disp 1. quaest 1. punct 7. § 12. well knew this who puts Tradition into the same condition with Scripture neither being of authority when called in doubt unless confirmed by some other certain authority Secondly granting that it may be known that there are Divine Traditions it cannot yet without the authority of the Church be known which they are so many false dubious and suspected Traditions being carried about each of which pretends to the same Character of Divine Authority The testimonies of the Fathers will not help in this case since even their judgment is dubious and in many things it cannot easily be told what was their opinion Thus Valentia 3 Cum Traditio scriptis ferè Doctorum Orthod in Ecclesiâ conservetur quaestiones ac dubia moveri possunt de sensu illius sicut dubitatur saepe de sensu ac mente Doctorum Ejusmodi autem quaestiones per eandem ipsam Traditionem definiri satis non poterunt Val. loc cit confesseth that Tradition being conserved in the
reasons abovementioned as because her dissent rather than consent is to he shewed herein There is no way therefore left but to recur to Experience They will say they have observed the Church to erre when she undertook to define in cases excluded by their exceptions and that these exceptions therefore must necessarily be applied to those places of Scripture which attribute infallibility to the Church But then they will give us just reason to reply that if experience giveth us a right to reject that sense of Scripture which the words seem to imply meerly because it is repugnant to our Observations and substitute another more congruous to them Then we may most justly reject that sense of those Words This is my Body which our Adversaries assix to them as contrary to the experience of all mankind and assign another perfectly accommodated both to reason and experience Besides there is nothing against which our Adversaries more sharply contend than to judge and examine the Definitions of the Church by dumb and dead Rules such as Scripture and Tradition are yet this very thing is done by those men who thence conclude the Church to be fallible in certain cases because they have observed her to have been formerly mistaken in them For this can be done no otherwise than by examining the Decrees of the Church either by Scripture or Tradition Again if experience giveth them a right to limit the infallibility of the Church by their exceptions why may not we challenge the same priviledge and assign our exceptions likewise We then lay down only that one formerly proposed by Cusanus which if admitted by our Adversaries will soon put an end to all controversies that is that the Church never presume to define any thing but according to the Holy Scriptures leaving undecided all things wherein they are either silent or obscure And so all our Controversies are reduced to this one point whether this exception is to be added to those which our Adversaries have assigned As often therefore as they oppose to us the judgment of the Church we may with reason reject it till they can shew that our exception is unjust which they will never be able to do On the contrary we can demonstrance the equity of it by experience and shew that the Church hath erred as often as She observed not this exception But let it be rejected Who cantell Whether no other is to be added Certainly if the observation of the past Errours of the Church have given occasion to these Writers to form these exceptions the observation of future errors will likewise produce new exceptions Nay who will warrant that nothing already past hath escaped the notice of these Observers whence other exceptions might have been framed And hence also appears what I undertook to prove in the second place that although we were assured the exceptions are lawful and justly assigned we cannot be certain they are all that are so and whether others are not yet to be added For since the exceptions are formed only from experience if the Authors of them made not a just observation of all the past errours of the Church or had not in their eye all possible future errors of a different nature there may be other exceptions no less necessary and momentous to be assigned And how shall we be at last ascertained of the requisite diligence sagacity and prudence of these Observers I shall illustrate all by a famous example One of the cheif exceptions whereby the Papal power is limited is that all those Decrees are excluded which were not for some space of time affixed to the doors of St. Peters Church and the Apostolick Chancery and solemnly promulged by the Popes Messengers in the wonted places This exception was made about an hundred years since meerly to serve a turn when they could by no other means clude the arguments of the Protestants against the Papal Infallibility drawn from Pope Clement VIII his Bull whereby he re-called Sixtus V. his Edition of the Bible and Preface prefixed to it Then it was they forged this exception pretending that Sixtus his Bull although printed and prefixed to his Bibles had not been solemnly published by the Messengers An exception which had been never dreamt of had not Sixtus erred as appeareth hence that the precedent Writers Cajetan Canus and Bellarmine make no mention of it whereas of the subsequent Writers few forget it Nor is there any doubt but that if any Pope hereafter should commit some other mistake which might wound his pretended Infallibility some other Exception would be framed to salve his honour If therefore our Adversaries as we have proved cannot certainly know what are the conditions and characters of the Infallible Decrees of the Church they must necessarily be ignorant which Decrees may be securely believed and obeyed But granting they might be certain herein and taking away all these scruples they will be yet for ever uncertain which Decrees have which want these conditions For what will it avail to know that the Church may err in matters Philosophical or of Fact or which are not proposed as of Faith if we be uncertain what are Philosophical matters what of Fact and what proposed as of Faith Yet that all these kinds of things are yet uncertain will be easily evinced For First since the School Divines have so intermingled Aristotles Philosophy with Divinity nothing is more difficult than exactly to distinguish them Whence it frequently happens that what one accounts meerly Philosophical another esteems matter of Divinity So in the year 1666. when a certain Theatine 1 Apud Launoi Epist part 5. Epist 2. ad Berruer at Paris had proposed these and such like Theses to be publickly disputed of viz. That any knowledge in the Father was absolutely sufficient to beget the Son so that if the Father had understood but any one object suppose a Lilly he must be thereby supposed to have begotten the Son that if both together had loved but any one object as a Rose yet would they thereby have spirated the Holy Ghost That the unspeakable torment of Devils consists in this that by hypostatical union the Devil is become fire and fire become the Devil These and the like Theses the proposer maintained to be Theological Launoy contends they are Philosophical others think perhaps more truly that they are foolish and prophane The Council of Constance defined the accidents in the Eucharist to remain destitute of any subject The Cartesians deny this and value not the definition pretending that it is about a matter Philosophical Others thereupon accuse their denial of heresie Copernicus and Galilaeus their Systeme of the world were condemned at Rome Some thereupon dare not embrace it though otherwise inclined to believe it Others more bold contend it is purely a matter of Philosophy See therefore many learned and wise men divided about the application of the first exception And if so how shall more ignorant persons be able rightly
might be numbred perhaps if the Church were included in one Province But now that it is diffused throughout the whole World no mean is left of knowing what is the Opinion either of all or most Our Adversaries I suppose will say that when the Governours of the Church dissent about any matter of Faith the Faithful must suspend their assent while the Controversie endureth and content themselves by an implicit Faith to believe in it what the Church believeth not enquiring in the mean while what the Church believeth but leaving that to be enquired by the Church her self To this I answer First that this grants us all we desire For we dispute here only of explicite Faith maintaining that our Adversaries have no certain Foundation for that If they flee to implicite they thereby forsake explicite Faith. Secondly almost all our Adversaries confess that there are some Articles which even the most ignorant Christians are bound to believe with explicite Faith and Connink 6 De actib sup disp 4. dub 9. asserts the contrary Opinion of some Canonists to be held erroneous and even heretical by the other Doctors Further all consent there are some points of Faith necessary to be believed by all with explicite Faith not only because commanded to be so but because the explicite belief of them is also the means without which Salvation cannot be obtained Wherefore Hosius 7 Hâ—s contra Prol. Brent lib. 3. in relating the known story of the Collier saith he did not make that Answer of believing as the Church believeth before he had entirely repeated the Apostles Creed and professed his adherence to it Now suppose the Bishops differ about some Article necessary to be believed with explicite Faith as happened in the times of Arianism Certainly the Faithful cannot at that time sulpend their assent if they do not together suspend their hopes of Salvation But not to insist upon that Example suppose a Controversie raised about doing somewhat which God in the Scripture expresly commands to be done such as we contend to be Communion under both kinds reading of the Scripture c. What is then to be done Must all action be suspended This were to deny obedience to God. We must therefore chuse one part and so reject the pretence of implicite Faith. Again implicite Faith is thus expressed I believe what the Church believeth It therefore supposeth the Faith of the Church Of what kind not implicite surely For that would be absurd in the highest degree Certainly then the Church could not justly be accounted the Keeper of Tradition which is nothing else in our Adversaries sence but that Doctrine which Christ delivered to his Apostles they to their Successors until it was derived down to us If this be true the Church of every Age must of necessity distinctly and explicitly know that Doctrine Otherwise it cannot faithfully and accurately deliver it to the succeeding Church Then how shall this Faith of the Church her self be expressed It can be by no other Form than this I believe what I believe than which nothing can be more absurd But I need not refute a Folly which our Adversaries do not espouse as appears from the words of Duvall 8 Quamvis aliqua successu temporis suerint in Ecclesiâ desinita de quibus antea eitra haeresin dubitabatur certum tamen est illa fuisse semper à nonnullis praedicata declarata Quòd autem ab aliis non crederentur istud tantùm vel ex oblivione vel ex ignorantiâ Scripturae aut traditionis proveniebat Duval in 2.2 p. 111. Although some things were in process of time defined by the Church which were before doubted of without the Crime of Heresie yet it is certain they were always preached and declared by some But that they were not believed by others arose either from the forgetfulness or from the ignorance of Scripture or Tradition Is it therefore this explicite Faith of the Church which serveth as a Foundation to implicite Faith So it ought to be and so I doubt not but our Adversaries will say it is But in this case wherein the Governours of the Church dissent about an Article of Faith it cannot be For that which the Church explicitly believes is no desinite Opinion but a meer Contradiction repugnant to it self and destroying it self For one part of the Church believeth the Opinion whereof the Controversie is raised to be true wholsom and revealed by God the other part believes it false pernicious and suggested by Men. Now to have the belief of the whole Church you must joyn both parts of the Contradiction together and so the Church believeth that Opinion to be true and false wholsom and pernicious revealed by God and suggested by Men. But this is not Faith but a deformed Monster consisting of contrary and repugnant parts CHAP. XXI That the consent of Doctors even when it can be had is more difficult to be known than that we can by the help of it attain to the knowledge of the Truth TO what we observed in the precedent Chapter our Adversaries may perhaps answer That when the Governours of the Church differ about a matter to be believed then indeed the Faith of private Christians cannot rely upon their Authority but that this dissent is not perpetual that they oftentimes consent in delivering the Doctrine of the Church and then at least may be securely believed in what they teach To this I reply First that hereby they must grant they have no certain and sixed Rule of Faith for many great and weighty points of Religion contrary to their continual boasts of the abundance of Rules whereby God hath provided for all the necessities of his Church Secondly the Governours of the Church have now for many Ages differed about some matters upon which according to our Adversaries depend the hopes of eternal Salvation For Example whether the true Church is to be found among the Greeks or among the Latins For of the five Patriarchates of the Church four are divided from the Church of Rome and accuse her of Heresie and Schism both which Accusations she retorts upon them Now this is a matter of great moment which may be justly doubted of and can never be determined by the consent of Doctors But to omit that this consent if it could be had is not so manifest and obvious as a Rule of Faith ought necessarily to be which by the confession of all must be clear evident and easie to be applied This Duvall 1 Secunda conditio eaque pariter essentialis est perspicuitas Nam si hee regula obseurè sidei mysteria proponeret regula fidei non foret Duvall in 2.2 p. 207. assigns for an essential condition of a Rule of Faith and acknowledgeth that if a Rule obscurely proposeth the Mysteries of Faith it would thereby become no Rule And for this reason our Adversaries so much exaggerate the obscurity of Scripture that they may thereby
OF THE Incurable Scepticism OF THE CHURCH OF ROME IMPRIMATUR Hic Liber Cui Titulus Of the Incurable Scepticism of the Church of ROME Octob. 20. 1687. GVIL. NEEDHAM LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Pauls Church yard MDLXXXVIII PREFACE AMong the manifold accusations with which the Papists are wont to defame our most holy Religion there is none which they oftner alledge or more seriously endeavour to evince or confirm with more plausible arguments than that whereby they pretend that we utterly overthrow all certainty in divine matters and consequently Faith it self This is the constant subject of their Writings and Discourses this is of late their only argument To obviate therefore these importunate clamours I resolved throughly to examin the whole Argument and inquire whether there be any truth in those things which many obtrude for most certain Having then with some diligence considered the matter I soon found first that those things are false and and frivolous which are commonly opposed to us and then that our Adversaries themselves are manifestly guilty of that crime wherewith they asperse us and can by no Arts be purged from it For both that celebrated infallibility of the Church and of her Governours upon which the whole System of Popish Faith relies is easily proved to be null and feigned and that even if it were true it could yet produce no assurance of Faith no certainty of belief To evidence and evince all this I thought not unfit and therefore have undertaken to demonstrate these three things I. That it is most false what is pretended with so much confidence that the Church at least in the sence by them understood cannot erre II. That granting the Church cannot erre this her Infallibility is of that nature that both it self labours with inextricable difficulties and can confer certainty upon nothing else III. That our Faith relieth upon far more firm foundations and that nothing is believed by us which is not both certain in it self and such as the certainty of it cannot be unknown by us Of these three Propositions which may in time God willing be demonstrated I have now undertaken the Second because that may be comprehended in a much shorter Discourse than the rest I will shew therefore in this Treatise that the least assurance of those things which are believed is wanting to the Popish Religion and that all things are there doubtful all things uncertain and nothing firm This altho it be most true in the Agenda also of their Religion yet to avoid prolixity I confined my self to the Credenda only and even in these omitted many things which might perhaps seem not inconsiderable to many For not one or two ways only doth the Roman Religion overthrow the firmness of Faith It doth it upon many accounts principally by their Doctrine of the Eucharist which introduces an universal Scepticism into the whole System of Christian Religion Not to say that their Divines in teaching that the very Existence of God is not so much known as believed manifestly betray to Atheists the Cause of Religion But I omit these things as not properly belonging to the matter by us undertaken What I offer in this Discourse may perhaps seem to some too much embarassed with Schâ—lastick Terms and Disputes Nor indeed do I wholly deny it But I desire those Persons to consider whether this could possibly be avoided For only to propose our Arguments and not vindicate them by examining what is opposed to them by our Adversaries seemeth to me the least part of an accurate Disputation Which whosoever shall peruse even with the greatest diligence and attention cannot nor ought not to give sentence because they have not yet heard the other party whose defence cannot be without injustice neglected Those defences indeed are become nauseous in this Age and not undeservedly But however they could not be justly passed by and dissembled by us Yet in these I have endeavoured to propose them as clearly and perspicuously as I could and accommodate them to the capacity of all persons Whether I have gained my intent experience must declare OF THE INCURABLE SCEPTICISM OF THE CHVRCH of ROME CHAP. I. Wherein is laid down the Design of this Treatise and some things are premised for the better understanding of the whole IT is acknowledged by all that the perfection of that Faith which the Schoolmen call Inform we Historical consists in three things that it be plenary pure and firm that is that it believeth all which God hath revealed and that without any mixture of errour or admittance of doubt That the Faith of Papists is neither plenary nor pure many have demonstrated That it is not firm or unshaken I here undertake to prove and to shew that admitting their Hypotheses a Papist cannot with a certain and firm Faith be perswaded of the truth of any thing not only not of those Articles which Rome hath added to the Divine Revelation but not even of those which were truly revealed by God. For since Objects of Faith are inevident of themselves and deserve assent no otherwise then as it shall appear that they have been revealed by God and Revelation it self not a whit more evident there is necessarily required one or more Rules whereby things Revealed may be distinguished from not Revealed We have only one such Rule the Holy Scriptures The Papists many that so what they want in goodness they may make up in number For to Scripture they have added Tradition Decrees of Popes Constitutions of Councils and consent of Pastors not only those who have successively ruled the Church from the first foundation of it but of those also who govern at any determinate time and lastly the belief of the whole Church Now that by the means of any Rule our Faith may become firm two things are necessary First that the Rule it self be true containing nothing false or not revealed And then Secondly that what we believe manifestly agree with this Rule If either of these conditions fail our Faith must be uncertain Nor is it only requisite that a Papist be ascertained both of the truth of the Rules of his Faith and the conformity of what be believe unto them But also that he be as firmly perswaded of the truth of these things as he is of the truth of any Article of his Faith. For since the Faith of Papists depends wholly upon these Rules and is sustained only by them How can it be that the perswasion of the truth of those things which they believe meerly for the sake of these Rules should be more firm than the perswasion of the truth of the Rules themselves or of the conformity of what they believe unto those Rules It being impossible that an Effect should have more in it than the Cause can give it A Conclusion stronger than the Premises or a House firmer than the Foundations Nor do our Adversaries deny this Holden 1 Quamcunque enim
Writings of the Orthodox Doctors is as dubious and uncertain as the opinion of those Doctors is and that the doubts raised concerning it cannot be defined by Tradition it self In like manner George Rhodius 4 Neque scire potero Traditionem aliquam esse veram nisi vivens regula id definierit Rhod. de fide quaest 2. Sect. 5. § 1. affirms that no Tradition can be known to be true unless some living Rule shall so define it But that this matter being of no small moment may be the more manifest we may observe that our Adversaries require two things to make the testimony of the Fathers worthy to be relied on First that they consent and secondly that they do not meerly propose what seems most true to themselves but testifie moreover that what they teach was either delivered by Christ or is of Faith or which is all one the opposite of it heresie If either of these fail then their testimony is not secure The first condition is required by many and particularly by Alphonsus a Castro 5 Quarta est omnium SS Doctorum qui de re illâ scripserunt concors sententia Castr de justâ haeret pun lib. 1. cap. 4. who enquiring out the ways whereby a proposition may be convinced to be heretical in the fourth place assigns the unanimous consent of all the Fathers who have written upon that argument The latter condition is made necessary by many more Driedo 6 Non quia Hieronymus sic vel sic docei non quia Augustinus c. Dried de Eccles Dogm lib. 4. cap. 1. 6. tells us the authority of the Fathers is of no value any otherwise than as they demonstrate their opinion either from the Canonical Scriptures or the belief of the universal Church since the Apostles times and that they do not always deliver their sense as matters of Faith but by way of judgement opinion and probable reason Stapleton 7 Non enim omnibus eorum dictis haec authoritas datur sed quatenus vel Ecclesiae publicam fidem referunt vel ab Ecclesiâ Dei recepta approbata sunt Stapl de princip doctr lib 7. cap. 15. writeth that this authority is not allowed to all the sayings of the Fathers but either as they relate the publick belief of the Church or have been approved and received by the Church Gillius 8 Testimonium Patrum vel Doctorum Scholasticorum communiter asserentium ali pâ—id ad fidem vel Theologiam pertinens simpliciter tamen non indicando esse dogma fidei esse debet argumentum firmum Theologo sed citra infallibilitatem fidei Gill. de doctr Sacrâ lib. 1. Tract 7. cap. 13. lastly grants that the testimony of Fathers and Doctors unanimously asserting somewhat pertaining to Faith and Divinity if they simply assert it and do with all tell us it is an Article of Faith ought to be a firm Argument to a Divine but without Infallibity of Faith. Both conditions are required by Canus 9 Can. Loc. Theol. lib. 3. cap. 4. and Bannes 10 Bann in 2. quaest 1. art 10. Si quod dogma fidei Patres ab initio secundum suorum temporum successiones concordissimè tenuerunt hujusque contrarium ut haereticum refutârunt who laying down Rules whereby true Traditions may be discerned from false both assign this in the second place and in the same words If the Fathers have unanimously from the beginning all along the Succession of their times held any Article of Faith and refuted the contrary as heretical Bellarmine and Gretser 11 Bell. Grets de verbo Dei lib. 4. cap. 9. give this for their fourth Rule When all the Doctors of the Church teach any thing by common consent to have descended from Apostolical Tradition either gathered together in a Council or each one a part in their Writings Suarez 12 Licet Patres vel Scholastici in aliquâ sententiâ conveniant non asserendo illam esse de fide sed judicium suum in eâ proferendo non faciens rem de fide quia semper manent intra mensuram authoritatis humanae Suarez de fide disp 2. Sect. 6. writeth that although the Fathers and Schoolmen agree in any opinion not asserting it to be of Faith But delivering their Judgment in it they will not make it to be of Faith because they remain always within the limits of humane authority Filliutius 13 quae unanimi consensu Patrum tanquam de fide proponuntur Fill. in Decal Tract 22. cap. 1. reckoning up the seven degrees of things pertaining to Catholick verity assigns the Sixth degree to those truths which by the unanimous consent of the Fathers are proposed to be of Faith. Martinonus 14 Certum est nullum ex S S. Patribus vel Doctoribus seorsim sumptum esse Regulam Fidei jam de eorundem simul sumptorum consensu distinguendum Vel enim loquuntur ex proprio sensu non asserendo rem tanquam de fide judicium suum de eâ proferendo sic non Regula Fidei Mart. de fide disp 8. Sect. 3. that none of the Holy Fathers or Doctors taken separately is the Rule of Faith nor all yet together conjunctly unless they assert their common opinion to be of Faith and not meerly propose their own judgment Lastly Natalis Alexander 15 Cum omnes Patres in eandem sententiam conspirant eamque propugnant ac proponunt ut Apostolicam doctrinam Ecclesiae dogma Catholi eâ fide credendum tunc eorum authoritas necessarium argumentum sacrae doctrinae subministrat Alex. saecul 2 p. 1022. affirms that when all the Fathers conspire in the same opinion defend it and propose it as Apostolick Doctrine and an Article of the Church to be believed by Catholick Faith Then doth their authority afford a necessary argument of Sacred Doctrine Thus far these Writers And that the rest do not disagree from them we shall soon be perswaded if we consider how unlikely it is that a greater infallibility should be allowed even to an unanimous testimony of the Fathers than to Pope or Council or both together or the present Universal Church All which our Adversaries grant may erre in those things which they simply affirm or teach and define not to be of Faith. It sufficeth not therefore either that many Fathers deliver an opinion as of Faith or that all should simply teach it but not affirm it to be of Faith. Now if these two conditions be observed How few Articles of Christian Faith shall we receive from Tradition For the Fathers seldom all agree and more rarely admonisheth us that what they teach is of Faith. So that if you take away all Articles wherein either of these conditions is wanting it may well be doubted whether any one will remain Certainly if our Controversial Divines should so far make use of this observation as to reject all testimonies of the Fathers
the Universal Church knowing of it and winking at it To the same purpose Canus 9 Sunius aut paucorum opinatio non fuerit ab Ecclesiâ rejecta tum plurimorum authoritas nihil certum firmumque conficiet Can. loc Theol. lib. 7. cap. 3. teacheth that if the opinion of one or a few be not rejecsed by the Church then the contrary authority of many will produce nothing firm or certain There is extant among the works of the Fratres Valemburgii a Treatise called the Rule of Faith written formerly in French by Veron and translated into Latine by the Valemburgii and so openly adopted by them that whatsoever Veron writ of himself in the singular they translate in the plural So that whatsoever is contained in it may be lookt upon as the sense of all three Writers Now the chief scope of this Book is to shew that not a few opinions taught by many of their Doctors and by us affixed to the whole Church of Rome are not of Faith but may be safely denied To the obtaining of this end they make use chiefly of two means the silence of the Council of Trent and the testimonies of Doctors of a contrary opinion and Section 15. 10 Variae sunt hâc de re Doctorum sententiae quod vel solum sufficit probando id non esse de fide Catholicâ have these words That the different judgement of the Doctors herein may aloné suffice to prove that it is not of Faith. Upon this foundation proceed all those Divines who maintain that the Pope is infallible or superiour to a Council Thus the Valemburgii 11 Eâ solìen de causâ non affirmamus hanc propositionem fide Catholicâ esse tenendam quòd Authores qui contrarium sentiunt nondum videamus ab Ecclesiâ damnatos pro haereticis Val. Tom. 1. Tract 1. Exam. 3. num 111. write that for this cause only they will not affirm this proposition to be of Catholick Faith because Authors of the contrary opinion are not condemned by the Church for Hereticks So Bannes 12 Bann in 2.2 quaest 1. art 10. dub 2. Bellarmine 13 Bell. de Pont. lib. 4. cap. 2. Vasquez 14 Vasq in 3. disp 137. cap. 1. and Duval 15 Duval in 2.2 p. 344. tells us that they will not assert the contrary opinion to be heresie because it is not yet condemned by Popes or Councils and is tolerated in the Church But Gillius 16 Quare rigida videtur censura quâ Bannes oppositam notat sententiam vocans eam temerariam Gill. de doctr Sacrâ lib. 1. Tract 7. cap. 4. goes farther and reprehendeth Bannes for inflicting even a mark of rashness upon the opinion of one only sense of Scripture since four Divines Alensis Albertus Henricus and Medina had defended it This opinion of our Adversaries is grounded on a double foundation The first Gillius declareth in express words viz. that it is not credible that so many learned and pious persons should either not know what the Catholick Faith teacheth or knowing it should oppose it The Second is that it would be a most unpardonable neglect of the Church to see the Faith torn in pieces by her Children and be silent in so urgent an occasion For by that connivance She should at least indirectly confirm heresie it being a Rule of the Canon Law 17 Error cui non resistitur approbatur Dist 83. that an Errour which is not resisted is approved If therefore I demonstrate that not one or two but many of the Roman Divines and those the most celebrated and by their merit preferred to the greatest dignities in the Church were not only ignorant of but also openly denied this Infallibility I shall at the same time prove that it is not of Faith. The former will easily be performed For first the most noble and learned Jo. Fr. Picus 18 Voluerunt multi Concilium si unâ cum Pontifice in iis quae ad essentiam fidei pertinent sententiam ferat nullo pacto errare posse Restitêre alii affirmantes errare posse Concilia jam errâsse nec ad huc aliquid quod sciam promulgatum est cujus vi ad alterutrum credendum obstringamur Picus ad Theor. 4. Prince of Mirandula confesseth that their Doctors and Canonists are divided in their opinions whether a Pope and Council conjunctly defining matters of Faith can err or not and that we are not obliged to believe either opinion That Picus his testimony is true any one will be convinced that considereth how many things repugnant to this Infallibility the greatest men of the Roman Church have taught These may be reduced to four heads First the testimonies of those which teach that the Pope and Council to whom alone this Infallibility is assigned can err Secondly of those which deny that Church which is unerring and indesectible to be so tied to the Clergy that it may not wholly consist in others Thirdly of those who assert that the Faith of all men one only excepted may fail and so the Church subsist in a single Laick or Woman Fourthly of those who imagine that the Faith may perish in all adult persons and so the Church consist only in baptized infants For the first we shall produce Ockam or at least them whose opinions he relates For in his Dialogues he never speaks in his own person 19 Vna sola est Ecclesia militans quae contra fidem errare non potest Temerarium est dicere quod Concilium Generale contra fidem errare non potest Occam Dial. part 1. lib. 5. cap. 25. He therefore assirms that it is rash to say a General Council cannot err against the Faith that being the peculiar priviledge of the Church Militant That 19 Scripturae divinae universali Ecclesiae Aposiolis absque allâ dubitatione in omnibus credendum Nullis vero aliis quantâcunque doctrinâ vel Sanctitate praepolleant It a quod nec in Concilio generali si esset congregata universalis Ecclesia nec Decretis Pontisicum nec Doctorum dictis est necessario credulitas in omni dicto absque omni exceptione praestanda Id. part 3. Tract 1. lib. 3. cap. 4. the Scriptures the Universal Church and the Apostles are without hesitation to be believed but none others how eminent soever in holiness and Learning no not a General Council although the Universal Church were gathered together in it nor the Decrees of Popes nor the Judgments of Doctors Lastly 20 Si quaeratur quis habet judicare an Concilia suerint Catholicè celebrata respondetur quod periti in Scripturis habent judicare per modum firmae assertionis quod definita ab iis sunt Catholicè definita Id. cap. 19. that it belongs to every man skilful in the Scriptures with a firm assurance to judge whether Councils have been celebrated Canonically or defined Catholickly Peter de Alliaco 21 1. Concilium generale
potest difformari legi Christi 2. Ecclesia Romana quae distinguitur a tot â congregatione sidelium ut pars à toto potest haereticari 3. Tota multitudo Clericorum Laicorum virorum potest à fide deficere All. in quaest vesper art 3. Cardinal of Cambray and one of the Presidents of the Council of Constance layeth down these Three Assertions 1. That a General Council can depart from the Law of Christ 2. That the Church of Rome which is distinguished from the whole Congregation of the Faithful as the part from the whole may fall into Heresie 3. That the whole multitude of Clergy and Laity may apostatize from the true Faith. This Lecture opposed by a Parisian Doctor he afterwards largely defended in his Reply which he Entitled de Resumptâ Where among other things to this purpose he enquireth what is to be done when a General Council errs and the State of Christendom is so depraved that Hereticks have all the Power the Faithful being become few and contemptible And in this case adviseth to make divers Appeals commit themselves to the Divine Grace and bear the injury with Patience Waldensis 22 Non est ergo specialis Ecclesia non Africana nec utique particularis illa Romana sed universalis Ecclesia non quidem in generali Synodo congregata quam aliquotiens errâsse percepimus Sed est c. Vald. doctr Fid. Tom. 1. lib. 2. cap. 19. Paulo post Quia nulla harum Synodi Episcopalis c est Ecclesia Catholica Symbolica nec vendicat sibi sidem dari sub paenâ perfidiae Sed c. Nec movere quenquam debet qued talem concordem professionem Patrum praeposui decreto generalis Concilu etiamsi è toto orbe existentes convenirent Episcopi Et cap. 27. Nec tamen alicui jam dictae Ecclesiis Apostolicis maxlmè verò Romanae authoritati Concilii Generalis ita obediendum censeo tam pronâ fide sicut primae fidei Scripturae vel Ecclesiae Christi Symbolicae sed sicut institutionibus Seniorum monitioni paternae teacheth that the Church which is the Infallible Rule of Faith is neither Pope nor Council which have sometimes erred but the Series and Collection of all Doctors successively from the Apostles to our times That neither an Episcopal Synod nor the common decree of the Roman Church nor yet a General Council of all the Bishops of the World is that Catholick Symbolical Church that can challenge assent upon pain of insidelity But the Universal succession of the Holy Fathers throughout all Ages That an unanimous consent of the Fathers is to be preferred before the Decree of a General Council although all the Bishops of the World be therein That Obedience is not so readily and intirely to be given to the dictates of any particular Church or even to the authority of a General Council as to the first Faith proposed by Scripture or the Symbolical Church of Christ The other being to be regarded only as the institution of the Elders and paternal admonition Cardinal Panormitan 23 Ideo in concernentibus sidem Concilium est supra Papam Puto tamen quod si Papa moveretur melioribus rationibus authoritatibas qudm Concilium quod standum esset sententiae suae Nam Concilinm potest errare sicut aliâs erravit c Nam in concernentibas sidem etiam dictum unius privati esser praeferendum dicto Papae si ille moveretur melioribus rationibus N. V. Testamenti quam Papa Panorm in Cap. Significâsti de electione writeth that in things indeed concerning Faith a Council is above the Pope Yet if the Pope be moved with better reasons and authorities than the Council we are to stand to his determination For even a Council may err and hath erred That in matters of Faith the judgment even of one private man is to be preferred before the Sentence of the Pope if he were moved with better Arguments drawn from the Old and New Testament than the Pope And much more to the same purpose Antony 24 Ant. Summ. Theol. part 3. Tit. 23. Cap. 2. §. 6. Archbishop of Florence hath transcribed this whole passage of Panormitan into his sum of Divinity without making the least mention of him and delivers it as his own opinion Cardinal Cusanus 25 Notandum est experimento rerum Concilium universale plenartum posse deficere quomodo etiam varia Concilia talia fuerunt quae judicando errârunt Cusan Concord Cath. lib. 2. cap. 3. 4. alloweth indeed Oecumenical Councils to be infallible But to this End requireth so many conditions that it is very difficult they should all be had and impossible to be known when had The fourth condition is that the Council regulate it self by the Rules of the Holy Ghost laid down in Scripture and the definitions of precedent Councils Otherwise that howsoever free and universal they may be appealed from and protested against And at last concludes that it is to be seen by experience that a full General Council can err as diverse such Councils have been which have erred in defining Thus he of Councils who hath much more about the errability of the Pope Wherefore Bellarmine reckons him among the Parisians Nicholas de Clemangis 26 Clem. in Disp de Conciliis expresly Disputes against the Infallibility of Councils But because he preadmonisheth he assirms nothing but only to dispute for finding out the truth I shall not urge his Testimony Cardinal Dominicus Jacobatius 27 Quia Concilium potest errare ut patet in Conctlio Ariminenâ—i Ephesino 2. Africanâ Synodo tempore Cypriani in aliis multis Nec obstat si dicatur quòd Ecclesià non potest errare quia intelligitur de Ecclesiâ universali Sed Concilium repraesentativè dicitur Ecclesiâ in Concilio enim verè non est universalis Ecclesia Jacob. de Concil lib. 6. pag. 239. asserteth that when Popes and Councils disagree in defining that judgment is to be preferred which is consonant to the definitions of precedent Councils If none of which have passed Sentence in this matter then the Councils definition shall not be received if the Popes be founded upon better reasons and authorities For that a Council can erre as appears by that of Ariminum the Second of Ephesus that of Africk under Cyprian and many others That the Infallibility of the Universal Church proves not the same to be in a Council Since the Universal Church is not truly in a Council That in the case of contrary definitions by the Pope and a Council it is not yet defined what is to be done or observed That his Opinion however is that he which should hold to and observe either part should not therefore incur the danger of Damnation although he died in the observation of it All these manifestly teach that both a Pope and Council to whom alone active Infallibility is attributed may erre
Nor is it enough to say that herein they deliver their judgments of the Pope and Council disagreeing one from another and not conjunctly defining This indeed may seem to be said with some colour of Truth in Jacobatius But as for Occam and Alliacensis it doth by no means fit them Nor yet doth it in the least enervate the Testimonies of the rest Since whensoever they deny infallibility to Pope or Council they do not thereto oppose the consent of both but either the Symbolical and successive Church as Waldensis or the Universal as all the rest Besides they deny infallibility to belong to the representative Church and to be the property of the Universal whereas every one knoweth and acknowledgeth that only the representative Church is in a Council As for Jacobatius his opinion it plainly is that obedience is then immediately to be given to the Decree of a Pope or Council when it is consonant to the definition of some former even particular Council which had been received by the universal Church that this obedience therefore is to be paid not for the authority of the present definition but the approbation of the Universal Church which She is supposed to have given to it by a long reception But what clears the matter beyond all exception is that Jacobatius is one of those who think the Church may fail except one woman only as we shall see afterwards under the third head The second Classis contains the testimonies of Doctors asserting the Church for which Christ prayed and promised the Gates of Hell should not prevail against it not to be confined to the Ecclesiastick order but may consist of believers of whatsoever rank and order This Petrus Alliacensis expresly affirms in the place by us above cited So the Author of the Glosse 28 Quaero de quâ Ecclesiâ intelligas quod hîc dicitur quòd non possit errare de ipso Papâ qui Ecclesia dicitur sed certum est quòd Papa errare potest Respondeo ipsa congregatio fidelium hic dicitur Ecclesia Et talis Ecclesia non potest non esse Nam ipse Dominus orat pro Ecclesia Caus 24. quaest 1. upon the Canon Law inquiring what Church it is that cannot err determineth it to be the Congregation of the faithful which cannot fail Christ having prayed for it and Nicolas Lyra 29 A verâ se fide subvertendo Ex quo patet quòd Ecclesia non consistit in hominibus ratione potestatis vel dignitatis Ecclesiasticae vel saecularis quia multi principes summi Pontifices c. inventi sunt apostatâsse a fide Propter quod Ecclesia consistit in illis personis in quibus est notitia vera confessio fidei veritatis Lyra in Matth. 16.18 to those words The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it affixeth this Glosse that is to subvert it from the true faith To which he subjoyns Whence is manifest that the Church consists not in men in respect either of Ecclesiastical or Secular Dignity for they have sometimes apostatized from the Faith but in those persons in whom remains a true knowledge and confession of the faith and truth The third Classis comprehendeth the testimonies of those who teach that the whole Church may fail except one only person and that either Ecclesiastick or Laick Man or Woman and so the Church consist in that person alone That the Church actually did so at the time of our Saviours Passion Tostatus 30 Tost in Matth. praef quaest 14. doth not assert as Suarez 31 Suar. de fide disp 9. Sect. 3. and Bannes 32 Bann in 2.2 q. 1. art 10. dub salsly relate but tells us it was the common opinion in his time The same writes Aeneas Sylvius in his History of the Council of Basil Bannes and Turrecremata 33 Terrec de Eccles lib. 3. cap 6. attribute this opinion to Alexander Alensis Hagutius and Durandus Asimatensis the latter ascribe it also to the whole multitude of Preachers and produceth out of Alensis 34 Opinio que dicit quid in sâ—lâ Vin ine stetit Ecclesia in qâ—â—d sâ—la sides mansit in passione videtur nobis vera this sentence That opinion which saith the Church consisted in the Virgin alone in whom alone romained true faith at the passion seems true to us which Turrecremata also himself defends in many places particularly Summ. de Eccles lib. 1. cap. 30. lib. 3. cap. 61. Beside these four there are not a few of the same mind Ockam 35 In uno sdo potest stare tota sides Ecclesiae quem â—dmedum tempare mortis Christi tota siles Ecclesiae in B. Virgine remanebat Non est ctiam credendum c. Occ. Dial. part 1. lib. 2. cap. 25. affirms that the whole Faith of the Church may remain in one single person as it did in the blessed Vargin at the time of our Lords passsion that if God permitted this in the days of the Apostles he will much sooner permit it in these latter Ages and that the contrary opinion is rash Panormitan 36 Passibile est quòd vera sides Christi remaneret in uno solo Hoe patuit post passionem Christi Nam c. Et fortè hine dicit Glossa quâ—d ubi sant bmi ibi est Ecclesia Romana Panorm loc cit in the words immediately following those before cited saith it is possible the Faith of Christ may remain in one only person That at the Passion of our Saviour it remained only in the blessed Virgin and that for this cause probably the Glosse saith where ever good men are there is the Church of Rome This passage also as well as the former Antonius Florentinus translated into his Sum. Peter de Monte 38 Quia sides potest remarere etiam apud simplicem Laicum in aliis omnibus jerire sicut accidit in personâ B. Mariae in passione Christi Pet. de Monte lib. de Monarchiâ Bishop of Brixia gives this reason why Laicks ought to be admitted into the Council because the Faith may possibly remain in one simple Laick as it did formerly in the Blessed Virgin. Clemangis 39 In soli potest mulierculâ per gratiam manere Ecclesia sicut c. Clem. disp de Concil asserts the Church may by grace remain in one single woman as formerly in the Virgin. Jacobatius 40 Nam remansit sides in B. Virgine aliis deficientibus post passionem ut astenderetur quid non possi defiâ—ere sides pro quâ Christus oravit cùm diait Petro. Et ego pro te rogavi ut non desietat svies tua Et non intelligitar Jac. de Concil lib. 6. p. 242. writeth that after the passion faith remained in the Blessed Virgin alone that so the promise of indefectibility made by Christ unto his Church might not fail which promise was made not to the representive Church or a Council but
approved or condemned That request being stisly denied by the Roman Consistory who were resolved to condemn them in the gross The Jansenists distinguished Three Senses of each Proposition and placing the different senses in Three Columns offered them to the Examiners desiring they would admonish which of all those senses the Censure aimed at But neither so could they obtain their End. Only afterwards when the Controversie grew hot Pope Alexander VII declared the Propositions were condemned in the sense intended by the Author The Author had been now dead before his Book was published much less condemned And so while the Popes pretended to condemn the Authors sense they said nothing else but that they condemned a sense which neither they would nor any body else could tell what it was And to this day it is disputed among them what is that Heretical sense intended by the Author and condemned by the Popes Thus much of the Third Exception I might add another which not a few of our Adversaries produce For they require that the Church proceed maturely diligently and Canonically in her judgment Which certainly few or none can know But because the consideration of this would take up too much time I shall omit it Having already sufficiently evinced that nothing is more uncertain than to know what are those Decrees of the Church which may be securely believed and consequently that Faith cannot be founded on them CHAP. VI. That it is uncertain what is that part of the Vniversal Church to which active Infallibility belongs And First that it doth not appear whether it be in the Pope IF we should after all this grant the knowledg of the Churches Infallibility and of her Infallible Decrees not to be impossible this would contribute nothing to the establishing our Faith unless it were likewise known what is that Supream Tribunal whose Decrees are to be obey'd For if this were uncertain saith Arriaga 1 Si enim incertum hoc esset quicquid de judice controversiarum in Ecclesiâ ut certum de fidecreditur esset planè ridiculum Arr. de Fide Disp 7. Sect. 8. whatsoever is believed as of Faith concerning a Judge of Controversies in the Church would be ridiculous Now this thing is really uncertain as I shall prove There are three opinions concerning it among our Adversaries For this Supream and Infallible power is by most assigned to the Pope alone by almost all the French and some few more to a Council alone and lastly to Pope and Council together by some very few so few that I could never find one that expresly asserted this opinion and but two or three that obscurely insinuate it I begin with the Pope and affirm that unless his Infallibility be of Faith his Decrees cannot be the foundation of Faith. No other certainty will here suffice for as for Moral and Self evident here is not the least shadow of them and that of Theological Conclusions I before excluded So that certainty of Faith is necessary This our Adversaries confess at least those of the first opinion Caspensis 2 Nisi fide divinâ credamns ejusmodi Pontifices esse successores Petri nihil est quod possumus fide divina credere Casp de fide disp 2. Sect. 6. writeth that unless we believe by Divine Faith such Popes to be the Successors of Peter there is nothing we can believe with Divine Faith. Martinonus 3 Pontifex non posset nos obligare ad credendum de jide id quod definit ut dictum a Deo nisi de fide esset ipsum habere potestatem definiendi infalibilem assistentiam Sp. S. Mart. de fide disp 9. Sect. 6. that the Pope could not oblige us to believe as of Faith what he defineth to be revealed by God unless it were of Faith that he hath the power of defining and infallible assistance of the Holy Ghost Rhodius 4 Si non esset de fide quòd Papa sit infallibilis ergo non est de fide quôd non fallatur Rhod. de fide quaest 3. Sect. 1. §. 3. that unless the infallibility of the Pope were of Faith it would not be of Faith that he is not actually mistaken Is it therefore of Faith that the Pope is infallible So indeed some of them maintain as Suarez Castrus Palaus Lud. Abelly Ja. Vernautius Fr. Macedo Theoph. Raynaudus Amicus Caspensis Martinonus Rhodius and others Yea Abelly 5 Veritatem religionis fundamentalem articulum fidei ex praecipuis unum cui innitantur caeteri omnes Abelly apud Estrix Diat ass 47. affirms that it is a fundamental truth of Religion a Prime Article of Faith upon which the rest depend and the contrary opipinion a capital heresie Vernautius 6 Neminem posse sine crimine hereseos doctrinam tenere contrariam Pontificis fidei omnibus fidelibus propositae Vern apud eundem concludeth that none without the crime of heresie can hold an opinion contrary to the belief of the Pope proposed to all the faithful Macedo 7 Censeo qui absolutè negat insallibilem esse Papam errare haud dubiè in fide si in errore obstinatus perseveret haereticum fore Mac. ibidem thinks the denial of it to be an undoubted error in Faith and if obstinately persisted in heresie Lastly Raynaudus 8 Qui Pontifici eam infallibilitatem abrogant a plerisque sin minus ab omnibus trans Alpes Pyrenaeos habentur haeretici saltem materialiter Rayn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 punct 5. tells us the deniers are by many if not by all beyond the Alpes and Pyrenaeans accounted hereticks at least materially When he saith materially he meaneth in the Language of the Schoolmen that the opinion of these Deniers is accounted in it self heretical and wants only obstinacy in the defenders to make it downright and formal Heresie Now this obstinacy is judged of partly by the external Proposition of the Truth opposed to Heresie partly by the internal disposition of mind Now because the latter is known to God alone and all truths are not sufficiently proposed to all therefore those of whom Raynaudus speaks do wisely in laying down that limitation of material Heresie But this Salvo will not serve the Learned disbelievers of the Papal infallibility For since it is as clearly revealed to them as it is to the believers of it Either those are rank Hereticks whom a sufficient Proposition will not convince or these fools who assent to an opinion insufficiently proposed Thus indeed these Writers But others are of a contrary opinion as Bellarmine Vasquez Tannerus Duval the Valemburgii Gab. Boyvin and others who strenuously maintain the Infallibility of the Pope and yet deny it to be of Faith. Duval 9 Duval de potest Pont. part 2. quaest 1. produceth three weighty reasons 1. For that it hath been no where defined 2. That the opposite Doctors as Alliacensis Gerson c. Were never condemned 3. In that the Scripture
doth not clearly enough teach this Infallibility The two first reasons are also made use of by Bellarmine Vasquez the Valemburgii and Boyvin And indeed this opinion is most consonant to the received Principles of their Church For if nothing can be an Article of Faith of which their Divines freely dispute unregarded by the Church This certainly cannot be whose Truth hath been and is to this day fiercely disputed of among them even by Bellarmines Confession from the time of the Council of Constance the Church all this while inflicting no censure on either party Besides if the Infallibility of the Pope be of Faith it will then be Heresie to deny it as we saw some before asserting Hadrianus Florentius therefore was an Heretick who affirms 11 Certum est quod possit Pontifex errare etiam in iis quae tangunt fidem Heresin per suam determinationem vel Deeretalem asserendo plures enim fuerunt Pontifices Rom. heretici Hadr. in Dictat in 4. Sentent the Pope can err even in those things which concern Faith by asserting Heresie by his determination or decretal and that many Popes have been Hereticks and the Church will be a favouress of Heresie in that She afterwards promoted Hadrian to the Popedom without first requiring of him an abjuration of his Heresie Again if this opinion be Heretical the Council of Basil will be heretical that defined it and vigorously maintained it The Sorbon and Gallican Clergy hereticks that teach it the Pope a favourer of heresie who daily conferreth Abbies Bishopricks and Cardinals Hats on notorious Hereticks giveth them places in Councils and maintains Communion with them the whole Latin Church will have been divided in point of Faith and part infected with heresie part with the Communion of hereticks for many Ages from the Council of Constance according to Bellarmine but even from the time of Firmilian or the middle of the third Century according to Lupus who assigns Firmilian to be the first opposer of Papal Infallibility and makes St. Basil to have been his Successor in opinion as well as in the See of Caesarea that thenceforward this Heresie got ground among the Grecians insomuch as the Pelagians condemned by the Popes appealed to the Council at Ephesus hoping their sentence might easily be reversed by the Greek Bishops as not allowing the Popes Infallibility If so then this dissention is very ancient in the Church which if it toucheth Faith then a pestilent Heresie hath for many Ages been connived at by the Church and Councils But whatsoever becomes of Lupus his Calculation certain it is this dissention hath continued from the Council of Constance so that if it be concerning a matter of Faith the Church of Rome hath all this while wanted that glorious Character of Unity of Faith which She so much boasts of CHAP. VII That it is not certain whether the Pope in defining used all diligence necessary to a right definition or whether he observed all the wonted solemnities in publishing his Decree ANother scruple next ariseth no less weighty than the former For granting we may be assured of the Infallibility of the Pope it is still to be inquired which be those Decrees of his that are infallibly true For that all are not so our Adversaries confess Many things are by them required and besides those before mentioned two other conditions viz. Diligence of the Pope in well examining the question to be defined and observation of the due solemnities in publishing the definition For the first they require that he diligently consult Scripture and Tradition address himself by Prayers to God and omit nothing which may assist him in finding out the Truth So Tapperus 1 Tapp orat 3. Canus 2 Can. loc Theol. lib. 5. cap. 5. Cellotius 3 Cell de Hier lib. 4. cap. 10. Bagotius 4 Bag. Instit Theol. and many others but above all Duvall 5 Duval de Pot. Pont. Sect. 2. quaest 5. who not only proposeth but also accurately demonstrates the necessity of these conditions But who can assure us that this requisite diligence was always used Or as often as a Papal decree comes forth are we to suspend our assent till we be ascertained that nothing requisite was omitted by the Pope If that be true there will be few Decrees to which we owe assent and obedience Canus Bellarmine Suarez Duvall Martinenus Rhodius and many others answer that as he which promiseth the End promiseth also the the means of that End so Christ in promising Infallibility to the Pope must be supposed likewise to have promised that he would take care the Pope should never omit any thing necessary for finding out of truth and declaring it to others when found I will not now enquire whether this be consonant to what they teach about the Controversie of the Aids of Grace I only ask whether what they alledge be certain If not our Faith will always sluctuate and ever be uncertain That it is not certain Tapperus 6 Si contingeret eum Pontisirem perperam pracedere an Deus eam volentem maledicere prchiberet sicut impedivit Balaam an potius retractari saceret ejus judicium sicut c. Certum non est Tapp loc cit ingenuously confesseth Whether saith he if it should happen that the Pope proceeds wrong would God hinder him going about to curse as he did Balaam or make him retract his judgment as the Counsel given by Nathan the Prophet to King David It is not certain Nay that it is absolutely false may be proved by many examples Did Benedict II. Examine well what he went about when he condemned Julian Toletanus his Book which he was afterwards forced to approve Did Vigilius who sometimes condemned sometimes defended the Tria Capitula Did John VIII who notwithstanding his Oath the Decrees of his Predecessors and Sanctions of Three Councils restored Photius and reinforced the Schism Another very evident Example of this is afforded by the suppression of Sixtus V. his Bibles which alone might evince three things that the Popes are not always sufficiently diligent in their Definitions that they can err in any Decrees and that it is not known when the requisite Solemnities are observed in the promulgation which was my second Argument The case was this The Council of Trent in authorizing the Vulgar Version had desired it might be correctly and accurately set forth leaving the Execution of this matter to the Pope That this might be well done Ad nos totum hoc judicium propriè specialiter pertinet Hac perpetuo valitura Constitutione de Venerab Fratrum consensu Consilio de certä suâ—i scientiâ Apostolicae potestatis plenitudine Apostolied sibi a Domino traditâ authoritate great industry was used At last after Forty Six years Sixtus V. published the Edition prefixing a Bull to it whereby he commanded it to be received by all men And wherein having prefaced that the matter belonged
haec scriberet tunc à quibusdam Cardinalibus perterritum ni Bullas adhaesionis Concilio expediret se ab eo omnes secessuros Duvall Anteloqu ad Tract de potest Pont. alledgeth That this Bull was extorted by fear The Cardinals threatning that unless he expedited his Bulls of adhaesion to the Council they would all forsake him This answer grants to me what I was to demonstrate that Popes may be prevailed on by fear to decree against Truth and Right So that this being granted as it cannot be denied no Decrees of Popes are to be received before we be assured that the Pope was forced by no Fear or Threats to publish them which can very difficultly be known if at all Besides if Fear can extort a false or unjust Decree from the Pope why may not any other perturbation as Hatred Anger or Covetousness do the same Well saith Canus y Qui metu frangitur is cupiditate etiam frangatur necesse est Can. loc Theol. lib. 5. cap. 5. in a like Argument He which will yield to Fear must necessarily yield to Covetousness or any inordinate Desire Nothing therefore is more uncertain than the Papal Decrees For who can tell what induced the Pope to decree this or that * 1 Cor. ii 11. For what Man knoweth the things of a Man save the spirit of Man which is in him CHAP. IX That it is not certain whether he who calls himself the Pope and is commonly accounted the Pope be really such THere remains yet another inextricable doubt For suppose we have overcome all the precedent difficulties and found some relief for so many uncertainties It is yet to be inquired whether he which makes the Decrees and proposeth them to be observed by the Church be the true and lawful Pope as he is commonly esteemed For while this be doubtful we may justly doubt whether his Decrees be obligatory Now this matter may by many wayes become uncertain As first it sometimes happens that two or more do at the same time contend for the Papacy all of which have their several Partisans by whom they are accounted the lawful Popes Many such Schisms have been in the Church whereof one continued near 50 years The knowledge of the true Pope was then so difficult that Duvall and Maimburg observe two Oecumenical Councils those of Pisa and Constance dared not to examine and define the matter but thought it more prudent to depose all of them and create a new One. How then shall private men be able to know what Councils themselves could not find out But neither then also when One only claims the Papacy and possesseth the Throne doth it certainly appear whether he be a lawful Pope and that for many reasons For in the first place if he be an Heretick a Schismatick an Infidel or an Atheist he cannot surely be Pope For as Turrecremata saith well how shall he be Head of the Church who is no Member of the Church Gregory à Valentia a Val. tom 3. disp 3. quaest 15. punct 3. and many with him distinguish between an open Heretick or Infidel and a secret one asserting the first cannot be a Member of the Church or Pope the latter may for this reason chiefly because otherwise Confusions and Dangers could not be avoided in the Church if the actions of secret Hereticks and Schismaticks were ipso facto invalid Yet he acknowledgeth in the same place that the contrary Opinion is held by the greatest Men in the Church of Rome Aquinas Turrecremata Sylvester who affirms this to be the common Opinion of all the Doctors Paludanus Augustinus Anconitanus Vlricus Cajetanus at least as to what concerns Heresy and Alphonsus à Castro Whence this at least is gathered that Valentia's Opinion is not certain and the contrary not improbable which is sufficient for my purpose For whether true on false matters little in this case provided nothing be certain on either side Further those who imagine the Pope forfeits not his Dignity unless he be an open Heretick agree not among themselves Some think him ipso facto deprived without expecting any sentence some not till sentence is pronounced But thse latter herein shamefully betray the Popes Superiority to a Council which they had undertaken to defend For if a Pope fallen into Heresy shall retain his Dignity till he be judged and deprived by a Council the Council will be thereby Superiour to a true and undoubted Pope Again how shall a Council condemn a Pope for Heresie if it cannot certainly define what is Heresie which according to these Divines cannot be done by a Council destitute of its Head such as that Council must necessarily be which deposeth the Pope for Heresy But of that in another place Bellarmin although far more wary and circumspect than Duvall thought the Pope by manifest Heresie fell ipso facto from his Dignity so that by a Council he is not so much deposed as pronounced to be deposed But since that is called manifest Heresie which is declared by some outward sign as Words or Writing nor doth it matter whether it be manifest to few or many there will alwayes remain a doubt whether he who is accounted Orthodox be not in his mind a Heretick Infidel or Atheist and hath not revealed his Heresie to some of his intimate Friends and Confidents For that once supposed he cannot be Pope Nay Bannes b Bann in 22. quaest 11. art 4. asserts That he which speaks out his Heresy by words although no man hears him is not to be accounted a meer mental Heretick but doth thereby incurr the Sentence of Excommunication If you ask whether there were ever any such Popes The most noble Jo. Fr. Picus Mirandula c Alium meminimus pontificem creditum ordinatum quem tamen praestantes viri putarent nec pontificem esse nec esse posse utpote qui nullum Deum crederet omne infidelitatis culmen excederet c. namque fassum eum affirmabatur demesticis quibusdam nullum se deum aliquando etiam dum pontificiam sedem teneret credidisse Et alium audivi pontificem qui familiari cuidam asseruerat apud se animarum immortalitatem minimè creditam Pic. Theor. 4. shall answer for me We remember saith he another Pope so esteemed and ordained whom good Men believed neither was nor could be Pope as he which believed no God and exceeded the utmost pitch of infidelity as his Simony and infinite wickednesses did also testifie And it is affirmed he confessed to some of his Domesticks he believed no God even then when he sat in the Papal Chair And I have heard of another Pope who affirmed to one of his Confidents that he did not believe the immortality of the Soul. To this we may add the express Confession of Coster d Fatemur fieri posse ut Petri successor idola colat apud se fortè de fide non rectè sentiat adeo◠diabolicis artibus operam
comes next calls a new Synod annuls whatsoever Stephen had done and restoreth the memory and Decrees of Formosus Sergius a while after anathematized Formosus anew and abrogated whatsoever had been done in his favour by John. This occasioned Auxilius a Writer of those times to compose his Dialogue against the intestine discord of the Church of Rome to use Sigebert Gemblarensis's y Contra intestinam discordiam Romanae Ecclesiae sc de ordinationibus exordinat superordinat Romanorum Pontisicum ordinatorum ab eis exordinationibus superordinat Sigebert de Script Eccl. cap. 112. words viz. concerning the Ordinations Exordinations and Superordinations of the Popes of Rome and the Exordinations and Superordinations of those ordained by them And Baronius z Haec perpetrata ab intrusis usurpantibus thronum Apostolicum quae legitimi Pontifices sunt execrati Bar. ad an 908. is forced to say These things were done by Intruders and Vsurpers of the Apostolick Throne which lawful Popes have detested In the next Age the words of Platina deserve to be observed The Papacy saith he a Eo tum Pontificatus devenerat ut qui plus largitione ambitione non dico sanctitate vitae doctrinâ valerét tantum dignitatis gradum bonis oppréssis rejectis obtaineret quem morèm utinam aliquando non retinuissent nostra tempora Plat. in vitâ Sylvestri III. was come to that that he who exceeded not in Piety and Learning but in Bribes and Ambition obtained that dignity good Men being oppressed and rejected which custom would to God our Ages had not sometimes retained In latter Ages the Simony of Alexander in procuring the Popedom partly by ready Money partly by large Promises is at length related by Onuphrius and Volaterran but especially Guicciardine And Varillac b Varil Hist Franc. 1. Liv. 1. tells us that Octavian Fregosius Duke of Genua procured the Election of Leo X. by the sollicitation of his Emissaries among the Cardinals and by detaining Prisoners in the mean while the Cardinals of the opposite Party who hastning to Italy by Sea toucht at Genua in their Voyage There would be no end if I should produce all the Examples which History suggests And if the known instances be so many what may we think of the secret Acts of Simony For this is a Crime whose chief art consists in keeping it secret and hiding it from the Eyes of Men. However what we have alledged proves this may sometimes happen and consequently that we can never be certain the same hath not happened even when it doth not appear And from all which hath been said appeareth the impossibility of certainly knowing whether he which possesseth the Papal Throne at any time be a lawful Pope and such whose Decrees may be securely believed and obeyed Our Adversaries are here brought into great streights Duval c Duval de Potest Pont. par 2. Sect. 5. confesseth it is a great difficulty and what hath excited no small stirs in some Universities To solve this they take different ways Some deny it can ever happen that an unlawful Pope should possess the Chair and that it is of Faith to believe every particular Pope lawful So Suarez Valentia Arriaga Raynaudus Caspensis Martinonus Rhodius and others cited by them and with reason For if this be not of Faith no Faith can be founded on their Decrees as they invincibly argue But on the other side how can that be of Faith which so many Examples prove to be false Or on what foundation shall this Divine Faith be placed Suarez and Martinonus answer upon the reception of the Church and 't is worth observing how they confirm that Because if it should be once granted saith Suarez d Si talis posset semel dari error in universali Ecclesiâ nunquam esset verum illam habere certam infallibilem regulam vivam fidei sibi loquentem Christi nomine Suar. de fide disp 10. Sect. 5. that an errour of this nature can happen in the universal Church it can be no ways true that she hath a certain and infallible living Rule of Faith speaking to her in Christ's Name The same saith Martinonus e Mart. de fide disp 5. Sect. 6. Nam is error aequiparatur errori in fide muitò intolerabiliùs esset errare in vivâ fidei regulâ Iidem ibid. Both add that this errour would be equal to an errour in Faith For say they if it be an intolerable errour in the Church when the whole Church believeth a Book to be Canonical which is not although that be but a dead rule of Faith it would be much more intolerable to err about the living rule of Faith. That they reason soundly cannot be denied For it is no less repugnant to absolute Infallibility to err about the living than about the dead rule But this being admitted I shall much more easily prove the Church can err about the dead Rule than Suarez that it cannot err about the living That it cannot err about the dead Rule our Adversaries can never prove that it can about the living I will demonstrate If ever any Pope was unlawful and irregular surely Vigilius was Yet he was owned and esteemed as lawful Pope by the fifth General Council and by the whole World. Although he were banished imprisoned and publickly vilified by the Emperour for the refusing to condemn the Tria Capitula and afterwards excommunicated by the Western Bishops for doing it yet was he never denied to be true and lawful Pope So in the ninth and tenth Ages those monstrous Popes were by Baronius f At quod mirandum est isti Pontifices licèt tales fuerint tamen eo honore reverenitâ fideles omnes prosequebantur Romanam Eccl. ut quemcunque in eâ sedentem audirent nomine tenus Pontificem eundem mirum dictu nullâ habitâ discussione ejus ingressûs eum ut Petrum colerent Bar. ad an 897. his confession so honoured and reverenced by All the Faithful that whomsoever they heard did preside in the Church of Rome although indeed but a nominal Pope never enquiring into the lawfulness of his Election they respected no otherwise than St. Peter himself In a word all those whom I mentioned before were generally obeyed by the Church The Church therefore can err in this matter But see how Suarez and the rest by pretending the contrary have destroyed their own darling Opinion For if it be of Faith that a Pope acknowledged by the whole Church is a lawful one then Stephen Romanus and Sergius who condemned Formosus and annulled his Acts as not being lawful Pope erred and so farewel all Papal Infallibility For they erred in the Faith if it be of Faith that Formosus was lawful Pope as it must be according to these Divines since Formosus while he lived was acknowledged and obeyed by the universal Church whereas these three Popes his Successours defined that he was no lawful Pope Duval
perhaps was aware of these inconveniencies and therefore took another method He maintains it matters nothing whether he which possesseth the Popedom be true Pope or no and that his Decrees will not be at all the less infallible We affirm saith he g Dicimus talem Pontificem pro vero creditum nunquam erraturum ne in Ecclesiam falsum pro vero obtrudatur nunquam eum Deus errare sinet quidem secundum legem communem ordinariam Duvall de potest Pont. par 2. qu. 5. that such a Pope esteemed for true can never err For God lest falshood be obtruded upon his Church for truth will never permit him to err and that according to the common and ordinary Law because the Pope is not for himself but for the Church But there is nothing solid in all this For first his reason is vain For if the Pope be not for himself but for the Church no more are any other Governours of the Church Shall therefore whatsoever they do be valid although they be neither baptized nor ordained To think so Suarez calls Heresie nor will Duval allow it Yet allow it he must or else part with his Argument Secondly this is directly contrary to Julius II. his Decree For Duval would have a Simoniack or irregular Pope to be obeyed and heard Julius commands him to be looked upon as an Heresiarch and Magician to be disobeyed deprived and driven out of his See. Thirdly if we consult Scripture that forbids us to hearken to these Invaders of Church Offices For our Saviour after he had said that those which enter into the sheepfold any other way than by the door are Thieves and Robbers adds h John x. 5. And a stranger will they the sheep not follow but will flee from him for they know not the voice of Strangers And in another place i Mat. vii 15. Beware of false Prophets which come to you in sheeps cloathing but inwardly they are ravening Wolves Now Simoniacks and Vsurpers of Ecclesiastical Offices are these Thieves and Robbers and ravening Wolves Now as for reason that can never teach us that we owe the same reverence to unlawful as to lawful Popes For contrarily in the Civil Government every man is bound even to disobey a Tyrant and Usurper who drives out the lawful Prince Besides since Infallibility is by our Adversaries annexed to the Popedom as an inseparable Priviledge he that is no Pope can have no right nor claim to it So saith also Martinonus k Hujusmodi potestas assistentia non datur Pontifici nisi vero cui soli est promissa in Petro. Mart. de fide disp 9. Sect. 6. expresly This Power and Assistance is given to none but a true Pope to whom only it was promised in Peter And it seems indeed incredible to me that any wicked man should extort that from God by his Crimes which he had annexed to a lawful succession As if by Wickedness he could obtain a right to the perpetual assistance of the H. Ghost which had he been innocent he had for ever wanted Certainly the Antient Popes thought far otherwise They never dreamed of purchasing the H. Ghost by Simony but rather imagined that would obstruct his favour So Innocent I. l Perfectionem Spiritùs quam acceperant amiserunt Nec dare ejus plenitudinem possunt quae maximè in ordinatienibus operatur quam per impietatis suae perfidiam perdiderunt Innoc. 1. Epist 18. cap. 13. speaking of Simoniacks saith They have lost that perfection of the H. Ghost which they had received Neither can they give the fulness of it which exerts it self chiefly in Ordinations having forfeited it by the perfidiousness of their Impiety Gregory I. m Quia qui in templo Dei columbas vendere praesumpserunt eorum Deo judice cathedrae ceciderunt qui videlicet error in subditis cum augmento propagatur quia eum quem quis cum pretio ordinat provehendo agit ut haereticus siat Greg. I. lib. 4. Epist 50. They which in the Temple of God presume to sell Doves by which as in the words immediately precedent appears he means Simoniacks their Bishopricks by the judgment of God are become void which error is propagated with increase in those who are subject to them For whom any one ordains for Mony by ordaining he makes him an Heretick Which words he repeats more than ten times in his other Epistles John VIII n Joann VIII Epist 94. hath used the same Expressions in one of his Epistles And Peter Damian tells us this was confirmed by a miracle For a Simoniacal Bishop could never pronounce the Name of the H. Ghost on which he makes o Meritò siquidem Spiritum S. dum emit amisit P. Dam. Opose 19. cap. 6. this remark For he deservedly lost the H. Ghost while he bought him But to return to our Argument what more incredible than that an Atheist Infidel and profane person should be infallible Who would not wonder at a Pope pronouncing and deriding Oracles at the same time Infallible and ignorant of his Infallibility Teaching with certainty what himself thinks to be false Surely if things be so an irregular and usurping Pope ought not in prudence to be deposed Since his Infallibility as well as that of any lawful Pope will serve to direct the Faithful and confound Hereticks and his Deposition cannot be attempted without the danger of Schism Lastly I would know whether when an unlawful possesseth the Throne of a lawful Pope Infallibility belong to both or only to the first If to both then in vain doth God dispense so great a gift to the injured Pope whom no Body acknowledgeth as such If only to the first then the Priviledges of an Intruder will be more and greater than those of a lawful Pope and Usurpation will confer what Canonical Election cannot To these add the Arguments which Suarez p Suar. de fide disp 10. § 6. produceth against this Answer As That it incurreth the same difficulties it is brought to solve For it is not more certain that a reputed Pope hath the Priviledge of Infallibility than that he is a lawful Pope Since both depend upon the common belief of the Church and neither is revealed Again if he be only a Nominal Pope he may be also only a Nominal Priest and so cannot give Absolution hath therefore no right to all the Priviledges granted by Christ to St. Peter because no share in the Power delegated to S. Peter in those words Whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth c. Farther that Answer is contradictory in assigning to the reputed Pope an inseparable property of the Papacy Infallibility and yet denying him to be Pope that is truly so It is manifest therefore that this Answer is plainly false But let it be true What still if it shall be uncertain It will be in the end the same thing and we shall as easily obtain our design For if I may
unlike Argument in disputing against this Answer of Duval which is now before us The definitions of the Pope saith he * At hoc perabsurdum est quia non est in potestate plebis fidelium facere ut quod non est de fide sit revera tale Raynaud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 punct 5. in matters of Faith are received by the People either as to be believed with Divine Faith and so antecedently to the Reception of the Church or not upon their own account but for the sake of the Churches Reception But this is very absurd because it is not in the Power of the multitude of the faithful to make that be of Faith by their Reception which was not really such before For then many things would become of Faith which are by no means such as the Assumption of the B. Virgin which no Christian doubts of and yet none believe to be of Faith. He might have added other Examples which we shall produce hereafter It may be yet asked Whether this Approbation of the Church required by Duvall ought to be express that is whether the Pope's Decrees ought to be positively received by all before they become Infallible for if so there are few or no Decrees which have been thus received certainly none whose Reception of this kind is or can be manifestly known or whether a negative Reception will suffice and so those Decrees become certain which are opposed by none But neither can this be certainly known until we be assured that the Decree is taken notice of by all the faithful Whereas how many Papal Decrees are there which are unknown to the greatest part of Christendom And no wonder since St. Augustine himself was ignorant of that Nicene Canon which forbad him to be associated in the Bishoprick to Valerius yet alive But that which is chiefly to be herein regarded is that the certainty of this sufficiency of the negative Reception of the Church can never be demonstrated and without that we are still at a loss This consideration also is of no small moment That if it be lawful to deny Credit and Obedience to the Popes Decrees before it shall be known they have been received by the Universal Church hereby a wide gate is opened to Schisms and Dissensions For then every contentious or capricious person may contemn and hinder the Execution of the most just Decrees and so put an end to the Authority of this 〈◊〉 much boasted Monarchy For suppose the Pope published 〈◊〉 Decree Some admit others reject it Hitherto according to Duvall it is not of faith because not yet received by the Universal Church What shall be done in this case Must a Council be called That Duval g Pessimè Deus Ecclesiae suae consuluisset si viam hanc quae rarò foeliciter desinit tanquam expeditius malorum indies emergentium remedium reliquisset quinimò Ecclesiam ad impossibile quodammodo obligâsset Duvall de Pot. Pont. part 4 quaest 1. himself acknowledgeth to be highly inconvenient sometimes impossible and for most part unsuccessful That if God had left only that remedy for daily emergent doubts he would in a manner have obliged his Church to impossibilities since the calling and meeting of a Council depends upon the pleasure of secular Princes who for reasons of State may prevent it although the Pope and with him all the Bishops in the World desire it But even if they meet 't is possible they may dissent in their Opinions If you say that part must be adhered to which the Pope favours I ask how it is to be adhered to whether with Divine Faith For of that only we now dispute This Duvall I suppose will not affirm For if the Infallibility of the Pope alone be not of Faith part of a Council adhering to him will not make his yet uncertain Decrees to become of Faith since according to Duval nothing but the Reception of the Universal Church can do it whereas in this case the Approbation even of the whole Representative Church is wanting CHAP. XI That neither can the Faith of Papists rely on the Decrees of Pope and Council consenting together First Because their Infallibility is not sufficiently certain THUS have we dispatched the three first Foundations of a Papist's Faith. The fourth succeeds viz. an Oecumenical Council which may be considered two ways either as disjoyned from the Pope and destitute of his consent or as confirmed by it The Sorbonists hold the Infallibility of it the first way considered The Monarchical Divines only the second But that I need not dispute separately against the Sorbonists appears for two reasons First Because their Opinion is easily confuted For we need oppose to them no more than this that the Infallibility of such a Council is not certain at least it is not of Faith as we before demonstrated it ought to be For the Sorbonists can never prove this to be revealed by God. Scripture saith nothing at all of Councils especially Oecumenical They flee indeed to Tradition But they cannot produce any Testimonies of the Fathers that say this is of Faith not any evident Decrees of Councils not the consent of the Universal Church for the greatest part of the Roman Church thinks otherwise Besides the Opposition it hath met with among many Divines of the Church undeniably proves it not to be of Faith. For if the dissent of a few Sorbonists can cause the Infallibility of the Pope not to be of Faith certainly the opposition of a far greater number of Monarchical Divines will produce the same Effect as to the Infallibility of a Council without the Pope Secondly Because it may be confuted with the same Arguments wherewith I shall prove that the definitions of Pope and Council consenting together are no firm Foundation for our Faith. For if both together suffice not a Council without the Pope will never be sufficient Since the consent of the Pope may possibly add some firmness to the Decrees of a Council but most certainly can take none from them To supersede therefore any further Dispute of that matter let us enquire whether the Faith of our Adversaries can rely on the Decrees of Pope and Council conspiring together This many of them imagine Bellarmin a Bell. de concil lib. 2. cap. 2. and Duvall b Duvall de Pot. Pont. part 2. qu. 6. glory there is no doubt of it among them that it is unanimously taught by their Divines and therefore is of Faith. But I deny both For although the Monarchical Divines are of this Opinion yet the Sorbonists dissent who maintain indeed the Infallibility of a General Council whether agreeing or disagreeing with the Pope but allow not this Prerogative to every Council but only to a Council truly Oecumenical lawfully constituted Canonically proceeding and wholly free The Monarchical Divines acknowledge the necessity of those Conditions yet differ from the Sorbonists two several wayes First In that they interpret these Conditions
And if so what certainty can be founded upon their Decrees to which the very first conditions of an infallible Council is wanting To this may be opposed there are some Councils which none deny to have been Oecumenical as the I. Nicene that of Chalcedon in the first Sessions the VI. and the Tridentine I own the consent of our Adversaries herein and omitting many things which might be replied I will chiesly insist upon this That this consent of our Adversaries is vain and destitute of all foundation and would presently vanish if they adhered to their own Hypotheses For those conditions which they require to make a Council Oecumenical are not to be found in all these Councils and besides are such as create new scruples and perplexities First therefore Holden c Vt tot variarum Ecclesiarum in diversis regnis sitarum pars aliqua sen numerus Episcoporum deputetur ac intersit qui conventum communem ad eum universitatis gradum convenientem assurgere faciat ut improbarum conjurationum c. absit omnis suspicio c. Hold. Anal. sid lib. 1. cap. 9. teacheth that to constitute a General Council it is necessary some Bishops out of so many divers Churches situate in distant Christian Kingdoms and Provinces be deputed and be present as may make the common Assembly arise to that degree of Vniversality as may exclude all suspicion of fraudulent Conspiracies and Factions so that no prudent or honest man may doubt it to be Occumenical Many things may be here observed as first how many Bishops soever be present we can never be sure there is no Faction or Conspiracy in the Council how well disposed or from how different soever places they come What hinders but they may be corrupted at the place of Council The Councils of Milan Ariminum and Ephesus are eminent Examples of this yea and the Council of Trent it self wherein F. Paul d Hist Cont. Trid. lib. 6. relates that the Spanish Bishops complained there were present more than forty Bishops obnoxious to and Stipendiaries of the Court of Rome whereof some received thirty others sixty Crowns a month Again that when it was reported at Rome that the French Bishops were on their way to the Council Pius IV. in a great fright called together the Bishops waiting then at Rome told them how necessary their presence was at the Council and perswading some with promises others with gifts hastily packed them away to Trent The fear of this made the Councils of Constance and Basil to decree That the Votes should be taken not singly but according to the several Nations It being not reasonable saith Richerius eNihil causae est cur in rebus ad fidem aut disciplinam Eccles spectantibus una sola natio Italica sibi plus assumat arroget quà m aliae nationes Christianae Rich. Apol. ax 8. that in things pertaining to Faith and Discipline the Italian Nation alone should assume and arrogate to themselves more than any other Christian Nations The number of Bishops therefore affords no certain remedy against Factions But suppose it doth Is nothing else required to constitute a General Council but freedom from Factions Then many National and Provincial Synods will become Oecumenical Certainly Factions may be wanting in particular Councils if many Bishops be present and perhaps Oecumenical liberty if but a few If that liberty contributed any thing it would be only to enable the Bishops to proceed Canonically if they would But that is not the thing we now dispute of For particular Councils have been often seen to proceed very well and Oecumenical very ill Secondly Holden neither doth nor can define how many Bishops or out of how many Provinces must necessarily be present but leaves the matter to common prudence the judgments of which are infinitely various and uncertain whence no certainty in this particular upon which all the rest depend can be had thence especially if we consider that the Bishops present in Councils are sometimes more sometimes fewer So the Council of Lateran under Innocent III. is said to have had above a thousand Prelates that of Chalcedon six hundred the I Constantinopolitan one hundred and fifty the V. Lateran one hundred that of Trent in the first Sessions much fewer So that Prudence can six no certain rule here and if she be satisfied when a great Number is present she cannot but he sitate when but a few Holden's Rule therefore is of no use to the knowledge of Oecumenical Councils Lupus f Dico adesse oportere sedem Apostolicam omnes Ecclesiae Orthodoxos Patriarchas c. Lup. Dissert de Concil CP I. p. 306. comes somewhat nearer the truth who requireth the presence of the Pope all the Orthodox Patriarchs Primates Metropolitans and Bishops if not corporally at least by delegation or express consent whether previous or subsequent The same saith Bosius g Bos de signis Eccl. lib. 5. cap. 8. But neither are they in the right For if this were true all Councils whose Decrees are received by the whole Church would be Oecumenical and so the Councils of Ancyra Neocaesarea Laodicea Gangra c. whose Canons were received both by the Greek and Latin Church and confirmed by divers Popes and General Councils would become Oecumenical This Explication saith the Author h Haec explicatio Concilii ideam confundit Hâc enim ipsâ ratione non solum c. lib. 5. cap. 2. of the Treatise of the Liberties of the Gallican Church confounds the idea of a General Council and by resolving the whole Authority of it into the subsequent acceptation of the Vniversal Church raiseth National Provincial and even Diocesan Synods into the same rank with it This also would follow That Councils how frequent and numerous soever could not be Oecumenical till they were received by the Universal Church and so those Councils would have lyed which without expecting this subsequent Reception intitled themselves Oecumenical as almost all did although many of them not received of a long while after as the V. VII VIII of which before Nay Lupus observeth the Canons of the first Council of Constantinople were not received before Innocent III. For more than 800 years therefore according to Lupus that Council must have been Particular nay both General and Particular For the Creed of it was admitted by both Churches the Canons only by the Greeks But laying aside these Let us come to Bellarmin who hath used more accuracy herein He lays down four conditions of a General Council First i Prima est ut evocatio sit generalis ita ut innotescat omnibus majoribus Christianis provinciis Bell. de Concil lib. 1. c. 17. That the Summons be General and notified to all the greater Provinces of Christendom For that this was alwayes observed and for default of it the Council of Constantinople against Images was declared void by the VII Synod But how shall we be assured that this condition
shew it could not be given by God for a Rule of Faith. To which end Gr. à Valentia 2 Sententiam ejus authoritatis cujus de rebus omnibus sidei judicium est apertam oportet esse ut ab omnibus fidelibus commodè possit intelligi Nam si non ita perspicuè planè authoritas illa doceat non ad eam rem valebit Val. tom 3. disp 1. qu. 1. punct 7. §. 4. layeth down this Axiom which he afterwards applyeth to the Scripture The Sentence of that Authority which is to judge of all matters of Faith ought to be manifest that it may be easily understood by all the Faithful For if that Authority doth not teach perspicuously and plainly it will be of no use to that end So he and with him many others If therefore I shall shew that the consent of Pastors about matters of belief is so obscure and difficult to be known that even the most learned much more illiterate men cannot avoid Error in searching it out I shall thereby prove that it could not be given to us by God as a common Rule of things to be believed This obscurity and difficulty ariseth from three Causes The first is the amplitude of the Church diffused throughout the whole World which permits not the Faith of all Pastors to be known unless we travel through all those Regions wherein they are dispersed For it sufficeth not to consult a few They may be mistaken The Opinion of all must be asked the consent of all appear But how shall they be all singly consulted Who ever learned the Christian Faith this way Yet this way Card. Richlieu 3 Method liv 1. chap. 14. points out to us He saith the uniformity of the Church is manifest to sense that all parts of the Church may be surveyed by one man at divers times or by divers men at one time True but to reduce this to practice every single man must take so many Journeys send out so many Intelligencers that this Method cannot be perswaded but in jeast Valentia 4 Fatendum est rarò accidere posse ut quae sit doctorum omnium uno tempore viventium de religione sententia satis cognoscatur Va. ubi supr §. 46 the Jesuit is more ingenuous who confesseth that it can rarely happen that it may be sufficiently known what is the Opinion in Religion of all Doctors living at the same time And this he understands in respect of the Pope himself as appears from what follows these words If then the consent of Doctors can rarely be known by the Pope who hath his Nuncio's and Emissaries in all places how shall it ever be known by private Men Tanner 5 Si opus esset ut plebeii seirent evidenter in totâ Ecclesiâ sic credi quot anni laberentur dum istam evidentiam acquirerent quam neque periti semper habent Tann apud Mart. de fide disp 3. Sect. 4. saith the same thing as he is cited by Martinonus If it were necessary saith he that all private men should know evidently what is believed in the whole Church how many years must be spent in acquiring that Evidence which even learned men have not always And Martinonus 6 Certò facilè potest consuli Pontifex non sic tota Ecclesia ne quidem omnes illius Pastores Mart. de fide disp 9. Sect. 9. saith The Pope may be certainly and easily consulted not so the whole Church no not all her Pastors only This may be proved by many Examples of which I will produce some few Bellarmine 7 Bell. de amiss Stat. lib. 5. c. 6. and Valentia 8 Val. tom 4. disp 11. qu. 1. punct 1. §. 3. omnes Theologi universa Theologorum Schola assert that all Divines agree concerning the punishment of Infants dying without Baptism and think it only poena damni undergone in that which they call the Limbus puerorum Yet is this Opinion falsly by them ascribed to all even Modern Divines for among the Ancients St. Fulgentius is known to have taught the contrary Florentius Conrius Titular Arch-bishop of Tuam published a Book wherein he endeavoured to prove the contrary approved by fourteen Doctors of Divinity whereof one Fr. Sylvius testifieth Conrius his Opinion is the common Doctrine of the School of Doway Another James Pollet professeth that for thirty years wherein he had been conversant in the Divinity Schools he had never heard any other Opinion taught by the Professors than that unbaptized Infants are condemned to the eternal Torments of Hell. A third H. Rampen 9 Quam S. Augustani sententiam verissimam semper judicavi desendi decui tanquaman tiquioribus Ecclesiae decioribus conformem semper hueusque ab excellentissimis quibusdam edoctam utpote Scriptur is magis innixam Conciliis Professor of Doway saith That he had always judged that Opinion being St. Augustine 's to be truest defended and taught it as more consonant to the ancient Doctors and always even to this day taught by some most excellent Persons being founded upon Scripture and Councils Of Indulgences our Adversaries teach chiesly three things I. That there is a Treasure of the Satisfaction of Christ and the Saints which may be applied to persons liable to suffer the punishment of their sins after the guilt of them is remitted in the Sacrament of Penance and that this Treasure is actually applied by Indulgences granted by the Pope II. That the Souls in Purgatory may be helped by these Indulgences III. That by them is remitted not only the punishment enjoyned in Penance and decreed by the Canons of the Church but also that which is due at the Tribunal of God. These three things Bellarmin and Valentia assirm to be taught by all Divines Although the first Bellarmin confesseth was doubted of by Mairo and Durandus who thought the Satisfaction of Saints have no part in that Treasure but the contrary saith he 10 Communls aliorum Theologorum tum antiquerum tum recentiorum omnium sententia Bell. de Indulg lib. 1. cap. 2. Res certissima apud Catho licos indubitata is the common Opinion of the other Divines as well Ancient as of all the Modern and was confirmed by a Decree of Clement VI. The Second he acknowledgeth was denied by Hostiensis and Gabriel but saith the latter corrected his Error and that it is a thing most certain and undoubted among Catholicks So Valentia 11 Val. tom 4. disp 7. qu. 20. punct 5. saith it is the assertion of all the Orthodox As for the Third Valentia affirms the contrary Opinion is exploded as erroneous by all the Orthodox Who could imagine after all this there were any doubt concerning these points among them Yet Holden 12 Caetera omni 1 dub a sunt a Theologis in utramque partem agitata Hold. Anal. fid lib. 2. cap. 6. teacheth that this only is certain and undoubted that the
this must be answered That they teach so because they believe so Then if you ask why they believe so no other answer can be given than because they believe so which is so foolish as that I need not urge it any farther CHAP. XXIV That the Faith of all single Christians cannot rely upon the Faith of the Vniversal Church because first it appears not who belong to that Church which is thought Infallible THus far have we considered the Faith of the Universal Church as it is taught by the Pastors or Clergy It remains that we treat of it as it is believed both by Clergy and Laity which is the last refuge of our Adversaries Here I undertake to prove That there is nothing whereon the Faith of all private Christians can less rely and that for three reasons 1. Because it doth not appear what is that Universal Church whose Faith is to be the Rule of ours 2. Because it is not known what is the Faith of that Church 3. Because it is not manifest whether the Faith of any Church assignable be true The first is evinced two ways For first it is uncertain what is the true Idea or Definition of the Church what is required to constitute it whether only an external profession of the true Faith or also internal Faith and Piety And then although this were certain it would be yet unknown whether the Roman Greek or any other were that true Church As for the first our Adversaries would perswade us That they agree in the notion of a true Church Yet nothing is more manifest than their discord in this matter There are chiefly three Opinions of them herein For if we should make an exact enumeration of them we should find many more The first teacheth That the Church is made up of all persons baptized and outwardly professing the true Faith and adhering to the Pope of Rome whether they be truly Faithful or secretly Insidels The second to an External Profession requires Internal Faith at least in form to be added as necessary and thereby excludes all secret Insidels and Hereticks The third requireth Charity to be added to these two and leaveth no place in the Church but to those who are truly just and free from Mortal Sin. The first Opinion is defended by many particularly Canus Bellarmin Duvall and almost all the later writers of Controversy especially the French. The second is taught by many For all those seem to favour it who desine the Church to be the Congregation of the Faithful of whom Launoy 1 Laun. Epist Tom. 8. ad Gattin reckons up a very great number But it is openly and manisestly taught by Alensis Clemangis Turrecremata and Jacobatius while in the places formerly cited they assert That the Church may be reduced to one only Woman as it actually was at the time of our Saviour's Passion The University of Cracow produced by Launoy 2 Vbi supra desined 3 Est Ecclesia Corpus mysticum organicum side Chrisli animatum Ex quo fit quod omnes baptizati habentes fidem Christi sive informem sine formatam constituunt Ecclesiam militantem the Church to be a Mystical Organical Body animated by the Faith of Christ constituted by all baptized persons having the Faith of Christ either in form or formal The same Opinion is accurately and largely defended by Suarez 4 Suar. de fide disp 9. Sect. 2. Arriaga 5 Arr. de fide disp 7. Sect. 2. and Caspensis 6 Casp de fide disp 2. Sect. 2.9 among the Moderns The third Opinion seemeth to be favoured by Bannes 7 Catechumeni simpliciter pertinent ad Ecclesiam invisibilem siquidem sunt membra Christi per Charitatem sed ad Ecclesiam visibilem secundùm quid viz. per votum desiderium Bann in 2.2 qu. 1. art 10. p. 47. while he saith The Catechumens simply belong to the Invisible Church as being members of Christ through Charity but to the Visible Church only in part viz. in wish and desire But he inclineth more to the second in these words 8 Ecclesia licet sit Respublica quaedam visibilis requirit tamen aliquid invisibile sc fidem Haeretici ergo extra eam sunt cum fidem non habeant Id. comm fus in art 10. p. 90. The Church although it be a visible Commonwealth requireth somewhat invisible to wit Faith. Hereticks therefore as wanting that are out of the Church And in another place 9 Fideles peceatores sunt verè partes Ecclesiae militantis Id. Comm. brev p. 47. The Faithful which are Sinners are truly parts of the Church Militant But to omit Bannes the third Opinion is openly maintained by Hugo à Sancto Victore whose words are these 10 Ecclesia habet lapides sc fideles qui sicut per caementum lapis jungitur lapidi sic per charitatem junguntur sibi Hug. lib. C. Serm. Serm. 3. The Church hath Stones to wit the Faithful who as one Stone is joined to another by Cement are joined to the Church by Charity And in another place 11 Ecclesia sancta corpus est Christi uno spiritu vivificata unita fide unâ sanctificata Hoc itaque nomen significat membra Christi participantia Spiritum Christi Id. de Sacr. part 2. cap. 2. The Holy Church is the Body of Christ quickened by one Spirit and united by one Faith and sanctified This word therefore signifieth the Members of Christ partaking of the Spirit of Christ Antoninus of Florence after he had said The Church is sometimes taken for the General Collection of the Faithful subjoins these words 12 Secundo modo sumitur Ecclesia pro congregatione bonorum fidelium qui sunt per charitatem Christo incorporati Haec est Ecclesia quae regitur à Sp. S. corpus Christi mysticum quod vegetatur spiritu ejus pro quâ Christus oravit ne fides desiceret Ant. Summ. Theol. part 3. tit 12. c. 1. In the second place the Church is taken for the Congregation of Good Believers who are incorporated into Christ by Charity This is that Church which is governed by the Holy Ghost the Mystical Body of Christ which is animated by his Spirit for which Christ prayed that her Faith should not fail The same saith Cusanus 13 Manifestum est hoc corpus Ecclesiae quod ita se habuit ex praedestinatis tantùm constitui Existentes in gratiâ praesentis justitiae solum de Ecclesiâ esse censentur Cus Concord lib. 1. cap. 4. It is manifest that this Body of the Church which is thus disposed which adhereth to Christ in Spirit in which the Spirit dwells quickning the whole Body is made up only of Predestinate Persons Only those persons therefore who continue in the Grace of present Righteousness are accounted to be of the Church Dionysius Carthusianus 14 AEdificabo confirmabo Ecclesiam meam id est congregationem fidelium
corda eorum per fidem charitatem gratiam mihi inseparabiliter connectendo ita ut omnes sint unum corpus mysticum unaque domus Carth. in Matth. XVI art 26. brings in Christ thus speaking I will build and confirm my Church that is the Congregation of the Faithful by inseparably uniting their hearts to me by Faith Charity and Grace so as all may be one mystical Body and one House J. Fr. Picus Mirandula 15 A propriâ vocabuli significatione recedendum ipse non putarem ut primò propriè principalissimeque Sancta Catholica Ecclesia diceretur quae omnes rectae Apostolicae fidei non fictae charitatis homines complecteretur Pic. Theor. 13. saith That we ought not to recede from the proper signification of the Word that so that might be called primarily properly and most principally the Holy Catholick Church which comprehendeth all men of a right and Apostolick Faith and unfeigned Charity Ferus upon those words Matth. XV. The gates of Hell shall not prevail against it saith 16 Sed loquitur de Ecclesiâ Secundùm spiritum quae solos electos complectitur Fer. in Matth. Christ speaks not here of the Church as it is commonly understood of the Collection of all Christians whether good or bad but of the Church according to the Spirit which comprehends only the Elect. Lastly Chr. Lupus 17 Ecclesia quae claves accepit non est universa fidelium in legitimis Sacramentis communio sed sola congregatio justorum seu Sanctorum communio Lup. in Concil tom 4. p. 818. affirms That the Church which received the Keys is not the universal Communion of the Faithful in the Lawful Sacraments but the sole Congregation of the just or the Communion of Saints Which he pursueth at large and proveth by many Testimonies of St. Augustine to which we might add many others no less cogent of other Fathers as St. Hierom Agobardus Bernard c. if our Argument consisted in the truth of this Opinion It sufficeth to shew it was received by many and consequently that our Adversaries do not agree in forming the Idea of a Church Now this Dissension is of great moment For if the second or especially the third Opinion be true the Doctrine of our Adversaries will be wholly overthrown For not to say that if Sinners be excluded out of the Church the Pope and whole Councils may perhaps not belong to it and so want that Infallibility which is appropriated to the true Church To omit this since we treat not now of active but passive Infallibilty I say That according to this Hypothesis the Faith of our Adversaries cannot rely upon the belief of the Universal Church For to conform themselves to this Rule of Faith they must first perfectly know it which cannot be if they know not what is that Church whose Faith they ought to follow But how shall they know the Church if that consist only of Pious Men whom none will deny to be known to God alone Canus was not ignorant of this who rejecteth this Opinion because saith he 18 Incerta erunt omnia si apud solos pios Ecclesia est Can. loc Theol. lib. 4. cap. 3. all things will be uncertain if the Church be limited to pious Men. Will our Adversaries therefore say that the first of these Opinions is certain the other undoubtedly false That is easter affirmed than proved Besides of what degree of certainty would they have their assertions to be Not certainly of Divine Faith unlessHeresie be imputed to all those Learned Men who maintained the second and third Opinions But no other degree of certainty can be obtained in these things nor will any other suffice CHAP. XXV That our Adversaries have no way of knowing the true Church IT doth not appear therefore who they are that truly belong to the Church Yet suppose it is and that all Baptized Persons outwardly professing the true Faith are Members of it which Opinion most pleaseth our Adversaries and is most advantageous for them It is still to be enquired which out of so many Societies that challenge to themselves the name of the Church justly and truly claims it For not any one that first occurrs is to be admitted and preferred before the rest But here if any where a diligent and accurate Examination is to be used lest instead of the Church of Christ we follow the Synagogue of Satan and for Divine Revelations receive execrable Errors This especially becomes them who when they have found the Church give over any further enquiry and receive without Examination all the dictates of it They ought to be very vigilant and curious in the choice of their Guide lest if they haply mistake they incurr that Sentence of Christ If the blind lead the blind both will fall into the ditch Let us see therefore whether our Adversaries can boast they have made a just and accurate enquiry herein and most certainly found out the true Church There are chiefly three Methods of making this Enquiry 1. From the truth of the Doctrine professed by any Church and Conformity of that to the Word of God. 2. By Notes known only by the light of right Reason and independently from the Word of God. 3. By Notes which are marked out and taught in the Scripture Arriaga preferreth the first Method before all others I answer saith he 1 Respondeo veritatem doctrinae probari etiam posse non recurrendo ad Ecclesiam imò ante primam probationem verae Ecclesiae debere probari veritatem doctrinae Etenim cum Ecclesia ut Ecclesia definiatur per hoc quòd sit coetus profitentium veram doctrinam fidei repugnat in terminis me supponere aliquam congregationem esse veram Ecclesiam nisi dicam eo ipso ibi esse veram doctrinam Ergo non possum primò probare veram doctrinam ex verâ Ecclesiâ Arr. de fide disp 7. Sect. 5. that the truth of the Doctrine may be proved without recurring to the Church yea and that before the first Proof of the true Church the truth of the Doctrine ought to be proved He proveth both parts of his Assertion largely and in the second part of it maketh use of this Argument For since the Church as a Church is defined the Congregation of men professing the true Doctrine of Faith it is a contradiction in the very terms to suppose any Congregation to be the true Church unless I do for that very reason suppose there is the true Doctrine I cannot therefore first prove the Doctrine is true from the truth of the Church To this we willingly subscribe and approve this Method of Arriaga's only Not so the rest of our Adversaries who detest it and labour to render it both infamous and impossible pretending it to be full of inextricable difficulties and not to be surmounted by the most learned much less by illiterate persons Wherefore I need not endeavour to prove that the true
troups as Slaves to Hell to be with himself for ever tormented yet no mortal must presume to reprehend his faults because he is to judge all to be judged of none Who not to mention obsolete Stories but lately commanded all to believe there is five heretical propositions in Jansenius and yet although humbly intreated by many Doctors would not declare in what part of Jansenius his Book they might be found What is this but to account Christians as most vile Slaves The seventh Note of the Church consists in this 3 John IV. 23. That she worship God in Spirit and in Truth The ancient Church of the Jews indeed used a gross and sensible kind of Worship and was employed about the mean and beggerly Elements of the World but it is the peculiar glory of the Christian Church to worship God in a way most consentaneous to the simplicity of his being and the holiness of his nature Not so the Church of Rome which observeth so many diverse and difficult ceremonies that in comparison of them the Mosaick Rites are both few and easy This you will soon acknowledge if you compare the fourth or at most the third part of the Pentateuch for no more is taken up with ritual matters with so many vast volumes the Ceremonial Pontifical Ritual Missal Gradual and others which prescribe the external part of the Roman Service Lastly the true Church is that which neither usurpeth nor disturbeth the civil Government Therein imitating Christ her Master who offered heavenly things to all earthly to none professed his Kingdom was not of this World withdrew himself unto the Mountains when sought for by the multitude to be made a King and refused to be a Judge in a matter of inheritance The true Church observeth the Apostles precept 4 Rom. XIII 1. of being subject to the higher Powers And that other 5 Ibid. v. 7. of rendering to all their due tribute to whom tribute custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honour to whom honour Not so the Church of Rome whose Head the Pope deposeth Kings at his pleasure absolveth their Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance and pretends to a Sovereign Dominion over the whole World. I might produce many other like Notes of the Church out of Scripture but these suffice to shew how great danger they expose the Church of Rome to who out of those Holy Writings permit a judgment to be formed of her Truth and Purity I will now proceed briefly to demonstrate that not even from those Notes which the Church of Rome assigns can it be known that she is the true Church Card. Richlieu assigns four Antiquity Amplitude Perpetuity and Succession Amplitude shall be considered afterwards the other three I will now briefly touch Antiquity consists solely or chiefly in this that the Church which is called Ancient have preserved the same Faith Worship and Religion from the beginning While the Church of Rome therefore glorieth in Antiquity she meaneth that she now professeth the same Faith which Christ formerly instituted and his Apostles taught But to know this there is no other way than to compare the present Doctrine of the Church of Rome with the Ancient Monuments of Christian Religion of which Scripture is the Chief Now this in nothing differeth from the first method which we only approve and our Adversaries reject If then the Church cannot be known by that method neither can it by that which our Adversaries propose The discussion of perpetuity is yet more difficult For therein is to be proved not only that the present is the same with the first and original Doctrine but also that it was so in every Age and that this profession of the old Religion was never once interrupted Now how vast and unexhausted a knowledge of antiquity doth this require No ancient monument must be neglected infinite Volumes both Printed and Manuscript must be read through This few Men can attend to or if they could one Age would not suffice Yet this accordding to Richlieu's method must be done by any Infidel who is a Candidate of Christianity The same may be said of Succession That is twofold of Doctrine and of Persons The first is coincident with antiquity and perpetuity the second in Gretser's judgment is of little moment Without Truth of Doctrine saith he 6 Sine veritate doctrinae successio Pastorum est exigui ponderis De verb. Dei lib. 4. cap. 9. Succession of Pastors is of small weight But suppose it of the greatest moment What is more laborious and difficult to say no more than to prove that in a long series of Succession continued through XVI Ages there never happened the least interruption Thus much of the Notes singly As for all taken together it is manifest that even in our Adversaries opinion they cannot be certain since they are found in the Greek Church The Cardinal denies that of Antiquity because the Church of Constantinople cannot demonstrate her claim of being founded by St. Andrew Let it be Certainly the Churches of Hierusalem Antioch Ephesus Corinth and Athens which are parts of the Greek Church were founded by Apostles and the first even by Christ himself Again the Cardinal denieth the Succession of the Greek Bishops because their Patriarchs were heretical But first it matters not what the Patriarchs are if the other Bishops be Orthodox Secondly this very thing may be brought against the Succession of Popes for some of them have been condemned by General Councils Lastly if heresie interrupts succession it will be no more certain that the Succession of Popes was never interrupted than that no Pope was ever an Heretick But how shall this be ascertained especially to an Infidel of whom we now treat who may consider that many in the Church of Rome openly teach the contrary To this may be added That it is absurd in this case to pretend Heresy against the Succession of any Church For that is the very thing now inquired by this Infidel which Society of Christians is the true Church and consequently which of them are Hereticks or Schismaticks This method therefore can never certainly teach us That the Church of Rome is the true Church CHAP. XXVI That it is uncertain what the Vniversal Church believeth IF after all this we should grant That our Adversaries may certainly know which is the true Church it were yet to be inquired what this Church believeth But how shall this be known For first it doth not suffice to know what the greater or lesser part of the Universal Church believeth unless we know what is the Faith of the whole For our Adversaries confess That the greater part of it may erre So Tostatus answering to those who from the Universal corruption of the translations of the Bible before S. Hierom's time argued That the whole Church then erred replyed That all the Copies indeed of the Latin Church were corrupted but in the Greek Church were preserved entire Now saith he
Lord Bacon in Arguments Civil Moral Natural c. with a large account of all his Works By Dr. Tho. Tenison 80. Dr. Henry Bagshaw's Discourses on select Texts 80. Mr. Seller's State of the Church in the three first Centuries Dr. Burnet's Account of the Life and Death of the Earl of Rochester 80. Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England 80. History of the Rights of Princes in the Disposing of Ecclesiastical Benefices and Church-lands 80. Relation of the present state of the difference between the French King and the Court of Rome to which is added the Pope's Brief to the Assembly of the Clergy and their Protestation published by Dr. Burnet 80. Dr. Cumber's Companion to the Altar 80. Dr. Sherlock's Practical Discourse of Religious Assemblies 80. Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet's Unreasonableness of Separation 80. A Vindication of the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet in answer to Mr. Baxter and Mr. Lob about Catholick Communion 80. Sir Rob. Filmer's Patriarcha or natural Power of Kings 80. Bishop Wettenhall's Method and Order for private Devotion 12 s. Valentine's Private Devotions 40. Dr. Spencer de Legibus Hebraeorum Ritualibus earum Rationibus fol. Dr. John Lightfoots's Works in English in 2 Vol. fol. Sir Tho. Brown's Vulgar Errors with all the rest of his Works fol. Patris Simâ—nii Disquisitionis Criticae de Variis per diversa Loca Tempora Bibliorum â— Editionibus Accedunt Castigat Opusc Is Vossi de Sibyllinis Oraculis 40. The Case of Lay-Communion with the Church of England considered 40. Two Letters betwixt Mr. R. Smith and Dr. Hen. Hammond about Christ's Descent into Hell. 80. Dean Stratford's Disswasive from Revenge 80. Dr. Hez Burton's first Volume of Discourses of Purity and Charity of Repentance and of seeking the Kingdom of God. Published by Dean Tillotson 80. His second Volume of Discourses on several Practical Subjects Octavo Sir Thomas More 's Vtopia newly made English by Dr. Burnet 80. Mr. Seller's Devout Communicant assisted with Rules Meditations Prayers and Anthems 12 s. Dr. Towerson of the Sacraments in General Of the Sacrament of Baptism in particular 80. The History of the COVNCIL of TRENT in which besides the Ordinary Acts of the Council are declared many notable Occurrences which hapned in Christendom for 40 Years and particularly the Practices of the COVRT of ROME to hinder the Reformation of Their Errors and to maintain Their Greatness Written by Father Paul of the SERVI To which is added the Life of the Author and the History of the Inquisition Books lately Printed for Richard Chiswell Dr. Burnets History of the Reformation of the Church of England in 2 Vol. Fol. A Collection of Sixteen several Tracts and Discourses Written in the Years from 1678 to 1685. inclusive by Gilbert Burnet D. D. To which are added A Letter written to Dr. Burnet giving an Account of Cardinal Pool's Secret Powers The History of the Powder-Treason with a Vindication of the Proceedings thereupon An Impartial Consideration of the Five Jesuits dying Speeches who were Executed for the Popish Plot 1679. 40. A Dissertation concerning the Government of the Ancient Church more particularly of the Encroachment of the Bishops of Rome upon other Sees By WILLIAM CAVE D. D. Octavo An Answer to Mr. Serjeant's Sure Footing in Christianity concerning the Rule of Faith With some other Discourses By WILLIAM FALKNER D. D. 40. A Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England in Answer to a Paper written by one of the Church of Rome to prove the Nullity of our Orders By GILBERT BVRNET D. D. Octavo An Abridgment of the History of the Reformation of the Church of England By GILB BVRNET D. D. Octavo The APOLOGY of the Church of England and an Epistle to one Signior Scipio a Venetian Gentleman concerning the Council of Trent Written both in Latin by the Right Reverend Father in God JOHN JEWEL Lord Bishop of Salisbury Made English by a Person of Quality To which is added The Life of the said Bishop Collected and written by the same Hand Octavo The Life of WILLIAM BEDEL D. D. Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland Together with Certain Letters which passed betwixt him and James Waddesworth a late Pensioner of the Holy Inquisition of Sevil in Matters of Religion concerning the General Motives to the Roman Obedience Octavo The Decree made at ROME the second of March 1679. condemning some Opinions of the Jesuits and other Casuists Quarto A Discourse concerning the Necessity of Reformation with respect to the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome Quarto First and Second Parts A Discourse concerning the Celebration of Divine Service in an unknown Tongue Quarto A Papist not Misrepresented by Protestants Being a Reply to the Reflections upon the Answer to A Papist Misrepresented and Represented Quarto An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England in the several Articles proposed by the late BISHOP of CONDOM in his Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholick Church Quarto A Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the Exceptions of Monsieur de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator 40. A CATECHISM explaining the Doctrine and Practices of the Church of Rome With an Answer thereunto By a Protestant of the Church of England 80. A Papist Represented and not Misrepresented being an Answer to the First Second Fifth and Sixth Sheets of the Second Part of the Papist Misrepresented and Represented and for a further Vindication of the CATECHISM truly representng the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome Quarto The Lay-Christian's Obligation to read the Holy Scriptures Quarto The Plain Man's Reply to the Catholick Missionaries 240. An Answer to THREE PAPERS lately printed concerning the Authority of the Catholick Church in matters of Faith and the Reformation of the Church of England Quarto A Vindication of the Answer to THREE PAPERS cocerning the Vnity and Authority of the Catholick Church and the Reformation of the Church of England Quarto Mr. Chillingworth's Book called The Religion of Protestants a safe way to Salvation made more generally useful by omitting Personal Contests but inserting whatsoever concerns the common Cause of Protestants or defends the Church of England with an exact Table of Contents and an Addition of some genuine Pieces of Mr. Chilling-worth's never before Printed viz. against the Infallibility of the Roman Church Transubstantiation Tradition c. And an account of what moved the Author to turn Papist wth his Confutation of the said Motives An Historical Treatise written by an AVTHOR of the Communion of the Church of Rome touching TRANSVBSTANTIATION Wherein is made appear That according to the Principles of THAT CHVRCH This Doctrine cannot be an Article of Faith. 40. The Protestant's Companion Or an Impartial Survey and Comparison of the Protestant Religion as by Law established with the main Doctrines of Popery Wherein is shewed that Popery is contrary to Scripture Primitive Fathers and
Councils and that proved from Holy Writ the Writings of the Ancient Fathers for several hundred Years and the Confession of the most Lerned Papists themselves 40. The Pillar and Ground of Truth A Treatise shewing that the Roman Church falsly claims to be That Church and the Pillar of That Truth mentioned by S. Paul in his first Epistle to Timothy Chap. 3. Vers 15. 40. The Peoples Right to read the Holy Scripture Asserted 40. A Short Summary of the principal Controversies between the Church of England and the Church of Rome being a Vindication of several Protestant Doctrines in Answer to a late Pamphlet intituled Protestancy destitute of Scripture Proofs 40. An Answer to a late Pamphlet intituled The Judgment and Doctrine of the Clergy of the Church of England concerning one Special Branch of the King's Prerogative viz. In dispensing with the Penal Laws 40. A Discourse of the Holy Eucharist in the two great Points of the Real Presence and the Adoration of the Host in answer to the Two Discourses lately Printed at Oxford on this Subject To which is perfixed a Large Historical Preface relating to the same Argument Two Discourses Of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead The Fifteen Notes of the Church as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmin examined and confuted 40. With a Table of the Contents Preparation for Death Being a Letter sent to a young Gentlewoman in France in a dangerous Distemper of which she died By W. W. 120. The Difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome in opposition to a late Book intituled An Agreement between the Church of England and Church of Rome A PRIVATE PRAYER to be used in Difficult Times A true account of a Conference held about Religion at London Sept. 29. 1687 between A. Pulton Jesuit and Tho. Tenison D. D. as also of that which led to it and followed after it 40. The Vindication of A. Cressener Schoolmaster in Long-Acre from the Aspersions of A. Pulton Jesuit Schoolmaster in the Savoy together with some Account of his Discourse with Mr. Meredith A Discourse shewing that Protestants are on the safer side notwithstanding the uncharitable Judgment of their Adversaries and that Their Religion is the surest Way to Heaven 40. Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist wherein is shewed That the Doctrine of Transubstantiation overthrows the Proofs of Christian Religion A Discourse concerning the pretended Sacrament of Extreme Vnction with an account of the occasions and beginnings of it in the Western Church In Three Parts With a Letter to the Vindicator of the Bishop of Condom The Pamphlet entituled Speculum Ecclesiasticum or an Ecclesiastical Prospective-Glass considered in its False Reasonings and Quotations There are added by way of Preface two further Answers the First to the Defender of the Speculum the Second to the Half-sheet against the Six Conferences A Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the new Exposition of Mons de Meaux late Bishop of Conâom and his Vindicator The FIRST PART In which the Account that has been given of the Bishop of Meaux's Exposition is fully vindicated the distinction of Old and New Popery Historically asserted and the Doctrine of the Church of Rome in Point of Image-worship more particularly considered 40. The Incurable Scepticism of the Church of Rome By the Author of the Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist 40. Mr. Pulton Considered in his Sincerity Reasonings Authorities Or a Just Answer to what he hath hitherto Published in his True Account his True and full Account of a Conference c. His Remarks and in them his pretended Confutation of what he calls Dr. T 's Rule of Faith. By Tho. Tenison D. D. A Full View of the Doctrines and Practices of the Ancient Church relating to the Eucharist wholly different from those of the Present Roman Church and inconsistent with the belief of Transubstantiation Being a sufficient Confutation of CONSENSVS VETERVM NVBES TESTIVM and other Late Collections of the Fathers pretending to the contrary 40.