see no such degeneracy in any other City but in this which is to be an example to all others These Whores live in splendid Houses 'T is a filthy Abuse and ought to be mended In this City also Malice and Animosity reigns amongst private Citizens to bring whom to a right understanding and to make them Friends is a main part of the Bishop Wherefore some of the Cardinals who are fittest for this Service should be appointed to take up Quarrels and to reconcile the Citizens to one another There are Hospitals Pupils and Widows in this City the principal care of which belongs to the Bishop and Prince Wherefore your Holiness may please to take a fit care about all this by some Cardinals that are Men of Probity Now these are the things Most Holy Father which we for the present have brought together as our Capacity would permit that as to us it seems needful they may be Corrected But you in your Goodness and Wisdom will make a more perfect judgment of every thing We indeed thô we have not answered the greatness of the Concern which is too hard for us yet at least have satisfied our own Consciences and cannot but conceive great hope that under your Government we may see the Church of God purged fair as a Dove at Harmony with it self and united into one Body to the never dying Honour of your Name You have taken to your self the Name of of Paul we hope you will imitate the Charity of Paul who was a Chosen Vessel to carry the Name of Christ amongst the Gentiles We hope that you are chosen to restore the Name of Christ forgotten by the Nations and even by us of the Clergy that hereafter it may live in our Hearts and appear in our Actions to heal our Diseases to reduce the Flock of Christ into one Sheep-fold to remove from us that Indignation and Vengeance of God which we deserve which is now ready to fall upon us which now hangs over our Heads The Names of the Cardinals c. Gaspar Card. Contarene Joh. Peter Card. Theatine afterwards Paul IV. James Card. Sodelet Reginald Pole Card. of England Frederic Archbishop of Brundusium Joh. Matthew Gibet Bishop of Verona Gregory Cortese Abbat of St. George at Venice Fryar Thomas Master of the Sacred Palace THE ADVICE Given by some Bishops Assembled at BONONIA TO Pope Julius III. Concerning the Way to Establish the Roman Church Most Holy Father YOUR Legat at Bononia has given Us to understand that 't is your pleasure That We the Bishops lately Assembled in this City by your Command should three by three separately consult about the most effectual means of Establishing and Advaneing the Apostolic See which is at present so much troubled assaulted and weakned by the Perfidious Lutherans And that we should deliver in Writing our Opinions of this matter that your Holiness may compare them together and deliberate with your self about them as you desire We therefore the three Bishops whose Names are to this thô neither our Prudence Learning or Experience in business does avail much will yet in obedience to your Will distinctly declare our Opinions with such submission that yet all shall be referr'd to the Judgment of your Holiness But in the first place with all Reverence imaginable We would admonish your Holiness to take care least the same thing happen to this our Advice which we remember lately happen'd in another Case when some Cardinals with Select Bishops Nine in all consulted about this very thing viz. The Way of Reforming the Church and presented a Paper in which they offer'd their Opinions For the things there that ought to have been suppressed and concealed presently stole abroad and were scatter'd and dispersed even as far as Germany and so all our Counsels were discover'd and laid open to our Enemies the Lutherans And these things were of wonderful advantage to them in the opposition they made against Us and 't is incredible what hatred of Us they raised by the Books they published upon those Advices Affirming that We our selves confess there are many Errours and Abuses in the Church which We are so far from being willing to correct our selves that we do not stick to defend and maintain them by force and persecute with the utmost rigour any one that dares but to open his Lips about the necessary Amendment of them The divulging that Council most holy Father believe Us was a great disadvantage to our Affairs God forgive him by whose fault or negligence it hapned But truly there ought to be all care and diligence used that this our Advice never come abroad otherwise we shall add affliction to affliction and heap evil upon evil for We strike at things of the highest concern and freely without any respect of Persons we fall directly on the main cause first shew the Disease and then offer a convenient Remedy But these we say are to be kept as Secrets When we had well and long considered what was the State of this weighty Controversie recollecting all things from the beginning for we should always run back to the first principles we at last found it to be this The Lutherans hold and confess all the Articles of the Apostles Creed that of Nice and Athanasius This is very certain for we ought not to deny especially amongst our selves what we all know to be so true And these Lutherans refuse to admit of any other Doctrine but that alone of which the Prophets Christ and his Apostles were Authors and wish likewise that all men would be content with those few things that were observed in the Apostles time or immediately after and would imitate the Primitive Churches nor think of receiving any Traditions which it is not apparent as the light were delivered and instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles Thus do our Adversaries judge but indeed they judge ill We on the other hand following the Opinion of your Holiness would have all Traditions Constitutions Rules and Ceremonies which have hitherto been brought into the Church by the Fathers Councils or any Private Man with a good intention believed and received as Doctrine necessary to Salvation But particularly as to Tradition we believe as an Article of Faith what the Council of Trent lawfully Assembled with the Holy Ghost has Decreed in the 3d Session viz. That our Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles delivered more Precepts relating both to Manners and Faith by word of Mouth than are in the Scriptures and that these without Writing were handed down to Us And although we can't prove this clearly for amongst our selves we plainly acknowledge that we have no proofs but some sort of conjectures to make out what we teach concerning Tradition yet we confess this to be true because the Roman Church maintains it This in short is the hinge on which the whole Controversie turns hence these Tumults and Contentions proceed But we ought to venture all to keep their Doctrine from
or having had some good purposes once laid them all aside when he came to be Pope I shall not dispute But 't is a plain case that these men have confessed most horrible Scandals against themselves and that at a time when their obligations to reform them were the greatest that the World could lay upon them they moved not one step towards a Reformation in good earnest but made it their business to baffle the desires and hopes of all good men Which shewed it to be the vainest thing imaginable to expect afterwards any Reformation by a Council under the influence of the Roman Court which by their own confession was guilty of all the disorders of the Church or of such Popes as those who by their own confession had been the chiefest Malefactors The Decrees of an Italian Council under the Direction of such Managers as these were not likely to be very holy ones Nor were matters of Doctrine in a fair way to be sincerely deliberated upon and determined truly by those who could not be brought to mend the most notorious faults they confessed against themselves not such points of Doctrine to be sure as served to support those Abuses in practise which they were resolved not to Reform Certainly there could be no other Reason to imagine that the Grace of the Holy Ghost should be present with such a Council excepting this only that the Managers were brought to it with as much difficulty as if they had been sure to meet the Holy Ghost there The Bull for intimation of the Council was not Published till five Years after the Advice Nor was it resolved that they should begin till two Years after that when the Pope furnished his Legates with Powers to Dissolve it History of Council of Trent p. 112. if it should not be an Obedient Council For no Man could certainly say with what Dispositions or in what Numbers the German French and Spanish Bishops might come and it was good to provide against the worst It was yet about a year before the Council was opened and the Proceedings were then retarded by artificial Difficulties as well as accidental ones and with all the Management it did not throughly please and so after frivolous Pretences was in two Years time by a Majority of Votes Translated to Bolonia the Imperialists remaining still in Trent The Papalins must have it nearer home that they might tend it the better But do what they could they were obliged three Years after to reassure 〈◊〉 â—t Trent the loss of which Point was therefore to be supplied with other Arts. Pope Paul Dying at this time was succeeded by Julius III. who thought fit to suspend the Council for two Years the effect of which was that it came not together till ten Years after As for the Motives that influenced these Councils and the Artifices that brought them to effect and the Intrigues with Princes and the Advantages which the Court made of their opposite Interests for bringing the Council to a good end all this is to be seen in Father Paul's History but the particulars are too many to be touched here It was to Julius III that the three Bishops at Bononia Addressed the Second Advice as Vergerius relates this matter who best knew it not to Paul the third as Wolfius delivers in his Lectiones Memorabiles who though he Quoted Vergerius had lighted upon a false Copy in which that passage at the end of the Advice concerning our Queen Mary was left out which would have discovered that mistake of his from whomsoever he had it that it was found in the Palace after the Death of Paul III. Certainly the discovery of this Advice was the most Fatal Thing that ever happened to the Reputation of the Roman Cause And if it had not been upon the File against them now for above an hundred Years I make no question but the Popish Gentlemen of this Age would run it down for a Sham Advice forged by Vergerius or some other Heretic against the Church of Rome The difference between that Advice of Nine to Paul and this of Three to Julius is in some respects very considerable particularly in this that the Nine seemed to be serious and were not the Three were serious and seemed not to be so which makes the Advice of the former look like Sincerity and that of the latter to look like Wit Whereas in Truth the one was very gravely given without any intention to have it followed the other with that pleasantness and confidence that uses to be amongst Friends but with design of executing what was advised But in this they agree that as the Advice of the Nine represents the corrupt Practices of the Roman Communion with the main Reasons thereof so that of the Three truly shews what kind of Faith theirs is and how it is to be supported Neither the one nor the other that I know of have yet had their turn in English But they are so very instructing especially the latter that I thought a few hours spent in Translating them into our Language would not be thrown away They are so plain that they need no Comment and the use that is to be made of them is so ready that I need not make any Inference from them in behalf of the meanest Reader Only it seemed reasonable to give some short account of the circumstances of the Times in which these things were done which is all the Light that was requisite for those who may be strangers to the History of these Affairs THE ADVICE GIVEN TO Pope Paul the Third BY Four Cardinals and Five other Prelates Whose Names are Underwritten in order to the Amendment of the State of the Church MOst Blessed Father we are so unable to express what mighty Thanks the whole Body of the Church is bound to pay to Almighty God who has in these times raised up you to be the Supream Bishop and Pastor of his Flock and gives you likewise that Mind which you have that we have no hope so much as to conceive how great they are For that Spirit of God by which as the Prophet speaks the Heavens are made firm has Decreed as we cannot but see by your Hand to support the Church now that she is not only leaning but just falling headlong into Ruin nay to advance her to her ancient Eminence and to restore her to her former Beauty It is no uncertain Conjecture of this purpose of God which we are enabled to make whom your Holiness called to you and required that without any regard had to you or to any one else we should signifie to you what those Abuses are and most grievous Distempers wherewith the Church of God and especially the Court of Rome has for a long time been affected whereby also it has come to pass that these pestilent Diseases growing to their height by little and little the Church as we see is upon the very brink of Ruin. And because your Holiness
he cannot do well and as he ought if as a Shepherd he dwells not with his Sheep besides Holy Father the example of this custom does a world of mischief For how can this Holy See guide others and correct their Abuses if she suffers such Abuses in her principle Members For we do not think that because they are Cardinals it should be more lawful for them to transgress the Laws but that they should least of all presume to do it since their lives are to be a Law to others nor are they to be like the Pharisees who said but did not but to our Saviour Christ who began to do and then to teach And besides this Licentiousness being the fewel of Avarice the use of it is prejudicial to the Counsels they take in Church Affairs Moreover for the obtaining of Bishopricks Cardinals do court Kings and Princes their dependence upon whom afterwards hinders them from speaking their minds freely at least if they were bold and willing enough to speak yet they would easily be perverted into a wrong judgment by affection and interest We could wish therefore that this custom were broken and that all the Cardinals might have an equal Revenue which would maintain them handsomly according to their Dignity which provision we think might easily be made if we would be willing to serve Mammon no longer and would serve none but Christ. These things being set right which refer to the appointment of your Ministers who are as it were the Instruments for the right performing of God's Worship and the well ordering of the People in a Christian Life We must now come to those things which relate to the Government of Christian People As to which matter most holy Father there is an Abuse in the first place to be corrected and the greatest care is to be taken that Bishops especially no nor Curates be absent from their Churches and Parishes unless for a weighty cause but keep their Residence but especially the Bishops since they are the Husbands of the Church committed to their care For we appeal to God that no sight can be more lamentable to a Christian man going through Christendom than this solitude of the Churches Almost all the Pastors are withdrawn from their Flocks which are almost every-where entrusted with Hirelings There ought therefore to be a great Penalty upon Bishops above all and likewise upon Curates who are absent from their Flocks and who ought not onely to be censured but not so much as receive the Revenues of the Church unless for some short time the Bishops obtain leave of absence from your Holiness and the Curates from their Bishops Let some of the Laws and Decrees of Councils in this matter be read whereby it is provided that a Bishop shall not be absent from his Church above three Lord's Days It is also an Abuse that so many of the most Reverend Cardinals are absent from this Court and do not so much as in part do any thing of that Office which belongs to a Cardinal We think indeed that 't is expedient for some few Cardinals to live in their Provinces since thy are as it were the Root of the Papacy that by shooting out its strings abroad in the Christian World contains the People in their Obedience to the Roman See. But yet we think it were very much for the Interest of your Holiness to recal them though not perhaps every one to their Residence in this Court For besides that by this means they would execute the proper Office of Cardinals the State and Retinue of your Court would be provided for and the want of those many Bishops would be supplied who ought to leave the Court and return to their Churches Another great Abuse and by no means to be endured since 't is a scandal to all Christian People arises from the hindrances and restraints that are upon Bishops in the Governing of their Flocks and chiefly in the punishing and correcting of wicked persons For first there are ill men and especially Clergy-men who by many ways exempt themselves from the Jurisdiction of their Ordinary But then if they are not exempt they betake themselves easily to the Penitentiary or to the Datary where they presenly find a way to protect their Impunity and which is still worse by giving of Money This scandal most holy Father does so disturb Christian People that 't is not to be expressed We beseech your Holiness by the Bloud of Christ wherewith he hath Redeemed his Church having washed the same in his Bloud that these foul blemishes be taken away Let these mischiefs be removed to which if in any Republick or Kingdom allowance were given it would in a little time fall head-long into ruine and would not by any means be able to subsist long And yet we think it is lawful for us so that we have the doing of it our selves to see these Monsters brought into the Common-wealth of Christendom In the Orders of the Religious there is another Abuse to be corrected that many of them are so degenerate that they are grown scandalous and their examples pernicious to the Seculars We think the Conventual Orders are to be abolished not by doing to any man that injury of Dispossessing him but by forbidding them to admit any more For thus without wronging any one they would soon be worn out and good Religious might be substituted instead of them but at present it were best that all Children who are not yet professed should be taken from their Monasteries We think also that as to the Preachers and Confessors that are sent out by the Fryers there is need of Animadversion and Amendment that great care should be taken by their Chief that they be fitly qualified and then that they be presented to the Bishops to whom chiefly the Church is intrusted to be examined by them or by fit persons and that without their consent they be not admitted to the exercise of those Offices We have already said most holy Father that it is by no means lawful to make any Gain by the use of the Keys in which matter the Words of Christ stand firm and sure Freely ye have received freely give This does not onely belong to your Holiness to take notice of but to all who share in this power and therefore we desire that it may be observed by your Legates and Nuntio's For as the custom which has much prevailed dishonours this See and makes the People clamorous so the contrary would be exceedingly for the Ornament of the one and for the Edification of the other Christian People are disturbed by another Abuse which concerns Nuns that are under the care of the Conventual Fryers where in most Monasteries publick Sacriledges are committed to the intolerable scandal of the Citizens Let your Holiness deprive the Conventuals of this care and give it to the Ordinaries or to others as you shall see cause The publick Schools are most perniciously abused especially in Italy where
many Professors of Philosophy teach that which is wicked Yea in Churches themselves there are most ungodly Disputes and if any of them are pious for the matter yet Divine things are handled very irreverently as to the manner and that before the People Therefore where there are publick Schools the Bishops should be required to admonish the Readers not to teach Impiety to young Men but to shew the weakness of natural light in questions concerning God concerning the lateness or the eternity of the World and the like and to direct them to pious Belief And as no publick Disputations about such Questions should be permitted so neither concerning matters of Divinity which by this means would lose very much the esteem and reverence of the People Those things should be disputed privately and other Questions in Natural Philosophy chosen for publick disputations Which caution is to be given to all other Bishops especially of the greater Cities where such Disputations use to be held The same care is to be taken about the Printing of Books and all Princes are to be Written to not to suffer any sort of Books whatsoever without farther examination to be Printed in their Territories The care of which thing should likewise be given to the Ordinaries And because Erasmus's Colloquies are now-a-days wont to be read to Children in Grammar Schools in which there are many things apt to dispose uneducated minds to Impiety therefore the reading of those Colloquies and the like in such places ought to be prohibited Now besides these things which refer to the appointing of your Ministers in this care of the whole Church and then in the Administration and Government thereof your Holiness may please to take notice that there are other Abuses introduced likewise The first concerns Apostate Fryars or Religious who notwithstanding their solemn Vow draw back from the Religion of their Order and obtain leave not to wear the Habit of it No not the least appearance thereof but onely some handsome Habit of a Clergy-man We say nothing now of Lucre for we noted at first that Merchandise was not to be made of the Power of the Keys received from Christ We now say that this kind of Dispensation is not to be used For the Habit is the sign of the Profession to which these Apostates ought to be held nor has the Bishop power in this case so true it is that this Liberty ought not to be given to these men Neither when they have broken away from their Vow to God should they be suffered to enjoy Benefices or Cures There is another Abuse in the Collectors for the Holy Ghost for St. Anthony and others of this kind which put Cheats upon Rustics and simple People and intangle them in a world of Superstition These Collectors we think ought to be taken away Another Abuse there is in dispensing with a Person in Holy Orders to Marry which is not to be allowed to any unless it be for the preservation of human Race in any Nation where the Cause is weighty and of publick concern This is especially to be observed in these times in which this Liberty is violently contended for by the Lutherans We conceive it also to be an Abuse to dispense with the Marriage of those that are in the Second Degree of Consanguinity or Affinity unless it be for a weighty reason Nor should Dispensations be granted without other Degrees but where the Cause is honest and still without Mony unless the Parties were married before in which case it is lawful to impose a pecuniary Punishment in order to Absolution from Sin already committed and to convert it to pious uses such as your Holiness promotes For as where there is no Sin in the use of the Keys to be done away no Mony can be demanded so where Absolution from Sin is desired a pecuniary Mulct may be laid and designed for pious uses In the Absolution of a Simoniacal Person there is another Abuse and 't is a dismal thing to consider that this Plague reigns in the Church to that degree that some are not afraid to be guilty of Simony and to go presently for Absolution The truth is they buy their Absolution and so they keep the Benefice they bought before We do not say that your Holiness wants power to forgive that Punishment which is by positive Law appointed for this Crime but that you ought not by any means to do it that so horrible a Wickedness may be more effectually suppressed then which there is none that breeds more Mischief and Scandal Neither is Liberty to be given to Clergy-men unless for an urgent Cause to dispose of the Goods of the Church by Will least that which is for the relief of the Poor be converted to private Pleasure and the luxury of Building But neither are faculties to receive Confessions with the use of a portable Altar easily to be granted for thus Ecclesiastical Affairs grow cheap and that Sacrament also which is the principal of all the rest Nor are Indulgences to be given above once a Year in every greater City Nor ought a Commutation of Vows to be lightly yielded to but where the Good is equivalent and will bear it out It has been a Custom also to change the Wills of Testators who have left a certain Sum of Money for pious and charitable purposes which by the Authority of your Holiness is transferred to the Heir or the Legatee under pretence of their Poverty c. and this is gain'd by Mony too Surely unless a great change happens in the Estate of the Heir by the Death of the Testator so that the Testator himself in all likelihood if he had foreseen that change would also have changed his Will it is an impious thing to depart from the last Will and Testament of the Dead Of filthy lucre we have spoken so often that we must mention it no more And thus according to our capacity having summarily described all those things which belong to the Duty of the Supreme Bishop of the Catholic Church it remains that we say something of that which belongs to the Roman Bishop This City of Rome is both the Mother of the Church and the Mistress of other Churches wherefore the Worship of God and purity of Manners should flourish there most of all But yet Holy Father all Strangers are scandalized when they go into St. Peter's Church and see what slovenly ignorant Priests say Mass there so habited and cloathed that they could not appear cleanly in a nasty House This is so mighty an offence to All that the most Reverend the Arch-presbiter and the Poenitentiary are to take care of this Thing and remove the Scandal And the like order is to be taken in other Churches Nay in this City Whores walk about as if they were goodly Matrons or they ride upon Mules and are at Noon-day followed up and down by men of the best account in the Families of Cardinals and by Clergy-men We
the least Title to that Doctrine which our Saviour delivered to us and the Apostles taught for thus says the Canon Transferat c. 24. q. 3. They change Truth into a Lye who Preach any other thing then what they received from the Apostles This is a down-right Lutheran Maxim for what else do our Adversaries daily inculcate Then that it is not lawful to depart in the least degree from those things that were in use amongst the Apostles But who of us doth not every day often depart from them Indeed in our Churches we scarce retain as we hinted at the beginning the least shadow of that Doctrine and Discipline which flourisht in the times of the Apostles but have brought in quite another of our own Nay we are expresly called Lyars by that Decretum inasmuch as we have done this yet we have done it by the Advise and Instructions of Popes nay by their peremptory Order and Command But we wish there were not so many Canons as there are of this kind that enjoyn things directly contrary to what the Popes and all of us do every day we speak of Matters of Faith and Doctrine not of Manners Take one or two of them for instance Thus says the Canon that begins Contra 25. q. 1. Nothing can be establisht contrary to the Constitutions of the Fathers nor any thing alter'd no not by the Authority of this See. And then another Canon that begins Ideo c. says Thus by the Divine permission we are so made Pastors of Men that we ought not in the least to transgress what ever our Fathers in their Sacred Canons or Civil Laws have appointed for we go against their most wholsome Institutions if we do not keep inviolably what they according to Divine Pleasure have ordained Do not Pope Zosimus and Leo the Third nay and the whole Roman Church plainly here declare aloud that the Authority of this See can do nothing against the Canons against the Law and against the Ordinances of the antient Fathers which ought to be Religiously observed How therefore shall we answer our Adversaries when they press and urge us with this and turn that of the fifth Psalm upon us There is no certainty in their Mouth for they accuse us of lightness and inconstancy who have such express Canons which forbid the Popes to alter the Decrees of the Fathers or to do any thing contrary to them and notwithstanding all this thereis nothing more frequent than the presumption of altering what has been Established by the Antient Fathers and Councils How I say shall we answer this especially since the Book of Decrees is so celebrated and famous and is in all Schools Courts of Judicature and Churches held in the greatest Honour and Esteem And besides those few which we have given you a tast of it contains a great many others that favour the Cause of our Adversaries and favour it in such a manner that they seem to have been pen'd by some of them Moreover we shall consider of some course to be taken with these Decrees for it seems very absurd that any thing should be taught which is contrary to what your Holiness does not only do but commands to be done But we have reserved the most considerable Advice which we could at this time give your Holiness to the last And here you must be awake and exert all your force to hinder as much as you can possibly the Gospel from being read especially in the vulgar Tongue in all the Cities that are under your Dominion Let that little of it which they have in the Mass serve their turn nor suffer any Mortal to read any thing more for as long as Men were contented with that little things went to your mind but grew worse and worse from that time that they commonly read more This in short is the Book that has beyond all others raised those Storms and Tempests in which we are almost driven to destruction And really who ever shall diligently weigh the Scripture and then consider all the things that are usually done in our Churches will find there is great difference betwixt them and that this Doctrine of ours is very unlike and in many things quite repugnant to it And no sooner does any man discover this being set on by some of our Learned Adversaries but he never ceases bawling against us till he has made the whole Matter publick and rendred us odious to all Men. Therefore those Papers are to be stisled but you must use caution and diligence in it least that create us greater disturbance * Author of e Poâ—n Dâ—ll urâ—o D. John Della Casa Archbishop of Beneventum the Legate of your See at Venice behaved himself handsomly in that business for although he did not openly and avowedly condemn that Book of the Gospel or order it to be suppress'd yet in an obscure dissembling manner he insinuated as much whilst in that long Catalogue of Hereticks which he put out he has found fault with part of the Doctrines maintained in it particularly some certain Chapters which seem most to make against us Seriously a renowned Divine Action what ever others chatter for at first blush it seem'd ridiculous to many that he should condemn so many Authors at once who writ about Religion when himself had never read so much as one syllable of Divinity and Publisht I know not what to which he gave this Title Of the Divine Art. But this is nothing and they who censure this in him have little business of their own to employ them and shew themselves to be great Novices in the Court of Rome For he as he is a true and eminent Courtier spake freely what was his Opinion which we think makes much for his credit It now remains Most Holy Father That we should in short make a Reply to what may perhaps be objected by you that having done this we may finish our Epistle Your Holiness therefore perhaps may say If it is at this time so dangerous a thing to hold a Council of these Bishops thô few in number least some of them should dare to raise a clamour and be severe against my Dignity to undermine it How much more dangerous would it be if besides these therewere a hundred others Created We shall offer three things in answer to this First Look as you generally do that those Bishops who are to be created be ignorant and unlearned but very skilful in the Affairs of Court and addicted to the interest of your Family for that alone will suffice Then avoid a Council as much as you can thô Caesar be very urgent clamorous and importunate Lastly If onely to save your fame and reputation you desire or would seem to desire a Council you may reassemble that But as has been hitherto let there onely be admitted who you are certain will go on your side and let the others be kept out and driven away But of all things be most careful that
in his Church for the instruction of the inferiour Orders of the Clergy in good Learning and good Manners as the Law requires Another Abuse of a most grievous Nature is in the Collation of Ecclesiastical Benefices especially with Cure of Souls and above all of Bishopricks the manner having been that good Provision is made for those who have the Benefices but for the Flock of Christ and the Church none at all In bestowing therefore these Benefices with care and chiefly Bishopricks it is highly requisite that they be conferred upon good and learned men who are able by themselves to discharge the Duties belonging thereto and who withal are most likely to be resident for which reason a Benefice in Spain or Britain is not to be given to an Italian nor the like which Rule is to be observed both in Collations when a Vacancy happens by the Decease of the Incumbent and in Cessions too whereas now no regard is had to any thing else but the will and advantage of him that resigns We think therefore it would be very well if one or more honest men were appointed to govern this Business Another Abuse is when Benefices are conferred or resigned to others that Pensions are to be paid out of the Revenues nay and sometimes he that resigns reserves all the Profits to himself In which matter it is to be observed that Pensions ought not to be allotted upon any other account but as certain Alms which should go for pious uses and for the relief of the Poor For the Revenues are annexed to the Benefice as the Body to the Mind so that of their own nature they belong to him that has the Benefice that according to his Rank he may live honestly upon them and be able to bear the charge of Divine Service and to repair the Church and the Houses belonging to it and that he should spend what remains in pious uses For this is the natural employment of such Revenues But as in the Course of Nature some things are done otherwise then according to Common Rules and besides the Inclination of Universal Nature So as to the Pope who is the Universal Dispenser of Ecclesiastical Benefices if he sees that the Portion of the Priests which ought to be laid out in pious uses or some part thereof may be employed for some particular good uses that it would be most expedient it should be so he may without doubt provide accordingly He may therefore very lawfully set a Portion upon a Benefice for the relief of an indigent Person especially a Clergy-man that he may be able to live in some measure according to his Order But 't is a great Abuse that all the fruits should be reserved and that wholly taken away which is to serve for the maintenance of Divine Service and the support of the Incumbent and that Pensions should be given to rich Clergy-men who can live conveniently enough upon the Revenues which they have is surely a great Abuse also and both of them are to be removed There is another Abuse also in the changing of Benefices upon Contracts that are all of them Simonical and in which no regard is had to any thing but gain Another Abuse to be taken away altogether has prevailed in this Court by the knavery of certain persons that are shrewd in their way For whereas the Law provides that Benefices cannot be given away by Will because they are not the Testators but the Church's Fee and that the Church's Patrimony should be continued as a common provision in the behalf of all good men but never grow into a private Estate No little pains have been taken in which more of Worldly Wisdom than Christian Honesty is to be seen to find out divers tricks for the eluding of the Law. For Bishopricks and other Benefices are resigned first with a condition of resuming them to which is added a reservation to Collate the Benefices belonging to them with another reservation to Administer and Govern And so here comes to be a Bishop who has not so much as one Right of a Bishop while the other is no Bishop at all who claims all the Right belonging to one Your Holiness may see to what a pass things are brought by the flattery of making every thing lawful that is resolved to be done For we would fain know what this is but to make a private Inheritance of a Benefice Another cheat besides this is invented that Bishops upon their Petition have Co-adjutors granted to them not so well qualified as themselves so that unless a man be resolved to shut his Eyes he must needs see that the Co-adjutor is by this trick made Heir to the Bishoprick Again it is an ancient Law established by Clement that the Sons of Priests should not succeed their Fathers in their Benefices and this least the common Patrimony of the Church should become a private Estate But as we hear this venerable Law is dispensed with and we must not conceal what every prudent person will by himself discern to be a great truth that no one thing hath raised more of that Envy against the Clergy from whence so many Seditions have already happened and more are at hand than this turning of Ecclesiastical Profits and Revenues from being a common to a private thing All men had some hope before this but now they are reduced to despair and sharpen their Tongues against this holy See. It is another Abuse that Benefices are disposed in Reversion and occasion is given to the Expectant to desire another mans death and to be glad when he hears of it By which means also when a Vacancy happens they that deserve best are excluded besides the Law Suits that are hereby caused All this we think ought to be mended By the same craft a farther Abuse is introduced For whereas some Benefices are by Law Incompatible and are so called our Ancestours intending to admonish us by the signification of the word that they ought not to be confered upon one person this too is now dispensed with and not onely two but more of these Benefices and which is worst of all Bishopricks are enjoyed by the same man Which custom brought in by Covetuousness we think ought to be turned out again especially as to a plurality of Bishopricks What shall we say to the union of Benefices for a mans Life to avoid the incompatibility of them under this colour is not this a meer fraud upon the Law Another Abuse has prevailed that Bishopricks not one only but more are collated upon the most Reverend Cardinals or given them in Commendam which we most blessed Father believe to be no slight grievance in the Church of God in as much as first of all the Office of a Cardinal and that of a Bishop are incompatible in the same person For the Cardinals province is to assist your Holiness in the Government of the Catholic Church But that of a Bishop is to feed his Flock which