authority to the Scripture if not primarily in it selfe yet secondarily to us The misconstruction whereof is that which vainly puffes them up in an high conceit of their own erroneous opinions although let an indifferent eye look upon them it will easily finde them to be no friends to Rome Luther tells us of one of the Electors the Arch-Bishop of Menâ—s who by chance had light upon a Bible and for four hours space read in it very seriously one of his Counsell seeing him ask't his Highnesse what he did with that book to whom he is said to have answered I know not what Book it is but sure I am that what I finde written in it is against us Much to the like purpose was that conference which we finde reported betwixt VViliam Duke of Bavaria and Doctor Eckius The Duke askt the Dr. Sir may we not overthrow this new Doctrin of the Hereticks by the Scripture No said the Doctor by Scripture we cannot but by the Fathers we may The Malignants cannot forbeare to smile at the decision and say the Doctor spake the truth without racking But though Fathers and Councils be all ours as Campian triumphantly vaunteth yet this is not that we build upon It is the unfailable sentence of Peters unerring Successor that we do with all confident assurance rely upon in all matters of faith whose judgement we do with that eloquent Bishop of Bitonto prefer before hundreds of Augustines Hieromes Chrysostomes and the rest of those learned and godly Fathers Let the Hereticks hugge their Scriptures in their bosome as the onely guides and grounds of their faith Let us pitch securely upon that firme rock of the Church whereon the fond refractaries will needs willfully split themselves CHAP. VIII The Triumph of Bounty AS no Church under Heaven is said to be so rich as our holy Mother the Church of Rome so none is equally free and bountifull Thus it is and should be with all ingenuous natures The earth sends up vapors and receives showres back again Oh the liberality of the holy See The sons of that Mother have suckt bounty from her brests Celestine the fifth good soul was so free that he would deny nothing to any suitor yea that he would grant the same boone to two or three several petitioners Alexander the fifth was of the same soft Metal who professed to have been a rich Bishop a poor Cardinal but a beggerly Pope So had he laid about him that what enriched all others had impoverisht him And the praise that St. Bernard gives to Gilbert Bishop of London is that in a rich Bishoprick he was yet poor not onely in his estimation through humility according to the old Greek verse {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but in the estimation of others through his liberality So Innocentius 8th was by Lionel Bishop of Concordia in his funeral oration styled vir ditissimae paupertatis So John surnamed the Eleemosynarie or Almoner sold the rich Coverled that had been given him and destributed the price among the poor So Saint German is said to have chid his man that having three Florens in his purse he had given but two of them to a poor indigent So the Heremite kissed the thieves hand that had stolen his victuals for helping him so much the sooner into Heaven But above all those thousands that might be instanced in this kinde St. Francis is worthy to bear away the Bell who to a poor man that craved his almes gave all his Clothes and stood naked the while till he could be recruited with some other rags and to a poor woman likewise begging of him finding by the information of one of his Disciples that they had nothing left but the book of the holy Gospels out of which they were to read the lessons of divine service could say Da huic sorori nostrae librum Evangelii Give this our Sister the book of the Gospel so parting with that at last which as he conceived had bidden him to give all away Neither would he admit of any man into the Society of his Order but such a one as was of his own diet totaliter expropriatus willingly stript of all in an holy bounty and contempt of the world In so much as when one of his Brotherhood earnestly sued to him that he would allow him to have but a Psalter to read on and being denyed he renewed his request more vehemently St. Francis being overcome with his importunity yeilded so far as to refer him to his servants judgement in the point but after his second thoughts meeting with this bookish brother where was it said he that I told you I referred you to your servants judgement concerning the Psalter desired by you when the place was shewed him St. Francis falls down there on his knees before his young brother and cried as is used in confession Mea culpa frater mea culpa It was my fault brother it was my fault to yeild so far For whosoever will be a Friar minorite must not be allowed to have any more then his two coats his chord and his breeches and if necessity urge his shooes And what a foule penance he enjoyned to one of his poor Fraternity for hiding a peice of coyne I shall in good manners forbear to relate How strictly and curiously this rule of his is observed by his followers the world can well witnesse let Krantzius speak for the rest who tells us that these men may take up St. Pauls words in a contrary sense as having nothing yet possessing all things 2 Cor. 3.10 Meet sons for so bountiful a Mother of whose munificence there are no bounds Who can expresse the numbers and extent of her Indulgences and gracious concessions of all kindes which how free they are the Taxa Camerá Apostolicá can fully testifie As for the pardons of Course granted for sins of ordinary incursion put case for Adulteries and other lesse crimes as Alexander the third stiles them they are more common then the stones in the street so numerous that they cannot come under any account and those no lesse free then frequent though it is fit and reasonable that they which partake of so great a benefit should porrigore manus adjutrices One good turne requires another and a little ease to the soule is worth a good lining of the purse But the height of spiritual bounty is in the extraordinary exercises of Papal beneficence such as are the Grants of his Diplomata confessionalia Bulls of special Grace which may have a relation to sins that are to be committed in the future For example a well disposed man hath a minde to commit some pleasing sin whether of lust or revenge and yet save his soul harmelesse what now is to be done Let him purchase one of these powerful Bulls by vertue whereof he shall be enabled to choose a Confessary for his own tooth
his saying this wealth runns not in one channell and that his Holiness can abide that this precious ointment should run down from his beard to the skirts of his garment too How rich therefore do we think the Clergy of his immediate subordination must needs be Dignum patella opercu'um when John Gerson can cry out enviously enough I warrant you Quae utique abominatio c. What an abomination is this saith he that one man should hold two hundred another three hundred Ecclesiastical Benefices in his hand But above all what a super-excessively rich Court is that of Rome wherein his Holiness and his potent factors strive who shall more overlay each other with weight of Gold what Court under heaven doth so swarme with varieties of Officers both for state and profit many whereof are so vendible that we are acquainted with the price before-hand To give you a tast Not to speak of the Master of the Palace the secret Chamberlain The Secretary of state the 24 Secretaries of Breives the Generals both of the Guards and of the holy Church places of not more honour then profit The Vice-chancelorship is of the value of fifteen or sixteen thousand crowns by the year The Officers of the Apostolical Chancery both the Regent and the twelve Prelates the Abbreviators so rich that the Regentship is sold for two and twenty thousand crowns the rest every Abbreviatorship for twelve thousand crowns The Cardinal Chamberlain worth twelve or fourteen thousand crowns yearly The Master of the Brieves worth thirteen thousand The prefect of the Brieves twelve thousand The Lord Treasurer Generals place worth seventy thousand crowns The Auditors of the Chamber sold for seventy thousand crowns The office of the Lead bought for three thousand crowns Four Officers of the Register call'd Ministers of the Register of supplication sold for four thousand crowns a peece The Pronotaries participant whereof thee are twelve Prelates each place bought for seven thousand crowns I could easily weary you if I listed to transcribe the Catalogue of the Offices of the Palace as the writers of the Penitentiarie the writers of Brieves Apostolical Squires Knight of St. Peter and St. Paul Knights of the Flowerdeluce Lauretan Knights and God knowes how many more rich places both of dignity and employment all which are confessedly so bought and sold that as it may fall both parties may make a good market Now all this magnificence and wealth could not hold up if Rome were not the Ocean into which all the rivers of the world run to pay their tribute especially in the case of Dispensation and of Absolutions from Cases Reserved these alone if the world had no quarrels that might draw on Appeals were enough to make Tyber overflow his banks Vpon these occasions Oh what flocking there is to this Metropolis from all the regions of Christendome In so much as the view of this general resort drew from the envious tongue of him whom the world hath long stiled Venerable the willing misconstruction of those well known Letters S. P. Q. R. as importing Stultus populus quaerit Romam All flock hither none empty handed but as happy is none go away over-loaded except it be with grief for what they left behind them and what they cannot but carry with them For I perceive it is a stale proverb at Rome as Massonus himself tels us that men do ordinarily carry away from the Court of Rome an empty purse an ill conscience and a bad stomach Thus invaluably rich is the Roman Church and why may she not make it an argument of Gods speciall favour to her as wel as some prosperous usurpers in all times have made successe the proofe of a good cause Now what wealth can the Protestant and pretendedly Reformed Church boast of to the World Surely they are abounding but it is with wants full but of sorrows and afflictions loaded but with heavy pressures with contempt and disgraces He is wilfully blinde then that will not see where to pitch his choice The one saith I sit as a Queen and am no widdow and shall see no sorrow Of the other God saies Come down O daughter Sion and sit in the Dust The one is high mounted and sits gorgeously arrayed in purple and scarlet decked with Gold and pearles and precious stones with a golden cup in her hand and a glorious title in her forehead The other lies groveling on the earth arrayed in Sackcloth covered with ashes drenched in tears miserable for the time and onely in hope happy and glorious CHAP. X. The Triumph of Wisdom IF thou be wise be wise for thy selfe is the counsaile of the wisest King which if ever any Church under Heaven have carefully taken it is the Roman so cunningly is the frame of her government contrived that her witty and deare sonne that hath written de regimine Principis could not devise how to mend it neither is the ministration and management of it any way unanswerable to the platform For to begin with matter of caution Whereas it hath alwaies been found dangerous to let the Vulgar know too much since knowledge is an edge-toole which unskilfull hands cannot tell how to rule but are rather apt to wound themselves therewith and as the old axiome runs ignorance is the mother of devotion it hath therefore been the wisdom of our holy mother to keep the common people blindfold and to cause them to take up with an implicite faith without enquiring into the mysteries of faith and informing themselves of the special points of Religion as suspecting that upon more light of understanding they would grow scrupulous censorious refractory Indeed as Luther said what should a cow doe with nutmegs And because if the Laity should be allowed to read the Scriptures in a language which they understand it is fear'd they would easily finde that which the Archbishop of Mentz in a former passage professed to see that those holy pages are no friends to Rome therefore our holy father Clement 8. hath found it the wisest way strictly to forbid both the reading and retaining of any Bible or any part of it in the mother tongue of any Nation under heaven inhibiting also any abridgement of the historie thereof under great penaltie restraining the power that any Bishop in former times might have used in giving License upon good caution to some confiding persons to read the same And lest some other heretical books should poyson the mindes of unwary readers to the great prejudice of the Roman faith what curious remedie hath that wise Church provided for both the prevention of that danger where it may happen and the redress where it is Order is first taken for the prohibiting suppressing of all books that are apparently contagious so as they are smothered ere they come to the light of the world as for others that amongst much wholsome matter have some interspersions of suspitious or unsafe passages
are easily choaked with this answer That if our infidelity cannot distinguish their faith can Now upon all this let me make your selves the Judges whether poor pelting Protestancy can stand in any comparison with the Gayetie of the Roman profession yea whether the one be not as mean as the other glorious Alas we have not a Lady to dresse nor a Saint to worship nor a toe to kisse nor an Oracle to consult nor a Vice-God to rule nor one that can pretend to so much honour as to be thought capable of the suspicion of being Antichrist My first task then is done onely two rules lie in my way which if I cannot remove some stronger hand may First I confesse my dulnesse cannot apprehend how these should stand together that outward splendor should be the mark of the true Church and an argument of Gods speciall favour and yet the great merit and proof and praise of Sanctity should consist in wilfull poverty If perfection of holinesse be found in bravery how is not St. Francis a foole a true Fatuellus indeed as himselfe confesses He whom they make one of the prime Saints in Heaven goes woolward barelegg'd skrubbing in Hairecloth and lowsie rags measuring the greater sanctimony of his minors and minimes by the multitude of their patches and is therefore advanced to the voyd Throne of Lucifer himselfe because no rogue upon earth was so poor as he whilest that man whose Title is Holinesse it selfe challenges to have no Peere under Heaven and rides on the neck of Princes Aread me this Riddle who can Secondly I am much scrupled to finde the reason why no Pope since that prime Apostle whom they claime to succeed ever chose to call himselfe by the name of Peter Yea they all purposely shun it there have been those who were christned by that name at the Font but have changed it when they come to the chaire as Petrus de Tarantasia would be Innocent the fourth Petrus Carafa would be Paul the fifth and Sergius the third was once a Peter which howsoever Baronius would seem to impute to their modesty and great reverence to their first founder yet that is but a meere shuffle for had they not as much reason to reverence the name of St. Paul as St. Peter since both are confessed to be their joynt-founders and Paul professes that he was not inferiour to the chiefe Apostles yet we see Carafa cast off Peter and take up Paul Besides do we not see it ordinary for men to weare those names without scruple which are worthy of higher reverence then that of Peter One calls himselfe Frater Archangelus another Raphael another Michael another Gabriel another Thomas de Jesu another Johannes de Jesu Maria another de Dieu and many other the like No no I doe much fear this proceeds from the conscience of their guiltinesse as justly doubting lest this name would plainly upbraid them with their palpable dissimilitude to that their first pattern whiles every one that heares it would be ready to say How like is this Peter the Pope to Peter the Apostle were the old Fisherman alive would he not say Can this be my successor Had not Raphael Vrbin the famous Painter just reason when he was challengd for laying too much colour on the faces of Peter and Paul to say that he did it purposely to represent them blushing in heaven to see the Church swayed by such Successors Successors to contradict the old Glosse rather to Augustus the Emperour then Peter the Fisher And what do we think the head of the Church above will say of her head below What my Vicar and thus gay and pompous was this my garbe whiles I was on the earth What a perfect copy is here of my meeknesse and humility was I lackied and congyed by great Princes was my toe ever reach't out to be kissed by the great Potentates of the earth Did not I when I stood despicably to be judged by Pilate say My Kingdom is not of this World Did not I say to my Disciples Vos non sic It shall not be so with you Here I confesse I stick but some of the learned society will easily take me off Perhaps some malevolents will be apt to lay in our dish the example of Heraclius the Emperour who having got a peice of our Saviours Crosse would have carried it in princely state through the High-street of Jerusalem and being bravely mounted was entering through the guilded gate with that intention but being met by the grave Patriarch Zacharias and admonished how little that pompe would agree to the precedent of his crucified Saviour who in no lesse humility then disgrace walked sadly with his crosse on his shoulders through those streets towards his Calvarie presently alighted disrobed himselfe passed mournfully on foot along that very way which his Saviour had troden before him as holding it more meet to imitate the lowly dejectednesse of his blessed Redeemer then to Triumph in the joy of so precious a Relique But Tush we live by rules not by examples Ywis these men know a better way then so finding it far sweeter to enjoy the munificence of their Saviour in so lavish a prosperity then to imitate him in his poverty and suffering and upon this account can laugh at the impotent enviers of their greatnesse and applaud themselves in the glad sense of their outward felicity as a Church beforehand Triumphant here whosoever shal prove to be so in heaven CHAP. II. The triumph of Pleasure HOw far more gaysome and glorious the Religion of our Grandmother Rome is then all her emulous corrivalls you have fully seen see now how far more jolly more pleasant and joviall a consideration worthy of your thoughts for who would care for a profession that hath no life in it for a gloomy and dull Religion that hath no more Sun in it then Jordanus Bishop of Ravenna out of Strabo reports of our Britaine which he saith is alwayes overcast with perpetual fogges and thick mists blessed little lesse with the light of that glorious Planet by night then by day A cheareful and sprightly Devotion for my money although I perceive even the very Turkes themselves are so far from a melancholly dumpishness that there is scarce one of them that hath not his fiddle with two or three strings hanging at his girdle to cheere him up But sure a little mirth is more worth then a great deale of sorrow and if our mortified Votaries had not thought so they would never have endured that their Friar Juniper should go away which I blush and tremble to write with the title of Joculator Christi What a merry World it is then with those under the Roman obedience who is so blind that sees not For first as it was said of Athens long since that that City alone had more Feasts then all Greece beside so may we say of Rome and her appurtenants that she hath
unhappily slaine amongst other his good neighbours as it was the lot of that incomparable Chamier at Montalban and after burnt by the Tigurines to ashes And what if for a marvellous Testimony of his honest intentions his heart alone was three dayes after such his combustion found in that heape of ashes entire and untouched yet how can it be other then a foule slur to his reputation that a professed Preacher should be found thus dead and wrapt not in lead but in iron Whatever liberty latter times have taken neither the Antient Councils abroad nor our Octobone Canons at home would have indured it and we know who sending the coat-armour of a consecrated person taken captive to the Pope could say Vide an haec sit tunica filii tui See if this be your sonnes coat To let passe their guides if we cast down our eyes upon their followers in general Cardinal Bellarmine hath passed their doome roundly and soundly As for the people saith he there are indeed in the Catholique Church many bad men but of the Hereticks there is not one good Ipse dixit and if the Cardinals make up but one body with the Pope by vertue of that union he can no more erre in his sentence then his Holinesse himselfe and so actum est de haereticis the summe of all is The Church of Rome after all slanders is holy the opposite Churches after all Apologies are equally impure as she is holy CHAP. IV. The triumph of Power AS in Glory Pleasure and Purity so much more in Power doth our foresaid Mother of Rome exceed all her Rivals Lest you doubt it her power is clearely seene in her mighty Iurisdiction and in her miraculous operations For first what is it that her ministerial head wants of omnipotency Ask Mosconius and he can assure you that the Pope is above law against law without law and therefore can do all things he can open and shut Heaven Hell and Purgatory He can dispence with vowes and oathes insomuch as in every promissory oath that a man swears the Popes power is tacitely fore-excepted He can increase the number of the Books of the holy Scripture He can Canonize Saints Depose and dethrone Kings Dispose of all earthly Dominions So as it was acutely distinguisht by Jacobus de Terano that when our Saviour gave charge to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars he meant it for a continuance but onely for the present until the time of his crucifixion telling us that when he shall be lifted up he will draw all to him that is saith he he will take away all the Kingdomes of the Earth from Temporal Princes and bestow them upon his holy Vicar the Pope by vertue whereof he can mould and frame Kings to his own pleasure For example he can command a King to take such a wife as he shall recommend to him he can dethrone and depose the proudest Monarch Yea what do I speak so narrowly and mincingly of his power he is Rex Regum and Dominus Dominantium the King of Kings and Lord of Lords every rational creature is subject to his rule and command and in short he hath one and the same Tribunal with God himselfe So as it was but his meet Title that was in our time given to Pope Paul the fifth Paulo Quinto Vice-Deo which after some agitation in the consistory was resolved upon by his Holinesse to be a Stile not unfit for himselfe to own Genesius Sepulveda would seeme to tell us no lesse Pontiâ—â—ces pro Deo habemus we account of the Pope as instead of God himselfe Papae this height is for wonder not for emulation Now what if a Saint Chrysostome shall say He that affects a Primacy on Earth shall finde confusion in Heaven That winde shakes no corne certainly he were much too blame that having the keyes of Heaven hanging at his girdle would not let in himselfe If you think fit to look down to the subordinate Clergy their power will be found no lesse then stupendious As no Prelate but hath power to excommunicate so their excommunication is dreadfully powerfull The Abby of Fusniack was horribly infested with flyes Excommunico eas said the holy Abbot of Clarevall on the next morning those noysome guests are found all dead in the floore A white loafe upon the words of excommunication passed turnes as black as a coale absolved turnes to the former hew Robert Brook being excommunicate and by vertue thereof become jumentum Diaboli the very Dogs refused to take the bones from his hands which he offered unto them and as readily snatcht away being tendered by others They can give up whom they list to the power of the Devil and rid whom they please from that evil spirit by their mighty exorcismes And if but a peice of a Versicle of Despauterius his Grammer be but muttered over the Demoniack Carbasus hic c. the foule spirit dares not abide by it But if it be some stiffe Fiend such as the African conjurers of Fez were wont to stile Aerie spirits let but St. Francis threaten to send Fryar Juniper to him he dares not stand the incounter so as it was a word of unjust disparagment which Chrysostome could cast upon their Exorcists Nos miseri c. miserable and woful creatures that we are we cannot so much as expell fleas much lesse Devils But it is yet a far higher power which every Priest by vertue of his office can and dares challenge to exercise even no lesse then to create his maker Casseneus can tell you Licet Angelus although saith he one Angel can move one heaven yet he cannot bring down one of those heavens to the earth But a Priest can speedily and suddainly fetch the true body of Christ from Heaven to the Altar even in so short a space as the Sun can diffuse his beames of light Yea herein a Priest saith the Author exceeds the power of the Archangels And I hope we shall not need to strive to go higher and let this be the beginning of her miraculous operations though ordinarily and constantly wrought There is a world beside of extraordinary and occasional miracles whereby her Religion is not a little honoured and confirmed Ywis our Reformers must confesse themselves here to seek Can they boast of a St. Briget that having given a peice of Bacon to a fawning Curre yet after he had eaten it found it again restored in her kettle That but signing a new-born Infant with a crosse caused it to disclaime the wrongfully imputed father and to name the true and was not the childe trow we as miraculous as the Saint that he could know his own father That for a proofe of her Virginity did but touch the seare-wormeaten wood of the Altar and turne it fresh and green Can they brag of a Saint Swithine that by making the signe
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