Bernardus de Quinta Valle in the forme of a bright Star ascending into Heaven and was triumphantly met in the way by Christ and his blessed Mother the Angels the Apostles Martyrs and holy Doctors and placed in a throne of the highest order of Seraphins the formerly vacant seat of Lucifer Lastly for it were easie to be endlesse Can they tell us of any holy building that travail'd through the Aire God knows why and when and whence two thousand miles at once as our Lady of Lorettoes Chappel did Have they any such strange and faithful records as the Golden Legend John Capgrave Speculum exemplorum and such other famous Monuments which perhaps the Hereticks and some ill advised friends may slander as lyes calling them Miraculorum monstra as Melchior Canus did and stick not to say that if the Saints in Heaven could know what is written of them and could be capable of Humane affections in that Region of impassibility they would surely blush for shame to see such prodigious tales fained concerning them and as they say Socrates when he read Plato's Dialogismes could say Quam multa de me mentitur adolescens so doubtlesse would they say How many grosse lyes do these idle Cloiste ers raise of us Yet for all that honest Catholiques do as verily believe that St. Patrick raised not onely Fota from the grave after he had lyen there ten yeares but also the great Gyant Glasse a man of an 120. foot long the Irish Kings Hogheard an hundred yeares after his burial and christned him and freed him from his old torments And that the seven Sleepers in Mount Celius after two hundred yeares lying on the right side did on the suddaine for more ease turne them to the left as fooles abroad do believe that all the posterity of the Persecutors of St. Thomas Becket are at this day borne with long hairy Tailes dangling down behind them No no all other pretended Churches may go whistle for Miracles whereas Lipsius can tell you of the two Ladies that have done hundreds and every story can informe you how frequently the retired Cells of holy Hermites have been visited by celestial guests Only the spight is the holy Book of conformities it self tells us that the Devil himselfe hath not seldome appeared to Fryar Ruffin and others of his Fraternity in the garbe and forme of Christ and in such illusions hath so cunningly demeaned himselfe that he hath dangerously deceived the beholders and we know who told us that Satan himselfe is oâ—ten transformed into an Angel of light now all the craft is to discerne the counterfeit Angel from the reall Devil Luther it seemes would pretend to some such skill for when a Neighbour of his a Maid lying on the bed of her sicknesse had represented to her a very glorious apparition which both she and her friends thought no other then heavenly they sending for Luther to behold that radiant spectacle he straight resolved it was an evil spirit charging the Maid to defie it in that name and to spit at it which with much adoe she at last yeilded unto whereupon that glittering Angelical apparition suddainly turned it selfe into an ugly Serpent and crawling upon the bed of the sick person bit her by the eare and having drawn blood of her vanished Some eyes are more piercing then other howsoever therefore advantage is hereupon by incredulous men to doubt whether an ignorant Fryar can be more likely to discerne which is the true Devil then the wisest man was able to know in a schisme of some fifty yeares continuance when two or three Popes were tugging together by the eares for Peters Chaire which was the true Pope Yet we must take it for a sure rule that the Devil may appeare in all colours but whiâ—e and so long as he hath not a cloven foot all is safe In the meane time the Miracles of Rome remaine unshaken by all froward infidelity The fond Hereticks are ready to choak us with Vespasians cure of a blinde man and of a lame man too and of the great Cures that were done by Pyrrhus his great Toe yet neither of these were Saints and to colour and excuse their impotency can tell us of John Baptist who did no miracles and think to stop our mouthes with the profession of our Felinus Multi non sancti c. Note saith he that many who are not Saints yet do work miracles either by force of the words as in the consecration of the Eucharist or by vertue of their place or family as the French King and those of the house of Saint Paul or by Art Magick and are apt to strengthen their conceit with that resolution of our famous Postiller John Ferus who tells us that new Revelations will indeed stand in need of new Miracles But the old Doctrine whether of the Law or Gospel needs no new or further Miracles since it is so sufficiently confirmed already that if an Angel from Heaven should teach otherwise and confirme his Doctrine by Miracles he were justly worthy to be accursed But let them enjoy their own dull inefficacy and rest content with their own confessed disability we see in the meane time how just reason the Church of Rome hath to truimph in the visible power of her unlimited Iurisdiction and of her if not incredible yet unparallelable Miracles CHAP. V. The truimph of Piety or Devotion A Professed purity of life without true piety in the heart is no better then gilded Hypocrisie Sincerity of Devotion is the maine ingredient to a Saint And herein if it may appeare that our said Mother of Rome doth as far exceed all other Churches as her seven hills where she sat of old do over-look the Martian Vally where she now resides the day and the cause is clearely ours Now then what do we account Devotion but fasting and praying and all other acts of Religious worship In all which who dares offer to compare with the great Metropolis of Christendom First of all her Fasts and her Feasts do as it were divide the yeare betwixt them and are not those Fasts as solemnly and severely kept as if all men from the cradle had taken example of St. Nicholas who they say when he was an Infant did two dayes in the week Wednesdayes and Fridayes content himselfe with sucking but once a day As for wine and sweet meats they break no square how plenteously soever poured down It is flesh that breeds the quarrel In the great Deluge the Sea escaped the curse onely the Earth and her store contracted impurity Let the mawe be crammed never so full with the most delicious and proritative fish or viandes and let them swimme in the most inflaming liquor here is no Fast violated The Lollards are strangely mistaken it is not abstinence but change of diet that makes an holy Fast And what a vain brag it is of their great Champion Nostrae
prayer may be available to the soul of thy servant Leo now in our late missals it runs thus Grant we beseech thee O Lord that by the intercession of St. Leo this prayer may be available to us which saith the said Innocent must be so understood that our prayer should sue to be available in this regard that the Saint above may be more and more glorified by the faithful on earth Thus cunningly is the cat turn'd in the pan and instead of our well-wishing to Leo Leo is become an Intercessor for us and the improvement of our devotion must be that the Saints in Heaven may more palpably rob God of his honour But this is but the Heretiques gloss of Burdeaux which mars the Text and so let it passe As for the particular exercises of devotion which consists in the Benediction of things consecration of places and persons solemnization of times canonization of Saints hallowing of Bells Election of Divine Patrons of Cities and Churches exorcization of Devils honouring and transporting of Reliques where shall you finde them so much as mentioned but in the See Apostolique where did you hear ever of a sword or a rose blessed on a Christmas day or upon the Sunday of laetare Jerusalem and sent to the great Potentates of the earth by any save Peters successor as Pius the second to James the second of Scotland Sixtus the fifth to the Prince of Parma where of any flagg or Banner blessed with the sure promises of victory as in 88 where of holy keyes sent from the bodies of Peter and Paul Shortly I would fain see any Religion under Heaven yeild such a benediction of holy-water as his Holiness useth over that parcel which serves for the making up of his Agnus Dei wherein he prayes to God Vt ea quae c. That thou would'st be pleased so to blesse these things which we have purpos'd to infuse into this vessel prepared to the glory of thy name as that by the veneration and honour which is done them we thy servants may have all our crimes done away the blots of our sins wip't off pardon obtained and graces conferred that at the last together with thy Saints and Elect ones we may merit to attain everlasting life The ignorant Protestant now is ready to ask his Holinesse for his Quo Warranto what ground of warrant he hath to make so bold a Petition when God hath made any promise to grant a request of so high a nature who might as well quarrel with all the Energetical prayers of the Church all which hang upon the same string As those which are used for the exorcisation of Rue Hypericon Aristolochia and other holy Ingredients for a powerful fumigation against Devils for the blessing of clouts in the way of cure of Diseases the hallowing of the Corner-stone in buildings of Palls Vestments and Altar-cloathes of Beades Graines Bracelets of Chalices Bells and all other holy Utensils and a world of the like implorations not considering that the word is Univeral Quicquid petieritis and that besides both the Church and his Holinesse being freed from the danger of errour may safely say Quod volumus sanctum est What we will is holy Now upon all these occasions I cannot but blesse my selfe to see the reverent scrupulosity that is used in medling with these holy things That in an holy Procession on Corpus Christi day no Lay person may so much as look out of their windowes That on that day no Relique of any Saint may be carried That on other dayes no Image of the blessed Virgin or any Saint may be carried about save onely those which are pictured in silk or woven work That the Corporal cloth may not be toucht either of any Lay-man or any of the holiest Sisters till after the first washing That the Altar-cloathes must have their peculiar Brushes That no gloves be worne in a Quire That no gilt chalice may be used That no Agnus Dei may be toucht by a woman the liberty whereof given by Sanchez the Jesuite is shrewdly checked and a thousand the like Curiosities which do sufficiently argue the awful respcts which they beare to the very circumstances of their Devotions But what shall we say to the substance of their highest act of Piety If some villainous heretical mouse shall have unhappily light upon a consecrated host let Peter Lombard the great Master of sentences be ask't Quid sumit mus What doth the mouse eat He will answer you Deus novit God knows and it is his wisest way to do so For if he shall say A wafer it is Heresie for consecration is past the bread is transubstantiate into the body of Christ If he shall say The body of Christ how odious it sounds to seek a Saviour in a mouses belly Hold thine own Peter there is no safety but in silence neither can we be too chary in the management of such sacred matters For example So it was that in a certain Town wherein the Pestilence raged greivously a poor hosteler lay infected on a pad of straw in his stable sends for the Curate of the place to give him the Sacrament the Priest being as he had just cause feareful to come over neare to the contagious person got a long stick and in the cleft thereof puts the consecrated host and so offers it to the siâ—lâ— man the cleft being somewhat too wide the host slips out and falls upon the ground there being then as it fell out divers Goslings in the roome they straight run and gobble up that sacred morsel yet so as that by reason of their likenesse to one another the amazed Curate could not distinguish which of them it was that was guilty of that horrible sacriledge the distressed man pitifully bewailes that woful mishap order is taken besides his own penance that the whole gaggle of those Goslings must be burnt to ashes and those ashes laid up in the Sacrary so the ill-bestowed deity is sure to be met withal somewhere The Relation I had from sure hands which or the like accident might occasion that Act of the Church of Milaine forbidding absolutely in a time of Pestilence to give the Sacrament cum instrumento whiles yet others allow it to be given in a Silver-spoone where is not the like danger of miscarriage But I must needs take leave to wonder how this care can consist with the relation which I had made to me by Dr. Tilenus a man both famously learned and undoubtedly creditable who told me that coming through France hitherward lodging in the City of Roan there fell out that night á dangerous fire not far from his Inne which being at last happily quenched moved much matter of talke to the neighbour inhabitants amongst the rest the next morning he heard an old woman and a black-smith discoursing of that businesse Had not I said the woman obtained of the Curate to cast the body of our Lord into the
To whom faculty is thereby granted to absolve him and to gratify him with a plenary Indulgence in what case soever shall be propounded which was according to the old Doctrine that Tetzel the great Pardon-monger Luthers good friend taught and wrote that the Popes Indulgences could remit and pardon those sins which a man intended to commit in time to come Now if any crafty chapman shall have made such ill use of this wholsome Doctrine as to drive the bargain with a well-meaning Penitentiary for pardon of a concealed sin purposed to be done by him and shall thereby mean as the Tale goes his robbing of the Pardon-monger himself and easing him of his carriage for my part I shall hold him worthy of no lesse punishment then to be cursed with Bell Book and Candle Another improvement of the free hand of our holy Mother much of kind to the former is the large dispensations granted by his holinesse upon all weighty occasions which some queaâ—y stomacks such as Gersom and Erasmuses do not well digest mistaking the terme and calling them dissipations Well fare yet the zeale of a learned Spaniard Martin Alphonsus Vivaldus who flies fiercely in in the face of one of their greatest Bishops for making question of the lavish exercise of the Popes power in this kinde Piis auribus c. It is offensive to pious eares saith he which is spoken by a most reverend Bishop of Spain a Dominican by profession who handling the question whether the Pope may erre I would to God saith he that any doubt could be made of this conclusion but we see daily come from the Court of Rome such large yea loose dipensations that the world cannot bear them any longer whereupon the zealous Doctor beates his Candlestick about the eares of this Censorious Prelate twitting him with the contrary judgement of their common Mother the University of Salamanca Whereas other Catholiques take too tamely the heavy censures which passe daily upon his holinesse in this behalfe It is a starke shame to see That when Bishop Jewel so long agoe hath so clamorously laid open such a rabble of grosse and intolerable flatteries as he proclaimes them falne from the pens of some Roman Parasites both Divines and Canonists concerning the prodigiously-exorbitant powers and practice of Papal dispensations such as any modest man would blush to hear as that the Pope may dispense saith one against Paules Epistles against the new Testament saith another against both Old and New Testament saith a third against the Law of God saith a fourth above the Law saith a fifth of wrong he can make right of nothing something saith a sixt Yea to shut up all sin onely excepted he can quasâ— omnia facere quae Deus potest do in a sort all that God can do Yet Nec quisquam ex agmine tanto Audet a dire virum Not one in all that great and boastful rout Dares come to graple with that Champion stout No one Catholique pen hath ever wagg'd against him for either Apologie or excuse Neither yet after so many and bitter complaints made in and to the Council of Trent concerning the horrible abuse of this practice is the case thought meet to be any whit altered but Intranti nummo quasi quodam principe summo Exiliunt valuae nihil auditur nisi salve When money enters like some mighty Lord The gates flie ope God save you is the word As Cardinal Cusanus could say in his time It is no more but deferunt aâ—â—um et argentum et reportant chartas Men bring in Silver and Gold and carry out papers Yet a third peice of Papal bounty is the granting of extraordinarily high priveledges to Princes and States far better then a Golden Rose upon Dominica Laetare though daub'd over with the preciousest Balsome and perfumed with Muske and blessed with holy water which are feoffed not upon their persons onely but their successors Yet not so but upon misdemeanure they may be reversed and upon the necessity or greater availe of the Church infringed The rule is Papa nunquam ligat sibi manus The Pope never ties his own hands those are still left at liberty to tie or untie at pleasure So we have known more then once that notwithstanding his engaging himself by his free concessions yet that he makes bold to take the freedome of doing what he lists as the Gravamina Germaniae would make us believe And here in England when time was the Parliament and especially the Peeres complained to and of Pope Innocentius in the first Council of Lyons that Martin his legate had injuriously violated the priviledge granted specially to the King of this Realm by the See Apostolique That no person should execute the Office of a Legate in this Land unlesse he were especially requested thereunto by his Majesty which wrong they do so sharply resent that they speak big words if not saucy to his holinesse Non possumus aequanimiter tolerare nec per dei gratiam amplius tolerabimus we neither can nor by Gods grace will suffer it to be done any more And the bold French Lawyers the spawne of that refractarie Sorbone have got a distinction by the end of Privilegia remuneratoria differencing the priviledges that are yeilded upon considerations from those that are merely free and voluntary standing upon it that if the priviledge were granted in way of remuneration and upon a mutual concordate it is not the power of his holinesse to reverse or violate it Let them argue the case whom it concerns But certainly in this last and worst age of the world the great Kings of the earth grow resty and headstrong having learnt at last to know their own strength and now having got the bit between their teeth their rider is best to sit sure for fear of a fall In the mean time hitherto as some Popes have given out themselves for the Lords of the world usurping the speech of him that said All the Kingdomes of the earth are mine and to whomsoever I will I deliver them so there have not wanted great Princes which have been content to receive the grant and confirmation of new Kingdoms from their hands cum privilegio ad possidendum solum and have nothing to plead for the propriety of their right in those large territories snatcht from their heathen owners but a sheeps skin sub Sigillo piscatoris So as these Beneficiaries cannot but acknowledge our Rome the mistresse of the world not more great then bountifull As for other Churches what have they to give were it not well with them if they could but hold their own If as the world goes they can maintaine but a bare subsistence upon earth although in the mean time they are confident of a large portion in heaven CHAP. IX The triumph of Gain BOunty cannot live and hold out unlesse it be fed and supplied with incomes of profit It will easily therefore be granted that