to no purpose For in his 10. Epistle to Gregory Nazianzen after he had aduised him to take heede that hee vsed no requests or intreatyes towards the Bishop of Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for feare lest hee waxe proud thereupon he addeth these words If the wrath of God continue what helpe shall we receiue from these Westerlings who neither know the truth neither can they indure to bee taught it Coeffeteau subioyneth that S. Chrysostome beeing banished and driuen from his Bishoppricke he had recourse to Pope Innocent and implored the assistance of his authority But he should also haue added that Innocent taking the defence of Chrysostome in hand wrote two Letters which are found in Sozomen lib. 8. cap. 26. The first of which is nothing but a Consolatorie Epistle to Chrysostome exhorting him to patience without promising him any assistance which hee would doubtlesse haue done if it had bin in his power to haue re-established him into his charge The second Letter was written to the people Clergie of Constantinople in which there is no commandement giuen to restore Chrysostom to the possessioÌ„ of his charge but onely a complaint of infringing the Canons of the Church an aduise to summon a generall Councell Sozomen further addeth in the 28. chapter Ioannis hostes apud Constantinopolim hanc rem quasi in contumeliam eius imperij fieret calumaiati sunt vt illi tanquam transmarini imperij turbator s ablegarentur effâ—cerunt tum etiam vt ipse Iobâ—naâ—s etiam vlteâ—â—us Pâ—â—yâ—atem scilicet exulatum transferretuâ— pro. urarunt that the Deputies sent by the Pope to sollicite Chrysostomes restitution were sent backe without preuailing any thing and were further * accused towards the Emperour Arcadius as hauing medled in this busines with contempt of the Empire and as troublers of the state of the transmarine Empire And indeede were the cause why Chrysostome was sent farther away into banishment So little did men then care for the Counsells or aduertisements of the Bishop of Rome So also al his intercession was onely by way of aduise and request and not by commaundement neither shall you finde that S. Chrysostome or his successours did euer demaund the Bishop of Romes Letters of Inuestiture or euer receiued the Pall from him Our Doctor addeth Lib. 3. cap. 7. that Iulius the first restored Athanasius Patriarch of Alexandria Paul Bishop of Constantinople and many others because saith Sozomen that the care of all things belonged to the Bishop of Rome by reason of his Sea he restored their Churches to each of them It would be in vaine to expect from this Doctor any passages faithfully alleadged the course and order of the story sheweth that they were not restored at all and that the Easterne Churches made little account of the Bishop of Rome For in the lines following it appeareth that the Easterne Bishops did nothing at all of what Iulius wrote vnto them but returned Letters of mockerie taxing his pride They spake indeede honourably of the Church of Rome by reason of the greatnesse of the Citie and because that the Apostles had taught there but withall they adde Tamen indignati sunt se posteriores ideo ferre quod magnitudine Ecclesiae superarentur idque cum virtute viuendi instituto longè superiores essent That they were moued with indignation that they should be thought to be of a lower rancke vnder a pretence that their Church was not so great seeing that if they respected vertue or gouernement of life they were farre before the Church of Rome And to the end that the Bishop of Rome should not be doing with their affaires they tell him that they intermedled not with his And that the Bishops and Priests of the East their predecessors did not oppose themselues to the Bishop of Rome when he cut off Nouatus from the Church And further the same Sozomen cap. 10. witnesseth that the same Orientall Bishops deposed Iulius Bishop of Rome with Osius Maximus and others They were indeed Arrians and proceeded vniustly against Iulius who defended the truth but yet we shall not finde that this hath beene reckoned among the errours of the Arrians that they did not acknowledâ—e the Bishop of Rome to be head of the Church They were ignorant of the true nature of Iesus Christ but they well knew what was the Ecclesiasticall policy and how farre the bounds of the Bishop of Rome did extend And if it be found in story that Iulius Bishop of Rome wrote his Letters to re-integrate any expulsed Bishops into their Charges we finde also that Liberius Bishop of Rome Scribunt literas Faelici tum Ecclesiae Romanae Antistiti Clero eiusdem Ecclesiae vti Liberium recipiant ambo pariter Ecclesiam Apostolicam administrent being put from his Bishopricke is sent backe with the letters of the Easterne Bishops and by their commaundement re-established as Sozomen witnesseth lib. 4. cap. 14. And yet this is not taken vp for a proofe of superiority of the Easterne Bishops ouer the Bishops of Rome but to testifie the mutuall helpe which the Churches lend one to another in their necessities no more then when we read in the story of Socrates l. 7. cap. 33. that Cyrill of Alexandria deposed Nestorius Bishop of Constantinople that Nestoriê° degraded Cyrill as also that Iohn of Antioch and Cyrill condemne excommunicate one another this is not a proof of Superiority So S. Hilary Bishop of Poictiers in the fragments of his Epistles oftentimes saith Anathema tibi a me Liberi and so excommunicateth the Bishop of Rome without any pretence of Superiority ouer him As for that which Sozomen saith that the Bishop of Rome had the care of all Churches by reason of the dignity of his Sea this is true not onely in the Bishop of Rome but also of all the Patriarches Thus haue we heretofore seene that Basil saith that Athanasius Patriarch of Alexandria had the care of all Churches as Basil had of his particular Church and that the Patriarch of Antioch was ouer the whole body of the Church We haue also but euen now produced an example in which the Bishops of the East shew to haue had care of the West But this point hath neede of more cleare demonstration To fetch the matter then a little higher we must vnderstand that from the first Nicene Councell held Anno 328. the Histories doe make manifest that in the auncient Church Bishops had precedency each of other according to the dignities of their Cities which precedency was without any Superiority or Iurisdiction ouer one another No more nor lesse then the Counsellors of the Court goe in rancke according as they were admitted although they be equall in charge Or as when Christian Princes or their Ambassadours meete together to deliberate of the affaires of Christendome one hath precedencie and place before another yet without rule or dominion one ouer another So fared it with
the holy Ghost to whom soeuer you shall forgiue their sinnes they shall be forgiuen and looke whose sinnes yee retaine they shall be retained Now to vnderstand how farre the gift of any charge extendeth it selfe we must not so much respect the promises made as the actuall donation and the maner how it is receaued 4 Doubtlesse if by these words Iesus Christ had giuen vnto S. Peter power ouer the other Apostles he would haue commanded them to obey S. Peter and to acknowledge him for their Superior which is not found in any place of Scripture Now that Iesus Christ gaue the Keyes and power of binding and losing to all the Apostles Putas soli Petro dantur à Christo claues coelorum nemo ali bea toruÌ„ accipiet cas Si auteÌ„ coÌ„mune est inter omnes quod dicitur dabo tibi claues reg ni coelorum quomodo non omnia quae superius sunt dicta ad Petrum omnium videantur esse communia it doth appeare not only by the reasons afore alleadged but also by the testimony of auncient Fathers Origen vpon the sixteenth of Matthew the first Treatise How then saith he hath Iesus Christ giuen the Keyes onely to S. Peter And shall not the other receiue them also Or if that which is said I will giue vnto thee the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heauen be also common to all the other why should not as well also all that that goeth before and that which followeth after be common though it were spoken to Peter Hilary in the fixth booke of the Trinity speaking to the Apostles Vos ô Sancti beati viri ob fidei vestrae meritum claues regai coelorum ligandi soluen dâ—ius in terra adepti O ye blessed men that by the merite of your faith haue the Keyes of the Kingdome and the power to binde and lose And then hee further saith Heare the Lordsaying I will giue thee the keyes c. That which is spoken to Peter is spoken to the Apostles Audi dicentem Tibi dabo c. Quod Petro dicitur Apostol's dicitur S. Ierome in his first booke against Iouinian All the Apostles receiue the Keyes of the Kingdome of heauen Cum illud vnus pro omnibus dixerit hoc cum omaib tauquam bersonam gerens ipsius vnitatis acceperit Ideo vnus pro omnib quia vnitas est in omnib S. Augustine in his 218. Tract vpon Iohn saith S. Peter spake these wordes for all and receiued the aunswere with all the other as representing the vnity in his person and therefore one receiued it for all because there was one vnity amongst them all In the Councell of Aix vnder Lewes the courteous the people is brought in speaking thus of the Clergy in generall By whom we are made Christians Tom. 3. Concil pag. 416. per quos Christiani sumus qui claues regni coelorum habentes quodommodo ante diem iudicij iudicant Who hauing the Keyes of the kingdome of heauen doe after asort Iudge before the day of Iudgement In the Councell of Paris vnder Lewes and Lotharius Emperours the third booke and eight chapter the Bishops of France speake thus This may easily be vnderstood by the wordes of the Lord Quod ex verbis Domini facile intelligere possunt quibus beato Petro cuiê° vicem indigni gerimus ait Quaecunque liga ueris c. when he said to Peter Whose place we vnwrothily occupie whatsoeuer thou bindest c. you see that they be all called the Successours of Peter and that they enioy his place And chap. 3. they giue those titles vnto Priests They are the strong Pillars vpon whom the whole multitude of beleeuers being founded Cap. 9. Ipsi sunt Ianitores quibus claues datae sunt regni coelorum Fol. 84. p. 2. are by them vpheld and supported Againe they are the Porters vnto whom the keyes of the kingdome of heauen are giuen But the Priests of Fraunce dare not speake now adayes in this stile To be short the case is so cleare that Coeffeteau is constrained to confesse that the Keyes were giuen to all the Apostles but he saith not with so large extent as they were to Peter See then the issue of this difference all our aduersaries acknowledge that the Keyes were equally giuen to all the Apostles but not in so high a degree as to S. Peter being demaunded where they finde this difference Or if there be any place of Scripture where Iesus Christ giueth the Keyes to S. Peter more then to the rest here they are as dumbe as fishes and when they come to the very exigent and issue of the matter they bleede at the nose and cannot produce any kind of proofe from the word of God Coeffeteau onely alleadgeth Hilary which is to bring in mans testimony against God and yet hee speaketh not any thing that eyther contradicteth the Gospell or vs for he onely saith that S. Peter is the Foundation of the Church and that he hath the Keyes but he saith not that he hath them more then the rest of the Apostles And if that Coeffeteau acknowledge that the Keyes are giuen to all the Aposties let him shew me in what place of scripture for there is not any place in the Gospell that speaketh of the giueing of keyes but this onely and here is no speech made of two kindes of giuing the keyes Besides it is easie for vs to proue that the Pope doth vniustly diminish the power of the Keyes giuen to all Bishops and Priests for since they be all Successors of the Apostles they ought to haue the same Keyes which the Apostles had Whence it followeth that God saith to all the faithful Pastors of the Church in the person of the Apostles That whatsoeuer they shal binde on earth shal be bound in heauen But the Pope correcteth this and sayth vnto them whatsoeuer you lose shall not be vnbound for there are certaine great offences which are called Cases reserued the absolution whereof lyeth not in your power but is a priuiledge peculiar vnto me Vnderstand now what these greeuous sinnes are that are thus reserued to the Pope Is it Paricide Incest treason against Princes murder or blasphemy against God No such matter that is euer pardoned by euery Bishop for such sinnes are but against the law of God but the sinnes that be out of their power are these See the Bull de caena Domini which is of cases reserued to the pope If any man hinder them that goe to Rome for Pardons if any man be an intruder into any Benefice or office Ecclesiasticall if any haue purloyned the goods of the Church or if any haue offended the Sea Apostolicall the absolution of such horrible sinnes as these are is no where else to be had but at Rome These are the cases reserued For to offend the Pope or to bereaue him of his profite is matter farre more heynous then to
the Church and the first of all other and this is found in the 16 Session But note that it is not the Councell which speaketh thus but Paschasin deputed from Rome who pleadeth his owne cause and yet this hindred not this Councell from making a Canon expresly declaring and defining that the Bishop of Constantinople is equall with him of Rome in all things yea euen in causes Ecclesiasticall the Canon hath beene produced by vs before He further saith that Irenaeus chap. 3. lib. 3. doth attribute vnto the Church of Rome a principality more powerfull thē vnto others which is most false and an euident corruption of the place Irenaeus speaketh of the principality and power of the city for being the seate of the Empire the faithfull of all Churches had necessary occasions to repaire thither The words are these Ad hanc Ecclesiam propter potentiorem principalitatem necesse est omnem conuenire c. Ecclesiam vnto this Church by reason of the more mighty principality it is necessary that euery Church should resort As if I should say that all the Churches of France should come to that of Paris because there is the principality and power of the Realme and yet can I not for all this say that the faithfull ministers of the Church of Paris haue a principality ouer the rest Saint Cyprian in the third Epistle of his first booke doth directly call the Church of Rome the principall Church because in all the West there was no Church so great or so remarkable as it He saith that the vnity of Priesthood came from thence because his opinion was Hoc crant vtique caeteri Apostoli quod Petrus pari consortio honoris potestatis sed exordium ab vnitate proficisc it ur vt Ecclesia vna monstretur that albeit the Apostles were all equall in power and honour yet S. Peter was entertained into his charge some small time before the other Apostles Iesus Christ hauing a determination to begin from one to the end to shew the vnity of the Church as he saith in his treatise of the simplicity of Prelates He beleeued then that S. Peter who for a season held the sacerdo tall dignity alone to testifie the vnity of the Church had beene at Rome and that from thence Christiā religion spred it selfe into the West Now in this Cyprian goeth about to soften and to gratifie the Bishop of Rome to the end to prepare him the better to taste and to brooke the checkes and reproofes which afterwards he adioyneth whereby he proueth to Cornelius that he hath no power at all ouer Affricke and that he neither could nor ought to receiue the causes of those whom the Bishops of Affricke had condemned for saith he presently after seeing it is ordered among vs all and that it is a thing iust and reasonable that euery mans cause should be examined where the crime was committed and that vnto euery Pastor there is allotted a portion of the flocke which each one ought to gouerne and leade as being to render an account vnto the Lord of his carriage and behauiour there is no reason that those whom we guide should runne from one place to another and through their fraudulent rashnesse seeke to breake the concord of Bishops friendly knit together but that they should there pleade their causes where they may haue accusers and witnesses of their crimes lest it fall out that some desperate and forlorne persons should thinke that the authority of the Bishops of Affricke who haue condemned them should be lesse then others their cause hath beene alreadie examined the sentence hath beene alreadie pronounced To conclude he maintaineth that Cornelius may not take knowledge of any causes determined by the Bishops of Affrica without accusing them of lightnesse and vustaydnesse and so trouble the peace and quiet of the Church This is the cause that made Cyprian to gild his pill to extol the dignity of the Church of Rome before he would shew him that he ought not to thrust himselfe into the affaires of other Churches For it is diligently to be noted that those among the ancient Fathers that affirme that the Bishop of Rome is successour to Peter doe thereby vnderstand that he is successour in the charge of Bishop of Rome but not in the Apostleship After this sort also the Bishops of Ephesus were successors to S. Iohn and S. Paul the Bishops of Ierusalem successors to S. Iames so farre as these Apostles were Bishops of Ephesus and Ierusalem but they neuer were successors to the Apostleship and to the gouernment of the Church Vniuersall Nor is there any reason why the Bishop of Rome should be successor to Peter in his Apostleship and yet the Bishop of Ierusalem should be onely successor to S. Iames in his Bishoppricke Besides the Bishop of Antioch more auncient then the Bishop of Rome hath alwaies beene called the successor of S. Peter and why should it not be aswell in the Apostleship and gouernment of the Vniuersall Church If you will say that Peter hath taken away the prerogatiue and preheminence from Antioch and hath transported it to Rome we vtterly deny it and thereof no proofe worthy the receiuing can be brought If they further say that Peter dyed at Rome I will also say that Iesus Christ dyed at Ierusalem And why should not Christ his death at Ierusalem haue in it more power and vertue to make the Bishop of Ierusalem chiefe of the Church then the death of S. Peter at Rome to conferre this great dignity vpon the Bishop of Rome I leaue it likewise to the Readers to iudge who after the death of Peter ought of right to bee the chiefe of the Vniuersall Church For S. Iames liued yet at Ierusalem after S. Peter was dead And the Apostle S. Iohn out-liued him 32 yeares Eusebius in his Chronicle saith that Peter and Paul died the yeare of our Lord 69. and that S. Iohn dyed at Ephesus in the yeare 101. according to the accompt of Eusebius and Irenaeus Is it a thing to bee beleeued that S. Iohn the Disciple whom Iesus loued who leaned on his breast vnto whom he recommended his mother at his death whose writings are diuine oracles as the Reuelations in the Apocalips doe witnes that he should bee inferior to Linus the Disciple of Paul and indeed our aduer saries themselues haue inserred into the first Tome of their Councels certaine Epistles which they say were Clements Bishoppe of Rome amongst which there is one to S. Iames Bishop of Ierusalem and thus it beginneth Clemens to Iames brother of the Lord Bishop of Bishops gouerning the holy Church of the Hebrewes which is in Ierusalem Clemens Iacobo fratri Domini Episcopo Episcoporum yea all the Churches which are founded euery where by the prouidence of God And a little after hee calleth him his Lord words which witnesse that Clemens acknowledged Iames for his superior and chiefe of all
Non verbum verbo curabit reddere fidus Interpres Horat. in Art poet but retayning the strength and sinew of the Sentence I haue rendred it as best fitted the property of speech in our owne language Where the Kings words were to be inserted I haue chosen rather to follow his Maiesties owne Coppy then the French Translation which sometimes varyeth from it neyther haue I therein wronged mine Author Wherefore omitting those smaller mistakes which the discreete will passe ouer with an easie censure whether they bee wordes redundant as in or the twice repeated Or Syllables disioyned as often for often or letters transposed as villaines for villanies or wordes ill orthographized as Epostle and daceiue in one page for Apostle and deceiue Likewise Alminacke Letonies terent for Almanacke Letanies torrent c. Those other which are represented in the end of the booke I leaue to thy courtesie necessarily to be amended being such as import the matter and in which the Composers omitting or not well reading the wordes interlined wherein I sometimes corrected my selfe haue thrust in their owne coniectures Farewell TO THE READER MAy it please thee gentle Reader to vnderstand that after we had finished our worke and that the booke was now ready to come forth there came to my hands certaine corrections and amplifications of some points from the Author himselfe earnestly intreating to haue them inserted which because they could not conueniently be brought in in their proper places the booke being already printed yet that we might doe him right against the malice of his captious Aduersaries I thought it good to bestow them in this page requesting thee of thy charity which couereth a multitude of sinnes at once to pardon both our faults Page 30.14 reade the last Canon 45.25 r. as though he affirmed it without knowledge and spake it onely vpon trust 80.23 r. iudged to be vniust 181.7 r. the earth is almost full of the chips and pieces thereof Page 338.16 after the word men leaue out the whole sentence ending with the word Saluation then adde as followeth Onely we must note that this word Dulia hath a double and doubtfull signification and that there be two sorts of Dulia The one is a Religious action the other is onely a seruice an humane respect which is yeelded also to the liuing As for that kinde of Dulia which is a Religious worship the holy scripture forbiddeth it to be giuen to any saue onely to God alone as 1. Sam. 7.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prepare your hearts to the Lord and yeeld Dulia or Seruice to him alone And S. Austin Quaest 94. vpon Exodus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debetur Deo tanquam Domino Doulia is due to GOD as to him who is MASTER And de Ciuit. Dei lib. 10. cap. 1. Religio non est nisi Dei cultus Religion is nothing else but the seruice of God plainly shewing that the seruing of the Creatures is not an action of Religion But if we take the word Dulia for a respect and seruice done vnto men and not for a religious action our aduersaries doe amisse to say that they serue the Saints or other Images with Dulia seeing they yeeld them a religious seruice and a voluntary worship tending to the attainment of saluation Againe ibid line 29. reade that then no miracles were wrought by their Images Page 367.13 r. the whole earth is full of the peeces of it 399.27 Modicum quodque delictum mora resurrectionis illic luendo Page 425.27 r. in the 9. Distinction and the 9. Canon of the Councell of Antioch and the 17. Canon of the Councell of Chalcedon These wordes of the Canon of Antioch are for a marginall note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Page 433. blot out the 8. last lines and the first line of the next page Page 440.21 read So in the 6. generall Councell Pope Honorius is condemned as an Hereticke and cast out of the Catholicke Church in the 13. Act and the same Councell assembled in the palace in the 13. Act doth by name condemne the Church of Rome c. Page 441.17 reade the 11. Homily of S. Chrysostome vpon Matthew Page 454.14 reade that Christ is an head more absolute and greater then the Pope and that the Pope is of lesse vertue then the holy Ghost Page 470.12 reade vpon the foundation layd by another Apostle The fame and good report and the mutuall communication of the strangers that were Christians with the Romanes had planted the Christian Religion at Rome but the Church of Rome required the presence of some Apostle for her full establishment A Table of the principall matters contained in this worke THE FIRST BOOKE ¶ Of the Vsurpation of Popes ouer Kings CHAP. 1. The occasion why IAMES the first King of Great Brittaine wrote his Booke together with a iudgement vpon Doctor Coeffeteaus Booke Pag. 1. CHAP. 2. Remonstrations of D. Coeffeteau with his iudgement touching the Treasons and attempts vpon the life of the King of England Pag. 16. CHAP. 3. Of Cardinals Pag. 23. CHAP. 4. Of Iesuites Pag. 39. CHAP. 5. Of the power of the Pope ouer the Temporalties of Kings and that he cannot take from Kings their Crownes nor free Subiects from the Oath of fidelitie and thereupon the reasons of Bellarmine are examined Pag. 45. CHAP. 6. Of the Clergie and their Exemptions Pag. 88. CHAP. 7. Of the Authoritie of Emperours and Kings ouer the Bishops of Rome that they haue chosen them punished them and degraded them That Princes haue had power ouer Bishops and their Temporalties The first seede of Poperie in England Pag. 105. CHAP. 8. That they who haue written against the King of Great Brittaine his Booke haue vniustly called him Apostata and Hereticke Pag. 128. THE SECOND BOOKE ¶ A defence of the Confession of IAMES the first King of great Britaine ARTICLE 1. Of the Creede Pag. 133. ART 2. Of the Fathers in generall Pag. 134. ART 3. Of the authority of the Fathers each apart by themselues Pag. 135. ART 4. Of the authority of the holy Scripture Pag. 143. ART 5. Of the Canonical and Apocrypha books Pag. 145 ART 6. Of the memory of Saints and of their Holy-dayes Pag. 154. ART 7. Of the Virgin Mary Pag. 164. ART 8. Of the suffrages of Saints and of the seruice due vnto them Pag. 173. ART 9. Of the Masse without Communicants or Assistants and of the Sacrifice of the Masse Pag. 202. ART 10. Of the Communion vnder one kinde Pag. 246. ART 11. Of Transubstantiation Pag. 258. ART 12. Of the Adoration of the Host Pag. 271. ART 13. Of the eleuation of the Host that it may be adored Pag. 274. ART 14. Of carrying their God in Procession Pag. 275. ART 15. Of workes of Supererogation and of super abundant Satisfaction and of the Treasury of the Church Pag. 276. ART 16. Of the baptizing of Bels. Pag. 308. ART 17. Of the Reliques of Saints Pag. 311.
in order as Onuphrius saith Nihil dignitatis aut praeeminentiae illis dabat antiquitus esse Cardinales But now the Cardinals looke downe from a greater height vpon the rest of the Clergy who are very many degrees beneath their greatnesse There was in those times no speech of Cardinall Bishops and if any Cardinall Priest of one of the Parishes of Rome became a Bishop of any City of Italy he reteyned no longer the name of Cardinall no more then a Parson that is made Bishop now reteyneth the name of Parson still but it were now to goe backewards and to stoope very low for a Cardinall to become a Bishop and leaue his Cardinalship Then hee that was made Cardinall was tyed to one certaine Church or Parish but now it is cleane otherwise for by the contrary he that is now created Cardinall is loosed and discharged from the Church that was his cure as appeareth by the forme of the nomination of the new Cardinals contayned in the the first booke of the holy Ceremonies in which the Pope speaketh thus * Sect. 8. cap. 3. Authoritate dei patris omnipotentis sanctorum Apostolorum Petri Pauli nostra N Episcopum Firmanum absoluimus a vinculo quo tenebatur Ecclesiae suae Firmanae c. By the authority of God the Father Almighty and of the holy Apostle S. Paul and S. Peter and likewise by our owne wee discharge and free Iames Bishop of such a place of the bond by which he was tyed to his Church or cure and admit him Carainall Priest * Sect. 9. cap. 14. Cenâ—entâ—r omnia beneficia promo ti vacantia Also by the promotion of a Cardinall all his Benefices are held voyde if he obtaine not a new graunt of them from his Holinesse In those dayes likewise there was no such thing knowne as to receiue a ringe and a red hat at the Popes handes after they had kissed his feete nor the new tricke of opening and shutting their mouthes nor of carrying of * Sacr. Cerem l. 1 Sect. 3. Quatuor nohiles pileos quatuor CardinaliuÌ„ suprà baculos deferentes foure red hats at the end of a staffe before the Pope in solemne procession as saying like to the Doctor whereof it is spoken in Saint Luke Chap. 4. ver 6. All this power will I giue to thee euery whit and the glory of them for that is deliuered vnto me and to whomsoeuer I will giue it Aunciently the duety of the Cardinall Deacons was to carry the Table on which they celebrated the Lords Supper but since their office hath been to carry the Pope vpon their shoulders For which Innocent the third in the first booke of the mysteries of the Masse giueth this reason sayth he It belongeth to the Leuites to carry the Arke of the Couenant which is often in the Scriptures called Euerlasting All that then which was in the time of Gregorie being compared with that which now is hath no manner of resemblance of it but euen as when wanton verses are grauen in the barke of a young tree the letters grow together with the tree Crescent illae crescetis amores Euen so that which was amisse in these Cardinals during the weakenesse and minority of the Sea of Rome since they were glewed and fastened to this Sea they haue growne vp together with it And as it happeneth that in a body generally swolne some parte is more troubled with the swelling then others So this part of the body of the Romane Church is swolne more then the rest and a prodigious deflux is come vnto it The which will be more apparant when I shall haue examined the truth of that which Coeffeteau sayth affirming that Cardinals are most respectfull to Princes and that they desire not to goe vpon euen termes with them I speake not to touch any that are liuing but as it may well be that a man may dislike of his Cloake because it is too gorgeous so it is likewise possible that many of those which haue beene aduanced to this degree doe thinke that there is too great pompe and glittering in this habite we will therfore speake onely of the rules and general customes of the Roman Church which questionlesse doe equall Cardinals with Kings for marke the titles which Pope Pius the second giueth them in the sixt Chapter of the eight Section of the first booke of the holy Ceremonies * Ad collegium Apostolicum vocati consiliarij nostri coniudices orbis terrarum Successores Apostlorum circa thronum sedebitis vos Senatores vrbis regum similes c. Being called to the Apostolique Colledge you shall be our Counsellors and with me shall iudge the world you shall sit about the Throne as the Successors of the Apostles you shall be Senators of the Citie like vnto Kings being the true kings of the world on which the doore of the militant Church must turne But it is not much to equall them with Kings for they are often preferred before them they are not tyed to holde the bridle or the stirrope of the Pope when he getteth to horse-backe neyther are they bound when the Pope is carried by men to giue the assistance of their shoulders as Kings and Emperours are In the publique actions and solemnities at Rome Kings are vnder the Cardinals as for example * Prior Episcoporum in capite ad dextram Et si aderit Rex aliquis erit in secundo loco Si plures Reges mixti erunt cum Card. primis â—ilij vel fratres regum si non seruiunt Papae debent sedere inter Diaconos Cardinales vel post eos Primogenitus autem Regis quia Rex futurus putatur post primum Presbyterum Cardinalem erit In that Papall feast which is made after the Coronation of the Pope described in the first booke of Ceremonies Section the third there is set downe the order that is to be held at the table The first Cardinall Bishop sitteth highest on the right hand of the table If there be any King there he sitteth beneath the Cardinall And if there bee diuers Cardinals and diuers Kings there then they intermingle them placing a Cardinall then a King and then another Cardinall and so another King as for the sonnes and brothers of Kings they eyther serue the Pope at table or else sit amongst the meaner sort of Deacon Cardinals but the eldest sonne of a King hath place next after the first Cardinall Priest so that all the Cardinall Bishops and the first Cardinall Priest are all before him * Dum Papa lauat manus non Praelati sed Laici omaes genu flectunt And when the Pope washeth his hands al the laietie of what degree soeuer kneele downe but all the Prelates stand and not to seeke for examples further off it is not vnknowne to the King of England that Cardinall Wolsey contested with HENRY the eight And we shall hereafter heare what authority Pandulphus and
weake in the mouth of a Iesuite who holdeth that a Pope Bellar. l. 2. de Rom. Pont. c. 29 be he neuer so wicked and a destroyer of the Church cannot be deposed no not by a general Councell and yet there is greater apparant danger in this then in the former That which Bellarmine addeth seemeth to haue beene written by him being asleepe and is nothing else but a quippe to make men laugh He proueth that a faithfull people may free themselues from the yoake of a Prince that is an Infidell that is to say may rebell against him and that by the example of the beleeuing wife which by the iudgement of the Apostle 1. Cor. 7. is not bound to abide with an husband that is an Infidell when hee will not dwell with her Whereunto I answere first that Similitudes are no proofes Secondly this Similitude being rightly taken doth not hurt vs for as a beleeuing wife is not bound to follow her husband when he forsaketh her and wil no longer co-habite with her so I will freely confesse that subiects are not bound to acknowledge a King that abandoneth his subiects and will no longer be King ouer them but renounceth his Realme and this is all that may be drawne from this Comparison Thirdly this Similitude is aduantageous vnto vs for if we admit the Comparison betweene the condition of a wife and of subiects then will it definitiuely determine our Controuersie and make vs gain the cause For as while an husband that is an Infidell will abide with his beleeuing wife she may not forsake him nor shake off her yoake so while a King that is an Infidell will retayne his soueraignty ouer beleeuing subiects they may not abandone him nor rebell against him The wordes of the Apostle are directly to this purpose If any woman haue an vnbeleeuing husband and he consent to dwell with her let her not forsake him All that which Bellarmine addeth is nothing else but as his manner is suppositions without proofes We graunt him that Princes who against their promise doe warre against the true fayth deserue to be depriued of their Kingdome but wee denye that this power of depriuing them is in the Pope VVe must reserue that iudgement to God seeing it is he that hath established them and that as Tertullian sayth they are inferiour to GOD alone Tertul. ad Scapulam in Apolog. cap. 30. A quo sunt secundi post quem primi Cap. 30. Cum dixit Petro Amas me Pasce oues meas idem dixit caeteris As touching these wordes spoken to S. PETER Feed my sheepe to omit for the present that which S. AVSTIN sayth in his booke of the Christian combate that Iesus Christ saying to S. Peter Feede my lambes spake the same to the rest as all the auncients with one accord doe say that the power of binding and loosing was giuen to the Apostles and to the whole Church in the person of S. Peter to omit this because I will treat of it in his proper place I onely say that albeit this had beene spoken to the Pope yet might he not for all that chastise Princes with depriuation of their estates or by raising a commotion among his subiects or by imposing fines and amercements vpon his countreyes This is to enterprete the word Feede too licentiously we had neede of new Grammer for this new Diuinity for the word Feede which in times past signified to teach and to guide dooth now a dayes signifie to blast whole kingdomes with the lightning of excommunications to ouerthrow great Monarches and to sucke and draw out the very substance of the poore people Beare with our simplicity herein for so great an abuse in wordes maketh vs to feare a greater in the matter it selfe To speake barbarously were an euill somewhat tollerable were it not that Barbarismes doe sometymes passe into Heresies and incongruities in wordes into incongruity in fayth Thus the Bishop of Rome calleth himselfe the Pylot and Steer-man of S. Peters Shippe but he imployeth that barke to trafficke his owne gayne and S. Peters nets to fish for Princes Crownes and to entramell whole States and Common-weales His keyes now a dayes serue onely to open Cofers His power of loosing only to loose the bonds of fidelity through a mutinous piety and a factious Religion which maketh it self Iudge ouer the consciences of kings which euen hateth their Religion because it hateth their rule gouernment and maketh that to be a good subiect to be a good Christian are things that cannot subsist together Bellarmines reasons hauing beene very feeble the examples which he produceth in the Chapter following are lesse currant He sayeth that Osias king of Iuda was dryuen out of the Temple by the High Priest and depryued of his kingdome The text of Scripture is direct to the contrary It is said 2. King 15.2 that Osias began to raigne in the sixteenth yeare of his age and hee raigned fifty two yeates so that he liued threescore and eyght years whence it appeareth that he was King euen vntill his death In the fift verse Iotham his son during the time of his fathers separation because of his leprosie he is not called King but gouernor of his house And ver 7. the beginning of the raigne of Iotham is reckoned only from the death of Osias his father The example of Athalia driuen from the Kingdome by Iehoiada the high Priest is as little to the 2. King 11. purpose For wee speake here of lawfull Princes deposed and he brings vs an example of a woman thâ—t vsurped anothers Kingdome by force and tyranny in which case euery man is allowed to employ himselfe to expel the vsurper and to preserue the Kingdome to the lawfull King The example of S. Ambose Bishoppe of Millan who would not receiue the Emperour Theodosius to the communion by reason of that great slaughter which his souldiers at his commaundement committed at Thessalonica maketh expresly against the Bishop of Rome For would the Pope now a dayes indure that a Bishoppe of Millan or Colleyne should intrude himselfe to excommunicate Emperours and to declare them to be fallen from their Empire without his permission Did Ambrose this by the counsaile or commaundement of the Bishop of Rome And were it so that Ambrose had beene that the Pope now sayth himselfe to be where will Bellarmine finde that Ambrose did degrade the Emperour or that he dispensed with his subiects for the Oath of fidelity Let a man read his three and thirtieth Epistle and he shall see with how great humilty he submitteth himselfe to an Arrian Emperour so farre from preaching any reuolt of his subiects from him that indeede hee willingly offered to dye and to suffer persecution if such were the will of the Emperour As touching the law which Theodosius imposed vpon himselfe by the Counsell of S. Ambrose which was that from thence forward he would stay the execution of any sentence of death
course But to this I reply that for this opposition he was forged both to forsake England and quit his Bishopricke The contradiction of one of the Popes pensionary Prelates opposing his Soueraigne is of small moment in this behalfe for Anselme was accounted the Popes not the Kings subiect Nor is it any greater wonder if Mathew Paris who so often magnifies this King Henry doe now and then cast some imputation vpon him in as much as he was a superstitious Monke and liued soone after who in euery passage complaining of the tyrannie and exactions of the Popes doth yet sometimes restrain himselfe for some idle respects in which he oftener gropes for the truth then he doth see or finde it We must also obserue that the principall quarrell betweene the King of England and the Pope being for inuesting men with spirituall promotions the Pope hath bestowed very glorious Titles on those persons that suffered for this quarrell as if he should write Rubarbe vpon a pot of Rats-bane So hath he placed this Anselme in the Kalender of Saints and Confessours and Thomas of Canterbury in the Catalogue of Martyrs that lost his life not for the profession of the Gospell but for a Controuersie of Prebends and the right of Inuestiture Coeffeteau doth here adde That the Kings of England in the matter of ordination of Priests haue neuer violated the Discipline of the Church The King of England alleadgeth these and many other examples of like nature And I suppose that hee had not vouchsafed the reading of the booke against which he writes For the Kings book saith that Henry the first inuested an Archbishop in his Archbishopricke with his Ringe and Crosier-staffe without the Popes leaue which is flat repugnant to the discipline of the Church of Rome Fol. 15. pag. 1 And besides the now Pope Paul the fift doth pretend that the Venetians in punishing the criminall offences of their Clergy doe derogate from the liberty of the Church Edward then the first and second by inflicting corporall punishment vpon the Clergy that would hold a dependancy from the Pope haue by this reckoning derogated from the liberty of the Church To conclude our Doctor sayth that Henry the first did in other things submit himselfe to the lawes of the Church that in the Records of England most of the monuments speake of yeelding obedience to the See Apostolique that his Maiestie embraceth a Religion which his Predecessors neuer possessed but haue euer acknowledged the authority of Rome in all matters depending vpon matter of conscience First I answere that this is to wander from the question for heere is nothing questioned but the Popes Supremacy ouer Kings in matters temporall Secondly that barely to affirme and to confirme nothing especially writing against a King doth eyther discouer much weakenesse or argue ouer-much neglect and indeede his whole allegation is vntrue Concerning Henry the first I confesse that he ascribed too much honour to the Church of Rome for he liued in a dark ignorant age and in the height of the Popes tyranny to which England of all Countries was most enthralled which cannot bee proued of the times more auncient It may well appeare that the Citie of Rome being the seat of the Empire was by consequent the resort of all nations by which meanes the Church of that citie how poore and miserable soeuer might haue aduertisements from all parties and haue intelligence with all the Churches within the Empire and consequently which is the Church of great Brittaine which was originally planted by some of S Iohn Disciples that came thither out of Asia whereof we haue this proofe that euen to the time of August which was sent into England by Gregogorie the first about the yere 596. the Church of the Iland did keepe the feast of Easter according to the custome of Asia vpon the 14. day of the month which if it had beene vnder the iurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome no question but it had abrogated that custome when Victor in the yeare 200. did excommunicate the Churches which made any precise obseruation of the 14. day Helene mother vnto Constantine was of the Iland and held no points of Papistrie maintained at this day Pelagius was also of this Iland and sauing the points of free will and originall sinne dissented not in any opinions from S. Angustine Now S. Angustine receiued no Popish opinions now defended as we haue proued in the 20. chapter of my booke of the Eucharist in another place In the twenty Chapter of my booke of the Eucharist Pontificus Verumnius lib. 4. Jo. Lelandus that he died excommunicate from the Church of Rome The first Christian King of great Brittaine that can be remembred was Lucius that possessed a part of the Iland in the time of Marcus Aurelius who questionlesse had commerce with the Bishop of Rome for he had beene at Rome and held correspondence with the Emperour but that he should be subiect to the Bishop of Rome or acknowledge him the head of the Vniuersal Church admits no manner of proofe In the yeare of our Lord 530. that Warlike Prince Arthur raigned in great Britaine of whom being a Christian it doth not appeare that eyther he depended vpon the Bishops of Rome or that they intermedled in the election or inuesting of the Britaine Bishops during the raigne of Arthur or his Successors In the yeare 596. soone after that the English Saxons being Almaines and at that time Infidels had inuaded Britaine then did Gregory the first send Austen into this Iland a man full of faction and arrogancy to plant the Christian faith although the Christian Religion had beene planted here more then foure hundred yeares before But by the Christian faith these men doe now vnderstand the authority of the Pope This Austen was strongly and stoutly opposed by the Christians of that Countrey who refused to change their auncient forme of Religion which they had receiued from such as were Disciples to the Apostles They had seuen Bishopricks and one Archbishopricke the seat whereof being first errected at Carleon was afterward translated to S. Dauids as it is recorded by Rainulphus Cestrensis lib. 1. cap. 52. for the Archbishop of London was of a later foundation besides they had a Colledge of 2100. religious persons at Bangor who about the yeare 550. when the Order of S. Benet began to flourish in this I le were called by the new name of Monkes Men that adicting themselues to the study of Diuinity got their liuing by the labour of their handes not being tyed to the rigorous obseruation of a Vow whereunto no man by the ancient Order of S. Benet is obliged This Austen then found meanes to insinuate himselfe into the familiar acquaintance of one of the petty Kings of the Countrey called Ethelfred King of Northumberland who was an enemy to the auncient Christians of that land and had inuaded their Countrey and wasted many Churches with this Austen then
called Corpus Christi day to giue him contentment For seeing that euery Saint had his Feast it was iust and reasonable that God should haue his also 6 Then they sung no Masses in honour of the Saint whose Feast they celebrated And these Masses carry now a dayes the name of the Saint There is the Masse of S. Geneuiefue the Masse of S. Roth the Masse of S. Anthony c. Amongst which Masses we see in the same rancke the Masse of the Holy Ghost to testifie that the rest are not of that stampe 7 Then they did not diuersifie the furniture and preparation for their Masses in singing great or lesser Masses according to the greatnesse of the Feast Men were ignorant also of the distinction of high and low Masses Drie Masses and running Masses Masses in white or in greene There is nothing so pie-bald and new-fangled The Apostles vnderstood nothing in a manner in all this 8 Also in those times men knew not what it was to ground Feasts vpon an Allusion of Sillables As now adayes the Feast of the Mat-makers which they call Nattices is the day of the Natiuity of our Lady the Feast of Fel-mongers is Magdalen tyde La Magdalaine because they make L'amas de Laine an heape of wooll the Feast of Cooke-rosters is the Assumption of our Lady because assum is Latine for rosted The Feast of the Tylers or Slatters is Ascension day because they ascende and climbe the tops of houses Because Alga alludeth to Algeo which is to quake with colde So in the Physicke Alga aduersus querquerum as Apuleius speaketh You must giue Sea-weede or Sea-ore to one that is in a shiuering colde fit of the Ague Or to giue to a man that is hard bound a bunch of Keyes because there is nothing more opening Oh what a good time haue my Masters the Prelates had and how haue they dallied with Religion at their idle howers 9 But I would willingly know how it commeth to passe that those auncient Patriarkes such excellent personages Abraham Moses Dauid Daniel to whom there will not any be found comparable of all that haue liued within these fifteene hundred yeares how they notwithstanding all this haue no Feasts in the Church of Rome that no man prayeth in particular to Moses nor Samuel c. that no Temple beareth their name that it would indeede seeme a thing ridiculous to say S. Moses or S. Daniel or S. Iosaphat seeing that for a man but to beare the name of Isaac or Daniel or Abraham is enough to make a man to be suspected as a marke of Heresie If a man demaund whence commeth this great multitude of Feasts I say that auarice hath hatched them and that ambition hath bred them vp for the more Festiuall holy-dayes that there be the more often men goe to the offering and the pardons are more frequent when artisans and tradsemen shut vp their shoppes then the Priests open theirs The Prelates also are herein much honored for it is a great honour to these great Masters that at their commaundement the trafficke ceaseth the shops are shut vp the Sessions of the Iustices and of the Priuy Councell are by them broken vp And therefore when they are among themselues they gaude and mocke at the simplicity of the people For indeede they liue vpon their blindenes Let them then set vp the auncient simplicity againe let them restore to the Churches the liberty of gouerning themselues heerein according to the exigence of the time and place and we will not condemne their Feasts For indeede we doe not condemne this celebration of the memory of Martyrs and of Saints We like well the custome of the English Churches who haue certaine dayes affected and applyed to the commemoration of the Apostles for they are done without imposing necessity of keeping strict Holy-dayes and without opinion of merite without commandement of the Pope and without condemning the French Churches who hitherto haue feared to assigne any Feasts to any man because that liuing in a Countrey where superstitions doe swarme their people would easily be drawne into abuse and attainted with that running and ouer-spreading contagion which is to attribute that to the creature which belongeth to the Creator Meane while we let not to celebrate in our Churches the memory of the Saints and Martyrs but without any set day And we hold this rule for inuariable that God hauing said in his law in expresse termes Sixe dayes shalt thou labour he opposeth himselfe against God who saith Thou shalt not worke sixe dayes but thou shalt keepe holy those Feasts on the weeke dayes which I commaund thee Now if in the old Testament there be found any solemnities or Feasts besides the Sabboth day they are very few in number and ordayned by God himselfe who as he can giue the rules so also can he giue the exceptions Or if there be any feast found that was instituted by men you shall neuer be able to prooue that it was held vnlawfull to trauell vpon that day There should yet remaine to speake somewhat of Legends but I see that Coeffeteau is ashamed of them and would cast the blame vpon some particulars Legends neuerthelesse which haue beene for a long time yet are both in Italy and Spaine the subiect of Sermons yea very Fraunce is not exempt And those very miracles of which Coeffeteau is ashamed are those which we see painted on the walles and in the hangings of the Church As at Paris in the Cloyster of S. Geruase an Asse worshippeth and adoreth the Hoste neere thereto adioyning the Bees build a Chappell of waxe for an Hoste which they found in the fieldes In the Temple of S. Paul behinde the Quire on the left hand after the miracles of S. Roche painted promise is made vnto the people that they shall be healed of the swelling of the plague by adoring his pretious body at S. Benedict or S. Benets Cloyster wee see the said Saint tumbling himselfe starke naked amongst thornes and stopping the dogges with the signe of the Crosse In the forefront of the Church called Des Billettes an Hoste being pricked and stabbed by a Iew bleedeth with great droppes and being cast into a seething Caldron became a man in his visible greatnesse that is to say Iesus Christ boyling in a Caldron An infinite company of such things are so publick that Coeffeteau cannot condemne them without opposing himselfe to the whole Church of Rome Fictions that were built vp by the fauour of the night whiles they put the holy Scripture the onely light of our soules vnder a bushell And indeede very lately there haue beene composed two great Tomes of the Chronicles of S. Frauncis which challenge all the Legends and giue place to none of them for lies Insomuch that S. Dominicke Coeffeteaus Patron will henceforward be nothing in comparison of S. Frauncis ARTICLE VII Touching the Virgin Mary The KINGS Confession AND first for the blessed Virgin Mary I
the Article which followeth ARTICLE VIII Touching prayers to Saints and the seruice that is due vnto them The KINGS Confession T S for prayer to Saints Christ I am sure hath commaunded vs to Come all to him that are loaden with sinne and he will relieue vs and S. Paul hath forbidden vs to worshippe Angels or to vse any such voluntary worship Math. 11 28. Col 28.28 that hath a shew of humility in that it spareth not the flesh But what warrant we haue to haue recourse vnto these Dâ—j Penates or Tutelares these Courtiers of God I know not I remit that to these philosophicall neotericke Diuines It satisfieth me to pray to God through Christ as I am commaunded which I am sure must be the safest way and I am sure the Safest way is the best way in points of saluation Hereupon Coeffeteau confounding the Kings whole discouery he beginneth by a complaint that his Maiesty calleth Tutelary and familiar Gods those lesser Saints to whom many of the people do vow themselues in particular and of whom they set the Images vpon their Cupboords or ouer their Chimneyes But his Maiesty doth not intend to call the Saints familiars nor Tutelarie Gods neyther doth he say that in the Church of Rome they call them so onely he meaneth that the Church of Rome hath substituted them in place of the Tutelarie and domesticall gods and that hee doth entertaine them after the same fashion For the Paynims had their tutelarie gods ouer euery town and ouer euery Countrey Iuno was Lady-gardian of Carthage Venus of Cyprus and of Paphos Pallace of the Countrey of Attica Mars and Quirinus of Rome c. so the Church of Rome hath Saints that are Patrons of Cities and Countries Saint Marke of Venice S. Geneuiefue of Paris S. Iames of Spain S. Dennis of France c. and as the Paynims did distribute charges amongst their gods so in the Church of Rome euery Saint hath his charge apart The hunters did inuocate Diana now adaies they haue recourse to S. Eustace S. Nicholas who now is called vpon by the Pilots and Sea-faring men hath taken the place of Castor and Pollux The good Goddesse Lucina who was assisting to women that trauelled in childe-birth hath now giuen place to S. Margaret for so her Legend saith that the Dragon hauing swallowed her downe she made the signe of the Crosse in his belly wherewith he burst asunder and she came forth through the breach which was a kinde of lying in S. Christopher with his huge body hath succeeded Hercules for so they make him also to carry a clubbe There wanted yet a Queene of heauen in the place of Iuno and this holy and glorious Virgin hath beene dishonoured with so prophane a title yea the very habites and furniture of the gods haue beene transported to the Saints The Genij or Penates household gods had a dogge by their side and so hath S. Roche The Image of Iames carried a Key so doth that of S. Peter Iupiter a man had hornes on his head such doe they giue to Moses Isis carried a Timbrell and S. Gennasius a Violin Those circles which you see about the head of the Saints in picture are those Arches and shaddowes wherewith they couered their gods to fence them from the dust In like manner are the Officers distributed in Paradise in a goodly order and with diuersity of furniture and prouision For his Holines and the Church of Rome haue taken order for it We are ashamed to produce these things whiles they are not ashamed to doe them and we blush at that of which they haue no shame at all If we would prolong this Discourse we would easily shew that a good part of these Patrons and Tutelary Saints are Saints which neuer were they liue without hauing euer beene borne and are entred into the Church without euer entring into the world the painters are wonted to make characters pictures in a manner speaking as when they paint Iustice with a paire of ballances Time like an olde man winged The Fryer like a lame god because the wood doth susteyne him so the auncients did figure the faith of a beleeuing man by a woman swollowed vp of Sathan but who did get forth againe victoriously and trample the Diuell vnder her feet And of this Image they haue made their Saint Margaret so the Christian was painted as passing ouer a violent land-flood but hauing Iesus Christ with him Praesertim cum sit manifestum in omnem Italiam Galliam Hispaniam Africam nullum instituisse Ecclesias nisi eos quos Apostolus Petrus aut successores eius constitueruÌ„t Legant autem si in his prouincijs alius Apostolus inuenitur aut legitur docuisse c. who did burden him indeede but yet did conduct him This Image hath produced a new Saint whom they call S. Christopher Of the launce which pierced the body of our Lord they haue made S. Longis because that Lonchi in the vulgar pronunciation of the Greeke tongue signifieth a Launce Men runne with incredible zeale to S. Iames of Compostella in Spaine where they say that hee preached and that his bones remaine there and yet in the meane time it is well knowne that S. Iames was neuer in Spaine Pope Innocent in the twelfth distinction in the Canon Quis nesciat doth stoutly and stiffely maintaine that there was neuer any Apostle in Spaine and that neyther in Fraunce nor in Affrica nor in Spaine any planted Church saue they whom S. Peter and his successors sent thither The Story also of his life recyted by Iohn Beleth and Iacobus de Voragine great personages saith that he came into Spaine before he was put to death by Herod Act. 12. It must needes bee then that he came into Spaine almost about the time that Iesus Christ suffered for S. Iames suruiued Christ but a while after his death His body being put on Ship-boord went of it selfe without Pilot or any guidance into Spaine Queene Lupa raigning then in Spaine Now it is well knowne that at that time there was neyther King nor Queene in Spaine and that it was wholly subiect to the Romane Empire The same is to be said of S. Denis the Areopagite whom men say to haue planted the Gospell in Fraunce and hauing suffered Martyrdome vnder the Emperour Domitian as saith Methodius he carried his head betweene his hands from Mont-Martre as farre as S. Denis where he lyeth interred The reuiuing of learning and good letters hath discouered the falshood of such inuentions For the most auncient Christian Historian that euer was in Fraunce Sub Aurelio Antonini filio persecutio quinta agitata ac tunc primum inter Gallias martyria visa serius trans alpes religione transgressa is Sulpitius Seuerus who in the second booke of his story sheweth that there were no Martyrdomes in Fraunce vnder Domitian nor a long time after and that the first Martyrdomes which were seene in
to euery haire for as much as they hold that his body is wholly and entire in euery drop But it were better that men were without Mustachoes then want the Sacrament of the blood of Christ and at least there is no such danger for women and young people He saith also that it is done for feare least the wine being kept should waxe sower or grow flat but they should be free from this danger if they did communicate with the people in the publique assembly not reseruing the Sacraments till the morrow Expresly contrary to the defence of the auncient Church comprized in the Canon Tribus gradibus in the second Distinction of the Consecration where Bishop Clement ordaineth that so many offerings be set vpon the Altar Tanta in altario bolocausta offerantur quanta populo â—ussicere debeant Quod si remanserint in crast num non reseruentur as will serue for the whole assembly to communicate and if any remaine that they be not kept till the next day But how comes it to passe that Iesus Christ being included as they will haue it in the Chalice doth not preserue it from taking winde or waxing sharpe seeing they keepe Aarons rod and the milke of the holy Virgin among their Reliques vnto this day without corruption And why shall not Iesus Christ haue the same vertue To conclude whosoeuer shal here pretend wisedome and discretion desires to be wiser then Christ and his Apostles neyther can there be any inconuenience alleadged which Christ Iesus hath not preuented Neither is it said to any purpose that the Church of Rome would by this meanes stop an heresie for we must not redresse one euill by another or reforme an error by an abuse or helpe the ignorance of men by disobedience vnto God Yea wee shall hereafter see that this taking away of the Cup hath not preuented any errour but hath heaped vp one heresie vpon another and to support their Transubstantiation it hath made Idolatry against God to serue for their tyrannizing ouer the people Touching that which Coeffeteau subioyneth that in former times it hath beene free to take the communion vnder one or both kindes it is a plaine shift for he makes shew not to conceiue what the King of great Britaine meaneth when he saith that the mutilation of the Sacrament is a new inuention For he would say and it is true that in the ancient Church there cannot be found any ordinance custome or constitution that hath depriued the people of the Cup No nor any one man that hath made conscience in giuing the Cup to the people requiring it No nor any of the people that haue beene scrupulous in requiring it But in stead hereof doth Coeffeteau say that it was free to take it vnder one or both kindes which makes nothing to the purpose for we complaine that it is not free to receiue both kindes And yet that which he saith is vntrue St. Austin in the seuen and fiftieth question vpon Leuiticus All that will haue life are exhorted to drinke the blood Ad bibendum sanguinem omnes exhortantur qui volunt habere vitam c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 none is hindred and all are exhorted It was not then free Ignatius in the Epistle to the Philadelphians One bread hath beene broken vnto all and one Cup is distributed vnto all then was none exempted Iustin Martyr in his second Apologitique The Deacons distribute VNTO EVERY ONE the bread and wine with water Obserue to euery one S. Cyprian who hath already tolde vs of a maide that after she had dranke cast vp the wine complains in the third Epistle of the third booke that some eyther thorough ignorance or simplicity In calice Domini sanctificando plebi ministrando in consecrating the cup and administring to the PEOPLE did it not conformably vnto the example of Iesus Christ Sanguis Abel significat sanguinem Christi quo vniuersa Ecclesia accepto dicit Amen S. Austin in the sixty fiue booke of Questions the fortie nine Quaest Tom. 4 The blood of Abel signifieth the blood of Christ which the WHOLE Church hauing receiued saith Amen He saith the whole Church not as Coeffeteau Some receiuing one kinde onely and some both kindes which is eyther an audacious falshood or very grosse ignorance in Antiquity for euen the Canon Comperimê° in the second Dist of the Consecration saith that to forbeare the Cup is sacriledge and a diuiding of the Mysterie and therefore ordaineth that such Ought eyther to receiue the Sacraments entier or to be wholly excluded from them These wordes Recipiant Aut integra Sacramenta recipiant aut ab integris arceantur and Arceantur which he vseth doe euidently proue that he speaks of the people who doe not of themselues receiue the Sacrament but from the hand of the Minister And this word Arceantur signifies that they were not admitted when they offered themselues therefore was it not free as Coeffeteau affirmeth Who alleadgeth against himselfe the custome of those that carried home the bread which they receiued in the Church inasmuch as the Church of Rome hath reiected this custome hauing well perceiued that this custome of so doing doth testifie that the auncient Church did not beleeue transubstantiation for the Priest would haue thought it a horrible prophanation to put God into the handes of the common people for them to put him into their pocket to carry him home to their houses exposing him to the danger of a thousand reproaches and to the neglect or contempt of the first commer Besides by the generall practise of the Church formerly declared it appeares that if any one did carry home with him the sacramentall bread yet he communicated in the Cup with the whole Congregation The place which he alleadgeth out of Ierome is vntruely produced for S. Ierome speakes not there in any sort of the Communion vnder one kinde but of those who being debarred from enting into the Church because they were thought to be vncleane were made to bring the bread for the Sacrament with them Touching the recrimination which he vseth that we haue destroyed the whole Sacrament we shall see in the Article following how iniurious this accusation is ARTICLE XI Of Transubstantiation THe King of great Britaine doth recken Transubstantiation also among the Nouelties brought into the Church since the first fiue hundred yeares after Christ Against this Coeffeteau alleadgeth onely foure places out of the Fathers whereof the two first are false and suppositious the third is fraudulently maimed and mangled and the fourth is mis-vnderstood The first is taken out of the Catechismes of Cyril of Ierusalem which we formerly proued not to be Cyrils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but made by one Iohn of Ierusalem who liued some foure hundred yeares after when the superstition of Reliques was in force which made him say in the fourth Catechisme that the wood of the Crosse was then so growne and multiplied
offend against the Maiesty of God And in the booke of the Penitentiary Taxe in the chapter of Absolutions the falsifying of Letters Apostolical is taxed at seuenteene groats whereas for a man to company with his mother but at fiue groates onely Seeing then that about this inequality of the Keyes which giueth a superiority to S. Peter aboue the other Apostles our aduersaries cannot defend themselues by any authority out of the holy Scripture let vs see whether wee can furnish our selues with any places directly against it 1 I say then that if the Apostles had not the Keyes of heauen nor the power to binde and lose but subordinately vnder S. Peter the Apostle S. Paul should haue spoken very vnaduisedly in saying 2. Cor. 11.5 I thinke that I haue not in any thing beene inferiour to the rest of the Apostles when hee sayth in any thing he admitteth no exception 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Adde hereunto that if he had beene subiect to S. Peter he should much haue forgotten himselfe when Galat. 2. he said that there was no difference betweene him and those that seemed to bee the chiefe for then there must needes haue been great difference betwixt their charges 3 And againe this that he speaketh is yet much more That those who were in the greatest account among the Apostles added nothing vnto him whereas doubtlesse S. Peter would at the least haue giuen authority to S. Pauls charge if it had depended from the authority of S. Peter 4 But cheefely that which Paul addeth is worthy of consideration that the charge of preaching to those of the vncircumcision was in as large a maner committed vnto him as that of the circumcision was vnto Peter See here how they parted the labour betwixt them it fel vnto S. Peters lot to preach vnto the Iewes and S. Pauls to preach vnto the Gentiles a thing that would be ridiculous and strange now a dayes if any Bishop should seeke to diuide the charge of gouerning Churches betweene him and the Pope or should send the Pope to preach in Almaine or Spaine to conuert the Iewes 5 It is also worth the noting that S. Paul in the same place verse 9. naming those three Apostles Iames Cephas and Iohn placeth Cephas which is Peter after Iames. Now in these our dayes if a man should speake thus The Bishop of Lyons the Bishop of Rome and the Bishop of Ambrun men would holde him for a madde man But S. Paul in setting Peter betweene others he sheweth that he had not yet learned that S. Peter was chiefe of the Church vniuersall or that he had iurisdiction ouer the rest of the Apostles For their last assault and encounter they produce the wordes of Iesus Christ vnto Peter Feede my Lambes which wordes they haue made wonderfull fruitfull and full of many consequences for thus they expound them Thou Peter and thy Successours Popes of Rome feede you alone all my lambes and doe you take vpon you a soueraignty ouer all other Pastors How many strange and venterous Glosses are here on the Text And how haue they peeced out this latchet to make it reach home For though Iesus Christ doe expresly commaund Peter to feede his sheepe yet he excludeth not the other Apostles They are all called Pastors and all faithfull Bishops and Ministers are enioyned to feed the Church of God Acts 20.28 True it is that S. Peter was Pastor of all the sheepe of Iesus Christ throughout the world but so were likewise the other Apostles For S. Paul also 2. Cor. 11. verse 28. saith that he hath the care of all Churches their charge was to walke and to haue an eye euery where for thus saith Iesus to them all Acts 1. And you shall be witnesses vnto me to the very endes of the earth And hereupon S. Augustine is very plaine in the thirtieth chapter of his booke of the christian combate When the Lord saith vnto Peter Cum dicit Petro amas me pasce oues meas idem dixit caeteris Louest thou me feede my sheepe he saith the same vnto all But why speaketh he to him alone Because not long before he onely had denyed him He onely that fel had onely neede to be raised vp and to be re established in his charge for otherwise a man might well haue called his Apostleship into question And why doth he rehearse the same wordes vnto him thrice Because he had denied the Lord three times as many fals so many restorings These be not raisings of him vnto dignity but strengthnings of his infirmity As saith S. Augustine Treatis 123. vpon S. Iohn A triple deniall is recompenced with a threefold confession Redditur negationi trina confessio ne minus amori lingua seruiat quam timori c. to the end that his tongue might serue him no lesse to declare his loue then it had done in disclosing his feare In the meane time albeit all the Apostles had a generall care ouer all Churches yet this doth not hinder but that each of them might haue a peculiar charge besides their generall S. Paul was charged with instructing the Gentils and S. Peter with teaching the Iewes and it appeareth not that this his commission was at any time changed and that in stead of being the speciall Teacher of the Iewes he was made Bishop of Rome Besides that his dwelling at Rome could not well haue sorted and agreed with the teaching of the Iewes Act. 18.11 who now were banished from Rome vnder Claudius the Emperor which was the very time of S. Peters preaching during which time he visited the Iewes scatteredinto Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Bithinia and into all Asia as appeareth by the first verse of his first Epistle This was somewhat too farre from his Bishopricke of Rome and nothing sutable with the dignity of the Monarch of the Vniuersall Church We will not here contend whether S. Peter were euer at Rome for albeit this History be full of darknesse yet I am enclyned to beleeue that he suffered Martyrdome at Rome because Tertullian Eusebius and others doe affirme the same But yet the day-light is not more cleare then it is euident that stayed there but a very small time and not twenty fiue yeares as our aduersaries doe calculate One proofe shall serue to be added to those which are alleadged by others We graunt then that S. Peter and S. Paul did suffer Martyrdome at Rome vpon one and the same day as Eusebius and some others affirme This being so we will shew most plainly that S. Peter had not yet beene at Rome three yeares before his death For S. Paul being to depart from Corinth to goe towards Ierusalem wrote an Epistle to the Romanes as appeareth by the subscription of his Epistle dated from Corinth and by the fiue and twentieth verse of the fifteenth Chapter Now I goe vp to Ierusalem His voyage to Ierusalem is described in the 18 19 and 20. chapters of the Acts
which is there kept for a relique The first Author of this Fable is vnknown but it was deuised to perswade the people that S. Peter hauing layde aside his Crosier wore the triple Crowne as Monarch of the earth of hell and of heauen or as gouernour of Asia Affricke and Europe Now it is not without cause that this Crowne is called the Kingdome because the Pope quallifieth himselfe with the Titles of King and Monarch The last Councell of Lateran Sess 10. speaketh thus to the Pope The Empire of your Holinesse and Sess 9. Regale Romanorum Pontificum genus The Royall race of the Romane Bishops Imperium Sanctitatis verstrae Papa Sacerdos Rex and in the 3. Sess The Pope is Priest and King and in the first Session he is called Princeps totius orbis Prince of the whole world and therefore he preacheth no more Sometimes he saith Masse on some solemne day but in that Masse he causeth himselfe at sundry times to be adored If any King be present he must holde the Napkin but it must be vpon his knee as did King Charles the eight to Pope Alexander the sixth And for his better reading in the Missall he hath a Cardinall that poynteth to the letters with his finger Liber sacrarum Cerem l. 2. sect 1 as men vse to teach young children he then changeth his Hose and Shooes many times hee sucketh the Chalice with a reede at his going away he swelleth and puffeth vp his cheekes and giueth the benediction by blowing vpon them as though he gaue the holy Ghost As touching the Titles of Head of the faith supreame Iudge of all Controuersies which his Maiesty of England vpbraydeth the Pope withall Coeffeteau passeth that ouer and speaketh nothing as thinking it a thing not able to be maintayned So doth he disclaime that Title of Monarch of the world condemning therein the Councell of Lateran before alleadged that calleth him King and Prince of the whole world And we haue before produced certaine Theses lately disputed of at Naples and dedicated to the Pope now reigning Paulo 5. Vice-Deo Christiani orbis monarch wherein he is called Vice-God Monarch of the Christian world Titles of greater Antiquity THese new titles being thus taken away Coeffeteau comes on with a fresh supply and bringeth such as are more auncient and herein he craueth the assistance of the Fathers but first he racketh and tortureth them and by strayning constrayneth them to speake things against their will The first place is out of Tertullian cap. 1. of his booke of chastity Pontifex scilicet Maximus Episcopus Episcoporum dicit ego moechiae fornicationis delicta poenitentia functis dimitto O edectum cui ascribi non potest bonum foctum where he calleth the Bishop of Rome Soueraigne Bishop Bishop of Bishops The Reader that will giue himselfe leisure but to looke vpon the place shall finde that Tertullian speaketh this by way of flouting and mocking the Bishop of Rome for these are his words Yea indeed the chiefe Bishop the Bishop of Bishops saith thus I forgiue the sinnes of Adultery and Fornication to those that haue performed their due time of Penance O Edict vpon which a man may write It was the custome of the â—â—omanes to write ouer their Edicts B. F. Bonumfactum a good deed Sueton. in Iulio cap. 81. in Vitellio cap. 14. Plautus Poenulo Banum factum edicta vt seruetis mea THAT SHALL BE WEL DONE Besides we know not whether he spake of the Bishop of Rome or of the Bishop of Carthage a Metrapolitane in Affricke but howsoeuer cap. 21. he followeth the Bishop of Rome farre more plainely faying If because the Lord said vnto Peter vpon this Rocke I will build my Church therefore thou pretendest that the power to binde and loose is deriued vnto thee that is to say to euery Church that hath an affinity or neerenesse with S. Peter who art thou that changest and ouerthrowest the manifest meaning of Iesus Christ Si quia dixerat Petro Dominus super hanc petram c. id circo praesumis ad te deriuasse soluendi alligandi potestatem qualis es euertens atque commutansmanifestam Domiâ—â— intentionem personaliter hos Petro conferentem who conferred the same personally vnto Peter The next is S. Ierome who calleth the Bishop of Rome soueraigne Priest a name which the Ancients giue to euery Bishop as doth also the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The name also of a Foundation of the Church is common the all the Apostles as wee haue shewed and to all their true Successors S. Ierome sayth not that the Bishop of Rome is the only Foundation of the Church and if hee should haue so sayd he would surely haue beene suspected of flattering his Bishop as being himselfe a Roman Priest which neuerthelesse did not hinder him in an Epistle written to Euagrius to affirme that all Bishops are of equall dignity and to place the Bishop of Rome but in equality with others The place is very remarkeable In what place soeuer saith he a Bishop be whether he be at Rome at Agubium at Constantinople at Rhegium at Alexandria or at Tanis he hath one and the same priesthood the power of wealth or basenesse of pouerty maketh not one Bishop higher or lower then another In briefe they are all the successors of the Apostles But thou wilt say vnto me how commeth to passe that at Rome a Prest is receiued to his charge vpon the testimony of one Deacon To this obiection propounded to the end to haue all other Churches ruled after the example of the Romane he answereth thus Why bringest thou me in here the custome of one towne why dost thou bring in a small number by whose meanes pride is crept in among the lawes of the Churches In the third place he alledgeth S. Augustine saying That in the Romane Church the principality of the Apostolike Sea hath alwaies flourished If he had read the ancient histories he should haue learned that antiquity giueth also this principality to the Churches of Antioch Alexandria and of Ierusalem Sozomene chap. 16. of his booke eleuenth speaking of the Councell of Nice Fluic Concilio interfuere in Episcopis qui sedes tenebaÌ„t Apostolicas Macarius Hierosolymorum Antistes c. At this Councell were present amongst the Bishops that held the Apostolike Seas Macharius Bishop of Ierusalem Eustance Bishop of Antioch and Alexander Bishop of Alexandria 〈◊〉 Ruffinus lib. 2. chap. 21. saith that Damasus at Rome Timothy in Alexandria and Iohn in Ierusalem reestableshed the Seas Apostolike In Theodoret lib. 5. chap. 9. the Church of Antioch is called the most ancient Church of all the most Apostolike presently after the mother of all the Churches as it is likewise called in many other places Coeffeteau after these addeth a falshood he saith that the Councell of Chalcedon acknowledgeth the Bishop of Rome to be head of
ART 18. Of Images Pag. 329. ART 19. Of the Image of God Pag. 356. ART 20. Of the Crosse Pag. 361. ART 21. Of Purgatory Pag. 375. ART 22. Of the Anarchy and degrees of Superiority in the Church Pag. 406. ART 23. Of the Popes Supremacy Pag. 413. THE THIRD BOOKE ¶ Of the accomplishment of Prophesies OF THE VSVRPATION OF POPES Ouer KINGS THE FIRST BOOKE CHAP. I. The occasion that moued IAMES the first King of great Britaine to write his booke with the iudgement on COEFFETEAV his booke IT happeneth often that the Lightning falling vpon a man without hurting the flesh breaketh the bones because they onely in the body do make resistance to it and herein the lightning which GOD sends from aboue imitates the nature of him that sendeth it who bruseth the proude and such as withstand him but taketh mercy on the humble which bow vnder his iudgments and tremble at his word But the fulminations of the Bishop of Rome are of a contrary nature for they hurt none but such as feare them nor breake none but such as bow vnder them but he that sets them light is neyther endamaged by them nor breaketh his sleep for them but they fall like the Thunder-bolt into the Sea nay they rather drawe from God a blessing vpon the heads of those that are thus threatned according to that of Dauid Psal 109.28 Though they curse yet wilt thou blesse The happy raigne of the late Queene ELIZABETH will furnish vs with a faire example thereof who notwithstanding the excommuniations of Pope Pius the fift by whom England was interdicted she long time enioyed a Peace without any disturbance or interruption and a prosperity almost beyond example And finally when it pleased God to take her to peace and to gather her to his rest many supposed that the end of her life would be a beginning of troubles and confusions in England and thereupon the opinions and feares were diuers according to the diuersitie of mens desires For the English that were of the Romane Church attentiue and heedy to all occasions had conceiued hope of some great chaunge whether it were that they were led into their hope vpon false grounds or that after the death of a soueraine Prince better things are euer expected from the succeffor or whether that such as are discontented are euer desirous of a change so it was that in this Crisis of humours the spirits of the English waued and floated betwixt hope and feare till by the happy arriuall of IAMES the first the lawfull Successor all things were appeased and cleared euen as by the rising of the Sunne mists and fogges are dispersed and scattered He in the sweetnesse and fairenesse of his owne nature enclined to giue content vnto all his subiects with free liberty of conscience But this his in clination was ouer-ruled by necessity when his wisedome entred into consideration that the matter now in question was not onely Religion but the peace of his estate and the security of his crowne for that it was a thing dangerous to permit publike Assemblies of such persons as had taken Oath to others then himselfe who hold that the Pope may pull downe Kings from their Thrones and dispense with subiects for the oath of their alleageāce Moreouer he called to his remembrance the kings his predecessors whom the Popes had reduced to extream seruitude so farre as to make England parte of the Popes Demaines and in Fee to the Church of Rome and further to make it pay impost and to cause the King to goe beneath his Legats and to giue vp the Crowne into their handes These are considerations that one cannot square or apply to those of the Reformed Religion which liue vnder a Soueraigne of a contrary profession for they take oath to no other but to their Soueraigne Prince They cast their eyes vpon no Forrainer they maintaine that it belongs not to the subiect out of the Religion of the Prince to frame occasions of disobedience making piety the match and kindler of rebellion We are ready to expose our liues for the defence of our King against whomsoeuer though he be of our owne Religion and whosoeuer should doe otherwise should not defend Religion but giue way to his owne ambitions and should draw a great scandall vpon the truth of the Gospell Notwithstanding his Maiestie hath vsed his subiects of the Romane Church in such sorte that excepting the liberty of publique exercise he desired to haue them in like and equall condition with others being vnwilling to haue them disturbed for matter of conscience knowing well that Religion is not by force but by perswasion to take impression and that in this case men will rather follow then be drawne and that persecutions begin when Arguments are at an end Notwithstanding this gentle proceeding those of the Church of Rome now fallen from great hopes which they had imagined turned their despaire into choller and indignation and thereupon plotted an enterprise that should haue enfoulded the King the Queene their children his Maiesties Councell and the Parliament in one and the same destruction the plot was to make a Mine vnder the house of Parliament and so to send the King and his royal family with the chiefe of his Countrey to heauen by a new found way Hatred is an ingenious Mistris of inuention for neyther ancient nor moderne Histories can parallel this with any example The Prince of the world reserued to our times which are the very sinke of former ages something more exquisitely cruell and horrible then euer before hath beene mentioned In the meane time through all their houses there was a certaine forme of prayer prescribed by the Priests and Iesuites for the happy successe of this enterprise to whom the complices did mutually binde themselues by oath sworne vpon the holy Sacrament both for secrecie and perseuerance in the designe The Mine was already finished and the Gun-powder laid ready and nothing wanting but the execution when God who as he is himselfe a King so consequently he is the protector of Kings whom he hath established miraculously discouered this treason the conspiratours being taken suffered according vnto law and amongst others two Iesuites Garnet and Ouldcorne who are now inserted into a catalogue of * It is a table printed at Rome Anno 1608. apud Paulum Mauperinum Matheum Gruterum dedicated to R. Farnesius Prince of Parma in which are the pictures of such Iesuits as haue beene killed and executed sinc◠the yeare 1549. Martyrs imprinted at Rome which is the Spring-head and Forge of all such enterprises Lesse cause would haue sufficed an impatient King to haue exterminated all their complices and to haue let loose the raines of his iust anger but hee with a rare example of clemency suffered punishment to passe no further then to the principall delinquents inuenting and framing to himselfe Causes and Reasons how he might pardon he considered that Superstition might alter
Gospell now a dayes those which haue their handes stayned and soyled with the blood of Kings should be honoured with that Title It is not the suffering but the cause that maketh a Martyr otherwise the diuell might likewise haue his Martyrs but such paines are crymes and are not onely vnworthy of praise but are likewise vnworthy of pardon and such pains and torments as are againe to be punished with future torments Is it then fit that the holy squadron of Martyrs where S. Stephen marcheth first and S. Iames neare vnto him and after them the rest of the Apostles followed by so many of the faithfull who haue bin prodigall of their bloods but careful and thriftie of the glory of God Is it fit amongst them to finde Incendiaries and Parricides with fire and sword in hand not like vnto S. Paul and S. Lawrence that is to say not representing their punishments but as testimonies of their crymes not to signifie the death by which they died but to declare the manner how they murdered Vnhappy age that styleth villaines with title of vertue and that by the corrupting of words and names depraueth the things themselues and so by a new kinde of Grammer introducteth a new kinde of Diuinity But God be praised that he hath not permitted the Pope by his skill and arte to plant this perswasion generally in the hearts of the people but that euen amongst our aduersaries themselues there are very many that no way approue this seditious and bloody doctrine Amongst which number I would willingly place the Doctor Coeffeteau because of his protestations were it not that he allayes them with such modifications and restrictions as giues vs cause to doubt of them And which testifie that those Kings with whose liues and Crownes he would not haue medled are onely such Kings as are obedient to the Bishop of Rome for he saith That the Church of Rome wisheth to Princes an assured Empire victorious Armes and an obedient people Now it is most certaine that the Pope desireth not that those Kings which condemne him should bee victorious or that their people should remain in their obedience since he deposeth them from their Thrones and dispenseth to their subiects the Oath of their Alleageance And a little while after he saith that hee speaketh of such estates wherein the Church meaning the Church of Rome subsisteth which is as much to say that where it cannot subsist there hee approueth this rebellion and murther which he more clearely sheweth after Fol. 6. pag. 1. where after these wordes That the Pope cannot disapproue the courses that you hold to secure your Authority and person he addeth So that they be not offensiue to that Religion which he is bound to defend So that hereof it followeth that if the Romane Religion doe receiue any offence in England Then the Pope doth no longer approue the courses that the King holdeth for his conseruation But he giueth after more certaine proofes of his intention the which wee will remarke in their due places Besides we doubt not but a prudent person knoweth how to fashion himselfe to the times and to reserue his bloody propositions for fitter occasions And many times enterprizes are onely blamed because they are not succesfull and vices are turned to vertue by happy euents Multa sunt quae non nisi peracta Laundantur And the iudgements of those whose malice is accompanied with doubt and feare are framed according to the successe But in respect of our friendship I am rather enclined to thinke well of him and to free him of this suspition I will therefore conclude this Chapter with an obseruation which I thinke not fit to be omitted and it is that in the time of S. Paul Nero was then Emperour which Monster God eyther for the scorne of men or for their punishment had placed in the Empire who by his example declared to what height absolute and exquisite wickednesse assisted with Soueraigne power could ascend who likewise was the first that stirred vp persecution amongst the Christians Had the Christians euer greater cause to rebell Or serued they euer vnder a more vnworthy Master Now I would demaund of my Masters the Papists if S. Paul should haue made a Myne vnder his house or vnder colour of salutations should haue strucken him to the heart with a Poniard or had beene taken in any of these enterprizes and so put to death for them whether had he beene a Martyr or whether had his death beene acceptable or tended to the edification of the Church But because this is a question full of difficulties it is fit we should leaue it vndecided and that we expect some resolution from the Doctors or some decision from his Holinesse After this Coeffeteau Fol. 6. speaketh by the way of the Popes power ouer the temporality of Kings and promiseth afterwards to speake more at large Wee therefore to auoyde the repetition of things twice will set aside that subiect till he commeth to the place where hee fully handleth it And now let vs heare what he saith of the dignity of Cardinals Fol. 8. CHAP. III. Of Cardinals FOrasmuch as Bellarmine vnder the name of Tortus compareth the dignity of Cardinals to the Maiestie of Kings That is to say the Cardinals Cappe with the Regall Crowne the charge of a seruant of the seruant of seruants to the dignity of the ruler of Nations The King of great Britaine speaketh thus in his Apology I was neuer the man I confesse that could thinke a Cardinall a meete match for a King especially hauing many hundreth thousands of my subiects of as good birth as he As for his Church-dignity his Cardinalship I meane I know not how to ranke or value it eyther by the warrant of God his word or by the Ordinance of Emperours or Kings it being indeed onely a new Papall erection tolerated by the sleeping Conniuence of our predecessors I meane still by the plurall of Kings To this Coeffeteau maketh a milde replie intreating his Maiesty to iudge more fauourably of the intentions of so modest and learned a person as Bellarmine is Fol. 8. beseeching him to remember that Caluine acknowledged that the Cardinals flourished in the time of S. Gregory which is one thousand yeares since and that euen in the Councell of Rome vnder Siluester the first there is mention made of the seuen Deacon Cardinals as of no new Institution then And addeth that their charge was to instruct the people and to minister the Sacraments And since they hauing gotten vnto themselues the election of the Pope and being alwayes neere about him their glory is growne and increased by which the Church hath receiued much ease and furtherance the head of the Church hauing alwayes about his person his Councell in affaires of greatest importance Hee likewise saith that Kings reuerence them but they are so farre from making themselues equall with Kings that Princes finde none that beare themselues with more respect towards
and of such or such a Saint wee commit vnto you the Church of S. Sabina or of S. Chrisogonus c. that is he committeth to him one of the Parishes of Rome which is nothing but a bare formality and wordes without substance for after this ceremony this new Cardinall returneth home it may be into Fraunce or Sapine without euer setting his foote againe into the Church of which he beares the title And from thence it grew that for a long time there was in Rome but eight and twenty Cardinall Priests according to the number of the auncient Parishes in Rome which was seuen Churches vnder euery one of the foure principall and Patriarchall Churches of Rome as for the fift that is the Church of Lateran where the Pope made his residence that was aboue the other foure This number of eight and twenty Cardinall Parishes that is to say Parsons of Parishes continued in Rome vntill the time of Honorius the second father of the Cordeliers in the yeare 1125. as Onuphrius sheweth since which time the number hath encreased or lessened according to the pleasures of the Popes who were at that time in the height of their glory And the dignity of the Bishoppes of Millaine and Rauenna being decayed which before were held equall with the Bishop of Rome Since that there hath beene little speech but onely of the Cardinals of Rome As touching Deacons the custome of the City of Rome was to haue onely seuen following the example of the sixt Chapter of the Actes of the Apostles whose charge was to keepe and distribute the almes and to carry the Eucharist in the Church to the faithfull and to remoue the holy table and to cause those which were not yet fully instructed in the Christian Religion Catechumeni to goe out of the Church before the communion and to read the Gospell c. S. Laurence that suffered Martyrdome vnder Decius in the yeare 252. was one of those seuen Deacons as Prudentius testifieth Hic vnus ex septem viris Qui stant ad aram proximi Leuita sublimis gradu c. Likewise in the time of S. Cyprian there were but seuen as appeareth by the Epistle hee wrote to Cornelius in the sixt booke of Eusebius chap. 42. which agreeth with the twelfth Canon of the Counsell of Neocaesaria Now when the Church was growne to be in peace and quiet peace bringing plentie and plenty pride these Deacons became proude and insolent of which S. Augustine complaineth Falcidius duce stultitia Romanae ciuitatis iactantia Leuitas Sacerdotib ' equare contendit Quanquam Romanae Ecclesiae Diaconi modico inuericundiores videntur in his booke of questions of the olde and new Testament saying That one called Falcidius lead by folly and following the arrogancy and vaunting of the Citie of Rome would equal the Romane Deacons with other Priests and a little after saith that The Deacons of the Church of Rome seeme to be a little too impudent Pride was then in blooming but it is now full eared which sheweth that Haruest is at hand In the succeeding ages the number of Christians being greatly increased it is to be presumed the number of Deacons increased likewise amongst whom those which were the cheefest were called by the name of Cardinall Deacons which is as much to say as principall Looke Eusebius in the Election of Fabian Anno 240. It is not to be omitted that the election of the Bishoppes of Rome was long after this made by the voyces of the common people and Clergy the first mention of any Pope that was elected by Cardinals that I can finde in Platina is in the life of Nicholas the second in the yeare 1059. And yet a little after he ioyneth with them both the layetie and Clergy Onuphrius saith that Gregory the seuenth called Hildebrand See likewise Sigonius Ann. 1059. Nos Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinales Clerici acolythi presentibus Episcopis abbatibus multisque tum Ecclesiastici tum laici ordinis eligimus c. in the yeare 1072. and yet Platina affirmeth that he was elected not onely by the Cardinals but also by the whole Clergie in the presence of the people So that the custome which reserueth to Cardinals onely the elections of the Popes is of a new constitution as likewise those goodly vses they now haue to shut the Cardinals into the conclaue to put their meate in at a hole to serue their drinke in cleare bottles and their bread cut into little morsels to make them dyne euery one alone by themselues prohibiting them to serue one another diminishing euery day their allowance and when the name of a new elected Cardinall is declared out at the window to the people to runne home to his house and robbe and spoyle it as likewise that custome by which the elected Pope giueth to whom he list his place and Cardinals hatte as Pope Iulius the third did in the year 1505. who bestowed his place vpon a little boy called Innocentius who kept him an Ape Augusti Thrani Histor lib. 6. But chiefely that corruption by which euery Cardinall selleth his suffrage receiuing from Princes great pensions to giue their voyces with one of their faction Now after this bargaine and sale we must yet beleeue that such a purchast Pope cannot erre in faith By what which is already faid it appeareth that the Cardinals now a dayes haue no more resemblance of those of former times then the Pope hath of S. Peter or the Masse of the Lords supper first the auncient Cardinals were Pastors or Deacons of the Parishes of Rome to teach and to administer the Sacraments but the Cardinals now neyther teach nor haue any cure of soules secondly then the Cardinalship was a function now it is a dignitie Most ordinarily the creation of Cardinals is in vse one of the ember weekes thirdly then a Cardinall was not made but vpon the death of some other because that the Parish might not remaine without a Pastor But now the Pope createth when he pleaseth and as many as he pleaseth by which it hath happened that the Pope being carelesse thereof the number hath beene so strangely diminished that when Vrban the fourth was elected there were only two Cardinals Onuphrius so contrary to this Leo the tenth created eight and thirty in one day fourthly Then the Romane Cardinals were onely in the City of Rome whereas now they are euery where else and rule the Counsels of diuers Kings It is likewise to be presumed that in auncient time election was made of Cardinall Priests of the Inhabitants of Rome and such as were of most sufficiency but now the Cardinalshippe is bestowed vpon Infants and Princes children that are altogether vnlearned as likewise vpon others at the request and intreaty of Kings in recompence of their seruices Then the title of Cardinall Priests did not lift him vp higher then his fellowes but onely in some kinde of precedency
Churches and Orders haue fortie yeares Prescription This ought also moreouer to be added which is a thing that doth greatly redound to the weakening of the power of kings And that is that al Fee-farms and lands of the most noble Tenure assoone as they enter into the Possession of Ecclesiasticall persons they become exempted from all charges and payments as well in regard of their persons as of their goods being no longer bound to that personall seruice which the possessour formerly owed vnto the Prince Whence it came to passe that our auncient kings were able within lesse circuite of Countrey to leuie Armies of an hundred thousand men whereas now a dayes within a farre larger extent fewer troupes are gathered because there is a third part of the lands of Fraunce which contribute nothing to publique necessities And yet notwithstanding naturall reason requireth that they who enioy the fruite and benefite of peace should contribute toward the warre that those that liue at case should cherish and releeue them that fight for their conseruation Wherefore then whiles the Nobility and the third State do oppose themselues to the inuasion of strangers whiles the King doth fortifie his Frontiere Townes doth intertaine Garisons dooth appoint Officers as well for ciuill gouernement as for discipline of warre why should not Ecclesiasticall persons who by these meanes doe quietly enioy the fat and best of the Kingdome why should not they I say contribute to the publicke necessity why should their increase be a deminution to their Princes forces who watcheth ouer them for their quiet Furthermore no man can be ignorant but that this is a thing greatly threatning the dammage and impouerishing of the Kingdome that a third part of Fraunce should be tributary to a stranger vnder a title of Annates Dates Dispensations Absolutions and cases of marriage Against all which biting extortion our auncient Kings prouided by the Pragmaticke Sanction being angryed and agreeued to see the faire pence of the Kingdome to passe ouer the Alpes vnder a Religious kinde of pillage and to enter into the purses of those who made a mocke at our simplicity But aboue all this is that which is most pernitious to Kings and their estates that so many persons are exempted from iustice and from the arme of the secular power For by this meanes if a Clerke doe himselfe vndertake or doe abet another to attempt against the life of his Prince if he coyne false money set fire on a towne or entertaine secret intelligence with strangers or if hee infect the common people by the example of his lewde manners The Prince for all this cannot lay handes on him without leaue from his Bishop and hee shall not dare to touch him vntil he be first degraded in such sort that the King hath in his kingdome an infinite number of persons who are Lords of the fairest and best choyce of his Countrey and who are not his subiects but do acknowledge another for their Superiour out of the kingdome This is verily one of the boldest wiles and the subtilest sleights of the mystery of iniquity to haue found out a meanes whereby to make a king by sufferance to giue way to another to establish an estate within his owne estate and in the end to thanke him for it too and to thinke himselfe beholding to him for the same Who will then maruell hereupon if the king of great Britaine whom God hath freed from so heauy a yoake doe looke with compassion vpon those other kingdomes who yet do groane vnder this burthen and as standing safe on the shoare giueth aduise and counsell to his brethren whom he seeth weather-beaten with these surges and carryed away with the current of an olde inueterate custome Now here I protest againe as heretofore I haue done that I doe not speake of the persons but of the rules and orders of the Church of Rome I know that in this great body of the Clergy there is a great number that would willingly dye for the seruice of their king in whom their Priestly character of shauing hath not made them forget that they are borne subiects In whose spirits nature hath more force then their habites and the loue of their Countrey more then the Maximes of Italy but they are beholden to their owne good dispositions for this and not to the rules of the Church Some to colour this abuse say that Clerkes are exempted from the power of Princes not by Gods law but onely by mans positiue law whereunto I say that first they contradict not onely Bellarmine himselfe who in his booke of the exemption of Clerkes Ecclesiae Ecclesiasticaeque personae ac res ipsaâ—um non solum iure humano quinim mo diuino a secularium personarum exactionibus sint immunes hee doth exempt them by Gods diuine Law but also Pope Boniface the eight who speaketh in this maner in the Title De Censibus in Sexto The Churches and Ecclesiasticall persons their goods let them be exempt from the exactions of secular persons not onely by mans lawe but also by Gods Diuine law Secondly I say that it little importeth Princes vnder what title men take away their dues seeing that they are eyther way alike riffeled and despoyled And it goeth against the heart of him that hath been robbed to pay himselfe with a distruction certaine it is that if this be graunted that the exemptions of Clerkes is founded onely vpon mans lawes yet if a Prince should goe about to clippe the priuiledges of Church-men and should continue on to draw those rights and dues vppon their lands which he had vpon them whiles they were yet in the hands of secular men such a Prince I say shall be neuer a whit the more excused nay rather he shall be cursed and banned as blacke as a coale and shall be ground to powder with hote excommunications as a persecutor and diminisher of the liberty of the Church And if any Iesuite should come to suffer death in any such quarrel he should be put in the Kalendar of Saints and Martirs as was Thomas of Canterbury who suffered only for this very subiect And indeede it is a thing very easie for vs to prooue that Clerkes haue exempted themselues from Taxes and Subsidies and Contributions and from subiection to the secular sword not onely without all law both of God and man but directly contrary to Gods Diuine law For S. Paul Rom. 13. will haue euery soule subiect to the higher powers He that will exempt Clerkes from this rule saith by a consequent that they haue no soule Now if they be subiect then doe they owe Tribute for S. Paul addeth that this subiection consisteth in paying of tribute For this cause sayth he you pay tribute because they are the Ministers of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wheruppon Saint Chrysostome in his Commentary on that place speaketh roundly to the purpose The Apostle sayth he enioyneth this to all euen to Priests
of inflicting corporall punishment vpon them but of this we haue spoken at large before Thence doth Coeffeteau proceede to the Example of Henry the fourth which he saith cannot be alleadged because the times were then troublesome but the example suits very well to our purpose for that the Popes were the onely instruments of raising those troubles to exempt themselues from the Emperours subiection and to subiect the Emperours to themselues euen in seruices more seruile then seuuitude it selfe stirring vp the sonne to seeke the life and Crowne of Henry his father who died being depriued of his Imperiall dignity by his sonne the Popes instrument therein who vouchsafed not his father so much fauour See Helmoldus in the Chronicles of Sclauonia Naucl. 39. genera Baronius de vitis Pontificum and many others as to cause his body to be buried Fredericke Barbarossa being come soone after into Italy to be Crowned Emperour the Pope enforced him to hold his stirrope when he tooke horse But this Emperour little-skil'd in these seruices putting himselfe forward to hold the left in stead of the right stirrop was adiudged to practise the same submission the day following and howbeit he performed it very mannerly yet in conclusion the Pope sought to pull his Crowne from him And in the same degree of pride did Alexander the third treade vpon the said Frederickes necke vpon the staires of S. Markes Church in Venice the History is reported by many writers and alleadged by the King of great Britaine in his confutation of Bellarmine about the end of the booke and it is paynted at Venice in the hall of del Scrutinio del grand Constiglio the Maps and Tables thereof are reckoned vp and expounded by Girolam Bardi in a booke expresly written of that argument In the sequel of his discourse Coeffeteau fals into that wretchlesse negligence that he accuseth the King of mistaking the History not alleadging so much as one passage for his confutation And sure it is not Platina that doth alone record the deposition of these three Popes by Henry the fourth for Stella a Venetian Monke who hath written the liues of the Popes hath the same in these wordes Henricus Caesar habita Synodo Benedictum praedictum Syluestrum hunc Gregorium abdicare se Pontificatu coegit His Maiesty of England alleadgeth to the same purpose the example of Philip le bel K. of France that wrote with liberty enough vnto Boniface the eight who first inuented the Iubile Platina Stella in these wordes Let your great folleship vnderstand that in in temporall matters we are not subiect to any man c. And he it was that surprised the aforesaid Pope at Anagnia and committed him to prison at Rome where for griefe hee died An. 1303. To the example of Lewes the ninth King of Fraunce that established the law called Pragmatica sanctio against the pillaging and merchandizing of the Court of Rome he ioyneth the example of Lewes the eleauenth who being vrged by Pius the second to repeale that Sanction remitted his Legates to the faculty of the Diuines of Sorbone Iohannes Maierius libra de schismat Concil who made it good against the Pope with whom Iohannes Romanus the Kings Aduocate was ioyned that opposed them so farre with his conclusions that the Court appealed to the next Councell as indeeede they did The said King saith farther that the facultie of Sorbone came to maintaine this point that if the Pope should offer violence to our King the French Church had authority to establish a Patriarch and seuer themselues from the See of Rome And that Gerson Chaunceller of the Vniuersitie of Paris was so farre from defending this pretended temporall power of the Popes that he wrote a booke De auferibilitate Papae ab Ecclesia that is Of the possibility of forsaking the Pope and remoueing him from the Church How much more did hee beleeue then that the temporall power of Kings might be free from the insulting of Papall authority To this doth Coeffeteau make no other answere but that these contentions were onely for temporall matters and that Philip or Lewes or the faculty of Sorbonne or the Kings Aduocate desired not to preiudice the Popes authority in any regard as he is head of the Church so that here he answeres well to the King of Englands question whose ayme is onely vnto matters temporall and to the vsurpation of Popes ouer Monarches Touching the title of Head of the Church which is an abuse more intollerable hee reserues that for an after-discourse Now if so be the dissention betweene Philip and the See of Rome continued not many yeares as Coeffeteau obserueth Fol. 22 pag 2 it was because the Pope gaue way vnto him and Benedict the eleuenth was very glad to giue Philip absolution Platina Stella which he graunted of his owne accord because the other might haue beene well without it That we may close vp this point the King of great Britaine drawes many examples out of Matthew Paris and out of the Records of his Kingdom to this purpose as William Gifford whom King Henry the first inuested with his Bishopricke and Rodulphus whom the same King inuested with the Archbishopricke of Canterbury by his Ring and Crosier-staffe and Thurstan nominated to the Archbishopricke of Yorke depriued by the King of his temporalties for corrupting with bribes the Popes agents in the Councell of Rhemes The said King alleadgeth many examples of Abbots Bishops and Deanes in England that haue eyther against the Popes will yeelded obedience to their Soueraignes or haue beene degraded censured and imprisoned by their Princes for their disobedience in adhaering to the Popes And which is more considerable these are late examples such as haue happened while the Papacy domineered most How stood the case then when the Bishoppe of Rome had nothing to doe in England with matters eyther temporall or spirituall The Kingdome of Fraunce doth furnish vs with examples of more pregnancy The Synode of Fraunce is of speciall note to this purpose which is to be found in the third Tome of the Councels of the Colleyn Edition pag. 39. where Carolomanus qualifying himselfe as Duke and Prince of Fraunce vseth this speach By the aduise of my Clergie and others of principall esteeme of the Realme Ordinauimus Episcopos We haue ordayned Bishops in the Cities and haue established Boniface Archbishop ouer them The Councell of Maurice holden vnder Charlemaine Anno 813. beginneth thus Carolo Augusto verae religionis rectori ac defensori sanctae Dei Ecclesie and the first Councell of Mayence vnder Lewes le Debonaire Ludouico verae relligionis serenissimo rectori And these I trow should haue been accounted irreligious Titles now-a-dayes And here let it be principally noted that Coeffeteau trusts more to his heeles then to his hands for he buckles onely with the first of these examples and all his answere is that Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury opposed this
tumultuarily and in hast hath not had this curiosity It remaineth to examine the place of S. Austin of which euery one that hath a quicke smell will acknowledge the corruption and falsification First of all because it is not credible that this holy Personage would oppose himselfe single to the whole Church of his time and to all the Doctors that went before him and namely to the Councell of Carthage whereat himselfe had beene a present assistant Secondly because it is not credible that S. Austin would contradict himselfe for in the sixe and thirty Chapter of the eighteenth booke of the Citie of God he speaketh thus The supputation of these times since the building vp of the Temple is not found in the holy Scriptures which are called Canonicall but in other bookes among which are the Maccabees Is it possible to say in more plain and expresse termes that the Maccabees are not holy Scriptures nor Canonicall bookes But heere wee admire a pretty pleasant folly and stupidity of a taile handsomely fastened and sowed on by some Monke for after all this they make S. Austin to adde Which bookes not the Iewes but the Church boldeth for Canonicall O grosse Imposture After that hee had simply set downe that the Maccabees are not holy nor Canonicall Scriptures would hee say that the Church receiueth them for Canonicall By the same fraude this other place of S. Austin which Coeffeteau alleadgeth hath beene falsified Let vs adde hereunto that S. Austin cap. 23. of his second booke against Gaudentius answereth thus vnto Gaudentius who serued himselfe with the example of Razis who killed himselfe whereof mention is made in the second booke of the Maccabees The Iewes do not hold this booke in the same rancke with the law the Prophets and the Psalmes to which Iesus Christ beareth witnesse is they that beare record of him But this booke is receiued by the Church not vnprofitably if men read it soberly principally because of the sufferings of certaine Martyrs Who feeth not that he doth weaken the authority of these bookes in that Iesus Christ doth giue no testimony vnto them And if these bookes haue not beene reckoned for holy Scripture amongst the faithfull of the olde Testament I maruell when they became holy Scripture It is also a poynt very considerable that in this place of S. Austin produced by Coeffeteau Ecclesiasticus is put among the Canonicall bookes in which booke it is said cap. 46. Samuel prophesied after his death and declared vnto King Saul his death lifting vp his voyce out of earth An opinion which S. Austin doth condemne in his booke of Questions on the old Testament in the 27 Question saying Porrò autem hoc esi praestigium Satanae quo vt plurimos fallat etiam bonos se in potestate habere confingit that it is a great indignity to beleeue it and maintaineth that it was an illusion of Satan who to deceiue many faineth to haue good men in his power And in his booke of the care that men ought to haue of the dead after hauing spoken doubtfully he saith that men * Huic libro ex Hebraeorum Canone quia â—n eo non est contradicâ—tur controule the booke of Ecclesiasticus because it is not in the Canon of the Hebrews And in his booke of the eight Questions to Dulichius Quaest 6. he canuasseth this Question by way of Probleme leaning notwithstanding to the opinion that it was a meere fantasme or vaine apparition See hereupon the Canon Nec mirum in the Cause 26. Quest 6. where also S Austin is alleadged maintayning that this was done by enchantment Whence I conclude Caietan in fin-Commentaâ—oruÌ„ ad Historiam vet Test Ne turberis No uities si alicubi reperis libros istos inter Canonicos supputari vel in Sacris Con cilijs vel in Sacris Doctoribus Non. nâ—sunt Canonici id est regalares ad probandum ea quae sunt fidei possunt tamen Canonici dici ad aedificationem fidelium that S. Austin should contradict himselfe if after hauing refuted the opinion of Ecclesiasticus he should afterwards put him in the role of the Canonicall bookes These falshoods hauing not beene acknowledged by Cardinall Caietan droue him to finde out another euasion Be not astonished or troubled O thou who art but a Nouice in Diuinity if somtimes thou find eyther in the Councels or in the Doctors these bookes to be counted among the Canonicall For they are not Canonicall to proue the points of faith Notwithstanding they may be called Canonicall for the edification of the faithfull ARTICLE VI. Touching the memory of Saints and of their Feasts and holy dayes AS for the Saints departed I honour their memory The KINGS Confession and in honour of them doe wee in our Church obserue the dayes of so many of them as the Scripture doth Canonize for Saints but I am loath to beleeue all the tales of the Legended Saints Here Coeffeteau beginneth to skirmish without neede Fol 13. He complayneth for that the King speaketh onely of solemnizing the memory of those Saints of whom mention is made in the Scripture He saith that the Church of Smyrna did celebrate the feast of the Martyrdome of Polycarp That Basil did recommend the Feasts of S. Iulitta and of the forty Martyrs That Gregory Nazianzene did solemnize with the other Christians the Feast of S. Cyprian and S. Gregory of Nissa that of the Martyr Theodore That Cyprian commanded that they should marke out the dayes of the Passion of the Martyrs to the end that they mighcelebrate their memories That S. Austins twentieth booke against Faustus Manicheus cap. 21. saith that the Christian people did celebrate the memories of the Martyrs And yet that S. Polycarpe S. Iulitta c. are no Saints of whom there is any mention in the Scripture Hee addeth notwithstanding that the Church of England is in that lesse irreligious then the Caluinists of Fraunce who haue cut off all sorts of holy-daies of Saints aswell Apostles as others As touching the Legends We are saith hee no more credulous of them then you He saith he doth not receiue miracles vnlesse they be approued by the publique testimony of the Church and that euen in the first ages they suggested and foysted in false actes of Martyrs These passages which he alleadgeth are in part false partly they are of no vse to proue the Question Let vs begin with the falshood First in alleadging out of Eusebius the example of the Church of Smyrna who buried the bones of Polycarpe with honour and celebrated his memory Anniuersarily euery yeare there is no mention made of his Feast or Holy-day but onely of a day dedicated to the commemoration of his Martyrdome Ignorantes nos ChristuÌ„nunquam relinquere qui pro totius seruan dorum mundi salute passus est nec alium quenquam colere posse Nam hunc quidem tanquaÌ„ filium Dei adoramus Martyres verò
of Diuinity As touching publique seruice it is certaine that at the celebration of the Eucharist there was commemoration made of the Saints deceased but without inuocating them as S. Austin witnesseth in his two and twentieth booke of the Citie of God chap 10. t Ad quod sacrificium sicut homines Dei qui mundum eius confessione vicerunt fuo loco ordine nominantur Non tamen a sacerdote qui sacrificat inuocantur At this sacrifice the Martyrs as men of God who haue ouercome the world in confessing him are named in their place and in their ranke but They are not Inuocated by the Priest who sacrificeth And to the same end the third Councell of Carthage in the three and twentieth Canon ordayneth very expresly u Cum ad altare assistitur semper ad patrem d rigatur Oratio that when they stand at the Altar the praier be alwayes addressed to God the Father not then to the Saints as they doe now adaies in many Masses In his twentieth booke against Faustus the Manichee x Cap. 21 Colimus martyres eo cultu dilectionis societatis quo in hac vita coluntur sancti homines We honour the Martyrs with the same honour of loue and society wherewith men honor the holy men of God which are in this life True it is that he acknowledgeth that it is with more assurance because they haue surpassed all danger but he alwaies acknowledgeth that it is one and the same kind of honour It is not then to inuocate them or to adore them and it is that seruice which is yeelded to liuing men which he affirmeth to be called Dulia whence it followeth that it is not a religious worship And therfore also in his booke of the true Religion c. 55. y Tom 1 Non sit vobis religio cultus hominum mortuorum quia si pie vixerunt non sic habentur vt tales quaerant honores sed illum a nobis coli volunt quo illuminante laetantur merito sui nos esse consortes Let not the seruice saith he of men departed be your religion if they haue liued holily they are in that state that they craue not these honors And a little after We must honour them for imitation but we must not adore them by any Religion The same Authour in his manuall to Laurentius cap. 114. z Non nisi a Domino Deo petere debemus quicquid speramus nos vel boni operaturos vel pro bonis operibus adepturos We ought not to craue from any other but from God the good which we hope eyther to doe or to procure as a Stipend of our good workes In his booke of Ecclesiasticall Determinations cap. 81. * Secreta cogitationis solus ille nouit ad quem dicitur Tu solus nosti corda filiorum bominum He alone knoweth the secrets of the hearts to whom it is said Thou alone knowest the hearts of the sonnes of men These passages a few amongst many shal suffice for this time against which our aduersaries produce some places drawne out of forged bookes or out of the ill gouerned deuotion of some particular men contrary to the publicke beleefe And if there be any examples found of some few who haue prayed Ad memorias Martyrum before or neere the sepulchres of the Martyrs our aduersaries perswade the ignorant that these prayers were made vnto the Martyrs in stead that they were made vnto God to praise him for the assistance giuen vnto the Martyrs and to craue of God the like grace Aboue all it is considerable that Coeffeteau doth touch but the half of the question and wardeth but halfe the blows for he endeuoreth to proue that we must inuocate the Saints which is but a litle peece of the abuse For the Church of Rome doth not stay there she craueth of God saluation not onely through the intercession of the Saint but also through their merites Quorum precibê° meritisque rogamê° Which is not to goe to God by the Saints but contrariwise to lead God to the Saints and to represent him their merites This is also to pray vnto God with an indiscretion which would be accounted impudent in speaking to a King If any man should aske him a fauour or benefite for the merites of another And this so vnworthy a prayer is accompanied with a superstitious iesture Oramus te Domine per merita Sanctorum quorum relliquiae hic sunt omnium sanctorum vt indulgere digneris omnia pâ—ccata mea when the Priest bowing himself ouer the Altar saith We pray thee O Lord by the merites of the Saints whose reliques are here for euery Altar is a Tombe and generally of all the Saints that thou wilt vouchsafe to pardon all my sinnes Of such a prayer Coeffeteau hath not been able to produce any example No more then of this damnable opinion which holdeth that the merites of the Saints doe serue to fill vp the measure of the merites of Iesus Christ Lib. 1 de Indulg cap 4. in that being adioyned to the merites of Iesus Christ and put together into the treasurie of the Church they are employed by the Pope for the redemption and discharge of the punishment of our sinnes whence also it is that Cardinall Bellarmine saith that in some sort they are our redeemers How comes it to passe that Coeffeteau holdeth his peace hereat and alleadgeth not any father and hath forgotten to excuse the Priest who in his Confiteor which he saith at the entrance of the Masse confesseth his sinnes to God to the Virgin Marie to Michael th'arch-Angell and to the Saints but not to Iesus Christ ARTICLE IX Touching Masses without Communicants and without Assistants BVt if the Romish Church hath coyned new Articles of faith The KINGS Confession neuer heard of in the first 500. years after Christ I hope I shall neuer be condemned for an Hereticke for not being a Nouelist Such are the priuate Masses where the Priest playeth the part both of the Priest and of the people If euer man turned his backe and shamefully fledde it is Coeffeteau in this place We expected from him the defence of priuate Masses by the word of God or at least that he should haue produced vnto vs the practise of the auncient Church or some examples of priuate masses in the first fiue hundred yeares after Iesus Christ seeing that the King of great Britain doth limit him to that terme but of all this not a word But rather he turneth aside his Discourse casteth himselfe vpon the sacrifice of the masse Fol. 22. pag. 1. heaping vp many passages of the Fathers who cal the Eucharist a sacrifice He saith onely that it is not necessary that a sacrifice be offered by many that in times past the greatest sacrifice of the Synagogue was done by the high Priest alone in the holy of holies that the fathers in many places called the
Eucharist a sacrifice That the essence of the sacrifice doth not depend from the assistants That the vertue of this Oblation is alwaies one as wel in as out of solemnities Add hereunto that the action cannot be priuate albeit the Priest doe it in particular seeing that he is a publike person That S. Austin speaking of a place haunted with wicked spirits saith that one of his Priests went thither offered the Sacrifice of the body of Christ The Answere The Priest in the Masse saith that he doth offer SacrificiuÌ„ laudis pro redemptione animarum which could no otherwise be done but priuately and without solemnity I answere that Coeffeteau takes much paines to no purpose for we agree with the Fathers that the holy supper is a Sacrifice but yet a Sacrifice Eucharisticall that is a giuing of thankes not propitiatory for the redemption of soules where Christ is really sacrificed which we shall see hereafter Yea were it such a sacrifice as our aduersaries would haue it yet ought it to bee celebrated with the communion of assistants because God hath so commanded 1 Christ Iesus saying to the assistants take eate commaundeth them to participate 2 Againe he addeth Doe this that in the celebration thereof we should follow his example And the Apostle S. Paul 1. cor 10.16 defineth this Sacrament by the Communion saying That the bread which we breake is the communion of the body of Christ 4 The Apostle there addeth wordes that strike sure We are all partakers of one bread then all ought to participate 5 Also the word supper which he vseth in the twentieth verse of the Chapter following signifies a common supper and importeth a communion and we haue elsewhere declared that all auncient Writers doe call this Sacrament a supper Now what can be more absurd then to inuite people to a supper to looke on and eate nothing Who euer heard tell of a feast where the inuiter doth eate alone They reply that at a Feast people cannot be forced to eate whereunto I say that if they should not be compelled they should at least be entreated to eate but in priuate Masses there are none inuited and the Priest is often alone I say farther that the guests should be constrained to eate if God haue so expresly commanded and he hath commanded to take eate and communicate in this holy supper It is no wonder then if the word Supper be grown odious and out of vse seeing it serues to discouer the abuse and that the Etymologie therof is a kinde of commandement 6 Besides what resemblance is there between Christ set at the Table with his Apostles distributing the bread and the cup to euery of them and the Priest that not onely eates and drinkes by himselfe but is often alone and grumbles some few wordes vnheard vpon the Host 7 More especially it is to bee considered that the Church of Rome teacheth that the Eucharist is not onely a sacrifice but also a Sacrament whence it followes that although the Eucharist as it is a sacrifice may be performed without Communicants yet as it is the Sacrament of that Communion which wee haue together with Iesus Christ so is the communion thereof among many required as necessary which shewes how impertinently Coeffeteau speakes That it is not necessary that the Sacrifice be offered by many and that the essence of the Sacrifice dependeth not of the Communicants and that the vertue of the Sacrifice is still the same both with the ceremonies and without them seeing we do not here speake of the Eucharist as it is a sacrifice but a Sacrament If any Sophister make answere that the essence of the Sacrament consisteth not in the Communion but in the consecration my replication is that it contradicts the Apostle who defineth this sacrament by the Communion as we haue seene and definitions are the very essence of things Againe the communion of one bread hath an essentiall reference to our Communion with Iesus Christ which two words are relatiues wherof the former depends vpon the latter Touching the pretended consecration of the Church of Rome it cannot be of the essence of the sacrament for euery sacrament is a holy signe but this consecration is not a holy signe because it doth not signifie any thing no body vnderstands any thing or sees any thing In the booke of the Apology chap. 7. And we haue declared in it place that the true consecration is done by prayer and the auncients so beleeued 8 Noâ—withstanding let vs graunt that the Communion is not of the essence of the Sacrament doth it therefore follow that it is not necessary Is there not validity in Gods commandement to make it necessary Is there nothing necessarie besides that which is of the essence of things then shall not the law or the Gospell be necessary for men because they are not of the essence of men and so shal it not be necessary for Coeffeteau to draw his breath because it is no part of his effence there can nothing be said more wide from the purpose 9 Touching that which he addeth that the cheefe sacrifice of the Synagogue was performed by the High Priest alone within the Holy of Holies I doe admire the negligent rashnes of this Doctor that he dares speake of the Scripture before he read it for had he read it he would haue found the contrary he should haue seene that the blood which the High Priest alone caried into the Sanctum SanctoruÌ„ was the blood of a beast already sacrificed in the Court vpon the altar of burnt offerings in the presence of the people and there was no sacrifice more publique or more solemnly performed Is there any such a nouice in the sacred History that euer thought that Aaron did sacrifice or offer any beast within the place that was most holy It was then a sprinkling of bloud which he made vpon the Arke as the conclusion of the publique sacrifice and was no sacrifice done in priuate Read the thirtieth of Exodus and the sixteenth of Leuiticus 10 Of like stuffe is that which he addeth that Masses without Communicants or assistants cannot be said to be priuate because the Priest is a publique person this is a goodly conceit So then if a Minister doe pray alone in the Church his prayer shal be a publique prayer And should not this Minister deserue a greene coate if being alone hee should say Attend my Masters when he reprehended the walles yet this is that which the Massing Priest in priuate doth at which priuate Masses being all alone he saith Orate pro me fratres Brethren pray for me and which is more he saith Accipite man ducate ex hoc omnes Take and eate all of this and yet offers nothing to any body but eates alone With like abuse doth he say Vt quot quot ex hac altaris participatione sumpserimus c. That al we which by the participation of the Altar haue receiued the
bodie c Wherupon the question is asked to whom the Priest speakes when he saith Brethren pray for me Pope Innocent the third doth answere finely in the second booke of the mysteries of the Masse chap. 25. It must saith he be religiously beleeued that the Angels doe beare them companie that pray according to the saying of the Prophet I will sing vnto thee in the presence of the Angels Which will also serue to resolue other doubts presuming that when the Priest saith Take eate he doth invite the Angels to eate for they come with good stomackes And so of the rest At length the place of Austin is brought which is the onely passage of antiquity that Coeffeteau can finde This Father lib. 22. De ciuit Dei speaking of a place haunted with euill spirits saith that one of his Priests went and offered a Sacrifice there wherupon Coeffeteau saith that this could not be done but priuately and without solemnity but he dares not to affirme that he had no assistants or communicants which is that which he should or else the place makes not to the purpose And indeede we may presume the contrary forasmuch as S Austin speakes of a great house and of some great person of quality that sent not for a Minister of the Church of Carthage to celebrate the holy Sacrament Nusquam expresse legimus a veter ibus oblatum sacrificium sine communione alâ—cuius ve aliquorum to leaue him alone without assistants or communicants and indeede Bellarmine confesseth the impertinency of this place lib. 2. de Missa cap. 9. where he acknowledgeth That there is no expresse place sound where the auncrents haue offered the Sacrifice without some Communicants The common excuse and the same which the Councel of Trent vseth in the seuenth Session is that it comes to passe through the indeuotion of the people which speech doth both confes and yet approue the abuse for the same Councell addeth The holy Councell doth not forbid those Masses wherein the Priest alone doth communicate sacramentally as priuate and vnlawfull but doth approue and commend them which their practise doth proue for if it be through the want of deuotion in the people why doe they not endeauour the remedie for if there be any question of casting into the boxe if any busines fall out concerning tithes and offerings they easily finde the meanes to holde the people in the humor of contribution neither do I finde that the Cardinalls and Bishops doe communicate ofâ—ener then the people For the Priests hinder the people from assisting them because they say an infinite number of Masses in priuate and vpon the sudden of which they giue no warning For three sundry persons will one Priest dispatch three Masses to euery one his own that each of them may pay for a whole Masse And they that will haue yearely Masses doe found yearely Pensions for neuer was any priuate Masse said for him that gaue nothing they vse not to make God for nothing Masses are sold for more or lesse according to the prouision that is made if one pay for one Masse is it any reason that another should equally share with him Yea they buy Masses for the soules of young children dying soone after baptisme which they hold must needes be in Paradice for if Masses doe no good to them that are dead yet they profite those that are aliue Doubtlesse it is couereousnesse that hath hatched this abuse and superstition hath fomented it These men do againe reply although but weakly for say they if no Communicants offer themselues must the Sacrifice be therefore discontinued Let them heare S. Chrysostome thundring thereupon in the third Homily vpon the Ephesians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O custome O presumption in vaine is Sacrifice daily offered in vaine doe we stand at the Altar and none communicate And a little after Whosoeuer doth not communicate in these mysteries is impudent and rash in standing by And further adde that they do falsly presume that the holy supper is a Sacrifice in that sense which they take the word Sacrifice as we shal presently see Now let vs heare the testimonies of the Auncients Peracta consecratione omnes communic ent qui noluerint Ecclesiasticis carere liminibus Sic enim Apostoli sta tuerunt Sancta Romana tenet Ecclesia Tanta in altario holocausta offerantur quanta populo sufficere debeant c. The auncient rule of the Church of the Citie of Rome which is found in the second Distinction of the consecration vnder the name of Anaclet in the Canon Peracta is this The consecration being ended let all those communicate that will not be excluded out of the bounds of the Church for so haue the Apostles ordained and the Church of Rome obserueth And in the Canon Tribus gradibus of the same Distinction Let as many offerings be laid vpon the Table as will serue for all the people to communicate and if any doe remaine let them not be kept vntill the morrow And in the first Distinction of the Consecration in the Canon Hoc quoque the Pope speakes thus It is ordained that no Priest presume to celebrate the solemnities of the Masse if he haue not two others that may answere him and that the Priest be the third because when he saith in the plurall number The Lord be with you and that which he saith in secret pray for me it is apparantly requisite that answere be made to his salutation Iustin Martyr in the second of his Apologie The Deacons doe disiribute the bread to euery one that is present Ignatius in the Epistle to the Philadelphians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dominica Coena omnibus debet esse communis One loafe hath beene broken to all S. Ierome vpon the first to the Corinth cap. II. The supper of the Lord ought to be common vnto all The Reader may compare this word the common Supper with the priuate Masse The Authour of the Constitutions ascribed vnto Clement lib. 2. cap. 61. Let euery one receiue the bodie of the Lord. And so haue all the auncient Liturgies Accipiant singuli per se Dominicum corpus although they be much falsified yea and some traces thereof are to be seene in the Masse where the Priest though he be alone doth alwaies speake as vnto many communicants Cum ex more Diaconus clamaret Si quis non communi at det locum Gregory the first Bishop of Rome in the second booke of his Dialogues chap. 13. saith that the Deacon according to the custome crieth if there be any that doth not communicate let him depart And this was sixe hundred yeares after Christ and we could disscend lower But this sufficeth against a man that feares the triall who being not able to alleadge against the King of great Britaine any syllable of Scripture no nor any of the Auncients that speake of priuate Masses doth flie from the matter and desperately
should haue beene sacrificers as well as the Priests fiftly We know also that the Israelites did often eate things sacrificed in their priuate houses as the woman mentioned Prou. 7. I haue with me sacrifices of prosperity I haue paide my vowes Whence I gather that if eating be sacrificing it must follow that women did sacrifice in their houses which is contrary to the law and without example The sacrifice of the Masse being built on no foundation and being an Altar erected against the onely Altar which is the Crosse of our Sauiour an Altar newly built vpon the ruines of the Gospell yea being the crosse of the Crosse of Christ and an annihilating of his death it hath not come to passe without the iust iudgement of God that they themselues haue let fall the price thereof so low employing it for the healing of Horses the preseruing of Sheepe for blasted corne and for frost-bitten Vines as a general salue for euery sore But Christ Iesus instituted the Supper for a memoriall of himselfe and to shew forth his death till he come There is also good reason why so many Masses are required to free one single soule out of Purgatory and why they make this sacrifice so infinitely inferiour in vertue to that of the Crosse which yet should not be so if it be the same sacrifice and consequently the same price of a redemption neyther doth it serue the turne to say that the sacrifice of the Crosse is of more efficacy because Christ Iesus did immediately offer it wheras this is offered by the mynistery of a Priest for a payment or ransome whether I doe immediately pay it my selfe or send another to carry or tell the money is of like validity I do also exceedingly wonder that the Church of Rome establishing in the Eucharist both a Sacrament and a Sacrifice which are made one action that yet it makes so great a difference betweene them both in vertue and efficacy greatly vnder valuing the efficacy of the Sacrament saying that it serues onely for petty sinnes which they terme veniall and of which a mans conscience is already discharged that is to say it is a plaster for wounds perfectly healed Bellar. l. 4. de Eucharist cap. 17. 18. a remedy for euils passed a discharge of burdens already vnloaded But touching the sacrifice of the Masse the Councel of Trent Session 22. cap. 2. saith that by this Sacrifice the most hey nous sinnes are remitted And this Sacrifice is profitably offered for them that are absent yea for the dead yea for them that make a mocke of it for Masses are sung for Infidels and prophane persons and this sacrifice is of force say they Ex opere opera to the disposition of the partie for whom the Masse is said not being necessarily required thereunto To what end is all this but to debase the power of a Sacrament instituted by God and to enhance the vertue of a sacrifice inuented by man And because the Sacrament cannot be bestowed vpon the dead but Masses are solde both for the dead and for the liuing And out of what passage of Scripture haue they extracted so nice a difference between the efficacy of he one and of the other But this is sufficient for souldiers that forsake the fielde for Bellarmine and his associates lighting vpon this subiect they wander in large impertinent questions which make nothing to the point in controuersie they winde vp long Discourses to proue that the death of Iesus Christ is a sacrifice a point denyed not by any that the Eucharist is a sacrifice which is true but it is a sacrifice Eucharisticall that is to say a giuing of thankes and as it is called in the Masse Sacrificium laudis a Sacrifice of praise Againe they bring the sacrifice of Melchisedech and the figure of the Passeouer and the sacrifices of the law which they say prefigured the sacrifice of the new Testament with diuers places of the Prophets especially that of Malachy which foretell the sacrifice of the New Testament with many such like things wherein howbeit they deliuer the truth yet doe they not helpe themselues thereby because it is all beside the purpose and comes not neere the point that is controuerted for although the Masse were the sacrifice of Melchisedech and the sacrifice forespoken of by Malachy and prefigured by the Passeouer yet is it not proued thereby that Christ ought to be really sacrificed vnder the formes of bread and wine nor that the sacrifice of the Masse is propitiatory for the redemption of soules Reade Bellarmine who hath compiled two great Bookes of the Masse wherein he is copious in impertinent proofes but you shall not finde in him any answere to the Arguments which I haue formerly alleadged which are the very sinewes of the body of this disputation the armor of proofe of the holy truth for none among them could euer yet satisfie these obiections And out of him is it that Coeffeteau hath collected a number of the Fathers whereof some make against him some are vntrue and others impertinent It makes against him which hee alleadgeth out of Iustin Martyr against Tryphon saying Malachy speaketh prophetically of the Sacrifices which we offer Suis discipulis dans consilium primitias Deo offerre ex suis creaturis non quesi indigenti sed vt ipsi nec infructuosi nec ingrati sint Noui Testamenti nouam doeuit oblationemq uā Ecclesia ab Apostolis accipiens in 〈◊〉 niuers◠mundo offert Deo ei qui alimenta nobis praestat primitias suoram munerū namely the bread and wine in the Eucharist Surely if this be a sacrifice of bread and wine then is it no sacrifice propitiatory wherein Iesus Christ is really sacrificed The second place is out of Irenaeus lib. 4. cap. 32. which Coeffeteau by his shamefull wrangling hath falsified Irenaeus saith Christ counselling his Disciples to offer vnto God the first fruites of his creatures not because he hath any neede of them but that they might not be vnthankefull or vnfruitfull tooke bread among the creatures which are common amongst vs and gaue thankes saying This is my body and likewise tooke the cup among the creatures which are common among vs and said it was his blood and hath taught a new offering of the new Testament which the Church hauing receiued of the Apostles doth throughout the world offer vnto God which bestoweth vpon vs the first fruites of his gifts From this place doth Coeffeteau cut off the three first lines which say that this sacrifice is an offering of the first fruites of his creatures that is to say of bread and wine and the last line which affirmeth the same for we shall see hereafter that the manner of the auncients was for the people to come and offer bread and wine and fruit vpon the Table of the holy Supper which offering was called the sacrifice of the Eucharist that is a giuing of thankes Concerning
the other places which say that Iesus Christ is offered and presented we doe readily embrace them for it is true in sundry respects whether they will that he offered himselfe vnto the Communicants or that they vnderstand that Christ is offered vnto God sacramentally and in the signe or for that in the Eucharist we offer vnto God the merite of his death in that we do beseech him to accept and receiue the merite of his Sonnes death for our redemption The last place which he alleadgeth is out of the Councell of Ephesus wherin I wish that Coeffeteau had carried himselfe with greater credite for first it is false that S. Cyrill doth speake there in the name of the Councell of Ephesus but it is a peece of a Letter taken out of the Councell of Alexandria which is indeed a declaration of the eleuenth curse of Cyrill against Nestorius as Coeffeteau saith but he hath concealed the exposition whâ—ch Cyrill himselfe addeth Tom 1. of the Councels of the Colen Edition pag. 683. Num hominis comestioneÌ„ nostrum hoc Sacramentum pronuncias Et irreligiose ad crassas cogitationes vrges eorum qui crediderunt mentem attentas humanis cogitationibus tractare quae solâ pura inexquisita fide accipiuntur Aristophanes Acharnanensibus agens de Lacâ—daemonijs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cur â—â—lias aâ—â—s hahent Christiani nulla templa nulla nota simulacra Quid ergosacrifiâ—ia censâ—â—is nulla emnâ—no esse facâ—â—nda Respon Nulla Dost thou pronounce that our Sacrament is a humane eating and dost thou irreligiousty vrge the vnderstanding of those that haue beleeued too grosse imaginations Dost thou presume to handle with humane thoughts things which are onely receiued with a pure and vnsearchable faith Now to giue light in this matter to the Stile and purpose of the Fathers calling the holy supper a sacrifice we must obserue that in the first ages after Christ the Christians laboured by all meanes to draw the Heathens vnto Christianitie but the heathen were offended â—t this that in the Christian Religion they saw neither Altars nor sacrifices nor Images without which they thought there was no Religion whence the olde prouerbe comes Vnto the Altars that is to say as farre as Religion and conscience exclusiuely as if there were no religion without an Altar Celsus the Pagan reproacheth Christians That they haue neyther Altars nor Images nor Temples In the eighth booke of Origen against Celsus and in the Dialogue of Minutius Faelix Caecilius the Pagan speakes thus Whence comes it that the Christians haue no Altars nor Temples nor Images to be seene And in the beginning of the seuenth booke of Arnobius the Heathen speake thus vnto the Christians Doe you thinke then that there are no Sacrifices to be made Whereunto the Christians make answere Not any To be then without Altars and Sacrifices did offend the Heathen and made Christianity odious This is then the reason why they ordinarily vsed these wordes of the Table of the Lord and the holy supper and the Eucharist whereof there are infinite examples And yet to remoue offence and allure the Heathen by little and little they vsed to call the Table an Altar and the holy Sacrament by the name of a sacrifice And this was discretion grounded on reason for seeing the holy Scripture doth call our prayers and almes and our Religious seruice by the name of Sacrifices Hebr. 13.16 Phil. 4.18 they haue for the same reason called the holy Supper a Sacrifice wherein we doe not onely offer our selues vnto God but doe also offer Christ Iesus vnto him that is we doe beseech God to accept the sactifice of his death for our redemption And this serued to draw the Iewes for whose farther content the Deacons were called Leuites and the day of the resurrection of Christ was called the Passeouer But that which did especially confirme this word Sacrifice was the custome of the faithfull which was before the holy Supper to bring vnto the Table offerings of bread and wine and fruites whereof such a portion was set aside as might serue for the whole assembly to communicate in the two kindes and the rest was for the poore which gifts and offerings and almes in the old Testament yea and sometimes in the new Heb. 13.16 Phil. 4.18 are called sacrifices and oblations Yet whereas they doe ordinarily call the Sacrament the Eucharist and the Sacrifice of the Eucharist that is to say a giuing of thankes they giue sufficient testimony that they meant not to make a sacrifice propitiatory or really to sacrifice Christ Iesus for our redemption Now that the Almes Gifts and Offerings of the faithfull were called sacrifices and oblations none can be ignorant that is any whit versed in the Fathers The Apostles Canons howsoeuer supposititous yet are auncient doe in the fourth Canon forbid to offer any thing beside eares of Corne Incense c. S. Cyprian lib. 1 Epist 9 commaundeth the Clergy Locuples Diues Domnicum celebrare te credis quae corbonam non respicis quae in Dominicum sine sacrificio venis quae partem de sacrificio quod pauper obtulit sumis Hypodiaconi oblatione in templo Domini a fidelibus ipsi suscipiant That receiuing offerings of the peoples contributions they goe not from the Altar and the sacrifices And in his Sermon of Almes Thou a rich woman who thinkest to celebrate the Lords Supper that regardest not to bring an offering that commest to the Supper of the Lord without a sacrifice that takest a part of the Sacrifice which the poore offereth So in the one and twentieth Distinction in the Canon Cleros taken out of Isidore Let the Subdeacons themselues receiue the offerings of the Faithfull Obserue this custome very plainely set downe in Theodoret in the third booke of his History chap. 12. and in the fourth booke chap 19. The Pastor of the Church hauing before him vpon the Table all the presents in great quantity made prayer vnto God to accept those Giftes Presents and immaculate Sacrifices that he would accept them as sometimes he did the sacrifices of Abel and of Abraham that the Angels might carry them into heauen before God giftes created by God blessed and sanctified for euer by Iesus Christ c. Wordes which continue to this day in the Canon of the Masse and which were good and holy when they were said ouer the Almes and Offerings of the people But which are now become ridiculous and vngodly forasmuch as the Priest doth say them vpon an Host which he thinketh to be Iesus Christ for to call Iesus Christ by the name of gifts and offerings is to speake against the common sense To pray that God would accept this sacrifice as well as that of Abel is to make the sacrifice of Iesus Christ no better then the sacrifice of a beast To pray that the Angels may carry Iesus Christ and present him vnto God is not to know that Iesus Christ
signified He there alleadgeth also S. Ambrose who saith 2. de Consecrat Can. In Christo ex Ambrosio in Epist ad Hebr. We continually offer this is done in remembrance of his death this is one selfe Sacrifice and not many how is it onely one and not many Because Iesus Christ hath beene sacrificed onely once but this sacrifice is done for example of that other Thom as Aquinas hath followed Lombard and decided this question tertia parte Summae Quaest 83. art 1. where he saith that the celebration of the Sacrament is called a Sacrifice for two reasons first because according to S. Austin the signes are called by the name of the things signified secondly because by the Sacrament we are made partakers of the death of Christ He forgot the reason which now they say is the principall to wit that it is because that Iesus Christ is really sacrificed vnder the formes of bread for a sacrifice truely propitiatory ARTICLE X. Of the Communion vnder one kinde The KINGS Confession ANd such are the Amputation of the one halfe of the Sacrament from the people Hereunto Mr. Coeffeteau opposeth the second of the Acts where saith he the Apostles administred this Sacrament vnder one kinde onely for there it is said that the faithfull continued in the doctrine of the Apostles and in fellowship and breaking of bread That our chiefe Doctors confesse that this place must be vnderstood of the Sacrament and yet there is no mention but of one kinde of bread vnlesse his Maiesty saith he who adoreth the sufficiency of the Scripture will make a supplement of something to be added thereunto He addeth that Christ is wholly and entier vnder euery kinde and that the people receiue him neuerthelesse That the Church by this meanes hath prouided against vnreuerent behauiours and preuented the heresie of those that beleeued not that the bloud was together with the body vnder the kinde of bread He affirmeth that heretofore it was free to receiue the communion vnder one or both kindes because the faithfull sometimes carried the Eucharist home to their houses and toooke it not but when they might commodiously doe it and they did it say they for the most part vnder the kinde of bread only and that Athanasius witnesseth that the Communion Cup was not vsed out of the Church that they communicated among themselues vnder one kinde that they might also doe it in publique For thus saith S. Ierome Hierom in Apol. ad Pammachiū Is Christ another in publique then in a priuate house that which is not to be tolerated in the Church is not the rather permitted in a house that the Ministers complayning of the mutilation of one kinde haue in the meane time destroyed the essence of the Sacrament remouing the body of the Lord as farre from the Sacrament as heauen from the earth which is to belye the Sonne of God who saith This is my body c. Before we make answere to the place of the second of the Acts the Reader shall obserue The Answere that this is the first place of Scripture which this Doctor hath alleadged wherein his wisedome hath fayled him for had hee continued not to alleadge any scripture at all an ignorant Reader would haue thought it had not beene necessary but seeing him beginne here to speake of the word of God doubtlesse he will wonder that in so many Controuersies handled heretofore hee hath heard nothing alleadged out of Gods word And indeede the doctrine of saluation was neuer so prophanely handled for GOD is become suspected and his bookes of faith haue now no credite in controuersies This is a great grace which they doe vnto the word of God if after a Legend of reasons and humane allegations at length some short sentence is casually produced and not without cause for why then is it not more fauorable to his Holinesse Empire But let vs heare this place In the second of the Acts ver 42. it is said that the Disciples continued together in the Doctrine of the Apostles and in the Communion and breaking of bread It is not there said that the people participated in the Cup therefore they communicated onely vnder one kinde of bread 1 This coniecture is too light by a great many graines and which is more it makes against the Church of Rome which beleeueth that the Pastors ought necessarily to take it in both kindes Now in this passage it is not said that the Pastors did participate in the Cup and they are no more mentioned then are the people therefore should it follow that the Pastors also did not participate in the cup. 2 This also is a weake kinde of Argumentation to say that in the second of the Acts there is nothing mentioned beside breaking of bread that therfore the Cup was not vsed If I should say that being inuited by such a one I haue eaten with him doth it follow that I haue not drunke although I spake not of it This errour proceedeth from ignorance of the scripture phrase which by the breaking of bread and by eating of bread doth vsually vnderstand the whole banquet and all kinde of sustenance So Gen. 31.54 Iacob inuiteth his brethren to eate breade See Genes 37.25 Matth. 15.2 and sundry other places We cannot be accused by this manner of speakking to adde vnto the Scripture the sufficiencie whereof we defend against our aduersaries For if in this place there be no mention of the Cup it sufficeth that it is spoken of in other places And to ioyne diuers places together which speake of the same thing is not to adde vnto the Scripture Besides it is not credible that the Apostles hauing so expresly receiued this commaundement to drinke all of the Cup would infringe the same Againe when we speake of the sufficiency of the Scriptures our meaning is not that the Scripture recyting a story vnto vs doth specifie all the particularities of that which happened Onely we say that in things which it commandeth vs to beleeue and doe it doth sufficiently instruct vs vnto saluation Now to know what is to be beleeued and done in this sacrament we must learne it out of the institution of the same and out of the expresse commandements of Christ and his Apostles 1 For Iesus Christ instituting this sacrament among his Disciples said vnto them Drinke ye all of this That is Lib. 1. de corpore Christi cap. 15. as saith Paschasius aswell the Ministers as the other beleeuers They answere that all those to whom our Sauior spake were Pastors and therfore this commaundement was giuen onely vnto the Pastors Which if it be so by the same reason also the Pastors onely must eate of the bread for if in these wordes Drinke ye all of this Christ spake to none but to the Pastors then certainly in these words Take eate he speaks also vnto the Pastors if this be so let them tel me where is the commandement which bindeth the
if he had wel weighed the wordes of the Gospell and of the Apostles he should haue found that Iesus Christ tooke bread and brake it But the Church of Rome saith that the Priest doth not breake bread 2 Hee should haue found that Iesus Christ tooke bread and gaue it to his Disciples But the Church of Rome holdeth that the Priest doth not giue bread 3 He should haue found that Iesus Christ giuing this bread said that that which hee gaue was his body But the Church of Rome doth not beleeue that the bread is the body of Christ but doth thus expound these wordes This is my body that is that which is vnder these formes shall be transubstantiated into my body For it is certaine that when Iesus Christ said This is my body by the word This he vnderstood that which he gaue Now the Gospell doth witnesse that he gaue bread therefore these wordes This is my body doe signifie as much as This bread is my body And so all the auncients doe expound them Now in that the bread cannot be the body of our Lord in substance it remaineth therefore that it be such by way of Sacrament and in the same sense as in the line following the Cup is called the new Couenant or the new Testament 4 He should also haue found that this Sacrament is a commemoration of Iesus Christ It is not then Iesus Christ himselfe For the remembrance of a thing and that wherof it is the memoriall are diuers things 5 He should haue found that S. Matthew and S. Marke say that Iesus dranke with his Disciples of the fruite of the Vine that is of wine it was then yet wine whilst he dranke of it For albeit there were two Cups as appeareth by S. Luke notwithstanding S. Matthew and S. Marke cannot call the wine of a Cup of which they doe not speake at all Fruit of the Vine 6 Hee should further haue seene that Iesus Christ maketh no eleuation of the Host neyther doe the Apostles adore it but continue sitting at the Table 7 Hee might haue seene that 1. Cor. 10. S. Paul doth giue vs a Paraphrase of the wordes This is my body In these words the bread which we breake is the Communion of the body of Christ But the Church of Rome waxing wroth and angrie against the Apostle bites and snarles at euery word of this clause First the Apostle saith that it is bread The Church of Rome denieth that it is bread Secondly he saith that we breake bread on the other side the Church of Rome saith that there is no bread broken Thirdly our aduersaries being demaunded what that bread is that is broken they say it is the body of Christ and yet the body of Christ cannot bee broken Fourthly S. Paul saith that this bread which wee breake is the Communion of the body of Christ whence it followeth against the Church of Rome that the bread which is broken is not the body of Christ for the participation or communicating of meate is not the meate it selfe Fiftly it by this word Bread we must vnderstand the body of Christ as our aduersaries will haue it it will follow not onely that the body of Christ is broken in the Sacrament but also that S. Paul shold haue mocked vs in saying that the bodie of Christ is the Communion of the body of Christ words very ridiculous and which our aduersaries beleeue not Sixty The worst is that the Church of Rome holdeth that there is nothing broken in the Sacrament but the accidents that is the roundnesse colour taste and length of the bread and so shee blaspemeth horribly making the Apostle to say that the breaking of colours roundnesse and taste of the bread is the Communion of the body of Christ 8 He should haue found also 1. Cor. 11. that the Apostle saith thrice that we eate bread and in the second and the twentieth of the Acts the Apostles came together to breake bread where our aduersaries are enforced to haue recourse to strange figures and to make which is contrary to the Order of time S. Iohn interpreter of S Paul Shifts and euasions which we haue refuted in another place and haue boulted this Dispute to the very branne I suppose also that if Coeffeteau had any good opinion of Iesus Christ he would haue presumed of him that being souerainly good he wold not haue taken pleasure to deliuer the Institution of this Sacrament in ambiguous terms who wil beleeue that he that is the light of the world should be the cause of darkenes whence commeth it then that our aduersaries bring in a kind of Mascarado into this holy banquet when they introduce a douzen of figures perplexed termes in the words of this Institution Figures which we haue handled and discussed in his place In my Apology for the Lords Supper ch 12. And they who cannot endure that the bread should be called the body of Christ because it is the Sacrament of the body of Christ Epist ad Bonifacium 3. according as S. Austin saith that the Sacraments take ordinarily the name of that which they signifie yet themselues in the wordes following which is broken for you admit a like figure saying that it is not the body that is broken but the accidents and outward signes and that that which agreeth to the signe is attributed to the thing signified VVhosoeuer shall weigh these things without passion will not suffer himselfe to be infolded in this grosse error which doth greatly abase the glory of our Sauiour which maketh him to be swallowed vp of his enemies which maketh Iesus Christ to haue drunken his owne flesh and bones which saith that he may bee eaten of Mice and other vermine which incloseth him in filthy vomitings which maketh the Priest sometimes to complaine that they haue robbed him of his God which giueth to a Priest be hee neuer so vitious more power then to the Virgine Mary and all the Saints and Angels who being all put together in one cannot make Iesus Christ seeing that he is already made and cannot be produced a new much lesse in murmuring certaine words ouer the bread VVhich doth ouerthrow and abolish the humanity of our Sauiour and by consequent all our faith giuing him a body without length a body which being in diuers places farre a part is by consequent farre separated from it selfe A body without position or situation of partes seeing that they are all together vnder one onely point and in euery little crumme of the Host Yea many contrary bodies of which one is at the Table with his Disciples the other in the stomackes of his Disciples For the one body is infirme and weake the other without infirmity the one spreading his handes the other not able to stirre them the one speaking and breathing the other not able to speake or to breath the one sweating in the Garden drops of blood the other newly receiued into the stomacks of the Apostles
which did neyther sweat nor suffer Which of these two was our Sauiour If hee bee but one how is he contrary to himselfe For we haue shewed else where that the Distinction of diuers respects cannot be but when onething is compared to diuers things at one time as when one and the same man is poore and rich little and great in comparison of diuers persons But here they apply these diuers respects to the body of Iesus Christ without comparing him to any other body nay they oppose him to himselfe That I may not further say that this doctrine doth annihilate the body of our Lord by being receiued into the stomacke for when the formes are altered in the stomacke by the digestion they say that the body of the Lord is no longer there neyther yet is it come forth it must follow then that eyther it is reduced to nothing or changed into something else Both the one and the other are alike blasphemous ARTICLE XII Touching the Adoration of the Host THe Confession of the Kings Booke doth place among the new inuentions of the Church of Rome The Adoration of the Host and the Eleuation which is made to haue it adored This poynt is important and which doth surprise our spirits with a heauinesse mixt with horrour when at the sound of a little Bell the Priest lifteth vp the breade and euery man prostrateth himselfe to adore it Or when the people doth not let to kneele in the dyrt to adore their God which passeth along the street inclosed in a Pixe or Boxe It had beene greatly therefore to haue beene wished that Coeffeteau could haue produced some commandement of God for the same or some example of the Apostles but that could he not doe neyther hath any man done it hithervnto He commeth therefore to the Fathers and produceth for the same three passages the one of Chrysostome in his foure and twentieth Homily vpon the first to the Corinth the other of S. Ambrose in his third booke of the Sacraments chap. 12. And the last of S. Austin vpon the foure-score and eighteene Psalme All three exhort the faithful to adore the flesh of Iesus Christ and that which is more to adore him in the Eucharist Neuer did man more abuse his Reader and he seemeth to thinke that we are beside our selues for is there any thing in all this which we doe not willingly graunt him Is there any amongst vs who hath euer denied that wee ought not to adore the flesh of Iesus Christ Yea who hath euer doubted that we ought not to adore him in the Eucharist Ought not God the Father also to be adored And what is this to the purpose to inclose Iesus Christ vnder formes He that doth adore Iesus Christ in the Eucharist doth not for al that adore that which the Priest holdeth in his hand but he adoreth Iesus Christ which is in heauen Of these three places that which our aduersaries doe most presse is the place of S. Austin vpon the foure-score and eyghteene Psalme where hee saith that no man doth eate this flesh vnlesse hee haue first adored it Nemo carnem illam manducat nisi prius adorauerit An excellent passage For doth not S. Austin speake of the true and serious adoration Iudas then did not eate this flesh for he did not adore it According to this rule the Hypocrites who partake of the Sacrament doe not eate the flesh of the Lord for they doe not adore it Now what it is to eate the flesh of the Lord himselfe hath tolde vs as hath beene before alleadged Lib. 3. de Doctr. Christ cap 16. That to eate his flesh is a figure which signifieth to communicate of his passion and to meditate thereof in our memories And as he speaketh in his twenty sixe Tract vpon S. Iohn To beleeue in him is to eate the bread of life Credere in eum hoc est manducare panem vivumâ—qui credit in eum manducat eum he that doth beleeue in him doth eate him We hoped then that Coeffeteau would here haue produced the publique customes to shewe that it was then the custome to adore the Host which the Priest doth holde vp with diuine worship called Latria but he hath not beene able to finde any Dionysius who in his Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy discribeth very exactly the forme of the publique seruice which was some foure hundred yeares after Iesus Christ and the Apostolical constitutions of Clement where all the Ceremony of that time is depainted and the auncient Liturgies howsoeuer fouly falsified doe in no wise speake of this adoration of the Host Theodoret saith indeede that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the signes are reuerenced This word Signes sheweth sufficiently that he doth not speake of diuine adoration which they call Cultus Latriae For that should be impiety ARTICLE XIII Touching the Eleuation of the Host to haue it to be Adored THe King of great Britaine demaunded proofes out of the fiue first ages or first fiue hundred yeares after Christ that is to say aswell Scripture as the auncient Doctors by which it might appeare that Iesus Christ or his Apostles made eleuation of the host Hereat Coeffeteau holdeth his peace Fol. 50. pag. 2. and in stead thereof saith that the auncient Church did shew the mysteries or sacraments to the people by drawing a Vaile or Curtaine from before the Table which is true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and he hath learned that out of my booke of the Apology of the Lords Supper Chrysostome in his third Homily vpon the Epistle to the Ephesians When thou shalt see the double Curtaines to be drawne then thinke that heauen doth open and inlarge it selfe And Dionysius in his Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy The Bishop discouereth and setteth out to open view the thing celebrated by the signes holily proposed And Basil in like manner in his booke of the holy Ghost Who is it of the Saints who hath left in writing the wordes of the prayer when they shew abroad the bread of the Eucharist and the Cup of blessing This vncouering of the Sacrament was done saith Coeffeteau to cause it to be adored and as he speaketh this without all proofe so doth he it most falsely and was not able to alleadge any one authority where mention is made eyther of the eleuation or of the Adoration of the host but in stead thereof he bringeth certaine passages which speake of the vncouering of the bread and of the drawing of a Curtaine ARTICLE XIIII Touching the carrying of God in the Procession The KINGS Confession Pope Vrbane the fourth instituted this feast in the yeare 1264. THe God-feast or Corpus Christi day and the walking or Circumportation of the Sacrament in procession is of this ranck and the King of great Britaine doth place it among the Nouelties Hereupon Coeffeteau fearing the touch and triall maketh an honest retreat without standing vpon his defence for he onely saith Fol 51
the light in putting out his eyes A medicine is not applyed by poyson How then shall a free pardon in Iesus Christ be applyed by punishment and torture How shal the soueraigne testimony of Gods mercy be applied by the execution of his iustice How shall the acquittance of our debt discharged by Iesus Christ be applied vnto vs in making vs pay it our selues 2. Adde hereunto that for proofe of a matter of such importance as is the meane of applying vnto vs the merites of Iesus Christ at least some passage of Scripture should be alleadged 3. As also a Playster is not applyed by a Playster so one satisfaction is not applyable by another 4. Faith the Word Baptisme and the holy Supper are the meanes appointed in the holy Scripture Ioh. 14.23 Eph 3.17 Gal. 3.27 1. Cor. 10.26 to apply Iesus Christ vnto vs but the application of him by satisfactorie punishments is not any where mentioned 1 But aboue all we desire to know who hath put the sufferings of Saints into the Popes Treasurie 2. When this distribution had this beginning 3. How we may bee secured that God will rest satisfied with this payment 4. Whether the Pope hath also stored vp in the Treasurie of the Church the afflictions and trauels of Noah of Abraham of Iacob c. 5. And why the high Priests made no diuision of them to the faithfull in their times 6. Where the superaboundant satisfaction of the Patriarches hath so long time lay hidden without any employment 7. Especially how it comes to passe that neyther Christ nor his Apostles nor their Disciples nor the auncient Church for many ages haue spoken any word of this Treasure nor distributed by Indulgences the remainder of humane satisfactions nor celebrated any Iubile For we must obserue that Cardinal Caietan in the beginnlng of his booke of Indulgences acknowledgeth that in the whole course of Antiquity there is not any thing found concerning Indulgences Gabriel Biel in the seuen and fiftieth Lecture vpon the Canon of the Masse affirmeth the same and enquiring the reason why they are so common now a daies answers himselfe well to the purpose with the wordes of Christ Act. 4. It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his owne power So he learnes vs to be sober Durandus Anthony and Roffensis affirme the same S. Cyprian indeed in his Serm. de Lapsis and Tertullian in his booke of Chastity and c. 1. of his book Ad Martyres speakes of Martyrs held in durance for the Gospell at whose intercession the Bishop receiued excommunicate and repentant persons into the Church But 1. These Martyrs were liuing and 2. did imploy their meditation to the Bishop not their superaboundant satisfactions vnto God 3. The Pope did not rake their sufferings into his Store-house 4. And then euery Bishop inflicted or released penalties and excommunications among those of his own flocke without expecting any directories from the Bishop of Rome 5. And yet this custome of releasing penance enioyned to offendors at the instance of Christians imprisoned for the Gospell Cypriau Serm. de Lapsis Mandant aliquid Martyres fieri Si insta Si licita c. Nemo fratres dilectissimi infamet Martyrum dignitatem is condemned by S. Cyprian in his Sermon De lapsis He willeth that none giue way to the requests of Martyrs if their demaunds be vniust and saith that this recourse had vnto them did turne to their discredite Tertullian goes farther for in the two and twentieth Chapter of his booke of Chastity hee complaines that many did of purpose cause themselues to be committed that so they might haue meanes to become intercessors for some one or other of their friends or rather * Violantur viri faeminae in tenebris planè ex vsu tibidimum notes Et pacem ab his quaerunt paenitentes qui de sua pericletantur Suf ficit Martyri propria deâ—icta purgasse Ingrati velsuperbi est in al os quóque Spargere quod pro magno fuerit consecutus Quis alienam mortem sua soluit nisi so lus Dei filius to play the wantons with such women as were prisoners in the same Ward and in the end makes this conclusion That it is enough for a Martyr to haue purged his owne sinnes It is a signe of ingratitude or of pride to diuide among others that which hath beene bestowed vpon himselfe as o great fauor Who hath made his own death the price of auother mans life but onely the Sonne of God Now to the end that euery one may know how iniurious these sufferings and satisfactions of men imaginarily heaped into this Treasure are vnto Iesus Christ and his benefites we must vnderstand that Pope Clement the sixth in the extrauagant Vnigenitus speaking of the merites of Iesus Christ in the Treasury of the Church saith * Ad cuins thesauri cumulum beatae genetricis omnium electorum merita adminiculum praestare noscuntur that The merites of the mother of God and of all the elect doe serue as helpes to encrease this Treasure As if the merites of men did so assist the merites of Iesus Christ that this Treasurie could not be filled if the merites of men were detectiue Bellarmine makes the case worse for in consideration of these satisfactory sufferings of Saints which he saith are allowed vnto vs and which the Pope turneth to the forgiuing of our sinnes he affirmeth that the Saints are after a sort our Redeemers in the first booke of Indulgences the fourth chapter Touching our owne satisfactions his speech driues to this point That besides our owne there is no actuall Satisfaction and that Christ hath not actually satisfied for vs but only hath giuen power to our satisfactions This is to affirme that the Apostle is deceiued in saying that Iesus Christ is giuen a ransom for vs 1. Tim. 2. seeing he doth only enable vs to pay our ransome and make our owne peace so in the second booke of Indulgences Si quis post gratiam reconciliationis adeptam adbuc sit reus luendae paenae temporatis is non ne essario egetur meritis Christi Et poteret nou requirere tantem liberalitatem contentus ipse laboribus suis the first ch although he attribute some power to the death of Iesus Christ yet he saith That if after a man hath obtained the grace of reconciliation he haue not yet satisfied for temporall punishment such as is the torment of Purgatory that such a one doth not necessarily want the merite of Iesus and that he may forbeare to seeke so great a largesse at Gods hands but content himselfe with the merite of his owne ende uours As if he should say vnto God thou wouldest acquit me but I will not haue it so for my owne troubles and afflictions shall make thee satisfaction These men haue courage in them indeede they dare neglect euen Christ himselfe for it is
and by these the banke of mony-changers is set vp anew in the Temple which Christ ouerturned And indeede if you should say ten times as many prayers and that with farre more zeale and deuotion in any other Church then where these Indulgences are affixed you should notwithstanding goe without any Pardons for they are fastened to certain places for feare lest these contributions being diuided and passing through many handes would vanish into nothing So that the King of great Britaine doth both iustly and elegantly say that this abuse is rightly called the treasure of the Church Now to proue that the Pope hath intelligence with God and that he hath precisely calculated his reckoning with him hee doeth often limit his Pardons with a subtilty full of merriment As at Paris in the porch of a Chappell belonging to the Friers Feuillands in the Suburbes of St. Honorius there is a long list of Pardons to bee seene which among other things tell vs that on euery day of Lent a Pardon may be obteyned for three thousand eight hundred three score and seuen yeares and two hundred and seuen quarentaines of dayes there are many of the same stampe But I long much to know that if a man some few dayes before the day of iudgement should get a hundreth thousand yeares of Pardon whether these Pardons should any thing auaile him Againe if a man needing a Pardon but for ten thousand yeares should obtaine a Pardon for a hundred thousand what should become of the other fourescore and ten thousand but aboue all the rest it is a point furmounting our capacity how these Pardons that doe plenarily forgiue all sinnes and should besides remit a third part of a mans sinnes and yet further giue another eighteene thousand yeares of Pardon as if one should say that the Pope pardoneth all our sinnes and many of our sinnes besides It makes me also to wonder very often why the people doe so zealously flocke to the Iubile at Rome seeing they may as easily and at all times obtaine a plenary Pardon for all their sinnes I forbeare at this time to iudge bad I speake it with greefe and with commiseration whether in this whole Argument there be any the least footestep of Christian Religion to be discerned or whether coueteous gaine did euer trample godlinesse vnder foote in a viler manner ARTICLE XVI Of the baptising of Bels. The KINGS Confession THe King of great Britaine proceedeth to these wordes The baptising of Bels and a thousand other trickes But aboue all the worshipping of Images If my faith bee weake in these I confesse I had rather beleeue too little then too much And yet since I beleeue as much as the Scriptures doe warrant the Creedes doe perswade and the auncient Councels decreede I may well bee a Schismaticke from Rome but I am sure I am no Hereticke Mr. Coeffeteau answers Fol 51. that it is no baptisme that they giue vnto Bels but onely a plaine blessing which notwithstanding the common people do call baptisme for the resemblance of some Ceremonies therein but it is not of simple people but of learned men that we must learne the beleefe of the Church The Answere This answere of M. Coeffeteau is more mannerly then that of Cardinall Bellarmines who writing against his Maiesties booke tels the King that it is an impudent slaunder he might haue spoken more ciuilly to a King for if we wrong them in calling their consecration and benediction of bels by the name of baptisme this imputation should be laid vpon the people of the Romish Church which haue so named it or rather vpon their Bishops and Priests that by a Player-like prophanation haue practised the same Ceremonies vpon bels and gallies which they vse in baptisme for in the blessing and exorcising of a bell they giue him god-fathers and god-mothers which holde the rope in their handes the Suffragan asketh certaine questions of the bell they cloth him in white sprinkle him with holy water and salt the Bishop or his Suffragan annoints him with oyle with many signes of the Crosse praying God that hee will graunt power vnto this bell against the secret assaults of the diuell against thunder and tempest and for the comfort of soules departed then after the singing of certaine Psalmes he is newly marked again with seuen crosses without and foure crosses within which are made vpon the Crisme with the Bishops or his Suffragans thumbe who at euery crosse repeates these wordes Consecretur Sanctificetur Domine signum istus in nomine Patris filij spiritus sancti In all this Ceremony there is nothing wanting but the word Baptisme saue that it is done something more diuersly The same Ceremony is practised vpon gallies when they launch them into the Sea and for what offence they haue condemned this Sacrament vnto the gallies I doe not vnderstand He that shall well vnderstand the great vertue of bels will not wonder at all if the people of the Romish Church haue thought that baptisme doth of right belong vnto them sith that one peale hath power to carry soules into heauen and especially the soules of rich men for if a rich legacy be giuen all the bels in the towne shall ringe a requiem for the soule departed but the poore shall haue leaue to die without any sound And it is presumed that some bels haue more vertue then others for they are not rung all at one rate So at Paris there are bels some at foure Francs some at fiue and some at sixe For it is not credible that any will buy the sound of one bell dearer then another but vpon opinion of reaping a greater benefite thereby It is not then without great reason that Durandus in his rationale and other illuminated Doctors doe finde so many mysteries in bels saying that the clapper of the bell is the tongue of the Preacher that the rising of the bell is the contemplatiue life and the falling downe is the life actiue Boniface 8. au cap. Almamater § adijcimus De sententia excomm In Sexto Grego 9. T it 39. De sent excomm that a ringe of Iron is fastened to the end of the Bel-rope to shew that the Crowne is not obteyned vntill the race be finished which is the cause why Boniface the eighth and Gregory the ninth haue forbidden the ringing of Bels in proscribed or interdicted Churches vnlesse by speciall leaue they be licensed to toll an Aue-maria During the interdiction none but low Masses are said the doors being shut and without sound of Bell. And these obseruations the Apostles would not haue omitted if they had had the keeping of the Bels in the Temple of Ierusalem which then were not rung all the yeare long but now a dayes they are onely speechlesse vpon good Friday whereof there is some mysticall reason which comes not within the compasse of my vnderstanding ARTICLE XVII Of the Reliques of Saints The KINGS
his abode by the Reliques of Saints In another place he saith there were non done at all Surely the writings of the Fathers passed throgh certaine ages horribly darkened with ignorance in which some malicious men tooke a pleasure to falsifie them And indeede by the course of Storie of the ages following a man may obserue that by how much the more ignorance increased by corruption of doctrine by so much the more miracles were wrought Reade the Dialogue of Gregorie the first and you shall see that Christ did nothing in a manner in comparison of the miracles then wrought Gregorie himselfe in the fourth booke of his Dialogues chap. 41. wondereth at it and propoundeth this quetion to himselfe Quid hoc est quaeso quod in his extremis tem poribus tam multa de animabus clarescunt quae ante latuerant How commeth it to passe that in these latter times so many thinges are reuealed vnto vs touching the soules of the dead which before were bidden For then in those times men talked of nothing but of Ghosts that appeared which exhorted men liuing to giue to the Church And it was yet but the sixt hundreth yeare of Christ so much had the Prince of this world gotten in short time That which Coeffeteau most maketh bragges off and setteth it out with fairest colour is the testimony of S. Hierome Epistola ad Riparum aduersus Vigilantium Ergo Petri Pauli immundae sunt reliquiae who hath written two Epistles in defence of the Reliques of Saints against Vigilantius who did oppugne them But there is no affinity betweene their quarrell and ours For Hierome accuseth Vigilantius for accounting the Reliques of Saints vncleane a thing which we neuer affirmed nay the King of England speaketh of them with great respect He saith further Epist 2 aduers Vigil SanctoruÌ„ reliquias proijci in sterquilinium vt solus Vigilantius ebriê dormiens adoretur That Vigilantius would haue the reliques of Saints cast out vpon the dung hill that himselfe alone though druncke and asleepe might onely be adored Haue we euer said so Or is there any of vs that would onely be adored But as touching the question whether Reliques be to be adored S. Hierome in the Epistle before alleaged doth flatly denie that they ought to be adored Nos autem non dico Martyrum reliquias sed ne Solem quidem Lunam non Angelos non Archangelos colimus aaoramus We doe not adore I doe not say onely the Reliques of Martyrs But neither Sunne nor Moone for Angels nor Archangels Where is to bee seene that hee would haue it esteemed lesse strange to adore the Sunne then Reliques Which maketh vs to suspect the place in his Epistle to Marcella of falshood where he exhorteth her Samariam pergere Iohannis Baptistae Helisaei quoque Abdiae pariter cineres adorare to come to Samaria and to adore the ashes of Iohn Baptist Elizeus and Abdias Howsoeuer if he would haue beene beleeued he should haue grounded his saying vpon the authority of the word of God according to the rule which himselfe giueth vpon the 23. chapter of S. Matthew Because saith he Hoc quiae de Scripturis non habet authoritatem pari facilitate conteÌ„nitur qua probatur Lib. de Reliquijs Cap. 3. §. Gregor Lib. de Reliquijs c. 3. §. ex Africa this is not grounded vpon the authority of the Scriptures we may as easily reiect it as they proue it The place of Gregorie Nyssenus which Bellarmine produceth is false We haue heretofore shewed the falshood of that Oration vpon Theodorus As also that is false which he saith that the fift Councell of Carthage forbiddeth any Altar to bee dedicated without Reliques The Councell doth not speake in that place of all Altars but of the monuments of Martyrs which the beleeuing Christians assembling themselues together in the Church-yeards vsed in steede of Altars And because that for want of true monuments they sometimes erected in honour of true Martyrs false deuised sepulchres the Councel commandeth them to be plucked downe It is a thing incredible how the workes of this Cardinall doe swarme with vntruthes The other places which he alleageth doe neither speake of adoration nor religious worship Suborning of counterfait Reliques But the maine point is that through tract of time and the malice of men the question is now changed For in those times while the sufferings of the Martyrs were yet fresh in mens mindes and their Reliques certainely knowne men disputed vpon some ground and subiect how far they were to be honoured But now a dayes they thrust vpon vs fained Reliques counterfaite marchandise as a meere Artifice for gaine Reliques which they are wont â—o shew in darke places and that by vncouering them either by halfes or not at al making the seely people to rest content by bare seeing of the box or casket causing them to kneele vnto them with troubled deuotion And if they depart out of thâ—se Oratories without offering or paying it will be thought heresie or ingratitude Some Reliques there are meerely forged to mock and abuse the world And Burgos in Spaine there is a Crucifix whose bearde they cut euery moneth and pare his nailes and these parings are said to bee of great vertue At Rome there is kept in S. Iohns Church in Lateran the circumcised fore-skin of Christ as also the very Altar at the which Iohn Baptist did say diuine seruice in the wildernesse as witnesseth the booke of Romish Indulgences printed at Rome Our Pilgrims bring home out of Galizia the feathers of certaine hennes which are of the race of that cock that crew to S. Peter when he denied his master In S. Sulpitius Church in Paris there is a stone of that fountaine wherein the Virgin Mary washed the swathing-clothes of Christ newly borne There was shewed vnto my selfe at S. Denis Iudas his Lanterne which doubtlesse is a peece of great vertue As also Aarons rodde which by that reckoning must needes haue lasted three thousand and six hundred yeares without rotting and yet our good masters confesse that the coÌ„secrated hosts doe finnow and grow mouldy the presence of Christ in them cannot saue them from putrefaction Men goe to Collein to worship the bodies of the three Kings that neuer yet were The authour of the booke called Opus imperfectum vpon S. Mathew attributed to Chrysostome saith that they were of those whom they called Magi wizards or soothsayers and that they were twelue in number Their names Gaspar Melchior and Balthasar doe shew that it was the inuention of some Almaine Monke for the two first are high-dutch names That good and faithfull seruant of God Theodore Beza whom God hath now gathered to his Saints in glory in his booke against Baldwine reporteth of himselfe that he saw at Tours a crosse laden with rich stones which the people adored at the Passion amongst the rest there was an Achates or an
saying 1. Cor. 2.8 that none of the Princes of the world knew in his time the wisdome of the Gospell That other picture of the holie Veronica inuented a while after is of the same stampe which being carried in procession in the time of Innocent the third turnde topsie turuie of it selfe casting his beard vpward as Matthew Paris reporteth Matt. Paris in Henrico 3. pag. 279. For expiation wherof the said Pope graunted an indulgence of ten dayes for at that time they were not giuen by thousands It would be an endlesse peece of worke for anie to make report of the images that haue spoken or sweate or bowed the head in signe of consent Reade Caesarius a Monke of the order of the Cistâ—rtians his booke of miracles In the Abbey of Saint Guerlicou in Berrie neare the towne of Bourg-Dieu vpon the way of Romorantin such women as would be got with child are stretched along vpon the image of this S. Bennet after such a manner as modesty may not report In fine not to tyre the reader with thousands of the like abuses if we may beleeue these our good Masters it is certaine that the images of Saints do more miracles then euer the Saints themselues did Concerning these miracles wee offer them the choise whether they wil haue them accounted true or false if they be false we are not bound to beleeue them and then there is collusion For now adaies these miracles are nothing but coniuring of deuils with many trickes aspersions crossings exorcismes giuing power vnto wordes and signes or it may be the curing of one that is but counterfait lame or sicke But to giue sight to one that is borne blinde or to raise one from the dead that hath been buried c. are matters which their cunning could neuer contriue And the Lieutenants and Iudges in Criminall causes howsoeuer of the Romish Religion haue often discouered and punished such impostures Consider farther that as the ancient Christians did glorie that the Deuils and Oracles were dumbe in their presence Read M Marescots Booke concerning Martha Bâ—ossier and the Historie of Matthew So these miracles could neuer be wrought before vs for if we stand by the deuill looseth his fencing trickes Neuerthelesse to deale fairely with these men let vs graunt that these Miracles are not counterfait For the Apostle 2. Thess 2. foretelleth that the sonne of perdition shall come with signes and Miracles And Christ Marke 13. saith That false Teachers shall come and worke signes and wonders whereby to deceiue And Mat. 12. A naughtie and adulterous generation seeketh a signe If we teach no other Doctrine then Christ and his Apostles haue deliuered the Miracles which they haue wrought doe sufficiently confirme our teaching Besides we know that Heretickes in old time did as many and more Miracles then they which taught the Orthodoxe faith Being foyled then about these Miracles they haue recourse to the testimonies of the Fathers Mast Coeffeteau saith that Tortullian in the seuenth Chapter of his Booke of Chastitie teacheth that in the Primitiue Church there were Images ingrauen in Chalices this is false For Tertullian in this place speakes not of the Picture of Iesus Christ nor of any Saint or Angell but hee speaktth of a Chalice whereon was grauen a Shepheard bearing a sheepe vpon his shoulder which was no Image of Christ but an Embleme of his office as men doe vsually picture the vertues and had the people worshipped this Picture Lex coniungens neque similitudinem corum quae in caelo sunt quae in terra tâ—to muado eâ—â—smodi artibus interdixit Hermogenes pingit illicitè nubit assiduè Legem Dei in tibidinem defeadit in artem contemnit bis falsarius Cauterio Stylo they would haue drawne it elsewhere in a place more eminent Now Tertullian was so farre from the worshipping of Images that he held it simply vnlawfull to make any Image So in his Booke of Idolatrie cap. 4. The Law conioyning things as not to make the likenesse of any thing in heauen or in the earth or in the Sea hath forbidden such trades throughout the whole world And in his Booke of Spectacles cap. 23. God forbiddeth to make the resemblance of any thing how much more of his Image And therefore doeth he reproch Hermogenes the Painter with his Art as being full of abhomination Coeffeteau alleadgeth also a place of Gregorie Nyssen taken out of the Oration concerning Theodore the Martyr which we haue heretofore disproued as false and yet there is no speech of worshipping Images no more then in the Oration of S. Basil concerning the Martyr Barlaam where there is only mention of Painted Histories and the representing of the suffrings of the Martyrs in which Painted works the Executioners and Souldiers horses are also represented and if the storie required Christ was also drawne in the Picture but of worship performed to these Painted stories or to any Image there is no maner of mention Besides it is to be obserued that if this were then practised in the Churchyards of Cappadocia where Basil was or in some Church within his Bishoppricke yet wee finde not that this custome was brought into other countries For Prudentius and Paulinus alleadged by Coeffeteau liued a hundred yeeres after and they speake onely of the Historie and not of any worship Hee alleadgeth also Sozomen lib. 2. cap. 20. where he speakes of an Image of Christ in Caesaria broken by Iulian the Apostata the pieces whereof were brought into the Church by the Christians wherin his vnderstanding failes him for thereby it appeareth that this Image was not in any Church and that no worship was done vnto it Now we speake here of Images set vp in Churches and which are there worshipped Eusebius is the first that mentions this Image lib. 7. cap. 17. of his Historie whom Coeffeteau neglected to alleadge For he saith that this Image was made by that Heathen woman whom Christ cured of a bloudy issue Luke 8. Matth. 9. Afterward he saith That none should wonder if such of the Heathen as Christ healed made such things in as much as wee haue seene the Pictures of the Apostles Paul and Peter yea and of Christ himselfe drawne in colours to be kept in Tables which the ancients did out of an Heathenish custome which was to honour those in like maner whom they esteemed their deliuerers Obserue here that he cals it an Heathenish custome and being begun by some of the Heathen that were healed by Christ or his Apostles they desired to honour them after the maner of the Heathen Wee must also vnderstand that this Image was not in any Church but in a corner of the streete and that the Christians were so farre from giuing any honour vnto it that they knew it not to be there For Nicephorus in the tenth of his Historie saith * Temporis enim diuturnitate obliuione interciderat cuiusnam ea statua formam referret
cuius rei gratia ibâ— esset callo cata Quod namque simulacrum sub dio astaret non parum corpus eius est immutatum imbres ex superioribus locis limum secum tâ—ahentes statuae ipsi aggesserant That through age and forgetfulnesse it so decayed that it could not be discerned whose Picture it was or for what end it was set vp for this Image was spoyled because it stood vncouered and the raine had made much a He speakes this because the houses in Capadocia were couered with Earth and so are at this day witnesse Busbeck in his Voyage of Amasia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earth to fall from the houses vpon it And he addeth that in the ende it was knowen by the subscription all which proues that it was some Image made after the heathen maner sent thither for some publicke ornament But of Images in Churches or of their worship there is no such newes These are the places which Coeffeteau hath taken out of the ninth Chapter of Bellarmines Booke of Images Hauing done wisely in omitting the place of Gregory Nazianzene where Bellarmine commits a notorious falshood Hee saith that in the fortie ninth he would say fortieth Epistle Gregorie lamenting because the Towne of Diocaesatia was to be destroyed wherein hee had adorned a Church with great magnificence he addeth Nequeenim si statuae deijciantur hoc nos excruciat etiam si aliquando excruciat The trueth is that the Emperour being incensed against the Towne of Diocaesaria for some offence which Gregorie in this Epistle attributeth to the insolent behauiour of certaine children did threaten to ruine it and the Emperour had already taken away the Statues of the Emperours which he had in the Towne As wee haue an example in the insurrection at Antioch where the people inraged against Theodosius the Emperour they puld downe his Statues concerning which Chrysostome hath diuers Homilies and indeede Gregorie cals them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostome doeth otherwise had he spoken of Images in Churches he would with Zonaras Damascene and Cedrenus haue called them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And there is not so much as a word of that which Bellarmine saith namely that he speakes of Images in Churches for indeede he speakes thereof contemptuously in these words For it is not very irkesome although it grieue vs if the Statues be puld downe and doe you not thinke that I speake hereof for I am busied about affaires of more moment With like falshood doeth he alleadge the Liturgie of Chrysostome in which Pope Nicholas and the Emperour Alexius borne many ages after Chrysostome are named There also and often elsewhere doth he alleadge the supposed Oration of Gregorie Nissen vpon Theodore So in the twelfth Chap. he falsly alleageth Basil against Iulian the Liturgie of Chrysostome and Austen in his third Booke of Christian Doctrine and the questions of Athanasius which are so full of vntrueth that Athanasius himselfe is alleadged And Cyrils Catechismes heretofore conuinced of falsehood and certainely he that shall take the false Allegations out of Bellarmine shall not leaue one halfe part behind The other places are impertinent for one part speakes of historicall Pictures out of Churches in priuate houses As S. Austin lib 1. de consensu Euangelist c. 10. Lib. 22. contra Faustum cap. 73. and not anie where mentioneth the worshipping of Images Which is the point in controuersie All this being ouerthrowne let vs relie vpon the commandement of God which saith Exod. 20. Thou shalt not make any grauen Image nor the likenesse of any thinges which are aboue in heauen or below in earth nor in the waters vnder the earth Thou shalt not bow downe before them nor worship them The distinction which they make here betweene an Image and an Idoll makes their confession verie cleare that they are not pleased with this commandement sith they haue taken it out of their Houres and Offices Thou shalt worship one God alone and yeeld him perfect loue Thou shalt not sweare in vaine by God c. which they giue abroade among the poore multitude and that they put the Law of God into meetre where this commandement is wholy left out So the Councell of Ausbourg which is in the latter Tome of the Councels held in the yeare 1548 turneth the commandements into high-dutch as they ought to be set forth to the people wherein there is not a word spoken of Images nor of the likenesse of things in heauen c Now to make vp the number of ten commandements they cut the tenth in two partes and make the coueting of another mans wife to be the ninth Whence it followes that there is no ninth commandement in the twentith of Exodus for it is thrust into the middle of the tenth and put after the coueting of our neighbours house The Reader shall then haue matter of verie mature consideration For were there wordes euer pronounced with more maiesty then the law the law written by the finger of God the law pronounced by his mouth with fire and tempest and a terrible sound to terrifie the creature with a sacred astonishment would any beleeue that wormes of the earth should presume to correct this law and charge it with superfluity this cannot possibly receiue sufficient aggrauation Christ saith that heauen and earth shal sooner passe away Matth. 5. then that one iot of that law should not bee accomplished and loe these are then men that raze out whole periods yea that commandement which the Lord deliuered with greatest maiestie calling himselfe a iealous and a mighty God adding thereunto his threatnings and promises vnto a thousand generations Being then conuinced of impiety they fall to grammaticall disputations and say it must be translated Thou shalt not make any grauen Idoll and not Image that an Idoll is the representation of a false thing and the obiect of Idolatry but that Images doe represent true things I confesse that in French an Image and an Idoll are diuers thinges but the law of God was not promulgated in French but in Hebrew wherein the word Pesel signifies a grauen Image and so the Romish Bible translates it Non facies tibi sculptile Thou shalt not make a grauen or carued Image And Deut. 4 16. it is for feare that yee defile your selues and make vnto you Pesel that is an Image as the Romane Bible expresseth it And so Esay 40.19 and many other places Iustine Martyr in his dialogue against Tryphon translates it as wee doe Thou shalt not make an Image 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. or the likenesse of any thinge in heauen aboue or in the earth beneath And I am of opinion that Tully vnderstood the Greeke and Latin almost aswell as the Iacobins Yet in the first booke de finibus he speaketh thus Images which they call Idols Imagines quae Idola nominant quorum incursione non solum videamus sed etiaÌ„ cogitemus by meeting with
nostram veniunt non appendi As I was in a Village called Anablata seeing as I walked along a burning lampe and perceiuing that it was a Church I went in to pray and found in the porch a veile hung vp coloured and painted hauing in it the picture as it were of Christ or some Saint for I doe not well remember of what hauing then seene that in the Church of Christ there was hung vp the Image of a man contrarie to the authority of the Scriptures I rent it and aduised the keepers of the place to burie some poore dead bodie in it He addeth that hee sent another veile without any Image for recompence of that which he had torne to content the keepers that murmured at it after that he saith I pray you that in the Church of Christ such veiles be no more hung vp which are opposite to our religion And this same Epistle is in the same wordes alleaged in the Councell of Paris held vnder Lewes le debonaire in the yeare 824 that none may thinke it a peece of new forgerie Gregorie of Tours speaking of the Baptisme of King Clouis and his children witnesseth that the adorning of Churches was to hang the Church with veiles or white linnen Of which S. Ambrose speakes Epist 33. and this custome doth yet continue in Lent An euident proofe that then they had no Images for to what end should they then keepe them couered and this was about the yeare of our Lord fiue hundred Out of Monsieur Pithou his librarie who was a man rarelie learned we haue the Councell of Paris against Images wherein King Lewes le debonaires and the French Bishops doe make remonstrances vnto Pope Eugenius who defended Images tooth and naile For the Popes laide handfast vpon this occasionn to shake off the yoke of their master the Emperour of the East vnder a coulour that he puld downe Images Not long before in the yeare 794. Charlemaigne assembled the Councell of Franckford against the worshipping of Images Adonis Chronicon in an 795. Abbas Vspergensis in anno 793. Hinemarus Remensis lib. 20. coÌ„tra Episc Iandunensem Matth. WestmonasterieÌ„s in hyst an 793. Auentinus Annonius Regino Vignier c. wherein the second Nicene Councell was condemned before which Councell of Nice a generall Councell was held at Constantinople in the yeare 750 where there were three hundred and thirty eight Bishops some parts of which Councel are alleaged in the secoÌ„d Councell of Nice howsoeuer maymed yet stronger then that which those Nicence Bishops opposed against it About the yeare 600. Serenus Bishop of Marsilia puld downe all the Images found in Churches because the people worshipped them Greg. Epist 109. ad Serenum Episc Massiliensem lib. 9. Epist 9. and it is not by any meanes credible that the Christians accounted Images for Gods or worshipped them as God Nor doe we find that the said Serenus erected them againe notwithstanding hee was controuled by Gregorie Bishop of Rome Petrus Pithoeus in praefatione in hystorias Miscellas à Paulo Aquilegiensi Diacono collectas Nuper admâ—dâ—m nostri homines imaginosi esse coeperuÌ„t And indeede Monsieur Pithou hath good ground to say that the French-men beganne verie soone after to be addicted vnto Images For Anastasius keeper of the Librarie one superstitiously giuen in the preface to the second Councel of Nice saith that the Gaules had not yet receiued Images because the truth was not yet reuealed vnto them that is to say more then eight hundred yeares after Christ And Nicetas Choniates in the second booke of the raigne of Augustus Angelus saith that the Armenians did gladly receiue the Almaines because Apud Alemannos Armenios Imaginum adoratio aequè interdicta est among the Almaines and Armenians the worshipping of Images was forbidden alike For Charlemaigne had so farre reiected the worshipping of Images that hee himselfe wrote a booke against it which is yet extant And soone after Agobardus Bishop of Lyons compiled a great volume against Images which is also extant and newly printed at Paris To conclude whosoeuer shall diligently reade the scornefull inuectiues of the primitiue Christians flouting the Images of the auncient Pagans shall finde that their reprehensions had beene ridiculous if the Christians had then had Images in their Churches as when Lactantius lib. 2. cap. 4. doth call the Statues in the Pagan-temples Grandes puppas great babies and when cap. 2. he saith that the Images of the Gods are of no vse if they be present and that if they be in heauen then we should rather direct our prayers toward heauen And when S. Austin vpon the 113. Psalme saith that they draw the deuotion of the people in that they haue a humane shape and are set in some high roome And doubtlesse the Infidels would haue returnde the reproofe and reproach to the Christians and to their Images of the Saints and the worshipping of their Statues which they doe not But we haue heretofore heard that they aske the Christians for what cause they haue no Images that any could see ARTICLE XIX Of the Image of God The KINGS Confession YEa the Image of God himselfe is not only expresly forbidden to bee worshipped but euen to bee made The reason is giuen that no eye euer saw God and how can we paint his face when Moses the man that euer was most familiar which God neuer saw but his backe parts Surely since he cannot be drawne to the viue it is a thankelesse labour to marre it with a false representation which no Prince nor scarce any other man will be contented with in their owne pictures Let them therefore that maintaine this doctrine answere it to Christ at the latter day when he shall accuse them of Idolatrie And then I doubt if he will be payed with such nice sophisticall Distinctions For answere whereunto Coeffeteau saith that the Images of God are not made to represent his essence but onlie to expresse the formes wherein he hath appeared That none is so brutish to beleeue that any can paint an essence immortall infinite c. I expected that M. Coeffeteau would haue produced some commandement of God for his ground of the Images of God or some place to shew that God was pleased to haue his Images made seing they are not made to represent his essence at least some auncient example either true or false after his old manner But here is none of these he only saith that Images doe not expresse his being I answere that this may bee said aswell of the Images of men yea of beastes for their pictures doe not represent their essence and neuer was any man so vnreasonable as to thinke that the essence of anie thing could be expressed in a picture Then in like manner doe I say that if these Images be not the Images of God because they represent not his essence then the Images of Saints are not their Images because they represent not
their essence And indeed not the vulgar people only but the Doctors also doe call such pictures the Image of God and the Trinitie The title of the eight chapter of Bellarmines booke of Images is this That the Images of God are not forbidden Now there is no picture which hath not some resemblance with the patterne and euery Image is a likenesse Therefore our aduersaries must hold that there is some assimilation and resemblance betweene God and his Images for if there be none they are not the Images of God Now these Statues and pictures are to be seene in all their Churches and in the beginning of the Bibles printed at Rome by the authority of Sixtus Quintus and Clement 8. yea they serue for signes at Tauerne dores they vse to say Master N. lodgeth at the Trinity and his horses are set at Gods-head a matter ridiculously prophane and reproachfull to Christian Religion It appeareth also that these Images of God are not made to represent the formes wherein God hath appeared for they commonly picture God in a pontificall Throne in the habite of a Pope with a triple Crowne and a Papall robe as if you should say behold Pope Iulius granting pardons There wants nothing but a fanne of a Peacockes taile on either side surely God neuer appeared in this habite it makes me wonder whence it comes that the Images of the Trinity are commonly dusty and Spiders playing about them but the Images of our Lady and of the Saints are diapred and trimply appaireled me thinkes in regard of the Papall habit at least they should be neatly kept It is true that God appeared vnto Daniel in the shape of an old man for he knew well that Daniel would not Idolatrously abuse the vision but when he speakes to the children of Israel hee suffered them not to see him in any likenesse for feare saith he least ye corrupt your selues in making a representation of any figure of Male or Female Deut. 4.16 And me thinkes when they obiect this apparition in the figure of an old man they knock themselues on the fingers For did the Church then vpon this occasion represent God in that figure can it be found that after that time the Image of God was painted in the Temple or in the Synagogue And if the faithfull in those daies did it not for what reason shall we haue license to doe that which they thought vnlawfull God doth that which seemeth good to his wisedome but to vs it belongeth to doe what he commaundeth for his commandemenâ— and not his actions must bee the rule of our Religion If he commaund the Israelites to spoyle the Egyptians or Abraham to sacrifice his Sonne doth it follow that we must therfore breake his law by the imitation of these examples if a woodden old man that people call God the Father must be worshipped because it resembles the old man that appeared vnto Daniel why should we not much rather worship old men aliue which doe much more resemble him This is the reason why some Doctors of the Church of Rome as Abulensis Durand and Peresius doe condemne these Images Yea the second Nicence Councell how corrupt soeuer yet condemneth them in the sixth and seuenth Acts. Nicephorus a later and superstitious Author lib. 18. cap 53. saith a Imagines patris Spiritus S. effigiant quod perquam absurdum est The Armenian Heretickes doe paint the Image of God the Father and the Holy Ghost which is most absurd b Nec id ipsum quod sedâ—re pater dicitur flexis poplitibus fieri putandum est Ne in illud meidamus sacrilegium quo execratur Apostolus eos qui commutauerunt gloriam in corruptibilis Dei in similitudinem corruptibilis hominis Tale en m simulacrum Deo nefas est Christiano in templo collocare multo magis in corde Saint Austen in the seuenth Chapter of his Booke of Faith and of the Creede saith thus When it is said that the Father sitteth we must not thinke that he hath Legs to bow for feare wee fall into that sacriledge for which the Apostle detesteth those that turned the glorie of the incorruptible God into the similitude of a corruptible man for to erect any such Image vnto God in the Church is a thing vnlawfull for a Christian and much more in his heart c. He doeth not onely say that it is vnlawfull to desire to represent his essence but to make an Images of God sitting his hammes bowed in the similitude of a man which is the fashion of the Images of God which are made in these dayes Now no man that hath any drop of free iudgement can make himselfe beleeue that any Christian euer thought to represent the essence of God by such Pictures seeing they cannot expresse the essence of man In briefe by this abuse doth God shew vnto vs into what headlong courses man runneth when hee forsakes his holy word and that after the shipwrack of piety he loseth euen his very reason for the Lord hauing created man in the Image of God Loe heere are men that make God in the Image of man as if they would exchange good turnes with him And indeed his Maiesty of England saith true that the meanest man would not be so resembled for what man would be represented in the shape of a Pismiere or of a Frog and yet betweene an Ant and the greatest Monarch there is some proportion and between things finite the distance cannot be infinite but betweene the shape of a man that is finite and the Maiesty of God which is infinite there can be no proportion besides the distinctions and excuses which they bring forth are schoole distinctions not vnderstood by the common people whose minds are fixed on that which they see and seeing euery day in their Parish Church a God of stone clothed like a Pope must needes imagine very grosse things and such as are very iniurious to the eternal Deitie ARTICLE XX. Of the Crosse The KINGS Confession BVt Christs Crosse must haue a particular priuiledge say they and bee worshipped ratione contactus But first wee must know what kinde of touching of Christs body drew a vertue from it whether euery touching or onely touching by faith That euery touching of his body drew not vertue from it is more then manifest When the Woman in the bloody fluxe touched him she was healed by her faith Luke 8. But Peter then tolde him that a crowde and throng of many people then touched him and yet none of them receiued any benefit or vertue from him Iudas touched him many and many a time besides his last kisse so did the villaines that Buffeted and Crucified him and yet I may safely pronounce them accursed that would bestow any worship vpon their reliques yea we cannot denie but the land of Canaan it selfe whereupon our Lord did dayly tread is so visibly accursed being gouerned by faithlesse Turkes full of innumerable Sects of hereticall
he had seene any to speake to a peece of wood and to salute the Crosse as if it vnderstood them saying to it Aue lignum triumphale haile triumphant wood And O aue crux spes vnica auge pijs iusticiam reisque dona veniam Haile Crosse our onely hope encrease righteousnesse vnto the faithfull and pardon the sinfull as our aduersaries doe For I aske to whom they speake doe they speake to Iesus Christ why he is neither called wood nor Crosse doe they speake to the Crosse why that vnderstands them not do they speak to the Crosse in honour of Christ or doe they worshippe the Crosse with a relatiue adoration hauing reference vnto Iesus Christ then should that whereunto they speak in honour of Christ vnderstand what they say and he that should speake to the timber of the Kings chaire in honour of the King would be taken for a foole neither should the King bee more honoured thereby and to giue a relatiue worship vnto the Crosse is to worship the Crosse we may not worship a dead thing to honor Christ thereby nor must wee honour God by transgressing his commanndement Now our aduersaries tell vs of twosorts of Crosses which must bee worshipped one is the true Crosse which neuerthelesse is not now a Crosse because it hath beene cut out into little peeces the other is the image of the Crosse such as are the common Crosses Concerning the true Crosse the Author of the Catechismes falsey ascribed vnto Cyrill of Ierusalem in the fourth Catechisme saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that this wood is so growne and multiplyed that in a manner the whole conntrey is full of it I thinke one may build a Cittie of it for as time and experience makes menwiser so haue the Christians at length thought good to haue some little chip of the true Crosse in their chest or about their necke as a holy defensatiue against deuills Whence it appeares that the Apostles and the Christians in their time that might each of them haue had a cut of the true Crosse and yet left it whole and vntouched without any search for it for 300. yeares together were either more barren in invention or colder in deuotion In the yeare 1239 Iohn naming himselfe King of Ierusalem who was afterward Emperour of Constantinople beeing hunger-starued for want of money began a traffique of reliques and solde great store of them to the westerne Princes that were not so subtile as himselfe he sold the Crowne of thornes to King Lewes the ninth and the true Crosse to the Venetians which the said King Lewes bought of them againe making them gainers halfe in halfe he bought also the sponge wherewith they offered drinke vnto Christ and the yron of the speare wherewith S. Longis pierced his side and recouered his sight thereby The holy Chappell of the Pallace was purposely built for the reseruation and the adoration of these reliques Touching the worshippe and adoration of this Crosse Thomas 3. parte Quaest 25. Art 3. Alexander 3. part quaest 30. art vltimo Caietanus in Thomā 3. part quaest 25. art 3. Bonauentura Marcellus Almain Carthusianus Capreolus in 3. dist 9. Henr. Quod libetico 10. q. 6. Namclantus in Epist ad Rom. cap. 1. I finde that all the Doctors of the Church of Rome Bellarmine and some inferiour Iesuites excepted do agree that the true Crosse ought to be worshipped with Latria that is to say with the very worship which is giuen to God himselfe An abhominable Doctrine giuing to a dead creature as great worship as vnto the high God which cannot be excused that this worship of the Crosse hath relation vnto God or is referred vnto Iesus Christ for to adore Iesus Christ and to adore the Crosse in honour of Iesus Christ must needes bee two different adorations We must not in honour of God adore the creature with honour equalling the worship of God for in seeking thus to honour God we shall dishonour him reproach him by such worship by such respect disrespect him neglect him by such seruice in a word this is to make ex opposito appositum to descend in clyming and to get heate by freezing Besides what honour or respect soeuer you may shew vnto the King it can neuer be made good that any can honour him the more by giuing like reuerence to his chaire or his cloke the chief point is that if such worship of the Crosse be lawfull then hath God commaunded it For we may not adore any thing but what he hath commaunded vs to adore and here are our aduersaries tongue-tied and alleadge no one word of Gods commaundement This is the reason why Cardinall Bellarmine thinkes it better to say that the Crosse ought to be worshipped with an inferiour adoration wherein he plainely confesseth that the adoration of the Crosse differs from the adoration of Iesus Christ in that it is inferiour and so his meaning is that the dead creature be worshipped in it selfe and with a differing worshippe from that by which Christ is worshipped Secondly he doth thereby confound the vnderstanding of the poore people who when they fall downe before the Crosse thinke of performing no more then one worship but Bellarmine will haue them to performe two seruices one to Christ and the other to the Crosse and in the one instant to cut their deuotion in two peeces deuiding their thoughts betweene two kindes of worships It were extreamely absurd to hope that hee or any other should produce any commandement of God touching this religious worship subordinate to the worship of Christ without saying that the people adoring a piece of the Crosse must assuredly beleeue that it is a piece of the true Crosse and that it is not suppositious whereof notwithstanding there can be no assurance For the other kinde of Crosse which is the Image of the Crosse in woode or siluer the Church of Rome doth worship that also and at the eleuation thereof they say Ecce crux adoremus And therefore Cardinall Bellarmine in the thirtieth chapter of his booke of Images speakes thus We worship all Crosses §. Ad quartum Omnes cruces adoramus quia omnes sunt imagines verae crucis because they are all Images of the true Crosse yea the bare Crosses without a Crucifix We worship saith he the Crosse yea without Christ crucified All which is a Medley of absurdity with impiety For none worshippeth the Image of the Crosse with like worshippe as hee doth the true Crosse and if the true Crosse be to be adored with a worship subordinate to that yeelded to Christ then behold three sorts of religious worship Now if we must adore a Crosse without a crucifixe for that it is an Image and resemblance of the Crosse why doe they not worship the barres of windows or the Sayle-yardes of Ships seeing they resemble the Crosse of Christ Why shall we not worship all the nayles and all the linnen clothes in the world seeing they better
offered vnto vs are faith Ephes 3.17 The Sacrament of Baptisme Galat. 2.27 The bread broken in the Lords Supper 1. Cor. 10.16 The word of God Rom. 10.17 And if so be they wil adde their Purgatory they must shew some place that saith that God would haue the merits of his sonne applied vnto vs by a fiery torment 2 But who will beleeue that the benefites of Iesus Christ are applyed vnto vs by a meane that is opposite to this benefite Doth any apply a medicine by poison Or the light of the Sunne by putting out the eyes How then doe they apply vnto vs the benefites of Christ which is the remission and cancelling of our debts in forcing vs to make payment Will they haue a pardon to be applyed vnto vs by our punishment Or will they haue the merite of Christ which is the supreame testimony of Gods mercy to be applyed vnto vs by the execution of his iustice Christ hath suffered torments to deliuer vs from torment but these men tell vs the application of the fruit of this deliuerance consisteth in our torments this impiety is basely absurd 3 Moreouer the meanes wherby to lay hold on this grace must be actiue and apprehensiue of Iesus Christ not a passion or torment as these our Masters will haue it who will perforce be fried in Purgatorie and not bee so much beholding vnto God 4 Lastly the means of applying or apprehending a thing must differ from the thing applyed or apprehended no man applies one playster or medicine by another nor consequently the satisfaction of Christ by another satisfaction This is also a playster without salue and that which Coeffeteau saith Fol. 71. pag. 1. astonisheth the simple people that in the fire of Purgatorie soules are purged by that power which the bloud of Christ hath imprinted in it His meaning is that the bloud of Christ giueth power to the fire of Purgatory to satisfie Gods iustice and to purge our sinnes This he onely saith not prouing it by Scripture and it is against common reason for the bloud of Christ doth not giue power to any thing in the world to pay a debt that is paide already and to satisfie for that for which himselfe hath made full satisfaction God exacteth not two payments for one debt especially when the first payment made by Christ is more then sufficient But he is mightily ouer-seene in mixing fire and torment with the graces of God turning in the middest of this fire the bloud of the eternal sonne of God For if it be Gods mercy to enable any one to satisfie his iustice by suffering of torments Thence shall it follow that they that suffer most receiue most mercy from God and that the Diuels are his fauourites from whom he drawes a full satisfaction Then al these reasons which he proposeth without Scripture are but matches without brimstone that cannot kindle this imaginarie sire that hath beene purposely inuented for lucre The Bishop of Rome hauing built this burning prison that himselfe might be the Iaylor and let out soules by his Indulgences and merchandise of Masses which are as profitable to the Priests as vnprofitable to the dead which doth clearely discouer both abuse and tyranny For if the Pope be able eyther by power of Iurisdiction or by way of Suffrage as they terme it to bring soules out of Purgatorie why doth he deliuer no more thence Why doth hee leaue so many thousand soules to lie downe in this sire being able to set them free But that he heedes not for should he bring out the soules that haue burned there for many ages an infinite number of Masses and other gainfull seruices would faile and euery one would say the Pope will presently deliuer me and therefore I neede not begger my children to erect Masses after I am dead The opinion of the auncient Fathers touching prayer for the dead and Purgatory Mr. Coeffeteau's opinion is that whosoeuer prayes for the dead presupposeth a Purgatorie wherein he is deceiued For many haue prayed and doe pray for the dead that beleeue no Purgatory first the Authour of the second booke of Maccabees cap. 12. ver 43. speakes of Iudas Maccabeus his prayer for the dead but hee saith that he did it hauing reference vnto the resurrection Doing herein saith he iustly and religiously to thinke of the resurrection Then Iudas prayed not that they might goe out of Purgatorie but that they might rise againe vnto saluation secondly and indeede the Greeke Church that before the sacke of Constantinople was greater then the Church of Rome doth vnto this day pray for the dead and yet denie a Purgatory thirdly S. Austen wrote a whole booke of care to be taken for the dead but in the whole booke you shall not finde one word of Purgatorie fourthly Epiphanius accuseth Aerius of heresie for refusing prayer for the dead and refelleth him by all the reasons that he is able yet makes no mention of Purgatory Certainely it is a place whereof no speech was made for a long season fiftly Dionysius Areopagita lib. de Hierarchia Ecclesiastica reasoning of the vtility of prayer for the dead doth not onely make no mention of Purgatory and yet the place was proper for it but also continually presumeth that they who are praied for are in happinesse and that they are set forth for example of such as are aliue and the subiect of charitable actions sixtly S. Cyprian Lib. 5. Epist 4 and Lib. 3. Epist. 6. speakes of offerings and prayers for holy Martyrs and Saints departed that yet were not beleeued by any to be tormented in the fire of Purgatory For it was the manner of the auncient Church to pray for the Patriarches See the Constitutions of Clement lib 8. cap. 18. Offerimus pro ys qui tibi placuerunt à seculo pro sanctis Patriarchis Prophetis c. Prophets and Apostles of whose happy estate it were impiety to make any question seuenthly Chrysostome Homil. 37. in Matth. saith that they called the Pr ests to pray for the dead and yet there he saith that the partie for whom they pray is arriued in the hauen and that to be vexed for him is to desire to draw him out of the hauen into the storm againe A place which our aduersaries haue falsified hauing translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fieldes of flowers and so haue sent soules into fieldes of flowers in stead of sending them into the harbor eightly S. Auston in the thirteenth chapter of his ninth booke of Confessions prayeth for his mother Monica Damascen saith the same of Falcouilla a Heaâ—hen woman deliuered out of hell by the prayers of the first Martyr and yet he saith that he beleeues that all his peritions are already graunted to wit that she is out of paine and that God hath forgiuen all her debts Of Purgatorie he speakes not a word ninthly Damascen in his Sermon of the dead and after him Tho. Aquinas Durandus and Richardus
is that the Fathers being so vnresolued in this point and so tainted with erronious opinions which our aduersaries reiect as well as we they are no way fit to be Iudges to decide this matter 2. The other is that the prayers which they make for the dead are condemned by the Church of Rome seeing that it receiueth no other prayer for the dead but that which is made to ease the soules in Purgatorie and by consequent also doth reiect the prayers of the Auncients for the resurrection and refreshing of the soules that lie and sleepe in their supposed receptacles As also the prayers vsed in the auncient Church for the Saints and Martyrs Whence the Reader may informe his iudgement with what care and circumspection the Fathers ought to be read seeing it is so hard a matter to vnderstand their termes and to finde out their meaning But we now liue in an admirable age in which all the world is become learned without study and in which they who scarcely vnderstand their Pater noster speake of the Fathers both Greeke and Latine with an incredible assurance Among these such men as Coeffeteau is doe easily beare sway and do Lesson and Lecture them at large See here a notable proofe hereof which we haue not hitherto touched Coeffeteau alleadgeth this passage out of S. Austin Pol. 71. pag. 2. de Ciuit. Dei lib. 21. cap. 16. Let no man thinke that there are any Purgatorie paines but such as be before the last and fearefull iudgement These words seeme very plaine and such as may easily make an ignorant man to rest vpon them but the iugling cousenage is manifest for if hee had but turned the leafe he should haue found that S. Austen speaketh of such purgatory and expiatory paines as a man suffereth in this life and before his death We confesse saith he that in this mortall life there be certaine purging paines Nos vero etiam in hac quidem morrali vita esse quasdam poenas purgatorias cimfitemur non ijs qui affliguntur quorum vita non inde fit melior vel polê° inde fit peior sed illis sunt purgatoriae qui illis coerciti corriguntur but they are purgatiue onely to those who being chastised and exercised by them they become bettered and amended thereby And cap. 26. The FIRE OF AFFLICTION shal burne away such delights and earthly loues as are not condemnable by reason of the bond of Matrimony To which fire also belong the losse of friends and kinsfolke and all other calamities which take away these things from vs. Yea the very next lines before this place cyted by Coeffeteau shew that he speaketh of a clensing done in the life present for hee saith Hee that desireth to escape the euerlasting paines let him not onely be baptized but also let him be iustified that so by forsaking the diuell he may betake himselfe to Christs side Hereunto he will haue certaine purging paines to be added without waiting for the day of iudgement So likewise S. Cyprian lib. 4. Epist 2. calleth that affliction of an offendor whom the Church doth for a long time detaine among the Penitents a purging fire But aboue all S. Austens irresolution in this matter is very considerable who sometimes as in the sixteenth chapter before alleadged saith that besides the Purgatory-paines of this life there are others after this life sometimes as chapt 26. hee saith that he doubteth whether it be so or no and it may be that it is true In many other places hee saith plainely that there is none at all and that the soules are in an instant transported into heauen ARTICLE XXII Of Anarchy and of the degrees of superiority in the Church AFter the refutation of so many abuses the King of great Britaine setteth downe for the shutting vp of his confession the Article of the Monarchy of the Church and of the primacy of the Pope the which his Maiesty affirmeth to be the cheefe of all other Controuersies and indeede vppon iust cause for all other errors serue to vphold this superstition helpeth to support tyranny Other pointes there are but this is that for which we dispute Whosoeuer shal examine al our Controuersies with a iudgement not forestalled nor pre-occupied shall finde that euery errour is a pillar of the Popes Empire and a prop of his Dominion and that the Articles of Faith haue beene skilfully bended and fitted to the aduantage of his Holinesse To this may be also added that if the Pope cannot erre in the decision of doubts the case is then cleare without further difficulty Neyther shall it be needefull hereafter to assemble Councels nor to search into Scriptures but onely to consult this Papall Oracle and so to content our selues with what it determineth It is therefore vpon iust cause that his Maiesty saith this point is the principall Controuersie and therefore insisteth vpon it more then vpon any other and therein displayeth the admirable ability of his wit of which I confesse I am rather a learner then a defender hauing first learned to speake of him before I did speake for him But before he entreth into the matter he saith that to haue Bishops in the Church is an Apostolique Institution and appointed by God and saith that he hath alwayes abhorred Anarchie and that in heauen the blessed spirits are distinguished by diuers degrees and that the very diuels themselues are digested and parted into Legions and haue their Princes that by the same reason no humane society can subsist without this order and difference in degrees and thereupon complayneth of certain turbulent persons that haue persecuted him euen from his mothers wombe pursuing his death before he entred into life But who these persons were that with so hasty murther would not haue expected his birth it is best knowne vnto his Maiesty and it is not to bee doubted but they haue beene punished according to the lawes And for such any punishment is too little But it is true that there is nothing so turbulent as an Anarchy in which there is no Master because euery one is such a one where euery one by being too free becommeth a slaue for in a State it is better to be vnder an ill Master then vnder none at all and Tyrannie is more tollerable then such a freedome which vnder the title of liberty introduceth licentiousnesse and this licentiousnesse bringeth in extreame seruitude So is it in Families and Common-wealths in Armies yea euen amongst the Angels themselues yea if we discend to Bees and Cranes wee see not these meaner creatures without a naturall pollicy and a kinde of superioritie The Church is no way exempt from this order in which God hath established Pastors and Bishops and aboue them Assemblies which the auncient Church called Synodes and Councels of which it is likewise necessary that some one should be President to direct and order the businesses But if one demaund what differences of degrees these should be
or whether one man should haue superiority ouer one onely flocke or ouer many It is another question and tendeth nothing to the kings purpose which is only to withstand the Monarchy of one single man ouer the vniuersall Church For admitting it should be yeelded that in euery Countrey and Prouince there ought to be one soueraine Prelate It would not follow thereupon that therefore there must be one Monarch ouer all Prelates or one head of the Vniuersall Church no more then if a man by proouing that a Monarchy is the most exact forme of Gouernement should by that conclude that therefore there must be one Monarch ouer the whole world No there are no shoulders of strength enough to beare so great a head the prouidence of no one man can stretch or extend it selfe so farre or deuide it selfe into so many peeces Such Countries as are placed vnder an other Hemisphere and fall vnder the tyranny of Lieftenants and officers ouer whose gouernement a carefull eye could not be had The same inconuenience or rather much greater would be in the Church for besides this difficulty pride is much more pernitious in Diuine then in humane things And it would be very hard that any man should climbe so high but that his head would be giddy for if pride get in amongst beggars whom we see quarrell and contest whilst whilst they sit ridding themselues of vermine how much more would it fasten it selfe to such a height of glory which inuesteth a weake man and many times a vitious with the title of the head of the Church which title the Scripture giueth not but to the onely Sonne of God Now the end and scope of the gouernement of the Church and of Ecclesiasticall Discipline is the peace of the Church the reformation of manners suppressions of scandals and the conseruation of the purity of doctrine to which end I conceiue we may attaine by different wayes And he should be rash that would tye all other Churches to that exterior Ecclesiasticall policy which is practised in his owne Countrey or by a peeuish presumption prescribe his particular example for an vniuersall rule Farre is it from the charitable opinion of the King of England who towards the end of his book declareth that he no way intendeth to condemne those Churches which hold a differing forme of gouernement since in the grounds and in all the points of doctrine we fully agree with the English Churches which are our brethren in our Lord Iesus members of the same body sensible of our common greefes and whose quarrell we esteeme to be our owne as persons tending to the selfe same end and by the selfe same way though cloathed perhaps in colours differing For the suspition of Mr. Coeffeteau is ill grounded when vpon the protestation which the King of great Britaine maketh that he disliketh the Puritanes hee inferreth that his confession of faith published in Scotland was a supposed confession made by the Scottish Ministers in which they make him speake like a Puritane for that confession agreeth in substance with that which the same King inserteth into his booke the defence whereof we vndertake But if in Coeffeteau his opinion to pray to God onely in the name of Iesus Christ to denie the fire of Purgatory to reiect the Popes Indulgences to pray in a knowne tongue and to abstaine from Idolatry if this be to be a Puritane there is none of vs that had not rather be a Puritane with the Apostles then be impure with the Bishop of Rome So that his Maiesty by the same wisdome by which he prudently gouerneth his Kingdomes can well discerne in this matter of Ecclesiasticall gouernment betwixt such of his subiects as oppose themselues meerely for contradiction and whose heat is accompanied with contempts from such who though they differ somewhat in opinion yet walke in obedience and with a good conscience desiring nothing more then the establishment of his Throne and are ready to lay downe their liues for his seruice such are the faithfull Ministers who carefully employ themselues to root out those tares which Sathan soweth whilst we sleepe and to pull vp Popery out of mens hearts the encrease whereof being nourished by our petty discords cannot choose but be a weakening to the greatnesse of Kings and the diminution of their Empire for it is certaine vnto himselfe in England so many subiects his Maiesty doth gaine vnto his Crowne seeing that according to the rules of Popery a King is an vsurper if he be not approued by the Pope and that his subiects are bound to rebell assoone as the lightnings of the Vatican haue beene cast forth vpon any soueraigne Prince And seeing that also the Cardinal Bellarmine dareth to affirme and to maintaine that England is part of the Popes Demaines and that the King is Feudatory and Vassall to the Bishop of Rome It is to be presumed that his Maiesty hath sent him his picture drawne out of the Apocalips to pay him his Arrearages and to yeelde homage to his Lord in cheefe These things considered the best meanes to be reuenged of so great an iniury is to giue order that the people bee carefully instructed and that the Countrey Churches be not vnprouided of faithfull Pastors who may watch carefully ouer their Flockes and may expound plainly the benefites of Iesus Christ and the doctrine of the Gospell In presence of which Poperie doth vanish and fall downe as DAGON fell before the Arke of the Couenant ARTICLE XXIII Of the Popes Supremacy ANd for his temporall Principality ouer the Signory of Rome The KINGS Confession I doe not quarrell it neyther let him in God his Name be Primus Episcopus inter omnes Episcopos and Princeps Episcoporum so it be no otherwise but as Peter was Princeps Apostolorum But as I well allow of the Hierarchie of the Church for distinction of Orders for so I vnderstand it so I vtterly denie that there is an earthly Monarch thereof whose word must be a Law and who cannot erre in his Sentence by an infallibility of Spirite Because earthly Kingdomes must haue earthly Monarches it doth not follow that the Church should haue a visible Monarch too for the world hath not One earthly temporall Monarch Christ is his Churches Monarch and the holy Ghost his Deputy Reges gentium dominantur eorum vos autem non sic Luke 22.25 Christ did not promise before his ascension to leaue Peter with them to direct and instruct them in all things but he promised to send the holy Ghost vnto them for that end Iohn 14.26 And as for these two before cyted places whereby Bellarmine maketh the Pope to triumph ouer Kings Matth. 18.18 I mean pasce oues and Tibi dabo claues the Cardinall knowes well enough that the same wordes of Tibi dabo are in another place spoken by Christ in the plurall number And he likewise knowes what reason the Auncients doe giue why Christ bade
Peter pascere oues and also what a cloude of witnesses there is both of Auncients and euen of late Popish writers yea diuers Cardinals that doe all agree that both these speeches vsed to Peter were meant to all the Apostles represented in his person Otherwise how could Paul diâ—ect the Church of Corinth 1. Cor. 5.4 to excommunicate the incestuous person cu spiritum suo whereas he should then haue said cumspiritu Petri And how could all the Apostles haue otherwise vsed all their censures onely in Christs name and neuer a word of his Vicar Peter wee reade did in all the Apostles meetings sit amongst them as one of their number And when chosen men were sent to Antiochia from that great Apostolike Councell at Ierusalem Acts 15. The text saith Act. 15.22 23. It seemed good to the Apostles and Elders with the whole Church to send chosen men but no mention made of the Head thereof and so in their Letters no mention is made of Peter but onely of the Apostles Elders and Brethren And it is a wonder why Paul rebuketh the Church of Corinth for making exceptions of persons because some followed Paul some Apollos some Cephas if Peter was their visible Head 1. Cor. 1.12 for then those that followed not Peter or Cephas renounced the Catholik faith But it appeareth well that Paul knew little of our new doctrine Galat. 2. since he handleth Peter so rudely as he not only compareth but preferreth himselfe vnto him But our Cardinall prooues Peters superiority Gal. 1.18 by Pauls going to visite him Indeede Paul saith he went to Ierusalem to visite Peter and conferre with him but he should haue added and to kisse his feete To conclude then The truth is that Peter was both in age and in the time of Christs calling him one of the first of the Apostles in order the principall of the first twelue and one of the three whom Christ for order sake preferred to all the rest And no further did the Bishop of Rome claime for three hundreth years after Christ subiect they were to the generall Councels and euen but of late did the Councell of Constance depose three Popes and set vp the fourth And vntill Phocas dayes that murthered his master were they subiect to Emperours But how they are now come to be Christs Vicars nay Gods on earth triple crowned Kings of Heauen earth and hell Iudges of all the world and none to iudge them Heads of the faith Absolute deciders of all Controuersies by the infallibility of their spirite hauing all power both Spirituall and Temporall in their handes the high Bishoppes Monarches of the whole earth Superiours to all Emperours and Kings yea Supreame Vice-gods who whether they will or not cannot erre how they are now become I say to that toppe of greatnes I know not but sure I am Wee that are Kings haue greatest neede to looke vnto it As for me Paul and Peter I know but these men I know not And yet to doubt of this is to denie the Catholique faith Nay the world it selfe must bee turned vpside downe and the order of Nature inuerted making the left hand to haue the place before the right Bellar. de Rom. Pont. lib. 1. c. 17. and the last named to be the first in honour that this primacy may be maintained Thus haue I now made a free Confession of my Faith And J hope I haue fully cleared my selfe from being an Apostate and as farre from being an Hereticke as one may be that beleeueth the Scriptures and the three Creedes and acknowledgeth the foure first generall Councels If J be loath to beleeue too much especially of Nouelties men of greater knowledge may well pitie my weakenesse but J am sure none will condemne me for an hereticke saue such as make the Pope their God and thinke him such a speaking Scripture as they can define heresie no otherwise but to be whatsoeuer Opinion is maintained against the Popes definition of faith And I will sincerely promise that when euer any point of the Religion I professe shall be proued to be new and not Auncient Catholike and Apostolike I meane for matter of Faith I will as soone renounce it closing vp this head with the maxime of Vincentius Lirinensis Libello aduersus haereses that I will neuer refuse to imbrace any opinion in Diuinity necessary to saluation which the whole Catholike Church with an vnanim consent haue constantly taught and beleeued euen from the Apostles daies for the space of many ages thereafter without interruption This discourse beeing nothing else Fol. 74. but a rich piece of tyssue wrought full of Demonstrations and the very language of truth in the mouth of a King deserued an exact answer But M. Coeffeteau not daring to confront the King to his face doth treacherously assaile â—im side-wise for in stead of satisfying his proofes drawne out of holy Scripture hee entrencheth himselfe in his hold of custome and produceth some testimonies of men He saith then that Basil writing to Athanasius aduiseth him to aduertise the Church of Rome of certaine schismes that happened in his countrey Epist 32. to the end that hee by interposing his authority might send learned and able men to extinguish those diuisions which troubled the East But withal he should haue added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Basil doth not intreat him to shew forth his power in punishing the obstinate and refractarie but onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to reprehend and admonish the froward men of our countrey For as touching the title of Head of the Church S. Basil in the same Epistle doth so qualifie not the Bishop of Rome but Athanasius Patriarcke of Alexandria in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we thought that we could not better giue entrance to our affaires then by hauing recourse to your perfection as to him who is the vniuersall Head and by winning you to be counsellour and conductour of our Actions Now he thus speaketh not because Alexandria was the first Sea but because there was not then any Bishop who did not willingly giue precedence to Athanasius because of his vertue As for the priority of the Bishops-sea it appeareth by his 50. Epistle that S. Basill thought it due to Antioch when he exhorteth Athanasius to adioyne himselfe to Miletius Patriarcke of Antioch of whome hee saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is he who as we may so say sitteth as ruler ouer the whole Church And saith also He so calleth the Bishop of Rome that the Bishops of the West giue consent thereunto it is a thing remarke-able aboue the rest that S. Basill purposing to addresse himselfe to the Bishop of Rome that he should lend his helpe to pacifie some differences stirred vp in Asia confesseth in one of his Epistles that men are deceiued to hope for any succour from thence and taking offence at his pride he accounteth all such deputations idle and
through the instigation of the Diuell In the 20. chapter of my Apologie for the Supper of the Lord. An Epistle which witnesseth that S. Austen died excommunicated out of the Church of Rome which also wee haue elsewhere defended against Coeffeteaus accusations Neither was this the first ordinance by which these Bishops sought to stifle the growing tyrannie of the Bishop of Rome wherby he laboured to draw the appeales of the causes of Affrica to himselfe his purpose being that they who were condemned in Affrica by the Councels might make their appeale ouer the Sea that is into Italy For these same Bishops in another Councell assembled at Mileuitum in the two and twentieth Canon say If they who are condemned by the neighbour Bishops thinke that they may appeale from their iudgement Quod si ab cis prouocandum putauerint non prouocent nisi ad Affricana Concilia vel ad Primates prouinciarum suarum ad Transmarina autem qui putauerit appellandum à nullo intra Affricam in communione suscipiatur let them not appeale any whither else then to the Councels of Affrica or to the Primates of their Prouinces But whosoeuer shall appeale beyond the Sea let him not be admitted to the Communion by any in all Affrica These men feared neuer a whit least there might come from Rome a lapse vpon their Benefices or a deuolution to the Pope they did not expect from him the Archbishops Pall nor the Cardinals Hat nor any liberality of consecrated grains nor feared they his excommunication whose power in those dayes passed little further then mount Apennine And here out of this Discourse the Reader shall further learne that this very Canon is found in the Romane Decrees in the second Cause in the Canon Placuit but wholly corrupted and miserably falsified for after these wordes Whosoeuer shall appeale beyond the Sea let him not be receiued by any to the Communion there is a peece of another stuffe and another coulour vnhandsomely patched on vnlesse he appeale to the Sea of Rome Nisi forte Romanam sedem appellancrit how could this exception be allowable seeing that this Canon of the Councell was expresly made against the Sea of Rome So is it also against the truth and euidence of all the Coppies Yea so farre are the auncient customes and ordinances from giuing any Iurisdiction to the Bishop of Rome ouer other Patriarches that here is a flat Canon of the Councell of Nice recyted by Ruffinus to the contrary in his first booke and fift chapter They ordaine also that in Alexandria and in the Citie of Rome the auncient custome be kept to wit Et vt apud Aleandriam in vrbe Roma vetusta consuetudo seruetur vt vel ille Aegypti vel hic suburbicarum Ecclesiarum solicitudinem gerat that he of Alexandria haue the care of Egypt the Bishop of Rome of all suburbicary Churches that is of all the Cities that were vnder the authoritie and ciuill iurisdiction of the citie of Rome These Fathers did liberally cut him out a large share as the times then were but scant enough according to his ambition as now it is S. Cyprian Bishop of Carthage wrote many Epistles to Cornelius Bishop of Rome al which beare this inscription Cyprian to Cornelius his brother sendeth greeting which had bin a great vnreuerence if Cornelius had bin head of the Vniuersall Church or if he had had power of Iurisdiction ouer S. Cyprian So likewise in the fourth booke of Socrates cap. 11. the Eastern Bishops who write to Liberius Bishop of Rome Socrates lib. 4. cap. 9. Domino fratri collegae nostro call him nothing but Brother and Companion yea they speake like Masters for qualifying themselues the Catholike and Apostolike Church they denounce Anathema against the Councel of Ariminum without expecting the iudgement or the will and pleasure of Liberius Thereupon Leo the first This is the Title of the three first Epistles albeit he speake bigge in his Epistles neuerthelesse he commonly taketh no other Title to him but onely this Leo Bishop of the Citie of Rome to such and such sendeth greeting See here a notable Example The auncient custome of the Church was that the penitents should confesse their faults aloude in the face of the Church But the Church being growne into wealth and riches many men refused to vndergoe this shame Sozom. l. 7. c. 16. Socrat. lib. 5. cap. 19. and iudged it intollerable To giue them content herein an order was established that euery Church should haue a Penetenciary Priest who should receiue their confessions in secret This order hauing beene euery where receiued Neuerthelesse Nectarius Bishop of Constantinople abolished this custome throughout all the East without asking the Bishop of Romes counsel who also did not reprehend him for it and this hath euer since so remained Thereupon I say that if Nectarius had beene subiect to the Bishop of Rome he would neuer haue vndertaken so great a matter without his aduise and contrary to his example Should a Bishop of Paris or Lyons bee borne withall now adaies if of his owne authority without aduise from the Pope he should put away auricular confession out of his Bishopricke Here are other examples It appeareth by S. Austens 118. Epistle to Ianuarius This Epistle is found in the 1. Tome of the Councels in the page 461. of the Collen Edition that in Rome they fasted on the Satterday but at Millan they did not so Damasus Bishop of Rome writing to S. Ierome complayneth that the seruice and the singing in the Church of Rome was performed with ill grace and vnseemly and with too great simplicity and requesteth Ierome to teach him the custome of the singing and seruice of the Greeke Church that he might bring it into the Church of Rome Is it credible that the Church of Rome would haue dayned to be the Disciple of other Churches and to correct her faults by the example of her neyghbour Churches if she had ruled and gouerned all other Churches as she doth to this day S. Ierome in an Epistle to Euagrius sheweth that the custome of other Churches touching Deacons was better then that of Rome which he saith was but a City from whence pride first sprunge So the Canon Aliter in the 31. Distinction saith That the Tradition of the Easterne Churches is one and that of the Church of Rome another for there the Priests and Deacons doe marry but here not And this Canon is attributed to Pope Steuen to whom Cyprian writeth Socrates lib. 5. cap. 21. maketh a long Bed-roule of diuers Church-customs and sheweth how different the Churches were in the obseruation of Fastes of the marriage of Churchmen and of the dayes of publique Assemblies which diuersity is an euident proofe that they were not all gouerned by one onely vniuersall head otherwise they should all haue beene conformed to the Ordinanances of the Church of Rome
him be deposed Or if he be a Lay-man let him be excommunicated Would they thus haue spoken if they had beleeued the Pope to haue beene their Superiour or the Church of Rome cheefe ouer other Churches and that it could not erre That the Passages of the Fathers alleadged by Coeffeteau for the Primacy of S. Peter are partly false Fol. 77. 78. partly maymed and partly impertinent FRom this point Doctor Coeffeteau passeth ouer to the Primacy of S. Peter Fol. 76. howbeit before he commeth thereto he giueth in passing by a blow to his Holinesse affirming that he is not Lord ouer any Towne thus doth he dispute the Souerainty of the City of Rome Wee leaue themselues to cleare this doubt and end this Processe He alleadgeth then for the Primacy of S. Peter the 11. Homily of S. Chrysostome and that very falsely for in all the Homily there is no mention of S. Peter nor of his Primacy But Bellarmine did deceiue him out of whom Coeffeteau copied his allegations This other is like it S. Cyprian saith Coeffeteau affirmeth Hoc erant vtique caeteri Apostoli quod Petrus pari consortio praediti honoris potestatis sed exordium ab vnâ—tate proficiâ— citâ—r vâ—â—â—â—â—â—sia vna monstretur that the other Apostles were certainly the same that S. Peter was fellowes and partners of his honour and of his power but the beginning proceedeth from Vnitie and therefore the Primacy was giuen to S. Peter the true reading is this the Apostles inde de were the same things that S. Peter was hauing ONE EQVALL SOCIETY In honour and in power but the beginning was made by one to shew the vnity of the Church Coeffeteau hath razed out the word EQVAL which troubled him and hath clapt on a Tayle of a sentence which is not in Cyprian and therefore the Primacy was giuen to S. Peter S Cyprian had said a little before that Iesus Christ after his resurrection gaue a like power to his Apostles and yet to shew the vnity of the Church he so disposed by his authority that the fountaine of this vnity should begin from one That is to say that he gaue to all his Apostles an equall power but to shew that the Church is one he gaue his power first vnto one namely to Peter and afterwards gaue equall power to the rest With like falshood he dealeth with S. Ierome Fol. 78. pag. 2. lib 1. against Iouinian whom he thus alleadgeth One is chosen among the twelue to the end that there being one head established all occasion of Schisme might be taken away At dicis super PetruÌ„ fundatur Ecclesia licet id ipsum in alio loco super omnes Apostolos fiat cuncti claues regni coelorum accipiant ex aequo super eos Ecclesiae fortitudo solideturâ—sed vnus eligitur vt capite constituto seismatist ollatur occasio But he omitteth the wordes that went before thou tellest me that the Church is founded vpon S. Peter notwithstanding that the same is done vpon al the other Apostles and that all do receiue the keyes of the Kingdom of heauen and that vpon them the stability of the Church is EQVALLY grounded whence appeareth that the Head and cheefe of which he speaketh is nothing else but a superiority in ranke without any Iurisdiction and power ouer his fellowes seeing that they had all the Keyes alike and were alike the foundations of the Church VVhich may serue to the end we may not trouble our selues with examining the rest of his falsifications for solution of all the rest of Coeffeteaus quotations in which S. Peter is called head and first among the Apostles S. Austen indeede in the beginning of his second booke of Baptisme which place Coeffeteau alleadgeth calleth S. Peter the first of the Apostles but he saith also in the same place that for all that he did not presume that the new-commers Nee Petrus queÌ„ primum Dominus elegit super quem aedificauit EcclesiaÌ„ suam cum secum Paulus de circumcisione disceptaret postmodum vindicauit sibi aliquid insolenter aut arroganter assumpsit vt diceret se primatum tenere obtemperari à nouellis posteris sibi potius debcri and latter Apostles were to yeelde him obedience The same S. Austen as he is alleadged in the 24. Cause Quaest 1. Canon Quodcunque speaketh thus S. Peter when he receiued the Keyes represented the Church if then all the good were signified in the person of Peter so were all the wicked also signified in the person of Iudas Seeing then that S. Peter was the same among the faithful that Iudas was among the wicked it followeth that as Iudas was not the head of the wicked to haue power and Iurisdiction ouer them but onely was the most remarkeable among them so S. Peter should be such a one among the beleeuers He might haue had perhaps a priority eyther in age or in vertue or in zeale or in eloquence or in preseance and taking the first place but yet without Dominion or power of Iurisdiction As touching that which somtimes he saith that the Church is founded vpon S. Peter we shall see hereafter that he retracted that ouer sight afterwards and we haue heard before S. Ierome to haue said that the Church is Equally founded vpon all the Apostles As for that which he saith that he that is without the Communion of the Church is to be accounted prophane and that he that is without the Arke shall perish in the floud the same may be said of euery other Church which holdeth the true Orthodox Doctrine yea of the least of the faithfull for that a man cannot separate and withdraw himselfe from him but by renouncing the truth Now in the quarrell which then was in debate Damasus maintained the truth and sounder opinion Whether the Pope may erre in faith or no. TO that which the King of great Britaine denieth that there is any Monarch of the Church on earth whose wordes ought to be held for laws who hath the gift to be able not to erre Fol. 80. Coeffeteau thus answereth We know that the Pope is a sinfull man as another man is and therefore may erre in Doctrine and Manners if we consider him in particular but in the quality of S. Peters Successour hee cannot teach any thing contrary to piety This is it which is commonly said that the Pope indeede may erre as he is a man and a particular Doctor but not as he is Pope Or that he may erre in manners but not in faith Cap. licet titulo 2 de Constitutioni in 6. They say also that he may erre in the question de facto but not in the question de Iure For as Boniface the eighth saith the Pope hath all law and right in the chest of his breast A man had neede of a good stomach to digest this And I doe not see how all this can agree For
onely to take away Ambition from his Disciples But I say that it was not onely his meaning to take from them ambition but all such occasions as tend to ambition together with the fewell of contentions and pride for the worde of God forbiddeth both the euill and the occasions of euill Now that the Monarchy of the Church doth nothing but puffe vp the hearts of those that are climed vp to it there is none that doubteth but such as are hired to flatter or haue not much troubled themselues with the reading of histories whereof we shall produce some proofes hereafter yea Leo Bishop of Rome in his 82. Epistle confesseth this fault to be in himselfe and after he had spoken against those Bishops that hunt after Lordship and authority he addeth these wordes meipsum quodenimodo in Culpam trahi sentio I finde my selfe in a sort drawne into this fault And further the wordes of Iesus Christ herein are very expresse for after hee had said The Kings of Nations rule ouer them hee saith not take you heede that you desire not Souerainty in the Church but thus he saith It shal not be so among you As if he should say they beare rule but you shall not beare rule hee forbiddeth not onely the desire of Dominion but Dominion it selfe Coeffeteau addeth that when Iesus Christ went vp into heauen he did in such sort substitute a visible head as that he hath not bereaued himselfe of the title and quality of Monarch and that he is a more perfect and absolute head then the Pope but of lesse vertue and power then the holy Ghost whereof he doth well to aduertize vs And surely in my opinion Iesus Christ is much bound vnto him The wordes of S. Luke 22. I haue prayed for thee that thy faith faile not haue already beene sufficiently examined and so hath that saying of S. Ierome lib. 1. against Iouinian cap. 14. There so loweth after that Controuersie about the Keyes which the Pope causeth to ringe so loude stil grounded vpon this false supposition that he is the Successor of S. Peter not onely as Bishop of Rome in which sense the Ancients vnderstood it but also in the charge of Apostleship and as the vniuersall head of the Church which neuer any Father eyther beleeued or thought Albeit that that which was spoken to S. Peter doth nothing at all belong to the Bishop of Rome yet we will examine the wordes Iesus Christ then Mat. 16. after Peter had confessed him to be the Sonne of the liuing God saith Blessed art thou Simon the sonne of Iona for flesh and bloud hath not reuealed this vnto thee but my Father which is in heauen And I say vnto thee that thou art Peter and vpon this Rocke will I build my Church and the gates of hell shal not preuaile against it And I will giue thee the Keyes of the King dome of heauen and whatsoeuer thou bindest on earth shall be bound in heauen and whatsoeuer thou loosest on earth shall be loosed in heauen Mr. Coeffeteau produceth this saying Fol. 85. for to Establish the Primacy of S. Peter ouer the other Apostles but he sheweth not how nor wherein nor alleadgeth he any proofes at all It is peraduenture because Christ hath said Thou art Cephas and that Cephas signifieth the Head If a man will beleeue Pope Anaclet in the two and twentieth Distinction Can. SacrosaÌ„cta Cephas id est caput principiuÌ„ with a profound and compleat skill in Grammer It may be also that it is because he said to Saint Peter Thou art Peter and vpon this Rocke will I build my Church Whereupon they inferre that the Church is founded vpon S. Peter But I say that these wordes import no such matter for hee saith not Thou art Peter and vpon thee Peter but vpon this Rocke that is to say vpon Iesus Christ whom hee confessed a little before and who is oftentimes termed a Rocke And it is euident that our Lord doth manifestly distinguish betweene Petrus and Petra the person of Peter and the Rocke and especially it is to be obserued that in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a word of a double sense for it is both the proper name of a man and it doth also signifie Rocke whereof it followeth that the allusion would haue carried a farre better grace if S. Matthew had said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the spirit of God that guided the handes of the Apostle chose rather to let go that ornament of speech for preuenting of errour and sayth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expresly distinguishing the person of Peter from the Rocke For if the Church be founded vpon S. Peter it must needes be done eyther vpon his person or vpon his Doctrine that was all one with the rest of the Apostles and in this respect they are all Foundations alike if vpon his person then assoone as he is dead and another in his place the foundation of the Church is changed and it may be much for the worse Likewise when the Papall Sea hath beene many yeares voyde which hath often happened the Church of God hath then beene without Foundation Furthermore if the question be of the first and most principall Foundation S. Paul 1. Cor. 3. saith No man can lay another Foundation then that which is already laid which is Christ Iesus And that maketh S. Peter to call him the cheefe Corner-stone 1. Pet. 2. And if the Apostles be at any time called Foundations it is in respect of the Doctrine that they teach And for this reason the holy Scriptures make them equally Foundations as Ephes 2. vers 20 Being builded vpon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ himselfe being the cheefe Corner-stone And Apocalip 21.14 The wall of the Citie which is the Church had twelue foundations in which were the twelue names of the Apostles of the Lambe Since then they be all foundations who can shew any place of the word of God that maketh one of the Apostles a Foundation aboue the rest The Fathers haue vnderstood it thus Origen vpon Matth. 16. If thou thinkest saith he that the whole Church was founded vpon Peter onely Quod si super v. num illum PetruÌ„ taÌ„tum existimas aedificari totam Ecclesiam quid dicturus es de Iohanne filio tonitrui desingulis Apostolis Omnibus Apostolis omnibê° per fectis fidelibê° dictum videtur Petra Christus qui donauit Apostolis suis vt ipsi quoque petrae vocentur Tu es Petrus c. what wilt thou then say of Iohn the sonne of Thunder and of all the other Apostles And hee vrgeth much these wordes Vpon this Rocke I will build my Church as spoken to all the Apostles yea further to all the faithfull This seemeth saith he to be spoken to all the Apostles and to all the perfect faithfull for they are all stones or Rockes and vpon them is the Church builded S. Ierome in his first
vnto the 15. verse of the 21. chapter Seauen dayes after his arriuall he is taken and to auoyd the violence of the Iewes he appealeth vnto Caesar when he came to Rome he preached there two yeares Acts 28.30 and there suffered Martyrdome as we may easily gather out of the 2. Timothy Chapter 4. verse 6. and by the subscription of the Epistle From whence it appeareth that the Epistle to the Romanes could not be written aboue three yeares before his death and not to be too strict let vs admit that it might be 4. yeares let vs now shew that S. Peter had not beene at Rome when S. Paul wrote this Epistle for that is prooued by the fifteenth chapter of the said Epistle to the Romanes where Saint Paul saith that he is resolued to goe to Rome whereof he rendreth this reason to wit I study to set forth the Gospell not in those places where mention hath beene already made of Iesus Christ to the end faith he that I build not vpon another mans foundation He presupposeth then that neyther S. Peter nor any Apostle had till that time laid nay foundation in the Church of Rome otherwise S. Paul going thither soone after should haue built vpon anothers ground-worke The renowne and credite and the mutual conference and conuersation of the Christian strangers with the Romanes had sowen the Christian Religion at Rome but before S. Pauls comming thither there was not any forme of a Church gouerned S. Paul laid the first foundation as is manifest by the place alleadged This being thus gained let vs end the rest of the combat The Kings Maiesty of England hath aduisedly noted that the Apostle S. Paul did excommunicate the incestuous person of his owne authority the spirit of the Corinthians ioyning with his spirit without making or medling with S. Peters spirit Coeffeteau here answereth that by the spirit S. Paul meant not authority but knowledge and declaration of will as Beza expoundeth it I aunswere that this declaration of will was done by vertue of the power and authority which he had as he addeth in the wordes following In the name of our Lord Iesus and by his power so calleth he that power which Christ had giuen him and which hee denieth to haue receiued from any man Gal. 1. v. 1. and chap. 2. v. 6. n = * They which were the cheef brought nothing vnto it But saith Coeffeâ—eau it is not necessary at all times to expresse all the functions of the Church nor the Primacy of S. Peter it being sufficient to beleeue it Then say I if he omitted it in this place and neuer thelesse beleeued it you must then shew vs some other place wherehe confesseth that he beleeued it Coeffoteau goeth further and saith Coeff fol. 89. That in the Letters of the Councell of Ierusalem the decision was made by the authority of the whole Assembly without speaking of Peter Acts 15.23 because the Letters were sent in the name of all the company n = * The apostles and the Elders brethren to the brethren that are of the Gentils in Antiochia Besides it is sufficient that elsewhere S. Peter is called cheefe by the Oracle of truth and that Peter himselfe speaketh first To this I say that if in these dayes a Councell where the Pope were present should write Letters to decide a Controuersie it would be thought very strange if in those Letters there were no mention made of the Pope Againe we cannot finde that the Oracle of truth did euer giue vnto S. Peter any power or Iurisdiction ouer the other Apostles Furthermore in this Councell Peter spake as a man that gaue his aduise or iudgement but it was Iames that spake last and pronounced the finall decision as President in the action But among all the reasons alleadged by the King of great Britaine that is most witty and forcible which is drawne from the first chapter of the first to the Corinthes which hath not beene yet noted by any other S. Paul had founded the Church of Corinth and had laboured mightily but after his departure from them they fell to faction and partaking one saying I am of Paul another of Apollo and another of Peter Those that said they were of Paul had a desire rather to become his followers then Peters it appeareth then that S. Paul had not taught them to acknowledge S. Peter to be his Superior and to be the head of the vniuersall Church for if he had so taught them they would neuer haue resisted and withstood that his instruction Neyther is it possible that any man would oppose himselfe herein against S. Paul thinking in so doing to become his Disciple or that he would not beleeue him to the end he might become his follower This is not onely absurde but it is also impossible from this argument so aptly collected Coeffeteau being vnable to comprehend the force thereof is driuen to shifts and querkes cleane from the purpose To as little purpose is it when he saith that Caluine speaking of the Controuersie betweene Paul and Peter Coeff fol. 90. Gal. 2. did not inferre a Preference of S. Paul before S. Peter but onely an equalitie for his Maiestie doth not intend a preheminence of S. Paul aboue S. Peter in generall but onely in this particular action Forasmuch as iustly to reprehend is a thing more noble then to be reprehended and to teach better then to learne I also adde that it is very likely that if S. Peter had had his Cardinals about him or a guard of Swyssers and Light Horsemen See Crysostome vpon chap. 1. to the Galathians he would not haue suffered S. Paul to haue withstood him to his face But follow on the line and leauell of S. Pauls purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it will lead you directly to the truth that S. Pauls drift was to meete with and to preuent the mis-regard which some had of his Apostleship which some held to be of an inferior ranck because he was none of the twelue but came after them Against this opinion of theirs he iustly armeth himselfe and saith in the very beginning of his Epistle that he is an Apostle not of men nor by man but by Iesus Christ where he teacheth vs sufficiently that hee had no commission from S. Peter And chap. 2. verse 6. he saith that they that seemed to be in estimation added nothing vnto him He saith that the charge was diuided betweene him and Peter to him were the Gentiles committed euen as to Peter those of the circumcision that Iames Peter and Iohn who were accounted the Pillars gaue him the right hand of Fellowship that he withstood Peter to his face when he came to Antioch Petrum solum nominant sibi comparat quia primatum ipse accepit ad fundandam Ecclesiam se quoque pari modo electum vt primatum haberet in fundandis gentis um Ecclesijs and went not the right
them then these great ones doe And so he endeth his amplification with the praise of the Cardinal of Perron Now to begin with these which he opposeth vnto vs The answers I doe acknowledge that these two Cardinals carried along with the current of the time and course of affaires haue by their wils and abilities much helped the defence of errour they haue imployed their vessels of golde and siluer which they brought out of Egypt to the making of the golden Calfe and Coeffeteau hath little in his writings that he hath not filtched from them But I know that they disagree in many things and that the Cardinall of Perron loueth his King too well to assent with Bellarmine that the Pope may either directly or indirectly depriue him of his Crowne or dispence to French-men the obedience they owe him As for the thing it selfe that is the antiquity charge and modesty of Cardinals it requireth a longer discourse Men dispute of the originall of Cardinals as they doe of the head and sourse of the riuer Nilus The greatest antiquity that Coeffeteau is able to produce is the testimony of the Romane Councell held if we may giue credite to the impression vnder Siluester the first since the Counsell of Nice But it is easie for vs to conuince this of falshood being forged by some shallow braine that wanted learning to lie with skill and dexterity The Cullen Edition p. 357. This Counsell is found in the first Tome of the Counsels reduced into twenty Chapters whereof the first saith that in this Counsell there were 139. Bishoppes aswell of the City of Rome as of other places neare about it which is well knowne to be impossible In the last Chapter Siluester prohibiteth the Emperour and Kings to be Iudges of the Bishop of Rome Now it is strange how this should be since at that time there were no Kings in all Christendome there he likewise saith that Constantine and his mother Helena subscribed to this Counsel but Constantine was neuer at Rome vnder Siluester since the Counsell of Nice and women neuer subscribed to the Counsels at all He further addeth Actum in Traianas thermas as though this Counsell had beene faine to hide it selfe in the Stoaues In the same place Constantine is called Donnus Constantinus in stead of Dominus but in those times the Latine tongue was not become so strangely corrupted besides amongst the Romanes this very word Dominus was then odious as attributed to tyrants And lastly he saith that this Counsell was held Constantino Augusto tertio hee meant to haue said tertiùm Prisco consulibus which is a most apparant vntruth for we finde in the Chronicles of Cassiodorus and in the Fasti of Onuphrius and Annian Marcellinus all the Consulships of Constantine but it cannot be found that eyther Priscus or any of the family of Augustus were companions with Constantine in Consulshippe and further in the page before this Counsell Siluester writeth to the Counsell of Nice and deteth his letters from the seuenth time of Constantines being Consull And yet see this goodly Counsell which was held since and yet beareth date from his third Consulshippe It is likewise to be proued that both Siluester and Helena were long afore this deceased These vntruths are very easie to be discerned and any ordinary iudgement will discouer them but to Coeffeteau who hath no great skill in any good learning any proofes will serue his turne It had beene very fitting that so royall a worke might haue had a learned aduersary was there not in Fraunce some more able and sufficient man that might haue seduced with a better grace or could haue found better pretences and colours to haue opposed the truth Certainly it is much to the disgrace grace of our nation But these are briefly his proofes of the antiquity of Cardinals Cóeffeteau doth further add that Caluine acknowledgeth that Cardinals did flourish in the time of Gregory the first In the fourth booke of his Institution Chap. 7. §. 30. which was sixe hundred yeares after Christ and this is likewise another vntruth Caluine saith indeede that there was then the Title and name of Cardinal but not the charge and that in that age this word CARDINALL signified nothing lesse then what it doth now a dayes and the substance being chaunged the word hath still continued euen as we see in the Apothecaries box though the oyntment be gone the inscripion remayneth Also Caluine speaketh not of their flourishing but of their being Gregory indeed in the eleauenth Epistle of his fift booke speaketh of a Cardinall Deacon And likewise in the foure and twentieth Epistle of his eleuenth booke he speaketh of a Cardinall Priest which is as much to say as principall in the same sense and nature as we say the Cardinall windes or Cardinall vertues which signifie onely the cheefe and principall But of any Cardinall Bishops neyther he nor any of his time nor long after made any kinde of mention A Cardinall Priest then had no other signification then the Parson or Vicar of a Parish hath now neyther was this title onely vsed in Rome There continue still Cardinals at Compostella but in all other great Archiepiscopall Citties as namely in Millane where Sigonius towards the end of his seuenth booke saith that there were then two and twenty Cardinals but there being then in one Parish diuers Priests he that was the first and chiefe was called principall or Cardinall for they signified both one thing as * Pandulphi de vitis Pontificum in Electione Gelasij ij Pandulphus Pisanus and after him * Lib. de Episco titulis Diaconijs Cardinalium Onuphrius teacheth vs. For Bellarmine in his first booke de Clericis Chap. 16 is mistaken where he saith that in the fourth booke of Gregories Epistles Chap. 88. there are subscriptions of diuers Cardinall Priests bearing the same title which is altogether vntrue for there is no mention made of Cardinals and by Priests of the same title is meant simply in that place Priests of the same Church or Parish He likewise there alleadgeth the Counsell of Rome false and counterfeited And hee also speaketh of Cardinall Bishops which were neyther in the time of Gregory nor long after so that in few lines he committeth three grosse errours This then standeth thus that the Cardinall Priests were no more but the principall Priests of euery Parish and of this there remayneth to this day some shewes and traces for that euery Cardinall Bishop or Priest beareth the title of some Church or Parish of the citie of Rome which doth more plainly appeare by the forme of the reception of new Cardinals as it is set down in the first book of the holy ceremonies Section the 8. chap. 12. where the Pope after he hath put a ringe on the finger of the new Cardinall that kneeleth before him sayeth vnto him To the honour of God and of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul
assembled according to the vsuall forme and there was good order kept in the first Sessions So Menas and Euticheus Patriarches of Constantinople sate Presidents in the fift Councell of Constantinople albeit Vigilius Bishop of Rome were in the same Towne which doubtlesse was the cause why he refused to be present at the Councell All which notwithstanding after the close and conclusion of the Councell he approued the Acts. Read carefully the second Councell of Nice and you shal see that in reckoning vp the Bishops who were assisting thereat hee who hath translated the Acts of the Councell hath oftentimes placed to gratifie the Pope the Deputies of Rome the first yet notwithstanding the whole action of the councell doth plainely shew that they were not Presidents at all they speake almost neuer a word and they giue in their opinions sometimes amongst the rest But Tharasius Patriarch of Constantinople speaketh to euery matter gouerneth the whole action pronounceth the conclusions and is cheefe President in the Councell And to come vp a little higher the most famous Councell that euer was was the first Councell of Nice in which surely the Bishop of Rome was not President but if we will beleeue the testimony of Athanasius who was there present Hosius Bishop of Corduba in Spaine sate in the first place His testimony is reported by Theodoret in the second booke of his story and fifteenth chapter where he saith that there was no Councell helde wherein Hosius was not President And this hee speaketh agreeable to that which the same Athanasius saith in his Epistle to them that liue in the desert The first speaker was Eustachius Bishop of Antioch who sate at the Emperours right hand Which hath made some men to thinke that he was President but it appeareth not throughout the whole action that the deputies of Rome did any thing In the Tomes of the Councels though made for the Popes greatest aduantage yet Hosius subscribeth the first and the deputies of Rome vnder him And least any man should say that he was the Bishop of Romes Legate he subscribeth apart in these wordes Hosius Episcopus Cordubensis Ita credo Then the deputies of Rome subscribe apart Victor Vincentius Presbyteri vrbis Romae pro venerabili Papa Syluestro subscripsimus For if they had beene all three deputies for the Bishop of Rome they would thus haue subscribed Hosius Victor Vincentius pro Syluestro c. And Hosius should rather haue taken this title then to be qualified only Bishop of Corduba c. Whosoeuer hath neuer so little looked into the stories knoweth that the Bishops of Constantinople considering that the dignity of the sea of Rome came for that Rome had for a long time beene the seate of the Empire and seeing that the Empire was now translated to Constantinople haue laboured to haue themselues to be credited and preferred before the Bishop of Rome Euen so farre forth that Iohn the Bishoppe of Constantinople whom Greekes call S. Iohn the Almosner began vnder the Emperour Mauritius about the yeare sixe hundred to call himselfe the first and chiefe Bishop and Oecumenicall Bishop that is to say Vniuersall Whereupon Gregory the first Bishop of Rome doth not complaine that Iohn did set footing vpon the Sea of Rome or that he did him any wrong by vsurping that which belonged to the Bishop of Rome but saith that this was a new Title and That he which will be called vniuersal Bishop is the forerunner of Antichrist because that in the Pride of his heart he preferreth himselfe before others Now the intent of this Iohn was not to haue denyed the others to haue beene Bishops also but he said that he was the first and aboue the rest And indeede this Iohns successors continued this title and are so called in Zonaras and Cedrenus And further in the second Councel of Nice the second Action there is an Epistle of Adrian Bishop of Rome wherein he calleth n = a Dilecto fratri Tharasio generali Patriarchae Tharasius Bishop of Constantinople vniuersall Patriarch Howbeit Gregory in his Epistles thinketh that he who will be vniuersall Bishop doth by consequent ruine the Bishopricke of others and seeketh if not directly yet at leastwise by consequence to be the onely Bishop the Bishopricke of others after that being nothing else but a bare name without substance as is the charge of Bishops vnder the Papacy Thus hath God pluckt out of the mouth of Gregory the condemnation of his Successors for this good man was not aware that in so speaking he called Boniface the third his Successour the forerunner of Antichrist to whom the Emperour Phocas gaue the title of vniuersall Supremacy within a while after the death of Gregory And yet for all this the Bishops of Constantinople would neuer acknowledge themselues inferiors to the Bishop of Rome no nor those of Antioch and Alexandria vntil that the Turkes and Saracens hauing ouerthrowne all the rest the Bishop of Rome onely finding in our Kings soft spirits and that they were litle seene and versed in Diuinity drew from them huge liberalities perswading them to whatsoeuer he would euen to subiect their Crownes vnto him and to pill and rifle their Kingdomes and to take vpon him n = b Gregor in Registro l. 4. Epist 32. Epist. 24. Epist 36. Epist 38. li. 6. Ep. 30. Ad Mauricium c. those Titles of which we shall speake anone He that wil see how much the Pope hath exalted himselfe let him compare the foure first Councels where all thinges are passed by common voices with the Councell of Florence in which they gaue power and authority to the Pope to make new articles of faith And with the latter Lateran Councell in which all is referred to the will of Pope Leo the tenth who there is called the diuine Maiestie the corner stone laid in Sion the Lyon of Iuda the King and Prince of all the world whom all the Kinges of the earth ought to adore To such Councels the Pope doth willingly affoord his personall presence because he doth there rule and domineere with absolute authority but in the ancient Councels he refused to bee present because there hee should haue found Bishops as stout and as strong and as ambitious as himselfe Adde hereunto that in the generall Councels they vsed the Church of Rome and her Bishop no otherwise then they did their particular Churches So in the sixe generall Councels re-assembled at the Pallace Pope Honorius is condemned for an Hereticke And the thirteenth Canon doth by name condemne the Church of Rome because it disalowed the marriage of Priests And further in the 55. Canon the Church of Rome is expresly forbidde to fast any more the Satterdy and the Sunday vpon payne of incurring the rigour of the Canon of the Apostles which saith This is the 65. Canon of the Apostles If a Clerke be found fasting on the Satterday or the Sunday one onely excepted let