so was the Gospel But those whom God used to draw his Church out of the abuses of Popery were not Angels but men whom we hold not to have been infallible Wherefore if one alledge to the English Churches some hard Sayings of persons that had a hand in the Reformation to the Germane Churches of Luther to the Helvetian of Zwinglius they will answer They were men They are not the Pillars of our Faith Since those men have laid open the Holy Scripture before us which was shut up before it is no more for their word that we believe for our selves have seen the saving Truth of God and upon that we are built But that the faults of men may not be imployed or received to give a prejudice against the Doctrine of God I desire all judicious and sober minded to consider that in the midst of the Romish darkness it was not to be expected that the saving light of Gods truth and the Apostolical Government of the Church should be discovered upon a sudden by any man completely with all its parts As Rome was not built in one day no more was Sion Many were great helpers towards the knowledge of the truth who were themselves very short of it and nevertheless ought to be reverently remembred by us for doing more then was to be expected in that Age. Such were the Waldenses such was Wiclef such was John Hus men too severely censured by some of us as not thoroughly principled in many points of Religion But how much truth did they discover How much saving Doctrine did they bring forth What lasting seeds of Reformation did they sow which lying buried for some Ages sprung forth and had a happy growth to a greater perfection in the age of our Fathers Truly although the announcing of the Gospel by the Angels be called the Day-spring from on high because that light Luk. 1. 78. at Christs coming brake forth as it were from the Meridian not from the Horizon and was full at its very rising we are not to expect at every return of that light after a long night that there shall be no difference between break of Day and Noon No the Truth is compared 2 Pet. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto a Light shining in a dark place untill the day dawn and the Day-Starr arise In these last Ages of the world after a long darkness the Sun of Truth did rise by little and little It shone at the first with much fogg about it and cast long shades And we have reason to acknowledge with thankfulness and admiration that among those shades so much saving Light did shine as inlightened the understanding and comforted the conscience with the mystery of Gods reconciliation with men in Jesus Christ through faith and repentance which is the main substance of Religion For Grace as Nature begins with the noble parts which are perfectioned long before the outward be finisht Although I reverence very much the memory of those that were raised by God to discover the errours of the Court of Rome I will not justifie their errours if they had any nor all the words and writings of them that came after and brought their Work to a greater perfection To compass that great work among the highest contradiction and against the current of custome if men of stout spirits and there was need of such had let fall from their mouth or pen some less reverend expressions then duty required concerning the superiour powers that opposed them none needs wonder at it and yet none needs to justifie it and we are very far from it But though they had spoken treason it casts no blur upon our profession which is exprest in our publick confessions Neither do we acknowledge any private man to be the warrant of our faith I may then save my labour in examining whether our Adversary hath faithfully alledged the writings of Protestant Divines and truly represented their opinions since their opinions are not our rule And yet so much we will say for them that those very men whose opinions their Adversaries misrepresent unto the world were the Writers and Composers of those Confessions of Faith which were subscribed unto and acknowledged by the National Churches as the publick Declarations of their belief Which Confessions are so full and pregnant in asserting the obedience of subjects unto their Sovereigns as I will demonstrate God willing in the third Chapter of this Treatise that the greatest Adversaries find little to say against it And our Adversary to whom his Party owes this commendation that he hath carefully collected and epitomized all the objections made against us about the point of Obedience passeth by our Confessions of faith as being without the reach of his exceptions Onely he nibbleth a little at the 39. Article of the French Confession which is this We affirm that Laws are to be obeyed tributes to be paid and the yoke of subjection to be born although the Magistrates be infidels Thus far excellent well saith the Adversary but that which follows spoils all in his opinion The Sovereign Empire of God remaining alwaies entire Why here is a gallant latitude saith he for disobedience and rebellion But no such latitude is left by the Article All that good reason can infer out of it is that we must obey the Magistrates as long as we may do it without disobeying God There is great difference between not obeying and rebelling I see nothing else bearing the stamp of publick consent of any National Church among Protestants that this man excepts against in the point of obedience For his invective against the Geneva Bible is a wilfull mistake Some English exiles at Geneva printed there a Bible An Edition justly discredited by a Note in the Margin 2 Chron. 5. 16. upon that Asa put by his mother Maacha from the government for her idolatry And the annotation saith that he should not onely have deposed her but killed her Which impious Paradox this Gentleman imputeth to the whole Congregation of those Protestants of integrity as he calls us because saith he their holy Geneva Bible is admitted by their whole Kirk which we deny No English Translation of the Bible is authentical to be read in Churches but that which was made by the commandement of King JAMES of glorious memory Neither was that Geneva Bible translated or received by publick authority Neither is Geneva more to be taxed for it then London for printing the wicked libel which I am now confuting both being printed without Licence That Note put in by some Fanatick is rejected by all Protestants and the generality must not be charged with a private mans folly Although I answer not for any private man yet that the Reader may judge what credit he may give to this Gentlemans allegations I have set down here a sample Pag. 82 and 83. of his unsincerity in his alledging of Luther He sets down three passages taken as he saith out of Luther's I made
by their Religion I will not take the pains to disprove any thing else All his Preface is verba voces Moralities far from his purpose interlarded with invectives without ground For who are those that will do no good works for fear of meriting by them And where are those Protestants among whom dulness and heaviness of spirit is taken up as a practise A character more befitting Monastical devotion God fetcheth light out of darkness but it is the Devils work to fetch darkness out of light This man labours to do the same Sententias loquitur carnifex But he goeth untowardly to work For he pulls his doctrines by the hair to bring them to his uses It seems the man had made some petty declamations when he was a Grammar Scholar in a broken boyish style made up of a thousand stollen shreds And now lest these pieces of wit should perish he brings them in by head and shoulders to decide controversies in points not controverted For to his silly commendations of devotion and humility one may say as that King to him that would commend Hector in his presence Quis vero illas vituperat What need you speak for these Vertues when no body speaks against them And what are these declamations to the matter in hand To give a taste of his learning in Greek he translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an eloquent Oration He calls St. Austin the Oracle of the Latine Church But he never belonged to it but to the African And for a tast of his wit and eloquence barking at the Moon he saith to be the Divinity of Dogs This is of the same kinde The blessed eyes of Bats they have to mock at the greatest lights But if the Bats mockt at the great light they would out-face it whereas they hide themselves from it One more of these impertinencies out of the body of the book He gives these commendations to our late pag. 57. 58. excellent King a Prince as wise as Apollo valiant There wanted no more but animo prudens ut Homerus as it is upon the Tombe of Richard the 11. as Achilles vertuous as Socrates pious as Aeneas and beautiful as an Amazon O brave boy Well declamed for a Scholar of the second Form See what comes by being bred in the Colledges of the Jesuites of Flanders for such a gallant strain of Oratory could never have been learned in the Schools of Westminster or Eaton Yet me-thinks the first and the last of these comparisons have a reach quite beyond common sense Will he call holy King Charles a Prince as wise as Apollo It is a fit parallel for Julian the Apostate Had he no better comparison for that Saint then a Pagan God and a Devil who by reason of the uncertainty of his Oracles was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crooked and winding How doth that fit such a pattern of Christian and Royal ingenuity so sincere in his words so real in his actions The last parallel is as incongruous as the first He calls the King as beautiful as an Amazon Where hath this Antiquary found those viragines the Amazons with their right breast burnt set out as Paragons of beauty And though they had been such Is a womans beauty fit to express the majestical presence of a King How do these two comparisons suit with the subject and one with another Velut aegri somnia vanae Finguntur species ut nec pes nec caput uni Reddatur formae This writer affords more occasions to make sport with him by his ignorance but more by his blind choler then which there is nothing that disarmeth a man more and exposeth him more to be a laughing stock Such another Pierochol and Cacafuego I never met with His style is a continual casting of firebrands and firing of Granado's to scatter among the Protestants in all the corners of the world What would become of the Ship of this Church if these men ruled upon the Deck and were masters of the Stern and the Sayls seeing they are so swaggering now they lye under the Hatches Let the Author of the book keep himself there for me and remain unknown The publisher will not acknowledge himself to be the Father but only the Godfather although the Epistle Preface and Book look like three brats of one venter We need not question who is the father since the godfather answereth for the childe Neither is it more material to search into the occasion of the writing of the book which he saith to be a Letter from a Protestant of integrity in answer to a letter from a person of quality These letters I never saw But if that Protestant of integrity will have the Presbyterians conformable to the Church of England in Ecclesiasticks as the Epistle seems to intimate we are of his minde neither is any more required of the Presbyterians for the blessed work of concord and for the comfort of their Protestant brethren and their own The Title of Philanax Anglicus whereby the Author makes a profession to love the King is his passport into the patience of the Reader And he makes of it a Fort under the shelter of which he thinks he may boldly shoot upon whom he pleaseth to take for his mark But what advantage this lover of the King alloweth to him is much like the gift of Juglers his Majesty may hold it fast and finde nothing in his hand as we shall see afterwards A Vindication of the Protestant Religion in the point of obedience to Sovereigns opposed to the doctrine of Rebellion authorized and practised by the Pope and the Jesuits In answer to a Jesuitical Libel intituled Philanax Anglicus CHAPTER I. Of the Objections out of the Books of Protestant Writers THe Book of this Adversary consisting of stale Objections which have been a thousand times answered would put me and any man that would answer him to the unavoidable necessity of saying over many things that were said before but that all his Objections may be reduced into one and therefore one answer will serve for them all For from the beginning to the end he objects unto us some passages out of Protestant Writers which savour of disobedience as he dresseth them and some faults in that kinde of those that have embraced the Protestant party whence he inferreth That both the Doctrine and the Practise of Reformed Religion is Rebellion He labours especially to pick faults in the first Reformers but coming short of his end he quarrelleth with others that came long since the Reformation But though he had brought the Reformers to plead guilty he hath done nothing against us For to all these allegations we answer that our Belief depends not upon the doctrine of any particular person or persons much less upon their actions But that to know the true belief of our Churches one must look upon their publick Confessions of Faith The Law was received by the disposition of Angels saith St. Steven Act. 7. 53. and
of the Court of Rome but Luther continued till death about thirty years destroying the Popes interests in Germany and all parts of Europe and neither Pope nor Caesar could touch him Wonderfull are the ways of Gods justice that the Pope by fomenting factions in the Empire and breaking the Emperours power did prepare safety and facility for his enemies in the following ages to make that great breach in his Kingdome and give that mortal wound to his power of which it shall bleed till it dye of it Against the Helvetian Reformation the Adversary saith nothing onely he arrayeth Zuinglius in a swaggering Pag. 3. swash buckler habit as if he had wrought Reformation with sword and buckler yet it was made quietly the preaching of the Gospel and began at Zurick in the year 1522. When Zuinglius was censured by the Bishop Sleidan of Constance his Ordinary for oppressing the Romish errours he set sorth Theses containing his doctrine and the Senate of Zurick called together all the Clergy of the Canton to confer about Religion and requested the Bishop to be present or send some authorized by him The Bishop sent Johannes Faber his Vicar General in whose presence the Consul invited all the assistants if they had any thing to oppose unto the Theses of Zuinglius that they would speak And Zuinglius having addrest the same invitation to the Vicar in particular the Vicar answered that treating of Controversies was not fit for that place and that it belonged to the Councel which should assemble shortly After that many words had past between them when none appeared that had any thing to oppose the Senate made an Edict that in all their dominions the Gospel should be purely taught out of the Books of the Old and New Testament and that humane traditions should be banisht This was obeyed and Reformation was established without either sword or buckler Neither do I read that Zuinglius was in armes till eleven years after that five Gantons of contrary Religion suddenly invaded that of Zurick and put Zurick men to a necessary but disorderly defense in which Zuinglius was slain The Switzers had cantoned themselves in the year 1315. which was 200 years before the Reformation Were I as unsincere as my Adversary I should charge the Roman Religion which then reigned with that change of State From Zuinglius the Adversary passeth to Calvin as the head of the French Reformation wherein he sheweth his great ignorance for the Reformed Religion was spread in France twenty years before Calvin was settled in Geneva and well nigh assoon as in Germany The beginning of which must not be ascribed to one Hugo whom our Adversary knowsnot nor any body else But the truth is that it was in France long before it was in Germany ever since the errours and tyranny of the Court of Rome began to be opposed by the Valdenses whose relicks after long persecutions by fire and sword remained in the Vale of Cabrieres and Marindol in Provence It was from thence that Reformation was propagated incouraged by the happy progresses of Luther and Zuinglius Wherefore the Popes creatures perceiving whence that blow came upon the Roman Court never left solliciting Francis the I. of France till they got an Edict for the extirpating of them which was executed with the utmost rigour And it was not for Religion that they were thus butchered but meerly to make a sacrifice to the pride and cruelty of Rome For as for their doctrine that excellent King Lewis the XII liked it so well that to some that represented it to him and would incense him against them He answered that they were better Christians then he and his Kingdome This was then the true Origine of the Reformation of France the doctrine of the Valdenses preserved in the relicks of their descent a doctrine perfectioned since into a more Orthodox Confession conformable to the Confessions of other Protestant Churches So Calvin had no hand in that Reformation and no more had he with that of Geneva or in turning that State into an Aristocracy as this Adversary upbraids him My business being to vindicate Reformation from the charge of rebellion I must take from the Reformers of Geneva that aspersion that they expelled their Bishop and that they altered the constitution of that State and both these ascribed unto Calvin It is a tradition received in England for a currant and undoubted truth And upon that ground many fine and judicious inferences are built But it is like the stories of the Phenix and the singing of Swans before their death never the truer for the curious similies and ingenious moralities that have Epistola Benedicti Turretini ad Scultetum in Annal. reformationis An. 1529. been spun out of that stuffe What credit can we give to Histories of things happened in the Indies two thousand years ago if in things done to lately and so near us gross mistakes go for uncontrollable truths I say it is utterly false thar Calvin was one of the planters of Reformed Religion at Geneva False also that he or the Reformers of Geneva turned their Bishop out of doors And false also that the Bishop went away upon the quarrel of Religion Farel Froment and Viret were they that wrought under God the conversion of the City by their Sermons and by a publick conference with the Friars and Clergy of Geneva there being then no Bishop in that Town who was fled eight moneths before seeing his conspiracy discovered to oppresse the liberties of the City by the help of the Duke of Savoy for which his Secretary was hanged after he was gone the said Bishop being hated before for the rape of a Virgin and many adulteries with Citizens Wives And it is most to be noted that they who after his flight See the book entituled A view of the Government c. by Iohn Durel reformed the Civil Government were strong Papists and mainly opposed the Reformation of Religion To which something like was seen in England not far from that time For the same English Bishops that most earnestly served Henry the VIII to make him acknowledged the Supreme Head of the Church of England Tonstal Gardiner Bonner c. were afterwards the greatest opposers of the Work of Reformation and the fiercest persecutors of the Protestants That the Church Discipline of Geneva was constituted without a bishop is a matter of another nature Their Successors that continue it so to this day are of age let them speak for themselves It is enough for my present purpose that I have vindicated the Introduction of Reformation into that State from the crime of rebellion As long as their Bishop lived they could not have another and durst not receive him being manifestly convicted of selling the Cities liberty to the Duke of Savoy And when the Bishop died they had used themselves to live without a Bishop The first proof of our Adversary to indite the French Reformation of
former subjection From Holland the Adversary saileth into Scotland and objects to us the Maxims of Knox and Buchanan and the disorders of that time Of which I have said enough in the Chapter before Of the Work of Reformation in England and the publick actions of that age upon that interest he speaks very scornfully saying that the Sect of Wicleff lay pag. 71. strangled in the cradle till King Edward the VI. his dayes when some ends of it were taken up again and set out with more ostentation then ever in that Princes minority and what rare effects of obedience were by that means produced in Queen Maries time who brought them up again to the test may be easily read in our Chronicles Wherein it is plain that in the poor five years of her Reign there was de facto more open and violent opposition and rebellion made by her own subjects then Queen Elizabeth had in forty five years or any Prince before or since the Wicleffian doctrine till the same smothered fire broke out at last in good King Charles his time to his utter ruin and the shaking of the very foundation of his Monarchy Is this spoken like a most observant Son and in every honest mans esteem a pious reverend and learned Priest of the Church of England as this Author is tearmed in the Publishers Epistle to the Reader Certainly a Son and a Priest of the Church of England would never have derived from Wickleff but from the Holy Scripture the Religion of the Church his Mother nor ascribed to her Religion the cause of the late horrid rebellion We see what a Son and Priest of the Church he is the tree is known by his fruit What better figs can be gathered from such a thorn What better grapes from such a bramble And what is that doctrine of Wickliffe which he imputes to the Protestants to the English especially Impios nullum dominium habere That the ungodly pag. 70. can have no right of dominion Was that the doctrine set out with ostentation in Edward the VI. his dayes Or was any of the Protestants found tainted with that doctrine when Queen Mary burnt them which this man calls bringing them to the test Sure it was not upon that ground that some oppositions were made against that Queen It is a wonder that she met with no more considering how her Father had declared by Act of Parliament her Mothers Marriage unlawful and her self incapable of the Crown and had miserably incumbred the Title and Succession of his Children That there was more open and violent opposition against her in her five years reigne from her own Subjects then Queen Elizabeth had in forty five years it is because they that went to question her Title went to work plainly above boord but no secret Jesuitical conspiracies to stabbe or poyson her as against Queen Elizabeth The means she made to reduce her dissenting subjects in Religion when they made no opposition against her was to make bon-fires of them Three hundred of those burnt-offerings she sacrificed unto God A farre greater number in her poor five years then that of the Popish Martyrs of disobedience since the death of that Queen now above a hundred years For no Papist was executed for his Religion all for disobeying the Laws of the Land and many of them for High Treason It is known that Queen Mary got the Crowne by the assistance of the Protestants of Suffolk and what recompence she gave them for it And whereas no fewer then eight rebellions did rise in Henry the VIII his dayes I find not that the Protestants had a hand in any of them All were raised by Papists and upon the score of Popery The principal colour of our Adversaries malice is his detestation of the late rebellion of England and the execrable Murther committed in the sacred Person of our gracious Sovereigne Upon this he makes several Panegyricks which are very ill sorted with his Apology for Mariana and justifying of the Iesuites doctrine Especially seeing that those actions were copied out upon their principles Felicia tempora quae te Moribus admorunt Belike the curious pens of the wise States-men and learned Scholars of England had need to be supplied by the boyish theames of a petty Novice of Doway to learn the duty of Subjects and to abhorre the guiltinesse of rebellion The venome that lieth under that oratory of invectives is that all the mischief is imputed to the Protestants of Integrity a term which he useth like a stirrup-leather longer or shorter according to his occasions yet alwayes treacherously to cast the faults of some particular person or some heretical Sect upon the generality of the Protestants But let him know that the King the Church and the State are Protestants of Integrity and that the parricides and troublers of our Israel will never give him thanks for calling them Protestants Also that we acknowledge them not for such unlesse it be upon a new score because they protest against the Kings power and the duty of their obedience When Jesuits or their Scholars as this Gentleman is charge our Fanaticks with High Treason they do but act that which they had prepared to do if the Powder-Plot had taken For they had a Declaration ready to indite the Protestants of that Treason For these men would story the just clamor against them for their doctrine of rebellion and parricide by laying the same charge with loud words upon others We have great reason to call upon the Justice of God and Men to condemne the unsincerity of this clamour With what face or conscience can the Jesuits passe a hard Sentence upon the late Rebels and King-killers seeing that these furious Zealots have neither taught nor done any thing in that horrible defection but what they had learned of the Jesuits For what do they blame them for Is it for teaching that the Sovereigne Power lieth in the Commons and that they may alter the Government of a State Did they not learn Bellarm. de Laicis lib. 3. cap. 6. Potestas immediate est tanquam in subjecto in tota multitudine si causa legitima adsit potest multitudo mutare regnum in Aristocratiam aut Democratiam è contrarie that of Bellarmine The Power saith he is in the whole multitude as in its subject and if there be a lawful cause for it the multitude may alter the Royal State into an Aristocracy or Democracy and so on the contrary Is it for saying that the people makes the King and may unmake him and retains still the habit of power Did they not learn of the same Bellarmine that In the Kingdomes of Bellarm. de Concil lib. 2. cap. 19. In regnis hominum potestas Regis est à populo quia populus facit Regem Ibid. cap. 19. sect ad alteram In Rebusp temporalibus si Rex degeneret in tyrannum licet caput sit Regni tamen à populo potest
God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restraiz with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers The Bishop of Rome hath no Jurisdiction in this Realm of England The Lawes of the Realm may punish Christian men with death for heinous and grievous crimes It is lawful for Christian men at the Commandment of the Magistrate to wear weapons and serve in the Wars The XXXV Article appoints Homilies against Rebellion to be read in Churches The summary of these Homilies and the whole drift of them is contained First part page 2. of the first Homily against wilful disobedience and rebellion in these words In reading of the holy Scriptures we shall finde in very many and almost infinite places as well of the Old Testament as of the New That Kings and Princes as well the evil as the good do reigne by Gods Ordinance and that subjects are bound to obey them And that Doctrine of the Church of England which is that of the Word of God is fully demonstrated in these godly Homilies published and enjoyned to be read in Churches by Royal Authority CHAP. IV. Proving by the Bulls and Decrees of Popes That the Doctrine of the Roman Court in the point of Obedience to Sovereignes is a Doctrine of Rebellion HItherto we have stood upon the Defensive and have with no great labour wiped off the false and foul aspersions of Rebellion cast upon the Doctrine of the Protestant Churches Let us try whether we can use the Sword as well as the Buckler And we will use no other then the Popes own Sword For as David said of Goliah's sword There is none like that give it me In this Combate the enemies sword is the right weapon none like it The Adversary to disgrace our Doctrine hath objected to us some passages of our Authors most of them false or wrested and some actions of persons of the Protestant party But though he had proved all these to be true he had done no harm to our Doctrine which is not built upon private opinions or upon private or publick actions He should have taken our Confessions in hand and Indicted them of rebellious Tenets if he could have found any Or finding none he should have given glory to God and confessed the Truth of God with us But if I bring him the Bulls of his Popes and their Decrees can he scape as we do when he urgeth us with maxims of Buchanan or Goodman Can he say The Pope speaks Treason and prescribes Rebellion as we say of these men and my faith is not tyed to his authority Can he as freely go off from the Popes judgement as we do from the best of our party when their Tenet is represented to us aberring from the rule of Gods Word and dissenting from the Articles of Religion consented unto by the Provincial Convocations of the Church We will then object to him and his party that which they cannot disown unless they disown their Faith and Religion since their Faith and Religion depend upon the Popes Decrees and that so strongly and with such a spirit of delusion that the most pestilent opinions pass with them for Evangelical Truths and the most abominable actions for patterns of Holiness if they be once marked with that stamp according to Bellarmines sentence which no Romanist hath yet disallowed for any thing I know If the Pope did Bellarm. lib. 4. de Pontifice ca. 5. Si Papa erraret in praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona virtutes malas nisi vellet contra conscientiam loqui Idem cap. 31. in Barklaium In bono sensu dedit Christus Petro potestatem faciendi de peccato non peccatum de non peccato peccatum erre in commanding vices or prohibiting vertues the Church should be obliged to believe that vices are good and vertues evil unless she would speak against Conscience And to the same purpose he affirmeth That in good sense Christ hath given to St. Peter the power to make sin to be no sin and that which is no sin to be sin And he takes it for granted That the power which Christ hath given to St. Peter he hath ipso facto given it to the Pope his Successor If then we prove that sedition rebellion and murther of Kings is justified promoted yea and commanded by that Head of their Faith the Papists must either approve it as good and holy or cease to be Papists and learn to have the Faith of the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory without respect of persons Since the Roman Church stands much upon her Antiquity we will begin by the ancientest example of approving the murther of Kings that can be charged Ann. Chr. 611. upon the Roman See It is that of Gregory the I. who hearing that Phocas had slain the Emperour Mauritius his Liege Lord having first killed his children before his face and that he had invaded the Empire writ a gratulatory Epistle to that monster where these words are found We are glad that the benignity Greg. 1. lib. 11. Epist 36. Benignitatem pietatis vestrae ad Imperiale fastigium pervenisse gaudemus Laetentur Coeli exultet Terra de benignis actibus vestris universae Reip. populus hilarescat of your Piety hath attained to the Imperial Dignity Let the heavens rojoyce and let the Earth be glad and let the people of the whole Commonwealth be joyful for your gracious deeds The next example shall be that of Gregory the II. who rebelled against his Sovereigne the Emperour Ann. Chr. 726. Leo Isaurus and made Rome and the Roman Dutchy do the same And while the Emperour was sore afflicted with the wars of the Saracens in the East he made himself Lord of that part of his Masters Dominions in Italy for which Sigonius giveth an admirable Sigonius Hist de Regno Italiae lib. 3. Ita Roma Romanusque Ducatus à Graecis ad Romanum Pontificem propter nesandam eorum haeresim impietatemque pervenit reason That Rome and the Roman Dutchy were lost by the Grecians and got by the Pope of Rome by reason of their wicked heresie A strange kind of penance from a Pastor to turn the sinner out of his house and possess himself of it That wicked heresie of Leo Isaurus was That he prohibited the adoration of Images and pulled them down every where For that Heresie and Impiety the holy Father Gregory the II. imposed this penance upon the Emperour He made him lose his Estate and himself seized upon it This is the beginning of the Popes Temporal Principality This is the Title whereby he holds Rome and the Territory of it to this day even plain Rebellion and Tyrannical Invasion of his Sovereigns Estate and Dominion The next Successor of Gregory the II. was Gregory the III. of whom Platina writeth thus This Pope as soon as he attained to the Papal Platina in Greg.
For which Joseph Stevan ‖ Ioseph Stevan Epist ad Gregor XIII de osculo pedum Papae Iure meritoque in Religionis Ecclesiae infensissimum hostem Fredericum Barbarossam non ut in salem insatuatum quem jubet Christus pedibus proterere sed potius ut horrendam belluam calcibus insultavit who writ at Rome to Gregory the XIII of kissing the Popes feet checks Duarenus saying that Pope Alexander the III. trod the Emperour Frederick under foot not onely as salt which hath lost its savour but as an horrible wild beast And Otho Frisingensis both relates it and commends it * Otho Frising lib. 5. cap. 14. Quod sactum summis liberum est sacerdotibus cum Principum tyrannidem aut violatam fidem aut Ecclesiae imminutam dignitatem vident and saith That the Popes have the power to do so much when they see the tyranny of Princes or that faith is violated or the dignity of the Church imbezelled So though the History were not as it is most undoubtedly true the approving and exalting of the fact in the Court of Rome makes that Court as guilty as if it had been done But it was done and as bad was done by other Popes Pope Celestin the III. gave Constantia a Nunne in marriage to the Emperour Henry the VI. and gave him for her dowry the Kingdome of both the Sicilies upon Platina Uspergensis condition he should expell Tancred who was possess'd of the Kingdome Hence a bloody War between Henry the VI. and Tancred It is ordinary to the Pope to give that which is none of his When the Pope giveth a Kingdome from a Prince that enjoyeth it he commands together the people to resist him making a sport to spill their blood and damn their souls Baronius commends very much that Popes behaviour Annal. Roger. an 1191. Sedebat Dominus Papa in Cathedra Pontificali tenens coronam auream inter pedes suos Imperator inclinato capite recepit coronam imperator similiter de pedibus Domini Papae Dominus autem Papa statim percussit cum pede suo coronam Imperatoris dejecit eam in terram significans quod ipse potestatem ejiciendi eum ab Imperio habet si ille demeruerit in the Crowning of the Emperour Henry the VI. and his Wife thus related in the Annalls of Rogerius The Pope was sitting in his pontifical chair holding an Imperial golden Crown between his feet and the Emperour bowing his head received the Crown and the Empress likewise by the feet of the Pope And the Pope presently hit the Emperours Crown and kick'd it down to the ground thereby signifying that he had power to cast him down from the Empire if he deserved it Baronius having related this amplifieth it with this morality ‖ Baron Tom. 12. Anno 1191. sect 10. Ut fixum menti Caesaris haereret nempe dare custodire conservare auserre si causa exigeret imperium esse in voluntate Romani Pontificis ejusmodi voluit commenere eum exemplo That it might remain fixed in the Emperours mind that it lieth in the Popes pleasure to give keep preserve and take away the Empire if there be cause for it he would admonish him with such an example Could the Devil have set up pride to a higher pin to put the Emperours Crown at his feet as a foot-stool for him to tread upon put the Crown on the Emperours head with his feet as an office too low for his hands and then with his foot kick'd it down as having a quarrell against the Imperiall Crown and together a contempt for it This and the treading upon the Emperours neck were significant ceremonies with a witness And what more effectual course could have been taken to raise rebellion in all the States of Christendome then thus to blast the respect of Majesty For thereby all Nations were taught that their Princes were not Sovereigns but the Popes Vassalls and Liegemen That themselves were not their Kings Subjects but the Popes who could kick down their Crowns when he listed and that when that supreme Head shall command it the Feet that is the inferiour Members of the State must make Foot-balls of the Crowns of Emperours and Kings After Celestin the III. came Innocent the III. as proud but more active then he England hath reason to remember this Pope For he excommunicated King John deposed him absolved his Subjects from their allegiance to him and cast an Interdict upon England which lasted six years All which time no Divine Service was said in the Kingdome but in some priviledged places no Sacrament was administred and no corps buried in Consecrated Ground The Kingdome of England he gave to Philip August of France if he could take it and that by a formal order thus related by Matthew Paris The Pope by the counsell Matth. Paris in vita Reg. Johan Papa ex consilio Cardinalium Episcoporum aliorum vivorum prudentium sententialiter definivit ut Rex a solio deponeretur Ad hujus quoque sententiae executionem scripsit Dominus Papa potentissimo Regi Francorum Philippo quatenus in remissionem peccatorum suorum hunc laborem assumeret of the Cardinalls Bishops and other prudent men gave a definitive sentence that the King should be put down from his Throne For the execution of that Sentence the Pope writ to the most potent King of the French Philip that for the remission of his sins he should take that labour upon him A new way for that King to get the remission of his sins to invade his neighbours estate As in the age of our Fathers Pope Sixtus the V. gave nine years of true indulgence to all the French that would bear Arms against their King Henry the III. Thus the remission of sins purchased by the blood of the Son of God and presented by his Gospell to all that repent and believe is by the Pope given as a reward of Invasion and Rebellion Matthew Paris writes that The Pope having gotten the Kingdome of England to himself to his thinking sent to Philip August to enjoyn him to be reconciled with King John else he would put France to Interdict Philip answered that he feared not his sentence and that it belonged not to the Church of Rome to pronounce a sentence against the King of France It is a long and a sad story how King John was persecuted by Pope Innocent the III. his Barons made to rise against him his Neighbours to fall upon him his Clergy to revile him and his people to despise him till that unlucky King was brought to such an extremity that to buy his peace he gave his Kingdome to the Pope and yet could not get his peace that way The Gold which he laid at the Legats feet in sign of subjection the Legat trod under his feet in scorn yet took it in his hand after so great was his clemency What a cruel tyranny did the
shed in Christendome by the meanes of that plague of mankind Pope Julius the II. that it is thought that he was the death of two hundred thousand Christians in seven years time In a Synod of the Gallican Church at Tours it was Nicol. Cilles in Vita Ludov. XIII Thuan. lib. 1. declared that the Pope hath no power to make warre against a Christian Prince and if he do so that the Prince hath power to invade the Popes Territories This the King signifieth to Julius and cites him to answer to a General Council which both the Emperour and he had called to be held at Lyons The Council was held there but soon removed to Pisa where the Council cited Julius to appear and he not appearing was condemned as an Incendiary unworthy to sit at the Helme of the Church and declared deprived of the Papal Dignity There also Lewis coined golden Crownes with this Motto Perdam nomen Babylonis I will destroy the name of Babylon For it is observable that all that have quarrelled with the See of Rome these thirteen hundred years have called it Babylon and Saint Hierom ad Marcellam Hierome was he that began We cannot charge the Successor of Iulins Leo the X. to have stirred Wars abroad he loved too much his ease at home for that But I could not pass by him for indeed his memory is precious to all Protestants for giving occasion to the Reformation by his Indulgences And he is worthy to be recorded for his sentence spoken to his Secretary Cardinall Bembo Quantum nobis Crispinus nostrisque ea de Christo fabula profuerit satis est omnibus saeculis notum an anxiome of too high a nature to be Englished After him came next but one Clement the VII the Fomenter of the quarrell between the Emperour and the French joyning sometimes to the one sometimes to the other and playing false with both whereby he gave occasion to the taking and sacking of Rome The thundering of this Pope and of his Successor Iovius Paul the III. against Henry the VIII did him no harm but to themselves and to the Roman See very much Of the following Popes till Pius the V. the Protestants have much to say as of men that sought their own pleasure and wrought their ruine Hence so much blood split in horrible Massacres But these are besides my subject which is to make the Popes to appear Authors of rebellion But now in a good time we are come to Pius the V. that Pope whom the English Protestants have most reason to remember For without admonition or citation Cambdens Hist of Qu. Elizabeth premised he pronounced a sentence of anathema against that blessed and glorious Queen Elizabeth to raise rebellion in the Kingdome against her Authority and Life and caused the same to be published and set up upon the Pallace Gate of the Bishop of London the Title was this A sentence declaratory of our holy Lord Micolaus Sanderus de schismate Anglicano lib. 3. Pope Pius against Elizabeth Queen of England and the Hereticks adhering unto her Wherein her Subjects are declared absolved from the Oath of Allegiance and every thing due unto her whatsoever and those which from thenceforth obey her are innodated with the anathema In that Bull Pope Pius having first styled himself Servant of Servants declareth that God hath made the Bishop of Rome Prince over all people and all Kingdoms to pluck up destroy scatter consume plant and build Then he calleth Elizabeth the pretended Queen of England the servant of wickedness And having declared her crimes which are to have taken upon her self that supremacy which his Holiness pretended to and to have establish'd the true Catholick Orthodox Religion in her Kingdomes he doth thunder out this seditious Decree against her and all her loyall Subjects We do out of the fulness of our Apostolick power declare the aforesaid Elizabeth being an Heretick and a favourer of Hereticks and her adherents in the matters aforesaid to have incurred the sentence of anathema and to be cut off from the unity of the body of Christ And moreover we do declare her to be deprived of her pretended Title to the Kingdom aforesaid and of all Dominion Dignity and Priviledge whatsoever And also the Nobility Subjects and People of the said Kingdome and all other which have in any sort sworn unto her to be for ever absolved from any such Oath and all manner of duty of Dominion Allegiance and Obedience as we also do by authority of these presents absolve them and do deprive the same Elizabeth of her pretended Title to the Kingdome and all other things abovesaid And we do command and interdict all and every the Noblemen Subjects People and others aforesaid that they presume not to obey her or her Monitions Mandates and Laws And those which shall do to the contrary we do innodate with the like sentence of anathema This Bull was the fire and the roaring of the Canon and the bullet came forth immediately which was the rebellion in the North for which Chapino Vitelli was sent into England from the Duke of Alva under pretence of compounding some controversies about commerce And Nicholas Morton was sent from the Pope to knit the rebellion Which he did denouncing from his Master that Queen Elizabeth was an Heretick and thereby had forfeited to the Pope all her dominion and power At the same time a rebellion broke out in Ireland kindled or blown by a Spaniard Iuan Mendoza And when the Rebells of England were defeated they found refuge among the Papist Rebells of Scotland who set up again the English rebellion All these in vain by the gracious assistance of God to poor England as if his compassion had been stirred up by his jealousie after that the Pope had declared himself so insolently Prince over all People and all Kingdoms to pluck up destroy scatter consume plant and build And God would shew that to himself not to the Pope belongeth the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever Neither did Pius the V. fight onely by Bulls but at the same time that the Bull was published he laid down a hundred thousand Crowns to raise the rebellion and promised fifty thousand more yea and to bear the whole charge of the War That money was distributed by one Ridolpho And how active that Pope was to stirre Spain France and Netherlands against the Queen and to put her Kingdome in combustion is related by Hieronymo Catena an Authour of great credit at Rome in his life of Pius the V. Gregory the XIII succeeded Pius the V. in all his plots against England He gave to Thomas Stukely an English Rebell a Commission to help the Rebells of Ireland and get that Kingdome for the Bastard-Son of his Holiness Iames Boncompagnon and gave him the command of eight hundred Italians to joyn with King Sebastian of Portugal who had engaged his word to the Pope to serve him
Extravag Vnam Sanctam and Sovereignty because it is written that in the beginning God created heaven and earth Joseph's Coat of many colours and the Head of Holofernes would have been as pertinent to prove the Popes Temporal and Spiritual powér Yet see how resolutely and syllogistically his Holiness concludes upon those premisses Wherefore we declare say define and pronounce that it is of necessity of salvation to be subject to the Roman Prelate After these scientifical proofs of the Popes power to dispose of the Crowns and Lives of Princes Who should make any more doubt of it Who would not in the strength of these reasons venture his life to dethrone Heretick Kings and spill their hearts blood for a sacrifice of sweet savour unto his Holiness CHAP. VI. Some Assertions of the Libeller are examined AFter I have vindicated the Protestant Religion from the aspersion of Rebellion and laid that charge in its proper place I have done my main business And now partly out of compassion partly out of contempt I will pass by most of the untruths of this Libeller which are well nigh as many as his lines contenting my self to have disproved two of pag. 109. them The one That the Rebel-doctrines are back'd by the generality of them that call themselves Protestants But I have proved the contrary by their publick Confessions This plain dealing of his is towards the latter end of his Book He durst not have spoken so in the beginning But he must amuse the Reader a great while with railing against the Presbyterians or the Protestants of Integrity before he charge the generality of the Protestants with rebellion Besides he might hope tha few would have the patience to read his book so far This is worse In this Century of years saith he there have been more Princes deposed and murthered for their Religion by these Protestants of Integrity then have been in all the others since Christs time by the Popes excommunications or the attempts and means of the Roman Catholicks It is not easie to determine whether malice or ignorance be prevalent in that assertion I have shewed by unreproachable testimonies that the Popes have filled Christendome with sedition and rebellion for many centuries of yeers and what the Jesuites have been acting undet them in this last Century To which since the Libeller confines himself it had been no hard task to name those many Kings deposed and murthered by the Protestants so lately if the assertion had any truth in it When did a Protestant Minister thrust his knife into his Sovereignes body as the Monk James Clement did to his King Henry the III. and as the Jesuite Campian would have done to his Sovereigne Queen Elizabeth When did a Minister instruct any to kill his King as the Jesuites did Parry the Jesuite Walpole Edward Squire The Jesuite Holt Patrick Cullen York and Williams The Jesuite Parsons Heskec to tempt the Earl of Darby to rebellion Or as the Jesuite Varade instructed Barriere to kill Henry the IV. of France and the whole Colledge of the Jesuites John Chasiell Or what Protestant either of the Clergie or Laity was known to have made an attempt against the life of his Sovereigne For the late English Traytors who brought their most excellent Sovereigne to the Scaffold are no more Protestants then they are Papists and are Jesuites in the point of obedience When this Libeller called the Ministers of Scotland rare Saltpeter men fit for fireworks and to prepare matter to blow up both Church and State Did he remember that he gave them the right style belonging to the Jesuites Garnet Hall Hammond Gerard and Greenville For these were Saltpeter-men with a witness and without metaphor prepared matter to blow up Church and State Was it ever put to the charge of a Protestant Divine Chaplain to his Prince that he recommended to him a man sent by his enemies to make him away Or that he made questions to the Devil about his life Or that he sent word to his enemies of such things as he had revealed unto him to ease his Conscience as the Jesuite Cotton did Or did ever our Divines blow the doctrine of King-killing into ignorant souls as the Jesuites did to Ravaillac who being most rude and a very Brute in all other points of Religion was found by his examiners exquisitely skilful in all the evasions and distinctions of the Jesuites about that horrible doctrine Or did any convicted Traytor depose that he had declared his purpose to a Minister and shewed him the knife for the execution as Ravaillac maintained to Father Aubigni before his Judges Some such charges which might be justified by Records of Courts and Judicial proceedings this Accuser would have brought if there had been any and we are sure that he would not have spared us If ever any man deserved to be sued upon an Action of Slander it is this Libeller for thus slandering the generality of the Protestants and the State of which he is a Subject But I fear that if a Pursuivant were sent for him he would return and answer Non est inventus As for his saying That the doctrine of Rome with the page 110. opinions and practises of all its Doctors are as he hath shewed quite contrary to rebellion and all that is said against that Church in this particular is meer calumnly Let the world judge whether he hath shewed what he saith and whether is more credible his saying or my proving Yet because he stands for the Roman Church I desire my Reader to take notice that in this point of obedience my quarrel hath been with the Court not with the Church of Rome between which I conceive as much difference as between the Wind and the Sea The Church might be quiet enough from storms of rebellion did not the boysterous wind of sedition make it foam blown from the Court of Rome by its agents the Iesuites After that the Libeller had railed against us he falls upon a common place of loyalty and brings some texts of S. Austin taken out of Protestant books made by our Reverend Divines against the late Rebels For that he is not acquainted with S. Austin he shews it by the commendation he giveth him calling him the most ancient pag. 119. and learned Father of the Christian Church S. Austin deserveth a better commendation but he is neither the most ancient nor the most learned of the Fathers Most of those whom the Church calls Fathers were before him for he dyed in the fifth Century And as for Learning Origen and Hierome were far beyond him Could the English Seminaries pitch upon no abler Champion to fight against us then this raw souldier A more passionate and less reasonable Writer I never met with His style is a perpetual barking and biting too but without teeth I could lay up a great heap of his untruths ignorances and impertinencies if I would make such a wilde-goose-chase as to follow him in