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A20606 The rockes of Christian shipwracke, discouered by the holy Church of Christ to her beloued children, that they may keepe aloofe from them. Written in Italian by the most reuerend father, Marc Ant. de Dominis, Archb. of Spalato, and thereout translated into English; Scogli del christiano naufragio, quali va scoprendo la santa chiesa di Christo. English De Dominis, Marco Antonio, 1560-1624. 1618 (1618) STC 7005; ESTC S117489 73,138 191

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my Spouse are thunderbolts and fierie darts in the hands of the Bishop of Rome as being the successor of Iupiter Capitolinus Behold the deceipts and cunning of this new Iupiter There was neuer any thunderbolt that strake or hurt any man vnlesse it were actually darted out but they put a vaine ridiculous scare-crow vpon you making you beleeue that they haue certaine close thunderbolts in a corner which of themselues fly abroad and smell out euen in the most secret closets those that doe or say any thing which may displease the Pope though neither the parties themselues bee knowne to him nor any hint giuen what they doe Alas what poore fooles are they that giue credit to this These my keyes which you see in my hands no doubt are mannageable by my Prelats and Ministers and haue power sometimes also to thunder out an Excommunication But you must know that I am to cary an hand in the guiding of such thunderbolts and if they be darted foorth contrary to my order prescribed me by my Spouse they are of no force at all and haue no other operation then to make a vaine rumbling to scare yong children withall Excommunication my beloued children is of diuers sorts in my family The first is when any of my children hauing committed some grieuous publique notorious crime whereby he hath scandalized all his brethren of that particular Church where he remaineth for the recalling him vnto true wholesome inward repentance by outward medecinall shame is not onely reproued by the Prelate in the publique Congregation when my children come together vnto spirituall exercises but also is expresly forbidden to receiue the sacred communion of the holy Eucharist and of the Lord's Supper and so is kept off for some time vntill he make satisfaction vnto God inwardly and to the Church outwardly by penitentiall workes imposed vpon him by the said Prelate A second sort of Excommunication is something more rigorous when as one of my children being a publique and notorious sinner is for one or more grieuous and scandalous faults not onely put backe from the holy Communion but also from all other meetings that is from all holy assemblies and is prohibited from entring into the Church with the rest of the faithfull brethren to whatsoeuer sacred exercise whether hearing of the word of God or receiuing the holy Sacraments or being present at the publick holy Seruice praiers and this restraint to endure for a time by way of wholsome medicinall penance that by this his cōfusion of face both he may conceiue griefe for his sinne committed and others may take example by him and be striken with an holy terror for the shunning of such sinnes Both the one and the other of these two Excommunications is taken away by publique Reconciliation when he hauing with due humiliation performed what was imposed on him and giuen the Church outward euidence of his true inward repentance is now readmitted both to the Church and to the holy Communion and both these may truely be called the lesser Excommunication The third and most terrible Excommunication which I haue learned out of the Gospel is when one of my children hauing bene giuen ouer in prey vnto grieuous publicke notorious and scandalous sinnes after he hath bene tried but all in vaine by the two precedent medicinall Excommunications being now incorrigible is wholy cut off from the number of the faithfull and vtterly cast off from being my child and seuered from my body that is from the body of Christ my Spouse and cut off as a dead and rotten member and consequently deliuered vp vnto Satan and held as if he were a Gentile and Publican depriued of all the blessings graces and heauenly riches which are to be found within my house This is the true and dreadfull thunderbolt which may most fitly bee called the greater Excommunication Thus you see that the two first Excommunications are rather outward then inward rather medicines then punishments hauing externall effects and not inwardly working vpon the soule otherwise then indirectly and by diuers deductions namely so farre as vpon the two first Excommunications the remission of the sin remaineth in a sort suspended etiam in coelo euen in heauen also vntill it be remitted him by me on earth according to the promise made vnto me by Christ my Spouse And only the third if it bee executed without any errour in the keyes hath its operation directly vpon the soule But all these three Excommunications then onely are Excommunications and then only haue their operation when they are made in special and actually sent forth and employed not before the fact done but when the crime is already in being Therefore obserue what a trifle that is which the Popes and their flatterers haue inuented in enacting one Excommunication à iure ipso facto and another ab homine that is to say that there is an actuall Excommunication which worketh actually and by the deede it selfe and not by way of threatning onely and that by vertue of the law before made and written it alwaies worketh of it selfe without comming to any speciall act of excommunicating the particular offender as often as he committeth such or such an offence before forbidden by the Law The other is that which without beeing made vniuersall by the lawes is from time to time darted out by the Prelate against a particular man by name for some fault committed by him This distinction is both false and manifestly deceitfull and it is that very deuise whereof I spake before namely to dreame of a thunderbolt which doth not onely affright a man but also beat him downe to the ground without beeing darted foorth and so there can bee no secret among Christians which by this meanes the Pope cannot pierce into Surely as for the two first Excommunications if they bee not sent forth from time to time against the parties by name no man will euer absteine from the Cōmunion or from spirituall conuersation in spirituall meetings for as for ciuill and humane commerce no Excommunication can hinder it In the third Excommunicatiō likewise it is certaine that no effect can follow vpon it vnlesse it bee actually but without errour thundered out Where was it euer seen that a Delinquent was bound to execute a penalty vpon himselfe True it is that euery man is bound to beare with patience his owne iust punishment but no man can bee bound to execute it on himselfe and to be his owne hangman How then is it possible that any of my children by vertue of a wandring vncertaine vniuersall Excommunication which is indifferent by the law should vpon an ipso facto be truely and actually excommunicated that is disseuered and cut off from my body vnlesse he himselfe being the onely man that knoweth himselfe to haue committed that fault shall of himselfe bee executioner of the punishment vpon himselfe For my part I haue no spirituall power to chastise secret sinnes no nor
a man's body is not an accident but a substance of necessitie it must bee nourished with substances and not with accidents the substance of meats being alwayes turned into the substance of the body nourished by them here therefore is no other starting-hole left then to run to a miracle that forsooth God doth create a new substance whereby he that thus eateth is nourished and so in trueth they might as well say that he liueth and is nourished without eating and drinking for to eate and drinke without receiuing the substance of meat and drinke is indeed not to eate and drinke at all Here I may adde the greatest impossibilitie of all and euen open contradiction hence following namely that Christ's body shal be a body and no body it cannot be denied that corporeal and incorporeall substances are so farre in their nature and essence distinguished that neither of them can haue the properties of the other nor be dispoiled of their owne properties without the totall destruction of one of them To be in a confining circumscribed place to haue quantitie and parts one distinguished from the other to be either heauy or light to be sensible are properties which arise from the internall essence of things corporeal To be indiuisible to be vncircumscribed by any place to possesse no situation to be wholy in the whole and all in euery parcell of the whole are properties of substances abstract immateriall and incorporeall Well indeed may it be granted that God's Almighty power can displace some of these properties in bodies by putting in another propertie contrary thereto but yet corporeal as he can make a body which is naturally heauy to become light and that which is hot to become cold but to make a body still to remaine an entire body yet so that it shall reteine no corporeall qualitie but assume incorporeall properties is vtterly impossible euen to God's omnipotencie for it should be at the same time both a body and a spirit and so a body and no body To this are the Papists driuen turning the body of Christ into an abstract immateriall and incorporeall substance and giuing it the true properties of a spirit and depriuing it of all bodily qualities And yet when the Disciples after the resurrection vpon Christ's appearance amongst them Luke 24.37 and saying vnto them Peace be vnto you were terrified and affrighted supposing they had seene a spirit for the driuing this error out of their heads Christ shewing them his hands and feet and body said Handle me and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones It is therefore a sound position by Christ's owne argument that that which consisteth of flesh and bones cannot haue the properties of a spirit nor a spirit haue the properties of a body otherwise Christ's argument would not passe for currant if it were possible that a man's body might bee without palpable flesh and bones and that a Spirit might consist of palpable flesh and bones But the Papists will needs driue the body of Christ which of necessitie hath visible and palpable flesh and bones to be a meere spirit and so they make the same body remaining continually in heauen and not departing thence to come downe to the earth into the hands of the Priest and that without passing through the heauens or the aire and that the same entire body must be in the same moment of time both in heauen and vpon an infinite company of Altars in the earth and that not onely in the whole contents of the consecrated Host but in euery little particle thereof though no bigger then the point of a needle there must be the large entire body of a man fully growne together with all his flesh and bones with his hands and feete and with all the rest of his members A very meere vanitie whereat the Infidels our aduersaries may well make themselues merry and mocke at our faith for mainteyning things so repugnant to all reason which wee cannot salue vp no not by running to God's omnipotencie There is no necessitie at all whereby wee should be driuen to these absurd assertions True it is that Christ speaking of the holy Bread said This is my body but euen so it is said of iron heated red-hot this is fire not because it ceaseth to be iron but because that iron is accompanied with fire together with the properties thereof as heating enlightning and such like So this bread is his body because in the Communion the body of Christ doeth spiritually accompany this bread and doth bring spirituall effects with it So also Christ said of S. Iohn Baptist that hee was Elias Matth. 17.12 yet he was not in person that ancient Elias but he that was prefigured by him Iesus Christ therefore spake mysticallie and Sacramentally as likewise when he said of himselfe that he was the liuing bread Iohn 6.55 that his flesh was meat indeed and his blood drinke indeed Some of the holy Fathers vnderstand this place in S. Iohn not of the Sacrament of the Eucharist but of faith and in a mysterious sense that he that beleeued in him did thereby eate the true bread which was giuen from heauen And those among the Fathers which by this flesh and blood thus promised by Christ for nourishment vnderstand the Sacrament doe meane also that this flesh and this blood is to be eaten and drunke by faith whilest the Sacramentall Bread and Wine is eaten and drunke by the corporall mouth From this maine error concerning this impossible and vnconceiuable transubstantiation whereby they will haue a true and reall transmutation of the Bread into the true reall liuing entire and totall body of Christ doth arise a true and reall Idolatrie in the Masse wherein the consecrated Host is lifted vp that it may be adored for very Christ very God and yet in realtie and trueth it is true and reall bread Another branch springing from this error is that vpon this occasion they haue maimed the Sacrament in the peoples Communion by saying that in receiuing of the body of Christ in the Bread there is receiued the flesh and so the blood also by concomitancie And vpon pretence of certaine vaine and fruitlesse reuerences lest by any mischance the consecrated wine should be spilt vpon the ground and so the very blood of Christ be trod vnder feet they haue to preuent this mischiefe robbed the people of the vse of the cup. Wherein they erre more wayes then one first in running to this deuise of concomitance whereas Christ in his Institution of this holy Sacrament did employ both Bread and Wine commanding all both to eate and drinke and giuing order to his Apostles that they and their successours after them should in the very same man̄er minister the Communion vnto the faithfull people Moreouer by taking away from the Sacrament the signification thereof they doe in whole or in part destroy the Sacrament it selfe namely as farre as the thing signified is more or
himselfe and deceiueth others For we haue in the Scriptures expresse Patent for those three sorts of Keyes but of that fourth no graunt appeares but forgery and vsurpation and if it be one of these three it cannot haue any proper and distinct name nor different effect neither can it be appropriated to any more then they neither can it be vsed otherwise then in remitting the whole punishment together with the fault and so it will not bee diuers from them There hath bene indeed in my house and still may be the vse of certaine Indulgences but without imploying any Treasure in them from whence those false Indulgences haue occasionally taken their beginning and not from Apostolique tradition as is pretended and this was when as some Penitent being bound by me in man̄er aforesaid with iniunction of penance for some prefixed and determinate time wherein the Penitent was to giue euidence of his repentance and to bee taken downe to a fit degree of humiliation which course of time for performance of penance was now and then the space of seuen whole yeeres together yet vpon the good behauiour of the partie and out of my owne compassion and mercy towards him as also by the instance and prayers of my children I was wont to shorten this time and to moderate these penalties and so to graunt him reconciliation sooner as S. Paul did to the incestious Corinthian 2. Cor. 2.10 And this was my Indulgence which as you see hath nothing to doe with the punishment of sinnes nor with Purgatory For these workes of Penance inioyned the Penitent before his Absolution were not punishments otherwise due vnto the sinne by God's iustice but meere signes of repentance and of necessary humiliation the true punishments of sinne being cancelled by his Reconcilement and consequently by the applying of Christ's treasure in such sort as I haue declared and not by abreuiating the time of precedent trials and humiliations So here ye see the blind-Rocke of those Indulgences that now-adayes are vsed A Rocke whereat many doe suffer shipwracke The maine mischiefe of it is that it taketh away cleane out of the world and disanulleth true Christian repentance and so robbeth many a soule of the true remission of their sinnes I will demonstrate this to you A sinner heauieloaden with heinous crimes putting his confidence in the great vertue of Sacramental Absolution which ex opere operato by the deed done must remit sinnes and make ex attrito contritum of a brused heart a broken heart hereupon doeth not hate his sinne nor abhorre it and so he doth not rise vp from sinne but he goes to finde one of these triuiall Confessors with a brace of sixpences in his hand and for more or lesse vpon the bargaine without any troublesome examination he gets Absolution and now he holds himselfe secured from his sinnes in respect of the guilt and of eternall punishment And as for the temporall punishment there are imposed vpon him so many fasts so many Masses such a quantitie of Almes which he accepts but with intent to performe neuer a whit of them He is content to leaue them on the score for Purgatory and yet he hath a tricke to escape that paiment too he will gape after a planary Iubily or rather he will take a gainer way hee hath in his Bead-row or Rosary certaine beads crosses and medals which haue bene all to be-blest by the most holy Father and these containe in them Indulgentiam plenariam a full Indulgence ouer and ouer and so with chewing ouer threescore and three Auemaries and seuen Paternosters he hath rid himselfe of all this troublesome matter and thus without Penance without Satisfaction and without Purgatory hee is more then certaine of Paradise And when these diuelish inuentions were first in vre Indulgences à culpâ paenâ aswell from all fault as punishment were granted euen without Confession and without Absolution to all that would put to their helping hand so that it had money in it But now-adaies gran-mercy Luther the Pardon-mongers are somewhat more moderate though not reformed For they doe not now trucke for the fault but for the punishment onely Where you may note at least the goodly beginning of these Indulgences with marting the remission of sinnes at What will you giue And yet notwithstanding for the gaine that commeth of them they are defended and extolled by the Papists as likewise the Stations to such and such Churches the visiting of such an Altar or such Reliques with so much adoe in iangling the Bells for many dayes afore and setting vp titles and banners in the chiefe corners and eminent places of the Citie with vehement vrging these things in the pulpit Such doings as these whither else do they tend but to rob you my simple children of your money But such Stations as these and Indulgences lest they should passe without income to the Pope they are not granted but in his Court of Chancery in forme of Bulls and this is a very good meanes for the ingrossing vp of money at Rome To preuent murmures of the people there was a new deuise brought into Rome for the speeding of Indulgences per Breue gratis by Breues without fees but now-adayes againe he that will haue any of these gainefull Indulgences must goe the olde way by the Chancery and by Bulls as for Breues they are rarely graunted and they also now not altogether gratis But it is an excellent tricke of thrift the Pope hath gotten vp both in leuying forces and Souldiers in forreine Estates for his owne enterprises as also in giuing of presents which as a temporall Prince he is to bestow on other Princes and on their Embassadors he to saue his owne purse puts his hand into the endlesse treasure of Indulgences and loads them with whole bags full of blessed beads medailes and croslets of copper paltry pictures printed on paper with a catalogue of Indulgēces belonging to them whereof more accompt is made by the Pope's gentle customers then of so many Spanish Doublons Such trinkets as these together with the tricke of a plenary Indulgence and of opening the gate of Paradise fly abroad vpon euery designe of the Popes And yet all this while this treasure shrinketh not but it bulkes vp euery day by the canonizing of new Saincts and with their merits and works of supererogation O wofull blindnesse of men which take no knowledge of such abuses and deceits The Pope not content with the Keyes of heauen and earth will needs haue his keyes reach vnder the earth also and exerciseth his omnipotence vpon the soules which are in the center of the earth stretching forth his Indulgences vnto the imagined Purgatory per modum suffragij by way of suffrage but so that they may haue their certaine effect without faile as much as concerneth his authoritie if the indisposition of the soules themselues doe not hinder it and all this for the whetting on of simple men especially
in but a few pence you thinke that you bring with you in your pocket an vndoubted remission of your sinnes O fearefull rocke O dolefull wracke O hatefull auarice The Pope will needs haue a great Armie of innumerable Priests and Friars whom he pretendeth and in despight of Secular Princes mainteyneth to bee his onely his Subiects souldiers and seruants but he is more thriftie then to allow them wages of his owne pay or table of his prouision and therefore hee hath inuented for their maintenance such deuices as this to nimme the coyne out of your purses Which yee giue downe very gently that you may haue your part in these sweet Sacrifices not by way of commemoration of the benefit which you haue receiued by Christ but by way of bargaine and hier for the remission of your sinnes and the freedome of soules out of Purgatorie for pettie peniworthes And that you may ply their shop the oftner and become daily customers for Masse-bargaines they tell you that one Masse will not doe the feat that you are not alwayes rightly disposed to be capable of the benefit of this Sacrifice that for euery sinne you must haue at least one Masse with such like deuises and then let them alone to make their ware saleable they will finde you miracles ynough begotten by their Masses and stoare you with visions reuelations and many other such tricks and slights coyned in the forge of couetousnesse But what thinke you of the superstitious ceremonies of the Masse they are a many of deuises broached to astonish the simple vulgar and to rauish them with admiration of hidden and vnknowne mysteries without common sence without signification without any contents in them other then meere superstition The Masse-priest sometimes beats his breast one while lifts vp his eyes other-while casts them downe one while ioynes his hands together other-while spreads them at large one while holds his fingers close other-while displayes them sometimes he makes crosses in the aire in a certaine prefixed number and with so nimble motion as if he would beat away flies sometime he bends himselfe downe lowting low with Spanish crindges sometime hee stands vpright sometime stoopes sometime mumbles in secret other-while hee chaunts it alowd one while hee turnes to the people otherwhile to the Altar which are gesticulations fitter for the stage then for the Church and to procure laughter then to stirre vp deuotion Set habits I mislike not for in my first and best times my Ministers were in their holy functions adorned with proper habits for that purpose which indeed were not so costly and stately as now adayes I see them in some Churches nor so slouenly and nastie as I see them in other especially amongst those Friars which loue their broath well and take more care to haue their diet large and fat then to haue their Vestrie furnished and neatly dight As for the Sacrament whilest the Communion of the faithfull either all or many or some is in celebrating then is the fit time for that which is called Masse which should indeede bee the Liturgie and not a priuate but publique exercise euen for the said Communion and no other vse for this onely was the first and pure institution thereof But Romanists haue brought-in an innouation that for the most part the Communion should bee celebrated without Masse or Liturgie for they make boxes to be kept full of these Hosts there one comes another goes and the Priest without Masse without prayers affords to euery stander-by the Cōmunion or rather the halfe Communion it being a maymed Sacrament and full of vndecent enormities Hence I inferre that the priuate Masse as it is now adaies celebrated is in many respects friuolous and causeth the ruine of many soules One reformation of it would bee by cutting off many parts of it and generally all those strange gestures and by celebrating it for the Communion onely Whereupon it followes that in one and the same Church all the Altars except one principall should bee demolished as superfluous For in one Congregation one Masse is enough for the peoples Communion where the multitude of Altars and Masses is nothing but a meere superstition and erronious opinion of a Sacrifice But the greatest enormitie and most intollerable error of the Masse now adayes is that you poore soules are made beleeue that in it the bread is conuerted or as they speake transubstantiated into the true and reall body of Christ so that the bread after the consecration must bee no more bread no not in substance but Christ's true and reall body with his true reall presence in body and soule and the Deity vnited thereto with his head eies hands and feet the very same that was borne of the Virgin Mary which was fastened on the Crosse which rose againe and ascended into heauen and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father a thing beyond all vnderstanding and vtterly imperceptible which I could neuer apprehend nor approoue Surely the Scripture alwayes calleth the Eucharist euen after consecration bread Saint Luke calleth it the Communion of breaking of bread Act. 2.46 Saint Paul also saith 1. Cor. 10.16 That the bread which wee breake is the communion of the body of Christ and speaking of the due preparation before the Communion after a man hath prooued himselfe and purged his cōscience 1. Cor. 11.28 then saith he let him eat of that bread and drinke of that cup. So likewise all the ancient Fathers acknowledged true bread in the Eucharist neither euer heard they newes of this transubstantiation it being an vtter stranger in my house and for aboue eight hundred yeres after Christ neither heard of nor thought on And whensoeuer the ancient Fathers doe call the Eucharist by the name of Christ's body their meaning is that the bread is Christ's body Sacramentally without ceasing to be bread still euen as the water of holy Baptisme is sacramentally the blood of Christ which washeth the soule yet notwithstanding remayneth it still water And if yee aske mee what the Eucharisticall bread doth get by consecration more then it had before and what maner of transmutation or change that is which the holy Fathers acknowledge to be in the bread after consecration I answere that the bread before consecration is nothing else but ordinary bread and onely materiall food for the body but vpon consecration it is altered and changed and that spiritually and not materially for it becommeth Sacramentall bread and by so being it attayneth a very great and meruailous priuiledge that whosoeuer doth worthy lie eat it in the holy Communion doth receiue the true body of Christ in a certaine vnspeakeable but spirituall and Sacramentall maner Christ hauing ordeined and promised that whensoeuer this bread beeing made Sacramentall by consecration shall be eaten worthy lie he will giue his body spiritually and all other admirable spirituall benefits for the nourishment of their soules to those that shall thus worthylie communicate