Reputation and of Merit as people told me and I believed so seeing his Air and his Behaviour In a matter of 8 days I should hear the secret History of him which was a horrible one The Heros of this Court are as Tacitus says of Mucian people compounded of great Vertues and great Vices Mucianus Luxuria Arrogantia Comitate Industria bonis malisque artibus mixtus These are brave worldly men but for Religion most certainly they have none at all I am of the Opinion That staying in this place is very dangerous for an honest man and people do complain both in Germany and in England that their young people that travel come back from thence lost in Debauchery and Impiety That which preserved me from the Contagion of this place was that I went with an honest and a simple mind however not very ignorant for I had finished my studies This it was that disgusted me at all the disorders and licentiousness I saw there and gave me a horror for all their pleasures Perhaps I should have done like other people if I had not been so stiff and resolute To free my self from the perplexity I was in about Religion through the disorder and irregularity of this Court that is esteemed the Center of Religion from whence according to this supposition there ought to shine forth nothing but Sanctity Purity Humility Charity and Zeal for the salvation of men Contempt of the Grandeurs and Riches of the World with a continual application to the instruction of the people and where I saw nevertheless nothing in the stead of these Vertues but Licentiousness Ambition and Superstition with a horrible Ignorance in the people I then formed a Design to instruct my self and to know a little better the Principles of the Christian Religion And I desired for that end a French Abbot with whom I lodged to lend me a Latin New Testament which he had and which he read but seldom I read it with attention twice over from one end to the other which set my mind in better condition than it was before The more I read the more I was inwardly comforted but I was the more enraged against what I saw without being able to find the least solution to the impossibility that there appeared to me to be in the Popes being the Universal Vicar of Jesus Christ upon Earth and Head of the Church Catholick I there quickly found the principal Articles of Religion established in many places and often in express terms one only Head of the Church Jesus Christ of whom the Church is the Body and Believers the Members one only Spouse of the Church one only Bishop of Bishops but not one word neither far nor near of the Pope and Cardinals nor any thing that had any relation to them Besides all places there were full of Examples and Exhortations to Humility to Piety to Chastity and to Charity The Master and Disciples there spoke continually of renouncing the World its Grandeurs Vanities Pleasures Riches and above all against the Spirit of Domination But in the Popes and in their Court I found Maxims that were quite contrary I sometimes entertained the Abbot who was an honest man and very sociable with the trouble that this Authority of the Popes gave me He laughed at it and gave me pleasing Answers owning one part of what I objected and for the rest he gave me Reasons which to me were not very sufficient One day when I pressed him a little more than ordinary not knowing what to answer me he told me That if I would read Bellarmin I should there find many Reasons that would resolve my Doubts So that I hired one which I read over and over upon this Subject without finding any thing that gave me the least satisfaction There were passages of Scripture wrested with great violence which touched not the question or else were contrary to it and the forc'd sense that he gave them was always directly contrary to the Genius of the Gospel and opposite to other passages of Scripture whereof I had made a great Collection and agreed not at all with the Maxims and with the Example of Jesus Christ and of his Apostles It is true there were some Humane Reasons which at first might seem plausible but besides that they had not that weight which those had which the Scripture furnished with against him they tended to establish a Worldly and Temporal Dominion in the Church and renewed the Error of those Jews who believed that the Reign of the Messias ought to be accompanied with worldly Pomp and Splendor and to be exercised with great Authority and with fleshly Arms for this was the Sum of what he endeavoured to prove That Monarchical Government is the most advantagious in the World and by consequence that the Church ought to be governed by the Soveraign Orders of only one man who is the Pope who hath the power to exterminate Kings and all those who will not submit themselves to him This confirmed me in the Opinion I had before seeing that so subtil a Wit as Bellarmin a man so well versed in Antiquity and that had so much interest in the thing could find out nothing at all to maintain this Opinion At length I went into Germany where after Eight or Nine Months travelling I came to Cologne where I had a great desire to inform my self farther and to know if the Papacy had a great while ruled in the Church and how long since Whether or no the Ancient Doctors of the Church had heard it spoken of and what they thought of it I applied my self then to examine some of the Fathers upon this Article and that I might the sooner have done I consulted them upon those places of Scripture which the Popes make use of to see if the Fathers understood them as they do I found in examining them that they explained them in a manner quite contrary to the Pope's Pretensions This made me certainly conclude that the Papacy must have been set up in the Church by some violent stroke or else by small beginnings and by degrees as it ordinarily falls out in Usurpations which are made either altogether by a greater force or else by little and little and that this Usurpation had been seconded and favoured by people who saw there was not like to be any great resistance and they made their advantage of it through mens ignorance After that another thing that gave me a great deal of trouble was how to separate the Article of the Papacy from the Verities of the Catholick Faith so that the Infallibility of the Church as I understood it might not be prejudiced Thinking on this then often in my unquiet mind I resolved farther to consult the Scripture and the Fathers upon the passages ordinarily alledged to prove the Infallibility of the Church and I found that they did not understand them as I did But because I knew what made the Cardinals and other people employ the utmost
every thing without whom no man can have neither life motion nor being such a King I say hath no need of a Vicar-General for the Spiritual Government of the Church because he is present in all places no more than an Husband needs a Vicar for his Wife or a living Father for his Children and that he himself assureth us that where two or three are gathered together in his name there will he be in the midst of them If he hath a Vicar-General he can be no other than the Holy Ghost We also see that when he was upon the point of leaving his poor Disciples who were afflicted by reason of his approaching departure from them he tells them not I will leave you the Pope to guide and govern you which had been but a poor consolation But I will send you the Comforter who shall lead you in all truth And if we consider in what the administration of this Spiritual Kingdom doth consist we shall clearly see that no one mortal man can be the Vicar-General of it Can one only man preach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments all the world over They tell you that he will make it be done by others would to God the Popes would do so but these Delegated Preachers would be thus the Popes Vicars who pretends to be the Vicar of Jesus Christ and sometimes of St. Peter which cannot be according to all the Canonists who maintain that one Vicar cannot make another besides that the Ecclesiastical Ministry properly speaking cannot be subdelegated to Vicars for whosoever discharges it ought always to perform it in Preaching or Exâ—rcising the other Episcopal Functions in the name of Jesus Christ and not in the name of any creature and a man must be a fool or a seducer to do otherwise A meer man as the Pope is can he fill the souls of men with peace and joy in the Holy Ghost which is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Can he defâ—nd the Church against all its enemies visible and invisible Can he give the Crown of Righteousness to those who shall be victorious and faithful to God to the death Can he raise them up again These are Acts of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ over his Church What relation hath the Dominion of the Pope to that of Jesus Christ What resemblance between light and darkness between Jesus Christ and Belial Thus it is evident that it is without any foundation that the Bishops of Rome boast of being Vicars of Jesus Christ thâ—y are no more so then the meanest Priest of the Church and it was with reason that the Council of Basil maintained to them that they were not Vicars of Jesus Christ but of the Church as every Curate is in his Parish Pontifex Vicarius Ecclesiae non Christi Nevertheless they maintain that St. Peter had this Employ of Universal Vicar that he was Head of the Apostles and of the whole Church Bishop of Bishops Soveraign both of Spirituality and Temporality Monarch of the Church and of the World. In a word that he had all the Prerogatives that the Popes at this present time enjoy in quality of Successors of St. Peter And that as I have said without being able to produce so much as one word of the Creation and Institution of this Charge so important to the Church if you will believe them nor of the Rights of this Charge nor of the Succession nor of the manner of the Election nor how so marvellous a Charge ought to be Exercised nor of the respect and obedience due to this Vicar nor of the use of his Office. They affirm boldly that St. Peter was at Rome that he was Bishop there That he founded that Church That he died there and left a Successor who was called Clement or Linus or Anacletus of which things tho they make the Salvation of all men to depend upon them they are not able to prove one tittle And they do affirm that this Successor entered into the full possession of all the Priviledges of St. Peter to which all the Bishops of that City have ever since equally succeeded both good and bad unto the present Pope Innocent the Eleventh It must be readily acknowledged that these Gentlemen must have very penetrating understandings to make these discoveries from the Gospel for it is certain that they are wholly imperceptible there I have sometimes read it without ever finding any thing that was at all like it and I think I saw clearly that St. Peter never knew he had this Authority but that on the contrary he believed that no Christian whatever much less a Bishop ought to have it in the Church nor did the other Aâ—ostles know it any more than he for somewhat of it would then appear and they who protest they have made known to us the whole will of God would have been extreamly to blame not only to have declared nothing of it to us but also to have always spoken and acted with their Soveraign Head and Master as with an Equal And St. Paul would have lost all manner of respect for him when he so warmly reproved him It seems probable also that our Saviour was obliged to have given them notice of it for naturally they could not know it and the Modesty Charity and Humility of St. Peter might have hindred him from declaring and exercising this Empire over them yet it is certain that there is nothing like this to be found Nevertheless this doth not hinder but that the Pope and Cardinals whose eyes their own interest opens as it blinds other peoples have in their own opinions found very strong proofs of it in the New Testament They say for example that our Saviour changed only St. Peter's name the reason as you see is without reply for it follows very necessarily from thence that St. Peter was the Head and King of the Church But unluckily he also changed the names of the Children of Zebedee They say also that he is sometimes named the first but if he be not so always this will signifie nothing to them but tho he had been always so this would not prove that he had authority over the others as the Pope hath over the other Bishops Amongst the Presidents the first hath no power over the others nor amongst the Electors of the Empire the Elector of Mentz who hath the first place hath no authority over the other Electors and so in all Societies the Primacy carries no dominion along with it But besides if that reason should take place the Holy Virgin who is sometimes named the last in Scripture would be greatly degraded from the place that belongs to her If St. Peter were always named the first that might have been given to his Age as the Fathers say and in truth we ought to attribute it to this that our Saviour spoke so often to him as well as to the fervency of his zeal which as we ought to admire and commend so also may
we say that it was owing to the eagerness of his temper which being not always well regulated made him commit greater faults than any others of the Apostlâ—s except the perfidious Judas which made him be called Satan by his good Master which none of the other were We ought also to attribute to this temper the blow he gave Malchus with the Sword as well as that warmth that made him promise wonders of Fidelity to his Master and induced him to accompany him to the Emperors Court where he denied his Saviour So that it is with very little reason that they make an argument of this to prove his Royalty in the Church In Spain where the most Honourable walk the last they will not fail to alledg places where St. Peter is named last as in the passage where it is said I am the Disciples of Paul and I of Apollos and I of Caephas who is Peter For I remember that at Paris where they understand Divinity a little better than in Spain a good Bishop and an Abbot did maintain to me that the passage where it is said that James Peter and John are esteemed Pillars of the Church I having alledged against them another where he is named the first they maintained to me I say that this passage confirmed that which they alledged and proved very well the Primacy of St. Peter For said the Bishop when three persons of worth are walking together they always put the most Honourable in the middle This is according to the common saying That a Lawyer well paid shall always find the cause of his Client good His Benefices made him see clear in this passage There are three other passages which the greatest part of our Doctors produce against our Adversaries with a little more colour which are Thou art Peter c. I will give thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. Feed my sheep Which passages we shall examine one after another to see if St. Peter had any priviledg above the other Apostles they say that in the first of these passages Jesus Christ doth establish the Church found it and built it upon St. Peter I do not deny but that St. Peter was one of the Pillars of the Church because he is so called as well as James and John. Nor can it be denied but that he was and is one of the foundations of the Church since that he is not excepted out of the number of the Twelve who in Scripture are called the Foundations of the New Jerusalem But I maintain that the Church is no more founded upon him than upon St. Paul and the other Apostles I would fain have these Gentlemen tell me upon whom the Church was founded before St. Peter and why the Church changed its foundation and upon whom Peter himself was founded It was without doubt upon Jesus Christ upon the Rock which is the Christ. And it is without all question that St. Peter and we ought to have no other foundation than that which St. Paul had who says That no man can lay any other foundation than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ. Also we see in this passage that it is upon the Rock upon the Rock of Ages that our Saviour builds his Church and not upon St. Peter The Holy Ghost would have changed neither name nor person if he would have had us to have believed this of St. Peter He would not have said Super hanc Petram sed super te Petrum Vpon this Rock but upon thee Peter To the end that no difficulty may remain we must observe what goes before and what follows after Jesus Christ had demanded of all the Apostles together whom they thought he was Peter either as the eldest or most zealous answers for all and says to him Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God. Whereupon Jesus Christ says to him Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church c. It is evident that as our Saviour's discourse was directed to all and that Peter answered for all the following part of our Saviours Discourse was directed also to them all and related no more to Peter than to any other particular Apostle And men must have lost their understandings to think that Jesus Christ in this place founded his Church upon Peter whom in the same Chapter he calls Satan What Foundation would the Church have had and what would have become of her when he deni'd his Saviour It must then necessarily be acknowledged that it is not the visible Church that is here spoken of which they pretend St. Peter to be the Head of But the Invisible the Society of the Faithful and the Elect. For the Gates of Hell would have prevailed against the Church not only when St. Peter denied his Master since that the foundation being run to decay that which is built upon it falls to ruin But since that time have they not very often prevailed against this Church which they would have the Bishops of Rome the pretended Successors of St. Peter to be the Heads of For Example when according to the Fathers the whole World was Arian the Bishops of Rome and all their Flock and so many other times as the Popes have been Magicians Sodomites Atheists Hereticks c. And what would have become of the Church in the time of that great Schism that succeeded Gregory the Ninth which lasted fifty years when the French would not have an Italian Pope nor the Italians a French one and many Princes would have neither one nor other to whom at length Charles the Sixth joined himself for three years and the Kingdom of France was very well contented without a Pope and many other Princes for a longer season And what shall we say of that great Schism which the Popes made and caused with the Greek Church by cutting them off out of Devilish pride from the Communion of the Church because they would not submit to their yoke but demanded the observation of the Canons What shall we say also of that great Apostacy that happened about 130 or 140 years since or thereabout when so many States separated themselves from the Church by reason of the Impiety and Tyranny of the Popes Doth not all this prove that Hell hath prevailed against this exterior and visible Church which the Popes govern and whereof St. Peter according to them was the Head It is then the Invisible Church which is here spoken of the Society of the Faithful the Heavenly Jerusalem whereof Jesus Christ is the principal Corner-stone upon which St. Peter himself saith believers are built as living stones He says not it is on himself that they are built but on the contrary he pretends himself as well as others to be one of these living stones which are built upon the Corner-stone which is Christ. It is then upon the Rock confessed by Simon Peter or upon his Confession that the Church is founded on that which he declared
that Jesus Christ was the true Messias the Son of the Living God. And the Fathers understood it no otherwise I do not pretend here to relate all that they have said upon this subject but only some clear passages Origen upon St. Matthew tells us That if we say as Peter did Thou art the Christ c. we are also what St. Peter was and that it shall be also said unto us what follows Thou art Peter For whosoever is the Disciple of Christ the same is also Peter And St. Cyprian shews very well that he did not believe that St. Peter was priviledged beyond the other Apostles when he says that the other Apostles were as considerable as Saint Peter and that they were all equal in authority and power but that our Lord to shew the Unity there ought to be in his Church speaks but to one and that the first place was given to Peter And in another place Our Lord says he gave to all his Apostles the same power after his Resurrection and said to them As the Father hath sent me so send I you And Saint Ambrose Our Lord said to Peter Vpon this Rock c. that is to say upon this Confession of the Catholick Church I ordain that Believers shall have life And in another place What was said to Peter was said to the other Apostles And St. Hierom The Church is the House built upon the firm Rock which is Christ. And in another place She was founded upon a Rock that is to say Christ for this is the only foundation which the Apostle as a good Architect hath laid viz. our Lord Jesus Christ. St. Augustine Our Lord said Vpon this Rock c. because that Peter had said Thou art the Christ c. Vpon this Rock then which thou hast confessed will I build my Church The Rock was Christ upon whose fâ—undation Peter himself was builded for no man can lay any other foundation than that which hath been laid viz. Jesus Christ. Ideo ait Dominus super hanc Petram c. Quia dixerat Petrus tu es Christus c. Super hanc ergo Petram quam confessus es aedificabo Ecclesiam meam Petra erat Christus super quod fundamentum ipse aediâ—icatus est Petrus nam nemo potest ponere aliud fundamentum quam id quod positum est a Christo. The same Author speaks in another place thus Quid est super hanc Petram super id quod dictum est Tu es Christus super Petram quam confessus es super hanc Petram quam agnovisti dicens Tu es Christus super me aedificabo te non me super te Nam volentes homines super homines aedificare dicebant Ego quidem sum Pauli ego autem Apollo ego autem Cephae ipse est Petrus sed alii qui nolebant aedificare super Petrum sed super Petram dicebant Ego sum Christi c. What is this saying Vpon this Rock That is upon this Faith upon what was said That thou art the Christ upon this Rock which thou hast acknowledged saying Thou art the Christ Vpon me will I build thee and not thee upon me for they who would build upon men said I am of Paul and I of Apollos and I of Cephas who is Peter but those who would not build upon Peter but upon the Rock said I am the Disciple of Christ. This Holy Doctor hath a thousand such like sayings which I cannot relate to avoid being tedious Chrysostome says also Vpon this Rock c. That is to say upon this Faith and Confession Super hanc Petram hoc est super hanc fidem confessionem And in another place Super hanc Petram non dixit super Petrum non enim super hominem sed super fidem aedificavit Ecclesiam suam Quae autem erat fides Tu es Christus filius Dei viventis Vpon this Rock he did not say upon Peter for he hath not built his Church upon a man but upon Faith. What then was this Faith Thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God. Gregory Nyssen Non Petrus Johannes Jacobus tantum sunt Ecclesiae columnae sed omnes qui Ecclesiam sustentant Peter James and John are not the only Pillars of the Church but all they who support the Church Methinks there needs no more to perswade every honest minded man that the Fathers did not believe that Jesus Christ founded his Church upon St. Peter in particular much less upon the Popes I could easily produce a thousand other Evidenâ—es from the ancient Fathers and even from many Doctors that lived within the last four or five hundred years tho the truth hath been almost wholly stifled and that by men perfectly sold to the Court of Rome as well as to Iniquity But I must not tire out my Reader The Jesuit Salermont alone is worth a thousand of them for he doth own that the Popes Authority hath no foundation in the Scripture and he placeth it among Traditions not written I demand only the liberty of confuting the abuse of two other places of Scripture whereof we have spoken One would think they were already sufficiently confuted by the passages which I have alledged which prove that the Fathers did not believe that St. Peter had any Prerogative above the other Apostles and here a Reflection may be made which I think necessary to prevent the Cheat which may be put upon us in this matter by producing some passages of the Fathers falsified or maimed or else some Testimonies of the Doctors of the later times who have been for the most part vile slaves to the Popes and the Court of Rome It must be considered that when upon such a subject as this a man shall pretend to alledg any thing of Antiquity which seems to favour the opinion of St. Peter's Primacy that cannot counter-ballance what I have produced in short against that Primacy not only because I can produce an hundred places against one which they shall alledg but principally for this reason that it is never allowable for any man to oppose the Institutions of God nor to misunderstand deny change or diminish them So that if St. Peter had had the Authority over the Apostles and over the whole Church which they pretend and which the Popes at this time do exercise over Bishops Kings and the whole Church the Fathers never could deny it without a crime nor could they ever equal him to the other Apostles without being guilty of Heresie and heinous offence against God. Whereas we may very lawfully speak advantageously of the Ordinances and Institutions of God of Holy things and every thing that conduceth to the true Worship of God and consequently of the Holy Apostles also who were the admirable Organs of his Grace for the conversion of the World. We may I say speak of them with praise and with wonder with respect
the truth is that he said that for all and that he received also this power for all because that he represented the person of them all and the union that there ought to be amongst them One spoke for all because the unity was in all The same Father also says in another place Manifesta est Sententia Domini nostri Apostolos mittentis ipsis solis potestatem a patre sibi datam promittentis quibus nos successimus eadem potestate Ecclesiam regentes That is to say We see clearly the intention of our Lord when he sent out his Apostles and promised them the same power which his Father had given him and we have succeeded them governing the Church with the same power And so in other places Quando Petro dictum est Tibi dabo claves c. Typum Ecclesiae gerebat unus pro omnibus respondit When it was said to Peter I will give thee the Keys c. he represented the Church one single person answered for all And in another place Ecclesiae dictum est Tibi dabo claves c. It was said to the Church I will give thee the Keys c. Theophylactalso Habent potestatem remittendi ligandi quicunque sicut Petrus Episcopatus gratiam assecuti sunt quamvis autem Petro soli dictum sit Dabo tibi omnibus tamen Apostolis concessae sunt That is to say All they have the power of remitting and unloosing who as St. Peter have obtained the Honour of being Bishops for tho it were said to Peter alone I will give c. yet the Keys were given to all the Apostles And Leo the first Transivit etiam in alios Apostolos vis potestatis istius ad omnes Ecclesiae Principes Decreti hujus constitutio commeavit sed non frustra uni commendavit quod omnibus intimetur Petro idem ideo hoc singulariter creditur quia cunctis Ecclesiae rectoribus Petri forma proponitur manet ergo Petri privilegium ubicunque fertur ex ipsius aequitate Judicium That is to say That the power of the Keys was given also to all the Apostles and not only to them but to all Bishops and that it was not without design that our Lord committed to one what he intimated to all For thereby the example of Peter is proposed to all them who have a share in the Government of the Church Where-ever then any one judges as Peter did there is the priviledg of Peter also to be found And it is to be observed that Leo said this in a time when the Bishop of Constantinople would have had the Primacy I think these Evidences are sufficient to shew the injustice of the Popes who attribute to St. Peter alone those things which he had in common with all the other Apostles and all good Pastors and that to usurp an authority which neither St. Peter nor any other Creature ever could have and though it were possible that St. Peter or any other might have had it the Popes have less right to pretend to it than any other Priest because that they are but Temporal Princes For under the Gospel men derogate both from Episcopacy and Priesthood when they become Temporal Princes and it is certain that according to the Scripture and the Holy Canons these two things are inconsistent They ought to consider which they will stand to I am perswaded they would not contradict themselves in the matter but would always hold to the Temporal which they call the solid thing as Cardinal Palavicini very well observes that they desire the Popedom only for the vast quantities of Money which they get by it with the means of Obliging and doing Courtesies Due beni per cui soli appar Desiderable il Pontificato il Principiato dell Oro e del Obligo And in the Age we live in they would be in danger of not making so much of their Episcopacy as Boniface the third did by Phocas and if they should let their Beast but once get loose they would find it a hard matter to get up again But besides I think I ought here to put you in mind of one thing which is that the power of binding and loosing is not what the Popes and many evil minded Priests would make us believe for I do maintain not only that the Pope cannot free a man from the guilt of his Crimes and from the punishment due to them no more than the meanest Priest as Marsilius of Padua heretofore said but also that neither one nor other of them hath any power of pardoning Sins but as far as it doth appear to them that God doth pardon them and that properly it belongs not to them but to God. I shall be asked how the Priest or the Pope knows when God pardons any mans Sins And I ask them by what Authority they can dispence with the punishments a man hath deserved for having offended God without there be some appearance of Contrition in this Man I know very well there are many who affirm that the Pope can do it and others who pretend that attrition is sufficient but it will be no hard matter for me to prove that these Opinions are both foolish and Impious It is God only that can truly pardon Sins and he never does it but to the Contrite Heart that is to say to those who have a real sorrow within themselves for having offended so good and so merciful a God and who make a firm Resolution to forsake their Sins and to punish themselves by Repentance and by the Mortification of their Flesh and of their Passions and who will as much as in them lies in reference to men repair their crimes by making Satisfaction to all those they have wronged and Lastly who have made a Vow to endeavour all their Life-time to root up all their evil habits When these Dispositions do not appear in a Penitent the Pastor cannot pardon his Sins and when they do appear he cannot refuse to give him Absolution The Holy Scripture mentions no other power of binding and loosing Sinners but doth detest the use which the Popes make of it who Excommunicated whomsoever they please even Kings themselves and whole Nations for no other reason that their Fantasy St. Hierom made light enough of these Excommunications when he said Apud Deum non Sententia Sacerdotum sed reorum vita quaeritur And in an other place Solvunt Apostoli Sermone Dei testimoniis Scripturarum Exhortatione virtutum That is to say that God enquires not after the Priests Opinion but what sort of life a Sinner hath led It is the word of God the Evidences of Holy Scripture and Exhortations to vertue by which the Apostles do Absolve St. Ambrose also Verbum Dei says he dimittit peccata sacerdos est Judex sacerdos officium suum exhibet nullius autem potestatis jura exercet It is the word of God says he that pardons Sins the Priest
to do at Rome nor was he ever there as they imagine There is yet somewhat of greater weight then all this That is that St. Paul tells us he withstood St. Peter to his face because he deserved reproof This looks as if St. Paul had had some Authority over St. Peter We hear not that he reproached him for his Arrogance nor that he Excommunicated him It must be acknowledged that here is a great difference between the proceedings of the Pope and those of St. Peter For it is certain that if a Bishop should at this day dare to displease the Majesty of the Pope he should be soon swallowed up and destroyed by his glory I believe that Origen might have an eye to St. Paul's thus correcting St. Peter when he said that St. Paul was the greatest of all the Apostles Paulus Apostolorum maximus or else he might also have regard to the great extent of St. Pauls Ministry or to what he himself says that he took more pains than all the other Apostles And all the Fatheâ—s looked upon him as he who among all the Apostles wrote the most profoundly and with the greatest light This is what St. Augustin says of him St. Chrysostom looks upon him as the first of all the Saints and if there had been any Preheminence among the Apostles he should have been preferred before any other We may say then that the Popes in that Authority which they usuâ—p have nothing common with St. Peter nor can they be compared together but in one thing which is that as St. Peter being come into Pilates-Hall denyed Christ three times the Popes since they have taken upon themselves the Authority of Pilate and of worldly Princes have denyed him not three times but once for all Vna sol volta in Corte di Pilato entro est Petro e tra rinego Christo. Thus we see that in the Holy Scripture there is not one word that can in the least authorize the Popes Supremacy And we may compare those who establish it there to poor Heralds who to get a little money do very frequently make people meanly descended to derive from the Ancient Greek and Roman Emperors because the Cullyes havâ— gotten an Estate and are become rich tho most usually 't is only by Rogueries and Robberies And it is not difficult thus to deceive people who always admire those that are rich and able to do them a kindness They never enquire how they came by it as the Spaniard says Alcansados los honores quedam Borrados los passos pordende se subio a ellos Since then that the new Testament doth not acknowledg this Authority of the Popes but absolutely condemn it it hath no lawful Institution for a Doctrine of that Importance as the Primacy of the Pope is whereon they make the whole Government of the Church Religion it self and the Salvation of all Christians to depend being not to be found in Scripture cannot be but false For though it be true that there are some Customs and Ceremonies in the Church which are not to be found in Scripture and which the Protestants are greatly in the wrong obstinately to reject because that Tradition and the use or practise of the Church have so long since given them sufficient Authority as they themselves acknowledg yet that cannot be said of this Article which according to the Popes and the greatest part of the Doctors is Capital and so Capital they would willingly perswade us that without it the rest signifies nothing It was very impiously said of Cardinal Palavicim in his Third Book of his History of the Council of Trent Chap. the 15. That the Christian Religion hath no more sure and immediate certainty than the Popes Authority Quella Religione i cui Articoli Vnitamente considerati non hanno Altera Certezza prossima immediata che l' Autorita del Pontifice We see clearly that if this Authority were laid aside they would renounce the profession of Christianity as piety hath been already renounced by them CHAP. II. That the Primitive Church knew not the Papacy The Vanity of some Humane Reasons by which for want of the Scriptures and the Fathers they would establish it LET us now see if the Primitive Church did acknowledg a power in the Church like to that of the Popes Altho that which hath been already alledged from the Holy Fathers proves sufficiently that they knew not the Papacy let us however examine the thing a little more particularly We are told then that St. Peter was Head of the Church that he was at Rome that he was a Bishop there that he died there that he resigned that Charge of Head of the Church and of Bishop but not that of an Apostle to a Successor which Successor he either chose or the Church of Rome did it after his death by the power which he had given her which things are all of them very difficult to prove and certainly very false for a thing of this consequence ought not to be founded upon conjectures of meer probabilities but we ought to have as certain and as exact a knowledg of it as of any other Article of our Religion And yet we see that they who have spoken of St. Peter's coming to Rome and of his Death there have said it upon such miserable grounds and say so many contradictory things as well of it as of his pretended Successor that there is nothing more uncertain in all Antiquity But besides this none of them ever believed no nor so much as suspected that St. Petâ—r was Head of the Universal Church And the contradiction and little certainty that is in these Authors shews sufficiently that in the Primitive times it was not believed that this was necessary to be known nor did they in the least suspect that ever any body would endeavour to lay upon it the foundation of that horrible Authoâ—ity which the Popes do Exercise To give you some Instances of their Contradictions I need only to shew you that some say it was Linus who succeeded Peter others Clement and lastly others say it was Anacletus some will have it that St. Peter founded this Church and was the first that Preached at Rome Others maintain namely Dorotheus that it was Barnabas Barnabas primus Romae praedicavit And St. Paul shews us clearly that it was he himself who founded that Church for he complains that coming to Rome he found that the Jews there who had embraced Christianity were but very little instructed in the Doctrine of the Christian Religion Who can believe that if St. Peter had been there and had founded this Church he would not have instructed them better And what is yet more St. Paul says expresly in another plaâ—e that he would not go and preach whâ—re others had preached before him because he would not build upon the Foundation of others As for the manner of his Death some say he was Crucified with St. Paul Others that he was
that is to say We read that the three first Patriarchs who sat in the Chair of Peter were he of Rome he of Alexandria and he of Antioch and with them all the Bishops who were under them Let a man read the Writings of Gregory of Gelasius and of Leo who were all Popes and he shall see that they all acknowledg that all good Bishops are Successors of St. Peter and altho they sometimes failed not to demonstrate suffiently their Ambition and the desire they had to make the other Bishops their subjects yet it was not in quality of Heads of the Church much less by vertue of any Text of Scripture And we find not that for the first six Centuries any man dared to bring so much as one passage of Scripture to establish the Primacy of the Bishoprick of Rome St. Ambrose is not at all favourable to them when he says Primatus Petri Confessionis erat non Honoris fidei non ordinis That the Primacy of Peter was a Primacy of Confession and not of Honourâ— of Faith and not of place St. Cyprian whom we have already mention'd says farthermore in another place Neque enim quisquam nostrum se Episcopum Episcoporum constituit ut Tyrannico tâ—rrore ad Obsequendi necessitatem collegas suos adigat cum habeat omnis Episcopus pro licentia libertatis Potestatis suae Arbitrium proprium tanquam judicari ab alio non possit cum nec ipse possit Alterum judicare sed expectamus Vniversi Judicium Dâ—mini nostri Jesu Christi qui unus solus habet potestatem praeponendi nos in Ecclesiae suae Gubernatione de Acâ—u nostro judicandi There is nâ—ne among us who pretendeth to be a Bishop of Bishops that by a Tyrannical power he may oblige any of his Colleagues to the necessity of being subject to him since that every Bishop being his own Master and independent on any other cannot be judged by another nor can he judg another but we ought all to expect the judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ who only hath the power of establishing us over his Church and of judging of our behaviour in it The same St. Cyprian calleth Stephen Bishop of Rome his Colleague Stephanum Collegam nostrum ut Cornelium nostrum co-Episcopum And Cornelius our Fellow-Bishop He speaks of two Bishops of Rome And in another place he shews that he thought he had as great a share in the Government of the whole Church as the Bishop of Rome Omnes enim says he deâ—et pro corpore totius Ecclesiae cujus per varias quasque Provincias membra digesta sunt excubare And in another place Divina Paterna Pietas in nobis Apostolatus ducatum contulit Vicariam Domini sedem coelesti dignatione ornavit That is to say The Goodness of God hath conferred upon us the conduct of the Apostleship and hath adorned by his Heavenly Grace the deputed See of the Lord which we hold And furthermore Christus dicit ad Apostolos ac per hos ad omnes praepositos qui Apostolis Vicaria Ordinatione succedunt Qui vos audit me audit Jesus Christ saith to all the Apostles and in the persons of them to all Bishops who succeed the Apostles being their Substitutes by Ordination Whosoever heareth you heareth me He shews in these places that he pretended that his Church was an Apostolick See and that he was the Vicar of Jesus Christ as well as the other Bishops In his 55 Epistle he says that a man must be a fool or a mad man to believe that the Authority of the Bishops of Africa was less than that of the Bishop of Rome to whom abundance of profligate wretches did resort that so they might avoid the giving an account of their actions to the Bishops of Africa and the being punisht for their crimes After his death a Council assembled at Carthage did ordain Vt prima sedis Episcopus non appelletur princeps Sacerdotum aut primus Sacerdos sed tantum primae sedis Episcopus That the Bishop of the first See ought not to be called Prince or chief of the Priests or any thing of this kind but only the Bishop of the first See. And the Council of Nice marking out the bounds of the extent of each Patriarchal See says thus There is an ancient custom whereby the Bishop of Alexandria doth govern all the Diocesses of Egypt of Lybia and of Pentapolis as also it is a long time since that the Bishop of Rome hath presided over those which he now governeth and so likewise the Bishop of Antioch Upon which Cardinal Cusan makes this reflexion We see says he hâ—w much the Bishop â—f Rome haâ—h gotten against the Holy Constitutions by the long use of a submission which hath been given him and which was not due to him This Decree of the Council of Nice was since confirmed by the Councils of Antioch of Calcedon and of Constantinople Theodoret produceth a Letter of the Council of Constantinople which sufficiently shews the place which the Bishops of Rome held at that time it begins thus To our most Reverend and dear Brethren and Colleagues Damasus Ambrose Brillo Valerian and all the other Holy Bishops assembled together in the Great City Eusebius also relates to us another Letter which the Council of Antioch assembled against the Heresie of Paulus of Samosatenus writes to the Bishop of Rome which begins thus To Dionysius to Maximus and to all those who are Ministers with us Com-Ministris nostris throughout the whole world Bishops Priests Deacons and all the Church under Heaven Would a man now in good earnest in this corrupt age write thus to our Holy Father the Pope Theodoret relates to us in his Ecclesiastical History that the Emperour Constantius was very urgent with the Bishop of Rome Liberius to embrace the Communion of the other Churches which shews that he also knew not that Rome was the Mother of the other Churches The Emperors Gratian Valentinian and Theodosius in the year 380 proposed Rome and Alexandria for Models of the Orthodox Faith. Ordaining that all the world should follow the Faith of Damasus Bishop of Rome and of Peter Bishop of Alexandria And after the first Council of Constantinople as tho they would have the Center of Christian Communion in the East only they order without mentioning Rome that all Churches should be conferred upon those who joyned in Communion with Nectarius Bishop of Laodicea and Diodorus Bishop of Tarsus in the Diocess of the East with Amphilochus Bishop of Iconium c. If the Bishops of Asia of Cilicia and of Mesopotamia had believed that the Communion of the Bishop of Rome had been necessary for their Churches they would never all have been excluded from its Communion during 140 years as they were after that Victor Bishop of Rome had Excommunicated them for a Trifle for if they
of France hath maintained it self against all their endeavours without being divided and hath still kept some small Remains of Liberty which they daily attempt to rob us of The second device was to engage Princes and great men and those who were very rich in the Croisadoes and Expeditions of the Holy Land and to make them take the Cross which besides the vast Treasures which the Popes got by it augmented greatly their Authority for from hence they invented Indulgences from whence the Court of Rome hath drawn unspeakable Advantages as well in Riches as in Authority The third was by introducing neatly under the pretence of ignorance and the weakness of Princes the use of Cardinals of divers Nations in the Election of the Pope for by this these Nations are for the Spiritual â—art become subject to the See of Rome the Clergy and people of Râ—me as well as the Emperors have lost the Right of Electing the Bishop All these States have thought that the Bishop of Rome was greater than another Bishop and that they had great Interest in his Election and the Popes have gotten many Creatures in all these States It is true that at this time they are almost all Italians because they have of late so well bridled all these Countries by the Infinite number of their Monks and by many other Inventions that they now fear not their casting off the yoke After that Henry the Fourth had been Deposed and the Right of Investing Bishops taken from him the Successors of this Gregory pretended that the Ecclesiasticks were exempt from all Jurisdiction and power of â—ecular Princes even in Civil Affairs And besides that that the Bishop of Rome could Dâ—pose Kings if they did not submit to all his Orders and to fortifie this came forth the Decretals of many Popes of which these people at last made so good use to compose their Bull de Caena Domini and the Directory of the Inquisitors But say they all this does not hinder the Bishop of Rome from being Head of the Church for we see that the Laws and Rules and Roman Discipline have been followed by the other Churches It is true that in the West as there was no other Patriarchal See and as in most places thee Christian Faith had been received by means of the Roman Churâ—h the woâ—ld had a great respect for it and beâ—ides it was by reason of the Dignity of this City As in France we always consult the Sorbonne at Paris concerning matters of Religion not that for this reason the other Universities or Churches depend upon it But it is false that all Christians or the greatest part of them have received the Rules and Discipline of Rome The Greek Churches never owned them nor any of those who are in Asia or in Africa as the Armenian the Ethiopian and others And what we have already alledged from many of the Fathers and Councils from the Gallican Church from the Churches of Ravenna Milan and Toledo who with so much difficulty received the Roman Office even in the Eleventh Century shews sufficiently that they had no dependance on the Bishop of Rome I could bring a thousand other proofs did I not fear being too tedious to the Reader Aventin relates that Gregory the Second sent one Winefred towards the Countries lying upon the Rhine to reform the Churches there and to set them on the Roman bottom but that they vigorously opposed him and many Bishops called him the Author of Lyes and corrupter of the Christian Faith. In the first Tome of the Councils we have a Letter of Damasus Bishop of Rome to Hierome a Priest where we find these words which do sufficiently confute the pretences of our people I intreat Brother thy charity to send us the Greek Psalter with the Notes by which they sing them These are the words Peto charitatem tuam ut Graecorum Psallentiam ad nos dirigere tua Fraternitas delectetur For adds he we are so simple that upon Festival days we do nothing but read a Chapter in the Epistles or in the Gospel and we have no custom of singing Psalms nor is the Grace and Glory of Hymns to be found in our mouths Observe these words Charitas tua and Fraternitas tua from a Bishop of Rome to a Priest and how far they were from endeavouring to make other Churches subject to their Laws since that on the contrary they did correct their own faults by the good example of others We find also at the end of St. Gregory's Works that about the year 593 he sent a Monk called Austin into England who passing through France was surprized to see there another manner of Divine Service than he had seen in Italy with Ceremonies quite different that when he wrote to Gregory he asked him how it came to pass that since there was but one Faith the customs of Churches were so different and that the custom and manner of Masses was not the same at Rome as in France To which St. Gregory answered You know Brother what is the custom of the Roman Church wherein you have been educated But my opinion is that if you find any thing be it in the Roman Church or the Gallican or in any other which may be more agreeable to God you should prâ—fâ—r it for we ought not to love the things for the places but the places for the good things we find in them There are some people also who would make an advantage of this that the Church of Rome is by the Fathers called the Apostolick See. In truth as the Pharisees sat in the seat of Moses as our Saviour says so do the Bishops of Rome also â—it upon the Seat of the Apostles But it is certain that the other Bishops who teach the Doctrine of the Apostles and imitate their example are more Apostolick than they You must know that all the Churches founded by the Apostles were honoured with this Title and particularly famous and Metropolitan Cities which were looked upon as the Mothers of other Churches tho sometimes they had embraced Christianity after others that were less considerable because there Resided the Civil which drew after it the Ecclâ—siastical Jurisdiction And because there were many in the East where Christians were far more numerous than on this side none of those Churches ever raised it self above the others but in the West there being but one which was the Roman and no other having been since erected tho the Germans Spaniards French and othâ—r Nations have embraced the Christian Religion since those times yet Rome alone hath had this Glorious Title and the others have had great respect for it without any manner of dâ—pendance on it however at the beginning as hath already been shewed But that hindereth not but that other Orthodox Churchâ—s may also have it consult Tertullian he says that all Churches that follow the Faith of the Apostles are Apostolick And Pope Pelagius confirms the same
ejusdem loci mihi de more Archidiacono de Cura Parochianorum reddat rationem That is to say That the Cardinal-Priest of this Parish ought according to the custom to give an account of his Parishioners to me and to the Arch-Deacon The same Author called Le Gris a Canon Regular of St. Augustin says That there were Twelve Curates at Soissons who time out of mind had been called Cardinals and it was the same thing in many other places of France And we read in Pasquier that in a Council held at Metz under Charlemagne it was ordained Vt Titulos Cardinales in Vrbibus vel Suburbiis constitutos honestissime Canonice retractatione ordinent disponant That the Bishops should ordain and dispose the Title of Cardinals Honestly and Canonically in Cities and Suburbs If this name and dignity be to be esteemed so highly in the Church it would be very easie to make as many as one would in France without the Bishop of Rome his consent since that evâ—ry Bishop hath the power of making them and without being Reordained there is no Priest who doth now officiate who may not be a Cardinal when you please Thus this signifies nothing no more than the other things which have been already confuted to prove that the Popes Authority is Divine since the Sâ—ripture and the whole Primitive Church are against it But I must here also answer one Humane Reason which they make use of to throw dust in our eyes they take it from an Author whom they esteem as much as St. Paul nay more for they pretend that without him we should fail in many Articles of our Faith this is Aristotle I scarce believe so much can be said of St. Paul who wrote the clearest of all the Apostles Senza Aristotele noi mancarono di molti Articoli di Fide says Cardinal Palavicini Bellarmine also another Cardinal and a Jesuit doth object to us that Aristotle demonstrated Monarchy to be the most excellent of all Governments and by consequence God would have his Church so governed and that this Monarchy belongs to the Pope It is certain that the Spiritual Government of the Church is Monarchical It is Jesus Christ who governs it a Monarch all-wise and Almighty but the external Government of the visible and Universal Church cannot be so and their principle it self is contested by the greatest part of Politicians Aristotle himself their Apostle says in some places that a mixed or compounded Government be it Aristocratical or Democratical is better Quae ex Pluribus constat Respublica melior est And tho a Kingdom may be very well governed by one single person yet it doth not follow that this one person can as well govern all the States and Kingdoms of the World. And he says in another place Huc enim sunt omnia reducenda ut ii â—ui in Imperio sunt non Tyrannum sed patrem Familias agere videantur rem non quasi Dominus sed quasi Procurator Praefectus administrare nec quod nimium est sectari Do the Popes govern after this manner Reason and Experience both convince us of the contrary We see by History that the Empires of the World when they were of too great an extent could not subsist and have been torn in pieces and we have the example of some wise Emperors who made Decrees to hinder the enlargement of their Empire as Augustus made one De Coercendo intra limites Imperio It is a Proverb That he who takes too much into his arms can't hug it close And this is so much the truer in Ecclesiastical Government which cannot inflict Corporal punishments upon Delinquents for St. Paul says expresly that the Arms of the Evangelick Ministry are not according to the Flesh. And the Fathers as well as the Councils do teach us that the Arms of a Bishop ought to be Prayers and Tears The example which they bring of one single Bishop who by Divine Institution governs a Diocess or of a Curate who governs one Church only can signifie to them nothing at all bâ—cause first of all there is a Divine Institution for that but none for this Besides a man may easily manage a Boat upon a little River who knows not how alone to manage a great Vessel upon the Ocean much less a Fleet of Ships And the Example of a Bishop or Curate makes against them for they are not Soveraigns the one presides only among the other Priests and the other in a Parish I foresee that it will be said that though this Authority of the Pope was not Instituted by Jesus Christ that the Church for the first five Centuries knew it not that it hath been since opposed from time to time by many people perhaps of a turbulent or discontented mind yet it must be believed that the Church which did establish it since did it for good Reasons that Jesus Christ and his Apostles have not so precisely Regulated every thing that concerns the Discipline of the Church but that she may according to her own Prudence alter some things according to the times and places or as others say that every time hath its customs or as Cardinal Palavicini Altri tempi Altri costumi That the Church was at that time in its Infancy and that the mature age to which it is now arrived is not to be governed as its tender Infancy I acknowledg that the Church may sometimes vary in its Discipline and in its policy without any great crime but this must be always by a principle of charity and according to the Fathers Quod propter charitatem fit non debet contra Charitatem militare That which is done by a Principle of Charity ought not to militate against Charity It must tend to Edification the Church ought to do nothing against the Commandments of God. Now I have shewn that the Papacy is against the Maxims of the Gospel and is altogether contrary to the Genius of Christianity and more contrary than light is to darkness Furthermore it is not true that the Church hath established the Papacy only some few Councils held in Italy about two or three hundred years since or thereabouts as that at Florence Lateran Bolonia and Trent But we speak not of these dark Ages for those with whom I dispute believe that the Church hath established this power in the Sixth or Seventh Century In this respect the Cardinal Cusan mistakes himself when he says Pâ—patus est de jure Positivo The Papacy is of Positive Right For the Church hath not established it in any Council unless you call that Rabble of Ecclesiasticks and Seculars the Church who assembled themselves together at the desire of Boniface the Third to confirm upon him the Title of Universal Bishop which he got by the Parricide Phocas for the assistance he had given him He himself acknowledgeth that this Authority came to them ex usu Consuetudine
when he pleases who may restore that happy Equality among the Bishops under which the Church was heretofore so flourishing and Christianity made so great Progress which would also re-establish Peace among all Christians much better than the Equality of Turkish Politicks of which they say Ittichat Khoga Kopatmas Equality produceth no Wars They mean the Equality of Poverty that is to say that great men are not to be suffered in a Nation and that being all miserable they would make no commotions Whereas the Equality which I speak of would produce not only a firm and lasting Peace but also the abundance of all Spiritual and Temporal Goods There are also some People who pretended that if we acknowledg a necessity of having Arch-bishops and Primates who take their Places above Bishops instituted by Jesus Christ tho the Dignity of Arch-bishops or Primates is not so in like manner for Orders sake we may have a Pope That might pass if the Popes did not pretend to be of another Order if they exercised no Authority over their fellow-brethren if they were not Temporal and Mighty Princes if the Clergy did not absolutely depend upon them if they had nothing but a Pre-eminence of Place over the other Bishops in Assemblies and in Councils if there were One of them in every Christian State who should solicite the Prince for the assembling of Provincial Synods every year to whom he should be subject as the other Bishops and should entertain Communion with the other Patriarchs or Catholick Popes and with whom he should keep Correspondence that they might altogether by the Consent of their Respective Princes cause General Councils to be assembled when they should be necessary which should be held sometimes in one State and sometimes in another and wherein should preside men of the greatest Understanding and the greatest Merit without exception of Persons or else every Patriarch in his turn Thus was the Church anciently governed without Tyranny by this means did Religion spread it self abroad with great success in all Countries and not by a pretended Bishop who is a Worldly Prince and hath ruined the Church We see that heretofore among the Pagans Kings have been Sacrificers and Ministers of Religion Amongst the Jews also at the beginning we find that the Heads of Families who were Soveraigns did take upon them the offering of Sacrifices and performed Divine Service but before these latter times which is the Sink of all Ages it was never seen that Priests plaid the Princes and that People who ought to employ themselves only in Prayers and Sacrifices and whom Jesus Christ and all the most pure Canons of the Church do forbid to meddle in Secular Affairs should compare themselves with and raise themselves above Kings Is it not a comely sight to behold a Temporal Prince wearing Three Crowns one above the other sitting in a throne covered with Gold and precious Stones having the Arms both of Sea and Land many Attendants following him who are equal to other Princes Such a Prince as this I say to be the Vicar of Jesus Christ He is then a Carnal Messias and such a one as the Jews do at this day look for He is then a King of Concupiscence and of Iniquity If it be so the Jews had reason to accuse him for endeavouring to supplant Caesar the Romans would have been in the right to put him to Death and so he would not have been the Redeemer of Mankind This Pretension of the Popes as we see is a horrible Blasphemy and which yields the Cause over to the Jews against us and tends to justifie every thing they did against our Lord Jesus and utterly to overturn Christianity The pretence also which they have that Ecclesiasticks ought not to be subject to their Natural Prince and are freed from Obedience to him by Jesus Christ This is to renew against our great Saviour the impious Accusation which the Jews brought against him That he would have made himself a King and perswaded others to Rebellion There are others who pretend that the evil is not so great that there is a Pope as that General Councils are no more assembled and so they say that we should rather speak of assembling a Council than talk of exterminating the Papacy because they think that a Council would limit the Pope and hold the Reins shorter over him But this Papacy subsisting how shall a General Council be called but that they 'le have a hand in 't And if they have what will this Council tend to The End of it will be like that of Trent sad and miserable And put the case there might be found a Prince zealous strong and prudent enough to cause a General Council to be assembled by an agreement of other Christian Princes in spight of the Pope what would this Council do against the Pope who would have all the Bishops for him both by the Oath which they have taken to him and by Twenty Millions of Revenue which he hath and which he would employ to corrupt all the World What would you do with the Monks who would be all for him it being their Interest to maintain the Authority and Infallibility of the Pope because the Priviledges which he hath given to many of them which are as ancient as their first Institution are not confirmed by any Lawful Council and so are null And how long should the good condition of this Prince's Affairs last or his good Correspondence with other Princes to make the Laws of this Council be obeyed and that the Pope who will be all or nothing shall not hinder the Execution of his Decrees and continue his Tyranny And how will you in the mean time keep the Papacy with its hands tied and what will this signifie It is certainly better to cast off the Yoke all at once than to let it continue without being sure that it shall do no more mischief Tutius est perire non posse quam juxta periculum non periisse says a certain Author We have the sad Example of the Councils of Trent and Constance from that of Trent we could not hope for any great matters but even that of Constance which seemed well inclined to a Reformation as well as that of Basil found such horrible resistance in the Court of Rome and among the Ecclesiasticks that it never could re-establish the ancient Discipline And that shews us that we must wholly eradicate this Papacy and that it is not enough to assemble a free Oecumenical Council but that it must be some powerful zealous and resolute Prince who fears nothing but God and not the Court of Rome who must begin continue and vigorously end the thing without hearkening to pretended moderate Councils which tend only to the Churches ruin The Proverb here signifies nothing That it is better to preserve the Commonwealth as it is than to have none at all For I maintain that here is no Common-wealth but a perfect Anarchy and that
Bishops if they preached the word of God if they instructed their Diocess in the knowledg of God if they applied themselves to their Prayers without being ambitious without desiring Command and Authority and playing the Princes at Rome without abusing the World with their Dispensations Induglences false Reliques Agnus Dei's and other Fooleries without drawing of Annates giving of Bulls and comparing themselves to Kings and Princes If I say they behaved themselves like the first Bishops of Rome I should honour and admire them as a Souldier said heretofore to Nero I loved thee dum amari meruisti sed postquam Parricida Histrio incendiarius extitisti c. whilst thou didst deserve it but since thou wert a Parricide a Stage-player and destroyer of thy Country I have abhorred thee They say furthermore that were it not for the Pope there would be no Missions to the Indies and that those People would never be converted On the contrary by the Ambition Pride and carnal Pleasures which they keep up in the Church Zeal and Charity are almost wholly extinguished But what do the Popes do for these Missions If they contribute any thing towards them it must be as in all other things for their own Interest But there were Missions to the Indies before ever the Bishops of Rome undertook to govern the Church those who are now sent thither go only for Gain and Traffick and by the Relations we have of them they are the strangest Conversions in the World they take no care at all to instruct these poor People nor to teach them any thing they baptize them only without explaining to them the Virtue of that Sacrament or what it signifies nay without turning them from their former Idolatry They are contented instead of instructing them to tell them that in worshipping their Idols and doing all as they did before it is sufficient if they direct the Intention to Jesus Christ or to the Saints and so they are no less Idolaters than they were before These now are their Conversions But say they does not the Pope create a great many Bishops in partibus Infidelium in the Countries of Infidels That may be done without the Pope Metropolitans and Primates did heretofore create them and Bishops may do so still This tends to nothing but to flatter the Vanity of the Popes who not being able to establish themselves effectually in those Countries will however satisfy their Fancies by this imaginary Empire which they attribute to themselves in disposing of fantastick Bishopricks in those Countries This is all but Farce My Lord the new Bishop makes wry Faces as if he were going to his pretended Diocess where the People shall be Greeks Pagans or Mahometans he prepares his Equipage to be gone and whilst he is just ready to depart his Holiness hath a tender Affection for his dear Son commends his Zeal and his Piety to go to hazard himself among the Infidels dispences with him as to his Journey and for a recompence of his Devotion he gives him good Pensions and Benefices wherewith the good Prelate lives jollily at Rome in Pleasures and in Honours They have by this Principle of Vanity created four Patriarchs at Rome to make themselves amends because they could not make the four Greek Patriarchs submit to them There are some People also who pretend that the necessity of a visible Head of the Christian Church is proved by this that the Mahometans have one and the Pagans also had one And they say that the Mahometans who have a Musti and had heretofore their Caliphes the Pagans their Pontifex Maximus as the ancient Romans had will have less Aversion for Christianity when they see in it a Head of Religion like their own But there is a great deal of difference for these never did usurp the Temporal Power of Princes like the Popes they never exacted Oathes of Allegiance from their Clergy nor pretended to a share of the Princes Authority as the Popes do in Catholick Countries The Ambition of the Popes will ever keep them back more than this Conformity will induce them to embrace Christianity But Men must not form to themselves such carnal Ideas of the Religion of Jesus Christ who is all Spirit Truth and Holiness it is a sort of Idolatry to believe that Jesus Christ hath such Vicars It is to be wholly ignorant of God and to make Jesus Christ the Minister of Sin. It may be yet said that the Popes keep Princes and great Men in the Catholick Religion by the conveniency of Dispensations which they many times gives them very opportunely and such as they could not find in other Religions as Cardinal Palavicini maintains that if the Pope did not give these Dispensations to those who possess and change many Benefices they who enjoyed them would offend God and be uneasy in their Consciences and that it is because that God should not be offended that the Popes have found out the Secret of Dispensations But these Dispensations are either against the Law of God or they are not If they are then Princes are so much the more to be blamed to address themselves to the Pope for this is manifestly to mock both God and Men. I know very well as I have already observed that there are some good People who maintain that the Popes can make that a Sin which is not a Sin and that not a Sin which is a Sin but I do not think that any Prince was ever so simple as to believe so thus the Action of a Prince who hath recourse to the Popes for Dispensations authorizeth this abominable Impiety and by his Example makes it pass for an Article of Faith making himself the shameful Instrument to establish the most pernicious and the most infamous of all Impostures If the thing be not contrary to the Law of God there is no need of a Dispensation for any whatsoever And furthermore be they necessary or unnecessary the meanest Bishop hath as much right to grant them as the Pope nay more since that as I have already said the Popes being Temporal Princes can not be in the Christian Religion either Bishops or Priests they have forfeited this Character and have no calling under God since God hath not instituted this monstrous Authority Besides these Dispensations are only for the Popes advantage for by them he raiseth and maintains himself in Credit not only other above Bishops his fellow Brethren but even above God himself abrogating his Laws and fastning Princes with his whole Families indispensably more and more to their Service it being their Interest to maintain this pretended Authority of the Pope without which their Actions would appear shameful and scandalous and as many times it is for their Marriages which they are dispensed with their Children would be illegimate which would confound the order of the Succession Thus does every thing turn to the Popes advantage who are always of his opinion who said
and to refresh my spirit with writing I have written for my self Haec mihi cecini Musis si nemo Alius Audierit I have sung these things to my self and the Muses tho no body else should hear them Sure and Honest Means TO CONVERT ALL HERETICKS CHAP. I. That the Papacy hath no Divine Title The vanity and nullity of those which it draws from the Gospel WHosoever shall read the New Testament will there find that Jesus Christ alone is established as Head of the Church and that it is not said of any other that she should be his Body or Believers his Members that belonging to none but Jesus Christ who is also the only Spouse of the Church which would be adulterous should she submit to another and this other could not be but an evil person and a reprobate since that in taking the quality of Spouse of the Church he must renounce that of Son of the Church and so could not have God for his Father according to the Maxim That he who hath not the Church for his Mother hath not God for his Father Now no one person can be the Head the Spouse and Son of the Church at the same time Nevertheless it is certain that the Popes do assume these Titles to themselves by a vanity which exceeds all folly and without being able to produce any reason for it Divine or Humane But let us see what they say to maintain their pretensions They say that among the Jews one man only viz. Aaron had the conduct of Divine Service and was Head of the Levites and that by consequence there ought to be in the Christian Church an Authority like unto this Established over the whole Church and that the Bishops of Rome perform the Functions of this charge Whereupon there are many things to be said First of all it was not difficult for Aaron to acquit himself of this in so little a State as Judea and in one only City of this State which was Jerusalem and in one only Tâ—mple of that City for it was not allowed to perform Divine Service nor to Sacrifice elsewhere whereas Christianity is at this time spread over the whole world and therefore one single person only cannot perform these Functions every where It is as if a man should say that because France is well governed by one King he might as well govern all the States of the habitable Earth and yet it would be much more easie for him to do it than for one Bishop to govern the whole Church because as it is well known the Ecclesiastical Ministry cannot inflict Corporal punishments upon Delinquents as the Civil Government may and does Besides Aaron was no way the Figure of the Bishops of Rome for then the Type would have been more excellent than the Original but he was the Figure of our Great and Soveraign High Priest Jesus Christ. Furthermore Aaron was not the Monarch of the Levites but as the Doge is at Venice for according to all the Talmudists he was subject to the Jurisdiction of the Great Sanhedrim and to their Censure whereas the Popes pretend to be not only the Monarchs of the whole Earth but particularly of all the Clergy And besides all this there was an express institution of God for this charge and for the person of Aaron and of his Successors Whereas there is nothing like it for the Papacy nor for the persons of those who exercise it We see in the Old Testament the Institution of Aaron's Charge with many Ceremonies for his Installment and for his anointing many Ordinances for the Exercise of this Charge and for the Succession many Chapters which speak of the Subordination of Priests and Levites But on the contrary we find not one word in the Gospel of this pretended charge of Universal Head of the Church of Vicar-General of Jesus Christ and Successor of St. Peter nor any thing that hath any relation to it and yet it ought to have been there clear and evident since that this Ministry was to be of an extent a thousand times greater and the thing in it self is prodigious and appears quite contrary to the nature of the Messias his Kingdom and to the Gospel We see several Orders of Ministers of the Gospel there often spoken of but not one word that can any ways relate to the Pope when surely that was the place to have spoken of it especially if it be necessary to Salvation to be subject to him as they would have it and if he hath the power as they would perswade us as well over the Temporality as the Spirituality of the whole world St. Paul who without question was of as great ability as the Pope was not of these peoples humour who pretend to govern the whole Church since he who had not the thousandth part of Christians to take care of as the Pope would have according to their supposition declares that no Mortal man was sufficient to perform every thing that was necessary to be done in it and that he was himself overwhelmed with the care he took for all the Churches Nor had St. Peter the courage of our good Popes who believe themselves capable of governing the whole Church and they might do it without difficulty after the method they take since he agreed with St. Paul that St. Paul should go toward the Gentiles and he towards the Jews and so they parted the Ministry between them At least the Popes after Aarons example ought to meddle only in Ecclesiastical and not in Secular affairs as they do pretending to Lord it over the whole world for we see that Aaron applied himself only to the Functions of his Charge and that in things Temporal and Civil he was subject to Moses and left the Absolute direction of them to him Instead of imitating Aaron the Head of the Levites in his Modesty the Popes pretend to be Lords not only of the Temporality but of the Spirituality of all the States of the world and will in this be Vicars of Jesus Christ tho he declared that his Kingdom was not of this world tho he taught his Disciples that he among them who would be the first should be the last though he fled away when they would have made him a King tho he payed Tribute to the Princes of the world when he was himself Lord both of Heaven and Earth tho he expresly forbad his Disciples to bear rule over any one whatsoever The Popes notwithstanding this will govern and pretend that our Saviour did amiss when he spoke thus and that they know better than he how to improve the rights of his Prerogative For my part I believe that such a King as Jesus Christ who holds the Earth in his hand according to the Prophet's expression who upholds all things by the power of his word as St. Paul says who knows the hearts of all men and governs the motions of all the creatures who is Almighty who knows and sees
and veneration and even attribute to them sometimes names and degrees of excellency which do not belong to them without any prejudice to Piety provided they are not attributes nor honours which are appropriated only to the Divine Being for then it would be Idolatry as it is to attribute that to the Pope which belongs only to Jesus Christ. For example in reference to the great men of this world it is very allowable to speak to the advantage of a Minister of State to whom a great King shall communicate a part of his Authority for his service It is very fit to commend him and to extoll him even above his merit by reason of the good qualities which appear in him or the favours which he receives from the King provided that the respect and obedience due to the King be inviolably kept but it would be a crime to lessen or contemn him especially when the prosperity tranquillity and safety of the State depends upon him So I maintain that tho the Fathers had said a tâ—ousand times of St. Peter That the Church was founded upon him and that he was the Head of it If they have said sometimes that he was not so and that he had nothing more excellent than the other Apostles this last ought to prevail because that the first was an expression of favour and without danger since they assert evâ—ry where that Jesus Christ is the only Head of the Church and that it was hard to conceive that ever men should arrive to suâ—h excess of extravagancy as to think that one simple man could be the Head of the Universal Church Whereas if St. Peter had been instituted by God in that quality to deny it would look like resisting God destroying the Church which would be established upon him and dethroning Jâ—sus Christ by dethroning his Vicar It must then be agreed to whatever the Doctors of the Age say that the Church is built upon Jesus Christ and not upon a man and we may say with David That the stone which the builders refused is in spight of them become the Corner-stone of the Church But let us come to the second passage Tibi dabo claves c. I will give thee the Keys c. First of all you must know the occasion whereon this was said to him Jesus Christ had asked this question of his Disciples Whom think you that I am c. Peter with his wonted fervor spake and answered for all Thou art the Christ c. And our Lord upon this promiseth to all his Apostles and to the whole Church under the name of Peter the Power of the Keys which is indisputable because in the 18 Chap. of St. Matthew he tells them all in general and without distinction the same thing Verily I say unto you That whatsoever you shall bind upon Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever you loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven The other Apostles then have this power as well as St. Peter and we see it also in St. John the 20. and the 22. where Jesus Christ says to all his Apostles Receive ye the Holy Ghost whosesoever sins ye forgive they are forgiven and whosesoever ye retain they are retained Let us see whether the Fathers be not against us We have already heard St. Cyprian who says Christus Apostolis post Resurrectionem parem potestatem tribuit Jesus Christ after his Resurrection gave an equal power to his Apostles Origen demands An vero soli Petro dantur a Christo claves Regni Caelorum nec alius beatorum quisquam eas accepturus est Quod si dictum hoc tibi dabo claves c. Caeteris quoque commune est cur non simul omnia quae prius dicta sunt quae sequuntur velut ad Petrum dicta sunt omnium communia Were the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven given only to Peter and shall no other blessed person have them Certainly if what was said I will give thee the Keys be common to all the Apostles why shall not all that goes before and that follows after tho said only to Peter be common to all St. Hilary Vos O sancti beati viri ob fidei vestri meritum claves Regni Coelorum ligandi solvendi jus in terra adepti He spoke to the Apostles O holy and blessed men who by the merits of your faith have obtained the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and the power of binding and loosing upon Earth St. Hierom At dicis super Petrum fundatur Ecclesia licet id ipsum in alio loco super omnes Apostolos fiat cuncti claves Regni Caelorum accipiunt ex aequo super eos Ecclesiae fortitudo solidetur tamen propterea inter duodecim unus eligitur ut capite constituto schismatis tollatur occasio Sed cur non Johannes electus est virgo Aetati delatum est Quia Petrus senior erat ne adhuc adolescens ac poene puer provectae aetatis hominibus anteferretur ne causam praebere videretur invidiae But you say the Church is founded upon Peter tho in other places the same thing is done upon all the Apostles and they all receive equally the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and the strength of the Church is equally founded upon one as well as another nevertheless he chose one out of the Twelve to the end that by establishing a Head he might take away the occasion of Schism But why was not John chosen Jesus Christ had regard to the age of Peter who was the eldest and would not prefer a young man one that was almost a child before those who were more advanced in years that he might not seem to give an occasion for envy amongst them The same Hierom tells us that the Ministers under the Gospel have also the power of binding and of loosing of pardoning sins or retaining them that is to say of judging when God doth pardon us or not Id juris officii habent Sacerdotes Evangelici quod olim sub lege habebent Legales in curandis Leprosis Hi ergo peccata dimittunt vel retinent dum dimissa a Deo vel retenta judicant vel ostendunt St. Augustin Sicut in Apostolis cum esset etiam numerus duodenarius omnes essent interrogati solus Petrus respondit Tu es Christus c. Et ei dicitur Tibi dabo claves tanquam ligandi solvendi solus acceperit potestatem cum illud unus pro omnibus dixerit hoc cum omnibus dixerit hoc cum omnibus tanquam personam gerens ipsius unitatis acceperit Ideo unus pro omnibus quia unitas est in omnibus Amongst the Apostles who were Twelve in number tho they were all asked Peter only answered Thou art the Christ and Jesus Christ said to him I will give thee the Keys as tho he alone had received the power of binding and of loosing Tho
beheaded and Linus the pretended successor of St. Peter who writes the History of St. Pauls Death says not one word of St. Peters St. Hierom though a Roman and Nicolas de Lyra assures us that he was Crucified at Hierusalem And St. Hierom says in another place also that his Sepulcher is in Hierusalem Thus we see what reason they have to build an Article of Faith so monstrous as the Popes Supremacy is upon an imaginary Conjecture that hath no Foundation that St. Peter was at Rome But how comes it then to pass may some say that many of the Fathers both believed and said that St. Peter was at Rome It was because they did not examine the thing believing it useless and they did not forsee the dreadful Consequences that the Bishops of Rome would draw from it They grounded it upon that place of St. Peters Epistle where it is said the Church which is at Babylon saluteth you Interpreting Rome by Babylon without any reason because there were two other Babylons the one in Mesopotamia where Bagdet is and the other in Aegypt near Memphis where it is certain there were many Jews who were under St. Peter's Ministry As for the pretended combat between St. Peter and Simon Magus the Learned acknowledg that it was but a fiction But put the case St. Peter had been at Rome what advantage can the Bishops of Rome make of it That he had left at Rome his Charge of Universal Vicar of Jesus Christ But on what do they found this pretence If he had done it it would plainly have been united to his Apostleship rather than to the quality of a Bishop and so by consequence could not have been communicated to any other than an Apostle and so St. James or St. John who continued alive long time after him should have inherited it and not Linus nor any other and they would have transported it to Jerusalem or to Ephesus which were their Churches if the Town of Rome had not had some particular priviledges which no man knows that affixed this Dignity to that City in which case one of these two Apostles ought to have come and resided there However it is likely that St. James or St. John who without all controversie lived a great while after him should rather have succeeded him in this admirable Charge than a simple Priest or Bishop as Linus If the City of Rome pretends to derive this Prerogative from St. Peter's having been there and Preached the Gospel which cannot be proved the Church of Antioch ought to be preferred before it for it is certain both by the Scriptures and by the Fathers that he was there and Preached there before it was possible for him to do it at Rome And upon this it was that they built that Revelation of the See of Peter's being removed from Antioch to Rome which you find in the Decrees of Gratian in the Epistle of Pope Marcellus which Imposture they contrived because they could find nothing in the Scripture that could favour their pretences Besides if St. Peter had had a Successor in this pretended Charge how comes it to pass that the Primitive Church that compiled the Canon of Books which ought to regulate the Faith of the Church hath not comprehended therein the Works of Linus or of Clement who wrote enough and yet hath inserted those of St. James and of St. John who ought to be much inferior in Infallibility and in Sanctity to the Vicar-General of Jesus Christ upon Earth and who ought to have been his Subjects and to have taken the Oath of Fidelity to him as they do at this day to his Holiness But a man may well wonder that Clement who according to some Writers was his Successor and who be he what he will must have lived very near that time knew nothing of it 'T is seen by his first Epistle to St. James where he terms him Bishop of Bishops and in another place he brings in St. Peter saying Jacobus Episcopus accâ—rcitum me inde huc Caesaream mittit That is to say That the Bishop James sent him into Caesarea It is yet a little surprising that the Fathâ—rs of the Primitive Church who composed the Canon of our Faith that is the Creed should forget to place after the Catholick Church the Bishop of Rome who is the Head of it and without whom as they say it is like a Body without a soul or a Vessel exposed to the tempest without a Pilot. That Article doth it self sufficiently exclude all dependance upon any particular See. And the other I believe the Communion of Saints doth also establish Jesus Christ the only Head of the Church and condemns its being subject to an humane Head. And St. Dionysius the Areopagite or some other of those times who in his name composed a Treatise of the Hierarchy and says not one word of a Bishop of Bishops and Head of the Church shews that in those times people did not believe that the Hierarchy could not subsist without him Saint Gregory also Bishop of Rome was wholly ignorant of these pretended Priviledges of his Bishoprick for he acknowledges in his Register to Eulogius Bishop of Alexandria that the Bishops of Alexandria and of Antioch are Successors of St. Peter and that they sit in the Chair of Peter as well as the Bishops of Rome Nor was Irenaeus any more perswaded that the Bishops of Rome alone had this advantage when having reproved Victor Bishop of Rome who by a ridiculous rashness had Excommunicated for a matter of small importance all the Churches of Asia which was concerning the difference of the day whereon Easter was to be kept he says to him Presbyteri Ecclesiae cui nunc praesides Anicetum dicimus Ejum Hyginum Telesphorum Christum neque ipsi sic observarunt neque posteris suis sic praeceperunt Observe by the way the modesty of the Bishops of those times they affected no other quality than that of Priest as we also see in the Gospel that Bishops are there sometimes called Priests It was not in contempt that St. Ireneus called them so but because that in those blessed times the Bishops were humble and were ambitious of no other Title But now-a-days a Priest is called My Lord Abbot an Abbot takes the Arms of a Bishop a Bishop of a Cardinal a Cardinal equals himself to Princes and will even take the place of them And the Bishops of Rome who in those times were humble and desired no other Crown than that of Martyrdom now raise themselves above Soveraigns Kings and Emperors wear a Triple Crown which these Villains called Il Regno for a mark of their Royalty tread even Empâ—rors under their feet make them kiss their Slippers and treat them like fools Cardinal Cusan confirms to us what St. Gregory said before In Cathedra Petri says he Patriarchae leguntur sedisse Romanus Alexandrinus Antiochenus cum illis omnes subjecti Episcopi
nothing to do to meddle with what concerned them That it would be a thing unworthy of their Church which had been always free to become subject by their own cowardize to another Church and that if they did it it would bring an eternal shame upon them It is true the Cardinal did corrupt the Arch-bishop who received the Roman Service but the Clergy and the People soon shook off the Yoke till Gregory the Seventh's time who by cunning practices and by cruelty oppressed them In the same manner at Toledo the Popes were forced to shed a great deal of blood before they could compel that Town to receive the Roman Service and at last to appease the People they were forced to allow that they should retain the Gallican Service in Six Parishes of the City of Toledo Ravenna also resisted for some time couragiously because they had tasted somewhat of their Spiritual as well as of their Temporal Dominion We see it by the 54 th Epistle of Adrian Ad Carolum Magnum de Leone Episcopo Ravennate qui non vult Obedire Adriano His Predecessor Sergius had done the same thing and so did John his Successor and many others See Cardinal D' Ailly in his book of the Reformation Guicciardin also confirms it The Church of Ravenna says he disputed with Rome for the Primacy because the Seat of Religion hath been accustomed to follow the Power of the Empire and its Arms which by the way also proves the Usurpations of the Bishops of Rome Durand also tells us That Charlemayne was intreated by the Pope Adrian to abolish the Ambrosian Service throughout all Germany and France and that he found great resistance as against an unheard of Tyranny The Emperor says he did compel all the Ecclesiasticks both by Threats and Punishments to burn the Books of the Ambrosian Service He could not force the Men of Milan to it who yet kept it near 300. years And we see in the 6 th Chapter of the Capitularies of Charlemayne that this Emperour made this Ordinance in the Year 806 that the Service should be sung in Churches according to the Use and Custom of the Roman Church These Villains who owe so much to this Emperour make but very little acknowledgment and have shewed but small consideration to his descendants I do not think it necessary to prove that the Bishops of Rome presided in the Councils no more than other Bishops that it was the Emperours who called the Councils that were to approve and make them to be observed There is no man but knows that our Kings have assembled many and have presided in them even when the Bishop of Rome hath had a Deputy or Legate present We have a remarkable Example in the History of the Gallican Councils which it were to be wished that our great King would follow that is of the Council of Leptine assembled in the Name of Carloman Duke and Prince of the Francks under Chilperie the third First of all you there see that it was Carloman who presided though the Bishop of Rome had his Deputy there present See how he there speaks In the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ I Carloman Duke and Prince of the Francks in the Year from the Incarnation 742 the Second of the Calends of May have assembled a Council by the advice of the Servants of God and the Lords of our Court that is to say Boniface and Burchard Bishops with their Clergy to advise concerning means whereby the Law of God and the Ecclesiastical Religion which is fallen to decay in these latter Ages may be re-established and how Christian People may attain to the Salvation of their Souls and not be destroyed by the deceits of false Teachers This is a true Idea of the present State of the Church but with this difference that the disorder is now much greater and would it would please God to touch the heart of some great Prince in our days to do as Carloman did Under the same King Chilperie Pepin who was yet only Duke of the Francks called also another Council at Soissons where he also presided The Preface begins thus I Pepin And at the end it is said Whosoever shall contradict these Decrees Established by 23. Bishops and other Servants of God by and with the consent of Prince Pepin and of the Lords of France shall be judged either by the Prince or by the Bishops And the Council is signed Pepin The Bishop of Rome is no more mentioned in all this than the Mufti though they were already arrived to a great height because it was near two hundred years since they had been declared Heads of the Church by the Emperor Phocas The first who took upon him this Quality was one Bâ—niface the third who for having protected Phocas who had killed the Emperor Maurice to settle himself in his place was by him in recompence honoured with the Title of Universal Bishop Many Authors do relate the History of it but one only shall suffice who is Beda who reports Phocam Imperatorem rogante Bonifacio secundo Gregorii Mâ—gni Successore statuisse sedem Romanae Apostolicae Ecclesiae Caput esse Omnium Ecclesiarum quia Constantinopolitana Primam se Omnium Ecclâ—siâ—rum scribebat And since that time they are become the Vicars General of Jesus Christ upon Earth because they are the worthy Successors of Simon Magus who as St. Epiphanius reports pretended to be the Vicar of Christ. And the Divine Power for the Government of the Church Being thus far advanced no man need wonder that they govern the Church so well for as Tacitus observes Neâ—â—â—nquam Imperium flagitio quaesitum bonis Artibus Exercuit Since this Consecration of Phocas they have always had the Wind in their Stern and Fortune hath by little and little greatly advanced them They were never at a loss to find people who would assist them to get a share in the Plunder Prima Principatus initia Ardua ubi sis ingressus adesse Studia Ministros And I may say that which the same Tacitus says in an other place with respect to the Ancient Grandeur of Rome That Fortune prepared them in many places of the World means and occasions of establishing their Empire Struebat jam Fortuna in diversa parte Terrarum initia caususque Imperio Papatui It is now not very long since that the Emperors did elect and depose the Popes They made use of them in their Affairs in Embassies they punished them when they had committed any Crime and sometimes even with Death Theodorie King of Italy for Example sent John Bishop of Rome in an Embassy to the Emperor Justinian and having afterwards re-called him he put him to death in Prison Belisarius Lieutenant of the Emperor Justinian in the year 538 drove away Silverius Bishop of Rome and put Vigil in his place whom he afterwards drew through the Town with a Rope about his Neck as Platina
Subjectionalis Obedientiae And he maintains with good reason in another place Si per possibile Treverinus Archiepiscopus per Ecclesiam Congregatam pro Praeside Capite Eligeretur Ille proprie plus Successor esset Beati Petri in Principatu quam Romanus Episcopus That if it were possible that the Arch Bishop of Treves could be chosen Head of the Church by a General Council he would be a more lawful Successor of St. Peter than the Bishop of Rome which shews that in his time no Council had declared the Bishop of Rome as such Besides these words if it were possible shew that he belioved not that the Church could dispose of such a thing Gerson was also of this Opinion for he acknowledgeth very ingeniously that the Papal Authority cannot be conferred by the Church Papalis Authoritas si non a Deo esset immediate instituta a tota Ecclesia institui non poterat If the Papal Authority were not from God immediately it could not be instituted by the whole Church And though it were true that the Church had established it as Pope Innocent the Third pretends when he says Ecclesia non nupsit vacua sed Dotem mihi tribuit absque pretio pretiâ—sam spiritualium plenitudinem latitudinem temporalium illius me constituit vicarium qui habet in vestimento suo scriptum Rex Regum Dominus Dominantium The Church hath not married me without a Fortune but hath given me the invaluable dowry of God the fulness of Spirituals and the latitude of Temporals hath made me the Vicar of him who hath written on his garment King of Kings and Lord of Lords Although that I say were true it would not be less necessary to abolish this power which is the cause of so many disorders because the Church in those days might have created it for the good of the Church as she then thought And having found out that it is to her ruine she ought to destroy it for the Chair of Peter is for the Church and not the Church for the Chair of Peter Petri Cathedra propter Ecclesiam non Ecclesia propter Petri Cathedram Quod propter Charitatem fit non debet contra Charitatem Militare And since that our Faith according to Thomas Aquinas ought to be founded upon the Word of God only and not upon the Eshablishments of the Church as he says Fides nostra innititur Revelationibus Prophetis Apostolis Factis Ecclesia non statuit nisi de non necessariis ad Salutem According to this Truth we are not obliged to believe the Extravagant of Pope Boniface who says That it is necessary to Salvation to submit to the Pope And if the Church according to these People dared to change the Aristocratical Government instituted by Jesus Christ under which the Kingdom of God spread it self so far Piety flourished Idolatry was confounded shall it not be allowable for the Church and for Princes who are its natural Protectors to redeem it out of that Slavery into which the Enemy of Mankind hath reduced it to its first Purity and Simplicity Methinks if Men had any sense of Religion they ought to sigh continually for the deplorable condition of the Church and of the Greeks and Protestants whom we have cast headlong into the Evil they now labour under Some people will have it That because the Greek Patriarchs among themselves hold that Place which the Council of Nice and the Emperor Constantine gave to all Patriarchs he of Rome who had the first Place ought still to keep it and as in Place he was the first Bishop and the only Patriarch in the West he ought still to enjoy these Prerogatives But first of all none of the Greek Patriarchs unless it were that John of Constantinople against whom St. Gregory wrote so vehemently ever pretended to bear Rule over the other Bishops nor over the Church much less over Christian Princes as the Popes do and the Patriarch of Rome for above Three Hundred Years after his Institution never attempted it Secondly The Place which the Bishop of Rome held was Propter Principalitatem Vrbis in regard of the Dignity of the City which now hath no weight at all Rome being no longer the Seat of the Empire but the Sink and Common-shore of all filthy Iniquity a Den of Thieves and a Nest of Satan Nido di Satanazzo and the very Habitation of Sloth Laziness and Beggary Paris or London do at this time deserve this Honour a thousand times better Besides it was in a time when there were but very few Christians in the West These great States were not yet converted to the Faith France Germany Poland part of Spain and all the Northern Countries knew not what Christianity was so that one Patriarch might more easily have the inspection of this small number of Christians who resorted also to Rome for their civil Affairs as to the capital City where the Emperor resided How are they now able to govern all the Churches they who cannot govern that at Rome and which is worse that trouble not their Heads about it Add to this a fourth Reason which is That in those days they were not Temporal Princes as they are become since and had not innumerable Legions of Monks and Beneficiaries at their command as now they have which renders this Power the most formidable of any upon Earth among the Catholicks If because Rome had heretofore the first Place for the Spirituality before other Cities she should pretend still to have it it will thence follow that she hath it for the Temporality over these same Cities since the Spiritual Authority of this City as I have already proved was founded upon the Temporal and Civil which she enjoyed as the Seat of the Empire and so in pretending to the Regency of Religion in France Flanders and other Catholick Countries they pretend also to have a Right of treating these States as they please and they have effectually made them their Subjects and Tributaries even to the disposing 〈◊〉 the Crowns of Kings as their fancy leads them There are others who believe they have hit on the right when they say that the Pope is Primus inter Pares and that so he is the first of all Bishops But I ask by what Authority It is true he was so among the Patriarchs whilst that Rome as I have said already was the Seat of the Empire but now I maintain that he is Vltimus inter Pares and unworthy of the Name of either Priest or Bishop being the Tyrant of the Church and of Christian Princes and a Temporal Prince himself Were he not a Temporal Prince all he could lawfully pretend to would be to be the first Bishop of Italy I know it will be said That I ask too much to obtain any thing and I know that it will be neither better nor worse but I will discharge my mind and tell the Truth God Almighty may raise up Princes
the Church instead of being governed is devoured by a Faction of Villains who eat the people of God like bread But say they you speak of abolishing the Primacy in the Church and nevertheless there is no Society no Families no Colledge but hath it Without it these Societies cannot subsist It is not so much the Primacy which I condemn as the Tyranny which hath been joined to it The Primacy of Place might yet be suffered although Jesus Christ hath not instituted it in the Church but that of Pope is a Primacy of Jurisdiction to which the Universal Church and the whole World is subject as they pretend I condemn the Primacy of a Bishop who is a Worldly Prince who hath more than Twenty Millions of Revâ—nue this Primacy which is the Cause of all the Disorders of the Church Whereas the end and ordinary use of Lawful Primacies is to maintain good Order in all Societies And I wish nothing more than to see re-established in the Church that Primacy which Jesus Christ hath there instituted viz. that of Councils and that they should be often assembled as they were in the Primitive Church for it is the want of these Councils which hath undone the Church We see in the Preface of the Eleventh Council of Toledo that the Fathers say That having wanted the Light of Councils for the space of Ten Years the whole World went astray and the Church fell into disorder and confusion How much more reason have we now to complain of that we who for above these Hundred Years have seen none and which is more can never hope to see a Lawful one whilst the Papacy shall subsist Substracta Luce Conciliorum integro decennie Matrem Omnium Errorum ignorantiam otiosas Mentes occupasse adeo ut Babylonicae Confusionis olla succensa purpuratae Meretricis incrementa Sacerdotes sequerentur quia Ecclesiastici Convenius non aderat Disciplina nec erat qui Errantium Corrigeret partes cum Sermo Divinus haberetur Extorris Is not this the cause of so many Superstitions of so many Heresies Schisms and Licentiousness which we see in the Clergy Is it not a ridiculous thing that no more Councils shall be called whilst we see the Monks both Capucins Carthusians and Jesuits often assemble their Congregations for the augmentation of their Societies It is no wonder if the Church daily runs to ruin whilst these Societies fortifie themselves Is it not clear as the day that if Provincial Synods were called every year National every three or four years as heretofore they were under our great Kings and Oecumenical Councils at least once in Ten years that Remedies would be found out for the Calamities of the Church Might not a Patriarch in every State aided by the Secular Power excute the Decrees of the Church with more facility less jealousie and more security for Religion and for the State than a forreign Ambitious and potent Prince who resolves to take no care for Religion but to model every thing to his own Interest If this Patriarch should neglect his Duty or carry it like a Master should not the Prince chastise him nor depose him Experience shews us that the Church never flourished but when she was Aristocratically governed and when there was no other Primacy in the Universal Church than that of Councils and all Primates and Patriarchs were subject to them But since the Patriarch of Rome hath had the sole disposing of Religion in the West we have seen nothing but Confusion Anarchy Schism Heresies Impiety Atheism Cruelty and Barbarity Ipsa Ecclesia Vnus est Princeps Vnitati fidelium non singulis haec Jurisdictio a Domino conceditur c. Quia Vnitas Ecclesiae multo major est atque perfectior quam Vnitas Vnius Regis aut Imperatoris terreni Thus did the Holy Council of Basil answer the false Reasons of Pope Eugenius his Orators who pretended That the Unity of the Church was preserved much better by a Pope than by the Council There are others who would have the Pope's Authority confin'd within the bounds which the Councils of Constance and of Basil had marked out for it but they never understood the Moral Impossibility that there is not only of making the Popes consent to it but suppose they were constrained to consent to these Rules for a season to make them observe them always or for any long time And Experience confirms what I say with reference even to these Councils which have put no stop at all to their career for they live in contempt as well of these as of all other Lawful Councils Have not they called others in Italy who have destroyed whatever these had established even to treat with the Name of Heresie this Holy Doctrine of the Superiority of the Council Have not the Popes been sufficiently Sacrilegious to raze out of the Roman Edition of General Councils the Council of Basil from among the Oecumenical Councils It is then impossible that with the Impiety and Ambition wherewith the Court of Rome is wholly made up and with the enormous power which the Popes at this time have which equals that of the greatest Kings that they should be reduced to submit themselves to the Council of Constance And even that would signifie nothing for this Council gives them too much Authority It gives them the power which belongs to the Emperors of assembling General Councils of presiding in them and concluding and of executing the Canons of Councils in regard of particular Churches and even of making Decrees during the Intervals of Synods and of being judged only by a General Council They ought then to be deprived of this temporal power the Cardinals to be abolished and the Monks to be Enfranchised and Released from the rash Vows they have made to the Popes the disposing of the Palls of Archbishops ought to be taken from him and the faculty of Investing Bishops and of dispencing with them for holding so many Benefices with all the other Simonical Traffick which will still renders him the Tyrant of the Church the Master of all States and the Devil the possessor of many souls It is much more easie to restore all at once the ancient Discipline I promote a Paradox but my reason is that there will never be a good change but it must happen after some strangely surprizing or if I may so say some violent manner such violence as forces its way into the Kingdom of Heaven Whilest we stand upon treating the Popes shall maintain themselves always with the times either by Intriegues or by some Devilish inventions the most zealous shall grow cold upon the business Ministers shall be corrupted either by money or by Cardinals Caps the Prince shall have other affairs found him to look after or shall be killed by the hand of some Monk or other All the Jesuits and the Monks shall be everlastingly for the Papacy whatever shew they at this time make Gerson somewhere says that there will never
judgment when it is contrary to his own What Unity is there between the Jesuits and the Pope now reigning What Unity is there among many Sects of the Monks who make war upon one another and mortally hate each other What Unity is there of Morals among one or other the Jesuits and the good Catholicks whom they treat as Hereticks Apostates Antichrists and Devils What Unity was there between the Jansenists and Pope Alexander the Seventh We see that for twenty years last past the Popes are between these two Sects as between the Anvil and the Hammer not knowing how to govern themselves because on one side the Jesuits dispose of all the powers of Europe and on the other their Morals destroy Christianity and Humanity it self in this they are opposed by the Jansenists who are followed by all sorts of people that are not lost in Ignorance or Irreligion How can they ever agree in their opinions because the decisions of one Pope do often times overthrow those of another and sometimes they are themselves Hereticks as some people do accuse the present Pope of being a Jansenist which is according to them worse than Heretick What Unity of Religion is there between the Spanish the Italian and French Nations whereof the two first have scarce any knowlâ—dg of God but are almost all Idolaters and the last is very different from them Lastly to judg of this Unity we need only to read the Books of the several Doctors and we shall find them of very different opinions even in regard of the Pope himself The Divines of Italy make him a God on Earth those of France and Germany believe nothing on 't The Universities of Rome and Bolonia determine that he is above the Councils those of France and of Louvain prove very well the contrary The Italian Councils of Florence the Lateran and of Trent will have him above a General Council those of Constance and of Basil maintain that it is a detestable Heresie to believe so If there be a Unity how comes it to pass that it is said and that with reason too that the Pope hath a different soul in every State where he governs If there were a Unity there would be but one Soul they must have greater abilities than either St. Peter or St. Paul who could not unite mens minds in the Churches of Corinth of Philippi and of Galatia where we learn by the Gospel that many Errors were taught in these Apostles times The Cardinal Palavicini says also that Il Principiato Apostolico maintienne in unita in regola in decoro tutta la Chieza the Apostolick Primacy maintains in Unity in Order and in Beauty the whole Church To know the truth of what this Cardinal says we need only to consider what edification the Popes have given to the Church since Boniface the Third Patriarch of the Popes and first Head of the Church Was not the action whereby he got to be Universal Bishop a good example to the Church and that of Pope Zachary in regard of Chilperic Is there any thing in the world that favours perfidiousness and injustice more than these Examples See the Histories of Platina of Genebrard of Sigebert and many others and you shall find that there are no crimes excesses nor abominations which the Popes have not committed to bring about their Affairs for many Ages Is it not a matter of great consolation for honest men to see in this Seat Children Magicians Atheists Adulterers and Sodomites as History affirmeth and not ten or twelve only in all but fifty one after another Baronius himself doth not deny it if the Church had had such Heads as these she would have been long since abolished upon Earth But to make short work on 't Was it not they who ruined the Church and Religion among the Greeks by giving them over as a prey to the Turks because they would not submit to the Popish yoke but demanded the observation of the Holy Canons Were not they the cause of the loss of Hungary by their perfidiousness having advised the King of Hungary to violate the Treaty made with the Turks for which the Hungarians were by a just judgment of God cut all to pieces in the Battel of Varnes as a Poet of those times relates who brings in the King of Hungary speaking thus Me nisi Pontifices jussissent rumpere foedus Non ferret Scythicum Pannonis ora jugum Discite Mortales non temerare Fidem Can it be denied but that it was they who by their detestable Simony and by their pride have destroyed Religion in all those Countries which are called Protestants See but the Complaints which all great men for many Ages have made against this See and those who have been in possession of it and you may judg of the solidity of what Cardinal Palavicini saith that they maintain the Church in Unity in Order and in Honour I will relate some Examples of it John of Salisbury Bishop of Chartres speaks thus The Scribes and Pharisees are sate in the Church of Rome imposing weighty burthens upon the people The Soveraign Pontife is an insupportable grievance to all honest men His Legates commit so many Enormities that it looks as tho the Devil were let loose whosoever doth not acquiesce in their Doctrine is by them treated as a Heretick And the Council of Rheimes Assembled under Hugh Capet and Robert his Son crys out thus Shall it be said that an infinite number of Bishops and Priests who are Illustrious for their merit and for their knowledg shall submit themselves to such Monsters What means this most Reverend Fathers What think you that this man is whom we see sitting upon a lofty Throne shining all with Gold and clothed with Purple We have spoken of the Letter of the Emperor Barbarossa to the Princes of the Empire which Aventine makes mention of the same Author also produces the Speech of an Archbishop who presided in the States of the Empire held at Ratisbon there are these words The Pope teacheth us one thing which is this That there is this difference between Christian Princes and those who are not such that the first bear rule over their Subjects and on the contrary the Subjects viz. the Popes ought to rule over their Princes Our Lord himself took upon him the form of a Servant to serve his Disciples and to kiss their feet but these Ministers of Babylon will reign themselves alone and cannot suffer an equal they will never be at râ—st till they have laid all at their feet till they sit in the Temple of God and even raise themselves above God. He despiseth the Hâ—ly Assemblies and Câ—uncils of his Brethren and of his Masters He is afraid of being compelâ—ed to give an account of what he hath committed against the Laws He speakâ— of great things as tho he were God. His mind runs upon new dâ—signs of establishing an Empire for himself He changeth
means strengthned I acknowledg that Preachers do instruct the people That to make themselves acceptable unto God and to have a share in the Kingdom of Heaven they must refrain from these evil Passions and they build this Obligation upon the Precepts of the Gospel but men acting exceedingly more by the hope and fear of present good or evil than of that which is future the efficacy of all the loveliness of a God who gave this Precept of the hope of Paradice and fear of Hell becomes extreamly weakened in them by the ill Example of those who by their Habit and Condition seem and ought to make profession of a Life more pure and disengaged from the Interests of this World. For altho they embrace not formally this Opinion That there is neither God nor Heaven nor Hell and that on the contrary they hold these Doctrines to be very true yet nevertheless this ill Example makes them act as if they did wholly reject them this damnable Example having so mortal a poison in it that it makes them believe that their Teachers being able men would themselves live conformable to these Instructions if they thought them Divine and they themselves leading not this life 't is probable that they do not believe what they preach and teach The Scripture also in many places highly enveigheth against Pastors of an ill Life the disorder of their manners being a stumbling-block to those whom they have the care of But tho the Irregularities of Pastors did not make so ill an impression upon the minds of the people whilst persons who desire to be saved and are humbled when they perceive within themselves a repugnancy to follow those ways which the Gospel hath marked out hear speak of able men and of almost whole Orders whom for instance the Gospel enjoyns to be charitable know that no more is employed that way than what remains to him who spares no cost to appear Great and to keep up his Port according to the Custom of the World and other such like Interpretations of all the Precepts of Jesus Christ do not they find themselves inclined to embrace these Explications thereby satisfying their desires and thinking to quiet their Consciences Those who favour the Papacy shall tell you That the Pope is so far from ordering such pernicious Maxims to be taught that he doth abhor them and wish with all his heart that they would teach and promote contrary ones Besides that many Popes have themselves entertained ill Opinions I will grant it for the present but the Pope who pretendeth to be the only Head of the Church and that it belongs to him alone to judge absolutely of Eâ—clesiastical things and persons not reproving them nay oftentimes shutting the mouths of those who would oppose them who sow and spread abroad such dangerous Maxims doth uphold these pernicious Opinâ—ons which we have the greater reason to believe because he withdraws the Monks and many of the Clergy from the Jurisdiction of the Bishops If it be said That he cannot silence them by reason of their too great Authority it is then manifest that the Papacy such as it is doth suffer the ill Example and these pernicious Opinions and is not able to hinder them unless it be in matters of very small importance And thus far it is an Obstacle unto Piety since no body can apply a Remedy whilst the Pope shall be acknowledged the Head and Master of the Church The Second Argument which sheweth That the Papacy is an Obstacle unto true Virtue is that it makes use of such practices as promote a false and only seeming instead of true Piety Some Catholicks do teach That Contrition is necessary to make Confession valid But this Doctrine is not much followed That which hath the Vogue and reigns most in the World is that Attrition is sufficient which is only a simple Sorrow for having sinned and that too occasioned but by the fear of Hell. The people who are instructed in this Opinion believe readily that it is an easie matter to be justified before God and so think that after having sinned a great while they shall at their Death receive Absolution of their sins by saying a Peccavi For what man is there who is not afraid of being Damned The great multitude of Plenary Indulgences and others which are as common as Water doth also marvellously contribute to the casting men into Impenitence and to make them at the same time believe that their Consciences are in safety under pretence of observing those Exercises which pass for Pious tho they are not so I could produce many other Reasons to demonstrate the Truth of what I say but let these suffice The Pope pretending to be the only Soveraign Judge of Religion not silencing these false and pernicious Teachers nay not being able to do it if he would Is not then the Papacy an Obstacle unto true Piety since it introduces a false one in its place There are good people among the Catholicks I confess but the Papacy contributes nothing to that On the contrary those who believe and live well it is God and not the Pope who is the Author of their Piety as well as of their Profession which is rather destroyed than maintained by the usual Pride and Impiety of the Popes from whence it comes that no man now a days believes but what he will so that the whole World is full of Deists Socinians Libertines and impious persons But they say That at least the Papacy doth maintain the External Vnity and that is a great Advantage Yet I deny that For what does it contribute to this outward Unity But besides that it serves only to cheat the World whilst there is no inward Unity If they mean the Unity in Ceremonies First of all this would be no great matter for Ceremonies make not the Essence of Religion but are only the out-side of it and besides they are very different according to the several Countries and the Popes are not the Authors of them If they were it were enough to condemn them Besides all this there are fewer Sects and Factions less Divisions and by consequence more Unity among the Greeks who have many Patriarchs than among us I acknowledge indeed that it is rather Ignorance that unites them than Reason or Piety Bâ—t they tell us that the Popes spare nothing for the Conversion of the Greeks and Protestants they bestow on them both Money and Benefices To that may be added That they have not spared even the Blood of Hereticks for their Conversion as History informs us But if it be their Conversion which they do heartily desire why do not they renounce the Authority which they have usurped in the Church and in the World Why do not they re-establish things in a Christian manner in the same State they were in in the days of the Apostles and of the Primitive Church Why do not they condemn the Blasphemies which are spoken in favour of
lenitatem datam Ipsi Dii lenes sunt talibus If thou canst teach me better if not remember Gentleness was given thee for this very purpose The Gods themselves are gentle to such If the Christian Religion did establish the Inquisition if she justified the Perfidiousness and Inhumanities which the Court of Rome and Hereticks commit every day upon the account of Religion I should make no difficulty to declare it an abominable Religion and that we ought not to be of it one moment longer and if People went to Heaven by such ways as these I should be soon of the Americans mind who said they would not go to the same Paradise whither the Spaniards went nor would I go to the Paradise of the Popes and the Inquisitors I do maintain that the Popes have ruined the Church in those Countries where their Inquisition hath been set up more than all the Heresies in the World together ever could have done We need not but consider the good Effects which it hath had in those Countries where in truth there is no Religion at least Christianity scarce there to be found and how should it with that Ignorance which the Inquisition brings along with it which hath produced nothing but Superstition Impiety Hypocrisy dissembling of Opinions a thousand Cruelties and Treacheries and all sorts of abominable Vices which are scarce known but in Countries of the Inquisition And where we find them in other Countries they have been brought thither from Rome by those that were devoted to the Papacy through the too great Commerce which Princes suffer with Rome The Hereticks may well say that they are obliged to the Inquisition that Holland is no longer Catholick If the Inquisiâ—ion be advantagious to Christianity Why do the most Christian Nations of Europe the best regulated both in their Religion and their Manners detest it Compare the French Nation Germany Flanders and Poland with the other Slaves to the Inquisition and you will say that the latter are not worthy of the Name of Christians in comparison of the former And for the Hereticks I esteem and Heretick that is an honest Man and that fears God a hundred times more than a Catholick who lives disorderly or that knows not what Religion is I know no worse Heresy than to be without the knowledg of God and how can He be known where the Holy Scripture is not allowed to be read where the Clergy are wholly lost in most abominable Vices and know nothing at all where it is Crime enough to be burnt to discourse about Religion where Mens Minds are filled with a thousand Fooleries that have no relation at all to Piety Set a Spaniard or an Italian who hath gotten a little Sense to discourse on Jesus Christ and he shall not fail to tell you that Jesus Christ was a great Politician Christo era Grande Politico because he sees that his Vicar under the pretence of Religion hath made so great Conquests and subdued all Catholick Princes to himself This is the Idea which they have of Jesus Christ and which they form to themselves upon what they see in the Court of Rome and in the present State of the Church for as for the Holy Scripture they know less of it than of the Alcoran And their Divines teach them that the Church is the most happy Body Politick upon Earth Corpo Politico il piu felice che sia in terra as Cardinal Palavicini says And the same Cardinal says in another place that Jesus Christ would have his Church governed as great Polititians govern their States and that he came down from Heaven upon Earth to make her happy as well in this World as in the other by heaping upon her Honours Riches and Pleasures secondo la carne according to the Flesh. And of the Papacy in particular he says that it is the abundant Source of Temporal Felicity Il Principiato Apostolico fonte d'utilita Temporale secondo la carne in quel modo chi e piu conforme etiandio all humana felicita The Apostolick Primacy is the Fountain of Temporal Profit and in such a manner as is most conducing to Human Felicity Nor do the Portuguees understand things better they are more than half Jews and yet know not what either Judaism or Christianity is There are a great many of them who look for a sort of a Messias who by his great Conquests ought to make them Masters of the World this is one of their Kings named Sebastian whom they have made a Saint he was killed in the Battel of Alcazar going to assist one Moorish King against another and because his Body was not found after the Battel they pretend that he is not dead but that he roams up and down the World and that he will return suddenly again to conquer all the habitable Earth and make it subject to the Portugal Nation This is the Faith of the Christians in that Country and they learn it insensibly of the Jews It is not long since a Man might have borrowed a considerable Sum of Mony in Portugal payable at the return of St. Sebastian That which doth produce this horrible Ignorance among these People is not only that they read not the Holy Scriptures but because the Inquisition suffers there no Religion but its own for by this means there is no body who can accuse either the Inhumanity of the Inquisition or the Vices and Incapacities of the Clergy If some other Sect had liberty among them the Contradiction of this Sect would oblige them to study and to instruct themselves which would make the Study of Divinity and other Sciences flourish among them and seeing every Man would have as many Censurers of his Religion and of his Manners as there were Men of contrary Opinions this would make Men take care of their Behaviour that their Lives might be more conformable to true Christianity Wickedness would be greatly abated Men would be ashamed of those horrible Crimes which the Italians now make their diversion there would be much more knowledg of God more Industry and Perfection in the World. I know that this is not at all agreeable to the Humour of the Popes and their Clergy who make their Markets better by Ignorance and the Inquisition I know by my own Experience and what I have heard say by many good People in England that the expulsion of Catholicks would destroy amongst them all Devotion and Religion because they would have no Adversaries to awaken them and to oblige them to take care of themselves their Ministers would become ignorant and debauched and so proportionably the People But say they the Inquisition doth prohibit all ill Books you must know too that the Word of God is of the number of these ill Books that are prohibited and that there are many other Books forbidden which have not only no ill in them but which are very excellent only because they are contrary to the Ambition of the Court
of Vicars of Jesus Christ which they insolently assume have cast the Church into the most deplorable Desolation and have ravaged all Christian Kingdoms who authorise all sorts of Vice and Disorder both in the Church and in the World dethrone Kings the anointed of God tread upon the Necks of Emperours dispence with the Oaths of Allegiance in their Subjects dispence with the Laws of God and his Gospel hinder Christians from reading the holy Scripture without which we cannot be Christians and unmercifully murther Men for their Religion by their Inquisition ought it to be questioned whether such People as these should be exterminated Pope Innocent himself and many others are of Opinion that we may destroy those that sin against Nature And St. Augustin says Opinantur scelera facienda decerni qualia si quis terrena Civitas decerneret genere humano decernente fuerat evertenda Seneca hath also a fine saying upon this Si non Patriam meam impugnat sed suae gravis est sepositus a meâ gente suam exagitat abscidit nihilominus illum tanta pravitas animi In fine no Man can doubt whether those who curse their Father and Mother and tread them under their Feet or those that live upon Humane Flesh or Pirates upon the Sea without Commission from any Prince ought to be extirpated and whether all Princes have not a right to destroy them if they can I maintain that the Popes do all this and worse I have already shewed it in what I have related But besides all this what can a Man think of these Men who call themselves their Holinesses which is a Title that belongs only to God and is one of the most excellent of all his Attributes who call themselves Vicars of Jesus Christ to dethrone Jesus Christ from his Church and govern it at their own fantasy who say that they are infallible and above the Councils that they can open Heaven and shut up Hell put out the Fire of Purgatory when they please save and damn whom they please who make themselves be called God and the Divine Majesty and cause themselves to be worshipped I demand whether there be any thing like this in the Crimes of others the most vile and miserable Creatures and that which is the most terrible of all is that the Popes do every day cast down many Millions of Souls headlong into Hell. Do not such things as these deserve the Vengeance of Princes here on Earth The Insensibility and Stupidity of Christians must be very great this their Lethargy to me appears monstrous and certainly there must be in it somewhat supernatual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Hippocrates says of some strange Diseases which are wholly unknown If the Interest of God and his Church were here only concerned it would not be so surprising for usually Princes seldom trouble themselves with that they cry Deorum injuriae diis curae but here where they are robbed of their Majesty to dress up a pack of Rascals with it where they are made Tributary where their Authority is limited where part of their Subjects are withdrawn from them by Exemptions and base Laws which make them contemptible as well to those who thus plunder them as to others who secure themselves under the Covert of this Tyranny It is unconceiveable that Princes should have so much Patience for tho the Primacy of St. Peter could be proved that he was Bishop of Rome and left there his Succcessours either as he was an Apostle or a Bishop must I say such People as these be his Successours and make all these Crimes their common Practise and go still unpunished They shall as soon make me worship the Devil as believe it And I really believe that it would be no hard matter to make them who adhere to the Papacy both receive and serve him They would soon relish the Reasons of the Manicheens who said that there were two Principles the one good and the other bad or the Argument of those Indians who believed they ought to worship the Devil because he could do them hurt and that God being all good of himself could do them none and so it is not necessary to adore him This now looks very amazing but they who are so much in love with the Papacy would soon receive it if any Man of Sense would give a little colour to it and there were good Benefices to be hoped for by it which could not otherwise be obtained if they might have fine Churches and re-establish the fine Ceremonies of Numa Pompilius if their only care might be to divert the Eyes and Eares of the People with Musick and rare Shews as heretofore they did to those miserable Jews who brought their Children to Moloch and whilst they burned they played upon all sorts of Instruments and entertained them with the most delightful Musick that they might not hear the Cries of their poor Children Can we think it strange as things go that the Protestants are not converted There would be in my Opinion greater reason to wonder if they should embrace the Catholick Religion whilst the Pope should exercise this horrible Tyranny for I do maintain that there is no Man of Honour that hath any Modesty or Sense of Christianity that can digest this Article of the Almighty Power of the Pope if at least it hath not been riveted in him from his Childhood and he been brought up in this Opinion all his Life-time without ever making any Reflection upon it But for the Protestants we must never pretend to make them believe that the Popes are Heads of the universal Church established by Jesus Christ to govern it as it is governed there is no Man of Sense will ever be perswaded to believe this But it may be said that the great Truths which the Catholâ—ck Religion teaches give us so great an advantage over the Hereticks that they ought to make no difficulty of passing over such an Error as this to enter into the Communion of the Church For my part I am of Opinion that a Man's Conversion is a work supernatural and from the hand of God who filling the Heart of Man with Light and Courage makes him overcome Darkness and his natural Weakness and that a true Conversion is always accompanied with Zeal towards God and Charity towards our Neighbour This being supposed I maintain that they who are converted by these Principles do in effect embrace with their whole Heart the Catholick Truths but that their Charity and the Zeal towards God which animates them shall always make them resist and oppose to the utmost of their Power all Impostures and Falsities whatsoever that they shall chearfully lose their Estates and Lives to deliver the Church from so miserable a Slavery as the Papacy is It is a great unhappiness that the Protestants have separated themselves not from the Pope but from the Church and that they have invented Novelties to fortify their Schism which at
the beginning had no other Original than the Tyranny of the Pope for without these Novelties the Church would in all likelihood have joyned with them because that many People saw clearly the Cheat of the Papacy and that it had no Foundation neither in the Scripture nor in Reason but the Opâ—nions which they began then to spread abroad to which from time to time they added somewhat or other new ut nemo fit repente turpissimus put the Catholicks out of all hope and made them continue as they were and it were now foolish enough to think our selves in the wrong to acknowledg that the Protestants are right in this Article and that we have not courage enough to get off this Abuse and to detest it as well as they wherein we do great Prejudice to our selves to Religion and likewise to the Protestants whom we destroy by it for they seeing that they have Reason on their side in this Point cannot believe that we have it in others and so remain obstinante For my part as I am assured that their Religion is contrary to the Gospel so I cannot but confess and I think my self indispencibly bound in Conscience to do it that concerning the Article of the Papacy they have more Reason on their side than can be imagined But if we find that we have too little Courage or Strength to undertake to abolish and utterly destroy this Monster we ought at least to endeavour to send him home to Rome and secure our selves from all the Mischief he is able to do us and not to endure any more his Approaches I say this only to prevent the Objection which People make that it is extream difficult to bring about such an Enterprise that this great Machine is so well joyned together this Babel hath so many Props and Arches that they who should undertake to pull it down would be in danger of being swallowed up in its Ruins Mille annorum fortunâ disciplinâque compages haec coaluit quae convelli sine convellentium exitio non potest It would ever be a glorious thing both before God and Men to undertake so great a thing tho it were without success But I do not think the danger so great as People imagine for I am perswaded that this work doth not exceed the Strength of any great vigorous and zealous Prince who would manage the thing with Prudence I own that no Prince can undertake such a Work who is not assured that his Neighbours shall not oppose him and that his Clergy and People shall not be against him As for his Neighbours he may easily know their Disposition both as to their Will and the Means they have either to assist or hurt him And for the Clergy the Contrivance should be to let them peaceably enjoy their Benefices and to make them understand their Rights that according to the Gospel all Bishops are equal and that they owe to the Pope no more than to any other of their fellow Brethren that the Popes have usurped over them the Authority which they assume to themselves of giving Bulls and the Oath of Fidelity which they exact from them and that these things overturn the Gospel and that for the Oath if they have taken it to the Pope it is null in it self being against the Law of God as St. Austin says si ad peccatum admittendum fides adhibeatur mirum est si fides appelletur And for the People they must be gently used and made to understand if they are capable of Reason that all the Popes of Rome as well as other Bishops have Authority only in their Diocess according to the Gospel and ancient Canons that the Authority which they exercise serves for nothing else but to make them Masters of the whole Earth and turns to nothing but their particular Profit They must also be shewed the Disorders which this Power hath caused both in the Church and in the World as I have represented it in some places of this Work. If once the People were made to comprehend this the Monks could never do any Mischief for they are dangerous only among the People whom they govern provided they do not come nigh Princes This being done a potent and prudent Prince would easily perswade other Princes all that I have said of the Papacy of its uselesness of the Mischiefs it hath caused in the Church and in the World of the Shame which it draweth upon them by keeping them always under the Yoak of the damage which it causeth to their Estates of the Danger they are continually in depending upon the Popes Humour who can excommunicatâ— them when he pleaseth of the Account they will have to give to God for so many Souls that perish as well Catholicks as Hereticks the one by Ignorance and the others by the Obstinacy which the Papacy causeth and that Religion hath no Connection with the Papacy that we should be more Catholicks than we are if there were no Pope and that the Church would be Aristocratically governed as in the first Centuries by the way of Councils There is no Prince who hath common Sense but would joyn with another truly Catholik Prince that would propose this and by this means we should soon see the Prophecy of the Revelation fulfilled which says that the Kingdoms of the World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever But say they the King and the Bishops have sworn Fidelity to the Holy See. I answer with St. Ambrose That it is ever unjust to observe an Oath made against God or our Neighbour And St. Augustin said above that if an Oath tends to a Crime it is contrary to Faith to keep it I have proved that the Papacy is a Mystery of Iniquity and that so Princes as well as others would make themselves the Instruments of the Popes Crimes of their Sin against God and of the Ruine which they draw upon the Church Seneca says very well Si in omnibus obediendum est patri in eo non est obediendum in quo efficitur ne pater sit Tho we ought in all things to obey our Father yet he is not to be obeyed in those things wherein he ceaseth to be a Father The reason then is much stronger that we ought not to obey a common High-way-man who hath deceived and seduced us to make us Complices of his Crimes When a Vow or an Oath is lawfully made yet where the thing vowed or the Oath taken doth hinder a greater Moral Good Orthodox Divines are of Opinion that the Oath is null because that we owe to God a Progrâ—â— in well doing so that we cannot deprive our selves of the Liberty of making this Progress Besides every Oath of a Christian hath this understood Provided that this be to the greater Glory of God Edification of our Neighbour and our own Salvation So that quod proptâ—r Charitatem fit non debet